Love’s a Witch (and a She-Demon, Too)

by RB_

Party//Crashers

Twilight came crashing back into the real world as the harpy’s cry echoed across the gymnasium. The sirens stopped singing their vocals, leaving just the backing music, but it seemed almost parodical compared to the abrupt and jarring silence that had forced itself onto the room. Dancers looked around in confusion, their eyes darting about.

But the silence only lasted a moment.

Then the screams started.

Sunset released her, taking a step back. Around them, students began to mutter and murmur in confusion. Twilight turned in the direction of the screams, scanned the crowd. It was hard to see in the dark, and the flashing colours didn’t help matters. There were gasps and more shouts as something… took to the air?

For a moment, she couldn’t process what she was seeing.

It was human, in shape, though only barely. It rose on tattered wings, with skin the colour of clay and talons like knives. It turned its head to the ceiling and its fangs flashed as it shrieked again, a piercing, animalistic thing.

She took a step back, just on instinct, as more screams rang out around them. The demon—for it could be nothing else—looked down at her then, its eyes like pitch fixing directly on her.

No. Not at her.

Twilight looked to her side, and saw Sunset, staring slack-jawed at the thing, her eyes wide and her pupils like pinpricks. She murmured something—Twilight couldn’t make out what.

The demon’s lips peeled back, revealing its teeth in a fearsome grimace.

“Sunset…?” Twilight said, voice on the verge of panic.

No response.

Instead:

“What the heck is that thing!?” Aria said from on stage, her voice, intentionally or not, being broadcast across the gym by her mic. The demon’s head snapped up.

“Ah crap—”

With a beat of its massive wings, it tore across the room, snarling. It was upon the stage in an instant.

Aria was already running, Sonata not far behind. “I hate this school!” she shouted, before tossing the mic behind her. They joined the throng of people rushing for the exits, pushing and shoving their way into the crowd.

The microphone bounced and rolled across the stage, stopping just by the demon’s foot. With a single stomp, it was reduced to scrap.

The demon had no mind for the fleeing students. Its attention was focused on the equipment. Talons tore into the closest speaker and it was ripped off of its stand in a shower of sparks, then tossed across the room like it was made of paper. Twilight shouted and ducked, throwing her arms up for protection as it sailed over them and cratered into the wooden floor, sending splinters flying. More crashes followed as the demon began to tear into the sound system, at last killing the music with an ear-splitting screech of feedback.

Twilight staggered back to her feet. She looked up; Sunset was still standing, staring, motionless. She grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Sunset, what’s happening!?” Twilight all-but-shrieked, shaking her. “What is that thing?”

Sunset blinked, seeming to finally have come out of her trance.

“I—It’s—it’s me!” she stammered. “It’s me!”

“What?”

“It’s me!” she repeated, stammering. “Back before I met you, before I was friends with the girls—when I stole the Equestrian Element of Magic, it turned me into that!”

She flung her hand out, pointing in the direction of the stage. “That’s my demon!”

Twilight followed her gesture. That was Sunset? She could see the resemblance, but—

“How?”

“I have no idea! But we need to—to—oh Celestia no.”

Sunset cut off. At the same time, and just as abruptly, the demon’s path of destruction stopped. It turned around slowly, and snarled at something behind Twilight that she couldn’t see, the same thing that Sunset was now staring at.

Twilight turned around, slowly.

Her eyes grew wide.

“No…”

“Nononononono…”

She floated there, over the heads of those few students who hadn’t already made it out of the gym. Her hair swayed and twisted in an otherworldly wind. A pair of raven’s wings stretched from her back, and her eyes and palms glowed with electric-blue fire.

For the first time, Twilight Sparkle came face-to-face with her own doppelgänger. Oh, she’d seen the photos, and the videos; it had seemed, at the time, that there had been no end to them. But this was different.

This was very different.

“M-Midnight,” she whispered, voice suddenly hoarse.

Midnight Sparkle seemed to pay her counterpart no heed; her gaze was like steel, and it was focused solely on the demon perched on the stage.

Sunset’s demon shrieked. Midnight’s palms grew brighter. Ozone and woodsmoke mingled in the air. Above them, the lights popped and burst, sending shards of glass falling down like rain. It was a small miracle that no one was near enough to get hurt.

The world seemed to hold still for a moment.

And then…

And then all hell broke loose.

Midnight flew forwards, with a single beat of her wings. Sunset’s demon leapt up to meet her, snarling, talons outstretched, and they met in midair. There was a brief clash, and then Midnight was thrown into the stage, skidding into the still-sparking electrical equipment. The demon wasn’t far behind, and its claws tore through the stage like paper.

It was at this point that the other girls appeared behind Sunset and Twilight.

“I think we found your vandals!” Pinkie shouted, as a crash sounded from the direction of the stage.

“Midnight and demon Sunset!?” Rainbow said. Even she looked worried. “What the heck is going on?”

“I—I have no idea!” Sunset stammered.

“How can they be here if you’re both here?”

“I don’t know!”

Rarity, meanwhile, had gone to Twilight. “Darling, are you okay?”

“No,” Twilight said. Her heart felt like it was going to burst, it was hammering so hard in her chest. “I don’t—”

“Look out!” Fluttershy shrieked, ducking behind her hands. Twilight’s gaze darted to her right, just in time to see the spotlight that was sailing towards her head. She screamed, but—

It bounced harmlessly off of one of Rarity’s diamond constructs. Rarity herself let her hand drop from her pendant and let out a sigh of relief as the shield dissipated. A second slower…

“Alright,” Applejack said. “Sunset, Twilight, I don’t know why your evil sides are back, but we can’t let ‘em keep tearing apart the school!”

“AJ’s right!” Rainbow said. “Let’s blast ‘em!”

“Right!”

One by one, they joined hands. Sunset’s wrapped around Twilight’s left, a little tighter than Rarity’s on her right.

She felt a now-familiar calm flow through her, and she reached deep down inside herself for that little pocket of magic she’d discovered at Camp Everfree. The one she’d secretly wondered if it had always been there, or if it had only shown up after she’d met Sunset. Her pendant began to glow, as did Sunset’s, as did Rarity’s, and, as they lifted into the air, she was filled with the overwhelming sensation that everything was going to be alright.

And then that little pocket of magic flickered.

And it sputtered.

And it died.

Twilight’s eyes flew open as her feet touched the ground once more. She glanced to her sides, and saw the others were just as confused as she was.

“What!?” Sunset was the first to speak. “No!”

“The Elements have never done that before!” Pinkie said. “What gives, Sunset!?”

“I—I don’t—”

“I don’t think she liked that!” Applejack shouted.

Twilight looked behind her—and froze, as she locked eyes with her counterpart.

She looked furious.

She was also flying this way.

“Crap!” Rainbow shouted. “Scatter!”

This time, it was Twilight who grabbed Sunset’s hand and pulled her away as Midnight approached, her palms beginning once more to glow—before Sunset’s demon flew into her, tackling her from behind and sending both of them skidding across the gym’s floor.

Twilight only spared a glance over her shoulder at this. She was too busy running, making a mad dash for the gym doors—until her feet lifted off the ground.

“What—”

It wasn’t just her. Everything in the gym that wasn’t nailed down—and a few things that should have been—had begun to levitate several meters into the air under Midnight’s power.

The doors out of the gym slammed shut.

“Twilight!” Sunset shouted. “Your pendant!”

It took her just a second to understand what Sunset meant. Her hand went to the crystal at her neck, and she willed the magic inside to push them back to the ground. At least that worked; she and her friends dropped safely, just before they would have hit the ceiling. Just in time, too, as the demon raked its claws over Midnight’s chest, sending everything in the gym crashing back to the ground. Glass shattered, metal twisted, and Twilight kept running.

“There!”

Sunset was pointing towards the upturned refreshments table, which had fallen on its side in the confusion, sending its contents spilling across the floor.

They hooked left and ducked behind the upturned table like runners sliding home. Safe!

…ish.

Sunset gasped for breath, Twilight right there with her, pressing her back against their makeshift shield. The sounds of the fight raged on out of view behind them.

Twilight peeked out around the side of the table. From here, it looked like everyone was okay—the others had split into two groups, one taking cover behind more of Rarity’s constructs, the others trying to get the far doors open. It didn’t look like they were having much success.

She ducked back quickly, just fast enough for a string of lights to whip through where her head had been and smash into the wall across from them. On the plus side, she now had conclusive evidence that the phrase ‘her life flashed before her eyes’ was complete crock, as it most assuredly would have just then.

“Why didn’t our elements work?” Sunset was saying. “The elements always work! …Except against the Sirens. But—”

“Why didn’t they work against the Sirens?” Twilight asked.

“Because we needed music, and because I wasn’t… there…” Her eyes widened. “Maybe… maybe if we weren’t all in sync…”

And then it all clicked.

“It’s us,” Twilight gasped. “Sunset, it’s us!”

“What do you mean it’s us?”

“We’re the ones who are out of sync!” She nodded towards the table. “And them! That’s us, too! It’s all been us, this whole time!”

“What are you talking about?” Sunset asked. “How can it be us?”

Twilight grit her teeth.

Her hands curled into fists.

“Sunset,” she said, slowly, forcing the words out. They hurt to have to say.

“We need to talk about our relationship.”

Comments

[Lurks-no-More]

Here I was thinking it was one or the other, but it's both!

[PresentPerfect]

Did not see that coming!

Silly romantic ending: Midnight Sparkle and Demon Shimmer give up their life of crime and start dating

Funny romantic ending: Twilight and Sunset break up and start dating each other's demon

Cracky romantic ending: Twilight and Sunset break up and start dating their own demon XD

[Tania tokustar]

9848034
The last one would be incest or mastubating?