The Traveler
"We called it the Traveler, and its arrival changed us forever.
Great cities were built, on Mars and Venus.
Mercury became a garden world.
Human lifespan tripled.
It was a time of miracles.
We stared out at the galaxy and we knew it was our destiny to walk in the light of other stars.
But the Traveler had an enemy. A Darkness, which had hunted it for eons across the black gulfs of space.
Centuries after our Golden Age began, this Darkness found us. And that was the end of everything.
...But it was also, a beginning."
- The Speaker
In Orbit
Earth
The various mechanisms of my ship came to life with a metallic whir. Spectrum-colored lights from apparatuses and their switches illuminated the dim interior of the cockpit. I sat relaxedly on the reclined pilot seat, running ship diagnostics for anything that needed to be tended to or was malfunctioning. I smiled when I saw no abnormalities; that Holliday Shipwright knew her stuff.
My Ghost floated by my side, serving as an efficient, if somewhat grating, co-pilot. The Ghost emitted a blue beam onto the dashboard, most likely calibrating the ship for exiting orbit.
The Speaker hadn't given us the go yet. That was fine by me, as I needed to verify that I had everything necessary for expeditions lasting long periods of time.
"Ghost. How are we doing on supplies?" I asked.
"The weapons, armor, ammunition syntheses, and engrams you transmatted earlier arrived in a cinch, and are currently being stored in the miniature cargo hold. The ship has just barely enough space to hold them all. You really went all out with packing," the Ghost replied without looking up from the dashboard.
"Well, the Speaker said to take everything we need in order to survive the unknown," I stated matter-of-factly.
"Sometimes I wish you didn't take these things literally."
"Deal with it. Now, how's the ship holding up? I got no errors on my side."
"The fuel tank is full with backups on standby, the Warp Drive is powered, ship's kinetic barriers are online, avionics are functioning and ready, and our food and water supplies are completely stocked," the Ghost said.
I arched an eyeplate. Water was necessary as a lubricant, coolant, and as a vital component of synthetic blood, so the fluid was understandable to bring along. But food was unnecessary for maintaining either me or my Ghost's internal functions.
"Why food?"
"I know we don't really need a food supply. But if we don't know what, or who, we'll find, wouldn't it be best if we bring some sort of sustenance with us?"
My Ghost looked at me, blinked its eye once, and returned to its business. "Besides. You can have a bite to eat if you get bored or something."
"Meh."
I hated eating, and the damned Ghost knew it. Not only did I have to deal with byproduct excretions, but most of the rations allotted to Guardians tasted like glorified crap nonetheless. I don't know how organics do it.
Before I could internally complain further about the obsolete nature of eating, my Ghost's shell expanded outward in all directions leaving its eye in the center, indicating there was an incoming transmission. Immediately after, the Speaker's serene but distressed voice reverberated throughout the confines of the ship's cockpit.
"Guardian," the Speaker said with a tone of finality. "It is time. Present your ship before the Traveler, and let its Light guide you to where you are needed."
"Roger that. Breaking orbit now."
With a flick of a switch, I engaged my ship's outer camera feed, allowing me to see the ship's surroundings as it descended into the Earth's atmosphere. Hundreds of unmanned ships of all shapes and colors floated lazily in Earth's orbit, awaiting the return of their Guardian pilots. Many ships arrived to drop off their pilots at the Tower, while other ships zoomed off with their Guardians to confront the great unknown. Some Guardian ships even headed for the gray terrain of the Moon, likely with the foolish intent of reclaiming Earth's long-lost natural satellite.
I shook my head. The Moon was a lost cause. Unless the iron foothold the Hive had on the Moon was stinted somehow, there would be no pre-Golden Age glory to reclaim.
As we descended into Earth's stratosphere, I leaned forward into my seat and supported an elbow on my knee in anticipation. My ship's artificial gravity shifted slightly as it adjusted to the Earth's gravitational pull, preventing me or the contents of my ship from being flung around mid-flight. My Ghost simply floated there as we made the wild descent, its thoughts completely unknown to me.
The ship broke through the endlessly spanning cloud layer. Earth's breathtaking wintery landscape became visible in the broad daylight, and The Last City shined like the beacon of hope that it was. The Tower buzzed with activity, and Guardian and maintenance ships constantly darted around it, like Dregs around salvage.
Even more awe-inspiring, however, was the Traveler, which hovered a few miles above The Last City. As we got closer to it, my Ghost and I saw the sporadic cracks on the celestial sphere's surface. Some cracks looked like they ran deep. It was no wonder the Traveler was barely healing...
My ship reached the outskirts of the City, at an equal altitude to the Traveler. As we approached the massive sphere, the City's defense turrets became transfixed on us.
"Uh-oh," my Ghost said anxiously.
"Halt!" a stern female voice ordered through my Ghost. "You are in a strict no-fly zone, and are in violation of the rules laid down by the Consensus. Belay your course and identify yourself, or you will be fired upon!"
This was a familiar situation, reminiscent of the time I tried entering the Reef. The Awoken were much less friendly about it, though.
My Ghost and I shared a glance, and I said, "There must be some kind of misunderstanding. I am working under order of the Speaker."
She didn't buy it. "Last warning. Halt. Identify yourself."
'Damn, I think she's actually going to do it.' I thought.
Sighing, I slowed my ship's speed to a near crawl. "Exodus-6. Exo. Guardian. Warlock, primarily but not exclusively of the Sunsinger Order. Commissioned by the Speaker for an unknown mission concerning the Traveler."
Silence on the other end. I heard incoherent chatter between multiple people. They probably just received word of our mission.
The connection crackled like a radio, and the woman unapologetically relented. "Acknowledged, Guardian. You may proceed." She still didn't seem convinced. But I didn't have to prove anything.
"Thank you for your understanding," I said back with equal distrust.
The defense turrets rotated away from our position (one still had its aim fixated relatively close to us). I resumed the flight toward the Traveler.
We uneventfully arrived about a mile away from the giant sphere. I stopped my ship using the command terminal. "Ghost. Open a channel to the Speaker," I said.
Without any delay, my Ghost expanded its shell outward, opening a dialogue with the Speaker.
"Speaker. We're here. What happens now?" I asked warily.
No coherent reply. The signal was greatly distorted, and all my Ghost and all I heard was garbled white noise.
"This is strange..." my Ghost said, stating the obvious. It retracted its shell to close the dialogue, intending to retry the connection.
It was then that suddenly my ship's atmosphere was filled with...something. It wasn't a physical phenomenon, but it was as palpable as fumes in the air. Apparently my Ghost felt it too, as its shell rustled slightly and it blinked its eye multiple times. We both looked around the ship, but found nothing unusual.
I don't know if it was the thing in the air or my own sensibilities, but I realized just how close we were in proximity to the Traveler.
The one who reanimated me and all other Guardians, empowering us to do good. The one who made it possible for humans to birth the Exo race. The one who saved all righteous sapient races from the events of the Collapse and created the Ghosts. The one whom Warlocks study extensively, yet still know next to nothing about. Perhaps the aura that was present in the air was meant to impose unerring servitude to those in the Traveler's vicinity, but I still felt the need to bow, to kneel, to grovel, to do something...
My Ghost widened its eye as it looked at the external visual feed. "Exodus! Look!"
I managed to tear myself away from the servile urges that threatened to overtake me, and focused on the visual feed. To our pure shock, the Traveler became surrounded in a membrane of blinding light, nearly on par with the Sun. The light seemed to expand forth from the Traveler.
In fact, no, I was certain the light was stretching - toward us. Tendrils of light separated from the sphere and began to engulf my ship. The external feed became completely obscured by the brightest light one can fathom.
"What's happening-" my Ghost asked with a hint of panic before the ship lurched forward. The ship shook dangerously, and lights and klaxons blared their ominous warnings. Abruptly, I was sent from my comfortable pilot seat face-first into the ceiling with the loud sound of metal hitting metal. I held my cranium in pain, and I noticed that I was still in the air, floating.
"Artificial gravity has failed!" my Ghost said frantically.
"No shit!" I said from my position on the ship's roof. But what would Ghosts know? They don't even need gravity...
This whole situation was strange, though. Shouldn't Earth's natural gravity be rooting me down?
The ship's systems were in turmoil, and began to fail one-by-one. My Ghost worked to get them back online. I pushed myself from the ceiling and floated back to the pilot's seat. I sat down and buckled the seatbelt to compensate for the lack of gravity, and attempted to type away at the main console to gauge at what was happening. Red lights flashed everywhere on the console, effectively telling me I had minimal control over my ship. My Ghost had little luck as well, judging by its frustrated mumblings.
"Central control systems and life support are offline!"
'We don't even have air?' I thought bitterly. I materialized my helmet and put it on.
The ship's creaks and metallic protests grew louder as if something huge was applying pressure to it, and many of the ship's lights shut down altogether. I worked hard to get the auxiliary power online, and accidentally flicked the switch for the ship's external feed. Imagine my amazement when the screen actually booted up and showed what was happening on the outside world.
The ship seemed to be in a state of interstellar transit, zooming across entire star systems in mere instants. It was essentially the same as using a Warp Drive to get from place to place.
What unnerved me was that neither my ship's primary motor systems nor the Warp Drive were functional.
"Impossible..." my Ghost said in disbelief.
I just nodded dumbly.
The trembling of the ship intensified as the journey reached its climax. Trinkets, engrams, and other non-essential and innocuous objects floated about aimlessly. I hate to imagine what was happening in the cargo hold with the weapons; it was a good thing they weren't loaded. For a fleeting moment, I thought the ship would split in two under the strain.
And then it stopped. All the floating items dropped onto the floor unceremoniously, and I felt gravity's familiar pull again. My Ghost eyed the ship's systems and ran diagnostics. As quickly as they failed, all of the systems came to life, and alarms resumed their blaring, only to turn off when they sensed zero anomalies with the ship's status.
"Gravity is good, life support is up, and we have control again," my Ghost said, relieved. "But where did...we...go..." Its voice trailed off once its eye caught sight of the external feed.
I saw it too and tilted my head, because I was just as flabbergasted as Little Light next to me.
"Earth?"
Equestria
Ponyville
Meanwhile, in a certain tree library, chaos stirred. Chaos in the form of books strewn every which way around the library while an alicorn and a diminutive dragon added to the mess. Never would the well-read owner of such a fount of written knowledge allow any slight mistreatment of books, but this was no ordinary occasion.
"Spike! Find anything on 'The Darkness' yet?" Twilight Sparkle asked from across the room.
The little dragon turned around slowly to avoid falling from the treacherously high ladder. "Uh..." Spike checked a few more books for anything specifically on darkness, then dejectedly put them back on the shelf. "Nope, nothing up here, Twilight."
"Keep looking." Twilight used her wings to reach the highest shelf. Flapping her wings to stay hovered in place, she scanned the shelf's contents.
The Dark Ages of Equestria
The Dark Night
Dark and Mystical Creatures; An Encylopedia
Dark Places and How To Deal With Them
The Dark Below
Twilight groaned. "How is it that neither this library nor the Canterlot Royal Archives has this one specific book?" she asked rhetorically in frustration and sat on her haunches.
"Princess Celestia must have a strange taste in books if they're this rare," Spike half-muttered. "Any idea why she wants this one in particular?"
"None. But it's not my place to ponder it. The Princess has asked me to look into it, and I won't let her down!" Twilight said, putting a hoof on her chest.
"She also said not to worry about it if we can't find it," Spike pointed out. "We've been looking for it for most of the morning, Twilight."
That was certainly true, Twilight conceded. Before the Sun was even raised, Celestia sent correspondence to her pupil telling her to be on the lookout for any books or clues about 'The Darkness.' She also said that Twilight should not stress if she couldn't find anything, but Twilight didn't know what the Princess meant by that.
Since when did she ever stress over something the Princess said?
Anyway, the abrupt letter had roused Spike from his sleep (since he was the hapless messenger who could receive letters through belching), and he graciously sacrificed the remainder of his sleep in order to help Twilight find the book. The lack of sleep was evident in his posture as he sluggishly searched a high shelf for subjects about Darkness.
'He certainly deserves a break after all this work...' Twilight thought.
"Spike, you can go ahead and take a break for now. We can resume searching some other time," Twilight called up to Spike, who was still on top of the ladder.
Spike had no complaints as he descended the ladder and yawned tiredly. "Okay, Twilight, if you're sure."
"I'm sure." Twilight said. She looked around the library and at all the displaced books. She levitated a couple of books with her magic and started to replace them onto their rightful shelves. As she did this, she brainstormed how or where she might find the book Celestia was asking for.
The dragon trudged over to his bed, murmuring, "I'm too young to feel this old..."
'Old...' Twilight paused in thought.
"Old!" She put down the books that she was carrying with magic, and began talking excitedly. "That's it! Since the book is not in the Canterlot Archive or here, then it must be an obscenely old book! I know where we can find it! Spike, you're a genius-"
When Twilight turned around to praise Spike, she saw that he was fast asleep on the floor a few hooves away from his bed. He was curled up and sucking his thumb, occasionally interrupting to mutter the name of a certain unicorn fashionista. Twilight laughed softly and scooped the baby dragon up in her forelegs, and gently flew over to his colt-sized bed. She laid Spike down delicately and tucked him in using her magic, taking note of his serenity while sleeping.
"Rest easy, my number-one helper," she spoke quietly to his sleeping form.
Twilight turned around and trotted to the door, being sure to sidestep the paper-based obstacles scattered about. The unicorn grabbed her saddlebag filled with parchment, quills, and such - a must-have for taking notes when foraging for a specific book - and sidled out the exit. She looked at the Sun's position in the sky, which indicated the day was still young.
Time to pay a visit to the former Castle of the Royal Sisters.
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So fat this is one of the best Destiny crossovers that I have read. Keep the updates coming
5378835
Will do. And thanks!
Silly Twilight, you overlooked a book about the Darkness! but then again, the hordes of angry green Thralls might've jumped out and got ya if you had looked....
With the recent dlc release, I see what you did there. Keep up the good work though.
5381197
Who's to say that Equestria doesn't coincidentally have a book titled "The Dark Below"?
5381019
The Servant of the Hand has been disturbed...
5382406 Servaant of the Hand=Destiny's Slender Man. I give him hugs with my fist all the time
5387079
Oh crap. I was a bit unsure of that when I began playing the game. I looked it up, played the game, went through the Grimoire, and lo and behold: nothing! I eventually developed my own head canon that the Moon was without an atmosphere, gravity was increased by the Traveler or by one of the many human-built contraptions to make work more manageable, and the sound we hear is a result of some wave/Light-based technobabble (apologies, I'm not very good with these kinds of things). I observed the edifices in the Moon were not built to accommodate life, therefore the Moon having an atmosphere would be redundant. Plus, the "clouds" in the sky could just be byproducts of humanity's expansion on the Moon, no?
5387464
You also aren't able to see stars from the moon; it's surface is too reflective.
5408162
I honestly don't recall writing about the sky in the Patrol chapter... Did I?
If so, just point it out and I'll fix it.
5408856
No, just a footnote.
I don't recall a description of the sky. I do, however, remember something about the Houston Center removing the stars on the moon exhibit quite a while ago for that reason.
5459518
But in this story, I didn't really have that in mind. I like to believe that she was trying to prevent a panic by keeping it to herself. Bringing prophecies of doom and all that would send citizens into panic. Not to mention Luna might be a bit skeptical as well.
And her saying that it's a different universe... Well, if I had a vision that the world was about to be destroyed, I'd probably try to convince myself that it wasn't my world, if only for the sake of my own sanity. I wouldn't keep it a secret like Tia does, but I'd try to look into alternative explanations.
I made the mistake of assuming that people understood what was wrong with the black sky. An atmosphere of any thickness acts as a sort of lens that filters in and refracts a frequency of light depending on its density, which is why our sky is blue most of the time. The only truly black sky is one without an atmosphere
Just wondering, will we Crota at all or hear of him?
5476483
I do plan on introducing a few...elements from The Dark Below, yes.
5502621
I'm sorry, what?
5504190 Whenever i say something that is meme related i put it in a video with a bit of funny stuff. Also Wheatly at 0:44 XD
Stop being good at writing. That's not allowed here.
Moar... YESSSSSSSS, MOARRRRRRRRRRR
FINALLY PONIES!!!!!!!!
I LITERALLY STARTED VIBRATING IN MY SEAT WHEN THEY CAME OUT OF THE WARP!!!!
Keep on making more I like where this is going!
Why am I reading super good advices lines in 343 guilty Sparks voice
Oh so this is going on Equis then?
And that's how all "warping and teleporting" should be-show us what the hell happened, don't just beam me up into the next universe, Scotty! It cheapens the story like that!
honestly, I'd say the relative scarcity of comments is more due to the rather distant relation between DESTINY and MLP. Hell I found this by a random brain twitch going"I like destiny, and I like ponies. I wonder what a Guardian in Equestria would be like?" Considering the general quality of fanfictions, crossovers especially(mountains of crap with a diamond or three buried in the heart, many unpolished and more unfinished.) I was expecting a bland work, if any. I am heartily surprised and exceptionally glad to have found your work here. I'm hoping that you're still working at this because this has me enthralled wholeheartedly.