John-117 in Equestriaby FlygonialChaptersFree Falling (Revised)The Battle of Equestria Begins The Damn Covenant NavyThe CCS-class battlecruiserA Bigger ThreatThe FloodParasiteThe True Adventure Begins (Sorta Revised)Free Falling (Revised)Orbiting above the mysterious planet, at the edge of the hanger of the half-destroyed Forward Unto Dawn, John-117 stared, aimlessly down at the planet. He had been wondering for a hour what could be down there. "Well, I hope my luck doesn't betray me now," he said with a surprisingly straight voice. "It never has, Chief," Cortana tried to sound as assuring as possible but, John wasn't deceived. He put her back in her data chip. Also about his luck, he knew it had only betrayed him, about twice in his whole life. One when Thel' Lodamee knocked his Assault Rifle from his hands, the other was the slipspace drive teleported only half of the ship, and he was unfortunate enough to be in the end section. And that was over four years ago. But being frozen in cryo statis more or less guaranteed that he didn't have to wait, so that was a plus. "That planet's moon somehow looks surprisingly similar to Earth's, but I know its not. I can name around three thousand reasons why." Cortana said in an attempt to change the subject. The Master Chief said nothing. And the populace of the planet - if it had any, would be more than surprised to see him. Unless Covenant were present, they would be scared, or hostile. "Well, it's now or never," he thought to himself. He grabbed a random MA5C Assault Rifle, and searched around for some reserve magazines. He found one, and slammed it home. Unfortunately, he only found two others. He would have to be conservative of his ammunition. After that, he slowly stuck his firearm to his armor's magnetic back. Finally, he turned around, spread his arms out to make a t-shape, and fell backwards towards the planet's surface. After a few seconds, he initiated Armor Lockdown and braced for impact. He stayed calm, Armor Lockdown was even more effective than a Re-Entry Unit. But it'll take a while for him to go move. He was going to enter the planet the same way he had re-entered at the beginning of The Battle of Earth. The friction in the air gradually increased, his armor's olive-green plates were turning white, but he still didn't feel much of the heat at all. Although his speed was rapidly increasing, he only barely felt the heat by the time he was flying downwards at several hundred miles per hour, maybe that was because he was a Spartan-II, maybe that didn't even matter. "Here goes nothing," he thought. Meanwhile... Pinkie Pie was at the Sugarcube Corner, happily prancing down the stairs. Her fluffy, pink, mane shook wildly, and her cerulean eyes were closed. A huge, wide, grin was spread across her face. Then, she felt her tail twitching, she didn't sense anything good. Her eyes opened, her smile faded, and a second after all this happened, a deafening explosion was made, right on the street. Either Rainbow Dash had come down. The windows within twenty five meters from the impact zone were shattered. Screams were heard from all around. Basically, it seemed as if the apocalypse had come. Definitely earned a spot among some of the most interesting things that happened in Ponyville since Discord came. Pinkie rushed down the rest of the stairs and bucked the door open. Rainbow Dash had been roused from her sleep, but was still quick enough to fly over, even if she was groggy. When Pinkie had only gotten three meters on the street when Twilight teleported to the scene. Some civilians were saying that it must be Discord's fault, some said aliens were invading, some just plain said that it was the apocalypse. After that, Fluttershy flew to the area of incident. It was about a quarter of an hour before most of the group was present. They all started talking at once. "I think this might be something dangerous," Twilight put in. "What?! It is dangerous!" Fluttershy screamed. She then shied away after realizing how loud she just was. "Aw, come on. It can't be that dangerous," Rainbow Dash assured them. "Well, if it is friendly, then I'll throw it a welcome party!" Pinkie Pie said at first uncertainly then enthusiastically. "Well, I'm not touching that crater!" Rarity screeched. Then in the distance Applejack came in sight. "Well you never know what it is until you see it, Sugarcube!" Applejack shouted so she would be heard. "Girls! One at a time!" Twilight cut in. "Well that's correct, I think somepony listening would get confused," Pinkie blurted. Everypony gave her a confused look, then just continued with the conversation. "Applejack's right," Twilight told everypony."We'll never know until we see for ourselves. And so, everypony cautiously approached the crater, except for Pinkie who haphazardly dilly-dallied to the crater. Everyone looked inside the crater that had caused all this mess, their eyes went wide. It looked vaguely humanoid. Which none of them were quite glad to note, considering most of the story books which involved humans in Equestrian Mythology depicted them in a negative light. What they saw was, a humanoid object, clad with dark green metal plates supposedly titanium, where the joints were, were extremely durable but flexible underarmor, a golden visor glinted off the head, and stuck on to it's back, was a gray and black thing, with a scalene-like pyramid with a blue screen with 32 on it.There was another scalene on the back, except below and had a triangular hole. In front of the back scalene, was a cresent surrounded by a right angle, and in front of that, was a black grip like the scalene, except below. In front of that, there seemed to be a torch. "I don't think that is harmless," Twilight piped up about the object on John's back,"Kind of looks like those things the Griffons used to hunt down ponies in the Dark Age. Although the chance of it being a musket is remote." "Uh, is that thing on it's back like from those books, what is it called again?" Fluttershy anxiously said. "...Humans," Twilight said slowly. "Oh, you mean those things that raided villages and ate foals?" Rainbow Dash deadpanned. And so, they ultimately decided to bring the inanimate figure to Fluttershy's garden, against her protests. The noise made when it was plopped down on the grass was plenty audible, and any grass that was below it probably wouldn't survive for long. "Ugh," complained Rainbow Dash."How much does this thing weigh? Did somepony construct this armor, fill it up with cement, and throw it off a mountain as a prank?" Twilight glared," Your idea has been noted. But really, you didn't do half the lifting." Then, its leg twitched. Author's Note Revised now. I looked back, and was disgusted by how bad I was. To think how I wondered why it had so many dislikes! So I had a urge to go fix some things up. I won't completely rewrite this story, but expect some add ons, removals, etc. I won't change too much plot points, even if I want to, because I need to tie up more loose ends, and work on new stories. But don't be surprised if this story takes different routes for a while. Just a note, though, do you want me to unpublish chapters to work on them, to avoid having to read a weird cluster, or should I work on the chapters while they're still up and make a tagged blog post for it? EDIT: I can't do this. It hurts. The Battle of Equestria Begins The Battle of Equestria Begins "It's the Covenant," John said with exasperation. He was angry, they never gave up, the war was over already. He glanced back at Rarity, everypony was looking for some first-aid, obviously for her. And she wasn't much better, blood had stopped pouring down, but poor Rarity's leg had a gruesome third-degree burn. "Nah nah nah nah boo boo," taunted the now wary Brute Minor. But the Grunt, was frozen in fear. He stared in fear at the notorious golden, lined, expressionless visor. He knew this might mean doom. Half a minute later... Rarity's wound was patched up, but she still couldn't keep a straight face. John glared at the Phantom and the newly arrived ones. He intently wrenched his Assault Rifle off his back. It was time to give them a taste of they're own medicine. The recticule came on and he aimed at the Grunt's gas tank. He angrily pulled the trigger. Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat. The Grunt moaned as the first five bullets hit his gas tank, the last one blew the unfortunate Grunt's gas tank off. "Mrrrpphh!" groaned the Grunt as he slowly suffocated. MCPO John-117 dashed outside as quick as his legs would carry him, he then jumped up to the Phantom, which was five meters in the air. He grabbed the side mini door with the Plasma cannon, he flipped upwards and kicked the the same, jeering Brute Minor in the face. The Minor fell back at the brutal force of the kick, he fell down at the other side door and fell out. He crashed through a roof at his own mass.He was most likely dead. John checked his surroundings, 12 live Grunt Minors, 6 live Jackals, and 4 live Brutes, not much of a fight. He lunged forward and delivered a savage blow to a Brute Captain's helmet, the Captain's shields absorbed the impact, but the following punch, pierced his shields. John proceded to impale the Brute with M118 7.62x51mm Full Metal Jacket Armor-Piercing rounds. The Brute swore in his mind and that he was on this Phantom, a few seconds later, life slipped away from him. He did the same to the other unfotunate Brutes. The startled Grunts found themselves splattered with purple blood and then, a few seconds after that, found that they just had their brains smashed in. The Jackals took action quickly, and fired they're fully charged plasma pistols. However, John, being a Spartan II, had reflexes of only 20 milliseconds, but MJOLNIR armor, being a powered exoskeleton suit of armor, they react even quicker when they're wearing it! And so, he evaded the shower of bolts with ease and showered them with 7.62x51mm rounds. "Kreh!" screeched the Jackals as they died. Now, it was time to confront the gunners and the pilot. But, then a different plan formed in his head. He kicked the door open to show a not-so-suprised Brute pilot. The pilot threw a punch at the "Demon" but only to find it getting caught. He struggled as he was tossed aside and knocked out with a violent blow to the head. John stared at the controls, he knew the gunners were alive and the pilot was only unconscious. Although his helmet hid it, a smile crept around his face. He understood what everything meant, it was lucky the Elites had taught him how to fly them when they allied with humanity. Although he had to admit he didn't trust the Elites (Sangheili) at first, he had begun to trust them after Thel 'Vadam skewered the Prophet of Truth. He went and pressed a button whiched trapped the gunners so the couldn't squirm, and began operating the chin mounted Type-52 cannon. Suddenly, the Phantom shook as it got hit with a volley of other Type-52 shots. John didn't panic, he was used to sitting inside Pelican dropships taking fire. However the other Phantoms had pilots that were NOT used to that. So a few simple direct hits, and that Phantom which got hit, would retreat. So it wasn't much. Meanwhile, in the Sugarcube Corner. Rarity was still in pain but the burning had become dull, in the meantime, Twilight was flipping through a huge stack of books that would possibly contain imformation on the "Covenant Empire" that he mentioned earlier. Pinkie was reloading her cannon with REAL cannonballs. Probably in case the Covenant came back. Rainbow Dash was guarding the entrance, but every other pony was frozen in fear. They wondered... Back in the Phantom... John-117 was searching for a button that would overload the engine, and ultimately, make the Phantom go boom. Once he found it, he flew the dropship 60 meters higher, flew 10 more meters away from the Sugarcube Corner. "It's show time," John whispered to himself as he pressed the vital button. He dashed to the side door as a droning sound came on and quickly rised in pitch, just as the engines went critical, he had jumped. From above, the Phantom exploded and sent random pieces flying everywhere. The resulting explosion lit up the night sky. After all that John fell on the street with an frightening loud THUMP! He was a bit rattled, but nevertheless, fine. He watched for a moment as the bits of the Phantom came flying down, then headed back torwards the Sugarcube Corner. This was just the beginning. "That was so awesome!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "Umm, good job." whispered Fluttershy. "Nice accuracy," remarked Twilight. Then everypony started cheering. Except for Princess Celestia. She just said,"Well you're probably not a threat, I would want you on our side." He knew the Covenant wanted him, not them, but if he did go, then they would for simple fun, mercilessly cause genocide on this planet. And he wasn't going to let them. Meanwhile, with the Covenant Separatists... "Thel, we finally repaired the slipspace drive!" shouted the pilot. "Then go in to slipspace," Thel ordered. "Okay then." There three more Separatist Phantoms were flying near his, then, all four of them simultaneously jumped into slipspace. The Damn Covenant NavyHe knew that the previous attacks were not it; he doubted the Royal Guard would stand a chance against the Covenant, So it looked like he was going to be the one man army. I'm glad to say, he was wrong. Four fully loaded Separatist Phantoms burst out of slipspace, their shiny, green bodies stood out in the night sky. "Arrrgh!" shouted Rarity."Not more aliens!" John just smirked and corrected her,"Yes, more GOOD aliens." What he knew was, that 104 Elites were on their way. Everypony looked at him with confusion. "Oh, it's simple," he told them,"The GOOD aliens have green Phantoms. The others are purple or red." "OH that's not confusing," Rainbow Dash sarcastically said. John watched as the green Phantoms slowly came to a stop and landed. Elites came storming out the side doors. Everypony was silent. Because what they saw was one hundred and four armored, 7 feet two inches to 8 feet six inches tall aliens. They had blue/red/grey/white armor. They had yellow eyes with black pupils, four mandibles were surrounding each Elite's mouths, two on each side. They had grey skin and feet with two toes. Their helmets had fins at the rear on each side, and the back of the helmets looked like it had spikes, and that was more than enough to silence a party of ponies. Thel 'Vadam stepped out of one of the Phantoms and headed towards the Chief, he said, "Hey Spartan, long time no see." "Yeah, same for you," John replied. His voice contained some enthusiasm. The Covenant Separatists were made up of, all of the Elites, most of the Hunters,(Mgalekgolo) some of the Grunts,(Unngoy) and some of the Jackals (Kig-yar). However, this time, only the Elites had come. But according to Pinkie Pie, Elites in game were more dangerous than Brutes. "Well let's welcome the Elites!" shouted John. "Hur-hooray?" everypony muttered. "HOORAY!" squealed Pinkie."It's the Elites!" Everypony gave her a confused look. "Don't worry," John assured them."They just want to help!" Then, suddenly, 89 purple Phantoms and 270 Seraph-class starfighters jumped from slipspace. "Oh crap," muttered Thel. The Phantoms and the Seraphs sped by leaving blue trails and began turning back. Celestia, who probably had spoken so little she was almost forgotten bolted upwards and tried to fend off the Covenant with magic. Her horn got covered with a bubbly aura and a beam shot from it, the beam burnt down the shields of a Seraph. But the Seraph retaliated by firing plasma bolts at her, luckily, they all missed. Meanwhile, back on the ground, the Elites got angry and one dragged a Banshee from the troop bay of a Phantom, he jumped into it and it's sleek, aerodyamic, purple body, which took off and shot through the night sky leaving a mystical, blue trail. Celestia had already brought down two Seraphs, she majestically glided through the air as she shot down another one. She flipped through the aircraft and boarded a Phantom, only to find some armored, oversized apes glaring at her. Chyou! She winced in pain at being shot by a plasma bolt, she knew she wouldn't be able to take much more, so she dived out and made her way back. "Ha ha!" jeered a Brute."Coward!" But just then, the Phantom was hit by three fuel rod blasts, rattling the dropship violently. The pilot reacted quickly, tuning the Phantom around and flying away. "Look who's talking," murmured a very agitated Elite pilot. The Banshee fired one last fuel rod blast which completely blew the Phantom apart. The Separatist Banshee then returned to the Sugarcube Corner evading through crowds of other fighters and Phantoms. "Don't move," John ordered as he was tending to Celestia's plasma wound at her side. He pulled out a biofoam canister that the Elites said was given by the humans of Earth as a goodbye present. John used a fair amount of biofoam patching her wound. "OW!" she screamed as the foam made contact with the wound. "It's supposed to be really painful," John told her."However, the effects are only temporary, you'll have to go to the hospital." She nodded grudingly as two pegasi carried her away. John looked at everypony else, they were beginning to be more comfortable around the Elites. Suddenly, in all the silence, Rainbow Dash bolted out the door and took flight. In the air... Rainbow had never felt so much determination, one second, she was trying out for the Wonderbolts, and the other she was defending her planet from genocidal aliens. She felt the air friction building up, slowly, the stream became 12 degrees, indicating that she was flying at hypersonic speeds. "Well here goes nothing," she murmured. She felt a rainbow shock wave being released from her body and a rainbow trail flowing from her tail. She was in Sonic Rainboom. She felt the drag of the air as she shot through the sky at mach 10, (or it's very likely she is capable of mach 10) she was feeling alive again. A grin crept across her face. She bolted towards the Phantoms, only glimpsing back to check on the Sonic Rainboom, it looked like it was going to spread to Canterlot. After that, she tensed herself and tore straight through three Phantoms, utterly destroying them; she did the same for 12 unfortunate Seraphs. A few other Seraphs had stopped admiring the Sonic Rainboom long enough to begin to shoot at Rainbow, but she evaded all 64 bolts. She glared at the Seraphs that had tried to shoot her down,"No one can kill Rainbow Dash!" She dove towards them and then, she triggered a huge rainbow coloured mushroom-cloud rose up in the air, the explosion destroyed 25 Phantoms and 60 Seraphs completely. Meanwhile, just before the Sonic Rainboom... John-117 stared at the stunt with awe, something like that beats seeing a CCS-battlecruiser explode any day. He glanced back at the Main six. Their cartoonish faces were filled with awe, their mouths hung wide open, they would've been statues if it wasn't for their gentle breathing. He admired her control, how swiftly she tore through her foes, relentlessly destroying everything hostile, not giving them a chance for a clear shot. Then, he saw her triggering the rainbow explosion. He stopped breathing. Now THAT would never be expected from a pony, mabye Rainbow Dash is a exception to that though. A few seconds later, he shook his head and realized he wasn't breathing, embarassed, he started again,"Well at least they didn't see it." he thought. In the skies... Rainbow stopped 750 meters from the explosion, it was still a bit close, but she was to busy admiring her handiwork to notice that much. Her admiring was cut short by a few approaching plasma bolts; she dove away from them in the nick of time. Meanwhile, the Pegasus Royal Guards were on their way to the scene, they pulled out some newly crafted bows and arrows. They aimed. The arrows bounced off harmlessly leaving only tiny dents. "Grrr..." grumbled the annoyed Guards. Peyou! "Ullaaa!" shouted a Pegasus as he got hit in the face by a Type-52 shot, the shot exploded created a explosion with a blast radius of one meter, the explosion tore the pegasus' head off and tore his legs off. Everypony in the Sugarcube Corner stared in awe at the amount of violence that had just occured in the sky, their faces filled with disgust as pints of blood sprayed everywhere. "Nooo!" shouted another Royal Guard but only got shot by a Type-52 shot too, with the similar, messy results. KA-BANG!!! Everypony's head turned, they saw a cannonball flying through the air and dent a Phantom. At the same time, Rainbow Dash had tore through 2 more Phantoms, but by then, she was quite taken over by fatigue, so she flew back to the Sugarcube Corner. They all watched as the Guards bravely, fought, but they only were able to shoot down one Phantom by the time their army of 95 was oliberated. "Wow," John muttered sympathetically."You're kind's army has a even harder time than ours dealing with those bastards." Then, the Elites took action. John jumped into a Banshee. "Now this is how the pros do it." one of the Elites said. The ponies watched in awe as Banshees and Seraphs dogfighted, Phantoms fought others. Apparently, Pinkie was correct about the Elites, they absolutely destroyed the fleet, putting every single hostile to shame. By the time they landed, they had only lost one Phantom, although the others were heavily damaged, most of the Banshees were emitting sparks, except for John's, which was only shot by a few bolts at the most. After that, Pinkie said she had enough and dismissed the party, so probably tonight, they would probably get a few hours of sleep. At three in the morning, a droning sound woke John up, he woke the rest of the main six up and called them to the window. Behind his armor, his heart rate was rising as he saw a hovering CCS-battlecruiser charging up it's energy projecter. John watched helplessly as he saw the beam impact on the center of Canterlot. "Those sons of cucumbers," murmured Rainbow Dash. The CCS-class battlecruiserJohn was sure that the Enery Projecter's beam must've murdered a few thousand ponies. And he was going to make sure they got it back. "Hey," he piped,"I have a plan to destroy those bastards." Everypony anxiously listened to his plan: "Phase one," he explained."We have to board it with a Phantom, they should fit in 27 ponies at most, but we really just need us and a pilot." "How about Scootaloo?" suggested Rainbow Dash. "Well probably yes, well getting back to the subject, we have to scout around; you may have a problem with infantry, if you feel insecure, then feel free to ask me to kill them all." Everypony nodded. "Phase three, destroy all vehicles, you don't want those idiots to send some more vehicles, as far as I know, CCS-class battlecruisers can carry hundreds of vehicles." Everypony's eyes showed a bit of insecurity, if this was what the human, or John-117 had to do all the time, then they would never think of the human armies as cowardly. "Phase four, go to the bridge and kill the captain. Then steer it to crash into a deserted area and escape before it does. Is it simple enough?" "Uh huh," they all said in unison. "Then let's go," John ordered. Everypony but Pinkie and Dash were devoid of their confidence, this may be the day of their death, but on a brighter note, it might not. But that wasn't enough to assure them. "Come on," he tried to sound assuring. "Don't worry," Cortana said in the most soothing voice she could imagine. "W-who's that?" Twilight wore a fairly startled expression. "Cortana," he informed them."She's an A.I." "What is a A.I?" asked Twilight, getting a sudden interest in all this human stuff. "Uh..." John knew the easiest way was to just say Artificial Intelligence, he came up with something else. "It's kind of like a person with no physical form, though they really are just programs, some of them have limited memory, some have expendable memory, and this one, is one of the expendable ones. He took out Cortana's data chip and showed her. Her cyan body, and a few dark blue stripes stood out. Her tall, slender body stood on the chip, even though she was actually only three inches tall. Then John realized that he was getting carried away, he almost blushed, he was somehow, getting comfortable with these ponies who he had only knew for 18 hours. "Well let's go to the Sugarcube Corner..." he muttered. (The Elites were beginning to use it like a base) "Wow," sighed Twilight, almost completely ignoring the Chief."Like someone without a physical form." They trotted outside and dashed down the street, they were going to deal with this threat soon enough. The streets of Ponyville were rather barren at the moment, it only took a few hours for the word to spresd that aliens were invading, and some were on their side. That wasn't suprising. They dashed through the cafe' and after a few minutes of dashing, they reached the corner. "Well, at least yer wound is better," Applejack said, breaking the silence. Fluttershy checked at Rarity's left-front leg, it was better, thanks to unicorn magic. Everyone shrugged and just walked into a Separatist Phantom. John opened the pilot door only to find a filly, with her violet eyes fixed at the controls, in her left hoove was a manual that was entitled: How to fly a Type-52 Troop Carrier. Her Fuchsia mane had three spikes at the front, and was shaped like Rainbow Dash's mane, her tiny, light orange wings were tucked in, they looked too small to fly anyways. Then she suddenly perked up and turned around, face to face with John-117. "Hey," shouted Rainbow Dash."It's Scootaloo!" Scootaloo almost blushed. "Well," she said to steer the conversation's subject."I just learned how to fly this thing twenty-five seconds, so this may be a rough ride!" "Don't worry, trust me, I've had worse," John assured her. Scootaloo shrugged and pressed a yellow button, the fully opened side doors began closing. However, the middle section, which had a smaller door, remained open, the Plasma Cannons were still mounted on the side. Rarity made a face at bad memories, plasma hurt like something was eating through you're flesh times ten. "Oh come on," Rainbow assured her."Now you get to make those ugly apes feel what you felt." A grin crept across Rarity's white face, she trotted to the cannon and spent a few seconds trying to work it, eventually, the cannon was firing bolts like there was no tomorrow. Scootaloo pushed a lever upwards. The Phantom gained altitude. She pushed another lever forwards completely. The Phantom bolted forwards at 1,100 kph. "Woah!" everypony shouted in unison. "Okay, Scoot," John ordered."We need you to fly us there," he said, pointing at the CCS-class battlecruiser."You know how to fire and use the Type-52 cannon, right?" Scootaloo nodded. She pushed a stick left. The Phantom turned left, towards the battlecruiser, still speeding at 1,100 kph. The battlecruiser became clearer quickly. "Okay, kid," John ordered."You should slow down." Scootaloo pushed the speed stick back till it was only half a centimeter away from default, and so, the Phantom rapidly deaccelerated to 30 kph. The cruiser's hanger was in plain sight, now they're only problem was to board it. If they were seen, then they were screwed, they would activate the force field, it would be troublesome to get in the damn shuttle bay. They slipped by the side and went in before the field could be activated, Rarity started shooting the plasma cannon. Scootaloo began shooting the infantry with the Type-52 cannon, they were oliberating them. But that ended when some Unggoy Heavies walked out of the corridors and began firing their Fuel Rod Guns. 3 shots hit the luckily closed doors. And so, in a panic, Scootaloo opened the doors and ordered everypony out, once everyone was out, she began steering the Phantom away. John looked up, the Heavies took no notice and fired some more shots, one hit the tail. Everypony's faces filled up with horror as a high-pitched droning noise came up and the Phantom exploded into a bright blue/purple explosion. John let everypony say,"No," and took on the Heavies, the main six took no notice. They just continued staring off into space, where the explosion had happened, this couldn't be happening, Scootaloo, claimed by this invasion? When everypony finally looked away and headed towards the exit, Rainbow Dash gazed down, to find a hand on her flank. "You won't get any vengeance just staying here," John told her."I always thought they were assholes as well." Rainbow Dash looked up, and proceeded to the exit. John trailed behind, they needed all the help the could have. He picked up one of the Fuel Rod Guns and grabbed some more ammo, he looked at Cortana penetrating a 128,000 bit door. After two minutes, she penetrated the key. The door opened in a awkward fashion. It opened to reveal a brig. In other words, a prison. Suddenly, John punched thin air, to reveal a moderately suprised Brute Minor, with his energy shields penetrated. Before the Brute could respond, John kicked him in the groin. Then his fist met his face. The Brute yelped and fell to the floor, dead. Then, John punched again, to reveal a Brute Major with a Brute Shot, the weapon's bayonet was parried with John's Assault Rifle. John kicked the Major in the stomach and stomped on his head, squishing it, making blood splatter everywhere. "EWW!" shouted everypony.(That does not include John) John ignored the screams of disgust and walked towards the control panel. He entered a code that he found in one of the Brute's clip. The doors open, one revealed Rainbowshine. Her cerise eyes were filled with dismay, her light cerise mane was scruffy, her pale indigo body was beat. She didn't look like the mare she used to be. She didn't speak, so they decided to just tell her to follow them. "Are you sure?" she murmured fearfully, those oversized apes had just threw her in prison. "Well come on," Rainbow Dash assured her. They dashed to the other exit, after a forty minutes of walking through corridors, they finally found something interesting, the gravity lift room. Inside, there were thirty troops, 15 Grunts, 10 Jackals and 5 Brutes. Without warning Rainbow Dash bolted forward at 450 mph and knocked the shields of a Captain, the shields cracked at another horse-kickback. His life was ended after she Rainblow Dried him outside by the gravity lift.(Don't ask me how she did it, she just did alright?!) After that, the troops were wary, one Brute found his shields knocked out after a beam from Twilight's horn, Applejack kickbacked a few Grunts to death, Pinkie Pie did the same. John-117 wrenched his Fuel Rod Gun off, and firing three shots, killed three Brutes. After a load of blue blood covered the ground, Fluttershy left the room, everypony else went with her, except for Rainbow Dash. She looked at the only other thing alive in the room, which was John, she signalled for him to leave. John left without question. Rainbow concentrated in tensing her body, after taking off, doing a quick backflip, she charged at the controls. The entire room absolutely exploded, the door opened after the smoke (Or rainbowsmoke?) cleared, she walked out completely unharmed, now it was time to continue. She didn't care she was pretty damn drained. "Okay," John said."Everything's going to plan. Now, the cruiser is completely crippled, we will have to proceed quickly." So, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity dashed down the corridor, they had another target, the Cargo Bay. Inside the Bay, they found some weapons, a few Wraiths and a Ghost.(In the Halo Universe, these are vehicles.) After a few explosions, six ponies and a Demon could be seen running from the Cargo Bay entrance. "Hmmph," snickered the Chieftain. He watched as the things ran towards the direction of the bridge, he turned off the security camera after that. "Chieftain Kepentus!" shouted a Brute Minor from behind. "Yes?" asked the now enthusiastic Chieftain. He was sure the Demon's streak would end here. "The Gravity Lift room has been oliberated, now the vessel is crippled!" the Minor reported. "I already know that, fool!" shouted Kepentus. His raised voice startled the Minor. Kepentus was sure they just stocked up a lot of plasma grenades, he didn't mind that they were infiltrating, he would fend them off, after all, he only used half of his vehicles on that previous invasion. "Fear not," Kepentus said in his most soothing voice, which wasn't particularly soothing. Rainbow Dash was outraged, they were going to avenge Scootaloo, even if that was the last thing they ever did. "ROWR!" shouted a Major jumping out of nowwhere, Rainbow Dash tackled him and Twilight shot him dead with her horn. "Were avenging Scootaloo, right?" shouted Pinkie."You might need to mod." Everypony gave her a confused look. "You don't play Halo?" she asked. Everypony shrugged. They walked ahead, to find more Brutes. John punched one, Pinkie stole one of their Spikers and began firing, Twilight began shooting them with her magic beams, Fluttershy found herself holding a Brute Shot. Rarity was impaling them with magic; Applejack found her rear hooves in one of the Brutes face often. And Rainbow Dash tackled them, finishing them off or knocking their shields out. It was like a massacre. Then, Applejack got shot in her rear left hoove with a spike, but instead of wailing, she pulled it out, and stabbed a Brute in his face, showing agitation. After eight more seconds, the contacts were eliminated, everypony brushed off their sweat. "You did well," John complimented them. They strided through a unlocked door and found themselves in a room with a purple, raised platform, everywhere else was black pillars, out the windows, was a grand view of Equestria. Shoving aside her thoughts of the room, she had to admit that in some part of her brain, she thought Scootaloo might be alive, even though it was unlikely. Then, a intimidating voice boomed,"Greetings, Demon, I have awaited you for too long." Edited by The Enemy Cube. A Bigger ThreatJohn's head turned. "I am Chieftain Kepentus," he announced arrogantly to the world."And, this, will be your final battle." John simply swapped his Assualt Rifle for a Fuel Rod Gun as a response. "Ah," Kepentus said."Fuel rods, it'll take 3 to kill me." "In Heroic mode," Pinkie corrected. His head turned over to Pinkie. "Silence! This is a private matter, so if you mind, then you would stay out of this!" he shouted at her. WHOMP! By the time his head turned back, he found that a fuel rod had already been fired and was 2 feet from hitting him. He couldn't duck or dodge. He couldn't block with his Gravity Hammer yet. He couldn't even scream. The explosive hit him square in the forehead, unleashing a green explosion that threw off sparks. If it weren't for his shields, then he wouldn't have a face right now. He staggered up, with his Gravity Hammer in hand, he used the shockwave to make another fuel rod explode before it hit him, and after that, he lunged at John. John was not impressed. He kicked the Chieftain in the groin, breaking his shields and making him fall. He was unable to pummel the Demon then, but Kepentus was determined to end the Demon's crappy life anyways, with a Gravity Hammer. He lunged again. It was the biggest mistake of the Chieftain's life, he got a Spartan II rolling through his legs and shooting him in the back of the head with the Fuel Rod Gun. "Now," John thought to himself."He dosen't have a face." Even though Kepentus was wearing very heavy armor, the awesomeness of fuel rods was enough to blow his head off, sending purple blood flying everywhere. "Awesome!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "More like messy," Rainbowshine muttered, finally daring to speak."Very messy." He looked at the bridge controls, what they've been fighting for. He shrugged and steered the cruiser to crash. Meanwhile, 2 hours earlier, just before the Phantom's engines went critical... Scootaloo heard the droning sound, and that meant something was going to go boom, and that was the Phantom. But then, she felt some magical protective veil surrounding her, then the Phantom went boom. She thought she would be dead anyways, but then she opened her eyes, finding she was still alive and unscathed. "Woah," she thought."This is awesome!" But then, the veil burst, sending her plummeting down to her death. "Crap!" she shouted,"I can't fly!" Then she thought,"Well it's worth a try..." She spread her wings. She fell noticably slower, but still fatal speed. She opened it wider, now she was falling at your- going-to-wake-up-with-everything-sore speed. She tried flapping the hardest she could, then she noticed something, she was gaining altitude! "Woah," she whispered."So this is what it feels like to fly." She dove down, swooped around, and she was able to hit roughly 240 mph at the highest speeds. She had never felt so free, the brisk wind, the fluffy, warm, clouds. And the shine of the sun on her light orange wings. This is what Rainbow Dash was able to do everyday. After a while, she flew down, to find a blue unicorn, limp on the ground. "Lyra?" Scootaloo asked. Her eyes opened, and she muttered."Scootaloo?" "I was covered in a protective veil suddenly surrounded me," Scootaloo said,"Was that you?" "Yes." Then Lyra further explained,"I saw a green speck throwing sparks heading towards the Phantom high above. I decided to use my energy on the only thing I could sense inside, you. But at such a distance, my energy was being incinerated, and so, I passed out a few seconds after it exploded." But how did you make it to the ground?" "It's a long story," Scootaloo said,"To put it simply, I learnt how to fly." Lyra looked at her, shocked and disbelieving. "But," she stammered."How?" "I just did," Scootaloo shrugged. Back on the cruiser, at the time the ship had been positioned to crash. Listen for enchancement) Applejack looked at her wound that she had previously ignored, now it stung, but she ignored it. Fluttershy threw her Brute Shot away, Pinkie DIDN'T throw her Spiker away in case she needed ranged coverage. John looked at Kepentus, who had been alive a minute ago. His headless body's black and red armor plates was splattered with blood, some of the inner plates seemed to have been nailed together have been torn and bent. Some of his armor was already incinerated. he looked at Kepentus's head. the black and white helmet was knocked off, leaving a grey skinned ape-like head. His feral teeth were shown with his open mouth. Pinkie walked up to his head and, for fun, shot three spikes down his throat. She began laughing hysterically a few seconds later. "Come on!" John shouted suddenly."We gotta get out of her in a minute, no later!" Everypony's head instantly turned to the exit, they madly galloped/flew out. Fluttershy got into the act with no hesitation, so did Twilgiht, who didn't bother to pick up Kepentus's helmet to analyze. In forty seconds, thye reached the edge of one of the shuttle bays, this one was the one they entered in, and so, it didn't have any vehicles, they didn't have the time to go to the other bay. "Okay," Rainbow piped."I'll carry you all.' Nopony protested, they knew that was they're only chance of survival. So, they grabbed Rainbow's legs/tail/another pony's leg. Rainbow felt them dropping rapidly, at 90 mph, John said he was going to jump down himself, because he's too heavy, Fluttershy volunteered to fly down herself, but even with the reduced weight of roughly 1,060 pounds, it was still to heavy for Rainbow, despite her best efforts. She beat her wings at 20 times per second, they still were falling at deadly speed. "This is it," she thought. She beat her wings quicker than she ever did and braced for inevitable doom, she blamed herself for this, and it technically was her fault. She slapped herself mentally for not doing a new plan of what she could have done. Her new plan that has been formulated to late: Fly to the other shuttle bay as quick as you could, board a Phantom and get everyone else to go on. She knew that John would survive, if he could fall a fall from space, then why not from 5 kilometers? "Well never mind that," she thought. With utter determination, she beat her wings quicker than anypony had ever done. Then, she noticed something. She wasn't falling at fatal speed, they were falling at five mph. Apparently 100 flaps per second worked! But then she felt a new feeling, fatigue, something that she was afraid she wouldn't be able to endure. In the distance, the CCS-class battlecruiser had crashed and was violently exploding. That distracted her enough to lose her focus. "Crap!" they all shouted as they plummeted down. "I don't want to die!" Rarity shouted. They all fell helplessly down from the sky, with a Rainbow Dash struggling to regain control. Then, luck was merciful again. They began slowing down to the point of being shaken by the landing, but unscathed. Once they landed, Rainbow wiped a huge amount of sweat off her mane and passed out. In the distance, John landed in partial lockdown, and got right back up. "Hey," shouted a voice in the distance, it belonged to Scootaloo. Everypony's head turned, in shock, they knew NOPONY could have survived that explosion. "Okay," Scootaloo started."I'll explain." 5 minutes later... "You learnt how to fly?" asked Applejack. "Wow," muttered Rarity."In a time you needed it? You're a very lucky filly." They spent the rest of the morning celebrating, John even got tempted to take his helmet off. By the end, they all headed back to Ponyville, to find word had spread that the center of Canterlot had been incinerated. T- hat the threat had been destroyed had been spread too. "No wait," asked Lyra,"Are you a HUMAN?" 6:10 pm Equestria Canterlot Luna looked at the remains of the center of Canterlot. Her sister had been wounded, over ninety Royal Guards had been sent to defend Ponyville, they failed miserably, it was some weird bipedal aliens that fended off more bipedal aliens. And then, a huge ship 1,782 meters long shows up, and oliberates a decent chunk of Canterlot. Her blue/green eyes fixed on the smoke, her dark blue body was fairly difficult to see in the night, her wings, tucked at her sides. Her horn, gave no illumination. She swore under her breath and took off into the night sky, towards Ponyville. 6:10 pm Earth Still glassed Voi Jun-A266 looked at the remains of Voi, being terraformed. He sighed, the terraforming would take about a century. Next to him, were two Spartan IVs. The one to his right carried a Assualt Rifle; the one to his left carried a BR55HB SR Battle Rifle. He usually carried a Sniper Rifle, and now was no exception. His olive green MJOLNIR Mark V Assualt Armor stood out completely. His armor looked completely different to the other Spartans, they had smaller visors. He shrugged and walked into a Pelican dropship. He just wanted to go for a spin. The two other Spartans followed. When the Pelican exited the atmosphere, they spotted a human vessel in the distance. It was a huge 2.5 km long Phoenix-class colony ship. It looked like one of those ships in the Campaign of Harvest that happened before he was born. He blinked, as if to refresh his vision. "No," he thought."It can't be. That ship was declared lost at all hands! But it was. It was the UNSC Spirit of Fire. Jun was still thinking it might have been a hallucination by the time he docked the Pelican down in the hanger. Then, he saw Shortsword bombers, Grizzilies, Wolverines, Sparrowhawks and other outdated vehicles. Then, Captain James Cutter walked down from a entrance, he looked at Jun and the Spartan IVs. "Who are these Spartans in deformed armor?" he thought. "My name's Jun," Jun chatted."The humans have thought that you and the 11,000 personel on board were dead. They declared the Spirit of Fire lost at all hands. I am a Spartan III. They are Spartan IVs. Now we have done a fleet-wide upgrade to the Pelicans. Shortswords and Hawks are now outdated. The Human-Covenant war is finished, we have won. The Elites, some of the Grunts and Jackals have united to form the Covenant Separatists. Oh, and most of the Hunters. The Separatists have sided with us and four or five years ago, then, the Elites went back to Sangheilios." James tried to digest what Jun was blabbing about, but only caught half of it. "Well, we'll have to go get a new Slipspace Drive soon," James said, changing the subject. "Seriously?!" Jun asked."You lost the Slipspace Drive?!" "It's a long story," James said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible. Jun, not noticing Jame's terrible acting said,"Well, we have all the time in the world, so tell me it." "Oh here it goes again," James thought. Equestria Ponyville 6:25 pm Ponyville came into sight for Luna. Squinting, she could make out the straw-thatched roofs and the pink frames. It made Canterlot look like a very unhappy place. But not today, the windows were boarded shut, the stalls were closed, hell, everything was closed. In case of a bigger threat. Squinting even more, she could make out two figures in the distance. Six were ponies, but one was a bipedal creature, supposedly a human. She flew closer, quick as she could, making no care to not startle any wildlife. She streaked through the night sky under the cover of dark blue fur. She charged at the ground, making a large dust cloud. When it cleared, she found six ponies. One purple, one orange, one butterscotch, one cyan, one pink, and one white. It was them. "Hello," she greeted. Then her eyes met a bipedal creatue, clad in green armor, that had a invisible shield that sort of felt like magic. Sort of. After ten minutes of explaining... "Okay," Luna muttered."But why I came here was because I wanted to tell you that a bigger threat might be on it's way, a threat twenty-seven times worse than the last. In fact, it might be looming above us right now." "Really?" everypony said. "Really," Luna answered. Suddenly, a pink/purple glowing thing lit up, a huge beam shot and landed dangerously close to Cloudsdale. Another one began charging up before anypony could say anything else. It impacted in the Everfree. The entire ship lit up. It was a damn Covenant Supercarrier. Then John realized something, even though it had nothing to do with the hovering threat ahead of them, he thought,"Why am I talking so much?!" Edited by The Enemy Cube The FloodThe Supercarrier cut through the sky like it was a blade cutting through butter. The enormous, purple/blue hull gave a slight glow in the night sky. The ship was like a stick, with a lump in the middle, and a downwards hook at the front. The 27 km long killing machine's Repulsor Engines gave off plenty of light. The sheer size of the ship made the huge CCS-class battlecruiser look like a walk in the park. Menacing was not the word for the Supercarrier, taking it on would be considered suicidal. Considering that one salvo of Pulse Laser iwas capable of melting through 45 cm of Titanium-A, a Royal Guard would have no chance of surviving a hit. John glared at the Supercarrier. After another glance, he, without saying a word, tilted his head down, and slowly walked to the entrance of a Phantom. He stepped in, kicked the cockpit door open, sat down at the seat. After a few seconds of tinkering with the incredibly complicated buttons, the Phantom started up. In the Sugarcube Corner, the Elites saw what was happening, they busted the door open, ignited/readied their weapons. Slowing down to a stroll, they stepped up onto the troop bay, shouting war cries. It "There goes a quarter of the elites," John thought. Suddenly, the atmosphere turned eerie, to say it was unnerving was an understatement. Then, brownish peach drop pods came down, and out from those, came the most awkward looking creatures. "What?!" thought John."They were terminated several years ago!" He instinctively wrenched his Assault Rifle from his back, firing off three bursts, he brought down a nearby combat form. Several infection forms slapped onto Snowflake's body, infecting him immediately. John, having no choice, smacked him down with the butt of his rifle, and stomped on his head. About a few dozen combat forms and pure forms were on their way to Rainbow Dash. She dropped a fusion coil on them, the blast shredding many of them to pieces and biting into those on the outer reach of the blast. But hundreds of infection forms came and revived the dead flood with intact bodies.. "Seriously?!" shouted Rainbow Dash. John grabbed a shotgun from a dead combat form. It would prove useful, to say the least. Several forms charged him. As far as he was concerned, they were heading towards their doom. He blew the first one, a pure form, into pieces with a simple pull of the trigger. Cocking the weapon again, he blew three combat forms to his back to oblivion. Cocking it again, he obliterated a swarm of infection forms with a single shot. And so, reloading at the same time, pwned several more forms with melees. Soon, the flood just realized they were going to be wiped out if they kept on charging John. So they tried Twilight, but she was paired with Applejack, back to back. Applejack killing the combat and pure forms while Twilight rapidly fired bolt of magic to keep the infection forms at a distance. They made a perfect team. They tried Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. But she was up in the clouds, with Rainbow Dash, spraying the battlefield with lightning and even lighting flood occupied areas on fire. As for Rarity and Pinkie Pie, Rarity was trying to figure out how to operate a spiker, and Pinkie was blasting everything with her party cannon, which was apparently loaded with real ammunition this time. So in other words, they were near untouchable. At the moment. Twilight would tire out from the constant firing someday and Applejack may as well as not buck as fast as the pure forms could melee someday. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would be blown out of the sky someday, and Rarity and Pinkie Pie? They just need to make s few mistakes then game over. After a while, Rainbow Dash got cocky and did a nose dive at the flood. She stole a shotgun from one. However, how was she supposed to fire this so-called gun without fingers? With great difficulty. But at least she got the hang of it, and soon she was blowing head off like no one's business. But of course she made a mistake, and got her wing impaled with three carbine shots. This cause her a serious amount of pain and she crashed. Now, she had just lost her best advantage of battle, speed and agility. So now, she had to think tactical. Like taking cover behind things. Meanwhile, John was blowing heads off with his shotgun. However, he wasn't paying attention to the ammo indicator. So it wasn't long until he was out. This took him by surprise. And so, I pure form forced him to the ground. The unbelievably ugly creature slapped his face, which brought his shields down. The beast was about to deliver a fatal blow when its head suddenly got incinerated by a nearby purple bolt. He did a quick nod to Twilight. Then, he noticed something at the back of his head. It was an elite minor. He grabbed Cortana's chip from his head. And with a cocky grin, slowly activated his energy dagger and began to make it head for the chip. "No!" John thought. He kicked the elite to the ground. And then, forced his own dagger through his neck. Well now at least Cortana was safe. An elite traitor? But now, they had to deal with the Flood. He grabbed the elite's energy sword. The flood had soft flesh, so the weapon would last very long. He lunged for a few combat forms. In just one slice, he slashed six of them. They wouldn't be able to hold them off for long. Then, something appeared from the sky. "It couldn't be," thought John. But it was. It was the Spirit of Fire. Several outdated pelicans began flying down, along with some vultures. They all began guarding an clearing somewhere above the Everfree Forest. They probably were building a base. The sudden entrance attracted the flood's attention. In fact, all of them focused on terminating the outposts, as if in search of revenge. But several Gauss Warthogs and Scorpion blasted them away. They were escorted by four pelicans and three vultures. But the Flood was more lethal than the Covenant even. Would they, even with the combined help, get rid of the Flood? ParasiteThe first thing that happened was marines pouring from Pelican dropships. The marines were doing reasonably well, until it was seen that they died from a single carbine shot to the chest. Check that, one shot from just about everything. John couldn't help the marines, he was actively defending the defenseless ponies. He made sure not to use his shotgun when dealing with the Flood trying to kill or infected ponies. The scattering of the bullets would likely cause unintentional casualties. Once he had spent all his shells, he threw the weapon in a pure form's face and scavenged for another weapon. It seemed that the Flood had brought too many weapons. He crouched and picked up what appeared to be an Assault Rifle. Only it looked, more advanced. The number counter had a readout that was positioned lower. "Must be some newer version of the MA5 series," Cortana said. Unfortunately, the magazine was nearly spent. Only three shots left. He'd just have to hope it used the same caliber as the MA5C. He took one of those magazines, ejected the empty one, and slammed it home. Luckily, the bullets were compatible. Unfortunately, the mags weren't. MA5C's had a small thing at the bottom to make the mag blend into the rifle. The newer one did not. The mag slid out as he let it go. There had to be some more of them. Nearby, from a close MA5D, he picked up four mags, slammed one home, and whacked the butt of the rifle in the nearest combat form. He sprinted down the lane, making more measures to keep the Flood from allies. One thing he liked about this new assault rifle was that it was more accurate. Very much. It was just as powerful, and the accuracy in comparison was a nice touch. A lower rate of fire would be a sacrifice in panic situations, but it wasn't a big difference. It also didn't sound like a typewriter. The marines from the Spirit Of Fire were definitely willing to engage. Unfortunately, they couldn't seem to take much more than one shot. About fifteen squads were heading up. Some were consisting of four, some five. They crouched and opened fire with their MA5B ICWS Assault Rifles. Casings fell from their rifles like firecrackers were being set off. Many flood fell. But quite a few marines were instantly killed from shots. By the time they'd eliminated twenty Flood, they were down fifteen. Nearly a kilometre away from the fray, was Jun. His armour was now that of a Spartan-IV's. He had a Scout helmet, although it was heavily different from the one he used at Reach. Recon looked more like it but he didn't like several parts of it. He had a sniper rifle. Only modified so one of them held three of the 14.5 mm that his SR used. He zoomed in on a combat form and fired at its chest. It flinched and fell. Then it got right back up. He shot it again in the body. It merely tore through it. He emptied his clip before the combat form fell. Obviously these freaks of nature were resistant to his sniping. Perhaps his Battle Rifle would work? He flipped the long weapon onto his back, and taking the BR85HB SR off. It wasn't the best thing for long range, but it'll probably do. How he wished he'd brought a M395 instead. He sprinted to the heat of combat, running on the rooftops and jumping from one to another. Once his breath was failing him, he stopped at a ledge with a brick side providing decent cover. He crouched and opened fire. They worked well. It took only a few shots to kill each. And their return fire wasn't something he needed to worry about too much. The ponies could do little but barricade themselves in their own houses, and then, the Flood often broke in. A few times, marines attempted to clear the insides out by barging in, as grenades would be too risky. The Elites were much more effective than the marines. In fact, it took a while for them to stop firing at them until they were told that they were allies. John turned around, taking more Flood down while running. He'd thrown the MA5C away. It was replaced with a BR85. He didn't like the new one too much, but it did have improved accuracy, even though that wasn't put to the best to use with the unfamiliarly large sights. What he didn't know was that a combat form dropped off a roof. It snuck up behind him, and shot him in the back with a shotgun. The first thing he felt was the bullets breaching his shields, the force knocking him down. He quickly got up, and turned around, and took a swing. Only to meet thin air. He put a foot forward before he fell. The combat form grabbed his helmet, and smacked it's stock several times into it, then kicking him over. It pointed the barrel at his head, and racked the handle. He grabbed the top of the shotgun, and pulled it up with enough force to hit the combat form's face, which pulled the trigger. It's head splattered all around, coating his armor and his visor. He quickly rubbed it off and began to think. "Alright, we can't hold out too long out here. We have to get somewhere safe." He head towards a freshly deployed Elephant. The massive vehicle moved quite quickly despite its size, and he had to sprint to even think of catching up. He stopped the vehicle, and then jumped inside. A marine shouted at him,"What the hell are you doing Spar-wait, you aren't part of Red Team..." "Let me take the controls. I'm getting everybody out of here." Author's Note It's alive! This chapter is also about two years old.... So yeah, there's a lot of old typing here. BTW, I don't think I have the patience to revise all the chapters, plus, chapter two is halfway through the process and already I feel lazy. I'll probably do no farther than Chapter Four. The True Adventure Begins (Sorta Revised)Almost everypony screamed. The scraps of metal slowly came to life, the plates and pieces beginning to move again. An few lumps that appeared to extend outwards began to slowly move around, shaking and twisting the whole time. Every time it came down onto the floor, its weight would make a heavy thud. After this process had repeated itself several times, cracks began to spread on the wooden floor. Fluttershy squealed and hid behind her couch, Rainbow Dash leaned in closer, Twilight and Applejack slowly edged away, Pinkie Pie cocked her head, and Rarity edged away slowly, both due to the dirt coating the metal and the sudden movement. The sunlight danced on his visor, teasing him to wake up. He took note of his surroundings, and his eyes went wide. Six cartoon ponies, each coated with pastel fur and with disproportionately large heads. Was the atmosphere in this planet thicker than he anticipated? As he began to move his leg, they to reacted with shock, horror, curiosity, and made suspiciously human sounds. The rest of his armor was stock still, it probably wouldn't budge now even if he tried. But his right leg was mostly free. 12 hours earlier "We have tracked down the "Demon", sir!" a Brute Minor informed his superior, a Brute Cheiftain."He's in some planet... there," he searched for a little bit on the expansive holographic map before tracking the location down to the solar system. The Cheiftain, who was at the bridge controls turned, pausing for a second as if he was legitimately shocked to hear something useful. He then commanded,"I want 10 fully loaded Phantom dropships to scout each planet in that system! Once the planet is found, the other Phantoms shall head towards it! Do you you understand?" "Yes," the Minor replied, bowing his head. "And 30 Seraph-class starfighters on each planet too!"His red and black armor began haphazardly emitting sparks, indicating his Energy Shields were activating. He menacingly raised his gravity hammer, as if waiting for disobedience. The intimidated Minor anxiously walked away. That meant ninety Phantoms, and ninety fully loaded Phantoms meant 2,430 troops. It also meant 270 Seraphs. 270 Seraphs were 270 troops, that meant he had to gather a whopping 2700 troops. This would be difficult to find when one considered that he was merely a Minor. Just as the poor Minor was at the door of the bridge, the Chieftain added,"I want all of that in 48 hours!" With the Covenant Separatists... Arbiter Thel 'Vadam sat in the troop bay of a Separatist Phantom tinkering with his Type-51 Carbine, he triple checked to see if it was loaded, and double checked to see if the scope still worked. He grunted with satisfaction when it was still in top condition. A Elite Major walked up to him and told him,"Sir, we have intercepted a distress signal of the location of the demon." "Does it have anything else? Were there any new ones? We've usually been able to catch one regularly every month. That always becomes outdated by the time we get there." he ignored the degrading remark about the Spartan, perking up from his previous boredom. "No, no other messages were sent. It's been two months after it. You remember it?" the Major told him calmly. "Okay, head towards that planet!" Thel ordered the pilot."Jump through slipspace to... Where is it?" The major looked back at a console for a second before replying,K1-" "Uh, Arbiter?" the pilot interrupted,"We've been through a slipspace jump only a few hours ago. It'll be a while before we're able to jump again." Thel roared in frustration and kicked a crate out the Phantom. It promptly landed on an Elite Minor and knocked him out. Princess Celestia was having an interesting day to say the least. First of all, she had to visit the mayor of Manehatten, drink tea - which she hated but felt obligated to drink, and discuss city planning. Next, she received a letter from Emperor Gregor of the Griffon Empire threatening to break ties if they didn't receive their most recent shipment - which happened to arrive as soon as she received the letter. Most recently, she received a report of an unidentified object landing in the middle of Ponyville. She knew that she would embark at once. In the distance, nopony in Sugarcube Corner noticed a Phantom exiting slipspace. "I found the "Demon!" shouted the Grunt manning the Plasma Cannon. "Open fire," said a bored Brute Minor who probably didn't believe him. The Grunt fired plasma bolts at the window. Meanwhile, inside, everypony was too shocked to speak. John ignored her scream and looked at the Phantom. The Brutes were shouting triumphantly as 9 more Phantoms jumped from slipspace. It was on.
Free Falling (Revised)Orbiting above the mysterious planet, at the edge of the hanger of the half-destroyed Forward Unto Dawn, John-117 stared, aimlessly down at the planet. He had been wondering for a hour what could be down there. "Well, I hope my luck doesn't betray me now," he said with a surprisingly straight voice. "It never has, Chief," Cortana tried to sound as assuring as possible but, John wasn't deceived. He put her back in her data chip. Also about his luck, he knew it had only betrayed him, about twice in his whole life. One when Thel' Lodamee knocked his Assault Rifle from his hands, the other was the slipspace drive teleported only half of the ship, and he was unfortunate enough to be in the end section. And that was over four years ago. But being frozen in cryo statis more or less guaranteed that he didn't have to wait, so that was a plus. "That planet's moon somehow looks surprisingly similar to Earth's, but I know its not. I can name around three thousand reasons why." Cortana said in an attempt to change the subject. The Master Chief said nothing. And the populace of the planet - if it had any, would be more than surprised to see him. Unless Covenant were present, they would be scared, or hostile. "Well, it's now or never," he thought to himself. He grabbed a random MA5C Assault Rifle, and searched around for some reserve magazines. He found one, and slammed it home. Unfortunately, he only found two others. He would have to be conservative of his ammunition. After that, he slowly stuck his firearm to his armor's magnetic back. Finally, he turned around, spread his arms out to make a t-shape, and fell backwards towards the planet's surface. After a few seconds, he initiated Armor Lockdown and braced for impact. He stayed calm, Armor Lockdown was even more effective than a Re-Entry Unit. But it'll take a while for him to go move. He was going to enter the planet the same way he had re-entered at the beginning of The Battle of Earth. The friction in the air gradually increased, his armor's olive-green plates were turning white, but he still didn't feel much of the heat at all. Although his speed was rapidly increasing, he only barely felt the heat by the time he was flying downwards at several hundred miles per hour, maybe that was because he was a Spartan-II, maybe that didn't even matter. "Here goes nothing," he thought. Meanwhile... Pinkie Pie was at the Sugarcube Corner, happily prancing down the stairs. Her fluffy, pink, mane shook wildly, and her cerulean eyes were closed. A huge, wide, grin was spread across her face. Then, she felt her tail twitching, she didn't sense anything good. Her eyes opened, her smile faded, and a second after all this happened, a deafening explosion was made, right on the street. Either Rainbow Dash had come down. The windows within twenty five meters from the impact zone were shattered. Screams were heard from all around. Basically, it seemed as if the apocalypse had come. Definitely earned a spot among some of the most interesting things that happened in Ponyville since Discord came. Pinkie rushed down the rest of the stairs and bucked the door open. Rainbow Dash had been roused from her sleep, but was still quick enough to fly over, even if she was groggy. When Pinkie had only gotten three meters on the street when Twilight teleported to the scene. Some civilians were saying that it must be Discord's fault, some said aliens were invading, some just plain said that it was the apocalypse. After that, Fluttershy flew to the area of incident. It was about a quarter of an hour before most of the group was present. They all started talking at once. "I think this might be something dangerous," Twilight put in. "What?! It is dangerous!" Fluttershy screamed. She then shied away after realizing how loud she just was. "Aw, come on. It can't be that dangerous," Rainbow Dash assured them. "Well, if it is friendly, then I'll throw it a welcome party!" Pinkie Pie said at first uncertainly then enthusiastically. "Well, I'm not touching that crater!" Rarity screeched. Then in the distance Applejack came in sight. "Well you never know what it is until you see it, Sugarcube!" Applejack shouted so she would be heard. "Girls! One at a time!" Twilight cut in. "Well that's correct, I think somepony listening would get confused," Pinkie blurted. Everypony gave her a confused look, then just continued with the conversation. "Applejack's right," Twilight told everypony."We'll never know until we see for ourselves. And so, everypony cautiously approached the crater, except for Pinkie who haphazardly dilly-dallied to the crater. Everyone looked inside the crater that had caused all this mess, their eyes went wide. It looked vaguely humanoid. Which none of them were quite glad to note, considering most of the story books which involved humans in Equestrian Mythology depicted them in a negative light. What they saw was, a humanoid object, clad with dark green metal plates supposedly titanium, where the joints were, were extremely durable but flexible underarmor, a golden visor glinted off the head, and stuck on to it's back, was a gray and black thing, with a scalene-like pyramid with a blue screen with 32 on it.There was another scalene on the back, except below and had a triangular hole. In front of the back scalene, was a cresent surrounded by a right angle, and in front of that, was a black grip like the scalene, except below. In front of that, there seemed to be a torch. "I don't think that is harmless," Twilight piped up about the object on John's back,"Kind of looks like those things the Griffons used to hunt down ponies in the Dark Age. Although the chance of it being a musket is remote." "Uh, is that thing on it's back like from those books, what is it called again?" Fluttershy anxiously said. "...Humans," Twilight said slowly. "Oh, you mean those things that raided villages and ate foals?" Rainbow Dash deadpanned. And so, they ultimately decided to bring the inanimate figure to Fluttershy's garden, against her protests. The noise made when it was plopped down on the grass was plenty audible, and any grass that was below it probably wouldn't survive for long. "Ugh," complained Rainbow Dash."How much does this thing weigh? Did somepony construct this armor, fill it up with cement, and throw it off a mountain as a prank?" Twilight glared," Your idea has been noted. But really, you didn't do half the lifting." Then, its leg twitched. Author's Note Revised now. I looked back, and was disgusted by how bad I was. To think how I wondered why it had so many dislikes! So I had a urge to go fix some things up. I won't completely rewrite this story, but expect some add ons, removals, etc. I won't change too much plot points, even if I want to, because I need to tie up more loose ends, and work on new stories. But don't be surprised if this story takes different routes for a while. Just a note, though, do you want me to unpublish chapters to work on them, to avoid having to read a weird cluster, or should I work on the chapters while they're still up and make a tagged blog post for it? EDIT: I can't do this. It hurts.
The Battle of Equestria Begins The Battle of Equestria Begins "It's the Covenant," John said with exasperation. He was angry, they never gave up, the war was over already. He glanced back at Rarity, everypony was looking for some first-aid, obviously for her. And she wasn't much better, blood had stopped pouring down, but poor Rarity's leg had a gruesome third-degree burn. "Nah nah nah nah boo boo," taunted the now wary Brute Minor. But the Grunt, was frozen in fear. He stared in fear at the notorious golden, lined, expressionless visor. He knew this might mean doom. Half a minute later... Rarity's wound was patched up, but she still couldn't keep a straight face. John glared at the Phantom and the newly arrived ones. He intently wrenched his Assault Rifle off his back. It was time to give them a taste of they're own medicine. The recticule came on and he aimed at the Grunt's gas tank. He angrily pulled the trigger. Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat. The Grunt moaned as the first five bullets hit his gas tank, the last one blew the unfortunate Grunt's gas tank off. "Mrrrpphh!" groaned the Grunt as he slowly suffocated. MCPO John-117 dashed outside as quick as his legs would carry him, he then jumped up to the Phantom, which was five meters in the air. He grabbed the side mini door with the Plasma cannon, he flipped upwards and kicked the the same, jeering Brute Minor in the face. The Minor fell back at the brutal force of the kick, he fell down at the other side door and fell out. He crashed through a roof at his own mass.He was most likely dead. John checked his surroundings, 12 live Grunt Minors, 6 live Jackals, and 4 live Brutes, not much of a fight. He lunged forward and delivered a savage blow to a Brute Captain's helmet, the Captain's shields absorbed the impact, but the following punch, pierced his shields. John proceded to impale the Brute with M118 7.62x51mm Full Metal Jacket Armor-Piercing rounds. The Brute swore in his mind and that he was on this Phantom, a few seconds later, life slipped away from him. He did the same to the other unfotunate Brutes. The startled Grunts found themselves splattered with purple blood and then, a few seconds after that, found that they just had their brains smashed in. The Jackals took action quickly, and fired they're fully charged plasma pistols. However, John, being a Spartan II, had reflexes of only 20 milliseconds, but MJOLNIR armor, being a powered exoskeleton suit of armor, they react even quicker when they're wearing it! And so, he evaded the shower of bolts with ease and showered them with 7.62x51mm rounds. "Kreh!" screeched the Jackals as they died. Now, it was time to confront the gunners and the pilot. But, then a different plan formed in his head. He kicked the door open to show a not-so-suprised Brute pilot. The pilot threw a punch at the "Demon" but only to find it getting caught. He struggled as he was tossed aside and knocked out with a violent blow to the head. John stared at the controls, he knew the gunners were alive and the pilot was only unconscious. Although his helmet hid it, a smile crept around his face. He understood what everything meant, it was lucky the Elites had taught him how to fly them when they allied with humanity. Although he had to admit he didn't trust the Elites (Sangheili) at first, he had begun to trust them after Thel 'Vadam skewered the Prophet of Truth. He went and pressed a button whiched trapped the gunners so the couldn't squirm, and began operating the chin mounted Type-52 cannon. Suddenly, the Phantom shook as it got hit with a volley of other Type-52 shots. John didn't panic, he was used to sitting inside Pelican dropships taking fire. However the other Phantoms had pilots that were NOT used to that. So a few simple direct hits, and that Phantom which got hit, would retreat. So it wasn't much. Meanwhile, in the Sugarcube Corner. Rarity was still in pain but the burning had become dull, in the meantime, Twilight was flipping through a huge stack of books that would possibly contain imformation on the "Covenant Empire" that he mentioned earlier. Pinkie was reloading her cannon with REAL cannonballs. Probably in case the Covenant came back. Rainbow Dash was guarding the entrance, but every other pony was frozen in fear. They wondered... Back in the Phantom... John-117 was searching for a button that would overload the engine, and ultimately, make the Phantom go boom. Once he found it, he flew the dropship 60 meters higher, flew 10 more meters away from the Sugarcube Corner. "It's show time," John whispered to himself as he pressed the vital button. He dashed to the side door as a droning sound came on and quickly rised in pitch, just as the engines went critical, he had jumped. From above, the Phantom exploded and sent random pieces flying everywhere. The resulting explosion lit up the night sky. After all that John fell on the street with an frightening loud THUMP! He was a bit rattled, but nevertheless, fine. He watched for a moment as the bits of the Phantom came flying down, then headed back torwards the Sugarcube Corner. This was just the beginning. "That was so awesome!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "Umm, good job." whispered Fluttershy. "Nice accuracy," remarked Twilight. Then everypony started cheering. Except for Princess Celestia. She just said,"Well you're probably not a threat, I would want you on our side." He knew the Covenant wanted him, not them, but if he did go, then they would for simple fun, mercilessly cause genocide on this planet. And he wasn't going to let them. Meanwhile, with the Covenant Separatists... "Thel, we finally repaired the slipspace drive!" shouted the pilot. "Then go in to slipspace," Thel ordered. "Okay then." There three more Separatist Phantoms were flying near his, then, all four of them simultaneously jumped into slipspace.
The Damn Covenant NavyHe knew that the previous attacks were not it; he doubted the Royal Guard would stand a chance against the Covenant, So it looked like he was going to be the one man army. I'm glad to say, he was wrong. Four fully loaded Separatist Phantoms burst out of slipspace, their shiny, green bodies stood out in the night sky. "Arrrgh!" shouted Rarity."Not more aliens!" John just smirked and corrected her,"Yes, more GOOD aliens." What he knew was, that 104 Elites were on their way. Everypony looked at him with confusion. "Oh, it's simple," he told them,"The GOOD aliens have green Phantoms. The others are purple or red." "OH that's not confusing," Rainbow Dash sarcastically said. John watched as the green Phantoms slowly came to a stop and landed. Elites came storming out the side doors. Everypony was silent. Because what they saw was one hundred and four armored, 7 feet two inches to 8 feet six inches tall aliens. They had blue/red/grey/white armor. They had yellow eyes with black pupils, four mandibles were surrounding each Elite's mouths, two on each side. They had grey skin and feet with two toes. Their helmets had fins at the rear on each side, and the back of the helmets looked like it had spikes, and that was more than enough to silence a party of ponies. Thel 'Vadam stepped out of one of the Phantoms and headed towards the Chief, he said, "Hey Spartan, long time no see." "Yeah, same for you," John replied. His voice contained some enthusiasm. The Covenant Separatists were made up of, all of the Elites, most of the Hunters,(Mgalekgolo) some of the Grunts,(Unngoy) and some of the Jackals (Kig-yar). However, this time, only the Elites had come. But according to Pinkie Pie, Elites in game were more dangerous than Brutes. "Well let's welcome the Elites!" shouted John. "Hur-hooray?" everypony muttered. "HOORAY!" squealed Pinkie."It's the Elites!" Everypony gave her a confused look. "Don't worry," John assured them."They just want to help!" Then, suddenly, 89 purple Phantoms and 270 Seraph-class starfighters jumped from slipspace. "Oh crap," muttered Thel. The Phantoms and the Seraphs sped by leaving blue trails and began turning back. Celestia, who probably had spoken so little she was almost forgotten bolted upwards and tried to fend off the Covenant with magic. Her horn got covered with a bubbly aura and a beam shot from it, the beam burnt down the shields of a Seraph. But the Seraph retaliated by firing plasma bolts at her, luckily, they all missed. Meanwhile, back on the ground, the Elites got angry and one dragged a Banshee from the troop bay of a Phantom, he jumped into it and it's sleek, aerodyamic, purple body, which took off and shot through the night sky leaving a mystical, blue trail. Celestia had already brought down two Seraphs, she majestically glided through the air as she shot down another one. She flipped through the aircraft and boarded a Phantom, only to find some armored, oversized apes glaring at her. Chyou! She winced in pain at being shot by a plasma bolt, she knew she wouldn't be able to take much more, so she dived out and made her way back. "Ha ha!" jeered a Brute."Coward!" But just then, the Phantom was hit by three fuel rod blasts, rattling the dropship violently. The pilot reacted quickly, tuning the Phantom around and flying away. "Look who's talking," murmured a very agitated Elite pilot. The Banshee fired one last fuel rod blast which completely blew the Phantom apart. The Separatist Banshee then returned to the Sugarcube Corner evading through crowds of other fighters and Phantoms. "Don't move," John ordered as he was tending to Celestia's plasma wound at her side. He pulled out a biofoam canister that the Elites said was given by the humans of Earth as a goodbye present. John used a fair amount of biofoam patching her wound. "OW!" she screamed as the foam made contact with the wound. "It's supposed to be really painful," John told her."However, the effects are only temporary, you'll have to go to the hospital." She nodded grudingly as two pegasi carried her away. John looked at everypony else, they were beginning to be more comfortable around the Elites. Suddenly, in all the silence, Rainbow Dash bolted out the door and took flight. In the air... Rainbow had never felt so much determination, one second, she was trying out for the Wonderbolts, and the other she was defending her planet from genocidal aliens. She felt the air friction building up, slowly, the stream became 12 degrees, indicating that she was flying at hypersonic speeds. "Well here goes nothing," she murmured. She felt a rainbow shock wave being released from her body and a rainbow trail flowing from her tail. She was in Sonic Rainboom. She felt the drag of the air as she shot through the sky at mach 10, (or it's very likely she is capable of mach 10) she was feeling alive again. A grin crept across her face. She bolted towards the Phantoms, only glimpsing back to check on the Sonic Rainboom, it looked like it was going to spread to Canterlot. After that, she tensed herself and tore straight through three Phantoms, utterly destroying them; she did the same for 12 unfortunate Seraphs. A few other Seraphs had stopped admiring the Sonic Rainboom long enough to begin to shoot at Rainbow, but she evaded all 64 bolts. She glared at the Seraphs that had tried to shoot her down,"No one can kill Rainbow Dash!" She dove towards them and then, she triggered a huge rainbow coloured mushroom-cloud rose up in the air, the explosion destroyed 25 Phantoms and 60 Seraphs completely. Meanwhile, just before the Sonic Rainboom... John-117 stared at the stunt with awe, something like that beats seeing a CCS-battlecruiser explode any day. He glanced back at the Main six. Their cartoonish faces were filled with awe, their mouths hung wide open, they would've been statues if it wasn't for their gentle breathing. He admired her control, how swiftly she tore through her foes, relentlessly destroying everything hostile, not giving them a chance for a clear shot. Then, he saw her triggering the rainbow explosion. He stopped breathing. Now THAT would never be expected from a pony, mabye Rainbow Dash is a exception to that though. A few seconds later, he shook his head and realized he wasn't breathing, embarassed, he started again,"Well at least they didn't see it." he thought. In the skies... Rainbow stopped 750 meters from the explosion, it was still a bit close, but she was to busy admiring her handiwork to notice that much. Her admiring was cut short by a few approaching plasma bolts; she dove away from them in the nick of time. Meanwhile, the Pegasus Royal Guards were on their way to the scene, they pulled out some newly crafted bows and arrows. They aimed. The arrows bounced off harmlessly leaving only tiny dents. "Grrr..." grumbled the annoyed Guards. Peyou! "Ullaaa!" shouted a Pegasus as he got hit in the face by a Type-52 shot, the shot exploded created a explosion with a blast radius of one meter, the explosion tore the pegasus' head off and tore his legs off. Everypony in the Sugarcube Corner stared in awe at the amount of violence that had just occured in the sky, their faces filled with disgust as pints of blood sprayed everywhere. "Nooo!" shouted another Royal Guard but only got shot by a Type-52 shot too, with the similar, messy results. KA-BANG!!! Everypony's head turned, they saw a cannonball flying through the air and dent a Phantom. At the same time, Rainbow Dash had tore through 2 more Phantoms, but by then, she was quite taken over by fatigue, so she flew back to the Sugarcube Corner. They all watched as the Guards bravely, fought, but they only were able to shoot down one Phantom by the time their army of 95 was oliberated. "Wow," John muttered sympathetically."You're kind's army has a even harder time than ours dealing with those bastards." Then, the Elites took action. John jumped into a Banshee. "Now this is how the pros do it." one of the Elites said. The ponies watched in awe as Banshees and Seraphs dogfighted, Phantoms fought others. Apparently, Pinkie was correct about the Elites, they absolutely destroyed the fleet, putting every single hostile to shame. By the time they landed, they had only lost one Phantom, although the others were heavily damaged, most of the Banshees were emitting sparks, except for John's, which was only shot by a few bolts at the most. After that, Pinkie said she had enough and dismissed the party, so probably tonight, they would probably get a few hours of sleep. At three in the morning, a droning sound woke John up, he woke the rest of the main six up and called them to the window. Behind his armor, his heart rate was rising as he saw a hovering CCS-battlecruiser charging up it's energy projecter. John watched helplessly as he saw the beam impact on the center of Canterlot. "Those sons of cucumbers," murmured Rainbow Dash.
The CCS-class battlecruiserJohn was sure that the Enery Projecter's beam must've murdered a few thousand ponies. And he was going to make sure they got it back. "Hey," he piped,"I have a plan to destroy those bastards." Everypony anxiously listened to his plan: "Phase one," he explained."We have to board it with a Phantom, they should fit in 27 ponies at most, but we really just need us and a pilot." "How about Scootaloo?" suggested Rainbow Dash. "Well probably yes, well getting back to the subject, we have to scout around; you may have a problem with infantry, if you feel insecure, then feel free to ask me to kill them all." Everypony nodded. "Phase three, destroy all vehicles, you don't want those idiots to send some more vehicles, as far as I know, CCS-class battlecruisers can carry hundreds of vehicles." Everypony's eyes showed a bit of insecurity, if this was what the human, or John-117 had to do all the time, then they would never think of the human armies as cowardly. "Phase four, go to the bridge and kill the captain. Then steer it to crash into a deserted area and escape before it does. Is it simple enough?" "Uh huh," they all said in unison. "Then let's go," John ordered. Everypony but Pinkie and Dash were devoid of their confidence, this may be the day of their death, but on a brighter note, it might not. But that wasn't enough to assure them. "Come on," he tried to sound assuring. "Don't worry," Cortana said in the most soothing voice she could imagine. "W-who's that?" Twilight wore a fairly startled expression. "Cortana," he informed them."She's an A.I." "What is a A.I?" asked Twilight, getting a sudden interest in all this human stuff. "Uh..." John knew the easiest way was to just say Artificial Intelligence, he came up with something else. "It's kind of like a person with no physical form, though they really are just programs, some of them have limited memory, some have expendable memory, and this one, is one of the expendable ones. He took out Cortana's data chip and showed her. Her cyan body, and a few dark blue stripes stood out. Her tall, slender body stood on the chip, even though she was actually only three inches tall. Then John realized that he was getting carried away, he almost blushed, he was somehow, getting comfortable with these ponies who he had only knew for 18 hours. "Well let's go to the Sugarcube Corner..." he muttered. (The Elites were beginning to use it like a base) "Wow," sighed Twilight, almost completely ignoring the Chief."Like someone without a physical form." They trotted outside and dashed down the street, they were going to deal with this threat soon enough. The streets of Ponyville were rather barren at the moment, it only took a few hours for the word to spresd that aliens were invading, and some were on their side. That wasn't suprising. They dashed through the cafe' and after a few minutes of dashing, they reached the corner. "Well, at least yer wound is better," Applejack said, breaking the silence. Fluttershy checked at Rarity's left-front leg, it was better, thanks to unicorn magic. Everyone shrugged and just walked into a Separatist Phantom. John opened the pilot door only to find a filly, with her violet eyes fixed at the controls, in her left hoove was a manual that was entitled: How to fly a Type-52 Troop Carrier. Her Fuchsia mane had three spikes at the front, and was shaped like Rainbow Dash's mane, her tiny, light orange wings were tucked in, they looked too small to fly anyways. Then she suddenly perked up and turned around, face to face with John-117. "Hey," shouted Rainbow Dash."It's Scootaloo!" Scootaloo almost blushed. "Well," she said to steer the conversation's subject."I just learned how to fly this thing twenty-five seconds, so this may be a rough ride!" "Don't worry, trust me, I've had worse," John assured her. Scootaloo shrugged and pressed a yellow button, the fully opened side doors began closing. However, the middle section, which had a smaller door, remained open, the Plasma Cannons were still mounted on the side. Rarity made a face at bad memories, plasma hurt like something was eating through you're flesh times ten. "Oh come on," Rainbow assured her."Now you get to make those ugly apes feel what you felt." A grin crept across Rarity's white face, she trotted to the cannon and spent a few seconds trying to work it, eventually, the cannon was firing bolts like there was no tomorrow. Scootaloo pushed a lever upwards. The Phantom gained altitude. She pushed another lever forwards completely. The Phantom bolted forwards at 1,100 kph. "Woah!" everypony shouted in unison. "Okay, Scoot," John ordered."We need you to fly us there," he said, pointing at the CCS-class battlecruiser."You know how to fire and use the Type-52 cannon, right?" Scootaloo nodded. She pushed a stick left. The Phantom turned left, towards the battlecruiser, still speeding at 1,100 kph. The battlecruiser became clearer quickly. "Okay, kid," John ordered."You should slow down." Scootaloo pushed the speed stick back till it was only half a centimeter away from default, and so, the Phantom rapidly deaccelerated to 30 kph. The cruiser's hanger was in plain sight, now they're only problem was to board it. If they were seen, then they were screwed, they would activate the force field, it would be troublesome to get in the damn shuttle bay. They slipped by the side and went in before the field could be activated, Rarity started shooting the plasma cannon. Scootaloo began shooting the infantry with the Type-52 cannon, they were oliberating them. But that ended when some Unggoy Heavies walked out of the corridors and began firing their Fuel Rod Guns. 3 shots hit the luckily closed doors. And so, in a panic, Scootaloo opened the doors and ordered everypony out, once everyone was out, she began steering the Phantom away. John looked up, the Heavies took no notice and fired some more shots, one hit the tail. Everypony's faces filled up with horror as a high-pitched droning noise came up and the Phantom exploded into a bright blue/purple explosion. John let everypony say,"No," and took on the Heavies, the main six took no notice. They just continued staring off into space, where the explosion had happened, this couldn't be happening, Scootaloo, claimed by this invasion? When everypony finally looked away and headed towards the exit, Rainbow Dash gazed down, to find a hand on her flank. "You won't get any vengeance just staying here," John told her."I always thought they were assholes as well." Rainbow Dash looked up, and proceeded to the exit. John trailed behind, they needed all the help the could have. He picked up one of the Fuel Rod Guns and grabbed some more ammo, he looked at Cortana penetrating a 128,000 bit door. After two minutes, she penetrated the key. The door opened in a awkward fashion. It opened to reveal a brig. In other words, a prison. Suddenly, John punched thin air, to reveal a moderately suprised Brute Minor, with his energy shields penetrated. Before the Brute could respond, John kicked him in the groin. Then his fist met his face. The Brute yelped and fell to the floor, dead. Then, John punched again, to reveal a Brute Major with a Brute Shot, the weapon's bayonet was parried with John's Assault Rifle. John kicked the Major in the stomach and stomped on his head, squishing it, making blood splatter everywhere. "EWW!" shouted everypony.(That does not include John) John ignored the screams of disgust and walked towards the control panel. He entered a code that he found in one of the Brute's clip. The doors open, one revealed Rainbowshine. Her cerise eyes were filled with dismay, her light cerise mane was scruffy, her pale indigo body was beat. She didn't look like the mare she used to be. She didn't speak, so they decided to just tell her to follow them. "Are you sure?" she murmured fearfully, those oversized apes had just threw her in prison. "Well come on," Rainbow Dash assured her. They dashed to the other exit, after a forty minutes of walking through corridors, they finally found something interesting, the gravity lift room. Inside, there were thirty troops, 15 Grunts, 10 Jackals and 5 Brutes. Without warning Rainbow Dash bolted forward at 450 mph and knocked the shields of a Captain, the shields cracked at another horse-kickback. His life was ended after she Rainblow Dried him outside by the gravity lift.(Don't ask me how she did it, she just did alright?!) After that, the troops were wary, one Brute found his shields knocked out after a beam from Twilight's horn, Applejack kickbacked a few Grunts to death, Pinkie Pie did the same. John-117 wrenched his Fuel Rod Gun off, and firing three shots, killed three Brutes. After a load of blue blood covered the ground, Fluttershy left the room, everypony else went with her, except for Rainbow Dash. She looked at the only other thing alive in the room, which was John, she signalled for him to leave. John left without question. Rainbow concentrated in tensing her body, after taking off, doing a quick backflip, she charged at the controls. The entire room absolutely exploded, the door opened after the smoke (Or rainbowsmoke?) cleared, she walked out completely unharmed, now it was time to continue. She didn't care she was pretty damn drained. "Okay," John said."Everything's going to plan. Now, the cruiser is completely crippled, we will have to proceed quickly." So, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity dashed down the corridor, they had another target, the Cargo Bay. Inside the Bay, they found some weapons, a few Wraiths and a Ghost.(In the Halo Universe, these are vehicles.) After a few explosions, six ponies and a Demon could be seen running from the Cargo Bay entrance. "Hmmph," snickered the Chieftain. He watched as the things ran towards the direction of the bridge, he turned off the security camera after that. "Chieftain Kepentus!" shouted a Brute Minor from behind. "Yes?" asked the now enthusiastic Chieftain. He was sure the Demon's streak would end here. "The Gravity Lift room has been oliberated, now the vessel is crippled!" the Minor reported. "I already know that, fool!" shouted Kepentus. His raised voice startled the Minor. Kepentus was sure they just stocked up a lot of plasma grenades, he didn't mind that they were infiltrating, he would fend them off, after all, he only used half of his vehicles on that previous invasion. "Fear not," Kepentus said in his most soothing voice, which wasn't particularly soothing. Rainbow Dash was outraged, they were going to avenge Scootaloo, even if that was the last thing they ever did. "ROWR!" shouted a Major jumping out of nowwhere, Rainbow Dash tackled him and Twilight shot him dead with her horn. "Were avenging Scootaloo, right?" shouted Pinkie."You might need to mod." Everypony gave her a confused look. "You don't play Halo?" she asked. Everypony shrugged. They walked ahead, to find more Brutes. John punched one, Pinkie stole one of their Spikers and began firing, Twilight began shooting them with her magic beams, Fluttershy found herself holding a Brute Shot. Rarity was impaling them with magic; Applejack found her rear hooves in one of the Brutes face often. And Rainbow Dash tackled them, finishing them off or knocking their shields out. It was like a massacre. Then, Applejack got shot in her rear left hoove with a spike, but instead of wailing, she pulled it out, and stabbed a Brute in his face, showing agitation. After eight more seconds, the contacts were eliminated, everypony brushed off their sweat. "You did well," John complimented them. They strided through a unlocked door and found themselves in a room with a purple, raised platform, everywhere else was black pillars, out the windows, was a grand view of Equestria. Shoving aside her thoughts of the room, she had to admit that in some part of her brain, she thought Scootaloo might be alive, even though it was unlikely. Then, a intimidating voice boomed,"Greetings, Demon, I have awaited you for too long." Edited by The Enemy Cube.
A Bigger ThreatJohn's head turned. "I am Chieftain Kepentus," he announced arrogantly to the world."And, this, will be your final battle." John simply swapped his Assualt Rifle for a Fuel Rod Gun as a response. "Ah," Kepentus said."Fuel rods, it'll take 3 to kill me." "In Heroic mode," Pinkie corrected. His head turned over to Pinkie. "Silence! This is a private matter, so if you mind, then you would stay out of this!" he shouted at her. WHOMP! By the time his head turned back, he found that a fuel rod had already been fired and was 2 feet from hitting him. He couldn't duck or dodge. He couldn't block with his Gravity Hammer yet. He couldn't even scream. The explosive hit him square in the forehead, unleashing a green explosion that threw off sparks. If it weren't for his shields, then he wouldn't have a face right now. He staggered up, with his Gravity Hammer in hand, he used the shockwave to make another fuel rod explode before it hit him, and after that, he lunged at John. John was not impressed. He kicked the Chieftain in the groin, breaking his shields and making him fall. He was unable to pummel the Demon then, but Kepentus was determined to end the Demon's crappy life anyways, with a Gravity Hammer. He lunged again. It was the biggest mistake of the Chieftain's life, he got a Spartan II rolling through his legs and shooting him in the back of the head with the Fuel Rod Gun. "Now," John thought to himself."He dosen't have a face." Even though Kepentus was wearing very heavy armor, the awesomeness of fuel rods was enough to blow his head off, sending purple blood flying everywhere. "Awesome!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "More like messy," Rainbowshine muttered, finally daring to speak."Very messy." He looked at the bridge controls, what they've been fighting for. He shrugged and steered the cruiser to crash. Meanwhile, 2 hours earlier, just before the Phantom's engines went critical... Scootaloo heard the droning sound, and that meant something was going to go boom, and that was the Phantom. But then, she felt some magical protective veil surrounding her, then the Phantom went boom. She thought she would be dead anyways, but then she opened her eyes, finding she was still alive and unscathed. "Woah," she thought."This is awesome!" But then, the veil burst, sending her plummeting down to her death. "Crap!" she shouted,"I can't fly!" Then she thought,"Well it's worth a try..." She spread her wings. She fell noticably slower, but still fatal speed. She opened it wider, now she was falling at your- going-to-wake-up-with-everything-sore speed. She tried flapping the hardest she could, then she noticed something, she was gaining altitude! "Woah," she whispered."So this is what it feels like to fly." She dove down, swooped around, and she was able to hit roughly 240 mph at the highest speeds. She had never felt so free, the brisk wind, the fluffy, warm, clouds. And the shine of the sun on her light orange wings. This is what Rainbow Dash was able to do everyday. After a while, she flew down, to find a blue unicorn, limp on the ground. "Lyra?" Scootaloo asked. Her eyes opened, and she muttered."Scootaloo?" "I was covered in a protective veil suddenly surrounded me," Scootaloo said,"Was that you?" "Yes." Then Lyra further explained,"I saw a green speck throwing sparks heading towards the Phantom high above. I decided to use my energy on the only thing I could sense inside, you. But at such a distance, my energy was being incinerated, and so, I passed out a few seconds after it exploded." But how did you make it to the ground?" "It's a long story," Scootaloo said,"To put it simply, I learnt how to fly." Lyra looked at her, shocked and disbelieving. "But," she stammered."How?" "I just did," Scootaloo shrugged. Back on the cruiser, at the time the ship had been positioned to crash. Listen for enchancement) Applejack looked at her wound that she had previously ignored, now it stung, but she ignored it. Fluttershy threw her Brute Shot away, Pinkie DIDN'T throw her Spiker away in case she needed ranged coverage. John looked at Kepentus, who had been alive a minute ago. His headless body's black and red armor plates was splattered with blood, some of the inner plates seemed to have been nailed together have been torn and bent. Some of his armor was already incinerated. he looked at Kepentus's head. the black and white helmet was knocked off, leaving a grey skinned ape-like head. His feral teeth were shown with his open mouth. Pinkie walked up to his head and, for fun, shot three spikes down his throat. She began laughing hysterically a few seconds later. "Come on!" John shouted suddenly."We gotta get out of her in a minute, no later!" Everypony's head instantly turned to the exit, they madly galloped/flew out. Fluttershy got into the act with no hesitation, so did Twilgiht, who didn't bother to pick up Kepentus's helmet to analyze. In forty seconds, thye reached the edge of one of the shuttle bays, this one was the one they entered in, and so, it didn't have any vehicles, they didn't have the time to go to the other bay. "Okay," Rainbow piped."I'll carry you all.' Nopony protested, they knew that was they're only chance of survival. So, they grabbed Rainbow's legs/tail/another pony's leg. Rainbow felt them dropping rapidly, at 90 mph, John said he was going to jump down himself, because he's too heavy, Fluttershy volunteered to fly down herself, but even with the reduced weight of roughly 1,060 pounds, it was still to heavy for Rainbow, despite her best efforts. She beat her wings at 20 times per second, they still were falling at deadly speed. "This is it," she thought. She beat her wings quicker than she ever did and braced for inevitable doom, she blamed herself for this, and it technically was her fault. She slapped herself mentally for not doing a new plan of what she could have done. Her new plan that has been formulated to late: Fly to the other shuttle bay as quick as you could, board a Phantom and get everyone else to go on. She knew that John would survive, if he could fall a fall from space, then why not from 5 kilometers? "Well never mind that," she thought. With utter determination, she beat her wings quicker than anypony had ever done. Then, she noticed something. She wasn't falling at fatal speed, they were falling at five mph. Apparently 100 flaps per second worked! But then she felt a new feeling, fatigue, something that she was afraid she wouldn't be able to endure. In the distance, the CCS-class battlecruiser had crashed and was violently exploding. That distracted her enough to lose her focus. "Crap!" they all shouted as they plummeted down. "I don't want to die!" Rarity shouted. They all fell helplessly down from the sky, with a Rainbow Dash struggling to regain control. Then, luck was merciful again. They began slowing down to the point of being shaken by the landing, but unscathed. Once they landed, Rainbow wiped a huge amount of sweat off her mane and passed out. In the distance, John landed in partial lockdown, and got right back up. "Hey," shouted a voice in the distance, it belonged to Scootaloo. Everypony's head turned, in shock, they knew NOPONY could have survived that explosion. "Okay," Scootaloo started."I'll explain." 5 minutes later... "You learnt how to fly?" asked Applejack. "Wow," muttered Rarity."In a time you needed it? You're a very lucky filly." They spent the rest of the morning celebrating, John even got tempted to take his helmet off. By the end, they all headed back to Ponyville, to find word had spread that the center of Canterlot had been incinerated. T- hat the threat had been destroyed had been spread too. "No wait," asked Lyra,"Are you a HUMAN?" 6:10 pm Equestria Canterlot Luna looked at the remains of the center of Canterlot. Her sister had been wounded, over ninety Royal Guards had been sent to defend Ponyville, they failed miserably, it was some weird bipedal aliens that fended off more bipedal aliens. And then, a huge ship 1,782 meters long shows up, and oliberates a decent chunk of Canterlot. Her blue/green eyes fixed on the smoke, her dark blue body was fairly difficult to see in the night, her wings, tucked at her sides. Her horn, gave no illumination. She swore under her breath and took off into the night sky, towards Ponyville. 6:10 pm Earth Still glassed Voi Jun-A266 looked at the remains of Voi, being terraformed. He sighed, the terraforming would take about a century. Next to him, were two Spartan IVs. The one to his right carried a Assualt Rifle; the one to his left carried a BR55HB SR Battle Rifle. He usually carried a Sniper Rifle, and now was no exception. His olive green MJOLNIR Mark V Assualt Armor stood out completely. His armor looked completely different to the other Spartans, they had smaller visors. He shrugged and walked into a Pelican dropship. He just wanted to go for a spin. The two other Spartans followed. When the Pelican exited the atmosphere, they spotted a human vessel in the distance. It was a huge 2.5 km long Phoenix-class colony ship. It looked like one of those ships in the Campaign of Harvest that happened before he was born. He blinked, as if to refresh his vision. "No," he thought."It can't be. That ship was declared lost at all hands! But it was. It was the UNSC Spirit of Fire. Jun was still thinking it might have been a hallucination by the time he docked the Pelican down in the hanger. Then, he saw Shortsword bombers, Grizzilies, Wolverines, Sparrowhawks and other outdated vehicles. Then, Captain James Cutter walked down from a entrance, he looked at Jun and the Spartan IVs. "Who are these Spartans in deformed armor?" he thought. "My name's Jun," Jun chatted."The humans have thought that you and the 11,000 personel on board were dead. They declared the Spirit of Fire lost at all hands. I am a Spartan III. They are Spartan IVs. Now we have done a fleet-wide upgrade to the Pelicans. Shortswords and Hawks are now outdated. The Human-Covenant war is finished, we have won. The Elites, some of the Grunts and Jackals have united to form the Covenant Separatists. Oh, and most of the Hunters. The Separatists have sided with us and four or five years ago, then, the Elites went back to Sangheilios." James tried to digest what Jun was blabbing about, but only caught half of it. "Well, we'll have to go get a new Slipspace Drive soon," James said, changing the subject. "Seriously?!" Jun asked."You lost the Slipspace Drive?!" "It's a long story," James said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible. Jun, not noticing Jame's terrible acting said,"Well, we have all the time in the world, so tell me it." "Oh here it goes again," James thought. Equestria Ponyville 6:25 pm Ponyville came into sight for Luna. Squinting, she could make out the straw-thatched roofs and the pink frames. It made Canterlot look like a very unhappy place. But not today, the windows were boarded shut, the stalls were closed, hell, everything was closed. In case of a bigger threat. Squinting even more, she could make out two figures in the distance. Six were ponies, but one was a bipedal creature, supposedly a human. She flew closer, quick as she could, making no care to not startle any wildlife. She streaked through the night sky under the cover of dark blue fur. She charged at the ground, making a large dust cloud. When it cleared, she found six ponies. One purple, one orange, one butterscotch, one cyan, one pink, and one white. It was them. "Hello," she greeted. Then her eyes met a bipedal creatue, clad in green armor, that had a invisible shield that sort of felt like magic. Sort of. After ten minutes of explaining... "Okay," Luna muttered."But why I came here was because I wanted to tell you that a bigger threat might be on it's way, a threat twenty-seven times worse than the last. In fact, it might be looming above us right now." "Really?" everypony said. "Really," Luna answered. Suddenly, a pink/purple glowing thing lit up, a huge beam shot and landed dangerously close to Cloudsdale. Another one began charging up before anypony could say anything else. It impacted in the Everfree. The entire ship lit up. It was a damn Covenant Supercarrier. Then John realized something, even though it had nothing to do with the hovering threat ahead of them, he thought,"Why am I talking so much?!" Edited by The Enemy Cube
The FloodThe Supercarrier cut through the sky like it was a blade cutting through butter. The enormous, purple/blue hull gave a slight glow in the night sky. The ship was like a stick, with a lump in the middle, and a downwards hook at the front. The 27 km long killing machine's Repulsor Engines gave off plenty of light. The sheer size of the ship made the huge CCS-class battlecruiser look like a walk in the park. Menacing was not the word for the Supercarrier, taking it on would be considered suicidal. Considering that one salvo of Pulse Laser iwas capable of melting through 45 cm of Titanium-A, a Royal Guard would have no chance of surviving a hit. John glared at the Supercarrier. After another glance, he, without saying a word, tilted his head down, and slowly walked to the entrance of a Phantom. He stepped in, kicked the cockpit door open, sat down at the seat. After a few seconds of tinkering with the incredibly complicated buttons, the Phantom started up. In the Sugarcube Corner, the Elites saw what was happening, they busted the door open, ignited/readied their weapons. Slowing down to a stroll, they stepped up onto the troop bay, shouting war cries. It "There goes a quarter of the elites," John thought. Suddenly, the atmosphere turned eerie, to say it was unnerving was an understatement. Then, brownish peach drop pods came down, and out from those, came the most awkward looking creatures. "What?!" thought John."They were terminated several years ago!" He instinctively wrenched his Assault Rifle from his back, firing off three bursts, he brought down a nearby combat form. Several infection forms slapped onto Snowflake's body, infecting him immediately. John, having no choice, smacked him down with the butt of his rifle, and stomped on his head. About a few dozen combat forms and pure forms were on their way to Rainbow Dash. She dropped a fusion coil on them, the blast shredding many of them to pieces and biting into those on the outer reach of the blast. But hundreds of infection forms came and revived the dead flood with intact bodies.. "Seriously?!" shouted Rainbow Dash. John grabbed a shotgun from a dead combat form. It would prove useful, to say the least. Several forms charged him. As far as he was concerned, they were heading towards their doom. He blew the first one, a pure form, into pieces with a simple pull of the trigger. Cocking the weapon again, he blew three combat forms to his back to oblivion. Cocking it again, he obliterated a swarm of infection forms with a single shot. And so, reloading at the same time, pwned several more forms with melees. Soon, the flood just realized they were going to be wiped out if they kept on charging John. So they tried Twilight, but she was paired with Applejack, back to back. Applejack killing the combat and pure forms while Twilight rapidly fired bolt of magic to keep the infection forms at a distance. They made a perfect team. They tried Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. But she was up in the clouds, with Rainbow Dash, spraying the battlefield with lightning and even lighting flood occupied areas on fire. As for Rarity and Pinkie Pie, Rarity was trying to figure out how to operate a spiker, and Pinkie was blasting everything with her party cannon, which was apparently loaded with real ammunition this time. So in other words, they were near untouchable. At the moment. Twilight would tire out from the constant firing someday and Applejack may as well as not buck as fast as the pure forms could melee someday. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would be blown out of the sky someday, and Rarity and Pinkie Pie? They just need to make s few mistakes then game over. After a while, Rainbow Dash got cocky and did a nose dive at the flood. She stole a shotgun from one. However, how was she supposed to fire this so-called gun without fingers? With great difficulty. But at least she got the hang of it, and soon she was blowing head off like no one's business. But of course she made a mistake, and got her wing impaled with three carbine shots. This cause her a serious amount of pain and she crashed. Now, she had just lost her best advantage of battle, speed and agility. So now, she had to think tactical. Like taking cover behind things. Meanwhile, John was blowing heads off with his shotgun. However, he wasn't paying attention to the ammo indicator. So it wasn't long until he was out. This took him by surprise. And so, I pure form forced him to the ground. The unbelievably ugly creature slapped his face, which brought his shields down. The beast was about to deliver a fatal blow when its head suddenly got incinerated by a nearby purple bolt. He did a quick nod to Twilight. Then, he noticed something at the back of his head. It was an elite minor. He grabbed Cortana's chip from his head. And with a cocky grin, slowly activated his energy dagger and began to make it head for the chip. "No!" John thought. He kicked the elite to the ground. And then, forced his own dagger through his neck. Well now at least Cortana was safe. An elite traitor? But now, they had to deal with the Flood. He grabbed the elite's energy sword. The flood had soft flesh, so the weapon would last very long. He lunged for a few combat forms. In just one slice, he slashed six of them. They wouldn't be able to hold them off for long. Then, something appeared from the sky. "It couldn't be," thought John. But it was. It was the Spirit of Fire. Several outdated pelicans began flying down, along with some vultures. They all began guarding an clearing somewhere above the Everfree Forest. They probably were building a base. The sudden entrance attracted the flood's attention. In fact, all of them focused on terminating the outposts, as if in search of revenge. But several Gauss Warthogs and Scorpion blasted them away. They were escorted by four pelicans and three vultures. But the Flood was more lethal than the Covenant even. Would they, even with the combined help, get rid of the Flood?
ParasiteThe first thing that happened was marines pouring from Pelican dropships. The marines were doing reasonably well, until it was seen that they died from a single carbine shot to the chest. Check that, one shot from just about everything. John couldn't help the marines, he was actively defending the defenseless ponies. He made sure not to use his shotgun when dealing with the Flood trying to kill or infected ponies. The scattering of the bullets would likely cause unintentional casualties. Once he had spent all his shells, he threw the weapon in a pure form's face and scavenged for another weapon. It seemed that the Flood had brought too many weapons. He crouched and picked up what appeared to be an Assault Rifle. Only it looked, more advanced. The number counter had a readout that was positioned lower. "Must be some newer version of the MA5 series," Cortana said. Unfortunately, the magazine was nearly spent. Only three shots left. He'd just have to hope it used the same caliber as the MA5C. He took one of those magazines, ejected the empty one, and slammed it home. Luckily, the bullets were compatible. Unfortunately, the mags weren't. MA5C's had a small thing at the bottom to make the mag blend into the rifle. The newer one did not. The mag slid out as he let it go. There had to be some more of them. Nearby, from a close MA5D, he picked up four mags, slammed one home, and whacked the butt of the rifle in the nearest combat form. He sprinted down the lane, making more measures to keep the Flood from allies. One thing he liked about this new assault rifle was that it was more accurate. Very much. It was just as powerful, and the accuracy in comparison was a nice touch. A lower rate of fire would be a sacrifice in panic situations, but it wasn't a big difference. It also didn't sound like a typewriter. The marines from the Spirit Of Fire were definitely willing to engage. Unfortunately, they couldn't seem to take much more than one shot. About fifteen squads were heading up. Some were consisting of four, some five. They crouched and opened fire with their MA5B ICWS Assault Rifles. Casings fell from their rifles like firecrackers were being set off. Many flood fell. But quite a few marines were instantly killed from shots. By the time they'd eliminated twenty Flood, they were down fifteen. Nearly a kilometre away from the fray, was Jun. His armour was now that of a Spartan-IV's. He had a Scout helmet, although it was heavily different from the one he used at Reach. Recon looked more like it but he didn't like several parts of it. He had a sniper rifle. Only modified so one of them held three of the 14.5 mm that his SR used. He zoomed in on a combat form and fired at its chest. It flinched and fell. Then it got right back up. He shot it again in the body. It merely tore through it. He emptied his clip before the combat form fell. Obviously these freaks of nature were resistant to his sniping. Perhaps his Battle Rifle would work? He flipped the long weapon onto his back, and taking the BR85HB SR off. It wasn't the best thing for long range, but it'll probably do. How he wished he'd brought a M395 instead. He sprinted to the heat of combat, running on the rooftops and jumping from one to another. Once his breath was failing him, he stopped at a ledge with a brick side providing decent cover. He crouched and opened fire. They worked well. It took only a few shots to kill each. And their return fire wasn't something he needed to worry about too much. The ponies could do little but barricade themselves in their own houses, and then, the Flood often broke in. A few times, marines attempted to clear the insides out by barging in, as grenades would be too risky. The Elites were much more effective than the marines. In fact, it took a while for them to stop firing at them until they were told that they were allies. John turned around, taking more Flood down while running. He'd thrown the MA5C away. It was replaced with a BR85. He didn't like the new one too much, but it did have improved accuracy, even though that wasn't put to the best to use with the unfamiliarly large sights. What he didn't know was that a combat form dropped off a roof. It snuck up behind him, and shot him in the back with a shotgun. The first thing he felt was the bullets breaching his shields, the force knocking him down. He quickly got up, and turned around, and took a swing. Only to meet thin air. He put a foot forward before he fell. The combat form grabbed his helmet, and smacked it's stock several times into it, then kicking him over. It pointed the barrel at his head, and racked the handle. He grabbed the top of the shotgun, and pulled it up with enough force to hit the combat form's face, which pulled the trigger. It's head splattered all around, coating his armor and his visor. He quickly rubbed it off and began to think. "Alright, we can't hold out too long out here. We have to get somewhere safe." He head towards a freshly deployed Elephant. The massive vehicle moved quite quickly despite its size, and he had to sprint to even think of catching up. He stopped the vehicle, and then jumped inside. A marine shouted at him,"What the hell are you doing Spar-wait, you aren't part of Red Team..." "Let me take the controls. I'm getting everybody out of here." Author's Note It's alive! This chapter is also about two years old.... So yeah, there's a lot of old typing here. BTW, I don't think I have the patience to revise all the chapters, plus, chapter two is halfway through the process and already I feel lazy. I'll probably do no farther than Chapter Four.
The True Adventure Begins (Sorta Revised)Almost everypony screamed. The scraps of metal slowly came to life, the plates and pieces beginning to move again. An few lumps that appeared to extend outwards began to slowly move around, shaking and twisting the whole time. Every time it came down onto the floor, its weight would make a heavy thud. After this process had repeated itself several times, cracks began to spread on the wooden floor. Fluttershy squealed and hid behind her couch, Rainbow Dash leaned in closer, Twilight and Applejack slowly edged away, Pinkie Pie cocked her head, and Rarity edged away slowly, both due to the dirt coating the metal and the sudden movement. The sunlight danced on his visor, teasing him to wake up. He took note of his surroundings, and his eyes went wide. Six cartoon ponies, each coated with pastel fur and with disproportionately large heads. Was the atmosphere in this planet thicker than he anticipated? As he began to move his leg, they to reacted with shock, horror, curiosity, and made suspiciously human sounds. The rest of his armor was stock still, it probably wouldn't budge now even if he tried. But his right leg was mostly free. 12 hours earlier "We have tracked down the "Demon", sir!" a Brute Minor informed his superior, a Brute Cheiftain."He's in some planet... there," he searched for a little bit on the expansive holographic map before tracking the location down to the solar system. The Cheiftain, who was at the bridge controls turned, pausing for a second as if he was legitimately shocked to hear something useful. He then commanded,"I want 10 fully loaded Phantom dropships to scout each planet in that system! Once the planet is found, the other Phantoms shall head towards it! Do you you understand?" "Yes," the Minor replied, bowing his head. "And 30 Seraph-class starfighters on each planet too!"His red and black armor began haphazardly emitting sparks, indicating his Energy Shields were activating. He menacingly raised his gravity hammer, as if waiting for disobedience. The intimidated Minor anxiously walked away. That meant ninety Phantoms, and ninety fully loaded Phantoms meant 2,430 troops. It also meant 270 Seraphs. 270 Seraphs were 270 troops, that meant he had to gather a whopping 2700 troops. This would be difficult to find when one considered that he was merely a Minor. Just as the poor Minor was at the door of the bridge, the Chieftain added,"I want all of that in 48 hours!" With the Covenant Separatists... Arbiter Thel 'Vadam sat in the troop bay of a Separatist Phantom tinkering with his Type-51 Carbine, he triple checked to see if it was loaded, and double checked to see if the scope still worked. He grunted with satisfaction when it was still in top condition. A Elite Major walked up to him and told him,"Sir, we have intercepted a distress signal of the location of the demon." "Does it have anything else? Were there any new ones? We've usually been able to catch one regularly every month. That always becomes outdated by the time we get there." he ignored the degrading remark about the Spartan, perking up from his previous boredom. "No, no other messages were sent. It's been two months after it. You remember it?" the Major told him calmly. "Okay, head towards that planet!" Thel ordered the pilot."Jump through slipspace to... Where is it?" The major looked back at a console for a second before replying,K1-" "Uh, Arbiter?" the pilot interrupted,"We've been through a slipspace jump only a few hours ago. It'll be a while before we're able to jump again." Thel roared in frustration and kicked a crate out the Phantom. It promptly landed on an Elite Minor and knocked him out. Princess Celestia was having an interesting day to say the least. First of all, she had to visit the mayor of Manehatten, drink tea - which she hated but felt obligated to drink, and discuss city planning. Next, she received a letter from Emperor Gregor of the Griffon Empire threatening to break ties if they didn't receive their most recent shipment - which happened to arrive as soon as she received the letter. Most recently, she received a report of an unidentified object landing in the middle of Ponyville. She knew that she would embark at once. In the distance, nopony in Sugarcube Corner noticed a Phantom exiting slipspace. "I found the "Demon!" shouted the Grunt manning the Plasma Cannon. "Open fire," said a bored Brute Minor who probably didn't believe him. The Grunt fired plasma bolts at the window. Meanwhile, inside, everypony was too shocked to speak. John ignored her scream and looked at the Phantom. The Brutes were shouting triumphantly as 9 more Phantoms jumped from slipspace. It was on.
