//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Equis // Story: Helljumpers // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// "Twitchy tail! twitchy tail! twitchy tail." Fire licked the hull of the pelican as it re-entered Equis' atmosphere. "Temperature within acceptable parameters." Scootaloo reported from her seat as she carefully kept the dropship balanced throughout the re-entry. "What's our position?" Twilight asked as the flames around the cockpit died down. "If the surface scans are correct, we're above the Everfree right now. Heading three-three-zero towards a settlement, which should be Ponyville. ETA fifteen minutes." Scootaloo said as she adjusted her course to north-north-east. "We should look for a clearing either in the Everfree or in one of Sweet Apple Acres fields, I'd like to avoid a panic in Ponyville proper." Twilight said as she unstrapped herself from the copilot's chair and walked to the cargo hold. The transmitter they had gotten from HIGHCOM that could link up with an orbital communication relay was strapped to the floor alongside a set of solar panels to power them. Twilight walked up to a weapons locker and opened it, usually pelicans would be stocked with equipment but this time the locker only held two SMG's a magnum and a sniper rifle. She dug through the ammo supplies they had gotten, two boxes of ammo for every weapon respectively, one with sharp ammo and the other with stun rounds and a magazine of blanks on Scootaloo's request. Twilight picked the magnum off the rack and inserted a magazine with stun rounds into it before holstering it on her dress suit. Twilight remembered the reaction the Elites had when they had entered the system, It had just been daybreak in Equestria and Celestia was in the process of 'raising the sun' and Luna was ‘lowering the moon’. It had taken all Twilight’s persuasion power to convince the elites that neither of the princesses were a god. I seriously hope we’re not going to be visited by a bunch of Sangheili cultists in the near future. The second thing the sunrise did was confirm the theory Twilight had made up months ago, Celestia didn’t move the sun but rotated the planet. Though there was also something she hadn’t expected, before the princess had rotated the planet it had been in tidal lock with its star just as the moon’s orbit was rapidly decaying until either princess corrected their rotation speed and orbit respectively. It had taken six hours of spaceflight after that to get to the planet as Twilight didn’t want the elites to perform an inter-system jump because she wasn’t sure what the effects would be of a slipspace transition on the local magic field. Twilight felt the pelican decelerating, dragging her mind out of her theory as she made her way back to the cockpit, "Where did you put us down?" She asked as she saw rows of bare apple trees, covered by snow, neatly lined up in front of the landed pelican. "At the edge of the southern field. There were about two dozen meters of clear ground between the Everfree and the orchard." Scootaloo replied as she pushed a couple of buttons, "Powering down." She announced as the craft stopped making noise as the turbines stopped spinning. "Do you think they heard us come down?" Twilight asked Scootaloo as she got out of her flight chair and put on her helmet, earning an eye roll from Twilight. "What? It looks cool!" Scootaloo said as she noticed the alicorn's gesture. "And no I don't think so, maybe a couple of pegasi saw our re-entry but I ran her on minimal sound so I'd be impressed if anyone noticed our return." "It's a doozy, it's a doozy!" A certain pink pony was shouting as she hopped through her place of employment. "In that case, we should go surprise our friends." Twilight said as she lowered the ramp of the pelican, the cold outside air flowing into the ship. Scootaloo quickly opened the weapons locker and attached an SMG to her one side of her barrel and attached a saddlebag to the other. Before stepping outside Twilight made a quick mental calculation, " We were out of contact for less than a month and the slipspace jump took a week so if I'm correct we should be in the middle of the last school week before the Hearts warming vacation." She told Scootaloo, "We should probably split up, I want to check on my friends and parents while you should go find Applebloom, Sweetie, Octavia, and Vinyl." "Yeah, I know." Scootaloo said trying to sound annoyed to hide her fear but failing. "Scootaloo, we talked about this a week ago. I'm sure they'll be glad to have you back no matter how you look." Twilight told the filly as she covered her with her wing. "I know, but I'm still scared anyway Twilight." Scootaloo sighed, "What if they think I’m a monster? I mean, I alone have a larger kill count than the entirety of the Equestrian army had in the first Griffin conflict which, need I remind you, is the bloodiest conflict in pony history." "Scootaloo we both have done and seen things we'll probably never speak about again but our situation was much worse than a medieval Equestrian war." Twilight told the filly, "Now. We've let our friends wait for long enough, haven't we?" "Yeah, I'll take everyone to Sugarcube corner after I've visited everyone I wanted to visit." Scootaloo said as she flared her wings, "See you in a bit!" Twilight looked at the filly as she flew off for a moment before she took off towards Applejack's house as it was the closest of her five friends. The air blew past Scootaloo's ears as she flew towards the schoolhouse, she could see that the building was covered with hearts warming decorations. She landed in front of the large door that would lead into the hallway and walked up to it. Here goes nothing She thought as she took hold of the door handle and quickly entered the building as not to let in too much cold air. "Miss Cheerilee, can we leave early? It's almost Hearts Warming and mom promised to help me make muffins after I got back" Scootaloo heard Dinky say, bringing a smile to her helmeted face. "Sorry Dinky, class already stops early today so I'm not letting you fillies go even sooner." Scootaloo dared to look around the corner of the door into the class. Everyone was focussed on Cheerilee as she wrote something down on the chalkboard at the front of the classroom, "Now class we still have to cover some physics before we can end this day." The entire class awwed, making Scootaloo snicker, she would have given the exact same reaction if she was sitting in the class. She took the time to look at all the other fillies in the class, her eyes halting at Diamond Tiara who was holding a straw aiming a spitwad at Applebloom. Oh no you fucking don't She thought, a devious plan coming to the forefront of her mind. She quickly grabbed her SMG loading the blank rounds into the machine gun and taking off the suppressor before she took off her helmet as well. BANG Everypony in the class jumped up and screamed as they heard the very loud sound, Scootaloo being the exception as she was used to the sound of gunfire and was too busy glaring at the spoiled filly anyway. "WHO Dared.. to..." She said in a rage but stopped as she saw the pegasus giving her a death glare, which was only made more effective by the massive scar she had gotten from the energy blade plastered on her face. "You never change, do you?" She asked in a monotone voice as she flicked on the safety and reattached the gun to her barrel, turning away from the dumbstruck filly looking straight into the eyes of both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. "S-Scootaloo?" Applebloom stuttered, Scootaloo's ears going flat against her head. "H-Hi girls." She said, her nerves returning with a vengeance. Before she could say anything else she was caught in a hug, "We've missed you so much! *sniff* Our sisters told you were alive but *sniff* didn't tell us anything else." Sweetie cried into Scootaloo's shoulder. "I guessed something like that." Scootaloo said relieved that her friends didn't hate her but it brought up another challenge as in how to tell them what had happened. "Scoots, how did ya get that scar?!" Applebloom asked as she released the hug. And there's the question Scootaloo sighed, "Boarding of the Stalwart Dawn but I think I should wait to tell that story with Twilight and your sisters. I don't really want to have to tell that more than once." She said while looking at the ground. "Are we just going to ignore the loud explosion that just happened?!" Diamond Tiara shouted as she had recovered from her original shock. Scootaloo let out a short laugh, "Loud? That was nothing SMG’s are relatively silent in comparison to other rifles as it uses sub-sonic ammo. Also, you’re an irrelevant ass, shut up." Diamond Tiara was baffled by the brash way Scootaloo had shot her down, "But.. I-.. AARGH" She shouted as she sat back down on her bench and pouted. "Scootaloo, watch your language!" Cheerilee berated the pegasus as she finally spoke up, the entire class having erupted into whispering. "Sorry ma'am, soldiers don't really care about your language use most of the time." She told her teacher while she could see Rumble eyeing her armor, "You know you can just ask, right?" She told him as she turned her head to look him in the eyes. "What are you wearing and how exactly did you make that loud noise?" He nervously asked, Scootaloo standing up and walking back to the hallway where she picked up her helmet and walked back to Rumble. "It's ODST battle armor." She said as she passed the helmet to the colt, "Here try it on, it's really cool." Rumble put on the helmet and Scootaloo tapped a command into the console on her foreleg which activated the HUD in the helmet. Scootaloo's classmates gasped as the visor turned opaque, "Wow, this is awesome! But what does it all mean?" He asked as he looked around in wonder, "Also this thing is heavy." "Yea, it is." Scootaloo said as she detached the SMG once again, She could see Diamond Tiara flinching. "At the top of the visor you can see the compass, on the bottom left you can see how many grenades are currently attached to my armor..." "It says zero on all of them." Rumble observed. "Of course there's zero, I'm not going to walk around Ponyville with a bunch of explosives!" Applebloom seemed to twitch, "Ah don't think Ah heard ya correctly Scoots, did ya say explosives?!" Scootaloo just shrugged, "Yup." and continued to explain the HUD, "On the bottom right you can see this thing." She held up her SMG, "It's the ammo counter for this weapon" "Wait, did you say weapon?" Rumble gasped as he took off the helmet and set it down next to him. Scootaloo sighed once again, "Yeah, I'm trained to use anything I could get my hooves on but I specialized in using this type. This one is loaded with blanks, they just make a loud sound but aren't dangerous." "What happened to ya when you were gone?" Applebloom asked as she put a hoof on Scootaloo's shoulder, the pegasus tearing up as flashes of memories of various friends and colleagues she lost got to the forefront of her mind. Cortana... Chief... Johnson... Zoey... Mack... "Scoots, you're crying!" Sweetie said, bringing her attention back to the class. "Sorry, I was just remembering a couple of the friends I made." She replied as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "Anyway, I'm going to find Mom and Vinyl. Twilight and I are going to rendezvous at Sugarcube corner after we've gathered everyone, you two are also invited." Scootaloo put her helmet back on, turned around and trotted out of the schoolhouse towards Ponyville central. Twilight landed in front of the large red barn standing next to the Apple family's home, the doors were open so Twilight assumed someone was inside because no Apple would leave the door open to prevent animals from getting to the stored food. "Applejack?" She asked as she stood in the middle of the barn, she heard rumbling coming from the cellar. "Gimme a couple a seconds, Ah'll be right up!" Twilight could hear the oblivious earthpony shout. Twilight grinned as she sat down, waiting for the earthpony to appear. The hatch to the cellar opening up, "Who can Ah.. help... TWILIGHT!" She shouted as she grabbed the alicorn in a hug, "The girls and Ah were really concerned when Dash said she had lost you in the dream world." "I guessed that but we had to leave on really short notice so we couldn't take a nap to tell Rainbow about our situation." Twilight said as she pried herself loose from the earthpony to get some fresh air. "I'll tell you about it with the other girls, there's no point in repeating the same story a bazillion times." "Ah guess not." Applejack chuckled as she walked to the barn door. "Ear flop, eye flutter, knee twitch!" Someone screamed as the farm pony had her hooves on the door. "What the..." She managed to say before the door hit her squarely in the face, "Omygosh, Applejack are you alright! my pinkie sense did an Earflopeyeflutterkneetwitch which means to look out for opening doors and I was running towards so fast that I couldn't stop!" Pinkie Pie shouted as she almost stood on top of Applejack. "Ah'm alright Pinkie, Ah-" "You have to come with me, Applejack. I was working at Sugarcube corner and suddenly I had these shudders and I was like 'A doozy, a doozy!' so something really unexpected was going to happen and I still don't know what and *hmpf*." Applejack pushed her hoof into Pinkie's muzzle to shut her up, "Ah'm pretty sure your doozy is standing two meters behind us." Pinkie looked past AJ and gasped as she saw Twilight sitting on her flanks, a goofy grin plastered on her face. "TWILIGHT!" She shouted as well and flung herself towards the alicorn, which startled Twilight. In a reflexive action she swiped out the legs from beneath the earthpony and landed on top of her, holding Pinkie down into the ground. "Wow Twi, you're just as strong as Applejack!" Pinkie said with an unwavering smile, Twilight blushed as she realized what she just did. "Uhm, sorry Pinkie you startled me." She sheepishly said as she helped her friend back up onto her hooves. "Don't worry Twilight, I must have brought back super duper scary memories back." The party mare said as she kept smiling, “I already told the other girls to come to Sugarcube Corner Applejack was the last pony I had to collect before we could start figuring out what the doozy meant but that’s not important now because you’re here and… Omygosh I have to start planning a welcome home to Equestria Twilight and Scootaloo party!” Before the pink pony could run off Twilight grabbed her in her levitation, “Calm down pinkie, we’ll have a party but I want to visit my parents, friends, and the princesses first.” “Okidokie, Twilight!” Pinkie replied as she somehow escaped from the levitation field and trotted outside again, “Ah guess we’ll head for Sugarcube Corner then?” Applejack offered, Twilight nodded and the two headed outside after Pinkie. “It’s actually quite convenient that she brought the girls to Sugarcube Corner as Scootaloo is going to bring her friends and parents there after visiting them to hook back up with us.” “Speaking off that filly, how is she-” BANG A loud but distant sound came from the direction of the schoolhouse. If that Pegasus fired a live round anywhere near that schoolhouse Tartarus is going to look like a vacation resort. Twilight thought as she connected the sound to the firing of an unsuppressed SMG. “What in tarnation was that?! An’ did that sound come from the schoolhouse.” Applejack asked as she was now on high alert, Twilight held out a wing as a gesture for the earthpony to calm down. “Scootaloo should be somewhere over there right now, I’m sure she can handle anything thrown at her.” Me being the notable exception. “Alright Twi, If ya’ll are sure about that Ah’ll trust ya.” Applejack said as she continued walking towards Ponyville, occasionally glancing in the direction of the schoolhouse. Within Ponyville itself Twilight got a plethora of surprised glances but also a lot of ponies that had been concerned after the ‘Library incident’, which Twilight soon learned was when her portal had destroyed the tree and damaged the surrounding buildings. Applejack moved ahead as they arrived at Sugarcube Corner where Pinkie was standing outside, “Did you tell them yet?” Twilight asked the bubbly mare. “Nope!” Pinkie replied and hopped into the building, Applejack just shrugged at the pink mare’s antics and trotted inside after her. “Pinkie what’s this about, I really have to get some sleep as I have to take a night shift with the bats tonight!” Twilight could hear Rainbow complain. “I’m sure Pinkie brought us here for a reason, darling. Didn’t you Pinkie?” She heard Rarity say to Rainbow. “Yup!” Pinkie exclaimed but didn’t say anything else after that, ”What is it, Pinkie?” Fluttershy’s soft voice just making it outside. “Ah think it’s better if you just saw it.” Applejack replied to the shy mare, Twilight taking it as her cue to enter the store. “Hello, girls.” She said, the jaws of the three ponies that were still unaware of the fact that Twilight had returned dropped onto the floor. “TWILIGHT!” They exclaimed simultaneously as both Rarity and Fluttershy, who were standing closest to the door, embraced the alicorn in a hug. “Darling, we missed you so much!” Rarity said as she pulled out of the hug and inspected Twilight’s suit. “Twilight, I must say your suit is fabulous but did it have to be black? I mean white would be a lot less depressing.” Twilight snickered at Rarity's analysis, "White suits would be for the navy and marines, my black one is because I'm part of the ODST's." She explained. ”I'm really really glad you're okay, Twilight. Fluttershy said in her distinctively soft tone but before Twilight could respond Dash spoke up. "Twi, where's Scootaloo?" "She's somewhere in ponyville right now gathering Sweetie, Applebloom, Vinyl, and Octavia." Twilight answered, Dash immediately shot towards the exit past Applejack who tried to get a hold of her Tail but failed, Twilight's telekinesis yielded different results though. The alicorn seriously underestimated the amount of magical power she had and accidentally smashed the pegasus into the floor, "Oh no! Rainbow are you alright, I'm not used to Equis' magic field anymore." "I'm alright Twi, I just want to find that filly so could you please let me go!" Rainbow said annoyed while she was still being levitated by Twilight. "Sorry Rainbow but Scootaloo said she'd come here after finding her friends and parents, something she has to do on her own. You'll have to wait for a bit longer." Twilight apologized but didn't release the grumbling pegasus. The door of the store burst open as three fillies burst into the room, "Applejack! Rarity! Scootaloo just came by class!" Sweetie Belle shouted as she spotted the two older ponies in the room, "An' she had this thing that made this very loud sound!" Applebloom continued, "She said it was a weapon of some sort!" Rumble finished for the earthpony. Twilight stepped forward to the three fillies who stood slack-jawed as they saw the Alicorn, "What exactly did she say she had and why's Rumble with the two of you?" Rumble immediately answered, "She said it was an SMG and that she fired something she called a blank..." Twilight immediately relaxed as she heard the pegasus had fired a blank and not a live round. Still not getting out of that without consequences. "...and Rumble here is an initiate Crusader!" Sweetie happily squeaked as rumble stepped forward again, "Scootaloo said she was going to tell the others what happened and since I'm also a crusader now they thought I should come too." Twilight sighed, telling Applebloom and Sweetie Belle was going to be hard enough. "Alright, Rumble but you have to ask Thunderlane for permission first because we're headed off to Canterlot soon." "Wait, what?!" Rarity asked dumbfounded, "Darling, the snow has crippled the trains and it's already getting dark so if we leave now we would arrive somewhere tomorrow." Twilight started laughing, the others looked strangely at the alicorn. "Uhm, Twilight? What's so funny? If you could tell us please, that would be nice." Fluttershy asked her. "It's because we're not taking the train, Shy." "So what Are we taking then?" Rainbow asked, Twilight just put an evil grin onto her face. "You'll just have to ask Scootaloo when she gets here." Scootaloo was standing in front of the building she had called home before she got lost in space. One side of the building was in the classic style Octavia favored and the other side in the modern style Vinyl liked. Scootaloo lifted the floormat which revealed a key laying in the exact same place as she remembered where it always lay. She opened the door into the living room and entered, Octavia would usually be practicing there but while her cello was present the earthpony herself wasn't. The other side of the room was Vinyl's, her mixing set was missing so Scootaloo guessed she was up in Canterlot to set up for a show in a nightclub. This was also the reason why Vinyl had turned out to be more of a big sister than a Mom, unlike Octavia who always seemed to be home when she was. Sootaloo continued walking through the house in search of the earthpony musician, eventually coming across the kitchen. Octavia was sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of water... ...and a picture of Scootaloo. A lump formed in the fillies throat as she hadn't been noticed yet, "Mom?" The glass of water immediately dropped to the floor and shattered, spilling its contents all over the ground. She turned around and locked eyes with Scootaloo, "Scootaloo?" Scootaloo shot forward and hugged her caretaker, "I was so scared *Sniff* that I'd never see you or *Sniff* Vinyl ever again." She sobbed into the mare's coat. "I was too, my little filly, I was too." Octavia answered as she tightly held the pegasus. "Vinyl is in Canterlot for the first show she's given in months." Octavia told Scootaloo as she drew out of the hug and gasped, "S-Scootaloo, your face!" "I know mom, don't worry it doesn't hurt. I'll tell you about it when we get to the others at Sugarcube Corner, Twilight's friends also deserve to know about it." She said as she got off her mom's lap, "I'm sure Twilight will want to go to Canterlot anyway to visit the princesses and her parents so we can immediately go find Vinyl." "All right, let me get some stuff before we leave." Octavia smiled as she quickly grabbed a scarf, hat, and hoof warmers. The two closed the door behind them and quickly made their way to Sugarcube Corner where they could see a group of ponies were already present inside. Scootaloo walked into the building first, she could see Rainbow perk up immediately. "Squirt!" She shouted as she embraced the filly in a hug, Octavia came walking into the store after her and cleared her throat. "Princess, I heard you might want to go to Canterlot but if we are to make it any time soon we would have to take the train immediately." Twilight looked at the musician, "It's just Twilight for you Octavia, you know that and as on how we're going to get to Canterlot quickly, ask Scootaloo." Everyone turned to Scootaloo as Twilight had repeated that sentence multiple times now, 'Ask Scootaloo.' The pegasus started grinning like a madmare as she understood what Twilight meant. "No barrel rolls." Twilight flatly told the filly before she could get any Ideas. "Yes, Sergeant! What's my pickup point?" Scootaloo asked as she was ready to get the pelican, Twilight levitated a smoke grenade from her saddlebag. "Green Smoke." "Copy that, I'll be back in a bit!" She said as she ran outside followed by Rainbow, "Wait up Squirt! Where-... Wait you're flying!" "I know! Isn't it awesome! The humans fixed my wings!" Scootaloo laughed as the rapidly approached Sweet Apple Acers. "Wow, I mean, now I can teach you tips and tricks and stuff!" Rainbow said happily as she did a couple of aerial maneuvers. "You're not the only one, Dash. I'm pretty sure I could also teach you a couple of things, so we could teach each other!" Scootaloo laughed as she checked her heading and adjusted course towards the dropship. "So, Squirt, why are we flying towards the Everfree?" Dash asked as the thick treeline started coming really close, Scootaloo scanned the environment once again and spotted her goal. "Because I needed some space to land and I ended up setting down between the farm and the forest." She answered as she pointed at the pelican, Rainbow's eyes went wide as she saw the large green dropship. "Wow, what's that?!" "It's a pelican, we can easily get everyone to Canterlot with it." Scootaloo said as she opened the ramp at the back of the craft, Rainbow looking at the interior in awe. "How is it getting up to Canterlot though? It's not going to fit through the main gate of the city." "Because we're not taking the main gate." Scootaloo said as she strapped into the pilot's seat and activated the power supply, "We're flying over it." Before Dash could reply Scootaloo flicked the last switch and activated the turbines, "Strap into the seat!" She shouted over the engine noise as she closed the back hatch. A dumbstruck Rainbow quickly secured herself into the co-pilot's seat, "Now don't touch any buttons because I still have to fly this thing." Scootaloo said as the pelican shuddered for a moment and lifted up from the ground. "THIS THING FLIES?!" Rainbow Shouted as she finally got back to her senses, Scootaloo just laughed as she had had the same reaction to the pelican. The filly steered the craft in the direction of Ponyville careful to fly over the outskirts and not the center of the village as not to scare the inhabitants too much. She suddenly saw a cloud of green smoke coming from an open space at the east side of the village and adjusted her course appropriately. Scootaloo snickered as she saw a group of ponies at the edge of the field staring up at her, "Setting her down." She said as the pelican touched down, she turned off the turbines as well as it would be easier to convince ponies to hop into the craft when it wasn't roaring like a manticore. "I'm green, Twilight." She reported, making Rainbow raise an eyebrow. "You know she can't hear you from here, right?" Scootaloo grabbed an earpiece from a box beside her and tossed it to Rainbow, "Put that in your ear." She told the blue pegasus who obeyed. "...Just saw a couple of day- and Nightguards enter the clearing so we have to talk them down before we can take back off." She heard Twilight's voice coming from the earpiece, "Wait you can speak to Twilight from here?" Dash asked Scootaloo but got the answer from Twilight. "Yup, useful isn't it?" A couple of knocks on the hull could be heard, "Scootaloo, can you open the ramp and speak to the guards?" "Don't worry Twilight, I know those guys. I kinda work with them." Rainbow said as she got out of her Chair and walked to the back, "Thanks Rainbow, I'll try to calm down Fluttershy sufficiently for her to get into the pelican in the meanwhile." The ramp lowered down revealing seven tensed up guards of both branches with weapons at the ready, All of them looking up confused as Rainbow trotted out of the craft. "Rainbow, what the buck are you doing in that thing!" Moonlight, the Thestral stallion, asked incredulously. "Tell them this is sanctioned by me, I'll be there in a couple of seconds just stall them for a moment." Twilight said over the radio as she was listening in on the conversation. "I was getting a lift in this thing. We're picking up a couple of ponies before we continue on toward Canterlot." Dash explained to him. "Is this sanctioned by one of the princesses?" He asked skeptically. "Twilight just did." Rainbow told him but only seemed to confuse him more, "Dreamwalking stuff?" He asked. "No, more like via radio contact." Twilight said from behind the group of guards as she came walking up to the dropship with the group of ponies. "Stand down boys, this one is on me." She told the guards. "Your Highness, forgive us. We weren't informed about your return." Moonlight said as he bowed deeply for the alicorn with the other guards, Scootaloo fell onto the floor of the pelican laughing. "Holy crap, you guys know a simple salute would have been enough for her." Twilight coughed getting the attention of the guards back onto herself and motioned for them to rise as them being on the ground was unnerving to her, "As my corporal said, you don't have to bow. Anyway, I need you seven to clear the area before we take back off and make sure that the Ponyville residents know we're not dangerous to them." The Seven guards threw a quick salute and ran off to the edge of the clearing to make sure nopony approached to close. The group of ponies entered the dropship, "Rumble what are you doing here?" Scootaloo asked the grey pegasus colt. "He's a crusader initiate since we couldn't make him a full Cutie Mark Crusader without your vote." Applebloom said as she walked up next to the colt. I guess he's a nice colt, though I'm going to test his guts before I'm allowing him in. Scootaloo thought as she looked at the pegasus. He also has a nice flank... Wait, WHAT! BAD SCOOTALOO! "Uhm yea sure, strap in I'll decide my vote later." Scootaloo said blushing furiously, she turned around to see Twilight grinning at her. "Remember to keep your hooves to yourself." She told the little filly as her coat turned from orange to beet red. "I hate you sarge." She said as she swiftly disappeared into the cockpit, leaving Twilight to make sure everyone was secure. As Twilight gave the go-ahead Scootaloo closed the hatch and restarted the turbine, she could see a large crowd from the village looking at the craft in awe as it rose into the sky and started moving towards Canterlot. "So how fast is this thing, Scoots?" Rainbow asked with her earpiece, Scootaloo put her voice on the intercom. "Much faster than you are, Dash." She could hear the blue pegasus laughing out back, Scootaloo put her hooves on the throttle and pushed it forward a bit. The pelican shuddered a bit for a moment, "We're now flying Mach one-point-zero-seven." "So you just broke the sound barrier, no sweat I can do that." Rainbow said nonchalantly as her voice echoed over the speakers. Scootaloo grinned as she pushed the throttle up to fifty percent and the craft suddenly felt the acceleration, "Mach two-point-zero-four." "I could do that?" Dash said much more uncertain of her abilities, Scootaloo took that as her cue to push the throttle even further. "Sixty percent power for atmospheric thrusters we're now going at Mach three-point-two-zero. Decreasing power, Canterlot ETA four minutes." Scootaloo reported as she heard Rainbow sputtering in the back, "Don't feel bad, Dash. This thing is built to enter space itself, it can fly more than forty times the speed of sound if it really needs to." "You just broke Dash." Twilight laughed as the pelican shuddered again for a moment due to it going below the speed of sound once again. "That's technolog-" Alarms started going off throughout the cockpit. "MISSILE LOCK!" Scootaloo Shouted as she immediately went into evasive maneuvers, "Firing flares!" The red heat sources got ejected from the back of the craft. Twilight lit her horn and immediately felt something probing her, "False alarm, Hurricane. Luna is performing a scrying spell that's screwing with our sensors." Scootaloo let out a breath she had been holding, "Copy that, Sergeant. I'll keep the acrobatics to a minimum from now on, everyone okay back there?" "The earthponies are almost universally sick but other than that we're good." Twilight said as Scootaloo leveled out and made for an open spot in the castle gardens, "I guess our element of surprise is gone with Luna checking us out." "That's Princess Luna for you, Squirt." Rainbow called from out back, The filly raising her eyebrow. "Since when do you care about titles?" "Nightguard." Dash simply stated but it was enough for Scootaloo to make the connection, "Oh, right." Scootaloo powered down the turbines for a third time a day and opened the ramp. Outside the pelican, they could see a dark blue shield being cast around the craft. "COME OUT SLOWLY AND SURRENDER, WE HAVE THEE SURROUNDED!" Luna thundered in the royal Canterlot voice, the ponies sitting in the craft seemed to get really uneasy as the princess of the night was shouting at them. "I've got this." Twilight said as Scootaloo unstrapped herself and ran out back, "You're not going anywhere without me." She told the purple alicorn, Behind them other ponies also unstrapped themselves, "Ah think the rest of us would like tha' get off this thing as well Twi." Applejack said as she was a bit wobbly on her hooves, "Ah don' think earthponies were made to ever go that fast." "I guess not." Scootaloo said sheepishly, "Come on, let's surprise the Princess before she realizes it's us." Twilight nodded in agreement and walked out of the pelican with Scootaloo. "What's wrong, Luna? did we park in the wrong spot?" Twilight said teasingly to the blue alicorn, Luna's expression immediately changed and she dropped the shield. "Twilight Sparkle, Scootaloo Hurricane! We are sorry, we hadn't expected thine arrival to be so sudden." Twilight chuckled, "Well, you got back at us. Your scrying spell messed with our MAW system making it think we were about to be destroyed by a missile." Scootaloo scratched her head, "That's what the red lights and the sudden turn were for." Luna looked slightly guilty as she realized why the craft had started flying strangely after she had started scanning it with her magic, "We are sorry if we scared thou much." She said as the other ponies exited the pelican, "We see thine has brought more ponies?" Twilight looked back at the group that had just left the pelican, the earthponies looking really glad that they were back on solid ground. "Yea we can carry fifteen ponies with us in that thing, probably much more if we bunched them up a bit." A bright flash suddenly lit up the clearing as Princes Celestia teleported in, "Sister what's going on?!" she asked as her mane looked extremely disheveled, probably due to her being just awoken for an emergency. Everypony except Twilight and Luna bowed for the solar Princess as she took in her surroundings, "Tia your mane's a mess." Twilight said with a smirk. Celestia looked down at her student, her expression going from confused to glad and finally to playful as she realized who was standing in front of her. "I thought Rarity was the fashion expert?" She replied. "I read a book on the subject." Twilight shot back, getting a laugh out of both princesses. "I'm glad you're back, Twilight." Celestia said as she drew the pony into a hug, "Believe me, I'm glad to be back." Twilight replied, "I've got quite the story to tell but I want to pick up my parents first, they've waited long enough." Celestia nodded, "Princess Cadance, your brother and Spike should be there as well. They wanted to be together as a family for hearts warming." "I guess I should go complete the set then, shouldn't I?" Twilight said while she released the hug, "I'll bring them back here within the hour." "I'll get a room for us all to sit down where you can tell your stories." Celestia said as she looked at the other ponies present, she realized they were all still bowing as no-one had told them to rise. "You can all stop bowing now. Guards, there is no threat here you can all return to your posts." The thestrals looked at Luna who nodded in approval before they all flew off, "For the rest of you, you can follow me." "Princess, Mom and I also have to pick someone up." Scootaloo said as she looked up at the white alicorn, Celestia also nodded at her. "I'll let the guard know to let you through." The Princess said, Scootaloo wanted to walk off with Octavia but was picked up by a magenta aura and pulled back. "You're not walking through Canterlot in armor, put on your dress suit. That's an order." Twilight told the filly who grumbled an acknowledgment. “Good, I’ll be back in an hour.” Twilight said as she walked off in the direction of the gate. Twilight was walking through the snowy streets of Canterlot, her beret fixed on her head. She could have flown but she hadn’t felt like flying. Only a couple ponies had recognized her in the streets, she gave the few who did respectful nods as she passed them. Her parents’ house was less decorated then it would have been usually. No point in putting this off. Twilight sighed and knocked on the door. ”I’ll get it!” she heard Cadance shout from the other side of the door. A couple of click of locks later the door opened, “What can I do… for… No way, Twilight?” “Hi, Cadance” Twilight said softly, “May I come in.” ”Cadance, dear. can you let whoever in, the house is getting cold” Velvet shouted from out back as if to reinforce Twilight’s request. “Y-yes of course!” Cadance said as she smiled at the fellow alicorn. Twilight stepped inside the house and took off her beret, “The others are here?” She asked as she pointed at the living room. “Yes, though Spike is upstairs in your old room.” Cadance answered, Twilight nodded and walked into the living room. ”Who was it, Cadey?” Shining Armor asked from the kitchen, Twilight smiled at her brother’s pet name for his marefriend and walked into the kitchen. “Me.” Three head turned towards the entrance of the kitchen, “Twily?” Shining said not believing his eyes. Velvet walked up to Twilight without saying anything, “Hi mom.” She said as she was tearing up badly. Velvet pulled her daughter into a hug, “I missed you so much my little bookworm.” She cried, Nightlight, Shining, and Cadance also joining in on the hug. The group held onto each other until they heard someone walking down the stairs, “Is the food ready?” a little dragon asked as he walked into the living room and looked at the kitchen where Twilight was sitting surrounded by her family, he froze as he saw the purple alicorn who just smiled at him. “We were just having a group hug but it wouldn’t be complete without you Spike.” She told the small dragon who rushed forward into Twilight’s hooves. “After the *sniff* explosion I was so *sniff* afraid you were just *sniff* gone, like supervillains disintegrating in my comics.” “Good thing I’m one of those heroes that survives everything then, right.” Twilight said with a grin earning a laugh from the little dragon, “Yes you are, Twilight.” “Now I hear there was food being prepared and I still have some time before I promised to bring you all back to the castle.” Twilight said with a grin, she got a playful tap on the back of her head from her mom, “What happened to your manners?” “A lot of things but I’ll tell you about them with the others.” Twilight said as she placed Spike on her back and followed her parents into the kitchen, momentarily no care in the world. Scootaloo was walking alongside Octavia through the upper district of Canterlot, they were headed for nightclub The Prancing Pony where Vinyl was supposed to have a gig that night. Scootaloo was fiddling with her dress suit despite the fact she knew she had flawlessly put it on she still felt uncomfortable wearing it. “You look fine, Scootaloo.” Octavia tried to comfort her, “Great actually, better dressed than my audience usually is.” Scootaloo sighed at her mom, “It’s not that, I just don’t like being this unprotected. I practically lived inside that armor for months, I just feel naked. Which, I know, is ironic since most of us usually don’t wear clothes.” She laughed as she realized how ridiculous she was being, “I picked up some stupid habits didn’t I.” Octavia laughed with her daughter, “I’m sure they were useful to you at some point.” “Yea, they were.” Scootaloo answered, More times then I could count probably They arrived at the nightclub where Vinyl was supposed to be playing, there was a large row of ponies waiting to be let in in front of the flashy building, there was also a VIP entrance next to it and at the entrance there where two muscly looking stallions. “We’re not waiting that long just to go see Vinyl.” Scootaloo stated and walked in the VIP entrance towards the two stallions, “Scootaloo come back, those two aren’t going to let us in!” Octavia shouted at the filly, which drew a couple of stares from the row of ponies. “I’d like to see them try to stop me!” She shouted back before she turned to the two stallions who had moved to block the fillies path, “Are you even old enough to enter, young lady?” one of them asked as he looked down on Scootaloo trying to intimidate her but utterly failing. “I’m here to retrieve my big sister. Princesses orders.” She stated to the two stallions laughing in her face, “Kid, it’s long past bedtime for you. Buck off.” “Scootaloo, dear. It’s fine we’ll sen-” Octavia tried to persuade Scootaloo but the two stallions had already enraged the Pegasus far past the point of reason. “You two have exactly one chance to let me pass otherwise I’m walking through the two of you.” Scootaloo stepped forward and one of the stallions stopped her in her tracks, the following event was too fast for most ponies in line to follow as Scootaloo threw a plethora of quick punches at pressure points on the stallion's body who within seconds was on the ground crying in pain. “I JUST SPENT THE LAST, WHAT? SIX MONTHS? IN WHAT MIGHT JUST AS WELL HAVE BEEN FUCKING TARTARUS AND NOW YOU TWO THINK YOU CAN STOP ME FROM GETTING TO MY SISTER?!” She shouted at the door guard, who had fearfully retreated from the pegasus. “Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” She slowly said as the guard allowed her entry into the nightclub, Octavia following closely after, in shock as to what she had just witnessed. Inside the nightclub, Scootaloo could hear the distinct sound of Vinyl’s wubs and moved into the club, there were two stories of tables and a large dance floor in the middle of the room with Vinyl at the back behind her mixing set. “Thank you for coming everypony! DJ-P0N3 will be taking a break but will be back by tonight!” An announcer shouted as she could see Vinyl walking towards a VIP lounge where she was served a drink immediately after she sat down. Octavia took the lead this time in an attempt to prevent another incident, “Vinyl!” She shouted at her friend who immediately looked up, “Tavi! What are you doing here? I was under the impression you didn’t like these clubs!” She smirked and waved the security stallions aside, Octavia stepped through closely followed by Scootaloo who still remained hidden behind Octavia’s legs. “I was trying to find you, Scratch. There’s someone here for you” She said and stepped aside, revealing Scootaloo. The DJ’s glasses falling down onto her muzzle, revealing Vinyl’s red eyes, “Squirt?! Holy Celestia, where have you been!” She said baffled as she pulled in the filly for a hug, “I’ll tell you at the castle, the princesses also want to hear it.” “Dang, Scoots. Guess I’ll pack up quickly, can’t keep the princesses waiting.” Vinyl said as she quickly retrieved her gear and turned to one of the stallion guards, “Hey can you tell the manager I had to leave? I’ll come back tomorrow and we’ll work out a deal where I play two full nights for free.” The stallion nodded and walked off. “Great, now let’s go!” Vinyl said as she walked to the exit of the club but was stopped as the manager came rushing forward. “Ma’am we had a contract, you can’t just leave?!” “Actually we can, I’m retrieving her on princesses orders. You can take the deal with the two free gigs or get nothing. Your choice.” Scootaloo said as she walked past the mare, “Now please don’t bother us further we’re on a schedule.” The manager didn’t stop the group as they walked by outside where the stallion who Scootaloo had floored was back on his hooves, “Hey tough guy!” She shouted at him making him flinch, “Next time don’t try to stop me.” He quickly shook his head as he let the three mare pass. “What’s up with him?” Vinyl asked as she looked back at the nervous guard. “I kicked his butt.” Scootaloo answered without looking at the stallion. “Wait, you’re telling me you actually took down that guy?!” The white unicorn said, not believing what she just heard. “yes.” Both Octavia and Scootaloo answered simultaneously. “You’ve got to tell me about this!” Vinyl nearly shouted in excitement, Scootaloo just chuckled. “you’ll hear all about it when we get back to the palace, me and Twilight have a lot to tell everyone.” “I’ll keep you to that, little sis.” Vinyl said, ruffling Scootaloo’s mane as they made their way back up to the princesses. Everypony had already taken a seat on one of the pillows that were present as Twilight led her family into the room, They exchanged pleasantries with the other ponies in the room and sat down. Twilight opened the saddlebag she had taken and pulled a holographic projector from it. The attending ponies watching with interest as Twilight set up the device, she just managed to finish as Scootaloo, Vinyl, and Octavia entered the room "You took a holoprojector? Awesome!" Scootaloo said as she saw the device in the middle of the room, Twilight looked back at Scootaloo. "I thought it would be useful to have it on hoof while we explain some none-graphic things." Twilight said as she booted up the device. The ponies gasped as the hologram of the planet they had first landed on appeared, "I guess this is as good a time to start as any." Twilight said as she toggled the hologram off for the moment, "Since I only told Dash bits and pieces I think it best to start at the beginning..." "...And that's when we were taken off the planet by them." Twilight finished, everyone had remained relatively quiet throughout the start of the story. Dash raised her hoof as she had a question, "So you guys went from being on the verge of killing each other to fleeing from the planet together in what? Two hours?!" "They didn't at first but after I took down the zealot their trust in the two of us grew really quickly." Twilight answered, Celestia being the next pony to say something. "Twilight, I know you were in a war but you're talking as if killing that being meant nothing to you!" Twilight shook her head, "It really did bother me at the time-" "By that she means she was a complete mess, thinking that she was completely unredeemable." Scootaloo cut in. "Thank you, Corporal, your support has been noted, and yes I was a mess. But if I hadn't killed him there he would have gone on to fight and murder hundreds of innocents before someone else killed him." Twilight said coldly, "It was a war of genocide princess, in the end, it was nothing personal and just a simple calculation." Twilight could see a couple ponies shudder at what she had said but was determined to continue the story, "Anyway after we got away we headed for Reach..." "...After the Spartan left we continued training for another before the Winter Contingency was declared. After that, we had to wait two and a half more weeks before we actually saw action." "What's Winter Contingency? It sounds scary." Fluttershy shivered, the pegasus had been hiding for half the story already and Twilight hadn't even reached the worst parts. "Winter Contingency is the emergency plan to follow for when a colony gets attacked or found by the Covenant." Scootaloo answered for Twilight. "Also the guys managed to get Twilight so drunk she started imitating Nightmare moon in those three weeks." She added as she grinned. Twilight snorted, "You got pulled from that bar by military police after knocking yourself and another marine out in a bar fight." The other ponies could do nothing but stare at the two ponies that were telling their story until Applebloom spoke up. "Scoots you Knocked out someone?!" "Did it again this evening." Vinyl said, which prompted a sputtering defense from Scootaloo. "He was stopping me from getting into the nightclub and unlike the guy at Reach, I didn't electrocute him!" "And how did thou electrocute that soldier?" Luna asked as she seemed to be quite amused. Scootaloo sighed and opened her wings, sparks of electricity started arcing from the wings to the ground as Scootaloo pushed magic into them. "A true Hurricane then." Luna smirked, Celestia rolled her eyes. "Make sure you two don't destroy half of Canterlot when you inevitably go for a flight. Now we should go back to the story before this escalates, you were about to tell us about your first fight with this Covenant right?" Twilight nodded and Changed the hologram and overview of a city, "Well after those weeks we were called to a city called New Alexandria..." "...And we stayed in Stalwart Dawn for the remainder of our time until Reach got glassed." Twilight finished once again, "I't was one of the worst experiences I ever had, seeing that many souls needlessly get wasted." "But you won, right?" Rumble said, having until now been quiet. Scootaloo shook her head, "We won a day in a losing battle. Four days after our 'Victory' Reach was glassed." "Glassed?" The colt asked, Scootaloo looked at Twilight who changed the hologram to one of Reach before it was glassed. "This was the planet before the glassing." She changed it to the version where the surface was burning, "This is what happens to a planet after glassing." "Darling, is that fire?" Rarity asked as everypony was staring at the hologram with terror in their eyes, "Yes, they burned the surface to glass. That's how the process got its name." Twilight answered. "Can we continue?" Scootaloo awkwardly asked, "I don't like to remember what happened to that planet." "Me neither." Twilight said, "Anyway we were boarded when we fled from the system..." Twilight felt Celestia's magic probe her as she told the group about her use of dark magic, "I sealed it away to dispense of later, Princess." Twilight told her teacher as she saw her parents brother and Cadence were also looking at her in concern. "Just making sure." Celestia said told her as she stopped probing her fellow princess. "Anyway..." "...And that's when we arrived at Earth. It's also where I got this medal." Twilight finished pointing at her bronze star, "It's an award given to soldiers that perform an act of bravery, despite my use of dark magic I still saved the entire crew from being killed by the boarders." Shining looked at the medal pinned on Twilight's dress suit, "And what is the other for? Since you both have it." He asked as he studied the second medal. "It's the medal of Honor, the most prestigious decoration the UNSC has." Twilight answered, her brother staring at her slack jawed. "It'll come up later in the story." Twilight said as to prevent further questions. "After we got to Earth, Dash started to get involved..." "...You know I never read that letter, it appeared when I was in the middle of a drop so I stashed it in a pocket and it got ruined while fighting." Scootaloo explained as Twilight finished her story of what she did in New Mombasa. "Wait, you went out and dropped for another time even after the first time you nearly died?!" Applebloom asked baffled, Scootaloo nodded. "It was my job over there. Hell, I'd do it again if they asked me." She said and turned to the purple alicorn, "Twilight do you have a hologram of Halo?" Twilight nodded and a hologram changed to show one of the ringworlds, "This was what I was dropping on to..." "...After that, me and Johnson crashed in on Twilight and the others." Scootaloo finished as she caught up to where Twilight left off. Dash smirked at the filly, "So you made friends with the aliens that were trying to kill you? You got beaten to the punch, miss Princess of Friendship." She told Twilight, who smirked back at the pegasus. "Did I now? Guess I have to step up my game." She replied as she pulled a stack of papers from one of the bags she had brought in from the pelican, "I suppose I'd need to show these to you anyway, Tia." Celestia took the papers and scanned the first page before looked back at Twilight, "You negotiated a treaty of coöperation?!" "Not exactly, if that agreement is signed formal relations are established between the UNSC and negotiations can start." Twilight explained, "We'll go over them after we finish telling the story." She told the princess before continuing, "After Scootaloo found me again we got called to the surface to find the Chief..." "...That's when we took off with the gunship." Scootaloo said as tears started forming in her eyes, "Initially our air-support gave us a significant edge on the covies." She suddenly broke down in sobbing, Octavia shot forward to comfort her filly. Twilight also joined in on comforting the little filly. "Is she okay?" Cadance asked concerned, Twilight shook her head. "That gunship was shot down by a scarab, Zoey didn't make it." She answered for the filly while levitating a glass of water over for her to drink. "I'll continue on on my own for a bit. After we took out the AA- turret an assault was launched on the Forerunner Dreadnaught, only we came too late and it managed to activate the structure and opened a portal to the Ark..." "...So Scootaloo, me, Mack, Lucy, Chief, Cortana, and Arbiter stayed behind to activate the Halo while everyone else retreated from the Ark." Scootaloo had meanwhile calmed down as Twilight had continued the story, giving input so every now and then. "So ya'll manage to activate Halo and get out as well?" Applejack asked, Scootaloo shook her head. "Not all of us." She grimly said, "Mack and Johnson never made it out of control room and when we managed to reach the Forward Unto Dawn we lost the Chief and Cortana somewhere in slipspace." "That was a week ago, after that we were rewarded the Medal of Honor along with everyone who stayed behind and after that I got the paperwork from the Admiral before leaving with the Elites to this System." Twilight finished. "Although we should probably talk about the Discord issue now." "He kinda did help us." Scootaloo said but Twilight shook her head. "His story isn't consistent with reality, he opened that rift a thousand years ago and yet he also claimed he couldn't plan long term. Which means he has alternative motives, not surprising but an issue none the less." "What's your proposal to do with him?" Celestia asked Twilight, "For the moment? properly seal his powers but if we can figure out his motives we might be able to work with him." Celestia nodded, "I think this is a good time to stop and go to sleep, I will have the guest rooms prepared for everyone as I don't want you waking the entirety of Canterlot with your craft." The princess told everypony as she stood back up herself, all the others also stood up to go to bed and try to process everything they had heard. "Hey Twilight," The filly looked back at the purple alicorn. "What do we do now?" The purple alicorn thought for a moment, "I guess whatever we want, but I don't think I'd be able to sleep if I didn't do something to improve the safety of the planet." Scootaloo grinned a bit, "Are you proposing what I'm thinking?" Twilight grinned back, "Helljumpers."