Keep Your Friends Close...
“Chief, move!” Cortana hissed. “If she grabs hold of you with her psychokinetic powers, I'll only be able to repel it once before your shields need to be fully recharged,” she added in a rush.
With his adrenaline kicking in once more, Chief attached his empty SMG to his side and stumbled to his feet as fast as he could. He turned to run, but was stopped by a not-so-invisible force. This time however, it was not just the soft yellow haze like before; there was a light blue one mixing with it.
The aura slammed him back into the ground, sending a small plume of ash into the air.
“Cortana, do it,” Chief ordered.
As the alicorns' began to approach Chief, he felt a jolt throughout his body, and saw his shields activate around him. Knowing what was about to happen, he prepared himself for another sprint through the forest.
His shields lashed out at the multicoloured aura, creating the electrical shock wave like last time and allowing him to get up. However, since both of the alicorns' were holding him this time, his shields could not repel the large aura as effectively as the last. Fortunately for him, the shockwave had managed to weaken the aura enough for him to be able to break out of it with one leap.
Chief bolted for the nearest patch of bushes to break their line of sight with. As he neared the thicket, Cortana yelled,
“Chief, evade!”
Without questioning her, he rolled to his left. Landing back on his feet, he saw a light blue blob of what looked like plasma shoot past him. Instead of hitting its intended target, the blob hit a small, half burnt tree twenty meters ahead of Chief, effectively blowing it to pieces in a small explosion. As he sprinted for cover once more, he heard a voice behind him,
“You will not get away again!” it yelled.
“Evade!” Cortana yelled once more.
It was too late though, and Chief was thrown to the ground by an unseen force. The alicorn must have hit him, he thought. Fortunately for him, his armour absorbed most of the force of the projectile exploding on his back, even though his shields were only fifty three percent charged when he was hit. Almost as soon as he slammed into the dirt, he was lifted into the air by the same light blue aura that had restrained him earlier. His shields were now at zero percent, so he only hoped they would do nothing to him for another six seconds.
The aura turned him to face his opponent, and he saw that it was the dark blue alicorn holding him. He was being suspended two meters off the ground by the strange power, which told him that whatever ability they possessed, it was strong.
Or maybe not, he thought, as he saw tiny beads of sweat dripping down the side of the alicorns head. He noticed the slightly strained look on its face as well, and he knew it wouldn't be able to hold him for very long. The other one most likely wouldn't be able to hold him for a long time either, he thought. Perhaps there was hope.
He was wrong.
“Girls, now!” the white one yelled.
He watched as the smaller ones quickly formed up in front of the two princesses. For some reason, they were wearing strange necklaces with small designs on them, such as a lightning bolt and an apple, except for the purple one, who had a large tiara atop her head. He briefly wondered what they were going to do, but forgot about it and focused once more on what he would do once he got away, as his shields were now fifty percent charged. Just a couple more seconds, he thought.
Just as his shields recharged, he noticed that the necklaces and tiara the small horses were wearing began to glow a bright white. Soon after, their eyes began glowing as well. Chief had no idea what they were going to do, but it didn't matter. He just needed to get away.
“Cortana,” he said.
That was all he had to say, and he felt his shields flaring to life once more, preparing to lash out at the blue aura surrounding him. As soon as his shields attacked the aura, repelling it, he saw the two alicorns' position themselves on each side of the group. He then noticed a soft pink aura beginning to surround the smaller ones as their pieces of jewelery and eyes continued to glow even brighter.
Then, the alicorns' horns lit up in their own respective colours. Time to move, Chief thought.
As he turned to run, Cortana yelled,
“Chief, they're generating a massive power reading! Get out of here!”
He didn't need to be told to move though, as he was already nearing cover by the time Cortana had finished speaking. As he continued sprinting, he noticed that everything seemed to become brighter. Risking a glance back at the ponies, Chief saw that the two alicorns' eyes were now glowing, and their horns had a pink aura around them, instead of a light yellow and blue one.
“Whatever they're about to do is going to hurt! GO!” Cortana screamed.
Just a few more seconds until he would reach living forest, and escape his attackers. He cursed the dragon for how large of an area its flames affected, and briefly wondered if it was dead by now. He quickly forgot about it though, as he had finally reached foliage. Just one leap and their line of sight would be broken.
Chief dove into the bushes in an attempt to roll and land back on his feet, but he did not feel himself hit the ground. Instead, he was suspended in midair, with a pink aura surrounding him.
“They're persistent,” he thought to himself, feeling more annoyed than anything else.
He then felt himself being pulled through the air at high speeds, towards the alicorns', he assumed. As he was about to tell Cortana to repel the aura once more, his shield bar began gradually draining. That was a bad sign, as they had not activated.
“These things may be more advanced than they appear to let on, Chief. Whatever they're doing is draining all of the power in your suit. There's not much I can do,” Cortana said worriedly. She continued, “Hang on, I'm going to see if I can reverse the electrical current within the aura, causing it to-” but she suddenly stopped talking.
The pressure of whatever they were doing to him strained Chief quite badly, forcing every muscle in his body to tense up. After a short while, he began to feel weak, and had to fight to stay conscious. After hearing Cortana suddenly go silent though, he realized something was wrong, and he asked through clenched teeth,
“Cortana... what's going on...?” but he received no answer.
The alicorns' continued dragging him through the air, not bothering to make him avoid the dying, burnt trees, unless he could not go through them. He plowed through most of them, but the occasional tree was still strong enough to force them to move him around it.
Eventually, he was back, visor to face with them.
“Perfect,” he thought to himself.
Chief was in no mood to interact with them to begin with, and with Cortana suddenly disappearing most likely because of the strange aura they had bestowed upon him, he would not react kindly to the equines. He had already greatly disobeyed the first contact protocols because he felt that interacting with them would only burden him and slow him down, which proved to be true. Now, however, he knew about Cortana's rampancy, and it was only getting worse. He would disobey the protocols again, if need be, as his only priority now was to keep Cortana out of harms way. He did not need any help from them, as there was no way they could help him. The only thing that could help Chief now was more time.
Noticing the lapse in his energy and his lack of struggling, the dark blue one said,
“Well, it appears whatever it may be is organic, as the incapacitation spell seems to have worked.”
“Now, if you choose to remain calm, we will ease up on our spell, and you will feel more comfortable,” the white one said calmly.
“It does not deserve to feel comfortable, sister!” the dark blue one yelled.
“Hush, Luna,” she replied. “This being may choose to use harsh actions instead of words, but we do not, unless we are given a very good reason to. We shall obey the laws of Equestria. We do not torture anyone here,” she said.
“We have been given a good reason. An excellent reason,” she shot back at her sister. “Look at what it did to that mare! It's a miracle that she is still breathing, despite our best attempts at healing her,” the alicorn yelled once more. “And not to mention what it did to Shining Armour, and the other guards,” she added in a tone quite close to the Royal Canterlot Voice.
“Luna, that is enough. I understand what you're saying, but we must avoid anymore hostile situations. As for what it did to the guards, I do not blame it for defending itself in the way it did, even if it most likely did not need to,” the one named Celestia said as she eyed Chief's solid Mark VI armour.
“And what about that mare?” the one called Luna snapped impatiently.
“We will get to that momentarily,” Celestia replied. “For now, though, I would like to know why an entire section of the Everfree forest was converted to ash,” she said. “Girls, we can now command the magic of the Elements for the time being, you may rest,” she added while looking at the six ponies between herself and Luna.
The eyes of the smaller ponies returned to their normal colours, instead of a bright white, but their necklaces and tiara did not. Instead, they continued glowing. The alicorns' horns continued to glow a light pink as well, and their eyes remained a vibrant white. The loud hum of constant energy had mostly died down, but still remained slightly.
“We have many questions for you, and I'm sure you have questions for us as well, but you will answer ours first. All of them. Am I clear?” Celestia said sternly.
“What... did you do to me?” Chief asked in a strained voice.
“We used a power that cannot be bypassed. We will not harm you with it, as long as you do not attempt to harm us. We seek peace,” she answered. “If you cooperate, this will go much more smoothly,” she added. “Will you lay down your arms and cooperate with us?” she asked, looking directly into his visor.
“Release me first,” Chief replied. He knew there was no way to evade them while they had the strange pieces of jewelery they called the “Elements” in their possession, but he did not want the aura to continue draining his strength and his armours power. He was also still unsure if Cortana's disappearance was because of the pink aura, but he would not take any chances.
“We will not release you until you prove to us that you can be trusted,” Celestia said.
“Whatever you're doing to me... is harming my armour. Release me,” he said as forcefully as he could. He did not want to reveal Cortana to them by saying that it was harming his AI, even if they would not know what that meant. He knew his armour would be able to recover from a power drain, but Cortana may not in the current state she's in.
“No, not yet,” Celestia replied.
“You don't understand... I need my armour... and whatever you're doing to me is damaging it,” he lied again. Speaking was becoming much more difficult for Chief, let alone staying conscious. Whatever the aura was doing to him, he needed it to stop.
“Is your armour essential to your survival?” Celestia asked.
“Yes,” he lied once more, as Spartans were completely independent of their armour.
Celestia and Luna exchanged glances, then returned their glowing eyes to Chief.
“Very well. We will release you, as long as you agree to turn over the weapon attached to your side,” Celestia said.
“And any other weapons you may have, such as your knife,” Luna added, looking at the sheathed combat knife attached to his belt.
“Alright,” he said flatly. As he allowed the alicorns' to pull the weapons from him with their strange pink auras, Chief noticed that they had already found his assault rifle and energy sword. They floated the weapons over to the group of guards, who already stood in front of his rifle and sword, then returned their gazes to him.
Luna spoke first, “We will release you now, but if you so much as make one false movement, we will not have mercy again,” she said slowly, with a small glare on her face.
“Do not betray our trust,” Celestia said sternly.
As the aura around Chief faded and he was lowered to the ground, he quickly began to regain his strength, and thankful that any previous strain on her would be gone, he waited for Cortana to say something. Instead, he heard nothing, so he called her name.
“Cortana?” he asked quietly.
He waited a couple more seconds, and after hearing nothing from her once more, he ran a diagnostic on all of her systems. The princesses only saw his lack of movement and speech as a way of stalling though, and Luna said,
“Now, explain to us what happened here. Why is the forest burned, and why did you harm an innocent mare?”
“Yeah! Why did you hurt Derpy?” the cyan coloured pegasus yelled angrily.
“If it was my doing, she'd be a lot worse off,” Chief replied calmly.
“Then what happened to her?” Celestia asked.
“The same thing that happened to the forest,” he answered.
“Only one creature can burn so much, are you implying what I suspect you are?” Celestia asked slowly.
“I'd like to think not, but yes,” he said.
“Then what were its motives, I wonder?” Luna asked accusingly, glaring at Chief.
“I fought back in self defense,” he replied in a flat tone. Right then, a ping sounded in his helmet, alerting him the diagnostic that he had run on Cortana had finished. Checking it, he read that her condition was critical and that she was red across the board, which he already knew. However, it showed major power fluctuations in her Riemann Matrix, a main component in her programming. He had to get her out of the forest very soon.
“Then how did that mare get involved?” Celestia asked.
“She was waiting for me here, and she was injured by the boulder inside of that cave. If it didn't hit me before her, she would be dead right now,” Chief answered.
“Very well. If that is the truth, then we apologize for being so quick to blame you. However, because of your actions during our last encounter, you have brought our brash feelings and thoughts towards you upon yourself,” she replied.
“It doesn't matter,” he said, “I'm not here to make friends, and I'm skeptical in believing that you can help me in my current situation,” he paused, “I just need a way off of this planet.”
“You should have told us that to begin with,” Celestia replied. “We could have avoided what happened before. Why did you not just tell us this then?” she asked.
“I don't need a group of primitive horses following me around asking questions and wasting my time,” he said flatly.
“We ponies are more capable than you think.” Luna glared at him.
“You do not need us wasting your time? What do you mean?” Celestia asked.
“It's classified,” Chief replied, with no intention of answering anymore questions on the matter. Continuing, he said, “Being inside of this forest doesn't help though. There are large electromagnetic fields all throughout it that interfere with my suits systems. I'd appreciate if we could move this elsewhere.”
Chief knew no way of escaping them while they had the “Elements”, so he would go along with them for now. He just wanted to get Cortana out of the forest.
Celestia thought for a brief second, then Luna cautiously said to her,
“Sister, we are not bringing it back to the castle, or anywhere near civilization. Not until we can be sure it won't be a repeat of our last encounter,” while glancing towards the Spartan.
“I agree,” Celestia replied, “however, the forest is no safe place to be, and the dragon may return any...” her sentence trailed off as she noticed the thick trail of blood the beast had left behind during its slow and painful retreat. No one had been able to see it before, as the dark blood blended quite well with the burnt ground. Now that Celestia was so close to it, however, she was able to make out the slight colour difference, and even bits of flesh, organs, and bullet casings. Following her gaze, the rest of the ponies spied the dark trail as well, and soon after began to notice shattered teeth and battered scales littering the ground, buried in the dirt and ash.
Realizing they had discovered the apparent fate of the dragon, Chief decided to remain silent. He expected the alicorns' to be angry with him again, but instead, he heard the small yellow pony with the pink mane and tail fearfully ask,
“Why d-did you have to d-do that to it?”
Looking directly at the fragile pony, Chief said,
“When something tries to kill you, you fight back.”
“Well I think you're just a big jerk!” the cyan pegasus with the ridiculous rainbow mane and tail yelled at him. It then angrily asked, “What gives you the right to just come in here and start attacking everybody and everything?” while it hovered in the air and pointed accusingly at Chief.
“I don't want to be here anymore than any of you want me to be,” he replied, understanding that they all wanted him gone.
“Well why don't you just go back to your metal thing and leave then?” it yelled again.
“If my vessel were still operational, I wouldn't be here right now,” he said.
“Rainbow, that's enough!” the orange pony with the Southern accent and stetson hat said, biting onto her tail and pulling her down to the ground.
Twilight then took a small step towards Celestia and said,
“Princess, with all due respect, I don't think taking it back to the castle sounds like a good idea anymore. I don't want that thing coming anywhere near Ponyville, Canterlot, or anywhere. Not after what it did to my brother.” She glared at Chief, but broke eye contact soon after meeting his gaze.
“I understand, and I do not either, but we cannot let it roam free. However, we cannot stay in the forest,” she replied.
“Why don't we put it in the castle dungeons?” Rainbow Dash muttered more to herself than anyone else.
“I highly doubt the dungeon, or even the caves beneath the castle would hold it for very long. Celestia and I have already considered that,” Luna said.
“Shouldn't we try to hide it until we can be sure it's safe though? If we brought it to Canterlot, someone would surely see it, and that would cause a panic,” Rarity said worriedly.
“Hold up everypony! We can't just keep calling it “It”,” Pinkie exclaimed. “Do you have a name?” she asked. From hearing the voice of the pony alone, Chief thought it was crazy. Upon examining her pink coat and mess of a tail and mane, his thoughts were confirmed.
“So far I've seen nothing but fairy tale and cartoon creatures. This planet is a joke,” he thought to himself.
“Well?” the pony eagerly pressed. Chief wondered if its insanity was enough to mask its fear, as it showed no signs of being scared, or even intimidated by him. He briefly wondered if there was some sort of narcotic on the planet that the pony may have consumed regularly, but quickly refocused on its question.
“You can call me by my rank. Master Chief,” he answered.
“Ooh, is it a high rank?” it asked excitedly. He was going to ignore the question anyway, but the cyan coloured one then spoke.
“Pinkie! Why are you being nice to it? Don't you remember what it did?” it yelled to the pink pony.
“Well, yeah, but if we only think about the bad things it did, how can we ever find the good in it?” it asked innocently.
“I don't think there is any good in it,” the cyan pony replied.
The orange pony in the stetson hat then spoke up, “Sometimes you can't become friends with certain ponies, or, uh... things, Pinkie.”
The pink pony replied glumly, “But, if we just gave it another chance...”
“We have already given it enough chances,” Luna said fiercly. “Celestia,” she said, “I agree with you that we should not be inside of the forest, especially during Fall when the night comes earlier, but we must make sure it has no ill intentions before bringing it out into the open where someone may see it.”
“Yes, I know. Even though we possess the Elements Of Harmony, I do not want to take any chances. I will not have anymore of our subjects injured, or worse,” Celestia replied.
“Can't I just say I promise not to hurt anyone?” Chief asked in a non serious tone.
“Do not make a promise you cannot keep,” Celestia said sternly.
“Where have I heard that before,” he thought to himself.
“Sister, I believe I have an idea,” Luna said.
“What is it?” Celestia glanced to her sister.
“Perhaps we can use the Elements to search inside of the mind of this creature, and, perhaps, we may find some amount of good inside of it,” she answered. “If we do, then we will be able to use the Elements on it without any ill effect, and only the good will be revealed,” she said.
“A thought that had crossed my mind earlier,” Celestia replied, “as it would make things much easier for everyone, especially the girls, since we would not need to have the Elements constantly nearby for the incapacitation spell,” she said. “However,” she continued, “the reason I did not want to rely on this method is because a spell such as that is no easy one to disengage from, and inside of the wrong mind, the Elements may react violently to any disharmony found,” she paused, “and the reaction would very well mimic torture, if not worse. Especially if there was no good to be found.”
“This is the best option though,” Luna replied. “Causing pain to it is a risk we must take, especially when it may very well be the solution to our problem, assuming that there may be good inside of it,” she added. She would not feel guilt if their spell caused pain to Chief, but ultimately, she only wanted to ensure the safety of their subjects.
After thinking for a few moments, Celestia calmly said, “Very well.” She then said, “We would not have been able to use the Elements extensively anyway, as it would put too much strain on us. I had just hoped that we would have been able to achieve peace in an alternative way. Let us hope this works.”
“Then it is settled,” Luna said, looking towards Chief.
“You are not entering my mind,” Chief said sternly as Luna began to approach him.
“You have no choice,” she said while glaring at him. She continued approaching him, then looked back to Celestia and said, “Sister, I need you here.”
Celestia reluctantly moved to Luna's side, then both of their horns began to glow an even brighter pink than before. Their eyes and the Elements of Harmony began to glow a much brighter white as well.
“This must be done. Cooperate with us, and it will be that much easier,” Celestia said. She didn't know if it actually would be any easier, whether he cooperated or not. She knew what would happen if the elements did not find good inside of it though, or even worse, if they found disharmony, or evil, instead.
“You had me hand over my weapons so you could take me down without a fair fight,” Chief said flatly.
“We are in no way attempting to fight you. This will help you,” Celestia replied.
“Do not try to enter my mind. I'm warning you,” he said cautiously. He knew what the alicorns would find if they entered his mind, and it wouldn't end well.
“Do not try to intimidate us,” Luna snarled back to him.
As they continued to approach Chief, his adrenaline began to return. He would not be able to evade them, so he had only one option left.
“We must perform the incapacitation spell on you once more. As we are entering your mind, what you will feel may vary from a slight tingle to a violent shock,” Celestia said. “Once we are inside, however, it will be as if you were unconscious, and you will feel nothing.” She, along with Luna, was now only five meters away from Chief.
It was time to take action.
As soon as she finished speaking, Chief charged towards the princesses. He reached them in a split second and grabbed them both by their throats, clamping down on them in attempt to crush their windpipes. His speed and strength had caught them off guard, and he almost succeeded in killing them, but the alicorns quickly restrained him with the pink aura once more. They forced him to release his grip, then held him in place. They were both stunned by how fast and strong he was, but quickly recovered.
“How dare you lay your hands on us!” Luna seethed.
“I understand your feelings on the thought of us entering your mind, and possibly causing pain, but I now see that the only way to achieve any amount of peace is with this method,” Celestia said loudly. She was angered that he had made another attempt on their lives, yet she understood why. There were no other options though, and they could not have him roaming freely.
Chief felt his strength leaving him once more as they forced him to his knees, and he could nothing but watch as the alicorns' approached him and lowered their horns to his helmet. Their horns were now glowing an intense pink, and upon contact, Chief felt a huge amount of energy surge through every nerve in his body. It created a deafening sound as the energy they produced all flowed into him. As they continued producing energy, a light pink aura began to take place around their bodies, gradually increasing in size and brightness.
The feeling of the energy surging through his body was beginning to feel like an electrocution. It started out as a painless wave of shocks, but soon turned into violent jolts of energy. The feeling continued for a short while, but suddenly, he was not able to feel anything except for a searing pain inside of his head. It felt as if his brain was on fire, and even the training he had received to be able to ignore pain could not lessen the feeling any. As the pain continued, he began to feel distant, and he knew he would soon be unconscious.
Then, he felt nothing. Everything had become black, and it was as if he were floating around outside of his body.
He then saw something he could not explain. He spied a glowing blue light far off in the distance. He tried to find the cause of it, but he could not figure out what it was, or what it was coming from.
Suddenly, another light appeared to his left. He examined it, and noticed many different colours inside of it. He saw red, green, yellow, and blue, among others. He recognized them as the colours of a rainbow. The new light then moved towards the blue one, passing right by Chief. It seemed like it did not know he was there, and he briefly wondered if he was dead, but ignored the thought and continued watching as the rainbow light approached the blue one. It stopped in front of the blue light and remained several inches, or feet, away from it. Chief could not tell how long the distance actually was. The rainbow light then began to slowly move towards the blue one, and upon making contact with it, the blue light instantly moved back. They hovered at a brief stand off with each other, but then, something happened.
The blue light flickered red.
The rainbow light then attempted to make contact with the blue one once more, but this time, as soon as they met, the blue light turned completely red. Suddenly, it took on the form of what could only be Cortana. She was completely red, and the numbers that scrolled across her body were moving at ten times the speed they normally did.
Chief didn't know what to think at first, but when he examined Cortana, he knew she was in very bad condition. She looked very distraught. Suddenly, she began to flicker rapidly, and then, she looked directly at the rainbow coloured light. She then became furious, and glaring at the rainbow light, she bellowed,
“GET OUT!”
As soon as she yelled, everything became black again. Chief lay still, as he was unable to move or think. After laying still for an unknown amount of time, he began to feel a slight tingle. Slowly, the tingle grew, spreading all over him until eventually he realized that it was his body regaining circulation.
He was regaining his ability to think now, so he tried to open his eyes, or at least he thought he did, because he noticed dark shapes in his vision. The shapes slowly began to gain more detail, and eventually he was able to make out what looked like trees looming over him. His cone cells then began to function once more, and he was able to see the colours of his surroundings. As his eye sight came back to him, he recognized his surroundings as the burnt forest.
Instead of being upright like he was before the alicorns' entered his mind, Chief was now lying on his back, staring up into the burnt forest canopy. He was going to attempt to get up, when he heard muffled sounds. At first he heard what he thought were footsteps, and then he heard voices as well. He heard the voices yelling, and he thought he heard someone yell “Princesses”, but he could not be sure. Slowly, the rest of his senses returned to him, and he thought he could taste copper. He knew this was not a good sign.
He could hear the voices clearly now, and he heard someone yell,
“What is that thing?” in a frightened voice.
Chief needed to know what was happening. He was still shaky, but he was able to move now. As he got to his feet in one quick motion, he looked at the group of ponies in front of him. The smaller ponies were startled by his sudden movements, and looked to him with wide eyes. The two alicorns', however, were glaring at him, as well as the guards that now stood in front of them, their spears raised.
He noticed that the pink aura dancing around the alicorns' horns was moving much more slowly now, and was significantly more dim. Their horns also appeared to be slightly charred.
The Spartan was ready for another fight, and was prepared to charge at them in an attempt to shatter their horns, when he heard a voice behind him,
“Chief?”
He turned around, and saw Cortana. As she said his name, she was flickering red, but returned to her normal blue colour once Chief turned around.
“Cortana, what happened?” he asked.
“I... I don't know,” she answered shakily. “You were being pulled through the air by that aura, and I just... couldn't handle it. My Riemann Matrix was suffering major power fluctuations because of it, and I guess I just temporarily... collapsed,” she said quietly.
Turning back to the ponies, Chief said,
“So it was because of you,” in a threatening tone.
Celestia began to say, “We have found the source of disharmony inside of you. We must remove it, or-” but she was abruptly cut off.
“Shut it, you bitch!” Cortana spat.
Turning back to her, Chief noticed that she had tripled in size, and was red once more. She floated to his side, and glared at Celestia and Luna with pure hatred in her red eyes.
“Excuse me?” Celestia replied, taken aback by Cortana's words.
“How dare you!” Luna spat.
“How dare I!?” Cortana bellowed. “Do you have any idea how much pain that thing put me in!?” She screamed at the princesses.
“We had no way of knowing,” Celestia said, glaring back at Cortana.
“Oh, but it doesn't end there,” Cortana said. “You then proceeded to enter my Spartans mind and attempt to perform some sort of scan on me!” she yelled once more. As she spoke, she began to emit small waves of energy.
“Cortana! Calm down,” Chief said slowly. “You need to take it easy.”
“I... I know,” she replied. As she spoke to Chief, she briefly returned to normal, but returned to her state of rampancy once more as Celestia spoke.
“As I was saying, Master Chief, when we entered your mind, we found many things. We now realize that you certainly are not evil, but instead... lost. I cannot imagine how you pulled through everything that has happened to you in your life, such as having your childhood taken away, and... many other things... but we have also found what we believe to be the source of disharmony inside of you,” Celestia said sympathetically.
“What are you talking about?” Chief asked impatiently.
“Your companion, Cortana,” she answered. She continued, “To have something as disharmonious as her inside of your mind is very dangerous. She must be removed.”
“Hah, you want to remove me? By the looks of it, your race hasn't even developed modern weaponry yet, so how the hell do you plan on removing an artificial intelligence construct from the Master Chief's neural implants?” Cortana asked in a cocky tone.
“The same way we entered your “Spartans” mind. With the powers of harmony,” Celestia answered.
“How incredibly cliché,” Cortana replied.
“You are not doing anything to Cortana,” Chief said defensively.
“There is no other option. We must do this, for everyone's safety,” Celestia replied.
“As long as you stay out of our way, no one has to be in danger,” Cortana shot back.
“Silence!” Luna bellowed to Cortana. “You will allow us to be rid of that thing. To have such a deadly being running around freely with such disharmony inside of it is completely illogical,” she said to Chief. “Sister, let us begin,” she said to Celestia as her horn began to glow brighter.
“You fools, I cannot directly affect his actions even if I wanted to!” Cortana snapped.
Ignoring her comment, the two princesses began to approach Chief once more, horns both glowing a bright pink. Chief was almost out of options, but he spied his unguarded weapons lying in a pile off to his right. Cortana saw them too, and quickly said,
“Chief, the assault rifle has five rounds in it, make them count.”
He readied himself to leap for the rifle, then dove towards it with great power. His aim and strength combined perfectly, and he landed directly on top of it. Grabbing the assault rifle in mid roll, he landed back on his feet and turned to face the princesses, weapon shouldered and aimed at Celestia. He tapped the trigger, sending three bullets flying towards her head. Instead of hitting their target though, the bullets hit a barrier that suddenly formed around her body.
At that moment, three of the pegasi guards in golden armour decided to take action. As the first one attacked, the other two hovered in front of the princesses. The first one, thinking it could get a swipe at him from above, flew into the air and dove towards him with its spear held out in front of it. Seeing this as an opportunity to even up his odds, Chief quickly attached his rifle to his back, and as the pegasus flew over him he quickly ducked and grabbed onto the spear as it attempted to swipe at him, then slammed it and the pegasus into the ground.
The pegasus was stunned from having its momentum completely stopped and instead being sent flying into the ground, so it could do nothing but submit as Chief quickly snatched it up and held it by the neck and muzzle.
“Good thinking. If they try anything, I should be able to disrupt the electrical current long enough for you to show them that you don't mess around,” Cortana said to Chief.
“Now,” Chief said, “if you try to hurt Cortana, I hurt him.”
The guard managed a small whimper through Chief's gauntlet, and attempted to squirm out of his grip, but gave up very quickly.
“And don't think about trying to stop us with the “powers of harmony”, it'll only take a second for Chief to snap this poor sods neck,” Cortana said.
The princesses glanced at each other, and not wanting to risk anyone else being harmed, released their magical energy and stepped back.
“As I said, you are not doing anything to Cortana,” Chief stated.
“But we must! She is very dangerous, and to have her inside of your head is even more dangerous,” Luna replied.
“What makes you think I'm dangerous? Your harmony? Well, not everything in this galaxy is harmonious!” Cortana yelled, emitting another wave of energy.
“But our land is,” Luna growled. “And since you are inside of his mind, there is no way to remove you other than removing you entirely,” she said.
“That's not going to happen,” Chief said. He continued, “Cortana is not controlling my actions, and there is no way she can. The reason I am being violent towards you is entirely because I choose to be, not because of any “disharmony” inside of me.”
Celestia gave him a disapproving look as he spoke, then said, “Even so, she must be dealt with. She is dangerous, is she not?”
Chief replied, “No, as long as you don't invade my mind again. She's just damaged, and needs to be repaired.”
The guard squirmed once more, but Chief tightened his grip.
“Then you must repair her,” Luna said. “Now.”
“I can't,” Chief replied.
“Well you must figure out a way, or we will be forced to continue casting the incapacitation spell on you.” Luna stepped forward menacingly.
Chief twisted the guards neck slightly, threatening to snap it and forcing Luna to move back.
“Why can't you?” Celestia asked.
“I don't know how, and even if I did, I don't have the tools to do it,” he answered.
“Well we must do something.” Luna looked to Celestia. “We cannot stay here threatening eachother, but we cannot bring him back to civilization, and we certainly cannot allow him to roam free,” she said.
“As long as you and any others stay away from us we will not harm anyone,” Cortana said. “We simply wish to be alone,” she said while glaring at the princesses again.
“No, we do not trust you enough to leave you alone. We do not know where you would wander to, and what you would do once there,” Celestia replied.
“All we want is to return to our vessel. The only reason we're in this forest now is because we fled from it in an attempt to stay hidden,” Chief said.
“The answer is no,” Celestia said. “We are not leaving a being so lethal and violent unwatched.”
“What can you possibly accomplish by constantly watching us?” Cortana asked in an annoyed tone.
“Keeping our subjects safe.” Celestia looked to the gray mare, bruised and bloodied, lying on the ground. Looking back to Chief and Cortana, she then asked, “How do you plan on returning to wherever it is you come from though?”
“We don't know. We're still waiting for someone to find our distress beacon,” Chief answered.
“And do you have any idea when that will be?” Luna asked in a tone signalling she wanted it to be very soon.
Cortana answered, “No. It's been well over four years and no one has found it yet.”
“Four years?” Celestia questioned. “You have only been here for one night and a day though.”
“We drifted in Space for a very long time,” Cortana replied.
“What do you mean?” Luna asked impatiently.
“We were attempting to return home via a slipspace portal, but the portal collapsed while only half of our vessel was through,” she answered. “So Chief went into cryo sleep, and I... I did nothing.”
“How were you able to survive in Space for four years?” Celestia asked, intrigued by their story.
“It's not important. What's important is that someone finds our beacon,” Chief said.
“If no one has found you for four years, do you believe that anyone is even looking?” Luna asked skeptically.
“Of course someone is looking.” Cortana snapped. “Chief is a war hero, he has saved the entire galaxy, but none of you would know anything about it, seeing as you were all too busy here enjoying your harmony,” she spat. Cortana was beginning to emit waves of energy once more, so Chief quickly placed a hand over her floating avatar to return her to his mind, then returned the hand back to the guards muzzle. As Cortana disappeared into his hand in a blue haze, he earned quizzical looks from the ponies.
“We don't know when we'll be found,” Chief said slowly.
The princesses glanced at each other as if they were contemplating something. This was the second time Chief had seen them do this, and he briefly wondered if they were able to communicate like that, but his thoughts were interrupted when Celestia spoke.
“We have made a decision. We cannot have you going about freely, and you need somewhere to stay for the time being. Since we now know that you are not...” she paused, trying to choose the proper word, “...evil, we would like for you to return to our castle with us.”
Chief was surprised at hearing them say that, but he did not care. “No,” he replied, “we're staying in the forest, near our vessel.” He then added, “You should leave.”
Luna then spoke up, “You do not understand. You will return with us. We will not allow you to be unwatched while you are here.”
“We're staying. You're wasting your time.” Chief stepped closer to his weapons on the ground.
“Why would you want to stay in the forest?” Celestia asked. “Is there something valuable to you on board your vessel?”
Chief knew the Dawn represented very little significance other than being one of the two landmarks he knew on the planet, but he did not want to abandon it. He especially did not want any of the ponies tampering with any of the useful gear and supplies that may still be on board.
“Chief, maybe we should go with them. It would be a lot easier than running again, and we have nothing to do but wait for the UNSC to find our beacon anyway,” Cortana said inside his helmet. “As much as we both hate the thought of having to interact with these things even more, the Dawn has no power, and there's not much more on board it. We've also got nowhere else to go.” She then slowly said, “And I need to get out of this forest... I... I don't know how much longer I can handle it. It and the aura have really done a number on me.”
Chief was beginning to worry much more about Cortana. One moment she was unable to control her anger towards the alicorns, and the next she wanted to go with them. He knew that she had approached the anger stage of rampancy, but she seemed to be becoming more unpredictable as well. She did have a point, however, but he still did not like the idea of going with them. He needed to get Cortana out of the forest though, and going with them peacefully would be the easiest way, as he would not have to evade the ponies constantly, and he would not need to return to the forest.
“Alright,” he said. He briefly wondered how long he could keep avoiding Cortana's demise like this, but pushed the thought to the back of his mind instantly.
“Someone will find us,” he thought to himself.
“I'll go with you for now.” Chief released the guard, dropping him hard onto the scorched ground. He watched as the guard launched himself at his fellow troops, practically hiding behind them. The sight was slightly amusing to Chief.
He then attempted to retrieve the rest of his weapons.
“Not so fast,” Celestia said, grabbing the weapons with her magic.
“Don't test me,” Chief growled.
“You may have them back once we are sure you can be trusted.” She pulled the assault rifle from his back, then began to pull his weapons towards her with her magic.
“Easy Chief. Play along for now,” Cortana warned.
Acknowledging her, Chief said, “Alright, but these stay with me,” as he grabbed his energy sword and combat knife from her aura.
Luna glared at him and was about to command him to return the weapons, but Celestia shook her head at her. The pink glow around Celestia's horn then vanished, and her eyes returned to their original violet colour. She looked to Luna, who then did the same. As the princesses released the magic of the Elements, the necklaces and tiara ceased to glow.
“Now then,” Celestia said, looking to the bearers of the Elements, “girls, I would like for you to remain at the castle for the next few days. We may need the Elements of Harmony once more.” She then looked to Chief, “We will be bringing you to the capital city of our land, Canterlot. There will be many ponies there, so we will keep you inside of the castle for the first while, under constant watch. Eventually, we will allow you access to the castle grounds as well, but you will be escorted.”
“Just play along...” Cortana repeated.
“And you had better keep your companion, Cortana, in check,” Luna sneered, turning away from them.
“Play along,” Chief mocked jokingly.
“Focus,” Cortana replied, obviously annoyed.
With a smirk, Chief sheathed his combat knife and attached his energy sword to his side.
“Now then, we must get moving.” Celestia glanced at the sun. “It must be around two o'clock. I would not like to stay inside of the Everfree Forest for any longer than we must.”
“I don't suppose we'll be able to fit him into one of the chariots?” Rarity muttered.
“I'm afraid not,” Celestia replied. “Guards, we can take care of everything from here. Return to the castle with the chariots, and notify the rest of the guard that we will be returning with the...” she glanced towards Chief as if to ask which species he belonged to.
“Human.” He had caught the hint.
“And bring that pegasus with you. Have her receive medical attention right away," she said to the guard standing closest to the injured mare.
“Master Chief, as we walk, you will answer the rest of our questions.” She walked to the front of the group then said, “Classified or not.”
“You will walk ahead of us,” Luna stated.
Chief began to make his way to the front of the group, but as he walked, he heard a small voice to his left,
“Thanks for protecting me, mister.”
Looking to where it came from, he saw the gray pegasus from before being carried to the chariots on the back of one of the guards. It was smiling weakly at him, and sounded as if it had put much effort into saying those five words.
Even though he was defending himself from the dragon more than anything, he nodded at her.
As Chief began walking to the front of the group once more, he noticed the princesses and the rest of the ponies exchanging surprised looks with each other. They definitely did not expect to hear that, he thought.
Upon him reaching the front of the group, Celestia said,
“Now, explain to us exactly how you managed to survive drifting in space for four years, then survive crash landing onto our planet.”
“So it begins...” Cortana muttered.
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Author's note:
- I have made minor tweaks to the chapter "First Contact" to make Chief's senseless violence slightly make more sense. It's nothing you'll lose sleep over for not reading, but go back and re read that part if you wish
- Cortana's font is in italic only when she is speaking inside of Chief's head/armour, whatever it is. This is for those of you who couldn't piece it together. I have also made an extremely minor tweak in the chapter "Low On Time" involving this
- I have learned new things about dialogue, so hopefully I did all that correctly. Also, please report any errors at all you find to me
- For the next little while I'll be revising each chapter fully, (Dialogue, any grammatical issues, run on sentences, wall of texts, etc etc) and a new chapter won't be out for another week, or two at the most. Sorry, blame the schooling system for not teaching the shit it should be
And sorry about making this chapter more talk and less action, but I gotta' thicken the plot.
Or something like that.
Seeya' starside.
UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE YAYS!
"Classified or not."
Yeah, I doubt that is gonna make Chief say anything at all.
1743270
You're damn right it isn't lmao.
God, finally an update!! i was waiting 4 ever!
1743275
Good.
Chief bows to no one.
Except the UNSC heads.
But only if the ideas are good.
1743288
Yeah,
Fuck your shit Del Rio!
getting good. really good. keep it up.
I see the ponies are a stupid bunch in this one.
1743120
And the thought plickens.
Plot development is always a good thing. And now thanks to the Didact it actually makes sense for telekinesis to incapacitate the Chief.
Still, the whole mind-reading thing just feels terribly cliched. Not necessarily bad, just "Welp. Seen this before." Based on the newest episode it may actually be possible, as Trixie essentially plays home movies from her horn, so that could probably be used on other ponies.
Grammatically, I noticed a few tense shifts. Those should be fixed.
The only other real potential problem is the Chief's dialogue. It feels about right, but just for future info, he virtually never says anything he does not need to. Basically, to everyone else except Cortana or fellow Spartan-IIs, he might as well be a robot for all the conversational skills he has.
For ideas for his dialogue, Halo 4 is a gold mine. Just comparing his speech to Cortana to his speech to anybody else is like night and day.
And why does it seem like the Princesses, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash always go into complete bitch-mode in stories like this?
THIRD! AND AN UPDATE! MFW this!
i1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj580/charlieg1999/SPARTANS/tumblr_m9zj24S9bZ1qcakl4o1_r1_500.gif
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I WANT MOAR SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!! I FUCKING LOVE THIS STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yay update!!!
As for the fight you did a good job not making the Chief a complete pushover but also keeping the number of dying ponies to zero, and finding a way to peacefully (at least for the time being) resolve the crisis!
I await more!
1743120
Preaching to the choir buddy. Anyway nice chapter and let the plot thicken... or something like that.dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Twilight_Sparkle.png
1743376
Lol.
Sigh... All I feel with this chapter is disappointment. Why is master chief such a little bitch? Not to mention... shouldn't Celestia be SOMEWHAT disturbed? I find it hard to believe that even she isn't disturbed in the slightest. So far the weakness of our human has just made me mad if nothing else. Obviously you're not going to change your story in the slightest so I don't know why I even bother.
Also, fuck mind reading... I hate that shit.
MY NIPPLES NEED MOAR TO LIVE!!!!
1743389
Lol don't bother then.
1743294 ESPECIALLY not to bitches lik the princesses. Which brings me to ask why you made the ponies total xenophobic ass hats in this fic? They literally don't listen to a word the chief says
1743393
Tru dat... But seriously? Couldn't you have made Chief a tiny bit less of a 'bitch' (for lack of a better word)
Nice chapter and all but one flaw, the spell shouldn't had worked because it doesn't work on metal and his armor is linked to his brain so it works like a other body for him.
1743396
Are you calling him a bitch because of him trying to keep Cortana alive or lack of psycho violence this chapter?
Or none of the above? Hahaha
This "first contact protocols are to be ignored" seems to be the rule with any fic. Why is it no one plays by the rules!?!
1743408
Bitch please, the Elements of Harmony don't follow the rules!
1743419 Still, you're doing it wrong. static2.fjcdn.com/comments/en.wikipedia.org+wiki+Leif...+celebrating+Leif+erikson+_7887e513d45f563de9832db912515eab.jpg
1743434
Why wouldn't their spell work on his armour?
1743438 Because, they said it them self. they hoped that he was organic or else it would't work and his armor is not organic. and its directly linked to his brain so it does action before though.
Watch death battle Master chief vs DOOM guy, they tell everything about his armor there.
1743409
First, I would like to apologize for the first comment. My emotions got the better of me. It really... 'urks' me when characters are allowed to use unrestricted mind reading. For someone who is a benevolent and kind ruler, she sure has no respect for other peoples privacy. Granted, he is a powerful enemy who is on the loose but still. Also, I find it confusing that Celestia is not phased by John's memories in the slightest. If you have read the books, you would know that he has seen some fucked up things in his life. e.g. human/flood form where the human could still talk but not control his actions, a few million people massacred, ect. According to canon, the worst thing Celestia has seen is Discord full out. We both know Discord isn't one for straight out killing, he just likes to have fun at the expense of others. Nothing Celestia has seen can even begin to match what John has seen. I would imagine she would have PTSD after experiencing his whole life within a few moments. As for the little bitch comment, I suppose I kinda blame the 'lack of violence' as well as you. Celestia seems a tad bit over powered while the chief seems to be a whole new caliber of nerfed.
*Sigh* I could be doing something useful, like programming, instead I'm sitting here and complaining about stories with ponies in them. Can you at least raise my hopes by telling me there will be revenge?
p.s. Chief seemed pretty chill about having his mind read, attacked, and being given no options or choices on what happens to him.
[img] http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4621140817084808&pid=1.9[/img]
Now back to waiting
1743452
That's not what they meant, if he was just armour and nothing else, then yeah it wouldn't work. He's a human being though, flesh and bone, with a mind. It's just under the armour. His mind being connected to his armour wouldn't keep them from entering it.
1743462 Wait, I'm talking about the incapacitation spell that they used. you're talking about the mind entering spell. ahhhh, that I have nothing against. i was talking about the complete other thing here.
1743408
This is true, the Elements should have not been able to see Cortana. I could write another wall of text explaining the reasoning behind it, but meh.
1743458
I was going to add in a bit about Celestia and Luna's thoughts on his memories, but it would have slowed things down too much. Either way, they are goddesses, and they'll be able to somewhat deal with it. Besides, that's not the last time they'll be dealing with them anyway, they'll be questioning certain things in the next chapter.
And right now the Elements of Harmony are giving them most of their power. Even Chief can't resist those. But he'll find a way. Violence is in his nature.
Finally an update its been to long old friend.
1743476
Even so, he's still flesh and bone under the armour.
1743491
So... The only reason they're not laying in the corner in the fetal position crying is because of the Elements? Personally I would accept this, but I would expect some kind of 'holy shit that was disturbing' later on. Anyway I'll stop poking holes in your story and go to sleep, night.
1743495 still, if the spell worked as you are now saying than he would't had been able to talk, and he talked, that is enough to think straight. still, you have now wrote the chapter your way and I'm not saying it was bad, it was a good chapter. And you had that Humans/Ponies conflict in the beginning which i like with these stories. can't wait for more.
1743270 All he needs to do is hold the energy sword up to his neck and say that if he answers a specific question he would have to kill himself!
Luna- "Give me that chip"
Master cheif- "The Didact has to be stopped, if you won't do that then I will"
Luna- "The fuck?"
1743527
I would have liked to hear the princesses thoughts on his memories
1743569
We will, trust me.
Excellent
I know that Master Chief is a complete badass in everyway shape and form as well as a complete douchebag in terms of how he acts to others (
) but I personally see him as being a little overly hostile to this situation.
But that is just me. Love the story and am surprised it wasn't fave'd earlier.
I nearly punched my screen from reading the 'harmony' part. CAUSE OF LUNA AND CELESTIA BEING CRAZY. But it's so
INTERESTING
1743624
Oh, my.
1743641
Thanks for the awesome chapter
Dont worry mate, i have about 7-9 copies of my computer screen.
1743648
Hahaha wat.
And no prob!