KIA

Chapters

Sierra B312
Captured!
Escape!
A Soldier 'Till The End
Hostile Relations
Alone, Once Again
A Practical Need
The Facts of the Matter
Rest and Relaxation
Foreboding Darkness
Mistakes
Dark Horizons
Dawn of War
Cleansing
Hard Landing

Sierra B312

It's an endless fucking forest. Noble Six thought disdainfully as she carefully stepped over yet another large root.

She had been limping along for the better half of the day, and the sun was now beginning to set- attempting to hide behind a large, single mountain whose peak only barely reached over the tops of the trees.

The forest floor had darkened considerably, now, but thanks to one of Six's many augmentations, and not to mention her helmet-mounted flashlight, she had little trouble navigating.

She would need to stop for the night, soon, however. She didn't like the feel of this forest. There were things inside, lurking just beyond her motion tracker and vision, but they didn't feel like insurrectionists or Covenant.

They didn't feel like something Six was comfortable or able to fight, even though she was fully capable of fighting despite her current condition.

Six gave a short, frustrated sigh and slid her back down along the side of a tree in order to avoid agitating her leg, which she figured had been broken in a fall, since a few pieces of the Corvette were embedded in the ground and trees so deep that the only plausible explanation was that the slip-space drive sent her a few yards above the ground.

She gave another sigh and, although she had done so earlier, checked her ammunition count.

Her HUD read twelve rounds left, and zero grenades.

Made every shot count. Six thought idly, recalling the battle for the Corvette before learning and accepting her grim fate.

At least she was happy, here, now, knowing that the rest of Noble Team was safe and sound on Reach, and that the Covenant had been successfully repelled.

Bastards didn't think us much of a fight, did they? she mused, remembering their pitiful force compared to other battles.

But they had done it. They had reduced every alien that stepped foot on their planet to lifeless, bleeding bodies.

So why did Six feel so... Wrong?

Before she had time to think anymore on the matter, a slow moving yellow dot lit up on her motion tracker- about 19 meters behind her and closing the gap.

There's no way a friendly made it with me.

Not in any condition to run, Noble Six slipped her finger against the trigger of her DMR and held the shroud of her rifle against her chest.

13 meters...
12 meters...
11 meters...

Tensing her muscles and rolling over onto her stomach and out form behind the tree, Noble Six aimed her rifle through the forest and locked her reticle onto the chest of a...

A horse? Wearing... Armor? Six hesitated, letting her target neigh in fear and turn galloping away back into the forest.

Noble Six lay there, bewildered, for a moment or two, before returning to her comfortable position against the tree. Now, she was utterly confused.

Horses hadn't been used in the armed forces for well over six hundred years, or so... So why did that one have armor? It confused Six even more when she recalled seeing a pair of wings along its side, but she pushed the thought out of her head in disbelief.

That rupture must've done a number higher than I can count on me... Six thought with a last glance at her motion tracker before clutching her rifle tightly and closing her eyes...

"Well, I have good news, and bad news. This bird took some fire and her thruster gimbal is shot to hell, which means the only way off this ship is gravity." Noble Six said with an irritated sigh.

"And what's the good news?" Jorge piqued curiously.

"That was the good news."

After a few moments of silence, and Six looking at the makeshift bomb, she turned to Jorge.

"Bad news is: the timer's fried. It has to be fired manually."

"That's a one-way trip, Six." Jorge pointed out grimly, to which Noble Six smiled within her helmet.

"We all make it, sooner or later. I never was much of a team player, anyway, but it was fun while it lasted." Noble Six said, mostly to herself, as she prepared the bomb for detonation. "You'd better get going, Jorge- they're going to need a big gun down there."

A moment of awkward silence fell over the hangar of the Covenant Corvette as Jorge simply stood behind Six, watching her fidget with the bomb. After a moment or two, he jogged over to the hangar's shield door and slowed his pace, turning his head back to Six.

"Goodbye..."

"Don't say goodbye." Six whispered to herself, letting a small tear roll down her cheek inside her helmet as Jorge stepped out of the Corvette. "Goodbye means going away... And going away means forgetting..."

Noble Six woke with a start, sweating underneath her armor and panting from the depressing nightmare.

She had just relived the moments before her death, and it was not something she had planned on doing in the first place.

As she tried to reach her hands up to pull off her helmet, Noble Six found that she could not move her arms or legs, as they were bound rather tightly with thick rope.

She glanced at her motion tracker and eyed seven yellow dots, changing them to red before trying to figure out where she was, and why she felt as if she were in the back of a very slowly moving warthog.

Against her chest was strong, reinforced wood. Against her back was what she could only guess as being some sort of cloth or tarp.

She bounced and bobbled around slightly as if they were traveling on an uneven road, and Noble Six felt her rifle bump against her side.

Now, she was at a complete and total loss; the likes of which she had never experienced before.

Survive a slip-space rupture: Check. Encounter medieval-era war horses: Check. What, did the fucking drive send me back in time? Six thought quietly, not being able to come up with any other reason for her predicament. They obviously must not know what I am, since they left my rifle... And in today's galaxy, it's impossible not to know what a Spartan is...

As Six continued struggling in her binds, her captors eventually came to a halt and Six froze as the tarp was pulled back to reveal the glowering snout of a dark blue coated horse with a seemingly ethereal mane and a rather long horn silhouetted against a clear night sky.

Encounter mythological beings: Check...

Captured!

"What the fuck are you?" Six questioned, mostly to herself, as she bent her knees and sent her feet slamming against the odd horse's nose.

The horse stumbled back after letting out a pained gasp and groan, but quickly returned to its position and managed to hold the Spartan down with its stare alone, seemingly.

Six's shields flared and drained as the creature put more and more unseen pressure on the Spartan, but the little act with the shield seemed to shock it long enough for Six to deliver another strong kick.

After her feet connected with the creature once more, it let out what Six imagined was an angry groan before barking an order to an unseen creature, who came into view with another and dragged Six out of the transport by her feet.

She landed on the ground with a dull thump and looked around before her captors began dragging her along once more.

She had been stuck in a cart, for Christ's sake, capture by six armored horses being led by a taller, more sinister-looking horse with both a horn and wings, whose mane didn't see to be quite in this reality.

As Six continued being dragged along the ground towards wherever, the large, white moon in the sky told her that it was either near morning, or she hadn't slept for long.

Another creature, this one with a pair of wings along its side, carried her weapon in its mouth as it followed behind closely; keeping its terror-filled eyes on Six's visor.

Struggle as she may, however, Noble Six was stuck in her position with no hope for rescue or escape.

I'm going to die in death, huh? the Spartan thought bitterly before her captors stopped dragging her for a moment. Six recalled that they had passed through a maze of hedges and statues- most likely in an attempt to throw her off -, but now the scenery had changed completely.

Her captors took new positions away from her before the sound of Six's armor scraping against stone sounded yet again- signifying she was on the move, being led by the tall, dark horse.

All other hostiles were out of her motion tracker by the time Six started struggling again, but the dark horse paid no attention to it as Six was dragged along the polished floor, adding gashes in the masonry.

Eventually, they stopped for a final time, just in front of a large wooden door- which the dark horse pushed open to reveal an even bigger, white horse with both wings and a horn sitting on what Six could clearly understand as a throne.

The two exchanged a few words in their hard-to-understand language of common horse sounds before they both crowded around Noble Six curiously, who refused to react in any way.

The dark horse caught the white's attention, gesturing to its own bleeding nose before motioning back down to the Spartan, causing Six to let out a smirk and the white horse to frown before the two horses exchanged words once more, and Six was being dragged along the polished tiles yet again; stopping after a rather short distance to be rudely tossed into a dimly lit room.

As the door slammed shut and darkness surrounded Six, she started to struggle once more in her bindings; finding them worn and thin after her previous struggles. Only after a few more seconds did she break free, quietly getting to her feet and flicking on her flashlight.

The room appeared to be some sort of bedroom, but everything was far smaller than it normally should be. The bed had a canopy and seemed more suited to fit a child rather than a human. The dressers and wardrobe seemed likely to hold a rifle rather than clothes, and a quick glance at the mirror had Six convinced it was a toy.

Getting onto her stomach and peering under the door, Six saw nothing through the crack, heard nothing in the corridor, and had nothing pop up on her motion tracker.

Deciding that she was absolutely alone, the Spartan carefully cracked the mirror as quietly as she could and picked up a makeshift knife before plotting her escape...

Escape!

"We do not trust it, 'Tia. Something feels wrong about that being. We felt it when we held them." Princess Luna stated quietly to her sister as the pair sat silently on their respective thrones.

There were few times the sisters could enjoy each others company, mostly during meals, but this was an emergency.

The Royal Guard had received reports or an incredibly odd meteor shower suddenly popping out of nowhere over the Everfree Forest and, as Celestia was nearly exhausted from the day, Luna had taken a small detachment of Guards to investigate the matter and assess the damage.

Not in all of her years of living, both in Equestria and on the Moon, had she ever seen anything so unusual like the materials that lay embedded in trees and the ground.

She and her guards had managed to retrieve a few pieces of it, but it was so strange... It reacted very little to her magic, which felt as if it simply slipped off the material.

It was the same with that creature one of the guards had found, and Luna had to keep applying more and more magic to it if she wanted to continuing dragging it along... But she knew it would be worth it; an alien, most likely sentient and highly advanced, was sitting secure in Twilight Sparkle's old quarters! Princess Luna simply wished the creature hadn't broken her nose...

"That is understandable, Lulu, but we can't treat it with violence. You and I both know how catastrophic the result can be from agitating powers unknown." Princess Celestia replied.

"We know, 'Tia, but what are we to do? Simply let the creature sit in the dark forever? Surely it has dietary needs, but I could see not even a mouth on it! How are we to take care of it, 'Tia? We know nothing about it."

"Which is why" Princess Celestia interrupted with a small, knowing smile. "Twilight and Shining Armor will be perfect candidates to interrogate it."

"Sister, we understand your decision for including the Captain of the Guard, but why Twilight? Surely she has more important things to be doing as a new princess?"

"Shining Armor is a prime interrogator, but I wish that the situation won't require some of his more extreme methods... With Twilight there, it will likely keep him in check, and I feel as if it is a good start for her to learn about diplomatic relations. Would you disagree?" Celestia inquired, slightly as a challenge.

Princess Luna lowered her head slightly before replying.

"Sister, you would risk war with an unknown alien civilization for the sake of teaching your student?"

"Luna, we are already risking war by binding it up and bringing it here. Besides, we have no knowledge to if it even has a civilization. Do you remember Mother and Father?" Princess Celestia said quietly, to which Luna lowered her head even more and did not respond. "We are the last of our kind, sister: the last of the pure blooded Alicorns. What's to say that the creature isn't the last of it's kind, as well? That metal you found, it's obviously severely damaged. There's no telling what catastrophic event it managed to survive."

Princess Luna sighed and stepped off of her throne, heading towards the door. "We suppose you are right, 'Tia. We are retiring to our quarters, now. Goodnight, sister."

"Goodnight, Luna." Celestia whispered as her sister stepped out into the hallway, leaving Celestia alone in the throne room.

Six was amazed, but gave no indication of it.

She had managed to escape from her barely secured room and creep down the hallway, avoiding patrols of guards here and there without making contact even slightly.

And now, she was standing on a red carpet that rolled out through a rather large hallway, complete with stone pillars on either side of the room in between stained glass windows depicting odd and confusing scenes.

One showed six horses, two with wing, two with horns, and two without either, jumping up to strike a large dark horse with both wings and a horn.

Another showed some bipedal reptile holding a heart.

Noble Six ignored the odd works and turned her attention back to the door at the end of the hall, quickly and quietly closing the distance between it and her.

It was obvious that there was something very important behind this door, based on the intricate design, and Six felt like she needed a bargaining chip more than ever. If only she could get inside...

Taking a quick glance behind her to make sure the hallway was devoid of any life, Noble Six began working on a plan to get the door open.

In the center, at the points of the triangles, there was a small hole; too big for any key she'd seen, but it had to be necessary to open the door properly...

Unfortunately for the door, Six didn't have time for proper.

Taking a step back and charging forward, the Spartan hit the door with the sound of splintering wood and creaking metal as Six's barrier gave way slightly.

Taking another step back and preparing again, the Spartan was too busy to notice the three faint blue dots on her motion tracker...

Thud.

"Your majesty, we can't just sit here and let that thing get to the Elements!" Shining Armor whispered urgently to his leader.

"Be still, Captain. It can't know how to use them or what they're even used for. It will probably think it stumbled into a small treasury, if anything." Princess Celestia replied quietly, turning her head away from the scene and towards her pupil. "And what do you think it's doing, Twilight?"

Twilight Sparkle, recently turned Alicorn princess, snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Princess Celestia in confusion.

In return, Princess Celestia offered a small smile before repeating her question. "I asked you what you think the creature thinks it's doing."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Twilight whispered sheepishly before turning her gaze back to the alien, who had now successfully broken through the door and was making its way into the Chamber of the Elements. "I honestly have no idea, princess. I'm surprised it stuck around, instead of trying to escape. Maybe it's looking for something to trade it's freedom for? But how could it know something valuable was behind that door?"

"Well, the door does stand out quite a bit..." Shining Armor offered, at which point Celestia gave a small, pleased, bow of her head.

"Very good, both of you. I think it's time to meet our new friend..."

So, horses that have a thing for jewelry... the Spartan mused as she flipped the lid closed to the large, ornate chest that held five necklaces and a tiara, each embedded with a few smaller gems to complement the larger centerpiece gem.

As Noble Six exited the room, chest in hand, she immediately dropped the case and kicked it behind her; gripping the shard of mirror and taking a defensive posture against the three ponies that now stood blocking her way.

The tallest of them, the white horse she had seen before, made no reaction, while the smaller, purple winged-unicorn reared back a bit, and the white unicorn took up an aggressive stance.

Each held their ground as an uneasy feeling crept over the room. If a fight broke out, it certainly wouldn't have a pretty end.

After a few more moments of silence, the tall white horse gently nudged the side of the purple one, easing her towards Noble Six.

Giving a nervous gulp, the small, winged-unicorn cautiously trotted forward until she stood a few feet in front of the alien, who tensed slightly at her approach. Reaching her hoof out slowly in greeting, Twilight hopped she wouldn't die here; away from all of her friends and everything she loved, at the mercy of a terrifying alien.

Noble Six, however, did not return the greeting; opting, instead, to dash back towards the box, snatch it up and then make her way down the hallway in nearly the blink of an eye to the purple horse and the small white unicorn.

To the taller horse, however, clearly anticipated an unfriendly reaction from the alien and, as Noble Six neared the exit, she felt a heavy weight slam into her side, sending her down to the ground and the chest sliding across the floor.

Looking up to face her attacker, Six smirked beneath her helmet at the return of the dark blue horse, who now sported a bandaged splint across the bridge of her nose. Noble Six tried to fight back, but found that she had an incredibly hard time moving anything in her body as her shields flared once more and began draining.

The dark horse stepped off of her to make way for the white one, whose horn was glowing with a slightly breath-taking golden, wavy glow- as if it were part liquid, part gas.

Snapping out of her little trance with a jolt, Six found herself staring into the worried and confused eyes of the tall white pony, who made an attempt to communicate something to her, but slammed into the language barrier.

The horse gave another try at speaking to Six, saying whatever it was at a slow, steady pace before taking a step back.

As she did so, Noble Six found her shields recharging and she slowly sat up to see the purple horse slowly approaching once more, offering her hoof in greeting.

Noble Six slowly reached her hand out to grasp and shake the hoof.

A Soldier 'Till The End

"We still do not trust it, 'Tia." Princess Luna said coldly as she trotted down the castle hall alongside her elder sister.

"Your concerns have been noted, Luna, but I feel as if it does not truly trust us, either. It knows we mean it no harm, but it still does not trust us." Princess Celestia replied, the last sentence mostly to herself.

As the two ruling sisters continued to trot through the castle in silence, each had their own worries and fears.

What strange feats was this beast capable of, moving so quickly in such a short amount of time?

What foul sorcery did it use when it rejected their magic, flaring itself golden for a moment and shocking the user?

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna shook their heads clear of any horrendous thoughts as they reached the end of their walk, stopping in front of a rather normal looking door before Celestia pushed it open and stepped through with Luna following closely behind.

The room they entered was anything but ordinary, what with Twilight having declared most of the floor space for her stacks of papers, inkwells, quills and books, Shining Armor was left sitting in a corner; watching the alien with an almost threatening glare.

Twilight, on the other hand, was as close to the creature as one could possibly be- breaking a few personal space rules in the process, but the alien didn't seem to be too upset by that.

"Good morning, Twilight. I feel foalish for asking, but have you even slept?" Celestia asked, carefully picking her way through a mess that would make Discord proud.

"Sleep? How could you suggest such a thing when there's an alien in the castle! An alien, princess! From another world! A world filled with more of them, and a society, and a history, and technology!" Twilight exclaimed excitedly.

Luna giggled a bit at the outburst, while Celestia simply smiled. "And what have you managed to find out about our friend, here?"

With that question, Twilight's excitement faded and was replace with a sad sigh. "Nothing... It doesn't seem to understand, or want to understand, any of my questions- verbal or physical."

"Physical questions?" Luna perked up, curiously.

"Well, I got the idea that it had no idea what we were saying, like a language barrier, so I started playing a game of charades. The alien didn't seem to understand any of them, though..." Twilight replied sadly.

"With all due respect, your majesties, Twilight never was good at charades." Shining Armor spoke up with a smile, causing Twilight to stick her tongue out childishly at her older brother.

Both Celestia and Luna shared a knowing, playful look before Celestia cleared her throat. "It's alright, Twilight. Progress cannot always be made in the first day. Would the two of you please step outside for a few moments? Luna and I would like to try something."

Giving a quick salute, Shining Armor began carefully picking his way through the mess and towards the door, while Twilight traversed the obstacle in one bound, thanks to her wings.

When the pair had left, Luna closed the door quietly and rejoined her sister in front of the alien- whose mask seemed like a mirror, reflecting the flames of the lanterns that hung from the ceiling.

In silence, both Celestia and Luna pulled off their crowns and set them in front of the sitting alien.

"Prehn-ses." Celestia said softly, pointing at her crown, and then to herself, as Luna did the same.

"Seh-les-tee-uh." Celestia continued quietly, saying her name slowly and carefully before Luna did her own.

When the creature did not respond, Princess Luna spoke up; producing a parchment with an old drawing of the moon on it and nudging it over to the alien. "Moon."

The creature took slight interest in this, looking down at drawing while leaning forward a bit.

"Sun." Celestia said as she added her own drawing alongside it.

The creature seemed fascinated with the drawings, now sitting on it's knees and feet as it held a drawing in both hand.

They had made a breakthrough.

Noble Six was getting bored of all of this.

First, it was the purple horse saying random, unknown things for a moment or two before staring at her with a creepy look, then hurriedly writing something which Six had no idea how to decipher, while the white unicorn gave her a look of death from the corner.

And now these two winged-unicorns were telling her that they were queens, or some other type of royalty.

I knew that by your fucking crowns, the first time I saw you. Six thought frustratedly.

When she gave no response, the dark blue horse pulled out a piece of worn paper from behind it, pushing it towards Six.

It was a faded drawing of a moon, complete with a few craters and several stars behind it.

"Mun." the blue horse said slowly, letting Six take it in.

Moon... Six thought slowly, sitting up a bit more to get a better view of the picture.

"Soone." the white horse added, pushing another drawing towards the Spartan. This one was a simple yellow circle over a light-blue background.

Sun. Six thought. The two most important celestial bodies that a planet needs.

Turning her gaze up towards the winged-unicorns, whose eyes filled with hope and anticipation, Noble Six slowly repeated what she had learned through her helmet; pointing at the dark blue horse first, and then the white.

"Moon. Sun."

"Did... Did it understand us, sister?" Luna whispered quietly to Celestia, who was on the verge of engulfing the alien in hugs. "It sounded nothing like what we said- all guttural and... Wrong."

"We must believe it understands, Luna. It may have different words for them in its own language, but it clearly understands what a sun and a moon are." Celestia replied with a smile. "Let us try something different, now."

Princess Luna nodded curtly to her sister, who reached behind herself to produce the strange black object that had been found with the creature; holding it in front of her own chest but not offering it to the alien.

Celestia gave a confused look while play-inspecting the object, ending the charade with a shrug before setting the object down next to her.

Luna made a mental note of how to creature tracked the object's every movement, rather than her sisters.

When the charade was complete, and the being sat staring at Celestia silently, Luna cleared her throat to catch it's attention before motioning towards a freshly inked quill and a sheet of paper.

She's going to blow her fucking head off. Noble Six thought idly as she watched the white queen twirl her weapon around as if it were a toy.

Six briefly wondered why she even opted to stay with these horses, before she remembered that she was lost in an unknown world with no idea what was safe to eat, what would kill her, or where to even go.

Giving a silent sigh and simply wishing to have her weapon back, the Spartan caught herself following her DMR's descent as the white queen set it beside her.

A cough caught her attention, and Noble Six eyed the blue queen suspiciously before she followed her hoof down, where it ended at a writing utensil and a sheet of paper.

They want me to draw it? No... They want me to draw what it does. Six realized as she grabbed the quill and moved the paper closely.

The Spartan stared silently at the paper for a moment or two, remember engagement after engagement with Insurrectionists and Covenant alike.

She remembered the recoil of her sniper rifle slamming into her shoulder, the satisfying ping of ejecting a spent shell casing, the smirk on her lips as a target went down...

She remembered the pop of a pistol, the chuck of a shotgun.

Weapons were her nature.

Stealth was her specialty.

War was her life.

And oh, how she missed it...

"Be patient, Luna. It's rude to peer over ones shoulder." Celestia said calmly as the creature before them began carefully etching a figure onto the paper.

Luna hadn't been able to help herself, being fascinated with the creature's understanding and hoping to steal glances at what it was drawing. Unfortunately, she had been caught by her eldest sister, once again, and 'educated' on the 'proper' thing to do.

Giving a little childish sigh at being told to be patient, Luna sat back on her haunches and waited.

And waited.

When she snapped back into reality from her own imagination, Luna saw the creature put the quill down and stare at its work silently before Celestia cautiously dragged it away with the tip of her hoof.

As Celestia and Luna scrunched up together to see what the strange device could do, they found themselves staring at a masterpiece of horror.

The creature had been able to drawn an entire war with the quill, showing what Celestia could only believe to be itself with it's side to the viewer while it held the strange object in its hands.

Small little cylinders flew out from the end of the object like a spell from a unicorns horn, with great emphasis on speed based on the long lines from the end of the object to the small, thick cylinder.

Several bodies lay around the creature; some looking like it, while others appeared more gruesome and terrifying.

There were tall, bipedal beings that looked like their mouths had been blown open from the inside, along with several smaller, pony-sized creatures who had strange contraptions leading from their mouths to their backs.

Hideous creatures, and an appalling scene. Celestia thought grimly as her gaze returned to the alien; her own face reflected in its mask.

There was no question about it.

That object was a weapon, capable of killing hundreds.

And the being it belonged to was a soldier, capable of killing thousands.

Hostile Relations

"What's with you, Shiny?" Twilight began as soon as the pair stepped out of the room.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, all you did was try and stare the creature down. You didn't ask it any questions, or suggest things to me. You just glared at it the whole time." Twilight Sparkle explained as she settled herself onto the floor after hours of standing.

"You looked like you had everything covered, so I just stood there." Shining Armor explained as he turned his head away.

"You're a terrible liar, Shining. What's wrong? You can talk to me, you know. Just because I'm a princess, now, doesn't mean I'm not your LSBFF."

With a sigh of defeat and a small smile of relief, Shining Armor turned his head back to his sister and sat next to her. "I don't like this thing, Twily. It's just so... So menacing, like it wants to rip me into little pieces every second of its existence. I don't trust it, and you should be more careful around it."

"Relax, Shining. If it wanted to do anything to me, or any of us, it could've easily taken me hostage when I was so close to it. We both know you wouldn't attack it if I was in the way." Twilight replied with a small smile and a comforting nuzzle against her brother.

But Twilight's words did little to ease the soldier's mind. Shining Armor knew there was something terribly wrong about that creature, but he had no proof. And without proof, the princesses wouldn't hear him clearly.

"So, how's your first week as a princess been?" Shining Armor teased, to which Twilight sighed dramatically.

"It's horrible! There's hardly any time to do what I want to, anymore, and every day just seems like the same thing, over and over again! How do Princess Celestia and Princess Luna manage to stay sane through it all?"

Shining Armor let out a small laugh at his sister's distress before ruffling her mane a bit. "Relax, Twily. You'll get use to it, eventually. The princesses have been around for thousands of years, and that means a lot of time to learn patience. I know you never really asked to become a princess but, I'm sure if you asked, Princess Celestia wouldn't object to turning you back into a normal unicorn."

"And let the princess down?! No way! She's counting on me, Shiny! She gave me this responsibility for a reason, and I'm not going to let her down! Mark my words!" Twilight announced triumphantly.

"Ten bits says she makes you the royal archivist." Shining Armor whispered with a smirk, to which Twilight glared.

"You're just jealous that I'm a pretty princess, and you're not. I read your diary when we were little." Twilight replied smugly.

Blushing furiously, Shining Armor recoiled a bit. "Y-You read my diary?! I-I mean, what diary?! Soldiers don't keep diaries- they keep journals! Yeah!"

Snickering at her older brother's outburst, Twilight continued with a knowing glimmer in her eyes. "Don't worry, BBBFF: your secret desire of becoming a pretty little alicorn princess is safe with me."

"The weapon." Six said firmly, pointing down at her DMR. "Give it to me."

The horses seemed to understand the Spartan, a bit, and gently pushed the weapon behind themselves as the monster before them continued its charade of pointing at the object, and then itself.

"Look, horse. I don't know where the hell I am, or how I managed to get here, but thing you're keeping from me? It's a part of who I am, so I suggest you hand it over, unless you want things to get ugly." Noble Six threatened, rising to her feet.

In response, the white horse lifted her weapon with some unseen force before it vanished into thin air as the darker of the two horses took up a defensive stance.

Cracking her knuckles and neck in preparation for a fight, Noble Six smiled at the challenge.

"Better make it last, horse."

"Cadence is doing fine. I just wish Princess Celestia would select a new Captain of the Guard, soon, so I can stay with her in the Crystal Empire." Shining Armor explained.

Twilight nodded in understanding and opened her mouth to comment, but whatever she said was drowned out by the sounds of battle as Princess Luna crashed through wooden door and into the hallway, grappling with the alien as Princess Celestia charged out to join in the fight.

"Release us, foul cretin!" Princess Luna commanded as she struggled to pin the alien down to jab at it with her horn, while Celestia was busy struggling to persuade the two to stop fighting; simultaneously attempting to force the creature off of her sister with her magic.

As soon as a fight was obvious, Shining Armor was seconds from defending his princesses before Celestia caught whiff of his intentions and ordered him to stand down. Twilight, in the mean time, simply flicked her gaze between every pony in quick secession- utterly confused as to what had happened and how to stop it.

Noble Six's blood pounded through her veins as she fought against the blue horse who, surprisingly, was a lot stronger than it looked. So strong, in fact, that Noble Six was having a difficult time gaining an advantage on her opponent- which is not something that had happened in a very long time.

As the pair tumbled around in the hallway, the shouts and scraping of metal-on-floor filling the castle, guards began filling the empty space to help their princess, only to be held back by the voice of the large white pony.

Noble Six left herself open in order to strike, slamming her fist into the horse's chest and receiving two hind hooves to her groin- being thrown off of her enemy and slamming into the wall hard enough to leave cracks in the stone.

But Noble Six was far from finished, falling to her feet and charging once more towards the dark blue horse, who lowered its head as its horn began to glow in a menacingly way, reminding Six of a certain Covenant weapon.

At the last second, the Spartan veered to her right, narrowly avoiding a potentially deadly bolt of... What ever it was the horse launched at her, and threw herself against the horse's side.

With the horse secured under her and seemingly shocked, Noble Six proceeded to slam her fist into the horse's snout over and over again, until she felt a burning sensation building up behind her.

In an instant, Noble Six found herself kneeling on a stone floor as if she had been beating that to death the entire time, rather than the horse. The burning presence behind her still lingered, and Six turned to face whatever it was that was causing it.

When she turned, however, she found herself flying backwards at speeds she never could have imagined- smashing into a wall so hard that her shields drained in an instant.

Collapsing onto the floor from the impact and giving a little pained cough, Noble Six looked up just in time to gaze into the pure white eyes of a god-like horse, whose coat was just the slightest bit darker than its eyes while its fiery mane flowed gently on an unseen wind; little bits of flame licking at the creature's hooves.

As their eyes connected, Six felt immense pressure on ever inch of her body as she was slowly lifted into the air and unable to move. Without her shields, the Spartan felt ever point of pressure being applied to her body before she came face-to-face with the enraged horse, who spoke a few incomprehensible words before flinging the Spartan into an outdated prison cell and cracking her visor.

But, before the horse slammed the gate closed on her and trotted away, the two shared a look of hatred as the bars on cell seemed to grow larger and larger before Six was trapped in a metal box.

Noble Six was, yet again, all alone; like she was used to being.

Author's Note

Check out this neat little tool that helped me break one thousand words for this chapter!
http://www.wordcounter.net/

Alone, Once Again

Six could see it clearly.

There she was: prone, half covered in mud and reeds as she slowly crawled through the muck and swamp towards the lights in the distance; her only way point in the dark of night.

It was day four of her mission, and she had found her target to be completely oblivious to his impending doom after she had waited so long for a shot.

Taking a soft, slow, deep breath, Noble Six steadied her sniper rifle and aimed down her scope; locking the reticle on the poor Insurrectionists' head.

As he finished his cigarette, flicking the spent butt to the ground and turning back to head into his tent, Noble Six felt the familiar and comforting pressure of her rifle's butt against her shoulder.

Her target went down, and Six tore her eye from the scope.

They wouldn't find her, no matter how hard they tried.

The swamp would give her away, true, but the night was her ally, and a quiet foot was all she would need to slip back into darkness before moving on to another target, in another place.

It had been three days since her fight with the dark horse.

Three days since she pissed off the white horse.

Three days since they did something to her rifle.

Three days without food or water...

At the thought, Six's stomach clenched in pain.

She hadn't seen nor heard a single living being from beyond these thick walls, which she tried to bash through for hours on end; barely making any progress.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. She was a Spartan. An advanced killing machine capable of slaughtering entire armies if needed.

Instead of war, the sound and smell of death, the blood splattered across her visor... Noble Six was alone, once again.

And she did not like it.

She felt empty; without a purpose, now.

Spartans were trained, from childhood, to be the best of humanity as a whole in the ways of war.

They were quick thinkers and sharp shooters, and not to mention efficient killers.

They were not prisoners. They were not empty. And they most certainly did not feel... So... Empty...

Noble Six struggled to remain calm, relaxing her hands and laying down on her back as she left her meditating pose; staring up at the dark, bland ceiling of her prison through he cracked visor.

It was just a little crack, really. One from the top left of her visor, down to the halfway mark between the beginning of the left side of her vision and the lower center.

She rather liked it, now, as it reminded her of battle. Truth be told, she had technically earned it in battle.

A battle that she had lost, however.

Lost in her own depressed thoughts, Noble Six barely noticed the door to her cell slide open.

As she stepped into the cell, and Shining Armor shut the door behind her, Twilight Sparkle just stared.

She stared at the creature, who lay on the ground as if defeated; like it had given up.

Is it dead? Twilight thought in quiet horror, only to be reassured when the being tilted its head up at her.

Twilight offered a small, friendly smile as she carefully lowered the covered tray of food onto the floor of the alien's cell, giving it a little nudge in its direction.

In response, the creature held Twilight's gaze for a few moments before sitting upright and slowly reaching its hand out towards the tray, grabbing the handle at the top and curiously peering under.

What it found seemed to shock the creature, as Twilight noticed it visibly shook, albeit slightly.

Sensing the creatures apprehension, Twilight carefully levitated a leaf of lettuce from the prepared salad to her lips, making sure the creature watched, before placing it in her mouth and chewing slowly; finishing with a loud swallow.

"Food. Eat." Twilight said slowly, in hopes that the creature would understand.

For a moment, Twilight felt as if she had been hit by another brick that made up the cursed language barrier, but, to her surprise, the alien picked up a few leaves in its hand and brought them up to its face.

Twilight's eyes nearly burst from their sockets as she watched the alien bring its other hand up to its face, lifting its head a bit until a soft, thunkish 'click' could be heard; revealing pale skin behind what Twilight now realized was a helmet, not a part of its body!

Twilight continued to watch in amazement as the creature ate the leaves cautiously, perhaps fearful of the beings that had capture it.

When it decided the food was safe to eat, it dragged the tray closer, keeping an unseen eye on Twilight as it ate until the tray was barren. When it had finished, it replaced its helmet to its normal position and made an odd gesture of apparently pouring something onto its face.

The realization clicked for Twilight, immediately.

"Water, of course!" the young Alicorn exclaimed excitedly, nodding enthusiastically in understanding before signalling Shining Armor to open the door.

When the purple pony had left, all that remained in the room was a silent glaring contest between the Captain of the Guard and the hostile alien.

"I don't like you." Shining Armor said, as soon as he was sure Twilight was out of earshot. "You know that, even if you can't understand me. The princess should have killed you when she had a chance and be done with this whole situation. If you ever lay one of your filthy hands on Twilight, I will end you myself."

Content that his message had gotten across, even in the slightest, Shining Armor turned his back on the caged creature and moved out of site from the small little, unblocked slot in the door.

Twilight Sparkle returned soon after, levitating two glasses of fresh water with her as Shining Armor opened the door once again to let his sister inside.

To Twilight's excitement, the creature was now standing, and seemed to brighten as Twilight returned; closing its hand around one of the glasses offered to it by Twilight and lifting its helmet just the smallest bit once more before downing the contents without pausing for breath.

When it had finished, it held the glass out to Twilight, who exchanged it for the second one, which the creature also downed rather quickly.

When Twilight was sure its thirst had been quenched, she set the glasses aside and pulled out inkwells and quills, as well as a series of drawings from her saddlebags- levitating the first up to the creature so that it could properly see it.

The creature had been fed, and it was time to study it.

Noble Six smiled under her helmet as the purple horse returned; carrying two delicious looking glasses of what she could only hope and assume was water in some sort of anti-gravitational field.

When offered the first, she drank every last drop of cold, refreshing water before quickly exchanging it for the other.

When both were empty, and Six's body satisfied, she found herself staring at a detailed drawing of two horses- one male, and female, based on their genitalia.

After studying the two pictures for a moment, the purple horse pulled the drawing back and, with Six's attention, pointed its hoof at the female horse before pointing back at itself.

It's a female. Six mused. Couldn't be more obvious with that coloring.

Nodding her head in understanding, Noble Six then pointed to the female horse, as well, before placing her hand against her chest.

The purple horse gave a small smile and a short nod in understanding before brushing the page away and producing another; this one a drawing of a sunset, or a sunrise.

Noble Six cocked her head in confusion before looking up at the horse, who gently tapped the paper to catch the Spartans' attention once more before using her hoof to slowly cover the sun.

Sunset... But why? Six thought as she nodded slightly.

The purple pony produced another drawing, this one a star chart, before holding it alongside the other and tapping on the brightest star, and then herself.

When Six did not respond, the purple horse slowly repeated covering the sun, tapping on the bright star, and then motioning to her own chest.

A name? Six thought with idle curiosity. Sunset Star?

Giving a nod only seemed to excite the mare, despite the fact that Six didn't fully understand, but it was worth it to move on to more important things.

As the mare set the drawings aside and began sifting through the other papers, Six picked up and began studying star chart; trying to find any recognizable constellations among the horses own identified.

Everything on the chart was so... Wrong. Six was able to see some familiar constellations backwards, but others were twisted and stretched in ways that couldn't be possible for them to be the same constellations.

And yet, they still vaguely resembled those that Six managed to remember. She was a soldier, not an astrologist.

When Six lowered the drawing to check on the purple mare, she found that she was being eyed rather curiously, instead.

She's looking at the star chart... Is she trying to find out where her home is? Oh, maybe I could show her our solar system, and then she can show me hers! Twilight thought excitedly before scooting the inkwell and quill closer to her; grabbing a blank sheet of paper before beginning to draw their solar system as the alien leaned in, curiously.

When Twilight had finished her crude drawing of the solar system, she levitated it closer to the alien, who studied it closely before turning to Twilight and simply staring.

Twilight felt like a little filly under the scrutinizing gaze of an alien most likely so highly advanced that it was possibly offended by her poor drawing.

But, her irrational fears were quelled when the alien bent down to grasp the wet quill before flipping the page over and drawing her own solar system.

When she was finished, Twilight found herself staring at two solar systems, to which the alien pointed at the first, and then herself, and then the second, while guiding her hand down along her body.

Twilight shook her head in confusion, and the alien did not attempt to explain any further.

Sighing in slight frustration, Twilight instead brought the previous two pictures and went through the motions of explaining her name, before pointing her hoof at the female creature and giving a quizzical cock of her head.

This time, the alien outright refused to give an answer- shaking its head slowly in the universal sign for 'no', to which Twilight was even more confused.

Why would she need to hide her name? Twilight thought before she realized the alien had taken the quill and paper again, drawing what looked to be an odd stick before pointing firmly at it, and then herself.

It was then that Twilight saw the creature's mirror-like mask was cracked.

A Practical Need

Twilight Sparkle carefully pressed her hoof against the crack in the aliens mask, feeling the crevice from start to finish, before covering her own eye in a questioning glance at the creature, who simply shook her head.

In all, Twilight Sparkle was surprised that the alien let her even touch it. Based on what she had heard from Princess Celestia, this creature didn't seem all too friendly at points, and Twilight had no clue what could trigger it.

Before the purple Alicorn had time to think more on it, the creature pointed at the drawing of the strange stick before tapping its body with one of its fingers once more.

"I... I don't know what that is. Do you need it? Do you want it?" Twilight Sparkle asked aloud, before pressing her hoof against her face in the realization that the creature couldn't understand her words.

From the brief glimpse of a mouth that Twilight had seen, she got the idea in her head for a drawing, and quickly set about copying, to the best of her ability, the inked stick.

When she was finished, Twilight showed the drawing of a crude representation of the alien and the stick, with an arrow pointing from the stick to the alien, and a little pony smiley face above the arrow. Twilight's eyes sparkled as she waited for the creature to reply, who gave a nod of affirmation before taking the quill from Twilight and beginning her own drawing, which depicted a better drawn alien, the stick, and an arrow leading from the stick away from the creature; completely with an angry-looking circle.

Twilight gave a little, fearful nod. Whatever the creature had drawn, it wanted; and things might go very bad if it didn't get what it wanted.

But, alas, Twilight had no idea what the object was, and there was no way she could figure out how to ask the alien what, or where, it was, in addition to the fact that it now sat slumped in the corner- refusing to communicate until it had what it asked for.

Giving a defeated sigh and a promising nod, Twilight gathered up her drawings and took off to see the princess.

"Greetings, Twilight Sparkle. I trust that you have news for me?" Princess Celestia began as the last of her petitioners left the throne room.

"I actually have a few questions, Princess. The alien... She drew something, and I have no idea what it is, but she wants it very badly." Twilight explained as she pulled out the few drawings she had in her saddlebags, showing them to the curious princess. "I was hoping you might be able to help me."

As the princess's golden aura took over the pictures, drawing them close, Celestia cocked her eyebrow at the young Twilight Sparkle. "She? How do you know that it's female?"

"I showed it some basic pony anatomy and showed her, on the chart, of course, that I was female. Then, she showed me, also on the chart, that she was female, as well." Twilight said with a light blush on her cheeks as the princess nodded and began studying the drawings.

"I see... Tell me, has it- er, she, asked for anything else besides this?" Celestia questioned, levitating the drawings back to her pupil before stretching her legs as she stood.

"Well, when I gave her food, she ate it pretty quickly and then asked for water. When I gave it to her, she lifted her helmet just a bit so that I could see her mouth, That's when I saw that the hard metal stuff isn't actually a part of her; it's more like armor, but it covers everything.

"So she is fully encased in armor? That would make sense... Walk with me, Twilight." Celestia ordered as she led the young purple alicorn out of the throne room and down the hall. "Luna and I have our suspicions about this creature, Twilight."

"Like what?"

"We believe that whatever she is, she is very dangerous. If neither Luna nor myself are here to keep her in line whenever she tries to escape, the end result will be catastrophic for the entire city. I trust you paid attention to when she broke out and attacked Luna?" Princess Celestia continued, to which Twilight nodded. "She broke Luna's nose, I'll have you know. As you may have been finding out on your own, it is incredibly difficult to wound an alicorn without a weapon forged from very specific materials. This creature managed to do it with her own fists, and it's obvious to my sister and I that whatever that creature's armor is made out of, it definitely isn't a single one of the required materials."

"She broke Princess Luna's nose?! Is she alright, at least?" Twilight exclaimed in worry. To strike an alicorn and even succeed in wounding it was an unfathomable thought to Twilight, surely punishable by death had the creature in question not have been so... Unique.

"She is fine, Twilight, but the alien's brute strength is not what we are afraid of most. Rather, it is what we found with her; that object that she drew."

"What is it?" Twilight asked, stopping beside Celestia as she halted to pull open a door.

As both alicorns stepped into the room, they were met by several unicorn ponies trotting around in quite a hurry, and a large glass box in the center of the room.

"Oh, Princess Celestia!" a rather young looking unicorn sporting a very pale beard exclaimed as he detoured from his path to meet with the princess. "You're just in time to watch us see what it can do to a magic shield!"

"I hope the results will not be quite like last time." Celestia said sadly before following the unicorn up to the side of the glass box, where several other unicorns had gathered around to watch the next phase of the test.

In the center of the large glass box lay the odd stick that the alien had drawn, and two unicorn ponies; one, who took up a stance at the opposite end of the box and began channeling his magic into a simple wall, and the other, who picked up the stick in her own magical grasp and carefully pointed it at the shield.

"Activate it in three... Two... One... Go!" the bearded unicorn exclaimed. As the countdown reached zero, every pony in the room flinched form the thunderous sound that came from the stick as the unicorn's shield shattered and evaporated from the impact.

"Sweet Celestia..." a unicorn muttered in shock.

"That was a level six shield! Not even a dragon could smash through that!" exclaimed another as Twilight peered curiously up at Princess Celestia, who had lowered and turned her head- a pained, sad expression painted onto her face.

"Princess? Are you alright?" Twilight asked in worry.

"I am fine, Twilight. You saw what just happened? That is the result of using that object that the alien drew. That's the only use we've been able to discover, and if we were to give it back to her, we might as well be saying goodbye to Equestria." Princess Celestia explained darkly as she turned to leave.

"So, what am I supposed to tell her, then?"

"Nothing, Twilight, I will tell her myself."

Thunk...
Thunk...
Thunk...
Thunk...

Shining Armor was about to snap. Ever since Twilight left, that abomination in the cell just kept idly thunking its fingers against the walls of its prison.

It was distracting.

Thunk.

It was irritating.

Thunk.

It was-

Thunk.

"For the love of Celestia, Luna, and the stars above, will you quit with that incessant noise?!" Shining Armor shouted, pressing his snout to the bars on the door.

The creature stopped at his outburst for a moment, holding his gaze through its mirrored mask before it gave a final thunk in response.

Thunk.

Shining Armor gave a frustrated groan in reply, turning away from the cell in order to keep himself under control.

He usually wasn't like this. He had no idea why he was acting so hostile towards this creature, and he was sure he might let his anger and frustration boil on over to somepony else if he wasn't careful.

Shining Armor took a deep breath and sat up against the wall, closing his eyes and letting the silence of the room wash over him before he heard a gentle knocking beside him.

Ignoring it and suppressing a growl, the unicorn Captain continued to frolic in his happy place in the back of his mind before another series of knocks sounded again.

"What do you want?" Shining Armor grumbled at the creature, looking up at it with a glare.

Shining Armor felt just the slightest bit of unease as he saw the creatures' arms hanging outside the door through the gaps in the bars; its black mask pressed against the cold metal before it held one hand open, flat, and began moving the other across it like it was... Writing something.

"You want a quill and paper? Tough luck. I'm not leaving this room for any reason as long as you're in that cell." Shining Armor replied as he turned his head away and tuned the creature out once again.

"And how do you expect it to act, 'Tia?" Princess Luna asked, trotting alongside her elder sister as Twilight Sparkle brought up the rear.

"As poorly as anything would, Lulu, but if we don't give it-"

"Her." Twilight interrupted.

"Her a definitive answer, we will let the notion build up that it may one day get what it wants. And if that happens, there's no telling what it could do with that anger once it realizes it won't."

"There is more to this than you are telling us, sister. You would not have us come with you, were you simply explaining that it would not get its weapon back." Princess Luna inquired, causing Celestia to let out a slight sigh of defeat.

"You are correct, Luna. I want to see if I can try and convince her to remove her helmet. All we've seen is the outer shell. I also want to question her about her mental health, as a soldiers life is never an easy one, and she seems more violent than any soldier we've trained. That, and... And to figure out what to call her, because referring to her as "her" and "it" is becoming more and more tiresome." Princess Celestia explained as the trio began descending the spiral stairs into the dungeons below Canterlot.

When they reached the landing, Princess Luna took the lead and cleared her throat rather loudly, causing Shining Armor to snap up to attention, slightly shamed that he had been caught resting when he was supposed to be guarding the most important prisoner of the century.

"Captain Armor." Princess Luna began.

"Y-Yes, your majesty."

"Do you enjoy your role as Captain of the Guard?" she inquired as Celestia and Twilight made their way around her and towards the cell door.

"Yes, milady."

"Did you not swear to uphold our words without question, and to the best of your ability, when you were sworn in as Captain of the Guard?"

"I did, milady." Shining Armor replied, mentally beating the snot out of himself as he shook a bit in his armor. To displease the princess was a terrifying and shameful experience, and Shining Armor simply wanted to hide until it was all over.

"Then we trust that you will hold true to your words in the future, as this is your final warning. Do not let us catch you upholding your post in such an unruly manner, again." Princess Luna finished before turning to join her sister. "Open the door, Captain."

"Y-Yes, milady." Shining Armor replied, fumbling with the ring of keys for a moment or two before finding the correct one and slipping it into the lock, opening the door for the three rulers while being sure to shut and lock it behind them as he had been ordered.

Noble Six acknowledged the three horses standing in her cell with a readying flex of her hand.

Whatever it was that had brought three of them here couldn't be good, and Six wanted to have every advantage she could without starting something first.

The Spartan continued to watch each horse closely as the tall white one pulled a piece of paper and a quill from the purple ones saddle bags, levitating both up with its unseen force before beginning to draw.

When it had finished, Six was given the paper and a chance to study it, noting the great detail in which her weapon had been drawn, as well as the large X that had been placed over it.

Glancing up at the creatures revealed that the purple one had shrunk back a bit, while the taller two held their ground as Noble Six stood up and reached for the quill, which the white horse surrendered without resistance.

When Six turned her back on the creatures to begin her own drawing, she shivered slightly as glimpses of memories flashed before her eyes.

She began drawing herself, holding her rifle, as an ambush scene on an Insurrectionist supply caravan forced itself into her sight.

She drew herself, again, but this time without her rifle and looking wounded as memories of the engagement at Castle Base flashed before her; suicide grunts latching themselves onto helpless marines- their screams of terror filling Six's ears before they were drowned out in a sickening explosion.

She drew another version of herself, shouldering her rifle with bodies of Covenant soldiers- elites and grunts alike -laying bleeding in the ground as she saw Jorge leave the Corvette.

When she finished, she dropped the quill and showed the horses her drawing, tapping firmly on the Covenant soldiers.

The purple horse looked worried and produced the drawing of their solar system before tapping it and the creatures, shaking her head and trying to reassure the Spartan.

In turn, Noble Six kneeled down and began drawing her final picture of the evening; one that depicted several Covenant ships in orbit around the planet, before pointing to the soldiers, the ships, and then the planet itself.

Author's Note

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!

The Facts of the Matter

"Does it fear that its enemy will come here?" Princess Luna whispered to her sister.

"Quite possibly. We need to reassure it, somehow, without taking it outside to see. Do you remember the mental projection spell I taught you, Twilight? Luna and I are going to try that, and I need your help." Princess Celestia declared softly, still holding her ground as the alien watched them all in silence.

"I'm ready, Princess."

"I must warn you, Twilight, this creature comes from an entirely different world than us. They may have developed in such a way were this spell doesn't even work on them, such as with Dragons. I just need you to keep the link strong along with Luna while I do all of the 'talking'. Do you understand?"

Giving a determined nod and turning once more to face the alien, Princess Celestia smiled proudly down at her student before turning towards her sister and nodding in unison with her; all three of their horns glowing brightly as little strands of magic began protruding from the tips, connecting into a larger one and snaking its way through the air towards the alien, who took a step back as it approached and soon found her back connecting with the cold metal wall of her cell as the tendril phased through its mask and into its mind...

Princess Celestia felt cold. Very, very cold. Back in reality, she was sure her body shivered, but in the darkest depths of the aliens mind, all it was was a feeling.

Celestia was incredibly curious, however, as the purpose of this age-old spell was to calm enraged beasts of the wild by being able to explain that everything was going to be alright, in short.

But nothing greeted Princess Celestia's vision, and the soft sounds of tired panting came closer and closer, slowly, until a blinding light erupted and Celestia had to shield her eyes as a loud voice boomed.

When she reopened them, she was greeted by the most bizarre scene: several scaleless, tailless, and bland-looking little dragonlings were running side by side in the mud, and it appeared as if Celestia was watching from inside one of their heads.

Is this one of the alien's memories? Princess Celestia thought in confusion. How did I end up here?

Celestia snapped her attention back to the view as the alien looked up and to the side at a much taller, meaner looking version of the scaleless dragonlings, who screamed in anger at the alien.

In response, Celestia was granted a vision of mud and found herself riding along as peach-colored arms grabbed out to pull the being forward under shiny, sharp-looking strings of metal.

The view continued for a few more minutes, showing the creature running again, alongside several of the same creatures, while the taller ones continued shouting at them.

The scene faded to black after the group of small aliens reached a tall flag pole and began climbing to the top, and Celestia found herself bathed in darkness once more, until the thundering sound of an explosion rocked her head and the scene changed.

Now, Celestia was looking through a green-tinted black box. In it, she could make out several bipedal creatures running around and glancing about before the the little plus sign in her vision locked onto the head of one of them and tracked it like a hunter as it fled.

A moment later, another thunderous boom sounded and Celestia had to blink just to clear her vision as she found that the green-tinted box was attached to a long and menacing-looking stick which the creature wielding it apparently tossed behind itself as it stood and began running in the opposite direction.

Celestia could tell that it was night time, but... But it was off. It looked almost like the sun was up and casting its beautiful glow through the heavy rain.

The creature hurried through the undergrowth at incredible speeds and disappeared through the swath of plants as her vision blackened once more.

When it returned, Princess Celestia found the creature holding onto, and studying, two metal tabs attached to a thin chain as a voice talked softly into her right ear. Celestia couldn't understand any of it, and the creature seemed to ignore it as she simply sat there, staring at the metal tabs with strange markings etched into them.

When the alien turned its head sideways, all Celestia saw were lifeless bodies of beings not unlike the tall, shouting ones from the first memory. The voice in Celestia's ear kept repeating one phrase softly every now and then, as if trying to get the creatures attention: Bae thae oun tou.

Celestia figured it might be the aliens' name, but she also understood that she might repeat it completely wrong if she said it aloud.

What Celestia took for a sigh sounded and the creature closed its eyes before opening them again to reveal a completely different scene. Now, Celestia recognized some of the creatures the armored alien had drawn from before, brought to life from nightmares rather than reality, it seemed.

Several of the taller ones wore white armor that looked more ceremonial than battle-ready, and one that ventured too close was struck with the end of the stick before it pointed back down at it and erupted into an endless stream of thunder and small lightening as the creature beneath it let out a pained roar and soon fell still.

A few more thunderous booms sounded all around Celestia, some coming from the stick she could see, before the room fell silent. When the creature turned towards what Celestia could only imagine was a large metal bird incapable of flight, a bulky, orange-colored being stepped into sight wielding a log, as opposed to the sticks that the others she had seen held.

Now, much to her horror, Celestia saw that the others who had previously been alive and fighting not all that long ago lay collapsed on the floor with puddles of blood around them; most with evil-looking purple spikes buried in them at odd angles, as if whatever had placed them there continued to do so after they had fallen.

Whatever being she currently inhabited paid little attention to them and hurried around the bulky creature to some odd machine on the back of the bird.

Celestia sat and watched in sorrowful silence as the two remaining beings exchanged a few words before the orange one disappeared outside the transparent wall, a small tear splashed against the inside of the beings helmet.

And then, everything went black, yet again.

Celestia felt no cold, no fear, no anger.

Nothing, except a peaceful calm.

She couldn't help but bend her knees and lay on the warm, sun-baked grass that-

Grass. Celestia realized with a start, flicking her eyes open to see her own face reflected back at her in the aliens' mask.

This is how the spell was supposed to go. It was supposed to transport the two minds into a calm and peaceful environment, which quite frequently happened to be a plain, grassy field expanding on forever.

And yet, Celestia's heart thumped in her chest as she stared into the beings mask, hoping that whatever deity above her would keep it from doing anything drastic, despite Celestia knowing full-well that she could not be harmed in this realm of dreams.

The creature began to speak, its garbled and guttural language taking a moment to clear itself out before it began speaking clearly.

Usually, this didn't take as long as it did, but it made sense, to Celestia, that whatever god or goddess currently observed was as unfamiliar with their language as was she.

"-my weapon." The creature finished, its voice a hard feminine as Celestia imagined a block of polished wood sliding against an unpolished granite floor.

"Hello. My name is Princess Celestia, and I-" Princess Celestia began, hoping to keep everything calm and orderly as if she was dealing with a diplomat.

The alien, however, would not have any of this and repeated its demand. "Give me back my weapon, horse."

"Well, I'm actually a pony, but-" Celestia explained with an awkward smile.

"I don't care what you are. Just give me back my weapon and I might cooperate with you and your kind." the alien commanded, still sitting on its knees in front of Celestia.

"You are in no position to be making demands, alien. Especially ones concerning that thunderous device."

"That 'thunderous device' will save your planet's life, and my own, when they come."

A brief silence overcame the two as the bipedal began looking around. "Where are we?"

"Who is they?" Princess Celestia asked.

"I asked you where we were, hor-"

"And I asked you who 'they' is. If my little ponies are at risk of being thrown into a war with an unknown alien species, then I have every right to be prepared!" Princess Celestia snapped, rising to her hooves.

In response, seeing it as preparation for an attack, the alien struck first- delivering her elbow into the creatures jaw and building up for a swift kick.

She would have followed through, however, had her fist not passed right through the horse as if it were a hologram.

But Celestia did not feed into the anger that she felt building up inside of her; moreso towards the thought of a millennium of work being undone, along with the possible extinction of her kind, rather than towards the alien.

"You cannot harm me, beast, but neither can I, you. My sister and pupil hold the gates for us to return, but they will only open at my command, and I will only open them after I have answers. Do you understand, and agree? This will be a very long silence, otherwise." Princess Celestia said sternly, not letting he gaze drift from the creature's reflective mask.

"Fine." was the only response Princess Celestia received, and with that, she let out a deep breath that she hadn't been aware she was holding. "But on the condition that I have my weapon back. Even without it, your 'little ponies' are hardly a fight."

"Why do you desire that thing of destruction so much? All it does is destroy; surely you must wish for a rest from war, if what I gathered is correct. You are a soldier, yes?" Princess Celestia began calmly.

"Yes, I am a soldier. My weapon is my life. Without it, I am defenseless- I am weak. With it, I am strong- I am a symbol of hope."

"Hope for whom?"

"...For humanity."

"I don't understand." Princess Celestia said with a shake of her head. "Why would humanity, which I can only assume is the name for your kind, need hope from a being of destruction and war? Do they not know peace?"

"One question, one answer, and then we switch. Deal?" the alien challenged, to which Celestia smiled and nodded.

"Good. Now, where are we? There's not a cloud in the sky, nor sun- and yet there's light. This plain goes on forever. It's impossible."

"And yet, here we are." Princess Celestia replied. "I have never thought to give it a name, but this is the place in between places; the space which occupies nothing. It is a terrain in which only the mind and spirit can traverse. To put it in less riddle-y words, our minds- our sense of reality, if you will, has left the real world and came here so that we may speak. Our bodies are right where we left them, unharmed. When we finish here, we will return and only a second will have passed in the real world."

"You seem to know an awful lot about this place." the alien replied.

"I've been here before, yes. I'm not sure if it is different for others, but whenever the spell is used, it always drops me here. It's a place where boundaries of no kind exist. You can walk off in any direction and find yourself right back here in a few moments. That is also how we are able to understand each other, finally. The gods are rather curious about you, I think."

"It'd be best if you keep gods out of this." the alien said, quietly.

"I understand. Now, as the spell is incredibly straining on the caster, we really should hurry along. What do you eat and drink? The salad was a tremendous guess, but I'm glad you found it appetizing enough to down in a matter of minutes." Princess Celestia chuckled.

"Meat. Vegetables. Water." the alien said with a bland tone, clearly unamused.

Celestia's smile immediately vanished and she blinked away the shock. "I... I see. Unfortunately, very few species in Equestria thrive off of flesh, and ponies are not one of them. I'm afraid you will have to make do with vegetables. Hopefully your diet will be stable enough..."

"Who are you? What is this place; Equestria?"

"My name is Princess Celestia. I rule Equestria, a peaceful nation of ponies, alongside my younger sister; Princess Luna."

"Princess Luna. I take it the dark blue one, judging by the crescent on her ass?"

"Yes, the... The one with the moon... On her ass..." Princess Celestia confirmed, fighting back giggles.

After a moment, Princess Celestia regained her composure and cleared her throat. "Where did you come from?"

A long silence filled the near-nothingness that was their little grassy plain, until the alien shifter he weight slightly. "That's classified."

"Classified? Ah, I understand. Because a nation of peaceful, non space-faring ponies would be an incredible threat to a race of bipedal aliens that look like demons, no offense." Princess Celestia joked, giving a slight laugh.

"The last creature to call me a demon choked on his own blood while I killed the rest of his squad."

"...I-I meant nothing by it. P-Perhaps I should stop trying to lighten the mood and just get to the point, then..."

"Perhaps you should." the alien suggested. "Who is that other horse, the purple one?"

"That pony is Twilight Sparkle. She is my student in the magical arts, training to become a full-fledged Princess." Princess Celestia explained.

"You train to become a Princess?" the alien said in confusion.

"Oh, no, no, no. Twilight Sparkle has been my student ever since she was a little filly. She has been through so much with her friends, from defeating the evil within my little sister, recapturing a corrupt god- and then reforming that god -, not to mention learning the magic of friendship." Princess Celestia said.

"...The magic of friendship?" the alien inquired, unamused.

"There is little to do that is as exciting as the things that you may be accustomed to. Think of it as a form of psychology. You understand what that is?"

"The study of the mind and what makes the creature it's attached to tick."

A simple nod was the only answer the alien received.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out why you're really here. You made a fuss about defending your planet and then dropped the subject as soon as I began to cooperate. Why don't we save the pointless questions until later? After all, this 'spell' is such a strain on the caster." the alien commented.

"Are all of you humans this bright?"

"Only the ones that survived "

"Survived what? You still haven't told me what war your kind is fighting against. Soldiers have a purpose, guards stand around and watch things." Princess Celestia said.

"Have you ever wondered what was out there, among the stars, while you lay on the cold grass and stare out into space? Humanity did, a long time ago. It lead us to build new cities on new planets. Some people didn't like being ruled by a central government- preferred to do as they pleased, when they pleased, and yet another chapter of war opened up in our bloody history." the alien began, only to be interrupted by a curious white alicorn.

"How bloody is your species history?"

"Enough blood has been drawn and spilled to fill your deepest ocean one hundred times over." the alien replied grimly. "Again, it was humans fighting against humans until the Covenant showed up. Turns out the age old question, "are we alone in the universe?" had finally been answered. Harvest fell not long after it, and the war against the Insurrectionists was officially put on hold to deal with the threat of our entire race being annihilated but a group of genocidal freaks just because "we're an affront to their gods".

The alien bowed her head slightly before speaking again. "I'd sure like to give whatever gods they worship a piece of my mind... We threw everything we had at the bastards, and they just walked through it like we were flies just spitting on them."

"Flies?" Celestia inquired.

"Bugs; tiny and bothersome, not a threat to anything. Bottom of the food chain, too." the alien explained. "And then, some genius up top decided we might need to actually start doing something if we're going to survive as a species. That's where soldiers like me came in: Spartans. Biologically engineered and augmented to be twenty times anything a normal man could be. Scores of the genocidal assholes fell to us, but we lost too many of our own in the process. And yet, they decided to train more and keep chucking them at the wall."

"Interesting. And did you not try peaceful negotiations with the creatures? Surely you had something to offer them, as another sentient, space-faring species?"

"Anything we had that they wanted was taken when they killed our kind and glassed our worlds. We couldn't stand against them long enough."

"I see... So, how did the war end?"

"It didn't. That forest you pulled me out of? Did she tell you about the giant chunks of heated, purple metal that littered the woods?"

"She did, actually. We haven't been able to figure out what it does, or what it was a part of." Princess Celestia explained.

"It was part of a ship. Their ship. I detonated the bomb that blew it to pieces and sucked it through space. Somehow wound up here, and alive."

"So that was what I saw, with the orange one..." Celestia whispered to herself. "Your final moments..."

"Jorge? You saw Jorge?" the alien asked, worriedly.

"I believe I did. You say that was a ship? In space, correct? Then why did the orange one simply walk of of it?"

"He had to get down to Reach, the planet we were stationed on. There wasn't a ship to take him home, so he had to jump..." the alien explained, softly; sadly.

Princess Celestia remained silent with the creature for a moment before it spoke up, again. "I'm not talking anymore; at least not today. I'd like my weapon back, please."

Celestia tilted her head, curiously, at the alien; trying to see through its reflective mask and into the mind of the bothered alien soldier. "Why do you need it so badly? There is no war here, and I will work my hardest to keep it that way."

"It's not for war, anymore... It's just... All I have left..."

Princess Celestia fought back comforting the alien as she turned away and began trotting out into the forming clouds in the distance. "I will do my best to see that you get your weapon back, on the condition that you never, ever, wield it against my little ponies. There will be dire consequences for you if you choose to do so, and I will make sure your kind never steps foot on my planet."

"I understand, and agree."

"Good. One last thing: what should I call you? You do have a name, correct?" Princess Celestia asked, turning to face the standing alien, clad in black and battle-scarred armor.

An uneasy silence followed as Celestia waited for an answer, and her chest swelled with an unnatural feeling as her veins filled with adrenaline.

"My name is Noble Six."

Author's Note

I understand this chapter is going to cause a lot of controversy, and I'm sorry. But it was the only way I knew how to do it.

Rest and Relaxation

As their minds retreated back into their bodies, Princess Celestia let out an exhausted gasp before fainting, as Luna slumped against the wall; panting. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hoof, only shook on her hooves and remained upright.

At the sound of the collapsing Princess, Shining Armor began unlocking the door and proceeded to try and carry his ruler out. "Princess Celestia?! Are you alright- can you hear me?"

"She... Is fine... Captain..." Princess Luna said in between breathes as she turned her snout towards the collapsed and unmoving alien. "They are both... Fine... Take my sister... To her quarters..."

"At once, your highness." Shining Armor replied, snapping his hoof up into a salute before slowly and carefully carrying the exhausted alicorn out of the room and up the stairs.

When they were alone, Princess Luna cleared her throat and steadied her hooves; taking a few steps towards a shocked-looking Twilight and following her gaze back down to the creature. "It is unwise to peek into closed doors, Twilight Sparkle."

"I-I-I'm sorry! I-I had no idea, and t-that thing! What it's done, what it's b-been through!" Twilight Sparkle stammered, shaking her head and backing away from the creature and out through the cell door slowly; never once taking her eyes off of it.

"This is a very serious matter, Twilight Sparkle. I trust that this new information you have... 'Acquired' will not keep you from prying further, however?" Princess Luna inquired, causing Twilight to become even more confused.

"Are... Are you asking me to pry into that thing's head like Princess Celestia did?"

"Nay, Twilight Sparkle. The spell would kill you, if not cripple you mentally. You are not ready for such magic, but you held the spell well... I am surprised; especially since you were able to even see further into the creature than Celestia." Princess Luna explained. "When the spell is preformed again, and it will be a long while before that, I'd like you to do something for me. I do not trust this creature, and nor should my sister. I want to know what it has done and what it has seen. I want to know what it plans, and how its mind works."

"...How is that any different from what Princess Celestia did?"

"My sister only saw what the creature allowed to be seen. She does not pry unless there is a need, and that is a weakness that I do not uphold. Unfortunately, she will need a strong mind to hold her in there, so that only leaves you to do what must be done. It is similar to the spell we just cast, but it is closer to my own dream-walking spell. You will not see the creature, nor hear it, and neither the alien nor my sister will know you are there. You will exist in the back of its mind in a place that does not truly exist, and where nothing is logical or real."

"You're asking me to defy Princess Celestia, my mentor and your sister! The ruler of Equestria!" Twilight challenged in disbelief.

"She is not the only ruler, Twilight Sparkle! Equestria is at risk, and until I know the full extent of that risk I can do nothing to protect our kingdom! Do you see those gashes in the metal?!" Princess Luna snapped, motioning to the large indents and torn metal wall from the alien's previous escape attempts. "That is what one of these creatures can do. All it will take is a slip up with the Watch and Equestria will be crushed under that creature's foot!"

"If that's what you think will happen, then what hope do you have of defending Equestria from her, or her kind, if more of them show up?!"

"There is magic you have not been taught, Twilight Sparkle. Tomes and scrolls left sealed for millenniums that reek of the dark arts; magic that is banned from common or private use. If the time comes that we will need it, there will be nothing to stop us from defending what is ours. No 'human' will step foot on Equestrian soil, and if they sit up in their flying ships, we will crush them like wasps." Princess Luna snarled in anger as she turned to leave.

"You saw them, too?" Twilight asked softly, causing Luna to hesitate a bit.

"If one is caught peeking through a closed door, curiosity takes the lead." Princess Luna said simply as she left, leaving Twilight to think carefully before leaving, herself; giving the collapsed alien a final glance as the door to its cell swung shut and locked...

"Is she going to be alright?" Shining Armor asked, worriedly.

"Princess Luna said it's just typical magic exhaustion. She's fine, it's just that her body put herself to sleep so she doesn't kill herself." Twilight Sparkle explained, not entirely paying attention.

"But is she going to be alright?"

"She'll wake up once she's recovered and it'll be like she never exhausted herself in the first place. Relax, Shiny."

Giving a sigh of defeat and relief, Shining Armor trotted out of the Princess's quarters and down the hall, leaving Twilight alone with the gently-breathing form of Princess Celestia.

Twilight stared quietly at her sleeping mentor, shutting the wooden door with her magic after her brother had gone and letting her thoughts swirl about in her head.

The creature was dangerous, she knew, but most things are. Somepony could jam a quill through her eye and twirl it around a bit, and Twilight might die.

Just because she can be dangerous, though... Twilight Sparkle thought with a sigh.

She wasn't sure how to handle this. Should she betray her mentor and the alien's trust? It would matter if there truly was a threat, but... But there was just no way to know.

Twilight didn't want to risk it, leaving Equestria undefended, but Princess Luna had a point... But the things that she had seen.

Horrible, unspeakable things that didn't even exist in her stories...

Twilight shivered and squinted her eyes shut to fight off the scenes and sounds, thankful when they had passed. They hadn't stopped, even after the spell had ended. They haunted Twilight already, and it had only been an hour or two.

The visions would come and go, scenes of these humans, not unlike the alien, but in more revealing clothing, screaming over the sounds of war. Some would cry out in agony as blue balls melted through their torsos, and some would simply cease to exist in bright explosions of crackling blue energy.

But the other creatures...

Twilight nearly screamed the first time she had seen one of those, the monsters with their mouths blown outwards- wielding terrifying blades that cut through almost anything with no resistance.

They were unrelenting in their advance towards the humans, and it was not long afterwards that the fighting had stopped.

Twilight opened her eyes slowly to let them rest on the body of Princess Celestia, whose chest rose gently with each soft breath, before blinking once and rising to her hooves- heading out of the room shortly after.

"Tell me, Captain, why were you away from your post?" Princess Luna began as Shining Armor came down the stairs and back into the dungeon.

"You... You ordered me to bring your sister to her room, your majesty...?" Shining Armor replied, a bit confused.

"I have known this castle nearly my entire life, Captain, and never once have I been two hours and sixteen minutes late to anywhere, even if I took the most elaborate path imaginable."

"I-I apologize, your majesty... I simply wished to make sure your sister would be alright."

Shining Armor shivered slightly under his cuirass as Princess Luna's cold gaze bore into his body for a moment.

"Do you enjoy your current duty, Shining Armor; keeping a watchful eye on this prisoner? Do you enjoy keeping Equestria safe from those who would threaten its stability in any form?"

"I do, your majesty. It is my calling." Shining Armor replied, standing up straighter.

"Then I trust you know what that monster in there is capable of, attacking me and surviving, as well as what it has done to its cell. How long did it strike at the walls?"

"Not long, your majesty."

"Not long, and yet it did so much damage... What do you imagine when you think of that creature escaping from the castle and being in Canterlot?"

"...Milady?"

"Answer the question, Captain."

"I... I imagine it being scared and confused, honestly."

"This creature- a creature who has fought against beings more fearsome than itself and slaughtered many all by its lonesome-, feeling scared? Nay, Shining Armor. It would not escape with a calm mind. It would be furious; furious that it had been kept in a cage, kept from its weapon, kept from its world. And do you know what it would do when it entered the streets of Canterlot and bathed in the fresh air?" Princess Luna began, her voice lowering until it was but a whisper in the young Captain's ear as she stood next to him- staring past the bars into the cage. "It would seek revenge."

Shining Armor gulped nervously as he imagined the unspeakable horror that followed in his mind, of ponies being ripped in half by the creatures cold, metal hands; having their skulls crushed under its heavy metal boot... And Twilight. Twilight, having her wings torn off of her body as she tried to fly away...

Shining Armor shivered at the unpleasant thoughts, managing to control himself through years of training and simply glaring at the unconscious creature as the blue aura of Princess Luna's magic faded- unnoticed -from her horn, and a light smirk formed on her lips.

"Do you understand what must be done, Captain?"

"I... I believe I do, milady. But, how? Surely Princess Celestia would investigate thoroughly and ruthlessly if she, one day, found the alien... Dead."

"I am not suggesting you kill it, Captain. At least, not yet." Princess Luna explained as she turned away and began climbing the stairs- stopping on the first step to look back at the standing unicorn. "Be creative, Captain. Make it fear us."

Kat, you read her file?

Noble Six weakly flicked her eyes open as the ghostly voice of Emile-A239 echoed throughout her head.

Only the parts that weren't covered in black ink.

Noble Six gasped and sat upright as she looked around her dull cell. Nothing had changed, except it was empty of everything except herself.

As she stood up, shakily, her eyes widened and she tore off her helmet before she emptied her stomach onto the floor, coughing and gagging a bit as she stood over her knees.

Hope we can trust her. She'll never replace Thom, though. Jorge cut in.

Noble Six shook her head to clear the voices, but to no avail.

Yeah. Likely she'll go out like him just to make us like her. Emile added before the team let out a mocking laugh.

"No..." Noble Six whispered in pain.

No, what, Six? You blew yourself up when we needed you to come back home. Carter spoke, and the other members of the team fell silent.

"I did what I had to, to protect Reach..."

You died destroying a little cruiser, Six. You tried to be like Thom just so we could respect you after you died, because you knew we would never respect you while you were alive. But you don't deserve our respect, even in death. I had no choice, accepting you onto Noble Team, but if I had the choice... Carter explained, his voice drifting on as Nobe Six began crying. I would have sent you with the rest of your company to Pegasi Delta.

Noble Six let out an agonized cry of battle, breaking her cool and slamming her feet and fists into the wall as easily as if she were dancing- the unprepared metal denting and scraping beneath her as she vented her frustration and guilt.

Outside the cell, standing just next to the door, Shining Armor let a small smile form on his lips as his magical aura faded form his horn...

Foreboding Darkness

"Shining, what's going on?!" Twilight shouted in fear as she tore down the stairs, pushing through the squad of royal guards who had taken up defensive positions around the door of the alien's cell. "I heard the banging and crashing through the entire castle!"

"I don't know, Twily!" Shining Armor defended. "It just woke up and started attacking the walls! If we don't do something, and fast, it'll tear through it and out into the city."

"You can't kill her, Shining!" Twilight pleaded as Noble Six continued to scream her battle cry over and over through her tears; her voice muffled and faded through her helmet as he feet danced along the cold metal, scraping gashes into the workings.

"I'll have no choice, Twilight!"

"No, Shining, you can't kill her because she will kill you!"

"So you'd let this thing out into Canterlot to kill innocent ponies?!" Shining Armor shouted over the fray.

"And you'd throw yourself and your guards into a slaughtering machine?!" Twilight challenged.

"I'll do what I have to in order to protect Equestria!"

"THEN LET ME IN TO TALK TO HER!" Twilight screamed, tearing the guards' attention away from the rampaging alien.

The sound from the alien seemed to drown out as an uneasy tension grew between brother and sister; princess and captain, before the white unicorn groaned in anger and defeat, waving his hoof to call his guards back a bit.

"You have five minutes." Shining Armor spat as he unlocked the door to the cell.

"I'll only need three." Twilight retorted.

Out of ammunition, out of teammates, out of time, and out of weapons.

No, a Spartan was never out of weapons.

A Spartan was a weapon.

Noble Six panted in frustration as she threw out another kick towards the Golden-clad Elite, who gave a throaty laugh and easily caught her foot in its grasp, tossing her to the side.

It was playing with her, proving a point to any that watched that the Sangheili were better in every way than the best that humanity could throw at it.

The alien had long ago abandoned its energy sword to 'fight fair', in its own terms.

But a fight against a Spartan was never fair.

Eventually, Six knew she would reign triumphant over the alien, and send a different message to whoever watched, if anyone: one that said humans were worthy of life, and would fight to every last man, woman, and child, to protect everything they had.

So why was she losing?

Noble Six hit the ground with a thump and rolled a short distance, laying on her back and breathing deeply.

This shouldn't be happening, and she knew it shouldn't.

That was the only thing that kept her from submitting to what she knew was a false reality.

She felt her body going on and on in the real world, while her mind struggled to understand the fake one.

All she had to do was escape...

Twilight Sparkled swallowed her heart rather loudly as the door to the cell swung shut and locked once more.

Outside of the cell, she was proud, independent, and willing to do what her brother was not.

Inside, however, Twilight reevaluated everything
.
Here she was, standing in a small metal box with an enraged alien and no way of knowing how to calm it down safely. She would have liked to believe that the Noble Six wouldn't harm her, but...

"N-Noble Six?" Twilight stammered.

A pause from the Elite granted the Spartan a shot at its face, which Noble Six happily accepted with her foot. A satisfying crack erupted from the creatures mouth before it let out a furious roar.

"Like the rest of your race, you are weak and undisciplined! You are an insect to me, and I will crush you beneath my boot!" the Sangeheili shouted as it lunged forward and tackled Noble Six to the ground, grabbing her throat in its powerful grasp before standing triumphantly with its prize.

As Noble Six clutched the edges of the beasts' three-fingered hands and attempted to pull them off of her throat, the Elite managed a smirk and brought Six closer.

"There will be no other Spartans to save you, this time, demon." the Elite whispered as it reached around Noble Six's helmet and pulled it off. "My face will be the last thing your pathetic eyes ever see."

As the creature's grip slowly tightened around the Spartan's throat, Noble Six felt herself fading...

"Nahw-blea Saix?" came a feminine voice, and the Spartan flicked open her heavy eyes to meet the Elite's once more. Nothing had changed, but the Spartan was absolutely certain that the Elite had just said her name.

"Nahw-blea Saix?" the Elite's mandibles mouthed as its voice spoke up, but its face betrayed no indication it had said anything. "Kain yeuh haeir maey?"

Noble Six blinked away the creeping darkness as she fought off unconsciousness and watched the Elite's features slowly blend with its surroundings.

But it hadn't activated its active camouflage. Rather, it was like an artist had smeared the edges of the Elite so that it began to be harder and harder to tell where the alien ended and the sky began.

"Nawh-blea Saix, staihp!" the Elite shouted a final time before Noble Six suddenly found herself back in her not-so-comforting prison cell, with the little purple horse standing before her and her own hands wrapped tightly around her own throat. Noble Six took in as much air as she could and hurriedly backed away, pressing herself close to one of the walls and slowly sliding down it as the purple horse simply watched with a pained and pleading look on its face.

"I don't know, Princess! I just went down there, and it was beating on the walls, and then when I went into it's cell, it started choking itself!" Twilight Sparkle explained as Princess Luna remained unmoving.

"You should not have gone in there, Twilight Sparkle." Princess Luna replied, sternly. "You could have been killed."

"What was I supposed to do, sit there and watch it break out?!" Twilight shot back.

"Watch your tone with me, Twilight Sparkle! You may be a newly crowned Princess, but I am still ruler!" Princess Luna barked as she rose to her hooves from her sitting position before settling down once more and clearing her throat. "No, Twilight. I applaud your success in calming the beast down, but you should have done so from safety, such as outside its prison. It would be a shame if Equestria were to lose its most recent Princess..."

Detecting the slightest bit of a growl at the end of her voice, Twilight cocked her head and donned an accusative look. "Do you have a problem with me being a Princess?"

"It is none of your concern, Twilight Sparkle. I will conduct myself in an appropriate manner around you, so it should not matter whether or not I agree with your recent "accomplishment"." Princess Luna explained with a frown and a glare.

Twilight Sparkle gave a slight snort and turned to leave the room, feeling Princess Luna's cold gaze on her the entire way.

"It would seem that, either, it is becoming suicidal, or is experiencing an example of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Being a soldier, let alone one that has apparently fought another race of aliens, this is of little surprise." Princess Luna explained simply as a the single candle in her room flickered.

"It is a shame, really." A dark voice replied from the single wall-mounted oval mirror in Princess Luna's dark bedroom. "Had we bonded with it first, rather than... Celestia... then we could use it as our own, in time... But she has left an imprint on its mind, whether it realizes it, or not. It must be destroyed before we can initiate the next phase."

"I understand." Princess Luna replied, turning her head to blow out the candle.

"Wait." the voice cautioned, and Princess Luna froze. "Something is bothering you. You know how things get when you bottle them up... They only get worse."

"It is Twilight Sparkle." Princess Luna explained.

"Ah, the newly crowned "Princess", correct? Celestia is becoming too lax."

"Agreed. Twilight Sparkle is a bright mind, admittedly, but Celestia had away with the entire ritual simply because she is fond of the young pony!" Princess Luna spat. "For centuries, our kind held trials for the common pony to prove they were worthy of immortality and infinite magic, but Celestia simply does away with that in an instant once she believes young Twilight Sparkle can do better than her own sister just for studying the "Magic of Friendship"!"

A small, dark smirk formed on the creature in the mirror's snout at these words. "Who needs friends, really? They'll always end up stabbing you in the back, sooner or later."

"Just like Celestia did..." the voice whispered, mockingly.

Princess Luna glared and blew out the candle, and soon, the room was bathed in darkness once more.

Mistakes

Knock knock knock

"Away with thee... We are sleeping..." Princess Luna mumbled to the door.

"Apologies, Milady." a guard replied from the other side. "I simply wished to inform you that your sister is awake and well."

"How... Wonderful." Princess Luna groaned quietly.

It had been two and a half days since the spell was preformed and Celestia passed out from magical exhaustion. Luna had unofficially been tasked with the raising of both the sun and the moon; a feat which was not incredibly easy, especially when it seemed as though the sun outright resisted her, at times.

Shining Armor had been... "Convinced" that the alien was a threat that needed to be dealt with, while Twilight Sparkle seemed more friendly towards it.

"Typical..." Princess Luna muttered as she fully opened her eyes to find the sun, just as she had left it, halfway across the sky.

She had barely gotten an hours rest.

Noble Six held her helmet in her hands, visor turned towards he so that she could see the crack across it.

It had seemed so real; the Elite. Its grip was tighter than her own but, in the end, it was her, choking herself.

Noble Six couldn't believe it.

Seventeen different operations on planets she had never even heard of. Her personal kill-count ranked one-hundred and thirty-seven.

She had lost two teammates in one mission gone bad - a sniper round through both of their visors -, so, why was she now only breaking down?

She shouldn't be breaking down in the first place, but she was.

The Elite had proved that...

Noble Six ran her armored finger along the crack in her visor one last time before a small smirk formed on her pale lips.

"Good afternoon, Captain." Princess Celestia greeted, quietly, as she descended the steps down into the dungeon.

"Good afternoon, Milady." Shining Armor replied, blandly, to which Celestia was rather used to, from her guards.

"I trust everything has been well during my absence?"

"Mostly, your highness." Shining Armor began. "There was a slight incident, yesterday night, when the alien began pounding on the walls. The noise boomed throughout the entire castle, and it only calmed down once Twilight tried speaking to it."

"How odd." Princess Celestia noted, aloud, as she took a step forward to peer through the barred window on the door to the cell. "Has it been sitting there, like that, ever since?"

"Mostly, your highness." Shining Armor replied, taking a small glance at the creature.

The alien did not stir.

"Has it asked for anything? Has it tried communicating with you?"

"No, Milady. It has remained silent since the incident."

Celestia gave a slight frown and continued watching the armored creature for a moment before turning to ascend the stairs, leaving Shining Armor and the troubled alien alone, once more.

"Good afternoon, Lulu." Princess Celestia greeted, cheerfully.

A mumbled reply came from Princess Luna, who pulled her blankets over her head.

"Aww, not going to say hello, back? I'm hurt, Lulu." Celestia pouted playfully. "I thought you'd be happy to see me, after all this time."

"I'd be happier if I was asleep." Luna's muffled voice came from under the covers as Celestia crawled onto the bed next to her sister.

"I'm sorry I'm keeping you up, but I'd like to know what has happened since my blackout."

"Then pester the Captain of the Guard, or Twilight Sparkle." Luna groaned.

"I would, but Shining Armor simply watches; he doesn't think about it. And Twilight seems to be a bit mopey. Any clue as to why?" Celestia questioned accusatively.

"Not in the slightest."

"Hmm..." Celestia mused as she reached a hoof over and pulled the covers away from her sister's head. "We need to talk, Lulu, about several things. The first of which being what exactly happened to Noble Six while I was out."

"The alien had a fit and tried to kill itself. Probably because it's going through an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder. Or, maybe because it realizes it will never go home and will die here, alone, on a foreign planet." Luna explained with a glare.

"You're always so dramatic." Celestia replied with a roll of her eyes. "And what's this I hear about you not agreeing on the validity of Twilight's Princesshood?"

Princess Luna gave an annoyed huff and rolled out of bed. "I did not bring it up, since you never seem to listen to me, anyway."

"Luna, that's not true. We've been there for each other for thousands of years ever since Mother and Father left. We wouldn't have made it this far, together, if we ignored each other." Celestia challenged. "Is this because I ignored the trials?"

"Of course it's because you ignored the trials!" Luna shouted. "An alicorn's power is limitless, and, coupled with their immortality and near lack of weaknesses, one would be nearly unstoppable if in the wrong hooves! Twilight Sparkle is brash and untrained!"

"She is my student and a blessing to Equestria!" Princess Celestia shouted back, rising to her hooves. "Without her, the Elements of Harmony would never have been reunited after all of those years, and you would be back on the moon, because nopony would have been able to save you!"

"I didn't need saving!"

"Then why did they encounter you as Nightmare Moon?!"

"BECAUSE NOPONY WAS THERE FOR ME!" Princess Luna screamed as tears welled up in her eyes and her voice shook the castle. "One thousand years of banishment on a floating rock in space, Celestia! One thousand years of you claiming to care, but if you really cared, you would have at least remembered the place you banished me, and been there to greet me when I returned! Instead, what do I come back to?!"

"Luna, that's not fair! I-" Princess Celestia tried to interrupt.

"Piles of sun-bleached skeletons donning Republic Armor, and not a single glimmer of golden armor!" Princess Luna continued. "When we claimed the throne after Mother and Father passed, we swore to love each pony equally, from the most villainous murderer, to the snobbiest noble! But, instead, you cared only for yourself and those who stayed loyal to you! You left my wounded and dead ponies there to insult me when I returned!"

Princess Celestia was left dumbstruck as her younger sister, crying, spread her wings and slammed through the large glass window that led to the balcony; shattering it in the process.

Princess Celestia simply watched, in silence, as the black dot that was her younger sister grew smaller and smaller in the horizon.

Now was her chance.

Whatever that noise was, it had been loud enough to reach her in what she hoped and assumed was the lowest point of the castle.

Putting her plan into action, Noble Six set her helmet on the ground and held her head tightly as she began screaming, collapsing to the ground and writhing in fake pain when the white pony guarding her peered into the cell.

A slight peek revealed an alarmed expression on his face, rather than a plain and uncaring one.

A moment later, he was shouting upstairs and, soon after, down came several armored guards; two of which supported a rather small stretcher across their backs.

Noble Six continued to act as though she were in pain, spasming lightly on the floor as she held her head, as the guards came into her cell and struggled to heft her onto the stretcher, and then tried to carry her to the stairs.

The weight of her armor was apparently too much for the tiny horses, who barely moved as they tried to get her to the stairs; realizing, too late, that they would have to go up the stairs, as well.

Princess Celestia ignored the tear that rolled off of her cheek and onto the aged, cartoonish drawing.

It was one of Luna's, from when they were still little fillies; happy, young, playful... When Mother and Father were still alive...
But that was behind her, now, and Celestia had worked so hard to not be angry at him; so much so that she encased him in stone rather than outright executing him for all he had done, as Luna suggested, all those years ago...

Princess Celestia sighed a sad sigh and carefully tucked the drawing back into her memory chest before teleporting it away to the safest place in all of Equestria - a place that only she knew of.

Princess Celestia's sadness was interrupted by the soft creaking of the door, and a quick glance behind her revealed Twilight sheepishly entering.

"I'm sorry, Princess... I know you probably want to be alone, right now, but I just wanted to let you know that they managed to get her up the stairs and into the infirmary." Twilight Sparkle explained.

"Thank you, Twilight. How is she?"

"The doctors still don't know. They haven't given her anything because they're afraid it'll do more harm, but it looks like she's in immense pain. Oh, and... Uh, two guards strained themselves a bit too much helping her up the stairs. They'll be fine, though."

"That is good news, Twilight. About the guards, I mean." Princess Celestia said, before giving a sad sigh.

"I'm sorry I caused this... I didn't mean to; I was just a little frustrated... I never expected this to happen..."

"It's not your fault, Twilight." Princess Celestia reassured, pulling the young alicorn closer with her wing and giving a comforting nuzzle against the top of her head. "Luna always has been a little touchy, but she's right. I should have been there to greet her. I kept track of the days, for one thousand years. I should have been there to welcome her home. And instead... Instead, I left her alone, once again and, even worse... I let her see those horrid memories..."

Unable to think of any way to reassure her wise mentor, Twilight simply slumped against the white pony...

Elsewhere, however, groups of horridly black pony things huddled together in sleep, rather than sadness.

Princess Luna trotted determinedly past the guards, who let her through without hesitation. When she reached the end of the long, poorly lit, cavernous hall, and stood before the giant, rotted wooden doors, the guards beside them gave a slight chitter and eagerly opened the doors for the Princess of the Night.

"Ah, Princess Luna. You didn't tell me you were coming - I would have prepared a banquet." the tall, dark, ominous alicorn teased from her throne.

"Stay your teasing, please. I grow tired of hearing of food that I cannot eat."

"My apologies. To what do I owe the honor of being blessed with a visit?"

"To war, of course." Princess Luna replied, darkly.

The creature on the throne nearly leapt off of it as her snout exploded into eager excitement. "When do we begin? The Hive is restless to seek revenge, and to be free of the underground!"

"Soon, Chrysalis." Princess Luna explained, with a dark smile. "Soon.

Dark Horizons

Noble Six lay still on the table that was too small for her, thankful that the tiny horses managed to fit a few more into the room to prop up her legs so that she was comfortable while she lay there, doing nothing.

She wished they had grabbed her helmet so that she would have her motion tracker, but, alas, she was left to simply her eyes and ears.

She counted three unicorns she assumed were doctors in the room, accompanied by two guards, each.

The room was certainly crowded, but Six wished she could see the hallway.

The shuffling of hooves sounded every so often, sounding off from different places. Noble Six counted at least sixteen horses lining the hallways to her new room.

To make it even worse, there were no windows she could see that she could simply jump out and make a run for safety - where ever safety was.

So, she bide her time, waiting for one of the horses to make a slip.

It would happen, eventually.

Princess Celestia gave a sad sigh as she looked out into the horizon.

It was nearing time for her sister to raise the moon, but, where ever she hid, she gave no indication that she was raising it, tonight. Rather, Celestia frustratedly learned, her sister was apparently unwilling to let the moon raise at all, given that Celestia had attempted to raise it herself, to no avail.

"Please don't be childish, Lulu..." Princess Celestia whispered in soft annoyance, before turning from the balcony and heading back inside - careful to step over the broken glass from earlier.

She planned to leave it for Luna to clean up, as she felt breaking a window was an incredible over reaction.

But she couldn't be angry at her sister, not now.

Celestia needed to get her mind off of her sister. It took almost every ounce of mental strength the white alicorn had not to comb the land looking for her sister.

She needed space, right now, and Celestia understood that.

She simply wished her dear sister would return soon. She missed her, already...

Celestia shook her head clear of any depressing thoughts and quickly made way for the infirmary to see how the alien was faring.

Better than before, Celestia hoped, but one could never be certain when it came to medicine, especially when an alien was involved...

Easing her way past the guards that filled the crowded hallway, Princess Celestia carefully opened the door as to not startle any delicate goings inside the room.

A shocked gasp from the Princess alerted the guards in the hall.

That's it... Just a little bit closer... Noble Six thought to herself as she tracked one of the doctors in her peripheral vision.

Much to her dismay, however, the doctor did not get as close as she'd like, and it took quite a bit of Noble Six to keep from letting out a groan.

She was running out of time, and eventually they'd realize there was nothing wrong with her and send her back into that dark, cold prison cell.

Six needed to act fast, and she knew it.

Luckily, for her, two of the four guards in the room seemed distracted with each other - possibly exchanging today's gossip. Regardless, they were distracted, and that was all Noble Six needed.

Giving a fake, pained cough to catch one of the doctor's attention, Noble Six was pleased to see what she presumed to be a male coming closer to investigate. And, as an added bonus, the two guards were oblivious to her noise.

When he was in reach, peering over the Spartan and eying it rather confusedly, Noble Six silently rolled off of the table and onto the pony, wrapping one arm across its chest, and the other around its neck, with the Spartan's hand firmly holding the poor horse's snout shut.

Unfortunately, her little stunt hadn't gone unnoticed, but when a guard threatened to cause a scene, Noble Six gave the armored horse a threatening look and squeezed her captive - causing a quiet, fearful squeak to erupt that could be heard only by those in the room.

Offering a teasing smirk, Noble Six silently motioned for all the guards to drop their weapons - most of them glaring as they reluctantly did so.

When everything that could be used to make quite a mess had been laid down, Noble Six quickly and efficiently, but most of all, silently, knocked each unlucky horse in the room unconscious with a few swift kicks and a punch here or there.

Noble Six smiled at the scene, grateful for the size difference of the horses and the room, which easily let her overcome her captors.

Now, the only problem was getting out of the room...

Scanning her surroundings more thoroughly, now that she was free to move without much suspicion, the Spartan noticed a few, rather large, windows against the back wall.

"This is too easy..." Noble Six whispered to herself before making a beeline straight for her exit, carefully unlatching and opening the glass window and peering out into the city below.

It was quite a drop, but Six had fallen longer distances.

Wasting no time, Noble Six fled to freedom.

"When do we attack?" Queen Chrysalis inquired excitedly, for the seventeenth time, this morning.

"When the moon rises, Chrysalis." Princess Luna replied with a sigh. "The moon rising will be your cue to begin the attack. I felt Celestia trying to raise my moon last night, and I can only hope she won't try to do the same tonight."

"You need to conserve your strength, especially for the transfer." Queen Chrysalis noted.

"I know. Is everything gathered?"

"The last piece has arrived - the most important, as well." Queen Chrysalis explained.

"How did you manage to retrieve it from my room?" Princess Luna inquired with a wary glance.

"Luna!" Queen Chrysalis gasped in mock hurt. "You wound me; questioning the abilities of my children."

A playful pouty face from Chrysalis earned her an eye-roll and a hidden smirk from Luna.

"So, is there anything else?" Queen Chrysalis inquired, expectantly.

"Not that you are already aware of."

"Got it: Disguise army as celebratory night parade, wait for moon, take over Canterlot." Queen Chrysalis recited aloud. "And what will you be doing?"

"What do you think?" Princess Luna questioned with a small smile as she turned her head back to the Changeling Queen as the Princess of the Night slowly trotted away, carrying a ceremonial, dark-blue battle head dress.

Noble Six wasn't one to easily be excited, even if the scene was a lush battle ground and she was equipped with her trusty sniper rifle, a quarter of a mile away from the action.

She wouldn't even smile if she managed to bury her combat knife into the neck of some unaware Elite.

But now, Noble Six was excited, and she was smiling.

She was free from the castle, and most of all, that prison. She was quietly roaming the back alleys of this beautiful horse city, out of sight, and she had even managed to swipe some actual food from a market stall!

No more dry salad for this Spartan. Instead, she was hungrily devouring what she could only assume was some sort of pie, given its shape and sweetness, but she hadn't the slightest clue as to what flavor it was.

It mattered little to her, in the long run, because it had been ages since she even laid eyes on something that tasted so sweet!

Unfortunately, her delight did not last forever, and the pie tin lay empty on the cobblestone ground as Six refocused on the task at hand: getting out of the city.

So far, none of the horses had seen her, and none of them seemed to be looking for her, meaning they still assumed she was back at the castle.

A quick glance up at the sky revealed it to be likely five to six in the evening. Cursing herself for not grabbing her helmet, Noble Six decided that away from the castle was the best direction to take, and quickly set out.

She simply wished that she could get out before nightfall...

"Your highness?" a curious guard questioned from the hall.

Princess Celestia remained still for a moment, eyes locked onto the collapsed ponies before flicking to the open window.

Celestia noticed a distinct lack of alien in the room, but she was relieved when one of the ponies began stirring.

She didn't kill them... Princess Celestia realized.

"Captain Shining Armor." Celestia said, sternly, and her Captain of the Guard saluted to attention beside her. "Place Canterlot under lock down. The alien has escaped, and it is imperative that we capture it before it is introduced to the general public."

"Yes, your majesty!" Shining Armor replied, soon barking orders to the nearest guards, which carried them off to their commanding officers. "Shall I declare Martial Law, your majesty?"

"No, Captain. If we force everypony into their homes, they will wonder why, and the alien will realize we are onto it. We need the element of surprise. Let the public go about their night, freely."

"But, milady!" Shining Armor protested. "What if it kills?"

"It won't, Captain. Do you see, in the room?" Princess Celestia questioned, motioning inside the infirmary, where a woozy doctor was helping an awakening guard to his hooves. "It did not kill, and it clearly had the power to do so. It means us no harm, it simply wants its freedom."

Princess Luna carefully breathed in the sweet smell of the burning candles, three on either side of her, and closed her eyes to the mirror before her.

But, unlike most mirrors, this one held no reflection of the pony in front of it. Rather, this oval mirror displayed the soft, patient smile of a pitch-black alicorn with a swirling blueish-purple mane.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Luna?" Nightmare Moon questioned.

"We both know we'll need the strength if we are to overcome my sister." Luna explained, not opening her eyes. "Why?"

"I simply don't want to get too power hungry, like last time." Nightmare Moon admitted in shame. "It nearly tore us apart, and that is the last thing you need, especially right now."

"You were there for me when Celestia was not, Nightmare." Luna explained with a comforting smile. "For a few hundred years before my banishment, during, and after. You've had practice. Have faith in yourself."

"If you insist." Nightmare Moon agreed.

"Are you ready to be free of that cursed mirror I had to trap you in?"

"The sooner you can free me, the better. I despise that you had to do so to keep me from Celestia's prying eyes, let alone the conversations by candle light."

"It was the only way you could tell it was me calling to you." Princess Luna explained before relaxing her muscles and laying on the floor in the circle of glowing candles. "Be ready for the reunion."

"I'm shaking in my glass." Nightmare Moon joked.

Dawn of War

The sun had set on the horse city, and the moonless night helped to hide Noble Six as she continued to make her way away from the castle.

It was surprisingly harder than she thought, to escape, but the city was built without an engineer, it seemed, and was much larger than she previously thought.

Noble Six had spent the better half of the evening creeping through the back alleys of the city and waiting for the streets to clear before she darted across into the next alley, only to follow it around back where she started.

The Spartan silently cursed whatever architectural "genius" had designed the city, and eventually found herself at what she could only hope was an exit. Unfortunately, for her, there was a distinct lack of buildings between her and the large wall with thick wooden gates, and an abundance of small horses all gathered around several... Floats?

Noble Six could barely see the horses, thanks to one of her many augmentations, but... Yes, they were definitely standing around several parade floats and talking excitedly with one another in their language of neighs and whinny's.

Several torches were lit and mounted into the floats so that other horses could see them as they roamed the streets, and Noble Six realized she would have to wait for the parade to begin before she would have a chance at escape.

So, annoyed, the Spartan slumped against one of the walls in the alley and watched.

And waited.

"The city is under lock down, with guards posted at every exit imaginable, from the sewers, to the sky." Captain Shining Armor reported, with a salute.

"Thank you, Captain." Princess Celestia replied. "You'll have to hurry if you want to be at the head of the parade."

"Your majesty?" Shining Armor asked, confusedly.

"We must continue to act as though nothing is wrong, Captain. The guards are there to watch the parade, and if you are not there to lead it as you said you would, then the public would grow suspicious." Princess Celestia explained.

"I understand, your majesty."

With a quick salute of farewell, Shining Armor left the throne room and hurried off to catch the start of the parade.

"Oh, Luna..." Celestia whispered, with a sigh. "I hope you remember the parade, and how important it is for you to be there..."

Princess Celestia slowly trotted out of the throne room, her royal duties done, for the day, before slipping into her room and onto the balcony. "It's the beginning of The Harvest, and if you're not there to celebrate it..."

Princess Celestia lowered her head in shame and turned back into her room.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me the most, from when Mother and Father passed, to Nightmare Moon... And now..."

While ponies outside, all around the country, were celebrating the beginning of a new season, deep within the confines of Canterlot castle, their Princess was crying...

Only the gentle knocking of a purple alicorn roused the sorrowful alicorn from her tears.

"Twilight?" Princess Celestia began, in confusion. "What are you doing in the castle?"

"I thought you might need somepony to talk to, Princess..." Twilight Sparkle replied as she stepped into the room. "I mean, I know you're old and wise, but that doesn't mean it isn't hard..."

Giving a sad little smile, Princess Celestia shook her head, gently. "I will be fine, Twilight. I've been through it all, before, and survived. Luna will come back, eventually. As for you, what are you still doing in the castle?"

"What do you mean, Princess?"

"I mean, it's a celebration, Twilight. Go to Ponyville, be with your friends. Be happy." Princess Celestia suggested.

Twilight Sparkle only gave a small, sad frown for her mentor before nodding and turning to depart.

Shining Armor closed his eyes and took in the scent of the sweet, crisp, night air.

He wasn't incredibly fond of parades, especially since he was the Captain of the Guard, and that meant most of the attention would be on him.

The only good thing he felt that came from it was the disciplined nature of it all. It was all so concrete, so uniform. It was beautiful to him.

At last, the time had begun. Ponies lined the streets, fillies and colts munching down treats as their wide eyes turned to watch the beginnings of the parade, while mares and stallions laughed and chatted with each other.

A last second adjustment to his helmet, and the fireworks behind him tore up through the sky before exploding into flames.

Ponies cheered and hollered as the parade marched forward, with Shining Armor leading a company of eighty Night Guards, followed by the parade floats, jesters, and performers.

He didn't have time to inspect the show, before or during the act, but he assumed whatever was on the floats, and whatever the performers were doing, thoroughly pleased the crowd; evident by their cheers and laughter.

Another burst of the fireworks cannon sounded, and the sky lit up once more as the street filled with the sounds of foals awing.

Shining Armor felt a little bad for the pegasi he had stationed up above, who must be having quite the fright.

Eventually, after the parade had snaked its way through the city, it came to a halt outside Canterlot Gardens, where Princess Luna was to raise the moon to signal the beginning of the new season.

As the company of Night Guards took their position around the central platform, Shining Armor began to wonder where exactly was the Princess of the Night...

And then, everything exploded into chaos.

The moon slowly began to rise from the edge of the sky, climbing hurriedly into the center.

Cheers that erupted from the gathered crowd soon turned to screams of terror as the entire company of Night Guards burst into Changelings in flashes of green.

Queen Chrysalis, herself, appeared on the central platform in a flash and let out a menacing laugh as Changelings began to appear all over the city.

Shining Armor stood there, dumbstruck, with a look of terror on his face as the Queen of the Changelings slowly approached him.

Noble Six quietly counted off the seconds as the last float began its journey through the town, leaving the main gate as more fireworks filled the sky.

A few guards took up position beside the gate, and Noble Six counted four in watch towers on either side of the gate.

It would be difficult, but Noble Six could get it done.

Double checking her surroundings, and finding them pleasingly barren, the Spartan snuck out of the alley and quickly pressed herself up against the stone wall, digging her fingers into the rock and beginning to climb her way to freedom.

She was nearly to the top when screams rang in her ears, and images of melting Marines flashed through her mind. Noble Six reeled back in shock, losing her grip on the wall and falling to the cobblestone with a noisy thud.

Noble Six soon learned, however, that the screams were real. Another sounded off, nearby, and convinced a patrolling guard that that was more important than whatever had thudded below him.

Shaking her head clear and climbing the wall once more, Noble Six soon reached the top of the wall and stared out into the beautiful countryside of the strange planet.

Turning back to give a mocking farewell to the city, Noble Six saw that the moon had suddenly risen, green flashes appeared throughout the city, and the screams of terrified horses filled her ears.

Noble Six shook slightly, nearly falling off of the wall.

Jericho Seven... Noble Six remembered, in horror.

She remembered the screams of her family, of her friends, of her neighbors.

She remembered the tears pouring down her cheeks as she screamed in anger and fear.

She remembered feeling nothing but... Calmness, as she sat on a pelican that brought her to a fleeing freighter.

She remembered everything when she volunteered for the Spartan-III program.

Noble Six turned and hurriedly climbed down the other side of the wall, leaving the city and its terrified citizens behind.

She had no obligation to help them.

Princess Celestia stared out into the city of Canterlot in pure horror and disbelief.

Just a few moments ago, the moon had risen, and Celestia felt so happy that her younger sister had done so; taking it as a sign of forgiveness and that she would soon be home, safe and sound.

But, instead, as the moon settled in the middle of the sky, familiar green flashes erupted all around the city, and the sound of terrified, fleeing ponies filled the night.

Celestia could not believe it.

"Beautiful, is it not?" A mocking, dark voice sounded from behind the white alicorn.

"Luna." Princess Celestia whispered as she turned to face her sister.

But the sister she knew did not stand behind her. Rather, it was the monster within that had festered during all of those years of neglect.

Nightmare Moon locked eyes with Celestia and offered a slight smile. "I think it's beautiful, at least. The moon, of course; right where it belongs."

"What have you done with Luna?" Princess Celestia demanded to know.

"I AM Luna!" Nightmare Moon barked, her smile fading, only to be replaced with a menacing, teethy frown. "I am the part of her that you ignored until it consumed her very being, Celestia. I am the bitter jealousy and anger that should not exist, so powerful that I have earned a physical form in this world!"

"No." Princess Celestia stated, firmly. "The Elements of Harmony banished you!"

"Foal!" Nightmare Moon spat as she began to circle around the white alicorn. "I do not die, I only sleep! Luna and I are one and the same! Without both of us, now, neither of us can exist. You have brought this curse upon yourself and, now, you must face the consequences!"

Princess Celestia's eyes lit up in shock as Nightmare Moon attacked, lunging forward to stab at her with her horn.

Celestia quickly jumped backwards, now taking a defensive stance before the dark alicorn. "What do you plan to do? You and I both know that neither of us can hurt each other."

"Is that what you think?" Nightmare Moon questioned with a mocking chuckle as she slowly pulled a green crystal blade from a sheathe at her side, studying it carefully in admiration. "One has to wonder, exactly, why you never harvested those gems in the Canterlot Caverns..."

Celestia's eyes lit up in fear as Nightmare Moon lunged forwards, once more.

Twilight Sparkle snorted in laughter, sending her drink out through her nose as Pinkie Pie continued on with the story.

"And then I said 'Oatmeal? Are you crazy?!"

Laughter erupted from each of the ponies within Sugarcube Corner which, at the time, only included Twilight's five best friends.

"Pinkie, you're a riot!" Rainbow Dash comment as she continued to chuckle.

After everypony had regained their bearings, and the room fell silent, Twilight Sparkle gave a happy sigh. "You girls are the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"Even better than being Princess Celestia's student?" Fluttershy asked.

"Especially better than being Princess Celestia's student." Twilight confirmed, happily, before giving a sad look to each of her confused friends. "I just hate that I almost never going to see you all, again..."

"Oh, darling, nonsense!" Rarity began. "I go to Canterlot quite frequently; you're bound to see me!"

"Yeah, and when I'm a Wonderbolt, you'll see me in the skies, every day!" Rainbow Dash added.

"Heck, an' Ah attend e'ry Gala." Applejack said.

"Oh, oh!" Pinkie Pie joined in. "Me too, me too!"

The group gave a giggle at Pinkie's antics before Twilight turned her gaze towards Fluttershy, who was trying her hardest to hide behind her milkshake glass.

"I-I don't really have a reason to be in Canterlot..." she admitted. "But I'll try my hardest to visit, every now and then..."

Content with their responses, Twilight pulled all of her friends into a group hug. "I just wish I didn't have to go back, in the morning."

"Speaking of which, dear, how long is the celebration supposed to last?" Rarity inquired. "I don't remember nearly as many fireworks last year as they're shooting off, now."

A confused look out the window revealed several bolts and bursts of light erupt above Canterlot - some going further than fireworks should, and some not going very far, at all, before bursting.

"Those aren't fireworks, Rarity..." Twilight began, quietly. "Those are spells..."

Author's Note

One more chapter before the epilogue, I promise, this time!

Cleansing

How many? a commanding, male voice sounded within Six's memories.

Nearly three million. another voice responded.

A sigh came from the first voice. And the survivors?

One-thousand, three-hundred and five. Only two-hundred children.

Jesus Christ...

We did all we could, Captain.

...It's just never enough, is it?

Noble Six awoke, with a start, to a soft drizzle pelting her face. It was hard to tell what was sweat and what was rain, but she wiped both away, regardless.

It had been only a few hours after she had managed to escape from the city of horses, and the Spartan had been following what appeared to be train tracks, west.

She couldn't get it out of her head, no matter how hard she tried: The screaming, the dying... The burning of flesh.

Noble Six couldn't get Jericho Seven out of her head. It was forever stuck in her memories; it was her motivation for doing what she did.

And the horses' terror had brought it back.

In the distance, a town began forming, and Noble Six began to jog.

She needed to get her mind off of things that would impede her survival, and one surefire way to do that was to be around the horses, as ironic as that may sound.

Noble Six needed something to keep track of, and potentially hundreds of aliens that would all cause quite a panic if they saw her was just the thing to do it.

She didn't know how she would explain her reasoning, had she someone to explain it to, but she simply knew that it would work.

A quick glance behind her revealed that the flashes from the city were growing dimmer, either from the distance, or because the battle was growing to a close.

"Heck naw!" Applejack spat.

"Applejack is right, Twilight: We can't just drop into something we know nothing about!" Rarity piped up.

"Yeah!" Pinkie exclaimed. "We don't know what we'd be facing! It could be giant marshmallow monsters who want to gobble us helpless ponies up! Or a mean 'ol centaur who wants to plunge Equestria into chaos and darkness! OR a horribly cliche villain with dark magic powers who can barely speak like a normal pony because his head has been so corrupted by foul magics!"

The group stared at Pinkie for a moment as she panted from lack of breath, before returning to the matter at hand.

"But we have to do something, girls!" Twilight pleaded.

"You could always send Princess Celestia a letter, rather than just teleporting us, out of the blue." Rarity replied, nonchalantly.

"But then we'd lose the element of surprise!" Rainbow Dash argued.

"But I'm right here!" an ignored Pinkie Pie chimed in, before Twilight firmly stated her decision.

"I am going to send Princess Celestia a letter, find out what is going on, and if we are needed. If we are needed, we are all going to Canterlot, and that is final."

The room fell into silent agreement as Twilight began writing her letter.

"Where is the alien, dear sister?" Nightmare Moon spat, irritatedly, as she twirled her sword idly in the air while holding Noble Six's helmet in her magical grasp, as well; studying it with some interest.

Nightmare Moon remained untouched by the claws of battle, while Celestia sat slumped against the wall, bleeding from several places along her body as she panted and stared determinedly at her younger sister.

"She is not here." Princess Celestia stated.

"Obviously." Nightmare Moon noted as she tossed the helmet to the side.

"Stalling will not prevent your death, Celestia." Nightmare Moon continued as she slowly approached the white alicorn, carefully stepping over the torn and mangled bodies of foolish guards.

"It's not my death I'm stalling, sister." Princess Celestia replied.

"You needn't worry about me, Celestia." Nightmare Moon taunted. "I'm clearly capable of taking care of myself."

"You have no idea what you're going up against, Luna." Celestia stated, with a cough. "She has battled a civilization far more advanced than her own and managed to survive."

"You think I have not seen what you have, Celestia?! I am the Goddess of War, the Queen of Destruction, and the Mistress of Blood! Those are titles bestowed upon me while you sat cozy on the throne, leaving me to pull Equestria together! I am the rightful ruler, Celestia!" Nightmare Moon shouted as she stormed forwards, poising her blade to strike.

But, before the blade could descend upon the alicorn's body, a bright flash blinked into existence from above.

Noble Six smiled, softly, as he beginnings of a town in the distance. She knew following these railroad tracks would lead to civilization, and her plan had finally worked as she started jogging into the town; careful to keep out of the eyes and ears of celebrating horse.

It seemed that none of them knew what had happened in the city, as evident by their laughter and partying.

Now, Noble Six had to find an out-of-the-way place to live where she wouldn't be found in a long while, in addition to food.

At the memory of that delicious pie she had stolen from a market back in the city, Noble Six's stomach let out a low grumble, and the Spartan decided that a home could wait. After all, she had been traveling for quite a while, and quite the distance.

Making a note of the street-faring ponies' positions, Noble Six scanned the town in search of a store or restaurant.

Considering its odd design of being covered in pastries, it wasn't long before Noble Six discovered what could only be understood as a confection shop. Wasting no time, the Spartan dodged glances and confused ears as she snuck around the crowd and behind buildings until she was standing behind the delicious looking masonry.

It was like that Hansel and Gretel story from so long ago, except it was unlikely that a witch lived inside who would eat other creatures.

Taking one last look around and inside the building, Noble Six carefully lifted a window and snuck inside.

A light from a doorway told her that a few horses still dwell within the building, but judging by their voices, they weren't many. So long as she wasn't too loud, the Spartan could eat as much as she pleased.

That is, if she could find the food.

As far as Noble Six could tell, the only things in this kitchen were ingredients. And ingredients alone did not make for a filling or delicious meal. Besides, the Spartan didn't even know how to bake sweet treats; only her MREs and the occasional clump of foreign vegetables that she found while alone on a mission.

But Noble Six didn't give up. There had to be something already made.

And so, Noble Six began her ask of quietly searching the remains of he kitchen for food.

Nightmare Moon blinked at the burst of light, looking up just in time to have her nose booped by a rolled up parchment. While she was distracted, Princess Celestia, underneath her, forced her way up and headbutted her younger sister's jaw; sending the dark alicorn reeling back.

Without missing a beat, Celestia unfurled the scroll and began reading as she gracefully ducked and dodged Nightmare Moon's blade while fleeing around the room.

Dear Princess Celestia, the note began. I'm just sending this letter to see if the celebration is going well. I've noticed a great number of "fireworks", more than the last few years, and was just wondering if you were enjoying yourself. Your faithful student, always there when you need her, Twilight Sparkle.

Princess Celestia smiled a proud smile at her student's letter, quickly tearing the it in half as she ducked under a slash from Nightmare Moon before sending half of the letter back to her faithful student.

Soon, Princess Celestia realized, the Elements of Harmony would be here to put an end to this battle.

"Your petty little student can't save you, now, Celestia!" Nightmare Moon taunted, seemingly reading her elder sister's mind as her sword swung down and clanged against the stone floor; only because a certain white alicorn managed to roll out of the way, just in time.

"They will come, Luna, and they will subdue you so that I can finish what I started!" Princess Celestia challenged, determinedly, as she turned and kicked out her hind hooves against her sister.

"What, are you going to kill me, Celestia?" Nightmare Moon continued to taunt. "You aren't fooling anypony! You could barely swat at a parasprite; how do you expect to be able to strike down your own sister?"

Princess Celestia seemingly ignored her younger siblings' taunts and jibes, but, deep down, Celestia knew that she was right. No matter what atrocities Luna committed, she could never kill her. She could only banish her and hope that she would return with a healthy state of mind.

She could not kill her sister because, in doing so, Celestia killed a part of herself.

Luna was the only thing Celestia had left in the world, from the beginning.

And to lose it meant losing herself.

"Ah don't understand." Applejack stated, flatly, as Twilight stared quietly at the torn shred of paper.

"It means Princess Celestia is in trouble." Twilight replied.

"How do ya figure?"

"It's a code the Princess and I made up when I was still a filly. It started out as a joke, when I said I loved and admired her so much that I would protect her from anything. But, if I wasn't there, I would send her a letter. If anything was wrong, she would tear the note in half and send it back, if she couldn't write a reply." Twilight explained.

Out of sight, a pink tail began twitching, then an ear floppy, then a nose scrunchie, followed by an eye flutter, and ending with leg shake.

Pinkie Pie, oblivious to the preparations of war among the other group members, struggled to understand what she had just felt, before her ears perked up and pointed towards the kitchen.

Remaining apparently invisible to the rest of her friends, Pinkie's curiosity claimed her completely, and the pink mare began investigating; carefully and quietly heading behind the counter and peeking through the doorway into the kitchen.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and Pinkie was about to turn back, before a barely audible clang sounded from within the kitchen - as if something metal had been dropped, only to be caught carefully by something else metal, just seconds before causing a loud ruckus.

Pinkie Pie activated her sneak mode, which was really just herself pressed close to the ground as she scooted along, keeping an eye and ear out for anything and everything as she investigated further.

As she peeked around a corner, what she saw sent her eyes nearly popping out of her skull and her mouth agape to let out a terrified scream.

Pinkie Pie might have actually screamed, had the monster routing through the kitchen spotted her, grabbed her, and held her mouth firmly shut in its cold, metal grasp.

"Food. Eat." Noble Six whispered, sternly, as she held the pink horses' mouth shut; her other arm wrapped across the creatures back to keep it from fleeing.

Noble Six waited patiently for the creature to calm down, before realizing that it was too terrified to do so, or it didn't understand the Spartan well enough to realize what it had asked for and be shocked.

Either way, Noble Six's grasp held the horse tightly as it trembled, before Noble Six let go of its back and made a universal eating motion before waving her arm to the cabinets.

The pink horse responded with continuous trembling, slowly raising its hoof to point at an odd, tall white thing against the wall, to which Six dragged the horse over to. When it was in reach, Noble Six carefully opened it and peeked inside. What lay beyond the white door made her mouth water, and the Spartan sternly made a motion for the horse to be quiet, which it seemed to understand.

Hesitantly releasing its mouth, Noble Six was pleased to find the creature silent and simply staring as it sat and trembled.

Hoping that things would remain at their best, Noble Six carefully began stuffing her face with whatever she could fit as she kept a watchful eye on the horse; occasionally offering some food, which was politely denied with a trembling head shake.

Everything was going perfectly.

Nothing was going perfectly.

Canterlot was, undoubtedly, under attack, the the princess's were potentially in danger, and Pinkie Pie had disappeared. Had this been any other circumstance, none of the five ponies looking under tables and behind doors would be worried about a missing Pinkie, but this was an emergency.

"Hey, has anypony checked the kitchen?" Rainbow Dash shouted from upstairs, prompting Twilight and Rarity to sigh, before they both dutifully marched towards the kitchen.

A shriek from the white unicorn brought Rainbow Dash and Applejack form the upper rooms, and sent Fluttershy scurrying under a table.

"You!" Twilight Sparkled shouted in alarm and agitation. "What are you doing here?!"

"Wait, you know this... Thing?!" Rainbow Dash questioned as the group poured into the kitchen.

The scene was not an easy one: Pinkie Pie hung in the creatures grasp once more, this time with her back to its chest and its arm across her abdomen; its other hand gently clenching the pink pony's' throat. Twilight stood in the doorway in a defensive stance, while Rarity took one a bit closer. Rainbow Dash flapped above them all, and Applejack held her ground with a determined glare.

"It's a long story!" Twilight shouted back in frustration.

"Ah reckon we need to hear it!" Applejack shot back.

"You know what?!" Twilight Sparkle snapped, losing her patience. "I am done. I am just done! I am so sick of all of this secrecy and alien horseshit that I am going to end it all right now!"

To push her point further, Twilight Sparkle's eyes began glowing a hot white as her horn produced a blazing tendril of magic that shot from Twilight to the alien's unarmored forehead; connecting the two.

Time seemed to stop for the ponies in the room.

"Noble Six, take out those wraiths!" Kat shouted as a plasma mortar slammed into the ground in front of her.

Noble Six snapped out of her trance and shook her head clear, before rolling out of the path of another wraith mortar. Quickly realizing what she held in her hands, Noble Six raised the target locator and charged the shot; locking onto the enemy wraith as it held its ground and fire another mortar.

In an instant, hellfire rained from the sky, and the wraith exploded into a fiery death.

All seemed calm, for a moment, before Kat spoke again over the radio: "Outstanding! Pelican, inbound, with transport, Six."

With the area clear of hostiles, Noble Six hurried towards the landing Pelican and climbed into the drivers seat of the fresh Warthog.

Was all that shit about colorful horses just a dream? My fucking' head on straight? Noble Six thought to herself as Kat occupied the passenger's seat.

Noble Six flexed her grip around the steering wheel, just to make sure it was real. It sure felt real.

"You! What are you doing here?!" Kat suddenly shouted, and Six turned her head to eye the Spartan in confusion. "How did you get out of the castle, and what's going on in Canterlot?!"

Noble Six blinked in confusion and shook her head to clear up whatever was wrong, but all that managed to do was replace Kat with the purple horse she knew. Recoiling back and out of the vehicle, Noble Six met hard ground and soft grass as the Warthog shimmered out of existence, leaving the purple pony sitting in midair before she calmly descended a small flight of invisible stairs to actual ground.

"What the fuck are you talking about, what the fuck just happened?!" Noble Six replied, casting her glance around. She was not on the outskirts of Sword Base, but she also wasn't in the never-ending, rolling plains of where ever the fuck she had been before, with the white horse.

Instead, memories played themselves out around Noble Six as the purple horse slowly approached with a stern look on its face.

"Answer the question!" she shouted; her booming voice causing a ripple effect across Noble Six's memories.

"No, you're not real! It was all just some fucking hallucination!" Noble Six shouted back as her head began to pound.

"What's going on in Canterlot?!" the purple horse continued, not letting the distance grow between the backwards-crawling Spartan and herself.

Noble Six gave a pained shout as an Elite wielding an Energy Sword flashed into existence; letting out a fearsome roar and slashing at the horse in front of it.

The purple horse lost its aggressive nature and stood rigid with fear before realizing, with great relief, that the alien's blade has phased through it.

"You want some of this, mother fucker?! Come and fucking get it!" Emile shouted from behind the pony as he fired his shotgun once more, sending the Elite backwards a bit as its shields flared and burst.

Across the field from the horse lay Noble Six, clutching her head and groaning sharply as she shivered and spasmed.

The purple horse quickly rushed forward, once it realized it was in no danger, and tried to rouse the pained alien.

"Noble Six, get up!" the horse shouted, albeit with Kat's voice.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it! Make it all stop!" Noble Six pleaded to no one in particular as she rolled over onto her back and continued her pained routine.

All seemed lost to the purple horse as she tried to rouse the Spartan but, after a moment, all seemed to stop.

Noble Six had stopped spasming, shouting, and crying, although she held her head, and the apparitions faded away.

Twilight Sparkle stood next to the prone alien as both panted and, suddenly, everything returned to chaos. Except, this time, things seemed a bit more linear.

Twilight Sparkle saw no more aliens with swords slaughtering hundreds. Twilight Sparkle saw no more fiery explosions that ended screams of pain and terror. Twilight Sparkle saw no more death and destruction.

Instead, Twilight Sparkle could hear and smell it.

Her eyes went wide in terrifying realization as, for a moment, the alien and herself shared one mind.

Twilight heard the horrifying screams of humans as they fled for their lives from a giant ship in the sky. Twilight heard the sobbing of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and children as they struggled to pull their loved ones from their fate, but to no avail. Twilight smelled the burning of flesh and the scent of blood as she stared up in horror as the monster's ship in the distance bombarded the area with a single, burning beam.

But what shook Twilight most was, when she turned around, a little human stood with her; undoubtedly a child. Her face was smeared with black soot and red blood, and her beautifully simple dress was torn and ragged, scorched and sprayed black with death and ash.

But the child did not cry.

The child did not run.

The child did not scream.

All the child did was watch, until she looked down at Twilight.

In the next moment, the small child was replaced with the massive armored alien Twilight knew.

And everything fell together.

"Sweet Celestia..." Twilight whispered, in disbelief and shock. "I... I had no idea... War... This... Those monsters... You!"

The armored alien continued to silently stare down at Twilight, until the purple horse took a more aggressive approach.

"Why not?! You know what those monsters did to your kind! Why would you let something bad happen to us?!" Twilight challenged through tears. "You're a soldier, fine! But does that mean you only fight? You can't protect those who need it?!"

"Why should I help you, or your kind? You kept me imprisoned and ignored me when I was having mental fucking breakdowns!" Noble Six spat. "PTSD isn't a fucking game!"

"I wasn't the one who imprisoned you, and excuse me for not understanding alien psychology! I would have gladly helped, had I known!" Twilight shouted back. "But now you're stuck here; this is your new home, whether you like it or not, and no one is coming to get you! You couldn't defend your home before, but you can, now!"

"This isn't my home!" Noble Six screamed back. "As far as I'm concerned, you're all bastards who want to keep me locked up to study like I'm some sort of fucking freak show!"

"We don't have time for this!" Twilight boomed; her voice echoing throughout Noble Six's psyche. "Right now, innocent ponies are being attacked and possibly killed by a species we know nearly nothing about! Ponies are hurt, scared, and angry; just like your kind was. You have to help them. You have to help us."

"Fuck off." Noble Six spat, to which Twilight simply glared.

"You want to do this the hard way? Fine, we'll do this the hard way."

"Uh... Twilight?" Rainbow Dash questioned, unsuredly as she waved her hoof in front of her friends' blank eyes.

As the two consciousnesses returned to their minds, their bodies shook, and Rainbow Dash went to tackle the menacing alien; thankful that the group had been able to pry Pinkie free from the creatures' grasp while it and Twilight were apparently frozen in time.

"Twilight!" the group cheered in unison, rushing to greet their friend as Rainbow Dash continued to punch and kick at the unwavering alien: who began an attempt at tossing the bothersome horse off.

"Hey, girls... I'm fine..." Twilight mumbled as she struggled to stay on all four hooves. "We have to get to Canterlot... And fast..."

"But what about the big ol' scary monster?!" Pinkie pleaded as she cowered behind Rarity.

"It's fine, girls... She's... "Nice"..." Twilight explained before she took in a large breathe of air to stop her shaking head. "I can't stay up much longer... We need to go, now, before I pass out..."

Not waiting for anypony or alien to object, Twilight summoned her remaining magic and focused it in an orb around the group: remembering, fondly, the throne room of Canterlot.

Almost there, Princess... Twilight thought as consciousness faded from her.

Almost, but not quite. Noble Six was taken aback as the colorful kitchen disappeared from around her, instead being replaced with tall buildings bathed in moonlight and flames. Screaming and eerie chittering filled the air, and Noble Six wasted no time in abandoning the horses who had traveled with her after realizing they were distracted by their unconscious friend.

The city was a mess. If a building wasn't up in flames, it lay collapsed in the streets or into other buildings. Carts and bodies lay still on the cobblestone and grass, some resembling the colorful horses which Noble Six had grown to know over the weeks, while others were black and green; looking like demonic-insect horses.

They seemed even more menacing as they flew in packs above the city, until they spotted a fleeing horse and dove down to chase it. Noble Six didn't want to think about what would happen when they caught it, but it was obvious that the normal horse was no match for the winged creatures.

It was nearly impossible to see where the castle once sat due to the smoke filling the air, but Noble Six knew she had to get out of the city once again if she ever wanted to see anything besides death and destruction. She tried her hardest to ignore the screams and cries of the horses, as well as the intense buzzing of the demonic-insect's wings, but her mind couldn't block them out forever, she knew.

She had to get out of the city before she had another break down. Before she did something drastic. Something she might regret...

"Come on, gurls, we cain't stay here!" Applejack shouted over the sound of a collapsing building.

The alien had disappeared as soon as they arrived in Canterlot, and Twilight now lay unconscious across the farm-pony's back.

"Well, where will we go?" Rarity asked before letting out a shriek and jumping forward to dodge a falling piece of debris.

"We cain't stay here! Let's head up tuh the castle, an' find Princess Celestiuh!" Aapplejack shouted over the distant screams.

Rallying the group together, they charged off towards Canterlot Castle with Twilight's unconscious body laying across Applejack's back.

"What happened? If Twilight knew something was wrong, why the heck would she drop us off in the middle of the fight?" Rainbow Dash questioned as she dropped low to kick at a passing Changeling, who let out a shriek and smacked into the side of a building.

"That spell must have taken it out of her! We only got halfway to the castle before the spell ended!" Rarity explained.

"So, how do we find the Princess?"

"She's uh big whaite pony with wings an' a horn, Rainbow Dash! She ain't gonna be hard tuh find!"

"Yeah, but what if she isn't in the castle? What if she's out fighting in the streets?"

"She makes a good point, darling! Let's split up! One group look in the castle, and the other search the streets!"

"Faihn! Ar-Dee an' Pinkie, y'all are with me! Rarity an' Fluttershy, y'all take Twilight and search the castle! It's bound tuh be safer than what's goin' on out here!"

"Son of a bitch!" Noble Six shouted as she happened upon the caved-in wooden gate that led into the castle.

She had meant to be going the complete opposite way and out of the city, but instead she had somehow found her way back to this hell-hole, in the middle of another hell-hole!

Now she didn't want to risk back-tracking her way through the entire city without a weapon, and, since she was outside the castle...

Noble Six let out a little groan as she hurried through the collapsed gate and into the castle on her quest to retrieve her helmet and, hopefully, her rifle. If nothing more, then she'd find the armory and take whatever weapon she could find there.

Upon entering the castle, the Spartan discovered that it hadn't fared any better than the surrounding city.

Walls lay crumbled and open, letting the cool night air flow freely throughout the castle as windows lay in pieces besides burned banners and flags, while bodies of unmoving, armored horses littered the halls.

Noble Six ignored the dying, alien pleas of the horses as she carefully picked her way through them and continued through the hall. She had remembered well the path she had taken along her trip to the infirmary, and it was only a matter of finding one point in the route so that she could back-track her way to her helmet before beginning the search for her rifle.

When she encountered the stairs that undoubtedly led to the dungeon beneath the city, Noble Six was weary of progressing. Blood dripped from each step, still fresh and warm from recent fighting, and destroyed bits of armor littered the sides.

But, alas, the Spartan had no choice but descend the bloodied and war-torn steps if she wanted her helmet back; one of the most important, if not the only, pieces of her suit. Without her HUD's map, she stood little to no chance of escaping this blasted city while a war was being fought inside of it.

As she cautiously descended the stairs to the landing, she came upon a familiar white unicorn laying on his side with a rather large gash in his chest as he weakly panted.

Noble Six studied the room and determined that she and he were the only living beings still present.

But, rather than heading towards the poor horse to help, Noble Six made a bee-line straight for her cell, whose door had been mysteriously blown inwards. The room was barren, save for the straw that had littered the floor since her time there. Her helmet was not here, and she intended to find it sooner, rather than later.

Only a painful, racking cough made her turn her head back to the pitifully shivering unicorn, who stared at her with weak, pleading eyes.

As hard as she tried, Noble Six couldn't leave the horse there, obviously dying. The memory of coming along a recently ambushed UNSC camp while on a mission on an Insurrectionist planet pushed its way into her thoughts. She sat there for hours, studying their dog tags as their corpses lay around her.

She couldn't do anything then, but she could do something, now. Even if he was an alien, he was still a soldier, like her. As an added bonus to his luck, he hadn't tried to kill her or her entire species.

Swallowing her annoyance, Noble Six carefully cradled the dying unicorn and set upon the path to the infirmary.

"Fluttershy, dear, just keep your eyes closed, and don't trust your nose." Rarity whispered, soothingly, as she guided Fluttershy around the bodies of the recently deceased Royal Guards. Luckily, when they happened upon the castle, Rarity had seen them first, and had ample time to warn her friend. Although she undoubtedly knew what surrounded her as the pair walked through the hallways, the fact that she couldn't see it helped Fluttershy, tremendously.

"W-Where do you think she is...?" Fluttershy squeaked as Rarity's hoof guided Fluttershy's.

"I don't rightfully know, dear. We'll just have to keep searching. We're almost to the Hall of the Elements, so if she isn't there, we can still check the throne room and her private quarters."

"W-What about Princess Luna? S-Shouldn't we be looking f-for her, t-too?"

"Hush, darling." Rarity soothed as she held in her stomach and guided Fluttershy around a poor stallion who had their helmet crushed in around their head. "Wherever we'll find one, I'm sure we'll find the other."

"I g-guess you're right..."

"Of course I am, dear. Now, you stay here with Twilight, and do not open your eyes or move from that spot. I'm going to check on the Elements of Harmony, alright?"

"I-I'll be here, R-Rarity..." Fluttershy promised as the white unicorn carefully placed their unconscious friend next to the shivering pegasus.

With Fluttershy and Twilight relatively safe, Rarity continued to carefully pick her way past the defeated Guard and into the Hall of the Elements. It nearly broke her heart to see that nearly all of the wonderful works of art that had been placed here, from the stained glass windows to the beautiful tapestries, lay destroyed among the bodies.

Rarity swallowed her sadness and dutifully trotted through the puddles of blood into the Chamber of the Elements, only to find the ceremonial box empty and the Elements of Harmony gone.

With a sigh, Rarity bowed her head and began her return to Fluttershy, "I guess I should have known the Elements would be taken. Fluttershy, dear, let's go. The Throne room is the next likely place."

The dying unicorn barked something at the shaken guards before erupting into a coughing fit. Whatever he said was apparently good enough for them, because they allowed Noble Six to pass with only a fearful eyes.

In truth, Noble Six was rather shocked to see that a few soldiers had managed to hole up in the infirmary, with what was rest of the castle's staff. Servants in cleaning outfits lay huddled together in the corner, while soldiers peered out the window and barricaded the door as less than a handful of doctors saw to the rest of the horses.

At the introduction of Noble Six, however, the room nearly burst into hysteria. It was only thanks to the soldiers was peace restored before all of the attackers knew they were here.

After carefully setting the unicorn on a table and giving the doctors the space they needed, Noble Six wasted no time in attempting to discover where her helmet had gone.

"Hel-mut." Noble Six questioned, showing the white unicorn a borrowed soldier's helmet, before pointing to it, and then herself. The only response she received was a pained cough and a groan.

"Hel-mut." Noble Six tried, again. The white unicorn shivered at the creature's guttural butchering of their language before Noble Six had had enough; dipping her armored finger into a pool of the white unicorn's blood and dragging it across the wall as she drew a crude image of her beloved helmet.

The white unicorn's only reply was a soft shake of his head and a painful cough before another soldier stepped in. After an exchange of horse sounds and an uneasy look, the soldier reluctantly dipped his own hoof in his commanders blood and began drawing on the wall.

Noble Six gave a glare at the white unicorn after she drew an arrow between her helmet and the newly-drawn white winged-unicorn. The white unicorn gave a defiant glare right back at the Spartan and, with a short nod from him, Noble Six sighed.

Noble Six knew he only wanted her to help his queen but, without any other idea where her helmet would be, she had to admit it seemed a likely place.

Before Noble Six was able to take her leave, however, either a very brave or very foolish unicorn stepped in front of her; clutching his spear tightly and shaking slightly. Noble Six was almost about to swat him aside, until familiar horse noises sounded from behind her.

In response to their commander's orders, the rest of the soldiers in the room gathered behind the giant alien and stood ready for her to unblock the door.

Despite her unease at essentially being part of a team again, albeit a team of alien equines, Noble Six felt somewhat relieved. She felt like her purpose in life was back.

Noble Six felt...

Happy?

"Do you know how long I've dreamed of this moment?" Nightmare Moon taunted, softly, as Celestia lay bleeding to death beneath her.

"You don't have to do this, Luna..." Celestia pleaded.

"Ever since that night after the gala. You remember that, don't you?" Nightmare Moon continued, ignoring Celestia's pained cries. "You had the entire castle all decorated. The guests all arrived half an hour early, the musicians had begun to play, and everypony was having a wonderful time. Even you; sporting that hideous white dress."

Nightmare Moon sighed, remembering the night fondly. "Perhaps I would have enjoyed it, as well, had I been told that you moved the event to the night I was an ambassador to the Gryphons!" Nightmare Moon shouted.

"A task, I might remind you, that you claimed you were too sick for! But not sick enough to not attend the Grand Galloping Gala, I see! And this was just the first of such doings!" Nightmare Moon raged, striking her blade around at the floor and tearing gashes in the masonry. "Year after year, event after event! No matter what it was, Luna was never there because you sent her away to do something you should have been doing yourself, or because you simply forgot to give her the news!"

Nightmare Moon let out a furious scream before she buried her sword into the stone and stood there, panting with rage.

"But the final straw, Celestia," Nightmare Moon whispered to her shivering sister. "Was The Battle of Stalliongrad. It was the only time you decided to take over as General of the Equestrian Army, and the battle ended in disastrous failure. Only three stallions made it home, Celestia. Three."

"I'm so sorry, sister..." Princess Celestia whispered, in reply, as she turned her snout down and quietly sobbed. "I was brash and inexperienced during that war, and I was just so busy all of the time that I never thought somepony else wouldn't tell you what was going on around the castle..."

"Silence!" Nightmare Moon commanded, tearing her sword from the ground. "One thousand years, banished to my moon! One thousand years with nothing but my memories! You ignored me every step of your life; never appreciated me! And then you killed my own ponies!"

"And I was wrong, Luna!" Princess Celestia cried. "We were both young! We were still learning!"

"Do not try and defend yourself, Celestia! You will be punished, by my hoof, for everything you have done to me!"

As Nightmare Moon bared her fangs in a sinister, wicked grin, she drew her sword up into the air and poised it to strike. But, before the deed could be done, a pitiful cry of terror and sadness erupted from the doors to the throne room, and Nightmare Moon was quick to react.

Letting out a devilish laugh, the dark alicorn brought forth both the shivering Fluttershy, the struggling Rarity, and the unconscious Twilight Sparkle in her magical grasp.

"Well, well, well." Nightmare Moon began as she studied the two unlucky ponies. "Three of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. This must be my lucky night... What better way to punish you than by making you watch as I slit your precious little ponies throats open before ending your own miserable life? Oh, but don't worry, Celestia."

"I'll save Twilight for last."

Hard Landing

Boop boop boop boop boop hummmm.

Noble Six flicked her tired eyes open as her body began reacting to her situation.

She briefly saw the end of her shields recharge before the pain caught up to her and she jerked as her whole body seemed to catch fire. Her nerves screamed as she spasmed and cried out in her helmet, and soon the pain subsided into something more manageable for the battle-hardened Spartan.

Struggling to pull herself to her feet, Noble Six leaned up against what appeared to be some sort of tree and racked her mind for answers.

What had happened?

Where was she?

Why was she here?

It all came back to her- slowly, but surely.

She remembered.

She remembered the sounds of sizzling plasma and screaming marines as hundreds of aliens swarmed over their defenses...

Reach.

The Corvette.

Jorge.

Noble Six remembered it all, every little thing she had done to fight off the Covenant... Right up until she activated the rigged slip-space drive and sent half of the ship and herself into oblivion.

The weary Spartan turned her head up, and her gaze was met with a beautiful sun; a godsend for her.

How was she not dead? Or, was she, really?

She'd never heard of a Spartan, or anyone for that matter, surviving an unprotected slip-space rupture.

And yet... Here she was, leaning up against a tree and panting softly in pain.

She couldn't be dead. She still had her armor and, after a quick check, her standard-issue M392. What would she need those for in Heaven, or Hell?

No, she couldn't be dead, because pieces of the Covenant corvette had fallen with her, to wherever she was now. The smoke trails in the sky, and the few pieces of heated metal told her this.

So, the question remained... Where was she?

Author's Note

The idea from this story was taken from chapter 12 of Gravitys Rainboom fantastic story: MIA. I've talked with the author, and he allowed me to write this story, since I feel as though it will be somewhat similar.