Zin’Onon was monitoring the main control monitor of his ships computer, searching for anything that needed attending. Being the Commander of his vessel, the Night Stalker, wasn’t an easy job. A lot of things could go wrong.
At the moment, there wasn’t anything that needed attending too. Unggoy workers were repairing minor damages that the vessel had sustained in the previous battle against a human vessel. The cursed human vessel had come out of nowhere, exiting out of slip space without warning. Then, it began firing upon the Night Stalker as if it already knew of its presence. Zin’Onon, knowing that he was outgunned by the larger cruiser, managed to escape before his ship had sustained any major damage.
Zin’Onon was aware that the Covenant had lost to the cursed human race at the end of the war, right before the Great Journey was about to begin with Prophet Truth lighting the Halos. But that had been prevented by the Demon, who somehow managed to stop it.
Now, the Covenant was little more than scattered and battle weary troops, trying to make their way home to their home world. Now, the humans were attempting to finish them off, finding and destroying Covenant ships as they went.
Zin’Onon grunted in disgust. He still couldn’t believe that he and his fellow brothers had lost to such scum. It was all because of the Demon, he knew. If it weren’t for him, they would’ve won the war and terminated the human race.
It had been over four years since the war had officially been declared over, but small skirmishes were happening all the time. One good thing that did happen over this four year period was the finding of the Diadact, the last Forunner in existence and the only hope the Covenant had in finally destroying the human race.
The Diadact was as bent on destroying the human race as the Covenant was, perhaps even more so. But the Demon had repelled his assault on Earth, and the Diadact has since been declared MIA.
Now, a month after the event, the Covenant was feeling more defeated than ever. The remaining Prophets decided that, for the preservation of the Covenant, that all followers be called back to friendly planets as soon as they can. That’s where the Night Stalker was heading now, towards the Covenant occupied planet Reach. Though it had been glassed four years earlier, the Covenant decided to make it a forward operating base for the rallying of all Covenant troops. Reach was the front line of defense, as well as temple for resting and regaining strength.
Zin’Onon remembered Reach, one of the greatest victories the Covenant had achieved. In about two days, the Covenant completely took over and glassed the planet. Zin’Onon remembered when he himself was there, a Zealot at the time, assisting with the destruction of a stubborn group of Spartans.
The Spartan team had put up a fair fight ever since the Covenant first arrived, but in the end it was all in vain. Zin’Onon remembered when he himself killed one of them, thrusting his energy sword through the preoccupied gray armored Spartan. He had heard his last cry as he brought him to the ground.
“I’m ready, how about you?”
Even then, Zin’Onon barely escaped with his life. The Spartan had thrust his knife through his shoulder, and severely damaged his skull.. Still, the fatally wounded Spartan was no match for the Zealot’s skill and discipline.
Zin’Onon was pulled out of his thoughts when he was addressed by one of his fellow Sanghelli.
“Field Marshall, we have intercepted an emergency distress beacon.” Zin’Onon was perplexed, but gestured for the Minor to go on.
“Our sensors indicate an emergency distress beacon, but…look at this, sir.” The Minor said, slightly confused. Zin’Onon was feeling the same way, but he looked at the screen of the small hand held device the Minor was holding.
It was an three dimensional image of of the galaxy. In it were uncountable blinking dots, indicating a multiple of different signs. But one was standing out of the others. It was an orange blinking dot, appearing in an unexplored part of the galaxy.
“Magnify the view.” Zin’Onon ordered the Minor in his usual impatient tone.
The Sanghelli did as he was told, and slowly, the screen focused in on the dot. It zoomed closer and closer to it, until it pin pointed its exact location.
“But that’s in the middle of nowhere.” Zin’Onon said, more to himself.
From the three dimensional picture he was seeing, the dot was in the dead center of blackness, no identified solar system or celestial bodies of any sort. It was just there, standing in the nothingness.
“Odd…Minor, patch me in with High Commander Kesh’Tin.” Zin’Onon ordered the Minor.
He wasn’t completely sure what action to take at this point, but contacting higher command may help him decide.
“Yes, sir!” The Elite barked back at Zin’Onon as he saluted, and walked towards a purple control panel a few feet away. The Minor pressed some buttons, and picked up a Communicator.
“High Commander, Field Marshall Zin’Onon wishes to speak with you.” The Minor said into the Communicator.
The Elite then rushed to where Zin’Onon was standing, and gave him the Communicator.
“High Commander, I wish not to trouble you, but we have a situation.” Zin’Onon spoke. There was a pause, then he heard the High Commander’s voice, saying, “Continue, Field Marshall.”
“Our ship has intercepted a distress beacon from an unknown area of the galaxy. I think it wise to go towards that location, just to see if it is of any importance.”
There was a pause, and then Kesh’Tin said, “It’s your ship, Field Marshall. The regrouping of Covenant forces will take a year, at the least. You’ll have time to inspect this anomaly. Again, it’s your ship; you can decide what action to take. High Commander, out.”
Zin’Onon then set the Communicator down on the control panel. He still wasn’t sure what to take, but at least he had clearance from command. Then he settled on an idea.
“General Tash’Bin, front and center!” Zin’Onon bellowed. General Tash’Bin was his second in command; a well trained solider whom Zin’Onon trusted. And there weren’t many people he trusted.Immediately, General Tash’Bin ran up to where Zin’Onon was standing, saluted, and stood silent, ready for orders. His armor shone gold in the bright light of the control room, and he looked just a menacing as ever.
“Ready the ship for slip space travel, our time of Reclamation has come.”
Princess Celestia didn’t look too good. She was suffering from Overspell Syndrome, a condition that is caused by a spell being to powerful, and the spell maker not being powerful enough to control it.
Though the mind wipe spell was successful, it left Celestia in shambles. Never before had this happened to her, and Twilight was worried. Celestia was even more powerful then she was, Twilight knew, and seeing her like this made everypony anxious.
It had been about three hours since the spell had happened, and at least the creature was under control. It had tried to make a run for it while everypony was preoccupied helping Celestia. Just before it could escape, Applejack attempted to buck it in the back, but the hard outer shell of the creature had nearly broken her leg in the process. Therefore, Twilight zapped the creature in the head with a knockout spell in rage and irritation, causing the beast to collapse onto the floor in a crumpled heap.
After this, Twilight secured the beast in magic hoofcuffs and set the creature leaning on a nearby wall. Although she didn’t like to do that, she knew it was necessary. That creature was making enough trouble to rival that of Discord, Chrysalis, and Nightmare Moon combined.
Since then, they had not been bothered by the creature. The public wasn’t an issue any more either, because everypony except Twilight, Celestia, and her friends had been mind wiped, and found themselves fighting the Royal Guard for no reason. The mob quickly apologized, disbanded, and went back to their daily lives.
Now, the only problem at hoof was Celestia. She was still asleep, knocked out by the sheer force of her own spell. Fluttershy was helping the most, using special herb medicines that she carried with her all the time. She was always ready to help a creature in need.
Slowly as the hours passed, everypony began to see that Celestia was getting better. Though not awake yet, at least she looked more peaceful, as if she weren’t in as much pain as she was. Now, everypony began to relax a little, realizing just how tired they were.
Twilight looked at a clock that rested on one of Celestia’s desks not far away. It read 1:17, though Twilight usually stayed up that late reading and performing assignments, she knew her friends weren’t as used to staying up this late.
“Girls, you can go home now, if you want. I’ll take care of Celestia from here.” Twilight said, gesturing towards the door.
All of them shook their heads at the same time, especially Fluttershy, who said, “I couldn’t abandon Celestia now, in her time of need. I’m staying here, Twilight…um, if that’s okay with you…”
Twilight conceited to letting her friends stay. It was understandable that they wanted to stay and care for Celestia. And if Twilight put herself in their hoofs, she knew that she wouldn’t go either.
“Of course its okay, I’ll need all the help I can get.” Twilight said. Though none of them were leaving, it didn’t change the fact that they were all bone tired. Scratch one individual pink pony.
“Besides, I’ll need to throw a get well soon party for Celestia as soon as she wakes up!” Pinkie Pie said ecstatically.
Nopony knew where she got it, but somehow she had found a kazoo. Just before she could abruptly awake Celestia from her slumber, her friends stopped her with a simultaneous, “Shhhh!” They all knew Celestia needed to rest, and Pinkie Pie partying with a kazoo probably wasn’t going to make that any easier.
A few seconds after this, everypony heard something strange. They stopped what they were doing to listen. It seemed to come from the other side of the room. A few seconds later, everypony realized that it was the creature, stirring from its slumber.
Cautiously, everypony approached the strange creature. Now that it wasn’t trying to kill them, Twilight could examine the creature more closely. It seemed to be wearing some kind of armor. It was at two and a half meters tall, at the least. It had four appendages, two arms and two legs, somewhat resembling Spike.
Something that confused Twilight was its lack of helmet. From the very little she knew about war, most soldiers came with helmets. This one didn’t, but at least, Twilight thought, she would be able to examine its face. It was covered in scars; probably from all the battles it had been in. it had a mouth, nose, and two eyes, not hugely different from hers.
But now, the creature was stirring, mumbling random things. Twilight and her friends thought they heard the words, “Package”, “Covenant”, and “Reach”, but that didn’t make any sense. Then suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, the creature screamed. It bellowed in a voice that sounded tortured, as if it were in agony.
This yell startled all of the ponies out of their hoofs, and even awoke Celestia, whom was desperately trying to get up.
“Stay down, Celestia!” Fluttershy said to her before she could get up. It was rare for Fluttershy to command anything, much less the Princess. But Twilight didn’t give it much thought, she had bigger problems.
The creature was trying desperately to break free of the magic hoofcuffs Twilight had placed “him”, Twilight decided, in. For a moment the cuffs seemed to be giving way, but Twilight reinforced the cuffs, preventing the creature from escaping.
Even still, the creature was still trying to break free of the hoofcuffs, and Twilight was concerned it would. But she put her fear aside for the moment as she went to help Celestia. Princess Celestia was lying in her bed, awake, and looking very terrified.
“Calm down, Celestia, everything is all right.” Twilight said, trying to comfort Celestia. However, she knew that everything was most certainly not all right.
Suddenly, there was banging on the wooden door. “Princess, are you all right?” A voice sad from behind the closed door. Twilight recognized it as Shining Armor’s voice, and now she had a serious dilemma on her hooves. If Shining Armor saw the creature, the entire mind wipe spell would be in vain.
“Umm… yes, everything is all right, Shining, just a little mishap!” Twilight said, trying to sound calm as possible.
“Okay…are you sure everything is all right, Twily?” Shining asked, quite anxious and largely confused. The strange scream had awoken Shining from sleep, and most of his men as well.
“Yup, no reason to come inside whatsoever…” Twilight said, the faintest sign of nervousness on her voice. Then suddenly, without warning, the creature that had halted his escape a few moments before began again, this time even more powerfully.
The creature continued to bellow as it managed to break the magic hoofcuffs it had been trapped in. When this happened, Twilight was too strained to try to restrict the creature, and overcome by the exhaustion of the entire endeavor, fainted on the floor.
Now Shining Armor was absolutely sure something was wrong. He opened the door to the room to be greeted by something slamming into his face. A moment later, he blacked out.
The rest of the ponies in the room watched in horror as Twilight fell on the floor. They were even more terrified when Shining Armor opened the door and was immediately hit in the face by one of the creature’s claws. He went tumbling back down the stairs, and landed seconds later with a crack that made everypony wince.
Rarity tried to stop the rampaging creature with her magic, but the creature broke the magic field with relative ease. Rarity wasn’t as magically talented as Twilight and much less Celestia. Luckily, nopony was stupid enough to try to challenge the rampaging creature directly.
Now, the creature began walking towards where Princess Celestia was lying on her bed. Everypony felt helpless when they realized there was nothing they could do. Then, once right next to Celestia, it picked up her by the throat, lifting the alicorn to eye level with its as if she weighed nothing. Then with its free claw, it punched a nearby mirror that was standing on a desk, and picked up one of the larger shards of broken glass. Once it had, it held the shard to Celestia’s throat.
Everypony felt sick with terror. Fluttershy had already fainted. At any moment, the creature could kill their beloved Princess.
“You do as I say, or you die. Am I understood?”
For a few seconds, Celestia said nothing. Then, the creature pushed Celestia’s neck further with the glass, causing a small trickle of red blood to flow across her white coat. Now it was Rarity’s turn to faint, and she didn’t even manage to grab a sofa to catch her fall.
Now with the prospect of death clear, Celestia croaked a “Yes.” Satisfied, the creature eased the pressure on Celestia’s neck slightly.
“Good. I need to get off this planet as soon as possible. My only way out is the spaceship I landed in. Tell me where it is located immediately.”
Celestia knew there was no way that she could get out of this. The creature was holding her on the point of death, and Celestia couldn’t even remember the last time she ever lost blood.
“Over there…pull the red book on the shelf…” Celestia said, trying to breathe. The creature looked confused, but walked over to the book Celestia had indicated, and pulled it. Immediately, a part of the floor under the bookshelf disappeared, showing a staircase that lead down into the unknown.
The creature smiled, but that smile never reached its eyes. And its eyes looked evil and menacing, as if it were perfectly able to kill something and had done it before.
“If any of you others try anything, this creature dies.” The creature said, its voice disturbingly calm.
The remaining ponies that didn’t faint, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and oddly Pinkie Pie, were already thinking of a plan to save their princess. Now all hopes of that were skewered.
Now, the creature was starting to walk down the dark stone staircase, descending into the unknown. At safe distance, the remaining ponies followed. A few seconds later, they all reached the bottom of the staircase.
They were surprised to see that the room they had ended up in was brightly lit, with many large torches standing on the walls. There were many artifacts and strange items, all standing on white marble pillars, some of the larger ones standing on the limestone floor. The creature was standing in the very center of the room, where its prize lay.
Everypony in the room didn’t have the faintest idea what the thing was, but the creature seemed to know. It was going about it, picking up strange things that nopony could recognize either.
“Plasma Rifle, check.” It said, holding one of the strange items. Then, the creature held the strange device, aimed it at a wall, and blue orbs of light shot out of it, putting black holes into the wall five meters away.
Holding the strange blue weapon to Celestia’s head, the creature put her down. The moment it did so, the creature said, “One bad move and I fry you in plasma and eat you for dinner. I’m feeling quite hungry.”
Nopony was sure whether or not the creature was serious, but it made them feel sick nonetheless. Celestia sat where the creature put her down, unmoving. She was frozen in place from the terror of what the creature might do.
“You’ve done what I’ve asked, you can go. Whatever troops you send down here to try to apprehend me get turned into dinner.” The creature said, still disturbingly calm. Everypony was glad to go, but the thought of leaving the creature to its own devices was unbearable.
“What kind of monster are you?” Celestia asked, wanting to know what she was dealing with. The creature looked at her square in the eyes and replied,
“You can call me Noble Six.”