Sun Never Sets 2: Fires of Friendship

IUSSU ORDINIS LUCIS
MANDATUM AD AGENDUM

DECREE OF ACTION FROM THE HOLY COUNCIL OF CRYSTAL CITY

ADDRESSED TO CAPTAIN CAVALIERE SPARKLE, HEAD PALADIN, SANCTI MILITES

It has come to our attention that an otherwise insignificant cult calling themselves the "Nocturna Convent" have taken interest in acquiring a dangerous artifact. They have assembled multiple pieces of the Devil Sword wielded by the Sister of Darkness, our eternal enemy, in their headquarters located in the hidden village of Hollow Shades. Their intent is obvious: to reassemble the sword and use its power to their own ends.

These heathens worship the Sister of Darkness, and are to be considered an enemy unless they demonstrate willingness to fully cooperate with the Order.

Looking to intercept them is a far greater trespasser- the Platinum Knight, one who has falsely claimed the title of our Sister of Light in the past. She and her agents have been confirmed to have raided several remote locations in the past few months in search of the pieces of the same sword.

You are tasked with sending a single of your holy knights to infiltrate their headquarters and extract the fragments of the Dark Devil Sword, before the Nocturna can complete their plans to reassemble it. Then, the Platinum Knight must be eliminated, alongside any following threats she may pose.

We already know who you will be choosing for this mission. You have already been authorized to employ a Freefall Jet for a high-altitude insertion. Her pet may also be allowed to come with her, so long as it remains unarmed.

This is a matter we expect to be handled swiftly and succinctly. You have one week to take action.

PER REGIMEN AMORIS ET LUCIS

HIGH PRIESTESS AMORE IX

[Solar Sea, West of Mt. Eclipse]
[Friday, 7:00am]

"How is it, Starlight?"

"So far, so good..."

Starlight Glimmer looked down on the world through a camera feed, speeding across a cover of clouds through a dark sky at faster speeds than she was really comfortable with. Surrounding her was a total metal encasing, she lay prone in the belly of a small jet aircraft soaring above the clouds, a sealed steel visor in front of her face projecting an image of her surroundings from the jet's external camera systems directly into her eyes, making her feel as if she was flying uninhibited.

Of course, she was completely constrained to the jet's set course, operated by her commanding officer a thousand miles away at the Order of Light's HQ in Crystal City.

"Captain, I'm getting some weird weather readings from the Freefall Jet's display. This area isn't due for inclement weather, is it?" Starlight asked.

"Looks like there might be a storm on Sunday, but the region is supposed to be clear on the days leading up to that. You shouldn't be there that long."

Said commander, Captain Cavaliere Sparkle, more often called "Shining Armor", spoke to her through the jet's radio systems, and would be monitoring her mission. He was her direct superior, and the head of all of the Order's holy knights. In recent years, Starlight worked quite closely with him in matters of artifact retrieval and covert neutralization of powerful demons, her skillset developing from that of a general soldier to a specialized infiltrator. A portrait of his stern face and short, cobalt hair lingered in the corner of her visor's display as he spoke.

"Remember, Starlight, the main purpose of this mission is to retrieve whatever pieces of the Dark Devil Sword they have. Defeating the Platinum Knight is a secondary objective, if she can't get the sword, we can consider her a non-threat."

"Got it."

A higher pitched and more concerned voice came over the radio feed, following the portrait of a younger man with rounded glasses and a hair and beard of frazzled reddish-orange. "How's our readback, Starlight?"

"Crisp and clear," Starlight reported. "I read you five by five, Sunburst."

"And your body is still feeling alright?"

Sunburst was a talented arcane engineer in the Order's employ. He and Starlight were childhood friends that had grown apart, but after a fateful and nearly lethal injury Starlight would be brought to him, and he would reconstruct most of her body with cybernetics. Indeed, Starlight's body was mostly mechanical, a powerful, magically and technologically advanced metal frame that kept her heart beating, as well as supported the few remaining flesh-and-blood pieces of her. All that remained of her original body was her head, neck, left shoulder, and arm, a prominent reminder that she was still mortal. Sunburst always did his best to support Starlight when he could- almost obsessively performing maintenance checks on her body, upgrading and improving small aspects of her, like comfort and ease of motion, and of course providing emotional support as a friend.

"The new G4 nanites I gave you before you left should provide you with a link to the Freefall's radio systems once you're on the ground," Sunburst said, "So you'll always have a radio link to us as long as you have a clear line of sight to the sky."

Right, the nanites. They were a new hybrid technology that met halfway between magic and machinery, tiny machines that interacted with organic, living materials to produce a handful of effects. In Starlight's case, these extended the range of a radio system implanted into her ear.

"Hopefully they work..." Starlight muttered. She wasn't completely sold on the concept.

"Your new power cells haven't had any problems either, have they?" Sunburst asked. Even this close to her starting her mission, he was still worrying over every last thing...

"Yeah, they're good," Starlight reassured him.

"Remember, these new power cells are taking full advantage of your own unusual biology," Sunburst said.

It wouldn't be something Starlight Glimmer realized until many years after her reconstruction that the only reason she was even still alive is because her body had an incredibly powerful natural magic about it. Even with as little organic body she still had, her machine parts and neural controls to those parts were powered almost exclusively by the magic emitted by her natural body. It wasn't magic she could access anymore, the reconstructive surgery severed her ability to actively use it, but it still was the key that made making her into a cyborg possible. The power cells integrated into her were vital as well, of course, without them she could easily exhaust her body's magic if she overworked herself, which had led to her passing out in the past, and power limiters were put in place to further ensure that wouldn't happen.

"Some kind of hybrid cell, you said?" Starlight asked.

"That's right, they'll slowly recharge over time off of your natural magic field, but you can also recharge them by absorbing anything magical you come into contact with."

"Given that these cultists work with demons, I'd imagine I'll have plenty of opportunities to do that." Starlight said.

One more change of portraits appeared in the corner of Starlight's vision. A smiling woman with a swirl of purple-ish hair with a gold streak running through it. Her voice was more reassuring than Sunburst's worrying tone.

"Remember that this is an infiltration mission, Starlight. Your job is to not be seen if possible. If you do this right, you shouldn't have to recharge yourself that much at all."

This was Inquisitor Cadenza, and she acted as her intelligence specialist. Kindhearted as she was, she was known amongst the Order for her interrogation techniques, and on several occasions had turned several enemies of their organization into trusted allies. Her methods were obscured to most, the majority of other Order members hypothesized her methods of getting information from others were either ruthless and psychopathic, or that she was just so damn likable that even the most hardened types would open up to her. No in betweens.

As an Inquisitor, her duties also lied in the surveying of regions and identification of any magical or otherworldly entities that might reside there. It was she who was remotely piloting the Freefall Jet to the area of operation. Once Starlight had deployed, she'd take it to an orbital altitude and use its imaging systems to support her mission further.

Starlight nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, ma'am."

"Oh, please, you can call me Cadence, Starlight. We've worked together enough times by now."

"Sorry, Cadence." Starlight smiled a bit beneath her visor. She really was a sweet person, it was a testament to her character that she remained as nice as she was in a job that often demanded a cold heart. "Just like to treat the Inquisition with respect, that's all."

"You shouldn't have to worry about formalities right now, Starlight," Cadence said. "I'm not just here to provide you with intel, but psychological support as well. If you encounter anything that troubles you or disrupts your focus, I want you to call in and talk to me about it, okay?"

"Hey, it's not like I'm not ready for this," Starlight said. "I'm mentally sound."

"Yes, but stress doesn't care how mentally prepared you are. Especially since you're going to be alone out there..."

"Not completely alone," Starlight said. She knocked on the flat metal directly above her, signaling to the other passenger riding along on the jet. "Spike? You awake?"

"Uh... Huh?" A synthesized voice stirred around above her, a medium tone with a persistent growl behind it. Spike was, put shortly, a large robot dog built by Starlight's mentor as a pet and demon hunting companion. He was outfitted with a heavy, magic resistant frame, powerful jaws and had a cool pattern of pointed ridges running along his back. At one point he even had a sword on his tail, but it was removed and refitted with a prehensile cable tail. His AI was advanced and extremely intelligent, but he only had the emotional experience of a teenager, and so Starlight kept track of him as a guardian and friend. More often than not, he'd end up being her guardian, as he acted as an in field recon unit.

"You'll keep me company out there, right Spike?"

"Yeah, of course, Starlight!" Spike's enthusiasm to help Starlight was much appreciated as well. He was programmed to be an assistant, but as he developed further from his original programming he seemed to find that helping others was something he genuinely enjoyed doing. "I'm with you all the way."

A beam of light passed up over the cloud layer as the sky began to brighten in color. Dark surroundings slowly made way to a blue morning sky.

"Sunrise," Starlight reported. They were nearly at their destination.

"You're five kilometers away from your target zone," Cadence reported, "You'll be dropped off the coast of the Solar Sea to the southwest of Mt. Eclipse. Try not to land in the water, okay?"

"You've got an external battery pack in the Freefall with you," Sunburst added. "You'll want to constantly be firing your pulse-boosters to control your fall."

"Spike isn't going to need one is he?" Starlight had been loaded into the craft first, she wasn't sure how Spike had been equipped when loaded.

"Spike has a pair of disposable booster wings," Shining Armor explained.

"Wings? Why don't I get wings?" Starlight asked. "That sounds cool, I want wings!"

"She says, actively riding in a supersonic aircraft..." Cadence shook her head and smiled. "Hang on Starlight, I'm taking you lower."

The craft tilted forward, pushing through the clouds until a sea was visible beneath her. A vast, snow capped mountain was the first visible thing, the landmass it dominated being surrounded by a sea on both sides before widening out into a larger mainland. Hollow Shades was somewhere in the dense, sprawling forest at the base of Mt. Eclipse, but Starlight couldn't see anything resembling human structures as she neared the earth.

"Alright, Starlight," Cadence began, "We're going to dip down, then pull up then launch you in an upwards arc to the LZ. You want to hit the sand on the beach, it'll be the softest spot."

Shining Armor followed up with a mission recap. "Once you're on the ground, make your way through the forest to Hollow Shades. It's a secluded forest village, so you shouldn't need to worry about attracting too much attention until you've encountered the Nocturna. Once you've completed your mission, the Freefall will land back at the beach to take you home."

"Got it."

"Recovery of the sword is crucial. If it falls into the wrong hands, we could be looking at another Canterlot City Incident."

That wasn't a pleasant thought for any of them.

Cadence continued with a report. "Reaching deployment level in five... four... three... two..."

The bottom of the jet opened up, two mechanical arms lowering the prone Starlight and a folded up Spike beneath the sleek, triangular craft. Now outside of it, Starlight had an even better sense of just how fast they were going, and then a sudden lurching in her non-existent stomach as the craft dipped down. Disconnected from the jet's camera system, the visor completely covering her face instead gave her a view of what was directly in front of her, essentially giving her just as good of a visual awareness as her eyes could.

Each of her support team then all spoke their final gestures in unison, all broadcasting at once.

"Good luck, Starlight."

With the beachfront just barely visible in the distance, the jet, at that point tilted downwards, suddenly whipped its nose up, and the arms holding Starlight and Spike in place released them at the perfect moment. Starlight's medium cut length of violet and teal highlighted hair streaked behind her head elegantly as she shot through the sky, arms tight to her body and chin pointed forward. The long metal scabbard containing her weapon was held firmly to her back via a magnetic system. Her denim coat flapped in the turbulence she created, but otherwise clung tight to her as she ascended higher, higher, then spun into a front flip while engaging the impulse boosters built into her torso. Bright teal lights glimmered brightly all across her body, and the external battery around her waist began signaling it was close to being depleted by the time she felt the ground rushing up to meet her. The boosters stabilized her aerial motions though, and she careened into a perfect somersault at the end of her flip, crashing perfectly down into the sand on all fours with little in way of felt impact.

Her metal feet sunk into the sand, sending the shallow water around her up into the air into a million tiny droplets that soaked only the bottom of her gray tactical pants. The tail of her coat flowed perfectly as she rose to a stand, the droplets of water reflecting the rising sun to her back in a faint ring of rainbow around her. She unclipped the spent battery from her belt and unhooked it from the power slot on her back, letting it fall to the sand, no longer needed. The scabbard on her back shifted, the magnetic locks deactivating, rotating, and guiding the weapon to a more natural place resting on her hip.

Spike's landing was only a moment after her, two metal wings unfolding and guiding the mechanized canine to the ground to a similarly epic splash landing, after which his wings detached themselves and fell to the wayside.

Standing and now fully oriented, Starlight's visor unsealed, splitting into two halves and separating to either side of her neck, revealing two blue eyes that were ready to commence the mission.

The Freefall Jet was already a black dot heading far up into the sky above her.

"Let's do this," Starlight said. Spike was stretching out his legs and tail on the sand, his matte purple and green trimmed frame reflecting minimal light in the morning sun.

"Ready to go!" Spike said.

She took her first steps forward, surveying the beach. It was short, not a lot of space to it, and didn't seem to be very populated at the moment. Very impressive that Cadence was able to shoot her directly onto the spot. With that in mind, Starlight put a finger beneath her ear, activating her internal communications system and attempting to get in touch with Shining Armor.

"This is Starlight. I'm on the ground, making my way to the target now."

"Excellent, Starlight," Shining Armor said, "We're reading you perfectly on our end. We'll monitor your mission as you go, but feel free to call us when you need support."

"Will do. Starlight, out."

With that, she and Spike made their way up the beach and into the thick woods ahead. Spike went first, following a trail for a few minutes but ultimately deciding that an alternative path through the trees would be better, and Starlight was reluctantly left to follow him and only him as he navigated what seemed like an endless mass of woods.

"You sure about this, Spike?" Starlight asked.

"I have a feeling about this Starlight, just trust me," Spike replied, "We'll be spotted right away if we just go in through the main area."

"How far out are we?"

"Three kilometers."

"Spike, that's like a half hour of walking away, who's even gonna see us?"

She immediately regretted asking that question, as the moment she did, a pair of footsteps and voices were audible in the distance. Starlight instantly dove into the treeline, away form the gravel path, and laid herself in a bush next to Spike, who was looking at her with both of the protective lens covers over his optics half deployed- his version of giving her an 'I told you so' look.

They kept absolutely still, watching as two robed figures passed them, both carrying long, wooden stocked repeating rifles and talking to each other about the noise they'd heard. The figures seemed already on alert, like they were expecting an intruder. The Freefall was a stealth aircraft, it would've been hard to detect in any fashion until they managed to catch a glimpse of it overhead, but that also would've been hard given how thick these trees were. Once the two figures were passed, Spike and Starlight instead turned and headed deeper into the unmarked parts of the forest.

Spike guided her on, past brushes and grass patches and tall, light blocking trees. Even when unfolded, Starlight's visor still provided her with a directional compass and a visual indicator of where Spike or any other designated allies were. It could augment her vision as well, such as in the current low light environment, allowing her to see normally in most areas.

A soft wind blew through the trees, a sensation that tickled Starlight's left hand. In addition to her eyesight, her other senses were all also very finely tuned. Her hearing could pick up the rustling of leaves and gentle swaying of grass around her and of soft pops of gunfire in the distance. She smelled a fresh, crisp autumn scent from the nature around her, as well as the faint residue of metallic magic...

Gunfire? Magic?

"Spike, hold up," Starlight said. "I hear fighting somewhere."

It wasn't far, just up ahead the two came to a wide break in the forest, they were atop a hill looking down a small village scene, where several more of the armed figures fired rifles at a strange mechanical creature. Before she could question it, she heard a soft beeping on the inside of her ear. Her radio was buzzing.

"Starlight," Shining Armor said, "There's one other thing about your mission that you should know about..."

"What?" Starlight asked. "I went over all the briefing files before I left, I don't think-"

"It's not in the briefing files. It's not about the mission itself, or anything the Order is asking you to do..." Shining Armor paused, making sure he had Starlight's complete attention before he continued. "It's about Trixie."

Starlight let out a breath, and nodded. She ducked her head back into the treeline and listened intently. Trixie was Starlight's best friend, one who normally went out on missions with her and Sunburst, but she'd left to go visit family some six months ago, and since then, she hadn't been heard from. Starlight couldn't contact her, and it had begun to seem like something was wrong. It was something Starlight worried about constantly when she wasn't out on a mission, why was Shining Armor bringing her up now?

"We have intel from this month that suggested that Trixie was seen near Hollow Shades," Shining Armor said. "Given what we know about the cult and its recent activities, it's more than likely that she was abducted by them at some point."

"What?!?" Starlight had to work to keep herself from shouting. "You mean Trixie is being held captive by these guys?!? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because we couldn't completely confirm it," Shining Armor said. "I thought you should know, now that you're there. It's off-the-records, not anything officially mandated, but you have a chance to rescue her if she's there. Just... make sure it doesn't compromise your primary mission."

"Yeah, I won't," Starlight rolled her eyes. "She's only my best friend."

Cadence's voice and portrait made themselves present over Shining Armor's. "It's understandable that you care about her, Starlight. If it's too dangerous to rescue her, we can send another strike team in just for her after you've finished this mission. You can even lead it if you want."

"Wait... You can authorize that?" Starlight asked.

"The Inquisition has a lot of autonomy. I can make it happen, just for you."

"Stay focused on your mission, Starlight," Shining Armor said, "And keep an eye out for Trixie if you can."

The call ended there.

Starlight turned her attention back to the small fight that was happening in the village. The robed people seemed to have successfully destroyed the mechanical creature attacking them. Unfortunately, Starlight didn't get that good of a look at it, and now it was a mashed up pile of metal being dragged off by the villagers.

"Starlight." Spike spoke to her as the two crept quietly along the treeline, getting closer to what seemed like a proper town. "There's a tall stone building with a bell tower nearby, it looks like a religious building. That's where the Nocturna would keep their magical artifacts, for sure."

Starlight could see the top of the building Spike was talking about over the treeline, just barely, but it was across the clearing, and past another patch of forest.

"Think we can make it? We've gotta clear past those guys down there..."

"Looks like they're members of the cult," Spike said. "And they're not friendly with robots..."

"Why are there even other robots attacking them here?"

As if on cue, two more machines of a dark metal color with red trims jumped from the treeline across, and Starlight got a better look at them. They were humanoid, standing on two legs with two arms, but had slightly hunched postures. Their arms ended in sharp metal claws, four digits on the end of each hand, and their backs extended into sharp, bladed tails. Very short appendages on their backs resembled blades, or wings, but they were far too short to be of practical use.

There were weird machine-lizard things, they moved in a surreal, too-human way. One lifted its arm, and began firing a wrist mounted cannon at the Nocturna cultists, sending them scattering. Armed with only old-school repeaters and taken by surprise, the cultists scrambled about, unable to properly fight back against their technologically superior attackers.

But as they fled, there was a flash of blue for a moment, and another, far faster figure appeared to aid the cultists. She was clothed in all black, just like them, but wore a far more form-fitting outfit and with a cape flowing behind her. She held a sword in one hand, expertly twirling it and deflecting the shots from the machine's weapons as the other cultists fled behind her. Another of these caped women appeared, shooting up the machines with a pair of revolvers and running past them.

These much more nimble fighters jumped and spun about, taking the machines' attention away, forcing them to chase them away from their chapel building.

"Someone else is here for their goods," Starlight concluded.

"Looks like we've got an opening to move, let's go!"

When the machines and the cultists were both out of sight, Starlight and Spike quickly leapt from their cover, running from building to building but finding each one strangely abandoned. These were homes, all empty during whatever attack was happening here.

Starlight wasn't quick enough to evade sight, though. An explosion blasted right in front of her as she made for the treeline across, cutting her off and forcing her into an evasive flip. Behind her, back towards the trail leading out to the beach, both of the machines had returned and were now targeting her. Spike had already made it to cover, but she was now forced into a fight.

The two machines fired their wrist cannons at her, then leaped in closer with some jet propulsion from the protrusions on their backs. They stayed close together, moving in synchronicity as Starlight evaded and recentered herself.

"Keep going, Spike," Starlight said. "I'll take these two out quickly."

BLASTER- Mechadragon Soldiers: The machines had many rows of developed optical sensors mounted on their heads, their angled faces providing them with a wide range of vision around them while also providing slanted surfaces to keep the armor hard to penetrate. Red dots within each sensor lens swirled and scanned about before all focusing forward on Starlight. She'd never seen mechs like these before, but they were clearly built for fast and close range engagements. As they locked onto her, metal visors closed up over their heads, fully protecting their sensors.

The metal scabbard hanging at Starlight's hip had two separate handles protruding from it, two separate weapons she kept within it. In her left hand, Starlight took the longer of the two and pulled, shifting her hip back and revealing a straight-edged, razor thin weapon that crackled and pulsed in time with her body's power cells. The sunlight struck its blade but it did not reflect, instead, it seemed to absorb the light and glow in the color of Starlight's realm magic of its own accord.

HR-LS "Remark": The weapon twirled in her left hand, her natural, human hand being the one more comfortable to fight with. It was a "high-resonance longsword", an ultra sharp weapon with a blade edge measuring only a few nanometers, featuring a short but lightweight crossguard and made of both high-tech and holy materials through the Order of Light's most advanced production techniques. The end product was a compact, vibrating blade of blessed alloys capable of separating matter on a sub-atomic and spiritual level; be it against man, machine, or demon, this weapon was more than capable of making the cut. In addition, it could conduct the arcane energies required to power Starlight's body right down to its hilt, giving it its pulsing and vibrant qualities.

"Hey there, boys," Starlight lifted her eyes and shot her opponents a grin, despite them lacking facial expressions to return the sentiment. The two machine dragons only prowled closer, bodies tensing up as they closed in for the kill. "Good day for a walk in the woods, huh?"

Starlight's own protective visor closed around her face as she brought her sword into a forward ready position. Her right, mechanical hand closed around it for support, and she bent her knees gently.

The first dragon dashed directly towards her, hopping with a short motion and swiping one of its claws in a downward motion. Starlight was already gone, sidestepping the attack and ripping down with her sword, slashing straight into the machine's shoulder once before circling around to attack again. The dragon tumbled forward, hastily trying to evade the cyborg now suddenly behind her, but still taking a swipe to the back as it recovered.

The second dragon took advantage of Starlight turning her back to it, stabbing a claw straight forward in an attempt to grab at her. Still following her sidestepping momentum, Starlight leaned hard to the side and held her blade vertical across her back, rotating her core and pushing the oncoming claw away from her as she turned to face her other opponent.

Starlight didn't let it process her move, she went straight into another set of sword strikes, carving a deep X shape into its chest with two swift cuts before it finally was able to deflect her sword off its arm. Rather than pull back, Starlight followed through with the dragon pushing her away, letting her sword spin and get thrown into the air above her. From there, she pivoted on one foot and snapped straight into a back kick that caught flat against the handle of her sword, locking into place against a groove in her heel and driving the point forward right into the machine's neck.

Heavy, lumbering stomps came from behind her, and Starlight reached to her scabbard again, drawing out the other weapon in her left hand while still holding her sword with one foot and balancing on the other.

RV-.600NX "Equilibrium": This weapon was a massive framed revolver made specifically for Starlight, firing giant bullets that could easily overpenetrate the sturdiest of mortal targets. Six shots, double action, and with an immensely heavy trigger, Starlight had gone her entire career in the Order with this weapon by her side. Despite her role shifting to infiltration, she refused to go anywhere without her "Giant Pissoff Monster Killing Gun". Like her sword, it too was built to channel her body's energy, allowing her shots to be given even more power and penetration ability.

The revolver twirled expertly in her hand as she leaned with it, held it behind her back, and pulled the trigger on the approaching dragon.

BANG! BANG!

Two shots ripped through the machine's belly, and Starlight leaned in further.

BANG!

Arm still behind her back, and her foot still keeping her sword in place, she fired straight into the dragon's visor, cracking and splitting the metal case open. She then dropped her extended leg to the side and put her other hand to the floor, sweeping her sword across her body by her foot, and slicing it straight into the stunned dragon's exposed face.

The machine seemed to writhe with a surprising amount of lifelike pain, letting out a distorted howl as what were effectively its eyes were sliced into. The dragon behind her did as well, its entire head coming loose as the sword was ripped from it. Starlight felt a wetness splash into her eyes as she worked her sword through the two machines more, accentuating each string of slashes with a shot from her revolver.

A dark red, crystalline liquid seemed to ooze from the machines as she tore them open, and as the liquid got on her blade Starlight felt an odd sensation. Cutting into these machines felt the same as cutting into a magical creature, this fluid within them sparked with some form of magical energy. What little power she was exerting to destroy them was easily replenished by the very act of destroying them.

Starlight returned her revolver to its holster and caught her sword in her hand as she let both of her feet take place on the ground once more. With one cut up and reeling mechadragon in front of her, Starlight focused, lined up her blade, and charging her power into it sliced the machine cleanly into two halves along the torso.

As she focused, she went into a state of slowed time, what she called her "Bullet Reflex", the surge of energy overclocking her body and allowing her perception and movements to act with hyper speed and precision. Curious, she held her focus as the two metal halves of the dragon came apart, and as she did she spotted the source of the red crystally liquid within the machine. A pulsating fibrous core lay in the machine's body, much like a human heart, though it was likely enhancing these machines and their combat capabilities.

Her Reflex still active, Starlight reached out with her right hand and punched into the machine's body, pulling the core all the way free and ripping it from its place. Her metal fingers caused the core to wither and dull, its electrified juice spilling onto her and being absorbed into her body.

Time resumed, and she turned just in time to see the other dragon behind her raising its claw back to knock her block off. With a similar motion Starlight swung her sword up and around, but this time reached out with her own metal appendage, her newly absorbed energy going directly to power it up.

C001- "Tetherhand": Starlight's metal arm was a weapon on its own, and not just a striking tool. As she focused her energy through it, it began to light up and glow, then a teal projection of a hand shot out from above her forearm. The projection was a much larger and further reaching utility, the Tetherhand shooting out and interrupting the dragon in the middle of its attack with a punch without requiring Starlight to make contact.

The dragon stumbled and was an easy finisher for Starlight, who split it open just like the other and yanked out its core. As it fell to pieces on the ground, Starlight hesitated in taking in the core's power as she looked over it. She put her sword away, and tapped into her radio system.

"Hey, Sunburst, do you know what kind of power unit this is?" Starlight asked. Her system was sending her visor's visual input directly back to their HQ, so her team was getting just as good of a look at the component as she was.

"Hmm," Sunburst mused. "No, I don't. It looks like it's an attempt to replicate living organs with inorganic materials."

"It's got weird magical robot juice in it," Starlight offered. "And it's compatible with my systems."

"That really is interesting," Sunburst said. "I don't know who would be able to create those kinds of machines though, they look like advanced versions of the old CANIS and ANUBIS mechs used by different government agencies, but they don't match any models I've seen before. Did they have any other fake organs in them?"

"Dunno," Starlight said. "This was what stood out to me, and-"

As she spoke, the core begin to quickly wilt, its fluids again spilling out onto both her and the floor. She didn't catch all of it in time though, and only got a partial recharge from it.

Shining Armor's voice came over the radio.

"The takeaway here is that whoever's employing these machines is using technology we've never seen before," he said. It was clear he wanted Starlight to get back to the mission.

"And that I'm apparently a cyber-vampire now," Starlight added.

"Right, don't get too excited about that," Sunburst said. "I don't know if the uh, what you called 'robot juice', will have any side effects on your body. Try to keep the blood drinking to a minimum, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Starlight let the call end there and kept herself moving. She made her way through the trees where she saw Spike disappear, and noticed that there was a much larger disturbance in the main town area. More machines like the ones she'd just destroyed were marching down the center of the road, doing battle with Nocturna members wielding some pretty archaic firearms and bladed weapons. Gunshots, clanging metal, and even the rippling swooshes of magic being cast made for a muddy and chaotic soundscape. The cultists did an okay job holding them off though, they had superior numbers and were able to effectively outmaneuver the handful of machine dragons attacking them.

"Hey, Starlight!" Spike's voice picked up over the radio. She couldn't see where she was, but she trusted he was closeby. "I saw what looked like the cultist's leader retreat into the back area of the chapel. You can sneak around through the backyard and cut her off there. She's the one who'll know where the sword fragments are."

"Roger that," Starlight said. "Keep an eye out on that battle happening in town, I'm going to use it as cover..."

Creeping up right to the edge of the treeline, Starlight made a break for one of the thatched roof houses at the end of the town. Two cultists ran past, too occupied with reinforcing their allies at the chapel to notice her. She broke off again, crouch running between two buildings and rolling through the window of an abandoned building as a mechadragon approached. This one wasn't as big as the ones she'd fought before, but it took a bullet from somewhere else before it could investigate Starlight's direction long enough.

Making sure it had walked off, Starlight slipped through the door and vaulted herself up onto the roof of an adjacent building, where she found a mechadragon facing away from her and firing down at the chapel's area with a rotating gatling gun on one arm. It didn't have as many optical sensors as the first two, instead it seemed like its single sensor was designed to hyper focus on a one target.

Starlight made the call to quickly sneak up behind it and slash through its legs, causing it to fall backward into her arm, where she then grappled it over her shoulder and into the floor. With her Bullet Reflex going off as it tumbled, Starlight sliced the machine in half, this time aiming directly for the spot she approximated its core to be, causing it to hit the roof in two separate pieces. It was instantly taken offline, but Starlight could no longer drink up its reenergizing fluids, as its core was split open and spilled about the floor.

This result was especially noted.

Before too much attention was called to her, Starlight rolled forward again, pushing herself off the building and onto a dusty path beneath it. She slid beneath the wooden fencing barring off the backyard of the chapel, and just as smoothly moved herself to the doors. Her feet made little noise against the ground, even as she moved at full speed, not that her footsteps would've been identifiable over the combat around her.

Opening the chapel's back door, Starlight found herself in a short hallway with one door to the side and one at the far end. She didn't have time to choose a direction, the door to her side swung open and a very confused cultist adorned in their now familiar black robes and hood stood facing the cyborg with a panicked posture and a frozen look of fear on her face.

The woman's eyes and nose were concealed by her hood, but Starlight still looked straight through them, knowing that her eyes were completely terrified. Starlight took no time, her sword came up and hooked around the cultist's neck, the weapon's flat edge pulling the woman's body in towards Starlight as she spun and dragged her into the small storage room she'd just come from.

"Shh..." Starlight's face was still, expressionless, but in that she expressed a dead seriousness as she pinned the smaller body of the cultist to the wall. Her robes seemed nicer than the others, crescent shaped iconography adorning it and a slightly lighter shade of navy blue. "Don't make a sound."

The cultist's lips trembled but she otherwise complied with Starlight.

"Your leader. Where is she?"

"Mother Evershade is..." The woman began, but then her head tilted in recognition as Starlight's eyes pressed further into her. "Starlight? Is that you? You're alive?"

Starlight blinked. She pulled the woman's hood back, revealing a head of blown back snow white hair and very familiar green eyed face.

"Night Glider? Is that you? Swoops?" Starlight whispered. This was one of the people she'd met before she'd joined the Order of Light, when she'd ran away from home and tried to found her own isolated community. She'd been a trusted friend of Starlight's, but at that time in her life, Starlight hadn't been a very good friend to her.

"Don't... Don't kill me, please...." Night Glider whimpered. "I'm sorry I helped those Order of Light goons find you and cut you up, I didn't mean for you to get hurt..."

"Night Glider, what are you doing here? Why did you join a cult?"

"Wh... What do you mean? I joined your cult, didn't I?" Night Glider kept herself as pressed back into the wall as possible. "E-except this cult has faith, and nice messages about helping people through the darkness, and doesn't involve brainwashing, and-"

"Nevermind that. You said your leader's name is Evershade? Where is she?" Starlight asked.

"Were you sent by Daybreaker? Look at you! You're one of her machines now, sent here to kill us all?" Night Glider's voice was frantic, but she still kept it a hoarse whisper as Starlight's blade came that much more pressed against her. "Uh.. Uh... She's in the main room, preparing to move our artifact to the Cathedral..."

"The artifact..." Starlight's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, no..." Night Glider started, "You're with the Order of Light... They realized you were brainwashing other people and decided to brainwash you as punishment!"

"Yes, but no." Starlight clarified. It didn't really matter though. "I'm going to let you live. Once you wake up, I suggest you get the hell out of here."

"But... But what about the rest of the Nocturna? We're in danger, we'll..."

Starlight took her and spun her around, pulling her left arm around her neck and pulling tight on her arm across. Night Glider stopped talking and held still as the sides of her neck were clamped against Starlight's bicep, blood flow to her head restricting and rendering her quickly unconscious. It wasn't something Starlight was happy to do, but given the circumstances she figured she could lock her in this closet and she wouldn't be a target for the machines outside.

She'd never really treated the poor girl well in the past, this just seemed to be another slap in the face to her. Nonetheless, Starlight sat her unconscious body down in the corner behind a shelf, then spotted something she'd dropped when she was grabbed. A small revolver pistol, nothing like Starlight's own but a reasonable means of self defense.

Starlight put the gun beside her sleeping friend and locked the storage room door from the inside. She went back out into the hallway, and made her way to the main room of the chapel. There were voices on the other side, some commotion happening. At least three different people, moving about with something.

There was no way to do this without alerting everyone in the room, Starlight understood. She'd have to act quickly.

The door on the far wall of the chapel's main room burst open, alerting the two elegant cape-bearing cultists standing watch near the window, but not so much alerting the Nocturna's elder preparing something on the stand at the room's center stage.

The cultists guarding her wore more distinguished veils over the faces instead of hoods, masking themselves but in a harder to decipher manner. They both brandished long, curved cutlasses, reacting very quickly and swiping for Starlight as soon as she stepped into the room. Bringing her sword to a draw, Starlight deflected both attacks and spun in place, placing a single sword slash on each of these elite cutlists before they could come for her again.

To Starlight's surprise, they kept up with her movements, safely blocking off her slashes as she counterattacked. Rather than stay in the doorway, Starlight made a beeline for their elder, but the weary, black haired woman calmly dropped her knees as the cyborg jumped for her. Instead of hitting her target, Starlight was now sending herself into the middle of the room, out in the open for all three of the Nocturna members to target her.

"An assassin sent from the Order of Light." Mother Evershade spoke slowly and methodically, as if she'd been expecting something like this to happen. "First your goddess sends her machines to our peaceful village, of course you wouldn't be far behind. But then, you're just another one of her mindless drones, aren't you?"

Evershade jumped from her stand and landed at the end of the row to face Starlight, her two ladies guarding her taking positions to either side. They drew fittingly old-school revolvers on Starlight, but their elder produced a large bore shotgun from her robes, a lever action model with a short barrel, held level in one hand. The shotgun seemed uniquely made from some dark steel, with turquoise engravings and a name she couldn't quite read written across its receiver.

"Never fought a Nocturna Witch before, have you?" Evershade smiled. "Of course, we're only shadows of what they once were. The pure blooded witches were far more capable, but they've long since died out. No thanks to you and yours..."

"The fragments of the Devil Sword," Starlight said, ignoring her taunt, "Where are they?"

"Hm... You do know we don't have all the pieces of it, yes? We're looking for it too," Evershade replied. She laughed a short laugh, but then raised a small attache case held casually behind her. "I'm only carrying one piece of it."

"That'll do." Starlight emphasized her cold reply by raising her hold on her sword. "Hand it over, and-"

"No."

Evershade immediately fired her shotgun off, jumped back over the stand and signaled for the two witches guarding her to take action.

Starlight's sword twirled in a defensive guard, her body rotating rapidly in just the right way that the spread of shotgun pellets could all be deflected in a single swipe and still allow her to end in a jumping sweep toward Evershade's guards. The witches' pistols fired off in sequence, each one taking time before it was ready to fire, but with their shots spaced out Starlight further had to focus on swatting bullets away from her.

Evershade turned to make an escape, but the stained glass window to her side suddenly burst inward, the serene image of a woman standing in moonlight shattering to pieces as a tall, wide-winged machine in a very deliberate color scheme of various blue colors jumped straight through it to cut off the Nocturna's leader.

This machine was another of the dragons, but it was less bulky, still sturdy, but it had a far prouder stature and its optics and jaw seemed to be quite articulate. Several pointed spikes ran down its head and neck, and it had two low hanging features protruding from either side of its head, appearing to be some form of conical radar antenna. The end of its tail spread out into a fan shape, and rather than having a weapon built into its hands, it curiously went weapon-free, with claws that seemed more designed for grasping things than slashing things.

Indeed, there was something different about this mechadragon, it moved just like a human, not too similarly and not too robotically, and it calculated the perfect route to cut off Mother Evershade and twist her into a bind.

Her two witches immediately turned away from Starlight to point their weapons at this new intruder, but the machine held up the woman as a hostage, binding her throat and shoulder with one arm and shielding its sides with its wide, pointed wings. With its free hand, it snatched away the attache case for itself.

Then, rather than make some animalistic cry, the dragon spoke.

"Don't try it. I know you want her alive."

The tone was feminine, rough, but though her speech had an identifiable synthesized ring to it, her ultimate intentions were clear. Evershade gripped her shotgun tightly, but found that her arm was bound against her body by the machine. Try as she might, she couldn't escape the dragon's grip.

"Let it happen, girls." Evershade let her body loosen and shook her head, shifting herself just so that she could tuck her weapon away, and then addressed the machine holding her. "You must be Ember. I'd heard you'd recently become one of Daybreaker's lackeys..."

"Daybreaker understands the value of freedom," Ember replied. "Something the rest of this world has forgotten."

"What do you want with the Nocturna's leader?" Starlight asked. Her weapon was aligned with this new intruder as well.

"Same thing you want, meatbag," She replied, "We're looking for the Devil Sword, same as you. Except I've got a piece of it now, and the mind that knows where the rest of them are."

Behind them, the chapel's doors swung open, and the bodies of two cultists were tossed through at the hands of two other mechadragons, coming in to back up their boss. As they did, Ember leapt back out of the window with Evershade slung over her shoulder and left the rest of them to their own devices.

"Starlight!" Spike's voice sounded off over her radio. "One of the mechadragons is taking off with the cultist leader to the north!"

She couldn't respond, the two mechs behind her were stabbing and firing at her, looking to make her their next kill, but as she started working them over, Evershade's two bodyguards jumped in and cut the machines down, then almost immediately turned to Starlight, blades alight with a glowing blue magic.

"Hey, woah!" Starlight looked between the two, backing away for a moment. She really didn't want to get caught up in a fight if it meant her target was getting away. "Let's not do this. We both want your boss back and alive. Enemy of my enemy? Maybe?"

Starlight kept herself at the ready, but the two witches gave each other wordless looks, and then nodded, motioning for Starlight to follow them as they ran after Ember.

The two witches moved at an incredible pace, surprising Starlight, their feet leaving lighted magical trails behind them as they leapt up atop buildings and hopped from roof to roof to just barely keep pace with the mechadragon carrying their elder off. Starlight's own feet left a similar electrical trail behind her, also just barely keeping up with the two witches.

They dashed through a much larger battle, dodging crossfire from battle the dragons actually seemed to be losing, the cultists and now identifiable witches supporting them gaining more foothold back with every dragon that fell, but now that they had what they came for they were beginning to pull out.

At the edge of the town, Ember leapt up to a two story building and turned to face Starlight and the two approaching witches. She seemed to have nowhere left to run, but she looked up to the sky expectantly and smiled. Seeing the machine's crude, angular jaw form into a satisfied expression unnerved Starlight.

"Give it up!" Starlight shouted. "You've got nowhere to run!"

Ember only looked down on her with her smug grin. Something caused the ground to shake in the distance...

"Starlight!" Shining Armor's voice came up over the radio. "We've got a visual on something huge moving towards you, it just surfaced from the coast out of nowhere!"

"It's heading towards us," Spike added. "I can see it, it's huge, it's-"

An enormous shadow cast itself over the village, heralding the arrival of a massive, five story mechadragon painted in a shiny red and gold coloring, with fully articulated plates, weapon mounts along its shoulders, and wide, powerful wingblades attached to its back, complete with built in thrust mechanisms. The dirt split where it landed, its tail taking a piece of a building down as it turned to look down on the three small humans standing in its path. A rumbling fire seemed to build in its abdomen, as if the beast were powered by an entire furnace generator.

A single, wide optic strip stretched across its face, and a long, pointed mouth opened up into a primal roar that defeaned any other combat going on. The entire village looked up to the creature, in awe or in fear, and they began to do the only thing they could think of: flee.

"You guys are the ones with nowhere to run!" Ember said.

MECHADRAGON RAZER, Supermassive Mining Platform.

"Razer!" She then called out her massive subordinate dragon by name. "Wipe them out!"

The huge metal dragon shifted its neck, and smashed its relatively short arms against the ground.

Starlight saw the two witches that were with her start to back away, but the cyborg stood strong, facing up against the dragon without a moment of hesitation. Shining Armor had other plans for her, though.

"Starlight, you need to get after Evershade. Forget the dragon!"

"No, he's going to flatten this town if I don't do anything!" Starlight replied. Was he crazy? Was he going to let this town get steamrolled?

There were more than just Nocturna in this town. Starlight now saw ordinary, fearful people were being rounded up by the chapel for safety by the cult's members. If Starlight didn't do anything, the dragon would likely crush them all.

"The mission is a priority, Starlight-"

"No!" Starlight said. "Not while civilians are in harm's way."

Shining Armor sighed. "Right. Make this quick if you can."

Looking up at the fearsome machine, Starlight's visor sealed over her face.

"Better believe I will."