//------------------------------// // The Noble Guardians // Story: The Noble Guardians // by nobreiner //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle groaned, lifting a hoof to clutch at her aching head. “Wha… What happened?” She said, sitting up and observing her surroundings. To her surprise, she found herself in her bed, in her room in the Ponyville Library. How did I get here? She thought. The last thing I remember, I- Suddenly, in a flash, everything came back to her. The meteor, the Forest, and the Timberwolves. Then… The monsters. One specific image stuck in her head. One of a menacing figure, with a skull for a face, slowly dragging a knife down its shoulder. Slowly, it turned to look at her- She shook the thoughts from her head, and slowly rose out of her bed. Groggily trotting over to her bedroom door, she nearly tripped over the basket at the foot of her bed. She fell to the ground with a yelp, matched by that of her number one assistant. Spike grunted in pain, clutching the side that Twilight had struck with a hoof. Then, realizing what exactly had hit him, he leapt to his feet. “Twilight! You’re okay!” The young dragon said, leaping forward and wrapping his arms around her neck. Twilight quickly reciprocated the gesture, nuzzling Spike and smiling warmly, all of the anxiety she had been feeling melting away in her surrogate brother’s embrace. Eventually though, the moment of comfort ended, and Twilight pulled back, regarding Spike with a worried expression. “Spike, what happened?” Twilight asked, a frown creasing her features. “I went out with Pinkie and Rarity, but we-“ The baby dragon silenced her with a claw. “Don’t worry, Twilight, the others told me everything. Those weren’t monsters, they were Spartans!” Spike said excitedly. Twilight cocked her head in confusion. “Spartans?” “Yeah! They’re this team of big, armored ponies that saved you, Pinkie, and Rarity from the Timberwolves! They’re really cool! They came into town, and fought the Princess, but that was kinda my fault, and-“ Twilight promptly cut off Spike by rushing up to him, her face only inches from his and her eyes wide in shock. “The Princess!” She shrieked. “She’s here? And she fought those creatures?” Mental images of rough-hewn skulls and sharpened blades ran about in her mind, and she drew back from Spike to begin pacing nervously. “This is awful! Is the Princess hurt? Is she dead? Did I lead them here? I did, didn’t I? The Princess is dead and it’s all my fault!” “Twilight, snap out of it!” This shout drew Twilight out of her nervous ramblings, and Spike took this chance to grab the Unicorn’s face in his claws. Then, in a clear, gentle tone, he told the entire story, from when Fluttershy had awoken him, to when the Elements, Noble, and Celestia had left for the Hospital. During the story, Spike had carefully left the details of the fight to a minimum, and by the time he was halfway through the story, Twilight had calmed down enough for Spike to release her. When Spike had finished his story, Twilight had calmed noticeably, but still looked nervous. “W-When did the Princess leave with the others?” The young dragon shrugged in response. “I don’t know, maybe an hour ago? I fell asleep after they left, I had stayed up all night, after all.” Twilight nodded, feeling a small pang of guilt over keeping her assistant up all night worrying. Trotting over to the baby dragon, she nuzzled him and said, “Alright Spike, get back to sleep. You’ve done a good job, number one assistant. I’m going to go make sure the Princess is okay, and maybe meet these Spartans.” Spike smiled and nodded, before leaping back into his bed. Twilight spared the tired dragon one last glance, before turning and galloping out the door. The Elements as well as Noble team looked towards Celestia with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. The Princess remained silent, waiting for a reaction to her declaration. It was Carter who broke the silence first. Raising a brow, he said, “The Noble Guardians?” Celestia nodded. “Yes. From the moment we were introduced, I suspected that you were the heroes of legend.” This proclamation was met with raised eyebrows, and Celestia continued, “I can describe the legend to you in detail, but first we must go to Canterlot.” Carter nodded in affirmation. “Alright, when can we depart?” Celestia frowned. “This legend involves the Elements of Harmony, so we will need to wait for all of them to be present.” Carter cocked a brow. “The Elements of Harmony?” Celestia nodded. “Yes, the Elements of Harmony are the most powerful magical force in Equestria. Each one of the Elements are symbolic of the trait one must personify in order to wield them. There are six Elements in total, and each of them has their own bearer.” Carter sighed. “Alright, so we have to find these bearers. Where are they? In Canterlot?” Celestia shook her head, grinning. “Actually, the Elements are right here.” She turned to Pinkie, Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, before continuing. “Each of the mares before you is one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness." Fluttershy gave a small smile, withering slightly under the Spartans' scrutiny. "Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter.” Pinkie Pie beamed, bouncing in place. “Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty.” The Pegasus placed a hoof to her chest, flaring her wings and grinning proudly. “Applejack, the Element of Honesty.” Applejack tipped her hat, before crossing both right hooves over her left ones. “Rarity, the Element of Generosity.” The fashonista flipped her mane, posing elegantly. “And though she isn’t here, you have already met the Element of Magic, and my personal student-“ “Twilight!” Pinkie Pie cut in, waving a hoof towards the approaching Unicorn. All eyes turned to see Twilight galloping toward them rapidly. Upon reaching the group, she stopped short and instinctively sunk into a bow before the Princess. As she rose, she spared a nervous glance to each of the Spartans. Celestia noticed this, and approached Twilight, nuzzling her gently. “It is alright, Twilight. I am unharmed, and simply glad to know that you are safe.” Raising up, she gestured to the Spartans and said, “Twilight, my student, let me introduce you to Noble Team.” She proceeded to present each member of Noble Team to Twilight. While she seemed confident in her mentor’s trust in Noble, she continued to cast worried glances towards Emile. Once she had finished introducing the Spartans to her Faithful Student, Celestia straightened up and said, “Well, now that we are all acquainted, let us make our way to Canterlot. There, we will learn the cause and purpose of Noble’s appearance in Equestria.” Celestia’s horn then ignited with magic, and the Princess gritted her teeth in concentration. “Everypony get close, and brace yourselves.” The group each drew closer to the Princess, though each had confused looks on their faces. Kat was the first to speak. “What exactly are you going to-“ The rest of her sentence was lost as the ponies disappeared in a flash of golden light. Sergeant Ballistae was having a bad day. He had been assigned one of the most dreaded jobs in the entire Royal Guard. Wake-up Patrol. While it was not common knowledge among the populace, Celestia had a tendency to go straight back to bed after raising the sun. Obviously, no one had the nerve to wake her, and it was Ballistae’s job to get Her Majesty out of bed in time for her Royal Duties. After her first time missing an important political meeting three hundred years ago, Celestia herself had initiated this patrol, but that didn’t make it any easier. Despite knowing her to be a calm, benevolent ruler, everypony was unwilling to rouse the Princess from her slumber. With no small amount of trepidation, Ballistae approached the door, and gave a gentle knock. “Princess? Are you awake yet?” Hearing no response, he knocked again, louder this time. “Princess, you have breakfast with Luna in half an hour.” Once again, silence was his only answer. Ballistae sighed. This was every Guard’s greatest fear: A tired Princess. There was no real danger, sure, but nopony was happy with getting a taste of the Royal Canterlot Voice. Resigning himself to his fate, Ballistae gently nudged open the door. “Princess? Hello?” Ballistae examined the room, curiously searching the empty bedroom. Panic quickly rose as he realized the Princess was nowhere to be found. The princess was missing! Again! That’s twice in four days! Ballistae began pacing throughout the Princess’ room, thinking hard. Okay, this is simple. I just need to find the Captain, and- He was suddenly cut off as a golden flash, and the missing Princess appeared. Ballistae was filled with relief, which quickly turned to confusion as he beheld the ponies accompanying her. There were twelve ponies, six of which Ballistae immediately recognized as the Elements of Harmony. While the general public was for the most part uncertain of which ponies wielded the Elements of Harmony, every member of the Guard was aware of the six mares’ status. It allowed the Guard to immediately recognize the Elements and assist them in any way they can. The other six, however, immediately drew Ballistae’s attention. There were four stallions, and two mares. Each of them was taller than him, and had a strange piece of metal somewhere on their body. From their rigid posture and confident air, Ballistae assumed they were soldiers, but unlike any he had ever seen before. Quickly recovering from his shock, Ballistae rushed up to the Princess and saluted smartly. “Your Highness, what happened? Are you hurt?” The Princess regarded Ballistae with some surprise, and the Sergeant reminded himself that he was in the Princess’ room. Ballistae fixed Celestia with a nervous stare, which the Princess met with a gentle smile. “Calm yourself, Sergeant.” Celestia assured him. “I am fine, and I was simply making a short excursion to Ponyville.” Ballistae balked at this. “Without telling anyone?” He asked, fighting to keep the respect in his tone. “Without your Guard to protect you?” Celestia frowned slightly and Ballistae cringed. “I am more than capable of handling myself, Sergeant. Now may I ask what you are doing in my private quarters?” The Sergeant’s eyes grew wide in terror, and he quickly stammered out a response. “Y-Your Majesty, I was simply coming to remind you that your meal with Luna is in half an hour.” Celestia’s eyes widened, and her frown deepened. How could I forget our breakfast together! But, the Guardians… I’m sure she’ll understand, I’ve been waiting for this for over a thousand years!” So, resignedly, Celestia turned to Ballistae and said, “Please inform Luna that I will be unable to make it to breakfast. Tell her that I will be in the Hall of Ghosts.” Ballistae cocked his head in confusion. “The Hall of Ghosts, Princess?” Celestia nodded. “She will know what it means.” Ballistae nodded, and quickly darted out of the room. Turning to address the group, Celestia continued, “The rest of you, please follow me.” The ponies nodded, and together they proceeded out of the Princess’ chambers. The ponies followed the Princess in silence, before turning down a barren corridor. The corridor appeared to be deserted until they finally arrived at a door unlike any of them had seen before. Instead of the finely polished ivory that made up most of the Palace, this door was crafted out of rough stone and seemed to have been cut into the mountain Canterlot was built on itself. Turning to the ponies, Celestia said, “This is the entrance to the Hall of Ghosts” Twilight looked to her mentor with curiosity. “Princess, what is the Hall of Ghosts? I don’t remember that from the other times you showed me around the Castle.” Celestia smiled down at her Faithful Student. “That is because no one has entered the Hall of Ghosts in over two thousand years.” The assembled Elements and Spartans all looked to the Princess in shock and confusion. Twilight was the first to speak up. “Princess, why would you build a hall then close it off for two thousand years?” Kat looked to Twilight with confusion. “Why are you asking her like it was her decision? It’s not like she was there two thousand years ago.” Every one of the Elements turned to look at Kat with a cynical expression. “What the hay are ya talking about?” Rainbow Dash said skeptically. “The Princess is thousands of years old! Of course she was around back then!” For Carter, Jun, and Six, this was relatively unsurprising. For the rest of Noble, however, this caused some disbelief. Kat was the first to speak. “That’s ridiculous, no living thing can survive for thousands of years; it’s just not possible.” Jun chuckled. “You think that’s bad, you should have seen her r-mmph!” Carter slapped a hoof over Jun’s muzzle, cutting off his speech and causing him to glare at Carter. Carter gave him a warning look, before turning his gaze to Kat. “Kat, I get that it’s strange, but for the sake of figuring out what we’re doing here, can you just… hold it in until we’re done?” Kat gave Carter a dubious expression, but eventually sighed and relented. Celestia, meanwhile, strode up to the door and lowered her head, before inserting her horn into a hole beneath the door’s handle. Her horn ignited, and a light began to spread from the hole, traveling up the door and forming a shape of luminescence. Slowly the shape began to fill out, until it finally formed into a shape identical to the one on Carter’s flank. Then, in a burst of light, the image disappeared, and the doors swung open. Past the door was a darkened passage, with a small pinprick of light in the distance. Without another word, Celestia strode through the doorway and into the darkness beyond, the Elements and Spartans following closely behind her. The next minute was spent in silence as the group marched closer to the light, the illumination from the doorway fading behind them. Before they could be surrounded in darkness, Celestia lit her horn, its strong golden glow acting like a miniature sun within the tunnel. Eventually, the silence was broken as Kat moved to Carter’s side, giving the Commander a curious glance, she said, “So, what was Jun saying earlier?” Carter sighed, mentally reminding himself to give Jun a lesson on chatter. “He was going to say that the Princess… raises the Sun.” They proceeded without a word for a moment, until Kat finally found her voice. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding me, right? She raises the sun? The planets orbit the Sun; there is nothing controls the motions of the stars.” Skepticism was easily traceable within Kat’s tone. Jun simply gave Kat a shrug. “Well, tell her that.” He said, pointing to Celestia. “I saw it with my own eyes.” “Not to mention the other magic she performed. You seemed pretty unfazed by that.” Six added. Kat shrugged. “Well, after seeing her shoot balls of fire at us, I was pretty much open to her using magic. But raising the Sun?” She shook her head. Until now, the Elements had remained silent, but at Kat’s question, Twilight spoke up, turning to the Spartans with a smile growing on her face at the opportunity for a lecture. “Well, actually, the Princess raises the sun by-“ She was cut off as a sharp gasp sounded from the ponies around her. Turning back around, Twilight felt her jaw drop at the sight before her. The group had entered a massive chamber, larger than any room in the Royal Castle. From the looks of it, it had been carved into the interior of the Mountain. The ceiling was hundred of feet up, but was easily visible in the enclosed cavern by the chamber’s walls. Every inch of the walls was lined with thousands, if not millions, of luminescent gems. The gems were colored all shades of the Rainbow, and from beside her Twilight heard Rarity swoon delightedly. What drew her attention next, however, was what lay in the very center of the chamber. It was a massive obelisk, easily at least two stories tall. It was shaped simply, just a solid, four-sided pillar topped by a pyramidal point. On its front was the same symbol that was on the door, Noble Team’s emblem. At its base were six gems. Each gem shaped like a hexagonal pillar, about a third the height of the obelisk and flat on top. Furthermore, each pillar was made of a different type of jewel. The jewel to the farthest left was a brilliant emerald. To its right was a shining turquoise. Next in line was a faded yellow Topaz. After that was a flawless sapphire. Following this was a glowing citrine. Finally, on the far right was a blood red ruby. Noble Team, for the most part, was pretty impressed. However, their reaction was nothing compared to that of the Elements. All six of the mares froze in place, their eyes locked on each of the jewels. Slowly, hypnotically, they each began to march towards one of the gems; ignoring the curious stares Noble Team was giving them. As Twilight began to pass Carter, the Commander reached toward her in an attempt to stop her, but a soft “Don’t.” drew his attention away from Twilight, and toward Celestia. The Princess was staring at Twilight as the lavender mare drew closer to the gem with a somber expression on her face. “She has to do this. They all do.” Confused, Carter cast his gaze back to the six mares. Finally, the Elements had reached the gemstones. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all stood in a line before the pillars. Then, as one, they all raised a hoof and pressed against the surface of the jewel before them. Applejack roughly shook her head, fighting a wave of dizziness that had taken over her. Slowly allowing her nausea to pass, Applejack focused her gaze on the ground beneath her, and her brow furrowed in confusion. Instead of the flat stone of the chamber that she had been in moments ago, the surface beneath her hooves was one of reflective purple metal. Puzzled, Applejack looked up from the floor and gasped at the sight before her. Before her was a window to the stars. There, not ten yards in front of her was some sort of glimmering blue screen, and beyond that, the cold vacuum of space. With her legs trembling, threatening to fall out from beneath her, Applejack hesitantly made her way closer to the window. As she began to make her way to the screen, however, she was stopped by a muttered “Damn it.” from behind her. Whipping around at the sudden noise, Applejack felt her jaw drop at the sight before her. The chamber she had been in was now radically altered. Where there was once stone and crystals, now there was only fluorescent purple and silver metal. Sloping ramps decorated the area, leading up to terraces and doors. In the center of the chamber stood three towers, all of them glowing with some sort of incandescent light. However, what drew her attention was the source of the curse, a large olive grey figure, whose drab colors ironically made it stand out among the brilliant flair of its surroundings. The figure was large, many times her size, and was shaped roughly like some sort of elongated bird, with two stubby wings sticking out of its sides. From the look of it, as well as the empty space near its rear, it appeared to be some sort of ship, like the airships she had heard about in Canterlot, only without the balloon portion. From beneath the ship hung a large cylinder made of shining metal and covered in glowing blue lights. Finally, standing next to the cylinder were two figures, encased in armor. At first, Applejack stood in shock, gaping at the two bipedal figures before her. Despite the change in shape, they held a remarkable similarity to two of the Spartans she had met just hours previously. The first one was tall, at least a head taller than the other, and towered over twice her height. Its bulky, mismatched, and battle-scarred armor instantly allowed her to recognize the figure as Jorge. The other was garbed much more simply, but its steel-grey color and off-yellow visor, not to mention its slightly slimmer build allowed her to identify the Spartan as Six. If the two realized that Applejack was observing them, they made no motion to acknowledge her. Jorge muttered something under his breath, and then turned away from a panel built into the cylinder, facing Six before saying in a grim tone, “Well, I got good news and bad news. This bird took some fire and her thruster gimbal is toast, which means the only way off this slagheap, is gravity.” Six glanced at the ship quickly before responding, “And the good news?” “That was the good news.” Jorge responded simply. A silent moment passed between the Spartans, before Jorge reached up to grasp his helmet, pulling it off as he grunted, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He let the helmet fall from his grasp to his side, and Applejack glanced at it before looking up to witness Jorge’s features for the first time. He appeared notably similar to his form as a stallion, with tanned skin, a multitude of scars adorning his face, along with a rough beard. He gave Six a grim look, before continuing. “Bad news is, the timer’s fried. Gonna have to fire it manually.” Six looked down for a moment, before meeting the Spartan’s gaze and saying firmly, “That’s a one-way trip.” This caused Applejack to cock her head in confusion. What were they talking about? And what did Six mean by a ‘one-way trip?’ Despite Six’s obvious misgivings, Jorge was resolute in his response. “We all make it sooner or later. Better get going Six, they’re gonna need you down there.” His tone grew increasingly solemn as he continued, reaching up towards his neck with one hand. With a small jerk, he removed his dog tags and continued, “Listen, Reach has been good to me, time has come to return the favor.” He held out his hand, the dog tags hanging loosely from his fingers, and Six reached a hand up to clutch his tightly. Immediately, Jorge hoisted the Spartan into the air. “Don’t deny me this.” Wrapping Six in a firm bear hug, Jorge slowly made his way to the screen, passing by Applejack without so much as a glance, before stopping mere feet from both the screen, and the mare watching with mystified fascination. “Tell ‘em to make it count.” With those final words, Jorge heaved Six forwards, tossing her through the screen and sending her plummeting to the planet below. It was with these words that Applejack finally connected all the pieces in her mind. Whatever Jorge was going to do, he certainly didn’t expect to survive. Fearing not only for her safety, but the Spartan’s as well, Applejack rushed forward, stepping in front of Jorge as he lumbered back towards the ship. “Now wait just a gal-dern minute here!” Applejack shouted at Jorge, drawing zero reaction from the Spartan. “Ah don’t know what yer plannin’ ta do, but Ah’m not just gunna let ya kill yerself!” Again the Spartan ignored her, and Applejack snarled in anger, “Fer pony’s sake, listen ta me!” She then whipped around and launched a solid buck towards the Spartan. To her surprise, she found herself falling flat on her stomach, as her legs passed harmlessly through Jorge, who continued his single-minded advance towards the ship. As he reached the cylinder, Applejack rose to her hooves, wincing at the pain in her stomach. She could only look on in horror as Jorge placed his hand against a panel built into the cylinder’s side, Applejack rushed forward in another futile attempt to stop the Spartan, but she was too late, as Jorge gave his home world one last look before activating the bomb, causing Applejack’s vision to explode into blue light. The Princess and Noble Team looked on in wonder as the six mares were suspended in midair, each of them floating gently before one of the crystals, their eyes filled with a brilliant white light. Turning towards the Princess, Carter said worriedly, “What’s going on? What’s wrong with them?” The Princess gave him a gentle smile. “Do not worry, Spartans. They are merely experiencing a vision. One that will determine each of your places within the Legend of the Noble Guardians.” Carter frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion. “What is this legend? You’ve gone on about how we are a part of it, but what exactly does it entail?” Celestia was silent for a few moments, regarding each of the Spartans before finally answering, “Over one thousand years ago I used the Elements of Harmony, six magical artifacts of enormous power, to defeat an enemy known as Nightmare Moon. After I had used them, however, they vanished, replaced only with five stone orbs. But as the Elements were destroyed, I was given a vision. This vision contained two parts, the first being that in a thousand years, the stars would aid in her escape, and only the Elements of Harmony would be able to defeat her. The second part, one that I hid from the world, was that after the Elements of Harmony defeated Nightmare Moon for a second time, a group of warriors would reveal themselves. These warriors would be true Paragons for the values necessary to defend Equestria. These warriors would be strong, and swift, and brave. But more than anything else, they would be Noble.” Rarity stumbled forward, surprised to find herself no longer in the paradise of the jeweled chamber, but instead in the middle of some sort of crater. Looking about frantically, she tried to make sense of her surroundings. How had she gotten here? Her musings were interrupted as two metal doors opened up to her left. Whipping around to face them, Rarity saw five figures emerge from the two chambers. Despite the altered figure and bipedal stance of the figures, Rarity quickly recognized the armor as that of Noble Team. Oddly enough, Jorge seemed to be missing. She had little time to consider this fact before the Five Spartans bolted towards her, and Rarity quickly sidestepped as Carter blew by her, shortly followed by Emile and Jun. As the three men stopped before a large metal door, Rarity turned her attention back towards Kat and Six. The two Spartans were running full pelt toward the others, though from Rarity’s position a few feet away, she was able to make out that Kat was in fact talking, her voice slightly muffled from beneath her helmet. “Where does he get off calling a demolition op priority-“ any further comment was silenced as a pink flash suddenly darted into the top of Kat’s skull, before bursting out the front of her visor. Immediately, Kat dropped like a marionette with severed strings, keeling over, only to be caught by Noble Six. Rarity could only gasp in horror, one hoof rising to her mouth in shock as Six looked up towards the source of the projectile. Seeing a large purple craft hovering above the crater, and hanging from its side was a horrible monster, clutching some sort of elongated device, with several pink crystals sprouting from its center. As Rarity stood there in open-mouthed shock, Six took action, snatching the pistol that hung at Kat’s hip and leveling it at the purple craft, before rapidly pulling the trigger, sending a series of shots directly towards the hovering craft. From behind her, Rarity heard a loud series of ratatatata noises, and turned to find the other three Spartans aiming their own rifles at the ship, sending a hail of bullets towards it. For a few seconds, the Spartans continued to pepper the ship with shots. Then, Six pulled the trigger once more, only to be met with an empty click. Quickly clipping the pistol to her side, Six wrapped her arms around Kat’s body and began to drag her towards the shelter. Rarity was frozen in place within the middle of the crater, staring open-mouthed at the scene before her. “C’mon, C’mon! Get in!” Carter shouted to Six, beckoning urgently. “Let’s go! Come on!” Jun added. Six dragged Kat’s body through the entrance to the shelter, as the doors began closing slowly. Just as Six managed to get through the entrance, the metal doors shut with a resounding thud. It was this sound that finally managed to snap Rarity out of her stupefied trance, and her eyes widened in horror as she realized she was alone in the crater. Rushing forward to the door, Rarity began pounding against it with all her strength. “Please, wait! Don’t leave me out here!” Rarity continued to bang on the door until suddenly a new sound drew her attention. This sound started as a small whirring, but rapidly grew stronger until it became a deafening roar. Clutching her hooves to her ears in an attempt to lessen the now painful intensity of the noise, Rarity stumbled back, until she was once again directly beneath the opening in the roof. Looking up to the sky, Rarity screamed. Up in the sky… something was taking position just above her. It was massive, completely dominating Rarity’s view of the sky above her. And at the center of her vision, directly over her head, was some sort of glowing orange circle. As she looked on, the glow began to increase in intensity, as arcs of light began to spread from its center. Rarity was still screaming as the light suddenly burst forward, rushing down to her frozen form. There was a moment of silence as each member of Noble attempted to process this information. True to form, Kat was the first. “Alright, I suppose that that explains how you knew it was us.” She said, to which the Princess nodded. “Yes, that, as well as a few other hints.” Celestia answered. Kat frowned. “But, that still raises a few questions. Like why us?” She gestured to the other Spartans. “Why Noble?” Celestia smiled at Kat. “Because as I said, you are all true exemplar of what it takes to defend Equestria. Leadership, Strategy, Duty, Fury, Hope, and Courage, these six values can be found in each of you, and together you form the single greatest defense force ever known.” Emile huffed. “So, what? It’s gonna be our job to defend you ponies? What if we refuse?” Carter shushed the Spartan, but Celestia simply looked to Emile with a solemn expression. “Because it is your destiny. You are bound to protect My Little Ponies at all costs, as you did with your own people.” Twilight gasped, sucking in a breath as her knees gave out from beneath her, letting her fall onto a hard metal surface. Panting, Twilight looked up and began to observe her surroundings. She appeared to be in some sort of metal chamber, and as she attempted to stand she felt a sense of acceleration that made her stumble backwards. Turning around in an attempt to gain some leverage, she was met with the sight of being at least a hundred feet above a rocky canyon, and screamed. Backpedaling wildly from the edge of the Pelicans bay door, Twilight frantically observed her surroundings. How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was being in the Hall of Ghosts in Canterlot, when she looked towards the onyx pillar in the center, something had taken hold of her. She had blindly marched towards the sapphire at its base, oblivious to the world around her. She remembered touching the gem, and a bright flash, and now she was here, in some sort of flying machine! Suddenly, the floor lurched, and Twilight stumbled forward, nearly tripping on something in front of her. Looking down, she was surprised to see a helmet, lying discarded on the floor. After a moment of thought, Twilight realized she recognized it as the helmet from one of the Spartans she had seen in the Everfree Forest. However, this helmet was shaped slightly different, the faceplate was squashed, incapable of fitting the Spartans muzzle. The machine gave another shake, and Twilight struggled to remain on her hooves. Cocking her head curiously, Twilight looked up from the helmet, and gasped. There, not five feet in front of her, the machine’s interior narrowed into a cockpit, and seated in it was a creature that Twilight had never encountered before. It was a tall figure, easily twice her height, horn included, though its seated position did distort her perspective a bit. From her position behind the figure, she could only see its back, but from what she could see, the figure was garbed in armor similar to that of one of the Spartans in the Forest. Realizing that this must be one of the Spartans, yet drastically altered, Twilight carefully crept forward. “Umm, excuse me?” Twilight asked quietly, hoping not to startle the Spartan. If the figure heard her, however, he didn’t show it, keeping his gaze locked on the instruments in front of him. Confused, Twilight drew closer. “Excuse me, Mister Spartan?” Twilight finally came up to the figure’s side, and inspected him more closely. Within a second Twilight recognized the pilot’s features as those belonging to the Commander, despite them being warped through his Human appearance. What drew her attention though was the fact that he was completely ignoring her, his grim stare locked onto the windscreen in front of him, occasionally flicking down to the glowing instrument panel before him. Twilight was just about to speak up again when Carter’s eyes widened in horror. Twilight quickly followed his gaze and felt her jaw drop. Below them was quite possibly the biggest monster that she had ever seen. It was two stories tall, and completely covered in some sort of shining purple armor. It crawled along the cliff’s face, its four monstrous legs causing a loud boom to sound with each step. Twilight found her gaze locked in horror at the titanic creature before her, and almost missed Carter reaching out and flicking a switch on the instrument panel. “Noble-“ Carter began, before lifting a hand from the instrument panel to cough into the back of it. Twilight shot him a worried look, which only deepened as she saw his hand come away from his mouth coated in blood. She gave him a quick once-over, and felt her eyes widen in horror as she saw the ragged, bloody holes that decorated the front of his breastplate. She looked up at the Commander in concern, but he had already recovered and continued, “You have a… situation.” Over the COM link, a voice Twilight recognized as Emile’s responded, “Mother- We can get past it, sir.” Carter gave a deep sigh, his determined expression softened into one of resignation. Carter’s next words rang with a sense of fatalism. “No you can’t. Not without help.” Twilight looked to Carter in panic. How could they possibly defeat this leviathan? Emile apparently was in agreement, as his next words were filled with both worry and disbelief. “Commander, you don’t have the firepower.” The Commander pressed a control on the throttle as the ship passed over the monstrous creature, causing sharp bolts to pepper the behemoth’s hide. They unfortunately did little than get the creature’s attention, and Twilight gulped as the creature turned its glowing green eyes towards their craft. “I’ve got the mass.” He said resolutely. As Carter yanked the throttle, sending the ship into a wide arc away from the creature, Emile’s response was filled with suppressed grief. “Solid copy… Hit ‘em hard, Boss.” As the ship swerved back around, the monster not filling the entirety of the view screen, Twilight turned to the Commander in panic. “No, please!” She pleaded. “You don’t have to do this!” But her calls went unheeded; Carter gave no acknowledgement that she was even there. Instead, the Commander locked his gaze with that of the beast, and in his last few moments, gave his final transmission. “You’re on your own, Noble. Carter out.” Twilight could do nothing but scream as the ship smashed into the creature, engulfing her and the Commander in brilliant orange flames. “But that’s just it.” Emile said brusquely. “I don’t believe in any ‘destiny’ telling me who and what I fight for. I fight for Humanity, so send us back and let us kill some Covenant again.” This was met with a nod of approval from Six, Jorge, and Jun, as well as a few worried looks from Kat and Carter. Celestia, on the other hand, only looked to the Spartan with a deep sympathetic sadness. “I am afraid to say, that returning to your world is impossible. I’m sure you’re aware that you came to Equestria only after your own demise.” Carter stepped forward. “Yes, we’re aware of that. How are you?” There was a cry of terror, and the Spartans turned to look at the suspended Elements, where expressions of horror and agony were clear on their faces. Frowning sadly, Celestia turned to the Commander and answered, “Through the same means the Elements are learning of your demise: by seeing it firsthand.” Pinkie Pie shook herself, leaping to her hooves. “Wow! Now that was something! All those pretty gems, and the lights!” Suddenly, Pinkie seemed to take in her surroundings. “Huh? Where’d all the gems go?” A sudden BOOM forced Pinkie’s attention to the skies, where she saw a large explosion of purple light. “Oh, WOW! Fireworks!” Whipping a box of popcorn out of nowhere, Pinkie settled down to enjoy the show, when she spotted some sort of aircraft flying towards her. It was large, and vaguely resembled one of the airships Pinkie had heard about in Canterlot, but lacked the entire balloon portion. As Pinkie observed it, she wondered at how it was suspended in the air, but that thought was quickly pushed aside in favor of why the ship was flying while there were fireworks going on. As if in response to this thought another resounding BOOM sounded from just behind her, and a beam of light lanced out from somewhere behind Pinkie to strike the ship from the air, causing it to erupt in the same purple light from before. As Pinkie witnessed the ship’s destruction, she felt her hair begin to droop ever so slightly. I don’t think those are fireworks… Turning toward the source of the blast, Pinkie found herself at the base of some sort of tower. It was tall; easily six or seven times her height. The top of the structure extended outwards into two long prongs, connected by a series of rails. To the left of the prongs was a small cabin, protected by a panel of glass. Leading from the base of the tower to the cabin was a narrow ladder. As Pinkie watched, the top of the tower began to glow, the light flowing down the prongs with a strange vzzzzm sound, before another BOOM issued from the prongs, and another beam of light shot from between them towards yet another of the oncoming ships. Realizing that the entire tower was some sort of cannon, Pinkie frowned, and focused her attention on the canopy. Zipping up the ladder in a pink blur, the mare pressed her face against the glass in an attempt to see inside the canopy. To her surprise, she found the creature operating the controls to be some sort of alien. From a glance, Pinkie recognized the figure as one of the ‘humans’ Carter had described back in the Library, and the familiar skull etched into the figure’s face allowed her to identify it as Emile. Pounding on the glass furiously, Pinkie shouted at Emile, “Hey Emilio! What are you doing in there? And how’d you get to be human again? Helloooo!” To her surprise, the Spartan ignored her cries, instead bringing a hand up to the side of his helmet. After a moment, he said, seemingly to no one, “You’ll have your window, sir.” Emile then focused his attention on the controls, bringing the cannon around to fire at another ship. Before he could fire another shot, however, a shadow seemed to pass over the pair. Emile looked straight up, and cursed, “Shit.” Turning to follow the Spartan’s gaze, Pinkie found herself looking at the underbelly of one of the purple ships. A hatch suddenly opened on the bottom of the ship, and from it dropped a massive creature, even taller than Emile. Crying out in surprise, Pinkie jumped out of the way as it landed on the glass canopy, and raised one of its arms. From its wrist sprouted a brilliant beam of light, and the monster was just about to swing the blade down into the glass when the canopy exploded outwards, flipping the monster head over heels and causing it to land just in front of Pinkie, on the platform just beside the controls. Pinkie looked down at the monster, observing its pitiful attempts to rise, despite the gaping wound in its chest. Emile then emerged from the control chamber, cocking his shotgun before placing the barrel flush against the Elite’s head. Then, before Pinkie could turn away, Emile pulled the trigger, painting the platform with the Elite’s brain. Pinkie screamed, but Emile’s only reaction was to cock his shotgun again, before shouting defiantly to the heavens, “WHO’S NEXT?” Looking up at the Spartan, Pinkie’s eyes widened. She reached a hoof out to Emile, shouting a warning at the top of her lungs, but it was too late. From behind Emile came yet another of those monsters, this one armed with a longer, double-edged version of the glowing blade. Pinkie could only watch as the sword was plunged into the Spartan’s chest. Wrapping one hand around Emile’s neck, and using the other to fully impale Emile upon the glowing blade, the Elite lifted Emile bodily into the air. This did little to deter the Spartan, however, as he lifted a hand to clutch at the kukri strapped to his shoulder. Unsheathing the knife, Emile twisted around in the Elite’s grip, as the monster withdrew the sword in preparation for the killing blow. Emile was faster though, as he lunged toward the Elite, roaring, “I’M READY!” He then sank his kukri into the Elite’s neck, burying it to the hilt. “HOW ‘BOUT YOU?” With a firm grip on his kukri, Emile threw his weight to the side, rolling both himself and the Elite off the platform, down to the gantry below. The two rolled atop each other for a moment, each of them fighting for dominance. Eventually it was Emile who was victorious. He sat on the Elite’s back, pinning the zealot facedown beneath him. Not wasting any time, Emile ripped his kukri from the Elite’s neck, sending a gout of purple blood to paint the metal beneath them. Raising the knife above his head, Emile brought the kukri down hard into the Elite’s back. The zealot spasmed beneath him, feebly attempting to breathe through its mutilated throat. As the zealot began to bleed out, it cast its dying gaze upwards, but was only met with the ghastly vision of Emile’s visor. The two froze in this position for what seemed like an eternity, each of their gazes locked, each of them waiting for the other to succumb to their wounds. Eventually, the trauma became too much for the zealot, and Emile watched the life fade from his eyes, before it slumped over, dead. With the last of his strength, Emile pulled himself upwards from the Elite’s corpse, before crawling over to the rail surrounding the platform. With a herculean effort, Emile rose into a sitting position, collapsing against the rail. Throughout this entire display, Pinkie could only watch in horror, her mane growing straighter as she witnessed the brutality before her. As Emile finally managed to prop himself up against the railing, Pinkie slowly stepped over, carefully skirting around the Elite’s corpse. As Pinkie drew level with the Spartan, she looked down to his chest, and fought down a sob. There, on Emile’s chest were two deep punctures, streaming blood. As she looked on, Emile lifted a hand in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding, but it was no use, his blood continued to flow through his fingers. “E-Emile?” Pinkie said, moving closer to him. “You… You’re going to be alright, won’t you?” All cheer and happiness was gone from her voice, replaced with the terrified pleading of a child. “You were fine back in Equestria. You’re gonna be alright here, right?” Emile seemed to ignore her pleas, wheezing heavily but otherwise remaining silent. When he did finally speak, it was in a strained voice, with a wetness behind it that could only be attributed to blood pooling in his throat. “Covenant bastards… You took everything. You think you won.” Slowly, he raised his head to gaze at the Elite’s corpse. “But you… You didn’t win, did you?” He chuckled, but quickly was reduced to hacking coughs, before continuing in a strained voice, “Up against you, I won. You hear me Covvie? I FUCKING WON!” This last shout proved too much for Emile, and he fell back, choking on his own blood. Pinkie stood a silent vigil, as Emile’s breathing grew steadily heavier, until it eventually ceased. Finally, the hand clutching Emile’s wounds dropped form his chest, falling limply to his side. Pinkie clenched her eyes shut, tears leaking down her face as she wished for this nightmare to end. “They’re… Watching our deaths?” Carter said worriedly. “That may be a bit too, err, graphic for them.” The Princess looked to the Elements, frowning sadly at their suspended forms. Turning back to Noble, she gave an affirmative nod. “Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, it is the only way for you to fulfill your duties. You must know which of the Elements of Harmony is your charge, and when you do, you must defend her from danger with your very life. “Why?” Said Emile, frowning. “What makes them so important?” The Princess answered, “The Elements of Harmony make up the most powerful magical force in Equestria. In times of crisis, when an enemy that cannot be defeated through normal means presents itself, the Elements of Harmony are the only things that can save Equestria. Should you fail in your duty to protect the Elements, then all of Equestria would be put in danger.” “So, we’re protecting your greatest weapon. But the question is, from what?” Said Jun, looking to the Elements in confusion. “If these six are some sort of super weapon, then what could possibly threaten them?” Celestia shook her head. “While together the Elements are capable of defeating even the greatest enemies, alone each of them is only as strong as the average pony. They cannot spend every waking moment together, and it is in these moments of solitude that they are at their most vulnerable. It will be your job to act as their personal guard, to protect them from danger.” Kat nodded. “That makes sense, we had to rescue them from the Timberwolves after all.” “Exactly.” Said Celestia. “Of course, these will not be your only duties as the Guardians.” The Spartans looked to Celestia in confusion. “What do you mean?” Carter asked. “Waaaagh!” Rainbow cried, as she found herself suddenly in a free-fall. Immediately flaring her wings open, she righted herself in midair and soared upwards, narrowly avoiding a collision with the ground. Leveling out, Rainbow lifted herself up high in the air, observing the landscape below her. What she saw made her nearly fall out of the air in shock and horror. Stretched out before her was a charred, desolate landscape. Cracked, dusty brown plains spread out before her, all traces of life and vegetation missing. As Rainbow lifted her gaze upwards, she saw that she was in fact in some sort of mountain range. All around her, tall, jagged spires of rock jutted upwards from the earth. Above the mountains, dark grey clouds blocked out the sun, leaving the world in a perpetual twilight. Rainbow’s observations were suddenly cut off as she caught sight of something in the edge of her vision, twisting around, Rainbow barely had time to dash out of the way as a large object zipped by her, leaving a ghostly blue trail behind it. Turning toward the object, Rainbow saw it to be some sort of machine. It was large, about the size of a chariot, and shaped like a widened teardrop. From its sides sprouted two stubby wings, terminating in bulbous pods, each of which was giving off the same blue light as the object’s contrail. Lastly, the entire thing was composed of some sort of reflective purple metal, similar to an insect’s carapace. After recovering from the strange appearance of the object, Rainbow quickly felt her anger rise. She zipped after the machine, quickly coming level with it and scowling angrily. “What’s the big idea, buddy?” She demanded. “What are you, where am I, and why’d you try to knock me out of the sky?” If she were to be honest with herself, she would have admitted that she wasn’t expecting a response, and was only looking for an excuse to pound this thing into scrap. What she certainly hadn’t expected, however, was for a loud BOOM to suddenly echo through the mountains, and for one of the machines pods to suddenly explode in a shower of blue and purple light. As Rainbow jerked back from the explosion, the object dipped drunkenly in the sky, attempting to rise again, when suddenly another shot rang out, causing the entire object to become engulfed in blue fire. As the debris from the machine began to fall towards the charred dirt below, Rainbows attention was focused on the source of the noise. It had originated from her left, on one of the cliff faces, and as she turned towards it, she caught sight of a thin wisp of smoke trailing from the objects explosion down towards a particular ledge near the top of the mountain. Quickly flying over, Rainbow scanned it for any trace of where the trail may have originated. After a moment of searching, Rainbow suddenly caught sight of movement, and whipped her gaze towards it. At first she thought it was only her imagination, but another shifting movement made her eyes widen in realization. There, crouching on the tip of the ledge was a bipedal figure swathed in olive green armor. Quickly flying closer, Rainbow was able to make out its shape in more detail. From the general shape Rainbow was able to identify it as one of the humans Carter had described back in the Library, and from the unique design and color of its armor Rainbow realized that this had to be Jun. Rushing up to the Spartan, Rainbow was quick to bombard him with questions. “Jun! What the hay is going on? How did we get here, and how are you human again? Also, what was that big machine, and why’d you blow it up?” Unfortunately, Jun seemed incapable of hearing her, his only response being to lift the object he was holding, a long, narrow object whose purpose Rainbow could only guess at. Frustrated at the Spartan ignoring her cries, Rainbow flew directly in front of Jun, hanging in the air in the center of his vision. “Come on, Jun!” Rainbow shouted, raising her voice. “Tell me what’s going on!” Jun finally seemed to react to Rainbow’s shouting, lowering his rifle and muttering, “Shit.” Rainbow, confused, looked down at herself, before turning around to follow his gaze. Her jaw dropped. Down the slope of the mountain, near a deep impression in the ground that may have once been a lake, was a massive assembly of more of the purple metal machines. Accompanying them were hundreds of strange creatures that from her position up on the cliff Rainbow was unable to make out in detail. It didn’t take long for Rainbow to realize that they were coming for Jun, and she looked back to the Spartan, before gasping in surprise. Jun was gone. Whipping around, Rainbow searched desperately along the cliff face for Jun. “Where’d he go?” She said exasperatedly. As if in answer Rainbow suddenly heard the sound of shuffling rock from beneath her. Looking down, Rainbow quickly realized that Jun was sliding down the cliff face, clutching the rifle in one hand, while using the other to balance against the cliff. Rainbow stared at his descending form in surprise for a moment, before shaking her head and diving down after him. Her speed quickly allowed her to catch up with his falling form, and as another ledge approached, this one covered by some sort of shelter, she saw Jun slip through a hole in the roof, before following him inside. The shelter was small, barely big enough to contain both Rainbow and Jun, the Spartan having to duck slightly to avoid tearing a hole in the brown mesh that made up the shelter's walls and roof. On the far side of the shelter from the cliff was a wide opening in the mesh, large enough to provide a panoramic view of the valley beneath the mountain. Finally, beside the window was a small foldout chair. As Rainbow took in these details, Jun strode over to the chair, sinking into it and causing it to nearly collapse from the strain. Lifting his rifle, Jun maneuvered it out the window of the shelter, before aiming down the edge of the mountain. Carefully, Rainbow crept up to the window as well, leaning over the side to follow his gaze. Beneath them, the army had reached the base of the mountain, and was already beginning its ascent up a large winding path in the mountain’s side. Rainbow then noticed that several more of the flying craft had separated themselves from the group, and were soaring upwards at a much faster pace. Rainbow heard Jun mutter, “More damn scouts.” as he adjusted his aim to track the approaching fliers. Rainbow watched in fascination as Jun carefully squeezed the trigger of the rifle, before an enormous BOOM accompanied Jun’s first shot. His aim proved true, as he hit the cannon mounted beneath the craft, causing it to erupt in a flash of green, blue, and purple light. Rainbow meanwhile had her hooves clasped over her ears in an attempt to soften the rifle’s deafening report. Calmly ejecting the spent clip and slamming in a fresh one, Jun racked the bolt of his rifle before leveling it on the next craft. For the next few minutes, Rainbow watched in morbid fascination as Jun brought down each of the flying craft, lighting up the ashen sky like a grim fireworks display. When all of the flying craft had been destroyed, Jun ceased his constant fire, reloading his last clip as Rainbow hesitantly removed her hooves from her ears. She watched as Jun once again peered over the edge of the cliff, and copied his motion. While Jun had been dealing with the scouts, the rest of the army had made quick progress in scaling the mountain, and were now roughly halfway up towards their position. After taking a moment to mark their position, Jun stood up from the chair, holstering his rifle and stepping past Rainbow toward the left wall of the shelter. Then, in one fluid motion, he gripped the mesh of the wall with both hands, before tearing it down, forming a hole large enough for him to fit through. The Spartan stepped through the hole, and Rainbow was quick to follow. Outside the shelter, Rainbow saw that the ledge actually continued along the edge of the mountain, narrowing into a strip just barely large enough to fit the Spartan. As Jun began carefully making his way across the ledge, Rainbow simply took to the air, watching as Jun inched along the ledge. Meanwhile the army made even more progress towards the summit. After about a minute of slinking along the edge of the cliff, Jun suddenly stopped, before looking down the edge of the cliff. Following his gaze, Rainbow saw that they had arrived above some sort of large metal structure, though from her angle above it Rainbow was unable to determine its exact shape. Whatever it was, it was no more than thirty feet below them, so Jun simply leapt off the edge of the cliff, before landing solidly. Without so much as a pause, Jun once again leapt down from the metal structure, falling another forty feet before landing into a roll. Rather than follow his motions, Rainbow simply swooped down to land next to him, before turning to inspect the structure in more detail. It was huge, fifty feet tall and twenty feet wide. From just a glance Rainbow was able to determine its purpose: It was a door. A giant, metal door that was currently sealed shut. Turning back to Jun, Rainbow saw that the Spartan was standing stock-still, mere feet from the edge of the cliff. She watched curiously as he simply stood there, not moving, simply waiting for something. Trotting over, Rainbow slipped past Jun and looked over the edge of the cliff. Rainbow gasped as she saw that the army was drawing ever closer, now mere minutes away from reaching their position on the cliff. Then, as she watched, five figures suddenly shot into the air, quickly ascending above the others. As they drew closer, Rainbow was able to make them out more clearly. They were large, even larger than Jun, and like him were fully encased in armor. Four of the figures wore white colored armor, with helmets that fully encapsulated their heads behind blue visors, while the fifth bore red armor, whose surface was decorated with lines of glowing blue and included a helmet that while not covering the entirety of the creature’s face, included a large headdress. On each of the figures’ backs were strange contraptions that emitted a similar blue light to the fliers, most likely serving to propel them up the surface of the cliff. Within seconds the figures were mere feet from the ledge Rainbow was now standing on, and she leapt back to avoid them as they suddenly burst over the side of the ledge. Jun reacted immediately, raising his rifle and firing a quick shot, burying a round in the skull of one of the white armored figures. Without hesitation, Jun adjusted his aim and fired again, landing a headshot on another white figure. As both of the white-armored figures dropped from the sky, Jun was about to aim towards the next when he saw that the red-armored figure was bearing down upon him, forcing him to dive out of the way as it landed, burying a glowing blade of energy into the ground Jun had occupied moments before. Leaping to his feet, Jun lifted his rifle and was about to end the red figure's life when another of the white figures landed just beside him, leveling a rifle of its own towards the Spartan. Jun immediately ducked as the creature pulled the trigger, spraying blue plasma just above the Spartan's head. Bringing the rifle up again, Jun leapt forward and pressed the end of the barrel flush against the white figure's throat, before pulling the trigger. The bullet flew from the barrel of the rifle and into the figures neck. The force of the bullet served to tear the figure's head from its shoulders. The severed head flew spinning into the air, as a fountain of purple blood erupted from the stump of the creature’s neck. For a moment, the figure's body seemed to remain in a standing position, when suddenly all traces of life left it as it collapsed onto its side. Whipping back towards the red figure, he found that it was already charging towards him, its sword held aloft in preparation to strike. Thinking quickly, Jun lifted his rifle and fired a single shot, blowing the sword out of the figure’s grasp and forcing it to clutch its bleeding hand, howling in pain and rage. Dropping the spent rifle, Jun was about to reach for his sidearm when a massive force suddenly slammed into his side, knocking him off his feet and causing him to land harshly on his back. Immediately upon landing a large weight suddenly pressed itself on Jun’s chest, and he looked up to see the final white armored figure straddling his stomach, one arm raised as a small beam of plasma erupted from its wrist. As the figure brought the blade down to impale his head with the glowing energy, Jun instinctively ducked to the side. Then, as the figure’s gauntlet buried itself into the ground beneath them, Jun fluidly grasped the knife on his shoulder, spun it into a reverse grip, and lunged forward, burying it into the figure's neck. Jun then ripped the knife back, tearing it from the figure's throat and leaving only a jagged, bleeding slit behind. As the figure's eyes widened in shock, Jun bucked his hips, throwing the figure to the side where it landed on its back, clutching at its neck in a feeble attempt to stop the purple blood gushing from its mangled throat. Rolling to his feet, Jun calmly drew his sidearm before ending the figure’s misery with a single shot to the head. Turning back to the final, red-armored figure, the Zealot, Jun saw that it had observed this display with seething anger, but had yet to move from the spot where Jun had disarmed it. From his position, Jun and the Zealot now stood roughly ten paces from each other, and the Spartan calmly raised his pistol. In response the Zealot clenched its uninjured fist, and a glowing beam of plasma sprouted from its gauntlet. The two stood silently for a second, before erupting into action. The Zealot acted first, lunging toward Jun with murder in its eyes, and Jun responded by opening fire, peppering its figure with shots, only for them to be deflected by a shimmering shield that surrounded the Zealot's form. Jun fired five shots before the shield finally shattered, and fired the sixth towards the figure’s head before the Zealot suddenly reacted, whipping its gauntlet up in an attempt to deflect the bullet. Instead, the shot impacted at the base of the blade, slamming into the projector and causing it to erupt in blue light, the blade dissipating moments later. Realizing quickly that its gauntlet was disabled, the Zealot continued its charge, before ducking down and slamming its head into Jun’s stomach, tackling the Spartan and sending him rolling along the dirt. Jun suddenly found himself on his stomach, his shields shattered, and was about to push himself to his feet when suddenly a massive force slammed down hard onto his back. A sickening CRACK filled the air as Jun felt a fiery pain engulf his lower body, before just as soon as it arrived, the flame was snuffed out, leaving only a cold numbness behind. The Zealot lifted its foot from the Spartan’s shattered spine, grinning wickedly as it adjusted its aim, before slamming its foot down again, this time onto Jun’s skull. Jun’s head was driven hard into the dirt as he felt his skull rattle around in the confines of his helmet; a series of spider web cracks appearing in his visor. The Zealot didn’t pause, however, and repeated the motion, brutally crushing the marksman’s head beneath its boot. After three brutal curb stomps, Jun’s helmet had been reduced to a dented, mangled mess, and the Zealot stepped back from Jun’s prone form. Then, reaching down, the Zealot wrapped its claws around Jun’s neck, before tossing him towards the edge of the cliff. Throughout this entire ordeal, Rainbow had stood to the side, her eyes wide in horror at the spectacle before her. When she had heard the CRACK as Jun’s spine had been broken, Rainbow had winced as she fought the urge to retch. As the Zealot had proceeded to trample Jun’s skull, Rainbow had cried out desperately for him to stop, but her cries were in vain. Now, she watched as Jun landed on his back, skidding a few feet before finally coming to rest near the ledge. She watched with growing horror as the Zealot began striding toward Jun, when to her and the Zealots surprise Jun began to move. Slowly, Jun lifted his left hand to grasp at the lip of his disfigured helmet, before slowly lifting it from his head. As the helmet fell from Jun’s grasp and rolled to a stop a few feet away, Rainbow gasped. Jun was a mess, his entire head covered in bruises and his left eye nearly swollen shut, as blood dripped from both a broken nose and several deep cuts into his hairless scalp. As Rainbow and the Zealot looked on, her in horror, and the Zealot in interest, Jun turned his head to the side to spit out a mixture of saliva, blood, and teeth before turning his gaze to the Zealots. Slowly, Jun propped himself up on his elbow, and his right hand lifted to reveal that Jun had somehow managed to keep a hold of his pistol, which he now pointed at the Zealot in a shaky grip. The Zealot chuckled, then spoke in rough, guttural English, “You have one shot, Demon. One shot, and then I will kill you, and my brothers will enter this base.” To the Zealots surprise, the Spartan chuckled in response. “One is all I need.” Jun said, before aiming the pistol, his grip now perfectly steady, and firing a single shot. BOOM Both the Zealot and Rainbow staggered as a massive explosion caused the mountain to quake sharply. Whipping towards the source of the explosion, Rainbow saw that rather than shooting the Zealot, Jun had instead aimed at something roughly a hundred feet above the door. Upon impact, the bullet had detonated the target, and was quickly followed by a chain of explosives that ran in a line across the surface of the mountain. Rainbow looked on in horror as chunks of the mountainside began to break off from the cliff, quickly forming into a massive landslide, and headed straight toward the ledge that they now stood on. Time seemed to slow down, as the falling boulders grew closer. Rainbow’s wings instinctively flared open, lifting her into the air and away from danger. Below her, the Zealot howled in rage as he leapt towards Jun. Before he could reach the Spartan, however, the rockslide reached them, and they were swept under a rolling wave of rubble. The landslide didn’t stop there, however, as it continued down the side of the mountain, growing larger as it went, and the climbing army could only look on in horror as they were engulfed beneath the jagged tide. Rainbow watched as the entire battalion was buried beneath the rockslide, and when the dust had finally settled, she turned her gaze back towards the ledge that had held her and Jun. It was completely covered by rubble, and the door as well was hidden beneath a gigantic mound of debris. As Rainbow looked on at the destruction wrought by Jun’s sacrifice, she felt bitter tears begin to make their way down her cheeks. “While protecting the Elements is your primary role as the Guardians,” Celestia said, regarding each of the Spartans in turn. “You will also be expected to protect Equestria from any and all major threats, including those where the Elements may not be necessary.” Noble Team turned to each other, before giving the Princess simultaneous looks of uncertainty. “Such as?” Carter prompted. The Princess frowned sadly, her eyes taking on a world-weary expression. The Princess looked again to the Elements, her brow furrowing with worry as she regarded her Faithful Student. Sighing, Celestia turned back towards the Spartans and said, “We cannot discuss it here. I cannot risk my subjects overhearing us.” “Oh, come on!” All eyes turned to Emile, as the Spartan fixed Celestia with a look of frustration. Carter made a motion to shush the Warrant Officer, but Emile ignored him. “You drag us all the way here and put us through this little lightshow.” He snarled, gesturing to the Elements. “And now that we’re here we have to wait even longer to find out the whole truth? Just tell us, and screw your damn subjects!” For a moment, Celestia looked outraged, her eyes narrowing and her anger flaring with all the heat and intensity of the sun. Emile was unimpressed however, only continuing to stare down the enraged Goddess. The rest of Noble looked between the two, subconsciously tensing in preparation for a second round with the Sun Princess. But then the moment passed, and Celestia’s anger died, her anger fading as fast as it had come. “You are right.” She said morosely. “You do not deserve to have the truth withheld from you for a moment longer.” Her expression darkened. “But what I have to tell you is something that absolutely cannot be revealed to anypony without my consent. It is a national secret, one that if revealed could tear Equestria apart.” Carter quickly rushed forward, placing a hoof on Emile’s chest to push him back as he responded, “We understand, Princess, and we can wait until we have some privacy.” Emile grumbled from behind Carter, but made no argument. Celestia looked towards the Commander gratefully, before nodding. Suddenly, each of the Elements let loose a terrified, bloodcurdling scream. The magical force suspending them in the air lifted, and the six mares slumped to the floor, each of them giving a small grunt of shock and pain. Immediately, Celestia and the Spartans rushed towards them, as the shell-shocked mares rose shakily to their hooves. Twilight was the first to recover, shaking the blurriness from her vision, before turning her gaze up to see the Celestia and the Spartans regarding her with concern. “Ugh, Princess?” Twilight groaned. “What happened? I thought I saw… Carter!” Twilight suddenly shot up, zipping over to the Commander, her expression filled with worry. “Are you alright? I saw… I was in the flying machine, and-“ She was cut off as Celestia set a hoof on her shoulder. “Calm yourself, my Student.” Celestia said, a warm smile gracing her features. “What you saw was a vision.” She steered Twilight towards the other Elements, each of them displaying a different reaction. Applejack was on her hooves, attempting to look confident, and failing. Rarity was trembling, and her expression clearly displayed that she was shaken to her core. Pinkie was still pulling herself to her hooves, her mane hanging limply in front of her face. Rainbow Dash was breathing heavily, attempting to nonchalantly wipe her eyes with a hoof. Lastly was Fluttershy. The Pegasus was curled up into an impossibly tight ball, her back rising and falling with tortured sobs. Celestia looked to the Elements, and her smile fell. “I am so sorry, My Little Ponies.” She said sullenly. “But the Legend of the Guardians was clear, that you had to see their… demise. I hope that you can forgive me.” The mares nodded, each of them assuring the Princess that she was not to blame, before turning to Noble; moving to approach the Spartans. Pinkie was the first to act, launching into Emile and wrapping her hooves around his neck in a massive hug. “Oh, Emilio! I was so worried! I saw that you were shooting the big cannon thingy that looked like fireworks and then you got hurt by the big meanie alien thingy and then you yelled at it and you were hurt and I was so scared! But now you’re here and okay and I can throw you a “Hooray, I’m not dead” Party!” Pinkie said all of this in one breath, and roughly in the span of a few seconds. Emile looked tiredly from Pinkie to the Princess. “Can I trade with someone? Anyone?” The monarch only chuckled in response. Applejack then approached Jorge, a stern expression on her face. “Ya dern fool!” She snapped, smacking the massive stallion in the chest. “What’d ya hafta go an’ blow yerself up for?” Jorge looked down at the orange mare. “I destroyed an entire Supercarrier in that blast. I was saving the planet.” He looked sadly to the other Spartans. “At least, I thought I was.” Carter and Twilight each regarded each other awkwardly for a moment. Thankfully, the silence was broken by Carter. “So, you saw me crash the Pelican?” When Twilight nodded in response, Carter gave a small smile. “Well then, it’ll be an honor to serve you, ma’am.” He gave Twilight a salute, and Twilight grinned in response. Rarity and Kat were now regarding each other curiously. Rarity was still shaken from her experience in the vision, and Kat was debating whether to press her for details. She had just witnessed Kat’s death, an opportunity Kat herself was never given. On the other hand, whatever Rarity had saw had obviously disturbed her, so Kat simply settled for resting a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder. “Are you alright? What’s wrong?” Kat was honestly confused, she had seen Kat’s death, sure, but from what she had been told it was apparently quick, clean, and Noble hadn’t even had to leave her body behind, so what had shaken her so? Rarity was silent for a moment, staring into space, but Kat’s question served to shake her out of her daze. “There… there was some sort of… light, in the sky. It was like a second sun, and it came down, directly onto me, and-“ Rarity stopped, unable to continue and Kat bowed her head in sympathy. Witnessing a glassing wasn’t pleasant. Being directly underneath one, feeling that much destruction heading straight toward you, as you stood helplessly in its path? That was unbearable. Giving Rarity’s shoulder an encouraging shake, Kat said, “Well, you’re safe now, and from now on, it’s my job to make sure you stay that way, alright?” The pearly Unicorn looked to the Spartan, and smiled gratefully. Rainbow stepped over to Jun, looking at the marksman and scratching the back of her head awkwardly. “I, umm, saw what you did.” She said, unable to meet the Spartan’s gaze. “It was really… awesome.” Jun grinned at Rainbow’s statement. “Well, what else was I supposed to do with an antitank mine and ten pounds of C-12?” He chuckled, and the tension within Rainbow broke as she joined him. As each of the members of Noble Team grew acquainted with their new charges, Six inspected each of them, before looking to her own with a sigh. Poor thing. Six thought, observing the cowering mare before her. Couldn’t have been easy, a frail little girl like her seeing… that. Resolving to help the mare recover from seeing her rather… harsh demise, Six marched over to Fluttershy and placed a hoof gently on her side. Immediately Fluttershy reacted, looking up at Six with an expression of absolute horror. “Don’t hurt me! Please! I don’t want to die!” She jerked backwards, away from the Lieutenant, backing away quickly. Hoping to ease the tension, Six gently reached a hoof out to the Pegasus. “Listen, I-“ “PLEASE JUST STAY AWAY!” Fluttershy screamed, before turning towards the cavern’s entrance and bolting through, zipping down the tunnel and disappearing into darkness. Silence descended upon the chamber as the assembled ponies watched the terrified mares escape. Slowly, all eyes turned to Six, who sighed deeply. “We have a problem.” Author’s Note: Well, it’s finally here! I finally worked through writer’s block, after averaging only about 100-200 words a day, I have found my muse! Well, partially anyway. I’m still having trouble staying on this one story, as multiple more ideas are still threatening to burst forth from my head. So, I will be going back to my other stories, including my ones on fanfiction.net, as I work on the next chapter. Hopefully the variety will keep me from being stuck like this again. Also one last thing, you’re all probably wondering why I didn’t include Six’s death here. That is because I have already done an entire fic on that, which can be found here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8278638/1/Lone-Wolf-Sixs-Tale You may also be wondering why I put so much effort into Jun's death scene. I did this because it's left unknown, and I wanted something that felt satisfying, and tied in A Fistful of Arrows with the novel First Strike. Also, in case you were wondering, my version of Jun's death scene takes place roughly one week after the events of A Fistful of Arrows. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I’ll see you in the next one!