Princess Twilight, Summer Rain and the five Equestria Girls could have easily stayed there for a while, just hugging each other, and crying. Some of them were smiling occasionally through their tears, this 'meeting of hearts' was an occasion of great joy after all.
It was for this reason that guards soon wandered over and yelled "No smiling". As before, the voice was Sunset Shimmer's voice, and this scared Princess Twilight.
Summer and her friends would protect their Princess.
They quickly formed a line of ponies directly in front of Princess Twilight. They were not sure what they could do against the large stallions the faced, but they weren't going to make it easy.
The guards just stood there, like the Green eyed zombie ponies that they were.
Then they heard their Princess gasp loudly.
WIthout even turning around, Summer Rain said quickly "What is it Princess?"
Princess Twilight said loudly "It's my brother..."
"Princess Twilight please TOUCH HIM" Summer said quickly.
"Girls please move around to the other side of this big Stallion" Summer directed, and they all moved around him. He was a zombie pony, he didn't move.
Summer said it again "Princess Twilight please TOUCH HIM."
Twilight walked up to the large stallion timidly, and lifted her hoof slightly and touched his leg.
Shining Armor blinked twice, looked at Princess Twilight with a big smile and yelled "Twiley!"
The other guards quickly said "No Smiling", again with Sunset Shimmer's voice, but they didn't move.
Given the depth of his military training, Shining Armor very quickly came up to speed. He quickly touched all three of the other guards, let them all blink twice, then immediately snapped them to attention. They were silent and standing at attention before they could make a sound. But they were back in action.
Shining Armor looked back at Princess Twilight, and immediately turned white as a ghost.
"Who... ...rescued Princess Twilight?" he asked, but the answer was taking too long. "WHO?" Shining Armor shouted again.
Summer spoke up timidly "We, well I did initially, but--"
"HOW DID YOU DO IT?" He shouted again.
"I held her, then I cried at the base--" Summer tried to explain.
Shining Armor stopped her immediately, barking out orders. "Roderick come with me, you other two PROTECT THE PRINCESS AND HER FRIENDS."
Then Shining Armor immediately bolted off in a dead run with Roderick.
Summer Rain broke down into tears at this "I'm sorry... What did I do wrong?" she wept... Fluttershy was next to her too and hugged her.
"Summer Rain" Princess Twilight said gently.
"Yes Princess?" Summer replied, bowing her head deeply, and trying not to cry.
"That was Shining Armor, my brother, and Princess Cadance's Stallion. Discord probably did to Princess Cadance the same thing he did to me. I apologize for my brother's harshness, but he needed to know quickly, how you rescued me, so he could go try to rescue his Mare. He is probably running to the Crystal Palace even now."
"20 miles to the Crystal Station Roderick, how fast can we do it?" Shining Armor yelled to his deputy.
"Sir, we should pace ourselves, and maybe make it in 2 hours." Roderick replied.
Shining Armor sighed, and said "Well, you are probably right, lets do that."
On the way Roderick brought up a good point. "Sir I don't know where Discord is, but what should we do if we see any more of our corps."
After thinking briefly Shinng Armor said "I want all Unicorn's rescued, and then anyone else that we can rescue without slowing down."
Shining Armor paused briefly before continuing. "And Roderick, if we meet Discord, we are done, we just need to retreat"
"Understood Sir" Roderick replied.
They made it to the Crystal Palace station in an hour and a half.
Running down the broad avenue to the Crystal Palace, they rescued maybe twenty more of their corps, four of whom were Unicorns.
The run to the Portal room brought the Unicorn total to 8 with ten more guards.
Shining Armor's 38 guards crowded into the hall outside the Portal room, and he snapped them quickly to attention, and spoke to his troops.
"First, if we meet Discord, we are done, just retreat if you can."
"Second, I want ONLY UNICORNS in this room when I call them. There is a 'need to know only' item in there and I want it to stay that way. The rest of you stay right around here in the hall, and rescue any more guards you find.
"Third, we absolutely MUST find Princess Cadance."
"Understood?" Shining Armor concluded.
"Yes Sir" they responded in unison.
Shining Armor motioned to them to be quiet, then said to the Unicorns "replace the door please, and again, if Discord is in there just fall back."
The Unicorn's magic made quick work of replacing the door.
"Roderick, Vespian, come with me. The rest of the Unicorns, stay out here, and listen for my call."
The three of them were soon inside the room, carefully shutting the door behind them. "Vespian give us a little light please." Unicorn magic made it much easier to see.
Shining Armor saw Spike on his gems. He was watching their every move.
"Spike, please get little and come here, but say nothing" Shining Armor said quietly.
Spike was soon timidly standing beside the huge Unicorn that was Shining Armor.
"Spike if we survive this, those gems are all yours. For now please go stand next to the door until we have checked the room." Shining Armor said softly.
Shining Armor saw the portal, and his eye caught a dull, new shape on the far end of the room to the left. They approached it cautiously.
"Is it just me, or do I see Discord in that little room?" Shining Armor asked quietly.
"Affirmative on visual" Roderick said.
"Roderick, see what you can find out" Shining Armor said.
The Unicorn named Roderick began growing a very faint, red cone towards Discord, as he used his magic to try and find out what it was. His beam extended to the edge of the crystal then stopped.
Roderick was instanty beside himself "Its... Its... coming back to me sir! Get it off! Get it off!"
Shining Armor quickly created a magic lance and severed Roderick's beam at a perfect right angle, and the retracing from the crystal stopped.
"Sir, I think you just saved my life." Roderick said still shaking.
"Well, if our magic can't get in, His can't get out. Vespian a little more light please." Shining Armor said. Just a little more, and everyone could clearly see that Discord was turned to stone.
"Ok, let's get away from this. You two open up the balcony, but give this thing a wide birth, it's dangerous."
Shining Armor went back to the hall at this point.
"Discord is contained."
"Shemblin" he called out.
"Sir" Shemblin replied.
"Take three other Pegasi and get quickly to Canterlot. We need to locate Sunset Shimmer. She is probably a monster by now. Just get close enough to verify, then meet us in Ponyville." Shining Armor ordered.
"Yes Sir" Shemblin replied again.
"And Shemblin, be careful. If you don't return, we will assume she is there" Shining Armor said quietly.
Shemblin and three other Pegasi were soon on their way.
Shining Armor walked over to Spike. "Spike, thank you for protecting the Portal. But do you have any idea who did this to Discord?"
Spike matter of factly answered "Summer Rain and the Equestria Girls. They turned him to stone, then they had me get big and push him into that corner. Summer talked to him a little, then they put that shield around him. Watch."
Spike picked up a gem, threw it at Discord's jail cell, and it immediately vaporized.
"Summer said they were using Twilight's magic." Spike said, and was then instantly quiet.
Shining Armor looked in amazement, then carefully analyzed the statements. Speaking half to himself, he said "I know Twilight's magic, and I seriously doubt even she could do this herself. I've never seen anything li--"
Spike had begun sniffling, and said "When can I see Twilight..."
Shining Armor stopped processing and answered gently "I saw her in Ponyville a couple hours ago. We will take you to her when we can. We nee--"
Shining Armor's men came back suddenly from the balcony, crying, and blubbered something about Princess Cadance... "Above the balcony" was all they could say.
Shining Armor ignored these two and yelled "ALL UNICORNS IN HERE NOW."
"Spike get out on the balcony, and get as greedy as you can, and get as big as you can. I need you to lift me up to Cadance, but don't look up for any reason" Shining Armor said with some urgency.
"Unicorns take positions right at the edge of the door to the balcony, but don't go out, and DO NOT LOOK UP" Shining Armor yelled to the Unicorns.
Spike was huge on the balcony at this point, and Shining Armor simply climbed up on his back.
"Spike can you fly us up?" Shining Armor asked.
"I don't know, I've never tried" Spike replied.
"Well try, and see what you can do" Shining Armor said.
Then he shouted to the Unicorns "DON'T LET US FALL."
Spike did pretty good at flying...
But this was all quickly forgotten...
Discord had stretched Princess Cadance out across a huge square encompassing five floors, on the outside of the Crystal Palace.
Spike went up about two floors, and Shining Armor simply leaned against her leg... And cried...
Spike almost lost it, but eight powerful Unicorn's simply held him up.
After a minute, there were four loud "snap" sounds. and Princess Cadance began to shrink back to her normal size.
Shining Armor held on to her leg tightly, and she simply shrank slowly back to him. He was still crying.
Even before Cadance was back to her normal size, he shouted, through his tears, "GET US DOWN."
And Princess Cadance screamed... Loud and long....
"GET CADANCE TO THE FLOOR" Shining Armor shouted, and Unicorn magic quicky had her laying on the crystal floor on her side inside the door to the balcony. She was still screaming.
"Spike get little" Shining Armor yelled as he jumped from Spike's back.
'Normal' Spike almost fell, but Roderick quickly caught him and pulled him in.
"EVERYONE OUT" Shining Armor shouted. "Spike you too, I'm sorry."
Princess Cadance was still screaming.
She was lying on her side. Shining Armor lay on his belly facing her, and put his head down on hers, and just tried to speak to her, to calm her down.
She kept screaming.
All at once, she grew quiet and went limp.
Her breathing was shallow, but she was completely unresponsive.
Shining Armor knew this was not good.
Shining Armor had read up on using magic to probe some other ponies' mind. He had never tried it though, because it would be such a personal experience.
He tried it now. He had to. He was losing his Mare.
Shining Armor laid his Unicorn horn up against Cadances' horn, tried to mentally prepare himself, and began to probe.
He passed a lot of things that would ordinarily be of interest, things about him, things about Cadance. He simply and quickly passed them all now. He was searching only for the reason Cadance gave up. She would die soon if he didn't find it.
After a few minutes, he did find it, and was instantly enraged.
Discord had tortured his Mare for hours to find the location of the Portal. The result was an ocean of pain that had flooded his Mare's soul, choking it to death even now.
Shining Armor had to act fast, but the only thing he could do was draw all that pain into his own soul. He did it anyway.
He felt her pain.
He heard her screams.
He sensed her agony.
He almost lost consciousness, and so slowed the rate at which he was drawing the pain off slightly.
He kept going.
10 minutes...
20 minutes...
30 minutes...
There was still a lot left, but he could feel himself slowly "losing it" as her pain became his, and was flooding his soul now. There was so much pain in there...
He completely lost track of time at this point.
Shining Armor would fight for his Mare, even if it killed him, which might not be too much longer...
All at once, Princess Cadance's soul sprang to life.
She didn't scream.
She sensed the nearness of her Stallion and relaxed.
As her awareness of what he was doing grew, she also realized that he was cleansing her soul at his expense.
Princess Cadance, the Princess of Love...
She could not heal her own pain, but she could easily erase the pain and anguish that was even now flooding her Stallion's soul.
She loved it away without even moving.
Cadance quickly cleared Shining Armor's soul from the pain that he had pulled out of hers.
Sensing this, Shining Armor just pulled agony from his Mare faster.
In a few minutes, the process was done.
Shining Armor and Princess Cadance both stood up, and at this point they simply rubbed noses.
Shining Armor put his head down, and shook it back and forth, and said "You need to get to Ponyville as fast as you can. They need you."
With this, Cadance ran to the balcony, took to the air, and was on her way.
Shining Armor looked at Stone Discord and said simply "If Summer Rain hadn't added that shield, you would be dead now."
Shining Armor walked slowly to the door and opened it, and gave orders to his men.
"Cadance is fine, and is on her way to Ponyville. Spike and I will run there now as well. The rest of you stay here, and don't rescue any more men. We want to fight Sunset Shimmer where she is, and we don't want to draw her here.
"Roderick and Vespian stay inside and guard the Portal, and stay away from Discord. The rest of you DO NOT go in for any reason. And Unicorns, you must forget everything you saw in there.
"Understood?"
"Yes Sir!" came the response.
"Spike, hop on, let's go find your Princess" Shining Armor said.
Spike was quickly on, and Shining Armor headed down the hall.