Discord had seen many things in his two thousand something years. He had fought space monsters, became the embodiment of chaos and got frozen in stone one thousand five hundred years prior to this very moment.
And he certainly DID expect that this would happen... what!? An Avatar of Chaos can't think the opposite of everyone else? Blasphemy!
But still though, he knew the Guardian would eventually return. Chaos magick was not malevolent. And while it was mixed with enough Dark Magick to direct it to the greatest force of Light on the planet, the worst it would do would be to seal it in stone for an undefined amount of time.
Although, Discord was incredibly glad that his only remaining male friend was back, and he showed it exuberantly.
"Ian! My old friend! Welcome home! To your Home too! I would ask how being trapped in stone for two thousand years feels like, but I was trapped for about one thousand five hundred myself. Fancy a Cotton Candy Cloud?" the Draconequus exclaimed happily, embracing his old friend and producing a cloud made of cotton candy. The Guardian grinned broadly at his old friend as he pulled Discord into a large hug.
"Glad to see Ascension never changed you Swirly. So I assume that you are acquainted with these young mares?" I asked my old friend with a gesture around the room. The Draconequus followed my sweeping movement before turning back to me and speaking once more, albeit a bit sheepishly.
"Well... Uh... I don't think you know this, but... Sunbutt sealed me away in stone after I went a bit loopy and tried ruling Equestria about fifteen hundred years ago. These young mares stopped me after I broke out and tried taking over once more." The chimeric amalgamation sheepishly admitted, poking his fingers together. I simply facepalmed.
"Swirly... Dizzy... Buddy... You are the biggest buffoon I know... What ever got into you to try that?" I exasperatedly asked, Discord frowned once more.
"It... Uh... has a bit to do with yourself and Sombra... You know how you were trapped by a culmination of Chaotic and Dark Magicks? the burst of Chaos was from my own Ascension... the Dark was from Sombra... And the burst tainted me enough to make me go loopy" the Draconequus explained solemnly, I looked shocked, Sombra, the kindest and most generous pony I had ever met... Had fallen to the Darkness? Frowning, Discord continued.
"It seems Sombra had been studying the abilities and powers of the dead Vex that he would sometimes bring to his lab. I think the Darkness still lingering in their mechanical corpses corrupted him before turning him into an Avatar of Darkness." He finished with a sigh. I frowned, a sad look on my face.
"I told him that studying the Vex would bring about nothing but bad things, but he was too naive" I said, sighing as I shook my head. It was this moment, that I had noticed two things, one, that a certain two eyed, one horned, flying purple pony person was starting to stir awake.
And two... The sound of engines rumbling overhead.
I frowned, that was a sound that I never expected to hear here. The only foes from Destiny that had shown up when I arrived here were the Vex, but that... Was the sound of a Fallen Skiff.
"What is that dreadful sound!?" Exclaimed Rarity, gritting her teeth and putting her hooves over her ears, I turned to Discord, who also looked concerned as to what the unknown sound was, I decided to answer their questions, both spoken and unspoken.
"That is the sound of trouble flying overhead, a race of four-armed bipeds known as the Fallen" I said, a concerned look on my face, I reached down to pick up my helmet that I had left on the table in front of me during the conversation. Before I walked out the door, I turned to the others once more.
"It should only be a scouting party, so it will very likely be just the one Skiff, but just in case, I want everypony to stay here" I received nods and a groan in reply, I nodded back as I retrieved The Last Word from my hip and walked outside.
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It had been five minutes of following the Skiff through the treetops, not too far off, was the end of the Everfree, and, from what I could see, a village. I inwardly wondered what kind of crazy pony would build a village at the edge of a dangerous forest.
The Skiff seemed to be heading straight for the village, ready to cause havoc. I frowned.
"Ghost, let's get going"
~Ditzy 'Derpy Hooves' Doo's POV~
My day was going splendidly, I had almost finished delivering the mail. which meant that the only thing between myself and spending time with Dinky was a few more houses.
It was at this moment, that I heard a loud rumbling sound. Confusedly, I looked around, wondering what It was. That is, until it appeared just outside Ponyville.
It was a large tan contraption, flying around like a Dirigible without a balloon. Other pegasi flocked around it, wondering what it was, that is, until a flash came from it, and a pegasus fell from the sky, horribly burned.
Everypony started screaming and running from it as a compartment in the back opened up, allowing nine bipeds and a large floating ball to jump out. Four of said bipeds had two arms and were smaller than the others, while the rest had four arms, with the largest of the group, almost twice as tall as the two armed bipeds, seemingly in command.
I was stunned in place, not knowing what to do.
One of the two armed ones spotted me.
And then it's head exploded.
~Ian's POV~
Boom, Headshot.
The remaining Dregs and Vandals looked around frantically, looking for the thing that removed the head of their comrade. The Servitor and the Archon however, looked in the direction the shot came from, following the vapor trail of the sniper round that I had fired from my Final Boss sniper rifle. Smirking, I put it back in my 'Inventory' of sorts, replacing it with The Last Word.
I jumped from my position in the trees, hitting the ground with a combat roll before charging at the Fallen scouting party. However, I was wondering why an Archon was with them, but it didn't matter, it would fall. And the bigger they are, the harder the Fallen Fall.
When they came into eyesight once more from the other side of a building, I brought my gun up, quickly popping a round into each of the Dreg's heads, each of their now headless bodies falling to the ground.
By this point the Vandals, Archon and Servitor had all turned around. Quickly, the Servitor activated it's protective aura, giving each of the remaining fallen protection from projectiles, at the same time, each of the Vandals had activated their stealth modules, quickly becoming shimmering silhouettes.
The Archon called out a warcry in their language, before charging with a shot from it's shrapnel launcher. I danced out of the way of the projectiles, quickly reloading my Hand Cannon. I raised it up, and fired a few projectiles at the imposingly large Fallen, fanning the hammer.
It staggered slightly before growling and blinking a short distance towards me, it was this moment that i noticed that the blurs of the Vandals were dangerously close. I backflipped away from a sword blow, artfully dodging the strikes of the four-armed aliens.
"Ghost, bring out the twins will you? I think I should gives these guys a taste of their own medicine" I stated to my always present companion. With a mechanical chirp, Ghost equipped the dual swords to my back.
Once more resting in my hands, were a pair of beautifully crafted swords. The right was a gleaming golden sword, with a dark, stained steel hilt. A gleaming gold Topaz was set in the pommel of the hilt and the symbol of a setting sun was etched into the bottom of the blade. Nocte Solis, or the Sun's Night, enchanted with the burning fury of the sun, and the calming cool of pure Harmony. Slight flames licked at the dead straight golden blade.
In my other hand sat it's direct opposite, with a dark Obsidian blade and a gleaming golden hilt. Like it's sister, a gem sat in the pommel, a pure black Onyx, and finally, etched into the bottom of the blade, sat a half moon. Luna Diem, or Moon's Day was also enchanted, with the direct opposites of it's sister. The calming cold of Lunar Magick and the raging anger of pure Chaos. Small snowflakes fell from the curved obsidian blade.
Forged by Hephaestus, Avatar of Metal himself, the would never be any better blades. Brandishing the sister swords, with obvious skill, I met the blades of the stealth Vandals. Slashing through the aliens with ease, severed limbs uncloaking as the effects of the stealth faded.
Now with them out of the way, only the Servitor and the Archon were left. Throughout my whirling dervish of blades, the Archon had fired at me a few times, however, each projectile that came close were deflected by my blades, I flicked the Fallen blood from them, before returning them to my back, retrieving The Last Word form my hip once more.
The Servitor fired a few blasts of energy at me, I backflipped out of the way of them before charging at the servitor, quickly swapping my Hand Cannon for another weapon. I blasted away at the Servitor with my Secret Handshake once I came within range. The seven rounds of buckshot ripped into it's metal casing, causing cracks to form along it's surface.
With a singular punch, the forces that caused the machine 'god' to hover ceased to function, and it fell to the ground, exploding.
Now, it was only me and the Archon itself. I looked around for it, before noticing that it had taken the chance to take a hostage while I focused on the Servitor.
It barked out orders in it's language, holding it's shrapnel cannon to the head of a grey pegasus mare with a blonde mane, her lopsided golden eyes were full of tears, fearing for her life, I frowned.
"You know, we have two options here Fallen Archon. One, you let the poor Mare go, and we fight like men. Or Two, you keep this up, and I blast your fucking alien head right off" I said, pointing The Last Word at it. It gave a guttural laugh before pushing it's shrapnel cannon into the side of the Mare's head.
Calmly, I placed my hand cannon on the ground, slowly approaching the Archon. Placing my weapon on the ground seemed to placate it, I smirked under my helmet as I turned my walk into a sprint, dashing at the large Fallen.
It did not have enough time to respond to my sudden change, startled, it dropped it's own weapon as I reached to my back and pulled out my blades.
I jumped onto it, stabbing Luna Diem and Nocte Solis into it's shoulders, together, we fell to the ground.
I pinned the Archon to the ground, crossing my swords and placing the tips of them either side of it's head.
I closed the scissor-like shape of the crossed swords.
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The Archon's head rolled down the main street of Ponyville that day.
And Ditzy Doo would never forget it.