Halo: The Interlopers

“Star-Swirl the Bearded? But the last time anypony saw you it was over a thousand years ago! How can you possibly still be alive?”

“Twilight, there’s a lot of things magic can be used for, and immortality is one of them. Now if you’ll allow me to explain,” Star-Swirl began.

The aged unicorn cleared his throat and sat down.

“Now, the last time I was publicly seen was mere days before an expedition I had planned. I traveled to a castle in the Everfree Forest, the very one where you and you friends discovered the Elements of Harmony. At that time, there were ponies living there, but the lower levels were said to be under the influence of mysterious powers. My goal was to investigate these anomalies, and to that end I brought my most trusted students. One of them was your ancestor, Twilight; Clover the Clever. You look just like her...” The ancient mage stroked Twilight’s chin a few times, and Twilight jerked her head away in disgust.

“We discovered a structure beneath the basement of the castle; one made of angular metal and hosting a form of magic nopony had ever even heard of before. As we formulated a plan to move past the metal barrier, it opened on its own, and a voice beckoned us in. We cantered into the facility, awestruck by the projections of planets we never knew of, and the seven facilities known as the Halo installations. We were greeted by a floating metal orb with a yellow eye, calling itself 147 Adjutant Reflex; it explained to us in great detail the history of the installations, of the Forerunners, of our own planet’s fauna.”

I knew it, mythical creatures being on another planet had to be the work of the Forerunners! Mark thought.

“Reflex explained to us that Mark's race were to be the Reclaimers of the Forerunner Ecumene; but it also told us that this planet was to hold those races who would share the vast inheritance of the Forerunners with humanity. This is not our homeworld; it was colony of other species before we so much as developed the first signs of sentience. It showed us the races who had already learned from the ancient technology, and worshipped their creators as gods.”

“The Covenant,” Mark muttered.

“Exactly right, Mark! We were shown the brutality of the Covenant, the way they subjugated other races into their collective, and we resolved to prevent the forceful integration of Equis into their hegemony by any means necessary! We learned the truth about our ‘magic’, the truth behind our abilities; these abilities were not natural, they were the result of artificial means! Something that could be the result of self-replicating nanomachines passed from generation to generation, unknown to Equis’ population, allowing unicorns and alicorns to generate and control fields of energy and enabling the use of so-called ‘spells’! Or it could be something else entirely beyond our understanding. These are abilities given to us by the Forerunners to ensure that our intelligence would not be wasted in otherwise helpless bodies! With these nanomachines, or whatever is the source of our powers, even earth ponies can grasp and manipulate objects without the need for hands!”

Twilight was shocked, devastated, fascinated, confused and angry all at once as this revelation came about. The notion that the natural abilities of unicorns and alicorns were nothing but the result of mechanical objects in the bodies of the living affected her in a way that could be described by nothing short of the phrase “world-altering discovery”.

“Thanks to Adjutant Reflex, we found a way to prepare ourselves for defense against the inevitable Covenant invasion. My group used a Forerunner device to teleport to Earth, to disguise ourselves as humans, to mingle and steal their technology. We disseminated this human technology among ponykind; we worked our way into the highest echelons of power we manipulated our world to resemble that of humanity, right down to every motion picture and war and song. The unique changelings you have no doubt seen are the result of a breeding program instigated and directed by me, the goal of which was to enable important ponies to be replaced and events controlled. By doing this we created new form of safety and order on Equis!”

“The Holocaust, the Roanwandan genocide, the threats of Mutually Assured Detruction that define the Cold War? Every ounce of strife on this planet?” Twilight shouted.

“All the work of the Watchers’ Cabal, Twilight! That is why we resemble humanity so much! That is why we make war upon each other! Why we use technology clearly not meant for ponies!”

The room went silent. Almost a minute later, Star-Swirl resumed.

“I take it you are aware of the excavation in Canteral Park?”

Both Twilight and Mark nodded.

“That structure was built when the Forerunners roamed the stars, when ancient Sangheili actually existed peacefully alongside the Forerunners. It was a testament to their cordial relations before the Halos were fired, and it was built to be a beacon to any ship or device using Forerunner technology on some level. The Covenant were going to come here eventually, it was only a matter of when. That is why I have brought strife to this world; so that we would be prepared to face the alien onslaught that would come! This is why I'm detaining you; to prevent the consumation of the prophecy I mentioned earlier.”

“You knew? You knew they were coming? Why didn’t you warn somepony!?” Twilight demanded.

“Warn whom? Ponykind at large?”

“They’re here and killing us by the thousands because you did nothing to warn us!”

“That’s right Twilight, the owners are back! Waking the systems, firing up the boiler, here to spring clean the old family residence, and not much liking what they’ve found festering behind the fridge! Can you blame them, really?”

“You’re a monster!” Twilight spat at her former idol.

“I see I’ll be making no progress with you two tonight. Spiracle, do what you will but keep them alive. Oh and Twilight, I think you should know that your parents are the first in your family line to not be a part of the Cabal. Their brothers and sisters and parents and cousins are all part of it, and I'm rather disappointed that the most talented unicorn in generations isn't one of us, and neither is her brother.”

Star-Swirl the Bearded left, and the beatings began.

***

Mark’s implants said he had been captive for eight days now. It felt more like months. The irregular light cycles, sleep deprivation and inconsistent periods of time between serving meals began to take effect as was intended, all meant to diminish the prisoners’ sense of time. They made Mark and Twilight feel like they had been captives for much longer than they had.

Still they had remained unbroken. Still they resisted the efforts by the Cabal to turn them to their cause. Still they persisted in their defiance. Still they suffered.

On the eighth night of their captivity, Mark and Twi were thrown into their cell together, unbound. They were too tired to try to formulate an escape plan. After a few hours of sleep, nightmares awoke them both. They’d had enough.

“Twi,” Mark whispered.

“Yeah?”

“I heard one of the guards talking about an event they had planned for us tomorrow.”

“So?”

“I also heard him say where our stuff is stashed; if we can get to that place, we can gear up and get the fuck outta here. They also said they got a few UNSC troopers held here too, and they’re in on the event that’s planned.”

“What kind of event do they have planned that has you so sure we can escape?”

“Have you ever heard of Russian Roulette?”