The pitch blackness around the small group was making them incredibly uneasy. With everything they had just witnessed, they were still stressed out, so to be submerged into darkness with several terrifying events happening right in front of them wasn’t exactly good on their already tense bodies.

Rainbow Dash felt herself jump out of her skin as she collided with something in the dark. She then realized that it was just a section of the wall beside her. Her jumpiness was justifiable, but she still felt bad for being so nervous.

Before anyone could speak up in light of their lightless situation, the group heard a soft click followed by a cone of light filling the area around them. Everyone turned to see Sunspot letting go of a small flashlight mounted on the front of her suit. The others were relieved to finally be able to see what was going on around them.

“That’s better… if only slightly.” Sunspot stated while observing the cut off of darkness a short distance away.

Most of the hallway was still pitch black, and the presence of light actually somehow managed to make things even scarier. The ponies could see gaping voids of shadow to their front and back, and knowing that these led to other open areas played with a sense of primal fear in them. They felt like young fillies wandering out into the pitch black hallways of their homes to go to the bathroom after having a bad nightmare.

“What is going on?” Applejack asked nervously while putting a hoof up to the wall to examine the three scorch marks still present on it. The three marks were still slightly warm from whatever had caused them, and they smelled odd to boot. The orange mare sniffed for a few moments to try and determine the source of the odor.

“What is that smell?” Applejack muttered to herself while in thought. She didn’t expect anyone to hear her, but apparently she had spoken loud enough for everyone to look over to see what she was doing.

“That would probably be sulfur…” Tom spoke while working his way back up to his feet. The ponies looked at the weakened human with confused expressions.

“Sulfur…? What is sulfur doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while looking at the odd markings. Before Tom could reply, another scraping noise sounded out.

It was like someone was carving directly into the walls and floor. The grating noise, combined with the three flashes of electricity off in the darkness told the ponies that another mark had been created just ahead of them. Sunspot pointed her flashlight to the left slightly, illuminating the claw marks on the wall just in front of the stairs.

“The demon must be manifesting. It’s channeling its energy through the area, which must be causing these things to happen.” Tom explained while rubbing his hand across the newly formed scorch marks. Some black charred particles flaked off of his fingers as he rubbed them together.

“The demon is coming…? Like… right now?!” Sunspot asked in a nervous panic. It didn’t take much to realize the urgency of what was actually going on.

“It looks that way. That is probably why all of the others left… they most likely got called back by their master so he could have us all to himself.” Tom theorized with a slightly nervous tone. The fact that the hardened monster slayer was getting scared was more than enough to terrify the three mares.

“Well what do we do? How do we stop it?” Rainbow Dash asked while hoping that there was a way to circumvent a demon coming to kill them. Tom shrugged and looked at the cyan mare with a defeated expression, making her heart sink.

“I don’t think we can… the spell Cotton used was very self-contained. Once it was finished, it didn’t have very much of a connection with how things proceeded from there. The only way to make the storm stop and to get rid of these guys… is to beat the big boss behind all of it.” Tom explained with dread evident in his voice.

Another scraping noise sounded out, drawing the group’s attention down the stairs. Another set of claw marks formed along the steps leading down. A few feet away from these marks, another set appeared with a bright arc of electricity that sparked into the air above slightly.

As the ponies watched with growing senses of fear and dread, the claw marks continued appearing on what seemed to be a path to the front door. A nearby table was knocked over suddenly, spilling the vase on top of it to the floor with a loud crash and making the group jump in fright.

Once the scratches got to the door, they stopped momentarily. The group almost expected things to stop right then and there, although they knew that this was just misplaced optimism. Much to their dismay, a loud bang sounded out as the door flew open and slammed into the wall. As the door frame slowly drifted from its momentum, more of the scratches appeared on the deck outside and continued down into the soaked and muddy path.

The wind picked up suddenly and lightning started flashing in the sky violently. The thunderous display seemed ominously out of place considering the complete lack of rain. It was almost like a terrifying omen of bad things to come.

As the ponies hesitantly gathered around the door to look outside, their attention suddenly drifted to a spot in the mud out in the distance. Some of the mud on the surface seemed to be moving out of the way, as if something were standing on top of it.

“What the-” Applejack started to ask a question, but she never got the chance to finish it.

A blinding flash of light rang out in front of the group, forcing them to shield their eyes. A deafening boom of thunder followed the flash, louder and more intense than anything they had ever heard in their lives. The thunder was so strong that the ponies could feel it. Their bodies shook from the initial jolt, and many of them were knocked off balance from the sudden fright. The group of four all concluded that lightning just struck in front of them. It was a terrifying experience, and one that they never wanted to experience again in their lifetimes.

Looking up and opening their eyes after the earth shaking shockwave, the four noticed that the bright light was still present. The source of the light made the ponies drop their jaws and widen their eyes in shock and horror. There was a single bolt of lightning that seemed to be lingering in the spot that it struck.

The lightning seemed to be flowing into the spot in the mud that the ponies noticed earlier. Whatever it was doing there, it seemed to be causing some kind of bizarre reaction with the ground. A bright blob of light formed at the bottom of the bolt and slowly grew larger, covering an area on the ground in blinding light. What was even more concerning and terrifying, was that there seemed to be something taking shape in the aura of light.

A black silhouette of a humanoid creature slowly took form in the area obscured by the lightning. It seemed to twitch and convulse, as if it were just now coming into existence and was trying to learn how to move. As the creature formed, a terrifying noise could be heard over the buzzing of the electricity. It reminded the group of the lesser demons’ growl, but this seemed to be even more unnatural and unnerving. The low, almost bestial groans and growls shifted in pitch and tone, creating an unearthly choir of disturbing noises.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Sunspot were unable to look away from the horrific images in front of them. They stared at the forming creature with trembling bodies and pounding hearts. They wanted to turn around and run away, to let the slayer deal with the terrible beast about to come and kill them, but they were cemented in place by fear.

As the black form of the creature filled out, an outline of a face formed on what the ponies could loosely identify as its head. It reminded the group of the face they had seen on the clouds earlier, just a gaping mouth and two eyes made out of burning light.

The creature fell to its knees and the lightning ceased, leaving only smoke coming off of the ground and the body of the monster to indicate that it was there at all. Now that they could actually see what the creature looked like, the ponies noticed that it had grey skin. The entire body of the foreign animal seemed gaunt and thin. It had long, reaching arms with boney fingers on gnarled hands. It seemed to have only three pointed toes on each claw like foot. And it had pointed ears on its bald head.

“I-is that him?” Rainbow Dash stammered nervously while breaking her trance like stare with the creature. Now that she wasn’t morbidly fascinated with the beast, she was outright terrified of it.

“Yeah… that’s him.” Tom stated grimly while eyeing the crouching monster. “Girls… that is a demon given flesh and blood.” He explained with dread and apprehension clear in his voice. The ponies looked back to the grey creature with fearful anxiety as they waited for it to move.

The group noticed a sort of light coming from underneath its bowed head. Something was flickering where its face should have been, and as the creature slowly looked up, the ponies were stunned into silence.

The monster didn’t have a face. Or to be more accurate, it had a face, but it didn’t have what one would call physical features on its head. Other than its ears, its head was barren of anything that seemed to be a part of its body. Instead of the sharp teeth or glowing red eyes the ponies expected the monster to have, it had sparking arcs of electricity in the shapes of eyes and a mouth.

The lightning on its face perfectly formed a blank yet somehow sinister expression. Despite the constant flowing and occasional shifting of the electricity, it seemed to hold the shape of a mouth rather well. The eyes had electricity on the outer edges, but the center of them seemed to be pits of white light formed by the lightning.

The sight was mesmerizing and horrifying at the same time. It was unlike anything the ponies had ever seen before. They would be amazed by the wondrous occurrence if they weren’t petrified by the monster that it belonged to.

As the creature slowly got up, the ponies stepped back slightly in preparation to flee if it should jump at them. Once upright, the beast looked around for a moment before settling its eyes on the small group in the doorway. It then started walking forward slowly, at an almost casual pace. Wherever the creature stepped, arcs of electricity were left behind as the ground charred beneath him. Random sparks and miniature bolts of lightning flowed off of its body at odd intervals, but it seemed to pay no mind to this occurrence.

Tom and the others started backing up nervously as the monster made its way towards the house without so much as a noise. It kept staring forward with its unblinking luminescent eyes and its closed mouth that only seemed to move when the arc of lightning that formed it moved up and down slightly.

“What is your name?” Tom demanded in his best intimidating tone. He didn’t expect the demon to answer without using his influence, but the creature seemed to start moving its mouth to speak.

“My name doesn’t concern you.” It spoke with a faint, almost distant sort of whisper. It sounded as if the wind had formed a voice and started speaking. As it spoke, the creature’s mouth opened and moved as a normal mouth would have, but the inside of its mouth was filled with blackness. The void in its head seemed to have depth, but it had no teeth or a tongue. The only thing even keeping up the illusion that it was in fact an operable mouth was the arc of lightning splitting and moving like a pair of electric lips.

Tom put his hand out and channeled all of the energy he had left into controlling the demon with his will power. The creature stumbled mid stride and walked backwards for a moment as it felt the force of the slayer’s influence striking its body.

“I said… what is your name?” Tom asked in a more commanding tone. The ponies were surprised that the human could try to intimidate such a terrifying creature.

The demon smiled, raising the edges of the line that served as its mouth into a curve and creating a devious smirk. It then walked forward, completely overpowering Tom as he tried to keep it back. The human groaned as he struggled to even have the smallest effect on the creature.

“You hold no power over me slayer… now move aside so I can perform my duties.” The creature stated in a cold and emotionless tone while its voice deepened slightly. Despite the lack of expression in his voice, the group felt threatened by his statement.

“What duties?” Tom asked with hesitant curiosity while backing up slowly.

“The one who summoned me here made a request. Once I complete this task, I will be free to roam the earth as I wish. The task I was given is to kill the individuals known as the elements of harmony.” The demon said without batting an eyelash, even if it didn’t have one to bat. Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately felt a nervous pit in their stomachs from hearing the creature address how it was going to systematically hunt them down and kill them.

The two mares looked to the slayer for reassurance that he could protect them. Although the boy did have an uneasy expression, he did seem to be thinking of something to do. He suddenly turned to face the ponies with a serious look on his face.

“Sunspot… I need you to take them upstairs and protect them.” Tom instructed while glancing back outside to check on the monster’s progress towards the house.

“What…?! You seriously can’t be thinking about fighting that thing by yourself can you?” Sunpot asked in a disapproving tone. She wanted to be there to help with the fight, not hiding upstairs and waiting for that thing to get the drop on her.

“We humans aren’t exactly the best thinkers… slayer or no slayer.” Tom replied lightheartedly. He didn’t even have to look at the orange pegasus to know that she didn’t like his response.

“But I-” Sunspot started to speak up, when she was interrupted by the human speaking up again in a more serious tone.

“Look Sunspot, I don’t want them to be anywhere near this thing when we start fighting. I don’t know what it can do, and I don’t want to take that risk. Either you take them upstairs and I will fight him, or I will take them upstairs and leave you down here to fight him yourself.” Tom explained in a non-threatening yet still stern tone. The suited mare was left speechless by the human’s conviction in this situation.

“Ok… I’ll keep them safe.” Sunspot finally agreed while turning to the two on looking ponies. “Follow me guys.” She said while heading up the stairs and motioning for the pair to follow her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash glanced between themselves and the human as he stepped forward to face the terrifying creature. They didn’t want to leave him by himself, but they also didn’t want to be anywhere near the demon.

“Be careful Tom.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while turning to follow Sunspot. The three mares glanced back at the human with worried expressions of fear plastered on their faces. Despite their concern, they continued moving to safety as they were told.

With the two mares hesitantly walking upstairs to follow their suited companion, Tom was left with no one else to keep him company other than the bright eyed beast slowly walking towards him. As the demon stepped up onto the porch, the human could see the smoke forming beneath his feet from where the wood was being charred beneath him.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you come in here until you deal with your face. I hate to be the one to tell you this man, but that is a real fire hazard you got going on there.” Tom stated with as much bravado as he could muster with his exhausted body. The demon smirked at the human standing in the doorway to block his path.

“Fire hazard… I’ll show you a fire hazard!” He said while adopting a more threatening tone and reeling his arm back. Tom didn’t need much context to know where this was heading. As sparks formed in the creature’s hand, the boy ducked to the side quickly.

With a terrifying roar, the demon shot its arm forward and pointed its outstretched hand towards the doorway. A bolt of lightning shot out from his palm, followed by an authentically loud shockwave of thunder.

Tom shielded his eyes as the bolt flew into the doorway and whizzed past him and onto the stairs. By the time the bolt died down and he looked back up, he noticed a few dying flames and a large spot on the stairs broken up and charred from the impact.

“Hey… dude, that is not cool. Are you going to clean that up or what?” The human stated with a cocky smirk while getting up. His smile almost instantly vanished when he noticed the demon standing in front of him with a piercing blank stare.

“Oh, I’m sure that will buff right out. I think it will be harder to get bloodstains out of the carpet however.” The creature said while lunging forward and grabbing the slayer by the throat. Tom hated how he was being out matched and out witted by the same monster.

The demon threw Tom up and onto the stairs with a great deal of force. The human hit his head on one of the steps, causing a great deal of pain. As he looked down to see the monster already walking up to him, he realized that he was in a great deal of trouble.

With blinding speed, the monster plunged its hand downward into Tom’s leg. The human found it odd that the physical incarnation of a demon didn’t have claws on its hands, when he suddenly realized why this was. The monster applied so much force to his strike that his boney fingers pierced the boy’s skin almost effortlessly. Tom cried out in pain as he felt the beast drag him down the steps and toss him into the air by his impaled leg. As the human sailed out of the still open front door, he tried to tuck and roll on his way to the ground, but the best he could do was to roll sideways to not hit his face as he bounced down the stairs to the porch. The demon looked outside to see the boy in a crumpled heap on the ground. Figuring that the slayer wouldn’t be a problem for at least a few minutes while he recovered, the creature diverted his attention up the stairs to his escaping prey.

Meanwhile, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were following Sunspot through the hallways in an attempt at finding shelter. They turned the corner and ducked into a nearby room and closed the door. Applejack recognized the room to be her own bedroom.

As Sunspot fiddled with her equipment in an attempt at finding something, the farm pony and her cyan friend were left to deal with the weight of their current situation, which was more hopelessly bleak the more they thought about it.

“Oh man! I don’t want to go out from a bald headed freak with a lightshow for a face killing me!” Rainbow Dash said while on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“We’re going to be fine Rainbow Dash… Tom is going to take care of that thing while we sit up here and relax.” Applejack said in a reassuring tone while ushering the nervous pegasus over to her bed and sitting her down. She was just as frightened as her friend was if not more, but she tried her best to internalize it. Perhaps helping the cyan mare to deal with her fear would help her feel calmer.

“Right… relax. Sorry if I don’t feel up to playing cards right now Applejack.” Rainbow Dash said while laying back on the bed and letting out an uneasy sigh.

While the two ponies tried to ignore the situation downstairs, Sunspot was trying to prevent it from coming upstairs. The suited mare quickly scribbled red ink onto a piece of paper in an attempt at making a physical barrier. Despite her shaky hooves and tense nerves, the orange pegasus somehow managed to get the first piece of paper done. After affixing the first half of the charm onto the door, she quickly got to work on the second half while nervously glancing outside occasionally.

“Come on, come on…” Sunspot muttered to herself anxiously. Every passing second she expected the lightning faced monster to burst in and strike her down in one fell swoop. The tension that Sunspot was feeling was palpably clear over at the bed where Applejack and Rainbow Dash were sitting. The two mares watched their companion with progressively worsening anxiety as they waited for her to finish.

“Come on… come on… Yes!” Sunspot exclaimed triumphantly while holding up the finished piece of paper. It was astounding that she could draw a steady line with her jittery nerves, let alone a completed symbol, but she somehow managed to best all of the odds to complete the charm.

Without any further delay, Sunspot went to step outside to affix the completed charm onto the other side of the door. Before she could even open the door further however, she was interrupted by a frightening image popping up in front of her.

“Ah!” Sunspot yelped in fright as she saw the sparking electrical face of the demon jut out from around the corner. As the grey creature violently shoved the door open and stepped forward, Sunspot backpedaled as fast as she could. No matter how fast she was, she was unable to dodge the swipe from the demon’s sharp talon-like fingers.

“AGH!” Sunspot yelled in pain as the creature’s claws raked across her chest. The force of the strike sent her tumbling sideways.

“Sunspot!” Rainbow Dash and Applejack cried out in horror as they watched the suited mare slam into the wall. She tried to get up briefly, but she wasn’t able to get off of the floor.

With the only obstacle out of its way, the demon looked forward at the two wide eyed mares. Taking a few slow steps forward, it seemed to be enjoying the sense of terror it was creating in its hapless prey. The pair of ponies darted their eyes around frantically in an attempt at trying to find a way out.

Spotting the nearby window, Applejack rushed to it and pushed it open. She then turned to her cyan friend with a pleading expression.

“Rainbow Dash, get out of here!” Applejack instructed in a frantic tone while pointing outside. She obviously wanted the pegasus to fly out of the open window to save herself. Rainbow Dash looked between Applejack and the open window before shaking her head in refusal.

“I’m not leaving you here!” Rainbow Dash stated adamantly. The orange mare couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“There’s no sense in both of us dying here. You need to run!” Applejack said in a sincere tone. She was practically begging her friend to leave her.

Before the two could continue their argument, they turned to see how close the demon had gotten and gasped once they spotted him. The grey creature had managed to silently approach the orange mare. He had gotten so close that he was practically staring down at her. His sparkling mouth shifted to a devilish grin as he prepared to slash the farm pony.

Applejack had no time to dodge the attack. All she could do was yelp in surprise as she watched the creature swipe at her. Just before the impact, the orange mare felt something shove into her from the side and saw a cyan blur in front of her.

As she went to the ground, Applejack heard Rainbow Dash scream in pain. She quickly realized that the pegasus had jumped into her to push her to the floor, and caught the monster’s vicious attack across her back.

“Rainbow Dash, no!” Applejack yelled frantically as she looked at the wounded pony beside her on the floor. Rainbow Dash had three decently sized gashes on her back that were pouring out blood down her side. The cyan mare writhed in pain, and seemed to be incapable of getting back up on her own.

Looking up to see the creature staring down at them with its piercing gaze, the two mares saw that it was preparing to claw at them again. Applejack helped her injured friend scoot backwards, although there wasn’t much room to escape before hitting the solid wooden wall.

The pair huddled close together and shut their eyes as they watched the blur of motion that went along with the monster’s attack. The thought of one of them dying in the other’s arms disturbed and terrified the two ponies. They wondered which one of them would go first, or if they would both catch the same attack, and how long it would take them to die.

Applejack heard a piercing sound near her. She felt her heart drop as she imagined her cyan friend getting impaled next to her. Rainbow Dash wasn’t making any noise, so she wondered if she had been killed instantly or was simply unable to speak.

The farm pony hesitantly peeked open one of her eyes to look. Surprisingly she saw Rainbow Dash doing the same thing. After inspecting their bodies, they each realized that neither of them had been struck. Looking up in slight confusion, the pair was shocked to see the creature holding its claws mere inches away from them.

The thing that had made it pause was clearly evident as the pair looked up. They noticed a blue tinted sword sticking through the creature’s mid-section, causing the demon to cease its attack. They then spotted their human friend behind the monster, struggling to get it away from them.

“Tom!” The two ponies exclaimed in unison. They were relieved to see that the slayer was coming to their rescue, or at least trying to.

Tom grunted as he yanked his sword back out of the demon. The monster seemed unfazed by the attack. If anything it seemed to be further enraged by the interruption to its slaughter. With an agitated growl, the monster spun around and roared at the human.

As it opened its mouth to roar, the electricity that made up its mouth arced downwards and upwards to form into two rows of needle like teeth. While these may not have been functional as actual teeth, they were rather effective at putting the fear of death into the young slayer.

Before Tom could react, the demon slammed its closed fist into him and sent him flying backwards. After sliding out of the door to the bedroom, the human looked up to see the furious monster stomping towards him.

The boy held out his hand and tried once again to use his influence on the demonic creature. He strained with all of his might, eliciting a bigger response than last time. The demon stopped walking forward and seemed to be pushed back slightly. It struggled to move forward to get at the human, barely managing to take steady steps towards him.

“What is your name?!” Tom demanded, hoping that asking for the creature’s name would put more stress on it.

The monster paused and stared at the slayer for a moment before smiling. It then raised its arms out to the side. Suddenly, the wind picked up outside and the sky was ablaze with lightning. The rain from before came crashing down once again with brutal force.

“My name is cyclone, for I am the roaring wind… My name is maelstrom, for I am the rushing waters… My name is tempest… for I, am the coming storm.” The demon spoke over the wind and the thunder with relative ease. It was as if his voice were carried through the uproar like it was part of it.

The wind suddenly picked up inside of the room. The strong gusts felt like a whirlwind was flying through the house, picking up small objects with ease and even slightly levitating larger objects with its force. The ponies grabbed onto the nearest solid object and attempted to hold on while their bodies lifted into the air.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash strained to keep their hold on the windowsill. They could feel their grips loosening as the wind blew stronger and stronger. The pair let out muffled cries of fear as they imagined themselves getting thrown around the room like dust bunnies in a vacuum.

As the grey creature dropped its arms back to its side, all of the wind in the room traveled downwards, carrying everything with it. Rainbow Dash and Applejack hit their upper bodies into the wall as they were unexpectedly slammed downwards from their position at the window. The two mares also smacked their faces into the windowsill as they fell. The blow caused more pain than anything else, making their faces sting from the impact. The orange mare put a hoof up to her lip and discovered that she had busted it open slightly.

Disturbed by the monster’s display of power, Tom decided that he would have to defeat it as fast as possible to avoid any casualties among his friends. Pouring whatever energy he had left into his invisible struggle with the beast, he tried to bend it to his will.

“I command you to leave this plane of existence and return to where you came from!” Tom commanded in a stern voice. The human’s entire arm was shaking violently, but he had to keep it up to beat the demon.

The creature shifted its expression into an angry snarl. It then reeled its arm back and shoved it forward, sending a compressed blast of air at the human. The wall of wind hitting him was so dense and fast moving, that it actually felt solid. Tom’s head was knocked back into the wall, sending him into a dazed stupor.

“You do not make demands of me Thomas Greene.” The demon stated in a threatening tone. The ponies watched in shock as Tom drifted in and out of consciousness while sliding to the floor. They knew that without the human to distract it, the creature would be coming for them.

“Oh yeah? How about me?!” Sunspot yelled boldly while rushing up behind the creature. She took a collapsible baton from her suit’s equipment and smacked the monster as hard as she could behind the knee of one of its legs. She figured that if she was going to die, she might as well put her all into fighting the thing trying to kill her without fear getting in the way.

Much to the amazement of the suited mare and the two stunned ponies watching, the monster’s leg buckled and it went down on bended knee. Before it could react to the attacking pegasus, Sunspot grabbed its head and pulled it back while reaching for the salt container she had handy.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were amazed at the suited mare’s bravery. She almost seemed to have no concern for her own wellbeing as she assaulted the frightful creature. They quickly realized that she was so gung ho because she was quite literally fighting for her life and the lives of everyone else targeted by the demon.

With this fiery passion to fight for her friends fueling her actions, Sunspot quickly poured salt onto the creature’s face. The demon howled in pain as its skin started smoking from the white powder touching it. As it opened its seemingly nonphysical mouth to scream, the salt went inside and burned the grey monster further.

“Go Sunspot!” Rainbow Dash cheered in elation. It was the first time in the past few hours that she actually felt hopeful of their chances. They were fighting back, and they were actually winning. This made the cyan mare excited, along with her orange friend.

Sunspot enjoyed the awesome feeling she was getting from torturing the demon into submission. She wasn’t sure what she would do when she ran out of salt, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, she was dominating the grey monster.

The monster howled and flailed its arms around in agony as it tried to get away from the constant downpour of pain and misery. It could have overpowered the suited pegasus three ways from Sunday, but the excruciating pain it was going through clouded its mind and made it hard to escape the situation by using its powers.

Suddenly, the creature stopped flailing one of its arms around and clenched its fist a few times. Ripping free from the suited mare’s grip, the demon managed to twist its body and thrust its clawed fingers towards her.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash gasped in shock as all sense of excitement left them instantly. Sunspot felt the creature’s four razor sharp fingers stab into her with a sickening squelch. The orange pegasus croaked out a surprised gasp before falling silent. The shock of the experience forced her to drop the small cylinder in her hoof as she stared forward with wide eyes.

“Sunspot!” The two ponies watching on in horror cried out in unison while reaching out to the suited mare. They noticed a large amount of blood pooling over the creature’s hand where it was sticking into her side.

Sunspot slowly looked down at her impaled body and trembled slightly. She then looked back up to the angry face of the demon staring at her with contempt evident in his expression. Without so much as a second thought, the monster picked the pegasus up by her injury and threw her across the room. Sunspot slammed into the wall behind Applejack and Rainbow Dash and flopped to the floor with a sizable thud. The two mares rushed to the pegasus’s side and steadied her while staring at her injury with a strong feeling of dread and fear gripping them tightly.

The suited mare had four evenly spaced puncture wounds on the left side of her stomach region, along with the superficial slashes across her chest from earlier. Although it was hard to tell due to the pooling blood over the wounds, the ponies knew that they were deep.

“Sunspot! Can you hear me?!” Rainbow Dash asked while gently shaking the bleeding mare. Sunspot was barely remaining conscious. The cyan pegasus was unsure of whether she was drowsy from hitting her head, or from losing so much blood.

Hearing the sounds of the creature’s feet pounding on the floor as it stepped forward, the two mares diverted their attention away from their wounded companion, and over to their approaching assailant. The demon brushed the salt off of its face and shook its head forcefully to rid itself of the white powder. It then looked forward with an angry scowl.

“I’m done playing games with you insignificant ants. Don’t bother saying goodbye to your friends, because they will be meeting you soon.” The monster stated threateningly while holding its clawed hands upward in preparation to strike. The demon’s faint voice only made the statement more unnerving for the ponies. They could see their lives flashing before their eyes.

“Hey sparky…” Suddenly the group heard a familiar voice come from behind the grey monster. The beast turned around to see what was behind him, when something miraculous happened.

The ponies watched in surprise and shock as an orange blur sliced across the monster’s neck. The demon’s cry of pain was cut short as its head flew off of its body. As the lifeless corpse of the still twitching monster collapsed to the floor and started turning to smoke, the ponies looked ahead to see an exhausted human standing above the fallen monster with his claws still glowing from having freshly come into existence.

“When you get back to hell… tell them Tom sent you.” Tom stated with a slight smirk at his satisfying victory.