Warriors

by PseudoFiction

“It’s a Spartan’s life for us.”

It didn’t feel right. But that kind of made sense. This wasn’t like teleporting out of the bathroom so Spike wouldn’t catch her being ‘experimental’ – with a different mane-do, of course. This was a wholly different spell; a precise, extreme long range teleport. A wholly different experience.

And a difficult one to be sure. Twilight Sparkle figured the easiest way to describe the difficulty of the spell was like throwing a dart into the air and trying to hit a target surrounded by magnets trying to pull your dart off course, all hidden behind a mountain, while blindfolded, dizzy and possibly off your face on some sort of horse-tranquiliser.

Experiencing the transition went along the same lines. It didn’t hurt, but it was a whole new level of disorienting. She couldn’t see anything for a moment, like she was dazzled by a burst of sunlight. Though when she managed to clear away the flares in her eyes with a few hard blinks, she realised why her stomach felt like it was flipping and why the blood was rushing to her head.

Twilight had a split second to realise her predicament as she looked up at the floor before the laws of physics brought the gavel of justice down upon her. She wondered how cartoonish she looked, a lavender alicorn princess appearing in a burst of purple light and hanging upside down in the air for a few moments before collapsing in a heap.

Her head broke most of the fall, the impact blurring her vision as she tumbled over and lay spawned out on her side for a while, catching her breath and figuring out what had gone wrong. It didn’t take long as she pondered the spell instructions and went over how she had set about casting it.

“Oh, I see,” the princess sighed as she picked herself up, rubbing her head. “The co-ordinate data needs to take the plane of rotation into account too.”

As she made a mental note to take that into account next time she looked around to figure out where she was. It definitely wasn’t Equestria anymore, but she’d expected that before casting her teleportation. She was going far beyond where any other pony had ever been. She had come to terms with that already. And whereas normally she’d stop and let that realisation really sink in, she was on a timeline. There was no telling when the Covenant would reach Equestria. She had to hurry.

In the short time it took her to take in the surrounds it had started raining. Soft at first, the torrent grew with every passing moment until a full blown monsoon swirled around the structure. Waterfalls poured through the sizeable holes punched through the roof and the wind howled in through the shattered windows lining the walls.

In moments it was hard to tell the creak of the structure and the battering of wind and rain from the shuffle of hooves on the cluttered floor. Twilight’s aural observation of the area failing, she tried to rely on her eyes. But with the cloudcover thickening it was dark enough to mistake the time for nightfall.

Lightning cracked the skyline nearby, throwing long flickering shadows through the rooms, giving the misperception of movement elsewhere in the apartment. Partition walls were in tattered ruins forming makeshift windows and doorways into the next rooms.

“The spell was homed in on Marko and Ishmir,” Twilight Sparkle explained to nobody but her own ego. “They should be nearby.”

She trotted casually through the abandoned apartments, completely unaware of the dangerous shadows flitting about. Her eyes barely adjusted to the darkness when she decided to cast a magical light.

She focused…

… nothing happened. Her magic rebelled like an angry teenager, refusing to budge or splutter. There wasn’t even a reassuring glow to indicate she even had the ability to conjure spells. Just nothing, like her horn had been transformed into nothing more than a facial ornament.

“Ugh,” she groaned, rubbing her head as a throbbing headache came on. “I must have overloaded my magic with that teleport.” She’d need time to recharge. And in the meantime she’d be vulnerable.

She had to find Marko and Ishmir as quickly as possible.

A crash put her fur on end and she recoiled from the sound. Turning to the source she carefully flanked to one side and stooped to crawl through a rat-hole in the dry-wall separating rooms. Eventually she found the source of the sound.

A vehicle half hung through the ceiling of the building. A tangle of electrical wiring and steel re-enforcement bars exposed through the crumbling concrete held the craft up in a makeshift hammock. The design was bulbous with a sleek purple hull reminiscent of the ship her Spartan friends had used to leave Equestria. It was definitely of Covenant design.

The cockpit hung open revealing the unoccupied pilot seat. Twilight’s blood ran cold as she cast a paranoid glance around the room. There was no blood and no body.

The Covenant pilot was around here somewhere!

Teeth gritted, Twilight Sparkle made for the door. As she moved she hissed over the clip-clop of her hooves on the hollow floor.

“Marko!? Ishmir, are you here!?” her voice grew strained and desperate. They had to be around here somewhere. The spell she had cast had been right.

Or had it? A terrible thought raced through the princess’ brain. What if she had cast it wrong? What if the radio hadn’t been enough to lock on to her friends in this massive universe? What if she’d accidentally teleported herself to an alien world without any way back home?

Her train of thought derailed as she smacked into a brick wall. She’d rounded a corner in a blind sprint of terror only to crash headlong into a pair of armoured shins. Snorting, Twilight rubbed her nose and blinked away stars to look up.

Sleek blue armour gave way to a muscular mid-riff that widened into a barrel chest. And finally Twilight Sparkle found herself staring into the fierce predatory smile of a Covenant elite. It was exactly like the split faced monster from her dream.

Wicked smile and glowing weapon in hand and everything.

When Twilight Sparkle saw the familiar alien and the all too familiar weapon, she stepped back and prepared her magic. She knew exactly where this was going. Fool me once, shame on me; she thought to herself remembering the ordeal in the Everfree Forest a few months back. Fool me twice, shame on you!

…

She jerked her eyes open remembering her magic wasn’t working. Her horn didn’t even give a threatening spark. The elite levelled the pistol in his hand and she was transported way back to that moment she’d first laid sight on the aliens in the Everfree Forest.

I’m going to die, she thought tearfully to herself as the globule of sickly energy on the elite’s weapon flared. In those few split seconds her mind raced. She thought about her friends, about her family. None of them would know. None of them believed her about the aliens in the Everfree Forest.

And now they’d never see her again and have no idea why.

But just as she thought the world was all going dark, Twilight realised the change in lighting was because of the shadow looming over her. An olive green bullet blurred through her peripheral vision and slammed into the elite’s mid-riff. Her saviour and the alien tumbled to the floor, the plasma round discharging into the ceiling and showing Twilight with smouldering plaster. She winced, jumping aside, and when she’d blinked away the dust and grit she saw it.

“Marko!” she cried with a smile on her face.

The headhunter had the elite pinned down, both hands forcing the alien’s face into the ground. Although as he turned his mirrored golden gaze to her the smile carved into his visor was very deceptive about his current mood.

“Move!” he yelled at the princess while his hand went for his knife.

Twilight bolted as she was told to, making a b-line for the nearest doorway. As she ran she looked back in time to see the elite shrimp out of Marko’s grip. Uncoiling one leg, the elite kicked the Spartan square in the chest and launched him through the remnants of a crumbling wall. With Marko out of sight the elite went for his weapon again.

While she lowered her head to escalate her sprint Twilight suddenly saw a dark red clad knight step into the doorway in front of her. Ishmir didn’t hesitate at the sight of the alicorn princess and fired his pistol over her head. Bullets struck the elite but he barely faltered, returning fire.

A barrier of golden light became visible around Ishmir’s body as he took the incoming volley, fired off a few more shots, then pulled Twilight Sparkle into cover.

His armoured hand pushing her to the ground, Ishmir had his pistol hooked around the doorframe, furiously slinging lead into the sangheili as fast as his trigger finger would let him. Tucked into cover and providing blind covering fire, neither of them would have had any idea if any of the bullets were meeting their mark were it not for the ping of rounds hitting the bare walls and the splash of projectiles flattening against energy shields.

The gun clicked empty and Ishmir’s muscles jerked into a well memorised action. His wielding hand ejected the empty mag while his other hand was already pulling a fresh one from his gear. The new magazine slid into place without touching the sides, and with minimal resistance clicked into place before the spent mag even hit the ground. The slide had slammed shut and Ishmir was searching for targets again by the time that happened.

Unfortunately the target came to Ishmir.

The elite ploughed through the plasterboard right next to the doorway. The lunge clipped Ishmir and he went sprawling, his gun skittering across the floor. Twilight stood frozen as the human and elite exchanged blows and kicks, scrambling over each other for possession of the plasma pistol still in the alien’s possession.

Ishmir managed to twist the alien weapon away and gave it a kick, sliding the weapon to Twilight’s hooves. She didn’t move, even as Ishmir scrambled on hands and knees for his own pistol. She stared with terror when the elite grabbed the young Spartan by the ankle and pulled him back. Ishmir screamed with frustration, his fingers falling just short of the pistol before he was dragged back by the elite.

The alien in the meantime raised one gauntlet and in a flash of eldritch light a fearsome blade appeared on the elite’s knuckle plate. Ishmir saw it and held up his forearms pre-emptively, kicking and thrashing violently to get the alien off him.

The Covenant elite let out a triumphant howl before turning the blade’s point to the headhunter…

A blur of olive green collided with the elite again. Marko rammed into the elite full sprint from behind. Only this time he had his bayonet drawn already. The moment the elite hit the deck, face grinding awkwardly across the floor with the distinct snap of mandibles being broken, Marko raised his knife high.

“Here! Lemme make some more space for your brain!”

The weapon crashed down and slammed straight through the elite’s helmet with a thud and a squelch. Gripping the hilt in both hands, Marko kept his weight on the twitching alien and gave the weapon a sharp twist before extracting it.

The elite convulsed, but made no attempt to get up.

Breathing hard, both headhunters found their feet and their weapons. Ishmir snatched up his side arm and gave the room one last sweep. Marko flicked the gore from his knife and sheathed it before going for his own sidearm. As he went to draw he held out his fist.

Ishmir met his buddy’s knuckles with his own and they both made an explosion sound with their mouths.

“Like a baws,” he chuckled.

Twilight managed to shake off her frozen state and stepped with trembling hooves around the plasma pistol that had landed in front of her. She did her best smile and was able to hide the tremble from her voice.

“Hello, Ishmir,” she greeted.

Satisfied the area was clear, Ishmir holstered his princess and de-polarised his visor to reveal his smile. “Hi princess,” he greeted with a respectful bow befitting a royal greeting.

“Hey! Bitchpants!”

“Hey, vag-face mc-superfucker!” Twilight suddenly blurted out, earning a sharp laugh from Marko and a shake of his head from Ishmir.

“Oh, ho! Someone’s been practicing!”

Twilight smirked. “It’s good to see you boys are still as exciting as ever.”

“What can we say?” Marko cocked his helmet, arms folded across his chest. “It’s a Spartan’s life for us.”

Comments

[Bronzer]

This chapter was awesome and full of much badassery! I cannot understand why you don't have more upvotes and comments.

[Havokdapony]

I feel as though these Spartans were badass
Good job friend
Too bad they're not hell jumpers
Hell jumpers are the best

[Kye Belmont]

This story has a dumb princess of the sun to a great fight seen! Keep up the good work!

[draco the flamewing]

Well, this has been interesting. I hope Trolestia won't strike this time.

[NotShadowLotus488]

Cussing Twilight is best Twily