As the three Guardians followed Twilight and the Elements to the Castle of Friendship, Anubis noticed Dusty appear, seemingly lost in thought.

"What is it?" Anubis asked.

"I think I know who's gotten control of the Taken." Dusty said. "This is mostly a theory, but I was looking over the Book of Sorrows and some Hive Apocrypha I found on the Dreadnaught. Apparently Oryx had more family than just Crota. A second son by the name of Nokris, who was excommunicated by his father, and a sister named...Savathun. Either one of them is strong enough to guide the Taken, but seeing as Nokris hasn't been around for quite some time...Savathun is more likely."

"Great. A Taken "Queen"?" Anubis asked. "As if Crota and Oryx weren't enough for the Hive."

"Sort of." Dusty replied. "Savathun, from what I can gather, has mostly stuck to the Ascendant Realm ever since Oryx gained the Taken Power. But now it seems she has gained her brother's place. Looks like we'll have to deal with her."

"Well, damn." James said as they entered the Castle's living room and sat down. "I think we could use some backup. Like, right now."

"I agree." Rainea said. "But seeing as we're out of reach from the Sol System, we can't contact the Vanguard on our own. We'll deal with that later, though."

As the Guardians stowed their weapons in their inventory, Twilight growled slightly at Anubis.

"Is there anything you want to tell me about these...Taken?" she asked with a terse tone of voice. "As in why they followed you here?"

"Okay, let me stop you there." James said. "One, we didn't know that the Taken would be a problem until about twenty minutes ago. Two, we've never seen Taken like that Knight before at all. Three, we killed the leader of the Taken about a year ago, so we believed they were no longer a threat."

"Well, gee, I guess that's no longer the case!" Rainbow snapped. "You should've at least warned us!"

"Like we could have in the first place? Despite our many powers, we can't see into the future." Rainea said. "We didn't know this would happen, and neither could you."

Twilight looked away, but she still seemed unconvinced.

"Look, we're sorry the Taken attacked the town, okay?" Anubis said. "But we need to focus on the bigger problem here."

"Which is?" Rarity asked.

"The Taken have a new leader." Dusty said, coming out. "The sister of Oryx, one of the Hive Gods we killed. I don't have much official intel on her, but she's likely just as powerful as Oryx."

"And Oryx was how powerful?" Applejack frowned.

"Oryx was able to Take an entire brigade of Cabal Skyburners on the moon of Phobos, turn them against each other, and wipe the entire base clear in minutes." James supplied. "We were caught in the middle of that. And that wasn't even the full extent of his power."

"We killed Oryx with the aid of another team of Guardians." Rainea said. "This time, we slew him in his throne room, on his turf. He died for good, Twilight. This time, we'll deal with Savathun just like we did her brother."

"You are quite naive if you believe I will go down so easily, Guardian."

As a small Blight appeared above the table, the Guardians froze up at the sound of Savathun's voice.

"Savathun, I believe?" Twilight asked.

"Indeed, little pony." the voice replied. "You would do well to cower in my presence, the presence of a Goddess!"

"Like Tartarus we will!" Rainbow bellowed. "Why have you come to Equestria!?"

"I have been here for quite some time, pony." she replied. "Your pride and arrogance will be your downfall."

"Why attack them?" Anubis asked. "Why bring the Taken here?"

"You forget so easily that you killed my brother." Savathun replied. "His armies now belong to me. And now, I will set them loose upon your world as my revenge!"

Twilight was about to retort when Anubis spoke up.

"Fascinating statement." he smirked. "Now let me offer this as a rebuttal."

"Bring it on. We killed Oryx, we killed Crota, we can sure as hell kill you too."

"We will see, Guardian. We will see..."

As the Blight faded, Anubis cracked his mechanical knuckles and turned to his Fireteam.

"Call the Vanguard." he said grimly. "Let them know we need reinforcements."

As it would turn out, calling the Vanguard proved to be easier said than done. The Silverback Nova's comms relay was powerful, but it was not enough to reach the Last City. As Rainea and Storm worked on finding a method to boost its signal strength, Anubis and Twilight sat in the cockpit.

"So, what now?" Twilight asked.

"We get reinforcements, then we hunt down Savathun." Anubis said. "Problem is, we can't reach Earth from here."

"I might have an idea about that." Twilight replied. "The Warmind Harrison gave me a tablet linked to his network. Maybe we could ask him to help?"

"Worth a try." Anubis said as they stood up. "Let me see it."

====

As Anubis typed out a report that Harrison would send to Earth via a superluminal beacon, Twilight found herself dwelling on the fact that Equestria was being threatened once again.

And this time, she didn't know how to deal with or combat it in any way. All she could do was hope the Guardians could end the Taken threat quickly and with ease.

"Twilight?"

She looked up to see Anubis holding out the tablet.

"Harrison's sending our report now." he said. "Plus, he's even identified another method to get our reinforcements here."

"What's that?" Twilight asked.

"Apparently there's a portal system that was used to transfer signals at faster-than-light speeds during the Golden Age." Anubis said. "One of the nodes is here in Equestria, in Harrison's vault. The other is in Warmind Rasputin's own vault on Earth. Luckily, Rasputin's allowing us to use it."

"Is Rasputin not friendly like Harrison?"

"Rasputin doesn't trust us, so to speak." Anubis replied. "We've saved him twice from the Hive and Fallen, but he still doesn't like Guardians interfering with his duties. Long story, but he's touchy, and the Titan Vanguard, Commander Zavala, doesn't trust him at all. He doesn't trust the Warminds in general."

"That's not good." Twilight said. "How can you be sure that these reinforcements will make it?"

"Rasputin's already said he'll allow it here, and he also said that "His debt to us is now repaid"." Anubis replied. "Plus, I have a hunch about which Guardians are coming."

====

In the Last City, inside the Vanguard Room, three additional Guardians were being briefed by the Vanguard on the new Taken threat. A Hunter, Seahawk-2, a Titan, David Paulson, and a Warlock, Adrianne Titus, stood in front of the table, listening carefully.

"Now that you're up to speed, are you set to go?" Zavala asked.

"Yes, sir." Seahawk-2 replied. "We've gotten the coordinates of the node from Cayde, and we're packed up and ready."

"Good. Deploy immediately and assist Horizon on Equis." Ikora said. "Dismissed."

As the three Guardians headed out, Cayde smiled at Zavala.

"You know, I have a good feeling about this. Horizon and Tradewind together? This new Hive god doesn't stand a chance."

"We'll see in time, Cayde." Ikora said. "For now, back to work."

Author's Note

Update!