Rainbow was sitting alone at the dinner table in the palace as the others had left for ponyville again. She was still having her daily conversations with Twilight, who still hadn't found Scootaloo when she spoke to her last night. Finishing her breakfast Dash got up to get some exercises done as Luna teleported into the room with her.
"Dreamworld. Now." She commanded as she teleported Dash and herself to the room where they had set up the viewing portal, Celestia was already present there and looked seriously concerned.
"What's going on, Princess?" Dash asked Luna but she had already entered the dream world, Dash quickly followed her and saw the princess floating in front of the scar in the dreamworld, conjuring up a shield around herself. Dash wanted to repeat herself but then stopped to gawk at the scar. Where previously only Twilight's bubble floated there now floated another regular bubble alongside a black one that had the smoke like tentacles protruding from it.
"Is that pure chaos?!" Dash asked bewildered, Luna nodded in acknowledgment. "There's only one being we know of that has this much pure chaos magic at its disposal."
Dash's hairs stood on end as she knew who Luna was talking about, "So what are we going to do about him." Rainbow asked.
"He might be insane but he never was stupid, he must have a reason for him to reveal himself." Luna said, "That's why you're going to talk to him while we and my sister watch thine conversation."
"WAIT, WHAT!" Dash shouted, "W-Why me! The last time I spoke to him he turned me into a despicable version of myself!"
Luna put a hoof on Dash's shoulder, "Thou will have the protection of the element where we will not. You have faced this foe before but this time thine knows of its tactics and will not falter."
Dash grimaced but went up to the black bubble, the black smokey tentacle probed Dash but receded to allow Dash access to the bubble. The pegasus looked back one more time before she touched the bubble and got sucked in.
The world around her turned into a pink landscape where houses floated about, the rain had turned into chocolate milk and animals walked around that had no right of existing. On top of a particular hill, a throne stood that had a peculiar creature sitting on top of it.
"Oh how wonderful of you to join me in my loneliness, I was almost thinking the princess wouldn't take me up on the invite." Discord said as he looked down at the pegasus with an evil grin.
"What do you want?" Dash asked the chimera. Discord disappeared in a flash and re-appeared coiling like a snake around Rainbow, "Me? I just want to talk. Not like I can do much else while I'm the crown piece of the statue collection in the royal garden" Discord said with a tinge of sadness, "I'm here to make a deal since I'm sure that both the princesses are watching right now. Tia and Lulu have probably figured out by this point that my containment is faulty and are thinking up ways to make sure it secure again."
Rainbow huffed, "Why should I care if you're properly sealed away."
Discord scratched his chin, "Well how about the fact that this scar in Lulu's precious dreamworld will collapse and any communication with the element of magic becomes impossible, also, without me the humans might suddenly get the idea to use your friend and precious little sister as lab experiments."
Dash was speechless, she wanted to say that the draconequus was lying but it made some twisted sense that the chaos in the dream world would collapse if discords statue was sealed properly but that Discord might actively be protecting them was baffling to her
"Anyway this has been fun but the stench coming off that Element of harmony is dreadful." Discord said while he was wearing some sort of black mask with some sort of filter attached to it. "Ta Taa"
"Wait!" Dash shouted but was ripped out of the dream back into the dream world where Luna caught her. Discords bubble turned to smoke and faded back into the scar, leaving Twilight's bubble and a regular one behind.
"We shall keep the first watch, my apprentice. My sister and I have much to speak about." Luna said as she pushed a dazed Dash out of the dream world.
Twilight was walking at the back of the group of marines keeping their flanks covered, Scootaloo was at the front with the sergeant-major. The arbiter had revealed himself on occasion to give the group intel on small groups of brute led units that were roaming the jungle. The large Sangheili had glanced at Twilight on occasion before disappearing into the jungle again with its active camouflage. Twilight suddenly heard the slight rustling of leaves to her right and swirled around her sniper, the arbiter deactivated his active camo and came walking out of the bushes.
"You have impressive hearing and reflexes, pony." He said starting to walk beside the alicorn, "But then again, that should be expected from the Demon of the Stalwart Dawn."
Twilight almost tripped on her own hooves as the arbiter added the extra sentence, "W-what do you know about that?!" She asked the warrior. "Very little." The arbiter admitted, "The troops aboard the vessel managed to send a couple of messages out of slipspace but by the time any of them were received your ship was already too far gone to follow and we were already chasing the Pillar of Autumn to the first Halo."
"Found him!" A marine called out form the front of the column of soldiers, "This ain't good." another commented as he saw the Spartan lying still in his locked up armor. "Damn... How far did he fall?" another marine asked, "Two kilometers, easy." the first responded. Johnson took a long drag from his cigar, "Stay sharp!" He said as Lucy and another medic started tending to the chief while the other marines took covering positions, around the Spartan. The arbiter moved away from the group again and cloaked to do some more reconnaissance of the area.
"Corpsman?" Johnson asked the other medic indicating he wanted a report.
"His armor's locked up. Gel layer could have taken most of the impact..." The medic replied uncertainly as Lucy released the armor lock on the Mjolnir armor, The chief falling limp because of it.
"I don't know, sergeant major." he said as he studied the readouts on his scanner, Johnson crouched down next to the chief and blew out a cloud of smoke before sighing. "Radio for VTOL, heavy lift gear. We're not leaving him here." He said as he removed Cortana's AI chip from the Spartans helmet, Twilight saw the Spartan's body stirring.
"Yeah. You're not." The chief said as he grabbed hold of Johnson's wrist, Jonson let out a sigh of relief, "Crazy fool! Why do you always jump? One of these days, you're gonna land on somethin' as stubborn as you are! And I don't do bits and pieces!"
The chief took the chip back from the sergeant's hand, "Where is she, Chief? Where's Cortana?" Johnson asked as the data-core didn't glow blue. The chief remained focussed on the empty data-chip a couple seconds longer, "She stayed behind." The chief finally answered as he put the chip back into his helmet. A corporal started going through his suits calibrations as Twilight heard the Arbiter approaching once again, she wasn't the only one as she saw the chief tensing up and sprinting forward with Johnson's magnum.
"Chief, wait!" Both she and Johnson shouted, "The Arbiter's with us!" the sergeant finished. The Chief hesitated as he had the pistol lodged between the elite's mandible's, Johnson walked forward and put his hands on the Chief's shoulder. "Come on now. We got enough to worry about without you two tryin' to kill each other!" Johnson said, the Arbiter clacked his mandibles together. "Were it so easy." He said as he turned from the group, "The Brutes have our scent."
Johnson chuckled, "Then they must love the smell of green!" He said as he took an assault rifle from one of the marines and gave it to the Chief. The sergeant turned to his fellow marines again, "1st Squad, you're my scouts. As for you, just try not to wreck my planet." he added the second sentence while glancing at the arbiter, chief and the two ponies. "Move out! Quiet as you can." He also opened a com line to another marine team, "This is Romeo to Bravo. We got him. Fall back to the extraction point. Over."
"Roger that, Romeo. Bravo out." The second team replied, The soldiers walked down a chasm where they saw a phantom dropship hovering, "Romeo, be advised. Hostiles are -.....- on the move -.....-. I've got eyes on a -.....- Brute Pack -.....-. Over." Bravo reported in again, their transmission rife with static.
"Say again, Bravo? You're breaking up." Johnson said over the radio, Twilight saw a brute and a group of grunts through the scope of her sniper further down the chasm. "Tangos spotted, Brute and grunts down in the chasm." She reported, Johnson frowned, "We stick together, we're gonna get spotted. We'll split up, and meet back at the LZ. Chief, take our alien allies and the ODST's and head to the river. Marines, you're with me."
The two groups split up, Johnson took his marines and started tracking through the jungle in an alternative route. Chief, Arbiter, the ponies and the ODST's. went forward taking out large amounts of covenant footsoldiers in their way in an attempt to direct attention to them instead of the sergeant major. Along the way they found a brute holding a marine up by his throat. "Tell me its location!" The large ape shouted. Twilight's eyes narrowed as she saw the dangling marine, "Kiss... my... ass." He replied, Twilight could see the brute starting to squeeze the marine.
"No you bucking don't." She said as she lined up the crosshairs with the brutes head and fired, the alien roared as he dropped the human soldier who scrambled away from him. Twilight magically pulled the trigger again as the brute jumped down, embedding the large bullet in its chest. The brute was dead before he hit the ground.
The marine, a sergeant, grabbed an assault rifle and ran up to the group, "Brute Chieftain. Phantom. Pinned us down... killed my men." He told them, Twilight grimaced, they had come too late to save more marines. Mack gave the marine a reassuring pat on the back as they continued through the jungle, "The river, hurry!" The arbiter said as they reached a cave, the Chief seemed to slow down for a moment, which was when Lucy noticed something. "Sir, you okay?" She asked, "Your vitals just pinged KIA." The chief just nodded back at the ODST and continued.
"Chief, Pelicans are at the river. We've got company, so hustle up!" Johnson called out over the radio as the group came into sight of the river where two pelican dropships floated which were being battered by covenant soldiers on the ground.
"Grenades! Blow them to bits!" The arbiter grunted as he charged forward, and stuck a couple of plasma grenades to a few brutes. "Hold on. Got a contact." A pilot reported in, "Banshees! Fast and low!" She shouted immediately after as the flying vehicles came soaring over the river, "Break off — now!" Twilight could hear Zoey order her wingman. The pelicans tried to bug out but both got hit by the attacking craft. The first of the two getting hit on the engine and crashed into the river and the pelican that contained Johnson and Zoey getting hit on the same engine but the pilot managed to stabilize the dropship for a controlled crash further up in the jungle.
"ZOEY!" Scootaloo Shouted as she stretched her wings and flew forward, taking out a brute with the energy dagger she had gotten from the arbiter. "NOBODY HURTS MY FRIENDS!" She roared at the aliens as she cut them down with her SMG's. The Chief and arbiter were able to keep up with the flying ODST while the others were playing catchup with the three who ran ahead. "The Banshees will return. Hurry, back into the jungle!" The arbiter said as the others caught up with the raging little pegasus, the radio crackled to life as they ran back into the jungle.
"Chief, can you hear me? . . . My bird's down. Half a klick . . . downriver from your position." Johnson called in, static cutting through his transmission. The group ran further into the jungle towards the downed pelican, taking out jackals on the way, "Come on, you dumb apes! You want breakfast? You gotta catch it!" Johnson shouted as Scootaloo saw the covenant infested crash site, the ODST's alongside the Arbiter and Chief cleared the immediate area of the covenant footsoldiers and ran up to the surviving marines, "Sergeant Major went that way, Chief. Through the cave." a marine pointed out, the Chief nodded and motioned for the others to follow him to the cave. on the other side, they saw an overgrown complex where the sergeant major, Zoey, and another marine were being led into a concrete building. Twilight was just in time with her telekinesis to stop the pegasus from shooting off and immediately assaulting the brutes.
"See how they bait their trap?" The arbiter asked as he pointed out the brutes' strong points. Twilight nodded, "Chief, Lucy and I can give you covering fire with the long guns." She told the Spartan, who swapped a sniper he had picked up at the crash site for the ODST's assault rifle and jumped down with the others, Lucy deployed the bipod of the sniper and took position next to the alicorn. "Any tips and tricks I should know about these rifles?" She asked the pony.
"At this range? Point, brace, fire." Twilight answered and fired her first shot at a brute, alerting the aliens to their presence. Down in the facility, the Chief and the others also opened fire, every time a brute showed its head either Lucy or Twilight put a round downrange making it a soft target for the others to take out. Twilight could see Scootaloo engage two brutes at once, without the support of the others who were still engaged with another squad of brutes. Targeting one of the brutes she wanted to fire but had to wait, she couldn't take the shot without endangering Scootaloo. The little pegasus darted in between the two large aliens who were trying hard to catch the little pegasus, she activated her energy dagger, which had a purple shine to it instead of the regular blue, and flapped her wings, making her fly upwards. The first brute got his throat slit as Scootaloo rotated mid-air and the second brute received the energy dagger to his brain as the pegasus finished her twist. Twilight was amazed at the sight as the pegasus didn't even acknowledge the fact that she just cut down the two aliens, she was simply too focused on reaching the prison where her friends were being held. Twilight wanted to switch targets but stopped as she saw a flash of light coming from beneath the filly's flank armor.
No, it can't be. Twilight thought as she saw the filly running into the building where her friends were being held.
A cold feeling coming from Scootaloo's flank spread throughout her body as the brutes she had eliminated hit the ground, shrugging off the feeling she put on another sprint and headed into the building where she had seen the captured humans being led into. "Sergeant, Zoey?" Scootaloo asked as she turned the corner with her SMG ready in the case that any threats presented themselves. She found the marines sitting against a wall with an energy shield blocking their exit.
"This isn't as fun as it looks. Cut the power, Hurricane." Johnson deadpanned to Scootaloo who hovered up in front of the shield generator and deactivated it. She tossed one of her SMG's to the sergeant and her other to Zoey, "Glad you're okay." She said as she looked at the fellow pilot.
Zoey grinned at the small pegasus, "Me? You don't have to worry about me, I've got my personal guardian pegasus to drag my butt out of hell everytime shit hits the fan." Scootaloo rolled her eyes behind her opaque visor and went into a hover as she went outside where the Chief, Arbiter, and Mack were standing around the entrance. Cheif gave a quick nod to Johnson as the sergeant radioed for a new evac.
"Two Phantoms inbound!" Twilight reported over the radio, everyone darted to a set of cover as the purple dropships came to a stop above the compound they were located in. Brutes and grunts dropping from their troop compartments, Arbiter and Chief ran off to where the first Phantom was dropping its troops and started clearing the landing zone while dodging fire from the cannons on the ship itself. The gunner on the second dropship saw the ODST's behind their cover and opened fire on them, forcing Scootaloo, Zoey, and Mack to keep their head down as its troops dropped down to the ground. "Twilight can you hit the gunner on the far side of the phantom?" Mack asked the alicorn, the radio remained silent but moments later a loud bang rang through the air and the grunt manning the plasma turrent fell to the ground, missing half his head.
"Grunt down, you're free to move." She reported as more sniper shots could be heard. "Those heavy plasma cannons are going to wreck us if we don't do anything about them." Scootaloo observed, Mack agreed. "Got any Ideas on how to neutralize them?" He asked as he fired a burst at a grunt. "Only stupid ones but they might work though." Scootaloo admitted as the heavy turrent fired at the Chief who had to roll out of the way of the turrent, his shield flaring dangerously. "Better than nothing. I'll give you cover on go, you do whatever to take out that thing." Mack said as he counted down and started firing over the barricade, forcing the covenant troops to momentarily take cover. Scootaloo used the small window to open her wings and fly up to the dropship, landing in the empty troop compartment. a second grunt manning the turrent on the other side remained oblivious to the pegasus right up to the point where a purple energy dagger stabbed it through the gut. The pegasus turned to the cockpit door as the grunt fell down to the ground, a push of a button later and she was standing behind two jackals who were flying the dropship and firing the large turrent respectively. She primed a plasma grenade she had picked up and tossed it between the two before turning and running back out of the dropship, she heard the grenade go off behind her as she jumped from the side of the craft and glided down to the ground as the Phantom crashed into the jungle.
"Scootaloo, that was the stupidest plan I've ever seen." Twilight said over the radio, "Rainbow would be proud."
Scootaloo let out a laugh, "Cover me for the next one." She said as she opened her wings in preparation of boarding the other Phantom but was stopped by Johnson, "Negative Hurricane, We've got a pelican gunship coming in hot. Sparkle, Turner get your asses down here for extraction." He said as a volley of rockets impacted the Phantom, "This is Kilo 23, you boys needed a ride?" The pilot said as he lowered his dropship and opened the ramp, a gunner with a chaingun taking out any remaining covenant soldiers. The group of soldier quickly boarded the pelican which immediately took off.
"Are you feeling okay?" Twilight asked Scootaloo as the little pegasus pulled a new set of SMGs from the pelican's armory. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow and quickly checked herself if she was bleeding or anything, "Yeah why wouldn't I be?" She asked as she didn't find any wounds. "N-Nothing" Twilight stammered, "Nothing that's going to matter now." she added as she pulled new ammo for her sniper from an ammo-box. Scootaloo shrugged and sat down on a seat waiting for them to arrive at their destination, which they did about half an hour later.
They exited the pelican and were approached by Captain Miranda Keyes, "Where'd you find him?" She asked Johnson. "Napping. Out back." He replied, earning a snicker from Scootaloo. "Hmm, I'll bet. It's good to see you Chief." The captain said, "Likewise, ma'am." The chief replied as he shook the captains head, "Let's get you up to speed." She said as they started walking into the base, wounded marines lined the hallways of the base.
"The Prophet of Truth's ships breached the Lunar perimeter. Smashed what was left of the Home Fleet. Terrestrial casualties from the subsequent bombardment were..." The captain stopped talking for a moment to find the correct words to use, "...extreme. Truth could've landed anywhere, but he committed all his forces here. East Africa. The ruins of New Mombasa. Then, they started digging." She explained, "What about Halo?" The chief asked, Scootaloo momentarily cringed as she remembered how badly she got busted up on that ring and her encounter with what the Arbiter called 'The Parasite'.
"We stopped it, but only temporarily. Now, the Prophet of Truth is looking for something called 'The Ark', where he'll be able to fire all the Halo Rings. If he succeeds, Humanity, The Covenant, every sentient being in the Galaxy..." Keyes started, "The rings will kill us all." The Chief finished for her. "Ma'am, I have Lord Hood." A technician informed the captain as they entered the command center. "Patch him through." She ordered him, the admiral appeared on the main screen.
"Good news, Commander Keyes?" He asked, "As good as it gets, sir." She responded. "So I see. What's your status, son?" He asked the Chief, "Green. Sir." He responded in his usual stoic manner. "Glad to hear it. The Commander's come up with a good plan. But without you, I wasn't sure we could pull it off." Lord hood continued, giving the Captain time to explain her plan. "Truth's ships are clustered above the excavation site. And his infantry has deployed Anti-Aircraft Batteries around the perimeter. But, if we neutralize one of the batteries, punch a hole in Truth's defenses..." She explained to the group, "I'll initiate a low-level strike. Hit 'em right where it hurts. I only have a handful of ships, Master Chief. It's a big risk. But I'm confident—" The power cut out before the admiral could continue.
"Hell! Not again!" A technician cursed, "Emergency generators! Now!" Keyes ordered, "Shielding failed. They're down and charging." Another technician reported, "As soon as they're up, re-establish contact with Lord Hood. Let him know that-" The captain started but stopped talking as one of the 'prophets' appeared on all the screens in the room.
"You are, all of you, vermin. Cowering in the dirt, thinking what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No. Your world will burn until its surface is but glass! And not even your Demon will live to creep, blackened from its hole to mar the reflection of our passage... the culmination of our Journey. For your destruction is the will of the gods! And I? I am their instrument!" The religious zealot ranted, Scootaloo felt her skin crawl as the prophet finished his speech and saw it had the same effect on nearly everyone else in the room.
"Cocky bastard. Just loves to run his mouth!" Johnson grunted as he took another drag from his cigar. "Does he usually mention me?" The Chief casually asked the captain. "Give the order. We're closing shop." The captain ordered after she thought for a moment. "Ma'am?" A marine asked as he wanted to know the reason behind the decision. "We're about to get hit." Keyes told him, he didn't waste any more time and opened a COM to the rest of the base. "All personnel! Defense code Alpha-one. Prepare for immediate evacuation!" he informed them. "The wounded. We're getting them all out." Keyes said as she walked up the stairs to the back exit of the room. "If I have to carry 'em myself." Johnson informed her.
"Ma'am, squad leaders are requesting a rally point. Where should they go?" A technician asked the captain who had unholstered her magnum pistol and chambered a round.
"To war."