Out in the courtyard of the Cabal Warbase, The six Guardians and their Fallen ally had arranged themselves in an off-center hexagonal formation. About one hundred meters away, Aventus Da'axus had situated himself next to the ruins of the tank. He had stopped by his armory and selected a few weapons that attached to his armor, rather than the firearms that his troops carried. On his back was what appeared to be a mounted cannon, and on his right fist was some other close-combat weapon. Looking at him, Twilight figured that he was fairly well balanced. But with his cannon serving as a long range weapon, and his fist for close quarters, he lacked in the medium range, and that was what she planned on using to her advantage.
"Hey guys, try to stay at medium range. I don't think that cannon will be as effective the closer we are to it," the Warlock informed her team. The others grunted a confirmation as they readied their weapons. Pinkie bounced in place, holding her hand cannon at the ready. Rainbow spun her hand cannon on her finger like a toy. Rarity let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding, only to take in another and hold it like a foal would a teddy bear. Applejack glared at her adversary stoically, already feeling her Fist of Havoc ready for her to use should she need it. Fluttershy simply observed her friends, watching all of them carefully, anticipating who she would need to cover most. And Shirska kept to himself, but a hand kept hold over his abdomen, the pain from earlier that froze him in place still there.
"Are you alright, Shirska?" the Titan asked.
He turned to the pegasus and nodded briskly.
The sky had clouded up again, blocking out the sun and casting a cold gray tone over everything. A snowflake landed on Pinkie's hand cannon and melted.
"Are we ready to fight?" Twilight asked her friends.
A round of affirmations hit her ears, and she hollered out to Da'axus, "Hit us with your best shot!"
A boom resounded through the base as a blast of blue shot forth from Da'axus' cannon. The seven warriors scattered, favoring distance from each other so the Cabal general couldn't hit two of them simultaneously. As soon as that first shot hit the ground, he fired a second, third, fourth, and fifth, adjusting his firing angle only slightly each time.
Auto rifle fire rattled into existence, bullets flying forth from the muzzles of their rifles. Hand cannons banged out a steady rhythm, and Fluttershy's pulse rifle counted triplets on time with Rarity's scout rifle. Most shots hit Da'axus' body, but a significant number of shots managed to hit his helmet. A hand cannon shot from Pinkie missed just above her intended target, and burst through the plume on Da'axus' helmet, tearing a few hairs out with it. Da'axus roared and after firing another shot from his cannon, he began charging forward against the hail of bullets plinking off his armor. Immediately, Pinkie determined that she was the target of his sudden rampage, and started backpedaling in response.
Da'axus' boost pack kicked in as he leapt forward, pulling his fist back like the bolt of a rifle. Pinkie squeaked, and bounced up just in time to avoid the fist smashing her into the ground. She landed on his back, and quickly bounced right off again, firing a quick shot from her hand cannon into the back of his helmet.
The snow started to intensify, and there was a thin blanket of snow already on the ground. Not enough to make a snowball, but enough to know that there would be soon. Even in battle, Pinkie couldn't help but smile and giggle as she bounced around in the snow, popping shots from her hand cannon and avoiding Da'axus' meteor fist.
Shirska watched the bouncing pony with a sort of confused curiosity. This was a fight to the death, and here she was bouncing and giggling. But even as confused as he was, he kept firing at the Cabal general, trying to damage his armor as much as possible and scanning for weak points. From what Shirska could see, there were no weak points, even at the joints where the armor should have given way to more flexible material. But in that observation, he noticed that those places were covered by attachable armor plates that looked like curtains hanging from other plates.
A shot hit him in the back, sending him sprawling into the thin layer of snow. He rolled over just in time to miss being stomped on by a Legionary falling from the sky. "More troops!" he called out, putting a hand cannon shot directly in the forehead of the Legionary's helmet, making it pop off with a loud hiss and spray of blue mist.
"Damnit," Twilight cursed, taking another look around to see Da'axus' troops entering the fray to support their general. "Pinkie, watch your tail."
"I think I'm better off watching this guy instead of my tail," she replied.
"You know what I mean!" Twilight growled as a Psion rushed her for a punch. She sidestepped it and hooked her foot around its ankle and tripped it, letting it hit the ground before putting a pair of bullets through its neck.
Da'axus changed targets from Pinkie to Applejack, figuring the other earth pony wouldn't be as much trouble to hit. In some regards he was right. Applejack didn't bounce like Pinkie, but she was a rodeo pony, and had mastered quite a number of acrobatic tricks. Just as Da'axus was bringing his fist down, she ducked and rolled under it, barely dodging the attack. As she pulled out of the roll, she unslung her shotgun and blasted at his backside, managing to send one of the detachable plates flying off, exposing a weak point. "Some of his armor is detachable. Try to knock those pieces off!"
"Rainbow! Take to the sky. Try to pick them off with sniper shots," Twilight called out to the pegasus.
"I'm out of ammo for it," Rainbow grunted in response as she wrestled with a Psion for her knife.
"Come borrow mine then," the unicorn said, ignoring the pegasus' complaints about being preoccupied. "And Pinkie, if you could use your super, that would be great."
"Okie dokie lokie!" the earth pony laughed. With a snap, she pulled the Golden Gun out of the air and took aim at Da'axus. A first shot: a loud acknowledgement of power. A plate burned away. A second shot: a blatant scoff. A plate burned away. A third shot never came. Pinkie was forced on the defensive by a trio of Centurions and their Projection Rifles, and the Golden Gun dissipated before she could use the last shot.
"Damn it. Rainbow!" Twilight called.
"A LITTLE BUSY OVER HERE!" Rainbow hollered through the comms, still wrestling with a pack of Psions for her knife. "FEEL LIKE HELPING ANY TIME SOON‽"
Twilight sighed and took a few shots at the Psion whose hands were on her knife, dropping it with a pair of bullets to the neck. Once Rainbow had control of her knife, it was a relatively short scuffle, the other four Psions dropping with fresh slits in their necks.
"Thanks," Rainbow grunted as she passed Twilight, taking her sniper with her and launching herself into the sky.
Da'axus didn't notice her fly up, since he was trying to punch Shirska at the time. The Fallen sidestepped quickly and grabbed a piece of detachable armor, yanking it and trying to dislodge it. Unfortunately for him, the plate didn't budge, and that gave the Cabal general enough time to slap him off. As soon as Rainbow put a shot on Da'axus' armor, he spun around and fired a volley of cannon shots.
"Shit!" the pegasus cursed as she tried to dodge the incoming fire. "Sniping's a no go."
"Fuck," Twilight cursed. "Applejack, see if you can't bust his chestplate with a Fist."
"Way ahead of ya," the Titan huffed as she charged towards Da'axus' back. "HEY BITCH!"
Da'axus turned around with his cannon at chest height. A thump was heard, followed by a scream of pain. Applejack fell limply to the ground, her armor smoking and heavily scorched by the explosion.
"Applejack!" Shirska screamed, leaping from his firing position and making a short sprint to his friend's side. As he knelt next to her, he took her hand in his, clasping it to his chest. Her Ghost was out and working to heal her. Rarity slid to a kneel on her other side, placing a hand on Applejack's chest to check her breathing. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she felt her friend's chest rise with breath. "Rarity, touch my chestplate."
At first the unicorn was confused by the order, but did so anyway. A surge of warmth and energy traveled up her arm and into her heart, where it spread to the rest of her body and resonated in her horn. Applejack opened her eyes and looked up at Shirska, then Rarity. She placed a palm on Rarity's shoulder, and spoke softly, "Give him hell."
"Pinkie?" Rarity asked as she stood.
"Yeah?" the party pony asked jovially as she bounced around the battlefield in the seven inch and growing layer of snow.
"Let's have a snowball fight with Da'axus," she said with a smirk, forming a snowball in her hand with magic. "Everyone who can, make snowballs and just pelt him with as many as you can."
"What's your plan?" Twilight asked.
"Still working on it," the other unicorn replied. "But for now, keep him distracted and confused and don't waste ammo. Buy me time."
Without any further dialogue, Pinkie threw the first snowball at Da'axus, hitting him directly in the face. The massive Cabal general shook the snow from his helm, and cocked his head at the sheer strangeness of being hit with a snowball in the middle of a fight to the death. Another snowball flew past Da'axus and nailed one of his troops in the face as well. The Legionary shook his head and looked at the offending pony, who was bouncing around, packing another snowball. "SNOWBALL FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!" she screamed, throwing another snowball at a Psion.
The Psion, once it recovered from the confusion of being hit with a snowball, picked up a handful of snow and made a snowball to retaliate. When it threw the snowball, Pinkie dodged it and watched as it flew and hit a Centurion in the chest. The Centurion roared and made a snowball, throwing it at the offending Psion. Within minutes, the battle had gone from a seven-on-one deathmatch with bullets and cannon shells to a free-for-all snowball brawl. Rough rumbling could be heard from the massive Cabal soldiers, which the ponies assumed to be laughter.
Shirska and Applejack soon rejoined the fray, the Fallen throwing a near constant barrage of snowballs at Da'axus, who was preparing a snowball roughly the size of Applejack's head to throw. Applejack, not wanting to be outdone, began rolling up a snowball on the ground, as though she were making a snowman.
Twilight lifted a pair of snowballs with magic, letting Rainbow grab them as she flew by. A moment later, she released them, letting them fall to their targets, hitting them directly on the top of their heads. Rainbow smirked and made another pass above Twilight, who continuously supplied her with munitions.
Da'axus threw his snowball, which managed to hit Shirska in the chest. Applejack retaliated on his behalf, throwing a similarly sized snowball at the Cabal general. Everyone in that courtyard, be they Cabal or otherwise, were laughing and just generally having a good, fun time. Rarity smiled, feeling her magic manifesting in a way she'd never felt before. She picked up some snow and packed it into her left hand, where she felt the magic gathering. For a brief moment, she caught a glimpse of something she could not explain.
The snowball in her hand felt heavier than every burden she'd ever borne and helped bear. It felt cold as the black void of the beyond. It felt more energetic than Pinkie on espresso. "Look into the abyss, and it will look right back," she mumbled under her breath, her smile fading. She lifted herself into the air, and a faint purple glow could be seen outlining her body. "This is the extent of my generosity."
Her arm arced, and the snowball was released with the power of the Void locked inside, waiting to be unleashed when it got where it was sent.
An explosive sound pounded against everything in the courtyard of the Cabal warbase. Legionaries, Psions, and Centurions dropped their snowballs watching the black hole consume all in its general vicinity. As the black hole faded away, Da'axus was nowhere to be seen. The Cabal soldiers knelt, all facing the naked crater in the courtyard where their general had been. Some openly wept, others simply bowed their heads solemnly.
"Slag Stompers! Lend me your ears!" Rarity called out to the Cabal. "Your commander died in battle this day, as he wished. In your culture, that is among the noblest ways to die. I could not bear to take his life in the heat of battle, with anger and spite and hate running rampant through our minds and hearts. I could not let him die that way."
The snow stopped falling, and the clouds parted, casting a long column of light down upon Rarity and the snowless patch of the courtyard.
"Remember this day not with bitterness at the loss of your general. Remember this day fondly as a day when you and your general had a fun snowball fight. Remember this day as the day you and your commander laughed and played in the snow together... as friends."
The wind whispered softly.
"I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive me for my perverse sense of generosity... For believing that giving someone death was acceptable..."
Shirska stepped over to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder, and said softly, "I think it subjective morality. He wanted to follow traditions and beliefs. Who are we to deny him that dying wish?"
"It still feels... wrong to me..." the Warlock spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.
"You..." a Cabal Centurion said, stepping up to her. "Thank you."
In that moment, Rarity removed her helmet and let herself cry, her hot tears stinging with the cold against her cheeks. The Centurion stepped a little closer, and wrapped its arms around her, hugging her tightly, but still being cautious not to crush her to death.
"Go. Get your artifacts," the Centurion said, letting go of her. "We have our burial rites to attend to."
Rarity smiled to the Centurion, and pounded her fist against her chestguard. The Centurion mimicked the gesture, as did every other troop in that courtyard. The other five Guardians followed suit, as did Shirska, in respect to these soldiers who were all simply following the orders of their beloved general, to save the main body of their empire so they could have a home to go back to.
The ponies and Shirska walked forth together, past the Cabal, who all stood at attention for them. "Rarity is your name?" the Centurion called out.
"Yes?" she turned.
"You have our undying respect. But do remember:" he said, "respect does not win wars."
She hesitated for a moment, and replied, "But it can bring peace."
------
The seven stepped into the vault, seeing the Elements sitting on iron pedestals, with other strange items stacked against the walls. At the back of the room was a computer monitor that immediately caught the attention of Twilight with Celestia's face displayed on it. Twilight did not hesitate even for a moment, teleporting with magic over to the computer. The monitor had exactly three buttons on it, likely for playback control. Twilight shed her helmet and let her hair fall down her back, just as tears began to fall down her face.
Celestia's face was frozen on a frame where she seemed to be in obvious pain. Blood stained her pure white coat, and it was clear that she had been coughing up blood. To see her mentor this way made Twilight feel sick in a way that no illness could replicate. It hurt in a way that made taking a tank shell, as Shirska had, preferable to the sight of Celestia in pain. "What did they do to you...?"
Twilight pushed the button she assumed to be the play button.
"Twilight," Celestia's voice was coarse like she'd inhaled smoke from a house fire. "If you're watching this, I'm gone, and you made it, just like Luna thought. Don't blame yourself for what happened to me or Luna, or the rest of Canterlot. It was not your—" she paused to cough, blood spraying out onto the marble floor under her. "It wasn't your fault. Pinkie Promise me you won't blame yourself...?"
"...I can't..."
"There is no blame to be had... not by anyone, and especially—" She coughed again. "Especially not by you."
"They've promised to let the ponies and other races live as long as we evacuate everyone to a different planet. They say they know one in a system only a few light years from here..." Her eyes dropped a little. "This is not how I wanted things to go... I wanted nothing but the best for you... I wanted you to be happy... I wanted to watch you learn and grow and—" She coughed again, and again, not much blood coming out. "—and fall in love and live your life... Instead I watched you die..."
"Somepony once told me in a dream that I'd be doomed to watch Death come for everyone I've ever known and loved, and I'd be powerless to stop it. These thousands of years I've been alive... I couldn't let myself be attached to anypony... I knew I'd have to watch them die, so I refused to let myself care... You though... I had to care about you... You were impossible not to love..."
"Do not go gentle into that goodnight..."
She coughed up blood again, her eyes dilating and losing focus. "Rage... Rage against the dying of the Light..."
"...no..."
Celestia's eyes seemed to lose their color, and rolled back as her eyelids shut.
"...no...!"
"Twilight..."
Celestia's neck went limp, and her mane stopped flowing, fading to its original pink color from the rainbow of morning hues Twilight had always remembered it to be.
Twilight collapsed to the floor, and the silence of the other six was only amplified by her incoherent sobs and sulking. Fluttershy knelt down next to Twilight and pulled her into a hug, letting the unicorn cry on her shoulder. For a few moments, that was all there was in that vault: Twilight crying, Fluttershy comforting her, and the others not quite knowing what to do except let Fluttershy hold her. Shirska had taken the liberty of gathering the Elements and distributing them to their proper bearers, save for Twilight's tiara, which he held onto so she could accept it from him when she wasn't crying too hard to stand.
No one really bothered keeping track of time. It wasn't important in that moment, so everyone just let Twilight grieve, knowing that she out of all of them was most prone to bottling up her feelings, and Fluttershy was usually best at getting her to let those feelings out.
When Twilight finally stood again, Shirska offered her the tiara that housed the Element of Magic. She took the tiara, and after putting her helmet back on, affixed the tiara over it.
"Mission complete. Let's get back to the Tower and report our findings," Twilight murmured in as loud a voice as she felt strong enough to use without crying again. "It's a long way back to Canterlot, and night's coming."
The others nodded in agreement, and filed out of the vault, summoning their Sparrows as soon as they were outside again.
"Strange how home can stop feeling like home..." Applejack mused quietly.
"Home is not place. Home is feeling. If home is place, I have no home. Home is feeling I get with you. Not in Tower. Not in quarters," Shirska replied quietly. "Home can change. Home was once crew. Home was once ship. Now, home is you."
"Never thought about it like that..." Rainbow murmured.
"You're a very wise person, Shirska," Rarity chimed in. "If you know anything that could help Twilight feel better... Could you share that wisdom with her?"
"There are not words to make that okay to her. There are not words to make her feel okay. There is only verbs and things. Company, and... time. Yes, time. Heals most wounds. Numbs everything else," the Fallen responded.
The rest of the Sparrow ride back to Canterlot was relatively uneventful. Harvesters flew past them, back towards the Frozen North for the funeral of Da'axus. The sun set in a blaze of glorious oranges and reds, before the dark blues and rich indigoes of night took hold. Rarity couldn't help but look up into the black void of the beyond and lose herself there. She had discovered her super power. She had taken a life with it. A life that meant well and was willing to commit atrocious sins for the salvation of his people. It was the same perverted generosity that she had delved into: giving up one's own soul and morality to preserve that of countless other souls. In that moment, she felt as though she and Da'axus weren't that different at all.
"Shirska?" Rarity asked softly, trying to bring herself out of her thoughts.
"Yes?" he replied.
"You seemed like you were in pain today. Before you got hit by that tank shell, you were gripping your stomach like you got hit. What happened?" she asked.
"...that is not story I am comfortable telling now..." he mumbled.
"Also, didn't you say you would tell us about the new banner?" She looked over to him in an attempt to read his reaction. "Back in the hangar before we left?"
"Yes. I think now is better time for talking," he said, perking right back up again. "I have question for friends."
"Go ahead and ask," Applejack responded.
Tentatively, he spoke, "How would you feel about joining new House; my House."