A Twilight in Time

In the long stone hallways of Canterlot the rapid clopping of hooves echoed, as two unicorns raced to their destination. Outside the castle when there was previously a battle the size of a small skirmish, had erupted into a full blown assault, as pegasi and gryphons filled the air and lightning rumbled recklessly through the air. Through the tall, glass windows along the hall, you could peek and see glimpses of the unicorn cliff top defense slowly losing the battle along their western walls.

Archmagus Twilight, still adorned with her soft blue robes and golden necklace with an old, circular, white amulet around her neck, paused as a larger, tan colored, unicorn stallion caught up with her; his amber beard and mane lined with sweat, but he persevered nonetheless. He wore his traditional azure robes, decorated by many bold blue stripes that identified him as Star Mapper Bright Shadow.

They continued down their path, until a white pegasus mare burst through the ornate windows at shocking speed and slowed to a hover in front of the two unicorns. Her coat was white as snow and had a poofy, blonde mane. She had a weird cutie mark of three ovals attached to squiggly lines. The most odd part was the metal cylinder tube she held with her right forehooves and rested it slightly against her hip. Attached to the back of the odd tube was a string that was tied around the mare's left hoof.

Quickly the mare shouted out, "Surprise!"

Her surprise, however, was not enough for the sharp reflexes of Twilight Sparkle. She swiftly wrapped the mare in a magical grasp and launched her into the wall at neck break speed. There was sickening crunch, before the mare peeled off the wall in a cartoonish fashion and groaned. She then hastily threw her victim out of the window along with her strange weapon. The large, tan unicorn looked to his left at Twilight who had just broken her hasty battle stance to silently standing by for orders, "Come now Twilight, time is a luxury we no longer carry. We still move to the teleportation chambers"

They galloped on through the halls till they reached a room they entered was big, though rather bare; it was circular with many unicorns in many different armors according to their original masters' personal army, each one standing by to support the castle where they needed to be. Though they put on a brave face when they saw Twilight and Bright Shadow, the smell of fear and worry permeated the air. News that all of the royalty had abandoned the castle was circulating quickly. Even if there had been a slow movement of ponies out of the city for the past week, the retreat of their leadership had dropped hope.

When they saw the Star Mapper walk into the room, clearly on the way out of Canterlot, the moral in the room dropped even lower. Bright Shadow acknowledged this internally, before asking for the highest ranking officer in the room, "Who's in charge of defense of the keep currently?"

"Sire," A stallion called out in ornate silver armor with ornate gold trimming embedded in it. He wore a gilded, royal red cape that sagged slightly above the knees, attached from the left shoulder piece. He had a soft yellow fur coat and as this stallion, unlike the rest of the soldiers, had his helmet off his short, red and yellow mane was plain to see.

The officer approached the "Marshal Blinding Glory at your service."

Bright Shadow quirked an eyebrow, "Marshall, if I am not mistaken shouldn't that duty belong to the Prince Silver? Where is he currently?"

"The Prince delegated the responsibility of the Canterlot Castle to me, sire."

Bright Shadow furrowed his brows and thought to himself, "Of course. What should I have expected of a pampered prince?"

The Bright Shadow looked around him at the forlorn stallions that surrounded him. The most recent push had only started less than an hour ago, and already they looked defeated. If he was to give the rest of his clan time to retreat, he must make the line hold, for as long as possible. Too much work was left in the Sparkle's halls, not to mention their personal dwellings beneath the castle despite their preparations.

He sighed to himself, before addressing Blinding Glory, "Field Marshall, as Star Mapper I'm taking command of the Canterlot defenses from now on."

Heads that were looking down were briskly looking toward the middle of the room. Blinding Glory himself looked shocked to see such an important pony volunteering for a suicide job.

"Sire?" Was his shaky and unsure response.

The tan unicorn spoke up, intentionally loud enough for the room to hear, "Did I make myself unclear? I will be taking command over Canterlot's defenses until further notice. It would seem as though the prince made an error in procedure when he decided to join the rendezvous outside of Canterlot. His duty was not to join our forces on their return to Canterlot, but I will have terse words for him when he arrives to a keep still under Unicorn control."

Slowly the spirits of the guard started to rise. Twilight however had concern laced in her voice when she asked, "Star Mapper, are you sure of this? What about the rendezvous?"

"I'm sure the council will make it back home without my presence. They already have enough horsepower as it is, but just in case, I'll send thee to make sure they come home with haste."

Twilight smiled softly as she bowed her head, "I will prepare for the return home as soon as I arrive in Vanhoover."

"I have faith in you," Bright Shadow said himself with a warm smile, "now go Twilight. The sooner thou take thy leave the sooner thou can make thy return."

Twilight looked up to him and nodded, before heading to the higher levels of the west wing of the fort to the teleportation chambers. Behind her as she left she could hear Bright Shadow already taking charge and yelling orders. She continued to gallop down empty halls, with the occasional pony in uniform galloping past her.

At the middle of a hall she made a turn to the wooden double doors she was looking for. She entered through the doors to see three hooded mages in brown linen robes. The tallest of the trio, a dull gray mare with a bit of her black mane visible looked over at purple unicorn with a dull voice, "Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight looked around the room at the many markings on floor and wall while answering the mage, "Yes, ma'am"

The mare continued to speak in a monotonous tone, "Good, and what of Lord Bright Shadow?"

Twilight hesitated momentarily, "He- Lord Bright Shadow has made the decision to stay behind."

The gray unicorn sighed, "Very well. You are the last pony to send today," she nodded to her aides, before looking to Twilight, "Have you gone through a heightened teleportation spell before?"

Twilight shook her head and the mage sighed again, "It is a simple process. You are to remain steady in the circle," she pointed a hoof toward the chalk lines etched out with numerous arcane symbols inside a white circle in the middle of the room, "while we perform the spell. You shalt not talk, nor move, for the spell is incredibly difficult to cast properly and mistakes give way to many uncertain results. Now come."

The gray mare ushered Twilight to the middle of the glyph in the center of the room. Teleportation is hard spell to cast for long distances and require a couple of unicorns and summoning circle, created through meticulous calculations and precise etching of symbols and overlapped shapes that happens to help mages channel objects through the aether. The spell was difficult and required immense concentration, though Twilight has only heard this from others as she hadn't dedicated time to learn it, since it usually required a decade or two of study to achieve the skill required to navigate the aether planes.

Twilight took her position as did the transport mages as well around her at equal distances between them with the gray mare directly in front of her and the other two behind her to her left and right. She stood silently as the mages closed their eyes and started channeling their magic into the chalk lines giving them a bright blue glow. The mages started to hum a single note together as they continued to cast the spell. Twilight stood still, her mind wandering to all the possible accidents that could occur through teleportation magic. Such as being materialized on a cloud. Or being thrown into a dragons den. Or turning solid inside of a tree. Or-

'No! I can't continue to torture myself like this. I won't entertain those wild fantasies that will not happen. I will simply think of other things. Such as uhm...'

Twilight's thoughts were interrupted when a loud crash came from outside the wooden double doors. The shattering of the glass window outside interrupted the concentration of the mages as they all turned to exit. The loud yelling of orders in a foreign tongue could be heard, filling Twilight with fear.

The gray mage addressed her colleagues, "It is too late to stop at this point. Should we cease we're all doomed from the negative feedback and souls will be lost. Continue the spell!"

She didn't bother to order Twilight to not act, for Twilight's body couldn't act even if she wanted to. Soon the doors burst open with a trio of gryphons clad in chain link armor and crossbows.

Immediately, upon seeing unicorns casting magic through their horn, the gryphon soldiers shot at the three mages, all the bolts hit their mark, killing the unicorn stallion on Twilight's left and the gray mare in front of her in a gory mess; an arrow lodged between her eyes, however there was a restrained groan of pain from a voice to her right, from a unicorn she couldn't look over to see; the stasis wrapped around her was forcing her to stare down the gryphon intruders as they charged toward forward with their swords.

Twilight had slain a pony before as well as watch a companion fall in the heat of battle, but it pained her to witness the sacrifice of others or more so the inability to do something about it.

The loud groan turned into a scream of pain, as the surviving mage poured all their magic into one last burst. There was a bright white flash of light and a loud explosion a split second before everything went dark.