Author's Note

I have been on and off this sight for years now and enjoyed many good stories along the way. During that time my head came up with its own after a while, which grew to its own universe.

And it is that world i wish to share with you now, by opening a door into it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do the writing.

It is my first story ever (yes, lame old excuse 😅) and will have its flaws. But English is not my first language and i hope you can offer help with grammar issues or incorrect syntax, that i simply overlook.

I will try to update at least once a month. Thank you for reading

Chapter 1

New Arrival

The Ponyville-Express was idly chugging along the tracks through the hills surrounding Canterlot, getting ever closer towards its name-giving settlement at the edge of the Everfree forrest. It was the last tour of the train before sunset and therefore never had many passengers.

However. this late afternoon it carried at least four. One of whom was a young guardsmare, finally able to rest, after a hectic week with her new unit.

Gleaming Shield, one among the latest rookies who finished horseshoecamp, was glad to have just made it aboard the train at the very last second.

The only mayor stop on her mad dash through upper and middle Canterlot had been her appartment. Dodging angry neighbours (No Running in the hallways!) Gleaming successfully navigated through the chaotic mess of food boxes and bags scattered across her room. Then proceeded to rip her saddlebacks via magic from her couch and immediately darted back out…

Did she even lock the door? … Probably?…maybe?

Following that came a last minute stop at the nearest place offering hayburgers, because for her to get off earlier, Gleaming had to skip lunch today. It was not much to speak of most of the time, since food for the guards in the messhall rarely ever had a quality above papier-mache.

Buying her ticket almost by flying past the booth, she had rushed inside the awaiting passenger car, the closing door almost trapped her tail. It was here, when Gleamings brain caught up with her body and she realized, that her armor was still on and she did just take stop a her place…buck!

Now, many minutes later, she was lazily draped across one of the seats, head supported by one of her hooves. Gleaming had gotten rid of her armor and stacked it in an empty seat beside herself.

Gleaming was gazing out the window nearby at the passing landscape with her icy blue eyes. Celestias sun was slowly starting to sink towards its final destination for today, casting the terrain in a soft orange glow and made room to the creeping shadows of Lunas night.

The white unicorn let out a soft sigh, thinking back on the eventful weeks, which were behind her now. Being both, happy to have passed the training and exhausted due to the rough methods of her units sergeant…

Who even thinks of hurling entire logs up and down Canterhorn´s mountain trail as a daily routine to be any good for non earth ponies? In full armor even!

She cringed slightly at the memory of an unfortunate pegasus, who had been struck and rolled over, like pastry by a rolling pin, from muzzle to tail, because the pony in front her, lost her grip. THAT had to have hurt quite a bit…

But all of this was finally over and done (until next Monday at least!), and she was looking forward to her first real weekend off duty. Her recent mare-athon left her sticky and sweaty, but she found herself uncaring about it. Only a giddy feeling in her chest came to mind when thinking about what was to come.

Blowing a loose strand of her two-toned blue mane out of her face, Gleaming remembered the latest letter of her little sister. Twily always made sure to be on point with the date they came in, but that was what made her dork of a sister so adorable.
Within the letter she was being invited over Ponyville to celebrate that she was now a fully fledged guardsmare in the Royal Equestrian Army. The young private had already had a small party with her parents of course, but it brought a smile to Gleamings face, when she thought about her little bookworm of a sibling….ok -BIG- bookworm, putting together a little celebration of her own.

Probably with help from her new friends.

Apparantly Twilight had prepared a small sleepover for the two days to come, so they could spend time like they used to, when both of them were younger and still lived with their parents. With Gleaming having to reside in the barracks during guardtraining most of the week, and Twilight being send away to Ponyville for her studies under Celestia, sister time came way to short over the last months.

As the train gradually slowed down, Gleaming started to gather her belongings. Which mostly consisted of her golden armor, a pair of saddlebags with bodycare utensils, a small asortment of vending machine snacks from the train and the meager remains of her hayburger. While the fast-food was mostly cold now, the alluring and tasty treat still had its trademark scent wafting through the air around her head.

“Next stop Ponyville! This is the last stop of this train for today, all passengers get ready to disembark! We hope to have you onboard again soon!”, the conductor called into the mostly vacant passenger car.

A lone red earth pony stallion, next to where Gleaming was sitting, awoke with a snort from his silent slumber at the loud call and groggily got up to reach for his luggage in the holders above. Another light blue mare further down the rows of seats, gently nudged her foal to remove its curious little head from the glass. The child complied with its mothers request with an audible “plop” sound.

Scanning over her collection of snack wrappers and items, Gleaming quickly realized, she would not be able to get everything out of the train on one trip. To top things off yesterdays parade to introduce the new unit, left her horn burning from exhaustion (stupid fireworks!). Not to mention her trip through canterlot, dragging her saddlebags along. She really should have invested the seconds it took to fasten them around her barrel…

Therefore Gleaming was not looking forward to do much telekinetic lifting with dozens of papers. It was not exactly the weight which concerned her, but rather the coordination required to keep track of multiple items floating in her magic. Which was not something she felt herself able to accomplish right now.

Interrupting her thoughts, the air was filled with the noises of screeching metal and the typical “Pffssshhh” sound of steam escaping through vents across the engine car.

Seeing as her time was short and the outwards lying parts of Ponyville station slipped into view in the window, Gleaming thought fast on her hooves. She hastily gulped down the remains of her burger, sloppily put her golden armor on (the straps and bindings could wait), and threw the saddlebags back on over her shoulder. Lastly she stuffed the wrappers loosely in her saddlebags sidepockets, to dispose off at a later point in time.

When Gleaming finished chewing, the train stopped entirely in its motion, brakes strongly protesting with a final loud screech of metal on metal. Casting one last gaze out the window, Gleaming turned and moved towards the exit.

The tired guard joined in behind the red stallion in the short line of ponies wanting to leave the halting train. Letting out a massive yawn he shook his head and slapped his own cheeks with his forehooves to stay awake. The poor guy looked almost as tired as Gleaming felt.
Thinking back on her choice of nutrition, she should have gotten a coffee and not a burger to help fight off her exhaustion, as a full bully always made one tired somehow. But as they say: hindsight was always twenty twenty or something…

Half an eternity later Gleaming was the last one to leave the passenger car. Hooves gripping on solid rock again, she took a deep long breath of the cool pre-night air. Then slowly exhaled and felt her body relax slightly. This was a recreation trip after all!

Taking her first few steps away from the door behind her, Gleaming tried to recall the quickest route through the town from her sisters description. Gleaming pictured a mental map together and was about to move out.

Only to jump a little when she heard the somewhat elderly conductor mare blow into her whistle right next to Gleamings ear.

´Ouch!´

“Oi! No littering around here, miss private!”

Ears flattening against her head and angered by the loud noise, Gleaming was about to verbally retort, when she felt that her bags had gotten lighter. Uh oh…

With a sinking feeling in her stomach she turned around and looked behind her. There, just in front of the train cars doorstep, she spotted the wrappings of her burger, which seemed intend on avenging its contents by escaping her saddlebags. She must have lost it by jumping the last step.

Giving an embarrassed grin and with a slight blush on her cheeks, Gleaming turned around, picked it up in her magic and relocated the wrappings to a nearby station garbage can. Peering back to the conductor, she received a stern nod in return from the glaring mare.

Once Gleaming was done, the limegreen pegasus seemed to scan the unicorns appearance with her ruby red eyes. Taking a close look at her helmguard and shoulder plates, the conductor then moved a step back before stating, “Rookie ey? Been serving too in my younger years.” in a softer tone of voice.

Fighting down her embarrassed blush and recognizing the mare as a veteran, Gleaming decided to reply with some pride in her voice, “Just got out of `shoecamp´ earlier this week, mam!”

Looking her over once more and shifting her wings under the conductors vest, the limegreen pegaus continued, “Ah so its your first leave then?” and added grinning, “Got the feeling in your horn back yet? I heard about the fireworks in canterlot. Pretty impressive!”

Gleaming released some air before she replied, “I´m going to need some ice for it. Though it could be worse…At least I got a nice weekend with my sister in front of me, to recover some.”

The older mares eyes softened upon hearing that, “Visiting family, dear?”

“Yes, mam, my younger sister and her adopted little brother live here.”

“Then you better hurry on, if you wanna get there dry darling.”, the pegasus warned.

“What? Why?” Gleaming asked bewildered.

A thunder in the distance caused Gleaming to turn her eyes towards the darkening skies above Ponyville. There she saw a large stormcloud floating above the settlement, with pegasi zipping around it, and gulped audibly.

“Storm is scheduled for tonight, rookie. Gonna last a while too. Didn’t you check in on the weather plans?”, continued the green mare raising an eyebrow.

Smiling sheepishly, and rubbing the back of her head with a hoof, Gleaming answered, “I was kinda in a hurry to catch the last train and didn’t have the time to, mam.”

“Then you better start running now,” the conductor calmy said back while looking at a clock hanging from her neck on a silvery chain. she seemed lost in thought for a while, before nodding to herself about something and looking back up.

Gleaming watched as the conductor mare turned around to close the door to the passenger car and then proceeded with giving a second loud whistle in the engine cars direction to signal the locomotives crew to depart. When the steam engine started up again, the pegasus flew to an open window further down the train. Once inside and slightly moving, due to the trains departure, she addressed the young guard once more, through the open window at the trains end, as she passed by.

“Oh and greet young Miss Sparkle from me, once you reach her. I really liked the novel she recommended!”

Surprised, Gleaming slightly yelled over the wall of noise generated by the Ponyville-Express, “But I didn’t tell you my sisters name! How´d you know?!”

Almost from out of sight and slightly laughing now, considering the hickups in her sentence, the pegasus yelled back waving, “Pinkie Pie send out invitations! Welcome to Ponyville, rookie!”

Stunned at these news, Gleaming sat down on her haunches and spend a minute staring after the disappearing trains end. Just what was Twilys friend up to? Was this what Twilight warned her about in the PS notes?

It was only when she felt the first raindrop hitting her mane, that the white unicorn realized, she should probably take the mares suggestion to heart and book it for real…

´Great´, she glumly thought, ´even more running…´

Meanwhile, inside the most known tree in Ponyville, a certain purple unicorn was sitting in her study, silently scribbling on a scroll she picked up earlier that day. While appearing calm and focussed on the outside to an unexpierienced observer, inside she was giddy with excitement. Twilight Sparkle, local librarian and latest resident of the small town, eagerly awaited the arrival of her BSBFF.

Ever since Twilight left Canterlot, the siblings could only ever exchange letters to keep in contact, minus the occasional family meetings on national Equestrian holidays. But starting today they could begin spending more time together again.

Hearing a muffled rumbling sound, she turned her head to cast her gaze through the small window next to her desk. Behind the glass panel Twilight observed the local pegasi making last minute preparations on tonights storm. The big fluffy monstercloud was pulsing with stored energy, waiting to be unleashed. The occasional lighting bolt zipping across its surface.

“…I really hope she gets here in time before the storm starts…”, she mumbled absend-mindedly to herself.

“She´s made it into the guard now, Twilight. I´m sure she can handle a bit of water from above!”, came the immediate response from somewhere behind her.

Turning her head around, Twilight spotted non other than her number one personal assistant: Spike. The small dragon was idly bobbing back and fort on his feet, with his arms behind him. Twilight did not even notice him coming into her study!

Smiling at his sight, she responded, “Already done with the checklists?”

“Yep!”, Spike proudly announced, then added, ”… and I thought you might want one of theeeese…?” while revealing two steaming cups of hot chocolate from behind his back.

Grabbing one of the offered cups in her magic, the unicorn floated it up to her nostrils and took a deep breath of its scent. After lightly blowing some air on it, she tentatively took a sip from the hot beverage. Twilight felt the heat travel through her system, soothing her worries somewhat, but not entirely squashing them. Looking down into her cup, Twilight let her face adopt a more relaxed expression.

“Thank you Spike, I really needed that right now.”

“Don´t I know it…, you always work yourself up over nothing. It´ll be fine Twilight. Your sister knows the best shield spells there are and conjuring one up that stops the rain from hitting her, should be a piece of cake!”, the dragonling reassured her, sipping on his own drink.

Letting her gaze drop down into her cup, Twilight let out a sigh and continued, “It´s not particularly the rain im worried about. The lightning bolts of a heavy storm can be hard too…and it is a real challenge for any unicorns shield spell to adjust to slow moving objects, strong winds and fast hitting energy in a matter of seconds…or less. Deflecting everything at the same time with just one shield-“

Twilights lecture was interrupted by a loud rumble from outside, shortly followed by the sounds of many water droplets hitting her window and the ground outside. The residents of the library turned their heads to the visible part of the cloud above Ponyville and spotted the last weather pegasi making a hasty retreat from the seemingly very angry cumulus.

“Seems like they started early.”, Spike muttered. Slightly angered by the fact that all his work to calm his friend was for nothing now. Deciding to distract Twilight, before her thoughts started drifting into dangerous territory again, he spoke up.

“Hey, why not go through the Checklist once more. Your sister will probably be here any minute now and we don´t want to forget anything important!”, Spike said in a singsong voice, stressing the last part especially.

Realizing Spike´s intentions, Twilight decided to play along, smiling inwardly at his antics and sat up straighter.

“Okay Spike, 17 points list for tonights sleepover and then the,-totally not excessive- 238 point list from Pinky Pie for the -Hurray your are a guard now Party- tomorrow!”

“Coming right up!”, the purple lizard replied and quickly rushed out of the room.

While he was gone, Twilight produced her copy of the checklist from a drawer on her desk and placed it in front of herself.
Every box of each item had already been checked in green color earlier this afternoon, so Twilight opted to take a blue pen for the second round. The backend of said pen showed clear signs of somepony nibbling away at it, which caused her to frown. Twilight faintly recalled lending it to Rainbow for the prize competition on the last page of daring do comic adaptation.

The unicorn tried the abused pen on the bottom corner of her scroll and to her satisfaction it still worked properly. Right at this moment Twilights ears picked up the sound of claws on wood drawing closer and turned her attention back to the door of her room.

Zipping back inside the study with scroll and quill in each claw, Spike gave a tiny salute to signal that he was ready to begin.

“Alright, first checkbox….two large and one small sleepingbag!”

Looking around the room, they both acknowledged to the bags being there before continuing.

“A large bowl of cheesy puffers?”

“Check!”

“Popcorn?”

“Check!”

“A bag of gems?”

*munch* *munch* “…MhMmm…eck”, came the muffled response, which caused Twilight to chuckle.

“Spooky ghost stories and novels?”

“Check!”

“Sweet drinks and-“

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

The most favorite pasttime of the duo was interrupted by excessive knocking on the libraries door. In a moments notice, Twlights scroll went airborne and the mare herself was out the study in a purple blurr.

Casually catching the scroll with an outstretched arm, before it could hit the ground, the tiny dragon could only shake his head at her display and shrugged. Spike then stashed Twilights work for today in their respective drawers on her desk, and made to follow the excited librarian.

Arriving on the doorstep, at a speed which would make Rainbow Dash jealous, the Twilight reached for the doorhandle in her magic, encasing it in a purple glow. She envisioned the bright smile in the face of her BSBFF in her mind and with a giddy feeling in her belly and a smile oof her own Twilight pulled the door inwards to reveal…

A completely drenched white unicorn guardsmare standing in the downpour with hoof raised to knock once more.

The rainwater was flowing from Gleamings armor and mane in small rivers, which formed pools of a slightly brownish color all around her. Gleamings hooves were slowly sinking deeper in the forming mud puddles, causing her to visibly shrink with each second. Her mane being wet and pushed around by the wild currents of air covered most of her face, despite the helmets best attempts to hold it in.

Foreboding howls ofstrong winds and a large lightning bolt striking down somewhere in the distance behind her, rounded up the sorry sight. She clearly did not make it here, before the rainstorm hit the town.

Twilights smile faltered upon seeing the poor state her big sister was in and was about to rush her inside, when her lavender ears swiveled backwards to pick up an unmanly scream from behind.

“AAHHHHH…IT’S THE UNDEAD GUARD!! THEY ARE COMING TO GET US!! RUN FOR YOUR LIFES!!!”

Both mares then watched a familiar purple dragon disappear under the table nearby, pulling the tablecloth down and causing the piece of furniture to shake lightly. The only other sign, that the old wooden table was inhabited now, was a purple tail sticking out from one end.

The spooky white mare in the door dropped her hoof, she was about to knock with, before she activated her magic with a slight wince. Moving a part of her mane out of her face and off to the side, where it clung to her helmet, Gleaming turned her head back to her younger sibling and chuckled.

“Hey sis, I know I don’t look my best right now, but is it really so bad?”

A frown forming on her face, Twilight stared at the tail sticking out from under the tablecloth and answered her sibling,
“Its those comics he´s reading lately. I swear by Celestia the writers ran out of ideas and borrowed some from the better selling horror novels-”

Only to realize by then that her sister was still outside being rained upon. Ears splaying sideways, she spun her head back to Gleaming and gave an apologetic sheepish smile, before moving back a little, beckoning for her sister to step inside with a motion of her foreleg.

Gleaming hesitated not a single second to get out of the rainy weather, and once indoors, gently kicked the door closed with one of her hindlegs. She used the doormat to wipe the majority of dirt and mud from her hooves before picking up their conversation again.

“Thanks Twily, I was beginning to think you´d turn me into an experiment to see if I would be dissolved by the water,” the taller mare chuckled.

Catching on to her sisters jovial mood despite the situation, Twilight replied grinning, “Already did that with the pool in the garden when I was four years old. You fell asleep floating around on the surface.”

“And woke up with an underside rich with sunburns.” Gleaming filled in, forming a smile at the memory of little Twily sitting at the pools edge with glasses on. Twilight had even ´borrowed´ their mothers notepad, which floated in the tiny unicorns magic beside her. The filly eagerly waiting to scribble down anything noteworty.

The treatment of said burns however woke a rather less pleasant experience in Gleaming mind, which quickly brought her back to the topic at hoof: The little fact, that she was turning the local library in an indoor swimming pool, the longer she stood there.

Lifting one of her still wet hooves she resumed their conversation.

“Got a towel around here that I can use Twily? I kinda need to get myself unsoaked…”

Beaming up at her big sister, the smaller unicorn stated, “Sure thing Gleami, Spike will get some right away!”

Twilight turned her eyes back to the quivering table just peeking out from behind Gleaming silhouette, “I just need to get him out from under there…again.”

Bending around her older sister to get a better angle at the table her assistant was hiding under, she called out to him.

“Spike, its Gleam, you can come out now!”

“Is it safe again? Did your sister take out the zompony?”, the dragonling carefully asked, head poking out from his hiding spot.

Irritated by his antics and the repetetive topic between them, Twilight reprimanded him, “Spike, for the last time: There are no zomponies!! Its all made up by the creators of your comics!”

“Says you!! Until they actually come to get you for your big brains!!”, Spike shot back angrily while slowly crawling out from his hiding spot.

Gleaming did not want the mood to sour on her first evening here by an argument forming between the two and decided to intervene.

“Can you get me some towels please, Spikey?”

Raising his head to look at the taller unicorn, still soaking wet, Spike´s anger evaporated. The much friendlier voice, compared to Twilights aggravated tone, and the sorry sight of the guardsmare compelled him to comply with her request.

Also Spike was rather grateful for the chance to escape Twilight´s lecture at this moment.

The dragons face brightened up and he gave a tiny salute to the guard, “Sure thing! One towel delivery coming right up, mam!” He disappeared up the stairs almost as fast as when he bolted under the table.

Looking back at her sister Gleaming continued with a smirk forming on her muzzle, “Don’t be so harsh on him Twily, I remember the many times you came into my room to hide from a monster in your closet ver ---!”

Leaning up and putting a hoof to her sisters lips, Twilight put her head close to her sisters ear and whispered, “Don’t tell him that or he will never stop it!”

Feeling a grin taking shape under the hoof she pressed on her sisters muzzle Twilight continued, eyes narrowing, “…but you will do so anyway, wont you?”

“That’s what a big sister is there for Twily! To make your life just that tiiiiiny bit harder!”

Twilights only response to her sister was a silent angry stare. But when she took her hoof away and saw the trademark grin of her BSBFF not faltering in the slightest, her stare broke apart and they both started laughing. Hugging each other, the sisters enjoyed a little moment, before Twilight spoke up again.

“I really missed you Gleami… I could have used your help around here sometimes.”

“But you made things happen without me. I heard the news about everything you achieved and I must admit: Defeating Nightmare Moon and getting Princess Luna back is going to be tough to beat for me!”

Twilights chest swelled with pride when she heard the praise, until she noticed Gleamings soaked coat starting to wet hers as well. Uuggnnhh…

“Spiiiike!! Where are the towels?”, Twilight yelled through the library over her sisters shoulder.

Jogging down the stairs with an entire stack of the requested items, Spike muttered annoyed, “You don’t need to yell, I just had to reach the highest cupboard in the bathroom without wings or levitation…and my only ladder was in your study!”

Setting the stack down in front of the siblings the little dragon stood to the side of it, crossed his arms and pouted at Twilight. The sisters regretably parted from their hug and Gleamng wasted no time in grabbing a towel in her magic.

“Thanks, Spikey. If things don’t work out for you with Twilight, you can become my new assistant!” the older sibling joked.

Twilight looked aghast at the prospect of losing him to a competitor. She rushed over to her dragon, cradled him in her forelegs, narrowed her eyes at Gleaming and uttered a single word: “Mine!”

“Uuhhh………..feels good to be apprechiated……, but could you let me down again Twilight?” Spike softly asked.

Chuckling the rookie guard let her saddlebags drop to the ground and took her armor off. She stacked her stuff neatly in a pile, before she started freeing her body from the water still besieging her mane, tail and coat. Feeling better by the second, she sat on her haunches and let her eyes wander around.

The library of Ponyville was definitely the perfect home for Twilight, next to camping out in the much bigger one in Canterlot castle of course. Rows upon rows of bookshelves lined the walls on all sides. Broken apart only by small window frames and the occasional piece of decoration.

To her left was a small kitchen area. To her right the public part of the library with its many little seating corners and pillows, intended for visitors in Twilights domain. Gleaming´s little sister´s almost pedantic talent in organisation (and probably Spike´s hard work too) kept the place clean and tidy. Not a single dustball in sight anywhere. No comparison to Gleaming´s own place in canterlot.

`I really need to find some time to do a proper spring cleaning´, Gleaming thought to herself.

There was one thing off however…

One part of the public area was cleared of anything obstructive, with runes and crytals placed neatly in a circle around it.

“Twily?” Gleaming addressed her younger sibling “Whats that thingy over there for?”

Releasing the tiny dragon from her possessive hold, much to Spikes delight, Twilight explained,
“Its my latest experiment! Do you remember all the long hours you needed, to study basic magic formulas?”

The dreaded memories of spending entire nights awake, to study magic theory for even the simplest of spells, came flooding back to Gleaming, “Yea I do. Wasn’t a fan of those. I was always better at the practical part of it!”

Twilight pointed with a hoof to her creation, “This is going to solve that problem!”

Gleaming looked to Spike for help, but the dragonling could only shrug and shake his head, “Don’t look at me. She´s been like that for the past week.”

Gleaming discarded her used towel behind her, somewhere close to her pile of belongings, before she returned her attention back to Twilight and addressing her, “You lost us Twily… Not to discourage you or anything, but im kind of out of magic school already.”

Not deterred in the slightest, the lavender unicorn cantered over to her creation with a smile on her muzzle and sat down on the outermost edge of the construct. She then gestured with her forelegs at the markings in front of and next to herself.

“This is a fast learning matrix for unicorns and for now only unicorns. I´m planning on pegasi and earth ponies next. Though that might be harder considering they use magic more instinctive than us, but I digress.
The point of this construct is to shorten the time necessary for anypony to learn specific skills based on magic by imprinting the basic formulas into their memory through practical application. The underlying spell matrix awakens magic potential within the user and unlocks abilities in a pony without prior knowledge or overly long dry studies of formulas.”

At the empty gazes of her audience, Twilight rolled her eyes, still smiling and went on with her monologue.

“Or in short, you immediately start casting the spell you wish to learn and the runes help you by supplying the formula fresh into your mind, instead of having to envision and summoning it. After a few times it becomes a reflex and the formula itself redundant! This would allow for faster training of basically any magic talent. Just imagine for example weather ponies completing their studies practically overnight instead of months!”

Giving an impressed whistle the Gleaming stated, “Wow Twily that sounds like a lot of work went into it.”

…

“Sooooo… how does it work exactly?” Gleaming tentatively asked.

“You didn’t really listen at all, did you?” Twilight deadpanned.

“Most of that went way over my head” the older sibling replied, then went on smiling “but I would like to try it sometime.”

At that the Twilight perked up, “Why not right now then?”

“I don’t know Twily, my horn still feels really sore and we kinda had something else planned for tonight, didn’t we?”, came Gleamings answer with a longing look up the stairs.

“It will only take a moment and anything being cast within the field is slightly faster than normal. Also it supplies the user with magical energy from around us, so it shouldn’t aggravate your horn any further!”

Seeing the eager look on her sister face, and recalling the memories of the energetic little Twily in her head, Gleaming relented “Alright, fine. Just one try though!”

Having won her sisters favour to proceed with her little demonstration, Twilight let out a “YAY” and went to charge the crystals next to herself with her horn. Not a single second later, their color started to change from a soft blue to a bright purple. Twilight then motioned for her sibling to step forward into the field, to which the white mare complied.

“Okay Twily, now what?”

“For our test just think of any spell you already learned and cast it.” Twilight explained. “ Since you know the basic formula behind it, the casting should be accelerated even more, effectively reducing the time between start and release of the spell by half! The first one will be somewhat normal though, due to the matrix adjusting to your casting.”

“Uhm, what should I use? I don’t wanna ruin your little project Twily…”

Spike piped up at that, “Don’t worry about it Gleam. Twilight added a shield somewhere in there, to catch any spells going haywire. Otherwise they might set fire to the books and get her in trouble with Mayor Mare.”

“Well if you two insist, how about….uhm….a telekinetic projectile?”

At the same tme high in the sky above Ponyville

“Its getting too strong! We have to tune it down! It will rip the roofs from ponies houses at this rate!” a pegasus called out from somewhere furter down.

“I know but we would have to split it in half, which might cause it to unleash heavy bolts!” another mare shouted back over the wind generated by the storm.

“We don’t have much of a choice here! Ponies might get hurt, if we cant downgrade the storm to a six or seven at least!”, the first one countered.

The current leader of the Ponyville weather patrol team wasn’t having a good day. Resealing the cloud earlier to keep the storm contained had failed twice, so they had to start the scheduled storm earlier than planned.

Additionally the winds created by the storm were making even the most mundane communication a shouting match, causing orders and actions to be executed with much delay.

That was already bad for them, but it seemed they lost control of their creation completely by now.

The cumulus was gathering up wild clouds from the sky above the Everfree at an alarming rate and something had to be done about it. In not even a few hours the storm had risen to a size barely managable by the local team. Why did their weather captain had to be on vacation now of all times?

“Mam, we need a decision!” one of her subordinates pressed.

One one hoof, the houses of Ponyville were build to withstand a storm of up to grade eight, but on the other hoof, tuning down a stormcloud of that magnitude was unlikely to happen with such few pegasi. And the cloud was still rapidly growing in size…

With her mind made up and new determination in her voice, the lead mare loudly called out.

“Lets tune it down ladies! Wing one and two on me! We ll fly straight down the middle, then come back around to cut it off from the Everfree!”

“YES MAM!” came the chorus of replies from around her. Those out of speaking range nodded their consent with the action.

The weather team formed a “V” formation and decended from high onto the cloud below at top speed. Their combined wingpower and magic build up and battled with the clouds integrity. Wings flapping wildly and tiring at an alarming rate, the team pushed with all their might against the beast they had called.

Until, with a last combined effort of the group, the cloud finally relented as they pushed through it like a knife through hot butter. But just as they thought it was over a sudden cry from behind the team alerted them to a new threat.

“LOOK OUT! RANDOM BOLTS!”

Charging up her horn with the intention to fire a regular magic bolt, Gleaming was glad to feel no protest from it. She sensed the energy build up, formed the projectile like she had learned and released it at the height of its power.

The pink wedge of magic detached itself from the unicorns horn and sailed through the air in front of Gleaming.

After a small flight distance of two and a half seconds, it safely impacted into a purple shield flashing up at the end of the field.

“See? It works!” Twilight beamed with pride. “Try it again sis, the next one should charge faster now that the matrix is configured to your horns magic aura and the spell you are using.”

Smiling at her Twilight´s enthusiasm, Gleaming nodded in her direction and prepared another bolt.

Gleaming could clearly feel the energy flowing to her horn from around her, trying to guide her mental path like a farmer explaining a road layout to a stranger asking for directions.

Once again the projectile formed and shot off into the air in front of her, only to harmlessly impact the shield again.

“This is amazing Twily! Its almost like Mom stepping in and giving you a push!” a giddy Gleaming spoke out. “May I try it one more time? I wanna try something we learned during ´camp.”

Seeing her sister caught in the excitement of discovering something new for herself, Twilight nodded her approval and went to recharging the crystals around her sister for the final test.

“Do you want me to conjure up a target dummy for this time, Gleami?”

“That would be neat, thanks!”

Twilght horn glowed with the familiar hue and a roughly pony shaped figure shimmered into existence, not a second later. It dropped down to eye level in front of Gleaming, where it continued to float around barely an inch above the ground at the magic fields edge.

Gleaming let the familiar charge take control of her horn, but this time she also thought back on her guard training from last month. In the last exercise her group had been introduced to opponents with magical resistances. The sergeant of Gleaming´s unit had explained to them, how to add an elemental effect to their shots when the projectile was about to form. It was a little tricky to think in two paths at once, but Twilights creation helped massive in that regard.

Leaving the matrix to take over the projectile forming, Gleaming instead focussed more on adding a cold touch to her spell. She closed her eyes and thought back on the coldest winter they ever had in Canterlot… and the freezing feeling, which a snowball thrown by Cadence left in her face.

Opening her eyes again Gleaming was about to release her spell, when the entire library was suddenly illuminated, as if flooded by daylight. Arcs of electricity wormed their way past the windows and around the treehouse until the glass panes could resist no longer.

With a deafening Boom the thin glass separating the libraries residents from the storm outside shattered into tiny pieces, leaving them exposed to the dangerous weather. The stormy wind howled madly, like a beast freed from a cage.

Bolt after bolt came in through the openings in the trees trunk, scorching walls and flooring or, in some instances, setting fire to books and furniture. Twilight rushed up from her spot and tried in vain to put out as many flames as she could or attempted to redirect the energy of the bolts back the way they came. But for every one she managed to contain, two more would cause trouble elsewhere.

A particular large bolt hit the wall next to Spike, who yelped in alarm and immediately went to hide under his trusty table.

Still within the magic construct of her sister, Gleaming dismissed the energy of the spell she was about to use and went to help her sibling. Or at least that was her plan.

Finding herself unable to force the energy out of her horn, Gleaming grasped at the appendage, only to withdraw her hooves instantly from the burning hot sensation the hoofedge reported back. Next she tried her luck at simply leaving the magic booster… only to find out, that the shield surrounding her was not budging an inch in any direction she tried.
Not about to give up, she resorted to tackle the shield in the hopes of breaking it somehow. Yet the only thing that happened, was the shield flashing into existence to spoil her every attempt.

She was effectively caught within…

While she was pressing her mind for another option at escape, her ears picked up a crackling noise from all around her. Gleaming realized with growing horror that the bolts from the storm did not dance around the circle she was trapped in, but they were absorbed by the runes along the shield. Which in turn caused said runes to glow brighter with each passing second. The crystals, meant to reinforce and contain the shield, were no longer glowing purple but a deep red…an alarming deep red. The kind of color nopony wanted to see at a moment like this.

Out of options to free herself from the inside, Gleaming called out, over the howling winds and crackling bolts of energy, to her sister, “Twilight, I´m stuck in here! Help!!”

Turning around abruptly, as if just remembering she even had somepony else to worry about, Twilights eyes went wide as dinnerplates at the sight before her. Sparks of purple color were dancing all around her sister and the runes meant to stabilize the shield were glowing white with energy about to be released.

“NOnonononono! This isnt good! The protective spell is overcharging!!”

Upon seeing the panicked look on her sister face Twilight added, “You have to get out, before it starts channeling the power! Its unstable like this!!”

“Believe me, I tried!! Gleaming called back exasperated, but glad that her little sisters attention was now centered around to help her. “I cant get rid of my spell and the shield wont let me leave!”

Twilight wracked her brain for ideas about what might be the cause for her matrix to prevent somepony from leaving. When realisation dawned on her, her eyebrows shot upwards.

“It’s the spell you have conjured up still! Just release it anywhere and the shield will have no reason to keep you anymore!” Twilight yelled over the winds noise.

Acting as instructed by her sister, Gleaming turned in the direction of the test dummy. Completely unaffected by the events within the house, it continued floating there without a care in the world.

Without hesitation the rookie guard took aim and fired her frozen shot.

The spell travelled through the air and impacted on the dummy as planned, but what happened then came as a surprise to both unicorns. Instead of being shattered, the projectile seemed to splatter upon contact with the targeted surface, creating a layer of ice and deforming the magical ponykin.

Things did not stop there however, as the icy area continued to expand. The entire mass collapsed and reformed itself into a sphere, which now floated where the dummys place used to be. The newly created spere of ice began to flatten out into a larger plate, before slowly starting to rotate clockwise.

Gleaming made another move to leave the field, but no matter how often or how hard she tried, a purple wall was blocking her every path to freedom. Apparantly she still was not allowed passage.

She was about to ask her little sister on what to do next,but the words died in her throat when she noticed the shocked expression on Twilights face. The smaller unicorns eyes were fixed on something behind Gleaming. Whatever happened there was beyond her siblings expertise or expectations. Dreading what might be there, Gleaming slowly turned her body around.

The slice of ice was now spinning rapidly with small shards of it flying off in random directions. Sparks of purple energy were dancing all across its surface, giving off a spooky glow. But that was not
the most worrying development.

Starting from the middle of the large object, cracks formed and travelled to its rim, while the parts closest to its center caved in backwards to reveal a dark void of nothingness beyond. When only a thin ring around the void in the center was left, the expansion stopped, but the alien construct started spinning even faster.

All of a sudden Gleaming felt her hooves losing traction on the libraries floor, almost as if she was standing on a recently waxed surface. She braced her hooves against the pulling force, but despite her best efforts, she started rapidly losing ground. Witnessing glass shards, broken furniture and rubble being sucked into the vortex and simply disappearing Gleaming tried calling out to her sister once more, only to find out that she could no longer do so. Her mouth and tongue were moving about but no sound left her muzzle.

Growing desperate she tried to take a deep breath in order to scream, but her lungs did not find any air to draw breath from…apparently the newly born vortex greedily pulled in everything it could get a hold of, like a hungry dragon who just awoke from its slumber.

Seeing as there was nothing she could do anymore to escape her fate, Gleaming turned her head around to catch a last glance at Twilight, but even that was denied to her. The all consuming power of the vortex kept her sisters shield in a permanently activated state, presumably to keep the rest of the treehouse save.

´At least Twily will be save,´

So in her apparent final moment, all Gleaming could see was a solid wall of purple, before being sucked tail-first into the vortex. Gleaming felt her momentum increasing as soon as she passed the threshhold. She dryly thought about dying in a washing machine, due to her rolling forwards over and over again. Her lungs were screaming for air. If she could only take one breath…

She was about to pass out when out of the corner of her eye she saw it. With every spin, it got clearer to her.

A Light, growing closer and closer by the second.

And she was heading for it!

Salvation! Celestia be praised!

…

She was still not stopping and going way to fast!

…

Getting closer to the saving light she tried to slow herself down, but all she accomplished was swinging her legs wildly around to no avail.

Just as with the vortex she entered through, this one let her pass without any problem. Gleaming felt air around her again and was about to take a relieved gulp of it.

Fate had other plans though and smashed her face first into something solid at full speed.

The last thing Gleaming registered, was her horn painfully drilling itself into something metallic. Out of protest at being impaled, the item then released hot air into her defenseless face.

A ”Ppffsssshhhh” sound accompanied her, as she dropped horizontal to the cold floor and passed out.