Chapter 1: The arrival

It was in the dark of Luna's night as Twilight was sitting on her balcony watching the stars for a few moments before turning in. Moments before she gets the chance to turn away there is a flash of light in the general direction of the Everfree Forest catching her attention. The Mare's eye dart quickly towards the sight with curious eyes as she squints there for a moment, waiting to see if what she saw actually happened. To her surprise however she see's what looks like a shooting star falling down into the Everfree, destroying several trees in the process.

"What in the name of Celestia?"

She asks with wide eyes before quickly going to her nearby desk and quickly writing a letter to both Celestia and Luna with almost frantic hand-writing before sending it away with a quick teleportation spell.

"I hope this Isn't as serious as i think it is..."

She says quietly to herself before getting up and taking another look out to the Everfree before finally sighing and calling it a night.

Inside the Everfree

"Oh god... what the fuck happened?"

I mutter as I hold my head, looking around I can see what looks like a forest and i'm in a clearing, several trees are downed My drop pod seems rather intact but is jammed shut as it seems to have taken a beating on drop.
"fuck... alright... stock..."

I mutter quietly in my helmet as I look around my pod, My M392 DMR just where it should be to my right as the two frag grenades I have and spare Mags are in the left side of the pod. Thankfully my M6D Pistol is holstered to my side with my dagger sheathed near my chest plates collar. I do a quick body check and breathe a second sigh of relief as I find no injuries aside from slight disorientation. Not wasting any time I kick it into gear and try to contact HQ as I start to work my pod open.

"Command, this is Sargent Major Reyes do you read?"

I ask only to be met with static before I grumble and hit the side of my helmet and try again

"Heart of fire come in, over..."

I say only to be met with silence and static before I frown underneath my helmet as my pod door blows off and I step out into the small clearing my drop-pod made as it crashed through the trees. Several were utterly destroyed as their bark and wood-chips can be seen while several small fires are scattered around the clearing.

"Damn... lucky to live through that..."

I mutter before turning back to the pod and pulling out the rifle, spare mags and grenades before reaching in and pulling out a survival kit along with several rations of food and water, enough to last a week if I DIDN'T conserve energy, maybe three if I did.

"well, here's to hoping that I can find some of my men"

I say as I polarize my helmet so it turns opaque before I shoulder what little gear I don't have attached to me and begin walking slowly and carefully,looking for a place to stay until morning. Hoping that I don't run into any covenant patrols or hungry local wildlife.

On Twilight's balcony

Several hours later Twilight is sitting in a chair now as she watches the Everfree intently, worried about what might happen as she racks her brain for ideas on what could have happened. Almost none of them were good as things associated with the Everfree usually aren't on the side of harmony. About an hour later there was a flash as she receives a return letter from Celestia, Twilight quickly opens it and begins reading. Her eyes flit across the parchment as she speeds through the letter before nodding to herself. The letter itself read as such...

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, This news troubles both my sister and I deeply. We would highly appreciate it if you would investigate as we are sadly in serious diplomatic negotiations with the Griffins of Grifonia. If one or both of us were to leave suddenly, suspicions would be high and we can not afford the tension as of now. Please, be careful my faithful student. Your mentor, Princess Celestia"

"Gotta get the girls..."

She says to herself before teleporting out of her house and to each of her friends, telling them to get ready and meet her at the edge of the Everfree in an hour on the princesses orders. With the princesses ordering them the girls did not hesitate in the slightest and were ready much earlier than twilight had told them to be as they all had a feeling the situation was a grave one indeed. With a final look and nod to each other, they set off into the depths of the everfree.

Inside the Everfree

I feel like I have been walking for hours yet everywhere looks the same, my motion tracker showing blips moving all around my and I constantly have the feeling of being watched. I continue to slowly look around before i notice that several of the blips are slowly closing in on me before I stop and spin around with my rifle in the ready position as I notice several sets of glowing green eyes.

"Those ain't covies..."

I mutter as I put my finger on the trigger of my DMR and slowly back away, keeping an eye on them and my motion tracker. As I continue to back away I finally see more of one of the targets following me and believe me when I say that even I, a Hell-jumper with more than 30 combat drops on my record froze in my tracks. This... thing... was shaped like a wolf from earth, but thing is... it was made out of wood and moved like it was alive. Yet those eyes... those baleful, glowing green eyes... its like they pierced my soul when I first saw them. So I did the natural thing any Vet. would do in this situation. I shot the fucker right between the eyes and watched as it fell apart before the others looked like they were retreating, but they didn't move out of my motion trackers range so I decided to get my ass moving.

"What the hell are those things,what fucking planet am I on... AND HOW FAR DOES THIS FUCKING FOREST GO!"

I yell out before I notice six blips on my motion-tracker just to my left once I enter a clearing. Moments after noticing the contacts I hear several gasps before I snap my head towards their direction. What I saw would have made even Sargent Johnson give pause, hell, maybe even chief. Before me stood six aliens of varying size and color and from what I could see they looked very human-like with some GLARINGLY obvious signs that they weren't. First off, they all looked slightly like horses. Secondly, they were all different colors. lastly I saw that two had horns, while three had wings while the last two had none at all. The purple one with the horn and the wings struck me as the leader for some reason. However there was one thing that made me really happy, they weren't trying to kill me... yet... and from the looks of things they were sentient as they had cloths on. Still, I didn't trust them so I quickly brought my rifle to bear and started to slowly back away from them before I heard a rustling sound behind me.

I silently cursed to myself as I look at my motion sensor and my heart drops, whatever was coming, was big... and from the look of fear that the six aliens in front of me gave was enough to make me slowly turn around. As soon as I did I instantly regretted it because I saw what could only be described as a large Lion with a Scorpion's tail.

"well... shit, fuck, hell-fire..."

I muttered as it stared into my visor, as if looking right into my eyes before it roared and took a swipe at me. I dodged at the last second but I was still grazed by its powerful claws, sending me spinning through the air. Luckily when I hit the ground I managed to roll myself into a crouch with my DMR at the ready. However my eyes widen in surprise as despite it's size it was fast enough to already be half-way at me before I come to start firing at the beast, gouging rather large craters in its hide but not stopping it. It was charging me at full speed before I stop firing and wait. It gives a triumphant roar before I roll aside with a smirk, causing it to run straight by me, unable to shift its weight in time to turn towards me before I start firing into the creatures backside. One lucky shot manages to embed itself in its toxin sack, causing it to explode and showering the creature with its own poison. The creature howls in pain as I slowly step backwards away from it before it turns to me again, it's eyes were unfocused as it sways slightly before it shakes its head and growls before starting to stalk towards me. By this point I only have 2 shots left in my mag and i'm not sure if I can kill this monstrosity.

"This thing is almost as bad as a hunter..."

I whisper as I raise my DMR again, aiming for the creatures eyes this time. Yet just as I pull the trigger I am blindsided by the remnants of the creatures tail, I cartwheel through the air before I land in a heap after slamming into a tree. My rifle is out of my reach and I hear the aliens yelling worriedly and I look up, seeing the thing rear up on its hind legs as its front paws reach out to crush me. Again at the last second I roll, but one of its paws comes down on my leg and there is a loud snap as my left ankle and knee break. I scream in pain as the creature seems to think it has one, opening its jaws before a look of surprise crosses it's face for a moment

"Surprise mutha-fucka..."

I had managed to pull out my pistol and shoved it into the creatures mouth before pulling the trigger twice, causing the entire top of its head to appear to disintegrate as the HE rounds go off shortly after embedding themselves into its brain cavity. The thing falls over dead right next to me, almost crushing me under its massive weight as I begin to frantically crawl to my rifle.

"Oh god, don't let those things kill me. I don't want to die on some backwater planet that nobody knows of... I don't fuckin' deserve this..."

I pant frantically as my hands brush against the rifle's casing before a strange purple glow encases both it and myself, moments before I am lifted up off of the ground.

"I'm going to die... this is how I die... on some damned planet by myself with none of my friends... and no one will even know what happened..."

I say out loud as I am unable to move my limbs before I feel my eyes grow heavy. Sleep slowly over-takes me as I hear muffled voices. I can almost feel that I would probably not like this conversation sadly, I never got to hear the rest of it before i finally black out.

I never would have expected what happened next, but that's a story for a later day.

Author's Note

So there it is, the first chapter... if you haven't guessed it my character is an ODST and he has a DMR from Reach or 4, your choice, but he has the halo 1 pistol along with a couple of frags and mags (see what i did there?) so he should be set for awhile. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS THINK!!! and don't be dicks about it either... other than that, Peace and Prosperity!