Chapter Thirteen

****Southeastern end of the Everfree Forest****
9/14/Morning

“Please shut up.” Leon muttered as-

“Stop looking in my head!”

“I can’t control it! Just don’t think- by the ancients! What is wrong with you!”

Alfred let out a fairly loud sigh as he moved through the dense underbrush to the forest’s edge. Morning light becoming visible the closer they got to the forest’s edge.

“Told you we should’ve left that chip in the castle.” Leon said with a small smile at his friend’s misfortune. So far, beyond the arguing and occasional burst of static in the comms, the newest edition to their team hadn’t hindered them that much. Josh was still in control of his own body and armor, so that was still a plus...

“Okay, whatever you’re doing stop! My HUD is going crazy.” Josh said as he held his assault rifle close to his midsection.

‘At least he's not broadcasting that through his external speakers.’ Leon thought as they neared the light. Alfred, at the front of the group, began moving slower and in slowly began to crouch down. Leon doing the same while Josh put his back to a tree and watched behind them.

Alfred, who was now on his stomach and inside a bush, switched his DMR out for his sniper rifle. Several seconds passed in surprise silence before Alfred spoke, “Set of train tracks a klick in the direction we’re going, small town three klicks East by South-East and what seems to be an orchard nine klicks South by South-West.”

“Copy that. We move for the orchard, restock our food, and move for the mountains. Stick together, move fast, and-” Leon was cut off as a warning signal appeared on his and Alfred’s HUD.

“Why is this so confusing!” Nightmare shouted through their comms.

“What are you trying to do again?” Leon asked before Josh could yell at the AI for activating Josh's emergency armor lock down.

“All I can do in here is hear his thoughts and those aren’t very fun to see or hear. I was trying to access the camera on the his helmet so I could take my mind off some of the disgusting things his comes up with.”

“Hey! You can’t judge me! You don’t know-” Josh began before Leon spoke over him.

“Alright, we’ll take a small breather and you can work on that.” Leon said while turning off the signal that Josh’s armor was emitting, ‘Hopefully we were the only ones to get that.'

“Still locked up here you know, any time you wanna do something about that, it would be fan-fucking-tastic.” Josh said to no one particular.

“I think... I... Got it!” Nightmare stated happily.

Soon after though, Josh’s eyes became wider than dinner plates as pain shot through his body, “Oh mother of God! Reverse it! REVERSE IT!” Josh shouted as the gel layer of his armor was overpressurized. His cries were unheard Alfred and Leon though as the comms were cut off a moment before. The feeling of a thousand tiny knives piercing his skin in unimaginable pain immediately disappeared as a blue flicker went across his visor.

“Huzzah! We have access to the, HUD, as you call it.” Nightmare said proudly as Josh just slumped against the tree exhausted.

“We? Who else is in my head?” Josh asked weakly while inhaling deeply, trying to get his breath back.

“Do not be so accusative, I’m the only one in here. Sometimes I use the royal ‘We’ when addressing myself, it was how I was raised to talk after all.”

“And you’re not now because...?”

“If one is to survive then they must adapt with the world around them. In my long life I’ve never heard truer words spoken.”

After a few seconds of silence between the two, Josh nodded his head, “Sounds legit, so you ready for us to move Moonie?”

“Don’t. Call me. Moonie.” Nightmare said through the comms with venom in her voice.

“Are you ready?” Josh asked again.

There was a few seconds of silences once again before Nightmare sighed, “Yes, We’re ready.”

“Great! Leon we’re ready to go.” Josh said looking over to Leon. The spartan in question currently eating an apple while Alfred did the same.

“We got time still. Alfred was smart enough to grab some apples as he passed the orchard yesterday, so why don’t you eat yours and then we’ll head out.” Leon tossed him one of the delicious red fruits while Josh took off his helmet.

“Oh that’s weird.” Josh stated shaking his head. Upon seeing the questioning eyebrow from Leon, he continued, “Just really weird adjusting to an AI then not having one. Can’t really describe it, it’s just weird.”

“I’m sure you’ll get used to it. We’re probably going to be here for a while.” Alfred said taking one last bite of his apple.

“I thought this was just a small break?” Josh questioned.

“I meant on this planet. We have no idea where we’re at and no way to contact the UNSC unless they get close to this one individual planet amongst the entire galaxy.”

“I think it’s worse than that Al. A lot of things aren’t adding up or making any sense whatsoever.” Leon said while taking another bite out of his apple.

Josh swallowed his own apple bite before speaking, “You mean the mythical creatures speaking English, the fact magic exists, how we somehow got mixed up in a political battle in the middle of an escape, how a ghost was-”

“We get it.” Alfred said, cutting Josh off, “Nothing is making sense, but what is there that we can do about it?”

“Just because we can’t change what happened doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to understand it. There are better times for this though.” Leon said taking one last big bite of his apple.

“It sounds to me like you crossed existential planes.” Nightmare said making Josh’s helmet the center of attention, “Something that would be impossible to do because of the amount of power required would be equal to about ten Celestias at full power. Then there’s the business of targeting one individual plane so that your atoms to get scattered to the entire infinite lot of them.”

“So what? You’re saying we’re in another universe?” Josh asked with a healthy bit of sarcasm and skepticism in his voice.

“From what I’ve seen in your filthy mind, yes.” Nightmare stated causing everyone else to go silent.

The silence persisted as Leon finished off his apple and Josh worked on his own. Alfred was looking out across the expanse of grassland that slowly turned to desert, slowly breathing and barely concentrating on his HUD. Leon stared at the ground, thinking of long term survival plans. Everything from food and shelter to thinking of suitable power options to replace his armors reactor when it runs out of energy in a few decades.

Josh shook his head and tossed his apple core over his shoulder and into the foliage, “You know, I think I can live with that.”

“What?” the other two spartans asked simultaneously.

“Dude, I joined to kill aliens and help in the war effort. With the war over, the only reason I’m still here was to keep an eye on everyone else... and my contract.” Josh said putting his helmet back on.

“You realize how stupid that sounds right?” Alfred stated, “We have no way of getting back to the UNSC period. That means no more of the luxuries that comes with technology. No more of that techno music you like... No more of your cheap dates and one night stands. Hell no more women at all.”

“Dude, we’re freakin aliens to them. With enough show of force we could probably live like kings here. Not that we would, but it is a possibility. Don’t count the ponies too short on the technology thing either, remember the camera at the dam?”

“What about our friends back in the UNSC?” Alfred stated, anger beginning to edge into his voice, “What about Hank and Ethan. They probably think we’re dead! And that’s if they got off the ring at all!”

The sudden thought of their other friends being dead made an uncomfortable silence drift back over the group. Alfred turned away from Josh and began looking out over the distance they were going to be going. Leon was quiet and still staring at the ground for a while as Josh slowly put back on his helmet.

Nightmare, decided to stay silent as she really had nothing to say. What could you say to three alien super soldiers who were mourning the loss of their friends?

After a about a minute in silence, Leon spoke up, “If we’re stuck here, we got make the most of it and survive.” Leon stood up and brought his BR to his chest, “I will not let Chase’s death be in vain. We’ll look for way to get back to our world, but for now we need to get out of Equestria, find a suitable location for our FOB, and do some research on magic. Sound good?” Leon extended a hand to help Josh up.

“Mierda, better than anything I got.” Josh said accepting the assistance.

“If there is no possible way to get back, I can learn to live with it.” Alfred equipped his DMR and checked the surrounding area again, “Clear.”

“Let’s move.” as the words left his mouth, Alfred bolted out of cover and moved towards the apple orchard going his armor’s top speed that didn’t run the risk of his legs cramping up. Leon and Josh were right behind him, weapons ready for anything.

****Neilock Taizon, Gryphon Kingdom Capital****
9/14/Noon-ish

“I had three gryphons try to kill me in my sleep last night, how bout you guys?” Chase asked through his teams communications channel. Chase was currently walking behind King Ashford while a small contingent of guards escorted them to the very courtroom that Chase and Ethan had cleared out the previous night. The guards were some of the fifty or so they had pulled from the dungeons and given back their armor. The King was wearing his ‘I’m royalty' clothes, which consisted of a platinum crown, gold version of the guards armor minus the helmet, and his sword at his side.

“Me an Ethan slept in the Pelican, took shifts to watch out for thieves.” Hank’s voice answered back.

“Wish you would of told me, I could of joined you and actually gotten some sleep.” Chase said with a small chuckle.

“Why did you sleep in the castle?”

“A show of faith in our hosts, and now they’ll be overly generous to make up for the poor security. At least that's what I’m going for.” as he finished, the King stopped just before the doors and turned to the spartan.

“Chase, this is more than likely going to go on for a few hours and I can’t let you in. Thompson will be your guide through the castle. He knows all the areas that you’re allowed to be and can lead you to the courtyard your ship and friends are in.”

“Sounds good to me.” Chase nodded his head before adding, “Good luck in there.” The King smiled, making Chase raise an eyebrow in confusion since it seemed impossible to do with a beak, and turned back to the door. Chase turned away as the doors opened and the sounds of over a hundred gryphons arguing reached his ears. A personal guard of the King’s, as evident by the purple armor, stuck by Chase’s side as he walked away from the courtroom.

“So think you can show me where the Library is, I need to check out a few books on-” Chase was cut off as his helmet began beeping franticly. Chase stopped mid stride and pulled up Ghost team’s squad roster. Six names with their designations and roles in the squad popped up. Three of them were highlighted green, the three currently at the castle, two were greyed out, meaning they were missing in action.

The last one was a blinking red color, showing that the emergency systems in the spartan's suit had been activated.

“Going to have to take a rain check on those books.” Chase said to the confused guard before an objective point appeared on his HUD, more than likely made by Ethan, “Me and my team gotta leave as soon as possible, but tell the King that it was a pleasure to help him keep the peace in this... wonderful kingdom of his.”

The guard looked at Chase with confusion, “Could I have a reason for the King as to this abrupt departure?”

“I just got an emergency signal from the other half of my team. So we’re going to go and find them. Now, I gotta go.” Chase turned on his cloaking device and began running down the hallway.

‘We're coming guys, just hold on.'

A minute later Chase rushed out of one of open decorative glass doors that lead into the main courtyard of the castle. The Pelican was already started up and the back ramp was down and facing him. Chase slowed down and slid into the Pelican, stopping himself from falling by grabbing onto the holotable. The ramp began to pull back as they lifted off the ground, earning them the attention of a lot of spectators in the city.

“Ethan, could anyone else of gotten that signal?” Chase asked pulling up their team roster on the holotable.

“Yes.” Ethan stated with his usual monotone voice.

“It went out over a big area, so it’s possible someone else picked it up. They wouldn’t of been able to understand the information in the signal, but it is possible that Leon and them will have some company.” Hank said as Chase felt the Pelican lurch from the boosters turning on, “The biggest question is why? They couldn’t of known we’re here and the lockdown only sends out that signal if sent manually by the spartan.”

“They could of got separated and Josh used as a way to get them to his position.” Chase suggested, “It would explain why it went off quickly afterwards... Hey if we got the signal, why can’t we contact them?”

“A small signal ping and communicating with them are two entirely different things. Ethan thinks their comms are messed up just like ours were from the portal. He said he had to... um...”

“Do a hard reset.” Ethan answered for Hank.

“Yeah, he had to do a hard reset on all our suit’s systems for some technical reason, I didn’t understand half of it honestly. In short though, we’ll have to be a lot closer before they can hear us.”

“How long until we reach them?” Chase asked looking at a holographic image of Josh, Leon, and Alfred.

“It will take a while, even if we use the boosters the entire way. You might want to get some rest if you want to look good for your boyfriend Josh.” Hank said over the radio.

“Oh ha ha ha Hank, you should've been a comedian. I think I will take a nap though, definitely didn’t get any sleep last night.” Chase said, closing the image and sitting down on the seats behind him. With a smile on his face, the spartan stretched out over the seats, set an alarm to wake him up later, and closed his eyes, 'Nothing can stop us now.'

****Appleloosa, Equestria****
9/14/Late morning

It was just another quiet morning for the town of Appleloosa. Ponies were already at work, doing their jobs or out in the apple orchard tending to the trees. Everything considered it was looking to be just another normal day for the citizens that trotted through town on errands or for business reasons. That is, till the morning train arrived with six particular ponies wearing fancy pieces of jewelry that could seal away gods and, as Twilight hoped, aliens.

“Are you sure about this Sugarcube?” Applejack asked as the got off the train at Appleloosa. They had all gotten on the train in the early morning to try and cut the spartans off before they got to the Badlands, despite half of them not even wanting to continue the pursuit.

“Yes, they will need to restock on food before entering the Badlands and the apple orchards here are-” Twilight began before Applejack interrupted her.

“I meant bout going after ‘em. We’re practically signin away their lives if in we catch ‘em. Regardless of what they’ve done, we shouldn’t be the first to kill.”

Twilight let out a heavy sigh, “I know AJ and, I agree. We shouldn’t be the first to kill, but I believe the Princesses will find a way to give them a fair trial. They’ve even been talking of about asking Cadence to come all the way from the Crystal Empire for a de novo appeal. Sadly both her and Shining are dealing with their own political troubles in the Empire.”

“Now jus think fer a second Twi. What if they can’t?” Applejack stated.

Rainbow let out a loud groan as she stretched her wings, cutting off Twilight’s response, “Why can’t one of us do the court thing? I think after all the stuff we’ve been through we should-”

“Rainbow.” Twilight said cutting her off, “We were granted nobility status when we became Bearers, but we can’t do it for the same reason as the Princesses. Blueblood would just say that the ruling would be unjust and unfair and besides us, and the Princesses, he’s the only other political figure who can legally take the case.”

“Oh, I do so dread politics.” Rarity said as she walked up to them with Fluttershy next to her, “All of this could’ve been done and over with if Blueblood hadn’t taken over the case.”

“At least Pinkie seems happy.” Fluttershy said drawing all the mares attention to the pink party pony. She was currently behind Braeburn as he welcomed some other ponies to Appleloosa, imitating everything he did from the way he said ‘Appleloosa’ to waving at the girls before showing the new ponies around town. After she stopped laughing a the oblivious stallion, Pinkie bounced over to where the rest of them were waiting.

“Hi girls! Are we having a staring contest?”

“No.” Twilight interrupted before she could ask another twenty or so questions, “We’re about to head out into the apple orchard to see if there are any signs of the spartans and to set up a stakeout.”

“We have to stay in the orchard? With that dust storm settling in? We’ll get absolutely filthy.” Rarity said motioning towards a large cloud of dust that had been kicked up at the edge of the apple trees.

Twilight rolled her eyes as they left the train station, “It will settle before we get there, it’s probably just Chief Thunderhooves and his tribe stampeding.”

“Wow, I didn’t know they stampeded-ed from the Everfree Forest.” Pinkie said while looking through a pair of binoculars at the dust cloud.

Everypony stopped in their tracks and Twilight grabbed the binoculars from Pinkie to see what she meant. Sure enough, the dust trail seemed to originate where the grass turned to sand near the Everfree, “Girls we need to move now!”

The rest of the girls stayed silent as they ran towards the orchard. Twilight was in front with Rainbow flying high above to get a look at what was happening. Fluttershy was second surprisingly with Applejack and Rarity right behind her. Applejack looked to her side to see Rarity putting on a light tan sun hat and Pinkie was...

“Where in tarnation is Pinkie?” Applejack yelled but got no response back, ‘I hope that mare stays outa trouble.’

****

It was no longer a game of stealth for the spartans. From virtually every angle, they wouldn’t of been able to get near the town or the apple orchard with out being in plain sight for longer than Leon wanted. Especially since they were being pursued.

“So, what’s the plan this time Leon?” Josh asked as the approached the trees.

“Get the apples and get to the Macintosh Hills, the closest border of Equestria. There we should be able to get enough water to last us for a while. Then we descend into the Badlands and find a place for our FOB.” Leon said just as they came up to the first set of trees, “Josh lock the C-7 to your sides, we’re going to need the room in your bag to carry the apples. Alfred keep a look out for any curious civilians.”

The spartans got to work doing just that while Leon began pulling down two apples at a time from the closest tree. The dust cloud they had made began to drift over them and into the apple orchard, reducing the chances of someone seeing them. Alfred turned on his thermal to get a gage on how far he could see in the dust storm. Being in the air for a little bit had cooled the warm morning sad to allow him to actually see a good distance through the dust.

A heat signature shot up through the trees and into the air, “Contact forty meters out, looks like a pegasus.”

Leon was quick to reply, “Keep your eyes on her, we move slow and carefully from here on out. We got plenty of cover and I’d rather us not waste what ammo we have.”

“Gotcha.” Josh said, shooting Leon a thumbs up.

Together they began to move through the orchard, not really going that fast, but not at a normal pace either. After a few minutes they were out of the dust cloud and all of them were able to turn off their thermal. Soon after Alfred called out, “The pegasus landed about forty-five meters north-west of us.”

“Copy that, make sure to keep an eye on our six for-”

Something cut Leon off as it popped down right in front of his visor, “Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie!”

Three things happened in that brief second that followed. Josh and Alfred brought their weapons up and aimed it at the pony’s stomach. Leon jumped back and slid between Josh and Alfred, putting some distance between the pony and himself. Pinkie just started laughing at the scramble she had caused.

“That was cool!” the pony shouted out before dropping down from the tree, “From what Twilight said I thought for sure you would of been able to see me before you got here, but then you didn’t! I’m officially the first pony ever to scare an alien. Yes!” she did a little hoof pump motion before addressing the spartans who all had their weapons pointed at her. There were a few seconds of silence after that as she just stared at the spartans with a big smile on her face.

“There something you wanted?” Josh asked slowly to end the awkward silence.

“Oh right!” Pinkie said before reaching into her mane and pulling out three envelopes and holding them out in her hoof, “For when the Princesses find a way to take your case back and clear your names.” she said happily as she set them down on the ground, “I hope after this I can hold the title of the first friend to an alien too.” after another quick smile, the pink mare began to trot away from the group.

There was a collective group silence afterwards was practically deafening. As she left their sight and went out of range of their motion sensors the spartans all lowered their weapons before looking at one another in confusion. Then they all looked towards the three envelopes on the ground that Pinkie had left them.

“... That was by far the weirdest thing to happen to us yet and that is say something.” Josh finally said, breaking the silence.

“She always was the weirdest of that bunch of meddlesome mares.” Nightmare commented as Josh saw another flicker of blue go across his visor.

Leon knelt down and picked them up, “Scans don’t show anything abnormal about them. Nightmare, can you sense any magic?”

“None.”

"Wait how do you know if they got magic or not?" Josh asked as Leon looked over the envelopes.

"I don't know, I just thought about sensing the letters for magic, not actually trying mind you, and then all I could see is the magic spectrum." Nightmare answered earning shrug from Josh as Leon picked up the pieces of paper.

“You’re not thinking about actually taking them are you?” Alfred asked as Leon stood with the letters.

“It’s a gamble and we don’t seem to have too good of luck lately. We got the Princesses on our side, who knows, maybe we got more supporters than we think.” Leon said as he put the letters into a pouch with his DMR ammo.

“After we got led into an ambush the last time? This is just moronic.”

"Nightmare wasn't a bad gamble, was she? Besides, we haven’t even opened them yet and we’re not going to till we get out of here. We’ve wasted enough time as it is.” Leon said as began to walk in the direction they were going.

Alfred let out a sigh and shook his head before following. Josh shrugged his shoulders and fell into place behind them when Nightmare’s voice came in through his radio, “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Josh made sure his radio to the other two was on receive only before answering, “Fuck, they wouldn’t of listened to me anyway.” after a few seconds Josh shrugged his shoulders and picked up his pace with Leon and Alfred, “Oh well, not like it matters much now. We can take on pretty much anything that’s not the Princesses, so, what’s there to worry about?”

“You should be careful what you say spartan.” Nightmare answered. Not even a second later a purple wave of magic shot past the spartans, going right through them and causing their shields to slightly deplete.

“Nightmare what was that?” Leon asked as the spartans picked up their pace.

“Scanning spell, somehow your shields punched a hole right through it instead of setting it off, strange. They know what direction we’re going now, just not our exact location.”

“Spartans, increase speed to-” Leon was cut off abruptly by a large purple barrier erupting up far in front of them. They all slid to a stop and watched as the wall began to extend over them and towards the sky. Looking at the sight, the spartans were able to see similar walls forming in all directions and stretching to a singular point in the sky creating a dome of purple energy that occasionally had a burst of static run over it’s transparent walls.

“... Well fuck.” Josh said as it completed and the entire dome shimmered in the morning light.

“Right after we just talked to that one, we get a dome put over us, boxing us in.” Alfred stated, “Pretty suspicious if you ask me.”

“Or Twilight noticed us with that scanning wave.” Leon stated as he began to move towards the shields edge, “Let’s get to the edge and see if we can break out of this thing.”

“That won’t do you any good.” Nightmare spoke up getting Leon’s attention, “I’ve seen this type of shield before, just on a much smaller scale. It immediately alerts the caster if something moves out of it. They would be able to teleport to you and use their elements. Twilight probably has a plan to keep you held in one spot too so they won’t miss.”

Leon slowed to a stop before looking at Josh, “Alright then, what do you suggest?”

“Me?” Josh asked with shock.

“No, Nightmare. Unless you’ve got a plan of course."

"Nope."

"Okay then, Nightmare what do you suggest we do."

“You would actually care to know what I think you should do?”

“You’re the only one here with any knowledge on magic. Now is your moment to prove you’re part of this team. What do you suggest we do?” silence fell on the group as Leon finished his question. Seconds ticked away quietly, the only sounds being heard were those of birds and the wind as they waited for Nightmare’s answer.

“... Alright.” the spartans visibly relaxed as Nightmare continued, “Twilight is more than likely exhausted from creating a shield of this size, but she has to keep it up by sending out bursts of magic at regular intervals. If you can knock her out just before one of these moments the shield will fall.”

Leon began nodding his head as a plan began to form, “Alright, can she do that scan again any time soon?”

“No, she’ll need to conserve her magic to keep the shield up. She probably only has enough to teleport in case your cross the boundaries, but that would be it. Given enough time though, her energy will build to the point she can do another scan and find you without having to risk losing the shield.”

“Do you know how long the intervals are or how long till she can do the scan?”

“No, those vary greatly on the caster, it could be anywhere between two minutes to two hours.”

“Alright then.” Leon said before turning to Alfred, “You and me going to be on observation duty. Josh... go find a good hiding spot.”

“Good call.” Josh said with a nod of his head before turning and heading towards the edge of the shield.

“And Nightmare.” Leon said over the radio as Josh walked away, “Thanks.”

“It’s just self-preservation.” she stated over the com channel, “You might want to get moving though as they knew you were going in this direction before the shield came up.”

"Told you she would be helpful." Alfred stated as Josh disappeared behind some trees.

"Then why are you so against trusting the pink pony?"

"Big difference between trusting the enemy and trusting the enemy of our enemy."

Alfred and Leon looked at each other, nodded with a smug smile to each other, and began moving through the forestry towards where the pegasus had landed earlier.

The hunt had begun.

Author's Note

Finally, that's done. I know it's not as long as the usual chapters, I don't think anyway, but I'm going to try and get another chapter out earlier than usual... It's probably not going to happen with COD, Halo, and Pokémon all coming out with games this month, but there might be some hope for an early chapter if Advance Warfare sucks as much as Ghosts did.

Second order of business, this story finally broke 100 likes! This is an amazing achievement that I just wanted to thank all of you readers for putting up with the long intervals between the chapters and sticking with the story anyway. Your continued support and comments are what keep this story going and I can't thank you enough for it.

On to the Community Question: For those of you getting the Master Chief Collection, will you be attempting the LASO achievement?

For those that don't know the LASO achievement is to beat all the campaigns on Legendary All Skulls On.

My answer: Yes, for the sole fact that it will remind me of the days when Halo was about yelling at the grunts for their random lucky grenades, freaking the hell out when an Elite Honor Guard come charging at you with an Energy sword, or just running for your life during the Flood missions... Ah, good times.