Saving Spartan 117

John first recovered his sense of hearing, the sounds reaching his ears muffled through the exterior of the escape pod and the, more likely than not, broken helmet he wore which offered him no help. He managed to move his arms, making to pull off the helmet, but stopped as a sudden flare of pain ran through his right arm and he let it drop to the side while trying to keep his breathing even and easy. His vision came back last, the hazy black spots disappearing in patches to reveal a giant crack running down the face of his orange visor. He slumped back into the chair for a few minutes as he wondered what exactly had gone wrong, Lasky's last words running through his head.

"Freelancers...what do you think Cor...," he suddenly drifted off, remembering once again that she was no longer with him. You've got to stop talking to yourself like she's still there, he thought to himself.

He reached with his left hand to pull off his helmet and only realized how quiet it was once the latch on the helmet clicked, leaving him in the silence he hadn't noticed had fallen. He got up as silently as he could and cringed when the plates on his suit scratched against each other. He pulled out his assault rifle with his left hand, wondering just how much damage he could do to whatever was out there using the wrong hand. He carefully tread over to the doorway and stopped before it, wondering exactly what the best way to proceed would be, to go in guns blazing or hope that whatever it was out there could speak English.

Before he could decide though the choice was made for him in the form of a purple aura surrounding the door and wrenching it off its hinges. John lifted the gun up to eye level and crouched, hiding his right arm behind his body, sitting there for what seemed to be an eternity before a small face peered around the corner, examining the compartment, the creature's eyes landing and stopping on John. They both stood there for a good five minutes, John taking in the creature's purple fur, horn, and dark purple and pink hair and the creature taking in his closely shaved head of dark hair, the scars covering his face and the crooked nose, suggesting that it had been broken once before, her eyes resting on the weapon in his hand, calculating what exactly it was.

Their eyes met and the creature let out a timid, "Hello."

"Hi," he replied, still not lowering the weapon.

"Are you responsible for the lights in the sky," the feminine voice asked.

"They were actually explosions," John replied.

The creature studied him for a few more seconds before saying, "I'm Twilight, Twilight Sparkle."

John was silent for a good thirty seconds before lowering the gun and replying, "John." Twilight took that as an invitation to get closer and she came fully around the doorway, revealing how small she really was. "So where am I," he asked.

"You're on Equestria. Now I suppose it's my turn to ask a question, right? What are you?"

"I'm a human. What are you?"

"A unicorn...what's a human?"

John was silent as her reply sank in, bringing back the stories he'd heard as a kid from his mother. "It's a species that originated on Earth," he replied.

The purple unicorn stared at him for a few more seconds before pulling her gaze away to stare at someone else who had arrived. "Where have you been, Spike," she asked, staring at the little beast that had arrived.

John shifted his gaze to the creature that had entered the pod and raised the gun again, aiming it at it. "What is that thing," he asked.

"Hey, this thing has a name," the creature said.

"He's a dragon," Twilight explained, either not noticing or not reacting to the choice of naming John had used. "Spike, this is John, he's a human. John, this is my assistant Spike."

"So he's not a hostile," John asked, lowering the gun a little.

"Hostile," Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, Spike is a friend," Twilight assured him. John let the gun drop fully and sat back onto his ass, grunting as his right arm shifted and sent a bolt of pain up his arm. Twilight caught sight of his quick discomfort and moved closer as she asked, "Are you alright?"

"I don't think so," he replied, bringing his arm around stiffly. "Something happened to my right arm and it hurts a bit."

"Maybe we should take a look at it," Twilight responded, getting closer and ignoring the protests of the baby dragon.

John glanced at the distance between them, now reduced to a few inches, before taking his armour off, trying not to jerk his arm too much as he pulled it off section by section and loosened it until he could pull the chest plate and the arm coverings off, leaving him in his undershirt along with the armour still on his legs. He turned his attention to the arm that was painting him and caught sight of a small piece of shrapnel buried in his forearm.

"That doesn't look too good," Twilight observed, just barely holding back from poking and prodding at the wound from what John could tell after spending years with scientists studying him on a daily basis.

"I've suffered worse," John replied as he thought of what he'd need to get the piece out.

"Here, let me help you with that," Twilight said, her features becoming a bit strained as she focused on the wound.

John was about to voice an argument that she didn't have any tools but snapped his mouth closed as Twilight's horn lit up, the shrapnel slowly coming out, aided by the aura that had also yanked off the door. Twilight set the bloody metal on the ground and turned back to the wound, her horn growing brighter than it had been for a moment and blinding John, the light quickly dimming to reveal the wound in his arm gone.

"What was..." John trailed off, not during how to phrase his question.

"You don't know about magic where you come from," Twilight asked.

"There aren't even any unicorns there, much less dragons," John replied, casting another wary glance as Spike.

"What about Pegasi or alicorns," Twilight asked.

"You have...flying horses here? What planet have I landed on," John asked, finally letting himself relax completely.

"It's inhabitants just call it Equus," she replied. "Most of us at least."

"So you guys haven't decided on a name of the planet?"

"Oh no, the princesses have, but other species, such as dragons, manticores, and changelings, argue with them."

"Right, well I really ne-"

John was cut off as two figures suddenly landed in the crater caused by the shuttle, visible through the doorway, causing John to scramble up and grab his gun and aim it at the figures, switching between the two of them at a rapid pace. One was pure white with a head of flowing hair that contained blue, pink, and green and had a horn and wings; the other was a dark blue, also with a horn and pair of wings, and had hair that flowed just like the other's but looked like it contained the night sky. He shifted his gaze from the two figures for a second and glanced at Twilight, seeing the confused look on her face before switching his gaze back to the two newcomers. He noticed that while the white one looked just about as oblivious to what was in his hand as Twilight and Spike, the dark blue one seemed to recognize the weapon in his hands.

"Where did you get that," it asked, it's gaze moving up and down his body, as if measuring him for what he could accomplish.

"This one's mine. Why, are you worried about that ship in the sky, because let me tell you, it's history," he said, choosing to focus the gun on it.

"Luna, What ship is he talking about," the white one asked.

"Hold on," Twilight said, "I think we're all getting off on the wrong hoof here."

John had to hold back a laugh as he heard their version of that expression.

"I agree," the white one replied. "I apologize for me and my sister's impoliteness. I am Celestia and this is my sister and co-ruler Luna. Who and what might you be?"

John let the gun drop a little after meeting Twilight's eyes and seeing the almost pleading look in her eyes. "I'm John," he replied, "and I'm a human, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"It is indeed. Now tell me, What exactly is that device in your hands," Celestia said, curiously studying it from where she was.

John finally stopped aiming the gun at them and said, "I think your sister may be able to explain it better than me because I don't know how much of it would make sense to you."

Although when they all turned their attention to Luna she hadn't seemed to hear a word spoken, stuck on something stated earlier.

"Umm, princess," Twilight said, waving a hoof in Luna's eyes.

"She seems to be in shock abo-"

"YOU KILLED THEM," Luna yelled at John, cutting off Celestia.

"Hey, they attacked me first," John argued immediately.

"Wait, who are we talking about," Twilight asked.

"Those lights you saw in the sky, that was a ship full of...some faction who decided to try and take me prisoner," John said, keeping his eyes steadily trained on Luna.

"You murdered an entire ship," Luna argued.

"Of raiders," John replied. "Who else decorates their ship in such a vulgar fashion?"

"They were my friends," Luna said, stomping up to John and getting in his face.

"Luna, you will cease these foalish actions at once," Celestia said, sounding horrified at the display.

"No sister, he is dangerous," Luna argued, not taking her furious gaze off John. "I vote that we toss him into sp-"

There was a flash and suddenly both Celestia and Luna were gone, leaving Twilight, John, and Spike alone in the pod.

"That was...odd," Spike said.

"Luna has never blown up like that before," Twilight said.

"Maybe it was her time of the month," John joked.

Twilight turned her gaze on John and glared while Spike simply gave him a blank look.

"John, I will not listen to you talk about my princess like that," Twilight said.

"Oh, sorry Twilight," John replied sincerely. "So where did they go exactly?"

"Celestia probably teleported them back to the castle to have a talk with Luna," she replied.

"What exactly are they, because last time I checked, unicorns didn't have wings and a pegasus didn't have a horn."

"They're alicorns," Spike spoke up, "they have the traits of all three races."

"Three," John asked.

"Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies," Twilight replied. "I have a book on all four races if you'd like to read up about them."

"Well actually I think I'd much rather get started on repairing this pod so I can get back the the Infinity," John replied, adding onto it when they gave him blank looks. "It's the ship I was on before all this happened."

"Well I'm sorry to say that this thing will never do whatever it was supposed to do again," Twilight said sheepishly, "for starters it's too beat up and I kinda...broke the door."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed that," John said with a little humor in his voice.

"How about you come back to my house for right now and we'll see about fixing this later," Twilight offered.

"Yeah, that might be a bit of a problem," John said, "if the rest of the world is as small as you are then I doubt I would he able to get anywhere without being too big."

"Oh...oh!" Twilight exclaimed, "I know the perfect spell."

She closed her eyes in concentration and ignored John's words of objection as her horn lit up and an aura surrounded John, slowly shrinking him until he was finally her height.

John gave a small shudder as his stomach stopped flipping and he turned his gaze to Twilight, finally eye level with her, and said, "Don't ever do that to me again."

"Oh come on, you'll be thanking me soon enough, now let's go," she said, "it's getting dark and we're already deep enough in the Everfree that we probably won't be out until sundown."

"Just let me get the rest of my armour off," John said, setting to the task of loose ing his leggings and pulling them off, leaving him in the short and shorts he wore under the armour. Once he was done he moved to the doorway, pausing a moment to taken note of how large it was now before continuing on.

Twilight quickly followed after him and took the lead, allowing Spike to catch up and get on her back.

"So you killed an entire ship," Spike said, turning around and facing John. "You must be an excellent fighter then."

"The best there is," John replied. "I'm known as Sierra-117 by the UNSC, or just Chief, but by different cultures I'm called many different things."

"Sounds interesting," Spike said. "So what did you fight for?"

"Many things," John said with a small laugh. "I fought for what's right, I fought to protect, I fought for..." Parisa.

"Spike why don't you let him think about how he's going to get home," Twilight said, turning her head and giving John a wink.

"Okay Twilight," Spike replied, turning around again on her back.

The rest of the walk continued on in silence as the question of how he'd get back to the Infinity bounced about his head, accompanied by many others. Unnoticed by any of them was the glint up in the sky.