Halo: Equestrian Campaign

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
chapter 3
chapter 5
chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
chapter 4

Chapter 1

“Solus, please report to the deck immediately. Captain Chambers wishes to speak with you.”

The voice of the ships A.I. buzzes off the intercom as quickly as it had come, leaving you to contemplate what the captain wanted. You decide it would be better to ask her than waste your time guessing.

You grunt as you stand, heading over to the small mirror in the corner of your room to make sure you look presentable.

The undamaged parts of your armor shine a bit when they catch the light from the fluorescent light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The other pieces were either burnt by plasma or smothered in dirt and ash from the firefights you just recently gotten into. You shudder slightly when you think back to those skirmishes, back to what you had just escaped.

Reach, the last remaining human stronghold besides Earth. It had taken less than two months for the battle to end, and it ended the same way every other one had. Covenant ships entered the planets atmosphere and blasted its surface with plasma, burning away everything. After the “glassing” all that remained was a chunk of floating rock devoid of any form of life.

You had just managed to get off world when the glassing had begun. By the time your ship, “The Thermopylae” was entering slip space you could see the silhouettes of entire continents bursting into flames, oceans evaporating, and the lights of cities going out permanently.

You are snapped out of your reflection by the sound of the intercom clicking on again.

“Solus, please report to the deck.”

“On my way, Leon.” you reply to the A.I.

________________________________________________________________________

By the way the ship was rocking you could make a pretty good guess as to what the captain was going to tell you. The elevator doors slide open and you walk onto the bridge where you are automatically greeted by a tall woman with long brown hair and glasses, Captain Marie Chambers.

“Evening Solus,” she begins “, I’m sure that by now you’ve already come up with some sort of idea as to why I requested your presence”

You shrug your shoulders, “We’ve cleared the random slip space jump and ended up in an enemy system?” Chambers gives an approving nod, and continues.

“Close, but not quite,” she starts “,We HAVE cleared our slip space jump, but, fortunately for us, we are NOT in Covenant territory. My pilots are telling me that we jumped further then we should’ve and ended up in uncharted space.”

“That doesn’t explain why you needed me.”

“I was getting to that. It turns out we were followed by a Covenant CAC ‘Class Assault Carrier’. It attacked us immediately upon arrival. We’ve been holding our own against it but that is subject to change.”

Suddenly a bright blue figure flickered to life next to you. It looked like a large man with a muscularly carved body and a hard face. He wore nothing more then a leather loin cloth and a cape. In his right hand he carried a short sword, while his left arm had a large bronze shield strapped to it.

“I have come to the conclusion that we are out gunned and out manned,” he began in a gruff voice “, and with the crew as it is we have a thirty-three point three continued percent chance of success.”

“That bad?” you ask.

The blue figure shrugs his broad shoulders, “Those are the statistics for the best case scenario Solus, the chances of our survival are most likely lower.”

“Thank you for the input, Leon,” Chambers quickly cuts in “, but I think its about time we told Solus what we're planning.”

________________________________________________________________________

All the inhabitants of Ponyville stood outside their houses, mouths agape and eyes turned towards the heavens. The normally dark blue night sky was replaced with two oddly colored clouds that swayed like tall grass around the edges, one purple the other orange. Surrounding the strange clouds were countless shooting stars, except they didn’t streak in a small line and disappear like normal ones. No, they flew around, looping in circles and zigzagging back and fourth until they exploded into a purple or orange ball of fire.

Everypony gazed in awe at the unexplained phenomenon, all but one.

Twilight Sparkle remained in her library, searching frantically for her book on astrology. She had looked through every one of her bookshelves labeled “A” a dozen times, yet her search bore no fruit. She Groaned in exasperation as she searched for, and failed to find, her book for the umpteenth time.

“Spike!” she shouted to her young assistant “Have you found the book yet?”

The purple dragon sprinted into the room, holding a thick book under his arm.

“Sorry Twilight, turns out that book was taken out an hour or so ago.” said Spike in an apologetic tone, as if it was his fault.

Twilight spun around and faced the dragon, “What? Who took it out?”

Spike held the large book out for twilight to see, “Whoever it was took it out without asking. She wrote her name down in the ledger, but I cant make it out.”

Twilight grabbed the brown leather bound book from the dragons hands with her magic, and levitated it in front of herself. Spike was right, the name was illegible. What did it say, Lyda, Tira? Whoever it was must have taken the book in a hurry, wanting to consume the knowledge it held as soon as they could.

“Perfect, just PERFECT,” the lavender unicorn shouted “, now what am I gonna do? I was hoping to figure out what’s going on, but now the last book on space we had is GONE!

“Settle down Twilight,” interjected spike, hoping to calm his friend “, maybe the princesses know what’s going on. We could send them a letter?”

Twilights body shrank down a bit, her muscles relaxing as she regained her composure. She gave an approving nod to Spike and he immediately began to write down a message to the sibling monarchs.

________________________________________________________________________

You leisurely walk towards the ships hangar, talking to Leon as you go.

“What can you tell me about the system we’re in?” you ask.

You hear your helmets com click on as he answers your question.

“Radar scans have shown three satellites: one sun, one planet, and one moon. I took the liberty of sending out probes to the surface of the later two. The planet is mostly made up of water, seventy-five percent is covered in it. The rest is covered by varying landscapes, from frigid mountains to scorching deserts. Like Earth, the atmosphere is mostly made up of oxygen. Coupled with the fact that familiar vegetation was detected, this planet is capable of supporting human life.”

“How is it that we haven’t found this place after hundreds of years of space travel?”

The super computer is quick to answer your question.

“There are still plenty of planets to be discovered, Solus. Remember that this was a random slip space jump, hundreds of planets have been found in ways similar to this.”

Before Leon can berate you even more you assault him with another question.

“Can you give me a quick run through of the captains plan again.”

“Certainly, you are to lead a small strike team into the Covenant fleet. While our fighters draw the enemies fire you and your team will land on the CAC and attempt to take it out from the inside with remote detonated charges. After the charges are set you will escape using the ships escape pods on the starboard side. Once out your drop ships will fly back around and pick you up.”

The mission was near impossible; you knew it, Leon knew it, Chambers knew it. It was more likely that you and your whole strike team would die on that ship, even if you set the charges you would probably have to detonate them while still inside.

You were getting closer to the hangar now, but one more question entered your mind.

“Who will be in my strike team?” you ask.

“You will be accompanied by forty volunteers, they are made up of twenty-five standard military personnel, five special operatives, and the remaining ten are local militants we picked before we left.”

Suddenly your interest is piqued “what kind of special operatives?”

“All five are ODST’s,” continued Leon “, they’re OMEGA squad to be specific, led by a Sergeant Webber.”

Webber, that’s a name you haven’t heard in a long time. You smile behind your visor, and begin to run towards the hangar; eager to see your old friend.

Chapter 2

Arcadia: October 9, 2549

*BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM*

You unload a clip from your assault rifle into an elite, dropping its shield and ending its life seconds later.

As you crouch back down into cover, several marines stand up and unload their guns into the oncoming Covenant. The alien squads’ blood floats in the air like a cyan cloud for a split second, before falling to the ground and mixing together into a thick brown puddle.

“CEASE FIRE!” you shout, “They’re falling back.”

You use this moment of peace to reload your weapon. Reaching down to your belt to grab a full magazine, you discover that you are all out of ammo.

“Damnit.”

“Need a gun, Solus?” A voice calls from behind you.

You turn around and see a young man standing behind you. A thin layer of blonde hair covers the top of his head, and even though his face is smeared with purple gore, you can make out two bright blue eyes beneath the alien muck. His right hand holds a silenced SMG out for you to take, while his left arm cradles a dented ODST helmet.

“Thanks, Webber,” you say, flipping the gun from ‘safe’ to ‘full-auto’. “I owe you one.”

He gives you a fake evil eye. “Its okay, I like pistols more, and how many time have I asked you to not call me Webber?”

“The same amount of times I’ve told you to not call me Solus.” you shoot back. You hate that stupid codename. It translates into ‘alone’, and that’s not something you want to be.

Webber pulls a packet of Sweet William cigars from an ammo pouch attached to his waist. He offers you one, which you decline, and then offers them to the remaining members of your squad. No one accepts.

“Fine, suit yourselves,” he says as he lights one for himself. “So what’s the plan?”

You take a moment to observe your surroundings. The small neighborhood you were held up in was called Abaskun, a farming community on the planet Arcadia. Eleven years ago this world was full of life, but that changed when the aliens attacked it. The UNSC Spirit of Fire had beaten the extraterrestrials, but now they were back.

You had jumped into the small town feet first with Sgt. Webber and eighteen other ODSTs, aiding ground forces in evacuating civilians. All the transports got away, but it cost you nearly all your men. All in all, only six soldiers remained.

“ I made contact with colonel Holland requesting an evac.” you start. “He’s sending a Pelican to pick us up. We hold our position here until it arrives, which will be about fifteen minutes.”

Webber turned to face the troopers. “You heard the Lieutenant, take up defensive positions. Ramsey, I want you and Heyman on top of the police station over there, and Dan I need you...”

As Webber continued to hand out orders, you prepare yourself for the oncoming battle. The SMG you had been given had five full magazines. Besides that all you had were two frag and plasma grenades. It wasn't much, but thankfully you had five other trained killers by your side with their own equipment.

Soon everyone was ready, all you had to do now was wait.

Minutes passed by, but they seemed like hours. Fear of what lay just beyond the village consumed everyone’s mind.

Suddenly, several large apelike creatures, Brutes, charged into the small town. The sound of their spiker rifles rang in your ears, but it would take more then noise to stop you.

You exit your cover to fire into the massive crowd of oncoming aliens.

*pftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpft* *pftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpftpft*

The first volley of bullets knock a Brute’s helmet off, causing it to stumble backwards. The last few enter the beast’s head; filling its face full of lead, and spraying its brains into the open.

You quickly turn to a new target and spray a swath of ballistics into its legs. The creature goes down hard, slamming its head into the dirt.

You duck back into cover to reload. The new magazine slides in with ease, just as the old one had slid out.

You risk a glance at the other ODSTs to see how they are holding up.

Webber was a few yards away crouching behind an overturned Warthog, blindly firing his M6C from around the corner of the demolished vehicle. Though most of his shots missed, the ones that did hit their mark had a devastating effect on the Brutes. Kneecaps exploded and shin bones shattered as the .50 caliber rounds hit them, sending the aliens to the ground to die in agony.

The other ODSTs were doing just as well. The two that had been posted on top of the police station rained suppressive fire into the fray, allowing the other two soldiers to pick targets and take them out using more accurate weapons.

You stand up again and unleash another barrage of bullets into the remaining Brutes. One of them is struck in the chest several times, and dies before it hits the ground. The last alien takes a few rounds to the shoulder. The wound isn’t fatal and only causes the animal to go into a frenzied rage. It charges at you full force, slamming its hard head into your gut.

The blow is powerful enough to knock your shields down, the remaining force being absorbed by your MJOLNIR armor. You manage to stay standing, planting your feet firmly on the ground and pushing back against the Brute. With some effort, you manage to shove the thing back, following up with a savage uppercut to its face. The alien’s jaw explodes into a mixture of blood and splintered bone. It immediately falls to the ground, where it cradles what’s left of the lower half of its head. You end its life with a quick slice from your combat knife, slitting its throat and splattering red gore all over yourself. You slowly stand up, slightly appalled by what you had just done. In all your years of combat you had never brutalized an enemy like that before. Looking down at your own handiwork sent a slight shiver down your spine.

“Damn lieutenant, that’s one hell of a way to kill someone. Makes me glad I’m fighting with you and not the Covenant.”

Webber’s lighthearted comment seems to blow away the cloud of shock that had suddenly formed over your head. At first you grin at the sergeant’s smug comment, but soon enough you find yourself laughing. Webber shrugs his shoulders.

“Never thought of myself as a funny guy, but by the way your acting I’m starting to think that I should’ve been a comedian.”

“Yeah..*pant*..but then..*pant*..I wouldn’t have..*pant*.. a friend.” you state between breaths.

The broken statement seems to have an effect on Webber. His smile disappears and his eyes fall to the ground. It was as if he those few words made him feel like he would throw-up.

“ Anyway,” he began as he turns away. “Ramsey cant see any Covenant outside the town, so we can assume the fighting is done, and our evac should be here any minute now. I’m going to get everyone else down here to clear a spot for our bird to lan-”

“RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!”

Webber spins around and his face transforms into a mask of terror.

“SOLUS GET DOWN!!!” He cries out.

You turn your head and see something that made your heart skip a beat. A Brute chieftain was right behind you, swinging its Gravity Hammer like a baseball bat toward your head.

The thing was too close! Could you dodge it? Could you block it? You raise your hands in an attempt to catch the weapon before it connects with you. Hopefully, you could stop the blow and disarm the Brute, but the chances of success were slim.

Suddenly something grabs you from behind and pulls you the ground. You land on your back and see the Brute’s weapon swing over you and connect with something just outside your field of vision. The object it hit is sent flying and slams into the side of a nearby building with a sickening “SPLAT!”

You don’t know for sure what that thing was, but you have a pretty good idea. A sudden rage begins to boil inside of you, and with this immense anger comes a tidal wave of pure adrenaline. In a matter of seconds, you kick the Brute’s legs out from beneath it, and get on top of it. All your hatred goes straight to your fists as you bring them down onto aliens face with blow after blow. Your brutal assault ends when you grab the Chieftain’s jaw, and with a loud tearing sound, separate it from the alien’s head.

You accomplished what may have traumatized others for life without a moment’s hesitation. None of this crossed your mind though, all you wanted to do was get to that thing that now lay in a crumpled heap near the base of the building it had collided with.

You stand over the broken body of Sergeant Calvin Webber. His right arm and leg are twisted at awkward angles, and his face is smothered in his own blood and bone fragments.

As carefully as you can, you pick him up, making sure that his head is positioned comfortably in your arms. You don’t say a single word as you walk towards the landing zone, desperately hoping that the Pelicans will arrive soon.

You feel as if you have failed, failed as a soldier, as a Spartan, as a friend. If Webber died, you would be all alone, becoming the Solus you despised.

________________________________________________________________________

It had been three years since that day.

Thankfully, the evacuation team arrived shortly after the confrontation. You and the other ODSTs were taken away to safety and Webber received proper medical attention.

If he was a normal soldier, then the surgeons would have patched him up the best they could and then either sent him home in a wheelchair or in a box.

Fortunately, he was anything but normal.

As soon as ONI caught wind of what happened they immediately sent a team of their best doctors to treat Webber.

But why?

That confused you, so you immediately began doing research. After days of reading dozens of classified files you found what you were looking for. Four documents answered your question; a volunteer roster for a biochemical test called ORION, a certificate of marriage, a certificate of birth, and an ONI personnel profile. Now all the pieces fit together.

In the mid 2490’s ONI had begun to perform biochemical tests on volunteers, these augmentations, dubbed ORION or SPARTAN I, lead to the development of the SPARTAN II project. Since all the test subjects were volunteers though, they were allowed to leave and live out their lives as they saw fit. That meant they could get married, and have children. When a subject had a child some of their augmentations were passed onto their offspring. These children were labeled SPARTAN 1.1s, and Webber was one of those children. That meant he could run faster, jump higher, and lift more weight then the average human being.

Webber’s deployment was supposed to be a test to see if the SPARTAN 1.1s were capable of combat. His incapacitation had been a major setback, and ONI still needed him. That meant they would do anything to keep him alive.

And now you were about to see how well they did in fixing the broken man.

________________________________________________________________________

UNSC Thermopylae: Present day.

The hangar doors slide open to reveal a massive room full of vehicles and supply crates. Dozens of people run around, trying to find the right tool or part needed to fix the many damaged ships. These people are all a blur to you. The only person who in the room to you who isn’t a shadow is an ODST leaning against a scorched Pelican. You wade through the crowd of bodies and finally reach the damaged ship. By the time you get there you can see the soldier in all his ‘glory.’

He wears standard ODST battle armor with the words ‘grunt killer’ carved into the chest piece. Synthetic limbs replace the soldier’s right arm and leg, and his headgear isn’t customary. Instead of a normal ODST headdress he seems to wear a helmet resembling the Spartan GUNGNIR variant. Said helmet is lifted slightly above his mouth, where a lit cigar smolders.

Without a doubt, this man was Webber.

chapter 3

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luna sat on the moon, staring intently at the strange objects that had invaded her night sky. One had appeared just after dusk, the second had arrived minutes later. As soon as both arrived they began to move in a strange way.

They shot bright lights back and fourth at each other, as if they were playing a game of tag. Wherever the lights touched a bright orange or purple flash would appear. Luna assumed they were possibly trying to ‘connect.’ What else would they be trying to do? For they continued to move closer and closer together while poking at each other with the solid masses of light.

“Has anything changed sister?” Questioned Celestia as she materialized next to Luna in a flash of light.

“No sister; these things haven’t done anything, but circle each other for the past several hours. Watching these things is even more maddening than banishment!” Luna raised a hoof to rub her aching head, “Anyway, has anypony questioned you about this?”

“Nearly Everypony in Canterlot is trying to see me,’’ replied Celestia, “I have Shining armor to thank for keeping them out of the castle. The only pony I’ve talked to is Twilight, she sent me a letter earlier asking about the ‘mysterious sky-fire‘.”

“What did you tell her?”

Celestia hung her head in shame as she answered her sisters question.

“I lied, I told her that it was nothing I hadn’t seen before, and that it would be fixed soon. I just don’t want her to panic, the last time she did the whole town of Ponyville began brawling over a doll.”

Luna wrapped an affectionate hoof around her sister.

“its alright sister, we do what we must to keep the peace. Even if it means breaking a few rules.”

“Thanks for the support sister,” said a thankful Celestia, “it’s good to know I have somepony who-.”

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Celestia stopped mid sentence as the muffled noises reached her ears. Both her and Luna turned their heads to the two metal things just in time to see three shimmering specks fall from the larger, purple device.

“That cant possibly be good.” commented Luna.

“C’mon we have to get to those things before anypony else does and figure out what they are!” shouted an alarmed Celestia.

With that the two sister vanished in a flash of light to search for the strange falling objects.

________________________________________________________________________

You tap the sleeping ODST’s helmet with your finger.

“Calvin…..you awake?”

His head immediately jolts upright causing his helmet to slid back down over his exposed jaw, and knocking the cigar to the ground at the same time.

“What the fu-, oh!” Calvin looks up into your visor. The tiny camera in the corner of his helmet zooms in on you and clicks three times before sinking back to its original position. “Solus? Is that really you?”

You take you step back so he can see your whole persona.

“In the flesh.” you reply light-heartedly

“Its an honor to see you again ser,” he says while giving you a crisp salute “, Are you going to be aiding in the drop onto the Covenant ship?”

You answer “ill be leading it.”

Calvin laughs

“I’m fine with that, but only if I fly us in. I’m the best pilot on this frigate and you know it.”

“When was the last time you flew though?” you ask, “Can you still do it even with your damaged sight?”

“The last time I flew was about a week ago ser.” he put a lot of emphasis on the last word, “It was a GA-TL1 class Longsword to be precise, I gave air support to some SPARTAN while it evacuated civilians from New Alexandria. Besides, this helmet is meant to correct your vision and enhance it; meaning that my sight is even better then it was before the Arcadia incident.

Your eyes roll with slight annoyance due the massive amount of self confidence emanating from Calvin. He was usually modest, but when it came to flying he didn’t hesitate to boast. Before he can brag more you change the subject.

“So how are the prosthetics working for you?” you inquire with real interest.

“Not bad,” he begins as he rolls his robotic shoulder forward, “they’re a lot faster and stronger than my original parts, but they pretty much had to replace half of my head with machinery so I’m subject to constant headaches. Plus, my arm and leg feel tingly sometimes, as if the real ones are still there.”

Poor guy, it must’ve been hard for him to get used to the ‘upgrades’. In most cases a normal soldier wouldn’t receive robotic limbs, but Calvin was an exception. Now he was doomed to be half man, half machine for the rest of his life. He’d be lucky if he managed to reintegrate himself into society.

But he wouldn’t want you to feel sorry for him. He was the type of person who made their distaste clear, but didn’t want anything done about it. In a way, he enjoyed being angry.

Your conversation comes to an end as Calvin turns around and begins to walk away.

“That’s enough small talk for now, Solus.” he shouts over his shoulder. “I’ll round up the rest of the team and then we can get this show on the road.”

________________________________________________________________________

Luna burst through the set of massive wooden doors to the Canterlot Libraries.

“Tia, we’ve found them!”

Celestia turned her head away from the book she was reading and fixed her gaze on her sister.”

“Good, where are they being held?”

“Well,” started Luna, “one landed on the outskirts of Appaloosa, another one touched down on Turtle beach, and the last one smashed into an old rock farm near Trottingham.”

“Why weren’t they brought to the castle?” inquired a slightly annoyed Celestia.

“That’s the problem ,sister, we tried teleporting them here, but it didn’t work, then when we tried to carry them telekinetically they wouldn’t budge. They’re not receptive to magic, even I couldn’t get it to move!” By the time Luna finished her voice was no more than a whisper, fearing that the dilemma would anger her sister.

Celestia sighed deeply, she had hoped to study the strange objects at her palace; where every resource she needed could be brought to her on a moments notice. Unfortunately, that would not be the case. Slowly, she stood up and allowed her sister to teleport both of them to the closest of the three strange objects. ________________________________________________________________________

The Elite Zealot opened the door to the com room and walked in. He knelt down on the receiver holo pad and waited for his Assault carrier to link him to the prophets. A moment later a vague image of the Prophet of Truth shimmered to life above the receiver pad.

“Ben-Hassrathee, is that you? Are you here to report your success in destroying that Frigate you so carelessly chased after, or are you here to beg for forgiveness as you hide in your chambers waiting for your immanent death to occur?”

The Zealot took a deep breathe to suppress his anger before replying.

“Neither, Great Truth, I requested your presence due to a matter deserving more concern than that floating pile of scrap the humans call a ‘ship!’”

The prophet leaned its head forward, its interest piqued by the urgency in the Zealots voice. He nodded his head and allowed the Elite to continue.

“We have found no records on the system we jumped into. Usually this wouldn’t concern me, but the interesting thing is that there is a planet here! Our scans show it suitable for human life, but the probes we sent down went dark in a matter of minutes. We managed to pick up several heat signatures though, and I believe the planet to be inhabited by something!”

The prophet let out a disappointed sigh.

“Ben-Hassrathee, your fascination with humans and astronomy will be your undoing, you must focus on reality! If you continue down this path of dreams you will certainly meet an untimely and unexpected end!”

The Zealot squeezed the hilt of his energy sword in an effort to contain his anger. He didn’t like being told what to do, and he especially didn’t like being told what to do by the Prophets. He had contemplated their true power as religious leaders several times before, and with each move they made he doubted them more and more.

“I’m apologize for wasting your time, Great Prophet, I will report to you again once I have finished with the humans.”

“Do not disappoint me Ben-Hassrathee, now go and do the gods work.” finished the Prophet.

“Thank you,” replied the Elite, “and prophet, I’m certain you wont be.”

________________________________________________________________________

Celestia examined the strange purple object for what felt like the hundredth time. It didn’t look like anything special, just a purple metal cylinder with a few blinking lights on top. In a way it looked like a decoration of some sorts, like something a pony would put in their front yard during winter to commemorate Hearths Warming. Celestia new that it was much more than a lawn ornament ,though. It was much, much more.

She stood back and thought of a simple spell, levitation. With little effort she charged up her magic and then channeled it through her horn towards the piece of space metal. It wouldn’t budge! No matter how hard she focused on moving the alien object, nothing happened. She pushed herself further and further until she couldn’t hold the spell any longer. With an angry grunt she released the spell and slowly lowered herself to the ground.

She had spent the past hour repeating the same process over and over. Examine, test spell, and fail. It was a strenuous task, and she was starting to get annoyed. The worst part about it was that the only time the object moved had been when the search party first saw it.

The top half had risen slightly. then a tiny cylinder slid out, flashed red for a few moments, and than it folded back into its original shape. As if that description was of any help. No, Celestia would only be able to figure out what the items primary function was if she witnessed it work on its own.

On top of that, nearly everypony in Equestria was searching for her. Each and every one of them requesting that she explain what was going on. It was all so much, more than she was used to.

Celestia raised her head to the sky, scanning the strange fires for any sign of change.

Nothing was different.

“No surprise there.” she muttered to herself.

Her eyes shifted to the west to examine the moon. It was slowly descending from its spot at the top of the sky, and that meant that she would have to raise the sun soon. It was going to take a lot of energy to move the massive star, energy she didn’t have.

She needed rest.

Her eyelids grew heavy at the thought of sleep. She tried to get up, to keep on working, to make sure that her ponies were going to be safe; but her legs wouldn’t allow it.

A voice in the back of her mind whispered.

“Your ponies need you at your best. Sleep, and regain your energy. You are going to need it.

Her body went limp as her brain stopped working, and she fell into a deep sleep.

________________________________________________________________________

chapter 5

Calvin’s fingers dance across the dashboard, flipping switches, pressing buttons, and pulling levers. You, on the other hand, are too occupied with your own task to even notice him. As Calvin maneuvers the Pelican through the black void of space you fix your attention on the 40MM turret mounted on the chin of the ship.

Plasma shells were launched towards you at dangerous speeds, missing your vehicle by mere inches. Any shells that threatened to strike your Pelican were stopped by a burst of rounds from your turret. It was all you could do to help Calvin reach the Carrier.

*BLAM, BLAM, BLAM*

You release another volley of high caliber rounds into an oncoming projectile. Most of the shells explode before they could reach you. Unfortunately the ones that you miss fly past your shuttle and engulf the other Pelicans behind you in a cloud of blue fire.

“EVERYONE HOLD ON, WE’RE CLOSING IN ON OUR TARGET!” shouts Calvin.

You turn your head away from your coordinate screen to peer out the cockpit's forward window. Calvin was right, the Covenant ship was incredibly close now.

“we’re gonna make it!” you whisper “thank goodness.”

________________________________________________________________________

A cold sweat began to form on the Zealots brow. It wasn't because of the human shuttles that were getting closer. No, he was afraid of what was on them. The ship leading the charge flew unlike any other. It was designed for transport, yet it glided through space like it was meant to be a fighter. The elite had seen skill like that only once before, and the very thought of that encounter sent a chill down his spine.

“Demon!” he said beneath is breath. If a ‘SPARTAN’ was flying that Pelican than there was no telling how much damage it would do.

“Aim all of our cannons at the leading ship!” he shouted. “bring it down, bring it down, BRING IT DOWN!”

Dozens of plasma shells shot forward towards the Pelican. All of them missed their target as the ship swerved upwards. It rolled to the left, and then moved back down to its original position.

Ben- Hassrathee said a silent prayer to his gods, begging them to remove the Pelican from existence.

A second volley of plasma shells were released. Again, the pelican managed to avoid all of the rounds, allowing them to fly past it and smash into the other shuttles behind it.

The shuttle was getting very close now, the elite could make out the human numbers printed on it. He closed his eyes tightly. Knowing that one way, or another the end would come soon.

His carrier shook again as their cannons fired once again, and then everything seemed to stop. No more shells were fired, the pilots, and engineers didn’t speak a single word. All that could be heard was the whirring of the engines.

Ben-Hassrathee slowly opened his eyes, and what he saw sent a wave of relief through his body. The few remaining human shuttles were retreating, and the one that carried the demon was not among them.

________________________________________________________________________

Calvin desperately fought for control of the Pelican. He had abandoned the act of pushing buttons and flipping switches. Now all his attention was focused on the throttle that he violently pushed and pulled on, trying in vain to regain his hold on the shuttle.

“Dan, status report!?!” shouted Calvin.

“Shields are at zero percent, sir! Our left engine took the full force of the blast, and the splash damage punched a hole in our fuel storage!” replied an anxious Dan.

“Divert all power into back-up motors, and deactivate or main engine. I don’t want the gasoline to ignite. Once that’s done we’ll need to turn the ship around and hope that we have enough power to float back to the Thermopylae.”

Daniel was quick to perform his task, and with a few flips of a switch the Pelican went dark. Everyone held their breath as the shuttle floated aimlessly in space, waiting for the energy reserves to reactivate the light bulbs that hung from the ceiling.

“Got it!” shouted Dan as the Pelican whirred to life again. Everyone releases a sigh of relief as the shuttle began to straighten itself out.

But all that ends when the lights go out again, and the shuttle violently shakes.

“Calvin!?” you shout over the ships engine that began to sputter and whirr. “Status report!”

It takes him a moment to reply, as he begins to tighten his seat belt.

“Remember the planet that Leon scanned?” he asks. “Well, we may have drifted too close to it, and gotten sucked into its gravitational pull. And when we reactivated the engines we shifted even closer!”

Calvin didn't have to finish for you to understand what was going on. When the secondary motors had started the ship had righted itself, but in the process it had shifted too close to the planet and was now trapped in its atmosphere.

“Everyone, brace for impact!” you shout as Calvin jerks the Pelican around so that its facing the planet. “we’re going down!”

________________________________________________________________________

chapter 6

Twilight peered through her telescope at the flaming objects in the sky, turning away a few moments later to write something down in a small notebook she had positioned on the table next to her.

“ -nine o’clock p.m.” she thought aloud. “Update on mysterious ‘sky-fire’. Nothing has changed since several unknown objects fell from above seven hours ago. Official reports from the Princess claim them to be meteorites that fell unexpectedly from the sky-fires gravitational disruption.”

“Twilight,” came spikes voice from the bottom of the stair case. “Are you still working?”

“Yes I am,” she shouted back. “and I plan to continue working until I figure out what those things are, so don’t bother trying to convince me to take a break.”

Spike rubbed the temples of his head in frustration. “Come on Twi, you’ve been at it for, what is it now? Something like ten hours. If you don’t sleep soon your gonna pass out from exhaustion. Then I’m going to have to call Fluttershy over to take care of you….again.”

“This isn't the time for a lecture Spike, there is work to be done. Just be thankful I’m not making you to help me.”

The young dragon didn't reply. Most likely deciding that he should take advantage of his free time instead of complaining to Twilight about how she spent hers.

“Another debate with Spike ends with victory” Twilight joked. “ I’m surprised a little charmer like him hasn't already learned that mares are always right.”

After jotting down a few more notes about her estimations on the phenomenon up above, Twilight returned to her telescope. She let out a sigh as she scanned the blazing heavens for any sign of change, but was disappointed when she saw nothing.

“Maybe Spike was right.” she thought to herself. “Nothing has changed, and I doubt anything will. Perhaps I should just let the Princess handle thi-”

Her train of thought ended when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something. It was a bright flaming ball falling away from the sky-fire, and down towards the planet….

…and it looked like it was going to come down close to Ponyville.

A feeling of excitement washed over Twilight's' body as she watched the blazing object grow closer, and closer.

A piece of the sky-fire was going to land close to Ponyville, and she was going to get to see it first-hand!

She watched the object fall from the heavens and down onto earth where it crashed through the leafy canvas of the Everfree forest, and out of sight.

“Shoot!” Twilight snapped. “Spike! Get up here. I’m going to need you!”

________________________________________________________________________

“BRACE FOR IMPACT!” you shout as the Pelican makes contact with the first tree. The shuttle continues to drag through the forest for a few more yards before it abruptly stops, causing you to fly out of your seat and hit your head on the ships dashboard.

The sudden collision dazes you, and it takes you a moment to compose your self. Once you regain control of yourself you observe your surroundings. The Pelican was bathed in a red light as consoles whirred and monitors spelled out “ERROR.” The windshield was fractured in several places, and it looked like water was seeping in through the cracks; not a good sign. Looking towards the pilots seat you see Calvin struggling to unbuckle himself, and Dan slumped forward. Every other ODST had already gotten out of their seat and was frantically gathering supplies from off the walls.

“Solus!” shouts Calvin. “Get Daniel out of here!”

You are quick to comply and you manage to heave the unconscious ODST out of his seat and over your shoulder. Slowly, and carefully you make your way to the back of the Pelican. With your free hand you push the release button and the back of the shuttle slides open.

Outside is a lush forest full of trees, and various other green plants that is separated in half by a flowing river that your shuttle was currently floating in. the water looks freezing and you don’t know how deep it is.

“Well,” you think to yourself as you jump out of the pelican and into the water. “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Your body makes contact with the icy water. It was so cold, you could feel it through your suit. The water is deep too, you cant feel the ground beneath your feet, and keeping Dan’s head out of the water forces you to not test how low the river really is. After exiting the water you carefully set Dan down and return your gaze to the wrecked Shuttle.

The Pelican had apparently crashed into the river and skidded along for a few meters until it collided with a waterfall. The front of it was scrunched up, and wrinkled so that the engine was probably beyond repair. The only reason you could come up with as to why the shuttle hadn’t exploded was because the continuous down flow of the waterfall had doused the flames and cooled down the hot metal before it had combusted.

The other ODST’s had followed in your footsteps and jumped out of the ship, carrying what little supplies they could without sinking. Calvin was among them, holding two battle rifles over his head as led his fellow soldiers to shore.

“We grabbed all that we could carry, Solus.” says Calvin. “but, the windshield gave out and the waterfall flooded the ship. Wont be more than a few moments before the thing sinks to the bottom of the canal.”

Calvin’s words reign true as you hear the Pelican groan under the pressure of the massive waterfall, and begin to sink.

‘damn,’ you think to yourself. ‘that isn’t good’

“What do we do now?” questioned Chris.

You decide to take control of the situation and get everything organized.

“Tyler, Brendan, I want you two to take inventory of what we supplies we have. I want a complete list ASAP. Chris, Calvin, I need the two of you to scout the surrounding area, look for shelter and any type of life. Its possible we aren’t alone. In the meantime ill take a look at Dan and see if I can get him back on his feet, understood?”

“Yes, sir” reply the four ODST’s in unison.

________________________________________________________________________

Twilight stepped outside of her home and into the overwhelming chaos of the frightened citizens of Ponyville.

“I should’ve known everyone would've reacted like this.” she sighed.

After a few minutes of maneuvering herself through the frenzied anarchy of pedestrians she managed to reach the town hall. On the steps to the front door stood the mayor, trying in vain to calm the citizens of her town.

“-please, can everypony calm down! We’re contacting Princess Celestia right now, she should be here to fix the problem in just a few-”

“BANG”

The loud noise managed to silence everypony as they all turned towards the source. Soon, all eyes fell upon Twilight as her horn's magical glow faded and she walked onto the steps of town hall.

“Everypony, listen up!” she shouted. “I’ve been studying this phenomenon for quite some time now, and I have gained no knowledge to suggest that it is harmful in anyway. What fell from the sky may or may not be a piece of the sky-fire. If it is indeed a portion of it, then we need to find it immediately. Then we can figure out what it truly is and find a way to get rid of it so we can get on with our lives. Do you all understand?”

There was a collective mumble of “yes’s” from the crowd of weary ponies.

“Good,” finished twilight. “So for now, I want everyone to go back to their homes and get a few hours of rest. Then we will meet up here at five o’clock a.m. and organize a search party.”

The crowd of ponies dispersed as Twilight finished her speech, retreating to their homes to attempt to get a few hours of sleep before the next day.

“Thank you Twilight Sparkle,” said Mayor Mare. “I’m certain I wouldn’t have been able to get things under control if it weren’t for you.”

“It’s no problem Miss. Mayor,” replied twilight. “All in a days work. Now I suggest you try and get some shut-eye, we’re going to need you tomorrow.”

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 7

You look over the large, menacing structure in front of you. It is a stone castle, centuries past its prime. The outer wall has crumbled to nothing more than a mound of bricks, several towers have collapsed into pieces, and the remaining formations are so ancient that they appeared to be stained black by the constant abuse of the elements.

Chris and Calvin found the old fortress two miles away from the crash site during their search. It wasn't what you’d call a “high quality establishment,” but for now it would suffice as your home. Besides, the very existence of the structure meant that there was some form of sentient life on the planet at one time. which meant that there was an increased likelihood of finding a way to get off-world and back to the Thermopylae.

Though your team had found shelter, it did little to balance the good and the bad. Yes, you had a roof over your head; but you had little to no supplies, food, or weapons. Add onto that the fact that you lost all communications with the Thermopylae, and you had yourself a shit-day.

“Sir,” shouts Tyler. “We’ve finished taking inventory, ill upload the list to your HUD.”

Within a moment, your visor lights up with a tiny list of supplies.

____________________________________

2 battle rifles: 144 rounds of ammunition

1 DMR: 42 rounds of ammunition

1 assault rifle: 64 rounds of ammunition

1 sniper rifle: 8 rounds of ammunition

2 shotguns: 18 shells of ammunition

6 pistols: 96 rounds of ammunition

1 grenade launcher: 4 explosive shells

5 combat knives

1 bio-foam canister

6 water canteens

3 ration packs

_______________________________________

The lowest of your supplies was food. Sure you had a good source of clean water nearby, but three ration packs wasn’t even enough to feed everyone for even one day.

To survive you were either going to have to go hunting, or find a the inhabitants who may be long since gone.

________________________________________________________________________

“Alright everypony,” announced a joyful Twilight to the group of assembled ponies before her. “As you all know something fell from the sky last night, and landed in the Everfree Forest. I believe it to be a piece of the mysterious material that is currently occupying the area above our heads. I’m certain that if we manage to find the thing that crashed and study it we can learn what it is. Using that research we can figure out a way to get rid of the ‘Sky-Fire’ and go back to our normal lives.”

Twilight stopped to make sure that her accumulated audience was still listening. Satisfied, she happily continued with her speech.

“I’m going to need everyone of you to cooperate with me. The more you comply, the quicker this situation will clear up. Do we all agree?!”

The majority of the ponies in the crowd didn't share in Twilight’s enthusiasm. After the commotion last night they had gotten little to no sleep at all, and fatigue was beginning to take its toll on them. Though most of the ponies felt like they were about to pass out from exhaustion they managed to nod their heads in agreement.

“Good!” exclaimed twilight. “Now if you’ll please give me your full attention, ill start explaining my plan.”

Twilight then proceeded to magic up a white board and several sharpie markers. She took a moment to make a quick sketch of several triangles and various other shapes..

“This drawing represents Ponyville, the Everfree Forest, and it’s surrounding area.” Twilight paused momentarily as several audience members snickered at her crude drawing. Once their giggles had been stifled, she continued. “Last night, we all saw the mysterious object fall into the forest. That is where I suspect the bulk of it to be located. What I need you to do is go into the woods and search for it.”

A few ponies whispered back and forth to each other about the dangers of entering the forest, but they were soon silenced by Twilight’s continued speech.

“Collecting the material is very important to my research, but that doesn't mean you have to go looking in the forest. I know its dangerous to venture there so I will not force you to do so, but if anypony here is willing to do so, then please step forward now.”

A moment passed and nopony stepped forward. Most were uneasy with the whole situation in general, and being asked to enter one of the most dangerous places in Equestria did nothing to comfort them. After a few more moments of silence, a few ponies hesitantly emerged from the crowd to offer their assistance. After the first handful volunteered more followed, and soon enough a host of nearly thirty ponies had agreed to trek into the forest.

“Thank you all very much.” sighed a relieved Twilight before she turned her attention to the rest of the crowd. “All of you who didn't volunteer will look for fragments of the Sky-Fire in and around Ponyville. My assistant, Spike, will organize you into groups while I work with those who are going into the Everfree.” Twilight motioned for the bolder members of the assembly to follow her as Spike took hid place in front of the larger crowd of ponies to arrange them into separate groups.

The lavender mare casually led her small unit of ponies towards the Everfree forest. Once they reached the edge of the woods they were met with the sight of a multitude of wooden chariots. There were dozens of the rustic carts lined up in neat, orderly, rows. Each one had a harness fit for two ponies at its front and a wagon in the back with space enough to hold three more equines.

“Ok everypony, listen well because I will only say this once!” shouted Twilight from the head of the group. “I will be dividing you up into six groups of five. Each unit will be made up of two Pegasus, two earth ponies, and one unicorn. The Pegasus will hitch themselves to the harnesses of the chariots and fly above the canopy of the forest while the earth ponies and unicorns keep an eye out for signs of the crash. Judging from the estimated size of the object that fell from the sky, it should have left a pretty big crater in the ground so finding it should be fairly easy. Only when you land to collect samples will things become risky. I will leave it up to your group to decide on how you will go about gathering the material. Just make sure you are careful, the forest is a very dangerous place and I don’t want anypony to forget that. Does everypony understand?”

Everyone in the crowd seemed content with Twilights plan, and soon enough found themselves being organized into separate groups and getting safely strapped into their chariots. Not before long, all five chariots were airborne and making their way across the sky in hopes of finding the piece of the luminescent Sky-Fire.

_______________________________________________________________

You slowly stalk across the muddy earth of the forest, careful not to make a single sound. You and Chris had been tracking an animal through the woods for over an hour and you didn’t want to scare it away. It was really starting to bug you that you hadn’t managed to kill the damn beast yet. It was almost like it was purposefully evading you, but an animal intelligent enough to elude a Spartan for so long was hard to comprehend.

“Solus,” whispers Chris over the intercom. “over here.” Quietly, you shuffled next to your companion to see what he had found. Peering over his shoulder you mange to get a look at what he was inspecting. It was an indent in the ground that closely resembled a horse hoof. From the looks of it the print was fresh, probably just a few minutes old. Finally, you had found the confounded beast’s trail!

“lets hurry,” you murmured to the ODST. “we don’t want to loose it again.”

Chris started in the direction of the trail, and you followed close behind. After a short while you yourself begin to see the obvious signs of a panicked escape. The animal had all but abandoned its stealthy maneuvering, and was now making a desperate attempt to flee from you.

You were getting closer!

Both your’s and Chris’ excitement gets the better of you and you broke out into a full sprint. For as fast as you run, the ODST manages to keep up with you. Adrenaline was pumping through your veins, and it wasn’t long before you saw vegetation rustling ahead of you.

“Chris, flank it on the right!” you hungrily shout to your companion. “We’ll try to box it in!” The ODST nods in conformation and then disappears into a thicket of trees. You slow your pace minimally so that Chris will be able to keep up with you. The chase continues on for some time as you dive, duck, and slide through the foliage of the forest. The beast is tiring now, you can tell. You grow closer and closer to the unidentifiable black and white striped blur, close enough where you can almost reach it….

“I see it! Shouted Chris as he emerges from the brush ahead of you. In the split seconds between the time he appears and calls out to you he raises his silenced battle rifle and fires a burst of three rounds at the animal. Instantly the vegetation ceased to move and everything goes silent. You take a few tentative steps towards where your prey had fallen…

.. Only for the mysterious blur to lurch at you. The animal’s attack causes you to evade backwards into Chris. The two of you collide and are sent tumbling down a ravine that had previously been hidden by the forest’s growth. Time seemed to slow as you fall further and further down the violent slope.

You and your attendant finally hit the bottom of the incline with a resounding thud. Thankfully, Chris had landed on top of you instead of the other way around. After you help you cohort to his feet and checked him for any broken bones or fractures, you turn your attention to the surrounding area.

The place from which you fell was fairly high up, not surprising since it caused your shields to fizz and nearly break. The trees were thinner down here and fewer in between. Leading you to assume that you were close to the edge of the forest. The thought of what lay beyond the woods piques your interest, and soon enough you find yourself signaling Chris to follow you in the direction you believe to lead towards the end.

You trek on through the ever thinning forest for a few minutes until you reach a sudden break in the trees. What you see when you exit the woods sends a wave of relief through you. in front of you spanned hundreds and hundreds of apple trees. Each and every one full of ripe fruits that were pleasing to the eye. Not only is your food problem resolved, but off in the distance you can make out wooden buildings with lights flickering in their windows and smoke pouring from their chimneys.

“Calvin, do you read me? We have a first contact situation, I repeat, first contact situation.”

Chapter 8

Ben-Hassrathee observed the scene outside his observation deck with an overwhelming sense of pride. Before him, suspended in zero-gravity, was the burning remains of the human frigate ‘UNSC Thermopylae.’ After the failed assault on his ship, the humans had all but given up the fight. Ben-Hassrathee had annihilated their vessel in a single grand assault; firing every weapon simultaneously at his target until it was nothing more than a floating pile of slag.

“A day that will go down in history!” he enthusiastically thought aloud. “A demon slain, a human frigate single handedly destroyed, and a new planet discovered!” His gaze shifted from the wreckage to the planet that lay below him. The prophet didn't need to know of his victory just yet. At the very least, he felt he earned his desired sojourn to the planets surface. “Fin’Rah!” he shouted to his personal bodyguard outside his room. “Prepare for a reconnaissance expedition, we going to do some exploring.”

_______________________________________________________________________

You look at the darkening sky with a feeling of great sorrow. What was once a scene of two massive cruisers doing battle in the sky, was now a grim and lonely moonscape that featured a damaged covenant ship floating amongst the remains of a human vessel.

Your thoughts shift to those of who you knew; Captain Chambers, Leon, and the few brave soldiers who were prepared to risk their lives on a mission that was destined to fail. You feel like you should mourn, or say something to your remaining comrades, but words would fall upon deaf ears and crying would do no good either. Instead, you swear to get back to fighting the Covenant as soon as possible and make them pay for every life lost onboard the UNSC Thermopylae.

Thankfully, your discovery from earlier gave you and your men a much needed glimmer of hope. The country-like settlement you stumbled across was obviously inhabited and well maintained. Not only had the settlers survived without advanced technology, but they had thrived. Chances of getting off world were incredibly low, though, since no obvious signs of highly developed machinery were present. Regardless of how primitive the population was they were still a sentient form of life, and having someone to talk to besides five other trained killers would be nice.

Speaking of the inhabitants, you had grown quite curios about them. Though the town was obviously occupied, you hadn’t managed to catch a glimpse of those who lived there. It greatly perturbed you, and the thoughts re-occurrence in your head was a constant annoyance. Whatever they are, you hope that they are friendly.

________________________________________________________________________

Twilight patiently sat on the porch of Applejack’s house, waiting for her research teams to return with good news. She was shocked that they hadn’t found anything, something as big as the meteorite that crashed couldn’t possibly be that hard to find. Twilight sighed and sank down deeper into her chair.

“What a waste of time,” she grumbled to herself . “ I should have just let the Princesses deal with this. Instead of just waiting all day I could have aided them in researching this, or done something, heck, anything prodctive.”

As twilight continued pouting, she failed to notice the figure that was hobbling towards her with utmost urgency. It wasn’t until the pony was at the steps to the porch that Twilight took notice of her.

“Huh? Zecora what are you doing here?” Twilight’s Zebra companion stood gasping for breath just a few feet in front of her. From the look in her eyes she was obviously scared, and the way she favored one leg over the other led Twilight to believe that she was also injured.

“What happened?” asked Twilight. “You look hurt, are you okay?" Zecora lifted a shaky hoof to silence Twilight before she spoke.

“Something attacked me in the forest, you see.” rhymed Zecora. “A beast never seen before by the likes of you or me.”

Twilight was taken aback by her friends statement. ‘Something never seen by the likes of you or me?’ Twilight knew an awful lot about the creatures that inhabited the Everfree forest, but not nearly as much as her striped friend did. And if Zecora had never seen the likes of the beast before, then its presence in the forest didn’t spell a good omen.

“What was it that did this to you?” asked Twilight. “I have ponies in the forest looking for something, and if there is a feral animal in there with them then they could be in even more danger.” Zecora closed her eyes to think back to her harrowing experience before she explained to her lavender friend what had happened.

“I encountered a two-legged creature earlier, before noon. It was made of black metal, with a stripe pattern of maroon. The thing watched me with it’s chrome featureless face, and soon after I left; it gave chase.”

A black, bulky creature with a flat shiny face? this certainly didn’t sound like anything Twilight had ever read about. She had hoped that Zecora had only been in shock from the attack and that a simple description of the monster would match up with something that she had heard about before, but the zebra’s strained rhymes only served to addle her brain even more.

“I ran as fast as me hooves could go,” continued Zecora. “But not after long I began to slow. I looked back to see if it was gone, only to find myself being chased by two of the spawn! I continued to flee like a crazed mustang but then I was hit by a very loud BANG!”

Zecora had practically shouted the last word, pulling Twilight out of her deep thinking and causing her to nearly jump out of her skin.

“Zecora, if this happened to you in the morning then why didn’t you come to the village sooner? Questioned Twilight, who was very disturbed by the fact that everypony in town was in danger of encountering a dangeroud animal.

“I would have come sooner, you see.” started Zecora as she presented her lightly tended wound to Twilight. “But my encounter with the monsters caused me great agony” Twilight was horrified by the crude gash in the zebra’s leg. It had been sown shut and a balm had been rubbed on it to either lessen the pain, or speed up the rate of healing. Regardless of the treatment, the injury looked horrible.

“Thank you for coming to me to let me know.” said a grateful Twilight. “it must have been awfully hard for you to trek through the forest with that leg. Come with me, ill let you stay in my home tonight. Those things are still in the forest, and walking back to your house would take too long.” Zecora didn’t protest as her unicorn companion led her towards her cozy library.

It didn’t take them too long to get there, thankfully. By the time Twilight had unlocked the door to the tree house, Zecora was about to collapse from the pain and exhaustion. As she levitated her unconscious friend up the stairs and into her bedroom, Twilight called out to her dragon assistant.

“Spike! Are you here? I need you to send out an important message to everypony who is still out searching for meteor fragments.” there was no reply at first, but before she could call out again spike emerged from the library’s basement.

“Did you call me? I couldn’t hear what you said because I was busy preparing your scie-” He was cut off mid sentence as Twilight dumped several rolled up peace of paper into his arms.

“Spike, can you handle sending out these notes to the Everfree search parties? There is something dangerous in the forest with them and they need to be warned right away!” Noticing the urgency in Twilights voice, Spike immediately set himself upon the task of using his dragon fire to send each letter to its respective owner, not even bothering to ask for details. “And when you are done with that I need you to set a kettle of herbal tea on the stove; Zecora is in a lot of pain and she is going to need it if she wants to get better.”

Before the young dragon could voice his complaint, Twilight had already disappeared into her room to attend to Zecora’s needs.

“Great,” he sighed. “I spend all day looking for rocks, and then I get to come home just to do chores. Sometimes I wish I had stayed with the dragons.”

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 9

“…three, four, five, six..”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief as the last search party walked into her library. She was disappointed that none of them had found the meteorite that had crashed down in the forest, But at the same time she was thankful that none of them had encountered the strange animals that had attacked Zecora earlier. A chill ran down Twilight’s spine as she thought back to what her zebra friend had told her.

“Over two meters tall, standing on two legs, made of metal, no face, and very dangerous. These things don’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard of before, and none of my books detail anything like them either.” Twilight raised her fore-hoof to her head and lightly massaged her temples. “They couldn’t possibly be aliens, could they?”

“That would make sense if they came with the meteor.” interjected Spike. Twilight was a bit agitated that he had been listening in on her ‘personal’ conversation, but that was prone to happen since she was talking aloud to nopony in particular. “Anyway, we should probably get this meeting underway. Everypony is really tired and would like to get a few hours of sleep before returning to the Everfree.”

“You’re right Spike, I’ll get started right away.”

Everypony silenced themselves as Twilight took her place at the front of the library. All where anxious to hear about the condition of their zebra neighbor, and about what had put her in such bad condition. The fatigue brought on by hours of non-stop work didn’t help their patience either.

“Listen up everypony!” started Twilight. “We are all tired, curious, and frightened because of what happened last night. The good thing is that we have made a lot of progress considering the fact that we only started working a few hours ago. However, we still have a lot of unanswered questions. The ‘sky fire’ which appeared last night and dimmed throughout the day is still a mystery to me as well as the princesses, we still haven’t found the meteorite that crashed down in the Everfree, and now we may have a new problem on our hooves.” Twilight took a deep breath before continuing her speech. “A lot of rumors have been going around about how a pony was attacked in the forest today. I am letting you all know now that this is true.” several gasps elicited themselves from the crowd. Twilight let her audience whisper amongst themselves for a minute before starting up again.

“Zecora, a longtime inhabitant of the Everfree, was chased and gravely injured by two creatures within the forest. She described them as being bipedal, standing over two meters tall. They were covered in metal plating from top to bottom, protection perhaps, but we aren‘t certain. She also said that they lacked a face, meaning she couldn’t make out any eyes, ears, mouth, or muzzle. Again, this could be a part of their armor, but we can’t be certain. Lastly, they carried some sort of device that made a very loud noise. It sounded like thunder, or a firework, and is most likely what caused the injury on Zecora’s leg. The likes of these animals has never been seen before in all of Equestria, and no foreign treatise holds any reference to them either.” Twilight paused for a second time to let the information sink in before resuming. The next bit of information could be a bit hard for her audience to swallow.

“It is very likely that we are dealing with an alien species from outer space. Their appearance can be linked back to when the meteorite crashed down in the Everfree. That is, after all, when we first encountered them.” This time, the crowd’s excitement was less contained. Nearly everypony jumped up at once and shouted one thing or another at Twilight. “I know it may sound ridiculous, but it would make sense if you think about it logically!” she shouted over the din.

“If they are aliens, what are we going to do?!”

“Are our families safe?”

“We should evacuate. Let the royal guards handle this, my family isn’t sticking around when there’s a blood-thirsty alien on the loose!”

Twilight stood still and let her listeners calm themselves down. After some time, they wore themselves out and returned their gaze to Twilight.

“I have sent an urgent message to Canterlot requesting for military aid, as well as an evacuation team. I beg you all to stay and continue in your efforts to find the meteorite, but you may leave for Canterlot if you feel unsafe. Anypony who wishes to do so should leave for home now and begin packing their things, evac chariots will arrive tomorrow afternoon.”

Nopony moved for a moment, each one was waiting for somepony else to be the first one to go. A petite mare was the first to leave, and many more followed after her, too many. Soon enough, only ten remained. Five were easily recognized by Twilight as her best friends. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all stood next to each other, bearing strong looks of determination.

“We’re here for you Twilight!” confirmed Rainbow Dash. “It’ll take more then a few space-ponies to scare us off!”

“Darn right!” agreed Applejack.

“Well, I certainly appreciate all you doing this for me, but what about your families. Applejack, Rarity, what are you going to do about your sisters?” Rarity was more than happy to step up and lend her aid.

“No need to worry darling, I have connections in Canterlot. They would be more than happy to give shelter to any friends or family of ours who need it.”

“Well that’s a relief. Rarity and Applejack, you should go home and get your sisters packed. Like I said before, I’m not certain about what we are dealing with here, and it would be for the best if they were away from Ponyville as soon as possible.” Both ponies nodded and exited the library.

“Meet me back here tomorrow.” Twilight called after them before turning her attention to her other three friends. “Of course, the same goes for you. Rainbow Dash, could you do me a favor and make sure Scootaloo is ready to go as well? I dunno if she has anypony looking after her right now, so it’s probably for the best if you check up on her.”

“Yes Ma’am” jeered Rainbow Dash, shooting her friend a cocky salute. “I’ll get right on it!” And with that, she flew out nearest window to complete her task.

“Pinkie Pie, you can go on home. Let the Cake family know about what’s going to happen, and help them pack up if they decide to leave.”

“Alrighty Then!” Shouted the exuberant pink earth pony as she bolted out the front door so fast, Twilight’s head spun. “I’ll see ya’ tomorrow.” After finding her balance, Twilight turned to address the last Element of Harmony in the room.

“Fluttershy, what are you going to do about your animals?” The timid pegasus shrugged her shoulders before responding.

“Well, I’m definitely concerned for them. I can’t imagine what those metal creatures would do to them, it would be too horrible. I may just let them run free for a while, animals have a way of sensing danger and finding good places to hide from it. Sending them to Canterlot would be preferable, though I suppose it’s more important that ponies get to safety first. Plus, I can’t imagine the royal guard would be comfortable carrying anything like a bear all the way to Canterlot.” The two friends shared a quick laugh at the thought of royal guards struggling to fly a full grown bear several miles to the capitol of Equestria.

“Alright Fluttershy, if you think letting your animals loose is the best course of action then I wont argue with you.” After Twilight sent her last friend away she turned her attention to the last five ponies in the room. One Pegasus, one unicorn, and three earth ponies.

“I appreciate your commitment to the situation,” complemented Twilight. “but I’m not sure how I can use you. I doubt one Pegasus is strong enough to carry a cart of four other ponies, so using a flying chariot is out of the question. The evacuation effort is handled, and I doubt the town needs any more security, what with the Canterlot Guard arriving soon. Do you have any suggestions?” The lone unicorn of the group stepped forward and addressed Twilight.

“We were all collaborating a few moments ago while you were talking to your friends, and we think we’ve come up with a way for us to be of assistance.” She paused for a moment to collect her nerve before continuing. “We are all willing to venture into the Everfree forest again and resume the search for the crashed meteorite.” Twilight was a bit taken aback by this.

“Wait, let me get this straight. You five are volunteering to go back into the Everfree forest despite the fact that there are dozens of dangerous monsters there, including the ones that attacked Zecora and are potential aliens from outer space?”

“Well, ma’am, when you put it like that it sounds like an insane plan, but we all think we can handle it. That thing that fell into the forest yesterday could be the key to figuring out what’s going on here, and the five of us feel as if it is our duty as citizens of Equestria to aid you in whatever way we can.”

“Again, your loyalty is notable, but I can’t let you go alone into the forest. It’s simply too dangerous for a hoofful of farm ponies to handle. I mean, you wont even be able to search by air, you‘ll have to look for it on hoof.”

“Lets not jump to conclusions here.” butted in one of the earth ponies. “Not all of us have worked on the farms here our whole lives. My two brothers and I served in the Equestrian Royal Army for two terms each, and that mare your talking to is a magical student from Trottingham University.” If Twilight was supposed to be impressed, she wasn’t. She had seen stronger stallions venture into the forest before and come back looking deeply disturbed. It would take more than a miracle for the five of them to venture forth, find the crashed meteor, and return to Ponyville unscathed. Unfortunately, it seemed the ragtag quintet was not to be dissuaded from their path, and they were adamant on doing this.

“Alright,” sighed the librarian in defeat. “,you can go. Just promise me that you will return here at the first sign of danger. The last thing I want is any of you hurt, or worse…”

“Don’t worry ma’am, we’ll be fine.” asserted the unicorn. “We’ll set out early in the morning tomorrow and head for the section of the forest that wasn’t searched yet. If we find anything, we will notify you immediately.” With that, the five of them got up and left for the night, each giving Twilight a curt nod before passing through the door.

The purple mare mentally berated herself, there must’ve been something else she could have had the five remaining volunteers do. Now they were all set risking their lives over a chunk of rock that happened to be located in one of the most dangerous places in all of Equestria. There was nothing she could do now to dissuade them. The only thing she could do was hope that they would make it back alive by tomorrow evening.

Chapter 10

You gaze into the night sky with a sense of severity. You could have sworn you had seen something through the forest canopy. It was just a shimmer, like sunlight reflecting off of water, but you weren’t certain of what it was. Perhaps your eyes were just playing tricks on you, it had been a long day after all.

If any of your equipment on your helmet had been working, you could’ve seen it for sure, but there was some sort of sludge in the air that was interfering with all of your armor functionalities. From your crosshair to your HUD, everything was fading and flickering out. It was almost like an undetectable EMP blast had fried all your batteries, but that wasn’t the case because some things still happened to work properly.

Unfortunately, there was no way to be certain whether you saw something or not. Your equipment was mostly broken, and you couldn’t waste your teams energy on a hunch. You’d just have to be extra careful in the near future on the off chance you truly had seen something. But as for now, it was time you divvied up the work for tomorrow.

“Alright men, listen up. As you’ve been told, we have discovered a small settlement just a few miles from our current location. We don’t know anything about it’s inhabitants; not how they look, act, live, nothing. The one thing we are certain of, however, is that they have managed to survive on this planet long enough to set up what appears to be a thriving settlement. That means they might be able to help us. Maybe not help us get back home, but help us endure here. Tomorrow morning Chris and I will get as close to the town as possible and see if we can get a visual on it’s inhabitants. It would be nice knowing what we are dealing with, no surprises. While the two of us are doing this, I want the rest of you finding more provisions for us. Tyler and Brendan will hunt, while Calvin and Daniel will grab us a couple more apples from the orchard we found. Am I understood?”

“Yes ser!” they all reply drowsily. It had been a long day for your men, and they hadn’t taken the time to rest since your arrival on the planet so it came as no surprise to you that your they had grown weary.

“Alright, lets get back to our supplies and rest up. I’ll take the first watch, I’ll wake Calvin to take the second shift in about two hours.”

________________________________________________________________________

Ben-Hassrathee ordered his soldiers to set their ship down near the swathe of broken trees amidst the overgrown forest he had discovered. It obviously wasn’t natural, and he had an idea as to what had caused it.

“Set the ship down over there and disembark,” he ordered the pilot. “I want all of you keeping an eye out for the remains of a human ship. It looks like one may have crashed around here, and I want to make sure there are no survivors. Do what you must to send us forward on our great journey.”

The Elite leader hit the ground with his soldiers as they searched for the downed human ship. It didn’t take them long to find it, all they had to do was follow the trail of carnage it had wrought on the forest’s ancient flora. It was mostly submerged in water by now, and looked fairly damaged. It wasn’t very likely that anyone had survived the crash, but the boot prints they found leading away from the crash site told them otherwise.

“Spread out and see if you can find the survivors!” ordered the Zealot. “Rendezvous back here in five minutes. We will make camp away from where the enemy fled and sleep here for the night, the sun’s radiance will ease our search in the morning.”

Ben-Hassrathee was boiling over with excitement. It seemed this recently discovered planet was to become his new hunting ground.

Chapter 11

“All clear, proceed forward.” You whisper to Chris via your headset, one of the last remaining functions of your helmet that works.

“Moving up.” he responds as he leaves his position behind the tree line and advances towards the village ahead. He moves forward a few yards before pausing, dropping to one knee, and signaling back to you that it’s safe for you to advance as well. You do this over and over again until both of you are at an appropriate position to examine the town without being seen.

“Keep your finger off the trigger,” you remind Chris. “we’re only here to observe. If we are noticed and things go south, we will fall back to our camp in the forest.”

“Understood, ser.” responds Chris as he drops the bipod on his sniper rifle and activates the scope. He scans around the town for sometime, looking for any signs of intelligent life amongst it’s many rural structures. The sun has been up for an hour or two now, so it would make sense that someone was awake and active. It was only by chance that you catch a bit of movement out of the corner of your eye.

“Chris, re-adjust your aim to the left. It looks like something is being moved from the settlement.” surely enough, there were five small animals following the road out of town. However, there was no one with them. Perhaps they had broken out of a pen?

“I see them, looks like some kind of equine species. Roughly the size of a large dog, but they look rather strange. How ‘bout you take the rifle, get a look at them yourself.” Taking the rifle from Chris, you zoom in on the animals and check them out.

Sure enough, they were equine, ponies perhaps? However, there was something different about them. Their coats were a variety of vibrant colors, not like the ones you were used to seeing. Also, their bodies were more rounded, and there eyes were enormous. It was almost like looking at a cartoon character in real life.

“You’re right. They do look like horses.” You tell Chris as you give him back his rifle. “Probably just a rowdy bunch that broke out of their stable.”

“I don’t know about that ser,” replied Chris as he peers down the scope again. “because to me, it looks like they’re…well…. Talking with one another.”

“Repeat that,soldier. Did you say talking?”

________________________________________________________________________

Twilight gazed at the small group of ponies she had spoken to last night as they trotted off into the Everfree.

“Don’t worry, Twilight, I’m sure they’ll be fine.” Reassured Spike. “Besides, you have a big day ahead of you. Like it or not, a lot of people here are looking to you for leadership. Try and put on a strong face, for them.

“I wish it were so easy, Spike. I know I need to be brave for the sake of everypony else, but it’s hard to be when so much rests on your shoulders. It’s even harder when there is a perfectly reasonable excuse to be afraid.”

“Well, you know what they say. You can’t be brave without being scared first. The emergency chariots will be here any minute now. C’mon, i’ll walk with you.” Twilight smiled a bit at Spike’s words. It always amused her at how wise he could be at times. Especially when he was so immature at others. Besides that, he was right. Not only did she have to act brave for the townsponies, but also for herself and the friends she surrounded herself with.

________________________________________________________________________

“Luna, wake up!”

The princess of the night yawned as she was shaken awake by her older sister. In most cases, she would be mildly annoyed, but the past day or so changed things. Luna had been forced to work overtime to cover for Celestia, who was busy trying to figure out what was going on with this mysterious type of fire that had appeared in the sky.

“What is it, sister?”

“I think i’ve figured out what caused the little phenomenon above our heads.” responded Celestia. “ I wanted to tell you what I found first.” It didn’t take long for Luna to wake herself up after hearing this, she was just as curious as everypony else in Equestria as to what was going on.

“What did you find?”

“I’ve spent a long time examining these things that fell from the sky. They are unlike anything we have ever encountered before, and I think I know why.” Celestia paused for a second to make sure her sister was paying full attention. “ These things are obviously not natural, they were made by something that is far more advanced than our nation. They’re like large cameras that can be dropped or launched from great distances, and they can record much more than videos or pictures. Inside it, I found a device that was recording other information about our planet. It had picked up dirt samples, and had data on what our atmosphere was made of. Something from that fire above us sent that device down here to examine and learn about us. I think whatever it is plans on coming down here.” Luna was silent for a moment, all that information was a little too much for her to take in all at once.

“Sister, if what you say is true, then I believe we should start to prepare. There’s no way of knowing if what’s coming is a friend or an enemy. We must put our military on full alert, they need to be ready if this alien creature is dangerous. Do you have any idea where this thing might arrive at?”

“We can only guess at that.” responded Celestia. “I’d say it’s a safe bet that it will first appear near where one of the machines landed.”

“I’ll send a garrison immediately to those locations,” Luna interjected. “and what of the thing that fell into the Everfree? Should we send protection to Ponyville as well?”

“We will send something in time. Not only is aid already being sent, but also the six elements of harmony live there. I’m sure they’ll be alright until other cities have been secured.”

“Very well, Celestia, let’s get things underway immediately, we don’t have time to waste.”

“Agreed.”

Chapter 12

The Cutie Mark crusaders frantically ran around their club house, grabbing anything and everything they could and shoving it into their bags. The relief chariots had just arrived, and their sisters wanted them to be on them and away from Ponyville as soon as possible. There was no way of telling when they would come back to Ponyville, so they were taking whatever they might need while away.

“Applebloom, did you grab the extra cutie mark checklists?” asked Sweetie Bell.

“I thought Scootaloo was supposed to get those. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. We have at least three already packed, we can’t spend time grabbing something we don’t need. Our sisters are probably already coming to get us.”

“Don’t worry guys, I did grab them.” chimed Scootaloo. “And you’re right Applebloom, we have to leave now. I don’t want Applejack to scold us for taking too long!” With that, the three fillies crammed the last few things into their bags, and lit out of their clubhouse as quick as a whip. They ran as quickly as their legs would carry them, which wasn’t very fast considering the loads they were carrying. The path they followed seemed to go on for ever, and the scenery showed little signs of progress. It wasn’t until they began seeing apple trees lining their path that they knew they were getting close.

“Girls,” wheezed Applebloom. “If we cut through the orchard here, we can get to my house faster. We can grab some water and let my sister know where we are so she won’t be angry with us.” The other two nodded in agreement and followed their yellow friend off the beaten path and into the apple orchard. From what they could see, the house was getting closer. For a change, their plans seemed to be going just as planned. That was, until, they were stopped in their tracks by two large, black, bipedal creatures.

“Calvin, you sure we aren’t too close to the house?” asked Dan. They had left the camp to get more apples shortly after Solus and Chris had gone to do recon on the town.

“Don’t worry about it, kid.” replied Calvin. “I wouldn’t have us get this close if it weren’t necessary. These are the only trees left with apples on them, it was only by chance we came across those worm ridden ones yesterday. It’s September, after all. Apple season began about a month ago. Makes sense that there so few left this close to the house.”

“But what if the locals see us? We’re not equipped to handle a first contact situation.”

“Hey, we may not be politicians, but it’s not like we’re gonna shoot them. Relax, Dan. Look, the farmers are probably up and working already. If they’re not here, then they’re working somewhere else. We’ll be gone before they make their way over here. So give it a rest, and help me pick some more of these.” Dan tensed up a bit before letting out a long breath. Hesitantly, he lifted a makeshift bag up for Calvin to drop some apples into. Suddenly, Dan dropped the bag, spun on his heel, and shot his hand down to the handle of his pistol.

“You hear that?”

“Careful, watch your trigger discipline. What is it?”

“Sounds like footsteps. Somethings approaching, to the right!” Both soldiers pulled out their weapons, but kept their fingers off the trigger. There was no way they were going to shoot without being sure they were in danger. Slowly, they turned to the direction the noise was coming from, only to find three small animals gazing at them with wide eyes.

“Don’t think we’re in any danger here, Dan.” Chuckled Calvin. “Go ahead and put your gun away.”

“Yes sir.” Dan slid his pistol back into his holster before stooping down to pick up the bag he’d dropped. “Think we got enough of these to keep us fed for a day or two?”

“Yeah, think we’ll have introduced ourselves to the locals by then. Hopefully they’ll help us out.” Calvin slowly walked over to the three small animals that sat frozen looking at him. “Think these things are pets? They sorta look like horses.”

“Probably are pets, they look like they’re regularly cleaned and fed. And they certainly do look equine, but there’s something off about them.”

“You mean like their eyes? Damn, those things are big.” Calvin knelt down on one knee to get a closer look. The three creatures seemed to tense up a bit as he got closer to them. “Yeah, my money’s on pets. Just look at them, poor thing’s are scared of me.”

“Wouldn’t you be?” asked Dan.

“Fair point.” Calvin turned his full attention to the three fillies before him, slowly reaching out his hand to the yellow one in the middle. “Don’t worry, little guys, we’re not gonna hurt you.” Just as Calvin was about to lay a hand on it, the creature reeled back and let out a shrill scream.

“Jesus Christ!” shouted Dan. “Calvin, get away from that thing!” The ODST drew his sidearm again with his free hand while his comrade got to his feet. The three animals noticed the menacing figure brandishing his gun and immediately retreated behind a tree deeper into the orchard.

“Well, Somebody definitely heard that. C’mon, Dan, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Why the hell did you try to touch it? Damn it, we’re gonna be in some shit now! The two ODSTs immediately ran back to the forest, never chancing a look back to see what may have begun pursuing them.

Chapter 13

“Twilight, something horrible has happened!” Applejack burst into Twilight’s Library. The purple unicorn spat out her tea in surprise as the orange pony ran through the front door.

“What? What’s going on, what’s happened?”

“It’s my sister! She said her and her two friends saw something in the apple orchard. When I asked her what it looked like, she said it was two large monsters covered in black that stood on two legs. Twilight, it’s just like what Zecora saw! Those...things are real, and they’re moving closer to our homes!” Twilight froze for a moment. She had no idea what to say. There were more than one of those things that had attacked Zecora, and they were bold enough to get as close as Sweet Apple Acres.

“That’s… not good.” stuttered Twilight. “We know they’re dangerous, i don’t want to think about what they’re planning to do. Is Applebloom alright? was she hurt?”

“Fortunately, no. Nopony was hurt, but one of the things got really close to them and tried to touch my sister. When she screamed, it ran away towards the Everfree.”

“Well, that certainly confirms where those things are hiding. Applejack, make sure your sister and her friends are on the next chariot out of here. I’ll let the others know what’s happened, and make sure they spread the word. Hopefully that’ll kick this evacuation into gear. Celestia willing, we’ll get everypony out of here before those aliens come around here again.”

“Alright, I’ll get on that right away.” With that, Applejack sprinted out of the library, and back to her house. Twilight remained in her home for a moment longer, taking time to collect her thoughts. Taking a deep breath, Twilight got to her hooves and walked out the door.

“No time to panic. If I want everything to work out, I need to move fast.”

Slowly, you and three other ODSTs stalk through the dense forest. You’d been following the five ponies from the village for about an hour or so now, taking note of their behaviors. It was by chance that you and Chris happened to cross Tyler and Brendan while they were hunting. Or maybe it was luck. If you hadn’t run into each other,the other two might have ended up hunting and killing the horses.

The equines spoke with each other like other sentient species did. Fully comprehending them was hard, however, as their language was quite disorienting. It was structured like english, and used english words as well. However, it was almost like they were only half speaking english. Some words sounded nothing like anything you ever heard of, and that was especially disorienting when one whole sentence was made up of something completely foreign to you. Fortunately, you were at least able to understand what they were doing out here. It seemed your crashed Pelican had caused a bit of a stir in the local town, and this group had volunteered to go out and find your ship so that they would know exactly what it was.

The five horses had gotten pretty close to where the ship had crashed. They found the trees you had knocked down and had followed the damage to the river, now they were following the stream up, and would arrive at the submerged ship in a few minutes. You and your soldiers followed close by, using the trees and foliage for cover.

“Ser, I’m getting something on my Comm.” whispered Chris. “It’s full of static, but i’m getting bits and pieces of it. Sounds like Calvin and Dan are trying to get our attention.”

“Patch them to me.” you reply. “Calvin, can you hear me? I’m boosting my signal now, you do the same.”

“Do you hear me now?” buzzed his voice.

“Yeah, reception isn’t perfect but I read you.” You glance at the ponies walking away from you before crouching down and giving your full attention to Calvin.

“Good, now listen. Dan and I got more food from the apple orchard. However, we had an encounter with some of the local wildlife.” You had a bad feeling this wasn’t going to be good, but you kept quiet and let Calvin continue. “Three small animals approached us in the orchard. They were about twelve inches tall, had big eyes, and each one was colored differently. When we approached them, one of them let out a high pitched scream, like one you’d hear from a kid. After that they ran and hid. We didn’t stick around to see if anyone would come to investigate, and made our way back to the forest.”

“Calvin,” you cut in. “Those things you described aren’t animals, we think those are the civilians of that village we saw earlier. Everyone else is with me, we’re tracking five bigger ones through the forest.”

“What makes you think they’re the locals?”

“They’re talking with each other.”

“Talking?”

“Yeah.”

“Guess that’s a dead give away. Explains how that smaller one screamed.”

“You probably scared the hell out of that thing. We’re heading back to camp now, once we get back we’ll need to figure out what we’re going to do. The locals are already on edge because of our crash. We need to contact them sooner than later to avoid making them more nervous.”

“Alright, Calvin out.” You click your come off and turn to face the ODSTs.

“Looks like Calvin and Dan had a run in with the locals. We’re heading back to camp now to discuss what we’re going to do about that. Move out.” You only manage to take a few steps before a loud noise freezes you in your place.

*ROOOOAAARRR*

You spin on your heel to the direction the sound came from. You couldn’t see the source, but it seemed to come from further up the river. The same place those five ponies were walking to.

“What the hell was that?” asked Tyler. “Ser, should we investigate? The locals might be in trouble.”

“You’re right,” you shoot back. “Ready your weapons, we might have a fight on our hands.” You and your three ODSTs arm yourselves and run further up the river to where the horses were going. It doesn’t take long to find the source of the noise as well as the locals. On the river bank, right next to where your ship crashed, were five ponies and a massive creature you had never seen the likes of before. It was huge, covered in thick scales, and had three heads. It roared again, even louder this time, and struck at the ponies. What appeared to be a unicorn, as well as one regular horse, were struck by it’s massive claws and sent flying into the murky river. You needed to act before the others were hurt.

“What the hell is that thing?” shouts Brendan.

“Doesn’t matter!” you scream back. “Whatever it is, it’s going to kill the locals. Chris, hang back and use your sniper rifle. Brendan and Tyler, you’re with me. We need to get that things attention!”

“Yes Ser!” they all respond. You flip the safety off of your assault rifle and charge forwards towards the monster. Once you get close, you raise your gun and fire a long drawn out burst at one of its’ necks. Most of the bullets are deflected off of it’s scales, but a few manage to punch through and lodge themselves in the beasts hide. The animal lets out a surprised screech before turning its’ attention towards you. Before it can make a lunge at you, two more bursts fire from your squads’ weapons. Again, most are deflected. However, it is obvious that certain areas of scale are beginning to chip away.

“Focus your fire on one spot at a time!” you shout as you unload another hail of bullets at the animal. “Work together to take out each head, direct your fire to the middle one first!” The other two streams of bullets switch to all fire upon the middle neck, just below the head. The beast raises it’s right forearm to protect it’s center neck.

“Solus, watch your nine!” shouts one of your soldiers. You twist your head to the left and then roll backwards to avoid one of the other heads striking at you. When you get to your feet, you are immediately knocked sideways as the other head whips around. It only takes you a moment to recover. Your shields are dropped, but your metal armor had absorbed the rest of the blow. Unfortunately, you had dropped your automatic rifle, and are forced to switch to your pistol. The smaller caliber rounds do a lot less damage to the scales, and the smaller clip size isn’t helping either.

The thing was beginning to advance on you and your men. It was growing bolder as it’s wounds grew more severe. The head to the left made to strike at you again. You turn to face it and brace yourself for impact. The head dives at you, it’s mouth opened wide. At the last second, you reach out and grab its large fangs with both hand. With some effort, you manage to wrestle the head down to the ground, and then pin with with your knee. Quickly, you draw your pistol and fire several rounds directly into it’s eye. The other two heads scream as the other one goes completely limp. The head to the far right makes to strike at you before you can recover. However, before it can reach you, it is turned into red mist as Chris hits it spot on with an armor piercing round. The center head goes limp mere seconds afterwards as the two other ODSTs finish peppering it with bullets. You take a step back and recover your breath. There was little time to examine your handiwork, as there were some locals in need of your assistance.

“Chris, keep us covered. I don’t want this things mate catching us by surprise. Brendan and Tyler, you look for those two that were thrown into the river, they may have been washed downstream a bit. I’ll check on the other three.” You jog over to the three relatively unharmed ponies huddled together. You slow as you approach them, and get on one knee. You reach your hand out to them and reassuringly saw “Don’t worry, we’re here to help.” The ponies seem a bit apprehensive to go to you, but it seems to be more from shock than fear. You can understand that, though. You did just save them from a gargantuan armored monster.

“What..the hell...are you?” whispers the foremost stallion. Fortunately for you, he kept his speech basic. If both sides did that, the chances of a misunderstanding were a lot less likely.

“I’m a human, a warrior. My people call me a SPARTAN III.” The ponies seemed to understand the basics of what you said. Slowly, they relax and approach your outstretched hand. They seem a little skeptical of you still. To make sure all future relations were going to be good, you had to get them to trust you. “Your friends were hurt, and they need help. Will you let us? We can take care of you.” All three exchange glances with each other before looking to you and nodding in agreement. “Good.”

“Ser, we found the other two.” Tyler’s voice buzzed over the weak comm link. “They’re alive, but in pretty bad shape. We might be able to patch them up if we make it back to our camp now. If we take too long, they’ll die.”

“And you’re certain we wouldn’t be able to get them to the settlement?”

“We could try, but our camp is closer. If we try to get to their village, they’ll go untreated longer.”

“Alright, take them back to our camp. Make sure Chris goes with you. Brendan and I will follow you with the other three.” You cut the Comm and turn your attention back to the three ponies before you. “We found your friends. Stay close to us, and we’ll make sure you’re safe. Our camp is not far from here.” Again, the ponies just nodded in agreement. “Ok, let’s go.”

Chapter 14

Twilight lay awake in her bed. Even though she had been out working all day and long into the night, she couldn’t seem to find sleep. Some may say it was the nerves or the stress, and maybe those things had something to do with it. But Twilight knew what it really was, it was the five ponies she had let go into the forest the day before. She should have just told them that she didn’t need their help, that there was no need to go into the Everfree. Now, nearly a whole day later, she had not heard a single word from any of them. Something horrible had likely happened to them. Probably eaten by a hydra, turned to stone by a cockatrice, or killed by the alien things that had appeared just after the meteor fell. Whatever the cause, Twilight had let those ponies go out into the woods and they weren’t back. Though nothing was certain, the guilt felt awful.

The sun was going to be up soon, and Twilight had barely slept at all. She was about to get up and make another glass of warm milk when something strange happened. It started off as low murmur, but soon turned into some type of whirring noise unlike Twilight had ever heard before. As the noise grew louder, a foreign glow descended onto ponyville, illuminating the town square with a faint blue glow. Twilight ran to the window to investigate, and what she saw made her jaw drop.

Floating in the dark sky above Ponyville was the weirdest thing she had ever seen. The top of it was a deep purple color, its underside was silver and dotted with cyan lights. there was no way to describe the shape of the thing, as there was nothing to compare it too. However, by the way its edges curved and how it just floated in one spot it reminded Twilight of a type of spirit, except corporal.

The floating device hovered in that one spot a moment longer before descending down to the ground. Twilight tore herself away from the window and ran to the door. Whatever this thing was, Twilight needed to deal with it immediately. The longer it went unattended, the more likely it would cause unnecessary panic to the remaining townsponies. Twilight burst through outside and cantered to the town square, arriving just in time to see the strange device finish its descent. Apparently she wasn’t the only pony left in town having a hard time sleeping, as a handful of other ponies had converged as well.

The floating thing got close to the ground and then froze again about four meters up. Everypony watched in amazement as a hole opened on the bottom of it, and a powerful blue light poured out. What followed the light caused a collective wave of gasps to escape from the onlookers. Descending from the light came the strangest, most intimidating creatures the ponies had ever seen. They stood upright on two legs, and had long arms that hung low at their sides. Their faces were grotesque, consisting of two beady eyes, and a jaw that split into four razor sharp mandibles.

Could these be the creatures Zecora and the fillies had encountered? Twilight thought to herself. Their appearance almost matched the descriptions she had been given. No, they couldn’t be. these things were not covered in black, and they certainly did have a face, a very grotesque one at that. That either meant the others had been horribly off in their description of what they saw, or there were now two different alien species in Equestria. Twilight wasn’t very comfortable with either idea. The largest of the aliens looked out at the assembled locals, quickly examining each pony before turning his attention to another. Finally, he turned to Twilight and their eyes met. gazing into it’s cold black pupils sent a chill down the unicorns’ spine. She could tell that there was something hidden behind those eyes, some type of ferocious hunger. Twilight prayed that whatever it was, that it wasn’t malicious.

You gaze to the east, squinting a bit as the first rays of sunlight peaked over the horizon. It had been a rough day for you and your ODSTs yesterday. It had taken a lot of effort to treat the injured ponies you and your men rescued. Three were relatively unharmed, needing only some bandaging to cover a few nasty scratches. The other two that had been directly hit required a lot more attention, having sustained several broken bones and deep gashes along their bodies. Fortunately, with enough bio foam, you had managed to stop all bleeding and stabilize their condition. However, your supplies were finite, and there was only so much your first aid material could do. That meant the ponies were going to need real medical attention if they were going to survive. After a few hours of rest, you and your men left camp with the locals to escort them back to town. You figured it was best to do so. If anything, the ponies that were with you could vouch for your good nature and help avoid any misunderstandings.

However, something had come up that put a halt on your plans. The Covenant had arrived and deployed elites into the town. It didn’t appear to be a military occupation, but the damn aliens wouldn’t leave. You’d been waiting and watching on the outskirts of town for nearly an hour now while the Covenant refused to leave.

“Ser, I have bad news.” whispered Brendan. “The bio foam is decomposing, and we don’t have enough to reseal the wounds. If we don’t get the locals into a hospital soon, they’re going to start bleeding out.”

“Noted.” you replied. “The way I see it, we have two options. Wait for the Covies to leave and risk the locals dying, or move into the town to make sure these guys get the treatment they need. Thoughts?” The soldiers mull the thought around in their heads for a moment before Calvin responds.

“I say we move in. Covenant’s been in there for a while now, I don’t think they’re leaving any time soon.”

“I agree,” chimed Dan. “We stay here, the locals will die. That won’t look good to the ones in town.” You look at the other three, they say nothing and nod in agreement. You turn to the three other ponies that had accompanied you thus far.

“We need to get to the hospitable, but our enemies are in the town. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were looking to hurt us. We’re going in anyway so that your two friends get the help they need. Where is the nearest place for them to get treatment?” They listen hard to what you say, and take a minute to respond.

“Hospital is on the other side of the village, close to the outskirts.”

“Thank you.” You turn back to address your men. “You heard them. We’ll make our way around to the other side of town. Once there, we’ll need to use stealth to make our way through the village and to the hospital undetected. If we move fast enough, we may be able to utilize the lack of daylight. Brendan and Tyler, you carry the injured ones. Everyone else, pair yourself up with a local. I’ll take point.”

“Yes ser!” they respond.

“Alright. Then let’s move out!” With that, all eleven of you briskly make your way to the other side of town. You stay low and keep your distance, the dawn gloom does well to hide you from any prying eyes in the village. It doesn’t take long to make your way to the other side, giving you plenty of low visibility time to work with. At the edge of town, you can vaguely make out the silhouette of the hospital in the distance.

“Gentlemen, target is in sight. It’s past a few buildings at twelve o’clock. Let’s stay off the main road and make our way to the back of the building. If we can’t find a rear entrance, we’ll be forced to circle around to the front of the building.” Your ODSTs nod and follow you down a back alleyway, their assigned ponies sticking close to their sides. As the sun climbs higher into the sky, you finally reach the back of the hospital.

“Dammit, no door.” curses Calvin under his breath. Looks like we’re gonna have to use the front.” Everyone crouches and slowly walks around the corner of the building and towards the front of the building. Something off to your left catches a ray of sunshine and glimmers. You drop down even lower and turn ever so carefully to see what it is. Your men immediately take action and lay low as well.

Walking down the street is a trio of Elite Zealots, each one wearing deep crimson armor and carrying plasma rifles. Accompanying them is a purple Unicorn. You could tell by the way she walked and sounded that she was nervous. However, she appeared unharmed. A good sign that the Covenant hadn’t taken military action, and instead chose to act diplomatically.

“This is where most of our more advanced facilities are located,” stuttered the unicorn. “This town is fairly isolated, so we don’t have access to the most advanced technology, but we manage.” It was like the mare was giving the Elites a tour of the town. Maybe they were using her as a guide to search for you and your soldiers?

The elite sputtered out some words in response to the Unicorn. It was hard to make out with your translator not working properly, but you’d managed to learn a bit of Sangheili during your time fighting them. It sounded like he was making some comparisons between the technology the locals had compared to his own. Strangely enough, the mare seemed to understand him. Maybe he had given her a translation or something? you’d heard myths about the Covenant having some kind of device that syphoned information from one organic to another, but no hard facts had been made aware to you.

“That certainly sounds impressive! We’ve only just begun research into efficient healing salves here. I never really expected it to work, but if your people managed then I don’t see why we can’t. Now, you mentioned earlier about looking for another species that you believe recently arrived on our planet?” The Elite grunted in confirmation. “Yes, we’ve had some strange encounters recently. Most have occurred near or around the forest. I can take you there right now.” With that, the pony lead the Zealots back the way they came.

“Close call.” Whispered Dan. “There could be a lot more of them crawling around here. Let’s get these guys inside and then get the hell out of here.”

“Copy that.” you reply. Slowly, you stand up and maneuver around the corner of the hospital. The front door swings open with ease as you back into it. You’re careful to duck your head down to avoid hitting your head on the ceiling. The lobby is completely empty, except for a lone receptionist at the front desk who is fast asleep. The ponies and ODSTs follow closely behind you as you make your way past the desk and towards the rooms further back. Fortunately, you encounter no doctors or nurses and find a room with two empty beds for the injured. Once they were tucked in safe, you turn your attention to the other three ponies. “This is where we leave you. Once we’re out of the building, press the emergency button to get a doctor in here. After the other aliens leave, let everyone here know about how we helped you.” The leader steps forward and lightly bows his head to you.

“Don’t worry, we will make sure everypony knows about what you did. And thank you, again, for saving us.”

“It’s no trouble at all.” You reply before exiting the room. You and your men make your way back to the lobby, careful not to make any noise to wake the sleeping pony at the desk. “Alright, now we just have to make it back to the forest undetected. If we can, we’ll leave the same way we came. Chris, check the door.” The sniper moves up and cracks open the door ever so slightly to get a look outside.

“Looks pretty clear to m-” He is cut off as a concentrated bolt of plasma blasts the wooden door open, the shot just barely missing Chris’ head.

“Sniper, get down!” shouts Calvin as he dives for cover. You kick what’s left of the door closed and roll to the left of it. A quick glance across the lobby shows all your men had made it to safety. Calvin and Chris hid behind the main desk alongside the now awake receptionist. Dan, Tyler and Brendan all shared cover behind an overturned bench. Knowing your men are all safe and accounted for, you risk a glance out the door. What you see doesn’t look good. At least two dozen elites have positioned themselves in front of the hospital, and chances were that others had placed themselves elsewhere in preparation for the assault.

“We got a lot of bogies outside!” you shout to your men. “We’re going to have to shoot our way out. Check your weapons, and get ready to go!”

Chapter 15

A torrent of neon crystals and plasma projectiles shred through the hospital door, burning holes and embedding themselves in the floor of the lobby. The nurse behind the desk screams as stray shots whiz past and disintegrate the wall behind her. You turn around and dive towards the terrified mare, wrapping your arms around her tiny equine body and shielding her with your own. A number of needles shatter against the back of your armor before you fall to the ground. Without hesitation, you raise your assault rifle with your free and fire a long burst through the remains of the wrecked hospital door. The bullets hit their mark, causing one of the forward elite’s shields to fizzle slightly.

“Open Fire!” shouts Calvin, as your ODST squadmates aim their rifles out the door at the congregation of sangheili warriors. Their combined fire forces the aliens to cease their own. The majority evade your fire and take cover amidst the wooden houses and empty stalls that litter the immediate area. Four aren’t so lucky, receiving the brunt of your soldier’s fire and crumpling to the ground in a pile of purple blood and bullet riddled armor. You turn your attention to the mare you rescued as your men cease fire and return to their cover.

“Stay calm, are you alright?” you ask the terrified nurse. She visibly shakes under your vizor’s gaze, but manages to slowly nod her head in confirmation. “Good. Get to the back of the hospital near the patients, you’ll be safe there.” You roll off the mare and train your sights out the shattered hospital entrance, ensuring no covenant soldier would be able to shoot at the mare without you pumping them full of lead. Slowly, she rises to her hooves and clip-clops towards the back rooms to take refuge with the sick.

“What’s going on? What’s going on?” shouts Twilight as she catches up to Ben-Hassrathee and his entourage of zealots. The visitor from another world had received a notification from his soldiers that several humans had been spotted sneaking into the local hospital he had just passed. Without a word to his unicorn escort, he had directed his men to return to the hospital with haste and surround it. Now that the young mare had caught up, an explanation would have to be offered up. She seemed like a reasonable sort, perhaps a tempered response would ensure her world’s cooperation for a little while longer.

“Young Scholar, it seems we are favored on this day. My enemy and your predator are in that building there. Both the scourge I seek and the animal you fear are trapped in there with no way out. My soldiers have secured every exit and will soon move in to neutralize this threat.”

“But what about the ponies inside?” stammered Twilight. “We may be peaceful, but we know what weapons and warfare are. Will you be able to-” She paused for a moment. “To deal with these aliens without hurting our sick?”

“Trust me,” growled the domineering zealot. “My men will use the utmost discretion.” A few meters away, the sizzling remains of the hospital entrance collapsed under it’s own weight.

Chapter 16

The dust slowly settles over the dimly lit hospital lobby. You and your soldiers huddle together behind what is left of the reception desk. If the Covenant decided to end this quickly with a firing squad of fuel rod guns, you wanted to have as much cover between you and them as possible. You take a moment to mull over the situation in your head before addressing your men.

“Our first priority is getting out of town. We’ve had too many close calls when it comes to civilian casualties. The last thing we need is to turn the population totally against us by getting one of their own killed in a crossfire. By now, they’ve probably got a rifle trained on every exit to this place, and i don’t expect it will be long before they start feeling courageous and storm us. We need to think hard and fast if we want to get out of here. Anyone have a plan in mind?” A moment of silence passes over you and the soldiers. Slowly, your demolitions expert raises his hand. “Tyler, what’s on your mind?”

“Well, like you said, every covey this side of the universe has got his gun aimed at our exits. That being the case, why not make a new one? Simple, I know, but we could try blowing a hole in one of the walls where there’s likely fewer aliens watching.”

“I’m down for it,” chides Brendan as he walks over to what’s left of the rear wall and tears down the remains of the hospital’s directory. “I’d wager either the west or east wing is less likely to have a door on it, so we can make a hole in whichever one is closest to the forest. Hell, we can even do it on an upper, give us a height and even bigger surprise advantage over any bogies on that side.”

It wasn’t much of a plan, but there weren’t many options open to you. With time being of the utmost importance, you opt to committing to the flawed plan rather than waste time trying to concoct a better one.

“We’re not exactly close to the forest. It’s on the opposite side of town with roughly a quarter mile of open ground between the last buildings and the treeline.” Placing a finger on the map, brendan points to where he plans on making his exit. “Just buying ourselves a little bit of time and some cover, we’ll want to make our exit through the east wing. Unless we want to be target practice for the grunts, we’re going to have to make our way through town. We’ll simply be too exposed if we make our way around the outskirts like we did to get here.”

“Puts us in a tight spot,” grunts Dan. “We’re trying to keep the fighting away from town, but it won’t do anybody any good if we’re vaporized out in the open.”

“We’ll make do.” you state calmly. “If we move fast and check our fire, we should be able to make our way through town with minimal structural damage. We’ll compromise and maneuver through the less densely packed sections. It’ll give us some cover, but also minimize the amount of buildings that will receive damage once the fighting breaks out. Once we bust out of the east wing, stick together and we’ll work our way down main street; give the square a bit of a berth, and leave town for the forest. When we get past the treeline, split up and meet back at the castle. Calvin, take stock and alot ammunition while Brendan gets his explosives ready. I want everyone locked and loaded in five, understood?

“Yes, ser!” snap the Helljumpers in unison.

Dozens of elites and jackals kept their rifles locked onto every doorway leading into the hospital. Even Ben-Hassrathee himself kept his beam rifle carefully aimed at one of the larger glass windows on the east side of the building. If there was any chance of exterminating the parasites within without sacrificing his men in a full on siege, he was going to take it.

The sun slowly rose crawled higher and higher from the east, beating down upon the empty dirt roads and abandoned market stalls that littered the shopping district. Not a single pony was insight, all laying low in their homes as per the demands of the Elites. No one was to interfere with their operation. The ponies knew not whether to be comforted or terrified. They were simple folk, and only wanted their lives to return to the humdrum status quo they were comfortable with.

Mandibles were set and clawed fingers itched over sensitive triggers. The Elites were scared too. The martial prowess of humans was not unknown to them, and they prefered to fly back to their ship and glass the filthy apes from orbit, them and the locals. But their leader was adamant, the equines were to be spared, and the humans slaughtered personally.

Moments passed, and so did minutes. Every elite desperately scanned each window and door for any sign of life, any way they could kill the human warriors from a safe distance. Ben-Hassrathee’s patience dwindled with each passing second. He valued the lives of his soldiers, but he wasn’t about to stand around all day and let the degenerates within the hospital concoct a plan of escape. The time to act was soon arriving. Slowly, the zealot raised his arm to signal his troops to advance on the decrepit building.

An explosion sounded from the east side of the building. Smoke and debris showered down on the soldiers in the streets, followed by six shady figures in dark battle-scarred armor. The ODSTs and their Spartan leader unloaded their weapons on the covenant soldiers immediately in front of them. Shields broke and aliens crumbled under the torrent of lead that rained from the human rifles. The four jackals and two elites that had been in the street were reduced to piles of neon sludge and mangled flesh.

“Demons!” Shrieked Ben-Hasrathee in his gnarled Sangheili dialect. “Destroy them!”

As soon as your feet hit the ground, you start running. A startled elite rounds a corner in front of you to investigate the explosion. Without reloading, you grasp your battle rifle by the barrel and swing the rifle like a bat at the enemies head. The butt connects with the elites helmet just above his temple, causing his shields to break, and the helmet to buckle under the impact. His body is carried by the momentum of your strike and ragdolls of to the side. You don’t stop moving to finish the alien off, you have to keep moving.

You dive behind a building for a moment to slam a fresh clip into your rifle. Your men follow suit and briefly dive behind any cover they can find to reload their weapons. Plasma bolts and pink crystals burn and ricochet off the cobblestone road and buildings around you. You peek your head out just enough to lock onto a few unarmored targets advancing towards you and your men. You raise your rifle and turn their exposed heads into purple and blue clouds of mist. You signal your ODSTs to continue your the retreat through town. The longer you stay in one spot, the greater the chance is of a local getting hurt. A large green explosion erupted next to you on the street. Your shields fizzle from the force of the impact.

“Fuel rod grunts,” shouts Dan as he fires a controlled volley from his DMR. “Spread out and keep moving.” All six of you sprint from your cover and make your way further down the road towards the center of town.

“Watch the alleys, there moving quick to get in front of us!” You turn to see several shadows matching your pace one street over from you. You push yourself to your limit to out run them. If they manage to slow your progress, even just a little, you and your men are dead.

As per the alien leader’s instructions, Twilight and her friends had taken shelter in town hall with as many other ponies that could fit inside the large structure. However, as the explosions and screaming drew closer and closer, everypony couldn’t help but feel like they had made a wrong choice somewhere along the line.

“Twilight, what the heck is going on out there?” asked a frantic Rainbow Dash. “You said those things were going to get rid of the monsters that attacked Zecora. It sounds like they’re blowing up the town! There are other ponies out there hiding in their homes, what if they get hurt?”

Twilight felt a cold sweat break out on her forehead. This situation had gone from bad to worse. Things had been out of her hooves from the start, but now she and all her friends were really in trouble. She had to think of a way to get involved again. If she didn’t take action soon, then any injury or, Celestia forbid, death would be her fault.

“Spike, I need you to send an urgent letter to Canterlot right away. We need any of the princesses here right now, It doesn’t matter which one. Not the royal guard, not the army, not even my brother. The princesses, understand?”

“Yeah, I gotcha. I’ll get right on it.” shakily replied the purple dragon before heading off to carry out his major task.

“Alright, the princesses should arrive shortly after Spike sends that message. They’ll already be on high alert with everything that’s going on. Now that we have that settled, we need to figure out what we can do down here.” Applejack was quick to mozey her way next to Twilight to add her two cents.

“I know you told us we ought to stay inside so we don’t get hurt, but it doesn’t feel right to me to sit around and do nothing when i’m certain we could be doing something, anything at all.”

“I’m with Applejack.” butted Rainbow Dash. “There are ponies out there who are in danger. Look, we know what direction these alien freaks are coming from, and where they’re headed. Between me and AJ, we could get out ahead of them and warn all the ponies they’re headed towards to get out of their homes and circle back to where the aliens came from.”

“And the rest of ya’ll can head to where they came from to help anypony who’s hurt!” finished AJ. Twilight turned to her three other friends present in the cramped building. Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy fidgeted nervously, but all nodded their heads in agreement. They weren’t the hardiest ponies in town, but their resolution was unshakable.

“If this is the plan, then let’s not waste any more time!” cried Twilight. “Keep your heads down and stay away from the fighting. Let’s go!”

The Covenant had managed to keep you and your men funneled down main street, and now kept you pinned down in the center of town. Though you had managed to outpace the elites flanking you, a squad of grunts had been deployed ahead of you. They made for easy kills, but had slowed you down just enough to allow the heavier units time to get ahead and cut you off. You and your helljumpers were now held up in the dead center of the small village, using wooden market stalls and the occasional tree for cover against the rampant fire of the endless horde of religious zealots.

“Running low on ammo!” shouts Calvin from behind an overturned apple cart riddled with smoldering plasma holes.

“I’m out!” shouts Dan. “Someone toss me a weapon!”

You roll from your hiding place behind a continuously shrinking pile of crates and land next to Dan. Without a word, you hand him your battle rifle with its last full clip of rounds. He turns to you and cocks his head, as if to confirm the trade.

“Take it!” you command, drawing your pistol and sliding that action back. “I’ll make a run for some fresh weapons and grenades. You cover me.” Dan nods his head in confirmation and stands to draw enemy fire. The rest of the shock troopers take notice and unleash a barrage of whatever lead they have left to suppress the enemy soldiers.

You leap from your shelter and sprint straight ahead, firing eight consecutive rounds into the first elite that blocks your path. His shields drop and three bullets puncture his chest piece. You swiftly finish him off with the back of your fist. As he crumples to the ground, you wrench the plasma rifle from his limp talons and grip it firmly in your free hand. You pivot on your heels to the right and put a two bullets into the heads of a pair of jackals. Spinning around again, you pump the last six rounds of your magazine into the backs of three retreating grunts. An explosion behind you knocks you off balance and sends you sprawling into the mud and blood coated street. Rolling onto your back, you throw your empty pistol at the concussion rifle wielding elite that had fired at you. The blunt protective connects with his helmet, disorienting him and weakening his shields. A barrage of machine gun fire from your soldiers reduces him to a pile of bones and sludge.

You crawl over to the grunts you had just gunned down and grab up the weapons they had been carrying. You grab two plasma pistols, three needlers and a couple of light blue grenades. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. You get to your feet and make a break for the ODST nearest to you. You arrive at Brendan first, offering him a two needlers and the explosives.

“Hold onto the grenades, you know how to use them best. Keep one of these guns for yourself and get the other to Chris. I’ll distribute the rest to the others!” Brendan doesn’t even nod in confirmation, he just scoops up the salvaged ordinance and dashes towards Chris to replenish him. You make your way from tree to stall to give the rest of your men their weapons, blindly firing your plasma rifle upwards to keep the aliens suppressed without putting any more holes into the local’s buildings. With a final burst of energy, you dive behind the overturned apple cart shielding Calvin.

“Where’s your gun?” he asks as you hand him the last commandeered covenant weapon. You draw your large combat knife from its sheath and say nothing. The handle feels good in your grasp, being specifically molded to fit your hand perfectly. Calvin says nothing else and returns his focus to the battle. The enemies were thinning, only a straggler here or there remained and was like to be gunned down in a moment. For how long this dip in alien soldiers would last you had no idea.

Just then, the sound of large wooden doors being slammed shut reaches your ears. You look to the large building in the center of the square, town hall, and see six of the equine inhabitants rush down the main steps and out towards the town. All run off in separate directions, except for a purple female with a horn on its head who remains at the top of the steps, bathing the large wooden doors in a warm pinkish glow. As the aura disappears, the two doors change in appearance from a rich brown to a dark grey, transforming from wood to granite. She spins around and makes to sprint into town, but freezes when her eyes latch onto you. They shift from you, to Calvin, to the rest of your men, to the mounds of dead covenant soldiers surrounding your immediate position, and finally back to you. You raise your hand and give an amicable wave to the shaking little unicorn. Her legs shake a little as she takes an instinctive step back. You don’t know what you could say to make her any less uncomfortable, and opt to turn your gaze away from her and back to the road you had come down. There was no need to prolong the awkward exchange of glances and frighten her further.

“Uh.. Hello?” she shouts delicately, choking on her own nervous words. You turn back to the mare and respond in kind.

“Hello.”

“So… y-you understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You’re not going to hurt me?”

“No, ma’am.” She takes her eyes from you to glance around the square littered with dead alien bodies and wretches slightly before responding with a little more confidence.

“I find that a little hard to believe.”

“In hindsight, I can empathize.”

“If you’re not here for us, then why did you attack Zecora?” She takes a strong few steps forward, but opts to stay on the top step so as to maintain some height over you. Whatever makes her comfortable, you suppose.

“Who’s Zacharia?” pipes in Calvin.

“Zecora.” sternly corrects the unicorn. “She’s the zebra you almost killed in the forest.” You cringe a bit at the memory of the short lived hunting trip from earlier.

“An accident.” you respond in a measured tone. “We didn’t mean to harm any friend of yours. We’re sorry.” It’s not a great defense, but you hope that by virtue of the fact that you’re talking here and now lends you some credit.

“Uh huh…” she sighs uneasily. As the unicorn internally sorts the situation out in her head, you decide it’s best to cut to the chase and express some good will.

“We found some of your villagers in the forest and brought them back here this morning.” Her ears perk up at this news and her attention returns to you. “That’s why we’re here. Some of them had been hurt pretty badly, and we didn’t have the supplies to properly treat them. They’re in the hospital now.” The mare’s eyes slide from side to side. You could tell she wanted to trust you, but was uncertain if you were being honest. “What’s your name?”

“M-my name?”

“Yes.”

“Uhh, Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.” You bite your lip to suppress a little snicker.

“Well, if that’s you’re name, that’s your name.”

“Oh, and I suppose they call you anything better?” Calvin chokes on a laugh at Twilight’s sudden cattiness. You reply dryly,

“No, not really.” Both you and the mare share a short giggle at your expense. “We’re trying to get out of town. The covenant wants us dead, and we don’t want any more damage done to your town. Do you know the quickest way to the forest? We’re holed up in an old castle there.” She visibly brightens at the mention of the fortress in the woods.

“Oh! I know where that is, that’s the castle of the two sisters! If you want to get there fast, head a bit down manestreet and cut across at-” Her directions were cut off at the sound of a large explosion behind you. You spin on your heel to see green flames bursting apart the overturned cart Brendan was hiding behind. His body flies limply through the air and lands several yards away in a tangle of unnaturally twisted limbs. Before you can cry out, a number of similar explosions erupt across the market.

“Dammit! Twilight, take cover!” You shout to the Unicorn, but she was already ten steps ahead of you, launching herself off the steps and behind the building. You sprint towards the direction of the explosions, there was no point in trying to find cover with firepower like that aimed at you. You swing past Brendan’s body and grab up his needler and the last plasma grenade he had on him, unfortunately unable to stop and check to see if he was even still alive.

You scan the horizon for any sign of the fuel rod toting covenant soldiers. It doesn’t take long to spot them. Four elites barrel down the street towards your shoddy fortifications, heavy weapons raised and zeroing in on your location. At the head of the squad charges a massive warrior in golden armor with a needler in one hand and an energy sword charged in the other. This imposing figure was the leader, no doubt. His headstrong approach was admirable, but your appreciation for his bravery wouldn’t stop you from pumping several crystals into his head. If you took him down now, the fighting in the town would end and the citizens would be safe.

“Take out those elites with the heavy ordnance.” You shout over your crackling intercom. “Drop them, and i’ll take down the leader. We knock these guys out, and we’re set to get out of here.” Through the static of your com-link, you hear what sounds like several ‘yes sers’ before a combined burst of plasma and needler fire volleys itself towards the incoming elites. Two leap behind cover as their shields drop, but the leader and one of his subordinates continue their charge down mainstreet.

You run out to meet them, priming the plasma grenade for use. You toss the blue explosive at the leading zealot. He evades the grenade by mere meters and the bright blue ball sticks to the shoulder of the alien charging close behind him. He lets out a scream of surprise and terror before exploding into a shower of organic matter and armor shards.

You raise the needler and pull the trigger tight, firing a stream of purple tinted crystals at the oncoming elite leader. They connect with his energy shield and shatter on impact, but manage to do enough damage to overexert the shields and cause them to break. He staggers ever so slightly, but doesn’t break stride towards you. He raises his own needle rifle and empties his clip in your direction. You dodge forward and to the left, avoiding most of them. Fortunately, your shields prove equally fortified and withstand the few shots that connect with them. You come out of your forward roll and let the momentum carry your body forward towards the Zealot, drawing your knife from its sheath.

The elite raises his sword and brings it down towards your head. The vicious blue energy blade nearly connects with your helmet, but misses at the last minute as you dexterously duck and lean to the left. You drive yourself upwards and forwards, grasping your knife with both hands and driving it home towards an exposed part of the elite’s torso below his chest armor. Your arms come to a complete stop as they are jarred against the elites massive body. The blade had stuck into his abdomen, but had stopped only an inch in as his reactivating shields had absorbed the majority of the impact.

The zealot growls in anger and agitation and swipes at your head with the back of his sword arm. You duck under the blow, letting go of the knife and slipping to the left. Before he can make another move, you deliver two solid jabs to his helmet. In a fit of rage, the leader of the covenant thrusts at your chest with the tip of his energy sword. You bring your right arm in and block his attack at the wrist, again avoiding impalement by mere centimeters. You bring your left arm forward on his inside and hug his massive arm to your chest. With all your strength you jump and wrap your legs around his captivated limb and drop the leader to the ground in a tight arm bar. He fights you every step of the way, vainly punching at you with his free hand but you’re not about to let go any time soon. Slowly, you raise your hips upward, putting pressure on the back of his elbow with your pelvis.

But before you hear the satisfying crunch of joints snapping, an incredibly bright light erupts in the sky above you. It’s as if the sun itself were focusing all of its energy on you all at once. The light was so intense, it penetrated right through your visor and forced your to shut your eyes tightly to keep them from burning. Before you knew it, you felt yourself being grasped tightly by some massive force. It wrapped itself around you and tore you and your pinned foe apart from each other. The wind is knocked from your body as you’re slammed and held to the burnt remains of town hall. You struggle with all the strength in you and your mjolnir power armor to escape, but to no avail. All you can do is fight to open your eyes for a moment to get a look at the new foe in the fray.

In the very center of the square stands a large white creature, wings spread wide and head held high. It looks like the other inhabitants you’ve encountered, but taller and clearly more powerful. The horn on its head glows a majestic gold, and the same goes for several objects similarly pinned to the ground and walls of surrounding buildings. You recognize them as your men and a few semiconscious covenant soldiers, including the zealot you had been dueling.

Your attention returns to the majestic creature which was now slowly walking towards you. The stern gaze and strong stature spoke volumes of the beings authority and composure as it walked right up to you, some cruel alien from lightyears away, come here to destroy this town and hurt its citizens. You braced yourself for what was to come, putting every last ounce of your strength into moving your arms to activate your armor lock located on your wrist mounted data pad.

“Sleep.” it commanded. Instantly, your limbs grew heavy. It was as if every muscle you ever trained had vanished and only a skeleton was left to support the two-ton weight of your power armor. The golden aura around you vanished and you collapsed face first on the ground, losing all sense of awareness and consciousness the moment your faceplate makes contact with the scorched cobblestone road.

chapter 4

You examine the four soldiers standing at attention in front of you. All of them are ODST’s, each one armed to the teeth with weapons, explosives, and medical supplies. Going down the line Calvin had introduced them as Chris, the teams long range weapons specialist. His armor shone like the sun when the light hit it, as if it had been polished several times a day for the past week; and looking into his visor was like looking into a mirror.

Second is Tyler, heavy weapons and demolition expert. He’s a large man, nearly as tall as yourself. His armor is a dark grey with several plates shaded orange, and strapped to his chest is a sapper rack that’s missing half of its contents.

The third is Brendan, close quarters combatant. He is shorter than the others, but what he lacks in height he made up in his physical build. His tight-fitting CQB armor is a charcoal black, except his visor which is a light blue.

Last comes Daniel. He is the medic, but he looks more like a fighter than a healer. His armor, which at one time must have been a dark green, was scorched an ashen grey in several spot. Plus, his helmet was ‘decorated’ with several carvings that consisted of two X’s where his eyes would be, and five vertical lines crudely scratched into his visor where his mouth was.

They, along with Calvin and yourself, are the best soldiers on the “UNSC Thermopylae,” and you are all ready to risk your lives on a mission with only a thirty-three percent chance of success. You're desperate, and most likely going to die. Everyone knew that the chances of success were slim, but did they know it was this bad. Suddenly, Calvin answers your question.

“Alright gentlemen, time to get saddled up for one hell of a ride!” He booms, “We’re flying head-on into that Covenant carrier, set on taking it out from the inside. We all know the risks, and its most likely we wont even make it to the ship. On the off chance we do make it inside we’re going to split into two groups; group A, that’s us, will head for the engine room while group B, which consists of everyone else, will head towards the bridge. Group B will act as both a second demolition team and a distraction for us, they‘ll get the crews attention while we set the charges by the engine. If they make it to the bridge then they’ll set charges there as well. None of us plan on getting out of this one alive so remember. jumping feet first into Hell isn’t our job today, making sure its crowded when we get there is. Am I right?”

“Sir, yes sir!” the other ODST’s shout in reply.

“Of course I am,” he yells back. “Now lets get going!”

With that, the four special operatives climb into the Pelican. Leaving you and Calvin alone. A minute of silence passes by before you speak.

“Orders, sergeant?”

He looks at you. most likely rolling his eyes, but his expressions are hidden beneath his helmet.

“Solus, you know I’m not authorized to give you commands. Plus, you’re the one who’s leading this op. Me, I’m just piloting the shuttle.”

“Not true,” you reply. “You’re a SPARTAN too, we’re on the same level. Don’t forget that.”

Calvin throws his hands above his head as he gives an irritated groan.

“Fine! Here’s an order for you if you want one so badly. Get the ships main battery online, just shut up with all the mushy stuff!”

You couldn't stop yourself from laughing a bit at Calvin’s outburst. Before boarding the ship you shoot Calvin a smart salute in an attempt to annoy him further. You know your successful when you hear him mutter a few curse words to himself.

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You flip another switch on the pelicans dashboard, causing a holo-screen to flicker into existence. It displays a diagram of the pelicans 40MM rotary cannon which is positioned beneath the chin of the shuttle. After a few button presses you hear a light *click* and a notification appears in front of you on the transparent screen.

It spells ‘main battery armed’ in bright green.

“forward gun is running green, Calvin.” you confirm to your teammate who is sitting next to you in the pilot seat.

“Good,” he responds as he fiddles with the piloting controls. “Danny, status report on co-pilot systems.”

The other ODST slides out from beneath the control panel. His helmet was smothered with a thick, dark liquid, that contrasted perfectly with his silver visor.

“Just finished, the co-pilot is now fully functional.” replies Daniel as he wipes the greasy substance off of his headgear.

You open up the ships report, and verify his statement.

“The whole shuttle is running green. All systems are a go, we are ready to take off.”

Calvin nods, and signals for everyone to strap in to their seats. In a few moments everyone is buckled up and ready to go.

“Countdown initiated,” booms Leon’s voice over the intercom. “Opening haul door in five…. four…..three ……. two…….one.”

“Haul door released.”

You witness the massive docking door in front of your slide open to reveal the dark void of space. Time seems to slow down as the Pelican's engines roar to life, and you cant help but feel a chill run down your spine.

This is it.

As Calvin and Daniel guide the shuttle through the massive exit you get a strange feeling in your gut, a feeling that your life is about to change forever.

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The Zealot knelt before the altar he had erected in his cabin. Several candles and a bowl of incense were spread out on top of the religious table with great care.

“-and welcome us into your divine kingdom at the end of great journey. So let it be.”

After his prayer had finished he shifted into a sitting position. His black eyes slowly shut, and his breathing slowed as he relaxed his mind. Too many things had been troubling him; the prophets, the humans, this new planet. It was all so much to take in, and it was moments of tranquility such as this that that had to be taken advantage of. Used to reflect on troubling events.

His meditation was cut short as the door to his room slid open.

“Ben-Hassrathee!” came the voice of a squeaky voice of a Unggoy minor. “Human shuttles are charging the ship, we need you on the bridge!”

The Zealot jumped to his feet and sprinted past the Unggoy. This was something he had to see with his own eyes. Human shuttles assaulting his vessel? It was wither an alarming display of bravery, or desperation.

A moment later he arrived at the ships command center. Every pilot, engineer, and technician was working furiously.

He ran forward to the large glass window that dominated the other end of the room. Through it he could make out the distant image of the human Frigate, but several other shapes caught his attention. At first they were no more than tiny specs, but as they grew closer the Zealot could identify them. They were human ships, dubbed ’Pelicans', and there were dozens of them.

The sangheli didn't know what they were planning, but he imagined it wouldn’t be good for his ship.

“Turn the ship!” he shouted “aim our starboard turrets at the incoming star-crafts, and fire at will!”

The assault carrier gave a sudden jolt as it made a sharp turn on its axis. In a matter of second the vessel had made a ninety-degree turn so that the right side was facing the incoming Falcons.

Then a great boom sounded as every single cannon on the covenant ship fired into the oncoming mob of human vehicles.

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