Chapter 9- The War
Marcus stared into the newly-started fire, choosing his words carefully. He had been through the whole war and remembered all of it. Terrible didn’t begin to describe it. They didn’t have to know; he could just clam up and refuse to talk about it. However, it was inevitable that they would eventually know anyways. He sighed and took off his helmet, grumbling to himself. He then looked at Fluttershy, sadness and pain in his eyes. He didn't want to frighten the pony, but he had to be very frank in order for them to understand what he had come from. Life would be impossible unless he explained himself fully and completely. Marcus took a deep breath. This would be one of the hardest things he’d ever done. He first addressed the timid pegasus. "Fluttershy, I apologize for what I am about to tell you, but try to understand that you do need to know this," he said to her.
“I understand.” He nodded, looking into the fire once more before raising his face to address the crowd.
"It began at Harvest, one of our outer planetary colonies. It had a population of a only a few million people. It was mainly an agricultural planet and its people were peaceful and kind. On one of my shore leaves, I went there. It was just after a really terrible campaign. A child came up to me one day with the biggest smile on his face. In his hand was a flower and he gave it to me. That gave me hope. How he knew how much I needed it, I’ll never know. I never found out who he was," Marcus smiled at the memory, thinking of the boy. But his smile soon faded
"We were attacked without warning. The Covenant, an alien religious cult, we still aren't really sure, declared holy war and then proceeded to rep holy genocide on our race. They have immense power and technology far beyond ours. No amount of diplomacy worked. I mean, how do you negotiate if the other guy just kills you on sight? War broke out. The campaign for Harvest lasted 5 years. The Covenant killed everything in its path. Men, women ...even the children. All burned before the hand of the Covenant. I will never know if that boy lived, but in my heart I know he did not. We saved a few, thinking we could win. We were cocky back then, but now we know better." Marcus looked up at Celestia, fear and sadness in her eyes. A hoof shot up into the air. It belonged to Fluttershy. “Yes? What is it?”
Fluttershy was fighting back tears as she asked, “Marcus, what’s g-genocide?” All of the other ponies looked at him confusedly. It suddenly occurred to him that this place had no concept of such things.
Marcus scratched his head, sighing in frustration. “Genocide is like…” No, that’s not how to explain it. He had to be absolutely blunt in order to convey the idea. “Genocide is to kill every single member of an entire race. Leave none of them alive.” The reaction was immediate. There was not a dry eye. The more sensitive ones recoiled physical. The more stoic ones frowned. He went on explain the rest of the war and what had happened. In a way, the strategy of the Covenant greatly resembled island hooping from the Second World War. Finally Marcus came to the Spartans
"We were created, created is the keyword, to fight. I actually was Earthborn; one of few Spartans from Earth. Most were from the outer colonies. We were trained from the age of six to fight and die. We were meant to be the greatest force humanity had ever known. And when the time came, we were the only thing slowing the Covenant down. Planet after planet burned, and still the Covenant moved on, religious zeal fueling them in their genocidal campaign against us." He paused to tend to the fire. He added more kindling. "When you.....teleported me here, I was on a mission. A target had to be taken out, but we failed. The enemy had already known about it and was prepared. How they knew I'll never know." Marcus shook his head as he remembered the slaughter he and his men had walked into.
"I was stationed on a planet called Torturous IV. It was falling as well. The target would have bought us more time if we’d killed it, but we failed. We saved what we could, but we had to leave to live to fight another day. Then all of a sudden, I'm here, surrounded by talking ponies where magic is real." He shook his head. Wet marks were visible on his cheeks. His chest heaved silently.
They all sat there in silence, taking in what Marcus had just told them. Then Fluttershy did something unexpected, especially for her. She walked over to Marcus, and hugged him. She squeezed his neck. "I'm sorry this had to happen to you Marcus. I hope your...people make it through," she said. Marcus sat there, a little stunned. It must’ve been a good day for his PTSD, as he didn’t physically retaliate on impulse. He returned the hug, awkwardly, and patted her on the shoulder.
A soft lie to spare her feelings and convince himself. "It’s ok, Fluttershy. It’s what I do. I have no problem with it. Even from when I was little, I understood my duty and the challenges I would face, although it was far more severe than I ever could have imagined... " He clasped his hand again in habit. The pegasus looked up at him and nodded. She let go of him but didn't leave. She sat next to him looking back into the fire. The others were shocked by Fluttershy's actions, never in a million years believing that she would ever do something like that. In a way, it did make sense, but they had imagined her fear overcoming her compassion.
Celestia looked at Fluttershy for a moment, a curious look on her face before turning back to face Marcus. "My deepest sympathies to you Marcus. Had I known, well, I would have tried to avoid such a...hard subject." Marcus nodded to her. He had heard it all before, from civilians who hadn't seen anything, to new marines, who were out to fight and die like naive children. If they were unlucky, they'd live. Marcus looked up to the sky, it was at least midnight. He didn’t need her pity.
"You all must be tired. Get some sleep, and I'll keep watch." at that, Marcus added more fuel the fire, rekindling it. The ponies before him looked around with unease; this forest scared them. "Don't worry, nothing can get past me. You'll be safe. And I promise not to hurt you while you sleep." The ponies looked back at him with suspicion which only made Marcus chuckle. They looked around, and one by one, found a place to sleep and lay there, eventually nodding off to sleep Fluttershy stayed close to Marcus. She had finally realizing what else she saw in his eyes. It made her feel safe around him and let her know that he would never hurt her. She saw a protector who needed to be shown that there was still good in the world
____________________________________________________________________________________
Luna awoke. Marcus watched her fly into the sky before unleashing a massive amount of light from her horn and eyes followed by the sky going dark as the moon vanished. Luna immediately went back to sleep. Celestia soon awoke and told Marcus that she would be gone for a little while, as she needed to raise the sun. Marcus just shook his head and let her be. This place was strange. It had magic, talking ponies, pegasi, a living physical goddess that he could talk to, and definitely more. It was almost too much. He looked down at the small bundle of yellow and pink beside him. Fluttershy was sleeping soundly, and Marcus dared not to wake her up. God, this is weird. Why do they have so unbelievably… cute? Marcus had no other way of describing it. He was getting soft and he knew it. Celestia returned, and woke up her sister. They sat and chatted; Marcus didn't pay it much mind. His thoughts were focused on Emilia and the rest of his squad. Were they alright? Did they win? Did they survive? Marcus didn't know, and he might never know. He had a terrible feeling that it didn’t matter, even if they somehow had survived the Pelican crash. Celestia got up from her conversation, and walked over to him. Marcus nodded his head in greeting. She returned the greeting in the same fashion.
"Marcus, would you be so kind as to walk with Luna and I? We have questions about your abilities and how you got them. We understand it’s a touchy subject, but we must know." Marcus nodded. He understood; safety precautions and all. Marcus nudged Fluttershy ever so gently, and she woke. The pegasus stared up at him with those shining orbs.
"Fluttershy, I'm going for a walk with Celestia and Luna for a bit, can you watch over for the others for me?" At that she looked scared, doubting herself.
"Don't worry; I won’t be very long. If you need anything, yell for help and I’ll come," at that he smiled, and got up, slinging his assault rifle over his back. He walked with the princesses through the wan early morning sunlight. It was a spiritual moment watching the first rays of sunlight creep over an alien world with the company of two alicorns. They marched along in silent reverence with Marcus quietly thanking what ever force was out there that he had lived to see peace and beauty again. It was several minutes later that the trio found a small clearing. Celestia and Luna sat next to each other, across from were Marcus was standing. He leaned against a beech tree and cleared his throat.
"I suppose you'll want it all then, am I right?" Luna gave him a knowing stare. Marcus sighed and ground his heel into the dirt more forcefully than necessary. He fought to maintain his composure as he said in monotone, "I was taken at the age of six along with seventy-four others by a government agency known as ONI, or the Office of Naval Intelligence. Under the government’s supervision, they trained us from that age to be the perfect soldiers. At the time, we had no idea about the Covenant, but the government needed super soldiers to fight a scad of rebellions that were causing havoc throughout the colonies. Once we all reached puberty, the augmentation process began." Marcus winced, remembering the pain through it all. He explained the augmentation process, and the roll the Spartans had to play in the human-Covenant war. They were supposed to be perfect. Marcus snickered at that. They were, in a way, but were also flawed. They were no longer human in the eyes of all those who looked upon them. Freaks of nature they were, and most viewed them with a bizarre mixture of hatred, admiration, dependency, and fear. I wonder if could ever regain that humanity that was taken from me. Is it possible for me to be anything but a killer? Finally, Luna spook up.
"That is... horrific. Why would anyone consent to such a thing? The sacrifice of...of children?!?" Marcus laughed at that and shook his head. They were so naive, but who could blame them? They lived in a perfect world without war or violence
"The parents never knew about it. We were kidnapped. There was no agreement between parents and the government. They just took us, and replaced us with clones, which later died because of gene mutations. And as for the government? The UNSC? They didn't care; all they wanted were soldiers to fight. But then the Covenant came, and well, you know the rest." Marcus once again was able to leave the princesses at a loss for words.
The white one tried to speak. "Marcus I-..." Marcus waved Celestia away. “I don’t need your pity- spare me." Marcus sighed and looked back up a the two. "Right, well, you know it all now; the full story of where I came from and what I am. I just have one question for you. What will you do about it? Will you kill me, or at least attempt to? Or will you let me live?" Celestia and Luna stared at him. Their expressions were unreadable, but they did not make eye contact and their manes seemed to be waving ever so slightly more animatedly than usual.
Celestia almost stumbled over her words. "Kill you? No, there will be no more death, and as for what we will do? Luna and I will have to think on that for a bit. For now, you will stay with Twilight Sparkle and her friends. What they will do with you, I do not know either." At that Marcus, happy he didn't have to kill anyone, walked up to Celestia and held out his hand. Celestia looked at him curiously, but did the same with her front hoof. They shook hand and hoof together.
Marcus explained, "It's a human custom that when a friendship or an alliance is made, those who made it shake hands to symbolize it." Celestia smiled at that. They walked back to the camp and found everyone else had already awoken and were now busy cleaning the place up.
"Glad to see you three back from your little 'chat' " grumbled Rainbow Dash. She was still a little sore about the whole speed thing. The man ignored her. Marcus gathered his things; his magnum, his assault rifle, and the case everything had come in, caring extra ammo and grenades. As he picked it up, Marcus heard something rattle in the case. Remembering that he had secured everything carefully, he set down the case and inspected it.
On one side was a small button. Marcus pressed it and a small compartment concealed held in the case opened. Marcus shook out whatever was inside. A large knife fell out. It was a large kukri with a 10 inch blade. Marcus grabbed it and held it up to the light. On the blade was inscribed some sort of language. Marcus remembered it to be Latin. It read. “Dator postremi sommi” 'Bringer of the final sleep'. Quite poetic. Marcus smiled and slid the knife into sheathe; his old knife had been lost. With everything ready, and the ponies ready as well, Marcus walked up to them with his assault rife in hand. “Time to go.” He couldn’t resist the joke.“Marines, eyeballs- click!”
Stats
Page generated in 0.022 seconds
Total duration
1,031 users online
155,507 hits today, 2,073,628 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I would say first post, but I don't really feel like it.... eeeeEEEHHHH III Don't know what to doooo....
few grammar errors here and there but in over-all: meh...
I feel a categories 2 shitacaine with Marcuse and flutter shy Also for those who don't know what a shitacaine is its like a hurricane but with shit
"Most died though, turned to ask and glass"
I think its ash and glass?
Review for Chapter 9
Ugh, this was a definite step down in quality. I can't really figure out what is wrong with this chapter. The closest I can come to providing an explanation is that this whole chapter was an exposition dump. I think the issue is that the entire story just came to a halt. Almost all of it was Marcus giving a monologue. Monologues are fine, but it is very easy to have them drag on. In the future, exposition dumps should either be given as relevant narration, or as part of dialogue. Exposition is done best when scattered throughout the story in bits in pieces. Plus, having the audience gradually piece together bits of information gives them more reason to continue on while making them feel somewhat brainy. The second thing that might have helped would have been revealing more about the personal story of Marcus. He is ostensibly giving his own personal history, but he is hardly in it. The story seemingly could not decide whether it wanted to be a factual encyclopedia article, or if it wanted to be a sentimental personal memoir. It might have been preferable to have narrated that Marcus told his story and then show everypony's reactions to it. Lastly, the mechanics were unusually horrid. Go back and fix them. Yes, seriously- do it.
And so, for creating a chapter which felt like nothing but filler combined with weak attempts to provoke feelings, you get 2/5 flutteryays.
2069189 Or it marshed potato and tomato sauce!
10# wow and ha ha
3202261 Tomato tamato
static1.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/Have+some+more+ammunition+for+your+purges+_343d5a590bbb3b1a6b0e26c76f33f15d.jpg
static.fjcdn.com/comments/Heresy+everywhere+purge+the+mutants+_8d0ad80d57ad5ea2099c3a12830ea87c.jpg
A SPARTAN???....soft....such...
static2.fjcdn.com/comments/5137154+_4a4382fecf45238471bf1e336ce8b6f9.jpg
Must end it all!!!
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/280/3/d/the_pinkie_pie_chapter_by_laaseensld-d4c3izt.jpg
Lol jk this story is good.
i88.photobucket.com/albums/k197/tahu1809/emperor-of-mankind-approves-this-thread-500x364.jpg
5579957 A fellow Astartes ey? It's not unheard of a Spartan to raise a family, there's actually one in Halo lore!