The Guardian's story

by Lon35hadow

The purge pt2

"All units, press the attack!" I shouted before summoning my Golden Gun and firing off three combustion shots at a small group of Griffons. "Don't let them regroup!"

"Heads up!" Cybis yelled from behind me before he jumped up above me, and unleashed a lance Nova bomb on the rest of the group I had attacked, killing the rest.

"Where're Oryx and the others!?"

"The Tenno are pushing in from the south," he replied," Oryx and Didact from the west, and Rhino from the east. Right now, they're still working to get here. Those lanes were much more heavily defended than ours." Cybis' head jerked to the side, and he pulled out a side arm and delivered a three round burst into a griffon that had been approaching from his left. "Best guess is they'll be at their positions in ten minutes at best, thirty at worst. No idea how Alad's doing with the vampires."

"Then we can just hope he's kicking their asses," I said before turning to the ponies that Didact had put under us, each one wearing ponified Forerunner armor. "Set up breaching positions, then get into defensive formation. We need to be ready as soon as the other groups are!"

---

Oryx

I sliced a Griffon knight in half as my Taken forces overwhelmed the knight's squad in front of me. "Damn these fools," I muttered as i summoned more Taken Griffons. "I should I expected some of their best remaining on these roads instead of hoping Josh got them all off of us." I looked at the highest ranked Taken in the group. "Take a detachment of troops and recon the palace. We must find where their leader is so that a path may be carved to his position." The Taken Changeling-formerly a convict in Zeta's Hive- bowed before it and a few Taken ponies vanished. "The rest of you: form up, and prepare for further engagement. There will be more enemies before we reach our objective, and they will fight to the last!"

The Taken released a large roar, and assumed a protective formation around me, not that I needed against such primitive weapons. "Forward! Leave none alive!"

---

Didact

"Contact! Three o'clock high!" one of my soldiers yelled before the sound of a Suppressor being fired was heard, followed closely by a body hitting the ground. "Bastards are relentless."

"What did you expect, Captain?" I asked. "For them to bend over for us? This is their last major city and it's under attack by an army that has not been seen before. They will fight to the last to even have a chance at stopping us."

"Not that it'll help," another soldier said, his armor stained with blood. "They're still using spears while our armor's able to take a few hits from the Titan, and considering he's a robot and being a Titan enhanced his strength?"

"They'll be dying with honor, at least. As much as possible, given the circumstances, that is," one of Zeta's changeling's said.

"Group Alpha, this is Cloud overwatch. I got three Griffon flights on their way to you. Permission to engage?"

"Granted," I replied. "Kill those you can."

"Understood, sir."

"All right, each of you!" I shouted at the rest of Alpha. "Stop talking, and march forward. The rest of the Ecumene forces are waiting for us to move up before they secure the area."

"Sir!" they replied before saluting. I rolled my eyes.

"Not in a combat zone, dumbasses. Now, move up!"

---

Rhino

"Come on, fuckers!" I yelled as I delivered another shotgun blast to the chest of a Griffon skirmisher, killing him, then taking the corpse and throwing it at a Griffon Knight, who was then stuck with a magnetic grenade. "I expected a challenge!"

"Oh Rah to that!" one of Oryx's non-Taken enforces shouted by my side before he grabbed a charging Griffon by the throat and threw it back at its comrades. I was surprised when Oryx had beserkers, but hey, at least I don't have to speed up like I do when Josh gets involved with combat. Still, at least he and Cybis brought variety to our fights other than the generic "rip out opponents throat/punch until dead mentality" these guys head. Oh well.

One Griffon was able to land a sword strike on my armor, but it glanced off, allowing me to grab the Griffon's arm. "Come here, bitch!" I yelled before throwing him through a wall. "All units, stop focusing and charge through them! We need to get to our breach point!"

"But sir-" a beserker as sge crushed a Griffon's skull.

"Move it! If you want to keep killing them, save it for the castle! That's where the royal guards will be!"

The beserkers grinned at that. "Sir!" they shouted, and charged headlong into the enemy.

"Suicidal morons," I muttered before summoning my hammer, and following them.

---

Tenno Josh

"Dumbasses," I said as I unleashed a Void beam at a small group of Griffons. "Prime, how far away are we?"

"Five minutes," the white and gold Excalibur said as he reloaded his Soma Prime rifle. "And that's if they send more after us. Considering the fact we can just universal fuck you each of them, we're blowing through them."(1)

I nodded. "Good. Umbra, what's Alad's status?"

"He is preparing to strike the vampires," the grey and gold Excalibur said as he cut a Griffon in half with his Nikana Prime. "His science group is with him to assist, and the plan has him breaching their home the same time we get to the Griffon castle."

"Then let's get moving!" Excalibur said as he blocked a sword strike with Aegis, and retaliated with Silva, turning the Griffon skirmisher that attacked him into chicken legs and a legless torso. He brought the flaming sword down on the Griffon's head, killing it.

"Agreed," I said before snapping my fingers and activating a less powerful Hall of Mirrors, creating four copies of myself. "Move out, Tenno. No theatrics."

---

Alad

I let out a sigh as my group-consisting of myself and five combat scientists in a variant of the armor Didact's forces wore with collars not unlike my own- looked over the the cave entrance that led to the vampony home. "Is everything ready?" I asked.

"Yes, sir," one of the scientists-a mare- said. "Simply waiting on your word and the signal from the other Shadow Kings."

I nodded. "Good. Get your units ready," I ordered before my collar jutted out to make a complete circle and a visor came down on my eyes. "Zanuka," I said, my robot activating and my mind taking control of it, "kill!"

The four legged robot unleashed a metallic howl, which was followed by five more, and it rushed into the cave, followed by five other Zanukas, which were manufactured with the Tenno's help. For the most part, the five additional Zanukas were the same as the original, the only deviation being color.

The first vamponies the six came across were armored but quickly mowed down by the rockets fired by one of the trailing Zanukas, and they continued running through the tunnel, killing any in armor while leaving those in civilian clothing alive, keeping on their objective as they did so.

The objective of the Zanukas were to find and kill the leader of the vampires while releasing a special chemical I developed into their air and water supply that was tested on two vampires, both of whom now were a part of my group.

"Sir, the others have breached the Griffon castle and proceeding," a pony said to my right. "Should we assist once we're done here?"

"We aren't close enough to get there quickly," I replied. "At most, we can ensure if they fail, there will be only a single retaliatory strike."

"Of course, sir," was the reply as my visor showed the Zanukas slowing in front of a large, ornate door housed in an alcove carved from the cave walls.

"That it?" I asked one of the vampires that was in my group.

"Yes sir," Dusk Stone-the female vampire- replied. "That is the entrance to the royal chambers, which would include the royal concubine room."

"So his wife?"

"And child, yes."

"Stun those two if they become an issue, kill the king." With that, I mentally ordered my Zanuka to blast the doors open. An energy orb was released from its back and fired at the doors, blowing them off the hinges and allowing the Zanukas to charge into the room. There were five vampires-three vamponies, one Griffon vampire, and one Minotaur vampire. "Kill all five of them."

Rockets released from the shoulder pods on each Zanuke and streaked toward the vampires. The Griffon one tried to dodge them by going airborne, but was tracked by a salvo and died in an explosion leaving little more than a bloody mist, while the Minotaur was hit in the chest by another salvo, leaving a blood colored stain on the floor.

The three ponies (each being a thestral), split to try to divide the attention of our robots and the missiles, but they failed, and became bloody mists. "Deploy chemical three eight six-A," I ordered, and pods attached to the legs of the Zanuka group opened up, and a pink mist began to flow out as the six began to return to our location, the speed allowing the chemical to hit all of the cave system between the throne room and the entrance.

In all, it took only ten minutes from the Zanukas activating. "All right, pack up and return to Oryx's castle!" I shouted as my collar retracted and the visor went up, putting Zanuka in a non-combat state. "We need to get power to the portal!"

---

Guardian Josh-Griffon throne room, thirty minutes later

"Damn it," I said as I brought up a ward of dawn, causing a beam of magic to spray uselessly against it. "How come we didn't have intel on this!?"

"He must have recently retrieved it!" Didact shouted from behind a pillar. "Lord knows the Griffon's are good at getting what they want!" He ducked as a golden beam hit the pillar.

Before I go further, we had found the Griffon king, but he had an old artifact that A: gave him a shield that was damned near impossible to get through, and B: had utterly devastating attack capabilities in the form of a golden beam of magic and a huge orb of explosive magic.

"Perhaps this will teach you to think your military has a chance against mine," the Griffon king said before another beam struck my Ward of Dawn, shattering it and going through me. I revived in a small explosion of fire as Excalibur charged in under the cover of his shield. I didn't see the result as I had to dive behind a pillar myself, but I heard something crack, so I assumed he had been backhanded into a wall.

"Where the hell is Oryx!?" Umbra asked from an adjacent pillar.

"Working on taking care of that thing from his personal space!" Didact shouted back before firing a few shots from his Scattershot. " just hope he hurries the hell up," he said as he ducked back behind the pillar.

"We may not need him," Tenno Josh said from beside me, nearly making me jump.

"Dude, don't do that," I told him.

"Well it's not like I have the agility of a Warframe clad Tenno to get here, so I kinda have to go invisible," he replied. "Not the point, though. I'm thinking if I use rift walk plus the Tenno void walk ability, I may be able to get that artifact from him so you can kill him."

"That worth the risk?" Prime asked before blind firing a Some Prime burst, and betting fully into cover as a golden beam struck where the arm had been. "Try again!"

"Either we do it, or we wait for this guy to get bored and just walk out to vaporize us," the Tenno said. "Guardian, whichever form of yours gives you the greatest fire power, go for it. Excalibros, get the blades ready. Didact, call in an air strike on my mark. We only have one chance here."

"Roger," each of us said as I shifted to my Darkness form and peered in front of the pillar.

The Griffon king, wearing steel plate armor over chain mail with an ornate helmet, stood in front of his throne, the artifact, a golden orb not unlike the Apple of Eden from Assassin's Creed, in his right paw. He looked at me, and I ducked behind the pillar and crouched as he fired a beam at my cover. "You're simply delaying the inevitable, you know," he said. "I could bring this whole castle down on top of us, and I would be unharmed thanks to the artifact creating that shield around me."

"And what about when the shield comes down?!" Umbra asked. "Either you leave it up for as long as you can, or you release it and get crushed. You'll die here, just not the way we hope!"

"Either way, you'll be dead, and the Griffons will return to our place as the country with the strongest military!"

I rolled my eyes. "Christ he's annoying. Josh, you in position?" I whispered over the radio.

"On three," was the reply. I grinned, and created an orb of Darkness in each hand with lightning crackling in each.

"Copy," Didact said as he made sure his gun had a full clip, or whatever the shotgun equivalent is as the Excaliburs not in the wall created their Exalted blades.

"One," Josh said, which had a beam of golden energy hit my cover, causing me to duck. "Two." Followed by a light whose origin were out of my sight. "Three!" Josh yelled, causing me to turn just in time to see the Tenno phase out of the Griffon King's chest, the artifact in hand. Once he landed, Josh vanished from sight, and the Excaliburs-Prime and Umbra with their ults, base using his Soma- Didact with his Scattershot, and I with my Darkness infused lightning attacked the Griffon King. After a second, a green beam of energy joined in the barrage, and I saw Josh in the edge of my vision attacking with a beam of Void energy from his right hand, the artifact in his off hand. After five seconds, we ceased, and didn't even see a pile of ashes.

"A touch excessive, don't ya think?" Umbra asked.

"Still fun," Prime countered. "But yeah, a second of that was probably overkill as it was."

"Hey, he's dead, and given how thoroughly we destroyed their military the Griffons aren't an issue anymore," Excalibur said. "And if Alad was successful, the vampires will be friendly in a few weeks."

"Not that the latter effects us right now," I said. "I mean, I'm going back to my Equestria, and you three plus Josh are going to the human world of your Equestria. I mean, we'll be ready to help, but unless it's needed, we aren't getting involved with this war again."

"Except perhaps the fallout of the incident with Harmony," Didact said. "Oryx is the dimensional walker of the three of us, and. . .well, he's made his own pocket dimensions, and he's said that while he's doing it, he gets glimpses into other worlds, some of which involve Harmony riling up armies. She may be preparing an army not yet seen to take us out."

"Can we discuss this later?" Tenno Josh asked. "Preferably back at the castle?"

"Agreed," Umbra said. "So, who are going to leave to take command of our forces?"

I'll remain," Didact said. "You all should return to your worlds. Or in the Tenno's case, the human version of their Equestria."

Josh nodded. "Thanks."

"Of course. If you see a version of Harmony, put a bullet in her knee caps for me," Didact replied. "I hope to see you all again under better circumstances."

"Agreed," Prime said. "So, do we contact our ships, or wait for Oryx?"

"Ships are already on their way," Nolandroid said as he appeared. "Should be here in an hour, and Alad's on his way back to the castle to get the teleporter online."

"Right," I said. "Guess this is it for now."

"And hopefully, the next time we meet won't be during a war," Didact said.

So, with that, the four Tenno and myself left the Didact to his own devices, and left to wait for our ships, which arrived five minutes ahead of schedule. We got in them, and made our way back to Oryx's castle. When we arrived, Alad had the portal device up and running for me. The portal was large enough for a jumpjet to get through, fortunately, and before I left, he gave me a communicator that would allow me to talk with him, the other shadow kings, and the Tenno. Installed in them were portal generators that would allow us to travel to dimensions we'd been in previously with them. With that, I left that Equestria, and returned to mine. Only it seemed to be in flames. In response, I said the only thing I could think of.

"The fuck happened while I was gone, and why the hell am I not a month later than when I left?"

Author's Note:

1:In Warframe with Excalibur, the universal fuck you is Radial blind followed by Exalted blade, the former increasing all melee damage, including the latter.
Next is the beginning of the end for this story.