After the night when she, as Nightmare Moon, had returned only to be reformed by the elements of harmony and having participated in the festivities following, Luna was restless. She paced around in her room worrying about something when her sister entered the room.

“Luna, is something troubling you?” Celestia asked, clearly seeing the stress that her sister was in though did not know why.

“Sister, we believe that there is something in our old castle. Something that has only recently appeared at the same time that we have returned,” came Luna’s reply.

“Is it something dangerous?” Celetia asked.

Luna replied, “We are not sure, but we believe that this being is lost, unsure of where it is or how it got here.”

“I’ll send a letter to my student Twilight to see if she can find out what it is that is troubling you. How have you been feeling? Have you felt anything strange after being reformed by the elements?”

“When the elements freed us, we felt as though we had been separated by another being, one that has been a part of us, but was not. It felt very strange. But before that happened, when we were about to take the elements, we noticed a strange figure by some rubble, barely visible to any normal pony. And it was wearing some sort of cobalt colored armor, which allowed it to blend in well in the darkness.”

Celestia now realized what it was that troubled her sister, and could only agree with her sister’s worry about the strange being.

“I’ll be sure to let Twilight know of this creature. Are you sure that it is still in the castle?”

Luna puffed up her cheeks and responded, “Yes sister, whatever this creature is, it has not left the castle. In fact, we believe that it is lost and is trying to find a way out. We can feel its frustration, considering that it has been getting lost quite frequently despite the fact that the castle is not that complex.”

Celestia nodded, “I will inform Twilight about this.”

Shady Oaks Library

Twilight was not anticipating Celestia’s letter to come to her with such news. She left her house and gathered up her friends and explained to them what she had found out from her mentor.

“So Twilight, why do we need to go back to the castle? It’s not like Celestia to suddenly have us going back there if it wasn’t important.” Rainbow said, clearly annoyed that she was denied the chance to take a nap.

“I have to agree with Rainbow on that one sugarcube,” Applejack added.

“I was going to,” Twilight said, “In the letter that Celestia sent me; it would seem that there is a creature wandering the halls at the castle. This is what Luna had told her, the creature appears to be wearing some sort of cobalt colored armor that had allowed it to blend in to the darkness, which is why we never saw it when we were in the room where we had found the elements.”

“Woah woah woah woah… you’re saying that that thing was in the same room as us and we didn’t know about it.” Came Rainbow’s reply.

“I find it quite disturbing. I sure hope that whatever it is doesn’t have brutish behavior.” Rarity said.

“I feel so sorry for it. Poor thing must be scared.” Fluttershy chimed in.

At the ruined castle

I sneezed as I made my way through another corridor. Were there people I know talking about me, I wasn’t sure. More than likely command has declared me either MIA or dead, which wouldn’t surprise me considering what happened. Right now the only thing I’m worried about is getting out of this place. I came across a staircase leading up.

“You know what, why not.”

I could feel a familiar chill going down my spine as I went up the staircase. And I knew what it was. I felt it just before I found myself in this place. Once I arrived at the top to enter what seemed to be another large room, I noticed two silhouettes. One being a tall human and the other some sort of mix between a unicorn and a pegasus, and much taller than the six ponies that I’ve seen. Drawing my weapon, I crept closer without alerting the two. As I got closer, I noticed a black smoke trail going from the unicorn/pegasus hybrid to the unknown human’s outstretched hand. Figuring that this was not a normal human, I brought up my magnum and aimed it at the individual when I heard rocks being moved.

Turning around, I saw only that there was some rubble had shifted and nothing else. When I looked back, however, I noticed that both individuals were missing, only for there to be a small creature similar to the hybrid that I had seen just moments ago. I rushed to see if it was okay and I noticed that it was black with a purple mane.

“What on earth are you,” I thought out loud.

“Hey, get away from that filly you monster.”

Startled, I jumped up, losing my grip on my gun, and turn around only to get hit in the visor by a cyan hoof. After flying by about three yards, I was able to get back up to see the cyan pegasus that I had seen last night, along with the other ponies who were behind her. I could tell that she was getting ready to fight when the orange one held her by her tail.

“Now hold on there sugarcube, we don’t know what it was doing. And it would be best if we didn’t upset it,” The orange one said.

“Uh, thank you.”

The six ponies gasped in surprise as though they’ve never seen a human before, which would be understandable as I might be the first human that they have ever seen.

“It… it can talk!” Exclaimed the white unicorn.

I decided to take it safe and introduce myself, “My name is Captain Garen Gonzales of the UNSC ODST corps, and I have no idea where I am.”

The purple one named Twilight came up to me and said, “Greetings captain, umm… my name is Twilight Sparkle. And these are my friends Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.” She pointed to each individual as she introduced them. “What brings you here?”

“Well, I didn’t exactly come here by choice,” and so I explained what happened to me and my current predicament.

“Wow, yer sure longs way away from home,” Applejack commented.

“I’m not even sure if I have a home to return to anymore,” I said solemnly.

“And, umm, wh… why’s that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because everything on my home planet was probably completely wiped out by the Covenant,” I replied.

“Now why would they do something like that?” Rarity asked, disgusted by the way the Covenant massacred my kind for their so called ‘Great Journey.’

“I don’t know, but they will stop at nothing to wipe out all of humanity. I just hope that my squad, along with most everyone on Reach, made it out alright.” I said, hoping that it was true.

“Maybe they’ll come looking for you,” Twilight said, trying to lift my spirits up.

“I find that highly doubtful. I’ve likely been marked either MIA or KIA after that incident. They might have tried to look for my body, but I’m pretty sure they had given up by that time, considering that the planet was being attacked at the time.”

That was when the filly began to stir.

“We better get you two over to Ponyvile. We’ll try and sneak you two into my library.” Twilight said, carefully placing the filly onto her back. I picked up my magnum as we left the chamber.

We were able to make it out of the castle and I could tell exactly how bad it looked on the outside.

“Wow, this place has certainly seen better days.”

“This used to be the Castle of the Royal Sisters before Luna became Nightmare Moon.” Twilight explained.

I nodded and we moved on.

After having made it halfway through the forest, I saw movement up ahead. I alerted the ponies and drew out my weapon.

“What is it?” Twilight asked, clearly worried about why I had made them stop.

“I saw something moving towards us. I don’t know what it is, but I think it might be hostile. Wait here.”

And so I crept closer, that was when I could see what the creature was, and my stomach twisted into a knot. What was coming towards us was what used to be a UNSC marine, completely deformed with some sort of feelers sticking out where the marine's face was supposed to be. As soon as it saw me it gave a strangled roar and charged. I fired five shots, only to find that it was not effective. Before it could reach me, however, I saw a red streak come from out of nowhere, hitting the thing in the chest, and I watched as it disintegrated into black ash.

“What the hay was that?” Rainbow exclaimed, not sure what that creature was or what killed it.

“I have no idea. But I saw where that streak came from.”

Moving in the direction that I had seen the red streak came from, I found nothing but what looks like a 21st century desert eagle done in red color. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that it was not made of any of the same material that I was familiar with when it came to firearms. When I had removed the magazine, I noticed that it not only held twice as many rounds, but each bullet didn’t come with casing. Curiously, I reloaded the gun and pulled the trigger. As expected, the gun fired, but with little to no recoil as well as noise.

“What did you find?”

Turning around, I noticed that Pinkie Pie was looking at the gun I was holding.

“Well… it looks like a 21st century Desert Eagle 50 AE. Though, it doesn’t seem to be the same gun. I think this is some kind of different variant made by some unknown manufacturer. Whoever made this gun certainly knows how to make it shoot without any form of explosive propellant. And I think it would still be compatible with standard ammunition, assuming that it has the firing mechanism.”

“You seem to know a lot about it,” Pinkie replied.

“Well, when your part of a military branch, you tend to learn about some of the old stuff. Plus, my old man still had his, which has been passed down from generation to generation. I think it’s still with my brother back on Earth.”

“That’s nice and all, but we need to get going,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. And indeed it was getting late, so the group continued towards Ponyvile.

Inside base of unknown location

“Sir, I’ve returned from my mission. Confirmed that all threats have been eliminated, with one close call with the ponies and ODST operative,” the scout reported.

“Good. Umm, private. Where’s your sidearm?” The commander asked.

“What do you mean?”

Looking down he noticed that his sidearm was missing.

“Oh crap, I think it fell off again,” the private said, causing multiple personnel including the commander to face-palm.

“Private, how many times do I have to tell you to check your equipment in case if anything is working or not. This is no wonder why you go through so many side arms so quickly. You are not to have a sidearm outside of this facility until you get that problem fixed. Do I make myself clear?”

“Sir, yes sir,” the private said, clearly upset that he had lost another sidearm for the twelfth time.

“Give me status of where that gun is.” The commander ordered.

One of the operators responded, “The Desert Eagle is in possession of the ODST operative, and is headed to Ponyville at this very moment.”

“Alright then, keep scanning for any more flood that might be hiding from our radar. We don’t want to get a surprise and find out that one or more of those suckers are still alive.”

The personnel at the monitors nodded and continued with their work while the commander returned to his quarters.

Author's Note

As you may have noticed, I have gotten a reply from Pen Stroke. Though, I guess I should have looked at one of his blog posts so I wouldn't go through the trouble of having to ask him. Anyway, now our ODST has made first contact with the ponies, though it may have gotten a little rough at the start. Also the desert eagle that the scout had dropped, I had looked up to see the exact name of it. I give credit to those whom I was able to get the exact name of the pistol so I could get it down. And whatever happens next you'll have to wait and see. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story so far.
Nyx is from Past Sins by Pen Stroke.