Operation: DRAGOON

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Spartan-A196, aboard UNSC Prowler Shadow Boxer, Slipstream Space – unknown coordinates. 0700 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

A small buzzer sounded, echoing around the small room and made the sole occupant, Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-A196, Lisa, open her eyes and woke up.

She stared at the metal ceiling of her quarters for a moment then brought her hand down on the alarm clock built into her bedside cabinet, silencing it, then slowly got out of bed, easing the stiffness from her muscles and reached for her service fatigues, worn and faded from years of use.

They were quickly donned, covering up a plethora of scars and burns that covered the Spartan’s pale body, reminders of a hard life fighting against a merciless foe. Lisa laced up her boots then left the room, ducking her seven foot tall frame under the hatchway as she headed for the bridge.

She was aboard a prowler, stealth ships used solely by the Office of Naval Intelligence for all manner of operations from laying nuclear minefields in battle to gathering electronic data on the enemy ahead of an all out attack, taking part in a long duration, highly classified operation targeting the Insurrection, human rebels that wanted out of the Unified Earth Government and its principle fighting force the United Nations Space Command.

Her mission for the past seven months, and that of the prowler’s crew, was to search the outer limits of UNSC controlled space for hints of Insurrectionist activity and quell it if possible. Or, failing that, engage in guerrilla warfare against them until reinforcements from mainline Navy and Marine forces could arrive and tackle the rebels more directly.

So far, six planets had been targeted and three Insurrectionist encampments had been wiped out with minimal UNSC losses but lately their searches had been turning up nothing but abandoned hideouts, their insides stripped and torched.

This had been the pattern Lisa followed until during her last exploration of a deserted Innie stronghold, she had uncovered an intact data chip containing coordinates for a star system several light years outside Human controlled space.

The Shadow Boxer had jumped to the remote system the moment Lisa was back onboard, a little over six weeks ago, and now, if the NAV computer’s estimate was accurate, they would be arriving any time soon.

She stepped onto the bridge where the officers in charge of the ship sat at their stations, watching the screens for any alarming changes.

Lisa passed them by and came to a halt behind the woman in charge of the entire prowler, Commander Eva Colbert.

The Spartan stood beside her, towering over the diminutive woman with ease, and clasped both hands behind her back as the pair looked through the forward view screen into the inky void that was Slipspace.

‘Ready to get back to work, Spartan?’ Colbert said, looking up at Lisa.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Lisa said. She hated being on ships. No real gravity, no real atmosphere, no control. Ground pounders were just cargo in space.

‘Good,’ Colbert said, turning back to the void. ‘NAV says that we’ve got another two hours before arriving at our next stop. I want you geared up and ready before then.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Lisa said. She saluted and made her way to another of the prowler’s rooms, repurposed to serve as her armour bay.

Inside was a set of MJOLNIR Mark V, the iconic armour of Spartans everywhere. It looked imposing and impenetrable, even empty, and weighed close to half a ton. Despite this, the armour felt as light as air when worn, thanks in part to force multiplying circuits and a reactive metal liquid crystal layer that boosted her already immense speed and strength to superhuman levels.

Lisa had modified it as well, swapping certain parts to suit her skill set and operating methods. She worked alone, going up against the Insurrectionists by herself or with little support, and used stealth to whittle down the enemy. As such, her helmet was taken from the RECON armour variant to reduce her infrared emission and reflections from her visor, tinted a non-reflective black to reduce this further.

Her shoulders had different attachments to each other, neither of them coming from the RECON system. On Lisa’s left was an up-armoured multi-threat pauldron, a thick, rounded plate that gave her additional protection when firing a sniper rifle from counter attack, similar to the ODST Sharpshooter BDU given to their marksmen, while the right shoulder was protected by an up-armoured base security pauldron, essentially an extra piece of metal wrapped around her shoulder that offered her arm freedom of movement and protection at the same time.

On the MJOLNIR’s chest were several pouches for ammo and other small supplies that Lisa might need quickly, such as lock picking equipment and a rugged data pad for electronic locks.

Attached to the leg was a basic medical kit, containing a canister of biofoam and some stimpacks, just enough to keep Lisa combat capable for a few hours at least in case she suffered a crippling injury.

Everything had a matte grey finish.

The doors leading into the armour bay opened and a team of technicians entered, ready to help Lisa don her armour.

She disrobed and stepped into the middle of the room as they brought over the black bodysuit.

Spartan-A196, aboard UNSC Prowler Shadow Boxer, Slipstream Space – unknown coordinates. 0941 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Now fully armoured, Lisa stepped back onto the bridge, each step making dull thuds as half a ton of Spartan came down on the metal deck. Several on the bridge glanced uneasily at Lisa as she passed, some flicking to the suppressed battle rifle on her back.

She came to a halt behind Colbert as the Commander sat in her chair, eyes locked on the view screen.

‘Coming out of slipspace in ten seconds,’ the lieutenant on NAV called out. ‘Five seconds, four, three, two seconds, one.’

A bout of deceleration rocked the ship as it transition back into normal space, stars filling the viewscreen.

‘New course, two-two-five by zero-four-zero,’ Colbert ordered. ‘Three tenths full.’

Prowler guidelines called for an immediate course correction the moment the stealth ship left Slipspace, in case there was anything that gave away their transition. They were woefully underpowered against anything bigger than a Longsword Interceptor. Being invisible was their only strength and form of protection.

‘Sensors, anything?’ Colbert asked as the Boxer settled on its new heading.

‘No, ma’am. I’m not picking anything up, human or Covenant.’

Lisa breathed an inward sigh of relief, as did everyone else on the bridge.

The lone prowler could deal with a decent sized Insurrectionist occupation, but there was no way it could tackle anything the alien juggernaut fielded. Not with only one soldier onboard.

Colbert nodded. ‘All right. NAV, find me the nearest inhabitable planet and put us in orbit over it.’

‘Yes, ma’am. Scanning.’ The officer on the NAV station scanned the system they were in, nodded once, then typed in a string of commands. ‘Planet found, five million kilometres distance. Moving us towards it at one third power.’

The prowler moved, whisper quiet, towards a lone planet orbiting a brilliant yellow sun, looking similar to Earth. There were green and brown continents, deep blue oceans and polar ice caps, all beneath a brilliant white cloud cover.

Lisa cocked her head to the side as she watched the planet get closer, thinking. Why had the Insurrectionists come here? Why come to a planet so far from everywhere else? Did it contain a valuable resource they were extracting and selling to fund their operations? Or was it simply because of the remoteness of the system?

‘Coming into orbit now.’

A rumble went through the ship as it settled on an orbital path high above the planet.

‘Start a detailed scan of the planet,’ Colbert said. ‘I want to know why the Innies had coordinates leading here.’

‘Aye, Commander.’

Onscreen, high resolution images of the surface below began flashing by. Vast unspoiled forests, sparkling blue seas, immense deserts, rolling grasslands. It was picturesque.

The officer on sensors cocked his head to the side, like Lisa had, but in confusion rather than thought.

‘Ma’am, I’m picking up some weird energy signatures,’ he said. ‘Unknown type. It’s not in our database.’

‘Source?’ Colbert asked.

‘Widespread, but there are three significant locations.’ He tapped in a command and the viewscreen shifted to display the overall image the prowler had taken of the planet and three waypoints faded into existence on top of it.

‘Zoom and enhance, all three,’ Colbert ordered. ‘Spartan, get ready for a hard drop. Soon as we’ve figured these things out, you’re going down.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Lisa said, snapping off a salute before heading to the Boxer’s HEV launch bay, a recent addition to a stealth ship to let it deploy the lone Spartan with a much lower chance of being detected. A Pelican would have taken up too much room and presented a radar target for any ships nearby, but the small profile of the drop pod made it ideal.

She packed it with her equipment, a suppressed battle rifle and pistol, four weeks worth of food and supplies, several shaped charges and cans of C7 foaming explosive, then climbed into the seat.

‘We’re having some difficulty indentifying the sources of these energy readings, Spartan,’ Colbert said over Lisa’s COM. ‘It’s interfering with our systems and stopping us from getting a clearer picture. The more we zoom, the more blurred it gets. You’ll be going in blind.’

‘Understood, ma’am,’ Lisa said.

‘We’ll drop you as close to one of the sources as we can but after that, keep COM chatter to a minimum.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

Another buzzer began sounding, counting down the time until the drop pod would be launched out of the ship and to the surface below.

‘Good luck down there.’

Lisa’s pod blew clear of the Boxer, quickly accelerating to the planet below as gravity took hold of the small craft and pulled it closer.

Spartan-A196, surface of unnamed planet. 1025 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

The pod landed without incident and Lisa was walking away from it with all her supplies within five minutes of jumping out the door, rifle raised and sweeping the area for potential threats.

There hadn’t been any, just an overgrown and noisy forest with branches so thick they blotted out the sky and cast everything in perpetual shadow.

Lisa hefted her rifle and pressed on in the vague direction of one of three energy sources. It was somewhere to her north, maybe a few dozen kilometres distant, and sat in the middle of what had looked to be rolling hills and flat, open ground but it was hard to be sure. A dense cloud cover had obscured the Spartan’s view of the ride down and though her mission clock said mid-morning, the local time was much later, almost the middle of the night, and darkness had covered everything else.

It made little difference to Lisa. Between augmented eyes and low light optics built into her armour, everything was as bright as day. She trudged onwards, stepping over uprooted trees and under low lying branches with the occasional murky pond making her divert from an otherwise straight route.

Eventually, the trees began to thin out and give way to wide open fields that were too neat to be unmanaged which, plus a rough dirt trail, pointed at this place being inhabited and for some time, too. The Spartan could see that the dirt was packed down hard. Someone or something had been using it for a while.

She traced the flow of the path with her eyes than followed it, thirty metres to the left, ready to jump down in case she saw anyone.

A small window appeared in Lisa’s HUD, a live feed from overhead. The STARS, or Stealth Tactical Aerial Reconnaissance Satellite, had been deployed by the Boxer and was now looking down on her position from high orbit.

Lisa accessed it and manipulated the satellite to follow the path as far as possible, losing sight of it a few kilometres from her location as it came within range of the unknown energy source which, it turned out, was still affecting their sensors.

Closing the window, she carried on following the path, moving silently despite the weight of her armour and array of equipment attached to it.

Spartan-A196, surface of unnamed planet, near unidentified energy source. 1217 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

It took Lisa close to two hours to reach the outer limits of the STARS blind spot and along the way, she hadn’t seen anything that she’d classify as concerning or require breaking radio silence to report, just the odd sign of the planet being inhabited.

Small things, like a discarded bag or a piece of broken glass that had been worn smooth by wind and rain, but the closer to the energy source she got, the more obvious the signs were.

Tilled fields, waiting to be seeded. Rows of trees, too straight to be natural. Flowerbeds, bare and lifeless.

It made questions form in Lisa’s mind. If Insurrectionists were here, why did everything appear so low tech? There were no farm machines, no dedicated roads to and from the fields, no metal fences to outline the borders of farms. Nothing.

The Insurrectionists could have, however, gone for a low technology to hide their presence but every other encampment Lisa had seen was outfitted with all manner of technology, from outdated rifles and pistols to top of the line motion sensors and cameras. She had even seen Jotun farming machines on one or two bases being used for crop collection, and those camps had held upwards of two hundred people.

So why wasn’t she seeing that here?

Lisa frowned inside her helmet and kept walking, heading towards the brow of a hill that she hoped was separating her from the energy source and the answers to her questions.

She slowed and dropped to a crouch, then lay flat on her stomach and began crawling forwards, taking her time. Fast moves would only draw attention to her, something Lisa hoped to avoid for as long as possible.

She reached the brow of the hill, coming out in the middle of a grassy bush. With careful, deliberate movements, Lisa poked the barrel of her battle rifle out and peered down the scope at the landscape beyond.

Her eyebrows momentarily twitched upwards in surprise.

For an energy source of unknown origin, it certainly looked a lot like a town straight out of a child’s cartoon.

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Spartan-A196, surface of unnamed planet, near unidentified energy source. 1229 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Lisa kept her eye glued to the scope, slowly sweeping it over the town before her.

It didn’t look like anything Insurrectionists would create. All the houses were wooden with thatched roofs, clustered in a loose formation around a three-tiered building that was sat next to a small river. She saw it cut off a few houses from the majority, winding its way into a nearby forest where it was lost from sight.

There was a farmhouse on top of the hill directly opposite her, standing proud above bare trees arranged into precise rows, with what looked to be an apple on top of a weather vane sitting on the highest point. Lisa could just about make out the dial spinning lazily around.

Was this worth breaking radio silence over? She had discovered a potential Insurrectionist stronghold that housed some kind of powerful and unknown energy source, of which there were at least two others, and had evidence that the place was inhabited.

However, to break radio silence Lisa would have to exit the dead zone surround the town and risk alerting anyone in the area that had a radio direction finder up and running, an old and vague means of navigating but, if tuned to COM frequencies, could reveal the Spartan’s basic direction and range to the operator. There wasn’t any concrete evidence of this anywhere but it never hurt to consider it a possibility.

Stealth was her weapon and defence against any enemies the planet might have and Colbert would likely just order Lisa to observe the town and avoid further radio contact unless the situation demanded it. Maintaining that weapon would serve her better in the potential long run.

Lisa nodded once and kept sweeping the town, shifting her thoughts to when sunrise would be for this town.

Should she find a suitable place to set up camp and rest until daybreak or wait it out where she was, ready in case anything happened that needed her attention?

She didn’t feel tired or hungry, her weapons hadn’t been fired so it was unlikely they’d need cleaning or maintaining, and it would take her at most ten minutes to set up a suitable encampment in the nearby forest.

She’d stay put for the moment.

Lisa shifted into a more comfortable and stable firing position, rifle tucked firmly against her shoulder, and settled ahead of a potentially long wait.

Spartan-A196, surface of unnamed planet, near unidentified energy source. 1652 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Dawn came slowly, starting out as a faint glow on the planet’s west that quickly developed into a brilliant golden ball which crept up from behind the hills and mountains, bathing the town in a soft light and giving Lisa a proper look at it.

Her eyes had virtual night vision following a series of augmentations her body had been put through, enabling Lisa to see in the darkest of places with little to no external light sources. Coupled with image enhancements built into her armour, Lisa was able to see the town in the pitch black as if it were day.

But seeing it with proper illumination was so much better. It gave the lone Spartan a more realistic idea of what lay before her.

With the first rays of the sun’s light came the first signs of life from the town.

Peering through her scope, Lisa watched as several doors and windows were opened, fully expecting to see humans wearing mismatched pieces of armour or faded fatigues step out to go about their business.

She did not expect to see brightly coloured four legged creatures emerge from the buildings, some of whom took flight and sped off to fields or the clouds above.

Lisa tracked one such creature, brow furrowing in confusion as it seemed to push a cloud away towards the forest. How could they possibly manipulate something that was essentially condensed water vapour which parted before even the most softest of substances?

Yet as she watched, more of the four legged creatures took flight and began moving the clouds to a set location, actually herding them into place.

The Spartan watched them for a further five minutes then switched back to the town below, pushing the magnification of her scope as far as it would go.

Upon closer inspection, Lisa saw that the creatures were almost identical in appearance to horses, but smaller and with a wider variety of coat colours, some of which she was sure didn’t occur in humanity’s horses.

She watched a vibrant pink horse with a mane and tail that looked like someone had taken a pump and inflated it step out of a house which looked like a cross between a cake and a gingerbread house, complete with three lit candles on top, then go into a series of jerky body movements including vibrating on the spot and flopping ears.

Baffled, Lisa continued to watch as the horse then waved in her general direction and went off somewhere, out of sight.

Shaking her head, the Spartan turned her scope over the rest of the town right as something sped over her, something fast enough to throw up dust and leave behind a faint sonic boom. Lisa moved her scope to track the high speed object, only to see it was another of the flying horses, this one a light blue with a rainbow coloured mane.

Stranger still, it seemed to leave behind a contrail that was the exact same as its mane and tail.

Lisa watched as it headed straight for the clouds being positioned above a barren patch of earth and helped organise them.

A few minutes later, Lisa heard a whirring noise similar to a Falcon, a tilt wing aircraft that used rotors to fly. She titled her head in the noise’s direction and just stared, stumped, as a tortoise flew past, a helicopter blade affixed to its shell and a pair of goggles over its eyes, heading straight for the town.

Whatever this place was, and why the Insurrectionists had coordinates leading here, was a mystery that kept getting more and more strange the longer Lisa spent there.

She tracked the tortoise until it became too small to see then re-evaluated her situation.

Visible contact had been made with an alien species, albeit a race that looked remarkably similar to one humanity already knew about, that was intelligent enough to know about agriculture and engineering if the farms and flying tortoises were anything to go by. But at the same time, this planet, or at least the system, was known to the Insurrection. There was a small chance that the natives were in alliance with them and opposed to the UNSC, which meant that Lisa or anyone onboard the Shadow Boxer would be met with hostility.

She mulled the idea of breaking radio silence for a few minutes.

The discovery of a new alien race was more important than staying hidden.

Lisa crawled backwards, away from the town and out of the bushes, then ducked into the forest to her left and began walking out of the energy source’s reach to a place where she could try and contact the Boxer.

Spartan-A196, surface of unnamed planet, near unidentified energy source. 1701 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

‘You discovered a whole new race?’ Colbert said over the radio as Lisa crouched in a depression from where she could watch the road for more of the horses and not be seen.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Lisa said. ‘Though I’m not sure horses qualify as ‘new’.’

‘Horses?’

‘Yes, ma’am. They share the same physical anatomy as horses but smaller and with a wider pallet of colours to choose from,’ Lisa said, recalling the pink horse and the blue blur. ‘Shall I maintain an observation point and watch or initiate a first contact scenario?’

‘That depends on your assessment of the situation,’ Colbert said. ‘Do you feel that there’s an Insurrection presence within the town?’

‘No, ma’am. I haven’t seen any evidence that they are here,’ she said. ‘All I’ve seen are the horses. And a flying tortoise.’

There was silence from Colbert’s end for several seconds and Lisa could image the commander displaying the same expression of disbelief that she’d had upon seeing the tortoise fly past.

‘Okay,’ Colbert finally said. ‘Here are your orders, Spartan. You are t- -ainta- -tion.’ Static began overlapping Colbert and the radio began whining, trying to scrub the transmission. ‘-thing is in- -ering with yo-. Try to-‘

Whatever command Colbert was about to give was cut off, the line finally becoming overloaded with static, prompting Lisa to sweep her battle rifle in a full circle, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Her COM had been jammed by something, something powerful, and she fully expected to see Insurrectionist forces closing in on her from all sides.

Only she didn’t see anything.

Her motion tracker was clear, there were no anomalous thermal readings and there was no movement other than the swaying of branches in a stiff breeze.

That left one other possible explanation: the energy source had been moved closer to her position. It was the only thing that so far had been fouling her gear.

If it was the energy source, why was it suddenly mobile? And for what purpose?

Lisa couldn’t come up with any decent ideas. She had no idea what this energy source looked like or even what it was used for. She’d have to get eyes on it to make more concrete guesses.

She checked the area for movement but saw none, setting out back to the town and its unusual power signature.

Spartan-A196, surface of unnamed planet, near unidentified energy source. 1715 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Lisa stopped in a break in the trees, battle rifle up and pointed in the direction of the town. She hadn’t reached the brow of the hill where her observation point had been. A small nagging voice in the back of mind had told her to stop where she was, a voice Lisa had been taught to listen to by her instructor all those years ago during training and so far, it hadn’t let her down.

She dropped to a crouch and rested her rifle on a particularly thick branch for better stability, activating the auto-zoom and focusing on where the path came over the hill.

She flicked her eye to her motion tracker, hoping to use it as an early warning in case something came for her, but frowned when it displayed a mass of red and yellow dots, swarming all over the place. Evidently, the interference was affecting that as well.

But why? Lisa had been inside the dead zone before and her motion tracker was clear. Unless the closer to the energy source, the worse it got to the point that her more basic sensors would ultimately fail as well.

The Spartan shut it down. The tracker was all but useless.

Instead, she paid more attention to her aural systems, boosting them to the point that every noise of the forest filled her ears. She got used to them, memorising what belonged and what didn’t, then mentally filtered it all out, listening out for a sound that wasn’t part of the forest.

She heard one a scant minute later, hooves coming down on packed dirt, too many to be just one of the horses.

Voices followed them within seconds and Lisa tensed, awaiting her first up close look at the aliens/horses. She couldn’t make out any identifiable words, just melodic gibberish. It was almost childlike and it was getting louder.

The Spartan dialled back her aural sensors until they were back to their normal setting and the forest fell back to an almost imperceptible hum, replaced with approaching hooves and unintelligible voices.

Her finger rested on the trigger as the same blue blur she had seen not twenty minutes ago came flying over the hill, stopping to hover as five more horses appeared, including the pink horse that had waved in Lisa’s direction.

Now that they were closer and not moving, Lisa saw the blue horse had a pair of wings that held it aloft. The pink horse had no wings.

Two others in the crowd had wings, a horse with a light yellow coat and a soft pink mane, and another whose coat was purple and had a mane of deep blue interspersed with streaks of vibrant pink but rather than just having wings, this one had a horn on its head too.

There was only one other horse that possessed a horn, a brilliant white one with a much darker purple. The last two, the pink one and an orange horse wearing a cowboy hat over a blonde mane tied into a ponytail, had neither horns nor wings.

Lisa could classify the winged horses as Pegasi and the white one with a horn as a unicorn, but didn’t quite know what to label the purple one that had both. A winged unicorn? A Pegacorn? A Unicus?

None of them seemed to fit so Lisa shoved the thought to the back of her mind, focusing on the six horses as they went off the path and headed to her old hiding spot in the bushes, led by the pink one.

Did it know Lisa had been there? It had, after all, waved at her earlier.

As they walked, Lisa noticed that the blue Pegasus stayed aloft, circling the group, as the pink horse skipped rather than walk normally as the other four did, bouncing around the bush when it reached the foliage, proudly proclaiming something Lisa couldn’t understand.

The five horses took it in turns to examine the bush, sometimes poking at something, possibly a bent or flattened blade of grass, all the while talking to each other. Occasionally, they would scan the forest and twice their gazes swept across Lisa but made no reaction. They hadn’t spotted the Spartan.

She took her finger off the trigger. Colbert hadn’t been able to give her full instructions and this was a first contact scenario. UNSC guidelines called for her to make cautious attempts at communication with any sentient life she came across.

So far, Lisa hadn’t seen anything that would give her the impression that these horses, these aliens, would react negatively upon seeing her.

She clamped her battle rifle to her back and backtracked to a wider break in the trees, emerging from the dark undergrowth and into the bright light and open fields, hands spread wide to show they were empty.

Lisa took a deep breath and began walking over to the group. Diplomacy was not her strength and up until now, her past dealings with aliens had resolved around fighting. This was going to be a whole new experience for her.

The Spartan managed to get within fifty metres of the horses when the yellow Pegasus saw her and let out a shrill shriek of fear.

Almost instantly, the others turned to face Lisa and froze, eyes widening in fear and surprise.

Lisa came to a halt as well, trying to gauge their reactions.

‘I come in peace?’

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Spartan-A196, surface of unnamed planet, near unidentified energy source. 1722 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Neither party moved, silently watching the other.

Lisa kept her hands open and palm upwards, a way of showing she meant no harm, she hoped. Different cultures had different ways of saying things. What might mean a good thing in one country might be offensive in another, leading to misunderstandings and fights. But looking at the lack of hands, Lisa didn’t know if the message would come across.

She flickered from one horse to another, using the opportunity to examine them in much better detail. She saw strange pictures on each of their flanks, ranging from apple to butterflies to a rainbow coloured bolt of lightning, and filed away her curiosity about them for a later date.

One of the horses, the Pegacorn, took a tentative step forward, then another, before some form of recognition overtook the fear and it began speaking rapidly at Lisa who just stood there, not understanding a single word.

She didn’t respond, simply rapping the side of head as she shook it, trying to signify a lack of communication.

It took a few seconds of this for the message to get across to the Pegacorn and it gradually fell silent, Lisa dropping her hand when it did.

Above, the blue Pegasus continued to hover above them all, its face slowly morphing to excitement and curiosity. The pink horse seemed to have a goofy smile plastered across it’s face, contrasting the nearly hidden face of the yellow Pegasus who had backed away slightly, using their pink mane to further hide from Lisa.

The last two, the white unicorn and the orange horse with the hat, had similar expressions of fascination.

The Spartan let both hands fall to her sides as the Pegacorn said something to Blue Pegasus who suddenly sped off, leaving the same rainbow trail it had when Lisa first saw it earlier, before motioning for Lisa to follow, pointing at the distant town.

She looked at the town then nodded once, gesturing for the Pegacorn to lead on.

It smiled back at her then set off, the group walking slowly to make sure Lisa stayed level with them and chatting amongst themselves. They came up to her chest, putting the horses at five feet tall. The pink one stayed close to Lisa, still bouncing rather than walking, and the yellow Pegasus trailed behind her, accompanied by the white unicorn.

To Lisa’s right was the Pegacorn, discussing something with the orange horse.

Ahead, the town loomed, getting closer with each step. Lisa activated her helmet’s zoom and saw a number of the inhabitants were gathering in the streets, pointing hooves at her and whispering to neighbours. Blue Pegasus hovered above it all.

Evidently, the Pegacorn had asked it to forewarn the town of its newest guest and judging by the lack of weapons or sudden appearance of Insurrectionist forces, Lisa guessed they weren’t in league with the human rebels. There was the possibility that this welcoming was merely a facade to buy time for Insurrectionists to show up but the voice in Lisa’s head was saying nothing.

She’d go along with it, for now, but at the first hint of a partnership with the Innies, she’d bug out and engage in guerrilla warfare after contacting the Boxer.

They entered the outer limits of town. Up close, Lisa saw that the town’s inhabitants were mostly the same as Pink and Orange, lacking wings or horns, but she did see a small number of Pegasi and unicorns dotted here and there in the masses now lining the streets. Most of them had pictures on the back legs. The exceptions were the very small, young ones.

Lisa trawled through her mind for the correct word, settling on foal to describe them, before focusing back on the present. The noise level was growing, as were the numbers of horses. She guessed there was upwards of two-hundred watching her go past.

The Pegacorn led her to a giant tree turned building, the door seemingly opening of its own accord. Lisa frowned before raising her eyebrows in surprise when she saw a purple glow surrounding the handle and the Pegacorn’s horn. Was that how the door had been opened? If so, what was it?

She ducked under the low doorway, emerging into the tree’s hollow centre. Books lined the walls, stacked neatly, and a massive wooden horse’s head sat in the centre of the room with yet more books perched on the stand it sat on, also wooden. In one corner were a flight of stairs that led to a basement and in the other was a flight that led to an upper level, one containing beds and a few other items that made it look like someone lived here.

Craning her head around, trying to take as much in as she could, Lisa spied a small creature perched on the upper level, staring down at her. It was covered in purple scales with a light green belly and darker green fins on its head. Lisa classified it as a dragon.

The Pegacorn shut the door using that same purple glow once everyone was inside, including the blue Pegasus that had gone off ahead, then said something to the dragon. It said something back and scampered down the stairs, quickly grabbing a wooden ladder to reach a book on a high shelf, blowing dust off it, before bringing the item to the Pegacorn.

Lisa watched as its horn glowed purple, wrapping the book in that same glow, as a quill and roll of parchment floated from out of a chest of draws, quickly scribbling something down on it.

It floated the scroll over for Lisa to take. The moment she did and her gloved hand entered the purple glow, her shields collapsed almost instantly and began blaring at the Spartan as they tried to re-establish a protective barrier.

She looked up, alarmed, to see similar shocked expressions of everyone else’s faces.

There was a click and then a whine as her shields began recharging, quickly reaching full strength amid an orange glow. When it was done, Lisa scanned the scroll the Pegacorn had given her.

It showed a detailed drawing of her helmet with a cross next to it. She took that to meaning she couldn’t understand them. Next was a drawing of the book with beams of some kind shooting out of it, one of them connecting Lisa with the Pegacorn. The last picture showed her head again, this time with a tick instead of a cross. She frowned, not quite understanding what the pictures meant.

‘Is this... Is this book supposed to let me understand you?’ Lisa said, gesturing at the book as it floated in mid air. She tapped her helmet again, nodding this time as she pointed.

The Pegacorn let out a happy noise, clapping its forehooves together.

Lisa took this to mean yes.

She stood stock still as the Pegacorn began reading intently from the book, its horn starting to glow brighter and brighter with each passing second, until a wave of energy gushed out of it and went through everyone in the room, once again shorting Lisa’s shields out as they made contact. Only this time, Lisa was affected as well.

It started as a minor headache but quickly escalated to a full blown migraine, accompanied by a thousand voices each whispering something in a thousand different languages. Even so, she understood them all.

Then the urge to vomit cropped up.

Lisa fought it down but it was a losing battle and she quickly tore her helmet off to threw up directly onto the floor, falling to one knee as her stomach’s contents were deposited on the wooden surface. She coughed and spat some residual vomit out before sitting back as her headache subsided.

She wiped some sick from her chin and looked to see if the horses had been affected in the same way but all Lisa saw were looks of repulsion and concern. So, she was the only one who had thrown up.

Looking down at the pool of vomit, Lisa pushed herself up and brushed a few errant specks of sick from her armour and helmet before turning to face the Pegacorn.

‘Was that supposed to happen?’ Lisa asked as she donned her helmet, sealing her suit back up.

The Pegacorn opened and closed its mouth a few times before regaining some composure.

‘Are you okay?’ it asked in a feminine voice, answering two of Lisa’s questions. One, the book did have the ability to translate what the Pegacorn was saying so she could understand it and two, the Pegacorn was most likely female. She had leaned more towards it being female by the facial features but wasn’t about to assume anything without concrete evidence.

Lisa glanced down at her sick then went back to the Pegacorn. ‘Yeah. I’ve been worse.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know it would do that to you.’

‘Well now you do,’ Lisa said, watching as a bucket of water and some towels floated towards her before they started to clean up her mess. She watched them work for a second, seeing the purple glow manipulating them, then turned away. ‘You seem awfully calm about the fact an alien is standing in front of you. Most people would be freaking out.’

‘You’re an alien?’ the Pegacorn said. ‘I thought you were from a parallel world.’

‘Parallel world?’ Lisa repeated. ‘What makes you think I’m from a parallel world?’

The Pegacorn waved the issue away. ‘Long story. But if you aren’t from a parallel world, then you really are an alien.’ There was a faint trace of growing excitement in her voice and the other six let out similar noises, edging closer to the Spartan. ‘Oh, wow. I always knew that there had to be other sentient life out there. I just never thought I’d actually meet them.’

‘This. Is so. Awesome,’ the blue Pegasus said, hovering above Lisa. ‘An actual alien. Right here in Ponyville.’

‘Told you somepony was watching us,’ the pink horse said. ‘My Pinkie Sense is never wrong.’

‘You knew I was there?’ Lisa asked, turning to look at the pink one. ‘But, how?’

‘I told you,’ she said. ‘My Pinkie Sense. Twitchy knees, itchy back, fluttering eyes and flopping ears means something’s watching me and it isn’t a pony.’

Lisa opened her mouth and looked at the others, baffled.

‘Don’t fret it, sugarcube,’ the orange horse with the hat said. ‘It may not make much sense but, Pinkie here gets these little feelings and they tell her what’s gonna happen before it does.’

‘Uh, okay?’ Lisa said. ‘And that’s how you knew where to look?’

‘Yep,’ Pinkie said as she bounced around Lisa, suddenly stopping as her tail started to twitch madly. ‘Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!’

Almost instantly, the others ducked for cover, leaving Lisa the only one stood and thoroughly confused, looking up when a book landed on her head from above. She saw a number of them were precariously perched and as she watched, another fell down.

As it did, Lisa sidestepped and caught the book as it drew level with her chest, placing it on the nearest shelf. No more books fell.

‘I take it that one means things are going to fall?’ she said as the horses came out from cover. ‘The twitching tail?’

Pinkie nodded and resumed bouncing around.

‘Clairvoyant body parts aside,’ Lisa said as she faced the bulk of the group, ignoring Pinkie as she bounced in circles. ‘Who are you? And where am I?’

‘Oh, my goodness. We completely forgot to introduce ourselves,’ the white unicorn said, looking to the yellow Pegasus.

‘There was a bit of a language barrier,’ Lisa countered. ‘Then things started falling down and tails began twitching.’

‘That is no excuse,’ the unicorn said. ‘Why, if I were in your hooves, I would feel so annoyed at not knowing the names of my hosts.’

It was looking like the vast majority were female. They all had feminine voices and features if Lisa scrutinised their faces enough. This was either an all-female friendship group of the ratios of males-to-females was incredibly unbalanced.

‘Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-A196,’ Lisa said, placing a hand on her chest. ‘Of the United Nations Space Command Navy.’

‘Rarity,’ the unicorn said. ‘Pleased to meet you, darling.’

‘I’m Rainbow Dash,’ the blue Pegasus said, performing a loop-de-loop. ‘Fastest flier in all of Equestria.’

‘Equestria,’ Lisa repeated. ‘Is that the name of this planet?’

‘Nah, it’s the name of our country,’ the hat wearing horse said as she stepped a little closer. ‘The planet’s called Faustia.’ She held out her hoof. ‘Name’s Applejack, by the way. Pleasure making your acquaintance.’

Lisa gingerly grasped Applejack’s hoof, taking care not to crush it, and shook it. ‘Likewise.’ She moved to the yellow Pegasus that had said nothing so far and seemed to shrink under Lisa’s faceless stare, made all the more daunting by her towering height.

She squeaked something out so quiet, even Lisa’s armour failed to pick it up and amplify the word.

‘I’m sorry?’ Lisa said.

She repeated it, quieter than before. If it wasn’t for the movement of her lips, Lisa wouldn’t have known anything had been said.

‘Right,’ the Spartan said.

Rarity moved and placed a hoof over the her back.

‘Come now, darling,’ she said. ‘You don’t want to make a bad first impression with an alien race, do you?’

The Pegasus shook her head and stood up, whispering, ‘I’m Fluttershy.’

‘Hello,’ Lisa said.

‘And I’m Pinkie Pie,’ Pinkie said before freezing in mid air, gasping loudly.

Lisa took a step back from her, alarmed. How exactly was she hovering in mid air?

‘You’re new to Ponyville,’ she said. ‘That means I get to throw you a welcome party!’

Before anyone could say anything, Pinkie zoomed out of the tree with a trail of confetti behind her.

The Spartan just watched, dumbstruck, before shaking her head and turning away. ‘I’m not even going to ask what that was about.’

‘Trust me, you’re gonna find out,’ Rainbow Dash said.

‘Uh huh,’ Lisa said as she faced the last two who had yet to tell her their names, the dragon and the Pegacorn.

‘I’m Spike,’ the dragon said, surprising Lisa with the fact it had a more male voice though it was more akin to a child than an adult. ‘I’m a dragon.’

‘Hello, Spike,’ Lisa said, leaving the Pegacorn to reveal her name.

‘And I’m Twilight Sparkle,’ she said, holding her hoof out like Applejack had. ‘Princess of Equestria.’

Lisa’s hand was already reaching out to shake Twilight’s hoof but the moment she mentioned her title, the hand went into a salute on reflex. It was an involuntary response for Spartans in the presence of a superior officer or head of state, human or otherwise.

‘Ma’am,’ Lisa said, coming to attention as she left Twilight’s hoof unshaken.

‘Please don’t do that,’ Twilight said as she stared pointedly at Lisa’s hand pressed against her head in a tight salute. ‘It makes me feel uncomfortable.’

The Spartan lowered her hand but remained at perpetual attention as her mind tried to think of what to do next.

She had read the UNSC’s first contact scenarios and followed them, establishing a means of communication with the native species, but beyond that it was drawing up blanks. Her role in dealing with aliens usually involved killing them, not starting diplomatic relationships with them. Maybe making contact wasn’t such a good move after all.

‘What, um, what now?’ Lisa asked, hoping her new hosts were better at dealing with this than she was.

‘I...I don’t really know,’ Twilight said, looking to the others for support. They just shrugged back. ‘This is the first time I’ve ever met an alien before. I guess we could start learning about each other’s culture.’

‘Yes, what a wondrous idea, Twilight,’ Rarity said as she stepped forward to better examine Lisa’s armour. ‘I would so love to learn what fashion is like on other worlds.’

‘And what kind of animals they have,’ Fluttershy added. She seemed to be becoming more confident around the Spartan, keeping her head raised rather than hiding behind her mane.

‘I’m not the best person to ask about those sorts of things,’ Lisa said. ‘I don’t have much in the way of interaction with those aspects of human culture.’

Both their faces fell.

‘Is that what your race is called?’ Applejack asked. ‘Humans?’

Lisa nodded.

‘What’s the name of your race? Or are there numerous ones?’ she added, glancing at the horns and wings on Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight.

‘Well, kinda,’ Rainbow Dash said as she settled to the floor. ‘See, you have Earth ponies like Applejack and Pinkie Pie who are great with their hoofs and can make almost anything grow, but then you have Pegasus ponies like me and Fluttershy who can fly around and control the weather and stuff.’

‘And then there are unicorns such as myself,’ Rarity said. ‘While all ponies have some magic in them, unicorns can actively use it to do, well, anything.’

Her horn glowed a pale blue and a similar glow wrapped itself around the two books that had fallen, lifting them back into position above Lisa.

‘Run that by me again,’ Lisa said, holding her hand out. ‘You can use magic?’

‘Yes,’ Rarity said.

‘Okay,’ Lisa said. ‘So we have unicorns, Earth ponies and Pegasus ponies.’ She looked at Twilight. ‘That leaves you, ma’am.’

‘She’s what we call an Alicorn,’ Applejack said as she stood next to the princess. ‘Twilight’s got traits from all three ponies. Wings from a Pegasus, horn of a unicorn and the strength of an Earth pony. She’s one of four Alicorns in all of Equestria.’

Alicorn. She hadn’t been far off in calling her a Pegacorn. Then another thought popped into Lisa’s head, recalling her shield’s reaction after it came into contact with the magical aura surrounding the scroll Twilight had given her.

‘You said you use magic,’ Lisa said to Twilight and Rarity, the only ones with horns. ‘And that there are only four Alicorns in Equestria, right?’

‘Right,’ Twilight said.

‘Would two of them happen to live close together?’

‘Yes,’ Twilight said. ‘Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They live in Canterlot Castle. How did you know?’

‘Because when our ship came into orbit, it detected only three powerful energy readings that we couldn’t identify,’ Lisa began to say. ‘I was sent to investigate them and figure out what they are. They’re messing with our sensory equipment, stopping us from getting a clear picture of them, but going by what happened to my shields when they came into contact with your magic and the fact that the interference was mobile, I’m going to say that it’s you.’

‘That’s not a problem, is it?’ Twilight asked.

‘Oh, no. No,’ Lisa said, shaking her head. ‘It’s fine. I just can’t radio my ship around you.’

‘You mean, there are more of you?’ Rainbow Dash asked. ‘Here?’

‘Yes,’ Lisa said. ‘There’s around ninety or so in orbit. We’re only a recon unit.’

‘Maybe we can visit it someday,’ Twilight said.

‘Maybe,’ Lisa said but she doubted it. The Boxer was supposed to remain hidden. With a powerful, sensor scrambling energy source onboard, Lisa wasn’t quite sure how that invisibility would be maintained. Colbert would never agree to it.

‘I guess the next thing to do would be start building diplomatic relationships,’ Twilight said, holding her hoof out for Lisa to shake. ‘On behalf of the Equestrian Empire, I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, welcome you, Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-A196, representative of Humanity and the United Nations Space Command Navy.’

This time, Lisa shook her hoof though deep down was feeling less than happy about the situation. Humanity’s first contact with a non-threatening alien species was being carried out by a soldier that had all the wrong experiences dealing with non-human life. She had, after all, become a Spartan to kill them.

On top of building relationships with the Equestrians, Lisa still had to search for and eliminate any Insurrectionist strongholds she came across.

This was going to be an interesting mission to say the least.

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Spartan-A196, town of Ponyville, Ponyville Spa. 1000 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar/Local Time)

Lisa felt very uncomfortable.

Colbert hadn’t been pleased with her decision to make contact with the Equestrians without consulting her more properly but now that the contact was made, they would have to maintain it. Or, more accurately, Lisa would have to.

The crew of the Boxer would remain hidden and continue scanning the planet for Insurrectionist signs, leaving Lisa to play diplomat. This involved learning as much as she could about their culture, beliefs and lifestyle, developing a good relationship with the rulers and, where possible, teaching them about humanity. At the same time, her original orders of searching for the Insurrection still stood and would need to be carried out.

A tall order, given how closely the Equestrians would follow her with the intent of being good hosts, but that wasn’t why Lisa was uncomfortable.

Twilight had sent a message to her mentor and fellow Princess, another Alicorn called Celestia, detailing the Spartan’s arrival.

Celestia had told her to spend a week introducing Lisa to Equestrian society while a more formal ceremony could be put together in the capital city of Canterlot. That meant Lisa would be spending the next seven days with at least one of the six ponies she had met on the first day, going along with them as they carried out their daily business or volunteered to give her a tour.

The first two to do that were Rarity and Fluttershy.

After readjusting her clock to the local Equestrian time, they had led Lisa deeper into Ponyville.

The moment they began walking to one building in particular, the Spartan’s unease had started to grow.

‘Why, a day at the spa is absolutely the best way to relax and unwind,’ Rarity said, walking at Lisa’s side. ‘You just feel so refreshed and rejuvenated. There is simply no alternative.’

‘I’m sure,’ Lisa said.

‘Oh, yes,’ Fluttershy said. ‘It’s nice.’

Lisa just nodded distantly as they entered the spa, two Earth ponies looking up as they did. One was blue with a pink mane while the other was the exact opposite, a blue mane with a pink coat.

‘Aloe, Lotus, this is SPARTAN-A196,’ Rarity said, placing her hoof on Lisa’s back and nudging her forward a little. ‘She’s a visiting diplomat.’

Lisa nodded again, this time in greeting. The two Earth ponies hadn’t been hit with the translation spell Twilight had cast, meaning they wouldn’t understand her.

‘A diplomat from where?’ the pink coated pony asked.

‘Outer space,’ Fluttershy said. ‘She’s an alien.’

The Spartan expected the two ponies to react negatively, or to freeze in place. She did not expect them to break out in smiles and usher her into the spa itself.

‘The usual, girls,’ Rarity said, floating over a robe that looked tailor made while Fluttershy put on one from a nearby pile. ‘And the same for our new friend.’

Friend? Lisa thought. She had met them all less than an hour ago and thrown up in front of them.

One of the ponies running the spa came over, looking expectantly at Lisa.

‘You’ll have to remove your clothes, darling,’ Rarity said as she climbed onto a waiting table where a third pony stood, ready to tend to her needs. ‘It’s the only way to truly enjoy the wonders that Aloe and Lotus perform.’

‘Easier said than done,’ Lisa said. Her armour needed a team of trained technicians and specialist tools to remove most of it. The only things she could take off were her gloves and helmet. ‘This isn’t exactly the easiest thing to remove by yourself.’

‘Do you need help?’ Fluttershy offered. She had perched herself on another table and was receiving a gentle massage from the blue pony, whereas Rarity’s was much more rapid.

‘Yes, but neither you or Rarity can help me,’ Lisa said. ‘Thank you for offering, though.’

‘Well, remove what you can,’ Rarity said. ‘Then make yourself comfortable and enjoy as much of the spa as you want.’

‘Right.’

Lisa reached up and took her helmet off, the suit letting out a faint hiss as the seal was broken. Next came her gloves which she placed alongside her helmet and guns on a shelf lining one wall. Her supplies and remaining weapons followed soon after. This still left Lisa wearing half a ton of metal and reactive circuits covering most of her body, limiting her choice of spa treatment.

She looked around, trying to decide on what to try out, then settled on a mud facial, easing herself onto the chair, lying flat on her back. It had been designed with ponies in mind, not seven foot tall Spartans, and her legs jutted over the edge.

The pink pony came over, brush in her mouth, and began applying the mud to Lisa’s face until it was completely covered, hiding her scars from sight. Most of them had come from plasma burns, earned during a Covenant attack, adding a level of ruggedness to the already hardened face. Her eyes were dark brown, never quite still, and guarded, watching the pony as placed two cucumbers over them and cut everything off, leaving Lisa to rely on her other senses.

Lisa felt the faint breath of the spa pony on her face as she adjusted the cucumbers to sit more properly, then heard her walk away.

‘Does your friend want her, um,’ the pony trailed off, searching for the correct word. ‘Claws doing as well?’

Lisa’s eyebrow twitched momentarily then fell still. The Equestrians had hooves. It was doubtful they knew the word hand. At least, in the context of anatomy.

‘Do you, A196?’ Rarity asked.

‘Sure,’ Lisa said. ‘And they’re not claws. We call them hands.’

Rarity translated, calling the pony seeing to Lisa by Aloe. That meant the other one was Lotus.

‘I’ve been meaning to ask,’ Rarity said as a file began rubbing against Lisa’s fingers and nails, smoothing the rough surfaces down. ‘Is your name really Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-A196?’

‘No,’ Lisa said. ‘The Chief Petty Officer part is the rank I hold within the UNSC Navy. You can call me Spartan if you wish, or just Chief. I’ll respond to either.’

She didn’t know these ponies well enough or trust them enough to tell them her real name. Until then, her rank would do.

The unicorn made an ‘ah’ noise, though whether this was directed to Lisa or to the pony giving her a massage was unclear.

Lisa spent the next few minutes remaining stock still, fighting the urge to stand up and clear her eyes of the cucumbers. To lie motionless in a potentially hostile environment while an unknown held a potentially dangerous tool nearby during a time when she didn’t have her helmet on was contrary to her training. But, she was supposed to be an ambassador for Humanity and Lisa suppressed those feelings as much as she could.

Even so, she was constantly unclenching her hands as Aloe smoothed down her nails and applied a moisturising cream. It surprised Lisa that she was able to do such detailed work without hands, claws or magic to manipulate her tools, relying mainly on her mouth to carry and work them.

‘So, Chief,’ Fluttershy said as Aloe moved onto Lisa’s other hand. ‘What brought you to Equestria in the first place? Was it chance or were you looking for intelligent life? That is, if you don’t mind me asking.’

‘It’s fine,’ Lisa said. She forced her hand to remain limp as Aloe used a fine pick to remove all traces of dirt from beneath her fingernails while trying to determine what to tell the Pegasus. Her mission to track down the remaining Insurrectionists was classified top secret, meaning she could only share the details with those who possessed the right clearance. Fluttershy and Rarity didn’t have that clearance, and were aliens to boot.

‘I’m... looking for someone,’ she finally said, deciding to tell them the very basics. ‘We had a hint that they might be somewhere near this star system and followed up on it. I was looking for them when I came across Ponyville.’

‘Have you seen any sign of them yet?’

‘No,’ Lisa said.

‘Would you like our help in finding them?’ Rarity offered, her voice coming from a different location that it had been. Lisa guessed she had moved onto another amenity offered by the spa.

‘No, thank you,’ Lisa said. ‘I wouldn’t want to trouble you.’

‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous, darling,’ Rarity said back. ‘It wouldn’t be polite to not offer to help search for your friends. I absolutely insist on doing what I can to help.’

‘Me, too,’ Fluttershy added.

‘No,’ Lisa said firmly. ‘Thank you for offering but, and I don’t mean any offence when I say this, you’d be more of a hindrance than a help. I’d be more successful if I looked for them by myself.’

‘Faustia is a big planet,’ Rarity said. ‘It would take you a while to search it all. Wouldn’t your search go a lot quicker if somepony helped you?’

Lisa groaned inwardly at Rarity’s insistence on offering help. She didn’t like working in teams at the best of times, preferring to work alongside fellow Spartans over Marines and ODSTs if she had to choose one or the other. It was part of the reason she was happy to be deployed solo on long duration missions. The smaller the team, the easier to slip past a sentry, the smaller the footprint you leave behind.

For the past sixteen years, since Lieutenant Ambrose had taken her out of Alpha Company, she had worked by herself for the majority of it. The last time Lisa had become part of a larger Spartan team was during January of that year, fighting alongside another Spartan-III squad called Grey Team during a counter-Insurrection operation on Reach but even then, she had acted as an advance scout, calling out targets for Grey to neutralise and provide sniper cover as they assaulted the main rebel base, staying separate from them.

Adding civilians into the mix would spell disaster and possibly get them killed.

‘I’ll be fine on my own,’ Lisa said. ‘My ship is performing a search from orbit, looking out for small signs that the people I’m looking for are here.’

Aloe finished with her hands and started to work on Lisa’s hair, a difficult task considering the Spartan had it styled into a buzz-cut so short, she was nearly bald. This didn’t seem to deter the pony as she began working some kind of lather into it.

‘Are you sure?’ Rarity said, trying one last time. ‘I would be happy to help you.’

‘I’m sure,’ Lisa said. ‘But thank you for offering.’

The rest of the morning passed by quickly with Fluttershy and Rarity enjoying all the spa had to offer, from mud baths to regular baths filled with sweet smelling potions, while Lisa’s options were limited to what could be done to her hands and head. She did join the two ponies in the sauna, relaxing amid the steam, but was happier to be actually leaving the spa with all her gear back in place. It was a wholly new experience for the Spartan and not one she was entirely comfortable with.

‘What a nice way to spend a morning,’ Fluttershy said, stretching out her wings as Lisa and Rarity followed her out of the spa. ‘Did you enjoy it, Chief?’

‘It was okay, I guess,’ Lisa said, clamping her battle rifle into place. ‘Things like that aren’t really what I usually do.’

True, her head and hands felt soft and were cleaner than they had been in a long while, but it felt too alien for Lisa to properly enjoy. She was happier with her suit whole and a weapon close by.

Spike came jogging over as they walked away from the spa, waving to them as he did.

‘Hey, guys,’ he said, panting slightly from the exercise. ‘Pinkie says Sweet Apple Acres barn in an hour.’

Rarity and Fluttershy simply nodded as the dragon ran off again, exchanging glances at each other and at the Spartan.

‘What?’ Lisa said, looking back at them.

They just smiled and began walking to another part of Ponyville, forcing the Spartan to follow closely, mystified.

Spartan-A196, outskirts of Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres. 1320 Hours, December 03, 2552 (Military Calendar/Local Time)

Rarity and Fluttershy took Lisa all over Ponyville, introducing her to the town’s inhabitants and businesses, for the best part of fifty minutes. It was only then that they changed direction and began leading her to the edges of town towards the farm Lisa had spotted during her initial observations.

It was surrounded by a waist high wooden fence painted white and looked to contain several dozen acres of orchards and fields. Near the main gate was a farmhouse with a distinct apple theme, standing proud amid a yard filled with hen houses and smaller sheds.

The two ponies escorting Lisa bypassed it, heading straight for a huge barn set behind the house. It was closed up but the Spartan guessed it wasn’t empty, not if the small glances Fluttershy and Rarity had continued to give each other in the hour leading up to this were any indication.

She recalled Pinkie Pie’s earlier statement and hasty exit.

A party, Lisa thought, exasperated. Great.

She didn’t mind that the ponies of Ponyville were throwing a party to welcome her. It was a nice enough gesture, but with parties came huge crowds and with huge crowds came too many variables for Lisa to feel comfortable with, as well as bringing up bad memories.

But, orders were orders. She’d just have to put aside her personal discomfort as best she could.

Rarity used her magic to open the doors just enough to let them all in but not enough to let light from outside seep in, keeping the barn’s interior darkened. Even so, Lisa’s augmented eyes could perfectly see a large number of ponies hiding behind tables, in the rafters and in empty troughs, while a liberal coating of streamers and confetti served to turn the barn from a storage space into a makeshift hall.

The moment Lisa stepped into the barn’s threshold, the lights were thrown on and everybody within the barn simultaneously yelling out surprise, the exception being Pinkie Pie who was a second or two later than the rest, and confetti was thrown up into the air.

Lisa fought back her growing unease and took a step into the barn where she was approached by Twilight and the rest of the ponies.

‘Welcome to Ponyville, Chief Petty Officer,’ Twilight said as the noise level began climbing, Pinkie Pie bouncing over.

‘I threw this party just for you!’ she said. ‘It’s a way of saying hi to you and the rest of Humanity.’

There was a banner running across the first beam that read ‘Welcome to Ponyville, SPARTAN-A196 and Humanity’, complete with a cartoon drawing of Lisa in her armour on both ends of the canvas.

‘Were you surprised?’ Pinkie asked.

‘No,’ Lisa said as she scanned the welcome message.

‘Aw,’ Pinkie said, looking down dejected.

‘Thank you for throwing it, though,’ Lisa quickly added.

The pink pony’s expression instantly cheered up and she beamed at Lisa with an impossibly wide grin.

‘So how did you enjoy your morning, Chief?’ Twilight asked as Pinkie went off to speak with someone else.

‘Fine, ma’am,’ Lisa said, adding the honorific on reflex. ‘Though spas aren’t really my thing. I’m not used to pampering myself like that.’

‘What are you used to?’ Twilight asked, directing Lisa over to a table filled with snacks, most of them being sweets or containing apples in way or another.

The Spartan reached for a plate and began piling it with a selection of the healthiest looking items there, avoiding the sugary sweets as much as possible.

‘Long periods without showers or proper beds,’ Lisa said. She placed her plate on a table and removed her helmet, attaching it to her rucksack with a piece of rope, then began picking away at her food. Even the healthier options were sickly sweet.

When Twilight looked at her with confusion, Lisa elaborated.

‘I’m a soldier, and the UNSC sends me on long duration missions more often than not. There have been months go by without me sleeping on anything other than solid ground.’

‘And a soldier is what exactly?’

Lisa momentarily stopped when she heard Twilight’s question, slice of apple pie half in, half out her mouth. She recovered and swallowed her mouthful of food before considering her answer. If Twilight, a Princess, didn’t know what a soldier did, then she guessed Equestria had no dedicated standing army, or even a militia.

‘I protect people,’ Lisa said. It wasn’t quite the truth. Her fighting was always away from population centres and against Insurrectionists. In a roundabout way, though, she did protect people but in the long run.

‘Like a Royal Guard?’ Twilight said. ‘They protect the princesses and patrol Canterlot, looking out for danger.

‘I guess so,’ Lisa said. ‘Though I’m sent out against enemies of the UNSC and neutralise them, operating in an active capacity rather than a passive, reactionary one.’

Twilight made an ‘oh’ noise as Lisa finished off her food.

‘I guess I’ll leave you to enjoy the party,’ she said, taking a step away. ‘And don’t worry about nopony understanding you. I’ve cast the translation spell over everypony so feel free to talk to them.’

Before Lisa could object, Twilight melted into the crowd and left the Spartan all alone in the middle of a massive party containing upwards of one hundred ponies. She fought down her unease, managing to at least subdue it for the time, then put her helmet back on. The click as it sealed her suit and whine as the shields charged to full strength calmed Lisa a little, but not by much.

You can do this, she thought. It’s just a room full of civilians. They’ve been nothing but kind and courteous towards you and haven’t been hostile in any way, shape or form.

There were still a hundred of them, and all of them alien.

Lisa took a calming breath and moved away from the corner she had been stood in, moving to stand amongst the thronging crowd, saying hello to the ponies.

Despite the smiles they gave her and the relaxed atmosphere, Lisa felt herself growing more and more unsettled with each pony she met and how her progress was slowly taking her away from the door. The fact she couldn’t spot any of the six ponies she’d met first only exacerbated the issue and Lisa felt her head start to spin.

The room suddenly became louder and she heard the faint roar of a Pelican’s turbines overlapping everything, a noise none of the ponies heard, followed closely by children crying and a sense of vertigo.

She suddenly found it very hard to breath.

‘I- I need-‘ Lisa tried to say to the pony she was speaking with, a lime green unicorn, but couldn’t quite form the right words. She centred herself on the door then beat a hasty path for it, roughly barging past ponies in a desperate bid to get outside.

She reached the door and was just about to step outside when Rainbow Dash dropped down in front of her, a question on the mare’s lips. Lisa just shoved her out of the way and burst into the outside world, staggering to a nearby tree to lean against, gulping in air.

She sagged to the ground, eyes clenched shut as she tried to get the Pelican’s whine out of her head.

Slowly, but surely, the memory faded as her breathing and heartbeat went back to normal.

Lisa opened her eyes, gradually, and let out a long breath as Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and several other ponies came rushing out, all of them with the exception of Rainbow Dash wearing similar concerned looks. The blue Pegasus wore one tinged with annoyance.

‘Are you okay?’ Twilight whispered once she was closer. ‘You ran out of there like you were going to be sick.’

‘Wouldn’t be the first time,’ Lisa wheezed. She pulled off her helmet and sucked in fresh air, free of the chemical taste her suit’s filters gave it. ‘Agoraphobia. I don’t do well in crowds. They bring up... They bring up bad memories.’ She coughed and reached for a canteen clipped to the side of her rucksack. ‘Really bad.’

‘So, you didn’t leave because you hated my party?’ Pinkie asked. Oddly, her mane was completely flat, like someone had taken a pin to it and let all the air out, same with her tail.

‘No,’ Lisa said, taking a long drink before stowing the canteen. ‘I just needed to get away from the crowds.’

More ponies were coming out of the barn now, watching the Spartan as she stood and slipped her helmet back on.

As if a switch had been thrown, Pinkie Pie’s mane and tail inflated to their usual state. Lisa just opened her mouth in confusion, the only one to do so. The others still had their attention focused on her.

‘Do you wanna talk about it?’ Twilight offered.

Lisa shook her head, saying, ‘No. I’ll be fine so long as I don’t go into any more crowded places in small rooms.’ She glanced at the barn then back at Twilight and the others. ‘Sorry. I should have said earlier but I was trying to stay for as long as I could.’

Then, to Rainbow Dash, said, ‘Sorry for shoving you out of the way. I just really needed to get outside.’

Rainbow Dash waved the issue away. ‘It’s okay. You say you needed some air. I can relate to that. There’s nothing more that I love than open skies to fly through. Being inside starts to bug me after a while.’

‘Right,’ Lisa said. She looked at the barn again, hesitant to go back inside after her panic attack.

‘We can have the party out here if you want,’ Pinkie said, following her gaze. ‘We were only in there to surprise you.’

‘Sounds good,’ Lisa said. She took another calming breath then followed the ponies back into the barn to help bring the tables and food into the farmyard.