Shining Armor gave a sigh.

They had been talking for the better part of an hour trying to figure the machines out, but it was painfully apparent that aside from Compass Rose’s keen observations, they knew absolutely nothing about them. It didn’t help that most of the survivors had suffered temporal damage that was causing amnesia in much the same way as severe cranial trauma. Thankfully Star-Swirl, the Bearded was unaffected and proved to be the most knowledgeable about the machines. He had apparently “seen” bits and pieces of visions during his captivity in a similar fashion to dreams. The machines had come from somewhere unfathomably far away from Equus and once they had arrived, had gone back very far in time to “build” their structures.

“If we could figure out how to go forward in time to the point when they arrived, do you think we’d be able to stop them?” Daring Do asked.

Shining Armor narrowed his eyes; the mare was familiar, as though he’d seen her somewhere before but he could not, for the life of him, remember where. Looking at Compass Rose made him think of his sister, Twilight Sparkle, but he couldn’t figure out what the connection was.

“I doubt it, Miss Rose.” Star-Swirl replied, stroking his beard. “There is no way to know exactly when these foul automata arrived on this world; ‘tis likely that the moment of their arrival has already long since come and gone.”

Daring Do noticed Shining Armor staring at her and she glanced at him, scowling. Shining Armor quickly looked away, his cheeks flushing with embarrassment and Cadance gave a giggle.

“You’ve been staring at her quite a lot since we started this meeting.” Cadance remarked, smiling coyly. “You’re not planning to ditch me for another mare already, are you?”

“What – no! It’s just… I dunno, she seems kinda familiar is all.” Shining Armor replied quietly and Cadance gave a sigh of relief.

“So it’s not just me, then; that’s a relief. I was starting to think I was going crazy.” Cadance told him and Shining Armor cocked an eyebrow.

“Wait, you mean Compass Rose has been driving you nuts as well?” Shining Armor asked incredulously. Daring Do was suddenly very interested in the royals’ conversation, but she kept the discussion about the machines going.

“Well, yes.” Cadance replied. “Ever since I saw her in the infirmary, I was amazed at how much Compass Rose looks like the heroine, Daring Do.”

Daring froze briefly and Star-swirl gave a brief chuckle. Chrysalis stopped mid-sentence and shot the elder unicorn a look.

“Am I boring you, Archmage?” She asked and Star-swirl shook his head.

“Not at all, your majesty; please continue.” He replied jovially and after a moment, Chrysalis resumed speaking, the subject of her attention on how to attack the machines in their ruins.

“Daring Do… where have I heard that name before?” Shining Armor murmured and both Daring Do and Uncharted Fortune practically fell over.

‘Is he for real?!’ Daring thought, her irritation rising.

“Shiny, dear; ‘The Adventures of Daring Do’ is one of Equestria’s best-selling fiction series.” Cadance replied and Daring gave a huff.

‘You have no idea, princess.’ Daring thought, taking a sip of water.

“It’s Twilight Sparkle’s favorite, too; she used to read it all the time and she’d talk about it almost nonstop. Twilight told me she’d actually met A.K. Yearling once last time I visited.” Cadance told Shining Armor and Daring spit out the water in surprise, gagging. Cadance looked at Daring in confusion and asked, “Are you okay, Miss Rose?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine; just went down the wrong tube is all, thanks.” Daring replied in-between coughs. Once she’d regained her composure, she looked up at Chrysalis but then something caught her attention and dragged her gaze to the window behind the changeling queen. At first, Daring didn’t see anything, but then she noticed that the window – no, something outside the window – distorted the light coming in. She pointed at the window and shouted, “Get down!”

All eyes shot to the window just as it exploded inwards and a cloaked figure with a bright, red eye landed in the meeting room. It wasted no time in charging directly at Chrysalis, who was staring at the intruder in shock, and they all saw a blade extend from its right hand. It gave a loud, mechanical buzz, but before it could reach Chrysalis, the window behind Daring exploded as well and an acid-green fireball shot past the adventurer, slamming the cloaked assailant into the wall. The fire dissipated and they all saw a changeling drone slumped over the cloaked figure, whose hood had slid off and revealed a machine not unlike the one they had just been discussing. It gave a mechanical whine, then the red light dimmed and faded, and the machine did not move.

Chrysalis gave a cry of alarm and quickly hurried over to the drone. She tried to move it off the machine, but discovered that the automaton’s blade had buried itself deep into the changeling’s breast. The changeling coughed, opened its eyes blearily, and looked at Chrysalis, a line of teal ichor dribbling from its mouth. The two changelings exchanged low crooning noises briefly until eventually the drone slumped over, its eyes staring sightlessly, and Chrysalis used her hoof to close them. At first Daring thought the changeling queen looked as though she were on the verge of tears, but when Chrysalis stood and faced the group; her eyes were full of naught but anger, hatred and wrath.

“We must end this meeting; the enemy moves against us and my drones inform me that they have staged a surprise attack on the city.” Chrysalis reported. The group looked at each other, uncertain of what to make of this revelation, but then they heard it; the sound of sirens blaring throughout the city could now be clearly heard through the broken windows. Uncharted Fortune ran to one of the windows and looked out.

“Shit, the city’s burning!” He called out, and then he jumped backwards just in time to avoid a lance of energy that slammed into the ceiling. Daring Do was suddenly aware of the smell of singed fur and she looked at the bandage on her leg. Doubtless a similar projectile had been what lamed her in their escape from the ruins. Fortune returned to the group and said, “It’s bad down there; it looks like the guard’s trying to fight back, but those things are everywhere.”

“Clever. They waited for a precise moment to besiege the city and try to assassinate us at the same time.” Star-swirl remarked. “If not for that valiant changeling’s sacrifice, we all may have perished here.”

“So what do we do?!” Reliquary asked, panicking. “They’re machines; ones we have no idea how to fight!”

“There’s an armory on the first floor, if we can get there then-” Shining Armor began, but then they heard a rushing noise and they turned to see a darkening cloud with a pale light in its center hovering over the table like a gathering storm.

“What in the…” Star-swirl murmured, intrigued, but dread filled Daring and Fortune’s hearts because they recognized that sound.

After a moment, there was an electrical discharge and several of the machines with the fan-shaped heads appeared on the table. They wasted no time in firing at the group, but Shining Armor had been faster, creating a half-dome shield that covered them and the projectiles slapped uselessly against it. The machines did not stop attacking, but instead began to slowly advance toward Shining Armor.

“We have to get out of here!” He shouted over the sound of the machines firing their weapons.

The group rushed toward the doors, with Shining Armor shifting to keep himself – and the shield – between them and the attacking machines. One of the machines suddenly distorted at that moment and much to everyone’s surprise, teleported in front of the exit. It readied its weapon to fire, but then it buzzed in mechanical confusion as it was lifted up in a yellow aura and found itself flying bodily into its companions, knocking them over. Shining Armor lowered his shield and charged for the double doors, but he found himself wondering why the guards outside hadn’t responded to the noise. He got his answer when they opened the doors.

Several guards laid at their hooves, their bodies riddled with charred holes, and several more of the machines stood on the other side, firing down the hall. When they heard the doors open, they stopped firing, turned their glowing eyes toward Shining Armor and his group, and then adjusted their bodies so that their deadly weapons were aimed at the group of equines. Just before they could fire, there was a series of shouts and a line of Royal Guards, headed by Flash Sentry, charged into the group of machines with spears. The machines were lifted off the floor and shoved into a nearby wall. One of the machines lost its head in the impact, gave a loud, angry buzz, and held out its hand. There was an explosion of purple smoke and the guard pinning it to the wall fell over, a glowing, purple hole in his breast.

The other guards fell back in alarm, readying their spears against the berserk machine and Daring Do saw that one of the other machines did not pull itself off the wall. It was instead slumped over a spear that had imbedded itself halfway down the shaft in its midsection; glowing white ichor dripping from the wound and down the wall behind it… and its red eye was dark. She looked where the line of royal guards had impacted the group of machines, saw a glowing white pool on the floor, and gasped in realization.

The machines had a weakness!

The group of equines heard a mechanical sound behind them and when they looked, they saw the machines were disentangling themselves. One of the machines managed to stand up and Daring quickly looked around. She saw a spear lying next to one of the bodies nearest her and she scooped it up. With a grunt, she launched the polearm at the machine’s midsection and was satisfied to hear the machine give a cry of alarm as the sharpened point entered the glowing torso and came out the other side in a burst of white ichor. The machine stumbled back from the force of the blow, and then collapsed, its red eye dark. She looked back down the hall to where the guards were fighting a losing battle and shouted.

“Aim for the white light, that’s their weakpoint!” Daring told them as she scooped up another spear and launched it into the room, the weapon impacting hard off a machine’s shoulder and causing it to stagger. It recovered and fired, but Shining Armor raised another shield while Star-swirl pulled the spears from where they had landed and expertly impaled both remaining machines through their midsections. The royal guards down the hall, heeding Daring’s advice, strafed the two machines that were firing and impaled them. The berserking machine, however, managed to kill two more guards before it was finally stopped by Flash Sentry knocking it to the ground and plunging his own spear into the machine’s torso. Once the mad machine had stopped moving, Flash Sentry slumped onto his hindquarters, panting and Shining Armor approached him and the guards.

“Good work everypony.” Shining Armor stated as the guardsponies all snapped to attention. Flash was a little slower on the uptake and rose only when he noticed Shining Armor. “You okay, Flash Sentry?”

“I should be asking you that, sir. I’m fine, though; that headless one was just a little too feisty is all.” Flash replied, and then he looked at the fallen guardsponies. “What about them?”

“We’ll take care of them once we handle the current crisis. Right now the defense of the city is paramount.” Cadance replied, and then they heard the rushing sound that indicated the arrival of more machines coming from the meeting room behind them and her expression turned to one of alarm.

“We can’t stay here!” Daring exclaimed, grabbing a spear. Cadance used her magic to retrieve the weapons from the meeting room, and Reliquary shut the doors just as a very large machine landed on the table, crushing it. Star-swirl stepped up to the door and his horn lit up with a yellow aura. The doors glowed briefly and after a moment, they heard muffled explosions from the other side but the doors did not give. The archmage gave the group a wry grin.

“I have sealed the room; none may enter or leave until I release the spell, retreat beyond my magic’s range, or perish.” He told them, and then he began to trot down the hallway. He stopped and gave the group of ponies a sideways glance. “Come, time is our enemy now and we can ill afford to idle long.”

They began to follow him, but just as they rounded the corner, they heard the explosions stop. They paused and looked back, Star-swirl cocking an eyebrow in curiosity. They didn’t have to wait long, however, because there was a burst of sparkling white light and the large machine appeared. Star-swirl’s eyes widened in surprise as the machine looked around, saw them, and gave a loud buzz that sounded disturbingly like a howl of rage.

“I thought you said it could not escape!” Chrysalis exclaimed, but Star-swirl was speechless. Three of the still living guardsponies stepped between them and the large machine, which had readied its weapon.
“Go, we’ll handle this beast!” He exclaimed, and then they charged the machine while everypony else fled down the corridor.

Daring Do tried to ignore the thunderous series of explosions and screams that ended quickly as they approached a stairwell down to a lower floor. She heard that same, bloodcurdling howl and she chanced a look backwards just in time to see the large machine in hot pursuit, rapidly teleporting to catch up to them. She threw her spear back at it, aiming for the glowing red eye, but the machine simply teleported through the polearm and fired back. Daring saw the roiling, purple projectile heading for her and she leapt over the banister to avoid it. The orb slammed into the wall behind where she had been standing and exploded, destroying it.

Daring Do flew quickly to catch up to the others, the howling cry of the machine still behind them. Then there was silence and when she looked back, she couldn’t see the machine anymore. However, she didn’t watch where she was flying and slammed headfirst into something made of metal, falling to the floor with her head swimming. She looked up and saw the monstrous mechanical beast looming over her, its burning red eye fixed upon hers and Daring knew without a doubt that she was dead. However, it did not fire; it gave a monstrous howl as it was lifted in an acid-green aura. Chrysalis stepped forward, her eyes burning with hatred and rage, and her disguise failing in a burst of green flame.

“You and yours shall pay for the death brought upon my hive, monster!” Chrysalis snarled, and then the bipedal automaton’s body began to give out a high pitched whine.

It took Daring Do a moment to realize that the sound was that of metal being twisted and all in the corridor could see that the automaton was being slowly pulled apart. It gave one last, defiant shriek… and then its arms, legs, and head separated themselves from its torso in several bursts of electricity and smoke. Chrysalis released the dismembered machine from her aura and then staggered, her strength spent.

“Are you okay?” Uncharted Fortune asked, hurrying over to support the changeling queen, but she shoved him away.

“I am fine.” Chrysalis replied indignantly, trotting away.

Shining Armor gazed at the changeling, both impressed and slightly afraid. Whatever had happened on the mountain had sapped Chrysalis of much of her strength, yet she still had enough magic left to tear the beastly machine limb-from-limb. It made him realize that even though Queen Chrysalis was not normally strong enough to challenge Princess Celestia up-front, the changeling was still on a whole different level than even himself; maybe even Twilight! Shining Armor approached the prone, slack-jawed Daring Do and extended a hoof to help her up, which she gladly accepted.

Once they were certain there were no more machines arriving, they went down the last set of stairs and into the courtyard under the castle. The retreating group was welcomed with the sight of guardsponies behind a barricade of crystal walls, with some of them utilizing ice bow placements to fire past the barricade. On one side of the barricade, there was an area where several nurses and castle staff were hurrying around, tending to groaning wounded. Disturbingly enough, there were armed guardsponies on full alert within the barricade and Shining Armor could see that the bipedal machines littered the ground. Before any of them could remark on the sight, the familiar cloud began roiling in the center of the courtyard.

“Eyes up, we got another wave inbound!” Somepony shouted and every guardspony not on the edge of the barricade turned toward the growing clouds. The second the machines appeared, they were immediately met by the spears of the guardsponies, directly into their glowing white torsos. Some of them managed to fire, though, and a pony lay on the ground.

“Guardspony down!” A female guard shouted.

She knelt by the guardspony, rolled the unmoving stallion over, and looked away. Half of the guardspony’s muzzle had been incinerated and his remaining eye gazed sightlessly, his mouth hanging open. The other guardsponies lowered their heads in respect, but then one of them looked over to the ragtag group of ponies and did a double take.

“Changeling!” He shouted, raising his spear and the other guards followed suit. Shining Armor interposed himself between the guards and Chrysalis.

“Stand down; she’s not the enemy here!” Shining Armor commanded, but the guards did not lower their spears. Shining Armor sighed and stepped forward, saying “I’m not under her mind control; you’re free to inspect me if you want to.”

One of the guards – a unicorn – stepped forward and looked Shining Armor in the eyes. After that, she focused for a moment, her horn lighting up. It only took a moment for her to stop and turn back to the guards.

“He’s clean.” She told them, causing the guards to lower their weapons and she turned back to Shining Armor and bowed. “My apologies, Your Highness; we had to be sure.”

“No need to apologize, you’re following the protocols I created.” Shining Armor replied. “Who’s in charge right now?”

“I… suppose that would be me now.” The mare replied sullenly, taking a brief glance at the fallen guardspony being dragged away and then saluted. “First Lieutenant Lucid Heart, reporting. Major Emerald Cut was in charge… until just now that is.”

“Well, what’s the situation out here?” Shining Armor asked.

“It’s… really bad, sir. We got caught completely off-guard by these… whatever they are… and they’ve been killing anypony they find, without question.” Lucid Heart told him. “We barely managed to secure the courtyard and get a barricade up but… they can teleport straight behind our lines, as you just saw. Thanks to some intel we received, we know that the white areas are where they’re weakest. We’ve managed to hold our position here but… they kill one or two of us almost every time they appear; we’ve already lost five CO’s since this shitstorm started.”

“What about Rose Quartz? I don’t see her anywhere in the courtyard.”

“Captain Rose is in the city proper, leading a field effort to rescue civilians.” Lucid replied. “She sent us a messenger telling us where to hit these things to kill them.”

“What about the machines? Where are they hitting us the hardest?” Shining Armor pressed.

“I… they’re hitting us damn near everywhere, Your Highness.” Lucid Heart told him, and then she pointed northward. “It’s hard to tell, but scouting reports – from what few scouts survived; these machines are damn good shots, sir – make it seem that most of the enemy is in the north side of the city.”

“I see…” Shining Armor said glumly, but he looked up when Chrysalis approached.

“I have already sent word to what drones I have in the city. They shall aid in the defense in every way possible.” The changeling queen told them.

“I… thank you.” Shining Armor said, hesitantly and Chrysalis smirked.

“Your gratitude is very welcome, Princeling.” She mocked, and then her expression became serious once more. “I have also dispatched drones to inform the primary hive, but do not expect reinforcements any time soon. It is very far removed from the Crystal Empire and it will take quite some time for my drones to arrive, and subsequently return to us.”

“Right… thanks.” Shining Armor said. “We’ll just have to hold out until somepony arrives, I guess.”

“Perhaps against a normal army, that would be a wise course of action.”

Everypony turned toward Star Swirl.

“What do you mean, Star Swirl?” Cadance asked quizzically.

“These are machines, automata; they have not the need for rest or sustenance as we do.” The archmage replied solemnly.

“He’s right.” Reliquary piped up. “We’re all awake and fighting right now, but at some point we’ll need sleep or food. We’ll need to take a break, and then we lose some of our ability to fight back.”

“Meanwhile these machines just keep hitting us relentlessly and chipping away at our defenses.” Daring Do said seriously. “And even if we didn’t rest… how long would it take for us to get reinforcements? Hours? Days? We’d never survive that long, we’re barely holding on as we are!”

“Not only that, but we don’t know our enemy’s numbers.” Uncharted Fortune said. “There could be thousands of these things just waiting to teleport in.”

“So a war of attrition is out of the question.” Shining Armor murmured. He jumped when he heard a small pop from Cadance and turned to his wife to see her reading a letter. Her eyes widened and she looked at Shining Armor.

“Twilight’s on her way, she’s bringing help!” Cadance exclaimed and Shining Armor felt his stomach bottom out.

“No! She’ll get killed!” Shining Armor shouted, dread filling his heart. Chrysalis, however, cocked an eyebrow.

“A prime equestrian territory is under siege and yet the Princess sends only the Bearer of Magic? Has her mind slipped since we last met?” Chrysalis inquired.

“If my memory of Celestia serves me well, that is not the case.” Star Swirl replied. “Doubtless she is preparing her forces to come to our aid. I am certain we have that letter from before to thank for the imminent arrival of this ‘Twilight’ you speak of.”

“Twilight’s flying blind; she has no clue just how bad it is here!” Daring Do exclaimed, worried.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now.” Cadance assured the pegasus. “We’ll just have to hope that Twilight is bringing good help.”

Twilight was pacing back and forth in the living area of the Mischief Maker, mane frazzled and her eyes darting quickly in thought. Gospel looked at her from the table where he was assembling his rifle.

“Twilight!” He shouted, getting her attention. “You need to calm down.”

“Calm down?!” She retorted incredulously. “I can’t just ‘calm down’, Gospel! There’s these… Vex things near the Crystal Empire! My brother and sister could be in serious trouble!”

Aveline put down her own rifle, walked over to Twilight, and knelt, looking the alicorn in the eyes.

“We know you are worried, Twilight; we all are.” The Awoken said soothingly. “The Vex are an enemy even the Guardians do not take lightly, but right now we need you calm and collected. Panicking will not help your family if they are in danger.”

“I… you’re right, thanks Aveline.” Twilight said hesitantly and then she took a breath. “I need to be focused… for Cadance and Shining Armor.”

“Thatta girl.” Gospel said as he finished putting his rifle together and checked it.

“The city’s in sight.” Samson said over the intercom. “You probably want to get up here and see this. It’s bad.”

The Guardians and Twilight looked at each other silently for a moment before they went through the door leading to the Mischief Maker’s cockpit. At first the window was obscured with clouds, but then they parted and Twilight gasped.

“Th-The city… it’s burning!” Twilight breathed fearfully at the sight of the towering pillars of black smoke rising in various places around the Crystal Empire.

“I’m guessing it doesn’t normally look like that.” Gospel remarked, earning a scathing glare from Twilight. There was a chime from the pilot’s console and Wedge turned his head toward Samson.

“Vex energy signatures detected within the city.” He reported and then a map of the Crystal Empire overlaid the viewport.

It was filled with red dots in various locations. The southern half of the city appeared mostly clear, with pockets of Vex, but there was no doubt that the machines were encroaching across the city. Mysteriously, there were no Vex in the center of the city, which was represented by a large, circular zone completely absent any red dots.

“Those red dots… that’s the Vex, isn’t it?” Twilight asked slowly.

“Affirmative, Princess Twilight.” Wedge replied. “Vex energy signatures are detected within forty percent of the city.”

“So there’s no saving it, is there…” Twilight murmured and Gospel put his hand on her withers comfortingly.

“Look!” Aveline said, pointing toward the overlay. “Some of the signatures disappeared! There may be someone down there fighting back!”

“Multiple someones.” Samson said, and then they observed dots appear in the clear zone, only for them to disappear just as quickly. He pointed at it. “I’m willing to bet that area there is some kind of defensive position.” He pointed at several other areas as more dots disappeared. “And there’s definitely a field response going on; probably to get civilians out of the city and away from the fighting. There’s an area near the southern edge of the city where Vex are being destroyed as well.”

“You mean… my brother and sister could still be alive?!” Twilight exclaimed, hopeful, and Samson nodded.

“The fact that they’re holding out against the Vex means they know where to hit them.” Gospel remarked and crossed his arms. “They’re not going to be able to hold out much longer, though. The Vex are surrounding them.”

“So what do we do?” Twilight asked.

“We go down there and we get them out.” Samson said and then he rose, heading toward the door. “Wedge, send a tac-feed to the briefing table. Keep us airborne until I say otherwise, but do not take us out of the area.”

“Affirmative, Titan Samson-12.” The Frame replied.

Rose Quartz struck down another one of the machines, her blade biting deep into its glowing midsection and rupturing it. She turned and saw her assistant, Pearl Essence, plunge her spear into one machine, then pull it out and gracefully pirouette, impaling a second machine that had appeared behind her. They looked around for more machines, but when they didn’t see any more, Rose called out into a nearby house. A group of ponies of varying ethnicity cautiously crept out, looking around fearfully.

“Come on, we’re almost to the South gate.” She told them quietly, indicating down the alley. They couldn’t take the main street because it was too open and there would doubtless be snipers waiting for them. “Once we reach it, we’ll cover you while you make a break for the train station.”

“O-Okay.” One of the ponies replied.

“Rose, we can’t linger here.” Pearl Essence said urgently. “Those machines know where we are; it won’t take them long to catch up to us.”

“Right.” Rose replied and then she motioned with her hoof. “Let’s go!”

They ran down several more alleys before coming out at the edge of an expanse of green. Rose Quartz could see the buildings that marked where the train station was to her south. She looked to her left and saw the South Gate, where a group of Guardsponies and a few changelings were huddled behind a makeshift barricade. Behind them was a pair of unicorns who were maintaining a barrier separating the city from the plain. Rose quickly led the retreating group toward the barrier, deliberately keeping them close to the buildings. Just as they reached it, they saw another group of civilians and guards coming from the other direction.

“Run as fast as you can to the station and do not look back!” Rose commanded the civilians, who were more than happy to oblige. She sheathed her sword and scooped up a nearby javelin.

Rose scanned the rooftops, saw one of the horned machines teleport onto it, and quickly launched the polearm at the machine. The machine turned, saw the javelin, and huddled down to create a dome of searing flames around itself. The javelin was incinerated, but Rose had seen this before and was readying another javelin. Just before the machine lowered the dome, she threw the polearm and this time the machine took the full force of the blow. It staggered backward with a cry and toppled off the roof, disappearing behind the house it was on. Once she saw there were no more machines and the civilians had made it to the station, Rose sat on her haunches and sighed, exhausted.

“We can’t save the city, there’s just too many of them.” Pearl said, holding out a canteen to Rose, who drank gratefully. “They don’t seem interested in attacking the train station even though it’s right there. Why is that?”

“I wish I knew, Pearl.” Rose replied, and then stood up. “Right now, we need to focus on helping as many ponies as we can.”

“What we need to do is get our ponies out from under the castle; they’re going to die over there if we don’t do something!” Pearl Essence said and Rose Quartz grimaced. Pearl was right; their pegasus scouts had reported that the machines were surrounding the castle. If they didn’t move soon, the machines would break in and slaughter everypony inside.

At this moment, Rose heard another noise rising over the clamor of battle within the city. It was something akin to a dragon’s roar and as she listened, it became clear the sound was getting closer. Rose looked around in the sky until she saw it. Coming from the south, high in the sky, there was something flying toward them rapidly. It wheeled around the city before angling toward their position and descending.

When it began hovering behind their lines – causing the guardsponies to scramble for their weapons – Rose could see that the object was some kind of large transport with large boxes on each side that had flames roaring out of them. The transport itself was pointed much like an arrow and Rose surmised that it flew in much the same way. There was a hiss and several “legs” extended from beneath the object. She didn’t get to observe for much longer because there was a thunderous explosion at the barricade behind her and she spun around to see that two of the larger, heavily armored machines had broken through the line. Guardsponies scattered as the hulking monstrosities howled and bombarded the defenders with their terrible weapons.

Rose Quartz pulled her sword free of its sheath and prepared to charge the machines, but she paused when something red, blue, and exceedingly heavy rushed past her. With a booming crash, the red and blue figure tackled one of the hulking machines, causing it to fly backwards a full ten meters in a shower of purple sparks and onto its back. While the first machine struggled to right itself, the newcomer turned on the second and pulled what appeared to be a long tube off its back. Rose didn’t have long to ponder the tube’s significance, for it roared and the second machine staggered backwards, its purple shield exploding in sparks with a crack. The newcomer fired twice more and the machine fell backward with a thud; it did not move again.

The first machine had managed to right itself and charged the newcomer with a furious howl. The figure, also large and heavily armored, turned sharply to the berserk machine and raised its fist. The newcomer's arm began crackling with electricity as it swung and when it impacted, the entire upper half of the machine violently exploded in angry blue lightning. Rose Quartz and Pearl Essence – as well as an entire contingent of guardsponies – watched in awe as the destroyed machine’s legs stumbled awkwardly around for a second before falling over and going still.

Rose could hardly believe what she had just seen. It had taken seven guardsponies working together to stop just one of the monstrous automatons; the mysterious newcomer had taken out two of the beasts singlehandedly and made it look easy! The helmeted stranger looked around, saw Rose, and approached her while putting its weapon on its back. It stopped in front of Rose – Pearl Essence fearfully took a few steps back – and spoke.

“Are you in charge here?” A male voice inquired.

“Y-Yes…” Rose answered cautiously. She was distinctly aware of several more beings approaching from behind. “Who… what… are you?”

“My name is Samson-12; I’m a Guardian from the Sol System.” He replied.

“Why are you here?” Rose Quartz asked as two more bipedal figures – one in an emerald cloak and the other in a long white robe – stood on either side of him. His answer made Rose’s heart skip a beat.

“We came to help in any way we can.”

Author's Note

Grimoire Card acquired: Samson-12 Vanguard profile

Samson-12 Vanguard profile

Guardian Designation: Titan
Race: Exo
Height: 6’ 5 (1.95m)
Weight: 450lb (204.11kg)
Chassis color: sky-blue
Optic color: magenta

Service record: [REDACTED], Three-year undefeated Champion in Iron Banner tournament, achieved a flawless victory in the Trials of Osiris, extensive encounters with high-priority Fallen targets. Considered for position of Titan Vanguard representative, but rejected due to unwillingness to work with others.

Mentor notes:

Samson[REDACTED] is an enigma to me. He follows orders without question and works with any Guardians we tell him to, but there is always this… begrudging air about him. It as though we have committed some great crime against him and he despises his new role in the world. The transition to being a Guardian has never been easy – any of them could tell you the same – but in Samson’s case, one could say that it is personal. He turns away any questions about himself, but his eyes betray loathing for other Guardians, even Exo. I can only guess at what we have done to earn his rancor; perhaps he feels we are to blame for the Fall? Regardless, he performs admirably in the field and in Crucible sessions, and his track record against the Fallen speaks for itself.

Addendum by Zavala:

When I first met Samson-12, he would just glare at me without saying a word. Our first mission together went smoothly, but that Exo absolutely refused to be part of the team. I suspected at that time he had a deathwish; everyone knew Samson hated the rest of us. However, he’s not what they all think. Samson really does care about others, and he’s a damn good leader when he’s in a position where one is needed. I don’t know what his deal with other Guardians is and I don’t care. My job isn’t to interrogate him about who he used to be, it’s to tell him what to hit, and where to hit it. Samson seems to respect me for keeping his life simple.

Addendum 2:

Samson has become more and more surprising. He turned in a request to create a formal fireteam, codenamed “Wisp”. The other members are Hunter Aveline L’Freille, and the new Warlock, Ian McKenzie. I don’t know what those two did to crack Samson’s shell, but it’s damn impressive. I gave them the go-ahead and signed off on the request. Traveler have mercy on anyone who crosses them.