//------------------------------//
// 13- The Incedence of Awakening 
// Story: Sun Never Sets 
// by CrownofDissonance 
//------------------------------//

    "Sergeant Colt, we're on our way down there. We've got trouble, so be ready to move as soon as we get the door open."

    Flash listened to his earpiece for a response, focusing on moving through the police station's hallways towards the armory. He let Spitfire lead the way- all he had was his knife, so he stayed behind her as she cautiously pressed on, her weapon raised and methodically scanning the area in front of her. 

    After a few tense moments, a response came over his radio, but not from the police sergeant. Instead, Rarity's voice answered him, speaking in a very hushed and concerned way.

    "I... I don't think the Sergeant will be coming back with us..."

    "Wha.." Flash was going to ask a question, but he put the answer together in his mind before he could speak the words.

    "He's probably dead. Ha.... ha... " Another voice came over the radio, one with a higher pitch, but with a much darker tone. It was Pinkie Pie, sounding uncharacteristically but understandably hopeless. Her laugh was forced, and conveyed stressed desperation. "And we probably will be too..."

    "Don't talk like that, Pinkie-" Rarity snapped at her, but then reigned in her frustration. "I'm sure he's just... just tired."

    "Is he breathing?" Flash asked.

    "Yes, but... he passed out not too long ago," Rarity said. "He looked terribly ill, started mumbling things, it was... frightening..."

    Flash could tell Rarity was trying very hard to keep herself composed, and did his best to sound reassuring to both of them. "You're getting out of here, I promise."

    "Maybe..." Pinkie began, a spark of morbid curiosity crossing her voice. "Maybe he'll turn into one of them..."

    Rarity shushed her. "Nonsense, darling, I'm sure he's... well... We'll be okay."

    She didn't sound like she was so sure, but she was hoping. Flash felt the same.

    "We're right here," he said, "We'll get that door open, just hang tight."

    Indeed, he and Spitfire were just coming up on the closed armory door. The halls looked about the same as they did before, but a closed door was an immediate red flag to any trained operator. In a procedural fashion, Spitfire stood ready right by the side of the door frame, weapon at the ready, and looking back to Flash expectantly. Since he didn't have a gun, he would open the door while Spitfire entered, allowing her to keep both hands on her weapon as she entered the room. 

    Flash put his hand on the door to the armory, and made eye contact with Spitfire before just barely whispering a confirmation to her.

    "Ready?"

    Reading his lips, Spitfire gave a nod and Flash pulled the door open, allowing her to enter. She immediately looked to her left, eyeing the corner, and then swiveled her torso around, taking slow steps forward as she peered into the surprisingly well lit room. The two emergency lights still shone brightly on either side of the rows of storage cabinets, a welcome change from the dark hallways. 

    Flash gently tapped her right shoulder as he entered in behind her, walking over to the opposite corner and reaching his hand out, making contact with the wall, and feeling across the back wall, going from one corner of the room to the other. He didn't want any surprises from Silent Lynx. Turning his head away, he looked down each aisle as he passed by them, keeping an eye on Spitfire in the middle. From there, he and Spitfire checked the rows between the storage cabinets in the same fashion, and the back wall where the panic room was. 

    "Center aisle is clear."

    "Left side is clear."

    "Back wall is clear."

    "Right side is clear."

    The process only took a minute, but it was agonizingly slow for Flash given the circumstances. He wanted to just rush in, but he knew Lynx and Sparrowhawk could be anywhere at this point. Neither of them were taking chances. 

    "Flash!"

    A voice from the doorway startled both of them, Flash spinning quickly and Spitfire lining her weapon right up with the door- but both were relieved to only see Rainbow Dash nearly sliding past the door and running through, a rectangular device with a cable hanging from it in one hand and Flash's Spectre 50 handgun in the other. She bolted straight to Flash, just about shoving both items into his hands and frantically trying to communicate something to him as her lungs attempted to resume something that resembled breathing.

    "I... the- the spies, and the... the big guy... they were fighting and..." She started, but then a cough punched through her sentence, and she nearly collapsed, catching herself with her hands on her knees. "One of them turned invisible- and... they're..."

    "Rainbow, calm down." Holstering his weapon and putting the other device in his equipment pouch for now, Flash did his best to support Rainbow before she fell further, lifting her arm over his shoulder and supporting her. She wasn't tired from running, no, she ran all the time, and was on the soccer team back in high school. No, she was shaking, stuttering, and her eyes were entirely shrunk down again. She was terrified, and just couldn't hold her composure. "Take it easy, just breathe."

    Flash felt a tap on his back as he waited for Rainbow to calm herself.

    "We're on a clock," Spitfire said. "We need to get this door open, Sentry."

    Nodding, he guided Rainbow to the end of the room, letting her sit on the floor as he and Spitfire produced their SRAPH badge and the Police Chief's badge respectively. They gave each other a glance, and simultaneously swiped it through the two digital scanners to either side of the panic room's heavy steel door.

    Several moments passed, Flash and Spitfire just watching the red lights on the scanners blink, and then turn to a forty-five second countdown timer. He became conscious that he was holding his breath, and hesitantly let it out. 

    Forty-five, forty-four, forty-three.

    He realized what this was, the panic room had a timed unlock on it. Why he wasn't told, he wasn't sure, but it seemed like Colt didn't know much about how the room worked. Now that he thought about it, it was odd. Why would someone who works regularly at the station not be familiar with their emergency procedures? Why would the chief not be in the panic room too?

    Forty-two, forty-one.

    "Agent Sentry?" Spitfire's voice drew his mind away from his thoughts. Her tone didn't make him feel any better though.

    "Yeah?" He looked over, but she didn't make eye contact with him.

    "Chief Coppers... he was alive when I first reached his office."

    "What?" 

    Thirty-eight, thirty-seven.

    "He was working with Silent Lynx, and I got there right when she decided he was no longer useful."

    The wheels of Flash's mind started to turn. The more he thought about it, the more off everything felt. The general unpreparedness of the station, the speed at which the demons were able to establish a foothold, how he hadn't heard a single thing over the radio from the station since his mission began. He couldn't speak, he only listened to Spitfire's discovery.

    "Did some sort of mind control thing on him, then shot him. Same thing I saw the other one try on you. Sparrowhawk, her name was?"

    Thirty-five, thirty-four.

    Flash was beginning to feel uneasy. His skin crawled, and he glanced over his shoulder at the door. The presence of Lynx and Sparrowhawk complicated everything. He knew them, they were professional and prepared thoroughly before every mission they undertook. If they had the Police Chief under their control, how much of the station's fall did they have a hand in? 

    "Thing is," Spitfire continued, "Coppers was complying with her before the mind control. He was crooked. And I saw a lot of dead officers on my way to his office, dead from gunshot wounds, not demons."

    Thirty, twenty-nine.

    Thoughts were now anxiously racing through Flash's mind. They had to have known about the demons, they had to have been waiting for them to show up. They knew that his friends would be there. And with someone so powerful on the inside, there wasn't a more perfect opportunity to raid the station.

    Twenty-eight, twenty-seven.

    "The chief was the one that locked your friends in the panic room with the Sergeant."

    Spitfire finally turned her head, but now Flash was the one whose gaze was fixed forward. His mind processed this information, and his head shook softly. They set this up. They planned this out, every step of it, and with him and Spitfire separated, neither of them would've been any wiser to it. 

    Twenty-five, twenty-four.

    "I would've told you sooner, but this is the first chance we've had to talk."

    Twenty-three, twenty-two.

    There was one question in Flash's mind now, given that Sparrowhawk and Lynx had a hand in this mission from the start...

    Flash met Spitfire's gaze with absolute seriousness. "Colt, did you talk to Colt at all before we met up?"

    "Yeah, once. He didn't sound okay."

    "He told me he was injured when I talked to him."

    Spitfire picked up on the suspicion in Flash's voice.

    Twenty.

    "Can we trust him?"

    "I don't know."

    Nineteen, eighteen.

    Flash felt his heart beat faster. He had to push his chest outward just to breathe.

    "He didn't pick up when I radioed in back there," he said. "Rarity did, said he was unconscious."

    As if on cue, Flash's radio sounded off in his ear. When he listened in, he heard rustling, like the radio was being rubbed against something.

    "Sentry... Agent Sentry..." Colt's weak voice came across.

    "Colt?" Flash responded. "We're about to have that door open, but I need some answers from you."

    Fifteen, fourteen.

    "Those agents..." Colt coughed, but unlike before, it sounded like he was choking.

    "You knew about them, didn't you?" Flash said. He kept his tone even, as he saw Spitfire  holding her hand low to her chest, gesturing for him to stay quiet as she turned around fully. She was listening for something. 

    Thirteen, twelve.

    "They did something to us... brainwashed the chief..." Colt had Flash's full attention now, as Spitfire became alert. She brought her weapon up, scanning around the room, something Flash kept in the back of his mind as Colt continued.

    Eleven.

    "Injected me with... something... Some kind of poison. Said they'd cure me if I complied. I know there's a time lock on that door, but... I don't know how much fight I have left in me."

    "No, there's only ten seconds-"

    Ten.

    "They'll be here, Sentry. The moment that door opens up. They want your friends."

    "Just hang in there..."

    "No... I..." The sergeant's voice softened to a whisper. "Get these girls somewhere safe, son..." 

    Nine.

    His radio went silent, and there was a soft thump from behind the door. Following that, a muffled yelp from one of the girls. 

    Eight.

    "Sergeant..."

    No response. Flash turned around, feeling his skin begin to crawl as he digested the sergeant's final warning in full. They'd be here. Spitfire was in the center of the room, staring at a particular spot in front of the door. Her weapon sights were trained on it, as if she was anticipating something to appear there from nothing.

    Seven.

    Knowing who they were up against, it wasn't out of the question. 

    Six.

    Flash was now listening close to his surroundings too, and his hand instinctively went down to his holster. Something shifted, and Spitfire tensed up.

    Five.

    He heard movement. Both of them did.

-----

    "Alright, that's everything. You still feel okay?"

    In the back of Trixie's RV, Starlight Glimmer slid an arm into her short sleeved denim jacket, putting it on as she stood up. Sunburst had just finished putting her back together and going over her upgrades, and gave a satisfied smile as his cyborg friend was once again back to normal.

    "Yeah. Thanks, Sunburst," She stared at her arm, slowly bending it back and forth at her elbow, then flexing her fingers. It looked the same as it did before, though many modifications had been made to it, as well as the rest of her body. She had stronger power cells, a limiter that kept her from burning herself out, and an experimental upgrade that gradually recharged her power off of residual magical radiation.

    Of course, cracking open and draining demon hearts was the fastest way to replenish her power cells, but with the passive recharged she was more sustainable than she was prior. And with a few more combat abilities at her disposal too, she would be more powerful in battle as well.

    "I know you're capable, but please be careful with yourself," Sunburst said. "Even if your body is my best work, it's not complete without you."

    Starlight smiled. "Heh. That's an odd way to say 'I care about you', but I'll take it."

    "I... yeah," Sunburst nodded. "Here, let's make sure your new Tether Hand works." 

    With both hands, he hefted Starlight's chainsaber off of his worktable, and stood as far away as he could while still holding the handle out towards her. Starlight reached out with her mechanical arm, and a bright teal, translucent energy projection of her arm shot out towards the sword. The fingers of the projected hand wrapped around the sword's handle, and when Starlight pulled her arm back, her weapon was pulled towards her, Sunburst letting go and allowing the projected arm to pull the sword perfectly into Starlight's grip. 

    "Yeah, seems to work." Starlight nodded, impressed by how smooth the ability felt. She slung her sword over her shoulder and onto its spot on her back, and focused on her revolver, also on Sunburst's work table. Sending out her Tether Hand, she swiped it off of the table, keeping the projected arm engaged as she manipulated the gun, twirling it around before tossing it backwards, catching it in her hand as the projection faded.

    "Looks good. Does it feel alright?"

    "Yeah, feels great," Starlight said. She imagined that on top of pulling enemies towards her, she could also use this thing to scale difficult terrain. "How far away does it work?"

    "About ten meters. Should be enough to be useful. Here, one more thing..." Sunburst presented her with another item, a pouch identical to the one that kept her ammunition but with a different mark across the front. One of a crescent moon and a star tipped wand at its center, the same image on the side of the RV.

    "What's this?"

    "Explosive bullets." He said. "Courtesy of Trixie. Apparently they sparkle off in different colors on impact."

    "Like fireworks?" 

    "I guess, yeah."

    Starlight secured the pouch next to her other one, taking care to keep them far enough apart that she wouldn't get them mixed up in a heated situation. 

    With everything ready to continue the mission, she and Sunburst headed to the front of the vehicle. Everything seemed as it was before; Trixie was getting them to their destination as quickly as possible without wrecking the RV, the sky was getting darker and more ominous, and the city was feeling more and more empty. 

    That empty feeling would soon be interrupted as something landed atop the RV with a loud thump, followed by something heavier landing with another, louder thump and the sound of metallic scraping.

    Trixie didn't slam on the brakes, but she definitely slowed down, the sudden disturbances throwing the vehicle's balance off. All three of them looked up, concerned about whatever landed on them. 

    "Uh, what was that?" Sunburst was the last to react, but the first to speak. Starlight wasted no time in heading for the side door, and Trixie was already in the process of rolling her window down.

    "I don't know..." Trixie said, sticking her head out the window and yelling up at the strange woman she found standing on her vehicle. "But I don't appreciate hitchhiking! Get off my van, lady!"

    Starlight had the van's door open, and quickly pulled herself up onto the roof to assess the situation. She found herself landing between two combatants, presumably already fighting. One was a strange woman, wearing a long black coat and sunglasses with pulled back, curled orange hair, and with an unconscious blonde haired girl thrown over her shoulder. She faced off against a familiar, faded purple CANIS scout mech with a blade attached to its tail.

    "Spike?" Starlight recognized the mech, she was well acquainted with Twilight's companion before her banishment. The two always traveled together; if he was here, Twilight couldn't be far.

    Spike didn't reply to her, but did address the assailant in the dark coat.

    "Let her go!" 

    "Let her go? Atop a moving vehicle?" The woman had a dark yet playful tone, she clearly enjoyed toying with Spike's concern.

    "Hey!" Starlight interjected, drawing her chainsaber and pointing it towards the woman in a threatening manner. "Mind taking this somewhere else?"

    "Starlight, wait!" Spike warned, "Be careful not to hurt Applejack..."

    The woman suddenly let go of her captive, tossing her straight up into the air, and smiled cruelly as Spike went to jump to her rescue.

    Spike couldn't reach her in time, the woman struck his side with her bare fist, knocking him off of the van while experiencing no recoil on her end. Starlight attempted to reach out to catch her with her Tether Hand, but the woman then became a blur, disappeared, and immediately reappeared in front of Starlight and kicked her in the chest, sending her off the van to tumble on the street as well. 

    Still on top of the van, the woman caught Applejack back over her shoulder, then jumped off of it, much higher than she should've been able to. Landing on a nearby rooftop, she ran off.

    Spike picked himself up, and looked to Starlight.

    "Twilight told me you were here. Help me save Applejack and I'll..." Spike hesitated for a moment before carefully picking his next words. "I'll help you contain the situation."

    "I... What?"

    "I have orders to kill you should you plan to interfere with Twilight's mission. So long as you're aiding mine, I don't have to act on them. There isn't time to talk, though. We need to catch that Seraph operative."

    "Seraph operative? What?" Spike didn't offer further explanation, he just ran towards the nearest building, jumped up and dug his claws into it, scaling it until he was on its roof.

    Trixie had stopped her RV a ways down the road, and Starlight could see her waiting expectantly. Starlight just gave her dismissive hand wave. They'd have to meet up later again.

    Holding her arm out, she reached out with her Tether Hand and grabbed tightly onto a sign hanging off the side of one of the buildings. Instead of pulling it in, she got pulled towards it, lifting herself up until she could climb up and get foothold on it, then repeated the process with the roof's top ledge.

    Hopefully they could catch up.

------

    Voices, so many voices. Too many voices. So loud, so destructive. So angry, so venomous. Always screaming. It was painful and draining to be subjected to this.

    And Twilight didn't even have control over her own voice, it was drowned out by the voices of the demons within her.

    This is your fault! You should've overshadowed her when you had the chance!

    What chance? She's been holdin' us both down!

    Don't start with that- You had plenty of opportunities to overtake her!

    Maybe if you helped someone other than yourself we could get something done for once!

    Ha! Work with you, you mean? I'd sooner try on something from your closet!

    Like you could pull anything heavier than a needle through fabric- let alone your own weight!

    And so it continued. Seething rage, relentless accusations, pointless insults, all while Twilight tried to do so little as stand. She took a few steps, then nearly collapsed as the numbness within her skull spread to the rest of her body. She made it to the center aisle of the church, but could go no further, deciding to only look up at the next most concerning thing: the battle between Celestia and Selene.

    You're just too scared to do anything!

    I ain't! I just know you'd turn on me a heartbeat!

    Selene had already closed in on Celestia, avoiding her gunfire with dodges that looked too clean to be the work of time manipulation. She didn't have a Demon Reflex, she just somehow inherently knew how Celestia's bullets would travel. By the way she fired her weapons in tandem with punches, the way she redirected Celestia's attacks, the way each movement she made flowed into the next with a steady grace, it was obvious she too was a trained gundancer. Twilight had seen some of her moves before, but seeing the two of them next to each other, shooting and dodging and twirling about, pretty much confirmed it: The two were using variations of the same fighting style.

    Pushing one of Selene's arms down, Celestia jumped, the guns both in her hands and on her boots firing downward as she arced over her. With one arm displaced, Selene was only able to fire back with her machine pistol, but it fired fast enough to counter any shots that might hit her.

    The demon voices continued their bickering.

    Hmph, Twilight's made more use of me than she has you anyway!

    Maybe she's just sick of your voice in her head! I certainly am!

    Selene spun into a high side kick, going for Celestia's head as she landed facing away, but Celestia leaned forward and kicked back, putting one hand to the ground and catching Selene's leg in her own. Her boot gun went off and missed, but from there she swept her other leg across and tripped Selene, their legs tangling together as they both rolled onto their sides. Their backs twisting, they fired off more shots at each other, perfectly until Selene braced her arms on the floor and kicked Celestia away and bounced to her feet.

    Celestia let the kick push her back, and flipped into a handstand as Selene approached, surprising her with a counter kick that connected with her stomach. Selene fell in a painful yet controlled drop as the boot pistol fired off, dodging a bullet but putting herself back on the floor as Celestia made a fluid recovery. Standing upright, both hands lined up guns on Selene, but her attention was disrupted as Sombra emerged from the floor below lunging for her with both front legs outstretched.

    Sombra landed behind her, barely missing her as she ducked down. Still gathering herself, Selene looked up, watching as Sombra's horn stretched out, morphing into a long, sharp appendage that he slashed about. The edge was parried off of one of Celestia's guns, and it snapped back to its normal shape as bullets were put in his direction. Jumping past her, he attacked with his forelegs again, shaping them into barbed clubs, with crystalline pieces protruding from them. They carried too much force to parry, and as he stood on his hind legs and swung them around, Celestia was forced to back away. His balance shifted precariously forward as he pursued, something of which Celestia would take advantage. She lifted one of her legs completely up, and swung her heel down on his forehead, taking his balance away and knocking him face first into the ground. 

    Stomping down again, her foot met nothing, his body melting away, but the next moment would see him reforming behind her again and jumping in for a takedown. Except Celestia would raise one of her guns back without even looking and shoot several rounds straight through him, slowing his trajectory and dropping him to the floor for good this time.

    He would eventually reform back to his normal body, she knew she couldn't truly kill the living shadow with external damage, but he was out of the fight for the moment. Turning back Selene, she turned back to see her climbing the statue, trying to get to the sword still sticking out of the stone Sister of Light's head. Jumping up, Celestia followed, landing on the Sister's forearm and putting a foot on her upper arm, just as Selene would reach her shoulder. Selene reached out, grabbing the sword's handle but being forced to pivot out of the way as Celestia took a shot at her. Celestia did the same, avoiding Selene's return fire, and the two proceeded to have a close range gunfight around the statue's head. They circled around it, used it for cover, and avoided each other's bullets on the Sister's shoulders just as gracefully as they did on the ground. Hopping atop her head, Celestia managed to trip Selene up to the point where she fell from her place, giving her time to take her sword in both hands and pull it free. Selene controlled her fall, rolling down the Sister's arm and landing in her outstretched hand, both guns ready to fire.

    For all I know you're the one planning to betray me!

    Wha- That ain't true! I'm trying to get us both out of this mess!

    Twilight's focus on the battle slipped again as her head pulsed. The demon voices became audible again, and she only got a few pictures of what was going on as she tried to tune them out.

    You lying skank!

    Celestia deflected Selene's gunshots off her sword, as expected. Sombra crept up the statue's leg and surprised her, and she swung out of the way of both of their attacks. Selene held her high ground on the statue as Celestia dropped to the floor. Sombra got cut in half mid attack and reverted to his shadow form again, hopefully for a bit longer than last time.

    You selfish bitch!

    Selene wouldn't be able to hold her own without Twilight's help. They were both going to be needed to defeat Nightmare Moon, but... she couldn't stand, she couldn't quell Rarity or Applejack's demons.

    No. This spiraling loss of control had to stop, but how? Maybe... maybe she could reason with the demons? If she showed them that she was willing to work with them, maybe they could work together, to accomplish a common goal?

    That would be giving in to them, though. Twilight couldn't do that. She'd never do that. She had to be stronger than them. She had to retake control. To assert her power.

    My power... 

    That voice spoke in her head again, that voice that was also her own. But even as a whisper, she heard it loud and clear over the other voices. And with it, she had a sense of understanding. She let herself align with it.

    This is my power.

    She was the voice, and the voice was her.

    Beyond her, the ceiling shook. Celestia had somehow gotten back up on the statue, and Selene had taken her rifle back up and was taking shots at her. The two-stage spreadshot-rifle rounds glanced off Celestia's blade and went up into the roof, putting holes in it and bringing bits of it down. 

    Moving in close, Selene hopped up on the statue again, using the blade end of her long rifle to her advantage, poking up at Celestia and forcing her to defend with her ill-suited weapon. Celestia's sword met the metal of Selene's rifle blade, and a strange sparking occurred between the weapons. When they touched, they glowed brightly by some magical reaction between them. 

    Twilight might've been curious, but she was occupied with something far more important at the moment. Speaking with her inner voice, she found she could now easily restrain her demons, silencing them, and for the first time that day, truly clear her mind.

    She rose, a renewed power swelling within her. It felt cold, but burned at the same time, filling her with a feeling she hadn't felt in the longest time.

    It was her Inner Demon, burning beneath her skin and demanding to once again be released.

    The thought frightened her. Becoming a demon was everything she was trying to avoid. But if they didn't get the sword, Nightmare Moon could very well end up with it. Celestia couldn't beat her, not without all of the Elements, and certainly not without Twilight there. After all, she was the only one with the power to stop Nightmare Moon, it had to be her.

    If she failed here, everything she had done up until that point would've been for nothing. Hurting her friends, turning her back on Celestia. Sacrificing Sunset.

    Without her end, there was no justifying her means, and she would have to face the-

    No. Her inner voice broke her from her worries. I'm not giving in to you.

    Deep down, she was afraid. But right now, she had control. Her Inner Demon may resurface, but she would hold a firm grip around its throat, and she would make it work for her. She was no demon, she was stronger than a demon.

    The other demons within her had become silent. They could feel her commanding presence, and they obeyed her without words, effortlessly bending to her will. 

    With power, comes control, and I...

    Looking up at the battle, Twilight saw that Celestia still held the high ground. She fired her guns down on Selene with a huge advantage, who was forced to back away while only barely managing to match her shots with her machine pistol.

    Twilight summoned Applejack's gauntlets to her. She felt no resistance.

    I am in control.

    Her gauntlets burned brightly as she leapt forward, shooting straight towards Celestia. Taken by surprise, she just barely managed to jump out of the way as Twilight's fist slammed into the statue, breaking off the arm holding the giant sword and sending it crumbling to the floor with a mighty crash. Pulling her fist from the statue's chest, Twilight turned to follow Celestia's movements, putting the gauntlets away to launch a series of sewing pins after her.

    Celestia stepped around them, bringing out her sword and deflecting them the same way Sunset did, but the moment she tried that Twilight started throwing them low, making a circle of them at her feet as she dodged in place.

    When her foot bumped into one of the pins, she realised she was surrounded by them, but at that point it was too late. For the first time, Twilight saw Celestia look truly surprised. The pins detonated, and forcefully launched her up into the air.

    Switching back to the gauntlets, Twilight jumped off the statue and met Celestia mid-air. Her former mentor thrust her sword out, meeting the stone of Twilight's gauntlets head on and forcing them both to make an aerial recovery. She regained her footing, but only barely, while Twilight landed perfectly.

    A surprise to both of them, Celestia wasn't reading her former student as strongly. She couldn't have predicted Twilight's other weapons, and the tables had been turned on her. But with this advantage she felt the cold burn within her intensify, threatening to break her.

    She put away the gauntlets, seeing Celestia raise her sword and immediately going for her own. 

    One hand on her sheath and the other on the handle, Twilight waited. Celestia was running right for her, and would soon be striking distance.

    The burning flared further, but Twilight held it in. Her breathing tightened, her teeth clenched. Time seemed to slow, but it wasn't her Demon Reflex. It was nerves, accelerating her thoughts, her Inner Demon's feeble attempt to steal her control away. She paid no attention to that. 

    She only focused on her next move, the single cut that would finish this fight.

    Celestia's blade was held low and behind her, Twilight visualized her attempting an upward slash. All Twilight needed to make was a perfectly horizontal one, and she'd both counter it and cut her down in the same stroke.

    The freezing fire surged one last time, and she felt her hands begin to tremble. Her fingers melted and locked up at the same time. Her skin felt like it would split at any moment if she tried to hold this back any more. The power was incredible, but it needed to be restrained, it needed her control. So she focused on her sword, consciously pouring her power into it until it glowed a soft blue.

    Celestia was close now, she needed to make her move, but her whole body was shaking, vibrating with this force, a force she needed to release.

    And in one decisive cut, she did.

    In a fraction of a second, faster than a flash of lightning, Twilight's sword was drawn, cutting across at Celestia and releasing all of its built up energy in her direction. An impossibly thin beam of energy erupted from the blade, sending a ripple through space that went all the way to the end of the room, straight through the statue of the Sister of Light.

    It was so fast that even Twilight didn't catch what happened, but as she always did, Twilight followed through with her form, resheathing her sword. As she completed the motion, following the soft click of the katana's guard touching the sheath, the Sister of Light statue suddenly split at the waist. The top half of the statue fell forward, crumbling further and crushing the arm piece that already fell beneath it. 

    The icon was properly demolished, but Twilight didn't care about that.

    Glancing behind her, she saw Celestia facing away, having also made her cut, but she was kneeling... Kneeling like she had just come up out of a roll. There was blood on her sword, but Twilight noticed none on her own...

    Twilight did notice blood on her side though, where a huge tear in her coat had been made, and it slowly crept down her side and on to her leg. 

    She missed...

    Even on her back foot, Celestia still could read her. 

    "Impossible..." Twilight tensed up, feeling panic overriding everything else before she was flushed with rage.

    Said rage would only last a split second before evaporating completely, leaving Twilight to only feel the numbing fire she was trying to restrain burst through her body. It engulfed her, burning her flesh to a dark, deathly purple and transforming her completely. Her wound healed immediately, and her coat did as well, merging with her body and forming into a dark violet, leathery carapace, and wings of a similar texture and color unfolded from her back. Her hair became darker, matching the new extension to her body and contrasting her highlights, which seemed to now glow pink. The square glasses she wore were replaced with a round, mask-like ring of bright blue light. Two slitted, demonic eyes looked through them glowing with the same light as the mask. As her transformation finalized, the same light gathered at her forehead, extending outward in the shape of a single, straight horn.

    The power flowed through her, but it did not overtake her. She still had control.

    The demon-turned Twilight smiled a subtle smile, showing off a full set of dangerously sharp teeth. As she spoke, the distorted, scratchy voice that was in her head projected into the room.

    "I really am in control..."

    She turned to Celestia, who was making a hasty retreat to the doors. Making another empty swipe with her katana, she sent another energy cut out from it. Row by row, every pew in the room was sliced in half as Celestia ran, just barely escaping through the double doors in time, which also were sliced apart. 

    "Twilight Sparkle, wait!" Selene's voice was heard as a faint call by Twilight, who dashed after Celestia, moving so quick that she appeared to simply teleport to the door and kick open what was left of it, before teleport dashing off again.

    "We can catch her later, if we just.." Selene trailed off, as Twilight obviously was already gone. She looked back, checking on Sombra, finding that he'd recovered but was keeping his distance from the battle.

    "Come, let's not lose her..."

-----

    Celestia had what she needed, and it was now time to leave. Twilight Sparkle's demon form was too powerful for her to fight head on, so evasion was now the best tactic. Try as she may with words or action, there would be no dissuading Twilight from walking this path of darkness. The only thing that might make her think twice is the loss of something or someone important to her, but by that point it might be too late. Twilight always had to learn the hard way.

    Then there was the matter of her mysterious companion. The oddest thing about the woman was not her choice of weaponry, nor the familiar demon she fought with, but the fact that she, like Celestia, was a gundancer. The art was created by Celestia, and she only had taught it to a select few individuals, the woman traveling with Twilight not being one of them. 

    That would be something to ponder another time, though. Right now, she needed to separate them. Celestia knew she couldn't take a full-power Twilight, the woman, and Sombra all at once.

    Sword still in hand, she glanced behind her as she ran towards the church's entrance. Predicting Twilight's attacks wouldn't be enough now, Celestia knew that she couldn't match her speed or strength. It was still Twilight, and she knew Twilight. She was still in this fight.

    Even if she was a demon, slaying demons was Celestia's business.

    There was a blurry shape behind her that quickly formed into Twilight, floating in the air right behind Celestia. As soon as she saw it, Celestia rolled forward. Twilight's most common attack while in the air was a side cut, and the teleport technique required something to kick off of to use. Celestia completed her dodge and kicked the doors open, continuing her sprint with no momentum lost.

    Again, Twilight's blade met nothing, which only seemed to frustrate her further. 

    As Twilight followed her, storming through the doors and scanning the empty parking lot, seeing nothing but the demonic spire sticking up from the center of the lot.

    She didn't notice Celestia standing atop the door frame behind her, jumping down into action. With a diving kick, she slammed her boot straight into the back of Twilight's head. The hit didn't knock her over, but the bootgun there fired off, stunning her long enough for Celestia to flip back off of her and ready her next attack.

    A bullet wound to the head was trivial to Twilight, it healed back over in seconds. Growling, she spun around, engaging her Demon Reflex as she drew her sword for another attack.

    She would spin to see a nearly-still frame of Celestia falling, both handguns pointed at her, and a stream of bullets coming from them and pressing into her face and chest. In slowed time, the bullets were agonizingly painful and she fell out of her Reflex and took the hits. She winced as they shot through her body, but she healed through them and ultimately shrugged them off long enough to deflect one off her sword, then the next, then the next, then breaking into a teleport dash right in front of Celestia.

    But again, her feet weren't touching the ground as she came out of it, and with nothing to brace herself against, Celestia kicked straight into her. Celestia held the kicking pose as Twilight was launched back, keeping her leg extended and bringing her two handguns up. Three rapid-fire streams of bullets were shot into Twilight as she tumbled through the air, the stings of the bullets making focusing on a recovery difficult. 

    Twilight slammed into the demon spire back first before she could do anything, but with something to ground her she refocused, just in time to find Celestia's sword spinning towards her. 

    Celestia knew she wouldn't be fooled twice by that one. Twilight brought her katana up and she swung into the spinning broadsword, knocking it into the air away from her. In that time, Celestia was already hurtling towards Twilight with a flying kick. The hit threw her back into the spire, and upon landing Celestia caught her sword.

    Immediately, she drove it through Twilight, pinning her to the spire before she could make a counterattack. This was twice Celestia had incapacitated her. Shouting repeatedly in desperate frustration, Twilight struggled against the blade, finding that despite her power being immense, she was losing her focus to the pain. In a final attempt to strike back, Twilight let her thumb slide over the buttons on her katana's handle, igniting the blade to its full power while simultaneously pouring as much of her own energy into as she could.

    Her swing was halted as Celestia grabbed her forearm and twisted it around, easily relieving her of her weapon as she pushed her own further into her. Deactivating the katana, Celestia just shook her head.

    "How?! This power, my power... It's..." Twilight screamed her anger into Celestia's face, but it fizzled out as she realised she was beaten. She just let her head fall. "It's not enough..."

    The solemn look fell back over Celestia's face as she watched her once beloved student struggle. It honestly hurt, seeing how far her star pupil had fallen. She could've been something great, but instead chose this. She chose this.

    "If you can't contain your power, Twilight, it will never be enough."

    Some magic in Celestia's sword responded to the demon spire. This was the escape she intended, the sword would activate the spire, opening a portal straight to the Sister of Darkness's stronghold. Only now, both she and Twilight were taken into it, vanishing from the church's parking lot.

-----

    The two reappeared in a grassy opening, and before them, reaching up into the darkened sky was a giant castle. Along it's exterior wall were several lookout towers, and at the castle's center was a huge column that stood far beyond the others within its grounds. 

    Twilight recognized it, this was the castle the Sisters of Light and Darkness once lived in, the Castle of the Two Sisters spoken of in legend. They had been taken to the Everfree Forest.

    Celestia's blade, the very blade she had come to take was right in front of her. It was closer than that, even, it was sticking out of her chest, still firmly held by Celestia. As she pulled it from her, Twilight felt the energy surging through her fade, and she reverted back to her normal form before collapsing on the ground. 

    "I'm sorry, Twilight," Celestia sighed as she looked down at her. "I hope that you can eventually come to forgive me once this is all over."

    Twilight didn't respond. Again, she was feeling a mixture of shock, anger, and fear, and couldn't tell which one was winning. She couldn't consciously accept that she had just been defeated at her most powerful.

    "I'm not going to tell you to stay out of my way. In fact..." Celestia threw Twilight's katana down at her feet. "Go find Sunset, she's here somewhere. Settle things with her, and maybe you'll find your control."

    A weak, breathy laugh escaped Twilight's lips. "Yeah, right..."

    "She has the rest of the Elements, doesn't she? You're going to need them anyway if you want a chance at defeating Nightmare Moon."

    "It won't matter if she gets the Sister of Light's sword... She can open the gate to the demon realm with it..."

    "Can she, now?" Celestia's eyebrows rose in amusement. "What makes you think that?"

    "Selene told me Nightmare Moon's plan... With the amulet you gave Sunset, and that sword..."

    Celestia shook her head. "That's not all she needs, Twilight. There's one more piece of the picture, and without that, this sword is just a useless piece of metal. So gather the Elements, save your friends, or whatever you thought you were accomplishing before."

    Again, Twilight was quiet, only watching as Celestia turned and walked away. She stopped, giving her one last word of advice before leaving her to lay with only her thoughts.

    "And if I were you, I wouldn't trust that woman."