Light of Harmony

by GjallarFox

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

A loud alarm went off in the Cabal warbase. The loud whine was immediately responded to by every soldier there. Legionaries donned their armor and loaded their slug rifles. Psions manned automated weapons controls, keeping watch of security feeds and keeping communications flowing down the chain of command.

As the first Legionary fell from the wall of the compound and hit the ground, a wave of Phalanxes filed out of the main building, their shields up and ready. Slug rifle rounds filled the air, and chaos began.

Twilight pulled up her auto rifle and popped a few rounds into the heads of the Legionaries, staggering a few and killing a few others. Pinkie fired a few rounds from her hand cannon at the hands of the Phalanxes, trying to get a bullet through their defensive line before they could corner the seven of them. To her great frustration, none of her bullets got through, and simply bounced off the shields.

"Use fusion rifle! It goes through shield!" Shirska called to the pink pony as he put a bullet through a Psion's eye.

"Thanks!"

Within seconds, Pinkie and Rarity had switched to their fusion rifles and began thinning the ranks of Phalanxes slowly advancing on them. As they took point on the assault, Rainbow pulled the knife from her belt and stabbed a Psion that was beginning to charge up some sort of magic. But suddenly, she could no longer see herself, nor her knife. After a brief moment of wondering what was going on, she realized that she had an opportunity she didn't have before, and took to the air, flapping for the clouds. Just as she reached it, she became visible again. Setting up shop, she took her sniper out and aimed down on the Cabal troops from her perch. Phalanx soldiers began to fall with their helmets caved in and their gasses and blood spraying out. Twilight smirked, lighting up her horn and teleporting just behind the third line of Phalanx, slapping a grenade onto one, and then raising her palm at another. A magic, different from the kind she used with her horn, flowed through her arm and out her palm, splashing against the unaware Phalanx, setting its armor on fire. Briefly caught off-guard by the feeling, Twilight took a hard punch from a Legionary to the small of her back, directly into the line of focus of a Psion. With no time to react, and the others too preoccupied to kill the small Cabal, she had no choice but to take the hit. The Psion lifted itself from the ground as its own magical abilities charged, and released in the form of a wave of energy that slammed into Twilight and sent her tumbling a few meters, grunting in pain.

"TWILIGHT!" Fluttershy screamed. Applejack, noticing Twilight's need of help, picked Fluttershy up by the hips and threw her over the heads of the advancing line of Phalanx. The pegasus landed with a graceful roll, putting a shotgun blast into the neck of a Legionary that was preparing to stomp on her unicorn lover. "You really need to watch that cute butt of yours."

"Now is not exactly—" Twilight's grenade finally went off, tearing a hole in the third line of Phalanx and sending one of the shields flying towards the two. Luckily for them, it hit a Psion that considered himself rather sneaky, flattening him into the snow. "—the right time for flirting."

"And I suppose we'll just die and be revived again by happenstance to find a 'good time' for it?" Fluttershy asked while unloading burst after burst from her pulse rifle into the Legionaries that continued to approach them. A Centurion fired a salvo of rockets from its projection rifle. Twilight squawked in panic, but was interrupted by Fluttershy pulling her into a hug and rolling along the ground with the unicorn, dodging the high-velocity projectiles rather smoothly. "There are aliens on our planet trying to kill us. I don't know what you think of me, but I find you ridiculously attractive, and I would love to live long enough for a first date and maybe sex if you want."

A shot from Twilight's sniper tore the helmet off the Centurion's head, explosively decompressing its suit. "I think you're very attractive but I'm not sure about the whole sex thing yet," Twilight replied, bringing herself and Fluttershy to their feet with her magic. "Let's kick some ass together."

"You are so hot right now," Fluttershy murmured as she tossed a grenade at the last cluster of Phalanxes. The tiny explosive knocked all of the remaining shield-bearers off their feet, allowing the others to swiftly dispatch them.

"I'm flattered," Twilight giggled as she let a burst of fire from her auto rifle Tear down an approaching Psion.

"Guys, we have a problem. They have a tank," Rainbow's voice rang in the helmets of her six comrades. "It's bigger and more mobile than the Walker back on Earth."

"Luna help us..." Rarity exhaled, her voice caught in her throat.

"How long do we have before it can see us?" Twilight asked calmly, her voice belying her racing heart.

"I'd say about five minutes. It's still slow as the Walker," Rainbow answered. "I'm gonna poke it with something, see if I can't find a weak point for you guys."

"Don't get shot," Applejack huffed over the comms line.

"Same to you," the pegasus replied.

Rainbow looked down at the approaching tank on the opposite end of the compound. Adjusting her scope, Rainbow inspected the incoming Goliath Tank, her mind working furiously to calculate and predict where it would be weakest. On the four corners of its boxy and brutal frame, rounded propulsion engines kept the tank hovering just half a meter off the ground. Whenever the tank turned, the engines had to turn as well. This limit to its mobility was a weakness by itself, but Rainbow was unsatisfied with this answer. She then looked at the weapons systems, noting that it only had a main cannon. Zooming in for a closer inspection, she noticed a few panels on the armor that didn't look attached to the rest of the metal plating.

Rainbow took a shot at one of the engines, then another three. As that last shot hit, a plate fell off of the engine. A fuel valve began leaking and spraying fire, but the engine remained functional. "Looks like the four main engines are the weak point. As far as ordnance goes, I only see the main gun, but I think it's hiding rocket salvos under its armor."

"Keep shooting at the engines. Damage it as much as you can before it gets here," Twilight replied to the report. "We've got our hands full down here."

"Gotcha. I'll do what I can. But as a fair warning, these clouds are starting to get a bit thin," Rainbow huffed.

Back down on the ground, Shirska winced in pain for just a moment and cursed in his native tongue.

"You alright?" Rarity asked as she shredded a Legionary's armor apart with a blast from her fusion rifle.

"I'm not hit," Shirska growled, putting his hand cannons away and replacing them with his auto rifle. "Don't worry about me."

"THE TANK IS FIRING!" Rainbow's voice called over the comms line. "Heads up!"

Shirska looked up and saw a flaming shell flying through the air, certainly looking volatile enough to swat down a skiff as though it were no more than a fly. Twilight looked at the shell, and gauged its trajectory, Fluttershy covering her while she did so. Her conclusion was that their Captain friend would be struck directly if he didn't move from where he was now. But it was a slow projectile. Surely Shirska was nimble enough to move out of the way.

Shirska tried to move, but was stopped by another surge of pain from his abdomen, making him kneel and clutch at the pain as though to strangle it away. The shell fell from the sky and slammed directly into the Fallen's chestplate, knocking him back nearly one hundred meters. He tumbled and rolled like a rag doll. Twilight and Applejack screamed in fury and anguish. Fluttershy and Rarity stared in shock, their weapons falling to their sides. For a brief moment, even the Cabal stopped fighting. The only sounds in the compound were Applejack's incoherent screaming as she sprinted to her friend, and the far-off howl of the tank approaching.

"Shirska!" Applejack sobbed as she slid to a halt at Shirska's side. He was sprawled out, his rifle no longer in his hands. His arms were splayed out like the arms of Christ on the cross. His chestplate was largely undamaged, save for a massive crack over his abdomen where the shell hit him. His chest did not rise and fall with breath, and all was silent in that compound. "No..."

Applejack was no stranger to Death. She'd lost her parents young, and she'd lost her last remaining family, and she herself had met Death. But familiarity does nothing to dull the pain or make it easier. Life tends to do that; take precious, irreplaceable things from people at whim. Because it can, or because it doesn't care. Applejack shed her helmet and looked down with teary eyes at her fallen friend. She placed a hand over the crack in his chestplate and let herself cry.

She then looked up with fire boiling the tears away, arc energy snapping and crackling around her fists. Cabal foot soldiers stepped back and out of her path, giving her a clean line of sight to the approaching tank. Words were not necessary to communicate what the Titan was doing. Her team felt it, and the Cabal waited and watched, wishing to witness her power. A hot summer storm devoid of clouds and rain embodied itself in her fists as she walked towards the tank. The tank stood still. Time stood still. Everything in that compound wanted to witness this immense power.

She stepped on top of the tank, her boots loudly pounding against the hull, making a slight dent in its armor plating. A Psion's yelp of surprise echoed inside. She leapt up from her position on the tank and lifted herself as high as she could. High above the tank, she floated for a moment as her lift tried to keep her in the air; a goddess surveying and judging the sinner below her.

She screamed a warrior's battlecry and passed harsh judgement upon the tank and its crew, launching herself down at the tank and slamming her Fist against it. A shockwave of arc energy pulsed around the tank's hull, the engines overcharging and short-circuiting as the circuitry flooded with power. The Goliath Tank fell to the ground, its engines exploding around the Titan on top of it, but she didn't care. The crew inside screamed in agony before they faded away, likely disintegrating like the immediate area of the hull around the impact of her Fist.

The Cabal dropped their weapons, and all was quiet. They didn't need their guttural language to express the blood-chilling fear they were all feeling; the intimidation of one soldier capable of bringing down their most powerful support vehicle with only a fist.

Applejack stepped down from the crumpled pile of metal that was once a tank, and walked back to Shirska's side, kneeling next to him. She stared deeply into the crack in his chestplate and placed a hand over it.

His chest rose slowly with breath. A pained groan escaped his helmet, and his arms began to stir. It took a few moments, but as Shirska regained consciousness, he placed a hand over Applejack's.

"Did you really think I'd die that easily?" Shirska coughed.

"You took a tank shell to the chest," she said.

"I've had worse cramps," the Fallen scoffed. "Help me up?"

The Titan stood and pulled her friend up by the hand into a tight hug. "You can't leave me like that, big guy."

"I won't." He returned the gesture tentatively. He seemed unsure of its meaning, or perhaps it meant something different in his own culture. But if that was the case, he held his tongue, not wanting to ruin Applejack's moment.

"How the fuck did he live through that?" Rainbow asked as she swooped down from her position in the sky. "Glad you're okay there, Shirska."

"Hell if I know," Applejack said as she let go of Shirska.

"That chestplate is designed to absorb kinetic energy and transform it into Light as support for you guys. That Light can help you get your superpower ready sooner, assuming you've discovered it," Applejack's Ghost interjected. "Cayde probably gave that to Shirska specifically for this mission."

Rainbow placed a hand over the crack in Shirska's chestplate and felt a strange energy flow into her. "Whoa..."

"Guys. Our murderer is here," Twilight breathed.

------

"You gave him what?" Commander Zavala asked in shock and disgust. His hand gripped at the holo-table, the knuckles under his gloves likely pale.

"I gave him the best damned support armor I could get my shiny metal hands on," Cayde defended, readjusting his cloak's hood.

"Those chestplates are needed by our Guardians for the defense of our system, not—"

"They're going up against Cabal, and they're green, despite their Level," the Exo Hunter interrupted loudly. "You know they need the help and the political move they made for us could help us in the long run and you know it."

"We need to defeat the Fallen, not try to make peace with savages and devils who don't know honor," the Awoken grunted in response. "Your sly tactics are suitable for rogues and assassins but not for an organized military force."

"Look at us, Titan!" Cayde hollered, spreading his arms out and motioning to look around him. "We're Guardians! We aren't organized! And if you think we are you've been living in a fantasy land!"

"Are you two bickering again? I swear I leave you for ten minutes and you two are at each other's throats," Ikora scolded the two males in the room as she walked down the steps. "Zavala, might I remind you of that passage from Pujari? The one about killing?" She turned to Cayde. "And you. You gave an Exotic-tier armor piece to an unqualified individual without consulting us for an override. Both of you are being so incredibly stupid."

Ikora set down a data card on the table, and brought up a platform with text detailing Hive movement inside the Moscow Cosmodrome. "Cayde made a good, but still rash decision. The Hit Me With Your Best Shot will be of great use for the ponies. They're going up against a Cabal faction we'd never heard of until they brought them to our attention. And if their mission succeeds, we will have a very seasoned set of Guardians who all work well together to send where we need them, as well as more intelligence on the Cabal as a whole, and possible intelligence on the Darkness itself. The reward is well worth the risk of a chestplate."

"And what of befriending the Fallen as Cayde suggests?" Zavala spat disgustedly.

"We should strive not to be the killing machines Pujari's dream told him we were," Ikora responded calmly, looking at the report in front of her. "Allies are something we lack, and we should try our best with what opportunities we are presented to gain some."

------

The silence in the room was only amplified by the glanced made by the seven towards the Cabal soldiers walking around to address their various tasks. They sat in a wide room with a holo-table, much like the one used by the Vanguard back in the Tower, save for the choice of orange as the color of light used by the table. The seats they sat in were made of solid metal, and were made perfectly angular, without a rounded surface on them. Across from them sat the massive Cabal figure with the most decorated armor, whom the ponies remembered to be Aventus Da'axus. He kept his armor on, bright red plumes and all.

"You came here to kill me, yes?" Da'axus grunted.

"To be fair, you did kill us first," Rainbow hissed.

"Not of my own choosing," the Cabal leader responded. "If I had any way that left you alive, I would have done that instead."

"What were you trying to accomplish by coming here?" Twilight asked calmly, silencing Rainbow just before she asked her own question.

"There is an enemy enclosing on our people. Our empire's fleet is doing well to repel the enemy, but as many battles as we win, we are still losing the war," he spoke with a dry buzz. "Our expeditionary force in another system has detected an Entity that may be able to help us, if it could grant us the power it has given you. Our archaeologists have uncovered databases telling of leviathan intelligences that we wish to replicate for our own defense."

"So why go through the trouble of killing us? Why not ask the humans for help?" Rarity asked.

"We arrived in the system too late... The humans were... paranoid. Too many other external threats. They assumed we were enemies as well," Da'axus replied. "We killed you because the Entity only grants power to the dead. Now look at you. One soldier capable of eliminating one of our most powerful deployable land vehicles single-handedly."

"Why us?" Fluttershy spoke up, her wings readjusting themselves. "Why did it have to be us? Why not someone else?"

"They gave us pictures and told us it had to be you," the Cabal answered.

"Who is 'They'?" Twilight pushed herself to the edge of her seat.

"They called themselves 'The Messenger'. They looked much like you." The Cabal tapped the holo-table and brought up an image that the ponies recognized as the Stranger. "Winged. Had a horn too."

The six looked at each other with bemused expressions. Twilight sighed, and Rainbow and Applejack simply let their faces hit the table.

Pinkie on the other hand, giggled oddly, "The plot thickens!"

Da'axus continued as if he hadn't heard her. "You are the final hope for my people. We cannot defeat our enemy without you as a bridge between our people and the 'humans'. We must seek an alliance, or at least a ceasefire with your people to prevent further losses for both of our people."

"Would you be willing to come with us to Earth to speak to those who could forge an alliance?" Twilight asked.

"I fear they would try to kill me. I would be surrounded by those who want to kill me. I do not believe it to be a wise option to meet on ground that is not neutral," Da'axus said. "I also would not be an official link to my empire. My final term of service ends in only a few cycles. After that, I am a civilian."

"Ghost?" Twilight asked. "How long would it take for a message to get through to the Tower?"

"Thirty-six hours and ten minutes," J-Ami replied.

"Twilight, what about the Elements?" Pinkie reminded.

"Shit." She turned to the Cabal leader. "There were artifacts in the palace where you first landed. We need them back. Do you know where we could find them?"

Da'axus stood. "I shall give them to you on one condition."

"What condition?" Applejack huffed, crossing her arms.

He spoke, "It is a tradition in my family for the first-born son to die during service. My great grandfather died taking another planet in our system when our empire first began expanding. My grandfather died taking the planet of the Psions. My father died in a rebellion of the Psions. I wish to follow in their footsteps. I wish for you to kill me in combat."

The seven looked at each other and understood. This was their culture's honor. This was their chivalry. To die in battle was noble, and to die old and weak was pitiful. This monster they had built up as a demon in their own minds was only looking out for his race's survival. He was simply trying to save the lives of those he cared about. The six who died at his hands felt an odd sort of respect for this creature, this intelligent being. And on the matter of the Stranger's involvement, all they could really say was that Da'axus was presented a course of action that he was told would lead to the salvation of his people, just like he wanted. They couldn't blame him for what he'd done, no matter how terrible they once believed him to be, or how cruel his actions were. Under the circumstances, Da'axus made the best play he had, and truth be told, Twilight would have made that same leap of faith.

Twilight stood up, unslinging the rifle from her back and gripping it in her hands. All of the other Cabal in the room raised their weapons at her, but lowered them as Da'axus made a motion for them all to stand down. The other six rose and did the same with their weapons, the Legionaries in the room questioning their commander's order to stand down. Da'axus held out one of his massive hands, then curled it into a fist and placed it against his chestplate. Twilight mimicked the gesture, assuming it was one of respect to an adversary in their culture. The others followed her lead, save for Shirska, who bowed instead.

"Seven on one is hardly fair odds," Twilight said.

"I've won with worse odds, and lost with better," Da'axus replied.

"We have super powers now," Twilight said. "You saw what Applejack did to your tank. Your troops experienced Shirska's combat prowess on Venus."

"I know. I am well aware of your abilities. I know that not all of you have your powers yet," he countered. "Only three, and I don't think one would be a good option to use against me."

"What if one of us discovers our super power during our fight?" Rarity asked, stepping closer to their adversary.

The Cabal general looked down at the unicorn, and punched his own chestplate, making a loud but dull metallic thunk. "Hit me with your best shot."

Author's Note:

Sorry this took so long to shove out. Life started shitting on me and some close friends. Someone seriously needs to potty-train Life. But guess what?

I'm going to be writing this story for NaNoWriMo, so if all goes well, I'll be putting 50k words (12.5 chapters for those of you who haven't noticed the pattern) into this story by the end of November. That's a chapter roughly every other day. Get ready for updates galore.

<3 DarqFox

You thought Shirska died for a moment there. Don't lie; you know you did.

Comments

[DeltaOsprey]

I would use that exotic chest piece. Damage taken converted to orbs plus give it minions of darkness killed grants faster super charge and I would were the hell out of it.

[Starlight Nova]

What is this story a crossover of?

[That One Hunter]

Guys, we have a problem. They have a tank

They have a tank, why would you bring a tank to space?

[That One Hunter]

6587538 Destiny

[Aerin Silverfeather]

I would tap shirska,

[GjallarFox]

6587538
Um. Did you look at the cover art? Or read the description?

It's a Destiny crossover.

<3 DarqFox

[GjallarFox]

6587238
The Hit Me With Your Best Shot is intended as a support exotic. It's full powers are as follows:
Hand Cannon Ammo upgrade
Shotgun Ammo upgrade
It's Just A Flesh Wound: Your melee and grenade cooldowns instantly reset when you are critically wounded. You will also spawn orbs for your teammates when you are critically wounded, and your super charges faster while your shields are down.
Death Wish: Surviving a near-death experience has a chance to instantly charge your super.
Upgrade Defense (x4)

Since this story doesn't work exactly the same as the game does, and Shirska isn't a Guardian, instead of spawning orbs, the chestplate has a sort of reservoir that fills with light the more shots he takes, and can be tapped into by any Guardian with a superpower by touching it.

<3 DarqFox

[Mkchief34]

Heck Yeah! Hidden Exotic, new chapter! Loveeeed It!

[DeltaOsprey]

6588818 I would still wear that. My favorite activity is punching the enemies of humanity and therefore I often find myself in the critically wounded stage.

[Jonny Bench]

Not gonna lie, i tried to find out if that was a legit armor piece you were talking about. I can't tell though