Ale woke up, his bed torn apart from his fight with the nightmares. ‘I wonder if Celestia’s going to kill me today.’ He sat up and watched the sunrise through his window. He jerked when he heard a soft knocking on his door. "Come in." Ale tensed as princess Celestia walked in. She stood a good distance from Ale as they observed each other. Ale broke the silence, "Is Luna okay?"
Celestia responded, "She's a little shaken up but fine. She wanted me to thank you for what you did." Celestia hesitated, "I also wanted to apologize for my actions last night. I was blinded by fear that my sister was dead and that you did it." Ale simply grunted. "Luna told me that there wasn't much you could do. I'm begging you please forgive me!"
Ale stood still, relishing in Celestias guilt. After a few moments he had enough of his fun and responded, "I accept your apology. I didn't know it would kill Luna either. Those bolts are non-lethal to humans. I should have thought better before acting." They stood there in an awkward silence. Ale spoke up, "What was that thing anyway?"
"Do you know what a changeling is?"
"I heard about them and I know about their failed invasion. I didn't know what they were though since Morning..."
Celestia looked up and had a look of sorrow on her face. Ale stood and nodded stiffly. Celestia had a look of understanding on her face and turned to leave. "I have to prepare for my students return tomorrow morning. You're free of your duties tonight. Do what you like."
Ale thought about their conversation and convinced himself that Celestia had forgiven him for his actions. After a few minutes Ale began walking down the hallway. He had seen a library the second night he was here and intended to learn as much as he could about Equestria. It wouldn't hurt to learn about these changelings as well. He stopped by a pair of maids. They didn't have a look of fear on their faces like they normally did when he walked past. Instead they seemed in awe of him. Ale expected them to be mad or disgusted from his actions last night. Ale asked them for directions to the library.
Ale saw a massive set of doors as he followed the maids’ directions. He opened them and gaped in awe. The library was MASSIVE. The shelves were easily three stories high and packed with books in all sorts of shape and condition. He browsed through and picked out books relating to geography, government, history, and other tomes. He began to speed read the small stack of books he had acquired. They were fairly simple to understand since most of their content matched the laws of humanity. Ale studied books about magic in confusion for hours. He was almost done and ready to head to bed when he finally found a book about changelings.
Ale did not like what he read. 'Their food source is any type of love. To get close to their intended victims they will change their form to a loved one. Then depending on the changelings appetite or desire to feed the victim can continue to live on unknowing of their fate or they can be drained rapidly resulting in death.' Ale closed the book and returned it to its rightful spot. Ale began to walk back to his bedroom, his mind reeling with all the information he had read. Ale reached his room and collapsed into his bed.
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Luna got out of bed, wincing at the throbbing pain in her shoulder. Celestia was able to heal her injuries but Luna could still feel the dull pain. She trotted through the hallways towards Ales room. She knew he was asleep before she got out of bed. She knocked on the door gently. She heard slight shuffling and the door opened revealing the tall armored Spartan.
"Good morning Princess Luna."
"Good morning Ale. May I come in?"
Ale nodded and stepped aside allowing Luna to walk in. Ale shut the door and spoke, "Princess, I…"
"Tia explained everything. You do not have to apologize. I should be thanking you." She turned and faced Ale.
"It was my duty to protect you. You shouldn't have to thank me." Luna sighed knowing she wasn't going to win an argument with the stubborn soldier. They stood there in silence, Ale feeling a slight sense of déjà vu. Ale cleared his throat, "I should probably go check with the captain to see when my next shift is." He stepped past her and hastily walked down the hall leaving Luna to her thoughts.
Ale walked outside and opened his filters letting the crisp fresh air flood into his helmet. ‘This is much better than the recycled shit.’ Ale walked through the gardens, heading towards the barracks when voices caught his attention. He turned to his right and saw a group of ponies walking out of the castle into the gardens. He recognized the purple alicorn and the rainbow maned pegasus from his first day here. They saw him and stopped talking. The others gaped in awe at the massive super soldier while the purple one looked enraged. She walked briskly across the grass with the others in tow.
"Who do you think you are attacking Princess Luna!" the purple one yelled. The others weren't sure what to do, conflicting emotions racing across their faces.
"Twilight! Celestia said he was defending her from a changeling assassin!" the rainbow one jumped to his defense. The orange one gave her a look of shock.
She replied in a southern accent, "Since when do ya defend aliens Rainbow?"
"Since they saved my flank!" she retorted. They began arguing with each other when Twilight spoke up.
"You still haven't answered my question!" she yelled, causing the others to shut up.
Ale slowly dropped to a knee, his face level with Twilight, unnerving her. "I was sworn to defend her and I succeeded. I didn't have any other option. I don't exactly have magic you know." He stood and waited for her response.
Twilight reasoned his response and nodded glumly. The others seemed to calm down and Ale held out his hand to her. "My name's Ale." Twilight looked up and 'gripped?' his hand.
"Twilight. These are my friends Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity."
Ale was intrigued at how quickly these ponies would forgive and forget. He noted these rapid mood changes. "Nice to meet you all."
Twilight looked at Ale, "So Celestia told us a little bit about yourself. She tasked me to learn more about you... at your discretion of course."
‘Why does she scare me?’
"Oh don't worry about that. Twilight may have a mad scientist lab in her basement but she won't dissect you." Ale looked at Pinkie.
"How did you…"
"Don't ask. It's just Pinkie being Pinkie,” replied Applejack.
"Okay then. Moving on." Ale walked towards the barracks with the others following him. Ale reached the barracks and browsed through a sheet hanging on the wall showing shifts and their respective positions.
A deep voice interrupted them, "The princess has informed me that you are hereby off duty until further notice. You are to accompany Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville." Ale looked at the royal guard who had spoken.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"She did not say. She wishes that you get acquainted with the populace."
Ale turned this information slowly through his head. ‘What's she up to?’ Realization dawned on him and he began to clench his fists. Twilight noticed this and looked up to him.
"Is something wrong?"
"I have to go,” Ale replied bluntly. He began to stiffly walk towards the castle gaining speed as his anger drove him on. He stormed through the hallways and opened the doors to the throne room. Celestia had a cool look on her face as Ale approached her. Ale blurted out, "You intend on keeping me here!? I took the job because you said you needed help and it turned out it was the right thing to do, but trying to hold me here?"
Celestia frowned, "I have no means of returning you from whence you came. If you know a way, please do tell."
Ale fumed in his armor. He was smart enough to not punch her in her royal face. He opted to return to his room and think about his options. Ale thudded down the halls and slammed his door in frustration. He sat on his bed for what could have been minutes or hours. Ale was about to lose hope until a thought hit him. He smacked his head in stupidity, "Of course! The Ember!" He stood and opened his door to find Luna standing on the other side.
"Ale! Are you okay?"
"I'm better than okay! I'm going home!" Ale replied gleefully. He then realized he didn't have a means of transport.
"How? Tia told me she couldn't get you home."
Ale hung his head, "I was going to go back to my ship, but I can't get there."
Luna smirked, bobbing his chest. "Stupid. Magic remember? Hold still."
Ale looked at her in confusion. "What are..." Ale felt a tugging on every fiber of his being. As he began to voice his concern there was a bright flash that blinded Ale. He regained his eyesight to find himself in a dark metal room. He looked around and knew he was standing in a briefing room aboard the Ember. He looked at Luna, "A little warning next time?"
She smiled and gestured with her hoof, "Lead the way."
Ale stepped forward and the doors slid apart. He walked down the hallway towards the command deck. Luna was drinking in her surroundings as she didn’t have much time to browse last time. He entered the bridge and immediately approached the navigation console. Luna watched as Ale pushed a serious of buttons on a display. Ale was happy to find that the slip space engines were at 27% operating capacity. They could still work. He turned to Luna, "The engines are working!" Luna smiled, hiding her true emotions.
"So this is goodbye?"
Ale turned back to the console as he input the coordinates for Earth, clueless to Lunas feelings. "Yep! Thanks for getting me here! You should get away from here while I jump."
Luna was hurt at his bluntness for her goodbye. She teleported well outside of the ship and watched in glum sadness.
Ale grew excited as he watched the engines power up for the jump. When they finally became charged he reached for the execute command. He stopped and hesitated. He thought about everything the ponies had done for him even if there were bumps along the way. They weren't lying either when they said they needed his help. He pondered over this before he steeled himself with the resolve of his duty.
With happiness he pushed the button. There was a loud whirring noise and then silence. Ale looked up and saw that he hadn't moved. ‘What?’
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Luna cried silently, conflicting emotions burning through her. She couldn't tell if she should be happy that Ale was returning to his home or sad that he had ignored her feelings. She heard the ship whine loudly and closed her eyes. When the whining stopped she looked up and was surprised to see the ship still there. She knew something was wrong and approached the ship. She found her way back to the command deck and found Ale sitting against the wall. At the sound of her hoof falls Ale looked up. They stared at each other for a few moments before Ale lowered his head, shaking it sadly.
AHH! Yes! Another chapter! Must commence reading immediately.
Finished reading! And yea, most of the time, thoughts are italicized. Happy and sad. Ale couldn't get home, but he is staying. Which means more time for him to get to know the ponies. Can't wait for Rarity to try and do something to his armor. It's gunna be hilarious! Just let the thoughts flow onto the screen, man. If someone doesn't like what you did, you're doing something RIGHT! That or they're just really jealous. In which case you're still doing something right.
Anyways, yay! Can't wait for more chapters! But you should take a break and enjoy the holidays (unless this is how you plan on enjoying them, that is perfectly okay with me! ). Have fun man!
The slip space drive must not of been at 27%, but lower than 10%.
3646924 You'll find out next chapter why it didn't work. I'm fully aware that it needs to be below 10% to not work. I need it to be at operating capacity for a later event but something else needed to be wrong so that he couldn't return home. Hint hint MAC Thanks for the comments guys! Later!
3647053 XD I'll get right on it XD
Wait... This guy studied slip space even a little bit, and he tried to activate it WITHIN A PLANETS ORBIT!! HE WAS LIKE "IM SO SAD IM LEAVING, THEYVE GIVEN ME SO MUCH, WHELP BETTER TEAR THEIR PLANET TO PEICES TO SAY 'FUCK YOU GUYS IM GOIN HOME!!'"
In all seriousness, other than that tid-bit it was pretty awesome chapter
4874181 orbit isn't an issue. next to the ground is
Welp, I'm out. See you when you finish that rewrite.
4874181 I don't think that would destroy them, remember Halo 3 ODST
4874181 you must be thinking that the ember is in atmo. It's currently situated in high orbit of the planet so a slipspace jump out of system would not affect the planet in any way.
You can't hear in space.
7168440 Yeah, I'm surprised I missed something like that, thus the need for the rewrite, badly. Although, I guess I could try arguing that it's in high atmo, but it's not. *shrugs*
4874181 i'm pretty sure it's depending on the size of the ship. Different size's mean different results. Regret's ship (A CAS-Assault Carrier, 5km long) destroyed New Mombasa and caused an EMP for quite a while. If this ship was a refitted Marathon-Class Heavy cruiser- which is by the way 1km long- then the explosion will destroy a small portion of the forest- seeing how large the entire forest is. To maybe cause a planetary explosion scale- the few possible ship's that are able to cause such amount's of devastation will be a CSO-Super Carrier, a dreadnaught, High Charity (Not a ship, a planetoid) and the Mantle's Approach.
He needs to be more focused and analytical. Instead of coming across as a soldier he feels like an average joe.
The first few chapters were all right, bearable, but not realistic in the sense that Ale is a Spartan. From what we have seen (Books, games, & movies), Spartans act nothing like Ale, and yet the way you portray him is more of like a Marine. In the games, even the Navy Pilots have more nerves than that of our Spartan here.
Spartans are warriors that are as intelligent as they are efficient. They are like a razor blade compared to a butter knife when it comes to their strength, dexterity, intellect, adaptability, and their control over any and all weapons. In the books, Kelly (not even the most accurate shooter) is able to hit a target from a far distance. It took her several seconds to run the distance (at full speed she can run approx 62 KpH, yet John ripped his Achilles Tendon when he ran 102KpH. Link Here). Point being, he nicked Luna's shoulder when he shot, and yet that was at virtually point blank range for a Spartan's capability.
Next is his reaction to seeing dead body parts. I believe we all know what the flood forms look like, not to mention Ale's nightmare. So I will leave that be, since others have already made it a known complaint as well.
When a Brute was strangling John, he couldn't breath, the strength of the beast enough for that section of his armor to fail in it's task. Now, the majority of his armor is a crystalline like structure that is extremely hard to break, or even damage. Most of the time when a Spartan II is injured, it is from damage being taken in locations not primarily protected (joints), proof of this is when John takes an energy sword through his arm when him and the survivors of the first ring are commandeering a Covenant Ship. The only exception I can think of is when Kurt-051 (Halo: Onyx) is fighting a Hunter in CQC, and the Covenant soldier uses its shield to nearly cleave him in two. So the fact that Celestia can harm him through his armor is more irritating, but it is disturbing that Luna was able to hurt him by throwing him around like a rag doll, when Spartans that airdropped over Reach at Terminal Velocity (Mind you, that is fucking fast) hit the ground were able to walk away with minor injuries. He shouldn't have been mildly hurt by sometime like that, not to mention his shields should have protected him a small margin...
Last by not least, is his attitude. Spartan II's are raised since a very young age to be the very best soldiers that humanity has ever seen. they are conditioned to be the epitome of military etiquette and lethality. They are level headed, never panic, and are analytical when it comes to any situation (when they assault the rebel asteroid base for one example, and when they first board a cove ship as another). Ale however has the nerves of a marine (Random Pillar of Autumn survivor: "We're all going to die man!" -Halo 1), while Navy Pilots are cool minded even when they know they are going to die. He doesn't even act like an ODST. Spartans are also known for not showing any outward emotion. The first time we see an exception is in Halo: The flood book -Halo 1 timeline, when Silva mentions how Johns Spartans died on Reach. Silva's 2nd in command see's the anger and pain in his eyes rather than your typical outward emotions.
I will continue reading this story until the very end, as I do wish to see where it goes, but if you rework any of the chapters for this story, just keep this review in mind. This can be a great story, but for now it is ok. It is good as it has kept quite enough readers attention until the very end, but it has more potential beneath its pages that you can pull out and use... remember, quality above quantity.
Chapters are too damn short
8700486
I really gotta agree with this, these chapters could easily be meshed together to become longer. instead it feels....choppy.
Straw number 2 here just saying even the most understanding human would be pissed at her for trying to kill him..... and would probably point out the fact that if she had done that to a pony they would be DEAD.