Assault on the Control Room.
Food, sleep, and post-trauma really don't mix, as Fluttershy discovered. It was still day time when she fell asleep, making her nightmare a daymare, but that sounded silly, so she just thought of it as a bad dream.
She'd found herself in a strange half world made up of different locations. Ahead of her was a beach. Turning around, she'd find herself in the gloom of a Forerunner structure. Blink, and she'd suddenly be aboard the Truth and Reconciliation.
Covenant danced around her like some sort of tribal celebration, singing, laughing, mocking. The bellow of their bullying resonated in her twitchy ears and burned into her mind.
Loud noises droning on and on made her head throb, like she was being constantly hit on the brain with a hammer.
When her dream ended, she was pulled up out of the circle of chanting Covies and away from the land of sand, silver and purple. Her vision snapped to white, and that's when she woke up with a ghostly moan, that quickly escalated into a full on scream.
Confound her nightmares, and confound her Spartan training for screwing up her sleep and psyche like this.
Panting and sweating, Fluttershy lay her chin on the cold metal deck and frowned. Her head was aching, her stomach was aching, and the swaying of the Pelican was making her feel queasy.
"Everything ok back there?" Rainbow Dash concerned from behind the Pelican's controls.
Weakly, Fluttershy croaked, "I'll be fine."
"You sure, Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie double checked, walking up to her whilst munching on a cinnamon bun. "You sound like... something's wrong."
Shaking her head, Fluttershy repudiated, "Oh, nothing's wrong, really. I just had a bad dream as all."
Laying on her belly with her back legs crossed in the air, Pinkie propped her head up with her forelegs and pried, "Tell?"
Still reposing her chin on the deck, Fluttershy breathed, "Oh, I'd rather not."
"Well, ok! But if you ever wanna talk about something, we're hear for ya!" Pinkie grinned at her, cheering her up.
Derpy was still with them, laying on her back with her hooves in the air, not strapped in. She snored, having what looked like a much nicer sleep than Fluttershy. Not strapping herself in however, came at a cost. Rainbow brought the Pelican to a mid-air halt, sliding Derpy across the deck and slamming into the bulkhead. She woke up on the impact and shook her head.
"Muffin warriors assemble!" she screamed before taking in her true surroundings, Pinkie and Fluttershy staring puzzlingly at her. "Oh."
Over the intercom, Rainbow announced, "We're almost there," and sent the Pelican into a vertical climb.
Frailly, Fluttershy lifted her head and peered out the windscreen ahead. She saw that they were ascending a shaft, similar to the one at the cartographer. There would probably be a platform further up where they would disembark.
Not feeling hungry in the slightest, Fluttershy passed on her second breakfast of the day and took a teensy sip from her flask, and prepared herself for whatever she had in store.
Pinkie and Derpy gorged down some delightful looking baked goods before drinking some water.
Putting her MA5B assault rifle away behind her saddle bag, Pinkie attached the rocket launcher to her mechanical arm and hoisted two reloads onto her back. The third case was strapped to Derpy.
After a fair few minutes, Rainbow stated, "This is as far as I can go."
Gazing through the windscreen, Fluttershy spied a batch of Grunts retreating into a tall, Forerunner door at the back of a large platform.
"Covenant are here," Rainbow grumbled irritably. "... Well, I guess this is it."
Buzzing through Fluttershy's speaker, Twilight gratified, "Thank you, Rainbow. We'll hoof it from here. Good luck finding your way out of these tunnels."
The blue Pegasus glanced back to salute the squad before rotating the craft and lowering the gangplank. "You need luck more than me, Twilight. Good luck beating the Covenant to the control centre."
"We don't need it," Pinkie corrected, Fluttershy silently disagreeing. "But we'll take it anyway."
"Hoarder," joked Rainbow.
One by one, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Derpy hopped out of the Pelican, their hooves clopping loudly against the silvery metal floor.
Raising the gangplank, Rainbow spun the Pelican to face her friends and give them a final wave. "Bye, guys!"
Waving back, the Mares bid, "Bye, Rainbow Dash!"
Descending back down the shaft, Rainbow and her bird disappeared.
Surveying the expansive platform, Fluttershy noted two Covenant Shade turrets and two holo-shields, arranged symmetrically on each side of the tall door.
Getting a gander around the shaft, she beheld a massive support column stretching from the domed ceiling, all the way down into the abyss, pretty blue lights strobing up it.
Hypothesizing, Twilight told, "We saw Grunts on this platform. They'll either return with back up or wait for us further on."
As the three Ponies paced towards the door, Twilight alerted, "Looks like they're taking the first option. Fluttershy, Derpy; man the turrets."
Hurriedly, the two Pegasi galloped over to the Covenant Shades.
Shades were easy to use. So easy that anypony could use them without instructions from an AI. You just sat in them, pointed, and fired.
The pink Earth Pony stood between the two Shades with her rocket launcher at the ready; she knew what to do, and she had a determined smirk on her face.
As soon as that huge metal door parted and two Elites made their appearance along with the returning Grunts, Pinkie pulled the trigger and utterly decimated both of the towering bipeds. She conserved her ammo by letting Fluttershy and Derpy clean up the remaining Grunts.
On the Shade, Fluttershy found the seat to be incredibly comfy, but she was feeling too under the weather to really appreciate it. The hotness of the purple plasma radiating from the gun wasn't helping her overheated temperature.
In a jiffy, the Covies were silenced, with the Shades wreaking havoc on the ancient alien architecture.
"Well that was easy!" broadcasted Pinkie.
"It might have been easy," Fluttershy replied in a withered tone as she climbed down from her Shade. "But it still wasn't fun."
"I thought it was fun!"
Dismounting her own Shade, Derpy joined in, "You think everything is fun!"
Together, the team trotted through the door and into the corridor beyond.
"Well duh! If I didn't have fun doing my job, then I wouldn't be having fun... doing... my job?"
"Kinda lost your train of thought then, didn't you," Twilight stated humorously.
"Maybe a little."
The corridor they were following was shaped like a tall, tapered hexagon, and the walls and floor were striped with two different materials. First there was the usual, silvery, Forerunner metal. Then there was glass. Metal, glass, metal, glass, metal, glass. The pattern went on and on, taking right angled corners and leading all the way to an identical door at the end.
Closed, the door had a green light on each half. Pinkie touched one of those green lights with a "Boop," and made the door part, revealing an octagonal chamber. Take a guess as to what material it was made out of...
... Yep; metal. Silver, engraved metal. Everywhere Fluttershy had been so far was made out of metal; no tiles or carpet or wood or stone. Just metal - metal everywhere. She was getting bored of it. She was also getting bored of the Covenant, who took up positions... behind the metal.
To be fair, there was more to the chamber just metal. It was an octagon room within an octagon room. This meant there were three ways to cross it: Go around the right, go around the left, or go through the inner octagon in the middle.
Three ways and three Ponies. Working together, the team were able to flank the Covenant, and one rocket and a tub of ammo later, the area was clear. As soon as Fluttershy and Pinkie had reloaded the bazooka with Derpy's rockets, a trio of Grunts entered the room and let loose with their plasma pistols. The Grunt firing squad put up the fight of an annoying fly, and were quickly deceased by Fluttershy and Derpy.
"So," Fluttershy began. "If the Covenant are here, I'm guessing the control room is near by." She spoke as if it were a question.
Twilight answered, "The exact opposite of that, really."
Fluttershy drooped. How far was the control centre, and how much Covenant were standing in their way?
"Then what are they doing here?"
"Accessing the Covenant battle net."
If Twilight didn't have an answer, she would access the Covenant battle net to find one. She never really checked if any of her friends had answers.
"Well the Covenant did see us enter the underground tunnel," Pinkie pronounced as they exited the room and went back travelling another glass-metal corridor. "All they had to do was send guards to the... I don't know what they're called, so I'm just gonna call em "rabbit holes," cos that's what they remind me of."
"You mean the access points?" Twilight quizzed.
"Yeah! Those!"
"I prefer rabbit holes," announced Derpy.
"Me too!"
"So do I."
Keeping up with the Covenant chatter, Twilight said, "Terrific idea, Pinkie; the Covenant have just confirmed that."
"Yay! Where's my prize?"
Quickly, Derpy rummaged through her bag and held out a blueberry muffin with an excited grin on her face. Pinkie swallowed the whole thing in a second, burping out the casing.
"Uh oh," the AI worried.
Derpy; "That sounds uh oh."
"The Covenant are already at the control centre!"
The three Mare's shouted, "What?!" in unison.
"Oh wait, they're just at the door to the control centre," Twilight realised. "Sorry girls. It seems they're having trouble getting it open." Giggling, she added, "Good thing they don't have AIs like me on their side!"
Discomposed, Fluttershy quizzed, "Um, how long do you suppose it will take for them to get through?"
"I don't know," the AI admitted. "But based on these reports, it may take a while. The Covenant are unwilling to blast their way in, and the computers they use to hack into things are painfully slow. Field Master Kilkakamee is getting frustrated." To further comfort the shy, she commented, "We'll have plenty of time!"
"Oh, ok. If you say so, Twilight."
Advancing, the three Pony firing squad trotted along until they reached the door at the end.
Pinkie used her face to hit the "open" button, and when the door parted, it revealed something most unexpected.
Snow - glorious snow! It swirled leisurely down through the air and settled on what appeared to be a bridge before them. With the door wide open, the wintery weather blew in and made contact with Fluttershy's feverish body, cooling her down and refreshing her, kinda.
Beyond the bridge, a cliff of grey filled the view, gathering the magnificent white snow in its crevices. Gazing up, Fluttershy discovered they were in some sort of canyon... A very deep canyon.
"Interesting," murmured Twilight, fascinated by the wonderful snow. "Halo's weather patterns seem natural, not artificial. I wonder if the ring's environment systems are malfunctioning... Or if the designers wanted the installation to have inclement weather."
Confused, Fluttershy pondered, "Why would they make it snow here?"
"I'm not sure."
"Why wouldn't they make it snow here?!" Pinkie exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air. "Snow is fun! Maybe they wanted to build snow Ponies and have snowball fights and sing hearth's warming carols and give each other presents and wrap up winter!"
"Um, I don't think the Forerunners had hearth's warming," Fluttershy speculated. "Or winter wrap up."
"How would you know?"
"Well, sounds a little familiar, don't you think?"
Just then, Fluttershy's tummy ache intensified, and she clutched her gut, groaning with agony. "Nnng!"
Pinkie and Derpy stared worryingly at her and she hated the attention.
Before they could ask, she squeaked, "... I'm fine."
Back to the debate, Pinkie theorised, "I get what you mean, but what if; the Forerunners were just Ponies like us, from a reeeaaally long time ago?"
"Pinkie, that's crazy," Twilight labelled disbelievingly.
"Is it? Or is it?" quizzed the pink one with suspicion.
Twilight answered bluntly, "Yes, it is."
Pinkie just laughed, "Oh. Hehaha!" snort.
Stepping out onto the bridge, the squad came up short upon the approaching noise of a Pelican drop ship. Rainbow Dash couldn't have possibly found her way out of the tunnels by now, could she?
As it turned out, no, it wasn't Rainbow Dash.
"This is Lightning Dust! Who's that on the bridge?!" the pilot's voice shouted frantically over the radio. "Twilight?! Flutter-thingy?! Is that you?!"
Twilight replied calmly, "Yes, it's us."
Flutter-thingy?
On the bridge, directly in front of the door, was a barricade that could be rounded on each side. It obscured the view of the bridge ahead, but as the Pelican roared through the snow filled air, plasma and needle rounds streaked up after it, originating from the bridge.
A Warthog LRV was tucked under the Pelican's tail, and it swayed in the gustiness.
"Oh darn, I'm taking fire!" snarled Lightning Dust as she sent the Pelican into a dive, below the bridge. "Meet us on the ground, ok!"
It wasn't Lightning's position to tell them what to do; it was Twilight's. However, there was no argument from the AI.
"Sure thing, Lightning. We're on our way."
Rounding the barrier, Fluttershy saw an organization of blocky objects on the bridge, providing cover.
To each side of the barrier, there were two Shade turrets. Covenant lined the long stretch of bridge ahead, peering down at the descending Pelican. Without Twilight's input, Fluttershy, Derpy and Pinkie nodded at each other and took up positions. Fluttershy and Derpy manned the alien turrets while Pinkie braced the rocket launcher.
Since the Covenant were too busy eyeballing the Pelican, they were totally caught off guard by the Ponies' assault.
The plasma from the Shades was at least forty per cent more powerful than that of a standard plasma rifle or pistol. The two Pegasi unleashed waves of the stuff and cut down the Covies like grass, their alien bodies burning and melting and being hurled back by the force. Parts of the bridge itself even began to disintegrate as the purple plasma sizzled into the engraved metal.
Pinkie hadn't fired a single rocket yet. There was no need; the Shades were taking care of business just fine. To use a rocket would be to waste ammo. It was also risky, considering how powerful the bazooka was, and how ancient the bridge was. Wouldn't want to bring down the whole structure, would she?
Soon, the Covenant presence on the bridge was no more, and the Shades could be dismounted.
On closer inspection, Fluttershy realised that the bridge was multi-story. It featured two levels; the top one they were on, and another one below. Ramps were situated opposite each other along each side of the bridge, leading down to that lower level. On the top level, there was some decorative glass panelling on the floor where the lower level could be spotted. Some of the glass had been smashed in the battle, so the quadrupeds had to be wary of the rectangular holes as they made their way across.
The end of the bridge was symmetrical to the beginning. A familiar barricade stood before the same old door, and even a couple more Shade turrets had been set up to either side.
A couple of steps later, and Twilight alarmed, "Elite approaching! Dead ahead!"
"Oh no!"
In an instant, the Mares braced themselves. They had passed all the metal islands on the bridge and were left without cover. Standing in the open, Pinkie and Fluttershy aimed their weapons at the barrier.
Derpy took to her wings and hovered in the gentle, snowy breeze, ready to make it rain. When the tall door slid open, she immediately opened fire on the target.
With the speed of a hundred cheetahs, a golden Zealot came skidding around the barrier, energy sword in one hand and his shields rippling. The mighty warrior hadn't anticipated Pinkie's 102mm HE surprise, and was easily blown apart by a single rocket. The whole bridge shuddered with the explosion, and snow and icicles were shaken loose.
The wobbliness left Fluttershy frozen. However, it didn't register with anypony else as Pinkie and Derpy trotted merrily onwards into the next corridor.
"Don't worry, Fluttershy," Twilight soothed. "It'll take more than one little rocket to bring this bridge down."
Somewhat reassured, Fluttershy swallowed and paced after her teammates, leaving the snow behind.
After a lengthy fight in a second octagonal chamber, the three soldiers had made it to a lift. They had faced the usual Elites, Jackals and Grunts, but also a couple of Hunters. Things had been hectic as Pinkie put an end to one of the huge, blue armoured tyrants, and had to reload the launcher before she could take out the second. Reloading a rocket launcher was serious business; it took time, effort, and if you weren't blessed with the gift of Unicorn magic, it was extremely fiddly.
Nether the less, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Derpy had taken the Covies to the cleaners, and had been able to reach a much needed elevator.
It wasn't a grav lift, like what the Covenant used, but it wasn't a simple box with tethers either. If anything, it combined the two. 'Twas a dark grey, circular platform that held position at the top of the shaft by floating. Gravity tethers kept it in position, and once the elevator was under way, those invisible tethers would be responsible for its descent.
As for actually getting the elevator to move, Fluttershy did the usual trick of placing her hooves on the controls and having Twilight analyse them and tell her what to do.
"Ok, press the small white button at the very bottom of the display," the AI instructed.
Following, Fluttershy pressed said button, and a loud creak of ancient metal vibrated her eardrums. She winced as her head ache intensified.
Her throbbing head wasn't the only part of her that suffered. Her stomach was still aching, and it lurched as the elevator hovered up out of its gravitational lock and dropped down at a rapid rate. Funny noises rumbled within her, eliciting stares from the other two. Flustered, she hid her face behind her long pink mane and tried to conceal her agony.
*****
Meanwhile, in an octagonal chamber, a large platoon of Covenant Grunts sat cross legged on the metal floor and slept. Two Jackals patrolled through the ranks, and two Elites sat upon an unexplained Forerunner object, their long, muscly legs hanging off the ground.
The veteran and the rookie bantered with each other, guffawing every now and then.
The higher ranking officer held an odd fruit in his alien claw and munched upon it happily. Juice drooled down from his mandibles, and he quickly wiped the mess off his crimson armour with his hand.
He had just retrieved a second fruit and offered it to his blue armoured colleague when a faint scraping noise was picked up, just beyond the chamber. One of the Jackals stopped and looked at the Elite in charge and cheeped a question at him. Declining, the veteran held a fruit wielding hand out and shook his head, and then ordered his rookie buddy to investigate. Gormlessly, the Jackal watched as the rookie Elite marched passed him and on his way to the elevator.
Blue boy took no caution in walking past the sleeping Grunts, and the little aliens shivered as he stomped by.
One of them actually yelled something in his sleep. "She's here!"
Well, he was certainly having a bad dream.
Passing through a small, Forerunner door, the massive Elite ducked and kept his head down as he made his way through a compact vent of a corridor.
Sliding open a second door brought him to the elevator shaft, and the lift platform resting before him. It was odd; the platform had been sent up. What was it doing back down? Did his brethren stationed in the room above send it down? Why would they do that? There wasn't even anyone on it.
Suspicious, he brought up his radio and contacted the squad above... or at least he tried to. No one was answering. Spooked, the rookie Elite turned and headed back to the chamber so he could deliver the news to his commanding officer.
Upon arriving back in the chamber, he was greeted by the sight of dead Grunts. Dead Grunts everywhere; killed in their sleep. Drawing his plasma rifle, the biped crept through the devastation, checking behind him every few seconds. He proceeded, and came across the two Jackals, dead, just like everyone else in the room.
The centre of the room was where he and his superior had been sitting, and as he emerged into the inner chamber, he beheld the crimson armoured warrior slumped on his back over the blocky, Forerunner object. His head and arms dangled loosely off the ground, and blood and juice dripped from his mouth. His half eaten fruit wobbled on the floor, as if it had just been dropped.
With an increased heart rate, the rookie glanced all around, ready to take on whatever he was facing. He pointed his plasma rifle at every shadow, every cranny, every potential hiding spot and vantage point.
His tiny ears picked up the sound of something rolling on the floor, and he looked down to witness a full fruit wheel its way between his legs and come to a teetering stop right before him.
Behind him, something breathed down his neck, and he heard the disgusting gurgle of poorliness echo around the cold chamber.
Prior to spinning to face his adversary, he growled, "Helecaktu frima'aa!"
Before completing his spin, he was knocked dead by a powerful buck from three Ponies, all at once. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Derpy each sighed with relief after clearing the entire room in stealth mode.
"Wow! That was very impressive everypony!" Twilight celebrated joyfully.
She said "everypony," yet Fluttershy hadn't contributed at all. Well, apart from bucking that blue Elite of course. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't find it within her to put an end to such cute, peaceful, sleeping creatures.
She groaned as her belly ache took a turn for the worst, low grumbling noises coming from inside her.
Derpy jumped and quizzed, "What did he say?! What did he say?!"
It wasn't clear who she was talking to, or referring to, but Twilight stepped in and asked, "Who? You mean the Elite?"
"Yeah!" Derpy nodded.
"Well, I didn't quite catch it," processed Twilight. "I think he said "loathsome parasite," or some other such nonsense."
"Parasite?" Fluttershy wondered, confused by the Elite's choice of insult.
"We're not parasites! We're Ponies!" yelled Pinkie, offended. "What a mean Elite!"
"Whatever he said isn't important," Twilight cut in. "What is important is that we meet up with Lightning, Trixie and the rest of the squad." She then guided, "They'll be outside. There's a door at the other end of the room."
There was no need to reload guns this time, so Pinkie and Derpy had a little drink from their canteens and trotted onwards with the ill Fluttershy.
Making their way through another amazingly configured corridor, the trio exited the Forerunner complex and walked out into the twinkling snow. The fresh, freezing air sure helped ease Fluttershy's temperature, and her head ache. However, the Covenant had provided a counter.
To the left, a Grunt fired his stationary turret at some targets across the valley. The noise his Shade was generating, as well as the penetrating ba-ba-bang of Derpy's assault rifle, kept her head pounding hard and hurtful. The burst from Derpy did the trick however, as she nailed the Grunt in his methane tank, and the poor little thing suffocated to death. Clear? Was it heck.
At the far side of the valley where the Grunt had been directing his fire, there was the Warthog LRV that had once been secured to Lightning's Pelican. Where the Pelican was now, was a mystery. The Warthog lay on its side for whatever reason, and two Ponies took cover amongst a nearby copse of trees, returning fire to the attacking Covies.
So what exactly were the Covenant expending this time? Well, there were a few Grunts. A few Jackals. A rookie Elite whizzing around in a Ghost rapid assault vehicle. Oh goodness! The Covenant were throwing vehicles at them!
That small purple hover vehicle zoomed around, spewing super heated bolts of plasma at the Ponies amongst the trees. Damn, it was fast! It could strafe too; levitating sideways to get a better shot at the targets.
The Ghost wasn't the only thing the Ponies had to worry about though. Oh no, the Ghost was measly compared to what else the Covenant had brought with them... A Wraith tank. Fluttershy knew about Wraith tanks all too well. She'd even had experience driving one on the Truth and Reconciliation, and was well aware of the damage they could do.
At the far right of the valley, the Covenant tank hovered over a frozen pond next to a mesa and hurled plasma ball after plasma ball at the trees. On top of the mesa, another Shade was situated, and the Grunt at the controls fired purple plasma in rapid succession at the tree cover.
"Oh my gosh - a Ghost!" Pinkie screamed, and flashed out towards the mentioned vehicle.
"Pinkie!"
After her buddy, Fluttershy galloped, Derpy flying by her side.
The snow wasn't too deep; only an inch or under. It crunched as Fluttershy's armoured hooves came stomping down, leaving horseshoe impressions in the glittering whiteness.
She gawped as she spectated a Wraith mortar round arcing high on its climactically steady way towards the trees. The two Ponies hiding amongst them gasped and ran for their lives before the hissing blue orb came crashing down with a mighty BOOM! Hitting a tree, the plasma set it ablaze, and the high, redwood like plant creaked as its splintered trunk gave way, and the burning tower of wood tumbled to the snow, quaking the ground on impact and squishing one unfortunate Jackal.
Rushing into the trees, Fluttershy was almost run over by the speedy purple Ghost.
"Hi, Fluttershy! Look what I got! Teeheeheehee!" giggled Pinkie from behind its controls.
Bewildered, Twilight gasped, "Pinkie! How-"
"-Oop! Gotta run!" Like an expert, the Ghost riding Pinkie spun the vehicle and raced away, guns blazing.
"Fluttershy!" came a familiar, deep, female voice. "Twilight! Oh, thank Celestia you're here!"
A white Unicorn Mare with a retro blue mane and tail and cerise eyes came bounding over with a captured plasma rifle fitted to her soldier saddle.
"Vinyl?"
"We're in a bad way," Vinyl began. "Trixie sent us to pick you up, but we weren't expecting to see all these Covies! Lightning got jumpy and flew off in the Pelican, and did a great job putting our one Warthog down!" She rolled her eyes at "great." "The tank has us pinned!"
Having taken in every word Vinyl Scratch had just pronounced, Twilight said, "Don't worry, we'll help you. First thing's first; let's get that Warthog on its wheels."
As soon as Twilight finished speaking, a Wraith round detonated in the background with a heart stopping BOOM! The group shot their eyes in the direction of the explosion and witnessed a Unicorn Stallion get perished by the insane heat, along with a large patch of snow and land.
Furious, Vinyl stomped her hooves in the snow and bellowed, "Grrr! Gosh darn it! That's my second teammate down!"
As the three Mares ran and flew over to the overturned Hog, Pinkie zoomed about on the Ghost, fending off the Covenant foot soldiers, laughing and whooping all the way.
On their way to the Hog, Fluttershy almost tripped over the burnt corpse of a Pegasus Stallion, half masked in the snow, and shrieked with horror at the sight of him.
Over the radio, Twilight requested, "Pinkie? Little help?"
Pinkie's happy reply came buzzing through Fluttershy's speaker. "I'm on my way!"
"Great!" Off the radio, she commanded, "Everypony, get a hold of the Hog and push!"
The light recognisance vehicle was resting on its right side, and Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around its front mounted tow cable. Vinyl got to the rear of the vehicle and used her magic to help her in turning the three and a bit tonne truck onto its wheels. In the air, Derpy pushed hard against the Warthog's top side, flapping her grey feathered wings and straining with the effort. The combined strength of the equines only succeeded in making the Warthog tilt a little.
As another Wraith bomb exploded against a tree's branches over their heads, Pinkie arrived in her Ghost and nudged the beached LRV. She made use of an alien boost drive to utilize the Ghost's maximum power, and with help from the other three, she was able to flip the Warthog the right way up.
"Yes! Nice one, Pinkie!" Vinyl cheered. "I'll drive! Hop in!"
Once again, driving had been taken out of the question for Fluttershy, and the yellow Mare was thankful for that. But now, as huge rounds of mortar came hurtling down around them, and purple tri-bolts of plasma lashed their way, it was no time to argue over who went where.
With that in mind, Fluttershy did what she knew Twilight would have her do, and manned the turret, leaving the passenger seat for Derpy.
Using a key, Vinyl fired up the Hog's engine and sent the vehicle speeding forwards. The chunky off-road tires slipped and sliced through the soft white snow, kicking up rooster tails of the freezing stuff. Skidding around the trees and catching some air on a hill, Vinyl sent the Hog in the Wraith's direction.
Pinkie drove her faster purple Ghost along side the UPSC vehicle, beaming at them and motioning her hoof up and down, up and down. Vinyl caught sight of her, rolled her eyes and tittered before honking the Warthog's horn. Giggling, Pinkie raced ahead, killing the Shade turret's occupant with a burst of plasma.
Closing in on big fat tank, Fluttershy and Pinkie opened fire, as did Derpy who sprinkled the Wraith with MA5B ammo. The rifle bullets just ricocheted off, utterly harmless. However, the rounds from the bigger, tri-barrelled LAAG did seem to pock the Wraith's frontal armour. As for Pinkie's plasma, it sizzled and burned shallow marks into the Wraith, blackening its shiny purple sheen.
"Hit it from behind!" bellowed Twilight over the coms. "That's where it's weakest!"
Acknowledging, Pinkie strafed the Wraith, and Vinyl drove away before they were consumed by a hellish ball of plasma that the tank conjured up.
Since the tank driver was more concerned about the three targets in the big green vehicle, he pivoted around the iced up pond to focus on them, sending bomb after bomb through the air in their direction.
Considering the compact little Ghost was at the back of his mind, he definitely didn't expect a rocket to be fired from it. The shaped charge hit his tank's back plating, eliciting puffs of black smoke from the bulky vehicle. This made him vexed, and he tried to rotate his tank after the pink Pony. Unfortunately for him, the Ghost was too quick, and he simply couldn't catch up, not even when he stopped to spin the other way.
Unfortunately for Pinkie, the rocket she'd just fired was the last one in the launcher, and she had to retreat behind the mesa so she could get out and reload.
"Wait a minute," Fluttershy muttered as Vinyl spun the Hog back around and towards the Wraith for a second salvo.
She eyed the patch of ice under the Wraith tank... The very heavy Covenant Wraith tank.
"... The ice!" she exclaimed.
Vinyl and Derpy grunted, "Huh?"
Fluttershy was too shy to explain, so instead, she just demonstrated by firing at the frozen pond, making it crack and fragment.
Catching on, Twilight gasped, "Oh! Of course! Why didn't I think of that?! Fluttershy, you're a genius!" Calling Pinkie, Twilight ordered, "Pinkie! Save your rockets and shoot the ice!"
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie replied.
Quickly, the pink one returned and began pounding the ice with super heated plasma, melting it away. Fluttershy and Derpy helped by chipping away at it with bullets.
Unaware as to what was going on, the Wraith held its position and continued to destroy Halo's gorgeous environment with tremendous plasma blasts.
Finally, the hole in the ice became big enough to swallow the hulking great hover tank. It fell backwards through the hole with a big splash, the front end protruding out. From the icy purple wreckage, a crimson armoured Elite popped out, and was instantly shot down by none other than Fluttershy.
"Well done, Fluttershy," came Twilight's commendations. "Good thinking on your part."
"Yeah," agreed Vinyl who brought the Warthog to a standstill and turned in her seat to smile at her. "You got brains, girl."
"I got raisins, if anypony's interested," derped Derpy, producing a pile of raisins from her saddle bag and chewing on them.
"I got cupcakes!" sang Pinkie as she pulled over in her Ghost. She was about to retrieve her specialised, cupcake spewing MA5B, when she thought better of it and shrugged, "I think I'll save those for our big victory later."
Fluttershy giggled. Her head ache was still present, as was her tummy ache, and her temperature, and she felt guilty for killing, but the Ponies surrounding her were a joy to be around. She took the opportunity to take a sip of refreshing water from her canteen.
With the Wraith tank down, the valley belonged to the UPSC.