"Twilight, are you sure you can do this? Covenant blast doors can survive a 11mm shell fired from a Scorpion."
Noble Six, along with the rest of the small pony army, were faced with yet another difficult task. Noble Six, in the few short minutes since his rescue, had come up with a plan for pushing back the Covenant from Equestria. However, this plan meant they had to make their way to the bridge of the ship, the head of control for the entire Covenant attack. Getting there was already challenging enough, as the ship still contained 1000 plus Covenant soldiers and weapons aboard. However, the obstacle most pressing now was figuring out how to get through the tightly sealed Covenant blast doors that bared their path.
It was Twilight's guess, as much as anypony's, that she would be able to blow a hole through the blast door. She had no idea how strong it could be. She also had no idea what an 11mm shell was, or what Noble Six meant by firing it somehow from a scorpion. Twilight didn't think that scorpions could shoot things in the first place.
"I have to try. It's only a matter of time before the aliens send reinforcements down here, and I doubt they'll be unarmed this time."
Noble Six admired Twilight's courage and tenaciousness. They would need it to get out of the Covenant ship alive.
"Then when your ready, do whatever it is you do and blast a hole into that door." Twilight nodded, and slowly approached the silver, purple, and menacing door that blocked her path.
Six was more nervous that any other creature in that room. He understood Covenant battle strategy. It had already been about ten minutes since the Covenant retreated. It was only a matter of time they would send troops to finish them off. Six doubted that the Covenant would send generic troops to kill them as well.
Celestia could sense Six's distress. She was feeling twice as nervous, she needed an encouraging word as much as Six did.
"It'll be alright Six. For one, Princess Twilight is plenty strong enough to blow that door clean off. Secondly, if there's one thing I've seen, its that those six over there have never let me, or anypony else down. We'll get through this."
Suddenly, from behind the pony army, Six heard one of the blast doors open. He turned as fast as lightning towards the open blast door, his Energy Sword grasped tightly in his hand. But nothing came out, so it seemed. The blast door simply opened, and shut again a few seconds later.
It took Six a few seconds to many to realize what had just entered the room.
Suddenly, from out of thin air an Energy Sword, as blue and deadly as lighting, impaled a mint green pony, taken completely of guard. It did so so silently and professionally that no other creature besides Six even recognized that the murder happened.
Then, every other blast door around the room opened, including the one Twilight had been intending on destroying. Everypony in the room, who had intently been staring at the door Twilight was going to blow up, thought that she had opened every door in the room by mistake. Some even cheered her for doing so.
Twilight knew that this was not her doing.
Six's blood turned cold when he realized what was happening. He, and the entire pony army, were completely surrounded by Energy Sword wielding Elites, under the protection of Active Camouflage.
Before Six even had time to warn the ponies, it was too late.
The Elites started to kill every pony on the outside of the formation, one by one, stab by stab. By the time Celestia and the others realized what to do, every single pony on the outside of the formation was destroyed.
Celestia knew she had to act swiftly, or her and all her subjects would die.
"Shield wall, now!"
At Celestia's command, the best of the unicorns under her command created one unified shield above and around them, separating the flabbergasted ponies from the onslaught of invisible Elites. Not even a moment after the shield was created, the Elites slashed and cut at the shimmering shield, slowly but surely disintegrating the magic barrier.
Six knew he had to get his small army of ponies fighting as one, or they would all die in vain.
"Form up, press together to make a tighter defense. Use whatever weapon in your possession to repel the Elites."
The ponies tightened together, and made a small circle of defenders. Everypony on the outside of the circle had whatever weapon in their possession drawn towards the advancing enemy, which would soon collapse the waning shield around them. Those ponies inside the circle were ready to take the place of any comrade who fell before them. The ponies had created a phalanx.
Time grew still as the magic shield collapsed. Everypony held their breath as they waited for the worst. Once the shield fell, the Elites, their Active Camouflage depleted, charged towards the ponies and Noble Six head on, swords raised.
When the two sides clashed, the world moved in slow motion. Energy Swords glided through skin and bone. The sharpened steel weapons the ponies wielded punched through Covenant armor. The Elements of Harmony fought in the front lines, using magic, strength, and party cannons to stay alive. Six fought for his life outside the phalanx, cutting down Elite after Elite as he had done so often before.
The number of Elites was dwindling with every stroke of a sword and blast of magic. Soon, only five Elites remained, then three, then one.
Six was the one fighting the last remaining Elite. Unlike the others, Six planned to take the creature alive. As he found, it was much harder keeping an enemy alive then making him dead.
Energy Sword clashed against Energy Sword in a dangerous spectacle of one-on-one combat. Sparks flew in all directions as both trained warriors fought to claim the others life. Six knew he couldn't fight this Elite forever. With a flick of his wrist, Six cut the Elite's Energy Sword wielding claw. The Elite howled in pain and the sword fell to the floor. Six then grabbed the Elite's thick neck with his hand, and held his Energy Sword to it's throat.
"You're going to tell me what your friends are planning, or I'm going to do to you what your leader planned to do to me."
The Elite remained silent.
"Answer me, now." Six pressed harder against the Elite's throat.
The Elite chuckled to himself, and looking directly into Six's eyes, said, "It's all over. For me, for you, and for those pathetic creatures. Kill me, if that is your wish. You will die very soon."
Six silenced the Elite with a turn of his hand. The Elite slumped to the floor, never to be heard again.
Six turned to face the remaining ponies. Only about twenty remained, including Celestia, Twilight, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony. They were all terribly shaken and terrified, Six could tell that just by looking at their faces. But those ponies weren't looking at him. Every pony eye in the room was fixed on the fallen ponies around them. There were no tears, nopony had enough energy to weep. Only looks of sadness and remorse for the fallen dead.
Six was used to his allies falling around him. There was nothing to be done for the dead. However, he knew that those poor ponies probably hadn't seen death and war on this scale. He gave them a few moments to pay their respects.
"I'm sorry for those lost, but we can't stay here. Nor can we bring them with us. We have to move on."
Noble Six began to move towards one of the open doors, when another sound came from behind him. It was the sound of another door sliding open, only much louder than he expected. He turned, and saw, on the far left side of the room, was a huge bulkhead. This bulkhead slowly opened towards the ceiling. Standing on the other side of the bulkhead, were the creatures Six was counting on not showing up.
Standing inside the bulkhead, were ten pairs of Hunters, twenty in all. All of them were poised to completely obliterate the mass of ponies in front of them. All at once, the massive Fuel Rod Cannons attached to the hunters glowed a fierce green as their weapons charged.
"Move, now!"
That was all Six had time to say before the cannons fired.