A few hours had passed since the Renegades had shown their true alliances, which, now that I think on it, makes sense they'd ally with Oryx as we allied with Auryx.
Sekana, upon seeing M Twilight, nearly crushed said Raider in a hug. As the two reunited, Rhino and I talked with Cybis.
"Okay," Rhino said, "just how did you make this work?"
He shrugged. "I just added some darkness into her, which removed the Traveler's control over her."
"And the Phantom," I asked.
"Had to destroy it," he replied. "Only way to fully remove his control over her."
"And how'd you do that," Rhino asked.
"Her magic and my Nova plus Sith Lord, and even then, it took a lot of energy."
"Was that the last step before you two were able to help," Rhino asked.
"Yeah, it was," Cybis replied. "Now, seeing as how Nightmare is our Traveler's daughter, I'm going to talk with her and see if she can make Ghosts. Otherwise, we can't make any new Guardians to defend against Oryx when he arrives."
"You know, we seem to ignore Celestia a lot," Rhino commented.
"Because we know we can beat her," I said. "What with our fusion and the fact all six of the Elements are Guardians, she would be hard pressed to beat us."
"That doesn't mean she can't win," Cybis said, to which I pulled out the tokens we had. "Fair point."
"That reminds me, have we gotten any other tokens," Rhino asked.
"Not since we came here," I said. "Honestly, though, I do expect to either be summoned or to have a new token when we get back."
"So long as we don't become one of those crossover nexus stories," Cybis said. "The ones that basically have a cross over every chapter or so, I mean."
"Agreed," both Rhino and I said.
"Well, wish me luck with Nightmare and the Ghost situation, anyways," Cybis said before he made his way to the guest quarters, where we all slept, even if, technically, Nightmare was able to sleep in one of the royal rooms.
"And what are you going to do, Rhino," I asked.
"No idea," he said, shrugging. "May go see how this army trains and practices. You?"
"I'm going to play it by ear," I said. "Talk with Sekana and M Twilight, Crota, and Auryx simply to talk."
"You do that," he said, and he walked out and to the training fields.
So, with me being the only Guardian left near where the reunion was going on, I made my way to the throne room, literally right next to where the three of us were talking, and where M Twilight was telling the Proto-hive rulers what she knew about the Raiders. When I opened the doors, I heard the tail end of a question Crota asked. ". . . their plans with the Elements?"
"No, your Highness," she said. "I don't know what their plans are with the Elements of Chaos. I just know that as long as all six of the other world's Elements are here, they would need all six to defeat them. If I knew what their plan was, I would have said so at the start."
"Wondering what the Raiders are planning," I asked, causing M Twilight, her helmet off to reveal a slightly scarred face with short cut hair and an eye like mine, which is to say a prosthetic.
"We have been since they found the Chaos Elements," Auryx said. "If I may ask, what brings you here, Guardian?"
"I can't just have a conversation with you all," I asked, to which Sekana chuckled.
"He is right, mother," she said. "And, to be honest, I see nothing wrong with just talking. Besides, I do think we've asked Twilight enough questions for now. Plus, I am a little hungry."
"As am I," Crota said.
"Then I suppose it is time for a meal," Auryx said as she stood up from her throne, Sekana in hers to the left, Crota to the right. "Come, everyone. I'll have a message sent to the cooks to prepare lunch for us."
"Long as there's steak and a Ceaser salad," I muttered. With that, the five of us left the throne room, and made our way to the small dining room that the royals and only the guests on which they were on a first name basis with, or someone close to them like M Twilight with Sekana, went to.
It was halfway between the throne room and the main dining area, and smaller than both, but it was still comfortable, with a round table for us to sit around. On said table was a practical buffet of food, both meat and fruit and veggies. Now, I am more of a meat person, just cook it to medium well and season it properly, and I'll probably have it, but there are only a few things I'll eat that are pure fruit or vegetable, one of which was the aforementioned salad. Which, thankfully, was on the table, along with who knows what kinds of meats.
"Take a seat, everyone," Auryx said as she sat down at the chair opposite the door. "And Twilight, in here, there are no formalities."
"Don't waste your breath, Auryx," I said as I took the seat at the nine o'clock position on the table. "If this Twilight is the same as others I know of, she is unable to easily drop the formalities."
"He isn't wrong," Sekana said, taking the seat at her mother's left. "When she was my student, I could not get her to stop calling me 'Princess', no matter how many times I tried."
"I don't see a problem there," Crota said, sitting on the opposite side of Auryx as his sister. "If she wishes to keep the formalities, I think she should be able to."
"So do I," I said. "I'm just saying her brain's hardwired to add 'Highness' or the like to a ruler that considers her a friend."
As M Twilight sat down opposite me, she crossed her arms and said, "I'll have you know that, unlike your world's version of me, I have no problem with dropping formalities when wished."
"Hey, I'm just saying," I said, holding my hands up. "No need to get hostile, Twilight."
"Yeah, I know," she said. "I've gotten better at reading people that have the same body structure as me since I joined the Raiders, much as I wish I hadn't."
"Yeah, I've been wondering," I said. "Why did you join the Raiders?"
"I didn't," she said. "Not willingly, anyway. I was kidnapped when they re-surged with Luna at the front of it and taken into the Everfree. It was there that they gave me this," she said, pointing to her scar and prosthetic eye, "which is why I assume Sekana thought I was dead."
"It was more the large amount of blood there with it," Sekana said as she shivered a little. "But now isn't the place for that."
"Agreed," I said before reaching for a piece of steak with a fork that had steam curling off of it, and it was medium sized. I put it on the plate in front of me, and cut a little portion of it off, and it did have a bit of pink in the middle. Exactly how I liked it. Weird how they got that. Anyway, I popped the small piece into my mouth, which nearly exploded from the taste. In a good way, I mean. It must have showe,d too, as the other four chuckled.
"I take it that the chefs cooked it to how you like," Auryx asked.
"Yep," I said. "But I would like to know as to how."
"Cooking, obviously," Sekana said. "Along with a simple spell that allows it to change depending on the taste of the one who's eating it."
"Well, keep doing that," I said. "But back with Twilight, what happened next?"
"Well, they took me to a cave of some sort, I don't remember where it is, and even if I did, they covered my one eye so I couldn't see. The next thing I remember, I was with my new body, a prosthetic eye, and I was following the Raiders. From there, well, I was in most of the Raider Ops, including Manehattan."
"You were in Manehattan," Crota asked. "I had heard how brutal it was there."
"Yeah, it was bad," M Twilight said. "Because of me, mostly. I was the Demon of Manehattan."
"Someone mind filling me in, here?"
"Manehattan was the bloodiest fight with the Raiders," Sekana said, and I heard sorrow in her voice. "Nopony living or stationed there survived, and most of the dead were, with what you and Twilight told us, turned into Raiders. And Twilight was apparently the one who had slaughtered most of them."
"If I could, I'd go back to fix it," M Twilight said.
"Which is to say they have a small army," Crota said. "One our guards will be unable to stop without heavy casualties."
"Looks like we may need the help of the rest of your allies," Auryx said.
"I'll see what I can do," I said. "But for now, I want to finish my meal."
Rhino
I made my way to the training area, coming across a few guards, pony and Proto-Hive, on my way there. Once I made it outside, I saw that the Proto-Hive and ponies were in separate areas. I am going to say that even with Sekana retaining her role as princess, there's tension here. I also saw a lot of glares directed at me.
"Great," I heard a pony said. "One of them."
"I still don't see why the princess and her family requested their help. Those Renegades betrayed us. Who's to say those 'Guardians' won't?"
"I know, right. I barely even trust those three after what the Renegades pulled. I honestly don't know who's worse: them, or the princess' family."
"Hey," a Proto-Hive yelled at the ponies. "You disrespect the queen and prince?" Oh, god, here we go.
"Yeah, I do," the pony, a unicorn stallion with a dark red coat and a mane and tail colored black with stripes of green. "Equestria would be a whole lot better if and your kind just left. Maybe then, that 'Traveler' will leave, and we can go back to not having to worry about getting killed by something we don't know."
"That is not likely to happen," I said, walking up.
"And what's it to you, freak," the pony asked. He is lucky I have a long fuse.
"You think that Auryx leaving will cause the Traveler to do so. I can see the reasoning, but it is flawed," I said. "The Traveler thinks it is doing good, bringing its power to this place, even if innocents suffer. Even if Auryx were to leave, it would stay, and you would have no defenses against it. Auryx and her family and forces are the only reason you're here to complain about it."
"Doubtful," the pony said. Jeez, this guy is stubborn. "If Auryx hadn't come here, we wouldn't need to deal with her kind, and be left in peace."
"And if Celestia hadn't come to your side," I asked, crossing my arms. "What then? You would need to deal with the Raiders and two alicorns, as well as who knows what else. Nothing would be powerful enough to stop them then, and you, your friends, and your family would. Be. Dead."
"Please, I'm the best spell caster in the guard," he said.
"Oh," I said. "Then show me a little demonstration of your power."
The pony grinned. "If you say so," he said before a charged a spell in his horn, and fired it at me. I blocked it by directing void energy to my left palm, which I raised, and directed to form a shield, on which, the spell dissipated, and the look on his face was one of surprise.
"You see," I said. "You, as in ponies, are helpless against the Raiders, who have our abilities. If you've had any victories, it is because of luck, Auryx and her forces, or them toying with you. But if you are willing to bury your damned pride, as in you and your pony comrades, I would be willing to teach all of you how to face them. After all, their training, with what Twilight Sparkle has told us, is similar to ours, or at least how they fight." Let the fun begin.
Cybis
I made my way to the astronomy tower. Nightmare enjoyed spending whatever free time back home she could in either the Tower astronomy, or Canterlot's observatory, so I reasoned she'd be there too.
I was right, as I saw Nightmare in the projection room, where a unicorn or alicorn would use a spell to project a cluster of stars, her horn lit, and multiple constellations shown. "Hello, Cybis," she said, her helmet off. Her face resembled her pony form head, but her muzzle, like everypony else's, was short, but still obviously a muzzle, her eyes their distinctive teal with vertical slits for pupils. Her mane was short, to her shoulders, really, and, from her few toothy smiles and laughs, her teeth, unlike the others, who's teeth still resembled a full pony's, were more like Josh's and mine, which is to say omnivorous. "How is this world's Twilight doing?"
"Good," I replied. "What about you? I know you and Celestia didn't see eye to eye, and I know that's an understatement, but it still must be hard to learn she's the daughter of a being who can control darkness, and is following in his steps."
She chuckled. "It's easier than you think, Cybis," she said before sighing. "I suppose it helps that I nearly fell on that path myself, doesn't it?"
"I wouldn't know," I said. "If you're feeling alright, I wanted to talk with you about something."
"Me being able to create Ghosts," she asked. "Dinklebot beat you here and told me why you were coming. Besides, I had something to show you."
"What's that," I asked, crossing my arms.
"A gift to this world's Twilight," she said before a purple and green Ghost came into view from behind her. "I had a suspicion since the human world about my heritage, as well as a few memories from my childhood for my father. All I had to do was think of their look, and, well, they come into being."
"They have a personality," I asked. "Or a name, for that matter?"
"No," she replied. "The names, I'll let their partner decide. As for the personality, that is on a delay thing, and will come to light with time so that their partner can slowly get used to them. The exception, though, is mine," she said before a black Ghost with purple accents transmatted into existence. "Night Shade, say hello."
"I was going to, Nightmare," Night Shade said before she hovered over to me. "Hello, Cybis. Nightmare told me about you and your comrades, and I'm sure you heard what my name is."
"Yeah, I did," I said. "Pleasure to meet you, Night Shade."
"Same here," the Ghost replied.
"So," Nightmare said, deactivating the spell she had going, which made the room go dark, "should we go give this world's Twilight a Ghost?"
"I don't see why not," I replied. "Oh, and we're adding 'M' to the front of everyone's names here to avoid confusion."
"I'll keep that in mind," she said, and the four of us, myself, Nightmare, Night Shade, and the unnamed Ghost, left to find M Twilight. Which wasn't an issue, as Josh came on over our, meaning mine, Josh's, and Rhino's, link.
Guys, we have an issue.
What is it, Rhino asked, and from what else I heard, I'd say he was doing something in the training area.
Message from Sombra to Auryx. He says that the Empire's encircled, and said factions are also fighting one another. This may be the final fight here, guys.
Why do you say that, I asked, knowing the answer already.
Because M us and M Traveler, as well as a whole fucking army of Raiders and an army of Taken, are those fighting.