Earth
UNSC Infinity
8 months after destruction of New Phoenix and the death of the Didact.

After the second battle of Requiem and the peace talks, everyone onboard the UNSC Infinity was ready for some R and R. That is, everyone except Chris-0438, leader of Fireteam Crimson. After undergoing therapy for his PTSD, and various other injuries, he was eager to get back in the fight. Except nobody else seemed to share his mood. Now, on the flight deck of the UNSC Infinity, he watched as Marines escorted the Arbiter to his Pelican. Chris frowned. A veteran of the Spartan-IV program, he had nearly single-handedly saved the Infinity from total destruction at the hands of the Prometheans and Requiem itself. As he looked at himself in the highly polished floor of the flight deck, he could hardly keep from sulking. His build was average, and he had a small scar from boyhood. His crew cut black hair was starting to grow flecks of gray. Normally clean-shaven, he had decided to grow a small stubble beard to seem more like an adult.

‘If I already was one, I sure as hell am now.’ Chris thought to himself, looking at the small data chip he had been given. Inside was Ramos, the UNSC's latest Spartan-tooled AI. As he plugged it into his helmet, which was sitting ajar next to him, he finally made up his mind. “Screw it." he said to himself, and he put on his helmet.

"Hello Spartan."

"So, you're Ramos? UNSC AI 00117-A8?"

"That's me. Only been in service for a few months."

"Not surprising." Jason said, earning a weird look from a passing Marine squad.

"Well, easy for you to say, Spartan. By the look of your armor configuration, you are Spartan-IV Chris-0438?"

“Bingo. So, what's....."

The PA system crackled, and then the voice of Captain Lasky resonated from the speaker. “Marines, AIs, Spartans, we have a new mission." Several marines looked up at the speaker, with inquisitive looks. "The UNSC has recently located a new Forerunner Shield world, now known as Birdsong. After the destruction of the Ark in 2552, we have had few instances of Forerunner shield worlds being located. That has now changed. Due to the violent reaction of the Prometheans on Requiem, the UNSC and FLEETCOM have decided to take a more cautious approach. The Infinity's new mission is to locate and study this world, and extract any data we can to further our knowledge of the Forerunners. We leave in three days. Everyone, R and R is now over. We're getting back to work."

Whoops and yells could be heard from several Marines, and Jason smiled. "Ready to get to work, Ramos?"

"Always ready, Spartan, always ready."

THREE DAYS LATER
Birdsong, unexplored space.

As the Infinity pulled into Birdsong's orbit, Chris once again looked at the hologram of the shield world. Recent scans had shown it was mostly plains, with some plateaus, and a few jungles. As the door slid open, Spartan Jared Miller walked in, accompanied by Commander Sarah Palmer.

"Still here Crimson? When's the last time you slept?" Palmer asked.

"I'll sleep after I get some action. I can't believe this planet is as peaceful as it is. It;s just too curious."

Miller chuckled a bit. “A lot of the Marines aren't feeling the same way. They think it's a nice change of pace. A few are still a bit disgruntled about R and R ending early."

"I don't blame them." Chris replied. "Just wish I could see some action."

Suddenly, the hologram crackled, and a red arrow started pointing to an area in the southern hemisphere of Birdsong.

"Well, Crimson, be careful what you wish for. The science techs are buzzing about some strange energy reading in some old facility. You're being deployed to find out what it is. Deadly force is authorized."

Chris smiled and left the room, boarding the elevator to the flight deck.

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Crimson and Fireteam Icebreaker walked slowly through the deserted facility. The two squads of Marines and the Science team had stayed back at their landing zone, and Palmer had ordered that both Crimson and Icebreaker move forward through the cave.

"This is odd. Like stir-crazy odd." Murphy said.

"Why's that, Lieutenant?" Chris said.

"It's quiet. just too quiet. Requiem messed with me so much."

Suddenly, there was a loud thud, and what looked like a large metallic ant dropped down from the sky. Chris immediately recognized it as a Promethean crawler. Chris pointed his Battle Rifle at it, then he realized that it was already dead. Jason crouched next to it and then he saw that there was a strange cavity in the head. Chris knew that Prometheans disintegrated when they died, and that one being dead and in one piece was rare, almost too rare.

As they looked forward, he noticed a long corridor with what looked like statues lining haphazardly alongside the walls. As the group walked past them, they could see that they were Prometheans, but encased in some sort of bronze-black material. John grabbed a Light Rifle from one's hands and checked the magazine. All thirty-six shots were in the magazine.

"Very strange." Chris said has he threw the weapon down. As he walked forward, they could see moss growing on some of the statues. Once exiting the hallway, Jason was astounded at what they saw.

A large portal gate, large enough, Chris reckoned, to accommodate the UNSC Infinity, was active right before their eyes. Jason saw a large number of petrified Prometheans in horror-struck poses, some aiming their weapons. After about forty-five minutes, the Marines arrived and began to set up some communications gear, Chris gave the signal that it was safe for the science team to come in. They arrived after forty-five minutes and got to work immediately. Jason looked up at the portal system. Near it, he felt at peace and calm as if he was in sort sort of harmonic euphoria. He shrugged off the feeling and sat down in front of it, activating Ramos.

"Well, that's a discovery if I say so myself." Ramos quipped.

"I guess. Problem is, why are all these Prometheans frozen?"

"Judging from my scans, they have been frozen for quite a long time. Centuries, maybe. Problem is, this portal gate is ancient. Not like the tech that was on Requiem before it was destroyed."

"So, where does it go?"

"Dunno."

Suddenly, the portal started waving erratically, and the energy pylons turned a bright rainbow color. The science team was stunned for a sec, then Jason made up his mind to contact the Infinity.

"This is Fireteam Crimson to UNSC Infinity, do you copy?'

"Loud and clear." Miller's voice responded.

"We just found a Forerunner portal. Big enough to hold the Infinity. And a bunch of petrified Prometheans."

"Interesting. What do you mean by petrified?"

"They're frozen in some sort of metal substance. They didn't even respond when I took a Light Rifle from one's hands. This is getting really creepy."

"Understood. We just got word from the science team confirming..."

Suddenly, the ground shook, and a black hole erupted from where the portal met the ground. Chris only thought one thing.

"RUN FOR IT!"

As the group sprinted back to the Pelican, the black hole grew larger and larger. As they boarded, they realized that the Infinity was slowly being pulled into the gravity well generated by the black hole. Ramos patched Jason into the UNSC's comm channel.

"Fireteam Crimson to UNSC Infinity. That black hole's gonna absorb you guys. Pull out!"

"We can't. We're too far into the gravity well. Land your pelican ASAP." Miller was practically screaming into the radio.

As the pelican docked in the Flight deck, the Infinity's bow was starting to be absorbed into the black hole. As Lasky and the bridge crew watched in horror, Lasky made a tactical decision. He opened up the PA System. "ALL DECKS, THIS IS THE BRIDGE. BRACE FOR IMPACT. WE ARE HEADING IN!"

As the Infinity was fully absorbed by the black hole, the only thing left of the shield world Birdsong was a small star and a large chunk of metal. As the metal disintegrated into ash, the star slowly shrank, then went out.

Equestria

Late at night, in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was finishing her thesis on magic stealing when she heard it. A loud boom, followed by a crack. Then the ground began to shake violently. She fell out of her crystal chair and onto the floor.

"OUCH!" she yelled, hitting her head on the floor. As she got up, rubbing her sore spot, she noticed lights coming on in several homes. She could hear voices coming from the plaza, and as soon as she walked out the door, she was tackled by Rainbow Dash.

"TWILIGHTTHEREAREALIENSTHATLANDEDINTHEEVERFREEINAHUGESHIP!" Rainbow said rapidly, stammering and barely pronouncing the words.

"What? I can't understand you..." Then she saw it. A huge...no...bigger than huge, gray mass, jagged in some places, with what looked like protrusions in some areas, had crashed in the Everfree forest. She could clearly read letters on the side, printed in white.

"UNSC Infinity. What's that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked Rainbow Dash, who shrugged. As the two walked into the mass of ponies yammering in frightened voices, she stepped up to the podium on the stage, and the crowd quieting down.

"Everypony, as we all know, there is something that crashed in the Everfree. Even I don't know what it is, and I'm going to find out. I'm going to travel to the crash site and see what's going on here."

"Twilight, you can't be serious!" Applejack yelled, with some murmurs of approval from the crowd.

"I am serious, Applejack. I intend to go." Twilight said in a stern voice.

"Then we are all going." Rarity said in a determined tone.

"Fine. The element bearers can come. The rest of you, disperse and go back to your homes. We'll find out what is going on." Twilight said, and the crowd began to separate.

As the motley group walked into the Everfree, Rainbow looked back. For a second, she thought she saw a pair of glowing orange eyes, but she shrugged it off and hurried to catch up with the group.

After around thirty minutes of walking, they arrived at an overlook. What they saw was astounding. The ship, or rather, the beings aboard the ship, had already set up what looked like a small camp, with beings bustling about. Twilight looked through a telescope that she had brought and she noticed that the beings were bipedal, wearing some sort of green-gray armor, and carrying long metal objects in their hands. What astounded them the most was the large being in the center, leaning on a few crates. It was taller than the rest, and instead of having green armor, it was red and steel gray. It carried an object like the others, except it was longer and had what looked like a metal object on the top. It was sitting down, rubbing a tube on the object with a cloth, and it looked as if it was deep in thought.

"What...are...they?" Rarity whispered in a panicked voice.

"Dunno. What is surprising is that they haven't noticed us yet..." Twilight said.

CLACK! CRUNCH!

Twilight looked and saw that Pinkie, in her excitement over the situation, had knocked a large stone down the cliff, making a huge noise. Twilight attempted to hide herself, but suddenly, a large stream of light shone only a few yards away from them, near a cliff face. They sighed, then they heard the cracking of sticks and the crunching of leaves. Twilight, thinking quickly, cast an invisibility spell, obscuring them from view. They looked through the shroud of the spell, and noticed that the tall being was leading the group. They were looking around, and Twilight got a better view.

She could see that they had openings on their helmets, and it showed what looked like eyes, a nose, a mouth, and hair of some colors on all of them; mostly brown, black, red, or a whitish-yellow, and some had what looked like facial hair. She couldn't see what the tall one looked like because she realized its face was covered by a helmet. The group of beings walked around, and then the tall being stopped, crouched down, noticed the hoofprints, picked up a bunch of sand, and threw it.

Now the shell generated by the spell was perfectly visible. Rarity covered her mouth to keep from gasping in horror. Twilight could hear them murmuring, and the tall one raised an appendage, and then they heard it speak.

"Active Camo of some sort. Let's see what's being hidden, shall we?"

Pinkie almost gasped, and Fluttershy passed out with a loud clunk on impact. The tall being heard it, and pointed towards the shell, and the the other beings leveled their objects towards the shell. Then, there was a loud crash as the spell splintered into fragments, and the ponies were now visible. Twilight saw that the tall one had punched the shell, causing the spell to shatter. Twilight regained her composure and stood up, extending her wings. The green beings lowered their objects, and the tall being lowered his object as well. Twilight then managed to find her voice, and as her friends readied themselves, she could only think of one thing to say.

"H...h..hello?"

Chris was having a weird day. After a large rock had nearly crushed a Marine, he had noticed a small purple glow from atop a cliff face. He had radioed for searchlights to scan the cliff, and then he noticed that the rock hadn't broken off, it had been pushed. He had gathered a small Marine squad, as Icebreaker was helping with injuries on board the Infinity, and now, he was staring at 6 equine, pastel-colored creatures. What astounded him was the fact that a few of them had a horn or wings, but the one in front, Chris assuming to be the leader of the group, had both. Then it spoke in fluent English.

The Marines raised their rifles, but Chris held up his hand and motioned for them to return to the camp. Chris took off his helmet, revealing his face, and he sat down, offering a small energy bar to the group leader. She took it hesitantly, but didn't seem to know what to do with it. Jason made a ‘eating’ motion, and she took a bite. She eventually waved off one with rainbow-colored hair, who was looking ready to fight, and was growling aggressively. The leader glared at it, and It sat down and Jason could hear it grumbling. Chris motioned for the purple one to sit down, and she, Chris realizing it was a female, did so.

"Some night, huh?" Chris said.

"What are you?" the purple one asked.

"I'm a human. Or a Homo Sapien. We're an evolving species. We do eat meat, though."

The purple one flinched at the word "meat" and Jason immediately realized they were vegetarians, or at least that they didn't eat meat.

Chris smiled. "We won't eat you or any of your kind though. We got plenty of supplies aboard the Infinity."

"That's a relief. So, what are you...humans...doing here?"

"Frankly, I could say everything I know, but everything seems to branch off into another subject, so here's the short and sweet version. New planet. Unexplored. We go there. Strange portal sucks the Infinity into a gravity well, we end up here."

"I see. The Infinity being that ship?"

"Yep. UNSC-INF-101."

"UNSC?"

"United Nations Space Command."

"You mean you've been to outer space?"

"Hell yes. Been beyond our own galaxy. We even colonized whole planets. Apart for a few...issues, everything was going fine. Until THEY came."

"Who's they?"

"The Covenant. I've been trying to avoid mentioning the war, but here goes.” Somehow, the purple one had gotten a notebook and a pencil from somewhere, Chris noticed, and he sighed.

“The Covenant were a bunch of conglomerated alien species that were united under a religious banner, believing a race that preexisted ours, the Forerunners, to be some kind of gods. First contact was sort of peaceful. Until they declared us heretics and an affront to their religion, and they began a genocidal campaign to wipe us out. Whole planets destroyed, cities burned, men, women, and children slaughtered. We barely held on. We were losing. We could have lost the whole damn war. Until we developed the Spartans. They were the ultimate soldiers. Faster, stronger, more powerful than the standard Marine. They took the fight to the Covies, and we started to win. We were taking more than heavy casualties, though."

"How many casualties?" She asked.

"We're not sure. Last official count was twenty billion casualties."

There was an audible reaction from the group. The white one passed out, and a yellow one began to sob without end. The rest just looked dumbfounded.

"Yep. Even our homeworld, Earth, was briefly invaded, twice actually, until we managed to drive them out. After the battle of Earth, the Covenant had a major schism. A large faction, the Sangheli, or Elites, sided with us after they were betrayed, and in my opinion, without them, we could have lost the whole thing. We eventually won the war, but as I said, there were over twenty billion deaths. But after the war ended, we went back to exploring among the stars. That's when we discovered Requiem. An undiscovered Forerunner world. After a large amount of fights with the native Forerunners, called the Prometheans, allied with the remains of loyal Covenant, we decided to head back to Earth for some rest. Then we explored the new world we found, we got pulled into a black hole, and we ended up here. We know we're in unexplored space, and we can't make contact with NAVCOM or FLEETCOM yet. So, for the moment, we are stuck here."

"Wow. Quite a load of JUNK!" the rainbow one suddenly yelled. "You just waltz into OUR world, make up this sob story, and expect us to believe it? What's the proof?"

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up." Chris said angrily. "Every death, every glassed world, every destroyed ship is proof."

"So what?" she said. "Why should we care?"

"You know what? You. just. Leave." Chris said angrily.

"What?" Rainbow replied.

Chris scowled. "Get your sorry little ass out of my sight. You think you can just call bullshit on what I know, what HUMANITY knows to be true, and not get away with it? You disgust me beyond belief. The five of you can come meet Captain Lasky and Commander Palmer on-board ship."

"What about Rainbow?" The Pink one asked, clearly worried. "She's our friend!"

"She can come, if she keeps her mouth shut, her sarcasm to a maximum of none at all, and she shows proper respect to those who can kill without even thinking. Which is pretty much every damn Marine and Spartan-IV aboard this ship." The tall one said gruffly, as he stood up. As he put on his helmet, he motioned for them to follow. As the group followed him Rainbow thought, shrugged, and then followed as well.