Some Time to Think

*Onboard the UNSC Infinity*

*Time unknown due to Slipspace*

Crimson One sat in the armory, silently examining his favorite LightRifle. He was one of the few Spartans genuinely interested in the Forerunner tech, he watched as he picked it up and the strange scope almost magically floated out of its recess on the rifle and started hovering over it. Waving his hand through the space underneath the scope he felt nothing, and pulling on it proved that it was immobile in its current position, the strange Forerunner technology seemingly able to move simply of its own will. He lowered the rifle and watched the scope take its place back onto the body of the strange gun, placing it on his back he removed his helmet and examined it carefully. The wolfish appearance seeming to leer at him, he mused over the insignia on his shoulder: a silver wolf howling to a crimson moon.

It was unusual for a Spartan to wear their armor inside the ship outside of combat but no one had seen fit to pass any regulations against it, and it was almost a security blanket for Crimson. Replacing his helmet, he stood up and examined the events leading up to when he became a Spartan. He was simply a marine when he heard stories about the Spartans; the last hope for humanity, he was eager to support them and even fought with some. When they approached him as a candidate for the Spartan-IV program he had quickly accepted, thinking to become a pillar of protection for humanity.

Instead he had become a magnet for horror and death, the marines around him didn't have the armor and shields he did. The Covenant prioritized him as a Spartan, and the hail of weaponry directed towards him inevitably caught them as well. The armor that seemed so strong and protective ended up killing everyone around him.

“It isn’t fair,” he thought to himself “but when is anything here.”

He sighed resignedly and looked out the window into the inky blackness of slipspace, and thought more about the near magical Forerunner technology. Suddenly he began to feel weightless and noticed an odd glow surrounding him; his thoughts immediately went to the old tales of ships exiting slipspace completely devoid of their crew and he closed his eyes in thought. “Well ain’t this a hell of a way to go,,” he inwardly chuckled “but it’s probably better than anything the Covenant or those damn Prometheans would do to me.”  He shuddered as he remembered the monstrous perversions of ancient humans, then he vanished without a trace.

________________________________________

*Equestria*

Celestia stood at her balcony and looked out over her kingdom; as it roused itself from its slumber she began to absentmindedly raise the sun. As she used her magic she began to feel a strange pull on it, but before she could puzzle over this the feeling left her. She thought about this as she walked to the throne room, but it was quickly forgotten in the face of her daily duties.

Rainbow Dash was in her usual place napping on a cloud; in fact she was having a dream of impressing everypony with her awesomeness again, when the sound of an explosion and rushing wind woke her. She hurriedly looked around and noticed a strange blue disc floating in front and a little above her; it was a bright blue around the edges and faded to a deep black towards the center. Suddenly an object fell out of it and the disc vanished; the thing was very big and was falling into the Everfree forest, two things that were almost never good. Dash quickly decided to find a hiding spot and investigate the thing.

Crimson’s sense of weightlessness ended abruptly, to be replaced with a falling sensation. He snapped his eyes open to find that he was high above the ground, but that situation was quickly rectifying itself. His suit should be able to let him land safely, but in his time as a marine he had learned to hate the word should.

He angled himself slightly forward, and as he hit the ground he rolled forward to disperse the energy of his landing. Getting up he couldn’t identify any major injuries, but he still didn’t have a clue where he was. He quickly noticed a small unidentified contact on his motion tracker behind him and turned to find what looked like a small flying horse watching him.

“Huh.” He grunted in mild curiosity, and heard a gasp as the thing flew away at a speed he wouldn’t expect from such a small creature. “Well I guess that isn’t the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he muttered bemusedly. Quickly he checked his team’s vital readouts, when he saw they were dark he realized that they all would have been out of their armor.  “Well I might as well see who else got dumped here.” with a deliberate goal in mind, he set off into the forest.

“That thing was terrifying! It was definitely going to eat me, I better tell Twilight about this.” She was halfway to Ponyville before she realized her desperate pace and ragged breathing, she decided to let herself calm down before she tipped off anyone that she was afraid. After composing herself again she headed to Twilight’s house at an urgent, but not frenzied pace.

Twilight Sparkle was actually enjoying a peaceful breakfast when Rainbow Dash burst in with an insistent look on her face.

“Twilight you really need to come see this.”

Normally Twilight would have dismissed this as Dash coming up with a new trick to show off to her friends, but now she had a worried air about her instead of an excited one.

“Of course Rainbow Dash, what is it?” she asked getting up

“I found this weird creature in the Everfree that doesn’t look like a normal animal, I uh, thought about fighting it off when it growled at me but I thought you might like to see it first.”

“What did it look like?”

“It was big, like bigger than Celestia. It looked like it was made of metal and it walked on two legs.”

“Made of metal and walking on two legs?” Twilight said, puzzled. “It might be one of the golems from my books.” She said pulling out The Book of Lost Magical Arts .

“Twilight we might not have time, what if that thing hurts somepony.” Dash said exasperatedly

“That’s impossible; golems have always been under orders to never hurt anypony, er, usually.”

Twilight was suddenly unsure of herself. “Okay, let’s go check it out.”