Chapter 8
"The soldier above all others prays for peace,
for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
-Douglas MacArthur
The device that was repeatedly pushing a needle into my skin buzzed away while I was looking through a hole in the wall that served as a window to the makeshift workshop. I had visited the particular marine that also acted as a tattoo artist on the base a few times before, as he'd also tattooed a branch of blooming cherry blossom on my right upper arm. That wasn't what he was working on right now as now he was working on my right wrist, coloring in the final part of the new tattoo. The three little gems were perfectly replicated from my memory of their real counterpart.
I'll see you again one day, big sis.
A tear rolled from my eye as I remembered what I had left behind at home, if we had just stayed out of the castle none of this had happened... but then again, would Sunset have made it out alive? If we hadn't been there she would have been all alone against the Covenant. I debated this internally as the marine finished up the tattoo, my answer to the question being no. If we hadn't been there Sunset would have died, and our work here on Harvest had saved a lot of people as well.
"You're good to go, Sweetie," the marine said as he put away his tools, "Since it's just a small one I'll round it down to one-fifty credits."
I chuckled and transferred the cash to his account, "You know if you said that to any other lady here they'd punch you in the face."
"Hey, I can't help it that your parents decided to call you Sweetie," he laughed back, "Anyway you know where to find me"
"Yeah, I do. I'll see you after working out a new tattoo concept," I told him as I got my stuff and left his makeshift workshop. The base had gotten a whole lot safer a couple of weeks back as our forces were pushing the covenant to the edges of the city. It was still a far stretch from claiming the planet itself but it would give us a staging area from where we could attack Covenant strongpoints in other cities around the planet.
Making my way back to our little compound didn't take too long, the makeshift commercial area on the base was relatively close to our barrack. ONI had given us a bit more space then the regulars which meant we had been able to fence off a nice little area for ourselves which obscured our lounging area from the rest of the base. This was mostly something we had done for Scootaloo as otherwise she only could expose her wings inside her room, a place where she couldn't fully stretch them.
After making my way into our 'backyard' I found Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, Ana was probably doing some reading inside her room since we had managed to acquire an air cooler for our barrack and it was still quite hot outside even though we were headed for the end of the summer.
Scootaloo was stretching her wings, something she had to do increasingly more often as for some reason her wings had been drastically growing since getting back to Harvest. At first, the former pegasus had been happy about this fact, but as they had kept growing they were starting to get cramped beneath her armor and threatened to become too large for it at all. This was something all of us were concerned at as this was something that might force her out of the fight entirely.
Moving on to Apple Bloom, she was sitting on a lounging chair while smoking a cigar. On her head rested a Stetson hat, not unlike the one Applejack owned which she had gotten a couple of weeks prior before the last mission. If you didn't count the fact that Scootaloo had wings any marine would have just described the scene as a couple of soldiers taking a well-deserved rest after a two-week long recon mission.
I knew better.
Being trained as a sniper also meant that I was much more adept at spotting the small little details, but those details matter. Scootaloo, for example, had gotten the bad habit of constantly plucking at her wings when given the chance. They still had a full coat of feathers but if one looked closely you would see it was much less dense than it was supposed to be.
Apple Bloom was a bit less subtle, she always had a weapon within hands reach—preferably her shotgun—and I knew that her armor wasn't that far away either. But that wasn't the only sign as if you looked a bit closer you could see the hand which she was holding her cigar in was trembling slightly, something that had started after the mission where she'd decided to take on the newly dubbed scarab.
And even though she wasn't there, Ana had her own issues as well. The fact that she wasn't out her probably meant that she was probably working somewhere inside. When the human was stressed she seemed to just throw herself into a heap of work. Not that I didn't have any problems, if I'm honest with myself the tattoos are just my way of dealing with things. Always making new designs, scrapping old ones but rarely actually going as far to place them.
"Hey, Belle! are you just going to stand there or are you going to give me a hand?" Scootaloo shouted, pulling me out of my daze. She was holding her armor which meant she was planning on going out but couldn't since she was unable to put it on herself anymore.
"Yeah, sure," I answered as I helped Scootaloo stuff her wings below the armored parts, the place where her wings were hidden showing a considerable bulge. "We really need to figure out a solution to that problem. Did you talk to ONI about this yet?"
Scootaloo just waved me off, "Yeah, yeah, I should have a fix by tonight."
So that's probably a no on the talking to ONI.
I sighed as my brash friend pulled the straps on the armor tight and strode out of the backyard onto the base, probably going to get her 'solution' to the wings problem. Picking up my chair I placed it somewhere in the shade and flopped down onto it.
"So, did ya finally get another one of them fake cutie marks?" Apple Bloom asked with a smirk, knowing I didn't like it when she called them fake cutie marks.
"Tattoos, Bloom, and yes I got one this time." Holding up my arm revealed the three little gems that were present on the inside of my wrists. Blooms mood immediately changed as she saw the three little gems on there.
"Ah shucks Sweetie, ya know that ya ain't need one of those things to remember your kin by, do ya?" She said sympathetically, I nodded as I lowered my arm again.
"I just..." no further words came out of my mouth as I didn't know what to say. Losing our families had been hard for both Bloom and I but for some reason AB seemed to take losing her family much better nowadays than I did. Something that surprised me as I was always fighting with Rarity about things while Bloom and Applejack got along just fine most of the times, one might say that our reactions should have been the complete opposite of what they had been up to this point.
SLAP
A hand hit my cheek, making me flinch as a sharp sting of pain went through the place where I had just been hit. "Hey, snap out of it!" Shaking my head I refocussed on Apple Bloom as she was now standing in front of me, her cigar clamped between her teeth. "Ah know yer focussed when yer out on mission but right now ya are about as distracted as can be."
"I'm sorry, it's just-"
"We're all takin' it harder than we're letting on Sweetie, but mopin' around ain't gonna fix anythin'. If ya really need to talk about it we're always here to listen and if ya don't want to talk about it with us that's fine 's well, but find someone ya can vent to," Apple Bloom lectured as she had a firm hand on my shoulder. She stayed like that for a moment before turning to the table outside where a file rested. "Now Ah got this thing here from a Spook and by judgin' from the magic symbols printed on the paper it's from Shimmer."
I shot up from my position as I heard what Bloom described, Sunset had promised to send through any spells that might be useful to us but I hadn't expected to her to send one already. Glancing over the matrix it turned out to be a rather simple one, a couple of adjustments to take fingers into account but nothing fancy other than that. I might not be the best mage by a long shot but Rarity had taught me how to read one of these, even if I couldn't perform the described spell.
"Guess I should try this out, shouldn't I?" I asked with a grin as I realized what this spell did.
"Can't hurt if ya know what yer doing with this new spell thing," Bloom shrugged and took a small step back from me.
My magic flowed from my wellspring to my hands as I started creating the new spell matrix, all my concentration focused on the brand new spell forming between my fingers. The more magic allowed to pass through the matrix the hotter the air around my hand was becoming, only that heat didn't seem to be harming my hand in any way shape or form. Apple Bloom, on the other hand, took a step back as she felt the heat blast against her skin. Pushing myself just that bit further I allowed even more magic to flow into the matrix, the result was... about what I had expected.
A green magical flame sprang alive, the same color as my magic, and wrapped itself around my hand. I let out a giggle from excitement—and probably the magic high I was on from learning a new spell.
"Uhm, Sweetie? Why is your hand on fire." Turning around at the voice revealed Ana standing in the doorway looking slightly horrified at the scene in front of her.
"Magic," I giggled while cutting off the flow of energy, stopping the strain of keeping the little flame alive from completely draining me.
Ana just stared blankly as she tried placing what she had just seen somewhere in her mind, giving up as she found that she simply couldn't. "Whatever, Scootaloo just came rushing back in with an armor case. I think it might be a good idea for us to go see what she's cooked up this time."
Apple Bloom grimaced as she pushed past both me and Ana to see what the former pegasus was up to. We found her in our small bedroom where she appeared to be putting on a new suit of armor. "What in tarnation are ya doin' Scoots?" the earthpony asked as she saw something she didn't want to. Two wings were sticking out of slots at the back of the custom armor and had armored segments strapped to them.
"Getting a new set of armor," Scoots replied as she flexed around her wings to see what kind of mobility they had within the new armor.
"And what do you think ONI's going to say when they figure out you got this armor? and how in the world did you even get it in the first place?!" I asked, Scootaloo only letting out an annoyed huff.
"Who do you think made this for me? It's not like I can just get a custom built piece of armor around here," she said while shooting a glare in my direction. "What? did you think I didn't contact ONI in the slightest when I planned to get this thing?"
"Uhm, yes?" I sheepishly answered, being rewarded with an opened letter being thrown at my face. A large ONI logo along with a 'Classified' stamp on the front of it. There was a set of orders in it that very thoroughly outlined when Scootaloo could and could not wear the custom armor.
"They made it so that I can stay combat effective but don't want me walking around base like this since they're not sure what the reactions of the regulars would be to me."
Apple Bloom sighed as she looked over the orders as well, "Ya know ya could just tell us 'bout stuff like this, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's just that I wasn't aware they had built and finished this thing before the message I got from them this morning," Scootaloo explained, a small grin forming on her face as she did a couple of experimental flaps. "I can't wait to put these to use in a combat situation."
"Hold your horses a bit, Scoots, Ah want ya to practice with those things first before doin' fancy stuff with them when things start to matter," Apple Bloom laughed, Causing me to chuckle as well. This was also when I noticed Ana was no longer standing behind me. Looking out the door I saw her sitting at a table in our main room with a glass of water in front of her, a disheartened expression on her face.
"Hey Ana, what's up with the moody look there?" I asked, simultaneously getting the attention of the others as we sat down with her.
"It's just... look at the three of you. Scoots has wings and I'd bet a decent amount of money that it won't be long until she figures out how to fly, Apple Bloom is so strong that she can easily beat out every single one of the marines on this planet in a contest of strength, and then there's you Sweetie. You might not be more impressive than a regular ODST but you can summon a fucking Fireball in your hand." Ana said, with tears forming in her eyes. "And then there's me, just a regular human who can't do any of that shit. I just feel severely outclassed among the three of you."
"Hey come on now, you're just as awesome as we are! You were able to keep up with me in basic when everyone else was eating my dust!" Scootaloo said as she wrapped Ana in a wing and gave her a friendly pat on the back.
"Yeah, I might be able to create a bit of a flame but that doesn't mean I'm better than you, just different!" I said, sitting down next to Ana on the opposite side to Scootaloo.
"And anyone who can get Scoots to be actin' sappy is pretty amazin' in mah book," Apple Bloom added with a smirk, Scootaloo immediately released her hug and had her face turn a deep crimson red. Something that amused the rest of us thoroughly.
"I hate all of you," Scootaloo grumbled, only making us laugh harder.
"Thanks girls, I needed that," Ana said while wiping the tears from her eyes.
"No problem, that's what family's for ain't it?" Bloom said sympathetically, getting up from her seat at the table. "Now we've been a mite bit lazy the last couple' days, Ah think it's time that we went out and did some cardio."
"You got it, sarge," Scootaloo said as she went to change her outfit again. Before long we were making our way over to one of the gyms that had been set up for the marines and ODST's that were out of rotation, but by the time we arrived my mind was wandering to the thing Apple Bloom had said.
She didn't say friends... she said family! does she really think we're that important to her?
My mind continued to mull over the proposition but without any further explanation from Bloom herself, better to file it away to ask her later whenever the opportunity would arrive.
No combat this chapter and I think I'm going to return back to Sunset before getting into a major engagement again. There's a lot of plans I have going on for Shimmer that I want to work out.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter
See ya in the next one!
Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.
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So Sunset's doing a bit of magic R&D, and sending the results to Sweetie to field-test? Shiny. Certainly affords ONI a good chance to observe the whole thing of magic from start to finish.
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I was listening to that while writing this
Those girls are sadly in for a rude awakening if the timeline follows through
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Small internet isn't it? I tend to bring that song up whenever the topics of ponies and tattoos intersect.
There is something big on the way.also wouldn't it be funny if Ana started to display a trait of the cmc being around them so much. Cause didn't Sunset say she could sense their magic compared to a human aura.
How funny would it be if Ana ascended to Alicornhood?
Since there seems to be a hit about Humans could have magic, would be interesting
I wonder how Rarity would react to a heavily-tattooed Sweetie returning and opening a tattoo parlor. Good times. Applebloom smoking a cigar was a nice touch - it may not be healthy, and I'd never push anyone to start smoking, but there's a reason the World Wars turned a lot of guys into smokers. Facing death that constantly changes your priorities. It fits for where her head's at. Also, nice expectation subversion with Scoots and ONI - nice to see characters being intelligent. I still kinda question the wings in the field (where other soldiers will doubtless see them), but maybe they can pass it off as 'experimental tech with a lot of bugs - wanna complain, do it to ONI.'
You spoil me with updates!
Good chapter, and at last you did not add the gore tag, when I read about the wing problem and how she was taking feathers, I was expecting the worse... That Scootaloo could dare to try and cut the wings yes, it was pessimist, but I'm glad that I worried over nothing
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Plucking feathers out of wings is something birds do when they experience high stress, Scoots might not have plucked her wings entirely but the act itself suggests she's under a lot of stress (Yes I'm using bird behavior to determine her stress result)
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"At first, it was going well, then setback after setback... loss after loss... made what was going to be a quick and decisive win..."
"... into five years of Hell."
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I guess is true, is just that I worry over nothing and something I think the worse so that I got a smile when it not happen...
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the Harvest campaign
Thanks for the update.
I gotta say, I’m always happy to see an update from you!
One of the things I enjoy most about these type of stories is imagining what’s going to happen when they get back and everypony’s reactions to how they’ve changed (also I have a slight hope that Ana ends up in Equestria with them, but I’ll just see how things go).
Sincerely Guardian Blade.
Unless they give permission to reveal it.
Which would be very helpful, by the way.
Seems like Sunset’s going to be a huge boon for the CMC. Her research with ONI seems to be leading towards the possibility of Equestrian genetic modifications, which will allow Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to no longer need to hide their wings and magic. On top of that, her involvement could lead to magic friendly gear being developed, and if Equestrian genetic modification starts, more winged armors to be to be developed as well. There also seems to be a decent chance that something or other she’s involved in will be used to save Ana’s life and potentially give her super powers (say ending up as a make shift Spartan/Equestrian hybrid).
Of course, there’s also the possibility of her becoming a spy (or something of the sort) alongside R&D. Mind reading powers and other magic seem like a good fit for that sort of job, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her on missions with the Crusaders down the line. Either way, it’ll definitely be fun seeing Sunset roped into this stuff.
i hate to nitpick but the BR55 battle rifle was not used in the battle for harvest the BR55 was used exlusively on the earths defense companies, weird i know but i was just spreading info love the story not to mention that custom rifle for sweetie its the shit.
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actually, I didn't pull that info out of my ass.
I quote (Halo: Contact Harvest by Joseph Staten, page 206. Harvest, February 9, 2525):
I will give that by this point it's still an ONI prototype, but they wouldn't hesitate beginning its mass production since it proved very valuable in the initial attack on Harvest.
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need more
Good story. Looking forward to seeing the next update.
Wait, how old are they now??
Well now Scoots can fly.
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Roughly....16 or 17 i would say.... But consider the following:
Can you honestly say you would not have some form of coping method for the constant stress that is the life of a soldier on deployment?
Would you, while looking me in the eye with a clear conscience, tell me that you would not have nightmares of what might happen,whether the scenario is falling in combat or even if you manage to get home alive?
Soldiers that saw combat in Vietnam had PTSD to the point where the "Vietnam flashbacks" meme, to them, IS AN ACTUAL THING THAT THEY GO THROUGH. Now factor in the fact that THEY ARE NOT EVEN 18 and yet they each have a body count most likely HIGHER than all of the Equestrian conflicts COMBINED.
Before questioning if Apple Bloom is old enough to smoke a cigar.... Ask yourself what you would be doing in her situation and mindset.
EDIT: just realized the potential context you meant to go for.... But i needed to get that off my chest..... Either way sorry.
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https://m.I just hope the presence of the girls allows for some of those setbacks to become victories, because they NEED to hold on to Harvest if they ever want to go home again, or if the UNSC wants a potential ally.
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Or at the minimum where the bridge between worlds to not be covered up or a toxic wasteland, other then that yeah covvies are gonna be a big problem