"When you killed those Hunters, why did worms come out of their bodies?"

Chief arched an eyebrow at Twilight's question, though she couldn't see it from inside his helmet. A weird question, though given that they had faced at least eight Hunters on the mission to find the Cartographer, it was easy enough to understand why she would ask it.

"Because they are the worms", he couldn't help but smile at her shocked, then disbelieving expression. "In fact, both of the Hunters in a pair are made up of a whole colony of the worms, whom are sentient creatures. We still don't know how, or why, they can combine into larger forms, but they are one of the strongest and most dangerous species in the Covenant. In fact, they actually can inhabit and power much larger objects, like scarabs."

"Scarabs, you mean the insect?", Twilight asked, torn between being bewildered and inquisitive, her eye twitching slightly. "How dangerous could an insect be?"

"You don't want to know", the Chief said in a serious tone, remembering events in the past where scarabs had levelled entire cities by themselves on countless worlds. "And I hope you will never encounter one."

The conversation was interrupted as Foehammer's voice came over the radio while the bay doors opened, revealing a platform where Grunts were running to a large door to escape the Pelican. "This is as far as I can go!"

"Roger that", Cortana said, "We can find our own way to the Control Centre from here." With this being said, the Chief and Twilight got up from their seats and slid down from the bay doors onto the metallic platform. Near the door stood two unmanned Shade Turrets.

"Good luck, Foehammer out!" was all they heard before Foehammer flew back down the tunnel, leaving them alone.

Chief took a quick look around, saw the light on the door flash green, and ran to the nearest Shade turret, jumping in and twisted it around, facing the now opened door, and the two Elites that stood in the doorway. He hosed them down with constant plasma fire. In his peripheral vision, he saw Twilight appear in the other Shade turret, and began experimenting with how to operate it.

"Cortana, do you mind giving Twilight a hand with that Shade?", he asked as the Elites finally died, and a half dozen Grunts took their place. Her response a moment later was Twilight's directed plasma blasts joining his own at killing the remaining Grunts.

After waiting for a moment to see if there were any reinforcements coming, the Chief got off of the Shade, raised his rifle and walked through the large door. It opened, revealing a short corridor, with an arrow imbedded on the floor. Suspicious, he looked back at Twilight, who stood behind him.

"Stay vigilant", he warned. Twilight nodded, and together, they walked through the corridor, and into a large circular room, with the centre surrounded on most sides by another wall. Throughout the room were Covenant Troops, who looked bored out of their minds. However, they got the last bit of excitement in their lives as the Chief threw a grenade into the largest group.

Waiting a moment after the explosion and seeing the remaining Covenant troops scatter in both shock and fear, the Chief moved in, killing any Covenant that survived. After the last Grunt fell to the floor, both he and Twilight moved on through the next door.

What was behind the door was almost an exact repeat of the corridor and room they were just in. For a second, the Chief thought that he was having deja vu. As the room was cleared out, Cortana couldn't help but make a quick comment.

"The Covenant presence here is stronger than I anticipated", she said "they must have the entire region covered!"

"Then that's good news and bad news", the Chief remarked. Upon seeing Twilight's confused face, he added in "bad news that the Covenant are here in force, but it shows us that the Control Centre must be nearby or in the area."

"Well, that is if you think in an optimistic manner", Twilight noted. "And I mean in a very, very optimistic way."

They made their way through the second room, and out into a large bridge in the middle of the cold open air. Once again, the Chief was glad that he had his MJOLNIR armour on, which kept his temperature in an almost perfect setting with its Hydrostatic Gel Layer. Unfortunately, Twilight didn’t have anything and thus the Chief could hear her quietly curse as he looked at the beams of light that seemed to replace suspension cables on the bridge, similar to how the ringworld was full of areas that used light as solid matter.

On each side of the door were two unoccupied Shade turrets, with the supposed gunners sleeping next to it. The Chief acted quickly to silently neutralize them before they could wake up. They died without making a single sound. With their rear now covered, the Chief peered over the edge of the barrier, and spotted multiple enemies scattered throughout the bridge.

He noticed that there were multiple ramps leading to a level beneath them, so he was about to sneak down there to avoid most of the Covenant when a flaming Pelican flew past the bridge, smoke billowing from the port engines. Immediately, all of the Covenant on the bridge, some of which were asleep, all jumped up and started firing at the Pelican as Chief overheard a radio conversation between the occupants of the Pelican and Cortana.

"This is Fireteam Zulu, requesting immediate assistance from any UNSC forces. Does anyone copy? Over."

"Cortana to fireteam Zulu. I read you. Hold position, we're on our way."

'So much for the element of surprise', he thought to himself as one of the Elites on the bridge noticed that the shade turrets did not fire on the Pelican and was striding over to investigate. Deciding on pre-emptively attacking, the Chief jumped into the nearest Shade turret, and sent a volley of plasma bolts to the Elite, killing it within a few shots. He moved on to mowing down the nearest group of Grunts.

'Where is Twilight?' he wondered after noticing her absence, only to be answered by a single Elite, who ran out to face him, being kicked off the edge of the bridge. Twilight's purple mane was blown to the side by a gust of wind, making her seen by several Covenant Troops, who were now alert to the prospect of a teleporting enemy, and took precautions against her, such as making sure their backs were almost touching each other.

The Chief smiled. While the Covenant tried to compensate for Twilight's magical ability, they had made it easier for him to kill them, being so close together in a large bunch. As Twilight teleported back to the Chief, he racked up kill after kill of Covenant

"Nice job confusing them", he told her as he finally stopped firing the Shade turret after the surviving Covenant fled back behind cover on the other side of the bridge. She blushed, but tried to look away. The Chief only shook his head. 'Is this how ponies react to compliments?' he wondered to himself. Then again, he might have seen other humans blush like that at similar comments.

He jumped out of the Shade turret, and started to make his way through the Bridge, with Twilight following suit. The surviving Covenant decided that their best tactic was to attack the pair all at once, and came running out of their hiding spots, plasma weapons firing as they ran. They were quickly stopped by Twilight's shield, and the Chief's accurate fire from his assault rifle.

As the last Covenant soldier dropped to the ground, dead, the doors at the other side of the bridge opened up, and the sounds of boots running across the metal surface echoed across the icy wind of the canyon on which the bridge connected. Worried at how he could not see what had come out of the door, due to the barrier blocking his view, the Chief held up his hand, motioning for Twilight to hang back, while he cautiously walked forward, weapon raised with his eyes focusing both on what was in front of him, and the red blips on his motion tracker.

His caution was soon rewarded as an Elite Zealot vaulted over the barrier, attempting to skewer the Chief with its energy sword. The Chief jumped back, narrowly avoiding the tip of the sword, before kicking the Elite in the chest as it tried to move closer. He opened fire at the Zealot, hitting it with a full volley of automatic fire from his rifle. The Zealot took it all without a single flinch, pulling out a plasma rifle with its non sword arm, and fired back at the Chief, whittling his shields down to a fraction of its max strength.

Twilight, seeing how close the Chief was to having his shields taken down, ran from behind him, flanking the Zealot and blasting it with a beam of magic. The Zealot, from the force of the magical blast alone, was thrown off the edge of the bridge.

"That was slightly anti-climatic", Cortana commented to the Chief, who reloaded after dealing with a group of retreating Grunts. "I almost expected you to stab him with his own sword."

The Chief ignored the remark and moved on through the door, onto a small lift. He waited for Twilight to join him on the cramped platform before pressing his hand against the holo console. He felt his gut lurch as the lift came down quite fast. Within a few seconds, they had gone down the equivalent of maybe twenty stories on an apartment building.

After passing through an empty corridor, they exited out into the snow filled canyon, where a group of Marines, most likely Fireteam Zulu, were taking cover near a group of thin trees, near the wreckage of their Pelican and an overturned Warthog. On the other side of the area were multiple squads of Covenant, along with two Shade Turret and, much to the Chief's chagrin, a Wraith Mortar Tank.

The Chief heard Twilight gasp in both horror and awe as they witnessed the Wraith fire a single plasma mortar at the entrenched Marines, its arc carrying it high in the air before descending downwards and colliding with the ground, melting snow, sending broken shards of some trees flying everywhere and vaporising the body of an unfortunate Marine. Fortunately, the majority of the Marines scattered out of the blast zone, but into the fire of the nearest Shade Turret.

Using the magnification on his pistol, the Chief got a clean headshot on the Grunt manning the Shade Turret, and cleared out some of the Covenant before the Wraith fired a mortar at his location.

"Twilight, move!", he shouted, sprinting towards the overturned Warthog, with Twilight following close behind, her eyes peeled to the mortar as it flew in the sky and exploded at the place she was previously at. They reached the Warthog, and the Chief proceeded to quickly flip it over to the right side. The Chief also noticed a Rocket Launcher lying nearby and quickly swept it up with his free hand, before stowing it on his back. They jumped in, with a Marine, who had seen them coming, jumped on to the gunner placement.

"Good to see you, Chief", the Marine shouted "And your pet pony."

"Excuse me!", Twilight shouted back, as the Warthog drove off. "I am not a Pet!"

"I would remind you, Twilight, that there is a Wraith about to blow us up!", Cortana shouted over the comm channel as the Wraith turned to face them.

Swearing his head off, the Marine started to fire at the Wraith head on, but the tank was protected by both an Infantry screen, and its thick armour. The Covenant Troops were taking pot shots at the exposed occupants of the Warthog while the Chief attempted to drive into the dead zone around the Wraith, where it could not risk firing a mortar without destroying itself. This was going along marginally well, until a Ghost decided to turn up, firing on the Warthog as it hovered over to them. The Chief heard Twilight scream as plasma bolts impacted on the armoured plates of the Warthog near her.

Sliding the Warthog around the Ghost, while running over a pair of Grunts, the Chief gave the Gunner an opportunity to fire round after round into the exposed body of the Elite driver, eventually killing it. As the Ghost powered down, collapsing onto the snowy environment.

"Twilight, could you use your magic to deal with those Troops surrounding the Wraith?", he asked as he drove the Warthog to the side, avoiding being hit by a mortar.

"I can try!" Twilight shouted over the howling wind and the sound of plasma fire. She pocked her head out of the safety of the Warthog and looked at her opponents. There was only a single Elite, a pair of Jackals and a troupe of Grunts left, still enough of them to pose a serious threat if ignored as the Chief focused on the Wraith.

She telekinetically lifted the Elite into the air, and threw it right into the path of an oncoming mortar, which vaporised him with the impact mid-air, though the Mortar continued on without any effect on it. She then focused on the Jackals, who stared with wide eyes at what had happened to their leader. They suffered a more merciful fate: a large blast of magic that obliterated them. The Grunts simply looked at one other, and fled, clearing the area around the Wraith.

Twilight popped her head back into safety, as the Chief drove the Warthog into a close position with the Wraith, the Gunner firing rapidly at the purple monstrosity, though the rounds pinged off of the front armour. Then, Twilight saw the Wraith coming towards them for apparently no reason, until she heard the Gunner shout "It's trying to ram us."

She felt the Warthog brake, causing her to lurch forward, using her magic to stop herself from slamming into the dashboard. She looked up, through the windscreen, and saw that the Warthog had barley avoided getting hit by the Wraith, due to the Chief driving backwards to the side. Twilight also noticed that the rear of the Wraith was now exposed, and that it had significantly less armour than the front.

Both of the other occupants of the Warthog saw this opportunity, and the Gunner quickly opened fire. After a short while, the Wraith exploded, sending debris everywhere. The Marines across the area cheered at the sight, with Twilight joining in, unable to help herself. The only one who remained silent was the Chief, as he drove back to the entrenched Fireteam Zulu.

"Thanks for the assist, Chief", the Sergeant said "That Wraith would have blasted us into atoms."

"No problem", the Chief said.

"Why was your pelican flying nearby, may I ask?" Cortana spoke out over the Chief's external Comm.

"Major Silva requested us to investigate the area, and to provide support for you if you needed it." The sergeant gave a brief, ironic laugh. "Turns out we needed the support instead."

"Well, with humanity's luck so far, I'm not particularly surprised at that turn of events." Cortana said in a joking manner. "But we're happy to have any help we can."

"Glad to hear it", the Sergeant said, before turning around to look at a Marine in the far distance, who was watching the far reaches of the canyon for any more enemies. "What's the situation back there", he shouted over the mike.

"Everything at ground level looks clear, sarge", the Marine began, his voice being heard through Twilight's radio as he was too far away to hear him. "but I keep on seeing something, or a group of somethings in the air with my peripheral vision. I'm not sure the area is cleeeeeaaaaa!"

This was all Twilight heard before a huge bug with wings ambushed the Marine from behind, picked him up with two of its appendages, flew up above the tree tops, and dropped him, leaving him to be impaled at the top of one of the many trees. The insect like creature then flew towards the large group, with many other insects joining it mid-flight.

"Shit!", the Sergeant said as he, along with all the other Marines, raised his Assault rifle and opened fire on the incoming insects. "We got Drones incoming!"

The Chief jumped out, with Twilight following suit. The Gunner remained on the turret, firing at the 'Drones' with automatic fire. Twilight herself aimed at a Drone, and opened fire with a short burst, only to find the insect alien dodging most of her bullets.

Annoyed, she used her magic to hold the bug in mid-air, as she fired another burst at it. This time, all of the bullets hit it and the last one punctured the thick armoured exoskeleton, killing it. Even as it started its swift descent to the ground, it was replaced by two more Drones. These were armed with plasma pistols, and opened fire on the alicorn.

She teleported a few metres back as she avoided being burnt by plasma. She raised a shield around herself, allowing a few shots to hit the shield, before teleporting away, slamming them into the ground with extreme force.

She then fired a blast of magic at another Drone, sending it shrieking into the nearest tree, which was a fair distance away. She didn't see it get impaled by a branch as she turned around, and ducked to avoid getting grabbed by a flying Drone. She threw it away from her, and couldn't stop herself feeling some satisfaction as she watched it land near the Chief, who proceeded to stomp on its face with his armoured boot.

After another three minutes of fighting, the last Drone finally fell to the ground, dead. However, out of the twelve Marines that were present when Twilight and the Chief had dealt with the Wraith, only seven were still alive. Twilight, her adrenaline fading after the firefight, started to feel tears run down her face as she looked down at the body of the dead Sergeant at her hooves. The stench of burnt flesh rose up from his face, or what was left of it, causing Twilight to both cough and feel nauseas. She walked away, failing to keep her eyes off of the corpse littered on the ground.

In the end, she found herself next to the Chief, who was reloading his Assault Rifle. She looked up at him, to see if he had any visible reaction to what has happened, but she could find nothing from his helmet, hiding his face away. She wondered what his face even looked like, or even his skin. The only thing she knew for real is that his blood was crimson, just like the other humans.

'Maybe it doesn't effect him like it does to me?' she wondered, but then shook her head, 'no, when that Marine at the Cartographer died from that Hunter, he looked hurt. But why doesn't he show it?'

Downcast, she looked down at his hand, and saw it in a very tight grip, reminding her of how Spike would curl up his claws into a fist when he was angry or determined. 'Maybe he does show it...', she realised, that thought somehow giving her comfort that her protector was not an emotionless monster.

She was so lost in thought that she did not notice the Chief looking down at her, not until she heard his voice speak out. "Twilight?" A single word that caught her attention.

He knelt before her, and simply asked "Are you alright?" Twilight blinked, unsure if she was hearing the same thing over and over again.

"No", she replied honestly, "but I can keep on going." the Chief seemed to hesitate before standing up, and nodding. The two of them looked to the far side of the canyon, jumped into the Warthog, where the Gunner was still on, and drove off.

They continued on until a deep drop-off prevented the group from driving any further with the Warthog. So they all had to hop off, and trek through the snow. While the Chief and the Marine had armour on, and warm clothes, Twilight had none of that, and was now beginning to feel the cold begin to creep in throughout her whole exposed body.

She gritted her now chattering teeth as she fought back, using magic to warm herself, though it wouldn't last long. The spell that she had cast was only temporary, and thus she would need a new source of warmth. She could already feel her fur start to become tense from Goosebumps.

Fortunately, she felt something made of wool land on her back. She looked back and found a dark green scarf on her back. She looked at the Chief, whose hand was once again going back to his rifle. "Thanks", she said, telekinetically wrapping the scarf around her neck. The warmth of it instantly made a difference. "Where did you get this from?"

The Chief seemed to hesitate to say something, but in the end, it was Cortana who spoke out. "From one of the dead Marines back at the crashed Pelican." Twilight felt the warmth suddenly flee her body, and horror seep in. "Why?" she asked in a whispered voice.

"Because he wouldn't be needing it anymore", The Chief said, in a deadpan voice. As Twilight looked back at him in horror, Cortana butted in once again to explain things. "Twilight, this war has been going on for three decades now. In that time, when we are behind enemy lines, we had learnt to scavenge what we could from whatever source, no matter where from. Often, this was the difference between life and death."

"So don't think of the scarf as the last possession of a dead person", the Chief spoke again, "but as something that person would rather give out to someone still alive, to help them live on."

Twilight pondered that, and found her horror fading. They were both right. She decided to ignore where the scarf came from, and focus on how it is helping her keep warm.

"May I enquire on how that scarf is keeping you warm in this environment?" Cortana asked in a curious tone of voice.

"Well...", Twilight's face transformed into what her close friends would call one of her trademark lecture grins, "Pony metabolism is..."

They were interrupted by the sound of plasma bolts being fired in their direction. Twilight raised a shield around herself and the Chief, and found the both of them surrounded by a squad of Covenant. The Chief raised his rifle in preparation to fight, with Twilight following suit. However, Cortana, in a semi-pleased tone, spoke out over the comm.

"Chief, up ahead, past those trees, is a scorpion. If you and Twilight can make it past this squad, we'll have enough firepower to deal with anything in this region, minus a Scarab."

"Roger that", the Chief said, who then turned to Twilight. She was confused about what they were talking about, so she looked past the Covenant outside her shield, in the direction that Cortana gave, and saw a metallic, human vehicle that was bigger than the Warthog. It had what looked like a huge gun on the top, and four of what appeared to be protected, elongated wheels.

"Get ready to make a run for the Scorpion", the Chief said as Twilight's shield started to crack under the pressure of having to handle so many plasma bolts colliding with it. Twilight nodded, sweat starting to drip down from sheer concentration and effort put into maintaining the shield.

"Now!" the Chief shouted as the Shield finally gave way and shattered. Twilight, though exhausted, teleported directly in front of the Scorpion. She jumped behind it, taking cover, then collapsed from magical exhaustion. She felt the impact of snow on her face as the Chief's boots hit the ground near her.

Opening her eyes, her blurry eyesight could barely make out the Chief and the Marine firing their Assault Rifles next to her. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, allowing her magical energy to slowly restore itself to an acceptable level.

"Twilight?" Cortana asked through the comm as she noticed Twilight doing nothing.

"Just...recuperating", Twilight muttered, still weak. "My magic reserve is low. I'll be fine in a moment."

"Maybe you could have waited for a better time?" The Marine said as he put down a Jackal with a burst from his rifle.

"Hey, that shield I used to protect us took a lot of effort and energy to sustain", she said, too worn out to even make an annoyed tone.

"Private, move Twilight behind those trees and stay with her", the Chief ordered.

"Yes, sir", the Marine replied, grabbing Twilight with both of his arms, put her on his shoulder, much to her chagrin, and ran to the nearest thick tree. Meanwhile, the Chief vaulted up onto the Scorpion, jumped into the open drivers seat, closed the hatch and activated the Tank's engine.

As the sound rumbled throughout the area, the Covenant Troops became petrified as the Scorpion's turret started to swivel in their direction. The Chief smiled as he pressed down the trigger in the cockpit, and blew up an Elite and five Grunts, sending melted snow, burnt dirt and blood flying into the air. He proceeded to mop up the remaining Covenant with the machine gun attached to the turret, since this Scorpion was a M808B model.

The firing stopped after a brief moment, the machine gun bullets and main cannon of the Scorpion easily destroying the nearby Covenant Troops. The Chief used the instruments of the Scorpion to spot the Marine and Twilight, who seemed to be in better shape now, walking towards the Tank, with the Marine jumping onto one of the treads, while Twilight looked around in shock at the carnage the tank had wrought.

"Did this thing just do what I think it did?", she asked over the radio, as she couldn't see the Chief.

"Yes, it did", Cortana answered for him as he opened the hatch, getting up slightly to allow Twilight to spot his helmet within the vehicle. Her expression of confusion faded, and she jumped up and stood next to the hatch, looking down at the Chief with intrigue.

"How can you even sit in there?", she asked "It's so cramped..."

"Its big enough for one person, even of my size", the Chief said, sitting himself back inside to drive the Scorpion. He noticed Twilight sitting right next to the hatch, though she was not obscuring his vision through the tinted windows.

The Scorpion tank slowly rumbled forward, its heavy weight preventing any fast movement from the tank. As they continued on the wide canyon, a pair of ghosts came out of the woodwork, bearing down on the Tank. The plasma bolts that the Ghosts shot out of their frontal cannons did little to damage the Tank, with the Chief simply swivelling the turret around to face the nearest Ghost, and fired a single round at where the Ghost was heading, hitting and destroying it with a huge explosion.

The second Ghost turned around and tried to flee, but the Marine sitting on the side pulled out a rocket launcher, and fired it at the Ghost, destroying it. The Tank rumbled on, as it ignored the burnt wreckage, travelling through the canyon, and the large path that seemed to lead somewhere.

After twenty minutes of travelling through the canyon, killing Covenant whenever they could, the group in the Scorpion found an entrance to a large tunnel, similar to the smaller one that the Chief had found when he was searching for the scattered Marines in the crash area. The large, metal walls were visible from the sensors inside the Scorpion. Though it was a fair distance away, the path towards it was clear, except for three obstacles: A single Wraith tank, and two Banshees, their purple metallic body and wings glittering in the sky, flying towards the Tank.

The Chief immediately pressed the brakes, put the engine in reverse, and drove backwards, in an attempt to gain distance and time between the oncoming Banshees. It was fortunate that he did so, as two Fuel rod shots impacted and exploded on the snow where the Tank once stood. The Banshees let loose a volley of plasma bolts, but the Chief mainly ignored the plasma hitting the tank for now, aiming the cannon at the Banshee to his left.

As the Banshees veered away, the Chief fired at the left Banshee, blowing it up. He was already aiming for the second one as the hull of the Banshee, and the corpse of the Elite pilot, fell to the ground. However, He saw Twilight stand up, and her horn light up, with the Banshee soon being enveloped in a pink glow. It was then thrown against the Cliff face, exploding as it collided.

That left the Wraith to deal with, as it fired mortar after mortar at the Tank. Thankfully, they were far away from it that the Chief could easily move the Scorpion out of the impact zones of all of the mortars. The Chief aimed and fired a shot from the Scorpion at the Wraith, saw it be impacted, but still keep on throwing our Mortars. As the Scorpion's cannon reloaded, the Wraith moved forward with a boost from its rear engines, coming closer in order to ensure its shots hit the Scorpion.

The Chief could make out the damaged armour plates in the front, and knew that one more shot could destroy it. He aimed again, and counted down the seconds until the cannon had reloaded.

Five.

The Wraith fired another Mortar, aimed at the Scorpion. The Chief once again moved past it, but only by a metre.

Four.

In order to try to destroy the Wraith, the Marine fired a rocket from his launcher.

Three.

The Wraith dodged the fast, but still slower than the cannon shot, rocket. It flew past before impacting on the metal ceiling of the tunnel.

Two.

The Wraith fired once again, as it grew closer to the Tank. The Mortar arched in the sky, heading right for the Scorpion. At this range, the Chief couldn't dodge it with the speed of the Tank.

One.

Twilight decided to act now, after resting for twenty minutes. She created a shield around the Scorpion, which the Mortar impacted on, shattering it in the process.

Zero.

The Chief fires point blank into the broken armour of the Wraith. The shot penetrated into the drivers cabin, and exploded. The Wraith erupted in a brief explosion of heat and light and the broken hull crashed into the snowy ground.

"Is everyone all right?" the Chief asked over the comm. His question was answered with acknowledgements from an AI, a Pony and a Marine.

"Good" he muttered to himself as he started to drive the Scorpion forward once more, this time into the large tunnel in front of them.

Twilight shivered as she entered the cold, windy outside space once again, the Chief standing right behind her. He gripped his newly acquired sniper rifle with ease as he used the magnification sights to study their new location.

It had been at least an hour since they entered the tunnel with the Scorpion tank. It took them ten minutes to reach a metal cavern. There was a large bridge to cross, but it was heavily fortified by the Covenant. The group blasted through it all, and made it to a door that was damaged, opening only enough for a Hunter to fit through. Sure enough, they had to leave the Tank behind, before walking through another tunnel, and into the catacombs of the Ring. Within there, they were ambushed by Hunters, who targeted the weakest out of the group; the Marine. He died to a single blast before they could even react.

She still remember hearing him scream as he melted in front of her. After that, all she felt for a while was rage. Even with the Hunters lying dead from the Chief's hands, she still went on a rampage, massacring any Covenant she could find for at least a quarter of an hour. She was so distracted by her rage that she had forgotten all about the mission, and it was only the intervention by the Chief and Cortana that she finally cooled down enough to continue on.

Now here they are, on the natural bridge above a large natural valley, where the pyramid that housed the Control Centre stood tall to the side, it's rusted, yet majestic metal surface still glittering with the sunlight and snow falling onto it. Twilight would have stared in wonder at the pyramid if it wasn't for the fact that she had just noticed the empty Banshees lying on the Bridge, as well as the Elites who stood nearby them.

"Analysing", Cortana commented as the Chief and Twilight got into another firefight, "This must be the control room. Subtle. The entrance to the Control room must be on the top of that pyramid."

"Just like the room which teleported me onto the Autumn", Twilight realised, half concentrating on what Cortana was saying as she reloaded her Assault Rifle after killing an Elite Minor. The remaining two Elites decided to jump into the open Banshees, close the cowling, and fly off into the sky.

"Damn", the Chief said as he saw them fly up, "That was our ride straight to the top."

"We can still reach there, right?" Twilight asked, a feeling of worry starting to form within her stomach.

"Yes, we can", Cortana said, "but not without having to deal with the Covenant forces spread across the Pyramid."

"Alright then", the Chief said, sending a single sniper shot at an Elite on the Pyramid, killing it with a headshot, "Lets move on. The sooner we take them out, the sooner we can get what we are looking for before more enemy reinforcements arrive."

With that in mind, the pair moved onwards to the other side of the rock bridge, fighting through a pack of Grunts and Jackals. There they found a portal to the interior of the cliff face, and the elevator that took them to the ground level. As they arrived, they took advantage of the quick respite to reload their weapons, and take note of their ammo.

Twilight noticed that she only had two spare magazines left for her rifle. Her pistol ammo had all but been expended fighting through the catacombs of the previous area. She heard the click of a rifle's receiver clicking into place, and knew that it was the Chief loading in his last clip of ammo for his rifle. She telekinetically grabbed one of her clips and hovered it in front of the Chief, who graciously accepted it, clipping it to his ammo belt.

"Thanks", he said, "just make sure that you don't run out of ammo yourself."

"I only got my full mag in my rifle, and this spare left", Twilight commented to the Chief. The Chief hung his head in thought for a brief moment, before kneeling down and grabbing one of the plasma pistols that littered the floor. He handed it to her, butt first.

"Take this as something to use in case that ammo runs out quickly", he said to her. She took it from his open hand, held it in front of her as she studied the mechanisms of the pistol, and clipped it to her side. She was not familiar with the Covenant weapons, and thus hoped she wouldn't have to use it.

They walked out once again into the snowy landscape, where a squad of Covenant awaited them. Putting up a shield around them, Twilight snarled as an arrogant Elite rushed inside her shield, as she crafted it to allow other allies, like the Chief to go through it, with it only stopping plasma, and didn't account for the Elites to take advantage of it.

Fortunately, the Chief was there and tackled the Elite to the ground, as another Elite ran forward to join its comrade. This time, Twilight turned a portion of the Shield into solid form, cutting the Elite in half as it stood right at the edge, where the purple light was present throughout half its body. She heard both the crunch of the front half of the Elite peeling forward, and the knife being imbedded into the throat of the first Elite.

She released the Shield as the Grunts and Jackals began to run away. She would have shot them with her rifle, if it wasn't for the fact that a pair of Hunters and the pair of Banshees from before began to attack the Chief and her. The Banshees swooped down to make a firing run on her, while the Hunters decided to focus on the Chief, all of them firing their fuel rod cannons.

Twilight teleported a few meters away from where she was standing before, but was forced to shield herself as the Banshees turned around and began firing their plasma cannons at her. With her shield quickly becoming cracked on every angle, Twilight created a solid block out of magic, its translucent, purple form indicating its nature, and sent it flying into the nearest Banshee as the Shield shattered, with such force and momentum that the Banshee could not evade in time.

The second Banshee rolled to the right, its engines screeching out at her ears as it passed overhead with speed that could rival Rainbow Dash, when she was not attempting a sonic rainboom. Twilight's eyes tracked as it flew in the air, widening as it turned around and fired another green bolt of explosive energy at her. She ran forward as fast as she could to avoid getting hit, while simultaneously dodging the plasma bolts sent her way. It also didn't help that Covenant Troops from the upper levels of the Pyramid were traversing their way down, firing at her from a distance, with a Jackal sniper almost shooting her in the head.

'Though those Covenant Troops are a real danger, I'll have to deal with that Banshee first, then help the Chief with the Hunters', she thought to herself as she ran. 'Or I could do both...'

Stopping in her tracks, much to the surprise of the Covenant, she stared down the Banshee that was heading her way before lighting up her horn. The Elite pilot, though she couldn't see it, bared its mandibles, expecting an easy kill, before he felt his Banshee jolt from an unknown force, and looked at its monitor only to see the side of the Pyramid coming closer and closer. It had no time to react as Twilight threw the Banshee right at a group of Covenant on the Pyramid, especially where the sniper was.

Twilight turned back to the base of the Pyramid, looking for the Chief, when she saw him dodge an oncoming Shield swipe by a Hunter. She quickly noticed the dead body of the second Hunter near where they were fighting, just as the Chief leapt onto the back of the Hunter, primed a grenade, thrust it into the mass of worms on the back and jumped off. Three seconds later, the Hunter exploded in a mass of blood and worms.

She ran up to him as he loaded in his last mag for his rifle. His armour had a new burn mark on the Chest. A Hunter or Elite must have gotten a lucky shot when his Shields went down.

"Are you alright with that?" Twilight asked, pointing at the burn mark.

"Yeah", he replied, slinging his Assault Rifle for his Sniper rifle, "it's only on the paintjob, nothing else."

He raised his sniper and fired a single shot, with the yell of an Elite, and the flop of a dead body, heard in the distance. He looked back at her and nodded, which she returned. As they began to walk on the path up to the top of the pyramid, Cortana couldn't help but add "I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking", which sent Twilight into the giggles.

There were Covenant waiting for them on the way up, but Twilight managed to throw them off the edge in an effort to conserve ammo. The Chief only grunted at this, the only sign of him being impressed.

They finally made it to the top, where a couple of abandoned Shade turrets awaited them. A large door stood before them, its metal surface being decorated by engraved lines in a v-shaped pattern. A single green light emanated from a thin, cylinder shaped slit in the middle of the door. On the side was a holographic panel, waiting to be pressed.

"What do we do now?" Twilight asked as she surveyed the area, struggling to keep her excitement from the ancient wonder that this pyramid could provide for everypony back in Equestria.

"Simple", the Chief replied, looking at the furthest Shade turret. "I need you to get on that turret, and aim it at the door", he said as he pointed to the Shade. Twilight complied, teleporting beside it. "Now", he continued as she hopped on, "as soon as I activate this switch, you teleport me to the other turret. Understood?"

"Got it", she replied, but he already started walking towards the switch. His hand hovered over it as he twisted his head to look directly at her, and nodded. He pressed the button, and Twilight used her magic to make him disappear in a flash, and reappear at the other Shade.

The door slowly opened, but when it did, it revealed a single Elite Zealot with a small cohort of Grunts. The Zealot leapt to cover behind an energy shield as Twilight and the Chief hosed down the Grunts with plasma bolts. The Zealot simply stood and watched, not even blinking at the sight of the Grunts dying, unprotected. Somehow, this infuriated Twilight, who jumped off of the Shade when it was clear that it couldn't get past the shield.

The Zealot watched her approach, its eye flicking from both her and the Chief, who had gotten off as well. A flash of blue light near the Zealot's hand, and the swoosh sound, announced the activation of an energy sword. Twilight's eyes widened as the Zealot leapt to the side towards her, and charged. Both her and the Chief fired their rifles at it, but the Zealot was a veteran and was fast. It kicked her rifle out of her magical grasp, and tried to skewer her, until the Chief pulled out his sniper and shot it point blank in the Chest.

The Zealot stumbled as its shields went down, allowing Twilight to pull out her captured plasma pistol, and shoot it at the Zealot's chest. It was remarkably swift, and powerful, with only a few shots needed to melt the armour, and skin of the Zealot before it finally died.

"Scanning", Cortana said as Twilight followed the Chief down a large, hangar like space before stopping in front of another set of doors and pressing the switch. "Covenant forces in the area have been eliminated. Nicely done, you two. Let's move on to Halo's Control Centre!"

They entered a vast room, where the actual walls were shaped like a sphere, except the top and bottom led to a hole that seemed to go on forever. The door led straight onto a large platform, its only connection to anything being the path to the door. Twilight could actually look down through the transparent glass/steel but then immediately regretted it, seeing as she could only see an endless abyss. What caught her eye next was the huge hologram of Halo slowly rotating around a circular walkway in the middle of the area. At the start of the circular walkway was a longer holographic panel than the ones Twilight had seen previously.

Twilight couldn't help herself. She gave a loud yelp of excitement, clapping her hooves together, much to the amusement of the Chief, who simply shaked his head as he walked towards a large panel at the edge of the walkway.

"This is it...Halo's Control Centre", Cortana commented as the Chief reached the panel. "That terminal, try there." The Chief complied with her instructions, placing his hand on one of the many symbols on the panel.

Cortana's avatar suddenly appeared over the panel, her face alight with pleasure as her colour shifted from blue to red, then back again.

"Are you alright?" the Chief asked, with Twilight noticing his voice carried both surprise and concern. She wouldn't lie that she didn't feel the same way, especially with Cortana's next comment of being "Never Better". She drifted off to fantasizing about what she could learn about the Halo ring from here, when The Chief's voice sliced right through her distracted mind. "Let's stay focused. Halo. How do we use it against the Covenant?"

"Or at least disable it, and render it harmless" Twilight added, with the Chief nodding in agreement.

Cortana suddenly frowned with disdain. "This ring isn't a cudgel, you barbarians, it's something else. Something much more important. The Covenant were right, this ring-" She paused as she clutched her head with one arm, trying to sort out the information being processed. "Forerunner", she muttered in a puzzled voice, Cortana's facial expression complimenting it. "Give me a moment to access..."

Twilight walked up to the Chief and whispered so only he could hear. "Is there something wrong with her?", she asked, with the Chief only shrugging slightly. "I don't know", he admitted "but I don't like what's going on with her anyway."

The two of them soon realised that Cortana had started speaking again. "Yes, the Forerunners built this place, what they called a fortress world, in order to-" Her eyes widened in alarm at something "No, that can't be... Oh, those Covenant fools, they must have known, there must have been signs."

Whatever it was that Cortana was referring to, Twilight couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding, and dread start to overcome her, along with confusion, which is what the Chief must have been feeling as he tried to talk some reason into Cortana.

"Slow down. Your losing me", he said, but then took a step back as suddenly Cortana gasped in horror. "The Covenant found something", she said "buried in this ring, something horrible."

"Something buried?" Twilight asked, but was ignored by Cortana.

"Captain - we got to stop the Captain. The weapons cache he's looking for, it's not really - we can't let him get inside."

"I don't understand." Both Twilight and the Chief said this simultaneously without realising it.

"There's no time!", Cortana practically shouted at them in an urgent tone of voice. "I have to remain here. Get out, find Keyes, stop him. Before it's too late!"

Twilight and the Chief looked at one other, and both decided to trust Cortana's words and ran out of the Control Centre, with Twilight wondering with fear, what Cortana was speaking about.

'Looks like I'll find out soon enough', she thought to herself as she heard the Chief radio for pickup.

Author's Note

Hi everyone,

Finally, the Control Room has been secured, and now the Master Chief and Twilight head out to face a new, ancient threat that threatens everything.

Sorry about this chapter taking foreverm but I have now started Uni, so that has slowed me down partially. I'm still commited to this fanfic, so I'm going to keep on writing it.

Please leave your thoughts, and any errors that you find, in the comments below.

Till next time,
dalek117