The Guardian's story

by Lon35hadow

Heir finding

Really, for me, Cybis, and Rhino, the portal wasn't all that bad, but that might have been because we were already humans, technically speaking, as the Awoken are humans who had tried to escape the collapse, and Exos were built in humanity's likeness. I wasn't sure about the others, though. I imagine few changes happened because obvious reasons, but still. Which reminds me.

Okay, so, according to the Fall of Sunset Shimmer comic book, Luna, or Nightmare, who the hell knows with the human world was Vice principal before Sunset's arrival, so Nightmare won't be able to be at the school to help, same with AJ. Twilight, maybe, I don't know. Forge and Sight, depends on their ages upon exiting the portal, though I imagine it would be the same as in Equestria, thanks to the Vex. There's a sentence I didn't expect to say in goodwill. Also, it was a Saturday back in Equestria, so most likely the same in the human world. Good, assuming it's, well, you know, like the American School system. Let's hope the government isn't the same, am I right?

Anyway, the last part of the trip was accompanied by a flash of light, and i felt something happen to my body, but I wasn't certain what it was. When it faded, I lay on my chest in front of Canterlot high. "Everyone okay?" I asked.

"Good," I heard five female voices say at once, but a lack of two male voices. Oh, come on! Before I get to far ahead, here's my train of thought: We were one person before this, before going through a portal. We just went through a portal. A magic portal. See where I'm going?

"Uh, where's Rhino and Cybis," I heard Forge ask.

"Right here," I say as I sat up.

"But. . . how," I heard Nightmare say. "It's just you, Josh."

"Knew I should have said something before," I mumbled before standing up. The first thing I noticed was that I was as tall as I was before this all started. Somewhere in the middle of height charts.. I looked down and was I was wearing a black t-shirt with a triangle of the class symbols with a tricorn, the main Destiny symbol, in the middle of the triangle, with a small circle of red, purple, and pink around the symbols. I'll give ya three guesses as to how the colors are arranged. I also wore blue, denim jeans and a black jacket that looked as if it was made by north face. Thin, so even in room temperature, I could be comfortable. On my right wrist was an olive green, same color as my eyes, I assume right now, bracelet campers use that can be unraveled for string, or something. On my left was a watch, which currently said eleven o'nine, with three Ghosts in a triangle, one of which was blinking. "Not exactly," I say, turning around to see the others.

Nightmare had on an outfit somewhat similar to Vice-principal Luna's. Made sense, really. Her skin, though, was the same as her form back in Equestria, as well as her hair. But wow, was she attractive now. The outfit, as akin to the professional one for this world's counter-part, was a little more, ahem, skin tight. I thank what ever controls the portal that it gave her a bra, or I assume so, as I didn't see any small bumps from her rather sizable chest. On her right ring finger, I saw a ring with her cutie mark on it in Laughter cyan.

Forge was just slightly taller than me, and wore a white t-shirt with denim jeans. She had well muscled arms, and a well built frame. Her face was well framed, and seemed to be made of metal. Made sense, I guess. Her hair went to to her shoulders. Okay, either it's because Rhino and I are one again, or just hormones, but now I see what Cybis sees in her.

Sight was just a little shorter than me, and was built like a runner. Again, makes sense. She wore a sleeveless tee and knee length shorts. Her hair, a blonde color to go with her white skin, went to her neck line. Same with her as with Forge, in the fact I now saw what my other two personalities saw in their respective crushes.

Applejack? Guess. The only difference was that her hat seemed to have an orange lining to it on the rim.

Twilight, actually, was a little different than I had guessed. Instead of that school outfit shirt, which I honestly found, though fitting, a little boring was replaced with a pair of knee length shorts that were colored black, no idea why, a light yellow, sleeveless workout shirt, it actually went better with her skin tone than you'd think, and her hair was shoulder length. All of us had on backpacks.

"You see, before Rhino, Cybis, and I came to Equis, we were one person before."

"Wha- bu-" Twilight said.

"Long story," I say, holding up my hand. "Basically, what got us here somehow split us, and I'd say that," I say gesturing to this end of the portal, "recombined us into, well, me before the whole thing happened."

Obviously.

"And it seems they still have an actual presence in my mind. Would you mind being quite while I'm talking, Rhino?"

Just saying.

"Ugh, I'm gonna go mad here," I say, rubbing the base of my nose. "I just know it." I sighed. "We all know what the mission is, right?"

"To find Sunset Shimmer, Celestia's student before me," Twilight says, "and bring her back to Equestria, seeing as how she's still technically Celestia's student, and Celestia made it to where her student would take over, albeit with advisers."

"Yep," I say. "One other thing, though. The reason why she left is because of one of Celestia's wiser moments, as Sunset looke dinto a mirror that showed her some variant version of the future where she was an alicorn, and she didn't have the patience to wait for it, and left, coming here. She decided to bide her time tormenting the people here," I say, gesturing to the school, "and wait until an Element was found so she can take one and use it to brainwash slash zombify the people here for an army to take over Equestria."

"Which wouldn't work," Forge said. "I mean, there's Celestia, if she hadn't left. She's be able to take them."

"Yeah, no," I say. "You see, that's a school, and the Principal is this world's Celestia, and going through the portal would result in Celestia vs Celestia, and the same for Nightmare and this world's version of her. The Guard couldn't do shit. Really, if the Vanguard wasn't in Equestria, it would work."(1)

"Fair point," Sight said, hand on chin. "Oh, and I also managed to nab Celestia's journal while I was in Canterlot," she said, pulling a book out of her backpack. "Found quite a bit of stuff. Including that she heard her father before she used the Elements on you guys."

"Fuck," I said. "Damn our luck," I nearly yell. "No offense, Nightmare."

"None taken," she said. "Celestia is my sister by adoption, anyway."

Okay, then. Did not see that coming. "Huh. Wouldn't have guessed," I say. "Anyway, we have until our Monday to find someplace to act as a base of operations."

"So, where to," Forge asked.

"No idea," I say, shrugging. "Though If I'm right, there should be some kind of hotel nearby, or at least in town."

"And what about paying for it?" Twilight asked.

I reached behind me and took of my pack and unzipped the front pocket and pulled out a bag. I opened it, gold coins inside. "I kinda guessed we'd need money, so I brought bits, and if this place is anything like where Rhino, Cybis, and I came from, we can exchange them for cash." I smiled. "A lot of cash."

"If only we knew a place for that," Forge said, crossing her arms before a voice we didn't expect to hear spoke up.

"You know, we could help," Steel said as she and the other Ghosts, minus Dinkle for obvious reasons, appeared. "We can go invisible to find a place like that."

"Do it," I say. With that, the Ghosts went invisible, except Nolandroid and Tara. "What?" I ask.

"Well, while you guys were talking, we got a small ping from Dinklebot," Nolandroid said. "He says he's got the token, and is heading back to the tower. We let him know where we are, and where the portal is now, so he should be here soon."

"Then it looks like we're staying here for a while," I say as I walk to the front door. "Lock pick, Nolandroid," I say once I get there.

He floated over, and a blue stream came out of his eye and made contact with the lock. "Done," he said after a few seconds, and I pushed the door in. What? They have terrible security, and as long as we got out before Monday, they wouldn't know.

"Okay, until the others find something, we'll be here," i say as I walk in, but the other didn't follow.

"But that's illegal," I heard Twilight say.

I looked back with a small smile. "Only if they can prove we broke in," I say. "There's a library here, too."

Twilight's eyes widened. Too. Fucking. Easy. "Where!?"

"I'll show you, assuming I can find it."

"Guess we might as well see what we can find out about this place," Forge said, hands behind her head as if her head was on pillow.

"Agreed," Sight said. "What about you two," she asked Nightmare and Applejack.

"May as well," Nightmare said. "I doubt we'd be able to stop you."

"Then come on," I say. 'We got books to find." Hard to make that sound cool.

"Nolandroid, Tara, try to find Sunset," I say as we make our way into the empty school. "We need to know where she is, and when she's close to the school. Once Dinklebot gets back, tell him he's to watch the portal to let us know if she tries to go through, or someone comes through."

"Right," Tara said before she and Nolandroid flew off, going invisible, and I saw now all thee Ghost symbols on my watch were slowly blinking. That could be useful, I guess.

---

Nolandroid POV-1st

I was flying over the residential part of this version of Equestria, using my scanners to look for the signature that, so far, was unique to beings from Equis, as Josh, both now and when he was split, lacked it, along with that other Displaced, while Nightmare and the other ponies, anthro and full on pony, even now, had it.

Tara was on the other side of town, as we had teleported to our areas to look for Sunset. So far, we hadn't had any luck, not that we had been at it long, but still, our sensors were at maximum range.

You know, I wonder why Tara and I, well, why something didn't happen to us. Weird.

My sensors went wild just as I was almost at the end of this block, which, given my range, was on the next two blocks, the last, most likely. I narrowed sensor range, and made my way to that block. I went down the street, just above the roofs of the cars in the streets. The signal became strongest just as I hit the end on the left, which had a small apartment block, top floor.

Guys, I think I found her, I say over the link I had with Tara and Josh. I made my way to the window that was connected to the room I felt the signature-Oh fuck. Guys, we have a problem.

What? Josh replied, panic in the word.

What I saw was Sunset getting Taken. Yes, that "t" is upper case, no typo. The scary part? The Darkness energy, or whatever it was, had a yellow tint to it.

Yeah, I'd say that's a problem. Like going against the fucking Winged Dragon of Ra form Yu-gi-oh with Prime Material Dragon on that thing's side!(2)

What do we do? Tara asked.

Just as she asked this, a Darkness orb began to grow. When it finally exploded, there stood Sunset Shimmer, albeit. . . different, and not alone.

She was as tall as before, but now her hair seemed to defy gravity, and looked like burning, black and white flames, two, glowing eyes where you'd think, a jagged horn from her forehead, her nose and mouth now more a muzzle, demonic wings on her back, and a dress reminiscent of a Hive Wizard, which are inaccurately named, as Wizard is male, but they're all female, and fingers ending in sharpened talons. Her skin was, well. . . she's Taken, guess. But the worst part was her entourage.

Four Hive Knights, which had signatures of Arc shields, and an equal amount of Taken Knights, with Solar shields stood around her. The Hive Knights had on the blue colored, chitin like armor that indicated they were part of the Silent Brood, encountered only on the Dreadnaught, their role most likely as Guards, and had swords, while the Taken version had Void Boomers.

I think it's obvious, Josh said. We stay and make sure she can't harm the people of this world. Nolandroid, get the Ghosts back here, and make sure the follow you here. They're most likely here for us, and I'll give it to them.

You sure?

No idea, just do it.

---

Josh

"We have a problem," I say, stopping in the hall before turning around and making my way back to the front of the school. "They found Sunset, but she's been corrupted by what I faced before I came to Equestria and was split," I say, not technically lying, just. . . telling a certain way of looking at it.

"What?" Forge said.

"Celestia's father," I say. "An force so evil, he controls the shadows himself." Now, before I go further, I would like to point something out. I think Oryx is good, and the Traveler can go to hell. Here be why, keeping in mind this is for the game. You see, the reason why Oryx and the Hive do what they do is so they survive. You see, a long time ago, Oryx and his sisters made a pact with their gods, which led to some kind of worm choosing the Hive as hosts, and they need to feed it, often with blood, so they can survive, or the worm will feed on them, and they made that pact to get revenge for their father's death at the hands of a traitor.

As for why he chases the Traveler, it is because of the Traveler that the Hive home world, called The Fundament, was destroyed by a great tidal wave caused by the moons of the planet aligning due to the Traveler's arrival, and it didn't even bother trying to save them, instead letting them die on the planet, which made them chase it to stop it from doing the same to others, and for a bit of revenge. Think. Why did Oryx himself come to the System? Because we killed his son, and we kill because things aren't with the Traveler. The Fallen, for instance, are what could happen to us, because we fight for the Traveler because we just assume Light is good. It isn't, in this case. Think about the legends card for the Black Garden. We are an army of the dead, everything else have only had one life.

Now, at this point, impossible to fix things, but still, in game, I would choose to fight for Oryx to set things right, if that option existed. That, and Oryx right now probably wants to fuck my shit.

As I made my way to the front of the school, I could feel my shirt becoming hotter where the symbols were. Once I was outside, not having heard the others follow, I walked in front of the statue, facing the road. I heard something behind me, and heard a voice. "They already filled me in, Josh," Dinklebot said. "Got the token. It's his fracture pistol."

"Keep it stored," I say, seeing six other lights, the other Ghosts, coming closer. "Spike, Seed, Steel, Robin," I say, Robin being Sight's Ghost, "they're inside. Tara, Nolandroid, stay here."

The four Ghosts that weren't connected to me continued moving, while Tara and Nolandroid stopped next to me and Dinklebot.

"What do you plan on doing," Tara asked. "You don't have even a hint of the powers of when you're split."

"Just being brave enough to do this is a power," I say. "I am going against impossible odds, after all."

"But not alone," I heard Nightmare say behind me. I looked behind me, and saw the others walking up.

"You guys don't need to do this, you know."

"Yeah," Applejack said. "But we are Guardians. I thought it was our job to fight impossible odds." Oh, I definitely like this AJ better than the canon one.

"Fair enough," I say. "Too bad we don't have our abilities. Then we'd have a shot."

"We do have the Elements, though," Forge said as the others stopped next to me.

"True," I say before I thought of something. I closed my eyes, and focused on the Elements I had, channeling what energy I could into them, and I began to feel a burning sensation on my chest. Eventually, things got bright, bright enough to where even with my eyes closed, it was white. I felt myself growing a little, and felt something appear on me. When the light faded, I opened my eyes, and looked at myself. I had on the Peregrine Greaves for the Titan, the Nothing manacles for the Warlock, and a chest piece that resembled the Hunter Crest of Alpha Lupi, but, instead of a wolf head, it had a horse head with a horn on the forehead, and wing patterns on the sides. "Nolandroid, what are Helmet and cloak?"

"Celestial Nighthawk foe helmet, and, somehow, all three flayer cloaks. In left to right, Arc, Void, Solar."

"Okay, then," I say, looking at the others, who, somehow, got their armor too, but looked even more confused than me. "I'm going to say magic and the Elements," I say just a a roar could be heard, and my attention snapped to the road. "They're here."

Indeed, at the end of the road, causing mayhem in the only ways possible with their weapons, were the Taken Sunset and her guards. "Music."

I began to walk toward them as I said to the others, "Make sure as many civilians get out of here as possible. That's an order."

They nodded, and they fanned out as I continued my walk, the cloak, or cloaks, I don't know, flapping in the air. As I walked, three colors appeared on the chest piece, which I shall dub the Crest of Equum Alatum, or Crest of Winged Horse, in Latin, each color matching an Element I had in Equis.

I stopped halfway down the street, as did my opponents a few feet in front of me, and the tension could be cut with a knife. "You first," I say.

Taken Sunset raised her hand, and a bolt of Arc Darkness erupted from her hand, faster than I could dodge, and hit me in the chest.

I fell to my knees as I stumbled back. "Josh!" I heard Nightmare cry. I raised my hand to where the bolt had struck, on the left wing of the design of my chest piece, and, to my surprise, felt no pain. I drew my hand away, and saw no blood. Instead, I saw black and white flames. It was trying to consume me, corrupt me. Well, like I told Oryx on the moon, I'm not something he can corrupt for the hell of it. I infused my hand with Light, removing the Darkness flame, and put it over the impact area, cleansing it as well. Well, not all of it.

I stood back up, and I saw the Hive Knights back away slightly. They didn't expect me to get back on my feet then. Then they sure as hell won't expect what I'm about to do next.

I thrust my left hand across my chest, resting it above mt right shoulder, palm open and facing back before I turned it upwards, and created an orb of light. "Time for some shade," I say before I pull my hand to in front of my chest, palm and orb facing right before I thrust my right hand, which had some of the Darkness flame on it I had kept for this, into it, causing he orb to darken to a gray color, with some white and black flames, but not much, swirling inside before I did what Oryx did when he was first defeated. I pointed it toward the sky, and thrust it down on my chest.

I gasped before my vision began to dim. I was not vanishing. My body was simply. . .adjusting. My vision lightened almost as soon as it dimmed. I rose a hand, palm facing skyward, elbow bent, and made an orb of light I did the same with the opposite hand, but, instead, got an orb of darkness. Good.

I collapsed both as I began to laugh. "Oryx thinks he can send his forces against me!" I yell as I began to walk again, all of them backing up. It seems self-preservation is still there. Good. Something from before they were Taken. "Someone who was able to resist him when I was split! When I was weaker than now! Before I was an Element! He has a lot to learn!" One of the Hive Knights, either brave or suicidal, charged me, his blade raised. I simply pointed a palm at him and shot an orb of light at him. It didn't kill him, but it did what I wanted. He stopped in his tracks, and, from his chest, a worm like those on the Dreadnought, came out like a chest-buster, and the wound on the Knight was healed.

The worm flew to my hand. I grabbed it as I stopped moving. I then flung it to the ground, and stomped it with my boot, killing it. The Knight seemed to shrink, as did it's armor, and it eventually collapsed, it's body still intact.

"The Darkness is not just a tool of destruction!" I sent an orb of said material at a Taken Knight, reverting him to a normal Knight with an Arc Boomer, and the energy killed his worm. "And the Light is not just a tool of creation!" I yell, shooting an orb of Light at an under construction building, making it fall.

"AND BOTH CAN BE USED," I yell as I generated an orb of light in my left hand, and orb of Darkness in the other, "TO CLEANSE!" I slammed both orbs together, creating a shock wave akin to what is made when a Dreadnaught fires it's main weapon. The wave hit the remaining seven enemies, and, for the Knights, what happened to the other two happened to them. As for Sunset, her skin took on it's more human like skin tone, and her fingernails shortened. The dress she was wearing became much more. . .regal. In fact, she looked like an anthro version of how she looked as super sayain in EQG 3.

"Tell the others we're heading back, now," I say to my Ghosts. "With Sunset and these Knights."

"You sure?" Tara asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"LIGHT!"

"Fuck my life," I sighed before looking up to see that projection of Oryx.

"YOU WILL PAY!"

I smirked under my helmet as gave him the bird. "Go to hell!" I say. "I know I'll see you soon, Oryx. Until then, tell your Daughter we'll be waiting!" I heard a growl, and the faded away. I walked over to where Sunset, unconscious, lay, and put her in a fireman hold, as well as picked up one of the Knights. Why I was doing this, you might ask. Well, I had destroyed their worms, what kept them linked to the Hive, which meant, now, they could choose what to do instead of being forced to for survival. "Let's go," I say as I walk past the others. "And get those others. Don't want these people to kill them, now do we."

I didn't wait for their response, and instead made my way to the portal, and stepped through.

Author's Note:

1: Another thing people cite for it not working is Discord. God. Of. Chaos. He'd let it happen for shits and giggles. For Cadence, it would need her to get the citizens to use it, and we all know ponies lack common sense to teleport, and Sunset would be able to stop her. For the Elements, she would have Magic, removing that threat. All in all, it was a pretty smart plan when you actually look at it from a certain point of view.
2: Here's why that is bad: For those who haven't played Yu-gi-oh, the Winged Dragon is one of three God cards, one of the most powerful cards in the game history. Ra is the most powerful, in my opinion, as you can give up to all but one hundred life points, think HP, which is converted to it's attack points, think the damage it can do, basically. But this takes away life points. Prime Material Dragon, however, counter it. You see, Material's effect makes any life points lost by effect, like Ra's, is rather gained, and Ra's summon, or him being played, can not be countered. And with Ra, you can give all but one thousand points to destroy another card, one for each thousand, keeping in mind you start with 8000 life points. Imagine doing that with Material. Now imagine if you had to deal with that combo. You'd be pretty hard pressed to stop it.

Comments

[Knightwolf1875]

Will things just got stranger, but I'm good with it. Not sure which side is right or wrong. Yet.

[SilentMech]

Seven cards every round. So, go pure defense, or plan around it. Three traps, five monsters, two defense spells. Suddenly Ra needs a new dragon, if your feeling ballsy though, five traps, and any number of monsters. Trap decks have no fucks to give. Of course, in tourneys they are all but useless due to nerfing how many traps you can have out at any one time depending on rule set.

[Lon35hadow]

6598817 And if the guy has Jinzo on the field?

[SilentMech]

6605644 Then you are right properly fucked unless you manage to knock him off in the first turn.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Good story so far! Keep up the good work!

[Bronzer]

Well, the Hive also genuinely believes that the Darkness is "good" (though, they also believe morality is foolish and ignore it completely). So, if you destroy their worms, it wouldn't change how they act. There might be a handful of exceptions, of course.

I see your point about Oryx. Except that you forgot the spark of life is also part of the Light and the Hive seeks to devour all light in the universe. In other words, to kill everything. Also, their religion dictates that they should spread as much misery and suffering as possible. The worms you speak of do not feed on blood (I think) but they do demand that the Hive constantly be strong or else the Hive will be consumed by the worms because the worms crave destruction.

I yell, shooting an orb of Light at an under construction building, making it fall.

Why would you do that!?

[Vigriff]

6863583 Shiggles, plus unwanted property damage is always prevalent in these types of fights.

[Rogue Shadow]

Ur music didn't work