Love Conquers All

Twilight hit the wall behind her with a resounding thud. A bright light erupted from behind her eyes, and her ears rang louder than any sound she had ever heard. Her body hit the floor, she couldn't feel her legs, she could barely feel her head. Her vision swam, what she could see was doubled and blurry...but she guessed it was Star Shine picking up the gem.

"Believe it or not, I didn't want to kill you Twilight Sparkle." The colt stepped closer and his horn glowed moon white. "It's a shame, really. I thought you would see it my way and we could rule together...but I suppose with your power, I could be just as great." He stared at the gem intensely, a little too intensely. He didn't see Twilight's horn glow and launch her own spell at him.

"I-I don't know who you really are...or what you're planning.." Twilight got to her legs shakily, one of her eyes closed to keep the world from spinning around her. "But..I wont let you hurt any of my friends..." Star Shine had hit the bed, waking up Spike in the process.

"H-Huh...? W-What..?" The little dragon sat up straight, his little bed, startled. "Twilight? Star Shine? What's going on?" Star Shine got up and shook his head.

"Oh good, Spike's awake...I was waiting for a new pair of dragon-skin boots."

Something in Twilight snapped. Nopony threatened Spike, nopony! Her horn flared a blinding purple, all of her magic concentrated at its point.

"Oh...buck"

--

Rarity and Pinkie Pie were brought out of there discussion of a Pie family reunion from the sound of something crashing through a window not so far away. Both mares looked towards the door.

"What was that?" Pinkie's mind was racing with possibilities, most of them were ludicrous but Pinkie still thought of them.

"I'm not sure, probably just some hoodlums throwing rocks. Teenagers, you know." Rarity got up anyway, her mane was brushed straight,  not in its usual style. Nighttime talks didn't call for such things.

"aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" The growing sound made the duo curious, that was until a dark coated figure crashed through the roof and impacted with the floor of the boutique. A large cloud of dust and dirt came up from the crashed figure. Rarity coughed while looking highly offended. Pinkie simply stared, unblinking even as her eyes were assaulted by debris.

"O-Oh my..." Rarity coughed and trotted carefully over to the crater. "I do hope they're alright.."

Mid-flight, Star Shine had enveloped himself in a bubble in order to absorb the impact. It had worked,of course, but it did leave him slightly jarred. He was still shaking away the impact when he heard a very elegant, very familiar voice. Rarity. He let the magic bubble dissipate.

"Oh...I'm quite alright.." His own voice was raspy, and had lost its hypnotic edge. The gem still levitated near him, he was going to start drawing power from it soon his own power was dwindling profusely. But, he needed to secure his magical future fast...and there was a unicorn right in front of him. "But you won't be.."

"Star Shine? What's wrong with your voice...are you alrigh-" The magical tendril had formed and launched at Rarity in a fraction of a second. It was becoming easier and easier to accomplish. "S-Star...Shine..?" The tendril had already started its process, draining the magic from the unicorn continuously.

(Discord's Note: Okay, no one...NO ONE is allowed to be this evil except me! One of these ponies need to take him out before I bust out of my stone and come kick his flank myself!)

"P-Pinkie..." Rarity fell to her knees, her magic was draining fast, stone started forming on her tail. "R-Run..." The stone covered her quickly. Star Shine was not showing mercy. He grinned and looked to the unicorn.

"HEY BOZO!" His internal gloating was brought to an end from a voice behind him. He turned around, his focus shifting from Rarity, stopping the drain. When he turned completely around, he was met with a large blue barrel at the end of his nose. At the other end of the cannon was a very irate looking Pinkie Pie. Her eyes were icy blue, and her mane was as straight as pegasus wing. "Nopony messes with my friends....nopony." Star Shine's eyes went as wide as dinner plates, were all of the mares in Ponyville capable of using heavy artillery? The mare pulled the rope, his whole world went bright.

--

Twilight had been trotting around Ponyville looking for Star Shine. AS far as she was concerned, he was extremely dangerous. She had even sent a letter to Celestia, requesting the aid of the Wonderbolts to cordon off the town's airspace. No chances were being taken in this matter.

Most of the town looked unharmed, except for the gaping hole in Carousel Boutique's roof. She took that as a pretty obvious clue as to where Star Shine landed. Twilight's horn glowed purple as she blasted the door off of its hinges, the unicorn's magic was still a little wild due to her anger.

"Star Shine-" She was about to issue a threat to her ex-coltfriend, but the scene before her pretty much stopped her dead in her tracks. Star Shine was tied to the top of a mannequin, while Pinkie sat on top of her party cannon which was aimed at Star Shine's head.

"Oh, Hi Twilight! Don't worry, I got 'im." Twilight was speechless. Not even her own magical power had been able to knock him out..but Pinkie managed to do it. Oh sweet enigma, thy name is Pinkie Pie.

"I don't know, and I don't wanna know." Twilight trotted over to the tied down colt and examined him. He didn't look all that hurt, well, except for the goose egg on his forehead. "Say, where's Rarity?" The fashionista should have been in here obsessing over the state of her store, because frankly...it was a mess.

"Oh.." Pinkie frowned and looked like she wanted to hide. "She's upstairs in bed..." Twilight didn't like the sound of that.

"I should go check on her, you watch Star Shine, okay?" Pinkie nodded and gave the tied down unicorn the stink-eye. Twilight headed up the stairs, she was well worried about Rarity. The diva had never been one to take damage of her property well. hopefully she just fainted and would be up in a couple of hours.

--

"Soarin. Soarin!" Soarin, who had been asleep in his chair with his head on Rainbow Dash's chest, was shaken awake.

"H-Huh...wha..?" Soarin's green eyes opened groggily, he lifted his head and wiped the drool from his mouth. "Spitfire...?" It was indeed his teammate and captain of the Wonderbolts: Spitifre. In full Wonderbolt attire.

"Yes, it's me. Get up. We have official Military business." Spitfire tossed threw his uniform at him. "How is she..?" her voice softened as she nodded at Dash.

"Well.." Soarin sighed and got up, stretching in the process. "The Doc doesn't know what's wrong with her...just that she's comatose and stable." Soarin put on his uniform, an action he had performed countless times before. "So, what's the mission this time, boss-lady?" The familiar name made Spitfire smile on the inside.

"We have to set up a perimeter around Ponyville. A dangerous individual is located somewhere within the town and is not allowed to leave." Soarin finished putting on his uniform, and pulled up his hood.

"Who is it?" Soarin grabbed the goggles that had been underneath the uniform and put them on.

"Star Shine is his name. Unicorn, Male, around 22 years of age, Dark blue coat, gray eyes, white mane-" Soarin knew the mental picture he had made. He had seen this pony before.

"Telescope for a cutie mark?" Spitfire nodded. "Oh no...He was in here with Rainbow Dash when I first came here." Soarin and Spitfire left the room with haste. Spitfire was on a mission, but for Soarin this was personal.

--

"What did he do to her?" Twilight sat next to Pinkie's Party Cannon, the stone Rarity had befuddled the nerdy unicorn. She had only seen something like that two other times...once with the Cockatrice, and again with Discord. Twilight knew the elements of harmony had nothing to do with this, since it was one of them who was stone. No Cockatrice had been seen by Twilight upon entering, so she guessed it wasn't that either.

"I just thought it was magic. That's what it looked like.." Pinkie's demeanor went from friendly conversationalist, to heavy artillery operator when she saw Star Shine open his eyes.

"Ugh...." Star Shine tried to move his legs, but found that each one was firmly tied to the mannequin he was on top of. "What the.." He was face to face with two extremely terrifying things. On his left, a cannon. On his right, a very angry Twilight.  He couldn't focus on those two things though, he needed to find the gem. Good thing he was connected with it magically, he found it at the bottom of his impact crater, it was still intact, thank the ancestors.

"Star Shine...you have some 'splainin to do." That pink foal had forgotten one major thing, he was a unicorn. He made his horn glow, the spell was priming.

"Umm...Pinkie? He's a unicorn." Twilight pointes at his glowing horn.

"Yeah..I'm not much of a planner..."

Star Shine disappeared in a flash of white light and reappeared in the impact crater, he picked up the gem with his mouth and teleported away again.

Twilight let out a heavy groan. "C'mon Pinkie...we have to go get him."

--

Soarin and Spitfire were floating high above Ponyville. Being the top members meant they had to keep and eye over the whole situation while the rest of the Wonderbolts were circling the perimeter.

"What was that?" Spitifre pointed to flashes of white light that kept appearing in the town.

"Teleportation Spell, cast by a class three unircorn." Soarin rattled it off like it was nothing. Being part of the Equestrian military meant being able to identify a variety of spells and the class of unicorn that cast it. Standard operating procedure. "Hold on..." Right behind the white flashes came purple ones. "Same spell, cast by a class...six unicorn." There was only one  class six unicorn in all of Equestria: Twilight Sparkle.

"Is Twilight chasing that class three?"

"Twilight is the last known associate of Star Shine.." Soarin muttered. That's when he remembered the color of Star Shine's glowing horn from the day before. "I'll go check it out..." Soarin dove after the white flashes, not even the fastest pegasus was a match for a teleporting unicorn, they were unpredictable.

He flew around buildings and through alleyways, dodging several obstacles along the way. He was going to catch Star Shine...he knew it. Then the trail vanished...nothing..no more flashes.

"No..no...no!" Soarin flew into the sky, trying to look down at the town, trying to catch any glimpse whatsoever of the teleporting fiend.

--

Rainbow Dash's body lay slowly breathing on the bed, the room was silent and the air was still. Peaceful. That's what the room was...well..until a bright light erupted in the room and a very exhausted Star Shine landed on the floor.

Star Shine had never done that many teleportation spells in succession before, he was sweating, his mane plastered to his face. He had ran out of his own magic and had to draw some from the gem on his last jump. That had most likely used part of the energy in the magic storing device.

He needed the rest of the energy from Rainbow Dash to top off his supply...then he would be off to the unfinished observatory to complete his master plan. His horn charged up weakly, his exhausted body couldn't make the connection at the moment. He was too weak.

"Luna dammit...." He sighed and took deep breaths. With some concentration, perhaps he could establish the link. His horn glowed with a pale white light, it was barely visible in the room. The gem responded with a soft pulse. He was connected. "Time to finish this..."