Crimson

Twilight Sparkle couldn't believe what she had heard.

She simply couldn't.

These were Changelings! They were know to be liars and manipulators! They invaded Equestria and nearly ruined one of the most important moments of her life! They had nearly torn her greatest friendships apart, and had done so much damage to Equestria. But hearing the Queen, Chrysalis, say that...

She didn't know what to believe in anymore.

Five, however, did.

\\\//////

"How many of your kind are left, then?" the Spartan asked.

Queen Chrysalis closed her eyes as she lowered her head.

"Seven hundred and twenty eight, including myself."

Five looked to the contingent of guards around them as they tried to look strong for the sake of their leader. He knew a facade when he saw one, though. It was the same look he had for most of his life.

"So this is it, then? Your entire species is on this one ship?"

The Queen looked up at him with watery, rage-filled eyes. When she spoke, sorrow gripped her voice, and sounded almost broken as she spoke.

"Yes, alright? We're all that's left of the once proud Changeling Empire. Not even a thousand of our kind are left in the world. Anyone not here is either in a jail cell, being tortured for our whereabouts, or dead and forgotten."

\\\//////

Twilight couldn't hold back the tears as she heard the once terrifying Queen of the Changelings speak in such a way.

'Seven hundred,' repeated the number in Twilight's head. 'There are more ponies in Ponyville... than there are Changelings in the world.'

To think that something that she had once feared so badly, the very creatures that had inhabited her nightmares for weeks on end, were so close to being wiped out...

'I-I'm a Princess of Equestria,' she thought to herself. 'I'm supposed to be a paragon of what Equestria represents. Friendship, equality, peace... what do I do? I need to do something! I can't just let them die off like this! Nopony deserves to just...'

She was unable to finish her thoughts as her hooves began to subconsciously pound against her head.

\\\//////

Five thought to himself, his hands clasped together beneath his chin as he rested his elbows on the table. He compared the Changelings' situation to that of the UNSC, during the Covenant War. Here they were, on the brink of extinction, trying to find salvation in the technology of an unknown alien race. It was frightening to think about how closely related the two times seemed to be. Now, however, something was different.

Five had the power to change the course of their survival.

The thought caused his heart rate to increase, as he began to think about every possible outcome of what he was about to suggest. Every part of this was against the regulations of the UNSC, but did that matter when they were trying to avoid extinction? Did protocol matter at Earth? At the Ark?

There was an option now to do what couldn't be done during the Covenant War, and prevent a similar outcome here.

"So this is it, huh?" Five asked the Queen.

Queen Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at Five.

"'This is it'? That's all you have to say!? Do you have any idea what we've gone through!? What we've done in the name of survival!? Do you even know what being close to extinction feels like!?" she roared at him, her eyes continuing to water as she slammed one of her front legs onto the table.

To the surprise of everyone except Five, he answered.

"Yes."

Queen Chrysalis blinked in confusion, her eyes widening as her Changeling guards did the same.

"You think this ship's powerful? We've lost hundreds of these in a matter of seconds," Five started. "We've built warships that seemed powerful enough to take down entire planets before sending out dozens of them at a time against an enemy that barely considered them a nuisance. We've fought against armies that were outnumbered by thousands at a time, and still mowed through our ranks like we were made of paper." Five lowered his hands to the table while he leaned forward, his voice filling with rage. "I've seen entire planets, fleets of hundreds, armies of millions, all burn to ash and glass in the blink of an eye. For thirty years, my kind was relentlessly hunted by a seemingly endless armada of bloodthirsty monsters. Even when we had any victories, they were so costly that saying, 'we won,' was insignificant. They burned every single line of defense we had without remorse. They destroyed in two decades what took us centuries to build. They spilled our blood on our home planet before getting ready to silence our kind permanently."

The Queen felt the soldier's rage almost drown every Changeling in the room. The fear behind his words was almost just as staggering, short of equaling her own fear of Five. However, as he paused, something else lit up within him. Pride. Courage. Hope.

"We were literal seconds away from being wiped out. Then... we won."

That nearly got the Queen to gasp in shock, though some of her guards had gone through the gesture for her.

"How?" she asked, almost desperately. "How could your kind have escaped certain doom? How did you stop your extinction?"

'How do we win?' she asked herself.

"Because of one, single weapon. A weapon perfected over the course of the war. A weapon that had become more powerful than anything else we could have hoped to recreate. A weapon strong enough to destroy entire fleets, that brought armies to their knees, and gave everyone in the UNSC, on Earth, on Reach, everywhere, a sliver of hope."

Five pointed to the eagle emblem on the left side of his armor.

"The Spartans."