//------------------------------// // The Hunt Begins // Story: The Equestrian Hero's Call: Homecoming // by Genis94 //------------------------------// My vision began to return along with the sounds of arguing at what I assumed was an hour after the attack. "I'm telling you, Mr. President, we need to have these... things contained!" A familiar voice shouted. "We came here on a diplomatic visit. If you would insist on having us contained after fighting to keep you safe, then I hope you have an army ready to stop me within the first few seconds of such an edict." Another voice countered. I certainly knew the second voice. It was Princess Celestia, but I had never heard her make such a threat. I suppose after being a monarch for several millenia, you had to learn to be unyielding at times. I sprang up from where I was laying down so I could make myself known. "I pass out for one hour and you're back to bickering with us?" I chided as I shot a glare at the first voice. It was that representative again. I don't know what his name was or what state he represented, but it sounded to me like he used a lot of bribery to get his position. He winced as he saw that I was awake. "B-but... those injuries... What are you?!" I mentally face-palmed. "And here we go again..." I was pretty annoyed at this guy, so I decided to be extra snarky with him. "I'm a homo-sapien, same as you. I just have a ridiculous amount of magic." I said, rather bored that I had to suffer through this ingrate. "Now answer me this: Just where do you get off trying to have us 'contained' after we just risked our lives to save you?" It seems I really hit him where it hurt. He tried to think of a response, but each time he tried he couldn't even finish the first word. President Obama stepped forward to intervene. "I'll have no more of this pointless arguing. The Equestrians are recognized as diplomatic representatives, and are to be treated with such rights." He paused as he jabbed a finger at the rotten representative. "And after what they just did, they all deserve to be decorated heroes." The representative fumed before storming away. I looked around and noticed that someone was missing. "Hey, where's Luna?" I asked. Before Celestia could respond, a pair of hands cupped over my eyes. "Guess who~!" It certainly was Luna's voice, but that certainly didn't sound like her. "Uh, Luna? What's up with you?" Luna uncovered my hands before moving in front of my vision. Her face had a slight flush to it, but she was grinning widely. She began tracing her finger on my chest. "I was just glad to see my hero had woken up~." She flirted. I sniffed the air between us for a second, smelling something familiar. "Alcohol..." I muttered. Luna huffed at my tone. "What are you giving me that tone for? It is traditional to have a toast after a victorious battle!" She finished by raising her arms up, nearly throwing her off balance in her current state. I leaned past Luna so I could get a look at Celestia. She was snickering... "Just what did she drink?" I asked. "R- *chuckle* red wine." She answered before continuing her snickering. Luna was now giggling at... whatever she seemed to find funny. "And how much did she drink? A bottle?" Celestia was now on the verge of tears. "Try a glass." I looked at Luna incredulously. "Seriously?! One glass and you're like this? I'm way younger and I'm not nearly as much of a lightweight!" "What do you mean?" Celestia asked. "Idiot! You swore never to speak of that again!" "Long story short, I went a little overboard at Appleloosa." I said, avoiding any details about how I acted... or that damned hangover. "I'll have to simply take your word for it." Celestia's tone became serious, as did her expression. "We've discovered something of grave importance in the hour that you were unconscious." I shrugged. "Lay it on me." I should have certainly watched what I was saying, especially around the currently inebriated Luna. She planted her lips on mine, going so far as to slip me tongue. Now believe me, I wasn't exactly complaining too much about the kiss, but that taste of alcohol certainly soured the experience a tad. I removed Luna from her surprise attack on my mouth. "Not what I had in mind... Please continue, Celestia." Celestia cleared her throat to suppress what was surely another wave of chuckles. "A-as I was saying, we discovered the source of those magical creations we fought earlier." My eyes widened at that bit of information. "That's brilliant! So who's behind all this?" "I said we found the source, not the perpetrator. A magic glyph was found not too far, at a memorial called 'The Reflecting Pool'. I was able to get a scan of the magic aura from the glyph, so we can now track whatever activated it." Things were certainly beginning to look up. "Well this is great! All we have to do is track the signal and stop whatever is doing this. Piece of cake!" President Obama earned my attention. "I'm afraid it's not so simple. From what your princess explained to me, these glyphs are all over the world, but they require a few days to charge with energy before they can release whatever they are designed to. Since Celestia only got a reading on the glyph, she can't directly trace the force that charged it." And with that, my high died down. "So we can only track this thing whenever it starts charging a glyph... This is going to become a goose chase." "Believe me, I don't like the prospect of chasing these signals around your planet, but it's our only lead at the moment." Celestia concluded. "I've already agreed to provide you with transport and funding so you can put an end to whatever is threatening our world." Obama added. "I'll have to call an emergency meeting with the UN. Hopefully they'll see eye to eye on this matter." He extended out his hand to shake. "I'd like to thank you on behalf of the American people for defending us once again." I gladly took his hand and gave it a firm shake. "I was just doing my duty, not as an American or Equestrian, but as a person." With that final farewell from the President, the three of us were directed to a helicopter that would take us back to the "Embassy". -------- The ride home was fairly uneventful, aside from the snoring once Luna finally fell asleep. As we made our way to the main gate, we noticed two armed guards keeping watch. I quickly surmised that they must have been the MP's that Obama assigned to the estate turned embassy. We were finally about to return to relax and formulate a plan (Though Luna was rubbing her head from a slight hangover.) when we heard a ruckus from inside. "Hey! Quit running around like that!" We heard Twilight yell. "Give me back my bowtie!" Octavia followed. The three of us looked at each other in confusion. Feeling that we would only get answer if we went inside, I anxiously opened the door. A pink blur immediately zoomed past me, giggling hysterically. Before I could even ask, the blur zoomed back and stopped in front of me. It was Pinkie Pie, and she seemed much more energetic than usual. "HeyRobertI'vegotsomuchenergy!Mustrun,seeya!" She said while twitching. Before I could even try to decipher what she said, she zoomed off at a speed that would make Rainbow Dash jealous. "What... just happened?" I asked in utter confusion. Walter soon came running around the corner looking rather distressed. "I'm terribly sorry, sir. While you were gone I thought to make your guests feel at home with a cup of coffee, but Pinkie Pie went completely mad once she finished her mug." My eyes shrank to pinpricks as the gravity of the situation dawned on me. "You gave her coffee?! As in, pure caffeine?!" Walter raised his hands defensively. "I had no idea! I tried to stop her when she bolted from the study, but she said, and pardon my Equestrian, no offense." He said, glancing at the princesses. "Some taken." Luna replied "Buck the royal guards. She then proceeded to tilt every painting and photo she passed on the way here." He finished recounting the carnage. "How long ago did she have her coffee?" I asked Walter thought for a moment before replying. "About an hour ago. Why do you ask?" I raised up my fingers and counted down. "Three. Two. One." Pinkie sped around the corner again. "Heyguys!I-" *Thump* Pinkie hit the floor and began snoring away almost instantly. Walter looked wide eyed at the sleeping girl. "Quite impressive! I've never seen anyone able to predict when someone would crash from an energy rush like that." I rubbed the back of my head in modesty. "Well, this sorta thing happened once when I treated the girls to a candy shop in Canterlot. Pinkie grabbed tons of powder candies, the kind that are practically pure sugar, and ran around like a maniac for about an hour. We found her collapsed halfway inside a fountain, and there were dizzy guard everywhere. I guess the guards tried to stop her rampage back then, hence her 'buck the royal guards' outburst." "And the paintings?" Walter asked. I shrugged. "Must have been a spur of the moment kinda thing." I rubbed my head in annoyance. "All I know is that I'm gonna get a headache walking through the halls." Walter carefully lifted Pinkie from the ground and I noticed a pink bow tie fall from her grasp. "Oh dear. That explains Miss Octavia's shouting earlier." He bent down and placed the accessory in his pocket. "I'll be sure to deliver this to her once Miss Pie has been returned to her room." I placed my arms under Pinkie and stopped Walter. "You go ahead and give Octavia her bow tie, I can take Pinkie to her room. You must be exhausted after chasing her around for an hour." Walter smiled at the consideration. "Thank you, sir. I'm certainly more spry than I look, but my age has been showing as of late. I'll leave her to you." With that, Walter set off to deliver Octavia's bow tie, while I carefully carried Pinkie up the steps. Luna began following me up the steps. "That was very kind of you." She said, throwing me a warm grin. "I just fought off a small army of magic creations at the nation's capitol, this is a vacation compared to that." Luna pouted. "What about me? I helped out too!" I pecked her on the cheek. "And I of course had help from my lovely girlfriend. Seriously, you were amazing out there." Luna blushed at the complement. "Well, it isn't the first time I had to get my hooves dirty. I lead some of our troops into battle during the griffon invasion of 386. That was a nasty war..." We entered Pinkie and Rainbow Dash's room and I set her gently onto her bed. I quietly left before continuing my chat with Luna. "386? You know, I never really asked how old you were." Luna suddenly found the paint on the wall very interesting as a small blush formed. "You would probably think of me as positively ancient if you really knew. I know being over a thousand years old is ancient, but..." I placed a hand over her mouth and gave her a smirk. "C'mon Luna, if I lost interest in you just because your age, what kind of person would I be?" Luna smiled after I removed her hand. "Well, since you asked, I am 5426 years old." I raised a brow and smirked once more. "Really? You don't look a day past 3000." Luna playfully punched my arm. "Flatterer." I wrapped my arm around her. "I try." -------- A little after the Pinkie incident, we all decided that it would be for the best to relax until we could get a signal to track... whatever was summoning these monsters. I thought I might introduce all of the girls to Halo 4, as Walter was brilliant enough to buy 6 of the limited edition consoles. As I configured the system, I turned to Luna. "Remind me to tell Walter he's getting a vacation once all of this is through." I chuckled. "He has been quite helpful to all of us. I'm certain your parents would be more than willing to grant him a period of rest." I just finished hooking up the HDMI cable and I marveled at how quiet the system was compared to my classic white 360. "We're totally bringing this back with us." I said as I sat next to Luna on the bed. The title screen booted up for the multiplayer installer disc, and I found it to be an appropriate time to check on the others, whose systems I had finished installing. Everyone was doing fine, after they read the notification about needing to install multiplayer off the disc. After everyone was well on their way, I returned to Luna to begin customizing our SPARTANS. "These 'graphics' seem much more impressive than the ones on Reach." Luna noted. "Yeah, they really upped the ante." I responded as I cycled through the options in color. "Blue primary, steel secondary... Unicorn emblem?" With a shrug, I went to select my armor. I found that only two were available at the base rank. Recruit and.... and.... "Whoa! This armor is amazing!" I exclaimed. Luna tilted her head as she read the name "FOTUS?" I read the description of the armor. "Fist of the Unicorns? That's grade-A awesome in my book!" Seriously, for anyone who hasn't seen it, here's the armor you get with the limited edition console. After I wrapped up my customization, I allowed Luna her turn, and she went for a very similar look, albeit her SPARTAN being female and her secondary color being cobalt. Once everyone was ready, we set up a custom game match of team slayer. Teams were divided into a 6 on 6 battle of skill. On the red team was Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Octavia, Rarity, Spike, and Celestia. On the Blue team were myself, Luna, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Vinyl Scratch. "Everyone ready?" I asked over the headset. A series of verbal confirmations was heard over the speaker of the headset as everyone answered. Without any further hesitation, I picked a familiar map, Ragnarok, to be our destination. The familiar beeps of the countdown finished and soon a picturesque green valley was shown on the screen. "Infinity Slayer." The masculine voice announced. I scrolled through my limited choice of load-outs, and settled for a DMR/pistol combo. Everyone else selected their load-outs and soon we all spawned around a Forerunner structure near a valley wall. Vinyl and Pinkie made a beeline for the nearby Warthog, while Twilight grabbed a Banshee, taking to the skies. Luna went to the lower levels to grab a sniper rifle, but I found myself eyeing the newest vehicle to the Halo series. "Giant robot..." I muttered as I sprinted for the bipedal vehicle. My SPARTAN hopped inside and the robot, now identified as a Mantis, and the machine rose to its feet. To be honest, this thing looked like a mix between Metal Gear Rex and the Gecko units (From the Metal Gear series obviously). Moving along, I marched the death machine towards the center of the map, hearing the sounds of carnage from those who had met the enemy faster. *Boom!* A Banshee exploded in the skies above the map, bringing purple wreckage crashing to the ground. "Arrrgggh! Darn you, Rainbow!" Twilight cursed. Rainbow chuckled over the headset. "Sorry Twi, but these skies are mine!" I took aim at the enemy Banshee, grinning as I saw that the Mantis had missiles. "Sorry, Rainbow. This is a no-fly zone!" I said as I fired a barrage of missiles at her. Rainbow Dash took notice of the projectiles and boosted away, only to find that they were chasing her. In an attempt to avoid the explosives, she performed a barrel roll... *Crash!* ...Only to smash into a nearby cliff face. Luna and I erupted into laughter, as did the rest of the girls and Spike. "I hate this game..." She muttered over the comm. I continued my march to the other side of the map, spotting a similar mech marching towards me. "I hope you know how to use that thing, Celestia." I chuckled. "I don't have to." She responded. "What are you-?" A red SPARTAN hopped on my back, ready to plant a grenade inside the cockpit. "Yeehaw!" Applejack hollered. Just before her grenade could be planted, a tracer round pierced her skull, allowing me to turn my attention to my savior. "Thanks, honey." I said, quickly pecking Luna. Unfortunately Celestia had primed all of her missiles for a barrage, and broke through my Mantis' shields. She followed it up by peppering me with bullets from the machine gun of her mech. My Mantis exploded into a fiery wreck, as Luna unloaded her sniper on the surviving one controlled by Celestia. "Oh Luna, it will take more than that to- Wait... What's this red li-" *Boom!* Celestia's rampage was cut short by a blast from Vinyl's SPARTAN Laser. "Not quite a Bass Canon, but it gets the job done." She smirked as she hopped back into the driver seat of the Warthog. The carnage continued for a solid ten minutes, with neither team holding back. Finally it was down to the last kill. Luna had run out of rounds on her third sniper and instead made for the caves on the right side of the map. She began to take fire from Celestia, but quickly activated her hardlight shield to prolong her life. Celestia simply stood her ground, waiting for the shield to drop, but suddenly she found herself tackled to the ground. My SPARTAN raised up his knife and thrust it into Celestia's visor. "Game over. Victory." The announcer said, ushering forth cheers from both sides. "Great match, everyone!" I congratulated. Everyone had certainly enjoyed the game and we all went about trying out campaign, SPARTAN Ops, and other game modes. After a few hours of gaming, we all decided to turn in for the night. I gladly snuggled up to Luna before we both drifted off to sleep. -------- *Knock Knock Knock!* I was woken from my slumber by someone pounding on my door. I lazily got dressed and opened the door to see an all too serious Celestia. "What's going on?" I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "Pack your things. We've got a reading." She responded.