//------------------------------//
// Chapter 35: Final Run 
// Story: Once Upon a Time, on an Alien Ring World 
// by Hi World 
//------------------------------//

On the Honest Mistake, hell was just starting to break loose. The bodies of the Grunt and the Jackal had been enough to mould into biomass that grew up the walls of the corridor. The growth rooted into the ship's mechanics behind the panelling, cutting off something vital. As a result, she was rendered inoperable, but was still within repair, should the Covenant be foolish enough to keep the Flood hive thriving.

The biomass had been spawning waves of infection forms, and the slimy little parasites had claimed more than a hundred souls. With the Flood's numbers increasing by the second, even more Flood began homing in on the ship from all around Halo.

A Covenant Seraph fighter shot up to the Mistake like a bullet. Also like a bullet, the advanced air and space craft punctured the Mistake's belly, creating a gaping hole in the deck of a hangar. The remains of the tiny craft sprinkled down to the desert plateau like snowflakes. It had deposited four combat forms, a carrier form and a swarm of infection forms into the superstructure, and the crew worked hard to flush them out, to no avail.

Another hull breach was made on top of the war machine. The Mistake was really taking a battering. A Spirit drop ship plunged vertically through the vessel's roof, setting off hot blue fireworks. Out of the troop carrier, Flood made their entrance, slashing through Covies and shooting them with stolen weaponry. Working together like some form of civilisation, the infected Covies and Ponies squeezed something large and bulbous out of the Spirit. Whatever it was, it whimpered, but the whimper wasn't warped. It was female. It was weak. And it was clean.

*****

In the hangar that had just been impaled by a Flood controlled Seraph, the Zealot in charge barked orders. He had been just about to set off on a separate mission, and now, as the loathsome parasite continued to board the fleet's new flagship, it wasn't going to change. 

Reports from Covenant stationed around the holy ring's control room pointed that the UPSC were still in the fight, and were vandalising Halo. The nerve! Specifically, they were rupturing the ring's pulse generators, taking away Halo's ability to fire and cleanse the galaxy of the parasite that invaded his ship. Why? Because they were non-believers. They didn't want Halo to be fired. Temporarily disrupting the pulse generators wouldn't be enough to stop Halo from firing forever. The only way to do that would be to destroy it.

Shivering as hatred crept into his veins, the Zealot ran along the balcony towards his awaiting Spirit. If the nasty little animals were going to destroy the precious relic, they would likely do it with a bang. A very big bang. The kind of bang a starship made when its fusion reactors went haywire. Of course they wouldn't use the Truth and Reconciliation; they would need that to escape, and that left only one option: The big ugly tub they'd used to get here.

Covenant were already stationed there to prevent the UPSC from returning, and there had been word of minor Flood encounters. And Sentinel encounters. The holy warriors of the sacred rings turning hostile towards the Covenant was heart-breaking. Still, they hadn't taken sides, so the Zealot just thought they weren't trusting anyone. Covenant patrols there would have to be beefed up if they were going to take on all three factions at once.

Entering the Spirit, the Grunts got twitchy, yelling at the pilot to set off. A battle started in the hangar, and the sounds of shrieking Flood and dying Covenant were loud enough to rattle the walls.

Falling in line with a team of rookie, veteran and stealth Elites, the Zealot glanced over his shoulder to behold a group of Flood give chase. A stealth Elite at the back of the line was wrapped up in tendrils, and the pink Pony possessing those tendrils rode him like a bucking bronco, chewing through his armour and flesh. An infected Jackal joined the Pony in ending the soldier, leaving him to be claimed by the parasites.

Hopping inside the drop ship, the Zealot bellowed an order, and the pilots closed the door and backed the vehicle out of the Honest Mistake.

As the flying lunchbox pulled away, Pinkie and her cronies drew closer, closer, and pounced.

*****

Silence filled the gloomy tunnel. Silence that was broken by Lightning Dust's wailing. She, Fluttershy and Fleur de Lis, the last three survivors, huddled around the next door. The door that would lead outside into the treacherous blizzard.

The scars on Fleur's face and chest were easily treatable. Luckily, the infection forms hadn't gotten in deep, so Fluttershy just cleaned the wounds thoroughly with disinfectant and slapped plasters over them.

Lightning was in a much worse condition though. Her right foreleg had been broken, and a sharp shard of bone protruded through her ripped skin.

The wounded Pegasus had been ignoring the pain in order to fight, but now that the fight was over, all that pain came crashing down on her like a tidal wave, and she moaned in agony. Not at all like the tough and cocky Lightning Dust they all knew and "loved."

The wound was gopping to look at, and Fluttershy squinted squeamishly as she examined the extent of the damage.
"C-c-can you h-help me, Fluttershy?" Lightning squeaked, her fiery orange eyes watering.
Fluttershy and Fleur knelt to each side of the laying Mare, worried expressions on their faces.
"Well... I'll try," Fluttershy said, not sounding too confident.

With her med-kit out and set, Fluttershy washed the area surrounding Lightning's injury, then called on Fleur to help her in repositioning the bone back where it belonged.

Biting down on the arm of her own soldier saddle, Lightning shrieked in torture. The strong muscles in her foreleg fought to keep the bone where it was, and it took a lot of effort, not to mention a hell of a lot of screaming, to put it back.

Wheezing, the normally aggressive Pegasus actually started to cry. She wasn't sad, she was just in so much discomfort, and it had become too much for her to bare.

The bone may have been pushed back in place, but it was still loose and open, and as Fluttershy applied the bio-foam and got her bandages ready, she wondered where on Halo they could find a splint. They'd have to fashion one out of wood from the trees outside, where three big, evil factions were settling their differences.

"Ok, um, we need a splint to support the leg," she pitched, finishing off her bandage wrapping. "If we can go outside, take some sticks from the trees, we should be able to make one."
Lightning started to protest. "I don't need a splint."
"You do, Lightning," argued AI Twilight. "I know what you're thinking; that you can just hover off the ground, but you can't keep off the ground forever."
"I can keep off the ground long enough."
"It's going to be a very long while before we catch a break. I doubt you can."
"You saying I'm weak?"
"No, not at all, Lightning. We're just watching out for you."
"Yeah right, why would you watch out for me?"
Fluttershy answered her. "Because you're a part of this team. We need you."

Lightning's frown increased. "Y'know, when I first got here, I dropped our Warthog, crashed our Pelican, treated you and all my other teammates like dirt... I bullied Trixie into crying, and she died before we could even make amends... I don't deserve to be here. If I were you, I'd just leave me behind."

Back when they were fighting to the control centre, Fluttershy had discovered a depressed part of Trixie she hadn't expected, and now it seemed to be Lightning's turn.

She was about to say something to lift the glum Pegasus' spirits, when Fleur butt in and spoke bitterly, "Good thing we're not you." She looked down her muzzle at the lowly Lightning, then moved on to the door controls, her clopping hooves echoing around the tunnel.
Shamefully, Lightning hung her head and let out a long breath.

The sniper rifle was still on Fleur's back, but because they had been fighting the Flood, she hadn't expended much ammo. She still had her magnum and energy sword too.

Lightning had stolen a rocket launcher from the Flood, but not a lot of ammunition had survived up to now. And since she had been sufficiently weakened, Twilight opted for her to trade with Fleur. Wordlessly, Fleur magiced her pistol and ammo over to Lightning, giving them to her like spare change to a tramp, and Lightning, in turn, hoofed the launcher to Fleur. Now Fleur had two power weapons, yet her enthusiasm never shone through.

After drinking plenty of water, and lamenting over the loss of Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, the last Mares standing were ready to force themselves to be ready. Fluttershy's headache was persisting, but not as much as her tummy ache, and her stomach growled as she rose.

With whatever knowledge she'd gained as a PONI spook, Fleur pressed the appropriate button on the translucent controls, and the doors emitted a loud clank! They scraped open, and as the cold air drifted in, the Mares drifted out. For good measure, Fluttershy closed the door, and as one, they ran and fluttered up through the snow and into the open outdoors.

Lightning may have injured her leg, but her wings were still functional, and they carried her through the snowfall like machines being operated from elsewhere. She hung from her feathered protrusions, not looking very confident, for once.

The tunnel had spat them out into a trench with an ascending gradient, and as the Ponies charged up and out of it, the snow became worse. However, it seemed to have thinned out a little, and visibility was pretty decent. Decent enough for the team to see the battle taking place atop a hill up ahead.

Epic battle. The Covenant had returned, much to Fleur's delight, and she instantly halted to bring up her sniper rifle.

The Covenant were fighting the Flood of course, and the damn monsters came surging up like a tide around the hill on which the Covenant stood. The rainbow armoured warriors fired their alien weapons down at the surrounding crowd. Green and blue plasma and pink needles lit up the dullness, along with plasma grenades, fuel rod projectiles, and the purple plasma from a couple of Shade turrets.

Milling around amongst the Flood, a Grunt piloted a Ghost here and there, shooting the curs down, running them over, squealing dramatically at them.

Just like that, he was silenced by a lethal round from Fleur's sniper rifle, and his Ghost dropped to the ground and slid through the snow, coming to an elegant standstill.

That Ghost wasn't the only vehicle; the Covenant had a Banshee up their sleeves, and it looped around through the air, diving and performing spectacular air-strikes on the Flood.

"Hide in the trees," requested Twilight, referring to the miniature forest to the Ponies' right.
Trees; just what they needed to fabricate a splint. Fluttershy and Lightning made their way to the trees, Fleur taking a moment to take the hat off an Elite.

*****

So a Ghost pilot and a rookie Elite had just gone down, and the Zealot in charge was most befuddled. He wanted to investigate, but the Flood wouldn't let him. They surrounded his troops on the hill and plucked them away. A Shade was devoured by parasites, a Jackal became infected, and an Elite was shot dead by a monster with a UPSC assault rifle.

The Zealot stood on the apex of the hill, sword in one hand, plasma rifle in other, and denied the attacks of any monster that came too close.

Firing on and on, his plasma rifle took a break to vent some excess heat, giving the Flood time to regroup. A whole swarm came running up, battering a few Grunts out of the way, and the Zealot backpedalled, knowing he couldn't take them all on. Thankfully, the Banshee was at his aid, and it blasted all but three combat forms out of existence with a fuel rod projectile. Swiftly, the Zealot sliced one form, booted another, bonked the third one with his rifle. Simultaneously, he stabbed and shot the remainders to death.

More kept coming though; they were originating from a cave, and one of them was able to wound the last Shade operator with a bolt of green plasma. As the Grunt fell to the snow squealing, hands clutching his chest, the second Ghost RAV moved in, strafing the Flood with super heated plasma.

The Grunt pilot was given the shock of his life when a redesigned Pony pounced on top of him and growled. Its head split vertically; the two halves acting as jaws lined with nasty little teeth. A single bite took the little alien's head clean off, and a fountain of blue blood left a trail as the Ghost lost control, and it came to a jarring stop.

Moving on, the equine nightmare galloped towards the Zealot, but was ripped apart by a barrage of needles a surviving Jackal sent after it. All of a sudden, that Jackal was caught in the head by a fatal sniper round.

Noticing someone was sniping the ground troops, the Banshee pilot decided to take care of the problem. Based on the direction the soldiers flew when they were sniped, the culprit was hiding in the trees somewhere.

Getting over the trees, he gained altitude, corrected his angle as the cursed wind blew him off course, and scanned the area on his view screen. Sure enough, three healthy Ponies could be spotted, one of them gazing up at him, backing away. Of the other two, one was treating a wound on the other one's leg, and they glanced up to see his Banshee circling them.

Another thing he spotted, was a Flood carrier form waddling up to them, and he laughed as it scared the living daylights out of the yellow one. Just as the yellow one burst the sack and swept up the parasites, he pitched his Banshee down and dropped an FRP on their hapless heads.

Quickly, the Ponies evaded the explosion, and he grumbled angrily to himself for missing. As the trees grew closer, he had to pull up and give the Flood some attention before they swamped his brethren, leaving the cursed sniper alive and free to wreak havoc. And havoc is exactly what she wrought.

With soldiers dwindling and the Flood massing, the Zealot became afraid, and he had just ordered a retreat when a discarding sabot slug claimed his life. His body tumbled, being swarmed upon by hungry infection forms, his soldiers fleeing the field of battle, the Flood stalking them.

Also on the run, the Banshee swooped and fired, taking a chunk out of the tailing horde. However, the pilot didn't realise the infected veteran Elite jump up and hang on to his vehicle, and he unknowingly took the beasty with him into the next valley.

*****

"Like my new look?" smirked Lightning, fighting the pain, strutting through the snow, her right foreleg being kept straight by the splint of branches and string she now wore.
Fluttershy giggled contritely, pleased to see Lightning getting back into the groove, surprised to see herself pleased to see Lightning at all.
"You look very formidable, Lightning," Twilight replied cheerfully.
"What do you think, Fleur?" continued Lightning as she took to her wings. "Am I worthy of your old magazines?"
Fleur simply shook her head and walked on.
"What do you mean no?! I'm more deserving of fame than you! I've got words to say."

Fleur had sniped a Grunt out of his Ghost earlier, and standing atop the battle scarred hill, Fluttershy noticed a second hover vehicle, laying abandoned in the snow with a blooming great mess splashed around it.

Suddenly, Twilight announced, "Ghosts. Perfect. We can use these to reach the Banshees we need to get up there."
"Um, up where?" pondered Fluttershy, gazing around.
Twilight couldn't point at the moment, so she directed, "Look up," and Fluttershy looked to behold a landing platform attached to the side of the cliff. "That's where the last pulse generator is."
The last? She'd lost count.

It was hard to believe how far they'd come, and Fluttershy yawned wearily. After this mission, she would be tasked with finding Captain Rarity, even if she had been infected, and that wasn't something to look forward to.

However, going home was something to look forward to, so she put on her determined face and plonked herself in a Ghost. The Grunt gore that was left in the seat squelched under her armoured hind quarters, making it extremely uncomfortable, both physically and mentally.

Fleur had taken the other, cleaner Ghost, and they regrouped atop the hill. Parts of golden Zealot armour and a plasma rifle laid there, standing out in the snow, and a trail of green and purple blood lead away towards the next canyon.

Hovering and showing a face that expressed agony, Lightning asked, "Uh, so we're following them?"
Twilight told it straight. "We have to."
"Ugh, why is there always bad guys where ever we go?"
Fluttershy was taken aback. "I thought you liked fighting the bad guys."
"Yeah but," she paused to do something Fluttershy had been doing since the start of the mission, and let out a mighty yawn. "I'm getting tired."

Hot dang. If the gobby, energetic Lightning Dust was reaching her limits, Fluttershy must've exceeded hers long ago. Fleur was showing no signs of fatigue though, minus the faint bags under her eyes. She'd expected less from an ex-model.

Into the next canyon, the survivors continued, the two Ghosts' engines whirring ghostly like... ghosts. Fluttershy remembered the last time she was here, when she had met up with Trixie and her tyrannical tank. Oh how she wished she had both of those right now.

At the back of the canyon, the crashed Pelican was still present, turned to white with glittery frost. Lightning had been responsible for it crashing, and Fluttershy only just remembered that the Pegasus above her was a pilot. Pilots had a habbit of not surviving plane crashes, never mind surviving up to now.

Coming to a steady stop, Fleur looked up and smiled patronizingly at Lightning. Her purple eyes alternated between her and the Pelican wreck.
Getting at what Fleur was getting at, Lightning yelled, "Hey, knock it off!"
Softly, Fleur chuckled and spoke, "Sorry."

The gentle humming of the Ghost's engines was shattered by a gunshot. Darting their heads around, the trio tried to locate the source. Nothing could be found though.

Bang! It sounded off again, echoing through the valley and making Fluttershy's heart skip a beat. Again and again, the UPSC weapon fired, and an Elite cried with it.
"Over there," Lightning pointed, shielding her face from the blizzard.
Following Lightning's hoof, Fluttershy and Fleur squinted, observing an injured rookie Elite slumped against the cliff, surrounded by Flood and Covenant corpses. He used the pistol to kill a diseased Jackal, then took pot shots at a bunch of infectors. Unfortunately, he ran out of ammo, and the parasites overwhelmed him. When the snot-bags moved aside, something that wasn't an Elite rose to its feet, scooped up a needler that had been dropped by one of his fellows, and ran away.

Without a word, Fleur marched off to the side towards the mouth of a cave.
"Fleur?" puzzled Fluttershy, unnerved by that infected Elite that was still on the loose. "Where are you going?"
Once at the cave, the slender Unicorn kicked the frost off of a case of rockets that had been left abandoned there. More rocket cases and ammunition for other UPSC weapons were scattered around too, shrowded in fluffy white snow.

"Aw sweet!" Lightning smirked, lightly touching her broken leg. "How'd you find those? PONI secret?"
All Fleur did was gaze up, and as the Pegasi followed her gaze, they noticed the big red "X" scrawled over the cave's entrance with dried Pony blood.

"Oh my," quivered Fluttershy, not a fan of blood.
Not bothered, Lightning snorted, "X marks the spot, huh."
"I suppose we have your missing reinforcements to thank for this," the AI rang as the soldiers ventured inside, looting as much ammo they could hold like pirates.
"I suppose our missing reinforcements lost their minds-"
"-Waa!" Fluttershy yelped, coming across an equine corpse.
The others gathered round.

It wasn't contaminated, but it wasn't pretty either. It was a grey Unicorn Stallion, his grey coat making his red blood stand out more. He'd taken two bullets to the head, and the devastating damage of needler rounds left messy holes in his flesh, revealing bones and organs.

Turning away, Fluttershy whimpered, noticing the massive pools of blood deeper in the shadows of the cave, and an odd bump where a mutated corpse laid.
She spun and walked away. "Can we please leave this place?"
With a nod, Fleur gathered up as much sniper ammo she could carry and distributed the rockets evenly amongst them. Lightning and Fluttershy filled their saddle bags with pistol and assault rifle ammo, and now that they were armed to the teeth, Fleur and Fluttershy hopped back onto their Ghosts and drove away, Lightning flying over them.

"Your reinforcements left us quite the booty," commented Twilight. "I thank them."
"Me too."

The Ghosts strained as they were manoeuvred up a step of rock and through a narrow passage, into the next valley... and boy were the Ponies in for a show.

The Flood were there, willing to squander countless bodies, but the Covenant had a lot more at their disposal. The usual Covenant foot soldiers took up defensive positions amongst the rocks, trees and portable shields at the very back of the valley. They were hard to make out; too far away, too blocked by the Flood and the snow, but two of them were very bulky, and they emitted luminous green fuel rod projectiles. Hunters.

Hunters weren't the only thing the Flood had to put up with: Two Shade turrets spewed purple plasma all over the nightmares, melting the snow, but they weren't the Covenant's biggest presence either. What the Covies were using to completely dominate the Flood hovered at either side of their platoon, hurling massive orbs of blue plasma over the tentacle crowd. Wraiths. Two of them.

It was pretty obvious who was gonna win this time, but Twilight still stated it.
She then stated something that got the Mares' minds in a fuzz. "We have to fight this time."
"What?" gasped Fluttershy.
Lightning threw her good hoof up. "Have you seen what the Covenant are packing? We'll never beat them!"
"And neither will the Flood!"

The two Ghosts parked atop a sloped mesa where the survivors had the best view of the glorious battle.
They dismounted the vehicles and stared on as Twilight continued, "The Banshees we need to reach the last pulse generator are behind the Covenant."
Fleur peered through her sniper's scope, spying two Banshee fighters parked, or more precisely, dumped in the snow.
"If we're gonna have a shot at getting through them, we're gonna have to team up with the Flood."
"Listen, smarty pants, I don't know if you've noticed, but the Flood don't really take sides."

Fluttershy didn't appreciate Lightning calling her friend "smarty pants," but the AI in question didn't seem to take it to heart as she said, "I know. We'll have to be careful." Then came the time to dish out the orders. 

"Fluttershy, trade your rifle with Fleur's rocket launcher. We're on tank duty."
Dumbfounded, the young Mare stuttered, "W-w-wha... Bu... h... Why am I on tank duty?"
"Because Fleur's the sniper and Lightning's in no state to use a rocket launcher!"
As proof, Fleur got to work with her lethal S2 AM, its shots piercing the wind.

As opposition, Lightning declared, "I am in a state to use the rocket launcher! Come on, Fluttershy, give it to me."
Fluttershy almost did just that, but Twilight forbid it. "No, Fluttershy. The launcher is yours."
Not wanting the loud, heavy weapon, Fluttershy stammered, "B-but... Lightning says-"
"-Doesn't matter what Lightning says; she's wrong."
"Gosh darn it, I'm not wrong!"

-Crack! Fleur took care of another Covie, and she levitated her bazooka in wait for Fluttershy. The yellow Mare groaned and reluctantly accepted the weapon, giving Fleur her MA5B and ammo. Not taking her eyes off the sights, Fleur magiced the ordinance into her bag.
"Well, you know what your doing," Twilight diminished, pleased.

"Well, I guess I'll just fly around and use this stupid pistol," grumbled Lightning, eying her M6D like it was a little toy.
Fluttershy responded, "Y'know, one of those "stupid pistols" saved my life once."
"Only once?"

With each Pony given a specific task, Twilight ordered Fluttershy to hop back aboard her Ghost and drive on over to a much larger mesa, to the right of the valley.
"Good luck, Fleur," the pink maned Mare bid before speeding off, as if she was the one who needed it most.
With a sigh and an incoherent mumble, Lightning shot away into the snowfall.
Now that no pony was present, Fleur muttered out the side of her mouth, "Good luck yourself."