Chapter Three

"Leon... Leon... Leon!" Alfred's voice yelled, waking Leon from his stupor.

The spartan in question shook his head and brought a hand to his helmet, "Wha-what happened?"

"We need to move now!" Alfred yelled again over the sounds of a building falling. From his position Leon could see the throne room, they had just been in, starting to crumble. The walls were buckling and the shattered windows were raining down like razors. Leon grabbed Alfred's hand and got to his feet, but never took his eyes off the collapsing building.

"Oh shit dude, what about all the ponies that were in there?" Josh asked while standing in his own little crater.

“Sad to say it, but they’re not our problem.” Alfred said as he looked back up the rock wall to the building, “Besides we couldn’t save them even if we wanted, we’d never reach them in time.”

It was a sad truth Leon couldn’t denni. Him and his team were there by accident and would, undoubtedly, be blamed for the whole incident... “We need to move.”

Leon’s words caught the attention of the others, “Where? We’re three men down and there sure as hell aint no UNSC on this planet to rendezvous with.”

“We need to get away from those ponies, they’ll be after us for this.”

“Judging by their level of technology, I’d say they’re about as threatening as an actual pony.” Alfred stated. Josh nodded his head in agreement and Leon couldn’t think of a way they would be threatening either.

“Hey guys did it just get really quiet?” Josh asked, making Alfred and Leon notice it as well. All three of them looked back towards the building they had just been thrown out of and were shocked to see it frozen, not in ice, but in time.

Dust hung in the air, not moving just like the walls and shards of glass all around the building. Walls that were broken in half and in the middle of collapsing were still, as if they were looking at a picture. Cracks that had been spreading to the other parts of the castle-like building had ceased their advance and more of the flying ponies were circling the frozen structure.

“Chase would be yelling at us right now for questioning something easy looking if he were here.” Josh said without taking his eyes off the frozen building in front of him. Leon repressed the pain that welled up in him and scanned their surroundings. Following the mountain side he spotted a small opening hidden by the rocks, a good enough spot to lay low for a little bit.

“Quick, there’s an opening over there, we can lay low till they get out of the sky.” Leon rose to his feet and moved towards the cave. Alfred followed immediately after and Josh hesitated moment, looking around for something.

“Bingo.” He said aloud picking up his MA5D assault rifle. He then proceeded to pick up Leon’s BR85HB Service Rifle and Alfred’s M395 Designated Marksman Rifle before walking towards the opening in the wall, “I’m gonna give them so much crap for this.”

As Josh approached the entrance he saw on his motion sensor Leon and Alfred were represented by little down arrows at the edge of his sensor. As he neared the now obvious cave, he heard someone shout very clearly and very louldly, “FIND THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS OR YOU ALL WILL KNOW WHAT THE MOON IS LIKE THIS TIME OF YEAR!”

The sudden shouting caused Leon and Alfred to stop and turn towards the entrance. There was a short pause before a different voice shouted, “DID LUNA STUTTER!? GO!”

“We definitely pissed of some ponies.” Josh said backing up from the entrance.

“We need to move, double time.” Leon said taking his BR from Josh and started and running into the cavern. Alfred grabbed his DMR and followed with Josh right behind.

The caves were like a maze, once again forcing the spartans to repeat the process of marking their path with markers that only their armor visors could see, like they did on the ring earlier. The caves had multiple dead ends, either ending with a wall, a cave in, or a big open crevice that they couldn’t see the bottom of. Whenever they came across such a path and were forced to backtrack they would make a second mark by the pathway opening, the first being made when they started down the path. Luckily they had found a bridge across the crevice a little while back and were making at least some progress.

Though coming across the same crevice multiple times made Josh very annoyed, “Aaaand a crevice. Oh the same crevice we’ve found six damn times.” He said face palming himself.

“Yes, we know. Everyone here has eyes of their own. Now could please shut up.” Alfred said, more annoyed at Josh than anything.

“Quiet.” Leon said crouching by the opening to the drop off. He looked up at the one walkway they had used to get to this side of the crevice. On it were three ponies in golden armor. Two were looking around in the dark for any trace of them and the third at the front had a lantern floating beside it in a pale blue aura. After zooming in with his visor he saw the first two ponies had no wings, but the third had a horn cloaked in the same aura as the lantern.

“Telekinesis maybe?” Alfred said crouched behind Leon.

“It would explain how they froze that building earlier.” Josh said poking his head around the corner, trying not to obstruct his teammates’ view.

“I’ve got a feeling it’s more than that.” Leon said as the ponies disappeared into the caves, “Good thing we got night vision, otherwise they would’ve spotted us... We got a move fast and carefully from here on out. Our black armor and visors will be hard to see, but it won’t make us invisible.” Josh and Alfred nodded, understanding the threat the ponies telekinetic powers represented.

A small, but distinct flapping sound was heard by the party, drawing their attention back to the bridge. New occupants in a dark purple armor were on it, receiving orders from another pony with dark grey armor. One of the ponies had taken off with their wings down the other side of the crevice, making the small flapping sound. Zooming in on the ponies the spartans noticed the bat like wings they possessed and the cat like eyes they had. Soon as one all the ponies saluted the leader by raising a hoof to their foreheads and taking off down both sides of the crevice.

“Move!” Leon said with quiet urgency as the bat ponies drew near. With their shields making their steps almost silent on the hard floor as they took off down the cave and away from their pursuers.

They began to repeat their process of cave elimination again, checking any corner they took for the armored ponies they had seen before. Two times they were forced to backtrack because of an oncoming light source that could have only been one of the pursuing squads.

Then they made a startling discovery. They once again retraced their steps on a ‘Y’ intersection with Alfred taking point with his DMR. He turned the corner, then immediately held up his hand in a fist. Josh and Leon froze and watched as Alfred slowly backtracked his steps to them before his voice came in over the radio, “Two dark ones from earlier, twenty feet away with no light source. They’re light has either broke and they abandoned it or they can see in the dark and have no need for one.”

“Of course, their cat like eyes aren’t just for show, they can see in low light environments.” Leon said, “We’re going to have to use our thermal visors from now on.”

“Should we retrace our steps to the four-way intersection that was before this one, or should we follow them.” Josh asked from the back of the group.

“Why would we follow them, their hunting us.” Alfred stated.

“Remember when we always couldn’t find Chase in the War Games simulations and when we finally on our way to our first deployment he told us, ‘The best place to hide is right beside your enemy-’”

“'-because they never suspect it.'” Leon finished quietly, “Alright, we follow them, they probably know which tunnels are dead ends anyway.” With the new plan in place they all switched their visors to the thermal setting and began trailing the two ponies from a good thirty some feet. Josh still marked they paths they took with the special marker that only their visors could see.

After following the ponies for two paths and three sets of stairs the one on the right finally spoke up in a feminine voice, “The first tunnel on the right up ahead opens up near the train tracks to Ponyville. We should check the dirt on the outside of the tunnel for any prints and then continue our search for the monsters.” the other pony just nodded. After a short time they came across a six-way intersection and sure enough the ponies traveled down the first tunnel on the right.

Alfred held up a fist, stopping Josh and Leon’s approach, “Should we wait or follow?”

“Follow, they could take another path further down.” Leon said.

With a nod Alfred resumed following the two ponies as they continued down the tunnel. With the thoughts that he would no longer need it Josh swapped from his thermal visor to his night vision. From their safe distance Josh watched as the ponies approached a pile of rubble where the shaft had caved in. Without stopping the two ponies walked right through the rocks as if they were an illusion. Josh spoke up through the comms, “So that's why we keep going around in circles, the real exits are concealed with holograms.”

“What? They just walked out the cave opening, where do you see a hologram?” Alfred replied stopping the group.

“Switch to night vision, I did just a second ago cause the thermal was getting annoying.” Josh stated.

Leon kept his thermal visor up and his eyes glued to the ponies outside looking at the dirt for any trace of them. They both seemed to say something to one another before spreading their bat-like wings and taking off.

“Wow, this means we could of passed around twenty ways out already.” Alfred said having switched his visor to night vision.

“Josh, this may be a good find, but try not to disobey orders in the future.” Leon said walking past Alfred and towards the exit. As Alfred and Josh followed the former was chuckling at the latter, “Same goes for you Alfred, I never said swap visors.” both of them shut up after that.

Moving out of the tunnel the spartans found themselves near an open field with train tracks to their left and a waterfall some distance to their right. It was a welcome change from the maze of tunnels they had just gone through. Leon held up his hand and motioned them towards the waterfall. It took around ten minutes of walking before the spartans ran into the bank of the river the waterfall poured into. The river was about twenty meters in diameter. Leon held up his fist, stopping the group, “We need to wade in this river for a few miles down stream. That should stop, or at least stall any pursuit of us unless we’re spotted while doing so.” the other spartans just nodded in understanding.

“Ho-ly crap.” Josh said, putting emphasis on each syllable. Leon and Alfred turned to and saw him looking skyward towards the top of the waterfall. Following his gaze the two spartans joined Josh in gawking at the majestic sight in front of them. Despite the spray of water from the falls they all were able to see a large city with a white and golden castle resting near the mountain side, “Is that the place we just escaped from?”

“If the ponies were able to build that on the side of a mountain, without carving it into the actual mountain, then we definitely have underestimated them.” Alfred said wondering how a city of that size was so easily resting on the mountain.

“Even at this distance, it’s still too close for me. Let’s get moving.” Leon began walking into the water with Josh and Alfred right behind him. They got to the center and the water came up to their shoulders. After a while the current was almost nonexistent and the spartans were slightly hampered by the water.

Four hours and three miles later and the moon had already begun its descent into the western sky before Leon led the spartans through a small lake and out of the other side. They had seen no patrols since they left the tunnels, but this could only last so long, “Alright, from here we need to move into that forest and try and find some form of shelter for the day. We walked in the tunnels for about three hours and it took us four more to get this far. I’d say we got somewhere between four and six hours left before the sun begins to rise.”

“I can totally live with that.” Josh said walking out of the water and onto the shore behind Alfred.

As Leon was about to walk towards the woods Alfred called out, “Hold up, I think there’s a settlement on the other side of those hills.”

Josh and Leon turned back to Alfred who was gazing at the hills to the west. Hardly noticeable at first glance, but there was a small glow from a light source that was on the other side. Josh moved his head forward and squinted his eyes and barely saw it, “Okay, so what? Who cares about a light on the other side of a hill.”

“That’s why you got some of the lower scores in stealth training.” Leon said walking towards the forest and searching the ground as if he had dropped something.

“Yep, definite settlement.” Alfred tapped Josh’s shoulder with the back of his hand, “There’s a bridge a small ways down the stream and a couple of homes farther than that.”

Leon walked past Josh to the shore carrying a small branch full of leaves that must of come from the forest, “We’ll use this to hide our tracks. Alfred you take point, Josh you got sides, and I’ll cover any tracks we make with this.” Leon began sweeping the sand with the branch, eliminating any signs of their tracks.

Josh was about to question the point, but kept it to himself as he realized just what Leon was doing. Shrugging his shoulders Josh fell in behind Alfred as they began a slow trek through the forest.

It was about few minutes later Leon abandoned the stick after the trail started to become more and more rugged and troublesome. They began slowly turning west from their southbound trail into more rugged forestry. After about two hours they were walking south west and, by the way the vegetation kept getting thicker, were heading towards the center of the forest. Without their night vision visors, they wouldn’t of been able to see five feet in front of them, but what they could see were the red dots on their motion sensors.

After another hour of walking, and the red dots following, they came across a small clearing. Alfred walked into it first, moving to the left and with his DMR trained on the foliage to the Left side. Josh came through, moving to the right, with his assault rifle trained on the forestry to the right. Then Leon moved in between the two and had his BR trained on the bushes and trees on the opposite side of the clearing.

They walked like this to the center of the clearing before Leon said, “Whatever’s been following us on the sensors doesn’t seem to know when to attack us.”

“If it was the ponies then they would have ambushed us by now.” Alfred said keeping his gaze on not just the left side, but where they just came from as well.

Leon activated his Promethean Vision and looked all around the clearing, “Seven in all, wolf like in structure. One in front, two in back, and two on either side of us.” Leon deactivated his module for it to cool down and looked towards the right side of the clearing. He could still see some light from the small settlement, “Try not to use your weapons. We need to conserve ammo and it would alert the nearby village of our presence.” Leon attached his weapon to his back, next to his own DMR, and continued, “If we divide them up the odds will be better, but be sure to watch your motion trackers.”

“Got it.” Alfred muttered, attaching his DMR next to his sniper rifle on his back.

“Okay then,” Josh started as he put his assault rifle under his backpack and magnetically locked it in place, “Lets get this started.” He sent out his hologram to the wolves that were on his side using his motion tracker as a reference.

The two wolves fell for the bait as they jumped out of the bushes and attempted tackling the hologram. Josh hesitated for a moment as the wolves appeared to be made of wood, but he quickly dismissed any questions forming in his head and focused on killing them. The two wolves collided midair, but before they could hit the ground Josh was on them. With a mighty kick, one wooden wolf’s head was thrown through the night air and disappeared somewhere over the treetops. The remaining pieces of wood that made up the wolf’s body collapsed on the second as lifeless kindling.

The second wolf seemed a bit dazed as the main body piece of the now dead wolf came down on it’s head. Taking his opportunity, Josh brought his foot down on the wolfs head. A sickening crunch was heard across the clearing as splinters flew in every which direction from the destroyed wolf’s head. Josh ignored the feeling of his victory and looked across the clearing to see the others finishing up their own fights.

Leon lifted on of the wooden wolves into the air over his head and smashed it into a small pile of wood that looked like it had been more wolves. He glanced over at Josh, who nodded, then over to Alfred, who was having some trouble dealing with the two wolves that kept circling him.

Alfred looked between the two wolves as they raced around him in circles. They had yet to attack him or get close enough for him to attack them. He was beginning to get annoyed.

Suddenly the one he had his eye on jumped at him, but he easily jumped over it by pulling up his legs as he reached the peak of his jump. Before he could land though a force collided with him from his side, knocking him to the ground and taking some of his shields away. Quickly he tried to get up, but something landed on his back as he did so, taking the rest of his shields. Unfazed by the new addition, and the flashing red shield bar at the top of his vision, Alfred rolled forward and crushed the wolf under the weight of his armor.

The last wooden wolf backed away from the three spartans, towards the treeline and its safety, but just before it reached the trees it collapsed. The yellow light drained out of its wooden eye sockets and disappeared, leaving only a small pile of dead wood in its wake. The spartans stared at the dead wooden wolf in confusion as to what had killed it.

“Well... that was weird.” Alfred muttered as he moved back towards Leon, Josh doing the same.

“In the words of Chase, ‘Don’t question it or shit gets worse.’” Josh said, now looking back around the clearing for more hostiles.

Leon looked around at the small wood piles in the area, a thought hitting him as Josh mentioned Chase. He began laughing lightly as it came and pass, but he walked over to the wood pile he had made then turned to the others, “Hey Josh, you know what Chase would’ve called these?” Josh shook his head in response letting Leon continue, “Timberwolves.”

Both Josh and Alfred laughed at the joke, but soon the laughter died out and Leon was still standing there looking at the timberwolves’ remains. He looked up towards the stars and the moon, “He would of liked it here.”

Leon felt a hand land on his shoulder and he lowered his head to see Josh there, “We’re here for ya man. We’ve all known Chase since we were kids, but I can’t say I know what you’re going through. Me and him were like brothers, but you were his brother.”

“Chase and I didn’t always see eye to eye, but I know he was one hell of a fighter and one of the best soldiers I’ve ever fought with. I guarantee you he took out half those flood before his time came.” Alfred stated.

Leon looked back up at the moon, then to Josh and Alfred, “It’s going to be sunrise soon, we should get back to looking for some form of shelter.”

With a nod Josh removed his hand from Leon's shoulder, “Just tell us where to-”

Josh was interrupted as all the wood from the timberwolves and from the surrounding forest began to converge on the spot where the final wolf had met it’s mysterious death. Larger pieces of wood began to come out of the forest and join the large bundle that was taking form in front of them. Soon the basic outline was obvious and the spartans took and a step back as the large timberwolf’s head began to form.

“Leon, you got a plan?” Josh asked, his left arm ready to grab his ARC-920 (rail gun).

“Yeah, and it’s one that Chase would be proud of.” Leon reply as the beast completed itself.

“Let’s hear it.” Josh said as the timberwolf’s empty eye sockets started glowing yellow.

“We’re going to tackle the bastard the moment he charges. Any objections?” Leon asked before lowering himself to the ground, like someone who was about to take off in a marathon does.

“Definitely something Chase would come up with, I’m in” Josh answered, lowering himself down beside Leon.

“Three sets of SPARTAN IV armor, each weighing between a quarter and a half a ton, against a couple hundred pounds of firewood. Count me in too.” Alfred said as he joined his friends in the standoff with the large timberwolf.

Then, just as Leon thought, the timberwolf charged them. It’s front legs struck the ground once and it was already over. The spartans had went from zero to eleven and collided with the wolf before it could even notice it’s prey had moved. The wolf bursted like a small balloon, causing logs, wood chips, and splinters to go flying in every which direction.

Moaning as he got up from the ground, Josh brought a hand up to the side of his head, “We just did something stupid, it worked, and I got a headache from it. You really did have chase in mind when you made that plan.”

“Let’s not think of anymore of those types of plans.” Alfred muttered.

“Come on, we need to get moving. It’ll be day soon.” Leon said as he scan the tree tops for any sign of a cliff or rocky area nearby, “Looks like there’s a small cliff south of us, hopefully it will have a cave. Alfred you got point again, Josh you got the rear.”

Alfred gave a simple nod before grabbing his DMR off his back and moving to the treeline. Leon was in the middle, grabbing his BR off his back and watching the sides for any more surprises. Then Josh was behind both of them, sliding his assault rifle out from under his backpack and following them into the forest, hopefully towards safety.

Author's Note

Well here it is, way behind when I thought I would get it out. The main problem was I did chapter 4 first and then I noticed I had to big of a time gap and I needed to fill it and out came this chapter. I think I got all the mistakes, but I'm half asleep right now.

Now for the community question: What do you like seeing MLP crossedover with?