Author's Note

This chapter takes place many a year after the prologue-like 15 years. This is after they are trained Spartans. This starts at their first mission. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: First Mission

"Spartans E-247, 248, and 249 please report to the bridge. The captain requests your presence."

"Looks like that's us, girls," Scootaloo says. The three get up and start walking towards the bridge of the massive spaceship. "What do you think he needs us for?"

"Well," Apple-Bloom starts,"Ah don't rightly know, but it must be somethin' purtty important."

"Well, let's just get there and find out!" Sweetie Belle chimes in as she starts to run.

"Hold yer horses, Sweetie. Ah'm not 'bout ta start runnin', and I don't think Scoots will, either."

"Oh, fine..." They continue their way where they reach a massive door which leads to the bridge. It opens and they all march up to the captain. They all raise a salute at the same time. The captain raises his salute before dropping it. The three equestrians drop theirs."

"Great to see you three," the man says. "I need to tell you that you will be going on your first actual mission. Finally, all the training has paid off. Now, I need to introduce you to the rest of your team. This is Black-Hawk. He will be your leader." He points to a male equestrian earth-pony wearing black warrior armor eith a red trim and visor. "This is Rainbow-Frost, the team's second and Black-Hawk's best friend." He points to a male equestrian pegasus with teal EOD armor and a gold visor with orange trim. "And lastly, this is Toxic-Waste. He is the team's medic." He points to a male unicorn equestrian with yellow operator armor and a green visor with black trim. "Well, I'll let you guys get to know each other while I go and get your mission breifings." The man leaves the room.

"So," Black-Hawk starts,"I'd like to get to know each of you. Start with names and anything else you want to tell us."

"I am Scootaloo and I consider myself, out of our little curcle of three, to be the leader."

"Ah am Apple-Bloom, and Ah gotta agree with mah friend here."

"I am Sweetie-Belle and ditto on what they said."

"Cool," Black-Hawk says."It's great to have you on the team! And before you ask, Black-Hawk isn't my actual name, it is call-sign, just like Toxic-Waste over there. The only one who gets called by their real name out if us three is Frost over there. He's not a talker."

"Why not?" Scootaloo asks.

"I can't tell you. He will only talk to thise he trusts, and he doesn't know you guys very well. Give it time. He does let me say one thing though, is that because of a condition he has, every mare-friend he's had has broken up with him because of it. Right, Frost?" Rainbow-Frost simply gives a thumbs up. "Well, hopefully i can get to know you guys more later." Toxic-Waste bumps Black-Hawk with hus shoulder and says,"If you get what he means..."

Black-Hawk punches Toxic-Waste off of his shoulder. "Git you mind out of the fucking gutter, I didn't mean it...all like that."

"Ohhh, you already got a crush!"

Black-Hawk glares at Toxic-Waste. "TW, I will ram my battle-rifle so far up your ass that you will need surgery to remove it." Scootaloo falls to the floor, holding her chest, dying of laughter as Apple-Bloom and Sweetie-Belle's jaws practically hit the floor.

"Oh, dear Celestia that's great!" Scootaloo says.

"I'm glad you think so," Black-Hawk replies. He glares back at a shocked TW."It'll be fun to watch..."

"So..," TW starts,"you have a crush on the pegasus?!"

"Alright, bend over, you little dip-shit."

"Really? Is that the best insult you could come up with? I've had worse names from my little cousin."

"I don't have time for your stupid games...we just have to be waiting orders for our mission." No sooner had he said that, the human starts walking back. "Oh, look who's back!"

"Yes, I'm back," the man says. "You have a very big mission ahead of you all. There are two Covenant corvettes orbiting a planet. Your mission is to destroy these corvettes before they kill the human settlers. You will be flighted out there by a black, stealth pelican. Once in space, you will float your way over to the corvettes and infiltrate them. Then you will find their fusion reactor cores, and blow it to bits. How you get to that point is up to you."

"Alright, thank you, sir," Black-Hawk says. He salutes the man. The man then leaves the room. "Alright, game-plan. We split up into two groups of three. Scootaloo and Frost, you're with me. TW, you take Apple-Bloom and Sweetie-Belle. Got it?" Everyone nods their heads. "Outstanding! Now, let's get to the-"

"Chopper?" TW asks.

"...I will do it... No! To the pelican! I know where to find it -- let's go." They set off to the docking bay. They reach it and find a docked, jet-black pelican. "There we go! On the way there, guys, get to know each other, ok?"

"Alright!" They all say, except for Rainbow-Frost, who, instead, gives a thumbs-up.

--{SOME TIME LATER}--

"So," Black-Hawk says. "You excited for your first mission?"

"You bet your ass I am!" Scootaloo shouts. "I've been waiting practically an eternity for this! I've always wanted to do an actual mission instead of training!" Black-Hawk is silent. "Uh...you alright, there, buddy?"

"What? Oh! No, I'm fine." He takes off his helmet, revealing his brown fur and forest-green mane. He has a scar going across one squinted, cloudy eye. "I just-uh..." He starts blushing.

"You were just..?"

"I was just thinking..."

"About?"

"Oh! Um...I was thinking of...oh, uhhmm...mission stuff! That's it!"

"Something about that just screams 'liar' to me. Sooo, you feel like telling me the truth?"

"Well...I, uhhh. I..I..." He blushes even a deeper shade of red. "Alright. If you want an honest answer, then I have to tell you. I was thinking of you."

"Oh?"

"Yes, I was. You are just -- you aren't like any normal mare I've seen lately...or at all. It's just...everything about you!"

Scootaloo, now blushing, says,"And... Just what do you mean?"

"Everything I've seen so far. I've been observing you almost all the time I could. In the mess hall to dven brushing past you in hallways. I've been noticing your everything. From your personality to your beautiful eyes all the way down to your...I can't continue that next part."

"No, go on, I don't care."

"Well...all the way down to your sleek, sexy curves." He notices both himself and her blushing even more. "And it's especially weird to say all this to a teammate -- especially a rookie, no offense. So, if it's not already apparent, I do believe in live at first sight, and nopony has made me feel like this at first sight than you."

"Well...to tell you the truth..," she smiles,"I love a good battle-hardened stallion like yourself. You know what? I'll give you a shot, being as you've poured your heart out to me like this. Now, if you wanna make this work, then we need to not die."

"Understood! Well, let's get out of here! We are at the load-off station. Helmets on." Everyone's helmets go on. "Now, my group will get the left one, and you get the right one." The back bay-door opens. "If you aren't a pegasus, you have a jetoack to maneuver around. Now, from what I my A.I. Is telling me-"

"Wait, you have an A.I.?!"

"Yes I do, Sweetie-Belle. All group commanders have one. Anyway, she's telling me that these are covenant who have never known defeat. They will laugh in alien tongues at our efforts to survive. This may be suicide. However, I feel we can do it."

"If this will be so hard to do, then I say we all go take out one ship then move to the other."

"Seems like a good plan, TW. In that case, we should see if we can enter as close to the reactor as we can upon entry. Cælum, scan the corvette and find the reactor." Black-Hawk reaches behind his helmet and pulls out the chip and holds it in front of him. A hologram of an orange, female human appears over the chip.

"Well, it's nice to finally meet your friends, Cassanova," she says.

"Now, you stop that, Cælum! Just tell them the game-plan."

"Alright," she holds out her hand as a small hologram of the corvette appears above her hand. "They have an ingenious scrambling system on each ship that makes it hard to pinpoint the location if the core. Wherever it is on one, though, it's in the same place in the other. It looks like it will either be here, here, here, or here are my estimations. If we-"

"Can interrogate an elite to tell us where the core is, it will make it a whole lit faster," Scootaloo says. "If you ask me, I say we bust a hole in the side of the biggest room on the ship, that way the vacuum of space will suck out the most amount of people making our job easier."

"I was going to say start our way in the back of the corvette, which is the most likely place it'll be, and work our way to the front."

"All in favor of my idea?" Scootaloo asks. Apple-Bloom, TW, and Black-Hawk raise their hands. "In favor of hers?" Sweetie-Belle and Rainbow-Frost raise their hands. "Looks like it's my way. However, I'll add yours in, too. Instead of the biggest room, we will bust open the back. If it's not there, then we'll interrogate an elite and so on. Make sense? Good. However, it's whatever Black-Hawk wants."

"I think you have a good plan; I see no need to change it. Are you ok with that, Cælum?"

"Personally, I'd rather do it my way only because it seems to NOT attract as much attention."

"Well, either way, Ah'm sure that a massive explosion in the side of the ship'll attract a lot of attention either way," Apple-Bloom states.

"Exactly why we were going to sneak in through the detected ventilation shaft."

"We're wasting time!" Scootaloo yells, and jumps out of the pelican.

"Wait!" Black-Hawk yells.

"Well, go after your 'mare-friend'!" Cælum yells, annoyed.

"Don't get so sour over the fact that we didn't go with your plan! We ALWAYS go with your plan!" He shoves the chip in his helmet and boosts his way out of the pelican as everyone else follows suit. They reach the side of a corvette and place a breaching charge on the back of the ship. They get back for the explosion. BOOM! Tons of debris and covenant forces start to fly out of the massive hole.

They jump through the hole into the room and there is no fusion core. They pull the weapons off of their backs and quickly sprint their way towards a door. It opens up and they run sprint through a hallwa where there is a 'T' in the path. "Just follow me!" Black-Hawk yells. "We stick together!" They turn left into a large room full of enemies of every kind.

"Deamons!" a grunt yells as he hurls a plasma grenade. The Spartans frantically jump out of the way of the grenade and scramble behind cover. TW pops his head up and uses a telekinesis spell to hurl several
grunts across the room and hit a few jackals, but not without consequence. An elite throws a plasma
grenade at him. He tries to hurridly jump out of the way, but the elite shoots the grenade mid-air to explode, taking his shields down and some of his health. He gets pelted the time he is up, bringing him to
critical levels. He ducks under the cover and waits for his shields to recharge as he uses one of his few
health-packs. "Damnit, I shoulda brought more of these things!"

"Hey, TW, I need a health pack over here!" He looks over to see a Scootaloo, hiding behind cover waiting for her shields to recharge

"How much health you got left, 'cause I don't have many packs."

"My bar is yellow."

"Tell me when it's red. Just pop up and down behind cover and don't get shot."

"Yeah, as if not getting shot wasn't apparent enough..!" she yells as she throws a grenade over her cover. It explodes, sending a few grunts and an elite flying around the room. She pops up and shoots a few enemies with her saw, sending them down to the ground, leaving 10 enemies left. "Oh, fuck it!" She jumps
from her cover and rushes the few enemies left. She jumps and pulls the knife off of her breast-plate and comes down on a jackal, stabbing through its head. She recovers and beams the knife to stab a grunt in the chest. She grabs her saw. "Eat lead, motherfuckers!" she yells and mows down five of the enemies. She picks up a plasma grenade and throws it at the group of three enemies. It blows up, two, leaving one elite left with no shields. She rushes it.

It swings its arm at her. She grabs it and pulls it over her knee. She whips its elbow over knee, sending a loud snapping noise through the air. She grabs the elite and pins it up against the wall. She grabs her
magnum and puts it to the bottom of the elite's mouth. "Where is the fusion reactor core?!" she yells as the others run up. It is silent, breathing heavily. "TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK IT IS OR I WILL PAINT THE WALLS PURPLE!" It starts talking in its strange language. When it stops, Scootaloo asks, "Cælum, what did you get?"

"Analyzing..," she says. "Got it. Just follow Black-Hawk, there's a waypoint on his HUD." With the flex of her finger, she splatters brains and purple blood all over the wall. "What are you doing?!"

"My job.... Lead the way, Black-Hawk."

If his helmet were off, they would all see his dropped jaw. "Damn," he thinks. "That's fucking sexy...I wish I could just grab her and-"

"Hey! Where we going?"

"What? OH! Sorry, I was-"

"I know..."

"Right...follow me!" The six equestrians sprint their way through the snaking rooms of the massive
ship. They finally stumble across a very large room with a massive, glowing coil int the middle. "Alright. We
got roughly 45 seconds until this thing explodes. Scootaloo, will you do the honors?"

"Don't mind if I do." BANG! She runs up and slams the thing with her fist. BANG. BANG. It starts
pulsating a deep red color. "Run towards the small windows! Pick up a plasma grenade and blow them up and crawl through. GO!" They all scramble like cockroaches as fast as their legs can carry them towards the
windows. They each slam a plasma grenade to their respected windows and stand back as they explode,
shattering the windows. They frantically scramble thier way through the windows realizing that it could blow at any second. When they are in space, they boost towards the other corvette.

By the time they reach the other corvette, the one they were just on explodes. "Alright," they hear Cælum say over their radios. "Bust in those windows in the same way, destroy the coil, and get back to the pelican. They won't know what hit them."

They move their way over to the windows and stick other plasma grenades. They blow up the windows and stand by as everything in the room gets forceably sucked from the windows. As they crawl in, they see the core already glowing red. "They have already activated it!" Cælum exclaims. "They were holing to kill us while we were on board. MOVE!" The Spartans scatter as fast as they canout of the windows. Only a few seconds later,BOOM! It explodes, sending debris everywhere and knocking the team closer the the planet below. "We are caught by the atmosphere! Grab a piece of the wreckage and brace for impact!" The
Spartans hurridly grab a piece of the wreckage and hang on for all dear life and position it in front of them
as they plumet into the planet's surface.