We didn't see much of anything once we opened the doors. We walked into the room and checked every corner as we moved. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary when I noticed someone standing in front of the multi armed pedestal that once held the elements of harmony with his back facing us.

I'm starting to get the feeling that things are about to get intense really quick. I thought to myself as I aimed my magnum. Both Mark and Isa followed my example and trained their guns on the mysterious man. I looked down for a moment to find that Nyx had disappeared. I started to look around the room when I noticed that she was hiding behind one of the pillars.

I quickly turned my attention back to the man as he spoke. "So, you've come at last," the man said as he turned to look at us.

When he turned, I noticed he was wearing some strange black armor that seemed to give off a draconic feel. Not only that, but it almost looked like it was on fire, with the flames being the same color as the armor. My body seemed to be screaming for me to run but I kept myself under control. This was the first time I've ever felt such fear and I could tell that the two marines either side of me were doing their best to not run away.

"Alright, who are you and why are you here?" Mark asked as he maintained his stance.

The man did not immediately answer, instead he casually walked towards us. After walking halfway across the room he stopped.

"Tell me, do you know of Lord Eternis?" The man asked.

I looked over to Mark and Isa to see if they had any clue as to what he was talking about, but they seemed to be just as confused as I was.

"Who the hell is Lord Eternis?" Mark asked.

The man folded his arms as if contemplating. "I see. Then let me ask you this. How did you fend off the faceless ones?"

"What are you even talking about?" Isa shouted back.

"Do you truly not know?" He asked, "earlier you encountered a human like creature that had no facial features and one of you was able to use Lord Eternis' power to drive it off. I'll ask you again, how did you fend off the faceless ones."

Wait, is he talking about the creature that I managed to blow its head off with the Deagle? How does he even know about that, and more importantly, how did he even know we were coming.

My mind was riddled with questions when a sudden flash of light appeared between us and the black armored man. Before I knew it there was a dark blue alicorn standing in front of us and looked to be ready to fight. I wasn't fazed by this though both the corporal and the lieutenant were both startled by the alicorn's sudden appearance.

"So princess, we meet again."

My eyes went wide as I looked over at the alicorn. I noticed that she was indeed wearing some regal jewelry that suggested that she was an important figure. I was surprised to already be meeting with one of Equestria's co-rulers but quickly snapped out of it as the princess growled.

"We still remember what thou hast done to us," she said, "we do know not of what thou are doing here but we will not allow thou to harm these humans."

I couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be talking in such an old fashioned way that made me wonder if she had a screw loose. That is, until I realized that this must be princess Luna, the one who had supposedly been banished to the moon for the past thousand years. I still couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that she was that old. Still, it does explain why she's talking the way she is.

The man seemed to glare at her as though he was unfazed by what she said. "And what makes you think that you can stop me?"

"We are princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria. This human," she pointed at me, "has been living with our subjects since after our return from our banishment to the moon. Therefore, we are obligated to protecting him if he is in trouble."

I started to feel that there was more going on, especially with the fact that she seemed keen to protecting me in particular. She didn't even mention the other humans who were standing on either side of me.

"Is that so," the man said, "I doubt you would have the power to do so. As for the other question you asked, you should already know that answer to that. You were following these mortals after all."

I couldn't get over the feeling of him calling my fellow marines and I 'mortals', but that did explain why I felt that our group was being watched. Though it still made me wonder about Luna's true reason in being here.

"Hey uh," Isa piped in, "could someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?"

The man glared in her direction, "As I've said before, I want to know which of you have driven off the faceless ones without having a single scratch on them. I've seen many mortal humans fall victim to those creatures until they have finally been driven out. And looking at you now, I now believe the one who did it was you," He pointed in my direction as he said that, "however, the way that you've managed to do it should not be possible."

He took a few steps forward only to stop as Luna shot a beam from her horn at his feet.

"Thou will not take another step forward," She growled, "we will not allow thou to get any closer to that human."

"Very well, I'll just have to force you out of my way then."

With that he thrusted his hand toward the one of the pillars and we watch as a shadowy tendril came out of nowhere, wrapped around Luna's body and slammed her into one of the pillars. The marines and I jumped back in surprised as we watched the alicorn fall to the ground.

"FIRE!" I yelled.

We opened fire on the man only to quickly realize that most of our bullets were going through him, yet he did not seem to be taking any damage.

"The hell?" Mark exclaimed.

Before we could process what was going on, the man summoned two black spheres and hurled them at Mark and Isa. The marines were sent flying and judging by Isa's scream, she must've been severely injured at the impact. I fired my magnum and was surprised that the bullets were actually hitting him until he thrust his hand in my direction and I quickly found myself being strangled. I dropped my gun as I struggle to remove whatever it was that wrapped itself around my neck and I could feel my body being lifted off the ground.

I couldn't tell how he was doing it, but he seemed to be pulling me towards him and once I was right in front of him he ripped my helmet off. Now that I was this close to him I noticed a few unnatural features he had. His eyes were a bright yellow and what was supposed to be the whites of his eyes were instead pitch black. I also notice that his armor did indeed have some sort of black flames, or was it steam, emanating from it. Not only that, but his face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl as though everything is getting on his nerves.

I'm starting to feel like I'm going to be in a world of pain. I thought as the man grabbed my chin and took a look at my face.

"Blue eyes," he said, "nothing remarkable."

"Oh yeah, and what does that have to do with anything?" I retorted as I continued to struggle to no avail.

"It still doesn't explain how you were able to drive off the faceless ones. What did you use that made them retreat?"

I had no choice but to answer, "All I did was grab a gun from my duffle bag and shot the thing in the face and blew it's head off."

"Interesting," he said as he walked past me toward where I left my duffle bag.

I couldn't tell what he was doing as I continued to struggle with whatever was wrapped around my neck. At some point I could hear him dumping the contents of my bag when he found something and I felt my body being turned in his direction. When I looked I could see Mark's lying unconscious on one side of the door while Isa was on the other side clutching her arm. I looked over at our attacker and found him holding the Desert Eagle that I had found.

"This belongs to a Red Rock soldier, where did you get it?"

"Just... found it lying on the ground... after leaving these ruins." I answered as I continued to struggle.

Next thing I know I watched as he effortlessly snapped the gun in two and dropped it and turned towards Isa. Once his back was turned to me I grabbed my combat knife and managed to cut whatever was holding me off and I dropped to the ground. I barely got to do anything else until I found myself flying all the way to the other end of the room. I slammed into something hard and blacked out almost immediately, the last thing that I could remembering hearing was Nyx's voice calling out to me.

Nyx watched in horror as she watched the ODST's body slam into the main body of the multi-armed pedestal. She quickly ran towards him while crying out his name when she heard the man that attacked them speak.

"So, the little runt found herself some allies."

Nyx quickly turned to find the man standing over her. Her eyes became pinpricks as she feared what he would do to her. She closed her eyes shut as he brought his hand down on her when another flash of light appeared. Nyx looked to see a tall white alicorn standing before her glaring at the man.

"YOU!" The alicorn growled as her horn started to glow.

"Seems it's about time for me to go," with that, the man vanished in a burst of black flames.

The alicorn sighed as the glow from her horn went out and looked down at the terrified filly, "Don't worry little one, you're all safe now."

Nyx nodded as she started to calm down. She quickly remembered the ODST and ran to where he was still lying while the alicorn trotted up to princess Luna who was just now getting back up.

"Sister, you came."

The white alicorn gave her sister a warm smile as the two embraced each other. During this, corporal Mark grunted as he got back up on his feet. Once he felt he could stand, he surveyed the area to see the two alicorns hugging one another. He turned and found Isa lying on the ground while holding her right arm.

"Lieutenant, what's your status?"

The lieutenant yelped as she tried to move. "I don't think I've broken anything but I think I dislocated my shoulder."

Mark walked up to her and knelt next to her.

"Alright, I'm going to force it back in," he said and Isa nodded, "On the count of three. One... Two... THREE!!" Mark quickly jerked the lieutenant's arm back into place. Isa bit her lip as she kept herself from screaming profanity after the ordeal.

The two got back up and looked around to see where Garen went. When they looked over at the pedestal, they saw him lying unconscious with Nyx trying to wake him up.

"Isa, contact HQ. Let them know what's happened."

The lieutenant nodded as Mark ran toward the fallen ODST, only to be stopped by the two alicorns.

"Would you mind telling me who you are and what you're doing here?" The tall, white alicorn asked.

"I would, but as you can see we have a severely wounded soldier that needs immediate medical attention."

The two alicorns looked where the marine was pointing and their eyes went wide.

"Oh no," they said in unison as they both galloped toward the fallen soldier with Mark in tow.

Mark quickly check the man's pulse and gave a sigh of relief.

"He's alive, barely. But he needs immediate medical attention." The soldier looked at the back of the ODST's head and winced. "The back of his head looks pretty bad."

The two alicorns gave each other worried looks when the shorter one asked, "Is there anything thou can do for him?"

The corporal looked at the two before answering, "Well, I don't have much training in medical treatment and neither does my lieutenant. We're already calling the others to see if they can send someone to help."

With that he could hear someone trying to contact him.

"Corporal Mark Davin, this is captain Farday, what's your status."

"Sir, we made contact with an ODST and some of the local inhabitants and encountered an unknown hostile. The lieutenant and I have sustained minor injuries but the ODST has received severe trauma to the back of his skull. We need immediate medical assistance."

Mark waited for an answer, and when he did he did not seem happy about it.

"What did they say?"

Mark turned towards the two alicorns and sighed, "Unfortunately, they wont be able to make it in time."

"Perhaps I can help."

Mark turned and was horrified to find the nightmarish creature his group had encountered standing behind him, causing the marine to fall flat on his but while the two alicorn charged their horns.

The creature raised its arm as it calmly spoke, "I am here to help. Step aside."

"Oh yeah, and why would you help us?" Isa asked as she walked up with her gun drawn.

The creature turn its head toward the marine as it replied, "I find this one quite interesting," pointing toward the ODST, "I feel that I should heal some of his injuries."

"Alright, but before you do anything, mind telling us who you are."

The creature's smile grew as it replied, "You may call me Xetalla. As for what I am, I'm what many call a Faceless Nightmare. And we are usually female."

Everyone was surprised at the last stament.

"Alright," Mark sighed, "do whatever you can to help. However, no funny business or we going to pepper you."

Xetalla simply smiled as she walked up to the fallen soldier, and before anyone could react she thrusted the tentacles on her back into the ODST's body.

"Hey, what are you doing?!?" Isa yelled.

Xetalla held up her hand as she continued what she was doing, "I am helping him. Do not interfere."

Unsure of what to do, the humans and alicorns took a few steps back as the Faceless Nightmare did her thing. Suddenly, Mark was receiving another transmission.

"Corporal, what's going on over there?"

"Sorry sir. We suddenly made contact with someone who could help the ODST. She calls herself Xetalla. She's currently healing him right now."

The corporal could hear a sigh of relief coming from the other end, "that's good to hear. When you able to, return immediately."

"Yes sir, corporal Davin out."

Mark turned back to find that Xetalla had already finished.

"Done already?" Mark exclaimed.

"I was able to repair the damage to his spine and the back of his head. He still has some fractures ribs and will still need some treatment for his head injuries."

"Wait, that's it," Isa said, flabbergasted, "You couldn't do anything else for him."

"Well, if I tried to do any more, it would not end well for your comrade."

"Well, least it's safe for us to transport him back to HQ." Mark said, relieved that Garen's life was no longer in danger, "Thanks for your he..." He turned to thank Xetalla only to find that she was already gone.

"Huh, what!!! She disappeared on us." Isa exclaimed.

Mark turned toward the two alicorns, "thanks for your help. Uh, mind telling my partner and I who you two are."

"My name is princess Celestia," the white alicorn replied, "and this is my sister, princess Luna."

Mark nodded at the two, "My name is Corporal Mark Davin. And this is Lieutenant Isa Brown. We're both from a UNSC frigate called the UNSC Turnaround."

"And where is the rest of your forces?" Celestia asked, "My sister can help take the fallen human with you."

Princess Luna looked at her sister surprised, "Sister, are thou not going with us?"

The older alicorn shook her head as she answered, "I must return to Canterlot. I was in a meeting when I felt Dark Chronos' magic and came as quickly as I could."

Wait, Dark Chronos? Was that the man that attacked us and did a number on captain Gonzales. Mark thought as Isa picked up the ODST while Celestia disappeared in a flash of light.

"Place him on our back." Luna told the lieutenant.

While she placed the ODST on the alicorn's back, Mark walked over to where the duffle bag was and started to pack everything back in. He noticed the broken remains of the Deagle that Garen had been carrying. But before he could pick it up, a giant mechanical wasp came out of nowhere, grabbed the remains of the gun and flew off.

"What the hell was that?" Isa exclaimed.

"I don't know," Mark replied, "But whatever it was, I don't think it wanted us to keep that gun anymore."

"If thou are ready, we can teleport thou to were thou friends are."

The two marines looked at each other and nodded.

"Alright," Mark said, "but let's just walk over there. That okay with you?"

Author's Note

Wooooooo. Got another chapter done. I wanted to wait a bit before getting this chapter out so I could think of what to put into it, and possibly tease you guys. Though the latter didn't seem to work. And just to put it out there, some of the characters that you'll be seeing, which you guys likely have never heard of, are part of a completely separate storyline that I plan on writing in the future called the 'Red Rock Chronicles'.

I wont go into much of details other than the fact that it's based off of a scifi fantasy adventure that I had started back when I was much younger, sometime when I was in kindergarten (I don't really remember exactly when I started, but I do know that it was a few years before 9/11 happened). Right now, the stories that I'm writing are mostly to give me some experience for when I start writing my story.

I do hope you guys are still enjoying my story so far. Let me know if there needs to be any corrections to the chapter that I'll need to make.

Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke