A Tale for the Innocent

She hit the ground with a heavy thud. A cackle from her attacker caused her head to snap upwards and her eyes to narrow in anger. A snarl formed on her lips and she slowly got to her hooves in defiance of the demon.

She charged at it and lunged with a front hoof only to be easily batted away. A grunt escaped her lips as she landed on her hooves away from the demon. Her horn glowed and a beam of raw energy shot out at the demon.

It put up a hand and easily stopped the attack with a glowing red magical barrier. In return, several magical spears appeared next to its head and shot toward her. She frantically put up a shield and attempted to stop them from hitting her body.

The first two cracked the shield, sending a spiderweb of lines across the magical projection. The third shattered it completely and embedded itself into her shoulder, spraying blood across the ground. She gasped and clutched her shoulder in pain.

“You think that you have any chance against me pony?” it cackled viciously, a leer obvious in its tone “If I didn’t have so much fun toying with you, I would have killed you by now.” Another blast of energy from the demon sent her sprawling across the cratered ground and she slid painfully to a stop.

With shaking hooves, she once again stood up and stared the demon down, “Is that all you’ve got?” she yelled at it, her hoarse voice barely rising above the howling wind “Or are you powerless to defeat me!?”

The demon snarled angrily at her insult and immobilized her with his magic. A flick of a clawed hand sent her flying toward it only to be stopped a few inches from its sawtoothed sneer. “I’ll show you power!” it yelled, sending her flying into the air, and bringing her forcefully down into the dirt.

She grunted from the impact, rolled over, and hopped up, sending another beam of energy flying to the demon, but this time, it met her with its own beam. The mare grunted in strain as the demon’s magic quickly overpowered hers and its beam shot towards her horn.

She felt an excruciating pain as its energy beam made contact with her horn, causing it to violently explode. Horn pieces flew everywhere and raw mana spurted from the stub. She cried out and grasped at her now hornless head as the demon prepared his next attack.

It lifted its hands above its head, creating three glowing balls of red energy. Without giving her time to recover, it launched these orbs at her prone form.

Realizing too late that she was in danger she leapt out of the way of the first orb and clipped a hind leg on the second one, leaving the third one to blindside her and send her flying again. A yelp of pain escaped her lips as she felt several bones in her body shatter.

The demon stood imposingly over her body as she struggled to get to her hooves. As she gruelingly stood up once more and looked defiantly at the demon, she saw confusion spark in its eyes.

“Why?” it said angrily, “Why do you continue? I’ve destroyed your friends, your family. I’ve broken your body, and yet, your spirit remains.” The demon grabbed her with its bare hands and slammed her through a magical barrier, once more sending her across the ground. “Tell me pony! Why?” it shouted.

She attempted to get to her feet, but found that she could not. She leaned her body on a nearby rock and gave the demon a sad smile. “You don’t get it do you?” she asked it, laughing ever so slightly “I don’t give up because I can’t give up.” A spark twinkled in her eyes, realization hitting her “If I allow you to get past me, you’ll destroy them all. Not just my friends, but all of Equestria. You won’t be satisfied until you've consumed all the light from this plane and you're alone in the darkness.”

The demon growled, moving to finish the mare but stopped as a chill ran down its spine and a flash of light emitted from the pony.

A glow began to overtake her body, and she stood up on unbroken legs. “I… finally understand why I exist, what my purpose is.” her head tilted up and she stared at it with her now white eyes. “I was born to protect the weak… to defend the just… To stop things like YOU from taking the light away from this world.”

The demon began to shiver, a feeling of dread overtaking it, and suddenly it began to feel the weight of it's sins slowly crushing it.

The brightly glowing pony began to walk toward the demon, her hooves leaving wisps of smoke as she lifted them. “I’ve found my purpose, I’m content with my being, and I’m ready to find out just how far down the well goes.” Her shattered horn reformed and flashed with immense power “The energy of the universe is at my disposal, I can feel it calling to me… I can feel them calling to me…”

She stopped in front of the now cowering demon and scowled down at it, “I am the gavel of the stars, the voice of the mute, the strength of the weak… The avenger of the innocent…”

The demon suddenly snarled and unleashed a beam of energy directly at the pony, only to gasp as it split around her. it poured it's entire essence into the attack but to no avail. The mare calmly walked through the deadly energy and grabbed it's hands with a hoof, cutting of the immensely powerful attack.

She twisted and forced the demon down to her eye level. “I am Harmony Spear, and you…” His pleading eyes reflected a horn that rivaled the brightness of suns.

“Have been judged.”

A white light filled the air.