The Spartan slowly walked through the steel corridors of the small transport ship Avalon. Destined for the Cygnus system, a handful of very delicate UNSC materials were aboard. Hidden behind the cloak of civilians, ONI figured nobody would recognize its importance, nobody would intercept the ship. The Avalon's crew and passengers had been aboard for a little over two days.

Their slipspace jump to the outskirts of Cygnus III, New Jerusalem was scheduled for mere minutes from now. Riley was making his trek through the corridors towards seating. The passengers, 15 marines, and lone spartan would strap in on one of the many seating decks before the jump. Riley turned a corner to face a large open room, seats scattered through the room with large 3 point harnesses. He seated himself in a lone seat near the bulkhead, a large U shaped bar coming down over his head as his harness. Like a rollercoaster, or the harness on a Pelican Dropship.

'Specialty seating' He thought with a small smirk. A klaxon began sounding in the ship, passengers who weren't already seated rushed to their chairs, strapping in. Two crewmembers began their rounds, checking seatbelts, before taking their own seats.

"Belts, double and triple check your belts!" They called loudly, the captain chattered over the intercom. When the crew were satisfied with their search, they took their seats by the wall, pushing a red button on the sides of their chair once they were both seated.

A loud whirring could be heard within the depths of the ships, it grew from a low droning to a high pitched whine, much like a jet engine spooling up. Riley gripped his harness and double checked his helmet, a motion that would save his life. He played with the helmet's seal, and pressurized the suit to satisfy his obsessive compulsive disorder. A large, dark purple orb expanded from below the decks. He could see the edge of it cut off at the bulkhead. It didn't expand further. Riley's heart pounded. In a last ditch effort, he called out to the crew across from him;

"CANCEL THE JUMP!"

A deafening roar drowned out his cry. The ship beyond the bulkhead disappeared in a bright light, replaced by the darkness of space. The oxygen immediately drained from the pressurized cabin, and the sudden decompression created a whirlwind of blood in the space, as capillaries and sinus membranes burst in every single person's faces. Almost all of them were unconscious immediately. Riley stared, dumbstruck. His shields screamed in protest from the electromagnetic pulse, and a few seconds later they re-charged.

Riley forced the harness up as the cabin went pitch black, the last of the power in this section running out. He turned on the flashlights mounted on his Mark V helmet, slowly scanning the room. His heart ached as he watched handfuls of colonists grasp at their throats in reflex as their brains yearned for oxygen. Within 30 seconds, the room was still. Riley pushed himself out of his seat and secured himself to the steel deck with the magnetic attachment points on his boots. He slowly stepped to the gaping hole beyond the bulkhead, revealing empty space. Examining the hole, he saw the cargo hold directly below him.

A box labeled UNSC teetered on the edge, slowly drifting away, clearly one of the boxes he'd been sent to protect. He pulled himself along the floor with his hands, and threw himself at the box. With one hand he caught the mysterious crate, with the other, he caught the lower decking of the ship. Riley slowly pulled himself into the hold, spotting weapons crates everywhere. Seizing the opportunity, he raided one of them for ammunition. He filled up on ammunition for his sidearm and assault rifle, blatantly stealing two frag grenades from the UNSC crates as well. All of the crates except the small brief-case sized object in his hand, were large weapons crates. He eyed the small case suspiciously before he walked along the deck to the missing half. He slowly finessed his way to the outer hull, walking along it. No lights were visible anywhere along the hull. Riley walked vertically along the until he came to stand on what was the roof of the Avalon. A gleaming green, blue, and white jewel of a planet lay below him. He looked around to try to spot stations, space elevators, anything to signal it was Cygnus III.

He found nothing.

Riley noticed the ship was clearly drifting closer to the planet. He glanced at the case in his hands, a serial number was stamped on it. MIL - 3291. It was an A.I. serial number.

"Hey buddy..." Riley spoke to the case quietly. "Wonder who you are..."

A low rushing pushed him back. He'd hit the atmosphere.

"We don't have long..." Riley voiced his thoughts. He opened it to find a glass AI holding case. He cracked the case open by twisting the carry handles opposite each other, and snatched the AI chip. Taking a risk, he inserted it into his helmet. A brief VISR message ran across his HUD, giving statistics too quick for him to read.

"Hello?"

"Identify." Riley stated.

"Jessica, 3291, UNSC Logistics and Assault." Came the reply. She seemingly noticed their predicament for the first time. "What happened?!"

"God only knows." Riley answered, shaking his head lightly as he looked at the wreckage, pacing the edge.

"What are we going to do?!" She asked, the hull began to glow a dull red along it's edges.

Riley thought about this question for a split second. Being inside the ship would mean nearly certain death. He hadn't seen any re-entry packs in the cargo bay, and knew there were no escape pods on this section of the ship. Riley slowly looked one way, then another.

"Pray Halsey knew what she was doing." Riley stated, disabling his magnetic boots and pushing off the hull at a sideways angle with all his might.

He careened away from the ship at a startling 30 meters per second. He just hoped he wouldn't land in the wreckage. Jessica held her tounge, so to speak. She hoped the atmosphere wouldn't be a thick one, or he'd likely be killed during the re-entry. If the fall didn't kill him.

Twilight sat in silence, she slowly glanced from her telescope to her book. Her gaze fell finally on her book, jotting down some notes. She smiled in quiet serenity, staring up at the night sky. She enjoyed her work, documenting the change of stars relative to Equis over time. Spike had been in bed for nearly an hour, and she'd just been quietly jotting away notes into her book. A new star appeared, much dimmer yet larger in size. It quickly went dull. Twilight looked around with her telescope, trying to find the object she'd seen to no avail. It was probably a meteor burning up in the atmosphere. Twilight shrugged off the phenomenon and glanced down at her book, trying to find her place marker she'd been focused on before her distraction. When she glanced back to the sky, she noticed the new star had re-appeared. It was most certainly a meteorite, as it was burning up in the atmosphere. Large chunks broke off and scattered, hundreds of sparks shattered away from the main streak. It seemed to be moving slower than a meteorite, actually entering the atmosphere instead of simply skimming off it.

Twilight looked through her telescope at the object, and after some brief calculations of the scope's zoom... She decided it was big.

Very big. She watched in bizarre fascination as the object careened past the mountain ranges of Canterlot. A flash over the hills told her it had impacted the ground. Surely the princesses had seen it, right?

"I'd better send a letter, just in case..." Twilight voiced. She jotted down a letter before walking to her sleeping assistant. "Spike."

He grumbled and rolled over.

"Spike! Spike? ...Spike, just send this letter and you can go back to sleep~!" She called in a sing-song tone. A tired claw shot out, took the letter from her magic grip, and a small head popped up under the blanket. Spike incinerated the letter, and rolled over to sleep. Twilight, satisfied she had done her duty, returned to her study of the stars.

Luna was frazzled, to say the least. She'd been observing a strange object in Low Equis Orbit since it appeared. It had a rapidly decaying orbit, in mere moments it would fall from her night's sky. It was a nice night. This strange new variable made her sad, it upset her nice sky. Luna walked to the large telescope on her balcony. Focusing it with her magic, she gasped. It was clearly not natural. Reflecting the light of the stars, the object looked to be made of some form of metal. Her view of it was ruined as the object was enveloped in a bright orange glow.

Luna looked away, staring at the floor tiles in thought. She calculated something in her head quickly. Luna rushed out of her room, down one of the massive marble hallways. She burst into a room without knocking, and roughly shook her sister awake.

"Sister!" Luna yelled.

"What is it?" Celestia asked, concerned.

"Something is coming, we need to ready the guards. They must mobilize at once, we don't have long!" Luna insisted.

"Calm down, my dear sister... What is coming?"

Hot. All Riley could think about was how hot he was. The metal plating on his boots glowed a brilliant orange, his shields beeped loudly as he plummeted.

"Are you okay?" Jessica asked him, barely audible over the noise of his shields.

Riley's only reply was a grunt. He had been plummeting for what felt like hours. After a few more minutes he began to feel cooler. His shields stopped beeping and recharged. The roar was dissipating, replaced by the whistling noise of wind. Riley stuck out an arm and rolled his weight, flipping to his stomach against the airflow. Moments later, the ship smashed into the ground far below him, sending up a fireball several stories tall. Riley attempted to maneuver in the air. He'd been skydiving before outside of his armor, but maneuvering in almost half a ton of plating proved difficult. Far below, he spotted nothing but rocks and mountains. Riley tried his best to direct himself towards a valley, and rolled on his back, locking his armor. Riley gritted his teeth as he neared the ground. With a tremendous 'BOOM' as he struck, he was unconscious.

"Wake up." Riley heard a voice. It sounded distant, almost pleading. "Wake up, please you have to wake up!"

He slowly forced his eyelids open. They were as heavy as concrete and he mentally fist fought himself just to keep them open. "Jessica, are you there?"

Riley couldn't move a muscle, stuck in an awkward position.

"Oh thank god, we need to move, quickly, please get up!" She cried, suddenly back in his ears. "I'm unlocking your armor now.."

Riley fell limp and let out a yelp. Slowly, he rolled onto his stomach, pushing himself onto all fours. Putting one leg in front of him, still kneeling, he shakily rose to his feet. The Spartan limped forward, looking up at the wreckage of the large ship. The white letters AVALON across the side were still visible, though streaked with soot. The 40 foot letters loomed over the Spartan. He looked around for a moment, and found his sidearm laying near his landing site, his rifle sitting under a piece of steel. He slowly limped towards the weapons, scavenged them off the ground, and holstered them.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Riley asked Jessica.

"No idea, I can't pick up radio signals anywhere on the planet. It seems to be completely devoid of technology." Jessica replied.

"Well shit..." Riley said quietly. "I'm Riley... Sierra 201."

"I know who you are." She replied. "Black mark V armor, huge Spartan II? They don't build them like you anymore.."

"Good to meet you too." Riley chuckled. He limped up the hill. "What was so urgent?"

"Them.."

A waypoint appeared on his HUD. Riley spun around, and faced the marker. A group of equines in gold armor, carrying spears, were approaching the clearing. The creatures poked at the steel from the ship, digging through the rubble. They slowly prodded at the hunks of steel, before seeing the name. The massive name on the side of the ship. "AVALON." Their gazes all slowly followed the letters straight down to the human. He slowly stepped, turning his body to face them. They reacted in an act of fear, stepping back.

He slowly reached around his back, gripping his assault rifle. The armored horses grabbed spears from across their sides, holding them at the ready.

A chunk of the ship collapsed, crushing the horses to the ground. Riley holstered his rifle and turned to leave.

"Riley! You have to help them!" Jessica squealed.

"Why." Riley more stated, then asked.

"They'll die!"

"They're not my responsibility."

"But they need help, we don't have any UNSC contacts locally, and you need to think about winning over hearts and minds!" She tried to convince him. Riley sighed. He walked to the horses, who struggled to try to escape. He gripped the edge of the sheet of steel, and with one hand, he flipped it up and off of them. They scrambled out from under it, one dragging their wounded comrade back.

"Happy?" Riley asked.

"Mhm..." Jessica said quietly.

"The demon talks?" One of them asked. Riley looked at the creatures in bewilderment.

"Jessica?"

"Beats me." The A.I. replied. "Fascinating..."

"Who are you?" Riley asked the creatures.

"Squad E, Platoon 4, detachment 5 of the 92nd Royal Guard Scouting Corps." The small horse replied. About the size of the average miniature horse, maybe 9 or 10 hands in height, 290-300 pounds each. The creatures only came up to the spartan's waist. He'd probably call them miniature horses, maybe ponies. "And what is your purpose here, demon?"

"I'm going to give you about four seconds to think about how stupid that question is." Riley held an impatient hand out to the wreck. "I demand to speak to your governmental leaders."

A few of the horses looked at each other uneasily. "Blue, are you able to fly?"

One of the horses spread large feathered wings in reply.

"Go on, tell the guard we're headed back to the city, have them prepared for company." The leader instructed. The other one nodded a reply and pushed off, taking off into the sky at a startling rate.

"Woah." Jessica stated, Riley watched silently.

"Follow us."

"You wish to bring the creature here, to Canterlot?" Luna asked, bewildered.

"Yes, Princess, it speaks and assisted in freeing our soldiers from a piece of wreckage. It shows amazing strength, some kind of strange armor."

"Bring it to us. We will meet you at the gates, personally to defeat him if we must." Celestia said.

"The squad and the creature will be nearly half of an hour before they arrive. Whenever it is convenient for you, Princess." The guard bowed, retreating to the doors.

The walk had been made in silence, neither party speaking to each other. Jessica was running analytics the entire trip, trying to study the local fauna and flora as best she could on the move. The group dropped over the mountain pass onto a winding path. Steel rails, bound with wooden ties lead up the hill. A few hundred feet away were the gates of a large white city, and the groups approached.

"HALT!" A voice cried from the battlements atop the wall. Riley paused.

Two horses, one nearly as tall as Riley himself approached. They looked at him with worry.

"They say you can speak." Celestia stated.

"Funny, they never told me you could." Riley quipped sarcastically. Celestia looked almost surprised, before she smiled.

"Who are you?" She asked, softer.

"Staff Sergeant of the UNSC, Sierra 201." Riley stated.

"A soldier?" Luna chipped in. "Why are you here?"

"Some kind of malfunction with the ship I was aboard. We wrecked here. There were no other survivors." He answered flatly.

"Come, let us discuss more in private. I trust you to remain civil, while within our city?" Celestia asked.

"As the situation dictates."

"Good." She replied. Her horn glowed a brilliant white before the world around him flashed blinding colors. When his vision cleared a split second later, they were inside a marble room with a high ceiling, a table laid before them.

"What was that?" Riley asked, trying his best to not sound as alarmed as he felt increasingly nauseous.

"A mere teleportation spell, do not be alarmed. Come, sit." She stated, leading him to the table. It was low to the ground, like a coffee table, pillows surrounded the appropriate seats. Riley followed them, Celestia sitting on the end, while Luna voted to sit beside the Spartan, examining him closer.

Riley looked around, nervously.

"So, Staff Sergeant. You've told us your rank and serial number, what is your name?" She asked.

"...Riley." He replied, softly, after a moment of hesitation. "And what is yours?"

"I am Princess Celestia, raiser of the sun, co-ruler of equestria." She replied.

"Co-ruler?" Riley questioned. The actual query he had was about the 'raiser of the sun' bit, but he opted to ignore it. He looked to the other pony. "Let me guess..."

"I am Princess Luna, Guardian of the night, raiser of the moon. I rule with my sister." She nodded, nearly a bow.

"It's an honor to meet you both." The realization that he was representing an entire species landed on Riley, and he became stressed.

"May we ask you some questions?" Luna asked.

"May I ask my own in reply?"

"Of course." She giggled, Celestia looked at her surprised.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat. "What nation do you serve, what is the name of their forces?"

"I serve the United Nations Space Command, the nations of my home world having banded together several hundred years ago, I serve for all of humanity." He replied.

"Home world?"

"We've spread out, colonizing other planets in our galaxy." He replied. They looked impressed.

"What is the purpose of your armor?"

"I'm a Spartan. It protects me, helps me to complete dangerous tasks other soldiers couldn't fathom, to give me the edge needed to surpass any other fighting machine." Riley replied, firmly.

"You sound rather confident in it."

"Ma'am, need I remind you I fell from orbit, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 17,000 miles per hour, temperatures almost half that of the surface of the sun, and survived to walk here?" Riley added for emphasis. The deities looked at each other almost nervous. Neither of them had seen the wreckage, neither had thought of that. He survived with barely a scratch. Truly, there was something powerful about this man.

"That's.. A good point..." Celestia said, thinking of words. "What kind of magic is it enchanted with?"

"I meant to ask you about that, you said 'spell' earlier? Magic.. As far as we've known.. Isn't a thing outside a myth. Evidently that's not true, but by all accounts we can't use it, nor do we have it. It's this fabulous thing called technology." Riley spoke.

"Ah.. Can we... See your face?" Luna asked, inquisitively.

Riley thought,

"Jessica?"

"I mean, the atmosphere is able to support you just fine, but if you get killed I'm detonating this suit and incinerating all of us." Jessica said sarcastically.

Riley slowly removed his helmet, it hissed briefly as the pressure equalized. He removed the helmet to show his features, slowly lifting it from its familiar place on his head. Their view followed the motion of his helmet, slowly upward from his chin. A solid squared jaw littered with 5 o'clock shadow was the first thing they met. Several sizable scars ran across his face. A more prominent scar cut across both his full, light red lips. He had a delicate nose that seemed nearly feminine in nature. Combined with the rest of his face however, it just made a nice contrast, adding to his masculinity. Hazel eyes with a brilliant blue sheen over them set in his head, a long scar running across his left eye, including the eyelid. The iris looked distorted around the edges following a straight line of a cleared shape. After 10,000 years of being around living beings, the princesses knew exactly what it was. It was a scar on his eye. His eye wasn't milky, from his awareness it was clear Riley could see from it, which was damn lucky given the force of whatever split his face open. He had a head of chestnut brown hair cut in a high-and-tight haircut to top off his pale skin tone. He hadn't seen much sunlight in years.

"My.." Luna breathed in amazement. Celestia herself was rather surprised. He looked absolutely delicate, yet completely untouchable.

"Do you have anyone I could talk to who has the stars mapped out in great detail?" He asked. The princesses looked to each other.

"It is clear you do not have lodging, and it would take you time to adjust to our planet... We would like you to stay with one of my personal students in a small town nearby... They have the information you would need, and I'm sure they'd value your insight." Celestia smiled gently, standing. Princess Luna followed suit, and slowly, Riley stood. He put his helmet back on in one swift movement.

"When do I leave?"

"I will have an escort come to take you to the station shortly... How did you acquire all those scars?" She asked. He faltered.

"Perhaps next time." He nodded gently. She understood. 10,000 years... She was no stranger to war. To the scars it could leave on a man, inside and out.

"Next time." She acknowledged.

Author's Note

Thought I'd try something new, what with the Master Chief Collection out on PC and whatnot. I hope you enjoy, please leave comments, criticism, likes and dislikes. 500 views with ten likes and five dislikes can be awful confusing for what direction the story really needs to go. Thank you!

(If the text shows up as one brick of text, try adjusting the paragraph spacing to 'both' in the top right formatting window.)