Chapter Three - Introductions

Perceptive: Miles

I open my eyes to find that I am in a hospital room of some sort. The room's walls are painted blue, but there is a section that looks to be brownish on the bottom. The room looks to be about ten meters long and fifteen wide with two windows to on the left side of the room. Looking out one of the window, I see that night has fallen across the land, and two beds have been moved to be able to support my entire body, I guess the population here isn't very tall.

That's when I notice two things.

The ponies that saved me from those wooden wolves are now sleeping to my right in hospital chairs and that this population is not human. I try to get up, but find that the pain in my side has returned with a vengeance. I look at the wound, it's been stitched up fairly well and is now covered with bandages. At least they didn't kill me while I was unconscious. I sit up with my back against the wall, that way I don't have to have the full pressure of my armor on me.

*yawn*

Oh shit. I look over to see that the purple hybrid pony has woken because of my fidgeting. Her eyes widen when she sees me sitting up, she looks somewhat relieved to see that I'm up. She stands up and begins to walk towards me.

"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you. What's your name?"

"..."

"Can you speak?"

"..."

"AHH!" I yell as I jump back, but this leads me to falling off of the beds and hitting my wound. I groan in pain as I lay there, god dammit that hurt. My yelling has caused the other ponies to awaken and they have all began to surround me. I have to get out of here, I don't know if these ponies are hostile or not. They could be working with the Covenant. I use the wall to get myself on my feet, and I tower of them.

"We're not gonna hurt ya'll, alright?" says the Cowpony

I begin to make a limp run towards the window, but am grabbed by an unknown force, and I'm placed back onto the beds. God dammit that's cheating! I see that the an energy field has locked my arms and legs to the bed frames. And the energy seems to be coming from the hybrid pony's horn. I have to get out of here, these ponies have some really freaky abilities and I don't want to find out what other tricks they can pull. They stand there awkwardly not knowing what to do with me, but the hybrid pony steps forward and begins to speak.

"My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity." She points to each of them, this could be of some value to me.

Really? I had to run into a Princess? Not a lower government official or a civilian? If she's a Princess, that means there must be an Elite Military Unit here guarding this place. I'm not going to escape, so I might as well just give up fighting. At least I didn't attack any of them.

"My name is Commander Ferrum Miles of the United Nations Space Core and I am the leader of the Spartan Twos." I say to them. They look surprised that I can actually speak, and I don't blame them, I was surprised that they could speak as well, being ponies and all.

"Well Commander, I don't mean to be rude, but what exactly are you?" Twilight asks

"I am human, but I am a lot bigger and stronger than most, due to being trained for war since age six."

"Age six?! How old are you now?!" asks Rarity

"Well, currently I am twenty one and have been in military service ever since I finished training."

"You're a soldier?" asks Rainbow Dash

"Yes, the leader of the Spartans on Harvest. My Spartans and I are tasked with defending the people of Harvest from the Covenant."

"The Covenant?" asks Twilight "Who are they?"

"They are a cruel and evil alien religious military, who's goal is to wipe out our species from the face of the Universe. We have been locked in a six year war with them on Harvest and they have killed millions." I say bitterly. I hate the Covenant and just talking about them sends cooled, dark strife into my heart. This makes them gasp in horror, they look on the verge of tears. What the hell?

"Millions?..."

"Millions. They slaughtered innocent men, women, and children without mercy. They have burnt cities to the ground and have ruined Harvest. I have lost many of my friends from the fighting. They don't feel mercy, nor regret, they just kill and move on without a second thought."

"But, why would anypony do that?" asks Fluttershy on the verge of tears

"They believe that we stand in the way of their 'Great Journey', their goal isn't just to wipe out humanity, they want to wipe out ALL life in the galaxy, including themselves. They think that they will become gods by killing everything." I say to them. "But enough of that, I have some questions of my own. Where am I and what exactly are you?"

"What do you mean by that?" asks Twilight

"Like what are you, I know that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are pegasi and Rarity's a Unicorn, but what exactly are you, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie?"

"Well, Applejack and Pinkie Pie are Earth ponies and I am a cross between all three races because of my ascension to Princess, I am an Alicorn."

"Wait, did you say Earth ponies?" I ask

"Yes, why?"

"What planet am I on?"

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT PLANET YOU'RE ON?!" They scream to me

"Hey! Before I landed here, I was on a UNSC frigate in the orbit of Harvest! Where exactly am I?!"

"EVERYPONY PLEASE!" A voice yells from the doorway, getting our attention. Standing in the door way is a white coated Earth pony, she has a medical cross on her flank, she must be a nurse here.

"We have patients here that need rest, could you please not yell?" She asks somewhat irritated

"Yes, sorry Nurse Redheart." Twilight says. Redheart nods and leaves the room, closing the door behind her. We sit there quietly for a few moments, awkwardly. But I decide that I'm going to break the silence, I have questions that need to be answered.

"What planet am I on?"

"You're on Earth." says Rainbow Dash bluntly

"No....That's impossible, Earth is the capital home world of humanity...." There's no way that this is Earth, last I checked, talking ponies didn't live here and run a monarchy. It doesn't make any sense! How could this be Earth? There are no remnants of any human activity. At all! The air here doesn't seem to have any pollution what so ever, it seems untouched. Earth had tons of air pollution going through every part of the planet. Sure the government was taking action to purify the air, but the air was still very polluted. Wait a minute...

"What is the year?"

"22531 as of now, why?"

"22531?!" I whisper/ yell "That's twenty thousand years into the future! There is no way that that is right! What calendar do you go by?!"

"Miles, calm down! We go by the Celestial Calendar." Twilight says

Everything I know is gone, all of my spartans, the admiral, the marines, Possibly even all of humanity. Am I the last one left? Did we win the war? Did humans have to leave Earth? Did the Covenant wipe us out? All of the questions are running through my head and I guess the others have noticed my silence.

"Miles?" asks Twilight

"Everything is gone, everything I have ever known is gone, Earth is gone, and the other colonies may be as well." I say on the verge of tears.

The others look like they're going to start crying again. They all get up and begin to walk towards me, what are they doing? I guess Twilight has released my restraints because the purple energy has dissipated. Then they all start to climb onto me and hug me once again, the armor makes it kind of awkward, but they're actually somewhat comforting towards this whole situation. That's when I get an idea.

"Guys, can you get off for a second? I want to take my helmet off." They look a bit surprised, but comply non the less. I reach bring my hands to the release switches on the back of the helmet and flip them. Allowing me to finally get the helmet off of my head. My blond hair falls down in front of my eyes, I really should have gotten that haircut. I move my hair from my eyes and look towards them. They stare at me in awe, and I can't blame them, I was in awe when I saw them for the first time.

"Miles, your eyes, why are the glowing green?"

I chuckle a little bit at that, "I have a rare condition in which my eyes glow, it happens because I was born with a few different elements in my eyes and they react with each other to produce the glow. It's actually comes at an advantage because it helps me see in the dark and it looks cool." I say to them

"Well as fun as this is, I would like to get up now." I say

"But Miles, you have stitches, you need to rest!" says Fluttershy

"Well, I have a little trick to deal with that." I say with a grin. I reach into the pouch that is on the back side of my armor. Finding what I'm looking for, I pull it out and hold it in my hand. I only save this stuff for emergencies, but right now I don't feel like being stuck in a hospital.

"Miles, what's that?"

"It's called bio foam, it is a very strong healing tool. Can basically heal any wound just like that." I say as I get ready to inject it.

When it the bio foam goes in, it immediately goes to the wound on my side and my leg. It stings a little bit, but it's working. The stitches begin to shoot out of my body and onto the floor. Almost completely healing the wound, now only a bit of red remains on my side.

"AH, that feels much better." I say as a stand up. They look at me with disbelief as I begin to stretch and move around, I love doing this to people.

"Miles, that's incredible." says Twilight looking up at me in awe, she must have a ton of questions for me, because she seems like the one to be into science and knowledge.

"Well, shall we leave then?" I ask Twilight

"Uh, sure I guess."

We begin to walk out of the room and down the hallway, with them leading the way. The staff and random ponies stare up at me in awe or fear, sometimes a little of both. I merely wave and they slowly wave back, somethings never change, not matter what race it is. We make it to the front lobby where we find nurse Redheart working. Twilight signs us out and we begin to head outside.

When I get outside, a cold breeze meets my face, I take this moment to take in my surroundings. From the hospital, houses are lined up side by side from one another, a massive building stands in the middle of the town, maybe that's a town hall? The lights of most of the houses are darkened, but some have their lights on. But what really captures my attention is the sky above me. Millions of stars shine brightly above me, but the moon shines even brighter. I could literally spend hours looking at this, never in my life have I ever seen something as beautiful as this sky, it almost seems unnatural. The others look to me and see that I am starring.

"What Miles? Never seen the night sky before?" asks Twilight jokingly

"This is the most beautiful night sky I have ever seen in my entire life." I say in awe.

"Well, you can thank Princess Luna for that." she says

Princess Luna? So there are more princesses here besides Twilight? And what does she mean by thank her for it?

"What do you mean by that?"

"What?"

"Thank Princess Luna for the night sky."

"Well, she is the Princess of the night. She's the one who raises the moon and arranges the stars in the sky."

"WAIT WHAT?!" I yell at them, startling them. "You mean to tell me that a pony can control the rise and fall of the moon and stars?!"

"Well how else are the sun and moon going to rise?"

"By the Earth's rotation on its axis and the revolution of the moon around the Earth!"

"OH! Miles, you're thinking about the time before the axis stopped moving, now Princess Celestia and Princess Luna control the rise and setting of the sun and moon. They also block out radiation coming from Celestia's sun by keeping the earth spinning." Twilight explains.

Ok, these ponies are over powered. They can spin the Earth and raise and lower both the sun and moon with their magic?! Note to self: Don't fuck with the Princesses. As we continue to walk, we make a little bit of small talk. Rainbow Dash is apparently is the fastest flyer in their nation. That is quite the feat. Fluttershy is apparently a very huge animal lover and she takes care of woodland creatures that wonder out of the Everfree. Considering the timberwolves, if she can take care of whatever else comes out of the forest. She is really strong, but what's weird is that she is very timid and shy. Rarity is a fashion designer and has made dresses for all of them, including Princess Celestia and Luna at one point, pretty impressive if you ask me. Pinkie Pie apparently is a huge party pony, because she is now apparently throwing me a 'Welcome to Ponyville, sorry about you crashing into the Everfree and finding out you've lost everything' party. The name she gives makes me laugh even thought it reminds me of everything I lost. Applejack works on her family's farm called Sweet Apple Acres. She says she has been 'bucking' apple trees ever since she was a filly, it's something she's pretty proud of I guess. And lastly is Twilight, apart from being a Princess she really likes to read and study magic. Called it. She says she wants to talk about human technology and science, which I gladly accept for a later date, being a huge knowledge fan myself. Over all these ponies are really nice, almost to nice, but I'm not complaining.

When we reach the center of town, the rest of the girls save for Twilight split up in different directions, heading to their respective homes. After saying our goodbyes, it's just me and Twilight.

"So, where am I going to be staying?" I ask

"Well, you can stay at the library with me and Spike if you want."

"Who's Spike?"

"Spike is my number one assistant, he's a dragon that I have raised ever since hatching, he's a very nice guy and I think he would really like to meet you."

"DRAGON?!" I yell

"Miles, calm down! He's not like the dragons you're probably thinking of, he's only a baby and he wouldn't hurt anyone." she explains.

*gulp*"Okay." I reply

We then begin to walk towards this library. She says she's lived in it ever since she moved to Ponyville from the capital city of Canterlot. After a few minutes of walking and idle chat we finally make it. The library itself has been carved into a tree, with various windows and other nick knacks showing from the outside of it. It stands at around three stories high and has a single balcony where a telescope currently sits, aiming at the sky. She levitates out a key and unlocks the door. We walk in and turn on the lights. The main room has bookshelves stacked around three meters high, that's a hell of a lot of books. There is also a stairway leading up to where the bedrooms must be and in the middle of the room, a small purple and green dragon is sleeping softly.

"Ugh, Spike you know you can't be sleeping out here."

She levitates him up into the air and begins to carry him up the stairs. He mumbles a little bit, but stays asleep. Good thing too, I'm still not sure about that dragon.

"Are you coming are not?" asks Twilight

I simply nod to her and follow up the stairs, the weight of my armor and myself makes the wooden stairs below me creak and groan. We make it to her bedroom and I take a look around. Her bed is at the right side of the room, towards the balcony and right beside her bed is a tiny pet bed, I guess that's where Spike sleeps. Twilight places Spike down into the bed and she turns to me.

"I have a few cots downstairs, you can sleep on those if you want."

"Thank you, Twilight." I say, we then head back downstairs. She pulls the two cots from out of the closet, and I help her set them up, once done setting them up. She turns back to me.

"Well, if you don't mind, I want to get some rest, I've had a long day today." She chuckles lightly

"Same," I reply "Good night, Twilight."

"Good night." She says as she starts to head back upstairs, but stops and turns back to me.

"What are you going to wear? You can't sleep in your armor all night, it's not comfy."

"Thanks for the concern Twilight, but I have nothing to wear and plus, I like sleeping in my armor it reminds me of home."

"You're sure?"

"Positive." and with that, she heads back upstairs. I lie down onto the cots and stair out the nearby window. Today has been the strangest day for me, but I feel somewhat content that I don't have to keep fighting anymore. I stare up at that beautiful moon and those stars before I finally let sleep take a hold on me.

Author's Note

Third chapter is finally done! Sorry for not updating on Saturday, I was busy and I didn't have a lot of time to work on the chapter. Well anyway I need to request something from all of you. Could you guys point out any grammar mistakes for me in the previous chapters? I don't really have time to go through them and if you could point them out, it would really help a lot. Anywho, thanks for reading and I will see you next Saturday or Sunday!

Also, please spread the word about this story, I would really like it if this could get popular and it would help me a lot. Suggest it to your friends, family, your neighbors, the hobo that lives under the bridge, I just want this story to get out there!