Warriors of Gun and Blade

Chapters

Shift's Shiny Blade
Cynder Makes A Friend
The Huntress and The Princess
The Blood Stained Path
The Bloodbath in Ponyville
The Arctic Prime
Glacial Burn and Chasing Stalker
The Hunter and The Haunted
To The Victors Go The Spoils
Sword at Rest and Guns Holsetered
Changing The Frame
Ready Player One?
Helping a psychic
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"Shall I Deploy Archwing?"
"I will test you"

Shift's Shiny Blade

*Shift POV*

When I came to I felt like someone had dropped Lephantis on me, and then followed up by dropping me from orbit. Nevertheless I stood up and checked the immediate area. I was inside what remained of my ship's orbiter compartment, the foundry section had crumpled on impact, the weapon mod system was in pieces, and thank The Lotus i didn't have a kubrow because that section was no longer existent.

My HUD indicated my shields at full capacity and my vital signs were perfectly fine.

I noticed a hole in the hull of my ship, light shone in through it revealing blue sky and puffy clouds. I leaped up and pulled myself through the hole, the land around me was flat except for a few holes in the ground, which I thought might be animal dens, and some bushes and small trees here and there. There was a mountain range off in the distance, snow-capped and rugged and a large forest some distance to the right.

I suddenly realized, much to my dismay, that there was a certain lack of weight on my back. I reached back to draw my sword or my rifle, and felt nothing there. I looked down at my hips and breathed a sigh of relief, my Lex Prime was still securely holstered.

"No sword, no rifle, just my pistol," I muttered, "At least it's something".

Still it pained me to loose my sword and rifle, the sword especially i had worked a very long time to get the parts through trading with my clan and trips to the void.

I was about to leave and head towards the forest when I heard a raspy voice come from a bush.

"Shiny, very shiny, but not a gem!" it said.

"We keep it still right?" another voice asked, higher pitched, but still very much the same.

'Shiny?' I thought, wondering what these unseen creatures were.

"Yes we keep it, gold is almost as good as gems!" the first voice cackled.

'Gold, of course,' I mentally slapped myself, 'the gold on my rifle and sword'

I leaped down from the hull of my ship without a sound, and focused my power over magnetism in the general direction of the voice. I thrust my hand out with a grabbing motion, and then quickly pulled it back.

Three weird looking creatures, which I can only describe as a cross between a tenno and a kubrow, tumbled out of the bush along with my rifle and my sword A Dakra Prime.

"You know, stealing isn't something I tolerate especially when it's my stuff that is stolen" I said using my power to call the sword to my hand, along with my rifle.

"No, those are ours!" the second tallest one said as he got up and charged at me.

I reacted quickly, swinging my sword into a blocking position, and pushing back on the "thing" and sent him tumbling backwards.

"Give back shiny gold!" the bigger one said as he too charged at me.

i waited for him to be within about two feet of me before I side-stepped out of the way. Because of his larger mass, and might I add unbalanced posture whilst charging, he couldn't stop himself and ended up falling in one of the many holes that dotted the landscape.

I'd have laughed at that if the third creature hadn't struck me in the head with a rock. The blow wasn't deadly, very far from it in fact thanks to my armor and shields, but it hurt pretty badly and i fell visor-first to the ground. I looked up from my downed position to see that the medium sized creature was now holding a decently sized rock over my head, which if dropped probably would crush my helmet, while the larger creature was held me down.

"It is our shiny gold now, not yours" the one holding the rock said triumphantly. The three creatures laughed, their voices mixing into a painful din.

I hadn't wanted to get violent with the life forms of this planet, but I couldn't reason with them if they were this greedy. I called my sword forth with my magnetic abilities, and swung.

The blade cut through the rock as if there was nothing there, surprising the creatures. I seized the opening and swung at the large creature pinning me down, my Dakra Prime cut through bone and flesh with might and grace.

The creature screamed as I ended his life with one more quick slash of the orokin sword.

The one who had held the rock had recovered from his shock and now emitted a sound much like that of a feral kubrow from earth. From the holes came more creatures of a similar build, only these ones were armed with spears and armor.

'He's calling reinforcements' I realized, 'my weapons may be of a higher technology, but I wont last long against that many of them'

I rushed over to where he now stood, channeling the little energy I had left to my sword, I leaped into the air and shifted my posture for a spin attack.

The attack had it's desired effect, the blade cut through the animal and at the same time vaporized him.

The display sent some of the armored dogs back down into their tunnels, but the majority of them got up and charged at me.

'Too many for the sword,' I thought while I re-attached it to my back, 'Guess I'm gonna have to get a bit noisy'

I pulled my boltor prime rifle off of my back, reloaded it, and opened fire. The orokin rifle unleashed a torrent of heavy metal slugs, which chewed through enemies and whoever was behind them. The sound rolled across the open plain, as I kept firing into the now dwindling numbers of creatures.

Soon a good amount of the area became soaked in crimson blood, those creatures who were not dead were either dying or wounded.

Soon there was only one left, trying to crawl away from me. I dragged him back by magnetizing the collar around his neck, and hoisted him to his feet.

"P-p-ple-please spare me" he whimpered trying to escape my invisible grasp.

"Which way do I go to get to the closest civilization?" I growled at him, watching him recoil at my harsh tone.

"T-through the f-forest" he whimpered.

"One other thing" I asked in a whisper.

"Y-Yes?"

"What the hell are you?" I asked

"D-Diamond Dog" he squeaked.

"Thanks, that's all I wanted to know" I said before throwing him with impossible strength, impossible for anyone without my powers that is. I watched as he disappeared into the horizon before walking towards the forest.

'from now on Shift, assume the worst first, and then ask questions' I noted as I entered the dark forest floor.

Cynder Makes A Friend

*Cynder POV*

'I hate my life sometimes' I thought as I ran from the weird, infested-like creature chasing me. The thing was a lot like a infested charger in terms of its build, and like the chargers it was extremely agile for its size.

My ship had crashed in this huge forest, leaving most of the equipment, except for my incubation unit, mangled. My kubrow, a huras which I named Omega, had somehow slept and survived through the entire chaotic event.

I'd climbed out of my liset and started off in a random direction, and while cutting away some foliage that kept smacking me in the head, I had hit this thing by accident. Now this thing just wouldn't stop chasing me and roaring.

I glanced back at the beast, watching as it smashed through the trees behind me with ease, barely slowing down at all.

"Gotta slow him down somehow," I mumbled, "Glaive don't fail me now"

With several months of experience backing me up, I threw my ranged melee weapon at the beast. When the disk came within inches of the creature, i channeled my energy to it, causing it to explode.

The beast let off a confused roar and staggered back as my glaive returned to my hand.

"Gotta keep moving" I said to myself over and over.

I didnt want to kill on this planet unless absolutely necessary, and right now it wasn't necessary. If it caught me it would be necessary.

Behind me there was another roar, and the steady crashing of trees as the creature got right back on my trail.

It's times like this when I wish I was a Loki or an Ash warframe, at least then I could try and get away easier. It would also make stealth a lot easier, on missions where I didn't want to be heard or seen.

Plus I could use my abilities without burning down an entire forest.

"Yeah that'd be really nice" I said to myself.

Then there was a flicker of light in the distance.

"There's the edge!" I said as I ran as fast as I could towards the end of the canopy's shadows.

I burst into the open light, and found myself colliding with a small wooden structure. The impact didn't hurt nor did the following tumble, but there were small, white, winged creatures squawking at me. I took a quick look around to familiarize myself with where I was. I spotted a cottage in front of me, and past that I could see some sort of village.

What caught my attention the most, however was all the animals staring at me.

"Uh---" I began before being cut off by a heavy hit to the back of my head. Thankful that I was wearing a armored helmet and had shields, I rose and whirled around to find the beast that had been pursuing me.

It was even weirder looking, now that I could see it's features in the light. Its body was covered in golden fur, It had slim pointed ears on the top of its head, and a pair of sharp fangs poked out of the lower corners of its maw. A large ring of red puffy fur around its neck. It had a set of scale-covered wings that were attached to its abdomen, and its tail looked like it was from some other creature entirely. The tail, the fangs, and it's claws were really the only things I could see that had a true offensive use.

"You wanna fight," I growled, "then I'll make it a fair one"

I concentrated and an instant later my glaive appeared in my hand with a dim gold flash.

The beast roared and charged, and I responded the same way, raising my bladed disc to slash or throw. And I would have, if a voice hadn't caught our attention.

"U-um, e-excuse me?"

The beast stopped, and looked over to the speaker. Once it had given the indication it wouldn't try and attack, I lowered my glaive and turned to see who had spoken.

The speaker in question was a four-legged animal, no claws, no fangs, no weapons or tools for combat. Its legs ended in flat pads, and a pair of feathered wings were folded down at it's sides. Its fur was a bright yellow, with its tail and long hair colored a contrasting light pink. I looked into its large eyes and saw many different emotions; shock, surprise, curiosity, confusion, and a hint of anger. But fear was the most clear emotion I saw in her, which made sense seeing as I was probably very much this world's definition of an alien.

"P-please don't fight each other, you're scaring the animals," she said in the same quiet tone before quickly adding, "I-If that's alright with you?"

I just stared and wondered if I should bother responding. I didn't even know if her speech was being translated through my helmet's systems or if we indeed spoke the same language.

So, I decided to find out.

"Can. You. Und-er-stand. Me?" I enunciated slowly, emphasizing every word. The little yellow creature let off a small squeak of surprise, but she seemed to recover quickly.

"Y-You can talk?" She asked, curiosity overcoming fear in her voice.

"Yeah I can," I said matter-of-factly, "sorry about the structure I ran through. Running from this beast, it isn't easy to focus on where you're going."

"I-It's fine i'll get one of my friends to repair it," she said still very quiet, "wait, beast?"

I pointed to the creature who had been chasing me only a minute ago.

"Oh, but he isn't a beast," She said looking back to me, "he's only a young manticore, and they usually aren't very dangerous or aggressive"

"A young manticore, not dangerous or aggressive," I repeated sarcastically, "could have fooled me"

By the time I finished my sarcasm the yellow and pink creature had moved to be in front of the manticore.

"Now, why were you chasing this..." She paused and looked at me before continuing, "girl?"

I nodded, answering her question of my gender.

In response to her question the manticore raised it's right paw, revealing the scar I had left on it earlier. In all fairness it wasn't that bad. it was hardly even a bruise. still the yellow one looked at me with a hint of fear returning.

"Yes I suppose that was my fault," I said before she asked the obvious question, "but I wasn't trying to hurt him, he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time!".

"Even so you should be careful, any closer and you could've killed the poor thing!" she said, eyeing the glaive in my hand with fear.

I sighed and retracted the disk back onto it's place on my forearm. What she did next however surprised me, she turned to the manticore, which despite apparently being a young one was a good two or three times her size, and scolded him too.

"But don't think that you're not in trouble as well," she said sharply almost motherly, "scaring and chasing her isn't a nice thing to do, especially if she only hurt you by accident!"

The manticore whimpered much to my surprise, and looked at its paws.

"Now both of you apologize to each other," she said calmly, when we hesitated she added, "now!"

"I-I'm sorry" I muttered feeling awkward apologizing to an animal.

The manticore slowly moved over to me and gave the side of my helmet a big, wet lick.

"Now, no more fighting between the both of you?" the pink-haired creature asked.

"Yeah, okay" I said.

The manticore nodded, and extended its wings before flying away into the forest.

I watched it until it disappeared from view.

"Now will you answer some questions of mine?" I asked the yellow creature.

"Okay" she said before looking up at me.

I knelt so she wouldn't strain her neck, at least then we were at eye-level.

"Who and what are you, and where am I?" I asked.

"You're in Equestria, and my name is Fluttershy a pegasus pony" she happily replied.

"Okay, now which way do I go to get to civilization," I questioned, "it would be nice to get to know beings who don't shoot at me on sight"

In response Fluttershy pointed down a dirt road to the town I had seen earlier, I'd forgotten about it during the whole apology session.

"The nearest town is Ponyville, where my friends live," she said while smiling, "it's not too far off as you can see from here"

I was about to ask another question when fatigue smashed into me like an angry rhino warframe.

"Oh my, you must be tired from running so long," Fluttershy said as I fell onto my rear and applied pressure to my forehead, "you can rest here in my cottage, and tomorrow we can go into Ponyville"

Normally I'd reject hospitality, but the idea of entering town with two firearms and a glaive, without someone local to reassure others i wasn't going to murder them all with said weapons, kinda made me think otherwise.

"Fine I'll stay the night, as long as it doesn't trouble you too much" I said before getting up.

"It's no trouble at all," she said reassuringly, "kindness is my element after all"

I was too tired to ask anymore questions, as soon as we entered the cottage I asked where I could rest and laid down on a couch she motioned to. Sleep quickly overcame me and I slipped into darkness.

The Huntress and The Princess

*Huntress POV*

I woke up feeling sick, sad, and tired. In other words; I felt perfectly normal. I shifted where I lay expecting to feel the cold metal floor of the liset underneath me.

Much to my surprise however, the surface I was on was rather soft and comfortable, compared to a metal floor that is. I bolted upright and opened my eyes to find I was in, what appeared to be an infirmary. No one else was present in the area from what I could tell, my locator was busted and showed a circle with the word "ERROR" in the middle.

I looked down and saw I was clutching a thin white blanket someone, or something had draped over me while I had been unconscious. Beside the bed, on a trolley, there was a plate with what I could assume was food and a glass of water beside it.

I analyzed all of this and came to a simple conclusion.

'Someone found me and took care of me,' I thought while slipping out of the medical bed, 'but who, and why?'

I was so focused with my thoughts I hadn't heard the approaching footsteps outside the entrance to the room. I was abruptly pulled from my thoughts by a gasp of surprise from behind me.

I whirled around to see a kubrow-like creature, albeit less threatening in appearance, with a clipboard gripped in the crook of its foreleg. Its fur was white in color, and it wore a mask over where I assumed its mouth was. It's hair was pink, tied in a bun on the back of its head and left to droop slightly in the front, not too low to obscure her fear filled blue eyes from my view. Its tail was the same color as its hair, and on it rear there was a mark of a red cross.

'A birthmark?' I wondered.

She, guessing by the pitch and tone of her earlier gasp upon seeing me, started to slowly back away from me. Probably thinking I was sizing her up as prey or preparing to attack.

"Don't worry," I said as calmly as possible, "You haven't done anything to harm me while I was out, so I wont harm you"

She jumped slightly when I spoke, the clipboard nearly slipping from her grasp.

"Y-You can--"

"Yes, I can in fact speak" I interrupted quickly. Knowing the obvious question that every alien is asked, according to old pieces of text from ancient earth I had read in the Dojo's archives.

There was a hushed question asked behind her, and she quickly turned to look at the speaker. I couldn't make out exactly what she said, but I did catch snippets of the conversation.

"It's awake ... --can talk ... get princess twili--- ... no I don't think we will require--- ... I don't know, I'll ask."

Upon hearing the last part I quickly stood up straight to avoid any suspicion that I had been eavesdropping.

"Uh, do you mind if I ask you some quick questions?" she said turning to face me again. The fear in her eyes wasn't gone, but it had decreased greatly being replaced with curiosity.

"Go ahead, just so long as the questions aren't to...," I paused trying to think of the word, "'personal'"

"Okay then," she said, "first question, though I'm only asking to confirm what I think, but are you male or female?"

I wanted to burst out laughing, the answer was obvious wasn't it? Then I remembered where I was and what I was talking to, and merely chuckled.

"I'm female," I said before adding, "I know I'm an alien to you, but just take my word for it on this one."

She let out a small, somewhat nervous giggle while writing something down on the clipboard with a pen before continuing.

"Where are you from?" she asked after a pause.

My head was suddenly flooded with images of that hell in the clouds. That lab from which I was freed by my fellow tenno. That man, no that animal, who tore me apart.

"M-Miss, are y-you okay?" I heard the creature ask worriedly. I found out why when I looked down to see that my energy claws had started to form on my fingertips.

"I'm fine," I said, willing the claws to disappear. I took a few deep breaths as I focused on shoving those haunting memories back into my mental vault.

There was a long silence between us, our ability to speak binded by fear. For me it was the fear of my past, and for her it was the fear of the alien before her.

After a few minutes of silence the creature did something that truly surprised me; it walked over to me and held my hand. It was trying to comfort me despite its own fear.

"Thank you," I suddenly realized I didn't know her name, "uh..."

"Redheart," she said softly, "I am Nurse Redheart"

"Thanks Nurse Readheart" I said quietly.

Once I had collected myself we continued with the questions.

"Do you have a name?" she asked.

I hesitated, before deciding on using my actual name and not my warframe's title.

"Huntress" I said as calmly as possible, telling a clan member or a friend my true name was one thing, but an alien? That was a completely different task.

"Okay, one more thing," she stated before looking from her writing to me, "why were you carrying weapons with you?"

I tensed up not knowing how she would react to my job or the types of things i experienced during my travels. After a moment I sighed and decided on just telling her the truth.

"Listen," I started cautiously, "I--"

Before I could tell her that I was a warrior with a duty to keep the balance of power in the system, there was a knock on the door. Redheart moved over to answer it and I stood up from my kneeling position on the floor.

The door opened to reveal another creature. This one was slightly taller than Redheart, and had fur the color of a rhino warframe's armor.

When they had finished speaking Redheart turned back to me.

"I'm sorry, but Princess Twilight and two of her friends have just arrived to meet you," she said before adding, "she'll probably ask you many more questions, she is quite the curious pony"

'Pony,' I thought, 'so thats what these things are?'

"Its been nice talking to you Nurse Redheart," I said, "and thank you for, you know helping me when I needed comfort"

She smiled at me and left the room.

Moments later the doors opened again revealing three 'ponies'. The one who stood to the right was orange in color and wore a brown hat over her shiny blond hair which was formed into a ponytail. The pony to the left was colored a sky blue, and it's somewhat messy hair was by far the most colorful thing I had seen since seeing Mirage's prism ability for the first time. And unlike Redheart and the orange pony, this one had two feathery wings presently folded to it's sides.

The pony in the center was certainly different from the other two as it not only possessed a pair of powerful looking wings, but it also had a horn which protruded from its head. It's fur was lavender, its hair was a deeper purple with a bright pink streak running through it slightly off center.

The group started towards me slowly and cautiously. I noted that while the purple and orange ponies looked at me with curiosity and slight fear, the blue one look like she was ready to kill me as soon as she got close.

"Its nice to meet you finally," the purple one greeted me with a polite smile, "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"It's an honor to meet you your highness," I said glancing at the two other ponies present, "and who are your friends?"

"Applejack, she works on the range outside of town. And Rainbow Dash manages the weather team here in Ponyville" Twilight said indicating which pony she was talking about with a point of her leg.

"You both seem to dislike me," I noted, "may I ask why?"

The Applejack took a step forward, but Rainbow Dash got in my face before she could explain.

"I'll tell you why," Rainbow snapped, "last night while doing some awesome new tricks, I was nearly hit by this huge chunk of flaming metal. Wanna tell me why you tired to run me over?"

I sighed, and looked to her.

"look I was knocked out by the explosion that sent me and my ship down to this planet in the first place. So don't blame me, blame gravity" I said. I felt annoyance creeping into my voice as I spoke.

"Yeah right, you expect me to believe that. Obviously you're here to do some kind of harm, I mean why else would you have those weapons?" she questioned.

I felt my anger slipping into the "dangerously close to losing control" zone. I took a deep breath to steady myself before continuing.

Or I would've continued if Rainbow hadn't been enveloped in a pink aura and dragged away from me.

"Rainbow, we found her unconscious in that pod she was in so there's little chance she was at fault for nearly hitting you," Twilight reasoned, "plus we couldn't find any controls present in the pod upon examination so she couldn't have steered the pod to hit you in the first place"

Rainbow opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, before putting on a defeated look.

" Fine," she mumbled. "sorry"

"It's okay" I assured her.

"Ah guess that ah have an apology to make to," Applejack said, "ah was under the impression that ya'll crashed into mah apple orchard on purpose"

"Like I just said, it's fine, and I will happily do what I can to repair any damages my entry may have caused." I said.

Twilight cleared her throat loudly.

"Now then," she started, "I would like to get to know a little more about who and what you are Huntress"

'Oh joy,' I thought, 'more questions'

Author's Note

So we've got Shift on her own, Cynder with Fluttershy, and Huntress in a hospital in ponyville with Twilight, Dash, and Applejack. I'm planning on something big happening soon, don't know what yet, but the story requires the tenno to show off their...warrior skills.

Probably will be in another chapter or two.

The Blood Stained Path

High above the planet known as 'Equia' by the Grineer, a large platoon of lancers boarded their dropships and prepared to attack the planet below.

General Sargus Ruk smiled a cruel smile as he watched lancers, scorpions, bombards, hellions, and heavy gunners all board transport ships and launch from the balor famorian's hangar bays.

"Tenno, gar aagre reaar," He said quietly, "Tuh grineer rrhus kruhig garr kkkrggse tk us, na glkry rrhuss fkr Grineer!"

As he moved from the observation overlook, a lancer behind him was silently frozen, and crumbled.

'not if I can help it' an icy figure thought. His helmet had a golden cage on its top, and his long white robe flapped silently as he ran.

He hid behind a stack of containers and waited until the troop transport in front of him was starting to close it's hatch, before diving into it.

The Grineer inside didn't even have a chance to so much as breath before they were all encased in frozen prisons, and shattered like glass.

The figure took the controls of the transport and guided it out into space, following the rest of the armada to the planet below.

***

*Shift POV*

I wasn't sure if I had come to the right place. The town was pretty and peaceful, but far from what I was expecting from what the Lotus had told us about the resources here.

"Looks can be misguiding" I reminded myself quietly.

After the bloodbath that had taken place on the open plain, I had walked through the immense forest until I reached this place. The buildings were colorful and the only thing that really looked out of place was the tree-castle on the edge of the town.

I entered town and stuck to alleyways and rooftops. I only went in the open when I was 100% sure no one was looking or when someone started a commotion when they spotted me.

'Note to self: never wear gold when trying to be stealthy' I thought as I leaped to another rooftop.

Unfortunately I misjudged the distance and ended up slipping off the edge, falling into an alleyway and landing on some precariously stacked crates with a loud crash.

When I was able to see again, i was relived to see the crowd I'd attracted wasn't very big. However I had still attracted attention, which I didn't want.

A creature started towards me, but he backed off the second I drew my dakra, the gold blade shimmering even in the shadows of the alley.

"You never saw me, got it?" I growled at the crowd before running up the side of the alleyway and back-flipping onto a rooftop. I heard a gasp of astonishment from below, the creatures impressed with my simple feat.

I kept running, silently progressing from rooftop to rooftop.

Once I found a place where I was sure I was safe and unseen, I took in my surroundings. The town wasn't that big, I could probably cross it on foot in a matter of minutes without breaking a sweat. In the distance I could see something resembling a pre-war earth farm, with row upon row of trees growing.

My attention was caught suddenly by a large group of creatures gathered around what appeared to be the center of town.

'something is going on over there, the question is; what?' I asked myself before leaping to another rooftop and making my way towards the gathering.

When I was still a fair distance away, I heard something that sent a shiver through my body.

"RRRRAHHHHHHHH"

I knew that sound, more importantly I knew who made it and why.

"Huntress" I breathed before breaking into a all-out sprint, not caring about being unseen anymore.

As I got closer I heard the unmistakable sound of my friend's energy claws scything through the air.

"let me through!" I yelled as I pushed my way through the crowd of creatures to the center.

What I found however was surprising to say the least.

There was Huntress, her claws fully extended, slashing through purple translucent training dummies.

The audience watched with awe and wonder at her display, and I had to admit she pulled off some pretty badass moves with those claws of hers.

She brought her claws up to the head of the last dummy, grabbed it by the sides of it's head, and twisted it clean off.

The audience was silent, then a wave of stomping spread throughout the crowd, as they applauded her.

When the noise had died down, I cleared my throat loudly. Huntress whirled around to face me.

"Shift," she cried out happily, rushing at me and hugging me tightly, "I thought you were gone forever"

"You kidding, let's remember who helped you get your dread bow in the first place" I joked.

"Um, excuse me Huntress, but is this your friend you told me about earlier?" A purple creature asked, walking up to Huntress's side.

Huntress looked from me to the creature and back to me again.

"Follow us, I'll explain when we get to the castle" she said before walking off towards the huge structure in the distance.

I followed close behind looking around as I did, taking in all the details I could of the colorful town.

***

*Cynder POV*

Fluttershy explained everything as we walked towards the huge structure that she called a castle.

"After we restored the power back to the ponies of Equestria that Tirek had stolen, the box flew to here and the castle sprouted from it" She finished as we approached the massive doors.

From inside I heard the sounds of conversation from the room in front of us. I braced myself for more awkward moments and odd stares from more ponies, but when the grand doors opened, I immediately recognized two of the "faces" in the room.

"Shift, Huntress!" I called to the two tenno in the middle of the room. They turned and an audible gasp was heard as they saw me.

"Cynder," they cried rushing over to embrace me, "we thought we lost you!"

"I thought I lost you," I said back, "oh, thank the Lotus you're okay!"

After a few minutes of embracing and story sharing we turned to face our pony company.

"Um, you three are friends?" A purple pony asked.

I looked at Shift and Huntress.

"I've already explained to Fluttershy," I said, "one of you can explain it just as well as I can"

I heard them groan before Huntress said she'd explain.

"You all might want to sit down," she advised, "the tale of our kind is not one that is short, but I'll try my best"

Once everyone was seated she continued.

"We are the Tenno. Warriors of blade and gun: masters of the warframe armor. We are the survivors of the old war left to drift among its ruins. Until we were needed once more..."

I knew the tale practically by heart, having heard it so many times being told to the new recruits in the dojo. Huntress continued to tell the ponies of the Grineer threat in the Origin System and how Tenno across the system, who had been left in cryostasis, were now being called into action by The Lotus.

"So, this 'Lotus'," the pony who Shift told me was named 'Twilight' interrupted, "is she kind of like your princess?"

To this the three of us laughed, making Twilight blush deeply, before Shift answered her.

"No not at all," The prime said, still chuckling, "if anything The Lotus is our guide, guardian, and mentor"

"She's the one who sends us on missions to stop the Grineer and Corpus factions all over the system," I continued, "she isn't a ruler, she's a ... motherly figure to all Tenno"

The last part I was unsure of, but it seemed correct to me. Huntress nodded in agreement and continued to tell the tale.

A few minutes later she had come to our arrival on this world, and the whole Balor Famorian and archwing conflict.

"These Grineer sound just awful," the pony named 'Rarity' commented, "conquering planets and destroying whatever gets in their way"

"That's true but I think the Corpus sound even worse," Rainbow Dash said, "especially after what they did to huntress here!"

Huntress flinched, but otherwise remained stoic behind her helmet.

"Both factions threaten to upset the balance in the system, yes," Shift said, "but despite their greedy and selfish goals, they still rely on us sometimes to help them"

Six sets of eyes went wide at those words.

"You don't help them execute these horrific crimes do you?" Twilight asked incredulously.

I shook my head knowing how that must have sounded to them.

"No, but when one faction tries to invade another's territory, thats when the Tenno are called in to push them out or help them take over," I explained before adding, "to keep the balance we usually have Tenno working on both sides of the battle"

Shocked expression turned to confused ones, which turned into understanding looks.

"Ah have a question," Applejack declared after a few moments of silence, "what about this Stalker figure ya'll mentioned, the one that Huntress got her bow from?"

The three of us shivered slightly, knowing how touchy that topic was. No one truly knew who the Stalker was, or what his motives were. Just the mention of his name brought squads of bickering Tenno together to team up against him, and focused those who ignored others.

"We don't know a lot about him," I said slowly, "but I do believe that he works to do the same as us; keep the system in balance"

"Only he deals with only one group; The Tenno," Shift added in, "he only appears when we start to shift the balance with our actions, be it choosing only one faction to side with, or assassinating VIPs from one faction only"

"In all many ways," Huntress started to conclude, "he is one of us"

We sat in silence, until a loud sound caught our attention from outside. Everyone got up and ran to the castle entrance, the massive doors opening to reveal the sky being dotted with shapes all Tenno recognize; Grineer troop transport ships.

"There's gotta be several full attack squads in those things!" Shift said quietly.

I watched as the first transport landed right in the center of town, two others following quickly. I heard the sounds of gorgon miniguns, garakta assault rifles, and ogris rocket launchers firing, and the screaming of the ponies in town as the Grineer did as they always did; kill everything to display might.

"Girls," Huntress growled, "get ready for a bloodbath"

"Wha--" was all I heard Twilight say before Shift, Huntress, and I broke into a full run towards Ponyville.

'A bloodbath indeed,' I thought, 'may our attacks only find foes and never friends'

Author's Note

Grineer speech document (not mine):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvJ2FfuvcIKFdElCTWstQnJaWkZ2S3JwSS1idkhMV2c&usp=sharing#gid=1

Hope you enjoy the invasion to come!

The new figure belongs to: Demon51423

Can you guess what frame it is?

The Bloodbath in Ponyville

*Cynder POV*

"Remember, line up your shots carefully," Huntress said as we arrived on the edge of town, "we don't want any unwanted casualties"

"Got it," I said, "avoid shooting anything colorful then"

"Pretty much" Shift chuckled.

Soon we were at our destination, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Houses were ablaze, corpses lined the streets and the sound of Grineer barking orders could be heard over everything else.

We looked at each other and nodded, splitting up was the best thing to do.

I ran down the street directly ahead while Shift and Huntress ran down the ones to the side. I weaved through backstreets until I ran right into a squad of grineer.

"Tenno," a heavy gunner cried out, "Khuss hut!"

'Can't understand them,' I thrust my hand forward palm outwards, 'then again, why do I care?'

A ball of pure fire launched from my outstretched hand, upon collision with the heavy gunner it exploded. The explosion didn't kill the heavy unit, but it did leave it in quite a lot of pain as it burned to death.

"Rhue gar tenno," a bombard unit cried out, directing the other troops attention at me, "taakhe rrhum kut!"

The squad opened fire, rockets, bullets, and fire all flew straight at me. I leaped to the side, ducking behind the corner of a house taking out my akzani auto-pistols mid roll. I waited behind my cover for a few seconds before leaping back into the open, and letting my pistols spell out my hatred for the Grineer.

The akzani did not disappoint, the twin rapid-fire sidearms flashed as they each sent a deadly volley of bullets at the squad. Not only did they chew through the troops, but they devoured their clips too, and soon I stood in front of what used to be a whole squad of soldiers, one clip of ammunition spent.

"Koss hut," I heard from the next street over, "hut rrhuss serve us rress"

"D-don't hurt m-me!"

I knew that voice.

"Fluttershy," I cried out running through the alleyway that connected to the next street over, "don't you dare hurt her!"

I holstered my pistols and drew out my latron wraith, a semi-auto rifle which I had modded for even higher damage and accuracy.

The grineer troops turned and raised their weapons, but a good amount of them fell to my shots before they opened fire. A squad of 10 grineer had been reduced to just 3 in the blink of an eye.

I ducked behind cover as the two heavies in the group opened fire, their gorgons winding up quickly to maximum fire rate. I waited for a few seconds before the thunder that was the gorgons stopped. My patience was rewarded with the recognizable sound of empty magazines clicking, before I returned fire with my rifle.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Three shots, plus three grineer, equaled zero grineer.

I rushed over to the yellow and pink blob, cowering behind some barrels.

"It's okay Fluttershy, I'm here and they're gone" I said quietly, petting her like I would my kubrow.

"Y-y-you killed t-them," she said, there was no mistaking fear in her voice now, "s-s-so much blood"

"They would've killed you had I not disposed of them," I said quietly, "I'm sorry Fluttershy, but it wa-"

"Gar aagre reaar tenno" a cold voice came from behind me.

I turned around to face the barrel of a garakta assault rifle aimed squarely at my face.

'Oh shit' I thought, watching as the lancer's expression changed to a twisted grin.

Then he was on the ground flailing madly as he was suddenly dragged down by a grey mass of fur which had not been there a second before. The grey kubrow then bit sharply into the lancer's leg preventing the surprised grineer from rising again.

I wasted no time, snapping my rifle to the ready and firing one shot into the lancer's head. His features went limp as his head exploded from blast damage.

"Good boy Omega!" I cried, petting the large canine happily, "you've earned yourself a treat when we get back home"

The huras barked happily at me, wagging his tail.

I heard a small whimper and turned to find Fluttershy peeking from her hiding spot behind the stack of barrels.

"It's okay Fluttershy," I said calmly, "he wont hurt you, he only kills if I'm in trouble or when we are fighting the Corpus or Grineer"

"A-are you s-sure?" she stuttered, "he seems l-like one of the m-monsters in the E-Everfree Forest"

I would've responded, but the sound of gunfire nearby cut me off.

"I'll let you get to know him better later," I said looking in the direction of the sound,"for now get to safety"

"B-But I have to make sure the animals in town are all okay," the pegasus said worryingly, "I hope none of them are hurt"

I sighed and thought it over.

'If she goes alone and runs into a squad she'll die quicker than I could blink, if I did blink that is' I thought, 'I need to rid this place of grineer, but if she's really so intent on staying...'

I turned to face the yellow and pink pegasus.

"Fluttershy I'll protect you while you look for any animals needing help" I said, reloading my rifle.

"R-really?" she asked hopefully.

"You're my friend, are you not?" I chuckled.

"Thank you Cynder," she said, "B-but do you have to use that big, noisy...thing?"

I looked at my rifle and sighed, placing it on my back and drawing out my akzani once more.

"These still are used for killing," I told her, "but they'll be a lot quieter than my rifle, is that okay?"

"O-Okay," she said, some fear still in her gaze as she eyed the pistols, "if it's really necessary"

"Trust me," I chuckled, "once The Grineer start an operation peace and negotiations are out of the question"

With that said, I followed her quietly. Keeping an eye out for anyone who dared to try and harm her.

***

*Shift POV*

Crack. Snap. Squish.

The screams of the grineer reverberated around the town as I crushed them. I used my powers to fold their bodies into balls of snapped bones and contorted flesh.

After a few seconds, all the grineer that had been in the squad I had confronted were dead.

"Quick and satisfying," I mumbled, "though I have to admit, mowing them down with my gun is more fun"

I heard the screams of an innocent, and ran.

When I got to the spot where the scream had come from I found a blue pony with curly pink hair, alongside a yellow pony with short, spiky orange hair. And behind them I spotted two young ponies, from the looks of it they couldn't have been more than a year old.

And surrounding the ponies was a squad of grineer lancers. I couldn't shoot, my boltor's bolts would go right through the lancers and into the ponies. My lex prime had a similar problem, I had put a metal auger mod on the powerful sidearm which gave it a punch through boost.

'My sword then' I thought as I drew the ancient orokin weapon, the gold along its blade giving off a quick flash.

The flash caught the pink and blue pony's attention, and she looked right at me. I brought my free hand up to my helmet, and made a hushing motion. The pony nodded in understanding, looking back to the grineer troops about to end her life.

"Gar'gre maakhuig garr--GRAHHHH"

The lancer never finished his insult as my blade cut him in half.

"Khuss hut!" a lancer commanded.

Bullets flew at me as the grineer opened fire, my shields flashed and my HUD showed them drop with every hit. It wasn't enough to stop me though as I cut through lancer after lancer. My sword became a blur of gold, white, and red as I brought it down on the last grineer, splitting him in half right down the center of his body.

I breathed heavily, stowed my sword, and looked around. Corpses lay everywhere and the ground was soaked in crimson blood. Some corpses were missing limbs, others were twisted beyond recognition.

I heard a whimper from behind me, and remembered why I had killed these lancers in the first place. I turned around to face the ponies who were now huddled closely, trembling in fear of what they had just seen me do.

"Go," I said quietly, "get to safety"

"How do we know we can trust you to not kill us when our backs are turned?" asked the yellow pony, glaring at me.

"Have I done anything to try and harm you yet," I asked, "I only killed to protect you, I'm not a murderer, I'm a warrior"

The yellow pony still glared at me, but I caught a flicker of understanding in his eyes.

"Thank you" He said after a long pause. He and the other three ponies stood up and ran.

I turned and ran in the opposite direction, listening to the sounds of war all around me.

I blasted any grineer in sight as I ran, my boltor and lex prime taking out targets in the open, and my dakra cutting through when needed. In my wake I left a trail of crimson death, the blood of enemies fallen.

I realized that I was killing not only because of my hatred towards the grineer for everything they had done to try and end the ways of the tenno, but also because I cared about the ones who lived on this planet. Normally I never felt any sort of care for a planet's inhabitants, intelligent or not, but now was different, now was my chance to show I was more than a cold blooded killer.

'I'll take that chance'

The true reason for me being so vicious was because of my isolation, there were no other primes in our small clan, as far as I was aware. I felt alone and ignored most of the time, no other members would fight me in the dojo's dueling room, and the observatory cleared out every time I entered.

I had felt horrible, I slowly became more and more distant from the other members of the clan. I rarely did missions with other tenno, and started to become more focused on how to make my enemies suffer. I found painful ways of executing anything that got in my way, and became something of a master in prolonging the suffering of my enemies.

When new tenno had joined the clan they asked me if I could help them crack open some relics or assist them in assassinations of VIPs.

I responded to all of them with the same uncaring attitude and brutal insults, accompanied by physical fights with the weaker tenno who asked me to help them. When more recruits joined they all feared me, but as long as they didn't interact with me I didn't hurt them

I had become an animal, I could no longer be called a tenno. That title fit what I was but not who I was.

That had all changed when I had met Huntress.

"Hey there kitty," I remembered the Rhino saying, "What, you don't like me calling you kitty, what are you gonna do about it, scream in my face?"

I remembered him shoving the Valkyr to the ground, laughing as he did so.

"You female frames are all the same," he had sneered, "all looks and no powe-"

That's when I had thrown him using my powers. I smashed him into a wall repeatedly, then I dropped him from ceiling height before finishing by throwing him into the lily pond.

Then I moved over to where he lay, and growled.

"Girls don't pack a punch, huh," I had asked coldly, "I'd say your theory could use some refining. So why don't you go and refine it before I decide to test it out on whatever remains of you?"

He had made straight for the nearest liset dock after that.

Later that day while I was meditating in the, once again, empty observatory, I had heard the doors slide open and quiet footsteps approach. I had expected it to be the Excalibur, one of the only tenno who I could call a freind at the time. To my surprise, however, the one who had come and had sat beside me in that quiet room was the Valkyr I had defended earlier.

We sat in silence for a long time, watching as the void of space stretched out in front of us, its stillness and peace was always soothing to me.

She was the first to speak.

"I didn't mean to disturb you," she had said politely, her gaze still focused the void, "I have heard a lot about you from the other clan members"

I had looked at her, puzzled by that statement.

"Then you surely know that I'm not the nicest tenno in the clan," I had said, "so why did you come here?"

"To thank you for defending me from that Rhino" she had answered quietly.

I had scoffed at that.

"I was planning to kick him out anyways," I said, "you just happened to be in the way, I wasn't defending you"

Much to my surprise she had laughed at that, a bright and cheerful laugh.

"Not believing that for a second," she'd chuckled, "some say that you are nothing but a heartless mercenary, and that you fight because you are bloodthirsty"

"And I am," I sighed, "no one in this clan like's me anyways, so why should I care about that?"

At that moment she had stood up, stretched and looked at me before she spoke.

"Fight me" she said.

I had stared at her, wondering if I had just imagined the words, but she reassured me that they were not in my head.

"Fight me"

We headed to the dueling room, along the way other tenno stared as we walked past, most followed us eager to see what was happening.

I sat down on one side of the dueling area, as the shields that separated fighters from the crowd flickered on.

The countdown started and the numbers flashed on my HUD.

'3...2...1...GO'

I had just drawn my sword when she threw her ripline out at me. It caught my leg and pulled me off my feet. She had advanced, her kronen flashing as she drew them out and swung at me. I raised my dakra and the clang of steel on steel reverberated throughout the dojo as i blocked her blow.

I kicked with my back legs shoving her away, and getting to my feet. I charged her this time, my dakra flashed as I swung it.

Left, right, up, spin, slam, thrust. Every single one of my attempted combo attacks were blocked by the large bladed tonfa that the Valkyr wielded with such ease.

Right, left-down, up, right-down, spin, block, block, low-sweep, up-slash. This time my final attack landed, throwing the tenno off-balance. I moved in and slammed the hilt of the dakra prime onto her head.

She crumpled to the floor, and my HUD displayed the words 'Victory' across it. I ignored that though and stared at my opponent, who wasn't moving at all.

I knelt by her and checked for a pulse, it was faint. Her breathing was very shallow. I didn't know why I cared, I was an cold-hearted mercenary, wasn't I?

Slowly I raised a hand over her, and allowed my energy to flow into her warframe's systems. The lights on the warframe flickered on as she stood up.

"I'm sorry," I said without thinking, suddenly caring for the tenno I had nearly ended, "I'm so, so sorry"

I heard her chuckle quietly, the chuckle became a giggle, which became a laugh. Everyone looked at the valkyr as she got up and faced me.

"Well, I guess you are a mercenary" she said quietly, "But you sure ain't heartless"

'[iI guess I'm not' I I agreed helping up the brave Valkyr.

That had all been a while ago and after that event some tenno started asking me to help them with missions again. I accepted invitations frequently ranging from simple resource gathering to cracking open high-quality relics.

I was happy, and even reflecting on these memories for that one instant in the middle of Ponyville I now felt even more determined to protect the ponies from the grineer.

'You won't be taking this planet any time soon' I thought as I raced through the streets towards an approaching transport.

Author's Note

So, that new arrival will be here in the next chapter, I think it will allow for a better flow, and yes I will do something about Cynder and Huntress's backgrounds as well, but I figured that because Shift was the most violent upon arrival I'd explain why...

Also longest chapter so far, didn't expect that by any means.

Hope you enjoy!

The Arctic Prime

*Avalon POV*

I never did like talking, maybe that's why some of the other tenno thought I was strange. But they could think what they wanted to think, it's not like I care. The only one who truly understood me was the Lotus.

I honestly don't like working in a group, there's too much competition for action and not enough working as a unit. One tenno could rocket ahead while the other would be left behind as target practice for the grineer. Squads were often only a squad because they wanted to finish the same mission, after that they would separate and leave.

The last squad I was in...well, lets just say that if it weren't for a impatient Rhino, that Excalibur would've lived to fight another fight. I had tried to help, tried to reach him, but there was a whole army of grineer around, and I was taking too much damage. When I had asked for help the Rhino remained silent. The Excalibur had died and I was forced to return to the dojo with the Rhino, who couldn't have cared less about the death.

That was the point at which I had decided to work alone, there would be less at risk then, I wouldn't have to burden myself with the pain of loosing other squad-mates.

Then I began to notice that I wasn't the only one who felt isolated. I don't recall getting her name, or the weapons she carried, but I remember watching the Rhino who had let the Excalibur die run past me in a panic. A few seconds later she had stormed out into the same hall.

'Another prime' I was shocked, I don't remember which prime-frame, but the gold that had lined her suit had been a big giveaway. As she passed me I could feel the anger and confusion radiating from her. She didn't look at me nor did she see me, she just kept walking.

I don't remember all the details, but I do remember the brilliant white color and the shining blue that was the energy which coursed throughout every warframe. The helmet with it's odd design that one might call ugly or hideous even, but I never paid much attention to "fashion", if one could even call it that.

That had been a while ago. I haven't seen the frame since, similar variations but not the same.

'Dwelling on my past wouldn't help me on this day though'

I was piloting a grineer troop transport towards the surface of the planet where a group of three other tenno had reportedly been lost. The Lotus was sure that they were still alive, but everyone else was either unwilling to accept her mission or already on another mission of great importance.

So I had volunteered.

'Stop thinking about the past, you've got a job to do' I told myself, or rather thought to myself. Unlike most tenno, who like to remain silent but talk when there is time for recreation, I have no choice. I couldn't talk and it didn't worry me, because it was who I was.

And it was very helpful on stealth missions.

I could still communicate with other tenno, nearly all tenno can communicate via a weak telepathic link. Usually it only worked in between squad members who were in close proximity, but some tenno, mostly those who used a Nyx or Nyx Prime warframes, have been known to extend that proximity to a much larger size. I was one of them.

"Traay grkse shux" A gravely voice spoke over the intercom. I piloted the transport closer to the squad I was following as we broke the cloud layer.

Down below there was a small town, similar to artwork of old earth in the archives of the dojo. However this town had the distinct markings of a grineer assault; buildings were ablaze, and pools of blood covered parts of the streets.

But what caught the eye of another pilot and I was the sudden appearance of a wire of energy, which latched onto the transport next to the one I hijacked. A second later a figure, dressed in orange with highlights of cyan, landed in the transport.

"Rafram sputer!" A voice cried over the comm. Then there was a scream, and finally static as the transport exploded.

I looked at the surface, quietly running a quick calculation through my head.

'Yeah, I'll live if I jump now'

I brought my tigris shotgun off of my back, and fired at the viewport. Glass shrapnel ricocheted off of my frame and fire licked at the edges of the cockpit, I leaped out onto the hull and quickly jumped off of the ruined ship.

I curled into a ball and rolled as I landed to soften the impact as the transport smashed into the ground. I stood up, and aimed my shotgun at the opening hatch of another transport that had survived the earlier attack. Grineer lancers were filled with holes as my double barreled shotgun belched out a wave of death.

Two transports above me collided and burst like two mini supernovas. I heard the screams of the grineer on board as body parts and blood fell from the sky.

There was a muffled thud as another tenno landed beside me. She was rather pretty, or so I guessed, I never really paid attention to appearances. Tenno wren't known to form relationships with one another, not banned from making them just not known to.

Some might have said she was quite curvy, I really didn't care. Some may have said that her cat-like helmet added to her beauty, I still didn't care. Everyone knew that her past was quite a touchy topic and that prying too much would lead to broken arms and a snapped neck, I could still care less. Some say that despite her quite violent ways, she still put the health of her squad before anything else, and that's what caught my attention.

'Huntress' I said, telepathically. She jumped, probably unused to the use of the telepathic link, before turning to face me.

"Uh...hi?" She said, "do I know you?"

'Assassination of Zanuka and Alad V; You, me, a nova, and a volt' I said remembering the mission well, 'you spent a lot of time on the ground being healed by us'

If warframes could display a blush I'm pretty sure her whole helmet would've turned red with embarrassment .

"H-hey it wasn't my fault that Zanuka kept de-activating my powers whenever she wanted!" she blurted out defensively.

'I was kidding, anyways it looks like you are in a bad spot of trouble'

"My friends and I are in a bad spot of trouble" she corrected.

'I could help if you want,' I "said", 'you look like you need some anyways'

"The more help the better," she said with a verbal smile, "try not to hurt the inhabitants though, and you'll know the inhabitants when you see them"

'sounds simple enough' I told her as we parted company.

***

*Huntress POV*

I did remember him. Why hadn't I recognized him right off the bat? The way he used telepathy instead of words, they way he "spoke", and his tone I recognized them.

"Avalon," I muttered quietly, "I must catch up with him later"

In truth I found him to be quite the honorable tenno, he could be a lone wolf sometimes but he looked out for his squad. Maybe that's why I worked so well with him those few times.

I re-focused on my mission, and screamed as I slipped into hysteria. I dashed into large clusters of lancers, slashing in my frenzied, wild combat style. I could see the mini-supernovas as they fired their rifles at me.

"Bullets wont save you from me" I growled quietly.

I slashed across the face of the last lancer in the squad before I slipped out of hysteria. It was silent, except for the sounds of distant gunfire and explosions, sounds I am very familiar with. My warframe was covered in crimson blood, which glittered in the little light the system's star provided.

Over the gunfire and screaming, I heard something. A steady beat of...wings? Judging from the volume of the flaps they were extremely large wings at that.

I slowly turned around, and dove out of the way to avoid being blasted by a large beam of cyan energy. I rolled to my feet and scanned the air for any signs of grineer hellions. Then I remembered something: Grineer don't have energy weapons, or wings.

I leaped out of the way as another blue laser blasted the area where I had been seconds before. This time though, when I came to my feet there was something sharp against my back.

"Do not move," a voice ordered. The voice was feminine and regal. That much I could tell from the way it was quiet in volume but strong in force. "Monster, you will stop this unjust slaughter of our subjects"

Had I been allowed to I would've whirled around and slapped the speaker across the face. She thought I was leading these cloned freaks around?

"Listen," I said slowly. "I'm not one of those disgusting things, in fact you should let me get back up so I can protect this town from them".

"How do we know that you are not bluffing?" the voice asked.

"Beca---get down!" I leaped into a backflip over the mystery speaker while pulling out my bow and nocking a bladed arrow.

"Rhue gar tenno scoom!" The sneaky lancer bellowed, charging at me. I pulled back the shimmering string of my bow, and fired.

The arrow's momentum carried it right through the lancer's neck, allowing his helmeted head to pop right off his body as it fell to the ground. I nocked another arrow, in preparation for more troops, but none came.

"You killed your own soldier to try and trick us into trusting you?" came the powerful voice once more. "You would sacrifice the life of one of your own to try and deceive a princess of equestria?". She continued, her voice rising in anger. "You savage"

"You savages!"

I tensed up as the words reached my ears, for she had just spoken the dying words of Alad V. When he had said those words they had stuck with me, I reflected on them, interpreted them, even tried to understand them.

Now they were just a haunting memory resurfaced, and I hated them.

"Think what you want of me," I sneered. "But know this: I am a tenno, a warrior of blade and gun"

I paused and slowly turned to face the speaker for the first time.

She was a pony, which was not a big surprise. Her stature was a bit surprising however; she stood about the same height as I. Much like Twilight she had a horn and wings, but her horn was longer, and her wings were larger as well.

'Come to think of it what would you call whatever she is? A 'pegacorn', 'unisus'?' I wondered whilst taking the other details.

Her coat was the same color as neptune; a deep blue. Her mane and tail seemed to be made out of the void itself, both shimmering and flowing in a nonexistent breeze. Her stance was firm, she was ready to attack if I made one move to hurt her or escape. She didn't want to give the slightest indication that she was afraid or fearful, and yet her eyes gave it away, despite the glare she was giving me.

"I don't require your trust to know that you hate these grineer that are tearing up your subjects," I said in a calmer tone. "and that you are actually quite scared right now"

She growled, but otherwise remained silent.

"I mean you no harm, but try to strike me down and I will not hesitate to end you" I warned her, now I returned her glare in full force and watched as she let the fear crawl onto her features. Then I remembered that wearing a helmet kind of defeated the point of glaring, since she could not see my face

"How do we know that that isn't the blood of numerous ponies plastered to your skin?" she asked.

"I can assure you it's not of your planet, It is from the grineer," I said maintaining my glare, "who, might I add, are going to be here any moment. So it might be in our best interest to make a temporary truce until after they've been destroyed"

She looked at me, silently. Then she slowly started forward cautiously glancing around, probably looking for any signs of a trap. She stopped in front of me and met my gaze.

"Fine, a temporary truce it is," she said before adding, "but the slightest indication that you are behind this and you will be nothing more than a pool of blood on the floor"

"I care about the ponies here just as much as you do," I stated, "and I will give my life to save them if necessary"

The sound of a explosion snapped us out of our little duel, and I readied my kunai. There was a flash and suddenly the pony was wearing onyx black armor accented by midnight blue platting. She also now wielded a beautiful, curved, translucent sword. Which I assumed was made out of magic as the aura around it matched the bright cyan color of the weapon itself.

Another explosion occurred, and we were off into battle.

Author's Note

Avalon has joined the fray, and apparently has met Huntress already...

Avalon belongs to: Demon51423

Huntress, Shift, and Cynder are based off of my warframes.

Long chapter, think I could have focused more on Avalon, but I will focus on him next chapter as well. Also you can probably guess who Huntress ran into can't you?

Sorry this took so long, I hate essays, will try to do better with future chapters, I still hate essays.

Glacial Burn and Chasing Stalker

*Avalon POV*

My sword cut through another lancer with blazing fury and cold grace. My shield froze incoming threats and burnt them to the ground. My sicarus burst-fire pistol unleashed it's triple shot with near-perfect accuracy and raw striking power. Then my tigris spat out double-barreled death upon the remaining troops in the area.

The area fell silent, apart from the gunfire in the background, and I scanned my surroundings. Corpses were everywhere, some had limbs missing, others were bleeding profusely.

The volume of the assault had decreased dramatically, from a roar to a frequent burst of explosions. The grineer were loosing, quite badly.

Suddenly I was face-down in the dirt and being dragged backwards towards a unseen attacker. I heard the whistle of the blade moving through the air before I saw it. With a loud clang my blade met the Scorpion's machete before it hit my back.

"Tenno Skoom!" She cried, bringing her weapon back to strike once more. I brought up aegis and felt the grineer blade collide with it's burning surface, before I reversed my grip on silva and blindly thrust the fire-blade backwards.

I was rewarded with the sound of synthetic flesh and bone ripping apart, as the Scorpion unit screamed for the last time. The was a thump as the lifeless body fell along with her weapon. I stared at it for a few seconds before picking it up and placing it on my back.

'To have something and not need is better than not having something when you need it' I reminded myself. Old advice from an old friend of mine that I always kept with me.

There was a rumble of engines and I expected to see another grineer transport coming in to land. But what I saw brought me relief and hope as the familiar outline of a liset stealth ship flickered in and out of view.

Then off the bottom a lone figure dropped. Dressed in dark red and black, with red points of light that shone like rubies. The frame's original colors were quite birght and vibrant, but the wearer changed them to match a certain figure's sinister darkness. Only one tenno I knew of mirrored the stalker in looks like that, even having a scythe, kunai, and "stolen" bow. Except she was much more friendly.

'Chaser is that you?' I called out using telepathy.

"Avalon, good to hear your voice" Came her joyful response.

'What are you doing here? We have a full squad already and you know that that is more than enough for just this small operation' I said. All tenno knew that the lotus only allowed four members per squad to keep potential losses at a minimum, and avoid attracting too much attention from the grineer or corpus. "Also, wasn't everyone else otherwise occupied?"

"Avalon this is no small operation, the grineer famorians are going to send whole legions of troops upon the planet at different locations all over the globe," She said, the happiness in her voice turning to serious instantly, "The Lotus has dispatched multiple squads to protect the natives and prevent the grineer from setting up a permanent facility here. It has become a top-priority mission"

'So where's your squad?' I asked.

"They are with the locals who are seeking shelter near the forest" She replied

'And why are you not helping them?' I questioned.

I felt something tap my shoulder and I spun around.

"Because I'm here to help you get the civilians out of harm's way" Chaser said giving me a hard glare.

Before I could reply or object to what had been said a beep from my commlink signaled someone was contacting me.

"Help...any Tenno hearing thi... is Cynder...Grineer are concentrating...center of tow...I have a group of civilians wi..."

The transmission cut out in a blast of static, but on my minimap Cynder's beacon was still active, indicating that only her commlink was gone.

Any other arguments I had with Chaser were put aside as we both ran towards the blue symbol on our minimaps.

***

*Cynder POV*

"Damn ballista", I cried as my wrist-comm sparked, "We'd better hope that someone heard that distress call, or we're basically dead"

Omega whimpered quietly at the word 'dead' but otherwise he seemed perfectly happy chewing on the leg he had ripped off of a grineer. Fluttershy and Twilight both winced at that sight. Considering their species was vegetarian by nature that reaction wasn't surprising to me.

Twilight had been helping to get the younger ponies to safety when the grineer arrived. Now we had five young ponies with us, all female. One who had an orange coat and purple mane approached me at my cry and looked at me with uncertain eyes.

"A-are we gonna be okay miss fire-lady?" She asked quietly.

'Miss fire-lady?' That was a name that I would never go by.

"Hopefully," I replied, "just stay low and quiet"

As she returned to the four other young ones I re-focused on sniping with a Vulkar sniper rifle that I permanently "borrowed" from a now dead ballista.

'Four shots left, about twenty-thousand more than four grineer left' I groaned in frustration. Out of all the tenno I knew, I always seemed to have the worst luck. Never had what I needed when I needed it, couldn't find what I needed when I needed it, and I always seemed to pick the absolute worst time to charge ahead or take cover.

Suddenly Twilight cried out, and I was smashed across the face with a garakta.

"Son of a mutalist!" I yelped as I tumbled to my feet and fired the sniper rifle point-blank into the lancer's head. The power of the sniper rifle, combined with the point blank range created a gory explosion that splattered blood on my armor, the floor, and my face.

I wiped the blood off of my visor, and stood up to aim once more. I pulled the trigger again, and fought the powerful recoil as the weapon lurched backwards, and another grineer suddenly was minus his head.

Various insults and cries came from the grineer, who now were taking cover behind boxes, barrels, and other objects. But even with those that were hiding, there were still way too many for the lousy two shots left in the clip.

'Why me?' I thought as I watched the grineer advance towards us.

Suddenly they was a cry from off to the left, and a split second later several grineer were thrown backwards. A black arrow with red glowing tip and fletching stuck out opposite sides of one lancer's head.

Then another cry was heard, this time off to the right and moments after a large number of grineer were frozen into shiny ice sculptures. Each one capturing the panicked flailing poses and shocked expressions of the troops. With a bright flash accompanied by a loud snap-crack the ice-bound grineer were shattered into snowflakes.

I saw her first, though she was harder to spot, her black and dark maroon coloring wasn't easy to pick out from the shadows in which she hid. What was easy to spot were her glowing arrows and crimson glow coming from her mask's 'eyes'. She was agile, funny, clever, and deadly. She was 'The Chaser'.

Her appearance and arsenal came from her admiration of the stalker himself, why she admired him I'm still not sure myself. But nonetheless she was one of the tenno who actively tried to get him to appear. Though she was often disappointed on many missions.

Then I saw him, not that he was hard to miss with the gold on his helmet and his pristine white attire. A prime to be sure, and the only other that I knew besides Shift. A Frost Prime warframe, known for a good mix of defensive and offensive abilities.

"Good news" I said, turning to the ponies behind me, "Help has arrived!"

Author's Note

Sorry about gap, but school and playing warframe both take up my day. Also stalker wont appear for me so I actually did make a stalker-mirage...any tips on making him appear?

The Hunter and The Haunted

*Shift POV*

As a tenno who uses a prime warframe, I have greater power than other tenno. However, I still started with a basic frame, a mag to be exact. I never purchased other frames, or felt like I should. The Mag I had was like a friend to me in it's own special way. It didn't talk, it couldn't think, and it wasn't able to comfort me. But whenever I stepped into battle it was like it was fighting for me, or rather it felt like it was guiding my actions.

We tenno are taught to never think of the warframes as tools, or just simple clothing. They are weapons, capable of incredible destruction and chaos if not used properly. I had asked the lotus for an example of a tenno who lost control, and the image still scares me.

"Tenno, are you sure that you want to see the consequences of misusing a warframe's power?" She had asked.

"I've seen blood, guts, and skulls fall from grineer. I've seen entire ships blow up with thousands of lives on-board," A cocky and impatient me had answered, "I think i can handle this Lotus"

As I quickly found out, I wasn't ready.

The first record the Lotus pulled up was a nova who had pushed her powers too far. I watched as she cast a abnormally large and powerful molecular prime. And then I witnessed what the lotus meant by "consequences". The nova's frame started to crack, fissures appeared along her arms, legs, torso, and face. Light poured from the cracks as she screamed in pure agony. Her body quickly started to de-materialize. Her arms shattered piece by piece, parts that fell exploded on contact with the floor and formed small holes. Her legs were torn into shreds by her now de-stabilized electromagnetic safegaurds that normally kept her anti-matter in check.

I heard her scream for the final time as her helmet imploded, forming a miniature black hole. A blue trail of energy was sucked into the vortex as it grew and the recording stopped.

The lotus brought up more records, including an ember dying to her fire blast, a Excalibur who channeled enough power to shatter his frame, and a Mag who destroyed herself by putting too much into her crush ability.

The Mag scared me the most for obvious reasons. All that was left of her was torn limbs and a shattered helmet.

"Now do you see young shift? The tenno hold incredible power, enough power to slaughter entire civilizations easily" She had said, "But that power must be restrained and respected, otherwise it will kill you"

Ever since then I have always been cautious about my powers. Even after claiming a prime warframe it was hard for me not to fear myself.

"Fear does not control me," I said slicing through a grineer's spine, "It doesn't stop me," I growled cleaving a soldier unit's skull in two, "It doesn't give me strength or hope," I roared as I drove my dakra prime through a lancer's torso, "it teaches me," I whispered as I sheathed my sword, "It shows me my flaws".

I pulled out my boltor prime and squeezed the trigger. The gun lurched as it fired powerful bolts into the grineer squadron before me. The bolts struck the grineer and kept going, thanks to a shred mod I had installed. One shot would take down ten or more grineer, if they were standing in a straight line.

A whole squadron gone in mere seconds, that was the technology the void could hide from us. That was the technology that our creators used.

***

*Huntress POV*

"Tenno scoo"

"Tenno scoom yourself" I said as I sank my venka claws into the grineer bombard. Lancers took aim and fired at me, but I was dancing the dance of blood with my claws, and I could not be stopped.

The venka were a recent addition to my arsenal, but I loved them nonetheless. They were more fitting to me, or at least that's how I felt, and it really felt like I was dancing to an unsung tune as I fought with them. They didn't feel like cold, hard steel they felt like they were a part of my body.

My "dance" was interrupted by a strong strike to my back. I landed face-first in the dirt, spinning around to see what had hit me. It was a Shield lancer, with his viper machine pistol aimed at my face.

"Tenno, gar aagre a kkkrg--"

The grineer would have finished his insult if his head hadn't been neatly cut off by a simmering blue sword.

"For a warrior you do take a lot of hits" A unseen speaker said.

"Shut up," I growled, as the alicorn lifted her cloaking spell, "besides, you're the one who is hiding all the time".

"Tis a lie!" she snorted giving me a glare.

'She is worse than a bored Loki' I thought.

"Are there any more of these beasts in the area" she asked, intrigued at my use of "tracking magic", which was actually my minimap projection.

"None that i can see," I said while inspecting the map, "But we should kee--"

"Death...."

My HUD flickered as if I was in a room lit with a dying lightbulb.

"No, no not now!" I cried, nocking another arrow onto my dread.

A message appeared on my HUD. And a raspy ancient voice spoke the haunting words:

"Tenno, you can't run from your past".

"Whose there," The alicorn cried, apparently she had somehow received the message too. "Show thyself!"

"Listen," I said, "I know that we don't trust each other entirely yet, but you have to run!"

"The blood of The Orokin is on your hands. Did you really think there would be no repercussions?"

"Why," She asked, as my HUD flickered again, "What is happening?"

I drew back the Dread's holographic string, and began looking about for him

"It's--"

My display flickered once more, and I heard those dreaded words.

"I am your reckoning!"

***

*Avalon POV*

'Twilight, is everyone safe?' I asked as the purple alicorn landed next to me.

"Yes, the last group just reached the camp you directed us too" She confirmed looking up at me. "But Avalon, what if your friends get hurt, or worse die trying to protect the evacuated ponies?"

'Then they will die knowing that they were doing the right thing,' I told her, 'and that they died preventing a slaughter of the innocent'

"What do you mean?" She asked confusedly.

Before I could respond my HUD flickered. And a message popped up, displaying a robotic red and grey quadruped. Through my commlink i heard the cry of a monster.

'Cynder, Chaser!' I called out.

"We know. Which one is it? Is it stalker!?" came Chaser's hopeful question.

'No, its the Zanuka Hunter'

I heard chaser groan as a transmission popped up on my HUD.

"Tenno? Can you hear me..."

Author's Note

Oh no, stalker and zanuka at the same time, OHMYGODWE'REALLGONNADIE!

And yes i made a slight double cliffhanger, Aren't I just the meanest?

Anyways, I've been playing a lot recently and contrary to this chapter NO i still haven't seen stalky yet ( :flutterrage: ), but im trying.

To The Victors Go The Spoils

*Huntress POV*

An orange mist draped itself over my vision, and everything blurred. This was my true power, my killing force, my hysteria. I screamed as pain flowed through my body as my claws extended. Five glowing, translucent weapons of my body that could pierce any material, but also brought me great physical pain when used. It was ironic; my ultimate attack form, my perfect shell of destruction hurt me more than any blade or bullet could ever hope to. But they were a part of me, it was a part of me.

Stalker...my target...enemy...kill.

I rushed the dark one, intending to try and get in at least several good hits before he dispelled my ability. An arrow fired my way, but it shattered on contact with my energy shell. Hate, a large, cruel, dark scythe swung at me. I caught it in my claws before pulling it free of the Stalker's grasp and hurling it away. I swung my right claw, smashing it across the faceplate of Stalker's oddly shaped helmet. My left claw swung at his mid torso, and shattered his shields.

'one more hit' I thought, raising my right claw once more.

The pain in my body left suddenly, and my vision was no longer clouded by a mist of rage.

'shit!' Stalker had used dispel. His annoying secret ability which, when activated, removed the effects of any warframe's ability instantly.

I could've sworn I heard him chuckle then.

Suddenly he was gone. Sent flying back by a column of blue energy coming from my "freind".

"Thanks for the save" I mumbled. I let loose my Warcry. A wave of purple energy cascaded through my body and formed a wave that rippled over anything in its path. Instantly i felt my strength increase, and my senses became incredibly accurate. I felt stalker's arrow rushing towards my head before I heard it. I caught the bladed arrow and drew my bow as well, nocking it in place and firing it back at the dark assassin.

The arrow struck him in the shoulder, not a fatal wound, but it made him stumble. I fired off another arrow, this one split into 2 thanks to a multishot mod installed earlier. Again both projectiles struck their target, one in the arm, making him drop his scythe, and the other in his knee. The latter of the two hits crippled him, and he slowly fell into a kneeling position.

I sensed the pony stepping forward, and a blue glow was coming from her horn, she was ready to launch another attack.

"No" I growled.

"What?!" she cried out in shock, "This...This thing tried to kill us, and now while he is defenseless you don't finish him off!?"

I sighed, 'of course she doesn't understand ,' I began to kneel as well, as my com-link chirped and another transmission from the mysterious executioner popped up.

"I have failed. Huntress, you shall live." He spoke in a tone of sorrowful respect.

"Your quest is honorable Stalker, though you may be our enemy, we respect you as a warrior" I replied quietly.

With that he vanished in a cloud of dark smoke. Leaving behind a mod, and a capsule leaking purple light.

"What are those things?" The pony asked as I moved over to pick up the 'gifts'.

"Well, this thing is a modification container," I explained holding up the grey object, "And this," I began, gesturing to the glowing capsule, "Is a blueprint, now lets find out what it is for."

My helmet's built in scanner analyzed the blueprint, and I couldn't quite believe my luck. For at the bottom of my HUD there was a word, the name of a weapon many tenno sought out when they faced the stalker.

"The Hate"

***

*Avalon POV*

When I see that twisted man, no, not a man, a monster in the shape of a man, my cold and calm feelings, turn to ones of burning hatred. This monster is more dangerous than that beast lephantis, and more insane than any grineer manic.

His name is Alad V.

"Tenno? Can you hear me? You've been a naughty little betrayer, haven't you? Did you really think your support for the Grineer would go unnoticed?" His sickly and distorted voice asked.

There was another flicker as the nightmare appeared before us.

"Wh-what is that thing?" Twilight asked nervously. Which was a mistake, as the Zanuka hunter turned it's grotesque head to face her. Twilight screamed as the Hunter screeched and pounced.

"Freeze!" The hunter was stopped in it's tracks as dense ice coated and enveloped it, however I knew this wouldn't hold it for long.

"Twilight run!" Cynder called out readying her braton prime. Twilight did just that, taking off straight up into the clouds.

The sound of ice cracking drew my attention back to the Zanuka Hunter. I finished re-loading my tigris just as the icy prison broke and the hunter pounced at me. The tigris blasted the nightmare mid-pounce, sending it sprawling to the ground. It screeched in anger as it flipped onto it's feet.

I fired again, but the harvester was ready. It leaped out of the way with ease and immediately began blasting me with its rapid fire plasma cannon.

I threw up a protective snow globe shield and waited for the monster's next attack.

The hunter crouched to pounce at me, but it screeched in pain as a bladed arrow sprouted from its rear right leg. Chaser, now surrounded by four shimmering copies of herself, stood behind the Zanuka hunter bow and arrow at the ready.

But the Zanuka hunter was far from finished. It screeched once more before launching a small capsule at the ground. With a loud snapping sound the capsule exploded. Looking back to Chaser I immediately understood what had just happened. the Zanuka hunter had used a frost bomb.

I tried to move, to help as the hunter prepared to finish Chaser, but the frost bomb effects still lingered. My legs moved as if they were made of lead and iridium, in fact my whole body felt the same way as well. I could only watch as the harvester pounced at my friend.

Or would have if a geyser of white-hot flames hadn't engulfed it and sent it to the ground once more. It would've gotten up again and attacked, if the same process hadn't happened again, and again.

I chuckled as i watched Cynder's World on Fire ability broil the Zanuka Hunter over and over again. Once more the hunter screeched in agony before dispelling the attack. I stumbled and realized my snow globe had used up the little energy I'd had left.

"Avalon, get down!" I heard Cynder cry out. Thankfully I followed her advice and flattened myself against the ground, allowing the Zanuka Hunter to sail right over me.

I got back to my feet and turned to face the enemy, only to be blinded and then tackled to the ground by the hunter. I hit the ground hard, dropping my tigris while the impact sent my sicarus skittering away. The thing recovered faster than I had expected and then used something similar to an Excalibur's radial blind. I heard it utter a dark and nightmarish chuckle as it pinned my arms. It was like it was saying "told you I would win". It prepared to finish me, to take me and let its master dissect and re-incarnate me as the monstrosity before me. The claw swung down at me.

***

*Chaser POV*

My vision returned just in time for me to see the hunter swing its claw at Avalon's head.

"No!" I screamed, even though I knew I couldn't stop what was to come.

Suddenly a purple beam shot out of the clouds and struck the Zanuka Hunter's right plasma cannon, causing it to blossom into a flower of sparks and burning shrapnel. The explosion knocked the hunter off of Avalon, who appeared to still be dazed from the attack. Cynder and I wasted no time in rushing over to Avalon and re-energizing his warframe's systems with our energy.

"Thanks for that" he said as he got up, albeit with a noticeable tone of confusion in his voice. "But who knocked the Harvester off of me?"

A loud screech interrupted his question.

"That thing is still alive!?" I gasped.

"I hate Alad V" Cynder growled.

"Kill first, complain later" Avalon finished.

The hunter was sparking, and its armor had quite a few dents in it. Its attention was not on us but on whatever had shot it, ruining its capture. It chirped and fired its remaining plasma cannon at it's target.

There was a cry of pain and a thud as Princess Twilight fell to the ground. The marking that adorned what would be her hip was smoldering, as were a few feathers on her right wing. I began to run over to her to try and assist her, but the Harvester dropped another frost-bomb rendering that attempt at help useless. For the second time that day I felt hopeless as the Harvester advanced on the pony.

And once again the Harvester was stopped.

"Stay away from her!" A new voice bellowed. This one was regal and grand, filled with wisdom. It rolled over me like a rhino stomp or a radial javelin, sending energy through me while also intimidating me.

A beam of pure golden energy blasted the Zanuka hunter. The beast howled in pain as it was torn apart by the explosion, its body disintegrating until none of it was left. Leaving behind a mod capsule, a blueprint, and a big smoking crater.

As Alad V mourned his loss, by which I mean he whined and cried like an infant, we watched as a much larger pony descended from the sky. Her coat was white and seemed to radiate warmth. Her mane flowed and swirled as if in a self-created wind. Her wings were broad, majestic, and enormous compared to Twilight's. And like Twilight, this new pony had a horn as well as wings, however her horn was about the length of a heat sword, whereas Twilight's horn was more like a heat dagger by comparison.

"Twilight are you alright?" The new pony asked concernedly. Looking over Twilight's seared body and wing.

Before Twilight could respond several more ponies, pegasi I believe, outfitted in golden armor landed in a tight circle around us. Holding simple-looking spears at the ready.

"Why me?" I heard Cynder mumble. This caught the attention of the white pony who stood up and advanced towards us.

The circle of armored pegasi opened to allow the pony through. We stood our ground, facing the powerful being as she addressed us.

"I thank you for attempting to protecting my friend," she said warmly, "And for your help in assisting my subjects"

'subjects?'

"Princess, your orders?" one of the armored pegasi inquired. The princess turned to the pony.

"Assist any wounded, but allow these..." she paused turned to us.

"Tenno" I offered.

"Allow these tenno to take care of the fighting."

"Yes your highness" the pegasus said before taking off, the others following him.

"Now..." the princess began, turning to us, "I am princess Celestia, the ruler of this land," She looked us over, examining us like lab specimens, "you are impressive warriors, but I must ask: what exactly are you?"

Author's Note

Well...diplomatic cliffhanger?

Sorry i've been soo inactive for several months, but school and warframe both call to me, more so warframe than school. But what can i say, playing warframe is fun. Still im planning to put more of my warframes into the story.

Hopefully i can continue the story at the point of recovery from the battle in the next chapter, but i wanna see what you guys think...should the battle continue or should other stuff begin?

Sword at Rest and Guns Holsetered

From near and far, ponies and tenno alike watched as grineer transports left at frenzied and panicked intervals. The battle was won, the grinner were retreating. But, like with most wars, the victory was outweighed by the toll taken on the civillians.

Families wept at the loss of their homes, and in several cases; loved ones. Children looked for their friends and tried to start up little games to break the somber mood, their attempts were appreciated but did not help much.

Some tenno watched as the ponies tried to help each other. These creatures tried to assist friends, family, and neighbors in any way that they could. Some tried through reassurance, some through comforting, and some by simply being there for the ones who needed help. Some tenno, nearly all in fact, wished there had been a way to help the ponies who had lost more than they could regain. A few tried, tried to comfort those who thought the invaders would return, or that the tenno would now turn on them.

Throughout the valley that Canterlot overlooked the tenno spoke. Their message took on many different guises, but was the same at it's core.

"Your planet shall never fall"

***

*Cynder POV*

I meditated inside Ponyville's castle with Huntress, Shift, Avalon, Chaser, and Twilight all standing or sitting nearby. The white equine, whose name we learned, was Princess Celestia, looked out over Ponyville as we told her about ourselves.

"...So not even we know everything about ourselves. Our pasts, before these shells were built around us, its all..." Avalon paused searching for a word, "hazy, no completely dark is more like it"

"I see" Celestia murmured, "But can you answer me this?" She asked turning to look at us.

"What is it, Princess?" I prodded, curious.

The large white alicorn turned to the level-headed frost.

"May I see your sword and shield, Avalon?" She asked.

Avalon hesitated, but then slowly he released the lock on the shield keeping it attached to his arm. He kept the sword sheathed under the shield as he held it out to the princess like a peace offering. The sword and shield were wrapped in a golden blanket of energy as Celestia took them into her grasp.

"Interesting" she mumbled, "A weapon of fire and steel, with no magical or physical barriers to shape it's flames in battle"

She unsheathed the Silva but the sword did not ignite as it usually did, nor did the Aegis expand to its full size.

"What?!" A wide-eyed Twilight gasped, "May I see?"

The energy surrounding the Silva and Aegis quickly changed from a radiant gold to a gentle lavender as Twilight took the sword and shield into her own magic.

"B-b-but how in th--, that isn't possible, flames can't hold a shape like that...it's just not possible!"

She started to shake the weapon, seemingly trying to get them to ignite.

"Come on, work!" she growled.

I chuckled softly at her frustration. Partly because of her confused expression, and partly because of the simple truth.

"You won't get those to work by shaking them," I said, walking over to the lavender unicorn, "The Silva and Aegis are activated by a tenno's energy, making it impossible for other life forms to use effectively".

I took the shield from Twilight and strapped it to my arm. Instantly the individual plates that made up the shield split, and blue flames ignited in the gaps between the plates as the shield expanded to it's combat mode.

Twilight simply stared at the shield, mouth agape. She was so shocked in fact, she lost her concentration on the sword, which would have fallen to the ground if Celestia's magic hadn't intervened.

"Very interesting," the princess said quietly. She used her magic to move the sword towards me. When it was close enough I took it in my hand, and watched as neptune-blue flames engulfed the length of the blade. The Silva and Aegis, the only sword and board style weapon that we knew of so far.

"If you dont mind me changing the subject," Celestia said, breaking the short silence, "I dont believe I got your names". I sheathed the sword once more, deactivating both it and the shield, before handing it back to Avalon.

"My name is Cynder," I said, "The others present are; Avalon, Huntress, Shift, and Chaser" I gestured to each tenno as I recited their names.

"Thank you, all of you, for protecting my subjects during this attack," Celestia turned back to the window. Below, the last of the fires were being extinguished by ponies and a few Hydroids. In other areas, wounded ponies were receiving medical attention from Trinities and a few Oberons.

"I must also thank your kind for their assisting in the recovery of ponyville," she continued, before adding, "your medics are quite skilled at healing magic".

"It isn't magic," Shift corrected, "The tenno who bear the oberon or trinity warframes are able to channel their energy into another organism's body, this speeds up the body's natural repair functions and neutralizes any lingering ailments."

There was a long silence as everyone turned to look at the mag prime.

"You know," Twilight began, "that does sound an awful lot like a healing spell"

"Whatever" Shift growled, leaning against a pillar and crossing her arms.

"Hey, no need to start acting all harsh again Shift," Huntress said quietly, "we've all had a tough day, and by that I mean the ponies as well as us."

Another long silence followed. And was broken by the sound of a door opening.

"Um...are we interrupting something?" A white unicorn, who I recognized as Rarity, asked.

"Not at all" Avalon said.

"Then, if it is okay, we have some questions for you"

'Oh boy' I thought, before saying, "Sure, ask away"

Rarity entered the room, followed by Applejack, then Fluttershy, then Rainbow Dash, and finally Pinkie Pie.

"Firstly," Rarity began, "who designed your suits?!"

'...What...'

"I-I mean," she stuttered, trying to re-compose herself, "some of you look fine, but some of your kind must simply change into something less..." She paused, searching for the word, "vicious looking"

"Well, you see, Rarity, we cant really change much about our looks," I said, "we can alter our warframe's colors to our liking, but, um, in terms of fashion, shape usually stays the same."

"What!?" the white unicorn gasped, "well, we'll see about that, just give me your...warframe and I re-shape it into something much more fashionable."

"I'm sure you could Rarity, except for two problems," I began, "One: our warframes, as elegant as they may appear, are armor and therefore cutting them is going to require more than scissors, and two: we can't actually remove our warframes."

For the third time that day, another awkward silence fell on the room.

"Ah have a question for ya'll" the orange pony, Applejack, said.

"What is it Applejack?" Huntress asked.

"Just how many warframes are there, an' what exactly do they do?" the hat-wearing pony asked.

"Hmmm..." the valkyr said, trying to recall the answer to the first question, "There are thirty-five known warframes to this date, not including prime versions, such as Shift or Avalon."

"So what do they do to ya'll then?" Applejack inquired.

"Well, in general, each warframe allows the tenno inside to focus their energy into the abilities you see us use in and out of battle." Huntress paused before adding, "they also enhance our senses, agility, and speed up our reactions."

To demonstrate Huntress broke into a sprint towards the wall, then leaped and began to dash up towards the ceiling. Gravity quickly slowed her ascent to a stop, which was when she kicked off of the wall into a backflip. She then activated her ripline, throwing the glowing beam at the ceiling. The ripline gripped the surface, and allowed the valkyr to swing down to the floor in a graceful arc.

"Ta-da!" she chuckled as she landed.

Rarity's mouth was agape, Applejack's eyes were the size of glaives, Twilight looked like she was about to explode out of pure confusion, Rainbow Dash was flying all over the place saying the word "awesome" over and over again, and Fluttershy, Celestia, and Pinkie were applauding.

"Showoff" Avalon chuckled.

"You guys have to give me a warframe," Rainbow Dash cried. "I'd be so much more awesome with one!"

It wasn't me who started the giggling, but it quickly spread through the tenno in the room. The giggle evolved into a restrained laugh, then a roar of laughter.

"What?" Rainbow asked, "what's so funny!?"

Chaser, being the first to stop laughing, answered the pegasus's question, "It's just that there has never been a warframe made for a pony," She said, "or for that matter anything other than a tenno"

"So?" The cyan pegasus asked, "cant you just make one that fits a pony?"

"Sorry rainbow," I chuckled, "to be honest we don't know how to create warframes, much less shape them to fit other creatures"

"But is it possible?"

Celestia now spoke with a much more serious tone than before, it was a bit intimidating.

"Well...yes, I mean we would have to gather the resources to form the armor, but if we did have the materials, and the know-how it seems entirely possible."

"And we're missing two of the items you just listed," Shift cut in, "The know-how, and the materials"

There was a familliar chirp as my, now repaired, commlink received a message.

"I believe I can supply both, tenno" the Lotus said.

Author's Note

And there it is, after several months I finally completed another chapter. And ended on a "cliffhanger" if you can call it that.

Sorry about the lack of anything happening, but between finals, playing warframe, and traveling I haven't been able to do much writing, hoping to at least start the next chapter when I post this chapter.

Changing The Frame

*Huntress POV*

"Lotus," I said, "what do you mean by that?"

Twilight gave me a confused look, "Um, Huntress, who are you talking to?"

"Tenno, it might be a good idea to project this transmission," The lotus offered.

I nodded, taking out a small, handheld holo-projector and placing it in the center of the room. The image of the lotus faded winked out of existence on my hud, as her hologram appeared for the ponies to see.

"W-What--" was all Twilight managed.

"Hello, Twilight Sparkle," the Lotus calmly replied, "you have no need to fear me, I am here to help."

"Wha--h-how do you know my?"

"I learn through my tenno, as they learn from me" Interrupted the violet guide of the tenno. All twilight could manage was a confused look, which unfortunately, was directed at me

"In other words; the Lotus can "see" what we see, and "hear" what we hear," I explained, "it helps her direct our attacks and movements."

"Oh" Twilight said, still looking baffled.

"I can explain the relationship better," the lotus chuckled, "but right now we have more important concerns"

"Correct," a unfazed Celestia affirmed, "you said you could offer information on how to construct a warframe for a pony?"

Another chirp sounded as the Lotus displayed a blueprint.

"Tenno operatives discovered this in an Orokin derelict," Our mentor informed, "it appears to have been oriented for a kubrow but I believe it can be modified to fit our needs."

I studied the design. It appeared to have the same basic layout as an excalibur warframe, except, of course, it had four legs and no arms. In each of its feet there were electromagnets, supposedly to allow the much bulkier, heavier kubrow or pony to scale walls, and add power to a jump.

"Very interesting," Celestia murmured, "can you create a functioning prototype?"

"I have just recieved the resources required to finish the system components," the Lotus said. She turned to Chaser, "Chaser, your Liset is nearest to your location, I am sending the blueprints and materials to your ship's cephalon."

"I will tell him to begin work immidiately, Lotus" Chaser replied. She turned and left the room, tapping her commlink as the doors closed behind her.

"H-Hang on!" Everyone turned to a panicked Twilight, "how can we be expected to fight!? Ponies, with the exception of the royal guards, don't normally receive any combat training!" Upon uttering the word 'combat' I could've sworn I saw everyone in the room stiffen.

"Hmm..." Avalon 'said', breaking the silence, "While that may be the case, it doesn't mean that there won't be ponies willing to fight against the grineer." He paused before adding, "And if there are any who are willing to fight we will help to prepare them for the fight ahead."

For what felt like the thousandth time that day, silence blanketed the room. Everything was silent, save for the sounds of fires and tenno abilities. Chaser was the one to break the silence.

"The new prototypes are being crafted, they should be done in about seventy-two hours," the mirage announced. I was about to thank her when I caught on to one detail of the statement that piqued my interest.

"'They', Chaser?"

"Yes, The Lotus apparently had four prototype designs made based off of both the original design and other warframes." She informed.

Then I remembered something.

"By the way Chaser," I said, "I have a present for you!" I pulled out the Stalker's dropped blueprint from before and tossed it to the stalker fan.

"No. Freaking. Way!" She breathed, "damnit Huntress, now I owe you one!"

"Nah its fine" I said, waving my hand dismissively, "besides cage-boy and cyclops-girl are all the primes we need at the moment."

Avalon and Shift, who had been locked in a conversation about who could kill more corpus, turned to me with a confused "huh?"

"We should begin recruiting ponies who want to fight," I continued, "if there are any who want to fight the grineer, they will need training in and out of their armor."

"Huntress, as much as I like the idea of my little ponies being able to protect themselves," Celestia began, "I do not want a citizen in an un-tested prototype armor"

I thought about her concern for a moment. She had a good point, this armor had never been used, as far as we knew. I could have been full of deadly malfunctions, or it could explode suddenly. But we needed to act, we couldn't just sit around, but who would be willing to go against their princess's wishes and enter the prototype?

The answer was closer than i had originally thought.

"U-um, e-excuse me everyone?" A small voice asked cautiously, "I-I would like to volunteer for testing the prototype, I-If that is okay with all of you"

Silence was becoming very, very, very, VERY annoying now. But this was a shocked silence that was deserved. For out of all of the few ponies I knew, I had not expected Fluttershy to even want to come close to battle armor.

"F-Fluttershy!" Twilight gasped, "Are...Are you sure you want to?!"

The yellow mare shrank back a little, but I could see that her mind was made up.

Fluttershy would go down in two histories as the first pony-tenno.

Author's Note

HA, BET YOU DIDNT SEE THAT TWIST COMMING! :pinkiehappy:

If you did then all I can say is, "you're a wizard [insert username here]"

So how the armor works will be revealed in the next chapter, and no, im not going to be making fluttershy into a bloodthirsty killer, but she will be taking an active role as a tenno.

Excal will not be the first here!

Ready Player One?

'How did we get all of this accomplished?' That was the question I asked myself over and over as I sat on the couch in Fluttershy's cottage. I had stayed the night at the yellow pegasus's home to make sure she was really okay with the idea of donning weaponized armor. Her choice never changed, she wanted to protect her friends. 'She may be shy, but she has a strong will, I'll give her that'.

"Cynder?"

The yellow pegasus trotted up to me, giving me a concerned look.

"I-If you or any of your other friends don't think I'm qualified to wear the armor, then I-I'll just find somepony else to try it..."

"Wha--where'd you get that idea from?"

She looked down at the floor, her mane hiding her face from me.

"y-you all just seemed so shocked when I volunteered," she lifted her head to look me in the...well, lack of eyes, "I thought th-that maybe you didnt want me to get involved."

"Fluttershy," I sighed, placing a hand on the equine's equivalent of a shoulder, "If we thought you wouldn't be suitable, no pun intended, we would have objected by now."

"R-Really?" she asked, "T-thank you f-for being honest Cy-Cynder"

It took me a moment to realize that while I was perfectly comfortable, the air outside my armor was, in fact, only 7.22 degrees celsius (45 Degrees Fahrenheit). And it was also at this moment I realized Fluttershy was shivering.

'just dont burn her alive' I thought repeatedly as I channeled energy to my palm, like I would when preparing a fireball. Only I was using a positively tiny amount of energy in comparison to that attack. However it was enough energy to heat the palm of my hand and warm my friend up.

"T-thank you Cynder" She said quietly, looking at the floor again.

"Don't mention it," I said, in a careless tone. Then I realized what the other tenno might think if they found out about this, and quickly added, "Actually, seriously don't mention this to anyone or anypony else"

She lifter her head again smiling at me before saying, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye" upon uttering the last part she appeared to poke herself in the eye.

"uh..." I managed.

"Oh, that's right you don't know about that" the mare chuckled. "I'll explain if you want"

"um, sure"

***

As Fluttershy finished up her explanation of a "Pinkie-Pie-Promise", which I still didn't comprehend, the sound of roaring liset engines filled the air. It also sent Fluttershy under the couch, and made me grin behind my helmet.

"Fluttershy it okay" I said, "Come on, Chaser is here to pick us up"

Reluctantly the yellow pegasus came out from under the couch and followed me over to the door. Once outside, I looked up at the hovering, black and red stealth ship, and again smiled.

"Ready, Cynder?" I heard the mirage chime through my commlink.

"Just get us up there already" I chuckled

As if by voice command, the normal airlock on the liset retracted, leaving a gap large enough to enter through.

"Fluttershy" The yellow mare looked at me with a frightened, wide-eyed look, "come on get up there already!"

Giving me a still wide-eyed nod, she flapped her wings and flew into the vessel.

I crouched, and pulled off a perfect bullet jump followed by a well-timed rolling jump, before landing on the floor of the liset. As I stood up i heard the airlock hiss back into place underneath us.

"Welcome aboard the liset," Chaser called from the orbiter compartment, "Sorry about the lack of seats, but this Isn't exactly a ship for cruising in" The Stalker's stalker chuckled, entering the main cabin.

"The hate looks good on you Chaser" I giggled, gesturing to the large scythe that now rested on her back alongside her bow and quiver.

"Thanks, but i think you'll find this more interesting" She said, holding up a stasis case.

"So, that's the armor?" I asked, "thought it would look...more complete."

The armor was in pieces, but it was arranged as it should be worn. Each plate of armor was in exactly the right spot, held in place by a stasis-field. From what I could see there were three separate pieces of armor for each leg, three for the torso including, and one piece for the head that resembled a crown of sorts.

However, there was one thing that confused me.

This armor had a blunt horn protruding off of the crown, however it was more stubby than the one from the armor The Lotus had shown us previously. Additionally, two frilly fin-like structures protruded from the chest plate, and a skirt-like structure around the waist that appeared to be made out of the same material, which also had not been present on the blueprint The Lotus had shown us.

"Hey Chaser, wasn't the blueprint you received more akin to an Excalibur in terms of design?" I asked, "this looks more like a Saryn."

"Yeah, um..." The dark mirage rubbed the back of her neck, "you see, I uh...kinda forgot to have Ordis start the chassis for that armor, but all the others are nearing completion."

"I think it looks kind of...pretty" Fluttershy commented quietly.

"Lady Chaser, miss Cynder?" Ordis chimed, "we have arrived at the specified coordinates--SO GET OUT--I hope the new frame works as per my calculations"

"Thanks Ordi" Chaser giggled, as the revolving airlock retracted again, "I'll let you know how it preformed when I get back" She said before leaping to the ground, followed by me, and finally Fluttershy.

***

"Okay, everything should be set," Huntress said, adjusting crown so it was stable on Fluttershy's head. Once it was, several small blue lights along the base flickered on.

"Do you feel okay with this Fluttershy?" a nervous Twilight asked.

"Perfectly fine" the yellow mare replied.

"Okay then we should be all set," Chaser said, "Fluttershy, the headpiece should have established its "neural link" with you, so try to think about the armor activating and it should do so."

I turned to the Mirage, perplexed. "How would you know that?"

She shrugged, "Lotus gave me the basics on how the suits should function."

Fluttershy looked confused, as did everyone else in the room, but closed her eyes, and appeared to do as she was told. Suddenly from the crown several smooth, white panels slid over the pegasus's face coming together with an audible click to form the helmet of the armor. From the base of the helmet a grey substance flowed down the pony's neck to the chest plate. The substance continued to flow until all the gaps between the armor pieces had been covered by grey, oil-like substance, hiding any trace of the yellow pegasus underneath, save for the tail. Small lights running along the armored spinal column of the armor flickered on. Finally, the oil-like substance rapidly solidified into a layer of flexible armor.

For a few seconds everything was silent.

"Are you okay in there fluttershy?" Avalon asked sounding slightly worried.

There was no response.

"Fluttershy?" Huntress waved her hand in front of the helmet.

"I-I-I'm okay" came the shaky reply.

"It works" Avalon sounded quite surprised.

"How do you feel?" I asked the mare inside the armor, "Can you move?"

In response the armored pony took a few slow, nervous steps forwards. Her covered hooves making a soft clack against the wood floor.

"Wow" Twilight breathed, "that is amazing." She then looked confused as everyone started to head outside. Both she and Fluttershy were the last two to step outside into the early morning sunlight.

I couldn't stop myself from chuckling at Twilight's remark, "You think that is amazing, then wait until you see what it canreally do." I turned back to armored mare. "Fluttershy," she turned her now featureless face towards me, "try jumping as high as you can."

"B-But my wings are stuck" the pegasus noted. And this was true, while the frame had seemingly adapted to the change in body type, the wings were covered over and held to the sides of the body.

'I said jump, not fly right?' I asked myself.

Thankfully, Twilight was on hand to explain that Fluttershy, as a pegasus, was used to using her wings to stabilize her body. Without them she would have a harder time balancing when landing.

"Fluttershy, trust me" Avalon said, "you will be fine"

Fluttershy remained silent, but crouched, took a deep breath, and jumped.

The height of the jump was impressive, nearly 12ft or 3.6576 meters. And, despite both Twilight and Fluttershy's concerns, the landing was even smother, perfect posture, for a quadruped, and nothing broken.

I, along with Avalon, Chaser, and Huntress, gave Fluttershy a quiet round of applause. While Twilight just stared, once again, opened mouthed. Seemingly overwhelmed by the enhancements the armor provided.

'And the scary thing is' I thought, 'I bet she is gonna ask more questions about it'

***

For the next two and a half hours we continued to test the armor's capabilities. We had started with sprinting, having been told that Fluttershy wasn't exactly the fastest pony on her hooves.

With the armor on, however; she managed to keep pace with Chaser, a mirage with a maxed out Rush mod installed.

We tested out more advanced movement techniques next. First up was the double jump, which, unsurprisingly, flummoxed Twilight. Then came the bullet jump, which Fluttershy seemed to enjoy doing, right up until the point where she got nauseous. To finish up I had Huntress lead Fluttershy through a series of narrow alleys by wall-running and wall-latching.

When it was all done, Fluttershy was still herself: shy, quiet, and kind. But the pony-frame had granted her additional strength and power.

It did have one drawback though, which was made clear when Twilight's friends arrived at the library. This drawback was made clear to all of us when Rarity screamed upon seeing the armored pegasus.

"What is that thing" she cried, hiding behind Avalon.

"That" I answered, "Is Fluttershy"

Author's Note

Who doesn't love some parkour 2.0?

Anyways, finished this chapter up with the intention of introducing the pony frame, explaining minor details about it, and saving other explanations for later.

Question for you readers though: Which pony should go with which frame? There are 4 other frames (maybe 5) for the rest of the mane 6, seggestions should, preferably, not be the obvious pairings (example: applejack should be given a rhino pony frame). I cannot wait to see your ideas!

EDIT: Also I do know that the Liset (or landing craft in general) is not where the foundry, arsenal, etc all are. But since this was written a while ago and I am lazy, and I dont really know if the orbiter is capable of entering the atmosphere im gonna stick with what I have.

Although with the devs announcing (or so i've been told) that the future Railjack ships are going to be outfitted with the same equipment as the orbiter compartment, i may try to insert it into the story...somehow...probably not....

Helping a psychic

*Twilight's POV*

Meeting extraterrestrials, seeing their advanced technology, watching them defy the laws of physics, and bend nature to their will. It wasn't that impressive all on its own, but to do so without magic!?

'How did they do that?' I wondered. 'I mean the ability to jump that high should be impossible for a creature with that body structure, and to be able to land from such a height without any injuries whatsoever?!'

At least they were helping to speed up the reconstruction of ponyville. Everywhere I looked, I could see tenno and ponies working to rebuild and improve what had been a battle ground. I didn't recognize most of the frames I saw, but I did note their form and shape for later.

The thing that surprised me the most though was the diversity, each frame was different in its own way from all the others. I saw one frame fly overhead and then glide down to the ground while carrying various building materials. Another one I saw appeared to be healing a young colt. Green energy flowed in a thin stream from the frame into the young pony, and with each passing second the colt looked like he was getting better.

'There are so many of them,' I marveled, 'and yet Avalon said that new tenno and new warframes are being discovered all the time'

"Well, I wouldn't say all the time"

I yelped and spun around to face the speaker. Not for the first time did my eyes go wide at what I saw.

Before me stood a tall, white warframe with gold trimming, indicating it was a prime. While there was a lot of gold on the frame, I was more impressed by the helmet. A long golden cage extended off of the back of the helmet, and on the front there were four glowing points that resembled eyes. Each 'eye' glowed a bright teal color, and the whole frame itself seemed to radiate a powerful aura.

"Yeah, I am a psychic actually" the tenno said, "sorry, for scaring you"

"Y-you can read my m-mind?" I asked astonished.

"Yep, kinda hard not to", the tenno admitted, "I'm not exactly used to this kind of power"

I just stared, open mouthed. Too shocked to respond. To my knowledge mind reading was an art that took years of training to just comprehend the basics. If the tenno in front of me had been a unicorn her passive ability would have been considered a near-impossible magical feat.

"Uh, helloooooo~" the tenno waved an armored hand in front of my face, "earth to violet pony?"

"Huh?" I asked, still quite shocked "Oh, I'm sorry, its just that mind reading isn't exactly something somepony can do easily. It takes years of practice for even the most powerful unicorns to pull it off"

"Well I'm not a pony, if you haven't noticed," the figure chuckled, "My name is Spirit" She gestured to her body, "and this is the Nyx Prime warframe"

"Wow," I breathed, "so, um, what are you doing here?"

"Stuff," Spirit shrugged, "Just admiring the scenery, trying to help where I can" she directed her gaze at the ground before adding, "though I'm not much help as of now."

"That's a lie if I ever heard one" I placed my hoof on the tenno's leg. "Nopony is useless. I'm sure you can help in some way"

Spirit mumbled something that I couldn't quite understand.

"Why don't you explain your abilities to me?" I gestured for Spirit to follow, "I need to check on how repairs are going, we can talk while we walk."

***

"And when I release the energy" Spirit explained, "'boom'"

"Interesting" I muttered. I had a few ideas for what the psychic tenno could have done to help out, but as she had described her abilities the list had become much shorter. I wracked my brain for more ideas, there had to be something I was leaving out, something I hadn't considered.

But no ideas came.

"Hey, its alright" Spirit looked me in the eye. Or...rather I assumed she did, it was hard to tell if those things on the front of her helmet were actually eyes. "You tried to help me, and I appreciate that".

There was a long, painful, awkward, uncomfortable, sad silence. I wanted to tell Spirit that she had fallen for a trick, and that I actually did know a way she could help. But, again, no ideas worked.

We were on the road to Sweet Apple Acres. On either side of us apple trees of mixed conditions stood. Some patches of trees were charred, others seemed to be in perfect condition, and some were now piles of ash. We continued on until we turned onto the path leading up to the archway.

As we approached Spirit came to a dead stop.

"What's wrong?" I asked, not sure if I should be worried, "Do you have something against farms?"

"Fear" she mumbled, "Someone. Scared. Being chased by---" she took off, running towards the trees on the opposite side of the road.

"Wait what?!" I cried. I opened my wings and launched into the air in hot pursuit. She jumped over the fence along the road, and disappeared into the trees.

Thanks to the powerful aura she emitted, I could follow her quite easily. It also helped that her armor was blazing white against the green and brown earth. I kept up easily, though for running speed she was impressive. I had decided to try and ask her what was going on, when I heard a familiar scream. Then I heard a loud 'crack!' and watched as few trees tree fell as if something had collided with them.

In an dust-covered clearing I could make out the forms of three small ponies emerging from the trees. I swooped down and landed in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Twilight!" a terrified looking Sweetie Belle squawked. She stopped so abruptly that her two fellow crusaders ran right into her. "Help!"

There was a large snarl from the treeline and a huge timberwolf burst into the sunlight. Now I have seen timberwolves of varying sizes before, I had heard that some ponies had used to tame the smallest ones and keep them as pets. This timberwolf though was humongous, it was almost as tall as the trees behind it, and its maw was big enough to snap up at least two ponies, or in this case myself and three little fillies, without any trouble. I did remember AJ and Spike mentioning an incident where three timberwolves had fused together to make one bigger timberwolf. 'Didn't think they ment that big!'

The beast snarled and advanced slowly, its eyes glowed a sickly-green. It kept its eyes on us, probably thinking something along the lines of: "Yay, more ponies. Yum!" It let loose a roar that shook the air, and made the ground tremble.

I heard an odd sound from the trees, and the timberwolf toppled over sideways as its left side was bombarded with...'exploding darts?'

"STAY AWAY" Spirit roared, charging out of the trees carrying a huge white battleaxe, the weapon's golden blades flashing in the sunlight.

The wolf roared in outrage and flipped to it's feet. When Spirit got into striking distance the timberwolf lunged to snap her up in its jaws, but Spirit was amazingly agile for someone carrying a huge axe. She rolled to the left and rushed forward, using her momentum to add power to her swing as the axe cleaved right through the wolf's front leg. She used the axe's momentum to launch into a graceful flip and cut into the beast's body, the blade stayed embedded.

The wolf thrashed about, trying to dislodge the annoying golden warrior who dared to attack it. And it partially succeded, the axe remained stuck, but Spirit was thrown off and crashed to the ground in front of us.

"Spirit!" I cried. The timberwolf howled and charged at us. Acting on instinct I used a spell that my big brother had been teaching to me. I wasn't as good as him but I could still pull it off. Instantly Spirit, the cutie mark crusaders, and I were encased inside of a shimmering magenta sphere.

The timberwolf smashed into my shield and I started seeing spots. My brother had warned me that the more stress one put on a shield, the faster it would wear down the caster. The beast stumbled about, apparently the impact had shaken it as much as it had shaken me.

"Spirit, get up!" I begged, "please"

I heard a loud snarl, the timberwolf had collected itself and we preparing to charge once more. I moved to stand by Spirit, the crusaders huddled behind me, whimpering. As the monster of the everfree charged I shut my eyes. I knew there were plenty of spells I could have used to dispatch the wolf, or slow it down, but that would mean dropping my shield. I was also too scared to attempt a different spell, the shield spell wasn't exactly easy, but I had gone over it so many times it was easy to form simply at least

I felt my shield shatter. But not in the fashion I was expecting. My big brother had described what having your magical defenses shattered felt like. He had described it as feeling like you were being crushed under an enormous weight. This did not feel like that at all. Instead it felt like the weight of maintaining the shield had simply vanished.

"Woah" I heard Scootaloo gasp, "Thats...just...wow"

I opened my eyes, and blinked. Surrounding the crusaders, me, and my shield, was a much larger dome of energy. It shimmered brightly, as several bands of energy spun around like hula hoops. And floating in the center, cross-legged was Spirit.

"Not a bad shield," she grunted as the timberwolf struck her shield, "but let me handle this one okay?"

Once again the wolf charged, its maw opening wide as it bit the translucent bubble. Its snout shattered on impact.

"Bad dog!" Spirit chided, "Very bad dog!" The words only seemed to enrage the monster more. It kept up it's assault, clawing and head-butting Spirit's shield. Oddly enough though Spirit seemed fine. She didn't even seem to notice the impacts. Suddenly I realized that she had described this action before, her ability: absorb.

"Now" She said, snarling back at the timberwolf, "Sit!"

The bubble exploded outward, unleashing a huge shockwave of energy which slammed into the timberwolf like tornado. The wave ripped the entire wolf apart, scattering its pieces far and wide, which meant that it would be a long time before it or its smaller parts reformed.

Spirit turned to face me. And I got the sneaking suspicion that behind that helmet she was smiling.

"Guess I found a way to help, huh?"

***

There were many "I'm sorry"'s and "We wont do it again"'s once we got the crusaders back to their sisters. Though I knew that the three fillies would probably end up in trouble again sooner or later.

Spirit had elected to not meet the other tenno, for reasons she didn't reveal. I found her in the park meditating after saying goodbye to my friends.

"That was pretty amazing" I admitted.

She chuckled "It was nothing, just trying to help"

A pause. I studied her armor more carefully, not just on a visual level, but on a magical level as well. I was curious as to what was inside the armor. I used my magic to send out a low level scanning pulse through her armor, with her permission of course.

As soon as I cast the spell Spirit crumpled and fell to the ground. I shrieked and rolled her onto her back. The lights on her helmet were out, and her entire body was limp.

"No." I began to slip into panic mode. Had I just unintentionally murdered my new friend? "No no no no no---"

Spirit sat up so quickly she almost headbutted me.

"Oh thank Celestia!" I breathed. I tackled her into a hug.

"Um, Twilight?" She returned the hug, and I realized I had tears forming. "whats wrong?"

I released her and dried my eyes. "You just..." I didn't want to say the word "I want to say fainted, but it was more like you died"

Spirit studied me, probably checking if this was a trick or a joke. "Huh" was all she said. She got up and brushed dust off of her legs. "Well I'm gonna go for a walk around town," she started off then stopped and turned back to face me, "Could you tell me where I may find you? I feel like having someone to chat with once in a while would be nice."

"The castle," I replied, forcing a smile, "its...well you can't really miss it can you?"

"Its hardly a normal house," she agreed, "thanks see you again sometime!" And with that she strode off into Ponyville.

It certainly had been a weird day. And what had happened just now with spirit...millions of new questions surfaced in my head, each one begging to be answered. And I had a feeling the tenno would have the answers, but I had a guess as to who would.

Author's Note

Yay, new chapter. Sorry if here are a few "her"'s or " she"'s in there, kinda realized the story was in the first person not the third about halfway through when writing this chapter.

I wonder who could Twi be referring to?

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*Chaser POV*

In my time serving the Lotus, I have seen many, many weird things. Mad grineer scientist releasing an ancient bio-weapon? Check. Mad corpus scientist who dissects warframes and makes them into his evil pet? Check.

But this...This is a different kind of weird altogether.

I am on my orbiter. Specifically I am on the lower decks, next to the old storage compartment across from that infested door. Everything seems normal, lights are all on, all systems are still functioning, and the infested door is still...well infested.

And yet...

Something is off. I don't know what it is but something is definitely off.

Like many tenno across the system, I rarely experience fear. I mean what is there to fear when you are an ancient soldier, right? But this is one of those rare times, no this is even rarer.

I am not scared. I am simply terrified.

Slowly I get up and take a few steps forward, peeking around the corner towards the mid-deck where the arsenal, mod station, and foundry are located. I hear the foundry buzzing, still crafting that Hate blueprint. On the wall there is that picture of the Lotus I purchased a while ago.

Everything seems normal...maybe I am just paranoi-

"Hey"

I jump in shock, whirl around, and fall on my rear, only to find no one. I do a double take, looking for anything or anyone who could've decided to pull a late halloween prank. Again no one is there.

'Its okay Chaser, just...calm down, you've had a long day...even though that has never really affected you before...'

In fact that is a good point I just brought up. Didn't I just wake up? And if that is true then why was I napping in the corner of my orbiter? And since when did I nap? Sleep on a regular schedule, sure, but I never take naps.

"Breathe girl, breathe," I try to calm myself down. "Also, may want to lay off the Ostron folktales for a while."

I pick myself up and move cautiously up the ramp to the mid-deck. Sure enough everything is fine in my rather dark orbiter compartment. Still trying to calm my nerves I check the foundry.

"Hate 75% Complete"

Seeing this lifts my spirits a little, soon I will wield the scythe of my dark obsession!

But, wait, wasn't it already crafted?

Then something catches my eye: another blueprint is crafting, one which I do not remember starting. The foundry user interface must be bugged again (damnit Ordis!) because I cannot scroll down to view what the blueprint is.

Suddenly the holographic interface shuts off displaying only what I can assume is a repeated error message:

"01010010 01100001 01110000 00100000 01010100 01100001 01110000 00100000 01010100 01100001 01110000..."

I slam my fist down on the accursed machine. This better not mess up my scythe!

"Ordis, can you get this blasted thing working again?" I call out to my ship's cephalon, expecting the usual obedient, glitched reply.

Instead a loud screech blared through the ships comms system, forcing me to hold the sides of my head as I feel like something is being ripped out of my body. Or was it something ripping me off of something else?

"Ordis? Ordis, what the hell?!" I yell as I stagger up the second ramp to the main view port. Every step I take seems to make the room darker, the closer I get to the top of the ramp, the more violently the room spins. I have a pounding headache that makes me want to rip my body open to release whatever is writhing within me. Then I reach the upper deck.

And the pain stops. The noise fades.

I am on my hands and knees now, slowly recovering from whatever that was. I get one leg underneath me and grasp the comms scanner for balance, before lifting my head.

I scream.

For hanging in the middle of my upper deck from a wire is a mass of darkness in the form of a smaller humanoid.

I scramble backwards in shock, tumbling down the ramp into my lower decks. I turn to retreat further into my orbiter, but something makes me freeze solid.

Standing in my arsenal is another humanoid figure. Dark, slender, and hovering a few feet off of the floor. It appears to be a warframe, but its like I am viewing it through a damaged visor. Its form flickers, chunks of it disappearing for split seconds. All but the head.

The faceplate was featureless, shrouded in darkness, but the one thing I could make out was its two glowing white eyes. They didn't just look at me and through me, they seemed to stare far beyond me and into an unknown place.

I begin to turn to scramble back up the ramp when I see the articula above the ramp has changed. Before it was a banner of the solar system, now it depicts a corpus ship with two other warframes, an Oberon freyarch and a Loki knave. Both are down on the floor, but I see no blood. Despite articulas being still images I swear their heads turn to look at me, and while warframes don't have facial features to express emotion I can see the fear and sorrow in their gaze. It sends a clear message to me:

"RUN"

I try to do so but my body does not respond. Instead my head turns to look straight up.

Right into the glowing, white eyes of that dark warframe. No emotion, no anger, or sadness, or joy. Just that blank, unblinking, empty light.

"yeHoidKd"

That's all it says before it extends its claw-like fingers and thrusts them into my chest before extracting them once more. As my vision fades I don't see a heart, or a mass of viscera. In fact, what it pulls from my chest looks a lot like....

...A hand?

***

I have never shot from lying down to bolt upright so fast in my life. In fact it actually kind of hurt to be honest. But pain was overridden by fear as all I can see is darkness. Then my eyes began to adjust, and I can make out bookshelves.

'I'm in the library,' I slowly got my breathing and heart rate under control.

"What the hell was that?" I asked aloud, to no one. They were all probably outside with Applejack, her new frame was supposed to be complete today. "Maybe I should consult Avalon or Spirit, possibly the Lotus if they do not know what to make of this."

With that and a quick glance to confirm everything was normal, I headed towards the door.

Author's Note

After writing this I realize that the previous chapters were all written in past tense, I may either go back and update it to present tense or re-write this to be in past tense as well.

Anyways, this is my first time trying out a more horror-themed story. And I wrote it all up in around 2 hours.

The original premise was based around a picture I made in captura:

I know that this probably conflicts with a bunch of story elements, as does the rest of the story so far, but I may try to go back and change that.

Sorry for the lack of updates for around 3 years. Highschool turned into community college and warframe got a bunch of updates, and now there are new updates comming up like Fortuna, and Railjack, and the New War...

OMG the hype.

Speaking of continuity I havent really decided where the tenno in this story are in terms of...well story. Definitely before Second Dream, but after Once Awake.

I'll try to figure it out...maybe

Also I am unsure of what to do with the title, probably leave it as is...Idk wanted to do something different

In any case ill still try to write here and there (just not on a Sunday night before a psychology test). I just wanted to put something up, and this idea just popped into my head all of a sudden.

Hope it was enjoyable!

And now, I shall try to sleep with no nightmares of----

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"Shall I Deploy Archwing?"

*Huntress POV*

I kicked the metal grate out of the way and listened to it clatter to the metallic floor. I waited for a few seconds, making sure that no lancers had come to investigate, before slipping out of the air vent and falling silently to the floor.

I landed on the floor with a muffled 'thud' and slowly rose to my feet, two more grates clattered to the floor as both of my squad members landed beside me.

There was a chirp from my comm link as it displayed the incoming message. On my helmet's HUD the image of the sender of the message started to come through the static.

It was her. The one who released me and the others from our long sleep, the one who had helped us remember the ways of our kind, and the one who guided us throughout our missions.

"The Grineer have gone great lengths to conceal their operations on the planet below. We now know that they intend to conquer the planet and take its vast quantities of rare resources for their own usage. We must not allow this to happen. If it should, then they would be able to construct more advanced and destructive tech. Destroy the reactor and head to extraction."

The image of The Lotus disappeared from my HUD with another chirp of the comm link. I looked to my two friends, wordlessly asking them if they were ready to go.

Our squad of three consisted of; Shift, a Mag Prime warframe; Cynder, A Ember warframe; and myself, A Valkyr warframe named Huntress.

The nodded back to me, signaling that they were, indeed, ready to go. I pulled out one of my favorite weapons in my large arsenal: A Dread, the weapon of the creepy and deadly figure known as "The Stalker". Shift drew out her main weapon, a powerful Boltor Prime rifle, full auto and modded for power, speed, and stealth. Cynder on the other hand drew out her melee weapon, I watched as it slipped from its holster on her forearm and expanded from a little disc into a the tri-bladed Glaive.

I mentally smiled, as we set off to destroy the reactor.

***

Thanks to the added suppression mods on the louder rifles making them silent, the silence of The Dread's arrows, and Shift using her abilities when we screwed up, we made it to the reactor.

My comm link chirped again, and brought forth the image of The Lotus once more.

"Expose the core of the reactor and destroy the energy cells. Then head to extraction."

Cynder made quick work of the core's security system, hacking it in mere milliseconds. When she finished the reactor core was in full view, its energy cells exposed and ready for destruction. The three of us worked quickly to shatter every last one of the cells.

The core spun as Shift reloaded her rifle, and Cynder's Glaive started its return arc. I lined up a shot with my dread, and released the arrow.

The arrow collided with the cell, shattering it into tiny pieces. The core stopped spinning, the lights flickered out, and a green indicator appeared on the edge my HUD's locator.

Suddenly my comm link beeped signaling another message from The Lotus.

"Tenno, you must hurry the stability of the reactor on this ship seems to be deteriorating at a much faster rate than expected. Run"

An estimated countdown time appeared on my HUD as the message flickered out.

TIME: 1:00

I ran, the need for stealth no longer a priority. Shift and Cynder followed closely behind. We destroyed any Grineer that tried to stop us, our shields absorbing the damage we would otherwise be taking. I looked at the countdown, it had reached an alarming 00:15 and the extraction point was still a good distance away.

Over the sound of flame geysers erupting and Grineer crying out in pain as they were crushed, i heard the comm link beep again. This time though it wasn't the Lotus who appeared, but my ship's A.I. or Cephalon "Ordis".

"Operator you won't make it to the extraction point in time *BZZT* You should have ran faster you fa--! *BZZT* Shall I deploy Archwing?"

The shadow of three identical stealth ships, known as Lisets, passed over us. I looked down at my warframe, my energy claws disappearing and parts of my armor taking on a glowing blue color as It was magnetized to the floor to prevent me from being thrown into the void of space flailing about. A large chunk of wall was blasted away as the Famorian started to fly apart.

I glanced at my squadmates who nodded in silent understanding, and then we launched ourselves into the vacuum.

A few seconds later I felt the Archwing, Identified as: Odonata by my HUD, attach itself to my back and activate its life support system, and felt the huge Imperator gatling gun attach to my right arm. I oriented myself to a "upright" position and watched as my friends floated up alongside me.

The Famorian that we had been on mere seconds ago was destroyed, and debris now cluttered the area. But what grabbed our attention was the much larger ship looming in the background.

"A Balor Class Famorian" Shift said over the comm, the first of us to speak during this entire mission.

"We've got drones incoming, from the Balor Class" Cynder informed us as red indicators started to appear on my locator.

"Focus on the drones, once they're out of the way we can call in the Liset to pick us up" I said, readying my imperator. I felt the thrusters of the archwing respond to my will, allowing me to blast through space, leading our squad into battle.

***

It took us a while, but we finally managed to destroy all the drones, I activated my comm link and informed Ordis to come and pick us up, the other two did the same for their own ship's cephalons.

The three ships came into view as they disengaged their void cloak systems. A compartment on the underbelly of each craft opened to allow us in.

"Now get us out of here!" I ordered as soon as i was inside and the archwing was off my back. I felt the rumble as the engines fired and sped us away from the huge Grineer ship.

"Good work tenno, the Balor Class Famorian isn't fully equipped to initiate a full scale invasion or mining opperation, according to our scans, but it doe---

The transmission was interrupted as a large explosion rocked my ship. Then a second one occurred, this one scored a hit on Shift's ship sending it towards the planet below. The next sent Cynders down with one engine now completely gone.

I cried out to my friends through my comm, but no response came back, just static.

Then my ship was hit, and I blacked out.

Author's Note

Archwings, cannot wait for update 15.0 to come to us tenno.

Okay so my first ever warframe crossover, what do you guys think of it? I'm expecting a lot of criticism, but I'm okay with that. The three warframes in this story are actually ones I own, and yes all the warframes I own HAPPEN to be female...

Anyways, enjoy!

"I will test you"

*Shift's POV*

"Girls" Twilight spoke with a gentle tone, "I know she may look different, but inside that armor is Fluttershy"

"Hello everypony" the pony warrior-in-training said, waving a hoof.

"B-but where are her wings!?" A wide-eyed Rainbow dash cried.

"Apparently that was an oversight on the Lotus's part," Chaser explained, "She probably didn't know that the armor's self-generation process would cover the wings with the connective armor."

There was a pause as the four ponies inspected the new armor. Well...if you count pinkie pie bouncing around the room yelling gibberish as inspecting.

"I think it's rather...interesting" Rarity commented, running a hoof along the neck lining of the armor.

"Ah dunno," Applejack eyed the spinal armor, and the horn protruding from the helmet. "Why'd ya'll give it a horn? Fluttershy ain't no unicorn."

"You should consult The Lotus on that question," Chaser giggled, before adding "although I don't know that she knows what the creators had planned for this type of armor originally."

"Anyways," I interrupted, "What are you four doing here?"

"Um..." Rainbow started.

"....Well..." Rarity added.

"...the truth is..." Applejack continued.

"WeReallyWantToHelpProtectOurWorldSoWeAllDecidedToVollunteerForLearningHowToKickGrineerPlot!" Pinkie Pie Blurted.

Our shock was expressed by both the stunned silence in the room, and Twilight's jaw hitting the floor. Both of which made up for our lack of facial expression.

"Th-thats quite a noble intention," Avalon managed, "But are you sure you want to do this?"

The four mares looked at each other, then at Twilight, then Fluttershy.

"Yes" They said in unison.

I stepped forward, giving them a cold glare from behind my visor, "By donning the warframes, you will be put in the path of death and destruction,"

"We want to protect our freinds" Rainbow Dash said, taking a step of her own.

"You will be faced with a foe," I continued, "one who will not negotiate, rest, or back down."

"We understand the truth of conflict," Applejack spoke up, "And even though it ain't easy, we accept that truth."

"If you step into the line of fire, you must be ready to protect those who cannot stand" Huntress added, "You must put your squad's well-being above your own"

"We want to offer our help in any way we can," Rarity replied.

I looked at Huntress. For a tenno who mostly cut bloody paths through legions of enemies, she could be quite the speaker.

"Well...this isn't going to be immediate you know," Avalon pointed out, "You will have to go through the same training and testing as Fluttershy here"

"So let's get on with it already!" Rainbow Dash cried energetically, "Get us in those frames and train us!"

The cool, level-headed prime seemed to glare at the prismatic pegasus.

"Rushing into an unknown is the best way of getting killed" He growled, "We still dont know if the armor will have any detrimental side-effects on the equine body."

"Oh, yeah?" Rainbow challenged, "well how should we defend ourselves if those armored freaks come back today, or tomorrow!?" The pegasus flew right up to the frost, "I say we take the risk! I'm not afraid!"

Avalon might have said something quite stern to the mare, that is if she hadn't been pulled back to the ground by Applejack.

"Now see here Rainbow," The farm pony barked, "Avalon is right, we can't just go rushin' into all of this without making sure it works" She paused and collected herself before continuing, "Ah say we let them test the things, before we try them on." She then turned to look at Avalon, "But ya'll try to test them quickly ya hear?"

Avalon simply nodded.

***

"So" I began for what felt like the millionth time, "Any body pains, or aches at all?"

Fluttershy shook her head.

"Any fatigue or breathing problems?"

Again she shook her head

"Any dizziness or abnormal hallucinations?"

She shook her head, paused, then gave me a panicked look.

"He he, just kidding with that last one" I chuckled, 'Thank lotus this is the last check"

We had been testing Fluttershy for a whole three hours after the tests done in the morning, and finally we were done. The pony-frame worked, and we could finally get to training the other ponies who wanted to fight against the grineer.

"Um, one question Shift?" I looked over to her, "H-how do I take the warframe off?"

I was about to answer when Chaser jumped in.

"Same way you got it on!" The mirage playfully tapped on the armored helmet, "Think and the suit will do!"

Fluttershy glanced at me, and I nodded.

Then she turned to Cynder, who also nodded.

Finally, stopped moving, and seemed to concentrate for a few seconds.

The spinal lights flickered out, the connective armor flowed back up into the helmet, and the faceplates slid silently back into the head-crest. Until the yellow mare was finally free from her new protective shell.

When it was all finished I glared at Chaser. "The lotus told you that too I assume?" I asked.

The mirage giggled, " Nope, Pinkie showed me the owner's manual."

"Huh?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm sure she'll show it to you later!" Chaser chuckled.

I watched as she skipped off to re-join the group of tenno and ponies who were reading, and chatting in the old library. And watching her make a beeline for Pinkie only brought up one thought.

'Why did we let those two meet?'

Then something else crossed my mind, "Hey guys?" Everyone/pony turned to look at me. "Where's Twilight?"

"She went to see how the repairs are commin' along" Applejack said.

Author's Note

I GOT THE HATE, FINNALY.

Now if only stalker would drop despair i would be even happier. But i got loki prime, scindo prime, and wyrm prime to keep me entertained until that happens.

Now, as for Frame-pony pairings, these are what i've decided on so far:

Mesa - Applejack
Pinkie (possibly pinkamena in hysteria) -Valkyr

I am still taking suggestions for the remaining three ponies, if any more ideas for ponies who should bear warframes arise, please let me know.

Now about the more immediate future of the story:

I'm planning on doing something a bit different for the next chapter. The next chapter will not focus on the tenno, but on Twilight, and her interactions with other tenno in the town. See ya then!