As Twilight and Flit dashed across the sky in their ships, both ghosts decided to stop both of them before one of them inevitably ran into something. So as the two of them entered into the Cosmodrome’s airspace, the ships automatically slowed down to allow Twilight her first look down at the new Equestria as Ghost took control of the ship.
Much of the land was destroyed; the luscious green grass had been killed off, leaving only small patches of green amongst the barren ground below them. Many of the trees were killed and sparse, almost none of them looked strong enough to hold even a foal without snapping. Seeing the land she grew up in so destroyed, she let out a sigh.
“You alright Sparkle?” Flit asked, his ship coming into view next to hers. “You sound a little… Sad.”
“Well I kind of am…” Twilight replied. “I grew up here… And… Well look at it.”
There was a pause before Flit replied. “You think this is bad? Wait till you see the crap hole I woke up in. Fire everywhere in the middle of an acid lake. If I weren’t a Changeling, I might have died out there.”
“Is that how you and Topaz met?” Twilight asked.
“Oh no… We met in a very different way. I’ll have to tell you one day… Though not right now. We’re nearing the Transmat zone.”
Twilight looked towards her Ghost floating next to her. “So any idea where to go?”
Ghost clicked. “Well, I’ve been looking over some of the satellite readings in the area, it looks like there is a crashed Guardian Ship not too far from the Transmat zone. Perhaps we could find a Warpdrive there.”
“Well, we’ll be setting down right about now, hope you aren’t as much of a newbie with that rifle as you are with a Ship.”
“I almost beat you!” Twilight replied.
“Almost” Flit replied. “Almost isn’t a win.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Whatever Flitter…”
Ghost clicked. “Guardian, preparing for transmat.” The two ships slowed down over a small ridge, once they were over the area, Twilight felt the familiar vanishing feeling as she reappeared on the ridge next to Flit.
Flit’s helmet wrapped around his head fully, completely obscuring the Changeling beneath, but the curved horn was still present, but it was much less startling than before. His helmet had what looked like tinted skiing goggles where his eyes were, obscuring them from sight. His armor was a light brown color and alongside the helmet, looked much more fitting than without it.
“So Twilight, this is your Warpdrive we’re looking for, so you’re on point.” Flit said. “Where we going?”
Ghost appeared next to her and clicked. “I believe that we can find the crashed ship over that nearby hill. Marking it now.”
Twilight looked over towards the cleared hill, various scattered debris over it with strange silvery plants that didn’t sway in the winds growing out of brown rusted materials. “Well… Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”
Flit tried to look over the hill. “Huh… Usually the Fallen have some semblance of control… Give me a minute.”
“What are you going… To…” Twilight looked over at Flit as he hopped into the air and somehow launched himself further into the air without using his wings. “Do…”
Flit lifted himself into the air and peeked over the hill. “Yup… They got a few Vandals scoping the place out.”
Even though Flit couldn’t tell through the visor, Twilight’s jaw was hanging open. “How did you… Jump?”
Flit looked over at Twilight. “Well… You bend your legs and then…”
Twilight waved her hoof. “No I mean… How did you jump IN THE AIR! I mean Pinkie used to…” She blinked. “Huh… I’ve got no idea who Pinkie is… All I remember is she drove me crazy.”
“Yup.” Flit replied. “She must have been a big part of your life. Or she traumatized you in some way. Anyway I got side tracked. I used some Glimmer to get the Tower’s Engineers to build me a little jump pack built into the armor that helps me get that extra lift, they said something about manipulating gravity within the area around my hooves or something… No wait… That’s the Warlock module…”
Twilight shook her head. “Never Mind… I’ll figure out something when we get back to the Tower.” She sighed.
“Well the ship is just up there.” Flit replied, “Hopefully this will be a short mission.” His horn lit up as the rather large revolver he had on his hind leg was pulled out. “Lead the way.”
Twilight enveloped her own rifle in her magic, the sleek white of the weapon contrasting her original one she acquired from the warehouse. Marked on the weapon was a holographic display of the number twenty-five. While she was still against the whole killing thing, but now that she understood a little bit more, she realized it was a necessity.
Twilight began walking up to the top of the hill, as she neared it, she noticed that there was a small pillar of smoke. Rising from a stretching crater with a bent up yellow ship inside it. A couple of Vandals were looking over the wreckage with a Dreg on top, looking like it was pulling something out as the Vandals growled at it.
Twilight raised her rifle, but Flit put his hoof on it to lower it, shaking his head. He pointed over to a nearby square building; another Vandal was standing up there, looking down at the others through a scope.
Flit’s horn lit up as a rifle was pulled off his back and leaned against a rock, pointing right up at the Vandal. “I got him…”
Twilight looked over at the Vandal, and after a rather loud BANG, The Vandal’s head exploded, causing it to fall off the building and land on the ground below. The other Vandals looked back, and raised their weapons towards the fallen brother. The Dreg stopped pulling on the ship and looked up, but one of the Vandals turned and growled at it. The two began conversing violently, before the Vandal pointed its weapon at the Dreg and it continued to try and pull a piece off the ship.
“Wow… Those things aren’t very good at friendly talk…” Flit said putting the weapon on his back. “Okay, you can kill them now.”
Twilight blinked and looked back at the Vandals. “Oh-Kay then…” She replied, lifting the gun up and aiming at the one that walked over to look at the dead body. She pulled the trigger and let the bullets jump from the gun and into the Vandal. It collapsed to the ground as the other Vandal looked up and snarled, he pointed towards the Dreg, then back at the fallen Vandal.
The Dreg hopped off the ship and walked towards the Vandal, it lifted its head into the air and sniffed for a moment, then turned over to where the two of them were. It growled and let out a screech.
“Ugh… I knew I should have cleaned my armor from when that Thrall bit me…” Flit grumbled. There was a slight whistling sound as a blue glowing spike fell in between them.
Flit looked between the spike and Twilight. “Move!” He said moving away from the spike as it began to glow brighter. Twilight jumped back from the spike as it exploded in a crackle of electricity. She looked up to see Flit searching for something on his armor. “I know I put it here somewhere…”
His Ghost appeared next to him holding a metal sphere. “You left it on the ship again Guardian…”
“Oh… Right…” His hoof, and the armor surprisingly, transformed into a Griffon Claw, he grabbed the device in it, and pushed down on a big red button as it started to flash. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!” He lobbed the sphere over the rock and it rolled up to the Dreg, surprised, the Dreg covered it’s face as the sphere glowed brighter before exploding, setting the Dreg ablaze.
It let out a shriek as its body was burned, it fell to the ground and curled up as the flames ate away at the body.
“Sparkle!” Flit shouted as Twilight looked over the burning. “TWILIGHT!” He shouted to snap her out of her trance.
“You… You just…”
“GET DOWN! YOU IDIOT!” Flit tackled Twilight as a beam of light shot above the two of them. “There are still snipers… You’ll lose your head if you aren’t careful.”
Twilight shook her head. “Yeah… Yeah… You’re right…” Twilight replied standing up. “Sorry… I’m still getting…”
“Yeah. Yeah… Hold on…” Flit pulled the rifle out and placed it on the rock. “There you are you little…” A loud bang cut off his words. “Alright… We’re good, only one left.”
Twilight took a deep breath. “I got this…” Her horn lit up as she flicked her head towards the last Vandal, once the charge hit the ground, it became a dark purple orb with tendrils of darkness. The Vandal looked at it before collapsing to the ground.
“Nice throw.” Flit said raising his hoof for a hoofbump.
Twilight returned the hoofbump before the two of them walked out from their cover.
“So… What was that thing you used?” Twilight asked Flit as she looked over at the charred body of the Dreg.
“The Incendiary Grenade?” Flit replied. “Well, not all of us can create our own grenades with our mind Miss Magic pants. I need to use a finite number of grenades that are all stored in my ship, I think I have like… twelve before I need a restock.”
“Oh… Well…” Twilight replied. “I guess it was needed…”
Flit sniffed before looking over at the ship. “HEY!” He said in surprise. “That’s my old Ship!” He ran up to the wreckage. “Oh… Uh… I mean… I’ve never seen this ship before in my Life…” He coughed into his hoof. “So uh… Let me just look over this ship, that I have totally never seen before… Yeah…” He said hopping onto the Ship.
Twilight’s Ghost appeared next to her looking over the Ship. “Guardian Flitter, shouldn’t I scan the…”
“OY! Traveler Shard! My Name is Flit!” Flit shouted. “Stop calling me Flitter!”
“Of course… Guardian Flit, Shouldn’t I scan the Ship to expedite the process?”
“yeah… Sure… Have fun…”
Ghost floated over to the ship and began scanning it while Flit began fiddling with the Cockpit of the ship, which was currently bent into a ninety degree angle.
As Ghost finished, he flew back over to Twilight as Flit managed to pry off the top of the ship with a Dreg’s blade.
“Well… The Ship is completely destroyed and it looks as though the Warpdrive was taken from it.”
“Well what do you expect?” Flit asked. “The Fallen are Scavengers, they take what they want from wreckage and everything…” Flit reached into the ship and began throwing out broken pieces of glass and metal. “It should be in here…”
“What are you looking for?” Twilight asked.
“I… I mean… Most Guardians keep a backup weapon stored in here for emergencies when their Ghost breaks… I just can’t figure out… AH!” He came back out with a stra-WEIRD! Looking weapon that seemed to be composed of a large pipe and a rather strange looking white box on the front, a small screen was attached to the side. “Hey Warlock, catch.” Flit tossed the weapon at Twilight, who just barely managed to grab it in her magic before it smacked into her.
“What is this?” Twilight asked.
Flit looked at her in surprise. “Wow… You must be from a LOOOOONG time ago. It’s a Rocket Launcher.” He replied. “It fires a big explosion. Think of it like that.”
“How does it…”
“Look, you point it at a thing, and then everything near it dies. It is that Simple.” He held out his hoof as his Ghost appeared. “Ghost, contact Topaz.”
“On it Guardian.” His Ghost replied.
“What is it Flit?” Topaz asked. “You guys find that Warpdrive yet?”
“Nope.” Flit replied. “Listen I need you to look at a map of the area…”
“If this is another mission to try and find Sunstreak’s Stash…”
“No… I learned my lesson from last time… I need you to find a location where we can find some kind of…”
“Found it.” Topaz replied. “I figured you would need a map of heat sigs or something, there’s a building not too far from there. It looks like you can find a computer system in there.”
“Thanks Topaz.” Flit said as his Ghost vanished. He turned to the large rusted building the Vandal had been standing on earlier. “It’s just up here, come on.”
Twilight followed Flit around the side of the building, where a large metal car was turned over. And a car with a rather large metal box attached to it was up straight. The opening to the building was rusted much like the rest of the building, and a weird contraption made mostly of metal was placed to the side, with a stairway leading lower into the building.
Flit walked inside and down the creaking metal steps. Followed timidly by Twilight, who did not trust the thin metal steps, as they walked into the building.
“What’s up Sparkle?” Flit asked, catching her off guard.
“What?”
“Your nervous, scared, and a little bit angry.” He said easily.
“How do you…”
“I’m a Changeling. You forget how we work?” Flit replied. “I can sense your emotions, just because I’m wearing a helmet doesn’t mean I can’t feel them.”
“Oh… Well…” Twilight replied blushing. She did indeed forget how Changelings worked, which made it all the more embarrassing that she had spent a few days studying them after the Invasion. “I’m just… Getting used to everything… It’s so strange to see all these new things. So far all that I’ve seen is the new ways of killing… I’ve seen nothing towards peaceful adaptation.”
Flit rubbed the back of his neck. “yeah… We have a lot of those… Desperate times and all… But there is probably something that was created for good… We could look for it later… After we find that Warpdrive.” He said walking down a second flight of stairs, descending into a lit hallway. As they walked through the hallway, they came to a caved in door, and an opening, through which were a few metal rectangles with weird shapes jutting out of them. On the far side of the room was a large screen, a map displayed over it.
“Ah there’s the map.” Flit said. Just then, a group of four robotic drones flew from behind the boxes. “And there are the Shanks…” Twilight was about to pull out her rifle, but Flit put his hoof up to stop her. “Hold on. Let me handle this… I’ve been Dying to try this out.”
“What do you…?” Twilight began to ask as Flit’s hoof was surrounded in a bright orange light as his hoof was transformed to a claw, in the claw was a burning Hand Canon. He aimed the Hand Canon at the incoming Shanks and pulled the trigger. The gun fired a line of orange light as it hit one of the Shanks. The Shank fell to the ground and disintegrated as the orange spread across it like a virus. Soon there was nothing left of the robotic drone.
Flit wasted no time in shooting the Handgun at two other Shanks, before the Gun vanished from Flit’s claw, he quickly pulled out his hand cannon and fired it into one of the Shanks thrusters, causing it to fly to the ground and explode on impact.
Flit walked over to the exploded Shank and pulled it’s turret from the wreckage. “Ghost, tell the Shipwright I got that Shank turret she’s been eyeing for a while.”
His Ghost appeared next to him. “Affirmative, I wonder what she wants to do with this?”
“Not my problem.” He said as his Ghost grabbed the turret in a stasis field emanated from its eye. The Turret was covered in a bright light before disappearing much like the Ghosts.
“Well now that… Twilight?” Flit looked back at Twilight, who was now standing there, not moving a muscle. Though the weird thing, was the fact there were no emotions. “Twi?” He walked over and waved his hoof in front of her. “Hey uh… Twilight’s Ghost?”
The Ghost in question phased into existence. “yes Guardian?”
“Is she okay?” Flit asked.
The Ghost looked back at Twilight. “Guardian? Guardian?” The Ghost let out a sigh. “Initiating stimulation…” Twilight’s legs suddenly jolted themselves up.
“OW!” She smacked the back of her neck. “What was that?”
Twilight’s Ghost clicked. “You were being unresponsive, so I administered basic shock stimulation.”
“Well it hurt…”
Flit cleared his throat. “Twilight… What were you staring at?”
“Oh… I was trying to figure out what you just did.” Twilight replied.
“Oh! My Golden Gun!” Flit replied. “Yeah… That’s a bit shocking for newer Guardians.”
“How did you do it?”
“Well… I channeled all of the Light I have from the Traveler into a single point that… I guess condenses into a Pistol. It takes a lot out of me to do… I had to sacrifice my shields to do that one… I usually wait until Ghost tells me that I’ve gathered enough energy to use it… Figured I would see if there was a difference.”
His Ghost appeared next to him. “Guardian Topaz wishes to open communications Guardian.”
Flit groaned. “Please don’t answer it… Tell him I’m busy…”
“Very well Guardian.” His Ghost vanished.
“Listen Twilight… Let’s just see about that Warpdrive, and then I’ll work on trying to explain everything.” He walked up to the screen. “Well come on!”
Twilight shook her head again and walked up to the screen, her Ghost flew up to it and examined it. “Fascinating… A topographical map of the Entire Area…” Ghost fired a blue beam at the console below. “Downloaded all data. I think I found that Warpdrive now…”
“Well?” Flit asked.
“It is back where we first found the Ship.” Ghost replied. “Honestly I’m surprised there is anything left there…”
“Maybe a couple Fallen took it over or something… Let’s just go.” Flit replied, he began to walk out of the building followed by Twilight. “I can’t believe you guys were that close to the Warpdrive and didn’t realize it was there…”
“To be fair. I was busy trying to make sure we could survive.” Ghost replied. “If she would have died than I would have been Fallen Food.”
“I don’t blame you. The Fallen most likely gave it to some Captain or something to guard.” Flit replied. “So where to Ghost?”
“It appears there is an opening to the top of a Dam-like structure that is connected to the area we first found the Ship. It looks like there is an access way just over there.” He indicated a nearby wall that had a broken section of wall next to a rusty stair case.
“Great… More stairs…” Twilight replied with a sigh. “I don’t like these rusted stairways… I feel like they will collapse.”
“Oh don’t worry,” Flit replied, “I’ll see about getting you a Jump module when we get back to the Tower.” He said. Beginning to walk towards the broken building. “Plus these stairs are still good, they won’t fall under your hooves or anything.”
“You’re saying that because it hasn’t happened yet.”
“There you go with that word again!” Flit replied, rushing off towards the building.
Twilight looked at Ghost as both of them shook their heads. Or in Ghost’s case, shook his body. Before they followed after him. As Twilight climbed up the stairs, Slowly. Flit hopped into the air and shot himself through the hole in the wall. The two of them began to walk into the rusted building, full of various machines and valves that were meant to keep the building running, now all rusted into inoperative conditions.
Not far into the facility, Twilight noticed a strange net, holding various spheres with small glowing orange dots on them. She would have asked Flit about them, but decided against it. She followed him through the parts of the facility until she came to a pause as her vision was suddenly clouded with a white fog-like tendrils. “What is going on?”
Flit turned back to her. “Darkness Zone.” He replied. “It’s an area where the Darkness is so condensed or powerful that it blocks out our connection to the Traveler.” He said. “I’ll try to tell you how the connection helps later, let’s just find that Warpdrive.”
Twilight nodded as the tendrils faded away from her vision. She followed him down the steps to see the same room she found the Ship in, a large hole in the wall across the hall looked new from when she first looked at it. Though she hadn’t been looking around then.
“So what do the Warpdrives look like?” Twilight asked.
“They are usually some kind of. Metal tube thing. Sort of like… those over there…” Flit looked over at the hole in the wall, underneath which a set of metal pipes was leaned up against the wall. “Huh… Usually the Fallen would hide them somewhere.”
Flit’s Ghost appeared next to him. “Guardian. I feel the need to remind you that your shields are still disabled from your premature usage of Powerful abilities. You should proceed with caution.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” Flit replied. “I’ll be fine. It’s not like there’s anypony in here.” He walked up to the Warpdrive components while Twilight stayed back.
When Flit reached the Warpdrive, he looked up at his motion Tracker which had a large red glow on it, coming from the hole in the wall. As he looked up at it, he heard a deep clicking and growling. “Twilight! Get to Cover!” He shouted as a large Fallen climbed out of the hole.
“Valack Cee Kos Kaa.” The Fallen said as it jumped from the Hole, pinning Flit to the ground with a large hand. He pulled Flit off the ground to look directly at him. The Fallen growled while pulling it’s Shrapnel Launcher up in it’s right top hand and using it’s lower hand to pry off the Helmet Flit was wearing, rather easily. It pulled Flit in to the tip of its mask and snarled.
Flit gave a small nervous smile before the Fallen flicked its wrist and sent Flit into a pillar. There was a loud crack as he slumped to the ground. When he started to get up, the Fallen growled and pointed its gun at Flit’s body, firing three bursts from its flaming gun. The metallic shards shred into Flit’s Carapace, and seared the flesh and organs beneath. One shard flew into his head and he collapsed to the ground.
Twilight watched on Horrified. “Flit…” She raised her hooves to where her mouth would be. She began shaking as the Fallen raised its weapon in its hand and roared victoriously.
Twilight began hyperventilating. She was trying to calm herself down, but it wasn’t working. After a few seconds, her Ghost clicked though he wasn’t present. “Twilight, Guardian Topaz has an urgent communication.”
“Flit? Flit what happened? Your biometrics just went dark. Flit? Twilight? One of you idiots respond!”
“Guardian Topaz, I’m sorry to say that Guardian Flit has been…”
“Killed…” Twilight all but Whispered. “He’s dead… Oh Celestia… He’s dead…”
“Flit’s dead? In a Dark zone… Shit…” Topaz replied. “Alright…. Twilight, is his Ghost still alive?”
“Why does it matter?” Twilight asked loudly. “He’s dead!”
“Twilight, listen. So long as you are in the Darkness Zone with him there is still a vestige of Light down there. His Ghost can use that to help connect with the Traveler, just… Stay alive.”
“What difference would it make?” Twilight shouted, getting the Fallen’s attention. “He’s dead!”
“Twilight! We were all dead!” Topaz replied. “The Traveler brought us back, he can do it again! Just focus on not dying!”
“Varack Kal!” The Fallen roared.
Ghost appeared next to Twilight. “Guardian! We need to terminate that Fallen Archon! It is the only way to help Guardian Flit.”
As Twilight looked away from Flit’s body, she noticed the large Fallen had multiple Vandals around it. Twilight sighed. “Alright…” She pulled the Rocket Launcher from her back and aimed it down at the large Fallen. She pulled back the trigger as the Shell was launched from the weapon. It flew leaving a small contrail before colliding with the Archon and exploding.
The Vandals near it flew off and collided with various structures while the Archon was surrounded in smoke. Twilight held her breath as she waited to see the remains of the Fallen. Instead she saw the four red hot shells fly from the weapon the Fallen was carrying as the Smoke was pushed aside. The Fallen looked practically unharmed as it roared at Twilight.
“How is it still alive?” Twilight asked as she glanced back over at Flit’s body, which began to fade out of existence.
Ghost clicked but did not reappear. “A Fallen Archon is gorged on Ether, a powerful material that all Fallen need to survive. Since they gorge on it, their bodies are more resistant. That paired with strong armor makes them difficult to take down.”
The Fallen growled again. Raising the weapon in one of its multiple hands, the lower right arm was hanging limply at the side.
Twilight charged up her horn and launched a vortex charge at the giant Fallen, it stood there taking it like it was nothing as it fired more flaming hot pieces of metal at Twilight, breaking through the shields as it burned her coat. She and the Archon continued to trade blows for a few minutes before she realized the truth of the situation, she was fighting something much more powerful than her, and she had just watched it kill a more experienced warrior, so why was it taking it’s time killing her?”
Twilight took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Now was not the time to analyze any situations, she needed to focus, and the Fallen wasn’t going to let her just wait it out. She needed some way to kill it…
Twilight kept focusing on the situation, blocking out the sound of the Fallen firing it’s weapon around the small metallic console she used as Cover. She blocked out the sounds as her horn began to glow on its own. Twilight took another deep breath and moved from behind cover. She pulled her head back and focused all of her energy into her Horn. From the tip, a large purple ball was launched from it as it flew towards the Fallen.
The Fallen raised its hands to block its face, but the large ball of energy collided regardless, the Fallen dropped its weapon as it burst into flames it looked at its arms as they burned. It collapsed as its body was incinerated by the fire, and Twilight stood there, breathing heavily as she watched. When the Fallen was completely gone, she felt her legs give out as she fell to the ground. Her helmet disengaged as she began to take shallow breaths. The intake of fresh oxygen helped calm her down, and it was only a few minutes later that her breathing returned to normal.
She felt a hoof on her shoulder. “Nice Job Spark-” Twilight quickly spun around and fired a surge of energy from her hoof at the voice, she watched the Changeling spin back and skid across the ground. “Ow…”
“Oh my Celestia! I’m so sorry Flit! I thought you were…”
“Dead?” Flit replied, cracking his neck. “Yeah…” His ghost appeared next to him.
“Guardian, I need to remind you that you are still at risk for spinal injuries. Please be careful.”
“I know… I can still feel the crack…” He said rubbing his back.
“How are you… You…” Twilight replied dumbstruck.
“The Traveler…” Flit replied. “Well… Actually my Ghost. It managed to gather enough energy from the Traveler to reanimate me.”
“But… I saw you… You had a hole in your…”
Flit’s helmet opened and a hole was formed in his Carapace, showing the flesh underneath. “Like this?”
Twilight raised her hoof to her face. “Are… Are you alright?”
Flit waved his hoof. “I’m fine… A quick stop at the Tower and I’ll be good as new.” His helmet closed. “Listen… Let’s just get these stupid Warpdrives back to the Tower, then I can sleep…” He walked up to where the Fallen Archon had been and looked down at a small glint of light.
Bending down, he picked up the shell of a dead Ghost, no light remained within the machine, its shell was a light purple with a small green shard up by the top. He looked back towards Twilight. “Hey Warlock.” He tossed the Ghost Shell to her. “Happy Birthday.”
Twilight looked at the Ghost Shell curiously. “Isn’t this…”
“It’s a Guardian’s old Ghost Shell.” Flit replied, holding his own Ghost out to transmit the Warpdrives. “Some poor Guardian must have died near him. We can revive as long as there is a small portion of Light in the Dark Zones, but once all the Light is gone, the Ghost either has to leave, or die.” He explained. “A Guardian can lose their Ghost, and a Ghost can lose a Guardian. It’s much harder to get a dead Guardian back without a Ghost, we can revive most dead Ghosts, whether they find a Guardian or even if they can is up to debate.”
The Warpdrive was transmatted out of the building as the Ghost nodded. “Warpdrive has been secured Flit.”
“Great… Now… What was I saying before getting slapped with mystical energy?” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck. “Ah I remember!” Flit replied. “Good job Sparkle. You just killed an Archon! That’s impressive, especially on your own, and with how new you are to all this stuff, it’s even more impressive!”
Flit’s Ghost clicked. “Guardian Topaz is requesting communication Guardian.”
Flit sighed. “Alright, patch it through…”
“WHAT IN THE NAME OF UMBRA WERE YOU THINKING!” Topaz’s voice blared from the Ghost. “First you use your Golden Gun prematurely and damage your shields!”
“Topaz…”
“Then you go ahead and get yourself killed in a DARKZONE!”
“Topaz…”
“Then you leave our new Guardian to fight an ARCHON! Without backup!”
“Topaz…”
“You are so lucky I am not down there because I would punch your Tartarus Damned CHITIN IN!”
“You done?” Flit asked.
“Yes.” Topaz replied. “Listen, we are going to talk about this when you get back to the Tower…” He sighed. “I’m glad you’re alive buddy. I’ll see you two back at the Tower. And Twilight, good job with that Archon. First round’s on me.”
Flit straightened up. “Now that is a good reason to get going!” He replied. “Let’s get going before he changes his mind!”
“Flit, I’m only buying if I get my Ship back in good condition.” Topaz replied. “I’m still waiting for the payment from you on that Ship.”
Flit rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Yeah, just make sure you got your Glimmer ready, because I’m going to get some of that Griffon Whiskey.”
“Well that’s the only Whiskey you’re getting from me tonight. I’m not spending more of my Glimmer on your habit.”
Flit chuckled. “I guess it’s only fair.” He replied. “Ghost, prep for Transmat.”
“Of course. Should I ready the ship for flight?”
“That would be appreciated.” Flit replied as the Ghost vanished.
“I’ll get our Ship prepped as well Twilight.” Twilight’s Ghost said as it disappeared.
Twilight looked over at Flit. “Are you… Sure you’re alright?” She asked.
“Yes I’m fine Twilight. Sheesh.” Flit said. “Listen… I’ll work on getting you a jump pack once we get to the Tower, and… If it will make you feel better, I’ll take a break for a while… I need to upgrade Ghost’s revival circuit anyway… I’m tired of waking up with pieces of my Chitin and muscle missing…”
Twilight looked at him in surprise but quickly the two of them were transmatted onto the vessels. “Plotting automated course for the Tower.”
“So Sparkle… I’m just going to… sleep for a bit… I can’t feel me eye…”
“You just rest Flit, I won’t blame you.” Twilight replied.
“Twilight, we have a transmission from Vanguard Sunstreak.” Ghost said. “Opening Communication.”
“Ey! Guardian. You there? Never mind it’s not important. Listen, I heard from a very specific Crystal Pony that was cursing about another Guardian that you saw and killed an Archon. I’m impressed. That’s not really why I’m calling… Look Clear Mind wants to see you… Something about a… Shift in the mystical pathways or some such Warlock thing. See ya back at the Tower Guardian.”
Twilight sighed as the communication ended. “Well… Glad to hear that the Vanguard are impressed…”
“I’m certain it is nothing Twilight.” Ghost clicked. “I’m sure she just wants to try and talk about your abilities.”
“Well… I guess we should hurry up and go to the Tower then…”
“Agreed.” Ghost replied. “Beginning take-off sequence.”
The Ship’s engines began to heat up as both of the ships sped off towards the horizon and back to the city. And for the first time in her new life, Twilight was feeling the rising in her stomach that usually symbolized her panic, as her mind presented her with the idea of it being a test. A test she was completely unprepared for, and hadn’t studied for.
Her ears fell against her head. Please don’t let this be a test!