Author's Note

It’s been twenty four years since the end of the show. The elements have found new hosts this will be explained in later chapters.

Chapter 1

(Castle of Friendship, Ponyville 22:45)

Sitting in her office Princess Twilight reviewed the current report her daughter and friends had written up. Sighing at the details she set the paper down and looked at an old picture of her friends each striking a pose smiling Twilight thought ‘We really should get together next month.’

Hearing the sound of small hooves Twilight got out of her chair and walked to the front of her desk. Just in time too as two young foals burst in, her twins Star Pop and Ink Spot the first was a purple unicorn fully with a short blue mane that had a streak of pink while the other was an magenta unicorn colt with a baby blue mane. Crashing into their mother the two foals giggled happily until they looked up at her and saw the frown that was being directed at them while saying “Now why are you two out of bed ?”

“Well, Glimmer Dust and her friends are still up right now !” Star Pop said puffing out her cheeks while standing as tall as she could, looking down at her daughter Twilight shook her head while saying “Well your sister and her friends are in their twenties.”

“So she’s still in school and tonight’s a school night yet she’s still up.”

“Star your sister is in college and I don’t control what she does with her friends.” Twilight said as she began to nudge them to the door ignoring their pleas she continued “Now let’s get you to bed before-“

Sensing an immense amount of magical power Twilight threw up a shield as a deafening explosion blew out her windows. Protecting her children from the shrapnel she held the barrier until the event had ended. Hearing guards running towards her she saw her wife was the first to arrive she said “Get the children to their room and deploy the guards to the town I’ll teleport in and try to calm the town down.”

“Yes, but what did this ?” Fizzlepop asked as she grabbed her children and guided them out of the room she looked back to her wife who had moved to the window while giving her answer “I have no idea but I’ll find out.”

(Everfree forest)

Slowly gaining consciousness Carter began pushing himself up he looked around seeing stone around him. Shaking his head he tried to stop the ringing in his ears, he remembered his last moments as he pinned the throttle of the pelican as he drove the aircraft into the scarab. Taking a breath he stood only to fall back to the ground confused he looked down only to see two armor-clad hooves, lifting one up he touched his face feeling the cool metal of his helmet he thought ‘What happened to me ?’

“Sir glad to see you up.” A monotone voice said immediately recognizing it Carter turned coming face to face with Six sitting straight. Looking at the spartan he noted that he had been turned into some sort of equine......one that had wings. His usual armor warped to fit this new form along with his prosthetic limb. Six’s armor was undamaged and composed of an MK. Vi helmet with a pitch-black visor, an ODST pauldron sat on his right shoulder while the left had a CQC pauldron, on the same left wrist sat a tactical/UGPS, a collar breacher chest piece, and FJ/PARA knee pads. His main armor was a slate gray color while the highlights were a midnight blue, strapped to his left leg was a tactical/soft case.

Standing up Six extended his prosthetic leg pointing to his right he said “The rest of the team is four feet that way, I was the first to wake up and scouted the area.”

Nodding his head Carter turned and looked seeing the others he walked over to them while asking “So what’s the terrain like ?”

“Sir we appear to be in a castle the most I can tell is that our arrival blew out all the windows, the building appears to be in a forest can’t tell how far in we are I debated whether to climb one of the towers but this castle isn’t exactly new or intact.” Six said following the commander to the rest of the team. They looked over the unconscious spartans deciding it was time for Noble to wake up he Carter said “Ok when we get them up you, Emile, and Jun find a good viewpoint and figure out where we are, the rest of us will scout the castle I’ll place a marker so we can meet up back here in thirty.”

“Yes sir.” Six said walking over to Jun he roughly shook the spartan trying to wake him, looking down at Kat, he noted a horn protruding from her head that seemed to be wrapped in the armor, shaking her awake he heard a groan sighing in relief he said “C’mon Kat time to get up we’ve got work to do.”

“Commander ?” Kat groaned pushing herself up she looked up seeing an equine standing in front of her wearing Carter's armor before it spoke again “Kat you ok ?”

“Carter......is that you ?”

“Yes, and before you ask I don’t know what happened to us or how we got here.”

“Commander where is here the last thing I remember is us receiving a mission from Colonel Holland and then nothing.”

“Kat when we were running there was an ambush a Zealot shot you.........with some new weapon killed you instantly.” Carter said walking up to the younger spartan he placed a hoof on her shoulder he continued “Six managed to grab your body and bring it into the shelter before that beam came down on us.”

“.......ok so what’s going on ?” Kat asked switching to tactical sighing Carter walked over to Jorge noting Six had managed to wake both Emile and Jun and was in the middle of explaining what he could about the situation they were in. Sighing Carter made his way over to Jorge and began the process of waking the Spartan-II up while Kat asked again “What’s going on ?”

“I don’t know Kat the plan I’ve got involves me, you, and Jorge scouting the castle grounds,” seeing Jorge starting to wake Carter turned giving Kat his full attention before continuing “Six, Emile and Jun will be heading out to find higher ground and let us know what they see.”

“Ok, but what do we know so far ?” Kat asked looking over to Six who had finished speaking to the others. Quickly noting that he and Jun both had wings while Emile lacked the feathery appendages hearing another sigh Kat looked back at Carter, looking him over again she noticed the horn, he looked at Six and said “Six managed to scout the area a bit we appear to be in a castle that located in a forest......that’s all he stated not wanting to leave us while we were indisposed of.”

“Understood.” Kat said nodding at the commander she turned to leave only to bump into Jorge who looked down at her quizzically he said: “Kat you must watch where you go.”

Looking up to the commander Jorge looked him over before saying “So we’re scouting the area ?”

“Yes, Noble 5 and Six knows that we’ll be meeting back here in thirty,” Carter started walking over to an overturned table he lifted its cloth, reaching up to his chest he pulled out a tracking marker and tossed it under the cloth. Turning back to the group the team had finally assemble taking a breath Carter said “Right now we have a job to do scout the area gather as much intel as we can and meet back here in thirty, if we run into anything call in over the coms and transmit your location if your able DO not engage with any locals we don’t know what happened to us or how we got here so we must assume that they’ll be hostile, understood ?”

“SIR, YES SIR !” a chorus of voices answered him nodding his head Carter motioned for Kat and Jorge to follow him toward the entrance while Six, Emile, and Jun went out the nearest smashed and headed to higher ground. Pushing opens the door Carter activated his night vision turning to his team he said “Alright let’s see what this place can tell us about this place.”

(Ponyville moments after the pulse)

Holding her ears a young unicorn mare with a long dark blue mane and bright fuchsia fur that was tied up in a ponytail, sitting squarely on her flanks was a book that had a seven-pointed star on its cover letting out a groan she thought ‘Ahhh my head what the heck was that ?’ Glimmer couldn’t remember the last time she had and headache like this. Looking around her she saw that much of the bar was having the same difficulty as her. Trying to stand she felt a weight leaning on her looking to at it she saw her childhood friend Sprinkle Delight, a small earth pony mare with a bright pink coat and darker pink mane with highlights of brown in her mane was a wild mass fo curls like her mother, her own cutie mark was a party hat with confetti surrounding it. Currently, the smaller mare was leaning on Glimmer giving her a worried look, pulling herself up Glimmer asked “Sprinkle what was that ?”

“I don’t know Glim but Apple Gem, Silk Stitcher, and Cloud Splitter went out to check the rest of the town.”

“Where's Sunny Days ?” Glimmer asked looking around she couldn’t find the pegasus mare until a small voice spoke “I-I-I’m up here.”

Looking up the two mares saw their friend sitting in the banisters Sunny Days was light gold with a Short light blue mane that was just a long enough to cover one eye, her own cutie mark was a small rabbit. Taking a small breath she looked around the bar before floating down to her friends she asked “What do you think happened ?”

“I don’t know but this was magic.......was off the charts powerful magic,” Glimmer answered looking around again she took a breath and began channeling her own magic scanning for the source after a moment her eyes shot open she continued “and I got the location this came from the everfree !”

“B-b-but what c-c-could of cause t-t-this ?”

“I don’t know Sunny but we need to investigate this and report it to my mom.”

“Wait Glimmer shouldn’t we wait till she asks us to ?”

“No, we can’t she’ll be to busy calming down the town now let’s go this will go by faster and be safer if there are three of us going in !” Glimmer said as she galloped to the door giving each other a look Sunny and Sprinkle quickly ran after their friend but not before asking a couple of town ponies where the three of them were going.

(Everfree Castle)

Looking over the terrain Jun scanned the horizon trying to find anything, adjusting the zoom he noted a small speck of light in the distance checking his radar again Jun sighed still nothing and he had it set to the maximum distance. Going over the coms he reported his findings to everyone looking behind him he noted Emile and Six had stopped looking and were now investigating the remains of one of the towers. Stopping his own searching Jun walked over and asked “So what do you two make of this ?”

Looking up from the ruin Emile rubbed his neck and let out an annoyed grunt before saying "This is a load of shit, we all died on Reach right ?"

Looking at the others they gave him small nods as their minds went back to their last moments on the doomed planet but their thoughts were quickly cut off by Emile who hadn't finished "I went down fighting like any good spartan and now we've all woken up as fuckin equines !"

"For once we agree Emile but we can't....." taking a pause Jun noticed three small blips on his screen quickly motioning for silence the three switched to private coms and took cover looking at the two spartans Jun quickly said "Because we don't know the technological capabilities of this species one of us needs to find Carter and the others and let him know we have company."

"I'll do that." Emile said raising a hoof getting an acknowledgment from Jun he quickly disappeared into the brush not making a sound as he left, turning to Six Jun remembered his tracking skill during Knightfall Jun said "I'm going to find cover and provide overwatch Six you track those three and report back when you're able."

"Understood." Six answered before taking off into the forest quickly disappearing into the foliage looking around Jun saw the abandoned tower seeing the only way in was through, Jun looked over his shoulder seeing his wings he gave a small flex while thinking 'Well something tells me I'll be able to use these.'

Giving his wings a small flap Jun launched himself in the air he only managed to slam himself into the side of the building he punched a small hole in the stone and pulled himself through the hole landing on his side he let out a small groan. Pulling himself up Jun walked over to the window and began looking over the forest using infrared his mission started now all that was left was waiting for his teammates to call in.

(West of Castle of the Two Sisters)

Making their way to the source of the magical explosion and the source brought them closer to the castle remembering the story told to her by her mother Glimmer gulped. She was walking almost the same steps as her mother and her friends as before them albeit a different route, as they got closer Sunny noted how quiet the forest was now quickening her pace she came shoulder to should with Glimmer speaking up she said "Glimmer something doesn't feel right ."

"What do you mean ?"

"Listen !" Sunny pressed causing the three to stop moving and listen to the forest around them and they heard nothing, nothing but the wind and rustling leaves. Catching onto what she meant Glimmer and Sprinkle felt like something wasn't right quickly looking around they couldn't see anything out of the ordinary but deciding to be safe Glimmer ignited her horn and motioned for the others to follow her she said "I'll have a spell ready in case something tries to ambush us."

As the three moved off they failed to notice a shadow merely five feet from them begin moving to their left giving them a wide enough area to go unnoticed but not to lose sight of them. Noticing the lack of technology that any of them had in the group Six chinned a control in his helmet and began transmitting a video of the subjects he said "Noble I've located three of the locals, they appear to have no technology on their person how should I proceed ?"

"Continue observing Six do not engage unless they make the first move."

"Understood." Six confirmed before lapsing into silence he continued his observation deciding how to best handle the equines if they were to engage him in combat but seeing as how oblivious to his presence they were he doubted they would put up much of a fight.

(Castle Gardens)

Carter watched the video feed Six was transmitting from his helmet letting out a small sigh he motioned for Emile, Kat, and Jorge to circle up opening up the coms Carter spoke to the team "Ok, Six has eyes on the natives we're going to play this off as a first contact scenario Six is going to watch these equines and hopefully guide them to the castle," noticing a small acknowledgment light at the corner of his helmet Carter continued "We're going to try and talk to them and hope for a better outcome than the Covenant, so Jun we need you to get down here now."

"Yes sir." the sniper answered before going dark nodding his head Carter looked around trying to figure out how to best handle the situation that was about to be thrown into his lap sighing he said "We meet up where I laid the beacon and hope this meeting goes well."