Crimson

Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash sped towards the small crack of thunder from the forest as they watched the light from Celestia's magic begin to die out. They jumped over fallen trees and burned bushes before they came upon a horrifying sight. Five was standing in a clearing with a large amount of foliage having been burned away, and in his grasp, was a limp and bleeding form of Celestia, being held up by her horn. Where blood was dripping from, however, there was a hole of ripped flesh and exposed bone, with a small, glistening piece of metal visible in the muscle.

The small alicorn had to hold back the urge to spew bile out at the sight of Princess Celestia in such a state, and to see her held like that by an alien that she had tried to befriend, no less.

Five pulled his arm back and threw Celestia towards them without warning, and when the alabaster royal flew at them, Twilight barely had any time to catch her.

"I'm done here," he spoke before turning and walking away.

"Where do you think you're going!?" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Anywhere but here. I'm through dealing with this shit."

"You're the one who did this to our Princess!" Applejack shouted.

"AFTER YOU ALL ATTACKED ME! BE THANKFUL I DIDN'T RIP HER FUCKING HEAD OFF!" Five shouted at them.

All three ponies backed away from the rage-filled voice of the alien warrior before he stomped away from them. Twilight looked between him and the limp form of the Princess before she swallowed a lump in her throat and spoke again.

"Please, it was just a misunderstanding! She might have thought-"

"SHUT!" He shouted, pointing a small metallic object at her.

"Twi, we gotta get the Princess to a hospital or something," Rainbow Dash whispered loudly.

"She's right. We need ta get the hay away from that thing," Applejack added.

Twilight watched as Five walked away from the group of ponies and searched for the bag he had been carrying up to now.

"Girls, he's lost and alone here. We can't just leave him."

"Uh, Equestria to Twilight, it just beat up Princess Celestia! The alicorn that controls the Sun! Why should we even bother to talk to it!?"

"Because we're supposed to show the best qualities of Equestria! If we just let him think we're all going to attack him, he might get scared, and hurt more ponies! We need to let him know that we didn't mean to do this. I'm sure that the Princess was just concerned about us, and just attacked because she was scared."

Twilight turned to the Spartan and yelled.

"We're sorry, Five! Please, just give us another chance!"

The soldier paused his march and turned completely around to look at the group.

"Why should I? So you can have a better chance at killing me? No way."

"But we didn't mean to attack you, right girls?" she asked, turning to her friends.

"Twilight, we need ta get the Princess outta 'ere, right now," Applejack said rather forcefully.

The alicorn shifted on her hooves as she looked between her friends, the unconscious form of Princess Celestia, and Five, as he knelt down to pull out the same club-like metal object she had examined earlier. She gulped audibly as she tried to convince Five again.

"Five, I know that you're mad right now-"

"'Mad' doesn't begin to describe what I feel," he interrupted.

"... But, I still think that we should have the chance to make this up to you. Please, just give us one more chance. I can't even begin to think of what it would be like if I knew you stayed in this forest because of what we did. Can't we just try and start over?"

\\\//////

Five pulled on the charging handle for the Battle Rifle as he looked up to the group of ponies. Here he was, weapon at the ready, in front of a group of aliens that were hostile to him, twice, and now one of them was trying to apologize for it. He had heard when the other two tried to "whisper" to each other, and thought it was wise that they were deciding to leave him be. Now, however, Twilight was almost on the verge of tears as she looked to him, pleading for another chance to make a good impression.

'They're like Goddamn kids,' Five thought to himself.

He stood up to his full height as he pulled the slightly burned duffel bag up with him before sighing heavily and approaching the group.

"Fine. I'll go with you."

The other two began to back away from his approach, while Twilight smiled lightly as she turned towards the wrecked path out of the forest.

"Thank you. I promise that you won't regret-"

"But," Five interrupted, "if you spring one more thing like that on me, I'm going back to this forest and staying under a rock or something until I die of old age."

Twilight and the others paused when they heard these words before Five marched ahead of them.

"Just keep walking, and maybe they'll snap out of their fucking trance," Five said loud enough for them to hear.

When they processed these words, Twilight looked to Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

"Just make sure he gets to the Library. He can stay there until I can talk to Celestia, and find out why she attacked him."

"Twi, ya sure that's a good idea? If that thing ends up bein' violent, it'll be right in the middle o' Ponyville," Applejack argued.

"We have a chance to amend mistakes we made with an alien! Please, just follow him and try to keep the town calm."

The other two looked to each other before nodding reluctantly.

"I promise everything will be fine," Twilight added before her horn ignited, and both she and Celestia were gone in a flash.