There are rare and few times in her life when she could truly say that she feared something, most of these moments occurring in the times of her childhood. She had constantly handled things with a fair amount of caution-to even a fault-to avoid said fear. The unknown, the lack of information, was always something that could bring about a sense of unease in herself.
But this, this was something much more terrifying. She was acutely aware of what she was afraid of, what she was running from. There was some unknown to say the least, but one thing was abundantly clear in the matter; she was being hunted by an enemy that should not exist, that she knew did not exist.
A stray rock along her path suddenly found itself beneath her armored hoof, nearly throwing her off balance. In an attempt to stabilize herself, she extended her wings slightly to help adjust her equilibrium, stopping her sprint to avoid falling.
Only to have one of her pursuers emerge from an adjacent hallway in a running sprint, raising and bringing down a blunted sword with enough strength to shatter bone.
And shatter it did. She cried out in pain as the powerful two handed blow connected with the edge of her left wing, feathers and fur displaced instantly as the weapon impacted. Her assailant let out a guttural yell from its mouth, no doubt enjoying the fact of wounding its prey. However, in its supposed moment of triumph, anger raged inside her, bubbling and festering in seconds. In a flash, she whirled to face her opponent, her expression a twisted snarl as her four fingered hand opened out toward her enemy.
The creature, a bipedal monstrosity of reddish bone armor that showed signs of being formed rather then forged, its thick plates displaying impressive scars and dents of battles past. It impressively managed to stand at roughly her own height, helped by the fact its head ended in three triangular points.
Her enemy, possibly or foolishly not expecting her quick reaction; its three luminescent eyes actually widening in surprise as it no doubt spotted the swirling cyan energy crackling in her palm.
She let out a devious smile at its hesitation, and used the moment to her full advantage. The mirage of power a diversion that any foal could have seen through with enough simple thought, her spiraled black horn became incased in her familiar aura, the raw power she wielded channeling forth.
In a single instant, the attacker was completely launched off its feet, lifted up by an unseen force to be thrown like a rag doll against the hallway wall of the underground tomb she found herself in. She followed up in an instant as she snatched the blade of her attacker, the many muscles along her arm flexing as she spun in place before launching the sword back at its wielder.
Stunned and disoriented, the creature had no time to react as the tip of the blade embedded itself in its chest, before going the extra mile and impaling both itself and the red warrior into the wall. A loud crunching sound echoing along the dark hallway. Reflexively, the creature tried to grab at the protruding blade, it's grey, misshaped, three fingered hands grasping futilely at its pommel.
She stumbled as the sudden exertion took its tole on her already taxed body, her hand grasping the blackened edge of the dark tombs wall, a cold shiver running up her spine at the touch of the material. It felt, ugly, in a word. Perverse even. Just another note to her growling list of why she needed to escape this place.
Her breathing was heavy as she sneered at the warrior, its quick dispatch almost pathetic. Honestly, to assume she was weak because she was running was a very fatal mistake. She had already dispatched four of the screaming ones, and dozens upon dozens of the fanatical clawed warriors. What did this one think it could do to her?!
Her apparent victory was short lived however as a shrill cry flowed from her previous direction, down the exspansive hallway, the shallow green lights casting dozens of shadows rapidly moving and dancing toward her position. They projected the silhouettes of their owners, claws that could pierce flesh with a single swipe, strange weapons that casted bolts of strange and painful magic, and the flying screaming demons that had lead their hordes forth.
She realized with creeping fear that she had wasted precious few seconds on her lead, and dispatching the armored warrior had only slowed her progress out of this Tartarus damned place. Make no mistake, she feared no solider, but to deal with an army, especially in her...comprised state, was not ideal.
Her attention quickly transferred away from the incapacitated creature to the path ahead of her. Stairs, many stairs, led upwards toward the unknown, the dim glow of suspended 'lanterns' illuminating the path upwards. Her only direction.
In an attempt to put more distance bewteen her and her pursuers, she unfurled her truly large onyx black wings, the feathers along them bristling with the chill in the air.
A cry of pain escaped from her muzzle, her damaged wing relaying the injury it had sustained in the form of needle like pain. This was only another wound to add to her already growing collection of scrapes, bruises, and cuts. Even her armor had failed to withstand the fighting she had continually engaged in, its once cyan surface now frayed, scalded, and in a few cases, melted.
And coupled with the fact that her magical reserves were near depletion, it was short work to decide she could not handle many more battles.
With a quick burst of speed, her body crying out in protest, she ascended the steps that would hopefully lead out of this tomb she found herself in. Her hooves pounded atop the steps, their echoes almost drowning out the screeching yells of the creatures.
Meanwhile, the horde surged forth, the hive frenzied for her blood.
A weapon was aimed, its sights directed toward four walking figures. A gloved finger hovered over its steel trigger, the lone digit twitching with anticipation.
Although unaware of the crosshairs now on them, the four bipedal figures shared a fair amount of caution, each scanning their surroundings carefully, as if the grey rock itself would come alive. Perhaps by chance, or just luck, the lead figure's four eyes landed directly on the one targeting them, a cry of alarm escaping its armored helmet as it simultaneously tried to raise its ranged weapon against its foe.
One, two, three, four.
Four bullets escaped the weapons cylinder, each fired in rapid succession of one another. Just as one escaped the muzzle, another was already positioned to be fired.
One, two, three, four.
Four impacts were made, each bullet traveling to connect into every individual member of the group of four, their bodies reeling with the impacts of the bullets. Red and white armor shattered under the powerful strikes, much of the now penetrated protection concentrated around the heads of the group.
One, two, three, four.
Four bodies collapsed onto the ground beneath them, the soft grey rock imprinting their forms as small particles of dust escaped into the air, evidence of the low atmosphere around them. Small wisps of vital blue gases left the now lifeless corpses, the ether no longer needed.
Standing not far from these fallen foes, hidden partly behind some large boulders, was an armored figure garbed in a thick cloak. His sleek tinted faceplate betrayed no emotion as he holstered his magnum styled 'hand cannon' , one of countless weapons in use by both himself and the others like him.
As being a warlock-a guardian of the city-it was commonplace that the knowledge his order specialized in researching would not always have the solution in a fight. As such, firearms were invaluable in this war torn age.
He faintly could make out the sound of his armored boots crunching under the gravel of the lunar surface, his footprints casted into the rock. With calm but reserved caution, he approached the four defeated soldiers.
Crouching, he quickly glanced over the bodies, scanning for anything of interest.
Two different pairs of combatants greeted him. Although the same species, all bipedal, and all sporting the same armor of their kind, there were differences.
Two of the four were missing the usual four arms of their species, instead having just two, no doubt having gone through a ritual of humiliation. Quickly identified as that of a Dreg, a basic solider of any Fallen house.
The other two still held their defining four arms though, and seemed substantially more equipped, no doubt given a higher military status of that of a Vandal; the backbone of any Fallen force. In conjunction with additional armor, these Vandals wielded shock and wire rifles, one capable of firing tracking bolts of energy while the other was known for dealing significant damage in a single shot.
The warlock frowned through his helmet. While the dispatching of these enemies would remove four more threats from the universe, he concluded that they offered no additional information on his objective.
Returning to a standing postion, he looked around, finding the new silence around him to be eerie. The quiet of the moon was something that seemed to bother more than a few guardians despite it having the least amount of infrastructure built during the time of humanity's golden age.
Old and decaying buildings lay spread out along the main settlement he found himself in, many of the old hubs and lunar modules a testament to humanity's first ventures into the universe beyond Earth.
Perhaps it was the fact that this settlement was never able to reach its peak, to grow and flourish under humanity's tender light; but rather to die in its infancy.
Perhaps it was the fact that the ghosts of the past seemed to linger here the most, helped by the dozens of empty space suits that had once protected the humans that worn them, now coffins for their the long dead bodies.
He shook his head. He could never understand why the vanguard decided not to bring them home. To give them a proper burial. But he could also rationalize the decision to leave them.
This was their final resting place. A place they defended to the bitter end, even as humanity's enemies surged forth and dozens of populated colonies across the solar system fell silent to the onslaught.
He briefly considered what a child might have thought of the moon before the collapse, the wonder they must have thought of that orb that floated in the sky, illuminating the night for all to see. What was up there? They could have asked. What's to be discovered? To be seen!
Well, many guardians knew this answer all to well.
Now, Earth's moon belonged to one of the many races that had pushed humanity to the brink of extinction, a species that seemed to truly relish in the unknown of the dark, who bore into the moon like maggot to a wound, festering and crawling beneath its surface. While the defeated Fallen may have been a clear giveaway, their presence here was more as scavengers, rather then occupiers.
No, the real threat here was the Hive; an alien order that not only despised the light, but believed that destroying all light in the universe was a crusade, and that only after it was extinguished would darkness finally reclaim the universe.
And since humans had found themselves reborn in the light in this age and in past, so too must they be destroyed. Now on the doorstep of Earth, the Hive hungered at the chance to finish the job.
This however, was not as simple as a task as once thought, as the Hive faced an enemy that was unwilling to let humanity go into the dark quietly.
This was where he came in. Much like the thousands of others of the vanguard, he had been pulled back from the realm of death, enlisted by The Traveler and its children to return humanity back to its glory, and to do so, he would stand as a beacon of hope amid an age of strife.
Given unearthly abilities that tapped into power few understood completely, he ventured forth from the last city on Earth, fighting across the solar system to reclaim what was once lost, and to find the secrets that lay hidden in the depths of the past.
As a warlock, as a guardian, as a human and citizen of the last city, it was his job to give his all for humanity, at any cost if necessary.
"Well, I see someone is in deep thought again" a feminine voice suddenly spoke inside his helmet, and if one was not use to something like this happening regularly, it would have startled them something fierce.
As such however, he simply turned his head slightly, instantly catching the small appearance of soft bluish light form directly over his shoulder. The light could be broken down into individual small blocks of this strange illumination, shifting and flowing in an unknown sea. Faster then a blink of the eye, a small metal device formed out of this energy.
With small triangular pieces formed around a central spherical core, a single diamond shaped 'eye' at the direct center of its 'body', the small marble colored machine moved to hover around near him.
A ghost, a machine as well as not, and a child of the Traveler. Tasked with reviving humans worthy to wield the Travelers light and to serve as both a guide, companion, and information collectors to their new guardians.
"Not so much in deep thought, just admiring the view" the guardian spoke, his voice carrying an accent who's origin had been long forgotten. True to his word, he was no longer interested in the Fallen, instead choosing to look 'up' at the beautiful planet that stood out against the blackness of space.
Earth, despite it already occupied by several enemies, still stood as a beacon of hope for the future, its lush surface and bright oceans relatively untouched from the damages of the collapse.
Oscillating, his ghost looked up as well.
"It is lovely" it spoke quickly, its 'voice' emanating around it.
"But we have a job to do, under orders from the Speaker no less" the ghost flew forward along the lunar surface, stopping a few feet away.
Turning around, the ghost tilted slightly on its axis, in almost a curious manner.
"...Coming?"
He turned towards her, putting thoughts of the Earth in the back of his mind.
"Right behind you"
Once again, the same light from which the ghost appeared returned once more, this time on a far larger scale. Materializing out of the light was a small hovering vehicle that seemed to have traces of its design in its two wheeled predecessors, the 'Sparrow' was an all terrain scout bike utilized to move guardians around any surface as fast as possible.
With a pronged front forming out of its slim, compact body, the area that seated a guardian was small, generally having said guardian bunch up somewhat to fit properly. Three thrust engines in the rear making up the primary propulsion, the end of the vehicle also featured small foot rests for the driver.
Without a second thought, the warlock hopped onto the vehicle, his boots locking into the rests as his hands rested on the throttle. Not wasting a moment, the sparrow's engines roared and he was off across the lunar surface.
His ghost, unable to keep up with the speed of the vehicle, instead dissolved into the blue light it came from, though that did not mean it wasn't close to its charge.
"We should head near the Hellmouth, the others are reporting that the hive seem to be very upset today" the ghost relayed, her voice betraying a hint of mirth.
"Have they found anything yet?" He asked into his helmet, his course already changing direction toward the Hive's strongest area of control on the moon.
The ghost's voice lost all sense of humor. "No" she started, "Though a team pushing into the summoning pits was nearly overwhelmed by an awaiting hive force. They almost seemed like..."
There was a pregnant pause.
"...like they were about to ambush something.". His brow furrowed. That didn't sound particularly good. Passing under a natural rocky bridge, the guardian floored the throttle of the sparrow, increasing his speed further.
"This could be what the Speaker was referring to. Maybe one of their awakened ogres went rogue again. Though, that isn't exactly a pleasant thought either"
He nodded, thoughts swirling of the strike team that brought down a massive hive ogre and how much firepower was used before it went down. Though, with the amount of guardians deployed along with himself, even a monster like that would be facing a battle it would surely lose.
Minutes passed as he continued across the surface of the moon, the only sound being the muted wine of the sparrow's engines.
Then, the silence was ultimately shattered by a tremor rocking the area, several nearby rocks actually vibrating off the surface. Coming to an abrupt stop, he tried to gauge the origin direction of the earthquake.
However, a loud and very irritated voice suddenly blasted inside his helmet, definitely not his ghost.
"All guardians! Get your asses over to the Hellmouth now!" The voice spoke, the tone unmistakably belonging to a woman." We've got something coming out of the summoning pits and...what in the city is-oh fuck me with the thorn!"
There was the distinct sound of a weapon being loaded.
"Guardians! Fire at will! Aim only for the hive, that thing seems to be against them, so I'm electing to not blow it halfway to Saturn! Yet!"
The tidal wave of sound that crashed into his ears instantly brought him to full attention, the unmistakable firing of rocket launchers and the rapid thunderclaps of light machine guns nearly drowning out the newcomers voice.
"Fire, fire, fire! I don't want to any of you pansies holding out on me!"
More gunfire raged from his comlink, several shouts from guardians blending into the white noise.
He slammed the throttle to its max setting, the sparrow's engines literally spouting fire as he raced toward his destination, hoping to lend a hand before it was too late.
Damn her, damn her, damn her, DAMN HER!
This was her fault! This was all her fault! EVERYTHING WAS HER FAULT!
She was probably enjoying her suffering wherever she was, oh, how she was laughing at her expense. Everything just worked out perfectly for her didn't it?! Because everypony loves their sun goddess! No pony will care that dark one is gone!
Her anger was a burning inferno at this point, and she had some consolation in the fact that thoughts of her injuries had been pushed back to the edges of her mind. Her magic was practically overflowing from her horn, sparks of fissuring energy dancing across her helmet.
She barely avoided another swipe from one of the blind ones, it taking a magical blast directly to its face as she turned around.
After running into an ambush, yes, an ambush! They were capable of battle tactics! She was now ripping through hordes of the nightmarish creatures. The blind ones were the most bold, rushing at her ready to rip her throat out, only to be blasted apart. The taller armored red 'knights' seemed to direct the smaller ones with the weapons that fired painful bolts of magic.
And the flying ones! She hated them the most, hiding behind the others and throwing magic at her like cowards! Her horn blazed as she saw an opening of attack on one that believed it could finish her off, a chunk of rock rising suspended next to her.
In the blink of an eye, the rock was catapulted directly into the skull of creature, it crumpling to the ground instantly.
She would have no respite as another blind one slashed at her head, a quick duck allowing most of her head to escape unharmed, though its claws connected along her helmet, ripping it off painfully.
In a cry of rage, she reached out and grabbed its leg in a bone crushing grip, hoisting the abomination in the air in an instant and hurling it over her head. It collided with several of the smaller three eyed ones, all of them being knocked away.
The next moment soon found her flying through the air, her focus of the blind one leaving her open to a charge by a giant behemoth who's head seemed far oversized for its body. Seemingly all muscle, the giant sent her airborne as its fist connected with her abdomen.
Her landing was hard, her wings taking the brunt of the beating as she rolled along the ground. She rushed to get up, stumbling as her vision attempted to clarify.
What greeted her was not pleasant.
A small army formed a semi circle around herself, dozens upon dozens of the blind clawed ones made up the majority while the smaller three eyed creatures placed within the ranks. The knights and the flying robed abominations were found within the formations here and there.
Even a few of the monsters like the one that knocked her off her hooves were present, their mouths open in sneers.
Worse yet, her condition had only deteriorated over the continued fighting. Her body ached and burned with exhaustion. Her horn felt like it had been replaced with molten iron, no doubt due in part to her magic being overtaxed. Her armor, what remained of it anyways, was scraped, dented, melted, and generally nothing but added weight to her now, its promise of protection long gone.
And yet, against these odds, she refused defeat. Nay, it wasn't even a viable option. The thought of it making her fur hackle. She would never accept that this was how it was to be. Her anger flared in her in ways never before.
She was done being the weak one. She was done being beaten down, forced to stomach how things were 'to be'. She was done with everything. She was done with the Tartarus forsaken place! And most importantly...
"I AM DONE WITH YOU!!!" Her voice erupted from her muzzle, some of the creatures forced to cover where they most likely had their ears.
In an instant, her eyes were ablaze with archaic energy, gone where the slitted pupils, instead only burning white light. Her hooves lifted off the ground, the raw power she was channeling simply causing her to rise, her magnificent wings flared out in all their glory. Her mane and tail whipped around her like caged animals,striking and lashing out wherever. Her horn was so brightly lit that it appeared almost as if a miniature sun.
Meanwhile, all around her the shadows surged forth, as if guided by an unseen master, to cover all of what little light there was. However, as the shadows encroached on her enemies, it seemed to coagulate almost like water, rushing over and engulfing the creatures.
The darkness festered in the area like a plague, literally everything being consumed in a pitch black void from which no light could escape. It continued even after her foes where taken into the gloom, to the point where only her horn illuminated just herself, and yet the darkness pushed on.
Some part of her realized what she was doing and knew that this was extremely dangerous, while another lavished in the fact she had destroyed all of them thoroughly this time.
Now, the void had claimed nearly all of her body, save for just her head as her magic continued to flare, halting the dark. She knew what would come of this, but it was already far to late to turn back now.
Seconds passed until all that was left of the light was her horn's tip, and even then, it slowly lost ground. The light condensed, condensed, and then...
Darkness. Complete and total darkness.
And then...the release.
She didn't feel the shockwave, nor the invertigo of flying through the air, her subconscious already buried deep.
The battle was already underway as he arrived, the ridge line that bordered the Hellmouth a firing line of several guardians, each armed with scout rifles to rocket launchers. Not far from them on more level ground was multiple others, already engaged in close combat with the hive that were pouring out of the summoning pits entrance.
Without needing direction he quickly throttled toward the hard pressed guardians, violet dome shields spawning within the battle zone, evident of the titans unleashing their special abilities.
In less than a minute, he was already within weapon range of the enemy hordes, but only accelerated further to get into the thick of battle. Aiming for the nearest group of running thrall, jumping off just as the collided with the group, sending them sprawling.
His hand cannon was in his hand in seconds, and with no hesitation the weapon unleashed its slugs upon the enemy. Down went thrall, down went acolytes. Together with other guardians near him, they brought down the armored knights and flying wizards that dared to strike from afar.
Several times would an enemy get too close for comfort would fall suddenly, no doubt brought down by vanguard still on the ridge.
"Everyone! On me! We have a V.I.P that
