Crimson

Five groaned as he tried to push himself up from the massive inverted seat of the Pelican. With some strain, he was able to break his armor clad torso out of the dented metal frame. The Spartan shook his head in an attempt to gather himself before slamming a hand onto the floor of the cockpit.

"Holy shit, that was painful," he hissed underneath his Mark-V helmet.

The super soldier steadily rose to his feet over the course of a few seconds, and examined the remains of the Pelican's interior. Some parts were hanging from the ceiling, sparking off every few seconds, while smoke began to file out through the large opening in the bay of the dropship.

"Gotta get out of here."

Five walked towards the dislocated hatch in the bay of the ship, staring at the odd angle at which it hinged itself. With a mighty kick, the platform became very familiar with the ground beneath it. The Spartan slowly stepped outside of the Pelican, and examined the immediate area. Below his titanium boots was dirt, plain and simple, charred in a path that led to where he now stood, and likely beneath the metallic behemoth he proceeded to exit. Upon his contact with the ground, he looked around the area of the crash, and found himself in what looked to be a vibrantly colored forest. The trees were all colored too singularly, and appeared almost cartoonish in nature.

"Where the hell am I?" he asked no one.

He walked around the scorched end of the dropship and examined the damage to his transport. All across its side, massive scorch marks lined up and exposed several bunches of wires and tubes, which, of course, were all burnt beyond repair. The right wing of the ship was missing entirely, and the stump where it attached was burnt to a crisp, twisted in jagged formations. The Spartan gave a sigh as he walked towards the starboard exterior weapon rack to arm himself. The panel to it was burned shut, leaving Five to resort to opening it manually.

The twin plates were ripped off to reveal a small assortment of weapons to Five. There were two MA5D Assault Rifles with two spare magazines, two Battle Rifles with a single mag extra for each, and four M6H Magnums with one extra mag each. Alongside the weapons was a jetpack extension for MJOLNIR armor, a Promethean Vision armor enhancement, and two fragmentation grenades.

Without hesitating, Five examined all of the weapons, starting with the rifles. The first MA5D he checked had an empty mag, but was still functional. The second one, however, had a chunk of shrapnel lodged in the muzzle, and slit the chamber open enough to reveal a strand of magnets. He loaded the working rifle with one of the magazines before placing it on his back, with the ammunition on the belt of his Warrior torso piece. The same scenario happened when he looked over the BRs, except the second one also had the handle and trigger melted off. Only two of the Magnums were functional, and half of the ammo melted inside their containers. The jetpack clicked into his armor seamlessly, and gave no warnings when he gave it a few experimental test-fires. Five took the Promethean Vision extension and grenades and placed them alongside the ammunition for his three weapons.

With the Assault Rifle on his back, two Magnums at his side, and a BR in his grip, Five looked back to the interior of the Pelican and thought intently about the contents. He made way to the opposite side of the Pelican to search for more weapons before he would follow his training.

\\\//////

Twilight sighed contently as she rested on her pillow, pleased with the outcome of the reorganization of the library. There was an upturn in rentals lately, and many different ponies were looking around the building far more frequently. Just as this started, also, she had received word from Princess Celestia, that in a few days, she would be greeting several dignitaries as the newest Princess of Equestria. The excitement from reading that letter kept her tossing and turning in her bed, trying to calm her small burst of adrenaline so she could sleep.

Before she could become mad at her internal hyperactivity, however, a series of thunderclaps began to ring about outside. Curiosity overcoming her desire to sleep (which was already waning), she crept out of her bed and set her hooves on the wooden surface below. When she stood up, she charged up her teleportation spell and closed her eyes as she brought herself closer to the sound.

When she looked up, instead of a cloudy night sky, Twilight saw a collection of massive chunks of metal that fell from what looked like actual holes in the sky. The chunks of metal caused several minute earthquakes that shook Twilight out of her shocked stupor. She turned around to look examine the cottage of her dear friend, Fluttershy. Above it, a small, intensely dark cloud began to materialize and crack with power. Within seconds, a massive metallic form streaked across the sky, a trail of smoke and embers outlining its descent in the sky.

Twilight galloped towards Fluttershy's abode with worry gripping her heart. Upon reaching the bridge before it, Twilight could make out the outlined forms of not only her timid friend, but the CMC. With a small burst of magic, she teleported up to them.

"Are you all okay?" she asked in a slightly panicked tone.

Fluttershy jumped back a bit, along with the Crusaders, when the lavender alicorn appeared before them.

"Twilight! Thank goodness it's you!" Fluttershy stated while holding a hoof to her chest.

"What was that, Twilight?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before. Right now, though, you four need to get out of here. That last one was too close to call 'safe'."

Twilight turned towards the forest and looked in with vigor.

"I need to see what that was. If I can get a close enough analysis of it, maybe Celestia or Luna could find out what this all is."

She teleported towards the infamous entrance to the forest before the others could argue with her.

\\\//////

Five hefted the small duffel bag over his left shoulder plate, the sounds of several metallic objects colliding a slight comfort to his ears. After searching the opposite weapon rack, as well as the interior of the troop bay of the Pelican, Five had loaded himself with what was essentially an arsenal. In the bag with him was now an M45D Tactical Shotgun, with only six rounds for it, a DMR with two spare mags, and an SRS99 Series 5 Sniper Rifle, completely empty. Inside of the Pelican, however, were three emergency medkits, a pack with enough MREs to last him a month, and enough C-7 to destroy the Pelican.

The Spartan set the bag down by the edge of the small clearing and brought the cans of foaming explosives with him on his trek back to the fallen dropship. Five began to apply the material to the joints of the engines, as well as a bit on the engines themselves for good measure. He went inside the ship once more and rechecked every compartment before spraying them with the explosives. Once he reached the cockpit, he emptied an entire can of the substance to the computers, ensuring maximum destruction of valuable pieces.

After the small spray-job, Five exited the wrecked Pelican and eyed the area he had set the scavenged supplies...

... and immediately drew his Assault Rifle off of his back before firing off a burst near a small creature that held his Battle Rifle.

\\\//////

Twilight carefully eyed the surrounding area of trees as she scanned everything before her with her magic. She had followed the trail of smoke for a small amount of time before resorting to calculating its trajectory while walking aimlessly through the Everfree. As she did, the thunder ceased at some point, which was still elusive to her. Eventually, she found a few toppled trees that led into a large clearing, with the metallic object from earlier in a crater.

The object was so foreign, so unknown to her, that Twilight abandoned all caution and approached it. The metallic surface of it was an olive-green-like color that looked like it had been burned and torn at aggressively. It sported several smooth parts that gave it an immediate pony-made quality, only massively different. There were no parts that would suggest any kind of propulsion, and was missing a massive, what she could only describe as a 'wing'. One part was opened up to her, with a large metal slab on the ground below it. On the side of the opening was the inscription: "UNSC MARINES" in white letters.

Before she could get close to it, however, she felt her hoof come into contact with something. Twilight looked down to see a bulky duffel bag at her hooves. With a raised eyebrow, she quickly zipped it open with her magic, and opened the bag. Once she saw what was inside, her eyes widened in surprise. She reached in with her magic and pulled out a foreign object that was almost unidentifiable, only being able to be described by simply calling it "a fancy metal club".

The moment she brought it out, a series of loud pops rung out as dirt exploded by her hooves. She gave a small scream before dropping the object and backpedaling away. When she stopped, she looked up to see where that came from, or rather, what it was. In front of her, approaching with a similar club, was a massive red beast, with plates of metal over dark skin, and a golden plane of glass where a face would be.

"If you can understand me, know that you're interfering with official UNSC operations, and are attempting theft of UNSC property. If you can speak, choose your next words carefully, because I don't want to be forced to fire this weapon at an unknown creature. If you don't want to fight, then I would be happy to oblige. But if I have to pull this trigger in the next ten seconds, I will do so without a pang of guilt. Anything to say?"

Twilight opened and closed her mouth several times before trying to speak.

"U-uh... h-hello?"