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Shkola

2 Days Later...

A tired, and unorderly dressed Starlight shuffled into the room she was staying in while visiting the Crystal Empire. The room in question was within the Crystal Castle itself, high above the city, and behind many locked doors, and castle guards. She was considered an honored guest here, and so the guest room she was given was the same one Princess Cadance and Shining Armor used to house royal dignitaries from other countries. The room was similar to the one she stayed in while visiting Canterlot a long time ago, when she flip flopped the princesses cutie marks. It was massive in size, and only just a bit overwhelming for Starlight, who liked things simple and orderly. The first night sleeping in the huge king sized bed, was one of awkwardness as she found it hard to rest in a bed this big, and one that wasn’t her’s. However tonight she would have no issue with this.

She had been negotiating with construction companies and banks for the past forty eight hours, and she was exhausted. The burden and complexities of what was once a simple construction project, had turned into something chaotic and mind numbingly confusing. Numbers, quotes, dates, times, contracts, and all sorts of information had been thrown at Starlight and it wasn’t over yet, but she wished it was. Starlight was able to handle herself at the beginning, quite confidently so. But as time went by, and the list of names she needed to know grew longer and longer, and the papers detailing the worth of supplies and other deadlines began to grow… She cursed herself for not bringing Sunburst. Of course she had Flurry Heart with her but she wasn’t a great substitute for Sunburst. There was little synergy between them, and while they were able to work together well enough, she found that Flurry had a real knack of getting distracted at the most critical of times. Because of this, Starlight found herself getting distracted too by having to reel in the princess while trying to do her job. Of course once reeled in, Flurry got herself back on track as fast as possible, and the issue wouldn't come back unless something shiny caught her attention or, a rather handsome looking stallion passed her by.

After all, she was still a young ruler...

But here in the bedroom, three times the necessary size for her, she felt relief. No more talking, no more writing things down, no more hurrying from place to place. Here she could take her time. Starlight's eyes were heavy and she blinked slowly, her hooves ached as she dragged herself across the tiled floor, and her head pounded like a drum. Using her magic she slipped out of her clothes sluggishly, not caring if her hair got messed up in the process. Starlight left the clothing she removed right where she took them off, something she’d never do normally. But she was feeling abnormal right now, and just wanted to be out of her clothes, and into bed. Which is the next place she went. Once again, her horn lit up and the covers levitated themselves up and away from her as she pulled herself up onto the mattress. It took her a minute to climb up over the side, but after much angered grumbling, she hopped in and fell flat on her face, flank high in the air as she slowly sunk into the bed.

Grumbling again incoherently, she flipped herself around and pulled the covers over herself, her hooves flopping down heavily as she reclined on the pillows. Only for Starlight to realize, she left her door open just a crack, and a tiny bit of orange golden light was seeping into the bedroom. She stared at this for a moment, wondering if she should get up and shut it. She blinked a few times as she debated with herself in her head. Quickly however she grew tired of this and simply laid back and fell asleep, completely forgetting she could have used her magic to close it instead.

And here Starlight would lay for the next couple hours. The bed was cool, the night was still, and the castle, shortly after her falling asleep, had a guard change and it too fell silent.

Everything was quiet.

This was of course until Starlight was woken up by something. Her eyes fluttered awake as she sleepily looked out into the darkness from across her pillow. In her rudely awoken state, she saw nothing through the moonlight that had seeped in through her closed window, except the room itself. She blinked a few times, as she turned over slightly from laying on her side, to leaning upright against one of her elbows. She looked around the room more properly now, still not seeing anything. Then, she heard a noise, a low, almost barely audible sound. She could have sworn she heard her door, her massive chamber door, gently creek a bit. However, she must have just been hearing things of course, as it looked as if the door had hardly moved. Her mind must still be playing tricks on her as she wound down from the day. Starlight yawned as she rolled her eyes, clearly she was just stressed out. So she leaned back down onto her pillow, and closed her eyes…

*Creeeek.*

This time she knew she heard something. Starlight wasted no time, she rolled from her bed, and onto her hooves, her horn lighting up quickly and brightly as she looked at the massive door, assuming she’d be catching somepony sneaking around in her room. But to her surprise, she saw nopony. She checked the ceiling, under her bed, behind the curtains, in the closet, basically everywhere a pony could be hiding, before she looked back towards the door.

“Hm… Must just be the wind coming in from somewhere.” Starlight said out loud to herself quietly. However, when she looked out the window at a diamond encrusted potted bowl with a plant in it hanging on the window sill… She didn’t see any wind. Her eyes narrowed cautiously, as she slowly looked back over to the door. Slowly Starlight approached it, her hooves echoing only slightly against the walls of her bedroom. Ever so carefully she peered out of the doors threshold and looked around the hall, enhancing her horns brightness so that the whole hallway from end to end was lit. She didn’t see anypony, she only saw a dark empty corridor, after hours, with it’s torches extinguished, and it’s guards gone. It was cold out here, and very amonous. The arches and the crystal walls casted shadows around her wish she watched carefully, her paranoia growing as she continued to edge herself further out into the empty hall.

“Hello? Anypony there?” Starlight whispered softly as she tried to at least give whoever was lurking around here some warning. Nopony responded. Then, a noise, this time the sound of wind came from her right. Starlight spun around readying herself for anything, only to feel the bitter cold embrace of winter's cool breath on her face. Starlight shivered only slightly as she felt the wind pass over her fur.

“Oh… It was just the wind, silly silly me…” She quietly whispered to herself as she gently trotted down the hall in search of the source of the wind. Starlight figured these gusts were being corralled into the castle through an open window, one that she was intent on shutting, before heading back to bed. Plus Starlight considered it would be rude not to close the window, especially now that she knew about it. Plus, it would help her get back to sleep. And so, down the halls she trotted, following this now constant flow of cold, bone chilling wind. A few minutes passed and soon Starlight felt that something was off. This wind was incredibly strong for it to be coming in through a window that was out of sight and this far away from her room, but this was the frozen north, and the winter months have been known to create strange weather anomalies. Afterall, pegasi up here can’t control the snow outside the borders of the empire, so it’s not unheard of for blizzards to get out of hand up here once and a while. Though, as she pressed on, there was something else that was bothering her.

The wind smelled funny, it smelled off in a way she couldn’t so easily explain. She only noticed this strange scent when she got a bit closer to the source. Noticing it, she stopped for a moment, and took a few deep breaths through her nose. The wind smelt of brass, and iron. This was confusing to her, and Starlight felt a bit uneasy as she continued to follow the wind again. What was causing this smell to be so prevalent in the wind? Her whole time here she hadn’t noticed anything in the air that could have come close to the smell of brass and iron, so why was it so strong now? Starlight came to the quick conclusion that something was wrong, so she picked up the pace a bit, still not finding an open window to shut.

Eventually, Starlight rounded a corner, and saw an open door to a room that she hadn’t seen open before. She slowed her gait to a trot again as she approached the room in question. Her head rounded the corner and peered into the room, only for her eyes to squint as she was blasted in the face by this foul smelling wind. She ducked back from the door, and shook her head. At first she was completely awake, getting out of bed only to go to shut the window so she could go back to sleep again, but now she was fully conscious.

“What in tartarus is happening?” Starlight spoke out loud again to herself as she once again braved the wind by looking around the corner of the door frame.

With her eyes barely able to open, she saw what was causing the wind to roar through the halls of the crystal castle… and it wasn’t a window. Looking into the room she saw that it was filled with artifacts and relics much older than her, that had been collected over the years by the Crystal Empire. These treasures were worth millions of bits, they were worth more than her and everypony else in this kingdom combined. So with this startling realization in mind, it became clear to her what room this was. It was the royal family vault, and there were no windows in the royal family vault. The chamber was filled wall to wall with books and scrolls and all sorts of intricate and sensitive knowledge, but no windows could be seen. Somepony like Twilight could have a field day in here, learning everything she could from this place. Unfortunately Starlight was not Twilight, and the only thing on her mind, besides going back to bed, was finding out what was causing this wind. And Starlight, much to her surprise, had found it. Forcing her way into the room, and out of the way of the wind, she walked her way across the floor to see the human mirror. The ornately decorated and framed portal that she had travelled through once or twice before was causing this massive upset of blustering wind. She stared at this for a moment, never having seen anything quite like this fenomena.

Starlight was hesitant, she didn’t know what to do but she knew she had to do something. She didn’t need there to be a magical world ending crisis right in the middle of their contract negotiations. She wouldn’t allow it.

But then, Starlight remembered her age, she wasn’t that young filly who went about saving the world all the time, she was getting up there in years. She remembered a while back looking in a mirror and seeing crows feet in the corner of her eyes, and grey hairs forming around the base of her scalp. She remembered how tired she was just by walking around all day and trying to keep up with the younger ponies in her legal group. She remembered how Starburst looked when she saw him last just before leaving Ponyville, his beard filling up most of his jaw, his hair turning from it’s vibrant… beautiful orange, to a now less colorful hue. And finally Starlight remembered the three decades of peace coming after Twilights inauguration. She didn’t need to go on friendship quests anymore, she didn’t half to put her life on the line for Equestria. All she needed to do was run the school of friendship, and maintain her friendships, that’s it! And she liked it!

But here… right now, as she stood there looking back on her age, as she watched this torrent of uncontrollable wind blast though the human portal, something sparked inside of her again. The tired eyes of a mare in her fifties looked at this impending doom, and saw it as a challenge, not as an inconvenience. It had been a while since somepony or something challenged her. Starlight realized that she had spent the past thirty years on easy street, because compared to what she used to do, this was nothing. Desk work couldn’t compare to the rush of defeating her enemies, learning new spells, travelling to new countries and meeting new creatures and ponies alike. She missed it! And it was only here did she realize how much she missed it.

And so, even despite not knowing what to do, Starlight still did something as her confidence soared about the raging wind. Her horn illuminated as she surrounded the portal with her essence. She squinted her eyes as she began to cast as man stabilization spells as she could muster, hoping one would work. One after another she tried as she slowly got closer to the portal, as her magical intensity slowly but surely increased. She wasn’t going to back down, not now, not ever. Her eyes narrowed as she put everything else in her mind out as she focused deeply on the portal, staring at the surface of the mirror. Even as the wind surged around her even harder, she didn’t give up. She held her ground, and got her horn closer as the magical energy she gave off got stronger and stronger.

But her aged body, not being in the game for basically thirty years, had other plans in mind. As her will grew stronger and her confidence held on, her body did not. She was quickly getting physically drained as she fought against the strong current of blood chilling wind. Soon she could feel her back legs giving out, as her knees began to wobble from the pressure. Starlight began to take massive deep breaths as she tried to stand up straight, trying to get her blood to flow, but one more hoof step forward brought her progress to halt. The moment her left hoof touched the floor, her back legs gave out, and she went crashing to the ground, her horn and her magic instantly failing, while a paid yelp exited her mouth as her chest went down hard.

Starlight's chin hit the ground hard as she stared up at the portal with waning eyes, her confidence turning to hatred quickly. She could feel the muscles in her legs burning as they felt extremely exertered, yet she refused to give up. Starlight, through her sheer force of will, forced her body to stand up straight again, her legs locking into place as she rose up from the ground, not so easily defeated. Starlight, standing now a few feet from the entrance to the portal, almost touching the base, had one more trick up her sleeve. If this couldn’t do it, then she’d concede and go get help but for now, she was sure in herself it would work. Wincing and grunting in pain, she activated her magic again, and took hold of the mirror once more. This time, activating a reversal spell that she hoped would stop the flow of wind, as the opposite of wind, is nothing at all! Or at least that’s what she thought.

As the spell took hold, and was properly cast, the wind did indeed die. The almost hurricane-type wind came to a stop, and the air went silent around her. Starlight looked around the room as she slowly stepped in front of the mirror, seeing that the wind had stopped. She scanned her eyes at the frame of the glass, and saw herself, but nothing else. In this reflection, Starlight smiled smugly and gave out a single confident laugh, while bringing her hoof up close to her lips as she blew on them, signaling a job well done.

Then… The reflection faded, much to Starlight's horror. She looked at it horrified as the smugness drained from her face. She stepped back from the mirror as the light disappeared from the surface of the glass. Soon the mirror was replaced with what looked like a deep dark hole somewhere, as the wind started back up again, only this time, it wasn’t blowing in her face, it was behind her. She turned around quickly to see what it was, before she realized, this was no wind, this was a suction. The mirror went from blowing out wind, to sucking in wind, sucking other things in, sucking Starlight in.

Starlight suddenly felt light on her hooves as she felt the wind intensify around her greatly. Panicked, she activated the reversal spell again, in an attempt to try and stop herself from being forced through the portal. But the moment she tried, she heard a voice behind her, breaking her concentration.

“Starlight! What are you doing!?” She turned around to see Flurry Heart there, aghast with a selection of guards ponies with her. Starlight craned her neck and answered as quickly as she could.

“There’s no time to explain! The portal to the human world is crashing! I need… your-” Was all she was able to get out before Starlight was lifted up off the ground, and was sucked into the portal, the last thing she saw before she saw complete and utter darkness, was Princess Flurry Heart, looking at her in horror.