//------------------------------// // Hug It Out // Story: Halo: X Team in Equestria // by The Good Dark Lord //------------------------------// The Mane Six were walking through the Everfree. "Twilight, are ya sure this is a good idea?" Applejack asked. "I mean, is going up to the Spartans and asking for their friendship so soon right after all the manure we put them through really a good plan?" Twilight sighed. "Applejack, I don't want to do this any more than you do, or any more than all of us. But, as the Elements of Harmony, we're kind of obligated to own up to our mistakes." "B- But what i- if the C- C- Colonel curb stomps us a- again?" Fluttershy fearfully asked. "Don't worry Fluttershy, so long as we don't start a fight with them, nopony's getting curb stomped. Besides, I'm sure Kenny will put in a good word for us." "Hey Twilight, since when did you and Kenny suddenly get so close?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Oh, we just slayed a cosmic horror that had possessed Celestia. Luna and the Colonel helped too." "Wait, what?! When did THAT happen?!?!" "Oh, just three days ago. Eh heh, yep, I was there alright," Twilight suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, and her eyes had a shell- shocked look to them, "I was there..." "Uh, Twilight?" Rainbow asked with worry. "I was there three days ago..." ********** Three Days Ago Chickenpede gave a roar of agony as the ponies and humans pulled out their horns and blades from his belly, causing a flood of blood and guts to come spilling out. The ground beneath Chickenpede began to glow, and the monster was sucked into a vortex of raging fire. But just before he fell into forever, he threw a golden egg that contained his soul out the hole. The golden egg landed at Kenny's feet. The Spartan picked it up and examined it. The Egg was so small, so beautiful... so powerful. He caressed it. "My precious..." "Cast it into the fire!" Twilight yelled, pointing a hoof at Kenny. "DESTROY IT!!! Kenny darkly looked at Twilight. "No." He then turned around and began walking out of the cave, staring intently at The Egg. "KENNYYYYYYY!!!!!" Twilight screamed. Kenny twirled around on his feet. "Psyche! I'm just messing with ya!" He then swaggered up to the raging inferno, and with a flick of his thumb The Egg fell into the hole. The hole promptly closed up with no fanfare. "... Well, that was anticlimatic." Luna said. "I liked the colors." Celestia commented as she began derping worse than Derpy ever did. *RUMBLE* "Did anybody else hear that?" Braden asked. The whole cave started to rumble and big rocks began falling from the ceiling. ********** Twilight found herself being shaken by Pinkie Pie. "SNAP OUT OF IT!" Pinkie yelled. "I'm okay! Stop shaking me!" Twilight said, stopping Pinkie. "A'right that's enough flashbacks," Applejack said, "Let's get this over and done with." "You're gonna tell us the whole story later, right?" Rainbow whispered to Twilight. "You there! Stop!" An angry voice called out. The Mane Six gasped and stopped in their tracks. Just ahead of them stood Richard. "What are you doing here?" Richard demanded. Twilight stepped forward and cleared her throat. "H- Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. You must be Richard, we met during that little fiasco in Canterlot. Do you remember?" Richard continued glaring. Twilight gulped. "We, uh, we just wanted to say how sorry we are for the trouble we put you through, and put our past behind us. I- Is that okay?" Richard crossed his arms. "You'll have to take that up with Colonel Braden." "So... is that a yes?" Richard raised a hand and made a signal. Ashley and James stepped out from the shadows behind the Mane Six. "We will take you to our ship so that you may speak to Braden." Richard said. "If you try anything funny, we will kill you." "K- Kill us?!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "W- Why?!" "Because we're getting really tired of your shit." James said. Fluttershy flinched. ********** Rose stood up from her kneeling position in front of the Longsword controls and gave a disappointed sigh. "Navigation's busted." She deadpanned. "This is going to take awhile to fix, won't it?" Braden asked. "I'm estimating around three months." "Dammit." "And besides this, we still have to dig the whole damn ship out of the ground, and repair the wings, and get all systems in general back online. Our lack of resources also doesn't help matters." Braden wanted to punch the wall, but he restrained himself. ********** Kenny was just a few meters away from the Longsword, building a campfire circle. Everyone knew that they were going to be stuck here for a long while, so Kenny figured that they might as well make the most of it. So far he had dug a shallow pit and surrounded it with stones, and was now setting up the sacred tepee of wood. He detected movement from the treeline. He looked up and got ready to whip out his assault rifle, but relaxed when he saw it was just Richard, James, Ashley, and the Mane Six. "What's the story here, Major?" Kenny asked. "These ponies want a word with the Colonel. They want to apologize for their bitchy behavior." The ground suddenly became very interesting to the Mane Six. Kenny looked down on them with pity. "You go get the boss," He said to Richard, "I just wanna give them a quick pep talk." Richard walked past Kenny to the Longsword. Kenny stepped towards the Mane Six. He noticed that James and Ashley were still menacingly looming behind them. "Guys, chillax, they're not gonna give us any trouble." Kenny said to them. James crossed his arms. "Tch. You can't tell us what to do, we're your superior officers. Right Ash?" ... "Ash?" James looked to his side, expecting Ashley to be standing there. Instead, she was now sitting against a tree with her legs crossed and hands behind her head. "Ashley, what the hell!" "Kenny speaks the truth," Ashley calmly said, "These ponies don't mean us harm." "Since when did you become so trusting of strangers?" While James and Ashley argued, Kenny spoke to the ponies. "Holding up alright, Twilight?" Kenny asked. "I'm fine," Twilight answered, "But I'm still having flashbacks." "So, you're all here to make up?" "Yeah..." "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, this was all technically my fault." "What? No it's wasn't!" "Yes, it was. If I hadn't tried communicating with Fluttershy, we might have been able to avoid this whole plot." Fluttershy gave a sad sniffle. "Oh, now I feel even more awful. You just wanted to say hi..." Kenny put his finger under Fluttershy's chin and gently tilted her face upwards to him. "Hey, that's all in the past. Wanna start over after this?" Fluttershy smiled. "I'd like that." "Uh, hey, that still doesn't explain why you had a knife on you," Rainbow Dash pointed out, "Mind explaining that?" Kenny rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, about that, I wasn't sure at the time if it was Fluttershy or not, so I had to be cautious. Combine that with bad timing and bad thinking, and, well, y'know." Applejack cleared her throat. "Hate ta break ya'll up, but, the Colonel's here." Kenny stood up and turned around. Indeed, Braden was standing just a couple feet from them with his arms crossed. Twilight took in a breath and bravely walked up to him. "Hello, um, thank you for taking the time to talk with us, sir." Braden continued to stare down at her. Unnerved as she was, Twilight continued. "Colonel, on behalf of all of Equestria, we wish to apologize for our ill treatment towards you and your kin. Please, accept our forgiveness. We'll do anything to make up for it!" Braden kneeled so he was eye level with Twilight. "Very well then. I forgive you." "Please! Have mercy- wait, really?" "Yay~!" Fluttershy whispered. "Under one condition." Braden commanded. Twilight nodded. "Of course." Braden pointed to the Longsword. "See that? You ponies are going to help us make it flight worthy again." Twilight's eyes widened. Not from the manual labor such a feat would require, but the potential learning experience she could gain from it. "It's a deal!" "Yeah, because none of us get a say in this." Rainbow panned. "Oh, and Colonel," Twilight said as she nervously kicked a pebble, "Could I ask something of you? I know I'm really pushing my luck, but please?" Twilight finished this off with a pouty face. Braden leered towards her. "Well that depends." ********** Shining Armor was having a great day. His injuries had miraculously healed for some reason so the doctors had let him out of the hospital a few months early. Right now he was relaxing in his favorite chair in the living room of his home in Canterlot. He was waiting for Cadence to get home. There was knocking at the front door. However, Shining noticed that it was too heavy- sounding to be Cadence. Curious, he trotted over. He grabbed the door knob with his magic and opened the door by just a crack. Outside, obscured by shadow, was a tall biped. "Shining Armor?" The shadowy figure asked. Shining raised an eyebrow. "Yes?" Suddenly, the figure kicked the door, shattering it to pieces and forcing Shining Armor to fall to the floor on his back. Regaining his senses, Shining Armor looked up at the offender, and gasped. It was the Colonel, with his katana in hand. The Colonel raised his katana- Shining Armor dramatically raised a foreleg in a futile effort to protect himself and screamed. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" - and brought the blade down, slicing Shining's arm off. Blood began spurting out the severed limb and stump much like water from a faucet. "AIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" Braden continued hacking away at Shining Armor, causing blood and entrails to splatter the entire room. Once he was done, Braden kicked Shining Armor's head- which had a permanent expression of screaming terror on it- into the fireplace. Shining's eyes began oozing out from the sockets and his brain exploded out the back due to the heat of the flames. The delicious scent of blood and cooked pony filled the air. Shining Armor's eyes snapped open. He was still in the hospital, he was still in that dorky full body cast, and he was hyperventilating. "Just a dream," Shining Armor thought to himself, "Just a really bad night terror. Phew." He took a deep breath and regained his composure. Literally five seconds later Twilight walked in. "Hi there B.B.B.F.F.!" Shining smiled beneath the cast. "Mmph." Hey Twiley. "Hey, guess what?" "Mph?" What? "I brought a special guest along!" Twilight turned back to the door. "Okay, you can come in now." And then, to Shining Armor's horror, the absolute last thing in existence that he wanted to meet again walked into the room. He heard the terrified screams of the other guards in the room, but he paid them no heed. The Colonel was literally standing at the foot of Shining's bed. Right next to his little sister. "MMMMPH! MMMMMMMPH!!!!" RUN TWILIGHT! SAVE YOURSELF!!!! Twilight smiled and gave a cute giggle. "Oh don't worry big brother, Braden isn't here to fight. He's here to say sorry to you!" She looked up at Braden. "Right?" Braden nodded. Shining wasn't buying it. "Oh no, oh Celestia, this is it, isn't it? He's drawn us all into this room where we can't escape and now he's gonna kill us all! Just like in my dream! No! NO! This is where it all ends..." Braden began walking towards Shining, his arms outstretched. Shining's pupils turned into pinpricks. And then Braden gently hugged Shining Armor. Shining blinked in surprise. "Wait, what?" "Let me make something clear to you," Braden whispered into Shining's ear, "If you ever seek out my Spartans and hurt them, and make me go through the trouble of getting them back, ever again, I will hunt you down, make you endure pain that could get me a job in Hell, and kill you. You will never see me coming." Braden released Shining from the hug and stood upright. "I'm glad we understand each other." Braden sweetly said. Twilight gave a sigh of relief. "See big brother? That wasn't so bad, now was it? I'm glad we have all the dramatics behind us! Now then Colonel, if you wouldn't mind, can I see your ship? Might as well get to work as soon as possible, right?" "My thoughts exactly, Miss Sparkle." Twilight and Braden left the room. Tears flowed from Shining's eyes.