//------------------------------// // The calm // Story: A Noble Cause // by Sarkastik Menace //------------------------------// “Sir, the only side project for the Spartan program right now is the headhunters, it’s virtually impossible ONI will allow another.” “Well I’m not putting up with this. I didn’t raise these Spartans for them to be cut up like some worthless cannon fodder, if I can save two, or three, or however many I can, I’ll do it. Ackerson’s out of his damned mind and you know it.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  “So, two princesses raise the sun and the moon each day, and rule this ‘Equestria’ of yours?” Six asked cocking an eyebrow.              “Yup! Anything else you want me to tell you?”   “No, no. Maybe another time. Just... no.”  Six’s head hurt, the five minute contradiction to science itself made the spartan question the pegasus’ sanity, and her own. “Imagine if Kat were here.” Six thought, cheering herself up a little The two had been walking for a few hours. Six figured to follow the equine, though she had no idea why. Though From what she had heard there were no humans in Equestria. “So, I told you all about myself, what about you?” Daring asked. “I mean, you have to wear all that armor for a reason right?”  The explorer was curious about the soldier’s origins, considering it had a knife.. And the two metal... barrels, were pretty concerning. Six pondered her response “There’s no way I’m talking about the war.” she immediately concluded in her mind, not wanting the pony to delve into her life. She wanted to be as normal and bland as possible. “I’m just a soldier. Nothing special about it. I help people.” “I would think you’d have to be awfully special to get magically teleported here by some ancient robot.” Daring perceptively remarked, still remembering Shard tell the soldier it had been saved for a reason. Once again, the soldier audibly sighed in frustration “What did I tell you the first three times?”     “You had no idea, I know. I still can’t believe you don’t know a freaking thing about it.” Six was mad. Not mad at the bug eyed pegasi, since it was understandable how it felt, but at the fact she knew nothing about the situation. One second she had been on Reach, Fighting and... Dying. That was when the former member of Noble had actually remembered the cold hard fact, that her and her team had died. Jorge, Kat, Carter...” “Hello?” The pony’s voice startled her, bringing her back to earth. “Anyway, I got a map right here” Daring unfolded the map and explained, “and it’s gonna be about a week and a half ‘till we get to civilization,” the pony pointed towards a small X a few inches from a town, though the name was smeared with mud. “ I know most of the terrain by heart, so don’t worry about getting lost.” As the explorer folded the map and put it in her saddlebag the armour clad soldier couldn’t help but wonder how the pony made it this far. The thing Noble Six had fought in the facility half a day ago could have killed her if she made a simple mistake, but unless the pony had some immense unseen strength, it had no chance fighting something similar to the bear-like creature. Although the pegasus did have a decent amount of supplies. She wore something Six could only think of as a pony version of a T-shirt, with pockets in the front and a knife in it’s holster, but she also had two sets of symmetrical bags on her sides filled to the brim with supplies. The pony itself was a about as tall as her chest, and Six was six feet and five inches with her armor on. six guessed she was about five foot ten. The pair continued the long hike with the pony leading the way. “Wait, what about your species?” Daring asked,”how many of you are there?” the question made Six think. “how many of us are there?”  she had stopped seeing the death tolls from fallen planets, especially after they had begun to show how many humans there were left on those same reports. There couldn’t have been many left, especially after Reach. Only more would follow.                 “A few billion.” six answered, keeping emotionless in her responses                                                     “A few billion!?”                                                          “Yes.”              “What do you mean a ‘few’ billion? two, three? We barely have a million ponies in Equestria, but you have to have a specific number.” daring asked, regaining her composure.”                                             “I’m not sure anymore.” The rest of the day was filled with an eery silence, neither party uttering a word to the other, but both thinking very intensely about the other. The options they had relating to each other, and what those consequences would be. They both reached a silent understanding that the two were stuck together for the next two weeks.    At night, Daring Do looked at the forest. the bunnies retreated to their burrows, the birds were nowhere to be seen, and she could barely see the grass below her. The soldier behind her, wearing olive drab armor from head to toe with a golden visor, was virtually invisible, but the explorer found it easy to hear her footfalls. Six fared much better at night, with superior eyesight, and on top of that, the all too valuable night vision she had come to love. Six judged that it was about one in the morning, but was more than willing to stay up through the night, still not knowing when her new companion would decide to rest. Daring on the other hand was exhausted, though her pride refused to admit it. She had stayed up for two days straight scouring about for the ruins, and on top of that walked a great deal of distance after finding them. she would wait, after all, her new friend couldn’t stay up that much longer right? A few hours later Daring realized that was the biggest mistake she had ever made. She was beginning to drag her hooves across the forest floor, trying to indicate her fatigue to Six. Eventually she had actually gotten her message across.                                         “You wanna just find somewhere to rest?” Six asked                             “Oh yeah, sure,” Daring nonchalantly replied, suppressing a yawn, “I mean, if you want. I’m not too tired.” Six grinned inside of her helmet, deciding to call Daring’s bluff. “Oh really? I’m fine, I can wait a few weeks to sleep, this way was it?” Six walked away, waiting, and waiting.                                “Oh no! Errr, I was joking! There’s a nice little cave, and I, ummm, have my own sleeping bag!” Chuckling at Daring’s spectacle, Six made her way over to the cave to find Daring collapsed and sleeping, on stone. Daring’s body was off the ground, resting on her left saddlebag, and the tip of her muzzle resting on the stone. Six fumbled around to find that Daring did in fact have a sleeping bag, and awkwardly put her in it. Though Six never admitted it, Daring looked kinda cute sleeping. She rolled her eyes at the thought. She sat down next to Daring and waited. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.