*POV 3rd Person*

Glück banked her gunship around a T.U.N. frigate. All around ships on both sides engaged in side-by-side battles reminiscent of skirmishes between human galleons of the 16th and 17th centuries. She pulled the ship up just in time to miss a dodge a wayward missile curtesy of a hurricane employed in the service of the U.C.A.* locked in a dogfight with a T.U.A.F. Supermarine Spitfire.

“Looks like we’ve flown into the hornets’ nest this time” Garnet said, he was in a Blenheim bomber* flying alongside Glück’s dropship, operating the main turret located on the top of the airframe.

“This battle has gone to shit” Ruby said from the cockpit “If it wasn’t for the titan class ship this battle would be a massacre” as she said this she glanced up at one of the Titan class ships, named Titanoboa, which was facing off against a covenant capital ship. Their guns fired and debris from each ship fell all around the two aircraft.

“We need to get out of this firefight or we’re going to get hit by something!” Ruby shouted. Glück pushed the joystick down, causing the gunship to descend rapidly.

“Hold on” she called “zis is going to be a bumpy ride” The Blenheim bomber followed suit and they began to descend. They had just gotten clear of the battle when Garnet called out.

“Uh…we’ve got company!” suddenly a high-pitched roar filled the skies and two primitive German jetfighters descended upon the two aircraft “Messerschmitt 262s! Take evasive action, now!” Glück pulled the joystick to the left and pushed it down before performing various evasive manoeuvres. A thud sounded out from inside the fuselage as the gunship banked hard to the right and flew directly underneath a ship

“Ye could have warned me!” Gelphana shouted.

“Ich do nicht have time for this!” Glück shouted back, beginning to slip back into her mother tongue “Ich have got bigger problem right now, now you can either stand around complaining, or you can get up in that turret and get him off our tail”

*POV 3rd Person*

A small squad of Elites walked into a dimly lit building, they had chased Some of Nova and Autumn’s Honour guard in here.

“Keep your eyes open for the equine filth, they can’t have gone far” their leader said. From the rafters a Pegasus with long, straight hair swung down, her hind legs hooked on a low hanging beam. In one hoof she held a meat hook. She clamped her free hoof over the mouth of the rear-most elite before pulling him up into the rafters and out of sight with barely any sound. A few moments later the blodied and still twitching corpse of the elite dropped in front of the squad, startling them. Suddenly they heard a giggle that they couldn’t place the source of.

“I see you…” said an almost childlike voice.

“Who’s there!?” the elite’s leader barked

“That’s for me to know and you to find out” the voice sang playfully. “Let’s play a little game, shall we? How about hide and seek. Whoever I find last gets to live” up in the rafters Spellbook turned to Depth Charge.

“Are you sure she can handle them?” he asked.

“There’s a reason she is our assassin” she responded.

Minion jumped behind a half destroyed brick wall just as a heavy tank round streaked overhead, accompanied by a volley of plasma rounds.

“I take it your little plan didn’t work then” Sargent Thompson quipped.

“The fucker’s got a couple of ghosts as support” he said, groaning in frustration “I can’t focus for long enough to fling the tank, and the Ghosts aren’t made out of metal so I can’t fling those either. My powers are useless for now”

“So we’re bucked” Vinyl said.

“Hey!” Thompson exclaimed, “at least you two have so much of a chance at surviving that thing, I’ve got nothing but my assault rifle, what’s that gonna do against that thing?”

The last Elite cowered in a corner; he’d seen things no one should have to witness. His eyes scanned the room, trying to find some sign of that…thing, that demon wearing the skin of a mere pony. He could hear that hellish giggling.

“Hide and seek, hide and seek”  the voice called, suddenly the pony’s head popped down from the rafters not 2 inches from the elite’s face “I see you”

In the darkness of the building, a scream echoed through the many rooms before being suddenly cut short. Up in the rafters, Spellbook was shaking.

“Why the buck do we have her on the team?” he asked. Depth Charge shrugged.

“Eh, she breaks up the monotony” she replied nonchalantly. “you should get used to it soon”

*POV 1st Person Nova*

I was facing off against multiple squads of the enemy forces alongside Boris, Scar and Tony Stark in his Iron Man armour.

“I must say” Stark said, blasting an Elite away with a repulser blast to the chest “this Protosteel armour is incredible”

“Yep” I said, parrying another elite before thrusting my hand into its chest, my arm became incorporeal and past right through, dragging the elite’s soul out with it. The Elite collapsed to the floor and its soul dissipated in a cloud of ectoplasm. I heard a loud thud behind me and before I could even turn around Tony Start went flying back.

“Tony!” I shouted. I heard a chuckle behind me and turned to see Taag ‘Ngreeda walking over.

“It seems fate has let our paths cross once again.” he said, igniting his swords “Neu-Toa scum” he charged towards me

“I won’t let you take this city” I said, charging to meet him, we met half way, and began trading strikes

“Your swordsmanship skills have significantly improved since we last met.” he said.

“Because I’ve been learning from my mother” I said, he suddenly caught me off guard and knocked my swords out of my hands before kicking me across the street. He then walked over and picked me up before applying some form of device to my fetlock, I began to feel myself getting smaller. “What the hell did you…what the!?” my voice was high pitched and…younger

“Merely a simple magical regresser, curtesy of Spiriah. Good luck getting that off any time soon” he said “Now who exactly is the mother of yours, so that I may enjoy hunting her down and slaughtering her”

“Unhand my son!” A voice boomed, before a white and maroon blur knocked Taag away and sent me flying. The impact with the ground knocked the wind out of me and left me gasping for breath. By chance, I had landed near a puddle; I used what energy I had to pull myself towards the puddle, when I looked at my reflection in the water my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. I was merely a foal, no older than ten, my mane was no longer ethereal. My vision blurred and I could feel tears forming in my eyes, why was I getting so worked up about this? I was a Neu-Toa: The Defender of worlds, I didn’t cry over something like this. I could feel anger burning in my chest and I splashed the puddle with a hoof in an attempt to remove the reflection. I heard a thud and I turned to see my Mother levitating Taag by his legs, before flinging him far away “Good riddance, the sangheili scum!” she laid eyes upon me an her expression softened. She calmly began to walk towards me

“Oh, Nova” she said “what did he do to you”

“H-he mentioned a regresser,” I said, holding my foreleg out to show her, she frowned and tried to pull it off with her magic, but a powerful jolt of electricity shot through me, making me cry out if pain, my body convulsed and tears streamed down my eyes “MOM!!!” she dispelled her magic and the electrical discharge immediately stopped, suddenly a hologram sprung forth from the bracelet to reveal Spiriah in some manner of lab coat. My mother rounded on the hologram.

“What did you do to my son!?” she snarled, scaring me.

“Now now, Fantasia, I couldn’t allow your son to go and interfere with my plan”

“Turn me back, NOW!” I squeaked out, Spiriah chuckled.

“Oh, I’m so scared, he mocked “but don’t you worry your sweet little head, the bracelet will come off in a few days and you will regain all of your abilities from before the bracelet was applied, just don’t let it attach to anyone else”

“You spoke of a “plan”” Fantasia said “speak quickly my patience is getting thin”

“That’s for me to know and for you to find out” he said “oh, and one more thing, Nova now has the emotional and verbal capacity of a pre-teen” he the disappeared just before my mother blasted the ground the hologram was stood at with a bolt of magic.

“Dammaz iuwiz!” she exclaimed in a language I didn’t understand, she the sighed and looked at me “Let’s get you back to the ship and safe”

“But I can look after myself!” I protested, she raised an eyebrow and I crumbled under her gaze “never mind” she glanced over to Scar and Boris, who were tending to Stark, they nodded and she nodded back, they could handle things here for a while

“Stay here” she said, changing the channels on her comlink “I shall take your place in command for the remainder of the battle” she then teleported out of the room and left me standing there, I sighed before levitating a table-computer over.

“I way as well do something whilst waiting” I said as I switched the device on

*POV 3rd person*

Blazewing commanded the Jörmungandr, ordering crewmembers about as the ship drew alongside different vessels. At this point in the battle the larger ships were duking it out in the exosphere; right on the edge of space, they had just finished demolishing a covenant frigate when a massive capital cruiser began to approach.

“Is that…?” a crewmember asked, trailing off, Blazewing nodded from his command-chair.

“Song of Re’ribution” he said “which means ‘Mdama ‘imself is ‘ere” he then opened up his comlink to talk to Nova “Nova laddie, you there?” over the sounds of the battle below a female voice came through.

“Nova is unavailable at the moment” Fantasia said “I’m the acting commander in his stead”

“Very well, milady” Blazewing responded, before leaning forward “Now listen lass, the Covenant’s leader is ‘ere and ‘eading right for me ship, so if we can’t push ’em back then expect a world o’ ‘urt”

“Hold him for as long as you can” Fantasia responded “The Wolfpack should be able to handle things up there until I can send a little help”

“Aye aye, milady” Blazewing said, before shutting off the comlink, he then opened the tannoy system, in the armoury Vapaa’s team stopped what they were doing. “Alright lads, we’ve got the covenant’s main flagship ‘eaded towards us, and we are one of the few ships in the vast expanse that we know can pose a semblance of a threat to that monstrosity. Now, we’ve got orders from Fantasia ‘ereself to stall it for as long as we can. Now are we gonna run and ‘ide like yellow belies, or are we gonna show those Covenant Scum just what Terran technology can do?” the cheer that went up could almost be heard outside the ship. Blazewing grinned, this brought him bake to his days of piracy, when he would face off against Griffonic galleons and come out on top through sheer determination alone. Blazewing turned to on of the crewmembers.

“Quartermaster” he ordered “attach a nuclear warhead to a kinetic round and fire the railgun”

“Aye aye, sir!” the cyborg-griffon* said. He began typing out the co-ordinates into the computer and the massive railgun aimed before firing it’s payload with a BOOM! After a millisecond of scilence the space in front of them erupted in a nuclear fireball, obscuring the Song or Retribution. Next Chapter: Chapter 20 Estimated time remaining: 11 Minutes