Once again, Twilight was strapped in to one of the many seats inside the Pelican Dropship as it flew over the glittering sea. It had been only a few hours since Twilight had fallen asleep when she had left the Truth and Reconciliation with the Chief and Captain Keyes, but once again, she was back in the fight.

She looked around the bay as the doors started to open, sending in rays of the morning light. As always, the Chief was sitting closest to the door, armed with an Assault Rifle and pistol. There were also several Marines sitting in here, looking out to the beautiful waterscape.

Currently, they were flying over to an isolated island on the Halo ring, where a strategic location called the Cartographer, where a map of Halo is located, or so Cortana claims. She managed to hack into the Covenant Battle Network and found this vital location that the Covenant had been looking for. So, now, it was up to the Chief, along with Twilight and the Marines, to capture the Cartographer and find Halo's Control Room before the Covenant do.

"We're approaching the LZ", Foehammer's voice spoke out from the Com, causing Twilight to wince at the volume of it, "It's going to be hot!" The Beach came into view, with it being defended by numerous Covenant Soldiers, but thankfully no Shade turrets. "Get ready to come out swinging!"

The Chief stood up, next to the open hatch, as the Dropship descended onto the sandy ground. "Touchdown!" Foehammer's voice came through again, though this time it led to the reaction of everyone unstrapping themselves and leaping out of the Dropship. Twilight opted to teleport off the ship, appearing next to the Chief as he landed on the soft sand.

He paused for a quick survey of the landscape before raising his rifle and proceeding to fire upon an unfortunate Elite, who quickly fell under the weight of his bullets. Similarly, Twilight unslung her own rifle and fired a short burst at the closest Grunt, killing it on the fifth shot.

'I'm getting the hang of this now', she thought to herself as she noticed that she was being a bit more accurate with her shots and less "spray and pray" as Johnson told her when she had returned to Alpha Base. With that in mind, after getting another hour of sleep, she decided to do a bit of practice with using firearms before she left on this mission.

Her mind quickly returned to the present when a plasma bolt flew over her head. Snarling both at the Jackal who shot at her, and at herself for being easily distracted, she fired a much longer burst at the Jackal. Most of the bullets collided with it's handheld shield, but one inaccurate bullet managed to scrap its weapon arm, causing it to open up and become vulnerable to Twilight, who dispatched it with ease after that error.

Within ten minutes, the Covenant Forces were wiped out, and this segment of the beach was secured. As the Marines spread out across the area next to a large construct that protruded out of a large cliff, and connected with the beachside, Twilight couldn't help but enter her own thoughts once again, going over what had happened after they arrived back at Alpha base.

After half an hour of sleeping on the floor of the Covenant Dropship, she was woken up by the Chief as the bay doors opened. Though she wanted to just fall back to sleep, she was forced to go with the Chief for a debriefing with Silva in his office, while Parker and Keyes tagged along.

The debriefing, thankfully, didn't take long, with Keyes assuming overall command of all human forces at Alpha Base without any objection from Silva. They did discuss about what to do about the potential of the Covenant discovering the means to control Halo in order to wipe out the human race. It was here that Twilight reaffirmed to Keyes her willingness to help the humans stop the Covenant from using Halo against them. Though he morally disagreed with this, he accepted her choice and assigned her with the Chief, due to her magical abilities and so he can help her out of dangerous situations.

After both the Chief and her left to grab some sleep before going out and finding the control room, Twilight noticed that Keyes and Silva began to have an argument in the distance, though it looked quite civilised and lax. She knew that it was about her going on the mission to rescue Keyes, but she was too tired to care.

"Echo 419 inbound." Foehammer's cheerful voice came over the comm again, shaking Twilight out of her recollections once more. "Did someone order a Warthog?"

Twilight looked up and saw the pelican swoop over, with a strange kind of carriage like object hanging on the back. As the Pelican lowered to the ground, floating just above it, the carriage like object, which her eyepiece labelled as a M12 Warthog, detached and landed on the sand, its wheels sinking only a few centimetres into the ground. She noticed that it had a large turret on the back of it, with two seats in the front.

The Chief caught the attention of Twilight, directing her towards the right hand seat. As he leapt in to the left seat, she teleported on to her designated seat, went into a sitting position, and found the glass window on the front, along with the interior of the Warthog, fascinated her. The Chief waited until a Marine had jumped on to the Turret on the back before pressing a peddle hard, and driving the Warthog forward, with a surprised Twilight screaming at the speed of the vehicle.

'Wow, these humans and their technology are amazing', she thought to herself after getting herself back together. She laughed as the vehicle's speed caused the wind to send her mane flying in the air.

Her joyous ride was interrupted when they encountered a small troupe of Covenant. The Marine on the turret swivelled in the direction of two Jackals, and opened fire. The turret fired rounds much faster than the Assault Rifle, overwhelming the
Jackals easily. The Marine continued to fire the turret at a bunch of Grunts, without lifting his fingers off of the trigger, causing the sand to erupt whenever a bullet hit the sand.

It took barely a minute to mop up the rest of the Covenant troupe, with the Chief easily dodging the Covenant shots with the Warthog's speed and his driving experience. They moved on, driving up a steep path where, in the distance to the left, was an open area, where a structure protruded out of a cliff face. Around it were Covenant troops, and a single Covenant Dropship, which flew off just as it came into view.

"There! In the Cliff face!", Cortana spoke out over the Comm, "I'll bet the Silent Cartographer is somewhere inside that facility."

"How are we going to get around them?" Twilight asked the Chief as he stopped the Warthog out of view of the Covenant Defenders. To her surprise, his answer was to get of the vehicle and eased his way up to a fallen log. Twilight saw him pull out his pistol and, after a moment of aiming, opened fire at unseen targets. Twilight could make out the yell, then gurgle of an Elite, and the sounds of five bodies collapsing onto the ground, before the Chief returned and jumped back in to the Warthog.

"Check your weapons", he advised to both Twilight and the gunner, both of whom listened intently "We have some clean up to do up ahead."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at what the Chief said, not understanding the connotations behind his words. The gunner, however, did. "Roger that", he said grimly. "It looks like we have KP duty again."

“What do you mean by “Clean up duty”?” Twilight asked, though she was beginning to see what they were planning on doing in her head. Her suspicion was confirmed by the roar of the Warthog as the Chief reversed, then sped towards the structure. The Gunner opened fire at the Covenant troops outside, forcing the survivors of the assault to run inside the structure, the grunts screaming as they clearly didn’t expect to be attacked like this.

The Chief drove towards the structure, with Twilight noticing how it had three entrances large enough for the warthog to enter. So it was with no surprise that the warthog soon entered the structure and entered a hallway that seemed to go further into the cliff. With some expert driving from the Chief, Twilight found herself firing inside the hallway while still seated in the warthog, her weapon fire being drowned out by the gunner and his machine gun, cutting down elites, jackals and grunts with ease.

As the last troop was killed, the Chief and Twilight jumped out of the vehicle, and made their way through a series of ramps and dark hallways before arrived at a small chamber below, where several aliens stood guard before a small porthole with a single Elite Zealot inside.

As soon as the Zealot spotted the pair, it instantly growled out some orders and the other aliens began to shoot at Twilight and the Chief. While the Chief focused fire on the two Elites that were in the chamber, Twilight decided to use her magic to throw the three grunts into the ceiling with such force that their necks broke from the impact.

"Don't let them lock the doors!" Cortana warned, just as the Zealot shut the doors of the portal, locking them out from the interior of the Cartographer. With the Chief finishing off the remaining Covenant, Twilight decided to do a quick teleport past the door and behind the smug Zealot, but was horrified to find out that the metal of the structure somehow wasn't letting her go past it, making her appear right before the door. With a yelp of surprise, she hit the thick frame of the door from the motion of moving forward.

"Interesting", Cortana spoke out in a semi-hushed, yet begrudgingly impressed tone of voice, "I underestimated the Covenant's understanding of Halo's security systems." She continued on in a much firmer voice. "They've locked the doors, and we don't have the firepower to break through them."

"Can you teleport us past the doors?", the Chief asked as the last Elite fell to the ground, before turning to face Twilight, seeing her get up off the ground, rubbing her snout.

"I already tried that", she said in a very annoyed tone. "I don't know how, but the makeup of this metal, or something else, is stopping me from teleporting past it!" She then thought of something for a second. "Hold on", she told the Chief before teleporting up the ramp, then outside, surprising the Marine on the turret. 'Interesting', she thought as she appeared back with the Chief.

"It appears that I can teleport anywhere where the metal isn't totally blocking the path, such as the entrance to this facility." The Chief nodded at this as he followed what she was getting to. "If this door was open, you would be able to teleport to the other side", he said.

"Yes! Now, if it'll only open!", she stated angrily, attempting to blast the door with her magic to no avail. She did succeed in startling the Zealot, with it taking a few steps backwards, as seen by Twilight and the Chief through the small window on the door.

"Let's get back to the surface", the Chief said, much to Twilight's agreement. As they made their way back to the surface, Cortana was having a conversation with Captain Keyes over the radio. Though she attempted to listen in, Twilight was still musing over how the metal alloy's structure could block her magic. Due to this, she only paid full attention to the last part of the conversation, when Keyes gave them their new orders: "Use any means necessary to force your way into the facility and find Halo's Control Centre. Failure is not an option."

"Understood", the Chief replied to Keyes, then spoke directly to Twilight over his external speakers "If the front door is locked - then go around back. There must be another facility where the security systems are held."

Twilight nodded in agreement at this, and thus the both of them jumped back into the warthog, and drove off, back towards the initial landing site.

After driving around the island for a solid three minutes, the Chief spotted the facility, though it was sticking out of the cliff face, ten levels above them.

"There's the facility", he heard Cortana say "though it appears we will have to find another way up."

"If only my wing wasn't hurt", the Chief turned to face Twilight in the seat next to him as she looked at her bandaged wing with both sorrow and anger "then I could fly up there."

"What about teleporting us up there?" Cortana asked.

Twilight hesitated, then looked up and gasped, her face turning pale. "Look out!", was all the Chief heard from her before the Warthog was hit by a fuel rod cannon and went flying into the air, flinging its three occupants out to land on the beach.

As Twilight and the Marine struggled to get to their feet, the Chief unslung his Assault rifle, and turned to look up at the facility, only to find a pair of hunters standing up there, their fuel rod cannons charging up to fire another volley. It was times like this that the Chief wished that he had a SPNKR Rocket Launcher at hand.

While he had his pistol with a scope, he was too far away to take advantage of any of the Hunter's exposed sections. Thus, his shots, unless through lucky aim, would be ineffective against the Hunters. The only viable course for fighting them was to get them out of the high ground, which would be very difficult.

With this in mind, the Chief made a run for the fallen Warthog, dodging the Hunter's cannon blasts as they focused solely on him. When he reached the Warthog, it was only then that he realised that it was upside down. Using his augmented strength, he grabbed the side of the Warthog and, with as much strength as he could muster, threw the warthog in the air at an angle where it landed the right way up.

He jumped onto the Turret at the back, and fired continuously at the Hunters. Within seconds, one of the Hunters was killed, enraging the other. It leapt off the cliff face with a roar in a fit of rage, landing with a heavy thud on the soft ground, sending sand flying into the air, temporarily obscuring the Chief's view of it.

It charged out of the newly made sandstorm, charging its main cannon, but was soon distracted by Twilight and the Marine, who had recovered their bearings and opened fire. The Hunter turned to block their attacks, leaving an opening in its back for the Chief to exploit. A volley of turret fire and the Hunter fell to the ground, dead.

The Chief took a sigh of relief after he rotated the turret around 360 degrees to find any other potential Covenant waiting in ambush, and found none. He got off the turret and slid back into the drivers seat, honking at Twilight and the Marine to attract their attention.

He waited until they were both back in the Warthog before restarting the engine, and driving off. "Thanks for the warning", he told Twilight as he drove, not noticing her blushing at his thanks.

It only took a moment before Cortana spoke again. "It looks like there is a path that leads to the interior of the island." The Chief pushed on the brakes, turned his head and saw the open path, and the Covenant squad that was guarding it. The gunner opened fire as soon as he saw them, putting out fire on the ravine ahead.

"How come your always quiet whenever there are Covenant around, but you tell us about all of these locations?" Twilight asked Cortana as both her and the Chief got out of the Warthog. The Chief smiled at the question, due to him just thinking about asking a very similar question.

"Because I don't want the two of you to feel unnecessary", Cortana replied easily, "and yes, I was expecting that question from either one of you two. Besides, given the fact that the Chief's motion sensors are telling him that there are at least five Covenant soldiers lying in wait further up the ravine, its logical to assume that there are even more beyond them. Does that make you feel better."

"No", he admitted, doing a final check on his weapons to ensure that they were both fully loaded. Twilight was still considerably pale, so she must still be in shock from the Hunter attack. He placed his hand on her shoulder to reassure her. "Are you alright?" He asked softly to just Twilight. She looked up at his visor and gave him a small smile, though he could tell it was a grim one. "I will be", she replied.

The Chief was about to make another comment when the five Covenant grew impatient and ran out to kill them. The Chief threw a single frag grenade at their feet, killing three of the four Grunts and the single Elite Major. Twilight finished off the last Grunt with a single burst from her Assault Rifle.

Reminded about the dangers ahead, the pair decided to press onwards towards the facility, fighting through waves of Covenant. By the time they reached the main entrance to the security facility, a large trail of bodies had been created, at the expense of much of the Chief's ammo supply.

Before entering the facility, the Chief took a step back, and rotated himself so he could view the circular structure that dominated a small depression that he had past by. He didn't know why, but it gave the impression of a trap door. Shrugging off his thoughts on the matter after noticing Twilight looking at him with a curious expression, he led the way into the facility.

Feeding a fresh magazine into his Assault Rifle, he slipped through the dark, shadowy door and entered the darkened space. While his biochemically altered eyes quickly adjusted, Twilight's horn glowed pink for a second, and then her eyes flashed green. The Chief assumed that she must have used magic to make her eyes see in the dark.

They came up to a ramp that led to the next level below, and saw the alien cargo modules when he reached the bottom of the ramp. He recognised the layout of the room as a perfect setup for an ambush. He stopped, then backed into the closest wall. Twilight stood at the top of the ramp, oblivious to the hidden nature of the room, looked frightened at the Chief as she noticed how he saw something she missed.

A light switched on, allowing the Spartan to see better the room, and that there was an alcove in front of him. "Be Careful", he said to Twilight over the Comm "This feels like a trap..."

The Hunter chose the moment he had finished speaking to leap out of the shadows and attack the Chief, too close to use the Fuel Rod Cannon, but perfect distance for the Hunter to attempt to smash the Chief into a bloody mess with its shield arm. However, the Chief reacted quickly, turning around and retreating backwards while firing his rifle. The maneuver worked, slowing down the Hunter enough to put some distance between himself and the spot where the Hunter hit with his shield.

The second Hunter, and other Covenant, rushed out to meet the Chief head on, though they had not noticed Twilight, for which the Chief was thankful as a blast of magic shot out from the ramp into the unprotected back of the second Hunter. It fell with a crash, and Twilight kicked the nearest Grunt in the head, killing it instantly.

Meanwhile, the Chief was forced to reload and the Hunter took advantage of it, leaping forward until it let out a shriek and fell to the ground, dead. A single Grunt stood behind the Hunter, his face and eyes wide with horror and fear at the pistol that had just fired in his hand.

'Bit of friendly fire there', the Chief thought to himself as he finished reloading and shot the stunned Grunt. There was a pause as he stood still, waiting for the next attack that never came. His hand began to twitch from having his nerves on edge.

Twilight walked up to him, on edge as well. "That...could have been worse", she said in a whispered tone from shock.

The Chief nodded in agreement.

"Nice job, Chief, Twilight", Cortana said "Head through the cargo modules. The security centre lies beyond."

After following Cortana’s directions to the letter, the pair entered a long hall and soon found themselves inside a compact room where a holo panel floated at the centre. It was similar to the one that the Chief had encountered in his quest to rescue survivors from the Autumn just after landing on the ring. Half listening to Cortana, he followed his instinct and pressed his hand against the controls. Immediately after, the facility seemed to vibrate and certain sections of the panel switched off.

"Did we do it?" Twilight asked sceptically. "Yes!" Cortana replied "That should now open the door that leads into the main shaft. Now all we have to do is find the Silent Cartographer and the map to the control room."

"Right", the Chief replied in a semi sarcastic tone, "that and avoid capture in unknown territory." He heard Twilight attempt and fail to stifle a giggle at his tone.

"Well, then. Do you have a plan", Cortana asked in response, her voice in a cheeky tone.

"Yes", he replied "Kill any Covenant that get in the way."

He looked at Twilight to see her reaction to his statement, and unsurprisingly, found her head tilted down slightly, her ears drooped and eyes downcast. He knew that she still hated killing, though she had been doing it for the mission, and would still do it. It was both a blessing and a curse: She would hate herself for it, but she wouldn't become a monster that loves to kill.

They moved back into the hall where a new voice came over the radio. "Mayday! Mayday! Bravo 22 taking enemy fire! Repeat, we are taking fire and losing altitude." The urgency and desperation was clear, though underneath it was a tone of resignation to his fate, yet still trying to avoid it.

"Understood", Cortana replied, "We are on our way."

She then switched to a private channel for the Chief's ears only: "I don't think they're going to make it."

"I know", he agreed, numb to the pain of some good person dying as they speak, with nothing that he could do to prevent it.

The pair arrived back into the room that they had just cleared out, assuming that it was still clear, only to be proven wrong by the couple of Stealth Elites awaiting them. A throaty roar announced their presence just before plasma fire began to spit at the Chief, splashing against his shields. He aimed for the space just beside the glowing floating light, fired a burst and was awarded with the scream of the Elite.

Twilight, in the meanwhile, had to deal with the second Elite, who stopped firing and slunk back into the shadows, waiting for a good opportunity. The Chief looked past her, saw the shimmer in the air, and fired a single burst, and was awarded with the Elite rematerializing, attempting to grab the contents of its guts before dying.

As he reloaded, the Chief cursed to himself as he pondered the stupidity of walking into the once cleared room too quickly, a mistake he would not make again, not with Twilight and Cortana watching him. The knowledge of them being there, though in the case of Cortana seeing his perspective via his sensors, made his mistakes more embarrassing.

The Chief couldn't help but smile at the thought of him wanting the approval of both an AI and a pony. With Twilight, he found her to be more like a student of his, learning the skills of survival from him. Cortana, on the other hand, was like a part of him, and literally inside his mind.

The pair made their way back up the out of the facility, and into the bright sunlight, which felt better than being in a shadowy area that could be a potential deathtrap. As he approached the slope below, moving slowly as to avoid falling to his death from the height alone, Cortana cautioned him about Bravo 22's compliment of Heavy Weapons, and sure enough, he found himself looking down at the wreckage of the Pelican.

The burnt frame of the dropship had several chunks missing, as well as a Warthog on its side, with weapons and bodies scattered everywhere. Around it and the large rock that it crashed into, a mix of Jackals and Grunts patrolled the area. On the top of the rock stood a single Jackal with a particle beam rifle.

It was only the bright light from the sight of the Jackal's rifle that prompted the Chief to leap backwards, surprising Twilight, just before a particle beam shot through the air where his head had been.

"Sniper! Take cover, now!" Cortana urged to the both of them as them hid behind a rock. The Chief slung his Assault Rifle and drew out his sidearm. 'How am I going to be able to get out of cover to use this to kill that sniper if he has a very fast reaction time?' he pondered to himself, before an idea stuck him

"Twilight, could you pass me that small stone over there?", the Chief asked, pointing to the object. Twilight obliged, her magical aura enveloping the stone, and brought it into the Chief's open hand. He grasped it and after a second of thinking, threw it over the side of the rock, moving to the opposite side at the same time.

As the stone flew in the air, it was hit by an accurate shot by the Jackal, distracting it for a split second, long enough for the Chief to move out of cover and fire a single round at the sniper. While it narrowly missed the Jackal, the shot was enough to startle it, allowing the Chief to take a second, more accurate shot at the sniper, killing it.

Satisfied with the death of the sniper, the Chief had to now deal with the alert Covenant Patrol on the beach, who were taking pot shots at him from extreme range. His pistol had more range than theirs and was able to kill a few of them with accurate shots. He was soon joined by Twilight, who used her own pistol to shoot at the Covenant.

After the Covenant had been killed, they decided to traverse down the slope to investigate the wreckage of Bravo 22. It was a short walk, but it felt heavy as they approached the bodies, some of which featured plasma burns, confirming that the Covenant had executed some of the survivors from the crash. The Chief's blood boiled at this, while Twilight showed only horror. She looked at the Chief in a naïve hope for him to refute what she was seeing, but he couldn't.

"The Covenant mean to wipe us out", he said to her over the external speakers "and have meant to for the past three decades. This is a regular thing they do to ensure they achieve that goal, though on a much larger scale."

He ignored Twilight's expression of realisation as he committed the unenviable task of scrounging ammo and supplies from the corpses and the wreckage. He discarded his pistol in favour of a M41 Rocket Launcher, with as many rockets as he could store on the outside of his armour as spares.

He passed by a med pack, which reminded him of something he had forgotten. "How's your wing?" he asked over the comm to Twilight, surprising her for a moment before she composed herself and replied. "I still have the hole through my wing, but its re-growing quickly. However, I will still need at least a few days before I can fly again." There was a tinge of sadness in her voice when she spoke. He looked over at her, and saw her staring at her extended wing.

'She must really wish it could heal faster', he thought to himself as he walked over to the Warthog, and flipped it back upright. Climbing behind the wheel, he honked at Twilight, startling her. After she teleported into the seat beside him, he drove back towards the LZ where the Marines had been left to hold.

Twilight looked out at the beautiful waterscape as she pondered what she had just heard. Humans that were fortunate enough to survive a crash, only to be killed by the Covenant as some sort of reward. And this was only a small example of similar behaviour by the Covenant, by the words of the Chief.

She could still hardly believe that the Covenant was this merciless, though each second that passes seems to contribute to proving her wrong. Back in Equestria, no one species was considered evil. Certain individuals maybe, such as Tirek, Chrysallis and her former student, Cosy Glow, but outside of Equestria, it seemed the norm that most species were meant to be killing each other. She knew that she had not seen anything from the Covenant perspective on things, but she honestly didn't want to. They had proven from their actions that they were evil.

But still, had the humans committed similar acts? Maybe. In fact, wasn't that what they had been doing all this time? Killing anything that was Covenant. 'Yes', she thought, 'but the Covenant did start this war, and the humans are only trying to survive against a ruthless enemy.'

She then frowned at a certain thought in her head. 'If the Covenant attacked Equestria without provocation, would I commit the same actions as any of the humans here?' It didn't even take her a second to answer yes to herself.

They arrived back at the beachhead where the Marines were holding up at, and from the extra Covenant corpses that were laying about, there must have been at least one skirmish since their departure. She looked around and saw the Warthog they had left behind, along with the Marine that was the gunner. 'He must have driven back here after we left' she realised.

As if on que, another Marine, this one female, jumped onto the turret. "Glad to see you guys", she said, "It was getting boring here without you guys."

Looking at the body of a dead Elite, Twilight muttered "I doubt that" as they drove off back to the Cartographer.

Following the same path they had drove on initially, they arrived outside the facility, only to find a pair of Hunters waiting for them.

'Oh, for Celestia's sake' Twilight thought to herself, her heart racing, as she spotted the Hunters. Unfortunately, none of them noticed the cannon blast that hit the Warthog, throwing them off the edge of the platform. It was during the time when all three of the occupants were thrown out of the warthog that Twilight was seriously considering if she was suffering from Deja vu.

She managed to teleport on her feet, while the humans crashed down onto their sides. To her horror though, one of the Hunters dropped down from the structure, landed firmly on its feet, and marched forward.

The Marine jumped to her feet and threw a grenade at the Hunter, only to stop and stare as the Hunter was not harmed by it. She tried to back away, firing her assault rifle, but the Hunter leaped towards her, slicing his shield right through her midsection, cutting her in half. It then stomped on the fallen upper body, crushing the head and neck.

Twilight was filled with rage, and screamed out. How dare this alien kill someone in such a brutal way. She pawed at the ground, sneering, about to send a magic blast at the Hunter, when the Hunter suddenly exploded into pieces of metal, flesh and worms. Lots of worms.

She turned around and saw the kneeling Chief, with the Rocket Launcher in hand, aimed at the spot where the Hunter was. One of the tubes had smoke coming from the rear, while the other had nothing. The tubes spun 180 degrees, and the Chief lowered the launcher, walking up to Twilight, and the dead Marine.

'I could have done something to prevent her death' she thought to herself as she too walked up to the corpse, or what was left of it. 'She would be still alive if I hadn't hesitated or was fast enough.' She felt a heavy weight come upon her heart and soul.

He stood there for a good minute, and Twilight could understand why. It was most likely that the same thoughts that she was having. Of guilt, and of what could have been. It was at this moment that Twilight felt a closer connection with humanity, especially with the Chief. The shared pain that they felt for a single loss was almost, enduring.

In the distance, she heard the howl of anguish from the other Hunter that still awaited them.

"That wasn't your fault", Cortana said gently to the both of them. "right now, we still have to deal with another Hunter up on the platform, so be careful."

The Chief looked up at the platform, and placed the rocket launcher on his back, while pulling out his assault rifle. Twilight began to follow him, as he made his way up the slope leading up to the platform, killing the small groups of Grunts that were guarding it.

They had to be careful though, because the Hunter was shooting his fuel rod cannon in rapid succession, as if it was trying to kill them by the sheer weight of its barrage, and the shots were hitting a bit too close for comfort. With this in mind, Twilight erected a large forcefield around the two of them, protecting them against a quite accurate shot, though it broke the shield.

Twilight felt the impact on her magic, and almost collapsed as the Shield did around them. However, the Chief dragged her out of harms way, and made his way up, firing his Rocket Launcher at the Hunter's head, with a direct hit as the head was blown straight off.

As the Hunter's body collapsed in a mess of blood and worms, Twilight struggled to get back on her wobbly hooves. That forcefield, along with it shattering, had taken up much of her strength, leaving her quite exhausted.

"Note to self", she said in an almost hysterical voice "don't use magical shields when Hunters are involved. It uses up a lot of my energy."

"Maybe not too often", the Chief told her, as he held out his hand, which she accepted, and used it to pull her up on her hooves. "It did save our lives just then."

Twilight couldn't help but smirk at that. She was already regaining her strength just from doing nothing but stand there, so she held her hoof up. "Give me a minute here." The Chief complied and after waiting, they continued on back into the facility and into the hall where they were previously held back.

This time, the door was open, and the Zealot nowhere in sight. Warily, the Chief entered first, turning to the right and walked right to the edge of a shaft. Twilight gasped as she saw how far the shaft went, which was to say endless. At the edge of a platform, the Chief kicked a small object down into the shaft, waited a moment, then walked away.

Meanwhile, Twilight was studying the engraved metal that was everywhere. It was almost as if the metal was not just metal, but a metal-stone hybrid, as evidenced by the patterns in the metal and how parts of it were chipped from age. 'If metal could be chipped, how old is it?', was the question inside her mind. Oh, how badly did she want to just grab a notepad and write all the detailed examinations of the metal on it.

However, this was not the time, nor the place for it, as she heard the very distant sounds of Grunts. She looked at the Chief, who had raised his rifle because he had also heard the noise. They moved onwards, through a room with two levels, and a small object that looked more like an altar. Inside were sleeping Grunts, and a single Elite, who had its back towards them.

Twilight went to raise her rifle, but stopped when the Chief put his hand on her. He moved up to behind the Elite, slowly while crouched, until he was only a millimetre distance. He then stood straight, grabbed the neck of the Elite, and twisted it round in a swift movement, breaking it with a striking 'snap'. He lowered the body down to the floor gently, not to wake up the grunts, then proceeded to kill them while they slept in a stealthy manner.

Twilight watched it with a combination of horror and, much to her chagrin, intrigue. However, watching him complete his unenviable task, she did not notice a door on the upper level open. A pair of Jackals walked through, and cried out as they saw the Chief and Twilight, waking up the remaining Grunts, who jumped up with a sense of fury and started to fire their pistols and needlers at the intruders.

"Oh, fuck", Twilight swore properly for the first time as she ducked around the altar to avoid the tracking shots of a needler. Just seeing that weapon almost sends her into a petrified state, but she resisted that urge and hid to not get hit. She jumped out of cover with her rifle ready, and sent the three Grunts who were using needlers a gift of bullets, killing them within seconds.

She looked around, and saw the Chief kill the Jackals with ease, but it was too late. Already, she could hear Covenant reinforcements heading their way.

"What do we do?" she asked the Chief, as he quickly reloaded his rifle. "We continue on", he said in a stoic tone, which then hardened as he added "killing any Covenant that get in our way." He then exited through a door that Cortana pointed out to him, setting out to meet the Covenant without waiting for them, with Twilight finding herself once again following him.

They continued on, making their way further and further down into the facility, fighting wave after wave of Covenant through corridors and huge rooms that felt like they were tombs, before arriving at the entrance to a large room. They took a quick break, as Cortana decided to speak out her observations.

"Someone is tracking our progress", she said to the both of them "keeping all of the Covenant inside informed of our position."

"No kidding", the Chief replied dryly. "If this keeps up the way its going, we won't be able to finish the mission without running out of ammo."

"Agreed", Twilight spoke out after taking a few breaths, "I've only got two more clips of ammo for my rifle, and just three mags for my pistol."

"The Cartographer is nearby", Cortana assured them, "but be careful, as the Covenant will most likely have it well defended."

With that in mind, they entered the large room, and found a pair of hunters waiting for them. Twilight was lucky enough to have a pillar nearby, allowing her to duck behind it for cover from a cannon blast. The Chief however, wasn't so lucky. His shield took a full blast to the chest, causing his entire body to flare with golden energy. Fortunately, it wasn't enough to stop the Chief from killing one of the Hunters with a rocket.

Twilight teleported out of cover to catch the remaining Hunter by surprise, but was herself surprised, and horrified when the Hunter leapt forward, and swung his shield arm across the Chief, part of it tearing both through his weakened shields and some of his shoulder joint. The Chief managed to get free and spun backwards before landing on his knees, allowing Twilight to get a good look at his gaping wound, and the blood rushing down his armour from it. As the Hunter moved in to finish him off, the Chief rolled to the side, and grabbed his fallen assault rifle.

Twilight shook herself out of simply watching the Chief almost get killed, and, without thinking, charged the Hunter. She sprinted up to it, and rammed it in the back, using her horn to pierce the exposed section of the flesh. The Hunter roared in pain, and was flung a few feet by the sheer momentum of Twilight through her alicorn strength.

It was still alive though, landing firmly on its feet, and spun around, shacking Twilight off and tried to slice her in half with its shield. She managed to avoid the shield, but the Hunter decided to do something different, and kicked her in the gut, this time sending her flying.

She landed on the ground with an 'oof' and, groaning, looked up to see the Hunter charging towards her. She raised a shield around her prone form, but was quickly relieved when the Hunter exploded. She twisted around, and saw the Chief standing there, reloading the rocket launcher. His wounded shoulder made his arm look a little limp, but he was obviously still able to use it.

Twilight saw movement in her peripheral vision, and the reflection of a trio of jackals in the Chief's visor. His reaction: Blow them up with a single rocket, sending blood and guts everywhere. A bit excessive, but given the Chief's physical state, Twilight ignored it.

After waiting a moment to see if any more Covenant would show up, Twilight got back up onto her hooves, and walked up to the Chief, who had his back to a corner. Though he gave no visible signs of distress, Twilight's eyepiece showed his badly elevated vitals. Honestly, she couldn't blame him. She was also in a similar state of shock, staying close to the Chief in case there was another ambush.

She heard a deep breath over the comm, and looked up at the Chief relaxing a little. "All right", he said "It's time to complete this mission."

He grabbed what Twilight perceived as a medical kit out of his equipment pouch, opened it up, and proceeded to perform first aid on himself. After a few minutes, he was ready to move on, though not before checking Twilight to see if she needed any first aid herself, which she did. Apparently, the kick from the Hunter had cut a large scratch on her side, so the Chief applied some dressing to it.

They moved on after the Chief put away the medpack. Going down a ramp, they entered another large room, filled to the brim with Covenant. Thankfully, there were no Hunters in the room, allowing Twilight to sigh in relief. She was getting real sick of fighting Hunters.

After fighting through the room, leaving the Covenant dead, a radio conversation came up. "Foehammer to ground team: You've got two Covenant Dropships coming fast." Twilight recognised the next voice as the leader of the Marines at the beach "Okay people, we got company coming. Engage enemy forces on sight."

"It'll be easier to hold them off from inside the structure", Cortana suggested "Can you get inside?"

"Negative! They're closing in too fast. We'll keep 'em busy for as long as we can." Twilight's eyes widened at this. Even she could tell the finality in the Marine's voice. He was expecting that he was going to die, yet he was going to keep on fighting.

"Give them hell, Marine", Cortana said grimly, breaking the connection to the others. "We'll all be in a tight spot if we don't get out of here before enemy reinforcements arrive."

"Roger that", the Chief replied while Twilight simply nodded in affirmation, much of her mind still at the humans above who are dying at this very moment for them.

They continued to move further and further into the facility, encountering Covenant Troops in almost every room, until they reached a long hall, where five Elites awaited them. One of these was a Major, the others were Minors. However, the Major was armed with one of the purple rifles she had seen during the raid on the Truth and Reconciliation, which the Chief had called it a 'Covenant Carbine', which had much greater range than the usual plasma rifles and needlers the other Elites were armed with.

Upon seeing the rocket launcher attached on the Chief's back, the Major barked out an order, and the Elites split up to avoid them all being killed by a single rocket. Seeing an opportunity, Twilight teleported behind the Major, but the Major suddenly did a sweeping kick, impacting on her head. She landed on the ground, feeling blood in her mouth for the first time.

Twilight felt her anger rise up as she wiped some blood off of her face with her hoof. She focused all of her magical energy into her horn, and fired it at the Major. It snarled, and leapt to the side, enough so that the blast didn't kill it, only take out its shield. It shot a couple of rounds at Twilight with its carbine, causing her to dodge the blasts, distracting her enough so its shields could recharge.

Annoyed at how her efforts were wasted, Twilight tried a different approach. She created a sword with her magic, and attempted to slice the now surprised Elite. It took a step back before grinning and pulling out an energy sword. Twilight felt a pang of fear as the Elite sliced the air and charged at her.

Her magical sword clashed with the energy sword, causing sparks to fly. The Elite twisted his sword, causing Twilight to lose her balance from trying to compensate, shattered her sword and went in for the kill. She leapt to the side, narrowly missing being impaled, the scorching plasma's heat being felt by her fur.

The Major turned around, and grabbed her hoof, pinning her to the floor. 'Why am I always being pinned to the ground?' she thought to herself as she used her magic to hold the sword arm of the Elite in the air, preventing it from stabbing her.

The Major snarled until it shields flared as plasma bolts hit it in the back. It turned around like it was about to punish somepony for friendly fire, but paused as it saw the Chief armed with a captured plasma rifle. The Chief shredded the shields of the Elite before finishing it off with a bolt to the head.

As Twilight got back up, she noticed the four bodies behind the Chief. "Thanks", she said "I hope that's the last time you see me on the ground with somepony holding me..."she paused as she realised what she was saying, the heat rising in her cheeks. Fortunately, the Chief didn't seem to quite get what she was saying, and nodded. "No problem", he replied. "Hopefully, we're close to the Cartographer. I don't like having to use Covenant weapons."

"Don't worry", Cortana spoke out. "The Cartographer should be in the next room, and the Covenant Battlenet shows that the nearest enemies are the reinforcements flying in."

With this in mind, they entered the room, and found a holo panel, which the Chief pressed, and a glowing wire-framed map of the ring appeared.

"Analysing. Halo's Control Centre is"- Cortana highlighted a section of the map for Twilight's eyepiece - "there. Interesting. It looks like some sort of shrine."

"What kind of shrine?" Twilight asked. "Maybe to the builders of this Ring?" the Chief suggested as Cortana opened a comm channel. "Cortana to Captain Keyes."

There was a moments silence until Foehammer's voice came over the comm. "The Captain has dropped out of contact, Cortana. His ship may be out of range or may be having equipment problems."

"Keep trying", Cortana replied, "Let me know when you re-establish contact. And then tell him that the Master Chief, Twilight and I have determined the location of the Control Centre."

The Chief raised his plasma rifle and looked to Twilight. "It's time to go."

"Wait", she said, an idea forming in her head, "instead of us walking through all of those rooms and halls, I could teleport us as far as I can until there is a door closing off the space. We open the door when we arrive there, then teleport again, repeating this method until we reach the top."

"Can you do it without tiring yourself out too much?", he asked in a concerned tone of voice.

"Yes", she said firmly. "Then do it", he ordered. They disappeared in a flash of pink light, then reappeared a few levels up. Twilight felt a little dizzy, but continued on.

After a few points of opening doors, then teleporting once again, the pair finally reached the entrance of the facility, only to find a Covenant Dropship, and the Zealot from earlier, waiting for them. The bay doors opened, revealing a pair of stealth Elites, who turned invisible before they even reached the ground.

Twilight looked for any sign of them, saw the blue light from a plasma rifle, then used her magic to send the Elite flying off the edge of the platform. The second Stealth Elite was quickly finished off by the Chief, who moved on to dealing with the Zealot. She then turned to face the Dropship, with its forward cannon firing directly at them. She decided to send a huge magical blast at the right bay, which blew up, sending the Dropship spinning out of control before crashing and exploding on the sand of the beach.

The Zealot proved much harder to deal with, as it kept on dodging many of the Chief's bolts and repeatedly tried to stab him with an energy sword. Twilight telekinetically lifted a sharp piece of debris from the crashed dropship, and sent it into the Zealot. It pierced through the skull, sending brain matter everywhere.

A Pelican Dropship flew towards them, the bay doors opening, allowing the Chief and Twilight to jump aboard. Not paying any attention to the conversation between Foehammer and Cortana, Twilight looked at the Chief, who replaced his plasma rifle with an assault rifle with full ammo and spare clips. He noticed her looking at him and gave her a quick nod.

"Great job out there", he said to her as she went and sat next to him. She smiled as he took a seat, his demeanor like that of Applejack after a days work on the farm.

She suddenly felt weary, and homesick. Tears began to flow down her face as her mind turned back to Equestria and her friends. As she started to cry, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked to her side at the Chief, whose hand gave her a comforting presence.

"We'll get you back home", he said to her, making her realise that her feelings were quite obvious to anyone.

She was about to comment on about the odds of making it back to Equestria, when she saw that the Pelican was flying through a portal that led to an underground tunnel. The Chief looked outside as well. "Cortana must be at it again, making us do things so unexpected that the Covenant won't see it coming."

"Chief", she said, her eyes now sore from crying. "May I ask you something?"

He paused for a moment, then nodded. Twilight continued on "Do you have any friends, or family?"

He looked away from her for a moment, a sense of pain and loss rolling from him. It was at least two minutes before he looked at her again. "I had a family once, with many of my brothers and sisters. Now, they're all gone, leaving me alone to defend Humanity."

Twilight choked up at this. While her loss was substantial, at least she knew they were alive. The Chief's family, dead. That is horrible. She was almost afraid to ask her next question. Almost.

"And what of friends?" she said in a quiet voice. "Are they still alive?"

"Some are", he said, looking directly at her. She could feel his eyes looking straight at hers, though she could not see a thing through his visor. "I have Cortana, and you, don't I?"

Once again, Twilight choked, but not from sadness. 'The Chief considers me...a friend.' she though to herself, feeling a sense of hope come over her. 'I have a friend now in this hostile world. Somepony I can count on.'

Maybe, just maybe, could she live through this adventure, with a true friend by her side: The Master Chief.

Author's Note

Hi Everyone,

Finally, the Silent Cartographer has been discovered, and they are on their way to the Control room. An interesting note is that from this chapter onwards, all talk from over the radio will be in italic quotation marks.

This chapter look a really long time, and is my longest to date, so I hope you enjoy it.

If you see any errors, please post in the comments below.

Till next time,
dalek117