Sun Never Sets

by CrownofDissonance

18- The Dissension of Destinies

Author's Note:

Buckle up.

"How far do you and Adagio go back?"

"Just the Sire's Hollow incident. She was an integral part of the mission."

"So you were there, too..."

There was a light rain beginning to fall just as the small, desolate bunker came into sight. It was well hidden, but Spike led Flash and Starlight straight to it.

Inside was a door that looked like it had been violently forced open, an angled elevator shaft going down behind it. It was a long, dark drop, not one they wanted to risk sliding down.

"There," Spike said. "Her signal goes underground."

Flash located a terminal by the broken door, and put his SRAPH badge against it. He half expected it to be broken too, but the light flashed green, and the sounds of an elevator moving came from down the shaft.

"I thought I was the only one that survived," he said, explaining his situation to Starlight. "My commander got pulled screaming into one of those portals and I watched the rest of my team get killed, but all of Adagio's team is still here, so I don't know anymore."

"How do you think they managed that?" Starlight asked.

"Adagio specialized in demon research, maybe she discovered a way to give herself superpowers." Flash shook his head. The thought was ridiculous, but she moved so quickly, and the others were shot multiple times but still managed to fight. "I don't know. But it's obvious now that she was the mastermind behind everything that happened at that station."

"Mastermind?" Starlight crossed her arms. "What even is her deal?"

"I wish I could tell you. I've only been following their breadcrumbs. From the way she talked about her 'plan', whatever it was, I get the feeling that this goes back further than demons in Canterlot. Whatever she's doing I'm putting a stop to it."

The elevator platform rose to its place, allowing the three to board it and begin their descent.

"Did Sire's Hollow ever recover?" Starlight asked.

"There were a lot of casualties, but yeah, a team was sent to help them rebuild," Flash nodded. "Why?"

"I was raised there. My dad would've been there during the demon attack."

"Damn, I'm sorry-" Flash started, but Starlight raised a hand.

"We'll worry about it later."

As the elevator lift descended a loud alarm came into earshot, and the underground facility it was ringing from came into view. The bulky metal front door there had been sliced open, and through it a chaotic scene was visible in the flashing lights of a red alert. Bodies of Adagio's specialized Siren agents were piled in the hallway and a segment of the smooth metal wall had collapsed inward, some electronic bits in the light paneling still faintly glowing.

The platform came to a stop, connecting to the door frame and allowing them to cautiously enter. Flash frowned. This place was giving him the exact same vibe the police station did except the danger was active.

Machine gun ready, he swept his vision across the only way forward and looked for spaces a potential threat might hide. The main hallway was clear, but it was blocked off by another sealed security door with the marking of "TESTING-MAIN" that, when Flash attempted to access with his SRAPH badge, gave him a red light.

"Twilight's signal ends here," Spike said. "She came through here, went through that door, and into this facility's core, but after that..." Spike turned his head, prowling around the hallway. He pointed to a small door down the hall near the entrance. It led to a cramped booth that had controls for the various larger doors on their side of the facility, as indicated by a monitor.

Starlight hung around outside the booth, but Flash tried his badge on the door control console. Nothing. The monitor showed a layout of the facility with the main testing labs at the center and assorted other lab rooms ringing it. Circling the edge of the facility was materials storage and a living space, which hallways connected back around to its far end.

The entire facility was on red alert, but the only denied area was "TESTING-MAIN" and the surrounding area marked as 'the core', save for one door that led out as an exit. That told Flash all he needed to know. If Adagio was here she was likely holding out in the core. But what caused this sudden lockdown? Was it Twilight? Either way, Adagio only had one path of escape, and the only way to get to her was to go through it.

"Flash!" Starlight called his name from out in the main hallway. He found her facing a side hall, facing a group of slim, quick moving demons that had long, stringy hair over their faces and had distinct three clawed talons at the ends of their limbs. Their thin, pointy jaws opened up and they each let out a loud screech that took the form of a sonic pulse that disoriented Starlight as she stepped up to fight them.

With limited time to process things, Flash gave these new demons a quick mental categorization: Screechers.

Spike was the first to land a hit on one, his tail blade cutting the firstmost of the Screecher pack apart with ease. Clearing her head, Starlight spun her revolver to an aiming position and shot two of them down, each one taking three shots before falling. One began to close the gap, but Starlight reached out and grabbed the demon up with a glowing teal projection of a hand, pulled it close, then instantly killed it with a punch to the head from her cyborg arm.

Flash took one in his sights, lighting it up with a burst of machine gun fire as it tried to single him out. He picked out another one, shooting it down as it went for Spike, but as soon as the fight began, it ended. Strange. Starlight looked to Flash expectantly.

"So? Find anything in there?" she asked.

"We're going to have to take the long way around, I don't have access to any of these doors."

"Let's be fast then..." Spike said. "I'm getting another signal from Twilight, she's somehow in the castle now? Yeah, there's another lift in the facility that comes back up near the castle's west wing..."

"That's where we're headed, then," Starlight said.

"Wait, let's deal with Adagio first. She's our priority right now."

Starlight held a hand out to contest that claim. "Adagio is your priority, Sentry. Twilight is mine. I'm not letting her get away again."

Flash wanted to bring up the fact that he'd probably need her help, but thinking again, maybe he didn't. Once they got to the other end of the facility, maybe they could just go their separate ways.

"Let's not keep either of them waiting, then."

-----

The three of them moved quickly, clearing out each room they passed through as they went the long way around the facility. Demons had broken in, but none of them appeared in their usual, spectral fashion. They'd been there for some time, but were not at all in control. They were running. Not running specifically towards them, but away from something else.

A large battle was had in the facility's cafeteria, where Starlight and Flash got held up by a Battlemaster supported by Scythes, and it was made all the more difficult as Screechers entered the area. Small but loud, they were effective at area denial when they had bigger demons backing them up.

Starlight's Tether Hand had proved useful as a disruption tool though, pulling them out of formation and allowing Flash to easily pick them off. Spike held his own as well, able to use his body's mobility to get behind their stronger fighters and hit them from another direction. They did their best to keep pace though, running by demons that weren't directly in their way.

Eventually, they crossed through a door to a catwalk hanging over a large, noisy warehouse-like storage space that brought their progress to a halt. Loud, thunderous gunshots reverberated throughout the room over demonic shrieking, stomping, and scratching. A huge mob of demons amassed beneath them, some snarling and roaring ferociously, but others near the edge of the group turning and running away.

At the mob's center was a figure in a worn out suit of purple and grey power armor, the Hellsolider, one hand holding a Reaper up off the ground by its throat and another firing the shotgun they had back at the station at the closest moving target. The Reaper was slammed hard down into the ground and had a boot stomp down on its chest, the Hellsoldier pumping their shotgun and firing straight down into the demon's mouth. A moment later, they were shoulder-slamming a Phantom which was just about to toss a fireball, bowling right through it and knocking its exposed bones apart.

The Hellsoldier worked the shotgun proficiently, every shot hitting the intended target until the magazine ran dry. They then slung the shotgun over their back, and a long, curved, broken edged blade shot out from a holster on their left wrist. This weapon looked beat up, like it was salvaged from pieces of other weapons, but it served its purpose well as it carved through a Battlemaster's chest, burning a dark blue glow into the demon as it fell over. The Hellsoldier lifted the demon's signature axe-weapon over their shoulder, then decapitated its owner with a single, hefty swing.

This battle continued, and Flash, Starlight, and Spike quietly moved along the catwalk above.

"That soldier, they were at the station." Starlight whispered.

"They must be who those demons were running from." Looking down, Flash noticed the soldier was moving the opposite direction, having started on the end opposite and was working their way to the side he came in through.

Reaching the door, Flash and the others left the storage hangar behind them, and continued at the pace they held before. Eventually, they were in a corridor similar to the one they'd entered through, wider than most and adequately lit with paneled lights. At some point along the way the alarms stopped and the red flashing faded, though Flash suspected the lockdown was still in place.

This was it. A lone, unlocked security door marked "TESTING-MAIN," leading into the facility's core was to their right, and to their left was the exit leading to the castle.

"This is where we split," Flash said. "I'm going to get the girls to the RV, then I'll meet up with you."

Starlight nodded, and headed toward the exit. "Let's go, Spike."

Flash slid his ID against the security door, and it came open, revealing a narrow, branching hallway that he quickly stepped into. While the doors shut behind him, Starlight and Spike approached the two elevator cars leading out of the facility's back entrance. A fallen Siren agent with a palm-mounted ID was dragged to the activation console, and served to open the doors, and as Starlight stepped in, she saw Spike shifting uneasily.

"Starlight," he said, a strange contemplativeness in his tone. "I've been thinking about things."

"Yeah?"

"Do you really want to fight Twilight?"

Starlight's expression flattened. "Yeah. But not just because she's a danger to everyone. I have to deal with her, but she thinks I'm not strong enough to handle this."

"Have you ever stopped to question why the Order banished her? After everything you've seen, do you think they were right?" Spike asked. "That things would be different had she not been banished?"

"What, are you trying to get me to join her?"

"No. I'm just thinking... Twilight may be delusional, but she was right about one thing: Nightmare Moon did return, and she was banished because she tried to do something about that. Isn't that... wrong?"

"Hm..." Starlight considered it, and what Twilight told her about putting principle over protocol. "I don't know. Maybe. What are you getting at?"

The elevator reached its stop after a long time of moving upward. The bunker it came up in was just as small as the other, and as Spike and Starlight stepped out into the forest, they immediately felt that the rain was picking up.

"I want to see Twilight get over this," Spike said. "I want to help her, but she isn't going to let me. But you have free will. You might be able to stop her from doing something she can't undo."

The castle was in sight, they were approaching it from the side, but there was an entryway in the exterior wall that Starlight could see.

"That's what I plan on doing."

"Twilight went silent a while ago, but in the last transmission I got from her she said she was headed for the castle's throne room. That, and..." Spike paused, his tone very apprehensive.

Starlight didn't go forward right away, but she didn't turn around to face Spike either. "And?"

After a long, drawn out moment, Spike spoke, his thoughtful voice becoming void of emotion. "And that I can't let you interfere with her mission."

Starlight turned, watching Spike's stance lower and his tail blade curl up over his head as he poised himself to attack.

"Spike..." Starlight turned to face him, drawing her chainsaber. "You can't take me."

"I know."

Starlight was slightly surprised. He was throwing himself away...

"Do it, then."

A red glare flashed behind his eyes as Spike leapt forward, claws outstretched with lethal intent. Starlight's eyes glimmered blue in kind, and she slashed right into him, revving up her chainsaber as her Bullet Reflex activated, granting her more than enough time to make the perfect cut. He was pushed away, tumbling over her shoulder and just barely landing on his feet.

He charged up his lightning cannon, but Starlight reached out and grabbed him with her Tether Hand, pulling him close and popping him straight up into the air with a kick. Eyes glimmering again, her Bullet Reflex engaged for a second time in a row. She drove her spinning chainsaber across his body, cutting deep through it as he fell back to the earth in almost frozen time. The cut was clean, Starlight didn't need to go overboard. When time resumed, Spike fell to the ground with a muffled thud. He didn't get back up, the mech wolf only twitched and sparked from his place on the ground.

Starlight put her chainsaber away, feeling appalled by what she just did.

"Starlight..." He said, voice weak from the overpowering encounter. "I'm... sorry..."

Then, the lights on his frame went dark, and he was still.

"Me too."

-----

The access hallway was clear. Flash checked either side of himself and saw nothing, so he proceeded to the next security door, also marked "TESTING-MAIN." He came into a wide, square lab room with a locked security door on the far side and five, human sized restraining pods ringing the room's center, their backs to him. This was it, his friends were here.

When he came around to the front of the pods, though, he found they were all empty.

A very uneasy feeling sank into his gut. He thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, and he spun around with his machine gun raised... but there was nothing there.

Hearing it loud and clear, two boots dropped to the ground right behind him. Turning in place, he was met with Adagio Dazzle grabbing his wrist and pointing his gun up to the ceiling as he reflexively squeezed the trigger. Bullets shot off, the recoil disrupting him further as Adagio punched into his chest, using his own resistance as a slingshot to knock him back.

Regaining his balance, he fired at Adagio but only hit one of the pods behind her, she had warped past his shots and levered the gun out of his grip, tossing it aside. Flash instantly switched to his handgun, but that too was knocked away as Adagio punched each segment of his arm, then chopped down on his wrist, forcing his hand to open and drop his weapon. He then went for his knife, but she caught his wrist again and grabbed around his waist, spinning him around and tossing him back towards the restraint pods.

As gravity took him towards the floor, he shifted his weight onto his shoulder and rolled, messily conserving his momentum as he slid to a controlled stop and stood up. Down to his last weapon, he bravely drew his knife and faced the rogue SRAPH operative. She only adjusted her sunglasses, and fixed her curled, orange hair.

"Flash Sentry, how wonderful it is to see you again..."

"Adagio! Where are my friends?"

"Oh, you just missed them," Adagio said, the cruel tone ever present in her voice. "I had them moved, somewhere a little more... dramatic."

She blurred out of sight, but Flash heard her reappearing behind himself, and so he spun around with his knife out and forced her to back away, following through with a stab that she narrowly evaded. Twisting her body, she aimed a punch at Flash's extended knife arm, but he was able to pull himself just in time to avoid it, taking a defensive stance again.

They circled around each other, Flash's face serious, and Adagio's a collected smile.

"Why are you doing this? You betrayed Seraph and everything you used to stand for."

"I betrayed Seraph?" Adagio laughed. "Seraph is an organization. A rigid, uncaring machine, not a being with feelings to hurt. It's only natural they turned on me once I became too strong for them to control."

"What are you talking about?"

She was right in front of him again, shoving his arm back before he could swing the knife, grabbing his shoulder and punching him in the face. He was knocked back again, slamming against some heavy scanning equipment to the side of the room, but still catching himself on his feet.

Once more, she warped towards him, but he predicted it fully this time, catching her across the chest with his knife and cutting through the leather vest she wore beneath her trench coat. Clutching the cut in pain, she backed away, but shortly after she stood again, her wound disappearing as her flesh slowly regenerated. It was just like a demon's regeneration.

"What are you?" he asked.

"The next step in human evolution." Warping again, Adagio threw a punch at his stomach, warping back away when he blocked it. She tried again from his back, but Flash readily countered her attack and she disappeared again. "The successful result of my own research, my own greatest creation..."

Adagio reappeared beside him, but she only faked him out, and his reactive slash hit nothing. Flash backed away as she vanished, searching his surroundings as she continued to talk, listening for her voice to try and locate her.

"I'm the perfect Siren."

From the left side she dashed towards him with her fist outstretched, but he rolled under the attack and she only punched a hole in the body of one of the scanning machines. Seeing her with her fist stuck, Flash came at her, but Adagio just easily warped past his rather aggressive moves. She linked her arm into his, binding his knife arm away, but he threw his elbow around into her face and pushed her back.

When he swung the knife again, he just barely missed her.

"Why bring my friends into this? What did they do?"

"I made a deal with the Sister of Darkness, before her body was resurrected. I bring her the Elements of Harmony, the weapon used to defeat her a thousand years ago, and she would give me the power of the Sister of Light."

She moved again, coming in close and grabbing for his knife hand. Flash released the knife, tossing it across his chest as he let Adagio take his arm. His other hand quickly grabbed it out of the air, and with the handle end first he slammed his fist against her collarbone. Following through, he spun the knife into a reverse grip and repeated the action, but Adagio had already released him and retreated back out of striking range.

"You'd let her open the gate to the demon realm?" He met her eyes through the polarized lenses again.

"That wouldn't matter," Adagio said. They were still circling each other, slowly watching each other as they planned on how they'd attack next. "Because every event surrounding her ultimate resurrection was completely of my design."

"And what are you gonna do then, huh? Once you have that power?"

"I'll create a world where the line between humans and demons doesn't exist," she said. "Humans will never have to fear demons again, because we will all be part demon."

"Or you'll turn us all into monsters, like Sergeant Colt!"

"The only thing we did was reveal his true nature." Adagio faked a punch, but then stepped back, watching for Flash to open his guard. "The same will happen to all of you, humans and demons alike!"

"What? How can you even do that?"

"Oh, I don't need to tell you that." Adagio warped behind him, and again as he turned to slash her. Two, three times she did this, until finally, she grabbed his knife arm and pulled it straight up, then bent it behind his back and spoke to him in a teasing manner. "It's not like you'll be leaving here alive to tell anyone!"

He tilted himself down, reaching for the floor with his free hand, having moved close enough to his fallen handgun to grab it right when she grabbed him.

"You didn't think I left that door unlocked by accident, did you?" Adagio asked, toying with him, drawing out her words as he struggled. "I wanted to make sure you died this time."

Pointing his gun back under his arm, he fired, feeling both Adagio release him and a hot bullet casing get ejected into his jacket. Turning and gripping his gun with both hands, he fired again, keeping up with her as she dodged and weaved, warping around his bullets in a grey and orange blur. She went behind the restraint pods, initially using them for cover but then kicking one off of its supports in the ceiling and launching it directly at Flash. He dove out of the way, catching himself in a much cleaner roll, and firing at the now exposed Adagio again.

"Enough playing around." Adagio was again behind Flash, interrupting his reload and knocking his gun away, then catching his hands as he came at her with a downward stab. They struggled with each other, and she found Flash gave a surprising amount of resistance to her push. He spread his feet, bracing himself against her, pushing down with everything he had.

One of his hands even jumped up and grabbed her wrist, pulling away. That couldn't be right, she had the power of a demon, Flash was only human. But yet, his grip was just as tight as hers. For only a fraction of a second she broke, but it was enough for him to pull one of her hands away, double up on the knife, and take a whole step forward, forcing the point that much closer to her heart. The blade was made from resentite, it'd kill her quicker than a bullet would, so she needed to not let him overpower her.

Yet Flash strained and pushed with everything he had and more, because he needed to take her out, he needed to save his friends. Despite everything being stacked against him, he could. He would.

But the loud crash of the locked security door just next to him being knocked off out of its frame by a grey, gauntleted fist distracted him long enough for Adagio to shove him back and warp out of the way.

Through the door, the Hellsoldier came, and they had Adagio in their sights.

"You..." Adagio said, none pleased to see them. "Never can let anything go, can you?"

The Hellsoldier gave their reply in the form of a rocket launcher held steady beneath their arm, shooting a screaming warhead directly at Adagio.

Adagio didn't move, she didn't even warp away. Instead, she caught the rocket in two hands, stopping its momentum while keeping it from detonating. It was still being propelled forward; a hot jet of fuel blew out the back, but Adagio applied enough force to it to keep it held still, just giving a disappointed smirk. "Oh, no, that's not going to work."

Struggling with the rocket for a moment she pivoted on one foot, letting the rocket spin her around a hundred and eighty degrees, then released the rocket back in the Hellsoldier's direction. In response, they charged towards it, throwing the launcher down and extending their wrist blade. They sliced right through the rocket as it came, disabling its payload before it detonated and rushing towards Adagio with the momentum and speed of a freight train.

Adagio stood her ground and made like she was about to catch the oncoming Hellsoldier, but simply warped out of the way the moment they made contact. Bracing their feet and sliding along the ground, the Hellsolider turned in time to see Adagio activating a button on the floor, creating a bright white circle on the floor of the lab room.

The circle was directly in the center of the room, with a five pointed star drawn in the center of it, each endpoint connecting to the midpoint where Adagio stood.

"I suppose you'll live to leave this place after all," she said, giving Flash a waggling wave with her fingertips. "See you soon."

The next moment, she summoned up a swirling purple vortex. This time though, the Hellsoldier jumped into her as she vanished into the portal, following her to wherever she went. But once they were gone, the circle on the floor faded and Flash was left alone.

Based on what she said, he had a pretty good idea of where she was going to end up, where everything was going to end up.

The Dark Sister's castle.

-----

Through the windows of the hallway leading into the castle's throne room, two silhouettes engaged in an elegant, exhilarating duel on the backdrop of a thunderstorm. Over the consistent rush of rain crashing down outside, the clashing of metal on metal rang throughout the hall's interior, backed up by the harsh echoes from each of the combatant's heavy boots.

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle crossed their blades in a very personal expression of combat, an intimate dance driven by every step they'd taken up until that point. Perfect as both friends and adversaries, there was no more even a battle conceivable than one between the two most gifted students of Celestia. And neither would want it any other way. Right now, they cared not for the fate of the world or who would defeat the Dark Sister, they were solely immersed in their own personal rivalry; to prove who was stronger, faster, and more skilled, whose ideals were greater—to prove who was simply the best.

They matched each other blow for blow, their swords following arcs that perfectly intersected and intercepted the other. Their steps were completely in sync with a mutually understood combat rhythm that both were trying at all times to break. They stepped forward when at an advantage, backed away when losing advantage, and sidestepped when the opportunity arose. In the heat of the moment, they had only each other and the certainty of battle.

Sunset put a few steps of distance between her and Twilight, holding her sword defensively as Twilight's came forward. A grin on her face, Sunset parried the attack, but also drew a pistol and shoved its barrel forward. She fired off several shots, but wasn't surprised to find Twilight doing exactly the same. Their bullets struck each other mid flight, cancelling each other out and driving the battle to a new level of complexity. The two now spun gracefully about, abandoning their stable swordfighting poses to fire their pistols at each other, their yellow and purple coats flowing around them as they did.

Swords now clashed while held in one hand, and shots were taken with guns in the other. Sunset twisted, firing off her pistol behind her back as Twilight stepped past a sword swing, then deflected Twilight's counterattack off of the same pistol. Sunset put her sword away, rolling to the side and bringing out both of her guns to put Twilight on the defensive, but Twilight did no less than keep up, bringing both her guns up in kind and meeting her shots halfway.

Sunset pulled a fist back and dove in close to Twilight, trading a string of strong, powerful gun punches with her, each quick, rigid motion scraping the metal of their firearms together as they violently touched. Their guns fired off in unison, neither of them hitting their mark as each of them was equally as proficient at dodging bullets as the other was accurate. As their wrists locked against each other their guns kept firing off, sending bullets into the wide windows on either side of them. A loud cascading shattering followed, accompanying the wind and rain and glass that now spilled into the corridor.

With an excited curiosity, Sunset met Twilight's eyes and held the wrist lock firmly. She tilted her head and read over Twilight's expression, mind racing to guess what she might do next. Twilight's balance shifted and she stepped closer, forcing their arms up to the point where their wrists crossed up over their heads and their elbows now pressed together. So much closer, and with both of them keeping their backs stable and upright, their noses nearly touched, allowing Sunset to feel her friend's warm, steadily paced breath on her face amidst the cold damp air leaking in from outside. A confident smile was spread across Twilight's face. She too was enjoying this.

Time began to slow, Sunset engaging her Demon Reflex the moment she felt Twilight entering her own. Twilight opened her arms, splitting their single overhead wrist lock into two separate locks out to their sides. Sunset shook slightly as the pressure on each of her wrists mounted separately, focusing on keeping Twilight's guns pointed away while trying to get her own guns pointed on her. Twilight's left arm pulled back and she spun in the direction Sunset pushed, twisting her still bound arm to catch the back of her pistol's slide against Sunset's wrist and properly locking them together.

She pulled her trigger, the barrel far from pointed at Sunset, but the action caused the slide to snap back and forth as it ejected a bullet case. Had Sunset not tilted her wrist, the slide would have punched right into her hand. Without lifting pressure from their wrist bind, Sunset circled around Twilight accordingly, adjusting her own pistol so its slide might bite into Twilight's forearm as she returned the purposefully missed shot. Maintaining contact on the other's arm was crucial to controlling the other's balance, but that balance swirled and shifted dangerously as they used the mechanical operation of their weapons as a weapon itself. Their arms that maintained contact swung dangerously between them, pushing and pulling and guiding the other in a symmetrical, reciprocating orbit, but their other arms became free to fire at any angle they pleased, forcing their bodies to shift and spin with that orbit to avoid losing the razor thin balance they each held.

In their slowed state of time, their projectiles only travelled so far before coming to a crawl, creating a beautiful tornado of bullets around them, a storm of lead with a continuously shrinking center of calm. Their steps were forced closer, their twirls becoming tighter and each shot taken demanding more and more precision. At once, they fired their guns past each other, and their slides struck against each other, both jamming in the same instant. Seizing the chance to mix things up, Sunset ducked low, releasing her bind with Twilight to risk taking shots at her legs with her unjammed gun. As her arms dropped she tapped her pistols together, clearing the jam to again resume firing away. Twilight flipped forward over Sunset, firing one gun down, and used the snapback of the slide to unjam her other pistol as well. Sunset crossed under her, avoiding Twilight's shots as she came back to a stand. Twilight landed facing away, and they both had their guns cleared.

Without turning around, Sunset twisted herself, punching behind her with a pistol while leaning back, finding Twilight again mirroring her actions.

Their arms crossed, this time only at the elbow, each with a gun held just slightly away from the other's face. Sunset's other gun crossed her other arm and met Twilight's barrel to barrel.

Time resumed.

Right away, a chaotic cacophony of cracks, whistling and shattering exploded around them as thousands of time-slowed bullets suddenly blossomed outward from the eye of their deathly dance. All windows that had not yet been broken shattered instantly, and the walls between them, ceiling, and floor became instantly riddled with holes from the bullet impacts.

Their eyes met again, a look of playful, unsatisfied, amusement shared between them. Without words, they understood. This would not be enough.

Flames erupted around Twilight's body as she summoned the gauntlets and mantle of Applejack's demon to her. The combat dynamic quickly shifted as her guns went away, and Sunset caught a flaming uppercut that launched her upwards. Her Demon Reflex went off as she sped closer to the solid stone ceiling, but reorienting herself, she used her heightened reflexes to shoot out a flat disk in the ceiling, which she kicked out as time resumed, landing on the slippery roof.

In front of her she could see the length of the corridor joining into the much taller castle wall, and behind her loomed the even larger tower the castle was built around. There was quite the drop to the courtyards on either side, one that would be hard to recover from if fallen down.

After a few moments, Twilight rocketed up through the hole after her. Using the flames of her gauntlets to propel herself, she dove in at Sunset, crashing against the roof as she moved out of the way. In response, Sunset summoned Rainbow's demon, the axe-bladed lightning guitar. The heavy headed weapon smashed hard against the demonic stone of Twilight's gauntlets, sending sparks flying in all directions, but not breaking them. Across the flat of the roof, the two pushed each other back and forth, but this time with massive hits that flashed in fire and electricity.

Sunset slammed the guitar-axe down, one hand on the neck, the other on the body, getting as much leverage as she could out of it, but Twilight caught the blade with a gauntlet and punched over it with her other hand. Leaning out the punch, Sunset levered her weapon the other way, whacking Twilight in the leg with the head of the guitar end. She stumbled, and Sunset followed up with a solid hit on her head from the axe end, but the stone mantle on Twilight's shoulders shifted, protecting her skin from the cut of the blade.

She still took the full brunt of the weapon's weight, though, and as she staggered away to catch her balance she summoned Rarity's magic, manifesting both the sewing needle and the cloak that allowed her to passively draw out pins. Sunset flipped her guitar around and played a quick, ascending riff on the lower strings that shot out powerful blasts of lighting as Twilight approached once more.

Flames surrounded Twilight's body, generated from the gauntlets, the accumulating blaze reducing the effect of the oncoming lightning. Reaching into the cloak, Twilight threw out four sewing pins, these ones set alight by the fire around her. Sunset adjusted her fingering on the guitar, playing a full chord that created a radius of lightning around her, individual arcs shooting out to destroy the oncoming needles. To her surprise, pins exploded with a far greater effect, the flames around them transforming each one into a great plume of fire. Sunset had to jump back away from the blast, and a huge screen of ember and smoke was left in its wake, concealing Twilight from her sight.

Through the grey vale Sunset saw Twilight's shadow, but only for a moment before Twilight penetrated it completely, led by the piercing end of her needle. The body of the guitar blocked the stab, but in bracing herself Sunset was shoved back further. All of the flames surrounding Twilight condensed into an open fist, and she threw a strong straight punch right for the recoiling Sunset. Sunset tilted forward, absorbed the guitar's electricity into herself, transforming her into a lightning bolt for a split second as she dashed past Twilight.

Behind her, a massive column of fire was let loose from Twilight's palm, scorching the entire length of roof and castle wall in a deafening roar. Seeing that she missed, Twilight looked back and got a picture of Sunset with the party cannon over her shoulder, a shot lined up and pulling the trigger. Demon Reflex activating, Twilight ran forward and jumped over the cannon shell in slowed time, then brought Rarity's needle down on Sunset as time resumed.

The needle was stopped by the body of the cannon, Sunset holding it out to block the attack, but then she did something Twilight hadn't yet seen.

Twisting the body of the cannon apart, Sunset transformed the weapon into two shorter cannons and wielded them like a pair of thick batons, gripping the L-shaped handles and letting their bodies and barrels serve as their striking ends.

For a brief moment, Sunset took the advantage, swinging the baton cannons one after the other in Twilight's direction, rotating her torso back and forth as she forced Twilight to back away and frantically deflect her quick strikes. Rarity's needle was much too thin to properly redirect the attacks, but Twilight also had a new trick to show off.

Sunset saw Twilight's weapons switch, but didn't know what to expect. She kept the length of cloak around her, but came out with a long staff of dark brown wood, much sturdier than the thin metal needle. It was longer than the needle, too, as she wielded it in both hands she had a much easier time keeping Sunset and her baton cannons at bay. Fluttershy's magic.

Bringing her cannons forward, Sunset opened fire as she batted Twilight's staff out of her face. Up close, the balls of metal confetti had less time to spread out, and Twilight's quick footwork and Demon Reflex let her just barely avoid cannon blast after cannon blast. She returned the gesture with barrages of sewing pins, and as Sunset followed her into the time slow, they quickly became surrounded with exploding projectiles.

They wouldn't let them all pile up though, they'd flash in and out of the slowed time, doing everything they could to get an advantage, using every weapon they had at their disposal. The sky above them detonated into brilliant flashes of light and smoke, and as they fought, they became more and more soaked by the falling rain. Sunset's hair began to stick to her coat, but she had little time to push it to a more comfortable position.

Amidst the combat, Twilight's glasses fell from her face and caught on the neck of her coat and the band holding her ponytail back loosened as her hair slickened. Deep purple locks fell in a messy curtain down and around her face as she and Sunset came into yet another close faced weapon bind. Breath shaky, bodies weary from the constant fighting, all they could do was tightly lock eyes. Intense expressions were exchanged, they traded looks of aggressive bitterness, heated passion, and subtle desperation. But in her eyes, over everything else, Sunset saw what truly drove her. She saw fear.

"Why do you refuse to gain power?" Twilight asked, teeth gritting. The wood of her enchanted staff held strong against the metal batons which were starting to glow and sizzle from the pressure exerted on them. "The power needed to do what must be done?"

"I am doing what must be done..." Sunset replied, her voice dry and raspy from exhaustion. "I'm standing for what's right, and fighting like hell to protect it!"

Twilight's eyes narrowed and their weapons parted, coming back around to clash again at a different angle. When they came back, Sunset saw a different look in Twilight's eyes. They were alert, but not angry, focused, but like she had some kind of realization.

"It has to be me, Sunset!" Twilight shouted over thunder and rain.

"No, it doesn't!" Sunset shouted back. She swung her batons around aggressively, continuously pushing Twilight's staff to the side as she advanced on her. "You keep talking about true power, doing whatever it takes for the greater good, but it's all a bunch of cheap bullshit!"

The staff suddenly filled her vision, bashing into her forehand and knocking her back. Not letting her focus go, she beat the staff down and brought one of her batons into Twilight's side, letting it swing around in her grip for added momentum. With a gauntlet, Twilight grabbed the baton cannon's barrel, then caught the other one with the close end of her staff.

Once more, Twilight and Sunset were brought face to face, weapons locked. There was nothing in between them except everything that was.

"What's it even matter to you?" Twilight asked, shoving Sunset was away and jabbing her staff forward at the most direct angle, putting her and Sunset on equal footing as they again barred their weapons against one another. "Why do you obsessively try to get in my way?"

Sunset's expression fell to the question. Was it not obvious that Sunset was doing this for the sake of their friendship? "You'll destroy yourself if you keep going, Twilight! Can't you see that?"

"If Nightmare Moon wins, we'll all be destroyed anyway! The risk is worth it!"

"No, it's not!" Sunset's voice rose even louder. "You're not worth it!"

"Says who?"

"Your best friend!"

Lightning flashed in the sky behind them, drawing a pause to the action as the two took in each other's words. Neither gave the other any ground, but for a whole ten seconds, the only thing that moved were droplets of rain. It was never about the amulet, nor was it about proving who was stronger than who. Twilight knew full well the severity of her actions, but couldn't back out of their consequences. She wasn't trying to escape what she had set in motion; she was trying her hardest to take what she believed was responsibility for it.

But unless she accepted that power wasn't everything, that she couldn't accomplish this on her own, she'd never be able to take true responsibility. She'd never be able to walk away. Her fixation on power would be her undoing unless Sunset could prove her wrong right here and right now.

"You want to protect me..." Twilight said, as if that possibility never occurred to her. Maybe she understood now, maybe all she needed was for Sunset to remind her of their friendship, that she was still important to her. But, with a resolute shake of her head, Twilight would only narrow her eyes. She cast a powerful glare into Sunset's own, rejecting eyes burning their response into the back of her mind.

"No." Twilight's face distorted back into that dark, almost anguished look of hostility. "I can't let you have this power!"

But the look was different, conveying more than just momentary bitterness. More than just a passive feeling of dread. In response to Sunset's compassion, Twilight was... offended.

And it hurt.

The passive anger running through Sunset's mind began to rise to the surface, dismissing the hurt as her expression of care was rejected. A red glow began to surround her, swirling about inner power gathered. A similar purple glow enveloped Twilight, and their combat reignited with a powerful push against each other.

All at once, Sunset and Twilight became immersed in their red and purple energies respectively, their forms morphing and shifting into those of their Inner Demons. Their eyes changed, their skin roughened and changed hues, and a concussive blast of their corresponding shades was released between them, blowing the roof apart and sending them both crashing back down into the hallway.

They absorbed their demon weapons back into themselves and brought out their primary swords, coming all the way through their rotation of weapons. Sunset's claymore became bathed in bright red flames and she brought it against Twilight's katana, glowing with a powerful purple flame of its own. With their wings spread, they jumped about, flying around each other as their battle dragged on both through air and on ground. Their colors radiated outward, brightening their surroundings as they traded blows.

It was different from the last time their demon forms emerged. They were in control now, each one perfectly focused on achieving their goal. Never had Sunset wanted anything more than stopping Twilight here, because despite all of the joking and silliness she brought to this job, when it came to her friends, she cared. Deeply. Doubly so for a best friend. Maybe even triply so. Best friend. That didn't even feel like a close enough way to describe it.

In stunted unison they slammed feet first into the center of the hallway, rain pouring above them as their swords moved too fast to watch; even as they went into their Demon Reflex they were steadily accelerating. With both feet firmly planted, the two demons furiously attacked and counterattacked, perfectly blocking again and again, dragging their swords through the falling raindrops faster and faster, so fast that the raindrops were breaking apart quicker they could fall—making a completely dry dome around them.

As their speed continued to mount to impossible levels, it was only a matter of time until one of them would falter.

They both came in, one final sword clash expending the last of their demonic energy and reverting them back to their normal forms. There was a beat as a sheet of rainwater suddenly dumped into their isolated pocket of dryness, further soaking their heads as they pressed against each other.

Their eyes were alight, each one of them determined to take it all.

Sunset's claymore slipped, and with a powerful shove Twilight knocked it from her hand. It spun through the air behind her, digging point first into the floor and landing upright.

And without a weapon, Sunset could do nothing to stop Twilight from driving her katana straight through her chest, knocking all resistance from her. Sunset choked, her anger giving way to despair from both the metaphorical and literal pain in her heart. Her legs gave out, and she fell on her knees at Twilight's feet.

"Foolishness, Sunset..." Twilight looked into her former friend's hopeless eyes with overwhelming disappointment. "Foolishness."

Sunset was too weak to respond. Her hands reached up to grab at Twilight's blade, but Twilight just as quickly yanked it from her. With a quick snap of her wrist, all of Sunset's blood flicked off the blade, and right as she sheathed it Sunset collapsed on her face. Pushing her fallen hair back, she fixed the loose band that clung precariously to it and put it back into a ponytail.

"Without power, you can't protect anything..." Twilight said, taking her glasses from where they'd caught on her jacket and putting them back in their place in front of her apathetic, violet eyes. "Not me, and most certainly not yourself."

Twilight pulled out the round, purple device, and held it towards Sunset's body. It opened, and Sunset felt the presence of her demons fading. Pink and blue orbs of magic rose out of her and into the device, the only magic left being the one of her own inseparable demon.

"Maybe one day you'll understand, Sunset..." Twilight said, redirecting the device towards herself and imbuing her body with the taken magic. "And maybe on that day we can return to our friendship."

Sunset wasn't ready to let her go, but she was helpless to stop her as she approached the throne room door. Each point of the star on it was lit with the power of the Elements of Harmony unified, and the door split open in two parts, allowing her to disappear into the dark hallway beyond it.

Sunset closed her eyes. She wasn't going to pass out, but she was having a hard time processing what had just happened. Her punctured heart was already healing over, but the emotional damage to it felt far worse.

Even if Twilight could defeat Nightmare Moon, there was no guarantee that Twilight could come back from this. Twilight's Inner Demon had resurfaced again, and its power was already consuming her.

And all Sunset could do was watch as her closest friend slipped away.

Comments

[Pinklestia]

I knew that with the advantage in power Twilight had and with Sunset having wasted time and energy fighting that Phoenix that Sunset was going to lose.

[CrownofDissonance]

10295862
It came down less to any real power advantage and more to Sunset losing the confidence game after Twilight rejected her friendship, bear in mind that Twilight just got done fighting Fluttershy's demon and Adagio's goons prior to reaching the castle. The dual functionality of the Party Cannon was meant to give them each an weapon style the other hadn't seen before but also round out Sunset's melee weapons with Twilight's, they now both have three ranged attacks and three melee attacks each.

[CrownofDissonance]

10295878
Addendum: I have forgotten how to count. Twilight has one more melee option than Sunset, and Sunset has one more ranged option than Twilight. They are still balanced in this way. (I forgot both Rarity's needle as a melee attack and Rainbow's lightning as ranged attack)

[zachary12]

nice work

[Raistlin]

10295884

Sunset and Twilight, Celestia and her sister, Selene and co....even Adagio and her Sirens.

Just me or this whole plot seems filled with (or I would even say "caused by") ladies with too much ego, ambition, jealousy, emotional problems, and a refusal to relinquish their arrogant, self righteous "I am just doing what is right" view?

[CrownofDissonance]

10296754
Yeah, baby! Everyone is a different flavor of thinking they know better than at least one other character, and I'm playing it all up for maximum ham and cheese. And also to give a constructive message about some of these characters and their flaws, of course, but primarily it's for campy entertainment.

I also might be projecting myself onto some if not all of these characters, as I am in fact a lady with probably too much ego, ambition, and a heaping helping of emotional problems. So no, it's not just you.

[Danbrixton]

So Sunset and Twilight had their duel in the rain. Does that mean sunset is going to get eaten by a flying whale now?

[Pinklestia]

10295884

It was still Twilight having four demons to Sunset having three. On raw power alone Twilight had more.

[CrownofDissonance]

10296957
I couldn't find a close enough MLP character to represent the flying whale, so the answer is unfortunately a hard no. Disappointing, I know.

[CrownofDissonance]

10296962
Well sure, Twilight always had more raw power than Sunset, but Sunset always had more focused power: the matchup of finesse vs. force. Step for step, they pretty much kept up with each other right until the very end, where it came down to a simple matter of who would break first. And since Sunset lost the conversation, she lost her confidence, then lost the battle, such is overblown melodrama.

[Raistlin]

10296764

....Fair enough.
Another thing. The fact Flash could briefly match Adagio in strenght....could it mean his inner demon is awakening, or is there another explanation?

[CrownofDissonance]

10297052
There's definitely something to it, but it's probably going to be convoluted, so until I'm 100% certain how I'm going to explain it in-universe just think of it as another extension of this world's absurd video game logic.

[JMP]

What makes Sunset's demon special that Twilight couldn't take it?

[CrownofDissonance]

10300361
Sunset's demon is a firmly attached part of her, whereas all of their friends have less stable and distinctly separate demons. Twilight is the same way as Sunset, so neither of their magics will just fall out of them when defeated, nor is Twilight's little magic catcher strong enough to rip away Sunset's demon half.

I know I never got a good chance to outright explain that anywhere, nor is it really a rigid rule, but maybe I can somewhere at some point in the future.

[GRYFFINDOR123456]

poor spike

[nightshroud96]

10658532
Haven't read this fic but after jumping to this chapter after seeing this comment.
So Spike is just killed off for good.?

[Ibliscorn]

10297061
So basically, the player controlling Flash hit the button enough time during the QTE to win