Halo: The Interlopers

It was beautiful. They could see the whole of the visible universe, thousands upon thousands of stars, planets and nebulae; and all of it was visible to the naked eye that night. An aurora, a strange sight for such a temperate clime as Ponyville, gently caressed the sky. The aurora gave a soft mixture of blue and green glow to the already beautiful night, only drowning out the dimmest stars. Even more wonderful, there was a meteor shower that night, the shooting stars streaking silently across the dark, star-sprinkled backdrop.

Twilight Sparkle had predicted all of this would happen on that night, and brought her six closest friends with her to see it. Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy; all were in attendance. They were as in awe at the magnificent spectacle before them as she was. They all lied on the soft grass, with the exception of Twilight. She gazed at the meteor shower with her telescope, which she had brought with her.

This was the second time Twilight had brought her friends to see a meteor shower, the last time had been over a year ago, just before she’d gotten Owloysius. This meteor shower wasn’t as impressive as the previous one, but the aurora more than made up for that. The key differences were that this time they’d found a much more secluded spot to watch the beauty unfold, brought a new copy of the book Spike had burned last time, the “Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy”, and brought more snacks to enjoy. Twilight had also brought a tripod mount for her telescope, for a more stable view.

Spike laid next to Rarity, who was bordered by Fluttershy to her right, Applejack to her front, and Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie to her rear. Twilight began to peer through her telescope, munching one of the cookies Pinkie had brought. The meteoroids were all small streaks of white, which she knew was normal.

“Hey, check out those three!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, pointing to a trio of particularly bright meteors, trailing orange flames as they entered the atmosphere. The rest of the group looked at the patch of the sky Dash indicated. They expected Twilight to explain the phenomena.

Twilight turned her telescope to the peculiar meteoroids, and appeared visibly puzzled. “They shouldn’t be that way,” she began, “Those meteoroids should have broken up by now. And they should be on a trajectory almost perfectly parallel to the other ones.”

“Maybe you could move them a little closer, or into focus or something,” Spike suggested.

“Well, they’re moving a lot slower than the rest of the meteoroids, so I think the impact wouldn’t do much more than leave a small mark on the ground. I’ve only ever used telekinesis on an object that far away once before, so it might not make much of a difference. Here goes nothing!” With that, she began to channel her effort into her magic. Her horn began to glow, softly at first, but then it quickly became as bright as the full moon above them.

One of the curious meteoroids had its path altered successfully, which led to a small cheer from Spike. But Twilight couldn’t fully control the path of the object, which veered sharply towards them. Twilight cut off the spell at that point, and realized she had just put it on a path towards them! As they ran, Pinkie’s tail began to twitch like mad.

The space rock careened towards them, and the group scattered as to avoid being hit by it. When it landed, it hit near where Twilight and her friends had originally been situated, and left a skid mark in the dirt a meter deep, and twenty meters long.

***

Ten minutes earlier, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Thompson, SPARTAN-III designation A-217, was about to enter a Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle. Colloquially known as a “drop pod”, the so-called vehicle was used primarily by Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, but was also used by other United Nations Space Command Special Forces.

Mark was a fairly high-ranking officer of the ground forces of Eagle Sword, a semi-autonomous fleet composed of some of the best personnel from all branches of the UNSC military, with the fleet itself numbering two dozen ships. While the fleet operated independently of most UNSC formations, it still reported to UNSC High Command. This meant that it still carried out the orders given by the top brass.

Eagle Sword possessed one of the largest concentrations of SPARTAN-III’s of any fleet, and was equipped with some of the best technology humanity had to offer. Several of the fleet's vessels, though dating from the Human-Covenant War or before, had been modified to use energy shields, like those used by the remnants of the Covenant Empire. Many of the ships had been assembled in installations constructed with the help of materials from allied Elites, which enabled the UNSC fleet to quickly approach its peak size from mid-2552.

In addition, much of the technology used and pioneered on Reach before it was glassed was utilized by ES personnel. The YSS-1000 Sabre fighter and various armor ability modules were among the tech used. In fact, much of it had been heavily modified and upgraded using the technology developed after the Human-Covenant War. However, the nature of their autonomy meant that most of their upgrades were made themselves, based on data packets sent to them, and that they still used older base technology than fleets that were more tethered to home bases.

For this particular mission, most of the fleet was waiting just outside of the solar system, with only three ships in orbit around the planet known as “Equis”. Among them was the UNSC Deliverance, a Marathon-class cruiser.

On board the Deliverance, Mark briefed his two teammates. One was Captain Ethan Natick, SPARTAN-III designation B-052, and the other was Major Jason Greer, SPARTAN-III designation B-146.

The three of them were practically family, having known each other and served together for most of the Human-Covenant War. They worked best as a small group and in a way they'd been lucky to be kept as such, insulated against the emotional effects of the war's losses by both the emotional callouses they'd formed over the years and the small number of people they cared about. A few other teams of S-IIIs were friends of theirs, but they all tried to keep their distance emotionally

“One last time,” Mark began, “One month ago, a first contact team was sent to this planet to make contact with what’re believed to be sentient inhabitants. The team was twenty-three strong, with thirteen of those being Army personnel. The rest were scientists and diplomats. They were dropped off by a frigate, which flew them in on Pelicans. The frigate waited on the dark side of the moon for a signal from the team, and they never got it. The frigate was ordered to leave, being told a fleet would be assembled to investigate. I guess we can’t risk running into a fleet of Covie remnants unprepared. The brass made a decision and we're the ones investigating. Additionally, because of the possibility that the native sentients are not hostile, and the first contact team was incapacitated by local fauna, we are to return fire only. We’re gonna have to be soldiers, detectives and diplomats on this one; so Jason, you can use your winning charm, and Ethan, you just try to watch your mouth. Get prepped, we drop in five minutes.”

The whole team had been given a crash-course on diplomacy just days earlier, and they now knew why. Their new training suggested that they use their actual names - albeit only their first names - to make themselves more approachable, although they should allow the hosts to go first if possible in order to judge any potential differences in customs.

Mark, Ethan and Jason climbed into their pods, their weapons stowed securely on the sides of the interior. They all went through whatever psychological preparations made them comfortable.

The SOEIV’s dropped perfectly in sync, their occupants ready for whatever awaited them on the admittedly picturesque planet below.

“One last thing,” Mark said, just as the pods hit the atmosphere, “Maintain radio silence; we don’t know what’s down there. Head to the rendezvous point, and then proceed to the last known location of the first contact team. Anyone not at the RV an hour after we hit dirt will be left to scout on their own. If the Deliverance detects that one of us is dead, captured, or otherwise incapacitated, they’ll send us an untraceable burst transmission informing the rest of us of such a status. Otherwise, assume any indication of harm to be a temporary setback. Do not break radio silence until you have reached the objective, or until you have been on the ground for at least four days, whichever comes first.” The outermost layer of the drop pods had almost completely peeled off by that point. “Assume nothing.”

The most of the ride down was uneventful, or as uneventful as entering the atmosphere of an alien planet in metal and ceramic container could be. The heat inside the pod had begun climbing down from its blistering peak temperature when something Mark couldn’t have expected occurred.

A purple glow enveloped the exterior of the pod, as Mark could see from the thick transparent canopy in front of him. The luminosity quickly ramped up in intensity from a faint shimmer to an obvious glare. Synchronized with the increasing radiance of the vehicle was an increasing course change. The SOEIV veered sharply to the south, and approached the ground at a thirty degree angle, which would lead to a deep skid upon landing. Mark had never seen or heard of this phenomenon before, but he kept his calm and gripped the handles on the interior tight enough to leave slight imprints on the metal.

Rule 18. "Fear is an advisor, not a commanding officer."

The glow ceased about ten seconds before impact, by which time Mark shut his eyes, preferring to open them upon landfall rather than blink when he hit dirt.

***

Rainbow Dash was the first to investigate the space oddity, reaching it in the first ten seconds after the impact. The rest of the group cantered over, with Spike riding on Twilight Sparkle’s back. The peculiar construct seemed to be thrice their height in its length and wide as they were long.

“Well, that’s the last time I try to mess with meteoroids,” Twilight said with a relieved sigh. She looked closer at the object, with Spike dismounting from her back to stand alongside her. The gang formed a semi-circle around what they didn’t know was the back side of the mysterious anomaly, with the skid mark being on the right side.

“That don’t look natural to me Twilight,” Applejack cautioned, “It looks awfully, uh, what’s the word for-”

“Symmetrical?”

“Yeah, that’s it!”

“Well, you’re right, it does seem artificial in nature. The surface is too geometric to be natural, and even a crystal wouldn’t form this perfectly.”

Pinkie Pie began shaking all over, which her friends knew meant a “doozy”. They had enough experience with her Pinkie Sense to know to watch for anything it warned of. They all backed away slowly from the unnatural artifact before them, not taking their eyes off of it.

***

Mark opened his eyes a second after the pod came to a stop, just as he meant to do. He undid his harness, and checked his equipment. He grabbed his weapons, a loaded M392 Designated Marksman Rifle with his right hand and a loaded M319 Individual Grenade Launcher with his left. Slinging the grenade launcher onto the magnetic strip on the back of his armor, Mark hit the button to shoot the canopy off of the pod, having seen no obstructions in the way.

***

The seven friends who had discovered this anomaly saw the side of the object facing almost completely away from them fly off, with a loud crump accompanying the launch, and a thud when the segment hit the ground ten yards away. They rushed to the other side, and the figure emerging from the construct became apparent. It was a biped vaguely similar in shape to Spike, sans the tail, a little less than twice their height, colored in olive green, gray and black. There was a slight blue glow on parts of it and they glimpsed what looked like a single shiny blue eye shaped like a shield. At least, they thought it would look like that based on the assumption that its features were symmetric.

Its motions were rapid as it exited, but it was not twitchy or hyperactive like their pink cohort. As it proceeded, it raised what was obviously a weapon. A notion of fear went through them all, and they gasped.

***

Mark heard an audible gasp - or what sounded to him like a gasp - and whipped around with his rifle at the ready. What he saw surprised him: six colorful miniature equines, two with wings, two with horns, and two without either of these.

“What the hay are you?” the purple horned one asked in a tone laden with fear. It was in a defensive posture, head low to the ground and rear elevated. He recognized a look of genuine fear on the alien’s face.

The translation software in Mark’s helmet said it was regular English, meaning that his suit didn’t actually have to translate anything, which automatically put the program on standby. This puzzled him, and he decided to respond, lowering his rifle, but keeping it at the ready. He decided to act somewhat diplomatic, given that he intimidated these seemingly docile beings.

“You first, as it would seem I’m the guest here,” Trying his best to be diplomatic. He didn't have a lot of confidence in that particular ability.

“Y’all speak English?” a non-horned, non-winged one wearing a Stetson hat and sporting a palomino-like color scheme countered.

“I’m kinda shocked that you do too, and even more since you have a southern American accent.” Mark paused, hesitant to give his own name despite what he'd explicitly been told, but decided that a first name would suffice. “Call me… Mark. Your names?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle.” The purple horned one.

“Applejack.” The palomino one, hat, southern accent.

“Name’s Rainbow Dash.” Sky blue, winged and with a rainbow mane.

“I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pink, puffy mane. Hyperactive.

“Rarity, at your service.” White, violet mane, horned.

“I’m- I’m Fluttershy.” Yellow, pink mane, winged, soft voice.

“And I’m Spike.” Bipedal, reptilian, purple and green.

“You wouldn’t mind telling me what you all are, would you?”

“Don’t y’all have ponies where you come from?” Applejack asked.

“Well, Applejack and Pinkie Pie are earth ponies, Rarity and I are unicorns, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are pegasi. Spike’s a baby dragon. Earth ponies are strong, pegasi can fly, obviously, and unicorns can use magic.” Twilight Sparkle explained, which left Mark with more questions.

What the hell? I land on an alien planet, and my welcoming committee is talking mythological creatures? And they speak English too?

Okay, one possibility is that human mythology is partially true - with regards to supposedly mythical creatures - and aliens at some point duplicated or moved them to this planet. Given the length of time since the Forerunners ruled the galaxy, they might have moved most of the populations of such creatures to this planet before they activated the Halo arrays, during which time since the Forerunners died out, the creatures developed sentience and unusual abilities and traits. Humans would know of them from the remaining non-sentient variants that could have died out fairly early in recorded history. That would also allow for dangerous creatures that could’ve killed the FC team. That seems like a reasonable hypothesis, I’ll go with that.

I'm really overthinking this.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked Mark, probably wondering why he suddenly went silent.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was thinking about how strange of a situation I’m in.”

“And what the hay are you?” Rainbow Dash demanded, hovering in place with an obvious leer.

Mark hesitated, before deciding not to reveal anything more than the name of his species, wary of another genocidal alien race.

“Human.”

“That’s impossible, there’s no such thing as humans. Besides, you only have the vague shape of one.” Twilight Sparkle said dismissively, waving her hoof and smiling.

“Well, ten minutes ago I would’ve said the same about unicorns, pegasi, and sentient ponies in general, so right back at you. And the reason I only have the outline of a human is because I’m wearing a something that covers my whole body. Your turn.”

“Okay, well assuming that’s true, I have several questions. Why are you here, why would you need armor, how did you get here, and why are you carrying a weapon?” At the last one, Twilight pointed to his DMR, which he still had drawn, but was carrying in a safe, lowered position.

“I’ll answer those in order, not because I trust you, but because you might be helpful. I’m here to investigate the disappearance of a first contact team, whose objective was to establish peaceful diplomatic relations with the inhabitants of this world; that means you. Because my people have a lack of information on the circumstances under which the aforementioned team disappeared, it’s best to take precautions in case they were killed and whatever killed ‘em is still around. I got here by a drop pod, which you saw. Something caused my pod to veer off course, which resulted in my landing here. And this weapon is a safety precaution.”

“More questions.” Twilight said nervously, but still smiling. She didn’t realize she’d interfered with his job.

“Sorry, but I’ve got about…” Mark checked his mission timer “Damn. I’d have to cover 10 klicks in 20 minutes. Well, looks like I’m on my own.”

“On your own?” Rarity this time.

“I dropped with a team. I woulda landed near them, but like I said, something screwed up the trajectory.”

“Ooh! Ooh! You can come with us! What kinda food do humans eat? You can stay at one of our places!” Pinkie Pie was ecstatic, wanting to make a new friend, finding it exciting to possibly gain an alien one.

“I’ve still got a job to do, but it couldn’t hurt to set up a base of operations ahead of time; my team can handle themselves. As for you question, humans are omnivorous, so we can eat fruits, veggies, nuts, meat, starches, some fungi, as long as it ain’t poisonous. I’d like a minute to think.” Mark said.

My armor should be able to analyze the edibility of any foodstuffs available in the field, but I brought seven nutrient bar rations, enough to sustain me for about a week. Hopefully, I won’t have to use them all. If I do, the food around here is likely edible to some extent, assuming my current hypothesis explaining the presence of mythological creatures is correct. If it’s not edible, 100,000 years is sufficient time for evolutionary adaptations to take place, so my hypothesis wouldn't necessarily be disproven.

What’s more, it would be a good idea to set up friendly relations with the locals, because it would help to accomplish the objective of the missing FC team, as well as allow for an outpost to be established.

“Alright, given the situation, I think it’d be best if I stayed at one of your places. Who here has a place with enough room for me? I'm sorry I can't answer your questions, but it isn't safe for me to stay in the open.”

“I do, I got a barn at Sweet Apple Acres, a bit east ‘o here. Y’all are welcome to stay there, long as ya don’t cause any trouble,” Applejack offered. “But uh, it might be a bit hard getting ya there without attractin’ a lotta unwanted attention.” She followed that with a worried smile.

“East, huh? Well, that puts it right in the path I was gonna take. As for not attracting attention, I can do that more easily than you think. Just head for that barn you mentioned, and tell me when I can come out of hiding. I’ll be there, don’t you worry.”

He faded into a faint shimmer and disappeared.

"Whoa!"