Through the Gate
Shining Armor stood at the head of a small detachment of soldiers, before them was a large blocky circle holding open a swirling red portal. He looked to his left at his hoof picked commander, a young thestral by the name of Faina. While young she had amazing skills in combat, her special ability allowing her to control and travel through shadows themselves. He had no doubt she will aid greatly in the battle to come, if they were met with any opposition that is.
“Alright, listen up!” The elder Archmage Flicker shouted, no doubt using magic to amplify his voice for all to hear, “By our calculations the portal is holding steady and anypony should be able to pass through freely. Side effects should be limited to slight nausea and dizziness if you’re not used to teleporting. Now, everypony has two yellow-disk things in their bags. These are the fail-safe return stones. In case something happens and you can’t return to this portal in time or another catastrophic event destroys it on that side, these will bring you back. Worry not, we sent several through on a timer and they returned to the Canterlot Medical Wing. The other, obviously, is for Twilight. I know we gave everypony two but better safe than sorry. Any questions?”
The chamber fell silent as those gathered mulled over his words. “Good! Captain Armor, it’s all yours. I wish you and your troops safe passage and the best of luck with the mission.”
Shining nodded, determination chiseled into his face. “Thank you, Archmage.” He stepped up near the portal on the rise so everypony could see him better. “And thank you, everypony, for volunteering for this mission. There is too much we simply don’t know, so we must prepare for anything. Commander Faina and I will head in first and establish a perimeter. The first team will wait thirty seconds before joining us, followed by team two a minute later with the gear. Are we ready?”
The rest of the guards nodded and strapped their gear tighter to their bodies, tense and ready to go. Shining turned and faced the portal and was soon joined by Faina.
“Ready?” He asked.
Faina smirked, “I live for this.”
Shining smirked back, “Then let’s save Twili!”
Together they shot forward through the portal. Unfortunately for both of them, the Archmage greatly underestimated the toll the portal would inflict on their body. A normal teleport feels like a slight pull while being spun in a circle. This portal felt like being stretched an infinite length while being twisted around like a pretzel, and lasting seemingly forever.
Thankfully they arrived on the other side of the portal and landed in a heap. Shining, while unable to stand, was going through a mental checklist to make sure he was alright. His concentration was broken by the sound of Faina emptying her stomach nearby.
“You going to be alright?” It took more concentration than he would have like to say, but he had to stay strong, for Twilight.
“Y-yea…” Faina went silent for a moment before retching again, the wet sound soon after painting a clear picture for Shining.
“Alright, just take it easy, I’ll start setting up the perimeter.” Shining forced himself to hid hooves, his legs shaking for a moment before his strength returned. Once the dizziness left him he opened his eyes and took in the surrounding landscape, and gasped.
He had heard stories of Tartarus, a cold dark place of stone to imprison those of the purest evil. He had no idea it could be so much worse. The first thing he noticed was the lava, it was everywhere he looked, there was even a river of it not too far from where they came through the portal.
Looking out revealed a massive cavern, large enough to hold Canterlot Castle with ease and some of the surrounding buildings. The bottom was nothing but an ocean of lava, the heat rising up more than enough to singe his fur from his height. He looked upward toward the ceiling; there he noticed a large number of glowing rocks hanging down like a chandelier.
He noticed that the glowing ore was made of perfectly square blocks. Raising an eyebrow he looked over his surroundings again, noting the red stone he stood on also appeared to be perfect cubes. He gazed back up at the ceiling just in time to see a massive ball of fire headed straight at him.
His training kicked in as he threw himself to the ground, “DOWN!” he yelled out, hoping his commander heard him. The fireball passed over him harmlessly and detonated behind him in a fiery explosion and screams of pain.
He leapt to his hooves and ran toward the portal, or what remained of it. The symmetrical stone blocks that held the energy had been blown apart, smaller pebble sized square rocks were all that remained amongst a series of small fires around the blast zone. He ignored this in favor of checking on Faina, the blast had thrown her into the stone wall with quite a bit of force.
“Faina! Faina, speak to me!”
She moved slowly as she started to regain consciousness, wincing as several motions caused more than a bit of pain. “I-I think my wing is broken.”
Shining quickly examined her wings, the side that met the wall was bruised badly and her wing was bent at an odd angle.
“Alright, nothing I can’t fix but we need to move and find cover now, can you run?”
Faina stood shakily, doing her best to keep her wing pinned to her body. She winced at the weight on her hind leg but fought through the pain. “Think I’ve got a sprain too, but I can move-LOOK OUT!”
Shining spun around defensively in time to see a while blocky creature rise over the edge of the cliff, and raised a shield as it screamed out another ball of fire. Shining braced for the blast as it hit, devastating the ground around him but his shield stood firm.
The creature rose further into the air with a high pitched hum and shot another fireball with a squeal, this one impacting the wall next to them. Shining re-focused his shield with practiced ease and blocked the blast once again, setting more stone around them on fire.
Faina noticed the blast revealed what appeared to be a cave just through the wall. “Captain! Cave!” She called out as she started to limp her way to safety. Shining looked back and saw the cave as well and expanded his shield to encompass the entrance.
“Alright! Go!” He called out.
Faina limped as fast as she could and jumped into the cave. The drop to the floor, while not long, made her wings open on reflex. She screamed in pain as her left wing folded over itself in the short fall to the ground. She landed on her bad leg causing searing pain to spike through it as it throbbed. Her body began to shake uncontrollably from the pain in her wing as she tried to shift her weight onto her good side.
Shining leaped down next to her, his hooves clopping firmly against the stone as they absorbed the impact. He seemed to wait a moment before his horn stopped glowing as he dropped the shield outside, the strange creature having lost interest now that they weren’t in the open.
“Faina, hey, you still with me?” He asked as he started looking her over, noticing she was now much worse for wear than before. “I think you should use your portal device and get to the medical bay, this looks really bad.”
Faina grunted and hissed through her teeth to turn and glare at him. “The portal is destroyed, nopony is coming through for a long time, and until you find your sister I’m all you got! Now heal me so we can both get the buck out of here!”
Shining took her words in stride, “Alright, I need to set the wing and it’s going to hurt. A lot.” He removed his saddlebags and placed a thick strap in front of her, which she bit down on.
Shining moved to her side and gently let his magic flow over her wing. “Ready?” Faina nodded and squeezed her eyes shut in preparation. “On three, okay?” She nodded again and took a few deep breaths. “Ok, one-!” A muffled scream echoed down the cave as Shining straightened her wing in one swift movement then poured in soothing healing magic.
Faina was breaking out in a heavy sweat as she started shaking again, her vision fading slowly. Shining noticed her sagging head and drooping eyes and jabbed her in a bruised rib, causing her to jolt back awake.
“Ow! That hurt you flank!”
“I need you to stay with me; I’m just finishing mending the bones together but the wing will still be tender, I’ll help with the pain and swelling in the sprained leg and ribs too.” He said.
“You came out of that without a scratch; I’m beginning to suspect foul play here.” She said with a weak chuckle.
“Yea well I’m not done with you yet, I’ve seen you take some serious beatings and get right back up.” He said as he carefully folded her wing back against her side. His horn lit up again as he started mending her bruises and sprains.
Faina shifted her wing around carefully, “Not too shabby, might even be able to fly in a pinch.”
“Well then let’s just avoid those situations.” She chuckled in response. Silence fell between them as Shining finished mending her wounds.
Faina’s sensitive ears perked and swiveled about, a looks of confusion spread over her face. “You hear that?” She asked.
Shining paused for a moment to listen as well, “Uh, no… I don’t hear anything.”
“Well hurry up, something’s coming. A lot of something’s.” Shining nodded and focused more intently, her wounds mending slightly faster than before. After another minute he cut off his magic with a few pants.
“That should get you back on your hooves, try not to overdo it.”
“Gee, thanks doc. I’ll get right on that, don't want to lose your meat shield too early in the mission?”
Shining rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure. Now come on, I'd rather not be ambushed."
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A good bit of action in this chapter, nice job.
Wow, those unicorn mages sure suck at interdimensional portals. Getting the two of them stuck in the Nether is a bit further from Twilight than they'd want I think.
Still, good chapter. Can't wait to see how they react to everything they'll come across.
yeeeeees
Don't aggro the pigmen
5508023 Well, they did home in on Twilight to target it. Unfortunately the time difference between getting her signal and actually finishing the portal means they missed her by that much.
That and they built a highway to hell. 
Aaaand I'm done with that crap.
5508023 Like floating blocks after you destroy the one under it?
this takes to much time for you to make and its shorter
5510325
I hope I don't find that....otherwise I'm with you.
edit: I can't find that statement, where'd you see it?
5513148 The start of Through the Gate.
5513604
Oh
..
Oh thank god, your comment made it sound like the entire story shifted to OCification.
5514100 no it just to give shining more time in the spotlight, the most OC it gets is the name, I needed at least someone in there with him. There will not be any OC cetric crap or OP abilities, if you haven't read it yet I basically almost kill her off right away, might still do it.
Just punch the fireballs. What a bunch of rookies.
I get the reference.
Oxymoron!
Not too shabby. One of the better minecraft crossovers, anyway.
Hm. I should get into minecraft again....
nah
Like 5518650,
quickmeme.com/img/13/1312212b525cab734fe6209b712b02e92483299aaf74c11246c71d6767bbfef4.jpg
5535288 journey 2: the mysterious island?
5535903
No, the movie "Lethal Weapon".
5536961 never heard of it.
5537264
Go watch it, it's an 80's classic. Trust me.
5535288 Its actually a very common reference and has a good bit of truth to it. People tense up when they expect pain and that impedes a clean set to a break to to relocating a joint. telling them on then and then going on one means they wont be tensed and will instead be waiting to tense on 3 letting you do what needs be done easier.
Loving the story!
Shining and Faina have unknowingly angered endless hordes of pigmen... just great...
7143907 Well, sorry for doing that.
Wish this was only about Twilight finding a way home and have other ponies be the ones to find her. Also slow down the pacing is bad
A fun little fic. Would have been nice to see how it ended.