Crimson

Twilight flashed out of the Canterlot Castle and blinked a few times to regain orientation. When she did, she found that the Crusaders were all frozen on the stairs, looking either at her or something behind her. She slowly turned around to see the form of Five rummaging through the bag he had been carrying. However, she was drawn to the sight of his head, sitting on the table, a few inches above her. Twilight did a double take upon seeing it, and began to slowly move back, just as the form of Five turned to reveal a disfigured face look down at her.

"Wha..." she breathed out, staring at the mangled face of the alien.

\\\//////

Five groaned inwardly as he saw Twilight return in a flash.

"Alright, if you do that, do it where you won't end up near me," Five explained, "because the last time I had something teleported behind me, I almost lost my damn head."

He didn't wait for a response from the pony, and instead focused back on sorting through the duffel bag to find some emergency rations. Five could see the small form of the purple biped staring up at him in awe and fear wrapped together.

"What are you?" it asked.

"I could ask the same thing, you know," Five replied.

"Well, I'll start then!" It said with a smile. "I'm Spike, and I'm a Dragon!"

He (Five assumed due to the voice) pointed to the ones on the stairs.

"That's Apple Bloom, the one with the bow, Scootaloo, the small one with wings, and Sweetie Belle, the one with the horn. Oh, and... where's Fluttershy?" he asked.

"EEP!"

Five paid the noise little mind as he pulled out a small case from the side of the inner-most part of the bag, and found it labeled with the UNSC logo and covered with the letters, "MRE". He gave a small smile as he placed it on the small table and unlatched the locks on the case.

"Well, I guess she's hiding somewhere," Spike continued. "So, that's most of who's here. Can you tell us about you now?"

The Spartan looked down to see the small "Dragon" smiling up at him with anticipation, and gave a small sigh before speaking.

"Name's Five. I'm a Spartan."

"Cool... uh, what's a 'Spartan'?"

"Super soldier."

"Wow. So, you're a fighter? What's it like doing... um, I don't know what you fight."

"You don't want to know."

"Oh, come on, I bet that-"

"Ah got a big glass o' water, right here, Five," Applejack called from the doorway.

When she came in, she froze when she saw Five's face and gaped.

"Stars above," she breathed out.

Five walked up to her and grabbed the large glass from her grip, feeling a bit of weight in the massive pot-like glass. Without a word, he raised it to his lips and began to chug down every drop of the satisfying liquid, allowing it to soak in the driest parts of his mouth. In the span of a minute, Five had downed the entire thing and gave a satisfied sigh.

"Thanks," he said before placing it on the table by his helmet.

"I... I had no idea that it... came off," Twilight muttered.

"Well, no one asked," Five replied.

"Why's your face so messed up, dude?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Rainbow!" Twilight hissed. "That's rude!"

"You're not gonna stop all these questions until I answer at least one, huh?" Five sighed.

"I'm sorry about how some of us are acting," Twilight stated.

"It's fine. And to answer one of your questions, I got these scars in the Human-Covenant War."

\\\//////

Chrysalis looked up to the massive behemoth that was the Pale Horse, and prepared to take flight.

"Alright, my subjects," she spoke in a booming voice, reaching out to all of the remaining Changelings, "this is where we shall rest until we can reach the Birthlands! Nothing shall be able to find us here, and even if something does, we will be safe under its shell! Move in!"

The sound of hundreds of wings buzzing behind her did little to lessen her fears of laying her Hive in an alien ship. However, after her time spent with "Sid," she was convinced that it would at least be preferable than some cave. When she landed inside of one of the massive openings on the side of the ship, she watched as what was left of the Hive began to file in. Some were flying in groups, carrying the sick and injured in green substance that kept them alive.

"Sid," she called out to the ship, "I have subjects that are in need of medicine. Where is this ship's hospital?"

"Welcome back, Queen Chrysalis," Sid replied. "I'm lighting up several hallways with emergency lights now for direction. Tell whoever you have to follow the red hallways to the Medical Deck."

"Good."

"One more thing, ma'am," Sid added. "There are several repair drones working in the ship to restore functionality. I'm letting you know now so when you eventually come across one, there is no need to panic. They hover half of a meter in the air and are covered in grey armor with several thin arms that use multiple tools."

"Thank you for letting me know. Has there been any attempt at boarding, aside from my Changelings and I?"

"Negative. All airlocks are secure. I'm tracking the Changelings you've brought and will seal off the Docking Bays when they've all entered."

"Seal them off? Why?"

"To ensure that nothing else can enter through the bay."

"Hm. Excellent. Carry on, I need to see the sick in."

"Very well, ma'am," Sid concluded.

As the Queen began to assist in magically lifting up the members of the Hive, Sid filed in every boarder and began to prepare the Medical Deck for several patients.

\\\//////

"'Human-whatanant War'?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Covenant," Five replied with venom in his voice.

"What's the Covenant?" Twilight asked.

Five looked up to the CMC, then back to Spike, before turning to Twilight and shaking his head.

"Bad aliens. Let's try and leave it there."

"Why are they bad?" Spike asked.

Twilight bit her lip as Five slowly turned to Spike and sighed.

"When I was six years old, I lived on a colony world known as Madrigal," Five started.

"Wait, 'colony world'? As in, a secondary planet?" Twilight asked.

"I guess. My kind inhabited several hundred worlds over the past few centuries, I don't exactly know how many, but I know a few. Anyways, I was six years old when I lived on the colony, born and raised in one of its major population centers, when we heard that Harvest made First Contact. Communications with Harvest went down for a bit, and before we knew it, the Covenant had declared war on our entire species."

Twilight could hear Applejack and the Crusaders gasp while she did, shocked by the tale.

"Before you ask, I don't know why. They just thought we were vermin, and started to attack. In 2528, three years later, they found my homeworld. I watched as one of them killed both my parents. Military forces held them back long enough for a few ships to evacuate, but before we left, I watched as my home planet was burned to glass. That's how I got this," he said before pinching what remained of his right ear.

They were stunned beyond words. The fact that anything could do something so terrible... it's no wonder why he's impatient with aliens.

"A few years later, I lived on another colony called Jericho VII. I went to a military school, got to train in the Reserves for a bit... then the Covenant came in 2535, and glassed that planet, too. When I turned 18, I think around 2537, I signed up for the UNSC Marines, and fought in the war for at least eight years before I signed up for the Orbital Drop-Shock Troopers, or ODSTs. Another eight years later, the war ended, and I signed up for the Spartan-IV program. Cut forward again, and here I am."

Silence filled the Library as Five waited for a response. When none was given, he turned to the small case he had pulled out and opened it. Before anything else, though, a familiar blue flash filled the room, and Five pointed a small object at Luna, who was now staring wide-eyed at the Spartan.