Canterlot, Equestria. 4:30pm 21/06/1000 AN
Canterlot. Normally the crown jewel of Equestria, the beautiful city lay dormant. The activity in the streets had all but ceased, what little motion there was could be described as lazy. Shopkeepers closing up their stalls and ponies returning from a hard days work. The magic powered street lamps began to softly glow, like fireflies in the night. The same could be said for the castle, servants moved slowly about the halls, delivering orders to various places while the guards sluggishly shifted themselves from point to point.
Just as the sun began to droop below the horizon, a spark of green light could be seen moving across the space between the mountainside city and its closest neighbouring town, Ponyville. The spark travelled up the side of the castle and through a convenient open window. The light, now visible as a small green flame, made a popping noise and fizzled out. A small scroll materialised. It floated in place for a moment before dropping into the large pile of identical scrolls. Each scroll contained an apology, each phrased slightly differently from the last, each using a new format or font, each completely unnoticed by the supposed receiver of said apology.
Princess Celestia had stopped reading these apology letters quite some time ago. She knew her student wasn't to blame for what happened, nopony was. Nopony even knew who Nightmare moon used to be, little Luna. Celestia had waited a thousand years for her return, only for the elements to banish her away again, back to the moon. Where she would be stuck for a thousand years more. Celestia let out a long heavy sigh and shifted across from one side of the bed to the other. In truth she wasn't angry, she wasn't even that sad. She was just...lonely. A thousand years of solitude doesn't do much good for the mind. She can only imagine what Luna must be feeling right now, at least she had something to take her mind off the gaping hole that her sisters banishment had left in her heart. Luna's stuck on the moon, all alone, by herself. Tears began to well in the corners of her eyes, why couldn't her life just be easy for once? Her vengeful thoughts were intrupted by the arrival of yet another letter. *Fiiiiiiizz* *POP* Another scroll added to the pile. Another wasted apology. Celestia pulled herself out of bed, as lonely as she was she still had a duty to her kingdom.
She stepped out on to her chamber balcony and looked out towards the horizon, she remembered when she used to do this with her sister, how they would laugh and flick each others ears while trying to perform spells, how afterwards she and Luna would sit by the fire and discuss the various nobles and highlife stuck ups that had visited day court that morning. How Celestia would often fall asleep by the fire and Luna would have to place her in bed, all the while with a smile on her face.
"Oh Lu-lu I miss you so much." She mumbled, barely above a whisper.
With that she began the final lowering of the sun, it disappeared over the curve of the planet. From behind her rose the moon, in all its pristine white glory. The crators that made up the shape of a mares head where especially visible tonight, it's a shame she would never be able to appreciate just how beautiful they really were. As Celestia turned to leave the balcony she failed to see the one out of place object in the intirety of the night sky, a small flash of light near the moon, to most it would have gone completely unnoticed, yet it signified the beginning of something much, much bigger.
Meridian bay, Mars. Roughly 1000 years prior.
The sands of Mars were famous for being one of the most inhospitable places known to mankind, not because of the lack of water or the sweltering heat. Not even because of the constant Cabal patrols that made going absolutely anywhere a gamble for your life. No, the sands of Mars were known this way because they are SO GOD DAMN ANNOYING!
"I swear to the Traveler if I have to pick ONE more fucking grain of sand out of my boots, I'm going to find the nearest legionary, and ram my foot so far up his-"
"QUIET! You'll get us spotted." Responed a synthetic voice, more within his head than anything else.
Mathew Ausland and his ghost had been stalking the perimeter of a small Cabal outpost for nearly two hours now and to say that the sand was getting under his skin would be an understatement both literally and figuratively.
"Alright guardian what's the plan, because the sun will be setting soon and I've heard that Mars is less than pleasant at night." The crackling voice of Cayde-6, the hunter vanguard, came through his helmet's transceiver.
"I don't know Cayde, their defences are thinner than usual but they're really dug in." Replied Mathew in a slightly wary tone.
It really didn't help that the briefing for this mission had consisted mostly of Cayde-6 and commander Zavala throwing shade at one another while Ikora Rey rolled her eyes. With little success, She attempted to explain the importance of the recovery of golden age artefacts to Mathew, who quite frankly, didn't really care. When the ramshackle meeting was over, he had been sent away so the vanguard could continue doing whatever it is that they normally do. There was just one problem, he hadn't any idea what the mission would entail, other than 'break into place and steal thing', so preparing was less than enjoyable. Luckily he had substituted for the lack of Intel by bringing a rather large amount of kit with him.
Although apparently the one thing he forgot was the thing that he was needing most right now, his sniper rifle.
"Mathew, I'm detecting activity in the defences." Chirped his ghost.
Mathew grunted in response and aimed down the sights of his SUROS DIS-43 scout rifle. It had been a gift from one of his close friends at the tower, Banshee-44, after he returned from putting down a particularly rowdy Fallan archon. It had gotten him out of many a stiff situation. Although it didn't quite have the power to crack a centurions shield in one go, which would have helped rather a lot right now. Speaking of the Cabal, it looked like they were changing up their guard. This could be the moment he had been waiting for.
"The Cabal are changing up their legion, this could be my chance, should I take it?"
"If you think you have a chance of getting in there you go guardian." Mathew could hear the excitement in Cayde's voice.
With that, he checked his surroundings one more time and then leaped over the sand dune and down towards the Cabal fortifications. They were so busy changing that they didn't notice him slide in to one of the side doors on the stucture. Mathew entered a dark passage, the only light was coming from a small lantern placed near the entrance, which snapped shut behind him. His ghost instinctively activated his light function to illuminate the surroundings.
"Can't see a damn thing..." He said, grasping a nearby wall for support. "Ghost can you take a scan of the room and upload it to my hud."
"Already done, the next door appears to be sealed though. Let me get that for you."
Ghost hovered over to a panel on the wall and began to tamper with the lock, now that his eyes where adjusting he could see more of the room around him, it didn't have the standard Cabal military décor, it seemed kind of bare. Just an entrance on one side and an exit on the other.
"I got it!" chirped ghost."The Cabal really need to work on better security software."
"I'd agree with you but I really don't hack them myself that often." Mathew and his ghost shared a laugh as they made their way through the slowly opening door.
They exited into a court yard bordered by high stone walls, the setting sun glistened off their surface, making them seem redder that the actually were. That's not what got Mathews attention though.
"Cayde, you seeing this?" Asked Mathew
"Seeing is one thing, believing is another, guardian."
In the centre of the court was a large circular platform, it's surface was a deep purple colour and shimmered in the twilight glow. At four points in the ring, adjacent to one another, stood four curved pillars, facing inwards, as if pointing towards the middle of the circle.
"Ghost, any idea what this thing is." Asked Mathew
"I've got nothing." There was a pause. "The Travelers data banks have nothing either."
"From the looks of it the Cabal have been trying to access it." Mathew gestured towards the Cabal terminals set up around the structure.
Ghost whistled in response and moved to access one of the terminals.
"Looks like the Cabal haven't had much luck getting access." Mumbled ghost, talking to himself. "Every time they've made an attempt to get in they've been met with this symbol."
Ghost flashed a strange symbol on Mathews hud, it was circular and split in two, with a smaller circle domination the top half of the odd shape.
"Any idea what it means?" asked Mathew.
"I am uncertain, it doesn't look like Cabal scripture, or any other races scripture for that matter."
"Could be the Vex, they have a habit of leaving strange symbols around." Said Cayde, his serious vanguard voice on.
"I don't think so, the terminal itself matches no common Vex systems, although the software, if you can even call it that, seems to slightly resemble some of the ancient Vex systems in the vault of glass." Replied ghost. "I could try to hack it myself, although I'm not sure to what end."
"Well I don't see any other options" said Cayde.
Mathew sighed. "Try not to get yourself killed please."
Ghost chirped in response and began work on the device, after a moment he stopped.
"That's odd, I'm reading multiple new systems opening up..."
Ghost was interrupted by a low whining as the pad began to glow. Particles of energy swirled upwards in the air, forming a spiral of blue light.
"That's bizarre, I received the same symbol, but it was green. It's almost as if it was waiting for us." He said, still slightly stunned.
"This device has some similarity to Fallen warp pad technology, although I can't pinpoint the exact destination of delivery..."
"Cayde, what should we do now?" asked Mathew.
Cayde sighed.
"I'm sending reinforcements to your position, although they aren't going to arrive until morning, I suggest you explore the spooky space portal and see what you can find."
"Got it."
Mathew stepped up towards the plate, he stood on the edge of the circle. "Do I just, like, step onto it?"
"I think so." Came the reply.
His feet touched the brushed alloy and he was met with an immediate feeling of weightlessness. He began to hover, and then rise, almost as if there was no gravity holding him down in the first place. Then, without warning, a massive force pushed him upwards, propelling the screaming warrior into the clouds.
"Are you sure this is safe!" He yelled above the rushing wind
Mathew heard Cayde huff through his helmet.
"Stop yelling, I can hear you just fine. Plus you shouldn't even be worried about that guardian, but ghost?"
"Yes Cayde?"
"Stand by for uh... Resurrection."
Mathew groaned, he hated dying. Some guardians didn't mind it at all, but Mathew made sure to treat every life like it was his last. He felt it was better that way, and took no part in the crucible. Much to Shaxx's dismay.
As he observed the increasingly smaller and smaller landscape below him, he saw just how beautiful Mars really was, he saw the massive city of Freehold in the distance and imagined what it must have looked like during the golden age. Countless ships coming in from places afar, delivering goods and dropping off passengers. He smiled, must have really been a site to see. Didn't change his opinion of sand though. Fuck sand.