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Breach

Twilight held on, hooves digging into the crystal beneath her, neck straining against the force of her own magic, sweat running down her back. She had maybe channeled larger amounts of magic before, but she'd never done so for that long.

She could barely see anything around her. Directly in front of her, her magical blast was wide enough to occupy most of her vision. Aside from that, the outside of the spherical shield she'd surrounded herself in was a tapestry of sparks, flares and small explosions. Standing still in one spot she'd become the target of more and more enemy spells, and there was not a centimetre of her bubble's surface that wasn't being hit some kind of way. The few spots magic didn't reach were targeted by rocks and chunks of crystal thrown against her by the increasingly numerous ensemble of ponies and creatures around her, all waiting for her magic to falter.

But she held on. She wasn't sure if it was for minutes or if only seconds had passed, she wasn't sure how much longer she could possibly keep going, but every moment she held, and kept on holding into the next.

She was locked there. Muscles tense, hooves planted into the ground, horn pulsing with energy. She doubted she would have been able to move in any way other than being swept out the moment her powers failed her, and she had no idea when that might have come, but she didn't care. She didn't think about it. Her only thought was stopping the weapon's blast, and that was all she focused on.

For interminable seconds, Twilight stood, Twilight held against the unceasing blows and blasts of dozens of spells and attacks all aimed at her, Twilight pushed back against the cannon's fire and stopped its path of destruction. Her entire body sore like she'd been drained of all strength and yet tense and still exerting itself, feeling like she could go out at any moment as she focused all herself on holding on, her single thought clear despite the cacophony of everything around her. Against everything, against a stream of magic powerful enough to raze the city and hundreds more bolts all fired at her, Twilight held on.

And then it was over. So sudden, so alien to what her reality had become in the microcosm of her struggle, that Twilight thought she had finally ran empty of magic. But a moment later she was still there, and she realised, she felt through the flow of her own magic, there was no more stream of energy pushing against hers. No more resistance against her spell, no more weapon's fire to stop.

The tension released from her body as her magic released around her. Her muscles relaxed, her joints slackened, and she drew a heavy sigh from the bottom of her lungs. And the magic she'd been pouring out, no more needed to hold against an opposite force, flowed into her shield and then outwards.

Twilight was left standing, her hooves embedded into the ground and her body almost limp on her legs, and around her was silence and a thin mist of shimmering energy. For a moment, just for a moment, she closed her eyes and let the weight of her efforts crash down on her. For a moment she let herself ignore everything else, and only know that she'd made it.

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