Crimson

Five moved his head back slightly when he heard the creature speak, but kept the rifle sights trained on its head.

"I'll repeat myself," he said in a calm tone, "you are attempting to steal UNSC weaponry as well as interfering with operations with a Spartan-IV fire-team. State your name, rank, and intention or I will open fire."

The small creature blinked its massive eyes before slowly standing up. It was an odd creature, standing up on all four legs. All over its body was purple fur, as well as a full head of straight hair that had a streak of pink in the middle. On its head was a horn, and on its sides were wings. With a closer look, Five could see some kind of strange branding on its end, with a large pink star surrounded by five smaller ones.

"I'd like to start by saying, 'hello,' and welcome to Equestria, mister..."

"Name, rank, and intention," Five repeated automatically.

"Alright, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm a Princess, and I came here because you almost crashed into my friend's house."

"Keywords being 'almost,' and 'crash'. I have no orders or intent to harm anything or anyone on this planet right now."

Five lowered the Assault Rifle before approaching the open duffel bag at a brisk pace. As he did, "Twilight" backed away from him slowly and looked as though she was going to make a break for it. Before it could leave, however, Five picked up the BR from the ground and examined the weapon. While inspecting the weapon, he saw that the alien was also studying him. He ignored this for the moment, and placed the rifle back into the bag before zipping it up. He brought the strap up and over one of his shoulder plates before standing at full height and checking the ammo counter on the Assault Rifle: 28.

"Excuse me," the voice of the creature said.

Five turned his gaze down to the small alien and spoke.

"You have to get away from here. Right now."

He began to walk past "Twilight" and into the forest as it spoke.

"Wait, why? What about your ship? Did I do something to offend you?"

"UNSC protocol clearly states that if anyone finds themselves on in uncharted territory, or behind enemy lines, all equipment that can or must be saved is to be taken from wherever they may end up, and anything that cannot be carried, or presents itself as a threat to any and all operations within the sector is to be terminated."

As he walked through some bushes, Five could hear that the alien was no longer following him. He stopped in his tracks and turned to see that the purple thing had stopped walking, and was staring at him.

"But... that's your ship... you're just going to..."

"Yes. You might want to follow me. I've laid out more than 6 cans of C-7 explosive foam, and you're in range."

With that, Five began walking away yet again. Before he took more than a few steps, however, the sound of the small creature approaching closed in behind him as it entered his peripheral vision.

"Can you tell me your name, or what you are, or how you got here?"

"Name's Five. What I am is classified, and how I got here is even more classified."

"Oh... sorry."

The Spartan cast a glance downwards to see the alien creature had lowered its head closer to the ground with a frown occupying its features. Dismissing it, Five focused on a vantage point he could use to watch the detonation from a safe distance. He looked up at the branches and saw a small cliff through the cracks of dim light. With the right change in direction, the Spartan was on track to his next destination.

\\\//////

Twilight looked up as the large red alien began to walk in a different direction towards the interior of the forest. She righted her direction and paced up to the visitor and thought of the situation.

'Okay, Twilight, just keep calm and think about this,' she thought to herself. 'Whatever it is, it's intelligent, at least I know that much. It talked to me, in Equestrian no less, so that's a definite plus. If it really is lost, then maybe this... UNSC or whatever it is can find him. Wait, is it a 'he'? It certainly sounds like a stallion. Maybe his species has the same method of reproduction, and has both males and females like us. But what about that armor plating it has? And where's its face? All that's there is a glass plane. Maybe it's like a giant contact lens, and covers up whatever it actually has. But what about those things in the bag? Whatever it was, it wasn't magic. I couldn't feel that at all until it hit the ground. And what if it hit a pony? What are those designed to do?Maybe I should contact the Princesses, or better yet, bring him! Yeah, if he can meet the Princesses, then maybe they can find a spell that could help! So, now I just have to-'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the face-first impact with a rocky surface. Twilight backed up and looked around to find that she had completely lost sight of the alien, and was staring at the side of a cliff. She turned back to the tree line and called out.

"Five? Are you there?"

"Look up."

Twilight shot her head up to find the alien in question climbing up the side of the cliff, the device he held locked onto his back. Five's appendages were locked onto the rocky surface, digging into the cliff as he stayed still almost thirty meters off the ground.

"What are you doing?" she called up to him.

"Getting a better vantage point. You have wings, don't you?"

Twilight blinked in surprise and looked to her sides as she unfurled her lavender appendages. With a hard swallow, she pumped her wings up and down in an effort to slowly ascend. As she did, she could hear stone crunch of rocks and metal above her. She looked up to watch as Five was scaling the cliff by digging in small digits on his arms into the stone, and using the pointed edges of his biped legs to anchor his ascent. In her mind, Twilight calculated the force it would take to break the surface of the stone as well as how fast he was climbing it. Needless to say, she was absolutely stunned.

\\\//////

Five grasped the grass as he reached the top of the cliff before tossing the duffel bag onto the ground. When it landed, he hefted himself up to the surface and stepped away from the edge. While the fall wouldn't kill him, it would be a waste of time to recover and climb up again. He looked around to find Twilight and watched as the purple form of the alien began to lower onto the ground.

"So you can fly," Five said aloud.

Twilight looked up at him with a hurt look before speaking.

"Did you not expect me to?"

"Just stating an observation. Didn't know if those actually worked or if they're for show."

Five turned around before the alien could respond, and walked towards the bag he had carried. He reached into one of the side pockets and pulled out a small device with a trigger mechanism that hung off of the side. He cranked a small dial until the red light atop the device began to blink.

"What's that?" Five heard come from behind him.

The Spartan didn't turn or acknowledge Twilight as he scanned the area for the Pelican wreckage. When he located the crater, a smirk appeared underneath his helmet as he brought up the detonator. With a single pull of the trigger, the device let out a high-pitched beep as the light turned a solid green before his visor was overloaded with a blinding light.

\\\//////

Spike watched the edge of the forest with an unsure look, thinking of how Twilight was in there by herself. A knock came from the entrance below, breaking Spike out of his focus. He stood up and ran for the stairs as the knocking continued, joined by two more series of poundings. When he reached the entrance, Spike opened the door to find the CMC and Fluttershy standing outside.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Fluttershy extended her wings and pushed the Crusaders inside as she spoke.

"It was terrifying! There were clouds appearing out of nowhere above the Everfree, and then giant fires started to pour down from them! Before I knew it, one of them came up above my house, and then a giant metal dragon flew over and crashed into the forest!"

When she finished panicking, the Crusaders tried to speak to Spike, only to be cut off by a shining light that came through the door. As it illuminated the entrance, Fluttershy caught a glimpse of it as well, and in seconds, the whole group was looking back out into the forest. From their view, a beaming collection of lights poured out from the Everfree Forest, and washed over most of Ponyville. A light breeze whistled by them, as the air around them seemed to become warmer for only a few seconds. The light began to die out, just as a menacing crack of thunder rolled through the streets.

\\\//////

Twilight slowly cracked her eyes open as she felt the resistance against her barrier fade. Around her, a faint lavender glow formed a sphere that was hastily assembled, with some areas more dense than others. She released the spell and examined the area as her eyes readjusted to the darkness. When she was able to see properly, she noticed that she was now near the edge of the cliff, and was looking down into a crater.

Where the alien ship once was, instead, was a massive burned ditch, nearly 60 meters in diameter. The trees that surrounded the site were all obliterated, leaving their stumps as the only sign that they were once there. The ground near the crater was either black from the heat of the explosion, or grey and lifeless. Beyond the scorched remains of the first few trees were black, crisp sticks that stuck out of the ground, void of any leaves or even branches.

As she stared, tears began to sting in her eyes, horrified by the amount of destruction that she had witnessed. Bits of burnt metal began to lightly trickle down from the sky as the only evidence of anything artificial every occupying the space.

"Alright, we're good," a voice said from behind her.

Twilight turned around to find the alien standing completely upright and unfazed by the blast. Five looked down at her and spoke.

"So, you wanted to talk about something?"