//------------------------------//
// "Darling, I know you're upset, but summoning giant flaming arrows isn't the way to solve things." 
// Story: Sunscarred 
// by Masterweaver 
//------------------------------//

"OH SCREW YOU RARITY!" spat the demon Sunset. "You don't understand anything!"

"Well I certainly don't understand why you're acting so childish," Rarity allowed, even as she deflected another blazing spear with a hexagonal projection of energy.

"Can you move your banter off our lawn?" Aria shouted. "Replacing topsoil is stupidly expensive, you know!"

The red-skinned woman in the air spun around and threw a wheel of fire at her (which she dodged with a small lean to the left). "SHUT UP! YOU'RE EVIL!"

"You just smashed my vanity stand, and you're calling me evil?"

"My apologies," the white-clad Sunset offered, grabbing the demon Sunset from behind. "She is a touch unhinged at the moment."

The demon shoved her tail against the other Sunset. "Let go, you pretentious Celestia wannabe!" She grabbed the girl and slammed her into the Sunset with flaming wings.

Sunburst looked up, biting his lip. "I feel like we should be doing something about that."

"Like what?" Flash asked.

"I don't know, it's just... there's a big battle going on above us and, you know, that seems like something we should be worried about?"

"Worry about getting the spell ready," Starlight advised, rolling out a large square of parchment. "That will take care of itself."

"HEY!" Aria shouted. "What are you doing to our lawn?!"

The demon Sunset glanced down and scowled. "I recognize those runes! I'm not going back into nothingness!"

"No estaríamos un nada! ¡Nuestra existencia continuaría a través de nuestros amigas!"

"STOP BEING A POORLY TRANSLATED STEREOTYPE!" the demon screeched. "WE'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"

"Right, of course," deadpanned the Sunset with ears. "Which is why you're throwing a tantrum and setting everything on fire, because we're better than that, obviously."

"Does that show we're better?" said the one in a dress. "Because I sort of think that shows we're worse."

Sunburst yelped as Rainbow shoved him out of the way of gout of fire. "Oh sweet Celestia, that almost hit me!"

"Yeah, you should maybe stay out of the way until we need you," Rainbow suggested. "Why don't you hang out with Fluttershy over there?"

"Right, yes, right..." Sunburst rushed over to the indicated girl crouched behind a fence. "This, this is crazy. This is insane."

Fluttershy shrugged. "I suppose it must seem that way."

"You're not scared?"

"Oh, I am. But at this point it's not exactly unexpected." She tapped her smartphone, idly leaning out of the way of a stray fireblast. "Oh, well, that's interesting."

"What is?"

"Oh, there's this... well, I guess you could call them a theatre troop, and one of them is pregnant. I hope she has good luck with that really..."

"Yeehaw!" Applejack cried, slinging her lasso into the air.

"So you are a hick stereotype!" Aria shouted from her window. "I always suspected, but I never actually knew!"

Applejack gave her a flat look. "This 'hick stereotype' is in tha process o' capturin' the demon burnin' up your lawn!"

"Yeah, sure you are. Your rope's on fire, by the way."

The cowgirl looked up and sighed. "Right, of course. Hey, what's with you and fire anyway?"

"Well," the demon mused, "magically speaking fire is easy. It's just proper excitation of the molecular bonds and--HEY! DON'T DISTRACT ME, I'M NOT GOING BACK!"

"Then why haven't you run away?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Because I need to convince them--" the demon pointed at the house-- "to help me stabilize my matrix in order to prevent decohesion!"

"That's what we want to do too!"

"No, you want to stabilize Sunset's matrix!"

"But aren't you Sunset?"

The demon opened her mouth, paused, and then got a horrible smile. "Aren't I...? Maybe not yet. But..."

She looked down at the Sunset in a dress.

"...I can change that."

With surprising speed she dove toward her counterpart, who was shoved out of the way at the last minute by Rainbow. Applejack lunged at her, wrapping her arms around her--and screamed as the demon bent her arm out of alignment.

"Oh," Aria mused, "now this is getting interesting."

"I'll be taking that," the demon snarled, pulling a gem from Applejack's necklace. "Ha, haha... Yes, that's useful. That's very useful, yesssss...."

"¡Tonto! ¡Si tomas todas las gemas, la magia abrumará tu matriz y te convertirás en completamente decoherente!"

"Seriously, cut that out!" the demon snapped. "The people who don't speak spanish don't care what you're saying and the people who do find it offensive!"

"Hey Adagio!" Aria shouted into the house. "Sunset's trying to eat herself!"

A voice called back.

"Sort of both, really!"

With the loud thumping of footsteps, Adagio pushed her head through the window. "Oh, wow, this I've got to see. SUNSET! MAKE THEM SCREAM! ANY WAY WILL DO!"

The gathered Sunsets, as one, turned to glare at her.

"...As soon as I'm finished with them," the demon growled, "you'll be next. You got that?"

"And you never even asked me out to dinner," Adagio mused. "How standards have fallen."

"Oh for the love of--"

Twilight rammed herself into the demon, shoving her over a circle on the piece of paper Starlight had rolled out. "Sunburst! Ladies! Positions!"

"Oh, that's our cue." Fluttershy pocketed her smartphone. "You know which circle's yours, right?"

"They're all labeled," Sunburst agreed, peering around the fence. "Um, that demon is struggling--"

"Twilight has telekinetic magic, she can keep that Sunset down." Fluttershy took the arm of a random Sunset and smiled. "Now or never, right?"

"Ha sido divertido. Dame un poco de diversión más tarde, ¿no?"

"Mmm, ordinary friend fun."

Twilight reached out and grabbed the two crystals in the demon's grip. "Come on, Sunset, give!"

"I'm not going to die!" the demon growled. "You're going to kill me, you know that, but I'm not going to die!"

"Let go! Let go so I can save you, you.... idiot!"

"NNNNNRRRRRGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Spike jumped forward and bit her on the hand.

"OW! You damned--NO!"

The demon realized, too late, that the crystals had loosened in her grip. One went shooting to Applejack, who was supported by a Sunset in crystal armor. The other hovered to Starlight, herself holding the Sunset dressed in white.

"No, no no!" The demon spun, scrabbling at Twilight. "Give me your crystal, you little--!"

Twilight smiled, sadly. "You can have it."

Sunburst stepped into his circle, the only one not occupied by a Sunset and a crystal-bearer, and opened a book.

"Wait..." The demon looked at him. "The source... harmonic resonance, that--no, no, NO!"

She was held back by Twilight, struggling to reach the man, and only heard the first words of his chant.

Up in the house, Adago sighed. "Welp. Show's over, I guess. All that's left is the fireworks."

"...Hey," Aria asked, "where's Sonata?"