Halo: Equestrian Fall

by Soviet_Minister

A Rude Awakening...

"Cryo one... Please... Breached..."

*Ugh, what happened? Where am I...?*

"Cryo one chambers are open. Please stay still while you thaw out. Warning: Perimetre to Cryo room three has been breached. Warning: Perimetre to Cryo room two has been breached."

KNIGHT 075 opened her eyes, adjusting to the bright lights that illuminated the cryo room. Lily Berries slowly regained her hearing, and thought that she could hear somepony calling her name. But she dismissed it as the PA system. The voice on the speaker was blaring out commands to all of the staff aboard the Dawn Of Time, aswell as keeping everypony aboard the ship updated on what was happening.

"Lily! Wake up!"

This time, she didn't imagine it. She aimed her eyes through a clear patch on the glass, and spyed a cryo worker practically smashing the keys on the control panel in front of him. He had a grey coat, complete with a silver mane that had been cut back to prevent it dangling in front of his face. Suddenly, a red glow illuminated from the control panel, and the cryo worker drove his hoof into it, most probably almost snapping the control panel itself.

This caused a hissing sound to eminate from the cryo tube she was in, the clear patch on the glass now blocked by the pressurised smoke spraying from the sides. She closed her eyes, and almost flinched as she heard a dull *POP* as the cryo lid began to open. She could finally feel her body, and reached up to push the lid all the way.

But, before she could even touch the lid, a red liquid splattered all up the glass, and a high pitched scream filled her ears. She didn't hesitate for a second, as she kicked the lid open, and dove out. She missed the midnight blue Raavi as she landed, but she wasn't aiming for him. She spun around, her power armour now guiding her hind leg into the Raavi's front legs, shattering them completely.

Lily spun again, driving the same hind foot into the chest of the shocked Nightling, breaking his ribs, who landed inside the cryo chamber with a loud *THUMP*. Lily ran up to the cryo tube, and with all her force, she slammed the lid down, sealing it as the metal frame distorted and jammed the lid shut. Lily turned to the control panel, manualy turning the freeze rate all the way to seventy five, the maximum level it could go.

She turned back around just in time to see the alien creature screaming in agony, kicking at the three-inch glass that sealed him from the rest of the ship. She watched as he slowly froze to death, the cryo chamber now giving off alarm signals that told her the vitals of the Raavi were dropping. She ignored it, and glanced up just in time to see another cryo worker being shot at point blank range by an Arial.

The large Arial looked towards her, and instantly, Lily legged it towards the door on the other side, grabbing the nearly depleted Magic Pistol that the Raavi had dropped. She checked the Spark count, and cursed as she found out that she only had four more rounds in the weak Nightling weapon.

She looked to the right of her helmet, as she noticed her vitals, her shield, the radar and her ammo count appear on her visor. She must have counted wrong, because the ammo-counter stated that she had five rounds in her pistol. Her shield quickly recharged, and her vitals were completely normal. The radar showed nothing but a red dot, quickly dashing in the other direction. She spun around, and saw nothing but the emptiness of the passage way. She dismissed it, and ran to the door in front of her.

As if somepony had set it up, an explosion blasted through the door, sending Lily into the wall behind her, ten metres away. She heaved herself back up, noticing that she had left a giant crack in the wall. Again, she pushed it from her mind, and ran to a set of pipes that ran along beside the hallway. There was enough space to crawl over the pipes, but the weight of her armour would most likely crush the pipes and trap her. So, she used her pistol to shoot one of the large U-brackets holding the pipes down, and ripped it off, freeing half the pipes. That was more than enough for her.

She turned swiftly, and with all of her strength, she bucked the freed pipes using both of her hind legs, sending them flying into the wall of the opposite hallway. It made a big racket, but she didn't think anypony would care, let alone come and check it out. She bolted under the big space she had made, and stopped dead centre in the hallway. She checked both directions, and saw that one set of doors was unlocked. Good.

She dashed through the doors, greatful that no second explosion was waiting for her. She bolted through the hallway, narrowly avoiding a flying piece of metal. Suddenly, a side door burst open, one of the doors flying and hitting the wall. An Arial stopped right in front of her, pointing a TR-514 'Belter' at her head. He fired, and only just missed her head, the bullet harmlessly hitting the far wall. Lily ducked under the Arial's weapon, and ripped it off, snapping the support that held the Sniper Rifle to the Battle-Saddle. She spun around, butting the Nightling in the front knee-cap with the end of the Belter, snapping the knee joint. She ripped the firing mechanism from the Battle-Saddle, latching it on to the trigger of the Rifle. She jammed the rifle between the Arial's madible and the ground, the barrel keeping his head up. She ripped the bone-trigger away from his jaw, stamping on it, triggering the firing mechanism to pull the trigger of the rifle. A deafening *BLAM* filled the passage, the head of the Arial decorating the walls.

She snapped the blood-covered rifle in two, making sure that no other Nightling would trot along and use the weapon. She dropped the now broken rifle, and bolted down the passage way, until she found a half-closed blast door, gunfire and grenades going off on the opposite side. She ducked, and narrowly avoided a magic bolt going through her head, as a group of Nightlings were holed up in a now empty armoury. The blast door to the armoury was now closing, first a clear blast door, set with acrylic instead of glass, seeing how it was more resilient. Then a second set of blast doors came down, this time made of depleted uranium. Pretty much nothing could put a hole in it.

She was just about to ask what was happening, until an announcement over the PA system came on.

"This is Captain Ashtonne. KNIGHT 075 to the Bridge ASAP. I repeat, I need Lily Berries here now!"

Lily, now with an objective, started towards a set of white doors, which had automatically been locked after the emergency shutdown. She thought that Ashtonne would probably unlock that certain door, but that would take time. And time was one thing that Lily didn't have. She reared up, and unleashed the force of both her hind legs as she kicked the door in, again and again, until they finally snapped off, revealing a dark passage to her.

She switched on her flashlight, sending a bright white beam down the passage way. The coast was all clear, so she legged it down the large passage until she saw a bright blue arrow on the floor saying 'Bridge'. It pointed through yet another locked door. But, before she could get the chance to smash it open like she did with the door before, the red light that stated it was locked now turned green, and the doors opened automatically. As she walked down the passage, the overhead lights turned on, revealing the entire hallway to her.

She switched off her flashlight, as not to waste the battery, and set herself at a jogging pace towards the door at the end. Its light was green, so she didn't have a beat the crap out of this one either. She walked up to the door, and they opened, revealing a dim room with a damaged door on the otherside. Its light was red.

She silently walked up to the doors, as not to alert any Nightlings that happened to be near-by. Lily put her front hooves inbetween the doors, and started to pull them apart slowly. She finally made a gap big enough to squeeze through, and as she did, she caught sight of a rather big blade laying on the ground just behind an Arial. The same Arial that had shot down the cryo worker in the Cryo room.

She crept up slowly towards the knife, hoping to grasp it then send it straight into the Arial's skull. She reached for the blade, and grabbed its hilt. But, before she could eliminate him, the tip of the blade brushed against his hind leg, causing him to spin around and butt Lily in the face with his Magic Blaster.

She scrambled back up, only just avoiding a shot from the rifle that the Arial carried. Lily jumped towards the wall, leaping off of it and kicking the weapon off of the saddle it was attached to. The weapon clattered to the ground, it's spark pack falling out and sliding across the floor. The Nightling spun and uppercutted Lily, resulting in her lying on her back on the ground.

The blade was still there, however. Lily dodged a stomp that would have surely broken through her shields and knocked her out, and grabbed the hilt of the blade. Before the Arial could stomp again, she drove the blade up his mandible, the tip of the blade exiting the top of his skull.

She left the blade in there, the Nightling's lifeless body falling to the floor in a heap. Lily checked on the pistol she was carrying, only to find that when she landed on her back, the weight of her armour had snapped the sidearm in two. She discarded the broken weapon and moved on.

She ran down the passage, turning corners and climbing stairs, until finally she reached the Bridge. The big, reinforced depleted uranium doors opened to a platform of working ship controllers. The ponies in blue were maintanance workers, the ponies in yellow were in charge of the weapons on the ship, such as the cannons. And the ponies in white were in charge of monitoring the ring-like structure in front of them, checking for pings.

Captain Ashtonne was dressed in a decorated black uniform, facing a screen showing the ship intergrity, and a ring-like structure, which was also visible from the front of the Bridge. Lily walked up to Captain Ashtonne, expecting him to be stressed about the boardings. But, if anything, he seemed calm, just like a professional captain would.

"Lily Berries KNIGHT-075, reporting for duty sir!"

"Ah, Lily. Its good to see you again. Do you know why you were frozen, and brought here?"

"No, sir."

"Well, I was going to put it all in a nutshell, but I think you need to hear the whole story. A military construct, an AI, was built by Dr. Kkat Coalsey. Dr. Coalsey is a world reknowned scientist, and is the original founder of the KNIGHT project, though I already expect you know that. Anyway, she thought that she could intergrate herself into an AI, putting all of her memories into a machine. She built an AI and named her Snowdrop, but she carries more than Coalsey's memories. She carries all of our classified weapons data, our ship routes. She was transported here as a last resort option when we were leaving Exuimm. Now, the Hexaband is on our ass and we need to either land or self-destruct. But either way, I need you to take Snowdrop and take an escape pod out of here. If the Hive capture Snowdrop, Lily, our whole race is in danger. They'll have everything: weapons research, battle formations, colony locations. Equestria."

"So, where do I go?" Replied Lily.

"The ring is sending back pings, which tells us that the ring must be habitable. You're going to take Snowdrop there, and keep her off the Hexies. Do you understand?"

"Yessir." Said Lily, her objective now set in her mind.

"Oh, and take this," Ashtonne handed Lily an Automatic Pistol.

"She's low on ammo, so you'll have to keep her loaded. Good luck, KNIGHT." Captain Ashtonne saluted Lily, then turned back to the screen, shouting orders to the yellow workers to unmount Snowdrop.

Lily walked up to a near by control panel, and pulled a blue chip out, plugging it into the back of her helmet. She recieved a light headed feeling and a zapping sensation down her spine, as Snowdrop loaded into her armours system.

"Well, hello Lily. Your armour seems fine, so lets move, shall we?" Said Snowdrop in her smooth, melanchollic voice.

She turned, saying nothing, and ran for the exit doors of the bridge. But, along the way, one of the terminals along the wall caught her eye. She stopped, and went to the terminal, which she now found was saying 'Incoming Transmission'. She sat down in the terminal's chair, not bothering on making herself comfortable. She reached towards a key on the keyboard that allowed permission for the transmission to come through.

A code instantly came up, stating the transmission ID it was using. [044657.04.21.21.34.56]

A robotic voice instantly filled the ear piece of her helmet, making her cringe in her seat.

"Warning! By order of the Eucamene Council, proximity to Installation 04 is forbidden. You continued presence will result in most unpleasent countermeasures. I must insist that you immediately change course and return to a minimum safe distance of one light year. This has served as your first, and final warning. I have activated defensive systems and you now have thirty seconds to return to the minimum safe distance of... wait."

The voice paused for a moment, as images of the old ages of Equestria flashed upon the screen.

"Curious.", continued the robotic voice.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, Lily's helmet appeared on the screen, sending shock through her.

"Curious indeed! After all these years..." The voice seemed to trail off, as if distracted from some distinct thought.

"Welcome, Ponies! And welcome to Installation 04. Ignore prior warnings and please, continue! I have disabled defensive systems to allow your approach, but you must not exit your ship once you have arrived at the designated landing sector."

The voice now switched to a darker, stiffer voice.

"This ring contains significant dangers, and even with your assumed legacy, I must verify the presence and pitch of your GEAS before allowing full access. We have much to discuss, Ponies. I have been waiting for far too long."

The image suddenly switched to that of a robotic blue, floating orb, with strange sybols engraved into the frame.

"You have been away far too long."

The screen then showed five strange symbols, shimering, before finally, the screen flashed black, ending the message.

Lily was confused. What did it mean, We had much to discuss? By HNM knowledge, we knew of no such thing named 'Installation 04'. She couldn't figure it out, and so she just pushed it from her mind, pulled out her Auto and ran for the doors. They opened, instantly revealing three Raavi, all holding Magic Pistols. They all seemed stunned, and all of them hesitated for a moment too long as Lily sent a bullet through each of their heads, destroying their brains and sending blood everywhere.

She ran straight to the mess hall, where seven ponies were trying to fight off two shielded Arials. She looked down, a dead soldier at her feet. She ignored that, and went for the battle-saddle he had on, complete with a GP Assault Rifle. She lobbed the saddle onto her back, which automatically merged with her armour. She switched her active weapon from her pistol to the saddle-mounted weapon. She had a virtual sight display on her visor, showing her what she would hit depending on where she aimed. She lined the virtual iron-sights up with the closest Arial's head, and bit down on the bone.

The gun fired three times, sending all three bullets through the barrel. The first took out his shields, surprising the changling. The second round caught him in the leg, raising a yelp from him as he struggled to limp away. The third got him right in the spine, killing him instantly. The changling lifelessly hit the floor with a wet *THUD*.

She turned to shoot the other Elite, but was blocked by a pony that the changling had taken hostage. The changling was garbling incomprehensible bullshit, whilst the soldier was yelling,

"Shoot through me! Do it!"

And that's exactly what Lily did. She lined up the soldier in her sights, and bit down, sending three bullets into the soldier. The first two hit his armor harmlessly, but the third got lucky, and hit a grenade that was dangling off the side of his strap. The explosion was tremendous, sending little bits of changling and pony everywhere.

"Hey, who the fuck do you think you are, killing your own team like that!?" A pony with a long, red mane walked up to Lily and shoved her.

"It was either shoot the soldier, and kill the Changling in the proccess, or leave them to take the poor pony, and he gets killed anyway!" Lily yelled back, her helmet amplifying her voice.

The stallion cringed away, backing down as soon as Lily had finished.

Lily stayed silent, as she motioned for everypony to follow her to the escape pods. They exited the other side of the mess hall, entering a hallway littered with dead ponies.

"Those bloody bastards..." Gasped a mare up the back of the group.

They passed the bodies, hoping that it was the only pile they would see. Some of the soldiers stopped to scvenge some ammo from their dead comrades. Lily did the same, crouching down They ran down a corridor with an airlock in it, finding two more soldiers carrying Magic Blasters guarding the airlock. They glanced at Lily, and shouted from where they were,

"Hey! Whe-"

They were interrupted by a grenade, blowing up the door to the airlock, along with the two guards standing next to the airlock entrance, revealing a group of changlings. They didn't even give the changlings a chance to fire. The entire group of ponies, including Lily, emptied their clips into the airlock, filling the changlings with lead and magic. They continued forward towards the escape pods, but were stopped by three barriers lined up across the passage.

"Hey! Grenades! Yeah!" Shouted a blonde-maned stallion, walking towards a pile of TR Spark Grenades that were on the ground.

Lily and the rest walked up and grabbed some, seeing as how they might need it on the ring. They jumped over the barrier, and regretted it instantly, as four shielded Changlings bolted around the corner and started firing at them. They all took cover, making sure not to be hit by the Elites. Lily, a quick thinker, lobbed a grenade at the group, setting them apart from eachother. The mighty sound of the explosion filled the passage, causing Lily's ears to ring. She stood up, mouth on bone and ready to fire.

The first was hiding in a doorway, struggling to reload his weapon as it was damaged from the explosion. Lily ended his life with two bullets in the skull. The second was behind a barrier, and had now had time to reload his weapon, shooting at Lily with poor accuracy. She set her sights on his torso, and fired a three round burst, smashing through his personal shield and putting three big bullet holes through his chest. Lily looked for the other two, but found that the grenade had killed them both. She called everypony up, and continued on towards the escape pods.

After a five minute run, they finally made it to the pod bay. One escape pod was left, and the blast door was locked. One of the pony's was hacking the door so that it would open, but it took time. Lily and the other ponies took defensive positions, ready to defend. They were having trouble, though. The changlings seemed to be endless. Wave after wave, they just kept coming, first just normal changlings, then Elites.

"C'mon, Stardust! We haven't got all eternity, you know!"

"Ok, ok! I'm working on it.... There! It's open! Get in!"

"OK! EVERYPONY IN!" Boomed Lily, turning her voice emitter volume to full.

Everypony turned and bolted for the escape pod, almost tripping over eachother. Lily set her sights on a large Changling Juggernaut, who was firing at them with a TR-405 Minigun. Everypony ducked as the minigun spat magical bolts at them by the hundreds. Lily heard the minigun clicking, meaning that it was just about to overheat. Once the minigun stopped, Lily bolted upright, tugging a grenade from the strap around her waist. She pulled the pin, sending the grenade straight in front of the Juggernaut's legs. The grenade failed, however, producing only a small combustion. But, it was enough to send a few bits of steel into the Juggernaut's front legs, causing him to fall on his face, screaming in agony.

Lily leapt over the barrier she was behind, legging it towards the Changling. She reached the Changling, who was writhing in pain, and stomped his skull into the ground with her front hooves, spreading blood all over her armour. She wiped a drop of blood from her visor, smudging it more than anything. She reached down towards the minigun that was mounted onto the Changlings battle-saddle, ripping it off of it's supports and merging it into her own saddle. She snatched the box full of Spark Packs off the dead Changlings straps, then turned and bolted towards the escape pod.

She was almost in the escape pod, until suddenly, she tripped over something. She landed on the ground with a grunt, as she looked back to see what she tripped over. A pony, still alive. Three bullet holes in her neck, but she was still breathing. She ran up to the helpless mare, intent on saving her life. Lily loaded the bleeding mare onto her back, sending the mare into uncoinsciousness. She ran into the escape pod, slamming the hatch shut.

"Is everypony good?"

Other than a few ponies that were shaken up, they all looked fine. And her assumption was almost confirmed, as nearly everypony mumbled their approval. Nearly. There was one pony up near the pilot, slumped forward in her seat, the seat straps the only thing keeping her on her seat. With the bleeding mare still resting on Lily's back, Lily walked to where the pony sat, checking for a pulse. She had none. Lily checked the mare for any obvious signs of harm, and found two bullet wounds in her waist. Lily lifted the dead mare's head up, her lifeless eyes staring into Lily's visor, seemingly through her soul. Lily put her hoof on the dead mare's eyelids, shutting them slowly.

She trotted up to the pilot, now trying to keep pressure on the bleeding mare's wounds.

"We're heading for the ring. Take off, now!"

"Yes, ma'am." Replied the pilot, pushing buttons and pulling levers.

It took about thirty seconds before the pod finally blasted from the dock, leaving a trail of exhaust behind it for a short while. The pilot turned, now pointing the pod straight at the ring. As they descended, the oversized Halcyon Class ship named the Dawn Of Time passed over them, it's speed picking up as the Dawn got closer and closer. The pod only just avoided a flying piece of debris from the Dawn's waist, the pilot pushed a lever, forcing the pod to travel faster and faster, until the speedometre said that they were traveling at 1,300 kph.

"Engaging all flaps and fins!" The pilot yelled, as they neared the edge of the ring.

Thirty seconds, and they found themselves in the rings atmosphere, plummeting down at 1,400 kph. Their reverse thrusters had failed, and the flaps were breaking off.

"It's gonna be a rough landing!" Shouted the pilot, as the ground came closer and closer.

Lily decided that the only way she was going to survive was if she got out before they landed. The gel layer of the KNIGHT armour would absorb most of the landing, rendering her sore, but uninjured. Along the way to the hatch, she picked up the bleeding mare, who she'd found out was Icarus, by way of gossip. She had brought her this far, and certainly wasn't going to leave her on here where they were all most likely going to die. Lily rested Icarus onto her armour, adding extra weight.

Once she reached the hatch, she turned, and with all of her might, she kicked out with both of her hind legs, the KNIGHT armour adding tremendous force to her kick. On the first kick, she acheived nothing more than a big *CLANG*. The second, however, was much more succesful as the doors snapped open and flew away behind the pod, landing someplace below.

She took a spare strap from her side and used it to secure Icarus to her waist, seeing how Lily would have to land on her back. She made sure the strap was on good and tight, then with her wits about her, she leapt from the pod, descending rapidly. She took a glance under her and saw the big green blur that was the trees. Other than that, she could only just see a humungous mountain in the distance, overlooking a vast river filled with crystal clear water.

She knew what would happen when she landed, and until then, she closed her eyes. She waited for the crushing impact of the ground, holding and tightening the leather strap that secured Icarus without knowing. Then, as soon as she met the ground, the darkness overcame her.

Comments

[Distorted Flare]

Is this a alternative dimension of Halo or the same one?

[Derec mc coy]

you just combinate my two favourit things.
ponies and Halo

[Mr Ignorable]

Yay. More of... this.

[trickypentagram]

I wish I can enjoy these stories as they are everywhere, problem is that I can't stand ponifications and that is bad because these stories are friggen everywhere.

[Soviet_Minister]

4247538 Ah, tis the same, Distorted Flare.

[Soviet_Minister]

Hmm... I see what a lot of you are saying. I have read over it myself, and have realised that maybe I should rewrite it. Maybe start something original? Actually, what I'll do, is finish this one, then start a completely original one. How's this sound?

[Distorted Flare]

4250154 I think the biggest problem is that good story but the context just feels wrong a prey species like ponies could not do what humanity did and not that early either. Spartans program began in 25 century. The problem is that if we compare ponies to humans currently we crush them in terms of technology and numbers. Hell some of them are still living in the wild west era with bray burn and so on. But all in all an enjoyable read.

[Soviet_Minister]

4252415 Thank you for the compliment, good sir. But, as for the year, I tried not to copy the same year that Halo: CE used, thus moving it back. Or should I move it forward? I am asking because the opinion of my readers are important. Thank you

[That Forerunner]

Is the story dead?

[Soviet_Minister]

6358740 It was, but I am considering continuing it for lack of anything else to do.