The radio in Trixie's RV crackled with a distorted message as she drove deeper through the Everfree Forest, windshield wipers continually flicking the persistent rain from her view. No matter how much the storm softened, the rain would not leave.
"Is anyon..." It was faint, but Flash's muffled voice came through a heavy sheet of static. "...picking up a radio frequency... interference within the labs..."
"Agent Sentry?" Sunburst readily responded, looking up from a laptop computer that showed a general overhead map of the area. "Agent Sentry, it's Sunburst, I read you! Trixie and I picked up your distress signal, we're almost to you. What's your status?"
The response faded in and out again. "...Negative on that distress signal... ...not mine, I don't know... ...labs are hot, overrun... I repeat, extremely hot..."
Sunburst heard gunfire on the other end of the radio before the static set in again.
"Sentry? Sentry!" Static was all he could hear from that point. He let out a tense sigh, whatever was going on down there didn't sound good.
The entire vehicle shifted as Trixie suddenly stepped on the brakes.
"What's going on, why are we..." As Sunburst made his way to her, what he saw out in front of the RV answered the question in progress. "... stopping..."
Amidst the trees of the Everfree Forest, there stood a short, strange bunker, just a short walk from where Trixie had brought the RV to a stop. She tapped her fingers along the steering wheel nervously as she shot Sunburst a side glance.
"This is it, then, right?" Trixie's nerves were no better off than his own. "Secret bunker in the middle of the forest that absolutely screams 'entrance to the evil lair'?"
Sunburst nodded, albeit shakily. "Uh, yeah, the source of our signal..."
"The signal Flash just told us wasn't his?"
"Yep."
"We're not going in there, are we?"
Sunburst looked at her, the two just shared a few of uncomfortable eye contact as Trixie awaited an answer.
"I'm going in there."
"You what?! You heard him, he didn't send that signal. We could be walking into an ambush, we need to get out of here!"
"We can't just leave him behind, he could be in trouble!"
Trixie gave a frustrated huff. "He's the one that has all the guns and the secret spy training! What are we gonna do? I can't drive this thing underground!"
Sunburst went back to his laptop, and checked the status of the distress signal again. Strange, he noted it seemed to be coming from above ground. It could just be an issue with the limitations of the signal, or some kind of interference, but it seemed stronger than before.
If it wasn't Flash that sent the signal, then someone or something else had led them here. Someone who knew they were nearby. He turned his head to look out the front window. Something near the bunker caught his eye, and then something clicked in his head, gears were turning. When he didn't say anything, Trixie turned in her seat to fully face him, unable to understand why he was suddenly looking straight through her.
"We don't need to. I think... I think I know why we're here."
"What?" Trixie scowled in disbelief as he pulled up the hood on his robes and opened the RV's side door, letting the sound of rainfall clearly come through. "Are you nuts? Sunburst, what are you-"
"I'll be right back, Trixie."
-----
Sunset's boots quietly clicked against a tile floor as she walked through the short hallway she found on the tower's next level. Despite crossing through the dark veil up a flight of stairs, she seemed to come out of a rather cozy elevator, and into a calm ambience filled with soft lighting, warm brown and tan walls, the sound of people casually talking and the scent of food cooking.
Immediately to her left as she walked down the corridor was a long, slightly frosted glass window with the words 'Pandora, Bar and Grill' written across it in big cursive letters, with less detailed figures moving about behind. It led to double glass doors of similar construction and walking past it led to a split in the hallway. It was welcoming and clean, as Sunset walked she reserved some caution, unsure of what she was dealing with. When she passed the door, a familiar voice spoke behind her.
"Howdy, sugarcube."
Upon hearing the voice of her friend, Sunset tilted her head slightly, but didn't turn all the way around. She knew that voice.
"Applejack," she said, without turning but with an easygoing tone of voice. She'd somehow walked right by without noticing her. "I was wondering where you went after Rainbow disappeared..."
Applejack's demon leaned back against the restaurant's window, her eyes on the floor and her arms crossed.
She was dressed rather casually, contrasting her demonic appearance, wearing rugged blue jeans, a long sleeves, red plaid button-up shirt, and leather boots just a bit taller than Sunset's. Oddly enough, her signature weapon, the armored stone gauntlets and boots were not present around her body. Instead she held her head low, face contemplative, deep in thought about something and had been before Sunset arrived.
"'Spose you're expecting a showdown with me? Pistols at high noon, somethin' like that?"
Her tone was hesitant, and Sunset followed her example. In a relaxed manner, she drew one of her handguns and inspected it's slide, holding it at such an angle that Applejack's demon would be able to see as well.
"Yeah, in all honesty, I was. Would've been fun, I think."
The demon behind her stood straight, letting out a relieved breath and tilting her head away. "Aw, shucks. I hate to disappoint ya, but I had something else in mind."
Sunset let one of her heels fall back, and she turned to face her friend's demon. "And what's that?"
Applejack nodded to the restaurant's doors.
"Wanna grab dinner?" She asked. "Manager's treat."
-----
Flash wiped blood off his knife as he pulled it from the body of a recently neutralized Siren Agent, letting her fall to the floor alongside her squadmates. After seeing her give her last breath, Flash let out one of his own. That was the last one in this hallway. Handling enemies was getting easier for Flash, and he didn't know how he should feel about it. He didn't know how long it'd been, but he and the Hellsoldier fought side-by-side throughout the upper part of the hidden bunker, slaying demons and enemy operatives alike.
"How much further?" Flash looked to the Hellsoldier, who waited patiently for him in front of another sealed, mechanical door with a security clearance scanner on the front of it. Another lock to go through. Great. He'd lost track of how many they'd gone through at this point.
But when he approached with his SRAPH badge in hand, the Hellsoldier stopped him, holding their hand out as if to warn him of something. One of their gloved fingers pointed up above the door's frame, and in the glow of the facility's failing light systems, Flash saw the name of the area they were entering.
CORE-D.
"We're back at the core. Lynx and Sparrowhawk are there, aren't they?"
The Hellsoldier nodded. Flash readied himself.
When he swiped his badge across the scanner, Flash was greeted with a rather small observation room overlooking the facility's centermost chamber. Thick glass windows at 45 degree downward angles gave a view of the core, the place Flash and Adagio had their confrontation earlier. The tall, round room still had equipment and tables lining its outer ring, but in the center a space that once held containment pods had been cleared for something else. A device, bloody at the base, but mechanical at the top, the height of a short table, aligned with glowing demonic inscriptions in the floor.
Flash knew what it was, or at least resembled.
"An anchor? They're building an anchor?"
The Hellsoldier placed their hand against the glass and pushed against it, testing its strength to theirs.
Below them, in the chamber, a door slid open. Two figures ran through, the first a Siren operative with a purple ponytail and armor, sweeping the room with her handgun. Silent Lynx. Flash was expecting to find her here, but the person that followed her made his heart nearly stop.
Skin that was mangled and paled yellow, eyes that glowed a soft red, and slicked back fiery orange hair.
"No..." Though he had ample time to recover, Flash was again breathless.
In a suit of grey tactical gear and a machine gun at the ready was none other than SWAT Captain Spitfire, the very same Spitfire he'd seen dead earlier that day. She was working with the Sirens? Flash couldn't believe it.
"This is it." Lynx said. Neither of them could see Flash or the Hellsoldier watching above them. "Hold the sword over the beacon to activate it."
From her back, Spitfire produced a curved piece of pitch-black metal, jagged and fractured on both ends, but with a refined edge on one side. It was fixed to a makeshift handle, the blade now part of a crudely fashioned sword that glowed a faint blue color. The same faint blue that emanated from the Hellsoldier's wrist blade.
Flash saw the Hellsoldier's hand twitch as Spitfire produced the sword. The former SWAT officer turned to the Siren, giving her a look of suspicion.
"You said you had the cure."
"And I do." Lynx stated, holding out a vial with a built in injector. Their words were somewhat distorted, being projected through speakers in the observation room. "Activate the dimensional beacon and I'll give it to you."
"Once you give it to me, the side effects of this virus will be gone, yeah?"
"Of course, the 'painful death' part being the most significant." Lynx sounded like she was getting impatient. "Come on, we need to contain this demon situation. You agreed to come this far..."
Spitfire's hands tightened around the grip of the sword. "My powers will be gone too, though. The strength, the regeneration. Powers that you'll still have. How do I know you won't just kill me then? When I'm no longer useful?"
"You're free to not take it, you know. You'll keep your powers, and there's a chance you won't die horribly or lose your mind. I only said you're probably not a Siren candidate." Lynx's tone shifted as she took a few steps away from Spitfire. "You're free to keep the sword after you've activated the beacon, too."
Spitfire's eyes narrowed as she contemplated this.
"I have no reason to kill you, especially with Sentry still alive." Lynx paused, then tilted her head slightly. "You still do want revenge, don't you?"
Spitfire sighed in defeat. "Fine."
"Now, hold the blade over the beacon."
"Yeah, yeah..."
Spitfire approached the device in the center of the room with the fragment raised, and at this point Flash heard the Hellsoldier grumbling their dismay to his side.
"That beacon," Flash asked, turning his attention to the Hellsoldier. "What's it going to do?"
They only cracked their knuckles in response, backing up considerably before charging straight into the window, throwing their shoulder forward and tossing all of their weight into the glass. In their heavy powered armor, they smashed straight through a window that was likely reinforced and bulletproof, landing with a loud thump that drew both Lynx's and Spitfire's attention immediately.
"Sonata, now!" Lynx called out, to where Flash couldn't tell, but from a set of blackened window panels directly across the chamber a huge body came crashing through. A bulky, grey skinned demon with huge muscles and the remains of a Canterlot City police uniform clinging to his body landed on the opposite side of them. The demon of Sergeant Colt would again challenge the Hellsoldier as they entered the scene, and in another observation room with freshly shattered windows, Staccato Sparrowhawk stood with her scoped rifle ready.
The sound of frantic gunfire and stomping and smashing filled the chamber, but Flash ducked back behind the portion of the window that hadn't been broken, realising it was only one way. He quickly reconsidered that as bullets began to crack the glass, Sparrowhawk taking blind shots at him. They didn't go all the way through, but even bulletproof glass had its limits. Instead, Flash readied his rocket launcher, leaned into the shattered half of the window, and fired into the opposite observation room while jumping out of his own.
The Hellsoldier became the center of attention quickly as they brawled with Colt's demon, their glowing wrist blade colliding with the demon's hardened claws as they traded punches, swipes, and stabs. Spitfire let her machine gun loose on the soldier, but her bullets ultimately did little. When Flash jumped into the action though, rolling towards some bulky machinery as cover after his drop, she immediately snapped to target him.
"Sentry!" She shouted, hostility present in her voice over the explosion of a rocket in the background. It confused Flash, he wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve her scorn, but there wasn't much use in asking with her shooting at him.
Colt's demon caught a fist in the face from the Hellsoldier, then was grappled to the ground. Their wrist blade fully extended, the Hellsoldier made to drive them through, but bullets bouncing off their helmet interrupted them. Silent Lynx was shooting them, they knew that, but they couldn't see her. The Hellsoldier growled to themself. She needed to be made permanently silent. With a wild guess, they swung their blade out and frustratingly hit nothing.
Flash quickly stepped between cover positions as Spitfire blasted her machine gun at him, returning fire with his own. The overturned tables and lab machinery were all made of solid metal, bullets bounced off of most of it, but Flash wasn't willing to gamble on how long they'd hold up. His magazine was running empty, and he could only guess that Spitfire's was as well, so he switched to his shotgun and popped out of cover again when he heard a break in her firing.
He immediately saw a problem. She too switched weapons, to a shotgun of her own, but hers had a big drum magazine on it and had an automatic firing mode. Flash just barely missed a volley of shotgun pellets streaking past his cover as he let his single shot off to Spitfire's three. She'd ducked behind a tall mechanical assembler of some kind, so Flash took the opportunity to ask a question while they were both concealed.
"Why are you working with them, Spitfire?" Flash's hurt and confusion came out a bit more pronounced than he meant.
"I had to, Sentry. I was wrong to think we could do anything to save anyone on our own." Spitfire replied, swinging out from her cover and scanning across for foe. "We were useless! All of us!"
Flash came up again, taking a shot as Spitfire passed his hiding spot behind a still upright desk. Spitfire stumbled forward as the buckshot struck her, but shots didn't pierce through the armor on her back. He pumped the grip of his weapon again as she turned and fired back, spitting out four more shots from the hip as he dove to his next piece of cover.
"But now..." Spitfire continued, looking at the gaps between the machinery Flash dodged into. "Now I have the power to make a difference."
"The Sirens aren't saving anyone, you realise that, right?"
"No, Sentry. Humans are an active threat to themselves. We're saving everyone."
Spitfire turned the corner around the blocky device Flash was hiding behind, surprised to find him coming up from a crouch and throwing his fist into her chin from below. She reeled back, letting her shotgun fall and drawing a pistol from a leg holster, but found Flash doing the same and closing in on her.
Flash pulled his pistol's trigger, shoving Spitfire's pistol aside with his free hand, but Spitfire mirrored his moves, causing them both to fire off into nothing.
"They've brainwashed you!"
"They saved my life! The life you put in danger!"
Their wrists crossed and their pistols fired off again, but again neither of them hit the other. Flash reached for Spitfire's wrist again, but she grabbed him at the shoulder and went to press her gun into his stomach. He quickly kneed her ribs and gripped her elbow, bending her arm up to point her pistol away. She twisted, keeping her body from tangling while tangling Flash's arms further, and Flash had to readjust his angle of attack again. Each of their movements were fast, strong, and calculated, and neither of them fired their weapons, understanding that shooting at the wrong time could disrupt the firer's momentum.
"It's because of them everything went to hell in the first place!" Flash broke free of another grapple, finally getting a chance to bring his sights up to fire, but Spitfire quickly had her pistol holstered and drew the pitch-black sword she kept on her back. As Flash let off more shots in her direction, Spitfire held the wide bladed weapon out in front of her and the bullets were deflected off it's flat. "Do you really believe in what they're doing?"
"Do you really believe in Seraph? That humans can stand a chance against these things?" Before Flash could adjust his firing angle Spitfire lunged forward, swinging the sword back over her head and then bringing it down where Flash stood. The blade missed him as he stepped to the side, but it cut straight through the table behind him. The sword wasn't particularly long, not as long as any of the other magical swords Flash had recently seen, but it still made for a threatening close-quarters weapon. "Regular officers might as well not even exist when the odds are that stacked..."
Flash took more shots, but she was able to shift her blade to deflect them. She wasn't fast like Sunset, she had to stand still and focus while doing it, but it was still an effective way to disable his ranged weapons. His handgun eventually clicked empty, and she was only getting closer.
"We were useless before, but look at me now! Look at yourself, Sentry! They gave you their virus too..." When she glared at him, Flash could feel her anger. It was so raw, so defeated, she hadn't just been brainwashed, it was apparent that she'd had an entire internal crisis after the Sirens brought her back. She was a vigilant and by-the-books idealist convinced her books were pointless and her vigilance was ill-spent. Flash knew what that felt like, he too had felt this same soul-crushing uselessness after the Sire's Hollow incident. The worst part of it was that he fundamentally hadn't changed as a person, and neither had she. This Spitfire was still the same Spitfire that wanted to act for greater good, but the shattering of everything she believed warped her idea of 'greater good'.
She came at him again and Flash switched to his knife, holding it in a reverse grip as he angled it against the weaker end of Spitfire's blade. He was still shoved back, but his shorter weapon allowed for quicker recovery as Spitfire followed through with a third attack.
"You'd stop this. You'd let the world be at the mercy of those demons." Spitfire kept on Flash as they went back and forth. "You'd let more people die!"
"I'm trying to save people, Spitfire! Do you not understand that?"
Flash rolled beneath a swing and moved himself closer to the center of the room. If this was going to be a matter of blades, he wanted as much room as he could to move around. Checking the rest of the room, he saw the Hellsoldier was still tied up with Colt's demon and Silent Lynx, but Sparrowhawk was nowhere in sight.
"You're a kid playing hero, Sentry. It's time to grow up!"
Spitfire's sword struck Flash's knife head on, and though he tried his best to deflect it, the impact was too much for him to handle. He fell onto his back, but before Spitfire could drop the sword onto him the Hellsoldier's purple and grey form blocked his view, their wrist blade crossing with Spitfire's weapon and knocking her back as well. Flash heard Spitfire's shotgun going off as the Hellsoldier advanced on her, and he loaded up his own as he got back to his feet.
Though Spitfire's gun did little against the Hellsoldier, Colt's demon charging into them and taking them to the floor definitely hindered them. Colt's claws scraped against the metal of their power armor, and they struggled against the rapid slashes. They struggled, this was the first time Flash had seen them struggle. Flash took aim with his shotgun.
B-woom!
The flaming rounds dug into Colt's demon and ignited him, repeated shots sending him into a daze and allowing the Hellsoldier to escape it's grasp. The demon turned its sights toward Flash, but Flash was already spinning his rocket launcher over his shoulder and lining up another shot.
Shk-FWOOSH!
The rocket punched halfway through the demon's body as he jumped for Flash, and when it detonated it nearly tore him in half. His body tumbled through the air and landed on the other side of the room in a motionless, bloody mess, just in time for the Hellsoldier to stand back up.
"Behind you!" Flash called, unable to ready another weapon as Spitfire struck the Hellsolider in the side of the head with her sword, the glowing black metal biting through their helmet and sending them spinning to the floor as they cradled their head. Flash scrambled for the machine gun dangling from his body, but suddenly felt a precise, searing pain shoot through his back and into his chest. His entire world blinked in black and white.
Crack!
Flash had been shot.
It had to happen sooner or later, right? Nobody can live forever. Everyone makes a fatal mistake eventually, and it seems like Flash just made his. For all of his skill, tenacity, and grit, he was still only human. He'd left his back exposed to Sparrowhawk, neglecting to consider the fact that she was still somewhere in the room. The pain in his chest was sharp, a dull, lingering tingle that stabbed him every time he tried to breathe. In movies, people were always blown away in the direction they'd been hit, but, oddly enough Flash just felt himself come to stop. After what felt like forever, he fell backward, unable to stay upright.
"Good shot, Sonata." Lynx spoke somewhere above Flash, turning to address Spitfire. "And good takedown on the Commander. She'd been proving troublesome to deal with..."
Flash's vision spun, only able to watch as the three converged on the demonic device at the center of the room.
"Now..." Lynx said, her breathing showing signs of exhaustion from the fight. "Activate the beacon, Spitfire. When Adagio opens the portal, she'll have control of the demons in this facility."
With reluctance, Spitfire nodded, holding the blade above the device and finding that a beam of light shot up into the ceiling as the sword's magic interacted with it. Slight tears of purple energy began to form up around the beacon, and then a swirling orb emerged above it. It was like a portal, but smaller, the device seemed to contain and control it, as well cast some form of otherworldly signal letting out a radiating pulse of power.
"Good. Now let's finish these two off..."
When Flash raised his head again, he saw Sparrowhawk sticking the barrel of her rifle into the face of the Hellsoldier, who was slumped up against one of the lab tables, and Lynx approaching him with her pistol drawn. Even that subtle head movement took most of his energy, but he felt the sudden urge to move, like all of his muscles were coiling up, building tension with the intent to spring out.
His fingers curled up slightly. He was still alive. Along his hands he could see the deep, dark marks of corruption beneath his skin, the demon virus was keeping him from dying. Along with it, little blood came from the newly made hole in him, the same black substance that hardened over his arm taking its place. It made his chest feel heavy, but kept his breaths from becoming shallow. Slowly but surely, the will to move returned to him. He was still alive.
Lynx got close, but Spitfire objected.
"I want to do it."
Lynx shrugged. "Suit yourself."
She stood over him, raised her sword, but before she could strike the Hellsoldier sprung to life again, shoving Sparrowhawk aside and jumping for Spitfire again. Spitfire spun, slashing the Hellsoldier's helmet and taking them to the ground, but in doing so she gave Flash an opening.
Moving made the pain in his chest worse, forcing a cough through his lungs, but he did, reaching into one of his hip pouches and pulling out one of the two healing syringes taken from the weapon storage. Up against his neck it went, and as he injected its contents into himself he gradually felt his strength return. Amidst the confusion of motion he reached for his machine gun and brought it up to meet Spitfire as she turned back to him, pulling the trigger before she could make another move.
Only six or seven shots were left in the magazine, but that was more than enough to knock the wind from her sails. Her face seized into a shocked expression as she was given a chest wound to match Flash's, and when Lynx moved in to stop him he sat up, elbowing her and bashing her back with the butt of his weapon. All of his weapons were now empty, so his fist followed up on Silent Lynx as he rose to his feet, bouncing her against the floor and rendering her motionless.
Staccato Sparrowhawk was next, he had only a few moments to respond to her raising her rifle to take him down. Tilting his shoulder forward he brought out his knife and slashed the barrel of her weapon, then stabbed it forward into a gap in her armor. He caught her in the ribs and drove her back first into the flat side of a machine assembler, pulling out and slicing her cheek as she attempted to jab her taser into him. She went limp and slumped down against the wall, and Flash stepped back, realising he just took down three opponents that were easily stronger than him.
Or maybe he was just barely on their level. Maybe they were equals. He didn't have the time to pat himself on the back though, his next concern was the Hellsoldier. They were knelt near the active beacon, their helmet having sustained damage and their hands holding their head in pain.
Flash ran to their side, crouching down to see how bad the damage was. Two cuts on either side ripped all the way through their helmet, and blood poured out onto the purple metal. Their breathing was pained and raspy, and they quickly collapsed onto their back.
"Shit... Hang on, I have something." Flash reached into his hip pouch, he grabbed two healing injectors before leaving the weapons storage area, and was fully willing to give the second one to the person that saved his life on multiple occasions.
The Hellsoldier rose a balled hand in protest, instead shoving something into Flash's own and backing away. Another injector vial, but this one filled with a green liquid and marked 'antidote'.
"The cure. But what about you?"
The Hellsoldier shook their head. They pointed to the beacon and the orb of energy above it, drew their fingers closed and then quickly opened them, mimicking some kind of violent motion.
"Blow it up, I get that. But you're bleeding out of your face..."
They only pushed him away again. They wanted the beacon destroyed.
"Okay, I have charges I can set on it." Flash approached the device, attaching all three remote explosives he had to its base and turning back to them with the detonator in hand. "See? Done. Now please, just take the injector. You don't have to sacrifice yourself for me."
A horrifying, screeching howl would cut them off, and Flash saw the Hellsoldier rising up a third time, shoving him out of the way and taking a hit from a huge, hardened claw. The decimated body of Sergeant Colt's demon still moved, wildly swinging at the Hellsoldier again, knocking their helmet off as they scored another hit on their face. From what Flash could see, the Hellsoldier's wrist blade shot out, stabbed the demon through the chest and then tossed him into the corner.
Flash then felt himself being lifted up, and heard the sound of the beacon's purple vortex tearing open near the beacon as the Hellsoldier cast their hand at it. That same strong, rough hand pulled the detonator from his grip, and Flash suddenly saw two familiar blue eyes looking into his. They were the same eyes that he'd once seen terrified, the eyes of the last living person he saw during the mission at Sire's Hollow. One had a scar running through it, they were now hardened with both determination and suffering, but they showed the same urgent concern she always had.
He saw those blue eyes, messy spikes of greying fuschia hair falling around them, Flash was looking into the incredibly maimed face of the Hellsoldier, but to his surprise, he had a name to this face. He knew who he was looking at. This was the face of Commander Tempest Shadow, the impossibly brave woman that led his team at Sire's Hollow, the woman that traded her life to save Flash's without even thinking, who then disappeared kicking and screaming into a demon portal. It was another face Flash never thought he'd see again, yet here she was, she'd been fighting with him all this time. But again, she was the one staying behind.
Colt's demon still roared and thrashed behind her, but Flash heard the rumble of an explosion before he closed in. By that point nothing was in his control, he was being thrown through the demon portal, and all of reality was converging to nothing as it closed.
-----
"So I'm guessing this is the part where you tell my shake has been poisoned, or something?"
"Ha! It don't taste that bad now, does it?"
Sunset leaned back against the booth seat, looking down on the emptied plate that once contained a sizable burger and fries, and then at the glass cup from which she was sipping a strawberry milkshake. Despite it all probably not being real, the food Applejack's demon conjured in this space was admittedly pretty good. There were other people here, but they appeared as greyed out figures, Sunset couldn't see any details about them, not even the waitress and server staff. They made for a good atmosphere regardless, as did the TV mounted over the bar area, though Sunset couldn't make any sense of what it was displaying either.
"Nah, it's good, really. It's just..." Sunset took another idle sip of her shake. The two had enjoyed a meal, several actually, Sunset would go on to make a pile of plates after not eating for an entire day, and they simply talked about how they felt about the circumstances that led them here. There was no fight, it was just open, honest conversation. Entirely unusual for Sunset.
"I wasn't expecting any hospitality on the way up here. If I didn't know any better I might say this is all just a drawn out set up to make me fat, happy, and easy to take down. Which..." Sunset finished her shake off, set the glass down, and let her head fall back as she got comfortable in her seat. She rested a hand over her stomach and closed her eyes. "You'd have done a pretty good job of that."
"Well, now..." Applejack's demon shook her head and chuckled softly. "I know you haven't got a chance to talk, but me and AJ get along pretty well. Not much inner conflict to resolve here. I reckon the others have given you a hard enough time, I ain't lookin' to make things harder on ya."
"I appreciate that. It sounds like things didn't go as smoothly with Twilight, though."
"'Fraid not. She's lost it, there's no gettin' through to her."
"Hey now," Sunset said. "She's still our friend, right?"
"Friends don't do what she did to us, hon."
"Yeah, but..." Sunset tried to make some kind of argument, but her words failed her.
Applejack's demon sighed. "Look, maybe you can talk some sense into her if you see her again, but as far as I'm aware y'all ain't on speaking terms. Nobody's on speaking terms with her anymore."
Sunset shifted in her seat and sat straight. "It's really like that, huh?"
Applejack gave only a grim nod. "Only thing she seems to understand is a good ol' fashioned beat down. I don't like it either, but... she's made her bed, and sooner or later she's gonna have to sleep in it. And given how the two of y'all are closer than two shells in a shotgun, I'd say there ain't nobody more qualified to tuck her in than you."
"I dunno..." Sunset looked down into her empty shake glass. "I don't want to fight her anymore. Not like this. If it wasn't over the fate of the world, maybe, yeah, it'd be fun, but... I don't want to abandon our friendship."
"Hate to break it to you, but she's already abandoned you."
Sunset sighed, standing and adjusting her coat. She took her sword from beside her seat and slung it back over her shoulder. She'd failed Flash and Twilight was a lost cause, but the rest of her friends still needed her. "Guess I should focus on saving who I can, huh?"
"Hey now, I didn't call you here to make you all mopey. But I think that's the right idea. I know you're gonna turn me down, but do you want me to come with you the rest of the way?"
Sunset shook her head. "Nope. You and your human body are my priorities. Thanks for the food though, and the talk. I think I know what I need to do now."
"Right, then. I got one more question for ya, 'fore you carry on, something I've been curious about."
"Yeah?"
Applejack's demon grinned. "Did Rainbow taste good?"
-----
Rain washed over the metal body and rugged clothing of Starlight Glimmer as she passed through the castle's outermost wall. Through its tall, wide gate she ran, but found herself slowing down as she came out into a strangely calm scene. In front of her was a garden of flower covered bushes and neatly kept hedges, with a tile path surrounded by tall, white ash trees, that lead out into an open, grassy area, and beyond that an exit. It was spacious, wide, and peaceful, even in the rain, a stark contrast to the ruined castle behind her.
And directly in her path, standing in the grass before a semicircle of high reaching, bristly bushes was another demon hunter in a lavender coat, with long, ponytailed violet hair holding the sheath of a katana sword in her left hand. She was facing away, gazing out at something, and didn't acknowledge Starlight's approach. For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Starlight just waited.
A gentle breeze swept through the garden, dragging a distinct scent through the air that both demon hunters recognized.
Rosemary. It was abundant in this garden, Starlight noticed. The blue, white, and soft lavender petals were peppered against green, needley bushes, the aroma they gave off was unmistakable against the humid, rainy air. At least, it was to the two of them.
"This is it, then." Twilight Sparkle finally spoke, but kept her gaze forward. "I suppose I couldn't run from fate forever."
Starlight's eyes narrowed. She wasn't sure if Twilight was directly addressing her, or just musing to herself.
"Do you remember your initiation into the Order's Knights? You were blessed with rosemary petals."
Rosemary held great significance to the Order of Light, it was used ornamentally in many of their rituals. They said it repelled demons, helped them to remember their goddess and faith. Starlight relaxed a little, lowering her weapon and slowly pacing across the other end of the grass patch, deciding she'd listen to where her former mentor was going with this. She came for a fight, she wasn't going to leave until she got one, but the shift of tone in the environment made the normally rash cyborg extra thoughtful.
"Rosemary is said to symbolize remembrance." Twilight said. "And between us there is much to remember."
Twilight then, at last, turned her head to Starlight, meeting her eyes as an equal for the first time.
"You got that right," Starlight replied. "You've got a lot to answer for."
"I do." Twilight gave a solemn nod and turned to her student, her sheathed weapon held close to her body. "But on whose behalf are you asking, Starlight?"
A subtle raise of the eyebrow and turning of the lip gave away Starlight's uncertainty.
"If you're here on behalf of the Order, ask yourself, do you really believe in what the Order upholds? The preservation of power in the hands of those they deem worthy?" Twilight's eyes pierced through Starlight's, she knew that look, she was being looked down upon. But then, they shifted, softened just the tiniest bit. "Anyone less would've gone home, but you followed me here."
Starlight's eyes closed and her chin fell. No, this was never really about the Order. This was about their history, about their personal feelings, a conflict of morality. This was about a master and her student, a betrayal, and revenge. She shook her head, and spoke firmly to Twilight. Starlight wasn't going to back down, not now.
"I want to know why you did the things you did, why you changed. I don't care about the Order, or what they think about flowers. You're not the Twilight I remember."
Twilight frowned, it seemed like she was expecting a different response. What Starlight said seemed to resonate with her, she looked distraught after a moment.
"When I first met you, you were just as resilient and stubborn as you are now. I guess that's why you stood out to me. You and I are alike in that way." Twilight's eyes darted down. "I offered you mercy because I saw that you had a strong sense of justice, even if you were misguided at the time."
"What's your point?" Starlight again began to pace, feeling a bit of impatience towards Twilight's rambling. "Do you think that somehow absolves you from what you did? That saving my life somehow makes wasting others okay?"
Twilight shook her head. "No. We both know it doesn't, you know what's right and what's wrong when you see it, Starlight."
"And? You're dancing around the question. I want a straight answer."
A long sigh followed. "I left the Order because I believed they were wrong about everything. I'm sure you know this. They hoard power and knowledge, the means to change the world, but do so little with it. When I learned of Nightmare Moon's return, and saw how indifferent they were about it, I felt compelled to take matters into my own hands." Twilight's eyes came up again, looking almost disappointed, but not with Starlight. There was a tension within her, some confliction that remained unresolved, something that she would only ever let Starlight see. "Because I felt my sense of justice more pertinent than their rules and restrictions."
Twilight relaxed a little bit. A bitter smile returned to her.
"Because I put my principle over their protocol." When met with Starlight's nearly bored expression, Twilight continued. "Principle over protocol. Forgive me if I keep harping on about that, but that's really all there is to it, Starlight. It's everything I taught you. It's every action I've taken, everything I believe in. I thought I was doing the right thing, but now I'm staring at the ashes of everything I've burned."
Starlight's expression changed at this. She didn't feel the same hostility she thought she'd feel. She didn't scowl, she didn't smirk, she only frowned in understanding. Things were starting to come together, and she saw a picture of someone so devoted to what they believed in that they were willing to sacrifice everything now questioning everything they'd done.
Raising her head and meeting Starlight in her entirety, Twilight spoke with renewed clarity.
"I am a student of Celestia, inheritor of her power and legacy. But for all my power, after everything that's happened, I'm faced with a question I can't answer."
She paused, taking a breath that sounded... uncertain. Starlight could see it now. She was afraid.
"Was I wrong?"
Her sheath lowered, and her sword hand slowly reached for her weapon's handle in time with Starlight reaching for hers.
"You, Starlight, are my student, one who follows in my own footsteps, but ever since I left you, you could no longer do that. You followed your own principles, you made your own path. And it's led you to stand in mine."
In Twilight's eyes Starlight saw clear reservation after her expression straightened out, this was yet another thing Twilight didn't want to do. Yet she was so stubbornly committed, and nothing Starlight could say would make her stand down.
"Only one of us will leave this place, and the one who does will have proven their principles stronger. I will own my actions, whether I'm right or wrong, and you, no matter why you fight, or who you judge me for, you- my faithful student, my own legacy- will be my answer."
As Twilight's intensity rose, Starlight drew her chainsaber. Another breeze came through the garden and they were both surrounded by the scent of rosemary once more as they prepared for what would come.
"Twilight..."
In a quick, well practiced motion Twilight had her katana's blade freed from its container. She held it in both hands, its edge nearly invisible as she brought it in line with Starlight, meeting her eyes and finally initiating their duel.
"Show me what you stand for, Starlight. Face me!"