9. Where There's a Will...
"No." John was adamant. They were not going to turn him into a pony, no matter how long it would be.
The group had moved through the Everfree Forest with as much speed as possible. The exploration of the Forward Unto Dawn could wait until a later date, but for now, they had to help Cortana. Celestia hadn't specified how they would help Cortana, but he had to trust her; there was nobody else to trust.
On the trip back, John had acquainted himself with the rest of the group.
Twilight Sparkle was the leader of the group of "civilians", and possessed the title of Element of Magic. She ran the Golden Oaks library in "Ponyville" with her assistant Spike, who was apparently a baby dragon.
Fluttershy, for lack of a better term, was the group medic. Her title being the Element of Kindness, she lived in a small cottage just outside of the forest they had just come from. There, she took care of many lost, sick, or homeless animals ranging from butterflies to grizzly bears.
Rainbow Dash was the most aggressive in the group. She had the Element Loyalty as her title and John could see why. On their way back, she kept throwing him hateful and distrustful looks that obviously said, "If you attack my friends, I will stop you no matter what."
Applejack, the Element of Honesty, had been the first to apologize to him. After the memory spell was over, she came over to him and sincerely apologized for attacking him when he was only acting in self-defense.
He almost couldn't stand Rarity, the Element of Generosity. The entire way back she was constantly complaining about how drab he looked in his armor and how she would have to design some new apparel for him.
However, the one that troubled him the most was Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter. She had constantly been bouncing right next to him and was constantly smiling at him as though they were best friends. He would talk to her later to learn more about her.
"I refuse to be turned into a pony." Celestia sighed in frustration; didn't this human know the consequences of walking straight through Ponyville in his current form? The panic would be unimaginable. The third option carried more risks than the other two, but it might convince John to go through with it.
“How about this, we’ll simply create a hologram of pony that will replace your actual form.” John nodded his approval at this option, until Celestia delivered the catch, both of them. “You’ll need to be careful though, there’s one pony by the name of Lyra. She’s obsessed with the existence of humans, who have, until now, been thought to be a myth. The cloak won’t work against her for reasons unknown to me. The second catch is that while you’re invisible, you will still make noise. You need to be careful on our way to the train station.”
She put a picture of what Lyra looked in his mind so he would know who to look out for. Celestia’s horn became aglow once more and the golden light enveloped the Master Chief. After a bright flash of light, John looked down at his body, noting it was now perfectly invisible. Coming up to about the bottom of his rib cage, was an earth pony, whose coat was a dark green just like his armor and wore glasses that were a deep gold color. His cutie mark was that of shield with a Sangheili skull with a bullet hole in it, two swords crossing behind it. Several scars covered the length of his body, which looked as though it were made of solid muscle. The most notable feature of his holographic body, was the size; almost taller than Princess Celestia herself. If he had agreed to transformation, this was what he would become.
After making sure that everything was in order, the group strode forth into Ponyville to get to the train station, a look of grim determination set upon John's pony face. As they walked through Ponyville with no sign of the mysterious Lyra, several denizens stopped to give the humongous new pony some rather fearful looks, who not only appeared as though he had more battle experience than the entire Day and Night Guard, but could also take them all down with ease.
By the time they had reached the center of the small town, rumors had spread like wildfire, ranging from small stuff like a new recruit for the guard to the newcomer being a giant invisible alien with a holographic body which everypony quickly dismissed as false. Well, everypony except for a certain mint-green unicorn.
Lyra Heartstrings watched out her window as the group from the Everfree trotted past, apparently in a hurry. Of course, instead of a giant, terrifying, new pony, she saw the actual giant and heavily armored human. For as long as she could remember, she saw wispy spirits of the bipeds. After several years of their numbers increasing by thousands, she found an actual book on them.
The book, called "The Mystery of the Forbidden Creature", started with a small note stating that any information on humans was forbidden by Princess Celestia herself. She read through the book, which was painstakingly thin, in a matter of days. Once she finished that, she looked everywhere for more information, until she was eventually caught by the Princess of the Sun.
She was summoned to Canterlot for an audience with the royal princess, but instead of going to the throne hall, she was directed to her private quarters. A mischievous smile broke out on her face as her teenage mind thought of inappropriate topics, when she was suddenly standing in front of the enormous double doors. She pushed them open to find Princess Celestia sitting, and waiting for her. Lyra came over and sat down after a bow.
After a few minutes of silence, Celestia spoke up, "Soooooo, humans huh?" Lyra couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. Here she was, in the presence of the most powerful being on Equis, in her bedroom, and the Princess starts with a line like that! When she was finally finished, she wiped away the tears that had come to her eyes and saw that the Princess had a small smile on her face as well.
As Lyra opened her mouth to speak, Celestia cut her off, "I do not have long, only a couple minutes; royal duties, you know. Anyways, you must never speak to another soul about humans. I already know what you see, but whatever you do, do not speak of them. However, I am allowing you to keep your book. That is all, Lyra Heartstrings. Have a nice day."
And just like that, Lyra was swept out of Celestia's magic and the door's closed. She made a face at the doors and trotted off with a laugh when she heard a muffled "I saw that!" from behind the doors.
That had been twelve years ago, and now that there was a human actually in Equestria, the princess didn't come to her?! Oh, this would not do! She quickly packed some saddlebags, yelled to Bon Bon that she would be back in a few days, and began her not so stealthy following of the group.
~~~~~~~~~~
"That Lyra pony you told me about? She's following us," said John's rough voice from right next to Celestia's ear. She looked behind her, and sure enough, there was the mint-green unicorn, thinking she was being sneaky.
"She'll follow us to the ends of Equis, now that she has seen you."
"What can we do?"
"Nothing for now. Let her think that we have not noticed her, and we will see what she does." John nodded, satisfied with her answer. They reached the train station and the ticket seller gawked at the two princesses and the giant pony they were escorting.
"Fifteen tickets to Canterlot I'm guessing, your Highness?" The ticket pony was tiny and couldn't see the sun past the hologram's massive form. "May I ask what your name is, sir?" he asked in a shaky voice, "I haven't seen you around before."
John thought for a moment, thinking about the names of the ponies, and decided on his own. "Call me Legend." Although he had no enormous self-ego, the name had just stuck in his head for no apparent reason so he went with it.
The ticket pony nodded his shaking head and gave each of them their tickets for free, refusing payment. Lyra purchased her tickets about five minutes later and got on the car behind them, determined to find out why they were keeping this a secret from her.
Because of John’s newfound status, they had the entire car to themselves. Celestia cancelled the hologram and his invisibility. Cortana spoke through John’s speakers in his helmet, “So Celestia, what is this ‘way’ you have of helping me?”
Celestia looked at John, and then shook her head, “I can’t tell you Cortana, I’m sorry. I do not remember what the name of it is or what it does, only that it will help you and where it is.” The rest of the train ride was uneventful, except for Rainbow Dash asking John about the early bits of his childhood, since she was unconscious for the first part of the memory scan. He quietly answered all of her questions, but stayed to short replies.
They pulled into the train station in Canterlot and Celestia made John invisible again, and made the hologram of Legend appear. When they got off of the train, the royal guard pony that had attacked John, whom he had found was named Honorable Service, collapsed on the platform.
The royal guard medic ran forward to the collapsed pony, draped him over his back, and carried the injured pony back to the infirmary. After a momentary pause, the group continued towards the castle in the center of the city.
The reaction to Legend was much the same as Ponyville’s, just with their reactions more obvious. Some ponies stood there and looked at the colossal giant as he passed, while others locked their doors in open fright.
After thirty minutes of walking, the group finally reached the Royal sisters’ castle. Celestia opened the doors, strode through the throne room straight up to her golden seat, and tore the cushion off. What it revealed, was a small hole about the size of Celestia’s horn; a perfect fit in fact.
There was a click as two doors opened, one was passageway down, and the other holding the Elements, five necklaces and one tiara; each with their own unique design. “Girls, go grab the Elements and bring them with us. Guards, leave us.”
As the guards opened their mouths to protest, she cut them off quickly with a firm but soft voice, “What is going to happen next, is something that only John, Cortana, Luna, the Elements, and I will be the ones to even be present for. I will not endanger my guards unnecessarily.”
As the guards quieted their protests and walked out of the hall, Celestia felt a small shake emanate from her saddlebags. She reached into them and pulled out the glass jar holding the not so lone Hunter worm. There were now three of them in the jar, so she would soon have to find a larger container.
"You kept one of the Hunter worms?" questioned John. At the sound of his voice, the worms all began crowding the side of jar closest to the Spartan.
"That's odd," said Celestia, wondering why only Master Chief's voice would get them to react this way.
"Yeah, you're telling me. I mean in the past two days, we've met a giant moving colony of worms, a giant robot, and a glowing blue human that was somehow able to use your magic against you! If you ask me, we should get rid of all of them!" Rainbow Dash was practically screaming now, all the pent up energy and anger towards John starting to release. Suddenly, she began to feel more calm, finding that Twilight's horn was aglow with a calming spell.
"Rainbow, we'll never show hostility to someone who's been through so much. He may have done it willingly, but he also did it in self-defense, from, what were they called, the Covenant?" She looked to John who nodded his head in confirmation. She turned back to her group of friends, "I will help Cortana with her rampancy, we owe them at least that much after the way we attacked them last night." As she looked to each of her friends, they all eventually nodded in agreement, some much more reluctant than others. She turned back to Celestia who gave her a small smile.
The Princesses hovered each of the Elements to their respectful owners, who each took hold placed them onto their bodies not questioning as to why they would need them; they would find out soon enough. The group came up to second door, pausing momentarily to light their magic, then proceeding down into the Canterlot caverns.
Lyra bolted into the throne, quick as lightning. She walked up to the small door, when it began to rumble. The door was starting to close! She shot through the door, getting in just in time. She looked at the stone door and gave out a sigh of relief; continuing her journey after the group.
As they walked through the maze of giant crystals, Cortana broke her long silence, speaking only to John. "Chief, I've been taking readings of each of these rocks; they're all diamond!" She was stalling on a conversation with John and they both knew it. She sighed as she got to the point, "John, I know I was telling you to trust these ponies, but after seeing Celestia's memories, I'm not sure I can. What is all of this is just some type of trick to breach the Cole Protocol?"
"Cortana, I will do anything to make sure that you survive; just remember that." John finished the conversation and they walked on in silence, both mulling disturbing thoughts in their minds.
Finally, after about another hour of walking, they reached their destination. Large Forerunner metal doors rose up before them. As John walked forward to press the holographic panel that had appeared, his armor system locked up and his visor turned red, as Cortana became more rampant than ever before.
As he fell to one knee, Luna rushed forward. "What is wrong human?! What's happening?!"
"It's Cortana! Quickly, take the chip out of the back of my helmet; that is where she is!" They had to hurry and get the rampant A.I. out of his armor before she did too much damage to his armor. Luna successfully pulled out the chip, John's visor and armor instantly returning to normal.
The built-in holographic projector activated as Cortana appeared, flickering between blue and red. "Hurry! I won't be able to hold myself together much long-AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" The projector shut down as Cortana retreated. The group paused, then began to make their way to the doors, when suddenly, a voice rang out behind them.
"Princess Celestia!"
~~~~~~~~~~
Five minutes earlier
~~~~~~~~~~
Lyra looked at the giant crystals around her, eyes widening in awe. She would have to bring some home! She was about to continue her trek after the group when her vision faded to black.
After panicking for a few seconds, she found her sight coming back, just not in the Crystal Caverns. Instead she found herself floating above Canterlot with an amazing view of the entire city! Looking at the clock down in the city, she found it also to be present time.
Suddenly, a great, dark, shadow blotted out the sun over Canterlot. Wondering how many pegasi it would take to move such a large cloud, she rotated around to see the cloud. However, she did not see a cloud. Instead, she saw-
Lyra gasped as she came back to herself in the Caverns. As she looked to the ground, she saw the hoofprints, and large oval-like footprints embedded into the ground. She followed them, running as fast as she possibly could. She rounded a corner to see the armored human standing back up, Princess Luna holding a small metal rectangle in her right hoof.
The group began to move forward towards the large metal doors in the walls of the caverns. She yelled out with all her strength, "Princess Celestia!"
The group stopped and turned to see who was following them. When she saw who it was, Celestia got a smile on her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but Lyra cut her off. "Celestia! You've got to come quick! Canterlot's under attack by changelings!"
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Try generating a bunch of random words together, and you'll get the average pony name.
Why oc's they ruin pretty much everything. I have only seen a few great of stories. The rest. Are god fucking awful. But great chapter. It's time for chief to get back in action.
But sure i'll send in my unicorn oc
1989355
lawl
th07.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2013/009/0/c/anthony_pony_by_louiethelizard-d5r0ram.jpg look at this cute picture of my oc as a foal.
He's so fucking manly even as a child.
Oh hell no
... There's a weapon. huehuehuehue
Changelings: the usual suspects.
you could have said john cutie mark is the legendary difulty symbol
Ok submitted my oc and now i play the waiting game.
I loved this chapter.I can totally see the chief like you made him as a pony.
I hope the next chapeter is up soon i can`t wait to read it.
Camo Flash out!
1989627
That is his Cutie Mark
CLLIIFFF HANGER, HANGING FROM A CLLIIFFF
and that's why they called him cliff, hhanngger.
I just received an email notification telling me that chapter 10 was released, but it doesn't seem to be up, is the update false, or what?
2001629 Yeah, I was preparing the next chapter so I could post it quickly when I finished chapter ten, but I accidentally hit publish.
2003811 Actually, that was the name the Forerunners gave themselves, because they knew that they would one day not be there and that another species would succeed them.
Calling it, chrysy. Not that it wasn't a bit obvious
2664247 no I'm toootally sure it sombra
Sarcasm
Chrysalis is going have a big surprise this time. RIP HER TO SHREDS CHIEF!
Legend... legendary symbol as cutie mark... yeah, I see what you did there.
For what, Rainbow Dash?
By the way, I hope the fact that Forerunner tech responds to humans will be covered.
You should've called him Reclaimer instead
Honored Service reference.....Yes Honored Service is a story so look it up.
1989520 that's not a foal nor a cute picture flurry heart looks much cuter then that in my opinion