Death. All that remains on this planet are the martyrs who gave their lives to ensure the others could escape. Humanity’s greatest has fallen. 23 Billion humans died in the war, and only more would follow. The few strays on Reach were quickly f
Death. All that remains on this planet are the martyrs who gave their lives to ensure the others could escape. Humanity’s greatest has fallen. 23 Billion humans died in the war, and only more would follow. The few strays on Reach were quickly found and slaughtered. The last soldier died fighting, a fitting tribute to the planet humanity fought so hard to protect. Still, the story is not over for mankind, just as the story is not over for this lone soldier. This, is the story of Noble Six.
Death. All that remains on this planet are the martyrs who gave their lives to ensure the others could escape. Humanity’s greatest has fallen. 23 Billion humans died in the war, and only more would follow. The few strays on Reach were quickly found and slaughtered. The last soldier died fighting, a fitting tribute to the planet humanity fought so hard to protect. Still, the story is not over for mankind, just as the story is not over for this lone soldier. This, is the story of Noble Six.
B312 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “She’s too young! Do you really think she’ll survive the program?”
“I wouldn’t have handpicked her myself otherwise if I didn’t think she could.”
Plasma seared past six as she sat behind the back of a burnt out wraith, waiting for the smallest window to take a shot with the last round of her fuel rod. She had forgotten how long she fought, and six grew weary. After the remnants of Noble team delivered the top secret AI to Captain Keyes, and ensured his ship’s escape, trading their lives for what one person said would win the war; This was how desperate humanity had gotten. The only member of Noble Team that even had a chance of surviving was Jun, the talkative sniper. Even then those odds were slim. Stories of ships making it through armadas of covenant ships were virtually unheard of.
The Spartan’s train of thought was snapped by the crackle of an energy sword, and she sprung into action. Using her lightning fast reflexes to her advantage, she popped out of cover, and fired. The elite, sprinting atop of the corpses of his fallen comrades couldn’t even dodge the giant ball of plasma, and was thrown back off his feet. He groaned, too weak to scream as the heated gas burnt through his armor and flesh as he embraced death. Six barely noticed the flame-like sound of a plasma grenade a meager foot from her boot. Realizing her cover was no longer an option, Six rolled backwards, dropping the fuel rod. Unfortunately Six was too late to save her shields. As soon as the soldier had recovered and stood up her visor was hit by by a volley from a plasma rifle, and she was blinded. The fluids dripped through six’s now useless helmet and burnt her face. With a deep breath she threw her helmet to the ground, picking up an assault rifle and began shooting at an elite with pinpoint accuracy, dropping him in under a few seconds. Six hadn’t even noticed being shot at.
Even without their motion tracker Spartans were still an extremely deadly threat for an enemy in close quarters. An elite general learned this the hard way, as he positioned himself behind six ready to pounce, mere milliseconds from sending an energy sword through her spine.The sangheili never had a chance. Without even turning, the veteran butted him with her assault rifle and knocked him to the floor. Six pulled at her pistol as the grizzled Elite snarled at her, granting him his death wish.
Another elite began firing, then shortly joined by another. She was thoughtless, emotionless. Six began firing her assault rifle in one hand and a magnum in the other. both her targets were mere feet from reaching her, but collapsed in their own blood. but a third reached Six, and had no time to react as the ultra knocked her to the floor with his foot. As Six was winded, the elite took his chance to finish her off. The elite aimed his energy dagger aiming at the soldier’s throat. Six put her foot up as a last ditch effort to stop the elite, if only for a second longer. The elite had no time to react and ran into Six’s metal boot and she kicked as hard as she could, and he stumbled backwards. This only made him angrier.
Another elite, zealot, raised his arm and activated his energy sword and struck downwards, aiming for her chest. the Spartan grabbed his wrist, forcing the sword to hit the ground. Six reached out with her right arm and punched him square in the mouth, jolting him upwards, and his sword flew backwards.
The ultra that had been repelled came back for revenge. and Six’s life flashed before her eyes. The moment played in her head. She would dodge and elbow him in the face, only in this motion would the zealot pick up his sword and plunge his sword into her.This was it. Unless...
disregarding her original plan she had attempted another motion. Sideswiping the ultra, he fell, once again, to the bloody dirt. The zealot raised his hand to stab her, but this time, Six was ready. She grabbed the ultra attempting to getting up, on top of her, letting the elite kill his own companion. The veteran moved the now dying elite off of her, and jumped on the zealot, and took out a combat knife and plunging the knife into his neck and twisted it. The dying beast choked something out in his language. Six immediately took the knife out, letting the sangheili die on his own.
Six turned around and saw four elites, of different ranks armed with plasma repeaters. reaching for her magnum, and found nothing. It must have gotten knocked to the ground. This was it. Knowing her fate, the doomed soldier closed her eyes and had remembered everything.
“Listen. Reach has been good to me, it’s time to return the favor. Tell ‘em to make it count.”
“ You’re on your own noble. Carter out.”
“I’m ready! How ‘bout you!?”
“I guess i’ll See you soon noble.” Six whispered aloud, drowned out by the merciless pounding of plasma.
The veteran explorer said aloud, tired from nearly a day’s journey. The jungles were harsh and merciless, yet so very beautiful. That was the only reason the adventurer had volunteered to trek all the way out here. Many ponies disliked the idea that a wild creature so elegant would likely end up eating you for dinner the second you let your guard down, but Daring respected it. She loved the wild, and felt home. No rules, no limitations, at the end of a day survival was a victory.
Three weeks she had been traveling, all the way from a small Royal Guards outpost on the western border of Equestria, but Daring finally arrived at her destination. An old temple built inside of a mountain. She stepped inside the narrow entrance and turned on her flashlight. All she saw was mold, grass, even plants. She rubbed the muck off of a wall, and saw a chrome-like metal, spotless. This wasn’t something Equestrian, she knew that much. She went onwards, inspecting for traps of any kind, but none were found. The interior was fairly simple and bland. A narrow corridor, with twists and turns, always at a ninety degree angle. There were occasional small rooms, with text that wasn’t of any pony, griffin, zebra, or of any origin she had any knowledge of. This was something she had never seen before.
After about, 10 minutes of vigilantly looking for booby traps, Daring Do eased up her muscles and, walked more casually, investigating the walls, ceilings, looking for something familiar, but the flashlight wouldn’t help her do that. But her ears did. She stopped at a sound, seemingly pony like, but at the same time not.humming? Daring thought to herself. The noise came from around the corner, and she hugged the wall, creeping forward to peek her head around it. She made sure to turn off the flashlight. The humming stopped strangely enough.“There’s no way it could have heard me...”She worriedly perceived. Sweat dripping down her face, she craned her head around the bend, not even exposing more than an eye, which couldn’t even be seen in this dark. All she saw was a bright yellow light. “That’s weird.” She whispered to herself, half relieved.
“Hello, creature. May you repeat your last statement louder?” The monitor stated, though it had no idea Daring spoke a different language.
Her pupils shrunk as she backed away from the corner, taking out her knife, and cautiously backing up.
“Wait! I have so much to ask!” It said more gibberish, at least according to Daring Do's ears.
the light popped up a yard in front of her she shined the flashlight in it’s direction and saw it wasn’t just a random light, but a floating sphere... of sorts. It had curves and its own unique shape. It was green, but showed obvious signs of aging. Dents, even it’s yellow light, which was at the center, had a large crack in the left of it.
“You are an.. interesting specimen, to say the least.” The monitor stated, probing her whilst trying to seem harmless, floating in the air innocently
As Daring was inspecting it it was inspecting her. She saw that the thing floated, and was quite agile, despite how unaerodynamic it looked, it’s looks were deceiving, It was spinning around her, under her legs, over them, inspecting every detail of her body, while she could only watch, less agitated but confused. Had this thing never seen a pony? Then again, she was pretty sure nopony ever saw it. . All of a sudden though, the floating... Creature? stopped and flew right in front of her face.
“Hello equine, I am 526 Broken Shard, and I am the monitor of this installation. Who are you and what brings you here?.”
Equine? That's the only intelligible word she heard in that entire sentence. she couldn't think of much to say herself,, so she simply tried to see if it was a different language, or the robot simply was broken. "Are you speaking Equestrian, or what? I cant understand a single word your saying.
"Ah, a different language." The monitor said in what only Daring could assume was it's native language. this thing was never even mentioned or seen in her years of exploration. Though it said moments later "Partial translation complete. converse additionally." Converse additionally? Partial was right, but still... it was amazing if this was a new language to the thing and it was already learning so much from a few words. She had a pocket dictionary, less than half a pound. It could probably help much more.
"Here, take this." Daring opened up one of her saddle bags and took the book out. The monitor took it curiously, the book levitating just like it was. it levitated in front of the yellow light, or probably it's artificial eye or something. The pages started turning fast on their own, and it closed the book and put it back in it's saddle bag.
"Translation complete, or at least assumed so. Now, let me introduce myself. I am 526 Broken Shard, and I am the monitor of this installation." The floating orb said.
"Installation?" Daring asked, wondering if the monitor knew what it's installation was more similar too. "This place looks alot more like ruins, honestly."
"Ruins? Well, that's degrading. Granted, this station's power supply has been rendered inoperable for a great measure of time. Though, all I ask of you now is your cooperation."
Weighing her options “What’s in it for me, if I do cooperate then?” Daring asked.
“I will show you the purpose of this installation and answer any questions you have about me or my origins.” obviously curious now that the orb revealed his friendly intentions, she silently followed him the other way, further into the 'installation,' As the orb turned on a light of it’s own.
“As I have previously stated before, my superiors have named me 526 Broken Shard, and I am the monitor of this installation. I am one of the few surviving pieces of evidence here left behind by the Forerunners, and safekeeper of the only intact installation on this planet. At this current time this facility is without power. This would explain the darkness and uncleanliness. I require an organic creature’s touch in order to restore power, and from there I can return my installation to a more optimal state.”
Daring thought about what Broken Shard had said, and let her natural cautiousness kick in. “Why would you need this place on anyway? I don’t think there’s anything to do in here.” Daring perceptively stated.
Broken Shard thought of something to say to ease the equine’s understandable concerns, whilst giving it a reason to let it restore power. “As you must have realized by now, this tangle undergrowth does not meet safety standards, and as a result over periods of time I was required to fight off any hostile creature that entered this installation. As a result, my operational ability has been lowered. This would also explain the damages on my exterior. If you were to restore power I would regain access to any of the systems which have survived the time, wildlife and other misfortunes to befall my installation, giving you and any of your possible acquaintances almost entirely unrestricted access to them.”
Daring once again thought deeply as she weighed her options. The creatures Broken Shard had to fight off that lived in the jungle were potentially more than capable of tearing through a squad of royal guards, and some of the beasts she thought of rarely traveled alone. Cringing at how powerful this tiny orb had to be to survive for years in the jungle, she figured it was safer to agree with it, although she couldn’t imagine it being the type of thing that would attack without being provoked. At the same time, knowledge of an ancient likely spacefaring race would be invaluable to Equestria, and she would get all the credit it for it... She chuckled inwardly at the thought. She was still somewhat worried. She put her flashlight up, pointed it at the orb and saw something black behind it, and it looked like a mark of some sort. Could this thing use magic? The Burst looked very powerful, considering it looked almost half her size. “Uhhh... Broken Shard. If all you needed was an organic creature’s touch, couldn’t you simply get a small animal to do it?”
“Oh! I almost forgot. The science behind the console we will be using to turn on the power requires that the key be held by a creature intelligent and trustful enough to wield it. Anyone else who would hold it would be pacified the second they laid hands, or in this case hooves, on it. After mathematical analysis i have concluded that the odds of you receiving a major physical injury are fifty eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty eight to one. Of course, these chances may concern you If you are hoping to exploit for evil gain I would advise you to say so now. Also, if you are not willing to do it say so now, or you may be pacified, quite fatally. There is no way around these protocols, for obvious safety reasons.”
Broken Shard waited for any of Daring’s responses as she thought “My causes aren’t evil right? No, they couldn’t be. Equestria won’t gain some groundbreaking knowledge they’d use to conquer the world." And she wanted to activate the facility, that much was certain. All explorers would crave to be in her position. “Excellent! this Now if you would follow me, We are arriving at our destination.”
The two arrived in another room, roughly the same as the others. Diamond like, but this seemed to be the end of the hallways, as there was no other exit to this one. There were two more tubes, with strange rods inside of them, which Daring could only think powered the facility, but unlike the rest of the building, they were clear as day.
“Please step into the room to your left, and I shall retrieve the key.” Daring obliged the monitor, knowing she was powerless to say otherwise, since she knew nothing of how to turn on the “installation”. She stepped inside the room, and observed it briefly with her flashlight. It’s shape showed a lot resemblance to that of a block, and what she could only assume was a control panel was smack in the middle, almost as high as her head. The height made her wonder though, who were these “forerunners”?
“Who are the ‘Forerunners’ Shard?” Daring asked, feeling stupid she hadn’t asked earlier.
“The Forerunners are, well, technically were a race similar to yours. Intelligent, organic, physically skilled, but very advanced. Any other details you might want to know can be answered when the power is restored, and I can access historical archives. Now, if you would grab this.” Broken Shard had a floating virtual key in front of it, as it burnt the muck off of the control panel, revealing a slot that seemed the size of the key. Still, Daring was obviously confused
“But that’s just a hologram. It’s not even a real object. How can that power a facility? And why do you need me to do it? Daring asked.
“I can only go so close to that panel. I cannot physically enter the room, let alone turn on the facility. Only I can turn on the facility, but to do so I require assistance by a sentienti being. Back when I was created the forerunners believed that monitors should be treated as an ally that could defect, so as a result all installations required an artificial intelligence and an organic touch to be activated. This is the result of an incident that took place during the Forerunner-Flood wars, when an AI, specifically titled 05-032 Mendicant Bias, went rampant and defected to the flood. The key on the other hand, is not a physical object, but if touched is programmed to act like a key would, in weight and motion. My personal advice would be to treat it like it was a real object.”
“Wait, what is the flood, and how many AI’s like you are there?” Daring asked, momentarily stopped.
“The flood... Hmm” Shard thought aloud, trying to make the briefest summary possible. “The flood are parasites, now stored and contained in much larger installations than this. They fought against the forerunners, but were eventually wiped out. A much more factual recount is available on the archives, after we turn on the power.”
"So your telling me about this key.... Your telling me that you are completely, literally unable to turn this on. No way around it, and you almost died from that. Doesn't seem like smart engineering there, pal."
"It was not me who created this facility, and if I had my wishes I would have full operational control over it. Unfortunately, after Mendicant Bias' corruption me and my kind were given much, much less trust over any matter. After that point we were all unable to almost anything without approval of a Forerunner, hence this key."
"And why can I use it then, if im not one of these 'forerunners'." Daring asked, wondering if this would even work.
"Now that, not even I know. maybe it was intentional, maybe not. Still, I know for a fact you are capable of activating the installation via that key
Daring carefully wrapped her off around the key, and shook her hoof slowly, finding it fit just like a real world key. She cautiously walked towards the podium and lifted the key, placing it in the slot, and heard a crackle of electricity from the rods as the key began to shrink in the slot. As it got smaller and smaller, the sounds got louder and louder. Lights began to blink, and the grass and mold began to burn up, revealing the facility’s true color. she looked around and saw that the two tubes crackled with electricity, as the lights kept blinking. They kept intensifying more and more, until the lights were on completely. Daring looked at Broken Shard as it disappeared from her view, probably to manage the power up. “Last time I accept a mission from motherbucking Celestia.” Daring muttered, growing tired of that floating monitor.
Then something unexpected happened. She was lifted into the air. Daring flailed her limbs and even tried to fly free from the unknown force’s grip, but to no avail. She couldn’t budge an inch, and was lifted further and further. Something hit her as she went numb. The lights brightened even more as the noise grew to a near deafening level. Daring shut her eyes to protect them, but all of a sudden the noise stopped, and she was dropped from the field. She was immediately was propelled towards the wall to her side, and the light in her eyes was replaced with darkness.
Opening her eyes, Daring stumbled to her hooves. Her ears were ringing, and her head felt like it had been hit with a hammer. The noise stopped, and she could see fine, so that was good enough. She turned around, and the two tubes which a few minutes ago were surging with a ludicrous amount of electricity, were now dormant. That wasn’t the generator then. “Then what the buck do those do?” Daring looked around and half turned her head to the room she had activated the generator from. Something had caught her eye, and that was weird. nothing was in the room before. as explorer turned her eyes she grew more and more worried. Something was on the floor, and it was alive.
Daring went numb, thinking in her head what to do. She was dumbfounded at the site of the creature. It seemed to be wearing armor, green and white, with large gaps in the encasing filled in with a dark grey. “Only the second extraterrestrial being I saw today.” Daring muttered, frustrated. The explorer slowly approached the thing, one step at a time, examining it. Bipedal, with a helmet covering it’s face, if it had one. Daring thought of a plan on what to do. First, she would check for a pulse, and if it had one she would tie it up by it’s appendages, which she assumed would contain it. Magically enchanted rope could keep manticores at bay. The adventurer felt calm, for the first time of the day. That was, until the creature moved.
“The Subject’s squad is in last, again. They may not survive the night without a meal, especially her.”
“Whether or not the squad survives does not matter. It’s if the Subject survives that does. She’s special, we all know that, but she will be given no exceptions from the program. It is life or death for every candidate.”
That was all that greeted the Spartan, other than a dizziness that made her want to vomit. Remembering her training, Six struggled to get to her feet, despite seeing everything as a blur. She took a knee, shaking her head, and breathing heavily as everything became clearer, in more than one aspect than one. She was still, alive? Reach burned, Noble Team was dead, and the remnants of the fleet were in ruins, yet she was breathing? Six’s train of thought was interrupted as a blip appeared on the edge of her radar.
The alien, if it wasn’t just another robot, seemed exhausted. At first it just shook it’s head, as if trying to stay awake, resting a limb on one of it’s legs, letting it’s knee rest on the floor. It wasn’t making a sound, convincing Daring it wasn’t just an ordinary creature. That and the fact that it was wearing armour. If it was tired, like she thought, it would be panting, or indicating it was tired somehow. It had what could only be considered a helmet on, covering its entire head.
She was a pretty safe distance away from it, 12-15 feet was more than enough for Daring to react to anything the creature did. All of a sudden though, the creature raised it’s head and stared at her. Daring backed another foot, for safe measures. The only way she could tell it was looking at her was a visor, a blue one to be specific, pointed directly at the explorer. With lightning reflexes the entity bolted to it’s feet, and brought out a knife. Daring did the same, not wanting to take risks.
The two stood there, examining each other, thinking of potential weak spots, waiting for the other to make the first move. Daring wondered if the creature could understand her even if she did try to talk. Was this a “reclaimer” the monitor mentioned?
Six was baffled. The creature looked somewhat resemblant to some creatures on the planets she had been to, but instead looked so different. Not to mention it wore some clothing. It had bags on it’s side, kind of like backpacks, and a holster for the knife it cupped in it’s hoof right below the neck. It was up to her chest, almost as tall as most marines, and almost certainly heavier than them, considering how much mass most quadrupeds took up. Still, there was no way it could have been heavier than a full armoured spartan. Something rung off the distance, a sound familiar to the soldier, but not. It sounded like a focus rifle, but too distorted to be one. Six sprinted past the strange looking horse after the sound. It was repeated again, and again, as she rushed around the corners. The ringing grew louder, until she finally found the source. A floating orb, firing large golden bursts of light, at something blocked by the walls. She crept forwards, knife in her left hand, careful not to alarm the automaton, enough for it and it’s target to appear on radar. The dot was gray, but turned into bright red as it charged, it’s roar deafening out the cruel shrieks of light.
Six ran forward, trying to get to the robot before it was too late, but the monster got their first. The beast pounced, at the monitor, clenching it whole in it’s jaws, biting it to it menacingly. One last blare from the sphere’s beam futilely freed it, extending it’s life for a few more seconds. It began to fly out of control, hitting the wall to it’s right, before smashing into the one on it’s left, smashing to the ground, as the spark of light from it’s center went dark. The animal turned it’s attention towards six, discarding it’s previous foe. She could only say it resembled a bear. It had high shoulders and a sloping back, and outsized her by at least half a foot, which wouldn’t matter. but if it’s fangs could penetrate metal, that would be very problematic.
It’s flesh was exposed from the chest to the bottom of it’s mouth in a long fat line from the lasers the automaton fired at it, but it was unphased by the pain. The monster roared, beginning to charge. It lowered it’s head, trying to clench Six’s head and neck in it’s jaws. She simply ducked, digging her feet into the ground, dodging the bear’s jaws digging her hands into it’s chest, forcing it back on it’s hind legs, backing it up. When it refused to fall backwards, she reached upwards with her knife, slashing the side of it’s face, unable to get a clean hit.
The bear roared in response, pushing six on her back. It raised it’s razor sharp claw going in for the kill, but was met with the unsatisfying ‘clank’ against the floor. Awestruck at where the nuisance went, his question was answered with a knife through it’s eye. Rearing back in pain, it yelped in surprise, if only for a second, before returning to it’s stance, growling as it backed away, cautiously fleeing around the corner.. Six would have normally finished off the weaker prey, but it was tough. The only thing that Six had ever fought that hadn’t died after she had gotten an eye stab was a brute, and they were almost as good brawlers as Six herself.
Six turned around to see the other creature she met today, except this one hadn’t tried to kill her, yet. It walked forwards, unfazed by her, with worrisome eyes, examining the monster’s victim, but it’s eyes widened in surprise, sprinted the other direction. Had the thing reminded her of something?
“The archives!” Daring had remembered. Before it died, Shard said everything would be explained in the them. She weaved through the halls back to the primary room, thoughts from the gruesome fight absent from her mind. For now, she needed it’s knowledge. How many of these things could come from the there? If it could singlehandedly make a Nandi flee, Equestria was in danger if an army sprung. Though the scout wouldn’t admit it, she wanted to be away from the alien as long as she could.
As she arrived to the generator room there was already a digital screen open, playing what appeared to be a video.
“Dearest reclaimer, We forerunners have been watching your kind much longer than you could even imagine.”
The screen turned from black into colors, as the a picture of the monitor in the facility in it’s younger days played, looking at this very screen.
“After the corruption of Mendicant Bias, My creators set me and any other of the monitor’s former associates aside, to do much lighter tasks, and it is in my personal opinion to believe this very experiment was simply to get away from much more pressing matters.”
The creature that Daring had now suspected was just a lab experiment, stepped to her right side, looking at the same video she had been watching. Neither of the two noticed each other. The screen turned to show more monitors, in a circle, possibly conversing, and then turning away from each other, and floating away.
“My creators ordered me to create daily logs of no less than 100 pages of content, likely to keep my mind at work instead of thinking of the flood, and why I was here. Most artificial intelligences can print out one hundred pages in not even a minute, but that’s only if they have something to say. I spent most of my time making logs, especially as the years pressed on. I still put in time to contemplate on the war, and the odds that this project would be deemed a success.”
“It hadn’t taken long for me to grow desperate. fifty eight nine hundred and thirty four years ago the power to my installation had run out, and with it the lights and defenses to it, and I had to fend off the indigenous population on my own.”
The picture changed, to the monitor firing it’s beam in the dark facility, at a strange bipedal creature, almost hitting the ceiling with it’s head, and struggling to use it’s makeshift club.
I had struggled, nearly getting killed many times, bringing me to the point where I can barely operate independently. I would likely not survive another year alone, until you came.”
The screen shifted to the monitor watching, as Daring walked towards the entrance of the temple, not even an hour before it’s death.
I do not speak of the reclaimers, I speak of you, equine, for you have helped me fulfill the purpose I had been told to do a hundred thousand years ago. I know I am dead, for I need to be for you to read this. But know this reclaimer, You have been saved for a reason.”
The screen disappeared, leaving the two bewildered at what they had just seen. Six rested on the table the projection played from, and rested her head in her hands, and Daring simply sat on her haunches, trying to process the wave of information just said.
Six waited, not looking at the horse, waiting for it to do something, anything. She was literally wordless. Could this creature even understand English? She had to say something, maybe this creature knew the monitor? Six looked up, a little, just enough to see the creature. The pony had to have some language, and judging by the packs on it’s side, it traveled far.
“Who... Are you?” Daring mumbled, putting her head in her hooves, wanting this situation to be over.
Six sighed inwardly. The truth honestly was that she didn’t know. She was an enigma, never to be known, even to herself. Nobody had ever called her by her real name, and Six still wondered why she remembered it after all those years. It was only natural that she would simply want to be called what her squadmates had grown so used to calling her.
Closing her eyes, annoyed she was playing this game, “I’m a soldier.” Six replied, keeping everything no longer than it had to be.
Daring grew from confused to curious, quickly, now that a window of conversation had actually been established. “That’s it? No name, just soldier?”
Putting her palm to her face, Six already hated the... Whatever it was. “Noble Six”
“Huh?”
“Noble Six, that’s who I am. Six for short.” Six muttered. “What am I doing? I should be fighting covenant, not playing charades.” thinking to herself “ And who are you?”
“I’m Daring Do. Pegasus, explorer... Hmmm, thats all I can think of.” Daring said, thinking she really should have said something better for the occasion. First impressions are everything, and this ‘Noble Six’ was no ordinary Soldier. That much was certain. Still, she didn’t want to piss the alien off. “And why does shard keep calling you a reclaimer?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You have to have some idea of what it is!”
“I don’t know, the answer isn’t changing.”
Daring closed her eyes, and put her hoof through her mane, annoyed, “You don’t know anything about these...robots?”
“Can’t say I have.” Most humans would be freaking out, seeing a sentient bug eyed quadruped, that spoke perfect english. Six was one of them, she just chose not to show it. The ability came easy to the Spartan, although mostly anyone that made it through torture training became pretty good at it. Still, Six did wonder. “Where am I?”
Daring put on a sly smile. “You seriously don’t know? You’re in Equestria.”
“Sir, the only side project for the Spartan program right now is the headhunters, it’s virtually impossible ONI will allow another.”
“Well I’m not putting up with this. I didn’t raise these Spartans for them to be cut up like some worthless cannon fodder, if I can save two, or three, or however many I can, I’ll do it. Ackerson’s out of his damned mind and you know it.”
“So, two princesses raise the sun and the moon each day, and rule this ‘Equestria’ of yours?” Six asked cocking an eyebrow.
“Yup! Anything else you want me to tell you?”
“No, no. Maybe another time. Just... no.” Six’s head hurt, the five minute contradiction to science itself made the spartan question the pegasus’ sanity, and her own. “Imagine if Kat were here.” Six thought, cheering herself up a little
The two had been walking for a few hours. Six figured to follow the equine, though she had no idea why. Though From what she had heard there were no humans in Equestria.
“So, I told you all about myself, what about you?” Daring asked. “I mean, you have to wear all that armor for a reason right?” The explorer was curious about the soldier’s origins, considering it had a knife.. And the two metal... barrels, were pretty concerning.
Six pondered her response “There’s no way I’m talking about the war.” she immediately concluded in her mind, not wanting the pony to delve into her life. She wanted to be as normal and bland as possible. “I’m just a soldier. Nothing special about it. I help people.”
“I would think you’d have to be awfully special to get magically teleported here by some ancient robot.” Daring perceptively remarked, still remembering Shard tell the soldier it had been saved for a reason.
Once again, the soldier audibly sighed in frustration “What did I tell you the first three times?”
“You had no idea, I know. I still can’t believe you don’t know a freaking thing about it.”
Six was mad. Not mad at the bug eyed pegasi, since it was understandable how it felt, but at the fact she knew nothing about the situation. One second she had been on Reach, Fighting and... Dying. That was when the former member of Noble had actually remembered the cold hard fact, that her and her team had died. Jorge, Kat, Carter...”
“Hello?” The pony’s voice startled her, bringing her back to earth. “Anyway, I got a map right here” Daring unfolded the map and explained, “and it’s gonna be about a week and a half ‘till we get to civilization,” the pony pointed towards a small X a few inches from a town, though the name was smeared with mud. “ I know most of the terrain by heart, so don’t worry about getting lost.”
As the explorer folded the map and put it in her saddlebag the armour clad soldier couldn’t help but wonder how the pony made it this far. The thing Noble Six had fought in the facility half a day ago could have killed her if she made a simple mistake, but unless the pony had some immense unseen strength, it had no chance fighting something similar to the bear-like creature. Although the pegasus did have a decent amount of supplies. She wore something Six could only think of as a pony version of a T-shirt, with pockets in the front and a knife in it’s holster, but she also had two sets of symmetrical bags on her sides filled to the brim with supplies. The pony itself was a about as tall as her chest, and Six was six feet and five inches with her armor on. six guessed she was about five foot ten.
The pair continued the long hike with the pony leading the way. “Wait, what about your species?” Daring asked,”how many of you are there?” the question made Six think. “how many of us are there?” she had stopped seeing the death tolls from fallen planets, especially after they had begun to show how many humans there were left on those same reports. There couldn’t have been many left, especially after Reach. Only more would follow.
“A few billion.” six answered, keeping emotionless in her responses
“A few billion!?”
“Yes.”
“What do you mean a ‘few’ billion? two, three? We barely have a million ponies in Equestria, but you have to have a specific number.” daring asked, regaining her composure.”
“I’m not sure anymore.”
The rest of the day was filled with an eery silence, neither party uttering a word to the other, but both thinking very intensely about the other. The options they had relating to each other, and what those consequences would be. They both reached a silent understanding that the two were stuck together for the next two weeks.
At night, Daring Do looked at the forest. the bunnies retreated to their burrows, the birds were nowhere to be seen, and she could barely see the grass below her. The soldier behind her, wearing olive drab armor from head to toe with a golden visor, was virtually invisible, but the explorer found it easy to hear her footfalls. Six fared much better at night, with superior eyesight, and on top of that, the all too valuable night vision she had come to love. Six judged that it was about one in the morning, but was more than willing to stay up through the night, still not knowing when her new companion would decide to rest.
Daring on the other hand was exhausted, though her pride refused to admit it. She had stayed up for two days straight scouring about for the ruins, and on top of that walked a great deal of distance after finding them. she would wait, after all, her new friend couldn’t stay up that much longer right?
A few hours later Daring realized that was the biggest mistake she had ever made. She was beginning to drag her hooves across the forest floor, trying to indicate her fatigue to Six. Eventually she had actually gotten her message across.
“You wanna just find somewhere to rest?” Six asked
“Oh yeah, sure,” Daring nonchalantly replied, suppressing a yawn, “I mean, if you want. I’m not too tired.”
Six grinned inside of her helmet, deciding to call Daring’s bluff. “Oh really? I’m fine, I can wait a few weeks to sleep, this way was it?” Six walked away, waiting, and waiting.
“Oh no! Errr, I was joking! There’s a nice little cave, and I, ummm, have my own sleeping bag!”
Chuckling at Daring’s spectacle, Six made her way over to the cave to find Daring collapsed and sleeping, on stone. Daring’s body was off the ground, resting on her left saddlebag, and the tip of her muzzle resting on the stone. Six fumbled around to find that Daring did in fact have a sleeping bag, and awkwardly put her in it. Though Six never admitted it, Daring looked kinda cute sleeping. She rolled her eyes at the thought. She sat down next to Daring and waited. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
Cold. Dark. Damp. This is what the young girl could only think of to describe the life she had grown accustom to over the last couple of days on a UNSC frigate. They had just cut power to their section to save it for vital areas. The cargo bay once filled with tanks, ammunition, and other supplies was now dormant. The only signs of life that one could see would be the hundreds of bonfires made by refugees to keep warm. The Rimouski was one of the hundreds of ships that collided in combat over her now dormant home, and the signs of battle were easily seen. It was a struggle to repair the hull breaches in time for the last evacuation of the planet.
The child thought of nothing, staring blankly at the flames, illuminating her emotionless face and it’s features. Smooth yet frizzled auburn red hair stopping halfway down her neck. the girl had icy blue eyes, and had pale white skin, with two bloody bandages on both of her cheeks, beginning to peel off. The bonfire distracted her mind from the horrors that had taken place on the now glassed planet, but on that day, flames were all she saw.
The experience on the Rimouski was almost as horrid as the experience on the planet. Once she had gotten off of the pelican she saw hundreds of people, bruised, dirty, bloody. All horrified at what had just happened. Some still didn’t even believe what the events that had taken place. Once they had settled in she saw the wounded. The soldiers had the worst. The lights illuminated the entire area, and she hated it. Hundreds of people, lined up in rows. Their flesh burnt and rotting, some missing limbs, but one hurt her the most. A man in her town’s local militia, one of her father’s friends. He had these bright pink things lodged into his stomach, and they turned into tiny shards that sparkled as bright as the sun, if they hadn’t done what they did she would think they were pretty because they looked like glitter. They broke apart and stabbed into his stomach. He groaned and screamed from the pain, but it never got better. His cries for help were mixed in with the other injured, but his was heard above the others. The unique high pitched wail he had was something that stood out, and the girl never forgot. A few mornings later she stopped hearing the screams.
Then the power went out. The heating and the lights went out in the cargo bay. The soldiers said the generator was shorting out, and power was saved for the most vital areas. The people there were given anything burnable to use to burn for light and heat. The girl was happy the power went out, she couldn’t see the injured. The people did not care that much about the power though. They said there wouldn’t be anything to eat anymore. Every so often the soldiers would come in to tend to the wounded and hand out food. They had come less and less. The nearest planet was weeks away, and it seemed all hope was lost.
The girl’s clothing consisted of a tank top, cargo pants, socks going up to her knees, and tan work boots, all military issued, and all, very oversized. Her other garments were all shredded from the attack that had taken so many of the people she had once known. No pity was shown though, all of the unfortunate residents the Rimouski had lost friends, family, and lovers. The girl stifled a yawn, exhausted. It was time for bed, though she didn't know whether it was mid afternoon or midnight. Laying on a pile of empty trash bags, she rested. The true tragedy was that this was to be the girl’s last moment of tranquility she would ever have, and it wouldn’t last long.
Awakening her eyes the spartan cracked her neck. Sleeping against the trunk of a tree was uncomfortable. Though something felt off, like a creeping thought in the back of her mind. It was the dream. The day her entire life was destroyed. What led to her joining the spartan program, led her to kill thousands and what inevitably lead to her death. closing her eyes and sighed, she shook the thought out of her head, it was Daring’s turn to rest. “Hey, it’s your turn.” six spoke aloud
“Huh? Oh, alright.” Daring said, snapping out of her trance “Ummm, just a half hour, got it?” Daring ordered, attempting to cover up her spacing out. Though she wouldn’t admit it Daring needed the catnap. It had been four days since the two had met, and they had few conversations, mostly relating to Equestria. Daring figured it best to steer away from the sun and the moon, it seemed to trigger something in the soldier, though her helmet hid any emotions. The only glimpse at what lay beneath it Daring saw was when she took it off, facing away. Six took a canteen and drank it, but that wasn’t the interesting part. She had hair! Well, Daring didn’t expect that all. It was dark red, and was kind of long. Enough to hide her face entirely, at least from the back.. Daring was still very curious about the creatures face. Putting her thoughts aside, she snuggled into her makeshift blanket and slipped into a blissful rest.
The rain was relentless, dripping through the foliage, forming thick puddles. The droplets fell onto the soldier’s helmet, dripping onto her narrow visor, clouding her vision. She didn’t bother wiping them off, only more would come. Six just looked straight ahead, leaning against a tree, looking at the endless sea of green the rain forest had become. It was filled with exotic animals and plants she had never seen before. Some even seemed to come straight out of a myth. It was a change of pace from where she had just came from.
Still, she hated it. It wasn’t her place. Part of her was happy though for getting out of the pure meat grinder that Reach had become, and she felt guilty for those thoughts. Another part of her knew she wasn’t going back anytime soon, and she had to adapt as she always had. What would she do when she got back to this civilization? What would the rational humans of the 26th century do with an alien with technology a few millennia ahead of their own? Then again, these aliens didn’t have ONI, otherwise known as the peacekeeping government organization that ironically enough also japanese language translates into demons, evils, ogres and trolls. Six thought it was an accurate description of the agency.
Six had pulled out one of the dog tags from one of the pockets on her waist, which had now seemed to be more of a cemetery. Jorge. Squeezing her eyes shut and sighing she had remembered the giant. Towering above her very small frame for a spartan at just six foot four, due to how young she was when the augmentation started. At seven foot four Jorge was not the tallest spartan, but still very heavy, and very strong. Ironically, the threatening and intimidating hulk was one of the kindest and worldly people she ever met, and the first to actually socialize with the enigma she had become out of all of Noble Team. She remembered his last words to her that fateful night. “Tell em’ to make it count”. She wished he never did what he did. Blowing up one ship out of a fleet of hundreds was a waste of life, even if it was the only covenant ship orbiting Reach at the time, not including the one they hijacked. At Least he thought he saved the planet he lived on for so long. None of the others were lucky enough to have such a fate.
Six slowly shook her head, heartbroken and thoughtlessly standing. This isn’t helping. Putting the dog tag back in it’s pouch, she woke up Daring Do, looking forward to the new day. She had to distract her mind from the memories. Six had an eery feeling it was the explorer’s turn for twenty questions today.
As the two walked neither of them talked. A fact Six seemed very contempt with. Unfortunately for her, Daring didn’t feel the same way. “So, what do you eat other than berries?” Daring asked, trying to spice up the hike somehow
The spartan decided to try to be a little in depth with her explanation to keep her mind from drifting. “Pretty much anything edible. Fruits, vegetables, mea-”
“Meat?”
“Yeah, where i came from we mostly ate fish. Really healthy.”
“Heh, I don’t really mind, since I practically live with meat eaters, but we don’t eat meat and some of the folks back home won’t really be comfortable with that. Does help you’re an omnivore though.” Daring honestly said.
“Tell me a bit about yourself.” Six asked to the surprise of Daring Do. Six honestly just wanted to have as little questions asked about herself as possible. It was getting very tedious, and the last thing Six wanted was old wounds reopened.
“Well where can I start. My father, well, was an interesting character. He was a famous writer. Not the novels, no. He made this new kinda thing called a comic book. It’s kinda like a kid’s book, with pictures and words together, but more of an adult thing I guess you could say. but anyway, he had an idea of this brave courageous explorer who stopped these evil ancient villains and guess what he named it? Daring Do Right. Yeah, very cheesy, and also I would never guess how I was named. But anyway, it was very, very popular back in his day, but the series only lasted like, five years I think. When my mom gave birth to me they were both about forty years old, and I guess out of cruelty that’s what he name me. Thankfully barely anyone remembered it by then, and i think i would changed my name if they hadn’t dropped the Right off of Daring Do.”
“Well that’s certainly a unique story.” Six said, unable to think of much else to say. Her explanation was very in depth. Six had never really thought the pony would have much to explain, and just about her dad and name alone. It wasn’t the most bizarre origin six had heard, but it dawned on the Spartan that these ponies weren't so different from humans. Still, Six was curious about one matter. “Why are you out here anyway? I don’t think someone would just look through ancient ruins for fun.”
“I’m in the Royal Guard.” Daring said, closing her eyes and putting on a sly grin as she walked.
“Ummm, and that is...” Six said, dumbfounded
“Oh, right, sorry. It’s a branch of Equestria’s military. The most prestigious one, if the name didn’t tell you that much. Only the best of the best can join their ranks.”
“Still, you wouldn’t be too far away from your unit if you were just a grunt.”
“I’m technically a scout, but that’s mostly because there isn’t really anyone else that does stuff like I do. Nowadays I explore certain areas by the princesses’ orders, which no one else does. It’s usually drawing a map of the terrain, but I was told to investigate some ruins like, three times now.” Daring was answering the alien’s questions as sincerely as possible, she needed her trust, especially the alien being a soldier. Those metal objects on it’s back were dangerous, but how?
“So how ‘bout you? What are you in your military?”
From that point Six’s brain race a mile a minute. “Assassin? No, too threatening. Guerilla? No, and she probably doesn’t know what it means. Spartan, no. Special operations. Yeah, that’ll work.” The soldier concluded in her mind. Six was fairly confident that Equestria didn’t have wars, partially from the frilly name, and special operations gave the right factor of intimidation but not too much, but also not saying the extent of how much she had killed. “Uhhh, special operations.”
“Oh, you’re a commando type of soldier? What type of missions you do?”
“Fuck.” Six thought mentally deadpanning. “What can I tell her? Pretty much any operation involves death somehow. There’s no way I can explain what I do without hinting that there’s ‘Bad guys’ and I’m not telling her or anyone about the Covenant. Changing the subject would work.” The two reached a fairly wide and deep river, indicating that there wasn’t anyway around it that wouldn’t delay them considerably. “So how are we crossing the river?” Six asked nonchalantly, though curious.
“We’ll just swim across. The current isn’t that bad, and i’m just gonna assume you can swim good. I haven’t seen a predator in here in awhile, and it was just a baby crocodile.” Daring stopped and looked at the river. She guessed it was around twenty feet deep at max. She was nervous though. She had been bit by a crocodile once, it let her go after she jabbed it in the eye, but she could only walk on three legs for the rest of the three week trip back. The one thing that especially concerned her though was she couldn’t fly with Six there. Daring was practically her guide, and Daring knowing the wildlife and terrain didn’t help anything.
“You have wings though. Couldn’t you just fly across?” Six observantly asked.
“This equipment isn’t light you know.” Daring said, gesturing a hoof at the twin saddlebags strapped to both her sides, covering her wings. “Not to mention I can’t fly with them on in the first place, they keep my wings from expanding. I won’t make you swim alone with my stuff either. Besides, the bags are waterproof.”
Six pondered that for a second. She could carry Daring’s bags with ease as she swam across, and her armor and shields would protect her from any crocodile undoubtedly. Then again, these crocs could be a lot deadlier than the ones she knew, cutting steel open like a tin can. No, If they were that bad Daring would have told her to just avoid the river or wait for a safer crossing, and Six hadn’t seen anything that would need such powerful jaws to kill. And honestly, the worst that would happen from a croc attack would be a flesh wound, which Six had the equipment to deal with, albeit in short supply in a tactical soft case on her left leg, and a medkit on the right. “Alright, i’ll go in first. I’ve got armour to protect me.” Six tapped her her outer thigh casing which produced a light thud. “But you don’t, if you feel something just shout.”
Daring was slightly annoyed. She had done this times before and even got bit in this very river. It wasn’t hard though to get free of a crocodile. A jab in the eye sent it reeling. The nose could also work, and if all else failed there was a flap in it’s mouth that kept water from getting in, if she could open that it would be a guarantee that it’d free her. Still, a simple “Alright.” sufficed for a response.
The two got into the water, and the river was surprisingly shallow save for the middle, and she began to swim. Six could walk until a bit before the deepest points. It was about thirty seconds till Six could walk on the bottom of the river again. Daring couldn’t say the same though. The current was surprisingly gentle, but the water was very murky, with weeds at the bottom, and six could have sworn she felt something nudge her thigh. Six’s knees were above the water and she waited for Daring, who lagged behind the superhuman expectantly. It hadn’t occurred to the soldier to slow her pace, especially since she had been operating with spartans for the last month or so.
Then she fell. A fully grown crocodile knocked the one ton soldier off her feet and ripped into her unarmoured inner thigh, yet it still wasn't enough to rip through her suit, though it had no trouble draining her shields.. Six took out her knife, knowing she would trap it in her grip and finish it off. It wasn’t until a a scream, well, a grunt awakened Six from her tunnel vision. the noise ripped into her brain. Daring was in trouble. Six sank to the bottom on purpose and jumped up to the croc's jaws and tried opening them. It was a strong beast, that was for sure. Six gave it alot of her strength to unpry Daring's leg, but eventually it backed off. Six had no time though, because the creature dragged Daring Do under.
Six had ran only to dive into the water meters later. The soldier saw Daring, jabbing the croc’s eye repeatedly until it gave way and scurried off into the river, knowing full well there was probably another creature on it’s way, maybe to even claim it’s kill. Daring couldn’t get to the surface. She had been bitten in her hind leg and the bags also weighed her down. Flailing her harness, she couldn’t get it undone. Her hooves struggling frantically to undo the binding. All of a sudden something gripped her sides and before she knew it she was gasping for air. Looking to her right she saw her rescuer.
Though Six wasn’t looking at her she wasn’t definitely thinking about her. Six was mentally panicking. Daring couldn’t die, she just couldn’t. The grizzled veteran let her instincts kick in seconds later, cutting off all emotion with her muscle memory. Dragging the patient to shore, Six instantly made a plan of action.
Daring on the other hand was attempting to even think. The pain had burned her along half her leg. Six poked and prodded, examining it, only to be awarded with a flinch and a grunt of pain. She needed the bio foam, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Daring.” Six said, attempting to distract her companion from the pain, though it wasn’t received. “Daring!”
“Wha-ow!” Daring yelped loudly as six did a final look at her wound.
“I know your in alot of pain right now, but see this?” Six poked the small can. “It’s gonna make you feel alot better. But first, it’s gonna hurt. Alot.”
“Do it.” Daring struggled to respond through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes, feeling Six’s hand grip her hind leg. Tssssssss! For the first seconds, Daring felt a tingling sensation run through her leg, almost as if a bunch of bugs were crawling through her skin, until a blinding pain hit her. Screaming she wrapped her left hoof around her eyes, pounding the ground with her other hoof. It felt like those bugs she imagined in her leg before dug into her leg and bit, all at the same time. Though the pain passed very soon after. Her appendage was now numb, and felt very cold. It was as if the unbearable agony she had just experienced never happened. She still couldn’t walk, And Six bandaged the wound.
Gazing about she spotted a body in the water with blood surrounding it, was it another crocodile? The one that attacked six seconds before she was dragged under. It’s head was completely caved in, like someone stuck some excavation explosives inside of it. Did Six do that?
“Daring, we gotta go.” Six bluntly said.
“We’re still a good two days away from anywhere.” Daring replied.
“Yeah, but this bio foam only lasts about sixteen hours or so. All I have is first aid medicine. and I don’t have much to keep you going.”
“We could double time it, but I can’t with my leg like this. Even with the painkiller it hurts if i move my leg.”
“Well I’ll carry you. We don’t have a choice.”
“No. I’ll walk. I do have three more legs to use after all.”
Sighing, Six rolled her eyes. She dealt with her type many times. The spartan remembered, putting a wry face at Emile’s hate for bio foam, doctors, medics, or anything related to the field of medicine seemingly as much as he hated the covenant. “Alright, but we aren't stopping for rest then.” Six stated, walking on at her normal pace. “You coming or what?”
Grumbling, Daring regretted what she said, she limped onwards. “By the way, what do you do again?”
“I’ll tell you when you let me carry you.” Six walked on, unable to resist smirking.
The wind howled through the now soundless town. Fighting from hours before was evident, both sides too bloodied to fight on, nursing their wounds. Almost none of the buildings could be recognized as artillery tore through them leaving nothing remaining. Still, there were some stubborn fighters, refusing to give up the fight in their own way. Recon units scouting for enemy activity, or makeshift fortifications. One soldier was assigned a different task however. Search and Rescue.
A teenager was assigned to aid people probably twice her age, in any way, whether it be pulling them out of a fight or medical aid. So far, there was nothing. Dead and dying men, choking on their last breath. It made the girl sick to her stomach. Burnt out vehicles, lighting up the bitter dark terrain. The soldier had to be careful not to step on debris or corpses of all shapes and forms, as both littered the ground as far as the eye could see.
Searching out a burnt out building which, judging by the amounts of paper and scenery the girl identified as some sort of office building, very large in space but not even two stories. It was one of the few buildings that withstood the bloody confrontation. She reached a square room, in the center various cubicles filled with paper and some with even blood in them, none that was red thankfully. The girl was carrying her DMR with one hand down by her waist, taking in her surroundings. The girl looked into the next room and saw a strange light. It was floating in the air.
Using her training she instantly realized what it was. It was a jackal sniper. She dove backwards out of the doorway, just as the beam of light past right where her head was split seconds before. The girl had to think fast. The cover was merely a hollow wall. She chose to suppress the jackal, knowing full well only a few lucky shots from her assault rifle were all it took to knock it out. Poking the rifle around the corner she lit up the next room with a blaze of gunfire.
Taking advantage of the confusion and her newly issued SPI (Self Powered Infiltration) armour she cloaked and mere seconds later she spotted the jackal running for a window, a bullet lodged in it’s shoulder. Diving the girl stopped the jackal dead in it’s tracks. The girl tackled pinning it to the floor as the jackal screeched in pain as its bones were crushed by the bulky armor. As the girl plunged a knife into it’s throat, she realized something rewarding yet so horrible. This was the first thing she had ever killed.
“You alright back there?” Six asked. Over the hours Daring started to lag behind. Even with Six carrying Daring’s load it still wasn't showing any signs of improvement.
“Not really, but better than when I carried the bags.” Daring struggled to keep a straight face. Her leg was killing her as the medicine began to wear off, and on top of that she was exhausted. She could have went on with little a problem. She had faced worse situations, but the temptation was proving very great. She had a way out, and only at the loss of her pride. And besides, if Six was in the same situation she would have carried her, or at least tried. Still, Daring wouldn’t give up. Maybe if she took her mind off of the pain it would become less of a problem. “So we traveled for seven hours, so we're only two days away.”
“Yeah, sounds right.”
The pain only grew worse. It quickly became clear Daring’s idea wasn't going to work. “Alright. I give up.” Daring mumbled.
“Ok.” Six chose not to say anything. It was a miracle she decided to agree after all. Hoisting Daring over her shoulder. She walked at a slightly faster pace, almost jogging, but not enough to disturb the wounded pony she was carrying. Six had seen many injured patients being moved go from bad to worse with the slip of a foot, as unlikely as it was for a spartan to make such an error.
Daring was exhausted. Struggling to stay awake, and all of her attempts to focus on something else, most of the time through dialogue with the soldier proved futile. Though for all she knew, if she fell asleep there might be no waking up. Daring did think of something, though. Something she hoped would have her new friend regretting her little taunt. Putting a sly smile on her face and mustered up her voice she said, “By the way, you never told me what you do.”
Six almost stopped in her tracks. Half cursing herself for when she said she would explain everything when Daring let Six carry her, the other half, digging up old memories long undisturbed. “There’s no escape now.” Six thought.
“Search And Rescue.” Six said. It was a half truth after all. Maybe a little less. “More like a quarter,” the soldier thought in her head
Daring decided to continue her questioning, trying to keep her mind focused. “So how ‘bout your culture? I can explain like, a million things about mine. You gotta have some interesting things about ‘Humanity’ I think you call it.”
Sighing, Six answered, just above a whisper. “Not much, i guess. We've traveled into space for a few hundred years. We spread out far and wide, speaking different languages, different customs. and despite all of our cultural differences we still got, well, close.
“Uh, what do you mean close?” Daring asked, tilting her head
“We’re interesting, you could say. It’s kind of funny. A guy named Nishizawa and someone else called Matt could be best friends. Two people on opposite sides of known space could talk daily. I guess that’s just what makes us special.”
“There’s gotta be more than that. It’s an entire race after all!”
“I'm not explaining our history from start to finish right now. Maybe when we finally get to wherever we're going I'll tell you while you're getting patched up.”
“But why would they need someone doing Search and Rescue? Especially with this kind of armour.” Daring questioned, bumping Six’s shoulder piece twice with her hoof.
She didn't know how advanced this armour was for humanity. For all Daring knew it was some old worn armour she was given at a training camp. Still Six decided to not lie completely. “Might bite me in the ass later.” Six concluded inwardly. Still what should she say? Granted she could just say there were ‘bad guys’ for the hell of it. There were still innies, albeit much less active than before the war due to them realizing that there was an enemy much worse than the UNSC.
“I've got a lot of training. I guess you could say they don’t wanna risk losing someone with as much experience as me.” Six Delicately explained.
“So you've fought before then?”
“Who hasn’t? You don't become a soldier and not fight.”
“But you said ‘As much experience as me’. That’s gotta mean you've been fighting a lot right? I mean really, that armor you have has to be cutting edge even for aliens! Err, no offense.”
“How-” Six cut herself off, knowing full well what she was about to say. “That’s enough. I'm done playing twenty questions.” Six dictated, looking at Daring through her visor. Begrudgingly sighing, Daring silenced herself, slumping down angrily.
“Hey swifty? What the hell is that thing?” Rain Runner whispered.
“No idea, but it looks like whatever it is it ain't too friendly with that pony. Long range scout looks like.” Swift Hoof concluded. The pair had been out for hours following orders that practically spelled spooky.
“Hey, gimme those binocs real quick.”
“Aren't we supposed to be on the lookout for one of those scouts?” Rain asked, still confused about the patrol’s objective.
“Yeah, I suppose we are. Haven't seen the poor thing open her mouth since I spotted em’ either. Let’s relay this back to HQ. Something tells me we shouldn't take that thing on by our lonesome.”
An earth shattering volley from the thirty four UNSC ships tore through the vacant space to the rivalling fleet. The recoil from the blasts ripped through the light frigate, as if an earthquake struck.
“Sir, readings report four covenant cruisers destroyed, three other crippled.”
“Roger that, if there are any damages to the ship bring them up to my hub. Williams, bring her to broadside and load the missile tubes. Connery, get the anti-air online.”
“Rockets ready to fire on your order, Sir.”
“Multiple seraphs incoming sir, waiting for orders.”
“Engage the seraphs now, Williams wait for further orders.”
The captain noticed a beeping noise from his hub. A glancing blow pierced the hull as the ship turned. The slipspace drive was malfunctioning. Not even flinching for a moment, he ordered it scuttled. A malfunctioning slipspace drive without even being activated could teleport the ship to oblivion. He kept the info to himself.
“All ships, fire all missiles on my mark. Three. Two.” The captain heard the safe locks being bypassed. “Fire.” Thousands of hisses we heard as clouds of flame headed towards the covenant fleet, still getting into battle formation. The rockets stabbed into the enemy ships, destroying some of the ships unlucky enough to be crippled by the MAC rounds.
“Get into battle formation, we engage at our own accord.”
The night was very dark. Pitch black, no one could see reliably in these conditions, not even griffons. Save for one elite group
“Remember, don’t kill the monster. The commander is gonna have our heads if we do. Fan out in pairs, and if you zero down it’s location report back here. Bow will relay the approximate coordinates. From there, we will stalk the target and I will lead. Remember your partners?” a chorus of yes sir’s was his reply. “well let’s to it.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A crow broke Six from thought as small black figures flew through the sky. She was busy focused on the pony she was carrying. The bandage she put over the wound was now soaked in red, losing the blueish tint it had two mere hours ago from the painkilling ointment. Opening Daring’s map to the best of her abilities with one hand, she looked to see she was fairly close to Daring’s “X”. A day and a half at the most.
Folding it back up she put it in one of her empty ammo pouches. One of three. The other was crammed to the point it was open, but the other was empty. It was bad luck to open that pouch. Yes, bad luck. Looking at the stars she used them as her guide, to the best of her abilities. Daring was more experienced in exploration, for obvious reasons as it was her profession, but Six didn’t want to wake up the pony. She was competent enough to manage, and it gave her something to do.
Two blips zipped through her radar, and at the same time she heard serious rustling in the branches above. What the hell was that? Six thought to herself. She was too busy looking through the gap in the foliage at the stars to look out for threats. As much as Six hated to admit it the wilderness was getting to her. Memories, worries about the state of a bug eyed alien, and mild sleep deprivation, by spartan standards.
It was probably nothing, the Spartan thought. Even if it was something, I’ll take care of it. I always do. “Almost always”, Six coldly muttered.
“Holy shit, that thing almost saw us!” Mist Chaser blurted out.
“Be glad it was almost private, you almost got us killed back there.” The pony’s superior bluntly noted. He was rather skittish when learning he was paired with the reckless pegasus. Her attitude had injured a handful of guards, and had her demoted from corporal twice in her three years of service.
Scurrying through the woods the two reached Bow, silently waiting for orders,
“We spotted the objective Bow, relay these coordinates” examining the map he called out the area he told Bow the location where he found his target. the stallion cleared his mouth as he let out a bone chilling yell. A shriek, though not an ordinary one, it was a sound only the bats could hear. Infrasound.
The other groups stopped all activity to hear the broadcast, instantly converging on one location.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bushes rustled as various birds flew from the foliage into the sky, screeching. Something felt awfully eery in the forest. Life in the forest had ceased to a standstill, and gave Six an ominous feeling. The rustling went from just a squirrel preparing for hibernation to something serious and dark, something she hadn’t dealt with ever since she had arrived in this new world. It brought back thoughts, memories, and nightmares.
Listening to the rustling whilst suppressing her thoughts, she had begun to observe that the rustling was coming from all directions. Though it was tough to tell due to her walking pace, but the noises remained, only getting louder, seeming that the noises were getting closer. Though Six found it tough, because the noises, whether it being snapping of twigs, or knocking on bark, any sign of life never happened at the same time. For all six knew it was just her mind being paranoid, and she was unwilling to waste time searching for “ghosts” that almost assuredly were not there with Daring in fairly bad condition.
It all changed when something sprung from the bushes not even twenty meters from her. It resembled the pony on her back but looked fairly different. It’s height was slightly bigger, probably six foot one. It’s muzzle was different, but the pony appeared more masculine in terms of build. It’s wings resembled what Six could only describe as a bat’s in appearance, dark blue like the night sky. It’s coat was dull grey, and it’s hair and tail were two different shades of blue. Six was snapped out of thought when it spoke.
“I don’t know if you can understand me, but put the pony down.”
Not the best way to convince me, Six thought in her head. Though she played along. Besides, if she had to beat the crap out of this thing if it got in her way, she’d need to drop Daring anyway.
“By orders of Princess Luna, we have been ordered to detain you, on grounds of assault of a soldier in uniform, and interfering in royal business. Now get on your knees, and put your, err, hands up.”
Now this is where he really screwed up. Six’s response was a clear no, though she wanted to wait, see if she would intimidate him by simply standing there. As a drop of sweat rolled down his face, she decided she had enough fun. With a shake of her head she awaited his response.
She was surprised a little bit, to see it whistle. Almost instantaneously eleven more of the mysterious “bat ponies” popped up out of thin air. Cracking her knuckles Six stood, waiting their move, planning out her choices in her heads. Before I do anything, I should ask if these ponies are from the same place Daring is, Six thought. Taking out a piece of scrap from one of her “empty” pouches she scribble the question “Are you Aquestrian?”
Holding it up slightly, she opted to let them walk to her. Almost instantly, who she thought was the leader, sent one of his subordinates and took the paper out of her grasp, bringing it to him. Looking at it for a second, he looked up and dryly said “Yes”. Though he hoped that Six would now relent to his albeit degrading command. “Now will you comply to my commands?”
He already knew the answer. Six shook her head again, knowing her plan. A good fighter always shows restraint. If you wear impenetrable armor but assure that none of your foe’s blows hit you, he will spend all his time simply trying to hit you that he won't realize he doesn’t know how to penetrate your armor. Six Luckily had her invisibility of all armour abilities.
She stood motionless as the ponies encircled her and eventually closed in. They crept in. Ten meters, five meters, four meters. They didn’t get closer than four. Vanishing in thin air, the ponies, jumped back slightly startled. Before their training kicked in she striked. Picking up two of the ponies with one hand she slammed them into the ground. One tried to squirm out of the hold, and she released him, only to kick him in the chest, breaking a handful of ribs. As she stood up again two of the ponies charged at her from her left and right. Six jumped back with lightning reflexes, grabbing the back of the two’s skulls and smashing them into eachother. Bolting over the pile she ran into the woods, knowing that a long engagement meant more likely than not reinforcements.
Six heard the leader yelling in the distance, ordering them to give chase. Reaching a rock formation, she activated her invisibility and climbed, knowing her tracks would go cold. One of the batponies though followed the tracks and used it’s wings to survey the group of boulders. All of a sudden out of thin air Six jumped, tackling the pony and dropping it onto the rocks ten feet below. Unconscious with a few broken bones, Six ran off even further.
An hour of duck and mouse, Most of the original assailants were incapacitated. nine down and three unaccounted for still, through they likely started attending to the wounded, including the leader. Six was satisfied with her escapee, though she had creeping thoughts in the back of her mind. What if i just attacked soldiers from Daring’s country? six thought, knowing consequences of that in UNSC controlled space. Granted she had never killed any of the guards, not even giving them head trauma, the only truely dangerous region to hit. Hits from spartans in the head often meant severe mental disabilities, that often took a year or more of rehab and medicine to remedy.
Six couldn’t help but think of Daring though. She had decided in her head, based on instinct, that she should leave Daring behind to make sure she got proper medical treatment. It was a calculated risk, though she should still travel closer to the X. It was good she still had the map.
Maybe it was all a sham? Maybe those ponies were just thugs in fancy armor. They were scary in appearance. Well, scary in pony standards. The bug eyed creatures did look somewhat cute, even Six had to admit. No, they had to be. There was similar symbols in Daring’s outfit and backpack, or whatever she called it.
rolling her eyes, Six discarded the thoughts, thinking of what happened with Daring. Whatever happened to Daring was not her problem anymore. She shouldn’t have been asleep in the first place. She was wounded for a few days though. The Spartan discarded the thoughts out of her head. It wasn’t good to think of what was already done.
Though Six needed to think of what to do. Her destination was just crossed out of the equation. She wasn’t about to stroll in to a camp full of ponies she just beat into bloody pulps. Though the Spartan did just decide it was better to find a good place to set up camp. It was going to be a long night
“Sir, we just lost contact with the San Francisco. The admiral is ordering a general retreat.”
“Roger that. Men, I have something to tell you. This frigate can’t go into slipspace. A half hour ago we received critical damage to the engine compartment, we’re lucky this ship is still in one piece. A handful of you know this already, but kept this to yourselves as I had ordered. Tell the crew to abandon ship. You too, all of you. I’ll buy you the time you need.”
“Sir, with all due respect we won’t leave this ship without you.” one of the ensigns stepped out of his chair boldly stating.
“Son, you're brave. I was like you once, years ago. Sooner or later you’ll learn that some fights are not worth fighting. What I am doing today is to make sure you can live on to learn how important that sentiment is to take to heart. I’m ordering you, all of you, to go to the escape pods, or the pelicans, anything that can take off from this wreck and make it planetside.
“But sir, without the fleet the planet will just get glassed!”
“I know that, but we don’t have a choice, and trust me. They need you more down there then I do up here.
“Sir, with all do respect, I am not leaving this ship. We are not leaving this ship, till you are off too!”
“Dammit ensign! You dont have a choice in the matter! You are not wasting your life on unneeded heroism. Get off this bridge now, That’s an order.
A violent tremble interrupted the fierce argument on the bridge, knocking the ensign off his feet.
“Fourth level just lost life support, and the majority of the fleet is turning back. If we’re gonna evacuate it’s now or never” George, the shipboard AI advised.
The captain walked a few steps and lifted the ensign to his feet. “You heard the man, go. And get the spartan off above all else.” Dusting the man off, he lightly shoved him in the direction of the exit. The rest of the crew complied, giving no lip but saluting him as they left.
One girl remained, a tear rolling down her cheek at the doorway. She gave a salute, standing upright. He saluted back, pressing the input for the alarms. Lights going out, replaced by the red lights illuminating the ship, almost all noise was cut out by the wailing of the sirens.
He knew the girl’s name. Christina Walkins. Looking up she was gone, running to the escape pod. Waiting no more he activated the shipwide intercoms to confirm the crew’s fears.
“This is your captain. Abandon Ship. This is not a drill, I repeat this is not a drill. May God help you all. Once again, abandon ship, this is not a drill. This is your Captain, Simon Watkins, signing off.”
“Damnit! It beat eight of our guards to a pulp and just disappeared off the face of the planet?” Banging his hoof against the desk, Acting Captain Dawn’s Flame was angered. Protocol forced him to let go of his short lived chase for the monster. Even though he rescued the explorer. it was only half the objective
He already knew what would happen. The assignment would be handed over to the royal guards who were much more plentiful in numbers, though less in skill. Not to mention due to the area’s vicinity to Ponyville the elements were likely to be called in. That plan would no doubt succeed, but he would be the butt of the blame for the fiasco, although only the brass and the Princesses knew.
Sometimes he wished he could have more than one hundred soldiers at his command. But apparently it was intimidating, because the brass said it was intimidating. Intimidating, what a joke. A hundred ponies, albeit the best in the entire guard, were no threat to an army. A thousand, ten thousand! Now that was intimidating. And he wouldn’t need to worry about canceling operations like the one last night because one tenth of his forces were incapacitated, because he’d have more to spare.
Sighing, he let his stress go, taking another sip of his coffee. A violent monster on the loose just beat the crap out of eight of the most elite fighters in the guard, and walked away showing literally no wounds or weaknesses. And to top it off it was due ASAP, so he couldn’t even wait for the pony they had actually managed to rescue to wake up, so they couldn’t even see if she knew anything about it. He picked up his quill and began to write the report. It was going to be a long day.
Walking through the forest. Not something the Spartan was used to, but for the past two weeks the experience grew more and more predictable. The food in the area was seemingly more normal to Six than in the other areas of the wilderness. Fruits, such as grapes were fairly common. Though Six was up to something else. Something she hadn’t done since very early in her childhood. She fished. Six considered herself lucky. Rummaging through Daring’s pack she found a very useful toy. A yoyo, with a fairly long line. Tying it to a branch about seven feet in length she taped it with duct tape and fished with the makeshift rod. Sitting down she let her mind wander back to the days her cousin took her out on his boat, catching exotic fish. She missed those days very much. It was early morning. He always told her this was when the fish woke up, hungry from their night’s rest. This would test him on that.
A pull on the line pulled her back from her memories. Letting the fish tug she tried to wait and see if it grew weaker. Not trusting the rod with much more other than the ability to snag a fish she waited until she was confident and yanked the branch up, sending the fish out of the water. It was a bass. Carefully pulling the branch to the side so the edge would touch the shore she heard cracking of the branch. Oh not now, the spartan thought to herself.
Keeping the branch as steady as possible she slowly backed up, trying to keep the fish on the line without the branch breaking in half. Hearing it begin to crack she threw it to the lake. Sighing, Six began to hear the flopping of the bass. Walking towards it she examined the creature. A little over two feet long and a bit over fifteen pounds, it was a big fish, and that was good. Six already spent too much time dealing with the fish’s bullshit as she noticed the sun high in the sky. She had to hide. The risks were too high for her to just give herself up. Spartans never surrender. Not to mention what could happen if she did.
Starting a very small fire Six sat down, roasting the fish just enough for it to taste good. Over the week and a half Six grew to know Daring a bit, developing a small bond with the pony. Six never really had someone to talk to on a personal level, or at least Six’s standards for personal talk. Now that she was gone, Six’s mind was left to wander. She could not stand that. Thinking for a second she hastily put out the fire. Why the hell am I lighting a fire anyway? She wouldn’t get sick from the raw fish. Looking around for anything that could see her she sat down on a log and bent her head over, resting her arms on her thighs, looking down as she took off her helmet, hiding her face as much as she could. Six began to ate. She missed the taste of fish.
Twilight was awoken from her studying trance by one of the loudest burps she had ever heard in her life, unconsciously narrowing it down to Spike, her assistant. This meant one thing and one thing only; One of the Princesses sent her a letter.
Groaning, Spike handed her the letter, deciding not to read it aloud, moaning. “Why can’t she use the mail like everypony else?” The baby dragon plopped down on his makeshift bed, putting his claws on his tummy. Giggling at her friend’s antics, Twilight Sparkle opened the letter with her magic, reading it in her mind.
“Dear Twilight Sparkle, I send this letter to you of utmost importance. Make sure this message is shown to nobody but you and the other elements of harmony. What I am about to say you must under no circumstance be shared with anypony other than the elements. A monster is on the loose, a little under fifty miles from your town, Ponyville. I am very worried of it. It kidnapped our best scout, and discarded eight of my Lunar Guard without even a scratch. They are no longer permitted to pursue the creature, so the Royal Guard has taken over the search. A few hundred guards are on a manhunt for the creature, though I do not think it’s enough. That is why I ask for you and your friends to help in the search, and you personally to oversee it. The pony in charge of it is a subordinate from your brother himself, a Lieutenant I believe.
I ask you to make sure that this creature gets brought into custody alive by any means necessary. It’s fighting has surpassed the skills of the greatest fighters in the guard, and incapacitated eight of them.. Though you must keep in mind that all of them are in stable condition. Broken legs and wings are the worst of the injuries, the worst case only needing a month, granted it’s due in part to the abilities of our doctors, but they are all alive. We cannot kill it, for it could have just been acting in self defense. The Captain of the Lunar Guard disagrees, but this could have been a misunderstanding.
“So, what did it say?” Spike asked, trying his best not to look like he cared, but Twilight knew.
“There’s a monster on the loose, and we need to help the guards find it. Better than usual i guess.” Twilight replied, giggling at her fear of letters from the princesses, as most of the time it was just summoning her and the elements to defeat ancient evils. Heck, even the good ones usually had some bad unintentional twist.
“That’s it? No throwing the house a few hundred feet in the air?” Spike said surprised, putting away his weird helmet and pillow armor.
“Oh Spike, i’m trying to be better at that, you know it.” Twilight lit up her horn mockingly “unless you want me to~!”
“Oh no no no! It’s fine! really!”
Twilight burst into laughter at Spike’s antics. He was so easy to mess with. “I’m joking!” In between laughs
Spike put a claw to his face, groaning and muttering something inaudible. He shook his head quickly, clearing his mind. “So uhh, what do we do now?”
“We gather the elements, and talk about this. But first,” Twilight levitated her quill and a piece of parchment and began writing, “I have to see if the Princess knows anything about this monster.”
Six found a small creek and surrounded by tiny pebbles. After searching for the entire day there was nowhere that was considered tolerable to use as her site. Basically anywhere hard to see from a distance, that also had some natural way of preventing someone from sneaking close. Ducking and taking off her helmet she grabbed handfuls of water, trying to keep herself hydrated. Six had already ruled out insanity a few days after she got to this strange place, and only drank for physical health. Still she drank to just make sure she wasn't seeing things in the very slim off chance.
Six kept at it, trying to be as quiet as possible. This was, until she hears a siren sound, kind of like one of the dive bombers of the twentieth century. Looking up she sees a shadow zip right past her out of control, and not even a five second laters a very loud crash as the thing collides with a tree, Six able to hear the shaking from there. I shouldn't investigate, this screams trap. Six thought to herself. Still, she had some weird feeling that told her to. But what was it? Shaking her head, she got up and checked her assault rifle’s mag to make sure it was properly displayed on the screen. Six walked off after where she heard the crash from, shaking her head
Haze was all that filled the Spartan’s vision as she stepped out of the cryo tube, wobbling in her SPI armour.
“Spartan!” A male voice called from out of sight. She quickly put on her helmet. The figure revealed himself as none other than one of the ODSTs onboard the ship, a little winded. “Oh thank god I caught you! The ship is under attack, and The Captain gave the order to abandon ship. You gotta follow me, we have a pelican a level down being prepped.”
Offering nothing but a nod she gains her bearings, being so quickly plopped out of Cryo sleep by the ship’s AI. “Follow me, this ship won’t last more than five minutes!” The two engaged in a dead sprint, The Spartan laying off, barely knowing the ship at all. Suddenly a rippling explosion came from one of the vents to her side, knocking her off her feet backwards. Instantly getting up, she found the ODST, groaning in pain, a shrapnel melting through his shoulder piece.
She helped him to his feet, as he grunted. “Which way?” She asked, quiet but forceful.
The ODST turned his head towards her,”Urngh, to the left! Elevator’s out, there’s a maintenance ladder there we can use!” The soldier’s head dropped, too exhausted from his wounds and starting to conserve energy. The girl spotted an electrical box discarded to the floor and an opening large enough for the two to fit through.
“Grab onto my neck. I can’t hold you on the ladder.” The girl instructed, and the ODST painfully latched onto her. Six bent over carefully, gripped the ladder and turned so she could use her hands to slide down. Six began to slide slowly, worried the soldier could lose his grip and fall at least forty feet.
All of a sudden a large plume of smoke and fire ripped through the maintenance shaft as a rattling boom thundered and shook the ladder. The girl all but let go of the ladder as she slid down, the soldier gripping her legs with his. The steel floor rippled as it absorbed the spartan’s impact. The ODST screamed in pain, losing his grip and hitting the floor. The girl picked him up again and ran out, looking both ways of the corridor and spotted a marine.
“This way Spartan! We gotta take off now!” Another explosion came from a wall the other way as the spartan sprinted into the hangar bay. She paused for a second and saw the scene. A pelican took off from the cruiser as a covenant CCS cruiser passed in sight far away, firing it’s torturous plasma at the fleeing UNSC fleet. Longswords and seraphs passed the bay in mere milliseconds, as if a boy running past a single speck of dirt. The pelicans though, they weren’t fleeing to other ships. They were flying towards the planet under siege!
The spartan didn’t know what to do. For the first time in her life Nothing she trained for prepared her for this, a fight on a planet surrounded by covenant ships. The people who had taught her how to end another’s life knew that once the UNSC ships were gone from a planet you were on, your fate’s already been sealed. The girl looked at the ODST she carried in her arms, numb from the pain, and assured herself one creed. She was going to fight, and she would fight until either her or the covenant were nothing but a bloody pile of limbs.
Twilight had assembled the other five members of the Elements of Harmony in her library, and told them all she knew of the monster. Very skeptical of the information given, they began to question, some more than others.
“So basically Twi, what yer’ sayin’ is that the royal guard can’t catch this “monster” on their own? I gotta get the rest of mah’ quota by the end a’ this week! It’s our core business!” Applejack said, pausing and blinking afterwards. “No pun intended.”
Rainbow Dash started to giggle hysterically. “Don’t worry AJ, but,” Rainbow Dash started in between laughs and putting on her best mock country accent,”Ah’ reckon you’re gonna need some in’cider help with this!” Rainbow Dash laughed again, Pinkie chuckling as well.
“Ummm, I don’t think I can really leave my pets again. The only pony available is Vinyl Scratch..” Fluttershy said, remembering the temper tantrum Angel Bunny through,”And I don’t think they’d forgive me again if I let her sit them.”
The rest of the group began to erupt into similar complaints about their schedules, partially truthful and another half simply not wanting to deal with more problems.
“Guys,” Twilight started, not even acknowledged. “Guys!” The group quieted, hearing Twilight. “I know it’s a drag, I’m just as annoyed as you are. But Luna entrusted us with this herself! I know she had her reasons, and we need to trust her, because you know it had to be big, otherwise she’d trust only the guard!”
The others murmured, accepting Twilight’s reasoning halfheartedly. “And besides, it’s just one monster! We’ll beat the hay outta’ it in no time!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, trying to boost the group’s confidence, gaining gratitude from the lavender unicorn.
“Well Ah’ guess I can pay Caramel to cover my spot, he said he needs the bits anyway. But when are we supposed to leave?” Applejack asked, trying to figure out how to make it work most conveniently for her.
“Well actually, Princess Luna said that the sooner the better, but no later by two days from now. But it’s only four in the afternoon, so I figure the sooner we get this over with the better.”
The group nodded in consensus, though still a little confused about the details. “While I think that seems like a fitting idea, when do you plan on us going to wherever Luna wishes us to be, and how?” Rarity said calmly, sitting down on the couch.
“Well actually, Princess Luna can send a carriage for us anytime, just as long as I give her an hours notice, so I figured I’d ask you all when would be the best time to go?” Twilight said, getting ready her quill and parchment.
“Anytime’s alright with me! Though the carriage is a drag, I hate those.” Dash responded, annoyed at sitting while two guards fly her around.
Twilight remembered something, replying. “Well we don’t necessarily need to take a carriage, Dash.”
“Oh what are you gonna, do Twi?” Dash began, chuckling a little, “Magically grow a pair of wings out of nowhere like in one of those horrible kids stories?!”
“N-no!” Twilight replied, sheepishly, remembering Dash’s antics about hearing her dream about a high school where she never even went to one class, but loafed around the hallways. Not to mention horribly unfashionable, uncomfortable boots that she wore, along with every girl wearing the same cheesy outfit with slight changes from each other. Though Twilight got even when she said Dash wore a skirt as well. Not to mention the horribly unoriginal demon thing, Yuck!
Six saw smoky trails in the mud for about ten meters, ending at a tree. Another pegasus slumped against it, unconscious. Holding her rifle with one hand, Six inched closer, looking around to make sure nothing was awry. The coat of the pony was hidden mostly by the mud covering it, though there was a little orange tinge of hair sticking out of it. No way am I gonna use the last of my medicine to help it. Six assured herself inwardly. But still, leaving an unconscious pony where I am can’t hurt. The Spartan thought, feeling a little empathy for reasons unknown, but trying to find a sound reason to reason with herself.
Slinging the pony over her shoulder, Six walked back looking very observant, knowing the pony could be a trap, or a test. Clearing the thoughts from her mind, Six remembered her training. “Do not overthink anything you have no evidence for or against. Any commander can be doomed by this way of thinking.” Six said in her mind, just looking for anything resembling an equine.
As she reached her field camp, Six dropped the ponies’ saddlebags to the side, Dropping the pony in a shallow part of the river, Six tried to get a better look at the pony, clearing mud off with her gloved hands. As the mud cleared off of it’s fur Six got a better look. Cyan coat, hair and tail with two shades of orange. It’s “Cutie Mark”, as the ponies called them, was a Lightning bolt with three stars around it. Though the water began to get murky, with the pony’s blood from what Six believed was a her, since the pony was identical in shape and size with Daring Do. But the blood came from her head, above her eyes.
Sighing the Spartan picked her up and placed her gingerly in a patch of grass, looking at the wound. It didn’t warrant medication, though bandaging wouldn’t hurt. No, Six said in her head. It wasn’t as serious as Daring’s case, granted head injuries are usually the worst. Six decided to look through the pony’s saddlebag, making up her mind, but maybe the pony by some miracle had bandages.
No bandages, not to Six’s surprise. Though at the bottom of the emptied bags lied a picture of the pony, in better times of course, of her and another pony. She was hugging the pony tight, and the other pony looked resemblant to the one lying a few feet from Six, but smaller. They both had very happy smiles, the pony here looking a little more doggedness, but what looked like her sister overjoyed.
Sighing she tossed the picture to the grass and pulled out bandages. Nothing more than the freaking bandages. After all, as primitive as the natives were, they had to at least have basic medical supplies, right? Six unwinded the roll of bandaging until there was nothing left, and that didn’t take long at all. Lifting up the pony’s head with one hand, Six began to wrap over the gash. After Six was done she rested the pony against the bark of a tree, thinking.
When was the last time I slept? Six thought. Didn’t sleep yesterday, or the day before because I rushed with Daring. The night before, I think I got an hour in. No, I faked that. Six let out a quiet yawn, tired.
So when will I sleep? Six said in her head, looking at the pegasus lying against the treetrunk. A half hour catnap would be enough for the evening. Six tried to reason with herself inwardly, Still, the pegasus could wake up and just scurry off. Still, why would I need to keep her? The only reasonable idea is to have a hostage, and I’d need to leash her around, and the second I give it leeway it’ll just fly off.
Six got up and put her body against a boulder, sitting up. Resting her assault rifle in her lap, the Spartan shut her eyes and ceased to think, attempting to get a quick rest.
As soon as Six shut her eyes, someone, or somepony else, opened their eyes.
“Where the hell am I?” Daring Do asked no one in particular as her eyes fluttered open, revealing the insides of an olive drab tent, and a bed, which she was sleeping on.
“You're in the field hospital, scout. Camp Resolute to be precise.” A corporal replied, keeping a calm yet sophisticated accent clear in her voice.
“Oh, damn.” Daring replied, rubbing her forehead with her hooves. “How long was I out, and who are you?”
Clearing her throat, the Corporal removed her helmet revealing a white face, courtesy of the uniform, but a red ruffled mane. The uniform of the guards were enchanted to change the coat of the guards to either white or grey, depending on the position the wearer is assigned. Only the helmets made the wearers mane the signature blue, though.
“You were out cold when the night guard brought you here, and I’d say it was around two and a half days since then. And my name is Patches by the way, Corporal Patches.”
“Damn. Didn’t think it would be that bad. But um, where is she?”
“Where is who?”
“You know, Six. Where’s Six?”
“I beg your pardon, but I don’t know necessarily know who this ‘Six’ figure is.”
Daring sighed. “The, well..” Daring paused for a moment, remembering she had what Six was. “She was with me, carried me when I was knocked out. The guys couldn’t a’ missed her.”
The Corporal mumbled something under her hooves, trying to think of a way to tell Daring what she was thinking in her head, “Listen, the ‘Six’ who carried you crippled almost all of the night guards who tried to capture her. The Royal Guard is on orders to apprehend ‘Six’ by any means short of killing it.”
Patches saw the look on Daring’s face get a little flustered, and tried to calm her down. “I have no idea went on with ‘Six’ but that’s what the Captain wants to find out. I’ve been told when you woke up to escort you to his tent” The guardsmare got up and opened the tent flap as Daring walked though. Walking next to each other, Daring looked around the camp as she closely followed the corporal.
“I don’t remember the camp being this big.” Daring observed, annoyed but keeping a relatively calm tone of voice.
“After the fiasco with the night guard getting, well, whomped, reinforcements were sent. I think you were in better shape than some of the guards we treated.”
Daring didn’t respond, but looked at the quartette of tents occupying a big amount of the clearing the small camp was in. This has to be at least company strength, Daring thought to herself. Still Daring couldn’t think of the guards that were injured. Did Six really do that? The night guard were the most elite soldiers in the Guard’s arsenal.
“Here we Are. The Captain’s tent.” Patches started as Daring started to walk in, but the Corporal stopped her. “But uh, listen, I don’t know if you met the Cap’ yet, but he can be intimidating, and well, a hardass.”
Daring turned, with an agitated expression. “Thanks.” Daring said dryly as she walked inside. Patches put on a wry face, walking back to her post, sighing audibly at the thought of filling out more of the infernal papers.
“Ahh. Speak of Discord, you’re awake. Was wondering when you’d get your senses back.” Daring just stood there, not knowing what to do, and not eager to show her displeasure with something she had no idea what it was, to a captain nonetheless. “Here, sit down.” The Captain pulled out a chair on the opposite side of the desk. Daring complied.
“No offense, but well, why am I here? Sir.” Daring asked, trying to keep calm, but shifting in her seat slightly.
“I doubt you know this. Noone else does, but I’m the new Captain of the Guard since Shining Armor, my predecessor, is in the Crystal Empire now. Captain Typhoon to be precise.” He paused for a second, thinking through what he was about to say. “Now listen, We’re hunting down whatever was holding you captive, and I need to know of any information you have on it. I have an assortment of plans that could use the information.”
Daring deadpanned a little, not surprised at all. “Sir, permission to speak freely?”
“Cut the formalities, that’s probably the shittiest thing about my recent promotion.”
“The ‘monster’ isn’t a bloody monster. I don’t know what you assumed, since I’m injured, but it wasn’t Six that caused it. And yes that’s her name.” Daring paused, as the Captain’s eyebrow raised. “Yeah, she’s a girl. And she didn’t hurt me at all. If anything all Six did was help. I don’t know whatever you cooked up on those papers, and I have no idea what happened with the guard encounter, But I swear to Celestia She didn’t mean for anypony to get hurt!”
“Yeah, is that why Several of Equestria’s best are in the field hospital right now? I never heard of somepony ‘Accidentally’ Breaking a guard’s leg like a popsicle.”
“What would you do? Six is a soldier like you. What would you do if a bunch of aliens, threatening as hell ones might I add, approached you?”
The Captain grunted. “It doesn’t help that they told ‘her’ to surrender either.” Sighing the Captain stacked his papers. “Well that really takes the jam out of my Doughnut” Captain Typhoon ripped the sizable assortment of papers in half angrily. Tossing them to the side he heard a carriage land. “That’s gotta be the elements of Harmony. My lieutenant will take care of them, come with me.”
Daring followed the gruff stallion out of a tent flap opposite of the tent entrance. “Sir, why the hay are the elements here?” Daring asked hesitantly, a little confused by Typhoon’s actions.
The Captain let out another sigh, stressed out, partially because he didn’t drink that seventh cup of coffee in the morning. “I don’t want em’ fuckin’ here either. This is a military operation. I’ll probably find some way to dispose of them or something. Can’t stand civies anymore, I swear.” The Captain walked further, making sure to get as far from the elements as possible. “Listen, Daring. I can tell you’re no bullshitter. We’ll try to stall and search as I make some new plans. Frankly What I originally called for was anything except for killing ‘Six’. That included anything you can think of that can stop something in their tracks. Anything.” The Captain repeated, trying emphasize his point.
“Alright. I know Six. She wouldn’t kill unless someone deserved it. I never witnessed it personally, but considering the fact that those guards are crippled for the next few weeks or maybe month and not dead I think that’s enough proof.”
Quite frankly, I don’t so much as care if I’m gonna hurt something that doesn’t deserve it, I’m more concerned that Luna’s gonna have my head served on a golden platter if I kill this ‘Six’.”
Blinking Six slowly gained her senses, not moving a muscle as she heard the frantic clopping of hooves, and even flapping of wings. Yawning noiselessly Six immediately knew what was going on, but really didn’t care. All she did was raise her helmet enough to see the pegasus take off. Getting up Six looked around, looking for anything near her to make sure there were no traps. Six picked up her weapons, holding her assault rifle in her hand, and a strapped a shotgun on her back with the other, stretching her back a little eliciting a few pops.
Six watched the pegasus fly off quickly into the distance. At least Six knew now to tie up a pegas.. Pegasuse… Pegasi’s wings if she planned on it not leaving, because Six really didn’t feel like shooting it, especially after using some of her, albeit easily replaceable medical supplies on it. Still, Six thought about flight, being able to go in the air like these pegasi could. Six continued to ponder on the idea, until she heard a mass of hoofsteps not far off.
Yawning, the Private boredly shifted his head, pretending to be on the lookout for some monster or whatever. The Pegasus, otherwise known as Hoops, joined the guard months ago after he lost his old job at the weather factory. Breezing through training in most areas, his superiors claimed he was one of the most athletic ponies they had seen in a long time, and to many’s surprise he was also fairly bright, but his laziness was his downfall. Many of his friends claimed he wouldn’t make it past basic training because of his ego, but unbeknownst to them almost all of it had already been sucked away.
“Private!” The Sergeant called not loud, but enough to startle Hoops out of his daze.
Standing at attention and saluting “What are your orders, sir?” Hoops said somewhat wearily, but still trying to have weight in his voice. Hoops hated the Gunny, but knew better than to get on his wrong side.
“I know better than to think you’ve seen activity here, son,” Gunny started, walking as he talked, grumbling as he paused,”But we’ve got new orders.” He finished as he pulled out a map and put it up to a tree, and whistled, for the other three in the patrol besides him and Hoops to see. “Soldiers! New orders are to cut north from our position,” Gunny indicated on the map,”Then we will go southwest back to Camp. I want a diamond formation. Affirmative?” A bunch of half hearted salutes was all the sergeant’s answer.
The Sarge lead the formation, with Hoops taking the rear. Hoops wasn’t really paying attention, being in the back only meant he had to keep his ears open since he wasn’t in the best position to look behind him. He could, but did he want to? Not really at all quite frankly. A familiar noise came into distance though. He could swear that a pair of heavy wings were flapping in the air, and quite damn fast by the ferocity and speed of them flapping.
With a Woosh a figure past the group, as Hoops predicted, ‘quite damn fast’. And of course, Hoops knew Sarge’s order before the words as he flew off after the figure, but his wings were chaffing against the leather straps very painfully. “Celestia Damn this armor, it sucks anyway!” Hoops said to himself, undoing the strap as he caught up to what was certainly a pegasus.
He shook his chest as the armor fell down to the trees, and he could see his coat color return to it’s natural caramel esque shade as the armor fell off, though his tail was still blue. below he gained speed and the pegasus grew clearer in his mind. Sea foam coat, bright orange tail, definitely a girl. “Hey! Stop it!” He yelled, trying to get her attention. Unfortunately they were going too fast, too furious, for her to hear it even from this close of a distance.
Speeding up he had to go as fast as he could to catch the distressed mare. Pulling up right next to her, she finally noticed him. “Hey! Stop, By the order of the royal Guard! Sto-” He was cut off as the pegasus spread out her wings vertically, stopping almost immediately. Muttering out a curse he flew over to her as she lowered her altitude, floating down onto the forest floor.
Hoops landed right next to her, he took in the the mare’s expression. Confusion and a little shock, she had no idea what was going on. “Oh thank Celestia! A monster had gotten me! I got away though.”
Hoops thought of a very distant memory, so vague he could barely even recall it. Even though it was ten minutes ago. Somepony told him, something about a monster. Then he gave him a flyer to show anypony he saw. going through his bag he pulled it out with a hoof. “Did the monster happen to look like this?” Hoops asked, indicating to the caricature. The sketch showed a bipedal being covered from head to toe in metal, spiked, with claws coming out where hooves would normally be. The head had a singular eye, golden, from one end to the other, and demon horns and razor sharp teeth. It looked very, very cartoonized. On the bottom there was a ten thousand bit reward for information. There was no way that this pony could have been kidnapped by it and lived to tell the tale.
Then the mare nodded her head vigorously. Sighing, Hoops flew her back to Gunny, who then told him to fly her back to camp, which he did. He couldn’t even make the mare lead the way! As much as he hated the crap he was going through, that girl was one of the best pieces of ass he ever saw.
Arriving at the camp was simple. Showing the very nervous mare to a sergeant, who would then take her to the LT, and he flew off back to his patrol, knowing full well the Gunny was already on his way back to camp to make sure that his trust private hadn’t royally screwed up as he had prophesied for as long as Hoops was assigned under him.
The flashbacks stopped. Ever since she had arrived, the soldier had been assaulted by the vivid and shocking memories of her childhood. The Spartan wasn’t phased by it, not in the slightest. A spartan’s mind was always a clear, breathing nightmare for any enemy, nothing else. Oh if only her lies were right. The flashbacks, or according to Six, nightmares, took a toll on her mind. Anything she hurt she saw the faces of not covenant, as this would only help her, but people. Six had no idea why either. Dreams were not something she ventured into the meaning of anyway.
Great, now I’m rambling to myself, the spartan said inwardly to herself. The memories had stopped pouring in, at least for the most part. They never stopped completely. Still, the only thing that changed was that she was no longer around Daring Do. Was the pony that Six had actually grown to call somewhat of a friend really the reason why? No, that made no sense. Sighing, Six finally started a small fire, gambling the risk of starting a fire to make a quality fish, risking that anyone would zero in on her position. Maybe the taste of good food would get her mind to veer away from the thoughts she had been having ever since getting to this land.
Six looked down at the pegasus’ bags which she generously left for the soldier when she decided to depart very shortly after waking up. Rummaging through the bag, Six only saw what she considered junk. Still, a few items were somewhat interesting. Preening oil, whatever that was, a notepad full of some doodles which Six decided to keep for her own uses, a digital stopwatch, and of course the picture which moved Six just enough to give the pegasus medical help.
Six was bored, occasionally flipping over the fish that was tied to a stick above the fire. She decided to look at and study the picture. What she already knew was that the pony she helped out begrudgingly had a sister, or a relative. Six simply thought the younger pony was the older one’ sister because they looked so alike that the only true difference was that the younger one had a shaggy like hairdo. But where was the pony and her relative? They were standing on clouds seemingly, and what was behind them was a stadium, more specifically a coloseum judging by the architecture. There also at least a hundred other ponies outside, doing all sorts of casual activities, possibly to just pass the time. “What a strange world this is turning out to be.” Six said quietly to herself, looking up at the clouds curiously.
Lightning Dust had no idea what was going on. Though frankly she was scared and confused. One second she was flying from a monster, and now she was in a guard’s tent, sitting in cold up chair, sipping a cup of tea shivering under a small blanket.
“Listen, Miss-” The lieutenant asked, getting cut off
“L-lightning. Lightning Dust.” She replied, clearly jumpy, but still trying to give the illusion that she was in control of herself.
“Lightning Dust. Ok, I am going to ask you questions based on your encounter with the monster. I was told that you were given a flyer of said monster, and it matched the description of whom you saw. Is this correct?” A nod was his only answer, though he looked up and saw the corporal looking at him, waiting for something. “Oh yes! I’m sorry, and I realize that you are traumatized, so if I go too far simply say so.” The Lieutenant sighed, thankful the white coated and red maned medic’s expression softened down.
“Second question. Do you remember at all how the monster captured you? And remember, if this is traumatizing just mention it. The corporal will find a better way of getting the information, though it will still involve you personally.”
Rubbing her eyes Lightning Dust began to squint, trying to find the right words. “All I remember before waking up was that I was flying. I had a few drinks at the tavern, and was flying back to my place, and I don’t remember how but I guess I got…” The pegasus felt the bandages on her head, now different and cleaner, as the old ones she had were stained with pus and traces of blood. “I guess I crashed into something hard.”
“Ahh, that explains my next question. But anyway-” The lieutenant was cut off.
“How did I get the first set of bandages on my head?” Lightning Dust asked, but the only answer from the pair of guards in the room was a quizzical stare “Like, when I woke up, The thing was sleepin’ and I freaked out, flew off. But it took me a bit to notice but I had bandages on my head, but I didn’t put them on. Heck, I didn’t even have any in my bags!”
“Hmmm. Wait, you said you had bags on you at the time?” The LT asked, pondering everything presented to him.
“Yeah. I had some junk in there, nothing to stress over.” Lightning said offhandedly. Though she wouldn’t say it, she was very concerned about the picture in her bag. It was at the wonderbolts’ fiftieth anniversary show. One of the best days of her life, and that was the only thing she had to show of it physically. She couldn’t replace it.
“I see. I believe that’s all we have to discuss, though I think a specialist is going to probe through your memory of when you woke up. You are not in trouble I assure you.” The LT said, noticing Dust’s slightly nervous expression. “It is just to try and find out where you and more importantly, it were at at the time. We need leads on it’s location so we can catch it. We just want to keep innocent ponies like yourself safe, though I need your permission to give the A-OK to Our specialist.”
“Oh. Yeah, if it’s for that definitely.” Dust assured.
“Corporal, get our stallion, I’m going to get a search party planned out for tomorrow.” the LT ordered, answered with a salute from Patches as she open the tent and walked out.”
Daring Do looked out of the command tent’s tinted window, anxious yet unwilling to do anything. If there were anypony other than officers about she was more or less reclusive, and if not that remain unnoticed. After the publishing of books in her name she was very reluctant to be seen in public since she would get swarmed by fans of the series. Looking over at a light set of chain mail armor, covering the wearer from head to toe, including the helmet which had tinted lenses, giving her excellent view whilst keeping any features hidden. Daring figured out how to be involved whilst keeping her identity hidden.
twenty minutes passed as Daring put on the set of armor, being extra careful as to not put her wings in a bad position. Though flying wasn’t her expertise, she still could not avoid the fact that a pegasus stuck on the ground in combat already lost his or her only advantage over an enemy. Daring quickly informed the Captain of this and he assigned her under the alias of “Dawn Shield”. She was assigned the rank of Corporal though she would have a special position with free reign over where to go.
“If anypony has a problem with your presence on these grounds, or worse, compromises your identity, bring them to me as quick as possible. I know the Princesses trust you very greatly, though I don’t necessarily know why, but I’m not to judge. I trust this position on you, knowing that you will not fail me. Dismissed.” The captain said truthfully.
“Yes sir.” was Daring’s only response as she make a quick sloppy salute and walked out of the tent. She examined the encampment. New guys tiredly putting up sandbag emplacements with crossbow emplacements behind them. It was light and cheap, but effective. But She didn’t know if a crossbow could stop Six. the mystery hid many things from Daring, but Daring was about as perceptive as somepony could get. She didn’t know much still, but the soldier was certainly strong, and certainly able to take a beating.
“My my, Darling! Is that repulsive piece of metal not roasting you alive?” Daring turned around and saw the pony of commented on her armor. A marshmallow white unicorn, with a curly and admittedly glamorous purple mane and tail. Also an element of harmony, by the name of Rarity if Daring remembered right.
“It’s the beginning of December. If anything it’s helping me keep warm.” Daring said, rolling her eyes beneath her helmet.
“Hmm, I suppose. Still it’s absolutely atrocious! Though that was not why I was wishing to speak with you. Do you think you could be a dear and show us to the Captain’s quarters? Me and my friends were wishing to have a word with him regarding this whole fiasco involving the monster.” Rarity said, curious, gesturing towards her friends who were in a conversation of their own.
Daring looked at them, knowing each of them by name. She felt a pang of annoyance for seeing them, and she partially knew why. “Sure, I Could show you the way.” Daring Do affirmed as Rarity told her friends to follow the armour clad pegasus.
“Nice tail color sis! Daring Do fan, eh?” Rainbow Dash said to Daring. All Daring could do was close her eyes in frustration at the pegasus, deciding against saying anything.”
Opening the tent flaps Daring made a salute at the captain who stared at her curiously. “Sir, the elements requested to speak with you.”
The six mares walked in the tent, making space for eachother as the captain stared at them momentarily. “Thank you corporal. You may stay here during the conversation if you like,” Captain Typhoon said calmly, but the grit in his voice was still audible. Daring nodded as she stepped to the side and stood there calmly. She went through training like any other Royal Guard. Granted the soldiers at this camp were just volunteer army soldiers mostly, she still held standing still to the same high standards she was taught by Royal Guard instructors. It was made very easy by the fact her face was hidden.
The Elements disregarded the guardsmare standing by them, and got down to the point quickly. “Captain, we were wondering if we could get more information on this creature we are supposed to capture” Twilight said politely, perhaps nervous of the character of the Captain?
“Ah yes. My lieutenant told me he could not explain to you that well about it, as he’d just transferred here. What do you need clarifying on?” the Cap said, going back to filling out papers.
“Anything on it’s whereabouts, and more specifically it’s appearance, if you could.”
“What we know is limited. Right now we are questioning the only witness outside the guards who’s been close and personal with it. A pegasus, shaken up one too. As of now we’re finding the last location of the animal from her. And it’s appearance. This was drawn by one of the lunar guards who’s still in the hospital.” He put one of the many flyers on the desk, offering a substantial reward.
“That’s gonna be one happy ass mare.” Rainbow Dash commented, chuckling as she saw the reward, careless of how threatening the beast look.
“The reward is none of your concern. Your concern is finding the thing, and making sure you don't get cut to ribbons like the Lunar Guard did once you do. The drawing is almost guaranteed to be exaggerated. The Lunar Guard may be tough but that doesn’t mean they have small egos.”
“So yer’ tellin’ us we’re supposed to capture this thing on our own?” Applejack asked, concerned about the monster. Rainbow Dash began to study the monster, sizing it up.
“Yes and No. I never said you’d be alone. You're going to be accompanied by one or more squads of guards while you're on patrol. As of now we are just looking for it. Once we pinpoint it again we can focus on overwhelming it.”
Daring Do simply stood there as Captain Typhoon gave the elements an in depth run down of the situation. She was mostly looking at the poster though. Looks like somepony in the Lunar Guards is still embarrassed that they got their asses kicked. Daring though, smirking beneath the helmet. Finally though, the six mares left the tent, letting Daring take off the helmet. “Yeah Cap, just saying that flyer is a load of shit”
Typhoon looked at her seriously for one second then started laughing “I know!” He said, chuckling. “This friend of yours apparently beat the shit out of the guards with her hands, but according to this that would mean she impaled them with swords that replaced her arms.”
Six sighed as she remembered the date. December twenty fourth. A time that encouraged such great happiness from people, including her. Even if she only experienced it three times.
The Guard patrols around the area have at least quadrupled in the last couple of hours. One group even found her camp, or at least the traces of it. They still knew someone had been there. She watched from across the river, with cloak enabled as they examined the camp and sketched it out. She was six kilometers away from there now, so she was fairly safe.
Still, the patrols would only increase, especially since they had found proof that their target was in the area. Six was going through another mental debate. She could either attempt to lay low and relocate, relying on her cloak and praying that while it’s recharging, and most of the time it would, that she’d go into a safer area. But what would that get her? Safety. It sucks, but what would I do? A spartan never surrenders, no matter what. Six confirmed in her head, refusing to let go of the old saying
But what could she do other than hide and run? Neither surrendering nor running were good choices in the eyes of a spartan, though one was better than the other obviously. She could always fight. But how? She could easily go and bowl over twenty ponies, but there always had to be plan. Eventually if she went on like that the sheer numbers would probably overwhelm her. It already happened once. Six though to herself. Damnit that’s different from now. Scolding herself for opening up deep scars, Six continued to think of what she could do. Opening her tactical soft case and taking out a flare for the flare gun she didn’t have. A plan unfolded in her head. A symbolic plan. The Spartan thought to herself as she looked up at a tree, flare in hand.
“Do not fool yourself. War is not glory and fortune. War is death, destruction, and pain. I come here today to speak to you assuming that at least eighty percent of you will wind up either dead or crippled for life. It is my job to make sure no more than eighty percent of you are lost in action. It is your job to make that number less than eighty percent.-Staff Sergeant Johannes Currahee, speaking to Spartan threes two years before the augmentation process.
Six sighed for the third time in five minutes, looking at the flare and at the tree over and over, thinking of her plan. Six knew the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of her plan. These were a given, but what would happen if the variables happened in certain ways, that’s what worried her. Lighting the tree practically on fire by hand activating the flare would no doubt draw her pursuers to her, to a confrontation she would win, or should the enemy prove themselves, escape from. But that would mean her pursuers would get a new estimate of her location and her likelihood of capture would increase.
But at the same time the chances she would be able to escape or possibly get the ponies to negotiate were much higher. To hell with this, Six thought in her head as she primed the flare and threw it into the tree. Within seconds it exploded in an audible ‘Pop’ like noise. The tree it got caught in burst into flame, and a tree next to it burning slightly. At the same time white crystals began to fall from the sky. Snow. Six said in her head over and over. The spartan looked at it fall from the pale white sky. “Snow.” The spartan chuckled to herself silently at the sight of it, several memories in it flew into her mind.
Of course this meant the Spartan would have trouble cloaking in the open, as the snow would just fall on her armour goofily and making it obvious to anyone observant in the slightest something was there. Still, the Spartan could operate with cloak virtually unhindered in pouring rain, so the concept was pretty similar. She just had to watch her footsteps and hide in shade where she the snow wasn’t hitting the ground. Once again, not a big deal for the expert soldier.
Patches was walking around the woods, using the excuse that she would patrol a broad area for the apparent monster. But according to a pegasus by the name of Daring Do, who eerily resembled the main character of a popular book series, it was no monster. She hadn’t dwelled on the thought, because eventually it would be caught so everypony would eventually find out anyway. For now the pony just needed a break from being a paper jockey.
The forest though seemed very eery. Very silent, many of the animals she saw were scurrying past her. Not close, but still all going in one direction nonetheless. Patches saw smoke billowing a few hundred meters away and she realized that the reason the critters ran was because a fire erupted. “Damnit damnit damnit.” The mare repeated to herself as she paced in place, looking around for anypony else who could check out the scene with her. It was a stupid idea to run after the fire. Patches knew that, but she still ran into the harsh blaze unknowing of what lied in waiting for her.
Six was crouching behind a tree, carefully observing the entire area around her, knowing when the ponies would come she would use stealth and mirror her first fight with the ponies. So Six clearly had to make sure she’d see them before they spotted her. The exercise of craning her head was boring and monotonous, though Six instinctively kept doing it, thinking in her head while she monitored the area.
This kept going on for the next ten or so minutes until Six finally spotted a pony. White coat, red hair. Who in their right mind would send a single soldier after me? Six wondered in her head, seeing the light golden plate of armour attached to the ponies chest. The pony walked slowly, carelessly neglecting the fact that several trees were on fire. At this moment three of the trees were engulfed in flame, and the original recipient of the flare was all but collapsing. Six could tell it would barely last any longer as she heard barely audible cracks from the wood. And it’s walking right to the tree. Idiot. Six wondered if she should save the pony, activating her cloak and stalking closer to it from it’s right. The tree, if it collapsed on top of the pony would injure and maybe kill it. The pines from the ‘Christmas Tree’ would injure it heavily, and a branch or worse off the tree itself would kill or trap it effortlessly.
Of course the tree began to fall before the soldier made up her mind. Six’s training kicked in oddly enough as she bursted in a flat sprint towards the equine. She deactivated her cloak knowing it wouldn’t mask her forty kilometer an hour pace Six pushed the pony hard. It fell out of the trees range as the bark and pine needles collapsed heavily yet harmlessly on the soldier encased in about a ton of armour. Six trudged out effortlessly, revealing the pony she saved. It was unscathed, save for a gash on her cheek from being rag dolled across the terrain. Six helped the pony up with a hand, remaining eerily silent.
Still, the pony was simply standing there, dumbfounded. It didn’t express the classic ‘Oh god don't eat me’ expression SIx loved receiving. Still, Six didn’t want the pony there any longer and knew that she probably was just either a stray or came rushing to investigate alone. Keeping the pony hostage wouldn’t delay an attack or help her during one. “Go.” Six said quietly, but still carrying force enough to get the pony to bugger off in a hurry.
Sighing, Six crouched by the tree, remembering in her mind what direction the pony was sprinting off to. As if she hadn’t alerted the ponies enough to where she was.
“So then, while it’s distracted by you guys getting your butts kicked, i’ll swoop down from the trees and whoop it’s flank!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. The rest of the group and even a few of the guards accompanying them rolled their eyes at her senseless boasting.
“Umm, no offense Dash. But maybe you should be less.… Ummm…” Fluttershy started, twirling her mane, stopping herself before saying something. “think it through a little bit more?” Fluttershy smiled sheepishly as she finished.
“Oh c’mon, is it really that bad? Element of surprise, y’know?!” Dash flew in the air as she said this, jabbing her hooves in rapid punches.
“Element of surprise doesn’t mean sensessly throwing yourself at a very skilled combatant, Dash.” Twilight said, and began to continue right before Dash could interject. “And, don’t forget that we have a detachment of thirty Royal Guards with us. This will still be a challenge, even with all them.” Twilight finished with a neutral expression, showing she was very used to her friend’s antics.
“Sheesh, you girls can be such buzzkills sometimes. I’m keepin’ my spirits up, unlike some of you.” Dash said, giggling as she dipped her head down right in front of Twilight’s. “Anyway, what’s the plan with this fire stuff? The thing will probably end up having the jump on us if it really wants to.”
“Don’t worry about me guys!” Pinkie pie exclaimed hopping at the group’s pace “I’m gonna lay a trap for this thingy!”
“Pinkie… With all due respect, how are ya’ gonna-” AJ started, but was cut off almost instantly
“With this! … Um, thingy.” Pinkie said, taking a shovel out of her mane.
“Don’t even bother Applejack. It’s not good for your health.” The lavender unicorn said, rubbing an all too familiar concussion she had over a year ago from the crazed pony.
The group approached the blaze and suddenly the entire group of about forty grew completely silent. The fire was an eerie sight, only adding to the fears of the more nervous members of the large group. Several trees were ablaze. “It’s always irked me how a force as destructive as fire can be so… Calm sounding. Something that can kill you has a relaxing crackle to it.” Rarity said, stating her thoughts in a calm manner, trying to keep her composure. “Yeah. This place is even giving me the creeps. We gotta stay together.” Dash said plainly, still flying a little higher than the group but losing her visible flare.
“I think that’s the smartest thing you said all day, Rainbow Dash. Granted it was kinda obvious.* Twilight said, giggling softly. Still, nopony knew what they had gotten themselves into when they left to discover the mysterious forest fire.
Six sighed again, poking out from the wide tree. She had her camouflage off, knowing she wouldn’t need it from a hundred meters out as long as she was careful. The group stopped and the guards began to survey the area. Six immediately used this as the queue to move in. Activating her camo, Six began to walk from tree to tree carefully exploiting the forest around her.
The camo was around a quarter done, and she would only have another minute and a half or so until it ran out. Continuing to stalk the formation as they strangely began spread out. Six couldn’t help but notice a lavender unicorn who kept staring in her direction. It kept flaring it’s horn, though it never once said anything to anyone else. She weaved from tree to tree regardless. Even if the pony had sensed her somehow there was nothing she could do.
Fifty seconds left on Six’s camouflage. The ponies were walking straight towards her. She went to other trees slowly, seeing if it was sheer coincidence. It isn’t. Six confirmed as the ponies kept changing direction. That damned unicorn still had it’s horn lit up making it obvious that that specific equine was what foiled her ambush. Well, at least partially. Six changed her mind from trying to avoid them to purposely getting closer.
They still don’t have an idea that what they sense is what they are looking for. For all they know it’s just a screwup. Six thought in her head, trying to logicize what she’d done. In seconds the spartan modified her plan and stopped approaching any further. They were getting closer and closer, the group using a formation in the shape of a diamond.
Ten seconds on the camouflage left. The unicorn was not even five meters from Six and in clear sight. It blinked a few times and the countdown went down to five seconds. A larger guard stepped in front of her, a meter or so away and looking. They were exchanging confused dialogue about whether or not the ‘spell’ backfired. To emphasize it’s point the guard extended a hoof towards the spartan, not even expressing the slightest concern that someone was actually there. Famous last words? The spartan asked herself as the camo expired, dragging the guard to the ground and stomping on his back.
All of a sudden she was practically drowning in guards, blocking blows from their hooves and returning her own. She knocked out several guards and eventually they loosened up their attack. A group or two or three was the closest and always tried to hit Six with light blows. Six lunged at the trio and hit one in the side of a face, knocking him down with a scream. The one to it’s left launched a punch of his own to Six’s face. She simply ducked under it and uppercutted his chest. That guard fell flat on his back limp. The other one backed off.
There was suddenly a cyan blur flying right to her intent on tackling Six. The spartan dug her feet a little bit into the ground and the pony hit her hard. It bounced off with a very pained yelp and hit the ground with a loud thud. Six glanced at it for a few seconds as it rested blankly in the mud face down. It certainly wasn’t a guard, so what was it doing in a large fight in the first place?
Right as she was about to return to the fight Six heard a noise like a sparking hiss as she stumbled forwards a step to keep her balance. Craning her neck around Six saw a purple unicorn staring at her angrily, digging it’s hooves into the ground and preparing another attack it seemed.
Her shields surprisingly lost a quarter of its integrity from the strange assault . There was no way she was gonna let the Unicorn fire again. Six charged like a bull at the pony, as another guard tried to stop her but she simply used his momentum against him. Six ducked at the moment of contact, the guard let out a surprised yelp as she made her next move. The Spartan launched herself upwards and the guard was propelled through the air and landed on the purple unicorn, dazing her and giving Six enough time to close the distance.
The only thing heard was the sickening sound of the contact between metal, flesh and bone. The pony landed on the ground with a yelp, and Six turned around and continued to fight off the guards. Six took no advantage of her weight, but used the strength and consistency of her blows to overwhelm the horde of guards.
A rope wrapped itself around Six and she turned her head to see where it came from. An earth pony wearing a hat was holding the other end with it’s teeth, hooves dug into the ground. Six gave the rope a tug and it fell face first into the mud, allowing Six to cut the rope with her knife quickly and get back to fighting.
A pink pony though was around the battlefield with a helmet on that had red cloth tied around it, with a peace sign pinned to it. It stopped right in front of Six and looked at her with a wide smile. “Hi, who are you?!” The pink pony asked Six. The gritty soldier had no idea what was going on.
“Where did you get that helmet?” Six asked, almost forgetting about the force of guards trying to bring her down.
“It’s my little secret!” The pony said, winking
“How, precisely-... Nevermind” Six stopped, shaking her head.
“Oh, I’ll show you how I got it if you want! Just follow me!” the pony began to bounce away, but instantly fell in a hole. “Ow! I’m Ok! Hey look my kidneys!
The fight was very brutal, at least for the ponies. Six had assumed she had knocked around three fourths of the guards, and they began to focus more on simply getting the less fortunate of the group out of harm’s way. The Spartan decided not to beat the medics up too. The Spartan was currently making short work out of four more guards, knocking out three and about to finish the fourth until something awkward happened.
“I will slay you foul brute!” Six was in the process of holding a guard by it’s hair and punching it but she paused, allowing it to spit out a few teeth and turn it’s head as well in confusion. A white unicorn was shrieking with a horrible pitch loudly as it charged towards Six. The guard screamed out in pain from the vile noise and fell to the ground. Six winced in pain and could’ve sworn her visor cracked a little.
Still, Six remembered a line from Shakespeare. “That unicorns may be betrayed with trees” Six whispered to herself, intent on humiliating the pony somehow. It just kind of annoyed her for some reason, though she didn’t know why. The pony reared it’s head down, intent on stabbing Six with it’s horn like a spear. Six casually stepped to the right at the last second and it’s horn went into the trunk of a tree.
The pony screamed some more. “Free me from your vile trap this instant you disgust-” the Marshmallow white pony yelled, getting cut off. “Dont you dare walk away from me! Have you any idea who you are talking to?!” Six walked away, trying her best to ignore the pony. Six then noticed that there was no opposition left. The fallen guards were being cleared out, and some were crawling away. Six had decided they had enough, and it would be to risky to stay.
As six turned her head quickly, looking for the best way out, Six saw another pony scowling right at her. The pony itself look harmless. Light yellow coat and pink hair. Still, something about it seemed… big. It’s eyes widened, and the air around it turned wavy as Six’s vision became distorted. The Spartan put a hand to the side of her face, keeping it steady. Flame, darkness, and the pony was all that Six could see. The pony was at the center of it all, and she became light headed, dropping to one knee. Six couldn’t break eye contact, but kept a hand to the floor for balance.
Six tried over and over to close her eyes, but a burning sensation was all that Six got in response. A tear rolled down her cheek from her efforts. I didn’t do all this… Six said in her mind, wearily getting up. To break now. Six began to walk towards the pony. She was burning in the inside, blood boiling. Six’s mind was a jumbled mess. The only reason she didn’t just keel over was basic instinct that had been pounded into her skull over the years.
Six got closer and closer with each clumsy step, and the hallucination only got worse, though she couldn’t tell how. The feelings she had been feeling had been amplified with each footfall. The confusion, shock, and fear. Six never acknowledged them though. Each movement of her limbs felt so sluggish that she may as well have been drunk
Six felt that the pony was close enough to try and stop. The pony hadn’t changed it’s footing, and only looked up at the armoured warrior. Six reared her left arm back, and threw her fist forward at the pony. Though it collided with something else before she hit her mark. A sharp and loud yell echoed through the forest.
Six’s vision turned directly back to normal, and the control of her muscles improved so much that her arms snapped back to where she wanted them to go. She got a good look of the pony that had given her the nightmarish hallucination. It wasn’t even scratched, but was staring horrified at what Six could only assume was it’s friend. The Rainbow maned pony from earlier. Had it jumped in front of the blow meant for it's friend?
It was unconscious, and it’s chest was probably caved in from the blow. The pony instantly jumped on top of it and examined the wound, shaking. Six decided enough was enough and turned around, walking away from the carnage she had caused, head lowered slightly. I defeated them. If I beat my enemy why does it feel like i lost?
“A revision. A revision is the altering of something. In writing it is to change a piece of literature for the better. In music it is to change notes or lyrics for the better. In war though, it is similar but so different. You revise a battleplan in war to kill more of the enemy and keep less of your men from dying.
But recruits, sometimes changing doesn’t mean victory. You will see the importance of knowing your plans soon enough in the simulation, but take my words as a warning. These wargames will likely reveal those among you with leadership capabilities. You will receive further briefing in the coming days, but keep your minds and bodies ready. I don’t wanna see anyone when the day comes running around the battlefield with their arm in a cast.”-Gunnery Sergeant Jonathan Yu addressing a group of twenty cadets
“Damnit. This is unacceptable!” Captain Typhoon threw a plastic cup containing pencils and pens at the wall, sitting down as he sighed in annoyance. “We can’t have the Princesses involving themselves Lieutenant!”
“Sir, with all due respect, why would that be a problem? If anything they could take this thing down like that.” The lieutenant inquired.
“You’re young, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but there’s always a flip side when the government gets involved. If your getting helped on something you're paying for it some way or another. If Celestia gets involved I’d expect no less than five officers being demoted.”
“How do you know this, though? Not once have I heard of this.”
“Because Lieutenant, I’m proof. Where else have you seen a fifty five year old who just reached the rank of Captain a month ago?”
“Umm….”
“Nowhere. I want to stay at this position to show that I deserve it, to show I earned this promotion. Dismissed.”
Starlight Glance walked out of the tent orderly. He had a scowl written on his face after being grilled by the superior officer, knowing Typhoon couldn’t see it.. He hated Captain Typhoon with a burning passion. He’s not concerned about me or the troops. He only cares about his rank! I don’t care what happens to him anymore. The lieutenant ranted in his head, but kept a neutral expression present.
Lightning Dust gazed down at the table, boredly stirring a cup of coffee. The mare had bags under her eyes from the hectic time she had lately. She knew she could probably go if she insisted, but there was no point to that honestly. She had nothing to do at home. Nowhere to go, and no obligations for anypony. So she sat contently in the tent, waiting. Not to mention she was just curious to figure out what would happen.
A guard opened the flaps of the tent. The guard was dressed from head to hooves in armor, and Dust couldn’t even see through the helmet. She looked up gloomily, showing a general lack of interest as she had seen at least twenty guards walk in and out of the tent. If I just mind my own business the guard will leave me alone. Dust said in her mind, going back to stirring the coffee. She didn’t like the coffee too hot anyways.
“Excuse me but are you the pegasus that escaped from the… Monster?” Daring hesitated on the last word. It still annoyed her to call Six a monster, but she didn’t want to deal with the pony’s reaction.
“Oh! Umm, yeah. That was me.” The pony was startled that the armored guard actually said something, but regained her composure. “Why you wanna know?’
“Just curious. I had a run in with it too.” That’s an understatement… Daring thought in her mind, trying to prod for details. “Though what did it do to you? I don’t necessarily understand.”
“Nothing much, honestly. I woke up with bandages on my head that I didn’t put on, and it was just, like, sleeping. Y’know? It was leaning against a tree and I just bolted out of instinct.”
Daring stayed silent for a few seconds, but wanted to know more. “Did you get hurt or anything before running into it?”
“No, Well, yeah. I’m not gonna go into detail, because,” Dust sighed, though the explorer knew it was an emotion she was used to seeing. Regret was obvious on her face, but Daring didn’t mention it. “It’s just something only I wanna deal with.”
“Yeah, I understand. But you were saying?”
“Oh, yeah. I might’ve had too much to drink, might of not, dunno. But anyway, I was flying back, and I blacked out.. It was a blurry night, ok?
“So you woke up with bandages on your head, correct?” Daring asked again, just to confirm what she knew for sure.
this ‘Dust’ Got a concussion, probably blacked out, Six bandaged her up, but that’s where it goes weird. Why would Six go to sleep? She had to of known the first thing that would happen should the pony awake was that it would bolt away. Six has no chance of catching a pegasus once its in the air either either. Daring was thinking everything through, making sure all the details were in order.
“So is that it?” Dust asked, curious as to why the guard just stopped talking.
“Yes, that’s all.” Daring replied, walking out the tent before the sea green pegasus could even catch her name. Sighing Dust went back to stirring her coffee, trying to make it swirl like a tornado.
“Twi, what are we doing here?” Pinkie Pie asked, pacing around inside of the lavender unicorn’s library boredly.
“What are we doing here?” Twilight snapped at the Pink pony. “What are we doing here?! Rainbow Dash is in the Emergency Room, Fluttershy is in a massive crying fit, Rarity has been washing her mane for two days straight, and AppleJack has been repairing her hat instead of helping!” Pinkie stopped bouncing in midair, listening to Twilight’s rant. “YOU, who fell in her own trap has the audacity to ask me what we’re doing here!?”
Pinkie, instead of her mane deflating and crying off like a little shit, decided to make a stand for herself. “I do! And might I add my genius plan was changed so I couldn’t even do it right! It was half a plan! And I come here today to help since nopony else can and you yell at me?!”
Twilight groaned and buried her face in a book. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. It’s just so stressful with all this stuff! I can’t even find a book in this entire pile that could help me with this, this thing!” Twilight motioned to the sprawling mountain of books. Pinkie put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder
“D’aww, it’s alright! I could always help you look for the little book, book-err, thingy! Yeah, that’s it.” Pinkie smiled cheekily at her friend.
“In all honesty Pinkie, I don’t think you could be able to help me look for a book in all of eternity.”
“Oh c’mon Twi, don’t you remember that one time with Nightmare Moon?”
sighing, Twilight looked at Pinkie half disinterestedly. “If you want to help find the book I need just find any book of spells relating to tranquilization.”
“Found it.” Pinkie exclaimed, hanging off a shelf lined with books.
“What?! How did you find a book relating to spells in the filly’s books section?”
“I dunno, but it’s by some guy named Anaesthesia, so it has to be right!”
Twilight knew that was the author she was looking for the last two days, but she was still enraged. There was a purple baby dragon out there that was probably laughing. Twilight would deal with him later.
Fluttershy was maintaining her composure, but she still was still in stress about the entire fight. Twilight said she needed her bear friend for dire reasons. She couldn’t turn down the book worm. She had to trust her good friend. That’s the biggest part of a friendship after all.
“So umm, Twilight, what’s my bear friend supposed to help you with again?” Fluttershy asked, still nervous about her bear. He was very calm, but bears could be very vicious if they wanted to...
“He’s just supposed to be the target of a tranquilization spell, Fluttershy. There’ll be no side effects.” Twilight nonchalantly pointed out, making some last minute adjustments to the spell.
“This is totally unrelated flutters, but why do you have a bear friend? That sounds alot like mare friend.” Pinkie’s eyes lit up, her gears coming to life as she said that “Oh my gosh! You finally have somepony on hearts and hooves day! Congra-” Pinkie was silenced as Twilight zipped up her mouth, getting the spell by a miracle from Trixie.
“Anyway Fluttershy, I double checked the spell. It’ll be fine.” Twilight pointed out, taking aim at the bear
“Did you triple check?” Fluttershy asked meekly.
“Fluttershy, be quiet. I need to concentrate.” Twilight blocked Fluttershy out. the girl was so nice but she could care so much about her animals sometimes. Inhaling as she steadied her horn, she got ready to fire. A beam of purple light raced towards the bear, transparently into it, but not going out the other side. Almost instantly Twi saw the effects. The bear looked around agitated. Seconds later the bear stifled a yawn and wobbled. Five seconds later the bear was flat on the ground, asleep.
Twilight put on a triumphant smirk. “We just found the solution to our little monster problem Pinkie.”
“I’ve tested the spell several times by now, and judging by the test dummy the spell passes through armor as if there was none at all.” Twilight said, shaking her head quickly as she shrugged off the fatigue from showing the Lieutenant her spell. She looked somewhat confident at him and he looked at the fully armored training dummy.
“I could tell it went through the armor fine but how exactly do you know it can bring this thing down? The lieutenant replied skeptically
“I checked the spell several times, I told you. This was the best mix of bringing it down without hurting it severely.”
“You do know it has some sort of shielding right? We did hit it several times, and a bright yellow light was all we got in return.”
The lavender sighed out loud, annoyed. “Why didn’t anypony tell me? We have no choice but to hurt it now.”
“We can hurt it, as long as we don't kill it.” Twilight didn’t answer, frustrated that her hours of research were of seemingly no use. The lieutenant picked up on this quickly and addressed the issue. “Your one of the most powerful unicorns in the country. You have a spell in your arsenal that could whip the heck out of this thing. You are our best chance to take this thing down, as sad as that may sound but our best unicorns only know defense spells, and not even those could hold this thing at bay
It dodged and shrugged off hits from my best guards, and the Lunar guard to boot. We tried ambushing, we tried swarming it. The only thing left to do is give it a show of raw force and hope for the best.” the LT concluded, looking at Twi for a response.
Twilight Groaned and looked at the lieutenant with annoyed eyes “give me today to whip something up ok?”
“Will do. Also, one thing to note is how tired you are after you use the spell you're ‘whipping up’. Who knows, maybe after that spell it’s shields will be down and it will get back up, then you can slam it with the one you found.”
Twilight tapped her head and nodded, walking to her tent without so much a good bye.
A day passed and apparently the guards were content enough with Twilight’s abilities that they would try and attack Six again. A scout, based on sheer luck once again pinpointed her whereabouts. Even more lucky was that Six was moving closer and closer to the camp. She was going down south sticking in the general area of the river, a gauntlet which had scouts were looking day and night. Daring was going to be part of the detachment this time though. The guards goal was to protect Twilight and stall Six long enough for her to hit Six with the spell.
Still, Daring was curious. She could have disappeared from the guard. Sure they were good, but such a big area to search would be near impossible. Though Six gave them such easy opportunities to follow her trail. Why? Six was a soldier, and a very good one at that. the explorer sighed. “I’m overthinking this.” She spoke aloud to herself. “Fighting prowess has little to do with the ability to sneak around and evade pursuers.”
Daring Do was just waiting for the group to be assembled. She was permitted by Captain Typhoon to fight independently of the group, not required to worry about orders. Well, by orders she really meant needing to follow a sergeant, and invariably his or her squad’s lead. She was going to wear the same heavy piece of armour she had been for the last few days, but kind of ironically Daring was bringing no heavy weapons, or weapons at all for that matter to the fight despite having the heaviest armor available.
She heard rustling from the tent flaps and slipped on her helmet. “We’re leaving now corporal.” One of the sergeants said
“On my way, sir.” Daring Do got up out of her chair and walked out of the tent and into the group of guards. They then began to march out of the camp and into the wilderness. All of the guards were clearly nervous and more of them had weapons than before. Many of them had spears, probably wanting to keep Six at range rather than letting her tear them to bits up close. Still, she knew somehow that’d backfire unless Twilight Sparkle was actually going to be serious about this ‘spell’ of hers.
There was a tight formation of thirty guards, three lines of ten in a rectangle. Daring knew it was just to raise morale. the second Six were to decide to attack they’d break and stampede like a herd of buffalo. Daring accompanied Twilight about ten feet from the rear of the formation, making sure Six wouldn’t make her the first target.
As the minutes proceeded to a few hours, Daring and Twilight still hadn’t said a word to each other. Twilight was simply intimidated by her appearance, and Daring was just unwilling to bother with the unicorn. Still, Daring had a very eery feeling something was gonna happen. Something involving the ‘Spartan’, as Six called herself. Of course, this was because Daring actually saw her. She tried to use a cloak of sorts, but Daring simply smirked at the camouflage, though Six wouldn’t see it through her helmet. She still had a keen eye for that stuff. Daring tapped a guard in the rear on the shoulder and said “I spotted it, pass the word.” The message was moved up to the officer and charge and the formation stopped. The group scattered into a line and moved up the woods where Daring saw it. As usual, Daring took the rear with Twilight.
Six crept on the rear of the formation as this was happening. The heavily armored pony, who unbeknownst to her was Daring Do spotted her. Of course, Six wanted to silence this threat so she could cloak free of worrying about being spotted and though she wouldn’t admit it exact a bit of revenge for being spotted like that. The first thing Six did was kick the pony in it’s ribs and it fell to the ground. Six jumped over Daring and went for Twilight. Though right as she did this Daring popped back up and bucked her in the back, dropping her shields and sending her stumbling a few steps forward. The formation now knew of the infiltration and turned to face Six. It wasn’t long before she was engulfed in the middle of the group, beating the crap out of anyone dumb enough to get close. Six also made it a habit of grabbing any spears and snapping them in half like popsicles.
Jabbing the guards in their faces with well time kicks and punches, she whittled away at the horde. But once again the heavily armored pony bucked her from the rear and she was sent stumbling forward several steps. Her shields were again down and all she saw in front of her was a purple bright light. It tore into her seemingly completely ignoring the MJOLNIR armor, but didn’t leave a hole in her torso. This must be the magic Daring Do talked about. Six confirmed in her head. But what does it do?
It didn’t take long to find out, but Six felt very woozy, very tired and off balance. Still she kept attacking, trying to make it seem as if nothing happened but inside she already knew the guards’ spell hit it’s mark, and they took advantage of it. Attacking with a new intensity they surrounded her completely and began to swarm her from all sides. Still she fought them off. Though her strikes were not as fast and precise as before, her brute strength still showed the guards she was far from down. The one thing they did ensure was that her shields weren’t up, but if they were they were not up for very long. Though slowly as they took more hits, the guards backed off.
They were now probing her, testing her limits and learning just how much the spell had dug into her psyche. Six could barely feel her limbs, and felt a fatigue she hadn’t felt ever before, even worse then her most trying missions. Still she managed to fight them off, though Six felt very vulnerable against the guards. One little screw up now could be it for me. Six thought in her head, weighing her chances. If the guards continued to attack like this she could stand her own, but there’d always be that one clever little bastard who’d find a way to screw her up.
As the guards continued to probe her, attacking and falling back before they took losses a few of the pegasi were going to try and do just what Six feared. leaping from a very low cloud three pegasi guards dove down to an unknowing Six. Then suddenly Six knew it as a pegasus slammed into her back with enough force to knock her off her feet and onto her chest. Six scrambled to her feet in time to see five of the Guards bum rushing her. Upper cutting one as she got up the guard fell to the ground, and she kicked a second one in the chest, driving it backwards several feet onto it’s back. The other four ran right past her, making her turn. Then another pegasus slammed into her shoulder, knocking her down again. She jumped to her feet again, just to see another group of charging soldiers. She slammed herself into the first, rag dolling it off of it’s hooves, but the second headbutted right into her stomach, the biggest weak spot in her armor with literally no metal of any sort protecting it. It knocked her off her feet and slammed her into a tree. Getting back to her feet again she slammed the larger guard into the tree hard. Six was very tired, breathing heavily and eyes half open. This made no sense for the spartan. Sure she’d be hurting a little at this point but she felt as if she were going to pass out. Of course her only comfort on the matter was yet another pegasus dive bombing her. It knocked her down to one knee but this time no one charged. But the all too familiar purple light could be seen again. But this time it was near blinding, then the light retracted then expanded suddenly, filing Six’s field of view and sending her flying.
Daring watched as her acquaintance was blasted and went airborne. Though there was a little twist to this. Six had been very close to the side of a cliff, and she was sent right over it and vanished, falling to the earth below. “Damnit.” Daring muttered as she ran forward, taking off the chest piece of the armor to expose her wings and took flight. Diving down fast she spotted Six, surprisingly enough struggling to her feet. She wasn’t going to let Six get away like this. Not again.
Daring suddenly slammed into Six at full speed, knocking her helmet straight off and sending the two straight into the dirt, Daring on top of Six. They were both panting, Daring sprawled across the Spartan. Six was resting on her elbows, struggling to get up and look at her assailant. As soon as she recognized the face, Daring spoke. “Please just give up.” with a bit of humor in her voice, but still very tired. “We won’t bite, and quite frankly i’m tired of this shit.”
Looking into Daring’s weary yet pleading eyes Six let out a sigh and let her elbows betray her as she layed on the ground. Six struggled to keep her eyes open but slowly found herself letting the tempting pleasure of sleep take her. Daring though still looked down at the soldier, not sure if she really was asleep. Daring put back on her helmet and rolled off of Six. It wasn’t long before the guards left in fighting condition gathered around the sight, relieved it was finally over.
It was dark and cramped. It was uncomfortable and the bed had springs popping out of it. Six had barely a few steps before she reached the cold bars. No wonder Spartans never surrendered. Giving up fucking sucked. Six would have gladly taken the honorable death against half the covenant army over this. Some would call it a second chance. Six wouldn’t call it a second chance, and she had thought long and hard in her boring cell about what it would be called. A nightmare. Much like the ones she had been having with her temporary and admittedly companion Daring….. Daring something. She just called the pony Dare in her mind anyway.
Six simply laid on the two mattresses, bored out of her mind. The guards just stacked a few mattresses together, as the normal bedpost would probably just collapse from the weight of her armor. The ponies rarely tried talking during the one and a half days she had been awake after her very unfortunate capture. Six barely remembered the fight. She just knew she kicked ass, but admittedly that was probably just her thinking she did, but during her career many would say kicking ass was a serious understatement.
The only thing the Spartan did was lay in her bed, eat with her back facing the lone guard watching her cell. Six showed no one her face. Only a few people did, and it was the numbered few who Six felt were close enough to actually know what details she could share. Though she could count those few with one hand. Six didn’t care though. The constant fighting, and fighting alone meant there were very few she could even talk to in the first place. The bond of camaraderie was something she hadn’t truly felt until she joined Noble. It was too painful for Six to even deal with, honestly. The only time she had brothers and sisters in arms in her entire life, they were all killed, all but one before her very eyes.
Jun. Six liked to imagine Jun made it off world with Halsey. One of her own day dreaming sessions to waste time saw Jun using his usual sarcastic yet witty humor to lighten up a bar on earth. It was funny, honestly. Six didn’t talk much, but she could see people’s behaviors and picture them in her mind, almost predicting what they would do and say. Of course, maybe being trained to read descriptions and faces during her time as “The Admiral’s Grim Reaper” that gave her the ability could be a reason behind that.
Six heard four guards start come down the hall. Pair? Usually it was just one coming every three hours to relieve the guard watching her. When six saw them it was only two. Six sighed and remembered they had four legs, not two. “Hey, you. Yeah, you. Come with us, the Captain’s got some questions for you.” A guard unlocked her cell rather quickly. Six rolled off the bed, and there were broken handcuffs on her wrists. The guard groaned, as it was the seventh pair they put on her. He must have just given up, as he didn’t put a new pair on. The two guards began to walk off, and the third that had been there watching her motioned for her to go and follow the two. she did just that, and the third walked behind her. As if these three could take me on? Six thought to herself, smirking. The smaller one was shaking in her boots.
They had walked through the lower levels of the dungeon, all equally dark and empty. The bars here though were rusted, no beds in the cells. Why was a jail so vacant? Usually in UNSC bases the cells were filled to the brim with grunts and the occasional jackal that surrendered. Of course, this civilization probably wasn’t at war, especially since the soldiers sucked that much. Still, forty soldiers versus one Spartan? They never stood a chance.
Six’s thoughts were cut by one of the guards in front opening the door. It was almost like one of the old interrogation rooms. Well, it was essentially one. a chair on one side of a desk, and a chair on the other. one seat was already filled by a… well, basically another one of the clone guards. White coat, blue hair and tail. Though the pony wore no armor, he did look tougher than the others she had fought. Not by a big margin though. Six sat down in the chair, curious about the ensuing chat.
“I’m assuming you already know about how stressful you were to us in the Royal Guard before your capture, correct?” The pony said matter of factly. Six merely nodded slightly in response. “Well, in that case, tell me this. Why would you do that, then? What are your motives for bowling over almost one hundred of Equestria’s finest?”
Six decided to wait a quarter minute to think it through, trying to think of a subtle yet short response. “They were a threat. One that had to be eliminated.”
The guard sat there blinking for a brief moment. “A threat. A threat to you, how? We just wanted to talk, until you crippled the lunar guard.”
“Then your lunar guard shouldn’t have attacked me.” Six said, putting her arms on the desk. She was getting tired of the talking already.
“Then you shouldn’t have taken our mare hostage!” He was beginning to show frustration.
Six sighed, knowing who it was. She remembered that fight well. It was more of a sigh of disbelief. “Hostage? A wild animal attacked her.”
He raised an eyebrow, not expecting the response.“What do you mean, a wild animal attacked?”
“Alligator. River. Simple.” Six said, her voice at the same pitch, showing just about zero emotion.
"Then why were you so hostile to our guards, guards that were the same species as the one you apparently rescued."
“They looked quite different last I remember…” Six said, trying to hint at their appearance, the weird bat pony things were pretty spooky.
“Ah… for somepony so tough, you were scared of the way they looked? And for your information, that difference is from the armor. The armor is enchanted to alter the appearance.”
"I wasn't scared. they just looked hostile." Six said, really not questioning her instincts
“....yes. that’s not the point. The point is, if you had cooperated earlier we wouldn’t have wasted time and resources, risked lives to gain said cooperation.”
“You shouldn’t have attacked a spartan.” Six leaned back into the chair, crossing her arms and smirking just slightly. The pony sat quietly for a minute and got up, walked out a door.
-----------------------------
Shining armor shut the door and let out a heavy breath in relief. That thing was a pain the flank, and a big one. He walked and stopped beside Princess Luna, and both stared through the illusory wall.
“I think this one might finally crack your sanity, Captain.” The princess of the night let out a soft chuckle, staring with an amused expression at the creature.
“Well, she certainly has gotten very close. Almost as close as that damned changeling queen.”
“Oh my, Chrysalis? Oh stop it you. We all know you still had feelings for the Queen.” Luna replied and smirked
“Yeah, sure your highness. Next thing you’ll be saying I’ve got a thing going for this ape.” Shining kept looking at the weird creature.
“You know I jest, Captain. Still, this isn’t an ape, not even close. We did take off her helmet, did we not? Very feminine for a creature so… Threatening.” Luna examined the girl, or Spartan as she called herself.
“Yet she still had a scar running across her nose? It’s obvious the thing’s seen combat, besides the fighting prowess she has.”
“Well yes, of course. She’s just much less, shall I say… Intimidating than the Night Guard drew her out to be.”
“Oh, of course. Though I think they did that to save face. The most elite fighting force they say, getting their flanks whooped in mere minutes by just one mare. Or whatever she is.” Shining armor grinned a bit. He enjoyed having his lunar guard counterparts getting a blow to their dignity.
“Maybe you should get some information from, Oh I don’t know… The pony she supposedly held hostage, according to you?”
“Yes, maybe I should… I just made a rational assumption that the thing in front of us beat the crap out of a bunch of good ponies didn’t do it in self preservation.” Shining armor scoffed.
"Oh, Shining. the 'thing' cant be that bad. After all, if she was a real monster as you think her to be, that monster would have literally killed all of those soldiers. And just maybe you should talk to Daring, instead of assuming what happened." Princess Luna pointed out bluntly, looking at Six.
"I guess you have a point, then." Shining sighed, rubbing his head. "Guess I should talk to Daring Do, then."
“You do that. I’ll have Six escorted back to a… better cell. And tell Daring I said hello, would you?”
