Celestia flew through the halls of her castle, not daring to look back and with Spike clutched in her embrace. The only way she had to know they were still chased were Spike's screams of terror, since the dragon was able to see the horde of monsters and insane ponies that was only mere meters behind them.

“They're gaining on us Princess!!” He cried while looking back.

“Hold on!” Exclaimed Celestia, flapping her wings faster to gain speed. Despite this, the horde was no farther than before; at least it wasn't closer either, which as far as she cared wasn't enough, and on top of that she didn't know where she was going or where would they go if she managed to escape Canterlto but her magic didn't work due to the mere presence of the big demons, so she had to use her wings.

Unfortunately, she forgot that those corridors led directly to the throne room, a dead end, and only remembered that when she saw the open gates of the hall. Which was infested with smaller monsters. Either they had arrived there already or they knew where would she go.

“Celestia, in front of us!” Cried Spike.

Celestia stopped in mid-air and tried to turn back, hopeful that the creatures couldn't jump that high and knowing that she was faster than any living pegasus, but she found herself in front of a literal living wall of scales, fangs and hands holding anything resembling a weapon, so tall that it reached the ceiling of the corridor. They were trapped.

In another occasion Celestia would have laughed at the somewhat comical sight of ponies and other creatures forming a wall, but right now those same ponies and creatures wanted to kill her and Spike. Especially her ponies: in all her life she had never seen murderous expressions like those, not even when the first demon attacked and did the same thing to her soldiers, who turned on their fellow stallions and slaughtered them, after which they did the same to each other, leaving her alone with the demon and surrounded by corpses.

But they didn't. Instead, the small demons and insane ponies just glared at them (well, the monsters did; the ponies were trying to attack them, but the horde was so 'packed' they couldn't do more than scream and spit).

“Why aren't they attacking?” Whispered Spike.

“I don't know, but it can't be good.” She replied.

“Well, depends on what you consider good.” Said a voice coming from behind them. It was the light voice of a mare, one that Celestia ddin't know. The alicorn, not wanting to move her whole body out of fear, turned her head to see who spoke.

She saw, on the corner of her eye, a demon sitting on her throne. The sight of a creature much bigger than even Discord sitting on a throne made for a much smaller alicorn would have been quite funny in another time.

Of course, the fact that in front of the demon demon stood a yellow-furred, white maned unicorn that looked at them with glowing blue eyes and a sinister smile.

The demon sitting on her chair, in turn, was leaning forward in a playful manner, with its ugly head resting on its left claw and something akin to a smile adorning its muzzle. It wasn't glaring at them like it's brethren, but it was clear by the way it was looking at them, the cold, calculating eyes and the fact that the mare was essentially mirroring it...

“Well? Come in!” The possessed mare said in what seemed to be a mocking tone.

“What do we do now?” Whispered Spike, scared out of his wits by the fact that the monsters could speak.

The Princess of the Day, unsure of what to do, was about to say something when, without warning, her body moved on its own accord, walking until she stood right in front of the stairs that led to the throne. The same force that made her move forced her to look to the smiling unicorn right in the eyes, with the also-smiling demon behind her.

“Well? Aren't you going to introduce yourselves?”

The day had started well. No, the day had started great: Twilight and the others defeated the Storm King and his forces with the help of Tempest Shadow, fred Celestia, Luna and Cadance from their stone prison, brought Equestria and Mount Aris closer (although after trying to steal Novo's Pearl of Transformation), and the Friendship Festival was restarted. It was beautiful.

And then the monsters came. The creatures in general looked like small, wingless dragons with spiked tails which were further divided in two types: bigger, silent ones who stood on their hind legs and appeared to be no more than ten, and smaller (as in, just slightly bigger than Celestia herself), noisy ones on a quadrupedal stance that appeared to be the bulk of the horde, numbering at least a hundred.

Nopony knew where they came from, nor what they really were aside from reptiles, but everypony present knew one thing: for some reason, the creatures didn't like them. They weren't staring, they weren't frowning, they were glari

So busy were the attendants to the Festival that none saw Celestia shiver in fear. Well, none except Spike who was right next to her, but he too, for some reason, was scared of the creatures, especially since Twilight, ever the diplomatic and not remembering what happened last time (three days prior to be precise), walked towards what appeared to be the leader of the 'visitors'. Celestia, seeing the closest thing she had to a son so terrified and next to her, lifted him with her magic and brought him to her.

“Princess, I'm scared.” Said Spike, with his voice muffled because he had sunk his head on her bosom. In another occasion he (and Celestia) would have felt embarrassed because of this, but at that moment he was the most scared he had ever been.

Of course, his fear couldn't compare to Celestia's, for she knew exactly what the creatures were: demons. She had slain the first one two hundred years prior after it escaped the meteor that brought it to Equus and slaugthered the Royal Army, after which she hid the metal contraption that brought it in their world for fear that it could release more monsters if they existed.

“Me too Spike, me too.” Replied the alabaster alicorn while clutching the back of the boy's head, not looking away from the supposed leader of the creatures that, unknown to Twilight, who was futilely talking to it, was GLARING RIGHT AT HER.

And then it bit Twilight in half, which the other monsters took as a signal to attack and slaughter the party-goers.

Chaos ensued, with hundreds of screaming ponies running in any direction to get away from the murderous creatures, trampling those unfortunate enough to trip in front of them. A few, including Rainbow Dash and her sister Luna, tried to attack the monster, but died before they could fire a magic bolt at them. Worse, they died because the monsters themselves attacked them with their own magic attacks, which they turned to the terrified and horrified ponies (terrified because of obvious reasons, horrified because nopony in Equus had seen such grisly brutality ever, not even Discord), ripping them apart with red projectiles of pure energy, burning them from the inside out with fire and even causing their limbs to flash-freeze so that they were easier to catch and maul, if they even survived the sudden change of body temperature.

Despite all of that, those attacks weren't the worse part.

It was the brainwashing. One of the monsters grabbed a guard with it's magic and looked at her right in his eyes with its own glowing ones. The terrified earth pony's face adopted a maddened expression, and just as the demon let her go shehe lunged at the nearest living pony (a pegasus colt) and procceeded to punch him with all her strength. She didn't stop punching even as the poor colt died.

Celestia, who until that point had been frozen in terror, ignored the pleas of help from the ponies that were still alive and sane and teleported herself and Spike in front to her palace's Panic Room, which, despite the name, was more akin to a giant vault, a whole new infraestructure built under the castle, specifically where the Crystal Caves were before, complete with bedrooms, bathrooms, a common hall, a kitchen and even an arcade, and big enough to house two hundred ponies, although not very luxurious in contrast with the palace it was built under. She made it built and announced it existance publicly after Chrysalis had captured her, Luna, Twilight and the rest despite the concern of her friends. One of its most important features was made it so special was that its walls were made of meteoric iron, which had anti-magical properties similar to Chrysalis' throne, rendering a magic user's magic useless as long as they were inside its perimeter. Only pegasi could use their inner magic to fly, and even then not at the speed they usually flied.

She knew that what she was doing was not just selfish, but also would doom everypony else out there in the city that might be still alive and sane, but something deep inside her told her that she and Spike were the only ones

Leaving the baby dragon sitting on a sofa in her and her sister's suite, Celestia teleported to the gate to the underground refuge to close it and seal the place. The gate was rather small, a vault door with a diameter of no more than twenty feet, but aside from a customized lock system nothing could open it, and she was confident that not even a thousand demons aided by ten times their number in ponies could force their way in with the door locked in place.

Before she could press the button that would close the several-hundred tonnes metal door that would seal the place, however, she decided to wait for at least a minute to see if anypony would come.

'At least I could try and see if there's somepony out there' She thought while she stared into the abyss outside the reach of the refuge's lights. She had to give them the chance to save themselves from the horrors that now plagued her beloved city.

Unfortunately, no pony came. On the other hand, she heard a lot of roars and screams of agony or rage muffled by the stone walls.

Celestia sighed in a mix of defeat and sorrow and prayed for her little ponies that were still alive (since she doubted they were still sane) before closing the vault door and sealing the refuge. She hated to do this, she wasn't thinking rationally when she came, but acting on a combination of survival instinct, maternal instinct (Spike saw her as a kind of mother figure even though she only took care of him for a few months before passing him to Twilight and her family; not that she didn't feel the same way about him), and the overwhelming fear those with traumas have when they faced by the very same thing that traumatized them in the past... like nearly invincible, magic-using demons.

Slowly, she made her way to where she left Spike. The young dragon was, surprisingly, reading a 'Power Ponies' comic book, although he was less reading it and more covering his face with it. Celestia knew that this series in particular was his favourite, and that several months prior he and the Elements had somehow ended inside it, getting out after battling the current villa. How did it end on her suite since neither she nor luna read comic books was a mystery.

Celestia inmediatly knew that something was wrong.

“Spike?” She called to the young purple dragon. When he didn't respond, Celestia called again. “Spike, are you alright”

Spike looked up from his comic, and Celestia's heart sunk when she saw the expression on his face.

She had seen him get upset a lot of times before, and of course she had seen him cry a few times. But she had never seen him cry like this. And then the emotional dam that had hold him (somewhat) together broke. The poor baby dragon cried literal rivers of tears, and Celestia inmediatly went to his side to hug him to her chest in an attempt to comfort him. The mix of mucus and tears ruined

They stayed like that for several minutes, with the alabaster alicorn hugging Spike until his crying became weeping.

“W-why?' He sobbed while looking up at her with teary eyes. “Why did those things attack us just when we had finally beaten the bad guys? Why did they kill Twilight and the others like that?”

Celestia caressed the head of the dragon while hugging him.

“I don't know what those monsters are or what do they want, but if we give to dispair then we'll have already lost.”

“But they killed everypony else!” He cried again before forcefully prying himself from her hold and glaring up at her “And why didn't you do something!”

“Spike, there was nothing I could do.” In another occasion she would have screamed back, but after all what happened Spike had every reason to be angry with her. “You saw what happened to Luna, those creatures were resistant to magic.”

“You could have done something!” Screamed Spike in an accusatory tone. “Like sending them to the Sun, or burning them, or-!” He ranted before Celestia, for the first time in her life since the dragon was born, screamed at him.

“I WAS SCARED OKAY!?” Shouted back Celestia with the Canterlot Royal Voice, looking absolutely livid for a moment before realizing what she had done. Fortunately, Spike was more surprised than scared at the revelation.

“Scared?” Repeated the dumbstruck dragon.

“Yes, scared. And not just because those monsters started killing ponies.” She then sighed. “Spike, I have to tell you something that I haven't told anypony else, not even my sister.”

She then told him about the first demon and the slaughter it did two hundred years prior. By the time she finished Spike was nearly as pale as a ghost.

“O-one monster killed all those soldiers?” He said in a small, terrified voice.

“Yes, and now there are at least ten of the same species and a hundred smaller ones, all of them. I hate to say this, but we must leave Canterlot. I doubt anypony is still alive out there, or sane enough to not attack us like wild animals.”

“Then why are we hiding here?” Asked Spike.

“There's a secret tunnel which joins with a short cave system that leads to an abandoned mine a mile away from Canterlot. We'll use it to escape the city and go to alert the rest of Equestria.”

“Can't you just teleport us?”

“No, this refuge's walls prevent anypony capable of casting magic of using it, alicorns included. They're also thick enough that even an Ursa Major would need days to get inside.”

“But what will happen if we go out and there's nopony left outside?” Said Spike; he, of course, was talking about Equestria.

“The monsters are fast, but not that fast.” She started to sound hopeful. “They might be able to destroy the closest towns to Canterlot, but by the time they reach Manehattan we'll be already there.”

“And then what? What will stop the monsters from doing the same thing to the ponies there?” Asked Spike in a nervous tone.

That simple question smothered the hope that started to burn in Celestia's chest.

Sure, they could escape Canterlot through the secret passage, but what would stop the monsters from reaching the towns and cities surrounding the capital and massacre their inhabitants with total impunity?

“We're going to die!” Screamed Spike hysterically, shaking in pure terror. He was a child, but it was jarring for Celestia to see the usually composed (compared to his friends in similar situations) scream and act like that. Plus the fact that a child of all things said 'die'. “Those things will come here, and when they do they'll rip us apart and-”

“Spike!” Celestia shouted while grabbing the terrified young dragon by his shoulders, making him cease his trembling. “Spike, calm down!”

“But we're going to-” Just before the dragon could end the phrase, however...

SLAP!

“Do not. Say. That.” Whispered Celestia. Spike, clawed hand covering the reddened mark on his cheek her slap left, didn't say anything. “Those monsters have already killed my sister, my pupil, and my friends. I will not let them kill my...”

Before she could finish her own phrase, she was interrupted too. But not by a slap.

“Celestia?” Asked Spike when he saw Celestia become paralyzed.

“Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

He didn't feel it since he was sitting in the couch and somewhat addled by his fear of getting eaten, but the alicorn, who was crouching in front of him and had a cleared mind, did.

A tremor. Which was impossible because the walls of the refuge were thick enough to isolate the place from the mountain it rested under and the crust it rested upon. Which meant only one thing.

Something was attacking the refuge.

Just as her mind registered that thought, she and Spike heard what was possibly the most terrifying sound for both of them at the moment.

The incredibly heavy gate of the panic room falling and shattering the floor... followed seconds later by the screeches of the smaller, furious monsters and the screams of mindless rage of many mares, stallions and foals.

Celestia didn't waste time in grabbing Spike and flying, and by the time the monsters and mad ponies catched up she had flied back through the open gate and into the castle.

“Well?” Repeated the mare.

“I... am...” Celestia began to stutter before stopping, breathing deeply and speaking again, this time more confidently. “I am Princess Celestia, Princess of the Day and Diarch of Equestria, and this” She gestured towards Spike, who was alternating between the horde around them, the possesed mare in front of them and the demon sitting on the throne with fearful eyes. “is Spike. Since I've told you our names, could you do the same for us?”

“Well, we would, but there are two chief reasons for us to not do so. First, the bio-engineers and scientists that created us didn't have time to assing a name to us before they sent us here.”

'Scientists? Engineers?' Thought Celestia.

“Oh, right, I forgot. You primitives don't have satellites and you think we're some kind of demons. Well, sorry to burst your bubble girl, but we're not. We're living weapons created and grown in vats to fight enemies of the Confederation. So, technically speaking, we're aliens.”

Celestia and Spike's eyes widened in both astonishment in fear. These creatures that had killed so many both centuries before and mere minutes prior... were more akin to living killer robots. Living killer robots made by aliens.

As if the monster, which could no longer be called a demon for obvious reasons, read their thoughts, it spoke through the mare

“No, they didn't send us here to kill you, despite our burning desire to do so. After the war in which we were supposed to fight ended in a peace treaty between the Confederation and the xenos, High Command decided that we were a risk in case that xeno spies discovered our existence, so they destroyed any documents of our creation and got rid of us by freezing us, putting us in a containment unit and launching ot in a wormhole... which led us directly to your galaxy and, unless it wasn't one of those holes in the veil of time and space, is still linking both galaxies.”

Celestia was about to ask more about it before stopping herself and remembering all the deaths and destruction these monsters caused.”

“And the second second reason?” Asked Celestia, not liking where was the conversation going.

“Because in the case we had a name we wouldn't tell it to a bunch of primitive xenos that have the potential to be another threat to the Confederation. Your killing of one of my brethren with nothing but spears and swords just helped cement that fact.” Replied the possessed mare in a suprisingly venomous tone

In another ocassion Celestia would have wondered if the monster's 'voice' sounded like that because it had been close to the one she had killed, or because she stopped what technically was a preemptive strike, asked how did it know about the battle if they were frozen inside the 'container' or even who and what were the Confederation and the Hegemony.

Instead, she had to contain her rage at this disproporcionate retribution to not burn Spike to death with her mane, which now resembled a bonfire, and her eyes also burned with rage. The dragon, who had never seen her so angry, stared at her with fear, more scared of her than the monsters and insane ponies, who also were affected by the fury of the alicorn: whereas the former simply stepped back by this sudden show of resistance, since they were still magic-proof, most of the later screamed in agony when the fire turned them to cinders, or melted their skin and bone of those farther away. The possessed mare, on the other hand, was completely unaffected by Celestia's fire despite being a pony and therefore affected by magic, and mere feet away from her.

“You killed those ponies... turned them into mindless beasts... and destroyed my city... BECAUSE WE MAY BE A THREAT!?” Screamed Celestia, which by this point had acquired a much terrible appearance: burning mane, paler fur, black eyes with yellow sclerae... she even had fangs! Many didn't know it, but this form, what she called Daybreaker, is what she feared she would become if she decided to cut her power loose to finally defeat her enemies instead of being always defeated.

She hadn't expected the monster to metaphorically explode too, standing from the throne and roaring, with the possessed mare mirroring it by screaming mindlessly at the top of her lungs... and punching Celestia in the muzzle with all her strength.

Celestia always thought (well, assumed) that, as an alicorn she was much tougher than most ponies (barring exceptions like Applejack or her brother Big Macintosh) thanks to the magic that ponies received when they became alicorns. Now she discovered that either the anti-magical effects from the 'weapons' applied to ponies they took control over, or that alicorns are in fact not stronger, because the punch not only threw her to the ground (and forced her to release Spike), but also broke her muzzle and made it bleed.

“YES, YOU XENO BITCH, YOU ARE A THREAT! YOU, YOUR SPECIES, AND EVERY LIVING THING ON THIS PLANET THAT CAN THINK!” Screamed again the mare.

Celestia's angry form evaporated as fast as it came, replaced by her original, terrified body as the mare, who like most ponies was barely above five foot tall, loomed over her menacingly. Behind her, over her shoulder, she could see that the monster possessing her was looking at her over her shoulder.

“H-how can we be a threat!” Celestia stuttered.“Magic is useless against you, and our only weapons are spears and-ack!” The possessed mare grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up with surprising strength.

“The loc-hanae began with spears too. Next, they discovered pikes. After pikes came gunpowder, which you already have. Then they made repeaters, machine guns, tanks, planes, nuclear weapons, mass drivers, lasers... all of that in less than five hundred years, and that was before they met the doboids. If a bunch of cats and squids can go from savages to an fanatical empire that nearly wiped out the Confederation, so can a primitive planet of freaks of nature that includes magical horses and giant firebreathing lizards that fly! But we can make sure that can't happen!” She said before tightened her grip on Celestia's neck. She spoke again, this time with a low, threatening tone “I'm gonna make sure it doesn't happen.” With that she squeezed, and would have broken Celestia's neck if not for a certain dragon launching himself at her back.

“Leave her alone!” Screamed Spike whilst hitting the mare's head with all the strength he could muster. It did made her drop Celestia, but it didn't look like Spike was doing any actual damage to her.

The pony nonchalantly grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and held him in front of her for a second before throwing him away... an in front of one of the small monsters, who inmediatly grabbed the terrified dragon with with its deadly claws. It could have easily killed him with but a gesture of its wrists, but its semi-open, drooling jaws, the hunger on its eyes and the way it was inspecting the quivering dragon made clear it had something much more sinister in mind.

“NO!!” Screamed Celestia before rising on her hooves and flying towards them, only to be pinned down by one of the big aliens.

She could only watch on and scream in pain and anger as the alien fully opened its maw, saliva falling on the now screaming spike...

She didn't really know what happened next.

One moment, the monster already had half of Spikes' body on its mouth. The next, there was a thunderclap, and its entire head, struck by something very small yet at the same time very fast, bursted in a explosion of gore and bone.

Every creature in the throne room, even the monster with blue eyes, stared at the headless body that dropped to the ground. Well, every creature sans Spike, who took the chance to escape the monster's clutches and run to Celestia who inmediatly hugged him. Around the pair, alien monsters and insane ponies died by several ways: some were killed by the mysterious 'thunder', others were either burned to ashes or turned into ice sculptures... a few, however were simply crushed to a bloody pulp or even ripped to shreds!

“Spike are you okay!?” Asked Celestia, wanting to make sure that Spike was simply terrified and nothing else.

Spike, rather than responding or even looking at her, was staring at something that was behind and above the alicorn with amazement instead of fear. Celestia followed his gaze and the most outlandis sight she would have never imagined even in her wildest dreams met her eyes.

A male dragon with black scales encased in blue, incredibly advanced-looking armor hovering down from a hole in the ceiling of the room (how didn't they notice it, she didn't know) and blasting monster and pony alike with a strange weapon on his left hand, right one covered in a purple iridiscent glow.

Or at least that was what he looked like at first glance.

Taking advantage from the distraction the warrior gave her by simultaneously saving her and Spike and annihilating the invaders, Celestia made a more thorough inspection and, aside from the much smaller size yet greater proportional bulk, there were several significant differences between him and a normal dragon.

For starters, the 'dragon' wasn't flying with wings, but with rocket-like devices attached to the shoulders of his suit. What appeared to be 'scales' was actually scale-like epidermis, similar to that hereditary disease in which the skin hardened to form plates that looked like scales. He didn't even have a tail!

And then there were his-no his eye; for some reason, he had his left eye closed. Unlike a dragon's, his had a round pupil with a rather mundane coloration of black alongside white sclera.

As for personality, she found nothing; she simply couldn't read the stone-like expression of the warrior. Well, nothing except anger shown in the form of a frowned brow. She did note, however, that he didn't shoot at the monsters and insane ponies behind her and Spike.

It was clear by now that the warrior was an alien too. One that was an enemy of the 'demons'.

As soon as the last insane pony was turned to ashes, the warrior landed in front of Celestia and Spike. Now that he was barely a meter away from her, Celestia noted (and with an uncharacteristic blush at that) that the draconic warrior was at least one head taller than her and twice as wide. She didn't know how many inches did the suit add to his height, but judging by his muscular neck and large head most of the mass was his.

Without giving her a chance to even say 'Thanks', he looked down at her and spoke.

“Get behind me, now. Things are going to get ugly.” He said with a deep, powerful voice. Celestia, being as she was an alicorn and a princess, was simply not used to being ordered around, but given the circumstances she happily obeyed.

The monster sitting on her throne, who until now had been speaking through the now dead unicorn mare and doing little more than gestures, roared in what seemed to be anger and stood up from the throne.

“Celestia, what's happening? And who's that?” Asked Spike, not taking his eyes off the alien, who in turn didn't take his from the monster.

“I don't know Spike, but I think our prayers have been answered.” Replied Celestia.

“But we didn't pray.”

“It's a way of speaking.” Smiled Celestia; it was good to see that Spike had recovered from the ordeal, at least somewhat. It was not time to grieve, not before the monster could be struck down.

Said monster was now roaring at the warrior, as if it were speaking. Given what it did with that unicorn, it might have been able to, just not with words.

“Your presence on this planet is a mistake. A mistake that I'm going to fix.” Said the warrior. Apparently it was indeed speaking.

Another roar. “Why? A better question is why are you attacking them!” Another roar, this one even louder. “After what you and your freaks did, it'll be a wonder that they even consider contacting ANY civilization, much less if it was the one who sent you here!”

The monster, seemingly not liking what it was hearing, gave a last roar and lunged at the warrior claws first and jaws open wide.

It would be the last thing it would do.

Just before the monster could touch him with its claws, the warrior punched it right in the chest. Both equestrians saw in a combination of amazement, fear and shock as the monster, who until know seemed to be invincible and all mighty, get literally ripped in half by the force of the punch, its blood painting the throne behind red for half a second before the corpse destroyed it and crashed in the wall. It was over.

The warrior, nodding at the carnage he caused, turned around and walked to the pair.

Spike, seeing the 7-foot alien dragon walk towards them, hugged Celestia tighter. She, in turn, began to think about what to do.

'What should I do? He did say that it was a mistake that the monsters were here, but at the same time he single-handedly slayed them all, so I should forgive him. Wait, should I even ask for an apology? He DID slay those magic-resistant, magic-using, nigh-invincible monsters!' She though furiusly.

“Celestia.” Said the warrior, surprising her.

“H-how do you know my name?” She stammered. She got even more surprised when the dragon put his arms on her shoulders.

“Time to wake up.”

Here it is, the 20th chapter, and its longer than the previous one to boot!

*Cue 20th Century Fox fanfare*

There's nothing really important to say, only that I hope to upload five more chapters before the end of the year.

As always, comment, favourite and thumbs up.

Also, happy Halloween, or in FIMfiction happy Nightmare Night!