When I rounded the corner, I was surprised to find two (non-mutated) UNSC marines walking towards me. When they noticed me they quickly drew their weapons as I simply raised my hands in a peaceful gesture.

"Easy there, I'm friendly."

They kept their guns trained on me for a few more seconds before lowering them once they could tell that I was one of them.

"What the hell," the marine to the left said, "I thought there weren't any other UNSC soldiers or personnel on this planet."

I couldn't help but smile as I was standing with my own kind again. "Well, I thought that I was the only human on this planet."

The two looked at me with confused looks for a moment before the one on the right asked, "And were the hell have you been then?"

Well, this is going to be fun. I thought as I replied, "well, it's a bit complicated. All I can tell you is that I've been staying at one of the local settlements just south of this forest. Anyway, mind telling me who you two are."

The two looked at each other for a moment until the soldier on the left replied, "My name is Corporal Mark Davin. And this is Lieutenant Isa Brown. We're both from the UNSC Turnaround."

I nodded, "my name is Captain Garen Gonzales. Mind telling me why you guys are here, and where's the rest of you're crew?"

Mark was about to answer before I raised my hand. "Wait a moment. Let me get something real quick." I turned to head back to where I left Nyx before adding, "and whatever you do, don't shoot."

The two looked at each other confused as I went to get Nyx and gather my supplies. When I rounded the corner I found that Nyx was rummaging through the duffle bag when she caught sight of me.

"So, w-what did you find?" She asked nervously as she closed up the bag.

"Don't worry, their friendly," I replied, "c'mon. Hopefully they don't overreact when they see you."

I picked up the duffle bag and we walked back to where the two marines were waiting. When they caught sight of us, they waved until they caught sight of Nyx. I was amused when I saw the mixed reactions on their faces as they tried to process what they were seeing.

"I-I-is that a..." Mark tried to ask.

"If you're wondering, yes it's a pony," I replied, "and to let you know, her name is Nyx. And those are real wings she has as well as the horn. Not only that, but her kind are sentient and can speak our language, I think, and there are three other varieties aside from what you're seeing right now."

Mark tried his best to keep himself composed as he asked, "Wait, wait, wait. You're telling us that this planet is inhabited by talking horses?"

"I do believe I told you that they are called ponies." I replied. I looked over at Isa who was just standing there looking wide eyed at Nyx which made me worried. "Uh, Isa, are you okay."

Before any of us knew it, Isa squealed and picked up Nyx, "Awww, she's soooooo cuuuute!!!"

Nyx's ears were flat against her head and her pupils became pinpricks as Isa hugged her.

Well that was certainly unexpected. I thought.

"Lieutenant, mind putting my companion down. I don't think she appreciates being held like that."

Isa calmed herself down and set Nyx back down. Once she was back on the ground, Nyx immediately ran right to me and hid behind my legs as I sighed.

"Well, glad that that's over with." I looked over at the two soldiers to see that they both had embarrassed looks on their faces. "Let's forget this happened. Anyway..."

10 minutes of explanations later

We were all sitting down as I had just finished explaining as much as I can to the two marines. Nyx was sitting close to me while the two marines were sitting a couple feet in front of us as they listened to everything I said.

"So what you're telling me is that this entire planet is inhabited by various mythological creatures with which some are sentient and that some of which are capable of using magic," the corporal said as he tried to process what he heard, "and not only that, but there are two of these creatures that supposedly have the power to raise and lower the sun and moon. Do you even realize how crazy that sounds."

I smiled as the lieutenant replied, "well I think it's cool."

"Well I think it's still hard to believe. And are you sure their friendly? I know that the ones that you've had contact with haven't exactly done anything to harm you, but what's to say about their so called rulers. You haven't exactly made contact with them, have you?"

I sighed as I answered his questioned, "just so you know, I might have actually encountered Luna in her corrupted form. So in a way I have made contact with at least one of the rulers of this country."

Mark still shook his head in disbelief, "But seriously. I have no idea what you've been doing, but I bet you've been dealing with crazier stuff than we are."

I could tell that he was going to say that in a different way, but decided to use his words carefully as Nyx was pretty much a child compared to our race.

"Well I think he's lucky," Isa replied, "I mean, he gets to make contact with the first alien race that doesn't want to kill us. Just be glad that the Covenant haven't already found this place."

I smiled until a thought came to mind, "you guys said you're from the Turnaround?"

They both nodded.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Mark replied.

"Well, it's just that your ship was reported missing three years ago."

The two marines looked at me wide eyed when Isa replied, "Wait, WHAT?! Are you telling us that we've been here for three years?!"

"It's hard for me to comprehend either," I said, "But I think it would be best if we head back over to your superiors before we try to figure this out."

"I'm with you on that one," Mark replied, "but before we do, Isa and I need to finish exploring this section of the ruins. Mind tagging along?"

I looked down at Nyx who gave me a nervous nod. I smiled and looked back at the corporal. "Yeah, we'll tag along"

We walked with the two marines when I looked back down the hall were Nyx and I came from.

"Something wrong?" Mark asked.

I shook my head and continued walking, "Nah, I think it's just my imagination." Though, I do feel that someone is watching us.

Luna watched carefully as she silently hovered high above the humans, enough to where they could not see her.

This is certainly a surprise. Luna thought as she silently followed them. We never thought there would be more humans here.

She continued following them as they walked down the halls, occasionally stopping to look into any rooms they came across before continuing on. She couldn't help but find it amusing as she watched the humans investigate almost everything they find. She found it even more amusing when the human named Garen tried to explain some of what they find, though she couldn't help but wonder how she was able to detect this human when her sister couldn't detect the ones that have obviously been stuck in the Everfree Forest for such a long time.

Eventually, they came across another hall. But when they turned the corner, Luna could see what looked like another human, but it had it's head down and appeared to be wearing strange crimson armor that seemed very different to what the other humans were wearing. The humans immediately drew their weapons.

"Hey!" One of the humans called out. "Identify yourself."

Author's Note

Ah, nothing's more satisfying than getting a new chapter finished. Well, other than you guys getting a new chapter to read. I wasn't really sure how I wanted to continue this story, but I finally settled with this. Things will certainly start getting interesting by the time I get the next chapter out. And yeah, Luna be stalkin'. Anyway, hope you guys are still enjoying reading this as much as I am writing it.

Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke.