With a single shove, the door flew open and the ponies rushed outside. Even though it was completely pitch black on the roof, the group could still see the faint outlines of the dark matter swirling around just above them.

Tom immediately pointed his hands skyward and projected his light at full force. The beams traveled upwards and met the dark matter head on before exploding outwards and falling back down to the ground, creating a decently sized bubble of protection that encompassed most of the walking space on the roof.

Twilight and Rarity watched as every guard scattered around and sat their candles down. After a brief moment of everyone lighting them in sequence, the entire area was filled with blue tinted light that contrasted against the darkness just outside to create a sort of comforting aura.

“Ok, let’s get started. Does everyone know the spell?” Luna asked while glancing around at the various unicorns waiting eagerly at her side.

“Yes but… Princess, this spell is so massive that it will take ages to gather up the energy needed.” Twilight stated anxiously while thinking back to the spell she had been taught. Now that she was outside with the dark matter roaring and screeching as it fought to get at her, the unicorn was much more nervous about the chances of their plan succeeding.

“I know, that’s why there are so many of us working on it. I want you two to focus on helping with the spell for the moment, but if we come under attack you may need to defend yourselves.” Luna explained to the two mares with a concerned expression. Twilight and Rarity gulped nervously as they thought about fighting against the shadow creatures they had seen thus far.

Before the pair could ask any more questions, the alicorn closed her eyes and concentrated while lighting up her horn. She tried her best to focus while all of the commotion was going on outside. One by one, all of the unicorn guards gathered around the princess and focused their energy on the same spell she was casting. Glitterball joined in, the lieutenant joined in, soon enough all of the unicorns in the area save for Twilight, Rarity, and the guard assisting Tom were contributing to the spell.

“Alright, everyone… keep on your guard. It might be calm right now, but it won’t stay that way forever.” The lieutenant instructed to everyone present. All of the guards nodded before spreading out and settling in. All the while being prepared to jump into action should the need arise.

“Hey… if you see something about to eat my face off, do you think you could shoot it for me?” Glitterball asked in a half-joking, half-serious manner while briefly glancing to Glimmer Shine.

“Eh… I’m sure I would get around to it eventually.” Glimmer Shine replied with a slight smirk.

“Real funny… smart flank.” Glitterball rolled her eyes before closing them and returning her full attention to the spell. She knew that the yellow stallion was joking, but she still felt like hitting him regardless.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Rarity were just starting to gather energy for the princess’s spell. They closed their eyes and focused on the alicorn with their magic. They could feel all of the other unicorns present as they funneled their own energy towards the princess. It almost felt empowering to be connected to so many unicorns, kind of like they were doing something grand and important, not that their current task wasn’t important.

“I’m not sure if I feel comfortable with closing my eyes and focusing on a spell out here. I feel like something is going to sneak up behind me any minute now.” Twilight stated uneasily while glancing around her. Every time she closed her eyes she could feel her body screaming at her to check her surroundings.

“Just relax and try to focus on the spell. The others will protect us, I’m sure of it.” Rarity replied in a reassuring tone. She hoped that the others would at least keep an eye on them, rather than leaving them to the mercy of whatever creatures lurked in the darkness around them.

“*Sigh* I hope so.” Twilight muttered while closing her eyes again and trying to block out the eerie screeching that was constantly going on around her.

While the princess, the human, and the unicorns were doing their assigned tasks, the rest of the ponies were glancing around uneasily and searching for any signs of danger. Glimmer Shine stood near the edge of the barrier with one of the guards while making sure that nothing would get in from the side he was on.

“So uh… do you guys do this normally?” The guard asked nervously while glancing over to the yellow stallion. Glimmer Shine looked to him and immediately realized that he was a lot more nervous than he was letting on. Making small talk was an obvious attempt at distancing himself from the situation around him.

“To be honest… we’re almost as new to this as you are. The only difference is that we had a little bit of training beforehand.” Glimmer replied in a reassuring tone.

“Oh… well, that’s… comforting.” The guard replied uneasily. He was seriously starting to doubt their chances for success.

“Relax, everything will be fine. Just keep your eyes peeled and yell if you see anything.” Glimmer Shine stated confidently, to which the guard gave a hesitant nod in response.

“Uh oh… heads up, guys! I’m sensing a lot of movement around us!” Tom announced urgently. The ponies looked over to see the human with a familiar puff of blue mist escaping from his mouth.

“Great… hey, keep on your-” Glimmer Shine started to speak to the guard next to him when he suddenly heard a frightened yell arise from the white stallion. Glimmer looked over just in time to see the guard getting dragged along the ground by a tentacle latched around his back leg.

“Sweet Celestia!” Glimmer exclaimed in surprise while rushing forward and grabbing the guard before he was pulled out of the barrier. The tentacle that was pulling on him was smoking, most likely as a result of the blessed candles all around the area and Tom’s light, but it paid no heed to whatever distress it was feeling as it pulled harder.

Glimmer Shine struggled with all of his strength, but he was only able to slow down the monster’s progress as it pulled the white stallion closer and closer to the edge.

“AHH!” The guard yelled in pain as the edge of his hoof breached the barrier. He could feel a cold and numb sensation forcefully overtaking his foot as the dark matter latched onto it and drained his energy.

“Help!” Glimmer Shine yelled to anyone behind him who might be able to assist him. While two guards rushed forward and grabbed onto their teammate to help with pulling, Peppermint rushed up to the group of struggling ponies and readied his strobe.

The red haired stallion opened fire towards the darkness outside of the barrier, hoping to be able to hit the creature pinning the guard. The bolts of energy from the strobe pushed the dark matter out of the way slightly as they traveled out into the air, but they didn’t appear to hit anything solid as they kept flying.

“I can’t hit it!” Pepper yelled nervously as he frantically tried his best to help.

“We’re losing him!” Glimmer Shine stated while digging his back legs into the ground to halt his movement. Even with three stallions pulling on the trapped guard, the monster, or perhaps monsters that were pulling on him were winning.

“AGH!” The distressed pony screamed in pain as both of his legs sank into the darkness outside. The cold feeling of the monstrous cloud latching onto him and stealing his energy was almost unbearable.

Finally, Peppermint angled his shots to hit the stallion’s legs outside of the barrier. The group heard a nearby shriek and suddenly felt the guard being let go by whatever force was pulling him. Glimmer Shine and the others backpedaled as fast as they could and dragged the injured pony along the ground to distance him from the edge of the barrier.

Both of his legs from the hip downwards were pale in color. They didn’t even look like they belonged to a living pony. The disturbing sight of the stallion’s legs combined with his cries of distress unsettled all of the ponies in the barrier. Twilight and Rarity were speechless as they watched the guards tending to their teammate with horrified expressions.

“What’s wrong with him?!” One of the guards asked while setting the injured stallion down gently. Despite nothing touching his legs anymore, the guard seemed to be in excruciating pain.

“I don’t know, let me take a look at h-” Peppermint prepared to examine the injured stallion when a loud growl from behind him made him freeze up.

Everyone looked back in the direction they just pulled the guard from, only to see three dark shapes just outside of the barrier. While Glimmer Shine and Peppermint raced to pull out their strobes, three darklings jumped through the barrier and walked towards the ponies.

All of the able-bodied guards readied their swords in preparation for battle. They stood in front of the group tending to the injured stallion to keep something between them and the imminent threat. Just before they were about to charge into battle, they noticed black smoke coming off of the three beasts.

The darklings snarled in pain while looking around in confusion. They settled their red eyes on the many candles scattered around the floor and growled. Not wanting to be in the burning light any longer, the three creatures turned tail and ran outside of the barrier. Before disappearing into the darkness, one of them turned its head around and growled viciously at the ponies.

“What the hay was that all about?” One of the guards asked curiously.

“They must not be strong enough to stand near the candles for very long. Don’t let your guard down just yet. I’m sure stronger variants of them will be here shortly.” Tom instructed uneasily.

“Well for the moment we have more important things to worry about… I can’t think of any way to help him.” Peppermint stated while examining the injured guard’s hind legs.

“The dark matter must have gotten to him… he’ll recover, but it will take a while. Until then, I doubt he will be able to move very much.” Tom explained while quickly glancing to the stallion’s pale and motionless limbs. The injured guard looked around at the others with a nervous expression. He wasn’t sure how he was going to survive without being able to move his legs.

“Don’t worry… we’ll keep you safe. For now, take this and hold on to it.” Glimmer Shine said while handing the injured pony his strobe.

“But… what about you?” The stallion asked curiously. He didn’t want to take away the yellow pony’s only means of defense.

“I’ll take your sword and use it. This way you can still fight without moving… trust me, I went to the academy just like you did.” Glimmer Shine explained while gently removing the guard’s sword from his holster.

“Alright… just be careful out there.” The injured stallion shrugged while examining the small vial in his hooves.

After moving the disabled guard closer to the princess and the other unicorns, the rest of the guards returned to their previous locations. Now that one of their own had fallen victim to the monsters outside of the barrier, they had a newfound sense of alarm and cautiousness as they darted their eyes around vigilantly.

“So, how are your sword fighting skills holding up?” Peppermint asked his brother with mild concern.

“Hey… I was top of our class you know.” Glimmer Shine replied while gripping the sword tightly in his mouth.

“Yeah, yeah… just making sure you haven’t gotten rusty.” Peppermint said with a smirk.

“I guess we’re going to find out.” Glimmer Shine stated while whipping the sword around with a sly expression.

While the unicorns continued to gather energy for the princess’s spell, everyone else waited for something to happen. The unnerving sounds that the dark matter was making created a constant ambience of tension. It was like the ponies were in the center of a raging tornado with a swarm of angry bats along for the ride. The screeching wasn’t so bad. After all, there were periods of time where the horrendous screeching would cease for several minutes at a time. But no matter where they were, the sound of the roaring wind was constant. It blared in their ears until they could hardly even think to themselves quietly.

Despite the tense atmosphere, the ponies had to wait. They had to wait and sit around while wondering what kind of creature would jump out at them next. The anticipation of fighting was almost enough to make them wish for something to happen to break up the monotony.

“Hey…” The unicorn that was helping Tom spoke up to get his attention. The human looked over to him curiously.

“Yeah?” Tom asked.

“I’m starting to feel light headed… this spell is taking a lot out of me.” The unicorn replied uneasily. He didn’t want to outright say that he had to take a break, but given the importance of the spell he was casting, he thought that he should let the human know that he was tired.

“I’m not surprised… the energy I’m using has to come from somewhere I suppose. Ask one of the others to switch with you. Just be sure to wait until they start casting before you stop. I don’t want all of this power to come crashing down on me… and I don’t think you do either.” Tom stated while glancing upwards suggestively, the sight of the dark matter fighting against the barrier to get in made the guard see his point very clearly.

“Can someone switch with me? I’m not sure if I can keep this spell up much longer.” The brown stallion asked while glancing over to the small ring of unicorns by the princess.

“Sure… I’ll switch with you.” One of the other unicorns spoke up while breaking off of the spell he was using.

The guard got up and walked over to the human. He then lit up his horn and started casting the spell that he had been taught. Once the other unicorn felt another magical aura form around the human, he let his horn fizzle out and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Take a short break to get your strength back, then head over there and help the others.” Tom suggested while glancing over to the alicorn and her small group.

“Thanks.” The unicorn replied before getting up and walking away.

As he was walking away, the brown stallion heard a strange noise over the constant background of wind. It was so quiet that it was almost impossible to tell what it was.

“What the…?” The unicorn muttered with a confused expression while inching closer to the source of the noise near the edge of the barrier. He strained his ears to be able to pick up the strange sound without venturing close enough to the edge for a monster to jump out and grab him.

The noise gradually got louder, until the guard could just barely make out what it sounded like. The odd noise resembled the rapid fluttering of small wings followed by the high pitched squeal of some kind of creature.

“What’s that noise?” One of the other guards asked curiously. The unicorn turned his head uneasily as he received validation that the noise was actually real rather than his imagination.

Suddenly, a high-pitched screech filled the air as a small black shape darted out from the wall of darkness. The ponies whipped their heads around in an attempt at getting a good look at the creature, but it zipped through the air too fast to be able to see anything other than a blur.

The small shape raced around the air for a short moment before darting back outside of the barrier. That wasn’t the last the ponies would see of the strange blur however as another of the black shapes darted out from the other side of the barrier.

Before anyone could even react, the shape flew at the unicorn near the edge of the barrier and latched onto his neck. The stallion immediately screamed in pain and raced to grab the small creature to pull it off of him. A small spurt of blood shot out from the guard’s neck as the creature seemingly bit into him. The unicorn fell backwards onto his back from the shock of the experience.

“GET IT OFF!” The guard yelled in agony while pulling at the relentless monster. Glimmer Shine raced over to the distressed stallion and struggled to think of how to help him without outright grabbing onto the creature. Glancing down to his glowing sword, an idea popped into his head.

Glimmer Shine rushed over to the struggling guard and pressed the flat edge of his sword against the small creature. White smoke immediately started rising off of the creature’s form, eliciting a high pitched squeak of pain. Before the yellow pony could apply more pressure to his blade, the black shape flew off of the unicorn as a wide spray of blood shot out from his neck. The small creature flew at Glimmer Shine in the blink of an eye, sending a wave of alarm through his body.

“AH!” Glimmer Shine yelled in surprise and dropped his sword. He held his hooves out to protect himself and felt a strong kickback as the monster flew right into him. The yellow pony barely managed to grab the creature before it zoomed straight for his neck.

Now that he was holding onto the monster, Glimmer Shine and everyone else got a good look at it. The beast appeared to be a small winged creature with a round body and four bat wings sprouting from it at odd angles. The tiny monster had two equally tiny red dots above its mouth that served as eyes. The mouth itself was so disturbing that it drew attention away from the rest of the beast.

The creature had a gaping circular hole for a mouth. Inside of this hole were multiple rows of razor sharp teeth that wrapped around the entire circumference of the mouth. Glimmer Shine now understood why the unicorn was in so much distress when the creature latched on to him.

Judging from its size, one might have estimated that it would be easy to manipulate the creature once held. This couldn’t have been farther from the truth, however. Glimmer Shine felt as if he was holding on to a tornado. No matter how hard he pushed or shoved, he could hardly maintain a grip on the tiny monster.

“Help!” Glimmer yelled as the creature sent him falling backwards. The beast screeched and twitched its mouth eagerly as it drew closer and closer to reaching the stallion’s neck.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light enveloped the pinned pony. When Glimmer Shine opened his eyes again, he noticed that the creature had been reduced to an escaping puff of black smoke. He looked up to see Tom placing his other hand back up to return to fending off the cloud of dark matter.

“Thanks for the-” Glimmer Shine started to speak up when he was interrupted by a clamoring uproar of high-pitched squeaks and screeches. It sounded like a nail being dragged down a chalkboard, only magnified a hundred times over.

The ponies looked to the source of the noise, only to see a swarm of the same creatures popping out from the darkness. The monsters flew overhead in a circle while screeching angrily. Suddenly, they swooped down all at once and rushed towards the group around the princess.

“Oh no!” Twilight exclaimed with wide eyes as she watched the swarm getting closer. She quickly realized that someone had to act fast before they were engulfed by a flying horde of teeth.

“AHHH!” Rarity screamed at the top of her lungs and covered her face in terror. She could already picture the damage that the angry swarm would cause to her and her friends. Just as she was preparing for the end, she heard a magical whir, followed by the sound of dozens of tiny objects slamming into glass.

“Wh… what?” Rarity looked up in confusion, only to see that there was a bright purple force field surrounding her and the other unicorns. She looked over to see Twilight concentrating while pointing her horn upwards.

“You did it Twilight!” Rarity cheered happily while raising her hooves into the air in excitement. Her joy quickly turned to horror again as she realized what was about to happen.

“Oh no… what about the others?!” The white mare exclaimed in shock while turning her attention back to the swarm of monsters outside. Sure enough, the creatures broke off of the purple bubble and flew around rapidly to swarm around any other target they could find.

Peppermint and whoever else had a strobe desperately fired into the black mass approaching them. But no matter how fast they fired, the swarm was far too fast and large to destroy.

“AHH!” The ponies all yelled in unison as they felt the large numbers of creatures slamming into them. Twilight and the other unicorns inside of the bubble averted their eyes in horror as they expected their friends to be ripped to pieces.

Suddenly, the screaming died down. Everyone thought the worst had happened until they actually looked up. Every single one of the tiny carnivores was floating in a blue aura, seemingly against their will.

Recognizing the color of the aura, Twilight glanced over to Glitterball. As she had expected, the rainbow-haired unicorn was focusing intensely on keeping some kind of spell active with her horn. The spell she was using seemed to be more than she could handle as beads of sweat rolled down her face while her horn sparked and flashed from over exertion.

“Shoot them! Shoot them now!” Glitterball instructed to everyone who could listen. It wasn’t hard to discern the alarm and urgency in her voice as she tried to keep the numerous amounts of creatures under her control. Seemingly the only reason she was able to pull it off was due to the monsters already being in tight clusters.

Peppermint and the others wasted no time in heeding their teammate’s instructions. They rapidly fired their strobes at every black mass they saw. All the while keeping a close eye on Glitterball to determine how much time they had.

Twilight and Rarity watched anxiously as they tried to gauge the stallions’ progress with destroying the creatures against Glitterball’s exhaustion. The unicorn clenched her eyes shut as she strained every muscle in her body to try and cope with the difficult task she was facing.

Twilight had cast many spells for longer than she should have, so she knew just how the unicorn was feeling. Her horn was sparking and sputtering so much that everyone watching thought that her head might explode from the pressure.

Even Glimmer Shine and the other guards were helping out with destroying the flying creatures. They swiped at them with their swords, easily ripping through their shadowy forms with their luminescent blue blades. Despite how much progress was being made, everyone was still tense as they raced to eliminate all of the monsters.

Finally, Peppermint shot a bolt of energy into the last small cluster of the creatures. The bat-like monsters erupted into a puff of smoke with nothing more than an interrupted shriek to indicate their departure into oblivion.

“Got it!” The white stallion exclaimed to alert Glitterball that she could stop.

Glitterball’s horn immediately fizzed out in a brief flash of light. She groaned in exhaustion while her legs gave out from underneath her. Twilight and Rarity raced to her side as she fell to the floor. After settling on the ground for a moment, the white mare drifted out of consciousness.

“Oh my goodness… she knocked herself out.” Rarity gasped in concern as she examined the unconscious mare.

“I’m not surprised. She must have used a lot of energy keeping those things still.” Twilight stated while thinking back to the energetic creatures. She shuddered as she thought about how the unicorn even went about trying what she did.

“Is everyone ok?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking around at the other guards. The creatures did manage to swarm several of the ponies before Glitterball incapacitated them. All of the guards briefly examined themselves for cuts before turning to their comrades and doing the same.

Suddenly, everyone turned their attention to a brown unicorn stallion lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. He had been the first victim of the savage creatures before they even swarmed the area. Thankfully, he seemed to still be alive as he clutched his still bleeding neck.

Peppermint and the others rushed over to him urgently. The guards waited close by to lend their assistance should the need arise while the red-haired stallion examined the unicorn’s injury. The brown stallion’s hooves were stained red as he desperately tried to stem the frightful amount of blood loss he was experiencing.

“Hey buddy, can you hear me? Two blinks for yes.” Peppermint asked in a calm tone of voice while looking at the wounded guard. He knew that due to the severity of his injury that talking was out of the question.

The unicorn was still clutching his throat and breathing rapidly and shallowly, but he did as instructed and blinked twice in rapid succession.

“Ok good… listen up. We’re going to take care of you, ok? Just hang in there and keep pressure on this.” Peppermint instructed while slipping a gauze pad under the unicorn’s hoof and onto his wound. He then looked up and faced the others with a more serious expression.

“We need to get him out of here. He’s going to die if we don’t keep on top of this.” Pepper explained in a concerned tone.

“Hey Tom, do you think you could heal him?” Glimmer Shine asked while glancing over to the human. If he could quickly blast one of the creatures off of him, then he shouldn’t have had any problems with healing the injured unicorn.

“Sorry, I don’t think I could manage that. I’m barely fending this thing off with two hands, and that’s with the added help I’m getting. And since were down one… make that two unicorns, we need to conserve the energy we’re using if we’re going to outlast this thing.” Tom explained while glancing over to Glitterball. If she didn’t wake up and regain her strength, the group would only have four unicorns to work with counting Twilight and Rarity. And the unicorns they did have needed to be spread between helping the princess and giving energy to the human for keeping the dark matter at bay.

“Ughh…” Glimmer Shine groaned in frustration as he tried to think of a solution to their problem. He then turned to three of the other guards and sighed.

“You three take him down to the equipment room and stabilize him.” Glimmer instructed while pointing to the three white stallions. They nodded before walking over to Peppermint and waiting for him to give them the go ahead.

“Ok, easy with him. Try to keep pressure on that for us ok buddy?” Peppermint said while tapping the unicorn on the leg gently. The wounded guard couldn’t nod due to the placement of his injury, but he seemed to be holding onto the gauze pad as tightly as he could.

While being as careful and slow as possible, Peppermint and the three guards lifted the unicorn up off the ground. They gently placed him over one of their backs and balanced him.

“Be careful when you’re taking him down there. You might run into some resistance.” Glimmer Shine explained to the trio. They nodded in agreement.

“Should we try to come back up here?” One of the guards asked.

“No… it might be too dangerous to make two trips. We’ll manage without you.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily.

“Ok… good luck everyone.” The guard said while taking one last glance around at the others. He then rushed to the door to the stairway and opened the door while his companion followed him and steadied the unicorn on his back while the third guard focused on keeping them safe.

Now that the three guards were gone, Glimmer Shine looked around at his remaining group and frowned. There was only one other able-bodied guard with him and his brother. The only other one even attacking was the disabled stallion with a strobe sitting near the princess and her small group.

“Are you guys going to be ok by yourselves?” The lieutenant asked in a concerned tone while looking at the brothers and the single guard helping them.

“How much longer will that spell take Princess?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking over to Luna anxiously. The alicorn grunted under her breath as she looked up from her spell.

“It still has a long ways to go. We’re trying as hard as we can.” Luna explained with a concerned frown while looking around at the group’s diminished numbers. She never imagined that so many things would go wrong with her plan.

“*Sigh*… I think we can manage. Just as long as there isn’t an army of them coming at us we should be fine.” Glimmer Shine stated while gripping his new strobe tightly. One of the guards that left had given him their strobe to use. The yellow pony looked around to his brother and the lone guard standing next to him for confirmation. The two nodded hesitantly while gripping their own weapons with slight uncertainty.

“Hello…? Can anyone hear me out there?” Glimmer Shine and Peppermint suddenly heard Brimstoke’s voice in their ears.

“We’re here Brimstoke. What’s going on?” Glimmer Shine spoke up while holding his hoof up to his ear.

“Where are you guys?” Sunspot interjected herself into the call. She seemed very eager to learn about what was happening with the others.

“We’re on the roof trying to get rid of the dark matter.” Glimmer Shine replied.

“Oh… in that case, we have some good news and some bad news for you.” Brimstoke explained uneasily. The two stallions didn’t like the concerned tone that their leader had.

“What’s the good news?” Peppermint asked with careful optimism.

“Neon Streak is outside. Apparently, she and Applejack saw what was going on from a distance and came running. And that’s not all… Princess Celestia is out there too. Neon says that she is working on a solution from her end.” Sunspot explained eagerly. The news immediately made the two stallions’ faces brighten up.

Twilight and Rarity noticed the two ponies smiling from ear to ear. They wondered what could have possibly made them so chipper in a situation like this.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Brimstoke and Sunspot just contacted us. Apparently, Neon Streak is outside with Princess Celestia. She is trying to get us out as we speak!” Peppermint explained cheerfully while dropping his hoof for a moment.

“Thank heavens!” Rarity stated with cheerful relief. She and Twilight celebrated happily that the white alicorn was coming to rescue them.

“I knew that the princess would come to save us!” Twilight said excitedly. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling ear to ear. She could almost feel her mouth stretching widely, but she didn’t care.

Luna simply smiled while still concentrating on the spell. She knew that her sister wouldn’t stand idly by without trying to save her and the others.

“Umm… what was the bad news Brimstoke?” Glimmer Shine asked nervously while remembering what the white stallion had said before.

“We can’t find any monsters down here.” Brimstoke stated in a concerned tone.

“What…?” Glimmer Shine asked with a confused expression.

“How is that a bad thing?” Peppermint asked with equal confusion. He immediately regretted his question as he knew that he was about to be given an answer.

“We can’t find any readings coming from this floor. They’re all gone! We think that they’re heading up to the roof.” Sunspot explained apprehensively.

“But, that means…” Glimmer Shine paused with a shocked expression on his face.

“Yeah… we think there is an army of monsters coming your way.” Brimstoke stated uneasily.

Before Glimmer Shine could reply, a loud growl came from the darkness outside of the barrier. More growls and screeches joined the first one until there was an uproar of feral noises surrounding the entire area. The joy that the ponies felt was immediately replaced by terror. They darted their eyes around nervously as they spotted several dark shapes moving around just outside their bubble of protection.

“Uh… Brimstoke, we’re going to have to get back to you.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily before letting his hoof drop to the floor. He grabbed his strobe and backed closer to the others.

“Tom, I don’t suppose you can give us an idea of what’s out there can you?” Peppermint asked uneasily while glancing over to the human. Tom used his senses a few times, when he suddenly shivered forcefully and shook his head in disgust and shock.

“I don’t think you want to know.” Tom replied with a hesitant tone. His response didn’t bring the amount of reassurance that the red haired stallion was looking for. If anything, it only made the pit in the ponies’ stomachs grow even deeper.

Glimmer Shine, Peppermint, and the lone guard that was helping them backed into a circle and looked around anxiously. They weren’t sure which direction they would be attacked from, but they were certain that they would be attacked.

Suddenly, the group noticed a pack of darklings jumping out into the light. The four beasts looked around at the various candles scattered around on the ground. They then roared loudly in anger at the annoying blue objects.

“I think they don’t care about the candles anymore.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily.

As if in response to the stallion’s statement, one of the darklings used its front paw to kick one of the candles over towards the ponies. The candle bounced along the ground a few times before being snuffed out as it settled flame side down.

“Ok, scratch that… they definitely don’t care about the candles anymore.” Glimmer Shine added with an expression of dismay plastered on his face.

“Heads up!” Peppermint yelled as the darklings started running towards them.

As the three monsters rushed forward with their teeth bared, the three ponies prepared for battle. Glimmer Shine and Peppermint opened fire with their strobes. The darklings dodged to the side as the incoming bolts of energy whizzed by their forms.

One of the darklings caught a blast right in its mouth. The bolt of light exploded, knocking the beast off balance as its form had a sizable hole punched into it. The two ponies took advantage of the stumbling monster and focused their fire on it.

While their comrade exploded into black smoke behind them, the remaining three darklings continued running towards the ponies. Just before they were about to collide with the two stallions, the guard beside them stepped forward and swung his sword sideways. One of the beasts caught the glowing blade in its mouth while the other two prepared to jump the occupied stallion.

Before the creatures could even think about leaping on the guard, Glimmer Shine and Peppermint gunned them down in a flash of lights and smoke. They turned to assist the guard with his darkling, when he suddenly ripped the sword out of the monster’s mouth, killing it in the process.

“Nicely done.” Glimmer Shine said with a smirk. The guard nodded in satisfaction at his good performance.

“Look out!” Twilight yelled while pointing behind the three. Glimmer Shine and the others looked behind them to see two of the monkey creatures leaping towards them with their bladed hands reeled back for a strike.

“Ack!” The ponies yelped in surprise while jumping backwards to get out of the way. The two monsters landed and shrieked as they missed their prey. They then jumped forward again to engage the escaping stallions.

One of the creatures went after Glimmer Shine and Peppermint. It ducked and weaved around every strobe blast they sent its way as it slowly gained ground on them. Meanwhile, the other creature went after the lone guard.

The white stallion backpedaled slowly while sizing the frightful monster up. He watched nervously as the beast snarled and stared at him with its multiple glowing eyes. It swiped its sickle-shaped claws in the air a few times while stepping forward menacingly.

“Ragh!” The guard yelled fiercely while swiping his sword sideways at the monster. The blade collided with the creature’s claws, forcing the stallion to pull back and dodge the impending counterattack.

The creature screeched with each strike it made. The guard barely managed to maneuver his sword in time to block each blow. The vicious attacks from the beast drove the white stallion backwards as he desperately tried to keep up.

Suddenly, the sword went flying out of the guard’s mouth. The blade slid along the ground sideways until it fell out of the barrier. The stallion suddenly realized that he was right next to the edge of the safe area. Looking over to Glimmer Shine and Peppermint for aid, the guard quickly realized that they were busy with their own monster. The creature was still dodging every blast the pair shot at it.

“Ack!” The guard yelped in surprise as the monster leapt onto him. He slid backwards and just barely halted inside of the bubble of protection. The top of his helmet was jutting out of the barrier. He could feel the coldness of the dark matter radiating through the metallic headpiece.

“AH!” The guard yelled in fright as the beast on top of him reeled its arm back for a strike. He saw his entire life flashing before his eyes.

Before the stallion met his end, a burst of light crashed into the shadowy beast. The guard saw bolts of energy burning through the monster, leaving holes in its body that poured out black smoke. Once the creature faded into a cloud of smoke on top of him, the guard looked up to find his savior.

Much to his surprise, he still saw Peppermint and Glimmer Shine struggling with their monster. Suddenly, another set of energy blasts slammed into the other beast from the side. Everyone looked over to see the disabled stallion pointing his strobe forward, but they also saw another surprising sight.

“Glitter?” Glimmer Shine asked in a surprised tone as he looked over to the unicorn. Not only was she awake and alert, but she was also pointing her strobe forward confidently.

“What did I miss?” Glitterball asked with a small smirk while blowing the smoke off of the tip of her strobe.

“Not much… we’re up to our eyes in these freaks, though.” Glimmer Shine replied while offering his sword to the guard in place of the one he lost.

“Well I would love to help, but I need to get back to work.” Glitterball replied while lighting up her horn and concentrating. Despite her exhaustion, she immediately returned to gathering energy for the princess’s spell.

Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine and his brother returned their attention to the many creatures around them. More and more different monsters were walking through the barrier in an attempt at getting to the ponies. The three stallions did their best to keep on top of all of the creatures coming for them while also trying to dodge any attacks coming their way.

The constant firing of the brothers’ strobes filled the air as they dispatched every darkling, every crawling alligator monster, and every screeching primate creature they found. It seemed like what Brimstoke said was true and every monster in the entire building was coming after them in force.

Suddenly, a small flying object landed at Glimmer Shine’s feet and embedded itself into the floor. The object resembled a thorn that would come from a plant, but it was the biggest thorn that the stallion had ever seen.

“What the…?” Glimmer Shine muttered in confusion. Suddenly, another thorn whizzed by his head. After several more sharp flying spikes sailed past the ponies, they looked forward to find the cause of the assault.

A small creature slowly stepped out of the darkness. It resembled a fox, but not any fox that one would find roaming around in the woods. This fox seemed to have been plucked straight from some filly’s worst nightmare.

The fox had pitch black fur, just like every other shadow creature the group had fought. It also had a mouth full of gnarled razor sharp teeth and two glowing red slits above its mouth, also like every other shadow creature the group had fought. What set the small monster apart from the rest of the beasts the ponies had come across were its thorns. There were small spikes jutting out of the creature’s body nearly everywhere. To match with its appearance, its tail came to an end at a larger spike that resembled the ones that Glimmer Shine and the others had been dodging.

“Sweet Celestia… how many different shadow creatures are there Tom?!” Glimmer Shine asked while dodging another spike launched from the beast’s tail.

“I don’t know. How many different animals are there?” Tom replied. The ponies couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not, and they weren’t sure which would be worse.

“Hay with this…” Glimmer Shine muttered angrily. He was tired of these monsters. If he ever saw another shadow creature in his life it would be too soon. Deciding that enough was enough, he readied his strobe and pointed it at the disturbing animal.

Just as the yellow stallion fired a blast at the creature, it flicked its tail at him and shot out another spike. The blast of light exploded into the monster, killing it instantly. Meanwhile, the thorn whizzed through the air towards the yellow pony. Glimmer Shine prepared to dodge the attack when it suspiciously veered off to the side and completely missed him.

Glimmer Shine turned his head just in time to watch the thorn fly at the unicorn guard assisting Tom. Before anyone could react, the spike flew right into the brown stallion’s chest and embedded itself into it. The guard’s armor cracked from the force of the piercing thorn, seemingly impaling him deeply.

“Gah!” The unicorn groaned in pain while clutching the already bleeding injury. He stumbled backwards for a moment before collapsing to the floor and going limp. As his horn dimmed, the spell he was casting died out as well.

“Agh!” Tom yelled in pain while falling to his knees. The barrier of light that was keeping the ponies safe suddenly dipped downwards a considerable amount as the human struggled to keep up with the immense strength of the cloud by himself.

“Tom!” The others yelled fearfully as they realized what was happening.

Twilight looked around at the progressively shrinking barrier that separated the darkness outside from their zone of safety. At this rate, they would all be submerged in pitch blackness with a life sucking cloud of evil at their backs within a few short moments.

“Hold on, Tom! I’m coming!” Twilight exclaimed while rushing forward. She ran across the roof to where the human was and raced to use the spell to transfer her energy to him.

As Twilight made the connection with the boy, she immediately felt the strain he was going through. She now understood why he couldn’t fend off the dark matter by himself. He wasn’t even able to match up with its level of power without her assistance.

Tom pushed hard against the encroaching cloud, sending it back to its original position. Now that the group had some breathing room, the human slowly got back to a standing position and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Nice save…” Tom stated in an impressed tone while glancing beside him to the unicorn. Twilight chuckled slightly as she let a small smile fall across her face.

“Thanks.” Twilight replied with a slight smirk.

Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine and Peppermint were examining the unicorn guard that got attacked by the fox creature. Peppermint checked the motionless stallion for any signs of life while everyone else watched anxiously.

“Is he…” Twilight asked uneasily while staring at the large spike embedded into the unicorn’s chest.

“I’m afraid so.” Peppermint replied while shaking his head sadly. He couldn’t find a pulse on the unconscious stallion, and he wasn’t breathing. It wasn’t hard to believe that he was dead considering the scope of his injury.

“*Sigh*… We need to be more careful. We can’t afford to lose anyone else.” Twilight lowered her head sadly at the prospect of her companions dying. Her group hadn’t been that large to begin with, but now it felt like she was practically alone on the roof.

Before anyone could say anything else, they heard a loud roar that was so low in pitch that it shook their bodies slightly as it reverberated around the roof. The loud noise was followed by what sounded like the footsteps of something large.

The group didn’t need to wonder as to the source of the frightening noises for long however, as a large black shape slowly approached the barrier and stepped through. The hulking beast that was revealed seemed more humanoid in shape than animalistic. It had two large arms that seemed to be slightly disproportionate to the rest of its body. It also had one large glowing red eye in the center of its chest.

“AHH!” Rarity screamed in terror as she recognized the beast. “That’s the brute that attacked me out in the hallway!” She exclaimed in a nervous panic as memories of what happened before her concussion came flooding back to her.

“I’ll handle this guy!” Glimmer Shine stated with a determined expression while readying his strobe. He fired off a bolt of light that sailed right into the hulking monster and exploded into its shadowy skin. When the bright light faded however, the only sign that the monster had taken damage was a small puff of white smoke trailing off its otherwise undamaged body.

“Uh oh…” Glimmer Shine felt his blood run cold as he looked down at his strobe. The weight that it once carried all but vanished, leaving him holding the small paperweight that it felt like all along.

*Grroaar!*

The beast let out a deafening roar while settling its singular eye on the ponies in front of it. The group felt their hearts collectively skip a beat as the noise shook their very beings.

“Shoot it!” The lieutenant yelled while uneasily watching the battle about to take place.

“I tried that already!” Glimmer Shine yelled back in response.

“Well shoot it some more!” The unicorn instructed urgently.

While the large creature took a single menacing step forward, Peppermint and Glimmer Shine both readied their strobes. Without so much as a countdown for preparation, the brothers unloaded into the towering beast with their weapons.

Blast after blast slammed into the monster and exploded into a shower of brilliant sparks. white smoke poured off of the creature’s body in streams, but it seemed to have only been enraged by the constant assault.

Meanwhile, while the two brothers were attacking the beast from the front, the lone guard rushed behind the monster for a sneak attack. He reeled his sword back and swung at the beast’s legs with all of his might. The luminescent blade cut through the monster with relative ease, eliciting a deafening cry of pain from the creature.

The monster immediately turned around and pounded its massive fist into the ground where the pony was. The guard barely managed to move out of the way before the thundering strike landed on him. When the creature moved its fist, there was a large indentation in the floor with numerous cracks forming along the sides.

The white stallion used this as an opportunity and swung his sword across the monster’s side. The beast whipped its arm around, smacking the fleeing pony and sending him rolling from the impact. It didn’t even seem like the monster put that much effort into the strike, but it was enough to send the guard flying along the ground.

While the dazed guard skidded to a halt on the other side of the roof, Twilight and Tom were nervously stepping back to distance themselves from the hulking monster. Finally, Tom lowered one of his hands from fending off the dark matter. With the added energy the purple mare was giving him, it should have been no problem to dispatch a simple shadow creature.

“Hey blinky, feast your eye on this!” Tom yelled fiercely while shooting a beam of energy at the creature. The blue stream of light collided with the monster and enveloped it. The ponies smiled as they anticipated victory. As the light died down and the smoke cleared however, their hopes were suddenly dashed as they noticed that the creature was still standing. There was some black smoke trailing off of its body, indicating that the attack at least somewhat hurt the beast. However, it was otherwise unfazed by the human’s attack.

“Oh no! What do we do?!” Twilight asked while frantically trying to think of a solution. Meanwhile, the angry beast was now staring at them with its singular eye.

“For the moment… We get out of here!” Tom yelled while sidestepping to distance himself from the monster. Twilight followed the human as he awkwardly tried to move while simultaneously trying to fend off the cloud of dark matter.

Rarity, Glitterball, and the lieutenant were watching anxiously as the others fought the monster. Nothing they were doing was even making a dent in the hulking beast. It was only a matter of time before the creature actually managed to land a fatal hit on one of them.

“Princess, how much longer until the spell is finished?” The brown stallion asked uneasily. Although he was providing energy for the spell, he couldn’t actually tell how much progress was being made on it.

Luna glanced up at the battle taking place just a short distance away. She frowned uneasily as she realized that the others were steadily losing the fight.

“It’s almost done… we just need a few more minutes.” Luna explained with an anxious tone of voice. She didn’t like the way things were turning out just as much as the others didn’t.

“They don’t have a few more minutes…” The lieutenant stated while looking forward with a determined expression. Suddenly, he broke off from the spell and rushed forward into battle.

Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine was desperately trying to avoid the attacks coming from the giant monster. He had to put all of his effort into each dodge he made just to prevent himself from contacting the beast’s fist as it whizzed by his head. Suddenly, he fell to the floor as he jumped over one of the monster’s strikes and caught his legs on the hulking fist as it sailed underneath him.

After rolling on the ground briefly and recovering, Glimmer Shine looked up to see the monster preparing to pound him into pony dust. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was punched clean through the roof and onto the next floor.

“AH!” Glimmer Shine yelled in terror while averting his eyes and cringing tightly. Suddenly, he heard a magical buzz and heard the creature grunting angrily. The yellow stallion looked up to see that the monster was being held by a magical aura.

Glimmer Shine and the others looked over to see the lieutenant struggling to keep the monster frozen in place. He seemed to be having a difficult time of even holding on to the hulking beast.

The monster strained its muscles to fight against the unicorn’s influence. It managed to move in tiny increments as it slowly won the upper hand. Suddenly, it managed to break free of the aura keeping it in place. The beast threw a heavy punch at the unicorn, knocking him clean off of his feet and through the air.

“AHHHHHHHH.” The brown stallion screamed as he was sent flying outside of the barrier. With how fast he was going, it wasn’t too hard to believe that he fell off of the roof entirely.

“NO!” Rarity and the others yelled in shock as they watched the lieutenant fly out of view. It was horrifying for everyone, but the white unicorn was affected the most. The stallion was the one who had rescued her and Fluttershy while wandering out in the hallways. If it wasn’t for him, she might not even be alive right now.

The loss of their comrade couldn’t be mourned however as the monster turned its attention to the others. It stalked closer to Twilight and Tom while completely ignoring any attempts made by Glimmer Shine and Peppermint to distract it.

“Princess, we have to help them!” Rarity stated frantically while darting her head between the alicorn and her friends.

“I know… stand back.” Luna instructed as she got up from her seated position. She faced towards the beast with a determined expression before focusing on casting the spell she had been preparing for this whole time. Although it wasn’t quite as charged up as she would have liked, it was close enough for her.

Suddenly, a bright wave of energy erupted from the alicorn’s horn. The blinding light radiated out of her horn in all directions, soaring outwards in a sort of dome of effect. The light immediately collided with the hulking creature, blowing it into smoke before continuing on its path. The ponies all covered their eyes and waited as they felt their hair getting blown back from the force.

The light collided with the dark matter outside of the barrier and kept going. It seemingly pushed back the wall of darkness that had trapped the ponies inside of the station with relative ease. The group watched eagerly as their plan for freedom was about to bear fruit.

“We did it!” Twilight cheered in excitement while grabbing the nearest person, in this case Tom, and pulling him in for a hug. The human was glad that he could finally rest from fighting the dark matter, but it was hard to breathe a sigh of relief with the purple unicorn squeezing him so tightly.

“Finally! We can get out of this dreadful place!” Rarity stated with a joyful smile as she watched the wave of energy continuing on its path.

Suddenly, the blinding light died down. The ponies expected to be greeted with the clear blue skies of Ponyville, but what actually greeted them made their jaws drop in shock and horror. The pitch black cloud of dark matter was still intact. It didn’t even have any holes punched into it. The only thing that the light did was push the cloud outwards until it vanished.

“W…w…wh…” Twilight was at a loss for words as she blinked rapidly. She thought that maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her, but no matter how many times she blinked, the darkness remained.

“How is this possible…? We put so much energy into that spell…” Luna stated in a shocked tone. She couldn’t even fathom how powerful the dark matter must have been to weather such a strong magical spell.

The dark matter rapidly closed in around the ponies until it returned to its original position. Tom quickly placed his hands upwards and projected his light again. He struggled to keep the cloud at bay as it continued getting closer and closer.

“Cast the spell on me Twilight!” Tom instructed frantically. The cloud felt like it was ignoring his attempts at fending it off, only being barely kept at bay by the blue light.

“I am! It isn’t working!” Twilight replied with fear evident in her voice. Tom looked down to his body, only to see that the unicorn was already giving him energy. Despite this, the dark matter continued to press against him more than he could press back.

“Did it get stronger?! How is that even possible?!” Glimmer Shine asked in a shocked tone.

Suddenly, Twilight felt something wrapping itself around her leg. She looked down just in time to see a shadowy tendril constricting her front leg and pulling taught. She felt herself getting pulled off balance violently.

“AHH!” Twilight screamed as the tendril pulled her off of her feet and dragged her backwards. Without her spell to assist him, the human yelped in pain as the excessive force of the dark matter drove him to his knees.

“Twilight!” Tom yelled as he helplessly watched the unicorn getting dragged towards the progressively shrinking wall of darkness. He couldn’t do anything to help her without dropping his hands and allowing the cloud to instantly smother the whole area.

“TWILIGHT NO!” Rarity screamed as she saw her friend getting pulled closer to the wall of darkness. The purple unicorn desperately tried to grab onto the floor to prevent her inevitable demise.

Suddenly, a bolt of energy flew into the tendril holding her in place. Twilight looked up to see Glitterball racing towards her. Despite her leg now being free, the purple mare was too close to the rapidly approaching edge of safety to be able to do anything.

“AH!” Twilight screamed and covered her face with her forelegs as she felt her body crossing the barrier. She immediately heard the sound of roaring wind and the high pitched screeching enveloping her, snuffing out any other noise.

“Hold on, Twilight!” Right before her head was enveloped, Twilight heard Glitterball yelling in a panic. She saw the rainbow haired unicorn racing to her and jumping into the darkness after her.

Everyone else watched the two unicorns disappear behind the still approaching wall of darkness. Their hearts sunk as they realized that they were most likely dead and that they were about to join them in oblivion.

“Girls!” Glimmer Shine yelled in a fearful panic as the still approaching wall of darkness made him back up. Everyone huddled together fearfully as they watched their approaching doom.