//------------------------------// // 8. My Little Halo Origins: Celestia // Story: My Little Halo: Survival is Magic // by Dusk Writer //------------------------------// John slowly cracked open his eyes. He saw them all floating above the same planet as the one they were all currently on in the outside world. However, something was different; there were what appeared to be battleships in orbit around the planet. These ships were unlike any he had ever seen. The entire fleet appeared to be made up of ships that flew in several pieces, attached to a single control sphere by lines of color. As the ships moved, John looked to the center of the fleet, easily spotting the flagship. This ship was impressive in not only its size, but also of its armament. There were a total of twelve attachments connected by lines of golden light. Six were five-kilometer long needles with red runes running along their length while the other six were small metal plates about a half of a kilometer in diameter with blue runes etched into their surface. As the group flew through space towards the flagship, its name became clear on the side of the central sphere; Celestial Radiance. They drifted through a few walls of the Celestial Radiance, coming to a halt in the command room in the center of the sphere. Surrounded by holographic screens was the command chair, and in that chair sat Princess Celestia herself. John looked over to the purple unicorn, Twilight, as he had learned her name, was looking to the white alicorn with a look of confusion written all over her face. "B-but Princess Celestia, when did this take place? We've never had that kind of technology! Is this taking place in the future?!" The poor unicorn began to hyperventilate until the orange pony came over and calmed her down with a few words of comfort. The whole group looked to Celestia with looks of confusion, all wanting answers. She sighed and hung her head, "I was not always as weak as I am now. This memory is what was occurring over one hundred thousand years ago. Continue watching to see what happened. Our meeting with John and my attempt to kill him was not only a mistake, but also not the first time we've made contact with humans." It was clear she would say no more for now, so they turned their attention back to the younger Princess. She was an impressive figure, with a full metal combat skin covering every inch of fur except for her head. Her horn had a metal device strapped around its entire length with a golden glow running down the wire from the contraption to the hull of the ship. 'Her magic is what controlled the entire flag ship!' John realized with a sudden revelation. "Ma'am! The 'Fire of Magic' has just returned from patrol and has reports of Forerunner ships nearing the battle group through slip space!" One of the ponies reported from one of the screens, which looked a lot like the communications station. As John looked around, he noticed that every pony on the bridge was a unicorn, exempting Celestia. Where were the other species? "Com! Give me communication with the rest of the fleet." As the pony jumped to his task, Celestia turned towards two different ponies at different screens. Defense and weapons! You must take control of the beam rods and energy shields by merging your magic with mine! I know you're rookies, but this is going to be important; we must not let Equis fall!" The pony at the com turned to her, "Alright ma'am! You're patched into the entire fleet!" Celestia cleared her throat and turned towards the view screen that projected her image across the entire fleet. "Ok mares and gentlecolts, this is it! We have a Forerunner fleet inbound through slipspace. However, when they arrive, they will not find cowering ponies, afraid to face the enemy, but proud equines and creatures of Equis, standing up for their home!" She could almost feel the cheers emanating from each of the ships. "Com! Get me contact with the ground team." When the pony finished, a hologram of a familiar and unwelcome figure appeared on the pedestal. "Discord," Celestia spoke with a small bit of anxiousness in her voice, "we are about to be attacked by Forerunners. Prepare the ground troops." The draconequis turned, a smile on his pony face, "Ah Tia! How nice to see you! So, the Didact's finally making his move after so many years hm?" Celestia wished she could rely on somepony else to lead the earth ponies, pegasi, and griffons on the ground, but nopony had the strategical brilliance of ground combat like Discord did. She turned towards the data table examining the flag ship of the incoming fleet. "Actually, no it is not. It appears to be the Master Builder." Discord made a noise akin to that of coughing up a hairball, but spit out cotton candy instead. "By the sun! Does it have to be him? Even I prefer the Didact." As Celestia was about to reply, alarms announced the arrival of the enemy fleet. The hologram deactivated as Discord left to go rally the troops. The group of present-day had a flash in their vision as they began to see things from Celestia's point of view. One of the Forerunner dreadnaughts was the first go. An Equine destroyer near the front fired its four beam rods, each blood red line impacting with sniper precision on each of the weak points of the dreadnaught's hull. The ship exploded into a brilliant fireball and faded. The battle was soon in full swing, with each side fighting with everything they had. The blood red beams lanced across the Master Builder's ship as it slowly advanced, doing close to no damage to it. As one of the Forerunner corvettes fired at the Celestial Radiance, the small plates came into play. The discs shot to different positions around the front of the ship with shocking speed and immediately, a blue shield appeared in between each disc, stopping the attack cold. The Forerunners managed to land Warrior-Servants on the planet, and everypony on the surface were now fighting with all their worth. After several hours of bloodshed, it was clear who the victor would be. The Equestrian fleet only had a third of its ships left and the ground troops were sorely outmatched and outnumbered. Celestia was now roaring orders at the remaining ships to move to different positions as strategical positioning. Suddenly, something very bad happened. Just as Celestia was preparing to focus fire on the Master Builder's ship, a human fleet came in behind her ships out of slipspace and bombarded not only the ships in orbit with missiles, but also the ground forces below with plasma. "No!" Celestia's parents were down on the surface of the planet; it gave the soldiers more moral when the royalty was among them. "Ma'am! The humans, their leader is the Lord of Admirals! It would appear that they're in league with the Fore-." The pony was cut off as one of the human ships vanished from the tactical display, destroyed by a particle cannon from a Forerunner Dreadnaught. This was a three-way battle; what was so important that both sides came here to fight for it? To make matters worse, another slipspace portal opened above the Forerunner fleet, widening to an impossibly large size. All ships, human, equine, and forerunner seemed to cease fire for a few minutes as each race stopped to watch the horror that emerged. As the structure revealed itself from the blackness of slipspace, Celestia gasped with terror. Her intelligence spies had brought news of a great and terrible weapon built by the Forerunners. Thirteen rings designed only for one purpose, the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy. The thirteenth ring is the smallest out of all of them; only a prototype to the oncoming vanguard. This was simply what they needed to do to test it in battle. "All ships! Deliver control of your beam rods to Celestial Radiance and channel your energy through me!" Celestia was practically screaming now. If she didn't act immediately, this could mean the end of ponykind. She felt incredible power surge through her as the ships relinquished control of the rods to her and sent their energy to her so she could channel it. They may lose this battle, but she would guarantee their survival. The rods formed a large cone around the battle group, all pointing at an empty space at the front of the fleet. Celestia took the power channeling through her, and poured it into each and every single rod. The runes grew to a brilliant red before firing into that empty space, forming a small sphere of gold and red energy. As the ball finished collecting the energy from the rods, Celestia used what was left of her own magic to guide the destructive weapon towards the halo ring. The magic shot forward, the power of a thousand of Equis' most powerful unicorns all packed into a ball. Time seemed to slow for Celestia as the ball impacted with the external surface of the ring, exploding with the force of a hundred suns. The ring began to bend, until eventually, it snapped. One of the pieces collided with the aft end of the Master Builder's ship, heavily damaging the engines. The Equine side however, was in a much worse condition. The magical blast had shorted out the beam rods, causing them to fall apart, the remains of the runes now only black marks on the silver metal. A quick check on the surface showed the troops being surrounded by Forerunner Warrior-Servants. Celestia allowed herself a small smile; Discord would never run, and his warriors looked to him for courage. They would continue until death unless told otherwise. She let out a heavy sigh. "Com, contact the Master Builder and Lord of Admirals. We are surrendering." ~~~~~~~~~~ "Princess Celestia, we are nearing our destination," the ancilla said from within her armor. The Forerunners had graciously allowed her one for whatever reason, despite the fact that they seemed more morbid grim than usual. She quickly trotted to the bridge. "Captain," she said respectfully to the Forerunner; Decider Of Who Gets What was a very fair and kind Forerunner compared to the others of his kind and Celestia enjoyed talking to him. "As you have no doubt been told, we have reached the rendezvous point and are the last to arrive," said Decider in his deep rumbling voice. She looked out to the small Forerunner ship known Peacemaker. It was a sphere less than a kilometer wide with bridges connected to a rotating ring (very different from the Halos). Around it, she could easily spot the gargantuan Human and Forerunner ships. They had gathered in temporary peace to discuss the matters of Equis' surrender. While she did notice the Lord of Admiral's ship, she did not see the Master Builder's. "Where is the Master Builder? I thought he would be here for this." In his place, there appeared to be another ship, smaller, less weaponised, but obviously faster and still a flagship. "Soon, after the battle was finished, the Master Builder used his spare engines and went to slipspace; the coward would not face his own judgment." Decider scoffed at the thought, then turned fully to Celestia. "Are you ready? It is time to go." When she nodded, they turned towards the hangar bay and departed to their destination. ~~~~~~~~~~ Celestia exited the meeting room which still contained The Librarian (who came in the Master Builder's stead) and the Lord of Admirals. Her head was hung low as she described to her pony escort what the punishment was to be. They would all be devolved except for her, her powers would be lessened a great deal, and The Librarian wished to speak to her in a few minutes. She had failed her people but they still had managed to survive. Celestia waited patiently, and when The Librarian left the room, she walked straight up to the Forerunner. "Well? What was it you needed to speak to me about?" The Librarian seemed sad to have to have this conversation with the Princess. "We do not know when, but we will need to fire the Halos. I will need to gather samples from specifically you, and several other ponies. You will retain most of your memories except for a few. Also, while I have planted seeds in the humans so they will be able to rise again quickly, your race will not receive any such enhancements," she finished with a sad sigh. She looked to Celestia, who appeared to be in shock. What?! They would be firing the Halos?! What about their Mantle of Responsibility? Did that no longer matter? But if it did, what would make them so desperate as to use this weapon? With a look of pity on her face, The Librarian continued, "There is one more thing, my friend, I must ask you a favor." Celestia looked up to the Forerunner with red-rimmed eyes. What more could she possibly want? "I wish to use Equis as a hiding place for something. So, I ask you formally, may I use Equis as a planet to hide the -" The memory flashed white as they reached a censored area, but it was put back together just as quickly. Celestia was now standing in front of the Lord of Admirals and Librarian, as her escort came to her. After a quick glare at the human, he leaned into Celestia's ear and whispered, "Princess, your parents were killed in the battle by plasma bombardment from human ships." She jerked her head up, anger quickly clouding her vision. With her magic she threw Lord of Admirals against a bulkhead. As he struggled to stand, Celestia threw herself at him, firmly planting her hooves on his wrists. He met her gaze levelly, not flinching at the glare that was usually the last thing someponies would see. She spoke to him in a low voice, words dripped in a vat of acid, "I cannot kill you here, human, but if I ever see you again, you will face no mercy from me. If I ever find another human on my planet, they will not live long enough to know that you were the cause of their death." She stood away from him, turned, and left, never to look upon his face again. ~~~~~~~~~~ The memories were finally at an end. Twilight was no longer conscious; the shock of seeing how ferocious her teacher had been had finally almost put her into a comatose state. Celestia looked to Luna, "After the Halos were fired and I was reborn, I found you; a tiny midnight blue foal made from the combined DNAs of parents. I took you in and taught you all that I knew. The Forerunners left us with enough magic to raise and lower our respected celestial bodies. Discord ended up going crazy, so I took his memories and sealed him in stone to end his misery." Celestia then looked to John, "The person who activated my memories, that glowing blue human, where is she?" John was about to reply when Cortana simply appeared alongside him, albeit much shorter than the Spartan. She looked to Celestia with a look of her own pity in her eyes, "You have been through a lot as well, haven't you Celestia? Not only having to live through the defeat of your people, but also through one hundred lifetimes of ponies you knew." Cortana gave a sigh, and was about to continue when the entire space turned blood red and Cortana screamed. "AAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Suddenly, Cortana began speaking in two voices. “Why do you always prefer him?! I am your greatest achievement, and you detest me!” Another voice began to speak, the same, but sounded as though it was much older. “Cortana, stop. Calm yourself.” Cortana began in a whisper, but her voice quickly rose, “I don’t want to, and you can’t make ME!” As she screamed, tendrils of red light shot out from her distorted body and connected with everybody present, including the Master Chief. Incredible pain shot through their bodies as Cortana attacked each of them. It was unlike any of them had ever experienced, as though someone was driving an ice-cold road spike through their brain, and when it was all the way in, twisting it. When the pain vanished, John was the first to recover, looking to his A.I. companion. She was crouched with her hands around her knees doing what qualified as an A.I. crying. “I didn’t mean to, I didn’t want to. It’s like there’s a hundred of me all fighting for control at once.” She ducked down her head in shame as the white memory spell void dispelled and she faded back into John’s helmet. As the guards rushed to see if their Princesses were alright, Twilight looked to John visor, unknowingly meeting his eyes. “What is wrong with her?” Twilight knew that, even from their few meetings, that the blue woman was not acting like she should and that something was wrong. It took a few seconds for John to answer, although the hesitation was still apparent in his voice. “Her name is Cortana, and she is my Artificial Intelligence companion. She is what is called a “smart” A.I. and only lives for about seven years. After seven years, they begin to go into a stage called rampancy, in which they literally think themselves to death. Cortana is seven and a half.” Twilight couldn’t even begin to comprehend what it would feel like to know how short your life would be; only seven years! There had to be a way to help this mysterious human female, even if her form was just a hologram she was still there like the thoughts in one’s brain. She turned and trotted past her recovered friends. “Princess! Is there any way we can help her?” Celestia waved away her guards, reassuring them that she was now both fine and that the Chief was not a hostile. She looked at her student and thought for a few seconds. After she looked back at John who was watching them with what appeared to be indifference caused by his visor, she turned back to Twilight. “Yes, Twilight, I think there is a way we can help Cortana. I remember everything now.”