Friendship In The Void

Chapters

Introductions
Battle
More Introductions
Cockatrice Wranglin'
From Sigma With Love
That Way!
The Bigger They Are...
...The Crazier This Story Gets...
...The More Mountain Climbing That Follows...
...Wait, Where Was I Going With These Chapter Names?
Prologue

Introductions

'The Marker knows all?' a purple pony as she was sitting under a tree. 'Where have I heard that before?' she inhaled through her nose, smelling the sweet scent of the flowers and grass around her.

"Hey Twilight! You comin'?" shouted a familiar voice from a distance. She looked up from her book to see five ponies and a dragon waiting for her at the end of a cobblestone road.

"Coming!" the purple pony, Twilight Sparkle, got up from the ground beneath her and dusted herself off. A strap of a purple saddlebag opened and she locked the book inside of it. Encased in a pink aura, she levitated and fixed it to her back.

She looked down the road. Despite the bumpy and hilly nature of the area, it remained even and tranquil. It was a bright Summer day. Birds and other animals scurried about the hills as she galloped down said road to her friends: Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and her number one assistant; a dragon named Spike.

"We must hurry to the picnic grounds if we want to outrun that storm, Twilight." her best friend, Rarity, told her. "Otherwise, we might have to take our picnic inside and miss this brilliant weather." the ivory pony bounced her hair with a hoof.

"Yeah, Twilight." Rainbow Dash, a pegasus, started. "The weather team has a tight schedule this week. We missed last week's storm remember?" the rainbow maned mare explained.

"I don't want to be caught in the rain... what if I get sick and there's nopony to take care of my animal friends?" the timid pegasus beside Applejack looked like she was about to cry. Applejack comforted her.

"Don't you worry, sugar cube. Even if ya do get sick, we'll be there for ya." the farm pony slung a foreleg over Fluttershy's shoulder. "That's what friends are for, right?"

"Exactly. Now let's get to the picnic grounds or we'll all lose a good lunch. I'm starved!"

Everypony shared a quick chuckle and headed down the path to the picnic area...

Meanwhile...

"No God dammit!" exclaimed Issac Clarke from inside his own mind. Issac's helmet covered his head with a satisfying hiss and he turned to face his dead girlfriend, Nicole Brennan.

"But Issac. I love you. Don't you want to become whole?" the apparition of his girlfriend held out her arms, welcoming him into a warm embrace. But instead, Issac lifted his Plasma Cutter and aimed it's blue laser sight right between her eyes.

"No. I'm not going to. Not after all you've done. Not after all you created. You and the Marker are the same. So I only have one last thing to say to you Nicole; Fuck you! And fuck your Marker!" he fired a shot into her face making her wail in pain. Suddenly, a giant representation of the Marker appeared behind her. Issac raised the weapon to it. "Die you motherfuck-"

Just as he was about to shoot, a Pack slashed at his arm, causing him to pull it back. Narrowly avoiding the last swipe from the Pack, Issac punched it in it's face sending it flying over the edge of the rocky platform. As the engineer looked around him, more of them showed up out. They appeared out of seemingly nothing and ran directly at him. Undead screeches could be heard from all around as he turned and saw a Brute accumulate out of thin air. It charged at him, hitting and killing any Packs who stood in his way. Issac hit it with stasis and turned to kill any Packs emerging from behind him. One or two of them came from behind rock formations on the platform. Another three came from behind the faded form of Nicole as she lay there, seemingly in pain. Being the smart guy that he was, Issac immediately saw that he was outnumbered. Even with there only being a couple of Packs and a Brute, there was bound to be more to come after he killed them. So, he did the only thing he could do; shoot the pained form of Nicole once more and hope for the best.

The man fired his Plasma Cutter at his dead girlfriend once more, only to have the Marker beyond the platform explode in a series of symbols. All of the Necromorphs around him evaporated into thin air, leaving only him and his girlfriend. After the explosion cleared, only a beating heart remained which Issac could only assume was the Marker's lifeline. So he fired at it again and again. Each hit resulted in a reaction from Nicole as she twitched and screamed with every hit. Finally, a last shot from the Plasma Cutter ended the Marker. The heart exploded, sending Issac cascading out of his mind and back into the real world, where everything was falling apart.

"Ugh..." his head pounded like a drum. Every part of him felt numb. He didn't know what was happening. The engineer looked up and stared at the Marker. It was falling apart. Crumbling, as if instead of killing the Marker in his mind, he killed it outside as well.

"Warning: Reactor Containment Destabilized. A reactor breach is imminent. Evacuation of all personnel required. This is not a drill."

Issac sat down on the hard steel floor of the Marker platform. He sat there for a minute. There was no worry of a Necromorph attack. There was no worry of some ungodly creature springing to life from behind him. And finally, there was no worrying about Nicole. Nicole was gone. And so was the Marker. There was no reason to keep on fighting.

"Engaging auxiliary power systems."

Isaac furrowed his brow in thought. 'Did I really just make it through that?' he silently asked himself. He gave one last look at everything around him. 'Yeah, I guess I did.'

"Warning: Reactor containment failure. A reactor breach is now in progress. Evacuate immediately, all personnel, all civilians. This is not a drill."

'Well...' the disgruntled man thought to himself. 'I had a good run.'

It was true. He did have a good run. Every part of the Sprawl was pitted against him. Zero gravity, low oxygen environments. The freezing temperatures of space. And the Necromorphs. Plus Nicole was waiting for him around every corner to drive him nuts.

He chuckled, 'That sounds about right.'

"Warning: Life Support failure. Seek protection immediately."

And all of the sudden, Ellie Langford appeared on his RIG Link, scaring the living shit out of him.

"You complete bastard! Was this your great plan? Dump me off and die?" she sounded pissed.

"I'm full of bad ideas, remember?"

"Yeah, well, here's another one: I'm crashing through the roof to get you. Now move your ass!" Ellie continued to fidget with the controls of the Gunship. Issac got up off the ground, his mood turning from mellow to serious.

"Wait! No! Ellie! Ellie, it's too late! Steer clear of the station!" the engineer protested.

"Yeah, well you don't really have a say this time. Heads up!" Issac looked up just in time to see a Earth Gov Gunship crash through the roof of the Marker chamber. And explosion tore the roof apart as the room's Life Support went offline.

"Warning: Hull breach. Decompression."

'Fuck.' his helmet enclosed around his head with a chorus of satisfying clicking.

"Warning: Gravity failure."

'Double fuck!' he looked down in alarm as his feet slowly left the ground of the huge room. It felt like any other time in deep space, but this time he had to also deal with the compression leak causing him to rocket into the hole in the ceiling.

Crumbling around Isaac, the Marker bid him one more farewell present; a shower of debris raining down upon him. Weightlessness made things worse considering that his movements were slowed significantly. And the no air situation meant that if he didn't hurry and get in the Gunship he would suffocate. Another problem had to be that the reactors powering the Earth Gov facility were failing and having a critical meltdown. Issac thought that things couldn't get any worse.

Well.

They did. Because right as the engineer was about to meet hands with the pilot of the Gunship, everything went dark. That same weightlessness accompanying him in the Marker chamber was here, too. Not only that, but the eerie feeling that he was being watched lurked over him. Isaac was confused. One second he was fighting for his life to get out, the next he was floating in a seemingly endless void. The lights of his suit shown overwhelmingly bright, hinting that not only was this place dark, it had been dark for a VERY long time. After a few minutes floating there in the darkness, Issac came to a conculsion; he was in the border between dimensions. Dimensional Borders were being studied not too long ago by the CEC, but thanks to a horrific accident involving one of their lead scientists, the project was canceled. He had only heard rumors about their existence.

Still, though. That didn't explain why he was here. Dimensional Borders was supposed to be only theory, something the CEC was trying to prove. As the engineer continued to float there, unaware of his surroundings, an incredibly bright flash of light popped into existence behind him. It only lasted a few milliseconds, like a strobe, but he knew what that meant. Somebody else was there with them. And judging by they said next, Issac guessed that they weren't too happy.

"Where the hell am I? Hey, wait... who the hell are you?!" asked a mysterious voice from behind him. It sounded male. Isaac turned to see who it was.

"I could ask you the same thing." he asked the man before him. The guy before him was gruff and stern. And judging from the look in his eyes he probably was an experienced war veteran. The uniform he wore was unlike any Isaac had ever seen. Even more peculiar was the lack of any kind of face plate or helmet.

"Says the guy with a helmet on." he smirked. Isaac sighed as his helmet stretched back into his suit. "Cool suit. Where does somebody get armor like that?" the man attempted to walk towards him. He awkwardly failed to do so.

"Well, first you have to get credits... hey, wait a minute. You still haven't told me your name. Give me your name or I'm not answering shit." the man frowned.

"Commander Shepard, HSA Special Forces. You?"

"Isaac Clarke, CEC Systems Engineer." Isaac boasted.

"A civilian? That figures." A thoughtful expression adorned his face. "What's a civilian doing here anyway?"

"Well, you see-" all of the sudden, a flash of light blinded him and Shepard causing them both to shield their eyes. "God dammit, what now?" Isaac exclaimed. He looked to his left and right to find the source, only to come back to looking at Shepard who was pointing behind him.

"Hey. Do you mind telling me where we are?" a gruff, deep voice called from behind him. Isaac looked back to see yet another man floating there. He was wearing some kind of dark green armor.

"Who the hell are you?"

"That is no way to address a superior officer. And judging from your armor, you're not UNSC. So that can only mean you are a civilian. As for now you may call me Spartan-117. Or Master Chief. People seem to like that one more." he turned his head in all directions before turning back to Isaac, "How did this happen?"

"UNSC? Never heard of it. Anyway, just like I told Shepard here, I'm a systems engineer working for the CEC."

"CEC? As in Concordance Extraction Corporation? But that's impossible. The only thing with your company's name on it is a one hundred thousand year old metal plate. Who are you really?"

"Wha-" Isaac suddenly started to feel a sharp pain in his head. He put his hands to his forehead and held them there until the pain ceased. When he looked up, everything was a color of orange and a noise somewhat like static droned on in his ears.

'Crap... I guess that wasn't the last Marker.'

"No Isaac... it wasn't the last one... you will never be free of us."

"Us?! There's more of you bastards?" a crowd of necromorphs came into existence all around him, attempting to slash at him. But every time they got close they would phase through and disappear. He started to panic and started to thrash about, attempting to make them go away.

"There are hundreds, if not thousands of us in your galaxy..." a ghost of Nicole appeared in front of him and then another until there were hundreds of her around him, "You will not survive... make us whole before it's too late..." they all held out their arms, then disappeared altogether, leaving a screaming and thrashing Isaac behind.

"What is the matter with you?" Isaac stopped thrashing and looked back at the spartan, "Cortana, run a scan of his vitals. I need to see if he has any threatening diseases."

"Performing vital scan. Vital scan complete. He appears to have a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Scans have also verified a unique kind of schizophrenia. Don't be too hasty around this one. He may be dangerous."

Chief looked back to Isaac to see that he wasn't thrashing about anymore. "Listen, Isaac. Just stay calm alright? We need to get you some medicine."

"I'm not crazy. It's the Marker, it's spreading! It's making more of itself. You two have to get away from me, now. I don't know what could happen if you get too close."

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked him.

"The Marker is some kind of alien artifact. It emits a self-replicating signal. The entire reason I'm going crazy is because of the Marker signal in my head. But I'm afraid that if you stay too close for long enough, you might turn."

"Turn into what, exactly?" Chief began but was interrupted when all of the sudden, a strange sensation passed over the three. It felt like they were being pulled in six different ways. It kept getting stronger and stronger before it went away all together.

And then they fell. Where they were falling they didn't know. Isaac didn't respond as quickly as the others did. Chief didn't look like he was concerned about it and Shepard was contemplating whether or not he was going to hell. But Isaac was having none of it. His helmet enclosed around his head and the thrusters in his boots activated, slowing him down significantly. Next, he shot the two of them with stasis. At this point they were over some kind of strange forest. It was nighttime as the darkness could entail. The only way Isaac could identify the two of them was for either their armor or weapons glowing in the dark. Either way, he had to find a way to get them down safely. He turned around to look for a good spot to land. Thankfully he spotted a shallow pond nearby. So, he used his Kinesis to fling the two of them down that way. Whilst flying through the air, the two of them picked up speed as the Stasis wore off. Isaac boosted towards them and landed with a hard thud beside the pool of water.

A hand reached out of the pool of water and slammed hard down in front of him. From what Isaac could tell, it belonged to Shepard. Shepard climbed slowly out of the water, gasping for breath.

"What's the big idea?" he asked, a look of frustration and annoyance plastered on his face.

"Well, it was either this or fall to your death." Shepard was about to protest before he was interrupted by John practically jumping out of the water.

"Thanks, civilian. But I would rather not do it again."

Shepard slowly lifted himself off of the ground. "Well now what?"

"I don't know. This seems to be an uncharted planet. I can't really say for sure considering there's no signal here. Normally I would be able to connect to the CEC Databases with ease. I wonder what's causing the interference." Isaac's helmet unfolded, leaving them to see his face contorted in confusion.

"Same for me." Shepard and Isaac turned their attention to Chief. "I can't access any of the UNSC Databases. Something is definitely wrong here."

"What about you Shepard? Any luck?" Shepard groaned in annoyance. How Isaac learned of that annoying nickname he would never know.

He turned on his Omni-tool and attempted to search for a signal. "No. I can't access anything out here. So that means I can't call for help." a red light then started beeping on Chief's faceplate.

"What are you about to explode?" asked Isaac nonchalantly.

"No. That's just my radar. Something big is nearby. And it's moving pretty fast. Also, judging from the color, it doesn't look too friendly." Chief stood there while the two of them tensed up somewhat. The engineer's helmet reactivated and Shepard readied his weapon, a Tornado class Shotgun.

"Look, all I said that it was moving fast and it was nearby. That doesn't mean that its coming for-" the super-soldier was interrupted by a huge creature bursting through the bushes nearby. "Or not..."

*HEY! Hope you guys liked this new story of mine. I know, I know. "Wuh unt u werkin un tat utr fuc Hzrd?!?!?!" Well, because I need fresh material. FRESH. As in, minty fresh. Minty clean. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I tried to write this as hard as I could. It wasn't that difficult, it was just I had to TRY and do it. I didn't feel like writing at the moment.

And I hope you guys like the introductions. I think I did better this time.*

Battle

*Hey, guys. I know this chapter is on somewhat short notice, but please, don't expect them so often. I mean, I will crash sometime. And when that happens, there will be a chapter shortage for three of four weeks.*

The creature before the three men looked like nothing they had ever seen. Or maybe something similar in proportion or size to a brute. It was some kind of lion. It had bat wings, and a long scorpion stinger stuck out of where a tail should be. But before they could look over it more, it shot a ball acid at. He sidestepped, avoiding the acid. He saw it fly past him and hit a tree on the other side of the pond, where it ate a huge hole into it.

'Holy shi-' his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a searing pain in his back. He fell on his back and looked up at the lion thing now on top of them.

"Dammit!" it's stinger came down on him to his left, to which he narrowly dodged it. The stinger retracted and came down again, this time to the right. Isaac dodged it again. But this time instead of just laying there, Isaac grabbed a hold of the stinger and elbowed the end of it off. The thing roared in pain and anger, then swiped Isaac out from under him.

Chief looked to the battle before him. He wasn't just gonna stand by and watch. So he and Shepard raised their weapons and fired at the creature, punching a few fresh holes in it's hide. It roared in pain and charged John. He slung his weapon over his back and took a different approach. The impact knocked the breath out of him, but it wasn't enough to keep him down. So the Spartan got on it's back and started tugging at it's massive stinger. He firmly planted his boots into the creatures back and tugged harder, to the point where he started hearing gruesome cracking noises. Meanwhile, it was trying desperately to get him off, but no matter how much it swung or thrashed, he wouldn't let go.

With one final tug, Chief ripped the rest of the stinger off and threw it to the side. It was only a few moments before it stopped moving altogether. Shepard ran to Isaac and helped him up.

"Stay still." he asked the engineer as he hoisted him over his shoulder, "I've seen this before, your ribs may be broken."

"No, their just bruised." he chuckled dryly, "So, what do you think it is?" Isaac nodded towards the dead animal.

"I think maybe it's a Manticore. But seeing as to how Manticores are only referenced in Greek mythology, I can't be sure." answered Chief as he stood over the carcase. "But what I can be sure of is that we need to get out of here. We can't afford anymore of these showing up." he tapped it with his foot.

"I agree. I think we should try and head out. I don't want to have to deal with more bruised than I already have. God knows I don't need more." Isaac groaned in pain as Shepard let go of him. He stumbled a bit before regaining his balance.

Shepard turned his attention to John, "Look-"

"Shh!" John raised his hand to stop him from talking.

"What-"

"Shh!" he cut him off again, "There's something nearby. Thankfully, it's a blue. I'll make my way over there. I'll signal you when it's clear." John started making his way towards where the blip was located. Then, all of the sudden, the blip disappeared.

'That's weird.' John thought to himself, 'Why would it just disappear like that?' He stepped further into the dark shadows of the tree line. He suddenly heard movement in front of him and a collection of seven blips suddenly appeared on his radar. 'What the he-' his thoughts were cut short as the wind was knocked out of him and he was knocked onto his ass.

Then there was a flurry of sound coming in through his helmet's external microphone. The thing was so close to it that he couldn't tell if it was saying something or just making random noises. He lifted the thing off of him and got up from the ground. Finally, he could get a good look at it. The first thing he noticed? Pink, pink everywhere.

"Himyname'sPinkiePiewhat'syournamewhatareyouwheredidyoucomefromwhyareyouhereareyougoingtoeatmedon'teatmealthoughIthinkIwouldtastenicebecauseI'malwaysaroundcupcakesandcupcakesaregoodandI'malwaysaroundthemsoImusttastelikecupcakes-" John quickly clasped his hand over it's, or rather her, mouth. Somehow, she was still rambling even though he did this.

Meanwhile, Isaac and Shepard were standing there in shock at what they were seeing. From the bushes in front of them arose four other creatures, each similar to the pink one John was holding. Each of them had a different color scheme. Not only this, but they also noticed that one of them had wings, and two of them had horns.

Suddenly, the orange, let's call them horses, charged John and bucked him as hard as, assuming they were female, she could. John's shields flared up as he let go of the pink horse and stumbled backwards. He looked up to see a rainbow fly into his midsection, knocking the breath out of him for a third time that day. His shields broke, a feat that most couldn't even dream of accomplishing. Thankfully his stance saved him from falling on his ass. He grabbed the horse currently assaulting him and threw her in the shrubbery. As he looked back to the other horses, he noticed one small difference: the orange one wasn't there anymore. The spartan spun around in an attempt to find her before stealing a quick glance towards Isaac and Shepard. Looking past Isaac, he saw the orange horse quickly approaching. And judging from her look, she wasn't exactly going to hug him.

Shepard looked to where John was looking and attempted to warn him, "Look out Isaa-AH!" when all of the sudden he was tackled to the ground by a flying blue blur. The same happened to Isaac, the orange horse pinning him from behind.

Then, out of nowhere, Chief's body started to constrict and stiffen, just like before when Isaac had used his Kinesis on him. But this time, his suit didn't react too well. Multiple warning messages started to appear on his visor.

"John, what's happening? Your radiation levels are spiking like crazy!" Cortana shouted in alarm.

"I don't know!" his body spun around to face what was doing it; one of the horses, this one purple.

"You mess with my friends, you mess with me!" she yelled as she slammed him into the ground.

He was barely even able to breath thanks to the extraordinary pressure binding him to the ground. She pressed even harder down on him with every waking second. Until he heard a shot fire. This one was a weird one. Instead of it sounding like an ordinary projectile weapon, like his, it sounded somewhat similar to a Plasma Pistol. He saw a flash of red and heard a scream of pain, presumably from the unicorn holding him down. And just like that the weight bearing down on him lifted and he could move again.. The spartan looked about to see where it came from, but could find nothing.

Nonetheless, a battle was going on and he had to pay attention. Looking back to the unicorn, she was laying on the ground sobbing and holding her injured leg; not a real threat anymore. For some reason, though, her friends were nowhere to be found. Not even the pink one. Meanwhile, near the Manticore's dead body, Isaac and Shepard were battling it out. The orange horse pinning Isaac down had both of his arms held against the ground. Unfortunately his Plasma Cutter was kicked away before he could reach it. Shepard was in the same predicament; the cyan horse had him pinned down also, his shotgun out of reach.

Isaac used his Kinesis to throw her off and struggled to stand up. The orange horse skidded to a stop on the ground before charging him again. This time he was ready. He lunged for his Plasma Cutter and picked it up off the ground. Isaac turned around only to get bucked in his chest. A very distinct cracking noise was heard, followed by a scream of pain on his part.

Meanwhile, Chief attempted to aid Shepard, but was unfortunately cut off by something rupturing his shields. He turned back to the treeline to see another unicorn. This one was white with a purple mane. Floating right next to her was her weapon of choice: a crocheting needle. She charged him with it, screaming something incoherent along the way, and lunged at him. He barely dodged it. Pulling the pistol off of his waist, he took aim and fired a round. Somehow, a shield formed around her. The spartan was extremely confused at this point. And in that moment of confusion, she lunged a second time, rupturing his shields again.

Whilst looking for a way to deal with her, the super soldier caught a glimpse of something; right next to his radar was a flashing symbol. It resembled a triangle with an eye in the middle. Then he just remembered; he had a Cloaking Ability tucked away. Without haste, he took it out and activated it, allowing him to disappear from sight. The white unicorn looked about in confusion. Seeing this as the right moment, John sneaked up behind her and swept her off of her feet before spinning her around and punching her in the forehead, incapacitating her. Finally he could help Shepard. He ran to Shepard and kicked the cyan pegasus in the stomach, sending her flying away from them. Shepard stood up and dusted himself off.

As Chief made his way to the pegasus, Shepard ran to help Isaac. But when he got to Isaac, the orange horse jumped off of Isaac and charged him instead. Isaac grabbed a hold of her back hoof and held her down. Seeing this as the right opportunity, Shepard hit her in the neck, causing her body to go limp.

"Oh God, my ribs!" Isaac clutched his chest with both hands.

"Whoa, you okay?"

"Do I look fucking okay? My ribs are broken!" Isaac was trying as hard as he could to breath.

"Okay okay. I'll try and get Chief to come over here. I don't have the required medical training for wounds like this. Plus I don't know how to administer any anesthetics."

"My suit is already taking care of that. It's just a matter of mending the bones. You still need to get me to a doctor." he told Shepard as his helmet unfolded.

Meanwhile...

"Who do you work for? And why did you attack us?" Chief asked her.

"N-n-nobody." she was shaking in fear. And telling from the bloody bile spewing out of her mouth, the kick Chief had landed on her had to have been hard enough to bruise her stomach.

"Don't lie to me. Why did you attack us?"

"Y-you were h-hurting m-m-my friends." she coughed some more, dotting the grass beside her in fresh blood.

"No, we weren't. We were just as lost and confused as you were."

"I d-didn't know. I'm s-sorry..." she sobbed quietly.

"Sorry doesn't cut it. But considering your a new species I guess I won't be able to punish you."

"What are you going to do with me?" asked the pegasus as Chief slung her over his shoulder.

"I don't know yet, but to start with I'm going to have to restrain you. I don't want you escaping." Chief said as he walked to the edge of the clearing and ripped a few vines off of the trees. "Don't know what we're going to do after that, though. Maybe we can find a way out of this forest."

"I think I can help you. But I need to see if my friends are okay, first."

"They should be okay. Except maybe the white one; I hit her pretty hard." Chief informed her as he dumped her off at the edge of the pond. He knelt down on one knee and started to tie her up.

"As long as their alive." the pegasus sighed in relief know that her friends were okay.

And from there Chief lay the three other horses at the pond's edge, careful not to hurt them anymore than they already were. Afterwards he headed out to scout the area. Shepard also did this, but only after he had placed Isaac along with the horses.

*Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I really like how this one turned out, especially the fight between John and Rarity. What did you guys think about Rarity's weapon? Creative? Oh, and if there are any mistakes, leave them in the comments bellow. I MUST CORRECT THEM!

Oh, and I think I fixed most of the issues you guys had. I'm sorry if it seems a little rushed. I'm just tired right now.

Also, on an added note, does Shepard have medical training? I never played any of the Mass Effect series, so I have no idea.*

More Introductions

There lay the four ponies and Isaac on the soft outlines of the pond. Isaac was just laying there breathing heavily; Rainbow assumed that Applejack had kicked him pretty hard. Silence and the scent of the dead Manticore filled the air. Until, that is, Isaac broke it.

"So..." he sat up and turned her way, "What's your name?" Rainbow could tell he was trying his hardest for it not to be awkward. She had just attacked them after all.

"Rainbow Dash. What's yours?" she asked him back. She had been a little annoyed for the last five or ten minutes. A bit of dried blood was stuck in the corner of her mouth and it was driving her insane.

"Isaac Clarke." more awkward silence trudged into the conversation they were trying to have. He had tried a few times to lighten the mood, but nothing was seeming to work.

He sat there for a second, taking a look at his surroundings. It was a rather small meadow. In the center was the shallow body of water where they resided. On the other side of it was a tree, accompanied by a backdrop of a shrouded forest. It had gotten a little misty outside. And gathering from that, he assumed it was early in the morning. Isaac turned his attention back to the pegasus tied up beside him.

"What are you, anyways?" he tried yet again to start a decent conversation, "I'm a human."

"Why are you being so nice to me? We just tried to kill you." she looked up at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Hey, you aren't the one who tried to kill me. She is." he pointed menacingly at the orange pony beside her, "The bitch kicked me so damn hard it broke one of my ribs. Though, I shouldn't be complaining. All kinds of shit has tried to kill me in the past. All of them failed." he perked up a little bit.

"What do you mean? What's tried to kill you?" Rainbow looked as confused as ever.

"You ever been to space?" he asked her. She shook her head.

"Nope. Why, have you?" he looked down at her with a look that said 'are you serious?', but then remembered that she didn't know what humans were capable of.

"I have." she beamed up at him when he said this, "Don't get all excited. It wasn't a cake walk. There's all kinds of crap that could kill you up there." he informed her.

"Like what?"

"Well, first off is the no air situation. 'If there ain't no air, you can't live there!' is what they say back where I'm from. Second is the gravity. It's pretty much zero up there, so you have to make your own." he almost got to three when she interrupted.

"You can't make gravity! That's impossible." she looked at him as if her were crazy.

"On the contrary."

"How? You must be pretty smart to be able to do that."

"My race is very advanced. We can do stuff you wouldn't be able to do in a very long time. Like shock-point technology. With it we could move faster than the speed of light."

"Wow, Twilight will be SUPER excited when she hears about this!" she said.

"Who's Twilight?" he asked her.

"The purple unicorn over there. I don't know what you did to her, but it must have hurt pretty badly. Or she wouldn't passed out like that. She normally just passes out when she's scared or something." she chuckled a little.

"I have full ammo in all of my tools. If I would have shot her, then she wouldn't have a leg left." Rainbow grimaced at the thought of having only three legs. He took out his Plasma Cutter and showed it to her. "This is a Plasma Cutter. It's used to cut through some of the toughest ores. If I would have hit your friend with it, then she would have probably been killed."

Rainbow backed away slowly from the device. It was frightening to say the least, but she was the least bit skeptical about the weapon. It was pretty small. And from what she remembered about her encounters with the dragon about a month back was that bigger creatures aren't normally afraid of smaller ones.

"How? It's so small."she looked at the weapon in his hands with a tiny bit of curiosity.

"It doesn't matter how small it is. You never know when it can be dangerous. I learned that the hard way." he remembered his encounters with the Crawlers and shuddered. After he got over his little flashback, he put the Plasma Cutter away and took something else out; The Line Gun.

"If your looking for power and size, there's nothing better than a Line Gun. This tool is used in about the same way as the Plasma Cutter; to mine ores. But this one is only used when were dealing with the toughest of materials; materials the Plasma Cutter can't cut." he told her. Isaac always had a little bit of an ego. He just never showed it off. As he was about to take another one of this tools out, he stopped and looked around as if he had heard something.

Then, out of nowhere, a necromorph popped out of the treeline and ran at full speed towards the group of ponies beside Isaac. When he looked to where Rainbow was, she wasn't there. Instead, Nicole was sitting there, as if she was waiting for him. He tried to reach for his Plasma Cutter, but was stopped when Nicole took both of his arms and slammed him onto his back. She slung back her arm, then brought it down on Isaac. He moved his head to the side to avoid it, but when he did he came face to face with a Pack. The Pack climbed over him and set itself down behind his head. It reached both of it's slender, cold hands around his head and held it in place. He tried to move his now freed arm, but with no luck. Isaac looked to see why and saw two other Packs holding them down. He looked back up only to see Nicole's angry face staring down at him. The apparition of his once dead girlfriend did the same as before; winding back her arm and forcing it down onto Isaac, only this time she hit her mark. As his last moments of consciousness faded away, he could have almost sworn he heard Rainbow Dash calling for him.

"Wake up!" Rainbow yelped, "Wake up, please!" she couldn't move or try to find his friends since she was tied up. She tried once or twice earlier that day to get out of it, but to now success. She squirmed and flapped her wings trying to get free, but to no avail, she was still helpless.

"Uh..." a familiar voice moaned from behind her. She squirmed in place until she found herself staring at a now awake unicorn. "What happened? Where am I?" she asked to no one in particular until she sat up on her haunches to see Rainbow staring at her.

"Rarity, your awake! Get me out of this." Rainbow said.

"I'm sorry... but who are you?" her heart skipped a beat. Did she really lose her memory?

"It's me, Rainbow Dash, your friend!"

"I'm sorry dear, but I think you may have me confused with somepony else."

Rainbow's eyes widened, "You really don't remember me?"

"No. I'm sorry darling, maybe we can be friends later. But what I'm really wanting to know is why I'm bound in vines in this ghastly forest." her friend tried to get out of them, but failed.

"Do you know who they are?" she nodded her head towards the two other ponies nearby.

"No, I'm sorry. The colors really are familiar, though." the white unicorn suddenly got assaulted by pain. Her head almost felt like bursting.

"Rarity! What's wrong?"

The pain was just then starting to go away, "Nothing. Just a headache."

"Are you sure your okay?" she nodded, "Okay, good. I hope you'll stay that way until they come back."

"Who's 'they'?" Rarity asked her as she looked around at the surrounding treeline.

Meanwhile...

Chief and Shepard had been around the surrounding areas of the forest, looking for anything useful, from food to shelter. Unfortunately, Chief had only gotten a glimpse of a few animals. They were just to fast to keep up with, as they run into the bushes even before he gets there. He thought that maybe the Manticore was the reason for it. Or maybe because there was just a bigger, faster predator roaming around the forest. The Spartan didn't really care at the moment, though. He was on the lookout for civilization, or any signs of it. Although it was proof enough to have found four living and breathing sentient beings, he needed to know for sure. That way he would be able to find a way to contact the UNSC, if there was any chance to anyways. And judging from the fact that none of the horses back in the clearing weren't carrying or wielding any type of firearm, either they were stupid, or they hadn't invented the gun yet. The former was easier to go with. He just didn't want to think of the latter. He just thought that if they didn't have firearms, they wouldn't be capable of long range communication, let alone space flight.

So as he was thinking on about the subject, Shepard was only about a mile in the opposite direction, searching for something to eat. He had a little bit of time to think about what was going on. His first realization was that there was no more war, or so he thought. He didn't really know much about the planet, since he's only seen the forests. So judging from the forests creatures, he came to a conclusion; this planet's wildlife was something to be reckoned with. He's fought savage beasts before, but not even half of them could stand up against one of the things he fought back in the clearing.But even though he came to such a conclusion, he wasn't anymore afraid than when he got here.

Well, until he came across a Manticore turned into stone. Then he couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't surprised. He hit the frozen stiff monster in the side with the butt of his gun, but nothing happened. He walked casually around to the front of the beast to see what had happened. When he finally got an up close look of it's face, he was at the very least shocked at what he saw. It had a face with human characteristics. Not only did it have that, but it also had a look of pure fear. He was really beginning to wonder if he should go back to the clearing, but not before knowing what it was that did this to the Manticore. He turned away from the Manticore just in time to see a snake's tail slither into the bushes. Unfortunately, he was being naive about it, and decided that it was just one of the many harmless creatures of the forest. But, as the tale goes, it wasn't over yet. He still needed something to bring back for food. He reached his hand down into the bushes and felt around for the snake.

Shepard soon felt something bite onto his arm, which he assumed was the snake trying to kill him. As always, his armor protected him from it. He pulled his arm out of the bushes and examined what was biting into it. To his utter surprise, it wasn't just a snake. It was a chicken. Strangely enough, it was the same snake he had seen before, only it wasn't just a snake.

It had a chicken's head.

Cockatrice Wranglin'

Shepard stood there for a second, comprehending what he was seeing. First, it had a chickens head, something that isn't really that frightening or surprising considering the amount of utter crap he's been through. But then, pulling the thing off of his armor and looking at it, it also had the body of a snake. His first thoughts were along the lines of 'that's funny looking' to 'is it mutated?'

The really crazy thing was that not only did it have the body of a snake and the head of a chicken, but it also had that kind of intimidating look about it. You know, like when you're playing a game and for some reason you don't really want to stick your head around the corner because of the chance of it getting completely cut off and eaten. It was that kind of unsure feeling that was really bugging Shepard about this weird creature.

He began to wonder where it came from and what it was doing there, but that seemed pointless at the moment considering the fact that it was glaring right at him. It was the kind of glare you would get from someone you just punched straight in the face. But somewhat different concerning that it was an animal and not a human being. But, judging from the things that attacked him and the others back in the clearing, it was not his ground to make judgements.

Another thing was the Manticore that was encased in stone and completely unmoving behind him. The most creepy and unnerving thing about it was the horrified look on it's cold, frozen face. It was like somebody had just pulled a gun on it and pointed it between it's eyes. Or something like that.

Anyway, making the connections, he finally pieced it together; the thing that encased the Manticore in stone is still on the loose and is probably somewhere nearby. And there was also the slight chance that the thing that fossilized it was there the entire time. But enough of that. What the war veteran really wanted was a nice, warm and delicious meal after those long years eating nothing but rations.

So, with no further ado, he took the small beast in both of his hands and stretched it out full length. Shepard looked at it all over. It tried to wiggle free from him once or twice, but to no avail, it was still in his hands.

It hadn't stopped struggling, in fact. It was still trying but with only a fraction of it's original strength. He had it upside down with it's talons in his right hand and a mess of vines in the other. Using his 'skills', he wrapped it's feet together and slung it over his back.

Meanwhile...

"Isaac, wake up!" Rainbow shouted.

"It's no use, darling. He's most likely unconscious. And one does not simply wake someone from unconsciousness." Rarity informed her, "The only thing we can do now is wait until he wakes up."

"But I want out of these now!" she tried yet again to break the vines that bound her, but she only failed. "Why aren't you helping? You have a horn. Do something!"

"I wish I could, but sadly I can't. Every time I try, the migraines come back. And if you really were my best friend, then you would know that I have a very low threshold for pain." she stated in her usual annoyed tone.

"Well we have to get out of her sometime. That green guy really scares me."

"Who is this green pony you keep talking about?"

"He isn't a pony. He kind of looks like Isaac actually." Rainbow nodded towards the human beside her.

Rarity looked over the unconscious form of Isaac before coming to a conclusion, "He is unconscious."

"No, really? I thought he was awake." she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Rarity's annoyed expression told Rainbow that she had done something right. She usually doesn't get frustrated by sarcasm.

She sighed, "Well at least we know for sure what's wrong with him."

"Yeah, right after you verified it for like, the millionth time." Rainbow said exasperatedly.

"I don't see you doing any better." she retorted. The pegasus could only smile in return. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"Oh nothing. You're just getting back to old habits."

"How so?" Rarity asked quizzically.

"Me and you would argue like this all the time, remember?"

"How could I know? I don't remember." Rainbow sighed in frustration.

"I can't wait like this anymore. We need to wake Twilight up."

"Twilight? You mean the purple unicorn over there?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah. She's kind of an egghead. But she can definitely help us out of these vines." Rainbow assured her before lurching towards the unmoving form of Twilight Sparkle.

Meanwhile...

Along the borders of the Everfree Forest, the town of Ponyville was in a full on panic. Ponies darted left and right trying to get into their homes. The reason? Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie made it back and warned them all that three monsters were in the forest and heading straight for town. Well, not Fluttershy. Fluttershy went straight home the second they got out of the forest. Pinkie, however, went straight to town and started spouting warnings with a megaphone.

Only a couple of minutes later and the streets of Ponyville were vacant and quiet. All except for Pinkie Pie, of course, who was still there.

"Stay inside everypony! It's your only hope!" she shouted through the over sized megaphone in her right hoof.

A stray wind blew through her hair as she spun around the pole to the ground. Her hooves connected with the barren streets with a soft thud.

All of the ponies of Ponyville were inside and safe at last. No way those monsters were going to harm them, because Pinkie was here. But then she remembered that she had left her friends in the forest. All of them except Fluttershy, of course, but still. She was very worried about them. A few grim thoughts came to her mind about what they would do to her friends, but they quickly left. The wind whistled throughout the air and along the cobblestone around her. Something was wrong. It wasn't just the eerie silence that made her spine tingle, but it was the feeling that she was being watched.

She quickly spun around but there was nothing there. Only the town hall stood where she was looking. Sighing in relief, she turned back around only to bump her head into something. And it WASN'T a pole.

A harsh breathing came from it, but it sounded funny. And somehow it was cold like metal. Her blue eyes widened as she looked up fearfully. As her eyes met the creatures, she squealed in fright and shrunk down to the ground in fear. It was bipedal and completely made of metal. Red and blue wires ran up and down alongside it's forearms and sparks flew from each appendage. Claw-like bits at the end of it's arms opened and closed in what seemed like anticipation and it's skull shaped head had two beady little yellow dots for eyes. It's lower jaw was completely missing and the entire right side of it's metallic body was red hot like it had been on fire. The legs it stood on were at least three feet long themselves, not counting the rest of it. But the worst of all was it's breathing. No machine could breath like that. Only living things.

Right?

*New character! How you like it? It's a machine that I made up for one of my other stories. It looks kind of like a Terminator, but a little more... scary. Oh, and guess what? Oh never mind... you will see in future chapters. Sorry for the wait, by the way! Hope you enjoyed!*

From Sigma With Love

Wrong.

It was just standing there staring her down with it's vacant, yellow eyes. They blinked on and off every once in a while and it's right arm twitched in an unnatural fashion.

"What beautiful organic life! Do you have an owner so that I may find directions to the nearest Maintenance Building? I seem to be unable to find a suitable route." an unusually upbeat voice came out of seemingly nowhere. Pinkie's eyes dilated to the size of quarters and she spun around in a panic.

"Who said that?! Who's there?!" her eyes darted left and right looking for the source of the strange voice.

"Fascinating! You are sentient, which is almost always necessary for me to be repaired. Since you most likely do not have an owner as suggested before, would you kindly redirect me to a Maintenance Building for repairs? I seem to be missing my sweet tooth." Pinkie turned back again to see the thing pointing one of it's claws at it's missing lower jaw.

"W-what are you?" she squeaked out as she shrunk down even lower to the ground.

"I am a G32B Class Sigma Sentinel. First manufactured on the planet Earth, my kind was mass produced across the entire galaxy in different classes. My class is for military use and is upgraded with the most formidable weaponry know to man. There is also the Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, and Zeta classes, but they were all discontinued nearly five hundred years ago. If you would like to know more about varying types of Class Sigma androids, please relay your questions to the Unico HQ nearest you." the 'android' stated cheerfully. It's cheerful tone made Pinkie loosen up a bit, but it's appearance was still making her feel uneasy.

"Unico?" she asked it.

"Unico Industries is currently the largest android production company in two galaxies. The six classes of androids I told you about are all products of Unico. If you would like to know more about Unico Industries, please relay your questions to the Unico HQ near you." it told her.

"Why are you here?"

"Unknown." it simply stated as she looked a tad bit closer at it's design.

"What happened to you?" she asked it as she inched closer to look at it's 'injuries'.

"There is no need for worry, little light red equine. I was not programmed to feel pain, thus there is no need for concern on your part. But if I do not get repaired soon, I will most likely shut down, or in organic terms, 'die'."

"Oh no!" Pinkie zoomed up to the android and looked up at it with her big, blue eyes. "You just got here! You can't just die."

"According to my calculations, I will 'die' in one to two thousand years. And I am assuming that is far beyond your life span, so you may feel emotionally positive about me being here for another one to two thousand years." it informed her as it put it's hand over her head and patted gently.

"Whoa, that's a long time! How long do you guys last when you aren't like this?"

"Exactly ten thousand five hundred seventy seven years and five seconds, respectfully."

"That must be older than the princesses! Oh, I know. I'll just send them a letter!" she paused for a second before her ears drooped and her hair deflated. "I almost forgot."

"What is making you emotionally distraught little light red equine?" it asked loudly as it stood there beside her.

"Some of my friends are in the forest. They got hurt by those mean thingies."

"Define 'thingy'."

"There were three of them and they looked kind of like you. One of them was big and green. When I tried to say hello, it covered my mouth with it's hoof. And then my friends came out and tried to protect me." she told it sadly.

"It sounds as if your friends really held you closely as they found you of strong sentimental value. As you organics say;" a buzzing noise interrupted it and a new voice spoke, "Your friends must really care about you!"

"That's exactly why we need to hurry and find Spike so I... we can send a letter to the princesses telling them about what happened."

"That sounds like a brilliant idea! Let us go and contact your leaders so that we may save your friends from those creatures. Would you like a ride?" the android asked before kneeling down and holding it's arms out to Pinkie.

"Sure!" she said loudly before jumping into it's arms.

"Be wary; this may induce nausea and fatigue." it stood back up and a loud whirring sound started coming from it's chest.

"What do you me-" Pinkie was interrupted by a sudden lurch as the two of them shot forward and stopped abruptly inside of Twilight's library. It slowly lowered Pinkie to the floor. She hopped off and looked around the library, amazed at what had happened.

"How did you do that?" she asked in wonderment.

"Dark Matter Technology allows anyone or anything to travel predefined distances in just a number of milliseconds." he started before being interrupted by a voice coming from upstairs.

"Who's there?" the voice, who Pinkie recognized as Spike, asked before a brightly colored purple and green dragon came from another room in the library. The second he saw the android, he did a double take and dived behind the sofa. "What is that thing?!"

"Hi Spike! I want you to meet my new friend Sigma." she said excitedly as she pulled the terrified baby dragon out from behind the sofa and pushed him in front of 'Sigma'.

"Hello 'Spike'. My new name is 'Sigma', as given to me momentarily by the little light red equine behind you. It is of my utmost pleasure to meet you. How are you today?" it stared down at Spike. The dragon flinched as he saw it's piercing, yellow eyes looking down at him.

"G-g-good." he barely managed to stutter out before the android reached down and picked him up. Pinkie giggled in excitement as it held him up to eye level.

It pulled him in close to it's eyes, "Can I and the little light red equine use you momentarily to send a message to your leaders to inform them of the whereabouts of 'Twilight'?"

"Yes." Spike said quietly. So quiet in fact that it was almost nonexistent.

"Brilliant!" it said before releasing the trembling dragon and standing back up to it's full height. "Let us find a piece of parchment so that we may deliver to your leader information on the whereabouts of 'Twilight'. Where may we find parchment?" it asked Spike loudly.

He pointed to a drawer on the far side of the room where Twilight kept her spare writing resources. Sigma reached the length of it's left arm out in the direction of the drawer and clenched it's fist. As if through magic, the drawer slid open and a few pieces of paper levitated out and floated to Sigma. It's eyes flashed and just like that a few paragraphs of writing were written on one of the pieces of paper. Lifting it's arm again, it levitated the rest of them back to the drawer and promptly closed it.

"Dude... that's creepy." Spike commented as he grabbed the paper from it's hands.

*Yeah! I told you it would be Sunday but instead it is Friday! YEAAAAH! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Leave a comment and a like and if you really enjoyed it, then favorite or even give me a watch.*

That Way!

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, the entire city was sent into a panic. That morning, while on patrol throughout the castle courtyard, the Royal Guards saw something extremely bright shine out of Princess Luna's bedroom. When they got up to her room, nopony was there and there were signs of a struggle.

Princess Celestia was off on royal business in Manehatten, so they couldn't reach her right away. It was about two days later that she returned. When the princess had gotten the news about her sister's disappearance nearly a day earlier, she immediately teleported back to Canterlot. In a state of panic, she sent one hundred of her best guards to search for Luna. And nearly a week later with no results, she locked herself in her room.

And that was when the letter arrived. It told her about her student Twilight and how she was trapped in the Everfree Forest with no way out. So it was then that she sent for one of the most experienced bounty hunters in Equestria to meet her at the castle.

Meanwhile...

Spike and Pinkie had gone to gather a search party. They left Sigma behind to 'watch the library' in case some kind of thief or monster got in. What they didn't expect was Sigma going outside and attacking somepony.

By the time they got back to the library, Sigma was in the doorway holding a pony upside down by it's hooves. He was light brown with a dark brown mane and he had an hourglass for a Cutie Mark.

"Put me down, damn you!" the pony shouted.

"Negative." the android's voice had lowered and it sounded more forceful, "You are to be exterminated for trespassing on private property."

"But this is a public library!" he shouted back at the robot.

"Military androids are not programmed to establish such insignificant differences." it told him before it's eyes lit up with a blinding red light.

"Stop! Bad Sigma! You don't hurt ponies like that!" Pinkie shouted as she galloped towards the two. At the sight of Pinkie,

Sigma released the pony from it's grasp. The second he hit the ground, he took off running.

"Hello 'Pinkie Pie'." it greeted her as she approached. It's eyes had gone back to normal and it adopted it's original voice, "I have prevented the little light brown equine from breaching the perimeter."

"That's not what I meant. I told you to tell everypony that the library is closed. I didn't tell you to 'exterminate' anypony." she scolded as she paced back and forth in front of Sigma. She stopped and looked up at it, expecting it to say something. But, waiting a minute or two, it was evident that it had nothing to say.

Meanwhile, in the Everfree Forest, Chief had returned to the clearing in which he landed to witness an argument unfolding between the pegasus and the white unicorn.

"You have no excuses, Rainbow Dash. From what you told me, it was you who had talked Twilight and the rest of us into coming into this dreadful forest. Face it; it's your fault." she stated smugly as she lay upon the grassy terrain.

"Yeah, but you could have talked me out of talking you into it! Or something." Rainbow babbled as she lay beside Rarity, both of them bound in thick green vines.

"Both of you. Enough." Chief told them sternly as he made his way to the muddy edge of the pond. Rainbow and Rarity both looked at him in fear as he came closer.

"W-what are you g-going to do to us?" the white unicorn stuttered as the spartan stood over her quaking form.

"Nothing. I'm going to keep you here until I can get more information about this place. Until then, you are to be restrained. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." he looked to Rainbow, who just like Rarity, was shaking slightly from the sight of the human towering over her. It was then that he noticed the still form of Isaac next to her, unconscious and unmoving in the grass.

"What happened to Clarke?" he asked her in a more forcible tone than before, "Did you do this to him?"

"No, I swear! He just screamed really loud and passed out." she explained.

"It must be the PTSD. It's getting worse. We have to get him medical attention immediately." he knelt down beside the engineer and moved his hand over the length of Isaac's arm. To his relief, a steady pulse was felt.

"How?" Rainbow asked him as she looked over Isaac quizzically.

"Don't you have a medical clinic nearby? Any kind of hospital?" Chief asked her as he slid his arms under Isaac and picked him up.

"No... wait! There's Zecora's place. She lives here and she's really good with medicine."

"Which way?" he asked.

Rainbow slowly moved her hoof under her chin as she thought on his question, "Uhh..."

"Today would be great." Chief said sourly.

She suddenly pointed a hoof to the South, "That way. I'm positive it's that way."

So Chief started in that direction, Isaac slung over his back in hopes that he could get his new acquaintance feeling better.

Meanwhile, at Canterlot Castle, a meeting was going underway in a secluded area of the castle where nopony but the princesses could go: her bedroom.

The clanking of a tea kettle echoed throughout the large room as Celestia tipped it gently filled the two cups before her.

"Good evening, Hunter." she greeted as the door opened and a pony walked in.

The pony was a stallion, no more than thirty years old. He was about the size of any regular earth pony and had the stature of a Royal Guard. A vertical scar ran along the pony's face and over one of his yellow eyes. His golden brown mane was drawn up in a pony tail (lolololol get it lolololol) and hanging off of the left side of his neck. His dirty brown coat was filthy with muck and grime. A rank smell filled the room when he entered. The Princess almost lost her composure.

"'Ello Princess." Hunter greeted as he planted himself sloppily in front of her.

"I am sure you know why I have established a meeting here?"

"Yeah, yeah. I need to hunt some poor bastard down and kill 'im. What more do ya want from me?" he took the tea cup in his hoof and drank it down in one big gulp.

"Yes. But I also need you to return my student safely to me. I must ensure that those things haven't harmed her. If they have, they will feel my wrath." her eyes glowed for a brief moment. Hunter flinched back a little. He had seen before what the princess was capable of. Especially when the ponies she cared about were at stake.

"Alright, calm down, Princess. I'll just go 'unt em down. No big deal."

"You had better find my student, Hunter. Or I will have somepony else do it instead... and deal with you personally." she pushed him out with her magic and slammed the door. "Good luck."

*Update! Thank you guys so much for the attention. Hope you enjoyed!*

The Bigger They Are...

In the Ever Free, Master Chief still walked fin the direction Rainbow had given him. With Isaac in tow, it was difficult to traverse the thick foliage without hitting his head on something. Because who knew carrying someone would be so difficult? But it should not have been a problem for someone of Chief's stature. But of course, something else was happening. You know how I mentioned before that it was difficult to walk through the forest? Well, I didn't mention that there was a pack of Timber Wolves following him. Is it now clear why this highly trained soldier is having trouble?

Chief didn't really have a choice in the matter. With limited room and Isaac on his shoulder, it wasn't really a good idea to turn and fight. Especially when his guns were mostly dry, save for the one grenade he was hoping to save for later.

"Chief, slow down! I'm detecting something really big moving ahead of you. It's coming from some kind of crevice in the landscape!" he skidded to a halt at a kilometer wide gap cutting through the earth. Shaking and rumbling erupted from the huge hole, causing him to nearly stumble into the dark abyss.

It had to be at least a couple of miles deep. A faint glow was able to show through the darkness, indicating that an underground source of magma was making it's way up.

"Chief..." Cortana started before being interrupted by another rumbling noise coming from the trench. Barking was heard from behind him. He spun around to see the dogs not only come to a complete stop, but lose all interest in him. The entirety of his radar was being filled with a frightening red blip. Whatever it was, it was absolutely huge. He held up his assault rifle and shot at the dog's feet, causing a few of them to back up a little.

And just as soon as it ended, the earthquake stopped. The timber wolves began to slowly make their advance towards him and Isaac. Chief looked from one wolf to the other, wondering which was going to jump first. Then, something unexpected happened. They began to back away, their glowing yellow eyes somehow showing their fear. They looked up and up as a shadow covered them and the spartan. Chief dropped Isaac and turned around. It was none other than a giant stone hoof, cracks of glowing red running up and down it like veins.

The thing was absolutely enormous. It had to be at least half the size of the trench. And then, it slammed down on the area only a few feet from where Isaac was dropped.

"My god..." Cortana whispered, exasperated by the sheer size of the beast.

Not seconds after, a second stone hoof shot from the depths of the canyon and slammed down, this one considerably farther away from the first. The dogs ran away, yelping as they did. Chief looked up in aw as a giant head appeared slowly from the dark pit. Two eerie, yellow eyes slowly appeared on it's cracked stone head. The creature was barely at even half of it's full height when tilted it's head down to looked at him. It opened it's mouth slowly, showing off it's jagged, stalactite-like teeth. Then, it did something Chief of all people didn't expect; it spoke.

"Humans..." it grumbled as it raised itself higher into the sky. "Why would humans be here?" it contemplated aloud as it tilted it's head in confusion. "There hasn't been a single one of you here in over a hundred thousand years." it, or rather he, echoed as a third and fourth hoof came out of the pit and embedded themselves on the other side of the chasm. The stone giant looked at the land around him and sighed. "Yet another change in scenery... what a pity. I rather liked the lava gulches." he redirected his attention back down to the two humans before him. "But that does not explain why your kind is here."

"What do you mean, 'my kind'?" Chief asked the towering behemoth before him.

"Humans. You two. You were driven from this world and hunted to extinction a very long time ago. It is a wonder that you even still exist here. Unless you have just arrived." the creature told him as he looked along the landscape once more, observing his new home.

"What does it mean Cortana?" he silently asked her as the giant creature looked about.

"I think he may be referring to the ancient humans. This must have been just before the Forerunners devolved us." she explained.

"What do you mean 'devolved'? And how do you know it's a he?" Chief asked as he lowered his rifle.

"Apparently, the Forerunners had the technology to do so. We don't fully understand how, but they did something to make us backtrack nearly a hundred thousand years. Oh, and I can just tell, okay?" Cortana was about to say more, but was interrupted by the load voice of the giant.

"It seems you have strayed a long way from civilization, human. Even I cannot see beyond the treeline in the distance. This further adds to my theory that you have just showed up. Otherwise, there would be one of your 'cities' lying around." he bellowed as he stamped his hooves in anger. "You humans... now I remember. All you cared about was the resources here. Nothing else! You killed off my brothers and stripped them down to their very bones!" he shouted in anger as he remembered the horrors and atrocities committed by the humans.

"Calm down! We aren't here to do anything like that. In fact, it never was my intention to even come here in the first place." he explained as the earth shook under the giant pony's body.

He stopped and lowered his huge head to stare closer at Chief. "Really now? I vividly remember the snake tongues you humans possessed. You double crossed us into thinking that you were the good and the ponies the bad. But I always knew, always suspected that you were the ones responsible!" his voice had taken on a deeper form as he continued to roar down at Chief. "I could only watch as my own kind were slaughtered and had their very essence used to power your machines! Friends and family fell at your dirty 'feet' and we were hunted to near extinction!"

"There is no reason to do any of this! I never wanted to be here in the first place!" he barely managed to sputter as the ground shook with every tremendous step the giant creature took.

"Lies! The very people the ponies of this world protected killed us behind their backs! And whenever the uprising of my kind fell at the very hooves of the ponies we were tricked into believing were the bad, Father Time exiled and forced us into every rotten nook and cranny in the most barren and unforgivable wastelands on this world! And now you come back?! As if nothing had happened?! You will perish by my wrath, merciless liars! RAAAAAAAAAH!" his deepened, almost demonic voice echoed throughout the stale, damp forest air. Birds and animals of all kinds scurried from their hiding places to escape as one of it's giant hooves raised high into the sky.

"Uh oh."

...The Crazier This Story Gets...

Meanwhile...

A strong breeze blew through the sky as a gilded carriage went soaring by. It cut through the air at an insane speed, nearly rivaling that of Rainbow Dash in a hurry.

Inside the carriage...

"Sir, do we even know what we be dealin' with? I don't think these things be some kind of D Dogs or anythin'. I mean, did Celestia even tell us what we be huntin'?" a tired, concerned voice spoke up among the musky darkness inside of the speeding carriage.

"She told me a few things, but other than that, we're goin' in blind. Thankfully, though, the Princess gave us a little somethin' to give us the edge." a dark figure, recognized as Hunter from his accent, moved around on one of the seats and reached underneath it to pull out a strange shape. It glowered inside of the room, illuminating only itself, not casting even a ray of light on neither of the figures sitting alone in the carriage.

"What is it, boss?" a third voice echoed from seemingly nowhere.

"I dunno, Shady. But I be pretty sure that it'll do wonders for us." the entire carriage lurched forward, indicating that it had come to a complete and sudden stop. "Looks like we're 'ere, boys. Give 'em hell. Oh, and Shady? Stay in the shadows." the mercenary said with a hint of confidence in his voice. Hunter pushed a hoof out through the still darkness and slowly pushed the door open...

Meanwhile...

Shepard wasn't really having a good time. After all, wouldn't you be kind of pissed off if you were lost in the woods? He was pretty much stuck in an unfamiliar part of the woods... at least, unfamiliar to him.

He sighed as he made his way to a nearby tree and slid down to the base of the trunk. The soldier put his shotgun under his right arm and propped himself up on it.

'What do I do now?' he thought to himself. A bird flew by him and sat itself on a branch above. He looked up at the bright blue bird. It looked back. But then, something happened. The air around him began to get cloudy, as if he were in a fog. A strange feeling was also there. Like he was being watched from every direction. And his vision started to get blurry.

"You seem lost, Shepard..." a quiet, raspy voice came from inside the tiny bird's throat. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere.

He looked up with an eyebrow raised and replied, "How do you know my name?"

"I know everything. Anything. All about this place. And all about you, Shepard. Human. Born of Earth. Different plane of existence entirely." it called out yet again, this time much louder. It was as if it were coming closer to him.

"Oh really? Then how do I get out of this forest?"

"I have been everywhere on this pathetic planet.. Fighting. Searching. For it." the bird stopped and looked up suddenly, as if aware of the voice's presence.

"For what?" he asked with a hint of curiosity as he hoisted himself up off of the ground.

"It. The Artifact. The Holy Grail of all known knowledge in this universe. A fragment. And only a fragment. On this planet. A fragment. I must find it. If it were to be discovered by anyone or anything else... I cannot even begin to comprehend the consequences. I only know that it is here. A human made Marker that contains the codes. The codes for what? What are these codes for? I am not certain. But... it. It is here. And I must find it..."

"Okay, this is making way too sense... so you're telling me, these ancient humans built a device known as a 'Marker', but it somehow got broken up into fragments and sent throughout not only my universe, but this one as well?" Shepard almost shouted as he looked around him, waiting for an answer.

"Yes. And many others." he looked up at the little blue sparrow with a look of skepticism plastered on his face.

"That's weird. An associate of mine told me about the Markers. He said that they needed to be destroyed."

"Only those who know not how to decode it's secrets will destroy it. For them who do not understand, they are driven mad by it's lure. It's promises. It's... power. I have been searching since the Marker's fragmentation. I know what was stored on it. Endless amounts of information and knowledge. Countless yottabytes. One ginormous storage unit holding all of the known knowledge acquired throughout many years of research. But there was a problem..." it held it's metaphorical breath for a moment before continuing, "It began storing them."

"What do you mean?" Shepard asked intently. He stood there for a moment, waiting for an answer, but none came. He blinked, and the fog receded, as did the strange feelings. He cursed to himself before looked back the way he came.

'I have to get out of this forest and warn them.'

Shepard slung his shotgun over his shoulder and began trudging back the way he came, unknowing of the otherworldly forces watching over him...

Meanwhile...

Ponyville was stirring and buzzing with activity. Despite their new 'guest' causing them some trouble, their lives went on as relatively normal. But there was one pony who was especially excited...

"OH MY GOSH!" a pink blur flew through the town. It turned sharply around corners and it jumped over fences and walls before skidding to a stop at the town library. It was then revealed, that it was indeed Pinkie Pie, the most hyperactive, crazy pony in Equestria. And she just knocked down the front door.

"Spike! Spike are you here?" she shouted as she began to rummage through the lobby searching for the small dragon.

"Right here." Spike called from upstairs as him and Sigma both came down. Sigma looked like he always did; that same look on it's, or rather his' face.

"Oh! Spike! Did you get a reply from the Princess yet? I gotta know what she's gonna do about Twilight. Did she send anypony? A spell? A book? ANYTHING?" the pink pony was bouncing up and down like crazy.

"It just came in. I was going to come and get you, but since you're already here, I guess I can go ahead and tell you. She did send somepony." he told her before pulling out the scroll once again and presenting it to the Pinkie, "Somepony she thinks can get the job done."

"Designation: Bounty Hunter. Name: Hunter Bounty. Caution is advised. Possible hostility towards others. Especially me." Sigma spoke up from behind Spike.

"Uh oh. That doesn't sound very good... he must've been sent out here to look for the 'hoo-mans'. I bet if he catches sight of you, he might be mean and try to hurt you."

"As stated before, I am not capable of feeling pain." he informed her yet again.

"Still, though. It isn't nice to try and hurt somepony, even if their not a pony at all. I know! We just hide you! Is that okay Sigma?" Pinkie looked up at the metal figure with pleading eyes.

"Yes." Pinkie hopped around the room joyfully before coming back to... a wooden floor.

"Sigma? Where did you go?" she asked aloud. She looked to Spike, who was currently sorting through a pile of books near one of the many bookshelves. He looked back at her and shrugged.

"I am here."

"Where?" suddenly, the air in front of her face seemed to shimmer and start to form the image of the android in question.

"Wow! How in the whole wide world of Equestria did you do that, Sigma?"

"I did not mention before of my ability to become 'invisible', as you organics call it?" she shook her head no, "Lesson learned."

Meanwhile...

An eerie presence was overseeing the new additions to Equestria.

"Will they survive?"

"No. In fact, I have a feeling they will not even last beyond the end of the next day."

"Are you sure? We do not want that to happen again."

"Why not finish them now?"

"Do not worry, brothers. I have already contacted the one known as Shepard. He will lead them all to our Marker. The entirety of Equestria will burn..."

A maniacal laugh filled the void as the images of Chief, Isaac, and Shepard played for the three voices to observe with great interest as they got ever closer to fulfilling their goals...

...The More Mountain Climbing That Follows...

"Chief..." the spartan looked up slowly as the hoof guided itself high into the air and above the clouds.

"Run?"

"Run." and with that, the giant stone hoof tore down at ludicrous speed, barely giving Chief enough time to duck out of the way with Isaac.

The super soldier looked up once more at the beast and shouted at the top of his lungs, "We don't have to do this!" The huge appendage collided with the ground, causing a huge cloud of dirt to be kicked up, obscuring Chief's vision.

"Oh, but we do, human! You started this when you drew the blood of the first fallen Goliath! And now, I will end it! By killing you, I will further prevent the extinction of my kind!" the other hoof of the giant rose up and smashed into the ground, sending debris and shredded rocks in every direction. Thankfully, it was a near miss, landing the hit a couple of yards away from Chief's position.

"I really didn't want to have to fight you!" Chief shouted over the clatter of rocks as they fell to the earth.

"What could you possibly hope to do to me?" the stone giant echoed over the crushed earth beneath him. Chief reached to his side and pulled the Energy Sword he had saved out of it's magnetic holster. "Such a weak weapon! A simple rock will do nothing against me!" the Goliath talked down to the soldier as he ignited the blade, sending a wave of energy from the hilt to form a sharp hard-light blade. "Ah, this changes things! I have not had a good challenge since before I was exiled!" the giant roared as he lifted his hoof into the air once more and slammed it down, narrowly missing Chief yet again.

Chief was never the taunting type, so he kept his mouth shut. But he and Cortana both had to admit that his aim was terrible. The augmented human jumped up and grabbed onto one of the small rock formations jutting out of the huge appendage.

"What do you think you are doing, human? Do you honestly expect to defeat me with simple agility? I think not!" the earth began to rumble as the hoof slowly but surely began to pull itself out of the ground.

By then, however, Chief had made his way at least a quarter of the arm's length, using his Energy Sword for a makeshift grip. Every stab elicited a pained grunt from the Goliath as it still stood above the deep, dark trench he had arisen out of. Fresh lava was pouring out of every new wound that Chief was making with the sword. The giant finally dragged his hoof underneath his body to stabilize himself for his next move; the Swatting Maneuver. Otherwise known as the 'Stop Hitting Yourself'. A cascade of lava was pouring down the beast's front-right leg. No matter how sturdy he was, the stone golem knew that if he didn't get the pest off of him soon, it would find it's way to his head and ultimately end him. So he took his front-left leg and raised it high into the air before sending it crashing down towards where the human currently was; his shoulder.

*CRACK*

As his giant hoof collided with his shoulder, the brittle rock covering it shattered. Lava rained down upon the landscape below. The giant fell to his knees at the edge of the giant trench.

"You're skills are not to be easily underestimated, human." a pained grunt came out of his mouth as Chief once again stabbed his sword into him. "But it will take more than your small size to best me!" the giant suddenly started to jerk his entire body about. Chief hung on to his sword, careful not to lose his grip...

Meanwhile...

Ponyville was quiet. Not a soul stirred in the streets. An uneasy silence hung through the air as the sky darkened. Clouds covered the streets and rooftops in a shroud of darkness, blocking out the sun. It was then that they made their move. They moved swiftly... well, two of them did anyway. The other was too big to actually do any effective sneaking. The three of them moved about the shadows, careful not to make even a noise. However, the bigger one of them kept bumping into carts and barrels, making them tumble over. The noise was certainly enough to gain attention to them. Thankfully, though, the streets were cleared.

"Would you stop bumblin' around, you big idiot?" Hunter called from one of the dark alleys, making sure to remain as quiet as possible.

"Sorry!" the pony in question, Big Hurts, nearly shouted before a loud crashing sound was heard from said alley.

"Not so loud! You'll ruin our cover!" the unmistakable face of Hunter moved slowly from the shadows. Hurts attempted to look as well, but instead tripped over an apple, tumbling forward and pushing Hunter completely out of cover and into the middle of the road. The brown pony hunter skidded to a halt in the middle of the cobblestone road. His eyes widened in realization as he noticed where he was; right in the open, and completely exposed.

"Boss..." an eerie feeling lurked over the bounty hunter as the shadows seemingly stretched out of the ground right in front of him. He covered his face in fright. "What do you think yer doin'?" he uncovered them to see the other hired mercenary, Darkly Shady, standing over him.

He was slightly taller and slimmer than Hunter. He had dark green eyes, with a very dark red coat to go with them. A little bit of loose, light gray hair was draped over his right eye, hiding it from sight.

"Oh, it's just you. Please, don't sneak up on me like that." he got up and dusted himself off before turned his attention to the dark alley from which he had been pushed. "Get out here, you big buffoon!" a significantly larger pony, nearly twice hunter's size, trotted out of the shadows.

His mane was cut short and so was his tail, both colored a sickly green. His grayish blue, scarred exterior looked tough as a rhino. "Here I am, boss!" Hurts wasn't exactly the most intelligent of ponies. However, he was a good listener, or at least that's what the Princess told him. No matter what he told that stallion to do, he would most likely screw up.

"Do you realize what you've done, you idiot? You've blown our cover!" the large pony looked around him for a second before replying.

"I don't see nopony, boss..."

"That don't mean, they could be watchin'." Hunter looked around himself suspiciously before setting his sights on Shady. "Where were you, Shady? You weren't with us." Shady sighed.

"I was lurking about the town. And it just so happens I know where to find our targets..." Hunter and Hurts both looked genuinely surprised.

"Where?" they both asked in unison.

"The Oak-Wood Library."

...Wait, Where Was I Going With These Chapter Names?

It felt like his head was splitting open. Isaac couldn't see. His vision was clouded with the same fog that had accompanied him many times before. But he didn't expect it to hurt so much. Like many times before, the pain was unbearable. But this time it was different; this time, Nicole was nowhere to be found. Isaac found this more strange than anything, but he couldn't complain. His mind was tasked already. You know, with the pain shooting through his head and chest. Not only that, but his entire body felt like it was roasting in an oven.

Isaac rolled onto his stomach and pushed downwards, trying to lift himself up. His entire body was burning like it was on fire... wait...

All he could hear up to that point was just a high pitched ringing, and his vision was still blurry from what seemed like fog, but now he knew that he was somehow surrounded by fire.

Warning; suit integrity reaching dangerously low levels. Temperatures above two hundred degrees detected. Redirect all remaining coolant towards outer plating?

"Yes." he muttered under his breath as the burning sensation slowly dissipated. The coolant ran through his suit, making his spine tingle from the sensation. The message disappeared, replaced with a new one:

Redirection Completed. Have a nice day!

It suddenly felt as if an entire load of bricks was lifted off of his back. He attempted to push upward once more, this time succeeding in setting himself upright. By that time, his vision was clearing up significantly and he could finally see the carnage around him. Fire stretched across the sky above him and smoke was bellowing into the air. He sat up and swiveled around to see what was behind him. What he saw was mildly surprising; a giant, moving mountain that looked like a pony.

"I will never surrender, human!" the giant suddenly spoke. A loud, pained grunt escaped his maul as lava cascaded down front-right leg.

The fogginess that was obscuring his vision was almost completely cleared away by now, meaning that he could finally see who was causing the giant so much pain. It was Chief.

Meanwhile...

"No, no, no..." Sigma thought aloud as he swirled a multitude of books around him. His voice was more human, and so was his posture. "These aren't right. None of this is right. All of them have different names... different meanings. How confusing does this plane of existence even get?" he suddenly dropped all of the books to the wooden floor. "Oh well. I was still sent here to seek those disturbances. Better keep looking..." the android started to walk casually through the rest of the library looking for information.

"Sigma?" a voice he indicated as Spike came from behind him. Which was strange considering he constantly monitored the heat signatures around the library. He face-palmed before turning to face the purple dragon. "How were you talking normal just a second ago?"

"Negative." the android blared a little too loudly, starting the small reptile before him.

"But you were! I just heard AND saw you." Spike pointed an accusing finger at him.

"Double negative." he shouted even louder, this time causing one of the window panes nearby to crack slightly.

"What does that even mean?"

"Triple negative! I said nothing!" every piece of glass in the room shattered with how loud the robot shouted.

"Ow!" Spike yelped in surprise. Something warm started dripping from his ears and a constant ringing caused him to cover them. "Why did you do that?!" he removed his hands from his ears and was taken aback by the blood on them. Sigma attempted to move forward, but only managed to cause the dragon more pain by doing so.

Sigma sighed before stepping forward and extending an arm towards the now cowering baby dragon.

Meanwhile...

Back with the three mercenaries, however, things weren't going so well. No matter where they looked, no matter how many stands or rocks they looked behind, they just couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. They finally decided that meeting up back at the town square would be for the best.

"Did you two find anything?" Hunter was the first to speak up.

"Nope. Nothing out of the ordinary." Shady saluted with pride.

"Me neither, boss." Hurts saluted as well, trying as hard as he could to look professional.

"This is very bad. If we don't return with the humans' heads, we'll all be sent to the sun!" the stallion looked down and scoffed from the thought of the punishment, as did his companions. But then, as if all of his prayers were answered all at once, they heard something rang out through the town.

"Triple negative! I said nothing!"

Hunter looked up from his downward gaze to the sky. His scowl was replaced with a look of determination as the foreign voice echoed through the air.

"Well, boys... looks like we got us a lead."

*Sorry that this chapter was so short, guys. I figured I should just finish it early. I mean, it's been a long enough wait, hasn't it? Again, sorry. I'll try and make my next chapter a little longer.*

Prologue

Once upon a time... in the magical land of Equestria...

Two regal sisters ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, The Eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The Younger brought out the Moon to begin the night.

But one day, something special happened. A gift from the heavens fell to the ground. At first glance it looked nothing more than a normal rock. But when the two sisters looked closer, it was revealed to be hiding something incredible. They called it; The Marker.

From fear that the Marker would cause a panic, the two regal sisters sealed it tightly where nopony could find it. But this was not the case, for somepony did find it. This pony fell prey to an abnormal disease. Unfortunately this pony never made it back to Canterlot. It is thought that to this very day, this pony still remains in that disease ridden state, guarding the Marker from anypony or anything that may enter. It is also said that anypony that may enter this forbidden place will also fall to this disease, never to return.

It is also said that one day, a terrible scourge will be released upon Equestria. But do not be alarmed, any who read this script. For there will also be three weapons who will come along to help defend us Equestrians. But until then you must beware...

For the Marker knows all...