The Line Between Fire and Light

by Stolenalicorn

68 You're Giving This to Me? The Summer Sun Approaches!

The Everfree forest was the best place for Grogar and Xellos to stage for the planned attack. Normally Xellos wouldn't use such a direct plan, but combat was the best way to get someone to bring out their strongest magic. The greater the threat, the stronger the magic.

Deep in the woods, away from the Tree of Harmony, they had found a cave to set up in. Grogar sat fuming as Xellos talked, knowing that he couldn't actually do anything. How he had fallen into the trap he didn't know but he knew that he had to cooperate to get his magic back. Once again he was at the mercy of inferiors due to an pathetic trap.

“I trust that I've made myself clear Mr. Grogar.” Xellos calmly said to the scowling goat.

“Yes Xellos. We have our agreement. As long as I get my way I'll work with you.” Grogar growled, frustratingly humbled by this alien creature. He couldn't even use the magic of which he'd finally come back into possession. “But if you don't remove your seal on my magic we won't be getting far.”

“I've considered that Mr. Grogar. And I will unseal your magic at the proper time. I'll also bring you an army of lesser demons. While they not intelligent, they are more than sufficient to accomplish the task originally assigned to the other three.”

“I never needed those fools.” Grogar spat. “Useless creatures that were only good for their magic.”

“Mr. Discord seemed to feel that they could accomplish quite a lot should they only cooperate.” Xellos said easily. “But clearly your method is quite different.”

“Why should I share my victory with lesser creatures?” Grogar growled.

Xellos sighed. “Regardless of your concerns, I am willing to work with you and provide you with an army, so long as the attack begins on the Summer Sun Festival.”

“And my magic?!” He was done waiting for Xellos to break the seal.

“I'll restore it once I can trust you to not use your bell against me again.” Xellos calmly explained.

Grogar fumed as he could do nothing more to threaten the Mazoku.

***

The Everfree Forest had been unusually quiet for days, normally this would be considered good, but with the Summer Sun Festival coming in only a few days Twilight was on edge and had called a conference with her friends.

“Why are we worried about this?” Rainbow Dash said as she lounged in her throne. “Don't we have bigger problems right now?”

“Normally I'd agree, but this quiet ain't right.” Applejack answered.

“And with Xellos working with Grogar, we can't afford to overlook anything.” Twilight looked uncomfortable, as if expecting Xellos to simply appear from thin air once more as he had done last time.

They'd begun evacuating Ponyville days ago, Twilight's first action had been to close down the school and send as many students home as would leave. She couldn't keep them here with the threat looming over them.

True to his word James had brought soldiers to facilitate an evacuation to New Guardia where many of the citizenry were already assisting the ponies in settling in for the duration of their stay. Mirror Pinkie's resources as James's personal assistant proved incredibly useful for coordinating the evacuation.

They seemed to truly live up to their name and when there was a genuine problem New Guardians were there for their friends without hesitation. Considering the ramifications to themselves only after they had helped as much as they could.

At the insistence of the EUP, Princesses Celestia and Luna had remained in Canterlot. None of them openly spoke of it, but there was now an underlying fear that the planned transfer of power may not occur should Twilight's efforts not prove sufficient. While the Princesses trusted their chosen heir, the situation was far from normal. Their safety net that had taken the form of James was now gone as he was as worried as they were.

Cadence and Shining Armor had arrived shortly after they received their letter and had brought a contingent of Crystal Ponies to join the New Guardians and EUP guard that had been relocated for the time being. Sunburst had insisted on joining as his knowledge could prove useful and was now working with Starlight and Tali's friend Garrus preparing for the expected battle. Preparing defensive strategies and placing shield generators where they could to limit damage and provide defensible locations.

Even occupied, the mood of Ponyville reminded Twilight far too much of that first alternate timeline Starlight had thrown her into years ago. She had to remind herself daily that this was only temporary. After the Summer Sun Festival things would go back to normal.

Even now she was sitting with her friends around her map table planning for the coming battle.

As Twilight was about to speak again a thunderous running was heard through the castle coming their way, cutting her short. Zecora burst into the throne room panting and dripping with sweat. “The forest is now a monster's hive!” She announced, her voice steady despite her apparent exhaustion. “I was lucky to make it out alive!”

“Uhh … There's always been monsters in the Everfree forest.” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“Never before have I seen creatures like these.” Zecora countered. “Big as bugbears, and angry as Flash Bees!”

“That settles it.” Twilight said, standing up from her throne. “We need to go investigate the forest.”

Zecora turned to Twilight and looked her in the eye. “Worst of all were those horrid calls. These monsters are twisted and warped animals.”

Fluttershy gasped as she heard the loose description. She could handle monsters that were animals, but monsters made from poor innocent animals … No matter how scared she was she needed to do what she could to help.

“Zecora, once you've rested please go to New Guardia and tell James what's happened. We'll handle this.”

“I intend to stay and help without fear, my potions will be of greater use here.” Zecora said, a steely resolve in her voice.

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Then make use of anything here that you need.”

Zecora had one last thing to say before taking off on her assigned tasks. “Friends, be careful, I counted two score. Doubtless by now there are many more.”

Without any more delay Twilight and her friends hurried from the castle towards the Everfree Forest. As they had been discussing before Zecora came charging in, the forest was unnaturally silent. The only noise they could hear was the occasional whimper from Fluttershy as she forced herself forward despite her fear. The normal gloom of the forest was often disconcerting to those not used to it, but now it felt genuinely threatening and oppressive.

Twilight froze the moment she felt the presence. It was a creeping feeling moving through her that let her know of the creature nearby. She could feel it's malice and and evil, and there were more just like it deeper in the forest. Zecora was right, there were far more than forty of the creatures milling about. Near the center of this field of darkness she could feel two powers far stronger than those around them.

A chill ran down her spine as she crept closer with her friends.

As they got closer the they could finally begin to hear the noises of the creatures. A horrific combination of Manticore roar, and Timberwolf growl. That did not even begin to prepare them for what they eventually saw. It looked like a mockery of nature with it's wolf head topped with goat horns. It's powerful gorilla core with wicked dragon claws at the ends of it's muscular arms, and walking upright on horse legs and cloven hooves, and a goat tail swinging behind it knocking bark from the trees that it casually struck.

Everything about this creature was threatening.

Still they pressed on, sneaking past it they each unconsciously held their breath. The further into the forest they went the more of the creatures they had to sneak around. Over time, however, sneaking became impractical, but it was hardly necessary anymore as from their position they could see into the clearing where the two most important forms could be found.

“Xellos.” Rainbow Dash growled. On the outside she was seething with anger, but inside she was terrified.

Every story, every monster that had once scared her when she was young, she no longer had any doubt that she could beat them, that she was better than them in every way. But Xellos … he had proven that she wasn't even important enough for him to block or dodge. He had nearly killed her with a literal flick of his wrist. Even knowing how stupidly powerful James was, she had never once had reason to second guess her own ability. But with one casual action Xellos had taken that confidence from her, that sense of security in her own strength.

She hated him for it.

It wasn't Xellos who Twilight was focused on, though James would no doubt have labeled him the greater threat. While her only knowledge of him had come ancient tomes and story books, she recognized the old blue goat as Grogar. The bell on his collar only confirmed her worst fears. Her research had told her that the bell had the same powers as Tirek and could absorb magic. They had to be careful to never have it between them.

If they could get the bell from him she knew could use the same spell Gusty the Great had used. A spell that would invert the bell's magic, creating a nearly impenetrable barrier powered by the bell itself. That was plan A, not likely to happen but their best bet against Grogar.

Something scratched at the back of her mind, however. Where are Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow?

“Alright.” Applejack whispered. “We know where they are and once we get back we can get to work with James to finish preparing and maybe take the fight to them.”

Twilight didn't realize just how terrified she had been as she stared into the clearing. Her breath came in faster and faster as the color ran from her face. Everything felt like it went still as she watched Xellos turn to the group. Her golden eyes going wide as Xellos looked directly at her and held his finger to his lips, still in that mischievous grin.

She concentrated harder on this teleport spell than any other she had before. She needed to get herself and her friends out of there immediately! In a bright flash of violet and gold the group vanished from the forest, appearing in the throne room of her castle.

“Do you think Xellos saw us?” Fluttershy asked quietly despite their distance now from the mazoku.

“Duh!” Rainbow Dash said as she rolled her eyes. “He looked right at us.” Secretly she was relieved to just be away from the creature.

“Grogar has his bell …” Twilight quietly said.

“Uhh, okay.” Rainbow Dash said as she looked to Twilight. “What's that got to do with anything?”

“Ain't you ever heard the story of Gusty the Great?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Maybe once when I was a filly.”

“Gusty needed an army to beat Grogar, and even then all she could do was stall him enough to get his bell away. And now he has his own army and he's working with Xellos.” Twilight said, her fears breaking out as she nearly shouted. Trying to keep composed all the time was too much. How does James do it?

“It'll be alright Twilight.” Rarity gently said. “We've got something that Gusty the Great didn't have and Grogar doesn't. …”

“Cake!” Pinkie Pie announced before giggling.

“Yes.” Rarity said with a chuckle before smiling at her friend. “And each other.”

***

James sat calmly as he listened as the girls told him everything they had just found in the forest. “So what should we do?” Rainbow Dash eventually asked, drawing confused glances from everyone. She shifted uncomfortably under their gazes. “Well he's the expert on Xellos.” She sounded defensive.

James looked at her for a moment before nodding. “This may actually be good news. If Xellos intended to fight himself he wouldn't bother gathering an army, he'd just come in and attack. Now there's a lot still that's bad, lesser demons are no picnic but beatable so long as there aren't too many.”

“How many's too many?” Twilight asked uncomfortably.

“I'm guessing by your tone that we've long passed that number.” James muttered after a pause. “So the unicorn guard will be the most use against the lesser demons. And the bottled lightning can probably take out a few.”

“Spitfire has everything we could get from Cloudsdale and the Bolts are ready to drop it on them.” Rainbow Dash assured.

“Shouldn't we push the attack?” Applejack asked.

James shook his head. “We don't want to pressure Xellos, if he's staying out of the fight that's where we want him.”

“So we just wait to be attacked?” Applejack asked, she wondered why she had to be the one asking this. Normally Rainbow Dash would be the one itching for a fight.

“We keep preparing, it's the best thing we can do right now.” James sighed as he thought about their situation. “This is the good news I was hoping for. Twilight, can you fill me in on Grogar?”

It was more than an hour later when everyone started leaving. As James began to follow he felt a hoof on his shoulder gently holding him back. He turned to find Rainbow Dash hovering behind him. She'd been turning to him a lot recently.

“Look, you said I could tell you anything.” She said as she looked away.

“Yeah of course. What's up?” James said, placing his hand on her foreleg.

Rainbow Dash blushed and took a steadying breath, she considered asking him to not tell anyone, but she'd known him for years and trusted him. “Xellos nearly killed me. He didn't even have to try.”

“I'm sorry …” James quietly said before Rainbow Dash continued.

“Don't apologize.” She said quickly. “You already saved me with that transponder anyway. It's just that …” She really didn't want to say this, she didn't want to admit it to any of her friends. “I'm afraid.”

“It'll be alright.” James assured her, gently squeezing her foreleg. “We'll cover each other.” He was used to putting on false confidence, but with the news they had brought he felt safe in the assurance.

“What can I do against Xellos if he shows up?” She asked, looking James in the eye.

“What you're best at.” He said with a smile as he let go of her. “Be awesome and believe in yourself.” He pulled his replica Sword of Light from his hip and held it up for her to see. “The sword will react to that and I'm positive you can handle it.”

“Wait! You want me to use your sword?” She asked astonished.

James nodded. “If we've only got lesser demons to worry about than it's better off with you than me. But I do need to make one request.”

“Yeah.”

“If I tell you to leave me behind, do it and don't feel guilty. Even separate, we'll be working together.”

She knew immediately that he was already planning on doing just that during the actual fight. He'd done similar in some of the games they had played in his holosuite. He'd make himself a target, draw as much attention to himself as possible and tell her to go on without him. She didn't like that tactic, especially now, but she knew he wouldn't change his plan no matter what she might say.

As for the sword, she told herself that he was just trying to comfort her, but she had to admit that it was working. With a smile she came closer and wrapped her forelegs around his neck, gently holding him for a long moment. “Thanks.”

James rubbed her back as they held each other and smiled. “Thank you. For everything you've done.” Rainbow Dash blushed once more as they separated and took the hilt with her as she went off to rejoin her friends.

***

Xellos watched the two from his vantage in Twilight's chandelier, keeping himself as hidden as possible. With James providing support he was going to have to provide more lesser demons for Grogar. Fortunately he had spied an animal sanctuary nearby that he could easily pull hosts for the lesser demons from should they run out of creatures in the forest.

And the worry and stress James had helped provide gave more than enough miasma to sustain them. So much, in fact, that the very skies began to darken as Grogar himself grew strong on it. Summer Sun or not, it would be a dark day in Ponyville.

James, however, was still a problem. And if not for his display of affection, Xellos would have thought that James would simply destroy the horde of demons and be done with it. But what he had seen told him much about what the coming battle would entail. He knew now that James would be holding back for the pony's sake.

But that didn't mean everything was as he wanted it. he still had to take James out of the equation somehow or he would never be able to get to the princess.

Author's Note:

The battle draws closer, and so does the enemy.