When Worlds Collide

Chapters

The Equis Perspective
A Mass transition
The secret war
Landfall
Secrets revealed Pt1- The war revealed
Secrets revealed Pt2- familiar revelations
The calm before
The calm before-Pt 2- Royal meetings and a moonlit walk for six
The battle begins
Fugitives and Revolutions
Scouting
Prison break
Explanations of Fear
Discovery
Truth
Departure
Confrontation
Three months later
Final battle Pt1- Armies Collide
The final battle Pt2- Return
The final battle Pt3-origins and memories
The final battle Pt4-the ultimate sacrifice
The final battle Pt5-Finale
Recovery/The Nexus
The story begins
Explanations, answers, and even more mysteries
The power of Fear
Purging and reunion
SEQUEL IS UP

The Equis Perspective

It had only been a week after Tirek's defeat, and already Twilight Sparkle was dreading the role of being princess of friendship. Sure, she liked that she finally knew what her role as a princess would be, but now, she had to deal with stuck-up nobles and annoying foreign dignitaries wishing to meet her for the umpteenth time since her move to Ponyville four years ago. Her friends all had her back, but even they had their own dreams and jobs, which led to them being absent most of the time, which meant she was going to be bored all day long.

Or at least she thought so, until a letter from Princess Celestia appeared.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,

It is with great sorrow that I must ask you and your friends help once again. I wish I could tell what I need help with, but I am afraid even I don't fully understand what is going on. What I can tell you is that my sister has been having terrible nightmares for the past week. I know that you do not wish to have your hoof in anything adventurous for quite some time, but I feel only Luna's first friend from after her banishment will be able to help, and that having all of the Elements of Harmony in a close proximity to each other should this turn out to be as bad as I fear is necessary. I am not ordering you or your friends to come, but asking you as an equal and the others as a friend, 'Please come and help my sister.' I await your reply.

Your fellow Princess,

Princess Celestia.”

“SPIKE,” Twilight yelled, not because Spike was far away, he was right next to her, but because he was a heavy sleeper.

Spike awoke slowly, even though Twilight yelled right next to him. “What is it Twilight, couldn't you see that I was napping?”

Completely ignoring his protests at being woken up, Twilight handed the letter to Spike, whose eyes were as large as physically possible after he finished reading it. “I'll let the others know,” he said, already knowing that they would all want to go to Canterlot to help Princess Luna.

…

It had not even been an hour, and already the six ponies who were collectively known as the Elements of Harmony were at the train station waiting for the next train to Canterlot. “Ah don't see why y'all still don't have a train all your own, Twi,” Applejack, the element of honesty, said to Twilight. At this, almost as if the universe had heard Applejack and deliberately wanted to embarrass her, a train pulled up to the station with the name “Friendship Express” on it and a stallion with a tan coat, black mane, and a gear as his cutie mark stepped off and bowed to Twilight.

“Princess Celestia sends her regards, your Highness, and wishes you to keep this train for any of your personal and diplomatic purposes.” Applejack was left speechless, and it showed with her jaw going slack. Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty, merely laughed at Applejack's situation and expense.

“And that, AJ, is why you keep you mouth shut. So the universe doesn’t prove you wrong and make you a laughing stock,” Rainbow said between gasps. This got chuckles from the others and an out right laugh from Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter.

Just before Twilight and the others got on, Spike came up to the platform carrying his own luggage. “Okay, Twi. I packed everything we are gonna need.”

“That's sweet Spike, but I want you to stay here and look after the castle. After all it's the library until a new one can be built,” Twilight said, which seemed to upset Spike a little, though he immediately put on a brave face, not unlike that which he put on when he was defending Twilight from the rest of the main six during Discords return two years ago.

“You got it, Twi,” He said, with a hint of sadness in his voice. I never do anything with you guys, anyway. You'll probably end up saving Equis again, which you absolutely forbid me from having any part of, he thought to himself.

As Twilight and her friends got on the train, a shadow was watching from the corner of the train station, and though it could not speak, it grinned at the fact it had found the perfect village to become the first of his many conquests, as it fed and thrived on what was negative energy, which came from this village more that anypony would think. Just before she got on, though, Twilight looked to where the shadow was, thinking she was being watched. What she saw was merely a wall, and she chocked the feeling up to nerves.

…

Celestia was worried for her sister, even though she had sent a letter to Twilight, she knew that the chances were slim of them being able to help Luna. She remembered when this had started a week ago.

One week earlier

“Sister,” Luna exclaimed, hoping to draw Celstia's attention away from all of the paperwork she was doing. “We may have a problem. This got a look of concern from Celestia.

“What do you mean, Luna,” she asked, with concern and a hint of fear in her voice, turning away from the huge pile of paperwork.

“I've gotten a feeling I haven't experienced since a thousand years ago. Not since that night,” Luna said with fear being the main tone in her voice. Even without that, though, it would be obvious she was speaking of when she, as Nightmare Moon, had been banished to the moon. The fear in Celestia's eyes became insanely obvious.

“Sister, you don't think...” Celestia trailed off, knowing what the answer would be. When Luna nodded, Celestia almost immediately went in to a fear driven rant, stopping only when she remembered what had happened four years ago. “But that's impossible. The Elements stripped Nightmare from you. You have nothing to fear.” She then put a wing around her sisters shoulder and drew her close. “We have nothing to fear,” she said, emphasizing the '”we” of her statement

Just as Luna smiled, a look of fear came across her face, and her eyes became that of a cornered animal who was about to die and knew it, but didn't believe it.

“No, no ,no, nonononononono, Celestia don't you see, this is worse than Nighmare. The legend and the prophecy of the Shadow is being fulfilled, and nopony, not even us, will be able to stop it,” Luna shouted, getting out of Celestia's grip and looking at her with those eyes. She then began to speak nothing but what would appear to be gibberish, but was a language the two sisters knew well, as it was their birth tongue. It came from a time when the entire planet was at war with itself, and both knew what Luna was speaking was the prophecy of the Shadow.

“On the twenty thousandth year after the fall of darkness, after a great shadow wished to consume and destroy love and failing, after the return of a being that consumed magic and left the planet to die, the spark of fear and hate that would come from these events will cause the first king to rise and return to his blackened throne to rule over the planet. Many will attempt to defeat him, with all of them failing. Three of his broken enemies will become embodiments of fear and hate, and further bring Equis into shadow. Not one pony, not even those of the royal family will be able to stop him, for he is the shadow that consumes hope that ponies live on.”

This was the prophecy that only the two alicorn sisters knew about, and knew that once King Sombra rose, that the ending of this prophecy was in sight. Many ponies believed that all prophecies rhymed, but those of great importance don't, ones where the ending is not fully set in stone. This sounded more like a fortune telling, but even an earth pony, those least connected to magic, could feel the magic behind these words, and an alicorn would cower in to the fetal position if they hadn't cast a shield to protect the from the magic, and even then, they would be in fear for twenty-four hours after hearing it, and Celestia was sorely tempted to do just that, but concern for her sister was able to pull her out of it and put Luna under a sleeping spell that would cast her into a merciful, dreamless sleep, though a week later, this was not the case, as Luna frequently screamed in her sleep, always saying, in one way or another, that they would fall.

That was in the first hour, and it only got worse from that point onward.

The present

Celestia knew that, eventually, Luna would go insane from what was going on, if she hadn't done so already, which is why she had literally enlisted any and all magic theory scholars and students, regardless of their proficiency in the subject, to try and help Luna, with “try” being the word of the week, as nothing worked up to that point.

She hoped that Twilight skill with magic would at least ease Luna's pain, though it was unlikely, as nothing like this had happened before in recorded history.

A knock on the door leading into her bedroom brought her out of those thoughts.

“Princess,” one of the guards said, “Princess Twilight and her friends have arrived at the castle. Should I have an escort brought down to lead them here?”

“No. They know the way to the throne room. Tell them I will meet them there.”

“Yes, your Highness.”

Celestia moved to the door as she heard the guards hoofsteps fade away. She had no desire to be seen by anypony except those who knew the situation, and even then only a few, as she had been crying ever since this had started and did not wish for herself to be seen, as this would cause worry, and eventually, panic. She cast an invisibility spell on her self and made her way to the throne room to inform Twilight and her friends about the situation.

…

Meanwhile, on the Tip of the Spear, John and the others were on their way to the bridge/hanger. The dream John had had before the alarms started blaring was in his mind, as well as the warning the creature, who, unbeknownst to John, was named Discord, that this whole mission was a ploy so that he, and everyone aboard, could be killed, though he decided not to say anything to the others, as he knew the others would think he was crazy. When he made it to the hanger, he saw Ken, Lily, and Maruco at the consoles.

“Artemis, what the hell is going on,” Ken asked. “I tought you said everything was okay, including our flight plan to the system.”

As soon as he said this, an AI holotank came to life and the AI who was Artemis appeared. “I did, but you know how unpredictable slipspace can be, or must I remind you of what happened three years ago during our job with the covenant.” Artemis wasn't being vague, as they had only had one covenant contract in the past four years, and that was the one she was referring to.

After a second of silence, “Good point,” Ken said ending that conversation before John came over and brought it up again.

“Whats going on!?”

Artemis responded by saying, “Slipspace seems to be more unstable than it usually is, and this is causing malfunctions in the engines. I don't know when we're going to make it to our destination, if we get there at all.”

As she said this, the others made it to the hanger, all in their combat armor. Before they could ask what was going on, Artemis told them the same thing she told John.

After she finished explaining this, laughter was heard from everywhere at once. John recognized this laughter, but before he could say anything, Discord said, “Oh so many new toys. Too bad Celestia doesn't let me near anything important.” Everyone turned to look at the door they had com from to see Discord leaning on the door frame. They all moved to draw their weapons, but Discord just snapped his fingers and the weapons were replaced with balloon versions with the real ones at Discords feet.

Maruco was the first to speak, while the others were still staring at their balloon weapons, speechless. “What the hell are you, and where are your nuts so I can kick 'em.”

Discord simply laughed at this. He snapped his fingers and Maruco was immediately in a cage. He tried to get out, but the bars were somehow not bending, which meant he was stuck.

“Now, now, I don't think you want to do that. After all, why would you want to beat up possibly the handsomest being that ever existed,” Discord said, with a sly grin on his face.

“I don't know. Find him, than give me a reason I would you fuc-.” Maruco was silenced when Discord simply snapped his fingers and no sound came from him.

“Ah, ah. Can't have that where you all are going,” Discord said, smiling, as he walked to the console that was engineering. “As I told all of you in your dreams last night, you can't be where you're going and live on the 'shoot first' saying. Besides,” he said, shrugging as he said it, “you are important in what's going on, even if you don't know how you are important.” At this, he snapped his fingers yet again, and only a second after, the ship stopped shaking as much as it was. “Now, that's better. You all will survive to your destination, and remember what I said about the locals,” Discord said, with that last part in sing-song, before disappearing in a flash of light. Maruco had been freed from the cage and he was able to talk again.

“That's it. I know I've only seen that asshole twice, but I already want to find him and gut him slowly and painfully, while shooting up his goddamn kneecaps,” Maruco said, with a blind rage in his voice.

Before he could go outright nuclear, though, Artemis came over their radios and told them that whatever happened just made them come out of slipspace at their destination.

“How? It was supposed to take us three weeks just to get halfway to the system, and you're saying we got here in ONE DAY,” Ken yelled, obviously not believing what just happened.

“I don't think that's important, Ken. That thing said that he had been in all of our dreams last night, which leaves two explanations. Either A: we're all crazy as hell, or B: we all had the same dream and somehow it crossed over into all of the others, though how that second one explains what just happened, I have no idea,” Lily said, which did calm Ken down somewhat, though he was starting to agree with Maruco about what he wanted to be done to Discord, even though no one aboard knew his name, and maybe a few things for which a name hasn't been invented yet.

…

Back in Canterlot, Celestia was explaining what had happened a week prior with Luna, leaving out the prophecy, because even in modern Equistrian, it still had the effect it has in the royal sisters birth tongue. “... and that's why I called all of you here today.”

To say that Twilight and her friends were worried for Luna would be accurate, but only if you also said they were terrified of the power that caused this. After all, you know it's powerful if it causes the Princess of the night, who is able to control and change her dreams at will, to have nightmares every sleeping hour and she not be able to do anything about it.

“Don't worry princess, we'll help fix whatever is going on with Luna,” Twilight said, her voice full of confidence.

“I know you will Twilight. You are the most gifted alicorn in magic I have known,” Celestia said. She knew what she was saying was, at least, a partial truth, if not an outright lie.

As a guard came into the throne room, unbeknownst to anypony in the room, a mysterious figure was watching this scene through a scrying mirror in a far away village whose name only those who lived in it knew. Seeing this, the stallion began to pack. It took him only a few minutes, as he had saddlebags with what he would need in them. He took one last look around the room, and then disappeared in a flash of green light.

A Mass transition

Liara always found that new species were, in their own way, beautiful, whether it was in the terminus systems, citadel space, or even the space between stars. Her only regret at this moment, though was bringing Wrex and Grunt on this mission. First, the mission they had received was to see what was going on in the Chathulu system. According to the mission brief, they were supposed to investigate a space-time anomaly. One thing led to another, and now she and the others were all arguing with talking ponies and, apparently, a group of humans and their allies that were from another universe.

…

It had all started a month ago, with Liara and the other members of Shepard's squad that had survived the Reaper war two years ago. She, Ashley, Garrus, and Tali were in the communications room of their ship, named Shepard. They had just gotten a mission from the citadel council. Currently, they were all a freelance science group, and the council wanted them to investigate a mysterious space-time anomaly in the terminus systems.

“I just don't get why they want us to be the first people there,” Garrus said, annoyance clearly in his voice. “I mean, yeah, we're freelance, but that just means that we could just tell them a lie about what we found.

Tali looked at him and said, “Garrus, we both know that our policy is not to lie about our findings, and besides, we all have combat training, while most of the councils team just have self defense training. The reason we charge so much is because of that. I figured you would like that because it meant you could get whatever kind of gun you wanted, or was I wrong?”

Both Liara and Ashley chuckled a bit at this, as everyone who knew Garrus knew he had an obsession for guns equal to that of a Krogan.

Garrus responded by saying, “Yeah, but I would rather live poor than die rich,” which was a sentiment everyone aboard shared, even Zaeed Masani, who had fees for just about every service there was that a merc could do, and even some most wouldn't do, regardless of how much it paid.

“Look, we need the creds this mission will bring. I mean, look at what the council is paying us just up front. That's twice our usual payment from these missions, and that's considering both the up front and completion costs,” Tali said, trying to get Garrus to go along with this. “Besides, they said that we can have access to the archives whenever we want. I don't know about you guys, but those two together say that the council really want us to check this place out.”

“She's right Garrus,” Ashley said. “We need the money this one will bring in. We're low on fuel, only enough to get to the citadel, and we only have enough creds to pay for fuel to the system they want us to go to and back. And that's not even considering the food situation.”

Garrus was backed into a logic corner, and he knew it. “Alright,” he said. “But the first sign of something weird going on, and we're jumping to Omega. Deal?”

“Fair enough,” Liara said. “I'll go let the others know about the mission.”

As Liara exited the comms room, a figure in the shadows was wacthing her. This figure was Discord, and he grinned, knowing he had found others who would help.

…

It had been nearly six months since Luna had gone into the endless nightmare. Twilight had literally tried every kind of healing magic she knew for this, as it was clear that this was an illness, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what it was. She had even tried asking Zecora for help. Long story short, Twilight and the others had to listen to Rarity complaining about her mane for an entire week. She had even asked Celestia if they could try to combine their power to heal Luna, which they tried, with no change. The only thing that was interesting about this is that Luna woke up once a month, and was herself for a while. Before going bat crap crazy with fear again, even if no one would admit it out loud. Not even the Canterlot archives held any possible cure, or even anything that could lead to a cure.

Celestia was not exactly helping things, becoming more and more distant from Twilight and the others. Nopony could really blame her though, as the one sick was the only pony who had any idea of what living for as long as they had meant.

There were those, both in the royal guard and the nobles, who believed that they should just grant Luna a quick death so she wouldn't suffer anymore. Half of Celestia's day court had requests like this, and those were the legal ways ponies were trying to grant Luna a quick and painless deaths. For the past four months, there were ten failed assassination attempts, having been fooled only because Celestia had the foresight to put a shield around Luna that would keep any weapons from harming her and meticulously watched the preparation of Luna's food when she was awake so no one would slip poison into the food.

It was close to the time Luna would awaken and Twilight and the others were already waiting outside Luna's room.

“I sure hope the poor dear comes out of whatever sickness ails her. Those attempts are getting harder and harder to prevent,” Rarity said, referring to the last three attempts on Luna's life.

“Yeah. But I'm still wondering as to who those last guys were,” Rainbow said. “ I mean, if they thought they were helping Luna, why would they commit suicide.

Pinkie than began hopping like her usual self, which had been absent since three months ago, when the “mane incident” with Rarity had happened, though nopony knew why she wasn't herself from that point on. “Oh, oh, maybe they were part of a super secret cult who worship an ancient king and think that if the current rulers of Equestria are killed, he'll return,' She said, emphasizing “super secret” with karate moves.

Everpony stepped away from her, and Twilight appeared especially nervous with Pinkie's most recent random nonsense, albeit with good reason.

“Pinkie, you know that no one wants the princesses dead,” Twilight said, more trying to calm herself than to see why Pinkie thought this. “Not even Tirek wanted them dead. He just wanted their magic.”

“Yeah, I suppose you're right, Twi. What was I thinking?”

Not a single one of her friends had an answer.

...

As the Twilight and her friends eagerly awaited Luna's awakening. A stallion was in a far away library that not even Celsetia knew about. He had been here six months, ever since he had seen Celestia recruit Twilight and her friends, though anypony with a brain knew that Twilight's more important spells tended to have a fifty-fifty chance of actually working how they were supposed to. The most recent example being the one that made her an alicorn in the first place. He was here looking for a cure to Luna's ailment, as this library literally had every book ever made, even duplicates of the ones written by Starswirl the Bearded himself. Thus, if anyplace had the cure for Luna's sickness, it would be here.

“Why the bucking tartarus didn't anypony make an organization system for this place!?” the stallion yelled . “I mean, seriously, this place would give Twilight Sparkle an aneurism just from seeing it, and that's if a quarter of the rumors I've heard about her are true.”

“You know, Lone Shadow, you could just as easily ask me to help,” came a voice from behind him.

“And how many times must I tell you, Discord,” Lone said, “that I would rather get trampled by a whole dragon family than let you do any thing to this place?”

Discord than came in to Lone's view with a sad frown on his face. “You're less fun than Celsetia. His smile than came right back as he said, “Would it cheer you up a little if I said I was able to get some... foreign help for the coming battle.”

Lone immediately slammed his book and a sound somewhere between anger and fear was in his voice. “You didn't,” he asked his voice being a tad bit more fearful than Discord would have guessed he had in him, but not enough for any one to consider him terrorized, more concerned.

“I did, but you don't have to worry. It will be about six months before they arrive. One thing I can help you with right now is the location of the book you're looking for, for I know exactly which one it is. And you don't even have to ask me which one it is.” At this, he snapped his talons and an old looking book appeared in a flash of light. The flash lasted long enough for Discord to get a good look at Lone.

He was a unicorn stallion that was slightly taller than the average stallion, with his horn also being slightly longer than the average. His muzzle, strangely, looked like that of a changelings, without the fangs, with it being slanted towards his body at a slight, but noticeable, angle. Not enough to where you would think he's a changeling, but it was there. His coat was black for the most part, with there being red from three quarters to the hooves. The shade of the black part was, some would argue, as black as Nightmare Moon's, if not more so. His tail was, at the core of what anypony saw, the same color and shade as his coat, with the edge being red with hints of orange here and there, which made it look like his tail was made of fire, if not on fire, with his mane being the same. His irises were cyan, if not teal, depending on the light. But the most interesting feature on him was his cutie mark, or rather, his lack of one.

“You teleported this book here? We both know that you messing with it could have destroyed it, so why the buck did you not just tell me where it was,” Lone said, anger now in his voice.

“Because we both know it would have taken too long,” Discord said, turning away like he was getting ready to leave. “Oh, and before I leave, what you're looking for is on the tenth page.”

With that, Discord disappeared in a flash of light, and Lone flipped to the page Discord had pointed him towards

…

Today was going to be a good day for Wrex, mostly because A: he wasn't on the citadel kissing the council's collective asses; and B: He may finally have a mission where he could kill something, and he wasn't the most violent Krogan, so saying he was bored not killing something said something about how bored he was.

Liara had come down about thirty minutes ago to tell every one about the councils new mission.

“Well, it's about goddamn time those assholes gave us a new contract. Me and Betsy were starting to get bored,” Zaeed had said, bringing up his old gun with the statement.

(Personal note: I did not make up the part of Zaeed naming his gun. Any one who played ME2 with his dlc knows I'm not joking. I personally don't get it but, hey, to each his own, I suppose. Now back to the story.)

Grunt was especially happy, as he assumed every mission involved killing. Though none of the missions were assassination contracts, this didn't mean he was wrong. Just about every mission they were on involved killing mercs or something that wanted to kill them first.

“Well, I'm just happy that this isn't supposed to involve fighting,” Kasumi, their local tech expert said. “Though we are probably going to end up doing that any way, if our mission record has anything to say about it.”

“I hear that,” James Vega said, the other ex- alliance officer on board, said.

From that point onward, everyone voiced what they would do with their fair share of the cash and betting what kind of gun Garrus would buy with his share. Right now the pot was in at half of them betting he would get the salarian stg scorpion, one quarter at either the widow or black widow, with the others saying the new model of the vindicator rifle.

(Yeah. Garrus got enough to buy the black widow, one of the most expensive weapons in ME3, to which anyone who played it will attest to.)

They were all currently in the middle of talking about what they would do when they were on the citadel for leave next time when the ship started shaking with enough force to cause the weaker packing straps, which could handle 20 tons, to snap and cause what they were holding in place to start rolling around.

…

The dream scape, for Luna, was much darker than it should have been. She saw the same dream over and over again.

The dream showed Canterlot itself fall off the mountain side that held it up, with the citizens still inside and falling with it. It then transitioned to show her two cloaked figures bowing to a shadow that, even in the dream scape, radiated an aura of darkness and fear. She saw her sister being stabbed in the side while she wasn't looking, with Celestia holding a sword over one of the cloaked figures before she was stabbed. She saw Twilight's friends in stocks with somber expressions on their faces. She knew she would wake up from this nightmare soon, as she did every month, but before she did, a new image showed itself to her. This one showed thirty figures, some equine in appearance, with others looking like what Twilight described as humans, though, how this was possible, she didn't know, as no humans existed on Equis, standing before this shadow and charging towards it, and with them, she saw herself and Celestia. Just before she awoke, a voice spoke to her, and it said, “Do not lose hope, Luna, for if you do, then Equis will fall to the first king, and none shall be safe from his wrath.”

Luna woke up in a cold sweat, what was in that dream still in her mind, which meant she had no refuge from the dream, knowing it would drive her to the point of insanity that Celestia would need to cast the sleep spell on her again, which really only made her nightmares worse, though she didn't wish to tell Celsetia, or anypony, really, about this, even though they knew she couldn't escape the nightmare, whether or not she wanted to, and she desperately wanted to. She got out of her bed and put on her regalia and walked to the door that led to the main hallway, where she knew Twilight and her friends were waiting to greet her.

As she stepped outside of her room, she could have sworn she saw a unicorn looking at her from an adjacent tower. When she looked back at the tower, she didn't see anything. She ten walked out so sh could enjoy whatever amount of sanity she could before she had to go under again.

The secret war

Liara had no idea as to what was going on.

She had just come back from informing the others about the mission and sending a message to the council to let them know that they had accepted. Now, though, not even an hour later, they somehow had all the fuel the ship could carry and, according to thier nav systems, were now just outside the Chathulu system. The only thing she did know is that this caused the ship to shake violently enough to snap the weakest of thier packing ropes and cause what they were holding, mostly armor and ammo, to somehow snap. Fortunately, no one was injured.

She had just called all of them to the conference room so they could decide what to do next.

"Wait a goddamn minute," Zaeed said. "So you're saying that we are already, somehow, half way to the system the council wanted us to go to, we have a full tank of fuel, and that there is an acknowledgement message from the council saying that they have already transferred the upfront payment to our collective account?"

Liara was getting tired of answering the question, which somehow kept coming up an hour after the meeting started. "For the tenth time, Zaeed, yes. I don't know how, but that seems to be the case, except that we are now inside the system. How many times do I have to say that?"

Zaeed, unsurprisingly, looked pissed. "Well, 'ow 'bout until you give us a fuckin' explanation? You're the resident scientist, last I checked, or did you step down and put Garrus in charge of it," He nearly yelled, gesturing to Garrus.

"Hey, leave me out of this, Zaeed. I don't know what's going on, and neither does Liara, for that matter," Garrus said, shortly before a new voice spoke.

"Oh, it's so surprising that you haven't even taken a guess. I knew I should have left a note." At this, Discord then appeared in a flash of light, his arms spread in a "ta-da" manner.

Everyone jumped back. The Krogan, Zaeed, and Garrus, being the ships security detail, reached for their weapons only to find they had been replaced with cotton candy.

"Looking for these?" Discord asked, holding up their weapons, surprise appearing on all their faces, while he had a devilish grin that would have made a Reaper think something bad was about to happen.

"What the hell?" Wrex asked.

Just after he said this, Grunt yelled, "Does it really matter? I say we kill him." Grunt then charged at Discord, only for Discord to disappear in a flash of light, causing Grunt to hit the wall, and reappear just behind Miranda Lawson, the second in command, who jumped in surprise

"My, my, you Krogan are almost as bad as the Jiralhanae, though now I'm curious as to who would win in a fist fight between your two species," Discord said, eliciting confused expressions from everyone.

"What the hell are those?" Garrus asked.

"You'll find out in due time. Right now though," Discord said, pausing for dramatic effect. "The time-space anomaly you are heading towards is actually a wormhole. Your navigation systems have a bug in them that will cause you to enter the wormhole, and you can't fix it in time. Normally, you would die from the radiation in it, but," Discord then snapped his fingers. "Now you should be able to survive, though you may have some symptoms of that plague that hit Omega three years ago, but they won't kill you."

All this got was looks of confusion from everyone. "Ta-ta," Discord said in sing-song, disappearing in yet another flash of light.

It was a minute before everyone brains had removed the logic jam from their minds, and Kasumi was the first to speak.

"Well. That was strange.

...

It had been six months since Lone had found what he was looking for in the secret library. Six months since Discord had told him about the coming allies. Lone was currently disguised as a Lunar guard. He had used an illusion spell that he learned from one of the first magic books he ever read to appear that way, and now he was simply waiting for when he could officially guard Luna. In the past six months, there had been a total of twenty assassination attempts on Luna's life. He had stopped ten of them, without anypony even knowing about these ten, and the others were stopped by Celestia's counter measures.

Right now, he was preparing a message to one of his allies. "... and you need to make sure everyone is ready to be evacuated. According to Prankster, the king is supposed to be returning, and we need everypony ready. I'll let you know about any other developments, Scarab. Yours truly, Single Shadow."

He sent the message, making sure it had no ones actual names and only their codenames.

A knock on his door alerted him to a visitor, and he immediately activated the illusion spell. He was currently staying in the castle, thanks to some favors he had called in so he could close to Luna's room, so he could be at Luna's room to stop any potential assassins, and to get there as quickly as possible once he knew the healing spell would work.

"Sir, the princess wishes to see you in the throne room, as soon as possible."

"Thank you. Let her know I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Actually, sir, she requested that I escort you there. And truth be told I was hoping to learn a little more about your theories about secret wars."

Normally, this would cause Lone to panic, as what the other guard just said meant that he knew who he was, if not for Lone recognizing the voice of the guard.

"Of course. Just let me get my armor on."

It was only a minute later when Lone walked out of his room to see the guard. The guards name was Nightengale. His coat was a standard shade of black, and his mane and tail were starlight silver. In terms of build, he was pretty average. His eyes were olive green, something that should have clashed with his coat, but it didn't. Nightengale's cutie mark was strange, and not many were creative enough to even guess at what it meant. What it showed was a swirling vortex. Many assumed that it was a whirlpool, but, if one looked closely, they would see stars in it, which would make those who saw them think it was a galaxy. Both were technically right, but only partly. Nightengale was a unicorn who specialized in a special kind of magic he had learned from Lone, who was pretty terrible at the magic himself, but that was what libraries were for. The magic was the same kind that had naturally created objects like the mirror pond, or even the crystal mirror in Twilight's castle. It allowed for portals to be opened, which made the whirlpool part true as whirlpools are technically portals to the bottom of the sea, and they led to other universes, which led to the galaxy part being true.

"So, Lone, what's your alias this time?" Nightengale asked.

"Darkness Strider. Nightengale, how did you know I was here?" Lone asked, a little angry at Nightengale, but he knew if anypony would discover him before he revealed himself, it would be Nightengale, so it was a pleased kind of anger, if such a thing existed.

"Simple. There was small evidence of ten 'incidents' over the past six months, and all anypony had to do was look." Nightengale then shrugged. "Plus, I'm one of the guards for Luna, and I knew you were keeping an eye on her and Celestia since Sombra, so I took a random guess that you would be here. Plus, you're the only Lunar guard with a room inside the castle. I just put two, two, and two together.

Lone couldn't help but smile at this. He knew Nightengale was a good detective, if Nightengales stories of his past were to be believed. He had, in all honesty though, expected to be discovered sooner. "Impressive, but I had figured you would discover me sooner.

"I actually thought it about a month ago, but haven't been able to confront you about it though," Nightengale said, a smirk on his face.

Lone knew that Nightengale was good at what he did, so he knew he was telling the truth. "Right. Now come on. Don't want to keep the Princess waiting, now do we.

"No, sir," Nightengale said, his tone a joking one, filled with a silent laugh, that caused Lone to smile, as it made him remember his life before he was dragged into this, even though he wouldn't change his standing in the world for anything. He recalled one of the last happy memories he had with his family before his life changed forever.

...

It was forty years ago. Lone had just turned six, though he didn't look it. For some reason that no one could explain, he matured, physically and mentally, faster than anypony else, and he looked like he was ten. It was a happy day in his families' house hold, as his little brother, who was named Unity, had just been brought home from the hospital for the first time, and he, his mother, a white earth pony with an electric blue mane and electric red eyes with a flame as her cutie mark and named Joy, his father, who was a Pegasus (the doctors said that Lone was a unicorn due to genetics and luck) and had a dark teal coat, mane,tail, and eyes with a full moon with clouds over the lower half as his cutie mark and was named Darkness Strider. Lone often took his fathers name for his alter egos, as it was a reminder of happier times. The four were in the living room of their home, playing a board game that left more to luck than skill or wits, as Lone won at those, even when he was trying to lose, while Unity, a small, forest green Pegasus with a brown mane and tail, slept in his crib nearby. Even though Lone had lost the game, even now, though, he couldn't remember the rules or even how badly he lost, he smiled, as he was spending time with his family.

This would be the last happy memory Lone would have for a while, as his brother had been foalnapped not a week later. No ransom was given, and no body found. His mother had performed suicide nearly a month later, a note scribbled on found next to her body. It read "For the only two men important to me: I am sorry, Lone. Darkness. I only hope you can forgive me and that Unity is found sometime after this. To any police who now think I foalnapped my youngest son: GO. TO. BUCKING. TARTURUS!" Lone and Darkness shared a chuckle at the last part, as it proved that, even in death, Joy still had fangs that would make a vampony stare in awe. It would be nearly a year later when he learned the truth of his family. His father had called him down to the basement of their new house, a two story excluding the basement, a place that Lone was never allowed to go to.

He was reading the same book that contained the spell he was using in the present to appear as a Lunar guard that his mentor had given to him shortly before they had moved. He set it down and went to the basement, only to see that the basement looked more like a command room that the military would use. He asked his father what all of this was for, and he responded "A war is coming, Lone. And I can only plan for so many outcomes." The response only puzzled Lone, but his father then began to explain their family history, on both sides of Lone's bloodline. He said that he was descended from the original Lone Shadow, who was only a legend in this day and age, the one who had started a rebellion that had eventually led to the creation of Equestria. This meant that Lone was not only named for a legend, but a descendant of him. His father then told him, with sorrow in his voice as he began to talk about Joy, and how she was a descendant of the original Lone Shadow's enemy, Plasma, and that Lone was the first pony to be born that combined the two bloodlines, which led to extraordinary magical prowess just from instinct. After his father had told him this, which Lone didn't want to believe, but knew it was true for some reason, his father told him to pack.

When he began to protest that he wouldn't leave, a loud thud could be heard from upstairs. The two rushed upstairs to see what had happened, and Darkness was captured by a griffon as soon as he had gotten out of the stairwell. Darkness instantly elbow jabbed the griffon in the gut, which caused him to let go. Darkness than went around behind the griffon and snapped his neck, shocking Lone. His father told him to run and not look back. He said that the griffons, as there were multiple in the house, wouldn't kill him, and told Lone to go to the frozen north and find the crystal caves. He said that his teacher will be there, waiting for him. Lone, for some reason that only now he knew was knowing that his father was telling the truth, ran out the backdoor, which wasn't being guarded, and ran for as long as he could, glancing back only once to see smoke rising from where his home had been.

...

He came out of those memories when Nightengale pulled on his tail, preventing him from hitting the doors to the throne room. "You okay, sir? You spaced out there for a while," Nightengale asked, concern for his friend and teacher in his voice.

"Yes, private," Lone said, slipping into his current role as an officer of the guard. "Just remembering the good times I had with my family."

As the two entered the throne room, they saw Celestia sitting upon her throne, as regal as ever, but to those who knew what to look for, and the two "guards" knew exactly what to look for, there would also have been a tiredness hidden behind her eyes, which told all those who noticed is she had gone through many sleepless night recently. When they reached the bottom step of the throne, They bowed to the princess

"Your Highness," they both said as they bowed.

"Rise," she said to the two of them. When they were both standing at attention, she asked Lone, "Lieutenant Strider, do you know about what is afflicting my dear sister?" Concern was in her voice as she said this.

"I have only heard rumors, your Highness, and I assumed they were nothing more, though, as you are asking me about it, I assume that there is truth to them," Lone said, lying to keep the act up.

Celestia nodded. "Indeed there is. A year ago, my sister began to have terrible visions, and I had to put her to sleep using a spell that puts those affected by it into a dreamless sleep. My dear sister awakens once a month, and through the conversations I have had with her, I have discovered that it hasn't helped, and many nobles wish to kill her to ease her suffering. I want you and Private Nightengale to guard her for the next week, as this is the week she is supposed to awaken, and I wish for her to see two of her own guards when she awakens to calm her."

"Of course, Princess," Lone said.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. You and Private Nightengale are dismissed and you are to report to your post within the hour," Celestia said.

"Of course, your Highness," Lone said as both he and Nightengale bowed to her before exiting the throne room, with Lone knowing that this week would be the first chance he had to help Luna.

...

Back aboard the Shepard, Liara was currently trying to wrap her head around what just happened when the ship's automated systems alerted everyone that they were being drawn into the wormhole.

"Guys," Jacob said. "I think we can at least get our brains working long enough to get everything we can stowed away."

Just as he finished saying this, the systems alerted the crew that the gravity of the wormhole was no longer affecting them. At this, Garrus, Tali, Miranda, Jacob, and Zaeed, who were all the bridge crew, headed toward the bridge, with the others heading towards their usual spots. When the bridge crew got to the bridge, they were instantly notified that an unknown ship was in the same system. The trajectories of both ships had them moving towards a garden world that, much to all of their surprise, had the systems sun orbiting it.

...

On the Tip of the Spear, Ken was currently looking over all of the monitors to make sure he wasn't crazy. At this point, he wasn't sure. He was looking over the navigation data, when Artemis came over his radio and said, "Ken, sensors just picked up a ship of unknown configuration coming into the system. Their trajectory says that their heading towards the planet in the center of the solar system." Ordinarily, Ken would just have thought that Artemis was going rampant, but he, along with the others had seen her diagram of this system, and he knew that Artemis never joked when it came to astrology.

"Right. Artemis, best speed to reach the atmosphere of the planet. Have you tried communications with them yet?" Ken asked.

"Yes, but I can't connect to their communication network," Artemis replied.

"Well, that's. Just Great," Ken said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

...

In Canterlot, Celestia was in the throne room, reading one of her favorite books, The Lone Rebellion, when Stargazer, head of the observatory, came rushing in. He was one of the few citizens who could talk to her when they needed to with out having to wait to be cleared. It had been an hour since she had assigned the two Lunar guards their assignment for the week. When Stargazer reached the throne, he still had enough rationality to bow to her.

Stargazer was an average earth pony noble, except he didn't have the uptight attitude so many other nobles had, with a blue coat and gray mane and tail, whose eyes were silver, a rare color for earth ponies, and his cutie mark was that off a star burst, much like Twilights, except his was pure white and had only one starburst pattern.

"Your Highness," he said, breathing heavily, which meant that he had ran straight here. "We have a problem. One hour ago, me and one of my assistants spotted two meteoroids heading this way, and they are projected to land just out side Canterlot!!!"

Celestia instantly went into protector mode.

"Get Twilight Sparkle and her friends," she said to one of the guards in the room, who then galloped out of the throne room to fetch the elements of Harmony. As he ran, he passed by the room of the princess of the night who had a single Lunar guard in front of it.

...

Lone knew he would only have a limited window to get into Luna's room, heal her, then get out to make it look like nothing had happened.

Nightengale was currently on watch outside, to make sure Celestia wasn't coming. I sure hope this works he thought to himself. He slowly crept over to Luna's bed, his horn already aglow with the magic that would heal Luna. As he reached her, he put his horn over her fore head. As soon as he did this, he felt dark magic inside Luna, and he knew that it was what was causing this. The spell activated on its own once Lone's horn made contact with Luna's forehead. It was a minute before anything happened. Luna's mouth opened, and a dark cloud came out of it. Lone figured this might happen, so he cast s spell that would bind the magic and snuff it out before Luna could awake. Lone then made his way to the door. Before he was even there, the dark magic cloud was already gone. He opened the door and took his position next to Nightengale. They both then simply waited for Luna to awaken and step out of her room.

Landfall

"So, let me get this straight," Sawn said. "We are currently in orbit above an unknown planet, trying to contact a ship of unknown origin, and the sensors say that there is civilization down on that planet. That's it, I have got to be dreaming."

"I can assure you, Sawn, you are not dreaming," Artemis told him.

"That's exactly what a dream version of someone would say!," Sawn yelled. To be honest, though, just about everyone on board felt the same, even if they would not admit it.

Ken looked at Sawn, though his expression could only be read from body language, as he, along with Lily and Maruco, had their helmets on, as did everyone else in case they were boarded. He. Was. Pissed. Not at Sawn, but the hand fate had given him this mission. Unknown creature who could bend, if not outright break, the laws of physics first, than an unknown solar system that went completely against the laws of the universe. It was, instead of every other solar system, which was heliocentric (sun at the center), this system was geocentric (planet at center), which was impossible, since only the gravity of a sun could be strong enough to pull on planets. This system not only broke that with the planet pulling the sun, it broke it with two gas giants being kept in system by said planet.

And then there was the unknown ship. Now, Ken, Lily, and Maruco had seen some shit together that not even John could honestly say he saw, and came out of it sane as well. Namely, an entirely flood infested halo ring. They had not only gotten off of it, they had gotten off of it with no one dying, which was officially impossible. You would think ONI would want something like that out there, if only to inspire the rank and file. NOPE.

But this took the damn cake. The entire thing. Not one part of it, but the whole bomb, nuclear core and all.

"Detecting something coming from the planets surface, Ken," Artemis said, worry in her voice. "Holy hell. You guys are not going to believe this."

"What is it, Artemis?" Maruco asked, doubt in his voice for the reason mentioned earlier. "Is it a rainbow? With the stuff we've all seen collectively, that is probably the only thing that can surprise us anymore. Am I right, or am I right?" he said, spreading his arms to show his self confidence

"Actually," Artemis said, "Yes. It looks like a rainbow. Coming RIGHT FOR US!"

All Everyone could do was stare at her like she was crazy.

"WHAT?!" Everyone shouted.

Then the rainbow hit.

The ship noticeably shook from the impact. "Artemis, damage report, NOW," Ken said, getting up from the floor, as the impact made the ship shake with enough force to make everyone lose their balance, anger and surprise in his voice.

"That hit took out our shields, Ken. You and everyone else need to get to the drop pods now. I'll launch supply pods just before you drop. No telling how much damage the next one will do, assuming they can fire another shot," Artemis said, her voice filled with urgency, which also filled her face, as well as concern.

Ken nodded. "Alright everyone. Get to drop bay alpha NOW. We need to get off the Spear before it's hit again. And Maruco,"

"Yeah?"

"You have permission to get our drop song going once we head down," Ken said, knowing Maruco would ask this once they were all in their drop pods.

This brought a non-visible smile to Maruco's face under his helmet. "Got it."

Before they went to the drop bay, though, they stopped by the armory to get weapons. Thel chose a storm rifle and two energy swords. Hades, a concussion rifle and a needler. Sawn, a carbine, plasma pistol, and a shield gauntlet. John and Lily chose an MA5D (or whatever the designation for the halo 4 assault rifle is) for primary. John took a magnum pistol for secondary, while Lily took a sniper rifle. Ken took a battle rifle for primary and a standard DMR for second. Maruco took "Honest AJ" as his primary, a DMR with a primary color of orange with a secondary of red, and a shotgun for secondary.

As they made their way from the armory, the ship shook again, this time worse than before. "COME ON, PEOPLE. MOVE IT, UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE IN SPACE!!!" Ken yelled at the others. This caused everyone to triple time it to the drop bay, which had four HEV (ODST drop pods) and three covenant drop pods along the walls.

As everyone made their way into the pods, which were labeled with an IFF for quick identification of whose pod it is, the ship shook for a third time, this one being the most violent.

"Ken," Artemis said over the radios, concern in her voice. "The ship is starting to fall apart. It can only stay together long enough for you, the others, and the supply pods to drop."

"Right. Thanks for the info, Artemis," Ken said as he got settled into his pod seat, sadness in his voice, as the ship being destroyed would most likely mean both Artemis and Apollo's deaths, and both AIs had been with the group since the beginning.

"Of course, Ken. And good luck," Artemis said just before the drop song started playing.

Youtube Video

(00:16) The drop pods flew out of the drop bay. When Ken looked up, as his pod had cameras on the top, bottom, and sides so he could see at all angles, he saw the main portion of the ship falling into the planets atmosphere with them when he saw something new.

The part of the ship was surrounded by a yellow glow, and if Ken didn't know any better, he would say that it was affecting the trajectory of the piece of the ship.

The drop pods flew down through the atmosphere for what seemed like an hour when the pod jerked to a sudden stop, indicating that it had landed, or, more accurately, crashed.

He rubbed his head to clear the disorientation from the crash. Once he had cleared his senses to a degree to where he could breath without becoming dizzy, he brought his hand up to his helmet and activated the radio. "This is Ken. Are the rest of you guys there?

"Yeah, Ken. We're all just outside of your pod," Maruco responded.

"Right, stand clear of the door. I'm getting the bolts primed."

"Copy that."

As Ken got the explosive bolts activated, he began to think. Or more accurately, what they were going to do without AI support. I suppose we could just use what Intel we get with our own eyes, but that isn't exactly accurate, he thought to himself, just as the last bolt was primed. It only took a second for the door to fly away from the pod, and as Ken stepped out, what he saw amazed him beyond words.

What he saw was a dense forest, one that wouldn't look out of place back on Earth. The trees looked like the standard varieties that grew everywhere back on Earth, as well as some of the other plants. Really, the only plant that looked out of place was a small flower, or, more accurately, a large swath of the flower, that looked as if it was entirely blue. Wonder where we are, he thought to himself before turning to his left to see the others checking their weapons to ensure they worked. Maruco walked up to him, his helmet still on.

"Good to see that you're still with us Ken," he said jokingly. "You took the longest to wake up, and we thought you were dead. Glad to see we were wrong."

"Yeah, well if the devil wants me," Ken started, "He's going to have to pay me in whatever currency they use in hell to even make me consider that." When ever the three dropped, they always made jokes regarding death, as no Spartan had ever died from an ODST like deployment. Well, the deployment part of it, anyway. "So, any idea where the supply pods came down?"

Maruco shook his head. "Nope. I only know where three are, and that's because I saw them land after I got out of my pod. As for the others, tracking systems aren't working on any frequency, even covenant ones. The three I saw are about a click that way," Maruco said, pointing with his thumb to just behind him, which was compass south. "Also, as far as we can tell, there is wildlife near our position, but we can't tell what they are, though we're thinking wolves due to periodic howling."

At this, a howl rose from just north of their current position, followed by another, than another. Eventually, howls were coming from all directions. "Looks like we're surrounded," Hades said, a smirk on his face.

As the group got into a circle, they prepared their weapons, Thel activating his twin energy swords and Maruco pumping his shotgun, saying, "Looks like it's wolf season, and I got a license."

Sawn activated his shield gauntlet and brought out his plasma pistol. "I say we kill them. Kill them with fire," he said grinning like a madman.

At this, the first of the wolves came out of the brush, and everyone looked confused, as it looked like the wolves were made out of wood. Before anyone could say anything, though, the wolves charged.

What followed was a massacre.

As the first of the wolves got closer, those with medium ranged weapons opened fire, Hades' needler causing the most damage, as the projectiles exploded shortly after impact. When the wolves got closer, they felt the searing heat of Thel's energy swords cutting through them and the blasts from Maruco's shotgun tear them apart, the intestines of the poor bastards, which were mostly vines, hanging out of their bodies. The second wave appeared, with slightly larger wolves in the mix. Lily brought out her sniper and shot their heads, completely obliterating said body part, before they could even get close, with the others falling like those before them. Then hell came knocking.

After all of the timberwolves of the second wave had been, for lack of a better word, completely FUBAR (fucked up beyond all recognition), the group saw the second weirdest thing of the day. The remains of all the wolves, small pieces and large together, started to merge into a scarab sized version of the wolves.

They all looked at the massive wolf. Thel then looked to the Chief, who nodded. Thel took one of his plasma grenades off his belt and tossed it to John, who caught it single handed. Ken saw this and remarked, "Bet you can't stick it."

"You're on," was all John said before the massive wolf roared, spraying tree sap on all of them. John simply activated the grenade and threw it like a baseball down the things throat.

It took only a few seconds for the grenade to detonate, but it was already in the things stomach by then. The beasts legs were knocked out from under it by the pressure wave. Maruco then walked up to it as if he was strolling through the park. "How you doin'," He said, as if he was trying to flirt with someone, just before pulling the trigger on his shotgun, blowing enough of the timberwolfs head away to kill it, or at least keep it from reforming for a while.

"Well," Lily started, while putting her sniper rifle on the ground. "That was interesting."

Thel nodded. "Agreed, especially as that thing looked completely natural, which means it probably wasn't built by the Forerunners, which begs the question: How did it do what it did?"

No one had an answer to this, so Ken said, "That doesn't matter right now. What does is that there are, hopefully, more sapient species on this planet, preferably peaceful ones. Besides, we need to contact the UNSC about this, see if they can send a ship here to pick us up."

No one disagreed with him, but it was Maruco, still making sure he had enough ammo for another fight like this, who told them, "Yeah, that's great, except for the fact the only transmitter we know of that can contact them on this planet is with that large chunk of the ship, and while we're on that topic," Maruco said, anger now coming into his voice. "Is anyone else wondering HOW THE HELL DID A FUCKING RAINBOW DESTROY A SHIP THAT HAD THE STRENGTH OF THE SHIELDS THAT ARE ON A DAMNED CRUISER!?!?!," He yelled at no one in particular.

"Hey," Lily said to Maruco in a calm voice, though it was obvious she was trying not to yell. "Calm the hell down, Maruco. You, me and Ken have been in worse spots than this, so I'm certain we can get out of this with John and the others helping us." She looked to where the others were standing. "Isn't that right?"

John nodded. "Agreed. Though the flood was less weird than this place already."

"I hear that," Ken said.

Lily was about to say something when she saw ten grey dots appear at the edge of her motion tracker. "Guys, we got contacts inbound," She warned them. "Outer range of my tracker."

John was in the process of reaching for his assault rifle when a beam of energy hit him in the back, knocking him out cold. Hades saw another coming for him and dodged out of the way. "What the hell was-" was all he said before another beam hit its mark on his chest and threw him backwards. He hit a tree with his head, and though the tree split, he was knocked out cold.

"Damn it," Ken said. "GET TO COVER," He yelled, though he was the next to be hit.

Sawn stayed where he was, getting into the standard pose Kig-yar are in when using shield gauntlets so it covers their body. Two bolts hit the shield, but the shield stayed up. The only reason Ken and John had been knocked out was because their shield systems were resetting due to something in the atmosphere, while said "something" seemed to strengthen Sawn's gauntlet. He fired a bolt of plasma each at the location where the other ones had come from, to be rewarded with a scream of pain, indicating he had hit one and either missed or outright killed the other assassin he fired at. Nine bolts, indicating he had missed, were aimed at Sawn. Though most hit his shield, one got lucky and hit his arm, where the shield doesn't protect the user so the can fire, and put him to sleep.

By this point, the others were all in cover, but the unknown contacts refocused on them and they be came pinned. "Well," Maruco said. "This is just peachy," he said, the sarcasm not really dripping in his voice, more rushing like a tsunami. At this, one of the contacts stopped firing. Maruco saw one of the dots disappear on his motion tracker, only to reappear to his left, a perfect flanking position. Well, fuck me, was all he thought before he was hit by another bolt.

Thel and Lily were the only ones still conscience, using the body of the dead timberwolf for cover. As soon as Maruco had been hit, their shields had finally started to recharge. You couldn't have come back online sooner, Lily thought angrily, swearing that the next time she was at a UNSC research facility that worked on Spartan armor, she would make sure they worked on a backup shield system for circumstances just like this. Thel looked at the charge meter on his sword.

"One," was all he said, though Lily knew what he meant. He only had one use of the sword left before he had to recharge it, and they both knew that whatever happened to the others would happen to them before they got the chance to do so. Lily then looked toward the ammo counter on her assault rifle.

"Thirty-two." She had spare magazines, but she knew she wouldn't be able to reload with the mess that was going on. They both nodded and stepped out of their cover.

Thel went to grab his storm rifle and was able to grab it and fire off a few shots before he was hit in the torso by one of the enemy bolts, falling to the ground out cold. Lily got lucky and was able to fire off a few mags worth of ammo before her shields were taken down and her, hit.

Note from author: Don't go raging about how Thel was knocked out by one bolt of magic. When I said one, I meant nine bolts combined into one, it just looked like one, got it? Now back to the story.

As Lily started to black out, she could have sworn she saw their attackers. They looked like they walked on four legs, and all looked like they had protrusions coming out of their foreheads. Her last thought was, Oh god. Unicorns.

...

Shepard, upper Equis orbit, meanwhile

"Are we able to contact that ship, Garrus?" Liara asked.

Garrus shook his head. "No. It's like something is actively keeping us out of their communication net." He looked at Liara. "You don't think this has anything to do with that thing from earlier, do you?"

Liara simply shook her head. "Probably. Who knows what that thing put in our systems before it left, assuming I wasn't dreaming."

Garrus chuckled. "I doubt it. If you were, I doubt I would be saying you weren't."

"That, actually, is what a dream version of someone would say to keep the person asleep for as long as possible." Little did she know, she said this at the same time Sawn said the same thing, or at least the same message.

Garrus simply chuckled at this. "Don't you remember Therum, Liara," He said, referring to how she thought Him, Tali, and Shepard were her sub conscience trying to make her see what she had done wrong that led to her being in a prothean security field.

"Garrus."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Garrus was about to retort when Jacob came over the radio. "Uh, guys. Something weird just happened to that other ship. And I mean weird, even by our standards." His tone said he was serious.

Zaeed came over the radio next. "Oh, and what might that be. A Reaper sending us a request to a picnic? Cerberus with non human agents? A fuckin' space rainbow."

"In order, no, no, and yes."

Unbeknownst to the others, Zaeed's eye twitched as if he had enough caffeine in his system to give an elephant a heart attack. "WHAT THE FUCK!!" He yelled.

Jack, the resident psychotic biotic, came over the radio next. "Yeah, what the hell do you mean by that Jacob?"

"Exactly what I said. I'll put out on the comm frequency so you can see it."

As soon as he said this, both Liara's and Garrus' Omni-tools started beeping, indicating a message. They both pulled up the call to see the other ship getting blasted by a rainbow. After about ten seconds, they saw it get hit again, only this time it was cut through the front. Twenty seconds later, a third shot hit it, leaving the center the largest remaining piece of the ship. Liara, though, noticed something.

"Are those escape pods coming from it," she said, as she saw the drop pods being deployed.

"Can't be. Too small for more than one crewman, even Volus wouldn't be able to fit more than one of their guys in those." Garrus shook his head. "Who ever was on that ship is dead, and if they survived those shots, they'll die from their ship hitting the surface. Can't help them." Disappointment was in his voice as he said this.

Zaeed came back over the radio. "Damn. Whatever that thing is, it's got to be powerful to be able to cut through an entire damned ship."

Miranda came over the radio next. "Agreed. We need to get out of system asap before that weapon's turned on us."

"That might be a problem, Miranda," Tali said. "Our FTL drive was knocked out by that wormhole. Until it's fixed, we're stuck here."

"Great," Miranda said sarcastically .

"Guys," Jacob said over the radio, alarm in his voice. "I'm picking up an energy spike from the planets surface! It matches the same signature that came up from just before that beam hit. Chances are, they see us and getting ready to shoot us."

"Damn," Garrus cursed. "We need to get to the escape pods before even one of those beams hit."

""Garrus is right, Liara. If even one of those damn beams hit, we'll probably die," Zaeed said.

"Zaeed is correct, Liara," Samara, the other Asari on board said. "The natives of this world are most likely firing on us due to simple misunderstanding. And we must meet their leadership to remove said misunderstanding."

"Look, we can handle this on the escape pods," Garrus said.

"Agreed," Wrex said. "Move it, princesses, unless you want to die in the void."

Everyone rushed to the nearest escape pod. There were thirteen people on board, and each escape pod could hold eight, so there were four escape pods, two as backup. It took about a minute for every one to reach their escape pods. Just as Grunt got in his escape pod, the ship shuddered, which threw Grunt onto the floor of the pod. The pod launched before he could get into his seat, which caused him to slide to the back of the pod. Wrex, who was in the same pod, just chuckled at this. "Well, I thinks it's obvious what just hit the ship," Jacob said.

All of the work was done by the automatic systems in the pods, which resulted in the two pods landing close to one another. It was a short ride down to the planets surface. It was every one in Liara's pod (herself, Garrus, Zaeed, Kasumi, Miranda, Jacob, Samara, and Jack) who landed first and were able to survey their surroundings.

They were in what appeared to be a swamp. The water was as brown as mud, with bubbles popping up from time to time. Just behind them was a thicket of trees, while, as far as they could tell, in front of them was more swamp that lead to a cliff.

"Can anyone raise the others on comm?" Garrus asked as he got out of the pod.

"No, haven't been able to contact them," Jacob said. "But that might just be because they haven't landed yet."

As soon as he says this, the other pod soars over their heads. A few seconds pass before the ground rumbles with the impact of the pod near them.

"Well, looks like we're heading there," Kasumi said.

Ten minutes later

"Why did the damn pod have to land so fuckin' far away?"

"Stop complaining, Zaeed," Liara said. "Besides, we're almost there." It wasn't that hard to tell they were almost there. There were skid marks along the ground where the pod had landed.

"Yeah, Zaeed. Stop being an ass."

"Fuck you too, Garrus."

Just before Garrus can retort, the group comes over a ridge in the forest where the pod landed to see those in the other pod (Wrex, Grunt, Ashley, James, and Tali) just getting out. "You guys need any help?" Jacob asked.

"Nah, we're good," James said.

"Yeah." Ashley said. "Besides, it's not like we have a lot of gear. Just our armor and weapons."

"Plus," Wrex said. "The heaviest non-living stuff we got are our heavy weapons."

"Which means," Grunt started, "Fun." He then puled out an M-920 Cain. "Heh, heh, heeeeh."

(That is Grunt's laugh, for those who don't know. Also, for those of you who don't know what the Cain can do, here's a vid. The second large weapon is the cain. First is a rocket launcher)

Youtube Video

(Yeah. Don't want to be on it's business end.)

Liara sighed. "Grunt, I don't think we're going to need that."

"Meh. Can't have too many large guns," he said, grinning like a kid in a candy store who was told he could have all the candy he wanted.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR.

"What the hell was that," Ashley said as she drew her usual weapon, an M-8 avenger rifle.

"Must be something native, or it wouldn't be here." No one laughed at Garrus' terrible attempt at a joke. "Stick to your day job, Garrus," Miranda said.

Another roar was heard, closer this time.

Everyone drew the weapons they had on them, which was to say, small arms, as the heavy weapons didn't have enough power to fire.

"So," Kasumi said. "Any idea what it is?"

As soon as she said this, the creature came into view.

"What the fuckin' hell is that?" Zaeed said, disbelief in his voice as he saw it.

The animal was about two stories tall and had orange scales. It had four heads and walked on two legs. And the hydra looked hungry.

"Well, this is going to be a cake walk," Wrex said. At this, two more of the creatures came into the clearing.

"Hell," Garrus exclaimed.

"Move!" James yelled. Everyone started to run for the swamp, where they would have longer sight lines and more room to maneuver to fight the hydras.

Halfway there, Wrex tripped over a fallen log. One of the hydras saw this and went after him. It got to him in seconds. It stood over him, all four heads licking their lips, eagerly awaiting food. Just as the far right head started to come down, a clap of thunder could be heard, and the head practically explode, only a few pieces of flesh and muscle still connected to the body. Wrex looked behind him and saw Garrus kneeling, his usual Mantis sniper rifle in hand, the barrel smoking. "Boom."

"Jeez, Garrus. I didn't know you liked exploding rounds," Wrex said.

"Just shut up and get off your ass, Wrex, before that thing has it for lunch."

Once Garrus had finished talking, the hydra, just getting over the surprise of one of its heads blown apart, looked at him and roared angrily.

"Right." Wrex got up as fast as he could, getting at top speed as he did so. Just as he got to where Garrus was, Garrus began sprinting towards the swamp as well. Fortunately for the both of them, they had the lightest of their weapons on them, the heavier ones either at one of the escape pods or on what was left of the ship, with mods, some not entirely legal in citadel space, to make them deadly compared to the off the shelf versions. Well, deadlier.

They were the last ones to arrive where Liara's pod had landed. "You guys okay," Kasumi asked as they got close.

"Yeah," Garrus said. "Just showing those things who's boss."

"Well," Zaeed said, "You might want to do that a-fuckin'-gain, 'cause we got more of those bastards inbound."

"How many?"

"Two of 'em, which means," Zaeed paused for dramatic effect, "eight heads."

"Great," Miranda said sarcastically.

A minute later, the hydra that was missing one of its heads. "So, that's the thing you beat up, Garrus," James asked.

"Yep, though I actually used my Mantis, and all I did was make that thing uglier."

"Obviously," Ashley said.

The hydra than roared. Its mouth being opened, and it was Kasumi, with a scorpion pistol (see vid below if you don't know what it is) who shot each head in the mouth.

Youtube Video

(Also note: the first alien next to the human, who is a female shepard, is Liara. She is an asari, a monogendered race. The third is Garrus. The guy next to shep near the end is james.

(Also, the next vid is overdue and meant to show you guys what Wrex looks like and to show what a Krogan looks like in general and why they are badass.)

Youtube Video

(The alien next to that shepard is Tali.)

The projectiles launched by the scorpion detonated a second later, and killed the hydra.

"Well, there goes one."

"Yeah," Zaeed said, "except that one wasn't in the count. We still got two of the things coming, and things are gonna get ugly."

Five minutes later

Everyone was waiting for the hydras to arrive, and it had been a while since one with four heads had been seen. They were debating heading to another location for their camp when Garrus, as well as Jacob, who had been on patrol, came running in. "Behind us. . . eight heads. . . inbound," Garrus said between gasps.

"Damn," Zaeed exclaimed. He put his hand to his ear to activate his communicator, as the bulk of the squad was spread out around the pod's landing site. "Okay people, back to camp. We got two of those things comin', and I want to give 'em a warm welcome," he said.

Within a minute, everyone had made it back to what was camp and had gotten into what was an effective formation for their circumstance. The sniper group, which consisted of Ashley, Garrus, and Zaeed, took up position at the far end of the swamp, which allowed them practically full view range of the swamp. Those with assault rifles or submachine guns took up position close to the pod. Those with shotguns, Wrex, Grunt, Jack, James, and Tali, took up positions close enough to the forest for their shotguns to be effective, but far enough away so they could dodge any attacks from the hydras.

Both hydras stepped into the swamp at the same time. The leading one, which seemed to have many scars, was the first one to feel the heat of the weapons. To keep it short and clean enough for those of you with a weak stomach, but where it still fits with the gore tag, let's just say everyone with a shotgun was bathed in blood and guts, only a puddle of blood remaining where the lead hydra once stood. The second hydra was smart enough to go in for one of the squad who had a shotgun. Though it failed in that regard, the action of its heads going for a person each saved it from losing its heads, the sniper shots sailing just over them.

"Damn it," Ashley exclaimed. She went to reload her Mantis, as it only had a single-shot capacity before reloading, but before she could even start, she heard something fall down to the ground hard. She looked and saw the hydra dead on the ground one of it heads missing, and standing where it would have been was Grunt, covered in blood and brains.

As the shock of seeing Grunt covered in the things blood and brains faded, something else happened that immediately brought that shock back. As Grunt was laughing, five bolts of light came from the forest, each one hitting one of the group with a shotgun, knocking them un conscience. Five more bolts came from the left of the location of the first volley and hit everyone that was next to the pod.

This all happened five seconds after the hydras were killed, the second happening right after the first. "The hell?" Zaeed whispered, not wanting the attackers to hear him. "You guys got any idea what just happened, cause I sure as hell don't."

"No," Garrus said. "But I'm still getting vitals from everyone's omni-tools, which means that they're alive."

"Would you two just shut up and look at the others with your scopes," Ashley said. "You aren't going to believe this."

After she said this, both Garrus and Zaeed looked to where the bolts had come from to see the weirdest beings they had ever seen.

"Are. . . are those fucking unicorns?" Zaeed said, to which a voice behind all three of them replied, "I wouldn't say 'fucking', but, yeah, we're unicorns." Before the three of them could turn around, they were hit with the same bolts that had hit the others, knocking them out cold.

Canterlot observatory; one hour earlier

Stargazer was in the Canterlot observatory, waiting for the Princess and the elements to arrive. He had rushed back here as soon as Celestia told him that the problem will be taken care of, but they would need his trained eye to aim the elements power at the two meteors.

He was currently looking at the larger of the two meteors, running calculations on how bad it would be if it came down at even half its current mass. It wouldn't be pretty, especially for Canterlot and Ponyville, the two closest population centers to the projected impact area, mostly because the two locations would be vaporized.

He was halfway through the worst case scenario when Celestia, Twilight, and the others walked in.

When he saw them, he nearly scrambled out of his chair and bowed to the two princesses. "Your highnesses," he said.

Celestia smiled at this. "How many times must I say it, Stargazer," she said, "you don't have to call me anything other than Celestia, and Twilight still isn't used to being called a princess either."

"Of course, but I've simply grown used to that, and old habits are hard to break," Stargazer said, returning to a stand. "Well, anyway," he said, turning towards the elements, "Princess Celestia has tasked me with being your eyes as you six take out the meteors heading towards us. I assume you six are ready?"

Twilight nodded. "We are." She then turned to her friends "Alright, girls. Lets go." The other elements nodded. It was discovered shortly after Twilights second escapade through the mirror portal that the bearers of the Elements of Harmony could change into their super forms at will, so long as it was done near the others and not used for personal reasons. Which means that Rainbow couldn't use it to do a double rainboom.

The transformation wasn't all that spectacular compared to the first. It was really just the six of them glowing, their mane, tail, and their wings, if they had any that is, growing longer. When the glow died down, the bearers were standing there, looking exactly as they had when they took down Tirek.

Stargazer than went to the telescope, which was already pointing at the larger meteor. "When ever you six are ready," he told them.

The bearers almost immediately began to glow with rainbow light. A second passed before the first beam went into space. As it was fired, Celestia could have sworn she saw two flashes of green, one in the part of the rainbow that represented Rarity, the other in Twilights. She dismissed these as a trick of the light after they had disappeared not a second after she saw them.

Stargazer saw the beam hit the meteor, but it remained intact. "That was a direct hit, your Highness, but the meteor is still intact," he told Twilight.

"Right," she said. Two more beams of magic followed, each one hitting the ship and cutting it where it was hit. Just after the third hit, Stargazer saw that a large part of the meteor was still coming on the trajectory he had plotted. He told Celstia this, and she enveloped the meteor in her magic, steering it to a place where nopony would be harmed. Stargazer noticed debris falling from the meteor, but assumed they would burn up before they could do any harm. He and the elements then turned their attention to the smaller meteor, which didn't require anything to make to where it wouldn't harm anypony. Celestia, though, had other thoughts on her mind.

When she had moved the large meteors remnants, she sensed a vast presence, or, more accurately, two. She had never felt something like this before. What she did know is that this could only mean one thing.

Pony kind was not alone.

While all of this was going on, a pony that no one would pay attention to was hidden in the rafters, watching the scene unfold. He was a white unicorn, with a green mane and tail. His eyes were red, while his cutie mark was that of an eye, plain and simple. Nopony knew his real name, not even him, so those that knew him simply called him Observer. "Lone needs to know about this," he said to himself, then left the rafters.

He was just outside the observatory when one of the guards Celestia had brought with her spotted him.

"You there, what are you doing here? This is supposed to be a restricted area."

Buck me, Observer thought to himself.

He turned to see a standard solar guard coming towards him. "Well sir, last I checked, the observatory was public property, and I was coming here to look at the stars." Yeah, Observer, go with an excuse that can be defeated simply by being told "look up," he thought to himself.

The guard continued to get closer. "You do realize you can do that by just looking up," Called it. "But you still haven't told me why you're here."

The guard was practically in front of Observer now. He knew there was only one way to get out of here. So he punched the guard in the jaw and ran for it. "GET BACK HERE!!" the guard yelled and ran after Observer. It lasted for ten minutes before the guard followed Observer into a crowd of ponies. He randomly grabbed a pony from the crowd and said "Have you seen anypony with a white coat, a green mane and tail, and an eye for a cutie mark?"

The pony shook his head, and the guard left and grabbed another pony, asking him the same thing. The first pony the guard grabbed walked away from the crowd and into a back alley. He looked around to ensure no one was around to see him. When he had confirmed that no body was looking, he sighed in relief, and, in a flash of green flame, the random pony had become Observer. The changeling smiled to himself, knowing that guards were too stupid to consider anything but a pony unless all the evidence said otherwise. He set back off towards his original destination, the destination being Canterlot castle. In another flash of green flame, he became a lunar guard, knowing that no one would expect a lunar guard to be a changeling.

Canterlot castle; outside the personal chambers of Princess Luna; Five minutes later

Lone was standing at attention with Nightengale when a third lunar guard walked up to him and saluted. "Lone, I think Pranksters 'reinforcements' just arrived on Equis, or are at least close to it. What should we do?" Observer asked.

Lone and Nightengale looked at each other, worry on their faces. Lone then looked at Observer, as he knew it was Observer, because he had personally tasked him with looking over Celestia, knowing a changeling could do wonders in espionage, and said "Right now, we pretend like we don't know. Most likely, the brotherhoods forces will find out about this, and we can't give any indication that we do. That said, we will take precautions." He then looked directly at Observer and said, "Get a message out to the others here in Canterlot, as well as everyone in location bravo as to this. I want everyone aware of what's going on." He then turned to Nightengale and told him, "Nightengale, go alert the others in the guard yourself and tell them we're in threat condition orange, and any and all members of lone team in the guard are to be at full alert. I will personally tell Scarab, Raptor, Hermit, and the others tomorrow via message about this."

Both Nightengale and Observer nodded before Observer went to let everyone in Canterlot that knew of Lone team that wasn't in the guard about this, and to be ready for combat. Bloody combat that often results in deaths.

Five minutes passed before Lone and Nightengale heard something behind them. They turned and looked to see the doors to Princess Luna's bedchambers open and Luna herself walk out. They both saluted as she looked to the both of them. "Your Highness," Lone said, Luna having made a point within the Lunar guard shortly after the incident in ponyville a few years ago on nightmare night that her guards were not to bow to her, but rather salute, something that had been quickly integrated into new recruits as they still had the habit of bowing to royalty.

As soon as Lone saw her, he felt something in his chest he had never felt before, except when he had been in Luna's room earlier to heal her. He truly didn't know what he was feeling, only that it came around when ever he saw her, whether she be asleep or awake.

"Though we are happy to see two of our own guards, we must ask: why art thou here instead of Princess Twilight Sparkle?" Luna said in her trademark speech, which for some reason Lone found bucking adorable.

Nightengale answered her. "Ma'am, your sister tasked us with guarding you this week. She did so only an hour ago. She was hoping seeing two Lunar guard would help to cheer you up."

Luna chuckled at this. "Aye, that does indeed sound like our sister. Now, pray tell, what are your names. And also, at ease."

Both Lone and Nightengale relaxed. "Ma'am, I'm Private first class Nightengale."

Lone followed. "Ma'am, I'm Lieutenant Lone Shadow." Wait, did I just give my actual name. Buck, Lone thought to himself. "Though evrypony calls me Darkness Strider, though I'm not certain why." Nice save, moron.

Luna raised an eyebrow at his name. "Thou hast an. . . interesting name. Not many are named for a legend these days, let alone one in that regard," she said.

"Well, my parents thought I was special, more so as I grew older. Not certain why, though." This wasn't exactly a lie, more the partial truth.

"Well, regardless, do either of you know the location of our sister?"

Nightengale spoke up. "How about running towards us, looking like a happy cannonball aimed for the Princess," he said in a deadpan tone.

Both Luna and Lone ducked just as a white bullet came over their heads. "Sweet you, Luna, are you sure your sister can't do a sonic rainboom," Lone said, smiling as he said so. This got a chuckle from Luna, which made Lone feel happy all of a sudden. As the both of them were getting up, she said, "We are reasonably certain that I not the case, though I once thought the same of her being able to devour an entire cake in less than an hour, and I mean those large cakes, so that is in the air at the moment." Both of them laughed at this. That is before Luna was tackled by six more bullets, each a different color.

"PRINCESS!!" the element bearers shouted, happiness in their voices. Celestia than walked up, a few scuffs from her crash landing a few seconds ago. There were tears of happiness in her eyes, as she assumed that Luna, who was always sad but hiding it, was truly happy for once since this whole thing started, and she hoped that this meant it was over for good.

She then looked towards the two Lunar guards and said to them, "You both have my thanks for helping to cheer my sister up, but I am afraid I have another request for you two."

"What is it, your Highness?" Lone asked.

"Have you heard anything about meteors heading towards Equis?"

"No, ma'am. Why?"

"Because they may have been carrying intelligent life. What I am asking you to do is to take a contingent of guards trained in the use of sleep spells and attempt to make peaceful contact. The trajectories of the smaller debris of what may have been their ships landed somewhere within the everfree. If there is any indication of hostility, whether to you or any native wildlife, with the last being if there was no way to get out of it otherwise, I want you and the guards you take with you to knock them out and bring them here, where they will be put in the dungeons so I can interrogate them as to their reason being here on Equis." She paused, looking at her sister and the elements, who were talking about their adventures over the past month. She then looked back towards the two guards.

"You do not have to accept this task if you don't want to."

Nightengale responded for the both of them by saying, "We would be honored to take the mission, your Highness.

Everfree forest clearing; One hour, thirty minutes later

The op had been a success. The first group the guards had encountered went down with only threr having been missed in the first volley. Lone had made sure the guards were not only trained in sleep spells, but actually had a good amount of accuracy. The second group of aliens had been found twenty five minutes later. The reason why the task force, which consisted of five Lunar and Solar guards, hadn't tried to establish contact with them is because one of the guards had over reacted to them killing two hundred timberwolves and fired off a shot, which hit one of the armored aliens in the back. This group had put up more of a fight, wounding one of the guards who had come.

Most of the team was secretly a part of lone team, and knew how to handle threats, which is why only one guard, who wasn't a part of lone team, had been wounded. Everypony was in the process of getting the second group ready for transport back to Canterlot, the first having been carried away via pegasai chariot earlier.

Lone was overseeing the preparation when Iron Shield, a member of the Solar guard and lone team, walked up to him with Nightengale by his side.

"Lone, you need to see what me and Nightengale found," Iron said, his face blank, but his voice had urgency in it.

"Right," Lone said, getting behind the two.

Iron was a stallion of average height, his coat, instead of the usual Solar guard white, was iron in color, while his mane and tail were the color of rust, his cutie mark, whenever one could see it, was a shield, his eyes the same color as his mane.

The three walked for ten minutes before they got to their destination. What they saw was what looked to be an arsenal of weapons. "Well, whatever we're supposed to go against, Lone, we'll apparently need a lot of weapons, few, if any, being of Equis origin."

"You think, Iron," Lone said, more a statement than question.

"Oh, shut up, Lone," Iron replied

"Hey, Lone," Nightengale spoke up. "Think we should try to integrate some of this tech into our gear? Never know when this stuff might come in handy."

Lone thought this over for a second. Then said, "Yeah. Get as many invisible as you can. The smaller weapons only. Drop a few off at party animals house on the way back. That mare can work miracles with tech. Bring the rest back to Canterlot with us. If I'm right about the brotherhood's next move, we're going to need these things in the coming weeks."

Both Iron Shield and Nightengale nodded, placing an invisibility spell on a quarter of the smaller weapons, half of which were to be brought to Canterlot, the other half to be left with agent party animal for modification of them to be able to be wielded by non-unicorns, or anything that didn't have anything equivalent to fingers.

It took a minute for the weapons to be cloaked. After this, the three walked back to the clearing, where pegasai chariots were waiting for them. "You guys go on ahead without us," Lone said. "We need to see what the residents of ponyville heard about this." He wasn't lying. They were going to see what the residents of ponyville had heard, but also to spread word of this among the lone team agents in ponyville as well.

The guards leaving saluted and left on the chariots. Once they were gone, the three remaining guards made their way to ponyville.

Ponyville; ten minutes later

The look the three guards had gotten from the residents was anything but awe, fear, respect, or whatever usual emotions came from normal ponies seeing guards. No, the emotion on their faces was hate, anger, and whatever synonyms you could think of for those two words. "Be on your guard, guys. I don't like this," Lone said, his eyes scanning the crowds that appeared before them.

The three of them walked to a two story house that really wasn't that different looking from other houses in the town. Lone walked up to the door and knocked on it in a pattern.

Knock-knock. . . knock,knock

The door was almost immediately opened, the pony who opened it staying out of sight but saying, "Get in here, guys. They've been acing like this since those meteors came down, or are those Pranksters reinforcements that made all that noise?"

Before they answered, they walked into the house. When they were all inside, Party animal, better known as Vinyl Scratch, or DJ-PON 3 to use her stage name, closed the door and locked it, which ensured that no angry pony would be able to get in easily.

Nightengale responded by saying, "Yeah, but the Princess gave us an order that if they showed even the slightest hostility to sentient beings, we were to knock them out and take them to Canterlot. The rest of our group is en-route to Canterlot now, but we haave a new objective we wanted to give you personally.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "And what might that be, Night?" she asked, using his nickname, not his codename.

Iron, at Nightengales signal, uncloaked the weapons he had been carrying. "We need you to work on these. Modify them so they can be used by pegasai and earth ponies, maybe even use your creativity to convert these and a few of your own tech into covert weapon platforms."

Vinyl simply stared slack-jawed at this. Sure, she was lone teams best tech, but she had never been given this kind of job before. But she knew that since it came right from Lone, it was important.

She nodded and said, "I'll do it."

Iron nodded. "Right. We also need you to spread word to the others here about this."

"Got it. You guys may want to teleport out of here," Vinyl said. "The others outside look like they're ready to tear you apart."

Lone replied, "We were going to do that anyway. Still need to make sure everyone in Canterlot knows about this.

Vinyl nodded. "Right See you guys later. Tell Classic I said 'hi', by the way, would ya?"

Still trying to get yourself a mare friend, Vinyl? Can't say I'm surprised," Nightengale said. "Can say I'm surprised you're still after her, though."

"Buck you," Vinyl said in a friendly, joking tone. "See you guys later."

"You too, Vinyl," Lone said, grinning, before he, Nightengale, and Iron teleported to Canterlot in a flash of light.

Canterlot castle; twenty minutes later

Celestia had been at the landing zone with Luna and the Elements to see if the aliens were conscience or not. When the chariots landed, they saw that the aliens were un conscience and one of the guards were injured. They were not surprised, as Darkness Strider had teleported into the throne room and told them of the casualty, but withholding if all of the aliens were awake or not. Twilight was the first to speak up.

"Are those humans?" she asked, which got an eyebrow raise from Celestia.

"Twilight, I thought you said that they lived on the other side of the portal, and that they didn't wear what appeared to be armor?"

"I did, but that was an entirely different universe, so there might be cultural differences between the world my canterlot high friends are a part of and the world these come from," Twilight said.

"Perhaps," Celestia started, "you can ask them tomorrow after I am done interrogating them as to their purpose here."

Twilight wasn't the only one who thought they looked familiar, though. The last part of Luna's dream from six months earlier coming back to her. No longer was it just her and her sister she could clearly see, but also Twilight and her friends, as well as these beings, leaving only three in shadow, one of the other ones to have been cleared revealing Nightengale. She had no Idea what this meant, and knew she would not find out any time soon, so she dismissed herself for sleep, her sleep schedule having been aligned with everypony else's due to her nightmares, and hoped they would give her answers.

Secrets revealed Pt1- The war revealed

A week had passed since the aliens had arrived on Equis, and just about all of them were enjoying themselves. Daily, a different group always went after Blueblood, just because of how annoying he was. "He's more annoying than an Unggoy that's terrified for their lives, and nowhere near as comedic," Hades remarked after the first day.

Lone was with Prince and Scarab, making sure that the civilians in their town were ready for evacuation. While he was gone, Nightengale was in charge of the Canterlot and Ponyville branches of lone team, and the reports from Vinyl weren't good.

The weapon modifications had been completed on schedule, but there was a lot of unrest and anger there, most of it directed towards the princesses, and reports from the crystal empire were only slightly better. In fact, there were only a few places that were the way they were a month ago, one being Canterlot. If you didn't count the aliens, that is. The worst part. Celestia was considering allowing Twilight and one of the aliens to stay Ponyville for a while. Why was currently beyond Nightengale, probably to introduce one of the aliens to a less snooty populace. Couldn't blame her. At least she was keeping the others here, just in case Luna went under again.

Nightengale was getting a message to Vinyl, Robin (Codenamed: Archer), and the newest member of the Ponyville branch, Blue Thunder (Codenamed: Skyshock) that told the three to make sure that the two would be okay while they were there, and to evacuate them to Canterlot if something happened that neither of them had caused.

Party animal,

Sun riser is considering sending Mage and one of the aliens, I'm not sure which, to Location Bravo, and I want you and the others to protect them. If something happens that involves the brotherhood, get them here asap, and get here with them.

Rook

Nightengale sent this to Vinyl using a spell similar to the dragon fire used by Twilight's assistant. All unicorns of lone team learned the spell so they could communicate with branches, though that was only needed when the changeling of each branch, as every branch had at least one, couldn't. In the case of the Ponyville branch's changeling, who lived with Vinyl as a roommate/pet and was called Wubsy, it's that he was having a hangover from the previous night in Ponyville at a party Vinyl had hosted.

Next time I'm able, I've got to go to one of Vinyl's parties. Haven't been to one since I got here, which is to say six years, Nightengale thought to himself as he walked out of his room. It was close to the time of day that Blueblood was being chased, and they always went past his room, so he decided he would join in the fun.

He was in the hallway connecting the barracks to the castle for thirty minutes before he heard Ken yell, "GET BACK HERE, ASSHOLE."

As Blueblood came around the corner, with Ken, Zaeed, Miranda, Lily, and (unsurprisingly) Rarity just behind him.

Just before Blueblood passed Nightengale, he activated his portal magic, one end being in front of Bluebood, the other pointing toward the wall at the end of the hall. As Blueblood passed through, Nightengale could hear him hit the wall with a smack. "Eyes ahead at all times, moron," Nightengale said. He then got up and stopped his spell. He waited for the others to reach him before he moved to where Blueblood was lying.

Blueblood had just enough mental facilities left to look at Nightengale and say, "Peasant," before he passed out.

Ken looked toward Nightengale and said, "Thanks for the help, Night." Even though he and Lone had been assigned to Luna for a week, which had passed, they were often still with either her or the guests, and had gotten to know all of them.

"You kidding, Ken," Nightengale said, his eyebrow raised. "Anypony would have done that if they could have."

"Right," Ken said. "Well, might as well get him to his room and tape him up so we don't have to deal with him the rest of the day."

Just as they started to grab Blueblood, Ken asked Nightengale, "Want to join us for lunch, Night? Tali is apparently loving human food."

Just then, before Nightengale could answer, Time froze and Discord appeared.

"Just in case you all are wondering, I fixed Tali's and Garrus' biology so they could eat human food with out dying, not to mention erased the others memories of them meeting me."

Discord, you mind getting the story going again?

"Oh, right. Sorry, Lone."

snap

Just before Nightengale could answer, Steel spear, a normal Lunar guard, walked around the corner and said, "Private, Princess Twilight wishes to see you."

Nightengle looked towards Steel and said, "Yes sir." He then looked toward the others. "Sorry guys."

"No problem, Nightengale," Miranda said.

Nightengale left the barracks and headed towards the area of the castle where the Elements were staying, a walk that took ten minutes at his usual pace.

When he arrived at Twilight's door, he knocked. He waited for a few seconds before he heard Twilight say, "Come in."

He opened the door and was surprised to see Celestia and John in the room as well. "You requested me, your Highness?" he said, bowing.

It was Celestia who answered by saying, "It was actually me private. I imagine you're wondering why you're here."

"A little, princess," Nightengale responded

"Well," Celestia said, "There have been reports of unrest around Ponyville, and even though John is going with Twilight, I was hoping that you could go to ensure everything is alright."

"Of course, your Highness," Nightengale said, bowing still.

Celestia smiled. "Good. The three of you will be on the next train to ponyville, which leaves in an hour. I hope that you have an educational time there, John."

John, who was in his armor, said, "I will, Ma'am."

Celestia chuckled at this before saying, "How many times must I tell you that you don't have to call me anything but Celestia." When he didn't respond, Celestia simply shook her head and moved to leave the room.

Well, it would seem she knows something's going on, just not what. Hopefully, it will stay that way, Nightengale thought to himself.

Ponyville; meanwhile

For Vinyl it was a good week. All of the weapon modifications that were possible had been completed. She had gotten a message from Nightengale earlier telling her about what Celestia was planning. Right now, she was in what counted as the briefing room for the ponyville branch of Lone team.

"Well, you guys know what this means, right?" Blue thunder, a Pegasus mare with a sky blue coat and cloud white tail and mane with storm cloud gray eyes and a thunderbolt as her cutie mark, said. "It means that the brotherhood's making a move. We were lucky Raptor 'abducted' fire breather before the shit got to this level, or this could be a lot worse," she said, using air quotes around, "abducted."

"Agreed," Robin, a tan coated stallion with messy jet black hair and a piece of his left ear missing, with the tips of his mane and tail being a dark grey with a bow and arrow as his cutie mark, said. He always wore goggles that Vinyl had made for him, so he could almost always hit his target with relative ease. "With the drastic change in most ponies attitudes here towards the princesses, we're lucky nopony has raided the castle, just to make an example, though there's no telling how long that'll last."

Vinyl nodded her head in agreement. "True, though I think we can all agree that some ponies are still in their right mind, excluding ourselves, of course, is weird. Most or all of the citizens in a town where those guys set up shop are mind controlled early on. And we all know that only members lone team, those with strong mental defenses, or changelings remain themselves." Vinyl looked around the table while saying, "We're the only memebers of lone team here, and I doubt that they all have the mental defenses to resist the brotherhood's control, which leaves only one explanation." She paused here. "Most, or all, of them are changelings."

"She's not wrong, guys," Wubsy, a changeling with red eyes, but otherwise looked like a normal changeling, said. "I can smell other changelings with ease, and a few residents that have been here for years, as well as some new ones, smell exactly like changelings, or at least have a bit of that smell coming off of them."

"Well, why didn't you say something earlier?" Thunder asked.

Wubsy looked at her and said, "You know as well as me about our truce with the hive I came from, and all of them have that smell. And we both know what would happen if we attacked them with out reason. The hive would declare open war on Equestria, just to get to us, and no side wants that. You should know. You were with Lone a few weeks ago at the renewal of the truce."

"Damn you," she mumbled as she averted her gaze.

Before Wubsy could respond, a flash of green fire erupted from just in front of Vinyl. When the flames died down, she saw it was a scroll. She grasped it in her magic and read it.

Party animal

Change of plans. It looks like I'm coming with Mage as well. The alien coming with us is one of the armored humans. Sun riser knows something's going on in your area, but not what exactly, and we need to keep it that way if possible. I'll see you guys in a few hours.

Rook

"Well, what's it say?" Thunder asked impatiently.

"Looks like Rooks coming here with the other two VIPs," Vinyl said. "Archer, I want you to meet him at the station when it arrives. Tell him that the weapon modifications are complete in a way that Mage won't be curious."

"Right."

Ponyville train station; three hours later

Twilight was a little concerned at how John was going to act in Ponyville. After all, Ponville did have a history of xenophobia. At least with Zecora, it was somepony who was from the same planet. In fact, the only pony she could think of in Ponyville who would be excited about aliens was Lyra.

Oh. My. Celestia. ALIENS!!

Twilight could definitely see that happening when Lyra found out.

"So, you know anyplace where I can stay while we're there, Twilight?" John asked.

She looked at John, who had all of his armor on, including his helmet, and said, "Sure. My castle has extra rooms." John didn't respond after that. She was going to find out one way or another. Fortunately, she knew a spell that would allow her to look at someponie's, or someone's, as the case may be, memories while they were asleep without waking them up. "Doesn't like to talk much," Nightengale said. "Just like I was a few years ago." He smiled at this, obviously remembering something from his past.

The train stopped a minute after. The group of three got up and walked to the door. They were the only three on the train, as this was Celestia's personal train. John and Nightengale were the only beings aboard who had combat training. The door opened and the three stepped outside. "Well, come on you two. We should get you two introduced."

They started walking and had just left the station proper when Nightengale saw Robin. "I'll meet you guys there. I forgot something on the train," he said.

"Okay, Nightengale. We'll see you later," Twilight said cheerfully.

Nightengale watched the two leave before heading over to Robin. "Archer," he said, nodding his head in greeting.

Robin did the same. "Rook."

"So, what's going on?"

Robin looked around to make sure no one was in the area before saying, "Follow me. The streets aren't safe for somepony in guard armor."

"Right."

The two started walking toward where Vinyl lived. "The projects done, Party animal's just waiting for a chance to send a few of them to Canterlot."

"Right," Nightengale said, noticing a few ponies looked at him with hatred in their eyes. "What about the civilians?"

"That's just it. About twenty-five percent of the town, not including us, aren't acting like the others." He looked to Nightengale before saying, "We have reason to believe that they're changelings from the hive."

"Right. Have you tried to make contact with any of them?"

"No. Can't risk it with the way the rest of the town's acting."

By now, the two had attracted a bit of a group following them, though these ponies didn't look at them with hatred. "Are any of those ponies behind us?" Nightengale whispered in a volume only he and Robin could hear.

"Yeah. Just about ten percent of that twenty-five are behind us," Robin answered in the same whisper. "The others are at the end of the street. If they don't leave us alone, then we'll have just reason to hurt 'em"

Just before the two had reached the end of the street, one of the ponies, who matched the description of the pony Cherilee said, "Can you two stop for a second so we can talk to you?"

"Get the others and wait on the rooftops. If you see me getting ready to roll to the left, knock them out," Nightengale whispered to Robin, who nodded and ran to the end of the street. Nightengale turned around to face the small mob of ten ponies. "What do you want?"

"We want to know what you're doing here," the pony who looked like Lyra said.

"I'm here with Princess Twilight, helping to show a foreign dignitary around," Nightengale said calmly. Ten ponies, five of whom are stallions, but they don't look muscular. Take out the unicorns first, then the pegasai. Finally, the earth ponies, Nightengale thought to himself.

"We know that, but what are you doing here," Cheerilee growled.

"I just told you," Nightengale responded, his eyes narrowing.

"What you are doing here, but not what he's doing here," Lyra said, pointing exactly where Wubsy was, which was on the rooftop to Nightengale's right.

How the tarturus, Nightengale thought, narrowing his eyes further. "How do you know he's there?"

At this, all of the ponies were engulfed in multicolored flames. When they died down, Nightengale was not exactly surprised to see changelings where the ponies were. What he was surprised by, though, was that their chitin matched their mane colors. The changeling that had been the pony Ditzy Doo, which everyone called Derpy, said, "Changelings can sense other changelings, and we've known he's been here for years."

Lyra added, "He's from Chrysalis' hive. Our hive is against them at all turns. Tell him to go back and to tell Chrysalis to let Ponyville go."

"He is from Chrysalis's hive, or at least he was, but he renounced them four years ago," Nightengale said. "Now, unless you all want to lose a limb, I suggest you leave. And don't think I'm bluffing. I'm not a part of the guard, and, unlike them, I'm not afraid to kill you if I have to."

The ten changelings and one pony looked at one another, waiting for the other to give up. It was like this before Cheerilee said, "Come on guys. He's not worth it." The ten changelings turned back to their pony forms, then turned around and left.

Once they had left, Nightengale said, "Vinyl, get the train prepped in case something happens. Wubsy, stay in it at all times. Don't want to risk them going after you. I'm heading to the castle."

Twilight's castle; That night

Twilight was sneaking through her castle, which was ironic for obvious reasons, to get to John's room without him knowing. It took her ten minutes to get there. She knew that everyone was in their rooms, even Nightengale, who had arrived at the castle ten minutes after her and John. When she made it to John's room, she could have sworn she heard John in there, as well as someone else.

Youtube Video

When the recording, as Twilight was certain that's what it was, was over she could have sworn she heard John say, "Goodbye, Cortana."

She didn't know who Cortana was, but Twilight could tell she was someone John had cared for, before her death and after it, as Twilight was certain that the recording was that of her death. She waited outside of John's room for what felt like hours before she heard him sleeping.

Ever so slowly, she opened the door and crept to John's bed, her horn aglow, but only faintly, so he would not awaken. When she arrived at the foot of his bed, she waited for him to turn towards her. This wait seemed to go on for hours. When he finally turned, she saw his face for the first time.

(What follows, like his biological age in chapter one, is what I decided to go with. I will stick to the lore as much as possible.)

He appeared to have a pale face, almost as white as Celestia's coat, only it looked like it was dry clay. On his face were many freckles. His hair was short and brown. For some reason, Twilight thought he looked younger than the age he had given all of them a week earlier.

She put these thoughts aside though, as she would need as clear a head as possible for the spell to work. She put her horn against his forehead, and John's memories flooded into her.

What she saw nearly made her lose her sanity.

The first memory to come to her was John's first mission as a Spartan, which was to capture a rebel leader. She felt the pain he felt as a bullet enter him and pinged off his ribs. The next memory was that of his first engagement with the covenant. She saw him and two other Spartans board a covenant ship and saw them make their way to what she assumed was the power core, and she felt his sadness as he and one of the other Spartans had to leave their friend, Sam, behind on the doomed ship. The next was him and a few other Spartans attacking a rebel base to get nukes. This was the only memory that didn't elicit any feeling other than worry when he was captured, and horror at how easily they could kill their own species so close to them. The next memory was when he and a team of marines boarded a covenant capitol ship, and felt the pain of an elite energy sword slicing into his arm, as well as his horror when he faced the flood on Delta halo and earth. But what struck her the most was his memories of the Didact. She saw every thing on Requiem, Ivanoff station, and the Didact's ship, as well as what happened over the three days after he had saved earth, including the Didact's death on Gamma halo. But of those memories, what struck her the deepest were his memories of Cortana.

Twilight could tell from his memories that she was the only thing he had cared about on par with the other Spartan-IIs, if not more. But this also allowed her to know John on a more personal basis, and know that, ever since Cortana's death, he had become more and more human than machine. She felt as if she knew every aspect of him, and she felt sorry for him, that he had to live through all of that, and wondered how he had remained sane.

She left his room shortly after, returning to her room. As she got into her bed, she felt something that wouldn't go away, no matter how much she wanted it to. She knew what it was, as she had this feeling when she had first met Flash Sentry in the human world version of Equis. This feeling (pause for a second) was love.

The next day

It was a seemingly peaceful day in Ponyville. But that illusion was about to be shattered. On the outskirts of the town, there stood three ponies in dark cloaks. There was one of each pony race in this group.

The earth pony of the group walked up to the Pegasus, the leader of the group, and asked, "Is it time to move against lone team and those it protects?"

The Pegasus responded by saying, "Yes, brother. We will cleanse what filth remains in this town so that the true ruler of Equis may rise and take his rightful place." He then motioned to the unicorn of the group, who then sent telepathic messages to their allies in Ponyville to begin the attack, and kill those who fought back. He nodded when it was done.

"Excellent," the Pegasus said. "We will ensure those that would impede the rise of Plasma, he who is the rightful ruler of Equis, are cleansed from this planet, so that we, the brotherhood of Plasma, may walk his path. FOR PLASMA!!"

"FOR PLASMA!!" his two comrades yelled in unison, beside him.

Twilight's castle; meanwhile

John was having a good day so far. Then again, if you eat military meals on a daily basis, even a plain salad, which John was having, tasted like a four or five star restaurant, depending on who you asked. One thing he did notice, though, is that Twilight kept looking at him and turning away when he looked at her and often jumped when he spoke to her.

"Got another bowl if you guys want anymore," Nightengale yelled from the nearby kitchen. Due to Twilight's assistant being absent, which was something Twilight was and, as far as he can tell, still worried about, Nightengale had made their breakfast.

"No thanks, Nightengale," Twilight responded. He was the only guard to not add to add any sort of title to Twilight's name and treat her like a normal Pony, which immediately made him one of her favorite guards, the only one beating him being her brother, in fact.

Just as he came into the dining room to eat, a knock was heard on the door, and a voice said, "Princess, we need your help with something."

Twilight grumbled at this and said, "What do you need help with?"

As soon as the last syllable left her mouth, a pop was heard at the center of the table. The three looked there and saw ten unicorns with wickedly sharp swords in the grasp of their blood red magic. "Simple. Killing you."

Two things happened at once. The first was Twilight getting out of her chair and running out of the room, only to be caught by one of the unicorns magic. The second was Nightengale rushing forward, his Lunar guard armor changing in color scheme to resemble that of Ken's, and creating a black and gray ethereal blade and cutting off the head of one of the assailants and bucking another in his throat, snapping his neck and killing him instantly.

The leader of the group, who wore a dark cloak, spoke, his anger in his voice. "You. I should have known Lone Shadow would have you here, watching over the newly coroneted princess." He then grunted. "No matter. You will simply die sooner." He then told his comrades, while pointing his sword at Nightengale, who stared at him with cold determination in his eyes, not fear, "Kill him. Shadow Specter wants all of lone team purged from this planet. I will deal with the princess and the alien."

The remaining seven attackers all charged at Nightengale, who simply smirked. He summoned another ethereal blade and cut off the heads of the first two to reach him, blood fountaining out of their necks and all over Nightengale and his surroundings. The next one was already in the process of stopping, but still came into the range of Nightengales blades, and had his heart stabbed through. He fell to the ground, lifeless, a pool of blood spreading out from the corpse. The other four had been able to stop just in time and bring their weapons to bear. Nightengale's smile did not diminish. What he did next surprised everything sentient in the room.

He whistled.

A second later, four arrows burst through the window, and each one hit one of the attackers in either their neck or head, killing them instantly.

Before the bodies had even hit the ground, three other ponies in the same armor as Nightengale, two of which fitting a mare's figure, came in. One was a sky blue Pegasus, one was a white unicorn, who levitated herself and a tan earth pony in the room. Before the last assailant could react, he was surrounded on four sides.

"I suggest," Robin said, stringing another arrow and aiming it at the unicorn, "that you let her go before I loose this arrow into your skull."

Whether it was because he had lost all of his mind to panic or the wish to live, the unicorn dropped Twilight. "Now run," Nightengale told him, and the unicorn ran out of the castle almost as fast as a sonic rainboom.

The room was silent for a minute before Twilight spoke up, looking at the dead bodies. "Y-y-you killed them. In cold blood." She then looked to Nightengale, anger in her eyes. "WHY!? YOU COULD HAVE JUST AS EASILY MADE THEM SURRENDER!"

Nighengale looked at Twilight and said, his voice cold, "No, we couldn't have. They would rather have died then surrender to us. They would have killed you if we hadn't been here to stop them."

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Thunder said, "If you want to talk about this, we can do it on the way to Canterlot."

"Nightengale nodded. "Agreed. Vinyl, what's the status of the train?"

"Ready and waiting."

Twilight's face showed the shock and confusion that were on her mind. "Wait. Vinyl, your with these murderers?"

Vinyl shook her head, as if in pity for Twilight. "We aren't murderers, Twilight," she said, "we're protectors."

"Tell that to their families!"

It was John who prevented them from having to knock Twilight out by saying, "Twilight, I think that it would at least be a good idea to get back and let the others know about what just happened."

She calmed down a little, but she was still angry at the others for killing. "Okay," she said grudgingly. "But we will talk about this."

Nightengale looked to her and said, "Never said we wouldn't." He then looked to the others. "Okay people. We need to get to the train station and then exfill to Canterlot. I'll lead the way. We take up positions to protect Twilight from any further Brotherhood assassins and make sure she gets to the train. Only kill members of the Brotherhood, injure anypony else. Got it?"

Thunder, Vinyl, and Robin nodded.

"What about me?" John asked.

"Right," Vinyl said. She used her magic to de-cloak an MA37 assault rifle (Reach) and gave it to John. "Nightengale and a few others gave me a few weapons to modify. This is one I couldn't modify." She then lifted a few spare magazines from her armor and gave them to John as well. "Same rules apply, though. The Brotherhood will be wearing all dark cloaks."

"Okay people, that's enough chatter. Let's move," Nightengale said, and the group of six began heading towards the train station.

Canterlot; meanwhile

"Ken, don't you think we would have heard something about him if he was here?" Lily asked, referring to an old enemy their benefactor mentioned on the Spear.

"I don't know, Lily. It's possible that he's underground here. What do you think, Maruco?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry guys." It was obvious that Maruco was distracted over something, which could only have meant one thing.

"You're thinking about AJ again, aren't you?" Lily said, more a statement than a question.

Maruco sighed before saying, "Yeah. I know this'll sound crazy, but Applejack reminds me so much of her, even their accents are the same, not to mention the Stetson hat. You guys know I made Honest AJ in memorial to her, using her favorite colors, even coming up with a catchphrase for when I used explosive rounds, to remind me of her. Applejack is all of those. She is literally AJ's favorite colors, and she weilds that Element of honesty, whatever the hell that means. Sometimes, I wonder why I wasn't killed by the insurrectionists, but she was. Hell, I became a Spartan for her, but I still feel like she wouldn't be happy with me."

"Might be because you still haven't moved on entirely," Ken said. "I was there when you two promised that, should one of you die, the other would remember, but still move on. Dude, you literally only do her favorite activities on the anniversary of her death and when you guys started dating. I highly doubt that's what she had in mind during that conversation.

This didn't cheer him up at all, his friends, who had no idea what AJ had meant to him, trying to tell him what she would have wanted. They were right, but he would never admit it, not in front of them. So he did what he always did when this happened. That's to say, think of what he would do to whoever had killed AJ. More often than not, it involved a painful death.

He was in the middle of thinking said thoughts when Lily said, "OH my god. Guys, look." Both Maruco and Ken looked out the window she was pointing and saw smoke coming up from what they assumed was Ponyville.

"What the hell is going on there?" Ken asked no one in particular.

"We need to let Celestia and Luna know," Maruco said.

"Guys. Look down at the streets," Ken said, clenching his fists as if he was getting ready to fight.

Both of them looked down and saw what was essentially a riot taking place. "What the hell?" Maruco said. "I thought Celestia and Luna said that everyone in Canterlot was happy."

"So did I, Maruco," Lily said. "So did I."

"Guys, look at the banner their holding," Ken said.

"Ken how the hell do you think- Damn it," Maruco said as he saw the banner. On it was an atom with a blue nucleus with black electrons surrounding it, a red "X" over it. Maruco looked at the others. "You guys don't think this is real, right. There's no way it can be."

"Unfortunately," Ken said, "this is real." He looked at his comrades, determination on all their faces. "Plasma is here."

Ponyville

Nightengale and the others had been able to make it halfway to the train station before they were stopped by more Brotherhood assassins.

They were moving through the less populated streets so they could move at top speed when they encountered thirty assassins. "Damn it," Nightengale said. He knew that all of them taking out thirty of the Brotherhood's assassins without at least one of them being killed was close to impossible, even for them, as did Vinyl, Robin, and Thunder. This wouldn't stop them from fighting, though. As the old lone team motto says, "A true protector's willing to give their lives."

He looked at his pony comrades, and they all nodded, knowing that it was unlikely they would all be walking away. It was Robin who said, "Cowards die many times, but the brave die but once."

"Ooh-bucking-rah to that," Thunder said.

Before Nightengale could tell John to take Twilight to the train station, a buzzing could be heard in the air from behind them. When Nightengale looked, he was surprised to see the changelings from yesterday, as well as the others like them here, flying up, but he was even more surprised when they landed between him and the others and the assassins. "What are you doing here? I assumed that you would be making sure your queen was safe."

Cheerilee was the one who said, "She insisted that we make sure you get to your destination. She said that as long as our hive stands, there will be those to protect the princesses."

Nightengale nodded, saying, "Right. We're heading to the train station so we can get to Canterlot. Think you guys can get us there?"

"Sure," Derpy said.

"Right." Nightengale moved in front of the others and pointed one of his blades to the assassins. "CHARGE!!"

At this, the unlikely group charged the assassin line, which dissolved almost immediately from the force of the group reaching them, all of the assassins dying as either blades found their skin or lethal shots of magic found their targets. They got through the line with out taking causalities, and they arrived at the train station, but one thing Nightengale noticed is that Twilight hadn't been surprised by the changelings.

When they got to the train station, they saw an almost all black train designed for speed and endurance by having its armor in an organic, flowing fashion, not unlike a covenant ship.

"Right," Nightengale said. "John, Twilight, Vinyl, Robin, Thunder, get in the rearmost compartment while I talk with Cheerilee." The other members of lone team nodded, as did John, and they, along with Twilight headed towards the caboose while Nightengale moved to where Cherrilee was.

"What do you want?" she asked bitterly when she saw Nightengale walking up.

"I just want to know if you and the others are coming to Canterlot with us. We have more than enough room in the train for all of you," Nightengale said calmly.

"You want us to come with you to Canterlot. Why? We're changelings, nopony wants us to be around, or even alive. So, why do you?" Cheerilee asked, both sorrow and anger in her voice.

"Because," Nightengale stated, "I work with changelings on a daily basis. Some of my closest friends are changelings. And even disregarding that, you and the others helped us today when you could have just as easily helped the others. To me, that's enough to show that you're an ally. So," he said, holding out a hoof to shake, "you coming?

Cheerilee thought this over. He didn't use many facts, but those he did use were true, regarding her and the others at least. "Fine," she said, "but we won't take our orders from you."

"I didn't expect you to. If you want, you can ride with me and the others," said, gesturing towards the caboose. He began walking there. He hadn't taken three steps when Cheerilee decided to follow him.

Canterlot train station; four hours later

Observer and Messenger were waiting for Nightengale and the others to arrive. They had gotten a message from Wubsy four hours ago that they were evacuating from Ponyville, along with about a hundred changelings that had been hiding there for a few years, and from a hive that lone team hadn't known about until now. Not that it was that safe in Canterlot now.

The civilians had quickly become like those in other cities, only more aggressive, probably due to two princesses living here. Lone had returned two hours ago, and he was mobilizing all of lone team for offensive action against the Brotherhood. Fortunately, no assassins had arrived yet to try to kill Celestia or Luna, but it was only a matter of time until that happened.

The odd thing. Ken, Lily, and Maruco had volunteered to escort Twilight and the others to the castle, saying that the guard couldn't handle a threat this size, almost as if they knew what the Brotherhood was capable of and willing to do. Celestia had agreed, sending them to accompany Observer and Messenger, under the guise of Solar guards, to get Twilight, Nightengale, and John to the castle.

They had been waiting at the station for an hour, the Spartans having been given one of the weapons they had when they made planet fall, when they heard the screech of train wheels braking. They all turned and saw what passed as a standard lone train rolling into the station. The doors on the caboose were the first to open, and out walked everyone that had been in there.

Nightengale, wearing lone team standard armor, walked up to them and said, "Messenger, Observer, good to see you. We got about a hundred total friendly changelings with us. The Brotherhood's stepping things up."

"Yeah, we know," Messenger said. "Tell them it's clear to come out, but it's going to get damn ugly the closer we get to the castle."

"Right." Nightengale then looked towards Cheerilee and said, "Tell the others to come out Cheerilee. We're going to be making a run for the castle."

Ken walked up then and said, "Nightengale, do you have any idea who these guys are? The guard won't be able to put this down."

"Well," Observer said, changing back into his changeling form and smiling as he said, "It's a good thing we aren't the guard, then."

"Ken," Nightengale said. "We'll explain everything later, when everyone is in the same room. For now, we need to move."

Before he could respond, the other changelings came out of the train. When they stopped making buzzing noises, Ken said, "Fair enough. Lead the way," getting out of the way.

"How about some music for the run, Maruco?" Nightengale asked.

"Thought you'd never ask." Maruco pulled up his music directory and started palying the only song he thought was appropriate for this before saying, "Lets go."

Nightengale nodded, and they began their run to the castle.

Youtube Video

The streets were filled with rioters and dead Brotherhood members, easily identifiable due to their cloaks, alike. A fair portion of the changelings were in the air, while the others were running on the ground with the others. As they all got closer to the castle, more and more rioters appeared, though none were stupid enough to try to get to Twilight while she was surrounded by what was essentially a small army.

When they got to the castle, they saw that there weren't any guards at the gates, but the gates were closed. "Keep running!!" Nightengale yelled at the top of his lungs an he prepared to open a portal to get them inside the castle grounds. Just before those in the lead hit the wall, the portal opened and they passed through it into the castle grounds. Once those on the ground had passed through and those in the air had landed, Nightengale closed the portal.

He then looked to the other ponies of lone team, as well as the changelings. "Okay people. You may not know what's going on, so here's the gist: A group of fanatics and whatnot are currently attempting a coup of Equestria's princesses. Four hours ago, they set this plan in motion by attempting to kill Twilight Sparkle. Right now, me and my allies are fighting them where possible, which is why there are dead outside the castle grounds. I'm not forcing any of you to stay, but right now, the castle is the safest place in the city for all of you, as our enemies don't care if you're a part of our group. You've helped us, and for them, that is enough reason to kill you. If you want to leave, I won't stop you," he said, informing everyone present about their situation.

When no changeling left, Nightengale said, "Alright. I want all of you to wait in the castle. Don't worry about the princesses. Me and a few of my friends will take care of that."

Throne room; meanwhile

Celestia was absolutely worried. Not only had the citizens began to riot for no obvious reasons, but there was a horde of changelings running towards the castle, and Twilight and the others hadn't arrived yet, which only made her more worried.

She was brought out of her grief when she heard the sound of combat outside the throne room. It went on for only a few seconds before it stopped. The throne room doors blew open suddenly, and ten ponies, all but one of them wearing dark cloaks walked in. The one without a cloak was as tall as Luna, had an emerald green hair and brown mane and tail, but what caught her eye was that he had no cutie mark. "Your Highness, it's time for a regime change, and you aren't a part of it," he said to her. He then said to the others, "Find the aliens, bring them here. I'll take care of her."

The nine other ponies bowed to him and left with out a word. Their leader turned back to face Celestia. As he did so, Celestia saw the dead bodies of two guards on the other side of the door. "Who are you?" she asked, fear in her voice.

"You don't know who I am, and if I told you who I was, you wouldn't live to put a bounty on my head. Then again," he said, shrugging, "You won't live long now that I'm here." He then created a single ethereal blade, his horn glowing blood red, that resembled a broadsword, the only difference being that it had a forest-like color scheme. He then grasped Celestia in his magic, from which she couldn't escape. This terrified her, as this was the first time that this had happened. "I think it would be awfully rude to start without your guests. What do you say we wait?"

It was ten minutes before the nine cloaked ponies returned, and with them, the Elements, Luna, and the aliens. "How?" Celestia asked.

"Simple stun spell," the leader said. "I would have figured you knew that, seeing as how your guards used the same thing on your guests. And don't worry about your student. My underlings in Ponyville have already taken care of her."

Celestia nearly cried at this. There's no way Twilight could be dead. She had John and Nightengale with her. They would have been able to stop anypony from harming her, Celestia thought to herself.

"And now," he said, raising his blade in preparation for cutting her head off, "you will join her in death."

Just as he brought his blade down, a beam of green magic hit it, deflecting it to where it only hit the floor beside Celestia.

They then heard bodies dropping to the floor. They both looked at the source and saw ten Lunar guards standing there, all unicorns, all but one with ethereal blades. The one with out blades was Darkness Strider. "So," he said with a grin, "you must be Shadow Specter."

"If you value you your life, you will leave. NOW!!" Shadow said, pointing his blade at the guards.

"You don't realize who we are, do you?" Darkness asked. Before Shadow could respond the ten guards rippled. The armor on nine of them changed color to resemble the color scheme of Ken's, but the shape remaining the same. Darkness, however, became just as tall as Shadow, his dark teal coat turning as black as Nightmare Moon, his mane and tail now appearing as if they were on fire. Red now appeared as highlights on his coat. Celestia noticed that he, too, had no cutie mark. His muzzle resembled that of a changelings.

"You."

"Me," Lone Shadow replied, he and the others stepping in between Shadow and the others. Celestia felt a tugging sensation, and was lying next to Luna before she could even understand what happened.

"What are you doing here?" Shadow asked, anger in his voice. "This is just one city out of who knows how many total on Equis, so why are you here."

"I'll give you a hint," Lone said smugly, "a year ago. Luna, Uncontrollable nightmares. You idiots do realize I have access to a library with the cure to that, right?"

He helped Luna, Celestia thought to herself. Who is he?

"Enough, Lone Shadow. You and your pitiful excuse for a team have stood in the way of the Brotherhood's plans one too many times. Now, You will die," Shadow exclaimed in anger. He fired a bolt of explosive magic at Lone's head, while all Lone did was smirk. Just before the bolt hit, Lone appeared to melt into shadows, causing the bolt to pass through empty air and hit the hallway.

"Tia, did he just. . .," Luna said.

"I think so," Celestia replied, terror in her voice at seeing a pony use dark magic.

Before anyone else could say anything, hoof and foot steps, as well as buzzing could be heard coming from the hall.

Celestia looked towards the sound, and was relieved to see Twilight alive, but that relief immediately turned to shock as she saw three changelings in the air above her. The only reason she didn't say anything is because it would result in many questions she didn't want to answer.

"What's going on here, Celestia?" Nightengale asked. She noticed that he was wearing the same armor as the other nine guards, as were the three changelings and three other ponies behind him.

Before she could answer, an ear splitting roar echoed across the room, which caused everyone that could to look at where Shadow was, where he was now in combat with Lone, who held an energy sword in his magic. She could see that Lone had injured Shadow. Not fatally, but injured nonetheless. A cut ran across Shadow's left side. It was short, but the heat from the blade is what caused a fair portion of the pain.

Shadow retaliated with a horizontal slice, going from left to right, which Lone avoided by jumping over it while executing a barrel role. He landed on Shadows left side, where he had no protection. Lone spun around and bucked Shadow hard enough that an audible crack could be heard as Shadow hit the wall.

Lone walked over to where Shadow lay, keeping his sword ready. Instead of finishing him, which is what Celestia had expected, he cast a healing spell on Shadow. After the spell had done its job. "Get out of here, Shadow. You've earned my respect, but," Lone said, "should we meet again as enemies, one of us will die."

Shadow nearly fell as he got up. Once he was up, he said, "It would seem the reports of you treating members of the Brotherhood with respect were not a lie, Lone Shadow. Out of respect, I'll give you few days before my next attack so you can explain this to the princesses. And you are correct. When next we meet as enemies, only one will survive." He bowed his head out of respect and said, "Until then," and then melted into shadows.

Celestia shakily got up and walked to Lone and said, "You have my thanks for saving me, but, who are you?"

It was Luna who provided an answer. "The name you first gave me when we met. That's your real name, isn't it, Lone Shadow?"

Lone looked to the two princesses. "Yes, and I can see the question forming in your mind, Twilight. No, I am not the original. Even with all the spells I know, there are none that grant immortality. He is simply my namesake. Though I admit, I do bear a resemblance to how many often picture him, don't I?" He chuckled at this. "I suppose you all have questions."

"Hell yeah we do," Maruco said. "Here's the first one: How did you find out about Plasma? He was killed two years ago in 2557."

Lone raised an eyebrow. "Really. I suppose you wouldn't mind telling us that tale?"

"Later. We're here; you're answering our questions, so spill."

At that moment the others that weren't a part of lone team came over so they could hear this as well. "Yeah," Sawn said. "Who were those guys?"

"Those," Lone said, "are two questions I can answer in one explanation." He cleared his throat and began to speak.

"Though, in order to answer those, I must first explain us. Lone team. We are, or more accurately, were, an organization that no government knew about, but had ties to in way or another. We encompass every race on Equis that has sentience; from dragons to griffons to ponies. Every member of our team has combat training, and I mean actual combat training so we aren't as useless as the royal guard."

"Is that why you took the lives of the ponies who hadn't done any physical harm to us?" Twilight asked angrily.

"Twilight, let me ask you this, and this goes for your friends and the princesses as well: is it better to be considered a monster for the methods, such as killing, but to still have noble goals, such as saving lives? Or," Lone said walking towards the window, "to be considered a monster for the goals, but have noble methods. If we hadn't been there, then you, Celestia, and Luna would be dead, and who knows how many others besides your friends, and not even be having this conversation. It's like with Chrysalis and the invasion two years ago."

Rainbow spoke up here. "What invasion?"

Oh no, Celestia thought, panic appearing on her face.

Lone immediately turned around and looked at Celestia and said, anger in his voice, "You erased their memories of that day. Why?"

"To protect them," Celestia said, thinking that she didn't need to explain this to anypony.

"You aren't protecting them, you're keeping them ignorant of the real world. You aren't making their lives easier, you're just making it easier for ponies like the Brotherhood to conquer them." He turned to Nightengale. "Rook, you mind removing the spell from the Elements?"

"Not at all," Nightengale said. His horn began to glow gray, and a flash of light enveloped the room. When it faded, nothing was physically changed, but mentally was a different story.

"I- I think I remember now," Rainbow said. "But, how did I forget the invasion?" It was then she noticed Wubsy, Messenger, and Observer. She jumped in surprise and said, with panic in her voice, "Why are there changelings here?"

"They're with us," Thunder said.

Rainbow looked at Thunder upon hearing her and squinted her face, as if she was trying to remember her face "You look familiar, but I don't remember why." Lone and Nightengale looked at each other in surprise at this. Thunder was an orphan, abandoned by her family in Cloudsdale. Then the truth hit Lone

Well. That's unexpected, Lone thought to himself.

Thunder smiled and chuckled at this before saying, with the smile still on her face, "Hey, sis."

Secrets revealed Pt2- familiar revelations

Everyone in the room just couldn't help but a have a slack-jawed expression to some degree at the revelation that Thunder had just said.

She and the Element of Loyalty were sisters. Everypony who knew her in lone team knew she was an orphan, but only she had ever looked at her files, and she never told anypony what was in them. But she had just revealed something that was in them, and it was a bomb shell.

Lone was the first to say something after this. "Did anypony else here know that they're sisters?"

Nopony could respond, only continue to stare. Thunder rolled her eyes and said, annoyance in her voice, "Would you guys please get control of your mental facilities? I doubt this is the most shocking thing that you guys have seen. I know for fact that a fair portion of us have seen crazier. Besides," she said, putting a forehoof around Rainbow, who simply had wide eyes, "I think me and my baby sister need time to catch up." She then looked at Lone and said, "Don't worry, Lone. I'll let her know of what's going on too."

Lone simply nodded his head and said, "Only if Rainbow's okay with it." Everyone looked at Rainbow, waiting for her response, which was a minute in waiting.

Rainbow shook her head to remove what ever disorientation remained from learning this and said, with a cocky smile on her face, "Sure."

Celestia nodded and said, "Of course. You two can-"

"Shut it, princess," Rainbow interrupted. "You messed with my head. I may be the Element of Loyalty, but not blind Loyalty. And given what happened two years ago, you'll excuse me if I don't approve of anypony messing with my head. Even. If. It's. You. Come on, sis. It's about time we caught up." With that, Rainbow and Thunder walked out of the throne room.

"Okay, before you seven start yelling at me," Lone said to the remaining Elements and the princesses, "I didn't know about this until now, and didn't plan for it."

"I think it's safe to say, Lone," Nightengale said, "none of us saw this coming."

"Yeah, you're fuckin' right about that," Zaeed said.

Hallway just outside throne room; meanwhile (by which I mean as soon as Thunder and Rainbow left the throne room)

"So," Rainbow said awkwardly, "what have you been up to for your life, Thunder? I only have a single memory of you, and it isn't exactly a long one."

"You mean besides joining a top secret, kick-plot group that's essentially an all encompassing version of the Wonderbolts that's actually competent enough to get the job done?" Thunder asked sarcastically. "Not much. I had only moved to Ponyville after I became a member of the team, and that was three months ago. Before that, mostly just foster homes for the first three years after I was abandoned."

"Jeez, talk about a hard life."

"Yeah. But in some aspects, it was worth it. For instance, did you know that only ponies have magical capabilities, even though it only shows itself obviously with unicorns. All ponies have some inept magic, which allows us pegasai to fly. Otherwise, we would be too heavy for our wings to carry us."

"No. I'm not exactly an egghead. When did you get your cutie mark anyway?"

"I found out my talent just a day before a certain somepony performed the sonic rainboom."

"Wait," Rainbow said, "so you've known I was your sister this entire time, but you never came by."

Thunder looked down at the floor and, with regret in her voice, said, "No. I found out only a few months back, which is when I was training. But," at this, she looked at Rainbow with a small smile on her face and said, "I was proud that you were an Element bearer. What big sister wouldn't be?"

"Ha, I guess you're right." There was a pause between the two of them before Rainbow hesitantly asked, "So, uh, what does it take to join lone team?"

Thunder looked at Rainbow. "You're kidding, right?"

"No," Rainbow replied, determination in her voice.

"Look, Rainbow. Only ponies that have shown they can handle the kind of stress we face are allowed into the team, and even then, you have to complete a brutal training course. If I tell you, you need to promise me two things, got it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. The first thing: don't showboat. I did that a few times, and I had to do one hundred push-ups. Not wing-ups, but push-ups that earth ponies do. They wouldn't care if you were more powerful then Celestia, if you showboat about anything during training, they will punish you. Got that?"

With a confident grin on her face, Rainbow replied, "Sure."

Thunder smiled a bit. "Okay. Second thing: we have to kill other ponies on occasion. If you have to do that, and you're not one hundred and twenty percent sure you can handle that, leave the team. Other ponies have left for the same reason, but they aren't looked down upon like most would think. Can you at least promise me those things?"

Rainbow nodded, "Got it."

Thunder smiled and held her hoof out for Rainbow to shake, which she did. "In that case, welcome to your own personal tartarus, acolyte Dash."

Throne room

"Now to answer the second question," Lone said to those who stayed in the throne room. "The ponies who attacked all of you are members of lone teams opposite; the Brotherhood of Plasma. Ironically, there are many similarities between us and the Brotherhood. They believe that the only way to bring back Plasma is to use the blood of an alicorn, though, whether or not that's true, I can't say."

"But that still doesn't answer my question," Maruco said impatiently.

Lone nodded. "I'm really not certain if I can definitively answer your question, Maruco. The odds of them somehow being one and the same are so unlikely, it's practically impossible."

"He's not wrong," Twilight said, this being the first thing she said since arriving in the throne room that didn't have anger in it. "If what you guys told us about slip-space is true, then you may be from another universe with its own Plasma."

"But that still doesn't explain how you weren't affected by my spell," Celestia said. With the revelation still being fresh in their minds, the Elements, and even Luna, as she had no idea about the spell, sat away from her.

"Can't explain that either. When I was born, I matured mentally and physically very quickly, but I also had a resistance to certain magic, which I think explains my lack of a cutie mark."

"But how can y'all not have a cutie mark, but still be so darn good at what ya do?" Applejack asked.

Lone turned towards Applejack and the others and said, "Training and practice. Simple as that." Lone then turned to Celestia and said, "As for how the rest of lone team was unaffected, I cast a spell that protected us from 'mind rape' magic, as the rest of the team commonly calls those kinds of spells. With good reason, though."

Before anyone else was able to voice a question, Thunder and Rainbow walked back in. They moved to take a seat, and Lone noticed that Rainbow sat with Thunder and the other members of lone team that were present, though whether or not her friends knew what this meant, he wasn't certain.

He looked at the two of them and said, "So, Thunder, anything new about your sister that you couldn't guess." A grin was on his face as he said this.

"Nope," Thunder said.

"Right." He then looked at Rainbow specifically and said, "I hope for your sake, then, acolyte Dash, that you survive your own personal tarturus." The look on everyponies face was priceless, especially Rainbows.

"How did you know?" she asked.

Lone shrugged. "Simple, really. Your body language said that you were excited about something. Then there's the fact you sat next to your sister, who you just met, and the rest of the team, which, in and of itself, shows that you've accepted lone team's moral outlook, including that of killing. All of that, plus your personality, said that you had decided to join lone team and that Thunder let you." He looked out the window that overlooked Canterlot and added, "And you are going to have to learn how to read body language during your training, in case you were wondering."

Three hours later; quarters of Lone Shadow

"Wait a minute guys," Lone said holding up a hoof to stop Messenger, Observer, and Wubsy from continuing to tell him the same thing three different ways. They had come into his quarters, which Luna and Celestia allowed him to stay in as he was the pony lone team looked to for leadership, and they wanted him close by should something happen that was possibly related to the Brotherhood, saying they had to speak with him about something. He knew it was important due to the late hour, in which everyone else except the Spartans were asleep, with the Spartans making sure the gates were secure should another riot break out. "Talk one at a time. You guys have a bucking hive mind. Use it." He then pointed to Observer and said, "What?"

"Well," Observer said, rubbing the back of his neck, "the three of us are, for some reason, sensing two changelings that are similar to Cheerilee and the others, but at the same time, we haven't sensed before." He looked directly at Lone for the next part. "And their in the castle."

"Do you know where, specifically, they are?" Lone pointed to Messenger.

"Just that they're somewhere in the guest hall, we just don't know which part yet."

"Can you find them if we got closer?" Hoof to Wubsy.

"Sure, but I think it would be best to get Thunder and the others with us, in case they're hostile."

Lone thought this over for a second before saying, "Agreed. Observer, go get the others, Rainbow included. Tell them to meet us in the guest hall."

"Right."

Ten minutes later; Guest hall

Rainbow and Thunder were the last to arrive at the guest hall. "What's going on, Lone?" Thunder asked. Both her and Rainbow were in standard lone team armor, as were the others. Rainbow was going to need time to adjust to the standard weight, so Vinyl had put an anti-gravity spell on it to make it weigh less during her training, which is why she was able to walk at a normal pace, even with it on.

"Observer and the others detected two changeling that they think are related to Cheerilee and the others from Ponyville somewhere in the guest hall."

"Still can't believe that there were that many changelings in ponyville," Rainbow said.

"Same here," Vinyl said. "Hey, Lone, when do you want the modded weapons? They're all on the train."

"Tomorrow, Vinyl," Lone said.

"Hey, can we join the party?" Maruco asked as he and the other Spartans walked up.

"Maruco, how the tartarus did you know we were here?" Lone asked.

Ken shrugged, "We saw Thunder and Rainbow coming here, and we wanted to know what the two were up to. Well, Maruco anyway."

"Yeah," Lily said. "The rest of us just came here to make sure he didn't do anything stupid."

"Oh, ha ha, Lil," Maruco said.

"Can you two talk about this later?" John asked.

"Yeah," Maruco asked.

Lone nodded. "Right. Let's move." With that, the group began moving down the hall following the changelings, who were scanning for the changelings they sensed earlier.

After five mnutes, Observer pointed to a door and said, "There."

"Okay, people. Stack up," Lone said in a whisper.

"Wait," Messenger said. "You guys here that?"

There was indeed a noise, and it was coming from the room they were about to breach. "I don't think we can trust them, your Highness. Who knows what they'll do to us if they find out the truth," Cheerilee said. A voice that sounded like a mix between Chrysalis' voice and Twilight's responded.

"Maybe, but at the same time, we need their help if we're going to survive."

"I must agree with her, Cheerilee. Who knows how bad it could have gotten if they hadn't done anything," a third voice responded.

"What the," Rainbow said. "They sound like Twilight and Rarity."

"Changelings, Rainbow," Thunder replied.

"Right," Rainbow said sheepishly.

"Just get into breaching formation, people," Lone said.

They got into breaching position, with Maruco being in front of the door. Once everyone was in position, he said, "Real men may open doors, but badasses breach 'em," and kicked the door in.

With the door kicked in, the others followed Maruco into the room and saw Cheerilee, in changeling form, talking with Twilight and Rarity. "What are you guys doing?" Twilight exclaimed.

"We thought there were other changelings in here," Rainbow said.

"Why would you think there were other changelings in here?" Rarity exclaimed. "The only one in here is Cheerilee." She pointed at Cheeilee as she said this. Cheeilee had an expression of anger on her face.

"Because Observer and the others can sense other changelings, and all of three of them say that there are two changelings that they have never been in close proximity to," Lone said.

As he said this, Messenger saw a small look of panic appear on Twilights face. Only he, Observer, and Wubsy could see this due to the lack of day-time like lighting. Observer, is it just me, or does Twilight look slightly panicked? Messenger said over their own personal hive mind.

Yeah. You thinking what I'm thinking?

You're in my mind, moron. What do you think?

Just checking.

The two nodded at one another and cloaked themselves in an invisibility spell. They then walked over, quickly and quietly, to where Twilight and Rarity were standing.

When they were just beside the two, Observer said, On three.

One. They began to charge a spell that would negate any kind of magic, even changeling specific magic, in the room for a few hours.

Two. "Well, Lone, are you sure that they didn't just say that as a joke," Twilight yelled, not breaking their concentration.

Three. A flash of light illuminated the room so quickly, even the Spartans visors had been unable to automatically polarize. This caused everyone to avert their eyes from the two sources.

When the light died down enough for everyone to see, they saw two things. The first of which was Observer and Messenger standing next to Twilight and Rarity, or, rather, what had been the two, which was the second thing. Where the lavender alicorn and marsh mellow(?) unicorn once stood, there were now lavender and marsh mellow (again,?) changelings.

Celestia's chambers; meanwhile

Today was not a good day for Celestia. Not only had what was, according to how Lone had described the Brotherhood, essentially a cult come so close to killing her and the others, but her effort to keep the ponies happy had been revealed, and even Twilight and Luna, the two ponies closest to her, had , at least, not wanted to be near her for a while. Even though they couldn't be faulted, as Celestia would probably do the same in their position, she was still devastated. Devastated, and angry. Angry at Lone. Who was he to say what was best for her subjects? Who was to say that she couldn't have handled those assassins by herself? Just as this last thought crossed her mind, another one came to mind.

Who was to say he was wrong?

She was in denial that a pony who used shadow magic was looking out for Equis, instead of conquering it, but all evidence pointed to that being the case. Him, and his team, protecting Equis. They stuck to the shadows when possible and refrained from lethal means unless absolutely necessary, not to mention they were honorable. He could just as easily killed Shadow Specter , but he healed him and let him go. Plus, Shadow had said that he would give them time to let her and the others know what was going on, just to repay him.

She was brought out of her thoughts as she saw a flash of light coming from one of the adjacent towers, more specifically that of Twilight's.

A few seconds later, she heard hoofsteps and footsteps outside of her room. The doors came open and Celestia saw Luna, Garrus, and Tali standing there. "What's going on?" she asked.

Garrus shrugged and said, "No idea, but Ken just came over the radio and said there was something we needed to see. We were close by," he gestured to himself, Luna, and Tali, "and we decided to get you so we could head there together."

Celestia nodded and said, "Well, then. We wouldn't want to keep him waiting."

Ten minutes later

As Celestia and the others were walking towards Twilight's room, they heard Maruco say". . . And that was just the first part of it. Once we had gotten into the space station, the assholes threw everything they had against us. Obviously, they didn't do shit, but those were just the organic guards. The robots had tougher armor, sure, but they weren't that smart."

"So what happened next?" they heard Robin say, clearly interested in Maruco's story.

"Well, we fought our way to the main hub of the place, keeping in mind this was a relatively small station, when they decided to try to stop us by separating the control room from the rest of the station. Honestly, I think it was just a last ditch effort, Regardless, it didn't work."

"Why's that?" Rainbow asked.

Maruco laughed a little before replying, "Simple. Our suits were made for hard vacuum, which allowed us to survive. We got to our destination using thruster packs we had equipped on to our armor."

"Now that sounds awesome," Thunder said. "What's it like?"

There was a second of silence before Maruco said, "It's hard to describe, actually. The best I can come up with is going a few times normal speed. Anyway, we were able to use them to get on top of the control room. We used our sticky detonators, think something along the lines of an exploding crossbow bolt that can be triggered from a distance, to blow a hole large enough for us to get through."

"Whoa," Vinyl said. "Any chance I can get one?"

The four heard Maruco laugh before saying, "Hell to the no. Only trained professionals are allowed to use it."

They heard Ken yell from Twilight's room, "Then how the hell are you allowed to use it?"

"Fuck you, Ken. So, where was I?"

"Using your detonators to get into the control room," Said Wubsy.

I still do not see why they trust the changelings to the extent they do, Celestia thought, They're monsters who deserve everything they get for trying to hurt my subjects. And they are awfully similar to what Ken and the others described as 'the flood'. So why is it they trust them like old friends?

"Ah, right. So anyway, we entered the control room where our Plasma was, though he was just a kind of mental essence-I don't understand it, so don't ask me- and was in control of an old friend of our teammate, Miller. Once we were in there, the guy was able to use telekinesis to throw us into the airlock that was still connected to his room. Well, all of us except Miller. Somehow, he wasn't thrown with the rest of us. He just stood there, his arm outstretched, almost like a shield. He then collected what the forerunners called vacuum energy. He closed the airlock between him and us. The last time we saw him, was just before an explosion came from the control room. Guy went out like a fucking badass, I'll give him that."

Maruco finished his story just as Celestia, Luna, Tali, and Garrus came around the corner. When the others saw them, they stopped what they were doing. "Ken and Lone are in Twi's room, guys," Maruco said, pointing with his thumb to Twilight's room.

With only a nod from Celestia and Luna as thank you the four walked into Twilight's room, as the door had been left open. What they saw surprised them, but it also brought anger to Celestia's features. In the center of the room, talking with Lone, though it was obvious they were hesitant, were two changelings, one of whom looked like Chrysalis with Twilight's color scheme and no holes in her body, while the other one was smaller version of the first with Rarities' color scheme.

Before Celestia could say anything though, she saw the eyes of the Twilight changeling, or, rather, what they held. She saw the same spark of curiosity and intelligence that Twilight had. This can't be Twilght. She would've panicked if she had just found out.

Just found out.

She always knew. She isn't my Twilight. If she was, she would have told me.

She walked right up to the changeling, who had a look somewhere between fear and joy, grasped its throat in her magic, making sure it could still breathe, but only barely, and, with anger flooding out of her features and voice, asked, "What have you done to Twilight?" When it didn't answer, she tightened her grip on the changeling, making it even harder for it to breath and said, I will ask once more, and you had better answer me, because it is the only way I won't banish you for hurting one of my subjects: WHERE IS TWILIGHT!!!" By now, Celestia had almost pulled a rage shift, tail beginning to turn as red as fire, her eyes taking on a literal heated appearance.

"I-I-I am T-T-Twilight, Prin-Princess," the changeling chocked out.

Celestia tightened her grip and said, "No, you aren't."

SMACK

Celestia's head jerked to the side as she was smacked, the changeling who claimed to be Twilight being released and being able to catch its breath. "Get a bucking grip."

She turned to the voice, which was as calm as ever, and saw Lone standing there, glaring at her with calm, subdued anger. "If you would refrain from going bat-shit crazy for a few minutes and actually listen, I think Queen Twilight and Queen Rarity want to explain," Lone said, his face and voice not changing once, except to emphasize the word "Queen".

A new voice came in. "What in the hay is-," Applejack said, seeing what was going on, as were Fluttershy and Pinkie. All three of them stared at the scene. Pinkie had her usual smile on, but it quickly went to a shocked expression as even her twisted mind processed what the eyes were seeing.

Twilight let out a small, almost unheard chuckle and raised her hoof nervously and said, "Hey, girls." The others reactions were a mix of surprise (mixed with whatever it was that was always in Pinkies head in her case), terror, and confusion. Mostly confusion. Really, the only ones not freaking out to any extent what so ever were the Spartans, the present members of lone team, Tali and Garrus, who didn't understand why changelings were that bad, and Luna, who was one of the few ponies who could, at least, tolerate changelings, and, at most, consider them high citizens, or close friends in some cases, though that was really just what many ponies of lone team thought. Regardless, the fact remained that Celestia had lost it to the degree Fluttershy had during her first Grand Galloping Gala, if not more so.

Once they had regained control of their mental facilities, which was a good two minutes after they had started, they quieted down. It was Celestia, anger still in her voice, who said, "So, would you be so kind as to explain all of this, Twilight." She said "Twilight" in a way that said she still didn't believe that the changelings were two of the Element bearers.

Twilight, with a hint of panic in her eyes and fear in her voice, started this tale. "Yeah. So, I guess you guys are wondering how long me Rarity here knew we were changelings." The other bearers nodded, their voices lost still to the surprise. Twilight rubbed the back of her neck before saying, with nervousness in her voice, "Well, we actually found out a few weeks after the wedding. You see, we were in the spa, hoping that a relaxing day would help with our magic." This was something that had initiated a new project for Vinyl. Everypony in Ponyville knew that Twilight's spells, even when they worked, had a tendency to cause havoc. This had lead to Vinyl constructing a bunker under her home should Twilight go Armageddon mode, intentional or not. Indeed, a few days after the wedding, both Twilight's and Rarities' magic had begun to have problems, more often than not being more powerful than intended.

"We were in the sauna room, hoping the steam would help. Rarity went to pour some water on the coals when her magic went out. Or, rather, put a lot of gravity on the ladle and caused it to crash to the ground hard enough to cause the floor to dent. The impact shocked us, and the next I knew, we were both enveloped in green flames. Needless to say, when they died down and we saw each other, we screamed."

Taking this surprisingly well, Applejack asked, "And what happened after?"

"Well," Rarity took over, "after our little. . . episode, a pony came in to see what the ruckus was all about. Seeing as how we weren't affected by Celestia's memory spell, we were curious as to why he didn't freak out. That's exactly what I asked him, and when I had asked it, he turned into a changeling and introduced him self as Green Mist. He said that he left Chrysalis' hive twenty six years ago."

At the mention of Green Mist, Lone's eyes widened. He walked over to where Observer was and asked, "Observer, don't we have an alert out on that guy for starting a rebellion about twenty six years ago?"

"Yeah, I think so. I thought he was dead, though," Observer replied.

"I'll get a message to Prince and Scarab later to let them know. Deities above and below only knows how badly this shit storm is gonna snowball," Lone said.

As the two were talking, Twilight continued the story. "After that, he told us that there were other changelings who lived in Ponyville that had left her hive, and that they were hoping to start their own, but they had no royalty there. At least, not until me and Rarity found out we were changelings."

"And did Nightengale's spell help you to remember anything else?" Luna asked calmly.

It was here both of them looked away. Rarity was the one who answered by saying, "Yeah. As it turns out, our parents were part of a rebellion around the time we were born. They were able to escape the hive, and, for our safety, separated me and Twilight, her coming to an orphanage here in Canterlot, and me an orphanage in Ponyville."

Fluttershy was the next to speak, her eyes somewhat wide as she understood what Rarity meant. "Does that mean that you two are. . . well,"

Twilight nodded in resignation and said, "Yes Fluttershy. Me and Rarity are sisters."

All of the ponies had slack-jawed expression, even Luna and Celestia. Garrus was the first to say, sarcasm in his voice, "Great. Another surprise. We got anymore secret siblings here, because we might as well get that out of the way now."

The others looked at him with irritation on their faces, Twilight and Rarities' friend especially.

Garrus held his hands up in a "I'm just saying" gesture, and walked out of the room, but stayed in the hallway.

Celestia was the next to speak, though her voice dripped with hatred. Not at Twilight, but changelings in general. "I must admit, I'm curious as to why you didn't tell me."

Lone, Twilight, and Rarity all face hoofed at this stupid declaration with an obvious answer. "Simple," Lone said. "How did you react to Chrysalis during the invasion?" He raised an eyebrow when she couldn't answer. "Thought so." He then looked at the two changeling/pony queens and said, "If you two require assistance with anything once this entire thing is over, you simply need to tell Vinyl, Robin, Thunder, Wubsy, or Rainbow, and the Ponyville branch of lone team will help however they can."

"Yeah," Rainbow said, "if you two actually wanted to take over Canterlot, I can think of a few instances where it would have been easy. Besides," she walked up behind them and put her fore hooves around their necks, "you're still my friends. Tarturus, you two could be diamond dogs- please don't turn into one, by the way- but you'd still be the same as when we first met." This put a smile on Twilight and Rarities' faces.

Applejack was the next to speak. "Darn tootin'. (personal note: why the hell do the stereotypical rednecks and hillbillies talk like this?! I live in Kentucky for crying out loud, and I can say that the real ones don't talk like this.) I've known y'all long enough to know you wouldn't want to cause any mayhem intentionally."

"Oh, oh, maybe we can have a "Changeling welcoming/ secrets revealed party. I'd say chapter, but this one covers the latter," Pinkie said, earning confused looks from the others, even causing Garrus to lean to where he could see what was going on.

From there, Twilight and Rarities friends, except Celestia, who still didn't believe them, said that they didn't care that they were changelings. While this was going on, Lone, Observer, and Messenger left the room, and walked until they were certain no one had followed them.

"I don't know about you guys, but I don't like the fact that Green Mist is still alive," Lone said, "He was reported dead ten years ago, and we haven't had anything to contradict that, except for Twilight and Rarity saying that the first changeling in Ponyville they met had his name."

"Agreed," Observer said, "I'll spread word through out the rest of the team here in Canterlot, tell them to report her for the next few weeks so we have as many personnel on station as possible. I'll look for that traitor personally, Lone, once the others are all here."

"I'll help with the changeling hunt, Lone. Want the plothole dead, or alive?," Messenger said, a grin on his face as he said the last part.

Lone immediately responded, "Dead."

One hour later

The day had gone both worse and better than Twilight had expected. She and Rarity had revealed they were changelings, and almost all of their friends had still accepted them. Both Twilight and Rarity knew that Celestia didn't believe them, and that it would take a lot of work for that to change, but the best rewards often came from difficult tasks.

She lied down in her bed, smiling at the fact that things could have gotten a lot worse. She closed her eyes, and entered the world of dreams, not knowing that a changeling just outside the window was watching her, scowling in anger. He activated his teleportation spell, and vanished, leaving behind only a faint, blood red mist.

Second authors notes:

Mwa hahahaha. Plot twists. In all seriousness though, I can already hear those of you who love Celestia posting hate comments. Before you finish, think about this: If you cared for your subjects as much as Celestia does hers, would you not react along similar lines?

Pinkie: Hey Lone, when are you gonna start working on your other fic.

Right after I publish this chapter, Pinkie.

Discord: And when am I going to make another appearance where they can see me?

Next chapter, Prankster.

Now for you, the readers, another video

Youtube Video

The calm before

It was the day after Twilight and Rarity had been revealed as changelings, and, all things considered, it could have been worse in a million ways. The changelings of the Ponyville hive, as they called themselves, were helping the members of lone team with patrols and whatnot, though that didn't mean they trusted lone team.

Already, three arguments had been stopped before they became bloody, and that was before Octavia and the others of the Canterlot branch had arrived. Garrus was with a male changeling, who's name was True Aim, had dark green chitin similar to the shade used in jungle camo and deep blue eyes, and stood as tall as an ordinary pony, and Drawn Bow.

"Wait a minute, Garrus," Drawn said, interrupting Garrus' explanation of sniper rifles, "So you're saying you're able to hit a target two or three miles out with one of those things?"

Garrus shrugged. "Yeah, and those are the ones with weak scopes. The high powered ones can go for ten miles. And you should see what they do to Krogan." Garrus chuckled a little. "Hell, this one time, three years ago, I was on Omega, which is basically an asteroid that's been cut in half with a ton of buildings hanging from it, I was defending my groups hideout from mercs. Before you ask, yes, we could be considered mercs ourselves, but we didn't do it for the money. We did it because no one else would. Any way, there I was, lining up a shot with my mantis, when Shepard, Zaeed, and Kasumi walked in. Shepard called me by the name the locals called me, Archangel, and even with that interruption, I nailed a freelancer in the head just as he peeked around the column he was."

True Aims eye was twitching here. "You expect me to believe that your dimension has the tech to crack open an asteroid? The snipers, I believe, if only because you're holding one, but I refuse to believe that."

"Yeah. It was actually another asteroid that split it. We just found it that way, and mining companies set up shop instantly. Though they're long gone, and the entire place is under the control of criminal organizations. The only good thing about that place? No damn red tape that I'd have to deal with back in C-Sec. Plus, all I had to do was pull out my gun, shoot, and I'd probably hit someone that deserved it immensely."

At this, True Aim relaxed slightly. "Okay, that makes more sense. But now I have a question. Why did you leave C-Sec? From the way you described it, it was the lone team of police forces."

"True," Garrus said, "but you get saddled, no offence intended, with more and more red tape the more you rise through the ranks. Like I once told Shepard: 'It shouldn't matter how I take a suspect down, so long as I take him down.'"

Drawn nodded. "That's exactly how we look at it in lone team, Garrus. Sure you don't want to be a part of the team?"

This had been the literal tenth time Garrus had been asked this question, and for the tenth time he said, "No, Drawn. I doubt that I'd fit in that well anyway."

True Aim replied, "You're kidding, right? I may not like lone team, but I'm certain that they would at least give you the respect you've earned."

"Maybe," Garrus said, shrugging, "but I still would rather not. Haven't you heard Rainbow at all. It sounds like she's getting tortured. I mean, I know she's just getting use to a ton of new stuff but still. I've heard better sounds from a blue suns slave camp." Almost as if to punctuate his sentence, a loud shriek was heard, coming from the other side of the castle grounds and being clearly audible, even in one of the towers that had been set aside for sniper teams so they could look over all of Canterlot with an unobstructed view.

Both True Aim and Drawn bow shuddered as it passed. "Good point," True Aim said.

Before Garrus could respond, Ken came over his helmet radio and said, "Garrus, we got a pony coming up to the castle, main road. You see him?"

Garrus looked down the scopes of his mantis rifle in the direction Ken had specified, seeing the pony, who was dark grey with a mane and tail of black. "Yeah, I got him in scopes. What are we going to do?"

"Wait a while, see what happens. I already let Thel know, and he on his way with his group." Indeed, Garrus saw Thel and a group of two changelings and two ponies walking up in front of the main gate and stood there, waiting for the unknown pony to arrive. It took a minute before it was obvious before the ponies course was obviously the castle, and it took another two minutes before he encountered Thel and his group. From Garrus' view point, he could see that the two began a heated debate, if their body language was any indication. Almost a minute in, the pony drew a dagger from what Garrus had originally assumed was pocket in a jacket on his side. He didn't get the chance to use it though, as Thel ignited one of his energy swords and beheaded the pony. He then motioned for one pony and changeling to take care of the body, which was to say to find their family and then burn the body.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing anypony getting killed," Garrus heard Drawn say.

"Good," Garrus said. "That means that you still have a conscience." This seemed to ensure Drawn a little. From there, the three had small talk, with only occasional shouts of terror coming from where Rainbow was training interrupting them. This made them all recount how their days in training had been for each of them in their respective governments.

...

Lone was preparing to head out to the train station with Maruco, John, and Vinyl to get the weapons that had been aboard when he heard a knock on the door. "Come in," he said, not looking at the door while putting on his armor, which was lone team standard armor that had been modified for his size. It was actually quite effective, as all lone team armor had magical shield imbued in them to protect the parts of a pony that weren't covered by the armor. He really wasn't paying attention to who it was, not until they spoke.

"Lone," Luna said.

"Why are you here, Luna," Lone said, turning around. "I figured I'd be the last pony you wanted see after last night."

Luna was just barely inside Lone's room. She had her regalia on, and it, in Lone's opinion, reflected the light off of Luna beautifully. "I can see how you would think that, Lone, but the truth of the matter is I came here to thank you."

"Why's that?" Lone asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because," Luna said, her voice filled with an emotion that Lone placed as gratitude, and an undertone that he couldn't identify, nor did he think Luna knew it was there, "if it hadn't been for you slapping my sister, I hate to think that she would've killed Twilight, simply out of fury that is long past old, and most likely would have done the same to Rarity."

Lone nodded here. "Just doing what was best." He paused, then added, "Though, I don't think I could stop Cadence and Shining Armor if they were as mad as Celestia." This got a chuckle from Luna.

"Perhaps. They, at least, still have a reason to still be mad at the changelings." A silence ensued the two for a minute before Luna said, "Lone, I must know. Was that Shadow magic you used yesterday?"

This got a chuckle out of Lone. "No, I simply used magic, plain and simple."

"But you turned into a shadow!"

Lone shook his head. "Luna, is a spear evil when it kills somepony? Just humor me with your answer."

"No," Luna said immediately.

"And that is the same with dark magic," Lone said. "It is but a tool that can be used, like a spear. And like a spear, what it does, it has no control over. The caster decides what to do with the spell, and that is what happens. There is no good magic or evil magic, in my views. Just. . . magic. And it's a view shared by every unicorn in lone team, regardless of whether or not they use it."

Luna opened her mouth to argue with him, but shut it almost as soon as it was fully open. She considered his words for a minute, in which Lone resumed putting on his armor. I suppose he is right. Most dark magic instances always involve those with wicked intent. Those that don't are always the result of a spell put on something, much like with Rarity and that book Spike found in our old castle. But still, Tia banned that magic for a reason. A pause in her thoughts. Didn't she?

She was brought out of her thoughts as Lone walked past her in his armor. She had to admit that he looked like what she had always imagined his namesake looking like. Strong, noble, confident, determination in his eyes, and, quite obviously, different. When ever she read The Lone Rebellion, which was considered fiction until yesterday, she always imagined the original Lone Shadow as a slightly different pony in appearance, and the one in front of her most definitely was, and with it, she saw hardships in his eye, most likely from his childhood, but at the same time, she saw that those made him what he was now, and that, she could appreciate.

He didn't wear a helmet like the others, his head bare, almost as if he was inviting his enemies to attack. "What are you planning on doing?" she asked him.

"To head down to the train station and get the weapons Vinyl put in the train and bring them back here so we have an effective arsenal for when the Brotherhood attacks. Should just be a milk run, as Maruco calls these sorts of mission. Not certain why, though."

"Perhaps because he thinks they will be easy?"

Lone shrugged. "Maybe. I guess we'll see, won't we."

Just as he walked out of the room, out of nowhere, Luna hopefully asked, "Lone, would you like to take a walk with me tonight in the gardens?"

There was wait of three second before his response came. "Of course, Luna. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check to see if the others are ready to get the weapons."

"Of course, Lone," Luna said, nodding her head. Lone could hear the happiness in her voice, most likely due to his answer. As he went to where the others were getting prepped, which was the throne room, he had only one though on his mind.

Does Luna have feelings for me, and Do I her?

...

Right now, Celestia was, for lack of a better term, a god-devil-Luna-any-deity-you-can-think-of-damn emotional wreck. She had been crying nonstop for the past three hours, when what had happened that night finally sunk in. She knew she should have apologized for what she did, but she was afraid of what Twilight would think. She just didn't think that Twilight would want to see her after she had tried to kill her, and coming close, too. If it hadn't been for Lone, who knows what might have happened. This brought Celestia out of tears for the moment, as well as a small smile. That's the second time he's helped us, even if we didn't want it.

It was then that a knock was heard on her door. "Who is it?" she asked glumly.

One of the members of lone team, which had replaced the standard guard, said, "You are requested in the secondary throne room."

"Thank you," Celestia said, not getting an acknowledgment from the member of lone team. She got up off her bed and walked to her door, opened it, and left for the secondary throne room, which had originally been the cellar. It there was one thing positive Celestia could say about lone team in general, it's that they knew where places of importance had to be, and pick ways to defend them well.

It took ten minutes for her to reach the room, and the ponies she saw in the room did not elicit a happy mood from her. There was a large table in the middle, which everypony was sitting around. Luna was sitting at the end that had been designated for the two sisters. To Luna's left was Nightengale and Robin. To her right was Twilight and Rarity in their changeling forms. She did not look at the two as she made her way beside her sister, ashamed at what had happened last night. Though she didn't see it, on their faces was friendly concern.

Once she had made her way to her seat, Nightengale stood up and began to speak. "I thank all of you for coming on short notice, but something happened fifteen minutes ago. Namely, a pony that was an associate of the Brotherhood tried to get in the castle. He was stopped, but only because our sniper teams alerted the ground patrol as to it. The reason why I'm telling you this is so that you understand how much of a threat the Brotherhood is. They will not stop for anything until their objective is complete."

"I do not see what that has to do with this," Luna said. "You could have told us as we were walking around the castle. It's protected well enough with your team."

"True," Robin said, "but that's not the only reason why we asked all of you here. That has to do with something from last night. More specifically, the changeling Twilight and Rarity said had revealed himself to them."

"You mean Green Mist?" Twilight asked.

Robin nodded. "Yes. You see, twenty-six years ago, a changeling with that same name incited a rebellion in the hive he came from. Killed almost all of the diplomats-we'll explain that later-and foalnapped the leaders children. He's a wanted fugitive by lone team for those crimes, as well as a fugitive that his hive wants. I'm telling all of you this because it may be that he wishes to use your hive to finish what he started all those years ago."

The look on Twilight and Rarities faces was one of shock at what they had just been told. It was Celestia who spoke up next. "Well, are you taking steps to ensure he can't do that again?"

Both Nightengale and Robin looked at one another, then burst out laughing. "If by that, you mean 'are we hunting him down so we can make sure he's dead once we kill him,' then yes," Robin said after a good three minutes of laughter.

"Who do you have hunting him, then?" Luna asked.

"Just about every branch of lone team that's not here, as well as a few specialists," Nightengale said

"And just who are they?" Rarity asked, her usual accent from her pony form gone.

"You know all of them already. One's Observer. The second's Messenger, and the third one is-," Robin was cut off.

"Me," Discord said as he appeared in a flash of light, his arms spread in a "ta-da" way, causing Nightengale and Robin to face hoof.

"Discord," Nightengale said, "I thought you and Lone agreed that you would stay away from Canterlot while he was here unless important news came up and you had to tell us."

Before Discord could say anything, Twilight responded by saying, "Wait, HE'S a part of your team. Why?"

"Because he asked," Robin said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And before you say anything, he agreed to certain limitations, under the circumstances the we would hunt him and turn him back into stone. And we do have the spells to do so."

"Wait, 'turn him back?' You mean he became a member of your team after me, Twilight, and the others freed him?" Rarity asked.

"More accurately," Nightngale said, "after Tirek. Now, Discord, why are you here?"

"Well, Nighty," Discord said, eliciting a threatening growl from Nightengale, "I came to tell you that Messenger has a lead on Green Mist, and I know where he has been for the past ten years."

"Well, care to spit it out, Prankster?" Nightengale said, aggravated.

"Why should I? Besides," Discord said shrugging, "you already know that, Nightengale. It's where you came from."

Nightengale went rigid here, almost as if he had been struck, and his eyes narrowed, so everypony was surprised when he said, "How are the others?"

"They are all alive, if that's what you're asking. As for Messengers lead, he was an agent of the Brotherhood when he incited the rebellion in Scarabs' hive twenty-six years ago, and most likely still is one. Ta-ta," Discord said, waving his fingers and disappearing in a flash of light.

"Is it wrong I want to strangle him senseless?" Twilight asked.

"That would probably be too slow," Nightengale asked. "A Spartan laser, though, would be fucking perfect."

"Well, Luna said, "I am still interested in what is the actual changeling government."

Nightengale nodded. "Of course." He took a breath before starting. "The changeling governments are actually a democracy, the title of king or queen being left over from the days of the monarchy. They're actually elected, much like a mayor or governor. They're able to step down whenever they want. More often than not, members of their families are given royal like titles as well."

Those not of lone team were surprised by this. They had always assumed that the changelings were monarchy, which was why Twilights and Rarities hive was one.

"And how do you know so much, Nightengale?" Celestia asked, truly curious.

"Right," Nightengale said, saying it slowly. "You see, due to the hive mind changelings have, all hives that have members in lone team know of lone team, and every ten years or so, the pony lone team considers it's leader is sent there to ensure that no hostile action with out reason will happen between the hives and the team. I was with Lone at the last one, a few weeks ago, and I must admit, I think that there is a lot ponies can learn from changelings."

"Why's that?" Luna asked.

"Well, for one thing, their structures are able to actually withstand the kind of stuff that used to happen in Ponyville on a weekly basis." Twilight shrunk a little here, knowing most of it was related to her.

After the explanation of the true changeling politics, the meeting dissolved into the boring shit, which lasted well into the afternoon.

Meanwhile (by which I mean just as the meeting was getting under way)

John was in the throne room turned prep area, getting ready to go with Maruco, Lone, and a pony named Vinyl, one of the ones who had gotten him and Twilight out of Ponyville, to get weapons that Vinyl had stored on the train, which were really just modified covenant plasma weapons for pony use. What had him thinking, though, was how Twilight had been acting around him. She jumped whenever he spoke to her, or at least started to, shied away whenever she saw him looking at her- Wait a minute. I may not exactly be the best person to go to for advice on being human, but I've seen stuff like this with other marines out in the field, and even off duty ones. And if this is anything like the few times I saw it conclude relatively well, then this could only mean one thing, John though to himself, She has feelings for me.

The realization of this made John stop what he was doing, which was running diagnostics on his armor systems. Partly because of the surprise of it, but also because he did not know how to react to that.

Should I tell her it's not going to work, or pretend that I haven't noticed. On one hand, the first would break her heart- wait, why do I care about that. John shook his head to clear those thoughts out of his head and continued comparing the good and the bad of the situation. As for the second, I can't really see anything wrong with it, but who knows how she'll take it- and there I go again. Why do I keep going back to thoughts that would make it sound like I have feelings for her. You know what, to hell with it, might as well see where this shit storm is going to take me.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the doors to the room opened and Lone walked in. He looked at those assembled in the room and said, "Okay, people. Our mission is to get to the train station, get the weapons, and get back here asap. The sniper teams will be covering us should anything happen. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Maruco said, "How the hell did you get our weapons in the first place?" Really, Maruco was just curious. He had his DMR, so he could not care less as to that.

Lone shrugged. "Me, Nightengale, and Drawn bow were part of the guard force that brought you guys in. We found your weapons near where we knocked you out. We took a quarter of them, and, of those, half were taken to Ponyville to be modified by Vinyl here," Vinyl nodded in acknowledgement here, "while we brought the others here, which includes the energy sword you guys saw me use yesterday."

"Why the hell not," Maruco said. "As long as you don't touch my weapon, we won't have a weapon related issue that involves me ripping your motherfuckin' skull off your body and beating you to fucking death with it."

"I don't think that's physically possible," Vinyl said.

"Said a unicorn."

If ponies had hands, Vinyl would have given Maruco the bird there.

"Can you two save it for after the mission," John said.

"Sure," Maruco grumbled.

"Right," Lone said. "Let's move."

Ten minutes later

John and the others had made it to the train station with ease, and they were working on getting the crates that held the weapons, an easy task with two Spartans. I'm surprised that I didn't notice these the first time on the train, John thought to himself. Then again, Vinyl did say that all unicorns- week here and still can't believe that- of lone team learned spells of invisibility that could be cast on other objects. Must have been active yesterday.

"Well, that's about all of the crates, guys," Vinyl said.

"Seriously. Ten crates?" Maruco asked, not even out of breath.

"Yeah. The weapons are smaller than the ones from your ship, so they didn't need as much space," Vinyl said.

"That still doesn't explain how you made ten crates worth of them!"

"You do know I built my own DJ system, right? I was made the top techie in lone team for a reason."

"You do know I don't give a damned shit, right?"

"Can you two love birds save your bickering for when we're back at the castle," Lone said.

"FUCK OFF, LONE!!" they both screamed.

Lone then walked over to where John was and said, "Radio Ken. We might be late."

John nodded. "Right."

"At least this is going to be entertaining. If I was a better, I'd say thirty bits Maruco caves first. You?"

John shrugged. "Don't really have any money, but if so and I was a better, I'd go with Vinyl caving first."

"And that shows how little you know of her." As their conversation was going on, Vinyl and Marucos argument went from Vinyl being a good tech person to who could kill more people with their fists, or hooves, in Vinyls case. "Want to sit and watch the shit storm commence."

"Don't see why not," John said, and moved to sit on the ground next to the nearest seat.

They were like this for an hour, with the topics Maruco and Vinyl were arguing over becoming more and more ridiculous. From who could take out more grunts with just melee in a time frame to who was the better dancer. And it was still going on. "And another thing," Maruco said, "you. Could. Not. Beat. Me. In. A. Fight."

Vinyl laughed. "What makes you say that? All I've seen you use is your fists, not your brain. Do you even use it in your day-to-day life?"

"Please tell me you know a sleep spell," John said to Lone. "This is getting old."

"Sure. I was just waiting for you to ask," Lone said. "On the other hand though, that means we have to carry more. Think I have a way to work this to our advantage, though."

"How?"

"Watch." Lone then turned to Vinyl and Maruco and yelled, "Hey, which one of you two is strongest?"

"ME!!" they both yelled.

"Really? I bet the two of you couldn't lift and carry the crates to the castle by yourselves."

The two then guffawed at this, moved to pick up half the crates each, and begin walking to the castle, still arguing over pointless stuff. "Still got it," Lone said as he and John followed the two arguing individuals.

...

Brotherhood of Plasma HQ- that morning

Anger. Hatred. Confusion. These were the emotions running through Shadow Specter's mind the morning after the failed attempt to get blood from the princesses. Not kill them, as many other members of the Brotherhood wanted, just get blood from them. Unlike many other members, Shadow saw no use in killing when it wasn't needed. He, in fact, despised killing ever since he had been forced to kill innocent civilians during his initiation, almost thirty-four years ago, as he had grown and matured faster than any other pony he knew.

He was angry at the fact he had been defeated by lone team, but he was exclusively angry at Lone, though he hadn't fought him or seen him before, which is why he thought it strange he recognized him. He hated that the rest of the Brotherhood was full of morons who took everything so damn literally, if you said that something was like talking to a brick wall, they would say, "That's stupid. Only crazy people talk to walls." This stupidity made him to want to bash his head into the nearest spiked wall. But the main emotion was confusion.

It had started shortly after he had made it to the throne room in Canterlot, when he had first laid eyes on Celestia, the reason of which he had no idea. All he knew relating to Canterlot since leaving came from Brother Green Mist, who had reported that the two Element changelings had been revealed, which threw off the plans to conquer the changeling hives. Why the buck do we refer to the others as "Brother" anyway. We aren't a damned cult. Not what I've seen of the Brotherhood, anyway, he thought to himself as he walked down the corridor in the Brotherhood HQ that lead to the library.

Every hall had some kind of portrayal of Plasma, Shadow's favorite being one showing Plasma as a bipedal being with gray skin, six ruby red eyes, a stinger tail coming from where his torso met his waist in the back, and hands with two fingers and one backwards pincer each. This was in the hallway he was walking through now. He was careful to avoid the "Warlock room," as he called the room where the unicorn mages worked on new spells and tech to help the Brotherhood. Bucking psychos, he thought.

He was just turning the corner when he ran into one of the only members of the Brotherhood he could tolerate, a black coated, blue mane and tailed earth pony with silver eyes and a river under the moon as her cutie mark. Her name was Midnight Stream. They both fell down and hit the floor. "Oh, hey, Shadow," she said as she saw him.

Shadow rubbed the back of his head to help remove the discomfort from the fall as he replied, "Hey, Midnight. What've you been up to?"

Midnight got up on her hooves and said, "Trying to find you. The Conclave wants a word with you. Word of warning, they seemed pissed. And they want to see you asap."

"Joy," Shadow said sarcastically. "Thanks for he warning, Midnight."

"No problem, Shadow," she said. Another thing he liked about Midnight is that she saw him as an equal, not a god like figure like the Conclave said he his due to his "special circumstances", as they called it. Midnight then continued walking down the path she was going when she ran into Shadow. "See you later," she said over her shoulder.

"See ya," Shadow said as he started walking to the chamber where the conclave met.

It was a walk that took ten minutes. When he arrived, he knocked on the door, a huge, ornate thing, and entered. The room was as large height wise as the Canterlot throne room, with red lights spaced far enough apart to light the floor of the room in red light. Jeez, the Brotherhood's got a huge obsession with that color.

He walked to the center of the circular room and stood there, waiting for the Conclave to start, which was a minute later.

"Zealot Shadow. Do you have any idea how much your failure in Canterlot cost us?" one of the ten Conclave members said. The Conclave all wore black cloaks that covered their entire body, and only they knew what they looked like.

Zealot. The highest ran in the Brotherhood, given only to one member at a time, said member having proven himself in many missions and trials. Shadow hated the title.

"No, Conclave," he said, bowing his head.

"We lost all of our top assassins, with you being the only one to have survived, and that is due to you running away. What do you have to say for your self?" another said.

"Only that I had no other option after the others had been killed, and thus, I decided to run, hoping I would have another chance to complete the objective."

Silence. Then, after half a minute, "That may be so, but your incompetence in planning for lone team cost us the lives of some of our best assassins," a third member said.

"Because of this," a forth member started.

"The Conclave has decided," the fifth said.

"That you are to be stripped of your rank of Zealot," the sixth said.

"And to be reduced in rank to priest. As such," the seventh said, "you will no longer have leadership roles in missions."

"Also, you are hereby forbidden from participating in missions until further notice," the eighth said.

"As for who will take the role of Zealot, it is a unanimous decision of this Conclave that Brother Green Mist be given this rank and begin the planning of the attack on Canterlot," the ninth said, the tenth staying silent through out the proceedings.

"Agreed," the first said. "You are dismissed, Brother Shadow."

"Of course, Conclave," Shadow said, bowing his head and walking towards the door.

...

Later; Canterlot castle

The day had started out well for Rainbow. She had been dreaming of kicking massive plot with her long-lost sister when she was awoken a loud BANG.

She fell down to the floor, hitting it with a thud. "WAKE THE BCK UP, RECRUIT. DO YOU WANT TO DIE IN COMBAT!!" a voice shouted, jolting Rainbow to her feet.

"No sir," she said, getting on all four hooves and as her sight came back.

She saw a gray unicorn stallion with a white mane and tail, with gray eyes, his cutie mark being something resembling barbed wire.

"Good," he said in a calmer tone. "I'm going to be the pony that you are going to hate, Acolyte. You'll address me as 'Sir' or 'Sergeant', is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"In that case, GET TO THE GARDENS! NOW!!," Sergeant yelled. In reality, his name was Iron Resolve. When ever a new pony joined lone team in Canterlot, he was one of the trainers that would ensure they were ready.

"SIR!!" Rainbow exclaimed as she sprinted to the gardens, mostly out of fear, though she wouldn't admit this to her friends, of what would happen if she didn't get there quick enough.

Three minutes later, she was in the gardens, out of breath and leaning on one of the statues. Never thought I would, or could run that fast. Fly, sure, but not run, she though to herself. Then she thought, Wait. Why didn't I fly here?

She waited here for another ten minutes before Iron Resolve walked up, not even out of breath. "Good time," he said, "but you have to learn to pace yourself. It may very well mean if you survive a fight. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good." he said calmly. Now get on the ground and give me on hundred push-ups. Not wing-ups, but PUSH-UPS!!. . . NOW!!!"

A fair portion of Dash's morning was like this. Doing physical exercises that she wouldn't be used to, being a Pegasus and all. None of it was overly difficult. That came when the unicorn trainer came.

Rainbow was in the middle of meditating, which she found extremely boring, when the trainer shouted, "WAKE THE BUCK UP, ACOLYTE!!THIS IS TRAINING!! NOT NURSERY SCHOOL!! ARE YOU A BUCKING BABY, OR ARE YOU A MARE WHO CAN ACTUALLY DO SHIT!!" Needless to say, she fell on her back due to the sudden change in volume.

"Ow," she said, rubbing one of her ears, but she didn't say anything else, as she figured that would only make it worse.

"Acolyte Dash, this is Mental Acuity," Iron Resolve said. "He'll be the one training you for the mental stress all of lone team goes through. You are to follow his every word until your next trainer comes. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," she said as she saluted.

He nodded, as he said, "Good," and then walked away.

Once he left the gardens, Acuity said, "Now comes the part of your training that makes it your own personal Tartarus." He lit his horn and put it on Dash's forehead. She blacked out.

. . .

Rainbow woke up in her room in the castle, her head pounding like a drum. "What happened?" she said. She looked around her room and saw that it looked like a war zone.

She got up as quickly as her physiology would allow and mad her way to the door. The hall looked even worse. It looked as if Cerberus had a temper tantrum in it. "What the buck happened?" Rainbow said, with a look on her face one would identify as a mix of shock and surprise. She was pulled out of this when she heard hoof steps coming her way.

Rainbow ducked behind the nearest cover, a destroyed column, and watched the part of the hall the hoof steps were coming from. She didn't have to wait long, and what she saw made her pissed.

She saw twenty ponies in the dark cloaks of the Brotherhood. This isn't what made her pissed. What did make her pissed is that he saw all of her pony friends being carried by them, all of them, including Pinkie, bloodied. Her face grew into a snarl, and she made a break for the Brotherhood, hoping to free her friends. She was sighted even before she made it half-way there. The one in the lead of the group brought his head down, and fired a bolt of blood-red magic at Rainbow.

The beam hit her in the chest. She fell to the floor and skid for a good, but painful, few feet before coming to a stop, her sight becoming darker. The last thing she saw was the leader walking over and bringing his hoof down.

. . .

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Rainbow screamed as she bolted upright. She looked at her surroundings and saw that she was still in the gardens, which were as pristine as ever. "What happened?" she asked for the third time that day.

"You died in your dream, Acolyte," she heard Mental Acuity say off to her left.

"That was a dream?" she asked, turning to face him. He was a pale blue unicorn with a light green mane and tail, and a brain as his cutie mark.

"Yes," he said. "All acolytes go through a dream like yours, facing what they fear most, and they can't conquer it until they admit what it is. The only pony to pass it the first time was Lone."

This little tidbit of info simply made Rainbow's respect for Lone, which was already close to Wonderbolt levels, skyrocket to exactly at level with the Wonderbolts, a feat she would have thought impossible before. "So, how many times can I take that test . . . dream thing?"

"As many as needed, as often as you want. I imagine you want to try again?" he asked.

"Of course," Rainbow said.

"Then prepare," he said, and put Rainbow under again.

It was like this for half the day, one of Rainbow's screams being loud enough that it was heard on the far side of Canterlot.

When it was over, Rainbow's head was throbbing. Fortunately for her, her mental training was over for the day.

"That's good enough for today, Acuity. Times up for you anyway." Rainbow heard this as she was recovering from the literal fiftieth try. She turned and saw Blue Thunder standing there, talking with Mental Acuity.

"Don't blame me, Thunder. She wanted to do it. A lot like you that way," he said with a small grin.

"Oh, shove it. It's time for Pegasus training, and, unless your an alicorn, that's my job while I'm here."

Rainbow was surprised at this news. She wouldn't have thought her sister was one of the trainers.

"Okay, okay," Acuity said, holding his hooves up in mock surrender. He then left the gardens.

"Hey, RD," Thunder said, turning to face Rainbow. "I want to let you know that I'm probably going to be a pony you hate because of this."

"Why," Rainbow asked, before she felt something clamp on to her barrel, preventing her wings from coming out. "What's this," she asked, panic in her voice.

"It's a jacket that all Pegasus acolytes have to wear," Thunder said. She paused and added, "Until they pass a test."

"What? A TEST!? I'm terrible at those," Rainbow complained.

"So am I, Rainbow. But you only need to do one thing. I can't tell you what, as that would be too easy."

"Great," Rainbow said sarcastically. "Might as well get started."

"Good. Now, just close your eyes and imagine you're flying, but don't try to unfurl your wings. The jacket will tighten when that happens. I speak from experience when I say you don't want that."

Rainbow did as instructed, and was able to picture it perfectly, but felt the jacket tighten, as it also tightened, though not fatally, when a pony thought of flying with wings. Eventually, she became uncomfortable enough that her concentration broke and she opened her eyes, expecting to see disappointment on Thunder's face, but was instead surprised with a warm, sisterly smile. "You lasted longer than most others do, Rainbow," she said. "You should be proud of that."

"Okay," Rainbow said," but what was that supposed to do?"

"The jacket gave you the answer to that, sis. You just need to understand what it said."

The cryptic response left Rainbow more confused than when she had started. "Well," Thunder said. "That's good enough for today," she said, turning around to head back to the castle as she did so. Rainbow followed behind, the anti-flight jacket still on.

Later

Maruco was in his room, thinking about his old, as in previous, girlfriend. She had died a year before the human-covenant war ended, killed by an insurrectionist bomb in an isolated part of Reach.

They were walking in the forest, listening to the animals. Maruco wasn't one for this, but he knew AJ liked it, and that was enough for him.

"The birds sound beautiful today," AJ said.

"Maybe," Maruco said, "But nowhere near as beautiful as you, AJ."

"Sweet-talker," she said, smiling.

"Well, that's more than you can say. If words were weapons, mine would be a sword that can pierce the toughest armor, while yours would be a hammer."

"Hammers can be devastating too, love. Do you not remember Roran from the inheritance cycle from the early twenty-first century?" she said.

Maruco shook his head, saying, "I still can't believe you read that old crap. Why don't you read the modern stuff."

"Because," she said, "that 'crap', as you put it, is my heritage as a human, and I want to know my heritage. I'll admit some of the ideas are cliché, but it does them well." Thinking back on this memory, Maruco realized that, though they had the same accent, AJ and Applejack didn't share the country drawl.

The two continued walking for a while before they arrived at AJ's house, a small, red one story that seemed a mix of modern and twenty-first century architecture. In retrospect, this was not the best place for a house like this, as rebels had occasionally struck at Reach, though there was only one that came to Maruco's mind, and that one only because it involved a luxury liner getting hit by rebel controlled orbital cabs that has a lot of explosives on board. the end result wasn't pretty.

"Well, I enjoyed the walk, Maruco," AJ said. "I'll see you later." Those would be the last words she said to him. As soon as she had closed the front door behind her, an Maruco had walk back to his home, Maruco was thrown to the ground by a large BANG. He got up, with a splitting headache, and looked back at AJ's house. He saw nothing but a few bent and burnt pieces of metal.

The authorities arrived a few hours later. They found Maruco on the ground, on both knees, his cheeks wet with the tears he had cried.

They had asked him the routine questions about if he knew who had done this and why. He had told them he didn't know who had done this or why. He had been taken back to his house, where he stayed for the next week, his manager at a nearby restaurant where he worked knowing about his relationship and telling Maruco he could take as much time as he needed. I t would be considered a paid vacation, though Maruco couldn't care about that. He had lost the love of his life, and nothing cold bring her back. But he did remember that she had said that if she had ever died, then she wanted Maruco to move on and find someone else, get his mind off the grief.

He was able to take care both easily to start off with. He had given his boss his resignation papers, saying that he wanted to get away from the area to see if it would help. He wasn't lying, as he went to a UNSC recruitment center the next day. He got in, and the rest was history.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door. "Come in," he said. The door opened and he saw Applejack walk in. "Hey, Applejack," he said.

"Howdy, Maruco," she said.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ah came to see if y'all are a'right. You haven't left your room since y'all came back."

Maruco sighed, thinking Might as well tell her. If her friends were telling the truth, she'll know if I'm telling a lie.

"No, Applejack. Did Hades or Ken tell you that I used to have a girlfriend?" Hades had confronted him about his initial reaction to Applejack, and Maruco, wanting to play it safe, told him the truth. He had been surprisingly insightful about it, saying that it would be best to tell Applejack so she didn't think Maruco disliked her or anything.

"Eeyup," she said, "but what does that have to do with it?"

"Everything, actually. You see, she was a lot like you."

"Wait, 'was'? What do y'all mean by that?"

"She was killed eight years ago by an insurrectionist bomb on Reach, the planet we lived on. You and her. . . . Well, you are a lot like her, especially in your personality, and you remind me a lot of her whenever she was happy."

"Really?"

Maruco nodded. "Yeah. If you find that strange, the I don't blame you."

"I don't."

Maruco was surprised by this. "Wait. You're not?" he asked, looking at Applejack.

"Nope. If ah remind y'all of her, then ah can't do nothin' 'bout it."

"Well. You're surprisingly taking this well."

"It aint the weirdest thing t ohappen. Don't y'all remember when me and the other told y'all 'bout Discord?"

This got a chuckle out of Maruco. "Fair point."

Should I? he thought to himself.

No. Hell no. Fuck no. Every-cuss-word-I-know no!!

I said the same thing about AJ.

And look at what happened there. If that's not enough, Applejack isn't even the same species.

Have you been here on this planet for the past week, or did you just get here? They said that interspecies relationships are the norm.

Yeah. Here, but what about back home?

They can go fuck themselves.

"Uh, Maruco? Y'all okay," Applejack said, breaking Maruco out of his thoughts.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and said, "Yeah. Sorry."

There was an awkward pause, followed by Applejack saying, "Well, ah'll let you be alone."

She was just about to leave the room when Maruco said, "Applejack, wait." Applejack paused and looked back at him. "I was wondering if you would like to just have a walk with me in the gardens tonight?"

Applejack looked surprised at this. Before she could say anything, though, Maruco said, "I guess it was stupid to ask," slight sorrow in his voice.

"Actually," Applejack said, "ah would like that. Tonight?"

"Yeah," Maruco said, surprise in his voice.

"Then ah'll see ya tonight," she said before turning to leave the room.

As she left and closed the door, Maruco began a silent dance, surprised, yet happy, that it had turned out like it had.

Second Authors notes:

Sorry that this chapter came out as late as it did, guys. When you combine the load of two stories here on fimfiction, finals getting closer for school here, a co-lab, which can be found here, you kind of get side tracked. If you like star wars or are a supporter of the New Lunar Republic, give this a try. Word of warning, though: the grammar in the first chapter is not the best, but it does improve. At least read through the first three chapters before deciding on whether to like or dislike, okay

The calm before-Pt 2- Royal meetings and a moonlit walk for six

It had been a few hours since Nightengale and Robin had met with Celestia, Twilight, Rarity, and Luna, and another event was being prepped for, with Lone informing the Princesses and Queens as to what it was.

"We hold this every year," Lone said as he and the four rulers walked alongside him into the Gala room. "It's meant to allow for the rulers of the various nations that know of us to be able to socialize, be themselves."

"And you have to hold it here?" Celestia asked.

Lone shrugged. "Have to. It's expected of the leader of lone team, which would be me, regardless of who you ask, to be there. Plus, here is the only possible location, seeing as how the place has been lone team certified for a Brotherhood scale attack. And I mean large scale ones, not the one me and the others stopped yesterday."

"Well," Rarity said, "would you mind telling us who's going to be here?"

"Not at all," Lone said. "The first is a friend of mine. I actually heard she's bringing two guests with her, which is allowed."

"Who is she?" Twilight asked.

"Queen of the Noble dragons. I doubt you'd recognize her name, but it's Saphira."

"You know her?" Celestia asked, surprise in her voice.

"Yeah. I assume you know her, Celestia?"

"Yes, Celestia said. "I've known her for nine hundred years." It was she who actually gave me Spikes egg."

"Wait!" Twilight exclaimed, "You told me you didn't know where his egg came from."

"Actually, Twilight," Celestia said, "you never asked. I thought it was because you weren't curious about it."

"Of course I was, and I asked you, but I thought you said you didn't know."

"You asked where it came from, not how I got it. Saphira would not tell me how she obtained it."

"Well," Twilight said, "looks like I'm asking her."

"Good luck with that," Lone said. "I speak from experience when I say it's nearly impossible to get information from her when she doesn't want to give it."

"And I can also attest to that," Celestia added.

"And the other guests coming," Luna asked.

"Well, no griffons, due to their government being, as Maruco might put it, 'Fucked up beyond all recognition'.

"How?" Twilight asked. "The book Bygone Griffons of Greatness says that they have strong pride. Though it stops shortly after the coronation of King Guto(? on spelling)."

"Then you need a new book," Lone said. "That book is about as useful to understanding current griffon culture as a single pebble is for the planet. I speak from personal experience, there. As for the Minotaurs. They don't know of us, except the ones in the team."

"So, just us, Twilight and Rarity, and Saphira," Celestia said.

Lone inhaled a little here, pausing before answering, "No," saying it slowly.

"Then who else?" Rarity asked.

Before Lone could answer, there was a flash of green flame at the other end of the Gala room, in the shape of an oval. Two ponies stepped out. The first was a unicorn mare as tall as Celestia with a dark green coat and black mane and tail. Her cutie mark was that of an insect, more accurately, a scarab beetle.

The second was a stallion as tall as Luna, with a medium length electric blue mane and tail, with bolts of yellow through out, looking like lightning bolts. His coat was white, and his muzzle resembled Shining Armors. His eyes were blue, and his cutie mark was that of a spear, with an aura of lightning around it.

"Ah", Lone said, "You two got here early. The dragons haven't arrived yet, and you usually arrive after them."

"Well," the mare said, "can you blame us Lone. We had to talk face-to-face to talk about the hunt, seeing as how my hive is directly involved."

"Hive," Celestia whispered, not liking what it implied. She then looked at the two and said, glaring, "And what are two unauthorized changelings doing here?"

The mare giggled before saying, "Nothing gets past you, does it, Celestia?" and then bursting into green flames. When the flames died down three seconds later, the changeling standing there was none other than Queen Chrysalis.

"WHAT'S SHE DOING HERE?!" Twilight, Rarity, Celestia, an Luna all screamed.

Calmly, Lone replied, "Didn't I say earlier? All leaders who know of lone team come here, and just about all changeling leaders know of us. And even if that weren't the case, Chrysalis is a member of the team. That means she would be here."

"So government leaders are a part of your team," Luna asked, still a little shocked.

"Only those who wish to be, though they go through the same training regimen as the rest of us," the stallion said. "Oh, apologies," he said. "My name's Lightning Spear, general of the Equestrian hive army. And nephew to Queen Chrysalis."

"I didn't know she had any relatives," Celestia said.

"Well, can you blame them," Lone said. "They aren't exactly the most beloved species on Equis."

"Well, she did attack Canterlot-" Celestia started before she was cut off.

"Because they had no other choice," Lone said. "Were you even listening to what she said when she was discovered? She said, basically, that she was doing what she did for her hive. And this brings me back to the point I made yesterday: 'Better to be considered a monster for the means, than for the reasons.' Wouldn't you do the same for your subjects, Celestia."

Celestia had no response to this. He was right. If her subjects needed sustenance, and there was no easy way of getting it inside Equestria's borders, if there were any, she would probably do the same.

"Then why didn't she try to do negotiations?" Twilight asked.

"And who made the first actual violent move. Cadence wasn't harmed, and food was regularly brought down to her. Terrible food, yes, but food nonetheless. It was the ponies. More specifically, Celestia," Lightning said.

"Oh," Rarity said. "You know, he's not wrong. It was Celestia who attacked first."

"RARITY!" Twilight exclaimed. "How could you say that? They imprisoned Cadence, one of the nicest ponies on the entire planet, underground. If they wanted to eat, than why didn't they just go for diplomacy?"

"Oh, we did, Queen Sparkle," Chrysalis said, earning a small chuckle from Lone and Lightning, and a glare from Twilight. "Unfortunately, the letter we sent was intercepted by Brotherhood forces, altered, and sent here."

Lone nodded. "And by the time we knew, the shield spell had been put in place. That meant the only way for Chrysalis to get food was to take the place of Cadence. The changeling army was there to ensure that there were no injuries, though some changelings didn't follow that, but they were stopped by members of lone team that were already in Canterlot, or their fellows.

Twilight was about to say something, her mouth open, but then his word sunk in. Nopony had been harmed, and some guards had even reported changelings fighting others, though it was rarely seen during the attack, and unheard of anywhere else, Lone's explanation made sense with the facts.

"I suppose so," she said after a minute.

"And how long have you been allied with Lone?" Luna asked.

"Thirty years," Chrysalis said. "Just five years after I was elected."

"I still can not believe that changeling government is a democracy," Celestia said

"Yes, well, that is why there haven't been any changeling hive wars for the better part of five hundred years," Lightning said.

The expressions on the diarchs and the Ponyville Queens was laughable, and that is exactly what Lightning, Lone, and Chrysalis did.

As they did so, Nightengale came in, giving a respectful nod to the leaders in the room. "Lone," he said, getting the others attention, "our patrols report that Saphira is en route, as well as her two guests."

As the laughing fit died down, Lone said, "Well, then. Might as well be where they're going to land. Where's that, Nightengale?"

"Gardens," he said, gesturing towards the gardens.

Lone nodded. "Right. Come one, guys."

With that, the group, now including Chrysalis and Lightning, left the Gala room, with Rarity, Twilight, and Lightning bringing up the rear.

"So, Lightning," Twilight said, "why are you still in your pony form?"

Lightning shrugged. "It's the form I'm used to. I imagine Lone, or one other member of lone team, told you of the rebellion involving Green Mist?" Twilight and Rarity nodded. "Well, you see, when the rebellion was in the last parts of it, the politicians decided it was best to get their children out of the hive. My mother, Chrysalis' sister, sent me to a Canterlot orphanage, where my adoptive parents, royal guards each, found me."

"And when did you find out?" Rarity asked.

"When I was ten," Lightning said. "I was with my parents, as well as their squad, in the Everfree, investigating strange activity." Lightning became somber here. "We were just at the edge, on the other end of the forest, when a manticore attacked and killed everypony but me." Tears were in his eyes as he recalled seeing his parents being torn to bits.

"How did you survive?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight, do you know how rude that is, to make him remember that point in his life?" Rarity asked.

"It's okay, Rarity," he said. "Just as the thing was about to go after me, I felt a charge building up in my horn, becoming greater as my fear increased. I released it, and what happened is that I cooked the overgrown cat with lightning. The amount of magic I used was so great, that the spell that made me look like a pony, which was a subconscious thing, was deactivated. Needless to say, I freaked out due to both. After about thirty minutes, I had calmed down, and began to think about what I looked like as a pony, and, well, it worked."

"Whoa," Twilight and Rarity said at the same time. "What happened after that?" Rarity said.

"Well, I had discovered I was adept at Lightning related magic, and thus made my cutie mark what it is. A second group of guards found me shortly after, and brought me back here. I decided to go the guard academy shortly after. I attended it until I was fifteen. When I left, it was to find my genetic mother. I traveled the entire world, from Canterlot to Griffonstone. I thought I wouldn't find anything. But when I was twenty, I went into the badlands, which was a known changeling location. I made my way to the hive, almost as if I knew where it was from memory, which was the ancestral memory of my family."

"What about when you made it there?" Twilight asked.

"Well, when I made it to the entrance, the guards that were watching it thought I was just any other pony, so they surrounded me. I deactivated the illusion spell, second time in my life, I'd like to point out, and that's when they saluted me. Confused me, and I asked them why, and that's when I learned that my aunt was related to Chrysalis, and she was the leader of the hive at that point, and that automatically made me high-ranked enough to be a superior officer to the guards. They then took me to the home Chrysalis' home. It was a silent walk. When I finally got there, I was sent straight inside to the main office. That's when I first saw Chrysalis, who was wondering what I was doing there."

"Wait," Twilight said before Lightning could add more to the story. "How is it she didn't know, but the guards did?"

"Because I was extremely overworked," Chrysalis said from the front of the group before returning to her conversation with the others.

"Makes sense," Rarity said.

"Right," Lightning said. "Now, as I was saying, the guards then told her about everything, and when they were done, she did the one thing nopony would expect she was capable of due to two years ago."

Lightning paused for dramatic effect. "She began to cry."

Both Twilight and Rarity were shocked at the fact Chrysalis had cried, even though it was years ago.

"I can see your faces," Lightning said, "and mine was like that too. After she was done with the fit of crying, she told me everything about what had caused me to end up living in Canterlot. After that, I stayed in the hive, leaving it rarely, but I always stayed in my pony form. My changeling form may have been what I was born with, but it's my pony form that I've lived with."

By now, the group was in the gardens, waiting for the dragons. "Celestia," Chrysalis said, "I realize that you don't like me-"

"Understatement," Luna interjected, getting small chuckles from the others.

"I realize you don't like me, but could you at least look at what happened two years ago from my view? I think we can both agree that the planet has bigger concerns than a disagreement between five national leaders."

"Agreed," Celestia said grudgingly. "So, Lone, just how long has Saphira been a part of your team?"

"Longer than me. You have to keep in mind dragons have longer life spans than most ponies. As far as I know, she's been a part of the team for a few centuries. Why do you ask?"

"Because I am curious as to if she was in it when she met me."

"Not a legitimate reason," Lone, Chrysalis, and Lightning said at the same time.

Before Celestia could retort, the group heard muffled thumps that could only come from dragons in flight.

"Looks like they're here," Lone said as a sapphire blue blur shot across the sky. "She's just as flashy as ever."

"Indeed," Celestia said, just as two more blurs, one being a darker, ocean like blue, and the other a purple, flew over, though they moved too fast for one to know who the dragons were unless they knew them well enough.

A minute later, all three dragons landed. They landed in a triangle formation. The one at the front was a common, but tall, taller than Celestia, but smaller than a hydra, quadruped dragon, with shimmering blue scales, deep, blue eyes, and elegant- as much as possible for a dragon, but even then, very elegant- wings. The second had ocean-blue scales, was as tall as a teen aged dragon, a dagger like tail, and had shades over his eyes. The third . . . well:

"SPIKE!?" Twilight yelled as she saw the third dragon.

"Hey, Twi," Spike said in a deeper voice. He had a confused and surprised look on his face, most likely from seeing Twilight and Rarity as changelings. He was as tall as the second dragon. And, quite obviously, he had wings. "Since when were you a changeling?" he asked.

This got various reactions. Jaws agape from Rarity, Celestia and Twilight, a small smile from Luna, chuckles from those of lone team, and a small growl from the ocean blue dragon.

"Now, Nova," the dragon that was Saphira said, "you know that if Lone trusts changelings, which he clearly does with these two, otherwise, they wouldn't be here, than they're okay."

"Well," the ocean blue dragon said, "can you blame me? I did just meet them, mother."

This last line got a shocked face from Celestia. "You're a mother?"

This got a chuckle from Saphira. "Yes, but not to Nova, here. Him, I adopted." She then looked to Lone and said, "Lone," nodding her head in respect.

"Saphira," he said, doing the same.

She then noticed Twilight and Rarity, and she turned to them, though they shrunk in fear, which got a laugh that sounded as clear as water from her. "No need to fear me, little ones," she said, "I do not eat changelings." This last part, she said with a grin. "And I do know of you two, Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and sister to Rarity, Element of Generosity, and that the both of you lead your own hive."

"How did you," Twilight started before she remembered that lone team had numerous intelligence methods. "Actually, never mind." She turned to Spike and said, "But what are you doing here Spike? I thought you were kidnapped or hurt."

Spike rubbed the back of his neck and sheepishly said, "Well, the first part was true at first. A few months ago, Nova and Saphira took me from the castle. I panicked, but they told me they were getting me away from there for my own safety. At fist, I thought that meant they were taking me away from ponies, but they said that there were ponies in Ponyville who wanted me dead, and they were trying to get me away. I didn't exactly trust them, but they were taller than me, so there wasn't much I could do."

"You could have sent a letter to Celestia," Twilight deadpanned.

"I did actually try that, but something they did negated the spell that allowed me to send scrolls. I didn't know how at the time. Then, after a few weeks, during which time they took me to their mountain cave-city, I learned that most dragons are naturally gifted with magic."

"Really?" Twilight asked enthusiastically due to the potential for her to learn new stuff, her eyes wide.

"Yeah, but those are actually dragon secrets, which, and I quote, 'Only few outsiders have the trust of the Dragon Ruler to know'.

Twilight immediately pouted at not being able to learn. She made a quick mental note to try to find out from Spike later.

That won't work, she heard Lone in her head, and turned to him, confusion and anger on her face, amusment on his face, as well as Chrysalis', Lightning's, and Saphira's. "The dragons rarely give out knowledge as to their magic, and what little they do is general stuff, except for a few spell that only their ruler knows, which is given only to those they trust without reservation."

"And let me guess: That includes you?" Rarity asked.

"Yes, but only because I helped create a few of their spells."

"You created spells?" Twilight said, dumbfounded. "Then why aren't you an alicorn? Everypony who makes heir own magic becomes an alicorn! Celestia said so."

Lone raised an eyebrow. "You still believe Celestia is an ineffable ruler, even though she A: cast a memory spell on the entire planet, and B: Nearly killed you last night. And don't give me any of that lapse of judgement crap. There are numerous instances that say you should not believe everything she says, but if I was to list all of them, or even half, we'd be here the rest of the day and most of tomorrow. As for the magic writing makes you an alicorn guaranteed," Lone said shrugging, "the answer is simple: I didn't want to be one. The ascension spell only works when one of two things occur. The first is a given: Writing one's own magic, but if that alway made ponies an alicorn, then where the buck is Starswirl the Bearded? The second is dependent on one of two things, the first being the pony wants to be an alicorn. The second, which is what Celestia used on you, even though you just used you'r abilities to change, is to be more powerful than the pony and force the change on them. I didn't want to be an alicorn, so the first was taken out, and few, if any, ponies could match my strength, if not skill, with magic. Not bragging, just an observation based on me knowing more magics then Celestia or Luna, and, as I say, 'A shallow but broad education is better than a deep but narrow, while a deep and broad beats all'. Plus, unlike them, I'm willing to use all kids of magic if I need to. That knocked out the second, so here I am, still a unicorn."

Shock appeared on the faces of Celestia and Twilight, with small anger on Luna's. "You told me she chose to be an alicorn, sister," Luna said angrily to Celestia. "Had I known you were planning otherwise, I'm certain I could have stopped you, or at least told her of it, even though you did nothing in the end."

"Lulu," Celestia started, "It was for Equestria. I'm certain that if I asked her, she would have said 'yes'."

"Don't you 'Lulu' me, sister. Even though we are princesses, you had no right!"

"You know that with with that logic, you had no meddling in the dreams of Applejack's sister and her friends."

"They needed the help, while not doing what you did would have no negative consequences if not done, while if I hadn't acted, who knows what might have happened!"

"That is a weak argu-"

"QUIEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTT!!!!," Twilight yelled, causing the two sisters to stop arguing and look at her in surprise. "You two do realize that it doesn't matter, right? The ascension spell only works on ponies, so it wouldn't have affected me in the slightest, so the argument is pointless," she said angrily.

"She's right," Chrysalis said. "It's because of an argument you two had that set Twilight on the path Celestia set out for her. And I believe I speak for all present when I say there are more important matters."

"Agreed," Luna said just before John, Ken, the rest of the Spartans,the rest of the crew from the Spear, Tali, and Garrus came running in, weapons drawn.

"What the hell is going on," Ken asked before he saw the others. "Hooolllllllyyyyyy shit," he said, looking at Saphira and the other dragons in awe.

"Now that's awesome," Maruco said.

Saphira turned to the new arrivals and said, "Greetings to all of you. I assume that you are the aliens who Lone told me about?"

The fact she could speak dumbfounded all of them to where they couldn't speak. "I think you broke them, Saphira," Lone said.

"It would seem that way, wouldn't it?"

Maruco, upon hearing Saphira's name, was the first to break out of the logic jam. "Holy shit," he said. "She'd love this place." He said this to where none of the others could hear, but he did salute, as he and the others, honorary members of lone team, all, had been informed of this, and were acting as security. They just hadn't expected dragons.

The others saluted as well, even Sawn, who was one of the more, for lack of a better way to describe, individuals who didn't care about chain of command.

"No need to salute me," Saphira said. "We do not acknowledge official rank in lone team."

Those that had just arrived went to casual stances, weapons by their sides. "I think it's official," Garrus said. "This planet is more fucked than a Vorcha on drugs."

"What's a Vorcha," Spike asked, "And for that matter, who are you guys?"

"Long story, Spike," Twilight said. "I'll tell you later."

"Right."

"Well," Lone said, "seeing as how everybody's here, we might as well get started with this years event." He turned to Lightning and Nova and said, "Race you two to the Gala room."

Lightning laughed and said, "What do you think we are, Lone? Colts?" He then got into a ready position. "On three, once you guys are ready." The other two got into position, smiles on their faces. "One. . . . Two. . . . Three!" The three raced off at top speed for the Gala room, leaving the view of the others in a second.

Both Saphira and Chrysalis chuckled. "Ah, I do enjoy seeing him having fun," Chrysalis said. She then became somber. "If only his cousins were here.." A tear fell from her face as she remembered her children that Green Mist had killed during the rebellion.

"Were they yours, or did you have another sibling?" Celestia asked as the remaining individuals began walking towards the Gala room.

"Mine," Chrysalis said, sadness in her voice. "They were no older than three and two when the rebellion started. The oldest, Metamorpha, loved to read what ever she could get her hooves on, while her younger sister, Chitinia (pronounced Ki-tin-ee-uh), had an eye for detail so much, it was adorable. They went missing when Green Mist attacked my home. Their bodies were never found, and they are presumed dead."

Chrysalis was almost outright crying now, she would have broken down if Saphira hadn't put a wing over her, saying, "Chrysalis, I know how you miss them, but I do not think they would wish for you to cry every time you remember them. On the dates of their births and deaths, yes, but not on a day when you are with friends. How do you believe I felt when I had to give one of my eggs to Celestia, thinking I would not see my son at all."

Twilight overheard this part of the conversation, and stopped where she was as her brain processed this information. "Wait," she said, "doesn't that mean-" she said trailing off, still not certain if she had heard right.

Spike rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment as Saphira said, "Yes, Twilight. I am Spike's mother."

The jaws of Twilight, Rarity, Celestia, and Luna, dropped to the ground, which got an amused laugh from everypony and everyone else.

"Close your mouths, little Changelings," Chrysalis said with a sly grin, "don't want you to accidentally eat one of your relatives, do you?" This made those that were already laughing laugh harder, and even got John to chuckle a little, which caused Twilight to blush a little, or at least however much a changeling could blush. It even got the two alicorns to chuckle a little.

"So," Lily said, "what exactly is changeling society like?"

It was Chrysalis who answered. "It's a lot like what you would call a democracy, the only difference being the only ways a leader steps down is a military coup that's successful, they step down willingly, or they die of old age. Other wise, it's much like pony society."

"Well," Maruco said. "That's interesting. And what about dragon society?"

"Yeah, I'll admit," Twilight said, "I'm curious too."

"That would depend on which dragon society you're asking about, as there are two: the migratory dragons, which are the ones Spike traveled to during the migration, and what many ponies think of when it comes to dragons, and the noble dragons, which are the ones that actually have a conscience and care about others. The noble dragons more closely resemble Equestria in medieval times. Which is to we have queens. Full on ones, not the changeling queen title. We have knights, nobles, who are not at all annoying, as they actually have concerns. Ruling is inherent."

"Wait," Twilight said, "so that means Spike is a prince?"

"Not exactly," Spike said.

"What do you mean?"

"A prince or princess in dragon society," Saphira said, "can choose whether or not they wish to inherit the throne. Should they choose not to, they still keep the title and authority, but when the ruler is killed, as dragons don't die from old age, they remain that title, or become a citizen. Spike here choose not to become a ruler."

"I just didn't think it was for me," Spike said, shrugging.

"And that's all the reason he needed," Saphira said, smiling, "and I'm proud of him for taking his own path.

There was awkward silence for a few minutes before Luna asked Tali, "So Tali, how is the rest of your crew?"

Tali shook her head. "Not good. The headaches they got yesterday are getting worse, especially for the biotics." Just a few hours after the Brotherhood had been stopped from completing their plan, the other members of the Shepard had gotten bad headaches, Liara, Miranda, and the other biotics especially. "Liara, at least, is showing signs of recovering, as well as Samara, but the others are either not improving, getting worse, or slowly improving."

"Well," Rarity said, "that's good."

"Yeah," Garrus said. "Though I wish Wrex would come out of it. He looks like he's ready to kill someone for looking at him weirdly. And tha's bad news if you're in the same room."

"It's a good thing that Lone is an expert on strengthening spells, then," Luna said.

"Agreed," Celestia said grumpily, due to the fact he had blatantly called her out on trying to force Twilight to become an alicorn, which apparently wouldn't have worked anyway, seeing as how Twilight was actually a changeling.

The group continued to walk to the Gala room, and when they got there, they were all surprised to see a few other members of lone team there. Nightengale was talking with Lone, Octavia, to which Rarity was still surprised she was a part of the team, was trying to fend off Vinyl's attempts at flirting. What surprised them was that the other Elements were in the room as well.

"Applejack, what are you and the others doing here?" Twilight asked as she and Rarity walked over to them.

"Well, sugar cube, as it turns out, Nightengale said the 'any VIPs in the city of hosting are to make an appearance', and we count as VIPs," she said deadpan. That's when she and the others saw Chrysalis and Saphira, both of which made all of them, except Pinkie and Rainbow, who had already been informed as to the guests, cower as the two walked over to them.

"Hello, to all of you," Saphira said, which only served to freak Fluttershy out more. Saphira sighed, saying, "It would seem that the stereotype of dragons is still among those who know of lone team."

"So it would unfortunately seem," Chrysalis added.

"Uh, Twi? Why is Chrysalis and a dragon not tryin' ta kill us?"

This got a laugh from the two, while Rainbow was the surprising one to say, "Simple, Applejack. They're allies of the team."

This got dumbfounded faces on the two cowering. "Uh, what?" Applejack said, which got another laugh from Saphira and Chrysalis, and causing the others to laugh as well.

Saphira was the first to recover. "It is good to see one of you knows that I wouldn't eat ponies, which I wouldn't do anyway, as we noble dragons don't eat anything that can speak."

Nervously, Fluttershy said, "S-s-so you don't eat ponies? Or griffons? Or minotaurs?"

"No," Saphira said. "And you need not worry about me doing something terrible. My son has already told me of your fear, Element of Kindness."

Fluttershy actually perked up a little at hearing she had a son who knew her. "And whose your son, Miss. . .?"

"Saphira," Saphira said. "And you already know my son."

"Ah, I don't think we do," Applejack said.

"Actually," Rarity said, "we do. It's Spike."

The look on everponies faces, Rainbow and Pinkie included, was priceless.

"Spike's your son," Fluttershy said in disbelief.

"And a prince," Saphira said.

"But that means," Applejack said, surprised at what this meant.

"Indeed, Element of Honesty. I am the queen of noble dragons. And please do not bow It can be seen as an insult under certain circumstances."

The looks of the others said they wanted to bow, if only out of habit, but they didn't.

"Well," Rarity said, "now that that's out of the way, I'm going to mingle."

From that point onward for a few hours, it was just the Elements, the leaders of the countries, John and the others, and the members of lone team that were present talking about what they had done. Nothing politics related, for which all the leaders were grateful.

It went like this until late into the night, the only interruption being when Luna had to raise the moon. After that, it was the standard meeting between they leaders. That was, until Luna walked up to Lone, who was talking with Spike and Saphira to see how Spike had adjusted to his new life.

"Um, Lone," she said nervously , "would you care to walk int eh gardens with me now?"

Lone nodded. "Sure," he said. He then turned to the two dragons. "If you guys will excuse me," he said, then he and Luna left the room, with Maruco one one end seeing this, and Twilight on the other.

Both of them thought to themselves, Now or never, before walking to their respective loves.

Maruco was the first to reach Applejack. He walked up to her and, rebelling against the rational part of his mind, said, "Applejack, do you want to go for that walk now?"

"Sure, Maruco," Applejack responded.

Maruco, smiling under his helmet, said, "Then let's go."

The two left the Gala room, following the same route as Lone and Luna, just as Twilight made it to John.

"Um, John," she asked nervously.

"Yeah," he said, turning away from his conversation with Lightning, Nightengale, and Ken.

"Would you mind, uh, walking with me in the gardens?"

The silence that followed was so thick, it could would be hard to completely destroy with a covenant ventral beam (glassing beam).

"Sure," John said.

"Oh," she said, sadness in her voice. "Well, it was- wait! Did you say yes?"

John shrugged. "Yeah."

"Oh," she said, surprised. "Then let's go," she said, joy in her voice.

. . .

Lone and Luna had made it to the gardens in five minutes.

"As beautiful as always," Lone said.

"Indeed," Luna said.

Lone smiled as he looked up at the night sky. "And this is, indeed, a beautiful night that thou has made," he said, surprising Luna that he knew how to speak how she used to.

"Thou speaketh this tongue with ease?" she asked, slipping back to old Equish as well.

"Aye," he said, before going back to modern language. "In all honesty, I never understood why ponies advanced language past that. It's a beautiful tongue." He then looked back to the sky. "Like I never understood why ponies didn't appreciate your night all those years ago. I always found it the most beautiful thing I ever laid my eyes on."

He then looked back down as he and Luna continued walking, and said, "Well, it's actually the second."

"Oh," Luna asked. "And what's the first?"

Lone looked Luna directly in the eyes, stopping them where they were. He then did the one thing she hadn't expected. He kissed, a small peck on the lips, pulled back and said, "You," in a voice barely reaching that of a whisper.

A blush appeared on Luna's face, just as the two heard, "Jeez, Lone. I didn't think you would be the one to woo the Princess of the night."

The two, with a blush and anger on their faces to see Maruco doubled over from laughter, and even Applejack chuckling a little.

"Hm," Lone said, "I didn't think you were xenophiliac, Maruco," which caused Maruco to stop laughing, as well as Applejack, who got a blush.

The imagined look on Maruco's face was enough to cause Lone and Luna to laugh out loud, even enough to where they rolled on their backs.

"Oh, shut up, you two."

"Oh, such a great comeback, I don't think we can come back with something better," Luna said, laughing harder.

"Hey, Maruco, are you sure like farm life, because that's all you're going to be doing!" Lone said, making Applejack, for some reason, blush harder.

It went on like this for the better part of three minutes, with it ending when both groups heard another pair of foot and hoof steps. "Hide," Maruco said urgently, as he and the others recognized the foot steps belonging to John. The dove into the nearby bushes, and waited for the other duo to pass.

"Uh, ain't that Twi with John," Applejack asked in a whisper.

"Yep," Maruco said. "And seeing as how the gardens appears to be the lovers resort, and John isn't exactly that type, I'd say Twilight asked him." He then felt the glare from Applejack. Knowing she would somehow know he would be lying if he did so, he said, "Yes, Applejack, I'm in love with you. We can talk about it later. Right now, we help Twilight."

"And how do you propose we do that," Lone asked. "And no, I won't put a love spell on John."

'Well, there goes that plan," Maruco said, grumbling. "On to plan B," he said before bring his left arm up and tapping his tac-pad with his right. A song that sounded like rock and roll, meets country romance started.

Youtube Video

Both Twilight and John were confused as the song started, with a blush on Twilight's chitin.

Maruco chucled at Twilight's expression, and the imagined one on John's, as he had his helmet on as well.

"Do you want to ruin this for her," Lone said, smacking Maruco on the back of the head.

"What?" he said. "I'm trying to help!"

"And failing miserably at that," Luna said.

"Uh," Applejack said, "Ah'm not sure that's tha case, y'all. Look."

The four of them looked, and were surprised to see both of them on the ground, with Twilight nuzzling against John's side.

I'll be damned," Maruco said. "It actually helped.

"Then let's get out of here before you're able to ruin it," Lone said, grabbing hold of Maruco in his magic and dragging him back to the Gala room, with the mares walking behind.

The battle begins

A night passed since the meeting of leaders, as many members of lone team called it, which is to say it was the next day, and Lone was in what was one of the best locations he could think of. With Luna as she woke up.

The rest of last night hadn't been particularly different than others. The only exceptions were that there had been Apple family cider there, and Lone had a reason to indulge in it a little, what with he and Luna dating now, even if it had only been a day since his real identity had been revealed.

When he awoke, he opened his eye, then immediately closed them due to the light. Reason 10 as to why I like the night: You aren't blinded by moonlight. After another minute that allowed his eyes to adjust, he opened them again, and he laid his eyes upon the most beautiful mare he knew. Reason 1: Luna.

Luna began to stir not long after Lone. "Hello, love," She said with a small smile as she nuzzled him.

"Morning Lulu. How did you sleep?"

"Well. I only wish the party lasted longer," she said sadly.

"No need to wish there, Lulu," Lone said, "the party lasts for a few days, on account of any late leaders."

The two stayed where they were for a few more minutes before they heard a knock. They got out of bed as quickly and quiet as possible before Luna said, "Come in."

The door opened and the two saw Chrysalis walk in. She raised an eyebrow at seeing the two in the room, but didn't react otherwise.

"Chrysalis, what do you want?"

"I was asked by Twilight to check up on you, as she's worried."

"Why would she be worried?"

Shrugging, Chrysalis said, "I have no idea. Probably something related to a schedule of hers."

This got a chuckle form Lone and Luna, the latter replying, "Yes, that seems likely."

The three of them left the room and went to the Gala room, where Chrysalis said Twilight was. When they arrived, they saw the one thing that Lone and Chrysalis knew was bad. They saw Nova and Twilight having an argument. In it self, this wasn't bad. What made it bad was that Twilight was a changeling, and Nova hated most changelings, liking only those that were in lone team, and even then, barely.

"Oh, no," they both said.

"Why is it you hate changelings so much?!" Twilight said.

"Because all of you are monsters who attack innocents without reason!" Nova yelled.

"I haven't, and neither has Rarity or the others of my hive!"

"Are you sure?" Nova said in a taunting voice. "I seem to remember that a white unicorn that matched your sisters pony form caused some very. . . creative destruction."

"She didn't attack anypony!"

"She trapped civilians in town hall."

Before Twilight could respond, Lone came in between them and said, "Nova! Twilight is a political leader, as is her sister, and you will show her the respect she deserves, or Saphira and I will confine you to your quarters and give you left overs a month old to eat, as well as making you wear an anti-flying vest. Is that clear?" When he didn't respond, Lone said, "Is. That. Clear!?"

After five seconds and a death glare from Lone, Nova said, "Yeah, but don't expect me to help her out of the grace of my heart," and walked away.

"And for you, Twilight. Nova is a team mate of mine, and if he continues on a path like that, you will not yell at him. You being a changeling makes it worse," Lone said.

"How?"

"Because," Saphira said, as she heard the entire conversation, as she walked up, "it was a group of changelings that killed his birth parents."

"What?" Twilight asked, horrified. "Was he there?"

"Yes," Chrysalis replied. "It was me and Lone who were able to save him. I was the only changeling he trusted for a long time. He does trust others now, but only ones Lone trusts, and even then-"

"-It takes a long time," Lone finished.

"That's a sad life history," Luna said.

"True," Chrysalis said, "but others in the team have had it worse."

"Like you?" Luna asked.

"Yes. I lost both my parents, my sister, and my daughters during Green Mist's 'revolution' and had thought Lightning had died. I was an emotional wreck for an entire year, and even after that, I was barely able to do what I had to." Tears were in the changeling leader's eyes once again as she remembered the year after the 'Green Mist rebellion', as all members of lone team call it. "If it hadn't been for the friends I had in lone team, I am afraid I would have taken a way out."

Luna and Twilight brought a hoof to their mouths to conceal gasps of surprise. Twilight then moved to the other changeling and comforted her with a hug, which surprised those watching. Chrysalis was the most surprised by this. Twilight released the hug and smiled at her, saying, "Chrysalis, I don't think that Chitinia and Metamorpha would want you to kill yourself."

Chrysalis wasn't listining, rather focusing more on her face, especially the smile. It can't be. There's no way.

What is it, Chrysalis? Lone asked. It was a well kept secret, even from non-changeling leaders who knew of lone team, that lone team had its own version of a hive mind, which allowed non-changeling members to speak to one another with out others knowing. This is waht Lone had done last night.

Her smile. You remember when I described Metmorpha's smile?

Shit. You don't think he did that, do you?

It's the only possible explanation, even if it is unlikely.

We'll watch to see if your right, but unless we know for certain, say nothing.

This conversation lasted a second, after which Chrysalis replied to Twilight by saying, "I suppose your right, Twilight."

. . .

Outskirts of Canterlot-Meanwhile

It was a beautiful day in the country side under the mountain that supported the weight of Canterlot, and it would have continued to be one if the large army of Brotherhood members hadn't set up camp directly under it.

They all wore dark cloaks, and light but tough armor under it, and all held some weapon that had been magically enhanced so they would be able to deal with the aliens with ease.

"Zealot," an earth pony said, walking up to Green Mist, "our brothers and sisters are ready. We await our word to attack."

"Not yet, adherent," Green Mist said. "We wait until all of the leaders are in the Gala room, the we move in. With some of the aliens having been exposed to Plasma's blessing, we will win this battle, and help pave the way for our lord."

"As you command, Zealot." The adherent then walked back to where his lance brothers, basically his squad, were located.

Green Mist smiled to himself. It is good that Shadow isn't here, otherwise, I may kill him. Then again, I might just do that anyway. And I will finally have the opportunity to rid the planet of Chrysalis and her kin, and establish myself as king of two hives, then all. For Plasma!

. . .

Gala room-Two hours later

Everyone who was physically possible, which now included Liara, Samara, Zaeed, and Kasumi, all of whom had recovered from the head aches and then checked over by Lone and Nightengale, who had removed the last traces of the magic they had been affected by from two days ago, were now in the Gala room.

It hadn't taken a while to catch the four up on what had happened. The only remark during the story had been from Liara after they had been told of Chrysalis and Saphira, when she said, "A species that can change it's appearance at will and another creature from old Earth mythology. That's interesting."

After that, they had been talking with the others, while Lone, Chrysalis, Nightengale, and Lightning had excused themselves and left the hall to discuss what Chrysalis had felt earlier.

"Are you sure of this, "Lone," Nightngale asked. "There's no evidence to say so."

"And there's none to say no to it, either," Lightning said. "At this point, it's just a feeling."

"Indeed it is," Chrysalis said, "and it could either, which is why I agree with Lone that nothing should be said of it until we know otherwise."

"Makes sense, given the shitstorm that's going to ensue from this," Nightengale said.

"So we're all agreed on this?" Lone asked, to which the others nodded. Before he could say something, he felt something in the base of his horn, which indicated that intruders were coming in from all directions. And they had signatures that resembled Brotherhood members.

All members of lone tema in Canterlot, we have hostiles inbound, be on high alert. Inform the changelings from Ponyville as to this, as I'm certain they'll need help and be able to give it, he said over the telepathic link before he and the other three heard shouting from the Gala room. They looked at one another, then burst into the room, as they were just outside the room.

What they saw were Brotherhood members, cloaks and all, attacking the others with their own weapons, and it seemed as if they were equal, in terms of skill, that is. The four ran to where Celestia ans Luna were. The two sisters being engaged by a group of three ponies each, but said six ponies weren't watching their backs, which allowed Lone and the others to kill them with magic blasts to the back.

"What happened," Lone said as he got closer.

"We don't know," Celestia said. "They just appeared and began to attack. Twilight and Rarity were able to teleport out of here, but a few chased after them.

"Was one of them a changeling with green chitin?" Chrysalis asked.

"Yes," Celestia said, confused as to why that was an important detail. "Why?"

Chrysalis growled before saying, "Green Mist."

"Damn it," Lone said. "We're going after them."

"How," Luna asked, worried for Lone, as well as Twilight and Rarity. "We don't know where they went."

"Easy," Nightengale said, lighting up his horn. "A tracing spell that 'll allow us to find the trace of the teleportation spell, then follow it."

"Where were Twilight and Rarity when they teleported?" Lightning asked over the sounds of fighting still in the room, though they were dying down quickly.

"Over there," Celestia pointed to a spot near the windows.

"Oh, there is no need for that," a voice said behind them. They all turned and saw a group of nine ponies led by a single changeling standing in the door way to the hall. The rest of the fighting in the room had stopped. "Don't think this is over, as more of our brother are coming as we speak," Green Mist said. "But you won't do anything."

"And why not?" Garrus asked.

Green Mist laughed. After he was done, he said, "Simple." He then lit up his horn, and Twilight and Rarity, both with panicked looks on their faces, appeared, held in a green aura. "You wouldn't want to hurt little Metamorpha and Chitinia, would you?"

. . .

Brotherhood headquarter- meanwhile

Shadow was in the library of the headquarters of the Brotherhood. Ever since he was able to read, he came here, hoping to find records on his parents, but he never found anything, not even his own file, which was odd in and of itself, as all other ponies in the Brotherhood he knew had files in the library. This made him think that the Conclave was hiding something, but he knew it wasn't concrete, and even if it was, he would most likely get killed for speaking ill of them. It had happened before in the Brotherhoods history.

Why would it be just me. Midnight's file is there, even Green Mist's, but not mine.

One file of interest he did find, though, was on Lone Shadow. Why it was here, he figured, was so Brotherhood members would know who he was. His guess was partially right, as it had his history up to ten years ago, when he had first become a problem for the Brotherhood, but it stopped there. There was nothing on his parents either, nor where he was born, just like Shadow's.

"Hey, Shadow," he heard from behind him. "Still trying to find out about your parents?" Midnight asked.

"Yeah."

"Still can't find your file?"

"Nope."

"Still thinking over why Green Mist got your rank?"

Shadow turned to Midnight, who had a large smile on her face, and said, "What the buck do you think?"

Midnight held up her left forehoof. "Hey, I'm just saying."

"I still can't believe the Conclave let him lead this attack. He has a personal vendetta against Chrysalis. Not exactly the best leader for an assault when she's involved."

"Are you actually doubting a Conclave decision?" Midnight asked, a little shocked.

"Yeah," Shadow nearly yelled. "After the shit they've put me through, I deserve to question at least one of their decisions."

Midnight shrugged. "Yeah, your probably right. Besides, in the ten years he's been a problem for us, Lone's killed five Zealots. You're the first to survive. Why the Conclave think that's reason to demote you, I don't know."

"Well, at least I can say I tried to kill Lone and actually survived."

"And let's be glad we aren't in Canterlot, as Green Mist and those with him are probably losing."

Shadow chuckled. "Definitely."

. . .

Canterlot- Gala room

Those who weren't in the Brotherhood showed surprised looks on their faces at what Green Mist just said.

"How can the be my daughters?" Chrysalis hissed. "Why should I believe you let them live instead of killing them?"

Green Mist smiled cruelly. "Simple. I put a memory blocker spell on them, which is why their ancestral memories didn't surface when they first met you. I had been hoping for your failure during the wedding in the way it happened. That way, when they found out the truth, I would be able to manipulate them for the Brotherhood. Of course," Green Mist said, his eyes now slits, "that would have worked better if Lone Shadow hadn't had changelings of his own here that are able to sense others of their kind, or Shadow Specter for attacking you when he did.

He chuckled. "Though, with out that failure on his part due to Lone Shadow, I wouldn't be in the position I am now. Now," he said, bringing two steel blades to the necks of Chrysalis' daughters, "if you wish for them to live, surrender, and allow us to take Canterlot."

Chrysalis was about to say, "Yes," before Lone said, "I think you've forgotten something, Mist."

"And what's that?" Green Mist hissed.

"Us," Messenger said before he, Observer, and Robin became visible behind and attacked the rear five members, which distracted the others. This lapse in attention allowed John and the other Spartans to shoot and kill the other four members, not even hitting Green Mist or his captives.

"Release them, Green Mist," Lone said. "Now."

"No. They will become adherents of the Brotherhood, and there is noth-" Green Mist said before he was rammed by Chrysalis.

"You will release my daughters now or I will make your death the slowest, most painful death Equis has ever, or will ever, see!"

Whether it was loss of concentration at being rammed or Chrysalis yelling in his face that got him to release Twilight/Metamorph and Rarity/Chitinia was unclear, but he did, and before he could do something else, Chrysalis teleported herself and her daughters back to where the others were. "You will pay for this," Green Mist said before he teleported away.

"Are you two okay," Chrysalis said, worry in her voice.

When they didn't respond, Lone said, "Move over, Chrysalis. I'll see what's going on." Chrysalis only nodded, concern on her face. Lone lit his horn and laced it on Twilight/Metemorpha's forehead. When he pulled back two seconds later, he said, "There's nothing wrong with them."

"What do you mean!?" Chrysalis yelled in fear.

"What I said. There is nothing wrong with them, unless you define the fact they now have access to their ancestral memories and are currently processing them as 'wrong.'"

"So that means," Chrysalis said hopefully.

"Yes," Lone said. "They're getting all of the memories they should have."

"Well," Lightning said, "that's good."

"Indeed it is," Messenger said.

"What are ancestral memories," Celestia asked, completely lost.

"It means a family can share the memories of a common ancestor. It leads to a family often known whether or not they're related to a famous changeling, and even find lost relatives," Chrysalis said before she turned back to her daughters.

"Has this ever happened before?" Luna asked.

"A few times," Lone said, "though not with the children of the hive's leader."

"But I thought all changelings were the same, except for their eyes."

"They are," Robin said, "this is just the first time an incident like this has happened."

"Really," Garrus said. "Not sure if that's good or bad."

"Bad," Lone said. "Leaders of the hives are affected by a spell that makes it much more difficult to block those memories, as well as their families. If Green Mist was able to do this, then he's better at magic than I thought."

"And how long should this take, them being able to process the memories?" John asked.

Lone shrugged. "Any second now, and it should be done."

"What did we just see," Twilight/Metamorpha said.

"I'm more interested in what we heard," Rarity/Chitinia replied.

"And they're out of it," Lone mumbled to himself as Chrysalis brought her two daughters into the biggest hug they had known as she cried in joy.

"I missed you two so much," she said as she sobbed, "If I had known you were still alive, I would have come for you." The look on the faces of the two changelings in the hug were a mix of confusion, happiness, surprise, and, most of all, joy.

"We know," Rarity/Chitinia said, "We know, mom."

"I hate to break up this reunion, I do," Nightengale said, "but that leaves two things: the first being if we should call you guys by your pony or changeling names."

"Yeah," Pinkie said, "it's going to be hard for the author to write dialogue for you two if he has to refer to both of you with both names."

Everyone present just stared at her like she was crazy. Way to go, Pinkie.

The only ones that didn't look surprised or freaked out were Robin and Nightengale. "Right," the former said, "and the second is that we have a lot of Brotherhood members teleporting in around the castle."

"Well," the white changeling said, "I do not know about my sister," Lone's BS detector went off, "but I would actually like to called by my birth name."

"Me too," her sister said, which made Chrysalis hug them tighter, which brought their ribs closer to cracking. "Ribs!" Metamorpha said.

"Sorry," her mother said as she let the two go.

"What are going to do, Lone?" Robin asked.

"How many?" Lone asked.

"More than we've seen in pony or in the team's records," Nightengale said.

"We run, then. Get evac portals open, Nightengale. We're all getting out of here." Lone turned to Saphira and the other dragons. "I want you guys to get back to your home and get the message out that the time is here. Same for you, Lightning."

Lightning, Saphira, and Nova nodded, with the two dragons and Spike heading out to the gardens and Lightning opening up his own portal. "And what about Chrysalis and the others?" he asked.

"We'll go with Lone," Chrysalis replied, to which her two daughters nodded. Lightning did so as well, then went through his portal, which closed behind him

"Right. Thunder, Vinyl, Wubsy, Robin: Evac with Octavia and the others. Rainbow: you're with me and the others."

"You wish to run," Celestia said, and the look on Luna's face showed she was surprised as well.

"Better to run and fight another day than kill yourself when you know it won't do any good," Lone said as Nightengale opened two portals. "Nightengale, I want you to head to location Omega Delta Sierra Tango and wait for me to contact you." Nightengale simply nodded.

Once the portal for Lone and the others was opened and Vinyl's group had gone through their's, Liara said, "What about the others?"

"Yes, what about us," Ashley said behind all of them, the others that were though to be incapacitated behind her, their weapons drawn.

"What are you doing, Ash," Garrus said.

"Helping our brothers and sisters in taking this city."

Lone's eyes widened and he grabbed Ashley and the others in his magic and threw them to the ground. "Move through the portal, NOW!!"

The others jumped through the portal, Luna being the second to last. Lone got in front of the portal, next to her. She was taking one last look around the room. "Come on," Lone said to her, offering her his hoof. She looked to him, nodded, and took his hoof. Together, they jumped into the unknown.

Fugitives and Revolutions

Luna's head was throbbing. The last thing she remembered was jumping through the portal with Lone, though she had blacked out before they arrived, so she had no idea where she and the others had landed, but she knew it was daytime, as her eyes hurt from the light coming through her eyelids.

After what felt like an hour, she opened her eyes and saw that she was in a forest, though she wasn't certain if it was the Everfree.

"Luna, are you okay?" she heard her beloved, Lone, beside her.

"Yes, my love," she replied, "though I wish my head wasn't throbbing."

"It happens whenever you go through one of Nightengale's portals for the first time," Lone said, reaching a hoof down to help Luna get up.

She took it and got up, though she was noticeably unsteady on her hooves. "I would not recommend it, then," she said.

"You and me both," Lone said, chuckling.

"So, where are the others?"

"They landed in a circle around us. You were the second to wake up. As for where we are, I'd say the Everfree."

"How can you tell?"

"Two reasons," Lone said. "The first is that Nightengale would send any VIPs to the supposedly most dangerous place in the country they're in. The second is that I occasionally spend time here as a sort of get away from my duty, and given how much I have to do, it's usually a week every two months."

"But why," Luna asked. "The Everfree is the most dangerous place in Equestria."

Lone chuckled. "Only for those who haven't spent much time here."

"Well, it seems that is all I'm getting out of you."

"For now," he said, shrugging, "I'll explain it once the others are awake."

"And how long do you believe it will take," Luna asked.

"I'd say another ten minutes, give or take five."

"So," the night alicorn asked, "what should we do in the meantime?"

"I was thinking we could just sit, and enjoy each others company."

"Agreed," Luna said, smiling.

The two sat down, simply enjoying each others company for fifteen minutes before they heard Chrysalis groggily say, "That is why I prefer my own portals." The two looked over and saw her getting up, a hoof rubbing her head.

"Her first time through Nightengale's portals?" Luna asked, a sly grin on her face.

Lone chuckled a little, getting up as he did. "Yeah, it is."

"Oh, shut it, Lone," the changeling said. "You probably reacted the same way."

"Actually," Lone said, "I didn't." He shrugged. "I vomited instead."

Both mares, if that was the term for female changelings, laughed, while Lone showed no reaction to this.

"And why is it you told us that," Chrysalis said, "it leaves room open for insults."

Lone shrugged again. "I honestly don't care about it. I couldn't help, and I see no shame in it, and even if I could have helped, I still wouldn't care."

"Really," Luna asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah. If I cared about every little thing, I would not be here right now."

"And that would be a pity," Luna replied, a small, sly grin on her face.

"That it would be, my sweet moon." His reply and the nickname made Luna giggle a little.

"Ohhh, my head," Rainbow said, indicating she was the next to wake up.

The three of them waited until she was awake fully before filling her in on where they were, and she was a little freaked out as to their location. After that, the others woke up in intervals of five to seven minutes, with John and the others waking up first, then the ponies and Chrysalis' daughters.

After filling them in on where they were, which freaked out all but John and the others, Lone asked Ken, "Ken, you said that your ship dropped mini-armories?"

"Yeah," the Spartan replied, "Why?"

"Can you track them?"

"Ken shook his head. "No. Maruco tried that when we first came down, but he couldn't pick up the signals."

"Then how," Chrysalis said, getting everyone's attention, "are we supposed to find them so you can get weapons?"

"I think I have an idea," Lone said, "but no one freak out if it works, got it?"

"How will we know if it works," Kasumi said.

"You'll know," Lone said before lighting his horn. A green aura surrounded his throat. It faded a few seconds later. He then took a deep breath, then howled like a werewolf under a full moon that was as loud as a jet.

It was another three minutes before Zaeed said, "Yeah, I don't think it fuckin' wor-"

He was cut off as the bushes just in front of Lone rustled, and a single timberwolf stepped out. This timberwolf was noticeably different from others, as it was as tall as Lone and Luna, it's eyes were, instead of the usual green, were a brick-like shade of red, much like the red highlights on Ken's armor and Lone's mane, and the bark that made up the body was a cyan blue, which said it had been magically altered.

Though it was obvious they wanted to, Metamorph, Chitinia, and the ponies were able to not panic, while those from the Spear visibly tensed up, but no one went for a weapon.

"What the hell?" Maruco asked in disbelief.

Lone's horn lit up again, with both his throat and the timberwolf's throat being surrounded by a green aura. Chrysalis then walked up the the wooden canine. She bowed her head, as if in respect, and said, "Hello, Oak."

What happened next caught all but Lone and Chrysalis to jump in surprise.

"And hello to you too, Chrysalis," Oak said, his voice surprisingly soft, considering he was a creature made of wood. "And to you as well, Lone."

. . .

Meanwhile- Earth orbit, aboard UNSC Infinity

Three humans, one wearing a white, immaculate dress uniform, his shoulder patches indicating his rank of Admiral, his dress hat on the table he and the others sitting at, which revealed a bald head on a wrinkled face, the second man wearing a gun gray uniform with the shoulder pads being slightly lighter and bearing the insignia of a Captain, with brown hair and a face that showed age, but nothing extreme, both due to his young age and the few times he had been in cryosleep, with the third, a woman, wore an almost midnight black uniform, which was the same shade as her hair, were meeting to discuss the status of the Spear.

"I don't care about their skill, Hood," the woman said, "their ship disappeared just after ONI sensors in that area picked up an anomaly that doesn't match Forerunner tech. Not even the chief's luck could save him from that."

"Are you sure of that, Osman?" Hood asked. "He survived a havoc nuke, and the firing of a Halo installation."

"Yes," Osman said. "There is no other reason to think otherwise."

"ONI said the same back in 2553. What do you think, Captain Lasky?"

"Well, sir," Lasky said, "in all honesty, they have survived worse, or at least chief has, and we have no idea what the privateer's survived, but I'd still bet that if anyone survived that, it would be chief. Plus, he and the others have only been missing for a little over a week. Other ships have turned up after a year of us thinking they were lost with all hands."

"True," Osman said,"but those ships going missing didn't correlate with an anomaly like this."

"Then we will just have to wait a while before we can conclude anything, won't we," Hood said.

"I suppose so," Osman sighed.

"Then I think it's time we went back to our respective ships."

"Agreed," Osman said, getting up to leave, as well as Lasky, who snapped off a crisp salute to both admirals before leaving. Hood was the last to leave. Before he did though, he said, "Artemis, let me know if she contacts me."

"You got it, Terrence," Artemis said before Hood left the room to go back to his ship.

. . .

Everfree forest

As the surprise of the talking timberwolf began to go down, it was Celestia who said, "I have seen many works of magic, used for good and evil. . . . But I have never seen a spell that allows one to speak another's language if one is a wild animal."

"Agreed, sister," Luna said, her face, like the others, one of disbelief.

"If I was an animal," Oak said, "then why am I not attacking you. I have only two natural desires: to mate and feed, and I already have a mate, so why am I not trying to eat you?" None could come up with an answer, while Lone and Chrysalis had large, shit-eating grins on their faces.

Just like how you and Lightning first reacted, Lone said over the telepathic link.

No. We were worse. At least they aren't trying to kill him, she replied in a mirth filled mental tone.

They both shared a laugh over this before Oak continued. "The reason why is because, though most of my kind are indeed animals, I am the exception. If you are wondering how I met Lone, it was a few years back. I was hunting for food when I heard the hunting cries of a pack, as I was what you would call an exile. I made my way there to find Lone, who was injured, by which I mean a bloody cut across his barrel that was long but shallow, surrounded by five other wolves. I had originally considered leaving him there, but then I saw his lack of a cutie mark, and there is an old legend among the timberwolves that speaks of one like him, and I knew he had something to do with it, so I jumped in front of him, and we were able to kill the wolves together."

"When is it he gave you the ability to speak?" Celestia asked.

"Not often, as he used it on me when I had intel to give others, like now. And I know you are curious to my changes. Lone cast an identification spell on me that made me unique. An unintended side effect of it, though, is that I can cast that spell, and only that spell on other timberwolves. I spread the word of him to others, and those who believed me joined my own pack, and they take orders only from me and Lone."

"So you're an Alpha?" Metamorpha asked, still retaining her love of knowledge.

"I suppose so," Oak said, chuckling, which sounded, appropriately, like sticks coming together, "though if you ask the rest of my pack, they will say Lone is the Alpha, with me being his second."

"And you're supposed to help us get to the goddamn weapons how?" Zaeed asked.

"Simple," Oak said. "My pack is surrounding it, keeping other packs and various other animals from coming near. Fortunately, another side effect of the spell is that those affected by it are immune to cockatrice stares, and we combine into a timberwolf as tall as the castle in Ponyville."

"Jesus," Lily said. "That's impressive and slightly terrifying."

"Agreed," Ken said.

"Yes, and I just remembered, Lone," Oak said, turning to said stallion. "A day ago, two of my pack-mates found five fillies on the edge of the forest being chased by older ponies. They were able to scare them off, and we have the fillies with us, but we're not certain what to do with them."

Lone brought a hoof up to his chin to think for half a minute before saying, "I'll decide once we get there. Do you know why the fillies were being chased?"

Nodding, Oak replied, "If what my pack-mates said was true, it was because three of them unintentionally destroyed a few buildings, while the other two went against the usual 'Equality' stuff that goes with towns under the Brotherhood's control. More specifically, insulting and bullying the other three, and they are still doing it, just not as much as they did to begin with. It seems they at least can guess as to something going on."

Those descriptions sound familiar, Lone thought. "The three wouldn't happen to be missing their cutie marks, and the other two having a tiara and spoon for cutie marks, would they?"

"Yes," Oak said. "Why?"

Sighing, Lone said, "Because the three without a cutie mark would be the CMC, while the other two are the town's local bullies. I'll admit, I'm curious why they weren't affected by the Brotherhood, but I'm certain they aren't taking this as serious as needed. Plus, I think Applejack and Chitinia want to talk with their sisters, or pony sister, in Chitinia's case, about coming near the forest."

"Indeed," Chitinia said.

"Darn tootin'" Applejack said.

"In that case, lead the way, Oak," Lone said.

Oak nodded and said, "Follow me," before turning back the way he came and walking into the forest, with the others behind.

A few hours later

The unusual group was nearing the armory sites, if the sounds of timberwolves around them with occasional glimpses of brick red eyes were any indication.

"I didn't think we had arrived this far from them," Garrus aid.

"You and me both, G," Maruco said.

They continued to walk for a few more minutes before they came to a clearing, which was large. The mini-armories, together, took up about half of the space. All of them were white octagon shaped structures with a window running across the middle horizontally, and four entrances, one on each of the longer sides. (Think the large 4-way pieces from impact.)

As they neared, they heard a small filly say, "Oh, oh, maybe we can try to tame one of them!"

"Are y'all sure 'bout that, Scoots?" A second asked. "That seems stupid, even for us."

"And not to mention dangerous," a third said.

"They were doing that this morning," Oak said. "Different suggestions, but it was still the same point."

"Great," Lone said sarcastically.

"Did you guys here that," Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah. What do you think it was," Scootaloo said.

"Whatever it is, Ah'm certain the timberwolves will stop it."

"That is a sentence I never thought I'd hear," a fourth filly that the ponies and changelings from Ponyville recognized as Diamond Tiara said.

"True," a fifth that was Silver Spoon said.

"Actually," Lone said, turning a corner to see the fillies with the others coming in behind him, "they would, as I asked them to."

"And who are you," Diamond Tiara asked, sounding pissed, "to foalnap us?"

"Do you want the long list, or the short?"

"All of them," she said, grinning, sure he had no legitimate reason.

"One: The alpha of the pack that saved your flanks from those that were chasing you. Two: A pony who knows spells to remove Cutie marks," this one got a scared look from Diamond, "Three: A pony who knows what's going on, and fourth: Somepony who doesn't care about what spoiled brats like you think. And the last one would be a pony that the princesses have put in charge of protecting them, so do you still feel confident that you or your daddy can stop me from talking back and down to you, when you have done worse."

Grinning, he also added, "And I'm also a blank flank, so I can say that I personally feel insulted when you make fun of us, with 'us' being any blank flanks, so unless you want me to make you one, I suggest you shut your mouth to me, and apologize to the CMC, and Pinkie Promise you won't insult or bully them, or anypony, ever again. Is that clear?"

"Do you have any proof?"she asked.

Pompous daughter of a- Lone thought before lighting his horn and using it where the fillies cutie mark was.What he was really doing was pulling on the skin and coat in those areas to make it feel like he was removing her cutie mark, The look on her face was one pf terror for a second once she realized what he was doing, or, rather, bluffing about, until he stopped. "Now, unless you want me to actually make you a blank flank, I suggest you do as I said."

Too terrified of the bluff, Diamond did as he said, earning him slightly terrified and disturbed looks from the ponies, while also getting a look of awe from the CMC.

One it was done, he said, "Now that that's out of the way, I think you three have some explaining to do to some ponies." He then moved to the side so the CMC could get a view of those immediately behind him, which included Applejack, Rainbow, still wearing the anti-flight jacket, and Chitinia, who was in her changeling form.

"Sis," Applebloom asked in surprise, "what are y'all doing here? And why do you have changelings with ya?"

"It's along story, Applebloom."

"Rainbow," Scootaloo said, "why are you wearing that jacket?"

"Long story," Rainbow said, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

"And why does one of the changelings look like Rarity?" Sweetie asked.

"Because I am Rarity," Chitinia asked, though the response it got was not positive.

"No you aren't. My sister hates changelings."

Oh, the irony in that, Chrysalis thought.

Agreed Lone thought before saying, "We'll tell the three of you later. For now, just don't touch anything that may lead to a lost limb, which is just about everything in those containers."

"Right," Applebloom said, slight fear in her voice before she and the other members of the CMC, as well as Diamond and Silver Spoon, the former looking like she had seen a ghost, a mutilated manticore, and just about everything else a filly her age shouldn't be exposed to, the more bloody of which Lone had lived first hand, or hoof, in this case.

As they left, Celestia spoke up. "And why did you terrorize one of my subjects?"

"A: They are no longer your subjects. By now, the Brotherhood has most likely taken control of Canterlot, as well as the throne, which means you've been overthrown. B: If it had been you, she would have done what you said, yes, but you wouldn't be willing to enact punishment of her due to her age. Sometimes," Lone said, getting in her face, "you have to act like a monster to prevent monsters. The spell was a bluff. The only one who could do that was Tirek, as well as unicorn I once met who called herself Starlight Glimmer, but she actually used it to cause pain as she did it. Needless to say, she's no longer an issue. I could have come up with a spell like that if I wanted, but I didn't."

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He backed away from all of them and, facing them, said, "Whether we like it or not, we're enemies of the state. Terrorists. Renegades, Fugitives. That won't make me stop fighting though. Sometimes, those that change the world for the better are those who break the laws, and I will do so, or die trying. I know none of you though this is how your life would go, but this is where we are. There are two paths open to all of us: One leads to us fighting, possibly dying, but can change this world for the better. The second leads to ensured survival, but at the cost of our freedom, as we are threats to the Brotherhood, and they will imprison us should we surrender, and the world staying as is."

He took on a faint, green glow here, though only the Element bearers and the former princesses could see it, and even then, barely, and said, in a voice that rivaled that of the Royal Canterlot Voice, "I CHOOSE TO FIGHT, TO OUST THE BROTHERHOOD, AND TO ENSURE NO OTHERS SUFFER HIS RULE! I'M NOT ASKING YOU TO JOIN ME, NOR AM I ORDERING THOSE OF YOU IN LONE TEAM, TO JOIN. SOMETIMES, YOU DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO ENSURE A BETTER FUTURE, EVEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING! THE BEST HEROES ARE THOSE WHO DON'T WANT TO FIGHT. WHO'S WITH ME!?

"We stand with you," Oak said, many of his pack behind him.

"As do my hive and I," Chrysalis said.

"I'm the Element of loyalty," Rainbow said, "Do you need to ask?"

"And me," Metamorpha said. "I'd rather die trying to help then live as a prisoner."

"As do I," Chitinia said.

Raising his arms to his side, Ken said, "You know we're with you."

"Fuckin' right we are," Zaeed said.

"And me," Pinkie said, bringing her party cannon out, "time for some fun!"

"Ah, shoot, Ah don't see why not," Applejack said.

"And me," Fluttershy whispered, though she nodded to make sure the message got through.

All eyes turned to the ex-princesses. Luna was the next to respond by saying, "And I, as as well."

"But Luna, why?" Celestia asked while everyone was watching, "Do you want to become known as Nightmare Moon again? You'll have to kill. Kill!! Is that what you wish?"

"I would rather take the active, if not proactive, road to helping the ponies, dear sister, even if they do not want it," Luna said. "He is right. If we do nothing, then we will be hunted and eventually captured. At least fighting will show we are not willing to allow this to happen. I expected you to be the first to agree with him. Do you not care for the ponies?"

"I DO! THAT IS WHY I DO NOT WISH TO FIGHT THEM!!" Celestia yelled before turning around. "Don't follow me. Any of you. You wish to cause harm to innocents, and I will not stand with you if that is the case," she said before walking away into the forest, not even Luna going after her, as much as she wanted to, as she and the others knew that Celestia was hard to sway when her mind was set.

Lone shook his head in disappointment, though he wasn't surprised. If anything, he had a little more respect for the solar alicorn for sticking with her beliefs, even when those closest to her had the exact opposite. "Can't say I'm surprised," Ken said.

"Indeed," Luna said, a small hint of sadness in her voice. "My sister is hard to sway." It was here that Luna removed her regalia, cementing that she knew her life as a princess was over, first her tiara, then the chest piece, then finally the shoes. One thing she shed that was not noticed, though, was a single tear.

"Brooding on this won't help us win," John said, going back to his professional solider attitude, "we need to arm up."

"Agreed," Lone said. As the others went to the armories to pick weapons, Lone walked over to Luna, the only one who hadn't moved. He walked up beside her, and put a comforting hoof over her shoulder. The navy blue alicorn then sobbed in her love's embrace, stopping only when she could not cry any more five minutes later, Lone staying silent, as he knew only time could help her. She then nuzzled him, saying, "If only the Brotherhood hadn't attacked, this wouldn't have happened."

"I know, Luna. You aren't the only one to have their family destroyed by them, but we can make sure you are among the last. I swear it to you, both as the leader of lone team, and as your love."

"Thank you," she said.

"For what?"

"For being here with me. It does more than you think."

"Anything for you, sweet moon," Lone said. "Come on. We don't want to let the others get all the good stuff, do we?"

This got a small but much needed chuckle from Luna. "Indeed."

Thirty minutes later

The group was at the center of the clearing in which the armories were. They had an assortment of weapons, though the Elements were slightly uneasy at wielding weapons of death. The crew of the Spear had the same weapons they had when they landed, while those from the Shepard had the equivalents of their usual weapons. One thing that had surprised every one was when one of the armories contained a pelican, though how was beyond them, though they assumed Discord was involved, as it had a note that read, "For your travels." In fact, another was found just outside the clearing, which meant they could all travel to whatever their destination was with ease.

Applejack, Rainbow, and Chitinia had told the CMC and their, for lack of better terminology, enemies what had happened in the past week, as classified was practically blown to hell and back, then shot into the sun. They didn't believe some of it, mainly the fact that Celestia cast a memory spell on her former subjects that, though it had good intentions, erased the memories of events like the invasion three years ago, but the fact that the Element of Honesty was saying this eventually convinced them. The five were, with the permission of their siblings for those applicable and the permission that Luna still had, sent through a portal to Chrysalis' hive for safety.

"So," Ken said, "where do we go first, Lone?"

"The Crystal Empire. One of my team mates there informed me of unrest there, and we need to make sure Princess Cadence and her husband, Shining Armor,a are alright, and evacuate them if possible."

"And how do you think they're going to react to Chrysalis and the others," John said.

Lone shrugged. "No idea."

"Well," Garrus said, "at least you know what intel you don't have, unlike a few people I know back home."

"I hear that," Lily said.

"Any one have questions," Lone asked. When no one said any thing, Lone turned to Oak, who had reverted to his native tongue shortly after Celestia's departure when Lone deactivated the spell . "Make sure nothing gets to the armories, Oak. We don't need the Brotherhood to have access to these weapons."

Oak nodded, then growled to the others of his pack, and they disappeared into the forest. "Let's get moving," Lone said, and the group headed to the two pelicans, splitting into two groups, with Ken in one and Lily in another, as they would be flying the pelicans. They boarded the pelicans, and, once pre-flight checks were done, lifted off, and flew to the north.

As they flew off, in the darkest corner of the multiverse, a being of immense power was watching this unfold. Though he hadn't expected Lone to cause as much trouble as he had, but he was smiling at what had happened with Celestia. He had been the one to send those nightmares to Luna to frighten her, though he hadn't expected interference. What had happened with Celestia was better then he could have hoped for. He sent a small part of his mind to the white alicorn, and left seeds of fear, doubt, and hate that he could use later. As the two groups and single alicorn went their ways, he smiled, knowing he would soon have control of this world, and those the aliens came from, yet again.

Scouting

"Archangel, this is Mage. No new Intel on VIPs 'Paramour' and 'Knight'. Copy?"

"Copy that, Mage. I'll let Singular know. Archangel, out."

"You know, Chitinia said to Metamorpha as she closed the communication channel, "there isn't a garuntee that they're here."

Sighing, Metamorpha said, "I know, sis, but we still have to check. Otherwise, we'll be attacking with no intel. This is the Crystal Empire, after all."

It had been a week since the escape from Canterlot, and the ponies were still adjusting. Just a few hours after leaving the clearing in the Everfree forest, they had arrived at the outskirts of the Empire. Lone had informed everyone what the situation was, and said that they were going to rescue Cadence, code named 'Paramour', and Shining, code named 'Knight', if it was possible. As a result, Chrysalis, Chitinia, and Metmorpha were in the Crystal Empire, trying to ascertain if the two royals were here. Due to the circumstances, Lone had asked those present that weren't a part of lone team, regardless of them being alien or not, if they wished to join, and the only ones to say no were Zaeed, Garrus, and Sawn. The others had become acolytes, though the chain of command was, in order: Lone, Chrysalis, and Rainbow, as they were the three senior members, even if Rainbow had only been a part of the team for two days at the time. Understandably, the main training regimen was altered, with only the magic users being trained at the moment due to Lone being the only member still at the main camp, which was about three quarters of a kilometer away from the Empire, who had full training. Chitinia and Metamorpha were getting the changeling training from Chrysalis.

Right now, the three changelings were in an abandoned, though well kept up, building that acted as their hideout. More accurately, the basement of it, which allowed for the privacy they needed.

"So," Chrysalis asked her daughters, "what do you two wish to learn next?"

"Well," Chitinia said, "what about more advanced shape-shifting techniques?"

Smiling, Chrysalis said, "Of course. It's actually what I learned at this point."

Both her daughters got in front of her, with Metamorpha having a scroll and quill, and sat.

"Now," Chrysalis said, "of all of the advanced shape-shifting spells, the most common is light bending. What most changelings do, though more fool proof, is much easier to spot differences. Light bending is what I, my infiltrators, and shock troopers use. What we do is focus on the light-waves that make up the colors of the pony we are trying to imitate. The standard is much more painful, but easier to accomplish, and that is actually changing our body to match the pony, though this is harder to remove, it also takes a long time for it to take effect, and has greater risk, as a pony could see us during the process."

"I suppose that makes sense," Metamorpha said, "but why do both give off flames?"

"I don't know," Chrysalis said. "Not even our best scientists know why, though many theorize it's due to the natural magic color of our species. But some changelings have different flame colors naturally, such as an old friend of mine, Wasp, who's flames were yellow."

"Really?" Chitinia asked.

"Yes," Chrysalis said, "though he often showed off. Even with that, though, I still found his company pleasant. It was thanks to him I was able to get through the stress of being elected."

"What happened to him?" Metamorpha asked.

Chrysalis' smile faded as the question reached her ears. "He died during Green Mist's uprising, trying to protect me. If it hadn't been for his sacrifice, I doubt I'd be here. I even gave him a place of honor in the cemetery that's usually only given to war heros" She chuckled a little, and a small smile came to her face. "You know, you two remind me of him. He had Chitinia's love for fashion and eye for detail, and he had your love for knowledge, Metamorpha. I imagine he'd be happy to see you two as you are now. He was your father, after all."

"Our father was given what?" Chitinia asked.

"The best honor a changeling could have. He sacrificed himself for me, as well as you two, and I saw to him getting the honor he earned when the rebellion was finished."

"I imagine he was the best you ever met, mom," Metamorpha said.

"Indeed he was. But that's enough for now. Back to your lesson. One thing you must master for this is control. Should you become surprised, and it breaks your concentration for even a second, your disguise will waver, and those with sharp eyes willnotice."

"But wouldn't it be an unconscious thing, like Lightning said?" Chitinia asked.

"Ordinarily, no, though Lightning is one of the few like that."

"Looks like our family is full of unique changelings, doesn't it?" Metamorpha said.

"Indeed it is," Chrysalis said before she went back to the lesson. She explained how to activate the particular variant of shape-shifting, which was to focus on the particular pattern of a pony's color in terms of mathematical values, a feat easily accomplished for the studious changeling and the fashionista changeling. After that, Chrysalis explained the many variations of the spell, some of which allowed for a changeling to look like other species, though this was rarely used.

This continued for an hour, after which, it was time for the three to go back into the city. The three went into their crystal pony disguises, Metamorpha becoming a light red mare with a light blue mane, a single crystal being the cutie mark, while Chitinia took on the appearance of a blue-coated mare with an orange mane that had some semblance to her original mane, in terms of fashion, while Chrysalis adopted the appearance of the form she was in when she had arrived in Canterlot a little over a week ago, the only change being that she looked more like a crystal unicorn, which were rare, but not unheard of.

They headed out, going to different parts of the city, Chrysalis to the library and the surrounding area, Chitinia to the area around the shopping area, and she was amazingly able to not gush over the outfits there, while Metamorpha went to the military district, which was the castle, as well as the barracks that sprouted up next to it.

. . .

Metamorpha had been listening to the various conversations she had heard for a few hours when she heard a familiar voice say, "Make sure the patrols are stepped up. Green Mist told me personally that the traitors will attempt to free the prisoner tomorrow during the celebration. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. Now, spread the word, and ensure everypony knows about the new patrols, as well as the plan."

"Yes, General Armor."

. . .

Lone team main camp

All things considered, Ken was having a good week. Sure, compared to other points in his life, this was a very confusing, and occasionally crappy, week, but given the circumstances he found himself in, it could have been worse.

Right now, he was one of the snipers watching the camps perimeter, along with Garrus, Zaeed, and Lily. It was, in all honesty, the most boring role he could think of, even though it was necessary. He and the others were on a rotation schedule so that none of them would fall asleep on the job.

He was on his second hour of watch, looking through his sniper scope, bored at the fact there was no wild life nearby, when he heard Lily say over the radio, "Ken, get to the pelicans. We just got word from the infiltration team, and, as Pinkie puts it for some reason, 'It's gonna be a doozy.'"

"Got it, Lil," Ken replied, getting up as he did so.

He made his way to the pelicans, which were also the command center of the camp, due to the comm tech there. When he made it, he saw looks of worry, urgency, and surprise on some of the faces there. "Hey, what's up?" he said.

"We just got some news regarding Shining Armor, and possibly Cadence," Garrus said.

"And what's that?"

"'That',Ken" Lone said, walking out of the pelican he was in, with Luna beside him, "would be that Shining has most likely been brought under the influence of the Brotherhood and is leading their defense of the Empire, where as we think Cadence is in the dungeons."

"And how do we know this," Ken asked.

"Because Metmorpha told us over radio once she was certain it was safe, and she had Chitinia say the same, and had Chrysalis tell me over the link."

"So," Lily said, "what are we going to do?"

"Simple," Lone said. "We sneak into the dungeons, and if Cadence is their, we get out as fast as possible."

"How are we supposed to get out?"

"Easy," Maruco said, holding up a sticky detanator. "The fun way."

"That may be an issue, Maruco," John said.

"Why?"

"Because I just got word from Metamorpha. She said she was able to sneak into the dungeons, and it isn't Cadence in there."

"Then who is it," Luna asked.

"Celestia."

Prison break

Pain. That was the main feeling that Celestia was experiencing. She looked over what had happened over the past week to try to find out where this had started. She had been in the crystal dungeon for nearly a day, and already she was wishing she had chose differently.

Now, she knew where she had messed. She just kept looking back to see if there was another way to have avoided this, but she always came to the same conclusion. She should have joined Lone and the others.

. . .

Everfree forest- one week earlier

"Don't follow me. Any of you. You wish to cause harm to innocents, and I will not stand with you if that is the case," Celestia said before she walked into the Everfree forest. She was surprised when Luna didn't come after her, but she continued walking. The thoughts in her mind were many, but one always came to the fore front: Why did Lone have a slight green aura around him?

Green? That's the same color as his magic. Is it possible he cast a spell on himself that made it to where he could easily sway most ponies to his cause? If so, he may be a bigger threat than the Brotherhood. If the Brotherhood is even a credible threat. If they hadn't caught me and the others by surprise, we could have beaten them without help, one part of her voice thought.

Yes, but you must keep in mind that Shadow Specter was able to easily capture you, and was about to kill you, and would have if it hadn't been for Lone, the reasonable part said.

And what if that was just a trick to make you trust him so he could kill you later, the first part said, which, for ease, we will call paranoid Celestia.

He could have easily made us stay in Canterlot, which would have made us an easy target.

For who? Paranoid Celestia said. For all we know, those that "attacked" us were a part of his team.

And what if they weren't part of the team, and actually wanted to kill us?

"If"! There are too many "ifs" in your life, Paranoid Celestia said.

Shut up.

What 'if' Nightmare had won our fight? What 'if' you had been able to stop her before any of this.

Shut up!

What 'if' you're a terrible ruler, just. Like. Lone. Said?

"SHUT UP!!," Celestia yelled out loud. She took deep breaths and looked around her, her eyes wild, and saw that the few animals that had been there earlier had left. "I am not a terrible ruler," she said to herself, "Everything I did was for my subjects."

She was like this until after she heard the pelicans leave, though she didn't see the direction they took off in. She got control of her breathing shortly after the sound of the engines faded. She didn't deny she disliked Lone, but even she had to admit that he had proved that he was telling the truth, so why did she say he wasn't?

Because, Paranoid Celestia said, he isn't an Element. They are the only ones you trust to the point that you would follow them. In fact, I'm willing to bet that if he was an Element, then you'd be with him, like our dear, traitorous sister.

"She is not a traitor."

Like Nightmare wasn't trying to usurp you and take power, because that's exactly what it looked like to me.

"And how would you know? You're supposed to be me, and I never said she wasn't trying to do that?"

I'm not you, I'm your darkest fears. I'm your hate. I'm your insecurity. I'm the tyrant to your benign leadership. I'm the Solar Flare to your celestial body, and you can not escape me. I will be with you forever, much like Nightmare is with precious, little, traitorous Luna.

"No," she said, "I will not allow you to disrespect my sister."

Don't you mean our sister. I am just as much her sister as you are.

"I won't allow you to survive."

Oh, I'm so scared. It's a good thing the one spell that can purge me from you is in the Crystal Empire. . . . Damn it!!

"Well, thank you," Celestia said smugly before spreading her wings and flying to the Empire.

. . .

Crystal Empire dungeons- present

In hindsight, Celestia now saw that she should have figured out it was a trap before hand due to Solar Flare saying it the way she did. She had arrived at the Empire three days after her departure, and as far as she could tell, everything was normal. Too normal. The ponies all had anger or hate in their eyes when ever they saw her, and when ever she had asked Shining Armor if she could speak with Cadence, he always said that she was in the middle of something, and he didn't know when she would be free. This should have been an immediate indication something was wrong, as Cadence always met her face to face when one of them visited the other.

Yesterday, she had barged into the study, where Shining said Cadence was, to discover she wasn't there. When she confronted Shining about this, she was shot from behind by a beam of magic that knocked her out. She woke up about twelve hours ago, and she had been in the same cell since then.

She was brought out of her thoughts when, from the other side of the cell door, she heard Shining say, "How the mighty have fallen. Tell me, Celestia, what made you think you would be safe from the Brotherhood here?"

"Because I didn't think they were here."

"Why not? We are in every city on Equis. I am simply the latest adherent of the brotherhood."

"But why would you want this? Why would you remove Cadence from power?"

A new voice spoke up. "Now, what makes you think that, Auntie?"

. . .

Lone team main camp- that afternoon

Lone and the others were around the main table in the main camp. The table showed a holographic layout of the Empire. "Our plan is simple," Ken said, highlighting a part of the Empire on the western edge. "Me, Lily, and Maruco will infiltrate here, where the guard presence is at its least, while Chrysalis, Metamorpha, and Chitinia will be here," he highlighted a potion of the Empire to the direct south of the palace, "waiting until Lone gives the signal to move in. Pinkie, Samara, and Liara will be providing support, as well as Zaeed and Garrus with their rifles. The rest will come in from the north, where the main celebration is being held, with Shining Armor and whoever his aide is. Once we get Celestia out of there, we get back here as soon as possible, then leave the area."

"And what if the entire plan gets fucked?" Zaeed said.

"Easy," Maruco said, reaching behind his back and bringing out a pack of C-12. "The fun way." Under his helmet, he was smiling like a psycho.

"An what if we can't get Celestia out'a there," Applejack said.

"We cause as much hell as possible to get in there ourselves," Lily said.

"And we start in a few hours, people," Lone said. "We got a party to crash, and we wouldn't want to be late."

A few hours later- Eastern edge of the Empire

Luna and Lone were the only ones at the eastern edge, along with Garrus, as those providing long range support were at the edges of the Empire to have the best sight lines. So," Garrus said, "what do you think happened to Cadence if she isn't in the dungeons?"

"No idea," Lone said. "Let's just hope that she's all right."

"Indeed," Luna said. "And should she be harmed, I hope for the sake of those that hurt her that they're already dead before I reach them."

"Agreed," Lone said.

A few minutes later, he activated his communicator and said, "Let's crash a party."

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Ken, Lily, and Maruco, following the plan, detonated packs of explosive on the opposite edge of the Empire. The cloud was taller than the palace, which meant they decided to blow up some fireworks shops. The few guards that Lone and Luna saw from their vantage point immediately rushed there. "Too easy," Garrus muttered.

"Team two, you are clear. I repeat, you are clear," Lone said. Team two consisted of Applejack, Kasumi, John, Hades, and Sawn. They were the fir to move to the center, where the celebration was. They were to ascertain where Shining was, as well as take out as many guards as possible that remained. "Support, when you get the word from team one or two, light 'em up!" This group was Garrus, Zaeed, Liara, Samara, and Pinkie. "Evac. be ready to move out once we have Sun Bringer, or if the plan goes FUBAR." This was Thel, who had gotten some experience for flying a pelican during the human-covenant war, and Rainbow, who had gotten basic training on it from Ken. "Infiltration, move on my mark."

"Copy," all team leaders said.

Three minutes later, John radioed in, saying, "Singular, we've located Knight. He's at the celebration. Repeat, he's at the celebration."

"Copy, Spartan," Lone said. "Infiltration team, you are a go."

"Understood," Chrysalis said.

It was then Ken radioed in, panic in his voice, saying, "ALL TEAMS, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!! I FUCKING REPEAT, THE SITUATION IS MOTHERFUCKING FUBAR!!"

"What is it, Raider," Lone said, using his codename, which was also the name of his helmet.

"IT'S (static) I REPEAT, IT'S (static) WE NEED TO ABORT NOW!! I REPEAT WE NEED-" the radio cut off, but an explosion could be seen from where Lone and Luna were.

John came back over the radio, "We have sighting of Paramour! Repeat, we have sighting of Paramour, as well as Sun Bringer. Ecav, get-"

"What the hell's going on," Garrus said before the three of them vanished in a flash of light, only yo re appear in the center of a circle of guards. The others had their weapons drawn. By others, I mean everyone but Thel and Rainbow. Applejack had a shotgun pointed at the circle of guards, while Chitinia had a plasma rifle, as well as Metamorpha. Pinkie had her party cannon out. Lone drew out his energy sword while Luna brought out her Battle rifle.

The major attention grabber, though was Cadence holding Celestia in her grasp. "Hello, Luna," she said, "Welcome to the rebirthing festival."

"And just who's it for," Lone asked.

"Isn't it obvious, Lone," Green Mist said, coming in from behind Cadence, as well as Ashley and the others, all og whom had thier eyes closed and were in Green Mist's magical grasp. "It's for Plasma."

Explanations of Fear

Luna was in tears. Not because Lone was dead. She knew he wasn't, but in tears because of his transformation, which used magic similar to the kind Luna used to first transform into Nightmare Moon, and she knew nopony would be able to resist the corruption that came with it. She was also worried for her sister, so imagine her relief when she heard Ken speak to Lone over the radio, but also her confusion. She was also glad Lone had been able to get Celestia, and was on his way to where they were.

After a few minutes of waiting past the conversation, she heard hoofsteps coming form the palace entrance. She turned to look and saw Lone, in his first form, and not the one he had changed into, and Celestia, though the latter was held in the former's magic. One thing she didn't notice was that his magic was a different color.

"Lone!" she yelled, getting up and running to him. She hugged him as hard as an Ursa Minor, and gave Lone a full on kiss. How his concentration didn't break is a mystery.

"Hey, Lulu," he said once they finished with the kiss.

"Lone, what happened up there?" Luna asked looking at Lone with concern.

"Long story. I'll explain once Celestia's awake," he said. "For now, we need to get on the pelicans. There's something I need to check at a place only the pelicans can get to."

"Okay," Luna said, "but you better give a good explanation."

"That, mt sweet moon," Lone said, "is based on opinion as to if it's a good one. Instead, I shall do my best."

"That's all I ask," the alicorn said before heading to one of the pelicans.

Lone walked to where Ken, who was conversing with Maruco and Lily, and said, "Ken, what happened to the guards?"

"No idea," Ken said, turning to face Lone. "They just stopped attacking and left just before you radioed us."

"Yeah, any idea why," Maruco said.

"Their leaders realized it was a lost cause and decided to pull back," Lone said.

"And what was that transformation of yours, Lone," Lily asked, "'cause you looked like a baddass."

"I'll explain it once we're in the air. We have someplace we need to go, and the only way to get there quickly for everyone is by pelican."

Ken and Lily nodded. "Right," Ken said, "I'll get them ready. Best guess, ten minutes."

"Right," Lone said. "I'll get Celestia in one of them." He then walked to the same one that Luna had walked to. He stepped in and placed Celestia across a few of the chairs and used his magic to keep her from rolling off.

"How is she?" Luna asked, worried.

"As best as I can tell," Lone said, "she's just unconscious from dehydration. We just need to give her time and some water when she wakes up."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. During my training, I had a few moment like this. It could be worse."

Sighing, Luna said, "I suppose that's one thing to be thankful for, besides you coming back." She looked to her sister. "How do you think she'll react to the others when she learns where she is?"

"I don't know, Luna," Lone said, "It could be in either direction."

"Well, I suppose we should be ready to move?"

"Yeah. Ken said ten minutes before we leave, and that was three minutes ago. I'll make sure Celestia's ready for it," Lone said.

Seven minutes later

The two pelicans lifted off from the crystal plaza, and went even further north. The others were spread out in the two transports. In one, it was Ken, Lone, Luna, Chrysalis, Chitinia, Sawn, and Rainbow, as well as an unconscious Celestia. The others, including the three Crystal ponies, were on the other. Right now, they were all waiting to see if Celestia would wake up.

They didn't have to wait long.

Five minutes after the pelicans had taken off, Celestia began to move. Luna was the first to her side. The solar alicorn opened her eyes and said, with a dry voice, indicating that she was dehydrated, "Luna, i-is t-that you?"

"Ye it is, sister. Don't speak, you need to drink water. Lone, can you-"

"Already got the canteen," Lone said, passing it to Luna, who gave it to her sister.

"Drink slowly, sister. We don't want you to make yourself worse."

Celestia drank from the canteen slowly. After a minute, Luna brought it away and allowed Celestia to catch her breath, after which, the solar alicorn said, "What are we doing here, Luna? Where are we?"

"For where we are, sister; we're in one of the transports we found in the clearing in the Everfree. As for what we're doing in it, we're going to a location that Lone says is important."

"Lone? Why's he here?"

"Because, sister, he helped save you. If it hadn't been for him, you'd most likely be dead."

"Why would he save me? He knows I don't trust him."

"Because," Lone said, "a real hero saves ponies, even if they don't want them to do so, regardless of what they think. Besides, your Luna's sister, and I won't stand by when one of her family is in danger."

"Still curious as to how you did that, Lone," Maruco said over the radio connected intercom.

"I suppose I should tell that before we get to our destination, huh?"

"Well, you all might want to get comfortable, because this is going to be a long story," Lone said, sitting down on the pelicans deck. "It all connects to one of my first missions as a member of lone team. Me and my mentor, an earth pony named Obsidian, named that because of his gray coat with streaks of black through it, as well as his mane and tail, with a stone circle as his cutie mark, were investigating a village that disappeared on the Equestria-Minotaur border. When we arrived, the town was completely deserted. We were the only living things there. Or, at least, we though so. After we were a quarter of the way into the town, we were attacked by Minotaur mercenaries. Twenty, to be precise. We were able to kill five of them without incident, but the sixth got Obsidian with his sword, leaving a gash on the right side of his barrel. I saw him get hit, and that's when I saw the wound was bubbling, which meant the sword was coated in acid. Obsidian died not a minute later, just after he killed the Minotaur that hit him. It was seeing him fall to the ground that caused me to go into a blood lust. I don't remember what happened then, but when I was able to recall everything, the Minotaurs were all either dead or cowering. It woasn't until after I got back from that mission that I learned what happened, or another facet of magic."

Lone cleared his throat before continuing. "What I learned is that every pony, no matter how virtuous, has a dark side. Well know examples of these dark sides would be Nightmare Moon and Nightmare Rarity, though the second was just an alternate of the first, but I digress. Though it's common for a pony to uncover it during an emotional high or low, it's rare for a pony to be able to communicate with their dark sides, which is some thing I can do.

"Upon my return, I went to my personal quarters and meditated for a few hours. I was about to give up when I heard a more gravelly version of my voice speak to me from in front of me. I opened my eyes and saw a more predatory, muscular, sleeker version of my self. I responded to it, asking him what his name was."

"Why did you try to communicate with it, instead of purging it," Celestia asked, her voice still weak.

"Because he is a part of me, much like Nightmare Moon will always be a part of Luna, even after her defeat. Anyway, I asked him what his name was, and he said he had none. I decided to give him one, using what I knew of him from the town to do so. I decided to call him Fear Bringer, seeing as how he brought fear to Minotuars, the toughest warriors to frighten."

"Lone, you didn't," Radiant said, concern in her voice.

"Indeed I did. You see, Fear and I reached an agreement. He wished to fight, and I wanted to protect my friends, so I proposed to him that he can guide me, but not control, in combat, and, should it be necessary, give him control over my body. I've called on him rarely, and the times I have were the most dire of circumstances. Even then though, every member of lone team has heard of him. I allowed him to take control back in the Empire in order to free Celestia and stop, or, at least, delay, Plasma's rising. I can honestly say that if it wasn't for him, we'd all probably be dead right now."

Thank you.

"Oh shut up, Fear," Lone said out loud, getting looks from the others in the pelican.

"Fear?" Luna asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. I'm used to speaking with him when it's just one body in the room," Lone said, his cheeks a little red from embarrassment.

"May we speak with him?" Chrysalis asked.

Fear?

It would be best to get it out of the way, I suppose, if only to show them they can trust us.

Instead of answering with words, Lone enveloped himself in his magic, and after three seconds, Fear Bringer was where Lone was. "Good afternoon to you all," he said, bowing his head in respect before raising it up.

"Your Fear Bringer," Celestia asked. "You do not seem frightful to me."

"That's because you haven't seen him in combat," Saber said over the com.

"Indeed," Fear said. "It's those factors that made Lone give me my name, and, I must say, it fits me well."

"I assume that it's the fact that Lone is also missing his that you're missing your cutie mark," Luna asked.

"I imagine so. Lone has a theory as to that which he hopes to confirm at our destination, which I won't tell you."

"And what aspect of Lone are you," Metamorpha asked.

"I'm his blood lust, his murderous side. I was always a part of his psyche. He can barely keep control of me when ever we're surrounded by bodies that he's killed, and always struggles to keep me under control. If it wasn't for his will power, I would have become a threat long ago."

"And why should we trust you," Celestia said weakly, anger still clear in her voice, though.

"Because Lone and I have common goals, such as making sure Plasma doesn't rise. He'd kill me just for being in Lone's mind. Plus, I don't really see a reason to go on a murderous rampage for the fun of it. If it has reason, yes, but I won't kill if it's unjustified. Unlike Lone, though, I am willing to kill civilians."

"Plus, he's the only pony to talk to me like an equal when it's me in control."

"Why's that," Luna asked.

"Do I look like a pony others want to socialize with? My mane and tail are on fire, my eyes are draconic, my teeth are as sharp as, if not more so, than spears, and I look like a shark. I look like a demon from tartarus, which I'm fine with, and that doesn't exactly invite a lot of conversation. Then there's my voice. It sounds like my vocal chords are made of gravel. Kinda makes it hard for ponies to bear listening to me. Something tells me Blueblood, who, I'd like to point out, both me and Lone want to kill, but haven't due to the fact it would have aroused suspicion as to who could have done it, not who wanted to, because that list would be long, would be more sociable than me."

This last comment got some chuckles from those in the pelican, as well as it's twin.

"Well," Celestia said, "it would seem that's one thing we can agree on." This got another round of chuckles from everyone.

"So, Fear," Luna asked, "why is it Lone's magic is the same color you used back in the Empire?"

"No idea," Fear said, shrugging. "Usually, our magic remains separate colors, with mine being emerald green, and Lone's being olive green. In all of our time together of thirty-five years together, our magic colors have never changed. In all honesty, Lone's hoping the answer lies where we're going."

"And where would that be?" Chitinina asked.

"Team secret," Fear and Chrysalis said simultaneously. "Though you'll find out soon enough, seeing as how you guys are all, at least honorary members of the team, which brings us to a point that needs to be addressed before we arrive," Fear said before he lit his horn and enveloped himself in an orb of emerald green magic, which soon dissipated to show Lone, who walked over to Celestia and keeling down to face her eye to eye. "Celestia, if you don't want to, I won't force you, but where we're going, only members, full and honorary, of lone team are allowed in. It's not a decision of mine. There's a magic surrounding the place that analyzes a pony's mind to see if they are with us, and it doesn't allow ponies or other species that aren't a part of the team in. What I'm saying is this: Do you still stand against what we stand for, even after seeing us in action, or do you stand with us?"

He's only doing this so that he can kill you much more easily later on, Solar Flare said in Celestia's mind.

Does it matter, Celestia thought back, I wish to join them, and even f I didn't, I still would just to look after Luna, so shut up.

"I am with you," Celestia said, much to the very visible relief of Metamorpha, Luna, Chrysalis, even, and Lone.

Over the intercom, they then heard Ken say, "Looks like you owe me twenty bucks should we get back to UNSC space, Maruco. And I said that out loud." This got laughs from everyone, even John, who had noticeably lightened up since the first, and only, night of the leadership meeting.

After a few more minutes, Ken came over the intercom again, saying, "Lone, I think we're near. Our gears starting to act up. Engine's are still good, but the screens are going static."

"That means we're close Ken. Once they're completely static, land. I'll handle it from there."

"Copy that, Lone," Ken said.

"Why is it the pelican gear is on the fritz," Metamorpha asked.

"Because of a high amount of concealment magic. Not even the most powerful scrying magic can penetrate the veil, only eyesight. The more the gear acts up, the closer we are," Lone said.

Ten minutes of conversation later, they felt the pelican slow down, and eventually land. The ramp opened, and all that could be seen was snow and the second pelican, which was also lowering it's ramp. Both groups stepped out of their pelicans, Lone in the lead of the first, and Lily the second. The two groups met in the middle. "Stand back, guys," Lone said as he stepped away from the others, his horn lighting up. He stopped a few feet away from them, his back turned, and his eyes closed. Almost immediately, they felt the ground rumble, and a square shaped hole appeared in the ground in front of Lone, large enough for a single pelican dropship to fit through with ease. "Come on," the stallion said, stepping into the hole that descended down, into the depths of the planet. They followed him, and as soon as the last stepped into the entrance, as that's what it was, the hole sealed up behind them without a sound. They continued to walk for ten minutes in silence until they came upon a door with ancient Equish carvings on it, a fact not lost on Celestia and Luna, but not even they could read it.

"What does it say," Celestia asked.

"'May those who enter this sanctuary find the knowledge they seek, and come out wiser for it'," Lone said. "This is also where one of my team mates, Hermit, lives." Lone lit his horn, and, without his magic appearing around it, the door rose up, and a smell that the Spartans, Elite, Brute, and Jackal recognized immediately assailed their noses, a smell like dead, long rotting the flesh.

"What the hell is the flood doing here," Maruco asked before a voice that the Spartans and Elite knew spoke up.

"Welcome, all, to this store of knowledge. I am Hermit, keeper of it's secrets, and all are welcome with Lone Shadow," the Gravemind said

Discovery

"What's the Gravemind doing here, Lone?" John asked, pointing his rifle at Lone, with Thel doing the same with his sword.

"If by here, as in our current location," Lone said calmly despite the weapons being pointed at him, "the members of lone team who built this place, and this was ten thousand years ago, found him here, and offered him to be the keeper of the knowledge here, a librarian of sorts. If you mean this universe, well, it might be best if you asked him yourself."

In the deep voice that John and Thel had associated with the flood leader, Hermit said, "He is correct, warriors. I was discovered here ten thousand years ago by a group of lone team, and they offered me the position I have. As for the universe, all I can say is that Plasma himself created me during his first reign, as a keeper of knowledge, though he imprisoned me here in the north, so only he could reach me. I may remind you of an old enemy, but I am not him." There was a pause before he said, "and yet, I sense his presence on all of you in some way, though I can not say how. It is especially strong with those you cal Ken, Lily, and Maruco. It is a strength that comes from facing the ancient king himself, and yet, they are here, and sane as well, while the others among you have gone against him indirectly, with the added exception of Lone, which has to do with the energy around him that indicates Fear was let loose, and the ones you call John and Thel."

"Fuck me," Ken said under his breath. "She was right."

"Now," Lone said as John and Thel lowered their weapons, "can we get inside before we try to kill one another over stuff we have no control over?"

"Sure," John said, keeping his weapon lowered, "but I'm keeping my eyes open."

"Me as well," Thel said.

"Then let's go," Lone said as he turned towards the door and walked inside. As he walked in, the others though they saw the shimmering form of Fear beside him. Luna was the next, and a faint shimmer in the vague shape of Nightmare Moon appeared before it disappeared, unlike Fear, who's image stayed. Chitinia and Metamorpha was next. With Chitinia, the same as Luna happedned with her Nightmare form, while Metamorpha's was a little more defined, looking like a darker version of Twilight with a crown of dark steel and a dark, royal like cloak with the hood down and a sinister smile on her face. Celestia was next, and an image of an orange mare of her size with a mane and tail entirely on fire, with rust colored Regalia, and yellowish, draconic eyes, but otherwise looked exactly like Celestia. Thel was next, and the shimmering form looked almost the same, except for the fact that, on the actual Thel, on the left side of his torso on the elite equivalent of pectorals, there was now a glowing mark that every elite from his universe knew. The mark of shame. John was next, and his shimmering form was just about the same, except for the fact the shimmering form had what was unmistakably dried blood all over it. The others passed through, with their always being some shimmering version of themselves that most likely represented their demons.

As the last of them stepped through, the door closed with a loud thud, and the shimmering forms disappeared. They stood in a long hallway. Torches on the sides lit up, revealing the keeper of the location. The Gravemind, or Hermit, as lone team called him. Unlike how John and Thel had seen the Gravemind on Delta Halo, this one didn't have a decaying appearance. Instead, it had a flesh like color to it, and even an actual mouth. It didn't have eyes, but they did see what looked like some kind of antennae on it's head. They weren't large, but were somewhat noticeable, and came out of the back of the head.

"Wow," Garrus said. "That's ugly."

"Definitely," Metamorpha said.

"Good to see you again, Hermit," Lone said as he and the three crystal ponies nodded their heads in greeting.

"And it's good to see the four of you again," Hermit replied, "though I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Us too, Hermit," Radiant replied.

"Regardless, you all are welcome to the library I guard," Hermit said. "Anything you find, i simply ask that you take great care, as many of these works are hundreds of years old, and many of those are ready to crumble to dust with enough pressure."

"Of course, ancient one," Celestia said, bowing her head in respect.

"Thank you, Sun Riser," Hermit said. "You may proceed and stay for as long as you wish."

With that, the group walked down the hallway for what felt like hours, but what was really just half an hour , until they saw a bright light from the end. As they walked through what was the exit to the hall, all but the Spartans had to squint their eyes due to the sudden influx of light. When they could see again, Metamorpha went into an jumping spree brought on by what she saw.

"So many books," she kept repeating in a gleeful tone. There were bookshelves that were as tall as the height of the ceiling for the Canterlot palace.

"How are there so many," Kasumi said in awe of the amount, but not at the levels of Metamorpha was at.

"Because we've acquired copies of every literary work ever written," Chrysalis said. "Even copies of the journal of Star Swirl, a member of the team himself."

"Really?" Metamorpha asked her mother, her eyes gleaming with a thirst for knowledge.

"Yes, Metamorpha. Most of the spells he made were modified spells from those he created for the team, actually. I think Saphira knew him personally, now that I think of it."

"And you can read it, you know," Lone said. "Just need to be careful."

"I will be. Where is it?"

Lone looked up to the ceiling and said, "Hermit, you mind showing her where it is?"

"Of course, Lone," he said, though no one knew how he would help her until they saw a small, yellow orb float in front of the changeling, and, in Hermit's voice, said, "Follow me, young changeling," before going off in to the library, Metamorpha in pursuit.

"What the fuckin' hell was that?" Zaeed said.

"Back in our dimension," Lily said, "that would be an infection spore for the flood, a parasitic organism that feeds on organic beings with a certain biomass, and uses said biomass to produce even more flood. Though, of what we've seen so far, it doesn't look that way here."

"Agreed," Ken said.

"Hey, John, why don't you go after her. She may need your help with the books we all know she's going to want to read," Maruco said.

"Shut up, Maruco," John said as the others got a small chuckle, even as he went to go after Metamorpha.

"Well, if you all will excuse me," Lone said, "I need to check on something that I've been suspecting since the Empire." With that, he gave Luna a kiss, and he went in the same direction John and Metamorpha went. Once he was gone, Rainbow said to Crystal Saber and said, "So, uh, Saber, think you can help me with my training?"

"I don't see why not," he said, shrugging. "Come on." He and Rainbow then went to the right of the main group, to what constituted the training room in the library.

The other separated as well, most going to a history section so they could learn about the history of the planet, as well as what other events lone team had been involved in without the princesses knowing. The most interesting was that lone team had helped establish the changeling democracy, and, with Luna in the science section, learned that, though he was doing it with Celestia as well, Star Swirl had created multiple mirror portals that went to alternate Equis' to help them out with their problems, though the only two that worked were the one Metamorpha had gone through with Spike, as well as the one that led to the universe of the evil Celestia and Luna.

Through out all of this, Lone was in a vault of the library that only the leader of the team and those that he allowed were able to get into, as held the most sensitive or important documents, including the journal of the original Lone Shadow, which is what Lone was reading.

"What is it you're looking for, Lone," Hermit asked as a spore came up.

"Something that relates to cutie marks in here that Lone wrote down. I know I've seen it, but can't remember what it was about."

"And you think this has to do with the Empire?"

"Yep." There was a pause of a few seconds before Lone said, "Found it!"

"What does it say?"

"Let's see. It says, 'I have noticed something strange among my comrades. Many of them have become less proficient in combat skills that they excelled at. I haven't had the opportunity to see why or how, as I just got back from meeting with Star Light, and the information she gave me says that Plasma is creating an illness of some kind that will make those of us in the rebellion much easier targets. According to the intelligence she gave me, Plasma calls it 'The Cutie Pox'. Holy shit. This changes history a little, doesn't it?"

"Indeed it does Lone," Hermit said. "I remember him saying he was working on something one time when he came to me, but I never knew what it was."

"There's more. Think I should read it."

"The only one who can answer that is you, Lone."

After ten seconds of silence,in which he was thinking, Lone said, "To Tartarus with it, I'm reading it." He brought the journal, a thick book of cast leather as the covers, and continued reading. "It's been a few days since my last entry, and I have made a discovery of this disease. Two, actually. The first is that some ponies are immune to this disease, my self included. There is no indication as to how ponies are immune to it, so I assume it's a gene that has not been discovered, which means it's well hidden, as, even though I'm the only one who studies genes, or believes in them, I've studied and mapped every gene type out there. Twenty-one different genes, and each has combinations. Of the genes of the immune ponies I've studied, none have a common factor, which means there is a twenty-second gene that is well hidden. The second is that there is an advanced form of this disease. Those affected by this have no hope in helping us against Plasma. Regarding my first discovery, though, I have noticed children or grandchildren of those affected don't have this disease, and are, for some reason, ridiculed because of it. Not every child is immune, but those that are immune are ridiculed without exception. Adults that are immune, though, aren't. I hope the next time I write, I will have more information. That's interesting. Why are ponies with single cutie marks being ridiculed for not having multiple cutie marks?"

"Perhaps it is answered later on, maybe the next entry."

"Agreed." Lone began to read again. "I have made a discovery. As it turns out, Plasma engineered this disease to where it effects children's minds that obtaining these 'cutie marks' is important, and those with out them are ridiculed for being, as the meaner kids say, a 'blank flank', though those that are immune don't seen to either want a mark, or cause chaos trying to get it, which simply leads to more ridicule. The worst part? Those affected by the standard have no cure, while the extreme, which leads to multiple cutie marks, do have hope. Another part of interest is that civilians that once helped us by acquiring weapons and armor, if they are affected by these marks, are now loyal to Plasma, and their marks glow with out exception. As for how he made this disease, it turns out that it's nano machines, or that's what the scientist we captured a few weeks ago calls them. They're in the air, and latch on to a ponies body, causing the marks to appear by changing their color into a recognizable pattern, and starting with a small flash of light, making it appear as if it's magic. Pretty smart, if you ask me. Should any future leaders of my rebellion, regardless of it's role or name in your time, read this, I have, at the time of this writing, already begun work on a spell that will deactivate the machines, getting rid of the cutie marks.

"Whoa," Lone said. "Hermit, bring Metamorpha here. Before you say anything about clearence, I'm allowing her to read this. I'm going to need her help to find the spell."

"I figured you'd call for her, and she is already on her way here, as well as John. Might as well have as much help as possible with this issue."

Nodding, Lone said, "Thanks, Hermit."

"No problem, Lone," Hermit said as Metamorpha and John came into view.

"Hey, Lone," Metamorpha said. "Hermit said you needed our help?"

"Yeah. Before you ask, read the entries of this journal I've marked," he said, handing them the journal.

Metamorpha gingerly took the book in her magic, and read it, as well as John. Though it was impossible to gauge Johns reaction due to his helmet, Metamorpha's eyes widened as she read it. "This changes everything," she said in a almost reverent tone as she finished. "How is it we never discovered this? Ponies, I mean."

"Because Plasma is a master of deception, deceit, and manipulation," Hermit said. "He would have planned for ponies eventually learning how to use technology, and would have made it look like magic, just like what Lone Shadow said in his journal."

"This is is journal?" John asked.

"Yeah. Oldest thing here, probably in the world in terms of literature."

"So this means that Cadence and Shining were being controlled."

"Yes. And no. You see, Green Mist was telling the truth about her father. I knew him personally. His name was Wasp. Guy had his own code honor, took shit from nopony or body, and fell in love with Cadence's mother, who knew he was a changeling when they met, as Gleaming Heart and Wasp were both members of the team when they met, but left when they got married and Gleaming got pregnant, and didn't want to endanger her daughter. As for how she got pregnant, Wasp said that changelings could have off spring when they're disguised as their partners race. Celestia did have an order out related to changelings, but it was to find them to offer them full citizenship with out having to disguise themselves, and it was Brotherhood forces in royal guard armor that killed the two, and it was me and Saphira who moved her to the village she lived in. It was most likely Plasma using their cutie marks to make them see what Green Mist said as the truth, which, for the most part, it was."

"And why do you need our help," John asked, to which Metamorpha answered.

"He wants us to help him find the spell that \'ll get rid of cutie marks, but won't that make ponies weaker?"

"No. It's designed to remove the power from the nano-machines, if I'm right. Where Tirek took all energy from a pony but what's needed to survive, he took the energy from the nano-machines as well. This will do the same, but only to the nano-machines," Lone said.

"Are you certain about that?" John asked.

"As certain as I can be," Lone said.

"Then lets get to work," the Spartan said.

. . .

Brotherhood HQ

Shadow was waiting outside the room where the Conclave meets with their Zealots.

How much you wanna bet Green Mist is going to get chewed out, Shadow's dark side, Chaos Riser, said.

Please, we'd need to be the luckiest ponies alive for that, Shadow replied as the door opened and Green Mist walked out, a smug expression on his face.

"The Conclave will see you now, Shadow Specter," he said before walking away.

Great, Shadow and Chaos aid at the same time before walking in.

They had just passed the threshold of the door when they heard Midnight say over the telepathic link they established before Shadow went to the Empire. Guys, I found something major, as in, world changing major!

What? they both asked, Shadow still walking to the center of the room.

The name of your father.

Why's that important?

Because, it's the same name as Lone Shadow's father. Darkness Strider. The descriptions match perfectly as well.

How'd you find that?!

By sneaking into the genealogy room, more accurately the section that holds family history, and of that, the area where only the Conclave has authority to enter.

Shadow's eye twitched at that. YOU WHAT!? he mentally yelled as he reached the center of the room.

That's not the crazy part. Your mother? She gave birth to two children, the name of the second being erased, but then I got an idea, and sneaked into the legal section that has birth certificates, found yours, and it said that you had a sibling. I then looked to try to find Lone Shadow's, and guess whose name was their under the mother.

Are you saying, Shadow said as the first Conclave member began to speak.

"Shadow Specter, due to your dedication to our cause in ensuring Plasma did not fall in the Empire, and by saving our two newest members, a well as the body sacrifices, this Conclave has decided to give you a special mission."

Yeah. The name under 'Mother' on your birth certificate and Lone's are the same. Joy. Lone Shadow's your brother.

Truth

It was the night after Lone and Shadow had removed the cutie marks from the others, and the personality changes were already visible. Fluttershy had actually become braver, evidenced by the fact she spoke down to Zaeed, and didn't once stutter. Applejack had kept her personality for the most part, only she no longer did, as she put it, 'contryisims,' anymore, as well as the drawl, though the accent was still there. Pinkie, unsurprisingly, was much the same, but now, it seemed like she was always talking with someone the others couldn't see, but they did hear her say the name-

"No, author, that would be spoiling."

Pinkie, who's story is this?

"Maybe, but the readers will know the name, and then it would lose it's 'oomph' factor."

The name, or the rest of it? Given the fact it's you, I'm certain one would guess it.

"Yeah, good point. You're good then."

Right. As I was saying, it seemed like she was always talking with someone the others couldn't see, but they did hear her say the name Light Giver, though no one knew the name, so they just assumed it was Pinkie being Pinkie. Celestia had appeared to act more like Twilight, or, rather, Metamorpha, in the fact that A: her eating habits were similar to said changeling's now; B: she now cussed like a regular pony. At first, this part shocked the other ponies, but they had gotten use to it quickly. Luna was more or less the same as her sister was now, the main exception was that she was currently having a small party with Pinkie, Rainbow, Kasumi, Lily, Liara, and, amazingly, Thel. In contrast, Celestia wasn't the most sociable or party pony. Lone was there at the party too, but only because Luna was there, as he was never much of a party pony himself. Same with Celestia and Shadow.

"You know," Lone said, "I don't know why, but I'm already regretting removing Luna's cutie mark. Not much of a change, and I'm sure I could come up with a few spells to prevent the mind control."

"Yeah, I think I preferred her when she wasn't a party animal," Shadow said.

"And why's that, Shadow," Celestia said. "I would have thought you liked somepony who partied hard." She said this last part with a smile, which Shadow noticed.

With a raised eyebrow, he said, "Is that an invitation?"

Walking forward and looking Shadow in the eyes with a mischievous grin on her face, the solar alicorn said, "Buck yes it is," before dragging Shadow to the dance floor.

Lone simply chuckled at the sight, but stayed on the sidelines. He was alone like this for about ten minutes before he heard heavy footsteps and buzzing behind him. He turned back and saw Metamorpha and John coming up from behind him. "Good to see you two," Lone said as they walked up next to him.

"You too, Lone," John said.

"So, what brings the two of you here?"

"Metamorpha wanted to see what was going on, and insisted I come with her," John said.

"Well, I figured you might like some down time," Metamorpha said. "Is that wrong?"

"No," John said, though it was obvious he didn't want to be here.

"John, lighten up," Lone said. "You're going to be with us for a while, so you might as well show a little humanity. Well, more then now, anyway."

This comment had the desired result, which was to make John flinch. Lone didn't know why comments about his humanity caused this, but he could guess that it had to do with someone from his past. True, he did show humanity on occasion, but, otherwise, he was like a robot. Lone was intelligent enough to know that Metamorpha wanted to have a relationship, but that John's current personality, or lack of one, as the case may be, prevented it, but that begged they question: Why was he pretending to be in a relation ship. To spare her feelings? That might be it, but it showed that he cared about her feelings, and was simply telling himself he wasn't interested. Lone was trying to make him realize that either he tell the truth, that he didn't love Metamorpha, or make him show emotion. Personally, Lone was hoping for the latter.

"Why don't you two go dance for a while?" Lone said. "We all know we have few chances for downtime, and this might be the best, given our circumstances."

Metamorpha seemed to shrink a little here. "I'm not a very good dancer," she said.

Lone simply raised an eyebrow and pointed to the others. Metamorpha turned, and her jaw dropped at Celestia flailing around, trying to dance. "I think you're good," he said in a casual tone.

After a few seconds of silence, Metamorpha collected her jaw and said, "Right. Well, let's go, John." Reluctantly, John followed her to where the others were. As they walked over, Radiant, Opal, as well as and Rainbow came over by Lone as well.

"So, why are you guys here?" Lone asked. The three crystal ponies had changed very little with the removal of their cutie marks, though a noticeable difference was that they seemed to shine brighter.

"Just came here to socialize," Radiant said. "Though the two love birds here didn't want to come."

"Can you blame us?" Rainbow asked. "We did just start dating, after all."

"Well, to be fair," Lone said, "there is a dance going on, and you could always talk there."

"And you aren't doing that with Luna why?"

"Because," Luna said, walking away from the dance, "we agreed earlier that we would do something together after I danced."

Lone walked up to Luna and gave her a loving hug, saying, "Hey, Lulu. Did you like the dance?"

Reciprocating the hug, Luna said, "Yes, but I would have liked it better if you had been by my side."

"Luna, we both know I don't like to dance. That's more you'r forte than mine."

"That's because I have more experience with it."

"You simply prove my point, sweet moon."

"Could you two get a room," Rainbow said in a slightly deadpan tone.

"Please, Rainbow," Luna said, rolling her eyes, "do you really think we'd do it with others present?"

"Yeah," Lone added, "I mean, I can see you and Saber doing that, but not Luna and I."

In the background, they heard Metamorpha say, "Finally. Somepony who uses correct grammar!"

"Only Twi would get that worked up about grammar," Rainbow said.

"Aren't you part egghead too, Rainbow," Radiant said with a smile.

"Ha ha ha ha, buck you too." This got laughs from the others that heard it.

"Come on, Dash," Saber said, heading to the dance floor. "Leave them be."

Just as the two of them began making their way to the dance floor, an odd feeling came over Lone. Luna, I think we need to head back to the room," he said, getting a head ache as he said.

"Is something wrong, Lone?" Luna asked with concern. One thing neither of them noticed, though, was Shadow, Lily, and John experiencing something similar.

"I honestly have no idea," the unicorn said before his eyes rolled into his skull, and he fainted, as well as Shadow, John, and Lily in the room, and Maruco and Ken elsewhere.

"LONE!" Luna yelled, rushing to her lovers side. She could feel a heart beat, but not a mind, conscious or not, as if his mind was elsewhere.

"We need to get him to the infirmary. The others too," Rainbow said.

"Hermit!" Radiant yelled.

Multiple spore clouds appeared, and each went under one of the unconscious individuals, and lifted them up, heading to the infirmary.

. . .

Lone couldn't see anything. It wasn't that his eyes were closed. They were open. He really couldn't see anything. His wierd headache was still there, just not as bad as before. "Ugh, where am I?" he said.

"I can tell you that we aren't in your mind, Lone," Fear said to Lone's left. He turned, and could actually see him. "Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you that we can see one another."

"How can you tell this isn't our mind?"

"Because ours looks more like a very large mansion with a lot of doors, and I have seen a lot of day dreams lately about you and Luna."

"And this isn't your mind, either," Lone said. "That always has piles of bodies, and you and Nightmare Moon butchering ponies. So, any idea where we are?"

"Unfortunately, no. This is as new to me as it is to you."

"Yeah, same here," the two heard behind them. They turned and saw Shadow and Chaos, basically Fear with Shadows color scheme and no flames.

"So, you guys are here too? That rules out any of our minds," Fear said.

"So, that's what you look like," Chaos said to Fear.

"Can you two stop talking so we can find a way out of here," the four of them heard John say from their right. When they turend, they saw him in his armor, with a gash in the armors chest on the right.

"We don't even know where we are, John. How do you propose we get out of here?" Shadow said.

You don't just find a way out," the five of them heard Ken say from behind. They turned and saw Ken and the other Spartans.

"You're let out," Maruco said.

"How do you know that," Fear said.

"Because we've been here before," Lily said in an all serious tone.

"What," Chaos said. "How? Why?"

It was then a voice that the four Spartans instantly recognized spoke up. "Because I called for them to come here." A bright light suffused the area once the last syllable was uttered, and those present, even the Spartans, had to close their eyes and block the light with their hands. When the light faded, the eight of them now stood on a silver platform that was hovering in the clouds, blue sky all around. A small humming could be heard, and they all turned to see a woman in a flowing, almost silk like dress coming towards them. She had no nose, and even at this distance, the ponies could tell she was nearly as tall as John. She wore a head dress with strange symbols on it.

"The Librarian," John whispered in surprise.

"Librarian," Ken asked, his arms crossed, "how are you here? We're in another dimension. You're stuck back in our home universe."

"That shall be explained in due time, Ken," Librarian said. "In the meantime, I am here to explain to you all the stakes of your fight."

"Why," Lone said a little impatiently. "We know what we're fighting for."

"No, you only know a portion of what you fight for," The Librarian said. "The entity you know as Plasma is a grave threat, yes, but more so than you realize. He's able to move between dimensions at will, but it is only in the universe you are in that he is in his true form. In our universe, Ken," a pause, "he is known by many names. The Child, The Captive, The Beast, The Primordial, but two are the ones he used the most: The last Precursor, and The Gravemind.

"He's a being capable of creating life, sentient life, from nothing. In the most generic use of the term, he is a god. Ken and his allies are the ones I have chosen to find and stop any of his plans. In fact, your friend, Nightengale, is one such ally."

"What do you mean," Shadow said.

"Many years ago, when he still resided in my universe, a human soldier had, somehow, followed Plasma through one of the portals, and ended up meeting me. I asked him if he wished to help stop Plasma, and he said yes, and he followed Plasma to the universe you are currently in. As for how I am speaking to you four," she said in reference to the Spartans, "When I first met you, I put a geas in you that allows me to contact you when it's needed. As for your companions, I can only say their exposure to Plasma has allowed it to happen."

"Then why aren't the others here?" Fear asked, baring his teeth.

"I do not know," The Librarian said. Lone noticed here a slight, very slight, hesitation and faintly increased breathing, but both were small and would have missed them had he not been paying attention.

She's lying about something. Question is, though, 'what?"

"Okay, hold on," Shadow said. "If Plasma is already alive, then why does he need a ritual to come back to life?"

"The ritual is meant to give him power. If it had succeeded, then none of you would be here right now. Maruco can attest to that personally, as he was part of the original version of his universe's lone team, and is it's only survivor."

"Unfortunately, she's right," Maruco said. "I barely survived that fight with Plasma, and that was a few years before the end of the human covenant war, just a year after mt girlfriend died, even though I had already met Ken and Lily, who actually got me inducted into the team."

"Yes, and I'm afraid that if Plasma wins in your universe, then he will make his way to mine, and nothing will be able to stop him. For the sake of you world, and many others, you must defeat him before it's too late."

"You can count on us, Librarian," Ken said.

"Me too," John said.

"And me and Chaos as well," Shadow said.

After a barely noticeable hesitation, Lone said, "And I, as well. Fear too. I imagine the others will be too."

"I am sorry, Lone Shadow, but you can not say anything about me to the others. Plasma is able to shift through other's memories. I take a large risk with all of you, and I can not risk the others."

"I understand," Lone said, glaring at the forerunner, who didn't seem to notice.

"In that case," The Librarian said, "you all may return." All present were then blinded. The last feeling they had was one of something being imprinted on them. They then blacked out.

Departure

Luna was immensely worried for Lone. I t had been three days since he, Shadow, and the Spartan had fainted, and maybe not even that, because at least then, she would have detected something, but she hadn't been able to with any of them. Right now, she, Celestia, Metamorpha, and Applejack were all waiting in the infirmary for their respective lovers, while the others were trying to find out what happened, and they had no clue.

"Oh, my head," the lunar alicorn heard from next to her. She turned and saw Lone getting up, rubbing his temples.

"LONE!" Luna yelled as she took him in in a large hug.

"GAH! RIBS, LUNA, RIBS," Lone yelled as the others woke up, all of them rubbing their heads.

Giggling, Luna broke the hug and said, "Whoops. Sorry, Lone."

As Lone and the others got up and stretched, Celestia asked, "What happened to all of you?"

After a slight hesitation on all the parts of those who were unconscious, Shadow said, "No idea. Why?"

"Because it's been three days since you all passed out," Metamorpha said.

"Three days," Maruco said in a surprised tone, and he really was surprised, as the few time he had spoken with The Librarian had always been the same time frame. Talk with her for half an hour, it's a half hour in the real world. This one had felt like it was only ten minutes in total, but three days had passed.

"Yeah," Applejack said, though she said it glumly. "We were afraid that you might have gone into a coma."

"Which isn't possible," Luna said, "as I would have still felt your minds, but I didn't, as if you were empty, mindless husks. I, we, were all worried that none of you would wake up."

"Hmph," Maruco said, "do you not realize who you're talking about Luna. Six motherfucking badasses. I doubt death could stop us. It sure as hell didn't stop John."

"Back in your dimension, maybe," Celestia said, "but I doubt that what ever it was that supposedly killed John-"

"A Halo ring, and a Havoc tactical nuke, among who knows what else," Ken said, "and keep in mind, when the rings were first fired, nothing survived them, which means John was lucky as hell to do so. And he just keeps making his own luck, Celestia."

After a second of collecting her thoughts, as well as her jaw from the floor, Celestia said, "Ragrdless, there are things you haven't encountered before, and even Luna and I can barely defeat them." It was obvious that there were small hints of anger in her voice.

"That's because, Celestia," Ken said, getting a little pissed himself, "you haven't seen a Spartan in action yet, let alone four of them."

"And you haven't seen two alicorn princesses at full strength. I can personally arrange half of that, thought," Celestia said, nearly fuming.

Oh, buck/fuck me, Lone, Lily, and Shadow thought at the same time, as they had a good idea of what made the two become antagonistic so quickly. It got worse.

"Uh, Celestia," Applejack said, walking to Maruco's side, "maybe he's right."

"Applejack, how can you say that?"

"Because he's right, Metamorpha. We don't know what they're fully capable of doing, and we don't know what they've faced before."

"Have they faced Nightmare Moon before? Discord? Sombra? Tirek? No, they haven't. It was either us or our friends that dealt with them."

"WHAT'S GOING ON IN THERE!?" they heard Hades yell outside the infirmary, but that didn't stop the argument.

"And you don't know what kind of technology we face every damn time!" Ken yelled. "Compared to the UNSC, you all are in the medieval times with tech, only barely matching late nineteenth century tech."

"Because we are not war mongering animals, unlike you and Hades' kind," Luna put her two bits in.

It was here that all of the others came into see what was going on. "Aw, hell," Zaeed said.

"Lone, what happened," Radiant said.

"No idea," Lone partially lied, "but we need to stop this now."

"Why," Sawn said. "Why not let them take care of this now."

"Because this may lead to blows," Maruco said as he joined them. "And I doubt a fist fight between them would end well for any involved, even on lookers.

"I must agree with the bird on this," Hades said.

"What did you just call me," Sawn said angrily to Hades.

"You heard me, bird," Hades spat in Sawn's face.

From there things just devolved into a scene of chaos that even Discord would find as overkill. The only ones not arguing were Maruco, John, Lone, and Shadow. "Well, this went south fast," Maruco said.

"Yep," Shadow said. "What do we do? It's common teaching that Plasma feeds on this, which is to say anger and mistrust."

"Just like the Sirens," Lone said.

"Our universe's mythological ones," John said, "or your actual ones?"

"Latter," Shadow said, shaking his head, looking at what was going on. They were lucky none of it had gone physical yet. "We need to stop this before it gets out of control. More so, I mean."

"Agreed," Maruco said, pulling out his magnum and shooting at the ceiling. Amazingly, his didn't stop any of the arguing. "That usually works," he said in a defeated tone as he saw Lone roll his eyes and walk to the infirmary entrance, a lime green aura around him.

He turned back to the groups, a look of determination on his face. He lit his horn, his magic having changed yet again, only this time, to a lime green, and it surrounded the room. "Cover your ears," Shadow said as he saw this, knowing what Lone was planning, and the tow Spartans did so.

Lone took in a deep breath, as if he was getting enough air into his lungs to dive to the bottom of the Marianas trench, and yelled, "ENOUGH!!

Youtube Video

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL? MINDLESS ANIMALS, WHO LEAVE A CAUSE SIMPLY BECAUSE SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOU, OR PISSES YOU OFF, THAT'S WHAT! WE ARE ALLIES AGAINST A COMMON THREAT, NOT CHILDREN BICKERING OVER A SINGLE PIECE OF CANDY, UNLESS ALL OF YOU ARE MUCH MORE IMMATURE THAN YOU LET ON. IF EVERYBODY IN HISTORY DECIDED TO ARGUE LIKE ALL OF YOU, INSTEAD OF DOING SHIT, AND PUTTING OFF THE ARGUMENT UNTIL EVERYTHING'S SAID AND DONE, OR TAKING CARE OF IT WITH CALM MINDS BEFORE IT GETS OUT OF CONTROL, THEN WE WOULD FOREVER BE IN A STATE OF WAR! NOT EVEN THE LEAST SENTIENT RACE IS LIKE THAT. ARE YOU LESS THAN THOSE? OR, ARE YOU WILLING TO SET YOUR DIFFERENCES ASIDE TO REMOVE A THREAT TO ALL? WE ARE LONE TEAM, AND WE DON'T LET ARGUMENTS GET IN THE WAY OF AN OBJECTIVE, SO GET YOUR SHIT AND SHOVE IT, BECAUSE PLASMA WILL NOT GIVE YOU A PASS IF YOU HAVE A GRIEVANCE. EITHER YOU PROVE ME RIGHT, AND SHOW JUST HOW PATHETIC YOU ALL ARE BY CONTINUING THIS, OR PROVE ME WRONG, AND SHOW THAT YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!" After a second of silence, with many ears bleeding from the volume, which Shadow discreetly fixed, Lone said, "WELL? WHICH IS IT?"

Whatever had caused them all to fight, it was instantly counteracted by Lone's speech.

"He's right," Celestia said in a defeated tone. "I am sorry, Ken. I do not know what came over me. Can you forgive us?"

"There isn't a need to apologize, Celestia," Ken said, "we were both at fault. Regardless, I'm sorry as well." The others all apologized to the each other, though none knew what had caused them to become so antagonistic.

"That wet better than I though it would," Shadow said.

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"I thought it would have antagonized them more."

"Same here," Maruco said. "I'm worried, though, that Plasma somehow caused this somehow."

"Why?" Shadow asked.

"Because back home, he could control other people into arguing, and it often gave him a small power boost. It's not mind control, because the argument thing can be broken with the right wording and/or volume, which is why I used my pistol, which usually works."

"Then why didn't it, and Lone's speech did," John asked.

"No idea, but I have a feeling it has to do with that lime green aura that was around him the entire time," Maruco said.

"Wasn't it emerald green last time?" Shadow said.

"Yeah, it was. so what caused the color change?"

"Might have to do with you-know-what," Maruco commented.

"True, seeing as how it changed after that," John said before Lone spoke up from where he was.

"Okay, now that that's taken care of, we need to leave, now. Ken, Lily, Rainbow, Maruco: go and get the pelicans ready. Thel, Sawn, Hades, John, Zaeed, Garrus: Inventory of every weapon and bullet we have. Chrysalis, Metamorpha, Chitinia: get your disguises prepped. Shadow, I want you to give me the location of the Brotherhood's base. Everpony else: get ready to leave. NOW!!"

Everyone went to their assigned tasks, rushing out of the infirmary. Luna gave Lone a small kiss on her way out, and Celestia did the same to Shadow, which made him blush a little, while Applejack, awkwardly, due to the size difference, gave Maruco a heartfelt hug. Once the others had left, Shadow walked up to Lone.

"That was interesting, wasn't it," Shadow said

"Yeah," Lone said, "it was."

"So, anyway," Shadow said, "the Brotherhood's base is in the badlands, actually underneath the ground, and is on both sides of the border."

"Smart," Lone said. "If Celestia and the ponies marched on it, then the changelings in the bad lands would think it was an invasion, if it wasn't for a good portion of them being members of the team, but it would be devastating if they marched on them."

"The Conclave always was smart when it came to location decisions."

"The Brotherhood's leadership?"

"Yeah," the forest green unicorn said. "Fickle too. They took away my rank of Zealot, not that I want it now, gave it to Green Mist, then told me to being him back, and gave me the assignment to find you. Now, it's going to bite them in the flank."

"Yeah it will," Lone said as he and Shadow left the infirmary.

An hour later, everyone was at the library's entrance, those with weapons had them either at a ready position across their chest or on their backs, if possible. Lone was the last to walk out, saying his goodbye to Hermit. Once he was done, he joined the others, and sealed the door behind him with his magic.

"So," Ken said, "where we heading?"

"The Equestria-Badlands border," Lone said, with a hint of finality. "The location of the Brotherhood's base. We end this fight now."

"But how," Celestia asked. "They're an army, and we're barely a squad."

"A squad can do a lot, Sunbutt," Zaeed said with a joking tone, even though he was right. "I think we told you of what we did to the collectors with just a squad."

"Point taken," Celestia said grudgingly at the use of the nick name.

"Then lets move," Lone said, taking the lead to the Pelicans. Once they arrived a few minutes later, they boarded the ships, and took off to the south, towards the base.

As they left, though, Discord appeared in the Library next to Hermit.

"Hello, Brother," Hermit said. "I imagine that you've been busy."

"Indeed I have. It's a shame that Plasma made it so that his creations can't directly fight him," Discord said with venom. "Regardless, I have a message from you-know-who. She says that,, soon, the truth will come out, and you'll gain the power of the Gravemind, with the added power of not needing Biomass to create different forms. She says it will be needed for the final battle."

"I suppose that was inevitable," Hermit said. "I imagine that will be soon?"

"Ah, no spoilers for the readers."

"Fair point," Hermit said, as he and Discord both shard the ability to look into other dimensions, including ours.

"Well, it has been good to see you again," Discord said.

"And you as well," Hermit said as Discord disappeared.

Confrontation

"Shadow, tell Midnight to get out of the base, we're coming in," Lone said to his brother.

Shadow nodded. "Right." The two unicorns and their allies were approaching the location on the Equestria-Badlands border, where the main base of the Brotherhood of Plasma was located. They all knew they might not survive, but they didn't care. If they went down, it's fighting, for a cause they believed in, and none of them could think of a better way to do so, surrounded by individuals they could call "friend."

Shadow sent the mental message, and told his brother so. "It's sent," he said.

"Right," Lone said. He turned to his brother, and said, "Shadow, if I die here-"

"Don't need to ask me, Lone. Yes, I'll look after Luna. You'd do the same for me with Celestia. But we aren't going to die. There may be no force in three universes like a mare scorned, but that's because they haven't seen us yet."

After a few seconds, Shadow said, "It's funny. A month ago, and we were enemies simply because of chance."

"And now, we're going to make sure nopony, noone, else will suffer through what we did. We'll make Plasma pay as much as we can for what he did to us, and the others."

"True, and I may finally get an answer to my question, one I've had since I became a member of the team," Lone said.

"What's that?"

"Who created the Elements? I refuse to believe just the natural magic created those, or their would be the Elements of Chaos as well."

"You really think you'll find the answer?"

Lone shrugged, "I can hope." After a few more seconds of silence , Lone said, "After we met with her did you ever get the feeling there was a new part o you, but it felt like it was always there?"

"You too? Yeah. I got the feeling just after we talked, and she sent us back. What do you think it means?"

"I don't know, I'm not a god. I'm just a pony, not a super hero."

"Maybe, but, sometimes, normal ponies are the most inspirational heroes. I mean, look at what you've done. You uncovered a conspiracy, were among the first ponies that had reached an agreement with their demons, literally, and created a lot of magic, some of which the Brotherhood uses from time to time."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but only rarely. You've helped change the world more than most ponies could dream of, Lone, even if only a few know of you."

Shrugging, and with a smile on his face, Lone said, "Maybe, but after this, I plan on making the team a public presence. We've hidden for too long, and it's time we came out of the shadows."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah. I am. I've talked with Radiant and the others, and they agree. It's past time for us to come out of the shadows, even if we enjoy them."

"Fair enough," Shadow said as Ken came on over the intercom.

"Nearing the location, people, ponies, and changelings. Get prepped, 'cause we're going in hard. Laugh, and you die." This got a few laughs from everyone, even John.

They landed a few minutes later, and, once the ramps were lowered, got off their transports, and checked their weapons. But, while this was going on, Lone, Maruco, John, and Shadow got a strange feeling, and, with it, they could have sworn they heard someone say, Come, and find the truth. Come find me. The weird part? this felt, old, ancient. But, at the same time, young, and the two ponies felt a weird connection to it, though they didn't know why.

Once they were all done with their weapon check, Celestia having gotten two magnums while in the pelicans, Lone walked up in front of them, and gave another speech.

"A moNth ago, none of us would have thought we'd be here, either where we are physically, or our situation." He took a deep breath, then continued. "Regardless, we're here now, and that's what matters. Today, we end Plasma, or die trying, and no one's coming out without scars." One second. Two seconds. Three. "But we fight, not for ourselves, not for a single nation, but for an entire planet. For every mare, colt, foal and filly. Those are the stakes. That's the scale! Today, we venture into Tartarus itself, kill the demon that resides there, and come out as heroes, or we die fighting. Either's okay with me, but the former is preferable! WHO'S WITH ME?!"

Those assembled before him rose their weapons into the air, and said, "We are!"

"Then tonight, we dine in tartarus!" Lone yelled, activating and raising one of his swords and pointing it to the sky. He turned ot his brother and said, "How do we get in?"

"Just follow me," he said, then walked ahead, the others falling in behind him. After a few minutes of walking, he stopped, and lit his horn, the literal black magic washing over his horn, and a rectangular slab of earth. The slab disappeared, reveling a set of stairs that led into the planet.

"Let's go," Lone said, taking the lead into the staircase. The others followed, and, once Shadow, the last in the group, passed the threshold, the slab sealed over the stairs, leaving it, and those on it, in darkness. The unicorns, changelings, and alicorns lit their horn, bringing light to the tunnel, and they began to descend, every step echoing off the stone walls.

They walked on for what felt like hours until they finally reached the bottom of the staircase, and, with it, the entrance to a large, cathedral like room, with columns spaced apart every five feet, and between each was a portrait of one image of Plasma or another.

Ken, Lily, and Maruco walked over to one, which pictured Plasma as a bipedal creature with ashen gray skin, his height more so than a fully grown Hydra. He had six, ruby red, oval like eyes, and a maw of teeth, four arms, the bottom ending in a three pronged claw, the top being normal hands. At the joint between his back and waist, there was a tail that ended in a wicked scorpion like barb. "That's him," Ken said. "I can't believe it. He really is the same as the one we faced."

"Hard to believe that he's still alive after what Miller did, isn't it?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," Maruco said, "but when you're what he is, it makes sense that he'd be hard to kill."

"True," Ken said as he noticed the others going on ahead. "Come on, the others are getting ahead." The two other Spartans nodded, and the three of them sprinted after the rest of the group.

"Something's not right," Shadow said after ten minutes of silence. "There should be a ton of guards, but there isn't any. I don't like this."

"Yeah, same here," Garrus said.

As they trudged on, Luna, Celestia, Metamorpha, Chitinia, and Applejack began to feel a darkness in their minds, whispering for the deaths of the others in their group. They all went on for ten more minutes in silence, until they came to a hall that Shadow recognized. "This leads to the throne room the Conclave made for Plasma. It connects to the rest of the base."

As soon as he said that, a horde of members of the Brotherhood, all wearing black cloaks, all with swords or daggers. "KILL THE HERETICS!" one yelled, pointing his sword at the group. He was the first to fall as Hades put a needler round in his head.

"Oh, shut up," he said before unleashing a volley of pink, crystalline needles at those in front of them, many of the Brotherhood members dying from the needles exploding. The others that were used to killing opened fire as soon as the first pony fell to the ground, Lone rushing in with his swords, cutting the Brotherhood to ribbons.The ponies that weren't use to killing attacked ten seconds after, but there were still plenty of targets to hit.

After nearly ten minutes of firing, the last member of the Brotherhood group fell dead, his head cut off by Lone's energy sword. The unicorn deactivated his sword, and said, "We're close to the heart of this place."

"How can you tell," Rainbow said.

"The amount of guards. They'd only put the most amount of guards at the most important location of the base."

"He's right," Shadow said. "I was on guard duty for that place after I joined the Brotherhood, and there were a lot of guards here, less then the amount we just killed, which means something's going on, and, if my contacts are right, then they're trying to raise Plasma again, which means we need to hurry."

Before any could respond, a deep, soothing voice was heard, saying, "It's too late for that, Shadow Specter." They all then disappeared in a flash of light, only to reappear in an entirely black version of the Canterlot throne room. "I have already risen," Plasma said as he appeared, sitting in the throne, showing he could change his size at will, as well as his appearance, as he now looked like a normal human, except for the fact his two eyes were entirely red as rubies. He wore armor reminiscent of ancient Knight armor, as it covered every inch of his body. The chest piece looked like a dagger filled mouth.

"Plasma," Ken growled, and this was heard.

"Ah, Kenneth Orochi, what a pleasure it is to see you again, as well as Lily Danchova and Maruco Smith. I imagine you thought I was dead with your old comrade, Miller, or am I wrong," Plasma said with a toothy smile. "And do not think I've forgotten you, John-117 and Thel Vadam. It was you two, and that AI companion of yours, that destroyed the Gravemind, a division of my mind, but still me. I hold no grugde to you, Sawn, nor you Hades, as you have not stood against me before, but you will pay for your actions."

He then took a deep breath, then looked at Liara and her ship mates. "And, of course, the remaining squad members of the famous Commander Shepard. I enjoyed killing you comrades before you arrived. A fitting revenge, as it was Shepard who destroyed my incarnation as the Reapers." Upon seeing their faces, he let out a small chuckle and said, "Yes, I am the true mind behind the Reapers you faced, even if I was not their guiding intellect to begin with, and I will enjoy making you pay for their destruction."

He then looked to the ponies. "And the famous Elements of Harmony, as well as two of Equestria's leaders, or, rather, former leaders, a changeling leader, and, along with being two of the greatest thorns in my side in this universe since your ancestor, my two decendants, Lone Shadow, and Shadow Specter. What made you think you could stand a chance against me, a god by many standards, and survive?

"Us," Metamorpha said as she and Chitinia changed into their pony forms, and they, along with the other Bearers, changed into their Rainbow forms. They launched an attack against Plasma, but he simply batted the attack aside, shocking everyone.

"Did you truly think that would work? I am far more ancient then the Elements, and much more powerful. Even then, they only work on those that consider themselves evil or chaotic. My daughters should have told you that when they gave them to you six." Upon seeing the shocked expressions, he chuckled again and said, "Yes, Celestia and Luna are my daughters." He brought his left hand up. "Now, I think it's time for you to change into something more appropriate." He snapped his fingers, and Luna and Celestia, along with Metamorpha, Chitinia, and Applejack, fell to the ground, screaming in agony. Orbs of darkness encircled them, and took on darker shades of their coats, or at least their preferred coat colors when in their disguises, in the case of Metamorpha and Chitinia, and their screams eventually died down, and the orbs receded.

In the place of those that once lay there in agony were five new ponies, each with various coat colors, and each wore a set of armor that looked like a nightmare had become armor, gaping maws for the chest pieces, and full faced helmets, with slits for eyes. The five of them got up and walked to the bottom of the throne, then turned to face their former allies.

The one that was once Celestia now had an orange coat, with her mane and tail being true fire. Her armor was rust colored, and on her armor over where her cutie mark would be showed a sun with numerous trails of fire coming off of it. Solar flares.

The mare next to her that was once Luna was not Nightmare Moon, but somehting new. Her coat was still as dark as the aforementioned mare's, but her mane and tail were a dark yellow. On her armor, a silver colored thing over where her cutie mark would be was a moon over the sun. An Eclipse.

The one that was once Applejack now had a darker orange coat, and a darker mane and tail color, almost as if she had lost all color and liveliness. Where her cutie mark would be on the armor, a brown, much like tree bark, colored armor, were three withered apples that none would eat. A Devastated Harvest.

The one that had been Chitinia was now Nightmare Rarity, with her armor being a dark grey, with the edges of the armor looking organic, as they flowed like water.

The one that had been Metamorpha looked almost exactly Twilight, only taller, and her coat was now the same color as the majority of Twilight's hair had been, and the once pink stripe was now a navy blue. The mark on her armor was a sickle, instead of a starburst, a setting sun behind it. A Twilight Sickle.

They are now my enforcers,"Plasma said in a cold tone. "you're friends are no more, and nothing in your possession can bring them back, not even your love for them."

From behind Plasma's throne, Cadence walked out in similar armor, only her coat was now blood red, and her mane and tail were an ethereal pink, her armor colored a light, cyan blue.

"I give all of you a choice," Plasma said as he sat down on his throne, "Surrender to me, and live; Fight, and become my prisoners; or die. Which will it be? Make no mistake, though, Lone Shadow and Shadow Specter. Your lives will end today."

"Only if you can kill us yourself," Lone said, which only got a satisfied smile from Plasma.

"So be it," he said in a deeper, threatening, almost robotic voice. Lone, Shadow, John, and Maruco were then thrust up into the air by an invisible force. "I was hoping you'd say that," he said in his first voice. A large horde of Brotherhood members, more then they faced before being teleported in here, came into the chamber then, and surrounded the others. After only three seconds, they threw down their weapons, though it was obvious they didn't want to. "Lead them to the cells," Plasma ordered his enforcers, who simply said, "Yes, My Lord," before leaving the room with the horde and their former allies behind them.

Plasma got up from his throne, but did not move. "The four of you have been the most painful thorns in my side that are here at present. There are others, many others, but they are not here, so I'll have to settle with you four for now." He paused, then said, "I sense the touch of the Librarian on each of you." He chuckled with what looked like a knowing smile. "Oh, if only she could help you now. But, alas, she can not, and you are at my mercy. You have failed to defend this world, and it will soon fall to me, and then, the others you know of. After those. Well, there are more than three universes, after all."

He took a deep breath, and said, "Now, the four of you will experience what happened to me in this universe all those years ago. You will be banished to the void, and there is nothing you can do to stop it," he said in an icy calm manner as he raised his hand, an orb of red energy forming in his palm as it faced the two Spartans and two unicorns. "Goodbye," Plasma said as he fired the orb of energy. It traveled to where the four were being held, and exploded jut as it came close to them, a flash of light being the result. When it faded, there was nothing left of the four. Not a speck of ash, nit a single molecule. It was like they had never even existed.

Plasma let a small smile out. "Now to find the rest of lone team, and kill them," he said as he vanished in a flash of light, the real threats killed or imprisoned.

But, if he had payed attention, just as his orb of energy detonated, Plasma would have seen a rainbow colored flash of light around those he had killed, and would have seen them vanish a millisecond before the detonation.

Secondary authors note's:

Plasma has risen, and the only ones capable of stopping him are dead, in his service, or imprisoned. The story is not over, folks. What does Plasma know about The Librarian, and what was that flash of light? Next few chapters!

Three months later

Thunder's day, all things considered, could be worse, but not by much. It had been three months, three, long months, since Lone and the others failed, and Plasma came to power. He had put a bounty on any and all members of the team, but, ever since then, none had been captured, as they had many hiding spots, including the library, where she, Vinyl, Wubsy, and a mare named Midnight Stream, a former member of the Brotherhood that Hermit had vouched for, were hiding. Robin had disappeared a day after the failed attack. What made this a bad day was that her long lost sister, Rainbow Dash, had been captured, as well as Thunder's crush, Radiant.

With Wubsy there, they still had contact with other branches of the team, and were well informed of what had been going on.

A mere few days after his victory, Plasma had told the cells of his Brotherhood in various capitol cities to rise and take the government in his name. The takeovers had been quick, relatively bloodless, really. After that, there was a small griffon rebellion, one not related to lone team, and Plasma sent his enforcers, all but two of which were alicorns, though Thunder knew one of them was Metamorpha, and the another was Chitinia, who killed all of the rebels, and their families, often times in front of the rebels, then killed them after a few minutes of sobbing, each time without mercy. That's how things went in the first month.

The second month was worse, as this was when Plasma decided to utterly destroy Canterlot's foundations. With the ponies still in the city. A few members of lone team were able to get in the city and save a fair portion of the citizens, even a few nobles that were worthy of that title, but most of the citizens were killed. Among those that were saved was the adoptive parents of Metamorpha, Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis, old members of the team that retired for a life together, and Blueblood, who, to Thunder's amazement, was among a secret group of the team Nightengale had started to ensure that any and all events the Brotherhood could attack were closely monitored. A few days after that, Plasma had a dark castle built in the shadow of the once great mountain. A week after that, ships had appeared in orbit, and they sent down smaller ones that had aliens similar to four of the ones that had been with Lone, and they helped Plasma take control of the planet. But, by far, the most eventful thing in the second month was the defection of many Brotherhood members, all lead by Midnight, all of whom Hermit, who could tell if ponies were lying, vouched for, to Lone team, though they were being watched by the members of the branches they were sent to.

They were currently a week into the third month, and nothing interesting had happened yet, fortunately. Right now, the pegasus was reading a book about various theories on the multi-verse, which had been proven true, but she wanted to see what others thought before hoof, when Midnight came up to her.

"Hey, Thunder," she said a she looked for a book as well. "What'cha reading?"

"Just something on multi-verse theories," Thunder said. "What are you looking for?"

"Just something interesting," Midnight replied. She found a book that caught her fancy, one on what some thought was lost history to the races of Equis.

"So, what'd you find," Thunder asked, turning to look at the other mare.

"Just a book of what some think is lost history for the planet. Some ponies are just crazy, and I know what I'm talking about when I say that."

"I can imagine," Thunder said in a joking tone. "No offense."

"Really," Midnight said. "I lost my best friend three months ago to those plot holes. I want them to burn I know I was with them, but that changed when Shadow and I, mostly me, discovered the truth of his heritage."

"You know, I'm still a little surprised that Lone's brother was alive. Shame that they died not a week after they decided to fight together."

"At least it was together. I think the real shame was that Plasma turned those they loved against them," Midnight said.

"Yeah, there's that," Thunder said. "How'd you find out about that?"

Shrugging, Midnight said, "Shadow and I had a mental link going when he made it here, which is how I knew the location of this place. I'll admit, a few things he learned while he was here surprised me. None of them matter any more, but still. Interesting."

"Really," Thunder said, raising an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Well, the main one is that cutie marks were created by Plasma to control the populace. Too bad only Lone and Shadow could remove them, huh."

"That, actually makes sense, I guess. If I was Plasma, I'd want something like that, as cutie marks do give ponies special skill in a certain area, and only a few of the former royal guard had guard related cutie marks, hence their incompetence."

"True," Midnight said with a small chuckle. "So, Thunder," she said, lying down next to the pegasus, "what do you think's going to happen, what with those aliens fighting for Plasma."

"I don't know, Midnight. Lone team training doesn't exactly prepare you for an alien invasion." The two mares laughed a little at that.

"Fair point," Midnight said as she revovered from her laughing, "but seriously, what do you think?"

"In all honesty? I don't know. Hopefully, we can remain underground, trying to at least slow him down. I doubt there's anything short of the royal sisters using the Elements at their full strength could stop him, and both of those are out the window, as said alicorns are two of his enforcers, and three of the Element bearers are in the same boat, with the other three being imprisoned."

"I'll say. I heard before I left the Brotherhood that Plasma set the rules of nature similar to the worlds Lone's alien allies came from," Midnight said. "The sun and moon rise by themselves, animals all tend to themselves, and weather happens on it's own. The whole planet is now the Everfree."

"I see no problems with that," Thunder said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Ponies have interfered the growth of new species. I had a chance t talk with Garrus, one of Lone's allies, and he said every single creature in existence in his universe came about because they all fended for them selves, with naturally occurring weather cycles, many of which could be predicted. If ponies hadn't become so soft and caring, we mat actually have competent guards. The weird part. They all said, and I agree with them, by the way, that the reason Equis is so far behind them, technologically speaking, is because we haven't had wars, and new technology often comes as a result. That doesn't mean war's good, but some, keyword, some, of the inventions created for war can be rebuilt or re-tasked for good uses, like power."

"Jeez, talk about a weird outlook," Midnight said.

"It's how they were raised. Can't help that."

Before Midnight could respond, Vinyl walked up and said, "Hey, guys. Wubsy says we got a few teammates coming in from the Canterlot branch, and they want us there when they come in, which, by the way, is just outside the main entrance."

"Seriously?" Midnight asked.

"Just relaying the message," Vinyl said, holding up a hoof. "Now, lets' go." She then galloped off in the direction of the main entrance.

The two mares looked at one another, and Thunder shrugged, using the telekinesis her training had given her to put the book back. "Might as well see who it is," she said as she began to head to the entrance.

"Right," Midnight said, getting up and following the pegasus as she put her own book away. The two then made their way to the main entrance.

. . .

Bravo-six:Sydney,Earth; personal quarters of Admiral Lord Hood

"Artemis," Hood said as he sat at his desk, "anything on Ken and the others?"

Aretemis' hologram appeared, and she said, "Unfortunately no, Terrence. I've checked with the others, but no one seems to have seen the Spear since my matrix went with it. At least when they dealt with Plasma, they kept us informed on where they were. Now, it's like they just disappeared."

"Maybe, Artemis, but this is Ken and the other we're talking about. They've gone up against stuff even the Chief hasn't."

Before she could respond, the two heard a knock on the door. "Permission to enter, sir?"

"Permission granted," Hood said.

The door opened to reveal a Dark blue ODST, his sleeves missing. On his helmet was two green fangs just under his visor, and his left arm had a dragon tattoo that spiraled down his forearm. His name was Dawson Stubel. He was an interesting ODST, having joined the infamous hundred and fifth two years after the Human-Covenant war, and had been assigned on Dratheus-V as it was attacked by a rouge Covenant group, and had even helped out Spartan Sarah Palmer during her mission to eliminate Merg' Vol, leader of the rouge group. It was these actions that got him noticed by lone team, more accurately, Ken and his team, and, when they approached him with the offer, he accepted it with out hesitation. He had been present with the three Spartans that brought him into the team on Requiem, though the rest of his squad was killed. Hood then had him transferred to his guard, as rising tensions between the different Covenant groups might lead to an attempt on his life.

"What is it, Lieutenant?" Hood asked Dawson.

The ODST saluted and said, "Sir, it's her."

Hood's eyes fixed on Dawson. "Are you certain?"

"Yes, sir. It's her. Cell Bravo had an encounter last night. She gave them coordinates, as well as a message to you as well. She said to bring the entire fleet. Not just the renegade fleet, but the UNSC fleet as well. Faith Cell also reported the same, and said the same to Shipmaster. I already sent a message to those in the insurrection as well, and they will send who they can."

"Good job, Lieutenant," Hood said. "Be ready to move out. If she's asking for the entire fleet, it must be huge."

"Sir!" Dawson said, saluting, before he turned and left, the door closing behind him.

"What do you think, Artemis," Hood said, turning to face the AI fragment.

"She'd call only if it was serious. If The Librarian is calling for all the fleets, it means we're going to need them."

"Agreed. Get the word out, and see if Bravo got any coordinates from her."

"Already got them, Terrence," Artemis said. "Have a little faith."

Hood chuckled a little. "I do, Artemis, but you can never be too careful when dealing with Forerunners."

"True enough," Artemis said as her hologram faded away.

"Let's just hope that this isn'y like the Didact," Hood said as he went back to his desk, now to look over the files of two Spartan-IVs and one former Spartan-IV, as well as a former ODST that was a squad mate of the others.

Presidium-Citadel; Council chambers (Mass Effect)

Six figures stood on a raised platform in what was, arguably, the most important place in the Galaxy. Some would argue Mindoir, where Commander Shepard was born. Others might say Elysium, where said Alliance soldier was able to rally the citizens of the colony to fight back a Batarian sponsored raid. Once, maybe those were true, but, ever since the Reaper War two years ago, it was the Council Chambers on the Citadel that became the most important location in the galaxy, as it was here five years ago that Shepard defeated the rouge Spectre Saren Arterius and bought the Galaxy some time, and it was where a memorial for all who lost their lives in the war, even the Geth, was commissioned. Said statue was the center piece of the chambers, it having a single member of each species in the war on it, but, of that, the attention grabber was of a bronze likeness of the famous Alliance soldier that had united the Galaxy against the Reapers, and the same one who gave his life to destroy the Reapers.

One of the figures was the Turian council members, Sparatus. He wore a dark blue turian business suit, with accents of red, white, and a hint of gold. "This has to be a fake Transmission," he yelled to the others, referring to the reason of this council meeting. He was the only member of the council from five years ago still on said council, the salarian councilor having been killed by a human centric organization when they attempted a coup two years ago during the war, and the Asari councilor of then stepping down shortly after the war.

"Possibly," Aeria V'dolyt, the Asari concilor said. She wore an entirely yellow outfit, which, amazingly, went well with her blue skin. "But it does use authorized channels, which is why we're here now, Sparatus. Besides, we never did find the body."

"That means nothing," Keneth Kagsab, the batarian councilor said. Needless to say, a lot of people were shocked when they heard the batarians were getting a council seat, but most saw why, as it was the batarians who helped hunt down remaining indoctrinated government officials, even stopping rebellions before they could start, and helped rebuild quite a few colonies. "Batarian's used to do the same during our slaving days, and Cerberus records say the Collectors could do the same."

"You would know, wouldn't you," Lokoln Manik, the salarian councilor, said in an insulting tone.

"Lokoln, I was never involved in that crap, and you know it," Keneth said, pointing an accusatory finger at Lokoln.

"Can you two put the arguing aside for now," Sisor' Manis vas Likor, the quarian councilor said. Quarians had earned a seat on the council due to it being them that had helped recreate VIs, as well as most automated systems a government needed. Living just about your entire life on a ship will do that. Sisor was one of the few quarians who liked living on something that was actually dependable with little effort by those who lived there, and, as a quarian well versed in politics, she was an obvious choice. "We have more pressing matters to attend to, like this message. If it really came from him, then it has to be important."

It was then the last member of the council spoke up. "Agreed," former Admiral Steven Hackett said. "If this came from who we think it did, we need to follow it."

"And if it isn't?" Sparatus said.

"That's why I was going to suggest we send the Normandy in first, to recon if the coordinates aren't a trap. If not, then we send a larger force to see what it is."

"I agree with him," Keneth said.

"And I as well," Aeria said.

"He does provide good logic," Lokoln said, "much as I don't want to admit it.

"It does make sense to send in a stealth ship," Sisor said.

"Looks like we're investigating it at the very least, Septimus," Keneth said.

"Fine," the turian said with a wave of his hand in annoyance.

"I'll let them know," Hackett said as he turned to leave the council chambers. As he reached the elevator, he thought to himself Shepard, you'd better be there.

Equis-Badlands hive

"Sir!" changeling general Wasp said as he saluted Lightning Spear. "Our forces are ready to move out."

"Good," Lightning said. Lightning was in his changeling-pony hybrid form, which was really just pony form, but with hardened chitin instead of a coat. "Do we have word from the dragons, or the rest of lone team, for that matter?"

"No sir, but something. . . interesting did occur last night."

"What?"

The two fillies, Diamond Tiara ans Silver Spoon, said that they saw four shapes resembling that of the humans, though two of them had horns. They only got a small glimpse of them before there was a flash of light and they blacked out. When they came to in the hospital, they were brought there by the other three, they were given standard treatment, and, when the doctors examined them two hours ago, they discovered, much to the fillies horror, though I don't know why, the fillies cutie marks were gone. We're still trying to calm them down."

Lighting rolled his eyes. "Great," he said sarcastically. "Any leads on those four beings they saw?"

"No, sir. We put an alert out to the other changelings, and none have reported anything similar."

"I suppose that's all we can do," Lightning said as he faced the changeling army in front of him. Most, if not all, adult changelings knew of lone team, but few were part of it. That is, before now. When word of Lone's defeat reached the hives, every changeling adult, regardless of age or gender, spoke up, requesting to be a part of the team in order to help the planet. Not for glory, but because it was the right thing to do. All of those assembled before Lightning were aware of their chances of survival, but didn't care.

Shortly after the second Canterlot incident, the leaders of each branch of lone team got together, and decided that they would all make one final push, with any and all forces they could muster. This meant every single adult changeling, and every single battle ready dragon would be in the attack.

The time for said attack was in a week.

"Get everyling ready to move out, General. We move out tomorrow.

"Sir!" the General said as Lightning turned to leave for his room. Damn it, Lone, why'd you ave to die and not take Plasma with you, he thought. He was surprised when he got a response.

Couldn't really help it, could I?

"Lone?"

Yeah, Lightning it's me. Before you ask, no, I can't make myself visible, nor can I possess anypony.

"So you're a ghost?"

No. More like a. . . fallen angel. That'll make sense in time. For now, I'm just here to say that Plasma is expecting an all out attack from lone team, and, chances are, it'll fail.

At the moment.

"What do you mean?" Lightning asked, confused.

Give it a week, was the last thing Lone said before one of Lightning's aides came up.

"Sir, we have word from Nova," he said. "The dragon armies are ready for the attack a week from now."

"Right." After a second, he said, "Tell them the changelings are ready as well." The aide saluted as he left. As he did so, Lightning thought on the conversation with Lone. Probably just my mind playing tricks on me, he thought as he went to his war room.

Southern mountains-Dragonhold city

Nveryll, a tall, quadruped dragon with deep, red body scales and green underscales, yellow eyes, a dagger like tail, and razor sharp teeth, stood at attention outside the war room of her Highness, Queen Saphira, her generals, and hers two sons. Nveryll, commonly called by both his friends, comrades, and even the queen as N, as his name was hard to pronounce, was among the best of the dragon guards, his scales tough enough to where he did not need to wear armor, his breath hot enough to melt through lone team standard armor.

In the past three months, lone team had become a public name, as the Brotherhood had been seen publicly putting up notices about what would happen to civilians about conspiring with them. On;y the changeling hives and the dragon monarchies had been able to hold out and retain their freedom, though many had lost their lives in the fighting.

Along with the changeling populace, many dragons, noble and migratory, had been recruited into the team, as many had demonstrated fighting skills at and above the entry standard for the team. N had been one of them, and was already a guard by that time, which led to him becoming the queens personal guard. Ironic, as he thought that meant being n the war room with her, but he knew someone had to guard the door, so he didn't complain.

A few hours after the war council had come together, one of the few changelings in the city came by and said, "Message for the queen."

"Proof, identification, and magical aura," N said, as he was also a rare dragon with the ability to tell intentions just from magical auras. It wasn't a long lost instinct, you just needed to pay attention to how it looked.

The changeling produced an envelope that was addressed to the queen, as well as an authorization signature from Octavia Melody, leader of the former Canterlot branch of lone team, a piece of paper with the changeling embassy's emblem on it. It wasn't well known, but dragons and changelings had always been good allies, even before they had a common enemy in Plasma. As he did so, N looked at the aura. It was the normal changeling green, and had the normal wave-like appearance, but what N was looking for, and found were the small sparkles, or lack of them, from the horn, which indicated there was no ill will from him.

"The queen is in a meeting as of now, and asked not to be disturbed, but I shall ask if she will allow an immediate audience. N turned around, keeping an ear on the changeling, and knocked on the door before opening it. "Your Highness, a changeling has a message from Madam Octavia, and says it's urgent.

Saphira wore beautiful battle armor. It's color matched her scale, and it flowed like water. At the same time, though, it was fierce, in a subtle way. "Let him in, N. If it's from Octavia, then it's important."

"Yes, Ma'am." N then turned to the changeling, and said, "You can enter."

The changeling simply nodded before heading in, his head held high.

He closed the door behind him as he went in.

. . .

Stinger walked into the dragon war room, and bowed once he was at his end of the table. At the opposite end was Saphira in her armor. On her left was Nova Blaze, wearing his usual shades. He wore black armor with high lights of neon blue, his flame color, that looked heavy, but, using normal dragon metalsmithing techniques, was light, flexible, and offered a lot of protection.

On Saphira's right was her son, Spike, who, though not wanting to become king, had adjusted to his role of a prince rather well, and had quickly passed the combat courses all royal family members had to pass, some would say to the point he was already in lone team, but, at the time, he wasn't, though, shortly after the Brotherhood's first attack on Canterlot, he had been inducted into it, though he still had qualms about killing, which was expected, given he was raised by ponies, a pacifist society, for the most part. He wore purple and green armor, matching his scales and spines coloration, respectively, and resembled Nova's very well, with the exception of a white and light purple spot over where his heart would be. Stinger had been in Ponyville once, and knew this represented the sister of the Element of Generosity. To be fair, in pony years, he was in her age group.(1)

"Your majesties, I bring news from the library."

"What is it?" Saphira asked.

"Octavia has called for a war council of all the members of lone team that have the highest pull in their governments, and she was hoping you could attend."

"When is it?"

"Three days, majesty."

"Good. I leave tomorrow," Saphira said. She then turned to face Spike. "Spike, I know you don't wish to be king, but I ask you to take my place while I am there." She turned to Nova. "Nova, you are to help him however possible."

"Right," the both of them said.

Saphira turned back to Stinger. "Thank you, Stinger. You can go back to what you were doing before you delivered the message.

"Thank you, Saphira," he said as he exited the room.

The library-main gate; a few minutes earlier

Vinyl, Midnight, Thunder, and Wubsy were waiting at the main gate for Octavia to arrive, as well as her guest as Wubsy had informed them of somepony, most likely Blueblood, arriving with her.

Just as Vinyl was going to start complaining, there was a flash of yellow light, and the familiar pop of teleportation. Standing in front of the four were Octavia and Messenger.

"Hey, guys," Octavia said.

"Hey, 'Tavi," Vinyl said as the others gave her nods in greeting.

"Good to see all of you," Messenger said.

"You, too, Messenger," Thunder said.

"So, how are you guys doing?" Octavia asked.

"Good," Thunder said. "You?"

"Same," Messenger said.

"So, why are you guys here?" Wubsy said.

"I was hoping on holding a war council here at the library to discuss the attack, and every races role in it."

"I can see that, and it's a good idea, really," Midnight said, "but, and this is just me thinking out loud, this is Plasma, and he plans for stuff like rebellions. Why do you think he made his enforcers in the first place?"

"I already have a plan to take care of them," Octavia said. "Though, unfortunately, that may involve, ahem, killing them." She said that last part sheepishly.

This got slack-jawed expressions from those of the Ponyville branch, or, former Ponyville branch. "WHAT?! Midnight yelled.

"That's the only way to make sure they aren't a problem anymore. Besides," Octavia said, "I already have the messages." At this, she pulled out a bag of scrolls, each with a different name on it and her own name on each. "And the council is going to be here at the library," Octavia said as the scrolls disappeared in a flash of changeling flame.

"So there's no way of pulling you off the path," Vinyl said.

"Nope."

"Fine, but you won't be getting support from us, 'Tavi," Vinyl said, turning back to the interior of the Library. "Now lets' get inside. I'm freezing." With that, the others followed the unicorn into the library.

Unknown location

Three figures stood silhouetted against multiple screens that showed what was happening across Equis. "I suppose we should have seen that coming," one of them, a tall woman with flowing hair and a knee length dress said.

"Agreed," the second figure, a woman as well, said, "but there is nothing we can do to prevent them from going down this road. Unless you two think they're ready."

"I'm sure they are," the third, a male, said. "They have the best training we can give them, given how long they've been here."

"True," the first said.

"And if they aren't," the second said.

"They are. They have the best training, the most powerful spells, and one thing not even they know they possess," the first retorted.

"Sacrifice."

Final battle Pt1- Armies Collide

It's been six days since Octavia called for the war council between the major leaders of lone team. More accurately, those in charge of their respective armies, with Octavia representing lone team. Right now, they were talking about how to kill Plasma's enforcers, as none of them knew any other way to free them from his control.

"What we do, once they're in the field," Octavia said, wearing her standard issue lone team armor, "is seperate them from one another, and take them out as soon as possible, starting with Solar flare, and making our way down to Harvest."

"And what do we do with her," Saphira, queen of the dragons, said.

"We use, with your permission, Saphira, the strongest dragon mages you're brining with you to hold her in the air, leaving her vulnerable to our archers and gunponies."

"And if that doesn't work," Lightning, general of the entire changeling army, asked. "What then?"

"Then we're screwed," Messenger said. "Most likely, the only refuge we'll have is here, the Library. And that's if we survive, which is low enough if Plasma himself doesn't get involved in the fight."

"He's right," Midnight said. "If half the legends about Plasma's power is true, then we won't stand a chance."

"And why should we trust you," Lightning said. "You are ex-Brotherhood, after all."

"Because I could have easily led them here so that they could slaughter you all, but I haven't, nor will I."

"We can talk about this later, Lightning," Saphira said. "Hermit vouched for her and those that came with her, and she helped out Lone and his brother."

"Who were killed upon facing Plasma, who knew they were coming," Lightning retorted. "If Lone was here, and vouched for her, I'd still be apprehensive, but I'd trust her, barely, if only because Lone trusted her."

"And that's the issue," Octavia said. "The fact you barely trust anypony that Lone doesn't trust. You need to make descions on who to trust for yourself."

"I did, and look at what happened three years ago in the hive. My aunt was nearly killed by one of my friends because I let him into the capitol building. So I'm sorry if I'm not that trusting," Lightning said sarcastically.

"Look, we can argue about this later," Saphira said. "Right now, we need to discuss the battle plans."

"Agreed," Octavia said before returning her attention to the map that illustrated Plasma's castle, which was in the field between Ponyville and what had been Canterlot. "We know that Plasma's planning on executing those he took prisinor three months ago tomorrow, and we already have people in the ruins of the Canterlot, as well as the everfree, so we already have a few position."

"Yes, but what about all of the guards Plasma's employed, not to mention those ships he has in orbit," Saphira said. "His forces now have the weapons only we had three months ago. I'm begining to think that he already had some of these aliens in his group when Lone and the others went to their old base. It's the only way to explain how they got so many weapons this quickly."

"Agreed," Messenger said. "What do you know about them, Midnight?"

"Nothing. The first I heard of them was when they arrived on the planet. I don't think most ponies in the Brotherhood knew about this, in all honesty."

"Well, the fact remains," Lightning said, "if we don't play this smart, we. Will. Fail."

"Then how do you propse we take those ships out. No unicorn alive can teleport all the way to orbit and still have enough energy left to fight," Saphira said. "The only way we're going to take those ships out is if we get some of our own, which isn't going to happen."

"So it's going to be a suicide run?"

"Does it matter," Octavia said. "We joined this team to help protect ponies, griffons, dragons, every species on Equis, regardless of the fact if they're sentient or sapient, and I know that's what me and the other members from Canterlot are going to do."

"As will the dragons," Saphira said.

"The changelings too, but that still leaves out how we're going to beat them. There's no cover from those ships," Lightning said.

"Yeah there is," Vinyl said, speaking up for the first time. "Inside the castle itself. I doubt they'd try to fire on it. That is, unless they want to piss off their god."

"How are we going to get in there, though," Midnight said. "They have more then enough guns to wipe us out before we even get halfway there."

Vinyl just chuckled a little, and lit her horn. "What, you haven't heard of magic before?"

Plasma's Castle; dungeons

Rainbow was in immense pain. She hung from the dungeon walls, held by rustic chains that she knew were made to be tight on hooves. She had cuts, welts, and bruises from numerous beatings all across her body. She considered herself lucky that she hadn't been raped. She hadn't seen Saber, her stallion friend, since they were captured, and she knew that the two of them, as well as the others, were to be executed soon. But the thing that hit her the hardest, even though it had been three months since it happened, was knowing that Metamorpha and Chitinia, two of her best friends, as well as Celestia, Luna, Applejack, and Cadence, had become Plasma's enforcers, and she knew he had used some kind of magic to make them so.

The only ponies she saw on a regular basis were Metamorph, or, as she called herself, Twilight Slade, and Chitinia, or Nightmare Rarity, as she was called by the other enforcers and as she called herself, when they came to taunt her about her loss and failure as their friend, and Element of Loyalty, for not joining them. But she knew this was an attempt to break her so Plasma would have a seventh enforcer, and she wouldn't break due to that.

If that were the case, she would have been the same as Fluttershy in flight camp, but she didn't let the taunts break her then, and she wouldn't now. The two of them had just left from doing just that, actually. Trying to taunt her and break her.

"Damn you Plasma. Are you really that much of a coward to use my friends?" she whispered to herself.

"Oh, no. I simply gave them guidance, and I still offer it to you, Rainbow Dash," she heard, and she knew instantly that Plasma was listening.

"Then why execute me and the others?"

"I wish I did not have to, truly, but I would rather get rid of a problem before it becomes one. After all, a preventitive measure is an effective measure."

"Then why not prevent me and the others from becoming problems?"

"Oh, I did try. Do you not remember Tirek? It was I who lured Cerberus away from Tartarus, allowing him to escape. What destroyed that plan was Harmony, and her Elements." There was a pause, which, Rainbow guessed, meant he was taking a deep, calming breath. "It is no matter, though. Three of the bearers are imprisoned, and the other three have are loyal to me."

"You freed Tirek?" Rainbow asked angrily.

"Yes, and the one who made him wait until the ponies were at the greatest peace, which meant a lowered guard, which should have meant an easy take over. I suppose I should have thanked Lone Shadow for making my daughter, Celestia, or Solar Flare, as she prefers now, smarter about defensive decisions. Aftre all, it was under her command a griffon rebellion was taken down."

Rainbows eyes widened, to which Plasma's voice replied, "Your friend, Gilda,is still alive, I assure you. She had no hand, or, claw, as the case may be, in it, and I made sure no innocents were harmed."

"Why?"

"Because there was no reason to harm those who didn't fight back. The war, the devesation lone team says I brought with me, is because of them and my, admitadaly, overzealous followers. I am aware of different beings having different faiths, and hold no anger to those who don't follow me. The extremists, who take violent action to dethrone me, I will hunt down and punish. I am not one for violence."

"Then why is it I heard Ken say you wiped out all of thse Forerunners?!" Rainbow yelled.

"Because the Forerunners attacked my kind first. They believed they would be wiped out because they were not found worthy of the Mantle of the Universe. A fear that, while grounded in fact, was not to come true. We would have left them alone. It was in their attacks, actually, that the seed of their destruction was planted.

"The Flood.

"You see, Rainbow Dash, it was the actions of the Forerunners that led many of my fellows to enter a kind of stasis, where their bodies became a powder-like substance that was meant to regenerate their bodies, but the Forerunners hunt, it's length, made the powder inert. Broken, for a technical term. It was, ironically, the Humans, those my kind deemed worthy of the Mantle, who found this powder. They tested it, and discovered it to have, at the time, benign, even harmless effects on the Pheru, a dog like species that ancient humans at the time favored. Over time, the powder produced genetic defects, unsightly growths on the Pheru, and even a need for cannibalism, keeping in mind that the Pheru are, were, herbivores.

"Humans then became infected, starting with those that ate the Pheru as food. Through various means, the Flood infected numerous planets. At this time, the humans were engaged in a war with the Forerunners, which further cemented the fact Forerunners were unworthy of the Mantle, as the humans had been fleeing from the Flood.

"It then began to make it look like humanity had a cure, and began to recede from the galaxy, only for the Forerunners to discover it on one of the only natural worlds left from those they settled. They eventually created the Halos, and the rest is history."

"Then why try to kill Ken and the others," Rainbow asked, surprised at this information.

"Because it was a UNSC solider, Marcus Shay, who found out about the Brotherhood in that dimension in 2551, and believed the humans of it to be traitors for allying with Sangeheli, even though he did the same, and tried to expse them. I told my followers to prevent this, but they decided to kill him and his allies, though it failed, as Mark and his allies eventually discovered me to be in the body of a moniter by the name of 549 Hopeful Punishment, the moniter for installation 07, where they were located, and tried to kill me. What I did was in self defense. As for Ken, I was trying to give human rebels, who simply wanted to live under their own rules, but knew the UNSC wouldn't allow it, a chance at liberty and freedom, but the UNSC decided to send out a team of two Spartans, Ken and Lily, to stop me. They eventually found the remains of my base on 07, as well as a message from The Librarian, a Forerunner.

"It told them that I was a threat to the galaxy, and had to be killed. They failed, but they found Maruco soon after, and the three of them created a galaxy wide lone team. It wasn't until 2557, five months after John-117 was found, that I actually wanted them dead. I had my followers on the UNSC Infinity take as many Mantis suits as possible, which was for the same purpose as what happened in 2551, but they went all out, literally, and took every single Mantis on board. The UNSC HIGHCOM, high command, then sent Spartans Hogan and Miller after me. Ironically, Hogan was a part of the Brotherhood, and had to betray Miller, his friend. He did not do so lightly, and I do applaud him for that.

"After that, there were many incursions between lone team and the Brotherhood, which came to a head two years ago when Ken, Maruco, Lily, and Miller fought their way onto my ship and destroyed it, thinking they had killed me."

"What happend to you between then and three months ago?" Rainbow asked, a little curious.

"I discovered that quite a few universes are linked together, and do you want to know what all had in common?"

"No clue."

"War. Every joined universe was at war with it's partner, It was then, only four months ago, that I decided to try to take over every universe, as having a single ruler would prevent such a thing, and I wished to try it with what had been a smaller version of this problem twenty thousand years ago. Equis. I also made, and started, other plans to grease the wheels, one of which even involves an alternate to this universe, and it has worked so much better than I expected, but that's off topic. Needless to say, I'm doing this to bring peace to the multi-verse. There is only one universe I can not touch, but I still sense it."

Yeah, well, fuck you too, Plasma.

"And there's the most troublesome one of that universe. If you'll excuse me, Rainbow, I must try to find him so I can take away his powers."

Good luck with that.

"I will find you." It was here that Rainbow felt a pressure coming off her mind she didn't know she had, which meant Plasma was gone from her mind, for now. The odd thing? She could have sworn she heard a third voice those two times.

Ruins of Canterlot; a mile from the lone team camp

Seven figures, each as tall as Plasma in his human form, cloaked in shadows, walked among the ruins of the once great city, looking for something.

"Are you sure it's here?" One, a male, asked.

"She said it'd be here," a second, also male, responded as he couched down to investigate some tracks

"How can you, or she, be certain that they'll be here!?" a third, the one female of the group, asked a little loudly.

"Keep it down, would you," a fourth said, slapping the woman to keep her quiet. "We're still close enough to those camps."

"I'm just saying," she responded defensively.

"Both of you, lock it down," the fifth said with an authoritave tone. "We need to be as quiet as possible."

"Why are we even looking for Timberwolves?" the sixth said with an annoyed tone.

"You know that as well as we do," the seventh said, his shadow having the faint shape of a bow and quiver along the back. "It's the same as with the Thestrals three days ago. We need a sizable army.

"Would all of you please shut the buck up," the second said, the clear leader of the group. He then pointed in the direction of the closest part of the Everfree, which, fortunatley, was a fair distance out of the way of Plasma's castle. "They went that way." He then pointed to the woman. "Shadow Dancer: get back to the Thestrals and wait for my word to move in." He pointed to three of the other males. "Legend, Jumper, Pshyco: report back to the Nexus, and wait for her to say the word to go to the fleet." He pointed at the one with a bow. "Hood: wait outside the Repository for the ones there to leave, then head inside. You know what to say."

"Hood" nodded, as much as could be seen, and ran off, disappearing into the shadows.

"Turncoat, you'll remain with the wolves, once we're good with them."

As the others left, "Turncoat" said, "What about you, though?"

"Easy," the leader of the group said. "I'm going to play diplomat, fun style." He then pulled out two curved pieces of metal, and pushed a button as the two fit into his palms, and, on each, two blades popped into existence, the third closest to the ground being as red as blood, the middle third being lime green, and the third closest to the hilts being as black as night. "It's been a while since I used these, after all."

UNSC Infinity meanwhile

"Admiral, are you sure this is a good idea?" Captain Lasky asked Admiral Hood. "Coming to a virtually unknown part of space, and with insurectionist ships being at our flanks, I mean."

"Indeed I am, Captain," Hood said as he looked out the window on the bridge. What he saw was the one thing no one ever thought was possible. A large fleet of UNSC, Covenant, and insurectionist ships not firing at one another, some even connected via towing clamps, sharing power, each waiting for his word to move, though only a few out of the overall here knew what was really going on, or at least knew what Hood knew, and that was that The Librarian needed all of them. "It's not everyday a Forerunner calls for the help of just about every ship in the galaxy." Lasky was one of those few.

"True," Lasky replied, "but I still don't like it, if only because the insurectionists could shoot us in the back."

"Something only a fool would do, Capatin. The rebels that don't know what's going on at least know that Rtus 'Vadum's forces are with us, and would be stupid to try to shoot even one of his or our ships in this fleet, and those that do know what's going on to the same degree you and I do know that we aren't the real threat."

"Plasma is, if he's even still alive," Lasky said.

"He is, I'm certain of it," Hood said. "You can't just kill an eons old being with the equivalent of a Havoc nuke."

Before Lasky could respnd, the door to the bridge opened, and Dawson Stubel walked in, his armor on, and a BR-55 in his left hand, as he was one of the relative few who was left handed dominat when it came to weapons handeling, and saluted. "Admiral, Alpha-Nine's arrived and is waiting for you in hanger."

"All of them?"

"Yes sir."

Nodding, Hood said, "Take me to them," then turned around. He folled Dawson out of the bridge and ot the nearest hanger bay, which was where the four former ODSTs who made up the Alpha-Nine that had been in New Mombassa and survived to current day were waiting.

He arrived ten minutes after leaving the bridge, and saw that all four of them were waiting. The two still a part of the UNSC, Sergeant Buck, as he was normally called, and his second in command, Lieutenant Romeo, again, as most called him.(1) Both were now Spartan fours, but Buck had, with some complaints from his higher-ups, strapped gear from his ODST armor on his Spartan armor, including ammo pouches he had on his legs, an ODST standard combat knife, and an ODST chest piece and helmet. Romeo had standard armor, but customized with various parts. He still had an ODST helmet, but his shoulder plates were scout on his left, and none on his right, which went wirh how his ODST armor looked. He had a wetwork chest piece, and had countoured greaves and leg armor.(2)

The next one had been a Spartan as well, but was now considered a traitor. His offical name had slipped Hood's mind, but his nickname had stuck. "Mickey." He had been the demolitions expert of Alpha-Nine, but had turned traitor a few years after New Mombassa. He was currently being guarded by one Spartan-IV in completely white defender armor and a single Sangeheli in a ranger kit, his coloration being the red and white of the "Swords of Sanghelios", the faction of Sangeheli that had been loyal to Thel 'Vadam during the Elite uprising during 2552, also known as the Great Schisim, and afterwards.

The last had left the UNSC military shortly after the events of Draco-III that had cost them a man. Like Mickey, Hood had forgotten the man's offical name, though both were simply due to the events of the past few days. "Dutch" is what his old team mates called him, and, even with out Spartan enhancements, none of which he had, you would mistake him for one of the smaller Spartan-IVs, and with good reason, as he was taller then the rest of Alpha-Nine before they got the augments.

Hood walked down to the Pelican they were in front of, and the three Spartans, one ODST turned civilian, and one Sangeheli saluted, Buck saying, "OFFICER ON DECK!"

"At ease," Hood said. He then looked to the one Defender Spartan and Ranger Sangeheli guarding Mickey. "Release him," Hood said, getting surprised looks from everyone in the area, including Mickey.

"But sir, he's-" the Defender Spartan began before Hood cut him off

"A hero who's seen more combat from the war than most of the soliders of his time, and I'll treat him with the respect he deserves. Besides, there are two other Spartans here to take him down if he becomes a problem. Now, release him."

"Yes sir," the Spartan said in a defeated tone before handing his rifle to his opposite and keying in the release codes.

Once they had come off and Mickey began to rub his wrists to remove the discomfort, Hood said, "Leave us," to which both the Spartan and Sangeheli did so. Once thye had left, he stood in front of Mickey and asked, "How are you doing?"

"You're asking me that when I'm on the crown jewel of the UNSC fleet and I'm considered a terrorist and a rebel?" Mickey shot back, but not making any moves.

"I meant considering," Hood replied in his trademark calm under fire voice.

"Well, if it's considering, the answer would be: Pissed, confused, and honored at once. Pissed because I'm on the I'm here. Confused because I'm here in the most advanced UNSC, possibly the most advanced, ship in the galaxy and the ranking officer on it ordered the two soldiers who were to be my escorts to release me, and honored because I'm finally meeting Admiral Hood."

"Good," Hood said as he backed away, keeping an eye on Mickey. "And what about the rest of you?"

The remaining three responded with, "Fine, sir." Aftre a second, Buck said, "Sir, if I may ask, why are we all here?"

That's a good question, Lieutenant," Hood said. "Artemis, mind helping me fill them in?"

"Not at all, Terrence," Artemis said as her holgram appeared, which got a whistle from Romeo, which earned a slap upside the head from Buck and Dutch, though the three of them and Mickey then chuckled as it brought back old memories.

"As you four know," Artemis started, "this is the largest mobilization of ships in the galaxy since Reach. The reason why is because of this." At Artemis' stop a voice came over the speakers of the hanger.

"To any and all human vessles, I am the Forerunner once known as the Librarian. I require your help to save what my people, the Forerunners, have worked towards, and that would be your species taking the Mantle of responsibility. There is a great threat to this plan, one only all of humanities military and that of it's allies can stop. Embeded in this message are coordinates that will lead you to the area of the galaxy the fight will begin, should you choose to follow this warning." This was just a modified version of the original message, though it had the same meaning.

"In other words," Hood said, "all four of you are needed to combat this threat. On a more personal note, I wish to extend an intite to the four of you, and amnesty to you, Mickey, should you accept the invite, to a special task force that is made up of members of every race in the galaxy, both from the military and civilians. This is something ONI doesn't know about, but I won't blame you if you say no because of fear of reprisal from ONI. If you do, though, you'll have access to just about every file you can think of, but if you betray the UNSC or it's allies, or the few rebel cells that are made up of people from this task force, then we will hunt you down. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," was the response from the four fromer ODSTs in front of Hood, though Mickey was lacking in enthusiasim.

Hood nodded, and looked to Dawson. "Stubel, would you mind leading the four of them to the armory. Artemis will be watchng, so you don't have to worry about anything. Artemis?"

"Yes sir."

"I want you to tell Alpha-Nine everything about the team, as well as why we're actually here."

"Yes sir," Artemis said as her hologram disappeared and Dawson led the four former ODSTs to the armory, which, in his opinion, was a bit of a stupid move, but he'd faced worse than a possible hostile Spartan in the ideal position to snap his neck before he could know, so he wasn't worried.

Just as the five left, the Infinity's AI, Roland, came over Hood's communicator. "Uh, Admiral, we have a. . . well I'm not sure what to call it."

"What is it, Roland?"

"Lone range sensors from the ships at the edge of the fleet just picked up a ship, and you'll never guess as to what the transponder says. I'm not kidding. If we were in some kind of story, it'd be a massive plot twist."

"What ship, Roland?"

"Hold on, getting a message from it. Holy shit."

Before Hood could respond, Roland played the message, saying, "This isn't a recording by the way." The messgage then played.

"This is Sierra 117 of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn . We're on station, ready to assist."(3)

Citadel task fleet command-SSV Normandy; War room

"There's nothing here," Admiral Smith, leader of the Citadel task force said, looking over a holo-projection of the system they were in for the tenth time. He had arrived in system four days ago, three days after the Normandy had arrived to check if it wasn't a trap. Ever since then, the fleet had been waiting for something.

Smith was a man in his late fourties with a military standard haircut of red hair, with blue eyes. He had a scar on the left side of his face running from just above his eye going across it, resulting in him being blind in that eye, and went down to his jaw bone. He was also missing his left arm from the elbow down.

The fleet was heavily armed, having ten dreadnaughts from each race capable of producing them at a good rate, resulting in eighty of these fearsome ships. There were ten human fighter carriers, each carrying fifty fighters and seventy-five interceptors, as well. There were five cruisers from each race as well. But the real number and punch of the fleet were the well over thousand total frigates, the hit and run ships that, in numbers like these, could match a dreadnaught in fire power but beat it in manuverability. Hell, they could easily take a Reaper down with these numbers.

The reason why this fleet was so well armed was because the message the Citadel Council had revieved seven days ago, which reportedly, somehow, came from Commander Shepard, said that Reapers would be involved. Smith was sure this was a hoax, but it had been on a frequency that only Shepard's squad used, and had contained info only Shepard would know, which was something that had been kept from Smith, but he knew only those two things would convince the council to at least humor who ever this was.

Besides, a fleet like this, you'd better be a special kind of lucky to pull off stealing a ship of any class, or even an interceptor.

"Sorry, Admiral," the Normandy's pilot, Joker said. "But the council said we needed to be here, and we both know it's best to just go with it"

"I know, Joker, but still. I don't see why any message would have us come here, just ofr nothing. It's close ot a relay system, so we can get anywhere pretty much instantly."

"Yeah, that'll be useful," Joker said. "Y'know, if someone's stupid enough to attack the citadel again," he added in a bored tone.(4)

"Joker, lock that talk down. Your last commanding officer might have let it slide, but I won't."

"Right, sorry, sir," Joker said over the comm before saying to himself, with it not going over the intercom, "Hardass. Javik was better then you. He, at least, had a reason for being a dry rock of humor."

"True enough, Joker," Ensign Cambell said. Cambell, or Hazard, as her firends called her due to how dangerous she is with a weapon, or when she was drunk, whichever one they knew her best with, said. She was a woman in her mid-twenties with red hair and amber eyes, with slightly green lips from a condition that was common where she came from, the colony of Camelot.

It was named by a scientist who had an unatural fascination with old stories from earth before spaceflight was achieved, especially ones from the medival period, and the scenery reminded him of common descriptions of the fantasy city.

The condition came from a special kind of pollen. It wasn't fatal, obviously, but it caused some slight discoloration with the blood, causing it to, more often then not, change to a light green or blue, or, rarely, a dark shade of black. There weren't any health effects that could be considered negative from this. In fact, some people with this condition often had sharper senses, and many became hunters on the colony, which was one of the few lucky ones to get through the Reaper war with out much conflict, as it was lightly colonized, but everyone there knew how to hide and survive in the wilderness.

"Yeah, maybe, Hazard. Too bad he isn't here now," Joker remarked.

"At least we don't have to deal with his grim attitude. What's he doing now, anyway?"

Joker shrugged. "I don't know, maybe becoming king of the Hanar. You know they consider his people their gods. Hell, there was one crazy Hanar who followed the Reapers because the Collectors were Protheans, and they served the Reapers."

"And that's why I'm atheist," Hazard remarked, getting a chuckle from Joker.

"I don't know, better not let Ash hear you use that reasoning. She's, what's it called again, Christan?"

"Yep. And I don't care. Most people on Camelot are Christan, and I got along just fine with them."

"Fair enough," Joker said before his terminal lit up. "Hold on, getting something." He tapped the part of the console that lit up, and a status report came up. "Increased gravity. . . oppposite side of the system. . . oh shit!"

"What!?" Hazard asked.

"Picking up a Reaper signature, as well as, and I'm not kidding, a wormhole, opposite side of the system," Joker said in a panicked tone.

"You sure?"

"Definitely," Joker said as he sent this to Smith in the War room.

"Joker, are you sure this is right," Smith said over the comms once he read it.

"Yeah, I'm sure, sir. I know what a Reaper signature looks like."

Hazard was about to retort when a communication request came into her terminal, as she monitored communications. From, of all things, the Reaper. "Uh, sir, communication request coming from the Reaper."

"Copy that. Joker, get the firewalls up. Hazard, once that's done, accept it so we can tell it to go to hell, not to mention find out how it survived the Crucible two years ago."

"SIR!!" they both replied. A minute later, Joker said, "Firewall's up."

"Copy that," Hazard said. "Accepting the communications request." She pressed the button on her console that would allow for communication between the Noarmandy and the Reaper. Once she did so, a voice that everyone on the ship recognized came over the intercom.

"Citadel task force, this is Commander Shepard," Shepard said. "I promise I'll explain everything later, but now, I need you guys to get into the wormhole, now."

Plains between Plasma's castle and what remains of Canterlot; the next day

Lightning stood in front of the changeling army, looking over the space seperating them and the Brotherhood's forces, which consisted of ponies, changelings, griffons, humans, sangeheli, jiralhanee, and kig-yar. He then looked to the sky, and saw numerous ships that he recognized from the stories he had heard from Garrus in Canterlot as Reapers, giant, insect like sapient ships that were pretty hard to destroy, ships that Thel, Hades, and Sawn described as covenant corvetts, frigates, and even a single super carrier. He also saw what had been described to him as UNSC frigates and carriers; even a few destroyers.

"There's no way we're going to survive this," he said ot himself as he looked back ot the Brotherhood's ground forces. If those ships can see us, though, he thought, then why aren't they firing on us.

He was brought out of his thought when he heard flspping beside him. He turned and saw Nova landing beside him. "Hey, Lightning," Nova said. He wore his combat armor, as did Lightning.

"Hey, Nova," Lightning replied. "Figured you wouldn't want to be near me or my army, seeing as how we're changelings."

Nova shrugged. "So? We're going to war, and it's doubtful we'll survive. I don't see a reason to let little things like that get in that way. Besides, it was your aunt and Lone who rescued me that day. You and I, we have more in common that one would think, Lightning. We're both orphans, our parents killed, and both brought inot lone team by those we consider family, and, through lone team, discovered old, long-lost family members. You: Metamorpha and Chitinia. Me: my adoptive brother, Spike."

"That we have, Nova. That we have." Lightning then looked back at the force in front of him. "Even with out those ships, we'll be lucky to survive. They have better weapons, better armor, even better comunications, for the most part. They have less numbers, but what use is that advantage when they have better tech. If anything, they have the advantage."

"True, true," Nova said. But we have one thing they don't, or will ever have."

"What?"

"A spirit to survive. They don't have that, as I'm certain they're willing to die, would fall on their own blades if they thought they had a chance to gain Plasma's favor if they wished."

"Agreed," Lighting said as the large doors to Plasma's castle opened, and Lightning saw those Plasma had captured marching out, bound by chains and surrounded by guards, with, of all beings in the Brotherhood, Green Mist at the front, flanked by Solar Flare, Eclipse Bringer, and the rest of the enforcers.

"Well, this complicates things," Lightning said, "but, unfortunately, we're already here, and dedicated, so we can't pull back."

"Sadly, you're right, Lightning," Nova said. "Just one enforcer wiht tems makes it impossible, but all of them. We'll need a miracle to survive, let alone win, this fight. Well, I'll see you on the battle field." The dragon then flew off, rejoining his mother and the dragon army.

. . .

Rainbow was, officially, having a very crappy day. She woke up early, something she had gotten used ot while on the run, did her usual early morning stretches, and, once she had finished those, ate her, ironically delicious, meal that the guards gave her every morning. She was then hauled out of her cell just a few minutes ago, and brought her out here, along with the others, to be executed. She didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted, honestly. Flattered because Plasma had ordered his enforcers to guard her and the others. Insulted because "Twilight Slade" and "Nightmare Rarity" were beside her, intentionaly, talking aout their memories of before the whole thing had started.

She had managed to tune them out, but she saw her and the others being led to an open area, with a single member of Thel's and Hades' race, the sangeheli having an energy sword, the jiralhanee having a gravity hammer. Blade down.

Talk about old school, Rainbow thought.

They reached the open area, and Rainbow felt her legs become bond by magic, keeping her from moving. She looked around, and saw none she recognized. She heard footsteps from behind her. She turned her head as much as possible, seeing the Brotherhood members bow, and saw Plasma, walking to them in the same armor he wore the first day she had seen him. He walked around them, causing Rainbow to have to look foreward again. He walked to Rainbow, and, in a surprising show, kneeled down to look her in the eyes. She was forced to look in his, and, along with anger, saw something in there. Hurt. Pain, maybe. It was something.

"I give you one last chance to join your other friends, Rainbow," he said in a voice loud enough for the others ot hear. "I will spare the one you love should you choose to. I am not a heartless monster. All you must do is pledge your alliegance to me. Why would you fight someone who simply wants peace?"

"Because if you really wanted peace," Rainbow said, "you wouldn't be trying to take over so many worlds. That only leads to pain for those who don't want change to come so suddenly, and leads to the one thing you're trying to prevent. War."

Plasma smiled. "How profound of you, Rainbow Dash. You have indeed come a long way since you joined lone team. But you have not answered my question: Will you join your other friends, not only saving yourself, but Crystal Saber as well, or die, knowing there was a way out."

Rainbow just chuckled. "I think it's obvious, Plasma." She stared into Plasma's eyes, his face having gone back to a neutral expression. She smiled, a cocky grin that said, You can't change my mind, nor can you break me.

"No."

A saddned look came to Plasma's face. "So be it," he said. He then got up, and moved to stand at the front of the crowd.

Green Mist cleared his throat, and began to speak. "My brothers and sisters, we are here today to witness the execuitons of the heretics who dared to try to prevent Plasma's rising four months ago, those who have joined us have repented their sins, and brought to the light!"

. . .

"I can't watch this," Lightning said. He looked to the dragons, and to where Octavia and the others were standing, and he saw the banners that showed they were ready in the air. He nodded to his carrier, and his banner rose as well, signaling he and the changeling army were ready. He raised his black sword, a symbol of command in the changeling army, and pointed it towards the Brotherhood and, along with the other group leaders, shouted three words that were felt in the heart of those who spoke them.

"FOR LONE SHADOW!!" was the yell, and, with that, three armies charged.

UNSC Infinity- a day earlier

"Roland, did I just hear that right?"

"Affirmative, sir, and I'm just as surprised at the ship name as you."

"Can you get me a connection with the ship?"

"Yes sir." After a second, Roland said, "You're good, sir."

"Right," Hood said. He cleared his throat, and spke into his personal radio. "This is Admiral Hood of the UNSC Infinity, if you really are Sierra-117 on a ship that was destroyed, give me something that proves it, aside from transponder data, which is easily faked."

"Yes sir," the voice that claimed to be John. "When you offered me the position of Admiral, I replied by saying, 'Admiral doesn't roll off the tounge as easily as Master Chief.' As for the ship, I can not give you anyhting other than the fact that, out of all the damaged ships from the battle of earth, the only damage on the Dawn, which wasn't severe enough to be put on official logs, or even noticed, was that a picture consisting of people I assume to be close friends of yours that died in battle, the frame was cracked, even though it was upright, and you never said anything."(5)

Hood's eyes widened. "Master Chief, you mind telling me what you and that ship are doing here?"

"It's a long story, sir. In fact, it's the last part of they story so far that's the reason I'm here. Permission to come aboard?" John said.

"Granted," Hood said.

"Thank you, sir," John said. A second after, a pop was heard behind Hood. He jumped in surprise and turned around, and, to his amazement and confusion, John stood there, arms behind his back, his armor in perfect condition, if you disregarded the scar in it on the upper right chest piece, but, really, some would assciate that with him, and with good reason, as well as, strangely enough, a man in steel gray ODST armor, no modifications, with a gray stripe along the top of the helmet. The odd thing? One, the man had what looked like hooves for feet and he had a horn coming out from just above his forehead. Aside from that, the armor was the exact same as another ODST Hood knew. One who had been in New Mombassa. The one who died on Draco-III.

The Rookie.

Both John and the one with a resemblance to the Rookie, who's real name was Jameson O'neal, saluted, and said, "Admiral."

It took Hood a second to process everything, and, once he did, he regained his composure and said, "Just how the hell did that happen, and why does he have a horn sticking out of his head?"

"That's a part of the story, sir," the horned man said. "Oh, and I guess I should mention I changed my name since Draco-III. It's Nightengale now." Under his helmet, Nightengale was smiling in amusment.

SSV Normandy

"Shepard, is that you?" Joker asked.

"It is, Joker, and I know you have a lot of questions-"

"Yeah, you're damn right I do."

"But I'll answer them later. I will say why I'm contacting you from a Reaper though. Long story short, it's the only way I can survive here for long, and do what I need."

"What do you mean, Commander," Smith said as he walked up to the bridge. "'Here', as in the system?"

"No, sir, Admiral. I mean this universe. Basically, after the Crucible fired and I died, I was brought to a place that those who made a large impact in their universes go to when they die, and I've been there since then. Right now, they decided to break protocol in not interfering directly, as an old threat of their, ours, had reemerged, and plans on taking control of who knows how many universes."

"And just how do we know you aren't a Reaper trying to lure us into a trap?"

"Joker, back when the Normandy was a Cerberus ship, I was the first one to point out that you had stopped referring to EDI as an 'it', and began to say 'she' and 'her' instead."

"It's him, Admiral," Joker said. "I never told any one that."

Smith raised an eyebrow, but said nothing to Joker. "Alright, Shepard, you have my attention. Why did you send the message ot the council if there aren't any Reapers here? Hostile ones, that is."

"Just go through the wormhole, sir, and you'll see."

Smith brought a hand to his chin and thought about what he should do, weighing the pros and cons. After a solid minute, he said, "Flight Lieutenant, take us through that wormhole. Contact the captain of the Destiny Ascension, tell her that she's in charge of the fleet if I don't come back in an hour, or otherwise contact them."

He directed the last part to Hazard, who said, "Aye, aye, sir."

Joker did the same, and the ship began to move towards the wormhole.

"You sure about this, sir," Joker asked.

"Not entirely," Smith responded.

A few minutes later, the ship srrived at the wormhole. "Last chance to turn back, sir," Joker said in a slightly nervous tone.

Hesitating, Smith said, "Go through it, full speed."

"Aye, sir," Joker said, just as the ship entered the wormhole.

UNSC Infinity

"I guess we should start with where we were while we were missing," Nightengale said. He, John, Lasky, and Hood, as well as Alpha-Nine, at Nightengale's request, were in the bridge of the ship, so that Artemis, who had connected with another fragment of herself from John's armor, could help explain.

"Yeah," Dutch said in a somewhat aggravated tone, "how about starting where we thought you died?"

Nightengale chuckled a little. He had his helmet off, on the table at the center of the bridge, and it revealed he had the same colored coat from when he was a full pony. His helmet had been modified in shape to allow fr his horn and muzzle, and his hair, or, rather, mane, was the same situation as his coat, only cut to UNSC standards. "That's just it. I did die."

"What," Romeo said in a dumbfounded way. "But you're right here. How can you be if you're dead?"

"Guess I should rephrase that. I did die, but, just after I took a bullet to the brain, I met with the Libarian, and she's the one who gave me a second life, only this one is in another universe. One that needs help."

"From what?" Hood asked.

John, Artemis, and Nightengale responded at the same time. "Plasma."

"What? Artemis, you knew?"

"Just the more recent fragment, sir," Artemis replied. "Turns out, AIs can go to the Nexus as well, and the core of me is there. Anyway, when John and the others disappeared, it was due to a portal created by one of the beings residing in that universe. Since then, most have been captured by Plasma, and John and Maruco are the only ones from the Spear who got away, which brings us to the fleet."

"Right," John said. "Somehow, Plasma was able to bring his followers from this universe through to where we were, as well as some of his creations from a third universe."

"That explains why she wanted the whole fleet, but why not have one of your allies come and help you explain. And how is it you got on the ship, anyway?" Hood said.

"The first one would be that one's waiting for us back in that universe now. The second one would be, and keep in mind, different universe, different rules of physics, even if slightly, magic."

This got the rest of Alpha-Nine laughing, though they stopped when they saw the glare from their former team mate.

"And just how do we get to your allies location," Lasky said.

Nightengale smiled, and put on his helmet. "Just hold on to something," he said as his horn lit up, and those on the bridge, as well as Artemis, who was in John's armor, vanished.

Fields between Plasma's castle and Canterlot remains

The attack was failing miserably.

It hasn't even been ten minutes, and the allied forces had taken heavy casualties. Lightning was currently fighting a changeling member of the Brotherhood. If there was one positive thing about this, it's that Rainbow and the others had been freed and fighting, though, even wit them in the fight, it didn't look good.

Lightning threw his sword up, keeping a grip on it, and spun around, the momentum causing the sword to go through the changelings chitin. It was a heart shot, and killed him instantly.

Lightning pulled his sword out, and he was instantly attacked by a pony in a black cloak.

"You will die for the sins you have committed this day, heretic," he said as he slashed his sword horizontally. Lightning avoided it by jumping up. He delivered his own vertical slash, but it was blocked by a second sword from his right. He glanced quickly, and was rewarded with a punch to the face. He skidded across the ground, his sword coming loose from his grip. When he stopped a few feet away, he looked around, and saw changelings, dragons, and members of lone team falling, either wounded or dead. This battle was, with out a doubt in Lightnings mind, the bloodiest in lone team's history, as there had only been one battle like this, and it was a wipe, lone team winning it with few, if any, losses. He saw Octavia, just a few meters away, take a bullet to the leg and fall down, blood coming from the wound. He also saw Saphira, Nova, an Spike being fired on by Brotherhood members with plasma weaponry. He could feel that his nose was broken from the punch, and he was bleeding.

He looked back the way he had come, and saw a human wearing what looked like leather, with pouches across it's waist, it's helmet looking something like a skull. He reached down to his thigh and pulled out what Lightning recognized as a magnum pistol and cocked it. He walked up to Lightning, and held the pistol up to his head.

"Now," he said, "you will be cleansed."

Lightning closed his eyes, waiting for the end, as a loud BANG!! was heard across the battlefield.

The final battle Pt2- Return

BANG!!

Lightning expected to feel nothing, literally, when he saw the human pointing it's weapon at him, as he heard the gunshot, which is why he was surprised when he felt his muzzle broken from the punch. He opened his eyes and saw the same human, his arms down by his sides, a hole through his fore head. The dead man then fell over backwards. Lightning then heard three more gun shots, and saw one pony, one sangheili, and one kig-yar fall dead. He remembered what direction the human had fallen, and looked back, towards the hill the changelings had come down.

What he saw was a single human like figure on a vehicle with two wheels, and had olive green coloration, and a small wind shield at the front.

Sitting at what Lightning guessed was the seat, the figure wore, as far as he could tell, a helmet with a single, reddish visor going down the vertical middle. The left shoulder had what looked like an egg over it, with a small piece of silver metal jutting out from it in a triangular way. The chest piece had a smooth appearance, with the top of it, just under the collar bone, being an upside down triangle. The coloration was a forest green, with accents of tree bark brown.

(Just apply color scheme listed above.)

Unseen by Lightning, or any others, for that matter, Plasma clenched his fists. "So," he said, anger coming through his voice,"it seems a few of you have reverted to the forms your species originally had."

The figure put his sniper rifle on his back and said, "Yeah. We have, Plasma, and now? You and the Brotherhood's going to be screwed."

When he spoke, everyone, literally, everyone, stopped fighting, simply due to the shock of hearing the voice of the former zealot of the Brotherhood, Shadow Specter.

Plasma simply laughed. "And what makes you think you, all by yourself, can stop me?" he said. spreading his arms.

"Who ever said I was alone?" Shadow said as a howl was heard from just behind him. Walking up the hill to stand beside Shadow was Oak, the pack leader of the timberwolves loyal to lone team. But he wasn't the only one. From behind him, came a large timberwolf with his color scheme, and two others with the normal color scheme.

"I had heard your brother tamed a pack of wolves," Plasma said. "But even they can not help you."

"We'll see about that," Shadow said as he revved the engine on his cycle, did a forty five degree turn, and, with the timberwolves, as even more normal sized ones were coming in from behind those at the top, rode into the opposing force.

Youtube Video

When he came close, he leaped off of the cycle, allowing it to crash into a group of Brotherhood soldiers, killing or pinning them. He landed with an energy sword drawn, as well as a plasma pistol. He then ran into the horde that awaited him, and made his way to Lighting, killing any who got in his way. Before he could make it there, though, Solar Flare teleported into his path and rose both normal swords, as sharp as an ice pick, and as hard as diamonds, and created two ethereal blades.

"So, we meet again, Shadow," Solar Flare said as she got into a combat stance.

"That we do, Celestia," Shadow said as he did the same, putting his pistol away and drawing a second sword, igniting it as well.

Solar snarled. "I am not the weak mare you love," she said, venom in her voice "I am her better."

"No, you aren't," Shadow said as the two began to circle one another. Those in the surrounding mob sensed that they would son fight, and all cleared a circle for them, none wanting to get caught in the coming carnage. "She was a pony who cared for others, and was, is, willing to give her life for them. What you are is a twisted mockery of her, wanting just to kill those who disagree with her." Shadow stopped moving, and crossed his energy swords. "Well, you think I should be dead, and I think I should be alive, so come get me."

"Only because you asked," Solar Flare said before she charged at him, her four swords pointed at the armored, human like stallion. He sidestepped them with agility not even the Spartans had, and brought one of his swords down towards the alicorn's horn. She blocked the sword with one of her ethereal blades, and retaliated with her remaining three. Shadow blocked her single ethereal blade with his energy sword, and used his own levitation magic, a shade of green similar to Lone's three month ago when the first attempt to defeat Plasma had failed, to block her actual swords.

Solar Flare was surprised, as she was among the most powerful beings on the planet. A mere unicorn shouldn't be able to stop my swords with plain magic, she thought. Under her helmet, she snarled again.

"Some one getting mad," Shadow asked as he redirected the force keeping her swords from hitting him upwards and kicked her away, freeing up movement room. "How about I make this easy for you," he said tauntingly as he deactivated the sword in his left hand and used his magic to tie said hand behind his back. "En Guard," he said, pointing his sword to Solar Flare.

"You whelp," she yelled as she charged again. When she was a few feet, she stopped, and created a whirlwind with her blades, each aimed for Shadow. Amazingly, Shadow blocked or dodged each of them. he then caught one of Solar's swords in the gap between his blades, and, using a little strength enhancement magic, twisted his sword, breaking Solar's in two.

"How?" the alicorn said in astonishment.

"Simple standard Spartan strength enhancement," he said as before he teleported to the other end of the impromptu arena. "ANd an enhancement spell." Among other things, he thought as the two went at it again.

SSV Normandy-meanwhile

Smith nearly threw up from the passage through the wormhole, a trip that took only a second before they saw, in the distance, a planet orbited by who knew how many ships or platforms.

"Joker, what's our status?" he asked.

"Well," Joker said groggily. "I think I broke a few ribs, and scanners report there being a single ship near by. Doesn't match known classifications, and it's transmitting a signal, requesting for docking."

"Right," Smith said. "Tell them they're cleared to dock."

"Actually, sir," Hazard said, "it looks like they don't have any docking clamps, so you're going to have to use a shuttle."

"Great," Smith said. "Tell Cortez to get the shuttle ready, and I want two marines to accompany me."

"Aye, aye, sir!" Joker and Hazard said. With that, Smith made his way to the elevator that was at the back of the CIC. He entered it, and the elevator made it's way to the shuttle bay.

When the doors opened, Smith walked over to where the shuttle pilot, Steve Cortez, was doing maintenance on one of the thrusters.

"Is everything ready, Cortez," Smith said.

Cortez got up from his crouching position in front of one of the engines. "Yes, sir," he said. "Just doing some last minute checks."

"Good."

"Sir, I may ask, why do you need the shuttle?"

"At this point, Cortez, I'm not entirely certain myself. What I do know is that I need the shuttle to get to a ship requesting my presence."

At this point, the elevator doors opened, and the two marines, wearing Alliance standard armor, walked out and strode over to Smith, their Avenger rifles on their backs. They saluted as they reached the Admiral, and one of them said, "Sergeants Michaels and Jacobs, reporting, sir."

Smith returned the salute and said, "Good. You two are going to be accompanying me on what might be a first contact mission. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" the two marines shouted.

Smith nodded. "Good. Cortez, get the shuttle ready, we're leaving asap."

"Aye, aye, sir," Cortez saluted as he made his way into the shuttle with the Admiral and two marines behind him.

Once they had entered, Cortez shut the main door and did the pre-flight checks, he sent a message to Joker that said to open the bay door. Once the door was open, the singular shuttle exited, and made it's way to the unknown ship.

A few minutes earlier- unknown ship

Hood and the others appeared in a flash of light, with all but John and Nightengale feeling nauseous . "You get used to it," John said when they saw he wasn't sick at all.

When they were felling better, a few minutes later, they saw that they were in the hanger bay of a large UNSC ship, with many beings of what was multiple species, some completely unknown by the UNSC.

"Admiral, Captain, every one else," Nightengale said as he removed his helmet. "This is the hanger slash bridge of the ship Tip of The Spear, the command center for all of the actions me, John, and our allies in this dimension have done over the past month."

"Impressive layout," Dutch said.

"Thanks," they heard Maruco say as he walked up with another being with a build similar to Nightengale's, only he was Spartan high. He wore the Spartan-III mark V helmet with the up-armored attachment, FJ/Para shoulder plates, and the Collar/breacher chest peice, all with a black primary color and accenting red. "Good to see you, again, Admiral," Maruco said.

"Like wise, Maruco," Hood said before turning his attention to the other figure. "Who are you?"

The figure removed his helmet, revealing his slightly scarred face, with cyan eyes. "Lone Shadow, Admiral Hood," Lone said. "Leader of those on this ship and our allies on the ground."

"Well, this is definitely interesting," Lasky said. "Just what do you and your allies call yourselves, anyway?"

Lone chuckled before saying, "Lone team. No, I did not come up with the name. It's that way because all of our members, when fully trained, are threats to whole squads of soldiers out to kill by themselves, as well as a partial memorial to my ancestor and name sake."

Before anything else could be said, one of the new aliens walked over, a data pad in his three fingered hand. His skin, or carapace, what ever it was, was gray, was was the armor he wore. He looked like some kind of mix between a bird and a human. His left shoulder was hidden under a large steel plate.

"Here's the intel you were asking for, Lone," he said as he handed the data pad to Lone.

Lone took and and, while looking over it, said, "Thanks, Saren. Tell Nihlus that you two will be going down with the first wave."

Saren nodded. "Right," he said before turning in the direction of the main corridor .

"And who, and what," Romeo asked, "was he?"

"That was the turian known as Saren Arterius. He was, once upon a time, controlled by Plasma in his own dimension, but killed him self when his influence was weakest. Now, he's one of my advisors, as well as one of the leaders of the ground forces from this ship."

"Somehow," Mickey said, "I think I've heard weirder, but I don't know where."

"Believe me," Maruco said as he made his way to the armory to check on the weapons, "Shit's going to get weirder."

"What does that imply," Buck asked, which got chuckles from Lone, Nightengale, and John.

To answer for them, Aretemis came on through the intercom and said, "Lone, the Normandy just came up on sensors. Sending request for Smith now. Hood, you're going to be needed for what comes next."

"And what's that, Artemis?" Hood asked.

"Negotiations."

Surface of Equis- a few minutes later

The fight between Shadow and Solar Flare, though short, was devastating. The armor on both combatants was scratched and dented, even carbon scorched in some locations, and both were panting from exhaustion, with the sun lowering behind them.

Just as it reached the horizon, they once again crossed their swords, the clang echoing across the field. Solar had lost the energy to maintain both of her blades, and dispelled them, meaning she had only one sword left.

"Why do you continue to fight," Solar Flare asked when their swords met. "You can not defeat us. The wolves you brought with you, though many, are but animals."

Shadow just laughed. "Even if they were just animals," he said, "which they aren't, seeing as how they haven't tried to attack either of us since our fight started, I'm not the only one coming here with allies."

Solar narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?" she asked as the sky went to night.

Under his helmet, Shadow smirked. "Easy," he said. "You have more than one sister."

"No, I don't," Solar said, pointing her one ethereal blade left at him. "The only sister I have is Eclipse."

It was then a voice not heard in the physical world for five years spoke up from atop a second hill, getting the attention of all. "Oh, sister, I'm hurt," Nightmare Moon said. The alicorn of the night wore a helmet with a rectangular, purple visor in the exact middle of it. The shoulder pieces seemed somewhat blockish, but had organic, flowing curves, instead of sharp corners. The fore arms had a similar armor, and looked like rectangles. The chest piece had two, triangle like shapes, with the longest sides back to back. The leg armor seemed like it was made for stabbing, as it had a sharp appearance. The over all color scheme was midnight black as a primary, and a deep purple as an accent color.

In her right hand, slung across her shoulder, was a scythe, with the blades giving off a small hum, as well as a slight shimmer in the air. Around her form, which matched Lily's in terms of build and height, with the add-on's of a horn, wings, and hooves in place for feet, was an army of Thestrals, some on the ground, others in the air, their leathery wings unfolded.

"How are you here," Eclipse snarled from her position beside her father. "You should be dead!"

Nightmare simply laughed. "I'm surprised father did not tell you about the place he was imprisoned. Then again, he does have quite the reputation for lying and manipulation. After all, it's because of him that the human named John had to deal with the Didact."

This got a growl from Plasma. "So, not only has the reject of my experiments come back, but she has allied with those destined to fail." It was here that a single, steel arrow embedded itself in the ground in front of Plasma from the opposite direction he was facing. He turned and saw another human-like pony, wearing what he recognized as the standard Spartan-IV armor, but the helmet had a small cross as the visor, with the color scheme being tan for the primary with an accenting shade of black. In his hands, he held what looked like an energy crossbow that could fire normal ones as well.

"Guess who," Robin said.

Plasma only laughed. "So, this is what you hope can defeat me and my followers," he said. "Two stallions and a failed villain with only wolves and primitive bats!! I see that I was indeed justified in changing your forms twenty thousand years ago, as it apprantly increased your intelligence."

"What do you mean," Rainbow said from the crowd.

"Simple. In the forms that the three new arrivals have, in a true army, the ponies had a chance to defeat me. In order to prevent this. I did what the forerunners did to humans: I devolved you, though it seems that you went down an entirely different evolutionary path, which seemed to keep your powers at the level I intended. It would seem, however, that an unintended side effect was increased intelligence," Plasma said. "I said I took pro-active methods in ensuring no rebellion could win, and that was one. It matters not who you bring, I made sure to plan for it." He chuckled. "Tell me, where is the rest of the Brotherhood?"

"Oh no," Shadow said, just as multiple figures, pony and other, appeared out of thin air, and some even dropping in from the air.

"I was hoping lone team would attack me, so that they would be annihilated once and for all."

All this got was a laugh from Shadow, Nightmare, and Robin. It was then another voice not heard for some time spoke up, and another form made its way beside Robin.

The figure was a light tan, and it's right arm ended in what looked like a jagged blade. The head looked like it had two tentacles coming from the side, and three, smaller ones ending in what looked like red flowers at the end. The feet were mismatched, the right being bigger. In the main body, it looked as if two parts had been sliced out.

"It is not just lone team, Plasma," Hermit said from the body of the flood tank (what I call that form.). "There are others who would gladly put aside any differences, and we are already gathering them."

As he finished the sentence, what was recognized by those who had seen them as flood infection forms, stalker pure forms, and the projectile launching form of the pure form came over the hill, all standing behind Robin and the tank form, all waiting in anticipation.

"Father, what does he mean," Eclipse asked.

"It doesn't matter," Plasma said. "Any who stand against me will fall. Solar! Kill Shadow, and assist the others in removing this annoyance Green Mist, come with me."

"Yes, My lord," Green Mist said with a bow a Plasma made his way back to his castle. The changeling then followed him.

"I will deal with Nightmare," Eclipse said. Twilight, Rarity, I wish for your assistance. Harvest, Coldheart," she said, as Cadence had taken the name cold heart to show that nothing could prevail against her, and what she left her enemies with after a battle, "Deal with the abominations."

"Yes, Misstriss," they said, as she and Solar were the leaders of the enforcers for obvious reasons, then went off on their tasks.

Shadow and Solar heard all of this. "Looks like it's still just us," Shadow said.

"Not quite," Solar said with a grin. "Brotherhood, assist me!"

Just before they could do so, the Brotherhood was stopped by those of lone team who had stopped fighting as well, and fighting broke out on the two hills as well.

"Just like the Brotherhood follows your command," Shadow said as he and Solar jumped back from one another, "lone team doesn't need a command to help out one of their team mates."

"And that makes you all weak," Solar said. "Only those who follow commands should live."

"Then Me, Nightmare, and who knows who else should be dead by now, but we aren't!" Shadow yelled. "Celestia, I know you're still in there, and I know that you can still fight Plasma's control!"

"Why should she?" Solar asked. "She's failed you, and failed to keep her throne. The only thing she has done right was to be so foolish to allow father to awaken me within her. The others were all planted, but I already existed in her mind. All she needed was a push to let me take control, and that was your brother. She hates him, and she hates you, as well as lone team. She always hated killers, and regardless of what you tell your self, that is what you are. A killer."

Shadow laughed, the two still standing where they were. "Then what does that make you?" he said as he charged her again.

Solar blocked his blade, and the two became locked again. "I do not delude my self as to what I am, but I do not see my self as evil. You see your self as a protector of those who can not defend themselves. Rich, coming from one who was once a part of the Brotherhood. I am but a servant of Plasma, and that is enough for me."

Shadow launched himself away from Solar, and laughed again. Only this time, unlike all the other times, it was haunting, even to Solar. Like a demon laughing in amusement at a puppy being kicked while a fork was being rubbed on fine china and someone was rubbing a balloon, with bones clinking in the background. "I am not a killer," he said.

"But I know some pony who is."

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Shadow's horn lit, his magic going from green to a black, and an orb of the same color encircled him. Inside it, Shadows fingernails sharpened into claws, and, under the helmet, his teeth became razor sharp, and his eyes looked like Nightmare's keeping the color. His tail began to look more like a sword. His horn slimmed down, and gained a sharpened end. His armor took on a darker color scheme then what was there.

The orb dissipated, and what was once Shadow looked up at Solar. "And that would be me," Chaos Riser said in a haunting, but, to Solar Flare, at the same time, attractive, baritone voice.

"So, you are his dark side, Chaos Riser," Solar said, whihc got a nod. "Then tell me, why do you fight with him? You must be more powerful then he is. Why not just take control of his body, letting him only watch the crimes you commit, knowing he can't do anything?"

Chaos simply laughed again, causing shivers to run up Solar's spine. "Because, unlike you, or the other enforcers," he said, drawing and activating an energy sword, now an almost dead shade of green, "Shadow and I understand what being partners in our sense means. It means we look after one another, lending the other our power when they need it. Being a dark side does not mean you must be evil. It could just mean you're willing to do more for greater good. That is something not only Shadow and I understand, but something our brother, Lone and Fear, do as well. There is a reason beyond our bloodline that makes us as powerful as we are, and that is that we act as one, the one in control of the body fighting, the other providing advice, and giving the other their power. It's dark sides like you, Solar Flare, that give us good dark sides a bad name. Something tells me, actually, that Plasma keep you only so none will rise. He cares nothing about you, nor your sister. If he did, he would not have you face us alone."

"Nonsense," Solar said. "That cooperation makes you weak, and father would never kill me for failure."

"I never said he did, Sol," Chaos said. "You did. You know I'm right. As for the cooperation, did you know that when one body dies in a union like Shadow's and mine, both individuals are killed. It is reasons like that we must cooperate, so that both may survive. Celestia does not give you her strength, because she wishes to die, separated from, not just her sister, but from those she calls friend, as well as the one she loves."

"Then let her die, if you can kill me, that is!" Solar yelled as she charged again.

Tip of the Spear- secondary hanger bay-meanwhile

Lone and Hood stood in the secondary hanger bay, waiting for the shuttle from the Alliance to arrive. The others were all in the drop bay, making sure their weapons were ready, as they knew they'd be coming down in an active combat zone.

"So, what is the Alliance, exactly," Hood asked Lone, who shrugged.

"Basically, they're pretty much like the UNSC. They key difference being the tech, as well as the fact they have good relations with practically all other races in their dimension."

"Including turians?"

"Yeah. Turians are just one of around ten races in that dimension, including humanity. Another difference is that they are the entire human government."

Before Hood could voice another question, the Alliance shuttle came into view and entered the hanger. "You sure it's okay not to hany guards?" Hood asked before the shuttle landed.

"We're good," Lone said just before the door opened and Smith, followed by the two marines, walked out.

This is going to be confusing, Hood thought.

Lone was the first to walk up to Smith. He gave a salute, which was returned by Smith, and said, "Admiral, My name's Lone Shadow, captain of the ship you and your troops are on."

"Right," Smith said as he lowered his arm. "Admiral Smith, Commanding officer of the SSV Normandy, and leader of the citadel task force. You wouldn't happen to know what my ship and I are doing here, do you."

"I do, admiral, but before that, I want to introduce you to another person who has involvment and stakes in what's going on." Lone moved aside as Hood stepped up. "This is Admiral Lord Hood, leader of the UNSC-covenant fleet."

"And what is exactly the UNSC? And what are you, exactly?"

"All in time, Admiral. All in time. Right now, we should go to the breifing room, as what I have to say to the both of you is best said while you're sitting down."

"I suppose so," Smith said, to which Hood agreed, and the two admirals and one unicorn left the hanger bay, the two marines staying with the shuttle, and made their way to the briefing room.

A few minutes later

Lone and the two admirals stepped into a pretty comfortable briefing room, said room having leather seats and a polished wooden table in the center. Seeing as how it was his ship, Lone took the place at the head of the table, with Smith and Hood sitting at the nine and three o'clock positions.

"So, Lone said, "to answer the question going through each of your minds, we are in a different dimension then where you two came from. The reason is that a particular threat that we've encountered, whether it be in person or in history texts." When he saw Smith's reaction, Lone added, "There is a way to get back to your home universes. In fact, Smith, that portal you went through to get here is to way back for you.

"Now for the reason you are here," Lone said. "As I just said, there is a threat that our universes have encountered at some point in history, and only the combined forces of our worlds can stop him."

"So you need the help of our fleets to do so?" Smith asked calmly, considering the situation.

"In short," Lone said. "Artemis, project the recon photos of the atmosphere."

"Right," Artemis said before multiple pictures of Equis' orbit and atmosphere showed up, with multiple Brotherhood ships and Reapers in them.

Smith's calm mask shattered as he saw the latter. "Reapers?" he asked, fear in his voice. "How?"

"That threat I mentioned? Yeah, as it turns out, he controlled them when they came for the Alliance and it's allies. And those ships you don't recognize, Smith, are repainted versions of UNSC, which is the equivalent to the Alliance in Hood's universe, and covenant ships. The covenant, before you ask, was a religious alliance of aliens that, up until seven years ago in Hood's universe, wanted humanity dead. Basically a less technologically advanced form of the Reapers just wanting to kill humans."

"Great. Another crazy group," Smith muttered.

"For the record, Smith," Hood said, "the covenant's our ally now, and I don't like when an ally is insulted, even if they are guilty of it."

"Well, I wasn't there, seeing as how I'm not from your universe," Smith said before looking back to Lone. "But you haven't answered my question as to what you are, exactly."

"In scientific terms, I'm a humanoid equine with advanced mental capabilities. Layman's terms: I'm an anthro unicorn."

Smith raised an eyebrow. "The only reason I'm not laughing and taking you seriously is because of the fact this is obviously your own universe."

"I figured that," Lone said. "Before either of you ask what this could do for your universes: I was hoping to open portals between the three of us that would allow for our universes to remain in contact and trade with one another. I can tell you that ponies, my species, of which unicorn is one subset, will be open to it, and I have contacts in the higher positions of the governments of most other races on the planet, so I can try to get them to allow it as well."

After a few seconds of silence, Hood spoke up. "Well, seeing as how we may have to deal with him later, you have the support of the UNSC and it's allies, Lone."

"And the citadel forces as well," Smith said. "You'll need people who went against the Reapers before to have a chance."

Lone smiled. "Artemis, tell Nightengale to go ahead with code name: Convergence."

"Already done," Artemis said. "Admiral mith, you'll be able to contact your fleet from the Normandy. Hood, you can do so from here."

"The I guess I should be on my way," Smith said as he got up.

Before he left the room, though, Artemis told him, "I'll send you the frequency you and your ships will be able to communicate with us on, admiral."

"Right," Smith said just before he left the room and made his way to his shuttle.

"I'll take you to the comm room, Hood," Lone said as he got up from his seat and putting his helmet on.

"Thank you, Lone," Hood said as he got up and the two left the briefing room.

Equis surface

Solar Flare's armor was badly damaged, with numerous cuts, and even some parts of her body burnt from the energy sword. She was breathing heavily. Chaos, however, was unharmed. "See what working with an ally can do," he said.

The fight between the Brotherhood and lone team had been going on for a while, with lone team and it's allies still outmatched by the Brotherhood, due now to numbers and training, in contrast to just numbers before. The only difference was that there were less deaths on both sides, as the major leaders of both sides were focusing on one another, and their forces, wanting to survive, were trying to stay clear of these fights.

"It does not matter," Solar said. "You will fall, and I will be the one to make sure it happens." She then charged him. Chaos simply side stepped and hit her on the back with enough force to break her concentration, causing her sword to fall to the ground, and knocking her on the ground herself. To her credit, she did not try to get up, though it was mostly just exhaustion.

She turned her head around, and saw Chaos standing next to her, hes energy sword lit. "Go on, kill me. I know you want to."

With out a word, the sword was raised, and brought down as Solar closed her eyes. She heard a slight burning sound, and felt nothing. She believed herself to be dead, and opened her eyes, only to see the sword impaled in the ground next to her. She looked back at Chaos, only to see that his armor was now Shadow's. "Why?" she asked.

"Because I'm not a killer," Shadow replied. "And Chaos thinks that, out of all the other enforcers," he said, kneeling down to look her in the eyes, "you are the one that knows they're being manipulated, even if you won't admit it."

"I expected you to be the one ot think that, not him," she said.

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter, seeing as how you're going to die now," Solar said.

"And why's that?" Shadow asked.

"Us," Eclipse said from behind him, causing him to turn around and attempt to draw his pistol, but he was stopped midway by her magic. Standing beside her were the other enforcers, with Nightmare and Robin being held in magical grasps as well, though they were still awake, as their eyes were open and moving.

They were moved beside Shadow as the enforcers with horns charged a spell that would kill them unless they were able to create a shield, which was impossible, as they couldn't move. "Truly, what made the three of you think you could stand against the might of Plasma, and survive?" Eclipse said. When the three didn't answer, Eclipse added, "Ah well, it doesn't matter. Nothing you could say will save you." Her horn, as well as Coldheart's, Twilight's, and Rarity's, began to glow brighter, as the energies began to reach critical mass.

"Sister, wait," Solar Flare croaked. "If you kill them with that much energy, I'll be killed too."

Eclipse laughed. "I know."

"Father will have your head."

"Who do you think ordered us too kill you?"

A cold dread filled Solar Flare as she heard these words. "No. No, he wouldn't!" she said frantically.

"Yes, he would," Coldheart said. "He exterminates those who are too weak to carry out their duties. He knew that you had doubts, even if you did not, and wished for us to take care of it as soon as possible. Now, we can accomplish that and kill these three at the same time. After all, it's for that reason we killed Shining Armor a month ago"

Those nearby stopped where they were when that either saw this sight or heard these words. Not the last part, but what came before it. Though it was known that Shining Armor was the weakest of those in Plasma's personal guard, which, under Plasma's rule, apparently, meant death.

"He doesn't want weak ponies in any position of power," Harvest said. "The fact that you weren't made by his power means that you are the weakest of us all, and he wanted to make sure it wasn't an issue. This gives us an excuse, one that none would dare refute."

"Indeed," Rarity said. "The only position for those who are weak are the dead, target practice, or just cannon fodder."

"And what better kind of cannon fodder," Twilight said, "then one that is utterly and deeply loyal to their ruler."

The horns were nearly blinding at this point, and Solar had to squint. It was here that she realized that, deep down, whether because of Celestia, or just her own thoughts, she had thought a few times that Plasma was simply manipulating them, and that Shadow and Chaos were right. She knew she should have been sad her life was going to come to an end, but, instead, she felt an anger within. With it, came a voice that did not sound like Celestia.

"Now you see the truth," the voice, distinctly female, with not a tone of anger, but one of care and love, said. "Plasma cares nothing for you."

"What does that matter," she said in her head. "It's too late for me to do anything!"

"No," the voice said firmly. "There is one thing that will help you, but you must allow it."

"I do. I'll do anything to stop Plasma."

"Then you must do only one thing. Admit to yourself what you have kept hidden to yourself even now, for the power comes only with being honest with yourself."

"I don't know what you mean," she said out loud with out realizing it.

"It looks like she's gone crazy," Eclipse said. "Even better. Now we can say this was an act of mercy." The enforcers with magic capability then crossed their horns.

"Yes, you do," the voice said, still in a firm tone of voice, like a mother scolding a child. "Admit it, or Plasma will win!"

"Fine," she said in her head. "If it will prevent him winning, I'll admit it." She hesitated, but she eventually spoke it in a whisper, though Shadow, and, by extension, Chaos, heard it thanks to their armor. "I love Chaos Riser."

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The beam of magic fired at the four, but, just as it did so, time seemed to slow for Solar Flare, and she heard the voice once more. "Then go. Reclaim the form you were meant to have, and help those who need it, my daughter."

Before she could say anything to that, Solar Flare felt her body hover of the ground and change. Her spine changed, and she now stood on her rear hooves. Her legs and chest took on a slightly bulkier look, and her fore arms also changed, and her fore hooves began to change, angling and dividing into five long, small appendages. Her face remained the same, except that her eyes were now more human sized. Her mane shortened, and, instead of being pure fire, changed to orange, yellow, and red. It also no longer flew in an invisible wind, much like Nightmare's in her new body. In short, her body was now similar to Nightmare's.

Her armor changed as well, the helmet, shoulder plates, chest piece, and leg armor changing to fit her new body, and changing in form as well. Her armor was now the same as Nightmare's, the difference being that it was orange for the primary, and a dark yellow for the accent, and the visor was purple, but, when she turned her head, was turquoise.

At her right, a pole ax materialized, and two magnums did the same on her thighs where they would rest when not being used. The blade of the pole ax seemed to vibrate, and gave off a slight shimmer. She took the weapon in her right hand, and time seemed to go back to normal, only now, she stood in front of Shadow and the others. Her horn lit, and, just before the beam could hit, a shield came into existence, and it exploded on the shield, obscuring the vision of the others.

The enforcers grinned under their helmets, but immediately scowled when they saw Solar Flare, in her new armor and body, her horn lit, standing there, a pole ax by her side, and a magnum drawn. Out of surprise, the enforcers released Nightmare, Shadow, and Robin, each of whom either still had their weapons, or retrieved theirs, as they were nearby, and looked in shock at Solar.

"What are you three gawking at," Solar said to those behind her. You're free, now fight." They simply nodded, and rushed at one enforcer each. Nightmare rushed to engage, Coldheart, Robin went to attack Harvest, and Shadow was unlucky enough to get Twilight and Rarity, leaving Eclipse for Solar.

"So, you throw your lot in with those three," Eclipse said insultingly.

"I do, and I know I won't regret it," Solar Flare said. What do you think, Celestia, assuming you're listening? Think we should try to free Luna from Eclipse?

For once, Celestia said in Solar's mind, we are in agreement over something.

Solar smiled under her helmet. "Then let's go," she whispered before rushing Eclipse.

Bridge of the Tip of The Spear

Lone, Hood, and Smith, who just recently returned from the Normandy, were standing in what was the ship's bridge.

"Both dimensional portals are reading ships coming through," Aretimis said, though the three leaders didn't respond.

"You guys told them to not fire until you contacted them after they came through," Lone asked, to which the two admirals nodded.

"First ships, coming through."

Indeed, a single covenant frigate and turian frigate were the first ships through their respective portals, and more and more ships had exited, until, nearly ten minutes later, what appeared to be over ten thousand total, true space ships were through the portals, a number needed due to the Reapers.

Lone nodded, which was the signal for the two admirals to inform their fleets as to what was going on. At the end of it, they both passed the figurative microphone to Lone.

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"Any and all ships on this frequency, this is Lone Shadow, Captain of the ship Tip of the Spear. I know none of you know all of what's going on, so here it is: An old threat that we've all heard of in one way or another is here, in this dimension, conquering my home world, and I'm certain he'll come after you all next. Today, we are here to ensure that doesn't happen. We will be facing nearly impossible odds, and there's no guarantee any of us are going to survive. But, if we all stand and fight, which everyone on my ship is willing to do, then we will have a chance. I'm not asking any of you, and I sure as hell can't order you, to assist me. I leave that up to you, and your leaders. But, if you do decide to stand with me and my allies, then we can ensure that no one else will need to deal with this threat in the future. After all, the best heroes are just ordinary people, and that describes each and every one of us, I'm sure." A pause in the speech. "That is all."

There was a pause before those in the bridge heard Artemis say, "Getting a message from every ship," she said.

"They're with us."

Lone smiled under his helmet. "Then tell them to get into a fucking large pyramid formation, the Spear, being, well, the tip."

"Done," Artemis said. "What next?"

Easy," Lone said, his horn lighting. "I'm heading down," he said, then vanished in a flash of light.

The final battle Pt3-origins and memories

Under a ruined castle in the Everfree forest, in front of a crystal tree, with six other gems in it, a flash of green light appeared, and Lone Shadow became visible as the light faded. He looked around to make sure no members of the Brotherhood were nearby, though he could hear the sounds of combat from the plains, even if they were ten miles away. "Wish I could join you guys right now," he said as he stepped closer to the tree in the cave.

The Tree of Harmony was extremely bright, the only reason he could look at it directly being his polarized visor. The Element gems, half of them, the Elements of Laughter, Kindness, and Loyalty, were even brighter then the other Elements. Lone shook his head in sadness at this, as this meant that Metamorpha, Chitinia, and Harvest were being suppressed by the personalities Plasma had forced upon them. He walked right to the roots of the tree, and took knelt down in front of it, like an ancient knight to his king. Or queen, in this case.

"Harmony, this looks bad. Even with the UNSC and the Citadel forces with us, we'd need to be very lucky to win. I need to free Metamorpha and the others from Plasma's control, and I need the Elements. I ask that you allow me to carry them until I can get all of them to their bearers."

There was a flsh of white light, and Lone's entire world became white, but got himself, the Elements, and a second figure. This figure was a female, simply from her build. She was just as tall as an average Spartan, and wore an ankle length gray, sleeveless dress that accented her white skin perfectly. Her hair was shoulder length, and had ten colors making it up, six of the colors being that of the Elements in their normal state, the other four being a gun gray, a navy blue, a black, and an emerald green. None of this made her stand out though.

What did was the fact she had hooves for feet and had both wings and a horn, as well as a muzzle, much like Lone, Shadow, Nightengale, Robin, Nightmare, and, now, Solar. Lone stayed in his knelling position and said, "Harmony."

"Hello, Lone," Harmony said. "You know that you do not need to bow to me. You have earned that right, at the very least."

Lone rose, and said, "I know, but I should still respect you."

Harmony chuckled a little. "Yes, I suppose that makes sense. Now, as for your request, I told you before you left that you did not need to ask me for permission to use the Elements to free your friends from Plasma's control."

"I know, but I thought that, as their creator, I should still ask you."

"Yes, I know," Harmony said before turning around and saying, "Come, Lone. There is still much you do not know of our struggle, and the Librarian and I agree that it is time you knew."

Lone walked to her, and, once he reached her, she began to walk as well. "I suppose I should start when Plasma first came to our universe, twenty thousand years ago," Harmony said, just as an image of an ancient country side appeared. "As you now know, Lone, our race was more like that of humans and the others whose basic builds are similar to theirs. It is true that, then, pony abilities were much more powerful. When Plasma arrived, most ponies were affected by his mind control instantly, and some others even followed him without being controlled. They were the first Brotherhood." A memory of a group of anthro ponies in familiar dark cloaks were seen, terrorizing a group of civilians. "They were cruel to those they were supposed to protect, often killing innocents, or enslaving them. Plasma did nothing, even though he said he would wipe out crime.

Another memory appeared, a still of a single pony, a unicorn in what amounted to peasant garb, standing up to the early Brotherhood, his horn glowing an emerald green. He was a familiar shade of black and red. "Your namesake, a simple peasant, a rare unicorn peasant at that, was the first to speak out against this regime. He was the one who inspired other, regardless of class, to fight. It nearly failed, if it hadn't been for a mutual friend of ours," Harmony said just as an image of the original Lone Shadow meeting with a unicorn mare with white skin and dark blue hair and tail, the rest of her face and body hidden by a tan cloak. "Light Joy, the one Plasma called his wife, betrayed him and gave the resistance crucial information, information needed for it's success."

"Still can't believe that Pinkie somehow talked to her while we were in the library," Lone said as the two of them continued to walk.

"That, Lone, is because she is one of the few ponies born in every generation to be able to speak to those in the Nexus when they wish. In fact, it has been an ability of her family ever since Plasma devolved our race when Lone first beat him, which brings me to the next point."

An image appeared, this time a slideshow, of an anthro pony turning into a full fledged pony. "The transformation was not at all swift, nor was it painless. Many died during this point simply due to them not being able to handle the pain. The truly lucky ones, though, were those born this way, as none of them had to deal with the pain. As you know, this is the point when the cutie pox began to appear in the main populace, instead of a select, relative few. Of course, there were a few who weren't affected by it, and many, if not all, of them were ridiculed for it.

"In time, the legends of your namesake became just that, legends, and those that followed him, as well as Lone Shadow himself, were exiled for being unlawful. This led to the tradition of lone team becoming a shadow group, known only to a few outside of it.

"It remained this way for the next ten thousand years, when I was born."

"Uh, Harmony, no disrespect," Lone said, still walking with the alicorn, "but what does that have to do with this?"

"Everything, Lone," Harmony said with a small chuckle. "After all, now we gt to the par of the story where thses," she said, gesturing to the six gems that had followed them, "were created.

"War was rampant then, especially among the unicorn and pegasai. I was just a unicorn then, one of the best mages of the time. Unfortunately, though, it was a time of gender inequality, and mares, regardless of skill and talent, were little more then property to stallions.

"I was an assittant to the archmage at the time, one of the few stallions who actually saw mares as sapient. The pegasai armies were laying siege to many of our cities, and I knew the only way to beat them was to make a magical weapon that they couldn't counter.

"I set upon this task by myself, willing to take the consequences of being a mare doing magical research, which was death at the time. My lab was a rundown shack outside my hometown, which was a rarity then, as it had equal rights. What I planned for were twenty gems to protect the wielder from any attack, as well as enhance their magical capabilities.

"It was just after I had begun my work that I was approached by the members of lone team that lived in my town, and offered me a position in the team, which I accepted. I hadn't been a supporter of the war, and I was planning on distributing the weapons to the members of all three pony races.

"I was allowed to continue my work, but I ran into an issue."

"What might that be, Harmony?" Lone asked.

"I found only the materials for half what I had hoped for, which is ten of the weapons.

"Regardless, I continued my work, until something went wrong near the date I was to present three of them to the unicorn king, and give the rest to lone team. It was late at night, and I was putting the finishing touches on the last of the Elements when there was an explosion. Six of them, the ones Metamorpha and her friends used, were left unharmed, but three of the others were scattered across space and time, and the last was infused into my blood, becoming a part of my DNA. The three that were lost were, as I learned later, after I came to the Nexus, scattered among other universes, some not even like ours. The fourth one, the first one I finished, was the one that had been infused into my blood, and I had passed it down to my son."

"There are ten Elements?" Lone asked in surprise.

"Yes, there are. I can not tell you where they are, not even I know that much, but I do have a feeling you already know the bearers of the lost Elements, or will meet them at some point in your life. The funny thing is that the explosion made me an alicorn, and I was the one who helped bring gender equality to Equestria, though, I imagine you can tell I'm not that known in current times, even by lone team."

"No, you aren't," Lone said. "It's weird. I know the library has information from that time period. It's like no one wanted us to know about that."

"Indeed," Harmony said as she stopped walking. "I will need to investigate that when I return to the Nexus," she said as she turned to face Lone. "Do you remember when you first encountered the Librarian, Lone?"

"Yeah. Why?" Lone asked.

"Do you remember felling something being planted inside you when you left her presence and returned to the library?" Lone nodded. "Ah, good. That will allow me to help bring out your full power, should you wish it."

"If it helps defeat Plasma, I'll do anything," Lone said, determination in his voice.

"I know. I simply had to ask. This will also help right the various wrongs that has happened by Plasma's direct intervention."

"Thank you, Harmony," Lone said.

"Do not thank me yet, Lone," Harmony said. "As you know, a fair portion of what has happened has been in one prophecy or another. There is one that details this battle with Plasma. 'When evil has become victorious, the sky will be alight with flames, and they sky will fall. An army of the dead will arise, and the shadows will fight for supremacy.' No one in the Nexus knows what this exactly means, but I believe we can hazard a guess at it."

Under his helmet, Lone smiled. "Agreed."

"Then return, Lone Shadow," Harmony said, smiling. "Return, and finish what started all those years ago."

Harmony began to fade out, and, with that, the world began to fade in, the Elements moving to surround Lone. When the world had fully returned, Lone saw he was standing in front of the Tree, the six Elements, each one glowing brightly for some reason. He heard a rustling outside of the cave, and made his way to it, using an invisibility spell to hide the Elements. Before he left the cave, though, he took one last look at the Tree, and gave it a nod, then left the cave, and went up the stairs.

What he saw upon reaching the top brought a smile to Lone's face. He saw a small army of ponies and changelings he recognized as old members of lone team that had died, all wearing recruit grade Spartan-IV armor, all of them being anthro. But six got his specific attention, and they were all walking up to him.

Three had female figures. One, who had white armor and an electric blue accent, had what was the build of an anthro earth pony. The second had a pink primary, with a dark red accent, and pegasus wings on her back. The third had white armor like the first, but had navy blue accents, as well as both wings and a horn.

The other three were all males. One had a teal armor all the way, and he had pegasus wings on his back as well. The second had black armor with green accents, and insect like wings, and a jagged horn. The third, however, had black armor, which, unlike all the others, looked like warrior armor, and red accents, as well as a horn and pegasai wings.

All six stopped in front of Lone, and saluted. "You guys don't need to do that, you know. You all have more experience then me." He looked to the male alicorn. "You, especially, Lone."

"Lone" simply shook his head and removed his helmet, revealing a face that was the exact same as the one in the images Lone had seen earlier, revealing that he was, in fact, the original Lone Shadow, who I will simply call Lone(b) to avoid confusion. "There's no fooling you, is there?" Lone(b) asked.

"I don't see any other male alicorns here with that color scheme." Lone(a) then turned to the pegasus stallion and earth pony mare. "Mom. Dad."

"Hey, sweetie," Joy said as Darkness put an arm around his wife's shoulder.

"Son," Darkness said. "Good to see you again."

"Same here, Dad," Lone(a) said. He then turned to the changeling and the pegasus mare. "Stinger, good to see you again."

"Same here, Lone," the changeling said.

"You too, Rain," Lone(a) said to the pegasus mare, whose full name was Flawless Rain.

"Hey, Lone," she said as she stood close to the changeling who was her husband.

He then looked to the last of the assembled ponies. "Light," he said.

"Lone," Light said. "Do you have them?"

Lone(a) nodded.

"Then let's go," she said. "We still need to save Luna, Cadence, and the others."

"Agreed," Lone(a) said. "Stinger, Rain: I want you guys to find out where Cadence and the others are in the battle. We'll only have one chance to do this."

"Right," Stinger said before he and Rain spread their wings and flew off, Stinger casting an invisibility spell to hide them from the Brotherhood eyes that could see in the night.

"Mom, Dad, Light, Lone, I want you guys to spread the word to the others that we're getting ready to leave and head towards the fight."

They nodded, and left to spread the word.

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An hour later, with the sun starting to rise in the sky, with the sounds of battle still heavy in the air, Lone and those that had been brought back from death stood at the edge the castle clearing. They numbered barely a hundred, but they were all the best of the ones from the Nexus.

(00:30) Lone recalled how the entire thing had started, A year ago, he was a literal unknown to the general public, and lone team was still in the shadows. The ponies were entirely ponies then, and none had a reason to be afraid of old legends. Now, though.

Now, it's time to show them hope in old legends, he thought as he recalled he had been the same once, not believing in old legends and fairy tales. Ironic, as that was the norm for Equis in general, and Equestria in general.

Lone took one last look around the clearing, taking in the natural scenery, knowing full well it might be the last time he ever saw it again. Light walked up to him and said, "You know, whether we win or lose, the Council won't let us stay, even if we kill Plasma."

"Yeah. The last time You, me, and the others who still have living family who know of them, will ever have a chance at seeing our loved ones." He stared at the sunrise. "The last time I see my sweet moon."

"At least she'll know you're watching over her."

"I'd rather be with her."

"Me too, Lone. She is my daughter, as well as Celestia. But I think it'll be Cadence who's most devastated, as she won't even get to know Stinger and Rain, her parents, before they have to leave her again."

"Yeah, probably. But I think, at least, when this done, we can look back with no regrets, knowing that we gave everything to stop him."

Light gave a small, single laughing smile. "I guess so, and there's nothing saying we can't visit them in their dreams."

"They'll probably fix that soon enough, once we start exploiting that loophole."

"I suppose," Light said. After a few seconds, she said. "The others are waiting for you to move."

Under his helmet, Lone smiled. He lit his horn, and three things happened. (Stop music)

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(00:51)The first was that the Elements of Magic, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and Loyalty became visible again, with each, including the first three, whose bearers were corrupt, shining brighter then they ever had before, as if they each had a thousand suns within them. The second happened at the same time, and that was the fact that an emerald green glow seemed to surround him, and it seemed to seep into the Elements as well. No one noticed it, though.

The third, though, was the most obvious. Lone became bathed in lime green flames, those of a changeling changing forms. They stayed that way for a minute, as the changes were extreme. When they faded, Lone was almost exactly the same, except for two things. One was that his coat now had a kind of hardness to it that a changeling's chitin does. The second was that, on his back, starting from in the gap between his shoulder blades, were wings made of green flame.

He flapped them once, and the flames went away, leaving, in their place, wings with black feathers that went from the base of the wings to the halfway point, and bat like, leathery wings that were the same colors as the feathers the rest of the way.

"Then let's go," Lone said before taking off and heading to the plains, with the rest of the army of the risen dead behind him, those with wings carrying those who didn't.

Fields between the Everfree and remains of Canterlot

Shadow, with assistance from Chaos, was able to hold his own against Twilight and Rarity, though barely. He had been fighting them non-stop for nearly six hours, and he was beginning to get exhausted, even with his enhanced abilities. Come on, where's Lone? he mentally asked himself, just before he noticed a pillar of green coming from the Everfree. He smiled to himself. "Time to cut loose," he said as he blocked a strike from Twilight and jumped back, his horn lighting as he did so.

When he landed, he was engulfed in lime green flames. Rarity and Twilight both tried to shoot him with their magic, but the flames just took the shots with out faltering. When they were gone a minute later, he too had flaming wings. He flapped them, revealing wings similar to Lone's, but the color matching Shadow's scheme.

Under their helmets, both Twilight and Rarity had expressions of surprise and anger on their faces. "How," Twilight said.

"Lineage," Shadow said before using his wings to fly up and over the two, and using his enhance magic to teleport literally everyone on the battle field who wasn't a part of the Brotherhood to the area between the two hills in the north, much to the confusion of all but Robin, Nightmare, Hermit, and, obviously, Shadow.

Shadow, Nightmare, and Solar, still in control, but with Celestia's consent and support. Stood at the head, with Solar being confused, not just by the teleportation, but the fact Shadow had wings as well. "How," she asked.

"I'll explain later," he said.

Plasma strode out of his castle then, and, even from the mile distance, he saw them clearly. "So, my descendants are alicorns entirely, then. Interesting, but planned for." It was then he heard flapping from behind. He turned, and saw multiple pegasai and even some changeling flying towards the battle field, a fair portion carrying other ponies, all of whom were anthro. At this groups head were three ponies he knew, two of which he was genuinely surprised to see.

Lone(a), Lone(b), and Light landed at the front of the second group at the south of the Brotherhood, with Lone(a) being in between the other two.

Plasma just laughed. "So, it seems you have heard of the third prophecy regarding the events here. It doesn't matter though. The sky is not on fire, and it is not falling."

"I'd check the sky if I were you, Plasma," Light said.

Plasma did so, and what he saw was the sky ablaze.

Tip of the spear-an hour earlier

"Admirals," Artemis said, "first contact will be in range in thirty seconds."

Both Hood and Smith were still on the Spear, seeing as how it was, in essence the flagship of the new fleet. "Copy that, Artemis," Hood said. "Admiral Smith, does your universe happen to have the old earth band 'AC/DC'?"

"Yes," Smith said. "Why?"

"Artemis?"

"Getting it prepped up now, Hood. Just waiting for you to authorize it."

Twenty seconds later, Hood said, "Now."

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(00:15) "Fifteen seconds."

(00:20) "Ten seconds."

(00:30) "FIRE!!" Hood yelled, and the first shot was fired.

"All ships, engage at will, but keep an eye on IFFs. We do not need any friendly fire here," Smith yelled over comms.

At this point, the first shot, a shot from Infinity's main gun, hit it's target, a Reaper destroyer. It's shields were down, and it took the full force of the hit, and it burst into pieces. The other Brotherhood ships were slow to react, which led to a few more being destroyed, but they were able to eventually pull together and spread out, which made hitting the smaller ships harder."

"Admiral Smith," Artemis said, "your carriers are requesting permission to launch every fighter and interceptor they have."

"Tell them they're cleared on that regard, Artemis."

"And tell our ships to do the same with our equivalents," Hood added. "We need as much firepower out there as possible!"

"Roger that, orders are sent. Hood, Maruco's asking permission to head out on a booster frame. The Spartans of Alpha-Nine are willing to go with him, as is John."

"They're cleared for it, Artemis."

The ship shook then from an impact. "Mass accelerator cannon strike! Shields at seventy-five percent and holding."

"Understood, Artemis," Smith said. "Target the bastard!"

"Already done. Hydra's are away," the lights on the ship darkened, "and MAC shot away. Time to impact, thirty seconds."

"Understood, Artemis," Hood said.

"Admirals," a sangheili officer at the terminals shouted, "we just lost ten ships from a single Reaper, and the enemy's left line's broken. Fighters are moving in to attack."

"Understood. Have any spare dreadnoughts fire on that Reaper!" Smith said. "We need it dead!"

"Understood," the sangheili said before turning back to his console and relaying orders.

"Ten seconds until shot impact," Artemis said. Ten seconds later, she said, "Target destroyed."

"Understood, Artemis. What's the current status of the battle group?"

"Well, we only lost those ten ships due to the fact this was a surprise attack, and they lost ten ships in the first minute, and they keep losing more, though we have lost a lot of fighters and interceptors."

"Damn it," Smith said.

"We're still winning right now, Smith," Hood said.

"Hood, I have an unauthorized booster frame launch from Infinity!"

"Who?"

"Blue team."

Hood smiled. "Let them go, Artemis, and let John and the other know they might be getting some friendly company soon."

"It's done," Artemis said a second later.

"Good. I want fighters diverted to escort blue team to John and the others."

"Copy that," Artemis said. "Fuck," she said a minute later. "I just got a reading from the outer ships. They picked up a slip space rupture."

"What is it?"

"Unknown. Just now getting a reading." She didn't speak for ten seconds, a long time for AIs, but when she did, she said, "It's a prototype covenant ship, like the one from Reach!"

"And it's got Brotherhood colors!"

"Damn it," Hood said. "Have any and all dreadnoughts, I don't care whose fleet they're a part of, we need to take that thing down ASAP!"

"Diverting forces now."

Fifty minutes later

The late arrival to the fight had been destroyed, but two dreadnoughts had been destroyed before it was taken down, as well as who knew how many fighters. Blue team had rendezvoused with John and the others, and had been wreaking all kinds of hell for the last thirty minutes, including a recreation of the time John, Fred, and Kelly had done what was, in essence, a run and gun moment when they were on a mission to rescue Dr Halsey from the covenant, but this time, the result was the destruction of a portion of the enemy fleet, including a few Reapers, by ship self-destruct. Those covenant reactors made great micro stars.

The allied fleet was winning, and troops were being prepped for planet side operations at the moment. More accurately, ODSTs and Spartans from the UNSC; Atlas mechs, heavy gunships, and drop ship carried YMIR mechs.

"Artemis, what's the status of the enemy fleet," Hood asked.

"Breaking, Admiral. They've lost a fair portion of their heavy hitters, and we were smart enough to focus on Reapers for the first part of combat, so we don't need to worry about them any more."

"Good. Tell any and all troops heading down to the surface to get ready," Hood said.

"On it."

"And Artemis?"

"Yeah, Hood?"

"I want you to head down to the planet with the ground forces."

"Understood. Also, I'm going to divert a pelican for Blue team and the others."

"Fair enough, Artemis," Hood said.

"Admirals," a human officer at one of the console said, "the first wave of drop pods are ready, and the ships containing them are awaiting your orders to move in over the drop zone."

"They're clear," Hood said. He added in a whisper, "Now let's just hope we win the ground war."

The final battle Pt4-the ultimate sacrifice

As the two armies stood at opposite ends of the fields that surrounded Plasma's castle, there was not a single sound, not even the wind. The sky was alight, and an army of the dead had risen. All that was left was for the sky to fall, and for shadows to begin fighting. What broke the silence was Plasma laughing.

"You truly think that you can stop me," he said. "I am a god. Not even an alicorn could stand against me!"

"You forgot one thing, Plasma," Lone(A) said, unfurling his bird/bat hybrid wings. "There's six alicorns, one of which defeated you when he was just a unicorn." He chuckled. "Plus, we have two more armies helping us," he said as something impacted the ground to the right of the castle.

Plasma looked up, and indeed saw more objects falling down.

The sky was falling.

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More and more ODST pods landed, as well as covenant drop pods, on the right. As they landed, the main hatches blew off, and ODSTs, Spartans, and sangheili leaped out of the pods, weapons raised, many of the Spartans and sangheili igniting energy swords. They were a mass of colors, all the way from black to white, to everything in between. Many of the ODST pods had tilted over just as their occupant had gotten out, and were now being used as cover by two or three individuals. The ranged weapons included SMGs, assault rifles, battle rifles, plasma and storm rifles, needlers, needler rifles, and carbines. Once over a thousand pods had landed and the troops inside exiting them, a single pelican flew over them, and ten figures, three wearing some form of ODST armor, jumped out of the back of it, and the pelican made it's way to orbit. The ten figures turned toward the center of the field, and it was then that it could be seen who it was. Those that could be identified by Rainbow and the others were John and Maruco, the others, they had never seen before, though one had a similar armor color to Nightengale's coat. Those three stood at the front of the UNSC and covenant forces that had landed.

Before Plasma could say something, he looked again and saw more trails of fire in the sky, this time going for the left side of the castle.

The first Atlas landed. It was similar to the cerberus model, but the color were now navy blur with accents of red, the color of the alliance. It had landed feet first using it's mass effect drive core, which allowed for safe drop from orbit. A second one landed, and a third, then a fourth, until well over a hundred had impacted and stood ready. Just a few seconds after the last one landed, shuttles began to pour down from the sky, and drop off squads that were made up of every council race, and even a few krogan in there. if one had been looking closely, they would have even noticed a few individuals bearing the insignia of the Spectres. Eventually, gunships began to descend and hover over the citadel and UNSC/covenant forces.

"So, what about now," Nightengale said. "Think you can win now, Plasma!"

"That's Nightengale," Octavia, whose wound had been healed by magic before the teleportation by Lightning and was now standing, holding a slim sword in one of her hooves, said upon hearing his amplified voice. "It can't be. I thought he disappeared."

"Not quite, if I understand everything correctly," Hermit said beside her from a stalker pure form. "Of course, I'm not entirely certain if I understand it, so you'll have to ask him later, assuming you both survive this fight, Octavia"

"Then let's hope we do survive," she said as Lone spoke up from the other side of the field.

"Not even you can defeat four armies, Plasma. Give up."

Plasma's face gained a cruel smile, and he laughed. As he did so, he began to transform. He grew taller, and sprouted a second pair of arms under his original ones, these having a claw like pincer. His armor grew with him, and even began to cover his new arms. The most biggest change, though, for one, were his eyes, which went from one pair to three, the two additional ones both under and above the original, and his scorpion like tail, which grew out of where a human tail bone would end. "You forget, Lone Shadow," he said in a deeper, much more menacing voice, "I have destroyed numerous civilizations before you were born, and have ruled over many worlds!"

"But not four at once," Light said. "Not eve you could do that, husband, and now is the time when three worlds you tried to rule collide against you!"

Under their helmets, though one was next to Plasma and the other was on an overlooking hill, Solar's and Eclipse's eyes widened upon hearing what she said.

"You can not be my mother," Eclipse snarled, pointing a sword at Light. "Lone Shadow, the original Lone Shadow, killed you, and even if you have returned, why do you side with his descendant?"

"Because, Eclipse, my way ward daughter, he is not just Lone Shadow's descendant, but Plasma's. Even so, I never died during that rebellion. I fought alongside the original Lone Shadow, and we eventually wed. I would side with him a million more times, even if it meant we would spend that time in tartarus!"

"The you are a traitor," Eclipse snarled. "And i will personally end you and Solar."

"Are you certain of that?" Solar asked from her side of the field. "You could not best me in singular combat, so what makes you think you could best me and another?"

"Uh, John," Fred asked John through their personal communication on their side of the field, "do they really need to do this whole banter thing?"

"From what I know of other battles like this that I was told about," John replied. "Apparently."

"Great," Kelly said in a sarcastic tone.

"ENOUGH!!" Plasma yelled, stopping the banter. "Today, you all die, and I will rule your pitiful worlds," he said in a snarl. "KILL THEM ALL!!"

"You two handle him," Light said to Lone(a) and (b). "We can handle the Brotherhood."

"You sure, Light," Lone(b) said.

"Yes, now go," she said as she flew towards the assembled army near the castle, her weapons, two swords, out and ready.

Both Lones looked at one another, and the eldest said, "You good?"

"Yeah. Go fight with her, as this may the last time you see her."

Lone(b) nodded, and flew off to fight with his wife, while Lone(a) flew up, and made his way to Plasma.

This was the signal to everyone else that the fight had resumed, and all four armies on the hill made their way to the fifth, small, but much more protected due to Plasma's magic, and engaged.

Eclipse, Twilight, and Coldheart, the second carrying Harvest in her magic and the last carrying Rarity in hers, flew up to meet with Light and Lone(b). In the air going to that spot as well was Nightmare, Shadow, and Solar.

As the armies below clashed, and Lone(A) engaged Plasma, doing some honestly impressive tricks to avoid the giant's attacks They stopped in midair about a hundred feet above the ground.

"It looks like we're evenly matched," Shadow remarked.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you," Rarity said. "Plasma himself gave us magical sheilds that are nearly impossible for you to break," she said as she summoned three ethereal blades shaped like fencing blades.

"And besides, Shadow," Coldheart said, "you aren't even an alicorn. You're a freak."

"That what's that make you, Cadence," a male voice with a slight echo effect said from behind the corrupted mare. "You are our daughter, after all," Stinger said as he stopped the invisibility spell, making himself and Rain visible, both with ethereal blades in their hands. "Half changeling-"

"-Half pegasus," Rain finished.

"You two should be dead."

"We were, Cadence. Like both Lones, but we came back when we found out what happened to you," Stinger said.

"I'm not Cadence anymore," she snarled. "She was erased three months ago!"

"If that is the case," Solar said as she disappeared in a flash of light, only to reappear a second later, her armor now white, the accents pink. "Then why am I still here," Celestia said.

"Because Solar was- is - weak, and she couldn't keep you locked away," Eclipse said. "Like you, Celestia."

"Eclipse, dear, I think that's enough," Rarity said. "Now, I believe it's time we remove them from the face of the planet."

"Agreed," Eclipse said before she and the other enforcers dropped to the ground and flew, or were carried, to one of the four hills that surrounded the castle.

They landed, and Shadow and the others weren't far behind in their landing.

"We don't have to do this, Luna, Cadence," Shadow said as the groups stared at one another from opposite ends of the small hill. "Nor do we want to."

"Then join us," Eclipse said. "That way, you can do what ever you wish, and not worry about the consequences."

"No," Lone(b) said. "If we did that, we'd lose what makes us sapient. We'd become nothing more than animals," he said with a horizontal swipe of his hand, palm down.

"Have it your way," Coldheart said before she and the other enforcers attacked.

When Lone took off to fight Plasma, he expected to be blasted out of the sky to begin with, but Plasma let him come close instead.

"I should have known Harmony would have saved you, Lone Shadow," he said in a surprisingly quiet voice for his size. "You are one of her favorites, I imagine. I can not wait to ask her why when I see her again."

"What do you mean?"

Plasma let out a small laugh. "Simple. Once I fully conquer this universe, as well as the others that have come to your aid, I will spread my control through every universe, and, eventually, the Nexus. Even now, allies and disciples of mine are working towards that goal, and you can not stop them all."

"We can try," Lone said. "That's what you don't get about us, Plasma. The fact that we will fight to keep our way of life it it's worth it to us, even give our lives for it."

"That philosophy can not save your beloved Luna now, Lone. She is gone, imprisoned so deep within her mind, nothing short of my power can free her." He paused.

"Or death."

"You won't hurt, or so help me, I'll rip your kneecaps out and beat you with them," Lone said, pointing his energy sword at Plasma.

Said god threw a punch, which Lone rolled to avoid. "Who said I would want to harm her. She is string and loyal to me."

"Yeah, but how long will that matter," Lone said. "You said the same to Solar, and look at where that got you with her."

"Of course I lied to her, as any would to keep one's loyalty. She was no longer important to my plans, and needed to be disposed of. I have no love for her. It makes one weak!" Plasma said as he then threw a flurry of strikes at Lone, each one missing, though some just barely.

"You can't hit me, Plasma," Lone said after an amazing ten minutes of dodging hits. "I won't let you, not while I still have to save Luna."

Under his helmet Plasma grinned, a plan forming in his mind. "Of course not," he said, "but do you really wish to be with Luna?"

"Nothing you say will make me turn on my friends, Plasma, and turning to you just to be with her, much as I wish to be with her, would be just that: turning my back on her, leaving her to you until you decide she needs to die."

"I did not mean in life," he said as he held a hand up, palm facing towards the sky, an orb of orange enrgy growing above it.. "You are right. I care not for my daughters. They are but tools to me, and tools are easily replaced. Surely Harmony told you of the explosion that caused four Elements to be lost? Well, I am the one to have caused that, destroying those four, and using the energy from the explosion to create my own Elements, two of which have already found their bearers. Everything is a tool, Lone Shadow. You would be wise to remember that." As he spoke, the orb continued to grow in size.

On the ground as the four very different armies pressed together towards the Brotherhood, John was in the lead of the UNSC/covenant army, literally speaking. He raised his assault rifle, and fired the first of what would be the first shots of this fight, killing a Brotherhood aligned human with a shot to the head.

From there, all hell broke lose, as the armies collided. John put his rifle on his back and drew his magnum, as he doubted he would have good maneuvering space to aim his rifle. He shoulder charged another human that was with the Brotherhood, and rolled to keep his momentum and balance, coming up in a kneeling position, and firing off three shots with his magnum, getting three clean headshots.

"Heads up," he heard Maruco shout from behind, and he jumped up and twisted in the air, grabbing an energy sword in his left hand before completing the one-eighty and landing on his feet, activating the energy sword. Maruco and Nighten walked up beside him, each with an energy sword in their left hand, an SMG in Nightengale's right, and a magnum in Maruco's.

"You know, I actually missed large battles like this," Nightengale said.

"You and me both," Maruco said. "Now, time to kick some ass."

"Ooh-rah!" Nightengale said before the three of them charged into the mass of enemies, slicing their swords, cutting the victims in half, and firing off shots of their weapons. As they neared the center of the Brotherhood forces, forced to use knives due to their weapons running out of ammo and their swords out of charge, they ran into Rainbow and the others.

"It's about time you guys got here," she said as she used wingblades to slice off another pony's head. "I thought you guys were supposed to be the best of the best."

"Well, sorry," Nightengale said as he threw his dagger, blade first, at a unicorn, said weapon hitting him in the head and killing him before creating an ethereal blade, "but we were getting some help."

"I'd say this is more then some," Lily said, firing off a burst from her rifle. "Who'd you bring, the entire UNSC!?"

"That, and an entire citadel task force," John said.

"Wait a fuckin' minute," Zaeed said, ripping a blade out of the eye socket of a Brotherhood human. "The citadel! How?"

"Long story," Nightengale said, slicing off the head of a sangheili with his blade. "We'll tell it when we win."

"Yes, can we get to it later, when we aren't fighting for our lives," Sawn said, a carbine in his hands and a shield gauntlet activated.

"Right," Maruco said as he threw a single grenade into a cluster of hostile humans, a S.A.W landing at his feet. "Oh fuck yes," he said as he picked it up and began to unleash bullet hell, laughing as he did so. "EAT THIS YOU FUCKERS!! HAHAHAHAHA!!"

"Trigger happy as always," Ken said before resuming his firing with his DMR.

With the combined efforts of all four armies, the Brotherhood didn't stand a chance, many of it's members even surrendering just to live, even if it meant being punished, and they knew the Equestrian government was most likely going to go through a change like that when this fight was over.

When the acolytes were all either dead or captured, those amassed looked up at Plasma, and saw Lone in front of him, with an orb of energy in the god's hand. ". . . And you would do well to remember it," he said as the orb grew one last time. He then pointed his palm towards where Shadow and the others, including his enforcers, still fought, a tendril of magic seeping into the ground from Plasma's feet and moving towards them. "Now, you will all see what happens when you STAND AGAINST ME!!!" he yelled as he fired the orb at them.

"METAMORPHA!" John yelled in concern, as he had come to realize over the past three months that, as unlikely it was, he did indeed love her, more so then he had cared for Cortana.

"AJ!!" Maruco yelled, but neither could be heard.

Up above, Lone gave a hate filled look at Plasma, though his helmet was on and it couldn't be seen. He then lit his horn, and vanished. . .

. . . only to reappear in between the orb and it's targets. "YOU WON'T HARM ANY ONE, ANY MORE, PLASMA!!" he yelled as he surrounded himself with a lime green shield of magic, even though he knew it was hopeless. As the last act he could manage before he was hit, he revealed the Elements, and used his magic to send them to their respective bearers.

Just as the orb hit and his shield collapsed, Lone said, "I'm sorry, Luna," in a voice barely audible to even himself.

All were transfixed by this, they did not see trails of emerald green mist leave the Elements and head to the one who had brought them to their bearers once again, as well as a small trail of the same shaded bits of what looked like gem stones go to him from his brother.

Not a second later, Lone Shadow, beloved of Luna, leader of lone team, leader of an army of the once dead, and bane of Plasma, was consumed in a field of destructive energy that none could hope to survive.

The final battle Pt5-Finale

As the fact that Lone had sacraficed himself for them sunk in, the enforcers began to realize that Plasma, the one they had unquestionably followed, had tried to knowingly kill them. As soon as they reached htis, the orb of energy that had killed Lone, which was somehow still there, began to change in color from orange to emerald green, and began to expand.

"Damn it, I still can't move," Shadow said. He lit his horn but the glow quickly faded. "Can't teleport, either. We're all dead."

Eclipse said nothing, only closed her eyes, and waited for the orb to hit. If she had been paying attention, she would have felt her coat, mane, and tail change back to Luna's just before she was hit.

It continued to grow in size. When it reached Luna and the others, she expected to feel pain, but, instead, felt her body flow with energy and change in a similar way Celestia's body had while Solar was in control, and her armor change as well to that Nightmare and Celestia now wore, the color scheme situation being the same as theirs as well, which was to say her coat color was the primary, and her mane and tail when she had been freed from Nightmare became the secondary.

The energy expanded across the entire planet, and acros Equis, a similar change was happening with each and every pony, changeling, and griffon. All of those not involved in the fight against Plasma also had clothes put on them by the orb, and were freed from Plasma's control, the ponies losing their cutie marks.

When it had encompassed the entire planet, the orb collapsed on itself, it ending where it's center had been when it consumed Lone Shadow.

Lone was in pain. The last thing he remembered was taking that blast of energy from Plasma to save Shadow and the others.

"Wake up, Lone," he heard.

He opened his eyes, and was met with a rather elegant hospital room. It was lined with old, Greek like columns, but also had advanced medical tech, including what he recognized as stasis field generators.

He got up, and looked to his left, and was met with Harmony. "Hello, Lone."

"Harmony," he said, then looked to his right, and saw the Librarian. "Librarian," he said with a nod.

"Hello, Lone," she said.

"So. I guess I died?" he said. "Not surprised."

"No, you aren't, Lone," Harmony said, getting Lone's attention again.

"What do you mean," he said, getting off the bed he had been on.

"Simple. Do you remember the Element thta was mixed into my blood stream and was passed down to my son that way?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Because," the Librarian said, walking to stand beside Harmony, "it works like a geas. It is passed down throughout generations, and this particular Element was."

"Indeed it is," Harmony said. "It was the first to be made, and is the most powerful of the Elements, along with Magic. You are quite familiar with it, as it has shaped your life. It is what made you and Shadow mature faster." At her words, Lone looked at her in surprise. "Yes, Lone. You are not only the descendant of Plasma and your namesake, but also mine. As such, you and your brother have inherited the one Element left to be found in our world.

"Sacrifice."

"Both you and Shadow have given much," the Librarian said. "But it is your most recent sacrifice that has given the Element enough power to awaken."

"You'll have a subconscience knowledge of how to work it at the power I intended both it and the other Elements to work," Harmony said. "All of them, including those that Metamorpha and her friends use.

"And don't worry," She said. "We convinced the council to allow you, Shadow, John, and Maruco to stay. In fact, I was able to convince them to allow you four to become Knights of the Nexus, much Like Nightengale, which means the four of you will be able to travel between universes at will, as well as take other with you if needed."

"Return to your home, Lone Shadow," Librarian said. "Return, and defeat Plasma. It is, and alway has been, your destiny."

Lone nodded, and his vision faded to white.

Luna looked over her new body, and looked at the others. She saw that they all had the same build as her now, but the odd thing was that Solar and Chaos were there. Along with Celestia and Shadow, and they appeared as surprised as her. A light caught her attention, and she and the other turned to look at it, and she was happily surprised when she saw Lone, as well as Fear, in the air, their wings spread.

"How?" Plasma yelled.

"Easy," Lone said. "Those four Elements that you 'destroyed'? One was actually infused into Harmony's DNA, and passed to her descendants. By the way," he said, holding his hand up, palm out and facing skyward. Four Emeralds appeared, each a different shape. Four more appeared, these a different shape as well. "Me and Shadow are said descendants."

At this, six of the emeralds flew away from Lone. One stayed above his palm, shaped like a simple circle. Another went in front of Fear, who had the same armor as Lone, and the one that was in front of him had a spear shape to it. He grabbed it, and, in his hand, a double-pointed spear appeared. Lone did the same, and a katana with a black hilt and green blade appeared in his hand.

One made it's way to Shadow and Chaos. Cautiosly, they reached out, and nothing happened. "Imagine it as a weapon," Lone yelled. They did so, and both of their emeralds, the same as Lone and Fear's respectively in terms of shape, and, in Shadow's hands, a dual edged sword appeared, while in Chaos' hand, a flail appeared.

The remaining four made their way to and stopped infront of Celestia, Luna, Solar, and Nightmare. "I guess I should also say that this Element can be divided into smaller parts, and the main bearer decides who the pieces go to." Luna, whose piece of the Element resembled a crescent moon, and Celestia, whose piece looked like the sun in shape looked at one another, and nodded. They took a hold of the pieces of the Element in front of them, and in Celestia's hand, a spear/ax hybrid weapon appeared. In Luna's, a shot sword appeared, the cross guard having a crescent moon, with the hilt leading into the moon part of it, and the black leading into the actual sword. On the bottom of the hilt was a small, green emerald representing a star.

Solar and Nightmare, who were next to each other, looked at one another. "You surprised?" Nightmare asked.

"Mostly," Solar said as she grabbed her piece, and a pole-ax appeared in her hand, thd blade being green and the hilt being an orange-ish red.

"Fair enough," Nightmare said, and grabbed her piece, and a sythe with a green blade and navy blue hilt appeared in her hand. "I like it."

There was a flash of green light, and Plasma's former enforcers and those who bore an Element appeared in the center of the field between the castle and the hill closest to the remains of Canterlot.

"Good to have you guys back," Lone said to Metamorpha and the others.

"Uh, Lone," Metamorpha, who wore prefect like every other pony and changeling government leader now, said. "What's going on?"

"Explanation later," Fear said, smiling under his helmet. "Right now, I think it's time we do a little killing."

"Agreed," Chaos said.

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To Metamorpha, Chitinia, and the other original six Element beaers, Lone said, "Make the Elements weapons, guys. It will become what ever you think it will be, as long as it's a weapon that would go in the dark ages, like a sword or bow. Just take the Element in your hand and imagine it as a weapon. And if I'm right, if you go bow, it'll make arrows using it's own magic when you make a string pulling motion."

"Guess I'll go next," Rainbow, wearing the strider armor with a primary of cyan and rainbows for the secondary, said as she grabbed her Element, and dual short swords with red blades apeared in her hands. "Awww, yeah."

Here, with the entirety of the reinforcements and lone team, all of whom had a combination UNSC/Alliance marine outfit on, the shoulder and knee pads being UNSC with the helmet being Alliance, modified for obvious reason, with the chest peice being a mix of the two styles, stood behind them. John, at the front of the group, moved to stand beside them, but Nightengale stopped him. "This is their fight," he said. "The last line of the prophecy said that shadows will fight for supremacy, and if anything," he gestured to Lone and the others, "they're, in one way or another, shadows."

It was here that Plasma laughed. "You think you can defeat me?" he said, and raised his hands, and, from the ground, an army of the true undead, flesh rotting and limbs missing, eyes blank. "Not even you can defeat these!"

Under his helmet, Lone smiled. He turned his head to face John and the others. "You guys mind taking care of those things? We a dance, and I know I don't want to miss it."

Nightengale nodded. "We'll take care of it."

"Damn right we will," Zaeed said. "I always wanted to blast zombies back to hell."

"I hear that," Maruco said as another Spartan handed him a few extra drums for his S.AW..

"Oh, Maruco, I forgot something," Lone said."

"What?"

"This." Lone's horn lit, and Honest AJ appeared in the air in front of it's owner.

"Fuck. Yes," Maruco said as he put the S.A.W on his back and grabbed his DMR.

By this point, Metamorpha and the others had made weapons out of their Elements. Fluttershy, wearing thestalker armor, had a short sword whose blade matched the pink of her Element. Applejack, wearing a mix of the solider for the helmet, warrior for the chest, and ricochet for shoulders with bulk legs and arms, had gone with a hammer, but if one looked, it looked like it had a flame on the flat side, the hammer itself being the orange of her Element. Pinkie, wearing a mix of recruit for helmet, air assualt for chest, scout for right shoulder, recon for left with countoured leg and amr armor, had, for better or worse, went with flintlocks. It was close enough to that time period, plis it was Pinkie, so it actually made sense. She tested them out by firing them into the undead horde, though more rose to take the place of those she killed. They automatically reloaded, and the muzzle flash was the cyan of her Element. Chitinia ,wearing prefect helmet, chest, and shoulders with countoured leg and arm armor, had gone with a bow, the bow and string being the purple of her Element. She had drawn the string back to test it, and an arrow did appear. She eased it back into rest, and the arrow disappeared. Metamorpha, who wore a scanner helmet with the otherwise standard recruit armor, had decided to go with what looked like a pole-arm that could bend with application of the users magic, the end blades colored lavender.

Lone used his magic to summon a single rapier and gave it to Cadence. "You trust me after what I did?" she asked, to which Lone gestured to Solar and Nightmare.

"That, plus I know you want Plasma dead for Shining."

"Fair enough," Cadence siad, taking the sword in her hands.

"The let's go," Lone said as he bagan a walk towards Plasma and his army, with Lone's allies doing the same behind him.

After just ten steps, not even a tenth of the distance, the roar of engines could be heard, and broadswords came flying overhead, and fired missiles into Plasma's army. With this, Lone began to run to his destination his sword out by his side. All the others followed suit, and those with ranged weapons began to fire.

When the two armies met, Lone sliced more then a dozen of the zombies in nthe first three seconds. He jumped up onto one and used it as a platform, moving along the heads of Plasma's newest army while slicng down with his sword, cutting even more down. Luna, Metamorpha, Rainbow, Fluttershy,, Cadence and Shadow did much the same, using their swords to cut the heads of the zombies off. Celestia, Nightmare, Solar, and Fear stabbed at the zombies while continuing to move, and Chaos simply swung his flail and brained them. Eve with this, though, there were still many that had to be killed. The UNSC, Alliance, and those from the Nexus stayed behind to take care of Plasma's army, while Lone and the others made their ay through the mob, killing any stupid or unlucky enough to be caught in their path.

Just as they were about to clear the army, Plasma raised both his normal hands, and a platfor began to rise out of the ground, him at the center of it. It rose higher then the castle, and boulders came out of it's sides and began to circle around it. Still running, Lone and the other alicorns, as well as the two changelings, spread their wings and took those who couldn't fly in their magic, and began to ascend, avoiding the rocks, or just plain sliced through them, the Element blades being able to cut through anything, including solid rock.

Nearly five minutes later, they made it to the top of the pillar. They went just a little higher, then came down for a landing, the alicorns relaeasing their magic as they did so.

"So, you made it up here," Plasma said. "It matters not. My new army is limitless, and your allies can not defeat it, not without my death. And unlike so many other villains, I'm not going to jinx myself."

"We don't need you to jinx yourself, Plasma," Lone said, raising his sword and pointing it at Plasma. "We can beat you with out that help."

"Do you wish to test that theory," Plasma said, using his abilities to summon four blades, one for each hand/claw.

"Who said it was a theory?" Lone said, and he and the others charged.

Plasma brought the sword in his upper left hand up, then swung downward with enough force that when Lone, Luna, Celestia, and Shadow doged it, it creacted a small hole in the ground. Chitinia took to the air and drew her bow, three aroows appearing, and she let them loose. They impacted on Plasma's chest armor, and exploded, causing scorch marks to appear and even knock Plasma back a little. Plasma brought his lower right claw to the ground, and swept the ground with the blade, though this was jumped over by everyone. While they were in the air, though, Plasma brught his upper right sword down diagonally and his lower left horizontally. Lone teleported the others out of the way, and used his sword to block both strikes.

"You'll have to try better than that," Lone said as he used his left hand to push his sword forward with enough force to cause Plasma to stagger back, though he was still no where near the edge.

Once he was back on the ground, Lone yelled, "PINKIE! CHITINIA! NOW!!"

Chitinia, holding Pinkie in her magic, flew level to Plasma's head, and the two fired their weapons at him as quickly as possible, though Plasma used his swords to block the shots, and he regained the ground he had lost, as well as took a little ground.

"Why do you continue to fight me?" Plasma said. "You know I am practically a god by definition, so why do you persist?"

"Because, Plasma," Fear said, getting his spear into a thrwoing postion, then throwing it at Plasma, striking him in the upper arm where the armor didn't protect. He used his magic to bring it back, and a spurt of red blood followed. "Gods don't bleed."

Plasma snarled, and dropped the two upper swords, letting both fall to the ground. He let both arms down to the side, and twin orbs of energy appeared and he crossed his two remaining swords. "Come on, then. If you believe you can kill me, then surely you can try."

"Be careful what you wish for," Lone said. He then teleported just above Plasma, and let gravity affect him. He teleported just above Plasma's left arms. "PLASMA!!"

Plasma looked up, which allowed Luna and the others to attack him. As soon as the top arm was in range of his sword, Lone did a vertical slice, using his magic to increase the range of the blade, and fell to the ground, Plasma's right arms, falling to the ground, blood spurting from what was still on his body.

"AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Plasma yelled in pain. "You will pay for that," he said as he created ethereal arms to take the place of theose he lost, as well as a single ethereal blade to go with the lower.

Lone teleported to where the other were. "How are we going to win this," Cadence asked.

"Easy," Nightmare said. "We keep cutting until he doesn't make new limbs."

"I like that plan," Solar said.

"Agreed," Fear said. "Short and simple."

"Then let's get to it," Chaos said.

They rushed him again, only Plasma leaped backwards off the pillar arena, and kept himself afloat, launching rocks at them the whols time.

"I got this," Shadow said as he leaped off the pillar, and onto the first boulder, then leaped off of it to the next, them the next, and again, repeating the process until he had closed in on Plasma, using his sword to do to Plasma's left arms, what Lone did to his right, then teleported back to the others, though the victory was short lived as Plasma created ethereal limbs to replace his left ones as well.

"You can't kill me by cutting of fmy limbs. I can simply replace them," Plasma said.

"AJ, up for a little flight?" Lone asked Applejack.

"Eeyup," she said.

"Then hold on. Pinkie Chitinia, give us some covering fire," Lone said as he grabbed Applejack in his magic, and the two flew off.

As expected and hoped for, Plasma was too busy deflecting the shots from Pinkie and Chitinia to notice Lone and Applejack. "Get ready!" Lone yelled, as the two were moving quickly. "Wait for it!. . . . . . . . . . NOW!!" Lone said as he flung Applejack at Plasma, her hammer poised to strike. She made it past Plasma's defenses, and hit him on the head with the flat of her hammer, causing an explosion large enough to dent his helmet and send her flying back to Lone, who caught her in his magic. "Nice hit," he said as the others flew or were carried up to them.

"Thank you," she said.

From where they all hovered, a single dent was visible on Plasma's helmet. He removed it, and there was a stream of blood coming down his face. "That was impressive, I'll admit," he said. "But it is still useless," he said as he brought more rocks up from the ground.

"We need to get him to the ground so John and the others can help us," Lone said.

"How?" Nightmare said. "He won't yield that easily."

"Neither will we," Fear said, charging Plasma, Lone, Chaos, and Shadow close behind.

Solar, Nightmare, Celestia, and Luna looked at each other, then nodded. They then flew after those that had taken their hearts, and Metamorpha, Chitinia, Cadence, and those they carried flew close behind.

Just as they came close to Plasma, he disappeared, then reappeared just above his dark castle.

"Damn it, there's no way we can hit him, let alone kill him," Chaos said.

"Yes, there is," Lone said. "Shadow, remember what Harmony told us about what happens when an Element aborbs more energy then it was designed to?"

"Lone, what do you mean?" Luna said.

"He plans on absorbing Plasma's arms into his part of the Element," Shadow said. "If he's right, which I am conflicted on if I hope he's right or wrong, then the arms will keep regenerating, and, eventually, the Element will explode, taking Plasma, and Lone, with it."

"Lone, you can't," Luna said, her voice cracking. "I can't lose you again."

"You won't," Lone said. "Shadow, when this is done and if my plan works, tell, Nightengale and Robin to take the others to the Nexus."

"Lone, there has to be another way!" Nightmare said.

"If there is, I don't know of it."

They were all quiet for a few seconds before Luna spoke up. "If that is the case, then I'm going with you."

"Me too. I am you, after all," Fear said.

"Guys, this is-"

"Our fight," Rainbow said. "All of us, Lone. We aren't going to turn our backs on you, especially not after you and the others saved us."

"You're sure about this? All of you?" Lone asked, to which they all nodded. Under his helmet, Lone smiled. "In that case, I got something for you, Cadence," he said as a heart shaped emerald appeared in front of the alicorn of love. She took it in her hand, and a green bladed rapier appeared in her hand, the normal one vanishing.

"Let's go," Lone said as he turned to face Plasma, and he and the others all flew off to fight the last precursor.

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As they got closer, Plasma launched numerous orbs of energy at the group. Those with some kind bladed weapon sliced at them, and they noticed that the energy was absorbed by the blades. Chaos simply batted the orbs coming at him away, his flail absorbing the energy, and Pinkie and Chitinia shot the orbs, though they could not tell if their weapons were absorbing anything.

As they flew, they also noticed that less zombies were down below, which meant either A: they were stronger than the others, B: Plasma was getting weaker, or, and most likely, C: Plasma was using as much of his energy as possible to fight them which meant he couldn't reanimate his army as quickly as before.

Just a few hundred feet away from Plasma, a streak of metal made it's way past Lone and the others. Lone turned to fly with his back down, and, to his amazement and a bit of happiness, saw two UNSC destroyers, three citadel frigates, three covenant corvettes, and, at the front of the triangle, was the Tip of the Spear.

"You still there, Lone?" he heard Artemis ask over the radio

"Barely," Lone said as he turned back over. "Just exactly why did you fire a MAC round close to us," he said as said projectile hit plasma, shredding the chest armor he had on.

"Just to see how close I could cut. Now, do you need help?"

"It'd be welcome," Lone said.

"Then tell the others to hold on to their teeth," Artemis said as six more MAC rounds, two from each destroyer and from the Spear, were fired, and rocketed past the group, and three rounds of plasma was fired from the covenant ships, and mass accelerator shots from the citadel ships. Plasma simply altered the MAC trajectories where they would miss, held out his top left hand and stopped the plasma in it's tracks, and began to oscillate it around him, protecting him form the accelerator shots. "Damn it, firing missiles," Artemis said just as well over a hundred archer missiles were let loose and made their way to Plasma, quickly catching up to and surpassing Lone and the others.

Many of them swerved to avoid the orbs of plasma surrounding the last precursor and hit him, causing him to lose his concentration, and the orbs of super heated gasses dissipated, while the other missiles hit the plasma before they dissipated.

The ships continued their onslaught, though Plasma, in one way or another, avoided taking serious damage, and gave the group cover to approach him. Lone sliced at his legs, getting Plasma's attention, then flew back to where the others were. As he did so, he noticed something. He doesn't try to heal the smaller wounds. Maybe we can use that.

"I admire your persistence," Plasma said, "but even you must realize how futile it is."

"Not exactly, Plasma," Lone said. "Artemis, have every single ship in orbit target him with their weapons. If they have any, make sure they fire their equivalent of armor piercing ammo."

"On it, Lone. Don't see why that type specifically, but on it."

"What are you planning, Lone," Shadow whispered.

"Trust me," Lone said.

"What are you waiting for, Lone Shadow," Plasma said. "I thought you wished to kill me!"

"I do, Plasma. I'm just waiting for something."

"And what might that be?" Plasma said as a loud thunder clap could be heard.

"That," Lone said as a single MAC round made it's way to Plasma. It hit him in the chest, and penetrated his armor, though the wound was quickly healed. As soon as it impacted, Lone said, "Get out of here, guys," to Luna and the others, excluding Fear, Shadow, and Chaos. "This is a fight our ancestor started, and we're going to finish it."

"Lone, I said it before:I'm not leaving you," Luna said. "None of us are."

"Luna, you need to get out of here. All of you do. This may very well result in our deaths," Lone said, referring to himself, Shadow, Fear, and Chaos, "and I don't want you or anyone else killed by what might happen. I won't stand down on this."

"Fine," Luna said, tearing up under her helmet as she pulled Lone into a hug, which he returned. "Just make sure to come back."

"I will," Lone said, pulling out of the hug. "I promise."

He, his brother, and their dark sides, then flew off to fight Plasma, but not before Luna whispered to herself, "Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it.

With that, Luna and the others, not wanting to, flew back down to help the armies with clean up.

"You sure about this, Lone?" Shadow asked.

"Not really."

"Great," Chaos said sarcastically.

As they neared, Plasma, what appeared to be silver rain began to fall from they sky, but the explosions that popped up when they hit the ground said other wise. The four thestralicorns(1) were able to avoid the few that came close to them with ease, while Plasma, though he was able to redirect a very large portion of the shots, was unable to due to his size, but he made up for it by projecting a shield over himself. "We need to break his concentration," Lone said, urgency in his voice

"How?" Shadow asked

"Aim for his body in general with small injuries. If we can make him lose enough blood, he'll get light headed, and get filled with holes."

"Right," Shadow said, with Fear and Chaos nodding. "So his legs?"

"Bingo."

With that, the four of them angled downward until they were level with Plasma's lower legs, which would give them clear cutting lines on the arteries in that area, as well as the bones. Before they could get close, though, there was an explosion that knocked them to the ground, knocking their helmets off.

As Lone got up, he grimaced in pain and coughed, which simply enhanced the pain. "You guys all right?" he asked.

"We're alive," Fear said.

"Good," a voice that belonged to Plasma said as he walked out of the dust cloud from the explosion in his human form. "That means I can kill you all myself."

Lone and the others, their armor missing parts and scorched got up off the ground, their weapons in their hands. "If that's the case, Plasma, I hope you have a shit ton of blood in your system, because you're going to need it," Lone said, coughing up blood at the end.

"I doubt it," Plasma said. "Even I can tell that you have internal bleeding and fractured ribs. You will not survive long."

Lone chuckled, despite the pain in his chest, then broke out into a full on laugh. "You think just because we die, that will mean the end of the uprising, Plasma?" he said. "It won't. We'll become martyrs for the survivors, inspiring them to continue the fight, even if we lose. Even if you kill us, Metamorpha, and the others who wield an Element, it won't matter, because a great sacrifice inspires Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and those five make Magic, literally. If you do kill all of us, others will rise against you, become the new bearers, and defeat you." Lone stood straight, his sword pointed to Plasma. "But it won't come to that, because we will defeat you here and now, even if we die in the process. You won't bring another universe to it's knees again. That, I will make sure of." Lone then dropped his sword, letting it fall to the ground, and moved his arm to his thigh, where a single energy sword hilt lay. He drew it and activated the blade, the three colors seeming to shine brighter. He raised his arm up, and put his elbow in his left hand. "One last duel, Plasma. One on One, with only a single sword. No magic, no special abilities other then flight. Just ourselves."

After a few seconds of silence, Plasma said, "Very well," allowing the sword in his left to fall to the ground. "I will honor your last request, Lone Shadow. Fell honored, because this will be the only time I do so for any of my enemies."

"On that, we can agree," Lone said.

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Lone and Plasma closed the gap between themselves, and lunged. Their swords met in the middle with a glorious, multi-colored shower of sparks. Lone put pressure into his hand, causing him and Plasma to lock their blades. "You are much more resiliant then I would have expected, Lone Shadow," Plasma said. "I did not think you still had this amount of strength in you."

"You'd be surprised what we sapients can do when we have something to protect," Lone said, thinking back to Luna. (00:41)"And I have a lot to protect."

Lone punched Plasma in his face with his left hand, causing him to stagger back and releasing Lone's sword, which allowed him to create a tornado of strikes. It was a slow one, but it allowed Lone to keep Plasma on the defensive. On the tenth swipe, Plasma retaliated before the eleventh could be delivered, and gave Lone a large cut on his torso, just blow the ribs.

Lone then walked back, holding the fresh cut in his left hand with his energy sword raised, while Plasma strode forward. Once he was close, Plasma tried to deliver a decapitating blow with his sword, but Lone blocked it, holding his sword to where it pointed to the sky, determination in his eyes. He then pushed his sword to the left, pushing Plasma's sword to the left, and delivered his own strike on Plasma's waist, cutting into the bone, the wound cauterized from the heat of the plasma.

"Impressive," Plasma said. "None have hit me in a sword duel before. Not even your namesake did so." Plasma smiled. "It still does you no good, as you allowed flight," he said as demonic wings sprouted from his back, and he took flight, Lone following behind him, despite the pain. When they were as high as the castle in the background, a good five stories, they stopped, and faced one another yet again.

In the fields below, Plasma's army had been defeated, Lone's third and second guess both being true to a degree, and all looked at the two combatants. All had seen the explosion, as well as who had been in the range of it, and they knew Lone was badly injured, but those who could cast healing spells were too far away to do so. "Come on, Lone," Luna whispered, putting all her hope and love for Lone behind those words. "I know you can win this."

Lone coughed up more blood his teeth stained red. He still smiled, though. "Come on, Plasma. It's time we finished this."

"Agreed." With that, the two rushed each other, and delivered a single slice, and a roar of pain rang out. An arm fell to the ground far below, blood spilling from it's previous owner.

"AGHHHHH!" Lone screamed as his arm was cut off.

"Die," Plasma said in a cold voice before he punched Lone back down to the ground, a crater appearing upon impact. Plasma hovered down to the crater, landing in front of Lone. He took Lone's neck in his hand, as well as his arm and weapon as trophies in his other, and made his way to the top of the crater rim, so that all could see his victory. Upon reaching the rim, he held Lone up so that everyone could see. "No," Luna whispered in despair.

"This is the only one of you who stood a chance against me, and he has failed, and you will all see the punishment for treason, and then you will submit to me," Plasma said as he let Lone's severed arm fall, and took his energy sword in his own hands, and activated it. Lone was struggling to stay awake now, both from blood loss and the trauma the fight had given him, but he still saw Plasma raise the energy sword.

He closed his eyes, and waited for it to come down. But then, he heard a yell from the one who had his heart

"LONE!! WAKE UP!!" Luna yelled.

Lone's eyes jolted open, and just as the sword fell, he grabbed Plasma's wrist with his one remaining hand. "Nice try," he said before he forced Plasma's wrist down, the adrenaline in his system giving Lone enough strength. He then kicked Plasma in the chest with enough force that a might and resounding crack could be heard, and Plasma let go of both Lone and the energy sword, which Lone caught in his hand, and fell down the crater, right next to his sword.

Plasma took hold of his sword and got up just in time to see Lone closing in on him, the energy sword to his side. When he was close, Plasma sliced horizontally, and time seemed to slow down. Lone bent down, avoiding the sword, and pushed up, his gaunleted arm pushing up on the blade, causing it to point to the sky. Just as Plasma was recovering, Lone spun around, and pointed his sword forward. Just as he completed the three-sixty, he thrust his sword forward through Plasma's chest. He pulled closer. "That's for corrupting Luna." He then ripped the sword upwards, the blades exiting from Plasma's head, blood leaking out. Lone kick the corpse with his leg, causing it to fall to the ground, what was left of it's face looking at the sky. "That's to make sure you're dead," Lone said with a smile, coughing up more blood. He then fell to his knees, his left arm going limp and his sword falling to the ground deactivated. He then fell to his back. He looked up at the sky, and smiled again.

"Lone, hold on," he distantly heard, his vision becoming narrow. "The medics are on their way."

The last thing Lone saw was Luna's face, much the same as it was before her transformation, looking at him with concern. Then darkness enveloped him.

Recovery/The Nexus

Lone was in a space between life and death. The last thing he remembered was running Plasma through with an energy sword, and Luna telling him to hold on, that medics were on the way. This gave Lone two guesses: he was either dead, or in some kind of coma. Regardless, he began to think over everything he had done. Well, there's the fact I killed Plasma. Hopefully, anyway. No telling with him. Too bad I wasn't able to say goodbye to Luna. If I am dead, I hope she found somepony, or, rather, someone, given the hopeful circumstances I left Equis with.

If Lone had a face, he would have smiled. For he couldn't feel anything, not at first. After what felt like hours, the dark he was in began to light up, and he began to hear a steady beep, like a heart monitor. Slowly, he began to feel something on what felt like his left.

To his amazement, when he tried to open his eyes, he did, but quickly closed them due to the fact his eyes needed time to adjust to the light. When they finally did, he opened his eyes, and was met with a view of a crystal ceiling. He looked over to his left, and, to his joy, he saw Luna sleeping on his arm. He just smiled, and let her sleep, though he did drum his fingers on what he guessed was a bed. He waited for over an hour, well below his threshold with Luna by his side, before a nurse came in.

To Lone's amazement, it was an ODST wearing a dark blue armor. His helmet had two green fangs under the visor. On his left arm was a dragon tattoo Dawson looked up from the data pad, one noticeably like those from the citadel fleet used, and saw Lone sitting up.

Lone shook his head, and motioned to Luna, to which Dawson nodded. Lone shook his arm a little, to which Luna jumped awake to instantly and looked at Lone. "Hey, Luna," he said.

Luna took Lone in the biggest hug he had ever known, crying in joy as she did so. "Lone, I thought I had lost you again."

"Why? You know me, Luna," he said, using his arm to push Luna so he could look at her face. "When I make a promise. . ."

". . . You keep it," Luna smiled. "I missed you, Lone."

"Me too, Luna," Lone said hugging her. They released from the embrace, and Lone looked at Dawson. "If I can ask, who are you?"

"Dawson Stubel, sir," he said with a salute. "I was assigned to look after you. I got some medical training under Ken, and they, as well as Princess Celestia, asked I look after you."

"At ease, Dawson, and don't call me sir," Lone said. "Just how long has it been?"

Dawson shrugged. "A week. Everyone figured you'd be out longer due to the blood loss. Of course, that's going after previous similarities with other humanoid races, and not other ponies."

"Can't believe that it's been a week," Lone said. "So, what's been going on in that time?"

"A lot," Luna said. "Admiral Hood and Admiral Smith came down to see how we had fared, and Celestia and I were able to come to an agreement with them, or at least, a temporary one until all of the leaders still alive can come together to make one, including you, Lone."

"Why? Lone team is a shadow group; officially, I don't exist."

"Actually," Dawson said. "According to reports from your changeling friends, when that huge orb of energy encompassed the entire planet, along with the anatomical changes, what a few called a scrying spell appeared, and it showed the whole fight from that point, including your, if I may say, fucking badass one on one."

"Thanks, Dawson," Lone said. "What exactly is the damage to me?"

"Not a lot permanent. With X-rays and healing spells, we were able to heal your ribs." He paused. "The one thing, we weren't able to fix, though, was your arm. We weren't able to get it fast enough, and, well, we had to improvise."

"How?"

"Look," Luna said.

Lone looked at her in uncertainly, and when she nodded, he took a deep breath, and looked at where his right arm was, and was actually met with an amazing sight. Where his arm ha been cut off just below the shoulder, there was the base of a metal arm, and, as far as he could tell, it was the same as the one that belonged to a Spartan he had met while in the Nexus. The difference was that it was colored black and red, the bottom below the equivalent of an elbow being the red. He tried to bring it up, and was impressed at how much it was like his organic arm. He made a fist with it, and released it. He repeated it for a few times until he was satisfied with it.

"So, what do you think?" Dawson asked.

"I like it," Lone said with a smile.

"As do I," Luna said.

Lone went to get out of the bed, but Dawson stopped him. "I wouldn't recommend that yet, Lone," he said. "If so, I'd go slowly. Your legs are probably a little weak from the week of bed rest."

Lone nodded. As he got off the bed slowly, he asked, "Where am I, anyway?"

"You're in Twilight's castle, Lone," Luna said. "Strangely enough, it, and every other building as far as we can tell, grew with that explosion that revealed you as the Element of Sacrifice."

"Well, that's another thing to add on my list," Lone said as he stood up for the first time in a week. Even with the hospital gown on, Lone still looked like a guy you wouldn't want to mess with. His arms were well muscled, and he also had a scar that just avoided removing his right eye. It started just below his scalp, and ended just below the eye. His wings, which, when folded, looked like pegasus wings, showed that he was some one of importance.

"Damn," Dawson said. "Even with that hospital gown on, I wouldn't want to run into you in a dark alley."

"Me neither," Luna said with a giggle as she too stood up. Lone got his first good look at her new outfit. It was, actually, more on the casual side, a pair of jeans that seemed to fit her just right, as well as a black T-shirt that had what Lone could only assume was now a famous symbol on it. The same symbol as Ken's lone team.

"What's with the casual look, Luna," Lone asked. "And can I please get some actual clothes here?!"

"On it," Dawson said as he stepped out of the room.

"Well, Lone," Luna said as she moved to his front, "That's one thing you actually brought about with out meaning to, namely the fact you were a leader, one better then Celestia or I, because you didn't see yourself, nor did you ever want to be, a leader, and you simply acted like you, and not someone else."

"I noticed you said someone, and not pony, Luna."

"Something needed with how the future is looking. Regardless, it was decided a day after the battle, when ponies, changelings, and even griffons, and we suspect most other quadruped species on Equis, found out that, with all the other changes, our homes had clothes in them, and when we learned that our usual amount of clothing, which is to say none, wasn't exactly legal. So, Celestia, Chrysalis, myself, and the other leaders decided we'd follow your example and mix it with the new norm, and wear clothes ordinary ponies would. It seems to be working. Plus," she said with smile. "much more comfortable than a dress."

"I can imagine," Lone said with a chuckle. "How are Nightmare and Solar, anyway?"

"Well, surprisingly, given their past history. I suppose the fact they heled you helped them as well." She took on a more serious look. "I'd still like to know how Solar and Celestia are separate."

"Yeah, me too," Lone said. "Same with Fear and me, as well as Chaos and Shadow."

"You don't know," Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, but, I have an idea as to who does."

"Who?"

"An old friend I hope to introduce you and the other to soon," Lone said with a chuckle as Dawson came back in, this time carrying what could be guessed as Lone's clothing.

"Here you go, Lone," Dawson said before leaving again.

Lone looked at Luna as he took them. "You aren't gonna leave?"

Luna giggled. "Why? We are in a relationship, and I'm simply going to see all of you eventually, so why not now?"

Lone rolled his eyes. "Fair point, I guess." He took off his hospital gown, and quickly donned his new clothes, which mirrored Luna's, but his shirt had a crescent moon on it.. "Okay, why sleeves? It's not that cold. Same with the lack of wing holes?"

Luna rubbed the back of her head. "The sleeves are meant to hide your arm, and the same goes for the wings."

"No," Lone said before he lit his horn, creating wing holes in the back and removing the sleeves, revealing his two different arms. He flexed both sets of muscles before saying, "Better."

"But Lone-"

"Luna, they're a part of me, and I won't hide them, even if ponies shun and ridicule me for it."

"It's. . . not that," Luna admitted. "You see, both because of your deeds, the few all know of, and your new wings, Celestia, Metamorpha, Cadence, and I decided that you, Shadow, Fear, Chaos, and even Nightmare and Solar, were to have a coronation, effectively making you all royalty."

"Let me guess: you didn't tell me because I never wanted to be a leader?"

"Yes," Luna said with a sheepish smile.

"Luna, if it meant spending the rest of my life with you, I would die, which I have, by the way, so I think I can take it as long as you're there, as my princess."

Luna blushed. "Now, come on," Lone said, taking Luna's hand in his, "I think it's time I saw how Ponyville is doing."

Lone and Luna stepped outside the castle, and were greeted with both a sad, but also inspirational, sight.

On the one ho-hand- the town was practically destroyed. Multiple buildings were destroyed, little more then their foundation. In fact, you could see clearly to where Chitinia's home and business once stood. Yeah, Carousal Boutique was destroyed.

On the other, the two saw ponies, humans, and every other race, even some krogan, working to rebuild the town. "So, shall we go?" Lone asked, offering his left arm to Luna.

"Let's," Luna said, taking his arm, and the two made their way to what was still standing of the town.

When they reached they had reached where the furthest buildings, excluding the castle, had been built, they ran into Nightengale, wearing UNSC fatigues and Octavia, wearing a beige, knee length skirt and a gray shirt.

"Lone, you're up?" Octavia said when she saw the two, and both Lone and Luna noticed that she was holding Nightengale's hand.

"Hey, guys," Lone said, raising his robotic arm in greeting. "How are you guys doing?"

"Better, knowing you're up and about," Nightengale said. "Like the arm, by the way."

"Thanks," Lone said, flexing the fingers on the arm. "So, what's the story with you two?"

Both of them blushed a little. "We kinda started dating a few days ago," Nightengale said.

"Yeah. I kinda told him I had feelings for him, and he offered to take me out that night. We've been together ever since then," Octavia said.

"Well, I'm certain I speak for Lone and myself," Luna said, "when I say we feel happy for you."

"Yeah, good luck guys," Lone said.

"Thanks," Octavia said as the two of them began to walk away.

"So, where to next," Lone asked.

"Well, I think Celestia and a few of the others are at Sugarcube corner," Luna said.

"Then that's where we're going," Lone said, and the two made their way to the bakery.

On the way, they passed multiple groups of varying make-up. The one constant, though, was that they all stopped what they were doing and stared at the two, and Lone would swear they were staring at him. When they reached the entrance to Sugarcube corner, they turned around, and there were multiple individuals behind them. The one in the lead, a dragon, N, Lone recognized, stepped forward, and began to clap slowly. Another took up the clap, and another, until the entire crowd was clapping. Lone raised his robotic hand, and the clapping simply intensified. "Go inside," he whispered to Luna. "I'll meet you an the others inside."

Luna nodded, and went inside. "Quiet, everyone, please," Lone said, and the clapping slowly stopped. "I have a feeling this is what I did last week, and though I appreciate the fact all of you are grateful, I just have one thing to say: I only did what any of you would have done, and I didn't do it alone. I'm just a normal pony who did the right thing when it mattered the most. Nothing more, nothing less. As for the whole universe uniting thing, I'll address that with whatever leaders decide to come here for negotiations. Until then, let's focus on repairs, huh?"

This got a small laugh from the crowd, and it dispersed.

When it was fully gone, Lone just shook his head with a small smile, and went inside the bakery.

When he entered, he saw Luna sitting with Celestia, Shadow, Nightmare, Solar, Fear, and Chaos.

"Hey, guys," Lone said, taking a seat.

"Just fine, Lone," Shadow said. "Fear, Chaos, and I got out of the infirmary a few days before you, in case you were wondering."

"I was," Lone said before looking to Solar and Nightmare. "But what about you two? I mean, Nightmare, you did try to bring eternal night, and you, Solar, were one of Plasma's enforcers. I know neither of you are like that now, but others may not."

"Surprisingly well," Nightmare said. "It seems the fact we helped you guys kill our asshole of a father helped."

"That," Fear said, "and the fact Chaos and I threatened to beat the faces in of any who tried to harm them."

"Actually did it, too," Chaos said. "Some bitch unicorn. I think her name was Trixie or something."

This got chuckles from Lone and the others except Luna and Celestia. "Why?"

"Because she was threatening to, what was it, Fear," Chaos asked. "Oh yeah. 'Turn them into basket balls and tie them to the windmill'. Seriously, she was saying to two alicorns, who have thestralicorns as stallionfriends. How stupid was she?"

"Apparently very stupid," Shadow said. "So, what do you plan on doing next," he said to Lone and Luna.

"Well, I do want to see what Metamorpha and the others have been up to in the last week," Lone said.

"A lot, actually," Celestia said. "I even hear that she and John are even dating."

"Really," Lone asked.

"We're just as surprised as you," Solar said, "but it isn't the real surprise."

"Then what is?"

"Us," Lone heard behind him, only to see Cadence and Chrysalis. Holding hands.

"Yeah, I'd say that's pretty unexpected," Lone said. "So, how are you two doing, aside from the obvious?"

"Good," Chrysalis said. "And you're out on your feet, hooves, whatever."

"Yeah. So, how did this happen," Lone said, gesturing to the two of them

"Well, I was actually injured by one of Plasma's soldiers," Cadence said, "and Chrysalis used her magic to heal me, but it kinda needed us to look at each other memories. It was actually then that she had always, well-"

"I always had a crush on her since the wedding, and she actually had one on me since then as well," Chrysalis finished.

"Well, I feel happy for the both of you," Lone said as Mrs Cake came over.

"Hello, princesses," she said in her usual cheerful tone. "What can I get for you?" She then saw Lone and she nearly jumped in surprise. "Oh! I didn't see you there, Lone. What do you and the others want?"

"I just want a milkshake," Lone said, and so did the others, albeit with varied flavors.

"Got it," Mrs Cake said as she finished and went to the counter where her husband was.

"You know, ponies sure taking the whole 'new body' thing well," Nightmare said.

"I think that may be due to the fact that's how ponies originally were, and our subconscious minds retained the knowledge," Lone said.

"Yeah, I think I remember Harmony saying something similar," Shadow said.

"Okay, why is it you all refer to Harmony as an actual, living being?" Solar asked. "She's but an abstract concept."

"I take offense to that remark," Discord said as he popped into existence. "If that were the case, then how is it I'm here?"

"He does have a fair point, sister," Nightmare said before turning to face the mismatched creature. I'm only saying that because I can't spell your species name, Discord.

"Fair enough. Can't believe I said that," Discord said. He shrugged, saying, Regardless, I came here to let Lone and Shadow know that the tournament registrations are up, and you two may want to hurry up to get in."

"What tournament?" Luna asked.

"Think it's time, Shadow?" Lone asked, looking at his brother, who nodded.

"Yeah. Mind getting the others, Discord. Metamorpha's castle."

"Right," Discord said before disappearing, only to reappear behind Lone and Luna. "Oh, that reminds me, Lone: only Garrus, Tali, Zaeed, and Kasumi are still on planet from the Shepard, and the same is true for Ken, Maruco, Lily, and John. See ya/" He then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"All in all, not the weirdest conversation I've had with him," Lone said.

"And what would number one be?" Luna asked.

"Me, him, his house, large tatzel worm, poker."

"Yeah, that'd me mine," Celestia said.

"Agreed," Solar said as Mrs Cake returned with their milkshakes.

"Thanks, Mrs Cake," Lone said, getting up. "How much?"

"Oh, nothing, Lone, if only because of what you did for us."

"Right. Thanks for the milkshake," Lone said. "Come on, guys, we should get to Metamorpha's castle."

With that, the ten of them left Sugarcube corner, and made their way to the castle. When they made it to the castle, they entered and made their way to the throne room. The only others there were Nightengale and Octavia. "Hey, guys," Nightengale said. "So, let me guess: Discord let you know about the tournament, and you decided it's about time to tell the others?"

"Yep," Fear said. "Same with you?"

"Yep," Nightengale said.

"So, you don't have any idea as to what's going on either, Octavia?" Chrysalis asked.

"Not one bit," the mare replied. "Any of you?"

"Nope," Solar said. "Well, maybe Nightmare."

It was that moment that all of the others still on the planet appeared in the room in a puff of smoke, a large note saying, "Have fun!"

"I still want to kill him," Maruco said. "So, the Nexus?" he asked, looking at Lone and the others.

"Bingo," Nightengale said as his horn lit, and a portal appeared. "It'll close once we enter it," he said.

"Right," Lone said, nodding, before looking at the others. "Before we go in, any questions?"

"Uh, yeah," Zaeed said. "Just where the fuck are we goin'?"

"In due time, Zaeed," Maruco said. "In due time."

"Any other questions?" Shadow asked, to which there were no replies. "In that case, let's go," he said before he took Celestia's hand and jumped through the portal, dragging Celestia with him.

Everyone else walked through it until Luna, Lone, Metamorpha, and John were left.

"So, I heard you two are together," Lone said.

"Yeah, we are," Metamorpha said with a blush. "So, um, we gonna go through?"

"After you two," Lone said.

"Thanks," Metamorpha said as she and John went through the portal.

"Just us, Luna."

"Yes, I know, but I ma curious as to what this 'Nexus' is, and am most eager to see it."

Lone smiled, and took her hand. "Then let's go," he said, and the two walked through the portal that closed shortly after.

As the last two stepped through the exit end of the portal, they were met with a beautiful sight. They stood in the middle of a massive garden, with silver, curving skyscrapers in the distance. There were few clouds in the bright blue sky. Luna and the others for who it was their first time here simply gazed at the sight, jaws agape, even Zaeed.

"Amazing," Luna said in awe of the sight, and a voice from behind that seven of those assembled recognized.

"I am glad you think so."

They all turned to face the new arrival, and who they saw was Harmony, in the same dress as the day Plasma had been defeated. "Welcome to the Nexus. I am Harmony."

"I can't believe it," Metamorpha said. "Harmony was a living being."

"Indeed I was, Metamorpha," Harmony said with a giggle. "I imagine you all have questions."

"Yeah, we do," Ken said.

"Then perhaps we can help answer those," the Librarian said, coming from behind Harmony.

"Librarian? You're here too?" Lily said.

"Indeed I am," Librarian said. "Perhaps we should start with what the Nexus is, Harmony?"

"Agreed," Harmony said. "What the Nexus is, well, it is essentially a place where universes come together, and where those who had the most impact go when they die. I, as an example, created the Elements, and that earned me a place here."

"And, in the more extreme cases," Librarian said, "those who wish to do good, such as Nightmare Moon."

"Well, that explains a bit," Octavia said, "but what does Nightengale have to do with that?"

"I was a human soldier six years ago," Nightengale said, getting surprised looks from a majority of the group. "More accurately, in case you couldn't tell by my shirt, an ODST. I was KIA on a planet where insurrectionists were in the capital when the leader put a bullet through my brain. I came here, the Librarian offered me a second chance to help others, I took it, and Lone knows the rest of the story."

"WHAT?" Octavia yelled.

"I had to keep it a secret, Tavi. I was ordered to. I would have told you when we started dating a few days ago, but I wasn't certain if I was allowed to!"

"He is correct," Harmony said. "If he had told you anything, we would have had to recall him here as soon as possible, and he wouldn't be able to return."

"The same was true for us," Shadow said.

"The how is it you were able to come back, and stay, when you kept mentioning Harmony," Celestia said.

"Because at that point, you all thought we were talking about the concept," Fear said.

"Uh, Harmony," Lone said. "I actually want to show Luna around, as well as sign up for the tournament."

"Of course, Lone," Harmony said. "If the others wish to as well, just show them where. Librarian and I have other matters to attend to."

With that, Harmony and Librarian disappeared. "Well, come on guys," Lone said. "Sign up sheets are this way, I'll explain the basics on the way."

"Well, care to explain it first," Garrus said as they began to walk.

"Sure," Lone replied. "Basically, it's a tournament between the different residents of the Nexus who have been in combat before, minimum team numbers being three, maximum being ten, and the winning team get's their pick at, really, anything they want. And seeing as how you guys know of the Nexus, that makes you eligible for entry."

"If that is the case," Luna said, "then I wish to be on your team, Lone."

"Then that's six, along with Shadow, Fear, Chaos, myself, and Nightmare. Any one else?"

"I don't see why not," Solar said.

"And me as well, if Shadow's involved," Celestia said.

"Well, seeing as how the others are in, I guess I am as well," Cadence said.

"And if Cadence is in, so am I," Chrysalis said.

"Then I think you'll need this, Chrysi," Lone said as an Element fragment appeared, this one in the shape of a bug, and it hovered in front of Chrysalis. "I figured we'd call the team 'Team Sacrifice', for obvious reasons."

"Thanks, Lone," Chrysalis said, taking the fragment in her hands. "But would you finally explain how you became an alicorn?"

"I guess we should, Lone," Shadow said.

"Agreed," Lone said. "It actually happened a month after we got here."

Two months ago

"So, any idea why she asked for us?" Shadow asked Lone as the two walked through the main science building in the Nexus.

"None," Lone replied. "But whatever it is, it must be important."

"Obviously."

The two continued to walk for ten minutes before they saw Harmony at the end of the hall in front of a double door.

"Harmony, why'd you ask for us?" Shadow asked.

"That is complicated," she said. "Both of you are aware your parents were, are, in a way, a pegasus and earth pony, correct?"

"Yeah," Lone said. "Why?"

"Because you have a much more diverse family then you think. Did you ever wonder what race your grandparents were?"

"A little," Shadow said, shrugging. "What do they have to do with this?"

"Because," Harmony said, opening the door and revealing two cylinders that could hold Lone and Shadow, "the both of you have a very, well, unique heritage. Your fathers father was a thestral, and your mothers mother was a changeling. As such, both of you have the blood of every equine race on Equis."

"Which means we're essentially alicorns already," Lone said. That's the reason I never ascended."

"Actually, Lone, it was because you did not wish to be one that prevented it, as you though, but because there have been no alicorns with thestral DNA, not even Luna and Celestia, and it is unknown what those changes may do. Here, in the Nexus, we can ensure that you will be safe from any, or, at least, the most dangerous, risks, should you wish to become a full alicorn."

"Can we defeat Plasma and save the others without it," Lone asked.

"No. If he hadn't brought Celestia, Luna, and the others into his thrall, maybe, but in order to have a chance at killing Plasma and saving your friends, you will need to become alicorns in the true, physical sense."

The two brothers looked at one another and, as if through a quick and silent discussion, nodded, and turned to face Harmony.

"We'll do it."

Present

"And from there, we entered the capsules, and a week later, we came out with our wings and strength," Shadow said, finishing the story.

"That would explain why your coats have a chitin like sheen to them," Chitinia said.

As the group continued to walk and discuss what had happened with the two brothers in the past three months, two very important beings of the Nexus watched them.

"They are not yet ready, husband," Librarian said.

"I know that, but if we don't tell them now, they'll be blindsided by it when it's too late," the Didact, the Bornstellar Didact, said. "If they learn, then they can at least prepare for it."

"I am aware of that, but still, we do not know for sure if he will reveal himself."

"I am afraid he already has," a third, female, almost artificial, voice said from behind.

The two forerunners turned and faced the speaker. She had a light blue, torn cloak that covered most of the left side of her torso, and her armor had a distinct leathery appearance to it. Her right arm was entirely robotic, her eyes were a blue light, and a fair portion of her face was white.

"Ah, Scout-16, what brings you here," the Didact said.(1)

"The others from the edge of my system have gone dark," she said. "The fact this coincides with both Plasma's death and the death of the moonbreaker means he know, and his coming for vengeance."

"You mean-" the Librarian said, worry and fear creeping into her voice.

"Yes," the Stranger, Scout-16, said. "The Taken king is coming."

As soon as she said this, the Didact was taken back one of his greatest battles, and the final major battle of a war that never should have happened. He was taken back to Charrum Hakkor.

One hundred and ten thousand years ago-Charrum Hakkor

The Didact waled atop a balcony, looking down on a cage that had been enhanced by both ancient human and San-shyuum technology. A precursor timelock. He looked at the device in his hand, barely larger than a toy, thinking of just how a human device could break through Precursor tech.

He activated it, and what the captive told him, he didn't share with any but his wife, and even then, he did not tell the whole, even repressing some of it from himself.

We meet again, young one. I am among the last of those who gave you breath and shape and form, millions of years ago.

I am among the last of those your kind rose up against and thought you had utterly destroyed.

I am Plasma, the last Precursor in this dimension. And as for the question your race asked, 'Are you worthy of the Mantel?'

Our answer is at hand.

And you can not stop us.

The story begins

Chief wasn't sure what was the weirdest part about this mission. It wasn't that he was working along side covenant. No, he had gone on missions with covenant species a lot recently and was used too it. It wasn't the fact they had encountered a new species. The officer who had briefed them said it was a distinct possibility. No, he had decided one of two things were weird about this. Either it was that they were arguing with a blue skinned female who called herself Liara T'soni and her friends, two of which, three including herself, seemed to have telekinesis, or that they were on a world where there were talking horses. Yeah. Probably that last one.

…

The whole thing started about a month ago back on earth. He was called to a briefing for an exploratory mission, or as the rank and file called them, “Lewis and Clark” missions. He was the last one to the briefing room. He sat next to an elite he knew well. The former arbiter of the covenant, Thel Vadam. Probably the only covenant he was relatively comfortable around. Chief wasn't wearing his armor, much as he wanted too. There were also some Spartan-fives, or, more accurately, three. There was a single brute in the room, a head taller than Thel, with green fur. Obviously dyed. There was also a single jackal. It looked familiar, but most jackals looked alike, so he wasn't certain. “Must be important if they have a Kig-yar and Jiralhanae with us,” Thel whispered to Chief. Before Chief could respond, the officer giving the briefing walked in. Chief and the Spartan-fives stood up and at attention.

He looked to be in his mid to late thirties, which could easily mean he was in his late sixties to early seventies. Most people think that while your in cryosleep, you still age. That wasn't the case, though, as the cryo pods freeze you at absolute zero, effectively keeping you at the biological age you are when you step in to one. For example, chronologically, John was forty-seven, but biologically, speaking he was about twenty- five years old, though he didn't look it due to the wrinkles he had due to the stress war tends to put on you.

“At ease, Spartans. My name is Lt. Commander Mathews, and I'll be briefing all of you.” The Spartans sat down and the screen behind the Lt. Commander lit up and what appeared to be statistics scrolled across it. Chief had been to enough of these to tell what they read. They said the planet was similar in size too earth, only slightly smaller than earth, in fact. Similar atmosphere to earth in the 20th century. The only thing of interest was that the bottom said “Structures present, intelligent lifeforms possible.” He wasn't the only one who noticed. One of the Spartan-fives stood up and asked “Sir, the information board says “Intelligent lifeforms possible.” How can we be certain?”

The officer looked a bit annoyed that someone skipped ahead of the schedule. “Well, Ken, we can't be for certain for a multitude of reasons, including the fact they might be forerunner structures. Another reason is that every probe sent, we've lost contact with, which is why the team is the way it is.”

Chief was wondering why a brute was with them. They weren't exactly the most “diplomatic” species, more of a “beat your skull in just for the fun of it” species, but if there was going to be combat, he would rather have one on his side.

“You will also have a squad of ODSTs with you,” Mathews said, surprising the chief, but he kept his mouth shut, as he didn't want to show disrespect. Plus, he had fought alongside ODSTs before. They were a kind of scaled down Spartan, only lacking the modifications Spartans needed to wear the armor that had become a symbol of human strength. The rest of the briefing was what the chief though it would be. “They'll meet you on your ship. I'll give you all time to get too know one another.”

Chief really only paid attention to names and skills during that time. He found out that the brute was, in fact naturally green, that it was a very rare genetic mutation, and that his name was Hades, and ironically, he was selected because of not only his strength, but his diplomatic skills. The jackals name was sawn and was a damn good pilot and was one of the few jackals that was actually loyal to more than his next paycheck. The spartan-fives, he found out were actually paramilitary privateers who worked with the UNSC on missions like this on a regular basis. Though they had no rank, their defacto leader was the one who spoke out earlier, Ken. He had a unique armor combination, his helmet being that of a raider Spartan. He had a scout armor piece for his left shoulder and an air assault shoulder piece on the right. He had a warrior class chest piece, with bulk model greaves and inner plated arm guards. His second in command was a woman named Lily, who like Ken and their heavy weapons expert Maruco, had cyan as her primary color, but unlike Ken, whose secondary color was brick, and Maruco, who had an olive secondary, her secondary was steel black. Her armor was entirely air assault class armor. Maruco's armor was entirely an E.O.D armor set. Chief assumed the secondary was to help them differentiate each others armor from the others until Ken told him that they were only three of their group and each secondary designated what role they had in an op. Given what they were going to be doing, it was obvious what their colors meant. Maruco said that they were going to be using their ship, a frigate called Tip of the Spear.

…

To say the Tip of the spear was a frigate was as huge an understatement as saying that John was a celebrity. It looked like a frigate, except that it had three MAC cannons, three hundred archer missile silos, and to top it off, according to Lily anyway, shields that were almost as strong as the UNSC Infinity, and was as large as a marathon class cruiser. When Sawn remarked this, he said, “It seems Kig-yar aren't the only good ship thieves in the galaxy.”

“We didn't steal it, we got it from the credits we get from jobs and the occasional bit of legal salvage,” Ken replied, almost automatically, which implied he had to say this often. “Though we did have some help from Kig-yar.” This got a chuckle out of Sawn and a slight grin from John.

Just before they docked, a voice that John assumed belonged to their A.I.. “Ken, those ODSTs that were supposed to be coming with us were taken by ONI just before you guys came into sensor range.” “Copy that, Artemis. You know what to do,” Ken replied. “Of course. Wish me luck,” Artemis replied.

Lily, who was in the cockpit of their pelican, said “ Don't worry anyone. We may have the firepower to level Sydney ten times over, but we tend to tell Hood this and he makes sure ONI knows that we could just as easily turn on ONI, not that we would, but it is there.” This comment made John worry a little, simply because Lily mentioned turning on ONI, not that he liked them a lot, but they were still human, if only because they had been born that way.

…

As soon as they docked, John noticed that every console that would have been in the bridge was in the hanger. When he asked Ken about this, Ken replied, “We saw a lot of ships destroyed during the war after their bridge was destroyed in the first salvo of plasma, even if the ships themselves survived the shot itself. Plus, with this not being a UNSC ship, we can have the layout however we like.” At this, he turned to Lily and Maruco. “ Hey, guys, mind showing our guests the layout in person. I need to make sure we'll be ready to lift off when it's time. Maruco, you can show them the armory so long as you don't go overboard with showing them our custom weapons.”

Maruco responded by saying, “Sure Ken. Killjoy,” mumbling that last bit.

…

The walk to the armory was one that took about ten minutes. As Thel and the others were led there, Lily tried to make small talk with everyone. “So Thel, why did you decide to leave the covenant, or at least step down as arbiter,” she asked, scaring Thel a bit as he didn't see her right there. But she asked a legitimate question. Why had he stepped down as the arbiter? “Honestly, Lily. I wanted to make a difference more directly than the arbiter ever did. Even then, so many people recognize me, it's like I can't get away from that title.” Lily thought about that then said, “ I suppose that makes sense.” She then turned towards Hades and asked, “So Hades, what's your story? Why exactly were you chosen for the mission, especially given the tension between your people and the Sangheili?” Hades had an almost amused smile on his face just before he answered.

“Well, unlike a lot of my kin, I didn't look at only physical strength to determine who my commander should be. I looked at the tactics they employed, and with those, the causality rates of those under their command. This got the attention of the prophets, who eventually gave me my own command, though, it was probably just so I wouldn't become a further issue for them. When the great schism came, I was one of the few of my race, relatively speaking, of course, who stayed loyal to the Sangheili, even after the rebellion on Sangheilios shortly after the wars conclusion. I was actually a large part of the group that put down that group and the servants of abiding truth.” If Lily had her helmet off, everyone would see her slack-jawed expression at Hades service record, or at least it's condensed version.

She was able to recover her wits and asked Sawn the same thing. “About the same thing as Hades really, with out the prophets wanting to see me of course, but still,” he replied. Just before she could say any thing else, Maruco, who was leading them, stopped and turned around tho face the group.

“Okay, before we go in, some ground rules. One: you are not to touch any of the weapons without my permission. Two, and this is also the last: If one of you jackasses touches Honest AJ, I will make you wish that the war was still going on and you were bleeding out!” Lily rolled her eyes at this, knowing he was referring to his DMR. She turned off her armors external speakers and opened a com channel to the ships other AI. I still can't believe that we got enough reactor components to be able to make a reactor that can power our ship and two AIs without going critical.

“Apollo, you there?” The AI, who wore an ancient Greek tunic and carried a lyre (or was it a harp?) was basically a male version of Artemis, who had a similar outfit, but had a bow and arrow instead of a musical instrument, replied almost immediately in his trademark voice that had a bit of self confidence in it.

“Yes, Lily. What do you need,” he asked, sounding annoyed. “ Think you can get Maruco's theme song going,” she asked. Almost immediately, the one song she and Ken thought described Maruco perfectly started playing.

Youtube Video

The look on everyone elses faces showed that they had no idea what was going on. “We all have a song that the others think describes our personality well. This is what me and Ken think describe our weapon master perfectly.” At this, Maruco flicked Lily off and opened the door into the armory.

…

While the others were getting a tour of the ship, Ken was in the hanger/bridge making sure that the ship was ready for take off. He was in the process of making sure the engines were ready when Artemis came in over his com.

“Ken, our benefactor just contacted me. She said that when we get to that planet, there are going to be native life. Sentient life. I asked how she knew, but she just said that we will find out in due time. What she did tell me, though, is that an old enemy of ours is probably going to be making an appearance.”

“Any idea who she means Artemis? She knows as well as I do that we have no shortage of old enemies,” Ken said, though he had a pretty good idea as to who it was if the person who told him about it and introduced him to Lily and Maruco contacted one of their AIs. “Actually, scratch that. I don't want to know.”

“Right. By the way, I just got talking to Hood. He says that we can destroy any ONI facilities we might find between the end of this mission and the start of the next and not expect there to be a lot of FLEETCOM after our asses, so long as they aren't doing anything Hood would approve of. Also, the ships ready to take off. I'll let the crew know so they can get to sleep,” Artemis said, a hint of confidence in her voice.

“Right. Guess it wouldn't hurt for me to get some shuteye, either. Let me know if any thing bad happens. And no, that dosn't include Maruco sleep walking to get his DMR. That's to be recorded at his expense for everyone else's entertainment.”

…

John was in his bed a few hours later, but his dreams were anything but calming.

What he saw amazed him. What he saw was a large hallway that was tall enough to hold a pelican standing on its wing. He also saw stained glass window panel, though he could not make out what was on them.

“Quite spectacular, isn't it,” a voice said behind him. John looked behind him to see what could only be described as an ONI project gone wrong. He saw an animal with a dragon like body, whose arms were from different animals. His, and John knew it was a he from the voice, head was that of a horse and had two horns on it. John could also see what looked like wings on his back.

Jumping into his training, John immediately assumed a combat position. “What the hell are you,” he asked. The strange creature only laughed at this.

“I can't tell you who I am, much as I would like to. To answer the question already forming in your mind, you are in your own mind, inside a dream I created for the purpose of talking with you.” The creature than snapped his claws on his more eagle talon like hand, and the scenery vanished, to be replaced by a dark room, one that reminded John of where he first encountered the flood on Halo. “I don't have much time, so you'll have to listen closely. The mission you and your crew mates are on is just a front to get you to the planet I live on so you can be killed. I can say that won't happen when you first encounter the others who live here, though I recommend that you don't, oh, what's the expression, 'Shoot first, ask questions later,'. Regardless, those you meet on the planet will become your allies in a new fight that would make your most recent mission of galactic proportions look like a border skirmish where everyone was injured, if only due to the amount of people it will affect. It may not be a bloody battle, but it will only be a battle. The war will be the bloodiest you have ever known.”

At this, the creature began to disappear, but before it could fully, it gave but one more bit of advice. “Trust your heart.” What John thought the thing meant, he had no idea. He did know that, just from its tone, the creature was deadly serious, which scared John a little. Something worse than the Didact. How is that even possible he thought to himself. He then woke up to an alarm on the Spear.

Explanations, answers, and even more mysteries

John's head was throbbing. The last thing he remembered was Lily alerting him and the others as to ten unknown contacts before he had been knocked unconscious. When he brought his hand up to his head to rub it to remove what disorientation he could, he discovered that his helmet was already off. He was immediately jolted awake and looked around the room. What he saw surprised him.

What he saw was what looked like an old, medieval dungeon, complete with wooden door with iron bars. He also saw ten humans standing, talking with one another. He recognized Ken, Lily, and Maruco due to their armor coloring, but the other seven John didn't recognize.

One of the people John didn't recognize, a woman in a grey and black, skin-tight outfit, tapped Ken on the arm and gestured towards John. This got everyone's attention, and they turned as well. Ken, Lily, Maruco, and a man in yellow and silver armor with a lot of scars on his face and what appeared to be a glass eye in his right eye socket walked over to John.

John could see that Ken and the others didn't have their helmets on. Ken was Caucasian, with close cropped hair and gray eyes, not exactly what one would call handsome. Lily looked a lot like Linda, a Spartan-II that John knew well, seeing as how they were among the last of the Spartan-IIs. She had red hair and green eyes. She had a youthful appearance in her face, almost like she was having fun with this. Maruco, though, looked like John's oldest friend, Sam, a Spartan-II that died during the Spartans first engagement with the Covenant. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. He was average looking, like Ken in every other aspect.

"John, good to see you're finally awake," Ken said, a smile on his face. He brought out his hand to help John off the cot he was on.

Wait a minute. How did that not collapse from my weight? he thought to himself.

This is Zaeed, in case you wondering who he is," Lily said, gesturing to the guy with the scars and glass eye.

"Pleasure to Meet you, John. Your friends told me and the others as to what you've done," he said, holding his hand out for shaking, which John took. "May I just say: Goddamn, the shit you've done out paces the stuff we've done, but only fuckin' barely," Zaeed said, a grin on his face.

"Oh, really," Maruco said. "Well, care to enlighten us as to that shit, Zaeed?"

"Yeah, yeah. Later. Right now, I think we should introduce your friend to the others."

"Agreed," Ken said, nodding.

After that, the others introduced John to the others in the room, starting with Ashley Williams, a standard height, brunette Caucasian who wore blue, flowing armor, followed by James Vega, a Hispanic man in black-grey armor with a Mohawk cut in his black hair. The next was a Caucasian woman in a black and white skin-tight suit whose black hair reached her shoulders. Her name was Miranda Lawson.

The woman after her wore, in terms of actual clothes, wore only a biker jacket, wearing body armor underneath. She had a small pony tail and only a little amount of hair on her head. Her name, or at least all John got, was Jack. Both her and Miranda were biotics, which, according to Ken, who had been told by Miranda, was basically someone who could control dark energy with their mind. There was another biotic with them who went by the name Jacob Taylor. He was an African-American with short hair and wore a black and silver bodysuit.

The next was the one who had let Ken and the others know John was awake. She looked of Asian descent, with a streak of purple under her lower lip going to her chin. She wore a hood, so John wasn't able to get a good look at the rest of her face, but he did get that her name was Kasumi Goto.

John was, personally, surprised that there was a full military that he didn't know about, as well as other aliens, but when they said that they got here via a wormhole, it made sense for John, at least.

In return, John, Ken, Lily, and Maruco told them about the non-classified tech of their military, as well as the covenants. When they got to the part about slipspace, Ashley said, "Wait. So, you're saying you guys are able to go faster than light, so long as your ships have enough fuel?"

Ken shrugged, responding, "Yeah. Don't you?"

Miranda shook her head. "No. The drives we use have to be discharged after a certain amount of time, so they don't burn out and kill everyone aboard the ship."

"Jesus, talk about a safety issue," Maruco exclaimed. "And your weapons fire what are essentially sand grain-sized pieces of metal at who knows how fast speeds, using something called 'Mass Effect'?"

James nodded. "Yeah."

"Don't forget construction," Kasumi added.

Maruco looked at the others from the Spear and said, "You guys realize what the UNSC could do with just the construction part of that? The fleet could be back at full strength in no time."

Ken looked down to the floor, his hand on his chin. "Yeah, but think of what the insurrectionists could do with the weapons part of the tech."

"Fair point," Lily said.

It was then John brought up a point that had been bugging him. "Shouldn't we try to get out of here?"

Maruco looked at him, saying, "Tried already. Something strengthened the door, and everything in this room, really, including the cots. Can't punch through it or body check it. I tried both. Damn near knocked out again because of it."

"What he means," Ken said, holding up a hand, "is that the field works a lot like a covenant one-way shield, only more force for whoever touches the exit side. And yes, we've ruled out biotics."

Ken then went up close to the door and pulled a dagger out of the hidden compartment in his left forearm and threw it against the door. When it hit, the door had a strange, purple glow to it, the dagger having been forced half way through the wall opposite. "You see, according to what the others told us, all biotics are blue-"

"Not all," Miranda said earning looks from John and the others. "You see, a friend of ours, who was cryogenically frozen for 50,000 years, had green biotics, but I think that was because of his species. But nothing would suggest biotics of this color." She said that last part as she walked closer to the door. She produced what John could only assume was an orb of biotic energy, which was a deep shade of violet, and threw it against the door. The field on the door seemed to absorb the biotic blast, strengthening it.

"Wow," Zaeed said.

"Well," Lily said," I was going to suggest you guys use your biotics to weaken the field so We could pick the lock with our knives, but that's apparently not going to work."

It was then that John could hear something outside the door, as could the others, indicated by them turning towards the door. As far as John could tell, it was someone unlocking the door. When the door opened, surprise and shock was on everyone's faces. The reason why was said perfectly by Zaeed.

"A damn unicorn," he said, his eye twitching, "That's it. I've lost my damn mind."

"You haven't, Zaeed," Jack said. "I think we all have."

Well, regardless of that," Kasumi stated, "I actually think the things kind of cute."

"Me too," Lily agreed.

The others looked at one of the two with looks of disbelief on their faces. "Are you two fucking kidding us?" Maruco asked, his eye twitching in disbelief at their statements.

"No," They both said, crossing their arms.

The pony, who wore bright gold armor and had a white coat and blue mane, cleared his throat to get their attention. They looked towards him again and John could see him almost jump in fear. Almost. He did lose his stoic expression for a second, though he quickly recovered it. "The princesses request to speak with you," he said. Before anyone could respond, a new, scratchy voice spoke up. "And what about us, horse? We're with them, so if your princesses want to speak with them, then we're going with them."

"And there's Sawn," Ken mumbled.

Another voice spoke up then. "Yeah, I have to agree with the giant bird on this one."

"That would be Garrus," James said.

"I told you, Garrus. I'm not a bird. I'm a Kig-yar."

"Hey, I'm just saying that you look like one, alright Sawn."

"Would the both of you please be quiet so I can think," a third, deep voice said.

"And Thel," Maruco said.

The pony turned to his left so he could look at the cell the other three were in.

"The princesses requested these eleven, not you three. You'll meet her in due time."

Ken was the next to speak. "No either all of us go, or the princesses will have to come here themselves, even if just me, Lily, John, and Maruco are the ones to stay here."

"Yeah, and the same goes for us as well," Zaeed said.

The guard seemed to consider this for a few seconds before sighing and saying, "Alright, you win. And before you tell me to unlock all of your friends,three are already with the princesses, and the other three are still unconscious."

Ken held up a hand. "Just unlock the doors to their cells. We'll carry 'em."

The pony shrugged. "Suit yourself."

...

House of Octavia Melody; lone team call sign: classic

lone team meeting regarding alien technology acquired the previous day

Ten minutes earlier:

Octavia was, by all means and ways, having a good day. All things considered, of course.

This was her second year as a member of lone team, as she was recruited shortly after the Canterlot wedding incident by a changeling who had left the hive that attacked Canterlot just before. It was this changeling who had saved her from a pack of invaders before they had been able to drain any love from her, and also the one who was her mentor and was a close friend of hers. She still had her day job, as it was her dream and talent, but she contributed to lone team whenever possible.

Right now, she and a few other members of the team were waiting for Lone Shadow to arrive. The fact that he was the one who called it was amazing in and of itself, as, most of the time, he spent most of his time in the remains of his hometown, so, needless to say, something important was happening.

She was talking with Drawn Bow, another member of lone team who was also in the royal guard, about music, as he had a son with a music related cutie mark, and wanted to know more about the subject so he could relate to his son more, when the doors to the dining room, which was doubling as the meeting room for now, opened and in walked in four ponies, all of whom were instantly recognized.

The first was Nightengale, wearing his guard armor. The second was Observer in his guard disguise. The third was an earth pony stallion with a white coat, black mane and tail, and a blank paper as his cutie mark. Octavia knew this was a disguise, as this was actually the changeling who had saved her. His name, like Observer's, wasn't known, so everypony just called him Messenger. The fourth and final one was Lone Shadow himself, coming in behind the others. He was in his true form. He used his illusion spell only while in the castle so that everypony would think him as a Lunar guard.

Everypony took their seats, with Lone and the others who just walked in at the head of the long dining table that was being used.

"Now, as I'm sure you are all aware," Lone said, "Last night, multiple meteors landed inside the Everfree forest. These weren't meteors, but rather what I assume to be means of transport from space to a planet's surface."

"What are you saying, Lone?" a pony in Lunar guard armor asked.

"What I'm saying is that Equis has made contact with aliens." Just before anypony could say anything, Lone held up a hoof, stopping the questions before they could start. "We were ordered to knock these aliens out if they showed hostile tendencies, which they did, though to wild life and not us. Right now, as far as I know, they are in the castle dungeons, but that's not the reason why I called this meeting."

"Then what is it, Lone?" Octavia asked.

"We recovered weapons that one group of the aliens used. Half of those are currently being looked at by Party animal to see if they can be modified for earth pony and Pegasus use. The rest, we brought with us, though only unicorns will be able to use them."

"So, what's the ETC of the modifications?" another member of the team asked.

Lone shrugged. "Best guess. A week at least. This is Party animal, after all. Until then, we are to watch over the princesses, the Elements, and the aliens. If the Brotherhood knows about this, we can sure as tartarus bet they are going to do something." He then looked to Messenger. "Messenger, get a message to Prince. Tell him I'm going to be coming by soon to see how preparations are coming for his and Scarabs town."

Messenger nodded. A second later, he said, "It's done."

Lone nodded. "Right. Everypony, get to your castle over watch positions, and I think it goes with out saying, 'stick to the shadows.'"

Everypony in the room nodded and got up to leave. Just as Octavia was about to leave, she heard Nightengale say, "Oh, and Octavia. Party animal asked me to tell you hi."

Octavia rolled her eyes, as Vinyl was always trying to get into a relationship with her, and every attempt crashed and burned so spectacularly, just one would rival the sun in brightness, and walked out of the room.

Nightengale shook his head and looked to Lone and the others. "Okay, in all seriousness, who didn't see that coming," he said with a grin.

Canterlot castle throne room; ten minutes later

Hades was waiting in the throne room with Wrex and Grunt, who's race, the Krogan, were incredibly similar to the Jiralhanae, with the rulers of the country he and the others had landed in, for the others.

He was thinking on how they were going to get home when one of the ponies in the room, an orange one who reminded him of Maruco's DMR in color scheme with what the humans called a Stetson hat, walked up to him. "So, Hades. Does y'all's species have farms?"

Hades chuckled a little. "No, Applejack. For the most part, by which I mean all, my species are carnivores, meaning we eat meat. Just consider yourself lucky that I am not one to eat sentient races, so long as they can speak or have enough survival instincts to be considered sentient." This seemed to satisfy, if somewhat unnerve her, and she walked back to where five other ponies were, one of whom was one of the countries leaders.

The door opened not long after, and Ken, John, and everyone else walked. The white pony with wings and a horn, Celestia, raised an eyebrow at the guard and said, "Sergeant, I thought I told you to bring just the humans."

"You did, your Majesty," the guard said. Even at this distance, it was obvious he was shaking in fear. "But they said that either they all came here or, and I quote, 'She's going to get off her fat ass and come see us herself,' and I thought it would just be easier to bring them all here."

"Well," Celestia said, a smile appearing on her face, "they are loyal, and that is indeed a noble virtue."

Ken bowed. "Thank you, your Majesty."

Celestia held up a hoof. "No need for formalities. This is first contact, after all. Plus, of what the guards that brought all of you here to Canterlot, you must be respectable soldiers on your world as well. I see no reason to let formalities be between three parties, each of which is respectable in their own right. And your friends have told me stories about what you've done. and I can honestly say that me, my sister, and everypony else is impressed."

Ken looked a little surprised. "Well then, you have all of us at a disadvantage, as we don't know your name, nor that of your sister or the others."

Celestia brought a hoof to her mouth to suppress a chuckle. "Of course. I am princess Celestia. Regent of the sun and one of three princesses in Equestria." She gestured to Luna. "And this is my sister, Luna. Regent of the moon." Luna nodded. Celestia then gestured towards the others. "And they are the Elements of Harmony." She then introduced each of the bearers. When she got to Applejack, she said, "Howdy." Hades could have sworn he saw Maruco go stiff when she spoke. He decided to question him later.

The groups then began to talk, sharing personal stories. Hades was in the middle of one of his last missions for the Arbiter that stepped up after Thel when the one pony no pony wanted to know walked in.

"Auntie, can I have some money," Blueblood said. "I'm throwing a party, and I need it to be extravagant." He then noticed the others in the room. "Auntie, what are these animals doing here. They should be thrown out and put somewhere that even idiots and uncultured ponies who would make them look civilized live. Perhaps that disgusting Ponyville." Hades saw Rarities, Maruco's, Zaeed's, and Jack's eye twitch, and Hades was feeling insulted as well.

Maruco walked up to him and said, with anger in his voice, "Look, jackass. You may not like us, but if you want to live, I suggest you don't insult a person wearing two tons of power assisted armor who has had mental issues in the past and is strong enough, even with out his armor, to reach down your throat, and rip your guts out through your mouth."

"Get away from me, peasant."

"Do you really want to die, because you are coming close."

"You wouldn't attack a prince in his own castle."

"You sure about that, jackass?"

"How dare you call me a donkey. Only a peasant would fit that description. Which is to say, all of you."

Marucos eye twitched even faster. He looked to where the others were. "Hey, Rarity, this wouldn't happen to be Blueblood, would it?"

"It is," Rarity said, her voice barely holding in the anger. "Why?"

Maruco then looked towards the guards with spears and pointed to one of them. "Spear, now." The guard he was pointing to gave him his spear, then ran out of the room in fear. "No reason. It's just Jackass season, I got a license, and I see my first kill right in front of me."

He looked to where everyone was standing. "Anyone else want in?" he asked, grinning like a mad man.

"Hell yeah," Jack said.

"It'd be a goddamn pleasure," Zaeed said, cracking his knuckles.

"I'm in," Hades said.

"I'm not one for violence, but Blueblood, for you," Rarity said almost growling the next part, "I'll make an exception.

"Right," Maruco said. He then looked to Blueblood. "I'll give you ten seconds before we chase you down."

Blueblood then gulped and ran out of the room like the devil was on his heels, though he was about to have a pissed off Spartan, an angry Brute, a biotic who could be labeled a psychopath, a mercenary who liked this type of violence, and a unicorn who hated him with every fiber of her being after him, which was about ten thousand times worse.

Ten seconds later, the group of five ran after him, four of which wanted to end his life in the most painful, slowest way possible.

"I give Blueblood a minute, two tops for survival," Ken said.

John looked to Celestia and asked, "You okay with you nephew being tortured?"

"No. He needs to learn that , regardless of his status, there will be those who are willing to put him in his place." She smiled. "Plus, I put a spell on him that protects him from fatal injuries, but not the pain. He just thinks he's just too important for anypony to harm him."

During the hour they were sharing stories, Twilight brought up the Elements, which led to her explaining magic, which is why they aren't asking what it is.

Once the new Blueblood haters club chased after him, Ken asked Celestia, "So where are we going to be staying?"

"I was hoping you would agree to stay in the castle. Most ponies would panic if they discovered aliens were real. If you are to leave the castle, though, you are to leave with Twilight or one of her friends."

Ken nodded. "Right. When they ask where we're from, we'll just say we're from a newly discovered country. No offense, but compared to our tech, you guys are primitive, so I think they'll buy that due to you not having satellites that allow you to map the entire planet."

Twilight seemed a little flustered at that. "What do you mean? Equestria is one of the most technologically advanced countries on the planet," she said with a hint of pride.

"This coming from a princess whose planet doesn't even have actual airplanes," Miranda said.

"Or phones," Jacob said.

"Or nuclear power," Lily said.

"Need we go on?" Ken asked smugly

Twilight comically glared at them, but said, "No."

This got a laugh from everyone and everypony still in the room.

Ken stopped laughing first and looked at Lily. "Hey, Lily, we've been out for a day right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Don't you remember what today is?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Twilight asked.

Lily looked at her as she said, "Just a special, interteam celebration of one of the greatest sci-fi movie series of all time." She paused here for dramatic effect. "Star Wars." She then looked to Ken. "We rotate who picks the song we listen to for the day. This year, it's Ken's turn. Hit it"

Ken brought up his left forearm, which had a tacpad on it and brought up the music directory. He chose the song and it started playing.

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"Happy May the fourth, everyone," Ken exclaimed, spreading his arms out.

The power of Fear

Lone and the others were shocked for two reasons. The first, and smaller one, though just barely, was that Green Mist was planning on reviving Plasma. The second was that Cadence was with him. Right now, Green Mist, Cadence, and Shining, all wearing gloating smiles, looking at Lone and the others.

"Cadence," Luna said, "Why?"

Cadence scoffed before saying, "First of all, it's Mi Amore Cadenza to you traitors. Second, It's as revenge against Celestia, as well as any who are with her. You see, one of my ancestors was, in fact a changeling. My father, in fact. How they he a child with a pony is beyond me, but the gist of it is that he was seen as a threat by the ruler at the time, and Celestia here," she said, glaring a Celestia, "gave the order to kill both my parents, even though they got away. And she kept an eye on me, even separating me from my parents when her troops tried to kill them to ensure that I didn't become a threat. And then there's the fact that she made me an alicorn, which placed a mind control spell on me, though it was dormant, to make sure I didn't turn on her if I found out the truth. It was a few weeks ago that the Brotherhood came here, and it was Green Mist who showed me the truth. After the time it took for me to accept the fact, I renounced Celestia and joined the Brotherhood." As she said this, Lone noticed a glow coming from her sides where her cutie mark was located. "I helped them take control of the Empire shortly after. After that, we've been preparing both for your arrival, and for Plasma's rebirthing, which your friends were so kind to donate their body to."

"And I'm happy to see that Chrysalis is here," Green Mist said. "Now, I can at least come closer to my goal."

"While we," Shining said, "can have revenge on the bug that ruined our wedding, as well as her children."

"But Shining," Metamorpha said, changeing back to Twilight, "it's me, your LSBFF."

"Oh, we know," Cadence said. "Green Mist told us about that last week about your family. I knew there was a reason I didn't like you as much after the wedding."

"Enough talk," Shining said. "Guards, kill them."

It was then a voice recognized spoke up, saying, "I DON'T THINK SO, MOTHERBUCKERS," before a bolt of magic impacted on a group of guards causing an explosion that was seen where the pelicans were. From the hole created, three crystal ponies ran in, and stopped in front of Lone, giving off salutes before facing the guards, swords drawn.

"Good to see you guys again, Radiant," Lone said to the mare directly in front of him. Radiant was a crystal earth pony with an iridescent red coat and blonde mane and tail with a crystal sword as her cutie mark.

"Good to see you too, Lone," she said.

"So," Cadence said, "more traitors."

One of the stallions, a crystal pegasus with a green coat and a blue mane and tail and a sharp dagger as his cutie mark spoke up, "Yeah. What are you going to do, bitch!"

"Heel, Saber," Lone said to the stallion, who's full name was Crystal Saber.

"Yeah, yeah," Saber replied

"So", the third pony, a mare with an iridescent whit coat, a black mane and tail, and a gemstone as her cutie mark said, "that's the crystal princess. Yeah, I don't see it."

Snarling at this, Cadence said, "That's 'Empress' to you, insolent fools."

"Anypony else think she sounds like Blueblood?" Lone said.

"You dare compare me to him," Cadence said, anger being her entire voice.

"Buck yeah we do," Radiance said, a confident grin on her face.

"Kill them!" Cadence yelled before she, Shining, and Green Mist, their captives in tow.

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The circle of guards rushed them, spears and sword out. The first to counter was the third pony, whose name was Opal Shine, who created an ethereal blade, and cut the hafts of the spears of the guards in half, then cut off their heads. After that, it was Saber, who brought a clear saber out of the ground, leaped into the air, and proceed to cut off three guards heads before landing in a the center of a group of then, which he spun around in a circle, decapitating them. "Yippe-Ki-fucking-yay," he said before he took flight, and engaged the other pegasai guards.

Radiant was using her strength to rip the guards weapons from their hooves and magical grasps, and then throwing them back with pinpoint accuracy, always hitting them in the head or neck. The real threat to the guards, though, was Lone. He used his energy sword and magic blasts in equal amount, his sword cleanly cutting off heads, while his shots went through many guards, and always through the heart.

Sawn was using his plasma pistol to great effect, as each shot took one guard out of the fight. Hades was, literally, tearing ponies in half with his bare hands. John and the other Spartans were using their weapons to kill the unicorns that stayed at range. Pinkie and those with biotics were causing explosion all around and covering the others with biotic fields. Garrus, Zaeed, the three changelings, and Applejack were taking care any ponies that came too close and the others missed.

Once enough guards were killed, meaning around one hundred, Lone said, "I'm going after them!"

"You sure about that, Lone," Radiance said while cutting a guard in half with his own blade.

"We need to make sure Plasma doesn't rise, Radiance, and we both know I'm the only one that has a chance at that!"

Nodding, the mare said, "Then good luck, Lone."

"Right," Lone said, then he turned to Ken and said, "Ken, make sure Evac is on their way here."

"Got it," Ken said, shooting down a guard before reaching down to his thigh and tossing Lone an energy sword hilt. "Give 'em hell."

Before Lone could say anything in response, Luna waked up to him and gave him a small kiss, a peck, really, on the lips. "Make sure to come back."

Smiling, Lone said, "I will. You forget. I'm a motherbucking Shadow," before melting into shadows and racing off in the direction Cadence, Shining, and Green Mist had gone off in.

A few minutes later

Lone materialized from the shadows inside the crystal palace to see ten robed members of the Brotherhood in a cricle, Ashley and the others suspended mid-air, in a circle themselves, with Celestia in the middle. Under them was a circle of green flame with runes in it, following the circumference. The robed members were chanting in what Lone instantly recognized as ancient Equish, a language that had died long before Luna and Celestia had taken power.

In a triangle formation around them were Shining Armor, Cadence, both of which now wore ashen gray plate mail armor that rippled, showing how many enchantment had been laid on them, and Green Mist, who wore red and gray armor that covered every inch of his body. They watched the chanters from their positions, their gazes icy, and harsh.

"Before Equis was created," the chanters spoke at once in ancient Equish, "there was a single being. He created worlds, and breathed in life to many races. One day, he created Equis, and gave the ponies the gift of intelligence. He was considered a god.

"Then, one faithful day, years after he created them, the ponies rose up against him with no reason. They united under the banner of Lone Shadow, who struck down the great king.

"Long have we, his faithful followers, searched for ways to revive him, and now, we shall," they said, with Green Mist bringing a small knife from his armor and lowering Ashley and the others down into the runed circle, which seemed to glow brighter the closer they got.

"With these gifts of flesh," he said, "may he regain his body from the void." Ashley and the others touched the flames, and disappeared.

Before they could do anything else, though, Lone tried to rush at them, only to be stopped by a force field. Damn it. He activated his radio and said, "Ken, what's the status of the pelicans?"

"We're getting in now. Where are you?"

"Top floor. Tell Rainbow and Thel to get the missiles ready. We need them to get to Celestia."

"Copy that. We just lifted off. Just let us know when you need them."

"Yesterday!"

"On it."

Shining was next to speak, taking hold of the knife and holding it up to Celestia. He cut her on the left foreleg, saying, "With this sacrament of blood, may he regain the life that was taken from him."

"Cleared hot, Lone. Stand back," Ken said. A second later, he said, "FIRE!!"

The missiles impacted on the wall to Lone's left, creating a large hole, but the force filed shimmered, not breaking.

Looks like there's only one option left, Lone though to himself before lighting his horn.

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In every pony, there is a dark side, one that gives them much more power, though few could access it. Metamorpha had a few times while she was Twilight. Chitinia had been put in one by the inspiration manifestation spell. Luna had become Nightmare Moon. Some would argue that both of the former princesses had control of it, but that wasn't true. Lone was another pony that could access this dark side.

This is what he was doing now.

His body now looked like the black of space, and his mane and tail were now, truly, on fire at the edges. His teeth became more similar to human teeth, some becoming even sharper than the human equivalent. His eyes now resembled those of Nightmare Moon, in the fact they looked like dragon eyes. His build became more muscular, but sleeker as well. This form was called Fear Bringer, and with good reason, as any who survived fighting him, which was rare, never slept well again, and many killed themselves to escape him. There was one difference between Lone and many others who were able to access their dark side, though.

He could control it, but only barely.

Amplifying his voice, which was deeper than before, with a spell, he said, "GET OUT OF HERE, GUYS!! I'LL TAKE CARE OF THIS!!" before he charged his horn, his magic now emerald green, whereas the previous shade was olive green. He sealed the hole in the wall, and fired a shot of magic at Cadence, aiming for her horn. The reason being is that Lone had seen spells like this before, and the last of the three sacrifices always needed the power of the most powerful adherent shot into the center. His shot connected with the force field, but the strength of it was enough for it to pierce it, and the beam flew true, and struck Cadence's horn just as she began to charge for her part.

The alicorn fell down to the floor in pain, and this got the attention of the other two, as well as the chanters. Baring his predator-like teeth in a snarl, Fear said, "If you value your lives, run." To their credit, none of them ran, but rather pulled out their individual swords, Green Mist and Shining Armor both summoning ethereal blades, with the changeling still holding Celestia up.

"KILL HIM!!" Green Mist yelled, pointing his sword at the black unicorn.

In a gravelly voice, Fear, with a pleased smile on his face, said, "So be it."

Fear, remember: Don't kill Shining or Cadence. If what I think is going on here is going on, then they aren't doing this of their free will, Lone said in Fear's head. The two could offer non-verbal input to the other, essentially meaning two minds inhabited a single body, a feat that none thought possible.

Yeah, yeah, Lone. I may be the murderous version of you, but I still have a mind.

Just remember, I can go back to my body at any second, and you have no control over it, and if you do kill them, you aren't coming back out.

Fear rolled his eyes at that, and ignited the energy swords. Instead of the typical blueish-white blades, the swords now had red for the half of each blade closest to the hilt, while the rest was the same shade of red as Lone's highlights. The ten chanters were smarter than the Brotherhood members Lone fought before fleeing Canterlot. This wasn't enough to save the first five, though, as Fear was able to use his magic to crush their windpipes, killing them instantly. He then charged the other five, who were already halfway to him from the circle. He sliced his swords in an 'X' fashion, decapitating two of them. The other three stopped where they were and held their blades up in a blocking pose. Fear simply smirked, and raised pin point crystals out of the floor, impaling them, but not killing them. They withered in pain as Fear walked past them, his face down to the ground, his eyes facing them, the two energy swords out by his sides. Shining ran at him, his sword up, but Fear simply side stepped him and fired a concussive, but non-fatal, blast of magic at him, knocking him out. He then looked to the changeling.

"We both know that I've won this, Mist," Fear said. "Just give up, and I might let you live."

"Never," Green Mist said, and raised his blade to attack before a voice spoke up from behind one of the pillars.

"Mist, you know he's right," Shadow Specter said, walking out from behind his hiding spot.

"What are you doing here?" Green Mist snarled.

"To tell you the Conclave wants you to return. They received word of this from our brothers, and told me to drag you back if I had to. Even they realize this is a failed venture, and that pursuing it at this moment will lead to the death of Plasma before he can return to power. Now, by order of the Conclave, return to the base."

"Fine," Green Mist growled. He looked to Fear and told him, "You are lucky. When we meet next, you will die," before he enveloped himself, Cadence, and Shining Armor in red flames, and they were gone when the flames disappeared. The circle dissipated, and ghostly images of those used for the sacrifice appeared for a second, then vanished. Celestia then fell down before she was caught in Shadow's magic.

"Take her," he said to fear. "I have no quarrel with you, Fear, but Lone, and I would rather face you when your at full strength, even if you can still take me."

"What makes you think I won't kill you now," Fear said.

"Because I know Lone is still in you, and that he won't allow you to kill a non-combatant." He passed Celestia to Fear, then said, "Lone, if you can hear me, the next time we meet, our fates will be decided." He then teleported away to the Brotherhood base, if Fear had to guess.

He changed back to Lone, who then contacted Ken, saying, "Ken, this is Lone. Do you copy?"

"HELL YES!" Ken yelled over the radio. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!?"

"Long story. I'll tell it once I'm with you guys. Where are you anyway?"

"We're in the plaza, under the palace. Look, you might want to get here quick. Luna's extremely worried about you and Celestia."

"Right. I'll get there asap. Be ready to move."

"Got it."

With that, Lone deactivated his radio and took Celestia in his magic, as she was put on the floor when Fear had turned back to Lone, and his magic, strangely, remained emerald green, and, carrying Celestia, went through the remains of the crystal palace, and to the pelican landing zone.

Purging and reunion

It's been ten days since Lone had discovered the truth about cutie marks, and he, John, and Metamorpha were still trying to find the spell that would remove them, or, more accurately, deactivate the nano-machines that caused them to appear, and remove any possibility of Plasma being able to control other ponies, and freeing those that are under his control. The three of them had only one breakthrough, a single sentence in a book of prophecy, of all things, that said, "When the blood of Darkness is brought back together, the way to freedom shall be revealed, and Sacrifice, Trust, Determination, and Acceptance shall protect those who follow them. The path to many worlds revealed, and peace shall flower." It was vague, but they did know that "the blood of darkness" was a reference to the original Lone Shadow's blood line, and Lone was the only one they knew. Lone had said at this point he had a brother that was foalnapped when he was six, and might still be alive, and the only way to free those under Plasma's control was to find him if he was alive.

They were on their tenth day of looking when a spore that Hermit controlled came in to the vault and said, "Lone, we have a development."

"What is it," Lone asked, looking up from his book

"I sense a familiar presence, in that it is very, very similar to yours. I can not see clearly who or what it is, but of what I could tell, they have two minds in a single body, much like how you and Fear share a body. I was able to hear, and he said that he wished to speak with you, and you alone."

"How do I know I can trust him?"

"He says he knows what happened to your brother, and won't say unless he meets with you. I can tell that he's telling the truth."

After five seconds of consideration, Lone said, "Tell him to come to the entrance to the library, but don't let him in." He got up as the spore bobbed down, then back up, indicating a nod, and left. Lone said to John and Metamorpha, "Let the others know, but don't let them come with me," to which they nodded, then set off for the location he had designated.

. . .

Shadow was extremely nervous. It had been ten days since he had A: Discovered the truth of his family, including the fact that his mother was a descendant of Plasma that had become a member of the group he once though of as his enemy, lone team, and B: Had been ordered by the Conclave to hunt down and kill Lone Shadow, his brother. He had left the headquarters of the Brotherhood an hour after, making sure his mental link with Midnight was still active, as she had said that she was fed up with how the Brotherhood acted, and wanted to help him in his personal mission, which was to make sure the Brotherhood was destroyed. She had stayed behind to give him any important information.

Upon leaving the place he once considered home, he had made contact with his own network of intelligence gatherers for anything that might lead him to the location of Lone and the others. It was his sources in Yakyakastan that had given him a solid lead, saying that "two, loud objects in the sky that moved faster than they should were seen going to the north pole', as Yakyakastan was among the northern most countries on the planet. It had taken him an entire week to find the two objects, which were definitely the ships Lone and the others had used to escape from the Empire. He had waited in one of them for an hour before he heard a voice say, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk with Lone Shadow, and only him," Shadow replied.

After a few seconds, the voice replied, "What makes you think he'll speak to you?"

"Tell him I know what happened to his brother."

After a few more seconds, the voice said, "If you would please exit the craft and follow me, You'll be able to speak with Lone Shadow."

Shadow then teleported out of the craft, as he had gotten in the same way, and saw a yellowish speck. "Follow me," it said, and moved to what was Shadow's north.

He followed it for what felt like ten minutes before he saw a rectangular opening in the ground with a staircase leading down. He saw what he was following go down, and, against his better judgement, as well as Chaos' advice, he followed it down into an earthen bunker, where he stood waiting for ten minutes in front of an ancient looking door before he heard it open. He looked to see who was coming through, and saw Lone Shadow, who had a clear glare on his face. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"To help you and the others," Shadow replied. "You have no reason to trust me, I know, but at least hear me out before you say anything, okay?"

"Yeah, but the first topic is what you know about my brother."

"That's actually a reason why I'm here. I've been doing research into my family line, one that the Brotherhood's leadership went to great lengths to keep hidden from me. I found both the names of my mother and father. As well as birth certificates, both with their names on them," Shadow said as he grabbed the documents out of a pocket dimension he had created shortly before leaving the Brotherhood and handed them to Lone. "Plus," he added, bringing what appeared to be a black, red, white, green, brown, and blue blanket out of the same dimension, "I feel like this is important to more ponies than just me."

Lone eyes widened as he recognized the blanket. It had been something his mother and father had done with him and Unity before Unity was abducted. It was the same blanket that had been with Unity when he was foal napped. He looked at the documents then, and saw that the names on the mother and father spots on the birth certificates were Darkness Strider and Joy. He looked at the names of the children, and saw that one bore his name, and the other had two names, one being Unity, the other being Shadow Specter. "And before you ask about the blanket, it's the only thing from before I became a member of the Brotherhood, and it has a spell on it that prevents those that aren't family from taking," Shadow said, though Lone knew of the spell, as he had been the one to place it on the blanket to prevent other foals or fillies from taking it from Unity.

He looked to Shadow, and said in a voice barely above a whisper, "Unity?"

"So it would seem," Shadow said.

"Why are you here? I know you have more than just one reason to come here, given what you've done."

"A few reasons actually. The first is to tell you that the leadership of the Brotherhood sent me after you to kill you. Coupled with the discovery of our relations, I decided to renounce them, and help you to bring them down," Shadow said. "Another was to apologize to Celestia, as I had lost control over Chaos Bringer, my own dark side, and wish to make it known to her that I had no intention of killing her back in Canterlot."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Because I'll allow for any restraints you see necessary. I know you don't trust me, but I will work for it."

After a few seconds of thinking, Lone said, "Hermit, much as I hate to, we need Applejack and Celestia here. You mind getting them?"

"As much as I disagree, no. This needs to be done. I'll let them know."

"Thanks," Lone said, to which there was no reply.

"I imagine I'll need to work to get to the trust level needed to know about that?" Shadow asked with a raised eyebrow.

"In which you'd be correct. You may say your Unity, but you need to prove it. Believe me, you outright saying the Brotherhood sent you both helped and harmed, more the former then the latter, but barely."

"Noted."

The two then waited for a few minutes before they heard the door open, and Applejack and Celestia walked through.

"Hermit said you wanted to see us, Lone," Celestia said before she and Applejack laid eyes on Shadow. "What are you doing here," she nearly snarled in a very un-princess like manner, even considering the solar alicorn was no longer a princess, lighting her horn, while Applejack got in a fighting stance.

Amazingly, Shadow walked up the the alicorn with no visible hesitation or fear., and stopped just a few feet from her. He then did the one thing none of them expected.

He bowed to her and said, "I wish to apologize to you and the others for what I did to you all at Canterlot, as well as what ever I did to your subjects before then. I know a simple apology is not enough, and I am willing to bring the Brotherhood to it's knees to prove I am sorry."

"Applejack," Celestia said, not taking her eyes off the stallion in front of her, "your the Element of Honesty. Is he telling the truth?"

"Far as Ah can tell, he's as straight as a rope drawn taught by two cows trying ta out do one 'nother in a tug-o-war match."

"So, yes," Lone asked in a deadpan.

"Yessiree."

"I now see why the Brotherhood ensured no pony talked like that. It's hard to follow," Shadow said. This made Applejack literally fume, but he ignored her.

"Well, now that that's done," Lone said. "Come on, Shadow. There's something I need help with."

"Right," Shadow replied. The two stallions walked through the door, a spectral apparition of Fear materializing next to Lone, while one appeared next to Shadow. In reality, it looked like Fear, but had Shadow's color scheme. One thing the two mares noticed, though, is that both seemed to glow with an emerald light, with it being brightest around Lone and Fear the most.

"What do you think that was," Celestia said as the two stallions and their shadows walked into the library.

"Ah got no idea, Princess."

"Applejack, I'm not royalty anymore, which means just "Celestia'."

"Sorry. It's jus' a force ah habit."

"Understandable," Celestia said before they too reentered the library. Only this time, Solar Flare was smirking, and neither Celestia, nor Applejack saw this. Applejack's dark side, however, a blood red mare with grenades as her cutie mark, a black mane and tail, an old fashioned military helmet on her head, smiled as well.

All according to plan, they said to one another over their mental link.

. . .

Lone and Shadow, fortunately, were able to avoid the others on the way to the vault.

"So," Shadow said, "what is it you need help with?"

"Does the Brotherhood have records on when the first cutie marks appeared?"

"You pla on removing Cutie marks?"

"Caught on fast. Should be expexted, given we share blood," Lone said. "Yeah. As it turns out, it was a way for Plasma to control the ponies that sided with the original Lone Shadow. That plan failed, obviously, but the effects are still around today. I'm a little surprised you know."

Shadow shrugged. Yeah, well, the Brotherhood has records on anything that happened during the rebellion, including the actual cutie pox. Probably the only things that are correct there in terms of history."

"What do you mean?"

"For one, the books there say Plasma had two daughters that were born during the rebellion. If so, then they're dead now, given the fact it's been twenty thousand years since their births. A few sons, yeah, simply because there are records of them fighting, but there's only one passage saying he had daughters."

"It might be true," Lone said as the two reached the vault entrance.

"But it might not be."

"Also correct," Lone said as he and Shadow entered the vault. Fortunately, John and Metamorpha were still in there.

"Hey, guys."

"Hey Lo- WHAT'S HE DOING HERE?!" Metamorpha yelled upon seeing Shadow.

"He's here to help us, Metamorpha. He left the Brotherhood, and both Hermit and Applejack say he's telling the truth. Trust me I'll keep an eye on him. Besides," he said, shrugging, "he's family."

"What do you mean?" John said apprehensively.

"You two remember when I told you that my baby brother was taken when he was just a week old?"

"Yeah. Why?" Metamorph said.

"Well, as it turns out," Lone said, "he was taken by the Brotherhood, and was trained by them. He became one of their best soliders, but he discovered who his family is, and left the Brotherhood, coming here."

"So that means-" Metamorpha said.

"Yeah. He's my brother," Lone said. He then used his magic to bring the book that held that prophecy up to Shadow.

"Looks like we're going to need to do this together," Shadow said once he had read the passage. "Any idea what the spell is?"

"None," Lone said.

"Actually," John said, getting their attention, "these are machines, right? Why not create an EMP?"

"Wouldn't that knock your suit out, though, John," Metamorpha asked.

"Doubtful. Spartan armor is hardened against EMP's. The shields might go out, but the power assist systems will stay on, so I'll be fine.'

"But what if the nano-machines are the same?" Lone asked.

"Nano-machines?" Shadow said. "You three mind filling me in on this?"

Metamorpha rolled her eyes and grabbed the journal in her magic and handed it to Shadow. He read magically highlighted pages, magic being used to avoid damage to said journal, and said, "Okay then. I have to agree with Lone. We're going to need to test it out first before dedicating to it."

"Agreed," John said, "but who would volunteer to have a large part of their identity removed, even if they knew the truth?"

"How about four to help you guys out?" they heard Radiant say behind them. The four of them turned back to see who was with her and was met by the entire Crystal Empire branch of lone team, as well as Rainbow Dash.

"You guys really want to risk this?" Lone asked.

"Yeah," Saber said.

"Same here," Rainbow said. "Even if my cutie mark is what makes me awesome, I'd give it up to help mt friends, if I had the choice, and I obviously do."

"You've changed a lot since this started, Dash," Metamorpha remarked.

"Yeah, maybe, but I'm the Element of Loyalty. Not exactly loyal if I keep my cutie mark for selfish reasons instead of giving it up to see if it'll help my friends."

"Plus it'll be a good way to see if we keep our talents without them or not," Opal said.

"That too," Radiant said.

"And just how," Shadow said, raising an eyebrow, "did you know we needed help?"

"Well," Rainbow said sheepishly, "we kinda eavesdropped."

"My fault there," Saber said. "I was trying to get her to practice stealth, and she though it would be a good idea to listen in on you guys."

"It's alright, guys," Lone said. You're all okay with this, and I mean Shadow being my brother and ow a part of the team, not the cutie mark thing."

"Hey," Saber said, "if you trust him, that's enough for me."

"Me too," Radiant said.

"Same here," Opal said.

"Yeah," Rainbow said.

"Okay then," Lone said, lighting his horn. "Let's try this out." He cast a spell that was designed to knock out magical frequencies, as he assumed that the nano-machines functioned similarly. A wave spread out from him, enveloping the room. Once it did, it faded away. Unfortunately, there was no change in the three crystal ponies and one pegasus in the room.

"Let me try," Shadow said, lighting his horn in a completely black aura. The same happened, result and all.

"Damn it," Lone said, "I though it would have worked. Why didn't it?"

Those present brought their hooves/hand to their chin and though on this until Metamorpha said, "Didn't the sentence say 'togther'? Maybe you two need to activate the spell at the same time."

"Wouldn't hurt," Shadow said as he and Lone lit their horns, and waves of black and emerald colored magic enveloped the room. Once the waves faded, it looked like it was a failure as well. "Worth a shot," Shadow said before Lone pointed out somehting, pointing at Rainbow and the others.

"You guys might want to check this out." John, Metamorpha, and Shadow looked to see what was going on, with the other four looking at each other, and saw the cutie marks of said four begin to slide off, almost as if they were being washed away by water, even flickering a little as they slid down to the floor.

"Whoa," the four of them said. "I expected to fell something," Rainbow said.

"Us too," Radiant said.

"Metamorpha, write that down," Lone said, "Might be usefull later on with the others."

"Right," the changeling said as she brought up a quill and paper and wrote it down. "Anything else?"

"Depends," Lone said. "You guys still got your talents."

"No idea," Saber said. "Let's find out," he said as he brought his hoof down on the floor, causing it to crack, and a perfect sword made out of crystal appeared. "Good here."

It was Opal who went next. She lit her horn in a near crystal white aura, and created crystal armor around her body. "Same."

Radiant went next. She was a unique pony, even by Crystal pony standards. She had the ability to telekinetically control crystals, much like a unicorns telekinesis. She focused on Sabers sword, and used her abilities to hold it in the air, the action making Rainbows jaw drop.

"How," she asked.

"Simple, really. For one thing, she had rudimentary control over crystal when the team recruited her, but the standard training regiment increased it to the point it's like unicorn telekinesis. Every member of the team, whether they be unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, changeling, or any thing else, they learn to amplify their natural magic, and even learn to use other magic, though only the weakest of those. That's your current stage, Rainbow. Amplifying your natural magic to the point you don't need your wings to fly. Definitely the slowest learner I know, but you've made progress."

"How?"

"Look down," Lone deadpanned. She did so, and yelped when she saw she was hovering off the ground with out using her wings. In fact, she still had the anti-flight jacket on, her having gotten used to it, she began to think she no longer liked flying as much. That and current circumstances didn't exactly allow for flying a great deal.

"What the!? How am I doing this?"

"Might be your subconscious," Saber said. "That's how it happened for me."

"Your sister, too," Lone added. "I was there, and I was the one who made her face her fears, something you still need to do."

"Can we just take care of that now, since I'm here?"

"No. You've progressed to the point you need to face them in the real world before your ready. No pony can help you in that regard," Lone said.

"So, should we remove the others cutie marks, or should we wait?" Radiant asked. "I doubt they'd understand this as well as we did."

"They're going to find out soon enough, what with us not having cutie marks anymore. It would only make logical sense they would then be wary of us, with the exception of Metamorpha, Chitinia, their mother, John, his crew mates, and the other extraterrestrials."

"You feeling alright, Rainbow," Saber asked.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I?"

"Because of how you just said it would make sense the others wouldn't trust you guys, due to lack of cutie marks."

"You okay, Saber," the cyan pegasus asked, "You seem a little concerned about something that's entirely standard."

Shadow leaned into Lone's ear here and whispered, "I'm going with her cutie mark made her a little less intelligent when it comes to grammar, and removing it let that knowledge come to the front."

"Agreed," Lone whispered back. "Who knows what else cutie marks are hiding?"

"So long as it doesn't make her a murderess, I'll be happy."

"Okay, Rainbow," the two brothers heard Metamorpha say. "How is it every pony race has some amount of magic?"

"That's actually simple, Metamorpha. You see, Equis' magnetic field is able to contain some of the radiation form Celestia's sun. Combine that with all the natural magic, and it was that combination that gives the three pony races their abilities, and I imagine that it's similar to changelings." The jaws of the crystal ponies and changeling went slack, as that was the most widely accepted explanation of how the three pony races could all do some sort of magic, and they knew how much Rainbow disliked being called an egghead, yet here she was, giving an egghead answer out like it was always how she did it.

"I don't know about you guys," Metamorpha said, "but I like the new Rainbow Dash."

"Old one," Metamorpha," Rainbow said, holding up a hoof. "I was always like this. The nano-machines just repressed those memories, but now that they're deactivated, the real me's back, and ready to kick some plot. Oh, and you guys can leave the jacket on me. It's actually comfortable," she said before she began to hover a few feet off the floor. "Plus, I could get used to this." She then went to hover in front of Lone. "And for the record, Lone, I faced my fear back in the Empire. Not being able to help my friends when they needed it. I was able to overcome it, and I imagine that's when I first got access to this, but it didn't manifest until now."

"In that case, Raibow, you are now a full member of lone team."

"Nice," she said, her new demeanor making her, though still liking to say it, finding saying "Awesome" to everything good a little annoying, even if appropriate.

"Once this whole mess is over with," Saber said, "you'll be able to choose which branch to be a part of. If you want, you can always ask the leader of that branch to go to another. Personally, I'm hoping you choose the Empire." He blushed a little here.

"Why," Rainbow asked before noticing his blush. "Oh. In that case, why not make this entire adventure a date, seeing as how we're going to be with each other for a while?"

"Re-really?"

"Yeah. Besides, I do find you a little handsome, Saber. The fact you're a crystal pegasus doesn't hurt either. I was just afraid of not looking cool before, but now that I don't have anything altering my mind, I couldn't care less about what others think. Except for you, of course."

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," was all Saber could say.

"I think you broke him," Shadow said, "though I'm not certain how."

"Might be she called him handsome," Radiant said. "He's said that he wasn't exactly the most handsome pegasus, and I think the mare he's interested in calling him that would jam his mind."

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense," Rainbow commented. Those in the room waited for Saber to come out of his mind jam, which took a few minutes.

"You back yet," Rainbow asked.

"Yeah," the crystal stallion replied. "So, um, what do you want to do?"

"Depends on if Maruco has any good movies he can project saved in that armor of his," Rainbow replied. "Want to find out?"

"Sure," he replied before the two of them left the room.

"Might as well go and make sure those two don't get in trouble," Radiant said, to which Opal nodded, and the two left, leaving the Spartan, changeling, and two unicorns in the vault.

"Well, now that that's over with, that leaves one issue," Shadow said.

"Yeah," Lone says. "How to make it to where the others can at least tolerate you."

"It's probably safe to assume the other ponies would have a hard time due to what happened a few weeks ago. Same for the others as well," John said.

"You trust him," Lone said, raising an eyebrow.

"Not entirely," John said, "but you trust him, and I trust you, so that does get some."

"Same here," Metamorpha said, smiling.

"Better than nothing," Shadow said.

"Well, come on, guys," Lone said. "We're done in here for now. Might as well prevent the shit storm as much as possible by letting them know directly. Hermit, get everyone who assembled at the vault entrance. Might as well take care of the cutie marks too.

"Of course," they heard Hermit say, then went to the entrance to the vault.

Before they could get there, though, Shadow said to Lone, "Hold on, Lone. There's something I need to take care of."

"What's that," Lone said, getting in a combat stance slowly.

Shadow lit his horn and said, "I wanted to get you into the mental link I share with a friend of mine, Midnight Stream, who is helping me by giving me information from the Brotherhood, as she was in them as well, and currently acting as if she's still loyal. I wanted you to have access to the link so you and your dark side can more easily converse with her, me, and my dark side, as well as hers."

"She can go nightmare as well," Metamorpha asked.

"'Nightmare,'" Shadow asked.

"In reference to me saying Fear Bringer is like Nightmare Moon," Lone said. "And I'll accept, but I warn you, I have spells protecting me against any kind of harmful mind magic, and those spells are designed to kill."

"Duly noted," Shadow said as he touched his horn to Lone's.

Hello, brother, Lone heard a voice say inside his head.

"I assume that's your dark side?"

"Yeah, but I call him Chaos Riser."

And it fits me perfectly, Chaos said. So, when can I speak with my other sibling?

Right now, Fear said.

"As long as you two keep it to the back ground, got it?" Shadow said.

Yeah, yeah, they both responded.

"They're going to annoy the tartarus out of us aren't they," Lone asked.

"Most likely."

"Well, come on, Shadow," Lone said, restarting his walk to the entrance.

Once the four of them were there, they waited for a while, as the only ponies to get there soon were those that left the vault shortly before them. It was about five minutes before the others arrived, and, needless to say, all but Applejack and Celestia were surpised and angry that Shadow was there. It had taken a while to calm them down, Luna especially difficult, even for Lone and Celestia, but they all calmed down enough to listen. The ponies, trusting idiots they are, believed him after he had said he was sorry that he tried to kill the solar alicorn. It was grounded, as Hermit and Applejack could say he was telling the truth.

"And that brings us to our second topic," Lone said.

"An' just wha' would that be?" Applejack asked.

"Anypony notice Rainbow and the others not having cutie marks?" Metamorpha said.

Amazingly, none had noticed this until it was pointed out. "How," Luna asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Pinkie asked. "It's because this dimension has cutie marks being some sort of mind control that hinder the abilities of certain ponies. Some ponies are immune to it, like Lone and Shadow, as well as Applebloom and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I'm immune to it, but only the mental effects. Why else do you think I break the fourth wall so much and get away with it. They were all made by Plasma, who wanted a way to make sure any large scale rebellions could be taken down with ease. Why else do you think Cadence is with that meanie."

"She's right, as illogical as that sounds," John said.

"Right," Lone said, "and for the past ten days, me, Metamorpha, and John have been searching for something to fix this." He held up a hoof. "Before you scream with anger at us not telling you sooner, we did so because we knew that you would want a cure from us, and some would pester us about it. It wasn't until an hour ago, when Shadow came here, that we were able to cure it, for lack of a better term. By combining our specific magical frequencies and casting a spell, which I won't say the source of for reasons I'll keep to myself, we were able to remove the cutie marks of the Crystal Empire branch of the team."

"Wait a minute," Applejack said, "Dash decided to live in the Empire? Why? I thought we were y'all's friends, Rainbow."

"Believe me, AJ, you guys are, but I have more than one group of friends now. besides, I think we can agree that Ponyville is in good hooves with you five there, as well as Vinyl and the others. I'd love to still be there, but I'd rather be where my stallion lives then live someplace he'd be uncomfortable, due to him being a crystal pegasus and all. Plus, I will be able to visit you five when my duties allow for it. Who knows," the mare said, shrugging, "I may become as smart as Meta."

"But we thought you weren't interested in books, darling," Chitinia said.

"The me you guys knew wasn't, but that one had her mind messed with due to my cutie mark. Now, I'm a mix of that me and Meta."

"Yeah, needless to say," Shadow said, "if you guys want your marks removed, it might cause your personality to change a little."

"Do any of you want your cutie marks removed?" Lone asked.

"And," Radiance added, "it won't hurt at all."

"I do," Luna said after a near thirty seconds of silence.

"Oh, oh, me too," Pinkie said

"And me, if. . . that's alright," Fluttershy said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Of course it is, Flutters," Lone said. "Anypony else?"

After a few more seconds of silence, it was Celestia who said, "Me too."

Applejack followed by saying, "Shucks, Ah don't see why not."

"In that case," Lone said as he and Shadow ignited their horns before saying in unison, "Prepare."

The two stallions crossed their horns, and an orb of magic that was olive green in color erupted from them, encompassing the entire library due to the sheer amount of power put into this spell. In fact, if anyone there had a magic detector on the lowest sensitivity, it would explode like a flash bang, and the two alicorns could feel this power, so much so that they felt empowered just sensing the amount of energy being used. Unlike the last time this spell was used, it now just made the cutie marks come flying off, disappearing in small explosions. It also made the ponies go to what would have been their personality had Plasma not created the nano-machines to begin with instantly. Strangely enough, though, it didn't create a breeze like other spells would.

"That was. . . different," Applejack said.

"Yeah it was," Luna said.

"Well," Fluttershy said, her new personality coming to light the soonest, "what did you two expect, seeing as how the ones who cast it are the two most powerful unicorns alive. It isn't complex science to figure out it would be different." Everyone just looked at Fluttershy due to how she phrased that, even though they all knew that their personality would be different.

"I don't know why, but I like her more this way," Kasumi said.

"Yeah," Zaeed said. "Less of a fuckin' doormat."

"Shut it, Zaeed," Fluttershy said.

"Definitely liking more," Lily said.

"Well," Lone said, "now that that's done, you guys can go back to what you were doing before. I plan on showing Shadow around." With that, the two stallions walked off.

"I think I'll join them," Luna said, "just to ensure nothing happens."

"And me as well," her sister said as the two followed the unicorns that, one way or another, had saved them.

SEQUEL IS UP

Click here for sequel.