What else is up There?

Chapter Eighteen

Nights into Dreams

March 29th, 2553
Equestrian star system
Captain James Mitchell of the UNSC Dawn of the Sun. Note: Dawn of the Sun has been destroyed.
Current location: resting room of the Everlasting Faith, commanded by Fleetmaster Rala 'Toram.
12:27 AM

Captain Mitchell found himself standing in the outskirts of a large city, the tall buildings of which standing high in the center of the metropolis.

The Captain slowly approached the city, unable to move faster than a slow walk, the actual city so close to him yet still so far.

Before Mitchell reached the city a Covenant Supercarrier soared overhead, coming to a stop above the dead center of the city and warming up its plasma projector.

The plasma finished charging and began to stream down into the city, a violent red beam that was too bright to look at.

Dozens of buildings were incinerated at the point of impact and hundreds others had windows shattered when the shockwave from the plasma stream impacting rolled through the city.

Suddenly six other Covenant ships arrived and took up formation next to the Supercarrier, all seven of them forming some kind of circle with the Supercarrier sticking up farther at the top*.

All seven fired their plasma projectors at once, raining the plasma down into the metropolis and starting the glassing process.

Just then an apparition of Captain Mitchell's father appeared in the middle of the plasma stream, manifested from pure red plasma, looking down at Captain Mitchell with a fury that could only be matched by the material he was made out of.

"IT IS YOUR FAULT, JAMES!" the apparition of Mitchell's voice bellowed, the seven Covenant ships expanding their plasma beams as they continued to incinerate the city.

"NO!" Captain Mitchell screamed, running forward a few steps before coming to a stop.

"IT IS ALWAYS YOUR FAULT! THOUSANDS OF HUMANS AND PONIES ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! I'M DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"NO! That's not true!" James yelled back.

"ALL YOUR FAULT!" the apparition thundered, raising his arms up into the air.

With a yelp Captain Mitchell was thrown to the ground, knocked over from the force of a gigantic plasma beam coming down in the center of the circle the seven Covenant ships formed, glassing almost the entire city in one continuous blast.

The source of the massive plasma beam was unseen.

"ALL YOUR FAULT!" thousands of voices bellowed, completely surrounding the Captain and bearing down on him with an invisible pressure.

Suddenly a loud horn pierced the air, trumpeting its mighty blast across the landscape like a beacon of death and doom for all who would hear it.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Captain Mitchell looked up and saw a Covenant Scarab tank looming tall over him, the barrel of its plasma projector looking down at him like some sort of demented eye.

"IT IS YOUR FAULT, CAPTAIN!" a deep voice thundered from within the Scarab, sounding almost as if it was coming from the Scarab itself.

"NO! NO! It's not true! It's not my fault!" James Mitchell screamed defiantly as the invisible pressure continued to bear down on him, pushing him to the ground and crushing him down into the earth, enveloping his entire existence and swallowing it whole.

*-*-*

Twilight Sparkle found herself in the last place she ever wanted to be; the auditorium she had almost been killed in on the Covenant space station Devout Believer.

The Unicorn looked around, noticing that every last seat of the bleachers were filled with dozens of copies of her friends that had died during the Covenant Conflict twenty years ago.

They were all staring down at her with an intense hatred.

"It's your fault, Twilight" all the Rainbow Dash's said in unison, prompting Twilight to look around in fear and confusion.

"Wha-?" Sparkle said, unnerved by all the copies of her dead friends.

"It's your fault, Darling" all the Rarity's exclaimed, further distressing the lavender Unicorn.

"N-no!" Twilight declared.

"It's your fault, Twi" the Pinkie Pie's stated, their eyes boring down on Sparkle and almost sending her into a panic attack.

"Your fault, Twilight Sparkle" the Fluttershy's said, looking at the lavender Unicorn with the most terrifying look of disappointment.

"No. No!" Twilight shouted.

Suddenly all the copies of her friends began to die in the same fashion that they did twenty years ago; the Rainbow Dash's leapt into the air in unison and fell to their deaths, the Rarities being ripped to shreds by an invisible force. The Pinkie's all combusted instantly and the Fluttershy's were all pinned to the walls at once, invisible blades stabbing into them and pinning to the walls.

"NO! STOP, PLEASE!" Twilight screamed, cowering down on the floor and covering her head with her forehooves.

The carnage stopped all at once and Twilight looked up, greeted with the sight of one of each of her dead friends, who were standing over her in a circle.

"YOUR FAULT!" they all bellowed in unison, causing the Unicorn to break down and start crying, just wishing the pain would stop and they'd all go away.

"Please..." Sparkle pleaded, looking up at them.

"Your fault, Twilight" they all said.

"No...it's not my fault" Twilight responded, prompting her friends to inch closer to her, looming over her and creating some kind of invisible pressure.

"It's your fault" they firmly repeated.

"It's not my fault" Sparkle stated once again, feeling the overwhelming pressure increase as the eyes of her friends pierced her very being and into her soul.

"It is your fault" they declared again.

"It's not my fault!" Twilight told them, mentally begging them to believe her.

"IT'S YOUR FAULT! YOU LET US DIE! YOU GOT US KILLED WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE US?!" they all bellowed, pressing down on her and turning to a black form that swallowed the lavender Unicorn and dragged her down into a realm of suffering and misery.

*-*-*

"Not my fault!" Twilight Sparkle yelled as she awoke with a start, shooting upright in her bed aboard the Sangheili battlecruiser.

A second voice had also said the same thing the Unicorn had said, prompting her to look over and see Captain James Mitchell sitting upright in a bed across the room.

For a moment there was a silence between the two as they stared at each other, both thinking what the other was thinking.

Bad dream?

Before the Captain speak Twilight broke down and began to cry, holding her face in her hooves as she sobbed uncontrollably.

She felt a warmth spread over her and looked up to see Captain Mitchell hugging her, tears also coming from his eyes.

Twilight returned the hug and calmed down a bit, still sobbing and hiccuping when she looked up and said "I just want it to stop..."

"I know, Twilight. I know" the Captain responded, wiping the tears from his eyes and pulling back from the lavender Unicorn.

"James? You once said your father helped defend us twenty years ago. Who is your father?" Twilight inquired, watching as Mitchell winced and looked away, the tears coming back.

"My father is...was...Michael Preston, Commander of the UNSC Marathon before his promotions. Eventually he reached Lower Rear Admiral and commanded a Marathon-class cruiser, the UNSC Celestial Terrace" Mitchell answered.

Twilight lit up at the mention of Commander Preston. "Your father is Commander Preston? That's great! What ever happened to him after the Conflict? He said that he'd come back to see us some day?" the lavender Unicorn asked.

"Commander Preston is...dead. He was killed during the Battle of New Jerusalem, two months before the end of the war" Mitchell explained, the last part coming out extra solemnly.

"Oh...I'm so sorry" Twilight said, looking down at the floor.

"It's my fault he's dead. I failed to save him from the Covenant" the Captain told her.

"How? If you don't mind me asking, that is" Twilight stated, curious as to how it was Mitchell's fault his father was dead.

"I was in dock on the planet New Jerusalem when the Covenant arrived on the planet. I tried to make it back to my ship when a Covenant Scarab came down, trumpeting a strange horn and vaporizing my then current bridge crew. By the time I got to my ship and made it back into space the Covenant had completely rolled over my father's ship and he was dead" James explained.

"That's horrible" Sparkle stated, feeling sad that Commander Preston was dead.

"So what's your story?" Captain Mitchell inquired, looking into the Unicorn's eyes.

Sparkle gulped as she prepared to tell him about her dead friends.

"Four of my friends were killed because of the Covenant Conflict; Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. Dash actually killed herself five years after the conflict had ended" Twilight explained.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it's not your fault."

For a moment the two sat in silence, staring into each other's eyes as if looking for something they had been searching for their entire lives.

Twilight inched her head closer and lidded her eyes halfway, watching as Mitchell's eyes grew wider and he looked at all corners of his counterpart's.

Suddenly the door opened and in stepped Lieutenant Crusher, prompting Captain Mitchell to look over his shoulder at the younger bridge officer.

"Sir! You're wanted on the bridge by Rala. Come quick, it's urgent" the Lieutenant said, closing the door and leaving the two of them alone once again.

"I..." Twilight said, unsure of what she should say.

Mitchell looked down and stood from the bed. "Come on, let's go see what the Fleetmaster wants" James said.

Twilight noticed that he didn't say Rala.

"Captain, wait" Twilight said, prompting Mitchell to turn around where he was then grabbed by the Unicorn and pulled down into a kiss on his cheek that lasted for a few seconds.

Twilight pulled away with a blush on her face, smiling sheepishly. "You've earned it, Captain" the Unicorn stated.

"Thanks, Twi, but...I don't roll that way" James declared, stepping from the room along with Twilight.

"You mean you're gay?" the Unicorn asked tentatively, afraid of offending or upsetting him in some way.

"Yeah...I am. I trust you won't judge me for it?" the Captain asked, his voice sounding like he wasn't giving Twilight a choice.

"No, of course not. I'm bi anyway so I have no room to judge" Sparkle replied.

"Good. That's good to know" the Captain said sincerely as they went on their way.

They proceeded through the ship and before long reached the bridge, where Princess Celestia and Rala 'Toram awaited, along with the other bridge crew of the Dawn of the Sun and Twilight's friends Applejack and Spike.

"Mitchell, welcome. We will get straight to business; we've analyzed the information your MCT 14 gave us when they infiltrated Manehattan and have come to the conclusion that the Jiralhanae are searching for something in the caves beneath Canterlot" Rala began.

"Searching for something? Like what?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"We're not sure. However, if the Jiralhanae want it then it must be bad for Equestria. We have discussed it with Princess Celestia and would like you to join us in investigating what the Jiralhanae are searching for" Fleetmaster 'Toram explained.

"Wait, does that mean we're-" Captain Mitchell began, cut off when Rala raised a hand.

"Yes, we're going to Canterlot."

*-*-*

*The seven Covenant ships form the Seventh Column symbol.

Author's note: Canterlot, the heart of the Covenant occupation of Equestria and their most fortified position.

And our heroes are going there.

What will be in the caves beneath the Royal City? Will it be the Flood? A Forerunner superweapon? Or something even far more sinister? Only time will tell.

On a side note there will obviously NOT be a Captain Mitchell/Twilight shipping in this story, so if you were suspecting or fearing that possibility then do so no longer, as a shipping between them is impossible because the Captain's gay.

Legal CBT: Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia, and all related characters belong to Hasbro. Captain James Mitchell, Fleetmaster Rala 'Toram, and all related characters belong to me. My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro. Halo belongs to 343 Industries.

Review this chapter to make me feel good.