Exiled soldiers

Twilight, Spike, Elegance, Josh, Ken, and Palmer, each wearing their armor, with Palmer's keeping her usual colors, but the team emblem on the left shoulder pad, were in the holodeck so they could begin the first three's first war game, a free for all match on the map Truth.

"Okay, so basics for you three," Ken said. "We start with a magnum and assault rifle, along with two frags, with other weapons scattered around the map."

"As well as a single power up," Josh added. "In this map's case, active camoflauge, which makes the user practically invisible."

"Which reminds me," Palmer said. "Halsey wants you three do use your abilities so she can gather data on your abilities. I don't know why, but I don't really care."

"So long as you guys don't fucking spam them," Josh said.

"We won't," Twilight said. "Promise."

"If you say so," Josh said as the pods for the war games, which resembled crytubes, opened.

"Before you get in, Spartans," Roland said over the intercom, "I decided to update the wargames a little, and each map has a unique feature that should help with everything."

"Copy that, Roland," Ken said. "Well, time to get this whole thing started."

"Right," Josh said as the six of them stepped into the pods, settled in, which allowed connectors in the tubes to connect to the neural implants, which put the six into the digital realm.

As Twilight and company became aware of their surrounding, the area came into view. To Twilight, it was something both organic and artificial at the same time, with elegant curves, but holographic panels as well, and, though a few parts of the area, space could be seen, along with other ships. This was the map, Truth, set in a covenant ship. When Twilight's sight came, she was in a room with a blue hologram that had a large planet, to scale to where just holding out her arms would allow her to wrap her arms around it, a large hoop thing, with a small moon between the two, but close to the ring, as well as a small triangle (Blue Two).

She walked forward carefully, and saw a Battle Rifle on the ground. She put her Assault Rifle on her back, and drew her magnum, which she exchanged for the BR. She moved ahead slowly, dropping off a ledge before the sound of Rifle fire could be heard. Josh assault rifle Elegance. Lost the lead. The sound of the rifle made Twilight jump, and scan her area. This was stopped when she had reversed her line of sight, and felt two arms grab her around the waist, and lift her off her feet, only for her to go up side down before she felt something hard hit her, and heard a large crack. Ken assassination Twilight. (Lawn Dart assassination)

Five seconds later, with Twilight getting a detached, and a little creepy, in her opinion, view of Ken standing over that body. "Sorry, Twi," Ken said. "But this is so you guys can learn how to use your gear and shit." As the last sentence left his mouth, Twilight respawned in a room that had a clear view of a walk way that had a hovering platform over the middle. Remembering what had happened last time, she instantly began to move, scanning with her eyes as she did so, which gave her a view on Palmer, who went into a small room on the lower floor. She looked around, and saw a ramp leading into the upper part of that room. Hoping to cut Palmer off, Twilight went full gear to get there, catching glimpses of the others.

As soon as she got into the room, she did a quick sweep with her Assault Rifle, and saw two, for lack of a better term, cylinders, one glowing, the other not. She went on instinct, and went down the one that wasn't glowing, after throwing a grenade down, turning around as she did so. "Damn it," she muttered, Palmer having gotten away, before her tracker got a red dot from her left, and turned, bringing her weapon up, seeing Josh.

"Nice reflexes," he said, his own weapon pointed at Twilight, a Battle Rifle, which he then fired a single burst from before dropping it and boosting forward, grabbing something from his thigh, passing Twilight, and then spinning around, activating what was in his hand. "But you need to learn to shoot first, Twi," he said, the blades of the energy sword he picked up vertical and between Twilight's cleavage. "So next time, shoot first," he added before thrusting the sword up. Josh energy sword Twilight.

When Twilight respawned this time, she was in the same room as her first spawn. She looked in the lower right hand corner, and saw that Ken was in the lead with a score of five, and Twilight herself was in fourth. This time, she shaped up a little more, this time, when she saw a target, she let her instincts take over, and fire, and got a few kills, putting her in third, though a few of the kills were Spike and Elegance, and she made it a point to apologize to them afterwards.

Five minutes into the match, Josh and Ken were tied for first, with Palmer behind them, the Twilight behind her, then Spike and Elegance in that order. Currently, Twilight had a Battle Rifle and a Plasma pistol, having gotten what Ken and Josh call a "noob shot" when she overcharged the pistol on Palmer's shields, and then BR burst to the head, and on the lower level of the map when a deep voice, one that couldn't be human, came on over the speakers for the map. "Ne'sha ke no sa fa re."(1)

A few seconds later, as Twilight was sprinting to the center of the lower map where the splinter grenades were, Twilight pushed herself into the air and off the ground. "Shit," she said as she hit the walkway above her and bounced off. "Must be to help train on zero gravity," Twilight said. "Okay, thrusters can be used to maneuver in zero gee," she muttered, and activated her thrusters to make her way to the floor before activating the suits magnetic soles, keeping her there.  She sprinted to the room under the opposite where she had first spawned in at, when she got something on her tracker. Remembering what Palmer had said, she lit her horn slightly, casting an energy spell to overcharge her shields enough to give them a slight increase in efficiency, which meant they could take more shots. The red dot was behind her, and she pretended to not see it until it was a few feet way, which was when she turned around and saw Josh.

"Hey, Twi," Josh said as Twilight quickly looked him over. No sword hilt, Assault Rifle with the Green Machine skin in his hands, and a Plasma caster. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Hey, Josh," Twilight said, her finger resting on her Plasma pistol's trigger. "I'm a little surprised you didn't crouch to ambush me."

"Who said I was going to get the kill," Josh said before a second dot came on above her, making it's way to the unlit tube that would let one fall to this floor. "I just had to distract you."

Under her helmet, Twilight smiled. "You forgot something though, Josh. I can teleport," she said before she lit her horn, and disappeard in a flash of light and a small pop, reappearing behind Josh, dropping her pistol and grabbing a knife from the forearm compartment, and tried to stab Josh in the side of the head, but was stopped by Josh's own.

"And I have to deal with immature assholes every other war game who think hitting me in the back is a kill," Josh said before spinning around, knife in his right hand in a reverse grip, sending Twilight's arm across her chest. "And they forget that I am in the top ten of knife fighting." With that, Josh make a swipe at Twilight's neck, but missed as Twilight ducked, and brought her own knife up, hoping to get Josh in the chin, but her arm was grabbed by  Josh, and then pushed back, stumbling, which let Josh use his thrusters to leap up, raising his knife and holding it in both hands, and then using his forearm thrusters as well as those on the soles of his suit to boost down, missing as Twilight sidestepped, who flipped her knife into a reverse grip. Josh gt up form the floor, and into a stance with the knife hand close to his body with the other hand in front of it and open, Twilight mirroring the stance.

Twilight looked around, and actually saw everyone else at a distance, in cover, looking at the two. "Eyes on the enemy, Twilight," Josh said, and the two went at it. Now, before you say Twilight should not be this good, keep in mind she was in the gym recovering, where there were other Spartans, who gave her a few tips with knife combat, tips she was using now, such as staying light, and not just focusing on Josh, but the area around them as well. Josh has backed Twilight to the wall, pinning her there, before Twilight remembered something.

The gravity was offline.

Under her helmet, the lavender unicorn smirked as she deactivated the magnetic soles. She jumped up, then boosted to the side. "Oh no you don't," Josh said, grabbing Twilight's leg, then slamming her down to the floor. Before she could get up, Josh jumped on her.

"And no pervy comments in the comments."

Discord, what the hell. Wasn't the restaurant chapter enough for you? And besides, I could have put that in the author's notes.

"Yeah, yeah, but still."

You know, I was planning on you coming in later. Only for Cortana to kill you. But if you don't leave now-

"Enough said, Lone. See ya later, then."

Ugh. At least he isn't a breezie.

"Vut vas that?" Bang

Annoying assholes. Anyway, back to the story.

"Nice job," Twi," Josh said. "I'm not being sarcastic. For your first time, you being able to go that long is impressive. I'm sorry," he said before he brought the knife down on Twilight's spine. Josh knife Twilight.

Round over. Defeat.

The pods for the war games opened, and Twilight shot out like a bullet, collapsing to the floor, panting as she did so. "You alright," Josh asked, walking up to her from the front. He crouched down. "Twi, look, I didn't want to, but you and the others still need to get your skills sharpened."

"I-I know," Twilight said. "It's just that. . . I liked it. I liked fighting."

"Why's that a surprise," Josh asked.

"Because in Equestria," Spike said, stretching, "any kind of violence against an individual is looked down on, even if it's self defense. Only exception is if your battling some kind of country dominating threat. Even war killing is looked down upon."

"How has your country not lost a war," Ken muttered.

"So long as you don't become a murderous psychopath," Josh said in a joking manner, which made Twilight chuckle a little.

"According to Equestrian law, I practically am just by being in a physical fight," Twilight said, chuckling. "At least I don't have to deal with that anymore."

Josh stood back up, and offered Twilight his hand. "So, want to get something to eat?"

"Sure," Twilight said, taking the offered hand. "But after, you're going to teach me some of your knife tricks."

"Right," Josh said. "See ya guys later," he said as he and Twilight left.

"So," Spike said, "what do you guys want to do now?"

"Well," Ken said, "there's a warzone match starting in ten minutes. You all want to watch it?"

"Sure, why not," Elegance said.

"You, Palmer?"

"I don't see why not," she said, shrugging.

"Then let's go take the armor off, then to the squad room," Ken said.

Infinity bridge

Resolution, as well as a few Soldiers, were on the deck of the Infinity, helping the those at the navigation consoles with saving the fuel the ship had, with Resolution and Void speaking with Lasky. "So, if your estimates are right," Lasky said, making sure he had heard the two right, "we're near a Forerunner planet."

"Not just any planet, Captain," Void said.

"Indeed," Resolution said. "The size and location of it are consistent with an outpost, this one used to study the Sangheili. As well as a research facility."

"But not just any facility, if I am right," Void said. "As it was in the area of the Sangheilios Guardian, and I was once a portion of it's defense group, I was partial to what it knew."

"And what might that be," Lasky asked.

"That it is one of the few the Flood did not know of."