//------------------------------// // Close to Insanity // Story: Halo: Into a Darker Storm // by Slaphappy16 //------------------------------// The group of four continued walking through the rocky wasteland as night descended upon them. They had gotten closer to the edge next to the continuing forest. “Think we should set up camp?” Douglas asked Jerome. Jerome continued walking, thinking. “I guess so. I want to wait and see if we can find an oasis though.” “Yeah, that’s understandable. You see any?” Douglas asked, searching around. Jerome looked around, trying to find a bit of blue. A mile away, he saw a few green trees clumped together. “How about there?” Jerome nodded towards his find. “Yeah, that looks reasonable.” Douglas agreed. “Guess we should tell Anders and that pony?” “Nah, we’ll wait till we’re there.” Jerome said. Douglas continued walking silently. He couldn’t keep his mind off Alice. She had to of been OK, she was a bloody Spartan. It was just curiosity that poked at him. What had she been up to? Mass genocide or fish and chips with the princess? He hoped fish and chips. Not only because it was peaceful, but because he could go for some fish and chips about now. He continued to think in this manner until the crunch under his boot changed to a soft ‘ploosh’ noise. A small pond sat in front of him. Not near as big as the lake they were at before, but big enough to support the plant life around them. Anders and the pony walked up to them. “I suppose we’re stopping here for the night?” Anders asked. “Yep. I’m gonna get a fire going. Douglas, can you get some fresh water?” Jerome ordered. Douglas walked over to the lake, a small canteen in hand. A few small fish swam away from the Spartan as he dipped it in. He filled up two more canteens before standing up. He screwed on the cap to the last. “Hey Jerome, got the canteens. You need anything else?” he asked as he walked away from the water’s edge. “Yeah, take out a few packs of food. Hey, Wind Storm, what are you gonna eat?” Jerome turned to the green pegasus. “Grass.” He simply said and started walking to a nice green area. “Oh. Nothing unusual, like some kind of hay-cake? Or a sandwich made of clouds?” Douglas asked. “Nope. Just grass.” He answered and continued grazing. Douglas was OK with that, no need to waste a nice pack of vegetable soup. Anders joined the two Spartans around a small fire. She looked over to the dark forest and furrowed her brow. “Sure nothings gonna jump out in the middle of the night and drag us horribly into the forest as we scream and kick, but to no avail?” Anders asked. Douglas and Jerome stared at her. “That’s an interesting thought. A bit gruesome, but interesting. Either way, I’m sure we’ll be fine. Douglas and I will keep a watch.” Jerome answered as he filled a heat-pack with water. The water would cause a chemical reaction and make the pack hot enough to stick soup or something inside and heat it up. Douglas pushed his helmet to one side, causing a hissing noise to come out of his neck area. The helmet popped off, revealing a white, shaved head. He held up a cracker and took a bite. Jerome did the same, taking a mouthful of some kind of noodles from the pack. The pegasus looked over to them. “Huh. I always thought you were robots.” “Robots? What made you think that?” Douglas asked, a bit sarcastically. The pegasus just ignored them and continued eating. Douglas could tell it didn’t like him or Jerome too much, but he couldn’t care less. He just continued eating in silence. He looked up into the sky. Slowly, the stars became more visible as the sun sunk into the horizon. He looked over at the moon. For a moment, he just stared at the image on it. “Well I’ll be damned.” He said to himself. “They’ve even got a ‘man on the moon’ thing goin.” He inspected it a little longer. It was pretty well detailed. Behind him, Jerome broke through his thoughts. “You go ahead and sleep first, I’ll keep watch.” He told him as he slid his helmet back on. Douglas nodded and did the same. He was OK with that. He layed down on a tree by the fire, his back against the bark. Although he was wary of sleeping so close to the forest, the entire day of walking pulled him into sleep. *** Alice ran down the tracks towards the tunnel ahead, her hostage in tow. She took another look behind her to make sure they hadn’t followed. Nothing moved, no glowing golden eyes, no flicker of the moon shining off of armor. Good. The sooner she could get away from these animals the better. She just hoped what she was looking for was still at the top. As she ran into the darkness of the tunnel, she slowed her pace. Her eyes quickly readjusted, but she still couldn’t see too well with the only light source being the low green tint of her armor. The surprisingly, the grey pony under her arm hadn’t even squeaked since she had stolen her. Alice had expected her to be yelling in fear. The grey mares head slowly looked back at Alice’s faceplate. Suddenly, she started yelling in fear. She had the worst luck. Quickly, Alice’s gauntleted hand clamped over the ponies snout. She continued screaming, but it came out much more muffled. She shook it a bit, but that just made it louder. Its eyes were abnormally large, and Alice half-expected them to blow up. She set it down on the ground, were it just stood and continued screaming. What the hell, why wouldn’t it shut up? She could just shoot it and be over with it, but she was sure she was still being watched. And that would mean she had no more hostage and no way to dodge an army of ponies coming after her. She could easily take them on, but for now she just wanted to find Jerome and Douglas. So, she just punched it on the side of the head. It twirled on it back legs and fell to the ground. The punch wasn’t hard enough to kill it, just enough to knock it out. She hefted up the limp pony and threw it over her shoulder, continuing onwards. She enjoyed the peace and quiet for the time she had it. The tunnel swirled around in uncanny ways, like it was trying to make the trip as long as possible for her. She walked on for a bit, wondering when the hell she would get out. She thought back a bit. It was about what, 10:00 when she started? That sounded about right. Her little walk around the city and encounter with the bat-pony-things had wasted about thirty minutes, and she had been walking for quite some time now, not to mention the pace she was going at to save energy. This was taking her a long time. She checked the mission clock. Sudden tiredness hit her as she realized it was 3:27. Damn, she had been walking for a good 4-5 hours. She looked back ahead and kept going. It mystified her- she probably could’ve scaled this mountain by now. Maybe she was going slower than she thought? She thought on and on, not really paying attention She walked farther, until she finally saw a light. Sighing in relief, she started to jog forward. The morning sun was peaking over the horizon. She looked around. It was like some kind of picnic area. There was a little bench so people could enjoy the view of the land from atop the mountain. There was no place for the train to stop, she just guessed they just kinda hit the brakes and ponies would get off. It really was beautiful. She expected it to be cold this far up the mountain, but it was strangely warm. She swore she saw snow during her fall from space. Before her search though, she had something to take care of. In front of the cave, she layed down the grey pony. She then walked a few feet off and activated her camo. Now, she waits. *** Night Stalker walked with Night Talker. “Sweet Celestia, this is taking FOREVER!” Night Talker complained. “Don’t worry, it can’t be long now. We can’t go back empty handed!” Night Stalker reassured his friend. “But it said it would KILL us! I don’t know about you, but life is very important to me!” Night Talker went on. “Cmon man! Were LUNA’S guard! We got nothing to fear! We are the best of the best!” Night Stalker said, waving a hoof around for effect. “No, the captain of the Royal Guard is the best, and he’s basically dead! Along with, what, like seven other guards! And they ganged up on it! Either way, what are we supposed to do about the civilian? Celestia would send us to the moon if a civi got hurt!” Night Talker added. He lived up to his name. For a moment, Night Stalker thought. “Say, do you think that if Celestia sends ponies to the opposite of the sun, i.e. the moon, if Luna finds out, would she send us to the Sun?” Night Talker sat there, letting that sink in. “Oh, we are so bucked…” “Wait! Look! We’re at the end!” Night Stalker pointed to the end of the tunnel. Night Stalker started trotting faster, but Night Talker grabbed him by his armor’s collar. “WAIT! We can’t just walk out there!” “Sure we can. Cmon!” Now, Night Stalker had Night Talker by his collar, and was dragging him along. The light blinded them for a moment, but slowly, everything came back. Night Stalker looked around. On the ground next to him lay the stolen pony from last night. Huh, guess they got lucky. * Alice watched the night pony put a hoof up to block the light. He looked down and spotted her hostage, AKA, the bait. He turned around and called to another pony she hadn’t originally noticed. “Hey Night Talker! Found the civi! Guess we can go home, eh?” “Yeah, cmon and take her, I just wanna leave…” The other said. Oh god. These ass-hats. They were the ones who followed her? She could hardly believe that. Oh well, either way, they had to go. She had important stuff to tend to. She slowly moved closer to the bat-pony that was trying to pick up her hostage. Just as he had gotten her on his back, Alice reached out and grabbed him by his neck. The active camo melted away, and the pony stared in shock back into her faceplate. “She’s still mine.” She said. The pony fumbled for words. “Uh… What if… I said that I can’t let you take her?” “You remember your guard friends I killed?” The pony nodded slowly. “I’ll just say one thing: I’ll make sure you have a closed-casket funeral.” The pony started shaking horribly and sweating. Behind him, his friend reacted. “YARR!” he yelled out and leaped through the air. Alice let go of the pony and caught his friend mid-air, twirling him about, and then throwing him over the mountain. She watched the pony awkwardly scrabble at the air with its wings, trying to regain balance. The first pony charged at her back and rammed into her back. Alice barely faltered and she turned kicked the pony away. The pony slid across the ground and hit a rock. Alice walked up and held up the bat-pony to the rock, her knife in hand. “This was just too easy. You guys almost make me laugh. Your gold guys at the castle were a hundred times better than you.” She twirled the knife, about to make her kill. Something behind her moved. Alice turned and the bat-pony looked past her. The grey pony slowly brought herself to her hooves, holding her head. She shook it, like trying to get rid of some kind of pain. She looked up at Spartan and the guard. She froze, as if remembering what happened the night before. The Spartan and the guard both looked at her, not really sure what to do. Alice moved her knife closer to the guards face. The grey pony immediately let out a scream. Alice moved it back. The pony died down. She put it closer, and got the same result as before. Well, better not kill it, lest she end up with an overly annoying grey pony that she would have to punch every time she woke up. So, she looked back at the guard, who had a pleading look in his eyes. “I will find you. I know where you live.” She whispered at it. Then, grabbing it by the waist, she hefted it up and threw it after his friend over the mountain. She walked over to the stunned grey pony that was looking over the edge of the mountain, watching the pony flap through the air helplessly. She grabbed it, which caused a yelp. “Cmon. We're going treasure hunting.”