A Guardian Rises

Equestria, once a free and vibrant land, now a wasteland.

Thousands of years ago, the ponies that inhabited the land decided to colonize the neighboring planets, to spread their knowledge and strength further. It was on the nearby desert of Mars that they discovered the means to spark their Golden Age, The Traveler. A large, city sized orb, with its own consciousness and will helped spark them into the new Golden Age. It was a thousand years of peace, of technological and magical advancement, they colonized the planets, Venus, Mars, even their very Moon, but they did not know the dark secret of the Traveler.

It did not come alone…

The Traveler was being hunted, not by a singular threat, but by multiple forces. The Darkness, an all-consuming mass of evil and treacherous species, they quickly crushed the ponies defenses on the outer planets. The Superior weapons that the Darkness held and nearly endless reserves of troops attacked from everywhere. It didn’t take long for them to be pushed back to the final city, the Traveler watching over them, until a single assault by the Earth Conquerors killed the Traveler.

With the Traveler’s death, it created a new line of defense for the city. The Guardians, charged with the very power of the Traveler. The Guardians were resurrected from the bodies of the various Ponies, Crystal Ponies, and Changelings alike. They became the Warriors of Light, a new force to fight against the Darkness. Each one given a Ghost, a sentient shard of the Traveler to guide them.

This is the story of one such Guardian.

The Ghost flew around the ship yard. A small white machine, made of two sections of four pointed stars, sticking to a spherical center. The Ghost flew around the outside walls, rusted by time, the vines and weeds growing out around the wasteland beyond. It scanned the various wreckages of rusted vehicles and ships, searching for someone in particular.

It flew by a skeleton, crushed underneath a rusted metal ship, it scanned it briefly, looking for either the spark of the Traveler or the flare that signified a guardian, instead it was looking at how the poor Pony died. “Ouch.” Was all it said before moving onto the next hill of bodies.

The Ghost flew around, scanning the bodies briefly, then it’s small lit eye widens. “Can it be?” The Ghost separates, the various points of the body floating around in a blue stasis aura as the Ghost scanned the body with more details. “There you are!” The Ghost closed itself and released a pulse of light over the area.

“Guardian? Guardian. Eyes up Guardian!” Twilight heard the robotic voice speak to her as her blurred vision began to clear. What happened? She thought to herself. Last thing I remember was…

“You’re alive!” Twilight looked up at the voice, and was surprised to see the small box-like floating… Thing.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been looking for you.” The box thing said, every time it spoke, a small clicking was heard as it began and finished. “I’m a Ghost. Actually, now I’m your Ghost.”

A Ghost? “You’ve been dead a long time.” I’ve been… Dead? “So you are going to see a lot of things you won’t understand.”

There was a loud high pitched roar in the distance, causing the Ghost to look back out towards the plains. “This is Fallen Territory. We aren’t safe here!” The Ghost said looking around Frantically. “Stand still.” The Ghost dissipated in a sparkling blue gas.

“Wait!” Twilight called looking around.

“Don’t worry, I’m still here. I need to get you into the City, we won’t last long out here.”

Twilight looked around for a moment before noticing a white diamond focusing on the large rusted wall, all around the path to it were large rusted metal bodies. Twilight began to run towards the door, looking down at her hooves to notice the black material covering them, looking around her body, she found a white robe was covering her body, and a helmet had been placed over her head. Filing that away in the mental ‘Questions to ask later’ Folder, she decided to focus on survival as another loud screech pierced the air.

As she entered into the rusted structure, the ghost spoke to her again. “I need to find you a weapon, we won’t last long out here without it.”

“What about my magic?” Twilight asked to the air around her.

“Guardian, you just woke up from being dead for over one thousand years. Any attempt to use your magic would most likely short out your…” The Ghost suddenly stopped. “They’re right above us…”

Twilight slowed down as she neared a rusted set of metal stairs, walking up them, she heard a clanging in the walls in front of her, a moment later she heard a slight clicking noise and saw the strangest thing she ever saw in her life.

It was a biped, climbing inside of the wall, visible through a piece of the wall that had fallen off, it climbed around the rusty pipe with its two long arms with three fingers on each. It lacked any kind of fur or coat, it’s body colored a red and blue. It quickly climbed the vent as Twilight hopped back a bit.

“What in Equestria was that?”

The Ghost clicked into life. “That was a Fallen Dreg, light and weak, but if we don’t have a weapon, they will easily take us down. We need to find a weapon Guardian.”

Twilight nodded and began to walk up the rest of the stairs. “My name is Twilight.”

“Would you prefer if I call you that Guardian?”

“Yes I would.”

“Very well Guardian, Designation: Twilight, Class: Warlock. Now can we please focus on getting you a weapon. I only just found you, I don’t want to have to do it again.”

Twilight climbed the rest of the stairs and ended up in a darkened chamber. “I can’t see a thing.”

“Oh, I’ve got that.” The Ghost said as it reappeared next to Twilight with a cone of light centered on its blue eye casting in front of Twilight.

“Oh that’s much better.” Twilight continued to walk in the dark Chamber before coming to a large empty chamber.

“I need to get some more lights on.” The Ghost said as it left Twilight in its glowing ball form. “The Fallen Thrive in the Dark, We won’t.” Ghost began to fly around the chamber before flying out of view.

The Ghost’s voice spoke to Twilight, despite the long distance. “Another one of these hardened military systems… Plus a few hundred years of atrophy working against me.”

Twilight squinted into the darkness, noticing the small blue lights that blinked and glowed in the dark a ways away from them. As the lights began to spark into life, Twilight saw what was casting them.

A group of the strange bipedal alien creatures was hanging on the pipes in another section. A few of them had four limbs, small horns coming off the side of their head. A few small dishlike robots flew down towards Twilight.

“The Fallen! They Found us!” Ghost shouted as it flew back towards Twilight. “I found you a weapon, grab it quick!” Twilight looked around as a gate began to raise slowly. Looking around, she found the weapon Ghost was talking about, a black machine gun was sitting leaning against a box.

Twilight grabbed it in a purple Aura and lifted it up close to her. “I hope you know how to use that thing.” Ghost said.

“You and me both…” Twilight said, in her view, a sudden small readout appeared, showing the weapon with the number 25 next to it and an even smaller 350 next to the first number. “Ghost, what are these?”

“That’s the ammo readout. It tells you how much ammo it in your weapon, now let’s go. It isn’t safe here!” Twilight nodded as she walked down the hall. All of a sudden, the vents burst open as another of the Dregs popped up near her and one of the four armed aliens fell from the ceiling, releasing a roar.

“Guardian! Shoot it!”

Twilight lifted the gun, the sight on it had a large crack through it, she aimed the small red dot over the Dreg and used her magic to pull the trigger.

The weapon sputtered to life, firing the hot lead towards the aliens, it pierced the target, and after a few bullets, the Dreg fell.

The four armed alien lifted its own weapon firing three spinning blue balls of energy at Twilight, she attempted to put up a shield spell as she had so many times before, but nothing happened and the blue energy collided with her.

She raised her hoof to shield her, but found that nothing had happened, well not nothing, a white bar at the top of her sight went down about halfway. She was confused, but the alien creature had snarled and raised the weapon to fire again. Twilight raised her own weapon and let the bullets fly into the alien’s head, as the first few bullets collided, the alien’s head exploded, leaving behind a small stream of some white substance as it collapsed to the ground.

Twilight looked over the two dead aliens in front of her, her aura around the weapon dropped as she felt her heart racing and her legs twitching. “Twilight, are you alright? Your Adrenaline levels are increasing at an alarming rate.”

“I’ve… I’ve never Killed anything before…” Twilight said, panting. “It… Feels… Wrong…”

The Ghost clicked into life. “Guardian, I know this must be difficult for you. But we have to keep moving, the Fallen might call a Ketch in.”

Twilight nodded. “What… What was the four armed guy?”

“A Fallen Vandal, only a bit higher up on the food chain than a Dreg.”

Twilight looked down at the body of the Dreg, it had been so easy, a quick pull of the trigger, and then it died… Twilight’s eyes shifted to the weapon the Dreg had been holding. It was small, and the Dreg seemed to have two extra limbs budding off of it, like they had been cut off.

“Guardian! We need to move!”

Twilight took a deep breath, then picked up her weapon and headed down the hall. When she reached it, a few small black spikes in the wall shot out a straight red laser. “STOP!” Ghost said. Causing Twilight to stop in her tracks. “Tripmines, don’t touch them.”

The Red lines let out an eerie buzzing as Twilight ducked underneath the crisscrossing laser wires, as she passed them, more Fallen jumped from the grates in the floor and ceiling as more tripmines activated. Before Twilight raised her weapon, one of the Dregs ran into the tripmines and blew itself up. Twilight quickly pulled the trigger on her weapon as it unleashed more of the lead at them, when the gun began to click. “Reload Guardian.”

Twilight’s magic unconsciously pulled the clip from the weapon, throwing it aside as she pulled another clip from her robe and plugged it into the weapon. “You’re not very good at that…”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Twilight retorted as she walked down another hall, she was nearing the end when a Dreg jumped out from the ceiling and landed a foot in front of her. “AH!” She fell back on the ground as the Dreg raised its glowing blue knife. Twilight raised her hoof to stop the attack, but heard a strange magical swish, looking up, she saw an aura shoot from her hoof and strike the Dreg, knocking it to the ground.

“How did I do that?”

“It is a melee surge Twilight, it releases a blast of kinetic energy that strikes a target as if you had punched them, also… Keep an eye on the tracker…”

Twilight looked at the top right of her vision, seeing a circle that held various sections labeled out on it, looking towards a blinking red one, she noticed more Fallen climb from behind some rubble.

Twilight quickly pulled out the weapon and unloaded the clip at the Fallen, watching as they fell to the ground. Her heart still ached when she watched the creatures die, it felt… Wrong… But it could not be helped. She quickly moved away from the area and found a catwalk-like structure. At the end of the structure there was a strange looking box.

“Oh look, a lootbox.” Ghost said, flying off to hover above the strange box. “Let’s see what’s inside.”

Twilight surrounded the box in her magic and pulled it open, finding a number of blue crystalline squares and a strange weapon, honestly if Twilight kept calling everything ‘Strange’ that was, there would be a lot of strange things. Twilight pulled the weapon out of the box and looked at it. “Ghost, what is this?”

“That appears to be a shotgun Twilight.” Ghost replied.

“A Shot… Gun?”

“Yes, it is designed to release a very powerful blast of buckshot to a target within close proximity, however it loses strength at even medium ranges.”

“Huh…” Twilight replied. “I guess I’ll keep it as a backup.” Twilight slung the gun over her shoulder so that it rested on her back before she continued on her way. Walking down a couple of stairs she came to an opening in the rusted architecture, where everything became slightly yellow tinged.

“Look out. More Fallen!” Ghost said as five Fallen Vandals climbed from behind the strange circular devices. One of them raised its weapon as a wave of light centered around the barrel.

“What is it doing?” Twilight asked as the Vandal fired a beam of energy towards her.

“Kill first, analyze their weapons later.” Ghost said.

“Got it…” Twilight reloaded the weapon and fired towards the Vandals, watching them fall as they were hit. When all of them had died, she moved onto the next area, a large opening with those strange robotic drones flying around. “Look out, Shanks!”

“Shanks?” Twilight replied.

“The little flying things.” Ghost replied, just as three of the Shanks fired their quick blasters towards Twilight. She pulled out her gun and fired at them, watching as they careened towards the ground and exploded.

A Fallen Vandal hopped out from behind a pillar and charged at her, two sabers that radiated blue energy in its claws. Twilight raised the weapon and heard it click without the ammo, as the Vandal was nearing her, she pulled out the Shotgun on her side and pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, the Vandal flew back a good foot or so and landed on the ground, a large hole in its chest.

“Guardian, this way.” Ghost highlighted a small open hatch that Twilight quickly rushed into, seeing the giant broken fan blades within. Moss growing off the inactive structures.

“We’re going to need a ship if we want to reach the city.” Ghost said. “There should be one in the Cosmodrome nearby.”

“Cosmodrome?” Twilight repeated.

“It was a point of takeoff for Golden Age Ponies, they used the ships to travel to the nearby planets. There is usually a ship nearby, maybe it can take us to the City.”

Twilight nodded as she stepped through a hatch on the other side of the tunnel, looking out at the night sky. “Wow… That must have been one long trip…”

“It certainly seems that way.”

There was a sudden ripple in the sky as a large ship appeared in the distance, flying slowly towards the two of them. “Look out! More Fallen!” From the large ship, a number of smaller ships that looked like the skeletal structure of a fish flew down and stopped, letting the fallen climb out and hop down towards the ground. “We’re going to have to fight our way through.”

“I was afraid you would say that…” Twilight replied with a sigh. She quickly reloaded the rifle she had and fitted another shell into the shotgun. “I still can’t believe my magic is blocked…”

“You should be recovering parts of it slowly, after all the revive does do wonders for mental damage as well as physical ones.”

Twilight ran up towards a barrier and fired a shot towards the Fallen, a few of them growled something to the others before they all began firing towards her. She began to aim for the heads of the creatures, hoping it would do more than just stun them, she had gotten used to seeing them fall flat on the ground, while it still made her heart quake slightly, she was no longer flinching because of it. These creatures are trying to kill me… She reasoned. I need to stay alive…

As they fell, she walked through the open field in between a couple of buildings. “You sure this is the right way?”

“I’m programmed to discern directions based on the needs of the Guardian I am serving.” Ghost replied. “Yes we are going the right way. The Ship’s main docking area should be nearby.”

A few Dregs and Shanks ran from the building in front of them, Twilight pulled out the Shotgun and put a blast of Buckshot into each one. When all of them were dead, her horn glowed brightly for a second. “What’s going on?”

Ghost flew materialized and scanned Twilight. “It appears as though your magical powers are retuning, you have unlocked the ability to conjure a small vortex to damage hostiles.”

Twilight looked over at a few of the dead bodies of the Dregs. “So… I can throw a vortex around?”

“Precisely, however it seems as though the rejuvenation has left you with very limited control. I estimate a time lapse of 1.5 minutes before you have the capability to activate another charge.”

“Why so long?” Twilight asked as she reloaded her weapons and walked into the building.

“Unicorn Magic is quite complex, I believe there is a way to lower the amount of time between charges, but it would require extreme amounts of time and study.”

“I think I can handle that…”

As they walked through the building, killing a couple more Fallen on the way, Twilight eventually came to the location of the ship. “Whoa…” The Ship itself looked like a large triangle, the front had a large white antenna on the front with the back having a couple of thrusters. It also had Fallen crawling all over it.

Twilight charged up her horn and launched the vortex charge out of it, the charge landed right on top of a large Fallen with a helmet that had spikes coming out of it. The Charge left a small purple sphere that released tendrils of dark energy, slowly killing the fallen nearby.

The largest Fallen let out a roar and fired its weapon, which released four flaming orange pieces of shrapnel out of it, the pieces smashed into Twilight but her white bar at the top of her vision remained good, until a couple of Vandal’s fired their slow moving tracer balls at her. Causing her vision to ripple slightly as the bar changed to red.

“Ghost?”

“Guardian, get to cover!” The Large Fallen shot the flaming shrapnel again as it impacted Twilight, searing through her coat. She hid behind a nearby piece of rubble and powered up her horn, helping mend the wound that formed.

When she had that handled, she raised her gun and unloaded the clip directly towards the large Fallen’s head, once all twenty five bullet’s left the clip, the Fallen’s head exploded. Twilight pulled out her Shotgun and ran towards the Vandals, firing two blasts at them, while ducking away from their own weapon. She quickly cleared out the rest of the Fallen as she looked out over the ship.

The ship looked like it crashed, a large hole in the roof was created as it lay suspended by some strong wires. Ghost materialized over the ship and began scanning it.

“I’m not sure if it’ll make Orbit, but it might be able to get us to the city…”

“Will it fly?” Twilight asked.

“I can make it work.” Ghost replied, moving towards the ship and dematerializing. The ship then began to power up, the roar of the engines sounded as the Ship slowly lifted from it’s place. “Let me get the Transmat working…”

A Fallen’s roar sounded close by, and Twilight turned to face the direction.

“We can come back for them later,” Ghost said. “Right now, let’s get to the city.” Twilight felt herself disappear and reappear inside of the ship, much like her old teleport ability.

The Ship raised off the ground and out of the building, turning to face the large moon before zooming off into the distance.

“So.” Ghost said, looking at Twilight as she figured out how to fly. “How was your first day of being alive?”

Twilight gripped onto the controls for the ship, trying to get a feel for them. “It was… Interesting…”

“Well there will be plenty more days like that now.” Ghost said. “We’re heading to the Tower of the Guardians.”

Twilight looked at the display screen, showing where they were flying. “I feel like something is missing…”

“Amnesia is a common attribute to newly awoken Guardians. It should pass with time.”

Twilight slouched in the seat of the ship. “I hope you’re right about that…”

The Tower

View Online

Twilight had gotten a lot of practice flying on their way to this ‘City’ Ghost kept talking about. She had some scares when she flew through a thunderstorm and almost got hit.

“So what is this City?”

The Ghost clicked into life. “The City is the last stronghold for Equestria, the others have gotten pushed back so far that all of Equestria has been practically destroyed.

“All of it?” Twilight asked shocked. “But… How did they manage it?”

“We weren’t prepared for the Assault.” The Ghost clicked. “The Traveler had to give its life in order to protect the city. This planet used to be beautiful… But now, this is all we have left.”

Twilight sped up the ship as they were nearing the area Ghost marked as the Tower. As she burst through a layer of clouds, she got her first look at the Tower and Traveler. The Traveler was a giant white orb, a large piece of it shattered near the bottom while the Tower was a large overlook, looking down on the city below.

Ghost took control of the Ship as they turned and headed towards the Tower, when they were over the grassy area by the front of the tower, Twilight felt herself being transmatted onto the platform, her helmet had been removed as she felt her straight dark purple mane flow in the breeze. She looked around astonished.

“This is the last stronghold for Ponykind, and this,” Ghost said turning to show Twilight the tower. “Is where the Guardians live.”

Twilight looked at the various ponies walking around. Pegasi and Earth ponies were walking around talking with each other. A few Crystal ponies were walking around the tower, and a few of the other Guardians kept their armor on, though they had a strange curved horn.

Twilight looked towards the tower, but turned and looked down at the City below. Small specks of light came from each of the thousands of houses, all surrounded by a large white wall that covered them safely. A number of Ships flew around the city, stopping and dropping off supplies to the various places around the city, leaving their contrails along in the sky.

“Any idea where I should go?” Twilight asked.

“We should speak with the Vanguard.”

“Vanguard?” Twilight repeated.

“They are essentially the trainers of the Guardians.” Ghost replied. “You should speak with Clear Mind, she is the Vanguard for the Warlocks.”

“Are there other Vanguard?”

“Yes, two others.” Ghost replied. “Sunstreak is the Vanguard for Hunters while Diamond Head is the Vanguard for Titans.”

“Where are they?”

Ghost disappeared and marked a location on Twilight’s wrist map, “Hall of the Vanguard” was marked. “Should have figured…”

Twilight walked straight from where she had been dropped in and descended a flight of stairs, coming to a long hall way where an armored pony stood in front of various weapons. Twilight chose to ignore him but was given the ultimate test of her will to walk past the strange robotic pony on the other side of the hall. She walked past without trying to look at it to see a table in the middle of the next room, with three ponies gathered around it.

“So my Scouts picked up an energy signature late last night that they thin came from a Fallen Ketch.” The red Pegasus said, he was wearing a cloak over his head and body while pointing at a map.

“A Ketch?” The Unicorn replied, her body was a dark brown with a mane of light purple. “Why would they bring a Ketch here?”

“Regardless of the reason we need to ensure the safety of the City.” A blue Crystal pony said, he was a light blue with yellow eyes. “A Fallen Ketch means that an Archon or a Kell is here.”

“Well you know that I could always go down and check.” The Pegasus replied. “Maybe… Go check on my old Stash while I’m there.”

“No Shade, you must remain here.” The Unicorn replied.

“Ugh…” Shade groaned. “Come on, I’ve been stuck in this tower for five years! I just want something interesting to happen.”

“Umm… Excuse me?” Twilight said, causing all three of the ponies to look at her.

“Well, this is great.” Shade said sarcastically. “Looks like another Ghost found a Guardian.” He said, pulling a knife out of a sheath on his side. “Maybe this will be a good day after all.”

“Guardian.” The Crystal Pony said. “Where were you revived?”

“By the Cosmodrome.” Twilight replied.

“Did you see a Fallen Ketch over the area?”

Ghost appeared next to Twilight. “Yes, we did see a Ketch last night.”

“Guardian.” The Unicorn said in a clam voice. “Here, let me give you some new gear.”

Shade spun the blade on the table in boredom as Clear Mind gave Twilight a few pieces of gear. “Well not that this isn’t entertaining, because it’s not.” Shade said. “But I have a Nightstalker to go and beat in a poker game.” He grabbed the blade and flew out of the room.

Clear Mind shook her head. “Guardian, you should get familiar with the Tower, it is your new home, you should speak with the Shipwright about your ship, then meet up with the Gunsmith, he can help fit you for the coming battles.”

“Alright.” Twilight replied. “Um… If I could ask a question.”

“Go right ahead.”

“Why is my Magic blocked off?” Twilight asked. “Ghost explained it a little but not very well.”

The Unicorn grinned. “Well it is rather complex, through focus and study you can regain the powers you lost, however for the most part many Unicorns never achieve their full potential again. The revival has a nasty habit of entangling the magical pathways within your body, messing with it in a multitude of ways.”

She motioned to where Sunstreak had been before. “Many Pegasi never gain their wings back, and some Earth Ponies lose their abilities fully, the Shipwright is a good example.”

“Clear, we should get back to the matter at hoof.” The Crystal pony said. “We need to find out what that Ketch is up to.”

“I haven’t forgotten Diamond.” Clear replied. “You should get going Guardian, see what you can learn.”

Twilight nodded and headed back out of the room, noticing the armored pony again, but putting him in the back of her mind. She walked up the stairway and headed to the left, where a cloaked pony was standing behind a counter of weapons. “What do you want?” He croaked.

“I was sent here to get a new weapon.”

The pony hmmed. “Oh yeah. Sunstreak told me about you. Take your pick.” He pulled out four different weapons, three rifles, and a large revolver.

“Ghost?”

Ghost appeared next to her. “Need help figuring out what these are?”

“Yes please…”

Ghost looked over the weapons. “Auto rifle, fully automatic fire. Pulse Rifle, a quick three shot burst. Scout Rifle, good at long ranges, one shot. Hand Canon, close range devastator, they are made to stagger the targets.”

Twilight looked over them, “I… Think I’ll stick with this…” She levitated the auto rifle up as the Pony took the other three.

“Be careful with that.” He croaked. “Wouldn’t want to see a good gun like that go to waste.”

“Thank you.” Twilight said as she began to walk away.

“I’ll remember you next time… Maybe…”

When Twilight was far enough away, she looked up at Ghost, “Who was that?”

“Banshee, that is the only name he knows. Has had various memory wipes over the past few years and has severe memory damage. Despite that he has the best knowledge of the Golden Age tech of anypony in the base.”

“Good to know… You keep mentioning this Golden Age?”

“The Golden Age was the best time for the pony race, three hundred year life spans, technological advancements, but it all fell when the Darkness arrived. Even my memory banks are limited on the time.” Ghost led Twilight towards the Shipwright, as she saw her ship fly into the hanger by itself. She walked through the area and found the Shipwright, an orange Earth Pony with a blond Mane was looking over a blueprint.

“Well Howdy there.” The Pony said. “Name’s Applejack, I’m the Shipwright round these parts.”

“It’s nice to meet you Applejack.” Twilight replied shaking her hoof. “I was told you could help me with my Ship?”

“Well Ah’m not sure how much I can really help.” Applejack said. “Yer missin’ a Warpdrive, gonna need that if ya wanna use it fer anything other than travel round Equestria.”

“Where am I going to get that?”

Applejack rubbed her chin. “Yah might wanna try the Cosmodrome, probably a Warpdrive there somewhere.”

Applejack looked over at a robotic pony. “Yah get that Arcadia Jumpship fixed up yet?”

“Confirmed.” The robot said.

“Well then Ah reckon yah should be able to make it there alright, provided yah don’t crash into anything.”

Ghost appeared next to Twilight. “Twilight, Clear Mind believes she found you a team to assist.”

“A team?” Twilight replied. “That sounds good, more heads and all that.”

“Indeed, I marked their location on your map.” Ghost said. “Clear says that she found some new Guardians to help you from each class, you will be paired with a Hunter and Titan.”

“Well that’s great! More chances to get used to this crazy world works for me.”

Twilight walked over to the area where she had a marking on her map, it was behind the stairway that led to the Vanguard, where a large clearing was made there. She walked down the opening and looked at the two ponies talking at the other end. One of them was an orange Crystal Pony, his armor was made of strange metal. Whereas the other member had a cloak on with armor that looked a lot less useful than the Crystal Pony, but seemed better fitted than her own.

As she walked up to them, the Crystal pony looked past the other member and said something to the other member, causing him to turn. His face was a sleek black with a curved horn, while his eyes were pure blue. He smiled with two small fangs within his snout.

As he turned, Twilight froze, she had seen a face like that before… Crashing down onto a city, and hissing towards her from a crater it made in the street. She ground her teeth as she saw the creature.

“Changeling!” She jumped onto the Changeling and began to shake it by its neck.

“Please… Stop… Chocking… me…” The Changeling said. “It…Is…Starting to Hurt…”

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to!”

“What are you… Talking… about?”

The Crystal Pony shook its head and walked up to the two of them. “You two are idiots…” The pony grabbed Twilight and pulled her off the Changeling.

The Changeling coughed. “Ugh… Sorry, did I… Do something to you in a past life or something? If I did then I’m sorry.”

Twilight glared at the Changeling as it coughed again before a flash of blue light appeared next to him and a Ghost materialized. “Guardian, are you alright?” Unlike her ghost, this one had a shell of dark purple with a single green stripe across it, the eye was also a darker blue. “Your breathing has become irregular.”

The Changeling coughed again. “I’m fine Ghost, just a little surprised by the newest Guardian.” He rubbed his neck. “Why is it always me that gets strangled?”

“Because you don’t keep your helmet on like Sunstreak suggested you do.” The Crystal pony said as he still held Twilight away from the Changeling.

“But with the helmet I can’t smell the beautiful flowers over here.” He took a deep breath through his nose and let out a relaxed ‘Ahh’.

The Crystal pony rolled his eyes then looked at Twilight. “Listen, I know that you probably have some kind of bad experience with Changelings for whatever reason, but you need to calm down. There is no reason to kill him, he does that enough himself.”

“Yeah I… Hey!”

The Crystal pony glared at the Changeling. “If I let you go, will you promise to not try to strangle him or harm him intentionally until we agree on a few things?”

Twilight nodded. “Fine…” She glared at the Changeling as the Crystal Pony dropped her.

“Alright, name’s Topaz and I’m a Titan. You?”

“Twilight Sparkle. I guess I’m a Warlock, that’s what my Ghost told me anyway.”

Topaz gave a small chuckle. “Woke up only a little while ago huh?”

“Yeah… Just last night actually.”

Topaz nudged the Changeling to get him to stop staring off into space. “We’ve both been around for around a week, been stuck on terrestrial duty for a while so the Vanguard can keep an eye on us. We were both picked up by a group of Guardians out by the Ishtar Sink on Venus.”

“So who exactly is he?” Twilight asked gesturing at the Changeling.

“He’s a Hunter, goes by the name of Flit.”

“Why?”

“My actual name is Flitter.” Flit replied. “You can understand why I hated it.” He sighed. “Anyway, every time a pony that gets resurrected in Equestria comes to the Tower, I’m the first one to get strangled… It’s never fun…”

Twilight was still not too happy about seeing a Changeling again, but a part of her felt bad about almost strangling him. “Listen, I’m sorry about that, I thought you were somepony else.”

“I get that a lot.” Flit replied. “So, you met with everypony around here already?”

“Well, probably not everypony, but I’ve met a few.”

Topaz looked over at Twilight. “You were the Guardian who came in on the old Junker right?” Twilight nodded. “Well, I guess our first order of business is finding a Warpdrive. Then we can focus on introductions to everypony.”

Twilight’s Ghost materialized next to her. “And I believe I have the perfect location to find one.”

“Really?” Twilight asked.

“Yup, I think that we can find one in the Cosmodrome back where we found the ship, there is bound to be some parts I can salvage around there.”

Topaz sighed. “Great…”

“What’s up?” Twilight asked noticing the irritation in his voice.

“Well, we only have one other ship, because Flit got shot down using his ship.”

“It was one time!” Flit retorted.

“And that ‘one time’ set us back five thousand Glimmer.” Topaz replied. “So pardon me if I question your flight ability.”

“How was I supposed to know a Skiff had that kind of fire power?”

“By not flying directly into…” He groaned. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, you are making up for it.”

Flit blinked in confusion. “So does that mean I’m-?”

Topaz tossed a key to him. “If you break my ship, I will drop you off at the nearest Dark Zone.” He looked at Flit’s ghost. “Ghost, make sure he doesn’t crash my Ship.”

“Of course Guardian.” The Ghost replied. “I’ll ensure the ship remains undamaged.”

Topaz nodded, then looked up at the rising sun. “Get going you two, you guys should try to get back before nightfall. Wouldn’t want to lose you two already.”

Twilight nodded.

Flit wrapped his hoof around Twilight’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get back safe and alive.” He patted Twilight on the back. “Me and Twi here are like the best of friends already.”

Twilight lifted her hoof to Flit’s face and forcefully pushed him off of her, causing him to land on the ground. “Okay… I deserved that.”

Topaz shook his head. “Just make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

Twilight shot a glance at Flit as he began to stand up. “I’ll try, but first, I need my personal space Flit.”

“You got it…” He said. “I’ll keep my distance.”

“Good.” Topaz replied. “I’ll see you two when you get back.” He looked over at Flit. “And remember, blow up my ship, and I will kill you.”

Flit saluted. “Got it sir.”

Topaz sighed. “Your Ghost should be able to give you the location, just follow him, and Flit, don’t go killing yourself.”

“I will try.” Flit gave a small grin. “No promises.”

Topaz facehoofed. “Get going you two.”

Twilight and Flit’s ghosts both looked towards the guardians. “Preparing for Transmat.”

Twilight felt a brief blink of non-existence before finding herself back inside her ship, looking to the side, she saw another ship next to her own ship. It was a blue and red arrowhead design, a small fin sticking out from the back.

Ghost appeared inside the cockpit. “Opening transmission from Guardian Flitter.”

Ghost’s eye blinked bright blue for a second before Twilight heard Flit’s voice as though he was in the same room.

“So Warlock, you good at flying?” Flit asked as the other ship began to lift off the hanger floor. “Or are you still a newbie?”

Twilight grabbed onto the controls for the Ship and lifted her own ship off the ground. “Well I’m not going to say I’m better than you, but I am still new to this.”

“Try not to get lost on the way there.” Flit said. “I’m not going to be happy coming back for you.”

“FLIT!” Topaz’s voice came through the channel. “Keep her alive! Or I swear by the Crystal Heart I will impale your insectoid ass!”

Twilight heard a loud gulp through the channel. “Yeah… I’ll uh… I’ll do that…” He cleared his throat. “So Twilight, you ready to get this started?”

“As ready as I’m going to be.” Twilight replied. “Ghost, mark the landing location.”

The Ghost clicked. “Alright, displaying directions to Cosmodrome located in Stalliongrad.”

“So Twilight, something I’ve been wondering.” Flit asked as both of the ships flew out of the Hanger. “You know of any friends or family missing?”

Twilight sighed. “Honestly. All I remember is some white Alicorn… Even then a lot of it is blurred out.”

“That’s just standard. It should clear up after a few days.” Topaz said. “Though it tends to be gradual. I can barely remember King Sombra and he was the bane of my race when I was around.”

“Hopefully…” Twilight replied. “The Shipwright seemed familiar though…”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually.” Topaz replied. “Right now you should focus on surviving out there. The Vanguard would be pissed if you wound up dead on your first mission outside the tower.”

“Yeah… You’re probably right.” Twilight replied. “Still need to get used to everything.”

“You’ll get used to them pretty quickly.” Flit replied. “Then again, I’m a Changeling, adaptation is what we live for.”

“Hopefully I can be that adaptable.” Twilight replied. “But you are probably right, should focus on getting this ship fixed up before anything else.”

“That is if there are even any spare warpdrives lying around.” Flit replied. “The Fallen probably already tore them apart.”

“There has to be something there.” Twilight replied. “I’m not going to be able to do much without one.”

“Alright, I’ll be monitoring you two from back here. Try not to do anything I wouldn’t.”

“You mean Smile? That’s going to be a tall order.”

Twilight snickered as she heard a sigh from the communication. “Shut up and fly Flitter.”

“Notice he didn’t deny it.” Flit said.

“Cutting Communication.” Topaz said as a light clicking from Twilight’s Ghost signaled Topaz shut off his communication channel.

“Alright Twi, let’s see how good you can fly that thing.”

The Ghost clicked. “I really hope he isn’t doing what I think he is…”

“Wanna race?”

“And he is.” Twilight replied, shaking her head. “I’ll humor you, let’s go.”

“Prepare to lose Warlock!”

“I hope you know what you’re doing Twilight.” Ghost said as Twilight pushed the controls forward, causing the Ship’s engines to glow bright with flame. A second later the ship was zooming across the sky, heading towards Stalliongrad, and Twilight’s first mission in her new life.