Ever wonder what's up There?

Chapter Five
Suspicious and Tense

February 19th, 2531
Equestrian star system, Cygnus arm
Town of Ponyville
Commander Michael Preston

Commander Preston sighed as he stepped out of the Pelican into the streets of Ponyville, listening to the thrusters flare as the dropship headed back up to the Marathon which was hovering in space in geosynchronous orbit above Ponyville. The Commander had returned to the Destroyer to report his findings to ONI and not only had they not believed him, the ONI agents had actually laughed.

ONI spooks NEVER laugh Preston thought.

Well, that will definitely earn me a place in history. I can see it now; 'Commander Michael B. Preston, first man to ever get an ONI spook to laugh'.

He needed to get physical evidence that the ponies exist; pictures, video, even a live specimen if need be.

Only been here a few days and first impressions were not good, so the live specimen's out of the question. Besides, the specimen would probably not come back unscathed; ONI would do all sorts of things to it in an effort to understand its existence Preston mused.

Approaching the library the Commander could see MCT-7 standing around outside exchanging their usual banter.

"Look, all I'm telling you is the truth; there's no way in hell that that Unicorn will agree to go out with you" Private Ramsey declared, looking at Private First Class Jenkins, who held a look of apathy on his face.

"How the hell would you know? Twilight Sparkle is a very open-minded and tolerant mare, and I'm a nice guy and pretty sexy to boot. How could she, in a rational mindset, say 'no'?" Jenkins asked in defense.

"Son, I would assume that not only if she said 'yes' she would most definitely NOT be thinking rationally but also that she was mentally insane, and would have her institutionalized. And you are anything but sexy, Marine. I swear those split-chin alien freaks look better than you" Grimesy declared.

"And besides, Twilight is bi; she's got more options than you have brains" Ramsey added.

"I resent that!" Jenkins exclaimed.

"Shit, first Jameson, now you? I swear, it's like everyone is out to steal my job" the Sergeant stated, eyeballing the British Private in mock suspicion.

"I'm not trying to steal your job, Sarge, I just like messing with Jenkins" Private Ramsey responded.

"Messing with Jenkins was in the description for my job, Marine" Grimesy said.

"Well, whaddaya know, it was in mine too."

Grimesy chuckled as Leroy commented "I hate you guys."

Preston stepped up to them and returned the salutes they gave him, folding his hands behind his back and asking "what's the situation, Marines?"

"Jenkins has been attempting to convince us he can get Twilight to go out with him, Sir!" Ramsey blurted out, the look in his eyes afterward suggesting that he knew he had just made a mistake.

"I didn't ask for a matchmaking report, Marine, I asked what the situation was!" Preston shouted, disappointed in Ramsey especially; as good as the Marines were their banter was childish and immature.

"We've finished our sweep of the town, and there's nothing to report, Commander. It's like this whole entire country is devoid of any kind of danger" Sergeant Grimesy stated, making a mental note to berate Ramsey later.

"Understood; let's get inside the library" Preston said, heading inside the structure with the Marines following closely behind. In the library the humans found Twilight and all five of her friends, plus the dragon assistant, waiting for them.

"Ah, Commander Preston, I'm so glad you're here. You and your men take a seat anywhere you like" Twilight said gently.

Wary of what sitting down might entail Sergeant Grimesy gave her a look of contempt and said "everytime I've sat my black ass in here I've had to answer stupid questions; I swear to GOD if I have to answer any more questions I will shove my boot so far up your ass you'll-"

"Stow it, Sergeant!" Preston ordered, cutting off the Marine before redirecting his gaze to the ponies. "What is it that you need? If you need to ask more questions we'd be happy to oblige."

"Well I just have one now; what does 'ass' mean?" the lavender Unicorn asked.

Grimesy groaned loudly.

"Anyway, what I really wanted us to do was get to know each other more; you already know me quite well, and Dash has been interacting with Mr. Jenkins, but other than we're all not very familiar with one another. Why don't we start with Rarity?" Twilight stated, looking at her fellow Unicorn.

"Thank you, Twilight. It is a pleasure to properly greet you, humans, I am Rarity, Ponyville's most fashionable fashionista. I run Ponyville's only proper fashion outlet, Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique. If you ever think your...ensembles could use a little glamorizing then Carousel Boutique would be the best place to go" the white Unicorn stated, her tone and appearance reminding Preston of typical 18th century Earth royalty.

Archaic and regal, and is obviously unaware the Marines' armor suits are for protection and not show the Commander thought.

"Pleasure, Ms. Rarity" the Commander replied, turning his gaze to the orange mare that worked the local apple orchard.

"Howdy ya'll, I'm Applejack and I run Ponyville's best apple farm, Sweet Apple Acres, with ma brother and little sis. Course we got Granny but she's gettin' a mite old, and I don't even think Applebloom's gonna grow up ta be a farmer like us. We're honest and hardworking ponies, and you'll never find better apples in all of Equestria!" the orange mare declared, her stereotypical southern drawl made Preston want to toss her in an English class.

Freaking hick, I bet she has sex with her brother when they're all alone Preston mused. Next down the line was the pony he shot when they first arrived in Ponyville.

"Hi I'm Pinkie Pie and I really hope the Princess will let us throw a welcome party for you guys soon! We threw one for Thar but he just sulked around like a Grumpy McGrumperson I think he doesn't know how to smile because his mouth is all like 'bleeeghhh' which is really weird but that's OK because he's still welcome here hey remember when we first met and I was all like 'wanna party?' and you were all like 'boom!' when you shot me with that weird thing and it hurt really bad and made me all sadface but then after a few hours I felt fine I just wanted to say I forgive you for doing that you were just scared. OH! Silly me, I need to tell you more about myself! Well I've got lots of super-duper friends, like I'm friends with everypony in Ponyville, and I run Sugarcube Corner with Mr. and Mrs. Cake! Ooh, that reminds me, I have to throw an anniversary party for those two; it's their tenth anniversary kinda like that one game that's all about evolving combat which had its tenth anniversary recently because it's so super-duper amazing!"* Pinkie ranted.

Energetic and really annoying. Her energy is in complete contrast with our stoic discipline.

Finally, they reached the last pony, a butter-yellow Pegasus. "I'm Fluttershy, and I take care of animals at my cottage and offer a petsitting service."

She's shy and timid, but at least she doesn't talk too much or have a really annoying accent. Rarity and Rainbow Dash seem to be the best of the six next to Twilight Preston thought, deciding that Twilight was his favorite out of the six; she seemed the most normal.

It's always those that seem normal that are truly crazy** his mind chirped, and he supposed that much was true.

"Why don't you tell us about yourself, Mikey!" Pinkie exclaimed, hopping in place. Preston immediately flew off the handle at her.

"Don't EVER call me that again, civvie. I am Commander Preston of the UNSC and you will address me as such" the Commander growled, fear in the eyes of the ponies except for Pinkie. The last thing they wanted was for Pinkie's direct nature to cause an incident between their two species.

"We're sorry, we don't mean to cause any hard feelings" Twilight stated, apologizing for Pinkie who wasn't sure what the big deal was.

"Make sure it doesn't happen again" Preston replied.

"I don't get it, didn't anyone ever call you Mikey? You had to have had some kind of nickname or affectionate pet name or something!" Pinkie yelled.

"OK, that's it, we're leaving, Commander. I can not stand all this bullcrap" Grimesy said, he and the Marines gathering their weapons and heading straight for the door at a brisk pace.

"Wait for me! I don't want to be stuck here with them!" Preston exclaimed, darting after them and slamming the door shut behind him when he was out.

Great Twilight sarcastically mused, looking at her friends.

"Goodness, their outfits were dreadful!" Rarity swooned.

"They need to be shown a good time!" Pinkie cheerfully exclaimed.

"They were obviously intimidated by me!" Dash boastfully declared.

Wow, my friends can be real jerks sometimes Twilight thought, deciding she had to remind Rarity and Dash a few things.

"Rarity, their suits aren't for show, they wear those for protection" the lavender Unicorn stated.

"Protection from what? There's hardly any danger here" Rarity asked incredulously.

"But they don't know that. And Rainbow I hardly think they're scared of your cockiness" Twilight said, Dash scoffing in response.

"Please, did you see the looks on their faces? They were running scared" Dash proclaimed.

"They were annoyed, not intimidated! Why are you so full of yourself?" Twilight demanded, Dash immediately hovered up and pressed her face against the Unicorn's.

"Hey! Not cool, Twilight" Rainbow said, before Twilight could reply the front door was flung open and in stepped Thar 'Saramee.

"Greetings, ponies; is this a bad time?" the Covenant Shipmaster asked, seeing how close Dash and Twilight were.

By the Gods is every pony in this town romantically attracted to their own gender? Thar wondered as the cyan Pegasus backed away from Twilight.

"No, we were just arguing about some guys we know" Dash answered, folding her front hooves over her chest.

"They're hardly true Gentlecolts if you ask me, more like ruffians" Rarity stated.

That was it for Twilight. "They really are nice guys! You two are just too stuck-up and cocky to realize that" the lavender Unicorn yelled, referring to each of her friend's respective attitudes.

"Enough!" Thar bellowed, his voice was loud enough to carry for several blocks. "I am sure these ponies you speak of are just fine, just like everyone else in this town" the Sangheili said.

"But they're not po-" Dash started, she was silenced by the Shipmaster.

"Quiet. Now, it is almost time for me to report my findings to the Hierarchs, tomorrow I will return to the Divine Wind and inform the holy Prophets of you ponies. Perhaps you will all be valuable warriors against the vile humans" Thar explained.

All six ponies looked at each other in alarm.

"What?!" Twilight asked, confused as to what the Shipmaster was saying.

"The humans, they are vile cretins worthy of neither intelligence nor existence. The Covenant's true mission is to wipe them out while searching for the Holy Rings I mentioned earlier" Thar said.

Oh my Celestia, this is BAD Twilight thought.

Suddenly Rainbow Dash flew up to Thar's face and said "hey, we happen to know some humans and they're mostly pretty good guys! We may have just had an argument with them but they're definitely worthy of life or whatever and they could probably kick your flank!"

Thar snatched Rainbow by the throat and shoved her against the wall, drawing and activating his energy sword.

"You know humans? WHERE ARE THEY?!" Ship-master 'Saramee demanded.

Rainbow Dash spit in his face, prompting Thar to whip her to the floor and kick her in the stomach, causing her to gasp and cough in pain.

"I will not ask again. Where. Are. The humans?" Thar growled, looking back and forth across the other five ponies' faces.

"Fine, if you will not tell me, then I'll find them myself" the Sangheili snarled, turning and smashing the Library door open and stepping out into the streets of Ponyville, his energy sword glowing violently.

Time to reclaim that honor I lost.

*-*-*

Commander Preston and MCT-7 traipsed throughout the town, no real knowledge of where they were headed. They just went where the Commander did; it seemed he was touring the outer edges of the town.

"I wonder what lies beyond this village" Preston said, staring out at the horizon. He had already been to Canterlot but there had to be other towns and cities out there, Equestria couldn't just be the royal city and a quaint hamlet.

"Let's get moving" the Commander said, he and the Marines made their way back into town, heading in the direction of the town hall.

Along the way the Commander's suspicions began to grow, though quite faint he was fairly certain someone other than the resident ponies were watching them.

They entered the town hall and began a conversation with the mayor; she was a slightly older mare that had many years of political experience beneath her.

Commander Preston smiled after the mayor had recounted to him one of her oldest stories, a particularly funny tale regarding a giant rainbow afro wig and a rather gruff pony.

"I like this one, she's hilarious" Private Jenkins said, Grimesy took this opportunity to mess with the Marine.

"I swear on all that is holy if you ever try anything like that on me Jenkins I will make you harvest every last inch of Sweet Apple Acres" Grimesy declared.

Jenkins wasn't fazed. "It would totally be worth it, Sarge" the young private replied, Grimesy smiled.

The group left the town hall and Preston was once again experiencing a feeling of being watched or that some other presence was in the town.

"What's going on, Commander?" Sergeant Grimesy asked, he was feeling the same dread as Preston.

"I don't know" Michael responded.

"Let's keep moving" the Commander declared as the group set out in the town again.

Eventually they all sat down to take a break in a park near Ponyville Elementary School, though to the Commander it looked more like a single-room schoolhouse.

Quite bizarre, I figured that education would be more important to the ponies of this town Preston mused; he looked over and saw a grey Pegasus playing with a smaller but similarly colored Unicorn pony.

Probably her daughter the Commander thought, he took his deck-shoes off and rubbed his sore feet. The shoes were adequate for walking around on a ship, for lengthy treks through a town they left something to desire.

"Let's get back to the library" Preston said, the group began the walk back and along the way they passed by Carousel Boutique, seeing the sign out front that said 'closed'.

She must still be at the library Preston deduced.

On the way back to the Library the group stopped and chatted with Lyra and Bon-Bon, who were in the town market buying some fruits and vegetables from a vendor.

While the Marines were busy chatting with the two the Commander looked around the area, unable to shake the feeling of impending doom. It was almost as if some kind of villainous creature was stalking them, looking for the right moment to strike and kill them all.

"Marines, we have to get to the Library, now! There is something wrong here" Commander Preston declared.

"But sir, Lyra and Bon-Bon are in the middle of telling us a funny story" Private Jenkins protested.

"Now! That's an order, Marines" Preston commanded, preparing to start walking to the Library again.

Suddenly Lyra pointed a hoof at the roof of a nearby house and said "hey look, it's Thar. What's he doing up there?"

The Commander and the Marines whipped around just as an Elite leaped off the roof and landed in their midst, brandishing an energy sword and raising it up to kill them.

The humans all dove away and the Marines withdrew their MA5B's while the Commander pulled out his M6G/B, Private Jenkins yelling "where the fuck did he come from?!"

The Elite roared and charged for the humans.

*-*-*

*This is an obvious reference to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
**This foreshadows what happens to Twilight in the third story of this trilogy.

Legal note: Thar 'Saramee, Michael Preston, and all related characters belong to me. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and all related characters belong to Hasbro. My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro. Halo belongs to 343i.