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1. Arrival1,338 words
2. The Impact of being Awoken1,737 words
3. Sleeping and Waking in the Dark1,820 words
4. Hunting Intruders3,056 words
5. The Hunter697 words
6. First Impressions1,673 words
7. My Little Halo Origins: Master Chief3,613 words
8. My Little Halo Origins: Celestia3,169 words
9. Where There's a Will...2,915 words
10....There's a Way3,134 words
11. What Lies Behind Those Doors?3,428 words
12. New Friends, Old Acquaintances3,775 words
Bonus Chapter I: The Vision1,039 words
13. The Journey Begins3,054 words

13. The Journey Begins

"I, am Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, creator of the Spartan program."

The ending of the sentence echoed around the room, bouncing off of the crystals and into the ears of the present ponies, seemingly taunting them. All of them stood there, staring at her, even the Arbiter. Apparently, he had not been told that she had made the Spartans. The guards however, had no idea what she was talking about.

Halsey was suddenly jerked backwards by midnight blue magic and thrown onto the floor. She cried out in pain as she landed on her elbow wrong. A blue shape zipped past John and pinned Halsey to the glass-like floor.

“So it was you! It was you who kidnapped John and forced him into a military life!” Luna’s eyes were filled with rage as she seemingly stared directly into Halsey’s soul. “Why did you do it? Why did you take him away from a life full of fun and surprises? Was it for an experiment? Just to say you did it?”

Halsey’s own emotions ran over her face like a slide show, starting with anger, and progressing through suspicion, thoughtful, and finally settled onto neutrality. “I regret what I did to them every waking moment. But it had to be done, or else there would have been a complete collapse of government. Drastic military action needed to be taken against the rebellion.”

Her explanation did little to calm the protective princess. “I care nothing for your excuses. I will eliminate anyone involved with their indoctrination, starting with you.” She began to charge her horn to blast the woman into dust, but a blur she saw in her peripheral vision forced her to change her spell from offensive, to defensive, forming a shield around her.

It was a good thing she did too, as the Chief barreled into the blue shield. The shield cracked under the pressure, and Luna was pushed to the right several yards. Many of the guards stood there in shock. The Master Chief had just been on their side, assisting with the recent changeling invasion, and now he was attacking one of the princesses?

However, once they overcame their shock, they surrounded John, forming a circle around him with their spears pointed inwards. Arbiter pushed through the line of guards, quickly taking his place in a back-to-back with John. “Just like old times, hmm Spartan?”

John merely nodded in response, thinking of different strategies to use to fight the guards. He didn’t want to kill any of them, leaving Canterlot vulnerable to another invasion, so he’d have to be careful when he did knock them out. He quickly switched the spear so that the blunt end was pointing forward and not the bladed end.

The tension in the room began to rise, Luna watching with worry, hoping it wouldn’t break out into a fight, but still in shock from John’s ‘betrayal’ to say anything to stop it. Right as it seemed that one of the groups would attack, Cortana finally spoke up. “Are you all stupid? Of course he would protect her! She’s practically a mother to him.” She used an emphasis on the word him, as if to show that it was to only him, and not her as well. “Isn’t loyalty one of your principals to live by? She gave him and made him everything he is today, and has always supported him for the past twenty-seven years. How long has he known you? Three days.”

She walked through the line of guards, and in front of the spears, forcing them to withdraw, lest they somehow injure one of the princesses. After having her guards withdraw their weapons, Luna watched as the new princess walked up to Halsey and the two began to talk.

“Hello Doctor,” said Cortana, her voice carefully guarded against the human genius. “I trust you have an explanation for how you got here?”

Halsey carefully examined the neon blue alicorn, before realization dawned upon her face. “As usual, I do Cortana. Back at Installation 03, a Forerunner artifact had been discovered; a portal. They had me examine it, I opened it, and it led here.”

However, Halsey seemed to be far from done speaking. “This brings up more than one question. First, where exactly are we, and second, how do you have your own body. I can easily see that it’s completely organic.”

“The only way it can be described is molecular construction at an atomic level. I am aware of just how impossible it seems that a body was built around my conscious, but that’s what actually happened.” John and Thel continued to stand back facing the guards, but at a more relaxed position than ready to attack.

“My thinking processes are in no way slowed by this body, and now with larger physical storage areas for information, I can categorize all the information learned and no longer have to deal with rampancy.” Halsey seemed incredibly impressed with this new level of biotic advancement, but never voiced her amazement.

Acting as though she had just noticed the guards, Halsey spoke out to Luna, “You don’t need these guards to treat us as enemies. Thel and John only acted in my defense, and I promise not to kidnap any of your foals.”

Suddenly, a voice spoke to her from directly behind her. “Do you Pinkie Promise?” The new arrival caused everyone in the room to jump and realize Pinkie was floating in the air next to Halsey. The scientist stared at the pink mare, who slowly floated back down to the ground. However, instead of actually touching down, she just sank through the floor until nothing remained.

After a few more seconds, Halsey finally spoke up. “I must be more tired than I thought. Do you have a bed or someplace I can sleep?” Luna, still confused as everybody else, just nodded and motioned for one of the guards to escort her to another guest bedroom.

Chief was the next one to recover, Arbiter following not too far behind. “Princesses, I really need to leave soon. Are we going to check the frigate or not?”

His statement is what finally brought Luna back to the real world. “Yes, I will teleport Cortana, you, and I first to the drop pod to retrieve your weapons, then to the frigate itself. Thel cannot come with us, as he is still too much of an unknown.”

John just nodded to show that he was ready for teleportation. Luna’s horn began charging up and Cortana studied it closely so she could replicate the spell later on. As Luna finished charging said spell, she teleported herself and the other two beings all the way into the Everfree Forest.

Looking around they found themselves surrounded by trees that were in no way harmed by John’s arrival. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to forgive me; the magic currents in the Everfree are still in flux from your landing. We shouldn’t be too far from your pod.”

Using her magic, she used a sensing spell to locate Chief’s pod. “While I did say the magic was in flux, I can do basic spells. Your pod is in this direction.” She turned in that direction she ended up facing and began walking with John and Cortana following close behind.

True to her word, they were able to reach the drop pod and its scattered contents in less than ten minutes. John immediately began picking up, checking, and stashing the weapons that lay around him, causing Luna to jump when he activated the energy sword.

Cortana watched with growing unease, until she finally couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “John, why do you say you have to go alone? I know it’s because you say have a sense of duty and that’s why, but I feel like that’s not it, is t?”

John finished putting the last of the weapons into a portable carry case. Snapping the latches shut, he replied to Cortana. “When I carried her out to Canterlot during the changeling attack, she seemed so innocent, like a child almost. I feel that in saving, I can forgive myself for failing to save so many civilians.”

Cortana let out a sigh, “Fine, I will not try to convince you not to go anymore. Now, let’s get to the Dawn to see if we can find a working air or land vehicle.”

Luna charged her horn and teleported the trio close to the Dawn. When they reappeared, Luna seemed to be out of breath and rather unsteady on her hooves. When Cortana moved to help her, she held up a hoof. “I am fine now. It was just a little bit of magic deprivation.”

John and Cortana nodded and began moving in the direction of the Forward Unto Dawn, which was pretty hard to miss with its colossal shape looming over them. The distance to it was misleading yet again, as it took them twenty minutes to get there, instead of the perceived seven.

Upon arrival, several guards snapped to salutes and the many scientists bowed. One of the volunteered scientists, a unicorn stood up out of his bow and walked forward to Luna. “Princess, as per your orders, we have awaited the…human’s arrival to actually enter the structure. And now with your permission, we would like to enter.”

Instead of answering the scientist, Luna looked to Cortana. Cortana studied the scientist for a few seconds, then answering, “Fine, go ahead. But I will only allow small groups to go in at a time and with me as their escort.”

The scientist looked as though he wanted to protest, but kept his mouth shut, face turning red from resisting his urge to demand that the order come from an ‘actual princess’. Finally, he was able to answer. “Yes…your highness.”

Cortana shared a look with Luna before moving to accompany the first group. Luna looked over to John next. “It is a shame that they do not see her as a princess yet, but they will after her coronation.” She looked up to the massive ship before turning away and walking a little more back into the forest. She turned back to John and said, “I will not see you again before you leave, so this is farewell for now, and good luck.”

John nodded to her as acknowledgement and she teleported back to Canterlot to talk with the Arbiter. Finally alone for the first time in several days, John walked to the base of the Dawn, finding an entry hatch hidden from the nosy scientists and crawled through.

Once inside, he studied the infrastructure that was immediately around him. Some of the metal seemed to be under a bit of stress, and more wires were hanging down than when he and Cortana first left, but it mostly looked the same.

He pulled up a map on armor, and upon finding the small red dot that showed his position, began his trek first to the docking bay to look for a Pelican, Falcon, or even Broadsword that was still in prime condition.

On his trek, he had to make several detours, as he found that despite the ship’s good condition, there were several caved in corridors. With the many detours he had to go, it took him a good thirty minutes to reach the bay.

The docking bay for aircraft was in bad condition. Several of the larger beams holding up the ceiling had collapsed onto the aircraft below, crushing the three Falcons, disabling one of the two Pelicans and burying the other, and trapping the one remaining Broadsword in its holding area.

Finding no luck here, he changed course to the vehicle bay to look for a Warthog. A Mongoose would be too small to carry the supplies he needed, and a Scorpion, while heavily armored with an incredible amount of firepower, was too slow and required too much gas.

His journey to the vehicle depot took considerably less time, since it was much closer, and there were nowhere near as many caved in corridors. Upon arrival, he could easily see that the vehicle depot was in much better condition compared to the docking bay.

Held within, were two functional Scorpions, one of all four types of Warthogs, six Mongooses, and even a brute Chopper they had picked up from Earth. He picked his way through the piles of smaller debris until he came to the troop transport ‘Hog.

After lifting up the hood and checking that everything within was in working order, he jumped into the driver seat and activated the vehicle. The engine made its regular growling noise as it started up, eventually settling into that purring noise cars make when they sit idle.

After letting it run for about ten seconds, John shifted into gear and skillfully drove the Warthog out of the minefield of debris. When he finally reached the doors that led to the outside, usually meant for Pelicans to get in, grab a vehicle, and get out, he jumped out and pressed one of the buttons on the side. The giant doors slowly began to open, eventually making an area wide enough for John to get through.

Fortunately, the door to get out was only about five feet above the ground, an easy jump for the Warthog. The look on the scientists’ and soldiers’ faces were priceless when what appeared to them to be a giant snarling cat on wheels jumped out of the dormant ship and landed directly in front of them.

Many of the soldiers got ready to attack, watching the ‘beast’ carefully. However, they all realized it was harmless when saw the Chief climb out. One of the higher ranking guards trotted up to him, chuckling a bit. “Sir, could you please warn us before you do something like that again?”

John stared at him for a second from behind his visor, before simply nodding and heading back into the ship to gather supplies. Many of the guards shared concerned looks; it worried them that the Bane of Changelings was going alone. He had become popular among the guard after the changeling attack, but had become a legend after out-drinking Neon Fire. But, it was not for them to decide, so they all returned to their duties. That is, except for a few of the guards…

After another half hour aboard the downed frigate, John had all the supplies he’d need. Plenty of gas, four weeks’ worth of food if he rationed, at least one of every type of weapon he could find, including dual plasma rifles, his energy sword, and a gravity hammer.

He was loading all of these items into boxes and then lifting them up into the Warthog, when he saw a group of guards pulling and pushing another cargo box to him. When they finally got there, several guards panting from the exertion, their leader said to him, “For everything you’ve done, we wanted to give you some equipment of our own. Inside, you’ll find several enchanted weapons; a mace made to spew flames as you use it, a shield made of the strongest metal and almost indestructible, a spell book with some of the most powerful spells ever known, a spear made so that you can throw it over a thousand meters, and a ring made so that you can become more stealthy.”

The captain stopped for a second to catch his breath after the long speech, then he and the other guards backed away from the large crate, hoping he would take it. John stood there for a second watching them, before sighing and lifting that crate as well into the Warthog.

The captain smiled, and then he and the other guards turned and got out of John’s way. The Chief walked around the Warthog, strapping the numerous crates into the back of the large vehicle. When everything was finally in place, John left to go find Cortana.

After asking several scientists, who backed away in fear at first, he found her coming back out of the Dawn with a group of guards. When she reached him, it was as though she knew what he was going to ask. “One of the groups I took in with me found an armory, and I had to take them out and bring a few guards with me to secure it.”

John understood, not that they could tell what he was thinking behind the green and gold helmet. Instead, he looked to Cortana and said, “I’m ready. I only came to give you a farewell.”

Suddenly, her face turned from being mildly happy, to slightly depressed. She lowered her head as she spoke. “It’ll be weird, not going with you. However, I will wish you luck and give you one last bit of help. Let’s go to your Warthog.”

They all walked to the vehicle, the guards giving it odd looks but otherwise ignoring it. However, once he jumped in and started it, they all jumped backwards, startled. At Cortana’s bemused look, they all became a little embarrassed at being so easily scared.

Cortana just rolled her eyes, before turning back to John, a solemn look upon her snout. “Well, this is it. I am going to teleport you to the edge of the Everfree Forest, and then you’re on your own.”

She started charging her horn, just as she had memorized Luna doing. When she finished charging it, she spoke to Master Chief one last time before sending him off. “Give ‘em hell soldier.”

With that flash, John was transported from the Dawn all the way to the edge of a vast desert. He looked across the daunting distance and to the mountains just on the horizon. Knowing the journey would take him quite a while and would test his mental capacities more than anything since he hadn’t done something like this before, he sat for a few moments, and making sure he had everything, he began to press down on one of the six pedals.

That’s when he heard something moving behind him.

Author's Note:

As a British man in Achievement Hunter once said, "We're back bitches!" So yeah, I guess that I have finally updated this story again! Although, it will update slowly, since I have a few others. But, give me some constructive criticism, and such, because this felt rather awkward after coming back to it after so long.

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