//------------------------------// // Darkness Zone: Part 1 // Story: Light of Harmony // by GjallarFox //------------------------------// Shirska stood in the center of the main plaza of the Tower, staring up at the Traveler with awe. There he was, seeing with his own eyes the thing his race was here for. For some odd reason he could not explain, he felt drawn to it, as though it were silently beckoning to him. There were, of course, legends that survived the Whirlwind; prophecies, really. They told of one who would unite the Houses and return the Eliksni as a people to the Light. Many had claimed this title of Kell of Kells, but all of them were exiled by the Primes for heresy. Only the Great Machine could select the Kell of Kells, and it had to call out their name for all to hear. Of course, Shirska knew that they were nothing more than legends and prophecies. He could not simply believe in them without evidence that the events were going to unfold. After all, he was a creature of science. Observations and evidence was one of the staples of the scientific process. He shook himself free of his thoughts just in time to notice his friends approaching, each holding strange new weapons and smiling with genuine happiness. It was almost strange to him, but when he finally saw Twilight and Fluttershy holding hands, he understood. He knew what had happened, even though he was never told. It wasn't that hard to notice what they were to each other. Some would say mates. Others would say companions. Shirska, however had an old word for it. "Congratulations on becoming loks'hana," he said to the two of them, patting both of them on their shoulders. They simply raised their eyebrows at him in confusion, but not bothering to ask for a translation aloud. Pinkie giggled in an odd way, as though she knew something the rest of them didn't. Rarity and Applejack turned to each other with expressions that told their thoughts though they remained silent. "Today... Today I must face Zeklas..." Shirska mused to himself as he turned back to face the Traveler. "I am... not excited..." "It's okay, Shirska. You don't have to fight alone," Applejack said. She stepped forward and stood next to him, taking in the view with her Fallen friend. She never really noticed the Traveler before, but now she could only look at it with a sense of wonder. The large white sphere hanging above the City seemed to be watching her. It seemed to be watching all of the Guardians, but especially Shirska and, if she had to guess, Twilight. "I will not be alone, but this is my fight. I must fight him alone." Shirska turned to Applejack and took her hands in his own, staring into her eyes. "He is my father, my abuser, my target, my problem. I must be responsible for his death, and I cannot share that responsibility." Applejack could only nod at him in response. There was a weight to his words. It felt like apprehension and guilt. For a moment, Shirska turned back to face the Traveler, looking up at it with a contemplative look in his eyes that could be seen through his helmet. Applejack turned to face it too, but she looked down towards the City. To her, the City was the reason she fought. That little girl, her family, her friends, and everyone connected to them all depended on her and all of the other Guardians to keep them safe. She didn't know enough about the Traveler to say she was fighting for it, or even that she gave a shit about it. But the City was different. It was alive and full of life, and countless souls who just wanted to live on in peace. Shirska placed a hand on Applejack's shoulder, letting her feel its weight on her body. "It is almost time. Many old comrades will die today, and I am not excited. Come... Let's walk, but take our time..." ------ "Badger-three in position," a voice said over the raid team's communications link. "On your mark, Prince-One." Shirska took a breath and held it in for a moment, feeling the anxiety of the coming fight weighing on his lungs. For as much as he'd told his friends about Zeklas and the abuse he faced at his hands, there were parts of it he could never tell them about. There were wounds that would never heal, no matter how much time passed, and no matter what he tried to do to mend them. Perhaps there were humans or even ponies who understood: those who'd lived through abuse and survived to tell the tale, or perhaps just bear its weight for the rest of their lives. For all he knew, one of the six ponies he fought beside had experienced it. But those were questions and topics of discussion for later, preferably over several rounds of hard liquor. "Deploy Badgers. Harass, not slaughter," Shirska replied. "These are my comrades just as much as you." "Roger that Prince-One. Badgers deploying," the voice copied. The diversionary teams landed at the edges of Kings territory, finding plenty of enemies to harass and distract from the main event. Badger One consisted entirely of Warlocks. They found a few landed Skiffs and began melting through its hull with solar and void grenades. Badger Two consisted entirely of Titans, who challenged Captains to one-on-one fistfights. And Badger Three, made of naught but Hunters, landed far from the Kings, but kept them pinned under sniper fire. The Seven, however, approached from the opposite side of the Kings' territory. They set down within the walls of the D.C. Cosmodrome, just a few miles north of the Ketch. Surprisingly, sounds of weapons fire could be heard in the distance. Perhaps there were some remaining humans outside the walls of the City, or perhaps there was a Hive incursion on Earth that the Kings had to deal with. Either way, the ponies and Shirska kept their weapons ready, watching the streets they were walking through for any enemy troops. A loud thak echoed through the streets. Distant, but near enough to edge the nerves. Rainbow raised her rifle to look ahead through the scope. Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie took a knee, raising their weapons and scanning the area with their eyes. Twilight kept walking, and Fluttershy walked anxiously with her. Another thak. Twilight raised her new sniper rifle and looked through the scope for half a moment before pulling the trigger. An unholy noise resounded from the muzzle of her weapon, and the flaming bullet pierced the wind like a spear. A dull thump echoed back from whatever the projectile hit. By the time she saw it coming it was too late. Off in the distance, in the shadow of a ruined office building, a lone Vandal watched through the scope of her wire rifle. Six unknown creatures marked in hostile armor patterns and an Eliksni Captain in unknown House colors walked down her path. They did not see her. They did not expect her. She clicked a button on her armor and let the cloaking wash over her features. Looking over to where her supply crate was, she grabbed a small device with a set of buttons and clicked one. An imitation of her rifle's sound played through a wireless speaker on the other side of the street, which was positioned in such a way as to disguise where the sound was coming from. One of the creatures fired a single shot from a long rifle, hitting where the speaker had been set up. Whether or not it knew that was a decoy, she could not tell. But she couldn't risk letting it get closer. With that kind of marksmanship, it was dangerous to let it close the distance. She peeked out through the hole in the building and aimed her own rifle, squeezing the trigger ever so gently until THAK! Twilight screamed in pain and Fluttershy yelped in alarm, immediately throwing herself onto Twilight to shield her with her own body. Twilight reached up to her head, touching where her horn should have been, and then shrieking when her hands finally found the remains. She collapsed to the ground her hands flailing wildly in panic as they failed to find her horn. Fluttershy shed her helmet and tried to calm Twilight enough to keep her protected in her arms. Rainbow immediately raised her rifle and pulled the trigger, offering a retort to the unseen assailant. Rarity joined Rainbow, popping a few shots from her scout rifle. Applejack dove towards Twilight and Fluttershy, getting in front of them and making herself as big as possible. Pinkie seemed to just freeze in place, her eyes wide beneath her helmet, her mind going blank as every bit of her told her that she was about to lose a friend. THAK! Silence overtook the group as Twilight stopped screaming. Rainbow shifted her aim and took another shot, and Rarity started walking towards Fluttershy and Twilight. Applejack turned around as she saw the projectile from the unseen sniper's rifle thread the gap between her chest and arm. Pinkie shrieked in a kind of excruciating pain no one could ever understand, and no sane person would dare wish upon anyone else. And from behind Applejack, Fluttershy froze as Twilight went limp in her arms. Shirska roared something in his native tongue that none in the group could even guess at the meaning. He grabbed Twilight's rifle from the ground, and brought it to bear on the enemy, which he could see clearly through his helmet's visual-aid systems. He pulled the trigger and watched as the cloaked Vandal exploded on hit, the building it was in catching fire. He then looked back to Twilight before kneeling and bowing upon seeing the hole in her helmet and the blood dripping out to the ground, placing a hand on Fluttershy's shoulder. The rest of the ponies gathered around and began their process of grief. Shirska laid her rifle, which she had named the Mourning Glory, next to her, not wanting to disturb Fluttershy as she tried desperately to cling to her lover. Pinkie fell to her knees, unable to process anything. Applejack removed her helm and bowed solemnly, choking back hard sobs and bitter tears. Rarity turned away, letting loose as her emotions overcame her and exploded into a chaotic display of profound grief. THAK! There was no rest for the weary there in that ancient highway. Another Vandal had taken up a perch in a building, and took a shot at the one pony facing away from it. The shot cleaved through Fluttershy, piercing her backplate and shredding her broken heart. Not ten seconds after Twilight met her end did she as well. The four remaining ponies took up arms and began unloading at the brazenly disrespectful assassin, killing it with a hail of bullets. Pinkie and Applejack dashed forward, Light and fury in their eyes and hearts, and pain in their souls. Pinkie pulled the Golden Gun out of the air, blasting down three structural supports inside one of the buildings before Applejack smashed the foundation with a Fist of Havoc. They then began walking back to the group as the building began to collapse onto itself. The four ponies and their Fallen companion sang a silent eulogy for their lost comrades, heads and weapons down. Their Ghosts hovered silently over their bodies in pale blue orbs of light. ------ I bear an old name. It cannot be killed. They were my brothers and sisters and their names were immortal too but Titanomachy came and now those names live in me alone I think and think is what I do. I AM ALONE. At the end of things when the world goes dim and cold or hot and close or it all tears apart from the atom up I will shout those names defiant and past the end I will endure. I alone. They made me to be stronger than them to beat the unvanquished and survive the unthinkable and look look lo behold I am here alone, survivor. They made me to learn. Everything died but I survived and I learned from it. From IT. Consider IT the power Titanomach world-ender and consider what IT means. I met IT at the gate of the garden and I recall IT smiled at me before before IT devoured the blossoms with black flame and pinned their names across the sky. IT was stronger than everything. I fought IT with aurora knives and with the stolen un-fire of singularities made sharp and my sweat was earthquake and my breath was static but IT was stronger so how did I survive? I AM ALONE I survived alone. I cast off the shield and I shrugged my shoulders so that the billions fell off me down into the ash. They made me to be stronger than them and to learn and I learned well: IT is alone and IT is strong and IT won. Even over the gardener and she held power beyond me but the gardener did not shrug and make herself alone. IT always wins. I am made to win and now I see the way. ------ This journey begins with doubt. And ends in solace. One by one they fall, and you realize you are alone. There, in the shadow of night, you see the world splinter, the Darkness thrive. And you fight, with more than your Light... you use your pain. You remember its source, the way it gained its ground. But you never wavered. You never believed. You loved her. How couldn't you? Listen, that's her calling... you back. But you know now that is where you will die. ------- Take your time, my faithful student. You are safe here, but your friends are not. You can return to them when you are ready. I'm so proud of you. You stood against the Darkness and you spat in its face and shoved it back. You gave me enough space to gather my strength. For now, let's enjoy our company. You see, when I died, I died for you. I knew that protecting you was the most noble cause I could die for, and I would do it a thousand more times if I had the body for it. I miss you. You were like the foal I never had, my faithful student. You made me so proud, made me so happy to watch you grow and learn and devour knowledge and experiences with such eagerness and enthusiasm. I had never felt such pure happiness in millennia. Now I am alone again, and far from home, but not as far as you may think. It seems the universe has deemed fit to keep us close, even after death. Needless to say, I feel blessed by this simple fact. I feel blessed to be able to come back and see you again, and observe your new power. I am as eager to see you and marvel at your growth as you were to learn from me. Be wary. You may not understand now, but there are still bigger threats that need to be focused on. It will take time. It will take all of your wit and strength and Light. But I know you can do it. You are my faithful student, and I know you can do anything you set your beautiful mind to. Come back. But time is short here. A few hours here is but fractions of seconds out there. Rest. Go back out into the night refreshed and screaming. Make them regret ever testing your might. Leave none to tell the tale. Make your legend out of silence and fear of the unknown. You are an angel of the Light. Sing the song of flame and call forth its Light, and let all who do not bow in reverence be smitten to the After. You are not an engine of war like you might be led to think. You are a protector and an agent for peace. You are here to gather yourself and write your sermons to preach that peace. You are here to practice that peace through meditation in the After. I need you. My faithful student, you have done marvelously. Your display of genius and ingenuity creating that rifle was astounding to see, and I am proud to be part of that memory. Your leadership in finding the Messenger was excellent. And your diplomacy with the creature that killed me was unparalleled and unprecedented. You've grown so much, my faithful student. I can't wait to give you a hug for all of these wonderful things you've done, and to comfort you for all you've suffered. Please... I can't stay here, and you shouldn't stay much longer yourself. Go. Your chosen family needs you. They are lost without you and weaker for it. I ca— ------ The shadows moved in silent twitches. Wherever they stepped seemed to be torn between Light and Darkness, the only places neutral enough to bear their blighted existence. They seemed to be bowing in respect to something as it stalked forward. A shadow of something that used to be alive stopped before a strange looking structure composed of two angled pillars. It turned its horned head expelling Darkness from what once was a mane of starlight, leering out of its singular eye; a bright ball of light blinding whatever it used to be beneath all of the Darkness. It raised its hand, and with a flash of black, space was ruptured between the two pillars. Another shadow stood and stepped forth. It seemed to speak, but nothing that came out of its maw resembled language. The larger shadow nodded with a twitch and stepped through the tear in space. On the other end, it stepped out, drawing the attention of a Wizard and a pair of Knights. They screamed a battle cry, and one knight charged with its sword while the Wizard began casting, and the other Knight began firing shots from its boomer. But the shadow did not seem to care, simply stomping on the ground. From where its foot landed, a wave of black swept through the room, crashing into the three powerful Hive entities. The Wizard was the first to feel the effects. Its hands, which moments ago were glowing with charged arc energy, now were black. It tried to throw a bolt at the shadow to no avail. It then tried to cast a cloud of poison, only to feel no magic come to its aid. It then looked up in horror as it watched its comrades. The charging Knight stopped as the wave hit it. But it shook off the strange wave and leapt forward in a downward slam with its sword, only for the blade to meet the ground, several meters away from the watching shadow. The Knight stared at its sword in confusion before its head was cleaved from its body by a blast of magic from the shadow. The Knight with the boomer watched its fellow Knight crumble to ash as its head was blown off, and attempted to raise a shield to protect itself from the incoming attack. But it, just like the Wizard, felt no magic come to its aid, and was promptly ended by the shadow. The Wizard, which had already begun to seek cover, failed to find it in time. The shadow twitched forward once, twice, and then was directly in front of the poor creature. The shadow raised its hand and grabbed the Wizard by the face... ------ The Stranger stood in an ancient structure with geometrical architecture. A familiar symbol of a winged diamond was plastered onto multiple surfaces inside the room. In the center of the diamond-shaped room was a pillar of machinery confined within a tube of liquid nitrogen, and the Stranger stood next to some sort of console on the outer edges of the room. It looked up from the console for a brief moment before turning back to the screen, tapping away at the keyboard, the sounds of keys tapping and clicking filling the silence. "I know, I know. I hate this form of communication but until we manage to crack the security protocol, we have to type in the codes manually," the Stranger muttered to seemingly nothing. But the nothingness responded; short, sharp, succinct, static. "I ask only your patience. This sort of thing takes time, you know. I'm not like you guys. I can't just glass a planet if I decide that's what needs to happen," the Stranger sighed, pausing his typing for just a few moments, staring upwards into the ceiling. The Stranger resumed typing and continued for a few minutes before another reply came; smooth, serrated, static against the coldness of the void. The Stranger looked up, interrupted from their work, staring at the door through which they'd entered this place. They lit their horn and promptly disappeared, leaving nothing behind except the slightest footprints in ancient dust, and strange code input directly into the console's command feed. A few minutes passed, and the room's lights shut off by themselves, save for those inside the tank of liquid nitrogen. Those tiny lights continued to shine and blink as they had before for countless years. The fog of condensation continued to fall down to the floor around the liquid nitrogen tank, and the machinery inside remained silent. The door opened, folding upwards, emulating the winged diamond symbol on the walls, and a cloaked figure stepped through with strange, twitchy movements. Underneath its hood, nothing could be seen except for a pair of bright yellow eyes and strange waving tentacles. It looked around the room before moving to the back of the room, past the console and machinery in the tank of liquid nitrogen. It reached up with a gloved hand, typing a series of numbers into a small keypad. Upon finishing, the door just a few feet to the left of the keypad hissed and opened, allowing access to an offhand room. Once inside, the figure began to stuff a backpack full of glowing yellow dodecahedrons, as well as a few purple boxes and strange machine parts. "Where am I needed?" it asked with a deep, raspy voice. The void answered with another burst of static; calm, cold, quick. The figure nodded and began walking back out of the hidden vault, slinging its backpack back over its shoulders. It paused for a moment to look at the console that the Stranger had stood at for the better part of three hours. But the figure lost interest fairly quickly, and began walking back out of the room. And then the room was empty once again. The lights turned off, and the doors hissed shut. Consoles shut off, and the machinery in the center of the room remained silent. The room was peaceful for a while, and the silence was comfortable and proper. A few moments later, the machinery in the liquid nitrogen tank whirred to life. The lights in the tank began to blink rapidly, some turning on for the first time in centuries. A panel in the floor sank into the floor and moved underneath another part of the floor, leaving a body-sized hole. A strangely shaped chunk of machinery rose from beneath the floor, fog rolling off its frame as well. And for the first time in centuries, perhaps millennia, the room was filled with ancient music reminiscent of Old Earth before the arrival of the Traveler and a voice speaking in Old Russian.