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// 02- Keep Moving On 
// Story: Destiny- Shimmering Sun 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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        Out of all the things I expected to happen… this was not one of them. When Ghost told me that we were going to see the Warlock Vanguard, I thought it would be somebody that I have never met before, but were more experienced in everything going on so they could answer any questions that I still might have. After all, one of the definitions of a Vanguard was the leaders of a particular group. Whether or not they were a intellectual leader or a political leader, they were part of the movement and were on the front lines for it.

        Though, this was nothing like that. This wasn’t just a leader of some sorts. This was Twilight Sparkle. One of my friends that I remembered from… well, I think the right term would be ages since I didn’t recall when we last saw each other. However… something was different about her. Instead of the lavender skin I remembered from back then, her skin was almost a cold bluish gray. Like it had lost all of its color and became rather saturated. And her eyes… they were the same, but looked… like they were glowing. The only thing that still looked the same was the way she had tied up her hair.

        What… happened to her while I was gone?

        Instantly though, my attention was redirected back to her when I realized that she was walking towards me… followed by her pulling me in for a hug. “It’s… good to see you again…” She told me. I tried to say something… but with all the things going on right now inside my head, I found it personally impossible to formulate a thought in that moment. Only responding by trying to hug her back… before actually being able to say something.

        “Twilight… there are… way too many questions rolling around in my head right now,” I told her, before taking a deep breath as I looked back at her. “Ghost… told me you can help answer a few of them.”

        “Yes I can…” She replied back. “What would you like to ask?”

        “Well… what lead to… well… all of this?” I tried my best to explain to her, given the fact that it was hard to formulate the words in my head. “Because I… well…”

        “If I may…” Ghost soon interjected, floating next to me. “In my short time with my new guardian, she doesn’t seem to recall anything at all from the past. She didn't even know what the Traveler was and had asked me about it on our way here from the old Cosmodrome.” That… had Twilight’s eyes widen a little… before nodding her head in acknowledgement as she pressed a few buttons on the side of the table we were standing at.

        “That… was a long long time ago… Centuries, if we were to be exact,” She replied. Even though I knew part of this already based on some things Ghost told me briefly, it still was a bit of a shock to my system to hear that coming from her. “All the way back then, the historian called those centuries C.E. or Common Era. Now? The Cryptarchs of the tower called that P.G.A… as in before the Traveler was first discovered.”

        “Pre Golden Age.” I heard Ghost say to himself.

        “Right… During that time, Humanity always wanted to be able to explore other planets and stars…” Twilight replied back, surprising me for a moment when she made a holographic projection of the solar system emerge from the table we were at. “But it was on their first known expedition to Mars… that Humanity had first discovered the Traveler.”

        “Just… what is the Traveler though?” I asked. “That’s the part I’m having trouble understanding.”

        “Many people over the years has had different theories as to what it might be, but no one knows what it truly is,” As I heard that, I saw a white orb hover over what looked to be Mars on the star chart. But as Twilight continued to speak, the White Orb soon moved past Mars and a couple of the other planets before it reached Earth. “But what we do know is that in the years since it was first discovered, a time of miracles soon began. It was what we refer to as our Golden Age and with it, many of the things that humanity thought were impossible… became possible.”

        “Like what?” I asked her, raising an eyebrow for a moment.

        “Well, in the years since the Golden Age began, technology began to rapidly evolve by the day. The Traveler made it possible for us to fabricate and construct cities on other planets, such as Mars and Venus,” As Twilight said this, she revealed a few pictures to me of those exact cities that she was referring to. Along with pictures of jumpships like the one that we found out in the Cosmodrome flying in space. “Mercury was transformed into a garden world because of the Traveler. The lifespan of a normal human tripled and many of us saw it as our destiny to walk amongst the stars… Then… it happened.”

        That… left me puzzled as I looked back at Twilight, who had her head bend over and face the ground for a minute as all the pictures that she showed me before were now gone. “Uh… Twilight, what happened?”

        That question though… was not answered by her though. But by Ghost instead. “The Collapse…”

        Shortly after hearing those words, Twilight picked up her head again and looked back at me… Wait… did she look upset somehow? Why was that? “In all the centuries of our golden age, humanity did not know that the Traveler had an ancient enemy… A darkness. One that had endlessly pursued the Traveler throughout the far reaches of space. And when this darkness found the Traveler… it found us too. And it laid waste to everything… Those who tried to fight it fell in battle. Those who tried to flee were forever changed… But the worst part about all of this… involves you specifically, Sunset.”

        “Me? How?” I definitely did not like the sound of where this was going. Not at all. Memories were coming back now… and I was unsure about what exactly she was referring to, but the thought of it made me feel a little sick.

        “Do you remember the Mirror?” Oh no… please don’t tell me… “Some of us, more specifically, those who remembered you and where you came from… had to destroy it. It… was in order to prevent the Darkness from possibly reaching your home but… Sunset, I’m…”

        “Umm… Excuse me for interrupting here, but what ‘Mirror’ are you referring to?” Ghost asked.

        “It’s only something that myself, a couple of the other vanguard leaders, and some friends close to us know about, Ghost. There’s nothing on it in the archive database.” Twilight told him. As she was speaking, I now began to comprehend what this meant. The mirror all the way at Canterlot High was the portal between my home… the Land of Equestria… and this world. But with it destroyed… there was no way I could go back home. It was a LOT to take in, especially with how severe something like this was.

        The only thing stopping my train of thought though… was when I heard Twilight speak up again. “Sunset? A-are you okay?”

        Right around then… I had to do my best to keep myself composed. “Y-yeah, it’s just… well, it’s a lot to take in…” I told her… before remembering something. “How… was this darkness dealt with though? I mean… I’m thankful that it didn’t go through the mirror… but is it still lurking around?”

        “No actually… The Collapse was several centuries ago,” Wait, seriously?! Geez, how LONG has this been going on for? “For back then, the Traveler made a choice. It chose to sacrifice itself in order to save the last of humanity and prevent them from becoming extinct. It’s sacrifice also brought life to the ghosts, who then seek out those who can control the travelers light and use it to fight those who try to attempt to do humanity harm. Those are Guardians… like you and me.”

        “The last city and the Tower are under the Travelers protection too, given how close it is in proximity.” Ghost also added on to the conversation.

        “That’s also true…” I heard her tell me in response. “Sunset… is there anything else you would like to ask?”

        That… was tricky. Sure I had some questions to ask, but I personally didn’t want to make it sound too personal. “Well… um… the last time I remembered seeing you… you looked rather different than before. What… happened, exactly?”

        In response, Twilight sighed as she looked back at me and disabled the projections on the table. Having it return back to normal now. “Well… when the collapse happened, several of us tried to flee from it by taking our ships into the unknown sectors of space. But… something happened. And because of it, we were all forever changed. They call us… Awoken. Those who tried to flee from the Darkness or descendants of those same people.” Well, that answered one of the questions that was inside my head. But… I still had one more thing I needed to ask her-.

        Of course… neither of us expected for someone else to enter the hall at the same time. “Twilight, did the Research division ever follow up with you on-?” Wait… I knew that voice from somewhere… Oh don’t tell me.

        When I turned around, that was when I discovered that the person who was talking… was indeed who I was thinking it was. “F-flash? How-?”

        “You know Commander Sentry, Sunset?” Wait, Commander? When exactly did something like this happen while I was… you know what, nevermind. Twilight did mention that only a few of the other Vanguard leaders knew about the mirror to Equestria… though, I did not expect one of those leaders to actually be Flash Sentry.

        Flash though… looked rather shocked and surprised to see me at first. But, after Twilight briefly brought him up to speed on what we had been talking about, he seemed to have a better understand of what was going on… I think. 

        “So… where were we on our conversation?” Twilight asked.

        “Well… I was going to ask about how I can be able to help out, now that I’m a part of this whole ‘Guardian’ thing…” I first told them, before looking back towards Flash now. “But, I’m now wondering something… What exactly is a Guardian? I mean, no one’s really… explained it to me outside of the general terms. And I’m going to guess that not every Guardian is the same?”

        That’s when Flash took a deep breath… and pressed something on the table, which soon lead to three crests hovering in the middle. “Well, Guardians are normally seen as three different classes. I’m already sure that you know what a Warlock is by now, but there are two other classes that you should at least be familiar with in case you are paired up with one,” In explaining the brief bit about the Warlock, one of the symbols soon disappeared afterwards. Leading to what looked like Flash bringing up what looked like a hexagon broken up into two triangles and two rhombus’ along with what looked like a guardian in full body armor instead of the robes that Twilight was wearing. “One of the other classes that I serve as for the Vanguard is the Titan. Those who were brave soldiers that were known for their strength, heroic deeds and sacrifice on the battlefield and brought back as guardians. They can be able to not only be a shield to defend their allies, but also be merciless against those that try to do harm to their fellow guardians.”

        With that, it only left one symbol, and with it, showed someone that was dressed in what made me think of some kind of bounty hunter. “Lastly, we have Hunters. Survivors that learned how to use the travelers light in order to survive out in the wild. They’re normally seen as important when it comes to scouting operations, but they have just as many tricks in order to bend the outcome of a situation in their favor… However, the vanguard for the Hunters right now is wandering around in the Tower and not exactly doing what she’s supposed to be doing.”

        Well, at least that made me a little bit familiar about this whole Guardian business. Now… only one question remained inside my head now. “So… what can I do to help?”



        As it turns out, the first thing that I needed to do in order to prepare myself was to get better equipment and armor. Twilight herself had a cache for new Warlocks that gave me some new garbs, while also giving me what she referred to as a ‘requisition pass’. However, since she had to discuss some important matters with Flash, she didn’t really get the chance to actually tell me what I was supposed to do with it.

        Leaving me to have to ask Ghost instead… and he directed me towards someone that was referred to as the ‘Gunsmith’ of the tower. When I got there though, she… seemed almost familiar. Despite the fact that she was an Exo. “Oh, hey! Never seen your face around here before,” She first introduced herself to me, setting down a weapon that she seemed to be doing maintenance on around the time that I arrived. “You a new Guardian?”

        “Yeah…” I said to her, looking around to see the numerous racks of different weapons stacked up along the back of this small area. Personally, I wasn’t really sure if this Exo I was talking to was actually the gunsmith I was looking for. “I was told that I could find the Gunsmith here-?”

        “Well, that would be me,” Oh so she is the gunsmith. Never would’ve thought… “I’m Vinyl-3, the Tower’s Gunsmith. Is there anything I can help you with today, Guardian? Maybe something you would like to purchase?”

        Well, now that she mentioned it… “Actually, I was given this by Twilight Sparkle, the Warlock Vanguard,” I told her, handing the requisition pass that was in my hands as she took a moment to look at it. “She told me to come take this to you and that you can help me out?”

        “Heck yeah, I can,” She told me, before setting the pass aside. “When any Vanguard gives a new guardian a requisition pass, they can trade it in for a new weapon, on the house! Let me get you some choices for you to choose from.” That definitely seemed good. Despite the fact that I was getting used to the weapons that I had, the rifle I had seemed so old and worn that it looked like it would break apart on me at any minute.

        After she went to her stock to get out the weapons, Vinyl presented me with four options and explained each one to me. The first was an Auto Rifle, which had been the type of weapon that I had already been using since Ghost found me and one that I was already familiar with. The second was what was called a Pulse Rifle and instead of rounds being shot on full auto like with the last choice, these were fired in a series of three round bursts and suitable at long range. The third was what was called a Scout Rifle, and unlike the last two, this one was a semi-automatic weapon. As Vinyl explained to me, even though you have to pull the trigger each time you want to fire it, these forms of weapons were built for precise aim and marksmanship. The final choice though was a hand cannon that could pack a serious punch… if you were willing to be patient and calm with it. More of a weapon for a sharpshooter than anything else.

        Despite the hand cannon seeming like a good choice, it would only work if an enemy had come too close to me. And I already had my Shotgun in case that were to happen. The scout rifle may seemed powerful, but it didn’t seem to be… well, something that could work out for me. Which only left me the choice of either the Auto Rifle or the Pulse Rifle.

        Personally though… based on what I had been using already, it felt right in order to try and pick a weapon type that I was more familiar with. “I’ll choose this one.” I told the Gunsmith, pointing at the Auto Rifle as she looked back at me.

        “The Marshal-A?” She asked me, picking up the weapon and handing it to me after I nodded my head. Confirming to her that this was the one I wanted. “Nice choice. It’s a good weapon for taking down massive groups of fallen that you might happen to cross paths with while on patrol. Just make sure to keep that thing in proper shape and it’ll do you wonders.”

        “Thanks for the advice.” I told her, before I began to walk away from her stand. Though, she told me one other thing while I was leaving.

         “See you around, Guardian. Be sure to stop by if you need anything!” The Exo replied, waving goodbye as I now had Ghost come on out so I can have this new auto rifle equipped.

        “Alright, that should do it… now, about the old one. Do you want to leave it in the vault or just dismantle it?” That… was something that puzzled me. Mostly because of what he said.

        “Ghost, what do you mean by vault?” I asked.

        “Think of it like a Guardian’s storage locker,” He told me in response, before motioning over to what looked like a nearby console. “Guardian’s use these consoles to drop off whatever equipment or items they don’t need and take items they would need depending on the situation. Ghosts only have a limited amount of inventory and this makes it convenient when it comes to carrying multiple things. Let’s put the rifle your using in there for right now.”

        Ghost then instructed me on how to use the console, and helped me make sure that the old auto rifle I was using before in there was stored away properly. Who knows? I might need it for something farther down the road. Though, when I was done, Ghost seemed to be distracted by something for a tidbit… before looking back at me.

        “Ghost, you alright?” I asked. “You kind of… fazed out for a moment.”

        “That’s because I was receiving a message from the shipwright.” Ah, well that explains it… I think. I’m still trying to get used to this whole Guardian business though. “She’s done making repairs on the vessel we got out of the Cosmodrome. All we need to do now is visit the hangar and pick it up from her.”

        Really? Repairs were done already? And I thought that the ship was missing a few key important parts before we could really be able to go anywhere. Well… that was mostly based on what he told me the first time around when we originally found the ship. Though, perhaps this was some kind of minor fix that was needed. “Alright, can you lead me to where the hangar is? It’s still my first time navigating this place, so it might be a bit for me in order to find my way around here.”

        Ghost nodded, placing another marker for me before speaking up. “Alright, let me mark the waypoint for you.” Oh so that’s what those things are called… ehh, I prefer calling them markers instead. Seems easier to me that way.

        Upon walking through the hallways and entering the hangar bay, I happened to notice a lot of activity going on. Mostly involving either citizens talking with one another, other guardians talking to either a robot behind a workbench or someone claiming that Earth was ‘dead’… and then there was who I was looking for.

        The shipwright. She was dressed like some kind of mechanic, but had a red bandana around her neck and a pair of goggles on too. Though… I think I have seen that skin tone and hair color somewhere before. Not to mention that she also had a stetson hat set off to the side of her workbench. “Excuse me, but would you happen to be the shipwright?” I asked, getting her attention as she put down a few tools she was cleaning once I caught her attention.

        “That would be me-” She replied, before saying something else. “Wait… no way. Sunset is that you?” Hold on. This girl remembers me? From where?

        That was when she turned around… and immediately when I saw her face, I recognized who she was. “A-applejack?”

        “Well, I’ll be damned… never thought ah’d get the chance to see you again, Sunset.” She greeted me, even setting down a wrench that she was cleaning. “Didn’t think you’d be a guardian either, but ah guess ah was wrong… So how can ah help ya, Sugarcube?”

        With the conversation redirected back at me, I didn’t even get the chance to process everything that she was saying, until I realized that it was my turn to speak. “Well uh… my ghost told me that he brought in a ship that we used to get out of the… Cosmodrome I think it was called?”

        “You have the Ghost that brought in the Arcadia class ship?” She asked, sounding rather surprised. “Those ships have been around since the Golden Age, but nowadays, you barely find any that are operational like the one that was brought in. Your ghost was lucky to find it mostly in one piece.” I… honestly did not know if that was supposed to sound good or not given the tone of her words.

        Then, I recalled something that Ghost told me before we took off from the Cosmodrome. “Um… My ghost told me that he wasn’t sure if the ship would be able to break orbit?”

        “Well, that’s not entirely true actually…” She told me in response. “Your ship can break orbit just fine because of the repairs and modifications ah put on it… however, you can’t travel off world or to other planets without a warp drive. You can try and find one… but that’s the one thing that the Fallen try to salvage immediately after they shoot down a Guardian’s ship or find one they haven’t taken apart yet. So you might want to talk to your ghost on that one… but ah can take you to your ship if you like.” I nodded my head, allowing Applejack to show me the way to my ship as I got the chance to see not only the new appearance of it… but also see that a lot of the parts that looked old and rusty were actually fixed up rather well.

        Best part about it was that Applejack didn’t need for us to pay for her services, so Ghost and I were able to jump in rather quickly and get ourselves situated as he appeared on my left hand side again. “So… what exactly is the plan, Ghost?”

        “Well… we’re lucky enough to have found this ship out in the Cosmodrome… but if we are ever going to be able to fight outside of earth, we need that warp drive that Applejack was talking about,” Ghost told me… but what he was saying almost sounded completely insane. “We’ve handled the fallen once… I bet we can do it again.”

        Oh dear Celestia, we’re actually doing this.



Cosmodrome, Earth

        “So Ghost…… how exactly are we planning on doing this?” I asked him the moment that my feet touched the ground. He happened to emerge from my left hand side again, talking to me about what exactly he was thinking could possibly work for finding ourselves what we are looking for. And I wasn’t really sure if I was actually going to like what he was going to tell me.

        “Well, we’re lucky enough in order to find what we got out here just on it’s own… though, the fallen-”

        BOOM!

        Immediately, my head shot up as Ghost and I looked in the direction of the sound we just heard. While also hearing a loud crash. “W-what the hell was that?”

        Ghost didn’t say anything, but almost immediately came back inside my helmet before speaking up. “That was a guardian’s ship just now-. Hold on,” I heard him say for a moment, almost as if someone else was trying to get his attention. When I heard him speak up again, I soon found out that someone was trying to get his attention. More specifically though, our attention. “Incoming message from Commander Sentry at the Tower. He says it’s urgent.”

        Now what in the world could Flash seriously want around now? …… Well, I guess there’s only one way of finding out. “Patch him through.”

        “Already doing it. He should be coming in right about… now.” A few seconds after hearing that from my Ghost, I began to hear Flash speak to me in my helmet. Leading me to think that there was some kind of contraption in my helmet that made this kind of communication possible… but I rather not dwell on it.

        “Sunset… I don’t know what you’re doing back out in the Cosmodrome, but you’re the only guardian out there right now that I can count on,” I heard him say to me. Though, what he said to me sounded rather strange hearing it straight from him.  “I’m going to assume that both you and your ghost saw a ship crash not far from where your at?”

        As I walked through the area we were in, I took the chance to clear my throat and speak up. “Yeah, we just heard a giant explosion right now before hearing a loud crash… Do you have any idea what that was?”

        “That’s the thing… I do know what it was… and it means that right now, a fellow guardian is in trouble,” That… definitely did not sound good at all. “The Fallen have been known for shooting ships while airborne if they linger too close to their territory. And right now, one of my best Titan Defenders just sent out a mayday, saying that his ship just got shot down. His last known position is not far from your current location.”

        “So… You want us to make sure that this Guardian is okay and also make sure that the Fallen haven’t gotten to him first?” Ghost asked.

        “Exactly… Not only that, but I want you to assist him with whatever he was doing out there. There’s strength in numbers and in the Cosmodrome, it’s too dangerous for a Guardian to be out there on their own.”

        “Got it…” I heard Ghost affirm for us that we were going to undertake this task. “Putting in that Guardian’s last known coordinates now and marking it.” And with that, I was off and running. Trying to hurry as fast as I could to the marker that was placed for me.

        Though, along the way… I decided to ask Ghost a particular question that just came up in my head right now because of what Flash said as I went up a ravine and onto a nearby plateau. “Hey Ghost… What did Flash mean just now by ‘Titan Defender’? I thought that Guardians could only be one of three things?”

        “They can… but within each class of Guardian, there are also subclasses based on three different forms of elemental energy that the travelers light could take on,” I heard him tell me. “When the commander says ‘Titan Defenders’, he means a Titan that can use Void Light in order to defend themselves and allies when in combat.”

        Void Light? That’s… a new one. Then again, I only learned to throw grenades that look like a mini sized sun a few hours ago. But… what exactly was the third one? Ehh, never mind. I gotta focus. Though, the sounds of gunshots and the sight of smoke in the air told us that we were not far from where this guardian could possibly be.

        When we did get close enough, we found the Titan boldly fighting off several fallen that have already swarmed the crash sight. However, instead of just shooting everything in sight with his Pulse Rifle, he actually took it a step further and was punching a few fallen directly in the face. Most of this person’s armor was bulky and colored a dark grey with a few strands of red. The only thing standing out though that was different from everything else was what looked like some kind of sash along his left leg, which was red and had the symbol of a green apple on it.

        And just as he was done taking down the fallen in front of him… I noticed that one other Vandal was trying to get behind him once they uncloaked. Which, gave me the chance to test my newest weapon as I fired a shot that took down the Vandal quickly. What I did though… soon happened to catch this titan’s attention… and not in a good way.

        “Who the hell are you?” I heard him snap, which… caused me to try and be cautious with him.

        “Woah, calm down for just a moment…” I told him at first, before clearing my throat as I placed my weapon on my back. “Commander Sentry told me that your ship just crashed and asked for me to come make sure you were okay and also help you out…”

        “That still doesn’t answer my question…” He told me in response as I noticed the grip on his weapon still has not loosened yet. “Ah asked for your name. Not why you are here…”

        Well… I guess trying to convince him to put down the weapon was out of the option. This must be the new way of ‘talking’ all the way out here. “My name is Sunset Shimmer. I-”

        However, before I could explain anything else though… that’s when I noticed him lowering his rifle and sounding less… well, threatening to put it lightly. “Y-you’re… AJ’s friend…” Wait, hold up… did he just say what I think I heard him just say? 

        Then… he took off his helmet and that was when I could be able to see who it was. “Ah’m sorry for acting hostile just now… Name’s Big Macintosh, but everyone at the tower just calls me Mac.”

        Now I was beginning to remember who this guy was. I was beginning to recall the fact that Applejack personally told Twilight and I that she had a rather big family herself… and right now, her older brother was standing right in front of me. “Ah know that we just met and all, but can ah ask ya something?”

        “Sure,” I replied back, now that he wasn’t exactly being hostile to me. “What is it, Mac?”

        “Well… ah have a lot of questions if ah were to be honest with ya,” He told me in response, while also looking at his ship. “But ah think the best one to start with is what exactly are ya doing out here?”

        “Well, my Ghost and I were trying to find something important for my ship,” I explained, taking off my own helmet now, my ghost emerging right next to me. “But before we could get anywhere, Command told us about you getting shot down and we hurried over in order to make sure you weren’t in trouble. Of course, I shot a Vandal that was trying to backstab you after you basically sucker punched everything else.”

        In response to hearing that, all Mac did was lower his head and shake it before looking back at me. But before he could say anything, that was when we both noticed what looked to be a brown and white ghost emerge from his ship as it looked back at us. The thing was though… it sounded much different than mine. “Oh… sorry, was I interrupting something?”

        “Yer fine, Winona,” Mac assured his ghost, turning his attention away from us. “So… what the damage? Give it to me, straight…”

        “Well, when we were hit, it was with an EMP blast in order to try and mess with the systems. Thinking that the fall might kill you first… but, it turned out not to be the case. Other than that though, all major systems are fully operational.” She told him, shortly before noticing us. “Who are these two?”

        That was the moment where Mac and I both had to bring his ghost up to speed on everything. Once we were done though, he asked his ghost to have his ship head to orbit, but remain there so if he needed to get out of here for some reason, it could be ready.

        Then, that was when we saw the Titan get his weapon out again before looking at us. “So Sunset… ya told me that you were looking for something for your ship… could you clarify on what ya mean by that?”

        I sighed, but before I could say anything, my Ghost took that as a cue to answer for me. “Our ship is lacking a warp drive. We were going to try and track down where the fallen might be hiding one, but we got sidetracked when Command contacted us.” After hearing that, Mac looked back at his Ghost for a moment, before looking back to us.

        “If that’s the case, then ya should come with us,” He told us, which personally surprised me at first. Before he began to explain the reason why. “We were originally coming out here because Winona picked up some fallen chatter about them moving cargo for one of their houses. It’s likely possible that what you're looking for could be in there.”

        That… does sound promising, I have to admit. But there was one piece of what he just said that kind of confused me. “Hold on… houses? I thought the fallen are scavengers.”

        “They are,” My Ghost told me. “However, not all the Fallen are a part of the same group. They are organized into different ones. Think of a house of fallen like a pack of wolves. Each one being different from the other and run by different leaders.” Okay, now that starts to make sense… I think.

        “Right… and the cargo we’ve been tracking is being moved by members of the house of devils.” We now heard Winona speak up and take a turn to talk. “They’re the primary fallen house on Earth and are seen as the ‘Scourge of the City’. So if they are trying to move something as big as the cargo that we’ve been picking up, it clearly must be something important that they don’t want us finding out about.”

        And that gave me a reason in order to put my helmet back on as I looked back at Mac. “Well, that definitely seems like something we should look into. Lead the way.” 

        Mac nodded as his Ghost disappeared, before he had us follow him. According to his Ghost, there was an information hub down underground that had a map we could use to give us an overview of everything that we can find in the Cosmodrome. Including the fallen cargo convoy we were going to be searching for. Though, we first had to clear out the fallen that were underground before going for the map.

        When we eventually did get the map though, that’s when things began to get a bit complicated. “Okay, we got the map… however, there’s no telling when the fallen will start moving again. Let’s get back out topside.” I heard Mac’s ghost tell both us as we both made our way for the stairs while also making sure that we don’t get attacked by any possible dregs that might’ve been hiding somewhere. By the time we reached the surface again, we heard my ghost speak now. “Alright. Now with the map, it’ll be easier for both Winona and I to locate what we’re looking for…… You’re fine with me calling you that, right?”

        “I don’t mind. Though, hearing that come from another Ghost kind of felt weird… at first.” Winona replied back. Which, left me rather surprised as Mac and I began to follow a new set of coordinates.

        “How exactly is that weird?” I asked, waiting for her to respond.

        “Well, Ghosts aren’t like humans where they were given names at birth. Plus, Mac’s kind of been the only one to have called me by that name until now.” I heard her tell me… and in a way, that kind of makes sense. “But enough about that. We should probably get going. I’m picking up traces of where the Fallen might be hiding the cargo they’re transporting.”

        It soon took a few seconds for my Ghost to pick up the same trace too, but when he did, there was something else he mentioned that seemed rather… concerning for him. “I’m picking it up too… But I’m not sure if they’re trying to hide it… or use it as bait.”

        “Hold up… Bait?” Mac asked. “What makes ya say that?”

        “Fallen Houses sometimes fight with each other over something if a certain house sees something as a major necessity. Whether it’s Ether Seed’s or spare parts… What I do know is that the House of Devils has had clashes with another house of earth. The House of Kings,” Ghost explained, to which, even made Winona sound like she didn’t like the sound of it. “The point is, we should tread with caution once we get closer.”

        That was something I could personally get behind. Because once we got closer to the building and we finally made our way inside, we learned firsthand that the place was crawling with fallen. Dregs, Vandals, Shanks. You named it, they shot at us. And this continued throughout the whole time until we reached what looked like a docking area with several of the Vandals standing guards.

        Immediately, Mac took the left side of the main room while I got the right. Through my earlier encounters with the fallen, I was able to acquire a new ability for when I had to hit a fallen in the face with one of my hands. Doing so would light them on fire, causing them to burn away and leaving them open to me shooting them. Which, was very handy considering the fact that most of the vandals with shock daggers were on my side of the room instead of Mac’s. That and I needed to find more ammunition for my shotgun, if we come across any.

        It took us a little bit to clear out the room and when we did, I personally thought that we could be able to catch a break. However, just as Winona was going to scan everything that we found to see what exactly was in it, that was when my Ghost said something. “Wait… My sensors are still picking up motion. I don’t think we’re in the clear yet.”

        “Where?” Mac asked, looking around for a moment as we tried to see where this one that Ghost was telling us could be hiding. “Ah don’t see anything.”

        “There’s no place in the ceiling they could hide and there’s no second floor either.” Winona added. But it was around then that I noticed something with the far back wall. There was a huge gaping hole in the back where some kind of banner used to be before the last time I was here with Ghost when we found our ship. Wait… could it be-?

        The sight of glowing red eyes and a set of hands gripping the edge of the walls soon alerted me, almost causing me to loosen the grip on my weapon because of how it startled me. And it was from this that my ghost soon noticed what I was seeing and called it out. “It’s in the walls!! Get back!”

        “What the-?!” Mac shouted, shocked by what we were seeing… and by how this fallen was much bigger than the other ones we’ve encountered already. “What the hell is that-!?”

        “T-that’s an Fallen Archon!!” Winona said in disbelief. “But what is an Archon doing here?!”

        “And what the hell is an Archon?” I asked, making sure that my rifle was primed and ready before Mac and I needed to defend ourselves. While we were scrambling to find cover from it’s huge weapon, Ghost told us that a Fallen Archon is seen as a very important figure in a fallen house. But he had to quickly summarize it to us given that the Archon was opening fire on both of us and that weapon could easily tear through our armor if it weren’t careful.

        “Archon’s are fallen priests that are seen as a Kell’s most trusted adversary. They are stronger than a fallen captain and also are sometimes seen as the link between a houses servitor, which is their machine god, and the Kell.”

        Yet, even though that was informative, the only thing that Ghost did not really explain was how exactly we were supposed to fight back. Plus, it was the one thing we needed to know in order to get out of here alive.

        Though… something about this Archon seemed different than the captain that I faced before. But, the only way I can actually test it was by conjuring a grenade and throwing it directly at the Archon. Something that made Mac think I was doing something crazy.

        “Sunset, what are ya-?!”

        “Hang on a minute!” I told him, waiting to see what would happen as my grenade exploded. Unlike with the captain from last time, where there was some kind of shield protecting it, this one did not have anything like that. “Mac, this thing doesn’t have a shield. We can still hurt it!”

        That… seemed to renew his determination as he looked back at the Archon and began to open fire. Even going as far as throwing out one of his own grenades to hurt the Archon as more of the fallen flooded the room to aide our opponent. Part of me focused my fire on the Archon since it was the one rallying the other fallen to attack us, but I still had shotgun ammo for when I needed to fire a round into the face of a dreg that would get rather too close for comfort.

        For Big Mac though… around this time was when I saw him switch to his secondary weapon. It looked… different from any of the others I had previously seen because it wasn’t anything like a shotgun or a standard rifle. I watched as it charged up for a moment, before unleashing a devastating bolt of energy that had a fallen dreg disintegrate on contact. Something that definitely helped clear out a lot of the fallen that were flooding into the room and allowing for us to focus on the Archon that was firing at us.

        It took me a few more shots to take down the archon’s reinforcements, but-. Wait, what in the world is Mac doing-? Why are you charging in there? That’s suicide!!

        “GIVE HER BACK-!!!”

        However, despite Mac fully charging at the Archon and weapon was primed up and ready to fire, one loud stomp sent the titan flying through a concrete support pillar and knocking the weapon out of his hand and sliding it right to where my feet were. Just as the fallen Archon was making its way towards Mac.

        “Ghost, I need to help Mac!” I told him, ditching my shotgun and picking up Mac’s weapon. “How do I use one of these?”

        “You just hold the trigger and release it on it’s own.” He told me at first, before realizing something. “Throw a grenade right in front of it. I got an idea!”

        Personally, I would want to ask what particular ‘idea’ he had in mind… but I decided to just go for it. Mac needed my help and I could not wait any longer. Charging at the pair, I tossed out a Solar grenade and upon impact, the light from it began to blind the Archon.

        “You got an opening! Take the shot!!” Immediately, I aimed at the archon’s head and held down the trigger. Firing a blast that not only hit the fallen right in the head, but had everything else disintegrate into cinders.

        But I wasn’t entirely focused on that though. Instead, I ran over to try and help Mac as he was slowly getting up. “Mac, you alright?”

        “Sort of…” He groaned, sounding… disappointed for a moment. Why would he sound like that though-? “Ah’m sorry fer letting ya down. Ah had mah emotions get the better of me.”

        “It’s alright… but why did you do that anyways?” Mac was silent for a moment, before asking for his weapon back as I looked at him.

        “My little sister… Apple Bloom… She’s still out here on her own. Ah’ve been trying to find her, but based on what we heard from fallen communications, it sounded like they got to her before we could get her out of here,” Oh, so that’s what he meant by that… “Ah thought that they would be keeping her here along with everything else but… ah don’t see any signs of her at all.”

        “They must’ve moved her first before they could move the rest of their haul,” We now heard Winona speak up as she emerged from Mac’s armor before turning to the titan. “We’ll make sure to find them again… and not let them get away next time.”

        “Thanks Winona… ah needed that.” Mac replied to her. Shortly before the both of us noticed my ghost scanning everything in the stash the fallen left behind.

        “We not only found the warp drive… but the two of you just took down an archon…” Ghost told us.

        “That’s… not really that much of a big deal now, is it?” I asked him.

        “It is…” I now heard Winona. “Taking down a Fallen Archon is a major deal and one that can cripple the fallen… We need to get back to the tower. Now.”

        “Hold on a moment… why do we need to go back so soon?” Mac now asked. Only this time though… both our ghosts answered his question simultaneously.

        “We need to see the Speaker.”