//------------------------------//
// The Fallen Gate 
// Story: Diamonds Amidst the Stars 
// by Amber Spark 
//------------------------------//




Twilight stumbled backward as a sticky tar-like flying thing nearly took her head off. She dodged a second shadowflier and almost fell off the ramparts of the Diamond Wall. Another aberration crashed into the top of the wall between battlements and screeched in Twilight’s face. Panic overwhelmed her. She slashed wildly at the beast’s dragon-like snout.
And missed.
The thing’s head darted forward, each black fang in its horrid head nearly as long as Twilight’s foreleg.
This wasn’t the plan!
Then Starlight and Trixie pushed in, jabbing their glittering blades into the monster’s gullet. It let out a piercing shriek so loud, it left Twilight’s ears ringing. Massive bat-like wings flapped, pushing the two bodyguards back against the far rampart. Their assault on the creature bought enough time for Twilight to get ahold of herself. With a savage cry, she darted forward and slammed her sword into the shadowflier’s exposed breast.
It twitched three times before exploding into smoke.
“A good entrance, my dear princess,” quipped Rarity, falling back to her side while fending off three smaller tarwhelps. “The landing needed work, but the follow-up was magnificent.”
“Thanks?” Twilight coughed as she blew away the mortal remains of the shadowflier with a flap of her silver-tipped wings.
“My pleasure,” Rarity cooed. In a single spinning motion, she struck down all three tarwhelps. Her careful feints and retreats had baited them into swarming so close together, all she had needed was the single swipe. “It was a valiant effort. And I suspect you’ll have many more chances to improve upon it soon!”
Starlight and Trixie rushed to the battlements, taking positions on either side of a crenel. Twilight looked up to see shadowfliers fling massive spikes into the great Diamond Wall, which shook under the assault. As they veered away, each unicorn popped out from behind their cover for a second and unleashed blasts of magic fury, tearing the shadowfliers from the sky.
“Uh… Princess?” Starlight said, concern etched on her face.
“Trixie thinks maybe a tactical retreat would be sound, Your—” Trixie ducked a smaller barbed dart from one of the fliers. Several strands of silver hair fell from her mane. “In fact, Trixie is sure of it.”
Twilight rushed to the edge of the wall near one of the great blue braziers lighting up the battlefield and peered down below into the madness outside the massive Harmony Gate. The shadowkin below resembled a sea of night, boiling in anger.
“By the Solar Winds…” Twilight breathed as Rarity joined her and gasped.
“Incoming!” Starlight called, tossing up a shield spell before her Princess.
Twilight looked up to see an entire flock of shadowfliers descending on them. Missiles rained down the battlements and Starlight grunted under the assault even as Trixie added her strength to the spell.
Idiot! Twilight snapped at herself. You get so caught up in your bravado that you teleport directly into a warzone!
She needed a second. Maybe a few. To get the lay of the land. To know what was going on. To process what she had seen beneath her. To breathe.
The whole of the Diamond Wall shuddered as something massive slammed into the Harmony Gate. Starlight refocused on the shield and Trixie launched a magical counterattack against the shadowflier swarm. Rarity pressed herself against Twilight as she tried to get a better look at the chaos below.
Twilight charged her horn as she threw together the spell. A flare of magic bubbled out from her and dissipated in a few heartbeats.
“Leaf and bramble…” Rarity cried as the colors around them faded to sepia tones like an old painting. “Princess? Is this you?”
“Sorry!” Twilight squeaked. “I didn’t mean to catch you in the periphery!”
“Not at all, darling.” Rarity’s eyes darted around, but she relaxed ever so slightly. “Whatever did you cast?”
“Accelerated perception spell.”
Rarity made a small appreciative noise. “Marvelous!”
Twilight ignored another rush of heat to her face. “I don’t know how long I can hold it, but I needed a moment!”
“Take your time, dear. If you’ll allow me, I would love to help stabilize it. While not my particular area of expertise, I am quite competent at feeding an existing spell. And, perhaps a brief respite is all we need.”
Twilight smiled gratefully at her deer companion. Then, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and fought through the panic trying to overwhelm her. It took longer than she would have liked, but eventually, she found something close to a calm center deep within her.
It couldn’t last, but it didn’t have to.
She opened her eyes. She really didn’t want to look down again, but she did anyway.
An enormous shadowbeast, something that could only be the ‘siegebreaker,’ had been pounding at the massive double doors of the Harmony Gate, beyond which lay the heart of the Diamond City of Canterlot. The siegebreaker was armored from snout to tail, with six enormous legs ending in savage talons, while twin horns curled from above its four yellow-on-red eyes. Twilight shuddered as she saw the cracks in the wall around the great gate’s hinges. The mighty enchanted gate had already begun to buckle under the assault.
The only thing in its way were two of the fiercest combatants in the Equestrian Realms. Yet even they were struggling to take down the massive thing.
Selene Princess Luna herself—as dark and beautiful as a midnight thunderstorm—had charged into battle with her Midnight Sentinel holding off the northern flank. In slow motion, the great Scythe of Selene tore through one of the beasts six trunk-like legs, but it seemed to have little effect. The wound was already reknitting itself. It would be fully healed mere moments after the damage was done. Whatever this siegebreaker was, it was made of sterner stuff than the shadowkin Twilight had heard about before.
Twilight couldn’t remember the last time Aunt Luna had looked so furious and so cold. It sent chills down her spine.
“Hm, there’s something to be said for the timeless nature of the moon,” Rarity opined as she watched through the spell’s perception field. “But I’ve always preferred a little more glitter.”
Twilight did her best to ignore her—which wasn’t very effective—as she continued to survey the battlefield. She gritted her teeth as flashes of color started to bleed into the spell. She felt Rarity funnel energy into her, and again she was struck with a sense of déjà vu.
Keep it together, Twilight. You need a good picture of this. 
She focused on Mother. Solis Princess Celestia had descended from on high to deal with the enormous monster that dared to strike directly against her city. Even as she fought, a golden radiance covered most of the battlefield, emphasized in places by the gigantic braziers set into the Diamond Wall. She bore no weapon, for Mother needed nothing so crude. The pure fire of her sunlight had already torn great gaping holes in the beast’s black armored hide. Even through the spell, Mother moved with impossible grace and speed, conjuring spears of sunfire and shields of daylight against the siegebreaker.
The sight of Mother in combat was enough to break through even Rarity’s aura of flippant nonchalance.
“Oh my,” Rarity murmured. “I never realized I would get to see the fury of the Solis Princess in such raw form…”
The sound of battle leaked in for a moment, but Twilight poured more power into the spell, doing her best to ignore the splitting migraine trying to break her concentration. She shivered and forced herself to move on. The spell was already starting to fray, and her mind couldn’t process information like this for long.
That left only Aurorae Princess Sunset Shimmer on the battlefield, as Amoris Princess Cadance was undoubtedly running a triage hospital behind the wall. While Mother and Aunt Luna were trying to take down the siegebreaker, Sunset had assembled a strike team from Mother’s Golden Legion. Sunset’s group allowed the Elder Princesses to focus on the great monster without worrying about smaller ones flanking them. They were currently holding the line against the shadowlisks and blackbulls rushing the Harmony Gate from three green-and-black waygates in what had once been the Glittering Boulevard, the great street that ran parallel to the Diamond Wall.
Sunset was handling the monsters with almost casual ease, while wielding her twin sunsteel rapiers. Minuette and Lemon Hearts were mainly concerned with making sure stragglers didn’t get through the blade wall conjured by Twilight’s elder sister, while the rest of the squad shored up any other holes in the defense.
“She is rather impressive,” Rarity commented as she followed Twilight’s gaze. Her voice was strained. “Still, she lacks a... certain charm of another princess I happen to know.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and then gasped. Colors started swirling. Sounds began to return. She was losing the spell.
“I’m sorry, my dear princess,” Rarity groaned, shivering with effort. “I’m afraid even I have my limits.”
In the center of the Glittering Boulevard, an enormous waygate hung in midair. It had to have been the one siegebreaker had emerged from. This waygate was at least three times larger than the rest. Even as she watched, great black things swept out of the maw in slow-motion, materializing out of whatever chaotic dimension had spawned the shadowkin.
The spell was collapsing now. Sweat poured down Twilight’s face as she tried to get a glimpse of anything she’d missed.
Diamond dogs were fighting to the north, stemming the tide from five small waygates near what had once been Gossamer Silk’s Auction House. Squads of buffalo were wreaking havoc against a small legion of shadowkin in the south, with the aid of a dozen or so zebra weavers. Young drakes soared through the smoky sky, drowning enemy shadowfliers in flame and tearing them asunder with their great claws.
Twilight’s horn tried to screw itself back into her skull as her brain begged her to stop the spell. The mass of incoming information was suffocating her.
But one thing didn’t make sense. Shining Armor should be here. He was Lord of the Celestial Forces, second only to the Royal Five in authority for all of the Equestrian Realms.
He should be here! What happened?
“My dear princess… I believe I’ve identified a problem.” Rarity pointed north along the top of the Diamond Wall.
Twilight turned, finally spying Shining Armor a few dozen yards away. He was on his knees, trying to fight back a huge dragon-like shadowflier. The rest of his squad was beset by attacks coming in from all sides from tarwhelps, smaller shadowfliers and other, stranger things Twilight couldn’t identity. One of Shining’s soldiers had already been struck down by the shadowkin venom. He screamed in a strange tone through the spell as molten tar crept up his legs.
In slow motion, Shining skidded on a fallen sword. The monster took advantage of the opening, and lunged forward to tear out her brother’s neck.
“Shining!” Twilight cried as she leapt into the air, the spell shattering around them like broken glass. Time immediately snapped back into motion. Without a thought to tactic or strategy, she plummeted toward the creature. With a savage roar, she crashed down upon the thing and jabbed the sword through its head in a vicious downthrust. Her hooves continued through the smoky remains until she landed hard against the stone top of the wall. The combination of breaking the spell and the landing made her stumble and slam into her brother, who stared at her in shock.
“Twily?” Shining said as he looked up, dazed. “Twily, what are you—behind you!”
Twilight spun as another slavering thing charged at her from behind. She tried to pull up her weapon, but even as she did so, she knew she would be too slow. That spell had taken too much from her. Her heart hammered in her chest, but it was as if the perception spell had been cast yet again as the thing bore down on her.
There was a subtle ripple, and Rarity appeared before her, looking entirely unconcerned as she held out her blade before her. The creature ran straight into it, impaling its chest. The thing erupted into shadow after a single twitch.
“Tsk. Not the most intelligent of beasts, are they?” She sighed as she waved away the smoke.
“Spearhead!” Shining Armor cried as he saw the infected soldier. He galloped over to the screaming unicorn and swore. Twilight and Rarity were at his side in a heartbeat.
“I… I don’t want to be… one of them…” the unicorn guard whispered.
“Nopony falls to the Pox while I’m still in command,” Shining spat. He yanked out something from a small holster across his chest and flung it at the ground. A sweet-smelling mist wafted up for a second before rushing to envelop the thrashing soldier. For a moment, the only sounds were from the raging battle around them. The mist soon evaporated, leaving behind only an unconscious—and unblemished—unicorn.
“Get him to the Healer’s Tent!” Shining shouted. “Make sure he’s cleared of the Pox by Hope!”
A pegasus in scout armor saluted, grabbed the unconscious pony and darted off the top of the Diamond Wall.
Finally, the Lord of the Celestial Forces whirled on Twilight. “What are you doing here? I gave strict orders to—”
“I know what you ordered me to do!” Twilight snapped at she glared at her brother. “And I have no intention of hiding in the Palace! I’m a Princess of the Equestrian Realms, Lord Armor. I’m not going to let my people down!”
“I believe you’ll have a few more chances to prove that momentarily, my dear princess,” Rarity quipped.
Twilight glanced behind her only to see Rarity’s blade dance through the air like a hummingbird, dispatching three beasts in an equal number of heartbeats.
“Twily, this is a terrible time to try and prove yourself!” Shining Armor levitated his own blade—a massive broadsword of thunder-iron—and cut a shadowflier in two. He snatched his shield from the ground and whirled to catch a half-dozen barbs from one of the ranged blackquills that had just scrambled up the side of the wall. The stallion grunted with each impact, but he refused to yield.
Twilight lunged as best as she could and managed to clip two fliers before she was forced to parry a few blows. A moment later, Rarity’s blade finished the job.
“I think it’s a perfect time!”
“During an invasion?”
“Yes!” Twilight snapped. Another enemy down. “After today, nopony will call me ‘common’ ever again!”
“Not this again!” Shining Armor growled and flung his shield with his magic. Six tarwhelps exploded into vapor before it came flying back to him. “This is insane! You’re rushing into battle after being called a name! Twily, at least fall back to the Ruby Gate! Cadance is holding there with the Eighth!”
“No!” Twilight cried as she ducked a flying thing’s attempt to take off her head. Rarity destroyed it with a burst of blue fire from one of her hooves. “I’m not hiding again!”
“Grah!” Shining Armor’s broadsword took out another hulking dragon-like shadowkin menacing a few of his soldiers. “Then what do you recommend, Princess?” 
“Personally, I’d recommend we concern ourselves with the waygates, or at the very least, finding the source of them,” Rarity said with a toss of her mane as she sidestepped the clumsy swipe of another shadowflier. A single upper-stroke reduced it to shadows. “Those seem to be the source of your troubles, Lord Armor.”
“I don’t need tactical advice from some lousy deerkin!” Shining Armor shot back. “We asked for help weeks ago and an hour before sunset, you march up to the gates completely alone! I read the report!” 
“Now you stop that right now!” Twilight cried as she stumbled backward out of the line of fire as a dozen heavy quills shattered the cobblestones where she’d been moments before. “Rarity’s here to help!”
“The deerkin have never helped anypony but themselves!” Shining shot back. “She came alone when we needed an army. They’re insulting us! I have half a mind to buck her straight back to the Day Woods!”
“Why, my dear princess,” Rarity said as she parried the clawstrike of a rearing shadowlisk. “You never said that your brother was such a tease.”
“I’m not teasing you, you old mule.” His shield blocked the talons of a shadowflier while his great sword cleaved through a swarm of tarwhelps.
“Now that was uncalled for,” Rarity harrumphed. She lined up a shot with her hoof and a burst of blue power tore another shadowflier from the air. “Besides, mules on the outskirts of the Great Woods make a delectable carrot-and-pansy stew. All of the ones I’ve known are as industrious and intelligent as earth ponies.” Another dancing sidestep and a swing. It was all Twilight could do not to just watch the doe move. “So I suppose I should thank you for the comparison. I shall endeavor to live up to it.”
“Twily, it would be foolish to trust she’s here for anypony save herself.” His shield again flew out and blew four tarwhelps into smoke before returning to him with a thunk. “Don’t tell me you’re actually buying this story that she’s the best defense they could send!”
“I’d almost consider that a challenge, Lord Armor,” Rarity called as she leapt out of the way of a crashing shadowflier. “But, while your dear sister could probably keep up with me, I doubt you could.”
“You think you could keep up with me throwing this shield at your head, deerkin?” Shining Armor snarled as he lifted his great shield.
“Is he always this brutish? Has he never heard of subtlety?”
This time, it was Twilight’s turn to raise an eyebrow at the doe. “Have you?”
Rarity’s eyes glittered. She jabbed her blade behind her and skewered another beast through the gullet without a backward glance. “Oh, I’m blatant with my attention around the ones I actually like.”
Twilight couldn’t help but swallow.
Why in world did Rarity make this armor so tight?
“If you’re so determined, the both of you can help hold the top of the wall!” Shining Armor shouted. “The ballistae on the Palace can handle any fliers who get past us, but if we lose the Wall, they’ll swarm down into the city within minutes! I don’t need you to go rushing out there! It’s not safe. Let Celestia handle—”
The cry halted all debate. The golden light suddenly faded from the battlefield. Twilight, Rarity and Shining Armor shoved their way to the gap between crenels and looked down.
Sunset screamed first. Luna screamed second. Shining Armor roared. Twilight’s voice caught in her throat.
The siegebreaker had just crushed Celestia into the enchanted gemstone of the Harmony Gate, leaving a massive divot in the center of the doors. It roared in triumph, pounding its talons against the ground as every waygate surged wider and unleashed a flood of smaller shadowbeasts, tarwhelps and shadowfliers. Naga-like shadowlisks slithered forward, spitting tar at Sunset’s forces. Charging blackbulls rushed at the Midnight Sentinels. From everywhere, imp-like creatures swarmed forward as the siegebreaker continued to bellow its victory over the Solis Princess.
“No…” Twilight mumbled. Even from this height, Twilight could tell Mother’s two left legs were shattered.
Luna tried to dart forward, only to get bowled over by at least a half-dozen shadowfliers. She let out a shriek of defiance, and tried to carve a path through the flying tar pits. More joined the fray. Slowly, inexorably, they pushed Luna back.
“Mother!” Sunset shrieked.
The Solis Princess raised her head in defiance, but no magic came from her horn.
The imp-things charged forward for the kill.
A blazing comet of red and gold streaked through the line of imps, as Aurorae Princess Sunset Shimmer surged to her mother’s defense. With twin sweeps of her rapiers—now burning with holy sunfire—she destroyed an entire line of shadowkin. Once more, light burst across the battlefield, but this was the dull crimson of an angry dawn, produced by the daughter of Celestia herself.
The siegebreaker roared once more, this time in fury.
It intentionally backed away to let the little ones finish Celestia off… why? Twilight thought desperately.
Twilight’s eyes swiveled and she met Rarity’s gaze, who was studying the conflict with the same intensity.
“Diversion,” Rarity snapped. Blue eyes darted left and right. “There should be…”
Twilight watched as Rarity suddenly stiffened, her mouth opening in horror. Twilight followed her gaze to the great spire that had once held the Royal Treasury of the Diamond City of Canterlot. Half of the spire had been torn apart, leaving most of the interior open to the elements. It was directly opposite the Harmony Gate across the Glittering Boulevard. Before now, it hadn’t caught Twilight’s attention.
However, the sudden appearance of a swirling waygate at least as big as the one that had birthed the siegebreaker… That did catch her attention.
“It’s the master waygate,” Rarity whispered.
“How do we stop it?” Twilight demanded.
“No!” Shining Armor said beside them. “Don’t even think about it! Anypony trying to get through that by hoof or by wing would be ripped apart! We can’t teleport through their lines! Those waygates are throwing off enough dark magic to make even fireballs go wild!”
The master waygate only grew with every word.
“Rarity, what do you see?” Twilight squinted through the crimson gloom, but she couldn’t see through the swirling black magic nor the twisted shadows. “It’s all a blur to me.”
“I can see some sort of… generator or device directly beneath it,” Rarity muttered. “It’s hard to make out, but I’m certain something is there.”
Twilight whirled and stared at Shining Armor. “And if we destroy that, all the waygates will destabilize, right?”
Shining Armor shook his head. “They don’t just vanish. Only the… largest… ones…” He trailed off, staring horrified at something looming behind Twilight.
“My dear princess, I believe we are about to have additional company.”
Twilight’s eyes darted back to the waygate. Her heart almost seized in her chest.
“Solar Winds…” Shining Armor murmured beside them.
Something massive was pushing its way through. The gate itself swelled in size, trying to accommodate it. The boundary began to lick the edges of the shattered Royal Treasury. Stone and wood blistered where the corrupted magic touched. Then, with a great rush, part of the gargantuan monster came through.
“Since when do the shadowkin have Ursa Majors?” Twilight cried.
The thing was half again as big as the siegebreaker now pounding against Sunset and Aunt Luna’s magic. Twilight guessed the colossal beast had managed to get a quarter of the way through until whatever foul magic fueling the waygate had bottlenecked, forcing it to slow down. Various shadowkin flittered beneath the waygate, but the sheer chaos made it impossible to identify any of them with certainty. She tried to cast a vision spell, but the shadowkin had recovered from their brief pause and now surged forward in a frenzy, striking with wild abandon.
Still, Twilight tried to get a glimpse at her fallen mother.
Luna now stood at Sunset’s side, fending off wave after wave of shadowy claws and teeth with her great scythe. The siegebreaker was backing up as if preparing to ram them… which it almost certainly was about to do.
I need to trust Sunset and Aunt Luna to handle the siegebreaker. And I’ve seen Mother get back up from much worse than that.
“Shining!” Twilight whirled as Rarity, Trixie and Starlight held the line. “What would happen to that thing if the waygate collapsed while it was trying to go through?”
“It would get ripped right back through into their realm!” Shining shouted over the battle. He paused and glared at her, understanding. “No! Twilight, it’s too dangerous!”
“More dangerous than if that thing makes it through? If that happens, we’re doomed!” Twilight shot back. “That thing could level half the Diamond Wall by sneezing! You can’t get to it in time, Shining. We can. There’s no other option.”
“No, Twilight!” Shining Armor screamed, a note of panic making his voice crack. “You’d never make it! Your magic won’t work through all of that! And I refuse to let you do something this stupid just to impress some doe!”
The noise of the battle seemed to fade. Twilight blasted a shadowflier off the wall a few paces away, never breaking eye contact with her brother.
“Who said anything about her?” Twilight said flatly. “This is about me doing what’s right.”
She paused and looked at the doe who had just impaled two tarwhelps. Trixie and Starlight were fending off a pair of shadowquills.
“That is…” Twilight said. “If you can do it?”
Rarity peered at the waygate before nodding. “It will most definitely not be a pleasant ride, but I can get a small group in. Though, as a word of caution, I admit I’ve never teleported out of such a place before.” She smirked, her brilliant eyes glittering. “Not precisely what I had in mind for our first evening, but a little excitement never—”
Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her.
Rarity chuckled. “Point taken, my dear princess.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. Again..
Light flared below them as Luna conjured a massive shield to stop the siegebreaker’s next charge. It roared in defiance, as another wave of shadowfliers descended upon the Diamond Wall. Soldiers screamed and shouted, but never broke. Shining Armor’s troops were well-trained and they refused to back down against the onslaught.
“Shining, we’re going.” Twilight stared at her brother. “Though… I’d appreciate a distraction.”
A dozen emotions raced across her brother’s face. Starlight let out a battlecry from somewhere on Twilight’s left. Arcane fire erupted in the sky. The magical ballistae of the Palace open fire on a group of shadowfliers who had managed to pierce the aerial defenses of the Diamond Wall. The wall beneath her hooves bucked as something slammed into it.
“I won’t be able to help you, Twilight.” Shining said. “Please, at least let me go instead.”
Twilight shook her head, smiling just a little. “I can’t keep your soldiers alive. You can.”
“But you’re my sister.”
Twilight adjusted her circlet.
“I’m also the Astra Princess. Don’t you think it’s time I acted like it?”
Shining Armor blinked first.
“Deerkin!” he shouted. “You keep her safe or you’ll answer to me, got that?”
A genuine smile graced the doe’s lips.
“Be safe, Twily,”
“You too, Shiny.”
“While I’m usually all for a reconciliation, perhaps we could leave the familial bonding for another time?” Rarity called as the blade started to whip around into figure-eights to fight a wave of two dozen tarwhelps as Starlight and Trixie were forced backward. “For instance… anytime other than during an invasion of nightmarish abominations?”
“Right. Good call,” Shining Armor said, once again all business. He turned to his squad. “Ponies! Our Astra Princess needs a diversion! Anypony feel up to the challenge?”
A ragged cheer went up from Shining Armor’s soldiers. They were battered, bludgeoned and bruised… but they were far from defeated. A surge of pride rushed through Twilight for her brother.
“Oh, and Lord Armor?” Rarity called. Twilight watched as the doe tossed something at him. Shining Armor instinctively caught it in his magic. “I mean no offense to your armorer, but your current shield appears somewhat bedraggled.”
It was a shield, hexagonal in shape, and crafted from starsilver and amethyst, just like the blade Twilight’s retinue now wielded. Shining Armor glanced up and inclined his head just enough to show respect, latching his other shield onto a holster on his left flank.
“Cost eithel, aras allui,” Twilight’s brother said with a nod.
‘Fight Well, Friend Deer’ in loamtongue? Twilight blinked. Since when does Shining speak loamtongue?
“Cost eithel, ponui allui,” Rarity replied with the same nod. Her eyes glittered.
“And you?” Shining Armor said, turning to his sister. “Go kick some flank. But if you get hurt, I’m going to kick their flank, then yours, and then hers.”
“My, he is an irrepressible flirt, isn’t he?” Rarity chirped.
Twilight couldn’t help but smirk. Something about Rarity’s presence made it feel like she was swimming through stars of confidence. “Trixie! Starlight! Fall back!”
Rarity sidled up to Twilight as her battered bodyguards let Shining Armor’s squad draw the enemy's’ fire. Shining Armor flared his magic, unleashing wave after wave of arcane fire at the siegebreaker, while the unicorns on his squad blasted shadowfliers from the sky.
“My dear princess,” Rarity said in a hushed whisper, “please do not take offense, but exactly how much combat experience do you have?”
Twilight’s ears went down. “Ah… I’ve done a great deal of training exercises. I do know a great deal on the subject.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow as Trixie and Starlight took up defensive positions.
“And how, pray tell, do you know so much about the subject of warfare?”
“Books! I’ve read several on the subject.”
“Heru en' i' kela, vara sina amada inya ar' he` leuthil,” Rarity muttered.
That couldn’t have meant what I thought it meant… 
“What was that?”
“Just… an old deerkin blessing.” Rarity said with a slightly wavering smile.
Twilight suspected it was something else entirely, but her eyes locked upon the gargantuan ursa-like monster creeping out of the master waygate. There wasn’t time for games.
“Rarity?”
“Yes, my dear princess?”
“Let’s go.”
“Prepare yourselves!” Rarity called as the tendrils of magic began to flow from her. She narrowed her eyes on the base of the waygate.
Twilight couldn’t help but think her eyes looked rather intense like that. In fact, it wasn’t too different to how the doe had been looking at her only a few minutes ago. Maybe she should—
The world blurred for just a moment. This felt nothing like any teleport spell she’d ever experienced. It was subtle and quiet, like stepping from one room to another. One second they were in atop the wall, the next they were at the base of the waygate, directly beneath the massive beast’s bulk.
Rarity staggered, the blue magic of her hooves fading as she nearly stumbled to the rubble at their hooves. Twilight reached out to steady her companion.
A slithering half-serpent beast slammed into Twilight’s side, and sent her whirling to the ground. She let out a pained grunt, but Rarity’s starsilver armor had saved her from being dashed to pieces. She moaned as she tried to stop the world from spinning. All she could see was the armored tar-like plates of the shadow-ursa.
Then something far more hideous filled her vision.
It vaguely resembled an upright corrupted quarray eel. Its maw was a cavern of fangs, crooked, sharp, and broken, flanked by blackened mandibles on either side. Its eyes held Twilight’s attention in all the ways Rarity didn’t, shifting from color to color.
“Princess!” Starlight shouted, but she sounded like she was on the moon. Twilight couldn’t look away.
The eel-thing reared up and struck. Belatedly, Twilight tried to buck it in the face with her hindhooves, but she was too slow. With horrible precision, the shadowlisk’s jagged fangs bit directly into a lightly armored knee-joint on her right hindleg. Instantly, that leg was engulfed in icy numbness, the other one going dead seconds later. Twilight spasmed and twisted around, staring out toward the Harmony Gate and her two unicorn bodyguards.
“Twilight!” Trixie screamed as charged forward, only to be bowled over by a shadowflier. Above them all, the giant ursa-like monster continued to crawl out of the enormous waygate.
Twilight could feel the infection starting to ravage her. Her wings flared and spasmed. Her forehooves kicked uselessly. Her sword dropped. She let out a scream of her own.
The shadowlisk reared back one more time as it aimed for Twilight’s head. She looked up at her death… or worse.
And then, once again, Rarity was there.
“You shall not touch her!” Rarity bellowed in a decidedly unladylike tone.
Her hooves flared with silver-blue fire and she slammed them into the ground. There was a brief pause as every beast within a dozen yards staggered. That was all the time Rarity needed. Eschewing her sword, she unleashed a single savage buck at the eel-thing. The impact of Rarity’s hooves shredded the shadowlisk into shadow.
Instantly, Trixie and Starlight were at Twilight’s side. Starlight’s horn flared as her turquoise shield enveloped the four of them. All sorts of gibbering horrors rushed forward, but Starlight’s barriers were second only to Shining Armor’s and Twilight’s. The shield held even as the darkness pressed in around her vision.
“Help…” Twilight gasped as she felt her wings go rigid. She refused to turn her head and look at what the venom was doing to her. She didn’t even know if she could be saved. In Twilight’s haste, she had forgotten to grab any of the antitoxin.
I am such an idiot… just a commoner trying to impress a doe I barely know. 
If she was going to be consumed, she might as well be honest with herself. Impressing Rarity was at least thirty-two percent of the reason she had charged out here.
“Hush,” Rarity commanded, her eyes still blazing with power. “Shadowkin infections are frightful indeed, but I will not allow something so horrid consume somepony so beautiful.”
Despite the freezing sensation crawling up her body beneath her armor, Twilight blushed. In fact, it was the only thing she could feel. Her entire body had gone numb.
With a flare of power, Rarity removed Twilight’s armor and set it aside. She swore something in deerish and put her hooves on Twilight’s face.
“You fight this thing, you understand me?” Now, there was nothing but diamond in Rarity’s eyes. “I have several much more scandalous flirtations that I’ve not gotten to use on you and I refuse to let you mess things up by being consumed by this Pox! Not before we fully explore all your shades of red!”
Twilight couldn’t even nod, but apparently Rarity saw something in Twilight’s eyes that told her all she needed to know. The doe closed her eyes, and Twilight watched as the lines of her forehooves ignited in oddly familiar silver fire. Rarity let out a grunt of pain, but she didn’t let up. The light was nearly blinding, but Twilight couldn’t close her eyes as she felt the icy sensation began to skitter up her neck.
Rarity’s eyes opened. They were sky blue, without iris or whites, as the deerkin stiffened under the effort of her channelling. She touched one hoof to a spot just below Twilight’s horn. The second went to Twilight’s chest.
The virtrung’s hooves erupted in power. Distantly, she heard both Trixie and Starlight gasp, but all she could really feel was the heat pulsing through her. It felt like her whole body had been thrust into the furnace of gentle warmth.
Then, her entire mind was bathed in beautiful warmth. Visions filled her mind, ones she remembered and ones she did not, yet both familiar in ways she couldn’t define.
Her terror at the strange power that had enveloped her after the sun had gone down and the strobing lights spinning around her sobbing body.
Her being mocked before the artisans of the Floral Courts for her latest gown design.
Celestia teaching her how to fly… and just how many times she faceplanted behind the Diamond Palace.
Wielding the Deep Magic of starsilver before the High Master Shaper and his expression of shock.
Mom and dad hugging her close, telling her how proud they were of her, that they’d always be there for her.
Her Confirmation Ceremony where she was inducted into the sacred Order of Starsilver.
Shining Armor’s rather silly statement about his tears being something called ‘liquid pride.’
The forging of her first crystal and starsilver blade, a gift for Father before he departed for the Southern Hills of Darm’sha’len.
Sunset’s whoop for joy at finding out that she had a sister other than Cadance, something she’d wanted for decades.
Learning the delicate balance of working the starscape with Aunt Luna.
The pride of watching her younger sister finally gain control of her magic, aided by a griffon chick and an earth pony filly.
The unexpected appearance of her three diamond soul mark as the stars realigned after three nights of having only the moon for company.
Her catching Trixie and Starlight—again—in one of the broom closets. 
The strange looks she’d received after the fateful night when the stars had returned.
The latest procession through the streets of the fortress city of Manehattan… and how everypony had watched every princess, save for her.
The call to the Council, and the announcement of her departure.
Staring at the tired alicorn in the lake and wondering if she would ever be anything else.
The glimpse at the dejected alicorn at the water… and seeing the alicorn’s soul mark. The mark she’d been seeing in her works for years. 
The icy feeling vanished. Sensation returned to her body. Her wings were able to move first, then her forelegs, and then her hindlegs. Finally, her vision returned and she stared into two blue diamonds. They were mere inches away.
“I… ah… I may have put too much… into that spell…” Rarity gasped, her ears back and her cheeks red. “I do hope… you’ll forgive any impropriety…”
Twilight blinked a few times, and finally cracked a smile. “It’s a little late for that.”
Rarity looked about to laugh when a resounding crack sounded through the small shielded dome. Both of them jumped at Starlight’s cry of pain.
“I can’t hold this much longer, Twilight!” Starlight cried. “I’m getting swarmed!”
A living carpet of black tar-like shadow had swallowed the surface of the shield. The ground below them shook as the great beast outside took a step.
We’re out of time.
Twilight gritted her teeth. “Starlight, get ready to blow the shield. Everypony—everyone else, I want diversions. Beat them back so we can destroy that generator.”
Starlight’s gaze met Twilight’s as the Astra Princess rose to her hooves. Rarity joined her. Trixie remained by Starlight’s side, but her blade jittered in the air as if she was itching for something to skewer. She probably was. Rarity cracked her neck. Twilight flexed her wings. Trixie adjusted her stance. Starlight closed her eyes.
“Now!”
Starlight’s shield erupted into a wave of pure force, blowing back the mass of shadowkin swarming over the barrier. They flew through the sky like dust, but a second group had been ready and waiting. A dozen shadowlisks immediately rushed in for them all.
Starlight blasted two of them into nothingness with a surge of turquoise magic. Trixie cut down another pair in the space of a second. Rarity teleported behind them and slipped her blade through five heads before they even realized what was happening. Twilight unleashed a torrent of starfire from her horn while flinging her sword forward, bringing down four.
Then there was nothing but smoke around them.
“Take out the waygate!” Twilight commanded and leapt forward.
To Twilight’s horror, she realized that the ursa-like beast had three legs out of the waygate. All that remained was a fourth limb and some sort of tail. But she couldn’t handle that thing. Nopony could. They needed to deal with the waygate itself.
There were still things guarding the base of the waygate. Gibbering things that shifted and changed with every eyeblink. Amorphous and dark, they left trails of slime with each twitching motion.
Twilight’s retinue didn’t even stop as they charged straight over them, pounding them to shadows beneath their armored hooves. A screech went up from one of them just before Twilight trampled it. The great monster above them paused. Twilight looked up just as the giant thing looked down with six enormous molten yellow eyes.
Oh, Stars and Sun, save us.
“Trixie, Starlight, keep them back!” Twilight commanded as they skidded to a stop at the base of the thing generating the waygate. Starlight and Trixie both conjured up curved horizontal shields to protect them, but even as Twilight turned to the waygate generator, the shields began to crack under the onslaught of the charging shadowkin.
Her purification had left her too drained to even consider something like the perception spell, so Twilight was forced to think fast. The generator was a massive bowl of living shadow and gray metal. There were strange blinking lights, odd displays and other bizarre pieces she couldn’t identify. Black magic poured from the thing, making Twilight sick to her stomach. In the center of it was a pulsing bulb of sickly purple with the texture of congealed slime. A beam of pure darkness rose from the bulb to the center of the waygate above them. Twilight could feel it attempt to repel and attract them simultaneously. Her vision blurred as the device screeched with some sort of hideous alarm.
“Any… ideas?” Twilight cried over the deafening sound.
“Not as such!” Rarity shouted, looking positively green under her armor. “I’m afraid black magic isn’t in style this season!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the device. In desperation, she jabbed at the thing with her sword, but to no avail. A shield of green fire erupted around the generator, and she stumbled backward. She searched around for any ideas when she spied Rarity’s flanks and the three star-like gemstones on her—
That’s it! Stars!
“How much starsilver can you conjure?” Twilight called.
“Darling, I’m insulted. It would take more than these paltry foes to drain my reserves!” Rarity shouted as the monster above them roared. Its final leg was free. Only its massive dragon-like tail remained in the waygate.
“Can you create a sphere around the generator?”
“Not with that much energy pouring out of it!”
“And if I contained it for just a second?”
Rarity’s eyes went wide and she nodded. “Do it!”
Oh, I’m going to regret this…
Twilight called upon the power of her stars. They were faint through the haze of sickly magic in the air, but they answered. It took all the magic at her disposal, but Harmony and the cosmos hadn’t granted her the flight of pegasi and the strength of earth ponies because she’d been an accountant. Her talents lay within the magic of the stars. This was her domain. When she had ascended and became an alicorn, part of the Ancient Powers once held by Aunt Luna had flowed into her. She knew the stars like none before her. What they were to this world… and what they were beyond this world.
She put every ounce of herself into a single spell and then cried out to her two trusted bodyguards of ten years.
“Starlight! Trixie! Shield convergence! Now!”
They didn’t hesitate. Even as the monsters rushed in at them from all sides, both unicorns recast their spells directly at her. Twilight focused, caught their magic and funneled it into her own. Rarity’s hooves slammed into the ground and the starsilver sphere appeared once more.
Twilight concentrated with all of her might and a single blinding point of light came into existence before them all. She compressed Starlight and Trixie’s shields as tightly as she could around the spot of light… and then shoved the entire thing directly into the path of blackness.
Shadow, meet star.
Light met dark as the feedback knocked Twilight off her hooves. She landed upright and skidded back a couple of yards. The war between forces was blinding, but she forced herself to watch. For a few seconds, the interference of the tiny newborn star was just enough to banish the dark magic around the generator. The waygate above them flickered. The pause lasted only a few moments before Twilight’s star began to fray and crack beneath the fury of the black magic.
That was all Rarity needed.
Rarity drew in a deep breath. The magic pattern on her legs blazed with blue and silver light once more… and the entire globe of starsilver surged into motion. It took less than a second to bend it into a half dome, then Rarity’s magic plowed beneath the generator. Dirt and stone flew everywhere. An eyeblink later, a giant sphere of white and silver encased the generator. Twilight felt her star implode and she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion even as she heard Starlight and Trixie once again engage the enemy.
“It’s pretty,” Twilight mumbled as the waygate above them destabilized.
Rarity teleported to her side. “Not my finest work, but it shall suffice on such short notice. I even have a little left over.”
With the black magic of the generator contained within the starsilver bubble, the waygate’s magical matrix began to unravel. The enormous beast screeched as it slid backward into the unstable vortex.
Uh… maybe we shouldn’t be here…
But if the magical interference had been bad before… Twilight didn’t have a prayer of getting off a teleport spell now.
“Out! Get us out of here!” Twilight shouted as she scrambled to her hooves. Starlight and Trixie fell back, their swords flashing as more things rushed at them all in retribution. The ursa-thing roared so loud, pieces of the great broken spire crashed down around them.
“Can’t!” Rarity cried as she lunged and sliced through a shadowflier. “I’m good, darling, but I’m not that good!”
“You said there were cracks in reality!” Twilight shouted back as her own sword impaled another shadow dragon.
“Yes, my dear princess.” Three short strokes, six puffs of shadow. “And we’re standing below a rather large one right now. It is rather hard to ignore in these matters, especially when it’s fraying like a poorly knit scarf!”
“Well, horseapples,” Twilight swore.
“Horseapples, indeed,” Rarity agreed.
The ursa-thing was already halfway back through the waygate. Twilight looked beyond it and let out a ragged cheer when she saw the combined magic of Mother, Aunt Luna and Sunset finally blast the siegebreaker apart. As the smoke cleared, Twilight's heart lurched when she realized half of the Harmony Gate had been shattered. But with the siegebreaker gone, the shadowkin didn’t have a chance at overtaking the fury of three alicorns.
Well, at least we won. 
The wind was picking up. A slithering thing rushing at Twilight suddenly flew into the air, only to be consumed by the collapsing waygate.
“Ever wonder what’s on the other side of these things?” Twilight asked her doe companion. She parried another blow and threw a point-defense shield up to block all four of them against a missile barrage from a blackquill flying overhead.
“I assume it would be rather… icky,” Rarity opined as her blade continued to dance. “I try not to dwell on it.”
“I don’t think you’ll be able to avoid it for much longer.”
“We’ll see.”
The ursa-thing only had its head and a single massive leg still outside the waygate. Its bellows of rage nearly deafened Twilight, yet she found herself still able to hear Rarity as if they were chatting over tea.
Something I would much rather be doing than waiting to be sucked into the shadow abyss…
“This is not what I had in mind for tonight,” Twilight muttered to herself.
Rarity nodded. Twilight didn’t even ask how or why the doe could hear her. It wouldn’t matter much longer.
“I hadn’t planned on it either,” Rarity admitted. “I had much more entertaining things in mind for tonight’s activities!”
Starlight let out a yelp as a flying creature crashed into her. For a moment, it seemed as if she would go soaring up into the abyss, but a flash of magic from Trixie slammed her to the ground. Starlight gave her a grateful smile, but even as the two mares held each other down with their telekinesis, Twilight knew the unraveling waygate would disrupt their magic any moment. Rarity clutched a fallen support beam. The world shuddered around her, Twilight clung to a jagged piece of masonry for dear life.
Dear life… Twilight mused as she felt her own hooves begin to slip.
“Rarity!” she shouted. “Use your starsilver to anchor us!”
Rarity’s eyes went wide and a wicked grin appeared on her muzzle. Her hooves flared with power and snakes of starsilver metal surged from the vibrating sphere below the center of the maelstrom. Twilight cheered when Starlight’s hindlegs were entangled just as the magic around her faded. The starsilver held fast. If it was strong enough to contain the black magic of the generator, it was strong enough to hold a pony against the dying waygate.
Another strand burst out and snatched Trixie around the waist. Trixie smiled at the two of them gratefully.
Another pair of silver streaks erupted from the starsilver sphere and shot toward the alicorn and the doe, but she could tell Rarity’s magic was finally beginning to wane. They slowed to a crawl as the virtrung grunted with effort.
Just a bit more and I’ll be completely safe, bound up in Rarity’s magic.
Twilight went red as her mind ran to strange places with that thought.
That’s when she saw the shadow of the monster’s paw come crashing down toward Rarity. Without thinking, she charged forward and shoved Rarity aside just in time to take the full brunt of the ursa-thing’s blow. Twilight didn’t even get a chance to scream. She saw a single snake of starsilver twist around Rarity’s left forehoof just as Twilight was flung into the air.
She tried to flap her wings. Something black and oily crashed into her. Then another. Then another.
She heard Rarity shout something.
The paw came around for one last crushing blow.
Just before she blacked out, Rarity shouted her words again.
“She’s mine!”
Huh… that could have been fun…
Darkness claimed her.