Twilight stood with her back against a stone wall, staring across what looked like an ancient combat arena at a demonic pony— if you could even call a monster with no soul a ‘pony’ anymore— who was holding onto a soul that didn’t belong to her: Twilight’s soul.

Without Twilight’s magic, she would be forced to rely on nothing but her lance and tower shield, and the enchantments placed on each, but they would have to suffice. Twilight was a Paladin after all, she was trained to survive even the most dire combat situations.

“I can’t believe Celestia’s still letting her soldiers run around in thigh-highs and a miniskirt,” the demon scoffed, Twilight’s face turning bright red. She was prepared for battle, sure, but she was less prepared for criticisms on her fashion. “Doesn’t seem entirely practical, y’know?”

“It’s plenty practical! Paladins are protected by magic, not by heavy armor!” Twilight huffed. The enchantments on Twilight’s clothing were actually first rate, she would have this demon know! “Anyway, I’m not taking fashion critique from a girl in short shorts.”

“They’re hot,” the demon shrugged and slapped her bare thigh, Twilight trying to disagree with that assessment but not entirely able to despite herself. Stupid sexy demon. “So what’s your name, girl?”

“Who are you to ask f—”

“Sunset Shimmer,” the demon interrupted casually, looking at her nails and sorta stepping on Twilight’s dramatic line. “Used to be a Paladin just like you, but that wasn’t doing anything for me, so I turned to the dark side. You should try it.”

“I won’t,” Twilight said sternly, stomping a hoof against the dirt. At least that explained how this Sunset Shimmer knew about Celestia. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’ll be taking my soul back and leaving this accursed place, thank you very much!”

“Ooh, feisty,” Sunset Shimmer grinned evilly at Twilight, whose eye twitched and her cheeks burned. Something about this woman was just perfect for getting under Twilight’s skin. “Anyway, if you want your precious soul back so badly, come at me and take it, like I said.”

Sunset took a deep breath and held out her hand, twitching her forefingers to encourage Twilight to approach her.

“If that’s how you want it, then fine!” Twilight said, pointing her lance at Sunset Shimmer. “I’ll just charge right through you and take my soul back!”

Twilight did exactly as she promised, running toward Sunset with the intent to gore her with the lance, but the demon teleported right in front of Twilight mid-charge, stopping Twilight in her tracks and grabbing her by the throat, Sunset’s demonic strength making it a simple matter to pick Twilight off the ground with just one hand.

“Man,” Sunset laughed, “Celestia’s standards have gotten way lax since my time. It’s almost cute how easy that was. But just in case, let’s not get you having any ideas.”

Sunset took the lance out of Twilight’s hand and threw it away, Twilight smirking as she activated the lance’s enchantment, warping Twilight out of Sunset’s grip and behind her to where Sunset had thrown the lance.

Twilight hopped back; she wanted a little bit of distance between her and Sunset now that she had an inkling of what Sunset was capable of.

“Okay,” Sunset flicked a hand through her mane, “that was pretty sick, I’ll give you that one.”

Twilight’s inner teacher’s pet wouldn’t let her respond to that praise with anything less than a big dorky smile, but she didn’t let that distract her from the battle at hand.

Sunset Shimmer had a lot going for her in this duel; she was clearly very strong already, and one thing that made monsters on the surface a manageable threat was that their magic was a finite resource, whereas a pony’s soul was an infinite generator of magic.

A super strong monster with the power of a pony’s soul? Not good.

Meanwhile Twilight had… very little to work with. She would need some element of surprise if she was going to pull this off, and she would likely have to bait Sunset’s ego, which did seem to Twilight to be big enough to manipulate with relative ease.

Those thoughts had to be put on hold as Sunset rushed Twilight, and she was forced to take cover behind one of the many stone arches standing around. Before she could even catch her breath, she heard Sunset’s fist collide with the stone wall between them.

Twilight was confused for just a moment before a searing pain tore into her back and forced her to stumble forward and immediately collapse onto the ground. Sunset then turned the corner around the arch and cracked her knuckles, though Twilight was ready with her shield.

She was able to defend herself from Sunset’s punches using her shield, but with every fist that clanged against the shield’s metal, Twilight’s arm felt a searing pain like it was pressed against a grill. Sunset’s flames didn’t require her to make direct contact with her enemy, just being near her attacks was enough to cause damage.

Twilight threw her lance in a random direction and warped to it. She would need to find a way to put Sunset on the defensive if she wanted to win this, which meant likely just charging blindly into Sunset’s threatened area.

It wasn’t a great plan, but Twilight would simply have to make peace with playing from behind.

Twilight pointed her lance at Sunset, telegraphing that she was going to charge. Sunset merely rolled her eyes and teleported directly behind Twilight, who grit her teeth as she braced herself for inevitable pain.

Sunset snapped her fingers and a fiery blaze exploded from her hand, but Twilight was able to spin around and raise her shield to defend from it, even punching the shield into Sunset’s nose to disorient her as Twilight hopped back— a nervous habit of Twilight’s that likely just cost her a free hit with her lance, but what was done had been done.

Sunset meanwhile just stood where she was and cricked her neck; she wasn’t taking Twilight seriously at all, and Twilight clicked her tongue in frustration. What reason had she given Sunset to consider her a credible opponent? All she had done was play defense and barely scrape her way out of Sunset’s most meager attacks.

And if Twilight wanted to win this, she would need to take control of this battle, no matter what that would take.

Twilight readied her lance and then threw it at Sunset with a truly staggering amount of force behind it, but Sunset casually bobbed her head to the side and avoided the attack completely.

“C’mon,” Sunset laughed, “you didn’t think that was actually—”

Twilight warped to the lance’s location behind Sunset, who turned around just in time for Twilight’s shield to collide with her face, the force of the blow causing Sunset to stagger backwards a couple steps.

Twilight then grabbed her lance, which returned to her hand with a mere thought, and gored Sunset in the stomach, piercing her weapon all the way through Sunset’s body until the tip poked out of Sunset’s back, blood pouring not only from the hole in her stomach, but dripping down her lip as well.

Twilight tugged on the lance and pulled Sunset close to her, Twilight putting her hand on Sunset’s chest and feeling the warmth of Twilight’s soul radiating in her palm. Just as Twilight had always theorized, it would be no problem for her to pull the soul out of the foreign body harboring it, and it would be especially easy for Twilight, the soul’s original owner.

Or at least it would have been easy, if not for Sunset lighting herself on fire at Twilight’s touch, forcing Twilight to recoil and giving Sunset enough breathing room to pull herself off of Twilight’s lance.

Sunset’s demeanor had flipped entirely; she was now quite literally burning with rage, staring down Twilight like a berserk animal as the hole in her chest sealed up slowly, and it didn’t take a genius to see that her change in attitude happened as soon as it looked like she might lose Twilight’s soul.

“Why do you need the soul so badly?” Twilight asked cautiously, trying all at once to appear non-confrontational, but not so much that she couldn’t defend herself from a surprise attack by Sunset.

“That’s none of your business!” Sunset snarled.

“Well, it’s my soul,” Twilight let out a single haughty chuckle, “so it kind of is.”

“It’s my soul now,” Sunset growled, streams of smoke and flame billowing out of her mouth and also off of the rest of her body. “If you want it back—”

“I’ll have to take it, I know,” Twilight sighed. “I’ve heard that line before.”

Sunset roared and stomped on the ground, screaming to the sky before putting both hands on her chest, digging inside it to get to Twilight’s soul. And even divorced from her soul, Twilight could still feel Sunset’s hands as if they were on her own skin, and she could feel the heat of Sunset’s heart burning inside her.

Sunset pulled something out of her, the culmination of her stolen power mixed with the magic of Twilight’s soul; it was a sword. Or rather, it was a sword hilt, with the blade itself only coming to life as Sunset willed it, and the blade was made entirely of Sunset’s flames.

“If you think you can defeat a Paladin of Celestia with stolen power,” Twilight said firmly, standing her ground and preparing for Sunset’s inevitable advance, “then think again! I’ll be taking my soul back and saving my friends!”

Sunset ignored Twilight completely, just jumping into the air to come down on Twilight with her sword. But blinded by her rage, Sunset’s attacks became clumsy and predictable, and Twilight was easily able to dodge.

Though as she jumped out of the way of Sunset’s sword, Twilight could feel the heat of Sunset’s flames licking her skin; that sword was more powerful, and more versatile, than an ordinary sword, and Twilight would need to be careful.

Twilight threw her lance behind Sunset, which only caused the demon to laugh.

“You aren’t gonna trick me with that again!”

Twilight ignored her and warped to the lance’s location, Sunset turning around to face Twilight when she appeared, but Twilight just grabbed the lance and threw it a second time, immediately warping right behind Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight punched Sunset with her shield, but Sunset was able to just barely dodge; which was fine with Twilight, as she just let the shield slip off her arm so that it flew behind Sunset’s head, allowing Twilight to warp to it, and kick Sunset right in the head as she turned to face Twilight.

Sunset wiped a drop of blood that leaked from her nose and laughed.

“You’re not bad, Twilight Sparkle,” Sunset said, her voice low and gravelly as her body still burned with excess magic. “But there’s no way you can keep this up. All the effort you’re putting into these little nothing hits? You can’t beat me, and if you surrender right now like a good girl, I might consider keeping you as a pet or something, instead of killing you.”

“You can’t kill me,” Twilight said casually. “We both know that if I die, my soul disappears.”

“Fine,” Sunset griped, “I’ll keep you as a pet instead of as a slave, how does that sound? I might need you alive, but I don’t need you in one piece.”

“I’m not giving up,” Twilight said coldly, scraping her hoof across the stone floor of the arena. “I’m not going to give into your threats, and I’m not going to stop fighting until my very last breath if that’s what it takes, because that’s what I believe is the right thing to do! And you won’t be able to stop me!

“But if you’re afraid of me,” Twilight smirked, “then you can always surrender instead.”

“I like your confidence!” Sunset roared with laughter. “Let’s see how long it lasts!”

Sunset threw a blast of heat at Twilight that made her flinch, which was enough time for Sunset to teleport in front of her and grab her, then teleport again to shove Twilight roughly against the stone wall of the arena and pin her there.

Sunset scratched her claw under Twilight’s chin and sighed softly, her blazing sword inches from Twilight’s body and Twilight knowing that any wrong move would result in possibly permanent injury.

“Do you want to surrender now?” Sunset hummed, grabbing Twilight by the chin and forcing her to look into Sunset’s blazing teal eyes.

“No,” Twilight said softly, locking eyes with Sunset as she dropped her weapons. “I have a better idea. Why don’t we work together?”

“Wh-what?” Sunset’s question was barely decipherable through her laughter. “A Paladin and a demon? How could we possibly work together?”

“You need my soul,” Twilight explained. “You’re clearly desperate for it, so you must need the magic it provides for something extremely important to you. I’m willing to let you keep my soul, and stick by you and help you complete your quest, just as long as it’s not something that a Paladin would object to, of course.”

“And in return?” Sunset asked, arching an eyebrow.

“You will guide me through the Underworld,” Twilight said. “You’ll protect me until I find the rest of my expedition. But whether you decide to help me or not, I’ll let you hold onto my soul.”

“You’ll ‘let’ me?” Sunset cackled. “Who’s giving you a choi—”

Sunset paused and looked down, as Twilight’s fingers grazed her chest and Sunset realized that Twilight’s hand had been hovering over Sunset’s chest during nearly their entire conversation. Twilight could have made a move for the soul and it would have responded to its owner and come back to her. But she chose not to, and was now flexing that choice in front of Sunset.

“Your plan—”

“Was for you to get close to me,” Twilight smirked, feeling rather chuffed with herself. “Close enough that I could take the soul without having to advance on you at all.”

“All those clumsy techniques,” Sunset said, “were just to make me drop my guard?”

“You gotta work with what you have,” Twilight shrugged. The truth was that Twilight was doing her best to defeat Sunset at first, and it was only after she realized that she wasn’t going to be able to that she switched tactics. But a victory is a victory, nonetheless.

“And I walked right into it,” Sunset laughed and walked away from Twilight, the flames on her body subsiding and her sword disappearing into the ether. She turned her head to look at Twilight and flashed a devilish smirk that almost gave Twilight goosebumps. “Yeah, okay, Twilight Sparkle. Let’s you and me be partners for a while.”

ladies is it gay to *gestures at all of this*

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