//------------------------------// // Day 1: Borrowed Time // Story: A Guardian's Sacrifice // by Requiem17 //------------------------------// ----------------------------------------------- 9 YEARS, 11 MONTHS, 28 DAYS SINCE INCIDENT OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: INCOMPLETE STATUS… RED ---------------------------------------------------- Walking down one of the many stone hallways in the Royal Palace, Luna breathed deeply. The warm air had a slight smoky smell to it, no doubt the filters in the wood furnace having been replaced recently. The winter was proving to be especially brutal this year, one of the worst Luna had seen since before the time of the unification of the pony tribes. The blowing wind and huge amounts of snowfall were closing down many of the smaller roads throughout Equestria, the Guard focusing on keeping the major roads clear to ensure that goods were still being shipped and received. These issues were currently at the back of Luna’s mind as something, or rather someone, dominated her thoughts. She walked around a corner of the marble hallway and was confronted by a set of very large wooden doors with intricate gold details pressed into it. Two solar guards stood on either side of the door, staring ahead stoically. Luna met no resistance as she pushed one of the doors open with her magic and stepped inside. The room was pulsing gently with a dim golden light emanating from a few lit candles scattered throughout the bed chambers. Luna heard the faint noise of a quill scratching on paper and looked over to see her sister sitting at a decently sized writing desk, the dark wood aged older than its current occupant. “Good morning sister. How was night court?” Celestia asked without turning her attention away from the parchment. “Slow I’m afraid. Nopony has showed up during this winter as it is an extreme danger to travel at night in the unusually frigid temperatures.” “I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully that will change after I finish writing this decree. The storm fronts moving in from the barren wastes of the north are too numerous for our current wild weather wranglers to handle. Any weather experienced pegasi that volunteer to help control the storm fronts will be rewarded handsomely. This should help balance the dreadful weather.” Luna stepped up behind her sister and peered over her shoulder, the single candle on the desk lighting up the wall of text Celestia was writing. She waited patiently as Celestia signed her name and placed the royal stamp upon the parchment. She stepped back as Celestia turned around and addressed her. “Now then, while I appreciate you stopping by for a visit I know there is something on your mind as you would have normally bugged me nonstop to finish my work. What’s troubling you?” “Have you noticed anything unusual lately?” “Unusual? Is there something wrong?” Luna decided to get straight to the point. “Ale’s been acting strange. At least, I think he is.” Celestia frowned as she tilted her head slightly. “Come to think of it, I have noticed something troubling him. But he’s acted strangely in the past, most of the time the issue being Ale over thinking immortality and such as he watches his friends age; grappling with coming to terms with it. What’s the difference this time?” Luna thought carefully over the past few months, remembering as Ale seemed to go from a cheerful attitude to one of silent depression. “Well, he was still very talkative before, more than willing to reach out to us and seek comfort. Now, now he seems fatigued. It’s only getting worse and worse every day. I’ve also noticed his trips to his ship have increased dramatically. When I questioned him about it he only told me that it was nothing.” “Well, what if he’s just reminiscing? Many of our own soldiers do that at significant places to them.” Luna nodded. “Normally I would agree with you, but after I questioned him he tried to sneak his trips. The effort was commendable and extremely smart but when you have contacts underground like I do nopony can hide anything.” Luna closed her eyes. Celestia placed a hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Hmmm, are you sure that Ale isn’t just looking for privacy?” Luna shook her head. “I’m most positive that is not the case.” She closed her eyes. “I want to share a memory with you. Then you can tell me what you make of it.” Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise. “If you feel that is necessary.” Sharing memories was not a painful process by any means, but it was considered an invasion of privacy by most. Celestia and Luna closed their eyes and pushed mana into their horns before crossing the protrusions, linking their minds together. Celestia allowed Luna to steer her consciousness, a picture forming in her mind witnessed through the eyes of Luna. ‘Celestia’ opened her eyes slowly, a dark starry mane meeting her vision. ‘She’ huffed out a breath, knocking it out of the way to allow ‘her’ a view of the room. ‘Her’ bedchambers were dark, the dawn light slowly starting to illuminate the room ever so slightly. ‘Celestia’ closed ‘her’ eyes again and rolled over, blindly reaching ‘her’ hooves out in search of Ale. When ‘she’ failed to find the large warm figure of ‘her’ lover ‘she’ opened her eyes in confusion. A slight clinking dragged ‘her’ attention to the foot of the bed. There ‘she’ could see Ale armoring up, the Spartan clicking a gauntlet into place before reaching for his helmet. “Ale?” ‘She’ called out. He froze, his helmet clutched in his hand. “Are you alright? Why are you up so early?” ‘She’ looked over Ale in concern. Ale moved again, placing his helmet back over his head before turning around. His silent cyan visor stared back at her, the silence unnerving ‘her’ slightly. “Ale, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting strangely and you’re scaring me.” Ale breathed slowly as his helmet looked down ever so slightly. He seemed to be thinking carefully as he shifted his weight from side to side ever so slightly. He tensed up suddenly, looking up again and straight at ‘Celestia’ before turning around and heading for the door. “Ale! Please! Tell me what you need!” Ale stopped and turned towards ‘Celestia’ slightly. He started to speak but stopped, his hand halfway in the air before he clenched it into a fist. ‘Celestia’s’ hopes lifted slightly as he fidgeted his fist ever so slightly. He then mumbled something quickly before squeezing tightly, his hand dropping to his side. He quickly turned and opened the door. “Wait!” Ale ignored ‘her’ as he disappeared into the hall quickly, leaving ‘Celestia’s’ room open, the light from the hallway illuminating ‘her’. ‘She’ could feel the tears streaming down ‘her’ face as ‘she’ began crying, confused as what was troubling him and why he couldn’t confide in ‘her’. A ripple in front of ‘her’ vision signaled the end of the memory as Celestia felt herself being dragged back into her own body. She blinked a few times to regain her bearing before looking at Luna. “I see why now you’re concerned. I’ve never seen him act like that before, certainly not towards you. Did this happen this morning?” Luna nodded, her eyes slightly damp as the memory probably was still difficult to think about, much less actually ‘living’ it again. “I’m worried sister. I’ve pondered over and over as to what could make him do this and I keep drawing a blank.” “What of his dreams?” “Crystal clear. I blessed his dreams for as long as the moon shines.” Celestia nodded, trying to dig up another reason why he would act so strangely. The two sat there for a long while, the situation proving to be a tough nut to crack. Luna perked up slightly as another idea came to mind. “Could something like our soul bond be affecting him negatively? I know he does not react well to magic when forced hard enough at him, especially if it’s something internally. Remember when Twilight had him take that pill that spread magical sensors throughout his body so that she could get an accurate scan of him? He was throwing up for weeks and was fatigued badly, not to mention in a terrible mood.” Celestia shook her head. “No, the bond isn’t sustained by magic anymore. It’s completely run off of the love you two share for one another.” Luna nodded slowly, the news not necessarily comforting as it still left them with the issue of solving as to what could be causing grief to Ale. Celestia shook her head. “I will talk with Ale later today alright? I promise you that I will get to the bottom of this. Once we find out what’s wrong we’ll solve it together and you two can live on happily.” Luna nodded again. Celestia smiled before leaning towards her, both wings outstretched. “C’mere.” Luna smiled slightly as she embraced Celestia. Her older sister always had a way to cheer her up. After a minute Celestia patted her before drawing back. “Now then, you better go get some sleep. You’re up earlier than usual after staying up the night for court.” Luna smiled. “I will, dear sister.” With that Luna walked out. Celestia watched where she had disappeared for a long while, frowning slightly as she continued thinking. She was worried about Luna. If Ale was regretting his decision to marry Luna and began shunning her affection, well, Celestia was unsure of the repercussions. Her sisters well being was important to her and she did not want to see her hurt again. She shuffled her wings and turned back to her desk, pulling out another piece of parchment as she began her work again. ------------------------------------------------------ The crunch of snow accompanied Ale as he walked through the snow covered courtyard. The harsh wind tugged at his heavy form, the armor’s weight ensuring that its occupant was going nowhere. Ale’s visor helped him navigate the otherwise blinding snow as he made his way to a dark shape a couple dozen meters away. His steps were heavy, fatigued with an incredible amount of stress and loss of strength. He made it to the Pelican and opened the ramp, the steel door thumping into the ground solidly. Ale stepped up the ramp, closing the door behind him as he made his way throughout the cargo bay and towards the cockpit. He fired up the engines with an unusual sluggishness, his mind blank as he did not want to think about anything, especially when they were filled with that dreadful memory and the predictions of things to come. He heard the ramp close behind him as he began to ascend, the beams of light emanating from the Pelican doing nothing to permeate through the driving gales of snow. The Pelican eventually stopped shaking from the violent atmospheric conditions as it transitioned into space. Ale had the auto pilot set to fly to the ‘Embers’ hangar. The machine hummed gently as it continued along its flight path, the darkness of space lulling Ale’s mind to think. ------------------------------------------------------ Ale struggled up the steep path, the gravel sliding out from below the injured Spartan as he continued to power up the slope. When he reached the top he placed the butt of his rifle to the ground as he crouched. After a few moments he spotted the hoof tracks he had been following for a few hours. The green blood he had been following earlier had long since disappeared, Chrysalis no doubt having stopped the bleeding. Ale had to resort to tracking by searching for crushed plants, scuffed ground, or tracks like this one. He noted its direction before looking over his own injuries. His bio scans reported that his body was already repelling the debris in his leg and that new tissue was growing. His suits gel dispensers worked wonders on his damaged body. His armor was already reporting most of its damage as fixed. His spider webbed visor had long since been repaired along with most of his scuffs, scrapes, and dents. His biggest concern was his hip. He looked down and saw that the most the nanobots could do was smooth out the fractured area to prevent cutting himself. He would have to manually fix that later. The Spartan stood and began walking again. The mountain range he stood on was beautiful. It had many ledges to walk along, some being much larger than others, allowing trees and bushes to grow as well as small game to thrive. Ale looked around his surroundings as he walked carefully, always looking for signs of his opponent. A small mound of dried brown pine needles sat at the lower end of a scuff mark, Ale seeing where the bug had slipped as she tried to go uphill. He followed in the same general direction before coming to a set of cave entrances. “Perfect,” Ale said sarcastically. He approached carefully, attempting to discern which cave Chrysalis had taken. The center cave had a small boulder sitting in front of the entrance, the side of it sporting a very small and horizontal white mark. Ale deduced it as damage from something hard sliding along it, say a hard hoof. Ale turned on the tactical lights on his rifle as well as the ones on his helmet. He stepped into the cave and began walking down it. He didn’t have to go far before it opened up into a massive cavern. There was a giant pool of water in the cave, glow worms hanging from the ceiling illuminating the cave slightly as you could see the reflection of the water rippling on the ceiling. There were crystalline structures jutting out from different areas of the cave, adding a beautiful glimmer to the cave. Ale would have been enraptured by the view if he hadn’t spotted his target. Chrysalis was lying down on a small rock ledge jutting out into the small lake. Her green eyes stared at Ale, her form unmoving. Ale slowly began walking towards her, his rifle trained on her as she still remained motionless. He was only a few meters away from her when he stopped. The two simply stared at each other, both of them injured and eyeing the other for any sign of trickery. “Well, well, well. I guess I underestimated you,” the changeling decided to start first. “You really are full of surprises. I thought you were dead when you destroyed my hive.” “Don’t feel too bad. Many have made the mistake of turning their back on a previously thought dead Spartan. We don’t give up easily.” “Yes, I can see that now.” Chrysalis grimaced in pain as she tried to move, Ale glimpsing a piece of debris under her. A long jagged spike was sticking out from the bottom of her abdomen, dried green blood sticking around the edges. Chrysalis began speaking again. “A wound I won’t survive I can assure you. Who would have thought the horn of one of my deceased minions would be the end of me?” Ale lowered his rifle, not so much that he could be caught by surprise. “Why?” The changeling didn’t even pretend to not know what he was talking about. “I don’t have to explain myself to you!” Violent coughs racked through her body before she continued. “I did what I had to do, what was necessary. I’m sure you’ve had experience in that department before.” Ale nodded slowly. “The playing field and participants are just different this time,” Ale said aloud. Chrysalis smiled cruelly. “And how about this for a game changer!” Her horn lit up and before Ale could react he dropped to his knees, clutching his chest as he roared in pain. Ale didn’t understand. He was supposed to be highly resistant to magic. “A changeling queen is attuned to the emotion of love and has much more control over it than a normal drone. While you are resistant to magic I’m simply piggy backing on the love flowing through you.” A surprised look crossed her face. “A soul bond with the caretaker of the night? An incomplete one as well. How interesting.” The insane pain stopped. Ale felt as if a cold fluid was flowing through his veins as he looked at Chrysalis. Ale found that he could move again, the butt of his rifle already swinging up into a crushing blow against Chrysalis’s head. She yelled out in pain as she dropped, Ale planting a very heavy armored foot on her neck. “What did you do!?” Ale felt the cold presence recede in intensity, the feeling turning into a very slight dull throbbing. The changeling began laughing manically. An increase in pressure from Ale’s foot ceased her laughing as she coughed out, a cruel smile still gracing her face. “Ten years. A decade to spend with your loved one. Spending your days knowing you will eventually cease to exist, your days growing shorter and shorter as your body becomes fatigued. This is the curse I have placed upon you.” Chrysalis began laughing again. “You should have killed me the second you were able to. Showing mercy is for the weak and dim minded.” Realization set in Ale’s mind and instead of feeling regret or sadness he found only a cold fury. He slowly placed his rifle on his back while Chrysalis smiled up at him, completely unaware of what she had just unleashed. “Going to take me back to the castle now to show me off to your petty princesses? I hate to disappoint you but I’ll never survive the trip.” “You’re right about that.” Chrysalis’s eyes widened in fear as the Spartan reached down and snapped her neck swiftly. The last thought running through her mind before being consumed by darkness was just how wrong she was about Ale and his ability to perform his duty. Ale watched the light leave her eyes before dropping her head. He stood up and stared at her body for a few long minutes. He shifted his attention towards the underground lake and looked at it dully for a few moments before pulling out an explosive charge that had survived the bombardment with him. He placed it by the wall and headed towards the exit. He turned around and observed the cave once more, the silent body accompanied by the gentle glow of the worms and crystals. Ale pulled his rifle from his back and turned away from the cavern, counting his steps before mentally detonating the cavern behind him. Copious amounts of dust rushed past him as countless pebbles bounced off his over shield. He breached the dust and stepped out into the sunlight. He stared at the very distant mountain that held the city of Canterlot, said city was an absolute speck at this distance. The sun glinted off of Ale’s cyan visor, the armor giving an emotionless air about him. This was far off from the truth as if you could look past the visor, a solitary tear scrawled through the grime on Ale’s cheekbone. -------------------------------------------------------- The memory was banished from Ale’s mind as he noticed the Enduring Ember growing larger in his view screen. He distracted himself as he observed the ship. The green paint of the external hull was interrupted by silver patches of varying size. Ale had patched up the ship with a surprising amount of success. The ship was fully sealed and space worthy with the exception of a very important component. He still had the damaged coupling in the primary slip space drive. He had tried creating a replacement from memory and from what he could make out from the damaged coupling itself. So far he had no success. The hangar door opened and the Pelican flew slowly in. It approached the metal grating on the floor where a built in metal brace could be seen. The Pelican docked with the brace, clamps from both the transport and the ship locked onto one another, securing the vessel in place. The hangar door closed and the room pressurized. Ale unstrapped himself from the harness and stepped out of the cockpit and out of the Pelican. Other than the patchy look of the repairs the hangar itself also looked good as new. Unfortunately, Ale was only able to salvage a few vehicles, the hangar space barely taken up with the lack of vehicles. He continued walking through the ship, reaching engineering in a few minutes. The heavy doors slid open as Ale stepped into the engineering control room. “Cassandra?” The blue A.I. appeared on the holopad terminal by the glass pane that overlooked the engine room. “Yes Captain?” The A.I. had officially designated Ale as Captain since he was the last surviving officer aboard the crew roster. Ale didn’t mind too much but he didn’t count it as ‘official’ since there was no other UNSC personnel to really command. “Have you found anymore designs that could work for the coupling?” “Yes sir. I had one made just last night. It’s waiting in manufacturing for manual insertion.” Ale nodded as he turned and headed a few more doors down. Ale gave the A.I. the input needed for it to try and design different coupling options that could replace the bad one. With it being a ‘dumb’ A.I. the process was slow going with Ale frequently having to put more and more creative input. The reason Ale was so adamant to fix the slip space drive was because of the curse. After he had returned he searched far and wide, from many different sources for a cure of a way to fight the curse. After a few years of searching, his excuse being that he wanted to see the world, he had found nothing. Not even a way to stall it. Apparently curses involving souls were so few and far between that nocreature on the planet knew of a remedy. The only thing Ale was able to find out was by pure accident. He had taken Twilight, at her request, to the edge of the solar system. When they got there she had said something most peculiar. She said the ambient magic was ever so slightly weaker. After asking her more about it Ale learned that Equis must be the origin of magic, as it weakened the further and further you got away from it. Twilight was still very powerful at that distance but she did report a shift in her reserves of mana. When he returned from that trip he studied magic and its effects on the environment. That’s when he found his solution. He needed to get as far away from Equis as he could, and fast. Leaving on the ‘Ember’ under the power of the secondary slip space drives would work, Ale knowing his immortality would be unaffected since it wasn’t magical in nature anymore; meaning he could still come back to Luna after the curse wore out due to lack of magic. Unfortunately, when Ale did the math he learned that it would take too long. He missed his window of opportunity long before he discovered that particular solution. His only option now was to fix the primary slip space drives and become slip space capable. He already had the new experimental coupling under arm, the box exerting a hefty weight. It would have taken a forklift for someone normal to transport the coupling. Ale stepped into the massive engine room and headed towards the drives. He approached the larger one and typed on a command pad one handed. The room’s doors locked and sealed shut as a loud alarm rang out. Red and yellow strobe lights lit up as the drive became unlocked and ready for maintenance. The room sealed itself because the drive emitted lethal radiation, Ale’s prototype armor being more than capable to handle it. He moved towards the side of the drive where the damaged coupling had sat before Ale removed it a long time ago. He tapped on another command pad, entering the pass code. ‘1, 2, 3, 4. I should really talk to the guy who authorized this code about protocol.’ A loud click greeted him as a green light lit up on the screen. Ale slid back a metal panel, revealing a bright red handle. Two large and heavy duty steel pins retracted from the handle. Ale reached out and pulled the handle down, manually opening the cover that ran along the power line. Ale locked the coupling into position and opened its internal valves, allowing power to flow through it. He stepped back and closed everything up, pushing the handle back into place as he walked towards the engineering control room. Ale stepped into the room again and gestured towards Cassandra. “Charge up the drive without actually jumping. We need to see if this one stays stable.” “Aye aye.” The A.I. went through the same motions as it had with the few other acceptable coupling candidates they had tested before. The drive lit up and hummed loudly as it began powering up. It was still only at 27% operating capacity but it should still be enough. If Ale believed in luck he would have had his fingers crossed. “Opening valves now.” The schematics of the drive, power line, and coupling were shown on a nearby screen. Ale watched as power rushed into the line and into the coupling. Data readings from the coupling came flooding in and Ale held his breath for a few seconds. When nothing happened he released a breath. “How’s it holding up?” “We’re not getting maximum efficiency but it is remaining stable.” Ale nodded, his arms crossed over his chest. “Well then, let’s get-“ The room began blaring loudly as the schematic screen zoomed in on the coupling. It turned yellow and a certain part was highlighted orange and analyzed further on a separate screen. Data was spilling forth from it before the whole coupling schematic turned red, the drive slowing down rapidly as emergency shutdown procedures activated. “What happened!?” “Sir, a part of the coupling failed, resulting in the whole design to fail and melt.” Ale slammed his fist into the wall, putting a solid dent in it. He breathed heavily and stared up into the ceiling. “Why?” he whispered. His shoulders sagged as he turned and left the room, all the while silently apologizing to Luna. ------------------------------------------------------ Celestia trotted rapidly down the hall, on her way to one of the side foyers. It was late but Celestia promised Luna she would talk to Ale. She heard the whining of the Pelican cease from outside as she waited patiently for Ale to arrive. The door opened quickly and allowed the Spartan through, Ale slamming the door behind him to stop the cold wind from blowing in. He turned around to find Celestia looking at him with a gentle smile. They stood there in silence, both of them waiting for the other to speak. “Well, this is oddly familiar is it not?” Celestia giggled, remembering the first time they had met. Her giggling stopped when she realized her attempt at humor had gotten no response from Ale. “Ahem, so… how are you?” “Green. Why do you ask?” “We just haven’t talked in a while. Is there something wrong with wanting to catch up?” Ale shrugged, “I suppose not.” The two just stood there for a while, Celestia concerned at his lack of communication and tone of voice as if he was sick while Ale just wanted to get out of this situation and think more about his current lack of options. Celestia decided she needed to coax Ale out of whatever stupor he was in. “You know if there’s anything wrong you can tell me.” Ale just stared at her, giving no response at all. Celestia tried again. “You can trust me. Come on, tell me what’s the matter?” “Nothing.” Ale walked around her and began walking down the hallway. He was caught by surprise when a massive blow smashed him into the side of the hallway, the impact stunning him far more than actually hurting him. Celestia was right in his face as she pinned his arms down with her forelegs. She was surprisingly strong as Ale struggled to escape her grasp. “Let me go!” “No.” “How the hell are you holding me down!?” “After you arrived I realized I was out of shape. So I’ve been doing some crunches in the sun.” If Ale wasn’t in danger of dying and in a better mood he would have made a snarky comment, but for the moment he just remained quiet. Celestia then spoke in a much more soothing motherly tone. “Now tell me, what troubles you? Why have you been treating Luna so coldly?” Ale remained quiet, unwilling to give her anymore grief than she would experience in the near future. Celestia sighed gently, “Ale, you’ll have to tell me eventually. I’m not leaving until you do.” When she still received no response she quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t test me. If I have to I will look into your head myself. It’s something I usually forbid myself to do but this is my sister we’re talking about and I do care for your well being. It’s rather not a pleasant experience.” Ale remained stoic as ever, on the outside at least. On the inside he was screaming for any help he could get, but he knew there was nothing that could be done. Celestia muttered something unintelligible before her horn lit up. Her eyes turned white as she powered through Ale’s resistance to magic. She had surprisingly gotten fairly good at it and went straight for his memories. Ale felt a very uncomfortable pressure in his head and kept his eyes open as he did not want to relive that moment. Throughout the time he watched Celestia’s face morph through different emotions. Surprise, confusion, pain, anger, and finally sadness. Her white eyes were leaking out molten tears, the marble sizzling beneath their feet. The pressure left and Celestia’s eyes reverted back to normal. Her tears also turned normal again and she stared into Ale’s visor. “I’m- I’m so sorry,” she whispered. She hugged Ale tightly for a while before pushing away from him. “Why didn’t you say something sooner!? We could have dealt with this right away!” Ale shook his head, “I’ve already looked everywhere. There’s nothing.” Celestia’s eyes lit up with determination. “No. No! You had to have missed something!” She pushed away from him and her horn lit up. “Don’t leave Ale. I know what you’re planning and I’m telling you that isn’t going to be necessary.” With that she disappeared in a flash. Ale breathed shakily before stepping away from the wall. He started down the hallway again, hoping that she wouldn’t tell Luna.