Myth Chaser and the Secret of Starswirl

by Myth Chaser

Chapter Eleven

Author's Note:

Warning for this chapter:
Though not overly detailed or graphic, this chapter contains blood and graphic violence.

Their hoofsteps echoed through the cramped tunnel with each step down the dug-out staircase. Myth couldn't speak for his sister or for Jewel, but he was personally feeling terrified. The sensation of dark power seemed to grow stronger with every step they came closer. Moon Shine had said something about this involving Nightmare Moon, and some sort of crystal. She and the other two with her were followers of the dark alicorn... He had every reason to be terrified already, but this evil feeling coming from the bottom of these stairs made him dread what he was going to see.

There was still something he didn't understand though. She looked different now than she did in the picture. She used to be golden with blue eyes, a lot like Jewel does now, and with a blue mane and tail. Now she was dark as charcoal and her eyes, mane, tail, and cutie mark had all changed to purple.

“So why the change?” he asked Moon Shine, breaking the silence in hopes of getting his mind off of the terrifying sensation of darkness powering over him.

“What do you mean?” the dark unicorn asked in return.

“In the picture,” he said, “you looked different than you do now. Why change your appearance?”

“When I joined the group of Nightmare Moon's followers,” Moon Shine explained, “I had to prove my loyalty by allowing some of the magic to reside inside of me. We all did.”

“And that dark magic changed you?” he asked curiously, looking back at the three behind him, Snapshot, and Jewel.

“Yes,” the unicorn answered simply, with a nod.

Myth finally understood. That had explained why they all had purple eyes. They'd all been effected by Nightmare Moon's dark magic. His thoughts returned to the increasingly frightening malevolent energy they were approaching.

Looking down at the stone staircase they were descending, he noticed the gray stone had slowly began to turn black the further they went. The same went for the stone-lined walls. Even the flames in the torches had changed from their normal orange color to a purple, lighting the tunnel with the color of Nightmare Moon's magic. This made his heart sink.

The cramped tunnel walls finally opened up as they reached the bottom of the staircase. Upon reaching the end, the group was met with a pair of large double doors. Myth and Jewel opened them together to find a large, circular room made of the same blackened stone the stairs had turned into. Myth, Snapshot, and Jewel stopped in that instant as they gazed in awe around the enormous room.

Several pillars reached from ground to ceiling to support the mountain from caving in from above. On each pillar was a purple-flamed torch, bathing the room in their purple light.

The most amazing thing, however, was a crystal in the very center of the area. A large, dark purple crystal floating several feet in the air, with a set of stair steps leading up to a platform just beside it, as if meant for somepony to interact with it. The crystal seemed to be emanating dark magic, as if it had been stored full of too much of it.

“What is this...?” Snapshot asked. It had been on Myth and Jewel's minds as well, but she had been the first to ask it out loud.

“The Nightmare Crystal,” Moon Shine answered, a smile on her face.

Myth couldn't understand how she could be smiling with such an overwhelming sense of darkness filling the room. From what he could tell, that power was coming from this crystal.

“This is what Starswirl brought Luna down here for every night?” Myth asked.

“Indeed,” Moon Shine said. She stepped past the three ponies, her gun still in her magical grasp. She stood in front of the three ponies, her eyes transfixed upon the purple-glowing crystal.

“What for?” he asked nervously.

“Starswirl had discovered this crystal many centuries ago,” Moon Shine began to explain, not once taking her eyes away from the floating crystal as she spoke. “He felt the terrifying dark magic emanating from it, and saw how it was corrupting the mountain around it, turning it black as night. He built this room around it, enchanting the walls to contain the dark magic within until he could find a way to vanquish the darkness once and for all. Even then, the crystal's source of dark magic still seeped through the cracks. It was overwhelming. As a last resort, he asked a favor of Princess Luna.”

Myth thought back to what he'd read in Starswirl's journal. At least the entries he'd gotten to read. He'd mentioned asking Luna for a huge favor, and eventually regretted it.

“Starswirl asked Luna to come down here with him,” Moon Shine continued. “He wanted her to absorb the crystal's dark magic into her body, and to purify the corruption with her own powerful magic. He would have done so himself, but her alicorn magic was far superior to his. So she would stand a greater chance of success. Luna agreed to aid him. Each night they came here, she would take some of the dark magic into herself and crush the darkness with her pure magic.”

“Why do I get the feeling this turns out badly?” Myth asked.

Moon Shine smiled at that. “She always thought she had vanquished every last bit of the dark magic she absorbed every night. But she never did. Each night, there was a small remainder left behind. Over time, she began to have nightmares about the darkness. Starswirl gave her lessons in dream walking so she could take control over the dream world that haunted her. It didn't help though with the real world threat that the dark magic of the crystal gave her. Little by little, the darkness was taken into her body, sneaking its way into her soul. Luna grew more and more corrupted until finally...”

“She turned into Nightmare Moon,” Myth finished for her, finally understanding. “That's why Starswirl came to regret his decision to ask this of Luna. He was inadvertently responsible for Luna's transformation into Nightmare Moon...”

“No wonder Princess Luna never talks about it when asked about her secret with Starswirl,” Snapshot said.

“She didn't want to ruin everyone's judgment of the amazing Starswirl...” Jewel said.

“And they never told Princess Celestia about it when they were coming down here every night, because they didn't want to worry her,” Myth added.

There was a moment of silence as the three ponies let the information sink in. It was hard to believe. They'd always thought that Princess Luna had been overcome with sheer jealousy of her sister and that was the single driving force that drove her to becoming Nightmare Moon. To find out that she was actually corrupted by dark magic from this crystal...

“So what's your plan?” Myth asked, looking over toward the charcoal unicorn, drawing her attention. She looked away from the crystal for a moment to look at the stallion. “Get a shard of the crystal and go corrupt Princess Luna into becoming Nightmare Moon again?”

Moon Shine scoffed at the assumption. “Don't be silly.”

“Huh?” Askari asked. “But, ma'am, that... That actually was the plan.”

“Hmph... 'Was' being the keyword, Askari,” Moon Shine said, and turned her attention back to the crystal, beginning to approach it.

“What do you mean?” Star Gaze asked, lowering his gun away from Jewel as he looked at his leader in confusion.

Moon Shine approached the small stair steps, making her way up as she looked up at the large crystal. With her standing so close to it, it was clear just how large it really was in comparison. The floating crystal had to be nearly a dozen times larger than the unicorn herself.

She ascended the stairs without hesitation and stood on the platform near the bottom of the large purple-glowing crystal.

“Nightmare Moon was so very powerful, wasn't she?” Moon Shine asked, an unwavering gaze locked on the crystal floating in front of her. “And yet... She only had a small amount of the Nightmare Crystal's power residing within her.”

“Ma'am?” Askari asked, just as confused as Star Gaze was, though keeping her own gun against Snapshot's head as she looked over to Star Gaze, wondering if he might know anything of what Moon Shine was about to do.

“What could she have become if she had so willingly accepted the entirety of the Crystal's magic?” Moon Shine asked rhetorically.

Her hoof reached up and rested on the smooth, purple surface of the Nightmare Crystal. Her eyes closed and she leaned her head down, bringing the tip of her horn against it.

Before anyone could say a word, there was a blinding flash of white light from where Moon Shine stood. With the surprise of the flash, Askari and Star Gaze had dropped their guns to cover their eyes with their hooves, with Myth, Snapshot, and Jewel shielding their eyes as well.

As the light died down and their eyes adjusted, they looked to where Moon Shine stood on the platform, seeing her horn glowing a bright purple, with a connection of purple-colored magic flowing from the dark crystal and into her.

Amazed by the purple glow lighting the room, Askari and Star Gaze didn't seem to realize they had dropped their weapons; neither did the three ponies they were holding captive. As they watched, they could see Moon Shine's body slowly beginning to grow. At the same time, the crystal's purple-ish glow began slowly fading as its magic was absorbed into the unicorn.

After a few moments of this, the crystal glowed no longer, and fell to the ground, apparently emptied of all magic that had resided within it. Moon Shine's hoof moved back to the ground and she stayed still, standing in place. Her body appeared to be shuddering as she attempted to gain control over the powerful magic she had just taken.

Moon Shine turned around then, her eyes still closed. Her head twitched just like the rest of her body, her horn appearing to spark with the incredible power of the magic. Her body lifted itself from the ground, hooves leaving the surface as she floated upward into the air with her hind legs dangling beneath her.

Her dark gray horn began to darken, covering in a pure black color. The darkness spread over her body, changing her charcoal-colored body into the same black, though leaving the purple of her mane and tail untouched, as if the dark magic would have made it that color anyway.

Askari took a step forward, trying to inspect the unicorn from a distance. “Ma'am?” she asked. “Moon Shine...?”

Upon hearing her name, the unicorn's eyelids snapped open, the purple irises looking distant as if her mind was someplace else. Askari, Star Gaze, Myth Chaser, Snapshot, and Jewel all watched as Moon Shine's pupils changed from the normal round shape to a more slitted look; the same way Nightmare Moon's eyes had been. In a quick flash, a pair of wings burst forth from the tall unicorn's sides, spread wide and large.

The wings gave a strong flap, and the newly-formed alicorn version of Moon Shine was now hovering in place. Her eyes seemed to come back into focus, her mind returning. A smile spread over the alicorn's lips as she looked to her hoof, seeing how she had changed straight black.

“This power...” Moon Shine spoke after what felt like an eternity of silence. She looked to her other hoof. “It's incredible.”

“What have you done?” Askari asked.

Nearly instantaneously, the alicorn was in front of Askari, hooves planted to the solid ground as she towered over the zebra mare, nearly three times as large. The surprise of the instant teleportation made the zebra jump back, falling onto her flank. She'd seen unicorns and even the alicorn Princesses teleport before, but it usually took a second. Moon Shine had been more instant than that.

“Say again?” Moon Shine asked, looking down at the zebra with a cold stare.

The zebra gulped, eyes filled with fear as she looked up at the large alicorn towering over her. Bravely, she repeated herself. “What have you done?” she asked. “W-We were supposed to corrupt Luna and transform her again.”

Moon Shine's long horn surrounded itself in the purple glow as she picked the zebra up from the ground, bringing her eye level. “That pathetic Princess had her chance. Don't speak her name in front of me again.”

Scared for her safety, the zebra quickly nodded in understanding and let out a relieved sigh as she was set back down to the stone floor.

Moon Shine then looked over to Star Gaze. “Anything you'd like to say about this?”

Star quickly shook his head, taking a step back as his ears cowardly pinned back against his head. “N-No, ma'am.”

Snapshot took a step back out of fear, feeling her hooves trembling as she looked at the alicorn. Myth gulped nervously, his heart racing. He thought back to stories he'd read of Nightmare Moon; how terrifying she had been to meet in person... How powerful her magic had to be to force Celestia to use the elements of harmony to ban her to the moon...

He trembled as he thought about how Nightmare Moon's power was a mere sliver of that crystal's magic. Now Moon Shine had absorbed the magic as well... except she had absorbed it all, and didn't seem to have any plans to attempt crushing the evil power and purifying herself. Nightmare Moon would be nothing compared to this new alicorn.

Click.

Everyone's attention turned toward the sound, seeing that Jewel's horn was surrounded by her blue magic glow, holding one of the two guns that Askari and Star Gaze had dropped, the barrel aimed toward Moon Shine, a little glow surrounding the trigger, ready to pull at a second's notice. “Don't move,” Jewel said, keeping the gun aimed at the alicorn. She pushed the other pistol over toward Myth, sliding it across the ground.

Moon Shine smiled, turning to face her daughter. “Or what?”

“Or I'll shoot,” Jewel said, trying not to let her fear sound out in her voice, though the shaking of her hooves showed she was just as scared as Myth and Snapshot were.

“How cute,” the alicorn said. “Askari, get your gun back.”

Askari looked up at Moon Shine like she was crazy. There was no way she was going to reach Jewel and get the gun away from her without getting shot in the process.

Noticing the zebra's hesitation, Moon Shine looked at her. “Do it,” she commanded, then looked back to Jewel. “She won't shoot.”

The zebra looked over at Jewel, trying to see if she was willing to pull the trigger or not. Jewel returned the gaze, eyes focused on the zebra, though keeping the alicorn in her peripheral just in case. Askari knew she had to do something. It was either make a move for the gun Jewel had, or risk making Moon Shine angry and experiencing something far worse than being shot.

After gathering her nerve, Askari took off at a full speed sprint toward Jewel.

BANG!

The gunshot sounded quickly, with a brief muzzle flash, the loud crack echoing off the stone walls as the zebra stopped in place, her eyes wide. Askari shifted her gaze downward, finding a gunshot wound in her chest with thick, red blood already drooling out from the hole. She looked back up to Jewel, the unicorn seeing that Askari's eyes looked drained, life fading out of them.

Askari's legs buckled underneath her as she clutched a hoof at the wound in her chest. Jewel could see tears welling up in the zebra's eyes. Whether it was from the pain of the shot, or from Moon Shine's betrayal was unclear. “Tell my daughter...” Askari said weakly. “I'm sorry I wasn't around.”

Jewel's heart ached at that as the rest of Askari's body fell the floor, lifeless, her blood dripping from the open wound, spreading over the hoof that lay in front of it, coloring Askari's hoof with red.

Jewel felt a tinge of regret from pulling the trigger. Even if Askari had been bad, she still had a family. She had someone she cared for, just like everyone else. Tears welled up in Jewel's eyes as she imagined a young child, and possibly a husband, heartbroken over Askari's death. All because of her.

“Star Gaze,” Moon Shine said, calling on the unicorn stallion to do something.

He looked up at her fearfully, tears rolling down his own cheeks, apparently having been more attached to the zebra than Myth, Snapshot, and Jewel had realized. “Are you crazy?”

Moon Shine shot a look down at him. “Are you defying me?”

Star stepped back fearfully, ears pinned back to his head as he looked over at Jewel. The unicorn mare was now hugging Myth Chaser as she cried over what she'd just done, the stallion rubbing her back in an effort to comfort her, while the pegasus patted her back soothingly.

Star Gaze looked back up to the alicorn towering over him. “I... I-I...” he stammered. He gulped nervously, looking up at Moon Shine, staring her dead in the eyes. “Yes.”

“What?” Moon Shine asked, lifting the stallion up in her magic, her nose pressed to his as she looked at him angrily.

“Yes,” he repeated, a bit more clearly. “I'm defying you.”

The alicorn glared at him. “Then you're no longer of use to me,” she said.

Crack.

The sound was gut-wrenching for the three ponies as they watched Moon Shine's magic grab around Star Gaze's head, and give a sudden twist, snapping his neck. The unicorn stallion was then dropped from her magic, thudding lifeless to the ground with his head twisted the wrong way.

The alicorn then looked over to Jewel. “I'm impressed with you,” she said casually, folding her large wings against her sides as she smiled. “I didn't think you had it in you to kill that useless zebra.”

“Don't,” Jewel replied with pain in her voice, her head resting on Myth's shoulder as she hugged him.

“Don't what, my little gem?” Moon Shine asked.

“Don't act so casual about this!” Jewel shouted back, pulling away from Myth's embrace as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Don't act like Askari's death meant nothing! Don't act like killing Star Gaze doesn't change anything! Don't call me your little gem!”

Jewel sobbed as she said all of this, her heart aching in her chest as she tried to focus her magic on holding the gun, weakly levitating it in front of her. She sat back down, rubbing a hoof over her eyes to wipe away the tears.

“How dare you talk to your mother that way,” Moon Shine said.

“You're not my mother,” Jewel said quietly, looking up at the alicorn several feet away from her. “So stop acting like it.”

She raised the gun back up, aiming it toward the alicorn. Moon Shine stared at the unicorn in surprise. Shocked to be looking into the barrel of a gun held by her own daughter.

BANG!

The sound echoed off the walls for a second time as Jewel took the shot.

Jewel, Snapshot, and Myth all looked away as soon as the trigger had been pulled, huddling together as the bang echoed around the stone room. They waited a moment, waiting for Moon Shine's last words and the sound of a thud.

It never came.

Jewel eventually looked up, trembling at what she saw. Myth and Snapshot looked as well, and Snapshot gasped.

Moon Shine stood in place, horn aglow with purple. In front of her was the bullet from Jewel's gun, suspended in mid-air. The alicorn crushed the bullet in her magic and let it drop, clattering to the ground at her hooves.

“I can't believe you would do that, Jewel,” Moon Shine said.

As the black-coated alicorn began stepping closer, Jewel's magic squeezed the trigger several more times, desperately trying to stop Moon Shine in her tracks. Instead, each bullet was caught in Moon Shine's magic, suspended in mid-air before they could reach her. All the while, the alicorn walked closer and closer, catching every bullet Jewel fired at her.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Click... Click click...

The gun had run out of bullets. Jewel dropped the weapon. It was of no use anymore. Instead, she pushed Myth and Snapshot back behind her, and her own horn glowed blue, and fired a blast toward Moon Shine, who was quick to teleport out of the way, appearing in the air with her wings flapping to hover in place above the three ponies, resulting in Jewel's magic firing past and causing a violent, destructive blast at the far wall behind the alicorn, leaving a bit of a crater in the stone.

Angry at the unicorn's attack, Moon Shine reared her head back, gathering magic in her horn before firing her own purple blast toward Jewel.

Quickly, Jewel concentrated her magic, and a flash of light transported her, Myth, and Snapshot out of the way, teleporting the three of them behind one of the pillars, and hearing the destructive blast of magic crash into the ground where they'd been a second ago. The three peeked around the pillar, seeing the crater Moon Shine had caused, several times larger than the one Jewel had caused, kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt, pebbles of stone raining back down around it.

The alicorn began looking around, realizing the three had transported out of the way. Before they could be spotted, Myth, Jewel, and Snapshot hid back behind the pillar.

“What are we gonna do?” Snapshot asked in a hushed voice, her chest heaving as she breathed heavily, trying not to panic.

“You two go,” Jewel said, pointing in the direction of the large double doors they'd come in through, still left open from when they arrived. “I'll hold her off while you two get to the Princesses. Tell them what's going on. Maybe they can do something.”

“Are you crazy?” Myth asked. “I'm not leaving you here alone, Jewel. Besides, it'd take all night just to get to the bottom of the mountain, let alone get to the castle and get to the Princesses and explain everything. By the time we could get to them...” he trailed off. He didn't want to think about Jewel being killed.

Jewel knew it was practically suicide. There's no way she could defeat an alicorn. Especially one far more powerful that Nightmare Moon could ever have dreamed to be. She'd be killed eventually, but maybe she could buy Myth and Snapshot some time to get to the Princesses. She studied a lot of Starswirl's spells, after all. She knew some spells she could use.

She pressed her lips to Myth's, giving him a deep, passionate kiss and pressing her chest to his so he could feel her heart beat for him. When she broke the kiss, she smiled to him. “You got us this far, Myth. I know you two can get to the Princesses. I believe in you.”

“Jewel-”

Before Myth could say another word, Jewel teleported herself, leaving the two alone behind the pillar. Myth and Snapshot peeked around the pillar, seeing Jewel revealing herself to Moon Shine.

Jewel fired an offensive blast of magic towards her. The alicorn put up a protective bubble in front of her, deflecting Jewel's blast to the side to explode against the wall.

“Where are the others?” Moon Shine asked, looking down at the lone unicorn.

“Long gone!” Jewel shouted, firing another pair of magic shots, only for Moon Shine to deflect them in various directions as well.

“She can't do this on her own,” Myth said to his sister.

“We need to go get the Princesses,” Snapshot said, trying to peel him away from the pillar where he watched the magic fight.

“I'm not leaving her,” Myth said defiantly. “She'll be killed.”

“You don't have any magic, you can't fly, the guns won't work on Moon Shine, and my wings are broken so I'm in the same spot as you,” Snapshot said. “What are we supposed to do?”

“I don't know,” Myth replied, coming back behind the pillar and sitting with his back against the stone.

He sighed and started looking around the large room, hoping to find something, anything that could help them while destructive blasts were scattered around the room. There was nothing! Just pillars, walls, torches, the crystal, the guns, the two dead bodies...

The crystal.

Myth stared at the empty, lifeless crystal for a moment, then looked to Jewel and Moon Shine's fight.

The two were teleporting all throughout the room, firing blasts at each other, along with some spells that seemed to try tracking the other, and bubbles deflecting or outright stopping any blasts that did hit against them.

“You're so magically talented!” Moon Shine shouted in between attacks. “How are you standing up against me so well!?” she asked angrily.

“I learned from Starswirl's scrolls!” Jewel replied as she put up a barrier, protecting herself. When Myth looked closer, he could see that Jewel was looking tired, the strong magic she used was starting to exhaust her already, she appeared covered in dirt and rubble as if she'd narrowly escaped a few attacks.

“I have an idea,” Myth said.

Before Snapshot could even attempt to ask about it, he stepped out from behind the pillar and sprinted his way over to the gun still laying on the floor, the one that hadn't been fired and still had bullets. He hooked it up onto his hoof and aimed it up at the alicorn. He shouted loudly, “Moon Shine! Over here!” When the alicorn stopped her magic against Jewel and looked toward Myth, he fired a few bullets at her, which she easily deflected with a laugh, thinking it foolish that Myth would try something he knew wouldn't work.

“Myth, what are you doing?” Jewel shouted. “I told you to go!”

Moon Shine glanced at Jewel and grinned. “He really cares about you, Jewel.” Jewel looked up at the alicorn. “And you care about him, don't you?”

The alicorn then turned, her eyes focusing on Myth Chaser. Her horn glowed, building up a spell, then fired a powerful blast down toward him.

“No!” Jewel screamed, teleporting herself in front of Myth, quickly putting up a protective bubble.

The impact of Moon Shine's spherical magic blast hitting against Jewel's barrier knocked her and Myth backward. Jewel grunted and groaned, her eyes shut tight as she concentrated and focused her weaker magic into holding back the blast. Finally, she managed to deflect the powerful spell, sending it back up toward Moon Shine.

This took the alicorn by surprise, and made a direct hit, slamming the her backward and hitting against the wall, making her let out a grunt from the impact.

Jewel took the opportunity and teleported her and Myth away from their open spot to bring him back to the pillar where Snapshot waited. “What are you doing, Myth?” she asked angrily, but hushed so Moon Shine wouldn't find them so easily.

“I have a plan,” he replied, with a smile. “Remember what you said when you were giving me that little lesson about magic?”

“What are you talking about?” Jewel asked.

“You told me that while using a spell, the magic that was projected out wants to return back to where it belongs,” he said. “What happens if its original source of magic, like the unicorn's horn, is destroyed?”

“This isn't time for a magic lesson,” Jewel said, barely managing to stop herself from shouting.

“Tell me,” Myth practically commanded, his hooves gripping Jewel by the shoulders tightly to make sure she didn't waste any more time.

Jewel rolled her eyes. “When the source is destroyed, the magic is destroyed with it. Nowhere to be found. What are you getting at?”

Myth turned Jewel around and pointed a hoof past her, turning her attention to the large crystal that lay on the ground. “The original source of Moon Shine's magic. Destroy that, and she's done, right?”

Jewel's eyes widened as she looked at the crystal, then looked back to Myth. “You're a genius.”

He grinned proudly. “Thanks. Now go. Take that thing out!”

Jewel smiled and teleported herself back out into the open. She didn't want Moon Shine finding Myth and Snapshot while she worked on the spell to break the Nightmare Crystal. She came out just in time to see the alicorn getting up from the ground, more angry now that she'd let herself get hit by her own magic. Her eyes focused in on Jewel, seeing the unicorn's attention wasn't on her anymore. Jewel was gathering magic in her horn, looking at the large crystal on the floor.

Moon Shine was confused at first until she quickly realized what the unicorn was thinking. Destroy the crystal and all the magic she absorbed from it would be taken away. “No!!”

Gathering enough magic in her horn to destroy that big of a crystal would take a few moments, Jewel thought, but she had to do it. Destroying the crystal would be the only way to defeat Moon Shine. As she built up the magic, preparing the blast, she glanced up at Moon Shine and saw she was gathering up her own magic, much quicker and much more powerfully.

The alicorn's attack was fired first. The large ball of glowing, purple magic thrown toward Jewel while she continued building up her own mass of energy in her horn.

Myth glanced back and forth between the huge ball of energy and Jewel who was still building up her magic for the attack. “Come on, come on, come on...”

It seemed it would hit Jewel before she would get her spell ready and launched. Myth jumped out from behind the pillar and started running toward them, more than willing to sacrifice himself to save Jewel.

He was too slow. The blast made contact with Jewel and she was out of his sight as the large ball of energy ground itself into Jewel.

“No!” Myth shouted, fearing the worst. Had the magic already killed her? Or was it something slow and painful?

“I'm okay, Myth!” Jewel cried out.

Myth perked up and he stepped to the side, walking around so he could see from a different angle. Jewel had given up on building her own attack, and had a blue magic barrier around her. She had an eye closed, showing her struggle as she fought back against the blast that pushed toward her, the clash of the attack against her barrier making sparks. Her other eye glanced back and forth between the blast and the crystal.

“You can do it, Jewel!” Myth encouraged. “I believe in you!”

Cracks appeared on Jewel's magic barrier, much like a glass window would crack with enough pressure against it. Jewel audibly whimpered as it seemed to hurt her.

Moon Shine was still up in the air, focusing her attention on the blast, her horn glowing as if adding more and more power to the sphere of destruction, trying so hard to break past Starswirl's spells that Jewel was using.

“Agghhh!” Jewel let out a pained scream and there was an explosion.

A blinding flash of light lit the entire room for several seconds as everything went quiet.

As the white light died down, Myth kept his eyes in the place Jewel had been standing, and saw that she no longer stood there. She'd been thrown backwards and was now on her back, unmoving, and her horn sparking like it had been overused. A trickle of blood could be seen dribbling from the base of her horn, down the side of her forehead.

“J-Jewel...?” Myth called to her weakly, afraid to run to her and confirm that the worst had happened. “Jewel? Are you okay?”

Jewel didn't move. Snapshot came out from behind the pillar, running over to the unicorn.

Thud. “Oof!”

Myth looked over to the sound, finding that Moon Shine had fallen out of mid-air, seemingly head first as he saw her body falling back to lay flat on the ground. She was no longer an alicorn. Her wings were gone, and returned to her normal-sized unicorn form, and her black body reverted back to the dark charcoal color.

He glanced back to where the Nightmare Crystal had been, finding that it wasn't there. Instead, there were shards of the crystal scattered all across the place it had been. Jewel had deflected Moon Shine's blast at the Nightmare Crystal. But it seemed, in the process, she'd also somehow been hit by it herself.

Myth looked down at his hoof, seeing the gun still strapped on and ready.

Moon Shine whimpered painfully. Her mane all messed up, dirt and scuff marks all over her body, making her look so beaten up and weak. Her hooves trembled as she tried to lift herself up, only to hear a single click, and feel metal against the side of her head, looking up to see Myth pressing his gun against her head. She froze, looking up at him.

Trying to use a spell caused her horn to give a pitiful spark of energy. Then, unexpectedly, a crack formed. The unicorn let out a pained whimper and a tear formed in her eye.

Myth looked down at the unicorn, firmly pressing the barrel of the gun against her head, ready to shoot any moment, but giving her a chance to say some last words.

“She's alive,” Snapshot's voice called to him.

“What?” Myth asked, not taking his eyes off of Moon Shine.

“Jewel. She's still breathing,” Snapshot told him as she lifted Jewel up onto her back to carry her. “She's alive, just unconscious. We need to get her to the hospital quick.”

Myth looked down at Moon Shine, his heart not feeling as broken as it had a moment ago. There was a chance Jewel could live. But they had to leave now if they'd want any chance of getting her to the hospital in time.

He pulled the gun away from Moon Shine's head, and slid it into his holster on his hind leg. It fit perfectly, amazingly he'd wound up getting his own gun back. “You stay here,” he told her. “We'll send the royal guards to come get you. That is if Princess Luna doesn't come get you herself.”

Moon Shine lay her head down, knowing she was defeated. Without her horn allowing her to use any magic, and no physical strength of her own, or any weapons, she was beaten. It was no use to try and leave before the guards got here, assuming she even had the strength to run.

Myth turned and walked away, moving toward his sister and sliding his back under Jewel as well, helping Snapshot carry Jewel's unconscious body as they walked through the double doors, closing them behind them and ascending up the steps.

They were exhausted, but they had to get Jewel to the hospital. They didn't care that it would be a long walk up the stairs and all the way down the mountain to Canterlot's city limits. It was the least they could do after all she had been through. Fighting an alicorn dozens of times more powerful than Nightmare Moon couldn't have been easy... They planned on walking all day and night, nonstop, until they got Jewel into a hospital, no matter how exhausted they got on the way.