"I just cannot believe this."

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I did my best to keep calm as Nyx nervously nibbled on a dried apple slice. The sneaky little filly somehow managed to find a way to get into my duffle bag without me noticing. It made me wonder how on earth she managed to find the opportunity to do so without getting caught by either Twilight or me. Either way, I had no other choice.

Nyx looked up at me with her nervous expression. "A-are you going to take me back to Twilight?"

I placed my hand down and sighed, "No. Given that I've promised myself that I wont be returning to Ponyville for a while until I've gotten my head cleared and that we are already pretty far in the forest, I'm going to have to have you stay with me until I decide to go back."

That seemed to perk her up a bit as she finished her apple.

"So, what exactly were you thinking pulling a stunt like that?" I asked as I crossed my arms.

Nyx lowered her head, "I-I'm sorry. B-but..."

Before she could finish that thought I held up my hand for silence when I thought I heard something. We waited in silence when I heard growling coming from somewhere when two wolf like creatures, which I assumed were called Timberwolves, came out.

"Nyx, stay close to me." I said as I pulled out my magnum and aimed it at one of the two Timberwolves. I made sure to watch the other one as I kept my gun trained on the first.

Next thing I know more popped up, so we were dealing with a full pack. Crap, if I don't think of something fast, we are going to be dog chow.

I shifted my gun over to each of the Timberwolves as they started to circle us. Eventually, they let us be without any incident. I couldn't quite figure out why, but I was thankful that we didn't have to go immediately into a fight with the local wildlife.

I holstered my weapon and looked down to see Nyx cowering by my right foot. "You alright?"

After taking a few seconds to calm herself down she nodded.

"Okay. That was a bit scary if I'm going to be honest. I wasn't expecting to encounter a pack of Timberwolves right on the first day."

I gave out a deep sigh as I sat back down to where I was previously sitting.

"Um, shouldn't we keep moving until we reach the castle."

I looked over at Nyx as she decided to lay next to me. After what we had just encountered, I felt bad for the kid. However, I decided that I will still go forward with heading out to that ruined castle even if I have to take some unexpected hitchhikers. I decided to rub her head a bit to calm her down.

"Just a moment," I replied, "I need to catch my breath for a bit. It's not exactly easy when I'm carrying a load of supplies on my back."

A strange noise coming from somewhere prompted me to change my mind right then and there.

"Never mind, let's get moving. I do not want to know what made that noise."

I grabbed my duffle bag and we continued down the trail. At some point we had to stop after something flew right by us. And I could've sworn that I heard someone say 'Feisty', though it could've been my imagination.

I really hope this forest isn't trying to mess with my head

When we were sure that nothing else would pop out at us we continued moving. Further along the trail I could've sworn that I saw some sort of strange construct in a form of a double helix. But since it was a ways away from the trail, I opted to just ignore it given the fact that I was certain that I would get us lost if we were to go over there.

"What do think is that?" Nyx asked as we continued down the path leading to the castle.

"I have no clue," I replied, "but right now, I'm more interested in getting back over to that castle than looking at some odd structure."

At some point I noticed a body somewhere down the path lying next to a tree. Once we have gotten closer, we realized it was a human, or at least I think it was, wearing the strangest looking armor I've ever seen. It look like a sleeker version of the armor the Spartans wear, except everything was made of some sort of red material as nothing really happened as I tried to scrape off what I thought was red paint or blood covering the entire suit. I tried to remove the helmet and when I did, I realized that the person really was a human. But before I could get a better look at their features, the person's body immediately started to decay to a point where they crumpled to dust.

"The hell?"

It took me a while to process what I just witness when a mechanical voice spoke.

"Error. This unit has ceased all functions. Commencing deconstruction."

Before I could even react, the suit seemed to have started to fall apart until it was nothing but a pile of red dust? Ash? I couldn't make out what exactly was going on but I decided to walk back over to Nyx and we continued on our way.

"Who was that?" Nyx asked.

"Not sure. I didn't have enough time to get a good look at their face before they quickly turned to dust. Not to mention what happened to their suit. It kinda concerns me that there's another human faction we have never encountered before, and it looks like they could be far more advanced than the Covenant."

I could see the rope bridge when I heard a fury of sounds coming from behind us. I turned to see a swarm of small creatures the sizes of beach balls coming right at us. And among them were an amalgamation of what used to be UNSC personnel and Covenant elites. I quickly grabbed Nyx and made a mad dash over to the bridge. The moment that we got to the bridge, I had to slow down so I don't accidentally make us fall to our deaths. I looked behind me to find the swarm of creatures coming out of the tree line.

Crap, what do I do. What do I do.

Before I knew it the ground exploded between us and the massive swarm and what looked like three massive mechanical scorpions popped out from the ground and proceeded to whipping out the creatures. I took the opportunity to get over to the other side before looking back at the carnage that was going on. By the time that we got to the other side the battle seemed to have already been concluded as there was no trace of the scorpions and there was nothing left except for a few scorch marks that I could see with my helmet's zoom.

"What were those things?" Nyx asked as I set her down.

"I have absolutely no idea. I just hope that we'll be safe for the moment."

With that Nyx and I made our way into the castle.

Celestia's room in Canterlot

Princess Celestia and Luna both read the last letter from Twilight, both having worried looks on their faces.

"Sister, this does no bode well for us." Luna said as she gave the letter another once over.

"I fear that I would have to agree with you on that Lulu."

Luna gave Celestia an irritated glare. "We thought that we told thou to stop calling us that."

Celestia giggled as Luna made a pouting face. "My apologies. But this situation is rather troubling."

"Yes indeed," Luna agreed, "Sister, would thou mind if we go meet with this Garen."

Celestia looked over to her sister, "And why's that?" Suddenly an idea popped into her head. "Oh wait, I think I know what's going on."

Luna immediately started to panic as she tried to answer, "N-no, don't get the wrong idea. We just want to talk with him." But with the way she looked told a slightly different story.

"Sorry Lulu," Celestia said, "but I am well aware of how often you would read the letters talking about Garen. You seem to be rather fond of him."

Celestia seemed to have hit the spot as Luna tried to hid the blush that was obviously plastered on her face.

"I-it's not like that."

Luna tried to get her sister to stop, but to no avail.

"You liiiiike him don't you." Celestia teased, making Luna blush.

"E-enough. We are going to go see him to see if he's alright. No more talk about this." Luna shouted.

"Okay, but be careful." Celestia replied.

With that, Luna flew out the window in the direction of their old castle. Celestia couldn't help but be envious that her little sister will get to see the alien first, but she was even more thrilled at the prospect that her sister might actually take a liking to this human who has found himself on their planet. However, she couldn't help but wonder how he came to be in Equestria in the first place.

Author's Note

Alright, new chapter is done. It's going to be interesting how Garen's going to react when he meets Luna. And for those who haven't noticed, I had a short chapter called Intermission that was going to be before this one, but I decided to scrap it as I thought that you guys wouldn't like it. I may bring it back if you guys want me to, but for now I'll go with what I've already decided on. Anyway, two close calls as well as some interesting encounters. I was also tempted to add in a Dead Pool encounter, but decided that might be overdoing it a bit. Anyway, I hope you guys have been enjoying the story so far. I'll come up with the next chapter in a few days or so.

Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke