//------------------------------// // All Alone // Story: Noble Six // by InfinitySlayer //------------------------------// Noble Six awoke gazing into the dull, brownish visor of his gray helmet. He was riding in a Warthog, a UNSC ground transport vehicle. He had no idea where he was or how he got in a Warthog, but something seemed familiar. Suddenly, the Warthog stopped, and Noble Six stepped out onto the asphalt pavement. Noble Six looked around. A UNSC outpost stood modestly a few meters in front of him. A few UNSC and ONI operatives were hustling about their business of making sure that humanity didn’t go extinct. Noble Six even spotted a Spartan sitting in the rider’s seat of a Falcon as he passed by, walking briskly towards the UNSC outpost before him. He entered the building, and was startled by what he saw. It was a group of four other Spartans, Kat, Emile, Jorge, and Carter, Noble Team. Kat walked towards Noble Six and said, “You could’ve saved me, you know. I wouldn’t be dead if you had shot that Elite sniper before he shot me.” Noble Six flashed back to when Kat was murdered, a terrible experience he never wanted to go through again. Noble Six, Jun, Carter, Emile, and Kat, were all running through one of the many towering buildings that made up New Alexandria, Reach’s capital city. The expanse of open air between them and the other side of the room was about thirty feet. Noble Six was sure that he and his fellow Nobles could make it unscathed. Then, it was as if time slowed down, and Noble Six saw everything in slow motion. An Elite sniper riding in a purple Phantom aimed for the first Spartan it saw, Kat. Noble Six couldn’t do anything but continue to run forward in slow motion. It was as if he was part of a game, doomed to repeat the same mistake over and over again and never chance the outcome. Noble Six could see every detail as that Elite pulled the trigger of its Needle Rifle, the pink shard of energy hurling in slow motion straight towards Kat’s head. The Elite found its mark, and the bolt of pink light went straight through Kat’s head. She was dead the moment the bolt struck her. She never knew how she died. Then in a flash, Noble Six was back at the UNSC outpost. Kat was still standing, but the hole in her helmet where the pink bolt went through was clearly visible. “I died that day, and you didn’t. What kind of justice is that? What kind of hero are you?” Noble Six tried to answer, wanting to apologize for not saving Kat, for living on without her. But before he could, he blacked out. A moment later, he found himself staring at the control panel of the Banshee. “Just a dream” Noble Six told himself. The control panel was going insane, it was flashing lights everywhere and that cursed beeping sound wouldn’t stop. Noble Six also couldn’t breathe properly, and feared that the oxygen in the Banshee was depleted. In his confusion, he accidentally hit a flashing green button. The beeping and the flashing lights stopped. A few seconds later, the mask that was on his face hissed another gas. Noble Six quickly found it easier to breathe. The controls panel the displayed symbols of some kind. Noble Six looked at them for a few seconds before recognizing them as the Covenant language. They read: Warning, gravitational body in near vicinity. Gravitational body, what could that mean? Noble Six now looked in the viewing monitor of the Banshee. He was shocked by what he saw. It was a planet. And it wasn't Reach The planet looked very lush and green, if he was going to land anywhere, it would be there. He then looked around for any sign of a UNSC or Covenant presence. There were no Covenant or UNSC ships anywhere. The planet was remote. Noble Six wondered how long he had been asleep, if he was. He looked back down at the control panel of the Banshee, searching for anything that would give him indication of this. After a minute of searching, he found nothing that indicated him being asleep at all. Maybe he had been, but he would never know. Noble Six knew that information wasn’t important anyway. The priority now was landing on that planet. Quickly, Noble Six grabbed the piloting control of the Banshee, and pointed the nose of it at the planet. Slowly but surely, the Banshee began to move towards the planet. Noble Six wasn’t completely sure whether or not the Banshee could take entering atmosphere, but it was worth a shot. The newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle was strolling down one of the massive hallways of Canterlot, moving towards the equally huge dining hall. She still couldn’t believe what had transpired over the past day. In one day, she had finished a spell that even a great unicorn such as Starswirl the Bearded couldn’t have finished. She had saved her friends from a fate that would have changed their lives forever. I mean, changing cutie marks, seriously? After this, she had been transformed into an alicorn by Princess Celestia, and shortly after that was crowned a princess herself! It all just made her head spin. And she still couldn’t get over having wings, and it didn’t make things better that she didn’t know how to use them. Princess Celestia had prepared a feast to be held in her honor just the same night, and Princess Luna had even scheduled a meteor shower to celebrate! When Princess Twilight Sparkle finally arrived in the dining hall, she was greeted by her best friends, the rest of the Elements of Harmony. They all rushed towards Twilight, and gave her a big hug. They all were congratulating her on her achievement, but Twilight couldn’t understand much through their jumbled voices. There were many other ponies inside the dining room, all seated at huge tables made out of oak wood. There were golden chandeliers hanging from the stone ceiling, lighting up the room in a cheery golden light. But the best sight of all was Princess Celestia, who was sitting next to Princess Luna at the table where only royalty sat. After her friends finally released their bear hug, they all moved towards one of the tables. Before they were able to sit down, however, Princess Celestia said, “Princess Twilight, won’t you and your friends come and sit with us?” Twilight was caught off guard by the question. Even she had never sat at the royalty table before. But, Twilight rationalized, she was royalty now. She knew, in her heart, that she was never going to get used to being a princess. “Uh…okay.” Twilight said, somewhat unsure of herself. Twilight could see the hesitation in her friends eyes’ as well, but Celestia reassured them, saying, “It’s all right, come dine with us.” They all now moved towards the royalty table. The table itself was much grander than the others; it was plated with what seemed to be solid gold, and was adorned with jewels. Already seated at the table were Princess Celestia and Luna, of course. With them was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadence, as she liked to be called. Sitting next to her was her husband, Shining Armor, who was also Twilight’s brother. There were multiple other royal dignitaries, princes, dukes, and the like. The only bad thing at that table was Prince Blueblood. “Oh, but Auntie, why let commoners sit at the table with us, it’s against the royal code!” Prince Blueblood complained to Celestia. Celestia almost rolled her eyes, but summoned all her willpower and replied to Blueblood, “These ponies have saved Equestria on more than one occasion; the least I could do is let them sit with us.” Prince Blueblood just scoffed in reply as the Elements of Harmony sat down. As Rarity did so, however, she literally fell backwards when she saw Prince Blueblood. Her friends watched in surprise as Rarity scrambled to her hooves. When they noticed Prince Blueblood, however, they instantly realized what the problem was. “You!” Rarity screamed at Prince Blueblood once she had recovered. “You!” Prince Blueblood screamed back at her. What happened next, nopony could exactly figure out. From what anypony could understand, Prince Blueblood and Rarity were locked in an argument, but nopony could understand a word they were saying. After a few seconds of arguing, Princess Celestia became tired of it and said, none to calmly, “Enough, stop arguing or both of you will be removed from the table!” Both Blueblood and Rarity instantly stopped arguing; only sharing angry glances with each other. Both were quite shocked by Celestia’s tone with them, and knew very well that stretching her boundaries was a very bad idea. “Now that were back in order, let’s eat.” Celestia said as ponies dressed in tuxes brought them platters of steaming vegetables and sides of hay. After about thirty minutes of chatting and Rarity and Blueblood saying absolutely nothing, ponies began leaving the dining hall. For the first time that night, Princess Luna spoke up, saying, “Come with us, Twilight and friends, for the meteor shower is about to begin.” A few awkward seconds later, Princess Luna said, “No rhyme intended.” So, the Princess of the Night escorted Twilight, her friends, and many other ponies towards the hallway going out of the dining hall. Around ten minutes of walking later, they reached the outside courtyard. Many other ponies were already seated on the green grass, admiring the beautiful night sky. Then, Twilight, her friends, and the two Princesses sat down as well. “The night’s beautiful, Princess Luna, you really did a great job.” Twilight said to Luna, awestruck by the beauty that she had made. “Well, it’s the least we--I could do for our new Princess.” As Princess Luna stared up into her night sky, she realized that she had said our instead of my. She decided it wasn’t a big deal, and continued staring up into her marvelous work of art. Twilight's friends were busy admiring the night sky as well. “You see that one constellation; I call that one the Lasso, look how it looks like a rope with a loop at the end.” Applejack said to her friends, pointing to the night sky. “Yeah, it does sort of look like a lasso, but I think it looks more like… a bubble wand!” Pinkie Pie responded, pulling a pink bubble wand out of nowhere and beginning to play with it. Then, as everypony was watching, something amazing happened. Suddenly, it looked as if the stars themselves were flying across the night sky, in innumerable numbers. “It’s the meteor shower, girls, its happening!” Twilight exclaimed. It was dazzling, the meteors fell gracefully across the night sky, and away. As everypony was admiring however, something strange happened. One of the meteors wasn’t gliding across the night sky with the others. Instead, it was growing larger, or it seemed to be. Princess Luna was startled the most. “I didn’t plan for this to happen…” Luna said to herself. Within a few seconds, everypony else began to feel like something was wrong as the unknown object grew closer and closer. Suddenly, it grew so close that everypony could see that it was…purple. A strange purplish color that almost seemed to be on fire. Then, in a huge flash of light, it soared directly above them, so close that it barely missed the castle walls, and continued descend, moving lower and lower. That’s when everypony began panicking. Everypony was running in their own direction, sometimes bumping into each other. Princess Celestia was desperately trying to calm them down, but it was hard to calm something when you yourself were terrified. Then, with a resounding boom, the, whatever it was, crashed somewhere outside Canterlot. Immediately, Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard, yelled at the top of his lungs, “All available troops; front and center!” Within a few seconds, thirty golden armored royal guards were assembled in front of Shining Armor, in perfect formation among the confusion. They wielded shining silver spears that each of them either held in their hooves or with magic levitation. “Find where that unknown object crashed, I want it found!” Immediately, Shining Armor’s troops fanned out, and began looking for the crash site. It didn’t take long for them to find it. “Captain, over here!” one of the guards called out. Immediately, Shining Armor and his guards went towards the location that he shouted. Twilight, her friends, and the two Princesses followed up pursuit. Shining Armor was about to object to this, but he knew he had been unsuccessful in every other attempt, and kept his mouth shut. Around a minute later, they found themselves outside the main castle of Canterlot, and in a street called Mane Street. There, they found it. It was a burning pile of purple something. It was quite large, and it was obvious that it wasn’t a meteor. All of the ponies in the area were already panicking, running in different directions and causing a mob. Celestia knew it was hopeless to console that many ponies, and did nothing to try. Shining Armor and his guards grew closer for a better look. As they did, one of the guards jumped backwards, screaming in surprise. “What is it, sergeant?” Shining asked, startled by his soldiers tone. What happened next, nopony would soon forget. From inside the wreckage, something was moving. It was pushing the wreckage of itself, and was trying to stand up. It was obviously not a pony. Noble Six found himself standing in front of Captain Keyes, the captain of the Pillar of Autumn. Noble Six was handing him the Package, the supposed salvation of the human race. "Halsey assured me I could count on you," Captain Keyes said as he turned to get inside a Pelican. “Not just me, sir.” Noble Six responded. Keyes felt the Spartan's remorse for his fallen comrades. War was ugly, and the captain knew from experience that great heroes, no matter how hard anyone may wish, are not immune to the horrible fate of those around them. “They will be remembered.” Suddenly, a massive Covenant Cruiser came into view, flying quickly towards them. “Covenant Cruiser inbound, Noble Four I need fire on that cruiser!” Captain Keyes exclaimed. Noble Four, also know as Emile, was currently in control of the MAC cannon, an orbital defense cannon capable of destroying almost anything. “You got it, sir!” Emile replied, turning the Mass Accelerated Cannon to aim for the cruiser. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Phantom came into view, and destroyed one of the Pelicans that were near Noble Six. Captain Keyes was lucky that the Phantom aimed for the one that didn’t have him in it. Noble Six barely avoided the Pelican before it crushed him, and crashed on the land bellow. The Phantom moved towards the MAC cannon, and once it was close, Elites started jumping out of it, moving to attack Emile. Emile was busy shooting one with a shotgun, when another red armored one came out of nowhere and impaled Emile in the chest with his Energy Sword. “I’m ready, how about you?!” Emile said as he went down, still fighting the Elite. Captain Keyes Pelican had wheeled back around, and was moving back towards Noble Six. Once close, one of the Marines inside held out his hand towards Noble Six and said, “Lieutenant, get aboard, we need to get the hell out of here!” Noble Six knew this was his only way out, but he also knew that the Pillar of Autumn wasn’t going to be able to get away if the Covenant Cruiser attacked it. “Negative, I have the gun. Good luck, sir.” Noble Six responded. “Good luck, Spartan.” Captain Keyes responded, both sorry for the Spartan that was doomed to die and admiring his courage for giving up his life. With that, the Pelican flew away, leaving Noble Six stranded. Noble Six turned around and found Emile standing behind him, perfectly fine besides for the massive wound in his chest. He seemed not to notice it. “I don’t blame you for living, but I hope you’re ready when you die.” Noble Six tried to say something, but he quickly blacked out. When he awoke, Noble Six found himself staring at the control panel of the Banshee. He felt like he had just been smacked by a Gravity Hammer. Almost involuntarily, he tried to get up. He found the effort itself a lot harder than it should be. Then he realized what the problem was. The top of the Banshee was still on top of him. Noble Six, with more effort than he thought it should take, pushed of the top of the Banshee. He nearly fell back down because of what he saw. Noble Six seemed to be in some type of city. There were small buildings all around him, and a ridiculously large castle around thirty feet away. But the sight that shocked him the most was the creatures that were surrounding him. They seemed to be horse like in nature. They had oddly colored bodies and manes. There were a lot of them running around in circles, screaming random things. Noble Six almost thought he heard them say things in his language, but shook he decided that couldn’t happen. Directly in front of him, however, was a group of creatures that were wearing golden armor, with spears of some kind either being held in their hooves or being held aloft by some form of levitation. Noble Six didn’t thing these things were part of the Covenant, but he didn’t like to take chances. Feeling much better, he stood to his full height. The creatures took a step back when he did so. Then, Noble Six did something very irrational. “Where am I?” Noble Six asked the creatures in a raspy voice. The creatures suddenly looked surprised, but did not answer him. The creatures in armor pointed their spears at Noble Six directly. Alarmed, Noble Six took out the Energy Sword he took from Reach, and turned it on. The blue hard light sword popped out of its sheath and glowed menacingly. The creatures took another step back. “Where am I!?”Noble Six asked again, much louder than before. Again, the creatures did not answer him. Noble Six now took a step forward, towards the creatures. Then one of them shot some kind of purple energy at Noble Six. Noble Six barely avoided the shot. With instincts indicating that these creatures were hostile, Noble Six jumped forward towards the creature that tried to shoot him, and almost to impaled it with his Energy Sword. Before he could do so, Noble Six suddenly felt something hit his side. A moment later, he blacked out.