//------------------------------// // Stupid Ideas // Story: Halo: Into a Darker Storm // by Slaphappy16 //------------------------------// “I really think we should do something…” Applejack thought out loud. “We can’t let her sit there all day!” “Well you have to remember, her poor brother is hurt! She would be devastated if she missed her chance to meet him when the doctors allow it!” Rarity countered. “Well, yeah, but Applejack has a point, we should try and take her mind off it for a bit.” Rainbow Dash suggested, floating around as if swimming on her back. “Why would we try to take her mind off it? She has every right to be worried; it would be heartless to not be thinking about it!” Rarity fought against them. Pinkie and Fluttershy stood away from the three, endorsed in their own adventure. “Cmon! It’ll be fun!” Pinkie pulled on Fluttershy. “But shouldn’t we let them make a decision?” Fluttershy asked, wincing as she was dragged around the corner. “Probably, but they're taking too long! We must take things into our own hooves!” Pinkie exclaimed, pulling Fluttershy up next to Twilight. Twilight was lying down on a bench, sleeping. Down the hall a bit was room number seven, the room that held Shining Armor. “Oh, we really shouldn’t wake her up… She needs her sleep.” Fluttershy said happily; glad to not be pulled into Pinkie’s shenanigans. Pinkie frowned for a moment, wondering what to do. Suddenly, her ears perked up as Twilight started to talk. “I’m not sleeping.” She murmured. “Oh! That’s great! Cmon, Twilight! Let’s go!” Pinkie said, bouncing around. “I don’t want to go anywhere.” Twilight replied gloomily. “Nonsense! Cmon, let’s go get some lunch! I’m starving.” Pinkie hefted up Twilight, who gave a loud yelp. Around the corner, the other three continued to argue. “Pinkie! PUT ME DOWN!” Twilight yelled as she attempted to squirm out of her grasp. “Oh, cmon Twilight. You need this! Not to mention you haven’t eaten since we got here yesterday! Where should we go? I saw a nice little coffee shop on our way here!” Twilight’s stomach grumbled out loud, unintentionally agreeing with Pinkie Pie. She let out a sigh. “OK… I guess I do need to do something to get my mind of my brother.” “But what about the others? Shouldn’t they come along?” Fluttershy asked. The three turned towards the voices around the corner. “Nah! There OK, we’ll just leave ‘em.” Pinkie shrugged as Twilight got away from her. Fluttershy and Twilight walked quietly along as Pinkie Pie pointed out everything, such as the fact the castles wine glasses were tinted green, a mouse hole near the kitchen, and, as they got close to the main exit, the fresh repairs made to the wall were something had burst through. Fluttershy and Twilight continued to walk quietly through town as Pinkie Pie said hi to every living being (and then some), stopped for a minute to buy an ice-cream, and, as they got close to the coffee shop, pointed out a white unicorn passing out missing pony papers. Fluttershy and Twilight stopped and waited quietly as Pinkie Pie continued to ramble on about how the sidewalks were particularly scratchy today, the fact that the coffee shop (fortunately)was out of caffeinated coffee, and, before they got into the shop, pointed out that there were more guards than usual walking about. “Pinkie, you can stop talking now. We’re here.” Twilight said, slightly annoyed. Pinkie looked up at the name of the shop. “Ooohh, the ‘Coffee Crave’, catchy.” Pinkie admired the name for a moment before jumping up. “Let’s go!” She bounced into the small shop, Twilight and Fluttershy close behind. Only a few ponies sat about, one doing a bit of college homework, another talking with a friend, and a fourth just sitting about, watching ponies walk by. “How may I help you?” A pony at the desk asked the three. The pony was a rather small, chocolate colored earth stallion with an orange mane and tail. “I’ll have a Caramel Delight! With cream and a cherry on top!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down. “I’ll just take a cup of black coffee, maybe a bit of sugar in it.” Twilight said. She was no stranger to coffee, relying on it many a night to keep her awake. “I’ll have some apple juice.” Fluttershy asked. The Desk Pony looked at her. “Just apple juice?” he asked. “Oh, well if you want me to get something else…” Fluttershy suggested, looking towards the ground. “No, no, it’s OK, it’s just that that’s not much.” The Desk Pony explained. “Alright then, that’ll be…” the Desk Pony tapped in a few things into the register. “Six bits.” They each chipped in a few bits and waited as there different drinks were made. The Desk Pony walked around the corner, mumbling something about apple juice. “I don’t think he liked my decision.” Fluttershy said, looking towards where he disappeared. “Don’t worry about it; I’m sure he didn’t mind. So, did anything ‘interesting’ happen while I was sleeping?” Twilight asked. “Uh, nothing that I can-“ Fluttershy started, but was cut off by Pinkie. “OOOHH! I was listening in on the princesses even though I probably shouldn’t have, and Princess Luna is going to go hunt down the big jerky alien with a bunch of guards! She’ll be leaving in a bit.” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down. Twilight processed this for a moment. The Princess was going to go out and find the thing that nearly killed her brother? And she didn’t tell her?! She had to do something! “Sorry, I’ve got to go!” Twilight said, before zipping out the door and disappearing in a flash of magic. Pinkie and Fluttershy stared blankly at the door, before turning back around to the Desk Pony that had returned. “All right, one Caramel Delight with a cherry on top, a black coffee, and some apple juice.” He said, balancing a tray on top of his head. “Wait, where did your purple friend go?” “No idea!” Pinkie exclaimed before grabbing the tray. “Thanks!” She walked over to a table, Fluttershy following behind. “We’re not gonna follow her? I think she’s going to do something bad...” “Nah, she’ll be OK. She’s just gonna go do what she feels is right, we were only here so she realized that instead of sitting about, moping around all day!” Fluttershy stared for a moment. “You mean, you actually intended on accomplishing something from this?” she asked. “Yep!” Pinkie replied simply before taking a sip from her Caramel Delight. “Man, this stuff is good!” *** “Ma’am, we are almost prepared. What would you like us to do when we are ready?” A pony in guilded gold armor asked Luna as he walked up. Luna thought on that. What should they do? Celestia said that she had a plan, unless her plan was for her to go? Was she supposed to make the plan? If so, she wouldn’t let her down! With a determined grin, she looked back down towards the waiting guard and replied. “We will make a friendly trade.” The guard looked at her questioningly. “A… a trade? What do we have to trade that it would want?” “Several possible things. There are two outcomes to this trade. Rather, A, it likes what it sees and will happily take it and hopefully never come back. Or, B, it gets aggravated at the useless pile of junk and attempt to tear us limb from limb. And, unfortunately, from what we’ve seen, the latter seems a bit more likely. But fear not, for we will use our god-like powers and maybe, possibly, with a tad bit of luck, prevent the worst from happening.” The guard looked un-nerved. “Alright Princess, whatever you say.” With that, he saluted, and turned back to his guards. Luna turned around and started for her room. Oh, this would be so fun! She would get to speak with the creature, find out about the things she found on the moon, and get the hostage back! That is, if everything went by plan. She could just get to talk to it, and never see it again. Or anything again, for that matter. She continued trotting up the spiraled flight of stairs, thinking it through more thoroughly. Her guards could hide and pop out if needed. And as long as everything went OK, it wouldn’t feel as threatened if it didn’t know she had protection! The guards in front of her door stood at attention, but, as usual, Luna ignored them. She walked right in and immediately went for her closet. Opening it up with her magic, she looked down at her three artifacts. The skinny barrel, the slab of metal, and, of course, the cone. She gazed at the cone. Maybe this cone was some kind of robot pet, and the owner named it Fenris? Maybe it was just a cone? Or maybe it had the power of blowing away miles of land? She inwardly laughed at the thought of so much power in such a tiny, cute, cone. She noticed somebody had sloppily written on the side with some kind of marker: ET go home. ET? Who is ET? And why did they want ET to go home? ET sounded like a friendly name! Surely Mr. ET was nice and deserved to stay? She pulled her thoughts away from the cone. She had business to do! The three objects were surrounded by a dark blue aura and flew into a small pack sitting nearby. Luna walked over to the designated carrier of her precious items and put it on. She then walked back out of her room, the guards not even bothering to salute this time. Yet again, she trotted down the stairs and made her way through the building, back towards her guards. The captain she had spoken to earlier, she never bothered with names, walked in front of each of them, inspecting them. Six other ponies stood perfectly still, shoulder to shoulder. As the captain turned around, he noticed her waiting. He stood at attention and saluted. “Ma’am, we’re all ready to go.” Luna smiled. “Good! We shall leave at once!” She turned around and took one step before stopping. The captain stared for a moment before asking, “Is there a problem?” “I just realized, I have no idea where the thing is.” She replied. Down the corridor, the doors bust open. Two Lunar Guards stumbled through, each looking rather ruffed up. “Oh sweet Luna, thank Celestia you’re here!” One of them called. “It was HORRIBLE!” the other exclaimed. “It… it… IT THREW ME OFF THE MOUNTAIN!” “And more importantly, then it threw ME off the mountain!” “And then, we were FALLING!” “But there was this tree, and we HIT IT, and it BROKE OUR FALL! AND IT HURT LIKE ALL HELL!” “And then, there were these TIMBERWOLVES!” “And they were gonna attack us, but a MANTICORE CAME and KILLED THEM!” “And then it tried to KILL US!” Luna and the guards stared at them as they ranted on about their misfortune. It took her a moment to figure out who they were, but then a delighted smile sprouted on her face when she remembered. “Do you remember where it was?” Luna asked them. “AND THE SHARK TRIED TO- what?” the guard stopped yelling for a moment. “The alien, where was it and where did it go?” Luna asked again. Immediately, the guards sat down and disregarded all that happened. “No, but we got a really good idea. During our fall down the mountain, I couldn’t help but notice a black thing with smoke coming off of it in the distance. If I could give a guess, I’d say that’s where it is going.” The one on the left answered. “Glorious! We shall leave for the black thing at once!” Luna exclaimed, taking a few steps forward. The guards behind her looked at each other, until one of them shrugged and started after her. The rest followed closely behind. “Wait, your HUNTING that thing?! It’ll slit your throat and feed you to the 6 foot tall Venus Fly Traps of the Everfree!” The one on the right complained. “No worries, I’m a god!” Luna said, completely (with a slight bit of worry) sure of herself. The two guards watched the guards follow through the door after their leader. After a moment of silence, Night Stalker looked over to Night Talker on his right, and asked, “Wanna get a pizza?” “Sure!” *** Alice walked over to the edge of the mountain. Still in the distance sat the black pod, a small blue triangle serving as direction to her waypoint. She surveyed the area, thinking of a path. She kicked a small rock off the edge, watching it roll down the rather smooth mountain. Then, she walked over to a bigger rock, and gave it a good kick, sending it flying off the edge. It, of course, flew a long ways before finally crashing down the side. “Well, it would certainly be faster…” The Spartan said out loud. “What? What is faster?” The pony in her arms asked. The Spartan looked down at her. “What do you think? Should we jump?” The grey mare stared at her, dumbfounded. “Jump off the mountain? That’s a horrible idea! What made you even think about that?” Alice shrugged. “I’d do it if you weren’t here. Unless you don’t mind jumping, of course. Because we can definitely do it.” “NOOOoooononono, I don’t think so. That’s a bit of a drop. How about you put me down and go yourself? I’ll wait here for you to come back.” Alice didn’t bother to respond, the answer obvious. Well, apparently she was gonna have to walk. She guessed it would be for the best. After all, no such thing as a dead hostage. In that case, all you have is a dead guy, and dead things tend to be useless in political situations such as this. That said, she walked over to the edge and started the rather steep climb down. The pony seemed relieved that they weren’t going to jump, and relaxed a little. But just a little. “What the hay are you doing anyway? What was so important that you had to go up there just to come back down?” “I thought something was up here. It ended up down there.” She pointed toward the faint smoke in the distance, slipping a little while trying to gain some traction on the slope. “And what exactly is that thing?” Her companion asked, squinting into the distance. “Escape pod.” Alice stated. “What were you escaping from?” She asked yet another question. “A bunch of sharks.” The Spartan answered back. That was technically true, as ‘Shark-Face’ was the nickname given to the Elites by various marines. The pony scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion. Of course, she didn’t know this. She simply shook her head and relaxed completely, allowing her legs and head to sway back and forth as the Spartan carefully placed her steps. It was generally peaceful for a small bit, something that, as usual, Alice was OK with. She started on what she would do after she got her equipment from the pod. That is, if anything was still in it. Her HMG would definitely be in there, it was strapped down tight in its metal case. But other luxuries like extra ammo and food might have escape through the gaping hole she made during entry into the atmosphere. No need to worry about that yet, though. She had a plan to create. She figured she could get an idea of where Douglas and Jerome were. As a matter of fact, they were probably headed for the mountain. That would be most obvious, figuring it had a giant castle melded onto the side, meaning civilization and a source of hierarchy. That was good, and bad. Good, because they would undoubtedly get an idea of where she went. Bad, because the local beings wouldn't be on good terms with two more of the aliens that had wrecked their castle. Double bad, because she can’t exactly go back and wait for them. As a matter of fact, the pony-goddess’ would probably get into a fight with them. That was kind of her fault. But, there is still the chance that they will get the information and find their way to her. She stopped for a moment, realizing she had overlooked one problem. How were they supposed to leave this planet? The pony looked up for a moment, probably wondering why they stopped.“Hey. Keep moving. The faster you get to whatever you need, the faster you can let me go, right?” It asked while tapping her thigh. It was hardly in any position to tell her to keep going, but she complied and kept climbing down. She was sure they would deal with that problem when the time came. She felt content that her team would find her, and became lost in the sound of the rocks crunching under her boots. *** It took her a couple of hours, but getting down was surprisingly easier than going up. The grey pony had long since gone to sleep, leaving her alone with her thoughts, but she had finally reached the forest-covered bottom. The pod was rather close to the base of the mountain, even though it had bounced back up after hitting the mountain. The smoke was probably about a mile away, an easy walk that would take her maybe 20 minutes. She breathed in the fresh forest air, relieved to be away from the mountain. It was nice and idyllic down here. Way to open up there, in her opinion. But that’s just because she is used to hiding behind cover as boiling globs of plasma sizzled over her head. She shook her head. For once, there was peace, and she could find a way back to warfare. She looked about her surroundings as she silently made her way through the forest. A couple birds here and there, but for the most part, the smaller animals kept their distance. Her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten since a couple hours before coming to this planet in her pod. She could go a few days without eating, but she liked to if she had the chance. Of course, there were a couple of vacuum sealed food packs in a small pack on her back, but she could wait until she got to the pod. She ran a small diagnostics as she walked. Her ribcage was still bruised, but healing nicely. She blinked that away and looked through her armor. Her prototyped shielding had overheated immensely after that armor lock, and was surprisingly still cooling down. It was running ‘safely’ at a maximum of 77% of her usual battle-ready shielding. Other than that and a small break in the gelatin layer over her ribcage, and it was doing nicely. It had definitely seen worst days. After closing that up, she could smell the familiar sent of smoke. She looked ahead and found her smoking pod 50 feet away. The grass around it was burned up and charred, a couple tiny fires still spreading along the ground. She jogged the last bit towards it and stopped as she got close. The front pointed away from her, showing the inside. Sure enough, she spied the metal case that surrounded her trusty HMG. She gently placed the pony on the ground, away from the scorched earth, where it continued to snore rather loudly. She then walked into the small space, making a list of what she saw. Her HMG, an ammo crate, a dozen or so destroyed food packs and a couple usable ones, a med-kit… and a nice fuzzy thermal blanket. Not bad considering what is had been through. She walked over and popped open the ammo crate. She policed a couple of extra mags before walking over to the second metal case inside the pod. It was a good thing she had strapped it down, or it would’ve been a couple miles from here where she wouldn’t find it, and if she did, undoubtedly broken. As she popped it open, there was the crack of a stick behind her. Immediately, she crouched around the corner of the blasted door to the pod and activated the policed camouflage unit, just as a grey dot blipped on her radar. *** Luna woke up. She felt dazed. She groggily looked around. She was inside of… something. She tried to remember what happened. They had found the pod… was this it? How did she get in here? She concentrated on the events. Yes, they found the pod. The little grey pony that was held hostage was sleeping in front of it. The alien was nowhere in sight… She remembered walking up to it. She stared down at the pony for a moment before peeking into the pod. Then, something stabbed her neck. She pulled out a needle… and then nothing. Her vision slowly started to regain, and she more carefully looked around. She was in the pod. And… she was also tied up. She tried to use her magic to undo the rope around her. It was blocked by something clamped securely around her horn. She tried again, to no avail. Where were her guards? What happened? How long was she out? Multiple questions pounded the inside of her head. She suddenly felt like she wasn’t alone. Her head darted around, but nothing was there. She tried using strength to break the ropes this time. They got tighter. Great. She tried to stay calm… but seeming as how she knew something was here and her guards had vanished, and she was tied up, and she couldn’t use magic, this was hard to do. In front of her, something moved. Definitely. Her vision was blurred. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she reopened them, a green figure materialized in front of her. It stood at its full height, an arm pointed down at her. Her pupils dilated as she stared down the barrel of the aliens pistol. “I gave your two friends a warning. You came anyway.” It said. Luna thought for a moment. She had to act carefully. One bad move, and she would undoubtedly be part of the wall behind her. “Yes. I did. Where are my guards?” Luna asked silently. The Spartan didn’t move. “They’re dead.” She replied dryly. This made Luna’s heart thumped. Dead? She told them to stay back… Did they attack when the alien stabbed her? “We came on peaceful terms!” Luna complained. “It would’ve stayed peaceful if you stayed away. Congratulations on sending more guards to their deaths.” The Spartan blamed her for their wasted lives. “I could just give you this pistol right now so you can off yourself, because what you attempted was down-right stupid, peaceful or not.” She suddenly felt guilty. Back in the old days, she had sent plenty of soldiers to die during the war with Discord, the Griffons, and the Changelings. But now, now was different. It was almost like she could hear the pained yells of every soldier that had died in her name. Was it because she was brushing close to her own death, or had Celestia finally broken her away from the days when death was more common? The alien continued. “Unfortunately, you don’t get that option. You get your own executioner.” There was a click as the Spartan flicked the pistol off of safety. “And by the way, thanks for the present.” In her other hand held the cone meant for ET. “Have a nice time with whatever god controls the hell your headed to.” * Inside her helmet, Alice smirked as she was about to pull the trigger. She was gonna enjoy this. The smile was washed away as something behind her gave a war cry. She turned towards the new attacker. A purple unicorn teleported behind her. Her eyes were white, a purple aura covered her body. She looked pissed.