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Chapter 1 - Starry night3,415 words
Chapter 2 - Wait, what?3,540 words
Chapter 3 - Newspapers, blackboards and holograms8,682 words
Chapter 4 - Scientific Research5,528 words
Chapter 5 - In space, everyone can hear you talk7,889 words
Chapter 6 - Another day at the beach8,411 words
Chapter 7 - First contact, engage!14,827 words
Chapter 8 - Time of investigation8,346 words
Chapter 9 - Giggle at the Ghostie5,471 words
Chapter 10 - Memories - Part 14,891 words
Chapter 11 - Revelations13,540 words
Chapter 12 - Warning: Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Convicts8,377 words
Chapter 13 - Hic sunt leones5,491 words
Chapter 14 - When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers11,416 words
Chapter 15 - Subject: Macto cognatus14,044 words
Chapter 16 - Close encounters of the first and fifth kind11,036 words
Chapter 17 - Game of shadows3,503 words
Chapter 18 - Memories - Part 24,673 words
Chapter 19 - Playing with fire3,960 words

Chapter 14 - When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers

Chapter 14 - When the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers

The Commando proceeded at a steady pace through the corridors of the castle to his objective, his big frame completely blended with the background thanks to the light-distortion field generated by his active camo unit. He would occasionally meet a pony on his path, usually a maid or a guard, but as far as they knew the alien soldier could have never existed.

Zhar noticed that some of the guards had a different kind of armor, this one colored blue and purple instead of the golden variant he had seen so far, and many of these new guards belonged to a pony subspecies they had not previously encountered. They resembled the pegasi, only with leathery wings, cat-like eyes, and sharper teeth.

Once again the Commando was surprised by the variety of forms showed by the pony race. ‘I’m sure Nax will have fun studying them.’

He reached an intersection and, after having stepped aside to let pass a couple of oblivious maids, he gave a quick glance to both sides, noticing that at the end of the corridor on his left there was a flight of stairs that went upward.

‘Perfect.’

According to his HUD, his target was located fifty meters ahead of his current position, on the upper floor. The strange thing was that according to the scanners of the Last Sunset, the signal seemed to come directly from inside a room of the castle, not from a broadcasting device located outside, like it would have been expected given the primitive level of technology of the ponies.

In other circumstances he would have suspected the involvement of the Forerunners, either with one of their communication devices or with the reverse engineering of their technology, but so far they had not seen a single trace of the ancient and powerful alien race.

And then there were the strange energy emissions that went from the surface of the planet to its sun and moon. What could be their purpose?

The voice of the Zealot suddenly came out from his internal speakers along with the sound of gunshots in the background. “Zhar! My cover is burned! We must leave, now!” she said frantically before cutting off the transmission abruptly.

The Sangheili in black armor stood still like a statue, the only signal of the rage building inside him was the way his right hand was slowly closing and opening over the hilt of the sword at his hip. After a few moments, he whirled on his boots and started marching toward the location of the Zealot as fast as he could without risking to compromise the efficiency of the cloaking field.

‘I gave her a chance, and she screwed up,’ Zhar thought. ‘I knew it was a mistake to involve her.’

The Commando activated his communication gear and contacted the battlecruiser. “This is Officer Vadam, I require a Stealth Phantom for immediate extraction at our current coordinates.”

“Zhar, what’s happening?” the first officer Haka Guwakai asked by radio.

“Operation compromised. I’m going to investigate the status of the Zealot. Vadam, over and out,” he reported curtly, closing the contact.

The planimetry of the castle was big and complex, but following the transponder built inside Tarya’s armor, the Commando managed to navigate through the differents corridors and halls until he reached her position. However, by the time he arrived to what appeared to be the throne room, he saw that the Zealot, now unconscious, was being strapped by four ponies to a sturdy wheeled stretcher using what appeared to be a reinforced harness.

‘So much for not starting a diplomatic incident,’ he mused darkly. An infiltration team was hardly the best way to make a good first impression, especially if it was involved in a firefight, if the damages in the room and the blackened horn of Princess Celestia were of any indication.

“- we’ll always be beside you,” a voice that he recognized as the one of Princess Twilight Sparkle said. “Oh, there are so many thing that we may ask her!”

That statement told Zhar two things: one, the ponies had discovered her gender which, considering they had never seen a Sangheili before, could have happened only if Tarya had spoken with them; two, they were going to interrogate her once she get back to her senses, as it would be expected in situations like this.

That is, unless the Commando prevented it.

The problem was now how to get Tarya out of here. Zhar immediately discarded the diplomatic option. He wasn’t the Arbiter and, knowing Tarya, she must have tried to resolve the situation peacefully, obviously failing. Rescuing the Zealot later from her cell would be complicated, and the more time he spent here, the more the risk of being discovered increased. The only option left was doing it now, exploiting the element of surprise and reaching the Phantom while they were still confused.

The stretcher however could be a problem. If he wasted time to free her from the restrains and tried to carry her, he would make himself a vulnerable target.

Unless they were the ones to carry her where he wanted. But how? Maybe with the right incentive…

The Shipmaster and the First Officer would not be happy with what he was about to do, his actions would very likely compromise the future relationship with the ponies, but quite honestly, he couldn’t care less at the moment. He was a soldier, not a diplomat. His orders were clear and he had to follow them.

‘Time for some aggressive negotiations.’

Twilight yelped in surprise when a big hand abruptly grabbed her shoulder and yanked her backward against something that according to her eyes wasn’t there. Her brain was still trying to understand what was happening when on her right a double bladed sword made of pure energy materialized in thin air with an explosion of electrical sparks and a strong smell of ionized air.

The young mare remained mesmerized by the sight of the deadly yet beautiful object like a moth looking at the flame of a candle, but her fascination turned quickly into panic when a moment later said sword was aimed a few inches from her throat, so close that she could feel the heat of the plasma on her face.

Like some kind of horror movie, a big four-fingered gloved hand materialized on her shoulder, along with the rest of the body of her captor, causing several of the present ponies to look with wide eyes in fear behind her.

“Nobody moves, or the princess will die,” the warrior in black armor ordered coldly. The voice was distinctly masculine, with the firm and clear tone of somebody used to giving orders and expecting results.

The emotionless glowing blue eyes of his helmet scanned the small crowd, before finally stopping on Celestia. The white alicorn was considered a giant by pony standards, but the black armored warrior easily towered above her, the tip of her horn barely reaching his eyes when he stood straight.

Celestia noticed instantly the difference between this warrior and the smaller one. It wasn’t just the different design of his armor, this one far more menacing and with a helmet shaped in a way that gave the impression that the warrior was scowling. This creature showed no sign of nervousness even if he was clearly outnumbered and surrounded by at least a dozen armed guards, instead it seemed like he had the situation completely under control. Either he was incredibly arrogant… or he was as dangerous as he looked.

Twilight’s horn started to discreetly glow, but it didn’t go unnoticed to her captor. His big hand grabbed her horn and gave it a slight twist, causing Twilight to cry in pain. “If you try to use your damn horn, I swear that I’ll rip it from your skull,” he growled coldly, making the young princess whimper in fear.

“Do not dare hurt her!” Celestia yelled, enraged, taking a menacing step toward the creature, her mane starting to wave in the air far more violently than usual. The sight of the mare that she considered more like a daughter than a student being in danger was enough to cause Celestia’s blood to boil in anger, and were it not for the current status of her horn, the alicorn would have not hesitated to obliterate the brute. Her wings snapped open in a display of intimidation, as if trying to make her appear bigger than she really was. It was an instinctive defensive mechanism whose origins were dated to a far distant and darker time, when the ancestors of ponykind had to face the many predators that inhabited the wildness in order to protect their offspring.

The sight of the angry alicorn, a being that many on the planet saw as the embodiment of calm and serenity, caused many of her subjects step back in fear; the warrior, however, seemed not impressed in the slightest, if his calm voice was of any indication. “I will not. If you do exactly what I tell you.”

Celestia scowled at the creature. It didn’t take a genius to know that he was here for his teammate. “What are your demands?” she asked, also to try to buy time, knowing that a security team formed by elite elements of her sister’s guards was supposed to escort the prisoner to the cell.

“Not too far from here there is a big balcony overlooking the maze in the park. I want you to carry my teammate there and then leave. When our extraction aircraft will arrive, I will release the princess, unharmed.”

“How do I know that you will keep your word?” Celestia asked with obvious distrust.

“I have no reason to kill her, and a hostage is of no use for us.”

“And who are your people exactly?” Celestia inquired.

“It is not my place to respond to this question.”

Celestia wasn’t satisfied in the slightest by the answer, but decided not to press further. “Fine. Can you at least tell us the reason of your presence here?”

The creature seemed to consider her question for a moment. “We had no ill intentions, if it is what you want to know. We were just performing a recon.”

Despite the situation, this caught the curiosity of Celestia. Exploration was a response to ignorance, a way to know more. “A recon for what?”

The warrior tilted his head slightly. “You are very curious, princess. But I know when someone is stalling. Now, tell the ten guards coming from the right hallway behind me to back off, or things will start to get unpleasant for her,” he said, moving the plasma blade closer to Twilight’s face. “Plasma wounds are incredibly painful, even after they have healed.”

“Harm her, and I promise that you will not leave this place alive.” Celestia’s cold tone was the exact opposite of the fury burning in her eyes.

“I’m already dead inside, princess. I’m ready to face whatever lies beyond the final threshold.” The warrior stated calmly. His sword moved closer to Twilight’s face and the air was soon filled with the smell of singed hair as the energy blade cut a lock of her mane. “The real question is, is she ready?”

“Stop!” Princess Celestia yelled, looking with apprehension at his energy sword. No doubt she knew from the corpses of the Changelings what kind of damages the weapon was able to do. The Commando pulled back his sword. “Alright, we’ll do what you want, but please, don’t hurt her.”

His gamble had worked, just as expected. It had never been his intention to actually hurt the alicorn, he only needed to scare them a bit so that they knew he meant business.

Celestia turned to the guard captain. “Captain, order all units to stand by.”

The unicorn glared at the Sangheili, but obeyed the demand of the princess and a moment later he was speaking through the radio built inside his helmet. The Sangheili had to give some credit to the guards, they had been incredibly stealthy in their approach, but unfortunately for them, his suit was equipped with a motion tracker. Glancing at his HUD, he noticed that the dots had stopped, opening instead a path through the corridor.

What followed next happened so fast that if Zhar had blinked he would have most likely missed one of the passages. With a bright flash and a sound similar to a thunderclap, a midnight-blue alicorn wearing a black gowned dress appeared in front of the Sangheili. Before the Commando could even widen his eyes in surprise at her sudden appearance, Twilight Sparkle was enveloped in a blue aura and disappeared from his grasp, only to reappear a second later on the other side of the room.

The newly arrived alicorn glared at the Sangheili and fired with her horn a massive beam of blue energy at him.

The attack of the princess seemed to have scored a direct hit, a big dark cloud of smoke and dust stood where the Sangheili was a moment before, but when the air cleared enough, instead of seeing the Commando lying on the ground with his armor scorched or worse, the ponies were instead welcomed by an unexpected sight. The SpecOps Officer was kneeled with a fist firmly planted on the floor, with his entire body encased by a humming barrier of white energy crossed by electric bolts.

The shell of energy collapsed with a loud crack, sending a tingling sensation to the horn of all nearby unicorns, and the Sangheili stood completely unharmed in the middle of a scorched area on the floor.

The Commando roared and charged in the direction of the alicorn, throwing on the ground the guards in his path with disconcerting ease.

Captain Steel Shield extracted his sword from the scabbard and tried to intercept the Sangheili before he could harm the princess. Almost without sparing him a second glance, the Commando disarmed the stallion with a violent blow of his own blade, before slashing the energy sword across his chest. The intense heat and the magnetic field of the plasma blades drained quicker than normal the magical barrier of the stallion's armor, who fell on the ground screaming in pain. As showed by the horizontal cut clear across his chestplate, the armor had very likely saved his live, but the plasma had still caused a second degree burn on his chest.

But Zhar barely registered any of this. Adrenaline flooded his veins as the results of years of training and brutal warfare made him react. The alicorn was a hindrance to the mission and if he wanted to succeed, he had to incapacitate her first.

The Commando swung his energy sword horizontally, but the dark alicorn ducked under the plasma blade and launched herself against the much bigger body of the Sangheili, wrapping her arms around his big chest.

“Luna!” Princess Celestia exclaimed anxiously.

A blue glow enveloped both the pony princess and the Sangheili, and in a flash of light, they were gone.

Everything happened so fast. One moment she was held in the strong grip of the creature with a sword of pure energy aimed to her throat; the next the entire world went blank in a flash of light.

‘What happened? Am I dead?’

The disgusting sense of nothingness disappeared as fast as it had came, and all of sudden her senses started working again, only to be assaulted by an overwhelming amount of stimuli. Nothing made sense, her vision was blurred and the sounds reaching her ears was muffled. The world seemed to move slower yet faster than normal at the same time.

She can hear sounds. Voices. They sounded familiar, but she couldn’t be sure. She turned toward the source of the noise, only to see five colorful blurs advance toward her.

Afraid, she stepped back, but the figures kept advancing. Her breathing became frantic, her heart beat so fast that she thought it was about to burst from her chest.

A hand grabbed her shoulder.

Twilight screamed in panic, a bloodcurdling cry of pure fear that rang through the entire hall as she thrashed violently, trying to escape the grip of that monster.

“No! No! Let me go!”

“Twilight!” a firm yet gentle voice said.

She stopped fighting. She knew that voice. Slowly, her sight focused again, and the world made sense once more. She saw faces, faces that she knew. The faces of her friends, looking at her with worried expressions.

Her head turned to the owner of the hand gently resting on her shoulder.

Celestia.

No danger. Safe.

Her vision become blurred again, this time because of the tears.

She hugged the bigger mare and buried her face in her chest, starting to cry like a scared filly during a night storm. Many times during her young life she had faced dangerous situations, but this was the first time that she had truly been so close to death to look it in the eyes.

“Shhh shhhh shhh,” princess Celestia hushed her softly, caressing her back gently. “It’s alright, my dear. It’s over, you’re safe now.”

The great wings of the white alicorn wrapped her protectively like a warm blanket, shielding her from any danger.

She was safe.

The Sangheili reappeared mid-air a few meters from the floor of one of the halls of the west wing, the alicorn still clinging to his chest. Zhar barely had the time to realize that they were in a different area of the castle before he fell heavily onto his back, losing his grip on his sword, which deactivated and clattered a few meters away.

Groaning, he blinked his eyes a few times to adjust his vision. His head was spinning and it took all his willpower to hold his last meal inside his stomach. He had used teleportation in the past, but his experience with the Spire-class deployment platforms had nothing on this. A groan of discomfort made him look down to his chest. Pushing herself up on her hands and knees, the princess eyes comically widened when she realized that she had landed on top of the huge body of the Sangheili.

Snarling, Zhar grabbed the alicorn and threw her violently across the room. The princess crashed against a bookshelf, which collapsed and buried her under a pile of heavy tomes and fallen shelves.

Zhar got back on his feet and checked his position on his HUD, only to growl in irritation when he saw that the princess had somehow teleported them all the way to the other side of the castle. ‘Wonderful,’ was his only sarcastic thought.

“This is Poltergeist-1 to Officer Vadam. Sir, do you copy?” the pilot of the Stealth Phantom asked through his radio while the Commando retrieved his sword from the floor.

“Loud and clear, Gusay,” Zhar responded, recognizing the voice of the pilot. He may have been the youngest pilot aboard the Last Sunset, but he had proved to have remarkable flight skills. “What’s your status?”

“The city is in sight, our ETA is less than a minute. We’re ready to extract you and the Zealot on demand.”

“Change of plans. Remain cloaked and keep flying in circles over the castle until I say otherwise.” His radar signaled several hostile contacts coming from the west door. “I have some nuisance to take care of first,” he said while the doors opened, revealing a dozen of royal guards of different gender and type. Four were armed with halberds, while the rest had rifles with bayonets .

“Don’t move! Stay where you are!” A pegasus stallion, apparently the leader, shouted as he and his comrades aimed their weapons at the Sangheili.

‘Alright. Let’s make this quick,’ the Commando thought, cracking his neck before he started advancing toward the guards, the heavy footsteps of his armored boots echoing ominously through the entire room.

“I said stop!” the pegasus yelled, fear starting to crawl into his tone at the sight of the big armored alien getting far too close for his tastes.

“Open fire!” The team leader ordered on the verge of panic when he realized that the Commando had no intention to comply.

Six rifles shot together in a deadly salvo, but their bullets bounced aimlessly against his powerful energy shields. The Sangheili roared and charged.

The higher gravity on their homeworld, combined with the harsh environment where their species had evolved, had caused the Sangheili to develop powerful bodies that allowed them a physical prowess impossible for many other species of the galaxy.

With a speed apparently unnatural for a creature of his size, Zhar covered the distance that parted him from the guards in the blink of an eye, crashing against the front row like a ram against a wall. The force of the impact sent three of the guards on the ground, their armor visibly dented from the collision. By their grunts of pain, he must have broken several of their ribs.

Being too close to use his melee weapon, one of the guards holding a halberd tried instead to reach his pistol, but Zhar swatted the firearm from his hand, breaking his wrist in the process. Crouching low, he swept a leg across the floor and against the legs of two nearby ponies, breaking their legs in the process.

One of the guards, a big earth pony stallion, tried to stab his chest using his bayonet, but the blade broke against the energy shield surrounding the Sangheili body. Undaunted, the stallion delivered another blow, this time with the stock of the rifle, hitting the Commando across the face. The shield of the Commando flared at the impact but held. Shaking his head, Zhar snatched the rifle from the hands of the pony and proceeded to punch him in the chest, knocking him to the ground after he flew in the air for a couple of meters.

‘Dammit, I must keep my strength in check,’ the Sangheili cursed mentally as he glanced at the guard lying on the marble floor with a dent in his chestplate. He knew from his past experience against human troops that a blow like that was able to kill an opponent of that size. And yet, much to his surprise, after a few moments the guard emitted a weak groan of pain and tried, failing, to get up.

‘That punch would have killed a non-augmented human,’ he thought mildly impressed. Apparently earth ponies had some hidden perks.

A bullet slammed against his left pauldron, while another grazed his neck. The Sangheili turned toward his assailant. The pegasus mare looked at him with an expression of pure horror painted on her paled face, then she took aim again and fired another round. Her hands however trembled too much and the shot went wide, hitting instead an innocent window.

Either they were awful shooters, or they were trying to wound him rather than kill him. He sincerely hoped it was the latter case: to see a guard with an aim so bad was embarrassing, to say the least.

Then again, maybe the mare was simply scared shitless. When she joined the Solar Guards, nopony had told her that one day she would have to fight an alien over two meters tall equipped with energy shields.

He grabbed the rifle and snatched it from the grip of the guard with astounding ease, then he hit her chest with his open palm, sending her crashing on the floor. He turned to the next guard, who was trying to reload as fast as he could, and hit the side of his helmet with the stock of his stolen rifle, knocking him unconscious, before focusing on the other guards. Two unicorns and a pegasus were looking at him nervously but with determination, obviously eager to avenge their teammates.

Holding the rifle like a pistol, due to size difference between a Sangheili and a pony, he fired three shots, each one aimed at the legs. The three guards dropped on the ground screaming, holding their wounds to stop the bleeding, although the Commando had purposely shot them in the limbs in order to avoid hitting vital organs.

‘Hmm, nice weapon. Well balanced, excellent recoil. A pity for the caliber and the rate of fire.’

His study of the Equestrian SAR5 rifle was abruptly interrupted when, with a battle cry, a unicorn mare armed with a halberd severed the barrel of the rifle in half. Dropping the now useless gun, Zhar dodged a slash attack aimed at his head. The unicorn tried then to stab the Commando in the chest, but Zhar easily parried the lunge using the energy dagger mounted on his left wrist. With the same hand he then grabbed the shaft of the halberd right under the blade and gave a firm yank, pulling the mare toward him. The unicorn gave a small cry of surprise, but it quickly turned into a scream of pain when the Sangheili punched her mid-air in the right arm, breaking the bone.

‘That was the last one,’ he thought, ignoring the screaming pony guard, who was currently holding her broken arm with her sane hand. Instead he focused on the sound of reinforcements coming from the corridor.

There was no point getting involved in a fight if he could avoid it. With a blink, he selected the icon on his HUD that activated the active camo unit of his suit, but instead of turning invisible, an alarm started flashing inside his visor.
‘WARNING. ACTIVE CAMOUFLAGE UNIT OFFLINE. SYSTEM IN REBOOT.’

‘Great,’ he thought sarcastically. He redirected the energy from the active camo to the shields, boosting their power a quarter, and prepared for another fight.

The atmosphere on the bridge of the Last Sunset was tense. After the curt message of Zhar in which he informed them that the mission had been compromised, there had not been further updates from the team.

“Gusay, is the infiltration team already on board?” The Shipmaster Vraal Rutaen asked, doing his best to appear calm. However, the occasional twitch of his lower jaws betrayed his growing apprehension. He had all rights to be nervous. It was of his niece that they were talking about, his own blood.

“Negative, Shipmaster. The SpecOps Officer says that there are complications,” the voice of the pilot responded through the speakers.

“What kind of complications?” Vraal asked, narrowing his eyes.

“He didn’t specify, sir.”

Vraal growled in frustration. He had enough of this. “Huru, put me in contact with the infiltration team,” he ordered to the communication officer.

The Sangheili in a grey flight harness pressed a few icons on his control panel, but then shook his head. “The Zealot does not respond. We can still receive her vitals, but her radio is offline.”

“Then put me in contact with Zhar!” The Shipmaster barked. “I want to know what the hell is going on down there!”

“Son of a bitch!” The pegasus screamed as he was thrown out of the window with a broken wing. Luckily for him, there was a conveniently placed tree to cushion his fall, but it still remained an unpleasant and painful experience.

“Zhar, what’s the situation?” The voice of the Shipmaster Rutaen came from the speakers of his helmet.

“Hold still, you damn bastard!” another pegasus guard yelled, jumping on the Sangheili and trying to wrap his arms and legs around his thick muscular neck in an attempt to choke him.

“Shipmaster, we have a situation,” the Commando responded, grabbing the pony on his back with the same ease a child would grab a doll. The stallion gave a yelp of surprise as the Sangheili threw him violently against two of his comrades like a living projectile, sending the three of them on the ground like tenpins. “The ponies know about our presence in the castle and the Zealot has been captured. I’m currently engaging in combat with their local forces.”

“What?!”

“I was trying to rescue the Zealot, but one of the alicorns attacked me and somehow teleported me to the opposite side of the castle. I’m trying to reach Tarya’s position again, but I’m encountering resistance from their soldiers.”

It was Haka Guwakai to speak next, his voice impassive as ever. “Zhar, you had clear instructions of not engaging the local forces in combat. Your action are jeopardizing not only the security of the Zealot, but also the success of the entire operation.”

He backhanded one of the guards in the muzzle, sending him to the floor with a bloody face and a few broken teeth. “Sir, the orders from High Command are clear: no personnel in possession of sensitive intel is to be left in enemy hands, and the Zealot falls in such a category,” he responded, ignoring the guard as he howled in pain while holding his broken muzzle.

“We are aware of the directives of Rtas Vadum, but our current situation is already difficult enough without you slaughtering their security personnel,” Haka pointed out.

“Technically speaking, they’re still alive,” he pointed out.

“My face!”

“Medic!”

“I can’t move my leg!”

‘More or less.’

“We’ll use diplomacy to get out of this mess. Disengage from combat and retreat, Officer. That’s an order,” Vraal said with a tone forcefully neutral. The Shipmaster was obviously having an internal conflict.

Zhar knew there was no point contesting the order. “Yes, sir.”

Retreat. His blood started boiling in rage hearing that word. It was just another way to say failure.

Unacceptable.

With a roar of frustration, the Commando slammed his fist on a nearby table, reducing it to a mass of splinters and broken boards.

He forced himself to calm down. Losing control was pointless. He took a few deep breaths, then he started switching through the various radio frequencies until he found what he was looking for.

“Sir, we’ve lost contact with teams Bravo-3 and 4.”

“Send Bravo-5 and 9 to investigate,” a gruff authoritative voice ordered.

He had to move. If he had to fight too many guards at once, he wouldn't be able to deal with them using non-lethal ways without risking being overpowered.

He heard something shuffling behind him and when he turned his head he saw a very irritated blue alicorn emerge violently from under the remains of a destroyed bookshelf in a miniature explosion of books and broken shelves.

‘I was wondering when she would regain consciousness.’

The princess looked at the several guards lying either unconscious or wounded on the ground with narrowed eyes, before glaring at the Commando. Her horn glowed and a longsword materialized in her grasp.

“Let us see how you do when picking on somepony of your own size,” she said, brandishing the sword high in front of her as the blade started glowing a menacing blue light.

Zhar snarled and pulled out his energy sword, assuming a combat stance.

“So be it. Have at thee, fiend!” The princess yelled, charging her much bigger opponent.

Princess Luna raised her sword and attempted a downward strike, but the Commando parried her blow with an upward swipe, causing an explosion of sparks when their blades clashed. The two opponents glared at each other in the eyes for a moment, then they pulled back and took a few steps of distance, studying each other.

Centuries of experience on the battlefield allowed Luna to see both the pros and the cons of the design of the alien sword. Although the peculiar grip drastically reduced the variety of combat styles, the double-bladed configuration was perfect to trap the enemy sword between the two blades of energy and disarm the opponent with a simple torsion.

But it was the wielder of the blade that worried her the most. Given his size, she had already taken into account that her opponent would be incredibly strong, but she didn’t expect that he could also be so agile.

For his part, the Sangheili instantly recognized the princess as an experienced fighter, if the precision and fluidity of her movements were of any indication. Furthermore, despite her relatively small size, the alicorn was also far stronger than he would have expected.

Their fight resumed, this time with the princess feigning a blow to his right leg, only to perform a quick thrust to his chest. His shields flared, dropping a third, but held. They both kept exchanging blows, but none of them managed to get past the defense of the respective opponent.

‘Where is Haka when you need him?’ the Commando thought as he parried another blow. The princess had the advantage of agility, and it was only using an aggressive combat style that the Commando was able to keep her at bay. He was quite sure that the ship’s Blademaster would have found her a worthy challenge.

After a lucky strike that almost caused the princess to lose her blade, Zhar tried to slash her across the chest, but the alicorn bent her back backwards, the blade passing so close to her body that she could feel the heat, before using her powerful wings to propel herself several meters backward. Luna blowed a lock of her mane from her face and adjusted her grip on her weapon, a determined expression painted on her face.

“We hear noise of a fight! All units, converge to the west wing!” a guard ordered through the radio, just as the stomping noise of combat boots coming from the nearby corridor become louder.

The Commando was running out of time. He had to leave, but how? The mare was obviously a fighter, he doubted she would simply give up and let him escape. He needed a distraction.

Just as a new group of guards came from the second door of the room, located opposite from the one from which came the first group of guards, Zhar grabbed a spherical device from his belt and pressed a button on its surface, causing the device to start floating in the air.

The princess tightened the grip on her sword and narrowed her eyes, getting ready for whatever dirty trick the Commando had in mind. But what happened next was completely unexpected for the ponies. There was a flash of light and where a moment before there was a floating metal orb, now stood a perfect copy of the Commando, holding a plasma repeater in its hands.

“Keep them busy!” the Sangheili barked to the holo-drone, using the targeting system of his visor to mark the alicorn as priority target.

The holo-drone raised its weapon at the princess and opened fire.

Ignoring the noise of gunfire coming from behind him, Zhar ran down the wide halls of the castle at full speed, ignoring the surprised looks and screams of the ponies that he met on his path. His usual modus operandi was to use a discrete approach, but right now stealth was the last of his problems. With his active camo unit offline, the only thing that really mattered was to get out of there as quick as he could.

He crossed a squad of royal guards on his path, but a couple of plasma rounds fired over their heads were sufficient to make them dive for the nearest cover. By the time they realized the Commando was not actually engaging them in combat, the Sangheili was already gone.

The Commando violently opened a door, causing it to slam loudly against the wall.

Another intersection, another brief stop to decide what path to take. ‘This damn place is a maze.'

He opened an image showing his position in respect to an air telemetry of the castle, but suddenly he heard the sound of a door opening on his left, followed by the noise of something crashing on the ground.

He swung in direction of the noise with his weapon ready to fire, but he lowered it when he saw that it was just what he assumed was a servant. The mare, a young pegasus dressed with a black and white maid uniform, was looking at him like he was some kind of demon escaped from Tartarus. At her hooves there was a broken flower pot, which she had probably dropped at the sudden apparition of the Sangheili.

Snorting in annoyance for the distraction, he glanced back to the map on his HUD and once he was sure he was on the right path, he sprinted down the corridor, leaving behind a very scared yet completely unharmed mare.

“Get to cover!” Princess Luna shouted to the guards as they all dived behind the closest cover, be it a column, a bookshelf, or an overthrown table, like in Luna’s case.

Although holo-drones were usually used for fire support rather than actual combat, its ranged plasma weapon combined with its aggressive combat protocols were forcing the ponies on the defensive. Luckily for them, the bolts fired by the holo-drone were weaker than the ones fired by a real plasma repeater, but they were still enough of a threat to not underestimate, as proved by an unfortunate thestral who had been shot right in the chest, before his teammates dragged him away.

At the beginning of the fight Princess Luna had used her magic to teleport the wounded guards in the next room; she would have sent them directly to the infirmary in other circumstances, but she was too busy avoiding the bursts of plasma of the holodrone to properly concentrate.

The princess took a look over her makeshift cover, only to duck hastily when another hail of plasma flew over her head.

Suddenly, several pistol bullets flew toward the holo-drone, forcing it to dodge. Luna tried in confusion to locate the origin of the shots, before a familiar thestral mare took cover beside her.

‘Midnight?’ Luna thought, surprised. The thestral had her mane unkept, and the only armor she wore over her uniform was her hastily placed chestplate.

“I thought your turn ended at dawn!” Luna shouted over the noise of gunfire.

“And miss the opportunity to shoot this asshole? Not a chance, ma’am!” Midnight Blossom said with a cocky smirk, loading a fresh magazine and cocking back the slide of her pistol with a fluid motion.

“Language, Midnight,” Luna scolded her friend playfully. Being forced to be a role model for the country most of her time, she honestly found the colorful language of the thestral refreshing.

The Lunar Guard lieutenant peered briefly from her cover to fire a couple shots, but much to her annoyance, the bullets seemed to pass through the head of the intruder without causing actual damage.

“Dammit! What the fuck is that thing, a ghost?!”

“It is not the real one, but just an illusion.”

“Well, if we don’t take care of this guy, its pal is gonna escape!”

“I have an idea, but I need some cover fire.”

“Gotcha. Alright, everypony! Let’s show the princess we’re not a waste of tax money!” the thestral shouted, darting out of cover. Midnight Blossom and the other guards opened fire against the faux intruder, forcing the combat hologram to focus its attention away from the princess. Much to her annoyance, the thestral mare found out that the holo-drone had decided to pick her as target and soon she found herself being chased very closely by a volley of plasma.
“Argh! Shit!” Midnight exclaimed as she dived for cover behind a column, before she started to frantically extinguish the fire from the tip her tail.

The diversion worked. Unnoticed by the holo-drone, Luna teleported herself close to the ceiling, flaring open her large wings to keep her body suspended in the air while she hastened to enact her plan. Her eyes glowed white and soon she was able to see her target: right in the center of the chest of the illusion stood a hotter mass, its center of energy.

The alicorn dive bombed on her target, wielding her sword with both hands.

“Die, devilish contraption!”

The blade cut deep in the back of the armored creature, causing a fountain of sparks to come out. The body of the warrior briefly flickered erratically, before disappearing abruptly, leaving in its place a spherical contraption pierced by her sword.

The princess hastily summoned a flat energy barrier in front of her and not a moment later the device exploded.

‘So much trouble just for a piece of metal and some light.’

“Princess!” Midnight called her, keeping a hand pressed against her earpiece. “He’s heading to the gardens, south-west corridor!”

“Take care of the wounded! I will try to intercept him!” she yelled while rushing out the room to resume her chase.

‘Soooo sleepy,’ private Bubble Gun thought as she struggled to remain awake. Her team had just returned from their little horror trip in Greenville and she was about to get tucked under the inviting sheets of her bed, when suddenly the alarm had started howling, turning the barracks into a chaotic mess that reminded her of an ant nest that had been disturbed.

Everypony was shouting and running and before she realized it, here she was, covered in her combat gear with the rest of her squad, doing... something. The officer had probably told them why they were here, but she had been too tired to really pay attention.

‘I hope that there’s at least something to blow up,’ the unicorn mare thought, caressing her grenade launcher. If Betsy didn’t destroy something, she would be sad. And when her weapon was sad, she was sad too, and that would be bad.

“Heads up, ponies! He’s heading toward our position!” Sergeant Linder Branch shouted, pumping a slug in his shotgun.

‘Who was coming again? The radios talked about a black demon. Why do all bad things have to be dark? Why can’t they be, like, purple? I like purple. Hmm, nah. Purple can’t be evil. Maybe green. Yeah, a green demon...’

Her deep reflection about the connections between morality and the color spectrum were suddenly interrupted when the doors on the opposite side of the hall opened abruptly. Then she saw it. The biggest, meanest looking motherbucker she’d ever seen in her life. It was really spooky. Luckily she knew how to deal with spooky things.

‘When in doubt, blow shit up,’ she thought, pulling out a grenade from her bandoleer and loading it in her grenade launcher.

“Stand back everypony! I’ve got it!”

Zhar had just burst into a new hall, when he saw a team of guards blocking his way. They weren’t however his main concern. A unicorn mare with an orange coat and red curly hair made her way to the front row, holding in her hands what appeared to be a grenade launcher.

“Welcome to Equestria, motherfucker!” the mare yelled with far too much glee as she fired her weapon.

Without available cover in his proximity and no time to dodge the grenade, Zhar had only one option left. With a lightning fast movement, the Commando kneeled and slammed his right fist against the floor, activating the nigh-impenetrable protective shield of the armor lock, just a moment before the grenade detonated against his right shoulder. As his body was enveloped by the hellfire of the explosion, he gave a silent thanks to the engineers working at the Research and Development division for the upgrades to the power pack of his armor, allowing him to carry another armor ability beside the active camo without compromising the operability of the systems.

The guards hesitated a moment to open fire, the shock of seeing someone surviving the direct impact of an explosive grenade evident in their faces. Zhar took advantage of those precious seconds to better study his surroundings. Right over the guards there was a balcony that ran all around the room, with wide panoramic windows on the walls.

An idea flashed in his mind. It was risky, but if it worked it would allow him to spare time and avoid further useless confrontations with the guards.

Zhar grabbed a plasma grenade and threw it.

“Grenade! Get cover!” a brown earth pony yelled as the glowing blue ball landed a few meters from them.

While the guards scrambled away from the primed plasma charge, the Sangheili ran right toward it, then, much to their astonishment, he jumped. The Commando timed his action so that the grenade exploded right when he was at the apex of the jump. The force of the detonation almost completely drained his shields, but at the same time it projected him in the air far higher than he could have naturally reached.

His strong hands grabbed the stone railing of the balcony, then using the powerful muscles of his arms and torso, he hoisted himself over the railing. Without wasting time, the Commando turned left and sprinted at his top speed, right toward a window that overlooked the Royal Gardens.

His big armored body slammed against the window like a running train, shattering the glass with ease. He fell for at least twenty meters, but his shields had recovered enough to absorb the worst of the impact. He rolled on the ground to dissipate the remaining kinetic energy and without a moment to pause, he started running.

“Holy shit. Did he really jump over a grenade?”

“Dude, that was insane.”

“I have no idea who or what that guy was, but he’s one tough son of a bitch.”

Bubble Gun was oddly quiet. She was still staring wide eyed at the scorched mark left on the floor by that odd glowing grenade. Never in her explosive-filled life had she ever seen something so deadly and beautiful like that.

One of her comrades neared her. “You alright girl?”

“I think I wet myself,” the explosive expert said calmly. “And it's not pee.”

Standing on the balcony of the dancing hall, Luna listened carefully to the headset she had retrieved from one of the wounded guards. ‘I’m still amazed that such useful devices exist. Things have really changed in a millennium.’

The reports of the guards were very confused, a mix of real sightings and what she assumed were false alarms caused by paranoia, but Luna had quickly realized that contrarily to what she had assumed at first, the mysterious warrior was not trying to reach his comrade, but was instead trying to escape. So, instead of playing a useless chasing game through the countless halls and corridors that composed the castle, she had opted to wait until he was in open ground, where there was less probability to cause collateral damage.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of an explosion coming from inside the castle. Narrowing her eyes, Luna turned her head toward the origin of the noise and with a single beat of her powerful wings, she took to the air.

‘There you are,’ Luna thought as she saw the intruder jump without hesitation from a height roughly equivalent to four floors. She noticed the barrier surrounding his armor shine; if it worked in a similar way to the energy shields generated by magic, it meant that the force of the impact must have drained some of its power, making the user momentarily vulnerable. Without wasting time, the alicorn flapped her wings with force and dive bombed toward her target. She was just a couple of meters from him when the creature suddenly dodged her air attack. ‘Dammit! I forgot to take in account my shadow!’ she mentally cursed, noticing too late the position of the sun behind her, just a moment before she forcefully landed on the ground, leaving deep marks with her hooves on the previously flawless lawn.

A small part of her mentally cringed thinking of the work the gardeners would have to do to repair the damage… a most prominent one was screaming at her to dodge the incoming attack from the armored monster two and some meters tall in front of her. Princess Luna ducked, barely avoiding a vicious spinning kick that she was quite sure would have broken the head of a minotaur like a watermelon.

“You seem angry,” she noted, taking a few steps back to put herself at a safe distance.

“I have had enough of you,” he growled menacingly.

“You can always give up,” she smugly suggested, only to see him charge at her with a roar.

Luna tried to deliver a downward slash with her longsword, but the warrior parried the blow, summoning a blade of pure energy from his left wrist, before trying to punch her in the face with his right hand. Dropping her sword, the princess dodged the punch, then she grabbed his outstretched arm with both her hands and spun her body, hurling her opponent over her shoulder to the ground.

‘I knew those martial art classes were useful,’ she thought. Her opponent absorbed the fall with a roll, before literally jumping back on his feet. He turned to face the princess, but Luna lashed a vicious kick aimed to his sternum. The warrior parried the strike by crossing his arms over his chest, but the force of the kick was still enough to make him slide backward a few feet, his armored boots leaving deep trails in the soft grassy soil.

Before her foe could recover, Luna leaped in the air and punched him in the face, draining the remaining energy of his shields and causing his head to turn sideways. With an eerily slow motion, the warrior turned his face back toward her, emitting a low menacing growl in the process.

‘Oh-oh. I think he’s really upset now.’ As if to confirm such a hypothesis, with a roar more opportune to a carnivorous animal than a sentient creature, the warrior lunged at her with unexpected speed and hit her under her chin with an uppercut, sending her to the ground.

‘Alright. It. Is. On,’ she thought, feeling a familiar warm liquid that tasted metallic run down from the corner of her lips.

The warrior tried to stomp her with one of his armored boots, but Luna avoided the attack by rolling sideway. The princess tried to reach her fallen sword, but yelped when her opponent grabbed one of her legs and pulled her back. Using her other leg, Luna kicked him to force him to release her. She opened her wings to push herself away from him, but the mysterious soldier reached out with one of his long arms and grabbed a fistful of feathers from her left wing. Then he gave a violent yank. It was painful, that was sure. Luna screamed in pain as she felt several feathers being ripped from her wing, but quickly retaliated by firing a kinetic spell against the chest of the warrior, throwing him to the ground.

‘Don’t swear. Luna, don’t swear. Tia wouldn’t approve and Mother taught you better than-’ “Argh! Fuck! It hurts!” She experimentally flexed her offended wing, wincing as her nerves send her brain another surge of pain. Nothing was broken, luckily, but the tendons hurt like they were on fire and even with her magic it would take several days to regrow the lost feathers.

She glanced at her opponent, only to groan in frustration when she saw that he was already getting back on his feet. Her horn charged up and she fired another spell. The blow hit home, but the only effect it seemed to have was to make him shake his head to chase away a slight sense of dizziness. For her part, Luna was shocked that her stunning spell was ineffective.

‘I have to do this the hard way then,’ she thought grimly, using her magic to retrieve her sword.

Just then a Puma burst at full speed from the hedge a few dozen meters on their left, landing heavily on the ground and leaving deep marks on the lawn with its armored wheels as it accelerated toward the black warrior. Luna gave a silent ‘sorry’ to the gardeners, but in truth she was happy of the arrival of reinforcements.

“Princess, duck!” the guard riding shotgun shouted with all her might to overcome the roar of the vehicle.

The gunner fired a burst between the princess and the intruder to divert his attention from the alicorn, but instead of running for cover, he turned his head toward the incoming vehicle and pulled out a bluish spherical contraption. Luna thought for a moment it was another combat-illusion like the one she had faced before, but when he threw it at the vehicle, she realized too late it was actually some kind of grenade. The glowing device flew through the air in a wide arc and landed with deadly accuracy right on the hood of the Puma, where it remained attached like a magnet. Widening her eyes, the princess had barely the time to summon her magic and teleport the guards out from the vehicle just before the grenade exploded, turning the Puma into a deadly ball of fire that kept running without control before crashing against a tree.

‘That was close.’ She glanced at the three stunned guards she had rematerialized beside her, but other than being a bit shocked they seemed to be fine.

When she looked back at her opponent, however, she saw that he had used her distraction to run away and now he already had a fair advantage of distance.

“Oh no you don’t!” she shouted. “Follow me!” she ordered to the three Solar Guards while she sprinted behind the creature.

Luna knew that what she was doing was probably a stupid decision. She was wounded and her mind was clouded by anger and pain, but she couldn't care any less. It was a personal matter now.

She kept running, leaving the guards behind her, but she noticed with satisfaction that she was slowly gaining terrain.

At the end of the park, right on the edge of a gradient a dozen meters tall, there was a panoramic terrace that overlooked Canterlot Creek. The creature reached the stone railing and, without slowing down, he jumped over it.

The moment his combat boots touched the rocky surface, he started sliding down the highly inclined slope. He clawed with a gloved hand against the rock surface for balance and to control his speed, then, when he was a couple meters from the bottom of the slope, he jumped, landing with a splash on the gravelly river bed. The level of the water was low in this period of the year, barely reaching his calves, so he was barely slowed down as he ran toward the opposite bank.

Princess Luna was close behind him. “Geronimo!” she exclaimed while she too jumped over the edge of the terrace. Due to her wounded wing, instead of gliding, Luna instead used her magic to absorb the energy of the impact. She landed without damage to her body, but the water splashed her, drenching her dress. ‘The royal tailor will not be happy,’ she thought in frustration as she gave chase to the creature, her long toned legs giving the impression that she was gliding on the water rather than running.

They both heard the sound of engines and a moment later a couple of Puma and an APC Pangolin stopped on the edge of the opposite riverbed with a harsh noise of brakes, their gunners quickly aiming their weapons toward the warrior. The intruder stopped in the middle of the creek, his gaze shifting quickly between the vehicles in front of him and the alicorn behind him, the noise of reinforcements coming from the castle not too far off.

Then, he did something that Luna didn’t expect: he ran toward the edge of the waterfall.

‘Is he crazy?! Where the heck does he think he can go? Urgh, come on Luna, one last effort!’ she thought, running behind him.

After having ran for a couple hundred meters in the low water, the creature abruptly stopped a few steps from the edge of the waterfall.

“End of the line. Surrender, you have no escape,” Luna said a bit breathless, looking at him sternly. From the noise behind her, she could clearly tell that the guards were getting closer to their position. “It is over.”

The mysterious soldier turned his face and locked his gaze with hers. He then took a couple of steps backward until he was dangerously close to the edge of the waterfall.

“Ey. Khaweko, gawek gi-ha,” (1) the warrior growled in a language that Luna had never heard in her life, before he threw himself over the edge of the waterfall.

Eyes wide in shock due to his extreme action, Luna ran where he had been just a moment ago, but when she looked over the edge, all she saw were the turbulent waters falling down for several hundred meters.

“Princess!” the familiar voice of the thestral lieutenant called her. Midnight Blossom tried to land, but when she noticed that the current was too strong for her, she opted to simply hover a few inches from the running water. “Oh, shit! Your wing!” she exclaimed worriedly when she saw the missing feathers.

“Do not worry, Midnight. Tis but a scratch. That thing tried plucking me like a turkey after using me as punching sack, but I am quite sure that he will find several bruises on his body tomorrow morning,” Luna said with satisfaction, wincing discreetly when she moved her offended wing. She had survived far worse wounds in the past, but she’ll pay a visit to the royal physician anyway, just in case. “Gather some pegasi and check the base of the waterfall.”

The thestral glanced down over the edge of the waterfall. “With all due respect, ma’am, there’s no way he could have survived that fall.”

“I will believe it when I see his corpse,” the alicorn said grimly. The only reason she was still alive after having fought that thing was because she was an alicorn. She was not going to underestimate these creatures. “I also want all unicorn guards to start actively scanning the castle and the city in search of invisible units, if my sister has not yet ordered it.”

“It’s a complex spell and it will take time to search all-”

“Then the sooner they start, the better it is. For what we know, there could be more of them.”

“By the Halo rings! Did you see that?” the pilot of the Stealth Phantom asked in shock to the Sangheili sitting beside him in the cockpit. The weapon operator clearly shared his astonishment. The courage of Zhar Vadam was known by all the members of the crew, but sometimes the line that parted courage from madness was really thin.

The invisible aircraft was hovering a few dozen meters above the highest tower of the city, but thanks to the high resolution cameras the crew had been able to observe the entire scene.

“Last Sunset, this is Poltergeist-1, we have lost the signal of the SpecOps Officer,” Gusay reported.

“Was he captured?” the first officer Haka Guwakai asked.

“No, sir. He jumped from a waterfall.”

“He did what?” Haka asked with a clear hint of incredulity in a rare display of emotions.

“He jumped from a waterfall,” the pilot repeated, still shocked by the action of the Commando.

“What about the Zealot?” the Shipmaster asked after a long pause..

“According to the scanners, she’s still inside the castle. Shall we attempt to rescue her?” the pilot asked, glancing at the two Rangers tasked to man the side turrets. They weren’t an assault team, but maybe exploiting the element of surprise...

“Negative, Poltergeist-1. New objective. Perform an aerial telemetry of the city and its surrounding area, including the base of the waterfall, then return to the ship.”

“Affirmative, Shipmaster. Gusay, over and out.” He turned to the infantry bay. “You heard the Shipmaster. You two can take a seat, there won’t be need to use the guns.”

As a response, the two Ranger groaned loudly, clearly disappointed that they would not see any action. After two days spent helping repair the ship, they had volunteered for this mission hoping to shoot something.

“If it is of any consolation, we have the recording of the fight.”

This seemed to cheer them up a bit. After all, the fight had been pretty awesome.

An oppressive silence reigned in the control room of the Last Sunset. None of the Sangheili officers dared to utter a single word as they worked on their stations. Occasionally, one of them would dare to steal a quick glance at the Shipmaster, only to return focus on their respective jobs.

Vraal Rutaen sat on his command chair still as a statue, his eyes locked on the live time hologram showing the city of Canterlot, while several different emotions were now clashing inside him in a violent fight for dominance.

‘They have my niece.’

He was perfectly aware of the risks when he had allowed Tarya to take part in the mission and yet, now that his biggest fear had come true, it didn’t help in the slightest.

‘They have the last remaining member of my family.’

He kept repeating to himself that ordering Zhar and the Phantom to retreat had been the right choice, and yet, a dark part of his mind was screaming in rage demanding for blood, accusing him of being a coward who hides behind rules and weak moral codes, when it was obvious what he should do.

‘They have Tarya.’

It would have been easy, the Sangheili had the advantage of the element of surprise and superior technology. It wouldn’t be the first time he faced a similar situation. The pawns may be different, but the game was the same. The ponies would have been helpless against a direct assault. Just like the humans…

Images of countless burning planets flashed in front of his eyes and for a brief moment he saw the world below them share the same fate of countless others, reduced to a ball of molten glass and ash.

‘No.’

The days of Vraal Rutaenee, Shipmaster of the Covenant Fleet of Righteous Vigilance, were long gone. In his place now stood a warrior who had seen far too much death and destruction during his life.

After discovering an infiltration team in the residence of their leaders, the inhabitants of the planet would have every right to be upset and any attempt to solve the situation with violence would very likely bring a conflict. A conflict that in all honesty, Vraal wasn’t intending to start.

They were lost, stuck in the orbit of a backwater planet without any contact with the rest of their race, unable to call for assistance. Their situation was dire, to say the least.

As Shipmaster, it was his duty to take care of the ship and its crew; the lives of the men and women under his command depended from his decisions and he knew all too well that making the wrong choice would cause their death, as well as that of countless others among the inhabitants of this world.

Even if his very soul felt like it had been stabbed, he couldn’t play favorites, even for his niece, when so many lives were at stake.

The First Officer noticed his distress. “She’s still alive, Vraal. We will get her out of there,” Haka said, placing a hand on the shoulder of his old friend.

The Shipmaster looked at him and gave him a thankful nod.

‘Yes. Yes, we will. Just because I’m not taking the easy way, it doesn’t mean that I’m abandoning her.’

“Huru. Are we able to contact them?” he asked to the Sangheili at the communication station.

“Not yet, sir,” the communication officer said with some hesitation. “ Although we finished decoding their special frequency this morning, the Huragok have discovered a problem in our systems that prevents us from properly interfacing with their communication network. They are currently working on a solution, it should take a couple of hours at most.”

Vraal nodded. “Alert me when we’re ready.”

He wasn’t a politician, but he would do everything in his power to make sure that the inhabitants listened to him.

“What about Zhar?” the Ultra with the red cloak asked.

“Let’s list him as MIA for now. Alert Major Ukran that the SpecOps are temporarily under his command.”

“Do you really think he’s still alive?” Haka asked with a hint of skepticism.

Vraal glanced at the Ultra. “He’s young, but resourceful. If there’s someone able to survive the impossible, it’ll be him.”

‘Especially if the rumors about the identity of his father are true.’

A few miles from Canterlot, in a small clearing in the deep of the forest, life proceeded peacefully for the local fauna, blissfully ignorant of the problems of the outside world. The gentle sound of running water coming from the small river that crossed the clearing mixed with the melodies of the multiple birds perched on the nearby trees.

The quiet of this little corner of paradise was abruptly broken when the Sangheili emerged from the water, causing several forest critters to scatter in panic. Ignoring the cries of alarm of the birds, Zhar scanned his surroundings in search for threats, but found none. Swimming underwater to avoid air patrols had apparently worked, although the current had not made it easy; luckily for him, his armor allowed him an air reserve of thirty minutes.

With slow, almost lethargic, movements he forced himself out of the water, ignoring the pain coming from his aching muscles.

Jumping from a waterfall wasn’t exactly an experience that he was eager to repeat, but it was the only option he had to avoid the capture or reveal to the ponies that the Sangheili had dropships able to turn invisible. If things turned ugly in the future, which was very likely, the Stealth Phantoms would be a precious trump card. He would have not resorted to such a drastic strategy, if it wasn’t for the princess.

Speaking of the alicorn, she had proved to be a formidable opponent. Her speed, her reflexes, her agility, everything reminded him of a Spartan. He knew first hand what the human super soldiers were able to do, being one of those few lucky enough to have faced in combat one of them and have survived to tell it.

“Last Sunset, this is Officer Vadam. Do you read me?” he called by radio once he was out the water, but the channel was silent. He tried a few more times, trying different frequencies, but he still received no response. He growled in frustration. Either the ponies had disabled the radio transmitter in Tarya’s backpack, or more likely he was out of the operative range of the device.

He studied the map on his HUD. Apparently, there was a hill located roughly a mile from his current position, in direction of Canterlot. The elevated position and the proximity with the city built on the side of the mountain would give him better chances in contacting the ship in orbit: if not, at least it would give him a better view of the territory before he decided his next move.

He started walking toward the edge of the clearing, but as soon as he reached the first trees, he quickly realized that with each step he took, his limbs felt heavier and weaker, while thinking straightly became more and more difficult.

‘Something’s wrong,’ his foggy mind thought as he clawed the big trunk of a nearby tree for support. Why was he so tired? He knew his limits, in the past he had been able to go on for several days without sleeping, with little to no food, all while fighting nonstop.

It had taken far more time than expected, but combined with his physical exhaustion and the adrenaline wearing off from his system, Luna’s spell finally had made its effect. Zhar fell on his knees, trying as hard as he could to remain awake, but it was all for naught. His body crashed on the mossy soil of the forest and after a few more moments of struggle, the Commando lost consciousness.

Hidden by the thick foliage of the underbrush, several pairs of blue eyes observed the Sangheili lying on the ground.

“He’s one of them,” the Changeling hissed with its raspy voice. “Call the rest of the lance. We must bring him to the princess.”

Author's Note:

(1) Ey. Khaweko, gawek gi-ha - No. This is just the beginning in Sangheili (Halo:Nightfall - Chapter One: It's Only Just Beginning)

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