This is why I don't write ship fics

by Flashburn37

Chapter 42: The only answer arrives

Chapter 42: The only answer arrives.

Princess Cadence flew quickly towards Ponyville, carrying her husband Shining Armor. Upon arrival she began to understand what was going on. Twilight's castle had almost doubled in size and the changes made almost no sense. Walls were striped and spotted for Celestia's sake!

"I knew it! Discord messing with ponies again! This time he has gone too far!" Cadence had never had a problem with the eccentric... thing before, but he was messing with a primal force here! One that she was connected with!

"If he has done anything to Twilly I swear I'll make him wish he were stone again!" Shining Armor huffed.

They landed outside the main gates and marched up to the doorway. Shining attempted to open it but it was magically sealed.

"I've got it." Cadence smiled, hoping to avoid hurting his pride. She charged up her horn and fired a spell of opening. Nothing happened.

"Together then?" Shining asked.

"Always." She rested her head against his for a moment, before they unleashed a powerful blast of magical energy. A membrane of magic that surrounded the door shimmered and bended but did not break.

"We need to keep trying! Who knows what's going on in there!" They prepared once more.

***

"Rarity! Look!" Spike pulled at her mane and she looked at the door... it was shimmering...

"Spike, I may be a unicorn but I've never seen anything like that."

"I have. Somepony is trying to get in, but they are just short of breaking through. If we help them they we might just have a way out of here!"

"Celestia must've finally gotten our note!"

"I doubt Twilight could hold out Celestia, but whoever it is, they might be able to help. Come on, we have to help before they give up or get too tired!" Spike and Rarity stood side by side and blasted the door with all they had.

***

Twilight reeled in shock as her spell was battered from both the inside and out. She quickly galloped to her channeling tower... a place she had prepared for complex spells, the runes she had engraved would, in theory, amplify her magic exponentially. The walls of the castle began to shimmer as her spell began to cave in on itself. She poured on more and more of her focus before she skidded to a halt in her tower. She let the spell fail and cast one twice as powerful. She had to sit there to keep it going, but sent out arcane eyes to monitor her test subjects.

***

Spike cheered as the spell failed and the door was reduced to ash from the combined magic. On the other side stood Cadence and Shining Armor.

"Thank Celestia you're here! Twilight has gone mad! She in the middle of some kind of experiment an-" Spike belted out as quickly as one mouth can, before being flung across the room from the sheer force of the barrier reasserting itself. He saw the Princess and her husband reeling from the news, and saw them talking, but heard nothing. He felt the wall of magic and knew it's power was beyond anything Twilight could conjure up without help. So either she got several other unicorns to help or...

"Rarity... we need to break through this wall, fast... she's in her channel tower, the amount of power she can wield in there... well if our math was correct... the effects might become permanent to her test subjects."

"Oh dear me..." She began to channel her magic again and those on the other side seemed to reach the same conclusion.

Spike was about to join them when a voice behind him asked a question.

"So Twilight cast a spell on us?" Spike turned and saw Rainbow hovering behind him, her eyes clear from infection.

"Yeah unfortunately that seems to be the case."

"And she's in her "Channel Tower"? Channeling requires focus right?"

"Yes, it really does." He confirmed, thinking of every time a lapse in concentration had resulted in cranial trauma.

"I'll weaken her spell." Rainbow dashed off before Spike could say anything. As he watched her fly away he noticed a small glowing eye, watching him...