Chapter 4:
Less Talk, More Action

---- 12 hours after drop ----

It didn't take long for Harbinger to catch up with the Lunar Princess. Matching pace with her he began to fidget with his uniform, mostly his collar that no matter how many times he programmed the nanites always seemed to be slightly off.

"Thou doesn't like thy dress uniform?" Luna asked, attempting a new conversation with him.

"Its not that, though it is a rarity to see me in it." Harbinger laughed before his face grew grim.

"What is wrong?" the dark blue alicorn inquired as she looked around.

"I really have no times for formalities at the moment princess, every hour we wait Death and his Blight grow stronger and more and more fall to them." he replied as they reached the dining hall.

"We must support you in the fight Harbinger, you cannot win alone." she replied, a look of determination spreading across her face, though a hint of worry could be seen in her eyes.

Harbinger stopped in his tracks, as his body shimmered silver and his combat armor materialized, "I told you my plans, inform Celestia and prepare your people for mass evacuation out of range of the fight to come."

"But..." Luna was cut off.

"That wasn't a request, I'm sorry, you have been kind and I cannot allow anything to happen to you or the other ponies." Harbinger boomed, dropping a small disc on the ground which expanded and became a Forerunner Terminal but pony sized, "Anything you need you can find on this terminal, all you must do is walk near to it and you may interface."

"What are you going to do?" Luna asked, shocked by his sudden change in demeanor.

"What I do best." Harbinger said darkly as he turned a dial that was hidden on his belt and folded into slip-space.

Luna was left with a 'pop' in the hall next to the strange half cylinder machine that's face slid open when she neared it, revealing a large orange sphere with a black center.

---- The plains between Canterlot and Ponyville ----

Harbinger literally popped out of thin air and drew his service rifle from its pistol holster. A train roared past with many frightened ponies who were staring towards the direction of which they came, paying no mind to the lone sentinel. On the horizon the soldier could see the eight legged monsters who had claimed so many of his friends and comrades, gripping his rifle he stood ready for them. His long range scanner was filled with a red blob that spanned out to Ponyville and into the forest nearby the small town. He remained still as he waited, checking and rechecking his armor systems, part of him wanted to pull out Furies End, another part wished to deploy the Minotaur, but he remained still with his rifle clutched in his hand.

"Well Apocalypse, looks like its you and me versus plenty of ugly again." he muttered to the tattered black rifle with a silvery shine.

---- Canterlot ----

Luna had entered the machine with her mind, though she knew not how she had done so. She put that thought aside when it began to show her the history of the Deltans that Harbinger explained the night prior, though within this machine were images and sounds that the Princess had never heard. She witnessed a massive mechanoid slam its way through what had been described to her as the Blight, she watched as massive warships that were the size of other worlds were built in the matter of hours. Then the machine implanted images of schematics and battle plans that it had modified to fit ponies and their physical needs for combat, armor, weapons, even vehicles.

Luna was then back in the hall, the cylinder-like machine closed once more, and her eyes wide open.

---- The plains between Canterlot and Ponyville, 13 hours after drop ----

Harbinger stood perfectly still, the massive collection of hostiles before him had stopped short and filled his line of sight in both directions as they fanned out to form a semicircle about the lone soldier. No sign of Death among them, but that meant that he would just have a simpler time in the fight, not that fighting the Blight was easy. The largest Blight Female stepped forward and shrieked a call to battle as the entire force charged him. Harbinger's training and experience kicked in, and the next hour or so was spent dodging their massive bladed scythes and blasting the smaller units to dust as he avoided the larger ones.

The most common mistake for a Centurion to make is to focus on the big and ugly one first, as it is truly the smaller ones that you must take down before the wise soldier engaged the titanic soldiers that could tear him apart with ease. Harbinger ran forward, ignoring the Blight Female who had issued the charge, and grabbed hold of one of the smaller Blight Males. Ramming his triple pointed bayonet with plasma lacing he felled the eight legged beast and rolled to the right just in time to avoid a scythe coming down upon where he had been. Since he had a moment in the chaos of war, and was practically underneath of the female he turned Apocalypse upwards as he slid under the titanic brown and black spider woman, unleashing a stream of red accelerated particles that cut through her weak point and blasted through her head.

Harbinger then flipped forward and landed on both feat as he began to run from the crowd of Blight that were now surrounding him, knowing that if they succeeded they had a good chance of taking him down. Rolling forwards he turned around and cut loose his rifle once more, aiming for the ones closest to him and their heads, which popped when the stream of red contacted them. He then pumped the grip which shot out a massive ball of white energy that created a blinding light where the bulk of the Blight had been climbing over one another to get to him. The Blight hissed and kept coming even despite the massive crater in the center of the plains, Harbinger though did not let up his fire, the constant stream of red blowing chunks of the Blight off as they advanced, once again he was focusing on the smaller males and the Maggots as his position was once more overwhelmed by the aliens.

He checked behind him and saw that he was coming up to a wooded area and that Centerlot was not much further away, looking back to his foes he noticed that their numbers had dropped significantly since the engagement had begun, but his scanners were still full of red. He stopped backing up and held a perfect stance as he blasted any of the Blight that got close, he could not allow them to pass. Slowly he began to push forward, driving them back with every step, in the distance he could see white plumes of smoke moving closer and closer, a train was coming and the Blight were on the tracks. Silently he prayed to the Creator that the Blight would remain focused on him as he pulled out a heavy duty fragmentation grenade and threw it towards the center of the Blight army.

"Take it you meat bags!" Harbinger yelled as he rolled away before a Maggot could latch onto him.

Standing back up h slammed the Butt of his rifle into a male's head causing it to cave inwards before grabbing the body and throwing it towards a Blight who began firing plasma bolts at him. The train was now barely within sight and the Blight were still near the tracks, Harbinger ignored those who were closer and began to duck and weave until he had clear shots on the ones in the back. Taking his shots with care he dropped each on before getting grabbed from behind and jerked upwards. He flared his thrusters and the Blight let go of him as it shrieked in pain. He ensured that he landed on the final females face in the group of roughly twenty other males and countless Maggots.

"You like the taste of Deltans so much, how about feet first?" Harbinger yelled as he crushed the female under his mass and rolled around to blast apart the males about him.

The train roared past his backside and he could hear ponies inside screaming as they realized that they were in the middle of a combat zone. Harbinger paid them no mind, he merely ensured that none of the Blight hit the train or escaped, he only stopped firing from his position once the final Maggot had burst into a puddle under his boot.

"Well then, that takes care of that." he said to himself as he flipped the switch on Apocalypse, turning it back into a pistol, and holstering it.

The sun was now high in the sky, and his mission was far from complete, deciding that it was best to end it as soon as possible he set off towards Ponyville, and the traitor Death. What he didn't see was the cloaked figure behind the very tree he had been forced back to disengage his cloak, revealing backwards knees and four mandibles on its reptilian face.

Author's Note

COMBAT AS PROMISED!!!

Sorry if he seems powerful, just keep in mind that he has been fighting these things for 30,000 years and knows how to avoid them for the most part. So it took him all morning to fight off an army of giant spider people, not even the hard to kill ones. If I were to compare what he fought off to normal standards, just think of it as a ton of Skirmishers and Crawlers, with a few hundred Brutes in the mix against a experienced super soldier who is used to long odds.

Oh and look, an Elite... But is he friend or foe?