Long Road surged ahead, trying to get at the mare with sword at the ready. She laughed at his attempt, leaping back as her fellows advanced. Black wings erupted from her back, beautiful and perfect. They held her aloft easily as she leveled the bow and took a quick fire. The arrow burst into flame just before striking Pinkie in the right hind leg.
"Ow!" squealed Pinkie. The flames harmlessly guttered against her enchanted flesh, but the arrow hurt plenty on its own. She pulled out a kazoo she had earlier and began playing it eagerly as her magic wove around her allies in a field of encouragement.
Spike moved with Long Road, colliding with the wildly bearded stallions. Their long glaives let them get the first strikes in, leaving thin cuts that seemed to fester and boil immediately. Spike bared his teeth with a low growl, grabbing for the demon pony directly in front of him. One of his claws couldn't find purchase in its supernaturally toughened hide, but the other left satisfying red lines. He lashed with his teeth, into the shoulder just beside the withers with the satisfying sensation of flesh crushing between his jaws.
Long Road drove his sword in, stabbing the beast in the side with the still sharpened blade. "This is a battle you can't win," he snarled, parrying a swipe of the glaive as the stallion backed away. The demon grunted and tossed the weapon aside before lunging at Long Road, digging into his furred flesh with dirty claws. When did ponies even have claws? With a manic cackle, it stuffed its wild beard in Long Road's snout. The scruffy thing rubbed its rough surface against him, leaving tiny scratches across his face.
A sound from outside made Twilight's ears twitch as Rainbow spun in mid air to face it. Filling the door came the shape of the snake creature they had left behind from before. Raising its great sword in ready position, it snarled, "You are a fool to leave your enemies still drawing breath. It will be your last mistake."
Rainbow took off in a flash of prismatic fury, aiming to repeat her disarming performance. "Fool me once," hissed the serpent as it brought the blade up in a swift slice, forcing Rainbow back with a fresh cut and a yelp of pain. Blood dropped from her cyan form as Rainbow tried to ignore it, hooves raised.
"Think you're so tough? I'll show you how we handle bad guys around here," taunted Rainbow with a brave face of defiance.
While Soft Mane cast her soft pink light across the room, Twilight frowned deeply. This was far from an ideal position, tactically speaking. She turned on the snake thing and directed her horn at it. With a bright crack she poured her magic wantonly, funneling into a great burst of lightning to dissuade the creature. It managed to avoid the center of the bolt and conduct some of its fury into the metal of the half melted subway car.
The flying... alicorn? demon soared over the fight between the bearded ones and came at Twilight with a wild cackle. A rope levitated from her and flew out, wrapping securely around all four of Twilight's legs and cinching them together. Twilight yelped and fell over before being drawn up into the air a few feet. "All trussed up and nowhere to go? I'll treat you just right. I imagine you'll scream like a well tuned instrument with just the right cut."
Spike aborted his battle, suddenly flying from the demon. "Where're you going!" shouted the demon as he drove his glaive into Spike's exposed back, "We're not done!" Despite the burning pain of those festering wounds, Spike drew something from his pocket as he flew at the mare holding Twilight. He grabbed her around the withers and slammed down a ring on her horn, the ring he had held in his pockets for months for just such an occasion.
"What have you done?!" screeched the winged demon as the rope went slack, dropping Twilight back to the ground. Her bow also fell, no longer held in the demon's magic. "My horn! I just got that, and you broke it! I will make your suffering fit for myth." She drew a glimmering longsword free in her mouth, ready to face Spike without the benefit of the horn, hatred painted across her delicate features.
Pinkie's music kicked up in tempo as did the actions of her friends around her, imbuing them with extra speed as she backed up into the only available corner. Though she played her kazoo on, her eyes darted nervously from one enemy to the next, any one of which would have been enough to fight.
Long was left to face the two wild-bearded stallions. He selected the one that looked more hurt, hoping for a quick dispatching. "You will be laid low for your crimes." With the power of goodness filling him, he swung with powerful motions of his neck. The demon tried to ward away the sword with his clawed hooves, but it struck through easily, leaving the demon bleeding and missing a finger for its troubles. Its ally edged around the infuriated paladin, driving a long glaive into Long's exposed side with a cackle. Long tried to banish the wounds away, but the festering wounds refused to close.
"This is really bad," said Twilight as she picked herself up off the floor. She brought down a hoof with a thunderclap as the demon Long was stabbing at was knocked off his feet. "Finish him off, Long. We can't fight all of them at once."
~You can't fight us at all~ spoke the mare's voice in their heads as she lashed out with her sword at Spike, leaving fresh wounds as it bit through his scales into the tender flesh beneath, ~But it's so fun to see you try.~
Rainbow ducked and bobbed around the snake, trying to distract him while getting in a quick strike. Though her hooves landed with satisfying thumps of bruised flesh, she zigged when a zag would have served better. The length of metal buried into her left hindleg, staining her pelt darker red. Rainbow howled with pain, jerking back only to be snagged in the snake's great length of a tail, squeezed mercilessly in it. "Hey! Let... go..." she commanded, wriggling in its grip furiously even as she felt her ribs creak under the pressure.
Spike turned down to the two stallions attacking Long Road and gave a careful burst of electric fury on them, catching the two in the blast while avoiding Long. ~Forgot about me?~ asked the she-demon before she casually slapped Spike across the face with a hoof, ~I didn't forget you.~ She drove the sword at him but Spike deflected it along his scales. ~Yes, struggle for me~
Soft Mane hurried forward and hopped up, slapping Spike with a hand and a burst of pink energy. Be it skill, faith, or dumb luck, she broke through the festering wounds on Spike and some of his wounds closed with a wave of relief. "Show her what you're made of, Spike!"
~I intend to see exactly what he's made of,~ spoke the she-demon in their minds with a sadistic grin.
Long advanced on the demon Twilight had left prone on the floor. With Pinkie's burst of speed fueling his motions, he drove the blade deep into its belly, then higher up in the barrel before slicing between the two in a neat incision. The demon gurgled as its innards ceased being inside in a disgusting mess. His victory was short savored as the other demon drove its wicked glaive at him, finding the weak points of his armor to score burning marks across his body. Long tried to conjure the healing energy into himself, but the wounds festered angrily, refusing to obey the wash of golden energy.
Pinkie abandoned her corner, quickly hurrying over to Rainbow. Not getting any closer to the snake than she had to, she reached out and bumped hooves with Rainbow even as Rainbow flailed. Though some of the pain faded, it did little to alleviate the crushing pressure of the tail around Rainbow.
With a powerful buck and twist, Rainbow forced her way free of the coiled tail with a loud equine snort just in time to duck under an incoming sword, "Hey! Watch it buster, just got the mane cut last week." She drove a hoof into his chin in a spiraling uppercut before kicking off his chest in a back flip mid air, "Bring it." Pinkie's squeal broke her haughty expression as she saw the crafty snake had snared her in his tail, squeezing and shaking Pinkie mercilessly. "Hey! You better let go of her right this instant, or so Celestia help me..."
Suddenly, the snake gave a loud roar of pain. Pinkie was released as he spun around to face some other obstacle.
"We're coming!" came the excited and yet soft voice of Fluttershy.
"Hang in there, darlings, help's arrived," came the accompanying tones of Rarity.
Just beyond the snake, the room had filled with small fire elementals and several of those pony imps. They battered at the snake in a concerted orchestra of punches, slams and even thrown rocks.
The she-devil frowned deeply as she glanced to the door, then to Spike and back at Twilight. ~I will not be denied~ She withdrew from Spike slowly as words of vilest evil dripped from her snout. The room was plunged into inky darkness as terrible pain erupted from the would-be heroes. When the darkness faded, Long Road was fallen out across the floor. Twilight and Pinkie looked green around the gills, wobbling where they stood. Spike looked the least harmed by the rolling evil and charged after her. Lashing claw and cruel horns dug into her pony flesh despite its supernatural resilience. She almost seemed to enjoy being torn into, smiling in that disturbing way as Spike pressed the attack.
With his combatant on the ground, the wild maned demon snorted in disgust and charged forward at the exposed Soft Mane. He drove the cursed glaive at her, catching her at the hip where her breastplate met with the armored skirt. Soft Mane collapsed, joining Long Road on the floor of the car. "They're all falling. No fun at all," he jeered, turning his attention to Twilight.
~Not that one, she's mine~ ordered the she-devil.
Rainbow brought her hooves down in a crushing haymaker as the snake tried to fend off the sudden onslaught of smaller but far more numerous combatants. As he fell forward Rainbow came down on him, driving him to the floor under her weight and momentum. "Yea, that'll teach ya!" She saw the room full of fire creatures and blinked.
Fluttershy and Rarity were on the top of the stairs. "Attack!" commanded Fluttershy and they pushed around Rainbow Dash in a wave, shoving the pegasus aside to fill the inside of the railway car. Pinkie rode the wave with a loud 'wee' as she bounced from one elemental to the next, giggling all the while.
Twilight flashed out of existence, teleporting beside the others at the top of the stairs. "Fluttershy, Rarity? How did you two get here?"
Rarity pointed down at the fight below, "This is a decidedly poor time to discuss that, darling. We have a battle to put aside first."
Fluttershy nodded in soft agreement with Rarity as she rubbed one foreleg with another. "I just... thought you might need help... if that's OK?"
"OK? OK!? You're a life saver!" She grabbed Fluttershy up and squeezed the butter yellow pegasus tightly.
In the car, the bearded demon impaled the first bit of living flame to reach it, but it had no hope of taking them all on at once. They quickly surrounded the wild bearded pony and began battering him from all sides. The smallest ones even got under the demon, punching up into his gut and barrel roughly. The She-devil had the advantage of being airborne above the reinforcements and spat our her vile words only to find Spike ramming into her, knocking the spell free before it could finish and it fizzled harmlessly. He forced her down towards the eager combatants as he lashed at her with wild abandon. Just as he thought he would get her in the reach of the crowd, she vanished.
Beside Twilight and the others, the she-devil snapped into being with a puff of brimstone, bloodied and furious. Twilight quickly threw a lightning bolt at her, but it washed over her with no effect. The She-Devil calmly drove her blade forward, shattering the invisible field of energy around Twilight and plunging the sword deep into Twilight's barrel. ~I wanted to have fun with you, but your death will just have to do.~
Twilight jumped again, appearing on top of a nearby building, but the devil had come with her, still driving that sword home. ~Shhh, no more words. Close your eyes.~ The devil twisted the blade with a wrench of her snout, making pain and stars flash before Twilight's eyes.
Fluttershy and Rarity looked around in a frantic search. "Where did she go?" asked Fluttershy before she took off. Gaining altitude quickly, she brought the building Twilight had jumped to into view just in time to see the devil kick her off the side. "Twilight!" she cried with uncharacteristic shrillness and she dived to catch Twilight's falling form.