//------------------------------// // Payback // Story: Noble Six // by InfinitySlayer //------------------------------// Princess Celestia paced nervously up and down her bedroom. She was still in shock of the situation that had just arose, but only now had she realized the ramifications of this newcomer. She hadn't previously had time to think properly about what this new monster could do, not only to her, but to her kingdom. She imagined that creature, "Noble Six", as it called himself, charging up those stairs and killing every last one of her subjects with it's terrifying light-weapon, including her. She could see the triumphant look on that beast's face as it continued it's massacre throughout the rest of her royal palace. Then she could see the creature continuing it's killing spree through Canterlot, and then Ponyville. Then all of Equestria. Nothing could stop the huge beast as it killed where it went. For the first time, Princess Celestia realized that she was powerless to do anything. She had tried fighting the beast before, but all of her combined efforts, even with her favored student and her friends, weren't enough to stop it. The creature got exactly what it wanted in the end, and left her closest friends either unconscious on the floor, or scarred for life, or both. Probably both. For the time being, the creature was out of Celestia's hooves. But that was a loose statement at best. She had no idea what diabolical plot the creature could be hatching in the dark corridors of the Royal Artifact Holding Cell. Whatever the thing was doing down there was most certainly not beneficial to her kingdom. Even with the creature momentarily not trying to kill everypony, Celestia still had to deal with her wounded subjects, and her wounded neck. The cut the creature had made in Celestia's throat was not at all deep and somewhat superficial. It wouldn't, and didn't, kill her. But the wound hurt nonetheless. She gingerly treated the wound with a small healing spell to dispel the pain, but didn't have the magic currently in her to heal the scar completely. She still felt magically exhausted, and even that spell made her collapse onto her bed. She wanted to fall asleep, but she needed to stay awake for her subjects, who were in the same or worse condition she was in. Every one of Celestia's mentor's best friends lay unconscious in random places around her bedroom. Either overcome by exhaustion, or knocked out by the beast, every one of her little ponies were down for the count. Celestia looked at them sorrowfully. She knew that they would never forget this experience. The scars obtained here would never heal. Celestia knew the same went for her. This, "Noble Six", had been the most ruthless, heartless, and savage out of all of the beings she had battled before. This creature was a new level of terrifying. It actually tried to kill ponies... no villain had ever gone so low. And Celestia knew that the creature had to be dealt with. But their was nothing she could do. The beast wielded a magic weapon more brutal then any she spell could conjure. It was much taller then her subjects, including her. It was strong enough to escape the power of the Mane Six and Celestia combined. Now the creature was tinkering with the strange device it had crash landed in. Who knows what it could be doing? Celestia continued to lay on her bed, trying desperately to come up with an idea. The creature had to be restrained. If need be, destroyed. Celestia shivered at the thought of destroying something, even if it wasn't a pony. She had never killed a single thing in her entire life. And, she could easily tell that the creature was sentient. It had a soul, even if it wasn't a good one. No, she had to use a different tactic. A few moments later, an idea popped in her head. It was a long shot, to say the least, but it was the only plan she had. Quickly, Celestia got up from bed, and briskly walked down the stairs of her bedroom. She continued walking down the long, carpeted hallway that led down the hall to the Barracks. The Barracks was essentially the home for all of her enlisted troops in Canterlot. At this time of crisis, she would need all of the troops she would muster. Celestia also needed the finest. She opened the large wooden door into the Barracks with her front legs, still unable to use enough magic to open the door. Inside looked as she expected. Like any other barracks in the kingdom, it was a simple building. Made of gray stone, it was sturdy enough to withstand the basic calamities of nature. It was a long and narrow, holding dozens of bunk beds along the wall. The soldiers inhabiting the place were doing what soldiers do. Chatting about battles, contests of strength, and Celestia thought she spotted a game of poker in the back of the room, though gambling was strictly outlawed in the kingdom. She would deal with it later. She had a much bigger problem on her hooves. "Guards, ATTENTION!" Celestia knew enough about warfare to call her troops into attention. The troops suddenly dissipated from their previous locations, appearing in perfect formation in front of Celestia. Shining Armor, of course, was in the front. Celestia looked at him with disappointment when she saw poker chips still levitating in front of where Captain Armor was standing. Shining suddenly realized that he forgot to leave the poker chips at the table, and they magically teleported away like they never existed. Perhaps not the finest in the kingdom, Celestia thought to herself. It didn't matter, She needed the job done, and they were the most capable of making that happen. "Princess, Royal Guard awaiting orders, ma'am." Shining Armor used very formal titles, still embarrassed about the poker incident. "Excellent. Now, you all are the finest, yes?" Celestia asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to hear what her troops would say. "Yes ma'am!" There was no hesitation. "Then prove it. Here is your mission. In a secret basement under my quarters, there is an evil, unidentified creature. It possess strength, size, and magic power unknown to any of us. I need you to solve this problem, by any means necessary." Shining Armor involuntarily gulped. He wasn't afraid of what the creature might be until Celestia said, "by any means necessary."That meant, whatever was down there, Celestia wasn't calling on the magic of friendship to take it out. Actual force was to be implemented. And that meant whatever was down there was the most formidable opponent that Celestia had ever encountered. "Right then, men. Follow me." Celestia led them out of the Barracks and down the long hallway to the stone stairs. They climbed up the spiral staircase, the soldiers' armor and weapons clanging together as they moved up the cramped space. Once at the top, the troops looked around. The majority of them had never seen Celestia's bedroom in their lives. They didn't have much time to admire the decor, as Celestia quickly led them to a bookshelf, and then pulled a red book down. A hidden staircase suddenly opened out of the floor, and into the darkness below. "Captain Armor, are you ready?" Celestia suddenly became nervous as she realized what she was doing. She was doing exactly what the creature wanted her to do. She could remember it's voice as it said, "Any troops you send to try to apprehend me get turned into dinner, by the way." She had the horrific thought of the creature cooking her subjects with the magic it possessed. Little did she know that Noble Six would be doing that, just without eating them. Plasma doesn't cook meat very well, it gives it an odd flavor. Noble Six tightened the last of his screws into place with a small screwdriver he always carried. As a Spartan, it payed to be prepared. At least Noble Six got to use the screwdriver for the first time. His job usually involved breaking machines, not fixing them. He found out, very quickly, that there was no way he could repair the Banshee to flying status. The Covenant machine was to destroyed to be put back together. Plus, many of the essential parts were missing. But he could still fashion the wreckage into something useful. The Banshee, flying or not, would still be his ticket out of here. Noble Six suddenly detected danger. It was his Spartan sixth sense kicking in. He turned around, and looked directly at the stone staircase leading up to what he assumed to be a bedroom. Gray light was showing near the top of the staircase. Moments before, there had been nothing but blackness. Noble Six quickly grabbed his Plasma Rifle from where it was magnetically held in place on his back. He aimed it directly at the door. Not having his helpful HUD showing the AutoAim feature before his eyes was annoying, but not detrimental. With or without AutoAim, Noble Six was a deadly shot. A few seconds later, he heard multiple footsteps from the top of the staircase. Noble Six took a deep breath in, then out to calm his nerves. He hadn't thought the horse-creatures he had encountered would actually be stupid enough to attack him. He knew that he had to shoot to kill. It didn't seem right, killing what seemed to come out of a four year old's imagination. But then he remembered what one of his Spartan drill instructors said to him when he was training on Earth. "Don't have any pity for anything you kill. Pity slows you down. As innocent as an alien might seem, it isn't. Shoot to kill, Six." And Noble Six would shoot to kill now, just as his drill instructor said. The creatures he was attacking were far from innocent. Noble Six had done little more then crash land on their planet, and the next thing he knew, he was detained by the creatures for no reason whatsoever. Time for a little payback. As the creatures grew closer, he saw a purple shield of light protecting the horse things like a wall. As they entered the room, Noble Six saw that the ponies were using it like a riot shield. The shield expanded to make a wall spanning all sides of the room, with no gaps at all. Noble Six then saw the ponies stop in surprise when they saw him. There were about twenty soldiers forming a row behind the shield. Three ponies with horns on their heads supplied the energy for the shield to operate. The rest carried a mixture of spears, swords, and spiked maces somehow in their hooves, without any thumbs to keep them in place. All of the ponies were wearing golden armor, that was likely made of gold. Noble Six knew that, though shiny, gold wasn't a very good element for making armor or weapons. It was too weak. "I'm giving you one last chance to back down before I have to...use extreme force. Do you comply?" Noble Six wanted to give them a second chance to save themselves before he did what he had to do. "We are loyal to the Princess, we never back down!" One of the ponies triumphantly bellowed. The other joined the cheer, screaming and waving their weapons in the air. "Wrong answer." Noble Six said as he held up his Plasma Pistol at the shield. All of the ponies stopped cheering. Noble Six held the trigger of the Covenant weapon until a large green orb of light materialized at the front of the Plasma Pistol. Noble Six knew that and overcharged bolt from this weapon could destroy any shield. Even magic ones. He let go of the trigger. The green plasma bolt shot out from the weapon and moved at lightning speeds towards the ponies who stood behind the shield, aghast. The bolt connected with the shield, and the shield quickly dissipated out of existence. Green electric bolts, remnant energy from the plasma, quickly sped down towards the three ponies who were formally powering the shield. The electric bolts did as electric bolts do. Those three unlucky ponies suddenly were electrocuted by green energy that coursed all over their bodies. In a few seconds, the energy dissipated, and the three ponies were left smouldering on the floor, either dead or unconscious. The other ponies recoiled in shock and terror as Noble Six drew his Plasma Rifle from it's holster. By the time the ponies realized what was going on, it was to late. Noble Six breathed out one more time before he unleashed his power on the ponies. He pulled the trigger of the Plasma Rifle. Blue bolts of plasma shot out like shooting starts towards the unprotected ponies. The bolts connected to one of the ponies, and melted it's armor like butter , frying the skin of the helpless pony. The pony collapsed under the power of five frying plasma bolts, screaming in pain and terror as the plasma quickly burned it's skin and flesh. The remaining ponies were appalled. And terrified. Noble Six used this terror to his advantage. He quickly switched targets to a pony on his left, and let lose three bolts into the creature. Noble Six was trying to conserve ammo, as well as not completely killing the creature. The pony screamed and fell just as the other one did. Most of the remaining ponies were now completely frozen by fear. The liquid fire Noble Six possessed was unlike any power they had ever seen. One of them, however, was not as terrified. One of the soldiers who looked different from the others, likely the leader, drew it's shining silver sword from its scabbard and charged at Noble Six. Noble Six drew his Energy Sword in response, the blue light popping from the weapons hilt as he raised to counter the brave pony. Either brave or stupid. Probably stupid. The pony slashed at Noble Six with an upward strike, hoping to kill him there and then. Noble Six was better then letting a three foot tall pony beat him in a sword fight. Noble Six parried the sword stroke with his energy sword, the two weapons clashing together in a storm a white hot sparks. Noble Six expected his Energy Sword to slice through the metal sword of the pony, but his enemies sword stayed in tact. The pony came in for another blow, lunging its sword in an impaling jab at Noble Six's chest. Noble Six lunged to the side to avoid the fatal blow. A split second later, he slashed the bewildered pony across it's side. The pony stopped in it's tracks, looking over at his gashed side in terror. Noble Six intended the would do be non-fatal, but he wasn't sure whether or not it would actually be. Either way, the pony was effectively incapacitated, sprawling over the floor as crimson blood trickled out of the wound in it's side. After this development, the rest of the ponies had completely lost their resolves. They turned 180 degrees around and bolted for the staircase. Noble Six didn't try to stop them. This is exactly what he wanted to happen. In a few seconds, all of the ponies were out of the room, besides the six wounded ones that lay on the floor, either groaning or unconscious. Noble Six knew he had won the battle. He had finally stood up to the oppressing power of the creatures that captured him before. Revenge is best served plasma-hot.