I stood on the balcony of the Crystal Palace. I could see the entire empire, but my focus was on only the gate that had been built to stop to stop the frequent snow monster attacks. Actually, is the city the whole empire? Or does the surrounding area count as well? Where does the border start? Most importantly; why do I even bucking care? Just outside of the gate, the ten demons could be seen attacking the gate. The gate in question was pretty huge, ten meters tall, three meters thick and the entire thing was made out of solid crystal. However, as impressive as it was, there were cracks big enough to be seen even from as far away as I was. I had ten minutes at most.

I suddenly realised how nervous I was. Why am I in charge of this? I don't know how to fight ten demons! I couldn't even handle one without Dad's help! I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. I just need to stay calm and think rationally... It's my responsibility to stop these demons and protect the city.

But why? A voice in my head asked. Why is it my responsibility? When did I ever say I was okay with doing shit like this? Well... It's the right thing to do, so- Since when have I ever cared about what's right? I'm fine with committing murder! I'm fine with being violent! I'm fine with causing destruction! I even have a slave for buck's sake! Well what else can I do?! Sit around and do nothing?! There was a moment of mental silence.

What if I just ran away? I took a moment to seriously consider it. No... That... That goes against everything I stand for... Does it? Does it really? I... Yeah... Well the last I checked I only stood for personal gain. But... I can't just leave, not after everything I went through to get here! I may as well face it, I'm only fooling myself. There's nothing I can do to save her or any of the others. I sighed.

"That's not why I came here," I said aloud. The Amethyst Stranger paused for a second before revealing themselves.

"How did you know?" They asked.

"I don't talk to myself at all, mentally or not. Plus I'm not a bucking idiot." They paused again before walking to my side and looking out at the city with me.

"So why are you here?" I didn't reply. I kept watching the gate as the cracks continued to grow. "You aren't going to tell me? After the trouble of taking the crown to tear you a portal here?" I waited a few more seconds.

"I need to know why he stopped visiting."

"Oh, is that all?" They sighed. "I expected more from you."

"You don't get the right to judge me, not after what you've done."

"Oh, Overcast, you don't know half of what I've done."

"And I don't ever want to." They sighed once more.

"At least you had that choice..." I didn't answer. "Well? Aren't you going to ask me what I meant?"

"I'm not giving you the satisfaction." They chuckled lightly.

"You think you have control over your own actions. You have no idea what lengths they'll go through to control you." They chuckled once more. "Savour these moments, Overcast Vesper, savour these moments..." They backed up as their armour began to glow with energy, creating a humming sound. "One last thing; if you don't stand for personal gain, what do you stand for?" I turned to face them with a determined frown.

"I stand for my parents' memory."

"We shall see." Their armour glowed brighter until it was hard to look at. "We will not see each other again until after you have your answer." My frown turned to one of confusion.

"My answer?"

"Until the future, Overcast Vesper." They disappeared in an overly bright flash of light. I growled slightly. One day, I'm gonna be strong enough ta rip that bitch a new cu-! The balcony doors slammed open to reveal Luna in full battle armour.

"The gate is about to be breached," she said simply. "The battle is about to begin."

"So what can you tell me about demons?" I asked as we galloped towards the entrance of the Palace.

"There is not enough time to explain fully," Luna replied, "but I may be able to briefly inform you: Demons cannot be killed in the mortal realm. In Tartarus, in their true forms, they are in what is their equivalent to a form of flesh and bone. In the mortal realm, however, they create replicas of themselves made from pure magic."

"So that demon back in Canterlot-?"

"Was not killed." We rounded a corner and continued sprinting down the next hallway. "Your father never broke his promise to his alternate self. When a demon's magic form is destroyed, it breaks apart at an atomic level and seeps slowly back to Tartarus. There are great disadvantages to this tactic; one being that their minds become lost within the energy, making most like feral beasts. They also take a lot of magical energy, so the true form of form of the demon is greatly weakened."

"Why don't they just come to the mortal realm themselves? Why use up so much magic?"

"There is not enough time to explain at the current time. After this attack, I will explain in greater detail."

"That's fine, I've got enough information for now anyway."

"You do?"

"If they're made of magic, they'll be extremely weak to gold!"

"What do you propose?" I told her my plan. "That is a rather good plan, you utilise the differences in the Night's Knights well." We turned to a staircase and continued our sprint down them. "I must bring up a point, however."

"What?"

"It puts you in quite a lot of danger."

"Nah, I'm used to shit like this." Luna sighed.

"If you insist."

"One thing, though."

"What?"

"Why are we running? Why don't we just teleport?"

"Because... Um..." We slowed to a stop. "That is a good question." I teleported us to the entrance hall of the Crystal Palace. About twenty guards as well as the N's Ks were waiting for us.

"Alright, you lot!" I shouted at them. "Here's the plan!"

Luna, Total and I stood near the almost destroyed gate, about twenty meters away. The others were in the places I'd told them to go. Glow-Bitch was lounging around in the Palace somewhere, leaving us on our own. Just how I want it. While the other two had armour, I was as naked as I usually was other than a golden dagger I had strapped to me in a sheath.

The gate exploded, sending dust and shards of crystal in every direction. Well, most directions. They didn't explode backwards. That would be physically impossible. Well, not impossible, but... Oh, buck it. The demons came charging through the gate.

"NOW!" I yelled. Luna and I created a force field together, momentarily trapping the demons in a dome. Below them, some of Badda Boom's explosives went off, destroying the ground they stood on causing most of them to fall into a small pit filled with gold water. It burned them like acid, melting them as they screamed in pain. It didn't take long for them to be sent back to Tartarus.

Three demons had managed to grab onto the edge of the pit and pull themselves back up. They unleashed devastating magic attacks onto the force field, shattering it instantly and causing pain to spike through my head. Agh...! I rubbed my temples. Bucking hell! This is why we should've used Dad's Force Barrier! Then again, it can't stop magic anyway, so- My train of thought was cut off as one of the demons charged at me. SHIT! I teleported above it and summoned a Support Circle to stay up. I glanced towards Luna and Total to see them dealing with the other two.

Earlier, I'd sent the infiltrators to find safe ways out of the city near the gate. After they'd found them, they took Major Success, Featherquill as well as sixteen of the guards to prepare a flanking attack in case any demons survived the pit. It was for this reason that they came charging through the gate after the three demons began attacking Luna, Total and me. Or at least Luna and Total, none of them came over to- BUCK!

The demon below me grabbed me out of the air and threw me as hard as it could towards the very close, very very hard ground. The pain was so bad in so many places that I couldn't even tell what was broken. This buckin' demon just PISSED ME OFF! I leapt to my hooves (ignoring the objections of my body) and charged the dick. WOW that sounded better in my unconscious thoughts...

The demon took a swing at me which I easily dodged before sliding between its legs. I spun around, threw myself into the air with a Support Circle, grabbed my golden knife with a hoof (I obviously couldn't grab it with magic) and opened up a huge slash across its back. The demon roared in pain before turning to me at a surprising speed and knocking me through the air with a mighty punch. Dammit! I crashed to the ground once again.

I couldn't move, the pain was too unbearable. I managed to look up long enough to see the demon running towards me, its fist already prepared to finish me. Dammit... This fight wasn't even as good as the one against the Changeling army... Why is it this one that brings me this close to death...? Oh well... That fight didn't kill me so neither will this... The demons was just a heartbeat away. Although... Chrysa-Bitch would've killed me if Dad hadn't saved me, so-

The gargantuan fist collided with my body, crushing me beyond my limit.

Author's Notes:

...And there she goes.

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The snipers were hanging back and using golden tipped arrows.
They didn't do a very good job.

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Sorry for the stupidly long delay.
I was attempting a picture of the Night's Knights and Vesper, but it proved to be much too difficult for me to finish.
I spent way too many hours on it (I lost count after twenty), mentally and physically exhausted myself, injured my elbow from chafing against my chair (which made me take a few days longer while I waited for it to heal), wasted about a month I could've used to work on this and in the end didn't even finish it because of the difficulty mixed with the exhaustion.
Once again; sorry about that.
So I got back to writing this, but guess what immediately struck?
Good ol' writer's block!
Thanks, universe!
Here's a link to what I managed to finish of the picture.

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Sadly, due to real life stuff, updates will be much slower starting about a week from now (Nov 2).
After that (on Nov 10), Fallout 4 will be released and I'll pretty much lose contact with humanity. This mixed with the previously mentioned real life stuff means that updates will be incredibly slow.

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Kind of an awkwardly written battle, but I didn't really know how to write something like that in a good way.
Oh well, when I fail I have mistakes to learn from.