*POV 1st Person Nova*

I leapt around the corner of a building as a fuel rod shot past

“What the fuck ever happened to making sure they didn’t enter the fucking city!?” I asked aloud. They had taken us totally by surprise and attacked before we had a chance to finish setting up defences, still, I couldn’t help but admire their tactics ever-so-slightly, gods’ know I would have pulled exactly the same tactic if I were in the enemy’s situation. I peeked around the corner to see two hunters making a mess of the buildings. “Hunters, it always has to be Hunters” I sighed before drawing my swords and combining them into a shield “it’s times like these that I could really do with something like SCP-682” I then drew an arcane assault rifle and snorted.

“I do not get paid enough for this!” I then ran out into the street and lifted my shield just in time to deflect a plasma beam from one of the hunters before charging at them whilst unloading the crystal into the hunters’ armour. As I got close one of them tried to knock me out of the way but I sidestepped before climbing up its shield and onto its back, I then fired round after round into the hunter’s neck before it succumbed and collapsed to the ground dead. Its twin went into a blood frenzy and quickly knocked me through a building. I slowly stood up and ran a check on my vital signs.

“Left pauldron compromised” Glados’ voice droned.

“Glados” I said, stowing my weapons “I need you to redirect 80% of my muscle strength to my arms”

“Another suicidal plan, I presume” she quipped, but the power readings on my HUD changed to display the increase in arm strength all the same.

“It’s not suicidal, at least not for an Alicorn like me,” I said “just really, really stupid”.

“Your quote has been assigned as your epitaph” she replied dryly.

“Always knew I could count on you have faith in my actions” I said, before charging out of the building, my strength might have been mostly diverted, but I was still fast enough to give any Olympian a run for their money. I ran towards the hunter at full speed before punching it in the head, sending it crashing into a building. I heard a growl before it charged out and tried to strike me with its shield. I ducked and weaved around before grabbing its main weapon and forcing it to point at the hunters head. I then damaged a part of the electronics, causing it to charge up with a steadily increasing whine. The Hunter let out a final growl before the fuel rod cannon fired into its head at point blank range, destroying most of its head, neck and shoulders. The Hunter  convulsed before falling to the ground dead. I then began walking away.

“’Toa slayers’ my arse” I said.

“One of the other Toa is attempting to open communications” Glados said “It’s the obnoxious unicorn that listens to electro-audio garbage”

“Patch her through” I said. Suddenly the coms crackled into life, I could hear gunfire and yelling.

“This whole city has gone to shit; myself and Minion are pinned in the market with Sargent Thompson and his team!” Vinyl exclaimed over the intercoms, there was a pause punctuated by static “where the buck is your honour guard, Nova!? We’re getting our plots handed to us by the enemy”

“I’ll try and re-assign them to your area” I said as I found a well-protected spot and brought up a holographic map of the city. Vinyl was at one end, whilst my honour guard and Autumn’s was at completely the other end of the city “it will take some doing, but I should be able to get some of them headed your way, just hang in there for about…10 minutes”

“Ten minutes we can handle” Minion said. “just make sure you have D.C. bring a really effective anti-tank gun”

“Why?”

Booom-WHOOSH…

“THEY HAVE A FUCKING MAUS FITTED WITH A FUCKING RAILGUN; THEY STOLE MY FUCKING WEAPON DESIGN! THEY ARE DEAD FU…” I shut off the comlink.

“Your brother is as eloquent as usual I see” Glados quipped.

“Stow it!” I snapped, before opening up another channel “D.C. do you read me?”

“Reading you loud and clear, honey” I hear her say over the sounds of the battle “what do you need?”

“Can you spare yourself, Surprise, Fireblast, Seastreak and Spellbook?” I asked “Vinyl and Minion are pinned down at the market and there’s an enemy Panzer mk9 calling your names”

“You mean they’re having a party and they didn’t invite us!?” Surprise piped up over the coms “We’ll be over there before you can say Det finns bara krig”

“Reading you loud and clear” I said “Nova out” I stood up and walked back into the street, only to find myself face to face with a wraith. I dived out of the way just as it fired at me.

“Mother fucker!” I shouted as I began to run. I hastily fired a bolt of fire at the covenant tank, only for it to bounce off the purple armour. I heard the sound of rockets overhead, followed by a very distinctive sound.

*ptuuam-boom-boom*

The wraith exploded in a fireball that knocked me off my feet and I heard a metallic clunk as something hit the ground. As I shook my head to clear my thoughts, I could hear mechanical footsteps approaching. I looked over my shoulder to see a figure walking out of the smoke, it was humanoid, and a blue light shone on its chest. I smirked as I stood up.

“What took you so long, Tony?” I asked, dusting off my armour as Tony Stark walked out of the smoke wearing his Iron Man suit “The battle’s already won” he looked around

“Yes, because the fact that there are still millions of aliens crawling around the city just screams ‘victory is ours!’ in gold letters” he said, making a gesture with his hands to create a banner of some kind as he said this.

*POV 3rd person*

Trixie slowely backed away from the squad of covenant as they closed in with their weapons drawn

“Trixie did not sign up for this when she joined the brotherhood” she muttered.

“You, pony-witch” barked an Elite Zealot “you are surrounded. Surrender and we shall make sure your death is quick and painless” Trixie harrumphed indignantly.

“If you think the great and powerful Trixie will come quietly then you have another thing coming” she said, pawing the ground with a forehoof.

“Seize the pony” the zealot ordered. The covenant troops began advancing and Trixie began to count them off with a hoof.

“Hmm, let’s see, one two three four five six seven eight nine…so there’s ten of you and only one of Trixie” she said, pulling out a handkerchief from under her cape, her expression began to sadden “oh, what’s poor Trixie going to do?” She began to sob into the handkerchief, before blowing into it and disappearing in a puff of purple smoke, leaving the covenant troops confused.

“Witchcraft!” exclaimed the Elite, recoiling slightly.

“Oh boys” they heard her call and looked to the source of the call to find her stood on her hind legs on the roof of a building and leaning on a chimney “Maybe you should think twice before trying to kill a former showmare who also happens to be a Makuta!” Her entire body contorted and began to change skin and fur split to reveal pistons and wires, she began to sprout bat-like wings out of her back and her forehooves turned into vicious talon-like hands. Her head began to change, swept-back bat-like ears began to form, and her snout contorted into snarling jaws

“And now for my final act, you’re all going to die horribly” she suddenly said from behind them, holding the Elite zealot’s throat from behind. The other covenant went to fire, but she quickly ran her sharp claws across the zealot’s throat and tittered “Now, now, let’s not be too hasty shall we?” they hesitated.

“If you value your honour” the zealot said “you will kill me and her, I may die here, but I will keep my honour” the readied their weapons and fired, just as the plasma bolts closed in Trixie disappeared, leaving the zealot to get blown to the ground by the barrage of plasma rounds. The covenant troops stared in shock.

“well” said a voice, the troops turned to see a female griffin with purple feather tips lounging on one of the roofs, whilst Trixie stood next to her “looks like we don’t even have to do anything, they’re practically killing each other without our help” Trixie chuckled

“And here Trixie thought they would be a challenge” the former showmare said.

“You know” a male voice said in a distinctive Trottingham accent, as an almost draconic-looking Makuta walked out from a building, before chucking the bloodied helmet of a zealot at the foot of the covenant troops “if I were you them I would consider running. After all, three against ten is hardly fair…on you” Gilda smirked before landing next to Red Dawn and clearing her throat.

“GET LOST!” she roared, the covenant troops quickly fled and Trixie chuckled.

“Trixie is beginning to think this is too easy” the former showmare said.

“Don't get too cocky” Red Dawn said, crossing his arms “we may have power, but we aren’t undefeatable”

Next Chapter: Chapter 19 Estimated time remaining: 19 Minutes