My Little Pony: Genesis of the Forerunners

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Genesis
Chapter 2: Off the Ice and Into War
Chapter 3: The Confrontation of Three Groups of Eclectics
Chapter 4: Origin of the Fruit
Chapter 5: A New Friendship; A New Enemy; The Same War
Chapter 6: Fall of the First Installation

Chapter 1: The Genesis

Mercy Soul was looking forward to this day ending and so was every other guard, but Mercy began to fidget, even though he was the most disciplined guard under Princess Celestia’s rule. He and every other militant had been standing for almost five hours straight. Today might only come once a year, but it was a dreaded day, to some extent, when it came.

Today was the annual Day of Recognition, a day when the entirety of the armed forces under Princess Celestia’s reign was recognized for any and all achievements, medals of honor, noteworthy feats, and accomplishments that the members of her military had earned and deserved acknowledgement for. The guards with the least amount of achievements are recognized first; the ones with the most last.

Every guard had gone by now except for one, and Mercy Soul would be grateful to finally move. Head held high and shoulders squared he awaited his name to be called.

“And last, but most clearly not least.” Princess Celestia stepped forward on the stage once more and spoke aloud to all of Canterlot and residents of Ponyville. “Mercy Soul, please step forward.”

Mercy Soul walked to the front of the stage and bowed as he approached the Princess. Celestia turned towards the Unicorn Stallion as he dropped his head. “You may stand.” She said with a polite smile. She turned back towards the crowd, who was busy applauding, and began her speech for the Unicorn. “I am sure we all know this Unicorn. He has saved us multiple times. He is the wonderful Stallion who single-handedly saved us from the Manticore invasion. He defeated the raging Hydra by himself at Froggy Bottom Bog and nearly sacrificed his own life to save his troop while they traversed the Everfree Forest and awoke the sleeping beast known as an Ursa Major.” At those words his troop of Alicorns, who were standing behind him, took a bow towards him showing their gratitude for his noble deed. They did owe their life to him after all.

Princess Celestia continued her speech. “He is the only non-Alicorn to lead an Alicorn of any kind and not only that, but to lead a whole squad of Alicorns. His skills prove unexplainable and his magic capacity nearly matches mine and still shows potential, like another Unicorn I know.” Princess Celestia scanned the crowd of Ponies for a certain individual, her favorite pupil, and there that pupil was. A lavender coated Unicorn stood in the midst of the crowd with a purple dragon slumped over on her back, nearly asleep (which isn’t surprising), while being surrounded by a strong orange Earth Pony, a dolled up white Unicorn with a flowing purple mane, a fidgeting pink Earth Pony, a yellow Pegasus with shy looking eyes, and a light blue Pegasus, standing tall and proud, with a rainbow colored tail and mane.

Celestia smiled. “You have gone above and beyond your call of duty, Mercy Soul. And so has your troop and for all these reasons and many more I give you and your troop the mark of the Celestial Crusaders. You all shall no longer be a part of the Solar Royal Guards, but your own squad, a squad that has not existed before now. You all are your own squad and with the title of the Celestial Crusaders you are now under my, and Luna’s, direct control and are the most elite force in all of Equestria. Please, all of you step forward.”

The squad that Mercy Soul led stepped forward. Seven Alicorns valiantly walked up behind Mercy and bowed. From the lowest ranking member of the squad to the highest Princess Celestia awarded the most elite squad in all of Equestria.

She said their names aloud as she replaced their current helmet with a new helmet that no pony had ever seen before. A helmet made for and limited to the only eight Celestial Crusaders in all of history. “Washburn, even though you are lowest in your squad you are still one of the greatest known warriors of all time in Equestria. You are a gifted soldier and musician. Your ears are tuned to the highest of senses and whatever you do not a note is out of place. You use your gifted hearing on, and off, the battlefield.” Celestia’s horn lit up and the helmet on the black coated Alicorn’s head lifted from his head and a new helmet was placed there. The helmet complimented his black coat and shining magenta mane well. The helmet’s color was black, with curving streaks of pearl leading from the muzzle to the top and back of the helmet in symmetry with each side of the helmet. The edges of the helmet were lined with gold.

Princess Celestia moved to the next Alicorn. “Triptych, the most graceful and artful Alicorn I have ever met. Everything you do, even in battle, is a fluid and grace filled movement. Your magic, your flying, and your hoof-to-hoof combat makes being a soldier look like an art, an art divided into three sections.” The princess replaced his helmet as well.

“Memento Mori, you are one of the bravest creatures I have ever met. You have looked death in the eye multiple times and simply gave it a wave. You are truly amazing. However, remember your mortality.” With that bit of advice she removed his helmet as well and replaced it with the helmet of the Celestial Crusaders.

Princess Celestia came to the next Alicorn and looked farther down than she did for the others. This was because the Alicorn she came up to was the smallest, yet one of the most lethal of the soldiers. “Xiphos, you are a horribly lethal soldier and have proven your power of death over the enemy on multiple occasions. With that I proudly honor you as a Celestial Crusader.”

She moved to the next Alicorn.

“And you, Sentinel, nothing gets past you. Your eyes are as keen as any pony’s eyes can be and nothing escapes your perception, nothing gets past you nor slips your sight. I hope that trait of yours will aid the Celestial Crusaders more than I can imagine.” A helmet slipped off the Alicorn’s head and another one slipped on over the soldier’s honed, piercing eyes.

“And the stealthy one of our group here: Shinobi. You know no fear, it seems, as you cross enemy borders and stay there, without a sound or sight, until told other wise. You have gotten underneath the enemies noses and they don’t even do so much as smell you. And with your skills I congratulate you.” The third to last helmet was set down carefully on the pitch black head of the silent Alicorn.

Princess Celestia moved to the second soldier of the squad and looked down at the shining, metallic, gray coat and complimentary mane and tail of the last Alicorn of the squad. “And of course we can’t forget you, Silver Heart. You have stuck by Mercy Soul’s side for as long as I can remember. You came to try for a guard’s position at the same time as Mercy if I’m not mistaken.”

The silver Alicorn nodded his head. “We did.”

Princess Celestia smiled. “Every division you have been placed in Mercy Soul was right there with you. You two are inseparable and the best of friends. You both show unique skill. I know it must have been difficult for Mercy as he was raised in a neighborhood with all Alicorns, but he seemed to have found his way with the help of you. Congratulations, Silver Heart. Your trust and insight is an excellent trait for you to have. You are now the second highest head of our military, only led by your closest friend.” The second in command dropped his head, to bow for the compliments he was given, and his helmet was brought off his head and lowered at his hooves. The new helmet was placed on his head. This helmet was colored silver, instead of black, with streaks of sapphire in place of the pearl streaks, and the edges of the helmet were lined with emerald in place of gold.

Princess Celestia now made her way to Mercy Soul, who was now being recognized as the greatest soldier, and possibly the greatest Unicorn, to have ever lived in Equestria. Mercy Soul could barely contain his excitement and joy for what the princess had said to his squad and what she was about to say to him. Princess Celestia looked down and smiled a large smile at the Stallion.

“And you, Mercy Soul, have out done yourself on many occasions. Your loyalty to the crown and your friends proves you more than you can imagine and your persistence and strength and skills show what kind of Unicorn you really are. You have trained and commanded the best squad of soldiers I have ever seen. I am behind the point of comprehension for what you have done in the past. I applaud you for that.” At those words the crowd of Ponies began to stomp their front hooves on the ground, applauding for the brave and bold Unicorn Stallion. The princess’ horn began to glow as the newly appointed leader had his helmet removed and was placed at his hooves. The very last helmet was brought up and hovered above the Stallion’s head. The midnight blue coat began to stiffen as the soldier got nervous and his dark silver colored tail and mane began to sway with the wind.

The helmet began to lower.

“I, Princess Celestia, give you, Mercy Soul, the command of the squad who, from this point forward, shall be known as the Celestial Crusaders. You are under the direct command of the crown of Equestria and take orders from no pony else. You, Mercy Soul, are my greatest warrior.” Everypony in the crowd and on stage clopped their hooves against the floor even harder and Canterlot roared with the sound of applause loud enough to be heard as an echo in Ponyville. The helmet slowly slid onto the Unicorn Stallion’s head. This helmet was colored a dark blue with ruby streaks and the edges were lined with diamond.

“Now,” Princess Celestia turned towards the crowd. “Time for the festivities!”

“Well!” Silver Heart blurted out towards Mercy as a nice and beautiful Mare walked away from Mercy as the Mare blushed. “Congratulations, Coltanova, that has got to be the 30th Mare to flirt with you since this party began. And you seemed to be flirting back a bit.”

Mercy blushed and kicked the ground with his hoof. “Well, she was fairly nice and she was kind of pretty.”

“’Kind of?’ Ha!” Silver bit his tongue to refrain from saying anything too sarcastic. “She was beautiful.”

“Yeah, well…” Mercy’s voice trailed off as he squinted his eyes and pursed his lips to one side. “There is another Mare, a Unicorn, I have interests in. She’s beautiful, incredibly nice, and good with magic.”

Silver tilted his head. “Who is it? You tell me; I tell you who I’m infatuated with. Sound like a fair trade?”

Mercy Soul chuckled. “Knowing you? Not in the slightest.”

Silver began to laugh when he lurched his head to his left and saw a bright blazing orange mane bouncing towards Mercy Soul. “Oh, look at that. You’ve even drawn the attention of fame. Here comes Spitfire. You have fun with her.” Silver Heart winked at Mercy before turning around and trotting away.

Mercy Soul sighed. He didn’t want to talk to any of these Ponies except his friends, squad members, or the Mare he wanted to talk to the most. He looked towards Spitfire and smiled, not wanting to seem rude, and so his torture continued.

“Look at her! Going after a Stallion who is clearly out of her league!”

“Oh, calm down Rarity. She just wants to talk to him, so that’s what she’s doing.”

“Now Twilight, we all know you want to talk to him too, but you aren’t going to talk to him for a reason that is quite obvious.”

Twilight quickly brought her head down a bit and smirked. “Is it really that obvious?”

Spike, who was laying on Twilight’s back, licked his fingers to get the last bit of emeralds off of his fingers. “Yeah, it is Twilight. You can’t take your eyes off of him and you keep talking about all the wonderful things he’s done and how he saved you when the Manticores surrounded your house at the beginning of the invasion and…”

“All right, Spike, that’s enough.” Twilight said through her grinning teeth with embarrassment.

“What?” Spike questioned as he scanned the table for more gems to snack on, hoping that they weren’t all gone even though he was the only one there who ate gems. “I’m just saying.”

Twilight lifted up her head. “I know you are, Spike. But please keep it to yourself.”

“Oh, Twilight. It’s not like he’s the only one who notices it. We all do.” Rarity said, giving her own input.

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie chimed in. “We all do! Even Gummy knows!” She looked down at her toothless alligator and smiled as he tried hopelessly to pop a balloon with his jaw.

“Ahh!” Twilight slammed her head against her hoof in frustration. “Okay,” she said after she sighed. “I might have a little crush…”

“A little?” Rainbow Dash joked as she finished munching on a cupcake Pinkie Pie had made for the festivities. “Come on, Twilight. It seems a lot bigger than that. There’s no way it’s just a little one. It’s bigger than the one I have on Soarin’ and I have a huge crush on him and…” Rainbow Dash closed her mouth when she realized what she just said. “Did I…” She mumbled as she dropped her head. “I just said that out loud; didn’t I?” All the ponies around her looked at her quizzically.

“Wow, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy muttered. “Wouldn’t it be great if you and Soarin’ got together and you joined the Wonderbolts because of that?”

Rainbow Dash sighed and frowned. “Don’t get me thinking about all the possibilities that won’t ever happen.”

Fluttershy saddened her eyes and looked down towards the ground, where Angel stood frustrated, trying to develop a plan to steal some carrot cake under Fluttershy’s nose since she wouldn’t let him have any. “I… I’m sorry.” She quietly said, sad she had downed a friend. “I was trying to look towards the bright side and all and…”

“I know, Fluttershy. Just stop talking and maybe no one will get hurt.” Rainbow Dash stated as she stomped away in frustration.

Fluttershy’s eyes began to quiver as sorrow and guilt started to flood her, but she didn’t let that get to her. She pulled it together before anypony could comfort her.

The attention turned back towards Twilight.

“Ya know she was right, Twilight. Ah’m thinkin’ ya got more than just a little crush on that Mercy Soul fella.” Applejack made her way into the conversation after selling the last of her apple pies.

“Gah!” Twilight Sparkle yelled in frustration quietly so it was only a little bit loud to those around her. “Fine! I have a pretty decently sized crush…”

Rarity coughed and Applejack cleared her throat while Spike snored, now asleep on Twilight’s back.

“… A big crush on Mercy Soul. I’ve… I’ve just never seen a Unicorn as talented with magic, as handsome, as heroic, as Mercy.” Twilight blushed red through her lavender coated cheeks.

“It’s alright.” Rarity comforted the embarrassed Unicorn. “We understand. I don’t blame you for it. Every Mare has a crush on him.”

Twilight looked at Rarity. “Do you?”

“Hmm? Oh no, no, no. I have my eye on somepony else. Well, Not a pony exactly…”

“Who, then?” Twilight inquired.

“Oh,” Rarity flipped her hair and looked in the opposite direction. “I can’t tell you. It would ruin many things.”

Rarity looked back at her friend as Twilight raised one eyebrow.

Rarity laughed. “I can’t tell you.”

Pinkie Pie gasped largely. “Twilight! I have an idea!”

Twilight’s facial expression turned flat, worried with what Pinkie’s idea was. “What?”

Pinkie swiveled on her hooves and spoke loudly. “You should go talk to him!”

Twilight looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “And you actually expect me to do that?”

“Of course I do, silly.” Pinkie Pie grinned a wide grin and nodded quickly to Mercy Soul who was now trying to shy away from Spitfire.

Twilight turned her head to peer at him, but didn’t do anything.

“Go on now Twilight. Pinkie here’s right. Ya need to go and talk to ‘im. This may be your only chance.” Applejack edged Twilight.

Twilight sighed in frustration from the pressure. She wasn’t too fond of it. “I really don’t want to. It’s not like a Stallion like Mercy would pay too much attention to a Mare like me.”

“Oh, really Twilight? You have saved Equestria more than once and have made your way into the Glass art on the windows in Canterlot Castle and a ceremony was held for your prestigious acts. I’m sure he has heard of you more than once and would be glad to talk to you.” Rarity said, trying to up lift Twilight.

Twilight looked at Mercy Soul, who was the first Pony she had actually liked and fallen for and who was still trying to get away from Spitfire.

“Plus,” Applejack muttered softly, “It looks like he needs a good excuse to get away from the flyin’ fireball.”

Twilight ran a play through of the hundreds of possible outcomes for talking to Mercy Soul in her head and reached a conclusion. “Fine,” she started towards Mercy with dropped shoulders. “I’ll do it.”

“That a girl!” Applejack cheered as Twilight marched to a possible demise and Pinkie preformed a minor dance. “Shoulders up!”

As Twilight trotted towards Mercy Soul, Spike shifted positions in his sleep and rolled off of Twilight’s back, hitting the ground with a thud but still not awaking from his slumber.

Twilight got within hearing distance of Spitfire and Mercy. “So, that’s when Soarin’ launched himself left when everypony else rolled to the right. He crashed into me and we tumbled towards the ground. Now, even though it WAS just practice, other ponies still…”

Mercy Soul quickly looked in the direction of Twilight Sparkle and his heart skipped a beat as it jumped. “Okay, that’s wonderful.” He muttered to Spitfire as he walked past her, gently brushing his shoulder against hers.

Mercy Soul walked up to Twilight, both Ponies looking into each others eyes. “Well, if it isn’t the famous Twilight Sparkle: Equestrian savior and owner of the Element of Magic.” Mercy said smoothly.

Twilight’s heart turned to a puddle, but she quickly gained back her composure. “Yeah, well you’re a pretty big hot shot yourself, Mister, umm… Hot Shot…”

Mercy Soul chuckled a bit while Twilight stabbed her own mind for that name. How could you be so stupid to think of something like that? Just call him Mercy Soul! She thought to herself.

“’Mister Hot Shot’, can’t say I’ve ever been called that before.” Mercy Soul replied with a charming smile.

“Yeah,” Twilight looked at the ground and kicked up some dirt with her hoof. “Well…”

She started to attempt to redeem herself when a Royal Guard Pegasus landed next to Mercy with a thud.

“Mercy Soul!” The Pegasus said sternly in a commanding voice. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna want you and the Celestial Crusaders and the Ponies that hold the Elements to meet her at Dragon Mountain.”

Mercy Soul tilted his head. “Why is that?”

The guard glanced about the festivities of the banquet he had the misfortune of missing. “We have spotted something drifting towards Equestria. Several things, actually.”

At those words Mercy Soul stood up right and called for his squad, “Celestial Crusaders, eyes; ears!”

The group of newly appointed super soldiers quickly whipped their head to their commander. “Snap! Open!” They shouted.

“Follow me!” Mercy Soul commanded. And with that he and his Alicorns took off to Dragon Mountain, leaving Twilight behind in the dust.

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie joined Twilight Sparkle.

“Well, let’s go!” Rainbow Dash chanted.

Applejack looked at the lavender Mare’s face. “It didn’t go so well?”

Twilight trudged past her friends with a slumped posture and picked up Spike.

“Ah’m thinkin’ that’s a yes.”

At the highest point of Dragon Mountain that a Pony could stand stood two princesses, a squad of the most powerful soldiers, and six Ponies who bring Harmony. They stood watching several large purple structures drifting towards their planet of Equestria.

Mercy Soul stood next to Princess Celestia and asked a question that was on everypony’s mind. “What are they?”

Princess Celestia shook her head. “I have no idea. I’ve never seen them before.” She turned her head to her sister. “Luna?”

The midnight colored Mare shook her head as well. “Nor have I, sister.”

The structures had several bulbous sections on it and a hook-like prow. They loomed against the sunset like killer whales and got larger every moment as they grew closer.

Silver Heart, who was standing next to Luna, turned around with a small gut feeling he had and looked into the sky. “What in Equestria?” He muttered.

Everypony turned around as well and followed his gaze.

“Whoa!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “More of them? No, that’s not more of them. They’re different. Very different.”

Everypony stared in awe as in front of them approached large, silver, metallic, box-like structures floating to their planet in the distance, and at a closer distance approached purple, whale-like structures from behind.

Princess Celestia looked at Luna and Luna returned her gaze and nodded, closed her eyes, lit her horn up, and disappeared in a poof of magic. Celestia turned towards the Celestial Crusaders and the holders of the Elements. “Warn everypony you can about this, get them prepared for any possible outcome of what might happen. Mercy Soul, you and Silver Heart gather all the guards and soldiers you can and meet me in Equestrian Fields. This may be something we’ve never seen before here in Equestria.”

“What?” Twilight inquired.

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed. “War.” At that word Celestia’s horn lit up and she too disappeared in a ball of magic, leaving the fourteen Ponies to gather their thoughts in the dusk of a day of Equestria, surrounded by mystery.

Chapter 2: Off the Ice and Into War

“Alright then,” the lone man said with his voice echoing off the metal and glass around him in the dank, cold room, his breath appearing as a fog in front of him. “Let’s get this soldier out of his slumber.” The man walked in front of the only active cryo-chamber on the Aurora Dawn. Another Human lay inside the tube, peacefully. “I don’t understand you, Rigs.” The man who was awake chuckled and accessed the control board for the cryo-tube.

“Yes, Chief?” A sweet sounding female voice came on over the speakers in the room.

The soldier rubbed the frost off the glass of the tube and peered inside at his sleeping friend. “Andromeda, please prepare Lieutenant Rigs here for defrost. I’m pretty sure he is ready to get out of the freezer and off of the ice.”

“Oh, of course.” Andromeda replied. “I don’t know of any Human who wants to stay there, especially not Rigs.”

“Yeah,” the soldier said, “I still don’t understand how he got the authority to be a member of Aurora Dawn.”
The cryo-tube released a cold steam as some of the medicine tubes fell away from the freezer and prepared to thaw the sleeping man.

“Well, Chief, you two seem to get along quite well. If my records are correct you and Rigs did grow up together.”

“We did, we did.”

The cryo-tube continued to prepare the soldier for thawing.

“So, you never told me what you think about this last mission for the Aurora Dawn. What does the mighty Chief Warrant Officer, Grade Five, Davis T. Hand think about this trip?”

Hand let out an abrupt burst of laughter. “’Trip’? Ha, I think the Covenant are going to give us everything they’ve got. This is for the largest Forerunner structure and weapon in the universe and the very last bit of the Covenant in existence; they won’t go down easy, but neither will we.”

The A.I. chuckled. “I know you won’t. You seem to have forgotten that I have watched you in combat, Chief. You’ve taken down three Chieftains at once with seven rounds from your pistol and your combat knife and destroyed two Wraith tanks with a grenade and a rock. Which is quite impressive, might I add."

The Warrant officer slid his fingers across the panel to tell the machine to start thawing out his friend. "Yeah, well... I was just doing my duty as a SSEAL. That's what we do."

Andromeda hummed a tune as she started to fully cut off the medication being given to the lieutenant and started to lower the temperature. "You Humans have come such a long way." She stated, "Less than a century ago you only had the SEALs program: Sea, Air, Land. But now you have the SSEALs: Space, Sea, Air, Land. You all started with your legs, then earned your wings, and your gills, and now you've earned yourselves some thrusters."

"Yup, best life forms in the universe we humans are." Hand said as he unlocked the freezer.

"Oh!" Andromeda said as the cryo-chamber began releasing more and more steam. "The fleet admiral is calling me. I'll be back unless you no longer require my assistance."

The Warrant Officer waved his hand in the cold, dry air. "Nah, I'll be fine. And so will he." Hand looked down at the tube while it slowly opened and released his friend from the eternal abyss he had been placed in for the two week long trip.

Ever so slowly and ever so gradually his friend stepped out of the freezer: cold, numb, and naked. He looked up at his long time friend with dreary eyes and looked at the cryo-tube. "Man, I hate that thing."

Hand laughed. "Looks like you do."

Rigs made a face to mock Hand's laugh. "I'm sure I do, but be careful what you say: remember, I can have you demoted." Rigs said sarcastically.

Hand tossed the freezing man a pair of his NWUs and replied, "After I just saved you from that cold, everlasting slumber? I'm sure you wouldn't."

Rigs slid into the uniform quickly for someone who just awoke from cryo as he was used to it. "Keep up with that sarcasm and I will."

Hands put his hands into the air. "Alright, alright. I'll stop. But sit down. I have to run the questions by you again. You know, safety protocol and what not."

"Bah, I know. I know." Rigs sat down in a cold metal chair and Hand followed suit.

"Okay then," the Warrant Officer said. "What is the name of this frigate?"

"Aurora Dawn."

"And why did you enter cryo?"

"Because I can't handle the jumps into slipspace for more than three days."

"And why are you on the Aurora Dawn?"

"I am the medic, a combat medic, for the SSEALs team, the Vector Squadron, who's leader is Chief Warrant Officer, Grade Five, Davis Hand."

"And what is our mission on the Aurora Dawn?"

"We are to track down the Covenant and remaining parties of said foe so they may not harm or endanger another civilization again. We are chasing down the last known Covenant and they are searching for a Forerunner artifact, the Fruit of Good and Evil, which is found in the largest Forerunner library and laboratory, the Garden of Eden. We do not know where these Forerunner belongings are, but we are following the Covenant to find these artifacts and make sure the Covenant cannot get thier hands on this technology.

"The Covenant, from our intel, know where these artifacts lie and they are heading towards an unknown planet outside of UNSC territory. We are to follow them and annihilate them."

Hand and Rigs sat in the cold silence while Hands jotted a few things down on a piece of paper.

"All right, Rigs, looks like you are fine; like always." Hand put the paper in his pocket and stood up.

Rigs nodded and stretched.

Hand extended his arm to his friend to help him stand. "Let's you get you to someplace..."

The soldier was cut off short as his ear piece rang with a command.

"Chief Hand, I need you at the bridge in 30." A raspy voice crackled over the headset.

"Yes, sir, but may I bring my friend who just woke up?"

"Rigs?"

"Yes, sir."

"That's fine, just make sure you are here in 30 minutes." The voice concluded.

Hand nodded his head even though he knew only Rigs could see him. "Aye aye, fleet admiral."

The lieutenant tilted his head. "Was that admiral?"

"Yeah."

"What's he want now?"

"We need to meet him on the bridge in half-an-hour. In the meantime let's get you somewhere warmer."

"Like a hottub! Please tell me you got a hotub while I've been on ice."

Hand gathered the few things he brought and raised an eyebrow. "You do know we've been in slipspace the whole time, right?"

"Oh, I know. I'm just saying it would be nice."

The warrant officer nodded. "It would be. It would. You know you are a lot more energetic than most people that are freshly thawed."

Rigs stretched again. "Really? 'Cause I sure don't feel like it, but I did get a lot of sleep you know."

"Yeah, you are. Let's get back to our room."

The two soldiers began to walk towards the door of the cryo-room. "You had better not of screwed our room up while I was in here."

"Really, Rigs? You should know me better than that."

"Oh, good. You didn't."

Hand stopped at the door, waited for it to open, and looked at his friend while jiggling the man's last statement in his head. He smiled and laughed and walked out the door.

"Whoa," Rigs stated. "What does that mean? Like.... Crap, you did destroy our room didn't you?"

Hand didn't reply, smiled, and walked towards his sleeping quarters.

"Hey!" Rigs caught up to his lower ranking commander and walked with him. "I hope you know I hate you."

Inside the quarters Rigs plopped himself onto his bed and pulled every blanket he could find over him, still cold and still a bit hyper. "Glad the room was clean enough I could find the blankets." Rig said with a smirk on his face.

Hand opened a drawer and took out his data pad. "Really? Because our quarters is pretty much spotless."

"Yeah?" Rigs cuddled himself under the blankets. "Well, there's a smudge on the mirror. It's aggravating me and makes me want to punch you, just, really hard in the face."

Hand laughed and scrolled down his data pad. "We need to meet the fleet admiral in twenty minutes so we need to get going in about ten."

"And until then," the medic said covered in blankets, his voice bouncing off the mostly metal furniture and walls of the quarters, "you need to catch me up with everything that has been going on while I was on ice."

Hand started to laugh and began to speak up. "Well, Stevens and Sapp got into another little quarrel of their's the other day."

Rigs perked up and sat up in his bunk. "Really? What this time? Was it for an even more stupid reason than last time?"

Hand smiled and placed the data pad back into the drawer. "Yup, by about 20%. Twenty-percent more pointless."

"So, what was it for?"

"Well..." The Warrant Officer began to reply, but was cut off when his ear piece rang again and a female voice came in over the headset.

"Hand? We need you at the bridge as soon as possible. Oh... wait... Scratch that. We need you here now."

"On my way, but might I ask why Andromeda?"

"We seem to have miscalculated where we were at in Slipspace. The rest of Vector Squadron has been notified, but please get here now."

"Aye aye, ma'am." Hand turned to Rigs who was looking up at his lower ranking commander quizically.

"What was that?"

"We need to get to the bridge, now."

With a sigh and reluctant motions, Rigs tossed the blankets off of him and slid himself off the bed, grabbed his cover and placed it in his hand. "Alright, let's go."

Warrant Officer Hand and Lieutenant Rigs placed their cover on their head and positioned it the way anyone positions a hat.

Hand moved ahead first and moved to the center of the Quater Deck, saluted the UNSC flag, then turned to salute the officer of the watch. The officer saluted back and Hand said the ritualistic thing everyone who crossed the Quarter Deck said.

"Chief Warrant Officer, Grade 5, Hand; permission to cross the Quarter Deck."

"Permission denied." The officer began to turn away, but looked back with a shock when the Warrant Officer spoke up in defiance.

"No! We need to cross now!"

The officer crossed his arms with an emotionless face. "And why is that, Warrant Officer?"

"Because we got direct orders from the Fleet Admiral that we are needed at the bridge."

"And why are you so special to get these commands?"

"Listen, do you want me to call up the Fleet Admiral right now? Because I can and I will. And why can't I cross anyways?"

"There was a chemical spill in the recreational room and we are in the process of cleaning it up."

"Alright, please let us pass. We are making our way to the bridge..."

"No, sir. You can't pass. And besides, why does the Admiral want you at the bridge?"

"Because we are about to make an emergency jump out of slipspace."

The officer laughed. "Is that really the best excuse you can come up with? If this is true than why hasn't anyone announced it to anyone else?"

Hand sighed quickly in aggravation. He hated being asked questions he can't answer.

He shrugged. "I don't know, maybe everyone's busy trying to figure out where we will land and..."

Hand was cut short when the entire ship lurched and the power cut off for a couple seconds. Hand, Rigs, and the officer of the watch fell to the floor. There was only one reason a frigate would do that.

Hand stood up and helped Rigs stand up. He started to walk past the officer who was lieing on the floor, a bit stunned, but instead looked down at him with a mocking face. "Told you so."

Hand and Rigs made their way onto the bridge and met up with the rest of their squadron, who was standing in a line according to their rank: Master Chief Petty Officer Howard, Petty Officer First Class Neihoff, Petty Officer First Class Stevens, Petty Officer Second Class Heisler, Petty Officer Third Class Wayne, and Petty Officer Third Class Sapp.

The SSEALs stood in rank and peered out of the glass windows of the Aurora Dawn to give view of what was in front of it: and that view was beautiful.

A beautiful and majestic looking planet sat in the center of the glass panels, like an angel painted what heaven would look like if it were a planet.

"It's a shame," Sapp spoke up, "that this beautiful place in the universe will be ravaged by war because of the Covenant."

Wayne looked in Sapp's direction. "So, it's the Covenant's fault? It takes two to tango, you know."

Sapp began to form a rebuttle, but emergency lights flashed on and the engineers and other personelle that worked the bridge started shouting at each other.

"We just entered the atmosphere of the planet!" "Did we really exit slipspace that close to the planet?" "Everyone get the Dawn out of the atmosphere!"

The Vector Squadron stood there because they could be of no help. That is, until an engineer shouted, "Look! The Covenant are sending Phantoms and Spirits down to the planet!"

The peaceful scene quickly turned into chaos by war.

The Fleet Admiral turned towards the SSEALs. "Alright! Well, as we turn this ship around we need you all to go down there and intercept the Covenant! Go to the landing bay and prepare to go down their! I'll make sure that Beck has his Pelican ready for you all! Go! We can handle this all up here!"

The Vector Squadron all nodded and took a step back and preformed an about-face in unison to fallout.

The Vector Squadron grabbed their usual weapons for being on the front lines and grabbed as much ammunition as they could carry after they dawned their gear. They made their way, double-timing it, to the Pelican that would adorn them the gift of battle. On their way through the hanger it was utter chaos and discord as the Aurora Dawn tried to gather its bearings.

When the SSEALs reached their Pelican they automatically jumped in the back. Hand ran up to the cockpit and shouted a command to the pilot. "Beck! Get us to the ground! We need to intercept the..."

"Yeah, yeah! I know! Just sit down and I'll get you there! I know where we are going so take a seat and take some notes!"

Hand laughed at the violent sarcasm and sat in the back compartment. The Pelican lifted off and the group of Humans headed towards war: to end it or to prolong it.

When the Pelican was approaching the LZ for the open field where they would meet the Covenant the SSEALs began to mash the magazines into their weapons and place a round into the chamber of the weapon.

Hand's ear piece rang again. "Chief! Once you get to the battle hold off the Covenant for as long as you can to prevent them from getting at whatever they are wanting to get to so hastily. Once we get the Dawn stable we are going to hot-drop some ODSTs and our little green friend into the battle."

"Can do sir!" The Warrant Officer shouted over the roar of the Pelican's engine and air rushing against the hull of the bird.

"Alright!" Beck shoated at the squad. "I'm going to open the door and you all jump out! I'll try to get a view on the battle and give you overwatch! If this bird had weapons I would help, but unfortunately it doesn't!"

"Alright SSEALs!" Hand shouted at his squad. "Lock and load!"

The bay door to the Pelican lowered and the soldiers leaped from the air and dawned the garments of war.

The Pelican flew into the air and the soldiers scanned the field. It was a completely open field with beautiful flowers lining across the field in a magnificent display of color and a couple large rocks clustered in one portion of the field.

Sapp sighed and said again, "It's a shame."

"I agree," Hand spoke up. "But there is not a thing we can do about it. War may be a terrible thing, but let's keep it from tearing this planet apart too. SSEALs! Behind those rocks! We'll wait for the Covenant there."

So the soldiers moved behind the rocks and waited. Howard sat on one of the rocks peering down the scope of his rifle, the sharpshooter ready to speak up when the members of the conflict would appear in his visual.

"Beck." Hand put his hand to his ear piece. "You see anything?"

At first there was no reply. "Beck, ya' there?

A few seconds passed before he answered. "Yeah."

"What do you see?"

"Well," the pilot was reluctant. "Are you planning on dieing today?"

Hand's heart sunk. "Why is that?

"Well," Beck started to speak up but Howard spoke up first.

"Contact! Lots of 'em!"

Hand dropped his hand from his ear and looked at Howard. "What do you see?"

Howard replied in a shaky voice. "Five wraith tanks."

Every soldier there grew a worried look on their face and Neihoff gripped his rocket launcher while Stevens gripped his Model 8 Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, Spartan Laser.

"Three ghost recon vehicles, two choppers, a prowler, and about twenty Brutes, fifteen Grunts, and ten Jackals."

"Versus eights SSEALs? We aren't Spartans or ODSTs! We can't handle all that!" Heisler spoke up.

Hand sighed. "Our orders weren't to survive, soldier. They were to hold off the Covenant long enough so they may be destroyed here and now and not have any chance of finding the Fruit of Good and Evil, which for all we know we could be standing on it."

Wayne tilted his rifle in his hands. "Well, I always wondered what heaven looks like."

Hand nodded, his heart in his chest and his rifle in his hands. He looked down the field and saw a Brute Chieftan in range of his rifle.

He lifted his weapon, flicked the safety off, and prepared to die.

Chapter 3: The Confrontation of Three Groups of Eclectics

"Move! Move! Now! I need everypony at Equestrian Fields right now! We have possible contact with an alien race, or races. This is not a drill!" Mercy Soul shouted the command across the entire hangar at the top of Canterlot Castle. Every guard was rushing out of the hangar and taking off to the sky if they were able. The Unicorns would teleport themselves and Earth Ponies to the field. The loud noise of the clammering and clopping of hooves against the cold, hard tile flooring of the hangar was almost unbearable and Washburn had to use ear protection because of his finely tuned sense.

"Mercy!" Silver Heart yelled over the pounding noise of hooves. "Sentinel has seen something."

Mercy Soul turned towards Silver and looked at Memento Mori, "Take over! Guide all the guards and direct them to Equestrian Fields!"

Mori nodded his head, "Yes, sir!"

Mercy Soul trotted his way towards Silver Heart, who led him to the window in which Sentinel was looking out of.

"What do you see Sentinel?" Mercy Soul inquired.

Sentinel gazed into the horizen of Equestria, up at the looming purple stuctures, through his steely eyes. "The purple structures, or whatever they are, seem to be releasing some sort of floating craft, like a flying metal car, and the crafts are coming down to the field south of Sweet Apple Acres."

Mercy Soul followed the watchman's gaze, but saw nothing until a couple of shadows placed themselves as silhouettes against the painted horizen.

"Hmm..." Mercy Soul hummed, trying to figure out what they were.

"And there!" Sentinel spoke up again. "The metal structures are doing the same, but with one craft. Do you think these aliens know each other?"

Mercy Soul thought this over in his head, but Silver Heart spoke up. "Well, they came in from opposite sides of Equestria. So, to me it looks like they are against each other, but then why would they send a party to meet up with each other?"

Mercy Soul continued to follow the crafts as they slowly grew in his vision. "To fight."

Silver Heart took a step back. Blunt combat and battles like that were unheard of in Equestria.

Mercy glanced at a pitch black coated Alicorn. "Shinobi!"

The Alicorn glanced in Mercy's direction. "Yes, sir!"

"I want you to guide Sentinel to scout out the incoming parties of these foreign races. You keep the two of you, you and Sentinel, from being seen. Sentinel!"

The steely eyed Alicorn glanced at his commander.

"You follow Shinobi and tell me everything that you see."

Sentinel and Shinobi nodded. "Yes, sir!"

The two Alicorns galloped towards the hangar's opening and took to the sky, their sihlouettes shrinking as the alien craft's sihlouettes grew.

Silver Heart watched Mercy Soul closely while guards continued to take off to Equestrian Fields. "Do you really believe war may have been brought to Equestria?"

Mercy Soul still watched as his soldiers obeyed his command and flew to the borders of Sweet Apple Acres. "I hope it hasn't. But whether I believe it has or not... that's different."

"Granny Smith! Big Mac! Apple Bloom!" Applejack raced to the barn of Sweet Apple Acres, and saw who she was looking for, along with an extra Pony.

She stopped when she reached the barn. "Braeburn?"

The light yellow Colt turned towards his cousin with his smile. "Well, howdy there cuz! Boy have I missed y'all in Appleloosa! It gets really boring there at times cause no Pony there is as fun as everypony here and y'all are so exciting! Big Mac here has told me everything you've done here for Equestria cpusin and might I say faaaantastic job. Oh, and..."

"Alright that's enough, Braeburn." Applejack said, quickly cutting off her hyper cousin. "What are ya doin here?"

Braeburn looked to the vast open sky. "Well everything was goin slow in Appleloosa and they didn't need me there so I decided to come visit my favorite cousins and..." Braeburn stopped talking as he saw something float from the sky and land in the fields next to Sweet Apple Acres. "Uh, what's that?"

Everypony looked to the sky and followed the Colt's eyes.

What looked like several purple aircrafts floated down to the ground south of Sweet Apple Acres.

"What in tarnation?" Applejack muttered. "First they're those big things, now we got little ones comin' down at us? Anypony have any idea what these things are? Granny?"

The frail green Pony shook her shrivled head.

"Big Mac?"

The red Colt also shook his head. "Nnnope."

"Braeburn?"

"I haven't."

"Maybe!" The little Filly, Apple Bloom, spoke up. "Maybe it's aliens!"

Applejack snickered. "Yeah, alright little Pony. Y'all reckon we should go check it out?"

Braeburn agreed. "Yeah, I reckon."

Macintosh nodded his head. "Eeyup."

Apple Bloom, of course, agreed. "Yeah, we should!"

Applejack raised one eye brow. "No you ain't partner. This here is something for us grown up Ponies. Granny, would you look after Apple Bloom while we go check this out?"

The old Mare nodded her head shakily. "I will, but be back in time for me to go to bed."

"Alright, we will Granny. Come on y'all! Let's head out! Yee-haw!" Applejack said with excitement and adrenaline.

The three Earth Ponies took off towards the south of Sweet Apple Acres, leaving Apple Bloom and Granny Smith behind.

Apple Bloom looked down at the ground and kicked the dirt. "I'm old enough to take care of myself. I did with Zecora and I can now too!" She looked back at the old green Mare, who was standing and leaning on her walker and shaking heavily. Apple Bloom knew she could out gallop Granny who was half asleep and about fifteen feet behind her.

Apple Bloom started at a full gallop after her family members, but quickly bashed her head against a metal bar and fell on her rear abruptly. She opened her eyes and looked around with a fuzzy vision. Granny Smith loomed over her and trapped the Filly with her walker like a cage.

"Now now Apple Bloom..." Granny Smith muttered with an old, quivering voice.

"Humph!" Apple Bloom crossed her forelegs and pursed her lips. "I never get to do anything fun. I bet this is why I don't have my cutie mark."

"Alright!" Twilight Sparkle yelled, corralling the Ponies of Ponyville to Canterlot. Rarity was helping direct the Ponies from a safe position (safe from dirt, that is) while Pinkie Pie ran from house to house and alerted the villagers. Fluttershy pointed out stragglers to Rainbow Dash who flew to help and direct them.

"Everypony needs to get to Canterlot now!" Twilight yelled the command at the top of her lungs.

A blue-ish coated Mare with a blonde mane and tail waltzed up to Twilight and tried her best to look into the Lavender Pony's eyes. "Why? She asked simply.

"Because Princess Celestia said so Ditsy Doo."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense then. I suppose I should go then, huh?"

Twilight looked into the wild eyes of the Mare. "Yeah, ya should."

Pinkie Pie popped her head out of a house and yelled at Rainbow Dash. "Hey! Where did Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle go?"

Rainbow's eyes widened and she spun in the air looking for them. "Oh my gosh! I don't know!"

"There!" Fluttershy yelled, or tried to, pointing a hoof at Twilight's house.

Pinkie dashed over to the tree and found Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle playing a game of "keep-away" with Spike, tossing a book Twilight had asked for him to find to one another whenever Spike got close to one of them.

"Come on! Give it back!" Spike said while trying his utmost hardest to capture the book again.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle just laughed and tossed the book higher.

"Hey!" Pinkie Pie screamed at the top of her lungs while putting all of her weight onto her front hooves. "Stop that right now! Or so help me I will..." She prepared to slam a ridiculous threat involving her typical sweetness and cupcakes at them, but she stopped herself.

Sweetie Belle had turned in Pinkie Pie's direction, but instead of focusing on Pinkie she stared at the metallic craft floating down to the fields behind Sweet Apple Acres.

"Whooaa..." She and Scootaloo awed at the site.

Pinkie Pie turned around and saw the craft as well. "Whoa!" She perked up even more than she was. "The big metal things had a baby!"

She turned towards Twilight. "Look, Twilight! The metal things had a baby!" She raised a hoof at the floating craft.

Everypony followed Pinkie's gaze and saw the mysterious craft.

"Wow." Rainbow Dash muttered. "You suppose we should check it out?"

Twilight thought about it, but she didin't want to go against Celestia's order. But then again, this is probably the only opportunity like this to scout these aliens.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle ran to Twilight's hooves. "Can we please?"

Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash. "Let's do it."

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both jumped with joy before being shot down.

"Oh, not you two Fillies."

The two crusaders sat on their rears. "Aww, why?"

"It's too dangerous for you two." Twilight answered. The Pony looked up for a way to have somepony watch over the Fillies and saw three Ponies she could ask.

"Ditsy Doo! Vinyl Scratch! And... you there, umm... brown Colt! Could you all come here?"

The three ventured over to Twilight.

"Yeah?"

"Could the three of you watch over Scootaloo and Sweety Belle here?" Twilight wrapped a leg around the two Fillies and the two girls smiled large, fake smiles.

"I suppose." The brown Colt answered.

Twilight looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry who are you, again? I don't see you around here too often."

The Colt stood up straight. "I'm the Doctor." He said with pride.

Twilight stared at him and blinked. "Doctor who?

Ditsy Doo snapped her head in the direction of the conversation. "Doctor Whooves!"

"Yes, yes. That's it!" The Doctor said with pride.

"Okay, well the three of you please look after these two Fillies here and get them to Canterlot please."

Vinyl Scratch peered down at Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. "You need three of us for them?"

Twilight had already started running towards Sweet Apple Acres with her friends. She looked back and screamed at them. "Yeah, I'm sorry I could only get three of you for it." And after that she had disappeared into the trees of Sweet Acres.

Vinyl Scratch looked at the other Ponies. "Well this shouldn't be too hard. They don't look that..."

Ditsy Doo cut her off, looking around. "Uh, where'd they go?"

"Over there!" Doctor Whooves shouted and pointed at Sweet Apple Acres as the sihlouettes of two small Ponies vanished into the group of trees.

"Aww, crap." Vinyl Scratch muttered. "Let's go get them! They'll probably die out there or something."

Vinyl Scratch and the Doctor ran after the two Fillies.

"Whoa what?" Ditsy Doo murmered when she realized her friends were gone, then quickly took after them as they charged towards the first intergalactic battle on Equestria.

The last guard left the hangar. Mercy Soul and the other Celestial Crusaders stood there, waiting for their two comrades to return.

"Look!" Xiphos yelled as two Alicorns flew towards them in the hangar.

Sentinel and Shinobi landed directly in front of their commander.

"Report." Mercy Soul said.

Sentinel looked up and recalled what he saw. "They were definately aliens. We didn't see what came out of the metal craft, but the things that came out of the purple craft were all bipedal creatures. They walked on two legs and some were driving these strange vehicles, but this is the part I think you need to know."

Everypony stood there silently and waited for what he was about to say.

"They killed, everything, for no reason. The vehicles they drove seemed to scorch the ground where ever they went. Any animals they saw they killed, no, muredered for no reason what so ever. They are a threat and they are moving towards Ponyville right now. We need to stop them. We have to."

Mercy Soul nodded. "Alright Crusaders! Prepare to fight. Meet me down in the field behind Sweet Apple Acres. Hang of to the side. Then, when you see me teleport out of there, you all come in and we will make them leave this place. No enemy we have ever fought has lost their first battle and continued to fight."

Mercy Soul put his head down and his horn lit up. "Let's go." He said and with that he teleported to the field while the Alicorns took to the sky.

Hand placed his finger on the trigger of his weapon and pulled it down half way when he stopped, and a glowing ball appeared half way between him and the Covenant, and out of the ball came a Unicorn, clad in armor.

"What is that?" Howard muttered. "A unicorn?"

Hand lowered his weapon. "Yeah, think it is."

"What?" Stevens said. "What are you guys talking about?"

Every SSEAL peered around the rock they hid behind and looked at the lone hooven animal.

"Well..." Stevens said.

Mercy Soul stared at the aliens who were goin to bring nothing but malevolence to Equestria. They were all hideous. All of them stopped in their tracks when he just materialized in front of them. The only ones that looked a little cute were small ones with large backs, or maybe they were tanks.

"What are you doing here?" Mercy Soul said, placing one hoof in front of the other.

The large hairy ones looked at each other and mumbled a few things in their own language. One of the hairy ones stepped forward and looked at Mercy Soul.

"We are here for Garden of Eden. Do you know where it at?"

Mercy Soul smirked, some of them spoke Equestrian, they spoke it poorly, but they spoke it none-the-less.

"What is the Garden of Eden?" Mercy Soul answered with a question.

The hairy creature stood there for a second, going over the words in his head. "You do not know what Garden of Eden is?"

Mercy Soul shook his head. "Nope."

The hairy thing nodded and stepped back. Another one of the hairy things lifted up what looked to be a weapon and pointed it at Mercy Soul.

Mercy didn't know what the thing was but decided no to stay to find out concerning it had two blades jutting out from the front. The Unicorn's horn lit up and a molten hot metal spike whizzed through the air where Mercy Soul was standing.

Hand watched as the Brutes shot the unicorn. He felt sorry for the unicron. Never seeing a real one before he had wished to get close to it. Hand continued to stare at the hooven creature, but then he realized it had disappeared.

"Whoa, that thing can teleport?" Rigs said. "Dude, I want a unicorn."

"You can get one in heaven, Rigs. Right now we need to fight." Hand began to charge out into the field when seven flying unicorns soared into the battle.

"Whoa, nope." Hand said spinning around to hide behind the now comforting rock to watch the slaughter.

Mercy Soul materialized behind the hairy beast who had fired at him at slid his horn into the brute, flipped the creature over his body, slammed him on the ground, and stomped on its head, turning it into a red, mushy pancake before teleporting again so he wouldn't be shot.

Triptych flew around in the air and soared past the aliens, distracting them, weaving in and out of fire, while Xiphos came down and landed hard on two of the small reptilian like creatures with glowing circles in front of them. Xiphos looked up at one of the dark blue and purple vehicles and jetted into the air as it released an explosive blue ball of energy.
The Alicorn noticed where the ball came from and lit up his horn and bent the coil that gave the weapon of the vehicle power, crippling it so it couldn't fire. He then launched himself on top of it and started to pound into the vehicle's drivers seat. He pounded the cover into the driver's seat straight down, ruthlessly flattening the unfortunate driver.

While flying around Triptych would occasionally sweep down and knock one of the aliens in the head, bashing its skull with a lethal force, but the Alicorn never lost his balance or speed.

Shinobi would drop in and out of combat by galloping at a full gallop into the battle, then back out and back in, taking out many of these ugly creatures as he could.

Sentinel and Washburn worked together by calling out what the enemy would do and when they would do it all at the same time while beating the enemies to a pulp.

Memento Mori flew straight into the battle and fought hoof-to-hoof not worrying about the enemy harming him.

Silver Heart rammed into one of the smaller, purple vehicles and tore the driver out of the seat with his horn. He then proceeded to the next one and the next. When the vehicle with one large wheel approached Sentinel and Washburn Silver Heart lifted the charred bones of a fallen enemy with his magic and jammed them into the gears of the vehicle, causeing it to explode in a blue and orange fire.

Mercy Soul teleported in and out of combat, having the magic capability to do so and aimed for the head on each enemy by either piercing it with his horn, cruching it beneath his foot, or any other way to kill the enemy. When the odd hovering vehicle with four of the hairy beasts in it came close to him and a stream of blue bolts flew past Mercy Soul or disipitated on his armor, the Unicorn bent the coil, which gave that weapon energy, and the vehicle made a stalling noise before collapsing. As the four beasts tried to climb out Triptych preformed a flip over head, lighting up his horn, and the remains of the vehicle exploded.

Mercy Soul looked around as there were only four aliens left. but spun around quickly when he heard a noise behind him and placed his horn at this other alien's throat.

Hand stood there, back straight and arms up, with a honed horn held at his throat. He was astonished at how quickly these mystical beings had destroyed the Covenant with only four Brutes left.

The Unicorn stood there without taking his eyes off of Hand. Everybody stood there in an awkward silence, even the Brutes stopped trying to survive to look at the very first Human/Unicorn stand off.

Hand moved his right hand to the Unicorn's horn and lightly swatted it away from him. Giving it gentle taps to move it slowly.

The silver unicorn/pegasus/horse... thing looked at the Brute in front of him and killed the beast, as did the others.

Hand stepped back and so did the horses until they stood about fifteen meters apart. Then they all stood there in silence again.

"There! I think I see them!" Vinyl Scratch ran forward to catch up with the small figures. One of them, she could have sworn, looked more tall and more gaingly than before. She lunged forward and tackled the two Ponies.

"Heeeeyyy." A little squealy voice sounded. "What was that for?"

"What?" Scratch stood up. "You aren't Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle."

"Well, duh!" The voice sounded again.

Ditsy Doo and Doctor Hooves caught up with them and Ditsy's eyes widened. "Snips? Snails? Why are you guys here? You're supposed to be at your therapy."

"We knoooow." The slow, tall Unicorn spoke up. "But we saw these ships fly down towards Sweet Apple Acres and we wanted to check it out."

"Yeah!" Snips jumped up.

"Well," Doctor Whooves spoke. "While we are here, have you two happened to see Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle?"

"Oh," Snips said. "You've been looking for those two too? Don't bother, if they play hard to get with us then there's no TELLING how hard they'll play hard to get with you guys."

Everypony just stared at the two socially awkward Unicorns.

"No." The Doctor said. "Where are they? We need to find them."

"Yeah, uh-huh." Snails said. "And why, exactly, should we do that?"

Vinyl Scratch had had enough of these two. First the Ursa Minor now this. "Because they might be dead." She answered and that sure did make Snips and Snails shut up.

Mercy Soul stared at the hideous looking bipedal creatures with Silver Heart at his right hand side.

"Uggh," Silver Heart said. "Those things are hideous. Why can't they be kind of cute like the little guys we just killed with the tanks on their back?"

Mercy Soul looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "You think those things were cute? Did you see them with their mask off?" Mercy looked down at one of the creatures at his feet.

"No, but they can't be..." Silver looked down as his commander knocked the alien's mask off. "Oh, oh my... That's... uh..."

"How do you suppose we try to communicate with them? Do you think they want to kill us?" Rigs was standing to Hand's immediate right.

"After watching what they just did? I'm pretty sure if they wanted us dead we'd be dead."

"Alright, so let's try to talk to them."

"How do we do that Rigs? They're horses."

"Actually, Hand, they're ponies."

Hand sighed in disgust.

Rigs went back to the matter at hand. "Wave hi?"

"Look, Mercy! That one is raising his foreleg!"

One of the bipedal creatures raised his foreleg and opened his mouth. "Hello!" It yelled from the distance.

Silver Heart stepped back. "Whoa, they speak Equestrian. Hello!" Silver shouted back.

"Aww, dude!" Rigs spoke up. "They speak English!"

"Alright, so they seem friendly. Let's try to talk to them some more. Don't do anything to make them suspicious of us."

"Alright." Rigs said.

Hand began to talk, but was cut off. His ear piece rang. "Hand! Come in!"

Hand raised his hand to his ear. "Yes sir?"

"We are dropping ODSTs and Spartan 058 to you now to help with the battle."

Hand's heart skipped a beat. After seeing what he just saw there's no telling what the ponies would do to the armor-clad humans. "No sir! Wait!"

"Pods launched." Hand heard Andromeda say.

He looked up in the air and watched the pods catch on fire as they entered atmosphere.

Five metal chambers hit the field about twenty meters from where Mercy Soul stood and four black colored aliens and one green one stepped out of the chambers. Mercy squinted his eyes and huffed his breath out his nostrils.

The lead unicorn looked frustrated, filled with rage and anger and kill written in its eyes, and charged Linda. "No! Wait!" Hand screamed just as the unicorn pierced his horn into the Spartan's gut releasing energy and Linda out yelled in pain.

Chapter 4: Origin of the Fruit

Madegalaxer Takes Forever Sorrow stepped onto the stage. He was surprised that so many Forerunners had no idea that he really was, but then again, if they knew the elaborate social structure of all the lifeforms in the universe would be broken, shattered by such a nightmare.

Forever Sorrow cleared his throat and looked out among the crowd. The time to present his glorious invention had come. After hundreds of years of tinkering with modified Forerunner technology he finally completed his grand design that no Forerunner could have achieved. Forerunners filled with those flaws they have that Sorrow's species didn't have and the Forerunners not being able to work on it due to conditions restricted to their species alone, and for the fact that Forever Sorrow is simply more of an intellectual being than most beings in the universe, was the reason he could achieve this greatness.

"I am sure you have all waited long for this moment. My fellow Forerunners the project you have heard so many rumors about is now complete. Possibly one of the greatest machines in the universe, including the invention of the ancilla, is now finished and I as its creator will gladly demonstrate its monstrous power to you."

Sorrow turned his head to two Forerunners at the end of the stage who started playing with a small holographic square that protruded from the front of their ancilla, as they were prepared to do at his command.

The large circular platform behind the stage lit up and rings of light floated from bottom to top of the building and something, a machine of sorts never been seen before, slowly began to materialize on the stage. Forever Sorrow turned around with a grin of satisfaction and gazed at his beautiful invention, butust as it became fully materialized it vanished and the humming of the transport system shut off and Sorrow stood there frustrated and a bit embarrassed.

Sorrow accessed his ancilla. "What happened?" He asked his personnel AI.

"It seems," the AI said, "that ADIM has stopped the transport."

Sorrow bit his lips in rage, but cooled his temper just long enough to tell the audience he'd be back.

"Ademordna, please transport me to the Garden." He told the AI in his ancilla.

"Will do, sir."

After a small ring drifted up and down Sorrow's body he stepped into the largest Forerunner laboratory in the universe: the Garden of Eden. Taking a step forward Sorrow looked at his invention, it was fine. He then looked at ADIM, a floating orb of metal and the spark of the installation, the very first spark to be made and every spark model followed ADIM's, which was created by Sorrow. A couple of Forerunners, who were all Inventors, stood by the machine, but several of the Inventors were missing.

"What happened ADIM?" Sorrow yelled angrily, clenching his fist.

The spark turned towards his creator and floated up to him, "It's the horned and winged Eques."

"What about it?" Sorrow inquired forecefully.

"The winged and horned one seems to be ill or something of the like. It's not preforming at a full productivity. Its aura doesn't have as much of a presence as it did before."

"Well," Sorrow looked down at his feet. "How is the other?"

"Oh, fine, sir. Just fine." The spark answered. "A few of the Inventors brought a Librarian to the Eques. Shall we follow them and check in on the animal?"

"We shall, but ADIM. We are NOT to speak of anything we speak of when it is just the two of us. For if you do and they find out then all hell shall break out."

ADIM seemed to nod. "Yes, sir. I understand."

The Forerunner and his machine walked past his invention and ventured into a back room, behind the Fruit. There, in a chamber, were two hooven animals, which Sorrow recognized as Ponies, or small horses, from his home planet, but these were different because they could talk and they both had horns, but one also had wings, like others from thier planet.

The planet in which these creatures came from was the planet below the moon this installation, Installation 1, rested on. The planet aforementioned is the home planet that these hooven creatures originated from. The only problem with that was that it was the same planet the Forerunners were from.

The horned and winged Eques laid on the floor, groaning and rolling.

Sorrow stood next to the Librarian, a risky move, but he felt like he was important enough to stand there even though he wasn't. "What's wrong with it?" he asked.

The Librarian stood there quietly as she shifted uncomfortably with Sorrow's direct defiance to the Code of Forerunners by standing so close to her without permission. She spoke up with a clever remark to make him back off. "Shouldn't you know? Your kind trained them."

Sorrow bit his lips and stepped back, afraid that someone in the room would figure out his secret, but no one heard what the Librarian had said.

"Please," the ill Eques spoke up. "Let me out. Let me return to my home. I have done nothing of malevolence towards you and your kind. Let me be."

All the Forerunners in the room looked at Sorrow. It was his call. He owned the hooven creatures. So he made the call of what to do with them.

He crossed his arms. "Why should I do that? You both power my machine. You give it life..."

"And we take life." The Eques stood up and moved closer to the edge of the chamber, letting the light bounce off of her white coat and flowing mane and tail of cyan, turquiose, purple, and azure. Your top five inventors have all fallen into a death Forerunners have never seen before, and all in this room. By a mere coincidence? I think not. You've learned by now that we feed off of the life force of the Forerunners."

The Librarian dropped her arms to her waste and shifted her weight from one foot to another. "Is that so? Is this true, Forever Sorrow?"

Sorrow gulped. "It is."

"And how many Forerunners know this?"

"Just I, Librarian."

"Hmm, I'll see you in a bit. Sorrow, don't go anywhere."

The Librarian left the room at those words and left him, ADIM, the two Eques creatures, and his Inventors alone in the room.

The white coated Eques spoke up again after giving out a few subtle coughs. "We have tried to take your life force, Sorrow, but we seem to have trouble. You are different than the other Forerunners. It almost seems as though you are not."

ADIM lit up remembering what Sorrow had told him before they had entered the room and began to protect his master. "And why is he different you hooven beast?"

"Because he doesn't have the life power of a Forerunner."

"I have a question." Sorrow said. The entire time he had been in the room he had mulled many thigs over in his head. "Why is the life force of us Forerunners so important?"

The horned Eques laughed. "Don't you see? We power the Fruit, we take the life force and use it as power. That's why the Fruit works. It contains more power than anything, enough power to detonate and destroy our world of Equestria. We use the life force of the Forerunners to power the Fruit. Direct the energy of one life into the machine and it's powered for an eternity."

ADIM's inquiring processor began to spin. "Then why place more than one's life force into it?"

The horned Eques laughed again. "To destroy your society from the inside out."

Sorrow filled with rage at these words and lashed out. "What? You plan on using my own machine to destroy the Forerunner society from the inside?" But he gained his composure when everbody in the room looked at him. "If you destroy this installation there will be plenty more. We aren't the only Forerunners in existence so this plan is futile."

"Oh no." The white Eques shook her head. "We won't detonate the Fruit. We will destroy you with the Forerunner's worst nightmare. A nightmare that has never existed, never even existed inside your, or any Forerunner's mind, before."

Sorrow leaned forward. "And how do you propose you do that?"

"Oh, do not worry. The Flood will come soon enough." And at that word both creatures grinned and the one healthy Eques lit his horn up and a bright light shone from where the Fruit rested, something that shouldn't be happening.

Sorrow, ADIM, and the Inventors all ran out to see why the Fruit had began to glow so brightly.

"What's happening? What did you do?" Sorrow ran back to where the hooven creatures were being contained.

"We have created something with the negative life force of the Forerunners. We have created the one true threat to the Forerunner race. And, ultimately, you created it Sorrow. Congratulations. You created the downfall of the Forerunners." The Eques smiled and one of the Inventors near the Fruit began to scream. Sorrow ran out to the origin of the scream and an Inventor was throwing his arms around like he was having spasms. He tossed his body around in convulsions and when he turned to face Sorrow, Sorrow noticed a small white bulge with many tentacles piercing a rod of bone through the Inventor's torso and into his spine.

Several more of the small white bulges came out of the Fruit and leaped at the other Inventors and one of them came towards Sorrow. Sorrow began to back up as the thing crawled towards him in a serpentine pattern. He covered his head with his arms and closed his eyes. Just as it jumped at Sorrow, Sorrow disappeared as a ring came up around him.

Cowering, Sorrow materialized on the stage where he began his speech. He opened his eyes and saw the Librarian standing in front of him. He looked out towards the crowd and the crowd looked at him with disgust and wonder.

What had the Librarian told them?

"This," the Librarian yelled, her voice echoing throughout the floating stage and audience. "Is the heathen I spoke of. Forever Sorrow, is not one of us! I told you all this already, but I said that it would be better to see for yourself before I continued."

The Librarian stared deeply into Sorrow's eyes through both his and her ancilla.

"Oh no," Ademordna said.

The Librarian reached up towards Sorrow's head, but he swatted her hand away.

The crowd stood up in an outrage and screamed at Sorrow for breaking the Code. Guardians ran to his side and grasped his arms and brought them down to his side.

The Librarian reached towards Sorrow's head again to pull off the mask of his ancilla.

"Ademordna, get us out of here, now!" Sorrow said in a shaky voice.

"I cannot! They have disabled our transport system!"

"Keep trying!" Sorrow yelled.

"I am sorry, Sorrow, but this is what you get for placing other Forerunners at a risk of death and holding such secrets you have. It's time everyone knew who you are, Sorrow!" The Librarian's hand grasped his mask and an override took control of his ancilla.

The Librarian removed his mask and the crowd roared even louder, and then paused, bewildered by what they saw. Even the Guardians released their grasp and backed away.

Sorrow fell to his knees in tears, and suddenly everything became clear to all the Forerunners. It became clear as to why Forever Sorrow acted so... acted so Human.

Chapter 5: A New Friendship; A New Enemy; The Same War

Linda screamed out in pain and doubled over. She'd never felt anything that gave her such pain before; not even the plasma bolt from the over charged plasma pistol which brought her on the edge of death was anywhere near as painful as being rammed by this unicorn.

"Stop!" She heard the Warrant Officer yell as she fell to one knee.

The unicorn reeled up on his back legs and began to bring his hooves down on Linda.

"Stop!" Hand screamed at the top of his lungs. He had read the reports of this spartan and knew they needed her. "She's here to help us!" Was the only thing Hand could think of on the spot.

The unicorn brought his hooves down as hard as he could at Linda's helmet, but his hooves landed with a thud on the ground, tossing up dirt and dust in exchange for energy.

The other Pony creatures slowly and cautiously walked towards their leader while the other SSEALs did the same behind their leader.

All was quiet and all stood still, the dead bodies of the Covenant laying on the ground behind everyone with wind whistling around them creating music, like death came to collect more victims with his song.

Applejack, Big MacIntosh, and Braeburn were absolutely baffled. Standing at the edge of Sweet Apple Acres they had seen the entire quick, but brutal, battle. They never knew anypony could be so dangerous or hectic in a combat situation, but they supposed that was why the Crusaders got the rank they achieved.

Applejack looked at the cowering green creature. She couldn't tell if the thing was wearing some sort of armor or if that was its skin. It looked odd either way, standing on its two hind legs and using its forelegs as some odd supportive extensions.

"What in tarnation? What are those... things?" Applejack muttered.

"Those bipedal things?" Braeburn spoke up.

"Yeah." AJ replied.

"You reckon we should go check it out? Go join those Royal Guard fellas?" Braeburn inquired looking at his cousins.

"Naw, I reckon we should wait."

So the trio waited.

"Whoa," Rainbow Dash said under her breath. "Forget the Wonderbolts! I'm going to joing them!" She said with gleaming eyes at the battle.

"Look at that gore!" Pinkie Pie spoke up. "I bet I could make some good cupcakes..." Her voice trailed off when she realized all her friends turned to look at her. "When I get home with how hyper I am!" She recovered.

Twilight looked back at the scene and looked at the odd bipedal creatures. "What are those things standing on two hooves?"

She looked at Fluttershy, who was trying to hold back tears from watching such a slaughter. Fluttershy realized Twilight was looking at her and just shook her head, wimpering a bit.

"That was the single most disgusting thing I have EVER seen." Rarity said with quite a bit of volume, enough to alert one of the bipedal creatures of their presence.

Heisler tapped Stevens on the shoulder. "Hey, look to our five. There are some more of those Pony creatures looking at us."

Stevens turned around and saw them looking at him. "That's just because they think I'm hot."

Heisler looked at him with a blank expression. "Really? For one that's sick. Two: You really gonna crack jokes in this situation?"

Stevens thought about it. "Yeah."

Heisler nodded. "Can't deny that logic."

They turned their heads back towards the scene and watched as the unicorn stood there, motionless, either mulling things over in his head or just because he isn't coherent on the situation he is in.

"Why should I?" The unicorn spoke up.

Hand stood there for a moment and realized he was about to hold a conversation with a mythical being, or a previously believed mythical creature.

"Because," Hand began, but he couldn't think of the right words to say. He knew there were right words, but also wrong ones. One slip of the tongue with a word that shouldn't be said and another fight would take place.

"Because she and those men clad in black armor are on our side." Hand said calmly, not to make himself look threatening.

The unicorn looked at the five super soldiers then back at Hand. "Okay, that still doesn't give me a reason not to kill them, or you for that matter."

"Well," the Warrant Officer began again, glancing over at Sierra 058 kneeling on the ground. "Those aliens you just fought are our enemies. And they are clearly your enemies now too. We have been at war with them for two years short of a century. Ultimately we have won that war."

"So, why keep fighting it?" The unicorn said. "Why keep fighting a war you've already won? Let alone bring it to another, innocent planet? Since you won that war do you need another war to fight? Like a sick form of entertainment?"

Hand stood there a bit speechless. Obviously these beings weren't primitive and had at least some intellectual property to them.

"No," he said, shifting the weight of his body onto his right foot, letting the heel of his boot dig itself into the gravel and dirt. "We followed them here. We followed them to destroy them and..."

"So they fled!" The unicorn spoke loudly. "And you chased them down like a swarm of parasprites chasing a small apple. They've already given up so why..."

"No! Alright? You listen to me and let me explain, then we can talk about it and whatever a 'parasprite' is." Hand took one step forward as he said this and furrowed his eye brows in a rage. He hated being cut off, especially when it's incredibly important.

"We chased them down to prevent them from destroying another planet or civilization, like they did ours. They came here for a weapon that would save them, but destroy all other sentient beings in this galaxy and we had to stop them."

The unicorn licked the inside of his lips picked up and dropped his right hoof. "Maybe they just want to survive and..."

"Listen to yourself! You just slaughtered a small army of them and now your defending them? Think that through for a moment."

The unicorn seemed to ponder that thought, then he dropped his head.

The bipedal alien was right, but Mercy Soul just couldn't believe that a war could have been brought to Equestria, an innocent planet. Why must evil corrupt the pure?

Mercy Soul wanted to agree with these creatures, but he thought about his squad and what was best for them to not put them in harm's way.

He looked up at the alien, "You still need to give me reason to trust you."

Hand glanced at the unicorn, "I suppose I can't really give you a reason to trust any of us, but let us show you can trust us. As long as we fight against the Covenant, whatever the reason may be, to get them off this planet or anything I don't care, we can trust each other."

"The 'Covenant.' Is that what they're called?" the unicorn inquired.

Hand thought about the best way to explain it to them. "That small army of eclectics you just crushed was the Covenant."

Mercy Soul thought it over in his head. He decided to ask why they were here, what the history was behind this conflict, and if there was a way to avoid another conflict, but then Celestia crossed his mind. He was to meet her in Equestrian Fields with every other guard.

So he decided to bring these aliens to Celestia, escorted by him and the crusaders.

Mercy looked around and saw a few members of the Apple family standing at a distance and Twilight Sparkle and her friends at the opposite side of the fields.

"Hey, Silver Heart, come here." The commander said to his second in command.

The glistening silver Alicorn trotted up to Mercy Soul. "Yes, sir?"

Mercy glanced at the Apple family. "Go to Applejack and her kin and tell them to meet us in Equestrian Fields."

Silver Heart grew a disgusting look on his face. "What? That group of rednecks? Why do I have to..."

Mercy Soul stared down his friend. "I know you've had bad experiences with them, but do as I say, Crusader."

Silver Heart bit his lips a little in frustration. "Okay." He mumbled as he trotted towards the Apple family.

Mercy turned towards the aliens. "I'm going to bring you to Princess Celestia. I'd like to ask you your history and many other questions, but I figure it would be better to bring you to her." He lifted up a hoof and began to turn around towards Twilight Sparkle when the alien spoke up again.

. "Wait!" Hand quickly said as Rigs finished snickering at the name "Princess Celestia."

The unicorn halted his about face and glanced at him. "For one: I thank you for letting us explain ourselves before jumping to a harsh conclusion. Secondly, what may we call you and the others, if you don't mind me asking?"

The unicorn raised a hoof and glanced at Hand with squinted eyes. "I am Mercy Soul: leader of Celestial Crusaders. The silver Alicorn is Silver Heart, second in command." And after that each pony raised their head as their name was being called. The unicorn, Mercy Soul, then held his head up high. "We are the Celestial Crusaders, at the very head of Equestria's military." Mercy Soul turned his head as the trees in the background began to sway with the wind.

He glanced back at Hand. "And what may we call you?"

Hand bounced his rifle in his hands. He wondered where to start: with names or with his species.

After a minute Hand responded. "We are Humans; as in our race is called Human." His eyes drifted as he noticed an odd, yet beautiful insect like creature hover over a flower. "My name is Davis Hand. I am a Chief Warrant Officer, Grade Five, and squadron leader of the SSEALs team Vector Squadron."

Hand turned towards his squad, the grass beneath his pivoting foot being grounded into the dirt, and introduced the rest of his squad. He hoped the... Celestial Crusaders, or whatever they called themselves, would be able to recall all of their names, but he doubted it because he couldn't remember most of the Ponies' names.

An akward silence sat in the fields. Mercy Soul glanced over at his crew, then at the Humans, then at the five Mares off to the side of the field. He saw the beautiful lavender Mare holding what looked like a heated conversation. He glanced at Memento Mori and told him he was in charge for a second. The two squads of differing soldiers stood there, while the Humans talked amongst themselves and Davis Hand lifted his hand to his ear and seemed to talk to himself.

Twilight started to get a bit livid from the argument of what should be a simple debate, but was, as always, turned into a stormy verbal fight from the simple task of asking: what to do in their situation...

She looked up and saw Mercy Soul trotting towards them. "Shut up." She told her friends, not wanting to be found in such a negative and awkward situation.

They didn't listen.

"Shut up!" She said louder, Mercy Soul was getting closer and closer.

Again, they didn't listen, but seemed to get louder.

Twilight slammed a hoof on the ground. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut uuuuuuppp!" She yelled with angry eyes and with steam seeming to flow out of her nostrils.

The other four Mares did quiet down, and when they turned around and saw Twilight, and who was standing directly behind her they understood why.

Twilight stood there in the angry stance she makes, regained her composure, smiled at her friends with a "Thank you", and turned around to end in an even more embarassed postition than she had thought of. She turned around to come face to face with Mercy Soul: who clearly heard her explosion at her friends.

Rainbow Dash coughed.

"Okay," Mercy Soul said as he lifted a hoof. "We are going to lead these, what are called Humans and Seals..."

Pinkie Pie jumped up, confused. "Seals? They're not Seals. They don't even have flippers unless..." She lit up and gasped. "Maybe they can shape shift! Twilight! Can things do that?"

"Well, umm..." Twilight began, but Mercy Soul cut her off sharply.

"I don't know, but that's what they call themselves and..." He continued to talk, but whatever he said, Twilight didn't hear. Her heart dropped and she closed her eyes.

She shoudln't have tried to end the argument, or at leas not the way she did. She held one of the Elements of Harmony, and so did all of them. She always wondered why they held the Elements. She knew they were all good friends, but they always fought, fought like crazy, and brought Discord among themselves, both metaphorically and physically.

She looked up and decided to listen. It was the best thing to do after what Mercy Soul had seen her do.

"... And after we lead them to Equestrian Fields they will mett with Celestia and a council will most likely be held..."

And on he went with the idea. And on did Twilights sadness drop down an abyss.

"Oh, look! That silver guard's comin' this way. What'd'ya think he wants?" Braeburn said, a bit excited to come face to face with such a Stallion.

"I don't know, but..." Applejack blushed quickly and looked around. "Oh quick Big Mac! How do'ah look? Okay"

Macintosh glanced his sister up and down. "Ahhhh guess." He said awkwardly.

"Oh, Ah hope you're right big brother."

Silver Heart stopped about five meters from the group of the Apple family. "Uhh, okay. So, I was told to tell you, that we are going to be meeting in Equestrian Fields, with Celestia, so yeah. Meet us there." He started to turn around, but looked back at them. "And Applejack, leave the other two of you out of this." He trotted back to his squad, muttering something under his breath.

"Well," Macintosh slowly said. "He didn't sound too enthused, now did he?."

Applejack looked down and kicked a rock. "Ah don't think so either."

Big Mac looked up. "Well, Ah suppose you just go ahead now."

AJ closed her eyes, "Ah suppose." And she headed off to join them.

"Okay, no. No, you're... Yes, sir... I... Yes, sir... I haven't been lieing I've been telling the truth sir. We have made contact with the Covenant army and they have all been killed. No, sir. Not a single survivor. I... Sir, I just told you. The group of... Yes, sir. Aye aye, sir." Hand lowered his hand from his ear and sighed.

Rigs walked up to him, leaving a conversation between Wayne and Howard. "Did the Admiral believe you?"

Hand shook his head. "Did he believe me? Really? I just told him a small army with heavy tanks and multiple scout vehicles and infantry just got obliterated by a group of mystical creatures that flew around and used magic the eminated from their horns..."

Rigs raised an eye brow, subtly. "So, that's a no than?"

Hand pursed his lips. "No, he believes me, but he doesn't want to. Not only is it hard to believe, but it also means there is another group of life forms we have to look after. To keep safe from this war. And that adds a lot to our already full plate. Destroy the remaining Covenant before they reach the Garden of Eden and now we have to protect another set of life forms, but at least they are intelligent life forms."

Rigs nodded his head. "Yeah, I can see that."

Hand glanced to his left, where the Mercy Soul character had gone to talk to the other Ponies.

"This is unbelievable", he said to himself. He couldn't think straight with all that has been going on, everything he had to do. He looked at Linda: Spartan 058. She was wobbling on her feet, humbly accepting help from her ODST squad to balance her. The marksman looked back at Hand.

Linda was having trouble processing everything. Help the SSEALs. Kill the Covenant. Scout the area. Report what you find. None of this has happened yet.

Her armor was still locked up on her in some places, but only in minute joints like fingers and her ankles, but it was loosening up.

"What happened?" Anderson, the ODST with a green striped helmet to her left asked her as he positioned her under his shoulder.

"I'm not sure. The suit lost power for a couple seconds." Linda said with a shaky breath.

"But isn't your suit powered by a nuclear battery or something?" Dawn, a kind yet one of the most powerful ODSTs aksed in her soft voice, following the same motions as her commanding Shock Trooper.

"Yeah." Linda said under her breath. "That's what I don't understand... I... I just don't know." Her armor finally unlocked and she shrugged the ODSTs away from her now that she no longer required their assistance. "But it's all done and over with so it doesn't matter."

Dawn's helmet glanced from the alienized super soldier, to the lead SSEAL. She wondered what it would be like if the SSEALs were Spartans too, or even ODSTs for that matter. Would they be any better? Or the same? She then glanced at the Unicorn who had walked towards the group of other Ponies off to the side.

"Look," she said. "They're coming back."

Twilight Sparkle followed Mercy Soul at quite a distance. She didn't dare look up at him. She just looked at his hoof prints.

Rarity trotted up next to Twilight. "Oh, cheer up Twilight. It was just one thing. I'm sure it wasn't anything to rash that'll make him change his mind. Well, unless it WAS in his mind. Many Ponies have different views. And to be quite honest if I were him what you did would completely turned me off and..."

Rainbow Dash kicked Rarity in the ankle.

"But of course, that's me. And I'm a Mare, not a Stallion. I'm sure we are MUCH different." Rarity stopped and smiled with a "Did I redeem myself?" smile.

Fluttershy trotted by Rarity with a saddened look and caught up to Rainbow Dash. "So, what are we doing, again, exactly?"

Rainbow Dash sighed with frustration. "Don't you ever listen Fluttershy?"

Fluutershy frowned a bit.

"Basically," Rainbow Dash continued. "We are going to bring these guys to Celestia, fight these other aliens, and save Equestria, again. Because we are that awesome. And everypony will know us as the Mares who saved the world, and I will get to finally join the Wonderbolts!" And with that Rainbow Dash entered her "head in the clouds" dream world.

Fluttershy blinked a couple of times. "Umm, okay, then. I... Okay..."

Everyone had gathered at the center of the field and Mercy Soul turned towards Hand. "Okay, now follow me..." Mercy Soul looked around at everypony around, everybody whom he was familiar with. "Follow us. We will get things straightened out and squared away.

As they started to move towards Equestrian Fields a bright light shot out through the acres of Sweet Apple Acres, from Equestrian Fields. Dust rose from the ground and birds flew off in all directions.

"What in Celestia's mane was that?" Senitel blurted out.

Mercy Soul quickly turned to face the crowd of sentient beings. "Okay, change of plans! Crusaders, get there as fast as you can. Silver Heart report back to me. Everypony... everybody else follow me. We are going to be moving fast."

And with that, Mercy Soul took off at a gallop, the Crusaders took to the skies, and everybody else followed after the midnight blue Stallion.

Sweetie Belle then crossed Rarity's mine and her safety worried the older sister.

The young Unicorn and Pegasus Filly couldn't believe their eyes. What had Celestia done.

Shied away in some shrubbery the two Cutiemark Crusaders hidden, afraid for their lives.

Celestia and Luna stood there in the fields, Luna cowering from what Celestia had done.

"Sister!" Luna shouted. "You swore we'd never do that! No matter how dire the circumstance!"

Celestia turned towards her sister. "And you'd learn to hold your tongue if you didn't wish for the same my kin."

Luna stood up. "You dare threaten me with our own spell? I laugh at your ignorance! You know I can counter it. I created it, and I can end it. We used it once, but after seeing the effects it had we decided to..."

"I don't care, sister!" Celestia shouted with her royal Equestrian voice. "They are here to fight, here for war and I don't want that here, do you?"

"No, I..."

"Silence than! It must me done! So, I did." Celestia turned back around to the screaming, burning, suffering bodies, still with a soul alive inside, melting into a frozen state close to death, but they will never reach it. To forever suffer, and to listen to Death's symphony faintly for eternity, until someone ends it.

Luna looked at her sister in disbelief, she was now the monster Luna was. Luna then looked down at the screaming bodies of the aliens, whatever they are. She's never seen them before, but had sympathy for them. More sympathy for them than anything before.

Celestia than raised her head, her mane flowing in the breeze. "The Covenant must die. They must suffer."

Chapter 6: Fall of the First Installation

[{Author's note: it has come to my attention (through one of my pre-readers who is unfamiliar with Halo) that I should clarify a couple of things before this chapter for those of you who are not familiar with Halo. First off, the Forerunners (in Halo theory) existed thousands to millions of year ago, so this is not happening at the same time as the other chapters of this story. Secondly, the Forerunners apore Humans as there was a 300 year long war between Forerunners and Humans who were sided with the San Shyu'um (Prophets). This chapter inculdes a heavy amount of Halo theory along with many different concepts I created and developed myself. I'm taking a huge risk with the Forerunner Saga of books being written currently and the upcoming Halo Trilogy (which will be furthering our understanding of the Forerunners). So, if there is any confusion, I apologize. This is me speaking my mind and my story. After this chapter, however, there will be no more chapters based off of Halo theory. Enjoy!}]

Madegalaxer Takes Forever Sorrow stepped on the platform to take him to his invention. To either dismantle it or hand it over to the Forerunners.

Forever Sorrow looked at the Librarian. "Listen, don't take me to my invention. It's now a forbidden..."

The Librarian snapped her neck in Sorrow's direction. "Be quiet you Heretic. You Human."

Sorrow cringed as she said that. "Stop that! Stop calling my kind, Humans, Herectics we are not!"

"Blasphemy!" The Librarian yelled. "The Forerunners are the true heirs to the Precursors! Not you filthy Humans."

"We did what we had to do because of the Flood, Librarian."

"Don't use such an impurity as an excuse Human."

"I have a name."

"My apologies. Heretic."

"We fought you because of our war with the Flood; to keep the universe safe from the infestation."

"No excuse!"

"It's true! Listen, Librarian. The Eques are using the Fruit of Good for Evil. They are using it to transport The Flood as a transport generator, transporting them here, and taking them from the ship we used to disperse the Flood."

The Librarian stood motionless for a second. "Is that why we found you cowering?"

"Yes."

The Librarian looked at the Guardians and told them to turn around.

Sorrow felt a bit relieved, but heard the Librarian mutter something like "Filthy Human." The floating trolley then stopped at a research bay and the Librarian grabbed the best research and weapon technology, remounted the trolley, and headed back towards the loading bay holding Sorrow's invention.

Sorrow started to panic. "What are you doing?"

The Librarian handed the Guardians all the weapons. "I'm not missing this opportunity to study the Flood. If things get out of hand we'll resort to the Guardian's job."

Sorrow laughed. "You cocky Forerunners. Us Humans barely defeated the Flood 10,000 years ago. What makes you think these weapons will stop the Flood already here?"

The Librarian returned a laugh. "You Humans and your weak technology..."

Sorrow grew angry and his fleshy face flushed with blood. "We almost defeated you in our war. And you call us weak. It took you forever to bash through our defenses."

"You used Precursor technology."

"Along with our own. We had to fight the Flood with biological warfare by altering our own species. The Flood are not to be taken lightly. Get larger forces and eradicate the machine, then the Flood. Don't let the Eques continue to use my machine to harvest Forerunner lifepower."

The Librarian glanced at Sorrow. "So now your machine harvests Forerunners?"

Sorrow shuffled his feet. "Well, yes. I made it to do that. It was to..."

"Why would you do that?"

"It was to bring the Forerunners even more fuel and energy than before. A Forerunner's lifepower is the most source of energy in the galaxy. It could easily power this installation for a generation, but hadn't the clue that the Eques could use it for their own gain."

"I knew it was wrong to use them anyways."

"Then why did you approve it?"

"Because..." The Librarian said. "I thought you were going to use your invention to help them, after what we did to them. Destroyed their home, brought them down to the lowest form of life..."

Sorrow's heart dropped. "Like what you did to Humans." Now Sorrow wished he could of used the machine to help the Eques and their kind, or Humans for that matter.

Sorrow looked up and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the landing bay for the trolley at The Fruit's station. A sort of fleshy, organic material was plastered on the wall and ceiling.

"Please don't do this." He begged the Librarian.

She ignored him.

Sorrow accepted his fate. "Okay," he said, giving a deep sigh and gazing down at his feet. "Just aim for where a Human's heart would be."

The organic mush flattened beneath Forever Sorrow's feet. He could hear the Guardians checking every inch of the area while the group made their way through the laboratory.

"Hmmm." The Librarian mumbled while scanning the flesh with her ancilla.

"What?" Sorrow inquired without taking his eyes off the front direction.

"All this organic material seems to be made from Humans. No Forerunners; just Humans."

Sorrow closed his eyes.'"I told you. The Eques are using Forerunner lifepower to use my machine to teleport all the Flood aboard the ship we Humans sent the remaining Flood off on. The Flood is returning. And it's returning because you Forerunners were too anxious and greedy to let them go. Just like you did to us Humans."

The Librarian gripped her equipment with frustration. "You used them just as much as we allowed you to."

"That's only because I owed you Forerunners a debt. Either way it still gives you no right to treat intellectual species as if they were mere worms."

The Librarian said nothing and the eight Guardians surrounding Sorrow kept their eyes forward, ignoring the conversation he and the Librarian had, but that was their job after all.

"Okay." The Librarian muttered, lowering her research equipment. "Let's move on."

Sorrow scanned the macabre horizon. "Is there anywhere specific you would like to go?"

The Librarian chuckled. "Let's visit your hooven friends shall we?"

Sorrow cringed at the mocking sarcasm as he moved forward deeper into the quarantined area.

One of the six remaining Guardians slammed the heavy door shut while Sorrow leaned against the wall, clutching his pounding chest.

"Was that the Flood?" The Librarian shouted.

Sorrow glared at such an ignorant question. "Of course it was! What else could it be?"

The Librarian shook her head. "A horde of them came out of the mist and just attacked us...."

"I know. I was there."

"What...?" The Librarian stuttered. "What did those small bulbous things do to those two Guardians?"

Sorrow shook his head as he swallowed a large amount of saliva. "Those were the infection Forms. They take over control of sentient beings by over riding their nervous system."

"So, they're pat of the Flood now?"

"What do you think?!?" Sorrow threw his hands in the air towards the Librarian. "You are supposed to be this genius Forerunner, so much smarter than all the others, and yet you ask such obvious questions, why?"

The Librarian looked up at Sorrow through her ancilla. "Listen here, Heretic."

Sorrow clenched his fist.

"No Forerunner was told what the Flood did, for whatever reason we were told nothing. You Humans and the San 'Shyuum told us nothing. So, we prepared in the best way we could by creating these Halo arrays. All you told us to do was to create something to destroy all sentient beings in the galaxy."

Sorrow looked up in confusion. "What? Who told you that?"

The Librarian tilted her head. "A single-minded San' Shyuum, from their original home Janjur Qom. He seemed to be a high ranking San 'Shyuum, but he seemed to have gone insane shortly after. He told us to 'Spark the Great Journey.'"

Sorrow's head darted in the Librarian's direction. "No, did you believe him? Why?"

The Librarian stood there, confused. "What?" She simply inquired.

Sorrow dropped his head. "I was told the Halo arrays were made to automatically genetically engineer sentient beings to counter the Flood like we did. I didn't know they were made following him."

The Librarian began to look worried, even through her ancilla. "What?"

Sorrow sighed. "As we learned from the war between us, Humans can handle battles just fine, but the San 'Shyuum can't. The stress, the worry, the fear gets to them, but some can over come it after some treatment. The San 'Shyuum you just mentioned, however, was one of the few not cured. He began to go on a rant about a cult, and many of the San 'Shyuum followed him before they retreated. He was a war leader for them, so he was seen as having sanity. I... I knew otherwise."

A large bang on the door the Guardians were holding back sounded and everybody in the room looked at the door. Sorrow closed his eyes and continued.

"Whatever it was he told you was a lie. There are other ways to combat the Flood than by destroying their food source, us. If you were to follow what we did we could eradicate the Flood, have them eradicate each other actually, but..." Sorrow looked at the door. "I suppose there is nothing to do in this situation, but..." Sorrow began to think.

The changed Librarian stared at the Human in wonder. Why had such a beautiful and caring race been dismantled in the way they were? If they were the true heirs to the Precursors than so be it.

"What?" She asked.

"If you could turn right a wrong you made to someone, or an entire species for that matter?"

The Librarian closed her eyes under her ancilla and thought about how the Human society was now. Horribly destroyed with the Humans left who hadn't committed suicide. "Yes, I would."

Sorrow nodded his head. "Okay, well I can save the Eques' homeland, whatever it is they call it. Equestria? Yes, I can save their homeland and them as a race if we cannot eradicate the Flood here."

The Librarian smiled. "How?"

Another bang on the door sounded. Sorrow knew that the Flood on the other side was either a Juggernaut or a Tank Pure Form. How he prayed it was the Pure Form.

"Okay," Sorrow began. "If I heard the Eques correctly the Flood are being fed by the negative lifepower of the Forerunners. That means that the positive lifepower is still contained in my invention. I have the ability to use some of the power to eradicate the Flood in this installation, but at a price."

The Librarian looked at Sorrow intently. "I'm listening."

Sorrow sighed. "It will act as one your Halo arrays and destroy all sentient life in this installation as well. Including you; including me."

The Librarian looked down. "What about the Eques?"

Sorrow nodded again, ignoring the next bang on the door. "I can preset the remaining life power to surround the land of Equestria and send the two Eques home, since my machine apparently as the capability of teleportation. From doing that any and all Flood will avoid Equestria for the rest of time."

The Librarian enjoyed the idea. "And doing so will eliminate that Flood, but we swore to not commit genecide."

"Does it matter not, the threat the Flood brings to the universe as a whole?" Sorrow screamed at the Librarian while keeping himself balanced from another slam against the heavy, metal door starting to split behind him.

"It does! But... We can't break such a galacticly, widely held rule that we created."

Sorrow crossed his arms. "You almost broke that promise with us."

The Librarian clenched her fist. "Listen! We are running out of time! That, thing is about to bust through the door and kill us before we can do anything."

Sorrow waved his hands up and down. "Okay, okay... We will... save some of the Flood. If we make it out of this room we can head to were ADIM is resting. He can isolate some Flood and send them to another installation with a message from you, the Librarian."

The Librarian nodded. "Okay, okay... So, we'll head there, and then what?"

Sorrow crossed his arms again. "Well..."

Abrubtly the door behind him exploded from the other side and large, fleshy form stood just outside. It barged in and the Guardians lifted up their weapons and began to unleash the compacted energy inside their weapons. The figure looked like an over grown carrier-form of the Flood with two incredibly long and incredibly large tenticles in place of arms.

It swung at the two Guardians in front one tenticle swinging horizintally, the other vertically, and crushed the two Guardians, sending shrapnelled ancilla bits soaring through the air with trailing orange blood. It swung at the next two Guardians and they quickly dodged it, diving to the side, but one's legs were caught under the blow and the appendages were quickly plastered to the floor.

The Guardian screamed out in pain and the Juggernaut form of the Flood fell to the floor after the concentrated fire from the Guardians' weapons.

The Librarian started towards the injured Guardian, but Sorrow put his hand in front of her. "No, we don't have time we have to move."

The Librarian looked down at the fallen Forerunners and realized the gravity of the situation.

Sweat poured off of Sorrow's face. He wondered if Forerunners sweated too, but he didn't really care at the moment. It was simply him, the Librarian, and the three Guardians left, one of which now had a limp. A needle protruded from the crippled Guardian's leg. Sorrow had never seen, or even imagened a Flood that can fire honed, organic material of its own body as a weapon.

As the group ran for Sorrow's invention a horror filled scream erupted behind them. Startled, they all looked back and realized it was the Guardian who had had his legs crushed and glued to the floor. The Flood had gotten to him.

They turned back around and kept going, fighting through the horrific threat that was the Flood.

Sorrow tried to think about how long they had been trying to find their way around, he lost track of time, time didn't matter. He had tried to lead them to his invention, but the normal path had been blocked, almost all normal paths had been blocked for that matter, blocked by large, corpulant masses of flesh.

They entered an almost completely darkened hallway, but a dark blue light emitted from the end. "There." Sorrow whispered, so as not to alert the Flood of their location. "That should be my machine. We're almost there."

At those words a small orb, which also glowed a dark blue color, floated it's way towards Sorrow. "Master?" It gleamed.

Sorrow looked up in surprise. ""ADIM! Be quiet."

"What's happening?" Its light shone brighter at each syllable.

"Sush! Meet me at the machine."

"The machine? Your machine?"

"Yes, yes. Go. now." Sorrow said in a hushed tone.

"Yes, Reclaimer." The glowing orb dahsed off and the group followed.

"I should be able to put up a field of positive lifepower around us, around this room to protect us while I put in the calculations to..."

"Just do it, Sorrow." The Librarian commanded.

"Okay," he brought up the holographic board and brought it with him over to the command console of his machine. "While I do this tell ADIM the message you want to send."

The Librarian looked at the floating AI. "ADIM, send a message to the other Librarians in the other installations."

ADIM turned towards her at the sound of his name, but did nothing except look at her silently.

"Do what she says, ADIM." Sorrow took his eyes off of his work and at his creation.

"Message sent." The AI said in reponse.

"Now ADIM, please contain some Flood specimen in shipd in the hangar and please direct them to Installation 04, please."

A moment passed before he responded. "Done, Librarian."

In the next second a field draped over the area and a shimmering bubble flexed over the machine, the Librarian, Forever Sorrow, and ADIM in a small radius from the machine.

The Guardians turned around at looked at Sorrow through the transparent wall.

"Why aren't they in here?" The Librarian shouted.

"Be quiet! I don't know! I set the field to spread as far as it could! That should have been the whole room!" Sorrow threw his hands into the air and slammed them on the machine in frustration.

There was a long bridge seperating the mchine from a circular platform and halfway across the bridge is where the bubble ended. "Get them in here!" The Librarian shouted.

"Hush! Hold on!" Sorrow played with his toy a bit more and finalized a command. The bubble began to disappear, and leave them vulnerable.

As the field went up ADIM looked around and said, "Oh, look. Those creatures are back."

Sorrow imediately turned around and the Flood began entering the room from all sides. Crawling out of vents and cascading through any opening available. The Guardians spun around and readied their weapons.

"Close the field, Forever Sorrow!" The Librarian screamed.

"I can't! It will take to much time! The machine will have to cool down the centered reactor, which is used to do immediate physical actions in this room. I can only go forth with the plan to save the Eques now."

The three Guardians fought on the bridge as a final stand, not for themselves, but for the all the Eques.

The Librarian stood and watched the fight, knowing that for the first time in her life she was helpless.

Sorrow typed furiously on the holographic panel and slid his hand across the screen. "The two Eques are home safe!"

The Guardian with a limp stepped back to avoid a spider-like Flood form as it lunged at him. It was the only Flood to make it so close to the Guardians and as the Guardian stepped back his limp gave way, and he tumbled off the bridge to the burning reactor below, but as he fell he managed to reach up, and grab the Flood and together, the good and the evil tumbled to their death.

"Okay!" Sorrow said, "I have placed all the remaining positive lifepower to surround the Eques home world."

A Tank-form charged at one of the Remaining Guardians and flung him off the bridge in one powerful swing. The other Guardian unsheated his sword of glowing plasma and energy and vanquished the beast. He then hopelessly turned back towards the Flood.

"Now what?" The Librarian screamed as ADIM hummed an archaic Forerunner song.

"Now I detonate the machine. And kill every sentient being within multiple upon multiple lightyears from this installation."

Sorrow started to over power the reactor.

"Forever Sorrow." The Librarian said over the loud roar of the reactor below.

After a few seconds he answered. "Yes."

"I... I apologize for what happened to the Humans. It was... indoubtebly wrong of us for it."

Sorrow nodded his head. "Thank you." He returned, sincerely.

A scream sounded from the bridge and the last Guardian fell, needles riddling his body and the Flood charged the last two saviors for this chapter of the galaxy.

"Sorrow! Hurry!"

"I'm trying!" The reactor was difficult to over power as he built it to not explode, but he tried his best.

He heard the Librarian scream as she was over taken by the Flood.

He tried his hardest and sweat poured from his body. His vision began to blur and he felt weak.

A dark tunnel began to take over his vision as he felt an Infection form burrow its prodding neddle into his spine. He shouted out in pain and tears mixed with his sweat. The glowing red circle appeared on the holographic panel to show the final step to save the galaxy from this viscious species.

Madegalaxer Takes Forever Sorrow knew that in the matter of a second he would be powerless and lose control of his body so he flung his hand at the red circle and when it reaached about half of the distance to the final destination, he lost all consciousness.

Back home, Celestia slowly stood up, feeble from the horrible conditions she was under while trap in the forsaken place. She looked at her father, who laid next to her, also on the brink of death.

He opened his eyes and looked at his daughter. He slowly closed his eyes for the final time, smiled, and his horn began to glow. Celestia felt strength enter her body as her father gave her his remaining life so she may survive.

When she realized what her father had just done tears cascaded from her cheeks and she swore vengence on the vial creatures who were the Forerunners. She didn't know what they looked like, where they would be, or if they would return, but she swore vengence.

She looked up at the moon, hate filling her eyes and her soul, and a bright wave made of light shot around Equestria, shaking the planet violently.

Celestia looked back to earth and saw her sister, Luna, in the distance. Her and Celestia were the only Alicorns in existence at the moment.

Celestia smiled at her sister and the shaking stopped, and as the shaking stopped Celestia put what had just happened as far back in her mind as she could, eventually forgetting what had happened. She forgot what had happened until Equestria went to war.