Under a ruined castle in the Everfree forest, in front of a crystal tree, with six other gems in it, a flash of green light appeared, and Lone Shadow became visible as the light faded. He looked around to make sure no members of the Brotherhood were nearby, though he could hear the sounds of combat from the plains, even if they were ten miles away. "Wish I could join you guys right now," he said as he stepped closer to the tree in the cave.
The Tree of Harmony was extremely bright, the only reason he could look at it directly being his polarized visor. The Element gems, half of them, the Elements of Laughter, Kindness, and Loyalty, were even brighter then the other Elements. Lone shook his head in sadness at this, as this meant that Metamorpha, Chitinia, and Harvest were being suppressed by the personalities Plasma had forced upon them. He walked right to the roots of the tree, and took knelt down in front of it, like an ancient knight to his king. Or queen, in this case.
"Harmony, this looks bad. Even with the UNSC and the Citadel forces with us, we'd need to be very lucky to win. I need to free Metamorpha and the others from Plasma's control, and I need the Elements. I ask that you allow me to carry them until I can get all of them to their bearers."
There was a flsh of white light, and Lone's entire world became white, but got himself, the Elements, and a second figure. This figure was a female, simply from her build. She was just as tall as an average Spartan, and wore an ankle length gray, sleeveless dress that accented her white skin perfectly. Her hair was shoulder length, and had ten colors making it up, six of the colors being that of the Elements in their normal state, the other four being a gun gray, a navy blue, a black, and an emerald green. None of this made her stand out though.
What did was the fact she had hooves for feet and had both wings and a horn, as well as a muzzle, much like Lone, Shadow, Nightengale, Robin, Nightmare, and, now, Solar. Lone stayed in his knelling position and said, "Harmony."
"Hello, Lone," Harmony said. "You know that you do not need to bow to me. You have earned that right, at the very least."
Lone rose, and said, "I know, but I should still respect you."
Harmony chuckled a little. "Yes, I suppose that makes sense. Now, as for your request, I told you before you left that you did not need to ask me for permission to use the Elements to free your friends from Plasma's control."
"I know, but I thought that, as their creator, I should still ask you."
"Yes, I know," Harmony said before turning around and saying, "Come, Lone. There is still much you do not know of our struggle, and the Librarian and I agree that it is time you knew."
Lone walked to her, and, once he reached her, she began to walk as well. "I suppose I should start when Plasma first came to our universe, twenty thousand years ago," Harmony said, just as an image of an ancient country side appeared. "As you now know, Lone, our race was more like that of humans and the others whose basic builds are similar to theirs. It is true that, then, pony abilities were much more powerful. When Plasma arrived, most ponies were affected by his mind control instantly, and some others even followed him without being controlled. They were the first Brotherhood." A memory of a group of anthro ponies in familiar dark cloaks were seen, terrorizing a group of civilians. "They were cruel to those they were supposed to protect, often killing innocents, or enslaving them. Plasma did nothing, even though he said he would wipe out crime.
Another memory appeared, a still of a single pony, a unicorn in what amounted to peasant garb, standing up to the early Brotherhood, his horn glowing an emerald green. He was a familiar shade of black and red. "Your namesake, a simple peasant, a rare unicorn peasant at that, was the first to speak out against this regime. He was the one who inspired other, regardless of class, to fight. It nearly failed, if it hadn't been for a mutual friend of ours," Harmony said just as an image of the original Lone Shadow meeting with a unicorn mare with white skin and dark blue hair and tail, the rest of her face and body hidden by a tan cloak. "Light Joy, the one Plasma called his wife, betrayed him and gave the resistance crucial information, information needed for it's success."
"Still can't believe that Pinkie somehow talked to her while we were in the library," Lone said as the two of them continued to walk.
"That, Lone, is because she is one of the few ponies born in every generation to be able to speak to those in the Nexus when they wish. In fact, it has been an ability of her family ever since Plasma devolved our race when Lone first beat him, which brings me to the next point."
An image appeared, this time a slideshow, of an anthro pony turning into a full fledged pony. "The transformation was not at all swift, nor was it painless. Many died during this point simply due to them not being able to handle the pain. The truly lucky ones, though, were those born this way, as none of them had to deal with the pain. As you know, this is the point when the cutie pox began to appear in the main populace, instead of a select, relative few. Of course, there were a few who weren't affected by it, and many, if not all, of them were ridiculed for it.
"In time, the legends of your namesake became just that, legends, and those that followed him, as well as Lone Shadow himself, were exiled for being unlawful. This led to the tradition of lone team becoming a shadow group, known only to a few outside of it.
"It remained this way for the next ten thousand years, when I was born."
"Uh, Harmony, no disrespect," Lone said, still walking with the alicorn, "but what does that have to do with this?"
"Everything, Lone," Harmony said with a small chuckle. "After all, now we gt to the par of the story where thses," she said, gesturing to the six gems that had followed them, "were created.
"War was rampant then, especially among the unicorn and pegasai. I was just a unicorn then, one of the best mages of the time. Unfortunately, though, it was a time of gender inequality, and mares, regardless of skill and talent, were little more then property to stallions.
"I was an assittant to the archmage at the time, one of the few stallions who actually saw mares as sapient. The pegasai armies were laying siege to many of our cities, and I knew the only way to beat them was to make a magical weapon that they couldn't counter.
"I set upon this task by myself, willing to take the consequences of being a mare doing magical research, which was death at the time. My lab was a rundown shack outside my hometown, which was a rarity then, as it had equal rights. What I planned for were twenty gems to protect the wielder from any attack, as well as enhance their magical capabilities.
"It was just after I had begun my work that I was approached by the members of lone team that lived in my town, and offered me a position in the team, which I accepted. I hadn't been a supporter of the war, and I was planning on distributing the weapons to the members of all three pony races.
"I was allowed to continue my work, but I ran into an issue."
"What might that be, Harmony?" Lone asked.
"I found only the materials for half what I had hoped for, which is ten of the weapons.
"Regardless, I continued my work, until something went wrong near the date I was to present three of them to the unicorn king, and give the rest to lone team. It was late at night, and I was putting the finishing touches on the last of the Elements when there was an explosion. Six of them, the ones Metamorpha and her friends used, were left unharmed, but three of the others were scattered across space and time, and the last was infused into my blood, becoming a part of my DNA. The three that were lost were, as I learned later, after I came to the Nexus, scattered among other universes, some not even like ours. The fourth one, the first one I finished, was the one that had been infused into my blood, and I had passed it down to my son."
"There are ten Elements?" Lone asked in surprise.
"Yes, there are. I can not tell you where they are, not even I know that much, but I do have a feeling you already know the bearers of the lost Elements, or will meet them at some point in your life. The funny thing is that the explosion made me an alicorn, and I was the one who helped bring gender equality to Equestria, though, I imagine you can tell I'm not that known in current times, even by lone team."
"No, you aren't," Lone said. "It's weird. I know the library has information from that time period. It's like no one wanted us to know about that."
"Indeed," Harmony said as she stopped walking. "I will need to investigate that when I return to the Nexus," she said as she turned to face Lone. "Do you remember when you first encountered the Librarian, Lone?"
"Yeah. Why?" Lone asked.
"Do you remember felling something being planted inside you when you left her presence and returned to the library?" Lone nodded. "Ah, good. That will allow me to help bring out your full power, should you wish it."
"If it helps defeat Plasma, I'll do anything," Lone said, determination in his voice.
"I know. I simply had to ask. This will also help right the various wrongs that has happened by Plasma's direct intervention."
"Thank you, Harmony," Lone said.
"Do not thank me yet, Lone," Harmony said. "As you know, a fair portion of what has happened has been in one prophecy or another. There is one that details this battle with Plasma. 'When evil has become victorious, the sky will be alight with flames, and they sky will fall. An army of the dead will arise, and the shadows will fight for supremacy.' No one in the Nexus knows what this exactly means, but I believe we can hazard a guess at it."
Under his helmet, Lone smiled. "Agreed."
"Then return, Lone Shadow," Harmony said, smiling. "Return, and finish what started all those years ago."
Harmony began to fade out, and, with that, the world began to fade in, the Elements moving to surround Lone. When the world had fully returned, Lone saw he was standing in front of the Tree, the six Elements, each one glowing brightly for some reason. He heard a rustling outside of the cave, and made his way to it, using an invisibility spell to hide the Elements. Before he left the cave, though, he took one last look at the Tree, and gave it a nod, then left the cave, and went up the stairs.
What he saw upon reaching the top brought a smile to Lone's face. He saw a small army of ponies and changelings he recognized as old members of lone team that had died, all wearing recruit grade Spartan-IV armor, all of them being anthro. But six got his specific attention, and they were all walking up to him.
Three had female figures. One, who had white armor and an electric blue accent, had what was the build of an anthro earth pony. The second had a pink primary, with a dark red accent, and pegasus wings on her back. The third had white armor like the first, but had navy blue accents, as well as both wings and a horn.
The other three were all males. One had a teal armor all the way, and he had pegasus wings on his back as well. The second had black armor with green accents, and insect like wings, and a jagged horn. The third, however, had black armor, which, unlike all the others, looked like warrior armor, and red accents, as well as a horn and pegasai wings.
All six stopped in front of Lone, and saluted. "You guys don't need to do that, you know. You all have more experience then me." He looked to the male alicorn. "You, especially, Lone."
"Lone" simply shook his head and removed his helmet, revealing a face that was the exact same as the one in the images Lone had seen earlier, revealing that he was, in fact, the original Lone Shadow, who I will simply call Lone(b) to avoid confusion. "There's no fooling you, is there?" Lone(b) asked.
"I don't see any other male alicorns here with that color scheme." Lone(a) then turned to the pegasus stallion and earth pony mare. "Mom. Dad."
"Hey, sweetie," Joy said as Darkness put an arm around his wife's shoulder.
"Son," Darkness said. "Good to see you again."
"Same here, Dad," Lone(a) said. He then turned to the changeling and the pegasus mare. "Stinger, good to see you again."
"Same here, Lone," the changeling said.
"You too, Rain," Lone(a) said to the pegasus mare, whose full name was Flawless Rain.
"Hey, Lone," she said as she stood close to the changeling who was her husband.
He then looked to the last of the assembled ponies. "Light," he said.
"Lone," Light said. "Do you have them?"
Lone(a) nodded.
"Then let's go," she said. "We still need to save Luna, Cadence, and the others."
"Agreed," Lone(a) said. "Stinger, Rain: I want you guys to find out where Cadence and the others are in the battle. We'll only have one chance to do this."
"Right," Stinger said before he and Rain spread their wings and flew off, Stinger casting an invisibility spell to hide them from the Brotherhood eyes that could see in the night.
"Mom, Dad, Light, Lone, I want you guys to spread the word to the others that we're getting ready to leave and head towards the fight."
They nodded, and left to spread the word.
An hour later, with the sun starting to rise in the sky, with the sounds of battle still heavy in the air, Lone and those that had been brought back from death stood at the edge the castle clearing. They numbered barely a hundred, but they were all the best of the ones from the Nexus.
(00:30) Lone recalled how the entire thing had started, A year ago, he was a literal unknown to the general public, and lone team was still in the shadows. The ponies were entirely ponies then, and none had a reason to be afraid of old legends. Now, though.
Now, it's time to show them hope in old legends, he thought as he recalled he had been the same once, not believing in old legends and fairy tales. Ironic, as that was the norm for Equis in general, and Equestria in general.
Lone took one last look around the clearing, taking in the natural scenery, knowing full well it might be the last time he ever saw it again. Light walked up to him and said, "You know, whether we win or lose, the Council won't let us stay, even if we kill Plasma."
"Yeah. The last time You, me, and the others who still have living family who know of them, will ever have a chance at seeing our loved ones." He stared at the sunrise. "The last time I see my sweet moon."
"At least she'll know you're watching over her."
"I'd rather be with her."
"Me too, Lone. She is my daughter, as well as Celestia. But I think it'll be Cadence who's most devastated, as she won't even get to know Stinger and Rain, her parents, before they have to leave her again."
"Yeah, probably. But I think, at least, when this done, we can look back with no regrets, knowing that we gave everything to stop him."
Light gave a small, single laughing smile. "I guess so, and there's nothing saying we can't visit them in their dreams."
"They'll probably fix that soon enough, once we start exploiting that loophole."
"I suppose," Light said. After a few seconds, she said. "The others are waiting for you to move."
Under his helmet, Lone smiled. He lit his horn, and three things happened. (Stop music)
(00:51)The first was that the Elements of Magic, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and Loyalty became visible again, with each, including the first three, whose bearers were corrupt, shining brighter then they ever had before, as if they each had a thousand suns within them. The second happened at the same time, and that was the fact that an emerald green glow seemed to surround him, and it seemed to seep into the Elements as well. No one noticed it, though.
The third, though, was the most obvious. Lone became bathed in lime green flames, those of a changeling changing forms. They stayed that way for a minute, as the changes were extreme. When they faded, Lone was almost exactly the same, except for two things. One was that his coat now had a kind of hardness to it that a changeling's chitin does. The second was that, on his back, starting from in the gap between his shoulder blades, were wings made of green flame.
He flapped them once, and the flames went away, leaving, in their place, wings with black feathers that went from the base of the wings to the halfway point, and bat like, leathery wings that were the same colors as the feathers the rest of the way.
"Then let's go," Lone said before taking off and heading to the plains, with the rest of the army of the risen dead behind him, those with wings carrying those who didn't.
Fields between the Everfree and remains of Canterlot
Shadow, with assistance from Chaos, was able to hold his own against Twilight and Rarity, though barely. He had been fighting them non-stop for nearly six hours, and he was beginning to get exhausted, even with his enhanced abilities. Come on, where's Lone? he mentally asked himself, just before he noticed a pillar of green coming from the Everfree. He smiled to himself. "Time to cut loose," he said as he blocked a strike from Twilight and jumped back, his horn lighting as he did so.
When he landed, he was engulfed in lime green flames. Rarity and Twilight both tried to shoot him with their magic, but the flames just took the shots with out faltering. When they were gone a minute later, he too had flaming wings. He flapped them, revealing wings similar to Lone's, but the color matching Shadow's scheme.
Under their helmets, both Twilight and Rarity had expressions of surprise and anger on their faces. "How," Twilight said.
"Lineage," Shadow said before using his wings to fly up and over the two, and using his enhance magic to teleport literally everyone on the battle field who wasn't a part of the Brotherhood to the area between the two hills in the north, much to the confusion of all but Robin, Nightmare, Hermit, and, obviously, Shadow.
Shadow, Nightmare, and Solar, still in control, but with Celestia's consent and support. Stood at the head, with Solar being confused, not just by the teleportation, but the fact Shadow had wings as well. "How," she asked.
"I'll explain later," he said.
Plasma strode out of his castle then, and, even from the mile distance, he saw them clearly. "So, my descendants are alicorns entirely, then. Interesting, but planned for." It was then he heard flapping from behind. He turned, and saw multiple pegasai and even some changeling flying towards the battle field, a fair portion carrying other ponies, all of whom were anthro. At this groups head were three ponies he knew, two of which he was genuinely surprised to see.
Lone(a), Lone(b), and Light landed at the front of the second group at the south of the Brotherhood, with Lone(a) being in between the other two.
Plasma just laughed. "So, it seems you have heard of the third prophecy regarding the events here. It doesn't matter though. The sky is not on fire, and it is not falling."
"I'd check the sky if I were you, Plasma," Light said.
Plasma did so, and what he saw was the sky ablaze.
Tip of the spear-an hour earlier
"Admirals," Artemis said, "first contact will be in range in thirty seconds."
Both Hood and Smith were still on the Spear, seeing as how it was, in essence the flagship of the new fleet. "Copy that, Artemis," Hood said. "Admiral Smith, does your universe happen to have the old earth band 'AC/DC'?"
"Yes," Smith said. "Why?"
"Artemis?"
"Getting it prepped up now, Hood. Just waiting for you to authorize it."
Twenty seconds later, Hood said, "Now."
(00:15) "Fifteen seconds."
(00:20) "Ten seconds."
(00:30) "FIRE!!" Hood yelled, and the first shot was fired.
"All ships, engage at will, but keep an eye on IFFs. We do not need any friendly fire here," Smith yelled over comms.
At this point, the first shot, a shot from Infinity's main gun, hit it's target, a Reaper destroyer. It's shields were down, and it took the full force of the hit, and it burst into pieces. The other Brotherhood ships were slow to react, which led to a few more being destroyed, but they were able to eventually pull together and spread out, which made hitting the smaller ships harder."
"Admiral Smith," Artemis said, "your carriers are requesting permission to launch every fighter and interceptor they have."
"Tell them they're cleared on that regard, Artemis."
"And tell our ships to do the same with our equivalents," Hood added. "We need as much firepower out there as possible!"
"Roger that, orders are sent. Hood, Maruco's asking permission to head out on a booster frame. The Spartans of Alpha-Nine are willing to go with him, as is John."
"They're cleared for it, Artemis."
The ship shook then from an impact. "Mass accelerator cannon strike! Shields at seventy-five percent and holding."
"Understood, Artemis," Smith said. "Target the bastard!"
"Already done. Hydra's are away," the lights on the ship darkened, "and MAC shot away. Time to impact, thirty seconds."
"Understood, Artemis," Hood said.
"Admirals," a sangheili officer at the terminals shouted, "we just lost ten ships from a single Reaper, and the enemy's left line's broken. Fighters are moving in to attack."
"Understood. Have any spare dreadnoughts fire on that Reaper!" Smith said. "We need it dead!"
"Understood," the sangheili said before turning back to his console and relaying orders.
"Ten seconds until shot impact," Artemis said. Ten seconds later, she said, "Target destroyed."
"Understood, Artemis. What's the current status of the battle group?"
"Well, we only lost those ten ships due to the fact this was a surprise attack, and they lost ten ships in the first minute, and they keep losing more, though we have lost a lot of fighters and interceptors."
"Damn it," Smith said.
"We're still winning right now, Smith," Hood said.
"Hood, I have an unauthorized booster frame launch from Infinity!"
"Who?"
"Blue team."
Hood smiled. "Let them go, Artemis, and let John and the other know they might be getting some friendly company soon."
"It's done," Artemis said a second later.
"Good. I want fighters diverted to escort blue team to John and the others."
"Copy that," Artemis said. "Fuck," she said a minute later. "I just got a reading from the outer ships. They picked up a slip space rupture."
"What is it?"
"Unknown. Just now getting a reading." She didn't speak for ten seconds, a long time for AIs, but when she did, she said, "It's a prototype covenant ship, like the one from Reach!"
"And it's got Brotherhood colors!"
"Damn it," Hood said. "Have any and all dreadnoughts, I don't care whose fleet they're a part of, we need to take that thing down ASAP!"
"Diverting forces now."
Fifty minutes later
The late arrival to the fight had been destroyed, but two dreadnoughts had been destroyed before it was taken down, as well as who knew how many fighters. Blue team had rendezvoused with John and the others, and had been wreaking all kinds of hell for the last thirty minutes, including a recreation of the time John, Fred, and Kelly had done what was, in essence, a run and gun moment when they were on a mission to rescue Dr Halsey from the covenant, but this time, the result was the destruction of a portion of the enemy fleet, including a few Reapers, by ship self-destruct. Those covenant reactors made great micro stars.
The allied fleet was winning, and troops were being prepped for planet side operations at the moment. More accurately, ODSTs and Spartans from the UNSC; Atlas mechs, heavy gunships, and drop ship carried YMIR mechs.
"Artemis, what's the status of the enemy fleet," Hood asked.
"Breaking, Admiral. They've lost a fair portion of their heavy hitters, and we were smart enough to focus on Reapers for the first part of combat, so we don't need to worry about them any more."
"Good. Tell any and all troops heading down to the surface to get ready," Hood said.
"On it."
"And Artemis?"
"Yeah, Hood?"
"I want you to head down to the planet with the ground forces."
"Understood. Also, I'm going to divert a pelican for Blue team and the others."
"Fair enough, Artemis," Hood said.
"Admirals," a human officer at one of the console said, "the first wave of drop pods are ready, and the ships containing them are awaiting your orders to move in over the drop zone."
"They're clear," Hood said. He added in a whisper, "Now let's just hope we win the ground war."