The last of what's up There

Chapter Three
The Truth...

Date: November 5th, 2555
Location: Land of Equestria
Individual: Gilda the Griffon
Time: 2:07AM. 23 minutes before the Reclamation

The Prisoner of Equestria stood before Gilda the Griffon, who was eyeing him cautiously; the Promethean had promised to tell her the truth behind the Reclamation and why his forces had done what they did.

"Our story begins 100,000 years ago, during the apex of the Forerunners' rule over the galaxy. Our influence stretched to every known quadrant of the universe, and all races were welcome to the empire" the Prisoner began.

"And then we met the Inheritors...the ponies. They were a strong species of nobility and power, and all races united under the rule of the Princesses were equal. The Princesses greeted us with open arms, and happily accepted absorption into the Empire. We bestowed wondrous technology upon them, and they were happy to accept it. We also...enhanced their people, with the Princesses' consent, of course; though their history books will tell you that the Princesses condemned such experiments. Our own Terminals were altered by the Inheritors themselves to paint our experiments in a negative light, but I assure you that they appreciated the work we did to enhance their people. We were viewed as Gods by the ponies, and all was well."

"Around this time I evolved from my then current position into what I am now, a Promethean Knight. I was appointed by the Ecumene Council to be the Prisonkeeper of Equis Hakkor, the shield world now known as Equis, and the world that the land of Equestria is found on. You see, the ponies' original homeworld of Gemini 9 was consumed in whole by a parasitic life form we knew as the Flood. You, Griffon, know them as the Storm. The idea behind the names are the same."

"We discovered the Flood on Gemini 9 and evacuated all life on the planet; ponies, dragons, canines, changelings, Griffons. A thousand sentient races and more, and destroyed all traces of the Flood on the planet."

"The ponies betrayed us, however."

"Soon after we had constructed this shield world for them we learned that the Princesses had smuggled out specimens of the Flood, and allowed them to reproduce here on their new planet. By the time we discovered this the Flood were numbered in the billions, and a Gravemind had already formed, spreading Flood spores across the galaxy."

"The Forerunners' war against the Flood had begun on Equis, the new homeworld of Equestria. Equis, this shield world that we built for the ponies, was essentially also the homeworld of the Flood."

"The Ecumene Council was very displeased, and they confronted the Princesses, who claimed that all life in the galaxy was equal and had the right to live. They were wrong, however, and the Council told them that. The Forerunners would decide which species in the galaxy had the right to live, not them!"

"The Princesses then made a decision that changed the universe forever, one that eventually caused the Forerunners to fall at the hands of the Flood; they challenged us."

"The Princesses had decided they did not like the Forerunners' rule over the universe, and decided that their species should take their place and rule the galaxy with peace and happiness. The Princesses' ideals of how the galaxy should be run were weak and pitiful, fraught with beliefs of tolerance of all under their rule, including the Flood."

"With this knowledge and their challenge to the Forerunners we were sent to war against them; since the ponies only lived on one planet, this one, we assumed it would be a short and crushing campaign against them."

"The Princesses, however, were deceptive, and allowed the Flood to spread across the galaxy. The parasite assaulted us every chance they got, and the Ecumene Council split half the Empire's army off to fight the Flood and half to fight the ponies."

"I must give the Princesses credit; despite their peaceful nature they were excellent strategists and conniving bastards; their releasing of the Flood weakened the Empire and through a combination of this and excellent tactical strategies the armies of the ponies were able to defeat every Forerunner asset sent against them."

"I myself fell victim to this; I had developed a personal conflict with Princess Celestia, the primary leader of the ponies; she was the one who made all the crucial choices, including the one to allow the Flood to spread across the galaxy. Her sister was merely a yes-man who agreed with every choice Celestia made. The Didact and Ecumene suspected Celestia formed a pact with the Gravemind, or at the very least used her natural magic to channel the Flood away from her people. Not a single pony had ever been infected by the Flood."

"Eventually the Ecumene Council made one last conversation with the ponies, and said in very clear and bold terms 'the Flood are overwhelming us and we have neither the time nor resources to fight you. You will face the Flood on your own.'"

"And so the Ecumene Council pulled every last warrior, asset, and item they owned off the planet, leaving behind only the structures they had erected. In the time I spent travelling the planet in the past week I have seen not one Forerunner structure, and I assume the Princesses destroyed them all."

"However, the Ecumene forgot one last asset on the planet, a massive army of Prometheans, lead by the Prisonkeeper of Equis Hakkor... Me. I had been rechristened the Prisoner of Equestria by the Princesses, and they sealed me and my army away beneath Canterlot. They had not the heart nor resolve to kill us, which I suspect was a result of Celestia's personal feelings for me. We were not involved romantically, but before our war she and I had become very close friends and allies. She was devastated the moment she saw that I had been tasked with killing her and her sister, and I will never forget the tears in her eyes."

"Eventually the Forerunners lost the war against the Flood and as time went on we sat alone and forgotten beneath Canterlot, every couple of centuries testing our combat prowess against the Gravemind and the Flood. It seemed the Princesses' view of the Flood changed over time and they eradicated all traces of the parasite from their planet, save for the Gravemind and many other forms that had been sealed away beneath Canterlot Mountain."

"However, just a week ago, we were released by an individual I now know as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza; she was a young Alicorn, and I do not contend she had ever been told the legend of the Prometheans. From what I learned Princess Celestia and Luna were killed by meddlers, an alien conglomeration known as the Covenant, leaving Princess Cadenza the only ruler of Equestria. Her ignorance released us from our prison, and we sought revenge against the Inheritors for what they had wrought upon us, the Forerunners."

"Then, two days ago, I learned that the Flood had been left unchecked by anyone but us, and the Princesses allowed them to grow beneath Canterlot Mountain, and they were planning on escaping and consuming all in the known galaxy once again. That is when I set about searching for a Catalyst to begin the Reclamation, an event which would wreak our final revenge upon the Inheritors and save them from the Flood" the Prisoner finished, looking deep within the eyes of Gilda the Griffon, who had but one question.

"Why...? Why did you decide to save them after coming out to kill them?"

"We are Forerunners, guardians of all that exists. If the Ecumene Council wished for the ponies to be extinct then they would not have christened them the Inheritors and left them on the edges of space, far beyond the reaches of the Halo Array. We preserve their species with the Reclamation; the spire you see here will fire deep within Trinity and activate an ancient device which will teleport every last living being on the planet to a Micro Dyson Sphere, a device which contains an infinite world within. The Reclamation will also cleanse this world of the Flood and us, the last of the Prometheans" the Prisoner answered.

"Your killing yourselves? Why?" Gilda asked.

"Personal reasons, Griffon. Ones you have neither the time nor knowledge to comprehend... I advise you to leave soon. Outside this mountain is the Catalyst, the Reclaimer known as Commander Crusher, and he will soon be awoken and placed within the spire to begin the Reclamation."

The Prisoner turned back to face the spire and looked it over, mulling over the events that had transpired 100,000 years ago. The events he had just described to the Griffon in full detail.

May Celestia forgive me for the war we waged, and may she accept this atonement for my sins the Prisoner thought as he ventured back to the surface to retrieve Commander Crusher.

*-*-*

Legal note: the Prisoner of Equestria, Commander Robert Crusher, and all related characters belong to me. Gilda the Griffon, Princess Celestia, and all related characters belong to Hasbro. My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro. Halo belongs to 343i.