//------------------------------//
// Portals 
// Story: Night Wing 
// by Gravity012 
//------------------------------//

Silver Wing

I looked back as Night fought the wendigo like creatures. He had cut the ropes on our sails, so we couldn't slow down and wait for the battle to end. Add that to the fact that the other boat was sitting very low in the water, and the situation didn't look very good. I watched as Night dodged the creatures and slashed at them when he could, but the battle was getting hard to see very quickly. Our ship was speeding up because of a strong wind. "Should we help him?" I asked Black iron as he stood beside me. Even though I was the second in command, we had strict orders to stay with Princess Luna. But the fight was with Night Wing and he may have needed help. The battle wasn't even visible now.

"Let's just wait and see what happens. Our orders were clear." Right as Iron said this, a large pulse of magic rippled through the air.

"That's it! I'm going to help him! Forget the consequences, my friend needs help." I jumped up onto the railing. "And I'm going to help him." With that I took off in the direction of the other ship. I rocketed through the air on my leathery wings as rain beat on my fur. In a matter of seconds I was able to see the ship again. 

Above the wooden ship was a slowly shrinking portal that was pulling in stray pieces of wood wreckage. I saw Night falling into the sea as he blacked out, and raced forward to grab him. I impacted him just as he hit the surface of the water and we both went under. I struggled to drag him back up to the surface.

"Gah!" I gasped for breath as our heads breached the waves once more. I panted as I slowly pulled us toward the boat. Someone must have saw us, because a rope was thrown over the side for us. I tied the rope around Night's waist and held on as it was pulled back up onto the ship. The wooden hull scraped against us as we were pulled over the side and landed in a wet pile. I jumped off of Night and checked to see if he was breathing. To my relief he was. “Oh thank Luna! I got to him in time.”

I fell onto my back as ponies rushed around us. Many were carrying buckets as they attempted to drain the ship of water. “Are you alright?” Asked a pegasus that had helped pull us up.

“Yes, thank you for getting us onto the ship.” I stood up and looked around the ship. “Set a course for home. It will take us a while with one less sail.”

“Yes ma’am!”





Five Months Later
Night Wing

I sat in a large stone room with Starswirl. We were under the castle in a chamber Swirl had made to test his more dangerous spells. ‘So, the teacher becomes the student. Very ironic.’ I looked at Swirl with a smirk. He just scowled at me.

“Ok Night. Yes, it’s very funny, haha. Now tell me how to do the spell already!” Swirl was not a happy pony at the moment.

‘Ok ok!’ I laughed. ‘It similar to a teleportation spell, Just think about where you want to go.’

“Ok? Now what?” Swirl asked. I was teaching Starswirl the portal spell I used to banish the Sirens. I had finally figured out how I did it, and Swirl had been bugging me to teach him ever since.

‘Now, focus on the area you're in now as well.’ I stepped back in preparation for the portal to open. ‘Now comes the hard part. It’s going to take a lot of magic to open the portal, so be prepared for some mana burn.’ I took another step back just In case.

Mana burn is something that happens to creatures when they use too much magic at one time. For a unicorn like Starswirl, it would take more magic to hurt him than most ponies. But even he had limits. ‘Ok, when you’re ready charge up your magic and try to connect both locations together.’ Swirl’s horn started glowing brightly for a moment. Then lightning flashed from his horn and started hitting the walls. His mane and tail floated up as if gravity reversed, and a small window opened up in the air in front of him. I could see Starswirl panting as sweat ran down his face. ‘Easy Swirl, don’t push yourself too hard.’ The window grew bigger, showing a cave containing a crystal tree.

Energy started shooting from the sides of the portal, and the edges started to shrink and expand. The pulsating sped up until the whole portal was undulating rapidly. ‘Ok Swirl, I think you should stop now.’ I looked at Swirl as he didn’t stop. Instead he glared determinedly at the portal and focused even more magic into his horn. ‘SWIRL! That enou-!’ “KEEEAAAAAACK!!!” I started to shriek as the portal imploded. I say started, because a bolt of energy shot out and vaporized the left half of my neck. I now lay on the floor as I thrashed in pain.

“AAAAAaaaaAAAAAACK!!!” I tried to shriek but I just choked as I slowly stopped moving.

“Sweet Celestia! Night! Are you ok!?” Swirl ran to my side.

‘Does it look like I’m ok!?’ I barely managed to write on my wing. I couldn’t move anymore. I was so tired. My eyes slowly closed and I stopped breathing.....





Luna

I knew something was wrong when my bluesteel breastplate changed color. A small spot of black appeared in the center, and from the dot tendrils of darkness spread out. The tendrils reached the edges of the armor and began to expand in a swirling motion until the whole thing was pure black. Then Starswirl ran into the dining room and started gibbering about spells and mana explosions. Me and Celestia looked at each other, then back to Starswirl with worried looks.

“Starswirl, what happened?” Celestia asked Coolly. He finally stopped to take a breath. Then he said something neither of us expected.

“I killed Night Wing!” Starswirl yelled. Then he fainted on the floor. We both rushed over to him to check on him.

“He has sever Mana Burn around his horn.” Celestia observed. “He must have been testing a powerful spell.” Then what he said clicked in my head.

“Night!” I yelled out, then ran out of the room. There was only one place Swirl would test such a powerful spell.





Third Person

In the forest nearby, a large whirlwind of snow and ice appeared. It moved through the forest and froze everything it touched. It gained speed as it shot through the trees and it seemed it would never stop. Then it hit a tree and exploded, freezing everything in the area. In the middle of the explosion was a large bird that seemed to be made of space. His name was Night Wing. Night Wing was not a happy bird. Night Wing was, in fact, an angry bird.