Gallus could feel the crackle of magic around him. The spectral arms reached out and grabbed him out of the air. It felt like suddenly being caught in a river as the sudden force pulled him into the blue sphere of magical energy. Some of his friends were already inside, and the others were right behind him. His feathers stood on end while he floated.
“I tried to tell you to stay away!” Starlight Glimmer said. “Now we’re all stuck here.”
“Uh, what’s that beneath us?” Sandbar asked as he pointed a hoof straight below them.
A vortex of magical energy swirled faster and faster. The magic became darker until the vortex looked like an endless pit. The sphere they were all in slowly began to sink toward the pit while the other students and Cozy Glow looked on from a safe distance.
They sank beneath where the ground should have been. Soon, they could see very little of the basement except for the roots from the Tree of Harmony that held up the ceiling.
“No! She can’t win. This isn’t the end!” Gallus screeched. He tried to push his way to the edge of the sphere, but the closer he got, the more he felt a force pulling him back to the center.
The crystal roots above them started to glow but even that faded from view. Gallus saw a brief flash from the roots before darkness surrounded them. A faint voice echoed in his mind.
“Equestria will suffer without its magic. I shall do what I can to bring you all back as quickly as possible, but you must find a way to return from the other side. The place you go is where many dangerous enemies of Equestria have been banished. I will attach Equestria’s magic to Starlight to keep it from being lost. So much magic will overwhelm her and make her weak. Guard her and find a way to return to me as quickly as possible. I will only be able to hold back the flow of time for so long. And as one final gift, I give you each a bit of my magic to help protect you.”
Gallus blinked as the voice cut off.
“Was that the Tree speaking to us?” Ocellus asked.
Gallus was about to answer, but he felt a sudden pull. The sphere of magic was shrinking. The magic was being pulled into Starlight Glimmer. She began to glow.
Gallus reached out for Sandbar and Ocellus. He felt Yona’s crushing embrace on his flanks. His flailing claws caught hold of Starlight before she was pulled away, but Gallus could see his other friends vanish as they were yanked away. Sandbar vanished into the swirling darkness first. Ocellus was gone next. Silverstream and Smolder flapped their wings furiously and tried to hold each other before they were pulled apart and disappeared.
Gallus saw an approaching circle of light. He had the same feeling in his stomach as when he was diving quickly toward the ground. The light got brighter and brighter until they reached it. A moment later, Gallus had the wind knocked out of him as he slammed into a stone floor.