20- The Sister of Darkness
In the arcane glow of the Elements of Harmony, in the very heart of the Castle of the Two Sisters, a thousand-year plan to bring about revenge and annihilation was about to come to fruition. The Elements, condensed into orbs of energy, were fixed in place along each point of the wide star engraved into the floor, each one equidistant from a slotted, circular plate serving as the centerpoint. With the ancient magic powering the tower, lighting up the patterns engraved into the floor around it, the castle was truly active and ready to perform its intended purpose. The gate to the demon realm was ready to be opened.
Nightmare Moon, with the power of both Sisters of Light and Dark, only needed the Light Sister's Devil Sword to undo the seal between worlds, to drive it into the centerpoint where the Elements aligned, her key to an engine of apocalypse. The only thing that stood in her way was the manifestation of everything she despised about herself; her frail and vulnerable compassion, her remorse, her hesitance, her sorrow and fear, everything that made her weak. Everything that made her human.
And yet, the woman that called herself Selene, alongside the demons at her command, proved herself to be a threat. The shadowy, demonic unicorn she rode gave her great mobility, the chaotic draconequus following her attacked with unpredictable power, and the shapeshifting dreamstalker intended to imprison her had been conquered, its indestructible body both shield and spear.
But strip them away, and she was still only human.
Nightmare Moon fought back against Selene, her heat beams and light swords and dark energy bombs again filling the throne room, but Selene would not let up her attack. Nightmare Moon's sword had been destroyed and her armor had taken a lot of damage. If Selene could tear her defenses away just a little more, she may be able to land the deciding blow. The Dark Sister had pushed her away to the far end of the room though, and was doing her best to keep the battle a ranged one.
Selene spun in place, avoiding a light sword as it grazed the shoulder of her top, putting a rifle round on Nightmare Moon's shoulder plate a moment later. Already damaged during the battle with Celestia, the metal bent out of shape, and right as the opening was made Sombra immediately jumped up from a shadow and attached himself to Nightmare Moon. He fashioned his hoof into a piercing spike and jammed it right through the hole in her armor, stealing her attention away from any ranged attacks on Selene or Discord.
His form shifted, and before Nightmare Moon could throw him away he burst from beneath the plating, ripping all the way down from the shoulder to gauntlet. The armor exploded outward, the layer of chainmail beneath breaking away as well, and with her now bare arm she flung Sombra off of her as hard as she could. The unicorn demon put cracks in the wall as he smashed against it, weakly dissolving into darkness as he was knocked out of the fight.
Without Sombra, dodging Nightmare Moon's attacks became more challenging. Selene had to choose between moving and attacking now, and Discord found himself having to cover for Selene as she moved. Firing her rifle again, she tried to get an opening for Discord to attack, this time targeting the point that Twilight Sparkle had cut into Nightmare Moon's forearm plating.
A silent command given, and Discord flew in close as Nightmare Moon was recoiling, tossing his giant paper ninja star at her exposed arm as he went for the still covered one. The paper cut into her skin, going around her and hitting her several times until she ultimately caught it and ripped it in half. By that time, Discord had his giant spring loaded boxing glove ready to fire, lining it up on Nightmare Moon's face.
Just as she'd noticed, Discord shot the glove off, the solid mass clocking Nightmare Moon in the jaw right before she brought her arms up into a guard. Her head snapped back, but she put a foot behind her and threw a punch in return only to find the floating creature of chaos had relocated to her other side. A second shot from the boxing glove crushed the weakened wrist armor as Nightmare Moon brought her guard up again, but she would catch the weapon by the spring on the third hit, pulling Discord in and knocking him into the wall opposite Sombra.
He poofed out of existence, and to Nightmare Moon's surprise she felt the entire armor sleeve she was wearing slide off. The Discord she struck was a copy, the real one was behind her, wearing a little welding mask and had just sliced through her shoulder and arm plating with a huge circular saw. He wouldn't get out of the way in time to stop her from sending him into the wall like his copy, rendering him out of the fight as well.
Selene and the Tantibus were all that remained, and as Nightmare Moon readied to rain fire upon them, she found they were already upon her.
The Tantibus took its full form, a hulking mass of black space that rivaled Nightmare Moon's height, two long arms on either side of it throwing a wide, nigh-unstoppable punch as Selene rode upon its back, her hair once again flowing with deep blue ethereal magic. Nightmare Moon caught the Tantibus's punch with an unmovable guard, but a follow-up punch struck her core, denting the armor over her stomach.
Nightmare Moon took the hit and threw her free fist into the Tantibus's head, and to keep Selene protected it did not shift out of the way, instead hardening its body and absorbing the damage. Back and forth, the colossal demons traded punches, kicks, knees and elbows in a chaotic and gritty brawl across the throne room floor. Selene held on tightly to the Tantibus, guiding its actions as she peered over its shoulder. It eventually came to a bind with Nightmare Moon, the two catching each other's hands and threatening each other's balance as they collided.
Two glowing emerald eyes opened on the Tantibus's face, locking with Nightmare Moon's as they pressed against each other. Now, it was Nightmare Moon's turn to have her mind attacked, scoured for anything that might be used against her. The demon knight's own eyes widened, but she didn't crumble in fear, she continued to hold strong against the Tantibus and its mental assault on her.
"Useless..." Nightmare Moon growled, beginning to push the Tantibus off balance. It was weakening, Nightmare Moon was overpowering it. "You frighten me not!"
With a jarring shove, the Tantibus was forced backward, but Selene slipped forward in her attempts to stay upright. She landed shoulders first, losing her grip on her rifle as she hit the ground and leaving her exposed to attack as the demon shielding her was forced away.
When she looked up, Selene saw Nightmare Moon with a fist raised up, ready to hammer down on the spot where she lay. The next moment, a dark, vacant mass shot straight into the demon knight's breastplate, forming into two of the Tanitbus's arms, and then into its full body again as it split the metal covering in two along the rupture already present in it.
Its unearthly claws dug through the infernal armor, peeling it away along with the mail and padding beneath to expose the greyed and corrupted flesh beneath it. There was already a bleeding, gaping hole in Nightmare Moon's chest, where her blackened heart was partially exposed from blade and bullet. Her demonic regeneration worked away to heal her wound, but it was torn again, held open by the Tantibus. Nightmare Moon's teeth clenched together in anger and she threw her fist into the Tantibus, sinking it into its body before forcing her fingers open inside it.
Behind it, Selene watched a spot glow through the Tantibus's back, and then it erupted in an explosion of dark energy. The bottom half of its mass melted away as its top half splattered away from Nightmare Moon, and following its destruction Selene's hair reverted back to its normal, light blue form. The great demon now stood with her knees bent and her hand outstretched into a claw shape, smoke drifting from heated fingertips. She was beginning to show the faintest signs of strain, her bare and bleeding body heaving as she took a moment to recenter herself.
With all of her demons down for the count and without her primary weapon, Selene could only scramble backwards on her hands and knees as Nightmare Moon slowly paced towards her. The demon knight's signature light swords formed up around her, suspended above her shoulders for only a moment before repeatedly firing off in Selene's direction. Bringing herself to a kneel, Selene raised her machine pistol and just barely managed to gun the incoming projectiles down, but she couldn't manage to shoot back at their sender.
A ring of light swords appeared around her and she pivoted on one foot, twisting her body in a complete circle while firing both guns outward. She was fast enough to shoot them all down before they closed in on her, but Nightmare Moon was already summoning a pair of parallel heat beams to either side, forcing her into immediate dodging maneuvers.
Selene's body went horizontal as she twirled between beams, then she rolled right past Nightmare Moon as she hit the ground, dodging a swinging kick. Now behind her target, Selene brought both of her guns to bear, but bullets in the demon's back did little more than make her wince slightly. A split second later, Nightmare Moon whipped around with another sweeping kick that scraped up bits of the stone floor as her massive metal boot dragged on it.
With one more evasive flip, Selene dodged the attack, but the follow-up came too fast to respond. Her extended foot snapped up high above her head, then Nightmare Moon threw her heel down onto the spot where Selene stood, striking her dead on with explosive force and sending her sliding along the throne room floor.
"How brave..." The demon knight began, continuing her gradual pace towards the weakly recovering Selene. "Risking your life to save those who care not for you. You would have such foolish courage, wouldn't you?"
"That's right..." Selene's eyes narrowed as she looked up at her alter. "You cut that away, because you're a coward..."
She rose to her feet, and through heavy bruising on her arms and wide, bloodied scrapes on her legs she brought her weapons up with her. The front of Nightmare Moon's body lit up with sparks as a stream of lead crashed against it, breaking away the remaining bindings of her armor.
"Fool..." The plating covering her back clattered to the ground, but even completely unarmored the demon knight just shook her head. She continued her pace forward unperturbed, willingly ignoring the bullets coming at her. "I need not courage, I have power."
With a cast of her hand, Nightmare Moon brought forth another slew of light swords, firing them off immediately, but lunging forward after a moment's delay. Following behind her projectiles, she watched Selene attempt her less-than-graceful dodges again and caught her with a downwards punch.
A cry of frustration followed a cough as Selene was crushed down into the floor by the demon's fist. Her entire body shuddered, hopelessly fighting the intense pain immobilizing it. And though weakened, stripped of her weapon and armor, and forced to use the full extent of her power, Nightmare Moon was still standing. Selene saw the demon's bleeding chest rising and falling, each breath full and pronounced as she was forced to inch the limits of her strength out that much more. There was no victorious smile on her face, only grim determination, because again, Selene rose. Not to a full stand, but with her knees bent and her hands stabilizing her balance, she looked up to the demon defiantly.
"How do you persist? From where do you draw this power?" Nightmare Moon asked. Selene's weapons were gone, she had little means of fighting back at this point, but yet she kept getting back up. "You have lost nothing!"
"Strength..." Selene said, "Does not come from that which we have lost."
A cough cut her off mid-sentence. Blood splattered through her mouth as she did, causing her to cough again to clear it off her tongue. It felt like she'd bitten it at some point, it was what was bleeding...
"True strength," She continued, wiping more blood from her cheeks and chin. "Comes from that which we give to others! And that's something you could never understand."
She felt another uncharacteristic surge of anger pulse through her, giving her the strength to stand up again and finish her thought with a great projection of volume. Her hair shifted and changed back into the swirling, starry mass once more as her voice echoed throughout the room.
"YOU HAVE ONLY EVER TAKEN FROM OTHERS!"
"SILENCE!" With a brief hand motion, Nightmare Moon dropped the hanging swords down, but before they could reach her a solid black mass formed above her head to intercept them. Sombra's reformed body stretched out as much as it could as he jumped into the attack, catching as many of the blades in him as he could before crashing to the floor and splashing back up into his normal equine shape just before Selene. His horn grew longer and sharper, and he thrust his head forward, slicing straight into Nightmare Moon's stomach as he charged in.
Her hardened muscles gave great resistance, but the lance-like protrusion on the demon unicorn's forehead was impossibly sharp. Even grabbing his horn with her bare hands put deep cuts in them, and only after he dragged it up into her ribs did she manage to hold him still. Glaring at him, she summoned forth a pair of heat beams to either side of him and yanked up on his horn.
The beams struck him, but their brightness did more to melt him than the heat, disintegrating him back into a pool of darkness on the floor. If the shadow demon had recovered, that meant the chaos demon would be back soon as well...
Nightmare Moon spun around and held an arm out, catching an oversized solid wood baseball bat mid-swing inches away from her head. Its wielder, the wily draconequus that'd deceived her before. His grip was firmly on the bat, but Nightmare Moon reached out and took a firm grip on his neck. The smug look that was on his face while swinging the bat was quickly replaced by a look of shock; his eyes bulged cartoonishly and his long, snakelike tongue waggled frantically from an open mouth as he dangled there, reflexively releasing his weapon. He yelped and gagged and squirmed as Nightmare Moon caught the fallen bat and tossed him back into the air, striking him hard in the center of his body with it, hard enough to split him into two pieces.
To her amusement, there was no gore. As the bat broke his body he exploded into a shower of wrapped candy pieces before dissolving in the same way Sombra did. The bat disappeared with him, but the candy stuck around for a little longer, pattering on the floor like heavy raindrops before finally fading away.
"Your pet demons will not save you." Nightmare Moon said, turning herself back to finish off her inferior human half. "Your compassion for them is naught but a useless sentiment- GHH!"
Nightmare Moon was cut off into a choked sputter, finding a sharp, burning object spearing straight through the hole in her chest as she turned around. Whatever was splitting her skin felt like it was sapping her power, destroying her from the inside out. She looked down, and her jaw clenched in rage at what she saw.
Selene gripped the handle of The Sister of Light's Devil Sword, and had it thrust directly into Nightmare Moon's heart. Blood poured out of the wound, nearly bathing Selene in it as she shoved it further through, twisting it in her own vengeance filled fury. With the ancient blade she brought the once mighty and terrifying demon to her knees, dragging her against the floor as she painted it with her insides.
Stunned, and in too much pain to resist, Nightmare Moon buckled forward, catching herself face to face with Selene's exhausted grimace.
"Fool." Selene spoke with a dangerous growl in her voice, teeth clenched together, both whispering and shouting at the distorted, demonic reflection of her own face. "You've discarded everything you ever had, turned away from everyone that ever loved you!"
Selene trembled, but Nightmare Moon did not show any other response than utter emptiness. Without victory, the demon was hollow, meaningless, and it started to feel more like Selene was only talking to herself. She felt her anger start to dull, and in its place a sharp feeling of sadness began to resurface. Not towards herself, but towards Nightmare Moon; a being incapable of experiencing anything but hatred, jealousy and pain, caged by her own insatiable thirst for power. Selene didn't just hate her, she pitied her. Pitied her, because she was once able to experience compassion, love and happiness, and maybe if she'd made different choices, things could've been different.
"And to what end?"
Maybe if Selene herself made different decisions...
"You are a pathetic, miserable creature."
Selene's throat felt tight, and she took a weak and shaky breath. She pulled the Devil Sword from Nightmare Moon, and watched wordlessly as the demon fell backwards, collapsing on the ground with no further resistance. Selene felt no sense of accomplishment, like the demon, she too felt empty. Hollow. Almost painfully so.
"It is no wonder you haven't any true power."
-----
The low, muffled thump of Nightmare Moon's body slamming against the ground made Celestia stir. Her head was still dizzy, but she could open her eyes enough to get a picture of her surroundings.
Nightmare Moon had been defeated, not by Twilight, but by someone else... Twilight's companion. Selene. Celestia felt familiarity when they first met, but now she was certain of her identity and a feeling of dread welled within her. Selene dropped the Devil Sword at her feet, and instead took up her own weapon, the rifle with the blade fixed to its end. A blade that, now with proper context, Celestia recognized as well. Selene had no intention of fully destroying Nightmare Moon.
No matter the intensity of alarms going off in Celestia's mind, she didn't have the energy to stand or even shift into a more comfortable position. Celestia needed to stop her, if Selene defeated Nightmare Moon there was no way to predict what would happen next, but she still couldn't move.
Approaching the fallen demon, Selene took up the sun amulet on the foot of the steps, and holding it alongside her own moon amulet she began to drain the golden and silver energies from Nightmare Moon's body. Into the sun amulet went the Sister of Light's power, and the Dark Sister's own power went into the moon amulet. The demon was too weak to resist, but still clung to her hatred and need for power despite the hole in her chest beginning to shrink.
"How... are you... so powerful?" Nightmare Moon asked, her voice still resonant and room filling, but with only the intensity of an echoing whisper. "I gave up... everything... I was so close... to true power..."
Behind them, outside of their concern, Sunset, Flash, and Starlight came into the room. They talked amongst themselves as they assessed the situation, and shortly after Celestia felt herself being helped up by Sunset and Flash. Her body still wouldn't move, and they ended up pulling her away from the action.
"Stay with us, come on..." Sunset said. Celestia very much tried, wanting to warn the two of them of Selene's intent.
Across from them, Starlight stood over a defeated Twilight, who picked herself up to a kneel. Twilight was unaware as well, neither she nor her student would be able to see what was coming.
Selene looked down on her demon half with disgust, kicking her hand aside as Nightmare Moon feebly reached for her. As she spoke, the sun amulet joined its counterpart around her neck, and she took the attention of everyone present.
"See now, abomination..." Selene began, her own breath heavy from the battle. Her tone was dark, almost as sinister as Nightmare Moon's once was. "How you have become the victim of your own creation, how you have fallen to the very thing you so foolishly expunged from yourself."
"You are... only human..."
"And you are only a coward. Hollow within, fractured and fragile without, with not even a face to call your own!" Selene's hands tightened around her weapon, pulling it closer as the darkness in her voice overtook her entire being.
"You have nothing, either!" Nightmare Moon's body suddenly tightened. She attempted to sit up, to strangle Selene, cast some magic, to show her that she still was in control, but her effort was halted the moment Selene put her foot down, boot crushing right up against Nightmare Moon's throat and stopping her struggling with a cough. "You.. are... nothing!"
"Yet here I stand, and here you lay." Leaning in close to Nightmare Moon's face, Selene shook her head. "But we are the same, aren't we? Incomplete without each other..."
Unable to speak with her throat constricted, Nightmare Moon angrily choked out a violent hiss in reply.
"We have hurt each other..." Selene's eyes softened, the bitter yet hopeless struggling of her alter again eliciting pity from her. "Lost one another... We need each other, don't we?"
Then, with her moon amulet pulsing with energy, Selene raised her bladed rifle up over her head, one hand on the barrel and the other the body, preparing to spear it through Nightmare Moon's heart. Celestia shifted, her head rolling in place as she tried to get Sunset's attention again.
"Stop her..." Celestia whispered, pained, but managing to look into her student's eyes. Sunset looked up to Selene, realising that something was about to happen, and she let Flash take Celestia's weight as she ran back across the throne room.
The blade began to sparkle softly with a blue magical aura, and with her gaze still fixed on the demon's, she delivered her final words to her in meter.
"When judgement fell, your choice was cast
You set your path apart from mine
But in a circle, time has passed
And now our fates shall realign!"
The blade dropped, sinking directly into Nightmare Moon's heart and sparking wildly, igniting into a blue flame that burned the demon away, but as the fire spread, Selene's amulet lit up, and both of them were enveloped in a column of light shooting up from the demon's wound. Sunset stopped in her tracks, right at the edge of the glowing circle on the floor, lifting her arms protectively as the blinding magical release illuminated the entire room.
Twilight and Starlight dropped whatever conversation they were having, and Flash looked up from Celestia.
Celestia made a weak murmur, trying to shake herself free of Flash's hold. He only held onto her tighter, and seeing as she was beginning to slip away Flash reached into one of his pouches and retrieved the injector Sunburst gave him before he set off into the labs. Though he only had one, the fluid it contained was the same that repaired his injuries, and given the state Celestia was in, she needed it.
Her wounds didn't heal right away, but she seemed to have better control over her body. Sitting herself up, she wearily shook herself awake and spoke to Flash in a raspy whisper.
"Forget about me..."
"What's happening?" Flash asked.
"She's returned... to herself." Celestia replied.
"What? Who?"
The light intensified, starting from a bright blue and quickly increasing into pure white, peaking in a huge blast of magic that shook the throne room to its core. A deafening wind shot out in all directions around it, rattling the windows and tossing Sunset's hair back as she covered her face. Twilight, the closest to the detonation, was blown back despite failing attempts to hold on to the ground, only stopping after Starlight caught her by the arm. Heat radiated outward even as the light faded to a soft glow, and eventually to nothing.
When it was all settled, neither the human nor demon at its epicenter remained. The anti-tank rifle with the piece of magical blade affixed to its end clattered to the floor, and then did her journal, then did the rest of her weapons, but there was no trace of the woman once called Selene, nor was there trace of Nightmare Moon.
In their place, rising from a crouched position, another woman rose, all skin exposed for only a moment before a form-fitting bodysuit of a pitch black fabric manifested around her. She faced away, with hair as dark and blue as the night sky and wearing heeled boots with strange clamps running along the backs, and as her head turned to look over her shoulder two piercing emerald eyes swept across the room. The woman's face was perfectly straight, a face that had the expressiveness of Selene's with the intensity of Nightmare Moon's, and had the same shape and features as both.
"My sister..." Celestia's heartbeat quickened, seeing the intensity of her gaze heighten as the woman's eyes locked with her own. There was a deep, personal hostility in her eyes. Not a vengeful or sadistic hostility, but an emotionally aching and resentful one. The Dark Sister was once again whole.
"Luna."
-----
"Is it over?" Starlight asked.
"I don't think so..." Sunset said.
Flash came up behind them, weapon ready but not raised. "That's Celestia's sister, her true form!"
The woman turned as the demon hunters surrounded her, keeping a respectable distance but also weary of her presence. She recovered her journal, dissolving it into a bout of her blue magic, now more pure and concentrated than ever. Looking across them again, her eyes settled on Twilight, the only one of them to look upon the woman with any semblance of recognition.
"Selene..." Twilight began, but was cut off by the woman. She spoke calmly, but with purpose, not in a booming voice but with a harsh distinction from Selene's voice.
"Not Selene, not anymore," the woman said. "I am what started this, and I will be its end. I am Luna."
"You were just another part of the Sister of Darkness!" Twilight said, the realisation of betrayal in her voice.
"No, Twilight Sparkle..." Luna shook her head. "It was Nightmare Moon who was but a part of me. I, as you see me now, am the true Sister of Darkness."
Twilight looked up at her, the shock slowing her movement as she came up to a kneel and reached for her fallen weapon. "You never wanted to defeat her, did you? You wanted to become one with her..."
"This is the only way she can be defeated," the Sister of Darkness said, then paused for a moment in solemn contemplation. "The only way I can be defeated."
Sunset interjected. "Okay, so you're back together. You still gonna try and open the gate to the demon realm or whatever?"
The woman grimly nodded. "To settle matters with my sister, I must."
"Settle matters with your sister?" Starlight asked. "Surely you can't just talk it out?"
"We disagree on the very reason of our existence." Luna said. "We must fight."
"Wait..." Twilight looked back at Celestia, then to this woman claiming to be her sister. As she was the Sister of Darkness, the realisation ignited in Twilight's mind. "Celestia... is the Sister of Light?"
Starlight gave Twilight a sideways look. "She couldn't be! The Platinum Knight is wanted by the Order- they wouldn't have their own goddess on a hit list!"
The woman before them only shook her head. "Your conclusion is in part correct, Twilight Sparkle. Like I was, she is incomplete. She sealed her true power away in the underworld alongside my own long ago, and hid her identity."
"She never told me about that either," Sunset said, her eyes sharpening as her voice treaded a teasing hostility. "But let's not get sidetracked. If you're still trying to open this gate up, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed."
"This does not concern you." Luna said, giving Sunset only an annoyed glare. "None of this is about any one of you."
"Maybe not..." Sunset shrugged, but drew her pistols anyway, spinning them both up into an aiming position. "But what kind of demon hunter would I be if I just let you cut loose all that evil into the world? That's not how your sister taught me at all..."
Starlight nodded, readying her chainsaber, and Flash followed suit with his rocket launcher. Coming to a stand, Twilight joined them, drawing her katana and pointing it at this new, fully realised Sister of Darkness. At least for this moment, she would set aside her differences to fight with them. Fighting this enemy was her only true goal, after all.
"Very well." Calling upon her magic, Luna lifted her hands, and the discarded scraps of metal that once formed her demonic armor dissolved into light from the ground, reforming into a set of four elegant cobalt blue pistols, each with two barrels in an over-under configuration, with sparkling green gems in the receivers and grips of ivory. Two fell into her hands, and two fitted themselves into the clamps on her boots. Both amulets fell over her chest and sparkled softly in their respective colors, and Luna's face shifted to the familiar determined expression Selene held while facing Nightmare Moon.
"For if I cannot defeat even you, then I have already lost."
-----
The next three minutes held a tension as Celestia's calm yet determined sister decimated the four demon hunters atop the glowing controls to the demon realm's gate. Luna's pistols moved in all directions, following her body as she rotated perfectly out of the way out of Sunset's gunfire. She halted Starlight and Twilight as they jumped in front different directions, punching one and kicking the other, then shot down two of Flash's rockets as they shot across at her. The explosions and dust kicked up closer to him than her and he reflexively coughed and closed his eyes. In that time, Luna lined up one of her guns on him as she held a handstand, kicking her legs in opposite directions to knock Starlight and Twilight aside.
Her bullets flew towards him faster than he could process, but Sunset was immediately jumping in front of him, intercepting the shots with her own. Flash moved aside, switching to his machine gun and opening fire when Twilight and Starlight were again pushed away. Luna returned fire, but purely defensively, her two guns only barely able to keep up with Flash's rapid fire. Not wanting him to get targeted, Sunset drew her sword and rushed in, but as she thrust her blade forward she found it getting redirected and one of Luna's bootguns going off in her face. The bullet dug into her forehead, and as she healed through it she fell back, watching Starlight catch a punch to the chest and Twilight a kick across the shoulder in the same stroke.
While Luna was dealing with the other two, Flash jumped over the downed Sunset, knife drawn, and from a foot away used it to successfully deflect two of Luna's gun punches before coming up with his pistol and firing three shots straight through her chest. It was the fastest move Luna had ever seen an ordinary human pull off, and following that Flash managed to scratch her with his knife as he followed through.
Stunned and surprised, Luna stepped back. Her amulets glowed as their power healed her wounds, but she still swayed. Flash's resentite knife stung deeper than a normal blade, slowing the healing effect of her magic. She dropped to a crouch, and Flash kept both his pistol and knife ready and the other three demon hunters rose to join him.
"You are but a mere mortal..." Luna laughed softly under her breath, smiling bitterly at her injury. "Either I'm getting old, or you fight like a demon."
She jumped forward again, and now in her grip was the bladed anti-tank rifle, one hand on the stock and the other on the body, fully using it as a polearm. Flash jumped back as she thrust forward with it, just barely redirecting its tip with his knife. Her sudden attack made him backpedal, but he fired off his pistol as she advanced. Each shot he took was deflected off the body of the weapon, the Dark Sister shifting it perfectly in time with his counter shots and fluidly keeping the pressure on with each step.
His weapon clicked empty, and he daringly ducked beneath the rifle as it poked at him, finding Sunset's blade crossing to parry the attack. He spun back, letting her step in front of him, and then he heard the muffled crack of the rifle firing. The bullet spun by his head at a narrow angle, and when he turned back to the action he saw Sunset holding her sword perfectly vertical. The huge round would've bored straight through her and hit him, but she deflected it off the flat of her weapon.
Two more gunshots rang off beside them, and Luna's attention shifted to her defense. However, as she moved to block these bullets, they violently detonated into a small cloud of smoke, but then after a moment's delay they exploded again, this time into a multicolored shower of sparks. The firework rounds nipped at Luna's skin, but she was only stunned for a moment. Starlight ran towards her, taking a third and forth shot, but Luna dove forward, rolling beneath the bullets completely and leading the tip of her weapon right into Starlight's stomach.
A glowing blue katana blade would beat her rifle's end to the ground before it made contact. Twilight immediately brought her sword across, and Luna kept her forward inertia, cartwheeling over it and taking a swipe at Starlight mid-jump. The frame of her revolver scraped against the rifle's blade, and Luna landed on her feet in a firing position, barrel to barrel with the blue eyed cyborg. They both pulled their triggers at the same moment.
Smoke and fireworks erupted in Starlight's face and she was blasted onto her back, though she was spared penetration from the anti-material round that punched into the floor just a meter away from her head. Looking up, she saw Twilight perfectly cut down three more of the rifle's rounds, unable to move position and getting more and more frustrated. Sunset slid in from a side angle, both of her pistols firing off and giving Twilight the time to draw energy into her blade, then make a space-tearing cut across the distance between her and Luna.
Luna jumped out of the way again, rolling horizontally over Twilight's cut and firing her bootguns horizontally in line with Sunset's pistols, evading and countering each of their attacks respectively. The launching of a rocket sounded off, and from Flash's corner a warhead launched into the scene, which Luna shot down with her rifle just after her evasion. Starlight righted herself again, expending a bit of her battery to do so, and then spent even more charging up her mechanical arm, powering up her Tether Hand and shooting it out to the spot where Luna was about to land.
The projected teal fingers came out quick, firmly wrapping around their target. Surprised, Luna tensed up, taken completely off guard as she was yanked over to Starlight. She just barely brought her rifle up to block as Starlight's chainsaber swung down on her, its spinning teeth grinding against the enchanted metal and forcing her into a close bind.
"Impressive..." Luna showed her the same bitter smile she showed Flash. "Not even half a human, and still resistant..."
Rather than respond, Starlight brought her revolver up under Luna's guard, trying to fire up into her chin, but Luna pulled back and let Starlight trip over herself. Using the rifle as a lever, she caught Starlight behind the neck and sent her crashing into the floor. The stock came back up, smacking Twilight in the face as she attempted to dive in, and then the front end swung out in the opposite direction, bashing Sunset at the leg with the barrel as she tried the same. Her grip changed on her weapon, and she brought it into a full twirl in front of her right as Flash fired his shotgun off, deflecting every pellet completely. She held its end and thrust forward, leaning in to get its entire length, but he leaned to the side and fired again.
She took the hit, rolling straight through it and ressumoning one of her pistols as she jumped into him. With his off hand, he brought up his machine gun, and they both fired off inaccurately as she took him to ground. Before she could fire into him, yet another gunshot went off behind her. She tilted her head and let the round miss, then swung around with her rifle in one hand to meet a Twilight with both her pistols up.
There was a beat, a lull in the action as Luna looked back and forth between them, but soon found Sunset and Starlight surrounding her again. Her guns drifted, checking each of them as she backed away.
Flash started to stand up, and keeping his gun in line with Luna's he found she didn't attack him.
The four demon hunters were getting tired, but Luna was much less so. She looked only the slightest bit winded after everything she went through, but definitely ready for more. Her amulets sparkled softly as she twirled her rifle into a defensive stance.
"Come now, children..." she said, giving all of them dangerous looks. "Do not be shy..."
Each of them had a similar thought. There was no way she could stop all four of them at the same time if they all attacked together, in different ways. Sunset readied a grip on her sword, Twilight adjusted her pistols, Starlight charged up her arm and Flash pumped the grip of his shotgun.
Then, all at once, they came in.
Sunset jumped forward, letting her sword tip lead the way as she carved a path into Luna's immediate area. She put both hands on her rifle and attempted a counter strike, but Sunset then made a circling motion with her blade and scooped upward, shooting up into the air and taking Luna's rifle with her. Luna came back with her pistols, crossing them in front of her chest and firing at both Flash and Twilight, then sidestepping Starlight throwing a charged punch at her.
Flash closed in and fired his shotgun again, but Luna was close enough to kick her leg out and force his aim upward. In a snapshot of the moment, she was on one foot now, shooting down Twilight's gunshots and evading another of Starlight's Tether Grabs up close. Of dire notice was Sunset above her, both of her guns out and ready to fire down, but Luna shifted one of her pistols up, and targeting her own weapon, sent a bullet into it just as Flash spun his rocket launcher up over his shoulder and fired.
In the next two moments, the bullet knocked into the rifle, and it spun stock first into Sunset's chest, knocking the breath out of her and sending her off course. Luna let Starlight's Tether Hand pull her in, but then kicked off of the cyborg the moment it faded, each bootgun firing into her twice before backflipping into the air and shooting Flash's rocket just as it passed beneath her. Its detonation launched Luna up further, meeting Sunset mid-flight and reclaiming her rifle.
Over the final moment Sunset was batted back down towards the floor, and mid-tumble Luna landed a rifle shot square into Twilight, and before she hit the ground she threw a spinning axe kick into Flash, launching him onto his back and successfully putting all four of them on the ground once more.
As they turned on the ground, lying in their pained, beaten states, Luna shook her head with only disappointment to show.
"Do you not understand?" She asked, to all of them at once. "You are not worthy as my opponents. This is meaningless."
For a few moments, none of them stirred, but then a mound of purple fabric rose from its place on the ground. Twilight stood up, clutching her chest firmly with a hand, and with a strained grunt she pulled a huge rifle round from herself. She'd caught it before it dug too far into her, and dropped to the floor before tiredly drawing her katana once more.
"Stay down, Twilight Sparkle." Luna met her eyes, a quiet hint of hesitation flashing on her face. "I really should be thanking you. Without you, I might never have become whole again."
Twilight kicked into a dash, streaking across the darkened room and colliding with Luna's rifle blade first, finding her guard to be unmovable. Her katana moved back and forth in desperate attempts to strike her, but Luna effortlessly realigned her guard each time, continuing to talk as if nothing was happening.
"I have no ill will towards you, child. Or your friends." As Luna spoke, she parried one of Twilight's attacks, forcing her blade up and coming back with a thrust, cutting off a thin strip of Twilight's coat. "But I cannot delay this any longer. I will not run from what has been set in motion. This is the only way to settle this matter."
"Why?" Twilight asked, backing away from Luna to regain her balance. "Why do you have to put the entire world in danger to settle your rivalry!?"
"It is no mere rivalry..." Luna explained. "My sister locked our powers away in the underworld long ago. The power we once used to defend this world." She glanced down to the amulets. "These two trinkets only hold a fragment of it. They pale in comparison to our true might."
Twilight didn't know what to say. "I- I don't understand..."
"You of all people should," Luna closed her eyes for a moment. "Without power, you cannot protect anything."
Twilight's eyes lit up in comprehension. Luna's drive for power was the same as her own. She wanted to control her fate, the fate of the world, but at what cost? Twilight faced the same question not too long ago. Was the power truly worth it? Maybe she would've before, but after all she had gone through she wasn't willing to risk it. Though she could understand, this was her limit, the point where the ends no longer could justify the means.
With only a second of thought, she gave her response.
"I can't allow you to do this." Twilight readied her sword again, and when her eyes came back up to meet Luna's, she saw the faintest gleam of sadness in her empty expression. "So we too must fight..."
"Then you will die, Twilight Sparkle."
With her eyes opened wide, Twilight leapt forward one last time, charging as much power as she could into her blade and bringing it around to the Sister of Darkness. She felt resistance sooner than she expected, and traded several blows with an opponent who still far outmatched her before finding a bootgun kicking her to the ground.
Without missing a beat, Luna aimed her rifle at the downed Twilight, who could only sit up weakly to meet her barrel with a desperate expression. Before she could fire, someone else called out to her.
"Enough, Luna!"
The voice alone was enough to get Luna's entire attention. In the center of the throne room floor, Celestia stood tall once again, with the Devil Sword ready in both hands. Thanks to Flash's healing injection, her flesh and bones were restored and her strength had returned to her. As she rose to action a soft golden glow of magic enveloped her, and a soft, pure white bodysuit covered her previously bare form. She didn't care about Twilight or these other demon hunters, but Celestia? Celestia was her reason for all.
Her older sister held her head low, genuine concern lingering in her eyes.
"What do you plan to accomplish with all of this?" She asked.
"I only plan to bring our struggle to an end, sister." Luna drew a shallow breath, and her voice shook as she met her sister's burning gaze. It showed very little, but there was some emotional response stirring in her as she confronted her sister.
"You have all the power in the world," Celestia said. "You could end this right now if you wanted."
"You could've ended this a thousand years ago." Luna replied. Her mask of stoicness finally cracked as she added a bitter remark to her statement. "You should've."
"Luna..." Celestia's eyes softened for a bit, realising what she meant. "Please, I don't want to fight."
Luna's gaze fell slightly, and her breathing shook.
Being the closest to her, Twilight noticed a subtle change in Luna's expression. Her lip trembled, and her eyes looked almost gloomy, not intense like they'd been before. This wasn't the vengeful Nightmare Moon, nor was it a desperate Selene. There was something deeply broken within Luna that could only be resolved by confronting her sister. Her reply was not with hatred or anger, but with sheer sorrow.
She blinked, and a single tear rolled from the corner of her eye, dripping down onto a fracturing facade of apathy.
"But we must."
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I was not expecting Luna to return like this, wonder how many chapters are left.
10444937
There will be 30 chapters in total, and maybe an epilogue.
10444955
Thanks, the way you had Luna return was unexpected, but not unwelcome.
10444966
Thank you! Her return was one of the first big reveals I'd planned for the story, it took a bit of literary maneuvering to put my own spin on what I sourced my idea from, and even more build-up to bring it all the way in. It had to all be consistent from the first chapter I wrote her into.
10444973
You're welcome.
How much does it date me that the cover art made me think of Highlander first and foremost?
(Just saw it in featured box)
10445137
Highlander?
Thats an older callback, but it checks out
It might be time for a new cover card lmao
Discord: And so the fight that was delayed a thousand years will finally happen... I wonder who will win?
Sunset: I thought you didn't want this world to become another boring Demon Realm?
Discord: That's what would have happened if it had been Nightmare Moon who opened the gate... but what do you think will happen if the two sisters fight each other at full power in front of the gate?
Sunset: What will happen?
Discord: Oh, that will be spoilers! Now, what are you going to do about this? Will you just let it happen or will you try to claim the power of the Elements?
And so the V equivalent fulfills her role and recombines into...another aspect of Virgil. Got like...two different parts of Virgil here. Twilight and Sunset are like Virgil and Dante from DMC3. Young, fresh, cocky. On equal footing, gaining power at an equal rate. But Celestia and Luna are like DMC5 Dante and Virgil. Older, more experienced and stronger, but tired, resigned to the inevitable. Very curious what Luna's trying to accomplish by this. What will she gain by clashing with Celestia now, or at their full strength? In any case, I really like how it was Selene of all people that actually finished off Nightmare Moon. She was very strong even with her limited power. I wonder what happens to her contracted demons now, though.
10445238
The contract was with Selene not with the Dark Sister. Both Sombra and Discord have their own plans... in fact since Discord joined on his own free will he can probably quit... and the Demon Gate being open will probably give him a lot of power.
nice work.