//------------------------------//
// CHAPTER NINE 
// Story: Halo: Equestria 
// by xCrossx 
//------------------------------//

Everfree Castle, Equestria, November 20, 2552.

We had survived the dangers of the forest but have arrived at the castle. Inside is Discord himself. And who knows what chaos he has stored with him. Well, we'll find out soon enough. We step inside the ruins' great entrance, gently ushing the rotten wood aside to reveal the creature inside.
It has the head and front-half of a dragon with bat wings and the rear-half of a lion with a scorpion tail. A manticore-dragon hybrid. Yeah, that's something Discord would create. ALl but the Spartans draw back as it breathes fire at us. I hear the alarm of the front Spartan's shields as they're wiped out.
"Move in!" I order them as they gape. "And don't let it kill you!" I add for good measure as we flood inside. I pull out the Boltshot, knowing that normal weapons wouldn't work against dragon scale, and fire at its head. Some shots go wide due to my constant running, but me and the Spartans work together while the Equestrians deal with the softer parts, like the tail and rear.
While the Equestrians hurt and maim it, we have little luck; the rounds can't penetrate deep enough before evaporating. I give up and charge head on, leaping and grabbing hold of the dragon's head, shoving my gun in its maw and unloading upwards. In its dying throes, it bites down on the gun, my hand barely safe, the gun grotesquely crunching. I let go and jump off as it collapses.
I return to the head and force it's mouth open. I groan at the wreckage, the gun left in little pieces with no glow emenating anywhere. A Spartan drops his own Boltshot with mine. The others follow suit. I look at them. "No ammo left." Oh. I nod and let the Equestrians stealthily lead the way. We strangely encounter no more resistance as they lead us just outside of the throne room, its doors wide open. We duck behind the walls and plan what we are going to do.
One of the Spartans peeks around the corner and reports what he saw through the comms. "Discord is in there with two bulking bots, neither wielding anything but they resemble the crawlers from earlier."
"They probably have guns attached to them, then," I reply.
"Yes, but we can't do much about that."
"We can charge them all with as much fire as we can send them," says Gage.
"Best thing we can do," Kim adds. We nod. We pop out with a cry of "Charge!" and a roar of weapons. The bots quickly block a line of sight with Discord and our rounds harmlessly ping off of their armor. Click click click. Some of us are out while the bots aim their right arms at us. Shit. Those are guns.
"Drop the guns or I'll order them to fire," comes Discord's voice. We glance at each other before complying. The Equestrians follow suit. "Good children," he smiles while the bots seperate. "These Prometheans are a lot better protection than Changelings, Crawlers, robots or anything else for that matter." He chuckles. "You have been great fun, but, sadly, your time is almost up." He pulls out a 9mm pistol, pulls out the clip and the chambered round, and counts them for us. "Six! Six rounds! One choice!"
"Choice?" I ask, glaring at him.
"You, ODST, will choose wether you all die by trying to shoot me, or to kill the Equestrians and earn your ticket home!"
"Me?!"
"Yes, you. You care about them. The Spartans, bred for war, don't. Now, decide." He tosses the gun to me and I catch it. I hestitate before looking at it, drop the clip and examine it. I return it and get my grip steady.
"You will hold up your end of the deal?" He grins. I blink and aim it right at Twilight Sparkle. A lot easier than the Boltshot was. "I'm sorry." I fire. BANG! And spin around to face Discord, firing a shot that barely misses as he sidesteps. "But you chose the wrong guy." He just grins and cackles as he charges me and the Spartans go fist to blades with the Prometheans.
"You make it so much more fun!" I block his fist with my forearm to his and try tao aim for him with the pistol but he bats the arm away. I spin around him and misfire my second round right next to his ear. "Two!" he chimes, haviing figured out I had used a blank the first time. I push him forwards as I jump forwards myself, facing him with gun almost ready as I pull the trigger, his arm keeps mine off and it goes wide as he slips back in close again, aiming to punch me in the... chest. "Three!" I spin past it, my barrel right next to his head... he ducks with "Four as I fire. I growl and dodge his uppercut meant for my... stomach and try aiming again. Again, he deflects it as I fire. "Five!" I punch his inner elbow and try my last shot. Nearly... he punches my arm and another misfire offtarget. "Six! And you are all out!" I kick him away and aim at him. He grins. I growl and toss aside the gun and charge at him.
I aim for his face and he spins downwards and to the side. I bring my foot up to kick him but he catches it with one hand as he stands up. I spin and free my foot before using to knock his feet out from under him. He jumps over it with ease and backs up as I try to uppercut him. And that's when the Spartan who picked up the 9mm shoots the last real round and kills Discord. His eyes grow wide as I pull out the last blank. "You left three in your desk. I slipped in two." He stumbles backwards into the middle of the ring-gate, which is flooded with blackness that spreads and envelops me. Darkness follows. Again.