//------------------------------//
// The Demon inside 
// Story: Living Darkness 
// by vildtiger 
//------------------------------//

This happens ten minutes after last chapter and fighting a bunch of robots later.

Medic, Twilight and Spike managed to get to the place where it is going down with Sunset Shimmer, and what they see what happened after Sunset put on the crown is a clear sign that magic definitely works differently in this world. For the Element’s rejection of Sunset was turning her into a demon like being. “Your Element shows the world who she truly is.” Medic voices to Twilight, she can only nod, taken too much aback by this major change.
Sunset notices them and grins. “So nice you could come.” The crown on her head- now working as her unicorn horn starts to light up. “All this power belongs to me! Nothing can stand in my way!”

“Sunset Shimmer!” Twilight cries, she wants to stop this madness for unlike Sunset who is drugged by the raw power of the Element, Twilight is starting to sense that this other unicorn won’t be able to handle it for long. “You have to give up the Element! It’s rejecting you!”

Sunset Shimmer laughs, pointing her clawed hands at the two seemly bearers of the element she has claimed as her own. “Rejecting me? It belongs to me Twilight Sparkle! And there is nothing you can do about it!” She shoots a magical beam at them, the human calling himself Medic pushes Twilight and her drake away in last second, leaving a small crater where they stood moments ago.
She is about to fire again, but stops when she hears Rhys voice. “Return Sunny back to me! This isn’t what she wanted!” She turns to the angry but also scared teen, for a moment she fights through the primal magic, but her need to raise in power quickly takes hold on her again and ignores the drake’s pledges of stopping this madness. She hits him with her magic, Rhys cries in pain as the magic forces him to take the form of a huge and very deadly dragon. 
She grins at her work, although deep inside, her heart aches of what she has done to the child she has cared for since his hatching. “Destroy them my pet!” This demon side of her commands and the dragon attacks the horrified three.

The others quickly realize that those there ran to Sunset has more than a turned pony to deal with, when a jade green and huge dragon tail destroys half of a building. Demo and Soldier recognize this right away, for they fought against this kind of rampaging dragon not long after they came to Equestria. The two eyes one another, nod and charges towards the spot. Are forced to stop though, when several sentry guns appear along with Engineer’s other. 
The man eyes the two in an almost bored manner. “Isn’t it enough you have to deal with your own demise? If you try and save her, you will die and is that really worth it?” 
Soldier aims his rocket launcher at him. “Get out of the way Engie!” He commands the Texan hard.

Engineer instead hits the sentry gun beside him, upgrading it to level three, he sighs as if he's dealing with a spoiled child instead of a man aiming a weapon that could easily kill him. “If you really are that interested to die, then why don’t you shoot yourself? It will be quicker and spare me building more guns. I really don’t want to waste more time than necessarily- which isn’t much.”
He blinks when several bombs land around him and although they destroyed some of the sentry guns and wounded him a lot. Engineer doesn't show signs he is that interested to put up a fight, more annoyed that he now has to rebuild the machines they destroyed. “Back to the drawing board… again.” He sighs, looks up and watches again in that bored manner when Soldier falls down towards him with a lifted shovel and a battle cry which get turned into a cry of pain when the remaining sentry guns shoot at him. Engineer walks over to the wounded man. “Solly, Solly, Solly.” He shakes his head. “If you have just been a bit smarter, you would have known this would happen.” Soldier aims his shotgun at him, but both to his and Demo’s shock, Engineer grabs it with his right hand and bend the barrel. The Texan eyes the wide-eyed Soldier. “Can’t expect you to understand that human flesh will always be weaker, not much use in a fight.” He throws away the destroyed barrel to then grab Soldier around the throat, suffocating him with ease.

Demo runs over but has to pull back when the sentry guns start to shoot at him, Engineer’s other eyes him briefly. “Why don’t you just give up?” He asks and turns back to Soldier struggling against the death grip the Texan has over his throat. “It doesn't matter how much you fight, it’s only a matter of time before you die. So why fight it?”

“You won’t gain anything if you don’t try!”

Engineer snaps his attention to his army of sentry guns, all blowing up from self-destruct, in the piles of metal walk his other, throwing away the self-destruct device. His other pulls out a shotgun and aims at him with a sneer. “And I sure hell going to fight.” 
Engineer snorts and tightens his grip around Soldier’s neck, a loud SNAP and he throws down the now dead American. “Not that it will do you much good.” To then winch when his other shoots him, he eyes the not deadly but still bleeding wound before turning to his so naïve other. “You should be thankful I ended him. We both know he would've died if he reached that beast.” Pointing at the dragon rampaging not far from them.

“Maybe, but we don’t know because we’re not Soldier.” The other Engineer replies.

He can almost laugh at this. “Of course we know, we know Soldier do not think, we know he will shoot all his rockets at the beast and when that does not work, he will go for a blind a rocket jump. We know that beast will be more than strong enough to deal with the rockets and Soldier serving himself on a silver platter when he flies up to its face. We know that he won’t listen to others for a better battle tactic. He is too stupid and proud, never going to accept that he is a horrible planner and never will lead anyone other than his so-called raccoon pets. All Soldier is; a shortsighted brute, there will be nothing more than cannon fodder.” His eyes land on Demo who stares at him in a mix of anger and despair, he smiles at the man. “You think he is a friend, but we both know the only reason you keep Soldier around is that you feel sorry for him. Just like we did to Pyro. My kind words make her feel better and when the time comes, she will die to protect what she thinks is her best friend. All thanks to a few friendly words.”

“That’s not true!” Engineer objects hard and shoots at his other again, but this time he misses because his hands shake too much. Hates to say this but he's not sure it's because he is angry or scared of what his other is saying might be what he truly feels deep inside.

The dark Engineer smiles, he knows he is right, he knows because he has seen the truth of how this world works. And this world does not have time for genuine companionship, for really; what's the point in it? 
“Of course it is, would you ever have spoken to Pyro if she hadn’t proven her usefulness protecting your machines? No, you wouldn’t. Other people are not worth our time, machines are so much easier to deal with. They do not argue, they do not demand, think they know better or get in our way.” He removes his glove, revealing a robot hand instead of flesh. His other jaw drops of the sight, but Engineer knows this is what he truly wanted. “Machines are stronger and way more of use than what is made of flesh, trust me, you will feel better when you accept that.”

“No! No way in hell I will accept your way of thoughts!”

He blinks, a bit confused by this. “No? So you think flesh is stronger than machines?” Nodding to the spot where Demo stands. “Perhaps you need another demonstration.”

But this Engineer here has heard enough, he can’t deny that machines are better than humans in some ways, but what his other is saying, that he does not need others. It sounds too much like the Administrator. He loves being around machines, but he has no wish in replacing his whole body with cold metal. “You are right that machines are stronger in raw strength than humans. But what you see as weakness, I see what makes us alive. I admit I have for a long time wanting to replace my hand with the gunslinger, and I understand why you did it. but… darn it!” He shakes his head, unable to stop the memories he got from his time in a world filled with very colorful ponies, especially about a white unicorn there reminded him that his ability to build wasn’t truly about himself. “You have lost the point of why we build machines! Yes, we build because we like to, but don’t you remember why we created these machines?” His other does not answer, so he enlightens him ”The dispenser was made to make sure the team always had ammo to fight and later the healing ray so Medic didn’t have to do all the healing himself. The teleporters help the team to reach their target quicker and the sentry gun- well I do admit I enjoy watching it wreck anyone stupid enough to get in its path- but it does not change it helps the team by making a chocking point.” He takes a step forward. “Don’t you see? We build machines in order to help others! A machine does not care about such things, machines do not appreciate our work that's why you have lost the will to create! But you are too stupid to see that!” Engineer throws away his shotgun and punches his other right in the face, knocking him to the ground. “So stop being so pessimistic and start putting some darn heart into your work!” He gets no answer from his other, but he really does not expect it.

Demo is quite awestruck of this double standoff and the words that got said. “That was some speech you did there mate.”

Engineer laughs softly, a bit embarrassed he let his mouth run like that. “Yeah, sorry about that.” And wishes what his other said was just having his mind bent by those Sirens but he cannot deny that he has many times preferred being around machines than humans. It is really hard being the go-to man when the others have a practical problem, more so when they take his work for granted and forget he too could need some help once and a while. He doubts that ever will change, but he sure hopes his negative feelings about it will be better now he is more aware of them. 
"Let's go." He tells Demo who nods and they both run towards the place where the rampaging dragon is.

The others follow the moment they got rid of the robots, reaching the place, they all aim the weapons at the rampaging dragon and start shooting. It roars in pain and collapses onto the ground. Scout leaps over its tail and spots where the trio is. “They are trapped under that rock!” Heavy and the newly respawned Soldier runs over and together pushes what once used to be a wall away from the three. Heavy offers the battered Medic his hand while Soldier lifts Twilight and Spike out from the rubbles. 
“You alright?” Heavy asks.

Medic checks his badly bruised arm. “Well, like that wizard, it’s hard to fight against someone with magic.” It at times like these he sort of wish he could do magic, sure could use his unicorn form by now.

Everyone turn around when the now really crazed Sunset Shimmer start to laugh maniacally and when even someone like Soldier realizes that crown holding Twilight’s Element is not good for her from how unstable it’s magic sparks as if a bomb is about to go off: then something bad is really going to happen. Not like Sunset realizes, she seems to have more fun seeing a bunch of mercenaries has come for Twilight’s aid than to take notice the magic she has is reaching its breaking point. “Gee, how much did she pay you to risk your life for her?” She asks the mercs mocking and summons her very unstable magic in her clawed palms, demanding the group. “Now step aside! Trust me, no money is worth this.” 
She yelps in pain from the headshot she received, the only thing that saved her is the magical aura around her. Sunset Shimmer sneers down to the one who dared to shoot at her.

“We’re not doing this for the money.” Sniper replies calmly, ready to shoot again if needed.

The other mercenaries agree by shielding the turned pony and aiming their own weapons at this she-demon before them. Not that bullets did any good when their opponent has a magical shield, nor did they have any defense against the magic she holds. Yet none of them stepped away from Twilight, instead braced themselves for the hit when Sunset fires at them. 
The magical blast hit, but when the smoke clears. It reveals that none of the mercenaries have been harmed, to their great surprise they have been shielded by a magical aura, turning around, this aura comes from Twilight. 
Twilight opens her eyes and blinks seeing the magical aura, looking up she sees that Medic, who has been trying to shield her with his own body has a stained look on his face. Is it taking a toll on him? No, she realizes that is not it when he opens his eyes, instead of a strong grey, a softer steel-blue meet hers purple.

One moment both of him got the same idea to keep her safe and the next his mind is a mess of memories of both, plus the Element shards in him is really acting up. It really hurts, so it takes him a moment to realize that this pain he feels is the Element of Magic from both him and Twilight reacting on one another. Only she is able to form this magical shield though. He eyes Twilight confused, noticing how her eyes wide in shock. He realizes why when he realizes he has both RED and BLU Medic memories, plus the different ways of feelings towards her. Pretty sure there will be some time before he will stop feeling like two people stuck in one body, but he can deal with that for now. The BLU side of him gives Twilight a weak smile and offers her his hand. 
She returns the smile and allows him to help her back on her feet. She looks up and tells the shocked beyond belief Sunset of why this happened. “The magic contained in my Element was able to unite with those that helped create it!” The humans except Medic jump startled when they get surrounded by the element they partly represent.

Sniper, Soldier, Engineer, and Scout were at first not surrounded by a light, but that soon changes when this ancient magic reaches out to their corrupted others, made them able to reclaim the other half of their soul and return to their complete self once again. The issues there caused conflict hasn’t been solved but at least now they didn’t have to deal with killing the other for it. 
With all of them now having a complete soul, the magic can finally be activated.

Medic can feel this very link they have to the Elements, it hurts as this body is not meant to do magic. Still, he is not really bothered as the sense of magic coursing through him feels awesome and lets Twilight know she can use the magic in him by putting a hand on her shoulder. She smiles up to him before turning to the now horrified Sunset.

“This magic is not about power.” Twilight tells their other turned unicorn. “And it is something you do not have the ability to control because you do not understand what made this power in the first place. The crown and element may be upon your head, Sunset Shimmer but you cannot wield it!” The color of each element join together and shoot a rainbow-colored beam at Sunset, this beam surrounds her and the collapsed Rhys, in a flash of bright light, both have been returned back to normal. 
The light from the mercenaries fades and they collapse onto the ground; a human body is not really made to handle this kind of power so they are all exhausted from this ordeal. Still, they are very relieved they managed to defeat Sunset. 
Twilight, also exhausted from the magic, but still know she needs to reclaim the crown, walks over to the unconscious Sunset, takes the crown from her and for a moment watches one there once was in her place as Celestia's pupil.

“She didn’t mean this...” Twilight turns around, her purple meeting Rhys pale blue eyes, even from all she put him through, Rhys still cares about her. Twilight sighs, about to open her mouth, but an explosion from one of the destroyed buildings makes her forget her lecturing words and ready for another fight when someone able to do magic lands right beside her. It’s a man with flaming hair and wings, his tan skin is yellow and blue from the beat ups he has taken. 
This one eyes Sunset hard. “The Element showed everyone what was inside your heart, proving that you are not worthy of the powers you seek.”

Sunset sobs, now with her mind and body cleansed, she realized all of her mistakes and how much she has harmed others. “I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry...”

Ignis didn’t care much about her apologizing, it’s clear she needs to work hard if ever hoping to regain any respect. “Sorry won’t do it and you know it. You will be brought back to Equestria where the princesses will decide your punishment.” He then turns away from the sobbing turned pony and to the one, he is very certain is the student of his oldest daughter. “Twilight Sparkle I take.” She nods, still quite shaken up from this whole fight. She does calm down when he explains who he is. "I am Ignis." and asks this turned pony. “How long before the portal closes?” Her eyes shift unsure, clear she has lost time while cleaning up the mess that other unicorn made. Ignis sighs, it seems the departure has to happen now. “In that case, I will give you a moment to say goodbye to your human friends. After that, I will send you all back to Equestria.”

Still quite startled to meet this male alicorn she has only known through letters Twilight turns around to her human friends, slowly she walks over to them to say her goodbyes. After have given those who wanted a hug, Twilight promises them. “I will find a way so we can see each other again.” 
Engineer promises he will do the same, for like Twilight and her friends back in Equestria. “We can’t help one another with this ten years portal issue.” 
Twilight smiles and with that, she and Spike walk over to Ignis there has the still broken down in tears Sunset and the terrified Rhys. She eyes the two briefly before turning to this male alicorn. “We’re ready.” He nods and lets his magic surround them. 
When the magical flames disappear, Twilight lands somewhat ungraceful on Canterlot’s castle floor. Spike lands on top of her and seconds later Sunset and Rhys appear beside them. 
Before the two could get the idea of running away, the royal guards have them surrounded and soon the two royal sisters arrive. 
Twilight takes a moment to regain her balance after having been moving around on her hind legs for almost two weeks. When she does, she runs over to Celestia and the ruler of Equestria gives her a motherly hug.

“Welcome back.” Celestia tells to Twilight and Spike, very relieved both got back just when the portal closed. With this sweet reunion over Celestia turns her attention to her former student who tries to make herself smaller by the mere sight of her. Rhys, both scared from Sunset’s reaction and his drake instinct in protecting who he considers part of his clan struggles inside of him, making the teen drake lie close to the unicorn but too afraid to attack. By merely looking at them and how battered Twilight looks, it is clear they have been fighting, the question is now: has Sunset left the dark path she went on all those years ago? 
One thing first, “Keep an eye out on these two.” She commands the guards and leaves, asking Twilight to follow her. “I think it is best you tell me everything that happened on the other side.” 
After have gotten her sister, Twilight Sparkle and Spike explain the two sisters their two-week adventure and how they defeated Sunset Shimmer by the Elements of Harmony residing inside their human friends.

“From what I understand, Sunset Shimmer is far from redemption." Something she is very familiar with but as a certain light grey unicorn told her: her hard work has made their subjects look up to her. "She has done a lot of harm in the human's world and…” Her cyan colored eyes land on Spike, again reminded of her own misdeed against her own sister. “...To the drake.” And suggests her sister as she does not think it’s not a good idea letting one of the drakes from dragonlord Nila stay with a pony who has done more harm than good. “Perhaps it is best we return Rhys back to his mother.”

Her sister got a good point and Celestia does agree that might be best for Rhys, but- “It will cause him a lot of distress. Being hatched by Sunset, he is devoted to her as a child is to a parent.“ So in order to cause Rhys as little stress as possible and hopefully put her former student back on the right track, she will send both to the Crystal Empire where Shining Armor and Cadence can keep an eye on Sunset while Nila will teach one of her children what it means to be a dragon. 
She tells this choice only to her sister’s ears. 
“We should make a guard follow Sunset Shimmer around, just in case.” Luna voices back, Celestia nods and returns back to her former student and the teen drake, telling them both of where they will be going, before the guards take them, Celestia tells Sunset softly. “Let us hope you have learned your lesson.” Sunset lowers her gaze, a clear sign of regrets about her action. The guards lead her and Rhys away to their soon to be home.

Twilight turns away from the two there very well could’ve been her and Spike’s place and eyes her number one assistant, giving the quite exhausted looking drake a smile. “Let’s go home Spike.”

***

Night has fallen in Equestria Twilight and Spike tell their friends about the adventure they went through in the human world and how different and… for the lack of a better word; dark it was compared to their own. “I don’t exactly look forward to returning there but it was good to see our friends again.” Twilight explains, eyeing Spike as he adds, “and boy was we glad they helped us out! We would’ve been so lost without them.” Twilight nods in agreement.

“It is a bit of a concern that Spy did not return.” Zecora muses from her spot, both she and her beloved had been fearing this would happen. “What job was he resigned for him to stay behind?” For only a very important job would make him stay away from his family.

Twilight’s smile fades, realizing that Zecora’s two foals won’t see their father for ten years. “He… the others needed his skills against the enemy they are currently dealing with.” She feels a pang of guilt when Zecora lowers her head in sadness. “I’m sorry Zecora…” The zebra sighs, musing. “It is something we knew might happen, he be forced away to some future battle.“

“Will you be alright?” Applejack asks worriedly. “Anything we can do to help?”

She appreciates the offer but there is nothing they can do to ease the pain. Zecora shakes her head. “I’ll be fine in giving time.” And with that, she leaves and she did not need to know the younger ponies all have that worried expression on their faces. At least they are kind enough to give her space. Going back to the hut, Zecora pulls the smaller caldron holding the stew she had been preparing for Antonie's return away from the fire, there is no need to think about making this meal before ten years. That sounds like an awfully long time now… 
Unable to hold back the sorrow of knowing her beloved won’t be around in a decade from now, Zecora collapses onto the floor, crying silently so not to wakes the girls. They do wake, sensing the grief she is feeling.

Lavernia, being the most nimble of the two easily gets out from the crib and lands somewhat gracefully onto the floor. Her sister Sauda gets down as well but way louder and ungraceful as she splats onto the floor. Their mother snaps her eyes over to them, the two fillies stares back as worried their young and far from fully emotional developed their minds can understand grief. All they know that their mother is sad and their father is not around to cheer her up as he usually is. Sauda gets up from her hard landing and walks over to Zecora, doing the closet sound to words she can make. Sauda nudges her head up against her mother's, copying what she has seen her father do and puts a hoof on Zecora’s. 
Lavernia, not being so developed in empathy as her sister is confused as to why her mother feels like this. She whimpers in the only sign she does not like what she is sensing to her mother. Zecora briefly strokes her head against Sauda’s before turning her gaze to the whimpering Lavernia. “I am sorry my dear, but I wish your father was here…” She whispers to them, unable to keep the tears from falling.
Sadly the two babies do not understand the reason for her sadness, nor that they will only see their father again when they are reaching the age to when most foals get their cutie mark.

***

In the human world, at the half-destroyed base of Grey’s once headquarters. The Sirens stare at the small crater that was created when Twilight activated the Elements of Harmony in this world. Sonata strokes her hands through the ground, jerking away when a spark of this ancient magic still residing in the ground. She frowns of the thoughts spinning through her head of this small discovery, she ponders how the very magic that can harm them has come to this world, yet something about the magic is off, not as pure as she remembers.

“Can we get a move on?” Aria asks impatient as ever, already bored of standing around while one of them is wasting time checking out a stupid crater. “We have better things to do than waste our time looking at a bomb crater.” 
Adagio gives her a look before she turns to Sonata who hasn’t heard Aria, too busy poking around in that hole for some reason. Must admit that standing around when there are people they can control is getting on her nerves but unlike Aria whose cruel mind cannot comprehend the importance of thinking for just a moment, she knows that something about this hole has caught Sonata full attention and this time Adagio thinks it is worth her time. “What is so important about this hole?” She asks, when Sonata does not hear, she kicks a stone that hits her, that gets Sonata’s attention and Adagio repeats her question.

Sonata eyes the ground still having remnants of magic in it. It’s fading but from the sense of it: “Someone has been using Harmony’s magic.” She tells the two others and that gets their full attention. “Far from full strength but someone in this world can tap into Equestrian magic.”

Well isn’t that a pleasured surprise? Adagio smirks. “Magic we can use to regain our strength.” They haven’t been able with the humans in this world, it has only kept them alive but with people out there carrying the very magic of the Elements- tapping into the world they come from. That will allow them to gain the needed strength to use the humans' negative emotions as their energy source. 
“But this world does not have Equestrian magic.” Aria points out, maybe before but now: “Now it has magic: Equestrian magic.” She tells the two other Sirens, jumps into the hole to feel the magic Sonata felt. It’s weak, too weak to use but there is no doubt this is magic of their world. “We need to find the ones who used the magic.” Adagio says and leaves the hole with Sonata close behind. “We have to find these people and with it: this pathetic world will be at our feet.” Finding it will be tricky but it’s only a matter of time before this bearer of Element Magic will show up.

Up at the main office, Grey is watching the very attack that retards team pulled off against this woman named Sunny and no matter how many times he watches it, he cannot see what technology was used, which means only one thing. "Somehow they gained the ability to use magic." He muses, so perhaps there is more to this pathetic team after all.