> The Hunter
>  by ManoLabotius
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Jumpship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	So there I sat, a fifteen year-old gamer, in my room at around 4 am, playing Destiny. Again. I was infuriated. There was one quest, The Last Array, that I kept losing. I returned to the Tower and went to the gunsmith, but something else caught my eye. A player, in dark clothes, sat by the gunsmith and his voice spoke through the game.
"So, having a little trouble with a quest huh?" He asked. I forced my character to nod.
"Here, I'll sell you this," a screen popped up, "for 250 glimmer."
I instantly clicked the item and my screen started to turn white. Within moments I sat in a large forest. Looking around something caught my eye. A creature that was a cross between a lion and an eagle was looking at me in a manner I did not like. I turned to run and a cloak fluttered behind me. 
"What the-" I was cut off by a voice.
"Guardian! That looks like its a manticore! Use your gun!" It said from the back of my mind.
I reached back and found myself holding a decent looking gun. The PSI Umbra-IIA. I knew this gun. If had this gun, and the voice I heard... I was either in Destiny or had forgotten to take my pills. 
The creature rushed at me as I peered through the scope and fired three times. The creatures head exploded rather violently and I was forced to look away.
Suddenly the voice, or more accurately, Ghost, spoke up. 
"Guardian. We need to leave I can't get a proper read on the environment without the ship."
I nodded. "Let's go," my rather feminine voice spoke up.
That's right. This avatar is female.
"GODS DAMN IT!" I yelled.



Twilight Sparkle was in her library when she heard two things. One was a rather loud, and slightly vulgar, shout. The other was a strange hum. When she looked towards it, she saw a shooting star going up?
Her curiosity peaked. She called for Spike, "Come on Spike! We're going out!"
A purple dragon in an apron stepped out of the kitchen covered in flour. "Where are we going?"
"I saw something strange coming from the Everfree," she said, looking extremely excited while Spike, who knew Twilight well enough to know tat there was no way she wouldn't investigate. He cleaned himself rather quickly and ran out the door to Twilight. Pinkie was waiting with the other girls.
"Hey Twilight! My Pinkie Sense told me stuff. Twitchy tail, wiggly eyes, shaking mane, and a sneeze! I don't what everything else means, but a sneeze means 'Twilight's gonna need some help with stuff'. I brought cake and my party cannon," Pinkie said, bouncing in place.
In all her time in Ponyville, Twilight had learned not to question the pink one and just accepted it.
"Come on girls! We gotta get to the Everfree! Yay, Science!" Twilight eagerly clapped her front hooves together.
After passing Zecora's and exchanging some greetings, the girls arrived in a small clearing.
"There something here... It's magic... Strange magic." She mumbled while her horn glowed. A moment later Fluttershy screamed. 
"It's-It's dead..." She sobbed. The others looked to the other side of the clearing to find a mutilated creature missing something important, something necessary. It's head. The mares, unused to such a garish sight, nearly vomited.
"We have to tell Celestia. This magic or whatever made it, is dangerous," the girls sprinted out of sight as a smaller creature, a Dreg, ran off to tell the Captain what it had heard.
Moments later the creatures, despicable as they were but quite efficient, left the small outpost and made for the large city in the distance. They were focused on the exact thing they wanted. Destroy the only Guardian, and end thee stupid ponies lives. Little did they know, that goal would be very hard to complete.



After the drop ship had picked her up, Josh and the Ghost looked at the strange planet below them. It was similar to Earth but overall the continents were wrong, and the weather over one of the continents were very organize clouds. Ghost was in the ship, digging for information. 
"The inhabitants call it Equis and are equine type in nature. Ponies are predominant on the planet and the population is under a seventh of Earth's during the Golden Age. They also seem to have something similar to Solar Light and Void Magic. Though they seem to not class it like we do. Largest country is one Equestria, ruled by Princesses Celestia and Luna, with there being another Princess having no station. Around about a millennia and a half ago, a being called Discord was defeated. Before his two thousand year long reign, ponies had an era of advanced technology, but nearly all the tech was destroyed in effort to end their colonies."
The names seemed familiar but I couldn't figure out from what. I looked at the planet again as Ghost continued gathering data. 
"Colonies?"
"Yes. It seems they populated the other four rocky planets in their system, and successfully Terraformed all of them. The colonies seem to be active," he answered.
"Is there anywhere we could land?" I asked as I squinted at the planet again.
"It seems there is a dock for airships in their Capital. Canterlot."
"Good. Let's land." I sat in the seat.
The ship dipped up before diving downward in a slight tilt. As we flew down I could see the city grow bigger. It was a rather large castle with suburbs on the side of a mountain. Small dots moved around and three, slightly larger followed our path and as we docked, I was deposited at the dock as the jumpship went to wait for us to call it.
"Stop! In the names of Princesses Luna, Celestia, and Cadence. I am Royal Apprentice Twilight Sparkle. Who are you, what do you want, and why are you here," demanded a small lavender, wait..., is that a unicorn? What in hell? Suddenly a clever idea came to my mind.
"I am Destiny, Guardian of the system, and Hunter by trade. I humbly approach you in hopes of well made agreements." I said bowing slightly.
The princess seemed shocked by my actions before the one known as Luna spoke up. "Agreements?"
"Yes. if you can give me permission to visit, or live, in your country, and planet, I can get you in contact with the colonies of the old Tribes."
"Planet? We only a small country..." The one known as Cadence responded.
"I know enough information to deduce that Equestria is the only organized form of government, as well as the only stable one. Pardon the pun." I said, bowing in apology.
"That's true enough," said Twilight, looking up a bit. Meanwhile the white one, Celestia spoke up, "Colonies?"
"Yes. Before Discord you had colonized your entire system minus the gas giants," I answered looking at her.
"Very well, we agree. Would you remove your helmet? It will show us trust," she said, gesturing at my head with a hoof.
I quickly complied. My removal of my helmet was followed by curiosity. The lavender one spoke up, "So it is a helmet?"
"Indeed, it protects me during my fights," I said, showing her scratch on the helmet. She looked at it and started noting down something before looking back at me.
"Fights?" she asked tilting her head. Gods above, that's adorable.
"Yes. These weapons on my back are a Shingen-D and the 'Patience and Time'." I said, gesturing to each weapon.
"Why'd you kill the manticore then?" She asked, looking at me with those endearing eyes.
"I felt threatened. Afterwards I left," I responded as emotionlessly as possible. "Now, I must take my leave," I began when Ghost spoke up. 
"We've got the signs of Fallen, directly to the south." I looked down and spotted a small dark group of Fallen. I pulled out No Land Beyond and aimed. Three Dregs, four Shanks, two Vandals, along with a Captain. I aimed and fired. The Captain feel to the ground and I took the moment of confusion to take out the Vandals. Jumping down I had Ghost bring up the Sparrow and raced downwards.
Behind me I could sense the three princesses and apprentice watching me with shock. I didn't have time to gloat. Time to save a city.
> The Warlock
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sliding down the side of a mountain was not the best idea. If it hadn't been for the fact that Guardians had increased resistance I would have ended up in massive amounts of pain. And, apparently, their balance was pretty good too. I slid several hundred feet before stopping behind a rock. Peeking towards the Fallen I noticed they were conducting a strange ritual of some kind.
Not only that, but they had gotten back-up in the form of a Wizard. Now, normally, a Wizard wouldn't be that hard to defeat, but this one, which confused me, had a golden health bar over his head. From what I could tell the other Fallen had nothing of the sort over their heads. The Wizard was the only one.
I lifted No Land Beyond and fired directly at is head and watched the golden bar. It shifted slightly downwards. The Wizard spun around, hands loaded with his specific spell. The rock I was hiding behind shook as the spell connected. Sliding further I took another shot. The bar dipped again. 
I looked around only to hear a voice behind me, "Day? What the hell? What are you doing here?"
I spun around myself face-to-face with a gamer friend from Destiny. HypnoticStar420. I pulled him down and shushed him. "There's a Wizard down there, it has Golden Bar."
"A Wizard huh? I think I can take him," he said, peering past the rock.
"Are you stupid? It has the shield as well! If anything, can you distract him?" I asked.
"Yeah, I can do that." He slide down the slope and I heard him yell an insult. Taking the chance, I moved closer to minimize the foliage blocking my view. I brought No Land Beyond to rest on my knee, peered into the scope, and fired. The Golden Bar diminished more and I fired some three more times before it flew at Hypno. In a split second I flung my knife and the Wizard collapsed, dead.
Hypno spoke up first, "That was... anticlimactic. Seriously. Aren't Wizards supposed to be, I dunno, harder to approach?"
I leaned down, finding dust on the now headless body. Picking it up and rubbing it between my fingers I answered, "I think he went rogue, otherwise, he would have had more back-up."
Suddenly, Ghost appeared and, with Hypno's Ghost, began scanning the body. After a few seconds of the strange holographic light, he spoke, "Definitely rogue, looks like the Fallen started attacking each other."
Figures. Idiots only worked together when going after something else. The Vex were a bigger challenge but not by much. I looked to Ghost. "We need to investigate. The ponies will be screwed without our help."
"Affirmative. Calling Jumpship."
"Wait," Hypno interrupted in disbelief, "You've got your Jumpship?"
"Why? You don't?" I asked, rather snarkily.
"Dude, I didn't have the Jumpship yet, remember? I started yesterday and logged off before beating the mission." 
I cursed. Loudly. The Jumpship flew down and pulled us into it. Sitting at the controls I looked back and found Hypnos right behind me. "Oh, huh, guess that worked."
"Where to now?"
I looked at the navs. "The colonies."




Those strange creatures flew off into the night as soon as they defeated the other one. This left him to wonder whether they were our enemies or friends. In all reality, they were curious things, rather chaotic as well, leaving him with a nice tingly feeling before another, similar to them, but different, approached.
"Discord, I see that we're either before or after season 2. It's a shame really. I was hoping you'd join me in some fun. Ah well. That can wait, after all, I've got a Hunter and Warlock to take care of." The figure grinned evilly before strutting off like some sort of peacock. It was disturbing. Discord watched before he heard a cracking noise and flew from the stone cackling happily. Time to cause some Chaos, was his first thought. Quickly disappearing from view the figure grinned. She now knew exactly what the time was. her plans could be executed with much precision now.
She walked off and summoned her Jumpship. A dark dismal thing that she loved quite a bit. The ship arced towards the Reef, as it was called. The Awoken would not be able to stop her from reaching the moons of Saddlurn, the largest planet in this dismal system. The outer part of the system had not seen Solar Light in many, many years. Fallen had taken it as their bases long ago. The ruins of old colonies littered the moons and planets. Only one survived. Equis. This being due to their Alicorns wipping their own memories along with the citizens, hiding The Traveler, and surrounding the planet in a protective field. Fallen rarely made it through.




Hypno: Same time as Chapter: Jumpship
Hypno turned on his PlayStation 3 and the Destiny screen loaded up. He logged onto his character and found himself face-to-face with a strange player. No player tag or level, the player spoke.
"Ah, HypnoticStar420, what a pleasure! My name is Merchant, and I wish to assist you. If you will pay me 250 glimmer I will award you with a special rare item. All you need to do is press X."
A small dialogue popped up. Press X to pay and receive item
He clicked it and the player vanished, "Pleasure doing business."
Hypno opened his items list and found a strange item. Nav-Com: Equis
Confused he clicked it and the room filled with a white light and his mother, who had been watching, gasped as he disappeared along with the game.
Hypno found himself underneath a large city moments later. He heard a familiar voice above him, it was another player, one he knew well.
Day.