Shin ran after Luna as she sprinted down the halls of the castle and rounded corner after corner. They met a set of stairs that led upwards, Luna simply flew up them where as Shin used his jump jets to get up most of the steps. Shin landed awkwardly on the last pair of steps only to get up and sprint after the retreating mare. Shin rounded a corner and almost slammed into Luna because she had stopped for some reason. Shin looked over Luna's shoulder to see his ghost floating in the middle of the hall.
"Where have you been?! I could have used your help a long time ago!"
"I was building a jump ship link, you can now summon it."
Shin stared at his ghost for a second, he built a jump ship link? Out of what?"
"How did you build it?"
"Oh simple, I used your saphire wire and the metal I found around this planet. There was everything I needed."
"Oh, well, Summon it for me and then after that fix my helmet because it needs to be air tight on the moon. Luna, could you point out where the man is located? The general area is fine, I will be able to find him."
"He is located at the crater that ends the tip of the 'mare in the moon's' horn." Shin looked up at the moon and noticed a pattern of craters that made what looked like a unicorn's head. Puns, puns everywhere.
"Ok thanks, now ghost? Don't leave me alone this time, please?"
"Yes guardian. Jump ship is ready, now about that helmet..."
Shin looked out one of the stain glass windows to see his jumpship materialize and it's engines roar with life. Shin activated the call signal in his helmet that transferred him into the seat of the cock pit. Shin's body felt like it was being split and a second later he found himself in the chair of the pilot seat and he clicked the various buttons that activated the thrust and destination he needed.
Shin looked through the view screen on his left to see Luna staring at his ship with a very confused and surprised expression. Shin chuckled and then pulled the yoke in between his legs back, activating the initial surge of power to the thrusters. Shin felt the immediate activation and his head slammed back into the head rest and he sped off towards the moon. Shin was also aware of the sonic boom he created about three seconds after launch, hopefully he didn't shatter anything.
"Ghost? Helmet statis?"
"Amost...done. There, you have air supply of about six hours, don't waste it."
Shin flipped open the case that covered the hyper drive initiation button, this would get him to the moon in minutes. Shin pressed the button and strapped himself in as tightly as possible, the five seconds of warning counted down and then the hyper drive ripped a hole in the universe in front of him, creating a worm hole for him to travel into. Shin's ship passed easily into the rift and he relaxed into his seat and waited for re-entry.
Shin closed his eyes and relaxed for the first time since he came here, what had happened to him? Shin vaguely realized that he had only slept once the entire time he had been here, and he was knocked out. Shin promised his body that he would get some sleep when he got back to the planet. During this time, he also had an idea.
"Hey ghost, would it be possible to get back to earth? Now that we have the ship?"
"I have tried Guardian, I even put in the galaxy cordinates but the ship couldn't find them, I actually believe we are in an entirely different universe."
Shin kept his eyes closed but he frowned as he tried to get that into his tired brain. How? Why was he sent here? What purpose did he serve here?
"Prepare for re-entry guardian."
Shin openned his eyes and grabbed the yoke once more, there was always a jolt from coming out of a worm hole. As usual, when they escaped the worm hole he felt the ship rock and twist from the pressure change. With difficulty, Shin managed to keep the ship straight and continue on their destination on the bright side of the moon. Shin watched as the beautiful moon zoomed towards him, he slowed his speed as the moon's gravity started having a bigger impact on the ship.
Shin angeled his ship at a forty-five degree angle with the moon's surface and started coasting towards it.
"Ghost, do a life scan on the surace of that crater, we need to find him quickly, unless he has gear then he is long dead by now."
Shin wasn't sure if the man was a guardian or just a civilian, if it was a civilian then there was no hope.
"Scanning now. Yes! There is a single life form, but it is dead. However, the suit it is wearing has preserved its body rather well."
"Teleport me to the surface."
Shin unbuckled and felt his body split again as he was transferred to the surface of the foreign moon. Shin landed softly and found that the moon had the same amount of gravity that earth's moon had before the Traveller appeared. Shin gave an experimental jump and found himself soaring through the air for a while until he landed with little effort. Shin chuckled as he remembered the black and white videos of humanities first steps on the moon, they had those big fluffy whit suits that restricted a lot of movement but his suit clung to his flesh like a second skin.
Shin brought the coordinates of the life form up onto his radar and headed in it's direction with long bounding strides. Shin counted how many seconds he was in the air for and found out that he was air borne for around three seconds each time.
Shin jumped over the indent of the massive crater and started heading up the other side of the slope. The body was laying in a slight indent from where it had landed and slid through the moon dust. Shin stopped his bounding gait and started taking shorter more prescise steps. Shin stopped a foot away from the body and stared down at the the thick, red and white, armor that covered it, a titan. Shin knew exactly who this was, this was Dorry, the loud Titan that never stopped talking. He was also an Awoken, an alien race to the humans that followed the darkness across the universe and fought with the humans to purge it.
Their exotic blue skin had always fascinated him, but wheever he asked them they would always reply with how wierd his skin was, he stopped asking. Shin knelt down and did a quick scan of the armor, it was still intact. Shin then scanned to find if Dorry's ghost was still there.
"Yo DG? You there?"
"Yes...how? I do not know. Never the less, I need your help to return his body to civilization so that I can revive it. I captured his soul so that it wouldn't disapear but I can only deny it for so long."
"Heh, you won't find any other humans but you will find sentient beings that can help. Ghost? Teleport Dorish's body into the ship and program the ship to go to the city."
"...done."
Shin watched as the body disapeared from his view and watched as his ship turned and blasted off towards Equestria. Shin was confident that his Ghost would tell DG everything he needed to know. Now he just had to wait for his ship to come back and get him, to bad it was only a one seater. Shin sat down on the Moon's surface and looked up at Equestria, there were so many similarities, yet so many differences. Shin leaned back and layed down, closing his tired eyes.
Shin openned his eyes when he heard a slight whisper in the wind, wind? Shin looked around and saw a faint green light start to spread outwards from its position in the middle of the air. The green started to get so dense in the middle that it turned black and continued to expand outwards. Shin had a vaque idea of what this was but had only witnessed it once before in his life so it wasn't a very clear memory. Shin slowly stood up and took a step away from the anomaly and saw two other identical things appear in the air beside the first one.
The first object grew to about seven feet tall and six feet wide until it froze in place. Then the black in the middle of the object cleared and rippled as it took shape; into three shapes. Shin gasped as he saw a massive leg step through the opaque black and land on the surface of the moon, the rest of the body falling behind it.
"Dear God no...NO! NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! GHOST HURRY THE FUCK UP!"
Shin may have not recognized the Hive portals, but he did recognize what stepped through it. The son of Oryx had set foot in Equestria's solar system.
Crota, the beast who had unfinished business with the Light that had stolen his prey who had foolishly fallen into his web willingly. His scout had given him valuable information before it's untimely death, information that would feed him and his kin for years to come.
Shin pulled out his gun and disn't waste anytime shooting all eight shots into the body of the beast that caused him and his comrades to die. Shin reloaded his weapon as Crota looked up at the pesky fly that kept bitting him as he tried to devour it. He then let out a brutal and rock cracking laugh as he swept his sword from his back and slammed it point down into the dust at his feet. By this time the other two portals openned and Crota's personal minnions stepped into the new feast, hungry for flesh.
The Thralls that appeared first looked to their god and then without a second glance rushed at Shin to begin their long sought feast. The Acolytes, who were more sentient and personal then the Thralls, pulled out their weapons and positioned themselves in front of their god to fire upon their prey. Then there was the Knights and Witches, they were the personal daughters and sons of Crota himself, they were massive and had been given their own power. The knights were able to control the darkness that encased their bodies and create shields of impregnable black to protect and restore their bodies. The Witches were all female, as the Knights were all male, but hey could summon a cloud of darkness to encase anything that sought the power of Light and smother it in eternal black.
Shin stared at the army that appeared before his eyes, he was but one guardian about to face the wrath of the Hive God himself. Challenge accepted.
Shin pulled out his two throwing knives and threw them both at the fifty or so Thralls sprinting at him. One knife caught the lead Thrall in the throat causing it to stumble and fall down, tripping up the ones behind it. The second knife flew over the head of the first one and landed square in the forehead of a Thrall. Shin then pulled out his prized possession, the cursed and feared gun that slew all but the most powerful Hive. The Thorn.
The Thorn was powerful enough to punch through most enemies and pierce the ones behind the the first. Thorn was cursed because the guardian who had created it had terrorized the last Human city and was killed by none other then Shin Malphur himself. Shin had taken the gun from Dredgen Yor as he lay bleeding in the streets, his last words had disturbed Shin enough to persuade him to not use it.
"It's name had been Rose...to clutch things that are beautiful and that you love, will cause pain not only to you but that object. I have not understood these words until now..."
Shin blinked away the memory of Rose turning from a lively and warm red to a sickly and dead green, the color of the Hive themselves.
Shin brought up the pistol and fired the clip empty, it was impossible to miss the mass of Thralls Approaching. Shin winessed his rounds shred through the Hive and continue on like a hot knife through butter. The Thralls who didn't die immediately were eaten away by the acid that Thorns projectiles left behind. Nine bullets, fifty deaths.
Shin reloaded Thorn as the Knights slowly took steps towards Shin, where as the Witches floated above them all and cast their black magic at Shin. Shin dodged backwards and side to side to avoid the spheres of darkness that popped up all around him. To touch the inky black clouds would cause him to loose focus and fall to the mercy of the Knights and their swords. Shin shot three bullets of Thorn into the brain of the first Knight and causing it to crumble in its sprint towards him. The second Knight that Shin shot at let one bullet get through its guard before generating his shield to stop the bullets in their path, they could learn.
Shin unloaded the rest of his bullets into the Witches that were observing the battle from the air, they went down easily. Shin returned his attention to the remaining three Knights a little too late. One Knight got close enough to swing his sword in a two handed, downwards stroke at shin. Shin jumped back as best as he could but didn't manage to escape the sword as it sheared through his chest armor and split it in half. Shin layed on his back and stared at the gaping cut in his armor, it missed him, and his air tight membrane, his luck was still with him.
"Guardian!"
Shin looked up and got the wind knocked out of him as the Knight slammed his foot down on his chest, he then raised his sword in an executioners manner, ready to kill. Shin scrambled with the massive foot on his chest and he repeatedly stabbed it with his spare knife, desperate to escape the grasp of the Hive. The Knight just stared down at him and started to plung his sword downwards when he stopped.
The knight took his foot off Shin's chest and got in a ready stance as he stared past Shin at something beyond his view. The knight then flew backwards as a brown and purple blurr slammed into him and caved its chest in. The blurr got up from its position in the moon dust and shacked off the residue of Chitin chips from the Knights natural armor. Shin stared at the Pony as it spread its wings and stood guard in front of him, while two other ponies helped him up onto his feet.
Shin was told that Luna had a special guard that held power much like Luna's but just less potent, he didn't know that power included breathing nothing.
"Thank you, now lets get out of here."
"Not so fast stranger, we came here by volunteer, we came to buy some time for the princesses to cast a teleport spell to bring you home."
"How long will that take?"
"About five minutes sir."
"That's too long...we will all die, just leave while you can." The pony on his left laughed at Shin before looking at him with a half hearted smile.
"You don't understand, we came here knowing full well that we will die. To get here we had to channel our life force into magic to get enough to teleport us and save your ass. We have only around a year to live anyway."
Shin looked at the three guards that stood protectively around him, all were wearing purple toned armor and all had bat like wings. These were indeed the Lunar Guard he had heard so much about, they weren't guards, they were full born soliders to kill and protect without a second thought. All of tem deserved the respect that they weren't given.
"What are your names? If I live I promise to remember them until the fated day I do die."
"Well sir my name is Sheared Fate, that is Lost Glory, and this is my twin brother, Twisted Fate." Sheared Fate pointed from left to right at each of his comrades.
Shin slowly nodded and stared up at the remaining two Knights and one hundred or so Acolytes that had regrouped and were slowly advancing towards Shin and the Lunar Guard. Crota silently observed until he left his story-high sword stuck in the dust and raised his open hands up towards to the sky. He then summoned the darkness within him and cast his dark-green magic, summoning five more portals.
"Alright, well, you guys worry about the Hive that come close to us and I will kill as many as I can before they reach you. Also, how good are you at dodging?"
"If you are worried about projectiles then stop now because our armor is magicaly protected against them. We just need to worry about the big ones with the swords."
"...no, you need to worry about all of them."
Shin had lost many guardians and friends when they underestimated the Hive, he had nearly lost his life to them, he wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. Shin and the Guards formed a triangle and prepared for he onslaught of fire that was about to come. Crota, being the evil genius he was, had summoned the five portals all around Shin, surrounding them. The only true way to escape was to be teleported and the only person there to have that one-way ticket was Shin, and it may have expired.