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// 09- The Dark Beyond 
// Story: Destiny- Shimmering Sun 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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        “So Ray… What exactly can you tell me about the Moon?” That was the only particular question that I had on my mind as my ghost and I plotted a course for it on my ships navigation system. Back when I was alive, I only knew of the moon as two things. One, a giant celestial body in space… or two, back in Equestria, that thing that Princess Luna raises almost every night. I mean… when I first came here, trying to understand the fact that the earth orbits naturally around the sun was something I didn’t think was possible. But then again, I didn’t think I would be brought back from the dead either.

        Though, what I heard from Ray was… well, not what I anticipated. “Well… that can be a bit complex. Because during the Golden Age, the moon itself was once seen as a beacon of hope. It was a place where groundbreaking research was conducted, and it also served as an outpost for helping support humanity’s other colonies. The moon itself even had a colony once.”

        That last part though… not only puzzled me, but had me unsure about what he was going to say next. “Once?”

        “Again… all of this happened during the Golden Age,” Ray then clarified for me. “However, when the Collapse happened, that’s when humanity first encountered the hive. They swarmed the surface of the moon and even caused fissures that rocketed the moon itself… We gave up the moon a long time to keep the Hive away from Earth. And we thought that would be enough for them.”

        “But with what’s been going on recently in the cosmodrome?”

        “It would only mean that they’re planning something… something big…” Ray explained, just as the ship began to slow down and I could now see the surface. In all of my life… I never actually thought I would have the chance to see such a thing up close. But it was when we were approaching the surface that I could now also see the remnants of what was abandoned there too. And it was not a good sight to look at. “It may be the reason why that Guardian took off on their own without consulting the Vanguard.”

        That part… caught my attention though as we got closer to the surface. “Wait… what do you mean by that?”

        “Guardians had tried to reclaim the moon before, but the results were disastrous. After losing several fireteams, the Vanguard officially had the moon be labeled as a forbidden zone. Only accessible to the most experience guardians with authorization.” He told me. We approached a flat basin for me to land at as I felt myself leave the comfort of my ship and transmitting onto the surface of a place called Archer’s Line as I looked around. Seeing pieces of the moon’s crust float around as I began to take everything in.

        As I was making sure that I was on stable ground, that’s when I soon asked Ray something. “So… Where should we exactly start?”

        Ray now materialized back into my gear as I could now hear his voice through my helmet. “That… might be difficult. Almost any activity I’ve ever picked up here when I had looked at the moon here was hazy… like something was blocking it,” Okay, well that doesn’t help… do you have any other ideas- “But I think I can pick up on the trail of the Guardian that was here. Their last known coordinates are not far. I’ll place a marker for you right now.”

        The white marker I was used to seeing before appeared on my visor again as I looked up and proceeded to follow it. Finding what looked like some old building that was in ruins as I got closer. It… surprising still looked to be mostly in one piece, but there was still a considerable amount of damage around the area.

        When I got closer to the building… that’s when I heard Ray say something. “Hey Sunset… I just picked up on something you might want to hear. It’s with regards to the Guardian we’re looking for.”

        “What is it?” I asked, stopping for a moment so he could be able to tell me.

        “Well, they seemed to have left a report here, saying that they… captured this accelerator from… an unknown fallen house.” Oh brilliant… Fallen and the Hive here? This is just like back on Earth.

        “Why would he be here though if he was looking for something regarding the Hive?” I then asked him.

        “It’s possible that they were looking for coordinates that lead to an old colony base that was once used for research,” Ray told me. “The systems show recent activity in here, so it must be from their Ghost.”

        That… lead to me thinking of an idea as I looked back towards some of the systems in the room now. Taking in the sights for a moment as I looked to see various forms of writing on the wall in different languages. I think it was… Neighponese or something? I don’t know… I should really worry about that later. Though, the one thing that I could make out in the back of this ‘accelerator’ was what appeared to be some kind of computer terminal. And seeing how this seemed like the only major piece of technological equipment here, I’m guessing that this was what we were looking for.

        Letting my ghost materialize, he began to scan the computer. As he did, the screens in front of me began to turn on as well as all the other ones around us. Making it as if he was having something that was once buried in the past come alive… even though it was only for a brief few seconds.

        “Okay, I got the coordinates-” And shortly after saying that, I heard an all too familiar roar as I heard Ghost tell me something else. “And great… the Fallen are here too.” Given the fact that the fallen are known for always trying to scavenge all kinds of tech, what Ghost did right now was like trying to tell the Fallen to come here like moths to a flame… Now that I think of it, that’s actually an ironic, yet rather good metaphor right now given the circumstances.

        Firing off rounds from my Auto Rifle, I pushed forward. Taking down any fallen that tried to stop me as I began to make my way outside the building. After eliminating a few more and seeing that there weren’t anymore in the general area, I heard Ray told me something. “Alright, you’re in the clear. While you were fighting, I was able to link your sparrow so you can use it to travel around more quickly.”

        Well, at least that was better than running around on foot I suppose. Taking Ray’s advice, I summoned my Sparrow as he placed another waypoint marker for me. And based on what I can tell so far, where we were going was towards what was called the ‘Anchor of Light’. Speeding past some of the fallen as I kept on traveling a bit longer, finding myself at what was left of an old colony base as I got off my sparrow and began to have a look around.

        When I was looking around though, that was when Ray noticed something. “I’m getting recent activity signals on the equipment in this place… That guardian must’ve been camping out here. Let me look at the equipment, perhaps we can figure out what exactly he was doing out here.” Well, hey… if it was possible clues as to where we can be able to find this guardian, then I’m all for it.

        Holding out my hand to summon my ghost again, Ray began to scan and study some of the old colony equipment in here. And it did not take long for him to find something. “Hey… Sunset. Have a look at this. The Guardian we’re looking for left some of his notes here.”

        “What do they say?” I asked him.

        “It says something in here about a ‘Temple of Crota’. Personally, the name itself sounds a lot like a death trap,” Ray explained a bit more, before adding on to what he just said. “I placed a marker on the potential whereabouts, but if this place is what the notes described, then we need to be careful. It’s supposed to be some kind of structure dedicated to Crota, a hive prince that they worship as a god.”

        That… sent chills down my spine. And I wasn’t entirely sure as to why. Though, as we continued to travel towards where exactly this temple would be, I was beginning to see cracks in the moon’s surface and a green form of energy begin to form from underneath. Ray told me that it was because of the fact that the ground underneath us has been hollowed out for miles. Meaning that anything could be possibly be happening underneath our feet… and that was a thought that I did not want to think about. Because the last thing I would want right now is some kind of ambush out of nowhere.

        When we got out of a broken ravine within the surface of the moon… that was when we found what looked like a giant gate that blocked the path forward. One that looked to have belonged to the hive because of the huge runes that were on the front of the door. “I… think we found the temple.”

        Really now? What gave you that idea? “Up ahead, Guardian down!”

        That had me hop off my sparrow and race over to where Ray found the guardian. But upon looking closer… we realized that it was too late. There was nothing left. Not even his light was there, and his ghost was nowhere to be seen either. I began to look around, thinking that the ghost was somewhere not far from where we found the fallen guardian… only to realize that there was… someone watching us from the edge of a cliff that was behind us. But before I could tell Ray anything, there was a loud pitched noise as I turned to look at the door.

        The symbols on it… were beginning to light up and glow brightly. Backing up, I turned around again, only to realize that the person that was originally on the cliff was gone as I looked to Ray. “Ray, what is happening?”

        “This… is not good…” He said, materializing back into my helmet as we watched the symbols on the door disappear and watched as it began to split into three parts. Clinging onto my rifle, I heard Ray say one more thing. “Brace yourself! We’ve woken the hive!!”

        Immediately, the hive began to storm out of the door and towards us. Forcing me to throw a grenade in order to try and stop some of the thrall that were charging directly at me as I ran back in order to reposition myself. There was a stairwell to the right that lead up to a small overhang above the entire place, which looked like a place that I can use for reliable cover. It looked like an entire swarm of thrall were storming out of the door and were trying to overrun where I was at. But they also had a few acolytes on hand and what looked like a knight with some kind of hive arm cannon as it was firing heavy projectiles towards where I was at.

        Thankfully, the wall I was hiding behind took most of the shots that was fired as I switched to my sniper rifle. Aiming at the Knight’s head as I took a shot to eliminate it before any of its cannon blasts could hit me. But that still left me with the acolytes to handle alongside the rest of the thrall that were closing in. Getting an idea, I brought out my rocket launcher and jumped up into the air, aiming it at the massive swarm and firing as I began to descend back onto the ground.

        Luckily, it took out enough of the thrall in order for me to quickly focus on the remaining acolytes that were shooting at me. Changing to my Auto Rifle again, I swapped back over and began to fire at them. Causing each one to disintegrate and even having them burn to cinder when I catch one with a grenade and another one with a scorch. “Sunset, I’m picking up the dying light of a ghost. Get inside there! Hurry!”

        When I heard that, I first thought that Ray was being crazy. But nevertheless, I went in. Staying outside would leave me as a sitting duck out here and when I looked to the back of the room, I saw what looked like a ghost shackled to a hive structure… and a wizard standing guard over it alongside three acolytes. Thinking quickly, I shot down the first two with my auto rifle and meleed the third one since that was too close to me. Leaving me with having to fight the wizard as it began to fire off a series of energy bolts in my general direction.

        Going behind a pillar that was inside the room and using it as cover, I waited for a small bit until I felt the energy for my grenade finish recharging. Throwing it out there so I can try and negate the wizard’s protective barrier. But when I did, that’s when it did something… else. It threw out what looked like a smoky cloud as it began to swarm all around me while I was firing.

        “Sunset, get out of there! That’s poisonous!!” I heard Ray warn me as I forcefully held my breath and leaped out of there so I would not get caught in there. Getting out my sniper rifle, I began to aim at the wizard and fired off two shots. The first shot I was able to hit just fine… but somehow, it was able to move out of the way of my second one. Retaliating back as it fired more blasts at me as I scrambled to reload my sniper rifle and get out of the way.

        Once I finished reloading and began to aim again, I quickly fired off one more round in order to make sure that I hit it before it tried to run away or restore it’s shield. And this time, I was successful. The wizard screeched in pain loudly, before disintegrating like with the rest of the hive as the poison cloud began to fade away. Allowing for me to race over to where the ghost was in the back of the room and for Ray to look at it just in time.

        Because moments after Ray scanned it, the light from the ghost was gone… and it was nothing more than an empty shell. “Are… we too late?” I asked.

        “No, we aren’t,” Ray assured me. “The ghost may be dead, but I can still read some of it’s memories… Oh no… this is not good.”

        “What is it, Ray?” I asked, sounding concerned because of the sudden shift in the tone of his voice.

        “The Hive… they’re raising an army here on the moon… preparing to invade Earth,” He told me, just as the sheer thought of that sent a chill down my spine. “We need to stop them… Pick up the shell of the Ghost. We’re taking it to the speaker. He needs to know what we uncovered here.”



        Immediately after returning to the tower, we rushed to the Speaker to report our findings from our mission on the moon. He… seemed rather disturbed by what we had to tell him, but he was surprised to hear that we were able to overcome the hive while we were on the moon. He then told the two of us that there was a lot that needed to be done if we were to have other guardians combat the hive on the moon, and the first thing we needed to do was upgrade our equipment while he looked through the archives to see what sort of data he could find on the hive.

        After leaving him be, I went over to the gunsmith was in order to hand her the Speaker’s Writ that I was given. In exchange for it, Vinyl allowed for me to choose between three different options. A shotgun, sniper rifle or fusion rifle. Since I already had a good sniper rifle at the moment and had no need for a fusion rifle, I picked the Copperhead Mk 32 shotgun since it was an improvement compared to the one that I already have. Equipping it and dismantling my old one to get some extra glimmer out of it.

        The next thing that I was going to do was go check in on Twilight to see how she was doing with Adagio. But before I could enter her main study… that was when I began to hear them talking. Not about guardians, light or anything else… but instead something different. “So… Adagio, can I ask you something?”

        “You just did…” Adagio deadpanned, scowling venomously at Twilight as she leaned against a wall.

        “No I mean… I wanted to ask you about… well… Guardians don’t normally remember their pasts aside from a few exceptions… So, I wanted to ask about yours,” The voidwalker clarified for her. “If you are okay with it, of course.”

        Adagio rolled her eyes. “I’m not from Earth, and that’s about as much as you’d understand…” She closed her eyes, breathing in and out slowly before speaking up again. “Sunset and I knew one another.”

        “You did?” Twilight asked, a surprised look on her face as I watched the two of them converse. “Were you friends? Enemies? Frenemies?”

        “She killed my sisters and I…” Adagio snarked bitterly, opening her eyes to scowl coldly at Twilight. Whose eyes were wide open upon hearing her say that. I personally did not know exactly what she meant by that. In my mind, I thought it was the Battle of the Bands when we stopped them back then. I couldn’t think of anything else that could qualify for that.

        “Oh… I’m… sorry to hear that,” Twilight then replied back to her. “What were your sister’s names? I was going to check to see if they were on the city’s registry.”

        Adagio crossed her arms and thought for a moment, seeming hesitant. “Aria Blaze. Sonata Dusk.” Twilight was then seen running her hands along a datapad as she typed in the names, only to look surprised as she looked back at Adagio.

        “Sonata’s not on here… But Aria is,” Twilight replied back to her. “Her last known whereabouts were that she was with a team of Guardians that tried to reclaim the moon… but it’s unknown whether or not she’s still alive.”

        “How do I get there?” Adagio asked, and I heard more determination in her voice than I ever have from her.

        “H-hold on… The moon’s only a place where the Vanguard-”

        Now was when I decided to step in. “Twilight, forget what the Vanguard says… We need Guardians on the moon now… Both my Ghost and I have seen it ourselves.”

        “What do you mean-?”

        “The hive are raising an army on the moon to invade Earth,” Ray now spoke up. “And if we are ever going to stand a chance, we need as many guardians being able to help us…”

        That… had Twilight stare at us in shock for a moment, before she looked to Ray and I as well as Adagio. “I’ll run it by the rest of the Vanguard… but I have a question for you.”

        “Yes?” I asked.

        “If you are so sure about the Hive preparing an army, then how are we going to know what exactly they’re planning?” Twilight then responded.

        To which, my ghost then said something that even I did not know about. “There was a ghost that belonged to a fallen guardian that we found on the moon… and the ghost had found out about a hive library hidden in the Moon that’s called the World’s Grave,” Ray said as he looked towards Adagio and I. “If they have any information about past battles or what they are planning now… it’s got to be there.”

        “So… what is your plan?” I asked.

        “Well… if you and your friend there-” He said, before getting a scowling glare from Adagio as he corrected his statement. “I mean… if you two can be able to get me there, I can steal as much as I can.”

        Then, I looked to Adagio as she turned to face me. “So… are you up for it?”

        “A crash course isn’t my strong suit, but I want to get my sister.” Adagio stated, eyes narrowing. “I don’t like you very much, Shimmer… but family is all I have left, and if there’s even a chance Aria’s alive, I’ll take it.”

        All I could do was smile and nod my head as I looked back at the siren… no, Guardian now as I smiled and nodded my back. This… is going to get very interesting now.