//------------------------------// // Strength // Story: Destiny: The Five // by THOSEideas //------------------------------// Give me the strength of the rising moon. Give me the truth of a princess' boon. And when the last star winks, loyalty, sends me to the shores of noon. We fight against the rising sun, to burn in failed attempt. Our mind will seek out war, while our body is content. Shin listened to the Lunar guard sing the three lines over and over. Each time they repeated it, they fought harder and harder, not letting a single Hive reach their goal. Shin shot all of his rounds, each and every bullet, for each and every type of gun he had. He had resorted to his knife and his last grenade. He was going to save the grenade for the right moment, or until they were all going to die. True to the guards word, the wards and spells on their armor protected them from the projectiles but not to the claws and swords of the Hive. Shin slumped down in the middle of the three ponies and sat on his sorry ass, there was a short break from the onslaught of Hive, giving both sides time. Shin looked around him and saw all three ponies still standing and looking at the Hive, they had fought for three minutes, one minute and Shin had doubled his kill count for Hive. Shin knew that after the break they were dead, there was no way that they could survive, the witches were going to attack. Once the witches cast their black magic on the group, they would be poisoned, unable to breath, half blind, completely exposed. "I would like to thank you three for your sacrifice. However, it seems that it has come to an end, the witches will soon cast their magic over us and immobilize us. There will be no way to avoid it, the other Hive will block us from running, too bad we can't kill that smug looking bastard over there..." "Sir...if what you say is true then you are right, we have died, but I don't believe we have died for nothing. We will kill every Hive minion we can before we fall, we will make them remember us." "They will indeed..." Shin was positive they would, Crota had remembered him, and that is what caused all of this to happen. Shin couldn't help but wonder what Crota would do if Shin escaped again. That was unlikely to happen though. Shin looked up at the Hive as the witches went up into the air and started casting their spells. Everything for Shin went cloudy, his ears started to bleed and his lungs screamed for air. Shin also felt pain lance his body as the poison stabbed at all of his nerves. Shin fell to his side and curled into a fetal position, trying to make his body smaller in the vast cloud of darkness that surrounded him. Shin forced his eyes open and witnessed the guards as the darkness engulfed them too, they started to twitch and cling to themselves. The guard in front of Shin openned his wings and stamped his hooves in the dust, he then looked to the sky and roared. "OUR BODIES WILL BEND!! BUT WE WILL NEVER BREAK!!" The guard then stamped his front hooves harder into the dust and cranned his neck forward and parralel to the ground, stretching it. The guards' bat wings spread out wide, they stretched so far that the leathery membrane ripped and split into tatters. The back legs kicked outwards and stretched to their extent, before the skin on the back of the legs tore open as well. It's chest grew outwards and stretched the skin so that all his ribs were showing. Then, the pony openned his eyes, revealing the glowing white orbs to the fast approaching Hive. He openned his mouth as his fangs grew longer and longer, eventually growing so long that they almost stabbed his lower gum line. Shin watched in seering pain as the tears in the back legs started producing an inky black spine, filling up the gap it had made. Shin also noticed that the wings had grown larger and the membrane was replaced with a thin coating of the same inky black substance. The guards' ribs grew further and eventually they tore through the skin and revealed more of the inky black substance. This pony had transformed into a terrifying beast that stopped the Hive in their tracks. "...you do not realize, my liege. Darkness is what gives us power...I have been bathed in it, and now I shall kill..." The former guard spoke with a raspy voice and had to take deep breaths every few words as if he was out of breath. The former guard then ran forward and drove his hoof through a Knight who had gotten a little too close. The hoof pierced through the Chitin armor, through the spongy flesh, and smashed its spine, killing it instantly. The Hive watched as their brother died in front of them, and only from a single swing. They took a second look at the former guard and then shot at it with everything they had. The guard ran towards the nearest Hive and tore its head off with his fangs before turning around and bucking another in the chest. All the rounds that were fired at the guard either bounced off it's armor or was absorbed by him. Shin heard a noise behind him and struggled to turn around from all the pain he was in. Finnaly managing, he looked up to see the guards that had been behind him were now fighting the hive and were both transformed like the first one. Shin watched, mesmerized as they flew/jumped from enemy to enemy and killing them with ease, even the witches were taken down. Shin heard a roar and turned to see Crota slamming his sword, blade down, into the ground. At once the Hive turned tail and retreated towards him, they never retreated. Shin watched as the three guards slowly formed a "V" in front of Shin and slowly walked towards Crota. Crota didn't laugh, he didn't sneer, he didn't do anything besides summoning three portals behind him and stepping back to where he had come. They had fought off Crota's army, for now. As the last witches disappeared through the portals the darkness that surrounded Shin disappeard and left him in relief. He could breathe properly now, he wasn't in pain and he could see clearly, there wasn't much more he could ask for. Shin sat up and looked at the three guards as they walked slowly back to him, each guards eyes starting to go back to normal. The lead guard took a staggering step and fell face first into the dust, the others close behind him. Shin tried to stand up but his leg seized up and he fell too, instead he started crawling towards them, he didn't care if they had gone completely berserk, they had saved him and many others. As Shin got closer he saw blood starting to pool and freeze as it flowed out of the three bodies. Shin crawled faster, until he reached the head of the first one. Shin didn't have any perspective when he saw the guards transform but he didn't think they had changed this much. The guards head was the size of his torso and head combined. Needless to say, they had grown massive. Shin reached forward and pulled himself up to the side of the pony, he quickly checked if he was still alive and found him barely breathing. Shin sat up and lifted the pony's massive head and dropped it into his lap, this caused him to flutter his eyelids a little. "Wake up, you aren't dead yet." "...I wish I was...did we do it?" "Heh, I didn't do it. You three did, and you did one hell of a job too." "...what happened?" "You started to absorb the darkness, it changed your body, but it also may have killed you. During your peak moment, you absorbed the bullets that hit you, but it appears that they actually did cause damage, judging from your wounds..." "...I'm going to die aren't I? Well...It's not a bad way to go I guess..." The pony's breaths started getting shorter and shorter, before eventually they stopped completely. Shin felt tears forming in his eyes as he looked down on the peaceful creature that fought until he couldn't stand anymore, pun intended. Shin hugged the head in his lap and cried, he had never cried over any other people he knew when they died, he didn't really know why he was crying now for creatures he didn't know or understand. Shin didn't notice the flash, or the piercing stab that went through his body as he was teleported back down to Equestria. He did notice, of all things, the gasp that echoed through the room he was in. Shin hesitantly looked up to see Celestia, Luna, and eight other ponies he had never seen before. The pony who had gasped had been a purple-ish colored mare that appeared to be an Alicorn. She looked from the guards bodies and up to shin before she covered her mouth with a hoof and stared at him with anguish. Shin slowly reached up from the pony's head towards his own, where he undid the clasps that held his helmet. He then slowly removed it and dropped it to the ground where it made an echoing clang and rolled in a slow circle. Shin looked up at the ponies that were present and showed them his sunken eyes and tear stained cheeks. Even Celestia broke her usual stony-expressionless mask to show emotion. "I wish to sleep, for a very long time. Make sure these guards are given a hero's burial, if such a thing exists, they deserve it." Shin gently lifted the head off his lap and placed it onto the marble floor before he got up and headed for the nearest exit, he just needed to be alone for a bit. Shin pushed his way through the double doors and walked into the empty hall of Canterlot Castle, he didn't really know where he was headed but he didn't really care either. Shin walked down the left side of the hall and stopped as he reached a doorway that held no door, it was the doors to the gardens. Shin walked outside and looked up at the peaceful sky and sighed as he breathed in fresh, clean air. One thing Shin discovered quickly about Equestria was that everything was better than Earth, even the air tasted better. Shin kept walking, not really paying attention to where he was headed, he was just happy to be off that forsaken moon. If he never returned to it, it would be too soon. Shin's Ghost silently followed Shin as he walked through the gardens, he was worried about him. However, the Ghost knew that Shin would recover eventually, he always had. The Ghost had observed everything that happened on the moon, after he had returned Dorish's body he had started a return trip to the moon, just in case the teleport didn't work. As he had gotten closer he could sense what was happening around his guardian, he even felt what was happening to the Lunar Guard as they were infected with the darkness. Something him and DG would have to investigate later. The Ghost watched as Shin approached a bench and layed down on it, his legs sprawled carelessly over the edges. Shin then drapped his arm over his eyes and sighed in contempt, Shin could find anything comfortable after what he has been through. The Ghost felt his guardians consciousness slip away and he fell asleep in minutes, he deserved every second he got. The Ghost floated above Shin's sleeping form and vowed to buy him time to rest.