A pair of Royal Guards charged at me, spears raised to strike. I ducked and spun, swiping their legs out and causing them to smash their heads on the ground. A Unicorn attempted to freeze me, only for my shields to reflect it so I could tackle him. I kneeled on his back, keeping my Battle Rifle aimed at his head, when a whistle blew. “Alright, training is over! Pack your bags, fillies, and get cleaned up. The score is thirty to Crimson, and zero to the Royal Guard.” A drill sergeant bawled out, marching to the field. I had been spending the past week training my Pegasus body, redeveloping my CQC skills so I could fight effectively as the Spartan I was. Despite having my mind shredded, being attacked by mythological creatures, becoming a Flood, losing control of my body to a dark entity known as the Nightmare, and then being turned into a pony, I still owed my loyalty to the UNSC, and all that shit wouldn’t hold me back.

“Crimson, you’re being shipped out to Ponyville. Something to do with the flying armored creature. Princess Luna’s orders.” The sergeant told me, as I strode away from practice. “Yes, sir. I’ll leave right now, sir.” I responded automatically, thanks to having military instincts shoved up my ass and into my brain. I turned to the gates of the palace, and walked out. Tohl caught sight of me and managed to perform a series of impossible acrobatics, flipping from wall to wall and scurrying on the bottoms of roofs. He had developed his agility, now that he was an Alpha Crawler instead of a Sangheili. It made even myself jealous of how easily he defied physics.

A sky chariot was waiting for us, so I dematerialized my armor and stepped on. Right as we lifted off, Tohl leapt onto the underside of the carriage, clambering over the sides to stand by me. “Showoff,” I said to him, causing the Elite-turned-Promethean to chuckle. I shook my head, and we were off.

-------------------- Terra Firma’s POV --------------------

I paced outside of the library, waiting for the companions that Luna had told me I would receive. She had sent a letter, apologising for her sister’s actions and saying she agreed with my thoughts on the Corruption, and it needed to be destroyed. Apparently a pair that I supposedly knew was coming to help, and we’d have to explore the limits of the Corruption. A bright flash overhead, and I saw the gold of a sky chariot glide down in front of me. Suddenly, a very familiar duo popped out.

Crimson and Tohl, the Spartan and Elite. They had introduced themselves to me after I was cured of the Infection debuff, and apparently they had come through portals as well. Crimson has originally been a Spartan IV, a human that was trained and augmented to be a super-soldier. Tohl was a Sangheili, or an Elite as the humans called them, and had barely survived a crash in his vehicle. Both had been transformed by something called the Flood, like the biome Isis spoke of, and Crimson had retained control. Tohl had been turned into an artificial being and put in the body of an Alpha Crawler, the Titanium-Sapphire gemspark dog. Crimson had been taken over by the Nightmare, and turned into a pegasus by the Elements of Harmony. “Are you two ready? Good. Let’s get going.” I stated, before turning and flying to the Everfree. “What are we doing?” Shouted Crimson, as he flew next to me with ease. “We’re going into a deadly forest that has been turned into something even more dangerous to find out how big it is, and make sure it stops spreading.” I said, not even glancing his way. “Do I need my armor?” I pretended to think hard, and responded, “Only if you want to live.” I ignored the confused and frustrated glare, and kept flying and gliding.

The forest that had been purified remained clean. We had to travel a large distance to find the Corruption, and even then it was rather small. What surprised us was the dark biome slowly consuming it. The new one was like a mix of the Crimson and Corruption, with purplish flesh as the main component, and toxic green highlights. There were also patches of muddy brown and tan tissue, which seemed alive, as if looking for something. Eyes with black irises grew from different parts of the forest, with pustules that glowed a sickening yellow. Crimson and I landed, and Tohl soon caught up with us. As armor formed around the pegasus, we caught a whiff of something terrible, like a rotting corpse, left out for years, always decaying and never fading away. Every step gave a disgusting squelch, as we trode on the vile floor. As we continued, a strange shape formed in the distance. It looked like a pair of tails twisting around each other, spiralling up to point at the sky. Blood red, tan, and toxic green symbols were etched across it, and it seemed to pulse with evil.

Tendrils of the fleshy tan formed a web across the base, with things either being pushed through or crawling inside the tissue.A pustule near us burst, revealing a body that was eerily humanoid, mouth hanging in a scream, tentacles writhing inside the chest. It was like the arms and legs had melted into the mass, moans heard from the abomination. I watched as a Corrupt Bunny hopped by, only for the tentacles to whip out and constrict the mob, quickly popping the head off and wrenching the limbs apart. I examined it, and saw something that terrified me. “Guardian” ‘1,000/1,000 Health’

It had an insane amount of HP, and a name that made me shiver. If it was a Guardian, what was it guarding? Another pustule near us burst, revealing a second Guardian. It slung its tentacles at me, only to have them sliced off with my Hardlight Blade. I watched as it squirmed in agony, and the tendrils recoiled into the chest. I stepped to it, and equipped my Megashard, prepared to put it out of its misery. I pulled the trigger, and watched as it took only between ten and fifteen damage from each impact, the slivers of crystal barely harming it. I fired dozens, and then a hundred, rounds into it, and when it finally died it simply slumped. Nothing came from the dead form, nothing happened. That is, until I saw a large lump of flesh crawl over to the body and seem to absorb it. I backed away in terror, as did Crimson and Tohl, and we fled from the monstrosities that inhabited this terrible place. I managed to snag a block of the stone from the ground, and was shocked by the name: “Cthulhian Stone.”

I spoke to Isis the Dryad about the biome, and she looked horrified. “You found the Marker? How did you survive?!” She gasped, eyes wide with fear. I was confused, as to what this “Marker” was. “What exactly is the Marker?” I asked, slightly scared from her reaction. “A terrible, terrible thing. Do not activate it, or it will all be too late.” I turned to Crimson, who simply shrugged. “Tartarus if I know. I just want to get rid of it. For some reason I keep seeing my parents…”

A sudden explosion was heard. We rushed outside, to find an armored being kneeling in the center of the street, clutching its masked head, a strange item beside it. I walked up to it cautiously, afraid of how it would react. I was shocked when I heard it muttering about the dead.

-------------------- Isaac Clarke’s POV --------------------

I was running across the decks of the Ishimura, Pulse Rifle in my hands, with a group of Slashers following. I had only just turned to use the secondary fire, when a massive throbbing overtook my head. As I collapsed onto my knees, images of my girlfriend flickering, I saw a strange thing. It was like an oval, flat yet the purple edges swirled infinitely into a black hole in the center. I managed to shuffle over to it, and touched it right as the Slashers caught up. A blinding flash of light, and my headache suddenly raged, before vanishing completely. I stayed kneeling, thinking about how the dead were coming back, about how they had infected the entire crew of the Ishimura, of how they took all but one of my fellow crew members from the Kellion.

Even then they kept going for me, the Slashers attempting to carve me apart with their bony scythes, the Lurkers wailing as they fired spikes from their backs, the Guardians as they moaned and spewed tentacles from their open stomachs. Even the creeping Corruption only served to hasten my death. I had not died yet, and I did not plan to, for the sake of Nicole. She had to still be alive… She couldn’t of died… She was there, she was helping me…

“What are you?” A voice said from behind me, making me jump in surprise. I reached for my Pulse Rifle, only to see a strangely humanoid creature was holding it, looking at it in interest. It had on some sort of armor, one that was a brilliantly reflective silver and had patches of glowing orange. It spoke again, in a male voice, “Seriously, what are you?”

My jaw dropped in shock behind my helmet. The thing spoke to me. It didn’t look like a Necromorph, it sure as hell wasn’t a crazy Unitologist, and it spoke. I stammered, “I-I-I’m Isaac. Isaac Clarke. I’m a human. What the hell are you?” The creature tilted its head, seemingly in thought. “Hmmm… I’m many things. Want me to list them? I can.” It chuckled, “Look, I’m just teasing you. I’m Terra Firma, a Terrarian. Nice Pulse Rifle by the way, has great stats. Who ever heard of a gun that does over a hundred damage, has the insanely fast attack speed, and does average knockback? My Megashard doesn’t even do that.” My jaw dropped again. “How do you know what a Pulse Rifle is? They’re strictly for military and security use! What the hell is a Terrarian? Where am I?!”

It tossed my gun back to me, nodding slowly. “Yeah, yeah. You’re confused as shit. Same thing happened to me. I find a beautiful portal, which impossibly takes up the foreground, midground, and background, and find myself in the middle of the Everfree. I learn that Crimson and Tohl here also came from similar circumstances. For them, near death. For me, adventure. For you, I don’t know shit.” I was getting a little annoyed by the arrogant attitude. “Nearly died. Stop talking like an asshole, and explain to me. Where. Am. I.”

“You get right to the point, I like that. Okay, so you’re in this place called Equestria. For some reason, us four have come here through portals that form out of nowhere. Stuff from Crimson and Tohl’s universe is here as well. For some reason stuff from my worlds are here too. We’ve got only one resident NPC, Isis the Dryad.” A woman dressed in vines waved to me, smiling. “Hello.” Terra continued, “I’m currently trying to get rid of the Crimson, not the Spartan here, but the biome from my worlds, as well as the Corruption.” I gasped at that word. “The Corruption is here?! Oh god, no… It can’t happen again…”

“Wait, what? You have the Corruption? Is it purple and evil and stuff?” I shook my head, slightly relieved. “No, it’s a disgusting, living mass of flesh. Slows you down big time when you walk on it. Don’t ask me why you’d want to, I was forced to on the Ishimura.” The helmet on Terra’s head suddenly vanished, revealing a pale face, blue eyes, light brown hair, and a worried expression. I was surprised more by how his face seemed 2-Dimensional, but I ignored that. “Aw, shit. Lemme get Twilight and the Princesses. We’ve got a lot to explain.”

For some reason I was slightly scared by the word, ‘Princesses.’

I soon found out why. Two tall horses, one white and the other blue, stood before me. They had horns on their heads, and massive wings. Their multi-colored manes seemed to blow, even with no wind. “Explain to us what these “Necromorphs” are, Isaac.” I was shocked. “How did you know my name? I know I mentioned Necromorphs earlier, but…” The blue one interrupted, “Terra Firma told us. Now please, continue.” The white one glared at the other, but was ignored. I took a deep breath, before letting it out and glancing at Nicole for courage. At her nod, I began. “Necromorphs are the undead. The plague is first started when a Marker turns dead tissue into Necrotic flesh. I’ve only seen pictures of Markers, and I don’t want to see one ever again. Once the initial outbreak has occurred, the new Necromorph, usually a Slasher, will murder every living creature it comes across, leaving it for either Infectors to transform or for the Marker to convert it.”

The blue one spoke up again, “What are Slashers?” I shivered at the name, before responding. “Slashers are humans, the standard Necromorph. They’ve become monsters, losing their lower jaws, and most signs of their humanity. They have a pair of small arms growing out of their chest cavity, which are used to hold prey in place. The original arms have grown enormous, with the hands vanishing and a massive blade of bone has grown down from the forearm. It uses these to cut at prey, hence the name, Slasher. There are very few stationary Necromorphs, one of them being the Guardian. It’s a human, whose arms and legs have melted into the body. It is then just a large sack of flesh and a head, attached to the wall. It has a large chest cavity, which holds extremely big tentacles that are ridiculously sharp at the end, and either impales you or squeezes your head off. Immature ones moan like they’re in pain, and tend to squirm a lot more.”

Terra Firma gasped. “Oh, shit. I’ve seen those.” I began shaking again, praying to any deity that he was wrong. “I was in the Cthulhian biome with Crimson and Tohl. There was a big thing in the distance, like a pair of tails spiralling around each other. It was black, and had different symbols on it. We stayed a good distance away, until a pod of some sort near us exploded, revealing a Guardian. I saw its name, and we watched as it tore a Corrupt Bunny’s head off. Another pustule popped, and another Guardian attempted to kill me. It had one thousand health, same as the Brain of Cthulhu. It took the shots from my Megashard like they were nothing. After I killed it, we booked it out of there as fast as we could.”

No. It was too terrible to be true. A Marker was here… The Necromorphs were here… It couldn’t be happening. “Don’t worry, dad, we’ll take care of it. Yes mom, I’ll stop the Convergence. What? Of course I won’t! Look, keep an eye on me, make sure I don’t fall. I know, I know. Stay safe and all that. Look, I know you’re dead, but I appreciate that your spirits are trying to help. Of course I know I’m a bucking pegasus! Look, I’ll talk later.” The pony named Crimson said, apparently talking to himself. Terra Firma whispered, “The tiniest pebble can bring down a mountain… And that pebble just got crushed by a meteorite.”

“Don’t worry, Isaac, I know you can do it. You can stop the Convergence. Just listen to these ponies and people, and you’ll make it. I know you will.” Nicole said, kneeling before me, a faint smile on her lips. “I know, I’ll do my best… I love you, Nicole.”

“Love you too.”

-------------------- Luna’s POV --------------------

I watched as almost everypony began talking to themselves, and grew worried. I attempted to dreamwalk, only to find that they were awake… And something else. I tried shifting my sight to find the auras of spirits, and saw… The dead. So many dead and mutilated bodies, crowding around the room, whispering words of encouragement to those before me. A beautiful girl kneeled before Isaac, telling him she loved him. Crimson’s parents stood by him, standing guard. And in front of Terra… Was nothing. He himself was a swirling pool of energy, his aura overflowing and spilling out around him, making things… Pure. As if he was the only thing that could cleanse the darkness inside the others souls, he stood radiating light, rivaling that of the Element Bearers.

He was important, but Celly couldn’t see it.

He was vital to our survival.

He… He could help. I savored that word, cherishing it after all my time on my moon.

Help...

Author's Note

How's that for a twist? It ain't Minecraft, it ain't TF2, it's Dead Space! Yes sirree, Cthulhian is the Necromorph biome! Isaac Clarke enters the picture, Crimson sees his dead parents, and there's a fucking Marker in the Everfree Forest!
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Damn, this is going to be hard to pull off. Enjoy!