//------------------------------//
// The coming onslaught 
// Story: Daxter 2 
// by Grains on PZs plate 
//------------------------------//


Unspecified location in the Badlands

Lifeless, lawless, inhospitable. These are only a few words one would use to describe the canyon that lay at the very edge of Equestria's southern border. No attempts have ever been made to change that. Old pony tales describe the Badlands as the origin of all evil that exists in the world. But beyond superstition, ghost stories, and old pony tales ment to teach a lesson to fillies about bad deeds, ponies know less about this place then they do Dragons.
And yet, in spite of all this, we see a shadowy figure walking the scorched land today. He walk tentatively toward a large Mesa in the distance. This figure is a dark purple colossus, his light purple eyes being the only feature closes to resembling a face other than a mandible like mouth. His right arm was noticeably buffer then his left, and he drug his largest claw along the ground as he walked.

Upon reaching the edge of the Mesa, he walked his left arm across the wall in a haphazard pattern as if looking for something, and he found it. He pulled a loose stone out of the cliff and a small portion of the wall fell to pieces, revealing a passageway. The figure stepped over the ruble and walked through the passageway into the Mesa. 
After a while the passageway opened up into a very large room, revealing a bronze mega city. Waterfalls ran down from the ceiling and down to a body of water that sat below stone bridges. The figure walked along the bridge that led from the passageway into the giant lost city. 

The figure continued his trek into the city. There in the city he was surrounded by others that looked the same as him, tall, dark, disproportionate arm.And others that instead had wings and clung to towers. The figure came to a stop at his location. A giant monolithic tower, the tallest in the city, that rested at the heart of the city. Going inside the monolith the dark figure walked to the very end of the room, where another dark figure stood. He took a knee before his leader, awaiting questioning. But the creature before him only had one word;

"progress?"

"Dead." The shadowy figure answered, not looking at his leader. "Unfortunate, but unsurprising. In what manner did they pass?"
The figure rose from his stance and looked his leader dead in the eye saying; "You knew this would happen?" "No, I did not. I'm never suprised. The ceiling called fall on top of you right now and I wouldn't so much as flinch, but you already know that Vanguard. Answer my question; How did they die?"
The figure known as Vanguard looked down. "Unknown. They ran off without my word. All that was left of them were pools of Eco." The Vanguard bowed his head, but kept the stern look he had been giving his leader. "There's only two things I'm certain of though. Whatever it was that killed them was monstrously powerful, nothing like the beasts that roam the land. And the other is that whatever it was carries our essence, it carries Dark Eco."

The leader let out a sigh, turning his back on the Vanguard. "Then the situation has become more.......complicated. After seeing the rift vessel fall from the sky I didn't believe anything survived. We shall have to exercise more caution from here on out." The leader said, now interacting with some sort of levitating tech behind him. "No doubt the Hora Quan will also be after the artifacts. They must think to use them to revive their blight of a race."
"What is our next course of action Patriarch?" The Vanguard asked. "We recon. Keep a close eye on the settlement at the foot of the castle. The artifacts must be recovered. I'll leave the manner in which they are to your discretion Vanguard."
The Vanguard walks to the matriarchs side, observing the tech he was fiddling with. "I will need a squad of Hornets." He said. "Done." The Patriarch replied. "They won't be coming back." The Vanguard finished grimly. "If it means we get the the Heart of Mar and the Time Map I couldn't care less.
We have been trapped on this planet for over a thousand years, forced to live in the shadows of the inferior species here. After all this time, after all this wasted time, we will continue our conquest across the cosmos, once we have the artifacts."

"I don't understand Patriarch, we could have with some effort smashed the wall that the Precursors put between us and the Dark Maker ship, yet you insist we just find the key for it?" 
"Any abrasive attempt to break down the wall would have destroyed our ship and its cargo. The Precursors knew that when they erected it in their last ditch attempt to stop us. Those artifacts are our only hope of dominion Vanguard."

"Understood Patriarch. The Precursors thought they had won, but they have only delayed the inevitable. If it weren't for Mar we could have-"
"Please don't remind me Vanguard." The patriarch interrupted solemnly. "We were arrogant. We can't make that mistake again, less we fail like we did all those centuries ago."