“BipBapBam”

FEW HOURS BEFORE THE BATTLE OF NEIGHTHERLAND

OBITAL DEFENSE PLATORM:

ANGEL STATION

OVER THE COLONY Neightherland

Lady of Admirals, Robin Hood, waved her wrinkled rust color hoof to a ship outside the space station’s observation deck.  

“I know what you are thinking, son….” Hood stated “…that’s was pride and jewel of the UNSCOE fleets before the Silver Spoon. Now that the Spoon was blown up, its place is reclaimed”

Beside her, stood an earth pony with a brown mane and a grey coat. His mark was two keys facing in opposite directions attach to a ring. His name tag read: Commander Corncob Keyes. He moved up from lieutenant a few months ago.

“Yeah… By my stars….” Corncob gaped.

Outside the deck’s glass window, was huge warship entering its finishing touches. While a crane held the vessel in place, sparks and lights pinpointed repairers.  A few years ago, this ship was to be scrapped.  Instead, it was now being repurposed to fight the impending threats of the Covenant. They called it The Wrap of Winter, named in honor of a traditional holiday originating from Ponyville.

Hood broke the silence, “All Those ‘Honey-comb’-class warships, except this one, were put out of order when I was just a filly, son. You'd never think you would see another one in your lifetime.”

“Yeah…” Keyes repeated still staring outside.

“Stop saying ‘yeah’ like a civilian, Commander Keyes.” Lady Robin Hood sharply ordered.

“Sorry, sir – I mean ma’am!” Keyes quickly corrected himself.

Robin Hood was very old, like other admirals.  Her coat was rust colored and her blonde mane and tail had almost turned all grey.  When she spoke, you would think she was filled with the fire of an energetic mare.  It was also a notable feature that she was a unicorn.

As Lady of Admirals, wearing a fresh white military dress with golden rims and a cap, Robin Hood was only below the UNSCOE council.  Other than those rulers, she had complete power over all of the UNSCOE Military, pony and non-pony.

Corncob Keyes was interested in what her cutie mark was but he resisted doing that. So he turned his attention back to the Wrap of Winter outside.  “She….is fine piece of work….kind of reminds me of a tall wedding cake on its side – with hexagonal layers staking atop of one another. It doesn't look long however.  And it looks pretty old-fashioned compared to our other ships…ma’am.”

Robin Hood chuckled. “At first, I thought you were referring to Halsey when you said she.  That unicorn is sure one striking mare. You are one lucky pony to have found such a ‘piece of work’. Two, if you include the Winter.”

Robin knew of Keyes and Halsey deep history together.

“Oh,” Keyes sated giving a fake smile, but in his heart he longed to be with Halsey again, who was trapped in some Complex in some underground PONI lab somewhere on Sigma Clopodia.  The most memorable time they had spent together physically was when they met Subject-117 at Ponyville’s Library.

And sometimes Halsey Sparkle would never stop rambling about their only child.  A child that only a few knew they had.

Keyes looked beyond Angel Station’s observation window and past the Winter of Wrap into the stars.  Some years after his boy’s augmentations were sabotaged Halsey Sparkle bought their kid back to life….but he wasn’t the same.  Now, that kid was part of an elite Hellprancer squad, fighting either the insurrection or the Covenant somewhere….

Robin Hood’s voice bought him back to looking at the Winter of Wrap. “There’s enough space for a full ship’s crew, and it will carry all the prototype weapons one could ever need in this war and other wars to come.”

“It’s a pleasure to serve aboard the Winter aboard as her executive.” Corncob Keyes saluted proudly. “Who’s the commanding officer?”

“Captain Gel Rio, but he is currently in a hospital after breaking leg while bucking a tree on vacation for some reason I don’t give a care about. So….” Lady Robin then pulled from her military dress’s pocket a tiny captain’s badge.  She then held out her hoof for Keyes to take it.

“That’s you for today, Captain Corncob Keyes; now let’s take a tour of the ship….”

“M’Lady! Lady Robin hood!”  Cried a unicorn major, who teleported onto the observation deck.  While he panted, he hastily gave Lady Robin Hood a salute.

“Speak, Major Minor Problems.” The Lady stated, reading new pony’s name tag aloud.  Keyes grinned softly at hearing the name; it almost sounded like the phrase ‘a major/minor problem’.

Once the major stopped panting he gave out his report. “Ma’am….Deep space scouts report of a massive Covenant fleet….and they are en route to Neigtherland in a few hours.”

“Is that going to be enough time to stop them from glassing the planet just like they did with Bronze Harvest?” Keyes wondered

Robin’s nice grandmother expression became hard cold stone as her face darted to Keyes. She then slapped the pin forcefully onto Keyes’s fur coat. “Ouch” Keyes whined

“Listen here, part-time-captain Keyes; Gel Rio isn't here, which mean he won't mess things up like he did at Bucephala, so you're in change! Get that tour of the Winter over with and don't end up being the latest plasma-fried-patty on my platter. Do I make myself clear, Keyes?”

Keyes shuttered “Y-Yes Ma’am.”  Then he made a mad dash to find an entrance into to the Winter.

Robin turned to Major Minor Problems “Send a message to CASTLE Complex on Sigma Clopodia – I hear there is some Greenhorns-II, Orbital Drop Shock Steeds, and special operatives we can use right now.”

Major Problems then cried out “Yes ma’am – But by the time they get here, it will be in the middle of a losing battle!”

“Don’t give me excuses! Give me those Soldiers!” Snapped Robin Hood. “NOW!”

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FEW HOURS LATER

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLE OF Neightherland

“Drive to survive, Lugnut!” Shouted Zebra Sergeant Gravy J.J. to the unicorn in the driver’s seat of the warthog.  The Moon-sun was riding shotgun, while carrying a sniper rifle. While he did so, a griffon known as Darius stood up on the warthog’s turret-mounted flatbed, firing the chaingun in bursts.

“Those ghosts are still on our tail!” Panicked Darius. He referred to three T-shaped, hovering, small vehicles, being piloted by grunts. Lugnut was swinging the warthog back and forth, trying to steer clear of the ghost’s plasma rounds.

Lugnut grumbled “‘….the Rally Point at New Appleoosa is safe…’ you said.  ‘We we’ll take a break from the fighting there’ you said; Next thing you know, we find it crawling with covenant!”

“Shut the buck up and drive! That’s an order, private!”  Gravy hissed.  The zebra stood up on his seat and turned around, aiming his sniper rifle at their pursuers.

Kraap-pow! Kraap-pow!

Gravy’s first sniper rifle round bounced of the Ghost’s hull, but his second one struck the grunt in the head.  His ghost started to flip and collided with the ghost beside him, knocking out the pilot.

“Ghost is roasted!” The Gravy cheered.  On the flat bed turret, Daruis made the last ghost explode into pieces by driving several rounds into its hull.

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Lungut drove the warthog all over the country side.  The fields of grass were reduced to tiny patches amongst the dirt.  Plasma-radiated caters were a common sight in the hills.  The orange sky was mixed black with smoke from all corners of the countryside; it was hard to tell if it should be dawn, dusk, or even midnight.

“Lugnut – drive us to Friendship-Fire-Base 01; we have to tell them that we’re losing ground in Colt d’Azure.” Gravy commanded.

“What are they going do about it?” squawked Darius to superior, munching on a Meal-At-the-Ready bar.

“Send in an airstrike or ODSSs drop…I don't know what support Lady Hood promised – she just said it would be sent….”

Lugnut abruptly stopped the warthog in front of Friendship-Fire-Base-01; it had transformed into a smoking hill of rods and burnt metal.

“…Here…” Gravy finished, seeing the destruction.   He told Lugnut to drive around the area to find a radio, an M.M.M., anything.  Darius kept the chain-gun turret ready.

They only drove for five seconds around the hill, before a bolt of green plasma soared out of the smoke and whacked the warthog’s rear, causing it to spin in midair.  Being unicorn, Lugnut forced the warthog to land on it four tires.

When Gravy’s dizziness ended, he could see two covenant units emerging out from the smoke and stomping down the hill.  

They were known as Covenant Hunters.  They were the tallest and the strongest of covenant units.  Their grey-blue body armor was rounded with sharp edged here and there.  Their glowing orange fresh (Actually composed of a colony of orange worms) was visible at all their joints.  While the other covenant looked like soldiers, hunter resembled war-machines; they hefted a huge shield with their left arm and had giant plasma canon for a right hand, with no visible face except two green circles as eyes on the ‘head-piece’ armor.  Then emitted low deep rumbles.

“Let them have it, Darius!” Gravy roared.  When no turret fire came, Gravy swerved his head around and witnessed a featherless and partly skeletal corpse that was Darius on the flatbed, along with a stump of the stand where the chain gun was attached to.  

Lugnut also saw what happened to his griffon friend, but Gravy shouted at him “Boy, Get us out of here!”

Lugnut was about make a sharp U-turn.  However one of the hunters charged up its plasma cannon and fire off a green plasma projectile.

The projectile struck the warthog and it exploded.  Gravy had managed to bail out and the explosion threw him a couple of meters away.  However, Lugnut was caught in the blast and stumbled out of his wreckage, bleeding and burned.  The two hunters began to stomp towards Lugnut.

Gravy called out to the unicorn, but Lugnut was probably deafened from the explosion; he kept limping away, the Hunter only a hoof behind him.  

Gravy got hold of his sniper rifle lying beside him.  He fired the rounds at the Hunter’s armor only to witness that the meant-to-be-armor-piercing-rounds bounce off the thick armor plating.  However, Gravy was able to get one shot into a weak spot at the exposed orange neck of one of the hunter’s, causing it to drop dead.

The other hunter bought his foot on Lugnut’s head.  Gravy looked away from the scene, hearing the sound of blood and guts being squeezed out and bones being smashed.

Once The Hunter finished executing Lugnut, it found its finding its twin dead and seeing Gravy in the distance.  The hunter let out a thunderous rumble and fired a round at Gravy’s position.

Gravy rolled out of the way of the oncoming green blast. The he galloped at the hunter, ready to take the massive alien on, even though the Zebra was dwarfed in size, his weapon was out of ammo, and knew he was all alone.

The Hunter charged up its canon, with Gravy readying to brace its impact.

However, shower of rockets landed on the Hunter before Gravy got too close to it. The hunter was now a pile of dead orange worms and shards of armor.

Gravy looked above and saw that the rockets had come from a phoenix dropship that was hovering above him.

*“Hello Sergeant, how’s your day?”* The pilot of the dropship asked.

“Mighty fine son, now that you saved my striped flank.”  Gravy took off his cap  and wiped some sweat off his brow with a muddy hoof. “I, however, had been told the Good Lady Robin Hood was sending us some support.”

*“…And we’re it, Sargent.  Sorry for the delay; the space battle above us is getting worse.  We must make haste to Colt’d Azure. Come with if you'd like.”*

Gravy was puzzled; all the civilians in Colt d’Azure were either dead or evacuated and it was filled with covenant and the UNCSOE in on-and-off street firefighting; so why head back there?  Gravy settled that they he would be debrief on it later.

The Phoenix lowered to the ground and Gravy J.J. slung his sniper rifle on his back and trotted up to the Phoenix.

The loading bay for him opened revealing three ponies.  

One who was a magenta greenhorn unicorn wore a blocky MUSTANG-Mk 5 helmet and sea-foam colored armor, with crossed swords overlapping a shield painted on her thigh armor piece.

The other was a yellow greenhorn pegasus with maroon MK 5 armor and the pony-shaped MUSTANG-Mk 4 and had a paint brush paint on her armor.  

The third pony was the most unique from the group; she had wild raspberry hair ending at the front of her snout to the base of her neck, was smaller than the other members, masked her face with skull mask, and had an hourglass cutie mark.

“Welcome to Greenhorn Team Indigo; looks like you’ll be the only one joining us on this mission.”  The Maroon-armored Pegasus greeted.  Gravy could see her young eyes behind her orange visor – she was probably around twenty. That was a surprise – Gravy thought that greenhorns were a lot older.

“In exchange for coming with you on this mission, could you explain what in hell we are doing in covenant-hell-hole that I just escaped, ma’am?” Gravy said as he got onto the dropship

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HOEVERING OVER COLT D’ AZURE

I explained to the Zebra sergeant that Lady Robin Hood had ordered my team to secure a crystallion artifact in the Museum of Colt d’ Azure. Despite telling us that the museum was in a heavily-covenant-occupied region of the city, the Zebra said he was willing to help us.

“I didn't graduate from sniping school or get a master’s diploma in ‘bucking’ for nothin’; you got yourself an A-grade Zebra, Ma’am.” The Zebra sergeant winked.  Blades and High Hopes took off their headgear and introduced themselves.  November leaned out from his cockpit seat and introduced himself.

*BOOOOM!*

Then, the ship rocked violently forcing me and High Hopes out of our seats.  “November! Report!”

“Covenant Banshees, they are trying to stop us from getting further into the city! I’ll try to land this dropship in a safe location. Hang on, ponies!” November called out as we began a dangerous decent.

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THE NEARBY BEACH

COLT D’AZURE

Knock-knock-knock

“DESTINY! WAKE UP!  THERE IS NO RESPAWN AND YOU’RE STILL ALIVE – STILL ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!! WAKE UUUUUUUUP!”

High Hopes wouldn't stop wrapping on my visor so didn't get to pass out in peace.  Once I got on my fours I did some regular morning stretches – it sure felt like morning with the dropship alarm going off;  I buck it with my hind legs to silence it.  The Phoenix was in one piece but its engines were damaged too badly.  Gravy was nowhere in sight.

“Looks like we’re to going continue on hoof, Indigo Team.” I announced.

“Wait.” November spoke, looking surprised “We’re going…on hoof? As in…walking? Though a sector filled with hostiles?  I can fix this ship…”

“Of course.” I firmly stated. “But unless you want to meet a covenant scouting party that could be coming right now to make sure everypony on this dropship is dead, it’s best that we move on.  Our allies are going lose this place to the Covenant soon…”

This sector of the city, the planet, or both? November wondered.

“..so let’s make the most of it, Indigo Team”  My marksmare rifle was still functional but the scope was cracked.

“Yeah, Go Indigo! O-rah! O-rah! O-MMMMP!” High Hopes cheered, only to have her mouth magically zipped by Blades at the third ‘o-rah’.

“Hush now, mate. ‘em aliens are probably already looking for us.”  Blades informed. She open a magical compartment on the side pulled out a chain-gun and two covenant needlers. “They already greeted us into the city. So I say we give them a greeting from a Bronze Harvester.”

Though she was grinning with the anticipation to make use of the weapon, I said, “No, Blades – we’re only using the quieter weapons only. No chain guns or shotguns…”

High hopes thought Are you serious? Even Gunny hates you!.  

Blades gave me a disapproving look though her orange visor. Should I bring up the fact it’s my birthday? Nah…I won’t be a brat

“…but keep them just in case.” I informed.  They both squeed.

November made sure his rifle was ready and his MMMedpacks were with him.  Once they were I opened the hatch of the phoenix’s loading bay.

We were on a locale beach of Colt d’Azure that was devoid of any movement marked on my motion tracker; lucky for us, some buildings in the city were nearby.  It would provide good cover into the city.

I ordered November to take point in air, while Hopes, Blades, and I galloped behind some rumble.  November scanned the building in the air with visor, looking for hostiles on his eyepiece’s motion tracker.

Fzoooow!

A thin beam of blue plasma whizzed right near November’s left ear coming from a rooftop.  At the same time from below, my own augmented ears caught the sound of a jackal grumbling angrily from one of the buildings above.  A red dot flashed on my motion tracker and then disappeared.

“Yikes!” November wailed and zipped down to join us in cover behind the rumble.

“Sniper… It’s a jackal camping on the rooftop of the building – can’t believe I didn’t see him.” November breathed.

“That reminds me - Does this count as camping?” High Hopes asked, referring to the four of us behind a pile of rubble

“I can’t see the hooligan!” Blades called out, levitating her chain gun at the building.  The jackal fired again.  

Fzoooow!

“Crikey!”

The Blades ducked at the last minute, while tiny bits of the rubble flew off.  “He’s too high on that to give me a clear shot at that freaky-flank mask that we call his face.”

“Did you just call me a stallion on drugs?” High Hopes asked, angrily bumping her skull mask at the armored nuzzle of Blade’s helmet

“Settle down you two.  I’ll do this for Lipizzaner.” I informed, flying into the air.

From there I could see the Jackal hefting what looked like a purple sword with its tip facing forward, flowing with energy.  

[img] http://www.halopedia.org/images/4/4d/Halo3_Jackal.jpg[/img]

The Jackal sniper fired only two shots at me, with one of them grazing my MUSTANG armor’s over shield (causing it to glow brightly in yellow). Then he paused in firing, as he took one claw off his sniper rifle and squawked in frustration.

This was a usual sight – most Covenant weapons could overheat easily, causing them to remain dysfunctional for a short period of time.

Still in midair, I looked into the cracked scope of my rifle and shot a single round right between the jackal’s orange eyes.  The alien’s body and weapon toppled off the building and fell onto the sand.

“Indigo – proceed into the buildings.” I said into the helmet radio, pointing my armored hoof at the buildings. I flew down to pick up the jackal’s weapon.

*Scanning….done; Covenant Beam Rifle is now compatible with MUSTANG-Mk 5 armor of Greenhorn 117. *  

This text was on my HUD, right under a half-way filled shield bar.

A few moments later the shield recharged fully and I trotted over to join my friends, happy I got new sniper rifle. Or ‘beam rifle’, whose computerized scope was now linked to my suit.

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Silverblitz and Pan Cake were just sneaking through alleyway – invisible and both clad in PONI recon armor – until they saw some UNSCOE marines running through a street. They were being led by a male greenhorn unicorn in blue armor.

“Hey!” Silverblitz called out to the squad, deactivating his invisibility spell on him and Pan Cake.  “Where is the fighting at?”

The squad didn’t respond, galloping eagerly away.  The male greenhorn answered “Here’s a hint, derpflank: Incoming.”

“What?” Pan Cake wondered.

Once the marines had left Pan and Cake and Silverblitz hoofed into the street. As they did so, a covenant wraith appeared around a corner, unleashing a comet-shaped motor at their position.  Silverblitz saw tank as a bunch of round and smooth pieces fashion together pretty neatly in some big' ol  blob with a big' ol back and two little 'wings' at the front

Wooooooooshhh

“Mother of Chrysalis-” Pan Cake exclaimed in surprise just before the mortar came into contact with him.  Silverblitz managed to teleport himself back into the dark alleyway as Pan Cake was engulfed in bright blue explosion.  

BOOOM!!!

A black crater was all that remained.

“Son-of-a-Cerberus.” Silverblitz hissed, casting his invisibility spell again.  The wraith tank hovered slowly and silently down the street, its driver on the assumption that the two equestrians were killed in the blast.

After the Wraith past his alley way, Silverblitz deactivated his invisibility spell and leapt out into the road alleyway and hitched onto the back of the wraith.  

On the back of the wraith, was tiny spinning rotor. Still unnoticed, Silverblitz chucked a fragmentation grenade into the rotor, seeing in roll further into the wraith.

Then he back flipped off the wraith tank and in three seconds the wraith detonated in a blue explosion, its pieces flying into buildings and rolling about on the road.

Proud of himself Silverblitz huffed “Heh…not even a Greenhorn or an Orbital Drop Shock Steed could make it twenty percent cooler, eh Pan Cake….Pan?”

Silverblitz realized he was the only one left in the alleyway.  On the sidewalk, he saw Pan Cake’s severed foreleg.  Next to it was the changeling’s crooked horn.

Silverblitz took one long look at the crater where his old partner once was.  Seeing as there nothing collect after Pan Cake’s demise, he galloped off into the distance, looking for the marine squad and the greenhorn.

Eventually, Silverblitz found them, resting in nearby plaza. “Yo! Greenhorn! Got a name?”

The greenhorn unicorn grunted “Charter-259…my squad here…we’re done defending this city…there nothing left…what a waste of my men.”

Silverblitz shook his helmeted head, with Charter and his marine squad in his lime-green visor “No, Charter – there is something I need…and it’s in the museum.”

“Are you nuts?” one of the marines, a pegasus, revolted “You’re gonna be cut down – that’s where a bunch of covenant forces are stationed. No way you can make me go there – even if I’m sent to Luna’s moon!”

Silverblitz stated “What the covenant wants so dearly on this planet is an artifact in that museum…As A PONI officer on this vital mission I say let’s get  it. Now.”

Charter stood in front of Silverblitz – he was very buff compared to Silverblitzy. “Who says you’re in charge?” The greenhorn sneered.

Silverblitz grinned “I’m not only taking charge cause I can; I’m asking for a return in favor and some help. My buddy is dead and I took out that wraith tank that you were galloping away from. Quid pro quo.”

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The elite covenant warrior was a bipedal creature.  Four jaws or sharp teeth and two reptilian eyes its muscular arms and legs were coated under a layer of scales and armor plates of all sorts of triangles and curves.  He gave a low growl that could be as translated, ‘any closer, and your friend dies’.

He meant me.

A few minutes ago when we were scouting the road filled with dead soldiers, dead civilians, and some Pony and Covenant weapons, a shimmer in the air was headed towards us.  At first I thought it was some plasma radiation in the area or a trick of our eyes.  Instead, it was an elite covenant warrior, cloaked from our eyesight and our motion trackers.

He appeared in front of Blades, using his sword to slice her chain gun in half and knocking her down.  Before the rest of us could return fire, the elite disappeared again – but he reappeared and caught me from behind.

Now, the elite was holding me around the neck and bringing a dual-bladed energy sword pretty close to my visor.

“Take him guys…” I croaked to my team, who were hesitant to shoot.  

I wasn't scared that elite was attempting to choke me, or that he could just plunge his blade into my eye; I just wanted to see what my team would do – As a team leader, you can't always be leading your team;  you need to see how they function without you…

I-DEE-AA!  High Hopes though, then she turned to Blades and November ginning with brilliance.

“Blades…cook him. Novy, get ready to color that alien pleased as punch.” High Hopes directed.  Blades gave dumbfounded look, having no weapons

November flare whispered to Blades “You know the plasma pistol’s secondary ability to shoot an overcharged burst that will overload shields completely?  Think you can do a spell similar to that?”

Blades nodded. Her horn gave a low hum and glowed in a bright, blinding green light.  The elite growled a warning at Blades, his four jaws stretching out and showing his throat.

High Hopes pumped her shotgun and shouted "Yo, Squid-face!", prompting the elite to look away from Blades.

Blades let off the blast of magic from her horn, causing to her fall back on her flank.  The bolt of green magic hit the elite in the face, also deteriorating his shields.

November fired a three-round burst from his ‘medic-edition’ battle rifle (or whatever names I could come up with it) at the elite’s head.  Three syringes struck the elite in his eye, one of his nostril and somewhere in his mouth past his four jaws.

“Nice job delivering that king hit.” Blades complemented to November Flare.

The elite collapsed, dropping me and his cyan energy sword (which deactivated automatically). As November helped me up to my hooves, we overheard a strange hum in the distance.  

Five covenant dropships, resembling like underwater mammals plated in armor, were flying towards us.

“Ai,yai,yai...Is there any place the Covenant isn’t?” High Hopes questioned sarcastically.

“Find cover!”  I yelped, picking up my DMR and the Beam rifle.

“What cover?”  Blades asked, magically pulling out her twin needlers.  

She was right – only dead bodies and scattered pieces of vehicles were in the street.  I galloped to locked door of building and tried to buck in open – even with MUSTANG Mk 5 armor and chemical augmentations, all I could do was dent the door.  November tried to bash open a window with the butt of his syringe rifle but he couldn't even crack it.

The dropships were moving in closer. They surrounded us and dropped down various troops and vehicles.  Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Hunters all snarled, barked, and rumbled at us. About ten ghosts were at the edge the infantry perimeter. We stood on our back legs, pointing our guns widely at the surrounding forces.

On my motion tracker, a bundle of tiny yellow dot (consisting of my team) was in thick perimeter of several red dots.

I’d rather be a tree than go through this… November groaned to himself.    However, the covenant forces were waiting for us to make to make the first move – they believed they could win and wanted to soak some fear in us a little longer.

“Indigo – what do we have?” I wondered.

November said that he had two magical mystery medkits, his syringe-battle-rifle, two fragmentation grenades, and his tactical eye-piece.  Blades stated that she had her energy-shielded Mustang Mk-5 armor, two needlers, a plasma grenade, and some magical spells.  I had my DMR, a beam rifle, my own energy-shielded armor.  High Hopes had shotgun full of surprises and her skull mask.

“How did we go from fighting a Manticore and Hydras to this?”  Blades whispered.

“You guys fought hydras?” High hopes asked, sounding excited.

Blades answered “Yup, back on Sigma Clopodia – Foggy bottom backwash. Two of ‘em.  And we were your age, Hopes, and we didn't have this armor or any guns. Mendez only gave us two sticks and rock he named 'Opal'.”

“Those four-headed amphibian freaks made the Manticore in ghastly gorge look like a pussy cat.” I stated, bringing back old memories of when Snapshot-102, Lipizanner-039, Turning Fork-075, and Mudd Slinger-077 were part of our team.

“I’m sure the covenant make both of those nightmares feel like tea parties.” November shivered, bring back the fact they were surrounded.

“Too right mate….” Blades hissed.

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!”

A shrilling ye-haw was heard, causing the covenant to look toward an oncoming warthog, mounted with a six-barreled rocket turret which was manned by an earth pony ODSS in a muddy coat.  The warthog bowled into the perimeter of the covenant infantry, sending bodies flying.

“That’s one way to save ammo….Now let ’em have it, pony!” yelled the driver, who was Sergeant Gravy JJ. I was thankful to see the Zebra sergeant in one piece and up for a flank-whopping.  

“Yes sir!” The Earth pony ODSS replied and rocket sailed out from the tubes and inflamed a pair of Hunters.  The massive beasts rumbled loaded and returned fire in green rods at the fast-moving warthog.

“MARK!” I shouted – we tossed our grenades at the distracted covenant and dashed in different directions as explosions engulfed and shrapnel struck the unlucky aliens.

High Hopes pulled radio from out of nowhere and played a fire-fight fitting theme from the band zap-apple-jam.

I took to the sky and focused my fire on an elite warrior– it took an entire clip of my DMR to lower the elite’s shield before I finished him off with a headshot from the beam rifle. I repeated this process with other elites, till I ran out of DMR ammo.

November Flare shot down another elite and then flew to a rooftop, seeing some advancing jackals with their gauntlet shields.  His syringes made the dead jackals look like disregarded test animals.

High Hopes got a plasma burn on part of her skull mask, but she was still alive and kicking, evading a swing from a hunter’s foot from stomping on her, only to roll under the hunter and shoot at an exposed an exposed orange area at his back.

A Jackal began to fire his plasma pistol repeatedly at the dancing and trigger-happy High Hopes.  After doing a twirl, High Hopes held her shotgun out with one fore-hoof and blasted confetti into the Jackal’s eyes.

Blades preformed her armor lock spell on charging ghost, causing it to flip from the shockwave and eject the grunt piloting it.  With my shield partially drained I swooped down and flipped the Ghost back up.  Then I drove it front of covenant units tore them into little piece of flesh with the ghost plasma cannons.

“Oi! Who told you to lob into my ride, Destiny!?” Blades called out after me.

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With the corrected timing, High Hopes summer-saluted backwards onto the passenger seat Johnson’s rocket-launcher mounted warthog. Once seated, she blasted a needler out of an elite’s claws.

“Next time get a plasma rifle, split-jaw!  It has hot action!” High Hopes taunted the elite.  Then a grunt tossed a plasma grenade that successfully stuck to the rocket turret on the flatbed.

“Grenade – Everypony bail out!” The ODSSs shouted. He, Gravy and High Hopes leapt off as their unmanned Warthog splattered an elite and blew up in front of a hunter.  Some nearby grunts and Jackals began to break into a hasty retreat.

“That’s right – run you foxtroters!” Gravy shouted.

Blades teleported beside the ODSS and levitated a needler into his forehooves.  “Welcome to the fight, mate!”  

Despite ODSSs and greenhorns having a hard time working together after what I did to Strikeout’s squad a long time ago, this ODSS accepted Blades offer and took the weapon from her.

High Hopes trotted up beside the ODSSS the corners of a wide smile stretched beyond her skull mask “And welcome to the party! Now you have lots and lots of friends!”  

Meanwhile, Gravy picked up an energy sword with his mouth and engaged two elites in an energy sword battle, proving to be more than a match for them.

“Help me, help you!” November called out, crouching behind a railing. He used up all his syringes and had only two grenades left.  

I was also in tough spot, with my Ghost badly damaged from a hunter’s plasma cannon and my shields dangerously low.

A Jackal sniper from the street below started firing at November’s position on the rooftop.  I used the last of the ghost’s power for running over that jackal.  Then the vehicle stopped hovering and was grounded permanently.

In exchange, November used his wings to bat two fragmentation grenades down into the street below at pair of hunters. One blew up into pieces of armor and orange worms while his twin was knocked away.

-------------------------------

The covenant force that once surrounded us was reduced to a bunch of carcasses and few stragglers, which we dealt with little effort.

“Now this…beats hitting books in library.” I breathed out, letting my now depleted energy shield recharge.

“This party calls for a victory.” High Hopes panted before collapsing.

“Yeah…” the ODSS sighed.  The familiarity in his voice caught my full attention.  He wore the black ODSS variant of the equestrian marine armor, concealing his face behind a full helmet.  However, his visible legs were colored in different types of brown.  And that three-pronged tail looked undoubted from somepony I knew.  At last, I realized who it when I glanced at the scar on the back of his neck

“Mudd?” I wondered aloud.  Here was friend of mine, unbelievably back from the dead and grown up...somehow. Here stood Mudd Slinger fighting beside me again.  It was unbelievable.

Mudd Slinger took off his helmet as showed his face, alive, well, focused, and needing a shave.  Blades and I gasped, lost for words.

Destiny-117. You haven’t changed one bit. Mudd thought.

Mudd saluted us sharply, identifying himself as ‘Hellprancer Master Sergeant Mudd Slinger of the 105st legion’.

“Slinger, my mate! What in name of Luna are you doing here!?” Blades squealed coming over to Mudd and rubbing his mane vigorously.  Mudd forced her hoof away, giving her an irritated look.

“Robin Hood deployed me in because she thought you needed help getting something; The Crystal Heart at the Colt D’Azure museum.”

“The Crystal Heart? I thought that was just a piece of old-pony art.” High Hopes blurted out.

Mudd shook his head “According to recent examinations of data on covenant society done by my…” my mum… "a superior I answer to alone, the Crystal Heart is an artifact that Covenant have been searching since their foundation.  No pony knows what it will do, but Robin Hood orders that we have to find out that out first.”

“C’mon lets break a leg. To the museum!” Gravy huffed putting his sergeant cap and wrapping his sniper rifle around himself.  As he trotted, ge started to chant the Hellprancer marching song confidently with us walking behind him.

“One Early morning in Zero five - Join me you ponies! -The ground will rumble there will lightning in the sky! Don't you worry, don't come undone-”

“Gravy J.J…..you’re supposed to look at legs, not break them!” High hopes chuckled, causing an awkward silence among the group.

“Let’s….just go. Quietly.”  I settled.

*You’re gonna need a lot more firepower, Indigo.* The voice of none other than Silverblitz chimed into our radios.  Pretty soon, a tortoise tank was strolling behind us..

Once mighty tank halted in front of us, Silverblitz popped open the hatch and hoofed over to me. Then he looked at the covenant corpses scattered about.

“Well it looks like I missed a fight…”  (High Hopes shouted ‘well, duh!’) “…how are you doing Master Chief Petty Officer?  I like the armor color; it goes with your profession; spilling blood.”  Silverblitz commented.

“Silverblitz? I’m…fine; it’s just another day of the week for me. I take it you are here for….” However I could already guess what the PONI stallion was here for anyway

“The same thing: The Crystal Heart in the city museum – Bad news is Pan Cake is dead, and a Greenhorn’s Squad didn’t answer me. However I found cool turtle tank, lying around!”  Silverblitz explained.

“Tortoise Tank.  Oh, where are my manners? G’day, mate!” Blades greeted giving Silverblitz a hoof bump.

After tossing Gravy an M.M.M. to cover an intense bleeding on his leg, November questioned “You lost Pan Cake? And a Greenhorn wouldn’t answer to you?”

I told Silverblitz I would make sure this greenhorn, Charter, knew his place.  But I needed to be taken to him.

“Deal – as long as I get to drive the tank.” Silverblitz settled.

Then Silverblitz turned his helmeted face towards Mudd and Gravy, saying “I know featherbrain, Little-red riding hood, you lemon-head, and aussie-twilight-sparkle…so who is stripes and who is spotted?”

Gravy hoofed over to Silverblitz. “I’m Sergeant Junior Gravy-the-zebra-that-blows-alien’s-asses-to-the-moon-Junior-Jay. Pleasure to see you again, Mr.Blitz.” the Zebra happily introduced himself.

Ah… the lone Zebra from the failed Greenhorn-I project thought Silverblitz.  This I found interesting, and I would have to ask Silverblitz and Gravy J.J. later about it.

Mudd said, “I’m Mudd Slinger”.

“I’m better.”  Silverblitz joked “Where’s your squad? Hellprancers never drop alone.”

“I drop alone. Always did.”  Mudd hissed.

“Alright then lone timber wolf – You’re with us.” Silverblitz replied.  “Let’s get in the tank and go find some forces.  Then we’ll go see the Crystal Heart exhibition.”

----------------------------------

Silverblitz drove the tank, with High Hopes sitting on the barrel, while November, Gravy, and Blades, sat on the treed covers.  Mudd drove behind the tank, in chariot carrying me.

The streets were pretty quiet.  Overall, no pony said a word as we strolled along the street. We kept our eyes peeled for snipers and covenant patrollers.  But my eyes kept drifting back to Mudd Slinger. I was so tempted to speak to him that I directed him to pull over.  I told Blades to inform the others I wanted to debrief Slinger privately.

“Mudd…where have you been?” I asked while sitting in the chariot. I had taken off my helmet so I could speak to him one-on-one and face-to-face.

Slinger had his flank and his tail to me, answering “First dead, then reborn as a grown up.  Finally, I ended up in this war.  End of story.”

Surely there was more to it, so I persisted in him telling the whole story.  After taking off his own helmet , he said:

“Fine…After the Discord AI killed me…Doctor Halsey brought me back alive with secret resources given to her from Chrysalis.  I wasn't strong enough to be a greenhorn but I was still in good shape, so I enlisted in the Orbital Drop Shock Steeds with fake background provided by PONI.  I even had my own squad….Gallapolis III was my first drop with them…and the last time I saw their faces.”

“Gallapolis III? No UNSCOE force survived that battle.” I bought up.

“No – but I did.  After the Covenant destroyed my squad and cut off communications, I spent weeks in the sewer networks of Gallapolis III, fighting covenant and other haunting abominations.  When I came out alive…I asked to fight alone. From now on.”

“Why Mudd? You always fought alongside us.”

“Why?….Galapollis showed me that I only survived one devastation just to see more of the UNSCOE-covenant war unfold on other planets.  The old days, days where I donned the number 077, are gone.”

I jumped out of the chariot and confronted Mudd, jabbing my muzzle into his face angrily. “That’s not true – I fight on because there has to be a way we can win. I know it! We can bring back the old days.”

“Where is Lipizzaner then? Where are those who can’t fight on?  Dead – do you hear me?  Friendship isn’t magic.  It’s only a painful reminder of the lives we are losing to this war and the end of an era of Harmony we had long ago.  Friendship is dead, and so be will those you call friends!”

“Who are you?” I asked darkly, not wanting to believe this was Mudd. “Do you know who you are, Mudd Sparkle?”

Mudd’s forehoof stuck me in the neck, telling me to shut up. “So my mom was right…You are a mind reader.  You know my name.  And…you know my mom.”

“Mudd…” I began to tear up, Mudd pushing his forehoof further into my throat. The fact that Mudd was doing it hurt me more, that pain he was causing.  Old Friends should never have to do this.

Mudd growled “Halsey Sparkle couldn’t choose between me and you – but she was closer to choosing you because she needed somepony that had something other ponies didn’t have.  When I died, she later made you the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Greenhorns.”

“Celestia-dammit Mudd, my mind-reading doesn’t matter….I was your friend….what happened to the Mudd I knew?” My voice began to crack more.

“Me and Greenhorn-077 are two different ponies, one-one-seven; one died long ago, and the one before you is a heartless lone wolf ready to die from plasma fire like one more soldier on the battlefield.”  

I couldn't take it anymore and shoved Mudd away, sobbing “I…l loved you like the brother I had lost…  The same cutie mark of a white flower is there; the same voice; the same brow muddy coat, the same mane….but where is the pony that…that….?”

I wasn't sure how to the characterize Mudd in his early years.  Probably as the first colt blushed from a comment of mine? A hero who had my back? A stargazer?

“Put it out of your mind, Greenhorn-117. Whether I’m dead or not to you, I don’t care – Let’s get that damned artifact and move before the Covenant start glassing this rock into Tartarsus.” Mudd Slinger growled and threw his helmet back on.  I did the same.

Getting back into the chariot I sniffled and murmured so quietly myself “I would rather be there than see what happened to the only friend that came back to me.”