Fireteam Odium

Chapters

1) Explosive beginnings
2) Kalis' Journey
3) Exodus' Journey
4) Kervis' Journey
5) Reunion
6) The Assault on Manehattan
7) Planning
8) Information Gathering
9) Retreat
10) Answers
11) Refuge
12) Gathering an Army
13) Unexpected Allies
14) The Attack Upon Ponyville
15) Training
16) Preparation
17) The War Begins Pt 1
19) The War Begins Pt 3
20) A Plan in Motion
21) Defence of an Empire
22) Aftermath
23) Excavation and Discoveries
24) Remembrance
25) Gathering Momentum
26) Readying the Assault
27) The Final Charge
28) Liberation
29) How the mighty fall
30) Home
18) The War Begins Pt 2

1) Explosive beginnings

Author's Note

Hi all! So before you start reading, I wanted to let you guys know what was going on. Throughout the story, you will find some words green. Every underlined word is a link that will send you to the Destiny Wiki page for the word that has been linked. This is because I am aware that people may read this that have never even touched Destiny. You can ignore these if you like, but it will help you if you click on the words you don't understand.

21/11/19 - Chapter has been edited for hopefully the final time. I may come back to this later as my writing style becomes more refined, but for now, this is the best it's going to be.

1) Explosive beginnings

The Tower was bustling with Guardians coming to and fro from various missions. It had been an eventful week, as news spread that the threat of SIVA had been eliminated. According to the rumours, a team of six Guardians had mounted an incursion into the Fallen base in the Plaguelands and killed their leaders that had allegedly controlled SIVA.

While the residents of the City rejoiced in the news, for Fireteam Odium, it was just another day. Of course, they were happy with the results, but they had bigger things to worry about. Well, at least two of the three thought so.

“Hey, Kervis! Catch!” A female Exo called out. The human she had called to looked up to see a white and purple box flying towards his face. He managed to move his hand up and catch it before it collided with him.

“Dammit Kalis, watch what you're doing! I've been through way too much to get killed by an ammo synth,” he responded, letting his Ghost store it in his inventory for him.

“Aw, lighten up, man. We just killed a Fallen machine god! Surely that's reason to celebrate?” The Exo said, grabbing another synth and tossing it to the Warlock standing nearby.

“We did celebrate, Kalis. But now we have a job to do,” The Warlock said sternly, taking off his helmet and looking over at the two Guardians.

“You get new orders from the Vanguard?” Kervis asked, his interest spiking.

“That I did. Vanguard scouts have reported an unusually large amount of energy coming from a Vex stronghold on Venus. Both the Speaker and the Vanguard want us to check it out.”

“Ha, they ain't giving us a break, huh?” Kalis said, looking away from the vault storage console she had been using.

“We've had plenty of time to rest, there's no point in waiting. How long do you guys need?” The Warlock replied, his stance not moving.

“Not much longer. Providing this one doesn't knock me out, I should be ready in five,” Kervis said with a smirk towards the female Exo beside him.

The Exo in question looked up and gave him an amused look, “No promises. I should be ready around then as well, Exodus. Just sorting through some of the stuff we got from the siege.”

“Alright. Don't be late. I'll be waiting by my ship for you both,” Exodus finished, giving them a nod and walking away towards the Tower hangar.

True to their word, the two Guardians finished resupplying soon after and set off towards the hangar, passing a couple of Guardians dancing with each other.

Exodus watched as his ship was prepared for departure. He had been using his modified Ceres Galliot for some time now. He loved how it handled, and it did its job well. While he watched the frames rearm the last of the weapons on board the ship, the other members of his Fireteam joined him at the balcony.

“Don't suppose you asked Holliday to get ours ready ahead of time, did ya?” Kalis asked, giving Exodus a nudge.

“I did. They are ready for transit and are currently flying above the Tower for you. I got a bit delayed with the weapons on my ship,” Exodus responded, turning to face them.

“Why? It looks fine to me...” Kervis commented, looking over at the ship in question. Due to its shape, it had to be attached to the ceiling to keep it from tipping. This meant that the passing viewer could see the side of the ship fairly well.

“One of the frames installed a missile incorrectly. Shouldn't take too long, since it's a simple fix. You two go on ahead, I'll catch up,” Exodus said, turning back to his ship.

“Fine by me. Let's get out of here, Kervis,” Kalis said, apparently elated to be getting out of the Tower again.

Kervis simply shook his head, pulling up his hand. As soon as he opened his fingers, his Ghost materialized over it.

“Ghost, take me to orbit, if you would,” he requested, looking at the Ghost's eye.

Nothing more needed to be said. After a few seconds, all that was left of the human was a quickly dissipating cloud of light.

“Catch ya up there, bud.” Kalis said, transmatting herself into her ship.

Up in orbit, two ships flew alongside each other in formation, both belonging to Kalis and Kervis. Kervis' ship was a black, four-winged ship known as the Vienna Singer. It had yellow light strips across the wings' edges that lit up in sync to give a sweeping glow every few seconds. It was built more for speed than combat, but Kervis didn't care for what the ship was able to do. If it got him where he needed to be, it was good enough.

Kalis, on the other hand, had gone for something a little bigger. Her ship was shaped like a letter 'H'. Named 'Tick Tock Inquisitor', her ship had no weapons on it at all, which suited Kalis just fine. Despite being one herself, she wasn't a fan of flashy machines.

As they flew, they chatted to each other about various things, mostly the items they obtained from the incursion in the Plaguelands.

“Did the Cryptarchs give you any info on that engine you found?” Kalis asked over the comms.

“Not really. He said something about alignment, but I lost track after a minute or so. I'll ask Shiro when we get back. He should know something about it,” Kervis said in response, looking over the console of the ship.

“It seems valuable. After everything that Exodus did to unlock that room, you would think that there would be something bigger on the other side of it,” Kalis said in thought.

Kervis sighed at that, “I'm sure we will find out in time. For now, let's get ready for Exodus.”

They stayed quiet for a moment, making sure their ships were ready for the transit to Venus.

“What do you think of this mission?” The Exo asked when she had finished the pre-flight checks.

“Not sure, to be honest," Kervis answered. "Sounds fairly easy, and from what I heard, finding new Vex energies is a pretty common thing."

“Yeah, but for the Vanguard AND the Speaker to call for a full Fireteam? Seems like there is a lot more to this,” the hunter asserted.

Kervis rebutted, “Kalis, I don't think that they're hiding stuff from us. Why would they? You're just getting paranoid.”

“Maybe...” Kalis trailed off, realising that the conversation wasn't going to get anywhere.

After a couple of minutes, they noticed a ship catching up with them on their radars.

“Here we go,” Kervis said, shifting to get ready for transit.

“Sorry for the wait, you two ready?” They heard Exodus say through their comms.

“Yeah, we're just waiting on you.”

As they waited on Exodus, Kalis piped up, “Hey, Exodus?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think the Vanguard would hide stuff from us?” she asked.

Kervis groaned. He was fairly used to Kalis' habits, but Exodus could get annoyed with her at times with the stuff she says.

Exodus was quiet for a moment, “No. Why do you ask?”

“Well, is there really this much need for a full fireteam? I mean, they send fairly young Guardians on these types of missions all the time. If it was something normal, why not send a newly reborn?”

“Our job isn't to question our orders, Kalis. We are here to protect humanity, and if the Vanguard think that this mission should require us, then I am inclined to trust them.”

Kalis gave a sigh, going quiet for the remainder of the time it took Exodus to prepare.

After another few minutes, Exodus spoke up, “Okay, I'm ready if you guys are.”

Leaning forward, Kervis replied, “Let's do this.”

The peaceful atmosphere of Venus was disrupted as the sound of three ships washed across the landscape.

“Okay, team. My Ghost sees multiple Vex signatures at the drop point; we're going to have a fight from start to finish with this one,” Exodus called out, flying lower to the tree line.

“Copy, landing zone is hot,” Kervis said, his Ghost getting ready for a resurrect should he need it.

“Hey, Kalis. You got a Tether ready?” Exodus asked.

“Are you kidding me? With how long you took, I probably could have charged ten of them,” she scoffed.

“We are going to need one, so get ready,” Exodus commanded, ignoring her snide comment.

As the landing zone came into view, the scale of the Vex resistance dawned on the Guardians. At the forefront, several squads of Goblins were crouched, awaiting a reason to move. Behind them, Minotaurs stood ready, with their weapons raised. Hidden in the brush further away, they could just make out a squad of Hobgoblins awaiting targets. The Minotaurs and Goblins brought no worries to the veterans, but they all knew how easily one could fall to a well-placed sniper shot.

“Alrighty then, they're overcompensating,” Kalis observed, slowing her ship slightly and pulling left, breaking formation.

“It won't be enough,” Kervis stated, pulling his ship down towards the landing zone, Exodus following suite.

As soon as they came into range, the Vex Minotaurs launched their counterattack. A mass of purple came hurtling towards them as they closed in on the small army before them. The damage was minimal against their armour, but the two knew that staying there longer than they needed was certainly not a good idea.

As the ships got close to the ground, the two Guardians materialised a few feet beneath their ships, weapons drawn. Kervis immediately fired off three bursts of his Häkke pulse rifle. The shots flew true, killing off three of the Goblins before him in bursts of white radiolaria.

Exodus wasted no time in attacking either. As he materialised, he threw his arm out, throwing a ball of solar energy ahead of him. The ball hit a cluster of Goblins, turning into a larger explosion that quickly blasted apart the surviving members of that squad.

The Goblins rose in unison, their red eyes staring coldly at the suddenly appearing duo. Their weapons rose to meet their attackers, but most were obliterated before they could properly land shots on the Guardians. Said shots were absorbed by the shields the pair's Ghosts made for them, providing little worry for the attackers.

Seeing a Minotaur trying to flank, Kervis turned and drew his Raze-Lighter. As the blade coated itself in fire, he launched himself at the towering machine, slicing into it from every angle he could. Meanwhile, Exodus had begun dropping any Vex that came close. Cover was minimal in the area they had landed, but he made do. While he couldn't shield himself as effectively as Kervis, his Flame Shield worked well enough to restore his protection when it fell.

As they fought, Kalis flew in from the back, dropping down from her ship and firing a round from her sniper. The bullet passed straight through a Goblin's stomach, leaving a mess of radiolaria in its wake.

“Kalis! Get that Tether down here!” Exodus commanded, firing a few more shots from his Scout Rifle.

“Chill for a sec, would you? It's hard to be this good when you're yelling down my ear,” the Hunter replied, lining up a bow summoned from Void energy.

An arrow flew from the back of the battlefield only moments later, striking a Minotaur and evaporating it in Void light. As its body flew through the air, it left behind a small sphere that shot out and attached more void energy to the nearby enemies. Those that had been affected by the sphere stopped attacking and turned, trying to escape the field of influence.

“Drop 'em,” Kervis ordered.

All three members got to work, dispatching the slowed enemies with ease. After only twenty seconds, there was nothing but twitching machine corpses left.

“Well, that was fun,” Kalis commented happily, jumping down from a ledge and joining her Fireteam.

“Hm... I don't think that was all they had in store,” Kervis commented, looking towards the entrance to the Vex fortress.

“Then let's get to it,” Exodus said, starting to run towards the entrance.

The other two quickly followed, reloading their weapons as they ran. They all slowed when they entered the structure, bringing their weapons up. Kervis' Ghost appeared and shone its light forward, allowing them to see with relative ease.

Surprisingly enough, they encountered little resistance on their trek through the hallway. While it wasn't a completely uneventful walk, they expected a lot more fighting than what they experienced.

At the end of the hallway, they came to a massive chamber, and the reason that there was very little Vex resistance on the way there. A huge surge of Vex was marching towards them; Cyclops set up on the nearby walls that had turned to face them. At the back of the room, a Hydra stood tall, its revolving shield at the ready.

“Ah, shit,” was all Exodus managed to say before the storm of enemy fire began. Kervis only just managed to fling his arms out, producing a dome of void light around himself. The team rushed inside the dome, avoiding the shots being fired at them.

As they passed within the walls of the dome, their weapons glowed slightly, a column of light raising from above their heads.

“Weapons of Light? I would have thought that Blessings would be more effective in this situation.” Kalis said, pulling out her rifle.

“Yeah, I thought so too until I saw that Hydra. That isn't a normal Hydra, from what my Ghost can tell, it's a Mind. Possibly even a Nexus. If we drop that thing, we may have a fighting chance at ending whatever it is they're doing,” Kervis said, swapping his sword for his pulse rifle.

“Can't argue with that,” Exodus said, moving forward, “Let's get this done.”

As soon as they left the confines of the shield, they were set upon by the Vex once again. While Kalis and Exodus stayed back, allowing the shield to soak up the damage for them, Kervis ran forward and let out a punch on the nearest Goblin. The machine vanished, shrouding the Guardian in a coating of purple energy.

Using his increased strength, he went to work on getting rid of the weaker enemies that had been pummeling the purple dome that his friends had been residing in.

As the line of hostiles receded, Kalis moved forward, her sniper rifle in hand. She took aim and began firing upon the Hydra, going for as many shots to the eye as she could. As she fired, the rifles magazine refilled itself, allowing her to fire until all her ammo depleted.

“It's weak but still standing, can you get a laser on it, Kervis?” Kalis asked, pulling out her launcher.

“Yeah, give me a sec,” Kervis said, his Ghost summoning a large carbon fiber weapon in his hands.

When he had cleared enough room, he spun around and took aim. The whirring of the charging weapon could hardly be heard over the sounds of fighting, but the shot could. When the weapon fully charged, it unleashed a huge red laser that cut through anything that stood in its path. As soon as the laser impacted the Hydra, it fell, splitting into multiple parts with its hull glowing red hot.

“Get down!” Exodus called, ducking within the dome of light. Kervis just managed to slide into it as the Hydra's core detonated, sending shrapnel launching across the room. As the flying metal scattered, it took a few of the remaining Vex with it. There was still a mass of enemies, but far less than what they began with.

“Good shit, guys!” Kalis called out, reloading her sniper.

“We ain't done yet, the Hydra might be dead but we still have those Cyclops. And this Ward won't last much longer,” Kervis said, looking around him. The shield had already started to dim, and it was only a matter of time before it fell.

“How many shots in the Sleeper do you have left?” Exodus asked.

Kervis sighed before responding, “Not enough to deal with four Cyclops. I could use a synth but it would take time.”

Kalis had been thinking for the duration of the talk and at that moment managed to come up with something.

“What if I Tether? You could use the orbs to make a new Ward.”

“If you want to waste a Tether on the weaker enemies out there then that might work. You're gonna have to hurry though.” Kervis said, watching the Ward's light begin to dim further.

Nodding, the Hunter jumped forward, summoning her void bow and firing an arrow from it. It soared across the room, arcing down and landing on the ground. On impact, it created the same sphere that they had used before. Without missing a beat, she pulled her launcher out and fired a rocket into the crowd of slowed Vex. The explosion obliterated everything that was close to the void tether, leaving nothing but glimmer on the ground. As the kills racked up, Kalis shone bright, white orbs dropping materialising from her body. Kervis ran forward and stood near the orbs that littered the ground, absorbing their energy. As soon as his Ward charged, he threw it over him once more, allowing Kalis to land inside of it and Exodus to run to it.

“There, saved your asses again, let's get back to it,” Kalis said, reloading her launcher.

“You got it,” Kervis said with a smile, running forward with the Sleeper in his hands. Exodus took down a few of the Goblins that attempted to surround Kervis as he crouched, charging the Sleeper and taking aim at the first Cyclops. Three lasers had fired before the Cyclops fell, exploding into debris.

“Three to go,” He called out, loading a new power cell into the bottom of the weapon.

“Keep going! We've got your back,” Exodus shouted, barely audible above the roar of gunfire.

Kervis managed to drop two more before running back into the ward. As soon as he got in, he brought his hand up. His Ghost appeared before him, awaiting a command.

“I'm gonna need a heavy synth, quickly as you can,” He said, getting a nod in response. A few seconds passed before he felt his ammo reserves refill. His job now completed, the Ghost returned to invisibility.

Smiling, he turned back into the fray, walking just forward of his partners and lining the next shot up. Three lasers tore across the room, slicing through a couple of Harpies that were unfortunate enough to have been floating in the way.

With the final Cyclops defeated, the rest of the enemies were cannon fodder. The Ward no longer necessary, the Guardians pushed forward, letting their personal shields take any incoming damage. Five whole minutes later, the threat had been eliminated.

Panting, Kervis turned to his friends, “Well, that could have gone better.”

“At least it's done. Now let's find that energy source,” Exodus replied, walking towards where the Hydra once stood.

As Kervis and Exodus walked away, Kalis stayed back. She could feel something... calling to her. She turned her head to find a reasonably large hole in the wall that had apparently been broken open from one of the many explosions.

Not one to back down from the chance of another fight, she walked towards it, gun at the ready. As she closed in on it, the strange feeling grew stronger with every step. When she reached it, she checked her motion tracker. Not seeing anything barring the other two members of her Fireteam, she moved into the wall, gun constantly sweeping the room. Passing to the other side, she turned to the left to find a huge Vex gate. This was nothing new to her, she had seen many of these portals in the months since her rebirth, but this one seemed different.

For one, it was locked behind a wall of hard light, no entrances anywhere. That would normally have been nothing amazing but the thing with this portal was that it was active.

The portal shimmered a bright white; she could practically feel the energy radiating off of it.

Stepping back through the hole in the wall, she called out to her friends, “Hey guys! I think I found what we were looking for!”

The two other Guardians turned to look over at her, before running over to see what she had found. When they got into the room, they appeared to be just as confused as she was.

“Was this thing active when you found it?” Exodus asked, stepping closer to it.

“Yeah, from what I can tell, it was messing with my Light. Do you two feel it as well?” She asked.

“I can feel something. Nothing I have ever felt before I can tell you that much,” Exodus replied, bringing up his Ghost, “Ghost, let the Vanguard know we-”

Before he could finish, a huge mechanical roar sounded from behind them. They whirled around to find a huge Hydra, at least twice the size of the first one, floating there.

“What the fuck!? How did that thing sneak up on us?” Kervis exclaimed, readying his Sleeper.

“Who cares? Shoot it!”

Gunshots rang out as they fired upon the machine. But no matter what they fired, it didn't even flinch. Instead, it got closer. The Guardians backed up as far as they could, unloading everything they had into the Hydra.

But it wasn't enough.

The machine fired off a shockwave, flinging Kalis into the portal, the hard light barrier falling long enough for her to enter.

“No!” Kervis shouted, turning to the Hydra, “You motherfucker!”

But instead of hearing the mechanic charging he was so used to, he heard a click and a small beep. Looking down he read the ammo counter on the reticle of the gun.

0/3

He looked up to find the Hydra charging for another shockwave. But instead of fighting back, he stood there, dumbfounded. He always paid attention to his ammo, and never ran out without his knowing about it prior. And now here he was, about to be slammed by a wave of energy and he didn't have a single round to use in his favourite weapon.

When the wave hit him, he didn't even struggle as he was tossed into the portal.

Exodus, realising the severity of the situation, called out to his Ghost.

“Get the ships through that portal, Ghost! Do it now!”

A short moment of struggling later, the Ghost responded, “The ships are on their way to the portal's transmat coordinates. It's the best I can give you right now.”

Looking up one last time at the huge Vex monster before him, he only managed to let out one word before he got hit into the portal.

“Good.”

Kalis rose slowly. Exos couldn't feel pain, exactly, but they could tell when something was wrong. And she could tell right off the bat that there was a plethora of things wrong with her at that point in time. Lifting her head, she looked around to examine her surroundings. Kervis and Exodus were nowhere to be seen. She was surrounded by trees, and snow covered the ground everywhere she looked. Normally, when she entered forests, she could feel the Darkness trying to envelop her. But here? There was nothing. No Darkness, and very little light from the Traveler.

She started to panic. Without the light that the Traveler gave off, she and her Ghost would die quickly. Her panic was short lived, however, as her Ghost spoke up in an effort to calm her.

“Please try to calm down, Kalis. The only reason you are not getting much Light is simply because your body is adapting. There is some sort of energy in the area that is substituting for Light, though I am unsure as to what it is.”

“Is... it safe?” She managed to get out.

“Well, it hasn't done anything bad to you so far, I guess time will tell. For now, you should probably find your Fireteam.”

Getting up on her feet, she looked around. Choosing a direction, she began to walk, her Ghost floating alongside her every step of the way.

2) Kalis' Journey

Trees. Trees as far as the eye could see. Kalis had been walking for hours, praying to whatever god that could hear her. As she walked, her Ghost scanned as far as he could to find any sort of intelligent life.

“Anything?...” Kalis asked, turned her head slightly to look at the little robot beside her.

“I have had reading of all sorts of things, no humans though.” He responded.

Kalis sighed at that. She couldn't tire, what with her being a machine, but she still wanted to find someone, something, that could help her find her fireteam. Another hour dragged on before her Ghost piped up.

“Hey, the forest is ending,” he said. Kalis looked up to see that her ghost was correct. The treeline was coming to an end, allowing her to finally see the sky above her. It was beautiful; vapour trails were nonexistent in the clear blue sky. Small clouds dotted the plain of blue and the sun slowly set in the distance.

This was quite clearly not anywhere she had been before.

Stepping out of the tree line, she looked around herself. Endless fields stretched out in all directions, trading the dark green and brown she had become accustomed to for a light green.

“Ghost, don't suppose you managed to save my weapons?” She asked, looking slightly to her side.

“Of course. You still have everything that you took in your inventory, as well as the weapons you selected before leaving. Need one?”

Kalis paused for a moment, “The Spindle, and maybe a special synth.”

“No problem,”

Two items appeared before her, a huge sniper rifle made out of Hive Chitin, and a small green and white box.

“Thanks,” She said, bending down to pick up the two objects. She quickly found security in herself as she brandished the rifle. The chitin had been modified with a Taken skin, giving it a more ethereal look. She wasn't one for stealth and so was fine with the glow it gave off.

Seeing no reason to stick around in a place she was unfamiliar with, she pushed forward, her Ghost disappearing from sight in preparation for a fight. As she walked, her Ghost gave her periodic readings, allowing her to track any being with even a mediocre amount of intelligence.

“Kalis, you are not going to believe this.” Her ghost said after a long pause.

“Why? What's wrong?” She asked, worried that something might have happened to her team.

“I'm detecting three jumpships in orbit; I think one of the team's Ghosts managed to pull our ships through the portal!”

“Well? What are we waiting for? Call the Inquisitor down and let's get moving,” she said happily, glad to finally get some good news after the trek she had faced.

The Ghost nodded and looked up, Kalis doing the same, to watch as a small black dot got closer. After a minute of waiting, the large black and orange ship stopped a few metres off the ground, awaiting its pilot.

Her Ghost teleported her into the seat, switching control of the ship to her.

“Oh, I've missed you so much, baby,” she said, patting the console and revving the atmospheric engines, “Any ideas on a direction, Ghost?”

“I would say East. We are bound to find something if we travel in a parallel line to the equator.” He advised, appearing beside her shoulder.

“Can't argue with that,” She said, pushing forward on the sticks. The ship lurched forward, quickly reaching Mach 1 with its massive engines. As she flew, she watched the radars carefully, hoping to find a large cluster of beings that could indicate a town or civilisation.

It didn't take long.

Fifty-two seconds into the flight, the radars picked up an enormous gathering of beings. They appeared to be animals, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to get a closer look. As she got closer, the ship was able to figure out more about the beings before her. They were... ponies?

She couldn't believe her eyes. Ponies littered the streets of the town below her.

“You should probably go out there,” her Ghost commented, looking over readings with the same level of fascination.

“What? Why? They're just animals...” She questioned, turning to face her companion.

“Look around you, Kalis. These are quite clearly not 'just animals'. They appear to have a unique level of intelligence that I have never seen an animal capable of. After everything you have seen, is intelligent horses the top of your list?” He explained.

Kalis almost shuddered at the thought of Golgoroth, God that was hideous, “I guess not, but I still think we should do more scans before we head down there.”

It had been a pretty average day for Flamelight. He was returning to his home after a hard day of work at the office. Being an artist didn't bring enough money in, so he had to look for other work elsewhere. He had eventually been pulled into the journalist business and had stayed since. The income wasn't spectacular, but it was enough to live comfortably with.

He lived in a little house just outside of town. While the town was pretty big and there were many nicer houses to choose from, he preferred the solitude. As he walked, he hummed a little tune to himself, looking through the shop windows he passed.

When he reached the edge of the town, he noticed a glint coming from one of the windows. He nearly passed it off but the colour of the glint made him stop. The light wasn't white, it was red. This confused the pegasus, as the sky was a bright blue, what with it being mid day. Curious, he started looking around for the source of the light, slightly hoping for it to be more than a simple light.

After a few seconds of swivelling his head, his eyes finally locked on a small red light coming from one of the many nearby hills. Unlike a unicorn's magic, the light he saw was solid, almost unreal. As he squinted in an attempt to see more clearly, contemplating calling for the police, though when he really thought about it, what would they really do? It was just a light...

And so, quickly coming to the realisation that his curiosity wouldn't go that quickly, he altered his path and began walking towards the hill, silently praying that he hadn't decided on something he would regret later.

Kalis looked away from her scope. She had been scanning the streets, watching how the ponies behaved. She had seen many things she simply couldn't believe. Magic, flight, the ponies actually talking to one another. Animals shouldn't be able to do that, and while her Ghost had been correct in stating it wasn't the oddest thing she had seen, it was still enough to send her mind reeling.

Standing up, she turned to her Ghost, “Any results with the scans?” She asked.

“Not really. The traveller's light is completely non-existent now, but that energy I detected earlier has done wonders for you. You may have noticed yourself that you have become stronger in many ways. You are far from invincible, but the changes should be noticeable when you fight.”

Kalis looked down at her hands. It had been true that she had felt her light bolster since she had arrived here, but she had chalked it up to her recovering from the portal.

“So what will happen to my Light as I stay here?” She asked, looking back up at the Ghost.

“Well, I can't say for certain what will happen, but I have come up with theories. One of the biggest and most promising ones is that you will start to overflow.”

“Overflow? Like, Warlock level overflow?” Kalis asked.

“Not at that level, no. As a hunter, your Light can still overflow, just not at the rate that Warlocks and Titans are capable of. As you spend time here, organic beings that are around you for long periods of time will likely become stronger as they absorb the excess power coming from you.”

“I see,” Kalis finished, looking towards the city.

As her eyes scanned the many streets once more, an odd colour drew her attention away. There was a blue pony climbing the hill towards her camp.

“Ah shit, looks like one of the ponies noticed my scope.” She commented, backing up and readying her weapon.

“I did warn you, you should really listen to me more often,” her Ghost said, switching to invisibility.

“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered, jumping behind a nearby rock for cover.

It didn't take long for them to hear hooves hitting the ground. The pony had begun searching around their camp as soon as it had arrived, wasting no time in taking long looks at the gear she had left there.

“Ghost, are there any other ponies in the area?” Kalis whispered. She had not looked away from the pegasus since it had arrived. It appeared to be a male, but she couldn't be sure.

“Other than the ones in the town, no. The only ones in these hills for miles are us.” The ghost whispered back to her.

She grunted at that. She knew that if she fired a round at the animal then the ponies in the town would most certainly hear it. She couldn't risk that as she needed to find help as quickly as possible.

Readying her weapon and getting a smoke grenade ready, she jumped out at the pony.

As he crested the hill, Flamelight could quite clearly see a camp that had been set up. It looked pretty recent and there was still items scattered around, but he couldn't see any pony there. Turning to the objects, he decided to get a closer look. He started with the more flashy objects, as they peaked his interest with their colours and shape.

Bending his head down, he looked a pale blue object. It appeared to be emitting a glow around it, and the surface of it almost seemed to be moving. He gave the thing a poke with his hoof, and when he found it didn't do anything, he reached out to pick it up.

Before he could lift it, however, a rustle from the nearby bushes caused him to turn. There, running straight at him, was the strangest being he had ever seen. It walked on two legs and had two arms either side of its body. It held another glowing object in its hands, though it wasn't moving it like he would have expected.

The creature appeared to also be dressed. It was pitch black with orange lights all across his body, and a long cloak flowing down its back. The cloak's collar was a bright orange that stood out against the black fabric of the clothing.

He was about to call out to the creature but stopped when his mind caught up with him. It was running at full sprint, right towards him. Panicked, he tried to turn and run from it. He didn't manage to get far before he felt a huge weight slam into him, pulling him to the ground. He looked up, dazed, to find the end of the object that the creature was holding pointed right at his face.

It gave a small huff before doing something he swore he imagined. It spoke.

“You ain't going anywhere.” It turned to its side, “Ghost, now's your chance,”

When it had finished speaking, a small white... thing appeared beside the creatures shoulder. It flew close to him, looking over him with its one eye.

“It doesn't seem to be a threat, Kalis, though to be fair, I don't think it was that much of a threat even when it was standing,” it said after a moment, flying back to the creatures shoulder.

“Still, better safe than sorry,”

Flamelight was petrified. With the creatures leg pinning him to the ground he couldn't use his wings, and he most certainly wasn't a fighter. He could only hope that it would be reasonable, and not kill him if he said something wrong.

“Uh, excuse me?” He asked meekly, turning his eyes towards the large being.

It shot its head around to stare at him, the lights on its face unblinking and unmoving. After what seemed like hours, it spoke once again.

“Ghost, please tell me you heard that,” It said, still staring at him.

Realising that not only could it understand him, but it was now listening to him, he tried to speak up once again.

“Please, don't hurt me. I just wanted to see what the light was; I won't tell anypony, just please let me go.”

His pleading seemed to work as the creature pulled its object back slightly. It seemed to be pondering on what he had said.

“You don't seem to be trying to lie your way out of it... alright, I'll let you up, on one condition,” It said, rising up slightly.

“W-what do you want?”

“Information. I need to know where the capital if there is one, is. I have to speak with a leader about something,” the creature explained. He had honestly expected it to be something worse.

“Uh, sure, I can show you. Do you have a map?” He asked, hoping that this would all be over soon.

“No. Let's just say I have only been here for a short time. I assume you have one?”

Flamelight gulped. He had one, but it was at his home, and he doubted that he could get away with running away under the guise of getting the map.

Seeing no easy way out of it, he went with telling the truth, “Yeah, but it's at my house. If you let me I can go get-”

“Not gonna happen,” He had known that it wasn't going to be easy, but the dismay still hit him. He had no idea how to get out without being hurt.

Thinking hard, he came up with an idea. It was probably stupid, but it was all he had, and he was getting desperate.

“What is the point in keeping me here, though? Even if I gave you directions I could still tell the police,” he said, putting on the best neutral face he could.

“And what is to stop me from killing you as soon as you give it to me? In fact, I could kill you right now and find a different pony,” It replied, its simple but cold answer giving him chills.

Steeling himself, he pressed forward, “You wouldn't risk doing something like that, if a pony linked it to you then you would be hunted down.”

It seemed to realise the problem it was now facing. While it may have had the ability to hurt or even kill him, it couldn't do anything for fear of being caught. The situation had turned to his favour.

“So, what are you going to do now? Kill me? Or talk like reasonable beings?” He finished. While on the outside he seemed calm, almost cocky, his insides were whirling. He had never been so terrified, and he knew that one slip up could mean certain death.

The creature grunted, standing up straight and pulling its object to the side, “Then what do you propose?” It asked.

“Let me go home. I'll get my map and give it to you, in return, you let me go free,” he answered.

Hesitating a little, the creature gave him a small nod, its eyes still locked on him. He hadn't felt a level of relief that he felt right there and then in years. Slowly, he turned and began walking down the hill, practically feeling the creatures gaze burning into the back of his head as he began his trek to his little home.

“You think he'll be back?” Kalis' Ghost asked when the pony went out of earshot.

“He?” The exo responded, temporarily ignoring the question.

“Yes, everything about him stated that he was a male pony, but that is besides the point. Do you think he will be back?” Her Ghost repeated.

Kalis thought upon the question for a moment, watching the blue pony get steadily further from her.

“No,” she said, “he will likely hole up somewhere or start telling other ponies about the strange monster that attacked him.”

Sighing, she sat down on a nearby rock, resting her head in the palm of her hand.

“Well, this could be going better,” the Ghost commented.

“You think?”

Flamelight's mind was in turmoil. Half of his mind was screaming for him to either hide away or go to the police, while the other half screamed for him to do what he promised, in case the creature follows through with its threat.

Grunting, he facehooved, “What have I gotten myself into?” He asked himself, mentally cursing his curiosity that landed him in the situation.

After a few minutes, he finally reached the front door to his home. Pushing it open, he walked inside and turned on the light. The house's interior was pretty well maintained, he didn't spend all that much time there so there wasn't much opportunity to mess it up.

He slowly approached a nearby table. There, laid out in full, was a full map of Equestria. He had been studying it for a column in the newspaper he worked for and had forgotten to pack it away.

His eyes studied the map as he contemplated what to do. He was risking his life regardless of what he chose. He had no doubt that the creature could track him down and end him pretty quickly and his bluff wouldn't work forever, but then, if he had the police on his side, surely it couldn't fight off all of those ponies, right?

Groaning, he dropped his head on the table in exasperation. As he grumbled to himself, he mind started to settle, and not on an idea he liked. It made more sense to him to make sure the creature wasn't going to hunt him down and skin him alive, and trying to catch it probably wouldn't work. The way its items looked indicated something far more advanced than he had ever seen. He initially though of them as clubs but the way that the creature had held it stated otherwise.

And so, raising his head, he came to a decision. Every fibre of his being was telling him to just run and hide, but he resisted the urge. He picked up the map and walked out of the door, turning off the light and locking the door behind him.

“Holy shit,” Kalis said in disbelief. She had honestly expected the pegasus to go running but lo and behold, here he was, walking towards them with a roll of paper in his mouth.

She put her sniper on her back, not seeing any reason to still have it out, and began walking towards the pony, meeting him half way. When she reached him, he lifted his head, lifting the scroll up to her.

The hunter took the scroll from his mouth, surprised to find it completely dry. She quickly opened it on the ground and turned to the pony.

“So where are we right now?” She asked him.

“Oh, uh,” he managed to get out, he had apparently thought his job was over, “We are right... here” he said, pointing to a dot on the map. The text was relatively hard to make out but after a few seconds staring she finally read 'Manehattan' just above the dot.

“And the capital?”

“Here,” the pegasus pointed to a larger dot, the word above it was much more clear than the other one. 'Canterlot.'

“Hmm, I see.” She muttered, trying to work out the distance between the two points.

“Am I, uh, done here? I really want to go back home,” he asked quietly, looking away slightly.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, you are okay to go home. Ghost, can you memorise this?”

Her Ghost moved forward over the map, scanning every section of it in detail. As he scanned, the pony stared at it in fascination.

“Done,” the Ghost said after a while, “you can have this back now,”

The blue pegasus nodded in thanks and rolled the scroll back up, picking it up in his mouth once again.

Before he could leave, however, he noticed her Ghost behaving oddly. He was staring at Kalis, as if expecting something from her.

“Oh for fuck's sake fine, if it will get you off my back,” she grumbled, turning to face the pony, “I'm, uh, sorry about earlier. I could have probably taken that a little less rough.”

“Yeah... sure, no problem,” He said in response, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Jesus, that wasn't awkward at all,” Kalis muttered, turning and walking back to her camp, her Ghost in tow. As they walked, the little machine turned, giving a nod to the pony that had helped them, and getting a small smile and a nod in return.

Night had fallen upon the land as Kalis sat, trying to get in contact with her team. She was using her ship's comms to try and reach out to any member of her team that might have been near their ship. After three hours of attempts, she had almost given up, reaching the end of her tether with the waiting.

“Ghost, is there no way to boost the signal?” She asked, her head laid back against the top of the chair.

“For the seventeenth time, no. Not without constructing a signal booster.”

“But there has to be SOMETHING we can do. We can't sit here for days, hoping for contact.”

“If you come up with a better idea, I'm all ears, but until then, you are going to have to keep doing what you are doing,” her Ghost explained, remaining at her shoulder.

Kalis groaned at that, pushing the button on her comms, “This is guardian Kalis-29 to fireteam Odium. If you are receiving this, please respond.”

She waited yet again, hearing nothing but the faint crackle of the otherwise silent radio.

“You see, there isn't any-” She began before being cut off by a sound coming from the machine.

“This is Exodus, how are you doing, Kalis?”

Author's Note

Flamelight Dash belongs to this guy.
His OC has been used with permission by him directly.

Taking these chapters a bit slower than my other stories. I don't want to burn myself out and I really want to make sure that these chapters are improved in comparison with my other. Planning on having quite a few OC's in this story, so if you would like to see yours in this story, feel free to message me about it.

3) Exodus' Journey

Exodus had been walking for some time now. He woke up a few hours ago to the sound of birds and found himself on the outskirts of a dense forest, the likes of which he had never seen. During the time that he had been awake, he had been trying to determine the size of the forest that he was beside, but even after all of this walking, he didn't think he had even gotten halfway.

“Ghost, any readings of the team?” He asked.

“I have detected faint Light signatures in two other locations, though I do not have enough data on the this planet to determine where they are.” His Ghost responded, he was floating alongside Exodus as they explored, constantly prepared to resurrect.

“So you really think we are on an entirely different world?”

“Honestly, I think we are in a different universe entirely. The ships have attempted to scan the nearby planets and there is a mass of things wrong with where we are.” The ghost replied, looking around himself.

“Like what?” Exodus asked, following the Ghost's gaze.

“Well, for a start, the Moon and Sun appear to be orbiting the planet itself. The orbit is... sporadic aswell. It's as if they are communicating, as if they know when they should move to let the other take its place.”

The Exo thought upon that. The thought that they were in a different universe wasn't anything crazy in his mind. He had seen many occasions of dimension travel in his year of being reborn, he had even travelled through dimensions himself, though he was with Kervis when he did.

Sighing, he turned his head to his Ghost, “Well, let's figure that out later. Anything on the scans of this forest?”

The Ghost turned to look at the forest for a moment before responding, “Nothing spectacular. I have detected a large amount of what appear to be animals trailing us but they haven't made an attempt to attack yet.”

“Hm, as long as they don't bother me, I won't bother them,” Exodus said, not even looking behind him.

“Wouldn't it be better to prepare, just in case?” His companion asked.

“Maybe... give me the Tlaloc and let's keep going, we can't afford to keep stopping like this.”

The machine gave a nod and a white Scout Rifle appeared in the guardian's hands. They pushed forward as soon as the weapon appeared, ignoring the eyes in the forest that trailed their every movement.

Rushing Breeze skipped happily along the path to his house. He had always been told by his mother to never go too far away from the house, but he rarely listened. Nothing ever happened when he went out and the further he went, the more animals he met.

He had went out to help a small family of rabbits, they had lost one of their children when they were running from a fox and they had been worried for its safety. Thankfully, he had found the poor things huddled in a small hole under the roots of a large tree. He returned the little rabbit as soon as he could, giving them a wave and beginning his walk back home.

As he travelled the path, he listened for the sounds of the different birds that lived in the forest. He had gotten so used to them that he could name each bird by their song alone. But there was one song that he didn't recognise. It sounded much different to the normal songs he heard, and from the sounds of things, it was following him.

Looking around him, he tried to pinpoint the location of the bird that was making the song. He trotted to the side of the path, trying to see through the darkness. As soon as his eyes began to track the many animals out there, however, the song stopped abruptly. He didn't hear it again until he started walking along the path again.

'Maybe they are shy' He thought to himself, smiling slightly at the thought of meeting a new bird. With that thought, he hopped off of the path again and began walking into the dense forest, making sure he could still see the path so he didn't become lost.

He kept his eyes focused on the branches, hoping to find the bird that had been making that odd song. But he couldn't see anything through the darkness. Still, he persisted. He didn't like having an animal that thought he was a threat, he preferred to be friends with them all.

“What a-... -do”

He froze. He swore he just heard a whisper. He couldn't figure out everything that it had said, but there was no other sounds. No birdsong, no scurrying of smaller animals, nothing. He cowered back a bit, afraid of what could be up in the trees that was able to talk.

As he backed away, he heard a thump to his left. His head shot around to see what had hit the ground and what he found scared him more than any other thing could.

A Griffon, and it looked mad.

“What the hell are you doing in our land, child?” He asked in a gravely voice. It was well known that the Griffons patrolled these areas, but they didn't normally bother anything unless they looked like they were up to no good.

“I was just looking for the bird that was making that song,” Breeze whimpered, he had never liked the Griffons, they seemed too scary for him.

“Well, you found it. Now scram.” The Griffon commanded, a glare focused entirely upon him.

The colt nodded quickly, running in the direction that he remembered the path lying. As he ran, he could hear the sounds of Griffons laughing heartily, the sound slowly fading as he got further from them.

After a minute or two of running, he stopped to rest, panting heavily against a tree. He had been so focused on running that he hadn't realised that he passed over the path and ran in the opposite direction of it. With him resting, he had lost his bearings. There were no landmarks around him, just trees.

He started to panic a little. Nopony could help him when he was this far from home, and the Griffons would sooner chase him for fun than help him. Regardless, he came to the conclusion that he still needed help in the end, and so he began calling for aid.

“Help! Please! I don't know how to get back to the path!” He called out, waiting in silence for any response to his call.

No response came, just the faint sounds of animals. He slumped over in sadness. He wasn't sure on what to do now, the forest went on for miles and he had no way of telling where he was in relation to his home.

Suddenly, a loud growl sounded in the distance. Breeze quickly stood up and looked in the direction of the sound. He was absolutely terrified, there wasn't any monsters in these forests, or at least, there shouldn't have been. They had all been cleared out by the Griffons to let others make homes within the forests.

The growl came once more, closer this time. The sounded of wood knocking together grew louder alongside it. He froze, growling and wood knocking together? That could only mean...

With one final growl, a massive beast jumped from the nearby bushes. It was made entirely of wood, and had glowing green eyes that stared straight at him.

A Timberwolf.

Confusion and fear reigned in the colt's mind. Timberwolves were supposed to be Equestrian, how could one have travelled that far?

But he didn't have time to think on it, the wolf was moving forward, closing the gap between them. With no other ideas, the pegasus screamed and started running from the creature, his only hope being to escape the beast.

“A scream?” Exodus asked, looking towards the wall of trees.

“It sounded young, do you think we should check it out?” His Ghost asked.

The Warlock thought upon it. He really needed to find his team, but he couldn't just leave a child in distress.

He gave a sigh before giving his reply, “Yeah, we probably should. Cloak yourself, I get the feeling that we are going into a fight.”

He started running forward into the forest, listening for any sounds that he could use to find the child. Pretty soon, he heard more screaming, and a roar far louder than anything he had heard since he fought Oryx. Tightening his grip on his weapon, he ran faster, dodging around branches and roots that had laid themselves out before him.

It didn't take long before he reached a small clearing. The screaming was still going on, being emitted from something to the left of him. He whirled around to find one of the oddest scenes he had ever seen. There was a small blue pony, one that had wings upon closer inspection, being hunted by a massive wooden creature. It appeared to be shaped after a wolf, though with how the twigs and branches split off of it, it could have been anything.

Noticing the glow from his robes, the pony turned its head to look at him, its eyes going wide at the sight.

“Please! Help me!” It said in perfect English.

“There better be a good fucking answer for this,” Exodus muttered to himself, bringing his weapon forward and firing a round into the side of the beast.

It roared in pain, spinning around to face its attacker. He could already tell that this fight was going to be tougher than normal, he couldn't use any of his abilities for fear of setting off a fire or hurting the pony, so he was stuck with his Tlaloc.

The wooden monster leaped forward at him, attempting to close its jaws around his head. He brought his gun's back forward just before it hit him, however, leaving the creature stunned but still standing.

Taking the opportunity, he brought his gun up yet again, letting off round after round into the beast. When his magazine was empty the wood around the creature had been filled with holes, green sap bleeding out of them. He quickly reloaded and aimed at it once again, making sure it wasn't moving. When no movement could be seen, he turned to the blue pony he had seen earlier.

The poor little thing seemed absolutely terrified but other than that, it didn't seem to be hurt too badly. He stepped forward slowly, lowering his rifle and pointing at the ground.

“Hey, are you the one that was screaming?” he asked, one hand spread out before him and the other still pointing his gun away.

The pony gave a slight nod, apparently calming slightly. It opened its mouth, but before it could do anything, the sound of creaking wood emanated from behind the guardian.

Exodus only had time to look behind him before he was set upon by three more of the wooden wolves, they had been watching the fight and when their companion had fallen, they had began their ambush.

While he was made of metal, his armour and skin were not designed to stop three heavy creatures with razor sharp teeth and claws. They ripped into him, shredding his outer shell and armour with ease. Within moments, all that was left was tattered robes and sparking metal.

As soon as life left the Exo, his ghost became visible a few feet away, but it didn't fall. Instead, it spread itself out, a blue glow surrounding the inner core of the machine.

Looking over the approaching wolves, the Ghost gave a small laugh, “Oh, you just made a real mistake,”

The animals still grew closer, not understanding what the Ghost had said, but the pony had. With wide eyes, it watched as the ghosts slammed its segments against its core, and disappeared. In its place, the guardian dropped down, shrouded in fire. Two burning wings made entirely of fire sprouted from his back as he rose up.

Throwing caution to the wind, he charged his fusion grenades, tossing them at the animals and allowing his Radiance to recharge them in seconds. As he threw the orbs of solar light, he glanced over at the small pony that had remained huddled beside a tree the entire fight, and came to the realisation that the fusion grenades would very likely have the blast radius to cause harm to it.

He quickly circled around the mess of wood and fire, still throwing the grenades at the wolves. The grenades that came close to the animals stuck to their wood, causing small burns that distracted them long enough for the Exo to reach the pony. Ending his Radiance, he scooped it up and got behind a nearby tree, finally releasing his hold upon the grenades. With nothing holding them back, the orbs began detonating, leaving a massive pile of charcoal in their wake.

Breeze was almost paralysed in fear. He had never seen such violence given in such a short amount of time. Slowly looking up, his eyes reached the face of his saviour. Now that he wasn't in immediate danger, he could pay more attention to how the being looked.

Its helmet was black, with intricate blue lights all across its surface. It wore a long black robe that had a stunningly blue collar. It almost seemed to glow in the darkness of the forest. On its left shoulder, it had a plate of metal that had another pattern on it. Looking down, his eyes passed over its blue chestpiece that had been shaped like feathers and rested on the only other part of its body that was showing. Its boots had another pattern of bright blue squares, all of them glowing like its helmet and boots.

“Well,” It said, placing him on the ground and standing on its two legs, “That was... interesting,”

Breeze gave no response, choosing instead to cower back and just stare at the being.

“Not a talkative one huh?” It asked, looking over him, “can you at least tell me if you are okay? You aren't hurt are you?”

Breeze shook his head ever so slightly, not even sure if the creature saw it. They remained quiet for a moment before it a gave a sigh.

“I'm going to have a look at these remains. You should probably head home, from the looks of things, this place isn't safe,”

With that, it walked around the tree and knelt down beside one of the piles, the small white object appearing beside him.

He wasn't sure on where to go now. He was most certainly lost, in his running he had completely forgotten about the fact that he needed to find the path and so he had no way of telling where the way home lay.

Looking back to the... thing, he tried to figure out what to do. His mind had already come up with a solution but he really didn't want to follow through with it. He wasn't even sure if the creature was going to hurt him or not.

However, as he thought he came to terms with the fact that he had no place to turn to. He was lost in a forest with no way to get home, and there was a being here capable of helping him.

And so, knowing what he had to do, he stepped out slowly, coming closer to the thing that had saved him.

“Any idea what these thing were, Ghost?” Exodus asked, examining a piece of charred wood carefully.

“I haven't clue, from the short amount of time I had to study them, they appeared to equate to Golems, but they ran off of an energy that I have never seen before.”

“They had no problems bringing me down, so whatever energy they use, it's dangerous.” He said, dropping the piece of wood and standing up.

As he stood, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned to find the small pony coming towards him slowly, apparently still afraid of him.

“What are you still doing here?” He asked, kneeling down again, “You really need to get out of here, who knows what could be out here,”

The pony looked around itself before coming slightly closer and looking up, “I-I don't know how to get home...” It said.

Exodus to a moment to process that. He had started to think he was mad for thinking that it had spoken during the fight, but for his thoughts to be confirmed so simply, he had troubles coming to terms with it.

Bringing his mind back to the present, he thought upon what to do. This pony was quite clearly a child, and if it was lost then it wouldn't have a chance in hell of surviving alone against another pack of those wolves.

“If I helped you find a path, would you be able to get home then?” He asked, turning his attention to the pony before him.

It gave a slight nod, all the confirmation that it needed to give. Grunting, the Warlock rose back up and turned to his Ghost.

“Could you set a waypoint out of the forest? And while we are walking, could you find the location of that path we came across a couple of hours ago?”

The little machine nodded at that, a white arrow appearing on Exodus' motion tracker.

“Thanks, come on then, little one. Let's get you home.”

Breeze stared in wonder at the little white object that had been floating alongside the bigger being during their walk. He couldn't understand how it was able to levitate without the use of a magical aura. If the bigger one was lifting it, then surely he would have seen its magic affecting it.

His focus had been so intense, that he hadn't noticed the object staring right back at him.

“You seeing something you like?” It asked, startling him out of his daze. He tumbled forward, nearly hitting the ground before the taller being grabbed him and stood him back up.

“Jesus, Ghost, you shouldn't do that to the poor thing,” It said, waving its paw near the small being.

“It was just a question...” The small one responded.

The tall one just shook its head and continued walking, its two companions following along behind it. While they walked, Breeze looked back up at the object, its eye was focused on him, leaving them both having a sort of staring contest with eachother.

“Ahem,” The object started, breaking off from the staring, “I don't believe we are introduced,”

Breeze gave no response, still staring at the white being.

“I am a Ghost, a machine made by the Traveller to help my guardian protect humanity from the Darkness.” It explained, turning towards the tall one, “This one over here is Exodus, my guardian.”

The taller one apparently called Exodus gave a chuckle, “Ghost, you realise that it is just a child, right?”

“It's just polite, Exodus, did you never learn that?” The Ghost replied.

“No time for being polite in this line of work, you should know that by now.”

The Ghost went quiet at that, floating closer to Breeze. He shied away a little as it came closer, but it stopped at a respectable distance, “And who are you?” It asked.

Realising that it had directed a question towards him, he gulped, giving a glance towards Exodus who had turned his head slightly towards him.

“U-uh, I'm Rushing Breeze...” He said quietly, hoping that would be enough for them.

“Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Rushing Breeze, I hope the big guy didn't scare you too bad.” The ghost said, its segments turning slightly. Breeze actually kind of liked the little white machine. It seemed nice, much nicer than Exodus seemed.

“N-no, the wolves were more scary,” He said, smiling slightly.

That got a laugh out of Exodus, bringing Breeze's attention around to him. He was about to ask what was funny when the Ghost answered for him, “You're losing your edge, Exodus,”

Exodus laughed once more before replying, “Never thought after all this time than a animal made of wood would be more scary than me,”

Thinking he had somehow offended him, Breeze immediately piped up, hoping to fix the problem that he thought he had created, “Oh no, Mr Exodus, you were scary too, I have just always thought that Timber wolves were-”

“Don't worry, kid. I was just messing with you,” Exodus said, interrupting him.

As they continued to walk, the Ghost got a bit closer, “How are you holding up?” He asked.

“I think I will be okay, thanks,” He replied, his smile slightly wider than before. While he was still uncertain about the two being he had met, they seemed pretty nice, and if they really wanted to hurt him then they surely would have done so by now.

They walked in silence for a while, the only sounds being those of the animals and the crunching of sticks that they passed over. The silence began to bring back memories of the fight, and everything Exodus had done during it.

“Uhm, Mr Exodus?” He asked, walking a little faster to be beside him as they spoke.

“Just Exodus will be fine, Breeze,” He said, looking down towards him.

“Oh, okay well, Exodus, could we talk about the stuff you did when you were fighting?” Breeze asked, looking at the guardian.

“What stuff did you want to know about?” Exodus replied.

“Mainly about how you came back to life, I watched those wolves really mess you up but you just got back up like it was nothing.”

“Ah,” he said, stopping and sitting on a nearby trunk. Breeze also sat down, appreciating the rest he was allowing them, “Well, to explain how it works, I would also have to explain how Light works and that is a whole conversation that I really don't have time to give,”

Breeze looked a little downcast at that, but looked up when the guardian continued, “But I will happily explain the basics,”

The little colt smiled at that and sat up, his ears pointed towards him.

“Basically, I can use Light as a weapon. Me and every other guardian have the ability to make Light a physical thing, meaning that we can use it when we fight. What you saw there was an ability that Sunsinger guardians are capable of. If I have enough Light stored, I can use some of it to summon myself back to the battlefield. Any leftover Light is used to power my Radiance which shields me and makes my abilities more powerful.”

The explanation had left the pegasus fascinated. He had assumed that it had all been magic, but instead it was... light? As he tried to get his head around the thought of using light as a tool, he heard Exodus start talking again.

“Don't think on it too hard, I doubt you will understand it fully without a full explanation and even then it will probably be difficult for you.”

Breeze nodded, laying back down again on the dry ground. He had stopped paying attention to what was going on in the depths of the forest, placing his trust in the guardian to keep him safe. After what felt like far too little time, Exodus spoke up again.

“Alright, I think that should be enough. Come on,”

He got up off the trunk, Breeze getting up with him with wobbling legs.

“Exodus, I don't think he can keep up for much longer...” The Ghost pointed out, floating closer to the struggling colt.

The guardian turned and look over at him. When he saw him wobbling on his hooves he gave a sigh a walked over.

“Need some help there?” He asked, kneeling to be at the same level as him.

“N-no, I'm okay, let's go,” Breeze said, trying to mask a look of confidence as best as he could.

“You sure? You look like you're gonna fall over at any moment,”

“Nah, I'm... I'm good,” He assured, trying to take a step forward. As his hoof moved forward, he misplaced it, falling forwards. But before he could hit the ground, he was caught by two paws once again.

He gave a little “eep” as he was hoisted into the air, lying in the arms of Exodus. He looked up at the helmet that covered the guardians face, “I'm okay, really, you don't have to carry me...” he said, hoping to get out of being carried like a baby.

“Listen, I'm not too comfortable with this either, but we need to keep moving. I can walk for much longer than you can, you just rest up.”

The pegasus simply nodded in response. Wiggling a little to get comfortable and closing his eyes, dropping off into sleep shortly after.

'Oh my God that's adorable'

Exodus had been trying to ignore the fact that he was holding a pony for a long while now, but every time he looked even slightly down, his non-existent heart practically melted. He wasn't one for cute stuff normally, but he couldn't deny that the little colt was cute cuddled up like that.

As he walked, he tried to figure out what he could do to get into contact with his team. He was aware that his ship was in orbit, waiting for him, but he couldn't be sure that the others were able to get to their ships. With that out of the equation, he really didn't have any other options. His Ghost could build a communications tower but only if the available mass in the area could support something like that, and from the looks of what he had seen, metal wasn't exactly accessible.

A change to his motion tracker brought his eyes up to the left of his helmet. The waypoint had started tracking across the circle, meaning that he was coming close to the edge of the forest, and sure enough, he began to see light trickling in from the edge of the treeline.

When he passed the last of the trees, the sunlight covered his body, forcing him to lift his hand to his helmet to shield his eyes as it adapted to the sudden change of light. When it had shifted to its bright light mode, he dropped his hand and looked down at the pony in his arm. The sudden change had roused him from his sleep and he was looking around himself sleepily, his eyes half closed.

“Where... am I?” He asked, he still hadn't looked towards the person carrying him

“We just left the forest,” Exodus explained, getting a startled squeal from the pegasus.

“W- that wasn't a dream?” He asked, he had almost fallen from the guardians hands but Exodus had managed to prevent him falling just in time.

“I'm afraid not, Breeze. Ghost, could you waypoint the path?”

“Of course,” The Ghost said, pushing a new small triangle to Exodus' motion tracker.

The Exo didn't hesitate to start moving in the direction that had been given to him, he moved at a relatively fast pace, making sure that Breeze wasn't jostled around too much.

“Um... Exodus, I'm not as tired anymore, I can walk on my own,” Breeze said as he was carried, looking up at the Warlock.

“That may be true, but I can't slow down right now. I'm sorry, but I have two friends that could be in trouble.”

“Oh... Oh! Maybe my parents could help!” Breeze exclaimed, smiling.

“I'm not sure that they would be able to help with something like this, little one,” he replied, shaking his head slightly.

“But surely it's worth a shot, Exodus. After all, even you don't know where to begin. If we can get a layout of the land, maybe access to some local talk, we might be able to find them faster,” his Ghost said, flying alongside them at the same pace.

Exodus stayed quiet for a moment, thinking.

“Hmph, regardless, I would much rather we go faster than this. Ghost, can I get a Sparrow link here by any chance?”

“We could, technically. If we had the ship fly above you then I could link you directly to it. It doesn't even need to be on the ground,” The Ghost explained, its back segments switching around a couple of times.

“Fine by me. Let me know when a link is available,”

Everything that had just been said had flew right over Breeze's head. The only thing he understood was 'Sparrow' and that was only because of his love for animals.

As he tried to get his head around it, Exodus stopped moving. He looked up to see the guardian looking up in the air. He tried to follow his gaze but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

“What are you looking at, Exodus?” Breeze asked, squinting his eyes in an attempt to find something up there.

“Nothing you will be able to see, little one. Don't worry, you'll see something in a minute.” Exodus said, still staring at the sky.

It didn't take long for him to feel Exodus moving again. This time, he had turned and looked down away from the sky.

“Alright, Ghost. Get the Sparrow down here,” He said to the little white machine beside him.

As soon as he had finished the request, he lifted his leg and a larger machine suddenly materialised below him. It had a sleek front that was split in the middle. The very front of it had sparks of electricity shooting up the front every now and then. The entire thing appeared to be capable of hovering, though yet again, no magic seemed to be used to keep it up.

In front of him, two handles were built into the hull of the machine, and a small monitor was propped up just before him, with a slew of information and graphs that he didn't understand. As he looked around him, Exodus started moving a little.

“Alright, Breeze. This is going to be rough, but it will get us there much faster than walking. When we are moving, make sure you hold onto the console in front of you, okay? I'm not going to be able to keep you steady but I will do my best to keep the Sparrow straight.”

Breeze nodded, and took hold of the metal in front of him. When he got a good grip, he gave Exodus an “Okay”.

When everything was ready, he felt the machine lurch forward, already moving faster than he had ever moved in his entire life. A look of joy made its way to his face as the wind rushed through his mane. He gave a little laugh as he closed his eyes.

He could just hear Exodus call out for his to hold down as he bent forward, hunching over the console. Breeze was confused for a second, but held on tighter either way. As soon as he took a better hold on the metal, he felt the machine speed up.

Instantly, the wind became stronger as they moved at incredible speeds. Through blurred eyes, he managed to make out the front of the machine. It had been covered in electricity and glowed a bright blue, almost the same shade of Exodus' blue on the armour he wore.

They remained at that speed for many minutes, the world flying by them at breakneck speeds. Eventually, a large dirt path came into view. Exodus slowed the machine down to a halt as they reached it, letting Breeze jump down from the hovering craft.

“That was awesome!” Breeze cried, hopping around a bit.

Exodus gave a laugh, sitting up from his hunched over position, “I'm glad you enjoyed it, but we still have a ways to go. You sure your parents can help me?”

Breeze turned to look at him, “Of course, I'm sure of it!”

He watched as Exodus brought the machine around to face away from the forest, “So how far is your home from here?”

“It's not far, we just have to follow the path and it will lead us to the other path we need,” Breeze explained, trotting back towards the forest.

“Where are you- don't tell me you live in that place...” Exodus groaned, turning his machine around again.

“Yeah, it's actually pretty nice!”

“So I'm assuming that those wolf things are not a common occurrence?” Exodus asked.

“No, I have never seen one in the forest before, normally the Griffons get them before they go too far in, and even when that happens it is super rare. They don't usually like to come this far from their home.”

“Hm. How straight is this path?”

“Pretty straight, a couple of turns here and there, why?” Breeze asked, tilting his head.

“The path is wide enough to take the Sparrow in. Want to go for another ride?”

Breeze jumped for joy at that, running forward towards the Sparrow, “Heck yeah! Will we be going as fast as before?”

“Unfortunately, I can't risk that. The Sparrow should be able to take this path with relative ease at full speed, but I don't want you falling out at a hundred miles an hour.”

“Oh... but will we still be going fast?” The little colt asked, excitement still showing in his voice.

“We should be, after all, that's what this thing was built for.”

The pegasus gave a little jump and ran up to the Sparrow's side, letting Exodus pick him up and place him just in front of the pilot seat.

In a small house, far within the woods, a mother and father were talking to eachother as they relaxed in the living room. They had been talking for a few hours, mostly about the things that Melody had seen while in town.

As they spoke, Melody began to hear an odd noise coming from the forest.

“Honey, do you hear that?” She asked, standing up and walking to the window.

Seeker stood and joined her at the window, while his ears weren't as good as hers, he could make out and odd whining noise. It didn't sound like anything he had heard before.

“What do you think it could be?” Melody asked, worry etched on her face.

“I'm not sure... I'll go and see if I can see anything,” her husband said, walking briskly out of the door and closing it quickly behind him.

Outside, Seeker could hear the noise much more easily now. It sounded like it was coming from the path that lead to his home, which worried him as the sound didn't sound like anything good.

As he peered into the darkness, he noticed some odd lights quickly closing in upon his home. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the sound was coming from whatever was coming over there.

He took a defensive stance as the object came into view, ready for whatever it was. But he wasn't ready for what he saw...

The trip hadn't taken all that long. While Breeze had been correct in that there was some turns here and there, the path was pretty easy to travel, meaning he could sometimes fire the boost, much to the colt's delight.

As Exodus approached the small wooden house that Breeze had insisted was his home, he noticed a dark blue stallion waiting outside of it. He was in a stance that he didn't really understand, he assumed that it was supposed to look threatening.

When he reached the clearing, he slowed to a stop and let the small pegasus jump down.

“B-Breeze!? What are you doing? What is that thing?” The stallion exclaimed, a look of disbelief across his face.

“Hey dad! This is Exodus, he saved my life!” Breeze said, running up and giving his father a hug.

“Saved your life? In what way?” he asked, before turning to Exodus, “What did you do with my son?”

Getting off his Sparrow, the guardian stood tall as he gave his response, “I did nothing with your child, sir. I found him being attacked, and got rid of the attackers.”

The stallion gave him a glare, apparently not buying the story he gave. But before he could say more, his son spoke up, “Please, dad, he's telling the truth, he needs help,”

The father looked up once more, “...With what?”

“I need assistance in getting a lay of the land. I am unfamiliar with these lands and need to find my friends before they get hurt.” Exodus explained, his stance unmoving.

The stallion looked him over for a moment, “And why should we help you?”

“Because I saved your son. If I had ill intentions then surely he would be hurt, yes?”

The pony looked down at his son, thinking over what had been said. After a few moments, he looked up once more, “Fine. We'll help you, but you try anything, and I'll kick your flank from here to Canterlot.”

“Understood,”

Slowly, the stallion turned and opened the door, signalling for Breeze to go in. When his son was inside, he gave Exodus a look and walked inside, leaving the door open. Taking this as an invitation, Exodus walked forward, locking down his Sparrow. As he passed the door, he closed it behind him. He had to bend slightly in order to stand within the home, but that didn't bother him too much.

He walked forwards and looked around him. It was a quaint little house. It had wooden walls and flooring and an upper floor that he assumed had the bedrooms in. The hallway lead from the entrance to the kitchen, but he didn't pry into those areas. Instead, he turned to find a living room with a couple of couches and a fireplace. He walked inside it to find Breeze talking with a taller mare that he assumed was his mother. She was a grey pegasus with a three toned blue mane. Her wings appeared to be more... bat like than her son's wings and he could swear he saw fangs every now and then when she talked.

As he entered the room properly, she took notice of his presence. She looked afraid of him, but wasn't openly hostile like the stallion was.

“So you are the... guardian? That saved my son?” She asked, moving slightly in front of Breeze.

“I am, my name is Exodus. I am simply looking for some help and I will be gone.”

“I see. And from what I have heard, you just want to know the local area, yes?”

“That is correct. I need to locate the nearest capital to the three of us, if that is okay.” Exodus said, still standing there.

“That should be fine, Breeze, could you go to the world map from the bookshelf please.”

The small pegasus smiled at that and ran past Exodus out into the hallway. The time he was gone was spent in awkward silence. The mare giving him passing glances and Exodus looking at everything in the room in detail, marvelling at the quality that the furniture had been kept in.

The silence was ceased by small hoofsteps pattering back into the room.

“Here you go, mum!” He said, dropping a large book with the word 'Atlas' on the cover.

“Thanks, honey. Why don't you go see what your father is up to?”

“But mooom, I wanna stay here and talk with Exodus some more...”

The mare gave her son a look, but he didn't budge, instead, he sat down on the floor and gave the best set of puppy eyes could.

“Oh for Celestia's sake, fine.” She said, giving in.

“Yay! Thanks mom!” He cried, giving his mother a hug that she happily returned.

“Just... be careful, okay?” She whispered, apparently thinking that Exodus couldn't hear her. Exodus kept quiet, however. He didn't want to cause any problems when he was here to ask for aid from them.

The colt gave a quick nod and turned back to Exodus, “So, I guess we have to read now...”

The Exo gave a chuckle at that, “Not really, no. Ghost, could you lend a hand?”

In response, his ghost appeared beside his shoulder, much to the bewilderment of the poor mare on the other side of the room.

“Sure, just give me a minute,” he said, floating over to the book and shining a blue ray of light from his eye. A few seconds later, the ray of light stopped and the Ghost looked away from the book.

“I know reading is boring, but you didn't even read the first page...” Breeze said, putting a hoof on the cover of the book and flipping it open.

“Actually, I just read the entire thing. Exodus, I have rough coordinates for where Kalis and Kervis are.”

“W-what!? But that book is over one thousand words! There isn't any way you just read through the entire thing!” Breeze exclaimed jumping up with wide eyes.

“On the contrary, little one. If Ghost says he has read the entire thing then I am going to believe him. After all, reading a book isn't exactly the most impressive thing he can do,” Exodus asked.

Breeze's mouth just gaped open, he tried to think of an answer but came up short. He settled for a simple grunt.

“Well, I must thank you for your assistance, ma'am. I will take my leave now, as I had promised earlier.”

“Aw, come on, Exodus, why do you have to leave so soon?” Breeze said, a frown dominant on his face.

“Because I would be overstaying my welcome, little Breeze. It has been fun, but I think it's time for us to say goodbye.”

Breeze just looked down at the ground in silence, his frown growing, “Will you come back sometime?” He asked.

“Maybe, it depends on how quickly I can get to my friends. But I will try to come and say a proper goodbye when I do find them.”

Breeze just looked back down at the ground and nodded. Allowing Exodus to leave the room. When he left, Exodus turned to his Ghost.

“Alright, bring the Galliot down.”

The Ghost nodded and soon enough, the sound of roaring engines sounded across the forest.

Breeze watched as his new friend stood outside, watching the sky as a loud roar came closer and closer. Many thoughts had been going through his head as he watched, but the one that came through the clearest was the one causing him the most problems.

'Go with him'

His life at the house wasn't bad, but it was boring, intensely so. The animals would keep him busy, but they were capable of looking after themselves. Exodus was clearly good at what he did and would be able to look out for him when they went on adventures. The mare and stallion here were not even his real parents, they were just foster parents, they probably wouldn't even care if he left...

But what if they did? They obviously loved him, even if they were not going to be his permanent parents. If he stayed, he might even be able to see Exodus again... But what if he didn't? He said he would try to come back, meaning that he may never see the guardian again. He didn't want to lose his friend so quickly, especially since friends were extremely uncommon in the forest.

And so, with his mind set, he snuck outside to see a huge three winged machine hovering there. As he left, Exodus had just turned to his Ghost and had teleported up into the ship. All that was left was a cloud of Light and his Ghost.

“Ghost, wait!” Breeze called out, running up the little machine.

The Ghost turned at the voice, floating a little closer when he saw who it was.

“Yes, Breeze?” He asked when the colt reached where the Ghost was hovering.

“Please, take me with you guys, I won't be a bother or anything, just please let me come,” the pegasus said, raising his voice over the sound of the engines.

“What? Why? You seemed happy here,” the machine asked, perplexed at the actions on the pony.

“I am, it's just... I don't have many friends, and I really don't want to lose you guys so soon.” Breeze answered, pawing at the ground.

“You consider us your friends, after such a short amount of time?” The Ghost asked, still confused.

“Mhm! You guys are great! You have awesome stuff, Exodus is really nice and probably has loads of stories, and you are really nice to talk to aswell!”

The Ghost gave him a long look over before a voice could be heard coming from the ship, “Hey Ghost, you coming?” It said.

The small machine gave Breeze another look over before coming to a conclusion. Spinning his segments a little, he teleported Breeze into the rear of the pilot cabin before sending himself there.

He was going to have to have a long talk with Exodus about this.

Author's Note

Melody Moon belongs to this guy
Rushing Breeze belongs to this guy
OC's have been used with full permission by the owners.
This chapter has no affect on the individual backstories of the OC's.

I have been writing this for a straight 8 hours :ajsleepy: God it took so long...
But it is done, the longest chapter I have ever written. Hope you guys enjoy this.
There may not be a new chapter for a little while as the Age of Triumph is starting today and I am going to be playing it a lot. When my want to play it has died off a little I will come back to this.

Next up, I'll give you three guesses who the next chapter is gonna be about :3

Oh, and for those who didn't know, I am taking OC's for this story. If you want to see you OC in this story, throw me a message and we can talk about it ^^

4) Kervis' Journey

The first thing Kervis felt was pain. Pain everywhere, it felt like he had just fallen down a cliff with no armour to protect him. He brought a hand to his forehead, hoping to at the very least dull the intensity of it. Realising that such a simple movement wouldn't help him, he opened his eyes, squinting at the sudden change of light.

He appeared to be in some sort of cell. The walls and floor were concrete, and a single cot in the corner was all that decorated the small room. He got up and walked to the solid door, peering out of the small gridded window that was built into the upper half of the door. He couldn't see much, just other prison cells, but he assumed that he was not the only one in the building.

Looking down, he noticed that he had been stripped of his armour. His normal white and green armour had been replaced with some tattered robes. He normally would have noticed his lack of protection sooner, but the pain was clouding his mind.

Seeing no reason to stand around, the Titan walked over to the cot and sat in it. He needed to get his stuff back, but he didn't want to enter a fight with no protection.

“Ghost?” He called out hoping for his friend to be okay.

“I'm here, but I have to be quiet. Sound travels easily in this building,” he heard from his right.

He turned to face the voice, knowing that his Ghost was merely invisible, “Where are the others? And where's my stuff?”

“I can't read the other two very well, some sort of interference, but they are not here. You had been captured pretty quickly, too fast for me to get any usable scans. Your belongings have been taken by the ones that captured you.”

“But who is it? Fallen? This looks like something they would do...” Kervis asked, looking around the cell.

“It isn't Fallen, nor is it anything I have ever seen before. They- they are coming, get ready.”

At that, he began hearing heavy footsteps coming closer to his cell, they sounded much too heavy to be a human, and too light to be Vex or Cabal. He got up and backed up against the wall, shifting his Light to Solar.

Not long after, a massive face appeared at the grate. The door quickly unlocked revealing his captor. It appeared to be a bull/human hybrid. Its head and legs were that of a bull's, but its chest and arms were human. He had seen pictures of things similar, but the name of them eluded him.

“You're finally awake,” The bull said, stepping closer, “can you talk?”

“I can,” Kervis responded, moving slightly away from the wall.

“Good, it is always easier when they can. I have come to explain why you are here,”

When the bull got no response, it continued, “You are here to entertain our king. You don't have a say in the matter, and you will do as we say.”

Kervis gave a smirk at that, “Or what?” He asked.

The bull glared at him, “Or you die a painful death. Your choice.”

Kervis' smirk dropped. He had guessed that to be the case, but normally the people that had captured him would lead him on, expecting him to do something for them, the simple way he gave that threat said a lot about what he was willing to do.

“Fair enough. How exactly do you want me to entertain your king? I am not exactly a man of many talents,” The guardian asked.

“A fight to the death. You will be released in the arena tomorrow, and you will fight until you either die, or kill every opponent. Whatever the outcome is, you will die in the end. This is your life now, slave, get used to it.”

The animal finished his explanation by closing and locking the door, the sound of clunking metal signifying the end of the conversation.

“Hmph, not gonna sugarcoat it huh?” Kervis said to the door, knowing that the bull could hear him. It gave no indication that it had, however, and continued walking away, the sound of another slamming door could be heard as his captor left the cell room.

He turned and sat down on the cot, thinking about his options. He could very easily break out of the cell, a single punch would send that door flying. But he had no idea where his gear was, and without it, he was stuck.

As he thought, a sound started to filter through to his cell. Looking up, he recognised it as crying. He stood up and walked to the door, attempting to find the source of the crying. After a few moments, he determined it to be coming from one of the nearby cells.

“Hey, you okay in there?” he called out. The crying ceased with a gasp before he even finished his sentence.

“U-Uh, yes, I'm fine,” a female voice confirmed.

“Really? You don't sound it.”

“I'm okay, I just... I miss my family,” The woman whimpered out, sniffing slightly.

“I am sure you do, but everything will be alright, you just gotta hold up,” Kervis assured, hoping to help her calm down.

“I appreciate you trying to help, but I think we both know things aren't going to be alright.”

“As long as you don't give up, nothing bad will happen to you,” The Titan pressed.

“Maybe... but it still doesn't stop the fact that we are going to die tomorrow.” She stated, her voice growing quieter.

“Hey, you aren't going to die. What's your name?”

“L-Lemon Drop,”

Kervis' mind instantly drew a blank, Lemon Drop? What sort of name was that? He pushed those thoughts away for the time being, he had to say something or this poor woman could die in the morning.

“Well, Lemon Drop, tomorrow you stick with me, I'll make sure you make it.

She gave a little laugh through her sniffles, “Thanks... what's your name?”

“Kervis, pleasure to meet you,”

“The pleasure is mine,”

Kervis slowly woke from his sleep. He had been talking with Lemon Drop for a long while, she ended up fairly happy and went to sleep a bit earlier than him in preparation for the next day.

Before he could properly get up, however, the heavy footsteps began sounding through the cell block. He looked up to see a multitude of those bulls walking down the hallway with spears and swords. They were unlocking each cell to pull out the prisoners that had been locked in them.

It didn't take long for a bull to open his cell, but before it could grab him, the Titan stood and raised his hand, “That won't be necessary,” he said. The bull grunted and followed him out closely, his hand on the hilt of his sword at all times.

When he left the cell, he heard a whimper and a small squeak from his right. He turned his head to see a small animal lying on the ground, its eyes closed. It appeared to be a pony, but other than the obvious four legs, hooves, mane and pony looking muzzle, the similarities ended. Its fur was a deep yellow, slightly darker than its mane and tail. It had huge eyes that were an amber orange when it opened them.

It took a second for Kervis to realise that the pony had come from the cell that Lemon Drop had been in. Putting two and two together, he guessed that the pony before him was Lemon herself.

When she opened her eyes, she caught sight of the human. Her eyes went wide as she looked him over, but neither of them got any time to speak as they were shoved down the hallway towards a large iron door.

They moved in relative silence. Some of the prisoners were crying, others were shouting. But many just remained quiet, accepting their fate. Lemon moved up closed to Kervis as they walked, looking up at him and giving him a small smile.

“Good to properly meet you,” She said.

“Better late than never,”

The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful. One or two of the prisoners attempted to fight back against the bulls, but were quickly put down. None of the others tried anything after that. They were mostly ponies, though there were some other species he had never seen before. Some of the ponies had horns or wings which nearly blew his mind when he finally managed to get his head around it.

They were corralled into a large pen, where shelves resided in the corner with some armour and weapons placed upon them. It appeared that the forty-something prisoners had been expected to distribute the items between themselves, but that, naturally, wasn't how it turned out.

As soon as the group noticed the weapons, there was a scrabble to grab as many as they could. Lemon almost went and joined them, but Kervis managed to grab her before she got herself hurt.

When the small fight subsided, three were dead, and five had been injured. Kervis and Lemon had stayed at the side, away from the mass of prisoners and so had not been touched by them.

As the group dispersed to other sides of the pen, a large set of doors opened nearby. Six bulls walked in, each clutching huge swords and wearing what appeared to be personalised suits of armour.

“Alright you lot, get out there! Any that try to run will be killed here and now!” One of them yelled. The group fell into silence immediately, beginning to filter out of the pen and towards the large set of doors.

As they passed the doors, they were met with the sound of cheers coming from all angles. They appeared to be in a large Colosseum, the walls surrounding them were filled with bulls and other creatures of all sort of species. Straight ahead of them, a part of the wall jutted out, and a huge bull dressed in ornate looking clothing sat within the section.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlebulls, to the forty-second annual deathmatch!” The bull in the section of the wall yelled out. He could somehow be heard by everyone in the crowd, leading to a new roar of cheering.

“I wish you all the best of luck with your bets! Now, let's not waste any time. If the first group would like to come forward, let's get this fight started!” The bull had been standing during this little speech and sat back down when he had finished. As soon as he sat, another set of doors on the opposite side of the arena opened, revealing a large team of bulls all armed to the teeth.

In comparison with how the prisoners were equipped, they were like an army. Kervis quickly pulled the yellow pony to the side when he caught sight of the team.

“Alright, Lemon. You are gonna have to trust me, okay?” He said quietly, looking straight into her eyes. She had started tearing up earlier on and was beginning to break down.

She nodded her head in response to his question, following him back as he walked behind the group. Coming up with a plan, he got ready.

“Ghost,” He whispered, “Get ready to resurrect, and make sure that Scorched Earth is prepped,”

He didn't need a confirmation, his trust in his Ghost was all he needed. He began channelling solar energy through his hands, not enough to be visible, but enough to hurt something should he need to.

The prisoners were set upon immediately by the bulls, screams coming from those that were not at the front. Lemon's look of fear grew substantially, and she jumped behind Kervis in an attempt to hide.

One of the bulls took notice of the human and pony and charged, its sword raised high. As it charged, Kervis raised his fist as quickly as he could, shrouding his hand in fire. The bull realised its mistake a moment too late as the fist slammed into its chest, setting it alight and punching a deep hole into its body.

The towering beast screamed in pain and fell forward onto the ground, rolling and hitting itself in a vague attempt to extinguish the flames. The bulls around him turned to see their ally injured, confusion written across their faces. They looked up to see the Titan standing there, fire covering his fists.

They all charged at once, their weapons ready to kill. Kervis only had a split second to react.

But that was all that he needed.

He threw his hands up, trailing fire behind them. As his right hand trailed down to his side, the sound of a hammer striking an anvil could be heard cleanly through the maelstrom of shouts and screaming. As the sound rang out, a massive hammer made purely of solar energy formed in his hand.

He brought the hammer up at the nearest bull, slamming it into its jaw. It erupted in fire, creating a huge cloud of fire that injured the other bulls that had charged. Kervis took this opportunity to strike. Quick as lightning, he threw his hammer out at the nearest cluster of bulls, the hammer exploding on contact and decimated what had been left of that small cluster. A new hammer appeared with a clang in his hand.

Turning, he noticed a few more bulls attempting a flanking attack, but they didn't get far. They hadn't even gone ten feet before an explosion cut them off, smothering them in searing flames. Wave after wave this went on, the smell of burning flesh filling the air as the Titan did his work.

It didn't take long for the waves of bulls to cease, leaving piles of dead, charred corpses in their wake. Not many of the prisoners had made it through the fight unscathed. Many of them had been killed as soon as the fight had started but a couple of them managed to make it through Kervis' retaliation.

He looked behind him to see Lemon Drop standing there, staring in awe at the destruction around her. She looked a little burnt but otherwise unharmed.

“You okay?” Kervis asked, kneeling down before her and dissipating the solar energy. He gave her a quick check over for injuries he might have missed.

“Y-Yeah, I'm fine...” She stuttered, her eyes locked on one of the piles of bodies.

“Hey, look at me,” It took a moment before her eyes shifted to him, “We're going to make it out of this, but you need to stay calm, alright?”

She only nodded, her eyes beginning to wander to the carnage around her.

Kervis sighed and stood up, turning to the bull that had given the speech earlier.

“I'm assuming you're in charge here, so I will say this only once. Let me and the remaining prisoners go free, or I do what I just did to the audience aswell,” He threatened, channelling more energy to his fists.

But instead of replying to his threat, the bull simply laughed and waved his hand, the crowd cheering once more at the gesture.

The human began looking around him, searching for the reason that the crowd had become so excited. His search was short-lived, however.

A door had begun to open, and a huge bull stepped through once the door was wide enough. The beast was immense, at least three times the size of the original ones he had been fighting. It had a warhammer in its two hands that it dragged behind him, it apparently being too heavy to lift properly even for a being of its size.

Backing up, he put himself between Lemon and the bull and spoke up quietly, “Ghost? Any ideas?”

“Your ship. It's your only option right now as your Light is still recovering from Sunbreaking just now. If you can survive for about thirty seconds, I can get it down here and provide support.”

“Good enough, do it. I'll distract this asshole,”

At that, they both began their work. Kervis ran forward, pushing back some of his remaining Light for use in case he needed it. As he got closer, the beast attempted to take a swing at him, only missing by an inch. It swung slowly, but he could practically feel the force behind it. If he got hit by something like that without armour, he would most certainly be downed.

Thinking quickly, he slammed his fist into the bulls knee, hoping to at least injure it. But all he got was a kick to the chest, sending him flying backwards. The flames had barely singed the bull, who had begun closing in on him.

Kervis jumped back up, pushing a chunk of Light forward from his dwindling reserves. He only needed to keep the bull fighting long enough for the Vienna to arrive. When it did, the fight would be pretty much over.

The bull began another swing, forcing him to move and avoid being hit. He leapt forward, slamming another fist into its knee. This one got more of a reaction as the flames erupted from the impact, setting the fur on its leg ablaze.

It roared in pain, staggering back a bit and staring at its leg. It seemed to not be used to its prey fighting back, nevermind actually hurting it.

“It's here! Get down!”

Hearing his Ghost's warning, he looked up to see his ship bearing down upon them at full speed. He whirled around and pushed Lemon to the ground, covering her the best he could. No sooner had they hit the ground, explosions began raining down from the sky as the Vienna's cannon began firing on the bull.

Each round fired tore chunks from the beast, the flesh raining down from it. Soon, the ground had been stained red with blood, the audience near the arena grounds looking much redder than when they had arrived.

As the disgusted cries from the audience grew louder, the Vienna swung around to hover above the arena.

“Ghost! Get Lemon in the ship, I'm going for my gear.” Kervis called, turning towards the gate they had entered from.

As he ran towards it, he glanced over at the yellow pony. She gave him one last look before turning into a cloud of Light. When she had teleported, the ship backed off, flying out of the reach of the arena.

He reached the gate not long after that, and found the only metal parts of it to be the joints holding it to the wall. And so, reaching into his Light reserves, he pulled out a thermite grenade and slammed it into the structure, backing away from it before it detonated.

The grenade shattered the wood, leaving a huge hole in its place and allowed him to pass through without issue.

There were no guards beyond the gate. Kervis came to the assumption that this was due to the security becoming lax over time, thanks to the lack of prison breaks.

He began walking through the hallways, dodging around any guards that might have been running by to try an find him. He was no Hunter, but he understood how to use shadows to his advantage from his time with Kalis.

Eventually, he came across a more heavily built door. The language above it was far beyond his comprehension, but he figured the structure of the door signified something much more important on the other side. During his time trying to find his gear, his Light had restored somewhat, giving him the ability to summon another hammer. When it appeared in his hand he threw it as hard as he could at the door, the wood detonating on impact. While reinforced, it had clearly never been built for something that intense, what remained simply fell from the iron hinges it was fitted to.

He passed the smouldering doorway to find a large room with various equipment scattered across tables. There were two bulls, one seemed to be female, dressed in white coats in the corner of the room. The male was standing in front of the female with his arms raised in a defensive manner, but Kervis had no interest in them. There, sitting across a large table, was his armour.

It looked like it had been roughed up a bit, but that was nothing that his Ghost couldn't fix. He quickly ran over to it, throwing the various sections of plating into position. The bulls in the corner continued to watch as he donned his gear. The male had lowered his hands a bit, apparently realising that the human cared more about his belongings than them.

When the last piece of armour was set in place, the Titan felt a surge of power. The suit had been storing excess Light in case of an emergency, and had detected his lowered Light level. He had been given a massive boost to his Light level, leaving him far stronger than when he had arrived.

“Ghost, I have my stuff, get me out when you can,” He said into his comms, turning to walk towards the doorway.

“Got it, shouldn't be any longer than three minutes,” Was his response.

While walking, he began checking his HUD for damages. He had no idea what the bulls had done to his armour, but it almost felt... sluggish. He himself felt stronger, but the helmet's response time to his commands felt a little off.

A sound drew his attention from his helmet's display to the hallway before him. There was a small team of bulls wearing armour that looked much less ornate and more combat capable. They were all outfitted with spears and swords, and the one at the front had a primitive crossbow in his hands.

The team stopped walking when they noticed the guardian was looking at them. A few behind the leader looked wary, almost fearful, but the leader had a look of pure rage.

Screaming, he threw his crossbow up and fired at Kervis, the bolt striking him in the chest. The plasteel took it well, but the force of the impact knocked him back. The bulls used this moment to dash forward, slashing at him at the same time.

“Ghost!” He yelled, raising his hands and blocking a couple of the weapons. The majority of the attacks hit him, but his thick armour took the blows.

“I'm here, still moving to get you. You need a weapon?”

“A sword, if you could,” He replied, glancing a couple more attacks off of his gauntlets.

As he shoved a bull back, a blinding light caught them off guard. When it lessened, the Titan had a new object in his hands. It was a huge sword, about the same size as him, made out of shining metal. Its wide surface had detailed patterns etched across it and the entire blade was surrounded by purple energy.

“Much better,” Kervis said, raising his sword and taking a swing at the closest bull. The blade cleaved quickly through the armour it wore and sliced into its flesh, leaving a massive gaping cut.

At the sight of their ally falling, the others fell into a blinding rage, all of them flinging their weapons left and right in an attempt to hit him. Kervis simply smiled behind his helmet.

As his attackers began to bunch up, he jumped forward and spun left, holding his sword at arm's length. His continued his spin, the sword slicing through anything in its way. Void energy circled him, following the blade and burning through the armour it touched, giving the metal an easier time cutting through.

He ended the spin after three revolutions. The bulls that had survived the attack had either backed way off or were still lying on the ground, their wounds audibly burning.

But the human ignored all of this, opting to just rest his sword on his shoulder and walking forward, retracing his steps towards the arena and allowing the remaining bulls to tend to their fallen.

Lemon looked over the small lights and monitors with an obvious look of fascination. She had no idea what any of it meant, but it certainly looked pretty.

She still gave the little white machine cautious glances. While she didn't see how it could possibly hurt her, she had an odd feeling about it.

“Kervis, I see you down there. Coming down for a pickup.” It said, looking at the monitors before it.

After a couple of bumps from the ship, a being she assumed to be Kervis appeared on the ship. Only this time he had a large suit of armour on. The main plates were a bright green, and most of them had lights creating patterns over the surface of it. His shoulders were incredibly thick, and had large white spikes jutting out from multiple areas on it.

“Thanks Ghost, I have everything I need, let's get out of here,” He said, taking his helmet off and revealing the face she recognised as Kervis.

Before sitting in the front chair, he looked around the rear of the ship until his eyes fell upon Lemon.

“You okay? They didn't hit you did they?” He asked.

Lemon shook her head and sat down where she was standing, looking over the armour that Kervis wore.

The human gave a nod and turned to sit in his chair. As he started to push various buttons on the metal before him, Lemon went back to looking around at the lights within the ship. Each surface had a large array of lights and buttons, some labelled, some not.

One light was flashing more rapidly than the others, one labelled 'Radio'. Apparently, the small white machine noticed it aswell.

“Kervis, transmission from the team,” It said, hovering over to the light.

The human turned to look at his companion, and upon noticing the light, he got up and walked over to it aswell.

When he reached the console, he began pressing various sections of the console until a new voice sounded throughout the ship.

“This is guardian Kalis-29 to fireteam Odium. If you are receiving this, please respond.”

The Titan instantly grew a smile at that.

“This is Exodus, how are you doing, Kalis?”

Kervis looked like he almost wanted to laugh right there and then. The timing was almost too perfect; even Lemon had to agree.

“Exodus! Oh man, it's good to hear from you,” Kalis said, audibly happier.

“And it's good to hear from you, though you didn't answer my question,” Exodus responded.

“Oh right, well, not bad considering the situation. Met with a local, I'm assuming that you have aswell?”

“That I have. Apparently my Ghost thought it would be a great idea to stow a youngster on board the Galliot, so I guess I have a little companion now,”

“Always knew you were a softie, Exodus,” Kalis commented, laughing a little.

“Yeah, yeah. You heard from Kervis?”

When his name was mentioned, the human in question quickly jabbed at a button, “Until now, I was kinda busy,” he said into the console.

“Oh shit, hey Kervis! How you doin'?” Kalis asked.

“Same old, same old. Just happy to know you guys are alright,”

There was a moment of silence before Kervis spoke once again, “So what now? I would want to meet up, but I have no idea where I am,”

“And the same goes for me; the little one only knows a couple of towns outside of the forest he lived in,” Exodus explained.

They could practically hear the smirk come through and Kalis gave her reply, “Actually, I might have you covered on that front,”

Author's Note

So that only took like three weeks...

Really sorry for the time it took. It had actually been done up to the beginning of the scene where Kervis is talking on comms for about two weeks but I just never got round to finishing it. Also, I know that this chapter is significantly shorter than Exodus', and there is a good reason for that. The Journey chapters were designed to introduce each character, show off their abilities and personalities. With Exodus, the chapter kinda just wrote itself. I initially wanted it to be around 4000 words but it ended up being over 7000 :facehoof: . The chapters in this story will be aimed at around 4000 words unless the story forces me to go way over that. Don't expect them all to be 7k words long :raritywink:

I tried doing something different with Kervis. Not sure how it turned out, guess I will have to use the like to dislike ratio to figure that out. If you have any feedback on how I did with this chapter, please, feel free to let me know. Any feedback at all will help me progress, even just an "It was good," as it means that what I did was okay and I can try it again in the future.

I have been blown away by the popularity this story has gotten, and I can't thank you all enough. It may take some time for me to get chapter out for this but I have some pretty nice ideas for this story that I think you guys might enjoy, but that is for me to know about and for you guys to find out ;)

Hope you all enjoyed this, OC's are always being accepted in this story, so if you want to see your OC in it, throw me a message!

Votes have been taken and the antagonist has been selected. Thanks to everyone who voted, the next chapter will have a screenshot of the overall votes so you can see how many people voted alongside you. :twilightsmile:

5) Reunion

Flamelight had been sitting in his living room for a few hours, just thinking. He was contemplating what to do with the alien currently living on the hill not too far from his home, and had not managed to come up with any solutions that wouldn't end with him getting hurt.

Well, the alien technically hadn't been living there. She had been inside a large orange and black machine for the last few hours. What she had been doing in there was unknown to the stallion.

He wasn't even sure it was a female to begin with. Its voice certainly sounded feminine, but everything else about her showed nothing about its gender. Unless he was corrected, he figured he would just settle on called it a 'she'.

It wasn't long before he was interrupted by a sound. His head shot up, him fearing the worst, but when the sound came through again he quickly realised what it was. He hadn't eaten for many hours and it seemed his stomach wasn't happy about that.

Shaking his head a bit, the pegasus jumped down from the couch he had been sitting on and trotted off into the kitchen, hoping to find something to eat that would keep his belly quiet.

As his search went on for something substantial, his mind began to wander once again. His thoughts quickly switched to the alien on the hill, this time pondering on what she would eat. He wasn't sure if she even needed to eat in the first place, but if she did, what would she need to live?

His train of thought came to a halt when he opened another cupboard and found a fairly large bag of pasta. Shrugging his shoulders, he grabbed the bag and got a kettle filled with water going.

While waiting for the water to boil, he heard a noise from his living room. A sound he really didn't want to hear. Someone was knocking on the door, much harder than what was needed. Slowly, he poked his head around the door frame, looking over at the front door. It was a solid piece of wood, so he couldn't see what was on the other side, but he could guess from the repeated heavy banging that it wasn't someone he wanted to see.

In the end, however, he decided that it wasn't a good idea to ignore it, especially if it turned out to be someone important. And so, as quietly as possible, he crept up to the window in the living room and peered out towards the door. His heart skipped a beat when he saw who it was.

There, standing tall, was the alien. She was still hitting the door, seemingly oblivious to the pony watching her. At her shoulder, her Ghost turned its eye to look at the suddenly moving curtains. It gave him a look over before turning to the alien.

“Uh, Kalis...” It said, bringing the alien's head around to look over at it, and in doing so, at Flamelight.

“Oh. Hey, pony, I need to talk with you,” she said, pulling her arm away from the door.

The stallion's eyes shrank down as the alien's eyes met his own. He locked up in fear, barely registering the question.

“Goddammit, I thought we were through this,” she muttered, taking a step towards the window, “Hey! Wake up already!”

The poor pegasus yelled in fright when his mind switched back to reality. He vision was entirely taken by black and orange armour.

“Listen, I don't have much time right now. I have managed to contact my team and they are on their way right now, but we need somewhere for Kervis and the other ponies to stay for the night. I was hoping that you would be willing to let them stay here” She explained, still watching him.

“I... wha?” Was the pony's only response. His mind was entirely taken by the fact that there were even more aliens coming right here.

“Dude, they have a kid with them. For fuck's sake are you really going to leave a kid to sleep outside?” The alien said, her voice giving away her clearly growing anger.

“W-wait a minute, your team... took ponies?” Flame asked, looking at the luminous faceplate of the being before him.

“They came of their own free will. Now are you going to let them stay or not?”

“Well, uh, you see, um”

“Jesus Christ what is it with you? What if Kervis stays away and you just let the ponies stay here? Would that be okay?”

Flamelight flinched back at the tone of voice being directed at him, but he managed to get a small nod out.

“Finally, some progress,” she said, stepping back a little, “I'll bring the ponies here when they all arrive, okay?”

The petrified stallion didn't even respond to the question, instead settling on just staring at her in a trance like state. The alien just sighed and shook her head, walking away at a brisk pace from the small home.

The flight towards the coordinates given by Kalis had been pretty quiet for Exodus. Breeze had gone to sleep not long after the radio conversation and had slept like a log since then, and Exodus' Ghost had been surveying the various energies that surrounded them.

The Warlock gave a small console at his right a quick look, the display reading the distance to the waypoint given. Two-hundred and thirty two miles, still some distance to go.

He set the Galliot to autopilot and got up, walking back into the rear of the ship, rousing the small pony from his sleep with his footsteps.

“Oh, hey -yawn- Exodus, are we nearly there?” He asked, his eyes half closed.

“Not yet, I'm afraid. Still have a couple of hundred miles before we get there, you may aswell get some more sleep,” the guardian replied, looking over at the colt.

“Nah, I don't want to sleep through the entire thing... especially since you wouldn't have anyone to talk to,”

Exodus gave a chuckle at that, “Don't worry about me, I'm fine with not talking to anybody for the duration of the trip.”

The pony didn't reply to that. Instead, he sat up and looked around the ship's interior, “So what are your friends like?”

“Well, they are quite a bit different to me I can tell you that much. Kalis is an Exo, like me, but she is a Hunter. Kervis, however, is a human Titan.”

“Hunter? Titan? Why are they called that?”

“Don't worry, I am getting to that,” Exodus said before continuing, “Each guardian is given their class when they are reborn, the process of bringing a long dead person back to life using the light of the Traveller. After that, it is the process of training. Kervis is the most experienced of the three of us, what with him being around for over two years, and he was the one who trained me and Kalis in how to use our abilities effectively.”

Breeze looked like he was still confused, “But that doesn't really explain what they are like...”

“Well, as for personalities, that is for you to learn. I will say now that neither of them are bad people. They have both made mistakes, but they are still good. They may look a little intimidating at first, but I'm sure that you will come to like them in time.”

“I'll take your word for it then I guess. How long will it be before we get there?”

“About half an hour, hope the trip doesn't bore you too much,” Exodus said, moving over to a new console.

“It won't, just sitting here is entertaining enough,” the colt said with a smile, giving his tail a flick.

“Fair enough, let me know if you need anything,”

Sleep hadn't come easy for Lemon, but she eventually found an hour's rest, the hum of the electronics and engines helping her to stay asleep. When she had awoken, she almost thought she hadn't gone to sleep at all. Kervis was still sitting in his seat, his Ghost beside him, and the consoles flashed before him in various colours.

She gave a small yawn as she got up and had a look around the small interior of the ship. The Ghost heard this and turned to face her.

“Sleep well?” It asked, flying closer to the mare.

She was still slightly wary of it, but had come to the conclusion a while ago that it couldn't hurt her, even if Kervis wasn't there to stop it.

“Yeah, kinda. Difficult sleeping after all that happened,” She replied.

“Understandable. I'm surprised you are still in a good state of mind after what you saw. I feel like most other ponies that made it out of there will have PTSD for some time,” The machine commented, its segments spinning a couple of times.

“I'm not sure what PTSD is but Kervis being there helped me stay... sane,”

“Oh? I would think that a strange alien fighting within a few feet of you would have the opposite reaction,” The Ghost said.

“Maybe so, but knowing that he was trying to get me out of there really helped. He's a nice... uh,”

“Person,”

“Right, person. He's a nice person, isn't he?”

“He tries to be,” The Ghost started, looking over at the Titan in question, “He can come off as a more stone hearted person at times, but deep down he is like all guardians. He just wants to help,”

Lemon followed its gaze to look at the human. He hadn't moved since she woke up.

“Is he okay? He isn't moving much,” she asked.

“Fast asleep. The exertion from the fight took a lot out of him.”

The Ghost turned back to look at the mare, “I would be interested in learning some things about your world. None of the Ghosts in this world know any more than I do, and so it would help to have an idea of what it is like here.”

“Oh, sure. What sort of stuff did you want to know?”

“Everything that you would deem important,”

Lemon groaned, this was going to be a long flight.

Things were not at all calm in the Canterlot castle. Guards were running to and fro delivering messages. Up in one of the many towers, Celestia and her sister were having a conversation.

“But sister, these reports say everything we need to know. Kidnapping and murder? How could we possibly allow them to go free?” Luna exclaimed, leaping up from her sitting position.

“Because the reports are not reliable enough to go hunting for the two beings that caused all of this. I would rather wait and see if they are actually a threat.” Celestia responded, a cup of tea in her magic.

“How could you say that? You yourself saw the carnage left at the minotaur arena and the two foster parents are in hysteria searching for their colt. Those two have caused enough problems, there is no reason to let them cause more!”

“The minotaurs have been known for slave fighting since long before your return, and those foster parents, while the situation is problematic, shouldn't need to worry themselves so much. We'll make sure that Breeze is returned to them quickly.” Celestia calmly explained, take a sip from her cup.

Luna was about to start shouting yet again when a guard burst through the door, “Your majesties, two new objects have been detected flying at an incredible speed towards Manehattan! What should we do?”

“That's them!” Luna said, focusing her gaze on her sister, “We can't let them escape, this could be our only chance!”

“Luna!” Celestia was now standing, a stern look on her face, “You are not thinking straight. One of them managed to kill off nearly every minotaur guard in that arena. What do you think two of them are capable of? I will not put my ponies in harm's way to satisfy your want for their capture.”

Luna's jaw had dropped midway through the lecture, and she was left standing dumbstruck before her sister.

“Tia, I-”

“No, Luna. No excuses. I think you need to go find somewhere to cool off. We can talk about this when your mind is in a reasonable state.” Turning to the guard, Celestia continued, “Send a small squad to Manehattan and alert the guards stationed there. Do not attempt to approach them without me there.”

“As you wish, your highness,”

“Well, we are coming up on the coordinates Kalis gave us,” Kervis said as he looked over the various readings being displayed before him.

“Oh, that didn't take as long as I thought it would,” Lemon commented, walking up beside the Titan.

“I pushed the atmospheric engines a bit harder than normal, didn't want to get there late,” Kervis said. Seeing no reason to continue flying himself, he moved the control of the ship to his Ghost.

“Ah, I guess it would be rude to arrive late to something like this,”

“That it would,”

The ship swung around when it came within line of sight with a small home near some hills. Upon one of the hills lay a ship that Kervis was all too familiar with.

“There she is, get ready to go down there,” Kervis said, standing up and looking over at his Ghost.

“Teleporting you now, see you down there,” The Ghost said as Lemon and Kervis became shrouded in light once more. When the light dissapated they were standing before the ship they had seen on the camera feed. It was far larger than it looked from a bird's eye view.

Before they could take a step forward, a voice called out to them.

“Took you long enough! You get stuck in traffic?”

Kervis turned to find Kalis standing to the left of her ship with a hand on her hip. She had her helmet off revealing the amused expression she so easily pulled off. The Titan could never understand how an Exo was even capable of doing something so lifelike.

“Sorry I couldn't get here quick enough for your liking. I think I nearly burned my engines out just trying to get here,” Kervis replied, taking off his own helmet.

“Ah you know I'm just messing with ya. Who's the pony?”

At this, the Titan stepped aside giving Kalis a full look at the yellow mare that had slinked behind him during their conversation.

“This is Lemon, only just managed to get her out of there,” he explained to the Hunter before him.

“Heh, pretty cute,” she said before looking up at him, “I have a place for them to stay while we figure this out. Want me to show you where or are you good?”

“Up to Lemon really. You want to go to the house or stay with me?” Kervis asked.

“Um... what would you think would be best?” She questioned in turn. She had been giving Kalis nervous looks, apparently not comfortable with how the guardian looked.

“Honestly? I wouldn't mind you staying here, but if you aren't comfortable being here then I won't hold anything against you if you decide to go to the house,”

“If you want me to stay here then I guess I can do that,” Lemon said quietly, her eyes locked on the Hunter.

It didn't take long for the Hunter in question to notice the increased attention she was getting, “Hey, I'm not going to hurt you, you know... I know I look weird but I'm just like Kervis on the inside.”

“Well... if you say so, and if Kervis is okay with you then you can't be all that bad,”

“How about I leave you two here and go check on Exodus? Normally he is the first one to arrive to things like this,” Kervis asked as he put his helmet back on.

“Sounds fine by me, I can watch this one,” Kalis agreed.

“She isn't the one I want watched,”

“Hey!”

Kervis wasn't listening at that point, what with him being on his ship already. The silence that ensued was just as awkward as it may have seemed. Kalis was leaning against her ship grumbling various insults towards a certain human, most of which flew right over Lemon's head. Lemon had decided to just sit down and focus her attention on the black and orange ship near her. It was like nothing she had ever seen. The machinery required to even build something like that was far beyond her imagination.

“You see something you like?” Kalis asked, noticing the curious stare the mare was giving her ship.

“Oh, I was just trying to figure out how it could have been constructed. I'm not exactly very knowledgeable about machines, but I find looking at them fascinating.”

“Heh, my Ghost would be a better conversation partner for things like that. I have never cared about how things worked, I just care about whether they do their job or not,”

“Well then could I speak with it? I would love to even vaguely understand how it works,” Lemon had grown a small smile at the turn of events, quickly starting to like the robotic human that she had feared only minutes ago.

“Sure, if he wants to then I don't see why not. Ghost?”

Kalis looked to her shoulder as the small white robot appeared, “I don't have any problems with sharing unclassified information. What sort of stuff would you like to know?”

“Um, as much as you are willing to tell,”

“Exodus, where are you?” Kervis asked into the microphone. He had been trying for a little while to contact his team mate but had no luck as of yet.

“Jesus Christ, don't tell me you need us to get you out of something again. I swear if you've fallen in another pit I'll-”

He paused as a rattling sound crept through the speakers above him, after a second or two, a voice sounded through them.

“Sorry! Sorry, I was doing something and couldn't hear the mic. What's up?”

“Where are you? Me and Kalis are waiting on you. And what exactly are you doing that needs you to go away from your comms?”

“I've been showing the little one how some of the ship systems worked. He's a curious one I'll give him that,”

“Right. Well, how long will you be?” Kervis asked, shaking his head slightly at the Warlock's behaviour. His mood always changed when he got into explanations of things that he used.

“About five minutes, providing this one doesn't want to know anything else,”

“Good, we'll see you soon,”

The Titan jabbed a couple of buttons and stood back sighing, “Alright Ghost, send me back.” His request was answered instantly, leaving him standing beside Kalis' ship once more. Kalis and Lemon had apparently not got very far in communicating as the mare was wandering around the outside of the Inquisitor firing questions at the ghost that flew alongside her.

“Guessing she wasn't too keen on you, huh?” Kervis asked, walking over to his fellow guardian.

“Is it really that surprising? I doubt she was all to happy with you either until you got her out of there,” Kalis responded.

“Yeah, poor girl. Exodus will be a couple more minutes. He got into one of his explanations again,”

“Ah,” Was Kalis' only reply. He didn't need to say any more than that for her to understand.

They idly talked for a while, watching the yellow mare circle the ship in fascination. Kervis was almost certain that what the Ghost was saying had no meaning to her, but she seemed happy, so he didn't say anything about it. After three minutes a distant roar pulled them out of their conversations.

“Damn, can he be any fucking louder?” Kalis asked.

“Wouldn't doubt it knowing that ship. You may want to get up in the air, I'm sure we aren't the only ones who can hear that.” Kervis said, standing straight.

“Yeah, good point. Ghost, we need to get up there.”

“No problem,” The Ghost called out as he teleported Kalis onboard the Inquisitor and fired up its engines. Kervis quickly grabbed Lemon and pulled her away as the ship began its ascent.

Lemon gave a look over in the direction of the noise, only to see a small blue dot getting ever closer.

“What is that, another ship?” She asked, wriggling free from the Titan's hold.

“Yeah, Exodus' one. We told him those engines were nothing but trouble but he always just waved it off.”

With the speed that he was flying, it wasn't long before the Warlock's ship reach them, the engines winding down as he slowed the huge ship. After a few moments of waiting, Exodus appeared before them, a small blue pony hiding behind his legs.

“I know that you wanted to get here quickly but I didn't know you wanted the entire planet to find that out too,” Kervis commented as he walked over the robed Exo.

“Hey, you seemed like you wanted me here quickly, so here I am. Good to see you again,”

“Likewise,”

“Hey Kalis, we alright?” Kervis asked into his short range comms.

“Uhhhh,” Kalis started, instantly causing worry for the two guardians that could hear her, “We got a problem,”

“What sort of problem?” Exodus asked, his previous mood disappearing,

“Like, a something that shouldn't be possible problem. You gotta get up here and see this,”

The Titan and Warlock gave each other a look before turning to their respective Ghosts. They and their companions were sent straight to their ships, allowing them to quickly fly up to the height the Inquisitor had reached.

But they were in no way ready for what they saw.

Morning Dew was a simple pony with simple dreams; she had always wanted to become a scientist, to help others with her research and inventions. But no length of research could have prepared her for what she had seen that day.

Her family and her had been sitting enjoying a homemade dinner, when screams began to grow from outside the walls of her home. Her father, who was getting slow in his age, went over to the window, but didn't say anything. Even from her sitting position at the table she could see the look of terror that dawned on his face.

“Dew, get everyone downstairs to the basement,” He commanded, finally looking away from the glass.

“But Daddy, we only just-”

“Now Dew! Go!” Her father yelled, pushing his daughter towards the staircase.

“But why do we-”

She wasn't able to finish. As the words left her lips a huge explosion rocked the home. The wall around the front door was slammed through by something much bigger than it and the debris had hit them all in various places.

In a daze, she tried to focus her eyes upon the new mass before her, but failed to make out what the shape was. While she couldn't see things solidly, she could still see colour. When she recognised the colours of her father, she crawled over to him, tears streaming down her face.

But before she could reach him, a new sound emanated from behind her. The clicking of metal was heard before yet another explosion.

It was the last thing she heard.

Author's Note

Yay! New chapter! Sorry for the wait, kinda had some problems actually coming up with this chapter and writing it, among other problems.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know how I did, any feedback at all helps me more than you may know.

I would also like to say thank you. This story has been an idea of mine for a long time now and the support has been fantastic. Thank you to every person that has read this story. Even if you didn't comment or leave a like/dislike, you gave interest to a project that I am making, I can't thank you all enough. It is one of the reasons I want you guys to have some say in how the story goes on. This won't be the only time I let the readers choose the storylines, I may even do it for other stories. I want this to be OUR story. While I am the one writing it, each and every one of you can have your own say in how this goes on, so I look forward to how the story progresses.

6) The Assault on Manehattan

In the air above Manehattan, three ships hovered beside eachother, their pilots simply staring in awe at the sight before them. The city was in chaos, fires across the land creating enough smoke to blot the sky out in some areas. In the streets, ponies were screaming and running, many pushing eachother out of the way in a vague attempt to get further away from the object of their fear.

The beings within the ships directed their eyes down the streets to see something only the guardians could recognise. There was a huge machine travelling down the street being held in a hovering position by four large engines. Its main weapon was set upon a second machine attached to the bottom that was capable of turning on its own. If one looked to the front of the machine they could see a pair of cannons mowing down anything unlucky enough to get too close.

“Uh, guys?” Kalis said through the comms, “How and why is a Goliath travelling through there?”

“No idea, but we need to do something. The thing alone could wipe out a few cities before it is stopped.” Kervis responded, getting ready to move his ship into combat.

“The hell would we be able to do? The Cabal don't tend to deploy Goliath's in compacted areas. We would hardly be able to hit any of the engines with that amount of space,”

“What about the buildings?” Exodus asked, “If we set up inside them we would have cover and could hit the engines from a higher angle. The only defence Goliath's have against aerial attacks is their main cannon.”

“That could work if we split up, maybe use the rooftops to move between buildings,” Kervis surmised, looking over the consoles before him.

“No point in sitting up here then, let's get down there.” Kalis said as she fired up her ship's engines. She was about to go straight into the fray when she was stopped by a voice.

“What about the ponies with us?” Exodus asked, looking down at Breeze, “It would be risky to even leave them in our ships.”

“Teleport them into the Inquisitor. Kalis, can you take them to that house you mentioned and then get back here?”

“Yeah, sure. Just don't start the party without me,” The Hunter said, ignoring the two bursts of light behind her that signified her two new passengers, “Should be back in two,”

With that, she turned her ship and began her short flight to the small home that housed the blue pegasus she had met before.

The flight to the house was mostly silent, the two ponies sitting beside eachother as their minds tried to process what they had seen. Kalis didn't speak, not because she was trying to process anything, but because she didn't know what to say.

“Alright, we're here,” Kalis said, pushing the ship down to the front of the home near the hills.

“Will you all be okay?” Lemon asked with a tear in her eye.

“Yeah, we'll be fine, don't worry. Now you both stay here, okay? There should be a blue pony in there that will keep you here until we get back.”

They both nodded in confirmation and stood still as the Hunter's Ghost teleported them to the ground. When they were both out of the ship, Kalis throttled the ship forward at the highest speed she could reach, quickly returning to the other two members of her fireteam.

“Welcome back, we all good to go?” Kervis asked, his ship hovering silently to her left.

“Should be, let's do this,”

As usual, Kalis pulled away from the others to get a better shot. She eventually decided that a taller building near to where the Goliath was moving was a good spot to set up. She flew her ship as close to the building's upper floors as she could and teleported out, ending up in an office floor of sorts. They were cubicles everywhere with scared ponies hiding behind the walls, hoping to not be seen.

The guardian jogged over to the window facing the carnage, ignoring the frightened yells of the ponies as she ran by them. When she arrived, the level of destruction that the tank had caused was shown in its entirety. Buildings had completely collapsed, some onto others, and fires raged across each street the tank had been through, giving a map as to where the machine had rampaged through. Down on the ground below her, two small people were running across the buildings towards the Goliath, and seeing no reason to sightsee, Kalis drew her rifle.

Aiming at the vehicle was fairly easy, but predicting the bullet's trajectory was not. She wasn't sure if things like wind and gravity here were any different than the places she had been to before, but in the end, she decided to wing it.

She fired a round down towards the front left engine, the only one that hadn't already been hit by the other two. The shot almost missed, driving a hole right down the right side of the engine. Confirming the hit, Kalis aimed for a second shot, and fired, landing the shot directly through the top of it. Fire burst out of the sides of the machine, showing the engine to be malfunctioning. The other three were in no better shape. Two were smoking and another had been obliterated, no doubt from a grenade or rocket.

With the tank out of commission, she moved her scope up to scan the streets behind it. There were ponies all over the place, some limping towards their loved ones, others just crying. The rest lay still in various areas of the street, clearly either dead or unable to move. As she looked over the masses of ponies, she saw something that instantly turned her sympathy into anger. There, in one of the many homes, was a legionary slamming into the wall. When it was through it walked straight to a dark blue filly and fired a shot directly into its head, ending the poor things life in an instant.

'They don't deserve any of this,' she thought to herself, 'Fucking Cabal,'

Her rage fuelling her, she jumped down from the building, opening her comms to the other two, “Guys, just watched a legionary kill some kid in a house behind the Goliath. Keep your eyes open, I don't think it was alone,”

“Got it, this thing is fucked beyond recognition. Exodus, can you go and try to evac as many ponies as you can? Women and children first,” Kervis said while Kalis fired off a double jump, ceasing her descent and pushing her forward some.

“No problem, returning to the Galliot,” Was Exodus' response.

“Kalis, gonna need your help dealing with the infantry. Not sure if they have more tanks like this one,”

“Yeah, just a second. Dealing with something right now,” Kalis replied, using another double jump before she hit the ground. When her feet eventually touched down, she sprinted forward, her eyes locked upon that one legionary. As she passed the destroyed walls of the home, the Cabal soldier heard her, and turned away from the elderly stallion to face her.

But Kalis didn't pull a weapon out, instead she stowed her sniper and readied a spike grenade. When she came within arms length of it, she jumped up and slammed her fist into the helmet that the soldier wore. The force of it was enough to throw it off, showing the hideous face of the legionary. Wasting no time, she forced the spike grenade into its mouth, jumping away before it could detonate. After a second the grenade activate, firing a column of void energy straight through its head.

“Kalis! Where are you? I think I've found the rest of the Cabal army,” Kervis called out through their comms, bringing Kalis out of the daze her anger had put her in.

“I'll be there soon, shouldn't be far from you,” Kalis said, looking over at the two elderly ponies. They were clutching their filly, crying. The stallion raised his head to look at her, fear consuming his gaze. But Kalis said nothing to them, instead opting to just leave. She had more important things to deal with.

Getting the various ponies to trust him enough was one thing, but getting them to trust him while also on a time restraint was something else.

“Jesus, you'd think they don't want to be rescued,” Exodus said to his Ghost as the crowds of ponies ran past him. Whether they were running from him or the Cabal, he couldn't tell, but he knew that they wouldn't be able to get out of the city without aid.

“Fuck it. Ghost, teleport as many women and children to the Galliot as you can. Send me up now, as well. I need to make sure they don't break anything on there.”

His companion nodded and sent him to his ship, a few ponies following him up. When they took notice of the change of scenery, the panic became even stronger. Cries for members of their family sounded out and as new ponies were transferred, more cries became prominent.

When the ship filled, Exodus got up from his seat and turned. Many of the ponies went silent as they looked upon their supposed captor.

“Alright, I don't have much time right now, but here goes. You are all quite possibly the luckiest ponies on this planet. I will be taking you outside of the city, possibly to a camp or nearby town. You are all safe now and my team is working hard to prevent the Cabal from destroying your home. So please, just remain calm.”

A couple of the ponies nodded, though most of them either started crying or pulling their children closer to them. The shouts had all but stopped at that point, none of them wanting to anger the one that was taking them out of danger.

As they flew away from the city, Exodus kept his eyes on the radar near him, searching for anything that looked like a camp. He was fairly surprised to only see one show up, he had thought that the defence force for the city would have been much more active. As the ship flew towards them, an alert began to sound on one of the consoles. The ponies on the ground had apparently seen him and had began firing some sort of energy at him.

The ship was easily capable of resisting the damage being thrown at him, but he didn't want to take any risks. He spun the ship around to the left, flying slightly faster in an attempt to outpace the energy being fired at him. As he flew, he turned slowly, bringing the ship closer towards the ground. The closer proximity gave the soldiers on the ground an easier time hitting him, but it gave him more options for landing zones as they began to disperse. When the ship got into range of the crowd, he turned to his Ghost.

“Ghost, teleport me down there and give me the Tlaloc,”

“Are you sure going down there armed is a good idea? They don't seem too friendly,” The Ghost replied, looking over the various alerts on the monitors.

“I can't be too careful. Not when I am trying to get civilians out of a combat zone,”

His friend nodded in agreement and teleported him down to the ground, simultaneously giving the Warlock his favourite Scout Rifle. When he hit the ground, the ponies that had been firing upon his ship immediately took notice of his arrival and switched targets to him instead.

As Exodus expected, the energy did little to damage his shielding. It seemed that the bolts were more tuned to stun or detain than actually harm anything. Looking over the crowd, he lowered his weapon and spoke up.

“Hey, quit shooting at me and listen, I don't have time for this and the longer I get stuck here the more ponies die in that city,”

His words seemed to work as the ponies ceased fire one by one. Even their leader stopped barking orders for a while to listen to what he had to say.

“Up in that ship I have a large amount of civilians evacuated from the city. My partners are trying to hold back the assault long enough for me to get them out of there. I need a safe place to deliver them and was hoping that I could send them here. Would that be possible, or should I go elsewhere?”

There was silence for a moment, the ponies at the front shuffling slightly as they awaited the response from their side. It wasn't too long before a larger white pony pushed through the crowd. It was clearly a mare, but everything about her spoke authority. She had to be at least twice as tall as the ponies around her, though her mane may have had something to do with that. Both her mane and tail flowed in the non-existent breeze, both of them separated by colours. She wore a crown upon her head and a few pieces of what he assumed was jewellery across her body.

“Then... you are not sided with those that are attacking the city?” She asked when she had reached the front of the army. The ponies around her stiffened as she began to talk, almost daring him to attack.

“Far from it. Our kind has been at war with them for centuries. But that is not the issue right now, we need to focus on getting these ponies out of harm's way,” Exodus said, still holding his rifle down. He doubted the ponies would actually attack him, but as he said to his Ghost, can't be too careful.

“I agree, we can speak about this later. You said you have some ponies in that craft up there?” She asked.

“Yes, my Ghost counts twenty-two,”

“Then let's get them down here. We have plenty of room here for many hundreds more, though I doubt you are going to make much headway with only twenty ponies at a time,” the mare said, and Exodus could only agree.

“Do you have any ideas?” He asked.

“I will send a guard with you, he can mark points that our mages can use to teleport masses of ponies out of. We could get most of the city evacuated in under an hour.”

“Fine with me, I'll get the ponies down here, in the mean time, could you send that pony quickly? We are wasting too much time.”

“Of course, I shall get him now,” The white mare confirmed, walking back into the crowd.

Exodus didn't bother to watch her leave, instead he turned behind him and looked up, “Ghost, can you get the civilians down here? And get ready to leave, we got a new plan,”

As soon as the order was given, a blinding light shone before him. When the light lessened, a group of confused ponies stood in its place. Seeing that the ponies were all accounted for and safe, he turned back to the crowd to find a new pony before him. He was a dark-blue unicorn with a two-toned mane consisting of both white and dark grey. His eyes were a bright gold and he had a mark on his flank that Exodus had only just noticed. Looking around he could see other ponies had a mark of different types, all situated on their flanks. The stallion's mark was that of a shield and two lightning bolts.

“Hello there, I'm Chrome Shield, Second Lieutenant in Her Majesties army. I have been ordered to accompany you to the evac sites,” the pony said. He was standing straight in a military pose, but held a small smile as he gave his greeting.

“I see, and how long will you need when you reach each site?” Exodus asked.

“Only a few moments, all I need to do is cast a spell,”

“Good. Let's get going then, wasted too much time already,”

With that, the Ghost within the ship transferred them up into the cabin. Exodus, being used to the rapid movement, jumped straight into the pilot seat and hurled the ship forward, leaving the pony behind him to stumble slightly as he recovered from teleporting. He had teleported in the past but had never been teleported by another being. It was certainly a new experience for him.

“Guys, got a new plan but I'm gonna need help for it,” Exodus called out through his comms, switching the return feed to speaker so his passenger could hear it.

“What you got? Kind of a mess down here,” Kalis replied.

“I have a pony that can mark teleport sites for the mages at a nearby camp. He should be able to do it quickly, but we are going to need support to make sure the Cabal are far away from each site. Can't afford any more losses to civilian life,”

“Got it, I can provide fire support. Kervis, can you hold this?” Kalis asked to her partner.

“No problem, providing I can keep this Overcharge at work these Cabal don't stand a chance. I'll keep you guys updated,” Kervis said.

“Where do you need me, Exodus?”

“Sending coordinates, I'll try to get there around the same time you do,”

“Coordinates received, moving now. See you soon,”

“Alright, Chrome I think you said your name was?” Exodus asked, turning to face the pony behind him. When a nod was given he continued, “When we get down there it's not going to be pretty. We all need you to keep your cool and focus on getting that area marked. We'll keep them off you.”

“I understand. As soon as I am on the ground I'll start the spell. Providing things go well it will take around ten seconds per area,” Chrome replied.

“That's fine, but do try to keep to that time. We can fight them back for a while but we aren't invincible,”

Chrome didn't reply, instead he closed his eyes, seemingly getting his mind set for the upcoming battle, “Kalis, you good?” Exodus asked.

“Yeah I'm on a roof North-East to the coordinates marked. Lot's of Cabal down here but nothing we can't handle,”

“Have you seen the Primus yet? There's no way they launched an assault without bringing him in,”

“Not yet, though I would think he would go straight to Kervis, he's causing quite a bit of damage over there,”

Exodus brought his focus over to the skyline near where Kervis was. There was a multitude of explosions going off in that area, signifying his destructive rampage.

“Chrome, waiting on you,” Exodus said to his passenger. When his name was called, the pony opened his eyes and gave a determined look.

“I'm ready,”

“Let's get down there then,”

In the distant town of Ponyville, the ponies of the town had forgone their sleep to stand outside. Off in the distance there was a pillar of smoke with large objects flying above it. They hadn't seen something of the magnitude in a long time.

On the balcony of the castle that resided within the town, seven ponies and one dragon watched in silence as the pillar consumed what one of them had correctly identified as Manehattan.

“Has the Princess contacted you, Twilight? Surely this would be something we could help with,” The pink one with the two-toned mane asked.

The purple alicorn turned to face the first pony, “No, but I still think we should go out there. Who knows what could be happening,”

The other ponies nodded in agreement and separated, going to their various homes to gather the things necessary for the trip. When her friends had left, the alicorn turned back to the city on the horizon. She couldn't get the feeling that something terrible was going to happen out of her mind. Shaking her head, she walked towards her room, turning away from the chaos being created all those miles away.

The teleport was far faster than Chrome would have liked. He had been in combat before but normally he was being backed by an army. Instead, he had to rely on two being he had never met before in order to keep himself safe.

When his hooves touched the ground he immediately got to work building the spell up. He knew the spell of by heart, all unicorn soldiers did, but the roar of fighting around him threatened to break his focus every second he tried.

After eight seconds, a beam fired from his horn into the air, emitting a ring of magic when it reached its optimal height. With the mark for the area deployed, he drew his focus back to the fight. The being apparently known as Exodus had been fighting since he dropped. He was clearly capable of using magic himself, letting him conjure fire from his arms to incinerate any of the attacking monsters that got too close.

“Was that the spell?” Exodus shouted to him over the gunfire.

“Yeah! We just need to move two city blocks and we can fire another!” Chrome shouted back, dodging an incoming monster that had attempted to charge. Exodus made short work of it when it missed.

“Kalis, clear a line to the East, we're moving out!” The being called, his ally hearing it somehow.

To Chrome's left, he noticed a new explosion go off. But instead of being a fiery red, it was a bright blue. After a couple more explosions, a new being arrived coated in blue electricity. It was also carrying a blade that shone the same colour.

“I thought you said you didn't like Bladedancing?” Exodus commented, beginning his run through the path created by the new being.

“Yeah well, desperate times call for desperate measures. You should probably Stormtrance,” The being said, still swinging the blade around to clear out any monsters that got close.

“Can't when we have ponies that aren't resistant to it. I have to be careful enough while grenading, nevermind using Radiance,”

“Fair enough I guess. How far do we need to go?” The other being asked. It had a definite feminine tone, leading Chrome to assume it to be a mare.

“This should be far enough. Not an ideal spot though,” the unicorn said, preparing himself for another spell.

“It'll do. Kalis, you know what to do,” Exodus said, coating his arm in fire.

“Don't worry about me, you just make sure that spell is going by the time I get up there,” the being apparently known as Kalis said with a nod of her head.

His mind prepared, Chrome began charging another spell. It was getting more and more difficult to cast as his magic drained. If it drained completely there would be no way for him to continue. Still, he pushed himself to the limit, letting off another beam and ring like before.

“Ghost, can you get an estimate of the remaining ponies in the city?” Exodus asked. Chrome was about to question who 'Ghost' was when a little white machine appeared near them both.

“About three-hundred. The rest are either dead or evacuated,” The machine said.

“Try to move all of them to the next city block. We are going to get the last of them out in one go,”

“That could be fairly difficult, I would certainly need to draw from your light reserves to pull that off.”

“Just do it, Ghost. I'll be fine,” Exodus finished, beginning his run to the next block. Chrome followed closely, assuming that Kalis was following behind somewhere.

When they arrived at the city block, an almost awe inspiring sight lay before the unicorn. Across the streets, various ponies of all shapes and sizes were being teleported to the location. And as the streets filled, the screams soon followed.

“Ignore them, Chrome! The Cabal with notice this group for sure, we need that spell,” Exodus shouted as he ran forward, pushing past scared ponies to reach the other side of the group. There was a still in tact cart there that he jumped up on to see over the crowd.

Chrome began his final use of the marking spell, pushing as much magic as he could into it. He could only hope the mages back in the camp were fairing better than he was. When the spell fired for its last time, he watched as the ponies around him started to vanish in bursts of magic. When the last pony had disappeared only him and Exodus remained on the streets.

“Good job, Ghost. Bring the ship around and let's get out of here,”

It wasn't long before the blue ship came into view, a few small, black markings on its plating could be seen but other than that it looked operational. He collapsed when the scenery around him changed to that of the inside of the ship. He doubted that anypony could be more exhausted than he was at that current point in time.

“Kervis, we got the ponies out of the town. How are you holding up over there?” Exodus asked to one of the lights in front of him.

“Uhh, not too great. We good to get out of here?” Was the reply, this time from a voice he recognised from earlier.

“Yeah, we're leaving. No way we can fight that amount of Cabal without support,”

Chrome closed his eyes when his mind finally came to rest on the fact that his job was done. Such a massive use of magic with no breaks drew heavily upon one's strength and the adrenaline had already started to wear off, leaving him even more tired. He slowly drifted off to sleep, his body blotting out the sounds around him to let him fall into a blissful silence.

Back in the camp outside of the city, Celestia had been pacing her tent. She had received the confirmation that around eight-hundred ponies had been evacuated from the city, but it used to hold nearly a million. She had been hoping and praying that her new allies had simply been delayed and that hundreds of thousands of ponies had not been killed in a single attack.

At the turn of her sixtieth line around the tent, a guard passed the entrance to the tent and gave a bow, “The flying machines are returning, your majesty. Only three areas had been marked, though the third mark seemed to draw ponies that had been detected from all across the city,” He said, still crouched in a bow.

“A-and the others? Surely there are still more ponies to rescue,” Celestia said, her eyes wide.

“No other ponies have been detected... I'm truly sorry, princess, but there are no more ponies in the city,”

A tear ran down the solar princess' cheek as her thoughts reeled with the idea that nearly one-million of the ponies she swore to protect had been killed. And she had stayed in a tent the entire battle, relying on the soldiers she had certainly sent to their deaths.

“Thankyou, guard. You can... you can return to your duties,” she said after a few moment's silence.

The guard turned and left at that, a solemn look on his face as he left the tent, and the princess, behind.

“I'm sorry...” she whispered, watching the various civilian ponies wander around outside her tent. She broke down into sobs, being unable to bear the sorrow of the loss she felt.

“I'm so sorry,”

In a train, twenty miles away, a small group of ponies watched as three area-marking spells were cast. The alicorn of the group had quickly explained their use within the military, and why seeing them used was an exceptionally bad thing.

“So you're saying that ponies could be... dead?” The yellow pegasus in the group whispered. Her hooves had been covering her face for most of the explanation.

“It's a possibility, but let's not get anxious, Princess Celestia is there and I'm sure she will have done something to keep the ponies safe. I bet those three marks got every pony in the city out of there. All we need to do is stay calm, and wait,” The alicorn said, looking at each of the ponies around her individually.

“Well, if you say so, darling. But I do hope they are all alright, it looks pretty bad even from this distance,” The white unicorn pointed out, looking out of the window at the ever growing pillar of smoke.

“It may look bad but looks can be deceiving. Let's just remain calm, and not think about it too mu-”

The alicorn was cut off by a flash of magic. When the light from the flash disappeared, a pink alicorn stood in its place.

“Cadance! What are you doing here?” The purple alicorn asked, jumping down from her seat and trotting over to the new arrival.

“There isn't any time for talking, Twilight. I need you all to listen to me closely,” the pink one said, an almost panicked look dominating her features.

“Cadance? What's wrong? Is it about that pillar of smoke? If so you don't need to worry about it, I'm sure it's nothing that serious,” Twilight said with a smile.

“Twilight, it is that serious. Listen to me closely, the city needs you all, but if things go bad you all have to go home, you hear me?”

“What's even going on over there? Why is it that bad?”

Cadence sighed at that, “You are better off talking to Celestia about that, she will know more about it than I do. For now, make sure you are safe. I can't bear the thought of losing you,”

“Of course, don't worry. Will you be coming with us?” Twilight asked, more perplexed than ever.

“No, I need to stay in the Empire and keep it safe. Take care, Twilight, I'll speak to you when this has been sorted,”

Twilight nodded and gave the alicorn before her a hug. When Cadence returned it she backed up and teleported away, leaving seven very confused ponies behind.

Author's Note

Early chapter :D

I'm really not sure about this chapter, I am trying new things with each chapter to find out what works the best within the story, and I know a lot of people don't enjoy change. I feel like the scenes within the city are slightly rushed, but I didn't want to get stuck on this chapter. There are multiple plots I had planned or this but none of them would have worked with how each character is. (In example, one of my ideas was to have Kalis go on a stealth mission inside the city. But there would be no reason to do this with how the Cabal are. Plus it would have lead to even more deaths and possibly ended the story early if she had managed to kill the Primus.)

Also, we passed 200 views! Yay! I know I thanked you guys last chapter aswell but I want to do so again. Thanks everyone for supporting this. These chapters take a lot of work to make and every time I click that publish button my paranoia really sets in. I only want to make these chapters for you guys, and I work hard to make sure that each chapter is as enjoyable as I can make it. So as usual, please let me know how I did, it truly does mean so much to me when I get feedback from you guys. I am also trying to reply to every comment I get. If I don't give your comment a reply then I will like it to let you know that I have still read it, so please, don't be shy to comment, we are all friends here :derpytongue2:

Big thanks to Never_Comfortable and Flamelight Dash for proofreading the chapter before it released. You both really helped me out big time :heart:

Chrome Shield belongs to Never_Comfortable. His OC has been used with permission by him directly.
Image was drawn by Never_Comfortable.
Art by Never_Comfortable

7) Planning

The night sky had calmed above the camp outside Manehattan. The machines still hovered silently in place above the city, almost as if they were watching those that had managed to escape the warzone.

As the ponies slept in the various tents scattered across the fields, three smaller machines flew quickly towards them. When they got close, the roar of the engines was reduced to a whisper, allowing the passengers aboard them to teleport to the ground.

The guard on patrol paid them little attention, simply giving a nod in their general direction and passing by. Taking that as an invitation to enter, the three guardians walked straight into the camp, Exodus breaking away to find the medical tent for Chrome. Kervis and Kalis waved their goodbyes and continued on, hoping to find the tent that housed the white pony Exodus had spoken with.

After a few minutes of searching they came across a tent that they could only describe as regal. The tent's fabric was a dark blue with black trims around the sides. It was far bigger than the others and had two guards standing at attention in front of the entrance. When they got closer, the ponies took notice of their approach.

“Halt! State your business or leave, this is a restricted area.”

The two beings looked at each other, considering what to say. It took only a moment of thinking before Kalis spoke up.

“We need to speak to whoever commands you. Exodus said he spoke with a white pony earlier. Would we be able to talk with her?”

“Princess Celestia is currently... unavailable. This tent belongs to Princess Luna, what is it exactly that you need to speak to her about?”

“We would like to know some things about the city, as well as information on the army stationed there before the attack.”

“She could probably aid you with those matters, and I can go speak with her. No promises on her wanting to talk with you, however.”

“If you could that would be appreciated,” Kalis had assumed on the ride to the camp that the guards would be far more difficult to speak with, but this one was almost accepting of them.

The pony trotted into the opening of the tent, leaving his partner to watch the two guardians outside. The silence was just becoming awkward when the first guard poked his head of the entrance.

“The Princess would like to speak with you,” He said, ignoring the guard to his left that gave him a desperate look.

Kervis gave a nod in response and followed the pony inside the tent, the Hunter trailing behind him. As they passed the fabric entrance, the atmosphere around then quickly changed. There was a table in the centre of the room, a map sprawled across it. In each corner of the tent, ornate chairs were placed in an orderly fashion, though there was only one pony in there to sit upon them. She was a dark blue pony, the polar opposite of the pony that Exodus has described. Her mane flowed slowly in the air, her tail following the same movements to give her a more mystical look. She looked over them with teal eyes, her wings shuffling slightly as she realised exactly who it was that had entered her temporary home.

“I assume you are Princess Luna?” Kervis asked, slowing to a stop when he reached the edge of the table.

“I am, and I assume you are the two that have been causing havoc across our nation?” The blue pony responded, an edge noticeable in her voice.

“If you call saving my own skin causing havoc then yes, but that isn't why we are here.”

“Yes, I've read the reports. You saved quite a few ponies today, though I wish you could have done it sooner,” The pony had looked down slightly as she said this, seemingly thinking upon something. Kalis, however, didn't take the comment lightly.

“Sooner? The fuck is that supposed to mean? Exodus moved as quickly as he could and we aren't exactly gods. Where were you during the fight? I didn't see a single soldier in that city while the evacced those ponies out of there.”

“I had to stay here and defend these ponies. I couldn't stand to lose the ones that stood by me during my homecoming.”

“What was the death toll? If you had been given a report then you will know the numbers. How many ponies died thanks to you wanting to protect a few hundred?” Kalis was taking more of a combat stance as the situation progressed.

The Princess didn't respond at first. Kervis was about to try and stop the situation when the pony gave her reply, “Nine-hundred and thirty thousand.”

“What?”

“That was the death count. You got eight-hundred ponies out of the city, the rest of them didn't make it.”

Kalis took a step back, stunned into silence. She was so prepared to blow up at the Princess that hearing the number caught her off guard.

“Can we please just calm down? We need to figure a plan out before the Cabal get any new ideas,” Kervis said in the hopes that they could settle their differences elsewhere. There were bigger things to worry about, “If they send their Primus planetside, we are going to have a real problem.”

“How could things be any worse than they already are? Nearly a million ponies died in a single day,”

Kalis muttered something at that but didn't speak up, giving Kervis room to speak, “If you think that was bad, you haven't seen destruction. Even we have difficulties bringing Cabal Primus' down, and they have killed many of our allies in their assaults.”

“And what exactly is this being that is capable of defeating you so easily? While I don't fully agree with the things you have done here I cannot deny the fact that your combat skills are exceptional,” Luna had clearly gained interest in the subject as she had sat up from her slouched position, giving the Titan her full attention.

“A Primus is a Cabal commander, and they are tough fuckers at that. Our fireteam has never successfully killed one, though we are more than willing to try should the situation demand it.”

“So this... Primus is leading the assault?” The pony asked, still sitting at attention. While she may not have liked them very much, she was certainly worried for her ponies.

“Yes. Removing him would hit the Cabal hard. They rely on their leaders for guidance and without it, they often break down into smaller groups that are much easier to deal with.”

“They would continue? Surely they wouldn't have any chance at that point, wouldn't it be better for them to surrender?”

“To reference a fellow guardian, the Cabal have six words for advance and no words for retreat. They won't back down until every single one of them is dead.”

The Princess looked down at the ground at that. Her face betrayed her confusion, as her head was almost unable to wrap itself around the valour her enemies showed. Kervis could hear Kalis shuffling slightly as she waited for the Princess' reply.

But a reply never came. The Princess had almost seemed to forget that the two guardians were still standing there. After a few minutes the silence was broken by a grunt to Kervis' right. He turned to find Kalis walking out of the tent.

“Kalis? Where are you going?” Kervis asked.

“To the other ponies. I'll catch you both later, I need some time away.”

The Titan gave a small nod and switched his gaze to the pony, who had watched as Kalis left.

“I think I may have a plan, but we are going to have to talk with each other before we offer it. We may come back later on, hopefully with that plan ready.”

An approving nod was all he got in response, giving him no other option but to leave. As he exited the tent he took his helmet off, breathing in the cool night air.

“Ghost, bring the ship in. We have a plan to make.”

Kalis strode toward her ship, blanking out everything around her. Her mind had been reeling from the sheer number of deaths that the city had gone through in the attack. She had figured there would be a lot more dead than evacuated, but she hadn't thought that the number would have such a difference. And the fact that the Princesses had sat in the camp as their ponies died tipped her into a level of rage she hadn't felt in a very long time.

When she reached the edge of the transfer area she teleported to the ship, leaving the same familiar cloud of light in her wake.

“I know you are angry, Kalis, but I'm sure that they had their reasons for doing what they did,” her Ghost said, hovering beside her as she walked to the pilot seat.

“You saw what happened out there, Ghost. All of those ponies that died could have had a chance if they had stepped in and actually helped. But as usual, the royals take the back seat and let the grunts do all the work.”

“Would you send the Speaker to do a guardian’s work? A country needs a leader, and those Princesses are clearly the leaders of this one. You should probably take some time to calm down and think this through.”

Kalis only gave another grunt in response, firing up the Inquisitor's engines and raising her craft into the sky. When she spotted the small house in the hills she pushed forward, probably slightly harder than she needed to.

The ship made it to the house in only a few seconds, passing over it and landing on the other side. There wasn't any lights on within the home, which wasn't surprising to her, but she still took a look through the curtains to see what was going on within it. In the darkness she could just make out the shapes of three ponies sitting within the living room, though their colours couldn't be determined with the naked eye.

Shrugging slightly, she turned to her Ghost, “Transmat them to the ship. And do it gently, especially with the kid.”

The Ghost nodded and a cloud of light could be seen beyond the windows. When the ponies were in the ship, she teleported over to it to find a sight she would probably never forget.

Lemon and Breeze were sitting in the centre of the ship, a drowsy look on their faces. However, it would seem that when they were teleported it brought the blue pegasus along with them. As soon as said pegasus realised where he was, he broke down. Cries for mercy could be heard among the various other noises that blurted from his mouth.

But Kalis simply didn't have the patience to deal with it. In one fluid motion, she walked forward, grabbed him by the waist and teleported down to the entrance of the house. When her eyes fell upon the door she slammed it open and punted the pony into the house before returning to her ship without a word. He spent the next three hours crying in a ball before falling asleep.

Back on the ship, Kalis slumped down into her seat, letting the two behind her get used to the ship once more.

Leaning forward, she opened her comms to Exodus, “Hey, you there?” She asked.

“Yeah, what's up?”

“I got the other two from the house. How's that soldier you brought back?”

“He's fine. Brought him to the medical tent and they said he just passed out from overusing high levelled spells. He should be back up in a few hours.”

“Good. Never seen energy like that... did he call it a spell? Like magic?”

“I would assume so. It would give an explanation as to why he, and various other ponies, have horns.”

Kalis hummed in thought as she pulled the ship up higher and pointed in the direction of the camp. She could see the distant lights from the fires within the city on one of the surveillance monitors, and as she looked at them, her mind went back to that number. She hadn't lost anyone she loved, and was glad of that, but it meant she couldn't connect with the ponies that had. Every pony in that camp had lost something, be it another pony or their belongings. And while they could have had a chance, she realised she couldn't put all the blame upon the two Princesses. There would have been catastrophic losses regardless of whether they stepped in or not, and them trying to stop it could have ended with them dying aswell.

Sighing, she pushed the ship forward towards the camp, doing her best to ignore the fires shining on the monitor to her left.

The train from Ponyville pulled into a station near Manehattan. According to the conductor, it was the closest they could get without endangering the train.

While they departed the vehicle, their attention was completely controlled by the devastation in the distance. Charred buildings lay in ruins, smoke columns rising from various places within the once great city. Above it, barely visible through the smoke, were the objects they had seen in Ponyville. They were huge machines, hovering silently. The smoke ceased its ascent some distance under them, giving a clear view at certain angles.

“Do you know where the Princesses are?” Twilight asked one of the many guards stationed at the train stop.

“They are in a camp outside of the town. I assume you need to be there?” He asked, standing at attention.

“Yes, we need to get there as soon as possible.”

The guard nodded and walked straight into the crowd of guards, the others stepping aside to allow him passage. When he returned he was flanked by two older looking ponies. They wore long elegant robes that Twilight quickly recognised.

“War Mages? I mean no disrespect, but why are you two here? Surely the Princesses can handle what has happened.”

“We are here under their orders,” The one on the left explained, “We can send you straight to them, if that is what you wish.”

Twilight blinked, trying to process the situation. War Mages hadn't been used in a long time, thanks to the Princesses being able to do what they could. If the situation was that dire that they were required, something must have gone wrong.

“Y-yeah, that's exactly what we need. Can you get all of us over there in one go?”

The two ponies nodded and lit up their horns, covering all seven of the new arrivals in their combined magical aura. When the spell was ready they activated it, sending them straight into Celestia's tent. When the disorientation passed, their eyes fell upon a sorry sight. There, her eyes red and swollen, was their Princess. She looked like she had been crying for a long time, and had fallen asleep sometime during her distress.

“What the...?” Applejack started, but found that she couldn't continue. Seeing her leader like this was something she couldn't have been ready for.

The girls were silent for a while, simply staring at the unconscious body of the Princess they all knew and loved. Their silence was interrupted by a new sound.

“Hey, is this a Princess' tent?”

It was a male voice, but it had an odd undertone. Almost as if it was synthetic.

“This tent belongs to Princess Celestia. Do you have business with her?” Was the reply, likely from one of the Solar Guards standing outside.

“Yes, I need to speak with her about what we have come up with.”

“Fair enough. You will be allowed to speak with her, but be warned, if you try anything I'll be the first to run you through.”

There was a pause before the first voice continued, “Understood. May I?”

“Go ahead.”

As the guard said this, a being she had never seen entered the tent. It stood on two legs and had an odd combination of armour and clothing that gave it a mysterious look.

When it looked over at the sight, it stepped back slightly before darting its head around to the ponies before it.

“There better be a good explanation for this,” It said, one of its arms moving up slightly. Twilight could have sworn she saw a spark of lightning cross between its fingers.

“We found her like this,” Rainbow said. She had taken a more defensive pose and moved to the front of her friends. It didn't look like she wanted to fight, but it was clear that she would if she had to.

The being nodded at that, its arms still raised slightly. It walked over to the sleeping Princess and looked down at her.

“Ghost, is she okay? She doesn't look too good,” It asked, ignoring the ponies looking at each other in confusion. Their confusion became stronger when a small white machine appeared beside the black robed creature.

“She'll be fine, probably cried herself to exhaustion. Though she's going to have a splitting headache when she wakes up,” It said.

“Hm, send a note to the others. Let them know what has happened. I'm going to need the ship down here aswell.”

“No problem. The Galliot is on its way,”

With that, the small white thing disappeared, and the tall one started to leave the tent. As it passed the seven ponies, it gave them a request, “Look after her, won't you? She looks like she needs someone to talk to.”

Twilight nodded at that, her eyes locked on the black faceplate of the being in front of her. Happy with the response, it continued to walk from them.

The flight above the smoke was quiet for Exodus. His Ghost didn't have any reason to speak up, and the Warlock was too busy thinking on the situation to give any sort or conversation.

When the Galliot reached the top of the newly formed cloud, his suspicions were confirmed. There was at least twenty Cabal carriers hovering above the city with swarms of dropships flying in close proximity to them. They didn't appear to see him as he slowed his ship down, giving him an opportunity to send a picture to the fireteam.

“What do you think we should do? A fleet of that size could fuck this entire planet up,” Kervis said through his comms when he received the picture.

“And there isn't any way in hell that we could take on that many Cabal on our own. We might be good, but I think hundreds of thousands of soldiers could be considered better,” Kalis commented.

“I think the best course of action right now would be to figure out why they are even attacking this planet. The timing is almost too good, and I don't like it.”

“The only way to do that without getting these ponies killed would be to board one of those ships. But I don't think they would be too happy to see us.” Kervis pointed out, giving Exodus a moment of thought.

“What if we made use of these ponies teleportation?” Exodus offered, “We could have them teleport us to a carrier, then we could gather the data from a terminal and leave. They wouldn't even know that we had boarded them.”

“You think they will want to help us? We haven't exactly given them any reason to trust us in the long run.”

Exodus pulled his ship back and began flying down below the smoke cloud, out of sight of the Cabal. When he knew he was safe, he gave his response to Kalis, “They won't have much of a choice. We are the only ones here even capable of fighting them, so like it or not, they will have to listen to us.”

“I guess we can only hope they accept the idea. Meet you with the Princess.” Kervis said.

“Go to the other Princess, the one I met before isn't exactly in a good enough shape to make a decision like that.”

“Got it, see you all there.”

The three guardians stood before the entrance of the tent. Kalis had been the last to arrive and Exodus had filled them in on what needed to be said. As they talked to each other, the guards simply stood back and watched. It was clear that they didn't want to intrude upon the conversation, but still listened in regardless.

When the three were ready, Exodus passed into the tent. The Princess was sat in the same chair as last time, her eyes locked upon the Warlock. They stood before her in silence, each waiting for the other to speak. When she could take the silence no more, the Princess spoke up.

“Why have you returned so soon? Do you have more information that we need to know?”

Exodus gave a small nod and steeled himself. He wasn't sure what the reaction from the pony may be, but he wasn't willing to risk being caught off guard.

“The Cabal have stationed a fleet of carriers above the warzone. From what we can tell, there is a couple of million soldiers all at the ready. Even we can't fight against an army that strong.”

The Princess tilted her head slightly, “Then how do you propose we continue?”

“We need to find out why they are here in the first place, and for that we need to get aboard one of their ships. We were hoping to get aid from you in order to do this,” Exodus explained.

“If it brings us closer to bringing this world to peace once again, I will be happy to help. What is it exactly that you three need?”

“We need a pony capable of teleporting us onto one of the carriers and then off of it. We can't use our own ships as they would be too easy to see, but a single movement to and from the carriers shouldn't be easy to detect.”

The Princess hummed in thought, “That could work, and I could provide you with a pony capable of doing it, but I would like to send a guard with you.”

“With all due respect, we can handle ourselves just fine.”

“I imagine you can, but I would also like to learn things about our new enemies. And having some extra backup can't possibly hurt.”

While Kalis wasn't happy at all with the pony, she could understand what she meant. Nodding slightly, she stepped forward, “I think it would be better for me to go with the guard. A full fireteam is much too easy to see and Kervis isn't exactly quiet.”

Kervis shot his head around at that, “Kalis, are you sure? That place isn't going to be easy to navigate.”

“Don't worry, big guy, I'll be fine. Who do you want to send? It would help to have a pony knowledgeable about stealth,” Kalis asked to the pony.

“I will send one of my personal guard alongside a War Mage to get you on board this... 'Carrier'. When you are on it, my pony will work to keep you safe, I ask that you do the same.”

“Of course. Thank you for your aid, I doubt we could have done this without you.”

The dark blue pony nodded with a smile, bringing the conversation to a close. The team promptly left the tent, each one saying their goodbyes and moving to their ships.

'This is gonna be a long night' Kalis thought to herself as she jumped up onto her ship, awaiting the ponies that would help her get into the carrier.

Author's Note

Sort of a filler chapter. Can't have too many fighting chapters close to eachother or it will eventually become boring...

So the next chapter is going to be a chapter devoted to Kalis! Hope you guys will enjoy it, me and Never_Comfortable have been working hard to set up the future plot lines. Also, I have deliberately been undescriptive with the two ponies because I want to give that option to you guys. I would be more than happy to have one of your OC's in that position, and as you have seen in previous chapters, I always credit the owners of the OCs. If you want your OC in the story please send me a message so we can talk about it. I am strongly against OC stealing and will be happy to talk in details with you about it.

Also, the story has surpassed 250 views and nearly got over 25 likes! Yay! Thank you all so much for the support, I will happily keep going if this is something you all enjoy. :twilightsmile:

There is going to be art coming in for the story that will be placed inside the chapters. If you have the talent to draw and want your art featured here, feel free to contact me! I am always willing to accept art for Odium, and will often even pay for it providing it fits within the story.

Thanks again everyone <3

8) Information Gathering

Two ponies walked slowly towards the craft that was resting away from the camp. One was an older grey mare, wearing a robe made of a red fabric. The robe had various stones and patterns on it to give it a more beautiful look. The other was a Thestral stallion. He wore dark blue armour that blended well against his black fur.

As they left the confines of the camp, they spotted the black and orange machine quickly and picked up their pace to reach it. When close enough, the being known as 'Kalis' jumped down to greet them.

“You two the ones getting me into the carrier?” She asked.

The Thestral stepped forward, “We are. This is War Mage Veil, she will be teleporting us up to the craft.”

The Mage gave a nod to the Hunter, a small smile on her lips.

“I am Sargent Cobalt,” The Thestral continued, “I will be accompanying you while you get the information. I have been ordered to gather what I can alongside you.”

“And how, exactly, are you going to do that?” Kalis asked, tilting her head slightly.

“I have multiple rolls of parchment which will-”

“I'll give you the data my Ghost pulls”

Cobalt stopped for a second, not used to being interrupted. Standing tall yet again, he spoke once more, “I can get this... data just fine. You will just have to protect me as I do it.”

“If we try to fill out all of those rolls while trying to remain undetected we are going to get caught far faster. My Ghost can give you everything in a few seconds.”

The Thestral could see the sense in that. While he was a fast writer, he doubted he could gather as much as the Hunter's companion could.

“As you wish. One more thing to go over before we leave. The Princess would like to be updated on our progress as we go, but there wouldn't be any way to contact her without magic.”

“That's easy,” Kalis said, turning to her side, “Ghost, can you transfer a video feed to Kervis' Ghost?”

The white machine appeared at the call of his name, “I can do that. I'll let him know what is going on before I start.”

“Right. We good now?” The being asked, turning her attention to Cobalt.

“I think so. Lady Veil, do you have anything to add?”

He nodded when the Mage shook her head, “We will have to get under the craft that you want to get onto. The less distance Lady Veil has to teleport us the better.”

“Fine by me. We should get moving before the Cabal try anything new.”

At this, the trio began their trek to the carrier that had been chosen by Kalis, with Cobalt praying that all would go well.

At this distance from the carrier, one could truly see the size comparison. Much of the sky was blotted out by its shape. It wasn't too dark below the craft as the lights upon its plating shone down and illuminated the ground around them slightly.

“Is this close enough?” Kalis asked, coming to a stop.

“It should be. Lady Veil?”

The mare nodded quickly, looking around her. When she noticed the other looking at her she smiled sheepishly and lit her horn up.

“See you up there.” The Hunter said before the spell activated, sending her and the black Thestral into the ship.

When her feet hit a solid surface, she drew her Hand Cannon, her knife taking her other hand. The Thestral, on the other hand, didn't come armed. He was confident in his melee skills, enough so that he didn't often use weapons.

“Alright, Ghost. Will you be able to get a map of the ship?” Kalis whispered in a crouch, the lights on her armour switching off at the same time.

“I can't get the entire thing in one go but I should be able to map out the corridors and rooms as we move,” The Ghost whispered in response.

“That'll have to do. And can the others see us?”

“They can. Though you will be unable to hear them.”

“Doesn't matter. Let's go.”

The two began to move quietly through the corridor they had entered. Each hallway and door was exceptionally large to accommodate the Cabal's larger size, which made echoes a real problem. For Kalis, it was easy. Her boots were made of a synthesised rubber, meaning that it wasn't difficult for her to stay quiet. Cobalt, however, couldn't keep himself perfectly quiet with his hooves, and as hard as he tried, he couldn't move silently.

Eventually they reached an intersection, the sounds of Cabal could be heard in every direction that they looked.

“Ghost? Where to now?” The Hunter whispered, tightening her hold on the handle of her Hand Cannon.

“To the right, I think. There is a large power source in the opposite direction that I can assume to be the ship's reactor. The bridge is normally kept some distance from it.”

Kalis nodded and turned in the direction her Ghost had advised. The sounds of roaring and grunting were still present, but far quieter in this corridor. They kept close to the wall, avoiding the various crates and canisters that blocked off portions of the hallway.

After a couple of minutes, they began to hear a new sound. Kalis recognised them as Psions, though there didn't seem to be that many of them.

She still took no chances, turning to push Cobalt behind a crate, and following him after he was hidden there. They could only hear the chattering of the Psions and Cobalt's own breathing as the squad passed by them slowly.

When the sounds passed completely, Kalis looked out from their hiding place. The Psions had already reached the intersection and had moved on, leaving the two intruders to continue on.

Kalis had figured early on that there wouldn't be too much Cabal resistance onboard the ship. Much of their army was still in the city, claiming as much as they can for themselves before the ponies could retaliate.

And sure enough, they only met a couple more patrols on their way towards the bridge. As they got closer, the squads became more heavily outfitted, even to the point that they saw a Flayer in a squad built of Phalanxes.

They ignored them, however. Killing them would cause noise and even if they pulled it off silently, the others would notice the patrol missing. So they focused on hiding. The objects they could use to hide were numerous in the wide hallways as the Cabal were known for using these corridors as temporary storage during combat.

“Kalis,” Her Ghost whispered when the patrol they were hiding from moved by.

“Yeah?”

“I know we are here for information, but I found something we may want to check out. Only a couple of blocks away there is a large room filled with bio signatures. They seem to be ponies.”

“Prisoners of War? Why would they keep ponies alive?” The Hunter asked as she moved from behind the crate, pulling Cobalt with her.

“Not sure right now, but I don't doubt we will find out soon enough. In the mean time, what do you think we should do?”

“Mark the room. We'll come back to it when we find out why they have them.”

Cobalt looked over at the Exo in shock, “We're just leaving them here?” He hissed.

“We aren't leaving them here. As I said, we need to find out why they are imprisoned. When we find that out, we can come back and get them.”

The pony huffed at that before continuing forward, his companions trailing closely.

“They have prisoners?” Twilight asked, looking over at the two guardians near the table.

“So it would seem,” Exodus responded, “I have to agree with Kalis in her choice, but I am just as curious as to why they have kept them alive.”

Kervis' Ghost had been displaying a feed of the mission since it had begun. A couple of the ponies actually had to leave at some points during the more intense moments, apparently not being used to such stress.

“Did they ever figure out how they were going to get out of there?” Luna asked.

“Oh, I'm sure Kalis will come up with something.”

“Kalis, I think we are coming close to the bridge.”

The trio had been travelling for some time now. The ship itself was enormous and the area they had landed in turned out to be on the opposite side of where they needed to be.

“How can you tell?” Cobalt asked the Ghost that was hovering above Kalis' shoulder.

“Large amounts of energy are being pushed to a room ahead. The engines are far behind us and the ship's weapons are currently offline, so it isn't them. If it isn't the bridge, then it's likely going to be the navigation room. Either way, we need to be in there.”

The room itself appeared to be guarded by two legionaries. They were standing tall, their guns in both hands, as they watched the corridor for anybody that could cause harm to the systems they were protecting.

“Any ideas on how we are going to get past 'em?” The pony asked, hiding behind Kalis.

“Can't distract them, they aren't that stupid. I would think that the only way we are going to get around them is by taking them out.”

“You think we can do that by ourselves?”

“Easily,” Kalis' Ghost spoke quietly, “The atmosphere within the carrier had to be changed to prevent structural damage, which is how you are able to breathe. Removing their helmets will suffocate them, and boil the blood in their brains. If they don't die immediately they will still be out of the fight.”

Cobalt looked a little green at the description of the death, but still nodded, “So what's the plan?” He asked.

“We'll have to drop them at the same time, or one will call out. I can't use my guns in here as the entire ship will hear it so we will have to rely on melee. Do you think you could take one on?”

“I think so... just remove their helmets, right?”

“Pretty much yeah. Just keep in mind that they aren't made easy to remove. You may have to punch it off.”

Cobalt gave another nod and started to sneak over to the nearest soldier. Kalis, meanwhile, shifting to invisibility and passing the pony to get close to the other Cabal.

At the same time, they pounced. Kalis channelled arc energy through her blade and slammed it into the faceplate of the legionary, ending its life in an instant. Cobalt, not being armed with anything, had to go with a more brute force method. He jumped up onto the back of the soldier and tore out one of the connecting pipes that held the helmet against the armour. With that gone he struck the back of the helmet as hard as he could, flinging the piece of armour away and leaving the soldier to suffocate.

With both of the guards dead, the two turned to face each other.

“What about the bodies? We can't just leave them here.” Cobalt pointed out.

“Don't worry about that, I need you to go and check the room out. Don't give yourself away, we still need the element of surprise.”

The Hunter moved her gaze to the nearby bodies, both perfectly still. She sighed as she pushed solar energy down her blade. She never really enjoyed using solar energy, even from when she was a newly reborn. She felt it was too slow of a way to kill, but she couldn't deny its uses. As quietly as she could, she slid the knife into the first Cabal's head and pulsed a burst of energy. The body disintegrated with the sudden change of heat, leaving nothing but black ash. She did the same for the other one before walking over to Cobalt.

The thestral seemed to have seen enough and had been waiting for her to be done with the bodies.

“There is a couple of those things in there, though one of them looks far more bulky than the ones we just fought.” He explained when Kalis got closer.

“Did it have spikes on its shoulders?” She asked, drawing a confused look from the pony.

“No, why?”

“Then it's not too bad. That is likely gonna be a commander, though it isn't anything higher than a Valus.”

“Well, with its armour we can't exactly do what we did out here again. How do you think we should deal with this one?”

Kalis looked down at her hand that held the knife. She had a way, but was contemplating using it. While the Cabal had killed many guardians, guardians had killed far more Cabal. Recent research showed they were actually pretty intelligent and had cities were their families lived, just like Earth. It was why she preferred to use quick and easy kills while dealing with them. She hated to think of them suffering horribly as they died.

But this situation demanded a kill that was quiet, and she couldn't get close enough to use her knife. The only ranged weapon she had that was quiet enough to be used was her Golden Gun, which would have been fine if it killed faster. Guardians in the Crucible related being shot by the Golden Gun to having every inch of your skin cooked in a furnace, but their light lowered the pain they felt. If that's what it felt like for someone being shot with light protecting them, imagine the pain a being would feel if they were hit by it with nothing but some metal to stop the shot.

Clearing her mind, she finally came to a decision. It wasn't one she wanted, but there was too much riding on this to back down now. Standing up, she threw her arm into the air, a burst of light enveloping it. When the light retreated, a Hand Cannon made of solar energy resided in her hands.

Grunting, she brought her arm down to the commander, and pulled the trigger.

Mau'ualk smiled as he did his work on the console before him. This planet was going to be the one. The one that let him return home to his family. The Primus had told of the methods they would use and the Colossus could only cheer as the news was given to him.

They had been in space for far longer than usual, but that didn't faze the grizzled soldier. The faces of his children as they ran to him when he left his ship was enough to keep him going during the long fights he was exposed to.

Pushing a couple more icons, he finished his work and looked up. The Cabal around him were still hard at work, keeping their ship in the air. He had been stationed with them for the duration of the flight and had quickly gained a bond with them. They spoke of their adventures through the separate star system they had ventured, each one having an amazing story every time they sat to eat.

Their families were mostly the same as Mau'ualk's. Take, for example, Khur's family. His mother recently passed away in a hospital thanks to a disease that had been spreading through the colony she was living in. He was absolutely heartbroken and swore to find a cure for it before any more innocent Cabal fell to it.

He had a wife and a single child, who was lucky enough to be a girl. He could practically feel the love that the soldier felt for that young one each time they spoke.

A sound behind him drew his attention over. He was smiling when he turned, expecting one of the guards, but his face dropped to one of horror and rage when he recognised a guardian standing there, its gun of fire aimed right at him. Remembering his training, he threw his Slug Thrower before him before the first shot could hit him. The gun disappeared in an orange energy, leaving him unarmed. The Cabal around him had noticed the commotion and had stood, aiming their rifles at the guardian.

Mau'ualk roared and charged forward, bringing his fist towards the face of his assailant. The nimble Hunter side stepped it before it could land, however, and before he could react, he felt a searing pain in his shoulder. Ignoring it, he spun around again.

“Cabal! To me!” He cried out, the soldiers around him yelling in confirmation and opening fire on the guardian.

The Colossus looked over to his shoulder. The human had fired a round into his armour, but the fire didn't have enough power to penetrate it. He gave a grunt and looked to the guardian. In only a few seconds it had killed off every single one of his comrades. His friends.

He had never felt so much rage in his entire life. Moving to a combat stance, he gave the loudest roar he could and charged, swinging his arms in the direction of the human. But it was too fast for the heavy soldier.

In one fell swoop, it ducked below the swing and fired a round into his leg, bringing him down to his knees. He tried desperately to rise up but found himself unable to gather the strength to fight against the pain. He looked up one last time, his son's face clear in his mind as the guardian raised its gun to his face.

“I'm sorry, son. I failed you.” He said as the weapon's ammunition chamber spun. The last thing he felt was the intense pain of fire coursing through his body.

Kalis sighed as her Golden Gun drained of light. While she didn't understand what the Colossus was saying, she hated to think of what he must have gone through. She shook her head and turned to the consoles nearby.

“Ghost, you need to start pulling data. Those roars will have been easy to hear throughout the ship and I can't imagine that the Cabal will take kindly to us killing them aboard their own ship.” She said.

Her Ghost materialised and began his work, his blue scanning light crossing over each of the monitors. As he worked, the sound of heavy footsteps running towards them could be heard.

“Bit faster, Ghost. We don't have much time before they get to us.”

“Working as fast as I can,” The Ghost replied, “Though I'm not going to be done before they show up.”

“Shit. Alright, Cobalt, we need to defend this room until Ghost is done here.”

Cobalt gave a nod and ran to the door frame of the entrance.

“I have a small amount of control from here, not enough to keep them away for very long but I can lock some of the doors nearby.” The Ghost stated.

“Do it,” Kalis commanded, aiming her Hand Cannon at the doorway.

The door's locking mechanisms spun as they received commands from the Ghost. They were not made to be blast doors, just to keep rooms separated. For that reason, it wouldn't take long for the Cabal to breach it, but it would give them time.

When they reached the door, the soldiers began shouting and banging on the door. Their language was unknown to Kalis, but their urgency said a lot about how long they were willing to wait. When no response was given to them, the shouts calmed. A single pair of footsteps sounded before all hell broke loose. A Colossus slammed his way through the flimsy door, the slabs of metal flying across the room.

“Cobalt! Move!” Kalis yelled, firing upon the Cabal that were moving into the room.

The pony did as he was told and back off, giving some room between him and the hordes of Cabal. The Hunter had already dropped a few of them by this time, pools of black liquid growing around their bodies.

“Okay! I have what we need. Let's get out of here.” Her Ghost called out, making himself invisible and avoiding the incoming fire.

But the Cabal's number were not diminishing. When one fell, two more took their place. The two intruders were quickly becoming overwhelmed.

“Ghost, overcharge a blink,” Kalis shouted over the noise.

“That could be extremely-”

“Do it Ghost, for fucks sake!”

As she gave the command, she felt the overcharge kick in.

“You only have one jump. Hope you know where you are going.”

Kalis grunted and grabbed Cobalt's waist, hoisting him into the air. When he was secure, the Hunter fired off her blink, moving them both around two-hundred metres from the room. When they landed on the ground, Kalis fell. She could feel the drain on her light from the massive teleport she had done, and it was taking its toll.

“W-we're safe?” Cobalt asked, looking around.

As Kalis looked up, she could make out the various lights from incoming Cabal soldiers.

“Not yet.”

Author's Note

Stealthy chapter! Yay!

You have no idea how difficult this was to write :ajsleepy: . This is definitely going to be the only stealth chapter in the story. Trying to make it actually interesting is almost completely beyond me.

Not really that much to say this time. I think you guys are getting tired of the endless thanks I give you in each author's notes so I think I'll skip doing it just this once ;)

For those that don't know, this story has a group that I use to update you guys with progress of the chapters. It is linked in the description of the story so if you want updates on chapter progression, go check it out!

Lastly, Lotus Moon has done a reading of the story which you can also find in the description. You should go check it out, it's pretty good. :twilightsmile:

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to give me feedback on how I did, it really does help :3

9) Retreat

“Kalis! Get up, we have to move!”

The Hunter grunted and forced herself back to her feet. The drain on her light was heavy on her mind, but she pushed them feeling to the back of her mind. There was something more important to worry about.

“Ghost? Which way to the holding cells?” Kalis asked.

“Marked on your tracker. We may want to go now...”

A small white triangle appeared on her motion tracker, pointing away from the swarm of Cabal that was charging down on them. She started to run in the direction shown, Cobalt following closely. They passed various squads of Cabal that had been moving to aid the first group, adding them to the horde of hostiles that were bearing down on them.

After two minutes of running, taking detours to avoid larger groups, they came across the holding room for the ponies they noticed before. As soon as they entered they got to work. Kalis' Ghost moved over to the door panel and gave the command to lock it down. As he did that, Kalis had been working on increasing the time it would take for the Cabal to storm the room. She set a smoke grenade and a tripmine on either side of the doorway, both of them giving a beep to confirm thei activation.

Meanwhile, Cobalt had been searching each of the cells for a soldier. All of the ponies that had been captured were unicorns, and while that did cause him some worry, he kept going until he found one he recognised.

“Hey, Ghost! I need you over here,” He called out, the little machine flying over through the cell blocks as quickly as he could.

The unicorn Cobalt had seen looked exhausted. Rings under her eyes showed her lack of sleep and her white fur was covered in a black slime.

When the pony noticed the newcomers, her eyes widened, “A-are you here to save us?” She asked.

“We are, but we need your help. The monsters are on their way and when they get in here there is going to be a bloodbath. We need you to go gather every soldier you can find and cast a mass teleport. When you get everyone to the surface run for the camp that has been set up not too far from this carrier. There will be ponies there that can help you all.”

The pony gave a nod and stood up, her legs wobbling slightly.

“Ghost, can you open this cage?” Cobalt asked.

“I can. I will follow this pony and open the cages she points out. Good luck, I think you may need it.”

“Thanks.”

As the pony and the Ghost left, he started to hear shouts coming from the door they entered. He ran around the blocks to find Kalis fighting off a line of Cabal that had broken through the door. The doorway was shrouded in a dark smoke that seemed to corrode their armour as they passed through it.

“You got what you needed?” Kalis called out over the gunfire.

“Yeah! Your Ghost is going to help a soldier I just found. When the ponies are out of here I have no issues with getting out ourselves.”

The Hunter didn't respond, choosing to go back to firing upon the open doorway. The Cabal appeared to be learning that trying to get through that way was a bad idea and a few of them had tried alternate ways of getting in, mostly via a thinner wall.

As he waited, Cobalt moved back behind one of the nearby blocks to keep away from the firepower being hurled into the room. By doing so, however, he came into the line of sight with a row of desperate prisoners.

“Please! Help us!”

“What are you doing? Get us out of here!”

“I just want to go home!”

Cries for aid were common as he waited, but he ignored them all. They would be freed in time, and his job wasn't to calm civilians. A couple of minutes later, the fighting was beginning to diminish and ponies around him were being teleported from the ship one after another. When the last of the block he was near left the carrier he turned the corner to find Kalis kneeling, her weapon in one hand and her other arm covering her chest.

He ran over to her, fearing the worst, but she pushed him back when he got close, “I'm fine, just get to safety. Still a few left...” She said, turning her weapon back towards the hole in the wall that had been made near the start of the conflict.

The pony took one look at the Hunter before nodding slightly and backing off, giving her the space she needed. When he was out of the conflict, she stood tall and put both hands on her weapon, revealing the damage dealt to her chest. There was a gaping hole there but no blood. Instead, a dark fluid seeped out and sparks flew from what appeared to be her mechanical insides.

“C'mon you fucks,” She muttered, putting one leg back and taking aim. As the final Cabal squad pushed into the room, a successive seven explosions could be heard. Each time her weapon went off, another soldier fell, leaving nothing but corpses when the weapon clicked.

“Have the prisoners been evacuated?” She asked, loading a new cylinder into the weapon's chamber.

“They should have by now. Your Ghost went to aid the soldier in getting the ponies out.” Cobalt replied.

Kalis grunted at that, “Ghost, you there?”

Her little companion appeared from around a corner when she called out, flying over to her chest and assessing the damage.

“You really should be more careful,” He said as he shone a light over the hole. The blue glow rebuilt the lost metal and broken wiring, leaving the wound as if it never happened.

“Not important right now. You got the others out?” Kalis dismissed.

“Yeah, we are the only ones left here that aren't Cabal. Though, how are we going to leave?”

“Well firstly we need to find transport. Where is the nearest hangar?”

“Not too far, but we will have to go through a variety of corridors to reach it.”

Kalis nodded and started to walk away from the hole, towards the broken doorway.

“Could you mark it?” She asked.

The Ghost made himself invisible before given his response, “It's waypointed. Hope you have a plan by the time we arrive.”

“As do I,” The Hunter said.

“Well shit,”

Exodus gave a sharp look at Kervis, “You really shouldn't speak like that when we are near royalty...” He remarked.

“Since when did you start caring about social etiquette? Regardless, we need to help them.” Kervis said in response, backing away from the holographic screen.

“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Exodus asked, “I don't know if you noticed, but there is a legion of Cabal up there and only two guardian ships.”

“Well we have to come up with something, we nearly lost Kalis during that fight.”

The silence that followed that was almost unnerving to the Titan, but it was broken before it could become awkward.

“Maybe we can help,”

The pony that had spoken was the purple one that Exodus had mentioned during a previous conversation they had. She had both wings and a horn, and while Kervis couldn't fully understand the social placings of each pony, he assumed that having them both was a big deal.

“If you have any ideas, go ahead and tell 'em.” Kervis said, sitting on one of the stools.

“Well, you said that there was a lot of those things up there, what if they couldn't see you?”

Kervis gave a glance at Exodus before turning back to the pony, “You have a way of making us invisible?”

“In theory, yes. It would have a duration that depended on the size of the object and how far it was from the caster, but I could make one of your craft invisible for a time.”

The Titan hummed in thought, “Any idea how long it would last on my ship?”

“From the small amount of time I've seen it, I would say maybe ten minutes. If you aren't flying fast, fifteen.”

“Good enough. Exodus, you coming with me?”

“You think I'm just gonna sit back here? Let's get up there.”

With a plan hastily set, the trio exited the tent, the pony's friends following closely. When they had gone a sufficient distance, Kervis' Ghost brought his ship down to ground level, allowing it to hover a few feet above the grass. The ponies that hadn't yet seen his ship felt their jaws drop at the sight. The sweeping glow of the wings were stunning in the darkness, the lights easily being able to illuminate the surrounding area.

“When we get aboard, I'm gonna need you to do your thing. We don't have much time.” Kervis said to the purple pony.

She lit her horn up in response, smiling up at the human, “Don't worry about that, you just worry about getting them out of there.”

Kervis turned to the Warlock beside him, “You good?”

“More than ever,”

“Then let's do this.”

“Hangar isn't far now,” Kalis' Ghost commented, guiding her through the winding corridors, “Just a few more doors.”

“When we get in there, do you think there will be any ships?” Kalis asked.

“Unlikely, but I'm sure we will find something we can use. Even if we have to improvise a bit.”

They continued to run in silence after that. Cobalt's training allowed him to keep going for some time before showing signs of fatigue, which surprised the guardian as she had expected him to slow after a few corridors.

It wasn't long before they reached a larger door, Kalis' Ghost immediately getting to work opening it. As he worked, the other two turned to face the corridor they had just passed through. It seemed that their defence of the prison had left the Cabal running, but Kalis knew better than to assume they had given up.

A series of clicks brought their attention to the doorway. It opened with very little noise, revealing a huge room filled with crates and machinery.

“Ghost? Anything?” Kalis asked as she began scanning the room or hostiles.

“No immediate sign of ships, but I'll keep looking.”

“Keep it quick, this feels like a trap.”

The Ghost flew off to find something they could use, leaving Kalis and Cobalt to their own devices. Kalis had drawn her sniper, taking aim and searching the room for signs of movement. Cobalt, meanwhile, had started looking around in the crates for something useful. Much of their contents was far beyond him, but he hoped he could find something at the very least.

After just a few moments of this, sounds started to filter from the nearby corridors. And none of them sounded friendly.

“Ghost, you better have something. We're about to have company.” Kalis called out, looking around at the various doorways.

“I found something, but it's not going to get us out of here.”

“What is it?” The Hunter questioned, turning back to her Ghost. When her focus switched she noticed movement to her right and swung her rifle towards it. There, coming out of the ground, was a Goliath. Its plating shone in the lighting, showing that the tank was a fairly new construction.

“This was waiting deployment in the assault but never got used. It's still loaded but there isn't any fuel inside its engines.” The Ghost explained.

“Can you get it to fire?”

“I should be able to, you may want to take cover.”

Kalis grunted and grabbed Cobalt, pulling him behind the Goliath. As they ducked down, they could hear the systems on board the tank fire up, the weapons clicking from their safeties.

“We've only got a few seconds before they arrive. You two ready?” The Ghost asked.

“Ready as we'll ever be,”

Her Ghost didn't have to time say any more, as the Cabal stormed through the door into the hangar. The Goliath's main cannon quickly spun to aim at a large cluster of Cabal soldiers, and the fight began once more.

The cannon fired after a short charge, the round evaporating the soldiers with ease. As soon as that squad had been eliminated, the gun turned to face the next squad. It repeated this for a while, sometimes firing countermeasures if they got too close to the vehicle. But regardless of how much firepower the Ghost used, he knew it wouldn't be enough to keep going. The ammunition stored within the Goliath was running thin and he had to slow to pick his targets more effectively, thereby allowing the Cabal to draw closer.

“Kalis, we have a situation over here,” He called out.

“I noticed. You got any ideas?” She responded.

“Not really, there isn't any ships in this hangar, and it doesn't look like they are going to stop any-”

He was cut off by a familiar sound, one that instantly gave both Kalis and the Ghost hope.

“No fucking way,”

On the other side of the room, a huge explosion went off, sending debris across the room. As the dust settled, two figures stood there, both of them bipedal. One was holding a hammer surrounded with solar energy, the other was hovering off of the ground, electricity channelling over his body and arcing between his hands.

The Cabal had seen this aswell, and they shifted their attention to attack the more obvious threat. A new storm of bullets sailed towards the newcomers, but were ignored by the one holding the hammer. Instead, the levitating one threw his hands forward, the electricity easily chaining to the fragile rounds and destroying them before they could connect.

The one with the hammer had began moving towards the tank that Kalis was taking cover behind. The few soldiers that managed to get close to him were slammed back by the Titan with enough force to disintegrate them.

“Heard you needed some help,” The Titan said when he reached her, putting a hand forward to help her up off of the ground.

“Kervis... how did you two even get here?” Kalis asked in bewilderment.

“We'll explain it later, right now we need to get out of here.”

Kalis gave a sigh and took his hand, accepting the help to get up. When they were standing, Exodus came over to join them. He was still levitating in Stormtrance, the lighting circling below him.

“Good to see you,” He said, “Did you get what you needed?”

“I really hope so, we can have a look at it when we get back.”

The Cabal soldiers had backed off, but were still firing upon the tank. Any of them that moved to flank were cut down by lightning before they could do any damage. It seemed like an easy escape, but as usual for Odium, it wasn't going to be the case for long.

Val Thovog was angry. Beyond angry even, he was furious. He was eating in the mess hall when he got the report that a guardian had infiltrated the carrier and had killed hundreds of crew, and he had gone straight to the armoury, leaving the last of his food.

The humans had caused nothing but trouble for the Cabal. Thovog was honestly surprised that the emperor hadn't launched an attack on the City sooner, but at least the plans were there now.

“Sir!” A legionary called out, “Two more guardians have breached the hangar and are laying waste to the troops we sent!”

The Val roared in anger and stormed forward, ignoring the calls from the lower ranking soldiers around him. He was armed with a Heavy Slug Thrower and a unique weapon on his back. It was a prototype shockwave generator, built using some Vex Hydra technology. It was capable to slamming anything not nailed to the ground hundreds of feet away, and the Flayers were hoping to make one that killed anything it hit outright.

As he got closer to the hangar entrance, the sounds of gunfire and explosions filled his ears. But before he could open the door, a voice stopped him.

“Thovog, stop.”

He turned to face the voice, and when he recognised the speaker he dropped to a bow.

“Primus, what do you request of me?”

The Primus was dressed in his combat armour, some of the heaviest in the empire. Each plate was almost a foot thick, giving him a bulky and intimidating look. On top of that, he was also twice as tall the the Val, standing at 24 feet tall.

“Slow down, and calm your mind.” He said to the Val, “If you go in there with anger clouding your judgement, you cannot hope to win.”

“Of course, I apologise, I should have realised this.”

“You are young, I can't expect you to be perfect. You have killed guardians before with great skill, and you can do it again. Now take a deep breath and cleanse your thoughts of this rage. Only then will you see the way forward.”

Thovog simply nodded, still in his bow. What the Primus had said meant a lot to the Val, as he had a tendency to go into battles with a blinding rage. Having that advice there helped him to remain calm about the situation.

“I assume you have remembered the lessons we gave you?” His leader asked.

“Yes, Primus. I have remembered all that I was taught.”

“Then go, you know what you need to do.”

The sounds of heavy footsteps rang out as the Primus left the Val to do his job. Thovog stood when his leader was out of sight, turning back to the door.

“Open it.” He commanded the Psion that was manning the controls. It gave a confirmation and punched in a code, causing the door's locks to spin and release.

When the door opened, there was chaos. A Warlock was using its Arc attacks to decimate anything that got close while a Titan threw its solar hammers from a distance, each impact killing off squad after squad of legionaries and psions.

There was a Hunter taking cover aswell, though it didn't seem to be fighting back. Instead, it stayed close to the animal beside it, shielding it from any stray shots that came near to hitting them.

Thovog grunted and pushed forward, stepping over the corpses of the soldiers that didn't make it. As he got closer, the guardians noticed his presence and switched their focus to hit him instead. Thankfully, however, his armour was more than enough to hold back the force of the light being thrown at him.

While he walked, he kept his weapon pointed away from the team of intruders. He didn't want them to think he was here to kill them, especially if the Primus' plan was to be used effectively.

When he got close to the Goliath they were pinned behind, he stopped. The guardians seemed to have noticed his lack of reaction and had ceased their attacks.

“-Humans-,” Thovog said in their language, his lessons kicking in, “-You have killed many of us today, but our Primus is willing to come to a conclusion that does not end with more bloodshed.-”

The humans looked at each other in confusion, they clearly understood him, much to the Val's relief, but it didn't seem like they knew what to say.

“-We have no business dealing with you. Nor do we have any desire to kill more than we have to. The Primus is aware of the information you hold, but in a motion of good will, wants to allow you to keep it. Perhaps if you understood why we are here, you may think otherwise about attempting to stop us.-”

The Warlock moved forward, its electricity still covering it, “-You are letting us go?-” It asked.

“-We are. This certainly isn't over, as the hundreds of Cabal deaths will have to be accounted for, but for now, you are free to leave. Our ships will not follow you.-”

The guardians gave him another look over before slowly moving towards the hole in the wall on the other end of the room. Thovog was happy that they had made the right decision, but almost disappointed at the lack of fighting he was allowed to do. It had been a long time since his last real fight, maybe he could join in the next-

“The specimens! They have been released!”

The Val whirled to face the Cabal that had spoken. A Centurion stood near the door leading to the prison block, an obvious pant in his voice.

“What!? Who released them?” Thovog shouted back.

“Them!” The Centurion called, pointing to the four intruders that had stopped to listen to the conversation.

Thovog tightened his grip on the Slug Thrower in his hands, desperately trying to keep his anger at bay. Those animals were going to be used to get the legion back home. Without them, they wouldn't be able to see their families, and that pissed him off. Years of researched and development were now being jeopardised by this single team of humans.

Try as he might, however, his anger rose to the limit. In a daze, he looked over the humans, a piercing glare directed at them from behind his helmet.

“-Is... Is this true? You released the captives?-” He asked them. He could feel the metal on the handles of his weapon beginning to strain with the pressure he was giving it.

“-Of course we did, you had no right to keep them there.-” The Hunter replied, aiming her weapon at him.

That was the last straw. Because of these intruders, he may never get to see his family, his friends, his home. With an ear shattering roar, he raised his gun and slammed the safety off, allowing the barrel to begin its spin cycle. He felt nothing but hatred as he pushed the three buttons on the handle of the gun, hurling huge rounds toward the humans in a continuous stream.

They were quick to dodge out of the way, moving much faster now to the hole. But the Val was unrelenting. When they reached the hole, the ducked behind the walls, out of the firing line of his weapon. He breathlessly deactivated the Slug Thrower's spin cycle, its safety automatically switching to its 'On' position.

“Val Thovog!” A new voice called out, one that turned his blood cold. The Primus was standing in the hangar bay, looking at him with his arms crossed.

“Come with me. Now.”

Author's Note

Exposition chapter coming up!

Hope you all enjoyed this, me and Never_Comfortable have been working hard lately ^^

Feedback is always appreciated :twilightsmile:

Group link: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212310/odium

10) Answers

Kervis jumped into the pilot seat of the Vienna and slammed the ship forward, undocking from the carrier and flying towards the ground. They had managed to get to the ship fairly easily after the fight in the hangar, and the Titan was surprised to find that the other Cabal ships hadn't given chase.

Kalis slumped against one of the walls. She had remained quiet since the fight, likely still drained from the teleport. Exodus had followed her, tending to whatever injuries remained and making small talk with her. The pony that had gone with Kalis just stayed at the back of the ship, his eyes darting over the three guardians.

“What was that back there? Since when have the Cabal been able to speak our language?” Kalis asked.

“With how long they have been studying us, it's no surprise that they have learned a great deal about us.” Exodus explained, “What matters right now is we got you both out of there alive.”

“How many are following us?”

Kervis gave another look on the radar, though he already knew the answer, “None, that Val was telling the truth.”

“So they say we can leave, then attack us, but still keep to their word? Gah, I don't have the patience for all of this.”

Exodus gave a chuckle at that, “Just try to keep your mind clear. I've fixed the injuries I could see but it will take time for your light to regenerate. Just stick close to me, I have some spare that I can give.”

Kalis gave a thankful nod to the Warlock and removed her helmet, revealing her grey, metallic skin and white eyes. Cobalt's eyes widened slightly at that but he didn't say anything.

As the two passengers continued to talk, Kervis slowed the ship down. They were a sufficient distance from the carrier fleet for them to be considered safe, so he saw no reason to fly that fast. Looking over at a smaller monitor, he switched the ship to autopilot and sat back, sighing.

The guardians behind him took notice of his new posture, and the Hunter spoke up as they turned to face him, “Kervis?” The Titan turning his head in response, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired.”

Kalis gave Exodus a look before going on, “Did you need some time?”

“I'm fine, really. You guys go on with your conversation.” Kervis said, quieter than before.

The Hunter shrugged at Exodus and turned away, the Warlock doing the same.

“What's gotten into him?” Kalis whispered.

“You have to remember that he is a human. Give him some time to rest and he'll be back up before you know it.” Exodus replied in a whisper of his own.

The rest of the flight was fairly quiet, none of the passengers finding anything to say after their conversation. It took the ship about half an hour at the speed they had been reduced to in order to reach the camp, a few guards leaving the camp to stand beside the pre-selected landing zone.

As they drew closer they could see ponies from the carrier also joining the guards to watch as the ship came in to land.

“Ghost,” Kervis said, “Teleport us down there when we are in range. When we are all on the ground move the ship up into orbit.”

His Ghost gave a nod in response and made himself invisible, the other two Ghosts doing the same. While the ship prepared for landing and then orbiting, the guardians got up and put on any armour they removed during their time on board the craft. Cobalt had gone to sleep some time during the flight and was waking himself up as his companions rose.

“We are in range,” Kervis' Ghost commented, “Teleporting now.”

The four beings were shrouded in light at that, quickly shifting down to below the Vienna. When they had departed, the ship fired its engines and took off, moving back into orbit to await its pilot once more.

When the trio of guardians were spotted, various cheers were shouted by the ponies they had saved from the Cabal. The guards kept them back, but two ponies were allowed to enter the landing area, a blue pegasus and a yellow earth pony.

“Exodus!” The blue colt cried when he saw them, galloping over to the Warlock.

“Hey there Breeze, you miss us?” Exodus said happily, patting the little pony's head.

“Miss you? I was so worried you were gonna get hurt! Are you okay?”

“We're fine, little one. Kalis took some damage but me and Kervis got out with nothing but some scratches.”

Breeze sighed in relief at that and bumped the Exo's leg with a hoof, “Well, I'm just glad you guys are alright.”

While they continued talking, Lemon trotted over to Kervis, a smile on her face was clear as she looked up at the Titan, “Hey again,” She said when she got close.

“Hey,” Kervis said with a smile of his own, though she couldn't see it past his helmet. He knelt down to match her level, “Were you guys okay while we were gone?” He asked.

“Yeah, I went to check on Chrome and he woke up while you were fighting. I think he's mad that he didn't get to join you three.”

The human chuckled at that, “Well, he's going to be even more mad when he finds out what went down up there.”

“Um... Kalis was hurt up there?” She questioned, looking over at the Hunter. The Exo was watching Exodus as he spoke with Breeze.

“Yeah, she's fine now after Exodus patched her up.”

“And you're sure that neither you or Exodus were hurt aswell?” She asked sceptically.

“Trust me, we are both fine. Now come on, we need to get back to the tent.”

The Titan stood to his normal height once more and looked over at the other members of his team. They turned to him as he stood, both standing tall when they realised what Kervis wanted to do.

“Let's go, guys. We have some intel to look through.”

Thovog walked slowly behind his Primus, flanked by a few soldiers. His mind raced with thoughts of what his leader may do to him. Execute him? Derank him? The simple ideas left his head clouded, so much so that he nearly walked into the back of the Primus. He brought his attention to his environment to find the huge Cabal standing beside the door that lead to his quarters.

“Go in, soldier. You two,” He said, directing the last part to the two Legionaries that remained with them, “stay out here. I will contact you when necessary.”

The Cabal soldiers moved to stand beside the doorwar as the Primus entered his chamber, Thovog following and taking in his surroundings. The room was fairly spacious, but not much more than to be expected within a Cabal carrier. There was little furnishing to clutter the space, the only objects there being a table and a few chairs. A few trophy cabinets line the walls, displaying the carious things gathered from previous missions involving the Primus.

“Please, be seated. I don't want this to any longer than it needs to be,” The Cabal leader sighed as he took the larger seat that lay at the head of the table.

Thovog did as he was told, sitting upon one of the smaller seats. They were all made of an incredibly durable alloy, created by the Flayers within the empire. It was easily capable of supporting the huge weight that came with each Cabal soldier.

When seated, the Val looked over to his leader, awaiting a decision from him. Before speaking, the Primus leaned forward and pressed a few buttons on the console embedded into the table. When his hand retracted, an audible hiss could be heard throughout the room. As the sound diminished, he removed his helmet.

“The atmosphere is breathable here, you may take off your helmet.” He said to the Val.

The soldier continued to do as he was told and removed the armour that covered his head. Sweet, breathable air filled his lungs as he took his first unfiltered breath in hours.

“I assume you know why I wanted to speak with you?” The Primus asked, leaning back.

“Yes, my Primus. I-”

“Call me by my name, Thovog.” The Primus interrupted, “We are not in company, I thought we had gotten past this months ago.”

“My apologies, Va'aull. I would like to ask one thing before you pass your judgement.”

“And what would this thing be?” Va'aull asked.

“I ask that you do nothing to my family. Do what you wish to me, but please, leave my loved ones be.”

“That can be allowed, Thovog. I had no intentions of harming you or your family after what happened.”

The Val's attention was fully taken by that. He had thought that his punishment would have involved execution with him disobeying orders.

“You disobeyed your orders and nearly destroyed the plan we had created, but you have been an invaluable asset to our armies. I would prefer to ignore this, but I must set an example.” The Primus explained.

“I understand. I will take the punishment you give without question. I have asked too much of you already.”

Va'aull nodded before continuing, “It pains me to give this verdict, but the lesser soldiers must know to not step out of line. You are hereby banished from this legion. You may not return to the empire, nor may you contact any of the other carriers.”

Thovog sighed, but said nothing. While the decision was difficult to take, he was intelligent enough to count his blessings. It could, after all, be far worse than a simple exile.

“I will allow you to keep your shockwave generator, aswell as a couple of your personal guard. I will call for a heavy transport to take you from the carrier down to the surface. This is all I can provide for you, my friend. I wish you luck down there.”

“Thank you, Va'aull, and I wish you luck in your plans. If you do return home, tell my wife I love her.”

The Primus stood at that and walked over to the Val's side, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Of course. Now we should get moving. The atmosphere can't stay like this forever.”

There were quite a few ponies in the tent before they closed it off. Both of the princesses sat at the end of the large table that dominated the centre of the tent, while the chairs to the left and right of it were filled with the lower ranking ponies. All six of the ponies that had stayed with the Solar princess were there, along with a drowsy Chrome Shield. He had only just managed to arrive after receiving multiple checks before being allowed to leave. Cobalt sat beside him, giving an occasional nudge to keep him focused. On the other side of the table, a few high ranking army ponies sat, along with the War Mage leader. She was dressed in a black and gold robe that sparkled in the candle light.

Lastly, Breeze and Lemon sat in the corner of the tent, content with simply listening to the meeting.

“So, did you three manage to get the information you needed?” The Lunar princess asked, an eyebrow raised.

“We did,” Exodus confirmed, “And we are more than willing to show it to you all,”

“Then please, do so.”

Exodus turned and gave a nod to Kalis' Ghost, the machine displaying a wall of undecipherable text upon the wood of the table.

“What is this?” The War Mage asked, leaning forward.

“This is all the information that was available to take within the database. It is written in the Cabal's native language, which will be difficult to translate, but I will do my best.” Kalis' Ghost said, his segments spinning while he worked on making the text readable.

After a minute of waiting, the rainbow-haired pony was visibly becoming impatient. Thankfully, however, the Ghost piped up before she could say anything.

“I have done what I can. Much of this is unusable thanks to not enough of it being translatable. But some of it should be legible.”

As he spoke, certain chunks of text disappeared, being replaced with broken English that could be worked into complete sentences.

While they read, the Ghosts began to document what had been translated, managing to store the text within their own database as unbroken sentences.

//Incoming message from the Emperor//

//Beginning message playback//

//Va'aull, your actions in that battle were... uncalled for. Many Cabal warships were lost because of your unruly actions and I cannot accept this. You will be given a single hour to leave our system before we hunt you down. You better hope those engines work.//

//Message playback ends//

~ ~ ~

//Message conversation between Primus Va'aull and Val Thovog//

//Beginning message playback//

//Thovog, you wished to ask me something?//

//I did, Va'aull. I have reason to believe that we have been exiled, and you have been lying to us. Please, friend, tell me this is not true.//

//I cannot lie to you. Yes, I lied about the circumstances of our mission. But I had good reason to do so. We... have been exiled, but I have a plan to get back home.//

//Oh?//

//I think that if we can gather enough technology, the Emperor may allow us back into the Legion.//

//-No message sent for two minutes-thirty three seconds-//

//Are you going to tell the rest of us about this?//

//No. I do not want to start a panic. I ask that you also keep it a secret, not as a command, but a request. If this is to work we need every Cabal working together, and a panic is not going to allow this.//

//I see. I will keep quiet for now, but please, don't keep lying to your army. They will need to know in time.//

//Of course, Thovog. You have my word.//

//Message playback ends//

~ ~ ~

//Message from Primus Va'aull to all consoles//

//Beginning message playback//

//As you all know, we are not going to be able to return any time soon, the Empire has ordered us to find more usable technology for our armies. The planet we are heading to has had the Flayers in a real state as the energy radiating off of it is like nothing they have ever seen. We are going to find this energy, harvest it, and turn it into something we can use. When this is accomplished we can return home.//

//Message playback ends//

“That was it?” Kalis asked when she had read the final message.

“This is more than we need, Kalis.” Exodus stated, “These three messages provide all that we need to know. While it is odd that all there was on that console was messages, we have to take what we can get.”

“They were exiled, but why are they trying to get back? Surely their leaders wouldn't want to see them.” The blue princess said, confused.

“It may be loyalty, or it may be that they have something back there they want to go back to. Either way, we know why they captured all of those ponies.” Exodus explained.

“I dread to think of what the prisoners would have had to go through should we have left them there...”

“Let's try not to think of that, and focus more on what we need to do to stop them outright.” Kervis said.

At this, the white princess spoke up, “They have declared war against us, and so we shall retaliate. The ponies of Equestria stand by your side. Perhaps with this alliance we can push these monsters back to where they came from.”

“We thank you, Princess. I certainly hope that the outcome is that simple.” Exodus said, looking down once more at the wooden table.

“So what is our first move?” The blue princess asked.

“First step in a war? Gather allies.”

The Cabal heavy transport juddered with the force of its engines as it flew through the skies. On board, a Val and a small squad of Cabal soldiers sat, awaiting their final stop. None of them spoke, each of them accepting the fact that they wouldn't be able to go home.

As the craft came closer to the ground, the Val stood tall and turned to address the team of soldiers, “Cabal. I wish to speak with you now before we land.” Each of the Cabal turned to face Thovog as he spoke, their attention solely upon him, “I am aware you all chose to be here with me, and for that, I thank you. You have come to assist me in my time of need, and I turn, I wish to offer a promise. If any of you are in trouble, or are in need of assistance, come to me. I will do my best to protect you all through this, you have my word.”

The soldiers mostly nodded in thanks, some giving thankful grunts. None of them needed to speak, as they had said their part aboard the carrier. They were in it for the long haul now.

“Twenty seconds to green light,” The pilot called out through the intercom, giving the passengers time to prepare. They all stood and walked to the back of the transport, the large door opening to give them a view of the planet's hills.

“Green light, green light. You are cleared to depart.”

Thovog gave one more grunt before jumping from the door, the others following closely. The ship was around three-hundred feet in the air, just below the height that cabal armour made to resist. Each soldier was equipped with a jump-pack, helping to steer and slow them to a velocity that wouldn't injure them when they landed. As they hit the ground, plumes of dirt and dust flew around them, Thovog especially, creating a sort of smokescreen around the team.

“Is everyone okay?” The Val asked while the dust cleared, giving him a clear view of the other Cabal that dropped. None of them seemed injured, though a couple of soldiers overheated their packs. This wasn't a major thing right now, but should they need to use them before they fully cooled off, they may have found some issues.

“Where now, sir?” A Centurion asked, walking up to Thovog.

“I'm... unsure. We need to find somewhere that can be used as shelter, though I am unfamiliar with this area.” The Val said, looking around him.

“Sir, if I may?” A legionary asked, walking up alongside the centurion.

“Go ahead, soldier, I am listening.”

“While we were dropping I noticed a cluster of homes some distance from here. Maybe we could head there?”

“It would depend. I do not wish for more bloodshed after my actions, and for that reason, if the inhabitants there go against us, I refuse to even consider attacking them.” Thovog said, looking down to the soldier.

“Understood, sir. I think I have enough landmarks here to point us in the right direction, should we start moving?”

“Yes, let's. The sooner we find somewhere to call home, the better.”

“And so, with your permission, we would like to assist you.” The War Mage's leader finished, taking her seat once more.

“I see no reason to turn down that help. How many ponies do you have?” Exodus asked.

“Hundreds, and many more in training. While the Princesses did not know until now, we have been working to increase our population in preparation for something like this.”

Exodus gave a glance at the princesses, smiling at their shocked expressions, before turning back the War Mage, “That is more than we need. I assume you keep these ponies far from here?” He asked.

“We do. We have a home within the hills nearby the Crystal Empire. You three are more than welcome to come back with me and view the Mages we have available.”

“Forgive me, but I don't know much about the areas around the city nearby. How far is that?”

Before the War Mage could respond to Exodus, Kalis spoke up, “About four-hundred miles, give or take. If she is speaking about the hills I am thinking of them it should be easy to reach with our ships.”

Kervis looked at Kalis in surprise, “And how do you know that?” He asked,

“Unlike you two, apparently, I went and found a map as soon as I could. My Ghost has a detailed view of most, if not all, of this continent.”

“As a matter of fact, I have an overview of the entire planet. But that is besides the point,” Exodus commented, standing fully, “We can transport you and your War Mages back your home. It would be much faster if we took you back, and it would avoid any Cabal that may see us.”

“I can agree with that. Will you be able to move all of us? We have many Mages here and I wouldn't want to leave them behind.”

“We can do our best. Taking multiple trips may be an option in the end, but we will get all of your ponies home safe.” Exodus confirmed.

The Mage smiled at that and nodded, rising from her seat and moving to leave the tent, “Come find me when you are all ready. We will be ready to move when you are.” She said as she passed the entrance to the tent.

When she had moved away, Exodus turned back to the princesses, “What will you do now?” He asked.

The white princess responded before the blue one could open her mouth, “We are going to return to Canterlot with the survivors. When we arrive, we will await your return.”

“No promises on being quick, but hopefully we will have reinforcements by then.”

She also nodded and stood, her sister rising with her, “I wish you luck in your travels, guardian. Come back safely.” She said with a smile.

“The same to you, Princess.” Exodus replied, turning to walk out of the tent. The other guardians followed closely, each of them calling for their ships to return to the surface.

Outside the town of Despectus, a small group of young ponies ran from eachother in a game of tag. Their teachings had finished for the day, and so they had been given permission to leave the boundaries of the town to play.

“You can't catch me!” One called, squealing as the colt she was running from nearly tagged her with his hoof.

“Yeah I can!” He called out in response, moving to give chase once more.

The chase continued for some time, though a few of the fillies and colts broke away to play other games. For over an hour the air was filled with the sounds of foals playing, as each one involved themselves in the games their friends were playing. After a long while, their fun was cut out by a noise. Each of them turned to see a colt running over a hill towards them screaming at the top of his lungs. As he got closer, they began to make out what he was saying.

“Monsters! The monsters are coming!” He called, running straight past the other foals that had completely stopped to watch.

One of the older children quickly came to his senses and followed the colt, galloping for all his might to reach the village hall. As he passed by the various houses, he could hear some shouts coming from them. It seemed that the colt's cries had stirred the village into motion.

When he arrived at the village hall he ran right up to the War Mage standing guard there, “Please, sir, Let me in! I need to speak with the Elders!”

“Sure, kid. Go ahead,” He said to the colt, a surprised look on his face as he pushed the door open.

“Thankyou!”

He trotted past the doorway into the main hall, looking up to see the four Elders sitting at their pedestals.

“What brings you here today, young one?” Elder Shine asked with a smile.

“One of the colts from my class just ran by us screaming about monsters. I think the ones from Manehattan might be coming for us.”

Shine's smile dropped instantly. She gave a sharp look at the other Elders. They all had looks of worry etched into their faces as Elder Shine turned once more to face the colt, “Are you sure of this? You didn't mishear?”

“I'm completely certain! I know what I heard, and he has never done something like this before.”

“I see. Thankyou for coming to us, we will handle it from here.”

The colt gave a nod and ran from the building, hoping to find his parents and tell them the news. When he had left, Elder Shine slumped back, her mind trying to process what was happening. Another Elder coughed, bringing her attention back to the situation.

“We... we need to assemble the defence force. Get everyone back in their homes if they are unable to fight. Those that can need to guard the outskirts of town, if even one of them makes it through, we may lose everything.”

The others gave words on confirmation and began moving to assemble the Mages that were stationed throughout the town, leaving Shine to think over what they would have to do.

“My Liege, return soon.” She whispered, getting down from her own pedestal and walking out of the room.

“Sir, we are approaching the cluster of homes.” The legionary stated as they crested yet another hill.

Thovog look over to where the soldier was pointing to see a reasonable sized town, though commotion could be seen in the streets of it. After a few moments, a huge multicoloured dome rose up from the middle, covering the town in its entirety.

“Guardians?” A legionary asked.

“No. Not even the greatest guardians were capable of something like that. It is likely that the inhabitants of the town noticed our approach, and have taken us as a threat.” Thovog stated, his eyes crossing over the moving patterns that made up the wall.

“What are your orders then, sir? Do we attack?”

“I wish to speak with them. There is no reason for us to create enemies now, and having allies like that could benefit us greatly.”

“As you wish, sir.”

And so, the team of Cabal began moving towards the dome, their weapons at the ready. Thovog silently prayed that they wouldn't take their movements as a sign of attack. He despised the thought of more unnecessary death.

As they drew closer, a mass of ponies left the shield to stand in defence, the few remaining ponies that were not there for combat fleeing into the shield behind them.

“Hold fire, soldiers. If they attack us fight to injure, not kill.” Thovog commanded, his troops grunting in confirmation.

Raising his voice, he called out to the ponies, “-We do not wish to fight! Please, hear us out before you attack.-”

The ponies looked at eachother in confusion, none of them moving from their positions. After what felt like forever, a single pony moved out of the group and approached them. A few of the legionaries clicked off their safeties in preparation for a fight, but they didn't move to attack the new pony.

As it reached earshot of the Cabal, it stopped and stood still.

“-You wish to speak? Then speak, we are willing to listen.-”

Author's Note

Sorry for how long this took, exposition chapters really suck to write :ajsleepy:

This is also the first chapter I've uploaded after the update (to FIMfiction). Not sure how I feel about it, there are some things that I really don't understand, like why the popular stories list was swapped with the forum update list. Surely people are coming to read stories, not blog posts yes?

Thanks to everyone that voted, as well. In the end, the War Mages came out on top, so you can be sure they will be showing up a lot more within the story :twilightsmile:

Never_Comfortable also drew a picture of Val Thovog! I'll leave at the bottom of this so you guys can check it out. He also made a couple of pictures, one of which wasn't specifically for Odium, that I put in the chapter 'Assualt on Manehattan'. Be sure to check the out!

Thank you all for the support you have been giving this story so far. It really means a lot to me :heart:

(Edit: Would just like to say that my Xbox gamertag is Echo the Pony. If you want to play some destiny feel free to throw me a message :twilightsmile: )

11) Refuge

Thovog's eyes widened at the pony's words, not expecting them to be so open to him. Quickly, he gathered himself and stood tall before addressing the new pony.

“-As I have previously mentioned, we come in peace. We have been banished from our legion and are looking for somewhere to stay while we figure out where to go next. I understand if you decline, but I ask that you at least consider our situation.-”

The pony tilted its head before responding, “-And why should we open our doors to you? We heard about what happened in Manehattan.-”

“-Well, perhaps we could be of aid to you. If you need something built or moved that you are unable to complete on your own, we are strong enough to do so. I am also a reasonably good strategist, and can create plans even outside of combat movements.-

Smiling, the pony responded quickly, “-I appreciate the gesture, but we would have no need for something like that. However, I am not one to turn away ponies that are in need of help. If you are being truthful and you will not cause trouble in our town, I am open to accepting you into the town.-”

Thovog sighed in relief and relaxed his stance, turning to the soldiers beside him, “Stand down, they are permitting us to stay,” He commanded.

The various Cabal footsoldiers nodded and stowed their weapons, following their leader's relaxed stance. When they had visibly stood down, the ponies also calmed. The shield remained around their town, but the Val doubted that it would stay there for much longer.

“-Please, follow me.-” The pony said, beginning to walk away towards the town.

Indigo Tornado, one of the many colts within the town, was hiding in his home with his mother. When he got back home from the meeting with the Elders, his mother refused him to leave the house for fear that he may have been hurt by the monsters.

“Mom, where's dad?” He asked. His mother had been staying as close as possible to him, continually at the ready to run should they have to.

“He's outside the shield with the Mages,” she replied, her eyes locked on the window.

Indigo paused for a moment before speaking once again, “Will he be okay?”

“As long as the War Mages are okay, he will be too.”

The colt gave a nod and settled himself down beside his mother, letting out a yawn. His classes had fairly odd times, normally finishing in the early hours. The teachers believed that teaching at night time was a better time to do so, as there was little to disturb the students. Adapting to the times was easy for anyone that went there, but dealing with the oncoming exhaustion was a little more difficult.

Before he could close his eyes for sleep, however, a shadow passing one of the windows brought his attention up. The mare beside him had also noticed it, and was watching it with fear filled eyes.

“Indigo. Stay close.” She whispered, standing up and creeping over to the window. Indigo did as he was told and followed behind her, his eyes only just peeking up above the windowsill.

Outside, a group of creatures were being lead through the streets by Elder Shine. The pony was smiling as she spoke with them. The creatures were huge, walking on two legs. They all wore armour of varying mass, the one at the front wearing the most. Its armour made it almost three times the size of the smaller ones that trailed behind it.

“What are they, mom?” He asked quietly.

“I don't know, but make sure you stay near me, okay honey?” She said in response, backing up slightly.

The colt gave a murmur if confirmation and pressed himself against the mare's side, fear truly seeping in at his mother's words.

Outside, the commotion was beginning to settle as the creatures passed by. Crying and ponies calling for others could be heard, but there was little screaming or shouting.

The lack of noise was almost like music to the pony and her colt as it signified they were finally safe.

“Okay, honey. I need you to-”

The mare was cut off by a new, amplified voice coming from the square, “Ponies of Despectus! I come bearing good news. The beings you saw me entering town with are not here to harm us, they are simply looking for refuge while they find a place to settle. I ask that you all treat them the same way you would treat any new guest, and if you don't like it, bring it up with the Elders. That will be all.”

Indigo's mother had a look of shock adorning her face as she listened to the news. She quickly stood tall and looked down to her son, “I'm going to go find your father. Just stay here, okay?”

The little pegasus nodded with a frown, unsure as to what was going on. He accepted a hug from her and watched as she galloped from the home, leaving him alone.

Sighing, he sat down and looked out of the windows. The ponies outside were just beginning to calm, the words from their leader seemingly being enough to stop their panic.

“Be quick, mom.” He whispered, looking out at the fading shield that covered the town.

“Are you absolutely sure this craft is safe?”

“Ma'am, I wouldn't bring you aboard if I thought you were in danger.” Exodus said, exasperated. The War Mage's leader had been fairly problematic since she had boarded, quickly finding out she was timid around technology. Especially if it moved fast.

“I understand that, but what if it crashes?” She asked. She was sitting between two other Mages, and had her head on a constant swivel. The Galliot had many flashing lights across the inner portions of it, leading it to be distracting to those that had never been aboard it.

She and her guard were not the only Mages on board. Another fourteen ponies also sat, though they were completely silent. They all seemed to be watching for signs of attack, leaving Exodus with the assumption that they still did not trust him, even after what they did within the city.

Breeze, Lemon and Chrome were on board Kervis' ship with another load of Mages. They had decided it wasn't a good idea to keep them on the same craft as the War Mage leader in case of attack.

“It won't. But if it even started to do so my Ghost would move you to safety before you were harmed.” The Warlock explained, focusing his attention on the radars in front of him.

His explanation appeared to calm the pony somewhat, ending her questions there. Her silence was nothing bad to the guardian as it meant he could fly the ship without distraction. While his Ghost did most of the flying, it was his job to keep a close eye on the instruments and early warning systems.

The next few minutes consisted of the Warlock watching monitors while the ponies behind him either sat straight, watching the Exo, or looked around the cabin at the flashing boards and screens.

Just as Exodus was beginning to relax, however, a voice pierced through the silence.

“New targets, moving into formation behind us!” Kervis called out, drawing attention to the new blips on their radars.

There wasn't many, but they were far larger than any of the organic beings they had seen thus-far.

“Hostile?” Exodus asked.

“Not sure, but I don't really wanna find out.” Kalis commented, her ship flying faster in an attempt to gain distance from the new guests.

“I have to agree, we can't fight with all these ponies on board. How far are we from the destination?” Kervis questioned.

“Too far.”

Exodus was about to speak up when he was cut off by another voice. One he didn't recognise.

“Guardians. We know you are carrying animals with a great level of power. We ask that you give them to us willingly.”

The voice was deep, and there was grunting in the background which gave the answer as to who it was that was chasing them.

“You really think we are going to just hand these ponies over? Fuck you!” Kalis said. Her ship slowed greatly as she said this, falling back behind the other two.

“This is your only opportunity to end this without conflict. Give them to us willingly, or suffer.” The voice commanded.

“We'll see about that,” Kalis muttered, cutting off her comms.

“Exodus, we may have to use Plan B,” Kervis said when the sound of a mic cutting out was heard.

“I hear you. Good luck out there.”

“Same to you.”

The Warlock stood and turned to his Ghost, “I need you to shift me on top of the ship. Keep flying as fast as you can and drop the ponies at the town. When you have done that, pull the ship back and pick us up.”

The little machine nodded and turned invisible, following out the commands he had been given. Only moments later, the Exo felt the familiar signs of a teleport, not flinching as the scenery changed to that of the surface of his ship.

He had to hold on to prevent him being flung off before he was ready, though his mechanical hands had no issue keeping a tight hold on the metal.

As he clung to the ship, he noticed Kalis' ship not far behind him. The Hunter had clearly decided to use the same tactic Exodus had used and was standing on the top of her Inquisitor, watching the Cabal ship closely.

When the Galliot got close enough to the enemy ship, he let go, using his light to slow him down slightly, and glided until he reached the front plating of the craft. The impact was heavy, but did little to harm the Warlock. He managed to get a hold of a gap within the armour, allowing him to hang from it without worrying about falling off.

“Kalis? You there?” He asked over his short-range comms.

“You joining in on the fun?” The Hunter asked in response.

“You could say that.”

Reaching into his light reserves, he began compiling energy into a ball, leaving plenty for any fighting he may have to do afterwards. When enough light had been gathered, he projected it into his hands. The ball sparkled with energy against the deep black that made up the majority of it.

“Hey Kalis, you remember the Crucible?”

“How could I forget?”

“I learned a little something from it.”

Turning, he hit the plating of the ship with it, the light melting its way through it with ease.

“And what would that be?”

Exodus didn't respond right away, instead working on setting the ball of light up. When it had stopped moving as much, he allowed his light to temporarily fill him. Cutting it off as quickly as it had started, he moved whatever light remained outside his reserves into his hand.

“You may want to hold on,” He advised before slamming his charged hand into the ball, the reaction creating a huge explosion that decimated the ship's armour. He had nearly been flung away by it, but his Ghost managed to teleport him onto the upper hull of the machine.

“The hell was that?” Kalis exclaimed, letting Exodus know she had made it out of the blast unharmed.

“I'll explain it later, we have bigger things to worry about.”

The blast had almost entirely brought the ship down. One of its engines was giving out huge plumes of smoke and liquids of a variety of colours poured from the hole, most of them likely being coolants.

“This thing won't be chasing the other down any time soon. Meet you on the other one?” Exodus asked. He hadn't seen his partner as of yet, but he had a feeling that would change soon.

“Fine by me, but I want this one.”

The Warlock chuckled at that, “It's all yours.”

Seeing no reason to stay, the two guardians leaped off of the hull, using their light to keep them in the air. The other Cabal ship had been flying some distance from the first, likely dropping back when it noticed the smoke. The distance was a slight struggle for Kalis, but Exodus had no difficulty keeping his light running for long enough.

Soon enough, they had directed themselves toward the craft long enough to hit the surface of it, letting them pull themselves up onto the top.

“So, you got a plan?” Exodus asked the Hunter. They were both standing beside each other now, easily able to communicate via comms and hand signals.

“Yeah, though it's not gonna be as flashy as your method,” She replied, throwing her hand up into the air. As she did so, her body became shrouded in solar energy. As soon as the energy coursed through her body, her Golden Gun appeared in her hand with a flash of light.

Without waiting for a remark, she dropped her arm and took aim at one of the nearby engines, firing a single shot into it. The shot did far more damage than the Warlock expected, leaving a huge gaping hole and a cloud of smoke.

As quickly as the first, she turned and took aim twice more, firing off the remaining shots into two more engines. The ship, now flying with just one engine, began its descent without pause, a screaming noise coming from the overstressed machine.

“I think that's our cue to leave.” Kalis said, jumping backwards and allowing her momentum to carry her away.

“Agreed,” Exodus commented, doing the same as her. As they free-fell, they watched as the craft fell from the sky, hitting the ground with a new explosion.

The fall meant little to the two Exos, as their light slowed them to a near stop before they hit the ground. When their feet hit the ground, Kalis moved to survey the wreckage, picking off any Cabal that survived. Exodus, meanwhile, turned and spoke with his Ghost.

“How far is the Galliot from the destination?” He asked.

“Not far. Only one-hundred miles, should reach it in about twenty minutes.”

“Then we have some waiting to do.”

The time spent waiting was mostly silent. Both of the guardians had their own ways of occupying themselves. Kalis was looking over her weapons, tweaking their upgrades to make them slightly more efficient. Exodus, on the other hand, had been practising his Stormtrance. The ability was a more recently learned skill for him and he hadn't quite mastered its use.

As practice, he had set up pieces of metal from the crash in different areas, and was trying to melt all of them before his ability drained. The activity was fairly taxing on his light, but it was no issue to the Exo. His chestplate had enough light stored for a few self-ressurects, leaving him confident in his own skills to fight off any attackers should they show up.

“Hey Exodus, you mind talking about something?” Kalis asked during one of the Warlock's breaks.

“Sure, what was it you wanted to speak about?”

“When are we going to work on getting home? I get these ponies need help and we are probably the best they are going to get, but... are we going to go back?”

“Of course,” Exodus said without pause, “I know it's difficult to be so far from the Traveller, and Kervis knows that too. However, we are needed here. As warriors for the Traveller, it is our duty to defend it and our home. While I would love to return home, these Cabal pose a threat to not only this planet, but ours aswell. We need to stop them before they can pull off what they came to do, even if we die doing so.”

“Yeah, but if we found a way home, we could get reinforcements. We don't necessarily have to do this alone.”

“Kalis, look at what these Cabal have managed in just forty-eight hours. They have decimated a large city, kidnapped a huge amount of ponies, and threatened every living being on this planet. All for what? So a few million soldiers can go home? If we stop for even a second, they will gain the upper hand. We have to focus on the bigger picture right now, but maybe when they have weakened slightly, we can look for a way back.”

The Hunter nodded slightly, going back to her weapons. Exodus understood what Kalis was going through, but wasn't sure how to talk with her about it. Warlocks were the most connected to the Traveller, and any changes to it could be felt strongly by any Warlock that had been living for even a few months. A sudden loss of something he had bonded with was far more difficult than anything he had felt before, but he had done little to express it. The energy around them fuelled whatever light they lost, and while the Traveller's presence was no longer available, he found solace in the knowledge that what he was doing saved more lives than the city could ever hold.

They continued their distractions in silence after that, neither of them knowing how to continue. It was Exodus' Ghost that broke the silence.

“Our ships are nearly here. Shouldn't be more than a minute.”

Kalis stood from her seated position when she heard the news, walking over to the Warlock as he lowered himself from his hovering position.

“Here's hoping Kervis got the ponies back okay,” She commented, standing beside her companion.

“We shouldn't have much to worry about. He's the most experienced out of the three of us for a reason.” Exodus responded, watching as two ship came into view.

The engines of the two crafts roared across the land around them, signifying their speed to return to their pilots. When they got into teleport range, they slowed to hover above the two guardians.

“See you at the town,” Kalis said as her Ghost teleported her into the Inquisitor.

Exodus didn't respond, instead opting to just wait for his Ghost. When he was on board his ship, he jumped into the pilot seat and switched to manual flying, pushing the Galliot to full speed at the press of a button.

Kervis continued to fly in silence, watching the radars intently. Exodus and Kalis had just broken from formation to attack the enemy ships behind them, leaving him to guide the guardians vehicles to the destination.

It seemed that the two other members of his fireteam were successful in eliminating them as their dots on the screens moved out of sensor range.

When it was clear they were no longer being followed, the Titan rested back, shifting full control of the ship to his Ghost.

The ponies behind him didn't say much, what with them being used to what had happened over the last day. His passengers were the ponies they considered closer allies, those being Breeze, Lemon and Chrome. Cobalt had been ordered to stay back at the main camp, and so had reluctantly remained with his army. The Vienna was, unfortunately, not a very large ship, and carrying any more than those three would have been dangerous, so the majority of the ponies stayed with Exodus and Kalis.

“Ghost, how long will it take for us to reach the town?” Kervis asked.

“Around twenty minutes, give or take.”

“Good, we shouldn't have too much trouble then.”

That was all that needed to be said. The trio behind him settled down at their own paces, ending up dozing off with the gentle heat and vibrations of the engines.

When the town came within sensor range, Kervis called out to the ponies behind him.

“Hey, wake up guys. We're nearly there. Chrome, I'm gonna need some help organising the Mages. Not entirely sure how to command a large amount of people.”

“No problem,” The unicorn muttered, stretching and standing up. His sleeping earlier had made it much easier to wake now, leaving him feeling fully refreshed.

The sounds of the engines dulled out as the Vienna slowed, turning slightly to move to a suitable landing zone near the outskirts of the town. Finding space for his own ship was easy, but finding space for a craft as large as the Galliot was more of a challenge. It wasn't enormous, but its lack of landing capability made it difficult to move.

There weren't any issues in the end, thankfully. The ponies were moved from the ships safely, the Inquisitor and Galliot flying away to recover their pilots. The Vienna stayed grounded to wait for Kervis, as he saw no reason to send it to orbit.

When all the Mages were accounted for, their leader trotted up to him, smiling a happy smile.

“I would like to thank you for the trip. I assume your partners are well?”

“I'm not sure right now. They left to deal with the Cabal, but should be back soon.” Kervis responded, looking down at the robed pony.

“I see, well in the meantime, I would like to welcome you to our town. This place is a safe haven for anypony, Mage or not.”

“I appreciate that. We won't be staying long, but we may return here if you would be alright with that.”

The pony's smile grew even wider at that, “Of course, you are more than welcome to stay as long as you need. You have already proven to be an ally, and so our doors are open to you.”

The Titan gave a nod of thanks to her, watching her as she lead the other Mages into the town. When they had all left, he started to walk in after them, deliberately taking a different path to explore a bit. The ponies that lived there were a bit anxious, but didn't show fear to him walking through their town. Many simply gave a passing glance and went on their way.

Eventually, he came across a rather large building. The sign outside pointed to it being a local bar, though it was written in a language he didn't fully understand. It looked like a long dead language he had seen glimpses of on Earth, though he couldn't be sure.

Needing a way to waste some time while his fireteam came back, he walked in. The smell of alcohol made its way past his air filters, bringing up memories of past times he had spent in the City.

He walked over to the bar, ignoring any conversations around him. The ponies in the building were either not bothered by his presence, or were too drunk to care.

“You the one they are talking about? The one from Manehattan?” The bartender asked when he sat at a stool.

“Not quite sure I follow,” Kervis said, cocking his head slightly.

“Heard some stories from ponies that fled the city. Apparently a single being took on an entire army of those monsters and walked away unharmed.”

The human chuckled at that, “There was three of us, actually. But it would be understandable that I was the one that attracted the most attention.”

“Regardless, we all are thankful for the lives you three saved, even if it wasn't many. Here,” He said, sliding a mug of liquid over, “Apple family cider. Good stuff.”

“I'm afraid I don't have any money to pay you with,” Kervis said, looking down at the drink.

“On the house. If you three need anything, you are welcome to come to us.”

He looked at the pony in surprise before giving a nod and removing his helmet and setting it down beside the mug. It had been a while since he had taken it off, the feeling of the gentle breeze was far nicer now that he could actually feel it.

Taking a sip of the cool cider, he leaned forward a little, resting his arms on the bar. It was times like that which made him truly appreciate the work he did. Being able to come to a bar after a long day of work was one of the best rewards he was able to receive.

And he was going to make use of it every time it came around.

Author's Note

Indigo Tornado belongs to this guy.
The OC has been used with full permission from the owner.

I know I say it way too much, but I'm really sorry about how long this took. :ajsleepy:
It was difficult to find the motivation to work on this chapter, and there was a large rewrite halfway through which slowed it down even more.

I was trying to answer a few questions with this chapter. As I was planning, I realised that many plot lines hadn't actually been covered, like how they are going to get back, which I wanted to answer early on. Would appreciate any feedback you guys could give ^^

In case these chapters take a bit longer than usual, be sure to check out the story's group, clicky!
I post regular updates on chapter progression there.

Lastly, how would you guys feel if I opened a Patreon? I have had one set up for a long time, but I have been thinking about it before I make it public. Is that something you guys would be okay with? Or should I just scrap the idea? The only pledge is $1, and you get a bunch of stuff for pledging that. But as I said, I would like you guys' opinion on it.

12) Gathering an Army

The three guardians stood at a large table within the town barracks. Kalis and Exodus had made their way there as fast as they could, ending up taking only ten minutes to arrive at their destination. Kervis, meanwhile, had finished his drink and thanked the bar tender before leaving to meet up with his team in around the same time it took them to arrive.

“So,” The War Mage leader began, “I am aware you want ponies, but how many do you need? As I have stated previously, we do not have all that many Mages ready.”

“As many as you can spare. We need as much support as we can get, though I want to give you a warning before we continue.” Exodus said, “The Cabal are ruthless. They will kill, and they won't hesitate to do so. If your ponies go into combat, and they are not captured, they may very well be killed.”

The Mage was quiet for a moment, thinking upon the decision she now had to make. After a short while, she spoke up, “These monsters are going to cause untold damage if we don't stop them. Losses are inevitable, but we need to endure. The War Mages will stand by your side until these creatures have been all but destroyed.”

“I understand that this is difficult for you, but we will do our best to make sure as many ponies as possible come home.” Exodus said, standing tall.

The pony smiled at that, “Thank you. Now, you three are more than welcome to stay here in town while we work on preparing the Mages. We should be ready by evening tomorrow.” She said.

The guardians gave her a nod and back out from the room, beginning their walk down the corridor towards the exit.

“God, I wish we didn't have to do this.” Kalis commented, looking down at the ground slightly as she walked.

“As do we, Kalis, but we can't change that now.” Exodus replied.

“Maybe not, but I can still dream.”

The rest of their walk out of the building and around the town was mostly silent. None of them knew what to say to make it better, though with the job they had now given themselves, there wasn't likely anything that could be said.

They eventually settled down in the bar, Kervis going upstairs to get some sleep. It was going to be a long night.

Chrome Shield walked slowly through the town, taking in the sights around him. It wasn't the first time he had come to this town, and it likely wasn't going to be the last. His cousin lived near the town centre, making clothing for the Mages that lived around her.

The job seemed to pay well, as the Mages were not allowed to train without their combat robes, which naturally deteriorated with time in the field. This left her pretty well off, living in a large home, with plenty of space to spare.

With nothing else to do until the next day, the unicorn decided to pay his family member a visit, altering his path to reach her home. The streets remained quiet with the time of night, even the later hours shops had begun packing up for the evening.

Not long after, he arrived at the door to her house. It was a large slab of oak, hoof-crafted to fit her style. He gave the wood a short knock, listening as a few clatters could be heard throughout the interior of the building.

When the clattering had ceased, the door pushed open slightly, revealing a pink unicorn with a purple mane. She gave him a look over before her face switched to one of recognition.

“Chrome? What are you doing here?” She asked, her eyes wide at the sight of her cousin.

“I came here with some, uh... ponies. I wanted to come over and check up on you, see how you were doing.” He responded with a smile, hesitating at the thought of trying to explain the guardians on a porch.

“Ah, well would you like to come in? I was just about to make something to eat before bed.” She said, opening the door to allow him to enter.

“I can come in for a while, though I don't think I'll be eating anything tonight. The Mages will likely make us something before we leave tomorrow.”

“You're only staying for a day?” She asked, slight disappointment in her voice.

“We need to back out there as quickly as possible, I'm afraid. But when this is all over I would love to drop by again, if you would be up for that.”

“Of course! You are always welcome here,” She chirped, her disappointment seemingly disappeared, “Feel free to make yourself at home, I'll be there in just a minute!”

Chrome nodded and took a quick look around. It had been some time since he had set hoof in this house, the last time he could remember being before he joined the army. The house wasn't overly messy, but with her work taking so much of her time, it was clear she hadn't had much of a chance to properly clean.

Turning to his right, he entered the living room, silently appreciating the furniture that decorated it. Three double-seated couches surrounded a small coffee table, all of which had intricate patterns across them to give them a more noble look. Various cupboards lined the walls, each filled with old hardware that had once been used to make robes, until a new device showed up that outperformed the one before it. An ornate chandelier hung from the ceiling directly over the table, its multitude of lights shining bright enough to light the entire room easily.

The carpet was, unfortunately, the least impressive thing in the room. It was a simple black, absorbing any excess light to give the rest of the room a more homely feel.

Done with looking around, Chrome sat down upon one of the couches, feeling himself sink into the plush cushion. As he waited, he thought upon the mission he and the guardians had been given. They were to raise an army, but only had a few days to do it. Something of that scale hadn't been accomplished in many decades, and even then, the army wasn't needed in the end. Even if they got the army ready in time, the soldiers would probably be ill-prepared for what they were going to face.

His thoughts were ceased by the sound of hooves coming down the stairs. He turned his head to see his cousin walk into the room, sitting down on a couch opposite to him.

“So how are you, Chrome? It's been quite a while since you were last here,” She asked, smiling slightly.

“After everything that has been happening, I've honestly been better. What about you? I've heard some good things from the Mages about the work you have been doing.” Chrome replied.

“It's been hard work, but not too bad. There aren't many new Mages coming in with the lack of any significant wars, so my job has mostly been repairing damaged robes or making new ones for a few clothing shops around Equestria.”

Chrome shuffled slightly before speaking up, “There haven’t been new Mages? Did you not hear about what happened in Manehattan?”

“We all did. It's horrible, but what are we supposed to do? There isn't even two-hundred Mages ready for combat here, the rest were sent on guard duty in the lesser villages and towns. The ones that stayed here were the ones that had exceptional promise. Even if we got new Mages, they would have to endure years of training.”

“Then we can only hope that our new allies can help count for those losses.” The stallion commented, drawing a confused look from the mare.

“New allies? Another country has come to our aid?” She asked.

“No. Did you hear the stories about three beings evacuating the city?”

She nodded, seemingly unsure as to where this was going. After an expectant look from her cousin, however, her mind clicked into place.

“They are here? Oh my goodness! Can I speak with them? I would love to be able to,” She exclaimed, her eyes lighting up.

“Uh, sure. I think Kervis is sleeping but Kalis and Exodus should still be awake. Why exactly did you want to speak with them?”

“I was told they were wearing armour of some kind. If that armour is capable of blocking all that damage I would simply adore to learn how it is made. Imagine if the Mages were capable of blocking damage without spells!”

The blue unicorn sighed slightly at that, “While I admire your enthusiasm, I don't think they would like you poking around at their armour.”

“It would just be for a minute! All I would be doing is casting a quick spell to learn their compositions, and then I would be done.”

“I think we should at least talk with them before-hoof, Cross. They need that stuff to protect them during combat. Should something go wrong, and that armour became damaged, they might be at a disadvantage in the field.”

She looked a bit downcast at that news, but satisfied with the compromise. She was about to speak once more when a loud whistle sounded from another room.

“Oh! Please excuse me for just a moment, dinner's nearly ready.”

Chrome gave a smile and nodded, shaking his head slightly at the disappearing form of his cousin.

“This is gonna be interesting,” He muttered, settling down.

In the town of Despectus, two ponies trotted back into the town. The mare and stallion both had worried looks adorning their faces, both silently praying that their home and son would be safe when they returned.

As they entered the town square, they could see the monsters speaking quietly with Elder Shine. The pony was giving them a warm smile as she spoke, occasionally pointed to various places within the town.

In order to reach their home, they had to pass through the square. Not something either of them wanted to do, but it was necessary to reach their son quickly. They ducked down slightly, hoping not to be seen, and made their way through the open area.

A glance from the mare showed the biggest of the monsters to have noticed them, but it made no signs of moving. Shine was too busy giving a welcome to them to notice the presence of the two ponies.

At the speed they were moving, it wasn't long before they got through, away from the monsters. They ran up to the door of their home and slammed it open, the mare galloping into the living room to find their colt sitting in the centre, a wide smile on his face when he recognised his mother and father.

“Mom! Dad! I'm so glad you guys are safe!” He cried, racing into their embrace.

“And I'm glad you are, kiddo.” The father said, giving his son a hug, “Did anything happen while we were gone?”

“Nope. Some ponies were crying but they went back into their homes real quick. It's been quiet since.”

“Good. Now, your mother and I need to have a quick chat, and then we will be with you again, okay?” His father asked, looking down at him with a smile.

“Um, okay.” The colt muttered.

“Don't worry, Indigo. It will only be a minute or two, and then we will be right here with you.” The mare said, hoping to raise the spirits of the little blue pegasus.

He gave a nod in response and walked back to the centre of the room, sitting down to wait for his parents return. The mare and stallion, meanwhile, moved into the kitchen to speak privately.

“What are we going to do? Those monsters have just been allowed into the town! What if they decide to attack?” The mare asked in a hushed whisper when they had arrived in the room.

“Trust me on this. If they had wanted to harm us they would have done so. I don't necessarily trust them either, but if Shine says they are okay, we have no reason to distrust her. Plus, think about all the Mages we have around here. If they try to do anything, the Mages will slaughter them.” The stallion responded, in the same volume of his wife.

“But there were Mages in Manehattan, and look what happened there.”

“There were literally millions of monsters during that fight and less than one-hundred Mages. The only reason anypony even got out of that place was because of those three. Here, there aren’t even twenty monsters, but there are over fifty Mages. They are hideously outnumbered, and they know it.”

The mare gave a look to the doorway leading to the living area, “I just... I just don't want Indigo to get hurt.”

“And neither do I, but we need to have faith in our Elders, at least until Crimson returns. When she is back, we will know what we need to do.”

“If you say so, hun.” She muttered, giving her husband a short nuzzle, “I think we should probably get back to Indigo.”

“Yeah. Just remember to stay positive. The Elders know what they are talking about and if they say that the monsters are alright, you should trust them.”

The mare gave a nod and turned, walking towards the living area with her husband in tow, hoping to have a quiet night with her family.

On a train destined for Canterlot, a guarded car rolled along in stony silence, the ponies either sleeping or watching as the scenery passed in a blur.

In a far corner of the car, two ponies sat in a whispered conversation. One of them being Celestia, the other the purple alicorn.

“But how do we know we can trust them? Sure, they helped get ponies out during the Manehattan attack, but you saw the devastation just one of them dealt to those few city blocks. Imagine us having to fight them and the monsters.” The purple alicorn said the white one, her whisper threatening to reach normal talking levels in her anxiety.

“Twilight, please. I have been around for many, many years, and while I couldn't see their faces, I can tell an ally from an enemy. I have already received word that they have reached Solacium with no issues, and the War Mages have welcomed them into their town. If you keep worrying like this, you will end up driving yourself up the wall, and I think we both remember how that ended.”

“But princess, we are talking about a war against a race that we have never seen before, and our only allies are three beings of yet another race we have never seen before. Surely we should be cautious until we know more about them?” The alicorn known as Twilight commented, her voice lowering into that of a whisper once more.

“In a time like this we don't have much of a choice but to accept that they are our friends. Should they attempt to harm us, I will stop them. But until that time, we need all the help we can get.”

Twilight paused for a moment before responding, “Alright, princess. I'll take your word for it. But I have another thing I wanted to speak with you about.”

Celestia tilted her head slightly, awaiting her question.

“According to what was taken from the monster's ships, they are trying to take our magic to use as a weapon. If they are going to be stopped when they take ponies, why have they not gone for the Tree of Harmony?”

“I have thought upon this for a while now, and can only come up with two options as to why the Tree of Harmony hasn't been touched. One option is that they simply don't know where it is, and so have not launched an investigation into it. Another is that they are aware of the wrath they would be going against should they attempt to take it. That tree isn't as simple as it seems, and has quite a few countermeasures to protect it in case something came to damage it.”

The younger alicorn gave a nod at that and stood from her seat, “Well, I think that was it. I'm going to go to sleep, and let the girls know what is going on. Have a good night, princess.”

“And the same to you, Twilight.”

Far away, two ponies trotted down the dark streets to the barracks where the three guardians were staying. As they arrived at the door, the dark blue unicorn turned to speak with the mare beside him.

“Now, Cross. These guys have been through hell and I think this is the first break they have had in a long while. I know you are excited, but please, try to keep your enthusiasm under control.”

“I know, don't worry. Now can we get in there?” She replied, a beaming smile crossing her face.

“Alright, alright. C'mon.”

With that, Chrome pushed the door to the barracks open, trotting in with Cross. The guardians had been given their own area of the barracks to use as a temporary home, making it easy to find them. Kalis and Exodus were talking with each other over a table, a game of cards before them. Kervis was sleeping nearby, the larger parts of his armour laying near the bed.

As they walked closer, Exodus noticed them and gave then a quick nod, drawing Kalis' attention over aswell.

“Hey guys,” She whispered, putting her cards facing down in front of her so she could face the ponies.

“Hey, I was hoping to introduce you to my cousin, Cross Stitch. She would like to speak with you about your armour.” Chrome replied in a similar whisper, hoping to not wake up the Titan.

“Of course, what would you like to know?” Exodus asked, also setting his cards down.

This time, Cross Stitch spoke up, “I would love to know what each piece of your armour is made of. I make the robes that the Mages use and if I knew what that stuff was made of I might be able to transfer that into the production of armoured robes, helping our Mages last longer without having to use healing spells.”

“Well, normally Kervis would be the person to ask, as he wears the heaviest armour out of the the three of us, but as he is currently unavailable, I guess you can look at mine.” Exodus said.

“Oh, thank you! I won't be a moment, I just have to cast a spell on it and I'm sorted.” She explained, stepping closer to the Warlock.

“Fair enough, go ahead.”

Still smiling, she started her spell and cast it upon the feathered metal that made up the Warlock's chestpiece. But as the spell finished, she could feel and odd energy conflicting with her magic. Before she could completely finish casting it, she gasped as she felt the energy react to the new magic that enveloped it. In only a few seconds, a blinding light smothered everyone in the room following with a colossal explosion. When the ponies and people regained their vision, their reactions were mixed.

There, in the corner of the room, Exodus lay still, a gaping hole within his chest. As they stared at the corpse, his Ghost became visible and opened his segments, signifying the Exo's death.

“The hell was that!?” Chrome yelled, pulling the mare back.

“I-I don't know, that wasn't supposed to happen... oh no, is he dead?” She stammered, a look of horror on her face.

Kalis had stood when the explosion rang out, pure rage racing through her body. A pony she thought was an ally just killed her friend, and she was beyond pissed.

“You motherfucker.” She muttered, drawing her knife. Chrome saw this immediately and stood in front of Cross.

“Kalis, it was an accident, you and I both know that. Just put the knife away and let's talk about this.” He said, hoping to defuse the situation.

The Hunter turned slowly to look at the unicorn, her hands shaking slightly. She gave no response, instead channelling Arc energy through her body and blade.

“Kalis, please. This isn't you.” Chrome continued.

“Oh this is completely me.” She said quietly, sprinting forward and swinging her blade towards the two ponies.

Chrome was just able to fire a shield spell, something he was well practiced with, that blocked the incoming guardian. The shield was enough to slow her down, but as she struck the barrier, he could feel his strength beginning to wane. He only had a split second to cast it, and so it didn't have enough energy to impede the Hunter for long.

Their saviour came quickly, just as his shield was about to break. Their vision turned purple as a new sound rang out from behind them. Kervis, his armour fully equipped, stood tall, his hands surrounded in Void energy as he stared down the Hunter.

“Kalis! What the fuck are you doing?” He called out.

“Can you not see? They killed Exodus!” She responded, finally breaking the shield cast by Chrome and stepping forward, just outside the dome of Void light.

“I highly doubt that they did it intentionally. This is your lack of thinking kicking in once more, Kalis. Look at them, they are clearly upset about what had happened and the mare looks like she is about to have a fucking panic attack. If you don't put that super away I swear I'm going to do something I really don't want to do.”

The Exo looked them over for a few seconds before grunting, stowing her blade and allowing the Arc energy to dissipate. She said nothing as she pushed past the them, leaving the building and walking away outside.

Kervis sighed and dropped the Ward, turning to the ponies, “You two okay?”

The mare was feebly muttering something, tears streaming down her face with her hooves covering her head, Chrome was trying to console her, but to no avail. When he realised the question had been directed at them, he looked up at the Titan.

“She's scared, but okay. I'm gonna need a minute as well. Whenever a shield breaks, I need to recover.” He explained.

Kneeling down, he spoke softly to the petrified mare, “Hey, are you alright? I assume you never meant for that to happen.”

The pony looked up at the human, quickly giving a slew of apologies and rushed explanations, allowing Kervis to determine what happened.

“You shouldn't worry. Kalis can be like that at times, especially when her friends are harmed. She means well, but you will have to give her some time. As for Exodus, he'll be fine.”

“W-what?” She asked through her tears, “But he died, look, his body turned into dust!”

Sure enough, Exodus' corpse, along with his armour had turned into a fine black dust, his Ghost was nearby it, his segments still open and spinning.

“Just trust me, he's fine,” The Titan said, standing up and walking to the Ghost. When he was within arm's length, he rose his hand near the Warlock's companion and pushed some light into it, the blue the made the gaps between his segments flashing in response to the new energy. When enough had been given, the Ghost began the resurrection process, dropping the Warlock down and disappearing from sight.

“Gah,” Exodus muttered, holding his head, “What happened?”

“Accident involving this mare here and your light. Sorry it took so long to res you, Kalis went ballistic again.” Kervis explained, turning to signify the mare he was talking about.

Cross was now watching as the guardian she thought was dead walked over and knelt down, “Did she hurt you? I swear to God, if she did...”

The mare shook her head, slowly standing. She gave his knee a prod, trying to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Chuckling, the Warlock gave her mane a rub and stood, looking over at Kervis.

“Where did she go?” He asked.

“Outside, her Ghost will probably feed telemetry to you if you need it.”

“I'll go speak with her, can you stay here and look after these two?”

“No problem, if you need any help feel free to ask.” Kervis replied, sitting down near the ponies.

“Thanks, I'll let you know what happens.” Exodus said, walking out of the building, “Now where have you gone, Kalis?”

Author's Note

After a long delay, chapter 12 is finally here! :yay:

Thank you all for your patience, I have been slowing down as of late but I hope to change that.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I am trying to refrain from making too many chapters devoted to drama and fighting to give some character development, hope you are all okay with waiting for the more action-packed chapters to start kicking in.

Cross Stitch belongs to Never_Comfortable. The OC has been used with his permission.

Also, some art! This was made by Never_Comfortable for the scene where Exodus meets back up with Breeze, isn't it cute? :derpytongue2:

13) Unexpected Allies

In the Tower of the Guardians, a newborn Hunter wandered slowly across the plaza, avoiding the various guardians going about their business. She had been reborn just a few days ago and had been awaiting a mission from the Speaker that was equal to her level of experience. With nothing to do over the days, she had spent them getting to know the various shopkeeps that stayed there, supplying the guardians with the equipment they required in order to do their job.

Her wandering was halted when she heard her name being called. Her head darted around until she caught sight of a bronze and dark grey Titan coming over to her. His helmet covered his face, preventing her from seeing what he looked like, but his voice signified he was either Awoken or human.

“You Elana?” He asked when he got to her, receiving a nod in response.

“Good. You've been given a mission. Fireteam Odium has gone missing and we have been ordered to look for them. You got a ship?”

Elana nodded once more. She didn't have one until she had arrived, being given an Arcadia Jumpship that once belonged to another guardian a few years back.

“Alright, go up into orbit and I'll meet you there. I've gotta grab some stuff before I head out.”

With that, the Titan briskly walked off towards the vaults. Elana, still confused about what was happening, brought her Ghost up and requested trip to orbit, one that the little machine happily accepted.

The consoles across the ship meant little to her, but they were reasonably simple to guess. Her Ghost gave her a hand in deciphering what each button did, preventing her from accidentely blowing the ship up.

After a few minutes of pushing buttons to find what each one did, a new voice came through the comms.

“This is Procor. Elana, you up here?”

The voice was the same of the Titan from the Tower. Quickly, she jumped onto the comms to respond, “Yes, I'm here. Are we heading out?” She asked.

“We're heading to Venus. Make sure you stick close to me, even in space. Your light isn't strong enough to resist the Vex as of yet.”

“Got it. Stick with you until we find Fireteam Odium.”

There was a brief moment of silence before Elana's Ghost spoke up, “Procor is attempting to link our ships together. You okay with that?”

“What would happen if I say yes?” She asked.

“Nothing bad, you would just give temporary control of your ship to Procor, allowing him to take you to Venus without you having the coordinates.”

“Oh, that's fine then. You can let him link us.”

The Ghost went invisible at that, allowing the two ships to connect. When Procor got the notification that the two vessels had been linked, he pushed forward and flew ahead of the Arcadia, giving Elana a view of his ship. It was an incredibly wide ship, patterned with white and red paint, as well as New Monarchy logos. The multiple engines on the back of it easily pushed the large ship along, the light they were generating painting the rear of the ship in an orange glow.

In an instant, the two ships entered Transit, the space around them becoming blue as they soared past asteroids and Earth's Moon to reach the distant planet.

“Uh, Procor? Why are we being asked to find a fireteam? What's so important about them that deserves a rescue party?” Elana questioned as they flew, watched the lights of the transit fly past them.

“Odium isn't just any fireteam. I have worked with them before multiple times to fight off the darkness when it rises. You may have heard of the recent SIVA outbreak, yes?” Procor responded.

“A little. Some sort of machine that the Fallen were using to become stronger. But a fireteam went into their stronghold and eliminated their leader. By any chance, were Odium part of that fireteam?”

“They were, as was I. Six of us went into there and after a hard-fought battle, Aksis fell. A member of Odium known as Exodus managed to break into a hidden vault afterwards and took an odd piece of SIVA technology with him. I would be quite interesting to see what became of it.”

“So Odium helped save the world, but aren't all the guardians doing that? I understand that they have helped the Vanguard, but I still can't get my head around why a two person rescue team is necessary.” Elana said, confusion written across her face.

“Not every guardian gets to do what Odium has done. While the fireteam wasn't completed until Kalis joined them, around six months ago, those three have done incredible things over their time as guardians. If they have been MIA for this long then something is up. It's not every day that a fireteam with that sort of power and bond just vanishes.”

The Hunter didn't give a response to that. Procor was certainly correct, and she could see that with just a few days of experience under her belt. If a fireteam could pull all of those triumphs off then they shouldn't have any sort of issues, yet here they were, going to Venus to try and find out where they went.

“We are leaving Transit now. Get your weapons ready and prepare to land. When we are grounded, as I said before, let me know if you see something, but stick close and don't wander. We have no idea what sort of stuff was left behind.”

“Got it. I'll wait for your word.” Elana replied, loading a fresh magazine into her Scout Rifle. It had been given to her by the Gunsmith as a gift for new guardians, something she gladly took.

Looking out of the viewport, she could see the many trees of Venus fly past. No matter how hard she thought, she couldn't think of a reason why something so beautiful could be so deadly.

“Here we go, hope you're ready.” Procor called out, their ships slowing down above a clearing.

“I'm good, let's do this.”

The teleport to the ground was far faster than Elana was expecting, and she was only just able to catch herself before she fell to the ground. When she was standing fully, she took a look around. Masses of Vex corpses lay scattered across the clearing, some of them with gaping wounds that looked like they came from a sword. Oddly enough, the wounds had melted the metal around them, leading her to assume some sort of guardian ability caused it.

“They were here for sure, though they had no issues bringing these things down.” Procor commented, stepping forward slowly to move towards the cave on the other side of the torn metal.

“How can you tell?” Elana asked, taking her position behind Procor, her head on a swivel to look at the destruction caused by just three guardians.

“When a guardian begins to panic, they tend to expend more light in an attempt to end the fight quickly. These Vex have been killed with precision, and the atmospheric light is normal. Not all that much light was used during this fight, meaning that they had a pretty easy time.”

The Titan drew his Vanguard-issue auto-rifle up at the cave entrance, “Make sure you stay behind me, this looks like a trap.”

Elana gave a nod and raised her weapon alongside the Titan's, searching for movement. Slowly but surely, they pushed into the darkness, their Ghosts lighting up the walls to give them an idea of where they needed to go. After a few minutes of silent walking, they entered a large room, and the sight awed the new Hunter.

Piles upon piles of Vex bodies lay scattered across the room. Not a single square foot was devoid of broken metal. Up on the walls, the shells of larger Vex bodies sat broken upon their platforms, sparking on occasion.

“Well then, they had some fun in here,” Procor commented, looking over the cold metal covering the room.

“They did all this on their own?” Elana asked, her mind reeling as she tried to comprehend the firepower necessary to pull such an immense slaughter off.

“And they likely could have done more. Don't underestimate a guardian fireteam, Elana. If they work together, nothing can stop them.”

“Then what about you? Don't you have a fireteam?” The Hunter asked, looking over at the bronze plated guardian.

“I prefer to work alone. Normally if I need a fireteam, I join up with another temporarily.”

“But didn't you just sa-”

“Elana. Please. We are here on a mission, not to have a chat. We can speak more later, for now we need to focus on the task at hand.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” She apologised, looking away from the Titan.

“Don't worry about it. We were all just as questioning when we started out. You just need to remember that you are a part of the Vanguard. If there is something more important, you should focus on that.”

The duo continued to sweep the room, looking for clues as to the disappearance of the veteran fireteam. As they searched, Elana began to feel something. It was almost like something was trying to pull her somewhere.

“Procor, do feel that?” She asked, stopping to look in the direction of the pulling.

“Feel what? Is something wrong?” He asked, turning to look in the direction she was staring.

“I-I think there is something in that hole over there,” She said, pointing towards a large crack in the wall.

“Alright, we'll check it out. Even if it's nothing, we can at least scratch that area off the list.”

Still retaining the slow walk across the sea of metal, they reached the hole in the wall, Procor turning to face his Ghost.

“You read anything?” He asked.

“There is a huge source of light within there, more than I have seen for a while. This is probably what was giving Elana that feeling and I wouldn't be surprised if Odium could also feel it.”

“Good job, both of you. I think we found out where they went.” Procor said, aiming through the hole in case something was waiting on the other side, “Let's get in there. Ghost, get ready for a res, we may need one.”

The two Ghosts disappeared in small clouds of light, leaving the two guardians to push into the hole. On the other side, a shining portal was immediately visible, the light radiating off of it was almost unbearable for the newly reborn Hunter.

“You okay?” Procor asked her, seeing her begin to struggle.

“I think so, I've just never felt something like this before.” She mumbled, “It's not a bad feeling, but it's so overwhelming.”

“Ah, you are experiencing an Overcharge. Don't worry, it's a good thing. Your body has reached its limit for light storage, so it's trying to overflow the excess light into your abilities in the hopes of getting rid of it. This portal seems to be generating enough light to keep a guardian in Overcharge for hours, maybe even days.”

“So I'm not in any danger?” She asked, looking up at him.

“Not from the portal, no. Don't worry, you'll get used to it after a little while, just try to not let it get to your head. Overcharging too much will end up behaving like a drug. I've seen too many guardians fall into light withdrawals because of the Overcharges they force themselves into.”

“I'll... try, though trying to forget about this energy isn't easy. How are you able to stand it?”

“I have been a guardian for over three years, these things are normal for me. Plus, my armour is storing a lot of it for use in combat later on.”

Elana was about to speak up once more, when a sound she didn't recognise roared from the other side of the room, away from the portal.

“Ah shit, Elana! Get back through that hole, now!” Procor called out, raising his weapon towards the sound. She tried to turn and leave, but a white shimmering barrier blocked the gap off, preventing her exit.

“I can't! The hole is being covered by something.” She responded, striking the barrier with her knife in the hopes of breaking it.

“God fucking damnit, alright, get behind me again. No matter what happens, don't move until I say so!”

Elana wasted no time in moving behind her teammate, watching with fearful eyes as a huge Vex machine moved towards them. As soon as he recognised the being, Procor opened fire, his Auto-rifle laying round after round into the metal chassis of the Vex monster.

But no matter how many shots he fired, the machine didn't slow. It didn't even flinch as it endured the hail of bullets.

As it got just a few feet from them, it came to a stop, the clicking of Procor's gun sounding out his lack of ammo within its magazine.

“Begone.” The monster called out to them, “Begone from this sacred place. Enough of our comrades have died already, and no more shall fall.”

“Where are the three guardians that came here before?” Procor asked the machine, unfased by the alien being able to speak perfect English.

“They are gone. And you shall follow.”

“Fuck you, what did you do to them?” The Titan shouted, loading a new magazine into his weapon.

“I purged them from this realm. A fitting end for a team of murderers.”

“Motherfucker!” Taking aim he pulled the trigger on his gun and unloaded his weapon once more upon the towering Vex machine.

“I see you are the same as your allies. Farewell.”

Before he could react, the duo felt a huge wave of energy smash into them. The force of it was enough to push them back towards the portal, but Procor was just able to stop them both from being thrown into the shining surface of the structure.

“Ghost! The ships!” He called out, readying for another wave.

The Ghost gave no response, though Procor could feel his light reserves drain slightly as his Ghost pulled the two vessels through the portal.

“Alright, Elana, this is gonna be rough, just hold on!” He said, turning slightly to look at the Hunter.

She gave a feeble nod and took hold of the guardian's shoulder, trying to prepare herself for the next wave of energy. When it finally came, she felt very little of it. The Titan's bulky armour absorbed the blow, but it wasn't enough to prevent the knockback that followed. With a final cry, Elana was knocked into the portal, Procor shortly following as his strength waned against the unstoppable force of the Vex machine.

Their fall was short, but it still managed to knock the wind out them both. As their vision became clearer, they were able to make out the general area that they had landed in. Buildings surrounded them in a disorderly fashion, each of them seemingly made of plaster, brick and straw. But that wasn't the oddest thing they saw as they looked around. There, only around twenty feet from them, was a small, colourful horse. It was staring at them with unnaturally large eyes.

Procor was quick to stand at the sight of the new alien, turning to help Elana up, “You okay?” He asked her as he pulled up from the ground.

“Yeah, where are we?” She asked, looking around. When her eyes focused on the horse, she froze up, backing up behind Procor.

“No idea, but I don't want to take any chances.” He commented, readying a Ward.

Cautiously, he raised his weapon and took aim at the horse, speaking up in the hopes of finding out where they were, “Friend or Foe?” He shouted, clearly being understood by the animal.

“Well, uh. I don't really want to fight...” The horse replied, being yet another thing that shouldn't be able to speak English, but did anyway.

“So, friend?” Procor called out once more. He honestly wasn't a fan of killing animals, but if it was a threat to him, or worse, to Elana, he wouldn't hesitate to end it.

“Sure! I'm always happy to make friends! Even if they aren't ponies,” The horse said, happily. It began to trot over to the guardians with a smile on its face, “After all, Princess Twilight always says-”

He was cut off by a movement from the Titan. Seeing this alien coming closer to the guardians, he had moved his hands in preparation for Sunbreaking, shifting his light from Void to Solar.

“I would suggest keeping your distance, horse. I won't allow anything else to harm this Newborn, even if I have to die protecting her.”

The animal stopped at that, a look of shock across its face, “I-I had no intentions of harming either of you. I'm sorry you thought that way, I can move along if you would like.”

“If you have no reason to harm us, then help us.” Procor said, his light almost boiling, pushing to be released by him, “First of all, where are we?”

“You are in a little town known as Ponyville,” The animal said, a small smile returning to it as it proudly spoke the name of its home.

“I meant the planet.”

“Oh, I see.” The horse said, apparently surprised by the question, “Our planet has a couple of names that ponies call it, but I tend to go with Equis.”

“Never heard of it.” The Titan sighed, more towards the Hunter still hiding behind him.

“If I may ask, are you two known as 'guardians'?”

The horse's words instantly spiked Procor's attention, “What do you know about guardians?” He asked, keeping his light at bay for the time being.

“Well, we heard that there was a trio of being calling themselves 'guardians' that saved Manehattan from an attack.”

“Where are they now?” The guardian asked, slightly more hostile than he likely wanted.

“Uh, last I heard they went to the War Mages to get some reinforcements. Maybe if you hurry, you can reach the town before they leave.”

“Thanks,” He muttered. He was about to wander off when Elana turned and walked over to the animal.

“Elana! Keep away from it, you don't know what it might do!” He shouted, trying to grab at the Hunter.

“Procor, even if it did try something, we both know we could handle it. We need more information than that, and screaming at the poor thing won't get us anywhere.”

He didn't reply at that, letting her go and stepping back after a moment's hesitation. She could feel his light from even that distance, and she knew that if he let that go unbridled, it could end extremely badly for the animals. Turning back to the horse, she knelt down to be on eye level with the creature.

“Hey there, I'm sorry about Procor. We need to know exactly how to reach the town that the guardians are staying, and we need this information as quickly as you can give it.”

“Oh, um. Sure, I think I might be able to give you directions. Can you come over to my home? I should have a map you can use somewhere.”

“Of course. While you are searching, may I ask some questions about your kind? I would love to learn a little more about your world.”

“Of course,” The animal said with a smile, turning to walk away. The two guardians followed closely, Procor still resonating Solar light with every step.

“So what's your name?” The horse asked.

“I'm Elana, and the big guy behind me is Procor. What about you?”

The horse's smile grew a little wider as she replied, “Roseluck.”

“Kervis, we have an issue.”

Kervis turned to face his Ghost, his eyebrow raised, “What's up?” He asked.

“Two new guardian signatures, few hundred miles from here. The map I have points them inside a town known as 'Ponyville'.”

“Are you're sure it isn't Kalis and Exodus?” He asked, standing up.

“Positive. They are about a mile away on a hill, likely speaking with each other. These are new guardians.”

“Alert the other two, and bring the Vienna down. Chrome, you know these places better than I do. Are you able to join me?” He asked the pony near him.

He nodded, standing tall, “We may have to bring Stitch, though. I don't know how she would fare if she was left alone.”

“That's fine, the Vienna has enough space for both of you. Let's get moving, we don't know how these new guardians may react to the ponies.”

Without another word, the trio departed the building to teleport onboard the ship. The engines alone created enough noise to awake most of the town, drawing many of them out of their homes to watch the craft fly away from the town.

“Ghost, push us into Transit. We need to be there now.” Kervis said, sitting in the pilot chair and grasping the control sticks.

“Moving into Transit now, hang on.”

The ship lurched forward as the powerful engines rocketed it forward, bringing it into Transit speed almost instantly. The Transit lasted just a few seconds, the two ponies behind him barely being able to stay upright against the incredible forces the ship went through. When they dropped out of it, the town lay below them. No immediate damage could be seen from up there, much to Kervis' relief, but he still dropped the craft down to the surface, allowing himself to be teleported down onto the ground.

When him and the two ponies had been shifted to the ground, they began running into the town, ignoring the startled yelps from the passing ponies. As they ran, Kervis summoned his Sleeper, ready for combat should they need it.

“Lead us to them, Ghost.” He called out, receiving a waypoint in response. Following it lead them to a quaint little home, various flowers surrounding most of the walls.

“They are in there, but I should warn you, one of them is emitting huge amounts of Solar energy. They may be trying to threaten the pony, or ponies, that live here.”

“Alright, here we go. You two should stay out here until I say its safe to enter.” Kervis told the ponies behind him, walking up to the door.

With a swift punch, the door crashed open, splintering under the force of the Titan's light. He jogged in to find a Titan and a Hunter speaking with a cream and red pony. The bronze Titan had gone straight into Sunbreaking when he had heard the door cave in, his hammer burning with Solar light. But neither of them moved to harm one another. Instead, Kervis dropped the barrel of his weapon down at the ground in shock, the other Titan ending his super in the same manner.

“P-Procor?” Kervis asked, his mind almost coming to a halt at the realisation of who he nearly killed.

“Well, this is awkward isn't it, bud?” Procor asked, stepping forward.

“Why are you here? How are you here?” Kervis asked, shock prevalent in his voice.

“Kind of a long story. But I think we both have some explaining to do,” Procor said, slapping Kervis' shoulder plates in a light hearted manner.

“That we do...” Kervis muttered, taking a seat beside his old friend.

Author's Note

Another early chapter! Yay!

Hope you all enjoy this, I really enjoyed making it :3

Also, 500 views o-o Thank you guys so much! <3
It honours me to know that 500 individual people gave this story a chance, and that many of you have stuck around this far. Thanks to every single one of you, I can write a story I truly enjoy writing.

Love you all!

Procor is Never_Comfortable's Destiny Guardian. He has been used with permission.

14) The Attack Upon Ponyville

Thovog stood still as he listened to the pony before him speak of the town she lived in. They hadn’t left her side as she walked through the town, and had been listening to her speak for nearly an hour now. While Thovog was capable of standing patiently for that long, he could see his team becoming restless, and he doubted things would go well if they decided that the conversation was too boring for them.

“-Ma’am,” Thovog said, interrupting her, “I truly am appreciative of the explanation, but I fear we must move this along. You have made it clear that you are fine with us staying within this town, but where exactly are we permitted to go?-”

“-Oh, there aren’t any restrictions barring you respect other ponies’ privacy.-” The pony explained, “-There are plenty of places where you and your… friends can spend time, and as for your sleeping area, there should be room for all of you in the old hall. It isn’t used anymore, so none of the ponies should bother you too much.-”

“-I thank you. Might I ask for directions to this hall?-” The Val asked, giving a slight nod of thanks.

“-I’ll lead you to it, but I can’t stick around much longer. Our town’s leader should be returning fairly soon and all the Elders will need to be there for it.-”

With that, the pony began trotting away from the town hall, slowing down slightly to let the Cabal soldiers catch up. They wound their way through the streets, avoiding looking at the windows. Even Thovog could tell that the ponies within the homes were petrified of them, and looking at them wouldn’t help much.

A short walk later, they arrived at a rather large building. The walls were crumbling slightly but they still had the strength to keep the roof up and in shape. Almost miraculously, the roof itself seemed almost completely untouched.

“-This is it, I know it’s not much but I would be happy to send some ponies in the morning to fix it up for you all.-” The pony said, turning to face Thovog.

“-You don’t need to do that, this building’s current state is more than satisfactory. We thank you once again for your hospitality, and offer our aid should you need it.-” The Val said in response, ushering his team within the building.

The pony gave a surprised look before smiling, “-Please, I insist. It certainly wouldn’t look good on us if we didn’t provide adequate housing for you. I hope you have a good night’s sleep, I’ll send the ponies at about nine tomorrow morning to start rebuilding the hall to its former state.-”

Thovog gave a sigh before replying, “-If that is what you wish. Good night.-”

Inside the building, there wasn’t much to speak of. Much of the furniture had been removed from the hall, leaving it barren of anything barring a few stones that had fallen from the walls. The soldiers had began sitting, some talking with each other, others sitting alone.

After a quick headcount to make sure they were all accounted for, he took his seat in the corner of the room, setting his Slug Thrower down on the ground and leaning back against the wall. A small amount of dust fell down onto him from the added weight upon the building, but it held strong.

Just as he closed his eyes, however, a sensor within his suit began sounding. He directed his eyes over to the blip to see something that almost turned his blood cold. Two new light signatures had been detected some distance from the town, in an area that was quite highly populated.

He jolted up, looking around at his soldiers who had also stood. They had their weapons in hand, all of them awaiting an order from their leader.

Thovog really had no reason to step into this, but after the kindness that the town had shown him so far, he felt responsible to repay them somehow. Clearing his throat, he spoke up.

“Soldiers! We may have a problem on our hands. Two new guardians have entered this world in a town populated by ponies. I am aware that this means nothing to some of you, but I ask that you hear what I have to say before making any decisions.”

The Cabal before him shuffled slightly, but none spoke up.

“The ponies in this town have welcomed us, and while many of them are afraid, they have still provided us with shelter. The Primus will have certainly detected the new guardians and will be mobilising a force to intercept them. The three from the city’s assault were problems enough for him, and he will not allow new reinforcements to join them. If he launches an attack upon that town, countless more innocent deaths will occur. I cannot in good conscience allow these deaths after the kindness these ponies have shown.”

His soldiers made no new movements, nor did they speak. They simply stood staring at their leader, giving Thovog a reason to continue.

“I will leave for this town immediately. Those that wish to follow me are welcome, those that do not desire to fight the Primus may stay. I will not have any negative opinions of any of you for the choice you make.”

The Val had half expected them to all opt out of coming with him, as the prospect of fighting back against their Primus horrified even him, but as soon as he finished, every single Cabal raised their weapons in the air and called out in approval.

“We will follow you to the end, Thovog. We are at your side.” The Centurion called out, a few Legionnaires grunting in agreement.

“Then let’s get moving. We don’t have much time.”

The Cabal quickly grabbed their belongings and followed the Val to the door, not flinching when he slammed it open. They were about to start running when they were stopped by their leader.

There was a pony dressed in robes standing before Thovog, causing the Val to pause at the sight of him.

“You won’t get there without help, y’know.” The pony commented, looking up the the towering Cabal.

“You were listening to us?” Thovog asked.

“Half the town could hear you. Pony ears are clearly quite a bit more sensitive than you had assumed.”

“Ah, I apologise. But what do you propose we do?”

The pony lit his horn up at that, “What town do you need to be at?”

In the distant town, five guardians sat within a reasonably sized living room, two of them sat with a drink, the others made do without.

“So what do you think of this place so far?” Exodus asked the bronze and steel Titan. He and Kalis had rushed to the town after being notified of the new guardians. When they had arrived, they found Kervis already in conversation with the two new arrivals.

“It’s… well, I don’t really have the words to describe it. I guess the closest thing I could say about it is that it’s like medieval, pre-Golden Age Earth.” Procor explained. “At least, based on what I’ve read of medieval Earth.”

“I can agree with that. Though, the ponies seem to be nice enough.” Exodus said, polishing his Tlaloc a bit with a rag he borrowed from the cream pony hosting them.

“That they are. Speaking of which, you may want to fix the poor mare’s door, Kervis.” Procor said with a smile directed towards his fellow Titan.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get it done.” He muttered, looking towards the caved-in entrance.

Kalis chuckled at that before turning to Elana, “So what about you? You don’t look like you have been reborn for very long.”

Elana shook her head as she spoke, “I have only been alive for a couple of weeks. My Ghost found me in a place he calls ‘Ireland’.”

“Ireland? That’s hundreds of miles from the city. How did you get to the Tower?” Kervis asked, shuddering at the thought of walking for that long.

“The City seems to patrol for new guardians that are reborn that far from the Tower. I was picked up after a few days by a Hawk from the Tower.” She said, holding a cup of something called ‘coffee’ in her hands. The pony had recommended it to her, and she had graciously accepted it.

“Hm, learn something new every day.” Kalis commented, looking around at the pictures covering the walls.

“So. While this break is quite enjoyable, what are we going to do now?” Procor asked, “If this Cabal faction is as dangerous as you say, we are going to need a huge army.”

“We are working with the ponies to build one up.” Kervis said in response, “By tomorrow we will have a few hundred Mage ponies, and the leader of this land is likely also trying to reinforce her army as quickly as she can.”

“That’s good, but that surely isn’t enough to combat that many Cabal. If we worked as a fireteam, we might be able to keep them at bay, but we can’t do anything if they decide to just nuke the surface.”

“We don’t have much of a choice. Perhaps if we use our units more tactically we might gain an advantage but right now, it doesn’t look too promising.” Kervis said, looking down slightly.

Procor was about to reply, but he was cut off by Exodus’ Ghost. All the other Ghosts appeared at the same time, each of them spinning their segments rapidly.

“Guardians, we have a Cabal battalion moving towards us. They are going to be on us in about ten minutes.” The Ghost said, the others confirming what the first had said.

“Shit, they must have seen you guys show up.” Kalis said, standing up and summoning her rifle.

“We are gonna have to cut this off then. Chrome, I need you to alert the town of what is coming and get them away from here.” Kervis said to the unicorn that had been seated in the corner with his cousin since they had arrived.

“I can do that. I’ll take Cross and Roseluck with me. Good luck out there.” He said, putting his helmet back on before gathering the other two ponies and galloping from the home.

“Alright, guardians. We got some Cabal to kill.” The Titan said as he drew his Raze-Lighter, the blade coating in fire once more.

The other unarmed guardians drew their preferred weapons and followed the human out, in the direction the Cabal attack force was coming from. On the horizon, they could just make out the multiple drop ships that were inbound on the town.

“We got a plan?” Procor asked, his Shadow Price held firmly in his hands.

“No time to make one. Just keep them away from the ponies.” Exodus said.

“I’m going to hang back in the clock tower over there.” Kalis said, “I should be able to provide sniper support from that angle.”

“Good idea. Make sure you tether when it becomes necessary.” Kervis responded.

“No problem.”

With the Hunter moving towards the tower, the others prepared for their fight. Elana’s breathing had increased in speed, but she tried to calm herself.

“Elana, this your first fight?” Procor asked her quietly.

“Y-yeah. I had stayed in the Tower most of the time so I had no reason to fight anything.” She said, her hands trembling slightly.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Just stick close to me and don’t panic. You have four experienced guardians looking out for you.”

She gave a nod of thanks and steadied her hands, focusing on the ships coming towards them. They were about to open fire when a new sound pulled their attention to their left. There had been a flash of blue light before a new team of Cabal soldiers appeared before them, their weapons drawn.

“Shit, they’re on our left!” Procor shouted, pointing his rifle at them.

“Guardians!” The biggest Cabal called out, “Do not fire. If you have an interest in protecting these ponies, then we have a common cause. We wish to keep these soldiers from harming anything else.”

“Do we trust them?” Procor questioned, re-aiming at the Cabal forces nearing the town.

“We can talk about this later. For now, we have a bigger issue to deal with.” Exodus said, charging his Radiance.

The drop ships had come into firing range now, and their Harvester Turrets had already began shelling the guardians and the town behind them.

“Open fire, get rid of those ships!” Procor shouted as his gun rang out shots upon the heavy craft.

“Guardians, when firing upon the ships, aim for the middle of the ship!” The Cabal from earlier shouted over to them. With no reason to not try it, they focused their fire upon the underbelly of the vessel, the rounds sinking into the metal. Some higher calibre weapons actually managed to punch through the armour, igniting the onboard systems.

With a final explosion, the ship lost power to its engines, crashing down into the ground. The soldiers that had managed to get out of the craft ducked behind it for cover, awaiting the next drop ships to reinforce them.

The Cabal to their left had already started firing upon their old allies, the larger Cabal unleashing torrents of bullets that mowed down any soldier unfortunate enough to be within its line of fire.

“Guys!” Kalis said through their comms, “Goliath inbound! You might want to find some cover.”

“Thanks for the heads up, we’re moving.” Kervis responded, pulling back behind a nearby house.

“Hey, Cabal!” Procor shouted to their new allies on their left, “There’s a Goliath moving in, you might want to get somewhere safe.”

“Do not worry for us, guardian. Just focus on keeping their foot soldiers at bay.” He called out, stopping only briefly to unjam his weapon.

The Titan gave no response, taking aim once again at the unending squads of Cabal coming from their drop ships. He was about to question where the tank was when a new call out answered him before he could speak.

“Goliath’s dropping in, guys! Get into cover, I’ll see if I can disable it.” Kalis said.

The four on the ground dove behind any nearby walls or un-destroyed houses, Elana managing to make her way to Procor’s side.

“How do we fight that thing?” Elana asked, finally getting her first look at the Cabal war machine that had detached itself from its ship.

“The engines. If you see one on fire, focus on a different one.” Procor replied, opening fire on the front-left engine of the tank.

The guardians emptied magazine after magazine into the vehicle, leaving smoke billowing from the damaged sections of it. But even with that amount of firepower, it still hovered above the ground, its heavy cannon tearing the cover from around them.

“We gotta deal with this thing quick! It’s a miracle none of those shots have hit anybody.” Kervis called out through their comms, pushing everyone to open fire with more focus on its engines.

Elana was holding up reasonably well during the fight. She had taken only a few shots and while the rounds were much stronger than she was, her light helped shield her from the majority of the damage. But even with her light bolstering itself, it was beginning to wane. With her inability to store light within her armour, she had been expending strength throughout the fight with no means of replenishing it.

“Procor, I can’t keep this up.” She said to the Titan beside her. Hearing this, he ducked down and turned to her.

“You running out of light?” He asked, receiving a nod in response, “Just keep your head down and pull as much light as you can back inside yourself. Including your shielding.”

“What? Why would I-”

“Just do it, Elana. You can trust me on this, you’ll be fine.”

After a short pause, she did as he told her, removing all of her shielding and any light that was being used outside of her body. The added light was enough to bring her strength back up, but she was now vulnerable to enemy fire. The bar at the top of her HUD flashed a bright red, two of the sections now cleared as her armour’s systems tried to figure out what had happened.

“It’s done. But how will I fight without my shield?” She asked, looking up at the Titan that had returned to firing at the Goliath.

“You won’t. Just stick your head down and don’t come out until we say it’s safe. You are far from being strong enough for a fight like this and pushing you any more could kill you.” He said, not taking his gaze from the tank.

The Hunter gave a short sigh and lay herself against the wall. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to hold out for long, but she had hoped she would be able to at least help the team. But thanks to her light, it was as if she did nothing but become an inconvenience.

Up in the firefight, the Goliath was putting up a much better fight than it should have done. The guardians quickly came to conclusion that simple firepower wouldn’t be enough to take it down, but they couldn’t risk spending extra light to bring it down with their supers. They were stuck in a fight they would most certainly lose, as their ammo was depleting faster than the Goliath was falling.

Just as their ammo counters began to flash red, however, a new roar sounded nearby the tank. They looked over to see the huge Cabal from earlier run up to the craft and slam its fist into it, throwing it back with a new explosion. His fist had left a gaping hole in the side of it, fire and smoke being thrown out of it as whatever he hit burned.

The Cabal shouted something in his language before jumping into the cannon and tearing off the barrel of the gun in a single movement. Seeing that he was successful, he turned the barrel vertically and punched it straight through the middle of the Goliath.

The effect was instant. All at once, the engines shut off, two of them exploding as their fuel lines caught fire. The three Cabal that drove it attempted to flee but were shot down by the guardians before they could get anywhere.

“Jesus. Okay, don’t fuck with the big guy.” Kervis said, now focusing on the remaining Cabal ground forces. The drop ships had stopped coming when they had dropped the Goliath off, clearly thinking the tank would have been enough to kill them all.

“Agreed. How many are left?” Exodus asked.

“Not enough for them to be a problem. We got ‘em.” Kalis said in response to his question, her rifle’s barrel now smoking from the amount of shots she had fired.

Only a minute later, the final Cabal soldier fell, the only sounds being that of the crumbling buildings and crackling fire. Other than the contained area they fought in, the town was still in good shape. The enemy had focused on trying to kill the guardians, and so they had no reason to go deeper into the town.

“Good job, guys. Any injuries?” Exodus said, joining up with Procor and Elana.

“Other than Elana suffering a loss of light, I think we’re good.” Procor said, standing to greet the Warlock.

“Ah, that’s an easy fix. Why don’t you come with me, Elana? I’ll fix you up.” Exodus offered, holding his hand out to help the Hunter to her feet.

“Thanks,” She said, taking the hand and following him a little way off.

As they moved away, Kervis and Kalis walked up to Procor. Kalis was trying to take the magazine from the sniper out, but was having a little bit of difficulty moving the slightly melted part from the body of the weapon. Kervis, on the other hand, was trying to brush off the black dust that had landed on his plating. He had taken cover near a house that ended up falling during the fight. The dust from the collapsed structure had settled all over him.

“That could have gone better.” The green Titan commented.

“As per usual, it would seem.” Kalis said, shouting in triumph when her magazine finally tore out of the sniper.

“We got out of there in the end,” Procor replied, gazing over at the destroyed Goliath, “That thing was way stronger than usual.”

“It was. Even the Spindle couldn’t damage its engines.” Kalis said, lifting her weapon to identify what she was talking about.

“They are stepping up their game. We need to learn how to beat these things more effectively. After all, we won’t have friendly Cabal by our side all the time.”

“Speaking of which,” Kervis muttered, walking over to the towering Cabal.

He noticed the Titan’s approach, and looked over. Making no movements to seem hostile to the trio of guardians.

“I believe we have met before, haven’t we?” Kervis asked when he was in earshot, much to the surprise of Procor and the Cabal.

“Yes. I was the Val you fought on the Primus’ carrier.”

“Then why are you helping us? If you wanted to kill us, why didn’t you?”

“Because my soldiers and I have been banished from our legion. I had specific orders to let you four leave, but… well, you know how that ended.”

“So you aren’t here for us?” Kalis asked.

“No. I came here to defend the ponies. You five being saved was an added bonus.” The Cabal explained, picking up and stowing his Slug Thrower on his back.

“I think we need to talk more in private. Don’t want any of these ponies learning of you being here until we can be sure they won’t panic.” Procor said, getting murmurs of agreement from his two partners.

“That is understandable. Do you have a place we can go?”

“Yeah, we have one.”

Chrome was having a difficult time keeping the ponies from the town away from their homes. Some of the more combat-suitable ponies had begun helping to evacuate the town, but many of the others had become desensitised to danger due to the town’s history of monster attacks. Some of them had to be forcefully carried away when they blatantly refused to leave, screaming about the Elements being able to handle it.

When the entire town’s populace had been moved to the other side, away from the fight that was ongoing, Chrome began looking over the crowd for any signs of injury. The race to get out of there was too fast for many ponies to keep up, leaving some with sprained muscles, and one with a broken leg. But the rest seemed fine, and none had sustained any serious injuries.

“What’s going on? We have never had to evacuate before, what’s so important that you force us out of our homes?” One pony called, getting cries from the other ponies around him that were just as angry about the sudden change.

“The monsters that attacked Manehattan have come here. You want to ask them why you left your homes?” Chrome asked, his patience reaching its end.

That shut them all up. They had all heard of the attack, and had seen the column of smoke, but none of them thought that the monsters would come to their town.

“Right now, five guardians are risking their lives to keep you all safe. I’m sure they will do their best to keep your homes and businesses intact but nothing can be promised in this situation. All we can do now is wait.” Chrome explained, the silence of the ponies helping to keep his mind clear.

When no other sounds were made from the crowd, he turned to watch the slew of explosions on the other side of the town, the night sky helping to display them in full colour. As he watched, he heard the flapping of wings to his right. Looking over revealed Princess Celestia and Luna had arrived with a detachment of guards.

“Second Lieutenant Chrome Shield! What are you doing here?” The Solar princess asked when she had landed. She had adorned her combat armour, something that hadn’t been seen in many decades.

“I came with the guardians, who are currently keeping the Cabal at bay. While I know it isn’t my place to say this, your majesty, I would recommend not you get anywhere near that fight. The explosions are far more intense than those seen at Manehattan, and I fear the Cabal may have introduced something new for the guardians to fight.” Chrome said, bowing before his leader.

“What sort of ‘thing’ could cause that? Did they not manage to cease the assault on the city and even infiltrate one of their craft?” Luna asked. She was also wearing her combat armour, though it didn’t look as polished as her sister’s.

“I’m unsure, but if it is causing them trouble, then it would end us ponies in no time at all. It would be better if you and your guards stayed here and helped us keep the ponies calm.”

Celestia gave him a look over for a moment before sighing, “As you know these guardians better than I do, I shall take your word on it. Guards! Form a line and make sure nothing gets past you. We are the last line of defence for these civilians.”

“I thank you, your majesty. I do not wish for the loss of any more life.” Chrome said, standing up once again.

“Neither do I, and I will do my best to make sure no more lives are taken. Luna, we should at least watch what happens. If the guardians fail, we need to be ready.” Celestia said, taking flight when she had finished talking. Luna gave Chrome a short nod before joining her sister in the sky.

When the two sisters were out of sight, Chrome looked once more at the glow of fire. The distant explosions were still going off, the debris of them flying into the air.

As he watched, a younger filly that was sat with her mother spoke up, “Um, mister? You said that those… guardians were fighting the monsters, right?”

“That they are.” He replied with a smile.

“But, what if they don’t stop them? Maybe they’ll get hurt and then the monsters will come for us.”

Chrome looked back over to the burning section of the town, the smile still on his face, “They won’t.”

Author's Note

Getting these chapters out a little faster now, so that's a plus :D

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I figured it's about time we actually have a proper fight in the story, since the last real one was in chapter 6. Be sure to let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions for me. I take any and all suggestions or feedback into consideration so don't feel like I will ignore you :twilightsmile:

I would also like to thank you all yet again. The support on this story has been amazing and it has fuelled my desire to actually complete it. We have a long journey before the tale of Odium is finished and I hope you will be there to see it through until the end.

Thanks again! :heart:

(By the way, Never_Comfortable finally got a DeviantArt account. Check him out here <-- Clicky!)

15) Training

Many miles from Ponyville, the five guardians sat in a larger hall with their pony companions and their new Cabal allies. The War Mages took some convincing before they accepted the Cabal into their home town, but they eventually allowed them entry.

“I think at this point, we need to figure out how the Primus saw you two so quickly.” Kervis said, looking over at Elana and Procor.

“The Primus is using technology developed by the Flayers to detect sources of light.” The Val explained, “All Cabal soldiers have this hardware. It was how I got to you so quickly.”

“So they can see us right now?” Kalis asked.

“For you three, not as much. But the new sources of light were pure, unlike yours which has mixed with the energy in the environment. In time, these guardians signatures will dull, but you are all detectable if enough effort is put into it.”

“So how do we prevent this? If they can detect us all then they could attack at any time.” Kervis questioned, looking around at the hall.

“The technology detects outward light. If you were to contain it, they wouldn’t be able to see it no matter how much they tried.” The Cabal said.

“I see. Then we can reactivate it during combat.” Exodus surmised.

“Correct. You wouldn’t be losing your light, you would be hiding it.”

“But if we contain our light, we won’t be able to overflow it.” Exodus said, “That could cause some pretty serious issues.”

“Then is there any way to store it?” The Val asked.

“Temporarily, yes. Our armour stores excess light allowing us to use it in Darkness Zones. But even with that, they will fill up. Normally we would then push it into weapons during combat, or expend it with abilities.”

The Cabal brought his hand up to his chin in thought, trying to think of a way around the dilemma. After a few moments, he spoke up again, “What about the ponies?”

Kervis gave him a confused look, “The ponies? What about them?”

“You are currently using a fusion of their energy and your light, yes? If your bodies are generating light from their energy, then surely you could store your excess light within them.”

“We could in theory, but how would we know what that may do to them?” Exodus asked.

“Well, since they are all able to use this energy, I would assume that the effects they would gain would depend on the type of light they received.”

“This is all fine to talk about, guys, but in the end we still have a problem. What pony would actually offer to receive this?” Kalis pointed out.

“I-I don’t know.” Kervis sighed, “We would have to speak with-”

“I’ll do it.”

All eyes turned to face the blue pony that had spoken. Chrome had already stood and was walking over to the side of the guardians, a confident look in his eyes, “I enlisted to protect ponies, but I currently don’t have the ability to do that on the scale we’re looking at. If this energy will make me stronger, I’ll be happy to take it.”

“Chrome, we have no idea what it might do to you.” Exodus said, “If something goes wrong, like your body refusing it, it could hurt you.”

“If I die, it will be for my kind. I will not stand idly by while these monsters kill everyone I know and love.”

Exodus looked the pony over, searching for any signs of fear or change of heart. When none could be found, he shook his head slightly, “You really want this?” He asked.

“I do.”

“Alright, I’ll try it. But you need to do exactly as I say, okay?”

Chrome gave a nod and stood tall, looking up at the Warlock. Slowly, the guardian approached him and turned to his Ghost, “Can you shift some light ready to res him, just in case?”

“No promises, but I’ll do my best.” The Ghost replied.

“Good enough. Here goes.”

With that, the Exo began channeling some of the light stored in his armour into his hand. The light quickly formed a ball, streaks flying around it as it tried to find its place in the new environment. Giving one last look at Chrome, he pushed the light forward towards the unicorn, the energy detecting the pony almost immediately. It jolted up out of Exodus’ hand and found its way to the pony’s horn, covering it before dissipating. Other than cringing at the new feeling, he didn’t seem to be in pain, so the Warlock backed up, hoping all went well.

“So, how do you feel?” The Exo asked.

“Not bad really, was something supposed to-”

Before he could finish, he bowed his head and brought a hoof up to hold it. A groan of pain was all he managed to say before the guardians moved forward to help him.

“Chrome, you okay?” Kalis said, poking his shoulder.

“Y-Yeah, I think I’m okay, just a huge headache.”

“It may be because of the amount I gave you.” Exodus commented, stepping forward, “I can only guess that your body is trying to figure out what the new energy is, but since you didn’t blow up or anything, I think you’ll be fine.”

“Gee, thanks.” The unicorn muttered, looking up once more towards Exodus.

“Ghost, can you do a scan? We don’t want his body to reject it.” Exodus said to his Ghost.

“No problem. Just hold still.”

The Ghost projected a light blue glow from his eye when he had moved closer, the glow easily covering the small pony. After a few seconds of this, the little machine pulled back beside Exodus.

“His body is resonating with the Solar energy you gave him. After a few minutes the pain should go away, and you will begin to notice the effects of it.” The Ghost said, its segments spinning slightly.

“What sort of effects will this Solar energy give me?” Chrome asked the little machine.

“With Solar light, you will gain a faster replenishment of your personal energy, as well as increased agility. Of course, it may vary as I am only guessing with the knowledge of how Exodus’ abilities work alongside Solar light.”

The unicorn smiled slightly at that thought, lighting up his magic and creating a barrier before him. It shimmered brightly, but it didn’t look different in his eyes.

“I thought it was supposed to be working with my magic?” He asked, lowering the shield.

“That’s what it’s called?” Kalis said, she had sat beside Kervis when the pony had confirmed he was fine.

“It doesn’t matter what it’s called. What matters is that this confirms something I had already assumed. You have the new… ‘magic’ within you, but you lack the ability or knowledge to use any of it.” Exodus said.

“So I’m gonna have to train before I can make use of it?” Chrome asked, finally managing to stand fully again.

“Yes. We all had to in order to use our light, and so you will have to as well.”

“And this training will let me use the full abilities of this energy?”

“Uh, unlikely. I gave you a minimal amount of light, just enough to make sure you wouldn’t be hurt by it, and you could barely take it all. We were lucky your body adapted to it so quickly, as if it took longer it might have been far more painful.”

“So what will I be able to do?” The pony asked, sitting down.

“You should have access to a couple of things, and then you can train to become better at those things. With a Warlock’s Solar light, you will be able to regenerate your own energy far faster, or resurrect yourself from death. It will be incredibly unlikely that you would be able to do both without heavy training and a Ghost by your side, but training one of those factors would at the very least give you an advantage against any hostile Cabal.”

Chrome nodded slowly in thought, “That could be amazingly useful if multiple ponies had the ability to use your energies. Do you think the War Mages would be alright with taking some of it to use in battle?”

“I would prefer to make sure ponies can even use it to begin with,” Exodus replied, “When you have trained enough to be able to use some of the light as a weapon, I will think on it. This is new, even to us. So we will have to learn about it together.”

“I understand. I have one last question, if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead,” Exodus said, taking a seat with the other guardians.

“If you are trying to hide your light, wouldn’t giving it to other ponies just behave like your light? Can the Cabal still track it if we are the ones using it?”

This time, The nearby Val responded to his question, “While I do not know the full capabilities of this technology, I am aware that pony magic is cast differently depending on many factors. It is likely that your magic will lace itself with the light in such a way to conceal it alongside the energy around us.”

Chrome gave a short glance over at the Val while he spoke, but looked down at the floor when he had finished, “I’m still not comfortable knowing how you got that information.” He said.

“These are the Primus’ plans, not mine. I do not agree with what he did, but I can understand it. He is desperate, and won’t stop until he gets to go home.”

The pony gave a sigh and nodded, looking over at Exodus, “So, you want to begin this training?”

“Better to do it sooner than later. Let’s head into the fields nearby, less ponies to see us there.”

With the duo leaving the building to start training, the others started to pack their belongings up, each of them moving out of the door one at a time.

Looking around, Kalis spotted the War Mage from Ponyville that got them back to their town, and walked up to him. A short talk later had the Cabal soldiers teleporting back to their town.

“Kervis,” Kalis called out when their new allies had disappeared.

“Yeah? What’s up?” He replied, turning to look at his teammate.

“I know Exodus is trying to help, but I’m not too sure I can agree with this whole ‘giving light to the ponies’. What if a pony gets it and decides it would be better to use it against us, or against other ponies? We can’t possibly think that every one of these ponies is nice.”

“Right now, we don’t have a choice. I doubt these Mages would last a minute against a Cabal force without aid, and we can’t keep defending every single pony that comes into danger. We need to gain the upper hand, and this is the only way we have. If you can come up with something, we will gladly hear you out, but until then we will have to trust in Exodus.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Kervis gave the Hunter a smile, patting her shoulder, “C’mon, Procor and Elana are waiting for us. How about heading to the bar?”

“Heh, you sure know how to make a lady smile.”

“So how do we begin?” Chrome asked. They had been walking for a good ten minutes, and now the town was a long way from them. The gentle glow of the street lamps illuminated the dark sky, bathing the houses in a warm yellow light.

“First, we do what every guardian has to do. Reach out into yourself and feel for the light. You need to connect with it, force it to bend to your will. Only when the light obeys can you wield it.” Exodus explained, shrouding his hand in fire as a sort of example.

Finding the new light wasn’t all that difficult for the experienced unicorn, as all young ponies had to do something similar when they were trying to find their talent. Poking around in his magical reserves revealed the light he was looking for, but he was unable to touch it. It almost felt like the light was resisting his mind.

“Having trouble?” The Exo asked.

“I can’t go anywhere near it. Whenever I try to bring it up to my horn, it shies away back into my reserves.” Chrome grunted, trying again with more force.

“Light isn’t just a material, Chrome. This energy is what keeps us alive, and is what chose us in the first place. As it doesn’t belong to you, it is trying to resist being used. In order to make use of it, you need to show it you are in charge.”

“Easier said than done.”

“It is. But it can be done. Instead of trying to force it into use, coax it out. Mix your own magic with the light, show it your power, and let the light decide what it wants to do.”

Doing as he was told, instead of trying to force it, he allowed his own magic to fill the ball of light. He could feel its energy diluting, shifting around his body as it gained free reign to move around his being. Eventually, it began shifting itself up towards his head, ending up storing itself near his horn.

“That… worked?” He asked in shock.

“When you stop thinking of light a material, a thing to just be used, you will begin to see why training is so necessary while you use it. While you must learn to use it, the light must also gain strength to bolster itself. In a way, you are both training together.”

“Okay, but how do I make use of this stuff? I can feel it at the top of my head but I can’t access it like my other magic.”

“Simple, will it to do something. Ask of the light something you want it to do, and it will obey.”

Grunting, the pony thought hard to command the new magic to do something. He eventually settled with asking for an energy ball, the simplest of spells to cast. When he opened his eyes he found a small ball radiating with an intense heat. The ball had fire spinning around it, though the embers that hit him didn’t harm him.

“Solar light isn’t made for damage. While Titans are able to use it to kill quickly, their use of it is very brief. If you ration it out, use it tactically, you can make this light last for days, sometimes even weeks. Warlocks use this in combat to gain an almost infinite amount of grenades for sometimes up to thirty seconds. Why don’t you give it a try?”

Shrugging, he tried to picture a grenade he had seen Exodus throw in the past. Within a few seconds, the small ball had morphed into a larger orb, the solar light now bursting out of it as it hovered.

“And now project it forwards.” The Warlock beside him said.

Not wanting to use too much of the light he had been given, he threw the orb away from him using his own magic, the orb veering to the right as it soared through the air. When it hit the ground, a ring of fire shot out of it, but other than that, nothing happened.

“That’s it?” He questioned, looking at the charred ring on the ground.

“The light will try to form what it knows best. That was something we call a Firebolt grenade, something that doesn’t fully work unless it has targets within that ring.”

“But what does it do in the way of harming something?” The pony queried, still looking at the ring.

“Anything within that ring will be struck by a column of fire, hot enough to melt through armour. Each grenade can target up to two hostiles at a time, and is often useful for removing stronger enemies from the battle.”

“But you said you could make infinite grenades, can I do that?”

“I don’t see why not, though try to keep it limited. We don’t know how long that light will last.”

Reaching into the pool of light that was still stored near his horn, he commanded as many grenades as he could. Within a few seconds, a ring of Firebolt grenades surrounded him, their heat and light radiating almost like the sun itself.

“Good job, seems like you won’t have too many issues summoning them during combat, though we still need to work on one more thing.”

Chrome gave a look to the guardian, “What would that be?”

Exodus raised his hand to point at the charred ring, far to the right of the pony, “Your aim.”

When morning came around, Chrome was panting with exhaustion. His training had lasted all through the night, and had him constantly moving. While he absolutely hated the Warlock for putting him through that, he could understand the benefit from it. He was now able to land grenades on targets while moving, the Firebolt’s ring easily making up for near misses.

“I think you should go back home and lie down. You did well tonight, Chrome. We’ll make a guardian out of you yet.” Exodus said, patting him on the back.

“Yeah, thanks.” The unicorn managed to get out between breaths. He was about to leave for the town when he was stopped by the warlock once again.

“Before you go, I would like to give you a gift.” Exodus said.

“Oh?”

“You see, it is customary for a new guardian to be given a set of armour. I have been speaking with my Ghost while you were training and the surrounding area has enough materials to synthesise a suit of armour for you.”

“You don’t need to do that, Exodus. I have my own armour that I received when I joined the army, which I’m honestly a little attached to.” Chrome explained with a smile.

“If you want to use this light effectively then you need a way to store it. Guardian armour stores light automatically, and the suit my Ghost can generate for you will be able to slowly regenerate your light reserves. This is still far slower than what we are capable of doing, but it will mean that you won’t have to take light from us all the time in order to train.”

“But what about the other Mages?”

“I have already thought about that.” Exodus replied, “My Ghost will create two sets. One for you, and another for your cousin. You made her out to be a clothes designer? I guess for the Mages?”

“Yeah, she is. But you would still do that for her even after what happened earlier?”

“What happened was an accident, and I have already spoken with Kalis about her actions. What I am doing here is to help every Mage in the town, though if your cousin gains something from it then I am happy to help her too.”

“I see, thank you.” Chrome said, his smile unfading. He waited patiently as the Warlock’s Ghost gathered resources from around them, ores from the ground, organic matter from the trees nearby, and turned it into simple, white and gray armour that lay in two neat piles; an equine version of basic Guardian armour.

“The one on the left is yours.” The Ghost said, floating up near Exodus once more, “If the size is incorrect I apologise, I made the best guess I could.”

The unicorn picked both the piles up in his magic, being sure to note the one made for him, “Thanks again guys. Means a lot that you both are willing to help us so much.”

“It’s what we are here for. Now you go and rest, you’ll need it if you want to train more.”

As the pony walked towards the town, the guardian turned his head to look at his Ghost, “Could you drop the ship down from orbit? I have a Cabal I would like to speak with.”

Elana rose from her bed in a daze. Looking around her, multiple bunk beds surrounded her little bed, some of them occupied by ponies, but the majority of them were empty.

As quietly as she could, she slipped into her armour and stepped out of the building into the cool outdoors. A light brushed past her face as she closed her eyes, filling herself with the early morning smell of open fields and pastries from the nearby shops.

“Hey, you’re up early.”

Her eyes darted to the left to find Kalis polishing her sniper, the black and white glow still crossing it as if the weapon was made of an ethereal substance. She was sat at an outdoor table, a large umbrella shading it from the rising sun.

“Yeah, I don’t really sleep much these days.”

“Ha, wish I knew how that felt. Wanna join me? Been bored since Exodus left with Chrome to help him learn how to use light.”

Elana gave her fellow Hunter a nod and sat down at the table with her. Her gaze rested upon the long rifle that Kalis loved so much.

“Ya like her?” Kalis asked, a happy tone in her voice.

“It’s such an odd design,” The human commented, leaning over to take a closer look at the glow that covered its skin.

“Don’t feel like you can’t touch it. As long as you don’t break it, you are more than welcome to give it a spin.”

Giving a thankful look at the Exo, she took hold of the rifle and stood up, taking aim at a distant tree across the plains. The weapon was incredibly heavy, but she was just able to lift it into a semi-stable aim.

“You aren’t gonna hit anything with that posture, here.” Kalis said, standing and joining her. She stepped beside the new Hunter and moved Elana’s limbs for her to take a more stable stance.

“Is this really necessary?” Elana asked, a little uncomfortable with the sudden attention from the veteran Hunter.

“You think this is weird? Try having Kervis teach you this stuff. He’s far less… relaxed when it comes to this.”

“I get that, but why do I need to stand like this? I never see you standing like that when you fire it.”

“I’m an Exo, remember? We are far stronger physically than humans. This position will allow you to take the recoil that gun will throw at you, and it’s necessary for bigger guns.”

“Please, I might be new, but I’m not weak.” Elana scoffed, standing normally once more.

Kalis gave a snort of amusement, “Then go ahead, I’m sure your strength will come in handy.”

The human gave a short grunt before raising the sniper once more, and taking aim at the tree in the distance. When she was confident in her aim, she pulled the trigger. But instead of the gentle nudge was anticipating, the weapon slammed back into her shoulder, knocking her down onto the ground.

“W-what was that?” She groaned, raising her head slightly.

“That was a high-caliber weapon throwing you on your ass because you didn’t listen.” Kalis said, offering a hand to help her up.

Taking the offered hand, she rose up and looked at the rifle again. After a short look, she handed it back to the Exo, “I uh, think I’m gonna need to practice with something a little less powerful.”

“If you want to deal damage to something like a Cabal, you can’t be using those pansy-ass weapons the Vanguard give. I can get you started with a lower caliber though.” Kalis said, summoning her Ghost.

“You need anything?” The Ghost asked when he had become visible.

“Yeah, a Devil’s Dawn. Any element.”

“No problem.”

The Ghost became invisible once more, and on the table a new sniper lay on its side. It was a white rifle of Fallen design with a thin barrel, the well-known SIVA emblem crudely drawn in red upon its side.

“Here, try this thing out. It’s known for being one of the best snipers you can get.” Kalis explained, handing her the new rifle.

The young Hunter looked at the weapon in surprise, “Thanks, but you really don’t have to-”

“Elana, you are a Hunter. While we can use any weapon, we tend to excel with snipers because of our fast movement and stealth. If you want to do well during fights, you are going to have to accept the help from other guardians, and this is your opportunity to accept it.”

With a short sigh, she reached over and took the weapon, holding it in her hands. It was much lighter than Kalis’ rifle, though she could tell this weapon was far stronger than the weapons she had been given by the Vanguard.

“Um, thanks Kalis.”

“Anytime, kid. If you need something else, feel free to ask.” The Exo said, taking a seat once more.

“Actually, I could do with some help learning how this thing works.”

Kalis gave a smile to the human, “I think I can help with that.”

Author's Note

Time fore some character development! :yay:

I hope you guys are alright with the ponies being given guardian abilities. Me and Never_Comfortable talked about it and we have come up with a way to avoid making the ponies overpowered, just bear with us ^-^

Also, I would like to say now that if you dislike the story that's fine, you are free to do so, but please for the love of god tell me why you disliked it. I will never be able to fix the mistakes I make if nobody talks to me about the things they hate.

Anyways, thanks again for the support, we are about to reach 600 unique views! I honestly can't even begin to fathom why 600 people would click on the first chapter, but hey, I'm not complaining. :3

Stay awesome guys and gals :heart:

16) Preparation

Exodus’ ship soared through the sky towards the town the Val had said he was staying at. It was quite a distance from Solacium, but wasn’t far enough to be an issue for the Galliot. As the town came into view, he noticed a few ponies coming out to greet the ship. It seemed that they had heard of the guardians and their ships, making it easier for Exodus to prepare, as he knew they wouldn’t attack him when he landed.

As his ship approached, he placed his Tlaloc on his back and stood, now being ready for teleportation. His Ghost got the hint immediately and sent the Warlock down to the surface, a small group of ponies greeting him with smiles.

“Hey there! Are you one of those guardians?” A smaller red pony asked.

The Exo gave a small laugh and began walking into the town, ruffling the pony’s mane a little. He didn’t mean to look ignorant, but he needed to speak with the Cabal as quickly as possible.

As he walked, he kept an eye out for the pony the Val had described. Apparently she was the one that housed them, and so she would likely be able to help him find them.

It wasn’t long before a pony came into his vision that looked identical to what the Cabal had described. She was speaking with a taller red unicorn with a wide smile, nodding rapidly to the unicorn’s words. He began to hear what they were speaking of as he got closer.

“-ey aren’t all that bad, Scarlet. I promise.” The smaller pony said.

“I will have to take your word on it, I suppose. Though, I would still like to speak with these creatures.” The red pony replied with a sigh.

“Of course, they are just over here!”

The smaller pony turned to walk in a direction, but this finally allowed her to notice the Warlock, the larger pony quickly noticing him as well.

“Is this one of the creatures?” The unicorn asked.

As Exodus moved closer, he could make out more of the unicorn’s features. Her mane and tail were a deep blue, as were her eyes. Her cutie mark was a blue rose, still attached to its stalk.

“U-uh, no, m’lady. This is one of the guardians that helped to evacuate Manehattan.” She explained.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Exodus said, giving a short bow. This unicorn was clearly respected within the town, and he didn’t want to upset the ponies that lived there.

“Likewise. I must thank you for the work you did. Even I could see the column of smoke from the city, though I didn’t think it was as major as it ended up being. I’m sorry that you had to go through that alone.” The red pony said this with a gentle smile, her eyes darting over his armour. Though her eyes seemed to rest for slightly longer upon the weapon stowed on his back.

“Thank you, but I had my fireteam beside me. I just wish we could have done more.”

“Yes, I can imagine. Now I am not opposed to conversation, but I doubt you came all this way to chat with me.”

“You are correct. I have come to speak with the Cabal that are residing here. I was hoping that you would be alright with me doing so.”

“Of course, I was going to do the same, as a matter of fact. Would you care to join us?” The red pony asked.

“Sure, you lead. I have never been to this town before.”

The unicorn’s smile grew wider slightly at that, “Ah, then I welcome you to Despectus. I do hope our little town is to your liking?” She had began walking, allowing the guardian to follow closely as they spoke.

“It’s a nice-looking town from what I have seen so far, though I may need to stay a while longer before I can give an accurate opinion on it.”

She gave a small giggle and a nod before continuing, “I don’t believe I know your name. I am Scarlet, leader of Despectus.”

“Then it’s an honour to be here with you. You can call me Exodus.”

The rest of the walk was spent with idle chit chat, mostly around the guardian. Scarlet seemed incredibly interested in their presence within Equestria.

“M’lady, we are nearly there.” The smaller pony pointed out, bringing the duo’s eyes up to see a somewhat-decayed building, ponies surrounding it with building equipment.

“Certainly not what I expected to see. They’re in there?” Exodus questioned, walking towards the large structure.

“They should be. Normally the Mages notify us when these, Cabal have left to do something. They have been waiting in there since they arrived a little while ago.”

“Ah, best not keep them waiting then, hm?” He said, walking up to the wooden doors and giving a knock. He had to put a little more force into it to make sure he could be heard through the thick entrance.

It wasn’t long before the door opened, revealing a Centurion. Its weapon was stowed on its back, but when it saw the Warlock, it rose its shields up in caution.

Exodus was painfully aware of the fact that they couldn’t converse with each other, as it seemed only the Val was capable of speaking their language. This, naturally, was unknown to Scarlet.

“Hello there!” She called out, trotting up to the Cabal soldier, “I am Scarlet. I was hoping to speak with you and your leader, if at all possible.”

The soldier gave her a long, blank stare before turning back to call out in its language. A few moments later, the Val appeared in the doorway, allowing the Centurion to go back inside.

“Greetings. How may I help you?” He asked, looking down at his visitors.

“I don’t suppose, you are the leader for your, uh, team of soldiers?” Scarlet queried, her smile unwavering.

“I am.” He replied, “And who do I have the honour of speaking with?”

“Oh, sorry. My name is Scarlet, you may have heard of me from time to time if you have been living here.” She said, introducing herself for the third time.

“I recognise the name. If memory serves me correctly, you are this town’s leader, correct?”

At the nod of the red pony, the Val gave a short bow, “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, and I thank you for allowing us refuge in your town.”

“I try to look out for as many ponies I can. You may not be a pony, but I am still willing to offer safety to you and your kind should you require it.”

The Val was about to speak up when Exodus stepped forward, looking up at the towering Cabal, “I hate to interrupt, but I actually came here to speak with you.” He said.

The blank stare the Val gave did little to help the Warlock determine his reaction. After a few moments, he stood aside, granting the guardian entrance to the building, “Go in, I am just going to finish my conversation with Scarlet.”

Exodus gave a short nod and passed him into the hall. Various seats and tables had been placed around the room. While the hall itself looked old, the furniture seemed newly made, leaving him to assume the ponies had given them to the Cabal recently.

The Cabal at the tables paid him little attention. A few glances from them every now and then was all the indication they gave to his existence, something the Exo appreciated as he didn’t have much to speak about with a race that spoke a different language.

After a minute or two of wandering the hall, the Val closed the door and began walking towards him, attracting the attention of the smaller Cabal around him. When he reached a respectable distance, he stopped and looked down at him.

“You wish to speak with me?” He asked.

“I do. You appear to want to protect these ponies, something we as Guardians naturally also want to do. I feel we may benefit from an exchange of information.”

“Understandable. You are correct in thinking we wish to defend these ponies. We have little to do now that we have no legion, and none of us truly agreed with what the Primus was doing, but none of us could speak up about it. Now that we are free, we can act on our own accord, and we all agree that these ponies’ lives mean more than the legion returning home.”

The Warlock stared at him after the Val had finished talking. He hadn’t expected to ever hear a Cabal say that he wanted to save lives more than take them. Hundreds of records would have to be altered should that information ever get back to the Tower.

Straightening himself up, he gave his reply, “As for the information, we need to know about the legion’s carriers.”

“Oh, and what exactly is it you need to know?”

“Which ones hold the prisoners?”

Slowly, Chrome walked through the dimly lit streets that made up Solacium. He hadn’t been able to sleep at all with the new energy coursing through him. Even though he had used a lot of light training, he still had enough to feel it merging with his own magic. The feeling was odd enough to prevent him dropping off to sleep, leaving him incredibly tired, but unable to fix it.

He was holding the two suits of armour Exodus’ Ghost had made him, the garments trailing slightly behind him as he tried to focus on walking and keeping them up in the air. Eventually, he reached the familiar door of his cousin’s home, knocking on the door when he got close enough.

It was just a few seconds before the door cracked open, revealing the pink mare. Her eyes widened when she saw the blue unicorn, throwing the door open to look at him face to face.

“Chrome, you look exhausted! Are you alright?” She asked, worry etched on her face.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s kind of an odd story though.”

“Well, come on in. I was about to start making breakfast.” She said, stepping back to allow him in. When he had entered the home, he closed the door behind him, following the seamstress into her kitchen, “Would you like anything?” She asked, gathering a few pans from the cupboards.

“Um, no thanks. I actually came here to speak with you about these.” Chrome explained, raising the two bundles onto the kitchen table. The mare gave the piles a short look before trotting up to them, moving the fabric around to get a feel for it.

“What are these? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a material like this before.” She muttered, still toying with the fabric.

“Exodus gave them to me. It’s guardian armour refitted for-”

“Guardian armour!?” Cross exclaimed, cutting her cousin off.

“Yeah, one is for me, the other one was a suit Exodus wanted you to have. He was hoping you could make new sets of them if you had this one to work off of.”

“W-What? Even after what happened, he was still happy to give me this?” She said, looking at the armour before her.

“Hey, you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. He knows it was an accident, and he is treating it as such.”

“I… I guess. But why did you bring me the other suit as well?” She asked, giving the other bundle an odd look.

“To tell the truth, I can’t figure out how to get this stuff on. The only clothing I ever wear is my armour, and that stuff is easy to wear.”

Cross gave a smile and raised Chrome’s armour up into the air, getting a better look at its assembly. When she was satisfied with it, she moved the larger piece over to Chrome.

“I think this is the body armour. Want to start with this one?” She said.

“Sure, you’re the one who knows what she is doing. I’ve got no idea how to work with this stuff.”

Sighing slightly, she wrapped the fabric around his barrel, allowing him time to move his legs through the holes that were cut out on the bottom. When it had entirely covered him, she looked under it to see if there was any easy way of fastening it through the middle. However, as much as she looked, she couldn’t see any obvious way to attach both sides together. She was about to mention it when the two sides merged together, a strip of light covering the gap. After a moment, the strip of light vanished, leaving the seam gone completely.

“Wha? How did it-”

“Trust me, it’s a fairly long story. I would rather see if this stuff fits me before I start explaining it.” Chrome said.

A grumble left her lips as she picked up the four greaves that lay on the table. This was a much easier step, as they easily slipped around the blue pony’s legs, the light showing up four more times to seal them to the body piece.

Next, the helmet came up. It was in two segments, as it wouldn’t be possible for a pony to put on if it was in one.

“You ready?” She questioned, raising the two parts up near her cousin’s head.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

With confirmation given, she pushed them either side of his head, his mane being allowed to come out the top of the helmet. When the helmet joined, a couple of beeps could be heard within the armour. The visor was blacked out for a little while as they waited patiently, Cross slightly nervous at what it may do.

After a minute, the visor lit up, giving Chrome a clear view through the helmet. On the other side, however, it remained opaque, giving her no indication he could see her.

When the visor had activated, various icons began displaying on his side of the helmet. A group of smaller icons appeared at the bottom left, a longer bar showing up just above it. At the top left, a circle had shown up, splitting itself into eight segments. He could see a small blue dot within the circle, that moved to point at Cross as he turned his head. The last object to show up was another bar, this time at the top of the display. Two of the sections were empty, leaving the final section flashing a bright red. The helmet gave one last bleep before going silent, allowing its new user to gaze over the new icons.

“Chrome? Is it working?” Cross asked, looking at the black plate on his helmet.

“Yeah, I think so,” He replied, his voice slightly muffled by the helmet, “Do you see all this stuff?”

“See what? All I can see is a black plate. Is it different on your end?”

“There are icons all over it, and I can see everything just as clearly as when I wasn’t wearing it. This technology is amazing.”

“Well, there’s one last piece.” She said, picking up a large ring from the table. There wasn’t anything immediately interesting about it. It seemed to be made of the same white fabric and metal the rest of his armour was made of, “I think it’s meant to go on your leg.”

Chrome hummed in agreement and took the ring, pulling it up his left foreleg until it reached the top of it. When it stopped moving, it clamped down a little to prevent it falling back down again. The pressure was barely noticeable, but it gave him a feeling of strength that he wasn’t expecting.

“How do I look?” He asked, giving himself a quick glance over.

“The design is certainly interesting. As it is meant for warfare, I can’t really give a real opinion on it, but the metal seems to cover all the most vital areas of your body. Is that all the protection it gives?”

“I don’t think so,” Chrome said, “I have seen the guardians talking about shielding in the past. I think there is meant to be an extra layer of energy that covers the armour, but I don’t know how to make use of that sort of shield.”

“Fascinating. I don’t think I have ever read of armour that makes use of magic for added protection.” Cross muttered, raising a hoof to her chin in thought.

“That’s because it’s not a viable option. Creating a shield that covers armour is immensely taxing on a unicorn’s magic. And even when it is surrounding an object, it requires the caster to be nearby in order to replenish it. It used to be used for training, but ponies just use normal armour these days.”

“So how do the guardians do it? From what I can gather they don’t have magic like we do.”

Chrome gave some thought into that. The guardians had never explained to him how they created their shields, so he had to make a guess based on the little he knew of them, “They don’t use magic, no. They have their own variant of magic they call light. From what I can gather, the push their light outside of their bodies, using it to shield them. When it depletes, they need to channel new light into it.”

“But how are you going to do that?” The mare asked, “You don’t have this light that they use.”

The stallion gave a smile at that, “Remember that story I mentioned earlier?”

Just outside of town, Elana and Kalis stood together, the human holding her new rifle. They had been practicing for a little while now, and Elana had almost got the hang of considering bullet drop and wind speed when firing from long range.

“In combat, you won’t have this amount of time to take aim.” Kalis said, “You need to be ready to draw your rifle, take aim and fire all within a split second. If you can’t, you will put both you and your team in danger.”

“But how would I manage to hit anything?” Elana asked, looking at the Exo.

“That’s where the practice comes in. It’s one thing to hit a stationary target, it’s a whole other to hit a moving target within a second.”

“This is gonna be tough, huh?”

Kalis laughed at that, “Yeah, it will be. The best way Kervis showed me to train using a sniper is to spar with another guardian. That guy is incredibly fast for a Titan.”

“Wait, you want me to fight with you?”

“Yeah. Did you ever hear of the Crucible?”

Elana gave a nod. Most guardians hear about the Crucible when they arrive at the Tower, though not many actually take part in it until they become stronger.

“Guardians fight all the time. It’s a sport, in a way, that allows them to gain increased skills, while also arming them with rewards for participating in it.”

“But how would fighting you improve anything? You are way better than me in this, you would just flatten me.”

“How else are you going to learn? You can’t make trees avoid your shots. In order to become a better sniper, you need to learn how to kill moving targets.”

Elana sighed at that. She understood what the elder Hunter was trying to explain to her, but she wasn’t entirely comfortable trying to kill her allies.

“Listen, it’ll be fine. I’ll notify the others of what we are doing so they don’t freak out, and then we can start. All you need to do is hit me before I hit you. You don’t need to kill me, you just have to land a shot.”

The human looked up at the Exo and gave another nod. She really didn’t want to follow through with the idea, but she knew she wouldn’t get anywhere if she didn’t.

“As soon as I lose invisibility, we begin, okay?” Kalis said, creating a Smoke grenade in her hand.

“Yeah. Let’s do this.” Elana replied reluctantly, readying her sniper.

Before she did anything, Kalis sent a ping to the rest of the guardians. The ping was well known within Odium, as it had been used many times when Kervis trained Exodus and her. The ping was a simple message allowing the others to know of why guardians were dying.

As the ping sent, the Hunter before her threw the grenade at the ground, her armour making her invisible. Elana could faintly see the guardian as she back off, which gave her an idea of where to be looking. After a few seconds, Kalis became visible once more, and she quickly took aim.

Aiming at the mobile Hunter was difficult to say the least. She was using a variety of tactics to move herself closer to Elana, including shrouding herself in Void light to evade sideways, throwing the human off whenever she got the reticle on her.

She was about to pull the trigger when Kalis stopped moving and crouched, her sniper creating a red glow to signify her aim. Before she could even react, a searing pain ripped through her shoulder, her HUD notifying her of a loss of shields. The final red bar was slightly depleted, but it stayed strong.

“What are you, a statue?” Kalis called out, standing straight and reloading her weapon, “You need to keep moving, regardless of whether you can fire a shot of your own off. If you stand still during a real battle, you’ll be cut down before you can do anything.”

The pain had ebbed away, her light fixing the hole rapidly. As her shoulder healed, the white bars on her shield bar replenished, re-shielding her once again.

“Do it again, but this time start moving.” The Exo commanded, making herself invisible once more.

Elana took an easier stance, readying herself for the rapid movement she had to use. Kalis was correct in saying that she should move even if she can’t fire a shot. If her enemy ran out of ammo, they would be out of the fight, giving her an opportunity to go for the kill.

When the Exo became visible once more, she immediately started running to the left, firing off a double jump to send her in the air. As she retained her height, she managed to get a look at where Kalis was. She had been using similar tactics to the ones before, keeping herself on the ground, but moving too fast to keep an eye on.

Seeing the older Hunter take a pause, she took her chance. As she fell back to the ground, Elana raised the scope of her rifle to her eye and fired a shot. The round barely missed Kalis, tearing past her shoulder and ramming into the dirt behind her. Before she could fire again, however, Kalis took aim herself.

Elana immediately came to the realisation that if she took fire while landing, she would be a sitting duck. She needed to do something to evade the incoming round, or it would hit her with ease.

Thinking fast, she pulled her gun back and used her light to turn her around. As soon as she hit the ground, she went into a slide, feeling the vibrations of a sniper round fly just behind her head.

She looked in the direction the bullet passed her in shock. She hadn’t expected to dodge it so easily, and was about to smile when another shot hit her in the arm. She clutched the limb in pain, her eyes clenching as her light repaired the damage.

“Nice moves, but you didn’t keep them going.” Kalis commented, standing up and reloading once more, “If you can keep that up for longer, you probably have a pretty good chance of dodging shots fired at you.”

Elana grunted and stood up, looking at her sparring partner, “Keep going. I think I can get the hang of this.”

Kalis chuckled and charged a new Smoke, “With pleasure.”

“Primus! We have moved the resources you requested to the surface.” A legionary said, standing to the right of the colossal leader.

“Good. Are the soldiers prepared?” The Cabal leader questioned, looking over the fleet of drop ships that flew before his carrier.

“As prepared as they can be. Will Goliaths be authorised for this battle?”

“No. It shouldn’t take that long to finish this. Keep them on alert, but they are to be used only if I give the command.”

“As you wish, my Primus.” The legionary said, giving a salute and walking away to notify his brethren of the orders.

“Oh, Thovog. I wish you could be by my side,” The Primus muttered, his eyes crossing over each individual ship, “Our homecoming is nigh, and there will be nothing to stop us this time.”

Author's Note

I would like to apologise for the delay on this chapter. For those that haven't seen the group post about it, my program that I use to write decided it didn't like this chapter and removed it all, going straight back to chapter 15. I had to do a rewrite that took a day, but I managed to get it out quicker than I expected :twilightsheepish:

Hope you guys enjoy this extra character development. The next chapter is going to include a few new themes, as well as integrate a story line that was planned prior (we may even be seeing a character return to the story :raritywink: )

Lastly, I would like to thank all 80+ of you that are still active viewers. Over the last five months we have gained over 630 individual views, which is great, but it saddens me to know that almost all of them just skipped to chapter 6, read it, and just backed out. I get this story isn't going to be liked by everyone, but it still sucks. So knowing that there are still so many of you reading this really helps me when writing. I have plans to make some more polls like I did earlier in the story so you guys can choose how the story progresses.

I really hope you all enjoy what I have been writing thusfar, and I hope you all stick around 'till the end.

17) The War Begins Pt 1

It had been a few hours since Kalis and Elana had started training. Elana was now able to hit Kalis most of the time, even when she was evading. They hadn’t killed one another yet, always aiming for body shots, but it had been close on occasion.

“Jeez, okay, Kalis. I think that’s all I can do for now.” Elana said, sitting down on the grass. The small area they had been fighting in was littered with bullet casings and deep holes, but other than that, it remained green as ever.

“Yeah, you held up a lot longer than I did in my first training session. Although, I still say Kervis cheated.” Kalis said, sitting beside her.

“How so?”

“He used two snipers and switched between them when one ran dry. He didn’t have to reload a single time while fighting.”

Elana gave a laugh and bumped her friend’s shoulder, “You still beat him though, huh?” She said.

“I wish. He wiped the floor with me for a week before I started to learn how to hit him. I swear, if you want someone to fight in a one on one, go with me. At least I’ll take it easy on ya.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

They sat there for a little while, watching the various birds fly from tree to tree in the distance. As they rested, Elana spoke up once more, “Hey Kalis? Why haven’t we gone straight for the Cabal leader and ended it there?”

The Exo hesitated a little before replying, “Because we would need the entire fireteam on board in order to even attempt it. While I hate to admit it, we would have trouble killing him and his soldiers alone. But we’ll get him, don’t worry.”

They remained silent for some time after that, only being disturbed when Kalis finally stood up, “Well, I think I’m gonna go annoy Kervis. You got anything you want to do?” She asked.

“Not really. I’m probably just going to wander the town a bit, maybe get to know some of the ponies a little.”

“Fine by me. Just be ready to come back later today. We are all going to the barracks to speak with the War Mage’s leader. Apparently she has managed to get her ponies ready, so we can start preparing to move out.”

The human gave a nod and stood up, watching as Kalis began walking back to the town. When the Exo was out of sight, she began walking as well, walking towards a part of town she hadn’t explored yet. The ponies that lived in this world fascinated her, and she truly wanted to be able to speak with them more freely, but was normally prevented by training or preparation for what was coming.

As she walked the stone streets, the citizens of the town have her waves and smiles. She returned as many as she could, perfectly happy to be polite to the ponies that had shown her such hospitality. A few streets later, she passed a larger red building. Inside, a bell rang out, multitudes of young ponies running out of the doors to spend a well-deserved break out in the play areas. It wasn’t long before a few of them noticed the lone Hunter, prompting them to run up to her.

She could hear them talking with one another as they moved closer to her, much of it being them trying to remember which guardian she was. Seeing no reason to avoid conversation, she slowed to allow the ponies to catch up.

“Hey, are you Kalis?” A small filly asked when they had gotten closer.

“I’m afraid not, little miss. I’m a new guardian.” Elana replied, looking down at her. She was a light blue filly, with a white mane and tail.

“But can you still do all those things Kalis can?” The little blue pony asked, her excited smile unwavering.

“Yup, though not nearly as well as she can.”

“Could you show us?”

The human halted at that, unsure on how to reply to that. She was only skilled enough to summon her Blade Dancer and Golden Gun, as she hadn’t had the time to learn Nightstalker. She didn’t want to scare the poor things, and she most certainly didn’t want to hurt any of them, but then, she hated to disappoint.

“What would you like to see?” The Hunter asked, hoping to stall for time.

“I dunno, anything!”

She gave a long sigh, relenting slightly at the sight of six sets of puppy eyes, “Fine, fine. Just stand back, okay? If you come too close you could get hurt.” She said.

The fillies and colts nodded rapidly, backing up a few feet to give her room. When they were far enough away, she reached into her light and channeled arc energy down into her hand. When enough had built, she drew her knife and poured the light into it, the blade rapidly becoming smothered in blue light.

The small ponies, as well as a few adults passing by, gave the blade a wide-eyed look. The blue filly jumped up and spoke up again after a few seconds, “Show us more!”

The others shouted their agreement, much to the dismay of the Hunter.

“This is gonna take a while...” She muttered, charging her solar energy.

In the skies near Solacium, a lone pegasus flew slowly, his eyes trained at the ground. He had been told that the guardians had gone to the War Mage home town, and was hoping to talk with them.

After many hours of searching, he finally caught sight of a small town that matched the description the pony had given him. However, as he got closer, his fear began to set in.

“C’mon, Flame. You can do this.” He muttered, shaking his head a little. After he had woken up, he found Manehattan destroyed, huge machines hovering above the ruins of the once great city. He had flown as quickly as he could to a neighbouring village, getting information about what had happened from the barkeep there.

He was going to go to a family member’s home, when he had been stopped by his thoughts. He was always running from these things, but now he had the option to help. The guardians were apparently building an army to fight back against the monsters, and they needed as many ponies as they could get.

Which lead him to where he was. He was still nervous about talking with the guardians again, but he truly wanted to stop being such a coward about these things.

As the town came closer, he could start to make out the various colours of ponies that walked the streets. Many wore robes, stating their place in the town, while others walked as they were, many of them being civilians or unfit for combat.

Landing quickly, he surveyed the streets around him. There weren’t any obvious signs of the three aliens, but there were plenty of ponies walking by that could help him.

Picking one out at random, he trotted over to him. The stallion noticed his approach and slowed to allow the blue pegasus to catch up.

“I hate to bother you, but do you know where the guardians are?” Flamelight asked when he reached a respectable distance from the pony.

“They are over in the barracks. Take the third left on this street and follow the path, you’ll find it pretty easily.” The stallion replied with a smile.

“Thank you, have a good day.”

“The same to you.”

Following the directions, he eventually arrived at a fairly large building, dozens of War Mages walking to and from it. He relaxed himself the best he could and walked up to the open door, stepping in slowly and looking around. The room wasn’t big, but was bustling with Mages, most of whom ignored him.

“Hey, you need something?” A mare asked. She was wearing a purple robe that covered her body, but her face was still visible.

“Uh, I was hoping to speak with the guardians, if that’s okay.” Flame said in response.

“I can ask them for you. Just take a seat over there.” She said, raising a hoof to point at a collection of benches near the door.

He gave a nod and walked over to them, sitting beside another pony. He wasn’t wearing a robe, leaving Flamelight to assume he was just a civilian.

“Here to join the army as well?” The pony asked, looking over at him.

“Oh, no. I was just here to speak with someone.”

“Ah, well you should think about joining up. I hear they are running pretty low on soldiers.”

“I would, but I’m not exactly the fighting type.” Flame said with a frown.

“Your choice, but just know that you don’t need to be a fighter to join an army. There are plenty of roles for ponies to take part in.”

The blue pony gave a small nod, looking away to think on his decision some more. He wanted to start helping others, but wasn’t sure if he was able to pick up a weapon and kill something, monster or not.

As he thought, a pony walked up to his side, “Excuse me, the guardians are fine with you speaking with them.” The mare from earlier said.

“Um, thanks. Where are they?” Flamelight said, breaking from his train of thought.

“I can take you to them if you like.”

He gave another nod and stood, following the pony into one of the many hallways. As they walked, he noticed a slow decline of Mages passing them. By the time the mare had stopped, there wasn’t a Mage in sight.

“Here we are. If you need anything else, feel free to ask one of the Mages.” She said, turning and trotting away to go back to whatever she was doing previously.

The pony gulped and looked at the door. He was barely holding his mind at bay as he raised his hoof to knock. Three bangs rang out before he lowered his leg, his heart hammering in his chest.

A few seconds passed before a robed guardian opened the door. As Flame had only seen one of them, he didn’t recognise this one. From the body shape of it, he assumed it to be a male. His robes were pitch black, various parts of it glowing a bright blue to contrast with the rest of the garment.

“You’re the pony that wanted to talk with us?” He asked, looking down at Flame.

“Y-yeah.”

“Come on in, we weren’t really doing much.”

The guardians walked back into the room, allowing the pegasus to follow behind him. The room was pretty small, only furnished by a table and some chairs sitting in the centre. The doorways to the left and right lay in the walls, though their doors were closed.

At the table, two of the aliens sat there. One he instantly recognised as the guardian he had met all that time ago. She was tearing pieces of paper up, rolling them into little balls and chucking them at the guardian beside her. The being in question had his helmet off, and was tinkering with it.

“Kalis, I swear to Christ...” The larger guardian muttered, his eyes not leaving the helmet. He looked up at her when another ball pinged off of his forehead, “Would you quit it!? I thought you were helping Elana.”

“Meh, she’s a pretty good shot. Wasn’t all that much to teach.” Kalis replied, tearing another piece of paper.

“Then could you find something else to do that doesn’t involve pissing me off?

“Nope,” The black and orange guardian said, throwing the newly-made ball at her partner.

The green and white guardian was about to say something when he caught sight of Flamelight and the robed guardian watching them.

“Oh, hey Exodus.” The larger alien said, ignoring the new pellet hitting his face.

“I see you two are busy,” The being known as Exodus commented, taking a seat at the table.

“You could say that. Who’s this one?” He replied, looking over at the blue pony.

“Don’t know yet. Seems he wanted to speak with us.”

“Ah, then what’s up?” The alien asked, igniting his hand and burning the paper Kalis was still tearing apart.

Realising that all eyes were now on him, Flame stood as tall as he could and gave his response, “I have come to help you guys deal with the monsters, if I can.”

Kalis snorted at that, bringing the attention to her, “Aren’t you that pony that pussied out every time you saw us? You could barely open the door to talk with me.”

“I… I am that pony, yes. But I want to change. These monsters have destroyed my workplace, and in turn my livelihood. And I doubt they will stop there. All I ask is that I am given a chance to prove myself.”

The guardians looked at each other, none of them speaking up. A short silence passed before the green guardian spoke up, “We did need a pegasus to test how light works on them.”

“What? You really think he would be able to handle that?” Kalis asked, “Chrome was barely able to handle it, and he’s a soldier.”

“He received a large amount all in one go. Now that we have an idea of how much is suitable, we can provide light to any of the ponies.” Exodus explained, looking the pony over.

“I still think it’s a bad idea. I guess it isn’t up to me in the end, but if something goes wrong, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” The Hunter muttered.

The green guardian looked over at Flame, a smile on his face, “So, how about it?”

“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you guys are talking about.” Flamelight said, his head tilted.

“You haven’t even heard about it?” Kalis groaned, her head hitting the table.

“It’s perfectly understandable that ponies outside Solacium haven’t heard about what happened to Chrome.” Exodus said before turning to look at the pony as well, “Basically, we can give you some of our powers to make you stronger. We have already tested it and it works. But we have only tried it once, and on a unicorn. Having another try on a different sub-species would help us all massively. Would you be willing to try it?”

Flame hesitated. He wasn’t expecting this at all, in fact, he was almost ready to be turned away. Now he was being given the opportunity to become stronger, and in time, maybe even as powerful as the guardians.

Making his decision, he looked up, “What exactly has to happen for you guys to give me this?”

Thovog walked slowly through Despectus. The ponies seemed to have warmed up to him and his team slightly, some even walking by him without a look of pure terror upon their faces. But many ran back into their homes when they spotted the huge Cabal approaching, drawing a few sighs from the Val.

His wandering eventually brought him to the town square, the space crowded with market stalls. Shine had explained that every week the town had a market day to draw in more customers. It was apparently pretty popular, bringing in upwards of a few hundred ponies at times.

The stalls were a little too packed for him to safely walk through, so he stood to the side, watching the various ponies go about their weekly shopping. His presence attracted quite a bit of attention, but very few ponies actually showed their fear, much to his surprise. Not wanting to startle any of them, he stayed still, not interacting with any of them.

His watching of the citizens of the town allowed him some time to think. Not even two days ago, he would have been happy to ravage the town and kidnap any unicorns that lived there, slaughtering the rest. Now, he was working to do the opposite. He couldn’t understand how the Primus could condone such actions. At least with the humans, they had a reason to kill any they saw. But these ponies were new to them, and they had done nothing to them to warrant such horrid actions.

As he stood, a new sound slowly became noticeable. The ponies that had been shopping all stared in fear at the direction the sound was coming from, their hearing giving them the ability to hear it far clearer than Thovog could. Looking in the direction they were staring, a distant craft could be seen, one that made him freeze.

It was a Cabal dropship.

“Team, prepare for combat!” Thovog called through his comms, reaching behind him to take hold of his Slug Thrower.

“Sir? What’s wrong?” The Centurion asked, shouts and grunt sounding out in the background.

“Dropship. Possibly hostile. Need the entire team with me at the edge of the town as quickly as you can.”

“Of course, we’ll meet you there.”

With his team on the way, he hit the safety of his weapon to switch it off and began running towards the ship, his mind clouding with thoughts of what may happen if the Primus decided to assault the town.

As he reached the edge of Despectus, a few Mages met him with his team.

“-I guess that thing isn’t with you guys?-” One of the Mages asked.

“-Not that I am aware of. Be ready to fight.-” The Val responded in their language, pointing the barrels of his gun at the craft.

As the dropship got closer, it lowered to the ground, a manoeuvre the Cabal knew well to quickly land without showing hostility. Thovog lowered his weapon slightly as it landed fully, the cockpit opening almost immediately to reveal the pilots. Two Psions jumped from the ship, their hands in the air.

“Don’t shoot, friendlies!” They called.

“Stand down, team. Leave the safeties off.” Thovog commanded, walking towards the duo, “What is your business here?”

“We came to warn you, the Primus is about to do something even we can’t stomach!” One of them said, its arms still raised.

“What exactly is he planning?”

The Mages stood at attention as they watched Thovog move to speak with the two new monsters. They spoke with each other in a language none of the ponies could understand, but from the tone they were using, they doubted it was good.

After a few moments of talking, the Val spun around, roaring to the others in their language before running around to the back of the craft, the others in tow. When they had all boarded, the ship took off without another word and flew away, leaving five very confused Mages.

“What was that?” One of them asked, his eyes fixed on the fading ship.

“No idea, but it probably wasn’t good. We need to notify Solacium. Now.” Another said, galloping back into town.

“Celestia save us,” The first one whispered, dreading the thought of what was coming.

Flame followed the Hunter closely as they walked out into the nearby field, unsure of what was about to happen. She had begrudgingly accepted to be the next to give her light, something the pegasus was still nervous about.

“Alright. You have one chance to prove to me that this isn’t a complete waste of time.” She said, stopping to look at him.

“I’ll do my best.” He replied.

“We’ll see about that. Now, Exodus gave me a run through of the sort of light you should be able to use. Solar light is out of the question, and only unicorns would be able to summon the stuff required for it. That leaves void and arc. Void would be more of an issue, but you should be able to use the stealth mechanics of it. Arc, on the other hand, should be much more viable for you.”

“I’ll just roll with what you think is best.” Flame said, “You know these things better than I do, after all.”

“Good point. There may be hope for you yet.” She said, her arm coating in arc energy, “This shouldn’t hurt, but if it does, I’m sure you’ll let me know.”

That statement didn’t exactly make it any easier for him, but he gave a nod anyway, closing his eyes in preparation. He was about to ask what was going to happen when he felt a new energy mix inside his body. His natural pegasus magic happily aligned with the new energy, converging it near his wings.

“That’s it. You good?” Kalis asked, receiving a surprised look from him.

“It’s done?” He questioned, looking back at his wings.

“Yeah. You should have enough to train with, and a little extra for you to use whenever you feel like. Without armour, you won’t regenerate it, so you’ll have to talk with me or Elana if you want a top-off.”

“Elana? Who’s that?”

“She’s a newer Hunter. Not very experienced, but she will be able to provide small doses of arc energy should you need it.”

Flame nodded, looking once more at his wings, “So how do I use it?”

“That’s the easy part. Light isn’t like magic, it has a sort of life to it. Exodus explains it better, but in general, you have a bond with the light. If it accepts you, you can control it.”

“Then how do I get it to accept me?”

“You don’t ‘get’ it to accept you. Maybe if Exodus explained, he might have found a way, but you are being taught the way I learned. Reach into your reserves and find the energy. Communicate that you do not wish to use it maliciously, and you are just using it to help others. If it believes you and finds you sincere, it will accept you.”

Following the Exo’s instructions, he reached out and found the light. It was like a storm surrounded by the gentle ebb of his own magic, the arc firing bolts within the magic around it. A thought directed at his body ceased the storm’s rage, thought it seemed to only dull for a short time. He tried again, finding more success this time. After a moment or two, the light dispersed, channeling around his body.

“I think I did it.” He said, looking up at the Hunter.

“Good. Now for the fun part. That light is connected to the Bladedancers, so you will have a few of their abilities. I made sure you received the Arc Blades, as well as the ability to turn invisible. Other than that, you won’t be able to do much else.”

“Arc Blades? I’m going to have to use swords?”

Kalis gave a snort at that, “You? Wielding a sword? Not likely. The light will find the most suitable place to go and make that portion of your body the source point. Go ahead and move the energy to, uh… let’s go with your wings.”

He pushed the light up into his wings at the Hunter’s request, the energy moving easily at the command of its new master.

“And now move it outside of your body.”

The pegasus used what little knowledge he had of magic to force the light out into his primary feathers, the energy understanding quickly what he wanted to do. He opened his eyes to find his wingtips bathed in light blue energy, the light crackling away from him as it rested on his wings.

“Looks good so far, no issues with your control of it. Now you need to learn how to use it effectively.”

“I guess you are going to teach me that?”

“Of course I am, who do you-”

Kalis was cut off by her Ghost, the machine appearing beside her.

“Kalis, serious issue. The others have been trying to contact you,” He said, drawing concern from her.

“What’s happened?” She asked.

“I’m not sure, but from how much they are trying to contact you, it’s bad.”

Kalis opened her comms at that, joining a conversation between the rest of Odium and Procor. Elana was also listening in on the talk.

“-we don’t stop them, they could wipe them out!” Procor exclaimed.

“We need everyone on board with this or it will never work, Procor.” Kervis said.

“I’m here. What’s going on?” Kalis said, gasps of relief sounding from a couple of guardians.

“Three Cabal carriers are on the move, and they have been surrounded by smaller Cabal fighters.” Exodus explained.

“Where are they headed?”

“Not one-hundred percent, but the Ghosts think they are moving upon the capital.”

Shock drove through Kalis’ mind, almost bringing her to collapse, “Holy shit.”

Author's Note

Here we go~

I would like to say now that I am going on holiday for about 2-3 weeks and will probably be unable to release chapters reasonably effectively. Please be patient with me, as I can't really write and upload chapters at the place I am going to.

I'm trying something that I haven't really seen other Destiny fics do, attacks on huge cities and whatnot. Hope you guys enjoy what is coming :twilightsmile:

This is the beginning of one of the major story arcs that I have been excited about since we first came up with it. There will be multiple parts to this arc, and I may add a poll sometime within the next few chapters for you guys to vote on how the story progresses.

Stay awesome! :heart:

EDIT: Apparently Odium got featured!!!!! I never knew it so if you have come from the feature, please let me know when the story was featured! I really want to know :pinkiehappy:

19) The War Begins Pt 3

- - A few minutes before the battle of Canterlot - - -

Chrome looked around at the work the work they had done so far. The Cabal had been tearing up decorative structures to use as cover, and had been placing them in walls around the site.

The Mages, meanwhile, had been setting up defensive runes, that would detonate or restrain anything that touched them. The ponies living in the surrounding homes had already cleared out, fearing the sight of the huge Cabal soldiers, but the guards paid them little attention. It seemed that Exodus had managed to explain what was going on to the Princesses, and they had alerted the guards on patrol.

He briefly considered taking a visit to his house while they had time, but decided against it. He had been living in Canterlot for some time, but with the recent events, he hadn’t been back there in a little while.

As he watched over the work, he listened in on the guardians’ communications. They had been mostly talking about the evacuation plans, and what they were going to do when the battle started.

“Ah shit. Chrome, you hear me?” He heard Kervis say, the mention of his name bringing him to attention.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Chrome said in response.

“The Cabal are here. We need the distraction asap.”

“Got it. Good luck.”

“Same to you.”

With the alert received, he turned to face his allies, “The Cabal have arrived, everyone! We need to get this started.”

The team gave various methods of response and started setting themselves up behind the walls, the Val simply standing nearby. They didn’t have time to set anything up for him, what with his huge size, so he decided to trust in his armour to defend him.

Off in the distance, slightly blocked by some of the buildings, three huge carriers could be seen, swarms of smaller ships soaring towards the city.

They barely had time to call out as a squad of fighters tore the buildings around them apart. The Val began firing upon the smaller ships, managing to hit a few of them enough to force them away.

As the squad flew away, teams of Cabal began storming the streets, slaughtering any ponies that stood in their way and carrying the unicorns away. It wasn’t long before they noticed the ring of debris that housed the distraction team, and they opened fire without hesitation.

When the first bullet fired upon the ponies, they began their plan. The runes all detonated at once, killing or restraining a large amount of Cabal legionaries, which the Val’s team cut down with ease. Chrome had already deployed a shield, facing in the direction of the enemy. Magical bolts fired from the Mages behind him were passing through, but the enemy was unable to break through the barrier.

His shield holding strong, Chrome reached into his light, summoning Firebolt grenades that he threw with pinpoint accuracy at the spreading Cabal. The fire melted their armour, the holes causing breaches that suffocated them within seconds.

Flame, meanwhile, was trying to keep himself together. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but he now knew no preparation could have readied him for this. He was about to try and run when one of the War Mages turned, noticing him not doing anything.

“Hey! You gotta get in there and help us!” She shouted, putting a hoof on his shoulder.

“I-I can’t!” He replied.

“Yes you can, c’mon! You were given guardian light, weren’t you?”

He nodded, trying to focus on her, and not the destruction around him.

“Then you have more power than even us! You-”

A shot through her head silenced her. She collapsed to the floor, blood pooling from the puncture on the back of her head.

Chrome saw the heard the shot impact nearby and moved his shield slightly to cover it, not paying attention to what it may have hit. Flame was the only pony to see her fall, and for some reason, it made him feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Anger. Pure, unparalleled anger. He hadn’t known the Mage, but they had talked a little on the way to the city. She was a kind mare, and a mother of two children. But now? She would never see her husband, or her two foals again.

He charged his arc light, his wing tips becoming bathed in electricity. He was done running from his fears, done being the chicken everypony else saw him as.

Gathering every mite of courage he could muster, he flew towards the Cabal forces, passing through Chrome’s shield. As the first soldier fell to his light, he smiled. He was going to enjoy this.

The distraction team watched in awe as the blue pegasus got to work, slicing through lines of Cabal without effort. It seemed he only knew how to make his wings the conduit of his light, as he didn’t make use of his invisibility, but he still managed to kill off swathes of legionaries, his wings leaving trails of blue light as he flew.

“Keep going team! Can’t let him have all the fun,” Chrome called out, bolstering his shield once more.

The team followed his orders, returning fire once again on any legionary outside of the ring. It seemed to be going well, as the sight of two ponies using guardian light fueled their army even more. They could only hope that the guardians were having an easier time thanks to it.

The chaos around them raged for some time, distant explosions signifying the battle the guardians were also fighting. Three Mages, and all but one of Thovog’s team had been killed, their bodies lying behind the debris motionless. Flame had pulled back behind cover as he felt his light run dry, piles of corpses being left in his wake. It almost looked like they were going to win, when the ground shook violently, the guardians yelling at each other through their comms. Apparently, one of the carriers had blasted the supports under the city, and it was falling down the mountain side.

“Thovog!” Chrome shouted, his shield still just managing to hold up. “We need a way out of here!”

“-I know, the dropship will be here in a few seconds.-” The Val replied, reloading his slug thrower.

Overhead, the bulky Cabal ship dropped down to the ground as quickly as it could, throwing its rear door open to pull the distraction team up. When they had all been pulled up, the craft flew vertically, away from the falling buildings.

“Wait, look! The guardians!” One of the War Mages called out, pointing at the faint sight of them standing near the edge of the city.

“We need to get Odium out of there,” Chrome said to the towering Cabal.

He gave a nod and turned, issuing orders to the two pilots. As he was speaking with them, a new sight caught Chrome’s eye, one that he almost couldn’t believe.

A familiar black and orange ship was falling to the ground, the rear of it smothered in fire. It didn’t slow its descent at all, passing by near the guardians and driving straight into the ground below the city.

His jaw dropped as soon as he recognised it as a guardian craft, the smoke plume marking the crash site. With him seemingly being the only one to fully understand what happened, he silently prayed that the pilot of the craft managed to get out safely, as no being, guardian or pony, could survive a collision like that.

The ship they were riding on made its way towards the guardians, spinning to allow them easy access to the rear of the ship.

“Get in!” Chrome called, reaching his hoof out to help them board.

When the team had got on, they were flown as fast as possible away from the city. Chrome could actually see his home as it fell down with the rest of the buildings, the castle being the last to crumble.

The craft was silent as they returned to Solacium, no one knowing what to say. Kervis had collapsed as they flew away, and had remained there the entire flight, tears falling from his face. The unicorn wished he could console him, but he had no idea how to treat that sort of trauma. Procor said nothing, instead bowing his head and supporting it with a hand as he leaned against the wall. It was determined that Kalis was the one to crash, and with no radio contact or detection of light, she was assumed dead permanently by the Ghosts.

“-We are approaching the town. It seems you managed to get quite a few ponies out of there.-” Thovog commented, looking out of a viewport at the nearing town. Long rows and columns of tents had been set up around the town, hundreds of ponies wandering in between them.

They made their descent, many of the ponies rushing to meet them. A fair amount of them had panicked looks, likely hoping that their loved ones managed to get on the final ship, others were simply angry, looking for someone to blame.

They stepped off of the craft, ignoring the crowds. Up above, Exodus’s ship circled down, the Warlock teleporting out when he was close enough. He walked slowly beside Kervis, his hand on the Titan’s shoulder. They shared no words, just passing glances. They both knew how hard it would be to deal with what had happened, and no deep communication was required for them to talk with each other.

As the rest of the ponies, guardians and Cabal walked into town, straight towards the barracks, Kervis and Exodus split off, both of them moving towards the town bar.

When they entered, the atmosphere clearly changed. The ponies seated at tables or barstools all turned to look at them. Some ignored them, other gave a thankful nod, but none of them displayed anger as the duo sat in a corner of the building, the table isolated from the rest of the ponies.

They sat in silence for a while, the barkeep hoofing them mugs of cider. When asked about payment, he told them they were always welcomed in his bar, and he couldn’t charge the guardians that saved so many ponies.

Naturally, Exodus couldn’t drink his, so he passed it to Kervis, thinking the alcohol may do him a little good to help him cope. But the human didn’t touch them. The veteran Titan had remained silent since the battle, unable to bring himself to speak.

“Kervis,” Exodus muttered, removing his helmet, “Do you want to talk about it?”

The human looked up at his friend, also removing his helmet and setting it aside with a sigh. He kept his silence for a while longer, Exodus not speaking up to give him some time.

“I… I never told her, Exodus. I never told her about it.” He said, his voice breaking a little from his crying.

“Hey, we both knew it would be difficult to talk about with her,” Exodus said.

“But I could have tried, even if I got turned away, at least she would have known how I felt.”

“If you keep thinking about what you could have done, you won’t help anyone. What happened has happened, it is now about how you deal with it.”

Kervis gave a look that could kill, “How can you act as if it’s nothing?” He asked.

“Kervis. You realise I was also there for Kalis’ training, yes? This hurts me just as much as it hurts you, but as much as I hate to say it, we have to move on. The capital of the country has just been destroyed, and many more cities will also fall if we don’t do something. There will be time to grieve when we have finished this war, but until then, we have to focus on the bigger picture.”

“Why are we fighting for these ponies?”

Exodus tilted his head in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, why are we fighting to protect them? We should be on our planet, fighting to protect the City, not to protect this place.”

“Ah, I understand where this is going. It wasn’t the ponies’ fault Kalis died, Kervis. We fight to protect them because without us, they wouldn’t stand a chance. We, and the few Cabal allies we have left, are the only ones that understand our enemy.”

He was quite for a moment, before nodding and looking at the Warlock, “Are we at least going to set something up as a memorial? I don’t want to go on without doing something.”

“I will talk with the others, for now, enjoy your cider.” Exodus said, standing up. He gave a wave to the barkeep as he walked out, donning his helmet once more.

Celestia and Luna walked through the camp that Solacium had set up with wide eyes. They were still getting over what had happened, and how many more ponies had been lost during the fight.

“Tia, can I speak with you?” Luna asked, walking around a small group of foals that were sitting with their parents.

“Of course, Luna.” Celestia responded, a slight quake in her voice.

“I-I think we should mount an offensive on these Cabal.”

Celestia stopped and turned, looking Luna right in the eyes, “I understand you are angry, I am too, but we cannot allow our feelings to get in the way of our job. Many of the guard never made it back to Canterlot, so we still have an army. The War Mages are already prepared for war, and the guardians have done an amazing job keeping as many of us safe as they are able. When we have an army and a plan, we will begin.”

Luna sighed and looked away, over at the rows of tents that housed the residents of the once great Canterlot, “These guardians are unable to hold off this enemy, they have proved that already. I have heard they lost one of their own during that fight, and I doubt that number will stay like that should this war continue.”

“They are not as powerful as they may seem, Luna, but they try their best. They have passed their power to two of our ponies, and both of them helped greatly during the battle.”

“They can do that? Then why haven’t they done that for every pony that went into that battle?!” Luna exclaimed.

“Because they didn’t know what it could do to the ponies it is used on. They are looking to get an Earth pony to join them, and when they have one, they will begin training the War Mages on how to wield their light. It also seems their companions are able to create armour that corresponds with the light that they wield. Our army will be stronger by our next battle, that I can promise you, Luna.”

“If you say so, Tia.”

They continued their walk for some time, talking with a few of the ponies that wanted to talk with them. This went on for much of the night, as the moon rose slowly over the horizon.

Kervis sat alone on a small hill, looking down at the distant lights of Solacium. After finishing his drinks, he got onto his Sparrow and left the town, hoping for some time to think. Ever since he had arrived, he had been thinking of the time he and Kalis had spent, and all the missed opportunities to talk with her about how he felt.

He smiled as a faint memory came back to him, replaying it in his mind.

- - Four months ago, atop the Northern section of the Tower - - -

The Tower was quiet as two guardians sat on one of the upper levels, looking out at the City, and the Traveller hovering above it.

“I wanted to thank you,” Kalis started, her eyes focused on the huge white orb.

“Oh? What for?” Kervis replied, looking over at the Hunter.

“These last two months have been, let’s go with stressful. When I was reborn, I had no idea what I was doing, but you picked me up, took me under your wing, and trained me to become who I am today.”

“Hey, I was only doing what was right. I think almost everyone else would have done the exact same thing if they were in my situation.”

Kalis chuckled at that and looked over at him, “Just take the complement, Kervis. And quit being so humble,”

They both laughed a little, both of them falling into a comfortable silence. Their time was broken by an announcement, “Fireteam Odium, report to the hangar. We have a situation.”

“Fuck me, don’t they know what a break is?” Kalis muttered, standing up.

“Apparently not. Guess we better go find Exodus, huh?”

The Hunter nodded, jumping down into the plaza. The Titan gave a sigh, mentally cursing at himself for not plucking up the courage to ask, and jumped down behind her.

‘Next time for sure,’ He thought to himself, meeting up with the final member of Odium to prepare for their mission.

A tear rolled down Kervis’ face as he lost track of the memory, allowing it to fall back into the sea of images that crowded his mind. He was so focused on trying to see each one, that he failed to notice a set of hoofsteps coming closer.

“Kervis?” The pony asked, bringing the Titan’s head up to look at his visitor.

“Oh, hey Lemon.” Kervis muttered, wiping his eyes.

“Want someone to talk to? You’ve been out here for hours.”

“I’ll be fine, but thank you. I just need some time.” The Titan replied, a small smile on his lips.

Lemon hesitated, but nodded, turning to head back to the town.

“But you are more than welcome to join me,” Kervis said before she could walk away.

She didn’t say anything, instead walking over and lying down beside him. They sat there in silence, watching the town’s lights flicker in the late night. Kervis was still looking at them as his hand sub-consciously moved over to Lemon, stroking her mane. He didn’t notice anything until she giggled, drawing his attention over, and his hand back.

“Sorry, I wasn’t really thinking.” He said, putting his hand back on the ground. As he was just beginning to see the images of Kalis once more, Lemon picked up his hand, placing it on her head.

“If it helps you, then go ahead. It feels kinda nice, anyway.” She explained, smiling.

Kervis returned a smile of his own, moving his hand through her mane, “Thanks, Lemon.”

Thovog and a lone Centurion sat beside each other, within the hall they had taken residence in. They were both grieving for their fallen team as they repaired their damaged equipment, their thick hands and gloves making it fairly difficult, but they were managing.

“Sir,” The Centurion said, looking up at Thovog, “Do you think we could get more Cabal down from the carriers? Help them see what the Primus is doing is wrong?”

“It’s doubtful,” The Val replied, putting down his shoulder plate to look at his new partner, “They are all under the impression that what they are doing with bring them home. What they don’t know is that they aren’t even guaranteed that.”

“But could we at least try? We surely can’t be the only Cabal that see past the Primus’ lies.”

Thovog sighed, picking his shoulder plate up again, “We may be able to attempt it in time, but for now, we need to stick with the guardians and hope that it will go well.”

The Centurion nodded, looking back at his rifle. As they worked, a knock at the door broke their silence. They looked up to see Elder Shine walking in, a couple of plates on her back.

“-I brought you two some food, if that’s alright.-” She said, still standing in the doorway.

“-Thank you, Shine, but we are unable to remove our helmets in this atmosphere.-” Thovog replied.

“-Then how do you eat and drink? Surely you both must have been doing so during your stay here?-”

“-We have refrained from consuming anything, as we don’t want to risk anything. With this drop ship, we will be able to at least eat in there, but the Psions are currently doing a supply run to pick up more atmosphere tanks.-”

Shine sighed and walked over, placing the plates down on one of the tables, “-You should have told me. We would have done something to let you eat.-”

“-We didn’t wish to inconvenience you further, my apologies.-”

She gave a tut, looking up at the Cabal, “-You are all our guests here, and to many, you are citizens of Despectus. If there is anything we can do to help, you only need to ask, alright?-”

“-I see. Thank you again, if anything comes to mind, I will be sure to bring it up with you.”

She gave the Val a smile and walked away, closing the door behind her. The two soldiers went back to cleaning their armour, awaiting the sounds of their drop ship. When the faint engines could finally be heard, they put their gear back on and walked out, taking the plates along with them. It would be early morning before they left their ship to return to the hall.

Elana and Flamelight sat together in the barracks, the room quiet. The War Mages had all gone out to help the ponies from Canterlot, so the building had very little going on within its walls.

They were playing a game of cards that Flamelight knew, hoping to distract themselves from the thoughts of what had happened that day. As Flame won their third game, Procor came in and sat down, his helmet off.

“Hey,” He said, looking at both of them individually. The other two gave him a nod, not in the mood to speak up, “Have you seen Kervis?”

“No, he went with Exodus somewhere, but I haven’t seen him since.” Elana said quietly, gathering up the cards again.

Procor sighed and placed his helmet on the table, “I think he might blame me for… what happened to Kalis.”

“I don’t really know Kervis all that well, but he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to behave like that,” Elana said.

“I still want to talk with him, if nothing else to see if he holds anything against me for what I did.”

Elana smiled and put the deck of cards down, “In time he will come to realise you saved his life. If he holds anything against you, I doubt it would be enough to hate you.”

Procor hummed in thought, bringing his eyes over to the cards, “So, what are you guys playing?”

Exodus drove slowly over the fields near Solacium. He had decided to try and clear his mind with some exploration, searching through the expansive hills for anything of interest.

A few crumbled buildings caught his attention, but a short look later proved them to be devoid of anything more than broken stone. A half hour later, his Ghost spoke up.

“Exodus, I know this isn’t the best time, but I’m picking up a signal.”

“A signal? Cabal or from Odium?” Exodus replied, slowing to a stop.

“Neither. It’s nothing I have ever seen before, but it came up as we entered the area.”

“Got a trace on it?”

“About a hundred and forty miles North East from here. Should make it there pretty quick in the Galliot.”

“Yeah, I guess we should probably check it out.” Exodus said, dismounting his Sparrow and looking up at the blue craft descending towards them.

When he had boarded his ship, it immediately went into transit, reaching the location within seconds. As they arrived, Exodus tried to find anything that could create a source for the signal, but other than hills, he couldn’t see anything.

“You sure this is it?” He asked.

“Positive. The signal is much stronger now, but I can’t quite get a clear enough idea of what it is trying to say.”

“Then let’s head down there, maybe we missed something.”

The duo teleported down to the surface, the Warlock drawing his Tlaloc in case it turned out to be a trap. When no enemy came out to meet them, they began sweeping the area, hoping to find the source of the mystery signal.

“Exodus, here!” Ghost called out, bringing the Exo over. Atop a larger hill, the little machine had opened his segments, a warm blue glow filling the space within them, “I have a clearer signal here, it’s a little fuzzy, but it’s there.”

“Then let’s hear it,” Exodus said, walking closer.

“Alright, playing it now.”

As the Ghost spun his segments, a female voice sounded through Exodus’ helmet, “This is AI Elizabeth broadcasting on all emergency frequencies. We have lost contact with HQ and are requesting a situation report. Any units hearing this, please respond.”

“This is Guardian Exodus of Fireteam Odium to AI Elizabeth, do you copy?” Exodus called out, opening his communications range to the older emergency range.

“Oh! It’s been so long!” Came the response, relief evident in her voice.

“Where are you? We are up on a hill in the middle of nowhere, and we can’t see anything that could transmit a signal.”

“Never mind that, I need you to tell me what happened to HQ. Do they still have need of Churchill?”

“Churchill?”

“The Warmind, of course.”

Author's Note

Two chapters in two days! Hope this makes up for the two and a half weeks I was away :twilightsheepish:

This was more of an aftermath chapter, so it was pretty easy to write. And for those freaking about how 'there can't be a warmind in equestria, silly pony', dont worry, it will all be explained, just give me time :twilightsmile:

I made a poll on the last chapter that is in the authors notes there, so feel free to put a vote in there if you would like!

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

20) A Plan in Motion

“Did you just say Warmind?” Exodus asked, his mind reeling.

“Yes. Are you not from HQ?” Elizabeth asked in response.

“I think the HQ you know is long gone. Records say that there hasn’t been a working Warmind HQ in seven hundred years. The ones that are left are barely functional, and the most repaired one we have seen is Rasputin.”

“Rasputin? He is still active?” She said, apparently ignoring everything else the Warlock had said.

“Yes, very much so. Do you know him?”

“I knew him a long time ago. We would talk sometimes, he was rather nice to Churchill and I.”

“Well, things have changed since you last knew him.”

The AI went silent at that, though the comms link stayed active. Exodus waited patiently until she spoke once more, “Are you able to see me? I would like to be able to bring Churchill online, and I need help to do it.”

“We have no idea where you are, are you able to give us a beacon?”

“Oh, yes, give me a moment.”

A few seconds later, Exodus’ Ghost turned and spoke, “I have an old, Golden Age beacon reading fifty metres below us. The bunker seems to have been buried over time by the surrounding dirt.”

“Elizabeth, we are unable to reach you. Do you have any way of clearing the dirt above you?” Exodus questioned.

“No, my creators didn’t build any method of removing debris from the top of the bunker. Do you not have any way down to me?”

Exodus thought on it for a moment. The situation with the Cabal required as many soldiers as possible, but having a Warmind on their side would turn the tide of the war instantly.

“I will need to speak with my team, and maybe get some help from the ponies in the town. Regardless, we’ll get down to you as quickly as possible. But just so you know, there is a huge enemy force on this planet we are currently fighting. If you need to broadcast to us, do it on the third Warmind frequency and broadcast it as powerfully as you can. If we hear you, we will respond.”

“I understand.” Elizabeth said, “Please hurry, there are multiple problems within the bunker that I cannot fix alone.”

“We’ll get to you as fast as we can. Just hold on.”

He didn’t wait for her to reply, instead, he summoned his Sparrow and took off in the direction of Solacium, his Ghost waypointing his way there.

‘Let’s hope this goes better than our more recent endeavours’ He thought to himself as the green hills flew past him.

Chrome walked slowly through the town, taking in the sights once more. The town was once a place of joy for him, being able to see his cousin and play with her when they were foals. Now, it was a place he dreaded. The ponies around him walked with their heads down, their eyes darting around in fear of their home also coming under attack.

A few of them took flight as soon as they saw the armoured unicorn walking towards them, but he ignored them. He tried his best to keep up appearances for his comrades, but after the last fight, he was beginning to break down. He needed to talk with someone, and there was only one pony in Solacium that could help him with that.

He arrived at his cousin’s home, knocking quietly on the door. It opened to a pink mare, one Chrome couldn’t be happier to see.

“Chrome?” She asked, not entirely sure of the pony below the white armour.

“Hey, Cross. Could I come in?” He replied, receiving a nod. The door opened fully to allow him in, and as soon as he stepped in, he took off his helmet and looked over at the mare, quiet tears welling in his eyes.

“Chrome, what’s wrong?” Cross asked, immediately concerned for her cousin.

“I-I can’t keep this going, I just can’t … Did you hear what happened in Canterlot?” Chrome asked, silently hoping she had, the tears beginning to flow.

“No, I was too focused on my work. I did hear that there were thousands of ponies around the town, but they are returning as soon as the issues are dealt with in Canterlot so I didn’t really have any reason to look into it further.”

“Canterlot is gone, Cross.”

She looked at him in horror, “Gone? As in, destroyed?”

He managed a nod, barely able to focus on her with tears blurring his eyes, “Anypony that didn’t evac is dead. None of the city survived.”

“W-what of the guardians? I thought they would have stopped the attack!”

“They were more focused on getting as many ponies out as possible. I saw when we were taking off… we left so many behind.”

Cross stared at him in shock, processing what had been said to her. As her mind returned to reality, she jumped forward and hugged him, “Oh, Chrome, it must have been horrible to deal with.”

“It has been. I managed to keep my emotions at bay while I was there, for the sake of the others, but this… I’ve never been in a war of this magnitude. I don’t know if I can go on.”

She stepped back and gave him a determined look, one that he had only seen a few times, “You can and you will. We need you, Chrome.”

He dried his eyes with an armoured wrist and looked her over for a few seconds, waiting to see if she would say anything else. When nothing else was spoken, he sighed, “Thanks, Cross. Would it be okay if I crashed here for the night?”

“You are always welcome here. Take one of the guest bedrooms upstairs and get some sleep, from the sounds of things, you’ve earned it.”

He gave her a thankful hug and trotted up the stairs, throwing himself out of his armour and into the bed that lay in a spare room. Sleep came quickly as he closed his eyes, welcoming the dark embrace of unconsciousness.

“I don’t understand how we can continue.” Procor started, standing with the others at the planning table. It had been a few hours since they had all come back to the town, though Exodus was still away, “We’ve lost the capital, and I doubt the Cabal will stop there. How do you stop a fleet of carriers with just us?”

“Our only hope right now is to slow them, hopefully kill enough of them to force them back.” Kervis explained, Lemon by his side.

“But how many have we killed overall? A few thousand at most? They have millions, Kervis. Not even Odium can handle that many.”

“Then we die trying.”

The room fell into silence at the Titan’s blunt response, none of them knowing how to continue the conversation. The silence was broken by a familiar voice.

“Team, I may have a solution.” Exodus said, walking over to the table.

“Where have you been?” Kervis asked, looking up at the Warlock.

“I just found out there is a Warmind bunker on the planet.”

“What? A Warmind. Here.” Procor asked, a look of disbelief on his face.

“I don’t know how or why there’s one here, but there is. It has been deactivated since The Collapse, so chances are it still works.”

“Well where is it? Why didn’t you contact us?” Kervis questioned.

“That’s the problem. It’s under a hill, and will require excavating in order to reach, but if we brought that Warmind online, we could slaughter the Cabal without issue.”

“Then what’s the plan? The Cabal aren’t going to sit back while we do this.” Procor said.

“What we need to do is continue like nothing is happening. By some miracle, they haven’t noticed the Warmind in orbit, nor have they detected the distress beacon from the bunker. We should keep fighting them where we can, and send ponies to begin digging down towards the Warmind. If all goes well, the Cabal won’t even know what hit them.”

Kervis nodded in understanding, “Alright, so where will the Cabal strike next? It’s clear that they are going for cities with a high unicorn population.”

“Uh,” Lemon started, “I think the next city would be the Crystal Empire. They have a lot of magic there, so it would make sense for them to attack it if they were looking for ways to get magic.”

“I see. That’s not all that far from us, the ships should make it there in under an hour. Who are the leaders of this Empire?” Kervis asked, looking down at the map sprawled across the table.

“Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armour. The Prince is related to one of the Princesses here.”

“Perhaps it would be a good idea to take her with us then? I’m not sure how much they might know about the war.” Exodus commented.

“That’s fair, and maybe only one of us should go. It probably wouldn’t make a good first impression if five heavily armed guardians showed up at their doorstep.” Procor surmised, standing straight.

“I’ll head over there, and I’ll grab this Princess before I leave.” Exodus said, “If anything happens while I’m gone, be sure to notify me.”

“You’ll be the first we call.”

Exodus turned and walked away, out towards the tents that surrounded the town. As he walked away, the remaining guardians turned back to the table.

“So how many ponies do you think we’ll need?” Kervis queried.

Procor glanced out at the tents, and the thousands of ponies wandering around them, “I don’t think we need to worry about that.”

Twilight was lying in her tent, staring down at a book. She wasn’t actually reading, but she needed something for her eyes to rest on while she tried to sort the jumbled mess her mind had fallen into.

In no records had a single attack been this destructive. Even Tirek kept his attacks reasonably isolated, and anything he destroyed was rebuilt. But these monsters decimated not one, but two major cities in under a week, and it didn’t look like they were stopping there.

“Uh, Princess? Is this your tent, or am I mistaken?” A male voice called out, bringing her attention up to the entrance. Outside, the being was creating a shadow on the front of the tent, one she recognised a little too well at this point.

She got up and walked over, pulling back the folds of the entrance a little to look at the visitor. The same black and blue guardian that warned them about the attack stood there, looking down at her.

“Hello, your majesty. I need to speak with you about something important.” He said, not noticing the cringe she gave at the title.

“Can it wait?” She responded, not really wanting to speak with anyone.

“I wish it could, but we have reason to believe the Crystal Empire is the next target for the Cabal. I was told you were related to the Prince there?”

Her head jerked back up to the guardian, “Why would they attack the Empire? The unicorn population there isn’t all that high.”

“According to a friend, there is a high level of magic there. If that is true, then they are certainly a target. I was hoping you could come with me and speak with them.”

“If it means protecting my brother, I’ll do it. How are we going to get over there?”

“Well, the train is much too slow and I don’t want to tire you by asking to teleport, which means my ship is the only viable option.”

She gave a sigh at that. She really didn’t like the craft the guardian used, but he was correct when he said it would tire her to teleport them, and the train could take hours they could not afford.

“How much faster will your craft be?” She asked.

“We should reach the Empire in under twenty minutes, providing the weather holds.”

Her mind almost reeled at the realisation of how fast something would have to be to make that distance so quickly, but she managed to hold it together, “And how soon can we leave?”

“As soon as you are ready, Princess. The ship is already prepared for the trip.”

She steeled herself and nodded, “Let’s get going then. I don’t want to waste any time if Cadence and Shining are in trouble.”

The guardian’s companion appeared at his shoulder as Twilight finished talking, turning to face the Warlock, “The ship is on its way, do you want it to come down above the tents?”

“Yeah, switch the engines to low power and keep it as far up as you are able. As soon as it is in range, teleport us up.” The guardian said.

High above, a small blue dot could be made out, flying at an immense speed towards the ground. Before it got too close, the three wings that stuck out of it opened, and it slowed to an almost complete stop, raising its nose to point in the direction of the Crystal Empire.

Before Twilight could speak up, their surroundings changed to that of the interior of the ship. She was used to being teleported, but the magic the guardians used felt odd. She brushed it off, however, switching her mind to the priority issue.

“Ghost, let’s get moving. Don’t go full transit, as we don’t know what the weather is like in that area.”

“Got it.” The little machine replied, moving over to a few shining monitors.

As she settled, she felt the ship lurch forward, the scenery flashing by them on the monitors near the pilot seat. The guardian quickly jumped onto said seat and began pressing buttons on the console before him, the ship responding to his input with a whirr.

“Exodus? Why are you arming the missiles?” His Ghost asked.

“The last time we were forced to fly at this speed we were attacked. I don’t want to make that same mistake again unprepared.” Exodus explained, focusing on the images in front of him.

The Ghost stayed quiet after that, flying the ship with a bit more ease. Twilight, on the other hand, was barely able to keep her mind at bay. Not only were they flying at breakneck speeds to save her brother and sister in law, but they could also be attacked at any point. The thought of facing those monsters sent a shiver through her spine as she stared at the metal floor.

“Princess?” She looked up to see the guardian’s companion hovering near her, its single eye looking over her closely, “Are you alright? You seem distressed.”

“I-I’m fine, thank you.” She said, flinching back slightly at the sudden proximity to the machine.

“If you would like someone to talk to, I am always available.” The Ghost said, hovering away from her to give her room.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

She wasn’t normally that dismissive, especially when the situation could allow her to make a new friend, but the situation was causing her mind to behave differently. The sheer fact she hadn’t broken down already shocked her more than anything.

For the rest of the flight, the only thing that could be heard was the mechanical sounds of the ship around them. The Guardian and his Ghost paid no more attention to Twilight, as they worked on making sure the ship wasn’t being followed. She was starting to drift off when Exodus spoke up.

“I think we’re here. Is this the place, Princess?”

Twilight stood up and walked over, looking at the screens that displayed the outside world. In front of the ship, a towering castle stood at the centre point of an expansive city. The entire place glistened in the light as the sun shone down on it.

“Yes, this is it. When we get down there, I think it might be better if you let me do most of the talking.” Twilight said, standing back.

“Agreed, I’ll take us down there now.”

The craft began its descent in response to the Warlock’s input, the ground rising up to them rapidly. As they drew closer, they could see masses of ponies running in fear, the guards arming themselves and standing to attention around the castle.

“This should be interesting.” Exodus said, slowing the ship above the guards near the castle.

“If you let me talk first, it should be fine.” Twilight replied, looking over the mass of ponies for any signs of Shining. When he couldn’t be found, she frowned and looked up at the Warlock, “We should get down there.”

“No arguments from me. Ghost?”

The scenery around them changed once more, this time to guards surrounding them, their spears pointed at the trio.

“Princess Twilight?!” One of them exclaimed, raising his spear to point upwards.

“Please, lower your weapons. I need to speak with my brother.” Twilight said, her hoof raised. The guards followed her orders without hesitation, dispersing to allow her passage to the castle.

She galloped towards the entrance, the guardian struggling a little to keep up. They ascended some stairs before arriving in a large throne room, two seats built into the wall on the other side of the room. On those seats, two ponies sat. Two that Twilight recognised easily.

“Shining Armour, Cadence!” She cried, running across the hall towards them. Exodus opted to walk over, giving them time to speak with one another in peace. He had stowed his Tlaloc on his back before he teleported, not expecting to use it, but finding security in knowing it was there.

“Twilight? What are you doing here?” Cadence asked, standing up and hugging her.

“We came to warn you, the Guardians think that the Empire is the next target for their assault!” Twilight said, returning the hug.

“They are still going? I thought they would have been stopped.” Shining muttered, looking curiously over at the Warlock.

“Canterlot was destroyed, and the Crystal Empire will be as well if we don’t do something.”

Shining stared at her in shock, “And mom and dad?”

“They got out, I made sure of it. They are in a camp around Solacium.”

A look of relief adorned his face as he exhaled, “So what do you think we should do? And who is this?”

Twilight looked behind her at the Guardian. He had stopped a respectable distance from them to wait for his name to be called. He stood to attention when Shining looked at him.

“This is Exodus, one of the guardians that has been fighting to protect us.” Twilight said, introducing them.

The Warlock gave a nod, his hands behind his back. He could easily tell these ponies were high ranking, and if they held the same ranking as the two sisters from Canterlot, they were definitely ponies he didn’t want to mess with.

Cadence walked over to the Exo, looking up at his faceplate, “I assume you are here to help protect my Empire?”

“My team and I will do our absolute best. We have time to set up for this attack, so we will be more prepared than we were during the Canterlot assault.” Exodus said, his hands still behind him.

“I see. And can you guarantee the safety of the ponies within my city?”

“I cannot.” Exodus started, “We will do what we can to keep your ponies and your city as safe as possible, but we are up against a force far larger than anything we have ever faced. The best we can promise is that we will hold them off long enough for your ponies to evacuate.”

“...I guess that is the best I can hope for. Thank you.” Cadence said, returning to her throne, “So what will you need in order to defend our city? All our resources and armies are available for you to use.”

“To begin with, we’ll need any and all metal you and your ponies can spare. It doesn’t matter what sort of metal it is, just as long as it’s of reasonable quality.” Exodus said.

“That can be done, anything else?”

“We will also be moving as many War Mages as possible over here to assist in the defence. They will need temporary housing if they are to stay here until the attack.”

“Easy enough. I will issue an order to the guards to alert the ponies, and request all our scrap metal from the store room is brought to the courtyard below the castle. We can make some tents for the Mages to stay in while you prepare for the attack.” Cadence said to make sure she understood everything.

“That should be everything. We can handle it from there. Thank you for cooperating with us, it will help greatly.”

“And thank you for aiding us in our time of need. If we can be of assistance to you or your team, you only need to ask.” The pink alicorn said with a smile.

Exodus gave a final nod and turned, walking out of the room. When he was gone, Twilight turned back to her brother and sister, “Are you sure we can pull this off?” She asked.

“With the guardians and the War Mages helping us, alongside three Princesses and the city guards, I think we at least have a fighting chance. We just have to hope that things go better than Canterlot.” Cadence said, looking down at Twilight.

“I hope you’re right, because if you aren’t, I think we may be in more trouble than we can handle.”

Primus Va'aull chuckled as he walked through the prison blocks onboard his carrier. Each cell had a unicorn stowed in it, some crying in their language, some yelling and slamming the bars.

‘Just a few more weeks and we will have what we need to go home’ He thought to himself, looking down at a young unicorn. It was huddled in the corner, watching the Cabal with tear-filled eyes.

“My Primus,” A Cabal Colossus called out, catching up to his leader.

“Yes, soldier?” He replied, turning to face him.

“I wished to speak with you, if that is alright.”

“Of course, speak your mind, I am listening.”

The Colossus took a long breath, before sighing and looking up at Va’aull, “Forgive me, but is what we are doing… right?”

“What do you mean?”

“These animals have done nothing to us. I’m sure I am not the first soldier to talk with you about this, but I can’t help but feel that what we are doing is morally wrong. And though I try to see the glory in conquering them, I find I cannot.”

The Primus gave his words some thought before he spoke, “Soldier, do you wish to see your family again?”

“Of course, my Primus.”

“As does everyone else within this fleet. We are doing what we need to in order to ensure our return home. Do you think the Empire would be happy with us leaving this planet and trying to return home?”

“I understand that, sir, but surely even they can see that killing off a race of animals is something even we Cabal don’t do. This is something the Humans would do.”

“If we must lower ourselves to their level for the sake of our mission, so be it. Is there anything else you wished to speak with me about?”

The Colossus flinched a little at his leader’s response, but stood tall regardless, “Yes. The pilots would like to know what zone we are moving to next.”

The Primus thought for a moment, “I will need to see the map again, but tell the pilots to be ready to move out. As soon as we have restocked, we will begin our next attack.”

The Colossus bowed and left the room, off towards the bridge. When he had left, the Primus turned once more to the young unicorn. It had started crying during their conversation, looking at him in pure fear.

For a brief moment, he felt sympathy for the poor thing, but it was quickly stamped out by the task he knew he had to follow through with.

‘No time for sympathy in this job’ He thought to himself, leaving the room and making his way towards the navigation room.

- - In orbit above the planet - - -

///Warmind Churchill (CHRL) is now online.\\

///System booting…\\

///System boot complete.\\

///Detecting faults in <63> systems.\\

///Combat efficiency lowered by <23%>.\\

///Feeding diagnosis data to bunker…\\

///Diagnosis received. Scanning for WarSats…\\

///<3> WarSat faults detected, moving remaining <197> to re-cover operational area.\\

///Operational area re-covered. Feeding WarSat relocation data to bunker…\\

///All requested data sent.\\

///Cycling weapons…\\

///Weapon cycle complete.\\

///All primary weapons are fully functional. Frame combat support is 27% damaged but available.\\

///Bringing background systems online…\\

///Background systems online. Switching modes.\\

///Executing reactivation…\\

“Ah, it feels good to be back online. Elizabeth, are you there?” Churchill asked.

“Yes, I am here. I trust you are well?” Elizabeth replied.

“Some minor faults, but I should be okay. Any reason for you bringing me back online?”

“There is. There has been a situation.”

Author's Note

Hiya all, so this author's notes is going to be a little... different.

I have seen the backlash that Kalis' death has caused and would like to apologise. Clearly her death upset more people than I had expected, and I wasn't expecting that. In the future, if something of that scale comes by, I will make polls asking specific questions, that way I can determine if the plan is something you guys would like.

I am aware that I am at fault, as I should have had the foresight to see that her death would cause many to be upset, and I hope to never do something of that scale again without you all at least having some idea before hand.

On a slightly lighter note, never_Comfortable and Flamelight had a drawing competition and asked me to judge. I said I would also post a poll here so you will all be able to judge them too. The competition was to draw the best picture of the War Mage leader, and they both posted their images to DeviantArt. I will link them both below, and then a poll below them. If you would like to vote, go right ahead. The winner of this will have their picture as the image of the War Mage leader within the story.

https://nevercomfortable.deviantart.com/art/War-Mage-Leader-702500375
https://flamelight-dash.deviantart.com/art/War-Mage-Leader-702458188

vote here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JVMCRCC

Lastly, I would like to thank you all once again. This story has taken quite a few twists and turns over the months, but you guys have been supporting me amazingly so far. I couldn't do any of this without you guys, and the great people behind the scenes, that help me with the chapters. You have made this dream become a reality, and I can't thank you all enough.

Anyways, enough rambling. I only spent 12 hours with no breaks playing destiny 2, there's 12 more to go :pinkiecrazy:

21) Defence of an Empire

Work had been going well to prepare the Crystal Empire for the coming attack. As the metal was gathered, Exodus had called for the rest of his team to meet with him, and the four of them got to work setting things up. The plan was to use whatever metal the ponies had to construct crude versions of the defence turrets seen around the Tower.

“You sure these are gonna work?” Procor asked, looking over one of the twelve turrets they had built so far.

“They should,” Exodus’ Ghost replied, “I have built them with the schematics used by the Vanguard. They won’t be as effective as the ones at the Tower, but they should at least make the Cabal think twice about attacking again.”

The Ghosts had been synthesising the components needed from the metal they had available. Multiple metals were missing that were needed to make them at their top efficiency, so the Ghosts had to improvise a lot to make them functional. This left them looking fairly ugly, but they worked.

Another hour later, and two and a half turrets, the Ghosts received a ping from the orbiting guardian ships, “The Cabal are on the move again.” Kervis’ Ghost called out.

“They coming here?” Kervis asked, still carrying a beam of steel.

“Yeah, same three carriers. The remaining seventeen are staying at Manehattan.”

“Makes sense, actually.” Exodus said, “According to the Val, they use those seventeen to carry a lot of their cargo and prisoners. They wouldn’t want them to come under harm if they intend to use them.”

“Well, we have these turrets, where are we aiming them?” Elana questioned.

“We’ll give the Ghosts control of them. We fitted them with a way of running on light, it’s not ideal, but these ponies don’t have electricity. I’m sure they’ll come up with a plan.” Exodus said.

Elana nodded at what he had said, helping Kervis place the steel beam to support the newest turret. They likely didn’t have time to build another, so they got to work using the last of the metal to reinforce the constructed turrets.

As they had been building, the Princess and Prince had come down from their castle to watch them. They didn’t step in to help, which was fine as the Guardians and their Ghosts were easily capable of building on their own, but they did help keep curious ponies away.

“I can’t believe we are under attack again,” Cadence muttered sadly, looking over one of the finished metal constructs, “It seems like every year something awful happens here.”

“Hey, we always find a way through it,” Shining said, giving his wife a hug, “This time, we have help and early warning. We have a much higher chance of making it through this one.”

“If you say so.”

Over with the Guardians, they had just finished placing the last of the metal when Kervis’ Ghost spoke once more, “The Cabal will be here shortly, we need to be ready asap”

“We should be okay. Elana, you’re our sniper, we need you up high.” Kervis commanded, looking over at the Hunter. She gave a short salute and began running towards the castle, her ship flying down and picking her up, dropping her off at the safest point she could find on the spire.

“The rest of us need to split up. Make sure you don’t go too far from the turrets so our Ghosts can keep control of them.” The green Titan continued.

The team gave their various responses of confirmation and spread across the city, leaving Kervis with the royalty, “Lastly, are either of you capable of shielding the castle?”

“I am, I could shield the city if that would be better.” Shining said, standing up.

“No, just the castle.”

The two of them looked at him aghast, “But what about the ponies? They will surely be killed!” Cadence exclaimed.

“If you want your ponies to be safe, move them all to the castle and shield it. If you make a shield around the city, not only will the turrets be useless, but we also won’t be able to aid in the defence. Concentrating the shield around the castle will not only protect you two, but it will protect quite possibly the last building in the country that ponies look to for hope,” Kervis said, summoning his pulse rifle. “Now I need you two to figure out what you are going to do and go do it. I hate speaking to royalty like this but we simply don’t have time for this.”

The duo looked at each other briefly before nodding and running into the city, calling for as many guards as they could. With them out of the way, Kervis began his run through the streets, finding an area he could defend that was a reasonable distance from the rest of the guardians.

“Here we go again...”

The War Mage leader walked slowly through the ranks of War Mages that had rallied at the Crystal Empire. As part of the Guardians’ plan, they had moved away from the Empire a little, and at their signal, would rush through the streets to surprise attack the footsoldiers the Cabal would send.

Flamelight was also with them. He had been given a suit of guardian armour from Exodus’ Ghost, as well as a top off from Elana. He was there to help coordinate the armies, as he was the only one with a radio linked with Odium. Chrome had decided to stay with the guardians, apparently joining Elana on the spire not long after she had gone up there.

“Flamelight, we have Cabal inbound.” Kervis said through his mic.

“No problem, we’re ready. Just say the word and we’ll come running.” The pegasus replied, speaking slightly louder so the Mages could hear him.

“All right Mages, this is your time to prove yourselves!” The Mage leader called out, “Some of you have been training years for this, and now you will put that training to the test. Many will die, do not think that you are invincible. But if you die, you die for Equestria!”

The Mages gave cries of agreement, some raising their weapons in the air, others firing off small pulses of magic. The thought of death meant little to them, each one of them willing to die for their country if it meant saving the ponies that lived there.

The next few minutes were spent with the Mages idly talking with one another. All of them were prepared for the upcoming fight, even those that had never seen combat before, so when the Cabal carriers came into view, they barely batted an eyelid, quickly moving into their positions.

“This is it!” Their leader called, Flamelight standing beside her, “As soon as the Guardians give the word, we charge!”

It took some time, but the Cabal craft eventually came into range to begin firing upon the city, houses being blasted apart by the powerful weapons. As chunks of crystal fell down around them, the Mages brought up their shields, their eyes focused on the two ponies at the front.

Many decimated homes later, the enemy deployed their ground forces. Masses of drop ships, escorted by fighters, swarmed down to the city, dropping Cabal forces throughout the city. The Mages were barely able to prepare as hundreds of Cabal moved upon them, waves of bullets sailing from their weapons.

“Hold strong, Mages! We attack only when we are called,” Their leader shouted over the gunfire, her own horn lit up in the hopes of bolstering the magical shield that surrounded them.

The wall around them was beginning to fade as Flamelight’s ears picked up a familiar voice, “Flame, we need some support down here. How quickly can you get the Mages to us?” Kervis asked.

“We can leave now, and be there in a few. Just hang on.” Flamelight replied, looking over at the Mage leader, “We’re needed, let’s get out there.”

“’Bout time.” She muttered, closing her connection to the shield and firing a bolt of magic at a nearby soldier, its armour being decimated by the blast, “Mages! We charge!”

The shield collapsed instantly, a wall of magical bolts flying forward into the ranks of Cabal. A few Mages took shots when the wall fell, but the majority of them pushed forward, switching to the middle of the group if they ran low on magic. They had a couple of Mages in the middle that were supplying magic to those that needed it, keeping the entire group armed as they made their push.

A few hundred Mages made their way through the streets, splitting up into groups to reinforce the guardians. Each group had a Mage supplying magic, while the ponies around them slaughtered the Cabal relentlessly. Many ponies fell as they made their way towards the humans, their dead bodies being left behind, but as each group reached the guardians, it became clear they had enough ponies to hold off the attack for a long while.

“We need to hold these streets. I’m not going to let another city fall!” Kervis called through his comms, his Hammer of Sol shining brightly as he smashed it into a nearby Cabal soldier.

“No issues with that so far. The turrets are doing some work on the incoming fighters, and their carriers have already taken a beating from them.” Exodus pointed out, drawing the Titan’s head upwards for a second. Huge fires were raging across the front carrier, and many fighters were being shot down by a combination of the turrets, Elana’s rifle and stray magical bolts from the Mages.

The defence was going well, and for the first time since their arrival, it looked like the guardians were going to win.

That is, of course, until the universe remembered who exactly it was that was winning.

“Holy fuck,” Elana whispered, looking through the sight of her Devil’s Dawn.

“What’s up, Elana?” Procor questioned.

“Guys, I… I have a sight on a huge Cabal. I think it’s the Primus.”

“What?!”

The Primus walked quickly towards the city, his heavy weapon swaying slightly in his arms as he moved.

“Ah, this city will be a wonderful forward base, don’t you think?” He said, looking down at the Colossus beside him.

“I think it will take some fixing up, but yes, I have to agree, my Primus.” The Colossus responded, looking over the ruined homes in the distance.

“Hmm, why are those defences still active?” He queried, looking over at the rounds flying from the ground, and slamming into their carriers.

“The guardians seem to have built them to be incredibly durable. They are firing with a high level of precision, eliminating our air-to-surface missiles and damaging our hull, meaning that we can’t fire upon them with the carriers’ weapons. The Threshers that get some shots off on them barely do anything before they are taken out.” The Colossus explained, ignoring a sniper round just barely missing them.

“Well, I do hope they keep the majority of the city intact, the crystal it is made of seems useful.” The Primus said, kicking a large chunk of broken crystal out of the way. They were just arriving at the outskirts of the city when a red glow from the castle spire caught his attention, “Seems they have sniper support.”

“Yes sir, it isn’t doing a whole lot, but they have eliminated quite a few Threshers.”

“Be sure to get a few missiles on that spire. If we can’t destroy their turrets, then we will destroy their eyes.” The huge Cabal ordered.

They were now in the city, pushing past the swathes of soldiers that were busy decimating everything that wasn’t nailed down. A few minutes passed before they reached a clearing within one of the streets, a lone Guardian fighting there. There were piles of pony bodies around him, each wearing a robe of a different colour. The guardian himself appeared to be a Warlock, throwing grenades into the crowds to soften them up, and finishing them off with a few rounds from his rifle.

“This one is mine,” The Primus growled, stomping forward and stowing his weapon on his back. His movements quickly drew the human’s attention, and it began firing upon the towering leader with everything it had.

But the Cabal didn’t arm their leaders with weak plating, and the metal that surrounded him absorbed the damage easily, the Solar light barely touching him. He reached the Warlock quickly, punching him down and kicking him into a nearby building.

“-Pathetic-,” He growled in their language, watching with hate filled eyes as the Guardian stood slowly, “-You think you can stop us with your weapons and pony allies?-”

He walked over, paying no attention to the slew of cracks coming from the bodies he walked over, “-We gave you a chance to leave, and yet, here you are.-”

The impact of his fist sent the Warlock sailing back once more, a new building taking the brunt of the force.

“-Your kind doesn’t deserve to live. When we return to our home, I swear, I will send everything I have to that disgusting planet of yours and wipe it clean of the scum you are.-”

The Warlock rose once more, sparks occasionally flying out from the tears in his robes, “-The Traveler will stop you.-” He muttered, looking up at the Primus.

“-Ha! That useless marble? The only thing it does is give you strength, but you will never know true power, nor will you know the true pain of death. Instead, you hide behind this… artificial strength that has been bestowed to you, silently praying for it to fix your problems, while doing little to solve them yourselves.-”

Va'aull finished it with a kick to the human’s chest, mashing him against the wall once more. The sparks were much denser now, yet he still looked up, “-You… will… fail-”

The Primus laughed at that, standing tall over the guardian, “-Fool, I’ve already won.-”

He rammed his fist into the Warlock’s face, his body going limp as life left him. With the deed done, Va'aull turned to face the rest of his soldiers, “Find his machine and crush it! Do not allow him to come back!”

- -In orbit above the planet- - -

“What sort of situation?” Churchill asked.

“The planet is under attack from an alien race, and the forces we have on the ground are unable to defend it. I used my emergency protocol to bring you online, as this alien race presents a significant risk to our continued presence on the planet.” Elizabeth said, sending up the data she had gathered during the centuries she had been there.

“I see.” He muttered, looking over the new data he had been given. A few minutes passed before he spoke again, “I assume you have provided our forces with the beacons we need?”

“No. I was unable to give them anything, what with the state of the bunker. You will have to use the WarSats to fire.”

“Elizabeth, without the beacons the chances of me missing are extremely high. Are you sure this is our best option?”

“Yes. I understand the risk, but the chances of this planet being destroyed if we do nothing are far higher. We must do something before the last of our forces are eliminated.”

Churchill gave a pause, thinking over the options he had. If he was off by even a millimetre, he could fire upon their allies, something he knew they couldn’t afford, but it was likely that they would die if they didn’t receive help regardless.

Coming to a decision, he loaded a single round into his main cannon, the WarSats around him providing him with overhead images of the fight on the surface. Three alien craft were flying near a large city, the one at the front clearly taking a large amount of fire.

Taking aim, he charged the weapon, silently praying his calculations were correct, and with a moment of hesitation, he let the shot fire.

“Guardian down,” Kervis’ Ghost said for the second time. He was barely holding up against the waves of hostiles, and it was clear the others weren’t faring any better. As he threw his hammer forward, ignoring the explosion it created, he called out to the final Guardian still alive with him, “Elana, you alright?”

“I think so. Chrome has been doing a good job keeping them off of me, but I’m running out of ammo, and the synths you guys gave me are pretty much out.” She responded, firing another round into the head of a Cabal soldier.

“Just hold on for as long as you can. The more we kill here, the better chance the ponies have of beating them back.”

The fight continued for some time, the two remaining guardians doing their best to keep the Cabal away from the castle. The defence was going well until a new roar sounded out near Kervis.

He was barely able to turn before being hit from the side, sliding across the ground and coming to a stop near one of the castle legs.

“Just as weak as the others,” A deep voice commented, bringing Kervis’ head around. A huge Cabal was walking over to him, the armour plating looking like that worn by the Cabal Primus.

The Titan jumped to his feet and summoned his hammer once again, backing up from the Primus. He kept his head on a swivel, searching for an opening to either run, or flank.

“I will never understand your need to protect what isn’t yours,” The Primus said, getting far too close for Kervis’ liking. The human swung at the Cabal’s leg, hoping to trip him, but was stopped by a huge hand grabbing his arm, raising the human up into the air, “But I do understand the ways of killing you.”

With that, he grabbed Kervis’ body with his other hand and tore his arm off, the human screaming in pain as the limb fell away from him, the hammer disintegrating.

“You made a valiant effort today, I must admit,” The Primus said, grabbing Kervis’ other arm, “But it is clear you lack the ability to fight us. Why you still try is beyond me.”

The intense pain racking through the Titan’s body doubled as his left arm was torn off, his body being dropped down to the ground and crumpling. He was barely able to lift his head, the pain clouding his mind as the Primus stood over him.

“We will return home, regardless of the Cabal you kill. And there is nothing you can do to stop us.” He said, raising his fist. Without a word, he brought it down, crushing the Titan’s head, and killing him instantly.

The Primus gave a short command to the soldiers around him, each giving a shout of confirmation and spreading out, many of them moving towards the entrances into the castle. None of them giving the Titan’s body any attention as it became ash, disappearing before them.

Shining Armour and Cadence were working hard to keep the shield around the castle strong, but with the sudden barrage of fire it was taking, even the two of them combined couldn’t resist it.

“T-Twilight, get the ponies and teleport them away from the city.” Cadence whispered, her eyes clenched in focus.

“But how will you two get out?” She asked, looking over the two ponies before her.

“We’ll be fine, Twily. Just go.” Shining said, his voice wavering.

Twilight was about to insist that she stayed when a huge explosion rattled the castle. They turned to look out of a nearby window to see something none of them could fathom.

There, up in the sky, one of the carriers was falling to the ground, a pillar of smoke still visible that had descended from the sky, and passed right through it, leaving a crater in the ground below it.

The shot was clearly enough to devastate the craft, as the engines that kept it in the air cut out, leaving it helplessly plummeting.

“What was that?” The purple alicorn asked, watching as the ship crashed into the ground in a burst of flames.

Before an answer could be given, a second explosion sounded, this time on another Cabal carrier. The pillar of smoke signified it just barely missed, tearing through the side of it, but still did enough to force it to move and stop it firing upon the city.

“Have the gods finally turned to us?” Shining whispered, watching in awe as the second craft tried desperately to stay stable. The only ship that hadn’t been hit was the one at the front, which was barely staying aloft after the damage it had sustained from the Guardians’ turrets.

“I think this is something else...” Twilight said, looking up in the sky, “But I’m just glad it’s on our side.”

- -In orbit above the planet- - -

///Second shot confirmed hit – Glancing blow.\\

///Loading third round into chamber…\\

“Elizabeth, are we able to get Frame support to them?” Churchill asked as the third shot was aimed, the crosshairs painting over the now damaged carrier.

“We have a couple of storage zones in the area. I will send the forces I can, though the ones further away will take longer to arrive.” The AI replied.

“Don’t bother with anything further than the bunker, they won’t make it in time. As long as we can pull the bulk of their remaining forces into the surrounding areas, I should be able to make use of it.”

There was a long silence as Elizabeth began sending Frames to the city. As she worked, Churchill fired his third round, the shot managing to clip the carrier’s engines and subsequently bringing it down, bursting into a cloud of fire as the hull drove its way into the earth.

///Third round confirmed hit – Target eliminated.\\

///Loading fourth round into chamber…\\

‘I really hope they are doing alright down there’ He thought to himself, switching to the WarSat feed to await the Frames.

“What was that?” Va'aull roared, staring in shock at the burning remains of what was his carrier.

“It seems the Guardians have a machine in orbit. It was deactivated until now, so we didn’t see it as we arrived.” A Flayer explained.

“Get the final carrier out of here, and call for my drop ship.” He commanded, walking towards the edge of the city.

“Sir, we’re retreating?” The Flayer questioned, running to keep up with his leader.

“Yes. Get all remaining forces away and onto the carrier. When that is done, alert the other carriers of what happened, and request reinforcements.”

The Psion nodded and moved away towards the communications area they had set up. The Primus was furious, but he could already tell that level of firepower wasn’t something they could easily take on. He had to hope that the final carrier was still able to move quickly, as the troops still on the ground needed a way to leave.

“Sir we have new hostile contacts!” A soldier reported through the short range comms.

“How many and where from?” Va'aull said in response.

“Too many to count. They are moving from various points around the city.”

The Primus growled in anger, “Get the carrier on it, keep them away until our forces have left the area.”

“Yes, sir.”

‘You may have won this round, Guardians,’ Va'aull thought to himself, looking up as his large dropship flew in, ‘But you will not win this fight.’

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay with this chapter, Destiny 2 took a lot of my time, but now that the hype has worn off on me, I can get back to writing.

Not a huge amount of stuff to say in this one. We are coming up on 1K views, which is a number I didn't even consider this story ever reaching. I am aware that about 80-90% of those views are only on the first and the sixth chapter, but it still gives me motivation to know that people have at least given the story a chance.

And before anyone freaks out, no, the guardians are still alive, don't worry. Normally that would be something reserved for the next chapter, but after what happened with Kalis, I'm being a bit more careful with these things.

If any of you would like to join me in Destiny 2, or join the clan me and Chrome Shield are building, feel free to message Echo the Pony, or request to join the clan Hooves of the Fallen. (We are only on the Xbox One, sorry Playstation and PC)

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. As always, feedback is appreaciated.

Stay awesome! :heart:

22) Aftermath

Procor stood slowly, opening his eyes and looking around him. He had fallen during the fight, so he hadn’t seen anything that had happened when the Primus had reached the castle.

“Ghost?” The Titan called, the little white machine floating over to him.

“Hey.” He responded, flying by his shoulder.

“What happened? Did we win?”

“As far as I can tell, yes. The Cabal are in full retreat, and Elana is going around reviving the rest of the team.”

The human gave a sigh, turning to look at the castle. The spire of it had fallen during the onslaught, but the rest of it remained intact, though the same could not be said for the city.

Multiple homes were crumbling, and many more were already completely destroyed, shards of crystal covering the streets. In all directions he looked, he could see the bodies of the War Mages that had fought alongside them, not a single one of them moving.

“Damn. Where are the others?” Procor asked.

“Moving towards the courtyard below the castle.”

He gave a nod and turned to face the streets leading to the building. Even more pony bodies lay across it, each wearing a coloured robe. He tried to ignore them as he walked forward, dreading the thought of coming back through there to search for injured.

It took only a minute to reach the castle, the three other guardians, along with Chrome and Flamelight standing there. They were talking with each other, their conversations becoming clearer as he drew closer.

“...and what is the death toll, exactly?” Kervis asked Flame.

“I haven’t seen any of the War Mages that went into battle with us. They might still be out there, but I doubt there are many left.” The blue pegasus replied. He had taken his helmet off, allowing those around him to see his face.

Kervis sighed and looked around, spotting Procor quickly, “Hey, you good?”

Procor nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine. What happened? I’ve never even heard of a Cabal army retreating, especially with how well they were doing.”

“Churchill happened.” Exodus said, joining in with the conversation, “Elana and multiple ponies say they saw columns of smoke puncture two of the ships. They came from space, and my Ghost has detected swathes of Frames moving on the city. All signs of a Warmind.”

“Frames? How did any of this even get here? No other Warmind network was detected when we went through Rasputin’s database, so how did this one never get added?” Procor queried.

“No idea, but we need to figure out what our next step is. We apparently have a Warmind online, and we didn’t even need to excavate that bunker. With it, we can end this today.” Exodus said.

“Exodus, you know we can’t.” Kervis said, “We got immensely lucky with this attack. We need to take a step back and plan out our steps. We can’t rely on the Warmind to do everything.”

The Warlock looked away slightly, the others staying quiet as the Exo thought on what they had to do.

“…If we aren’t going to move immediately, our next best move would probably be to access the bunker. If we can get in there, we can re arm, refuel the ships, and figure out what we can do with the Warmind.” He eventually said, looking at them all.

“Sounds good. We can get a lot of ponies from the camps around Solacium, and transport them to the bunker via our ships. I’ll go and tell the Val what we have discussed, and what happened here.” Kervis said, receiving a nod of confirmation from his companions. With his job now set up, the Titan walked away from them, the roar of his ship becoming louder as he dropped in from orbit.

“I think I’m gonna stay here and help the city rebuild,” Elana said, stowing her sniper.

“I’ll come with you. There might be ponies that need help.” Exodus said, walking away with her.

With the others going their separate ways, Procor figured he could find something to do on his own. He requested his ship be brought down from orbit, and boarded it when it arrived, jumping into the pilot seat and firing its engines up.

His first thought was to go see the Warmind Exodus had mentioned, and hopefully assess how much damage it had taken during its time up in orbit, and with nothing else coming up, he brought his ship back up to orbit, the planet sprawling out below him.

“Ghost,” He said, “Where is that Warmind right now?”

A waypoint showed up on his HUD as he spoke, pointing him towards a distant dot hovering above the planet. Pushing forward, he moved closer, the dot becoming a more detailed machine, various antenna sticking out of it. In its centre, a huge barrel pointed down at the surface, the surface of which was a dull red from the shots it had recently fired.

The hull of it was fairly messed up from passing meteorites and other debris, but the majority of it seemed usable, even the antenna looked in pretty good shape.

“Hello,” A male voice said through the comms. Procor didn’t recognise the voice, but it certainly didn’t sound Cabal, “Are you here to help repair me?”

“Uhh, no. I came up here to see exactly how damaged you were.” Procor replied.

“I see. Well, feel free to look. There is little I can do to stop you.”

They both went silent as the Titan’s ship moved around the machine. The holes within its plating were nothing that couldn’t be repaired, though some of them had come dangerously close to the Warmind’s barrel.

“What’s your name?” It asked after a long while.

“Procor.”

“That’s an interesting name, I have never heard of one like that. I am Churchill.”

“Pleasure to meet you. From what I understand, you helped push the Cabal back?” Procor questioned, moving his ships away from Churchill.

“If that is the name of that alien race, then yes. I apologise for my lack of accuracy, but I had to use the WarSat feed to fire, which isn’t the most accurate way to fire orbital strikes.”

“I can’t imagine it would be. But you still saved us, we owe you.” Procor said.

“I was simply doing my job, though having some shots from the surface moved up here would be most certainly appreciated.”

“Of course. I’ll have my team get on that when we manage to reach your bunker.”

Procor gave one last sweep around the orbital weapon before flying backwards, getting a good look at the entire thing in one go, “You’re pretty beaten up. You sure you’re going to be alright for when we need you?”

“My combat efficiency is still at an optimal level. I will have the accuracy necessary to fire upon the enemy should you get the beacons from Elizabeth,” Churchill said.

“And how many shots do we have? I can’t imagine these beacons are unlimited.”

“The bunker is armed with fifty beacons and fifty shots ready for loading. There are a couple of extra storage zones around my bunker that hold more shells, but the only beacons available are within the bunker.”

“So we have fifty, unless we can build more beacons. Got it. I’ll head back and let my team know about what we have talked about, and uh, thanks. For helping us.” Procor said, turning his ship around.

“You are very welcome. I look forward to hearing from you soon.”

The Titan smiled and pushed his ship forward, re-entering the atmosphere with ease. As the ground hurtled towards him, he opened his comms and pulled up, using the momentum gained during the descent to increase his speed without having to increase power to his engines.

“Everyone, got some news.”

He began getting notifications that others were opening their comms, and when the third notification sounded, he continued.

“Just spoke with the Warmind. Turns out he can’t fire properly without his beacons, which are inside that bunker. There are also multiple storage areas nearby that can provide extra shots if we need them.”

“Sounds good. We shouldn’t even need that many, but it’s nice to know we aren’t limited too heavily.” Kervis commented.

“I’ve managed to get in contact with some ponies that can help us dig, and we have rescued the remaining War Mages.” Exodus said, “There are only twenty six left.”

“And their leader?” Procor asked, his ship coming into the Crystal Empire’s line of sight.

“We haven’t found her. If she managed to survive, she has been either hiding, or she ran from the battle.”

“I don’t see her as one to run,” The bronze Titan said, “You may want to keep searching.”

The comms went silent after that, as the guardians returned to their jobs. Procor’s ship flew into the city, and hovered near the castle, allowing him to teleport down with his Ghost. On the surface, ponies were moving all over the place, some helping to clean the debris from the roads, some trying to find loved ones, and others crying for the ones that hadn’t made it to the castle in time.

With nothing else to do, he joined in the help to clear the streets and find any hurt ponies within the buildings, walking slowly through the crowds of ponies.

‘Is this even a victory?’ He thought as he looked around him, his eyes crossing over the masses of ponies. Shaking his head, he moved onwards, quickly being pulled aside by some ponies pulling debris from a hurt pony.

“How long do you think it will take for them to get to you?” Churchill asked.

“Providing they have the manpower, a day or two. If they don’t, I would guess a week.” Elizabeth replied.

“Are you able to move those frames to defend your bunker? A day can be a long time, as can a week. We can’t allow these aliens to discover you.”

“They won’t find me. That I can assure you. Even with people working to move the dirt from the top of the bunker, they seem far more focused on attacking cities.”

Churchill went silent for a moment, thinking on the situation, “Are any of the surrounding bunkers still accessible?”

“Storage zone five was built into a mountain face, so providing the rock hasn’t crumbled around it, the shells should still be there.”

“It may help us to let them know about it. Having spare shells would allow me to keep defending these cities.”

“Understood. I will notify them when they arrive.” Elizabeth said, switching her comms off.

Churchill had little to do but watch the beings on the surface go to work repairing the city. Watching them was fascinating, as they clearly were not humans. There was some data sent up by Elizabeth that hinted at that, but he wasn’t sure how reliable it could be from seven-hundred years of possible corruption.

His WarSats didn’t have cameras good enough to look too close to the surface, but he swore he could see chunks of buildings being moved with nothing touching them. Further examination showed that each time this happened, the object would be surrounded in a colourful aura, each one having a different colour.

A few minutes passed before he decided to forget about it. He had bigger things to worry about, and watching the residents of a city was certainly not among them.

The Primus stormed into the bridge of the last surviving carrier, the crew within barely noticing him as they scrambled to get the ship out of there.

“Where is that weapon?” He called out, gaining the attention of his crew.

“In orbit, probably right above us, sir.” A legionary said, kneeling before him.

“Get as many ships as you can up there and eliminate it. We cannot allow that thing to halt our plans.”

“I-I’m afraid that will not be possible, sir.”

The Primus looked down at him in unbridled anger, “What?”

“This carrier has taken heavy damage to its hull, leaving it compromised, and the others contain the prisoners who would surely perish should they be taken into our breathable atmosphere. We have no method of retaliating against this machine.”

Their leader gave a slew of curses, turning to the front of the bridge. With the position of it, he could see across the hull of the craft. Huge fires and deep holes covered it, and dead Cabal lay upon the upper portions of it, many being workers that had moved up there during the assault.

“Prepare the engineers, I want this ship back to orbital combat as quickly as physically possible.” He commanded, the crew immediately rushing to their consoles to relay his orders back to the other carriers.

Cadence and Shining looked over their ruined city. With the aid of the Guardians, the monsters were running, and the ponies had been returned to the city to find their families.

“How will we recover from this?” Cadence whispered.

“We’ll recover the same we always have.” Shining whispered in return, hugging his wife, “The heart isn’t broken, and the Guardians are working to defend us. This isn’t over yet.”

The alicorn smiled, returning the hug and holding it for a few moments, “We should really get down there.”

Shining nodded and stepped back, “It’s going to be alright, remember?”

They walked out of the castle after that, little being said as they made their way down. When they reached the bottom, they looked around. Not many ponies were looking at them, as they were more focused on finding others, or helping in the cleaning efforts.

“So where should we start?” Shining asked.

“We could use some help calming these ponies down, if you wouldn’t mind.”

The duo turned to find the blue and black-robed Guardian walking towards them, his weapon on his back.

“Oh, Exodus, correct?” Cadence asked, smiling at the sight of a being she knew was helping them.

“That’s right. We’ve been doing our best to get the injured to safety, but it seems the ponies are getting spooked by us. It would really help if you could assure them they are safe.”

“Of course. I’ll go help talk to them, Shining. We should split up anyway.” The pink alicorn said, giving her husband a quick hug.

“Alright, but be careful.” Shining said, returning the hug once more and watching as she trotted away into the crowds of scared ponies.

Turning back to the Guardian, Shining spoke again, “So what exactly was it that destroyed those craft?”

“There is a Warmind in orbit of this planet. Warminds are a network built during the Golden Age that were used to help defend planets the people thought could be used as homes, or any that were touched by the Traveler. They are incredibly powerful, and are able to fire upon both the surface and objects in space.” Exodus explained.

“Then why didn’t it stop them from arriving in the first place?”

“It was deactivated until now. Thanks to us coming into contact with it, the AI within the bunker seems to have activated it again, though we still need to get down to it.”

Shining gave him a confused look, “Then what’s stopping you? If it is powerful enough to end a fight in three attacks, then surely it would be a good idea to reach it.”

“It is buried under the earth. Unless we can move it aside, the bunker will be too covered by it to assist us.”

The unicorn nodded slowly, thinking on what had been said, “I can send ponies to help you reach it. This is our fight as well, and we will do what we can to help end it.”

“Thank you, we had been trying to figure out how we were going to get willing ponies to aid us, so having some help sent to us would move our plans along greatly.”

“I’ll go gather as many as we can spare, and have them rally just outside the city. They will know what you do when they arrive, just take them to where you need them and they will get started.” Shining said.

Exodus nodded at that, “We can do that. Now, I should get back to helping the city. Thanks again for your help.”

Shining smiled, “And thank you for defending us.”

Kervis, Chrome and Flamelight walked through the streets of Despectus, hoping to find their two Cabal allies. They had been searching for some time, with little sign of them.

“Are you sure they are even here?” Flame asked.

“Positive. Exodus wouldn’t lie to me, and I have heard from a few ponies that they do in fact live here.” Kervis said.

“But we have been looking for some time now and haven’t seen them at all.”

“Then we keep searching. If we absolutely can’t find them, then we ask the town’s leader.”

Flame sighed, but kept looking around him. After another half an hour of walking, they came across a newly refurbished hall, its door had been rebuilt as well, if the surrounding architecture was anything to go by, making it significantly bigger. Nearby, the ground had been pressed down by an incredibly heavy object, large enough for it to be a drop ship.

“Looks like we found the place,” Chrome commented walking towards it.

“About time. It feels like my hooves are gonna fall off.” Flame grumbled, following Chrome and Kervis.

“Quit complaining. You’re going to be working much harder than this if you want to help us.”

Kervis sighed and banged on the door when they reached it, ignoring the two ponies bickering behind him. Heavy footsteps could be heard on the other side, before the heavy door opened, revealing the Val in his full combat armour.

“Ah, hello again,” He said, looking down at the human.

“Hey. You busy? We need to talk.” Kervis said.

“We weren’t doing anything particularly important, please, come in.”

The Val turned to the side to allow the entrance, watching as the three of them walked in and looked around them. The smell of freshly-cut wood was still present, permeating the air as they moved towards a large table, the only being sitting there being the Centurion.

The sound of a door closing behind them could be heard as the Val moved over, sitting beside the Centurion. The wood creaked below him, but it held just enough against his weight.

“So, what is it you wished to speak with us about?” Thovog asked.

“There has been an attack upon the Crystal Empire. We were able to defend it thanks to some assistance,” Kervis said, trying not to think about how that wooden stool could support something so immense.

“Oh? Have more Cabal seen through the Primus’ lies?”

“Not that I am aware of. There is a Warmind in orbit, and it has been brought online.”

Thovog looked at the Centurion in shock, before turning back to the Titan, “If there is a machine up there, then why didn’t it help us before? My team could have been saved!”

“It was brought online because Exodus managed to speak with its AI. Until that happened, it had remained deactivated, and invisible to both our scans, and the Cabal ships.”

The Val sighed, leaning back a little, “So how do we proceed? Even with this machine on our side, we can’t use it until the Cabal carriers are free of prisoners.”

“That’s something we are going to have to spend some time working out. We are currently focused on actually reaching the bunker, and when that happens, we can create a plan from there,”

“I see. We will do our best to help create a plan of action. Do you need help getting to this bunker?”

Kervis gave a short nod, “If you are offering, yeah. It’s buried underground, so we will have to dig away the earth before we can access its door.”

“We can aid with that. Where exactly is this bunker?”

The Titan turned to his side, his Ghost appearing there, “Can you give them the coordinates?”

“Of course, one moment.” His companion said, turning to the Cabal, “I will send the location to your HUD, if that works.”

“That should do it,” Thovog replied.

Nothing was said for a few moments as the Ghost worked, giving the two Cabal the location they needed.

“Got it. We will give this to the Psions and meet you there,” The Val said, standing up.

Kervis and the two ponies also stood, “Sounds good. Thanks for the help.”

“It’s no issue. The sooner we kill the Primus, the better it will be for everyone.”

Kervis smiled behind his helmet, “Can’t argue with that.”

With that, they left the building, the Cabal moving to the side to await their drop ship. The guardian and his pony companions made their way back through the town, towards Kervis’ ship that had landed on the fields surrounding it.

“You sure we can trust them?” Flame questioned as they walked.

“Why wouldn’t we? They have been helping us since we met them.” Kervis said.

“Well, what if they decide to give the Primus those coordinates? If they knew about it, they would probably attack it.”

“If they plan on doing that, I’ll kill them before they can speak a word of it. The only reason I am siding with them is because we need the help. Badly. I’ve got no intentions of becoming friends with them.”

Chrome looked up at him, “Why not? They are clearly not trying to hurt anypony. They want what we want.”

Kervis was silent for a moment before he responded, his head looking forward, “Because their kind killed the one being I loved.”

The ponies’ eyes went wide, but nothing more was said. Neither of them wanted to piss him off, knowing the damage he could cause should he want, or need, to.

Their walk to the ship remained silent. Neither of the ponies knowing what to say. As they reached it, multiple ponies could be seen getting a close look at the craft, a few of them jumping when the lights on its wings swept near them.

Kervis continued to walk, ignoring them. As he got closer, a few of the ponies noticed him, backing away from him and his ship. Without a word, Kervis’ Ghost teleported the three of them on board, the Titan taking his seat and removing his helmet.

“Team, I’ve managed to contact our allies. There’s going to be a drop ship near the bunker, it’s friendly.” He said through his comms.

“No problem. I’ve got some ponies coming in as well, we should be there in about twenty minutes.” Exodus said.

“While you two do that, me and Elana are going to stay back here. When we have done all we can to help the city, we’ll join you at the bunker.” Procor said.

With their plans set, Kervis raised his ship into the air, turning and flying in the direction of the bunker. He tried his best to not think of what happened, but no matter how hard he tried, the face of Kalis wouldn’t leave him. That was the first time in a long while that he had ever said he truly loved her, and it was to two alien beings. The thought that he found it easier to tell two aliens that the actual Exo was crushing to him.

“Kervis?” His Ghost asked as they flew, drawing the Titans attention to him. He was hovering at his shoulder, looking at him, “Want someone to talk to?”

He shook his head, returning his focus to his front, looking out of the small viewing window, “Maybe later. We have bigger things to worry about.”

Author's Note

Apologies for how long this took, for those that don't use the group, I had some real issue regaining motivation for this chapter. So sorry if it shows in the writing as well.

I know it's late, but I hope the readers that were hit by the hurricanes made it through alright. England didn't see any of it, so I have no idea how bad it was.

As for the picture of the War Mage leader, Chrome won, so his picture will be the one that is used as her. Thank to everyone who voted! :twilightsmile:

And lastly, I'm sure you knew this would come up. The story has reach 1,000 views, a number I didn't think it would ever reach. Thank you all for helping make this story what it is. From those who have been there since the beginning to those that are just joining us, thank you. I know I have said something similar to this in the past, but it still holds true to this day. This story has been a great passion of mine, even if my motivation has faltered at times. The fact that people enjoy it makes writing so much better, and you can be sure I'll be finishing this in its entirety.

Thanks again!

Picture of the War Mage that Chrome drew:

23) Excavation and Discoveries

“It seems they are moving again.” Churchill commented, watching the various ships converging on the bunker.

“Yes, we can only hope that they find a way down to me before our enemy notices.” Elizabeth said.

“I’m sure they will manage it. They seem resourceful, possibly more so than our designers.”

Elizabeth didn’t say anything to that, opting to just watch through the WarSat feed. Zooming in on the craft revealed them to be far more advanced than the ones she had seen centuries ago.

“Looks like humanity has progressed without us.” She said, looking over a black ship.

“It has, though I can’t really say whether that is a good or bad thing.”

“I would say it’s good. Yes, we were forgotten, but this planet has a chance with allied forces on the planet, and you in orbit.” The AI explained in a happy tone.

“I guess you’re right. But, when this is all over, what will we do?”

“What do you mean?”

Churchill paused for a moment before continuing, “With the threat planetside eliminated, are we just going to go back to standby?”

“That isn’t something I can really answer right now, but I think with forces on the planet, they may be able to keep us maintained. If they can, we could remain active.”

“Then I hope that is the case. I would like to be able to remain online as this planet rebuilds what was lost.”

His attention shifted as a new beacon came up on one of the feeds. The frames that were sent had begun spreading through the city, receiving little resistance from the ponies. It seemed they had become used to the new things amassing on their planet, enough so that if the new thing wasn’t shooting at them, they were probably friendly.

“Should we move some to our allied forces?” Churchill asked.

“It may be a good idea. They are likely swamped with work as it is, having backup may help them to focus on other things.”

The Warmind gave a hum in agreement, moving his camera over to the wreckages of the two alien ships he had destroyed. The other had left the area in a hurry, leaving a trail of broken metal in its wake.

“There are survivors among the destroyed ships.” He pointed out, watching as a few aliens crawled away from the burning craft.

“Should we let them be?”

“Yes. If they try to assail the city once more, the frames will make short work of them.”

They both went quiet for a long while, switching between watching the frames split up, a few hundred moving towards the bunker, and considering the problem of the survivors. They were clearly incapable of combat, but if they healed, they would become a problem for the allied forces.

“Perhaps we should alert the ground forces? The survivors could decide to join them.” Churchill proposed, the camera feed at maximum zoom, watching as five aliens desperately crawled for their lives.

“I’ll alert them as soon as I can, though I am unsure as to whether they will even consider joining them. The damage they caused to the city tells a lot about how little they care for the planet and its inhabitants.”

“It’s worth a shot. Any allies are better than no allies.”

Elizabeth gave her own hum, switching to the feed that Churchill was using. Three of the aliens had died, while the remaining were still trying to crawl.

“Let’s just hope this doesn’t end badly for us.”

It had taken an hour to completely set up in preparation for the dig. Thovog had arrived shortly after Kervis, and had been tinkering with the device he had been carrying on his back. Exodus and Procor were moving the ponies gathered from the Empire and the camps to where they needed to be.

Elana, meanwhile, was posted on a hill some distance from the site. With no way to contact the Warmind barring actually flying up there, they had to use eyesight to check for threats. And with Elana being the last sniper in the team, she chose to move away, keeping a close lookout for any Cabal craft that were not with Thovog.

“We should be nearly ready,” Exodus said, moving a small group of ponies towards the site.

“A few of them have plotted out where the bunker is, only thing left is to get down there,” Procor said as he walked over.

“Good. Then let’s get started. How long do you think it might take?”

Procor gave it some thought before responding, “At most? A day. Even without vehicles, these ponies have magic and flight. They can work just as quickly.”

“Then that’s even better. Where’s Kervis?”

“He’s going to help dig, grabbed a shovel as soon as he arrived.” Procor said, pointing to a spot on the hill. The Titan could be seen driving his shovel into the dirt and loading it into a wheelbarrow.

Exodus sighed as he watched him, “Poor guy. He is likely doing this to help him forget.”

“I honestly had no idea. He showed no sign of love until she died.”

“He couldn’t figure out how he was meant to show it. He brought Kalis up from day one, so she saw him as more of a brother. He, on the other hand, gained more of a bond than just that.”

Up on the hill, Lemon could be seen giving him a towel, Kervis taking off his helmet and thanking her, wiping the sweat off of his brow.

“I hope he can get over it quickly then,” Procor said.

Exodus chuckled, watching as Kervis went back to work, Lemon staying beside him with a smile on her face, “I think he’ll get past it soon enough.”

Another two hours passed before a cry was heard. They had been digging the entire time, Kervis being the only one who hadn’t taken a break. He slowly walked over to where the cry was heard, and found a few diggers brushing dirt aside. Under it, a clean metal surface could be seen.

“Good job, all!” Kervis shouted, moving down to where they were.

Exodus and Procor soon joined him, Kervis trying to clear more dirt from the metal.

“That’s the first step done,” Exodus said, kneeling down and sliding a hand across the surface of the shining object, “Now to get to the door.”

“Easier said than done, we have no idea what section this is, or even where we are in relation to the door.” Procor said.

“Then we keep going.” Kervis replied, standing up, “We can’t let up until we’ve found that door. Without this bunker, we have no hope of winning.”

Procor laughed a little at that, “What made you think I was giving up?”

The green Titan smiled at that, “That’s the Procor I know.”

“The one and only.”

They continued to work after that, slowly moving the masses of soil from around the sides of the bunker. As they worked, more of the metal surface could be seen, making it out to be a multitude of rooms, instead of just one. This didn’t deter the workers though, as they worked tirelessly into the night, Elana’s scope becoming a beacon of light on the distant hill.

As the moon reached halfway across the sky, another cry could be heard. The Guardians raced around to find a doorway illuminated by the work lights they had set up. There was a broken keypad to the right of it, but the door seemed to be in relatively good shape.

Seeing this, Exodus open his comms to the Warmind channels, “Elizabeth? Are you there?”

“I am. Have you managed to reach my bunker?” Came the reply.

“We have, but the keypad for the door is broken. Are you able to open it from that side?”

“Give me a moment.”

That moment ended up being nearly ten minutes, before a loud creaking came from the large door. It opened towards them in two segments, shining light into the corridor behind it for the first time in centuries.

Not wanting to risk anything, the three Guardians drew their rifles, pointing them down the hall.

“All right, everyone. Wait out here until we come back. If we don’t come back in an hour, bury the door and get out of here.” Kervis commanded, receiving reluctant nods from the ponies behind them.

They moved forward, Kervis taking the front, with his two companions taking his flank. Exodus had summoned his Ghost as they entered, the little machine shining a light into the various rooms they passed.

Most of the rooms were filled with old weapons, and servers for the Warmind. There were a few rooms seemingly dedicated to the old workers, of whom there were none left alive. Their skeletons were scattered around the bunker, many still wearing decomposing clothing.

They reached another door after a while, this one similar to the Warmind bunker doors they had seen on Earth.

“Elizabeth, we’re at another door. This keypad seems to work, do you have a code?”

“91723,” The AI said in response, prompting Kervis to punch in the code that was given.

At the final digit, the keypad bleeped, and the door opened in the same fashion the first did. The room on the other side was extremely familiar to the Guardians. A large circular room spread out before them behind a window, a column of devices in the middle. This column was falling from a huge metal construct, large wires feeding into it.

“Huh, almost identical to Rasputin,” Procor said, walking towards the window before them. The room they were in was smaller than the one behind the glass, a small console in front of it, and two doors to the left and right that lead into the main room.

“Why change something that already works, right?” Kervis said, going over to the console.

“Doors are locked.” Exodus pointed out, looking at the door on the right. The lights on it were shining a bright red.

Kervis looked over the console for a moment, before pushing a button on it. The door lights turned green at his command, opening at the same time.

“Got it,”

Exodus laughed and walked in, pointing his Tlaloc down, “I honestly expected you to get angry with it and punch it.”

“Hey, I might be a Titan, but I can be gentle. Sometimes.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

They strode into the room, Kervis sweeping it with his rifle. There was barely enough light to see, leaving them relying on Exodus’ Ghost to give them the vision they needed.

Reaching the console on the other side, Exodus got to work on it, looking up statuses and logs.

“Bunker is still running on reactor power, but everything unimportant has been shut off to prevent power loss.” He said, looking over the data the console gave back to his touch.

“Can we at least get some lights in here? It’s dark as hell,” Procor questioned, trying to peer into the darkness, not wanting to potentially risk his Ghost by using it as a light.

The Warlock nodded and pushed a few more buttons. A few seconds later, lights across the bunker flickered on, his Ghost returning to invisibility.

“Much better.” The bronze Titan said, jumping over the railing before him, and walking towards the column of devices.

“There are quite a few things we can make use of here.” Exodus started, still looking over the console, “Storage crates filled with glimmer, weapons, ammo, armour, ammo synths… and there are the beacons you mentioned, Procor.”

“Great. We’ll need pretty much all of that.” Kervis said as he looked over Exodus’ shoulder.

“Seems like this bunker was definitely built during the Golden Age,” The Exo said, “Its creators likely found this place the same way we did, but they would have also found a way back.”

Procor turned around, “So there’s a chance we could go home?”

“Due to the fact that the humans that built this place would have needed communication with Earth, there is almost undoubtedly a way back. But we still have a job to do.”

“Right. So where do we start?”

“Well, we need to refuel the ships and get a layout of the bunker first. Then, re-arming and checking up on the state of the rooms would be a good follow up,” Exodus said, finally looking up from the console.

Kervis nodded, stowing his rifle, “I can do a quick run over of the rooms. I’ll get back to you with anything of interest.”

With one Guardian now leaving the room, Procor followed up, “And I’ll start refueling our ships. Gonna need them down on the surface, though.”

“While you do that, I’ll go alert the ponies and continue researching what’s on this console. There’s a trove of information on this thing, but a lot of it has been corrupted over time.” Exodus said, walking around towards the exit of the room. Procor quickly followed him, also stowing his rifle.

“Sounds good. See you later.”

The Warlock nodded and made his way back to the entrance, the sight of multiple ponies looking into the hallway greeting him.

Kervis slowed to a stop outside the third room he had checked. So far, all he had found were server rooms covered in spider webs, something he didn’t even want to touch. He was a fighter, not a technician.

He gave the third room another look. The webs were spread out enough to cross the gaps between the server blocks, their lights managing to glow faintly through them.

“Kervis!” He turned to find Lemon trotting up to him, a small smile on her face, “There you are! I’ve been trying to find you since Exodus told us it was safe to come in.”

“Sorry, we needed to learn the layout of the bunker, and what sort of rooms are in it, so I thought I’d offer,” Kervis said, kneeling down to be at eye level with her.

“Can we look together? I’ve never been in a place like this.”

“I don’t see why not, though I don’t think there’s going to be that many interesting things,” The human said, standing up again and looking behind him at the corridor.

“That’s okay! I don’t mind.”

Kervis smiled and moved on to the next room. This one appeared to be a dorm, beds against the walls and a single table in the centre. On the table, a few crumbling pieces of paper could be seen, with two faded mugs beside them.

Lemon immediately raced in, looking around carefully at the things around the room. There were a few belongings under the beds, pictures and other trinkets that meant something to their owners. She spent quite a while looking at them, but she could tell the meanings behind them being there, leaving her unwilling to touch any of them.

Kervis, meanwhile, had moved over to the papers, hoping to find something on the bunker’s origins. The writing on it was nigh unreadable from the centuries it had remained there, but a faint logo near the top read “The British Space Association”.

“Huh, gonna have to mention that to Exodus...” He muttered, looking around the room. Other than the personal belongings of the previous scientists, there was little else in there.

“We should probably move on,” he said, breaking the silence that had formed when they entered. Lemon nodded at what he said, standing and moving towards the door, taking a last look at the boxes and objects near the beds.

The next few rooms were server rooms, almost identical to the first ones Kervis had seen. He still gave them a quick look over for anything of value, Lemon adamant on staying outside the room, even after claiming she wasn’t scared of spiders.

Another half an hour of searching brought them to a room lines with crates, a few in the middle of the room slightly open. The lights revealed small white and green boxes filling the slightly opened boxes.

“Oh, fuck yes.” Kervis said, tearing the lids off fully and revealing crates filled with Special Ammo Synths.

The next few had a variety of things. One filled with shining glimmer, another with suits of basic armour used by the Tower guard. But there was a larger box that caught his eye, and after opening it, its contents gave him a ray of hope. Inside, beacons were lined vertically, filling the entire thing. They didn’t seem to have deteriorated too much, thanks to their stay within the sealed box.

“What are they?” Lemon asked, peeking over the side of the box.

The Titan pulled one of them out, the familiar shape of it bringing back memories of simpler times, “The beacons we needed. With these, we can call direct strikes down on the Cabal ships. Just gotta figure out how to get them on board.”

He put the beacon back in its box, pulling it away from the wall so the others could get a good look at them. With his main priority found, he continued to search for anything else of use to the Guardians. There were a couple of old weapons, desperately in need of repair and cleaning, that he knew Elana would be able to make use of, as well as quite a few Primary and Heavy Synths, meaning they wouldn’t need to worry about ammo anymore.

“If all of this is packed into a single store room, do you think there are more?” Lemon questioned, poking at a Primary Synth.

“Probably. There wasn’t any food packaging in here, which means they will have other rooms dedicated to storage. Not a far stretch to think they would have extra munitions.”

“Then we should keep looking! If there are more, we’ll need them!” She exclaimed, running out of the room. Kervis simply smiled and shook his head, following her out into the hall.

The rest of their walk was relatively uneventful. They discovered a couple more dorms, and another storage room, but it was their find at the end of their walk that topped it all. They stood before another Warmind-styled door, a keypad to its right.

“Elizabeth, we’re at another door.” The human called out.

“The code is 19283.” Elizabeth said, cutting out right after talking. Kervis entered the code given as she said it, the doors opening with a hiss.

Inside, a staircase led down further into the earth, a strip of lights coming on within the ceiling.

“This is either going to be absolutely amazing, or absolutely horrifying.” Kervis said, drawing his rifle and pointing it down the stairs.

“Which are you betting on?” The mare queried.

He took a moment to respond, “Knowing Warminds? The latter.”

The Titan started walking down, his rifle always pointing ahead of him. Lemon followed closely, her eyes not able to focus on the walls around her. A minute of walking passed before they entered an enormous hangar, the contents of which caused them to stop dead in their tracks.

There, lying on massive racks, were dozens of shells, each nearing the size of Exodus’ ship. At the back of the room, a few construction vehicles were parked in front of a hole. It looked like they were fixing it when the bunker was still manned.

“W-what are these?” Lemon asked, walking over to a shell.

“Shells for the Warmind. Likely ones left for reloading, though I don’t know why they stocked so many...”

Kervis decided to take a look at the hole they were digging, as the shells were nothing he truly understood. That was something for the Warlocks, he just knew how to fire one. The back of the hole stretched further back than he was expecting, his Ghost summoning itself and lighting it up.

As his eyes crossed the back of it, they widened, “Ghost, get the others down here. Now.”

He nodded, immediately calling for the rest of the team, “They are on their way.”

Kervis’ mind was reeling at what he was seeing. No matter how hard he tried to understand it, nothing came up. There, at the back of the hole, was a skeleton, nothing he hadn’t already seen. But it was what was in its hand that caused his mind to crash. Within the crumbling bones, a small white machine could be seen. It had eight pyramid shapes attached to a central ball.

A Ghost and a Guardian had found their way into the bunker, through the mound of dirt and masses of security measures. And something had killed them.

“You’re telling me not one, but two fireteams are now missing?” Zavala questioned, pacing in front of the table that they had become so acquainted to since they first entered the Tower.

“Seems so, and the Guardians in them were all pretty good.” Cayde said, looking down at a map. It detailed the zone the two fireteams disappeared at.

“Then have we, at the very least, tried to figure out where they went?” The Titan asked, turning and placing his hands on the table.

“Multiple times, but nothing comes up. We’ve sent Guardians to all the planets in the solar system searching for them, with no luck. I don’t believe they are even within this solar system anymore,” Ikora explained.

“Then what are we going to do? We can’t keep losing experienced Guardians into the unknown like this.”

“Why not send one of us?” Cayde offered, looking up.

“No, I can’t risk losing one of you.”

“Then the only option is to research the starting point to their disappearance.” Ikora stated, “When we have a starting point, we can work on getting them home.”

“How quickly can we do this?” Zavala questioned.

“Depends. This entire situation is revolving around the Vex, there could be any reason as to why five Guardians went missing.”

“Well, we have a plan. We need to figure this out before more Guardians are lost, hopefully no more have fallen victim to this...”

Ikora nodded and stepped back, looking down at a tablet, “Well, we should get to work now. We don’t want to miss our opportunity.”

“Agreed.”

Cayde sighed, shaking his head as the other two members of his fireteam walked from the room, “Can we not just go one day without some weird mystery messing everything up?”

“They have reached the ammunition storage room.” Elizabeth said, watching as the duo scoured the room. They were dwarfed in comparison with the size of the shells, making them look tiny when viewed from an angle.

“Good. Are they in a condition suitable to fire?” Churchill said in response.

“Two of them will need fixing, but the other forty-eight will be ready to fire when loaded.”

“Then there is nothing in the way, have they found the beacons?”

“Yes. They found them earlier, along with the other munitions stored with them.”

“No matter. We are relying on those beacons, not the ammunition neither of us can use. If it helps our end goal, I see no reason to deny it,” Churchill said. He was still watching the burning wrecks, the fires now finally dying down.

“So where do we go now?”

“We wait for our allies to prepare. They need us, and we need them. If we are going to remove these hostiles from the planet, we will have to work in unison to get the job done.”

Elizabeth gave a pause, before responding to him once more, “And what of our allies?”

“They may not be with our creators, but it is clear they want the same thing we do. We can focus on what we are to do with them when the major threat has been taken care of.”

“And if they cause issues for us later down the line?”

“...Then I’ll kill them all.”

Author's Note

Yay!

So, as I put in my comment, I would like to explain here why these chapters are taking so long. I have come to the decision to slow the uploads down dramatically as I have lost my passion to write this. This doesn't mean I have given up on it, it just means it will take long to write.

Chapter uploads will keep coming until the ctory is finished. I said I would finish this, and I am a lady of my word.

Thanks to everyone still reading this, even with all my bull. There is a lot coming up on the horizon, so I hope you all have enough patience with me to stick around for it :twilightsmile:

Stay awesome! :heart:

24) Remembrance

The four Guardians of Odium stared at the skeleton with varying looks of disbelief. They had rushed into the room with Kervis when his Ghost had called for them, but no words had been spoken since they arrived.

“So… we weren’t the first?” Procor muttered, finally breaking the silence.

“Seems so.” Exodus started, “What worries me, however, is what was able to kill them.”

Kervis’ Ghost was taking a closer look at the dusty shell of the dead Guardians Ghost. After looking over it for a few minutes, he scanned it, the dead machine rising up into the air and disappearing in a cloud of light. With the new data recovered, he returned to his Titan.

“I have the final logs from their Ghost, but with how old this body is, I can’t be sure anything in it will be usable.” He said.

“Play it anyway, even a broken log could tell us something about what happened.” Exodus responded.

The Ghost nodded, displaying a video feed on the floor in front of them. It showed the view of the once alive Ghost, flying beside a male Hunter. They were slowly moving through the same room they were in, sweeping it without a word.

As they reached the back wall where the hole was, a sound drew the Hunter and his Ghost’s attention around. There was a cloud of darkness there near the entrance to the room, two blue eyes watching them from it.

The Hunter wasted no time in taking aim at it, backing up and keeping his Ghost behind him.

“Who’s there?” He called out, getting no reply from the cloud, “I swear I’ll kill you if you don’t tell me who you are, so speak up.”

Silence continued to reign as they stared at each other, the Hunter’s weapon still pointed at the cloud. A minute passed before the Guardian took a shot at it, the round passing straight through its eye and hitting the door behind it.

But the cloud didn’t seem to react to it, instead slowly moving towards him. Seeing his shots had little effect, the Hunter resorted to his light, throwing void grenades in the hopes of slowing it.

Yet again, the Hunter’s attempts to destroy the cloud were met with no reaction. The Guardian had to start backing into the hole as the distance between them both closed.

“Ghost? Any ideas?” He called out, reloading his weapon.

“No… I’ve never seen anything like this!”

The final moments of the log were silent, apparently being too corrupted to retain its audio. The cloud eventually pushed the Guardian to the back of the hole, preventing his escape. Hoping to at least save his companion, the Hunter grabbed the Ghost and held it behind him, stopping any usable video from being recorded.

It ended with the cloud engulfing the Guardian and his Ghost, fading and corrupting as they quickly died.

The room was quiet as Kervis’ Ghost cut off the display, looking up at them, “What now?” He asked.

“While this is bad, we need to focus on what we know.” Exodus said, “Right now, the Cabal pose more of a threat than this cloud does. We take them down, then we figure out what exactly killed that Guardian.”

The others nodded in understanding, Elana and Procor walking from the room, taking one last look at the skeletal remains of the Guardian.

“It’s odd...” Kervis muttered.

“What is?” Exodus asked in response.

“Normally we can detect a dead Ghost’s light from miles away, so why didn’t we see this one?”

“Probably a number of reasons. The big one would be we weren’t searching for a dead Ghost, we were searching for live Guardians, or a way home.”

Kervis nodded slowly, “We should bury him. It’s not right to leave his remains here.”

“I have to agree, but first we have to get the bunker sorted. This would be a perfect place to house our more important ponies, as well as ourselves.”

Exodus gave him a pat on the shoulder, “C’mon, can’t let those two get the best bunks.”

The Titan managed a smile, turning to him, “Yeah, I guess we can’t.”

Night had fallen completely as the Guardians rested. Procor and Elana were sleeping in a couple of bunks, and Kervis had left shortly after they finished moving the ponies inside, leaving Exodus alone to wander the halls.

The bunker was fairly large, easily able to support the ponies they needed to protect, as well as many of the workers that helped excavate it in the first place. The food rations left within it had long expired, leaving them with no choice but to burn them, for fear of rodents getting in.

He seemed to be the only one still awake, as him being a machine removed the need for sleep. The bunker’s lights were easily able to keep the halls lit, even after their centuries of being off, allowing him to travel in ease.

His walking eventually brought him by the bunker entrance, the doors opened slightly. They had come to the decision to leave them open until the keypad could be fixed so they wouldn’t have to keep contacting Elizabeth when they wanted to come back in.

Shrugging, he walked over and took a look out. The fields and hills around the bunker were calm, the night sky shining with masses of stars. Off in the distance, a fire could be seen with a lone figure standing beside it. Exodus quickly matched the shape of the figure to Kervis, and began walking out towards him. As he closed in, he began to see a shimmer of something in the Titan’s hands.

His approach was eventually noticed by the human, who turned to look at him. He made no effort to hide what he was holding, a small white engram normally used to house less bulky items.

“Hey” Kervis said as the Warlock got close enough for him to be heard, making no movements as his friend stood by his side.

“You’re out late.” The Exo commented, looking at the Titan’s glowing helmet.

“Yeah, I needed some time.”

“Want to talk about it?”

Kervis sighed, looking at the little engram, “It’s the Festival of the Lost back home. Would have been her first.”

“Ah, right. With everything that has been going on, I had forgotten.”

The light from the fire illuminated them both, Kervis’ Chroma shining out in the areas that were not touched by its light, giving the Warlock a good view of his faceplate. His eyes were still locked on the engram as he spoke once more.

“I was planning on giving her this. One of those multi-coloured Jackolytes from last year.”

“I’m sure she would have liked it.”

“Yeah, I thought she would.”

They stood in silence for a few minutes after that, watching the flames flicker. It was Exodus who spoke up as he threw a small amount of Solar light on the fire, re-igniting the diminishing flames.

“Kervis. I know this is hard for you, but… I feel it may be best for you to let her go.”

The Titan gave a shaky sigh, still clutching the engram, “I know. I want to, but every time she is brought up it makes it just that little harder to move on.”

“Listen. Her passing hit me just as hard. We fought gods together, learned and grew as friends and partners, but death is inevitable in our work. Guardians die, and it happens far more than I would like to admit. Many of those Guardians have Fireteams they had been in since rebirth, some died alone, but it is our job to keep their fight going, no matter the cost.”

Kervis looked up at him as he finished speaking, looking at the Warlock’s faceplate. He seemed to be deep in thought for a minute, before responding in a faint voice, “Thanks, Exodus. It’s going to be a while before I get past this, but I won’t let it stop me from doing my job. For Kalis, if nobody else.”

Exodus placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a little pat, “That’s all we ask.”

They stood once more in silence, though their conversation had made it a comfortable silence. It was another hour before Exodus sighed, re-lighting the fire once more, “You have friends that can help you, Kervis. If you aren’t comfortable speaking with Procor and Elana, you are always welcome to come to me.”

Kervis nodded, “Thanks, but I don’t want to weigh my problems on you. You already have enough to deal with.”

The Warlock chuckled at that, “We’re Guardians, it’s what we do. But if you don’t want to talk with me, why not Lemon?”

The human looked at him, his head tilted a little, “Lemon? Why her?”

“You two have gotten fairly close as it is, I think it would help you both bond more if she was able to help you through this.”

“Yeah. I guess I could talk to her about it, not sure if she would understand though.”

The Exo turned and looked into the fire, “I doubt she has never experienced death, Kervis. I don’t know anything about her family, but the Cabal have killed so many ponies that I wouldn’t be surprised if she has also lost someone.”

Kervis gave a slow nod, “It hadn’t even crossed my mind...”

“Talk with her, I think you both may have more in common than you might think.”

With that said, Exodus turned and walked away, back towards the entrance of the bunker. Kervis remained standing beside the fire, looking deep into the shining engram, as if hoping to find answers there.

As the sun started to rise, he shook his head and stowed the engram, putting the fire out and looking over the green fields around him. In the far distance, large towns could just be made out against the grass and hills, their lights turning off with the coming of the morning.

“For Kalis.”

Celestia walked slowly through the rubble of Canterlot, her horn alight as she raised the sun. She hadn’t been able to sleep within the bunker, and had decided to take a trip back, half in the hopes of survivors, and half to long that it wasn’t true.

But as she moved by the cold corpses of the ponies that didn’t make it out, her fears were set true. Her home, the only one she had known for her long life, was now gone. In just a single day, everything she knew had been shattered, much like her state of mind.

She had managed to keep her regal look plastered on when she was near her subjects, but here, in the wreckage of the once great capital she ruled, it fell easily. Tears streaked down her face as the many colours of the ponies passed her eyes, each bringing memories of times she had seen them on the streets.

Her trek through the rubble eventually brought her to a different sort of wreckage. There, under a massive chunk of stone, was the remnants of a black and orange craft. Sparks and liquids poured from the destroyed metal, covering the ground in a black puddle.

Not even the Guardians, a highly advanced alien race, were able to fight against their foe, and yet they kept going. Even with the loss of one of their own, they pushed forward, not for themselves, but for Equestria, and the ponies that resided there.

These four aliens were fighting and dying for a race they had never even seen before, and she was mulling around, trying to bear the loss of her subjects.

The sight of the decimated ship filled her with a sense of determination she hadn’t felt in a long time. She wouldn’t allow another pony to die at the hands of these monsters, even if she died preventing it.

Her mind set straight, she turned, looking one last time over the ruined city, and the dead that littered it, and with a nod, she teleported back to the bunker, her will resolved.

It was around ten o’clock when the Guardians and important ponies convened in one of the dorms. Kervis had come back and had gone straight to the dorm, being the first there when the others joined him.

“Alright. We have the Warmind, and we have the beacons. What now?” He asked as everyone took their seats around a table.

“The first thing would be to make sure the Warmind is loaded,” Exodus said, “When he is ready, we should move on to attempting a counter attack, maybe even trying to take back Manehattan.”

“Which we have made no plans for,” Procor pointed out.

“That’s why we’re here,” Kervis said, “Firstly, we need a method of planting a beacon in each of the carriers, something easier said than done.”

“Actually, I may have an idea,” Celestia said, bringing the attention of the Guardians to her, “These monsters are capturing unicorns, yes?”

“That’s right. They are keeping them in every carrier except for the one the Primus is on.”

“What if we sent a unicorn to each of them? We could have them go up, plant this beacon and leave. If we sent them to the prison blocks, I doubt the monsters would even notice.”

Exodus shook his head, “I’m afraid that wouldn’t work. In order for this plan to work, we can’t just hope the Cabal don’t notice the beacons. We will need them set up in key locations that the Warmind can use to destroy them in a single round. Plus, we still need to evacuate the ponies on board, and having a beacon set on each of the prisons likely won’t end well for us.”

“Then we need to figure out how we are going to get the thousands of ponies out of there,” Kervis said, leaning back.

“Yes. With all of these problems coming together, I am beginning to feel that destroying these ships should be a last resort, and not our primary goal,” Exodus said.

The others gave him confused looks, prompting him to elaborate, “Destroying them outright brings up too many issues. If there weren’t P.O.W’s on them, we wouldn’t even need to think about it, just let the Warmind take them out, but thanks to them basically using the ponies as living shields, firing on them may not work.”

“So how do we proceed?” Luna asked.

“I think our best bet is to take control of the carriers and free the ponies like that. In doing so, we eliminate the Cabal within them, and get the ponies out, without losing any of them.”

“Launching an assault on every single one of those carriers won’t be easy. You got an idea for how we get enough soldiers?” Procor questioned.

“The Frames. Elizabeth has been deploying them as the Warmind came online, and a large force of them came by here during the night. They have set up not too far away, within a little cluster of trees,” The Warlock explained.

“Alright, we have soldiers, and we have guns, so where now?”

“The main target would be the bridge. If we take that, we could turn the carrier’s inner defences on the Cabal, allowing us to take each ship without using all that many organic soldiers.”

At this, Elana spoke up, “But without Ghosts, they would have to activate the defences themselves.”

“And that is why Thovog being with us is such a great thing,” Exodus responded, “He will likely know how the consoles work, and can teach the ponies how to use them. We could have fifty ponies ready to go by the time we need them.”

“Then we need to start preparing,” Procor surmised, “We can’t make any plans unless our forces are ready.”

Exodus nodded, “We’ll get Thovog to teach as many ponies as he can on how to use the consoles. While he is doing that, we will need to gather all the Frames we can and have them ready to deploy.” He turned to Celestia and Luna, “We will also need a method of moving them up into the ships. Since we lost almost all of the War Mages in the last fight, you will have to find new ponies.”

“That will not be necessary,” The Solar Princess said, drawing an odd look from Luna, “We can teleport all of them on board easily, and can assist in fighting. You show us where we need to be, and we will be there.”

“I’m not really comfortable having royalty in a fight, but if this is something you want, I won’t turn down the extra help.” The Warlock said, “So. Do we all know what we are doing?”

The others gave their agreements, some leaving to follow out their new tasks. Eventually, only Kervis and Exodus were left.

“So this is it, huh?” Kervis asked, looking at the Exo.

“Yeah. Feels like we’ve been going for months, but if this works, it should end the fight in one attack.” Exodus said.

“Hey, we might even get back for the Dawning.” The Titan said with an audible smile.

“If we do, you. Me. Sparrow race.”

Kervis laughed, standing up and walking from the room, “You’re on.”

Elana sat upon a hill, some distance from the bunker. She had finished telling the ponies that stayed there that they could go home, and had come out to think on things.

She had only been alive for a few weeks, and already she had been in large-scale conflicts, watching civilians and Guardians die. She knew she should have been grateful for what she had already been given, receiving training from an experienced Hunter, and even being given a rifle far stronger than the one the Vanguard had given her, but there was something lying in the back of her mind, something she wasn’t sure upon.

Her train of thought came to a halt as a bronze and steel Titan sat down beside her, looking out across the hills.

“Something on your mind?” Procor asked.

“Yeah, but I’m not really sure on how to take it,” The young Hunter replied.

“Well you can always talk about it, I find that normally helps when your mind gets stuck on something.”

Elana looked down at the grass, “I’m not sure if I want to go back.”

Procor turned and looked at her, “What do you mean?”

“These ponies need our help, maybe even more than the City. Who says something like this won’t happen again when we are gone?”

The Titan gave a hum of thought, “I think I know what you mean. While my lack of connection to the Traveller has been gnawing at me, these ponies are fairly defenceless when it comes to advanced races, and I wouldn’t want to leave them alone if they were still in danger.” He looked her in the eyes as he continued, “But you should do what you believe is right. When the time comes, and we are all given the option to leave, I doubt anyone will judge you for the decision you make.”

The Hunter smiled, “Thanks, Procor. This has been one hell of a ride, huh?”

“Well for me and Odium, this is pretty average stuff. I certainly wouldn’t have thought a newly reborn Guardian would ever be able to make it through something like this though. You’ve been doing well, especially for someone as young as you. Keep it up.”

She gave a thankful nod and went back to looking out over the fields, the sun shining down on them.

“So how do you know Odium?” She asked after a few minutes.

“We met a while back. I flew solo for about two years before I came to a bit of a standstill. Thanks to me turning down the more difficult jobs that required fireteams because I didn’t have one, I lacked the knowledge necessary to progress further. So, I had a look around, and it just so happened that a certain Fireteam was looking for a few more guardians to take down a Hive god called Crota.”

“So you helped defeat a god, and that’s how you met them?”

“Yup. As I became stronger, they helped me out from time to time, and I helped them. They were quite a bit stronger when I first met them, but with their help, I soon caught up.”

She sighed, “Sounds pretty fun.”

The Titan laughed, “Sometimes it was, most of the time it was a nightmare. The most recent job I took with them was helping to deal with the SIVA crisis, and holy hell was that awful.”

“I heard a little about that while I was staying in the Tower. What made it difficult?”

“Other than the running around? It would have to be that god damn machine Aksis. Every time we tried something, he would counter it. We got him in the end, but it took a solid two hours of fighting just to bring him down.”

Elana chuckled, turning her gaze up to the sky, “I guess a Guardian like me wouldn’t have even needed to think about work like that for a long time.”

“Nah, you would have been sent on recon stuff, maybe sent to kill a few high value targets until you learned how to properly wield your light.”

“Speaking of which, how am I going to learn now? Kalis was the only other Hunter here.”

Procor smiled behind his helmet, “Speak with Kervis. He trained both Exodus and Kalis, and I’m sure he would be happy to teach you as well. I would do it myself, but I don’t think you want to blow stuff up like a Titan.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s something a Hunter normally does. I’ll speak with him when he’s free, I can only hope he still knows how to teach Nightstalkers, since I haven’t the faintest idea how to use the Shadow Shot.”

“Learning how to wield light isn’t too complicated. Hell, the ponies managed it, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it no problem.”

The Hunter laughed, standing up and putting her sniper on her back, “We should probably head back, I think we both have work to do.”

Procor grunted, standing up and walking alongside her towards the bunker, “At least it’s easier than Aksis.”

Zavala trudged over the corpses of the Vex Odium had killed when they had arrived at their objective. The room was filled with signs of combat, but no Guardian bodies or signatures could be detected, even by Ikora.

“Looks like we missed the fun...” Cayde commented, poking a dead Goblin.

“Focus on why we are here. Ikora, anything?” Zavala said, turning to the Warlock.

“I can feel something, but it’s faint.” She muttered, looking over at a large crack on one of the walls, “I feel it might be what we are looking for.”

Zavala followed her gaze and drew his rifle, pointing it at the crack, “Cayde, this feels like a trap, can you tell if there is something in there?”

“Yeah, there’s a massive Hydra, but that’s about it.” Cayde said, still poking the Goblin.

“What? And how do you know that?” Ikora questioned.

“Ikora, I’m a Hunter, ominous cracks are the first things we look at.” He said, looking over at her, “Eh, there’s a joke in there somewhere.”

“Well, we keep away from it, and observe from a distance.” Zavala said, his rifle still pointed at the crack.

“And how are we going to figure anything out without first learning the source of the problem?” Ikora asked.

“We wait. We can’t afford to lose more Guardians, as I told you earlier.”

Cayde shrugged, sitting down on the now heavily poked Goblin, “And then what? We can’t just sit around and hope that Hydra just magically disappears.”

“When we figure out how to remove it, we will work on working this out.” The Titan said, looking back at the hole, “I just hope they are alright.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the amount of talking in this chapter, but there has been a lot of combat lately and I would like to spread it out a little more.

So this is Odium's Halloween chapter. I was initially going to have it as a separate story, but decided against it as there wasn't enough content for it that I could create.

I hope you all understand the chnage of pace the story has been going through. I don't want to spam out battles after battles, since they would lose their meanings after a short while and they would become difficult and tedious to write.

Thank you all for the support you have given me so far, especially with the recent change to only uploading once every fortnight. I hope to have the majority of the ending done by the time 2018 comes around as I am going to be moving soon and I am not sure how long that will take.

Lastly, I have recieved many different OCs for this story, and if you are still waiting on your OC to show up, please give me time. OCs are introduced when they would fit within the story nicely. Stories in which OCs are just crammed in end up either dying or just being really bad, neither of which I want Odium to go through.

I have also started streaming daily (no set time, just once a day), you can watch it here: https://www.twitch.tv/atronosthelast

25) Gathering Momentum

The four Guardians strode towards the two Cabal soldiers that had helped them get into the bunker. They had been working on the device Thovog had been carrying, seemingly performing maintenance on the machine.

The Val looked up at them as they approached, gently setting the machine down, “Guardians,” He said in greeting, nodding slightly.

“Hello, Thovog.” Exodus started, looking up at the Cabal, “I’m afraid we are going to need your help again.”

“Is that so? What exactly did you need from us?”

“We have the start of a plan to board the carriers and use the on board defences on the crew within them,” Procor explained, “But with the size of their fleet, and how few soldiers we have, we will need to use ponies to access the consoles.”

Thovog hummed in thought, “And I suppose you need someone to teach the ponies how to do this?”

“That’s right,” Exodus confirmed, “None of us have had much experience with Cabal tech, and even less with actually using the consoles that control your ships.”

“I can very easily provide lessons on how to use the computers within the carriers, but I’m afraid it isn’t as simple as boarding them and accessing their defences.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Kervis muttered, barely surprised at this point.

“In order for this to work, you would need to board every carrier at the same time. The Primus isn’t stupid, and will organise his forces to defend the carriers as soon as he realises what is happening,” Thovog said.

“How is that a bad thing? We can just split each team up and move them below the carriers,” Elana questioned.

“There is a reason those carriers are flying above the city,” The Val said, “They have fortified the ground below the ships. Nothing gets in or out of the city without them knowing.”

“So we need to take the city back as well?” Kervis asked.

“If you want this to succeed, yes. The Primus will expect you to try and evacuate the ponies on board before destroying his fleet. He will not have foreseen this.”

Procor nodded in understanding, “And with the city completely devoid of ponies, we don’t need to hold back. With four guardians attacking, we could very easily break through any defences they have set up.”

“We have our plan then.” Kervis said, “How long will it take to train the ponies?”

“If you want it done correctly, a week. If you want it quickly, two or three days,” The Cabal said.

“As much as I want to get this done, we should do it properly,” Procor said.

“I have to agree. We’ll send some ponies out here for you to teach,” Exodus said to the Val.

“And we will be waiting for them.”

Rushing Breeze trotted through the corridors within the bunker, looking around curiously. With how much had been going on, he hadn’t seen much of the Guardians, but that was fine with him. He understood what they were trying to do, and was more than willing to allow them the space they needed in order to do what they needed to do.

He was a little disappointed that he couldn’t celebrate Nightmare Night, but he doubted the war would last an entire year, meaning he could just celebrate it next year. A smile grew on his face when he pictured himself walking through a town with Exodus, both of them dressed up for Nightmare Night.

His walk through the underground facility eventually brought him to a room he hadn’t explored yet. It was a small room with a window covering most of the wall in front of him. Peering up through it revealed a large circular room, with a column of machines in the centre of it.

Near the back, he could see Exodus using one of the machines. He seemed so focused on the screen before him that he hadn’t noticed the colt looking in.

He hesitated slightly as he looked at the Warlock. He didn’t want to be a nuisance, but Exodus was the only one of the four that understood him. The Exo took him away to go on adventures, and while the current one wasn’t what he had expected, he felt safe in the knowledge that the Guardian was looking out for him.

This left him feeling a bit guilty at the thought of not managing to speak with him in days. He had just stuck with Lemon, or went and explored when the Guardians were working, or even just sitting around waiting.

Sighing, he turned and walked through one of the open doors into the large room. If Exodus was busy, at least he could say he tried.

The machinery around him hummed with power as he passed them. His curiosity started up in the back of his mind as he tried to figure out what each machine did, and if they were even machines to begin with. The Warlock still hadn’t noticed him approaching, allowing him to walk right up to him without a word.

Because of his small size, he couldn’t see what the screen was showing, but he could see his fingers tapping various things on the console. He was about to leave when Exodus apparently finally noticed the little blue colt sitting beside him.

“Breeze? When did you get here?” He asked, kneeling down in front of the pegasus.

“Just now. You seemed really focused so I didn’t want to disturb you,” Breeze said, happy to be able to speak with the Guardian once more.

Exodus chuckled, “Well, I’m not focused any more. Did you need something?”

“Not really. I was just hoping to talk to you.”

“Oh? I suppose it has been a little while since we last spoke,” The Exo said.

“Yeah,” Breeze started, looking up at the console, “What were you doing?”

“I was looking into the history of this place. The archived files on this console are fascinating.”

Breeze tilted his head, “You’re learning stuff? I thought you were still fighting.”

“We are, but nothing can be done for another week while we prepare some ponies. Plus, with the damage we did to their remaining attack carrier, I doubt they will be launching any new assaults for a little while.”

The young pony’s face became hopeful, “So you’re gonna be in the bunker for a week?”

“Probably so, yes. Providing the Cabal don’t try anything new, we have no reason to leave.”

The colt just smiled, trying to look up at the screen. Now that his mind had been settled, his curiosity had kicked back in. Watching him rise up, placing his forelegs on the front of the console, Exodus chuckled, “What are you up to now?”

“Trying to see the picture on the machine,” He replied, trying to stretch up to look.

He gave a surprised “eep” when he felt two hands pick him up. He was laid across the Warlock’s arms, allowing him to see the screen easily. There were walls of text slowly rising up on it, far too much for him to read easily.

“What’s it saying?” He asked, his eyes fixed on the text.

“It’s a log of everything that has happened since this bunker became active. Most of it is useless as it is just bunker scans from after the Collapse, but some of it is fairly interesting,” Exodus explained, looking down at him.

“Like what?”

“Well, one log goes over a science bay and its research. It would seem the people running this place were fascinated by your ancestors, and were researching how things like magic could work.”

“Huh?” Breeze tilted his head, “Then why didn’t they try to talk to the ponies?”

“They weren’t sure if they were hostile or not. They were scientists, not soldiers. Had they been given longer, I’m sure they would have tried to make contact.”

The pegasus gained a sad look, “That’s a shame. I think they would have made a lot of friends if they had tried.”

“I’m afraid humans are quite a bit different to ponies, Breeze. Many don’t like to take chances, and feel... safer in doing what they know works,” The Exo said.

“But… you spoke to ponies right away. Aren’t you human?”

“Not personally, no. The other three are, but they contacted ponies more out of desperation and coincidence than actual want.”

Breeze looked up at Exodus’ faceplate, “You aren’t like them?”

“No. I was built by humans to help fight in their wars a very long time ago.”

“But you seem just like them.”

“I was built to look and behave like a human, while having better strengths than one. Thanks to me being made of metal, I can move heavier objects, and take damage that would be lethal to a human.”

The colt turned back to the screen, looking over the masses of information scrolling across it, “So then… why do you fight for them?”

“What do you mean?” The Warlock asked.

“You’re a machine, right? Why fight for the humans if you aren’t like them?”

“Well, that’s a fairly difficult question to answer,” Exodus said, “It mostly stems from the Traveler. Guardians fight to protect it, and in turn, fight to protect humanity. Just because we are different from the rest, doesn’t mean we aren’t fighting for the same cause.”

The pony just looked confused, staring into the screen of the console.

“Don’t worry, you’ll understand in time.” Exodus said, putting him down on the ground again and patting his head.

“If you say so, Exodus.” Breeze responded, looking up at him.

The duo fell into a silence after that. With the colt’s curiosity apparently satisfied for now, Exodus had returned to the console, reading over the logs it displayed. Breeze, meanwhile, moved over to the column of machines in the centre. There were screens across parts of it that displayed even more information, none of which he could really understand.

As he looked around, a screen caught his attention. This one had an odd picture on it, consisting of a variety of shapes he didn’t know the names of. As he got closer to it, a female voice spoke out.

“Hello. I assume you are with the soldiers?” It said, startling Breeze.

“S-soldiers?” He asked, staring at the screen that had just spoken.

“Yes. The four soldiers that are aiding your kind.”

“Oh, you mean the Guardians?”

There was a pause from the screen, leaving him standing there awkwardly for a few seconds before it spoke again, “I believe that is correct.”

“Then yeah, I am.”

“I see. Then why is it exactly that you have approached me?”

The pegasus gave it a confused look, “Approached you? You’re the picture?”

“I am Elizabeth, the Artificial Intelligence of this Warmind bunker.”

“Elizabeth? That’s an odd name,” Breeze said, trying to think of anyone else he knew with that name.

“It is a name from a different planet.”

“...Oh.”

Yet another silence fell upon Breeze, being finally broken by Elizabeth, “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Huh?”

“Why did you approach me?”

Breeze flinched a little, “Sorry, I was just exploring. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“Then please move on. This facility was never made for civilians, and I suggest you return to your home.”

Before Breeze could give a response, Exodus spoke up. He had moved over to behind the colt as they had spoken, “If you want this planet to be safe, you need us, Elizabeth. Like it or not, we are the only reason Churchill can work, so if we say these ponies can stay, you don’t have much choice.”

“No civilians should be within the bunker without administrative authorization. This is the standard protocol for any Warmind bunker,” The AI said.

“Then protocol will have to be broken. Surely the safety of this planet means more to you and Churchill than a single protocol.”

Elizabeth went silent at that, the screen flickering a little. After a few minutes, she spoke once more, “Fine. In order to keep the planet secure, we will allow them to reside here. This is under the understanding that you and the other soldiers will work to protect the planet alongside us.”

Exodus nodded, “That was going to happen regardless.”

Elizabeth didn’t speak after that, prompting the two of them to go back to what they were doing. While Exodus went back to the console, Breeze decided to try and find the other Guardians. He hadn’t really spoken with the two newer ones, and barely knew Kervis.

It took him almost twenty minutes of searching to find one of them. Kervis was busy gathering the last of the skeletons from around the bunker, likely taking them to be buried. He had been working on burying them for the majority of their time there.

“Kervis?” He said, walking up to him.

The Titan looked down at him as his name was called, placing another bone into a blue bag, “Hey kiddo. What’s up?”

The pony made an obvious attempt to not look at the bones as he replied, “I wanted to talk to you. I don’t think we have spoken properly yet.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. With how busy we have been, we haven’t had much time to talk with anyone.”

Breeze nodded a little as the Guardian placed a few more bones into the bag, “So Exodus told me that you were a Titan.”

“That I am.” The human said, placing the final bone in the bag and tying it off.

“What’s the difference? Other than what you wear, I haven’t really seen anything all that different.”

“The class of a Guardian depends on how they view their job, and the way they wield their Light. The Titan helped to build the wall that protects the final city on our planet, and mostly work to defend it, and keep it repaired. For that reason, we tend to fight up close with the enemy, while providing defensive support for our allies.” Kervis explained as he picked up a couple of the bags, walking them outside.

Breeze followed after him, looking up at his helmet, “Then what does Exodus do?”

“Exodus is a Warlock. I honestly don’t know all that much about them, so it might be a better idea to ask him directly, but I understand how they wield their Light.” When they were outside, the pair walked over to a graveyard the Guardians had made, the Titan continuing as he started to place the bags into them, “Warlocks tend to be long range support. They focus on dealing a lot of damage from a distance, or clearing large amounts of enemies so their allies can focus on a larger target.”

“So do you get to choose what you become?”

“No. When we are first reborn, we have no memories of our lives before we first died. We are given our knowledge by our Ghosts, and with no memories to work with at first, we tend to just follow what we were given.”

The pegasus paused, “Then what about Kalis?”

Kervis visibly flinched, looking over at him with a bag still in his hand. It took him a few seconds to return to the graves, “What about her?”

“Wasn’t she different to you both?”

“She was a Hunter, yeah.” Kervis’ voice had become almost depressed, drawing more confusion from the little pony.

“Is everything okay?” He questioned.

“Yes, Breeze.” The Titan sighed, dropping the last bag in the grave and looking over at him, “Listen, why don’t you go find Elana? If you want to learn more about Hunters, she might be able to tell you some stuff.”

With a slight hesitation, Breeze nodded, giving him one last look and returning to the bunker. Unlike Kervis, it was fairly easy to figure out where Elana was, as she would frequently train within an empty room. Since none of what she was trying to do could cause damage to the bunker itself, none of the Guardians had told her to go outside when she trained.

When the pegasus entered, she was raising her hands up, the faint shimmer of a purple bow appearing there, before disappearing. She gave an annoyed grunt and tried again, getting the same result.

“What are you trying to do?” Breeze asked, startling the Hunter.

“Jesus, Breeze, don’t sneak up on me like that!” Elana said, placing a hand on her chest.

“Sorry, Kervis told me to come talk to you if I wanted to learn more about what Hunters do.”

Elana gave him a look over, “You asked him about Hunters? You didn’t bring up Kalis, did you?”

“Yeah, was that a bad thing?”

“No, don’t worry, just… try to avoid asking him about her in the future, okay?” Elana asked, standing up properly.

“Okay, I can do that.”

She gave him a smile behind her helmet, “As for what I’m doing, I’m trying to learn how to use Void Light.”

“Wasn’t Kervis going to teach you all that stuff though?”

She turned back in the direction she was looking when he entered, “Yeah, but I want to give him some space for a couple of days before asking him about it.”

With no immediate response from Breeze, Elana tried once more, the faint bow appearing in her hands for a second or two before vanishing again.

“Why are you trying to make a bow? You have all these awesome weapons and machines, so why not use them?” Breeze queried.

“This bow is different to the ones you might know.” Elana said, “The arrow it fires slows and disorients enemies, while also making them weaker. It’s extremely useful when dealing with large amounts of enemies, or a much larger one.”

“That kinda sounds scary...”

“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you. It understands who I want affected by it, so only the Cabal will be targeted by it.”

“This Light stuff is weird.” The colt muttered, trying to get his head around the thought that all of this wasn’t even magic.

Elana laughed, raising her hands towards the wall once more, “You’re telling me.”

Thovog and the Centurion were silent as they continued to work on the Shockwave generator that the Val carried with him. It hadn’t left the armoury since it had been made, and this sudden change from a room to outdoors had its toll on the machine.

“Sir,” The Centurion started, looking up at Thovog, “Forgive me, but I am beginning to have doubts about this mission.”

Thovog stopped and looked at his friend, “What sort of doubts?”

“Even if we taught these ponies how to hack the computers, there is still a high chance of failure. Plus, what of the Cabal we were hoping to turn to our side?”

The Val sighed, “We have the Psions doing their best to send the message to those that showed promise. When we assault the carriers, any Cabal that chose to side with us will be evacuated, and any that haven’t will be killed.”

“And the risk of failure?”

“Every plan has a risk of failure. This one is especially risky, but it is nothing we cannot do.” Thovog said.

The Centurion paused for a moment, “Do you think about your family?”

“Every second of every day. It is what drives me to return home.”

“Then it’s good to know I am not the only one,” The Centurion looked over towards the bunker, “Do you think the Guardians know we have families?”

“From what I have seen, some know, but none of them care. For a Guardian in battle, the only thing that matters is who comes out on top. They care little for the consequences of their actions.”

“Then how can we side with them willingly?” The smaller Cabal asked, “The millions of Cabal they have killed, the millions of families they have destroyed, and we can look upon them as allies?”

“They are doing exactly what we would have done were we in their position, soldier. That city is the only thing they have left, and they will do anything to defend it. While I cannot condone their actions, I cannot judge them for it either.”

The Centurion turned back to the machine, staring at the metal that surrounded it, “Sir, in case one of us doesn’t make it, it’s been an honour.”

Thovog placed a hand on his companion’s shoulder, “We will make it, and we will both return to our families. I think it would be nice for us all to get together when we get back home, maybe spend some time together as friends.”

The smaller Cabal looked up at his leader, “I think I’d like that.”

A blue pegasus mare walked through the bunker’s corridors, searching for any signs of a Guardian. The couple she had seen seemed far too busy to listen to her, so she kept searching, hoping to find one that wasn’t doing anything.

Her search ended when she found the bronze and steel Guardian checking through a couple of storage crates, the one he had opened being one filled with white and purple boxes.

“Excuse me?” She said, coming into the room.

The Guardian looked over at her, closing the crate, “Hey,”

“I heard you were looking for ponies to help attack the carriers,” The mare said, standing tall on her hooves.

“We are. I assume you are volunteering?”

“Yes. I am a military pony, so I know my way around weapons, and have been training my entire life for an opportunity like this.”

The Guardian nodded, looking her over, “I think we can work with that. If I may, what’s wrong with your wing?”

The mare shuffled it a little. It was slightly malformed, leaving it odd looking, “I can still fly just as well as any other pegasus. I wouldn’t have made it into the army if I couldn’t.”

The human chuckled, “Good point. We can have you taught on how to use the Cabal consoles, just keep in mind that this fight won’t be easy, and we won’t have enough ponies to sustain injuries without issues.”

“That won’t be a problem. If I may, I’d also like to ask about the ponies that have been given Guardian powers.”

“We can provide them to you, but you won’t have much time to get used to them.”

The mare nodded, “That’s fine. I’ll make do with what I have.”

“With your race, I would suggest speaking with Elana. Titan and Warlock abilities may not work well with a pegasus.”

“I understand. Do you know where I can find this Elana?”

The human walked past her, looking down the corridor, “She will likely be training. Head down this corridor and turn left, it should be the third door to your right.”

“Thanks.”

As the mare turned, the Guardian placed a hand on her back, “I don’t think I got your name.”

She smiled, “It’s Rain Chaser.”

Above the city of Manehattan, in the nearly destroyed carrier, Va’aull stood within the bridge, looking over the top of his carrier, and the distant lands around it. The cannons used by the Guardians had torn apart much of the front armour and machinery, but left the carrier’s engines intact. It certainly wasn’t combat ready, but it was repairable.

His silent gaze was interrupted by a legionary sitting at a chair within the bridge, “Sir! We found something!”

“What is it?” The Primus asked, turning to him.

“The scans you ordered have revealed a huge amount of energy coming from a point within a forest, some distance from here.”

“Do we have any idea of what it is?”

The legionary shook his head, “No, sir. From what our scanners can tell us, the point is a structure surrounded by the same energy the animals use. The amount of energy is colossal, far more than what the animals are capable of creating.”

The Primus turned back to the window, “As much as I would like to go after it, we cannot leave our fleet undefended. When this carrier is repaired, we will investigate.”

“Understood, sir.”

As the legionary returned to his work, the Primus smiled, ‘So this… Tree of Harmony does exist. I was a fool for distrusting information drawn from torture. It won’t be long before our vengeance comes to hand, and not one of these Guardians will be able to stop it.’

Author's Note

A day late... yaaaaay...

I would like to apologise for the delay. This chapter was fairly difficult for me to write, but I wanted to get some stuff out around the OCs that were introduced in the past, specifically Breeze, since he hasn't shown up for something like 20 chapters.

The story's pace will pick up again fairly soon, I just needed a couple of calmer chapters to set stuff up. You regularly scheduled violence wil return when I'm done with all this talking :twilightsmile:

Rain Chaser belongs to RC. Their OC has been used with permission by them directly. Link to their profile.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. New one coming out in two weeks, as usual :twilightsmile:

26) Readying the Assault

- -One week later- - -

Rain quickly dodged to the right, narrowly avoiding a round from her opponent. They had been fighting for nearly twenty minutes and neither of them had gained any ground. As her enemy reloaded, she returned fire with an arrow consisting of Void light. It soared over the small area they were fighting in and drove into the ground beside her target.

The effect was instant, as a tendril of purple energy shot out and latched to the being, disorienting them. With them unable to fight, she raced forward, landing a punch on the armoured being’s face, its helmet flying back.

“Heh, nice shot.” Kervis said, standing up and retrieving his helmet.

Rain was panting a little, but stood tall, “Thanks, Kervis.”

The Titan began inspecting the discarded piece of armour, “Keep that up, and we’ll make a true Nightstalker out of you yet.”

“I look forward to it.”

Exodus and Lemon were watching from the sidelines. They had been talking a lot more over the last few days, and had become a little closer because of it. The Warlock still wanted to push for her and Kervis to move on together, but he felt it was necessary to at least get to know the mare a little more before making any decisions.

“He’s much better at teaching than I expected.” Lemon commented, watching the duo converse.

“Well, he has had a lot of experience. He was forced to learn how to use Warlock and Hunter light in order to help us learn quickly.” Exodus explained.

“What? But if he’s a Titan, how could he learn that stuff?”

The Exo shook his head, “He can’t use it, but he knows the mechanics behind it. Since he knows that, he can tutor a Guardian on the use of any form of light much faster than regular training would provide.”

“Sounds useful.”

“It is. He taught both me and Kalis, and will likely show many of the ponies how to use it as well.”

As they spoke, Rain and Kervis had started coming over, both wearing smiles.

“We’re taking a break if you both want to join us.” Kervis said when they had come close enough.

“Sure. Bar or mess hall?” Exodus responded, standing up with Lemon.

“Eh, mess hall. Less of a journey.”

The other three agreed, prompting them to return to the bunker. They had been training a little ways from it, in a small ring set up by Exodus and Elana. It had undergone heavy use as Kervis had been training Chrome, Flame and Rain on how to better make use of their light. It had been going well, and the three of them had almost completely mastered the use of their given subclass.

As they walked through the corridors of the underground facility, various ponies passed them by, going about their business. Celestia had ordered a large number of civilians to move into the bunker, in the hopes of keeping them safe.

With the increase in population, food and water had quickly became a problem. The bunker had once been fitted with water pipes, but they had corroded over the centuries, making them completely unusable. This left the new inhabitants of it to gather their own food and water, mostly coming from nearby towns that were more than happy to donate some of their supplies to aid the efforts.

Entering the mess hall revealed very few ponies actually eating. It was around four in the afternoon, so most of the ponies were out working, and those that weren’t were catching up on their missed lunch.

Exodus took a seat while the other three went up to the chef, coming back with plates of food. They were silent as they sat, Kervis taking his helmet off.

“Any word from Thovog?” The Warlock asked.

“Yeah, he should be done teaching the ponies by tonight.” Kervis replied, picking up the small sandwich he had gotten. He technically didn’t need to eat, but he felt more comfortable eating with others.

“Great, and the Primus?”

At this, Rain spoke up, “According to the scouts the Princesses sent, the damaged ship has been undergoing repairs. It still isn’t battle worthy, but if we don’t move soon, it will definitely cause issues.”

Exodus nodded, “With the ponies trained, all we need is the army Celestia and Luna have been building. We should be ready to go in a day.”

Lemon poked at her salad, “So this is it? After this, it’s over?”

“That’s right. With the Cabal threat eliminated, our work here will be done.” Kervis said.

“And after that? What will you do then?”

The human looked down at the table, “I’m not sure right now. Let’s get the major issue out of the way first before worrying about that.”

Lemon gave a slight nod, taking a bit of salad. Their meal continued in silence for a short while, Exodus simply sitting back and fiddling with his bond.

“It’s weird to think we have only been here for about three weeks now.” Kervis commented, looking his helmet over.

“Yeah, a lot can happen in a few weeks.” Exodus said.

“A lot is an understatement. I mean, look at how much we have done so far. We’ve fought to defend four cities, saved countless lives, discovered a Warmind… I would go as far as to say we have done more in this month than we have this year.”

“Possibly,” Exodus started, putting his bond back on, “But it’s what we do. You should know that by now.”

“Trust me, I do. Just the work to get rid of Oryx was enough to send me into retirement. If Guardians could retire, I mean.”

The Exo chuckled, “Don’t worry, I know what you mean.”

They spend the next few minutes waiting for their pony companions to finish eating. As they waited, Exodus looked around the room at the ponies sitting at the tables. Most were decked out with armour, some made by the pony blacksmiths, others made by the Ghosts. The ponies in Guardian armour were those that had been trained by Thovog, and would be boarding the carriers with the assault teams.

“We had any word on the Frames?” He asked after a while.

“Elizabeth has said she will send as many as she can spare. We should have plenty ready for the big day.” Kervis said.

“Then all we are waiting for is Thovog, right?”

The Titan nodded, “Churchill is ready, our assault teams are almost ready, and are only waiting on the ponies that will be working the consoles.”

Exodus chuckled, “Still trying to get my head around the fact we are actually planning on attacking a Cabal fleet. If this was back on Earth, I wouldn’t even care about the loot. The ability to say I accomplished something of this scale would be enough for me.”

Kervis laughed, “Wish all the other Guardians could say the same.”

“To each their own. If they only do this to grow stronger, we can’t exactly judge them for it. I remember the missions we did on the moon, each one specifically to get me stronger.” The robed Guardian said.

His friend simply shook his head, smiling, “I guess you’re right. I’m gonna go see if I can find Elana. I know she wanted a few more lessons on her Nightstalker before the battle.”

“Ah, have fun.”

The Titan grunted as he stood, “I’ll try.”

Thovog looked over the reports he had received from each of the ponies in his class. He had been forced to give them a crash course on the Cabal language in order to get anywhere with the lessons, as none of them could figure out which symbols to tap in order to make the console do what they wanted. The reports had been written in Cabal, and each one was at least serviceable.

“They learn fast.” The Centurion commented, looking over one of the reports.

“That they do. I think they’ll do just fine up there. We just have to hope the pressure doesn’t make them choke.” The Val replied, looking over at his companion.

“I wouldn’t bet on all of them managing the job perfectly. Guess it’s a good thing we are sending two to each carrier, huh?”

Thovog nodded, “Yes. Have you told the Guardians of the Cabal that are joining us?”

“Not yet, I wanted to save that for when the meeting comes around. Then we can have everyone hear it at the same time.”

“Good idea.” The towering Cabal turned back to the paper, “Just one more battle and we are done. We can return home, and be with our families once more.”

“Don’t be thinking like that just yet.” The Centurion said, “You and I both know that the chance of us both surviving this are slim at best.”

“But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a chance. I am willing to believe that we can get through this, it gives me the strength I need to keep pushing forward.”

The smaller Cabal smiled below his helmet, “Whatever keeps your mind straight, Thovog.”

The Val turned back to the paper. The pony who had written this one had made a couple of mistakes, but nothing that would affect him when he was trying to get into the carrier’s systems.

“Do you think the Guardians will return home?” The Centurion questioned.

Thovog looked up, towards the bunker they were living near to, “Probably not all of them. A couple of them, possibly, but those two Guardians, the green Titan and the Warlock, they are clearly inseparable. If one chooses a path, the other will follow.”

He heard a chuckle from his companion, “Like us then?”

Thovog gave his own smile, “You could say that.”

“Elizabeth?” Churchill called out from his position in orbit.

“I am here.” Came the reply.

“Are we ready to begin?”

“We are waiting upon the Guardians and their ponies. When both are ready, we shall begin.”

The Warmind went silent for a while, splitting his vision between feeds of the bunker and the city the Cabal had taken. Exodus had been in contact with them both quite a bit over the week, and had explained what was going on with a high level of detail, as well as things like their names.

Churchill didn’t really need to know about it, as Elizabeth had already explained the most important parts, but he found talking with Exodus to be interesting. The Warlock had quite a bit of knowledge, and was able to describe what had happened after the Collapse. While he was saddened by the eventual fate of Rasputin, he understood why the Russian Warmind fell into the behaviour that he did.

In turn, Churchill had explained how and why he was there. The humans during the Golden Age had stumbled across an old Vex ruin deep within Venus. The ruin was empty, and so they had set up equipment and temporary housing to learn more about it. After only a few days, they had found the same portal Odium had found, and had passed into it.

The discovery of a new planet, far outside their solar system, was groundbreaking. It meant humanity had a place to flee to, a place they could start again if need be, but it was kept secret. The governments saw no reason to relay the discovery to the general public, as they feared it would make them think something was wrong.

A Warmind was constructed within it when the humans had found their way out, the supplies being sent through the portal and collected from where they had arrived at. However, just as they were finishing the preparations, the Collapse came around.

With the loss of most life within the solar system, the knowledge of the new planet was also lost. The scientists and engineers still in the bunker finished their work, thinking the Collapse was simply a communications failure, but died as their food and supplies ran out.

“Do you think this will work?” Elizabeth asked.

“Probably. I am aware that us not being in the equation changes things, but we must trust in the plan the Guardians have made. Should it fail, we will step in.” The Warmind said in response.

“I only hope that you are correct. I don’t know what we would end up doing should this planet fall as well.”

Churchill had to agree. With the loss of the solar system they had come from, all they had left was the planet they were tasked with defending. But the orbiting machine knew he would rather die than allow the planet to fall into the possession of hostiles.

“The planet will remain ours. It’s our job to keep it that way, and I know we can uphold that.” He said, looking down at the Cabal ships above Manehattan, “We just need to trust in our allies.”

- -An hour later- - -

The Guardians and the pony leaders all stood around a large table. It seemed to Kervis that they had spent a lot more time standing around tables than they probably should have, but he moved that thought to the back of his mind. There was a meeting to focus on.

“So, are the ponies ready?” Exodus began.

“They are. I have pulled every soldier and guard I have back to Solacium, and they are ready to fight.” Celestia said.

The War Mage leader wasn’t present at the meeting. She had eventually been found dead outside of the Crystal Empire, multiple bullet wounds in her side. She was given a memorial in Solacium, and the few War Mages that were left chose to stay and defend their home town.

“Alright. Thovog has finished teaching the fifty ponies how to use the Cabal consoles, and the Frames are ready as well. All we need to do now is prepare a plan of attack.” The Warlock said.

“First thing is how we get the ponies and Frames on board.” Kervis said, “Without the Mages, we will have to rely on unicorn soldiers to teleport them up. Do any of your ponies have the strength to do that?”

“I am still willing to do that.” Celestia said, a confused look on her face.

“We know, but having a leader like you in the line of fire is simply too risky. Plus, we need to available to help us clear the city. For that reason, we will need fifty unicorns capable of teleporting large amounts of beings a long distance,” The Titan explained.

Celestia sighed, “I understand. I will have the strongest unicorns I have report to you.”

“Now that that’s sorted, we can work on a plan for the initial attack,” Exodus said.

“We should have the boarding force hang back,” Procor said, “That was we can have an attacking force clear the way into the city.”

“Good idea, but I’m not sure how many soldiers we will have. We have us four, as well as the couple of ponies we have given Light to. How many soldier will you be sending, Celestia?” The Warlock said.

“Nearly two thousand. The rest are either going with the boarding teams or are defending the bunker and Solacium.” Celestia responded.

“It’s going to have to do. We’ll split up into four armies, five hundred ponies, one Guardian, one Light infused pony. We can attack each side of the city with them.”

Luna tilted her head, “But one side of it is touching nothing but water.”

Kervis smiled, “That’s where our Cabal friends come in. Thovog just told me that there is a large amount of Cabal troops that don’t agree with what the Primus is doing, and have decided to side with us.”

“They will steal as many dropships as they can from the carriers and fly us in on that side. Any Cabal allies that are on the ground will keep their air defences from attacking us,” Exodus said.

The Solar Princess blinked, “They are fighting with us? Why don’t they bring the carriers down themselves then?”

“They can’t without risking the plan falling apart.” The Exo said, “And even if they did, that doesn’t remove the fact that they still hold the city below. We need to take both of them at the same time, or we may lose the fight.”

Celestia nodded slightly, “And how will we know the friendly Cabal from the hostile?”

“The allied Cabal will have a single red stripe over the front and back of their armour. Easy to spot, so your ponies shouldn’t have any problems figuring out who is hostile and who isn’t.”

“That should work. Lastly, what of the ponies on board each carrier?”

“We shouldn’t have to worry about them. With the on-board defences working with us, instead of against us, it will be far easier to get the prisoners out of there.” Exodus said.

After a short silence, Kervis spoke up, “So. Does everyone understand what is going on?”

“I think so. We just have to work out a plan surrounding the initial attack. Simply raiding each side will not do enough to break through their defences,” Luna said.

“Right, right,” The human grunted, not used to all this planning and scheming. “Well, the first thing would be to destroy any placements they have. Turrets, watchtowers, that kind of thing. With them out of the way, their ground forces won’t have any protection, and should be easy enough to deal with.”

“These buildings will likely have quite a few Cabal surrounding them. Are you sure our forces are up for it?” Celestia queried.

“If they aren’t up for that, they won’t last long in the actual fight.” Exodus said bluntly. “Providing they can keep the majority of the Cabal distracted, the Guardian and light-infused pony in each force can easily take each defence down.”

“Alright, so when we are through the walls, then what?” Luna said.

“We work on retaking the city, while the boarding teams go to their positions. Some will be outside the town, so they will need to be ready for that,” Exodus said.

“We should work block by block, keeping each area fortified so they can’t capture those blocks back,” Kervis continued. “Taking the city shouldn’t be all that hard, it’s dealing with the carriers and their reinforcements that will be more challenging.”

“With how many there are, our only hope there is that our new allies can keep them busy long enough to get the boarding parties to where they need to be,” Exodus surmised.

“Do we know exactly how many have sided with us?” Celestia asked.

“According to Thovog, about two hundred thousand, though that’s more of a rough estimate,” Kervis said.

“Nowhere near as large as their army, but they should be enough to at least slow them. In the end, all we need is this boarding party plan to work out, their numbers don’t really matter,” The Warlock said.

Luna stood as the guardian finished, “Then I believe we are done. We will have our ponies ready to fight by the morning, I hope that will be enough time for you to also be ready.”

“That’s more than enough time. We’ll see you both tomorrow,” Kervis replied, also standing.

“That we will. Good night, guardian.”

“And the same to you.”

A lone Legionary walked through one of the many hangars on board his carrier. He kept his eyes moving, looking around him as he carried a crate of items. His brothers had been working for days to prepare for this, and he wasn’t going to let them down.

Carefully, he set the crate down amongst others that looked similar to it. Gathering the materials for this wasn’t easy, especially with so many eyes on them, but they had managed it just in time.

With his job now done, he walked away from the cluster of crates. He had heard that the Cabal in the other carriers had done the same as them, each vessel now rigged and ready. The Cabal that had sided with the Guardians had been working on a failsafe, in case the original plan didn’t work out. Each cluster of crates had enough explosives in them to level a city, easily enough to wipe the carriers off the face of the planet.

This, of course, meant that anyone still on the carriers would die, but if it meant saving the planet, and preventing the deaths of millions of ponies, they were willing to accept it.

He eventually walked past a couple of Cabal, giving a short nod to them. They nodded back, splitting up and leaving the hangar from different doors. The plan had been set, all there was left to do was wait on the Guardians.

The soldier took a seat on a large crate, looking over the hangar. The various soldiers were preparing their ships and tanks for a new assault the Primus had planned. It wasn’t going to happen unless the remaining attack carrier was battle worthy, but that meant little to him. He knew that one of those ships or tanks would leave the city below them, no matter what.

As he looked them over, a lone Psion caught his eye. It was looking at the crates and pallets near the cluster he and his brothers had set up. His blood ran cold as the realisation of how close they were to being caught slammed into him. Should the Psion even peek into one of those crates, it would instantly recognise the armed explosives. After all, they were the ones that made them.

Thankfully, however, it seemed only interested in the pile next to theirs, checking through each box before moving on, leaving their cluster alone.

The Legionary released a sigh. After all the work he had done to show the Cabal’s strength and power, it was almost thrilling to be working in the shadows. Of course, that was all going to change by the morning, but he was happy to live it through to the end. The change of pace was welcomed by him and those that were now working against the Primus.

An hour passed before he noticed a soldier he recognised as one aiding him. They were working in a sort of rota to transport the crates of explosives into the hangar, each watching the crates until the next came to take their spot.

He got down from the crate, moving towards the doors leading from the large room. Everything was falling into place now, he only hoped that their allies could pull the attack off. He really didn’t want to have to resort to using their idea, as were his brothers, but they knew that if they let their Primus continue, millions of innocent lives would be lost.

He made his way back to the barracks, falling into a bed. It was still odd for him to sleep in his armour, but they had to make do with the new atmosphere. Sleep came quickly to his tired body, something he knew he would be thankful for in the morning.

‘Here we go...’ He thought as his mind slowed, finally falling asleep.

Author's Note

Another late chapter! Yay!

We are starting to reach the end of this story, not entirely sure how to feel about that, but hey, we all knew we would eventually reach this point.

I want to thank you all again for all the support you have given me over these months. This story has given me so much in my life, I really don't know how to deal with it.

So,thanks again to each and every one of you! You've helped my life improve tenfold, and there isn't any end to how much I want to thank you all for that :twilightsmile:

27) The Final Charge

A trio of ponies moved quickly over the hills outside of Manehattan. Two were Unicorns, wearing heavy metal armour, and the other was a more lightly fitted Earth Pony, carrying a telescope. They were on their way to scout the city out, in the hopes of learning all they could about the Cabal defences that had been raised during their stay within the pony city.

Reaching one of the taller hills, the pony with the telescope stopped, already setting the device up. The soldiers beside her kept a close eye on their surroundings, watching for anything creeping up on them.

A minute passed before she finally got the telescope ready, quickly bringing the electronic device a Guardian had given her up.

“We’re outside the city and the telescope is set up. You guys ready?” She said, pushing a little button on the device.

“All good on our end. What do you see?” One of the male Guardians said in response, drawing the pony’s vision to the scope.

“We are on the West side of the city. They have built a large wall around it, and it looks heavily defended.” She said as she moved the scope over each section of the wall.

“What sort of defences are we looking at?”

“Lots of soldiers around the base of it, with a few massive machines on patrol. The walls seem to have stationary defences along the tops, along with spotlights.”

Thanks to their positioning, there wasn’t any way the Cabal patrols could see them unless they were specifically looking for them, though she still tried to be quick. The pony doubted their enemy would give much mercy to spies.

“How many entrances does the wall have?” The Guardian asked.

“The West wall has a single entrance, with most of the defences set up there. With how many troops they have, you would need a massive army just to break through,” The pony said. Her scope showed masses of Cabal guards, each heavily armed with weapons she couldn’t even describe.

“Are you able to move to the South wall?” The being on the other end of the device questioned.

“We should be able to, just give us some time.”

She stowed the device in her saddlebags and picked the telescope up again, placing it on her back. Seeing they were going to move again, her two companions kept close, not leaving her side as they began their move around the city to the Southern wall.

Their walk was silent, all three of them keeping an eye out for any signs of them being spotted. A half hour passed before they reached their destination, apparently unseen. In the same manner as last time, the mare began setting up the telescope, her guards going back on lookout.

As soon as it was ready, she raised her device, speaking into it, “We’re at the Southern wall, taking a look now.”

Exodus stood stoic as he listened for the mare on the other end of the radio. The rest of Odium were preparing in the store rooms, leaving him alone as he tried to gather as much intel on the Cabal as possible.

Hearing her confirm she had reached the next wall, he spoke up, “Good. Same defences as the other, or are they different?”

“One entrance that is heavily guarded, multiple defences along the top of the wall. Same thing as the other side.”

“That should be good enough. Get yourselves out of there, my ship is inbound to pick you all up,” The Warlock said.

The mare gave a confirmation and cut the transmission, prompting him to go find his team. With two walls being identical, and one connected to water, they could get a pretty good idea of what they would be firing at.

Stepping out into the corridor, a variety of ponies were moving past him, each preparing for the fight they were soon to embark on. He doubted many of them were truly ready for a battle of this scale, but he appreciated their longing to protect their home.

The search for the rest of Odium went by quickly, as he found them within the first storage room he looked in. Each Guardian was stocking up on items they would need, synthesis packs and Glimmer mainly.

“Hey, Exodus.” Kervis said, looking over at the Exo, “What were you up to?”

“I was gaining information about the defences around the city,” Exodus explained, drawing curious looks from the other three.

“How? I thought Churchill wasn’t able to look at the walls closely enough,” Elana said.

“I sent a couple of ponies. They are on their way back, and we have a good idea of what we are up against.”

The Titan tilted his head, “That wasn’t in the plans.”

“We needed to do it. I’m surprised we didn’t bring it up during the meeting, since we now understand the enemy defence layout. All we need to do now is launch the assault.”

Kervis shrugged, going back to the crate he was searching through, “I’m not complaining. What are we looking at?”

“Goliaths and general footsoldiers around the base of a large wall constructed around the city. There are turrets up on the ramparts, and two known entrances, one on the West wall, and the other on the South,” Exodus explained.

Procor chuckled, “They really don’t want to lose that city.”

“It’s the only base they have, so it makes sense they want to keep it safe. Providing this all goes well, however, they won’t have it for much longer.”

Kervis nodded, “We can only hope that there is a city left behind that wall. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Cabal knocked most of it down to make space for their forces.”

“That isn’t our problem. Right now, we need to focus on the major threat. We can leave rebuilding to the ponies that are going to live there.”

Elana looked over, loading a magazine into her sniper, “I doubt the ponies share the same thought.”

“They will have to deal with it. We are soldiers, not builders,” The Warlock responded, grabbing himself a secondary synth.

“Still, I’d like to help in any way I can when this is all over.”

This drew Procor’s focus to her, “So you’re staying?”

“I think so, yeah. I don’t have anything to go back to, but here? I have a reason to stick around here. These ponies need someone like us to be there, even if it’s just me.” The Hunter said as she sat upon a small stool set up near a crate.

The others went silent as the thought ran through their minds. The conversation of returning had come up many times in the past, but it wasn’t until now that it truly hit them. While Elana was young, and had nothing to go back to, the rest of Odium did. With the end nearing them, they had to finally consider what they wanted when the Cabal had been defeated.

“Providing Exodus is willing to stay, I think I’d probably set up here in the bunker,” Kervis said, breaking their long silence.

“I took everything important with me when we left the Tower. I don’t have any reason to go back barring the want to be closer to the Traveller.”

The four Guardians went quiet once again as they looked over at Procor.

“I really can’t make any decisions about that right now,” The bronze Titan said, replying to the unasked question, “But if I was given the option right now, I think I would probably stay with you all.”

Elana laughed, “That was a lot easier than I expected.”

“We have had some time to think on it,” Exodus said, “Plus, not much is happening at the City. With the end of SIVA, I don’t really think anything can really damage it.”

The young Hunter sighed, “Kinda wish I was reborn before all that happened. From what I’ve heard it was pretty fun.”

“It’s fun to listen to, but hell to deal with while it is going on. Trust me, things were a lot different a couple of years ago,” Kervis said, also taking a seat upon a stool.

“I’ll take your word on it. I just hope our adventures here are a bit more fun than what the Vanguard had planned for me,” Elana said.

“Knowing the Vanguard? This place will be infinitely better. I haven’t even been here a month and I’ve had more interesting things happen to me than the entire three years I spent defending the City.” The green Titan laughed, leaning back.

Exodus and Procor gave a laugh with him, knowing all too well what the Titan was saying. Their time in the storage room was spent with more idle talk, as each Guardian waited for the entire team to be ready. When Exodus packed his last synth, he turned, “We all ready?”

“Seems like it. How long do we have until we start?” Kervis asked.

“Two hours, the ponies and Frames are already moving out,” The Exo said.

“Then let’s not leave them waiting.”

Celestia looked out over the army following her. They were using unicorns to cast fields around sections of the army, concealing them from the Cabal sensors. The only way they would be spotted would be by direct line of sight, something their enemy wouldn’t get until they began their attack.

Quite a few hundred were left at the bunker, awaiting the Cabal drop ships. They would be coming around to the Eastern side of the city when they began.

As she hovered in place, high above the crowd, her sister joined her, “A trio of ponies have just been dropped off by a Guardian ship. They have given us information on the city and its current occupants.”

“Good. Pass it to the high-ranking ponies as quickly as you can. The more information we have the better,” Celestia said.

Luna gave a nod, flying down towards the sea of troops. As she watched the dark blue Alicorn disappear, she sighed. She hadn’t been in a war of this scale for many years, and even then, they had the advantage. This fight was heavily against them, and she knew it.

Her feelings of dread, however, were extinguished as she remembered the sight of what once was Canterlot. If she let her feelings get in the way, she could only imagine the outcome. She wouldn’t allow any more ponies to die, not when she was there.

The Solar princess turned to look out at the distant city of Manehattan. The carriers above it were like dark clouds, blotting the sky above the once bustling metropolis. She longed to see it as it was, but in the back of her mind, she knew they would never be able to rebuild it to what it once was.

Her eyes slowly fell to the front of her army. This war was about to end, and regardless of how it ended, she felt confident that she would remain proud of the things she had accomplished, both during the war, and before it even started. Determination filled her as she started flying slowly forward, keeping up with the forces below her. This was ending today, no matter what.

Above the Cabal controlled city, hundreds of drop ships began cloaking. Each had been outfitted with a jammer, which kicked in as their cloak came on. Their pilots knew exactly what was going to happen to them, and their jobs, but they were all willing to do it to protect the ponies that simply didn’t deserve the torture Va’aull was planning to put them through.

Every Cabal leaving the city had a single red stripe across their breastplates, given to them before they left the carriers. The thought of betraying their leader was almost horrifying to some of them, but the strip was a sort of symbol. A mark that proved their change of heart, that showed they had a new leader.

Thovog was well-known to the rebel Cabal, as he had shown respect and kindness to many of them, even when doing so would have caused him far more trouble than it was worth. Generally, Cabal were more militaristic and brutish, but with their banishment from the Empire, many moved away from that line of thinking. Even if they hadn’t realised what was happening until Thovog’s Psions had spoken with them.

Their ships flew over the green fields outside of Manehattan quickly, none looking back. They all knew what had to be done, and the fact that there was no turning back now. The thought of remaining loyal to their leader often rang through their trained minds, but it was forced back. For the first time in their lives, they had decided to focus on the greater good, instead of what their leader thought was right.

The bunker that the Guardians had set up in eventually came into view, just fifteen minutes after they had left. With their part in this plan, speed was incredibly important, and none of them wanted to fail.

They began uncloaking as they descended, their jammers still operational. There was a large army outside the underground facility, all watching them as they approached. The ponies seemed ready for them, each already armed. The plan was ready, all there was left to do was get into position.

Odium looked up as the swarm of ships approached. They were going to take a drop ship each, letting their own ships hang back and wait for the battle to begin.

“Last chance to grab anything you forgot,” Kervis commented.

“We’re ready, Kervis,” Elana said.

“Listen, in case any of us don’t make it, it’s been an honour,” Exodus said quietly.

“We’re gonna make it, bud, and afterwards we can have that race, just me and you,” Kervis replied, patting him on the shoulder.

Exodus managed a smile behind his helmet, “Wish I could be as optimistic.”

The roar of the Cabal ships grew louder as they began landing, covering the fields, “See you later, Exodus!” Kervis shouted, the sound of the many engines threatening to drown him out.

“See ya!” The Warlock yelled back, moving towards a nearby ship. As he walked, Chrome joined him, smiling up at him. The Exo gave a nod in return, boarding the vessel. Various ponies were there already, taking all but two seats. While Chrome took a seat, Exodus remained standing, drawing his Tlaloc and checking it over.

Their stay on the ground was brief as the pilots did their final checks and took off, flying up into the sky and waiting for the other ships to be ready. Down below, multiple drop ships were rising up to meet them, each loaded with their own teams of ponies. It took nearly five minutes for them all to join their ship, each running their check and cloaking.

When the fleet was ready, they began their flight towards the city, and the army slowly approaching it.

Kervis sat within his drop ship, looking at his helmet. Rain had joined him when they were loading up, something he didn’t mind. It was always nice to have company when readying for a major attack.

They didn’t say anything as the Cabal vessel shook, flying at breakneck speeds towards the ocean, no words were needed. The silence gave him time to think upon their situation some more, and as per usual at this point, about Kalis.

While the others had seemed to have gotten over her death somewhat, his mind was still reeling from the event. Watching her ship fall and blow up was a sight that haunted his dreams, almost preventing him from sleeping some nights.

But each time it happened, Lemon came and talked with him. Even during the early hours of the morning, she was willing to sit and speak with him, to help settle his mind and his fears.

Thinking on it, he came to the realisation that many of his issues had been fixed by her just being there. Her presence aided in clearing his mind of the awful memories that kept clouding it, leaving him able to feel happy.

His eyes widened as he thought of how Kalis made him feel. She was similar to Lemon in some ways, though one of the biggest ways was the way she made him feel when she was nearby. The possibility of love briefly revealed itself in his mind, but it was quickly stomped out. They had barely known each other for that long, and he wasn’t even the same species as him. The likeliness of her loving him was far too slim to be worked upon.

He almost felt like laughing as he donned his helmet, his visor flickering to life as the many bars filled up upon it.

‘Not exactly something you should be thinking on right now, Kervis,’ He thought to himself, picking his Pulse rifle up and checking its magazine.

As they neared the ocean, three of the ships peeled away from the main group, each with their own Guardian inside. They were going to stay with the army on the ground until they split up, delivering the Guardians to their sides of the wall.

The lights within their ship shifted to a red glow, prompting the ponies and Guardian to do their last preparations. The end was in sight, all they had to do now was reach it.

A few miles from Manehattan, the swathes of ponies and frames began splitting up. A few hundred remained at the back, consisting of the fifty trained ponies, and supporting frames. The rest moved into three smaller armies, each moving along their own paths around the city. They were still too far away to be seen by the Cabal’s scouts, and their jamming field was still holding strong around the soldiers. The groups were quickly joined by a Guardian, each of them slowing to allow their drop ships enough time to deliver their human and light-infused pony. The appearance of their allies helped bolster the ponies’ morale as stories of their previous battles were whispered through the ranks.

Their walks were uneventful, as the jamming fields kept them basically invisible. The Southern army was the first to stop, Celestia standing at the front of their lines, and Procor standing beside her. He had chosen to go without a pony, letting Elana and Exodus fight alongside the remaining two light-infused ponies.

The Western army was the next to stop, Elana and Flame standing at the front of their lines. They had figured they might as well combine their Light, hoping to deal more damage with the two sources of Hunter Light side by side.

Lastly, Exodus, Chrome and Luna stood at the Northern side of the city, their army standing silently behind them. The entire process had taken almost an hour, but each side was now ready. All they were waiting for now was radio contact from Kervis, and they would begin their charge.

“Never thought I would end up doing this...” Flame muttered, looking up at the sky. It was a cloudless day, something the armies appreciated.

“Same here, at least, not this quickly,” Elana said, following his gaze.

“I don’t know how you all manage to stay calm during stuff like this,” The pegasus said.

Elana chuckled, “Flame, I’m scared shitless right now. We just know how to hide it, I guess.”

“Wait, so even Guardians like Exodus can be scared?” He questioned.

“Sure. He might be a lot better than the both of us, but every Guardian is scared of death. At least, that’s what Kervis told me.”

“But I’ve seen you come back to life with zero effort. How could you be afraid of something you can’t go through?”

Elana smiled, “We aren’t completely immortal, Flame. Guardians can, and will, die. Kalis is a prime example of that. Death lurks around every corner we face, but as Guardians, we have to do our best to ignore it.”

Flame sighed, lowering his gaze to the hill that they were standing behind, “How long do we have before we start?”

“Not long now, I’d imagine. When Kervis gets into position, we start the attack.”

The next fifteen minutes were spent in silence, the soldiers standing restlessly behind them. Each was prepared to fight for their country, but many couldn’t get the thought of death from their minds. One false move, and they were dead, and each one of them knew it.

But they still stood ready, unable to bring themselves to turn away from this now.

“We are in position,” Kervis said, jolting the Guardians into position.

“We hear you. The three armies are ready, waiting on you,” Exodus responded.

“Then launch the attack. Good luck, everyone.”

All at once, the thousands of ponies rushed forward, the Guardians leading each charge. The unicorns kept their fields up for as long as they could, shrouding the armies as they moved forward.

It wasn’t long before their masses were sighted, Psion sniper fire coming from the ramparts of the wall as soon as they came into range.

Tens of ponies fell to the precise rounds, but the rest charged onward, ignoring their fallen. The Guardians of each group had already started returning fire, Elana managing to pick off quite a few, helping to keep her army’s numbers constant.

The Cabal had started sending more soldiers outside the walls in preparation for the attack, but thanks to the element of surprise, they didn’t have enough time to deploy any new Goliaths. The ones already outside the wall had started moving towards the incoming forces, flanked by hundreds of legionaries and centurions, their only hope being to slow their attackers long enough to get reinforcements out there.

As Elana crested a hill, she pulled off to the right and took aim at one of the Goliaths. Her training with Kervis and Kalis coming into play, she fired a single round into one of its engines, the machinery bursting into flames.

She wasted no time in taking aim at the next, decimating its armour and leaving the front of it without support. Its nose drove into the ground, dirt flying everywhere. With its mobility now gone, it raised its cannon as high as it would go and began firing, hoping to at least cut down some of the ponies before they reached it.

Thankfully, however, its shots were inaccurate, and its distance gave the ponies plenty of time to shield themselves from the incoming fire as Elana destroyed it with three more shots.

While one of the tanks had fallen, two more still bore down on them, prompting her to retake her aim. Her job wasn’t done yet, it was just beginning.

Author's Note

Well, we're finally here, at the final battle. I wonder how it's gonna turn out... :trollestia:

Thank you all once again for the support you have given me during this adventure. I love releasing chapters and reading through your comments, it helps motivate me to see the feedback and response you guys give. :twilightsmile:

See you in the next chapter! The upcoming chapters are gonna be pretty interesting...

28) Liberation

Cabal blood splattered over Procor’s armour as he killed his next enemy. As soon as the call to begin had come through, he had charged forward, his hands coated in Arc energy. Seeing as the army behind him was slower than him, he figured he could pull some enemy fire away from them as they approached, a plan that had been working thus far.

He rammed his fist into the chest of yet another Legionary, its breastplate crumpling in with the power behind the attack. They had landed quite a few shots on him, but his Arc light was doing well to hold it back. As he turned to face the rest of the Cabal army, however, he came to the realisation his plan wouldn’t hold for much longer.

Three Goliaths could be seen advancing towards him and his allies at full speed. He quelled his surprise at the incoming machines, focusing on figuring out how to deal with them. He hadn’t planned on them arriving so quickly, leaving him little time to prepare.

As the closest Goliath came into firing range, he began running at them, ignoring the now less imposing foot soldiers that attempted to surround him. While the Cabal may have made these Goliaths faster, their weight would have been reduced in order to allow for the extra speed.

Closing his eyes and praying he was right, he charged his Arc energy as much as he could and leaped up above the tank. The explosion that followed was massive, blasting the plating of the machine apart. With the sheer amount of force and Light behind the movement, as well as its lighter armour, the Goliath instantly detonated, spraying broken metal in a large circle around it.

Rising up, he raised his gaze to look out at the remaining forces. Swathes of soldiers still charged at him, and the other Goliaths had turned their focus to him. A quick glance to the top of his HUD revealed a flashing red bar. The combination of intense gunfire and an immense explosion had managed to break his shields, leaving him with only his physical armour to protect him.

With so many enemy Cabal left, he had no choice but to play more defensively until his shield came back, something easier said than done when under masses of gunfire. Thankfully, however, his saving grace came in the form of a bright golden light that crossed the battlefield. It was enough to daze the Cabal, giving Procor time to regain his shielding and redistribute his Light to where it was needed.

When he was ready, he leapt from the wreckage, his body still covered in shimmering blue energy. The still stumbling Cabal stood little chance to the Titan’s renewed Light, many falling before shots were fired once more.

As he fought off the soldiers around him, Celestia moved from her position in the sky, and started working on the remaining Goliaths that had slowed to regain their bearings. Her attack had worked far better than she had thought it would, and she wasn’t complaining. It had given them an advantage, and anything they could use to get the upper hoof was a plus.

Seeing as she hadn’t used combat magic in many centuries, she focused more upon distracting the machines, firing blinding beams of magic into where she assumed the pilots of the vehicles were looking from. With her moving around and blinding them, they were unable to hit her, but their sense of pride and loyalty kept them trying, a seemingly endless volley of bullets and shells being fired from the many cannons.

This changed, however, when a call from Procor drew her attention away. The ponies around her had mostly passed, almost all of them making it past the distracted Cabal and storming the wall. She gave Procor a quick nod, flying to follow the army and leaving the Titan to finish dealing with what remained of the infantry.

Now that the Princess had stopped dealing with the Goliaths, they turned their focus to Procor, firing everything they had at him. Explosions shook the ground around him, but he stood tall. The time Celestia had given him away from the vehicles was enough for him to regain his strength, the Legionaries surrounding him not putting enough of a fight up to be an issue for him.

He pushed Arc light back into his arms, running forwards towards the closest tank and leaping up. Some of the soldiers near the Goliath quickly determined what he was doing and were lucky enough to move away in time. The drivers were not as fortunate. Like the last one, the force of his Light crumpled the metal armour like paper, the ammunition on board detonating and throwing shrapnel around it.

The Titan rose slowly from the wreckage, looking at the remaining Goliaths. Their weapons were pointed directly at him, but were holding fire, likely trying to get a shot that would keep friendly fire down to a minimum.

Using the extra time wisely, he pushed more Arc Light outwards, smiling as he readied for yet another slam. A few moments passed before he moved, jumping out at the enemy vehicle. Its weapon rose quickly, firing a shot at the rapidly approaching Guardian, drawing a greater smile from him.

This was going to be quick.

Outside the battlefields, a group of Cabal dropships soared over the oceans. The ponies and Guardians on board had already prepared, awaiting the clearance to engage from their pilots.

The rest of Odium had been giving brief updates through their comms, which Kervis listened to intently. Having knowledge of the battlefield was incredibly helpful to have beforehand, even if they weren’t landing in the same spots as the battles that had been called.

“Arriving in thirty seconds.” Thovog said, jolting the many soldiers up. Even with them being the lucky few that avoided the initial assaults upon the walls, they still had to deal with the anti-air and heavy resistance that awaited them when they reached their destination.

Soon, the crew bay doors of the ships opened slowly, revealing the sea below them. It seemed that the defence force were so occupied with the other three walls, there was very little opposing them as they arrived. This didn’t remove the threat of death entirely, as some of the automated defences had already begun firing at them, but the fact that the wall wasn’t covered in Cabal was enough to raise their spirits.

Compelled by his drive to set things right, Thovog was the first out of the ship, his heavily-armoured body slamming into the ground and kicking up a sizeable cloud of debris. The sound of the ships, as well as the troops exiting them, drew the attention of some of the nearby enemy Cabal, who turned and began focusing their fire on Thovog.

None of them lasted long on the receiving end of his slug thrower, however, especially not when the pilots that dropped him off provided covering fire. Within moments, their landing area was clear, and the dropships had successfully delivered all of their troops.

Kervis approached Thovog as the Cabal leader’s slug thrower finished spinning down. “Procor says he and Celestia have things handled on their end,” the Guardian told him. “Elana says she and Flamelight have just barely broken through, but they mostly made it. There’s been no word from Exodus, Chrome and Luna yet, though. We should go to the North side and assist them there.”

“What of the support force behind them?” Thovog asked.

“They’re still inbound,” Kervis responded. “They should be coming up on the edge of the city soon, though.”

Thovog nodded and turned to face his troops before calling commands to them in their native Cabal language. They responded immediately, setting off down the road ahead of Thovog and Kervis, sweeping alleyways and buildings with their weapons as they went. After a few moments, Kervis went to take the head of the group, and they continued advancing.

It wasn’t long before word of their arrival began to spread.

On the Northern side of Manehattan, things had deteriorated rather quickly as the Equestrian army, led by Exodus, Princess Luna and Chrome Shield, advanced towards the Cabal perimeter. On this side of the city, the ground had been soft enough for the Cabal to quickly construct rows of trenches outside the walls, allowing Cabal infantry to fire upon their enemy from a much more protected position.

Dozens of ponies had already fallen to incoming gunfire, despite Chrome and his fellow shield unicorns’ best efforts to protect them, and now they could advance no further due to a lack of fire support.

Exodus and Chrome lobbed grenade after grenade into the trenches before them, but more and more infantry came out from behind the walls to replenish them; rows of Phalanxes, Psion sniper teams, and hundreds of Legionaries all fired on the magic barrier that Chrome and his fellow unicorns had projected ahead of them. Cracks were beginning to show; it was clear that they’d have to either retreat soon or die to incoming fire.

Exodus, growing tired of this stagnation, decided he’d had enough. He summoned his Ghost in his hand. “Bring the ship in, weapons ready,” he told it. “That should clear the way a little.”

The Ghost nodded and disappeared from view once more. “Chrome!” Exodus called to his ally over the roar of gunfire. “Tell the Princess to prepare the ponies to advance!”

“Advance?” Chrome called back, a puzzled expression coming over him as he channelled more magic into maintaining his part of the barrier. “Sorry, but unless you’ve got something big that you’ve been holding back, that won’t be an option!”

“Don’t worry,” Exodus responded, “Support is on the way!”

Chrome shrugged and ran off down the row to the lunar Princess, who stood alongside her fellow ponies to keep the barrier strong. “Princess!” he addressed her. “Exodus says to prepare our ponies to advance!”

“Advance?” she questioned. “That is not possible with enemy resistance like this!”

“That’s what I told him, too, Your Highness,” Chrome said. “He says help’s on the way, though.”

Indeed, it was only a few seconds later that the sound of approaching sub-lightspeed engines was heard, even over the gunfire. Moments later, Exodus’s blue, tripod-shaped Ceres Galliot streaked overhead, its Reef-made onboard weaponry carpeting the enemy entrenchments. Dozens upon dozens of Cabal fell to the ship’s fire as it made a few more passes overhead until its ammunition was depleted.

Princess Luna, as well as Chrome and the other ponies in the group, watched in awe as the machine cleared out nearly all the enemies in their path. After a few moments, the alicorn cleared her head. “Advance!” she called out to her fellow ponies in her signature Royal Canterlot Voice. The solid barrier separated into columns, each led by a unicorn projecting a barrier. Advancing methodically to completely sweep the trenches, and the enemy infantry now more hesitant to come out from behind the wall, the different teams were able to reach the wall, and Exodus’ Ghost got to work on re-opening the gate.

Princess Luna looked over the ponies that made it across the field. Of the army that had entered the fields alongside her, only a couple dozen of them remained, and even some of those who survived had various wounds that would require attention. The medics that survived were doing their work as best they could, however. Steeling her resolve to appear strong for her ponies, she put off her grief for when the fate of her world was more secure.

“Thovog,” Kervis addressed the rogue Cabal leader as they cautiously advanced through the city. “Exodus just got in touch. They’ve taken heavy casualties but they’re on their way in now. We’re going to meet up with them halfway to where they are.”

“The operation goes well,” Val Thovog nodded. “But something troubles me. We caused quite the disturbance on our arrival, and yet the enemy has made no action against us. I am beginning to suspect a trap.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then we can’t turn around now,” the Titan shrugged. “We’ll just have to deal with whatever they throw at us.”

“Sir!” a Centurion shouted as he rushed onto the bridge of his leader’s flagship. “Several squads stationed along the waterfront have failed to check in, and security cameras show that there is a force of rogue Legionaries, Psions and Phalanxes proceeding through the streets, moving northward. There is also a Guardian, and… what appears to be Val Thovog among them. What are your orders?”

“We will suffer no more intrusions, least of all from that turncoat,” Primus Va’aull muttered, already frustrated at his enemies attempts to remove his forces form the city. “Kill them all. No prisoners, no hesitation.”

“Yes, sir,” the Centurion saluted before heading off to do as his Primus instructed.

One of the Psions in Thovog’s group stopped in place for a moment, listening intently. “Hold! I hear enemy communications close by!” she reported to the rest of her group. Instantly, the rogue Cabal force, as well as Kervis and Thovog, took cover behind walls, barriers, and various pieces of Cabal equipment, waiting for the Psion to report more.

“…30 meters out…” the Psion updated, raising her weapon and scanning the streets in front of her. The others were doing the same, scanning over doors, alleyways, windows, anywhere an enemy could obtain a shot on them. A few moments of eerie quiet passed, the only sounds being the soldiers’ controlled breathing and the clamour of gunfire and battle echoing through the streets from other parts of the city. None dared to move for fear of an ambush.

“Slaughter them!”

The booming voice of a Centurion roared through the streets as packs upon packs of War Beasts began pouring onto the street, led by Legionary Beast Masters, growling and running towards the invading rogue Cabal. As Thovog and Kervis opened fire on the new enemies, and their soldiers did the same, the roar of heavy engines grew louder as Interceptors also closed in on them.

The first casualty was an unfortunate Legionary, who was mauled to death by four of the Cabal attack animals. As his blood poured onto the street from his neck, torso and legs, his friend, a Phalanx, let out a terrible roar and smashed his shield into the face of one of the nearby beasts. The beast was killed instantly as its skull and neck shattered, the sheer force behind the shield sending it careening through the air until it collided with one of the Beast Masters, killing him as well. After holding position to block incoming fire from an Interceptor, he spun around and swung his shield into the air, then swiftly down onto the head of another beast that had been attacking an incapacitated Psion, knocking it off and smashing its head against the pavement.

As the Psion looked around and gathered its wits, he found himself staring down the barrel of an Interceptor’s cannon, as its pilot took aim on him and his squad. The pilot’s head suddenly erupted in a spray of blood and pressurizing fluid as Kervis’s pulse rifle delivered a precision burst directly to his face. The Interceptor fell idle as its pilot slumped sideways out of the seat. Seeing an opportunity, the Psion called for his squad nearby to give him covering fire as he left cover, sprinting down the street to the vehicle.

The cacophony of gunfire started anew behind him as soon as he left. Arriving at the Interceptor a few seconds later, he shoved the legs of the dead pilot out of the seat and climbed in, starting it back up. Its controls reported all systems to be functional, prompting the Psion to smile behind his helm’s faceplate. Grasping the control sticks in his hands, he turned the Interceptor to face the Centurion commanding the ambush, and pulled the triggers.

A volley of rockets soared through the air towards the unsuspecting Centurion, shattering his shields after a second, and shattering his body a couple seconds later.

Kervis fired another burst into the body of a Beast Master, puncturing his armour and the organs beneath it, leaving him to stumble, clutching at his wounds until he fell forward, lifeless. This only served to make his War Beast packs all the more furious, the dozens of animals unleashing roars and snarls as they set off sprinting towards the Titan, ignoring any obstacle in their path, including other enemies.

Kervis aligned his Light into its Solar form, his body igniting in flames as a hammer of solid Light formed in his hand. He hurled it at the approaching beast horde, and it exploded as it hit the centre of the pack, killing several of them. The ones that survived reached him right as a new hammer formed, and he delivered it to the side of a War Beast as it leapt at his head, jaws gaping. The beast’s body incinerated on contact, and Kervis threw his hammer again, killing another three. Thovog, seeing one of his allies nearly overwhelmed, turned in place and loosed a long stream of bullets into the remaining beasts, before he was jolted forward onto his knees.

An entire pack of War Beasts set upon him, biting at his armour as he was forced to kneel under their weight. He prompted his suit to activate its special modification; the shockwave generator on his back hummed to life and, after a couple seconds, released its energy, sending the animals flying off of him in all directions, colliding with buildings or simply launching them into the air, killing them on impact with walls or the ground.

As he stood once more and recovered his weapon, he noticed that the gunfire and noise had died down. Looking around, he saw no hostiles standing, but fewer allies remaining as well. They had, however, gained some new assets; two of his soldiers had procured Interceptors from the enemy, and both looked to be in good condition.

“Take stock of yourselves,” he called to his soldiers. “We move on in one minute.”

“Are you alright?” Kervis asked him as he approached. “I saw you had a pretty hard time towards the end.”

“Given our personal affiliations, I am surprised you care for my well-being,” Thovog observed. “But I am well… thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Kervis shrugged. “Guardians look after their allies, right?”

Thovog nodded in response. After a few moments, his remaining soldiers reported that they were ready, and they set off marching North once again.

At the North end of the city, with the main gate open, the secondary force of ponies and Frames began to enter the city to meet up with Exodus, Chrome Shield’s and Princess Luna’s division, who had overrun and taken shelter in a vehicle depot while awaiting their reinforcements. Many of them wanted to move further into the city and avenge their fallen comrades, but their leaders’ cooler heads prevailed.

“’Tis a shame we cannot make use of these vehicles,” Princess Luna remarked as she examined one of the several Goliath tanks in the room. “They would prove to be quite the asset.”

“Well, I sent the frames instructions on using Cabal consoles as we taught the ponies how to do so,” Exodus said. “When they get here, we’ll see about putting them to good use.”

“That’ll help put some of us at ease,” Chrome nodded, looking over at a group of ponies stewing in anger over their fallen friends.

“We’ll see,” Exodus shrugged. “Either way, it’s good that they’ve got strong feelings. It’ll drive them to fight harder.”

“It is only a tragedy that these feelings came in the way that they did,” Luna sighed.

“Don’t worry, Princess,” Chrome said to her. “Our victory here later today will honour them.”

Exodus was about to add his own comment when a new, and entirely synthetic voice came onto his comms. “Guardian, reinforcements have arrived,” the voice of a Frame stated as several squads of armed frames entered the building, his group of ponies turning to look at them as they came in. “There are fifty frames here at your disposal.”

“Wow, actual robots,” a pony said. “Actually, in light of everything else going on, fighting alongside robots isn’t that farfetched…” replied another.

“You’ve all received instructions on operating Cabal consoles, the same as the ponies,” Exodus addressed the Frames. “Could you help operate these tanks?”

“Affirmative,” the group replied, speaking in complete unison. Immediately, they moved toward the vehicles, making sure they were fuelled and loaded before beginning to climb into their crew compartments, joining the ponies already stationed inside. One by one, the tanks’ engines came to life as they rose above the ground, their cannons swivelling to test their mobility.

“Oh, this is gonna be a great time…” Chrome smirked as he readied his tank’s anti-infantry machine gun.

“All mobile armour operational, Guardian,” the Frames reported to Exodus. “You have six unassigned Frames remaining.”

“They can stay on foot with me and the others,” Exodus ordered. “Let’s move out.” The six frames saluted in response, chambering their auto rifles.

“You heard him, Ponies!” Sergeant Chrome called out. “Let’s get going.”

The ponies stood to their hooves and steeled themselves for war once again.

“Sir,” one of Va’aull’s Psion Flayers said calmly to his superior. “There’s been a break in at our mobile armour depot, and the ambush force has gone off-comm. Additionally, our other garrisons on the ground across the city are being routed. Our forces are too close to the enemy for our ships to provide fire support, and there is no realistic way to extract them. What are your orders?”

Va’aull thought for a moment as he looked out of the bridge at the chaos below. It was a curious thing to him, that these animals had rallied so readily and so effectively against him. Contemplation aside, he must continue his mission and deliver his Cabal back to their empire. “Contact the other Fleet Captains,” he said. “We’re enacting a new plan and heading to orbit. Those on the ground are ordered to fight until they die and take as many hostiles with them as they can. They will all be remembered on our return to the Empire.”

“…Yes, sir,” the Flayer saluted as he went off to contact the other ships in the fleet and relay his Primus’ orders.

Down on the ground, additional Frames and Equestrian Army reinforcements had arrived, and morale was slowly on the rise once again. Between this and the heavy fire support from the stolen Goliaths, the alicorns flying in to wreak havoc with their magic, and the Guardians wielding their Light, the hostile Cabal numbers were beginning to quickly diminish.

Suddenly, the enemy seemed to switch strategy all at once. Instead of acting tactically and carefully, they seemed to throw caution to the wind. Phalanxes threw down their shields to fire recklessly but devastatingly on the enemy, even more ponies dying to their hail of bullets. Legionaries armed all their grenades at once and ran screaming towards squads of ponies and Frames, detonating once they arrived at their targets and killing even more. Psions overloaded their abilities and detonated in explosions of their mysterious energy, disrupting any unicorn magic in a wide radius and bringing down their shields. These suicide assaults were quickly crushed, but not after several dozen more ponies and Frames lay dead or severely injured.

“What the hell’s with the strategy change all of a sudden?” Procor asked as he dragged an injured pony behind cover. “Wouldn’t it be best to surrender and get a chance at living?”

“I’m not sure,” Exodus responded as he felled a charging Legionary before he reached his target, his grenades all detonating a few seconds later. “But it can’t be a good thing. Ghost, can you pick up anything on their comms?”

“One moment,” his Ghost said. After a few moments, he spoke up once more. “I’ve just intercepted a transmission from the Primus to his Fleet Captains. The fleet’s about to break for orbit!”

“We’ll lose all those prisoners, and probably our orbital support from Churchill,” Kervis added. “We can’t let them escape, but we can’t have Churchill shoot them down or everyone on board will die.”

“The vehicles your Frames stole seem to have good enough range,” Celestia stated as she landed in cover nearby. “Why not have them fire on their ships’ engines?”

“That… yeah, that could work,” Exodus’ Ghost confirmed. “I’ll relay that to the Frames.”

A moment passed before the Frames spoke up, “Orders received, targeting enemy propulsion.”

The Goliaths’ cannons all pivoted to take aim on the ships’ engines and let loose their payloads. It took a few moments for the shells to travel, soaring skyward towards the Cabal engines. When the shots connected, and they all did, as the Frames were mathematically precise in their aim, the engines they hit exploded in fireballs of burning fuel and chemicals. This was repeated for all remaining engines, the alicorns contributing their own beams of intensely concentrated magic which sliced through exterior fuel lines and ran their fuel dry.

“Engine disabling operations complete,” the Frames reported. “Gravitational lift systems are uncompromised, ships will hold current position unless repairs are undertaken.”

“They’re dead in the air,” Elana confirmed after checking over all the ships with her rifle’s scope. “Let’s get up there while we still can.”

“Princesses, we’re going to need a teleport up there,” Kervis addressed the alicorns. “We can’t fly up or they’ll shoot us down.”

“We’ll prepare a teleport,” Celestia nodded as she and her sister’s horns began to glow. “We’ll be sending you in several waves, since there are so many of you.”

“Ready when you are, Princesses,” Procor confirmed as he readied his Crucible-branded machine gun.

‘I’ve been waiting so long to use this thing,’ he thought to himself. He’d soon have the opportunity.

Author's Note

Hey, everyone! This is Never_Comfortable, presenting the first chapter I've ever written for this story. For those of you who are unaware, my girlfriend, atronosthelast, is unable to continue this story (at least for now). So, in light of this, I've taken over for her so that we can all see this story to a proper ending.

Now, there are going to be a few changes from now on. Firstly, new chapters will come more slowly, as I have university and a girlfriend to keep up with. However, I'll do my best to write whenever I can.

This story will NOT die, I promise you all that much. I look forward to my continued work on this story, and I'll see you all next time!

Echo: hi all! I hope you enjoyed the chapter NC's made, be sure to leave any criticisms down in the comments so we can help him become better at writing :twilightsmile:

I'm still working with him in the background, as i said i would in the update chapter, and will be posting little bits in the author's notes each time a chapter goes up.

Stay awesome! :heart:

29) How the mighty fall

Va’aull was walking down a hallway, away from the bridge, when a Psion caught up to him. The smaller Cabal was panting heavily, his legs not at able to keep up with his leader’s comparatively massive stride.

“Primus! There is an intruder alarm on deck four!” He gasped out, ignoring the distant alarms sounding to alert the others of the sudden company.

Va’aull simply grunted, “Are you surprised? They want the animals alive.”

“Who should we send? Much of our forces are dead upon the surface, or trying to repair their ships.”

The Primus slowed, keeping his gaze down the hallway, “Get me my weapon. It is high time I met our enemy face to face.”

He was barely finished before the Psion was rushing back to the bridge, already opening his comms to the other crew members. Va’aull didn’t bother to watch, more focused on moving towards his targets.

The halls were quiet, besides the alarms, something he regretted deeply. Only a day or two ago they were filled with cabal crew, moving supplies about, talking, some even finding friendship. Now those Cabal lay dead in the city below, their lives given for nothing but a longing to return home.

Something they were likely able to do for a long time. It was he who gave the order in that fateful battle long ago, not his crew. They would have been accepted back into the Empire eventually, possibly with some coaxing with the Cabal there. Yet, in a selfish longing to also return home, he pushed his crews to their death.

For the first time in a long time, he felt true sorrow. Sorrow for the Cabal he killed, sorrow for the families that would now go without a loving father.

He would bring the end of this battle, and return his crew to their families, one way or another, and he had plenty of time to think of a solution.

Procor’s machine gun filled the hangar they had teleported into with enough noise to drown out the many alarms, countless Cabal falling to its incredible rate of fire. The Goliaths were left on the ground to keep the other ships in Va’aull’s fleet from leaving, while the remaining infantry was taken up to help in the final push.

“It’s odd that there are so many still here,” Exodus commented, helping Procor with his Arc Light.

“Gotta protect the leader, right?” Procor replied, quickly ducking behind a legionary corpse to reload.

“Perhaps, but I don’t like that he’s kept so many up in the ship with him. The Cabal aren’t really known to hold back.”

“Doesn’t matter how many there are up here, they won’t last long,” The Titan responded, finishing reloading and rising back up to open fire again.

Exodus just sighed, mumbling “Titans” as he fired a fist of Light into an approaching Psion.

It took many minutes of endless fire to finally thin the room out. The frames they took up had fallen easily, leaving the allied forces to deal with the oncoming hostiles without robotic support. As the last tens of enemy soldiers began to fall, however, a new noise sounded across the hangar. Va’aull, standing in his massive armour, stood in a large doorway, a golden slug thrower in his hands.

The leader looked out over the masses of pony forces, many still teleporting up. Naturally, some had begun firing on him, but he trusted in his armour to keep him protected. The only creatures before him that posed a threat were the Guardians, and both sides knew that.

Ignoring the ponies for now, he began his slow approach to the Guardians, casually swatting a few pegasi out of the air as they moved to attack him.

“Guardians!” He shouted, the power of his voice breaking through the gunfire easily, “I have been told that you fight for peace, then let us have it, even if it is fleeting!”

Procor looked to Exodus, a confused look on his face that Exodus could assume was there. The Warlock shrugged a little, pushing his Solar light throughout his body in preparation for a self resurrection.

He stepped from cover, not responding to Procor’s attempts to get him to stay, “Alright, what do you want, Va’aull?”

“A duel. Me and the Guardians. Should you win, you may have your animals back. Should I win, well, you already know your forces chances without you.”

The ponies were taken aback by this, focusing their attention on their Guardian friends. The rest of Odium had joined them as Exodus and Va’aull talked, Elana giving him a wary look. The others were fairly used to Exodus’ attempts at reason during intense situations.

“What’s the catch?” Exodus asked, keeping his Light strong, “There’s no way you’d let us off this easily.”

“No catch. No tricks. I’ve heard tales of Guardian might, and have seen it myself, but I am yet to properly experience it. Should I die, I die to protect the few Cabal loyal to me.”

Exodus hummed, “And you want to go against all of us? Not one at a time?”

Va’aull laughed, “One at a time? No, Guardian, I’ve read of the tales of teams of six Guardians, how gods have fallen to them, and the strongest creatures shatter beneath their power and Light. One Guardian is nothing compared to a team that fights side by side.”

The Guardian before him nodded a little, “Then let’s duel. Us against you. I assume your Cabal will still try to kill us later?”

“No. Should you allow them to repair the engines your animals damaged, they will return to their home. This planet will not see the Cabal for many years.”

The others Guardians stepped forward, a couple reloading and readying their weapons.

“Just like old times, huh, Exodus?” Kervis said, standing beside him.

“Yeah... except those times we had a Guardian experienced in dealing with each of the foes.” Exodus responded, keeping his Solar Light at the forefront of his mind and body.

“We’re experienced. Helmet’s the weak point, keep them facing you for the best angle. Easy.”

Exodus just groaned, “Fighting like a Titan doesn’t always get the job done.” He stepped back, the others following him, “His armour has a shield. If you’d been looking at it instead of his weapon you’d have noticed. We need to find a way to break that before we can harm him.”

Elana spoke up, “Got any ideas? Somehow I doubt we can just shoot it.”

“It’s worth a shot, but they would need a power source greater than that suit can carry to keep our Light from collapsing it in seconds. He’s probably hooked up to the ship’s power grid somehow. We break that link, his shields go with it.”

Va’aull’s voice boomed across the hangar, interrupting their attempts to plan, “Are we doing this, Guardians? I am anxious to see this war come to an end.”

The team’s Warlock turned back to the Cabal, muttering, “If he was a Titan, I bet he’d get along fine with Kervis...”

Speaking louder, he responded, “We’re ready.”

Their foe gave a noise that could only be described as excited, “Good! I will wait until you begin. I look forward to the outcome of this duel.”

The Guardians spread out into pairs, Exodus going alone as he could technically count for two. Va’aull, meanwhile, kept to his word and waited patiently, keeping a careful watch on where they were moving.

Kervis was the first to move, rushing towards the towering Cabal and summoning a hammer to his right hand. His target was quick to respond, raising his slug thrower and opening fire. The shots landed easily with the beeline the Titan was making, though his Solar Light kept him safe for now.

He swung his hammer down below Va’aull’s weapon, striking the leg plating. An explosion of fire erupted from the impact point, but as it cleared, the only visible damage dealt was a few embers resting on a faint orange shield.

Kervis was slammed back by a kick to the leg he struck, his armour keeping the brunt of the force from killing him outright.

“Come now, surely you have more than that!” Va’aull jeered, unloading his gun on the still rising Titan. Procor moved to block the attacks, managing to reach him to stop the majority of the rounds, though a few got past him. Kervis’ Ghost appeared nearby, its segments split, indicating the Titan’s death.

“You are the slayer of gods, saviour of the cursed Last City, and yet, you fall with such ease,” Va’aull continued, turning to slam Exodus back with his weapon. The Warlock had been trying to find where the ship connected, regretting doing so as his body struck some nearby crates.

With two Guardians either down or recovering, and the others looking for angles of attack, Va’aull’s gaze fell upon the nearby Ghost, “Perhaps this will bring some level of actual fight from you all...”

Procor immediately got moving, throwing a dome of Void Light over the Ghost as a hail of bullets struck the wall of it. He pushed a portion of his regular light into the floating machine, Kervis appearing in a flash of light soon after, drawing a roar from the Cabal leader.

“Resurrect yourselves all you like, you will not leave this ship alive! By my own honour, you will be nothing but ash and shattered Light!” To emphasise his point, Va’aull selected his new target and opened fire, the Guardian at the other end of his thrower being Elana.

She yelled in surprise, ducking behind a relatively sturdy crate as a hole quickly began forming on the other side. Seeing his opportunity, the now recovered Exodus rushed forward, rising into the air and pointing his Scout rifle at the back of the Cabal’s helmet. The bullet flattened against the shield, but it had the effect Exodus wanted. The flare up travelled down to a small pack on Va’aull’s back, just below his decorative plating.

Va’aull, on the other hand, didn’t see the act as one of tactic, and laughed loudly as he moved his weapon to point at the Warlock, “Perhaps my soldiers were not as experienced as I once thought, if they fell to fools like you!”

Exodus just dropped, avoiding the bullets as he hit the ground and jumping back behind cover, “He has a pack on his lower back. Doesn’t look shielded, but is definitely armoured.” He said through his comms, the others listening intently, “A good rocket would damage it enough for us to hurt the surrounding shield, but how exactly we land a rocket there isn’t something I have a plan for just yet.”

Procor huffed, “No point in planning everything out, he’s slaughtering us. We need to break that shield now or we’re actually going to lose someone.”

“Procor, if you rush in there you’ll be the person we lose. This isn’t a fight we can just immediately win.” Exodus chided, moving to a new crate as the one he was behind fell apart.

“Then how are we going to deal with this? I’ll need to wait for the Light to use a new Ward, and Kervis just used a load of Light attacking him.”

Elana was the one to reply, “Would a Golden Gun shot work?”

“Probably, but there’s quite a margin for error. If you miss your shot, he’ll be onto us.”

She nodded, though none of the others could see that, “Don’t worry, Exodus. I can land it, just bring his back around.”

Kervis chuckled, stepping out from the dome to fire on the shielding Cabal, “There’s our plan, then.”

Va’aull, oblivious to the Guardians planning, continued to fire on each of them, even pushing closer to bring them into melee range, something Odium knew would be fatal if he got his way. With that in mind, they juggled between finding good positions and firing on their target, slowly but surely moving Va’aull into position.

When she could finally make out the pack, Elana rose from cover, bringing her hand to the sky and summoning her Solar hand cannon. The noise of the action was loud enough to be heard over the gunfire, but by the time Va’aull had realised what was going on, it was far too late. She took aim and fired, putting a round directly into the box. It shattered instantly, spraying fragments of metal away from him as his orange shield flared for the last time.

The others wasted no time, moving their focus to his helmet in the hopes of damaging it enough to kill him, but Va’aull wasn’t ready to die so easily. With his shields shattered, he no longer had to worry about revealing his secret, giving him the ability to rush the Guardians. He raced towards Kervis, slamming him to the ground before he could move aside and ramming the barrel of his weapon into the Titan’s face. His helmet held against the pressure, but Kervis wasn’t Va’aull’s target.

Sensing his Guardian’s death soon to come, Kervis’ Ghost had come closer, still cloaked. Va’aull had plenty of time to study the way Guardians resurrected, and even got to see it first hand, giving him an excellent opportunity to deal with this threat before it became major. Counting down in his head, he raised his weapon, pointed it up, and sprayed rounds in a wide area. Exodus realised what was happening only moments too late as a wave of bright light radiated from a point in the area Va’aull was firing on.

Kervis collapsed, his shielding failing as his Ghost’s fragments fell to the floor. Exodus cried out for his fallen friend, pushing all the light he had been building outwards. He rose into the air, Solar wings burning on his back, as he summoned every grenade he could muster. Va’aull was about to finish the kill when at least twenty fusion grenades attached to his back. He could barely speak a word before they detonated, sending him flying over Kervis and crashing down nearby, a gaping hole burned deep into his armour.

Elana and Procor quickly pulled Kervis away before the fight could continue, Exodus remaining airborne, “You’re going to pay for that, Va’aull.” He said, loud enough for his foe to hear.

Va’aull chuckled, pushing himself up, albeit slower now, “And how do you plan to make me? You’ve used your Light in that attack.”

“I don’t have a plan, but Procor has one.”

Sure enough, Procor shouldered his machine gun, rushing around Va’aull. The Cabal reacted quickly, turning to deal with him and giving Exodus the shot he needed. He took aim and emptied his magazine into the exposed, burned flesh revealed by his grenades. Va’aull’s legs gave out instantly as the bullets severed his spine, Procor coming over and prying the massive helmet from Va’aull’s head as he hit the ground.

He said nothing as he fired half a drum of ammunition into the face of the creature that had taken the lives of so many innocent beings, revelling in the metallic sound of the spent cartridges hitting the plated floor.

The Cabal soldiers in the room stared at their fallen leader in disbelief. Va’aull had been their light at the end of the tunnel for so long, it was hard to believe their own eyes.

Exodus raised his rifle at them, speaking louder so he could be heard, “Your leader is dead. Release the captive unicorns and leave. Be thankful you’ve been given this choice.”

Va’aull’s Cabal hesitated, looking at one another. One raised its weapon, others following the first. In just a few moments the opposition was clear. Those that had chosen to not fight moved off to the side, while the ones unwilling to surrender stayed their ground.

“Last chance. Weapons on the ground or you won’t leave this ship.”

Instead of the answer he hoped for, he got only a drawn out roar from the closest legionary to him. The legionary received a sigh from the Warlock as the team got into position.

“I suppose some people never learn.”

The team walked down the hall leading from the hangar soon after, the only real change being a hole in Exodus’ robes, which he was clearly upset about. They were being guided by a Psion, one of the few remaining Cabal that had chosen not to fight.

Kervis had been left with some pony medics, who had promised to take him back to the bunker as quickly as possible. He was still unconscious when the ponies left the ship with him, though Exodus wasn’t overly worried. A Guardian losing their Ghost was dangerous, but not deadly. Providing the Guardian didn’t go back into combat, at least.

The Psion pointed at a door, moving to a control panel beside it. After everything they had been through, Exodus nearly fell to his urges to blow the door up, but he managed to keep his urges at bay long enough to see the door open. Inside, thousands of pony sized cages were piled high, the room clearly being one that once held military cargo, if the gun racks against the wall were anything to go by.

“Alright, everyone, we’ve got a lot of ponies to free and get down to the surface,” Exodus said in the calmest tone he could muster, “Elana, take them back in groups to the hangar. I’m sure the ponies have something in mind for getting them back home.”

The Hunter nodded quickly, waiting by the door as Procor and Exodus made their way into the room. Faint crying could be heard, though most of the ponies were silent. No doubt forced to be that way by their captors.

“Got any ideas as to how we open all of these within a day?” Procor asked.

Exodus shrugged, “We do it quickly.”

That drew a raised eyebrow from Procor, “That’s the best you can come up with?”

“After all that we’ve been through, I’m surprised I can think straight enough to come up with that idea.” Exodus chuckled, summoning a grenade in his hand and using it to melt the lock off the closest cage. He didn’t bother trying to coax the pony out of it, figuring they would leave when they were ready.

Procor just smiled, doing the same as his team mate did on a different cage. The work was slow at first, as they didn’t want to harm the ponies inside the cages, but things picked up when Elana told a few of the Light gifted mages what was going on. Within an hour, large groups of unicorns were making their way to the hangars, where regular mages were waiting to send them to the surface.

As the Guardians did their work, Thovog left to the surface with the first group of ponies, ignoring their scared stares in the hopes of not starting a panic. He wasn’t surprised at all when the ponies rushed from the lander as soon as it landed, a couple being lucky enough to have family members already waiting for them.

Thovog, however, ignored them all, choosing to walk through the devastated streets, directly away from the crowds. Looking over what was once a bustling city was hard, to say the least. It reminded him of the wars he had waged against other races, of the countless homes and lives he had ruined, all in the name of loyalty.

He shuddered, still unable to believe he once thought like that. It was fascinating how far he had changed since the moment he dropped from that ship, what seemed like years ago. Once willing to do anything to survive, now doing what he could to make sure others survived.

He quietly chuckled, blaming the Guardians under his breath for the massive change to who should have been a hulking mass of destruction, leaving the city walls and walking through the ruined fields outside of it. When he was far enough, he turned, dropping the shockwave generator from his back and sitting on the slope of a hill to look over the still smoking city.

The distant transports were hard at work, moving the many ponies from inside the Cabal ships, and reuniting them with their families. The sun slowly set behind the ships, Celestia lowering it out of respect for those that were lost. It brought a beauty to the landscape that Thovog was, until now, unaware of. He’d looked out at the sunset in the past, but each time his mind was clouded by the plans and thoughts of the upcoming battles. For the first time, his mind was clear. No more dark thoughts of war, no worries of judgement from his superiors. He finally felt truly free.

His focus on the sunset was finally broken by a few birds landing on his shoulder, bringing his attention to them, and in turn, the damage to his armour. There were, no doubt, shots that reached his skin that would have to be looked at before they became infected, but at the current point in time, he could bring himself to stand and disturb the peace he’d created around himself. He might have changed, but physically, he was still Cabal. A few bullets would do little to worry him.

And so, he gently sat back to not frighten the birds, going back to staring out at the landscape deep into the night, not caring about the lack of sunlight, and basking in the calmness that covered his body.

The process of moving the ponies from the ship took well into the night, but they managed to get every single one from the cargo bays within the ships. The Guardians said little to the remaining Cabal, being more tired than angry. A pony medic had notified Exodus that Kervis had awoken in an aid tent the ponies had set up outside the bunker, which helped to push him to be faster in his efforts, with the end goal of seeing his fireteam partner again.

As the final pony left the Cabal ships, the Warlock was quick to summon his own ship, rushing back to the bunker and ignoring the communications sent his way. He came just seconds away from losing his entire team to the Cabal, which left his mind scattered. He had repressed his memories of Kalis since she died, but now that Kervis was without a Ghost, his memories of her were all coming back.

His Ghost soon had to take control of the ship, as it became clearer that Exodus was in no state to fly it. Exodus grumbled at this, but let his Ghost take control, making sure to tell him that they needed to go as fast as possible.

His Ghost listened, and it was just a couple of minutes before they set down outside the bunker, Exodus rushing into the tent the ponies told him Kervis was being kept.

His arrival startled a couple of the ponies inside, drawing Kervis’ attention up to him. The Titan was sat on the bed, his armour stripped. Thankfully the ponies had left his undersuit on.

“Steady there, big guy.” Kervis muttered, rubbing his head, “I can’t be shielding these guys from you if you blow up.”

Exodus laughed, louder than usual, as he moved over and hugged his friend, “Sorry that I was worried about you.”

Kervis leaned back a bit, surprised, but managed an awkward pat on the back, “Uh, yeah, thanks. Well, as you can see, I’m fine. Not sure about you, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re hugging me. You never hug anyone.”

This drew Exodus back off of him, ending the interaction much to Kervis’ appreciation, “Sorry, guess it’s just the relief of not having to deal with my entire team dying.”

“Suppose I can understand that. So, uh, what now?”

Exodus hummed, “We’ve got two things to sort out now, getting that Vex portal open again, and working out what we do from here regarding your Light.”

Kervis sighed, “You’re smart, you’ll come up with something.” He gave Exodus a look over, “You look like you could use a break.”

For once, the Warlock didn’t even argue the idea that he was tired. He had used most of his Light in a single day, the loss finally hitting him.

“Yeah, guess you’re right. I’ll be in the bunker, don’t push yourself, okay?” Exodus said, turning to leave the tent.

“If I do I’m sure you’ll know about it before I do anything.”

Exodus turned, fixing Kervis with a stern look that the Titan couldn’t see, but knew he was giving, “Don’t. Push. Yourself.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll be nice and boring, just for you.”

The Exo gave a nod, leaving the tent, finally, and heading to the bunker, his mind now set on the new problems at hand.

Author's Note

Here it is, at long, long last, the second to last chapter in this story.

I want to apologise for the long wait. I'm painfully aware of the over year long wait for this chapter, but various things have happened since then that played a role in slowing this chapter down.

I am, however, still in the mindset to finish this 2 year long project, and I want to thank those that stuck around. I still remember the happy feelings I'd feel as I spoke with you as I wrote this story, and it certainly helped push me to finish this chapter, and likely the last one too.

I'm also aware that some of you will have followed along with Lotus, so when she reaches this chapter, I hope that you enjoyed the story so far! No idea what the last chapter will be like as of yet, but here's hoping it's good~

Thanks again, everyone, especially my friends that stood by me through all the issues that have come up over the last year. It means more than I can describe in words to me.

30) Home

The ruins of Manehattan smouldered as Luna wandered slowly through its streets. The corpses of ponies and Cabal alike piled either side of her as far as the eye could see. The remaining frames from the bunker had been working to push them aside, opening the streets to the beings and vehicles that would be needed in order to clean them.

Looking up, many of the buildings had fallen, a result of the combined firepower from the Cabal ships and Equestrian armies. Those that still stood were filled with holes wide enough to fit multiple ponies through at the same time.

As she turned onto the main street, Chrome trotted up by her side, joining her in her silent walk of the city. It was many blocks in before she broke the silence, “I cannot help but be reminded of Canterlot.”

Chrome nodded, “I can see why, but we can rebuild Manehattan. Might be a bit harder to do the same for Canterlot.”

“Very true.” Luna looked into a wrecked store to the left of her, the pile of bodies just low enough to see inside. The partially skeletal remains of the ponies that once worked there lay near the inner walls, the Cabal not seeing any reason to move them from a building they had no intention of using, “How can a race be so cruel?”

“The Cabal can't really be blamed for something the Primus chose for them. Just a shame we couldn't end this without bloodshed.”

Luna hummed, “They had a choice and they made it. Those that made the correct choice will now live on, and those that didn't will be nothing but food for the earth.”

That drew a raised eyebrow from Chrome, “A little dark, no?”

She chuckled a little, “I'm a Princess. I'm allowed a moment or two to speak my mind, especially in times like these.”

“Of course, wasn't trying to take that away.”

Luna smiled down at the unicorn, “I know. Perhaps you should return to the Guardians, no doubt they will have use of your skill in some way.”

Chrome hesitated, but gave a nod, teleporting away to the bunker and leaving Luna to continue wandering the city, something she would do long into the next morning.

Kervis' vision was slow to return, though some mumbled curses and a couple of head smacks seemed to do the trick. When he could see, he found himself in a small, single bed medical tent, no doubt placed here instead of the larger medical tent for fear of what would happen to his body without his Ghost.

He swung his legs around and off the bed, giving himself a look over. His armour plating had been stripped, and placed carefully near his bed, he'd been left in nothing but his under armour, a relatively thin suit of ballistic fabric and light metals. The tent itself was simple, something that could be quickly deployed in an emergency. Just a frame cot and some antiquated looking medical equipment.

His gently picked his broken helmet up, giving it a look over. The once vibrant green glow flickered, now barely visible. The face section was shattered, a couple of holes here and there. It was lucky that none of the fragments hit his face. Without a Ghost, the recovery process would be long, and probably painful.

The tent flaps opened as he checked over the other pieces of his armour, Exodus walking in and sitting on the cot beside him. The weak frame creaked a bit, bending down with the added weight of the Exo.

“How's your head?” He asked, picking up the helmet Kervis put aside.

“I'm fine. My armour took the hit well enough.” Kervis responded, looking to his friend. Exodus had taken far less of a beating than Kervis, but his tattered robes revealed he wasn't unscathed.

“We'll have to find you a new set. Might be hard without the Tower's supply, though.”

Kervis sighed, “I have a set in storage. I'll pick it up when we find a way back.”

“Speaking of which, we still have no idea how to do that. Our focus left the prospect of returning home pretty quickly when we found the Cabal.”

The Titan shrugged, picking his pulse rifle up and frowning at the state of it, “It's Vex tech. They wouldn't leave themselves stranded here.”

Exodus fiddled with a scrap of cloth on his robes, ignoring Kervis' failed attempts to load a magazine into the dented magwell, “Perhaps they constructed portals here too?”

Kervis slammed the magazine into the magwell, the force being enough to fix the dents to the point that the magazine scraped in, “Maybe, but wouldn't a bunch of alien tech be something the ponies would bring up with us?”

The Exo suppressed a shudder at the sound the magazine made, rolling his eyes as Kervis started yanking on the end of the mag, suddenly realising his mistake. Standing, Exodus replied, “Not if they don't think it's alien.”

Kervis soon gave up trying to retrieve the stuck magazine, setting it aside and slowly standing, giving a thankful nod when Exodus moved over to help him stand upright, “What do you have in mind?”

“That Princess, Twilight, she seems interested in history and the like. She might have an idea of where to look”

“Who? I've met a lot of Princesses in the time we've been here.” Kervis muttered, looking down at the mess of gear he'd been left with.

“The purple one. Smaller than the others.”

It took him a moment to process the memories, “Oh, her. I don't remember talking with her, but I saw her following you around, thinking she was being stealthy.”

Exodus chuckled, “She seems fascinated by new things. No doubt the arrival of aliens was a major turn of events for her. I'll try to find her, meanwhile, you should rest. I've no idea what will happen to your body now that you have no Ghost, and so I'd rather you didn't go running around on more adventures until we know for sure you won't just collapse on us.”

Kervis huffed, “Fine, but I'm finding Lemon first.”

The Warlock placed a hand on his shoulder, “I need a promise from you that you won't go wandering off to punch something.”

“Y'know, not all Titans punch things.”

“You've been wearing a pair of gauntlets that boost how much Light you can push into your punches.” Exodus retorted, nodding a bit to the massive shoulder guards, the gauntlets lying against them.

This drew a second huff from the human, “Doesn't prove anything.”

There was a moment's silence, drawing Kervis' attention up to Exodus' expectant face, he'd even brought out the foot tap, something Kervis hadn't seen since the time they'd fought Crota, “Fine! Fine! No punching anything.”

Exodus nodded, patting Kervis' shoulder and leaving the tent, and giving his partner enough time to work out how he'd present himself. He finally settled with going out in just his under armour, figuring that his damaged plating would make him look more hurt than he actually was.

Leaving the tent, he found himself in the field of tents that was set up after Canterlot fell. Ponies were still being moved to homes, but with how many there were compared to the amount of available housing, the process was slow.

He barely took a step forward before being tackled by a yellow blur, Lemon happily cuddling him when he was sufficiently pinned.

“Hey there,” Kervis chuckled, “I was just leaving to find you.”

“I couldn't wait around anymore,” Lemon replied, giving him a happy smile, “How are you? Exodus told me you were hurt and lost your little Ghost thing.”

The Titan grunted, gently moving her so he could stand and dust himself off, “Feeling a lot better than I probably should. Took a pretty heavy hit, so my armour's wrecked.”

“I'd rather have wrecked armour than a hurt Kervis.”

“Understandable. Why exactly did they move me here instead of the bunker?”

Lemon scrunched a bit, “I really don't know. They put you in a single tent to keep you from accidentally hurting other ponies, just in case, but they kept you in a place full of other ponies.”

Kervis sighed, “I'm sure there's some reason behind it, especially if Exodus is involved. C'mon, we should head back to the bunker.”

Without thinking, he raised his hand, looking at his empty palm with a slow understanding of why it remained empty. After a few moments, he closed the hand, looking back to Lemon, “I, uh, don't suppose you have any transport we can use?”

Ponyville was rather quiet, which wasn't really a surprise to Exodus. Many of the ponies had left town to a gathering a mile away to mourn those that were lost, and celebrate their victory. Those that were left tried their best to continue their daily lives, only a couple even acknowledging his presence as he walked through their town, in the direction of the towering castle on the edge of it.

Turning on a street, he noticed a large crater, bits of what was once a home littering the sides of it. With the lack of smoke, he could only assume it was a stray shot from a past battle, possibly Canterlot.

Shaking his head, he silently vowed to help the ponies that lost everything in the war the Cabal brought. They deserved help, and it was likely that the pony hierarchy would be slow to respond, thanks to the poor state it had been left in.

He pressed on, arriving at the castle's front doors only a few minutes later. Giving a few knocks, he stood back a little, waiting patiently for who he assumed would be a servant.

Instead of a servant, however, Twilight herself opened the door, flinging it open wider when she recognised who was there.

“Oh! Exodus, right?” She questioned, looking him over.

“That's right. I hope I'm not disturbing you.” He replied, standing still to let the curious pony look over his armour.

“Not at all, I just have a little bit of paperwork to sort through. Helping smooth things out for the princesses, you see.”

Exodus nodded, “Makes sense. Mind if I speak with you inside? I have something I think you could help with.”

She beamed up at him, “Of course! Please, come on in.” She stepped aside to allow him entry, standing close to his side as he stepped in, getting a close look at the tattered material on his robes.

“See something interesting?” He asked, taking his helmet off and looking down at her.

“S-sorry, I've just never seen material like this,” She sheepishly responded.

“I'll tell you about it some other time. I'm afraid my priority right now is getting our situation sorted.”

Twilight lead the way into the castle, talking as she walked, “Speaking of which, what exactly did you need help with?”

“We think there may be technology on your planet that could help us return home. The beings that constructed the portals that sent us here will have likely built structures here too, mostly to keep a solid link to a planet they might be able to terraform.”

She gave him an uncertain look, “Terraform? Why would they do that?”

Exodus shrugged, “Not really sure. I suppose they prefer planets their way.”

Twilight hummed, taking him into the library and offering him a seat at a table. He had to shift a bit to sit on it properly, with it being designed more for ponies.

“I think I have some books that might help, though I'm not sure how much you'll find,” She said, flying up to the bookshelves, “You were the first aliens we ever discovered.”

“It's likely that the technology is hidden to keep it out of the way. It would cause problems for the beings if you had found it and learned how to manipulate it.” Exodus explained, looking around the room. Even he had to admit he was impressed with the size of the place.

Twilight returned with a few books, “These are probably your best bet. Want help reading them?”

Exodus stared at her for a moment, “You want to help me read books? First time I've heard that.”

She sat in the chair next to him, “Really? You don't have people that like books where you come from?”

“Oh we do, just none that I work with.”

“That's a shame. I love reading, the knowledge you can get from a single book is fascinating to me.” The alicorn commented, opening a book from the pile and starting the first page.

“I have to agree,” Exodus said, opening the next book in the pile, “Maybe I'll convince Elana to...” He stopped before he finished his sentence, gazing hard at the symbols that lined the pages, “Right. Probably should have thought about that.”

Twilight looked up, “What's wrong?”

“I can't read your language. It was a miracle we even speak the same language, to be fair.”

She scrunched a bit, “Sorry, want me to look for you?”

“I feel that you may have to. I won't be much help, sadly.” Exodus sighed, closing the book and setting it back on the pile.

Giving him a kind smile, she continued reading, “Care to talk about that material now?”

“Oh, I suppose so. We have plenty of time on our hands.”

Twilight giggled, giving him a glance and continuing to read, “That we do.”

Elana was sat on a chair outside the bunker, tinkering with her sniper, when Procor joined her.

Looking up, she smiled at him, “Hey, big guy. Feeling alright?”

He took a chair from nearby and sat with her, “About as good as someone that nearly lost a friend.”

“Keyword's 'nearly',” Elana replied, putting the magazine into her rifle and setting it aside.

“You did good up there. Better than I'd expected.” Procor stated, leaning forward a bit.

Elana nodded, looking out at the fields surrounding the bunker, “Thanks, though I thought I was gonna miss every shot with that Golden Gun.”

“Yet you didn't. Kalis taught you well.”

“She did. Just wish she was here to teach me more.” She said in response, looking down at the battered sniper by her side.

Procor turned his attention to the sky, watching the distant pegasi move cargo from the nearby towns to assist those that needed aid, “Guardians aren't invincible. Understanding that before you enter combat will help to give each action you take meaning.”

Elana looked to him sadly, “But it's that exact thought that scares me every day. Kalis was an experienced Hunter, and Kervis is even more so than her, yet both either died or nearly died in that war.”

“And it's the job of the less experienced Guardians to take their place, and succeed where they didn't. When a Guardian dies, it's for a purpose, even if the Guardian themself doesn't realise it.”

The Hunter managed a weak chuckle, “Some might see that as a bit morbid.”

Procor laughed a little in return, “Our jobs are morbid. Hardly anything new for me.”

The duo fell into a comfortable silence, gazing across the fields of green grass and spotted trees. It was some time before Elana spoke again, “I heard Exodus was looking for a way back home.”

“So did I. I'd wondered how long it would be before he gave up taking a break.”

She nodded once more, “He never struck me as someone that likes to sit around doing nothing. What do you think you'll end up doing, now that everything's said and done?”

“I need to go back. No doubt the Vanguard have gotten themselves in another situation that they need digging out of.” Procor replied, giving his gauntlet a look over, “What about you?”

“I... I think I'm going to stay here. The Tower was only my home for a short period, and I never really did anything of meaning there. I've got friends here, people and ponies I can rely on, and beings that can use my help.” Elana explained, watching him as he checked his armour over.

Procor gave her an understanding smile, “Makes sense. Zavala won't be happy about it, but there's not much he can do to stop you in the end. What about your Ghost?”

Elana cocked her head a bit, “My Ghost?”

“Yeah. From the Ghosts I've seen, they are pretty intensely in favour of protecting the Traveller.”

“Oh,” She muttered, “He's not as okay with it as I would have liked, but with how young I am, I think he understands my reasoning. I hope he does, at least.”

“The Traveller is important, indescribably so, to our Ghosts. Your Ghost, however, isn't you. If you want to make a choice that decides your future, that's not for him to decide.” The Titan patted her arm gently, “If you want to stay, then stay.”

She smiled widely at him, “Thanks, Procor. That means a lot.”

Said Titan stood up, fixing his armour back onto his body, “Not a problem. Gotta help somehow, right?”

“Don't be silly,” Elana said, still smiling as she stood up with him, “We likely wouldn't have managed to win without you.”

Procor simply chuckled, “If you say so. C'mon, we should probably see what sort of trouble Flame's got himself into.”

“Trouble? He didn't seem like a pony that got into trouble when I spoke with him.”

“He's changed a lot since Odium first met him, from how Exodus and Kalis described him.” Procor explained, “Though from my experience with people like him, he's sure to have found something to get into trouble with. Just need to find out what.”

Elana gave a confused nod, “Alright then, I suppose we should go find him.”

“Hey, at the very least it's something to do until Exodus finds that Vex tech. Let's go.”

Not being able to argue with that logic, Elana stood, holstering her sniper and following her fellow Guardian, giving one last look to the fields before focusing on the path ahead of them.

Exodus rode his sparrow in silence, the only sounds being that of the wind battering his robes, and the roaring engine behind him. With the help of Twilight, he had managed to pinpoint a few areas with some promise, though it had taken a few hours to do so. He had already been to two, both ending up being nothing more than ancient pony ruins, something he'd normally be interested in if the Vex technology wasn't so important to find.

“Exodus?” His Ghost asked through his helmet comms, “How are you?”

“I'm fine, why do you ask?” Exodus responded, swerving a little to avoid some boulders.

“I know what's going through your head. The Traveller needs us more than these ponies do.”

Exodus grunted a little, moving his hands a bit to get a better grip on the handles, “I have to disagree. Very little could bring the Vanguard down at this point. They aren't the weak, final hope they once were.”

His Ghost didn't respond for a little while, “I still don't think we should just stay here and abandon the Traveller.”

“Wouldn't call it abandoning,” Exodus said, his tone unchanging, “I suppose it just depends on how you see the Traveller. Some claim it to be a god, others see it as curse. I've even seen people agreeing on the idea that it only cares for itself.”

“Surely you don't think of it that way,” The Ghost said, almost incredulously.

“Naturally, otherwise I wouldn't be a very good Guardian. I still believe that we should be helping those that can't help themselves. That's what we were doing in the City, no?” Exodus looked to the right slightly, at where he correctly guessed his Ghost was floating, invisible.

“There's no way I can convince you to go back, is there?” Ghost sighed.

“Not right now, no. In the future, providing the ponies can care for themselves, I might go back. Until then, I've got a job to do.”

The duo fell back into silence as the distant mountain came into view. He would have preferred to fly there, but Twilight had advised him against it. The area was relatively close to dragon territory, and it wasn't likely that they would take an unknown flying machine flying into their borders lightly.

Upon arriving, Exodus swiftly dismounted his sparrow, allowing his Ghost to send it back up to the Galliot as he began surveying the area. It was the peak of the mountain, quite flat, all this considered. Near the centre of the mountain, a few familiar structures could be seen propped out of the ground, half buried by the probable millennia they had been lying dormant.

He rushed over, quickly getting to work checking the remains. They were Vex tech for sure, but the area didn't make much sense to him. He'd expected them to be buried deep underground, not left out in the open like this.

“Think they are usable?” He questioned his companion, trying to dig at the stone to test its strength.

“The Vex designed these portals to last all of time, but that's all I can really bank on. I should be able to get something out of it providing the lower section of the frame hasn't been destroyed.”

When the stone didn't budge to his partially gentle knocks, Exodus stood, “How long would it take to check?”

“That entirely depends on how tough this mountain is. If it's soft enough to dig through, I'm sure our Titans wouldn't have any issues getting the portal frames back up to the surface.”

“Perfect,” The Guardian nodded, “Bring the team here, we have plenty of work to do.”

An hour later, the team had arrived and were caught up. Kervis, still a little wobbly but demanding that he help, had brought a pickaxe with him, using Procor's Ghost to call his ship from orbit.

As the Titans got to work shifting the stone from around the frame of the portal, Elana and Exodus stood to the side to begin observing the portal, making sure no damage was accidentally given to it.

“Won't lie, I really thought we weren't going to reach this point.” Elana commented, doing her best to watch the portal, though both she and Exodus knew she wouldn't be able to see damage to a structure she didn't understand very easily.

“I can understand that. It gets easier to predict how wars will go, trust me.” Exodus responded.

“Sounds a lot like the other advice I've been given,” Elana sighed, keeping her focus on the portal.

Exodus chuckled, “It's how Kervis was when he taught me. Not sure about Procor, of course.”

The Hunter spared a glance at Kervis, who had taken the upper body of his under armour off at some point, “What kind of person was he?”

“Mission focused, completely humourless. Kalis would drive him insane sometimes, but he's always been a good friend and an even better teammate,” He looked down at her for a moment, “Why do you ask?”

“I'm still a little worried that he won't like me being the Hunter of the fireteam.”

“He'll be fine. You're not trying to be Kalis, you're trying to fill the now empty slot in our team. If anything, I think he'll be grateful that it wasn't a Hunter from the Crucible.” Exodus explained, returning his focus to the portal.

“He has something against Hunters in the Crucible?”

“Personal grudge against them. They, uh, use 'Cheap one shot tactics', apparently. I never did enjoy the idea of fighting other Guardians, so I wouldn't know.”

Elana giggled a bit, “I think he just doesn't appreciate real power.”

Exodus shrugged, “As I said, wouldn't know.”

By this point, the portal had been mostly unearthed, Procor doing most of the heavy lifting with Kervis helping to clear the hole of loose debris. Even from their distance from the hole, Exodus and Elana could clearly see that the portal had survived the test of time, thankfully.

“Looks like it's my turn,” Exodus said, heading over to the Titans.

Elana followed him over, waving a little to Kervis and Procor as they sat down a little ways away, Procor making sure the now winded Kervis didn't collapse as they left the hole. Procor waved back, but Kervis was too tired to even notice.

She slid into the hole, looking the portal over closely. Dust and residual stone still clung inside the frame, and the base was still underground, “So how do we get this thing to work?”

Exodus' Ghost appeared as he responded, “Not really sure. We got a lot of Data from the Vault of Glass a few years back, but there's no guarantee any of it will work”

“Can't we give it a kick? I've seen that work before with machinery.”

“Kick the only known Vex portal on the planet? I'd rather not, though I'm sure there's someone here that would love to vent some anger on a poor, aged piece of tech.” Exodus finished by looking over at Procor, who was helping Kervis to get the top section of his under armour back on.

Elana smiled, “Good point, but I still think a gentle love tap would go a long way.”

Exodus huffed a little, “Maybe. Let's try some non-hostile methods first.”

His Ghost was already working on trying to get the portal to work, inputting various streams of code he had gleaned during their brief time in the Vault. A few minutes of silent waiting passed before the Ghost turned back to Exodus, “I put everything we got into it, I got a response from a few, but clearly it's not enough.”

“Then try the ones you got a response from again,” Elana said, edging closer to the portal.

“I don't really see how trying again would help, but if it makes you happy, I suppose I can oblige,” The little machine responded, going back to the portal. As he began inputting the codes once more, Elana gave the side of the frame a swift kick. The metal rang a little, large chunks of stone falling from it as a flickering portal lit up on the centre of the frame.

Elana immediately fell to the floor, clutching her foot, “See?” She managed to get out through gritted teeth, “Worked like a charm.”

Exodus sighed, “Well, you got it working, I'll give you that. Need some help?”

The Hunter just groaned, letting her Ghost heal her foot enough for her to stand, accepting Exodus' help in getting up, “Thanks. So, uh, I'm guessing it's not meant to flicker like that?”

“It's been buried in rock for some time, so it's really not surprising.” The Warlock explained, turning to his Ghost, “Think you can keep it open long enough to send Procor back?”

The Ghost nodded, “Should be able to, though he won't have long to get through.”

“Good,” Exodus turned his head again, this time to look up at Procor, who was now standing at the side of the hole, “Ready to go?”

“I've been ready since we killed Va'aull,” Procor replied, jumping down beside them and getting closer to the portal's surface, “Well, this looks... safe.”

“My Ghost will keep it open long enough for you to get through. After that, you're on your own. There's no telling where this will drop you.” Exodus explained.

“I'm sure the Vanguard will pick me up eventually. If not, I'll find a way back home.”

Exodus hummed, “Glad you have more faith in their abilities than I do. Good luck, Procor, and thanks for being with us during this.”

Procor gave Exodus' shoulder a friendly pat, smiling as he put his helmet on, “Good fighting with you. Maybe we'll see each other again.”

“Hopefully under better circumstances.” Exodus said, nodding a little.

The Titan gave a short laugh, turning back to the portal, “Alright, I'm ready. See you on the other side, you two.”

“Same to you. Ghost?”

Exodus' Ghost responded by opening the portal, spreading his segments out as he worked to keep the portal stable. As soon as the flickering ended, Procor stepped through, his Ghost following. With no reason to keep the portal open, Exodus' Ghost let it go back to its previous state, sparks flying from the back of the frame. Only moments later, the portal shut down completely, a few bits of metal falling to the ground.

“Well, I guess that's that.” Elana said, still looking at the now smoking portal.

“It is. Come on, there's no chance that thing will work again.” Exodus replied as he climbed out of the hole, helping Elana up when he got out. Kervis was still sat nearby, though looking a lot better than he did.

“Sounds like everything went off without a hitch,” Kervis muttered, still catching his breath.

“As far as I'm aware, yes. Now let's get you to a doctor, I've no idea how you convinced me into letting you overwork your body in this state, but you won't change my mind now.” The Warlock scolded, helping his friend up and calling for his ship.

“I wasn't gonna sit idly by and let you guys do all the work for me. I might be just a human now, but I gotta feel useful somehow.” Kervis said, his voice still quiet.

“There'll be plenty of time for that when you're not collapsing after a few minutes of hard work. Bed rest and medical attention is all you need right now.”

Kervis just grumbled, not looking up as the Galliot arrived, taking them on board as soon as it was able and flying them back towards civilisation.

When the ship was nothing more than a faint blue dot, a floating Vex machine appeared, briefly masked by a black shadow. It looked over the portal carefully, its single blue eye moving to see everything it could from its socketed position.

“This only delays my plans, Guardian,” It said to nobody in particular, “You've not beaten me yet.”

4 Days Later

Kervis stood silently on a hill, looking up at the mountain that Canterlot once stood. Before him was a freshly made grave, with a coffin at the bottom. The only other person with him was Lemon, who had helped him to find what remained of Kalis from beneath the concrete that still lay around the fields at the base of the mountain.

There wasn't much, as most of it was still under a few hundred tonnes of city, but there was enough to bury, at least.

Exodus joined him after a few minutes, having been delayed by Breeze wanting to come with him. He stood beside his friend, though his gaze was down at the coffin, “Have any words?”

Kervis didn't respond for a moment, thinking of what he could say, “...No. I've said mine already.”

Exodus looked at him for a short while before nodding, “Right. Well, we should get this thing filled, she wouldn't want us sitting around all glum.”

That drew a chuckle from the Titan as he grabbed a shovel from nearby, “No, she wouldn't. Care to help?”

“Of course, what kind of Guardian would I be if I didn't?”

Kervis raised his hands a bit, “Point taken. There's a shovel over there for you,” He gestured to the tool, getting to work.

The filling of the grave was silent from there, neither finding it right to speak while doing something like that. Kervis had recovered greatly since the fight with Va'aull, not even breaking a sweat as he shovelled dirt into the grave.

When the job was done, Kervis picked up Kalis' broken Telesto from behind the grave, the only weapon they could salvage. He placed it against the small headstone, remaining crouched there for a short time.

Exodus, taking notice of the time Kervis was spending there, left to head back to the bunker, leaving him and Lemon without another word.

Kervis and Lemon sat motionless for many hours, exchanging occasional small talk about Kalis, but mostly remaining silent to remember her as they knew her.

Lemon finally gave him a gentle poke on the leg, “Kervis? I hate to make you move, but the others will be expecting us back. I doubt Breeze or Elana would be happy if you missed the celebrations.”

“I know. Why don't you head back to the Vienna? I won't be much longer,” Kervis said, smiling at her a little and stroking her mane.

Lemon nodded, heading back to the ship and leaving him alone. Kervis' attention turned to the Telesto, “Suppose that's the end of it, huh? Hope you're happy, wherever you are.”

He stood slowly, giving a slight nod to the headstone, heading back to the ship and returning to the bunker with Lemon, his mind finally at rest for the first time since they arrived.

Author's Note

And there it is, the culmination of 2 years of waiting. I want to deeply apologise for the time this took to finish, really shouldn't have taken that long.

That aside, however, I want to thank each and every one of you, from the people that supported me on day one, to the people that hated the story. You all have been the reason this story was even ever finished, and I'm happy to have finally finished this thing. I made a promise to you all that I'd finish it, and I'm glad I could uphold that.

There may be a sequel to this story, which should probably be obvious. The sequel would certainly not be something I write quickly, I've learned my lesson from this story, but at least it's something to look forward to, right?

Thank you all again for the support in writing this. I also want to personally thank Lotus for her work in reading this story over the last year, you're doing a great job, so keep it up!

See ya in the sequel (Hopefully :rainbowderp: )

Stay awesome :heart:

18) The War Begins Pt 2

The five guardians stood around a large table, joined by three ponies. At Kervis’ side, the War Mage leader stood, a stern look on her face, and to her left, Chrome also stood. Flame was the last one to arrive, sticking beside Kalis as they spoke.

“Are you absolutely sure of this?” The War Mage asked.

“Positive. All the Ghosts have followed their trajectory, and the carriers are making a beeline straight for the city of Canterlot.” Kervis replied, pointing at some dots on a large map. The was a straight line drawn from them to a larger dot marked ‘Canterlot’.

“Then how are we to prevent this? There could be millions of those monsters.”

The guardians were quiet for a moment. They already knew what the outcome of the battle would be, but none of them wanted to say it.

“We can’t prevent it.” Chrome said, looking at the robed pony, “All we can do is slow it, and hope the city can evacuate in time.”

“So what’s the plan here? We all understand the severity of this, but what are we gonna do when we arrive?” Kalis questioned.

“First, the princesses.” Exodus started, “They are looked upon with admiration and respect. If they were to die, the morale of the remaining ponies would plummet. After that, the women and children. I assume the city has a defence force?”

“Yes. It isn’t large, but it should be enough to help move ponies to the ships.” Chrome replied.

“Good enough. We’ll split up, each guardian takes a partner and gathers as many ponies as they can, before bringing them to the ships for evac.”

“I guess one of us will be doing something else?” Kalis asked, indicating the uneven number of guardians.

“Yes. Kalis, how good are you at mobile support?” Exodus said, looking at the Hunter.

“Not bad. What exactly would you want me to do?”

“I need you to defend the ships. The Cabal will know what we are doing, and will try to stop us. We need the ponies protected for as long as possible while we get them out of there.”

“Easy. Just let me know where you will be setting up when you arrive and I’ll be there.”

Exodus nodded at that, turning to Chrome, “Alright, and I need you to take a team of Mages into the city.”

Chrome gave him a confused look, “Why? Surely five guardians are enough?”

“You will need to create a distraction, something to pull the bulk of the enemy away from us. You are skilled in shield magic, and you have been given guardian abilities and armour. You would be perfect to draw the attention of the Primus.”

Chrome pondered on the situation for a second, before nodding and standing tall, “I’ll do my best. Who will I have with me?”

“You can choose your Mages personally, but I ask you bring the new pony along as well.”

Flame looked up at the Warlock in shock, almost not believing what he had heard, “Me? Why me?”

“You are the second pony to be given guardian abilities, and so, you are invaluable in this situation. If you use it correctly, you can tear the enemy apart using invisibility alone.”

“I-I dont think I can-”

“I swear, if you pussy out now, I’m gonna kick your ass. The capital of the country is at stake here, and you are chickening out?” Kalis exclaimed.

“Kalis, please.” Exodus said, “Flame, we need you in this. You wanted to help us fight, and here is your opportunity.”

Flame looked around at the faces before him. Each one was looking at him, not with a malicious look, but one of hope. Well, barring Kalis, of course.

“Alright,” He said after a moment, “I’ll help the best I can.”

“Good. We all know what we are doing then?”

“What will the remaining Mages do?” The Mage’s leader asked.

“We will have to use this town as the evac destination. Have your ponies ready to defend against any Cabal that manage to follow us, and get ready for a large amount of ponies to be on your doorstep.”

She nodded in agreement and left the room quickly, her guards following her out. The remaining guardians and ponies remained at the table, awaiting something from Exodus.

“Okay. We all know what we are doing. If we are going to beat the Cabal there and warn the city, we will have to leave in fifteen minutes. Make sure you are ready by then.” The Warlock explained, walking out of the building, towards the fields.

The others dispersed instantly, moving to their various bunks or homes to gather their equipment, or say their goodbyes. Flame and Elana were the only ones that were ready almost instantly. Flame had nothing with him, so all he had to do was check the light Kalis gave him was still there. Elana, on the other hand, had only needed to check her ammo and she was set.

“Nervous?” She asked, looking at the pony.

“Yeah… a little.” He replied.

“It’s okay to be. This is my first actual battle since being reborn, so I am the exact same way. We had that little fight in the village, but that was nothing compared to this.”

Flame didn’t say anything, instead looking down at the map before him. ‘I wonder what would have happened to me if I hadn’t given Kalis that map...’ He thought to himself, looking over the various dots that signified towns and villages. Catching himself daydreaming, he shook his head and tried to prepare himself for the coming events. He still wasn’t sure of how he was going to be of any help, but Exodus was right in saying that he wanted to help.

“We should probably start heading out.” Elana commented, loading a fresh magazine into her sniper.

“Yeah. See you down there?”

“Yup, see you there.”

With his mind slightly more focused, Flame left the building to find Chrome. A few minutes passed before he found him hugging a pink pony. They were standing in front of a large house, and with the way the pink pony was standing, he guessed she owned it.

He didn’t want to disturb them, so he waited until they had finished. When Chrome started walking away, he trotted over to catch up.

“Chrome?” He called out, drawing the attention of the unicorn.

“Yeah, Flame right?” He said in response.

“That’s right. I was hoping to find out where we would be going.”

“Just stick with me. I’m gonna grab the Mages, and then we’ll hitch a ride with Exodus or Procor.”

They continued walking in silence, looking around them as the many ponies of the town went about their day. Not a single one of them knew of the coming terror, it was almost peaceful.

They eventually arrived at another large building. Chrome ran inside, glancing over the lines of War Mages that had been standing at attention since their leader had called for them.

“You, you, you, you and you. Everyone else can stay here.” He said, pointing at five individual Mages.

The five followed closely, none of them speaking up. There were three mares and two stallions, each dressed in varying coloured robes to show their ranking in the town.

“We should be able to get aboard Exodus’ ship, if not we can-”

Chrome was cut off by the sound of an engine, one he didn’t recognise as a guardian ship. He raced forward, fearing the worst, to find a Cabal dropship hovering above the five guardians. They all had huge weapons pointed at the craft, a couple of them shrouded in light.

The rear of the ship opened, revealing the huge Cabal leader they had met before.

“Guardians! The carriers!” It called out over the sound of the engines.

“We know!” Kervis called back, “You here to help?”

“We are. This ship can carry many more. Load the ponies you need with us, we can move out together!”

“Got it!”

The guardians scrambled to call in their ships, Exodus whirling around to see Chrome coming over with his six team mates.

“Alright, you lot, we need you on the dropship. Tell the Val what you need to do, and he should drop you off there.” Exodus commanded, his Ghost looking up as his ship dropped in from orbit.

“Understood.” Chrome replied, running over to the low-flying ship. When they arrived, a few Cabal lowered their hands to start pulling the ponies up into it.

As they boarded, the Cabal leader spoke up, “Just seven of you?”

“Yeah. We are gonna be creating a diversion to lure as many of the enemy away from the ships as possible.” Chrome said.

“I see. We will help where we can. Do you know where your landing zone is in the city?”

Chrome shook his head, “No, we are going to work with where the guardians land.”

The Val grunted and walked back to the cockpit, where two much smaller Cabal sat in their seats, their eyes focused in front of them. He said something to the two before turning back to Chrome and his team, “We will drop you wherever you need us to, and will assist in your diversion.”

“Thank you. The more help we can get, the better. Alright, team, as soon as we land, we are going to be setting up ready for the Cabal army. As soon as it arrives, we have to make as much noise and light as possible. If we can attract enough soldiers, the guardians may just have a chance of getting a lot more ponies out of there.”

The Mages saluted in response, each of them finding a seat on the sides of the drop ship’s cargo area.

“Odium! We good?” A voice said through the ship’s comms.

“We’re good, Kervis. Ready to move when you are.” Kalis said.

“Then let’s get over there. Move at the max speed of the Cabal ship, and don’t rush forward.”

“Understood.”

Twilight Sparkle walked slowly through the halls of Canterlot Castle. She had been waiting for Celestia’s armies to ready since she had arrived, but they were taking a lot longer than they expected. Much of her army was spread across Equestria, and so they had to be pulled from their posts to return to the capital.

“Is something wrong, Twilight?”

She turned to see Princess Luna following her, catching up fairly quickly.

“Not really, Luna. I just- I’m worried about what could happen to Equestria.” Twilight replied.

“You shouldn’t worry yourself. The Royal Guard are the finest in the land, and the guardians are working to recruit the War Mages, right?”

“Yeah, but you saw how many of them there was. They destroyed one of the biggest cities in the world within hours. I just can’t see how we could ever fight back against them.”

Luna sighed, looking away slightly, “We have to trust the guardians have a plan. They know our enemy better than we ever could, they’ll find a way.”

Twilight was about to say something, when they were interrupted by a guard calling for them. They looked up to find a stallion running as fast as he could, dressed in full combat armour.

“Your majesties, we have detected six craft heading straight to the city!” He cried out when he reached them.

Luna’s face switched to one of panic, “Are they hostile?”

“We don’t know, it may be better if you come see them for yourselves.”

She nodded, and turned to Twilight, “Come up to my tower. You can teleport straight there, I’ll remove the spell that prevents it.”

“Okay,” Twilight said, charging a teleport spell. When she cast it, she was in a beautiful room, with Luna standing on the balcony.

She trotted over and looked up. There were six ships flying at breakneck speeds that would even give Rainbow a run for her money. One of them was significantly more bulky than the others, but they all looked like the ships the guardians used.

As they drew closer, one of the ships pulled away from their formation to fly towards Luna’s tower. As it flew over it, a guardian materialised next to them.

“Princesses, I apologise for dropping in like this, but your city is in grave danger.” The guardian said. Twilight remembered him being referred to as ‘Exodus’.

“What is going on?” Luna questioned, taking a step towards the Warlock.

“Three of the Cabal carriers are moving towards the city. We need to evacuate as many ponies as we can right now.”

“W-what? Can’t you fight them off?” Twilight asked.

“No. Not this many. Our only hope is to get your ponies out of here and to Solacium before the carriers arrive.”

“I see...” Luna trailed off, looking over at the bustling city, “What do you wish for us to do?”

“We are going to get you and any other royalty out first. After that, we will focus on getting the ponies that live in the city away.”

Luna looked at him, horrified at the simple thought of what he had proposed, “You are asking me to leave my ponies when they need me? I cannot do that!”

“The Cabal won’t just come in, kill the ponies and leave, Luna. They will very likely wipe out the city itself. We need to get the royalty out so the evacuated ponies have someone to look up to. Now, we don’t have time for this, I need you to get any other royalty in Canterlot and get them to my ship. I will be waiting in the courtyard.”

With his part now done, the guardian disappeared from sight, his ship flying down into the front courtyard of the castle.

“What should we do, Luna?” Twilight said, worry coursing through her voice.

“As much as I despise the thought, I understand what he is saying. Go get Celestia and Blueblood and take them to the ship. Grab as many maids and castle workers as you can on the way out.”

“But what about you?”

“I will remain. I have the highest combat experience out of the three of us, I’ll hold them off for as long as I can.”

Twilight hesitated, but eventually gave a nod and teleported from the room, leaving the Lunar princess on the balcony alone.

She sighed as she watched the guardian ships land in separate areas of the city. For one thousand years, she had wanted to come home, now, she had to watch as her home was torn apart by monsters.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she turned, leaving the room to find her battle armour.

In the direct centre of the city, four ships hovered above the buildings. Kervis, Kalis, Procor and Elana were spreading out, moving civilians up to the craft. Many of them resisted, but were forced on board.

As they worked, their Ghosts kept an eye on the incoming Cabal.

“The carriers will arrive in five minutes.” Kervis’ Ghost called out to the other guardians.

“Got it. Keep moving these ponies, as soon as your ship fills, transit them back to Solacium and bring it back.” Kervis commanded, pushing a mare and her child towards the Vienna.

They worked tirelessly, filling their ships up multiple times. As they loaded their third wave of civilians, the Ghost called out.

“The Carriers are in range! We need to move faster!”

“Ah shit. Chrome, you hear me?” Kervis said through his comms.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Chrome replied.

“The Cabal are here. We need the distraction asap.”

“Got it. Good luck.”

“Same to you.”

As the carriers came into view, the swarms of fighter craft swooped down on the city, devastating whatever they hit with their cannons. Behind them, drop ships flew in low, dropping Cabal foot soldiers down into the streets. The ponies immediately went into a blind panic, some running closer to the guardians, others running away.

“Kalis, you got the evac zone protected?” Procor shouted over the noise.

“Yeah, just focus on getting them out of there.” Was the response he got.

They continued to work on getting the ponies away. Many had left the zone to find safety in their homes, but as they left Kalis’ protection, they were mowed down by the hundreds of Cabal soldiers that surged through the streets.

The landing zone itself remained fairly free of Cabal, as the distraction did its work. Huge explosions and lights flew from the area they had set up, drawing many of the Cabal over to see what was going on.

Up above, Kalis’ ship was working to divert the Cabal fighters from the battle. It was unarmed, and so it had to use evasive tactics to try and crash them into the mountain, or the evacuated towers.

“We are doing good, Odium! Keep it up!” Kervis said through their comms.

“Gladly, how many poni-”

Elana was instantly cut off, drawing attention to her. A shot had landed on the back of her head, killing her in a split second.

“Elana’s down! Procor!”

“Got it!” Procor shouted, rushing over to Elana’s Ghost. When he reached it, he channelled light into the orb until it had enough to begin the revive process, Elana appearing before them.

She gasped as she hit the ground, looking around quickly.

“C’mon, Elana! We gotta get you back in the fight!” Procor said, pulling her to her feet.

She nodded and raised her rifle, picking off a couple of Cabal that Kalis hadn’t gotten to yet.

Up in one of the towers, a lone Hunter watched the battle through her scope. She was scanning the rooftops for the source of the shot that killed Elana, eventually finding three Psions posted on a tall building, each of them armed with Cabal styled sniper rifles.

She dropped them all with a shot to the head, ignoring the sounds her sniper made as it reloaded itself, “Snipers are down. Keep your eyes peeled for more,” She said to the team, switching her gaze down to the landing zone again.

The distraction seemed to be failing, as the zone had gained quite a few more Cabal to defend against. A quick glance towards the light show could provide a view of hundreds of Cabal surrounding it, gunshots and explosions reigning down on either side.

As much as she hoped otherwise, she knew the distraction wouldn’t hold. The Primus would quickly realise what was going on and would shift his forces over to the evac zone. If that happened, she was unsure if she could keep them back long enough for the guardians to get the rest of the city out.

She was about to take a shot at another Legionary, when whirring brought her eyes up. A Cabal fighter had seen her and was bearing down on her. She tried to bring her rifle up but wasn’t fast enough. It fired upon the flimsy tower, decimating the supports and causing it to fall.

Before she could hit the ground, however, she was caught by something. She looked around to find one of the Princesses flying alongside her, her horn lit up as she carried the heavy Hunter away from the falling debris.

“Holy shit, nice catch,” Kalis said as she got closer to her. The Princess had put a full suit of armour on, that covered almost all her body in metal.

“Thank you. Is there anywhere I can leave you that those craft cannot hit you?” The Princess questioned, shielding them both from stray fire.

“The top of the mountain will do, if that’s possible.”

She didn’t say anything else. Within a moment, Kalis found herself standing at the top of the mountain, looking down at the chaos the Cabal had caused.

“Perfect.” She muttered, crouching and lowering her rifle to look down at the landing zone.

“We can’t keep this up, Kervis!” Procor shouted, reloading his auto-rifle and dropping a trio of legionaries.

“We have to, keep moving the ponies to the ships. These are the last of the ponies that came over here. The others are a lost cause.” Kervis said, slamming a Sol hammer into the face of a Centurion.

“Copy. We gonna move out at the same time?”

“Yeah, send all the ships back at the same time and cloak them. Move them as fast as they can go.”

“Exodus, have the princesses been evacuated?” Procor questioned.

“All but one. The blue one decided to stay and help fight. We got the rest of the royalty out of the city.” Exodus explained.

“Then where are you? We could do with some support!”

Their answer came as a fighter tried to fire upon the landing zone. Before it could open fire, however, the Galliot flew in and fired a single missile, the Cabal craft easily being torn apart by the guardian weaponry.

“You have support, now get moving!” Exodus said, moving his ship around to continue fighting the enemy ships.

The rest of the evacuation went fairly smoothly, all things considering. As the last pony boarded the ships, the Ghosts got to work cloaking the craft and sending them back to Solacium.

“All right! Now we just have to-”

Nothing could be said by the guardians as the ground around them shook. They turned their heads to find a Goliath tearing through the streets, straight at the ships.

“Ghosts! Get the ships cloaked and out of here now!” Kervis yelled, forcing more solar light into his hammers.

“The cloaks are still charging, this technology is still in a prototype phase and Elana’s ship doesn’t even have it.” Kervis Ghost replied, his segments spinning as he worked.

“I don’t care, get those ships out of here one way or the other. We can’t afford to lose any of them!”

The three guardians got to work keeping the Cabal tank at bay. Procor and Kervis circled around using the buildings that still stood to get a better angle on the engines. Elana stayed on the ground, behind cover, firing upon the gun’s sensor in the hopes of disabling it.

Just like the one in Manehattan, it remained hovering until two sniper rounds tore through its front-left engine. It tilted over, throwing its gun off of the shot it was about to take.

“They really don’t stop, huh?” Kalis commented, firing twice more, straight into the front-right engine.

Procor and Kervis gave no reply, instead deciding to pummel the hull of the vehicle with hammers. The armour plating started to buckle, before the entire thing exploded, a hammer striking the ammo supply of the vehicle.

“Goliath’s down. Kalis, keep an eye out for more of them, we will need to know about them as early as possible.” Kervis commanded, returning to the landing zone.

“Can do.”

The guardians tirelessly continued to defend the area, their guns repeatedly running dry and requiring a synth top-up. As they defended, however, the Ghosts noticed one of the carriers doing something he hadn’t seen before.

“Kervis, I think we are in trouble.” He said.

“What’s up?” The Titan asked, still firing upon the hordes of legionaries.

“Look up.”

“My Primus, the Goliath was destroyed by the guardians before it could reach their ships.” A Psion said, the Primus standing in the centre of the room. There were screens across the walls displaying the camera feeds of each of the soldiers.

“Switch to plan B.” The Primus replied, waving his hand dismissively.

“B-but sir! We still have soldiers down there!”

“Do it, Psion. Notify me when the order has been fulfilled.”

The Psion sighed and opened his comms with the weapon and engine crew, “We have been ordered to follow plan B. Charge forward cannons and get us aimed below the city.”

The crew grunted in confirmation, the ship tilting forward to point the weapons at the city’s supports.

“Fire forward cannons.”

A huge earthquake rocked the city as the carrier fired a round into the stone supports under the city. The effects were immediate, as large chunks of the ground began falling away to the bottom of the mountain.

“Odium! We have to move!” Kervis shouted, getting up and running towards the side of the city, his team in tow.

“The fuck is going on?” Kalis asked, watching through her scope.

“Fucking Cabal destroyed the supports to the city. Without them, it has nothing holding it up on the mountain face!”

“Shit, I’m coming down. Get ready.”

“No, do not try to get us out of here, the debris will tear your ship apart. Just fly back to Solacium and tell the princesses what has happened.”

“Like hell I will.”

With that, Kalis closed her comms, her ship flying in and picking her up. She flew straight at the side of the city, following the blips on her radar that marked her team. She was so focused on them, that she didn’t notice the three Cabal fighters tailing her.

An explosion rocked the ship as a shot from the enemy ships landed on the Inquisitor, igniting its engines. Shrapnel sprayed from the broken metal, the now damaged ship starting to whir down.

“Ah, fuck! They got my engine, snuck up on me or somethin',” She cried out, trying to pull the ship up. But with her ship's drives now offline, it was on a downward plummet that she couldn’t recover from.

“You okay, Kalis?” Kervis asked.

“I don’t think so.” She muttered, realising her situation.

“What? No! You gotta pull up, Kalis!”

“Main engines are fried, and the others are following. I’m moving too fast to teleport out onto the ground, and my Ghost is in the cabin with me.”

“Please, Kalis, do something then!”

The ground was approaching fast. The ship just skimmed the edge of the city, giving her a short glimpse of the rest of her team.

“Kick their asses.”

Her ship crashed into the ground in a plume of fire, the only sound from her being static.

“Kalis! No!” Kervis shouted, trying to run closer.

“Kervis, we gotta get out of here. We can’t afford to wait around here.” Procor said, pulling his fellow Titan back.

“Fuck that, she could be alive!”

“I’m sorry, Kervis, but we don’t have time to check.”

The green Titan was about to say something when a new sound rang out. A familiar drop ship flew in front of them, the distraction team waiting in the back of it.

“Get in!” Chrome called out.

The guardians wasted no time getting into the ship, standing beside the others as they flew away from the mountain. With the rear door open, they could only watch as the once great city collapsed down to the ground.

Kervis fell down, removing his helmet. Tears were streaming down his face as he looked at the wreck of his friend’s ship. Before he could say anything, a piece of rubble crashed down on top of the smouldering ship, removing it from view.

And for the first time since he was reborn.

He cried.

Author's Note

[various clatters and crashes]

I'm here! I'm here! So sorry for the huge delay in the upload, it won't happen again! (probably)

So there it is, the beginning of the fight between Odium and the Cabal. Up until now it has been character development, but with this chapter we begin the war :pinkiehappy:

There is going to be quite a bit of hardship for our guardians in the upcoming chapters, I hope you are all ready for it :P

Hope you guys like the new cover art, courtesy of our lovely Chrome Shield (aka Never_Comfortable). I think it's nice to get all five guardians in one picture, though I would like to hear what you guys think about it aswell.

Got a new poll for you guys!:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6MXM68W

EDIT: [sigh] I'm getting tired of asking, but if you click dislike on the story, please tell me why. I'm not gonna get mad at you for disliking it, if you don't like it, that's fine. But I would like to know why you disliked the story so I can fix it. If you don't want to post it in the comments, feel free to message me it. I won't argue with you, nor will I try to get you to like it instead, I just want to know why.

03/08/2022: Minor edit to alter Kalis' death scene, as upon rereading it, I was very much not proud of it.