Sun Never Sets 2: Fires of Friendship

[Blacktail Forest, South of Mt. Eclipse]
[Friday, 12:00pm]

The undead Centurion held its ground for a far longer amount of time than Starlight or Flash could've anticipated. The soldier was pushed back further up the slope it came down, skillfully defending against both Flash's rigid firearm tactics and maneuvers while also keeping Starlight's precise and rapid gunslinging and swordplay at a distance.

Opposed to the average legionnaire, this officer's armor and shield had the same regenerative properties as Commander Hurricane's own. Bullet holes and dents wouldn't last, keeping the metal from breaking, but the undead soldier didn't have the endurance to keep two evenly balanced opponents back forever.

Evenly balanced was a surprising detail that Flash took note of as he fought. In the past, a superpowered combatant felt like an overwhelming force, but the more experience he gained in fighting threats that were faster and stronger than himself the more he came to understand how to engage them. He kept himself calm, paid close attention and made sure he was constantly thinking ahead. Fighting larger and more intimidating threats became routine with experience.

What still felt surreal was how well he was keeping up with Starlight. Flash watched Starlight pull away the Centurion's guard and he promptly recognized the opening, launching into a jump kick that spun the Centurion off balance for Starlight to then follow up with a heavy straight punch from her steel hoof. The Centurion reeled back but readily recovered with a wild forward slash, but Flash had positioned himself to catch the shaft of the undead soldier's spear and counterattack with a knee to the chest. Starlight came flying in with a dropkick as Flash ducked to the side, and from his kneel he finished their team combo by springing into a high roundhouse kick. With a resounding clang, Flash's boot rocked the Centurion's helmet off his head, and in a stunned daze the ancient soldier lost grip on his shield.

Behind Flash, Starlight stood with her sword completely sheathed, a soft light glimmering behind her eyes as a pulse of magic lit up through her scabbard and radiated from its edge. She concentrated on the stunned Centurion, her hips shifting as her hand fell into grip around her weapon. Flash knew she was about to do something, without her saying anything he leaned back and fell into a controlled backroll away from her sword's reach.

As the Centurion regained his senses and raised his spear again, Starlight still stood motionless and in a state of concentration, the light behind her eyes intensifying for a split second as the enemy spearhead raced pointfirst towards her chest. In a split second Starlight drew her sword into a perfectly horizontal cut against her attacker and made a single step past him, body rotating to steer clear of any retaliation. Her sword came out in a reverse grip, but by the end of her motion she'd given it a spinning flourish and was holding it pointed forward.

The slice did not appear to make contact with the Centurion at first, at least not as far as Flash could tell, but the Centurion still stumbled past Starlight nonetheless. The undead warrior's footsteps staggered out and he wobbled precariously as he weakly clutched his weapon in both hands. Starlight didn't look back, rather, she was already slowly sheathing her blade and remained in her focused stance. A soft click accompanied her left hand bringing her blade to a complete rest within her scabbard, and just as quickly as she'd drawn four bright teal beams curved into cuts across her opponent. One perfectly vertical, one perfectly horizontal, making a cross, and then two at intersecting forty five degree angles, making an X shape.

The hardened armor of the Centurion split into several pieces and fell away, and after a moment of hesitation and a groan of defeat his body followed suit. Cocking her metal limb back, Starlight's horse leg briefly crackled with sparks for a moment, before her horseshoe projectile shot straight through the Centurion's core and pulled his heart straight from his chest, where she then crushed it on the flat of her steel hoof. The horseshoe fit neatly back into normal place as she drenched herself in the undead's magic and expired blood.

"The hell was that?" Flash was in awe of what he'd just witnessed, a sword attack that Starlight could direct at an opponent behind her, one that struck several times with just one swing. As he resumed a standing position he didn't quite let himself relax until Starlight gave him an answer.

"Lightning strike quickdraw attack," Starlight replied. She stood and faced him, far more relaxed despite having a far larger quantity of blood on her face. It didn't occur to her that Flash was so unnerved by her takedown.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Flash asked. Last time he saw Starlight, her weapon of choice was far less nimble and her fighting style was a lot more abrasive.

"My mentor. It was one of her favorite techniques with a single-edged blade," Starlight said. She sounded a bit uneasy now that she was recalling it, mention of her old mentor stirred up uncertain emotions. "She called it a 'decisive cut'. Her Iridescence sword style was one of the first proper combat styles I learned. It's apparently connected to the Sister of Light, which is obviously important to the Order."

Of course, Flash knew Starlight's mentor, knew that she was at the heart of the Canterlot City Incident as well, even though he'd only crossed paths with her once while there. She was a powerful magical swordsman that once hunted demons for the Order of Light, disgraced and excommunicated. He knew her as being proficient with a samurai sword of all weapons, so it made sense to see her techniques reflected in her student.

Flash let his shoulders drop a little, content with her answer. There was another question though.

"Why didn't you fight like that last time we met?"

"Eh, it's complicated," Starlight shrugged. "I was conflicted about using the style of someone I was told was a traitor, when she got banished from the Order I started training my own way again, mixed in with the Order's Catenacus style. That was with my old chainsaw sword, if you remember that, but now I'm using a single-edged sword again, so what Tw-"

Starlight stopped herself mid-sentence.

"What she taught me is relevant."

"How do you feel about using her techniques now?"

"Still complicated," Starlight said. She then nodded to Flash. "What about you? Didn't realize you were trained to do kung fu on zombies."

"Seraph training programs improved drastically after the Canterlot City Incident," Flash said. "We're doing just as much physical combat training as we are weapons training now."

Starlight chuckled, as if not totally convinced of his claim. "Normal humans doing that kind of stuff on supernatural threats? Yeah, right. What, are you gonna suplex an archdemon or something?"

"You seemed just fine with your flashy dropkick."

"Yeah, but I'm a magically augmented cyborg ninja." Starlight lifted her hands in a way that suggested the statement was clearly obvious and intuitive. "I can do that kind of stupid stuff because... y'know. I'm a cyborg ninja."

Flash gave a shrug of his own. "The combat data speaks for itself. Increasing your mental focus and confidence is proven to give significantly better odds against monsters. Practicing hand to hand martial arts? Great way to build mental focus and confidence."

"I guess. I'm not going to say we didn't fight well together."

Their attention turned back forward. They followed the road ahead of them, now clear of enemies, until it came to an end along the shore of a lake. There was a small dock house and a pier visible where the land met water, and another road picked up in the distance that lead into a forested area to the east. More prominent was the landscape directly north, straight ahead of them, where a great black building dominated the side of a cliff overlooking the furthest end of the lake.

It was a grand structure of brick and stone, with tall arches and pointed roofing, elegant windows and sturdy columns supporting it. As with the rest of the Nocturna Convent's territory, it was adorned with a silver crescent moon icon mounted along its front wall at the highest point, and held a serious and imposing atmosphere in its silhouette. A gated wall ran its perimeter, blocking off a cemetery to the side and a gathering area out front. This was it, this was their Nocturna Cathedral.

And it was under obvious occupation.

Soft pops of explosions rang out as machine dragons fired on the last remaining cultists alongside the sharp ringing of steel on steel as undead warriors beat back a scarce handful of witches. It was a clean sweep, the combined forces of Daybreaker were easily superior to the disjointed cultists especially as both Commander Hurricane and Ember converged on the battle.

Hurricane joined the defensive perimeter and Ember made her way inside the cathedral with a captive Mother Evershade. From where they stood, Flash and Starlight couldn't do anything but observe from great distance, there were still quite a ways of walking and quite possibly paddling across a body of water. Walking down the hill and through a shallow patch of water where the river began to form out of the lake, the two found themselves on the short beachfront, the dock house on the farthest end holding a single wooden boat large enough for three, maybe four people.

Flash and Starlight gave each other knowing glances as they approached the boat.

"Freeze!" Another voice called out from behind the two of them as they stepped onto the pier. Crouched behind the outer walkway of the dock house, a lean, platinum blonde man in a brown flight jacket held a scoped, bolt-action rifle at the ready.

"Gale?" Flash recognized him right away, and as he spoke the name Gabriel lowered his weapon. Tensions seemed to cool for the moment.

"Sentry. Figured I'd run into you again." Gabriel pointed the rifle up past his shoulder and let it rest there as he looked over Starlight with suspicion. "I'm guessing this isn't one of those machines out to kill us, then?"

"She's not." A cold, synthesized voice sounded from atop the dock house as a mechanized purple canine dropped to the beachfront, startling Gabriel but eliciting a smile from Starlight. "And neither am I."

"Spike! Finally caught up with us, have you?" Starlight crossed her arms and nodded to her companion, only leading Gabriel to stir with concern. Seeing a cyborg and a robot wolf approach him put him right back on edge, even if they weren't outwardly hostile.

"Easy, bud," Flash raised a hand to dissuade Gabriel's obvious unease. "They're friends."

"Friends, huh?" Gabriel's eyes narrowed, still fixed on Starlight and her inhuman form. "You sure have some weird friends."

"Where'd you run off to last night?" Flash asked.

"I was..." Gabriel paused. He was still distracted by Starlight and Spike, apparently. "I broke off to make sure the villagers could escape."

"I didn't see you in their bunker," Flash said.

"Yeah, well I got cut off from them." Gabriel walked down to the pier where Starlight and Flash stood, his eyes darting off of the Cathedral in the distance. "I had to go... looking for something."

Flash tilted his head. "What are you talking about?"

"Look," Gabriel sighed. He was worked up over whatever this was, and Flash's questions were only agitating him. "I'm not supposed to talk about what it is, but when we got our gear back from those witches, I had something important missing. I had to go looking for it, okay? My bosses would be pissed if I didn't come back with it."

"I'm guessing it's not something you'd accidentally drop in the woods, no?" Flash asked.

Gabriel shook his head. "It's more complicated than that. It... got away from me."

"Got away?" Starlight repeated. "What's that mean?"

"Did someone take it from you?" Spike asked.

Gabriel again became unusually tense. "Look, I don't trust any of you to talk about this. We're not friends. Let's just get through this, okay?"

Flash nodded. They were all here as independent agents of different nations, solving each other's problems shouldn't really be something they were concerned with.

"Okay, fine," Starlight said. "We're on our way to the Cathedral across the lake. If you want to get there, we'll have to take that boat together at least."

"Yeah, sure, okay." Gabriel finally let his guard down with an eye roll.

As they turned to walk down the pier, though, Spike's tail suddenly flicked up, and his head turned around.

"Starlight, I've got a blip on the radar approaching us very quickly!" Spike looked about frantically, and Starlight lifted a hand to her ear to check in with her radio team for confirmation.

Gabriel's tension redoubled itself. He seemed to know what was coming, leaving Flash the only one out of the loop.

"What's going on?" Flash asked.

The faint whine of a thruster engine whirred in the distance, gradually growing in intensity.

"Get to cover," Gabriel said.

Flash immediately made a break for the dock house, passing by Starlight right as a violent soundwave shook the sand of the beachfront. A silvery body broke through the forest treeline, an all metal construction that sped through the air on a set of icy blue jets. Around it, the air seemed to grow chilly and foggy, contrasting the warm ground beneath them. The figure cartwheeled forward and landed on the sand, and from its feet a rigid wall of ice suddenly shot up from the ground and raced towards Flash and his group.

The frigid ice barrier cut Flash off from Starlight and Gabriel, the hot sand slowly working to melt it but not nearly acting fast enough. Just barely jumping out of the way of the wall, Flash saw another, much more pointed shard of ice hurtling towards him, but Spike spun his body and slapped the projectile away with his tail. The mechanical hound slid to a stop beside Flash, and the two were able to look up at their attacker. Standing atop the wall's chilly peak was the figure assaulting them, clearly visible to the parties on both sides of the wall.

POSSESSED TALON COMBAT ARMOR, Demon Hosted Mobility Suit: The thing standing above them was a foreign, spacey mass inhabiting a suit of modular, high-tech metal plating. Its chest was a plate of angled white armor, and on it back a pack with stubby, bronze paneled, folding wings that allowed it to glide across the ground. Wrist guards formed into sharp, gloved hands, and sealed greaves formed sleek, rounded boots. Covering its head was a rounded helmet with a domed visor, and covering its armor was an array of white lights.The suit wasn't a full covering, there were plenty of spaces where the demon inhabiting it was visible. Rather than be a means of full protection, this suit seemed to focus on enhancing the wearer's abilities, as the demon within it quite nimbly slid across the length of the ice wall and spun into a jump above them.

With its bronzed wings fully extended, the demon lifted its left hand and snap-froze the air in front of them, forming into another spear of ice that shot down towards the ground, this time towards Starlight and Gabriel.

Starlight wasn't expecting the sudden use of magic. She reached for her sword and prepared to go into her Bullet Reflex, but before she had the chance Gabriel had already shot the shard of ice out of the sky with his rifle.

Seemingly angered, the demon dove down and kicked the center of the ice wall, sending smaller splinters in all directions and scattering the group further.

"What the hell is that thing?" Starlight eyed their assailant down with her sword drawn, watching as it turned to size her up in kind.

"Experimental Talon Suit," Gabriel said. "I used it to deploy and infiltrate into this area, and now some demon has a hold of it!"

"This is the kind of thing you might want to warn us about, y'know!" Flash called to him.

"It's supposed to be top secret, okay? What do you want from me?"

The Talon Suit dashed for Starlight, moving extremely quickly, but she was able to retaliate and respond by slipping into her Bullet Reflex. The suit's hand had formed into a sharp dagger, stabbing directly for her, but she easily parried the attack and kicked the possessed armor away from her.

Gabriel seemed surprised, but kept his response cool and collected. "Sheesh, you're quick..."

"Yeah, try to keep up." Starlight gave her sword a twirl and turned her attention back to the battle.

Spike jumped against the Talon Suit, repeatedly slashing his claws against the demon's body, but the armored forearms quickly and expertly blocked his blows and kept the machine at arm's length. It pushed Spike away, but immediately had to bring its arms back up to form a smaller ice barrier to bear as Flash Sentry opened fire with his pistol. The suit ducked behind the low cover it summoned for itself and held its ground as Flash grew closer, only jumping out from its cover when he was in range for an overhead kick. The Talon Suit's boosters engaged as it placed its hands on the ice barrier sticking up out of the sand, and its boot rocketed towards Flash in a blinding fast arc.

Flash was already spinning out of the way, spinning his own kick into the Talon Suit's side, then pointing his pistol at point blank range for three followup shots. The bullets pushed the suit back, but the demon inside quickly recovered and grabbed for Flash's weapon. As soon as its hands touched the frame, a quick pulse of light emanated from the suit, but the light was masked by Flash and demon wrestling for control of the pistol. After a brief struggle, Flash would break away, but he would find that the suit was materializing a simulacrum of his own pistol in its hands, assembled from the same silvery metal that composed the rest of the suit.

With a gun of its own, the Talon Suit quickly fired back at Flash, who went straight to batting the demon's arm out of the way with his off hand. When Flash pushed his pistol out to fire back, the suit mirrored his actions, and then engaged its boosters to kick him in the chest. Flash fell onto his back, but Starlight stepped in with her sword, striking at the suit's pistol arm and then stabbing for its core. The suit pulled itself in and turned with the swing, stopping Starlight at the arm and catching her sword by the blade, where that same flash of light occurred. Following Starlight's escape from the bind, she would see the Talon Suit also had a copy of her sword in its hand, raising it to push her nanoblade away.

Their swords clashed briefly before the suit stomped its boot and summoned a pillar of ice at Starlight's feet, launching her into the air and forcing her to control her sudden fall. She landed perfectly, but the suit was now inches away from piercing her through with a followup attack.

A crack of gunfire behind her would knock the suit off course, though. Gabriel kept a healthy distance from the demon, using the haphazardly and spontaneously summoned ice structures as points to rest his rifle against for stability.

"Gah, quit fighting it in melee!" Gabriel called out. "It's going to try and get its hands on your weapons!"

"What's this thing supposed to be for, anyway?" He had taken to ducking behind the central ice barrier as the suit began firing at him.

"Fast combat and infiltration." Gabriel said. "It has no thermal signature, expels no heat, and it's extremely fast."

Gabriel took another shot at the suit with his rifle, only glancing its helmet as it engaged in a sword duel with Starlight.

"How do we take it down?"

More pistol shots came Flash's way, the bullets starting to crack and break the ice he hid behind.

"It's hardened against most bullet types, but it's not designed to totally protect the wearer. Aim for the joints, you can see whatever the hell is inside it."

"Kinda hard to hit it with my pistol from here..."

"I saw a box of shotgun slugs in the dock house. Those should do plenty against it."

Shotgun slugs, of course. Flash still has his shotgun slung across his back, but he was low on ammo for it, and he wasn't sure how effective a spread of buckshot would be against the armored demon. As he observed the thing, he saw it moving just as fast as Starlight was, faster than the eye could follow in lightning fast yet controlled motions.

Spike jumped back into the battle too, striking with his tail as Starlight kept the Talon Suit's sword busy. It was far more aerially nimble than Spike was, but Starlight had no problem jumping after it, and the two would inevitably have to come back down to Spike's waiting claws.

Flash sprinted across the lakefront, back to the dock house, where he indeed found a box of green shotgun shells sitting on a plain wooden cabinet inside. A full sixteen rounds were there, more than enough for him to refill the six shots in his magazine. Racking the pump grip back, he carefully extracted the loaded shell and let the first round of the magazine fall out the bottom of the weapon. These two red shells were 00 buckshot, not what he wanted. The shells were replaced with the green cased slug shells, carrying a powerful, solid single cartridge rather than a volley of pellets. This payload would fare far better against armored targets.

One shell went into the shotgun's side gate, then Flash snapped the chamber shut. Then, one after the other, six shells went into the weapon's magazine tube, and he readied himself to head back into the action. He took a deep breath, then let it out.

Back outside, the Talon Suit was keeping both Starlight and Spike at bay, but seemed more intent to strike at Gabriel, who opted to stay as far away from it as possible. It wouldn't work for long, however, as the demon inside of it evaded the cyborg and her canine assistant and engaged the Talon Suit's boosters to launch itself at Gabriel.

The suit's owner would respond accordingly, though, rolling out of the way and simply opting to shoot while running away. Fast as the suit may be, Gabriel seemed to have a good sense of where it would appear, managing to hit it several times before ducking under it swinging its sword. Forced into melee, Gabriel came up behind the suit and threw a side kick into its backpack, disrupting its wings and actually forcing some kind of stunned reaction from it.

Gabriel cycled the bolt of his rifle, but the stunned state was short lived, the suit spun about quickly and slashed for its owner. The blade nearly took his neck, but he fell to his back with a split second to spare, just as a whistling crack of a bullet passed over him and a hole was punched into the suit's wing.

Flash's shotgun howled out from the dock house, a shotgun slug forcing its way through the hardened armor plates. Running the action, Flash fired again, hitting the Talon Suit square in the chest and demanding its attention.

From the side, six quick revolver shots slammed into the Talon Suit as well, a flick of Starlight's wrist heralding more projectiles being aimed its way. Before it could get shot again, the suit dodged towards the shoreline and punched the wet sand beneath it, bringing up a half cylinder of ice for protection before a light charged in its backpack.

Starlight's body charged with light as well, and she dashed forward with her sword drawn to slice the ice apart, shearing and then shattering it to reveal the suit blasting itself away over the lake, retreating from the battle as quickly as it arrived. It passed the Cathedral, seeming to aim itself towards the mountain in the backdrop.

Gabriel was the first to let out a breath. "Damn it. I'm going to have to hunt that thing down again."

[Lake Eclipse, South of Mt. Eclipse]
[Friday, 3:30pm]

"So what's the deal? What the hell is that thing?"

Flash Sentry stared up at the looming Nocturna Cathedral from the relatively tiny boat that his group was riding across the lake. Starlight offered to take up both oars and very easily rowed the wooden craft across the stretch of water, but she had a standoffish list of questions for the newly met Griffonian operative and his rampant suit of armor. Starlight's question was asked with equal parts annoyance and disdain, a reflection of Gabriel's evident unease around herself.

Gabriel sighed.

"It's an experimental exo-suit with ice powers, the ability to replicate any weapon it touches, and the ability to move faster than you can think."

"Uh-huh." Starlight didn't seem particularly impressed, nor was she receptive to the urgency with his description. "I was talking about the demon in the suit."

"I... can't say. I only saw it briefly, the thing got the drop on me before I could get a good look at it."

Spike, who was laying on the floor of the boat with his legs folded up neatly and his tail tucked beneath him, lifted his head in recognition. "It seemed unusually capable and intelligent. Most demons don't bother with co-opting equipment like that."

Gabriel's persistent glare at Starlight made its way to Spike. "And what are you supposed to be, anyway? Some mystery solving robot dog?"

"Spike is a reconnaissance specialist," Starlight said. "He's supposed to be helpful."

The shape and form of the demon seemed really familiar to Flash, though he didn't speak up over the conversation. As Starlight and Gabriel continued their back and forth, Flash kept his thoughts to himself and just focused on their destination. The conflict surrounding the Cathedral had died down; he could only assume that the Nocturna followers had been driven away from their center of worship. Mother Evershade was held inside, as were the artifact pieces she was trying to protect. Hopefully Flash and this small group he'd stumbled into would be enough to take this place back.

A faint ringing pulled Flash from his thoughts. Gabriel and Starlight took notice of the notice, but Flash waved them off. It was just his radio, MC was trying to get in touch with him.

"I've got to take this call," Flash said. Very carefully, he listened into his earpiece and touched the receiver of his radio.

"Flash, it's MC." The voice of Microchips came through the call, audible to Flash and Flash alone. Anything Flash said would be heard by Starlight and Gabriel, though. He trusted information with Starlight, but Gabriel was a different story, so Flash ensured to choose his responses carefully.

"I read you."

"I did some research and a little outreach and I have some information that you might want to hear."

"Alright, go ahead."

"On a hunch, I asked command if they could get in touch with the Griffonian TFO agency regarding our little operation here..." MC began. "And they were able to confirm that they have no active agents in this area at this time."

"Are you sure that's accurate?" Flash asked. Tensions were high between the Harmonic States and Griffonia, it wasn't out of the question that they'd deny the reality of any secret operations they were running.

"Look, I can't say for sure, we're all doing clandestine operations here, but an intelligence exchange was made. Griffonia does have an eye on the situation here, but they have no agents sent to investigate Hollow Shades."

Flash kept his expression as neutral as possible, but couldn't help to steal a glance at Gabriel.

"You mentioned you'd met up with a Griffonian agent, but I'd watch your back around him if I was you."

Flash nodded. "Thanks for the update."

When the radio transmission ended, Flash put his earpiece away just as casually as he'd brought it out. Starlight and Gabriel took notice of him again.

"What's up, Flash?" Starlight asked. "Everything okay?"

"Just a regular check in with HQ."

"Sounds like you got some new intel," Gabriel said. "Anything you want to bring up now?"

"No."

"Look, I'm sorry about the lack of warning on the Talon Suit," Gabriel lifted his hands in an annoyed concedence. "We really shouldn't have surprises ahead of us."

"It really wasn't anything worth bringing up." Flash held his position. He wasn't about to call out his suspicion toward Gabriel so soon, not without taking the time to plan things out. Not while they all were forced so close together.

"Yeah, well, it doesn't matter anyway." Gabriel said.

The boat slid up against the rocky shore on the opposite side of the lake, coming to a stop and allowing Starlight to let her arms relax for a moment. Gabriel immediately stood up and planted his feet back on the earth, shifting his shoulders and looking up and away from the group as he took a few steps away from the boat.

"What makes you say that?" Flash asked.

"We're gonna have to go our separate ways here." Gabriel glanced back over his shoulder, shaking his head as his eyes moved back to the path in front of him, leading up a steep cliffside back onto land. "Hunting down my suit comes first."

Starlight and Spike had little to say to that, but Flash raised a hand in protest.

"What about the Nocturna cultists? Or the villagers?" Flash was still firmly dedicated to helping them out. He knew that Gabriel had a different mission, but they'd both agreed to help out the locals.

"They'll have less problems without a demon in a power suit running around."

Flash was left to watch Gabriel set off down the lakeshore away from the Cathedral building with rifle slung over his shoulder, eventually disappearing among the uneven brush and trees in the distance. With what new information he had, he couldn't trust that Gabriel was working for who he said he was working. But what was the alternative? Was he a spy from another country? Was he working with the terrorists? The demons? Maybe he had a completely separate agenda, separate from anything Flash was concerned with? Or maybe he was a TFO operative, and they'd been given bad intel to obfuscate his mission. Maybe-

"What's with that guy?" Starlight's voice behind him cut Flash from his thoughts.

"Told me he was a Griffonian TFO agent. We met back in the town. Don't know much more than that."

"He seemed really jumpy around me and Spike, any idea why?"

The path forward took Flash and Starlight up a steep, rocky incline that hung over the lake, where they were witness to the site of a very recent battle between machine dragons and a group of Nocturna witches. The witches were all dead, cloaked bodies strung between the gravel road and harsh treeline, paving the long path leading to the front gates of the looming Cathedral. A single machine dragon lay defeated near the cliffedge, glowing liquids still dripping from its torn frame, but other than the one, it seemed there were few losses amongst their enemies.

"Starlight, I'm going to scout the path ahead." Spike prowled about the left flank of the road, keeping his frame low and crawling towards their destination from the furthest edges. "I recommend Agent Sentry follows me so we can attack the Cathedral from multiple sides."

"Only if you're acting as my spotter," Flash replied.

"Oh, come on. I was gonna offer to," Spike said, a bit annoyed by Flash's less serious tone.

"Alright, lead the way."

[Nocturna Cathedral South, Front End]
[Friday, 4:00pm]

Starlight was left to walk the main road forward on her own. A lot had unfolded, but her mind was slowly but surely coming back to one thing: Trixie. The two cultists confirmed that they had someone held in the Cathedral, and if Trixie could be connected to this, then... Starlight's hand tensed at the thought. The metal hoof she had attached to her right elbow would've done something too, but it was hard to emote with it.

Her footsteps were agitated, and her breathing started to stutter as she felt moisture in her mouth. It was cold, externally so. Paired with that, she noticed the sky above her was beginning to grow gray and cloudy- not a good sign of things to come in her experience.

"Starlight, you're-"

Starlight heard Cadence over her radio and she immediately cut her off.

"I know, Cadence. My heart rate is irregular. No need to point it out to me when there isn't anything happening."

Starlight sighed. Nothing notable happened yet, she just had a moderately paced walk through what was a war zone. She was trying to brace herself for the worst, because if these machines had Trixie held up, and they were this brutal, then...

"Starlight, what's wrong?" Cadence's voice broke up her thoughts again. "You're clearly stressed out, something is bothering you."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"It's better that you do, Starlight." Of course, Shining Armor would be right there to back Cadence up in scolding her. "We don't-"

"Yeah, I know, we don't want it to get in the way of the mission!" Starlight stopped walking and threw her hand up at the sky in frustration.

A moment of silence followed.

"I'm worried about Trixie," Starlight admitted, as if anyone that had been following along couldn't have guessed.

"She's really important to you, isn't she?" Starlight couldn't see her, but she felt the empathetic head tilt and comforting caress on her shoulder just from Cadence's words alone. Starlight shook the non-existent comfort off of her.

"She's my friend, of course she is."

There was a moment of doubt on Cadence's end. "This is an awful lot of concern for someone that's just a friend..."

"My best friend, okay?" Starlight emphasized the key descriptor.

"Best friend, huh?" Cadence repeated. Starlight felt a simulated comfort that accosted her senses. There was some deeper level of understanding in Cadence's words, but Starlight didn't want any of it. She wanted to brood and be angry, but Cadence clearly could read straight into her emotional state.

"Yes, and she's been kidnapped by a weird cult!"

"Right..."

Shining Armor got them back to the task at hand.

"Your findings suggested that she's being held in the Cathedral, right?" He asked.

"That's right. And I'm standing right in front of it."

When Starlight looked up at the towering structure, she saw that the clouds overhead had grown in concentration, and the air grew heavier and more precipitous.

"We wouldn't be able to tell, unfortunately," Cadence reported. "The clouds overhead are making imaging from the Freefall difficult. Our video feed from your visor is starting to hitch, too. Until the weather clears up we won't be able to see what's going on there."

Very gently, rain began to fall. Great.

"Got it," Starlight said. "I'll relay any important updates via comms."

Just as she was about to hang up, Spike's portrait appeared in the corner of her vision.

"Starlight, we've got trouble on the west side of the Cathedral, near the graveyard. Zombies? I think?"

Flash's voice came over her communicator as well, though he had no accompanying portrait due to his conventional radio.

"Hurricane's men are patrolling the perimeter, they're more than ready for us." Flash paused, presumably to survey the area again. "They haven't spotted us yet, so we're going to try and maintain our cover."

With this in mind, Starlight approached the Cathedral's front gate with caution. She pressed herself against the solid stone and peered through the gaps in the metal framed gate leading into a well kept courtyard.

As expected, there was a similar level of security in the Cathedral's front. Two machine dragons, one Gunner and one Brawler, stood watch under an overhang before the building's large, wooden front doors. They seemed to want to stay out of the rain, but their heads swiveled vigilantly across the walled courtyard, scanning the features there. A few flower bushes along the walls, a round fountain in the center, a pair of arches leading off to other areas within the Cathedrals perimeter. Starlight had no real way to approach them without being spotted immediately.

"There's similar security on my side," Starlight reported. "Do you think you can make some kind of distraction?"

Flash's voice came back quietly. "We don't want to give away our position yet."

"Yeah, roger that," Starlight looked up to the top of the wall she was pressed behind. It was pretty tall, and looked just wide enough for a single person to stand atop. Maybe she could get in via an unconventional route. Her body only creating a barely audible whirr, a small amount of power began to course through her as she prepared to make a move. In a single, brisk motion, Starlight hiked a foot up on the wall and kicked herself upward, leaving a faint trail of glowing sparks behind her as she did. Right after, she did this again, and again, and again, her legs giving enough momentum to move straight up the wall at a 90 degree angle.

When she reached the top of the wall, she grabbed onto the edge and pulled herself up to a crouching position. The stone bricks were cold and wet, but it wasn't a problem for her. As suspected, she was well above the perception of the two mechadragons guarding the entrance. The Gunner was the largest concern with its extended optical sensors, but it seemed its vision was augmented to only be horizontally longer, and not taller. The clouds and rain overhead created considerable overcast as well, washing out any shadow she may have created moving above them.

The two paths leading out of the courtyard to the left or right seemed to be light on patrols, but Starlight spotted mechadragons stationed periodically around the area. It wouldn't be straightforward to move around on the ground level. She moved quickly across the wall, perfectly balancing herself even at a running pacing and generating little noise as she did so. Where could she go from here? She looked upward at the pointed top of the Cathedral, seeing that there was purchase for her to pull herself further up its height. Perhaps she could get a better sense of where to enter if she could get to the roof.

Starlight lifted a finger to her ear and activated her communicator.

"Spike, Flash, can either of you identify a possible entryway on the upper level of the Cathedral?"

"I saw a balcony walkway on the back end of the building," Flash said. "It overlooks a drop though, it's going to be hard to reach."

"I've got a plan, don't worry," Starlight said.

"You're climbing to the roof, aren't you?" Spike had her figured out immediately.

"Yep."

"I've got eyes on what looks like a basement entrance." Flash said. He seemed to react to something, making a quick gasp, and then Starlight heard something brush against his radio. The next part of his report came in a hushed whisper. "I'm going to have to get inside quickly, which means I can't give you cover if you're up top."

"That's fine, as long as you can get in we'll meet up later."

Starlight switched off of the Stampede, her steel horse leg attaching to her belt and allowing her to attach a new limb to her elbow. The Tetherhand would be needed for this, as she was currently pressed against the side of the Cathedral where the perimeter wall intersected with it. The angles of its archway gave her perfect space for the teal blue projection of her Tether to reach out and pull her up, allowing her to quickly scale the front of the Cathedral without alerting anyone to her presence.

She moved parallel a sizable stained glass window as she clung to a stony pillar at the Cathedral's corner, the glass only depicting the silvery crescent moon that was now firmly associated with Nocturna's religion. Seeing it this close surprised Starlight, as it was far larger than she expected it to be. Eventually she reached the peak of the Cathedral, also far higher than she initially thought it would stand. The rain felt colder and more crisp up here, and it had definitely picked up during her ascent.

She put her back to the tall pointed spire at the Cathedral's crown, and looked at the landscape around her. Beyond the lakeside overlook, the most she could see was the thick forest surrounding the region. Trees and more trees, nothing interesting. Directly beneath her was the courtyard with its fountain, bushes, and two guards, and in between the two edges of her vision she could see something else emerging from the treeline and slowly making its way towards the Cathedral.

It was a group of villagers led by the same type of witches and cultists she'd met earlier. It would seem that they too were prepared for action, as they'd assembled into a quite formidable looking torch-and-pitchfork mob to take banck their place of worship. Hopefully Starlight could get in and out before things got too rough, all she needed was to locate their leader and get the location of the sword fragments.

"Spike, Flash, it looks like we've got an angry mob en route to the Cathedral. Let's make this quick."

"Got it, Starlight." Spike confirmed. "I'm going to be keeping a lookout outside of the Cathedral. You'll know the moment someone else is here."

"Bad news, Starlight." Flash said. "Someone's up on that roof, be careful."

"No problem, I'll deal with it."

"I'm going to focus on finding my VIP and Trixie, then," Flash said. "You go after Evershade and any big threats inside."

"Will do." Starlight ended her call and checked her corner, looking back to see that the wide rooftop of the Cathedral was mostly uneven ground, angled up and down at regular intervals and rimmed with decorative spines and spires near the edges and corners of its geometry.

Surprising, there was no sign of anyone up here...

More surprising was that the rooftop seemed warm, as Starlight stepped into the open to cross it she found that the cold rain was sizzling and turning to steam very quickly after reaching the surface. Strange...

Halfway across the rooftop, Starlight heard a shift above her. Mechanical gears locking and pushing against each other, a soft rumbling of an engine breathing, and a loud rattling of metal as two clawed feet launched from one of the pointed spires jutting up from the back of the Cathedral.

The form of a large, sleek mechadragon crashed directly in front of Starlight, and had she not taken evasive action she would've been crushed instantly. Time slowed for her as she reacted though, and halfway through performing a backflip and landing to start a handspring she caught full view of the angled and distinct silver, teal, and blue form of the dragon attacking her. With pronounced wings, a sturdy yet streamlined body, and two distinct horn-like radar pieces extending down the head, Starlight knew immediately who she was up against.

Dragonlord Ember stood to her full height as Starlight landed facing her on both feet. The dragon twirled an enormous powered polearm in one hand to bear behind her, wasting no time swinging it around as a followup attack. It was built like a poleax, with a spike at the tip, but where the edge would usually end in the razor sharp edge of an axe blade, this weapon had a hundred rumbling chainsaw teeth buzzing about its business end.

A rocket booster on the back of the chainsaw-axe sent the thing in a blisteringly fast arc towards Starlight Glimmer, and as she leaned back to avoid it she felt a single lock of hair getting shaved off, dangling in front of her face for a moment before blowing off in the wind. With her nanoblade out and in the middle of her third evasive flip Starlight rose her weapon to parry the next swing of Ember's chainaxe, leaning past the swing and pushing it to the side before thrusting straight for the dragon's chest.

In response, Ember's knees bent and her wings rotated back, and she was quickly blasting herself up and over Starlight with a kick and push from her body. Another set of rocket boosters on her back engaged, and with a fiery trail behind her Ember whipped around and swung at Starlight again mid-air. Starlight's back straightened out immediately and she held her sword at a perfect 90 angle, pushing against the swing and successfully halting Ember's rotation and rocking her back in the other direction. Her clawed feet dug into the stone of the roof as she landed, and the dragon and a cyborg properly faced each other through the faint mist and steaming rain.

MECHADRAGON LORD EMBER, Liberator of Dragonkind: Ember's body seemed to radiate with anticipation, lighting up and glowing in the gloomy shade of the stormy sky. It was clear that while she was expecting someone, but she wasn't expecting Starlight, and she slowly stepped to the side and allowed a window of conversation.

"Oh, it's you."

Starlight didn't let her guard lower at all, her eyes only narrowed as she kept her sword held at the ready.

"Expecting someone else?"

"Actually, yes," Ember replied. "Since you're not who I was expecting, I'm going to give you a chance to turn back and go home."

"Huh?" Who else would they be expecting here? "Turn back? I'm not leaving until my mission is finished. You and yours are going to hand over Mother Evershade and leave, or you'll be leaving in pieces."

Ember's demeanor seemed to shift in response to Starlight's sudden resolve.

"So you're... Twilight Sparkle, right? Top goon from the Order of Light?"

"What? No!" Starlight was taken aback for a moment. Proper anger washed over her, before her internal regulators suppressed it. How could anyone mistake her for her mentor? "She's not with our organization anymore, I'm our executive enforcer now."

"Huh. Okay, so I was doubly wasn't expecting you," Ember said. "Sorry, the description I was given said 'purple hair and a ninja sword'."

"I was her apprentice, so I guess you were close..."

"I'm sure if you were standing next to each other I wouldn't have made that mistake."

"Uh-huh," Starlight said, "And you're the boss of these machine-dragons I've been taking so much flak from, right?"

"My name is Ember. Dragonlord Ember." Starlight already knew this, but she detected a hint of sensitivity over her identity. Being misidentified was a feeling Starlight supposed she understood to some degree. She displayed none of this to Ember, of course. "What's an Order grunt doing sticking up for a Nocturna town? Aren't you here for their sword, too?"

"We may have our differences, but the Order values the safety of the people." It wasn't entirely honest, she was in fact here for their demon sword, but Starlight personally put her priority to protect civilians from harm over any mission parameters she'd been given.

Ember seemed on the verge of frustrated laughter. "Heh Heh. Is that how they programmed you to think?"

"Funny words, coming from a machine."

"You're looking pretty machine yourself," Ember nodded to Starlight, "The two of us might not be so different, you know."

"Oh, shut up." Starlight took offense to that. "You don't get to say that when you're putting innocent people's lives in danger!"

"We're here for the freedom of these people, you know," Ember's own voice rose from a low-heat simmer to a much more intense boil. "It'd go a lot smoother if you meatbags would quit standing in our way!"

"Freedom? What could you possibly know about freedom?"

"We'd know more if your kind hadn't taken it from mine!" Ember's foot pressed aggressively forward as she leaned towards Starlight. "We were more than this..."

"What?" Starlight wasn't sure how to react to this information. "And what does that have to do with the Nocturna?"

"The sword they have is the key to freeing dragonkind. With the Devil Sword, Daybreaker promised to give us another chance to live. Promised me a chance to see my father again..." Ember seemed wholly invested in her claim. There was something sympathetic there, in someone willing to do anything for their cause. It wasn't something Starlight was willing to entertain, though.

There was still one problem with her claim.

"You're following a fraud. Whoever promised you this is not the real Daybreaker."

Ember shook her head. "No. The human I follow is the real Daybreaker. The same squishy bag of blood and bones that fought alongside my father two thousand years ago. Dragons can tell, we can sense bio-signatures. She's the real thing."

"What? That's impossible..." It wasn't just the conventional teachings of the Order that were barring Starlight from believing her claims. Starlight had met the person who supposedly was Daybreaker face to face, there was no way she'd blatantly antagonize a peaceful village.

"You people that worship her don't know the first thing about her," Ember shook her head. "She doesn't care about your stupid Order or their religion. In fact, the Order has made her their enemy. Their own goddess is enemy number one."

Now this was something Starlight could confirm. She would never bring it up around her superiors, nor let them know she had this information, but she kept this sacreligious knowledge in the back of her mind at all times when on the job. Still, Ember confirming something she knew didn't validate her claim of the Daybreaker she spoke of being genuine.

"That doesn't matter. The Order of Light stands for justice and harmony," Starlight replied. "Something you're directly jeopardizing."

"Don't lie to me. You suppress anything and anyone that challenges your dominance, it has nothing to do with justice or harmony."

Starlight could only make a frustrated grumble in response. Ember clearly wasn't going to budge.

"The real Daybreaker wants true harmony," Ember continued, "Harmony for all creatures. Whether they're flesh, or demon, or steel. We don't have to be friends, but we don't need to invite chaos either."

"This is what you call true harmony? Bulldozing a town is acceptable collateral?"

"The Nocturna are no better than the Order. You both stand in the way of our freedom."

"No better than-" Starlight felt her fingers slip around the handle of her weapon for a moment as she came to a realization. Understanding Ember's perspective wasn't really necessary for the task at hand. "Oh no, I am not arguing ideology with a terrorist!"

Ember's jaw subtly shifted, and she shrugged her shoulders. Through the rain and mist rising around her she remained relatively dry, the droplets touching her evaporating quickly after making contact with her heated metal frame.

The clouds overhead began to rumble and grow darker as the rain fell steadily faster.

"Oh well. If you don't understand freedom, I don't expect you to get our cause. But I'll gladly crush you for it all the same!"

Lightning flashed in the sky beyond the mountain behind them.

"Oh yeah?" Starlight's visor closed over her face as she took a step back, pulling her sword into a high guard. She was far more comfortable engaging in combat than she was in conversation, and was fully ready to embrace that.

"We'll see if I don't cut you to pieces first."