//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: Please, Make Yourself at Home 
// Story: Once Upon a Time, on an Alien Ring World 
// by Hi World 
//------------------------------//

Inside the Truth and Reconciliation, the rescue team fanned out around the large lift room. The gravity lift was sealed by quarters of silvery metal plates, forming a neat, sizable disc on the deck.

Everywhere was purple and shiny. Fluttershy never thought she would find such pretty colours so intimidating. She'd always thought evil would come in the colour of black, or maybe red, or maybe black with red stripes or something. Not glittering purple! But hey, the Covenant were aliens, and they didn't think like Ponies. Maybe they thought black and red were for sissies.

Within the strange, alien room, there were some stylish purple crates, and some holographic control panels. There were four gigantic, heavy doors at each end of the room. Four smaller doors bracketed the deck on the two other opposing walls.

Unmanned vehicles were present. A couple of Covenant Ghost rapid assault vehicles. Speedy little devils they were. They were like purple hover bikes with plasma cannons.

And the Wraith... The Wraith! A huge Covenant battle tank, sat on the deck of the Cruiser, looming over the squad. The bulky, blubbering vehicle had tremendously thick purple armour that could withstand almost any impact. Its main armament, a devastating plasma mortar launcher, was concealed under a rear mounted carapace. Its secondary weapon was a simple plasma turret.

The Wraith was an ugly beast to behold, and it prompted a nervous gulp from the yellow Pegasus. Even Applejack seemed quite uncomfortable to have an enemy hover tank in such close proximity.

Confusion befell the squad as they scanned the room... There were no Covies in sight.
"Were is everyone?" Applejack rang aloud.
Derpy surmised, "I guess nobody's home!"

Unnerved, Fluttershy asked her armour's resident AI, "Um, Twilight... where are the Covenant?"
"Scanning," chirped the AI. "...  Hmmm... Aha! I'm picking up one Covenant contact. He'll be arriving from the corridor to the far right."

Everypony took up positions amongst the alien cargo, their guns pointed at the mentioned door. Big Mac had holstered his sniper rifle and drawn out his M6D pistol. Applejack hid just to the side of the door, her shotgun at the ready.

Clueless as of where to go, Fluttershy spun around, seeking cover, until she eventually hunkered down behind one of the Ghost RAVs.

With a hum, the doors parted, revealing... nothing. Just a stretching purple corridor and floating energy sword... Oh gosh, a floating energy sword!

Energy swords were lethal blades of ionized plasma that cut and burned through all sorts of material with ease. They glowed blue and sizzled, sparking miniature lightning bolts from their two prongs every now and then.

The Spartan armour Fluttershy had acquired came from a decapitated super soldier. Odds are it was one of these murdering blades that was responsible for his death. Would Fluttershy be next?

Why was the energy sword floating though? Simple; it wasn't. The Elite holding the weapon was equipped with an active camo device. In other words; he was invisible.

He grunted with surprise upon seeing the Ponies, and his glowing blue sword marked his movement behind a stack of purple metal crates.

With her shotgun at the ready, Applejack crept after the invisible alien.

Fluttershy was too anxious to look, but as AJ disappeared behind the crates, and a booming shotgun blast echoed around the massive room, she felt pretty sure victory had gone to the Earth Pony.

From behind the containers, Applejack appeared, and told, "He's taken care of."
Everypony let out a breath of relief.

"Uh oh," Twilight alarmed. "I'm picking up multiple Covenant contacts approaching from all four of the personnel corridors!"
Panicking, everypony spun around, glancing at each of the four small doors that surrounded them.
"They're closing in!"

Screaming and tapping her hooves on the deck, Fluttershy squalled, "Ah! What do we do?! Where do we go?! Ahah-haaah!"
Twilight worked at the speed that only an AI was capable of to think of a plan, and eventually, she came up with, "Fluttershy, mount the tank!"
Ceasing her panic-tapping, the shocked Pegasus squawked, "W-what?!"
"Do it now! Everypony else, gather in one corner and focus on the closest door! Do not enter the corridors!"

As the soldiers homed in on Applejack and the door from which the stealth Elite had entered, Fluttershy gawped at the Covenant Wraith.

The door that the squad was posted on opened, exposing a team of Covies. Since everypony was focusing their fire down that one corridor, the Grunts, Jackals and Elite were mopped up quite easily, but soon, another door opened at the other end of the room, revealing a second fire team.

Twilight shrieked, "Get in the tank!"
Fluttershy had never heard her sound so desperate. Groaning, the frightened Mare scrambled up to the Wraith MBT's top situated hatch. She had never operated a UPSC tank before, never mind an Covenant one!

The hatch was a simple circle with a notch at the front, and using her common sense, she dug her hooves into that notch and pushed as hard as she could, sliding the lid away. Beneath, was a tiny cock-pit where an Elite operator would sit, only this time, a Pony would be filling the space.

A third door to the chamber opened to introduce more Covies, and upon noticing the snivelling Mare committing grand theft auto on one of their tanks, they all directed their fire at her.

She squealed with terror as her shields began to drain, but soon she was within the confines of the tank and sliding the hatch over her head.

With the Covenant focusing on the tank, they were left vulnerable to a sniping assault from Big Mac, who took it upon himself to draw out his S2 AM once more. The rest of the Ponies continued to wreak havoc on the Covies that closed in on either side.

Inside the Wraith tank, Fluttershy heard the sounds of plasma and needles striking harmlessly against the exterior of the vehicle. She even heard a plasma grenade detonate against the tank's surface, jostling her and making her ears ring, but otherwise doing nothing. It was dingy in there; the only light coming from her recharging energy shields.

"Fluttershy, make contact with the controls! I can analyse them and tell you how to use this thing!"
That was the AI's plan, and Fluttershy wasn't sure if Twilight had descended into rampancy.

Obeying, she wrapped her front hooves around a joy stick and placed her rear hooves on a couple of pedals. As a puny quadruped, sitting in the seat made for Elites was extremely uncomfortable, and she had to stretch as far as she could to reach those pedals.

Her ears pricked up at the sound of battle raging outside the impenetrable alien tank. Ponies and Covies screaming as they were being plucked out of existence. Numerous Covenant weaponry impacting harmlessly against her acquired Wraith.

"Got it!" exclaimed Twilight. "There's a holo-symbol to your right. Turn it counter-clockwise."
Searching, Fluttershy came across said holo-symbol: A faint blue circle with a red dot in the middle. Rotating the thing, she saw the red dot turn green, and yelped in surprise as the Wraith burst into life.

The whole vehicle lurched upwards, giving Fluttershy the butterflies. Its alien engine revved thunderously, thrumming with the effort to levitate the sixty three tonne battle tank off the deck.

"Good!" Twilight celebrated briefly. "Now use the joystick to control the tank's movement!"

As Fluttershy pivoted the Wraith, the mass of Covenant soldiers became intimidated. Grunts ran around wailing, Jackals hurried this way and that with their shields over their heads, and Elites tried their best to restore order amongst the troops.

Giddily, Twilight laughed, "Haha! Look at them run!" and then she taught, "Ok, there are four pedals. The one on the right will engage the Wraith's main gun. Push it again, and you'll fire! Just be careful not to shoot too close to yourself, or any of our friends."
Like a lap dog, Fluttershy followed Twilight's instructions, opening up the Wraith's carapace and raising what looked like a giant purple tulip.

"Excellent! The two pedals to the left adjust the elevation of your aim," commented Twilight, prompting Fluttershy to play with the reticule on the centre-most view screen.

Making use of the Wraith's pivoting, Fluttershy lined up the reticule with the two Ghosts where a couple of Grunts were hiding. Disinclined, she gently pushed the right pedal, and her heart skipped as a huge orb of hissing plasma streaked from the blooming tulip atop the Wraith. It was very similar to the balls of light from the energy emitting towers she'd encountered in the meadows, only these ones were smaller, arced through the air, and exploded on impact.

Landing dead on the Ghosts, the plasma mortar transformed the vehicles, as well as the Grunts behind them, into flaming debris. The metal deck creased like cloth as the mortar melted a steaming black hole into it.

"Oh my goodness!" wailed Fluttershy behind the tank's controls, unable to believe the chaos she was reigning.
Never in a million years did she think she'd be driving an alien tank to blast aliens inside an alien space ship over an alien ring world. As far as madness went, this was off the scale.

Getting the better of her astonishment, Fluttershy was able to rotate the giant purple monster and let loose a second ball of plasma mortar, vaporising two Elites and a large pack of Grunts who took cover behind an assortment of crates.

"Woowee!" came Applejack's excitable voice over the radio. "Way'da one up em, Fluttershy!"

Before Fluttershy, there were three screens. The big one in front was the view ahead. The one to the left just had Covenant gibberish scrolling up it. And the one to the right kinda looked like a radar. One pink Wraith shaped dot in the centre indicated herself, and a cluster of green dots to the right represented the Ponies. Pink dots advanced towards them and blinked away as they were shot dead. Behind the Wraith, another big bunch of pink dots grew closer; Covenant sneaking up behind.

Another crazy yet simple idea came courtesy of Twilight. "Fluttershy, when I give you the signal, I want you to reverse into the Covenant behind us."
"Ok!" she trembled, bracing herself.

The pink dots on the Wraith's radar made their way out of the corridor and into the room of doom.
"Reverse!"
Pulling the joystick towards her, Fluttershy sent the floating tank backwards into an Elite and his Jackals, knocking them dead.
"Nice work, Fluttershy! Only three contacts remain! They're coming from the heavy door to the left!"

The silvery heavy doors were much bigger than the regular doors; they had been built for vehicle access. With a hiss, they parted, introducing two mighty Hunters and one gold armoured Elite armed with an energy sword. Fluttershy and the others must have really shaken the hive to prompt a Zealot to come snooping, as well as his supporting Hunters.

Pointing at Fluttershy's Wraith, the golden armoured Elite bellowed a command and dove away behind some ruined containers. Instantaneously, the two huge Hunters fired their fuel rod cannons upon the tank.

As the green explosives rattled the vehicle and slowly burned away at the Wraith's thick front armour, Fluttershy squealed and tried to get her reticule down on the Hunters. The two behemoths ran out in their separate ways. The gold Elite sprang from his hiding place and raced down one of the smaller corridors.

Hastily, Fluttershy fired a single panic shot, sending one of the Hunters soaring through the air. It crumpled to the deck, dead.

The second Hunter had ran straight past Applejack and her squad, unaware that they were there. All at once, the troops opened fire, AJ's shotgun and Big Mac's sniper rifle killing it instantly.

"Two Hunters down in under ten seconds!" exclaimed Twilight, delighted that things were going their way. "That has to be a record! You really are a Hunter killer, Fluttershy!"
Quaking behind the controls, Fluttershy reasoned, "Well I... do have a ta-"
"-Scanning."
"And... everypony else killed the oth-"
"-One contact remains. The Zealot, most likely. He's coming down the corridor behind us."

Fearful, Fluttershy manoeuvred the Wraith into the centre of the lift seal, clumsily knocking over some purple crates. Rotating, she lined her reticule up with the door, which had just closed.
"Huh?"

Something scratched around on top of the Wraith, and Fluttershy yelped as she witnessed an Elite's claw tear the hatch clean off with one mighty yank.

Growling fiercely down on her, the Zealot grasped her by the throat and hauled her out of the tank. She tried to scream, but her airway was being crushed by the mighty hand of the high ranking warrior.
"Oh no! Where did he come from?!" Twilight pined.

Quickly raising his energy sword with disregard to suspense, the mighty Elite came up short upon something latching onto his arm.
One of the PFCs, Derpy to be exact, strained to keep the Zealot from driving his sword into Fluttershy's body.

Tossing the pink maned Mare aside, the Elite threw half his strength into removing the derp faced Pegasus from his arm, sending her face first into the deck.

Another Pegasus Mare came swooping in for an assault, firing her MA5B point blank into the Elite's shields. With one swift swing of the sword, the biped alien sliced her in half, eliciting a cry of anguish from somepony in the squad.

Leaping up onto the still hovering Wraith, Applejack delivered one tremendous blast from her shotgun, converting the golden Zealot's chest into a purple stew.

Coughing and wheezing on the deck, Fluttershy broke into sobs. Her neck was sore where the Elite had grasped her, leaving a hideous red mark.

Helping her to her hooves, Applejack worried, "Fluttershy! You ok?!"
She could barely breathe, let alone answer.
"Come on y'all. We gotta move."

In private chat, Twilight spoke sombrely, "I'm so sorry, Fluttershy. He was on my sensors, but... I guess I misjudged his speed... I'm really really sorry."
Voice breaking, the tearful Mare croaked, "W...w-will it e-ever happen ag-g-gain?"
"I promise, it won't happen again."
Fluttershy spluttered before stating, "D-d-don't... make me a promise... if you kn-know y-you can't keep it."
"But I know I can keep it, Fluttershy. Trust me."

Unsure, Applejack pronounced, "Uh, I don't know if I'm interuptin' here, and a really hope you'll be fine, Fluttershy, but... I think we should get goin'. We are inside a Covenant ship n' all."
"Applejack's right," Twilight agreed. "We shouldn't stay in one place for too long. More Covenant will definitely be here soon."

Derpy pulled herself up from the ground and perched on top of the thrumming Wraith. "Will we be needings this?"
"We'll be taking the vehicle corridor into an expansive cargo bay, similar to this place. The tank would still be an asset," came Twilight's thought out reply.
With that, Derpy manned the secondary gun. "Woohoo!"

As Fluttershy's sobs began to wither, she took a quick few gulps of water from her canteen and eyeballed the tank she'd just been pulled from. With its hatch missing, she would be a little, tiny bit exposed.

"Go on, Fluttershy," Twilight said, egging her on. "You saw what we're capable of in that thing."
Joining in, Applejack cheered, "Yeah! Let's give them varmints a taste o' their own medicine!"
It was another one of those situations where everypony was smiling around her, hoping she would do something she wasn't too sure of.

Coming to the only decision available, she croaked, "... Ok," and made her way to the Wraith's driver's seat.

A round of muted celebrations resonated around the purple metal chamber, and as they died down, a new sound echoed up from behind them. A pale purple-blue Pegasus Mare sat alone by the head half of the Pony who'd been unfortunately, and disturbingly, cut in two. She cried over her, eliciting apologetic frowns from the rest of the herd.

Applejack approached the distant Mare and patted her on the back. "Now now, Flitter. I'm awfully sorry about yer sister."
Sister?!
"But we gotta move... Come on y'all."
Obliging, the despondent Mare rose to her shaky hooves and walked by AJ's side, sniffling and wiping her tears away.

There was a moment of silence before Twilight spoke softly over the fire team com. "Get behind the tank. We'll go in first."

Normally, Fluttershy would be freaking out over being on point, even if she was in a Wraith tank, but her heart went out to the Pony who'd just lost her sister, and that left her in no mood for whinging. Tank or no tank, she was willing to go first if it meant protecting the rest of the herd... she tried convincing herself.

*****

Covenant held their positions in one of the Truth and Reconciliation's cargo bays. Support columns, boxes, Ghosts and a Wraith provided plenty of cover for the aliens. Up high, a balcony was lined with Elites and Jackals, ready to provide fire from above should the Pony intruders make it past their Zealot leader and his Hunters, which was unlikely.

Upon receiving reports, and hearing the sounds of a tremendous battle raging in the Truth's lift chamber, the commanding Zealot elected himself and the two Hunters to take care of the situation. It would be easy; the gold armoured Elite didn't get to his rank by loosing. He could probably take out the entirety of the Ponies all by himself, never mind with backup from the hulking Hunters.

The Covies in the cargo bay had listened on to the explosion fest in the lift chamber, and once it died down, they never heard a peep from their commanding officer. He was probably just walking on his way back to the cargo bay to deliver the news of victory in person. It wasn't the kind of thing a Zealot would do, but it was certainly more believable than him failing. He was a Zealot! What could possibly go wrong?

The answer came in the form of a humongous Wraith tank crashing through the sealed silver doors in a fiery blue explosion. Their own tank immediately began launching massive balls of piping hot plasma mortar at them, destroying everything in the cargo bay.

One Grunt remained on the bay floor, and was subsequently splattered by the thick armoured vehicle.

Up on the balcony, the terrified Covies attempted to flee the Wraith's wrath, but were all reduced to nothingness as the slow moving yet deadly comets cut them off. All but one blue armoured Elite, who was lucky enough to leap through an exit, just as the balcony came crashing down in blue flames and twisted purple metal.

With the cargo bay temporarily secure, the rest of the Ponies fanned out into the chamber in Fluttershy's wake of destruction, checking the remains of the alien freight.

Powering down, the huge purple tank lowered to the deck, its droning engine fading away. The tulip-like main gun folded away under its protective carapace. Fluttershy popped her head out from the Wraith's cock-pit and rested her hooves on its shiny armour. The secondary gunner, Derpy, hopped to the floor and whooped.

Applejack and the rescue team drew closer to the shy, roaring with celebration, aside from the Mare called Flitter who was too busy stewing over her recently deceased sister.
"Great gallopin' galoshes! Yer a natural in that thing, Fluttershy!"
"Oh, not really," admitted Fluttershy, not caring for credit. "I'm just following Twilight's instructions."
"And you're following them really well," Twilight's voice fizzed happily through the exterior speaker. Entering private chat, she added, "Better than some of the other Ponies would."

After a rushed sip from her flask, AJ said, "I'm guessin' there's more Covenant on their way."
"You know it," Twilight answered. "We should move. I suggest taking the first door on the left."

Said door was proximity activated, and it slid open when Private Derpy hovered near it.

Hauling herself out of the tank, Fluttershy joined the team in a quest through the Covenant warship's maze of corridors.