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APPROX. 36 HOURS UNTIL CARDIOVASCULAR FAILURE
OBJECTIVE PROGRESS: INCOMPLETE
STATUS…
RED
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Ale stared up at the ceiling and watched the dawn light slowly crawl in, illuminating the room in a dull glow. The snow storms were really bad, greatly blotting out the sun and creating very gloomy days filled with the hazy snow falling from the sky. The Spartan looked towards his sleeping wife and smiled. She was lying on her side while facing Ale. Her chest gently rose up and down while her nostrils flared slightly with each breath. She was drooling slightly and, with her wings twitching slightly, created a whole new view of the ‘cold’ princess. Her mane was strewn along her slim body. Don’t think that she was too slim as she did posses very attractive curves. Said curves went on for miles and miles and miles…
Ale blinked and smirked slightly as he realized he was staring at her. He continued to eye her, roaming back up her body until he met a pair of teal eyes and a knowing grin. Ale’s eyes widened as he coughed and looked away.
“Good morning Luna.”
“I should say the same thing but I think you are having an exceptionally good morning,” Luna replied while smiling wider at his reaction.
“Oh, well uh… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Luna decided to mess with him a bit. “Who said you had to stop?”
Ale looked back over to her. “Maybe something else had caught my eye.” Luna’s smile dropped as she stared at him.
“What are you tal-,” her response was cut short as Ale moved in and kissed her. Her shock was short lived as he pulled away.
“The mare I love enraptured me with her eyes.”
“Why you cheeky b-,” she was again interrupted by Ale giving her another kiss. She absolutely melted into it and pushed deeper. Ale reciprocated her action and raised a hand to cup her muzzle. Luna shifted closer to him as she began caressing his chest with a hoof. Feeling frisky she made to move her hoof lower when Ale intercepted her.
“Easy Luna,” he huffed out. “We don’t want to be late for breakfast.”
She pushed against him harder as she replied, “We don’t need to take too long.” She felt tingly as she attempted to convince Ale.
“You don’t want your subjects to see a ruffled princess now do we?”
Luna huffed as she finally gave in to Ale’s reasoning. She quelled the growing fire that had been rising inside of her and instead focused on Ale’s eyes. They sparkled with enthusiasm and warmth. She didn’t care that he convinced her differently as he had not acted this happy in quite a while. She smiled, happy that she had her Ale back. They lied side by side for a few minutes before getting up and taking a quick ‘clean’ cold shower. They then prepped for the day, Luna placing her royal regalia on and scanning the days schedule while Ale slipped into his body suit and donned his armor, helmet clipped to the side. They walked out of their bedroom and headed towards the dining hall. They opened the doors to find a long wooden table. At the head of the table were two sturdy wood chairs, same as all the surrounding chairs in order to evoke a sense of equality to all who came for meetings. The exception to that was a large black and grey pilot’s seat located on the side of the table by the two head positions. Steel held the weight of the Spartan much better than wood after all.
The two took their respective seats as a waiter came out of a side door with a cart. The waiter used his magic to levitate several platters from the cart over to Ale and Luna. He left with a quick bow, leaving them to eat in peace. Luna opened the lid to her plate, revealing lots of the color green. The Spartan only smiled as he revealed one of the two platters he had. The impossibly tall tower of golden goodness flowed with a thick, dark sludge with a beacon of creamy yellow on top. The steam flowed towards Luna and she couldn’t help but follow it. Ale had turned to his other plate and was pleased to find a huge helping of mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, a loaf of fresh bread, and thick slices of ‘donated’ ham. He turned back around only to find over half of his stack of flapjacks missing. He peeked around what was left and stared at Luna, her cheeks swollen and sticky crumbs clinging to her muzzle.
“Ffffuuuttt?” Luna asked with incredibly innocent eyes.
Ale reached ever so slowly across the corner of the table, inching towards a wary Luna. He stopped, his every move scrutinized. He then began reaching for her plate. Fearing that he was going to take her food she reached towards it, realizing too late that she had let her guard down. With a swiftness matched by no other Ale gave Luna the jumper cable of the century, causing her eyes to bulge and a massive amount of half chewed pancakes to fly across the room. Luna coughed violently as she struggled to breathe. After she calmed down she glared at Ale. He was snickering slightly before a huge serving of gravy and mashed potatoes smashed into his face. Ale stopped laughing and held still for a moment, before releasing a violent sneeze, launching white fluffy goodness everywhere.
“Ow!” Ale exclaimed as he held his nose. “I think a bit of my brain went with that.”
“Serves you right.” Luna pouted, fighting with her compassionate side as she watched Ale fumbling with a cloth napkin. Her face started twitching as she desperately tried to stay cold towards him, her will breaking as she glanced at him again. “Oh! Give me that!” She used her magic to tear the napkin out of his hands and cleaned up his face with so much precision it would make a surgeon weep in envy. She finished cleaning him up and was happy when Ale returned the favor, wiping the sticky mess that was on her muzzle.
“Did you get it all?” Luna asked.
“Hmm, I think I missed a spot there.” Ale leaned forward and captured her lips, surprising Luna again. It was quick and simple however, leaving her surprise short lived. Luna and Ale smiled at each other affectionately before they returned to their meals, sharing the pancakes between them.
Luna was extremely happy, sighing in relief that what had been troubling Ale seemed to have left him alone. Ale heard her and looked towards her.
“Something up?”
Luna shook her head. “No, I’m just happy is all. You are suddenly so happy now. I guess you solved your own issues out huh?”
Ale’s smile suddenly disappeared as he was again reminded of his dire situation. He was so focused on spending his precious amount of time with Luna and making the best of it that he had, for a few heavenly hours, forgotten about the curse. Luna saw the change in his demeanor and watched him rapidly wrap it up in an obviously fake smile. “Y-yeah! I guess I did!”
She gave him a deadpan look. “Uh huh, sure you did.” After failing to trigger a response from Ale Luna let out an exasperated sigh. She then looked towards Ale, eating being pushed to the back of her mind. “Ale, please. Don’t make me beg.”
Ale slowly set down his silverware, staring straight ahead as he did so. He then looked down and replied, “I can’t.”
…
“Why?”
“You would hate me.”
Luna was caught completely off guard at his response. She blinked rapidly, struggling to come up with any reasonable reply to… that.
“Hate you? What?” she voiced her thoughts.
Ale reached for his helmet while still staring down at the table. He slid his helmet into place and clamped it down. He turned to look at Luna, his emotionless cyan faceplate frustrating Luna.
“I love you, you know that right?”
“Yes. But Ale, what do you mean? Why are you being like this?”
“Because it’s the only way.” Before Luna could reply a bright flash of white followed by an eruption of confetti burst between Ale and Luna. What sounded like kazoos bleated through the air. Ale already had his rifle leveled at a tall figure that popped into existence. When his mind finally registered what his eyes were seeing Ale immediately checked to make sure his body was clear of hallucinogens. The creature looked like it came from a Mary Shelley novel. He held steady as the creature finally opened its eyes.
“Luna! How are you my dear? Celestia treating you well? Ponies still shunning the night? Have you gained weight?” Luna looked incredibly pissed, not only at Discord’s offensive questions but also due to him interrupting their conversation. She was about to turn him into stone temporarily out of anger until Discord interrupted her again.
“Oh don’t look like that. You know I was just kidding.” When she still began charging up her horn Discord snapped his fingers. The aura on Luna’s horn instantly died out. “Ah ah, can’t have you do something you’ll regret. Now then what’s happened since I-,” Discord stopped speaking when he turned around and saw Ale for the first time. His eyes didn’t widen in shock like Ale expected. Instead Ale was the one surprised as an incredible sadness seemed to radiate from his eyes. “Luna, I’ll have to get back to you.” With that he snapped his fingers again. Ale felt the familiar tugging of teleportation magic and resisted against it. He was surprised again as it simply rolled through his mental defenses and consumed him, tingly needles making his limbs numb. Ale blinked and he instantly knew he wasn’t in the dining room. Instead he seemed to be standing on the top of a mountain, giving a bird’s eye view of the surrounding landscape. Well, that’s if there wasn’t a huge cloud layer covering everything. The sound of crunching snow instantly alerted Ale to someone’s presence behind him. He rolled forwards before swiftly turning around in a crouch, rifle leveled at the strange being.
“Hold your fire Aleksi!”
Ale literally almost dropped his rifle when he heard his name. His full name. “How- what- that?” Discord waited patiently for the Spartan to gather his words. Ale stood up, his weapon lowered slightly as he finally blurted out, “How do you know my name?”
Discord chuckled. “There are many things I know. For example, I know that a tree indeed makes a sound when falling in an empty forest, there are in fact some questions better left unanswered, large people can go skinny dipping, vegetarians can eat animal crackers, flies without wings are called walks, a turtle without its shell is both naked and homeless, and it takes --- licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop.” Discord seemed to think hard for a moment before speaking, “The only one I can’t get is, ‘if a quiz is quizzical, then what is a test?’”
Ale’s brain struggled to keep up with the absolute amount of randomness spilling forth from this creature’s mouth. He shook his head before standing in an aggressive stance. “Who are you!?”
Discord smiled widely as he struck a nobleman’s pose. “I am Discord, god of chaos.”
Ale relaxed slightly as he had heard Twilight speaking about someone they had reformed named Discord before. He placed his rifle on his back as he asked Discord again, “How do you know my name?” Discord went to answer before Ale interrupted him, “And give me a straight answer this time.”
Discord frowned slightly before shrugging. “I am a super magical being, I know your name.” Ale tapped his magnum suggestively, prompting Discord to sigh. “You’re no fun. Alright, fine. I simply read your IFF tag.” Ale noticed Discord looking above his head so he looked upwards.
“What the hell?” A line of blue text was hovering above his head, his name and service number glowing gently. He looked back down to Discord who was trying to stifle a giggle. “What is this?”
“Magic my dear boy!” Ale seriously considered shooting the next thing that said ‘magic’ to him. He shrugged it off and continued with his line of questioning.
“So why did you bring me here?”
“Well, I figured you would deserve some news.”
Ale waited patiently for Discord to continue on. When Discord simply stood there staring at him Ale spoke up, “And…?”
“First off, humanity is doing just fine. They are still fighting the remnants of the Covenant and a recent human insurrection but are successfully recovering.”
Ale was shocked by this new information. “How do you know this?”
“Okay, seriously? We just went over this.”
“Right, right…”
With Ale still seeming confused Discord huffed and explained. “While on vacation I visited several different dimensions, yours being one of them. I must say, your species history is quite exciting! Plenty of chaos to go around!” Discord frowned ever so slightly, “Though I do think war and murder is a step too far.” He then looked towards Ale. “Your most recent war really did put a damper on things didn’t it?”
Ale could only stare in disbelief at Discord. ‘Damper? Just a damper?’ “Well I hope you enjoyed it,” Ale said sarcastically, “Is there anything else you want to say? You’re kind of wasting my important time.”
“Yes, your time is important now isn’t it? Especially with so few of it left.” Ale’s head whipped towards Discord. The being raised his hands in a defensive manner as he continued, “All powerful deity, remember?”
Ale clamped his fists tightly before sighing, his shoulders slumping as he looked towards the ground. “Yeah.”
The two stood there silently for some time before Discord spoke up, “I’m truly sorry. I really am. I may have been making fun of Luna down there, but other than Fluttershy Luna was one of the first ponies to befriend me, especially since we were both misunderstood. You’re good for her, I can feel it.”
Ale nodded solemnly, sinking ever further into depression as he continued to think about the hopelessness of his situation. Discord walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder, “If there was something I could do I would gladly help, but even gods have a limit. Your situation is far beyond the ability of any magic I know.”
“Thanks…” Ale mumbled.
Discord patted him on the shoulder before stepping away. “I know what you’re trying to do and I can only wish you the best of luck.” Discord began stepping away before Ale raised his hand.
“Wait, if you’re as all knowing as you say you are I have a question.” Discord simply raised an eyebrow. “Is there any news on the chief? Did they find him?” Discord smiled as he snapped his fingers, disappearing in a flash.
“Fuck…” Ale breathed. At least he now knew that he was in fact in a different dimension. How that worked he had no idea. He frowned as he thought over the deities words. With trudging steps, Ale began to walk forward when he suddenly looked up. He glanced around quickly before yelling, “YOU FORGOT TO TAKE ME BACK!!!”
Meanwhile, in the void between teleporting, Discord stopped to have a quick snack. He sat in a floating chair by a floating table, eating a white plate as the sandwich was used as the plate. He finished chewing and wiped his mouth with the table cloth as he reached for the tea cup.
“You know there was something you could have done.”
Discord paused as he responded, “Now now, there are important things I mustn’t interfere with.”
“But what of the dark one? We can’t allow its rise!”
“I can’t. Everything will fall into place.”
“But we could make everything so much easier!”
Discord shook his head. “I did that once and you know how it turned out! While it was eventually fixed I still can’t forget about that insufferable Doctor.”
“Oh? You mean the whole, ‘Timey wimey, wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, wibbly wobbly, timey…’” The voices continued to ring about Discords head as he yelled in frustration. With a roar he shoved his thumb and finger claw into his ear and pulled out a blue ball of light. He dropped it into his tea and stirred furiously before drinking the tea cup itself. The blue brown tea splashed on the table, a smile forming on Discord’s face. He went to snap his fingers before he felt something upon his head. A reached up and pulled down a fez.
“NOOOO!!!”
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Luna was wandering through the halls again, having done so after Ale’s and Discord’s abrupt disappearance. She passed by very old torches burning with a dull blue light, the wooden shelves and benches slowly decaying. This was the abandoned part of the castle and strictly sealed off. She however wandered through, desperately trying to think of why her husband thought she would hate him. A thought struck her, the sheer idea of it slowing her in her tracks. ‘Does he not love me anymore? Has he found somepony else?’ Luna shook her head as she continued walking. ‘Preposterous! He loves me. Even if he didn’t he would tell me… right?’
Luna was passing a set of rotting doors when she thought she heard a sound. She stopped, looking back towards the room. She moved back and approached the doors cautiously. ‘This area is restricted. Surely nopony would be foolish enough to be back here.’ She armed her horn with a freezing spell just in case. She manually pushed one of the doors open slowly, the slight noise now turning into a loud scuffling as she entered the room. She identified the room as the old library, creeping through the aisles in search of the intruder. ‘I swear, if it is Twilight our sister will have much to teach her.’ She could hear the violent turning of pages around the corner. She crouched down and slowly peeked around the corner, shocked to see her sister out of all ponies ripping through books at an incredible pace. She cleared her throat as she stepped out of her cover…
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Celestia scanned the book desperately, the last book in the whole library being her last source of knowledge that she had not already seen. When she had first arrived, she could tell somepony, or someone, had already been in here. It must have been a few years ago as the layer of shifted dust was only slightly shorter than the surrounding filth. She could tell by the tracks that it wasn’t a pony and was instead made by that of a bipedal. Ale, being the only other two legged creature here, was most certainly the culprit. She had just reached halfway when she heard somepony clearing their throat. She yelped as she dropped the book, causing a huge puff of dust to choke the air.
*Cough cough* “Luna!” *Cough* “What are you doing here?” Celestia picked her book back up and frowned, having to find the page she was previously on as it had shut when it fell. Luna watched her sister closely as she responded.
“I was brooding over something Ale had said.” She stomped her hoof in frustration. “I don’t understand sister! This morning I thought he was finally back! He seemed perfectly fine to me and we even had a great beginning to breakfast. But then he got this look in his eye, almost as if all hope was lost. And then he said the strangest thing! He said if he told me what was wrong I would hate him!”
Celestia had long since found her page and resumed reading at a break neck speed, lowering her face as Luna went on. “I just wish he would tell me already!” Luna breathed deeply to calm her nerves, looking towards the ground as she continued to think. She stayed that way for a few seconds before the continued sound of flipping paper roused her. She watched in confusion as Celestia still burned through the book, her actions odd as she would normally drop everything to help her.
Luna took a tentative step forward, slowly approaching her sister. “Tia? Is everything okay?” When she didn’t receive a response she glanced around the library. She could tell that every book had been moved and this caused a great amount of suspicion to arise within her. She looked back at Celestia and asked, “Sister, what are you doing?” Celestia dug her face deeper into the nearly complete book, desperately attempting to avoid her sister questioning gaze. “What are you hiding from me!?”
Celestia finished her book with a slam, dropping it as she faced her sister. She frowned and was almost in tears as she replied, “I’m sorry.” Her horn lit up as she fired off a teleportation spell. Right before she winked out of existence she saw the great confusion and sadness that filled Luna’s eyes, increasing her desperation in search of a cure.
Luna blinked, staring at the space in which her sister had just occupied. She recalled what Celestia had said before teleporting. ‘I’m sorry?’ What did she mean by that? I- just- argh!’ Luna fired a spell and obliterated a nearby statue, tears dripping down her face as she let out all her frustration and anger. ‘What is everypony hiding from me!?’ She dropped her head and moved back towards the door, scuffling through the books and other debris that littered the floor.
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Luna sighed deeply, having just finished questioning her guards to the whereabouts of Ale. His Pelican was still in the courtyards but nopony had seen him since his unexpected disappearance with Discord. Luna frowned, worrying about Ale as he had missed lunch and it was well past afternoon. She continued to wander the halls, the guards beginning to worry about their princess. The voices of the past few days continued to speak in her mind, vaulting her into a state of confusion, anger, and loneliness. It seemed as if everyone was suddenly against her, as if they were hiding something and didn’t trust her enough with the secret. She continued to brood in her thoughts when she suddenly collided with something hard. She rubbed her head and looked up in surprise, finding Ale staring right back at her.
“Ale!” She leapt up on her back hooves and hugged him tightly. “Where have you been!?”
Ale hugged her back gently as he replied, “Discord forgot to send me back from the top of a mountain.”
Luna stepped back down from him. “Speaking of which, what was that all about?”
“Discord had information about my world and wished to discuss it privately.”
“Oh, and what did he say?”
“Humanity is still recovering from the war and we’re dealing with organized terrorists among our own as well as combating the remnants of the Covenant. By the sounds of it, the UNSC is having a successful campaign thus far, but it will be for the long haul that’s for sure,” Ale said. “It also turns out that this place is in a different universe.”
Luna nodded slowly. While glad that Ale had learned positive news she still had some serious beef to pick with him.
“Ale, we need to talk.” And just like that she could sense Ale clamming up. She continued, “I discovered Celestia in the forbidden library today, digging through books with a fervor that I have not seen in a very long time. She also said the most peculiar thing to me before she left. ‘I’m sorry.’ Do you know what she might have meant by that?”
Ale couldn’t lie to her, so he just remained silent. This provoked Luna to aggressively thrust her face towards Ale. “I know you two are hiding something! I demand that you tell me!”
“No.”
Luna recoiled. “No? NO?!” The stress of the situation finally caught up to her. She felt an immense anger build up within her as she screamed at Ale. “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! DON’T YOU LOVE ME?!”
“Of course I love you!”
“THEN WHY WON’T YOU TELL ME?!”
“BECAUSE IT’S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!!!” Ale shocked himself when he yelled back, never having raised his voice at her before. He saw Luna step back away from him, anger burning in her eyes. He stepped forward, “Luna I-,”
“Get out.”
Ale stopped as he heard her. He reached a hand out to her only to be smacked away by magic.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Luna, please. I-,”
“I SAID GET OUT!!!”
Ale stopped and stared at her, watching as tears fell down her face and listened to her quiet sobbing. He stood tall and with a numb body and auto pilot brain, turned around and headed for the main doors. Luna listened to the heavy thuds of his steps as he walked away down the hall. She cried quietly, angry at Ale for pushing her away and distrusting her. She didn’t know how long she stood there but the loud whine of the Pelican engines dragged her back to reality. She suddenly perked up, realizing what she had just done. She quickly stood up and raced towards the doors.
“Get out of my way!” she yelled at the door guards as she crashed through them. A large shadow on the snow dragged her attention upwards where she saw the Pelican flying.
“ALE!” she yelled. It was for naught, as the Pelican continued to head in the direction of Ponyville, disappearing in the never ending blizzard. Luna collapsed in the snow and sobbed heavily, wishing she could take back everything she had said. A few guards rushed towards her and attempted to coax her back into the castle. She weakly complied, supported by the guards as they helped her stumble back towards the castle.
‘Why?’