John dived down to grab the cello as quickly as possible, he barely caught it before it hit the ground.

"Sorry miss... erm" John said, while he got up, holding the cello like a live grenade.

"Octavia, my name is Octavia and you are? she replied.

"John" he said awkwardly.

"Okay, John it's fine, no harm done, since my cello isn't broken. Would you mind helping me with it actually, I'm just back from a performance and I need to get it and my luggage back home" explained Octavia, motioning to her luggage, she did give thought to his unusual name but it was hardly anything, she had heard weirder names than his, you don't even want to know.

"Okay, that's fine I need to get to know the town better anyway" John replied. He walked over to the luggage after placing the cello on his back, the luggage was on a little cart, he got behind the cart and started to push it, testing it's weight, it wasn't that heavy. He walked up next to Octavia and said,

"Alright where to next?"

"Well we're going to my house so just follow me" she replied with a slight smile. She turned around to look at John, he had removed his hood, so she could see his face clearly even though he was much taller than herself, it was covered in scars but that wasn't what caught her attention, it was his deep teal eyes she was looking at, she always loved that colour, it was her favorite, most people thought it was pink because of her bow tie but no, it was teal. They continued walking towards Octavia's house, with John looking all around, remembering places like Sugarcube corner and the town hall in his mental map of Ponyville.

"It's quite cold out here, it doesn't bother most ponies here, but I prefer the spring, much more colourful and more full of life" Said Octavia, she was just trying to make a polite conversation with the gentlecolt who was carrying her bags, with seemingly no effort.

"I wouldn't know, I only just arrived here" John replied, his curiosity was being occupied by the many colourful ponies, they had many different colours ranging from dark reds to light greens, most of them carried about their routines and paid John no notice, but the few that did, just stared at him until he had moved out of sight.

"Oh, it's your first day in Ponyville is it, well don't worry I'm sure you be just fine, that's why I like it here, everypony was just so accepting and welcomed us like family, me and my roommate Vinyl moved here from Canterlot about four years ago and we have never looked back, the ponies are all so friendly to new ponies, one of them you might say is a bit... to friendly. So what brings you to Ponyville?" Octavia had to much curiosity not to ask, John simply stared at her for a second before he replied,

"Yes it's my first day in Ponyville, you could say in Equestria, but I explain that later" he stopped for a second before continuing, "I'm here to visit... an old friend."

The first part left her even more curious about the giant Pegasus, but she trusted that he would explain later if she asked, but an old friend now this was were her curiosity was about to get the better of her but they had arrived at Octavia's house on the other side of Ponyville, she looked at John and marveled at the fact that he did not seem the least bit tired after carrying her cello and her luggage from the train station, she had to ask she was to curious not too,

"How are you not tired? That stuff is heavy, even Big Macintosh was tired after the last time he carried it."

"I'm just strong is all, any way it was no trouble, after all I nearly broke your cello, so it was the least I could do" John replied.

"Well thank you, John. Maybe I'll see you around town sometime, have a good Hearths warming day and a great new year" Octavia replied a large smile on her face. John replied with a quick,

"You too, also do you know where the library is?"

"Oh yes the library, okay follow that road and take the second right" Octavia said with an elegant wave of her hoof as John started to walk in the direction she had indicated.

_._._._()_._._._

When John arrived at the library, he was dumbfounded to say the least. The library was inside a tree, oh the irony, but the tree didn't seem dead, in fact it seemed very much alive. He walked over to the door to see a little note, the note read,

Golden Oaks library is closed to the public until the end of the holiday season. Please knock if you have any mail to hand to us. Thank you for your patience, have a happy hearths warming day and a great new year. Twilight Sparkle, Spike and Thel 'Vadam.

John stood for what felt like ages, staring at that name. He had changed it, it used to have a double e at the end, thinking about all the memories that name held, most of them were memories of battle but there was one that stuck out from all the rest.

John sat in the cargo bay of the Covenant carrier 'The shadow of intent' he was watching the marines, ODST and the elites talking about what was to come, he would have went over and joined them, but he wasn't one for company also the ODST hated him, the marines revered him and the elites tolerated him, so instead he just sat there on a crate, sharpening his knife and cleaning his gun. His head felt unusually quiet, normally this wouldn't bother him, but he had to admit he missed Cortana, but as much as he missed her he had a mission.

"Spartan" said a voice nearby.

John looked up to see the Arbiter, his armor freshly polished and gleaming in the light of the hangar. It would have been an awe filling sight but John had seen it before and wasn't to fussed, well that and up until a few weeks ago, he would have shot the arbiter on principle.

"What is it Arbiter, is the mission starting? Or am I required on the command deck? asked John.

"No spartan, nothing of the sort, I simply wish to have a conversation, I believe in civility between seasoned warriors" replied the Arbiter, sitting down on the crate opposite him. The Arbiter had always struck John as a professional soldier after all, all the elites were but this, this struck him as unusual, the Arbiter had never tried to talk to him about anything apart from something related to a mission. John noticed the Arbiter was holding a bottle of orange-ish, brown-ish coloured liquid, and two glasses.

"What's in that bottle? Asked John his tiny bit of curiosity getting the better of him. The Arbiter, looked at the bottles faded label before looking at John with confusion,

"I do not know, all I can read of the label is the company name and the fact that's it's an alcohol, I may have been taught English but I was not taught all of it" he offered the bottle to John, who took it. He added, "I took it from the ship's trophy room, I heard that human alcohol is quite pleasant, so I desired a taste, I thought you might as well.

The only time John had ever consumed alcohol in his life was when he was eighteen, he was in a base on a planet long since destroyed by the fires of war with his team, and Fred the other spartan on his team had bought a bottle of whiskey from a soldier on the base, needless to say he didn't mind it. John looked at the bottle in his hand, it was a bottle of whiskey, he looked at the bottom of the bottle to see how old it was, it was made in 2014, that made it five hundred and thirty eight years old! It must have been a family heirloom or something to be that old. The Arbiter got his glasses ready waiting to try the alcohol.

"It's a whiskey, it's over five hundred years old and if the label is correct it was made in Scotland, so that means this is good whiskey, quite a find" John explained whilst he removed the cap with one hand and his helmet with the other and placing it on the crate. He quickly filled the small glasses and took one from the Arbiter, he raised the glass to his mouth and was about to down it when a gruff voice came in over the elite ships intercom,

"All troops report to your stations, we are about to arrive at the ARK, prepare for battle!"

"By the forerunners, every time" and with that the Arbiter and John quickly downed their whiskey and ran to their ships ready for the fight to come.

_._._._()_._._._

John was still reminiscing about that memory when a snowball whizzed past his head, disrupting his train of thought, he turned to see who had thrown it, when he spotted three little fillies he though nothing of it after all they were just kids. He stood there a moment longer before he raised his foreleg and gave the door three sharp knocks. The door opened and John looked confused, expecting to see a pony, instead he was greeted by a small purple dragon.

"What do you want? The library is closed for holidays" the small purple dragon stated with a loud yawn. John stared at the dragon for a minute, he probably would have been a little bit anxious about this but something in the back of his head was keeping him calm, maybe that's why magic didn't freak him out like it should have. The small purple dragon rubbed his bleary eyes to try and remove some of the sleep that was left in them, when he had finished he could see the tall Pegasus before him, all he could muster was,

"Whoa... You are tall."

John did what he usually did in awkward situations and remained silent for a bit, staring right at the small purple dragon, until finally he broke the awkward stare with,

"I'm looking for a miss Twilight Sparkle, I have a letter for her. Is she in?"

Spike was still staring at the tall Pegasus, he had never seen another pony this size, except princess Celestia, but he had mentioned his 'sister' by name and that got his attention.

"Twilight's not in right now but you can give me the letter I'll make sure she get's it later" he said rather quickly. John's reply was just as rehearsed as Spike's,

"I was told by Princess Celestia to give this letter, to nobody but Twilight and that's exactly what I'm going to do, so where is she?"

Don't you mean, 'nopony'... ugh fine, she's at Sweet Apple acres with Applejack and Rainbow, I think they are raising a barn or something, follow the road" said Spike, motioning with his stumpy arms the direction in which to go, "Now if you'll excuse me, I was sleeping."

And with that Spike closed the door, leaving John to walk to Sweet Apple acres.

_._._._()_._._._

John had arrived at Sweet Apple acres quicker than he expected, he had never seen an orchard this big, it seemed to stretch on for miles and miles, but he didn't have time to admire the scenery he was here for Twilight. He started walking down the path towards what looked to be a construction site, there was paint tins littered everywhere, piles of rope and beams of wood strewn randomly over the ground. He finally saw what he might have been looking for, there was four ponies sitting at an old table eating their lunch and drinking something hot, there was an orange pony who he assumed must be Applejack maybe the trio of apples on her flank gave it away, there was a cyan pony with a rainbow mane this clearly must be Rainbow Dash how obvious could you get, there was a large brick red pony with a white bandage around his back leg and lastly there was a purple alicorn who he assumed must be Twilight Sparkle, strange he never heard Celestia mention she was an alicorn. Applejack noticed him first and got up from her seat, the rest following suit.

"Howdy mister, what can I do fer ya today?" Applejack said calmly. The group of ponies around her looked slightly nervous, they never seen a pony this size except Celestia.

"I'm looking for Twilight, which I assume is you" John replied looking towards the purple alicorn. Twilight nodded in reply, John drew out the letter he felt her magic take hold of it and pull it towards her, she opened it and read it. After a minute she simply looked up at John confusion crossing her face before she finally said,

"Welcome to Ponyville John, I'm Twilight Sparkle, this is Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh. What can we do for you?"

John looked confused, he thought the letter had explained what he required, he just stared a moment before replying,

"I need to learn how to fly, a place to stay and a job. I thought Celestia would have explained this in the letter."

Before anypony could say anything Rainbow butted in,

"You need to learn how to fly huh, well I could teach you but you'll need to prove to me that your strong and quick, so first you'll hoof wrestle me and Applejack then you'll race us in a one hundred meter sprint, you win all three I'll teach you. Seem fair."

John looked at the cyan pony, he could tell she was an athlete her sleek body gave that away, he nodded agreeing to her terms. They walked over to the table where they had been sitting before and sat down, Applejack was up first for the hoof wrestle she took Johns hoof and readied herself waiting for the mark to start.

"GO!" Twilight yelled. Applejack instantly put all of her might into her hoof when she looked up at her hoof she was shocked to see that John's hadn't even moved at all, he sat there smiling at her as if this was expected, this annoyed her and she put all of her might into her hoof again but still his hoof refused to budge, for one last vain attempt she again put all of her might into her hoof but instead of meeting the usual resistance the back of her hoof met the table. She lowered her stetson to cover her shame, she had lost, to a stranger no less, she barely had time to get up before Rainbow was seated raring to prove that she was stronger.

"GO!" Twilight yelled again. Rainbow much like Applejack put all of her might into pushing John's hoof down, but again even she failed to make his hoof budge. John decided to end this one quicker, so he did what he did last time put a bit of effort in, the look on Rainbow's face as her hoof hit the table was priceless, her jaw practically hit the floor but instead of doing anything that involved defeat she simply said,

"Pure luck, now let's see how you handle a sprint, to make it easier on you I won't even use my wings."

So they got to the improvised starting line, which happened to be one of the apple tree rows that was one hundred meters long, they took their staring positions waiting for the mark, Twilight raised her horn and a loud bang was produced from it, time seemed to speed up at this point, everything happened so fast. Anypony looking at the race from a distance would have seen a cloak trail blur, a cyan blur and an orange blur, the cloak trail blur reaching the finish in exactly six seconds.

"Who the hay are you, Lucane Lightning Bolt!" exclaimed Rainbow as she reached the finish line at the exact same time as Applejack, nine seconds.

"I believe I won your little game, you have to teach me to fly" John said, his tone as flat as ever. Rainbow replied with a sigh,

"Fine, you won fair and square, meet me under my house at dawn tomorrow, don't be late."

And with that she flew off into the sky.

"Twilight I have nowhere to stay" John said looking at the purple mare as he did. Twilight stayed still for a moment thinking, she looked at Applejack who said,

"Ya can stay with us for a while I guess, also if yer lookin fer work, we'll need help with winter wrap up this year on account of Big Mac hurtin himself again."

It was settled, John would stay with the Apple family for the time being, he had a job and a roof over his head now he just wished he could talk to Luna.

Author's Note

Spot a reference leave it in the comments.