章 152: Plots upon Plots.
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Waking up in the embrace of his two girls, Starfall couldn't help but sigh In contentment. He really needed that release. With all the stress he had accumulated recently, coupled with his latest topic of "study" and the soon to be arrival of yet another supervillain, Starfall was on the verge of loosing his cool. He might have been capable of getting through all this with the right preparations, but for once he felt like he needed to slow down, because it was not a healthy thing for anypony to constantly feel the tension of a potential threat and etcetera...
So as he snuggled into his two lovely marefriends, he promised himself to put more attention into enjoying his life. He knew that he couldn't take care of everything at once...but then again, he wasn't alone...Maybe he should think about including his girls into more of his plans... He was sure that they could take care of themselves even against all odds, as long as they worked together...
A sudden beeping sound woke Starfall up from his reveries as it resounded inside of his mind.
Without wasting any time, Starfall stood up from the bed while making sure he didn't wake up the two mares, before hastily running into the Lab. He finally broke through!
___________
Arriving inside the newly build chamber, Starfall looked around as his eyes fell on the red ice-like crystal fragments littering the floor.
Their source?...A large chunk of transparent rock made out of the same material, surrounded by multiple magical saws and lasers, mounted on mechanical arms affixed to the floor and ceiling, doing their very best to cut into the surprisingly resistant material.
When they found it for the first time, Starfall couldn't believe his eyes. This wasn't how it was supposed to go according to the comics, yet as he looked at the huge crystal with a barely visible silhouette of a pony inside of it, standing there unmoving and cold to the touch, he couldn't help but shudder...
To top it all off, breaking it off from the icy ground and transporting it into the Lab turned out to be the easy part, as when he finally got his hooves on the object, he realised that he had no way of actually breaking it down, as the material was some sort of an extremely resistant type of magically augmented ice, that he had troubles affecting even with his magical mastery...
He spend a few days researching this newest find and putting up a contraption that could, with enough time, break the cursed Ice and hopefully extract the pony imprisoned inside of it...
And it was a success!...Well...mostly...
The block of red ice now stood, cut down into a much smaller size, which made it possible to make out the features of the pony stuck inside of it.
Starfall didn't have much doubt about the identity of said pony, but having a confirmation by sight, was just the last nail in the so called coffin...
And while the colours of her coat were hard to distinguish through the reddish crystal ice, her Cutie Mark was there for everyone to see. A large, golden Caduceus, telling everypony, that this unicorn's greatest talent used to be healing.
But the most important thing of all was when Starfall used his Mage Sight to look inside the crystal, which was now thin enough to not disturb his vision.
And he saw it clearly...
Radiant hope...was still alive...
__________
Walking in circles wasn't something Starfall did very often...
But when he did...it was because he was challenged with a difficult problem...
He...He didn't know what to do...He couldn't proceed with unfreezing Radiant Hope. It wasn't that simple. At the moment, the only reason she is actually alive stems from the fact how the ice acted as a crude form of a magical cryo-stasis. Starfall could not actually remove the ice without hurting the girl as she herself was physically frozen solid, and unfreezing her would do more hurt than good even if he actually managed to remove the last layer of the magical red ice.
He could in theory make some kind of magic formation that could keep her alive throughout the process, but creating such a formation would take weeks if not months because of how many factors had to be considered.
Alternatively, he could ask Zecora whether she had any potions which could help throughout the process, but the fact that Radiant hope is a Crystal Pony, and basically frozen solid to the point where it's hard to distinguish between her body and the ice, he wasn't sure how effective that solution could have been...
Starfall checked the sensors and understood why the alarm sounded in his mind. The contraption stopped working because it couldn't continue without hurting the pony inside the ice.
The stallion couldn't help but sigh to himself as he collected the broken pieces and placed them into a magic sealing container. You never knew when some weird magic could prove to be dangerous if left unsupervised. giving a last look at the mare, he couldn't help but grimace, at her ever present expression of horror. It was clear she had been terrified at the moment of being frozen.
Feeling helpless, Starfall left the chamber, his mood once again plummeting despite having just finished an exciting night with his two marefriends and having visited the Spa yesterday.
He really needed to talk with the others about this, but he didn't want to burden them with yet another problem when an entire "Empire" was about to show up alongside a supervillain in only a few days time...
With that emotional turmoil, Starfall couldn't hold back a sneeze as his magic surged, the familiar magical hiccup making itself known and causing a blast of energy to rip a hole in the nearby reinforced wall. The energy broke through another wall and then yet another until a terrified-looking Whooves slowly peeked his head from behind the second hole. Starfall shot him an apologetic look, embarrassed at his lack of control, This day was only getting "better" by the minute...
_________
Sitting on a bench was not a passtime that Starfall considered very productive. Doing nothing but just enjoying the quiet atmosphere of the Ponyville park would usually not be high on the list of his priorities, but nonetheless it was something he enjoyed doing from time to time, if only to let his mind wander.
So that's why, as the unicorn sat there looking at the peacefully swaying grass, colourful flowers, healthy looking trees, and happy looking fillies playing around on the nearby swings, he couldn't help but feel calm and more affixed to the present.
It was at times like this when he could stop worrying about everything else and just be in the moment...And what a moment it was...
He was here. A pony. A Unicorn. A prince. A coltfriend of many. Soon to be father. A successful researcher of magic and otherwise. A protector, and a fighter...
And as he thought about all this, and about how it all started. He couldn't help but feel proud of himself.
He went a long way, from a good for nothing guy with no ambition, to what he was today.
True, he needed to actually die to achieve all this in the first place, and he was born to a wealthy and influential family, but even without those advantages he trusted himself to achieve a lot with this new and exciting life.
He knew that there was still many dangers lurking in the shadows. Monsters that just waited for him to slip up. Enemies plotting the end of those peaceful times for their twisted desires, but he knew that as long as he and the Elements were here to protect it all, it was going to be fine...
'And who said that all the lurking monsters had to be completely evil?' He mused as his eyes met with the green slitted orbs secretly observing him from the shadow of a nearby bush, only to disappear In a small green flash the moment their gazes met...
Starfall chuckled to himself. It wasn't the first time he found Chrysalis spying on him in secret when he went into town...It was slowly becoming a game for them. An unspoken Hide and Seek of unsaid stakes. And he was curious of how it was going to end...
"Dad! Dad! Where are-Oh there you are!" Spike exclaimed as he run towards Starfall before stopping and taking a few deep breaths alongside some wheezing.
"Huh? Spike? What's up Kiddo? Did something happen?" He asked and Spike nodded quickly while trying to calm his breath.
"It's-it's the Princess...uhh...Auntie Celestia called you and Twilight to the palace!" He said hurriedly confusing Starfall.
"Do you know what it is about?" He asked and Spike shook his head.
"Twilight thinks it's some kind of test for her and went into her "panic mode". I only know that Auntie wishes for you and Midnight to be there before Mom. Also everypony decided to accompany her into Canterlot and they're already gathering at the station!" Spike said hastily, "everypony" here meaning all his marefriends... and Starfall sighed, slightly unwilling to leave his comfy bench, but as they say duty calls...
The Crystal Empire finally returned...
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