Ever since Sub-Zero left the Night Guard, it hadden't been the same for Falling Shadow or Espa. Due to not being a part of the team for long, Silent Blade had been indifferent, however, he knew that they had to save a fellow Tenno. Inferna, a member of the Solar Marks, had been sent to fill in as a bullet magnet. She may have been Sub-Zero's polar opposite, but she was one of the only Tenno able to keep up with the Night Guard; the other was the dark one, known as the Stalker.
The Stalker; the shadow, the blade, the darkness.
He wielded three deadly, forbidden weapons, the bow, the knives, the scythe. They were called Dread, Despair, and Hate, respectively. Not much is known of his intensions, besides finding and killing every Tenno that serves the Lotus. Some believe he serves an opposite of the Lotus. Others don't even believe him to be real. He wanted to keep it that way, until he targeted them.
The Stalker thought about his mission, 'How far could those pods have gone? There must be some center of gravity slinging them into an orbit.' There was not supposed to be anything beyond the point he reached, but he kept on going. There had to something to lock onto, a star, or a planetoid perhaps?. Still nothing... Wait! A small Star appeared on the edge of his star chart. It was scanned and a tag appeared next to it; Celestial Sun.
The small Night Guard ship, Hidden Moon, was in warp. Nothing could track, much less, hit, the fastest ship in the Origin System.
Silent Blade sat alone in his quarters, medatating. He had been doing so since he was awoken on Pluto. Nobody knew why he never spoke, he had been given the name because of it. Falling Shadow saw the alone time as Blade was trying to remember something he forgot, whereas Inferna believed he was trying to forget something he remembered. Espa had not a clue as to what was happening inside that head of his. He had known how to shield his mind somehow. All the Night Guard knew was that he was on their side, and he was a damn good fighter. The Lotus trusted him, why shouldn't they?
Inferna awoke from meditation when Espa entered the star chart chamber. "Hey, Espa," Inferna said, "have you had any luck with our search?"
"Still nothing but the direction." The psychic said with a shrug, "There's no telling how far they could have gone at this point."
"Do you think that he is going after them?" Ferna asked. He had been attacking both Inferna and the Ethereal Lotus lead team for the past few months. They had survived every encounter, but not without injury.
"I don't think he would go out this far, but we should treat this mission as if he is." Espa said with a nod. "And, while we're on the subject, did you notice that Blade acts differently and soon after, you get attacked?"
"I had; so it wasn't just me thinking that. We'll keep an eye on him." Inferna rose to leave the room, but stopped. "And one more thing, look over to your left."
Espa was confused at the statement for a moment, then she turned her head and saw a star.
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"Of course I'm gonna bring those frames, Sir." Sargent Nef Anyo told his superior on his comms.
"You had better, or you just might get a visit from my little pet." The Collector, Alad V responded, and disconnected.
"Sometimes, I just want to take every threat on my life and make it happen to him." Anyo mumbled to himself. He looked back to his monitor to see the status of the large Grineer ship he had followed out of the solar system. Nothing new to see, but another ball of ash, coming from the lower area of the ship this time. At least he knew he was in fact, following Grineer. As amusing as watching Grineer kill eachother was, Anyo got out of his seat and headed to his private quarters. All he could do was wait for someone, or something, to make their move.
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A large fleshy pod was moving in a slow warp. The creatures inside waited, and waited. They would soon find a new host planet. One untouched by the Orokin? Perhaps, there was much more than the creators of the T-Cyte Infestation could have ever predicted. [The Tenno would destroy us?] the mind thought, [They would burn their creations? Their flesh?]. These questions were always answered by the Tenno with a blade or a gun. Sometimes both.
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When I awoke, I was in one of the small, yet comfertable chairs in the library. So, it isn't a dream. The others had all awoken shortly after me. Raider had slept on the couch, Zero had simply meditated. I started to walk over to the kichen when Nano came down the stairs. "Am I really the only one who chose a real bed over sleeping down here?" He said.
"Well, Raider was too lazy to go up, Zero didn't even actually sleep as far as I know, and I chose to stay with the majority." I explained, "Oh, and honestly, do you think it would be smart to sleep closer to someone we don't know all that well?"
"Look who you're talking to. One, if she wanted to do something, I would have to clean my glaive." He spun his glaive and pointed at it for emphasis. "And two, she didn't do anything."
With a sigh, I turned and entered the kichen to see Spike cooking, and Twilight looking at a letter with her horn glowing. A quill wrapped with the same purple glow wrote. "Good morning, Twilight, Spike." I said.
She glanced up from her letter, "Good morning. I'm just finishing this letter to the princess so that she's aware of this whole thing."
"Oh, right, you're her student or something, right?" Nano said as he crossed his arms.
"Yes, I am. Though I prefer not to boast about it, I'm one of the top magic users in Equestria. Even my special talent is magic." She responded with a hint of pride. She turned and pointed a hoof at the star markings on her... flank was it? Most of the Origin System doesn't exactly know much on equine anatomy. "See?" And she turned back to sign the letter.
"So those markings represent a talent of some sort?" I asked, fairly interested.
"Yes, they're called cutie marks. Everypony has a unique talent, and when we're born, we don't know our talent, so we have to find it. Once we do, a cutie mark will appear." She explained. She caught our looks, "Aren't those things on your arms the same thing?" She pointed at my shoulder.
"Not exactly, these are badges, they show what we believe as our greater achievements. The one I have here," I took the holo-badge from my left shoulder, it was a Corpus void key "I earned by going after Corpus scouts that tried to hide in the void. And this," I pointed at my right shoulder, "is my team's emblem." It was a lotus with a dark teal hue.
"The badge I've got here is one I got by sabotaging a massive Grineer ship a while back." Nano of course wanted to show off his badge too. "Practically took down the whole thing on my own." He boasted.
I quietly told twilight: "Yeah, with the help of hundreds of other Tenno." She chuckled. "Including the Solar Marks, and Night Guard, two of the top clans." She'd laughed a little louder at that part.
"What's so funny?" Nano said, "I'm telling you, it's true!" He sounded like a child trying to blame a sibling for breaking their fathers ceramic dagger.
"I'm sure it is." She said trying to contain herself.
After she calmed down, she sealed the letter in an odd manner; she put some wax from a candle to close the scroll, and stamped the wax. I supposed it was to identify the sender. "Spike, could you send this to Princess Celestia?" She floated the scroll with her magic over to Spike.
"Sure thing." He said with a smile. He took a breath and when he breathed out, a green flame burned the letter.
"Umm... Why did you burn it?" Nano looked confused. Or at least as confused as he could look. He had a habit of trying to hide his confused looks, makeing it more obvious to those that know him.
The green flame was now a floating ball of ash, and it moved quickly through the air and out the window. "I guess that it reformes at its destination?" I said.
"Yeah, that way we know the letter is secure, and it gets there much faster than mailing it." said the dragon. Just then, he seemed like he was going to beltch. He let out his burp, and a green smoke came from his mouth to form a swerling ball of ash. With a flash, a scroll appeared and floated down to Spikes outstretched claw.
He quickly opened the scroll and began to read aloud: "To Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student, I trust you and your friends are doing well. These extraequestrial beings sound very interesting. My sister and I would very much like to meet them. I've sent a skycaridge that should arrive before noon. I would also appreashiate it if your friends could come too. It has been some time since we all saw eachother at the wedding. We will speak again soon. Princess Celestia."
"Well I guess we should get Raider and Zero up." Nano said.
"No need." We turned to the source of the voice. Zero was standing just inside the doorway with Raider just behind him. "So, we're going to speak with this Princess?"
"That seems to be the case." Twilight said, and she looked up at the clock, "The carridge should be here within the hour, so I suggest you collect your things. We may need to arrange someplace for you all to rest during your time on Equis."
"That sounds good." Nano said with a shrug.
"Once again, thank you Twilight Sparkle." Zero said.
"Oh, it's no big deal." Twilight replied, " And please, just call me Twilight."
"We'll get our things, then we should be on our way." I said as we headed to gather our gear. Nano grabbed his Braton and Sicarus, and holstered them on his back and on his side, respectfully. He always had his glaive with him; he loved that weapon. Zero already had his gear, because he had only meditated over night. Raider collected his Hek, Lex, and Fragor from beside the couch he slept on. Finally, I collected my Paris and its quiver, and dual Skana; as I had my twin Vipers with me. You just never know what could happen. They were also very compact, so it wasn't much trouble for me.
Twilight had gone to get her friends when Vinyl Scratch had arrived. Spike let them in and we talked for about a half hour. It was mostly Vinyl asking strange questions like: "What kind of music do you like?" How was I supposed to know? The only sounds I ever hear are gunshots, explosions, screaming, my own abilities, and the drums in the dojo.
"I really can't answer that one." I told her. "I don't think any of us can. The only music we've heard, besides in our dojo, was some of the pre-Orokin stuff on Earth. It was so hard to hear it, because of a millennium of dust collecting, that I had to channel it for everyone to hear clearly."
"Do you know what genre that music was?" Vinyl asked.
"Well, the terminal said it was something like, electro." Raider said; he was normally the one to dig deep in terminals. "My guess is electronic, but nothing specific."
"So, you don't know what electronic music is?" Vinyl asked, with that you're kidding me look.
"I'd say that if we heard it, we could identify it." Zero said.
"Well then, if you guys come back from Canterlot, you should stop by my studio." She started to get up when I stopped her.
"How'd you know we were going to Canterlot?" I questioned her.
"Oh, I saw the sky-carriage on my way over. Heck, you could see a bird on its way from Canterlot, from Fluttershy's place just outside of town." She waved a hoof for emphasis.
“So, will you be coming?” Raider asked her.
“That depends, when are you going?” She answered with her own question.
“As soon as the carriage gets here, and Twilight gets back with her friends.” Zero said.
“Then I’m coming. I’ve got a job tonight at a club in Canterlot, and I missed the morning train.” She said sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
“And you would be late if you took a later train?” Nano said from where he sat in a window frame with a leg hanging down.
“Pretty much.”
Twilight opened the door and entered, followed by five of her friends, the pink one that found the ‘hidden’ button included. “Good morning Vinyl. Are you going to be coming with us to Canterlot?” she said.
“If I could get a ride, that would be great.”
“Of course. By the way, the Princess might also want speak with you about the Tenno, seeing as you found Sonic Boom.”
“Thanks!” And with that we all fit onto the large golden carriage pulled by two white pegasi in golden, ornamental armour. We took off toward the city on the mountain side.