Chapter 15: Vor's Prize
Princess Celestia waited in the center of the throne room, poised ready for combat. She had sent her guards away, fearing for their safety as the Grineer broke their way through her castle. Soon, the cloned abominations pushed through the doors to her throne room, Captain Vor the first to walk in and sneer at her.
“What are you creatures?” he grumbled, pointing the void key at her. “Where is the Lotus!”
“Right here,” she said firmly. “I will not allow you to harm any of my loyal ponies. This battle is between you and me.”
“Ponies?” Vor repeated. “The Lotus is a pony?” He started bellowing with laughter, earning a few small chuckles from his men. “I thought the Lotus would be a worthy adversary. Now I know I have wasted my time preparing to face you!”
Celestia rose up into the air. “Oh, you will find me to be a worthy adversary, captain.”
Her horn glowed with magic before firing a concentrated beam towards the enemy’s location. Vor drew back the void key before unleashing a beam of his own. The two beams impacted into each other, sparking energy all across the room, smashing some of the windows and pillars. One unlucky Grineer was vaporized on the stop when a tendril of golden energy struck him.
“You cannot win, Lotus!” Vor taunted, still steadily fighting back. “This void key is beyond you. Even you don’t know its true power!”
Celestia focused more power into her magic blast, slowly pushing the captain’s back towards him. He took a few steps back as the energy closed in on him. He grunted and pushed harder, releasing more of the void energy into his attack. The stray energy around the room started arcing uncontrollably, tearing off portions of the walls and floor, threatening to destroy the throne room. Sweat beaded on the sun princess’s face as she strained against the Grineer captain. She had to channel her own magic, while the captain didn’t. Soon, she felt her beam growing smaller, allowing the Grineer’s energy to push back.
Panic began to seep into Celestia’s face. This was like the wedding all over again; if help didn’t come soon, it was all over.
Rainbow Dash led the charge as they got passed the small Grineer groups on the way to the throne room. Vor had only entered with a small group, while his second army was being held off by the Excalibur outside the portal, allowing the team to push through without much trouble.
“Faster, guys!” Rainbow called from way ahead. “Run faster!”
“Ah can only go so fast!” Applejack complained, being slowed down by Rhino’s Warframe. “This suit isn’t built for speed.”
“Sorry, Applejack. At least my defence makes up for the lack of speed.”
“Huh. Imagine if ya had both defence and speed.”
“That would be, as your Rainbow Dash friend says… awesome. But highly unlikely. That would make me way too powerful.”
“Take the next left!” Twilight shouted to Rainbow from behind.
Rainbow waved a thanks and disappeared around the corridor. There were several wet snapping sounds as she plowed through an unfortunate butcher who had been left behind to watch for intruders.
The others eventually arrived at the turn, watching their rainbow friend speed along towards the throne room door.
“Just thought you should know, Twilight Sparkle,” Nyx cautioned. “If you fail to save the Lotus, I will record your name down in the Tenno archives as the greatest failure in known history.”
“If you must know, Nyx, I’m not going to fail. We will save the princess. None of us will be dying here today.”
“You’d better not. As much as we hate to admit it, we are counting on you.” Was it just Twilight’s imagination, or did Nyx sound… tense?
“‘We? There is no ‘we’. It’s only you who doesn’t like how things have turned out,” Twilight reminded her partner. “The others get along with their Tenno well. I don’t see why we haven’t been able to do so yet. I’ve improved, haven’t I?”
“Very well, Twilight Sparkle… As this may be the last time we have a proper chance to talk… I want you to at least know that I think you show a lot of… spirit. After all the insults I threw at you, you never quit. Maybe that was the wrong way to teach you. And the truth is being unable to move, to perform my duty as a Tenno, has vexed me to no end. I suppose I took out my frustration on you. I’m… sorry.”
“So it wasn’t because I was bad at this?” Twilight questioned. “But it was because you were just not what you used to be?”
“Well, no. You’re still pretty bad. But not as bad as I was making you out to be.”
“That’s still better,” Twilight replied as they neared the throne room. “Well, Nyx. These last few days spent with you, they haven’t been all perfect, but I’m glad that I got the chance to know you.”
Just as Twilight finished, the team barrelled through what was left of the throne room doors, instinctively shielding their eyes from the light battle that was currently taking place. Captain Vor and what was left of his soldiers stood near them, while the captain faced off against Princess Celestia. His void key against her alicorn magic.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight shouted over the raging energy.
The sun princess didn’t hear her, but the aliens did. Three of the lancers along with a black-armored manic turned to them and bared their weapons.
“Kill them!” Vor ordered, still blasting what he had at the princess. His beam was slowly pushing towards her. Celestia’s body started collapsing under the strain, her right hooves down to the ground.
Home Run immediately pushed past his friends and started a wind barrier with his jat kittag, swiping away the bullets as they whizzed towards him.
“Very good, Home Run,” Vauban congratulated. “I see you’re learning how to use your jat kittag effectively. You’ve been bringing up that gust quite a bit now.”
“As I’ve said,” Home Run began. “It’s like my bat. All I have to do is swing it more.”
Rainbow, Rarity, Twilight, and Sunset fired their weapons at the lancers, taking them down quickly, but the manic ran straight for Home Run, jumping right through his barrier and barreling into him, knocking him down. It raised its claw to slash at his Warframe, but Rainbow and Applejack tackled it, pushing it off Home Run and onto the ground. They held him for a moment before it teleported out of their grasp with a maniacal laughter.
“W-where’d it go?” Fluttershy whispered, gripping her bo staff tighter.
Something dark appeared behind her, grappling her arms and pulling them back.
“Eep!” Fluttershy muttered, struggling to get out of the manic’s grasp. She started whimpering and shivering as the creature raised a clawed hand to the side of her head.
“Let her go,” Rarity raised her bow, aiming it at the manic.
The manic cackled, putting the tip of his claws to Fluttershy’s head. “Do you dare take this risk?”
Tears of fear streamed down the pink haired girl’s visor as she stood under the manic’s control. “...H-h-help…”
“You heard her. She wants your help,” the manic laughed again. “Guns on the ground. All of them. Now!”
Sunset and the others reluctantly complied, dropping their guns to the ground. The manic still stood firm, one hand holding Fluttershy’s arms, and the other on her head. Home Run looked to the energy duel happening beside them. Vor was still pushing the princess back, her face looking more tired the more she held her beam up. There was no way she was going to last out much longer.
He turned back just as Fluttershy kicked back with one leg, getting the manic in between it's legs. It released her arms, allowing the girl to whip around and deliver an elbow to the manic’s face. The Grineer staggered back and readied itself to teleport again. Then there was a flash of purple, and the manic fell to the floor with a smoking hole in its chest.
Rarity quickly went to get Fluttershy, trying to calm the frightened girl.
“Hello, everyone,” Princess Luna announced, the magic fading from her horn. Beside her was a peculiarly dressed pony with bat-like wings and a sword between her teeth. “Did we miss anything?”
"Who's this?" Home Run asked. He looked at her. Something about her looked familiar. "Are you one of the princess's guards?"
The others shrugged, but Twilight remained still, giving the blue pony a surprised look. "Umm... guys? This is Princess Luna. Princess Celestia's sister."
"I knew it!" Pinkie immediately shouted.
"I'm sorry, princess," Home Run apologized. "I didn't know."
Luna shook her head. "No time for apologies now. We have to help my sister, whatever you are. She won't last much longer." She looked to her bat-like companion. "Eclair. We must stop that monster."
The two of them lifted off the ground and flew straight for the captain. Vor changed his attention and swatted the smaller pony away with his free hand, while turning the void key on the moon princess.
Princess Celestia dropped her beam, exhausted from the lengthy fight. Princess Luna dodged Vor's beam and blasted her own at him. All of a sudden, the captain disappeared in a flash of light.
"What...?" Luna muttered.
On the other side of the room, Celestia slowly lifted her head and looked at the others. "We... believe... Vor has the ability... to teleport..."
"I'm coming, Tia!" Luna called, heading for the white alicorn.
Vor materialized under her, grabbing her back hoof and flinging her forward, slamming her into Sunset and Rarity.
"Wah!" they gasped as the alicorn hit them.
The Grineer captain lifted the void key to the air, releasing a golden pulse, knocking back everyone around him. “You think you can defeat me? Ha! Strength to the Grineer!”
“We need to get that key away from him,” Home Run suggested to his friends. “Or at least distract him long enough to get a good shot in.”
“Distracting?” Pinkie shot up. “I can do distracting! I’m very good at it! This one time-”
“Good enough, Pinkie,” Rainbow stopped her. She turned to Home Run. “I’ll help her with the distracting. I’m fast enough, and quite awesome.”
Home Run nodded. “I guess the rest of us will try to hit him when we get the chance. Be careful.”
“Sounds like a good plan, Home Run,” Vauban agreed. “We need to time our attack right on the spot. If that captain even figures out what you’re planning to do, he’ll change his plans. I suggest a continuous attack. He cannot possibly defend himself from so many targets at once.”
“Perhaps,” Home Run nodded again. “That does seem to make sense.”
“I’ll help,” Princess Luna said, getting off the two girls. “I will not let this thing harm my sister.”
“As will I,” Luna’s associate added, flipping the sword.
“Right. The rest of us will try to take him down,” Twilight joined in. “You with me, Nyx?”
“I am. Although, even if I wasn’t… you’re the one wearing my skin. Lead on, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Let’s finish this,” Home Run smiled, spinning his hammer.
Rainbow led the next attack, flinging herself straight for the captain. He blasted a beam of energy at her, but she quickly spun out of the way, heading higher to the ceiling and shooting down with her akstilettos. Pinkie created four clones of herself and blasted the captain with her boars. He took a few bullets, but conjured a bubble shield around himself, keeping the bullets away. Home Run and Applejack went in with their melee weapons, bashing at the shield with all they had. It didn’t break, creating a smirk on the captain’s deformed face.
“Foolish Tenno… this will hurt!”
He deactivated the shields and shot at them with his seer pistol. Applejack took a few bullets to the shields, but Home Run brought up his hammer and deflected what he could. Luna joined in, firing a purple beam of magic at the captain. He teleported out of the way, appearing behind the Pinkies. He slashed one down before she retreated forward, shooting more shotgun pellets at him. Vor aimed the void key and fired, almost hitting the pink girls. Luna swooped in and created a magic shield, taking the brunt of it. Her shield shattered, but she managed to get Pinkie to safety before that.
“It’s not working!” she shouted to the Warframes.
“Vauban,” Home Run called. “You have anything? You’re the brilliant one.”
“As a matter of fact, partner, I do. Perhaps if you could use your powers in tandem.”
“Vauban is correct,” Trinity said in his head. “We used to combine our powers to devastating effect back in the old days. Perhaps you will be able to do it too.”
“Yes, give it a go,” Mag agreed. “All of you.”
“Tandem?” Home Run asked. Then he thought of something. “Rainbow! Come here! I’ve got something.”
She swooped down next to him and waited. “Go on! What’s up. We don’t have much time for elaborate speeches.”
He pulled out a few dozen grenades. “Stand still.”
“What’re you-” she stopped as Home Run began sticking them to her, soon covering her in his round tesla grenades.
Rainbow shrugged and blasted off into the sky, heading back for the captain. As soon as she got close enough, the grenades on her body sensed the Grineer, immediately arcing electricity towards him. The captain flinched and grunted as the bolts struck him, but didn’t falter. Sunset tossed her gun to Applejack, asking the farm girl to shoot the captain with it.
“Whatever works,” Applejack said, clicking down the trigger to the ice gun.
The cold beam streamed towards the captain, who fired back with his void key, halting the beam. Sunset saw her chance and lobbed a fireball at the ice, creating a massive explosion, flinging the captain back a few feet.
“Tenno…” he grumbled. “This will not help you.”
Sunset continued to blast him with fire, while Applejack trained the cold gun on him. Rarity and Twilight did what they could, firing as many shots at the captain as they could. Rainbow flew in from behind, adding on electricity to the fire around him, creating small clouds of radiation at his feet.
“Gah!” Vor shouted, having enough with the Warframes and ponies. He built up the void energy around his key, firing it up in the air, creating tendrils around him.
They swayed around and knocked back Rainbow and Home Run, while keeping Pinkie occupied, forcing the girl and her clones to dance around as the tendrils smashed at her.
Vor smiled as he pushed the attacks away from himself, widening his attack range and taking better aim at each of the Mirage copies. Rarity saw her chance as Vor’s attention went elsewhere. She put an arrow into her bow and aimed for the arm carrying the void key. If she could disable it, the captain would be helpless against the Waframes’ combined assault.
“You got this one, Rarity,” Mag encouraged. “Make it real.”
“No pressure,” Rarity said through clenched teeth as she took aim at the relatively small target.
She released the arrow, watching as it sailed beautifully through the air, right under a few of the tendrils and straight into the captain’s right arm, punching through the armor in a spray of blood and sparks.
“Graaaah!” Vor screamed as he grabbed for his arm, the energy tendrils around him dissipating.
“Fantastic shot, Rarity!” Twilight cheered.
“Let’s end this,” Home Run told the others. “Before he recovers.”
“Home Run’s right!” Vauban told his fellow Tenno. “We must destroy him now!”
Twilight tapped into her energy and inflicted a mind control of the wounded captain, forcing him to drop the void key and go down on one leg, letting out a guttural roar as he fought against the mental assault.
“I’ll take that,” Rainbow slid past him and snatched up the key before taking off.
Sunset, Applejack, and Home Run combined their elements, firing on the downed captain with fire, ice, and electric, creating different chain reactions around him. Princess Luna joined in, firing a concentrated beam at Vor. The combined effort finally pulled down his shields and damaged parts of his armor. Pinkie and Twilight quickly added in their share of bullets, piercing the captain’s deformed body.
“No!” Captain Vor screeched as he went down on both knees. “This cannot be… Nooo!"
The combination of the all-out attack took its toll on the captain as he fell to the ground, his good arm stretched out in front of him as if he was reaching for a prize.
The Warframes and ponies stood around Vor’s fallen body, which jerked and spasmed for a good thirty seconds before finally lying still.
"We... we did it." Twilight stepped towards the Grineer's body where blood was beginning to pool.
Luna floated herself over to her sister to check on her, while the others came together.
"We did it! We did it!" Pinkie cheered loudly. "We should have a party! Like, a really big one! I'll have to bring my party cannon!"
"Please don't bring the cannon, Pinkie..." Fluttershy softly said. "It's very loud..."
"Wow..." Home Run breathed. "That was a tough one. I think we're all going to start feeling it tomorrow."
"Well... Thankfully there ain't no school tomorrow," Applejack said as she slumped against a pillar. "That'll give us some time to rest up."
"I'm glad that the fighting's over," Twilight agreed. "I better go check on Princess Celestia. Seems to me like she used a great amount of magic to hold Vor back."
The group converged on Celestia, walking towards her and her sister. Unknown to them, the Grineer captain pushed himself off the ground once more, turning a raging face towards them all. He pulled out his cronus and readied it in his good hand. He was done for and knew it, but before he died, he would make the Tenno suffer for what they had done, and he would complete his mission.
"For my queens..."
Vor flung the sword and watched as it spun towards the Lotus.
Out of the corner of his eye, Home Run saw the silvery blade blur through the air. In that instant, without a second thought, he knew what he had to do.
The blade thunked into the boy’s Warframe blade first. His shields, already weakened from the battle, broke instantly. Everyone could only look on in horror as the Vauban slid onto the floor, sparking and shuddering.
“NO!” Captain Vor screamed before Twilight ended his outburst with a double headshot. The captain collapsed back to the ground in a defeated heap of cloned flesh.
“Home Run!” The team gathered around the boy, laying flat on the ground. “Come on, say something!”
When Home Run didn’t respond, Rainbow Dash sank down onto her knees, Zephyr’s helmet folding back. “No…” she whispered, her face frozen in disbelief. “No. H-he can’t!”
“Rainbow,” Fluttershy said softly, putting a comforting hand on her friend’s back, which was shrugged off immediately.
“You can’t die!” Rainbow choked. “There’s so much you have to do!” she pounded on the floor despondently.
“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said again. She was ignored.
“You gotta live, Home Run! You have a baseball game to win! Y-you can’t just leave the team hanging like this!” The strength drained out of the athlete completely and she slumped over onto Vauban’s chest. “Don’t leave us…” she whispered. “Not now.”
“Rainbow Dash…”
“What?!” Rainbow snapped, not moving.
“I can’t breathe...”
An armored hand slowly eased into Rainbow’s field of vision and pushed her slowly up. A hand that she recognized. Vauban’s hand. Rainbow Dash looked up into Home Run’s smiling face as he sat up, looking none the worse for wear.
“Home Run! You’re alive! But... but how?”
“A cronus is not a throwing weapon, Rainbow Dash,” Zephyr said with a bit of barely concealed amusement. “The blade didn’t even puncture the outer armor.”
Fluttershy put her hand up meekly. “I, um, was going to tell you there was nothing to worry about, but you know, you seemed… busy.”
“But I saw you go down!” exclaimed Rainbow as they both stood up. “Why’d you fall over if it didn’t go through?”
“Well....” Home Run rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I’d been swinging that hammer around so much today that I was really tired, so when the sword hit me I kinda lost my balance and hit my head. Still, I’m fine now, right?”
Rainbow Dash blinked stupidly, her eyes and mouth wide. Then she punched Home Run in the stomach.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“For making me look lame in front of everyone!” Rainbow sulked, putting up her helmet to hide her embarrassment. “You big jerk.”
"What...?" Home Run began. "That's not fair."
Instead of explaining, Rainbow stepped forward and gave him a big hug. "I'm glad you're alright, though. Don’t you dare go down on me again."
The others joined in, creating one big team group hug.
"Wooohoooo!" Pinkie started. "Homey's a hero!"
"That was very thoughtful of ya, Home Run," Applejack told him.
"We're all proud of you!" Sunset added as the team separated.
"As am I. You risked your life to protect the Lotus. The Tenno are all grateful to you," Vauban said. "I am glad to have you as my partner."
"Home Run..." Princess Celestia walked over, supported by her sister and the other pony. "Thank you... for what you did. I was right about you... You were meant to have found the void key that day."
"Speaking of void key..." Rainbow walked forward and handed it to the princess.
Luna picked it up for her sister and inspected it. "Such a small oddity, but yet, contains more power than an alicorn?"
Celestia slowly nodded her head. "These keys predate our time, sister. I think it's time we place it where it should be." She panned her head at the Warframes. "Thank you all. The Grineer have been defeated because of you. It is now time to place the second key to unlock the full power of the Tenno. Luna, if you would, help me to my study."
Luna nodded. "Come, Eclair. To my sister's study."
Home Run and the girls watched as Luna inserted the key into its slot. Princess Celestia had suggested they step out of their suits for the time being, just in case. Almost as soon as it was placed, the panel slid back into the large console; its screen glowing brighter than before.
Void key inserted. Reviving power...
On cue, the lights in the room began glowing brighter, illuminating more of the space. The Warframes began glowing as well, their full power slowly returning to them. One by one, the Warframes started moving on their own, the Tenno once again in control.
"Alright!" Ember whooped, moving her arms and creating fire all around her. "We're back on! This is hot!"
Rhino walked to Applejack and offered a hand. "Now we can finally shake. Thank you for working with me."
"No problem, partner." Applejack shook his hand.
Pinkie happily jumped around Mirage. "Mirage! Now we can plan parties together! Not... the killing kinds, though."
Mirage sighed and crossed her arms. "If that is what you wish, I will comply. For now."
“Alright!”
Twilight walked up to Nyx, who was still testing her mobility and finger movement. “So, Nyx. I Guess you won’t need me anymore, since you’ve gotten control of your Warframe back.”
“Yes, that’s true…” Nyx supposed. “But… there is one thing, Twilight Sparkle. You’ve seen Excalibur in action. When… when a pilot and Tenno bond to the deepest level… when they achieve Maximum Drift… they can achieve something that neither of them can do alone.” And then Nyx did something Twilight would never have expected. She held out her hand for the princess to take. “Knowing this, I would be… reasonably satisfied if you would be my companion.”
Twilight really never expected Nyx to ask something like this. “Nyx… you… still want me to pilot you?”
“Now that I am able to control this body as well, it’ll be something like… sharing the actions. I will be able to act as I want, but so will you. This will allow us a new level of combat. You… you have actually… been a g-good partner. Will you… continue to fight with me?”
“Sure, Nyx.” Twilight took her hand. “Friends?
“Associates. We’re not friends, not yet.”
Twilight rolled her eyes as the Warframe folded around her once more. It was strange; the interior of it felt warmer and softer than before.
“What about you, my brothers, my sisters? Shall we give our pilots one more dance?” Nyx addressed the other Tenno. It didn’t take long for them to decide.
“Why wouldn’t I? We’re too awesome to be apart!” Zephyr embraced the overjoyed Rainbow Dash.
“I will be sticking with Pinkie Pie,” Mirage motioned, melding around the energetic girl. “We still need to discuss our victory party, after all!”
“Exactly! When we get back, it’s party time!” Pinkie cheered.
“Home Run?” Vauban asked.
“Of course, man. You’re a good friend to have.”
Vauban folded out and Home Run walked in as the metal folded back over him.
"Fluttershy. Would you consider still working together? I think you are an excellent partner. And don't worry. If there is fighting to be done, I will do it for you."
"I w-wouldn't mind, Trinity," Fluttershy said as she got into the suit. "I mean, being able to h-help out is nice..."
Ember also approached Sunset, but almost forgot to extinguish her fire first. “Oops. My fault, Sunset Shimmer. Almost burned you there. Although, you’re pretty hot stuff yourself. Together, we’ll set the world on fire.”
Mag and Rhino also merged with their human pilots, having bonded well with them in the last few days.
“This is an unexpected outcome,” Princess Celestia smiled. “Never did I think the Tenno would want to continue on with you. It seems that when the Grineer return again, I can count on you all to protect both worlds from their greedy hands. The queens are not known to give up just like that.”
“Lotus,” Nyx walked up to the princess. “What of the others that sleep? Why haven’t they emerged?”
Celestia looked to the pods, still dormant against the walls of her sanctum. “I fear that Captain Vor had used too much of the key’s power. The rest of the energy was spread amongst you that were awake. It seems that the others will only activate once they have found suitable partners.”
“I see…” Nyx replied rather disappointedly.
As the other Tenno and pilots exchanged their wishes to be together, Nyx and Twilight meandered over to the wall, where the rest of the cryopods stood waiting. Unbidden, Nyx raised her hand and solemnly wiped away the condensation on one.
“We’ll fight side by side again, brother. I swear it.”
Twilight tried to catch a view of the name of the Warframe in the cryopod, but decided against it. This seemed like something personal and she kept respectfully silent until Nyx turned away.
“We have to awaken the rest...” Nyx muttered, stunning Twilight with the devotion in her voice. “We have to.”
Suddenly, Home Run started heading for the doors.
“Home Run,” Rainbow called. “Where’re you off to?”
“We’re going to check on Excalibur,” Home Run reminded them of their friend who stayed back. “This fight might not be over yet.”
“Who knows? Maybe the Grineer outside all dropped dead after their leader was killed.”
“That makes no sense at all. What do you think this is, a cheap cop out in a movie?” Home Run beckoned to the rest of them. “Come on. We still need to deal with the captain’s other ship.”
“Take care,” Celestia wished as they waved and bowed to her. “Now go defend your world.”
The world was on fire around them as they reemerged through the Grineer gate. Some of the buildings lay in heaps of rubble and metal, destroyed by something heavy falling on them.
“What happened here?” Rarity asked as he looked around. “Where are the aliens?”
“The Grineer have been taken care of,” a voice said in their heads.
“Who said that?” Applejack looked to the others. “Was it you, Rhino?”
“Of course not. That was Excalibur. He’s right over there,” Rhino pointed with an arm.
Excalibur was sitting on a giant piece of broken metal in the center of the road, giving his sword a few swings at nothing.
“You sure took your time,” he told them without facing them. “We had to take down the entire galleon by ourselves.”
“You have our thanks, though,” Excalibur replied in their heads. “I take it you saved the Lotus and inserted the void key?”
“Correct, Excalibur,” Vauban voiced. “We have now become one with our pilots, just like you and yours.”
The others scanned the ruins around them. Hundreds of Grineer bodies were strewn all across the road, either in one piece, or in a few pieces. Some of the girls held back their lunch as they tried to forget what they just saw. In front of the Excalibur lay the galleon, or what was left of it. There were fragments of the destroyed ship all over the place, some impacting themselves in the ruined buildings, and others just lying around. Fire had spread across the whole area, darkening the immediate sky above them with smoke.
“Did you… destroy that ship?” Home Run asked. “All by yourself?”
Excalibur looked around. “Do you see anyone else around?”
“Does no one else see this?” Sunset asked about the damage. “No cops or anything?”
“Not yet,” Excalibur shook his head and got up. “I’ve set up magic blockades around this area to keep the humans out. Luckily, none of them have wandered in yet, but a few persons are bound to see all this. Here’s where I’ll need your help. I usually clean up after you kids. I make sure everything looks the same as it did before a battle. This time, I’ll need your help to clean this all up.”
The team moved around to help the Excalibur clear the bodies while he handled all the rubble and buildings. With some magical reagent, the buildings all returned to their previous state, like they were never blown down in the first place. After gathering all the bodies, he did the same with them, making them vanish into nothing but tiny spots, easily missed by the human eye. Soon, he headed for the gate and torsion beam, cutting them down to size before using the agent, dissolving them as well.
“Thank you all,” Excalibur said as the gathered together. “Couldn’t have done this without you.”
Excalibur turned and got ready to leave, but Applejack called him out. “Hey, Excalibur, ya told me you was goin’ to tell us who ya were if we made it out alive.”
He stopped and half-turned his head to talk to her. “It’s not who I am underneath that matters. As long as the Lotus is safe, it doesn’t matter who I am. Even if aliens are real and if they came from the stars.”
With that said, he ran up one of the buildings and disappeared from sight.
“Bruce Mane?” Pinkie said out of nowhere.
“Who in the hay is Bruce Mane?” Applejack inquired. She thought about what the man had said before he left, thinking back to the first day at school. “...Mr. Loregiver?”
Princess Celestia woke up in her bed, her head still sore from the overuse of her magic. Luna sat on the other side, watching as she started to rise out of the sheets.
“Good evening, sister,” Luna smiled, getting off the chair. “Are you well rested?”
“Yes, thank you for finishing up my daily duties, Luna,” Celestia nodded her thanks. “I feel much better now, although I probably shouldn’t use my magic for a while.”
“That is no problem, Tia. I only just raised the moon; you should have a good twelve hours of rest before you need to raise the sun,” Luna told her sister. “But before you go back to sleep… I must ask you to tell me everything about this past week. I’m not stupid, Tia. We both know you have a lot of explaining to do.”
“I know I do,” Celestia acknowledged. “And I’m sorry I kept it from you in the first place; it’s just that I didn’t feel it was right to put my own problems on you. Although...” the sun princess looked at Luna slyly. “You’ve been doing some secret things on your own, hmm? Spying on me? Don’t try to deny it.”
“Very well, sister!” Luna laughed. “Time to put everything on the table. But you’re going first.”
“Alright,” Celestia join in. “You’ve earned it. Come here and sit with me. This is going to take a while...”
Home Run woke to the sound of his phone ringing. He grumbled as he reached for it, opening one eye to make sure he grabbed the right thing. He found it much harder to lift his arm, feeling the aches from the long fight with Captain Vor and his Grineer. Eventually, his hand made it to the communications device and pressed the green button.
“Hello… this is Home Run…”
“Yo, Home Run! Guess who!”
“Bruce Mane?” Home Run joked.
“What…? No!”
“Just joking, Rainbow,” Home Run started laughing. “Didn’t think you would take me seriously.”
“Ho ho, I see what you did there, Homey!” Rainbow smirked.
“Anyway, did you need something, or are you calling for fun?” Home Run got to the point after calming his laughter.
“Uh, yeah, right! Pinkie’s invited us to another party, so I thought I’d let you know you are invited! Pinkie’s house, noon.”
Home Run grinned. “I’ll be there,” he promised, putting the phone down.
He sat up in bed, a task made harder by the various bruises he had received over the past week, whether it be from fighting Grineer, training, or running into a drop pod. He grabbed a fresh pair of clothes and stopped by the clock, just in case his rainbow haired friend had woken him too early again. It was half past ten. At night.
“Dang it, Rainbow Dash!”
Home Run counted the houses to Pinkie’s place as he cycled on, keeping an easy pace so as to not strain his legs. He eventually arrived at the relatively bland house, which he found strange for such an energetic, random girl. He chained his bike to a nearby lamp post and headed for the front door. After two knocks, Pinkie opened the door, welcoming him in with an explosion of confetti and streamers.
“Welcome, Homey!” she shouted at his face. “Come on in!”
Home Run entered, surprised to see everyone else already here and partying with their Tenno. Home Run activated his suit and stepped out of it, allowing Vauban the free rein of movement. The analytical Tenno went over to join his brothers and sisters, who were investigating a Grineer shaped pinata, while Home Run went to get a glass of punch with the Rainbooms.
“Some party, Pinkie." He drained the glass in one go. It tasted like grape juice, cool and refreshing, even if the grape was a bit too strong.
"I'm surprised you didn't show up last night, Home Run!" Rainbow butted in, trying to keep back her laughter.
Home Run pouted, but joined her in the good natured fun soon after. “Well you know, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
"What happened?" Pinkie asked.
"I'll tell you in a minute," Home Run said, feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket. He had just received a message. "Better not be any kind of scam."
He took it out and opened his messages, looking at the newest one. It was from an unknown number, but what caught Home Run's attention was the message itself.
“Your actions have consequences,” he read aloud. In place of the number, there was a murky image of what looked like someone’s head in the shadows.
And he wasn’t the only one.
"What is this?" Rainbow complained. "Spam? I just got the same message as Home Run."
"I think we've all received it," Vauban said as he and the other Tenno walked over. "We just got the same message in our inbox. Your actions have consequences. Even I cannot trace the sender’s signature."
"Whoever sent this has a lot of nerve, trying to scare us Tenno," Nyx muttered. "It won't work."
"W-what do you s-suppose they want..." Fluttershy shook as she read the message again.
“I don’t care,” Trinity took Fluttershy’s hand reassuringly. “Whoever it is, we’ll give them a fight to remember.”
"Too right," Mag added. "We won't let whoever sent this harm you. Any of you."
“Hey, I got an idea…” Pinkie said while holding back a laugh. “Everyone come here…”
Far out in the depths of the void, a lone figure prowled the darkness between worlds. So the Tenno had risen again, this time at the bidding of the Lotus. The figure held out its hand, red void energy cascading down from it as it checked the link. Soon, very soon, the way would be clear and the Tenno would fall to its blade. The Orokin, and now Captain Vor, would be avenged.
An eerie chime indicated an incoming message. Bringing it up, the figure viewed it and almost laughed.
It displayed the Tenno and their pilots standing around in an enclosed space, looking victorious and fearless. The words ‘Come at me bro’ were scrawled on the bottom.
With a flick of its wrist, the figure shattered the visual representation of the challenge. A scythe gleamed in the scarlet light as it brought the bladed side to its eye level. Soon, they would know what it was like to lose everything.
"Challenge… accepted."
To be continued in part 2/act 2/season 2, whatever you want to call it!
Well, thanks for reading this far if you did, but I'll be taking a break here for a while to sort some other things out.
So... to be continued! 
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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*stumbles across fic* *looks at story art*
Rainbow Dash as Zephyr? I can dig it. Fluttershy as Trinity? Ok, good so far. Applejack as Rhino? I could see that. Twilight as Nyx? Can't really argue with that. Sunset Ember? Pinkie Mirage? ...I'm okay with this. Rarity as Mag? *raises finger in thought, then quickly lowers it*. Well, I guess you could say she's always fashioned herself an attractive sort? Bad puns aside, you sir (or madam, just to be safe), have intrigued me with the story image, and will be giving this story a shot.
EDIT: Well, that was an interesting ride. Looking forward to more.
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Thanks again for reading though!
Well, thanks for reading it! And nice pun, but we mainly chose Mag for her because of the generous abilities of shield polarize and bullet attractor. And partially from the magnet scene in Rainbow Rocks. Haha, so you weren't too far from that! We're actually on a break now (For other things to catch up, mainly), so it'll take some time for part 2 to show up.
Stalker? That's rather mean. Killing Vor doesn't give you a Stalker mark in Warframe so Stalker doesn't wreck shop with new players.
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But this was Equestrian Vor Different
Actually, that happened in the first Avengers movie.
Hahahahahahaha
Horse puns are magic.
This was a fun start. Home Run is okay... nothing bad but nothing much to make him stand out to me. The scenes were actioned packed and it was nice to see Sunset and the human six all together interacting which wasn't seen as much in Leap of Faith. Now let's see where Act II leads us...
So far it's been fun although some of the writing could use some work. Excited to keep going though.
I enjoyed this a lot more this time. I think it's a mix of having Warframe knowledge and not being as critical. I had a really good time.
Now then, enter The Stalker!