• Published 22nd May 2019
  • 3,992 Views, 324 Comments

Sun Never Sets - CrownofDissonance



The gates of the underworld are opening for the first time in two thousand years. It's up to Sunset Shimmer, demon hunter extrordinaire, to slam 'em shut.

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16- The Alignment of Intentions

From a full run, Selene jumped.

A beam of scorching yellow magic streaked into the parking lot, vaporizing the pavement as it swept across at her.

Just as her feet hit the ground, Sombra appeared at her feet, grabbing her and scooting out of the range of the rest of the attack.

Energy still glowing between his horns, Tirek angrily stomped a hoof and loudly voiced his anger.

"Stay still!"

Charging in close, he came at Selene fast with an arm held low, but she jumped up again. Reaching into the sky, Discord appeared above her, grabbing her arm and floating her safely up over his attack, where she began to fire her two pistols into his side. The damage was hardly effective, more just mildly irritating than anything else, but he whipped around and closed in on her again. She was controlling the demons, if she fell, the others would follow.

But as he stomped his front hooves down, aiming to knock her over with the shockwave, he found her mounting Sombra again and zipping out of his reach. Another energy beam charged up, and this time he directed it behind her, drawing a semicircle in which to keep her contained as it fired. As she evaded, he quickly charged in, tossing a punch aimed directly where she was jumping.

His fist came in, but she slipped out of the way again, causing him to crash right through the front wall of the church, taking most of it down, door and all, while tripping over himself in the process. He just barely stood comfortably in the entryway, and in this, Selene saw a means to get the upper hand.

"Discord, get his attention, I'll try to get behind him."

"Uh, yeah, alright!" Selene rode Sombra off down the entry hall, while Discord stood his own.

Tirek was now eyeing him, getting ready for another charge attack.

"Alright, tough guy..." Discord said, mostly to himself, "Let's see how tough you are."

In a single claw, Discord summoned to himself a mystical and ornate looking bow made of silvery green metal and with intricate decoration engraved into it. In his other paw, he summoned three long, rugged looking missiles, grinning deviously as he balanced all three onto the string and drew them back. As he loosed them, they somehow ignited and rocketed straight towards their target, flying in a brilliant spiraling pattern and creating a huge cloud of smoke as Tirek ran right into them.

Coughing, Tirek slowed his momentum, sliding to a stop as he cleared his eyes of the cloud, and by that time, Discord had already relocated out of the way behind him.

"Coward!" Tirek looked over his shoulder. "You're weak, Discord. Lord of Chaos? You're nothing more than a court jester!"

"Well keep laughing!" Discord readied another three missiles onto his bow.

He swung his horns back and forth, lasering up into the ceiling twice and cleanly cutting a huge chunk of it down. Looking up, Discord quickly backed away, lowering his shot for just a moment. As the ceiling crashed into the floor, Tirek was plowing straight through it, taking Discord off guard and actively launching him back.

Mid-flight, Discord relocated himself again, reappearing higher up against the back wall, and letting off another volley of missiles from his bow. As the missiles struck Tirek held his arms up, covering his face and firing through the smoke in a vertical line, slicing right through the wall to Discord's back. To evade, Discord flew in a tight circle around the magic beam, putting three more spiraling rockets on his face and effectively knocking him into a daze.

Flying in close, Discord put his bow away and took hold of both of his horns. Just as he came out of his stunned state, Discord changed the direction of their relative gravity to the way they were facing and they both fell straight towards the weakened section of wall. He would've much preferred to change everyone's gravity, but his magic was in a weakened state, and also had a limit while bound to Selene's amulet. The local gravity change worked just fine, as it resulted in the entire world shifting ninety degrees, and him being able to slam Tirek headfirst through the entire wall with minimal effort. The result as he let go of him was quite amusing, as he crashed ungracefully onto the floor of the main assembly hall face first and slid quite a humiliating distance.

"Oops," Discord brushed off his paw and claw on each other, looking to be satisfied with his work. "Did I do that?"

Standing again, he let out an enraged roar, loud enough to crumble the already damaged roof.

"Worthless creatures! Your magic is mine!" Extending a hand, another orange orb formed, shooting off in Discord's direction. He flew out of the way, but by shifting his hand, the orb followed Tirek's direction, and the draconequus was ultimately caught inside of it.

A larger, more powerful bullet would strike the back of Tirek's head, as Selene climbed atop the horizontally bisected statue of the Sister of Light and took a shot at him with her anti-tank rifle. He swayed, looking as though someone had tossed a brick at him, and his hold over Discord broke.

"Sombra, slice him!" Selene called out, prompting Discord to relocate to her side.

"Thanks for the save," he said.

"No problem. Attack him from here, if you will."

"Yeah, yeah."

The shadow unicorn slid down beneath the centaur, shooting his body up as a single, curved spike as he glided across the surface of the floor. Tirek tensed up at the unexpected cut, and stomped directly down on Sombra, knocking him out of the floor and startling him still. His hoof lifted again, but as he stomped down a second time Sombra morphed into a mass of long spikes, punching straight through the hoof and painfully jabbing into Tirek's leg.

As he recoiled, Discord summoned another device to him, this time a comically large machine gun mounted on a little sandbag setup just before the statue, operated by a clone of himself wearing a olive green army helmet. The original Discord also donned an identical helmet, and loaded a belt of ammunition into the gun, looking at Tirek through a little pair of binoculars and nodding to his clone.

"Light him up."

The clone nodded back, and Discord then played the very important role of holding up the machine gun belt as it ripped through the rounds, making the sound of a buzzsaw as an obscene number of bullets began pelting their oversized target. The Discord Gunner was lifted up off the ground as he held tight onto the trigger with a claw, and held his helmet to his head with a paw.

Defensively holding out his hands, Tirek buckled under the endless gunfire, but found a fast defense. He took up the statue's giant sword, long since fallen to the ground, and held it protectively in front of his body. The bullets deflected off of the hard stone blade, and behind it, Tirek charged up a magic beam that ended Discord's little gun emplacement the moment he moved the sword to let it off. The clone, the gun, and the sandbags poofed into nothingness as Discord dove away to safety.

Tirek felt something land on the back of his horse half, and then suddenly reared back as Sombra's body turned into sharp, jagged crystals that stuck deep into him. Reaching behind him, he grabbed the unicorn demon and squeezed him tight in his hand, but his face distorted, his horn growing until it covered all of it, and shot straight out into Tirek's cheek. Sombra was thrown down, and splashed on the floor into his darkness as normal, but a victorious grin was on his face as he did.

Together, they were wearing him down, but it'd be up to Selene to deliver the killing blow. At the end of the center aisle, she slid out, firing her burst pistol to get his attention. At the front of the aisle, Tirek fired a magic burst at her, sending it up all the way up to the ceiling and bringing solid chunks of it down. With Sombra's help, Selene weaved around these falling pieces, jumping off of him and kicking off a piece of rubble as Tirek brought the statue's sword edge down to crush her.

The heavy weapon split the floor apart, and Selene landed right on the edge, running up it and firing her guns as she approached its crossguard.

"Discord!" She called, hiking her foot up on the very tip of the guard and pushing up, putting herself in the air, halfway to Tirek's eye level.

"I'm coming, geez!" He relocated right above her, catching her hand and tossing her up higher with a flap of his wings.

The orb between Tirek's horns lit up brightly again as Selene dove towards him, now holding her bladed rifle out forward. Landing with one foot on each of his shoulders, Selene's rifle blade punched right into his forehead, one hand bracing the barrel, and the other pushing on the stock. As he wailed in defeat the orange charge of magic let loose into the ceiling right above him, and the blade that pierced him lit up in a brilliant deep blue. It burned at him, seemingly disintegrating him in his place.

"Forfeit your power, run off in shame
Be stripped clean of all that you have but your name!"

Quickly, his entire body began to burn, engulfed in the same deep blue light, until he was slowly disintegrating into smoky dust.

"Not like this, not like this!" He cried, flailing about as he burned up, and the ceiling began to fall in on him. Selene kicked off of him, pulling her blade free as he became too weak to resist the collapsing roof. He tried to push himself free, but the blade of Selene's weapon still stung even as it was pulled out of him. Falling to a kneel, he just barely supported himself with his hands as all four of his legs gave out.

Selene smiled, looking up at the once intimidating foe, now kneeling before her. Looking to Discord, she nodded in Tirek's direction.

"You've been of excellent help," Selene said. "Would you like the honor of finishing him?"

A wide grin crossed his face. "With pleasure."

Next thing she knew, Discord was wearing a baseball uniform, with a batter's helmet over his head, and slinging a ridiculously huge bat over his shoulder. Stepping right up to Tirek's dazed face he moved the bat in a circle behind him, generating more and more energy as he wound it up.

"No..." Tirek's eyes opened for just long enough to register what was happening.

The deep, instantly recognizable sound of an upbeat organ tune would sound from somewhere imperceptible as Discord spun the bat up. The music built, ascending in tone and becoming faster in time with the bat as it wound so fast it became a blur. Selene's amulet resonated with the intensity, as his power was bound to it. Discord was putting all of his energy into this one single strike.

As the music reached its peak, he twisted his entire body forward, finally swinging the bat around and smacking the power-crazed centaur square in the nose.

"NOOOOO-"

Thwack!

"-OOooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!......."

With the volume and intensity of a gunshot, Tirek rocketed out of the main hall with an unbelievable velocity, back through the entryway, and up through what was left of the ceiling. His howl of defeat would grow quieter and quieter as he made his untimely exit, ultimately disappearing into the dark sky.

"Aaaaaaand he's outta here!"

The sound of roaring cheers and applause would come from absolutely nowhere, causing Selene another bout of Discord-induced confusion. Hesitantly, she joined in the applause, warranting an unamused glare from Sombra. A sharp, appreciative whistling came from right behind Selene, and when she turned she saw Discord there, out of the baseball clothes and without the bat. Looking back to where Tirek was, there was nothing. The applause stopped, everything was silent.

Looking very pleased with himself, Discord again let his face fall to a content smile. "Oh, that felt great."

"Did that kill him?"

"Most definitely. When they're still alive they make a little gleam in the sky. If not, he'll eventually burn up after you stabbed him with the fragment of that Devil Sword. Anyway!" Discord pointed off towards the exit. "On we go, then?"

"Indeed, to the Everfree Forest."

Leaving the newly destroyed church of the Sister of Light behind them, the three approached the demon anchor. Discord snapped his talons, and they were taken away in a swirling purple vortex.

-----

Twilight's hand firmly planted itself on the earth as she fell backwards. A smooth, massive plant stalk came from the ground beneath her, summoned by Fluttershy's demon in an attempt to flip her. Flip Twilight did, but upon successfully catching herself she sprung back up into the air, turning all the way back over to land on her feet.

Fluttershy's demon balanced on the tip of the stalk, allowing its growth to push her forward as it curved in towards Twilight. Calling on Rarity's magic again, Twilight tossed out a set of oversized sewing pins, each one spearing through the stalk just behind the demon riding it. It was a calculated miss—each pin detonated in succession—blasting the length of the plant apart from the base up.

Seeing the demon jumping for her from her perch, Twilight attempted to back up, but bumped into what still stood of another stalky growth she cut down a minute earlier. She was only now realising that the entire clearing they were fighting in was slowly becoming populated with the various plants Fluttershy was bringing forth to aid her. Short bushes came forth to slow Twilight's footsteps, vines threatened to constrict her body, and the forest demon herself relentlessly pressed the attack.

Twilight slipped around the obstruction, avoiding a hit from the demon's solid wooden staff, and came back around the other side with Rarity's sewing needle ready. It stabbed in, but Fluttershy's demon redirected it off of the centerpoint of her staff and beat Twilight back. She adapted quickly though, switching to Applejack's gauntlets now that she had her in close range. Twilight's fists came out fast, and it was Fluttershy's turn to switch to defense. She sidestepped, avoiding the first two punches, but her staff caught the third hit right in the center, splitting the wood in two.

Rather than retreat more, Fluttershy changed her grip on each piece of her weapon and wielded them as individual pieces. She stepped forward, dodging past another punch, and struck the two staff pieces against Twilight in a rapid flurry. Twilight's response was quick, deflecting the strikes off her gauntlets, and they continued their dance through the ever-changing battlefield.

Sensing movement to her right, Twilight tilted her fist, activating her Demon Reflex and punching through another of Fluttershy's wooden wolves as it tried to sneak up on her. The demon backed off, watching as another threw itself onto Twilight's back, scratching into her and putting her into a tight spot. It too would be punched away, but in the time that took, Fluttershy's demon formed the broken wood around herself into a new staff, and summoned a set of vines from the ground to anchor Twilight's legs in place as she tossed the wolf off of her.

Her legs were pulled tight, but Twilight didn't panic. She braced herself, switched back to her needle, and watched intently as Fluttershy charged in with her renewed staff. It came at her in an overhead arc, and so Twilight held the needle up at an angle, barring the attack off one hand, and just as the two weapons collided, she gripped the handle of her katana with the other.

With a flick of her wrist and a slide of her thumb, Twilight painted the grass with demon blood. Her blade was drawn, held out to her side, and a long cut had been made into Fluttershy's middle. The demon froze, the attack stunning her, and Twilight made a follow up cut, slicing upwards along her chest. Kicking her feet free from the vines, Twilight activated her magic tracker, and shoved it against the opening in Fluttershy's torso. In a yellow and black swirl, Fluttershy's magic was pulled away, out of her body and into containment, reverting her back to the gentle and kind wildlife researcher she knew her to be.

As the magic left her, all of the summoned plant life surrounding them shrunk back into the ground, leaving the clearing mostly undisturbed. The thorny, flowered vines began to retract as well, though, not completely. Very suddenly, the fight was over, leaving Twilight standing in front of a tired and disappointed Fluttershy. As she came out of her demon form, her clothes reformed into a plain set of hiking clothes, and she was entirely unharmed. Backing away from Twilight, she crossed her arms low and tucked them into her sides, and looked away with uncertainty.

"I... I'm sorry. I guess you're really the only one that could've saved us anyway, huh?"

Twilight nodded. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I know. I just... The forest's magic is important to us. Me, and my demon. We agreed to keep it safe, but... if you need it... Please take care of it."

"I will, I promise." Twilight's eyes fell away from her friend as well. The weight of having to take from the rest of her friends began to hit her, and she really wondered whether or not she was doing the right thing...

But... she was going to be the one to defeat the Sister of Darkness, right?

No. She was doing what she had to, regardless of the morality. Even if she was wrong... There was no going back. If she gave up the magic she'd taken, there'd be no chance of stopping Nightmare Moon. The Elements, all together, were the key. Now all she needed to find was Sunset, get the last two from her, and she'd have her complete set. She was close.

Fluttershy sighed, and gave a supportive yet sad smile. "I'll just stay here then. Good luck."

She turned, and began to walk back towards the cabin on the other end of the clearing, and Twilight just watched. Fluttershy's magic was a unique case, as it manifested in part due to events that happened in this very forest. Her magic, and subsequently, her demon, was an extension of nature, very fitting for someone who already was in tune with it to begin with. Twilight didn't know how well Fluttershy could control her demon, but by the way she talked, it seemed like they had found some sort of compromise. Applejack had done it too, but could Twilight really do the same?

Turning back to the lake, Twilight gazed at the castle in the distance. It was time to make her way back to it, and see about getting inside. If the vines blocking the door hadn't moved already, she should be able to move them with Fluttershy's magic.

That was that, then.

She began to walk off in the direction she came, wishing she had more to say.

A scream broke Twilight from her thoughts, and turning she saw a metal cable firing from the treeline near the cabin outpost, wrapping around an unsuspecting Fluttershy. Before Twilight could run to her, she was dragged off, two figures behind the trees taking off with her as a captive.

Immediately worried for her friend, Twilight ran after her captors, jumping up and summoning her hoverboard beneath her feet to catch up. Unfortunately, once she broke through the treeline it became difficult to maneuver her board through the forest. It collided with an uneven tree root and she tripped off of it, but caught herself quickly enough to continue chasing them on foot.

She was closing in. As they darted past the trees, she tried to get a better glimpse of who she was dealing with here.

They wore grey, armored uniforms and smooth, face concealing masks, not immediately identifiable, but visibly prepared for combat. The one not carrying Fluttershy turned to face Twilight as she approached, raising a short rifle and firing a few shots off while backpedaling. Dodging the bullets was easy, and as she did she took her magic detector tightly in her hand and absorbed Fluttershy's magic into her. Without a word of resistance from the demon, Twilight summoned the magic, forming the solid wooden staff and going straight in for the new enemy.

The staff slammed one of the attackers, a woman with a ponytail hanging from behind her mask, straight into the ground. Twilight pressed it hard against the woman's chest, summoned up vines to keep her held down, then struck hard against her helmet to knock her out.

Before she continued her pursuit, she noticed the markings on the woman's uniform, reading it off with little surprise.

"Seraph."

-----

As soon as consciousness returned to him, Flash immediately bolted to a sitting position and took in his surroundings. He was moving. He was still on the RV's couch, laying on a towel, but... he was out of his uniform, wearing instead a dark blue t-shirt, and all of the cuts and holes made in him from the day had largely been closed up. Everything was still sore and painful, but far less than it was, and more importantly, he wasn't bleeding all over himself.

Starlight sat on the couch across from him, noticing the sudden movement.

"Hey, take it easy," she said.

Flash blinked. His head still felt fuzzy from before, even as he adjusted to a more comfortable position. "What happened?"

"Sunburst put you back together the best he could. You'll be okay, but you probably should rest some more."

The bandages over his arms had been removed, and it seemed like his skin had been partially healed with red scarred areas of skin covering where open wounds used to be. Similar spots were present on his torso, where the knife cuts had been made.

"What... How?"

"Regeneration technology and a lot of patience." Sunburst came from the back of the RV, answering Flash's question as he joined them. "It's not perfect, but it can help heal skin and other organ damage with enough time. It's gonna hurt for a while."

"Yeah, that's about been my day." Flash looked out the window, seeing a whole lot of nothing but open fields and trees outside of a long stretch of road. The sky was clear here, surprisingly. "Where are we?"

"Leaving Canterlot City," Sunburst said. "Heading to the Everfree Forest. Starlight has been ordered to capture Twilight Sparkle and deal with Nightmare Moon."

"So Twilight's connected to this?"

"Unfortunately," she said, unexcitedly. "Where's your friend? The SWAT captain?"

"Spitfire..." Flash's mind went numb for a moment, recalling the horrid image of holding her lifeless body. "She didn't make it out."

"Oh..." Starlight saw the intense look of loss on his face, and understood. "I'm sorry."

He shoved that feeling aside. There was more to be done at the moment. "Adagio. I need to figure out where she went."

"About that," Sunburst said, "That hard drive you had in your bag, I had a look at it... where did you find it?"

Flash quickly searched his memories for the source. Rainbow gave it to him, and she grabbed it from the station's SRAPH offices. Sparrowhawk was transferring data from it. Subconsciously, he had intended to give it Sunburst anyway.

"In the station. The other agents were trying to get something off of it, I'm not sure what."

"The most recently accessed files on it were security codes to an abandoned SRAPH research lab somewhere out in Everfree Forest. It sounds like that's where your agents might be headed."

An abandoned lab, huh? Flash didn't like the sound of that. "Was there an exact location on it?"

"Probably. I can look at the drive again..."

Spike, laying on the floor behind Trixie's seat, raised his head, looking very alert. "I just received a transmission from Twilight. She's found the lab you mentioned... They've captured Fluttershy! She's tracking down her captors, and I have immediate orders to disregard previous commands and regroup with her."

Flash and Starlight looked at each other, then to Spike.

"Can you get us a location?" Starlight asked. "She and I have business to settle."

"I'll lead you when we're close."

Trixie, up at the front of the RV, turned her head back to address their planning. "We've still got like, an hour before we get there. Maybe you can relax for a bit?"

Flash stood up, ignoring the slight dizziness he still had. "I want to at least get geared up again."

"Your guns and radio are in the back, but your uniform was mostly unsalvageable," Sunburst said. "I'm not about to send you out there like that though. Let's see what we have."

-----

With no uniform available, Flash was given a brown, padded leather jacket from Starlight to go over his shirt. His cargo pants were torn in places, but they were still intact, and he could still get his pistol holster and storage pouches on his belt. The sling that held his knife and radio had to be lowered as his jacket got in the way of that, but he was otherwise ready for action again. Or at least, ready enough.

Sunburst had a small reserve of SRAPH used ammunition on hand that he gladly let Flash take, giving him three more magazines for his handgun, and two for the machine gun. He was also given an injector full of whatever it was Sunburst had used to heal him, just in case he got hurt again. One shot was all he could spare, but it would apparently simulate the same recovery effect Starlight's body had.

Soon enough, they were driving along through a barely defined dirt road that ran through the forest, and pulling up to a clearing with a view of the castle from across the lake.

"I'm just gonna park it here," Trixie said, picking a spot by the edge of the water to stop the RV. "This forest is getting a bit spooky..."

"The last location I got from Twilight was a bit west of here," Spike said. He, Starlight, and Flash were all getting ready to head out, and Flash in particular felt a bit anxious looking up at the castle. Even without any abilities or demonic connections, he could tell that it was the center of all of this destruction.

Opening up the RV's door, Starlight stepped out first, taking note that the dirt and grass looked displaced and disturbed. There were shallow holes in some areas, and piles of dirt in others.

"This was probably her," Starlight said. "Hopefully we're not too far behind."

Swallowing his uncertainty, Flash stepped out of the vehicle too. It was easier to stand, walk, and move, all things appreciated, but he hoped he'd be able to keep himself this way. Only a few hours ago he was clinging to what was left of his life, and he knew how quickly he could be reduced to that again.

Spike crawled out of the RV after them, and after a moment of surveying the area, he pointed his entire body in a single direction.

"Good luck, you guys!" Sunburst said, watching them follow Spike into the trees.

From an open window, Trixie added in. "Yeah, and don't go getting yourselves killed again! This is a motorhome, not an ambulance."

Looking back, Flash smiled, but he knew he was going right back into the fire. Dead or alive, he was determined to see this through to this end.

-----

Sunset stirred, lazily opening her eyes to see the Castle of the Two Sisters above her.

"Ooh..." She sighed, and took a minute, letting her head fall back against whatever it was she was sprawled out on.

After a few minutes of just laying there, Sunset cleared her eyes out and reached into her pocket. There was a single lollipop left. Excellent. Unwrapping it, it went into her mouth, and feeling the delicious motivation on her tongue, she jumped up to her feet. Straightening out her hair, she brushed the dirt off of her rough, yellow coat and took a look around. She knew where she was, approximately. This was the Everfree Forest, but... there was this giant castle here now too. Her last memories awake involved getting beaten into submission by Nightmare Moon, she supposed that this was her castle.

"Roll call," she said, shaking off any tiredness or pain, and spoke to her demons. "You two still with me?"

Yep! Pinkie's demon said.

I'm here, are you okay? Rainbow's asked. How long have we been out?

"Dunno, but sure hope that Miss Demon Queen hasn't started the party without us." Sunset's eyes impatiently swept across the ground surrounding her. She couldn't find her sword. Her pistols were still in their place, but her primary melee weapon was nowhere to be found. That wouldn't do.

"I'm gonna need to get my sword back first, though."

I think I saw it land over that wall. Pinkie said.

"No problem, then." Sunset said. The stone exterior wall stood taller than she could scale, but walking around the outside led her to a tall wooden door on the side of it. Some strange vines ran along the floor and into the door, but they didn't give much resistance, seeming to shrink out of the way as Sunset pulled on it.

She entered into an open courtyard with a smaller entrance to the castle's tall center tower on the far side, but lying on the ground at the end of a tiled path was her blade. Strangely, nothing had yet attacked her, she was at least expecting some small guys to show up somewhere, but she was able to just walk over to her sword and pick it up with no problems.

It went over her back, and she looked up at the castle's center tower. Above it, the dark clouds formed a ring shape, and Sunset felt the beginnings of light rain falling from them. Not just that though, from around the edge of the castle a huge, dark red and orange mass flew towards her. As it neared, she saw that it was mostly wings, huge wings that belonged to a gigantic, majestic bird of some kind. The bird landed on the outer wall, its talons tightly gripping the stone, and its beaked face looked down at Sunset threateningly. From its mouth, it released a jet of flame into the sky as a display of its power.

"You!" A loud, ethereal female voice echoed from the firebird's mouth. "Your scent is familiar..."

"I really need another shower, don't I?"

The firebird paid no attention to her remark, instead, she asked a question. "Are you the human, the child of Celestia, that has come to face the Sister of Darkness?"

Drawing her pistols and giving them a twirl, Sunset hopped in place from one foot to the other, psyching herself up for a fight so quickly after waking up. She was good, she had this, she was ready.

"Flock off, featherface!" she shouted, giving a cocky, challenging look and raising both of her guns towards the winged beast. "Unless you want to come closer and find out for yourself!"

"It's the only way to be sure!" The firebird spread her wings out, igniting them in flames, and then dove in to attack.