//------------------------------// // Tell the World I'm Coming Home // Story: Light of Harmony // by GjallarFox //------------------------------// "Speaker?" Cayde-6 said, breaking the silence in the Speaker's observatory. "Yes, Hunter?" the masked man turned to face the Guardian. "I know you've heard by now of the Fallen that has joined our cause," the Exo said. "To be blunt, I was wondering if we could apply the research team into developing a device to synthesize ether for him." "We have such a device," the Speaker replied. "Do you mean one that he could carry?" "Yes. He will be departing with the Six tomorrow to their homeworld," Cayde-6 began. "He can only carry so many tanks with him, and if he runs out, the mission may not be a success. He nearly ran out of his day's ration today in half the time we expected." "I don't think we have one, but I know who does," the Speaker said, turning and looking out upon the City. "Servitors have such devices inside them. If you can destroy it without damaging the device, we may be able to salvage it." "I know just how to do that," the Hunter smirked to himself. He turned and left the observatory, telling a random Guardian to alert Zavala to his impromptu mission. ------ Twilight awoke that morning to find herself the best rested she'd ever felt. She personally thanked Fluttershy for that, as the pegasus in question had refused to let go of her the whole night. The extra warmth from cuddling and the feeling of being close to the pony she loved made her more comfortable than the softest mattress ever could. She dared not move, Fluttershy's need for rest coming well before her desire to get up and start preparing for the trip home. In the next room, Applejack and Rarity had already gotten up, and were talking softly to each other about their fears as they helped each other don their armor. "I just want to let my family rest proper..." Applejack sighed as she slipped her boots on. "I just hope I can find them." "We'll find them, Applejack. I'll help you scour Equestria for them if need be." Rarity put her hand on Applejack's shoulder and offered a warm smile. She wished she could give her friend a more definitive comfort, or even true peace of mind or spirit. Her generous soul longed to give her that, but she knew that could not be done. When she relived her death, she noticed something about how she and all her friends died. Pinkie's super power was summoning a hand cannon from nothingness. She died after running out of ammunition for her Party Cannon. She dared not delve too deep into speculation, but she had a feeling that their deaths were somehow connected to their super powers. And if her hypothesis about the order of their deaths was correct, then she was going to be next to discover her super power. A tap on her shoulder dragged her back to reality. Applejack asked, "Are you alright?" "I'm fine," she replied. But she knew that to be a lie. Outside, she looked calm and determined, but inside, she was panicking. She knew in her own mind that she wasn't ready to see the full extent of the Cabal's campaign on her home. She wasn't ready to see all of that destruction and death. But she put on her cuirass and stepped out into the main room of their living quarters, where the rest of her friends were waiting, wearing a brave face so as not to poison the others with her own trepidations. ------ Some time later, the Six and Shirska had finished purchasing their necessary supplies, from food to ammunition, and were packing those supplies on their ships. Other Guardians watched them with a sense of curiosity. Never before had Guardians packed this much ammunition into their ships, let alone any amount of food. The furthest any Guardian had gone from the Tower was the Reef, and even then they were not there long enough to require food. "Good to see you remembered to bring food. I never did have to worry about that, but I always packed enough for my team," Cayde-6's voice greeted the ponies. "Where we're going, food won't be easy to come by," Twilight said as she stuffed another bag into her ship. "You seen Shirska? We can't leave without him." "He'll be here soon. He's just putting on his new armor. I got him a new ether tank, one that can actively generate ether. That way he won't run out while he's with you," the Exo replied. "Listen, I know you guys are going to see your home in the worst possible state, and I know how that feels, but yo—" "How would you know how that feels? You're a machine, telling living beings how we'll feel as though you know first hand," Applejack snapped at the Hunter. "We lost everything. You still have your Traveler. You still have your Tower. How can you stand here and tell us you know what that's like?" "Applejack!" Rarity gasped. "Whoa, AJ, let's calm down," Rainbow said. "You know what I smell on you?" the Exo asked the farm pony. "I smell the stink of anthrocentropism. I think that you think there's only one way to think. But in the end, that's just substrate chauvinism." He stepped closer to Applejack, his cold metallic gaze burning holes in her. "It doesn't matter if the system thinks with flesh or a superconductor, as long as the logic is the same, and our logic is the same; yours and mine. If I am a machine then so are you. If you are not a machine then neither am I. We think the same, pony. I feel emotions just like you, and right now I'm feeling angry." A loud snap echoed through the hangar, earning the attention of every Guardian there. "It takes magic to summon the Golden Gun, kid. Magic takes emotions, feelings, to wield. Your world is based around magic, yes? Then take this weapon and fire it." The Exo pointed the golden hand cannon at a wall and pulled the trigger once, then flipped it in his hands and offered the weapon to the Titan. When the Golden Gun faded from existence, Cayde-6 cursed under his breath and walked away, the eyes of every Guardian in the hangar fixed upon him. After he had left the hangar, everyone returned to their business, quietly discussing Cayde's outburst amongst themselves. Applejack huffed and continued to pack the last box of munitions on her ship, her frustration clearly visible on her face. "Hello friends," Shirska's voice greeted the ponies. The Fallen stepped up to his ship with a small cart of boxes for food and ammunition. He had repainted his new armor to be white, just like his last set, and this time, he had a cape that looked almost like the one he threw to the ground when he'd denounced his house. The white banners hanging from his shoulders were blank, no emblem embroidered into it, and no stains of any kind on it. "Hey Shirska," Rainbow returned the greeting. "What's with the new banner?" "I will tell you soon," he said, opening the cargo hatch on the belly of his ship and starting to pack his items into it. "This is not place for talking." Thoroughly confused, Rainbow just sat down on a random crate, waiting for him to finish packing. Everyone else had finished, and once Shirska was ready, they would depart for their homeworld and take on the Cabal contingency there. With no real information on the leadership of that legion, aside from a name, they would have to search for clues as to the whereabouts of Aventus Da'axus. From there, they would need to find out if there was further leadership there that they either needed to speak to or kill. After that, they would find those leaders, if they existed, and question them for the whereabouts of the Elements of Harmony. "I am ready," Shirska said to the group. "Shall we go?" ------ The ponies looked upon Canterlot again, seeing their greatest city as a field of rubble. Shirska looked around, his auto rifle in his hands, trying to imagine what had once stood there. He saw the occasional half-standing wall, or barely-standing tower, but his mind could not piece together what would have been there. What grandeur must this place have had before its collapse? How magnanimous was the civilization that built it? Up in the sky, he could feel a presence watching him from the moon and stars. All around him he could feel the sharp seed of terror that stained the very ground upon which he now stood, planted there by the invading force of the Cabal. Once upon a time, there must have been children playing in these streets, and Shirska felt his heart sink at that realization. Children had been slaughtered here... "What is this place?" he asked softly, daring not disturb the souls and spirits resting here. "This was Canterlot, the capitol city of Equestria," Twilight answered just as quietly. "I was born and raised here... This was my home." Shirska bowed his head and placed his left hand over the right side of his chest. As Twilight stepped forwards, she looked up at something that was no longer there. "There used to be a tree planted here, and every day I'd come here after my studies and I'd read until the sun went down. It was my favorite tree..." Fluttershy stepped forward. "My house was just a block that way," she murmured, pointing off to her right. She then pointed forwards. "Canterlot Palace was just three blocks that way. These three places shaped almost everything about me. This was my home." Fluttershy placed a hand on Twilight's shoulder. "Twilight..." "They took everything from me. They killed us, they killed my teacher, they killed my friends, and everypony I loved!" Twilight raised her voice, falling to her knees and crying underneath her helmet. "My home..." Though no one would admit it, except Fluttershy, everyone cried at least a little bit. Here was their friend, on her knees crying over the collapse of her very concept of what "home" was. Here was their friend, their leader, reduced to tears and anguish. All of them felt it: thousands of souls crying together, some living, most not. Up above, clouds obscured their view of the heavens. A raindrop fell down to the ground, then more. The collective tears of millions of lost souls all coming down to greet the seven who would finally avenge them. A crack of thunder rolled lazily from somewhere, far off, but near enough to feel the sound. Twilight stood. With a deep breath, she forced herself to regain her composure, setting her need to grieve on the back burner to be tended to later. "Let's give them hell." They walked through the rain, barely acknowledging its existence. The only purpose it served them now was to make it harder for the enemy to hear them coming, and turn the ground into a muddy mess. Twilight put up her hand and signaled the others to stay there. She then snuck up to a barely standing tower that had collapsed about halfway up and was now, for the most part, stable. Up on the balcony, Twilight looked through the scope of her sniper down to a small Cabal outpost at the base of the mountain. Their gigantic iron walls looked to be impenetrable, but the guards in the towers one every corner of the base looked to be weary. Twilight smirked, and laid out her bullets on the balcony floor, as though counting the weeks she'd been waiting to exact her vengeance. She held her breath, and when the lightning struck and the thunder hit her ears, she pulled the trigger with a Legionary's helm in her crosshairs. She pulled back the action and waited for another strike of thunder. She repeated the process a total of four times, and then hopped down from the balcony. "Grab your Sparrows. We're hitting that base. They'll notice their guards in a few moments. Rainbow, take a sniper spot up in the clouds." Without question, they all summoned their Sparrows and rocketed down the mountain, skipping the overgrown road and it's curves and instead opting for a direct path. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, took to the sky and grabbed a chunk of the rainclouds above and situated it at such a position that would minimize her chances of being see while keeping her field of view in tact. When they reached the Cabal warbase, they hopped off the nimble machines and waited to see if any other guards were around. When Twilight signaled that they were all clear, they dashed into the compound. "That door over there, there's a terminal I can access behind it," J-Ami informed her Guardian over the team's communications line. "Get me close and I'll see what I can pull up on this Aventus Da'axus guy." Twilight looked around, and then made the short sprint across the courtyard to the door her Ghost had marked on her helmet's HUD, the others following her closely and keeping watch in the other directions. The door opened on its own, revealing an empty hall with a hole in the wall that had a computer terminal in it. Taking a good look down the hall to make sure there were no Cabal watching them, they ducked into the intent in the hall, where they waited while J-Ami got to work searching through their computer network. "Got it. Apparently there's a main base set up about forty miles south of here. The most current information on Aventus' whereabouts point toward that base," the Ghost reported. "Ponyville..." Fluttershy whispered in shock. "How current is that intel?" Twilight asked. "Last updated two of this planet's days ago," her Ghost said. "There's also a big base about four hundred miles north of here that he seems to visit often." "Let's check the Ponyville one first. If we must, we can try to bait him to come back here," Rarity suggested. "Wonderful idea. Let's get moving," Twilight agreed. "Dash. Fly to Ponyville. Wait in the clouds for us." "Gotcha," the pegasus replied. The five ponies and their Fallen companion swiftly exited the base and re-summoned their Sparrows, quickly hitting the thrusters. Holliday had been generous with them and loaned them her fastest Sparrows for their mission home. At their maximum velocity, they could reach one hundred miles per hour, and had a near infinite travel range. The countryside passed quickly, the massive Cabal warbase growing larger with each passing second. When they were close enough, the Guardians and their companion hopped off their Sparrows and took cover behind a grassy knoll. "Hey Dash. Give them some lightning," Twilight muttered over the comms. "One thunderstorm scheduled for right now," the pegasus replied. Up in the sky, the Hunter grabbed a few melon-sized clouds and suspended them in the air in a line, much like Twilight had done with her sniper bullets. She grabbed the first one in her left hand and carefully aimed it at a Legionary on the guard tower. With a swift punch, the cloud shot a bolt of lightning at the creature, frying it in its armor and destroying all of its suits' electronics. The pegasus responsible smirked to herself and aimed a new cloud at another Cabal. Once the four guards on the towers were dead, she signaled to the others that it was all clear. Repeating the process from the small outpost by Canterlot, the six on the ground entered the base through the front gate, which was left virtually undefended. "For a highly trained military force, these guys sure do lack basic defenses," Twilight mused. "To be fair, they don't look like they're expecting anything to come attack them," Rarity pointed out. A sharp but muffled yell hit the ears of the ponies, making them turn to face its owner. A lanky Psion pulled up its slug rifle just too slowly to defend himself from being fried by a shot of lightning from Rainbow Dash up in the clouds. Not a moment later, a loud metallic whine filled the night. "Fuck, they know we're here." "Dash, keep using lightning. Keep them off the walls," Twilight ordered. "I'm going to head inside and see if this base's computers know where Da'axus is." "I'm going with you," Fluttershy said, hefting her pulse rifle and stepping towards the unicorn. "Alright," Twilight said. "Everyone else, hold the doors until we get back." With that, Twilight and Fluttershy headed inside the Cabal base, guns blazing as they did so. Outside, the first wave of Legionaries flooded out of the wall itself, firing their slug rifles as they ran. Shirska, being used to showing instantaneous and overwhelming force at a moment's notice, began returning fire, aiming for their heads, knowing full-well that any other hits would be essentially useless. "Aim for head! Everywhere else armor too strong." Rarity huffed in acknowledgement and began concentrating her scout rifle's fire on the Cabal's bright green helmets. For her, three shots was enough to pop the helmet out of place and force an explosive decompression. For Pinkie, one shot from her hand cannon was enough to yield the same result. Shirska roared at the enemy, and threw a grenade at one of them, the explosive sending a powerful bolt of arc energy chaining through several Cabal Legionaries and frying all of them to death. As a Legionary jumped with its boost pack, trying to get on the wall for a better firing position, he too was struck by lightning, which fried the limiter on the Cabal soldier's boost pack. The poor thing was sent rocketing out of control until it spiraled down and crashed into a Phalanx, knocking its shield a few meters away. With an opportunity presented to him, Shirska took down the shieldless Phalanx with a pair of bursts from his auto rifle. Inside, Twilight and Fluttershy followed the directions of their Ghosts, turning through the wide metal halls of the Cabal warbase. Whenever a Cabal would accidentally walk into the hall, Twilight would pull its helmet off with her magic and keep running. Psions, however, were another matter, as they were too quick and agile to get caught by such a trick. Instead, she and Fluttershy would have to respond to them with immediate and overwhelming force. Soon enough they reached a room where computer terminals lined the walls, dozens of displays lighting up the space with their backlight. "I'll get to work. Just buy us time," J-Ami said to the ponies. A pair of Psions dashed into the room. Upon seeing the intruders, one backed up and lifted itself into the air by some magic Twilight had never seen before. Before she could raise her rifle, a surge of arc energy not unlike that which Applejack's super power created flew towards them. The ponies dodged to either side of the attack, and started firing as soon as they gained their balance. The Psion responsible for the attack fell to the ground dead, multiple holes in its armor now oozing blue blood. The other Psion had been smart, and hidden somewhere in the room while the ponies were distracted by its comrade. "Where'd the other one go?" Twilight asked, looking around and watching her HUD's motion tracker in hopes that she could find the creature. "Don't know, but we've got more incoming," Fluttershy answered. The door to the room opened once again, allowing two Phalanx soldiers to step into the room. They moved forward together with their shields touching, approaching the two ponies. They held their fire, waiting for the Cabal soldiers to make a mistake and present an opportunity to them. A random shot from behind them knocked Fluttershy forwards, making her hit the ground just in front of one of the Phalanx. She yelped and then rolled out of the way of the creature's shield. She pulled a grenade from her belt and tossed it under the shields, hoping that the explosion would give them the opportunity to kill the two shield-bearers. "Did you get the Psion?" Fluttershy asked as she picked herself up off the ground. "Just missed it," Twilight huffed. Upon the grenade's explosion, one of the shield-bearers dropped its shield. With that opportunity, Twilight pulled out her sniper and fired a round from her hip. The bullet sheared through the Cabal helmet and dropped its now lifeless body to the ground. Switching to her auto rifle again, she hopped over a row of computers, scanning for the Psion that had so rudely shot her lover. Fluttershy switched out her pulse rifle for her shotgun, and lunged into close quarters with the second Phalanx. She reached out with her left hand and grabbed the edge of the shield and yanked it as hard as she could. Her immense strength seemed almost alien to her. She was not expecting to throw the shield, just move it enough for her to pull up her shotgun and blast it in the chest. But she still brought up her shotgun and blasted the Cabal in the chest, the powerful shell enough to collapse the chestplate at point blank range. She pumped another round into the chamber, then turned around to face the Psion that had tried to sneak up on her. "It is rude to shoot people!" she yelled, blasting it with her shotgun. "Got it. Da'axus is in the northern base right now. If you want, I can trigger an SOS to get him down here," J-Ami informed the Guardians. "You guys outside want to go find Da'axus, or bait him here?" Twilight asked over the comms line. "Let's go kill the motherfucker in his own house," Applejack spat venomously. "Couldn't have said it better myself," Rainbow agreed. "Alright. I'm disabling the distress beacon here," the Ghost said. "That way they can't trigger it and let the northern base know we're coming." Twilight took Fluttershy's hand in her own and ran with her back the way they came. To their surprise, no Cabal entered the hallways in front of them. The only real obstacles they faced were the already dead corpses of the ones they'd killed on the way in. Silently, Twilight was praying to her deceased mentor, telling her that she'd kill the monster that killed her and her sister, and asking for Fluttershy's protection in return.