Stealth Prowlers and Unicornsby superfunnelcChaptersA Crawfish and his BayouFirst contact protocal be dammedCould this day get any worse?You just has to say that didn't youA Crawfish and his BayouIt was a new day for the captain of the UNSC stealth prowler "Bayou". His name was Crawfish, at least that's his codename his real name is classified to anyone who is not a member of the ONI brass. Crawfish is a fairly average human male, weighing 205 lbs, measuring 6'3", and a clean shaven beard. Today he was going to welcome the newest member of his crew. 0o0o0 Lieutenant Jessica Freeman was fresh out of the officers academy, as she walked towards the spaceport where her new assignment was stationed she gazed around her and she was reminded of the devastation that the Covenant did to Earth, rescuers digging though rubble, bulldozers clearing the streets, and bodies being lined up for identification. But she was not going to let the near destruction of her entire species get her down. As she entered the spaceport she was stopped by a marine. "Sorry ma'am no one is allowed into the hangers right now." Said the marine. "Oh, really. Then perhaps this will change your mind." She hands the marine a document stating that she is ONI, and that she could mess his day up if she wanted to. "Sorry ma'am, just head down the hallway and you will find the hangers." Jessica begins the walk towards the hangers. "So that's The Bayou." She says as she enters the hanger in which The Bayou was docked. With 26 Archer Missile pods, 4 50mm auto cannons, and the capability to launch a Shiva nuclear missile The Bayou is a force to be reckoned with weather by Covenant Loyalists, or Human Insurgents. "The captain is waiting for you on the bridge ma'am." Said a marine guarding the entrance ramp as Jessica entered the ship. 0o0o0 "Listen, I don't care if you are Colonel Ackerson's replacement, just get me a goddamned pepperoni pizza!" Crawfish shouts into the comms panel before, shutting it off. "Sir, Lieutenant Jessica Freeman, reporting for duty sir!" Jessica salutes. "At ease, Lieutenant." Crawfish turns around to face her. "I take it that you are Captain Crawfish." She said. "Lieutenant, I ain't no Captain. I'm just a spook." "A spook, sir?" "Someone who doesn't exist. Officially anyways." "Sir, how are you a spook?" "I got too good at my job, found a few of ONI's dirty little secrets, I ended up blackmailing them and they gave me this ship, a crew, and a few other things." "What kind of secrets, sir?" "Mostly, stuff about the SPARTAN-II program." An Elite comes up behind Jessica. "So you're the new recruit?" Asks the Elite. Jessica is frozen with fear. "Lieutenant meet Vaht 'Komtaree, our chief navigator." Vaht takes a seat at the nav console. "Um, hi Vaht." "The pleasure, is all mine." Vaht clicks his mandibles together. "Any other surprises, Captain?" Jessica asks. "Well, our chief engineer is a Huragok, and our weapons specialist is you." Crawfish turns on the engines. "A what sir?" "A floater, a jellyfish, an engineer." "Thank you sir." "Anytime, now get to your station Lieutenant and get ready for pre flight check list." "Yes sir." Jessica sits down at the weapons console. "Samantha, are all systems good to go?" An AI with the form of a teenage girl appears on a holo terminal, next to the captain's chair. "All systems are ready for take off. May I suggest that you actually tell the tower that you are about to take off, we would not like a repeat of last time." Said Samantha. "What happened last time?" Asked Jessica. "Nothing, all you need to know is that all of the orphans survived." "Barely." Murmurs Vaht. "Stow it Vaht." Crawfish radios the tower. "Tower this is UNSC vessel Bayou requesting permission for takeoff." "Bayou, this is tower you are cleared for take off at heading 04563." Responded the tower. "Alright, you heard 'em Sam." Said Crawfish. "Yes, sir." The ship slowly ascends, before the main engines kick in, and the ship is rocketed towards space. "Sam, show the Lieutenant, here to her quarters." Crawfish picks up a data pad. "Yes sir." Samantha appears on a holo terminal next to Jessica's station. "Alright, lead the way Sam." Jessica picks up the duffel bag, she brought on bored that no one noticed. "To reach your quarters, exit the bridge and enter the second door on the right." Sam returns to the holo terminal next to Crawfish. "Gee, thanks Sam." Jessica exits the bridge, and follows the corridor until she found her room. When she opened the door she was greeted with a floating half jellyfish, half machine creature so she did what anyone else would do in a situation like that, she screamed. "Don't worry Lieutenant, that's just Blasto he's the chief engineer." Said Crawfish over the loudspeaker. "You almost gave me a heart attack Blasto." Blasto floats out of Jessica's room and floats towards the engine room. Jessica drops her duffel, next to her bed and begins to unpack when the loudspeaker comes on again. "Attention all crew, we are about to enter slipspace, please report to your stations." "I don't even have time to fully unpack." Jessica sighs as she exits her room, and makes her way back to the bridge. "Vaht, are the coordinates set?" Asks Crawfish as Jessica enters the bridge. "Yes sir." Replies Vaht. "Good. Lieutenant take your seat and we can make the jump." Says Crawfish. "Yes sir." Jessica goes over to the weapons station and takes her seat. "Punch it Sam." Says Crawfish. "With pleasure sir." Says the AI as the Bayou enters slip space. 0o0o0 "Come on Spike, we're going to miss the meteor shower." Said Twilight Sparkle checking off the last item on her checklist. "I'm coming as fast as I can." Said Spike as he climbed down the stairs carrying ink pots, rolls of paper, and a telescope. "You know Spike, Rarity will be there." Said Twilight. "Rarity's going to be there?!" Spike rushes over to Twilight's side. "Yep, now let's go over and meet the girls." Twilight leads Spike out of the library, and towards an open field where her friends are waiting. "Jeez, Twilight you almost missed the meteor shower." Said Rainbow Dash as Twilight and Spike neared the group. "Well, I would have been here sooner, but Spike forgot where he put the ink wells." Said Twilight. "Look look look! It's starting!" Said Pinkie hoping up and down as Spike set up the telescope. "My, word have you ever seen such a marvelous sight." Said Rarity as the meteor shower began. 0o0o0 "Um, Vaht are you sure those coordinates are correct?" Asked Crawfish as looked at the planet that was supposed to be the grey wasteland of a planet that was Reach. "Why do you question my coordinates?" Asks Vaht. "Because unless we went back in time, I am looking at a planet that is not Reach." Said Crawfish. "Well how can you tell it's not Reach?" "Because it's not a grey wasteland!" Shouted Crawfish, Vaht looks up from his console. "Ah, I see your point." "Sam whats our location?" Asks Crawfish. "I don't know, it appears that there was an anomaly during the jump to slip space." Replies Sam as she gazes at the planet from the holo terminal, just as warning lights flash, and sirens sound. "Sam, what the hell is going on?!" Yells Crawfish. "It appears we that we are caught in a gravity well of some sort, we are being pulled towards the planet." Replies Sam. "Looks like ONI won't be getting their MJOLNIR back for awhile." Says Crawfish as an image of Blasto the head engineer appears on his data pad. "Oh no, if Blasto starts a video chat with Crawfish, you know it's bad." Moans Vaht. "What do you mean, the engines are disabled? You tuned them up right before we launched." Said Crawfish. "Vaht, are we in trouble?" Said Jessica. "More then likely, yes." He replied. "Alright guys, we are entering the atmosphere now, prepare for a crash landing!" Shouted Crawfish. 0o0o0 "Look at that one, no look at that one!" Pinkie bounced around pointing at all of the meteors. "Um, Twilight can I ask you a question?" Asked Applejack. "Well technically you just did but, sure go ahead." Replied Twilight. "Are these meteors supposed to look like they are about to come crashing down on us?" Asked Apple jack. "Why would you ask a question like that? Of course their not supposed too." Replied Twilight. "Well, one of them is heading right towards us!" Shouted Apple jack as a meteor flies right over their heads, and crashes a half mile away from them. "Whoa, Nelly! That was a big doozy, I wonder why my Pinkie sense didn't go off?" Said Pinkie. "We don't have time to wonder about that Pinkie, we have to investigate." Said Twilight as she began to walk over to the crater with the rest of her friends. "What is that thing?" Rainbow Dash, said as the group arrives at the crater, with a black ship in the center of it. "It's a space ship! I wonder if the aliens inside like cupcakes?" Shouts Pinkie. 0o0o0 "Is everyone alright?' Shouts Crawfish. "Nothing major." Replies Jessica. "Just some scrapes and bruises." Replies Vaht, as Blasto enters the bridge. "Glad to see that your okay, Blasto." Said Crawfish as he turned his attention to the holo terminal. "Sam whats the status of the ship?" "Engines are offline, and there are multiple hull breaches, but all other systems are online at the moment." Said Sam. "Crawfish, I have movement on the sensors!" Said Jessica. "Let me see." Sam appears at the holo terminal next to Jessica, and takes a look at the screen. "Sir, we have ponies." First contact protocal be dammed"Say again Lieutenant" Crawfish walks over to Jessica's station. "We have ponies." "Don't you mean horses?" Asks Crawfish. "No, ponies. The life forms on the sensors are equine in origin, but are too large to be considered horses." Said Sam as she leaned towards the screen from the holo terminal. "Wait a second is that a horn?" Crawfish points to a section of the screen. "I believe so sir." Reply's Sam. "Great, so we got unicorns and ponies. What else could be out there?!" Crawfish shouts. "It looks like two of them have wings." Points out Vaht. "For the love of the Master Chief!" Crawfish yells. "They do not appear hostile sir." Said Sam. "Neither do Uggoy, but they can still kill a marine." Crawfish says as he walks out of the bridge. "Sir, where are you going?" Asks Jessica. "Follow me and see, you too Vaht." Says Crawfish as Jessica and Vaht follow Crawfish to the ship's armory. "Crawfish do you really think that ponies pose a threat?" Asked Vaht. "Vaht, the first human to die in the Human Covenant War was killed by an Engineer so don't tell me that ponies are harmless!" Crawfish begins to undress. "Woah! Put your pants back on sir." Says Jessica trying not to stare at the now naked body of Crawfish. "Sorry, Lieutenant but in order for me to put on my armor I gotta be naked." Crawfish pulls a body suit from a locker. "Sam is my armor repaired?" "Yes sir." Says Sam over the inter-comm. "Good. Alright suit me up Sam." Crawfish walks onto a platform, and raises his arms to his side as robot hands hold them in place. "W-whats going on?" Asks a startled Jessica. "You see Lieutenant, when ONI gave me this ship, they also made me into to something with the help of some augs."Says Crawfish as claws take pieces of armor from who knows where and begin wielding them to Crawfish's bodysuit. "Y-your,a Spartan." Says a bewildered Jessica. "A Spartan IV actually." Says Crawfish as his chest plate is bolted on. "Should I take a plasma repeater or an energy sword?" Asks Vaht trying to pick between the two. "Just bring both." Says Crawfish as he steps off the platform, and grabs an EOD helmet with a black visor from a locker. "Thanks." Vaht holsters the repeater on his back, while grabbing his helmet from his locker. "You ready?" Asks Crawfish as he puts on his Helmet. "Sure." Vaht closes his locker, and walks out of the armory towards the exit ramp. "Sir are you sure that this is wise?" Asks Jessica as Crawfish grabs a DMR from a weapons rack and follows Vaht. "Lieutenant, I have no idea." Crawfish exits the armory and follows Vaht towards the exit ramp. "Sam open the ramp." "Ramp opening" 0o0o0 "Oh Twilight look it's opening!" Exclaimed Pinkie as the ramp to the ship opened. "Nopony go near it." Says Twilight. "Twilight I am the toughest pony around, no alien is going to hurt me!" Rainbow Dash flies over to the entrance. "Come on you cruddy alien show me what you got!" Vaht walks down the ramp, with Crawfish in his black EOD armor next to him, seeing the pony challenging him he activates his energy sword and says "Blarg!" "Ahhhhhhhh!" Rainbow Dash screams ah she runs away from the ship and back to her friends "Did you see that thing try to eat me!" "Ain't no space alien going eat my friends!" Apple Jack charges at Vaht only for Crawfish to step in front, seeing no other option Apple Jack rears up and bucks Crawfish in the groin, however she did not know that Crawfish's armor could survive a fall from orbit, however before her hooves could make contact with the armor they hit an invisible wall, and were broken at the ankle. "Ahhhh, ma legs!" "Hold on Apple Jack!" Twilight begins charging up a telekinesis spell. "Sir, that pony's horn is glowing!' Points out Vaht. "It's charging up for an attack. Open fire!" Crawfish let's loose with his DMR wounding Twilight in the leg before she could fully charge up the spell. "Twilight! Now your in for it you overgrown tin can!" Rainbow rushes towards Crawfish who uses his DMR like a baseball bat and nails Rainbow in the face with the butt of the rifle, Rainbow crumples to the ground unconscious. "P-please don't hurt me." Flutter Shy slowly walks up to the entrance ramp. "Should we shoot it?" Asks Vaht. "Nope, it looks like a medic, Rules of Engagement dictates that we can't fire on a medic." Says Crawfish as Flutter Shy drags Apple jack off the ramp and back to the mouth of the crater. "Since when have I followed ROE?" Crawfish asks as Flutter Shy comes back and pulls Rainbow Dash's unconscious body out of the crater. "There was that one time." Says Vaht as the group of ponies slowly heads back to town for medical assistance. "Hey, I didn't know that 10-year old had a magnum." Replies Crawfish "Looks like they're gone, let's head back in they will likely be back." Crawfish and Vaht walk back into the ship and raise the entrance ramp. "What did you do?!" Screams Jessica as the two entered the bridge. "Let's see. I hit a home run, when that rainbow pony flew at me. I broke that orange pony's legs with my mind, and I shot that purple pony in the leg. Any questions?" Crawfish takes off his helmet only to get slapped by Jessica. "We just got out of a war with aliens! Now you want to start another!?" Jessica throws her hands up in the air. "Relax, they are ponies what's the worse that they could do?" 0o0o0 "Nurse Redheart! We need your help!" Spike shouts as the group enters Pony ville General Hospital with Pinkie carrying a bleeding Twilight, Rarity carrying an unconscious Rainbow Dash, and Flutter shy carrying an immobile Apple jack. "Oh, my word! What happened?" Asks Nurse Red Heart as she check the three wounded ponies. "It was those meany pants aliens!" Says Pinkie. "Those meany pants what?" Asks Nurse Redheart. "Aliens, their ship crashed. And they were like Blarg! And Rainbow Dash was like Ahhh! And then Apple jack was all Ahhhhh too, and thats what happened!" Says Pinkie. "Oooookay. Hey get three gurneys stat!" Shouts Nurse Red Heart, as three other nurses pushing gurneys arrive and take the three wounded ponies and load each on a gurney and ships Twilight off to surgery, Apple jack to X-ray, and Rainbow Dash to a Cat-Scan. "I'd better tell the princesses." Spike begins taking a letter. Dear, Princesses Celestia A few minutes ago an alien ship crashed outside of Pony ville, but when we went to investigate the ship the aliens attacked us, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Apple jack are all hurt with Twilight being the worst. Please send help. Love, Spike P.S, When are you going to tell me where you got my egg from? "Here we go." Spike breaths fire on the scroll sending it to Princess Celestia. 0o0o0 Celestia was enjoying something that she almost never had time to do, relaxing in bed. When a scroll dropped in front of her "A friendship report?" Celestia opens the scroll and reads it, as her eyes read over the letter she becomes more and more worried, until she could not take it anymore and shouted. "Guards!" "What is it your highness?!" Shining Armor, and three guards burst in. "Send all of the guards you can to Pony ville, I fear it is under attack from aliens." Says Celestia. "Aliens, your highness?" Asks Shining Armor. "Yes, aliens and they have already attacked your sister and her friends." "T-twily?!" Gasps Shining. "Yes, now go!" "Yes your highness." Shining runs off to alert his guards. "I pray that this is all a misunderstanding." Celestia steps onto a balcony and looks in the direction of Pony ville. 0o0o0 "Uh, Crawfish you might wanna take a look at this." Says Jessica looking at the sensor panels. "What is it, Lieutenant?" Crawfish walks over to her. "I have eyes on 150 plus armored ponies heading right for us." Jessica says. "Well then I better go out and greet them." Crawfish walks out of the bridge. "Vaht, Blasto be on your toes and stay here." "Yes sir." Says Vaht as Blasto raises a tentacle in salute. "Your going out there unarmed?!" Says Jessica as Crawfish approaches the ramp. "I got a combat knife in a magnetic sheath, but other then that I have no weapons." Crawfish opens the ramp. "Sam when I am off the ramp, seal it." "Yes sir." Says Sam. "Alright here we go." Crawfish walks down the exit ramp, his black EOD armor ready for combat, when he steps onto solid ground the ramp seals shut behind him. When he reaches the top of the crater he can see the over 150 guards in front of him. "By order of Princess Celestia surrender!" Shouts Shining Armor, as several of the guards begin to have second thoughts about going up against aliens. "How about no!" Crawfish shouts back, making several guards wonder how he speaks the same language as them. "So be it! Alpha and Beta teams attack!" Shining Armor shouts as 60 ponies break file and charge. "Hostiles detected!" Crawfish gets into a fighting stance, just as the first guard reaches him spear drawn. Crawfish grabs the spear breaks it in two and proceeds to break the guard's jaw with a single punch. More guards charge him, Crawfish is a flurry as he delivers punches and kicks at incredible speeds. After seven minutes 75 guard lay unconscious, several others dead, however the battle has strained Crawfish as he drops from exhaustion, the last thing he sees before slipping into unconsciousness is Shining armor looking over him. 0o0o0 As Crawfish awakes he realizes that his hands are bound, however he manages to break the rope easily. "Where the hell am I?" Crawfish looks around his surroundings that appear to be a dungeon. "Great, a dungeon, what could possibly happen now!?" The door to his cell opens, Crawfish quickly puts his hands back behind him so that his captors can't tell that he broke his bounds. As he looks towards the door, he sees a large white Alicorn walk in with three guards and Shining Armor escorting her. "Who are you?" She asks. "Your mother!" Crawfish replies. "Show some respect towards the princess!" Shining fires a bolt of electricity at Crawfish. "Is that the best you got?" Crawfish says as his armor absorbs the electricity giving him an over shield. "Next question." Celestia is not phased by Shining Armor's attack. "What are you?" "I am a demon, and not the kind of demon that was drafted into the Navy at six years old and replaced by clones, that died a year later. If that's what your thinking." Says Crawfish replacing the word spartan with the Covenant's nickname for Spartans. "This is pointless, we will return later and maybe then you will be more willing to talk." Celestia and the guards leave shutting the door behind them. "Crawfish come in." Crawfish's helmet filled with sound as Sam radioed him. "Crawfish here, go ahead." Crawfish replies. "Sir, where are you?" "Hell if I know Sam, but I think I am at some sort of castle since I am in a dungeon." Crawfish says as something catches his eye. "Sir, the ponies have formed a barricade around the crater, and we only have so much food left." Says Sam. "It's okay Sam, I am going to get to you." Crawfish kneels down in the corner using his helmet's zoom feature to reveal that what caught his eye was a glowing symbol carved into the rock. "Sam what the hell am I looking at?" Crawfish turns on his helmet's camera and begins sending photos to the Bayou. "Hold on, it appears that ONI has a reference to the symbol, however it is in Dr.Halsey's files." "Halsey." Crawfish murmurs her name, and feels a bit of guilt. Halsey might have only worked on the SPARTAN-II project but to the SPARTAN-IVs she was the mother of all SPARTANS, the only SPARTANS to not treat her as a mother were the SPARTAN-IIIs for which the 2's and the 4's hated them for it. "Open it Sam." "Alright, it appears to be the Forerunner symbol for Reclaimer." "Forerunner huh." Crawfish had learned a good deal about the Forerunners a few months back after hacking into ONI's database for the fifth time that week. Crawfish places his hand on the symbol, which begins to glow brighter until it disappeared into the rock, moments later a door appeared in the wall, Crawfish seeing no other option walked though the door. Could this day get any worse?As Crawfish walked down the dark staircase, he felt a sudden feeling of regret about the killings of the guards. "I know what your thinking about." Samantha chimed in though the radio. "You did what you were trained to do." "Sam, this is the third time you gave me this speech.and as usual it does not help." The walls around Crawfish begin to lose stone, and become a shiny metal. "Well, I am just trying to make you feel better." "I know, at least you can take pride in one thing." "What is that, sir?" "You're better at lifting my spirits than BB." Crawfish chuckles. "Please don't bring up Black Box." "Why, do you and BB have something going on? Not that its possible or anything." "Well you see. Black Box and I experimented and the result was the A.I Discord." "Wait a second. Discord was an out of control A.I that crashed a Halcyon class cruiser, into a covie super carrier. How could Discord be the outcome?" "You know how A.Is can fragment, right?" "Of course." "Well, Black Box produced a fragment, I produced a fragment, and we combined the two." Samantha said, blushing as only an A.I can, by turning her entire body red. "So you are the first A.I ever to get pregnant basically?" "No, Discord was never in my system." "Yes but, a baby is one half of his father, and one half of his mother, and seeing that BB is a blue box." "A blue cube." Samantha blurts out. "Could you please not correct me Sam? Now as I was saying, since you are the only female in that exchange, you are classified as the mother, you got that?" "Yes, sir. Now could we please stop talking about BB?" "Alright, fine with me. Sam can you get the Lieutenant, or Vaht on the radio?" "Of course captain." The radio goes silent as Samantha cuts the connection to Crawfish's helmet, seconds before Vaht opens a channel of his own. "Vaht whats the situation, back at the ship?" "No good, the locals may not have basic firearms, but they can still hurt us!" A massive thump can be heard. "Vaht, what was that?" "Blasto, says that the locals are hurling boulders at us." "Just hold out, maybe shoot a few of them, hell shoot off a few of the missiles if you have to, but do not let those ponies get on my ship." "Yes sir!" "Alright, the tunnel is widening out a little. I am going to lose you when I enter." "See you later, sir." Vaht cuts the connection. "Alright now, lets see what we have here." Crawfish walks into the cavern, when suddenly the whole cavern fills with blinding light, luckily the visor on Crawfish's helmet is polarized. "Ah, a reclaimer wonderful!" A voice with what appears to be Irish accent chimes. "Who's there!" Crawfish shouts as he draws his knife, as a monitor floats down from the rafters. "Stow your weapon reclaimer, I am 259 Translucent Flame, at your service." "Whats a monitor doing here?" Crawfish sheaths his knife. "I was appointed to watch over this science facility when the order to fire the Halo Array was given." "So you have just been waiting here all this time?" "Of course, it does get quite boring though, the sentinels do not make good conversation, so I mostly just watch the experiments." "What experiments?" "Oh, I am sure that you have already met them." "The ponies?" "Yes, you see the ponies were in their original form horses brought over from your home planet, and after a little crossbreeding, and some genetic alteration, you get the four breeds of pony. Earth pony, Pegasus, Unicorn, and Alicorn. Now the Alicorns are a special case because, they were originally created as weapons against the Flood." "Who would make ponies a weapon against the Flood?" "The only Forerunner opposed to the Halo Array; the Didact." "The Didact, of course! Why didn't I think of that. Quick question, who is the Didact?" "He was the supreme commander of the Forerunner military." "And he opposed the creation of the Halos?" "Yes, he believed them to be a sin beyond measure." "Thank you Flame." "Anytime Reclaimer. Now if you could please follow me." Flame begins floating off. "Hey, wait up!" Crawfish runs after Flame, who leads him to a room with a single glass pod in the center. "What is this place?" "The stasis chamber for this facility." "Whats in the pod?" Crawfish points towards the pod. "I can't quite remember, I think some of my memory is corrupted. However, I will open the pod and we can both find out, but to open it I need six keys, that the ponies currently have possession of. The ponies call them, The Elements of Harmony. Quite an odd name, but the ponies are an odd race. Now if you will follow me to the armory we can arm you, because the keys are tightly guarded." Flame floats out of the chamber with Crawfish in tow. "So, what made the forerunners create the ponies?" Asked Crawfish. "Well, it all started back when the Forerunners were at war with Humanity, and their allies the San'Shyuum. At the end of the war when Humanity was devolved, we needed a way to make sure you did not try to take to the stars again, so we engineered the ponies, and released them back on Earth, but they did not follow orders, and they were captured and brought back here, but not before Humans could create legends around them." Flame opens a door leading to the armory. "Jeez, I thought it was only you and some Sentinels?" Crawfish says gazing upon rows of Forerunner weapons. "This armory is actually a new addition, because a few hundred thousand years ago the ponies, rebelled and we had to bring in many Prometheans, to quell the rebellion and when the warriors left, they forgot their weapons. SO feel free to take anything that you wish." "Thanks maybe I will." Crawfish starts browsing the arms before settling on a Light Rifle, and a Suppressor. "Reclaimer, you do not know how thankful I am that you are helping me, now enter the portal at the far end of the armory and you should be transported to an empty building a few miles from where the keys are." Crawfish nods and walks over to the portal before jumping in. 0o0o0 "I do not understand, why you need me to deal with an alien?" Candace asks as she is escorted down to the dungeon, by Celestia, Shining Armor, and a trio of guards. "The reason I need you to talk to the alien is because, you are the only one of us who seems the least threatening, I mean your pink." Shining states. "Gee, thanks dear I will remember that in bed." Candace rolls her eyes, as they approach the cell that was formerly inhabited by Crawfish. "Now Candace this alien is blood thirsty, so don't hesitate to use force if-." Celestia begins saying only to be interrupted by Shining Armor. "The alien has escaped! Lock the palace down!" "Oh, no. How could this day get any worse?" Moaned Celestia. "Um, Aunt Celestia don't you have that meeting with the Griffon Empresses today?" "Candace don't remind me." Celestia rubs her face. "Guards tell Blue blood that he will be meeting with the Griffon Empress, and somepony get me a doughnut!" (A/N: Well it looks lite our good friend Tia, is losing it, so see you guys next time, don't forget to thumb up, favorite and comment.) You just has to say that didn't you"This is spartan W232 to Bayou, do you read?" Crawfish said as he looks though a window in a abandoned building at the building that houses the Elements of Harmony. "This is Bayou, go ahead." Vaht responds over the radio. "Bayou be advised I have made contact, with Forerunner monitor, repeat I have made contact with Forerunner monitor." "Great, when the Forerunners are involved the Covenant are bound to be close." "Yeah, lets just hope they don't visit this planet while we are still on it. Also, I am about to attempt to acquire six keys that are currently in the pony's possession, by request of the monitor. "That's a big risk, running errands for a monitor." "I know, but what other choices do we have? Besides it might be able to help us repair the ship." "Possibly, listen just be careful for all of our sakes." "Got it. See ya later." "You to." Vaht closes the comm channel. "Now let's see what we have." Crawfish peers though the window just in time to see a carriage pull up the building that he was watching and deposit the six ponies that he fought at the crash sight, but slightly different. The orange one was in a wheel chair, the purple one walked with a limp, and the blue one had a bandage all around the top of her head. "Great, those six again, well time to show them what a spartan can do." Crawfish backs up and charges destroying the wall, and making the ground where he landed crack. Ponies gasped and ran as they saw this six foot tall, armor suited, bipedal alien running towards the royal palace. 0o0o0 5 Minutes Earlier "Twilight, I don't see why, I have to sit in this gosh darned, wheel chair." Complained Apple Jack as the carriage they were riding in neared the building that housed the six Elements of Harmony. "Relax Apple Jack, at least you don't have any permanent injuries." Twilight sighed thinking about how the doctors told her that she would probably walk with a limp for the rest of her life, because of where the bullets hit her leg. "Your right, Twilight I just feel helpless in this chair." The carriage stops. "Well, I do hope we never see that ruffian ever again." Says Rarity as she steps out of the carriage. "Um Rarity, it wasn't the alien's fault." Murmured Flutter shy. "What?! Did you see what it did to use!" Rainbow Dash yells. "But." Flutter shy says before being cut off by Rainbow Dash. "But nothing, that alien is a no good piece of manure!" Rainbow Dash yells at Flutter shy causing her to cry. "Rainbow! Look at what you did!" Twilight tells Rainbow as Rarity and Pinkie try to consul Flutter shy. "Um Twilight, whats that down the street?" Apple Jack points to a dust cloud at the other end of the street. "I don't know, but I don't like it. Let's get inside." Twilight and several guards ushered in the rest of the mares before entering the building themselves, closing and barring the doors, but not before Twilight caught a ellipse of Crawfish running towards them. "Twilight Sparkle!" A regal voice calls out. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaims as she runs towards the voice that she recognizes as Princesses Celestia. "Yes Twilight. I have called you and your friends here because Equestria faces the greatest threat it has ever seen. "The alien." Twilight mutters. "Yes, which is why I intend for you and your friends to use the Elements of Harmony and destroy the creature." "Sister, are you sure that is wise?" A voice calls out from the shadows. "Yes, and it is the only way." Luna emerges from the shadows. "Sister, we may be getting in over our heads. From what I have gathered from witnesses, there were two distinctly different aliens when the craft first opened. I fear that we may have just declared war on a inter-species alliance. "Luna, we are two of the most powerful beings in the world." "Yes, but the aliens' weapons are far more powerful then our own, their species probably have gone though decades if not centuries of war." "That may be true, but the Elements of Harmony will destroy all evil." Celestia said confidant. "Now girls, get the elements and be ready." Twilight and her friends don the Elements of Harmony and wait. 0o0o0 Crawfish approaches the massive wooden doors, that blocked him from his goal. "Wood, really? Guess they never expected a spartan." With a swift punch he created a hole in the door, and after a few more blows the door was almost entirely gone, triumphant Crawfish enters the building. When suddenly a yellow aura surrounds him. "Now girls!" A voice shouts, and a few seconds later the six ponies from the crash site were around him, and the jewelry they were wearing was beginning to glow, however without warning they stopped and a mechanical voice could be heard. "Reclaimer detected." Suddenly the pieces of jewelry flew off of the ponies and began to circle Crawfish. "Reclaimer, state your purpose." "I am here under the order of the monitor 259 Translucent Flame." Crawfish states. "W-what's going on?" Muttered Celestia. "Foolish ponies, there is an entire galaxy out there filled with religious zealots, terrorists, and parasites, but Humanity conquered them all." Crawfish begins charging his shields. "I told you so." Luna says slipping back into the shadows. "I will give you one chance release me, or else!" "Or else what?" Asks Celestia. "Or else I will do this." Crawfish overloads his shields causing a bolt of electricity to shoot though the beam of magic and right into Celestia, knocking her back. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight shouts as she runs towards her teacher. "Take me back to the monitor." Crawfish says to the Elements of Harmony. "As you wish reclaimer." The elements begin to circle Crawfish faster and faster. "I will not let you leave!" Shouts Twilight as she runs towards Crawfish horn glowing. "Twilight, no!" Shouts Celestia, as Twilight enters the circle of elements. Moments later there is a flash of light and there is no sign of Crawfish, Twilight, or the elements. 0o0o0 "Aw, Reclaimer I am filled with joy to see you not dead, and you brought one of the experiments, do not worry the sentinels will take care of her." Flame says as Crawfish, and Twilight appear in the main hub of the complex. "Thank you monitor." Crawfish says as sentinels pour in and restrain Twilight with their energy beams. "W-w-what is all this?" Stammers Twilight. "This is science installation 047, where your ancestors were created by my creators, the Forerunners." Flame says as the Elements of Harmony begin to stop circling Crawfish. "Monitor, why have you requested us?" Asks the Elements of Harmony. "It is time to open the stasis pod." "Yes, monitor." The elements begin to float slowly towards the stasis chamber. "Come, Reclaimer, I may need protection." Flame begins to follow the elements. "What about the pony?" Crawfish opens a video link to the Bayou. "I suppose we can bring her to." Flame says as the crew of the Bayou crowd around the screen trying to watch what was unfolding. "Yes, monitor." The sentinels say as they fall in line with Crawfish. "So, Flame. What do you think is in that pod?" Asks Crawfish. "Like I told you, my memory pertaining to the pod's occupant is corrupted, it could be anything." Flame says as the procession enters the stasis chamber. "Beginning transformation." The elements say as the begin to transform into cubes, and then slide into six holes spread around the stasis pod. "Here we go." Crawfish mutters as the pod opens with a hiss, and a figure falls out of the pod onto the hard metal floor. Crawfish rushes over and examines the body. "My god." He mutters. "What is it Reclaimer?" "It's a living Forerunner." The bridge of the Bayou begins to go crazy, as warning sirens go off. "Sir, multiple ships just exited slip space." Jessica says though the radio. "Can you get a positive ID?' Crawfish lifts up the Forerunner and carries t to the medical room next to the stasis room. "I have one, and you aren't going to like it." "Covies?" "Yes sir, three frigates, two cruisers, a carrier, and a capital ship." "can you get a name of the capitol ship?" Crawfish lays Forerunner down on a bed, while medical sentinels begins scanning it. "Its the "Devout Crusader." "Isn't that Vaht's brother's ship?" "Yes it is." Vaht growls. "Well, we're screwed." Crawfish takes off his helmet and sits down on one of the beds. Author's Note Well, things are looking bleak for our heroes, don't forget to comment, rate and favorite.
A Crawfish and his BayouIt was a new day for the captain of the UNSC stealth prowler "Bayou". His name was Crawfish, at least that's his codename his real name is classified to anyone who is not a member of the ONI brass. Crawfish is a fairly average human male, weighing 205 lbs, measuring 6'3", and a clean shaven beard. Today he was going to welcome the newest member of his crew. 0o0o0 Lieutenant Jessica Freeman was fresh out of the officers academy, as she walked towards the spaceport where her new assignment was stationed she gazed around her and she was reminded of the devastation that the Covenant did to Earth, rescuers digging though rubble, bulldozers clearing the streets, and bodies being lined up for identification. But she was not going to let the near destruction of her entire species get her down. As she entered the spaceport she was stopped by a marine. "Sorry ma'am no one is allowed into the hangers right now." Said the marine. "Oh, really. Then perhaps this will change your mind." She hands the marine a document stating that she is ONI, and that she could mess his day up if she wanted to. "Sorry ma'am, just head down the hallway and you will find the hangers." Jessica begins the walk towards the hangers. "So that's The Bayou." She says as she enters the hanger in which The Bayou was docked. With 26 Archer Missile pods, 4 50mm auto cannons, and the capability to launch a Shiva nuclear missile The Bayou is a force to be reckoned with weather by Covenant Loyalists, or Human Insurgents. "The captain is waiting for you on the bridge ma'am." Said a marine guarding the entrance ramp as Jessica entered the ship. 0o0o0 "Listen, I don't care if you are Colonel Ackerson's replacement, just get me a goddamned pepperoni pizza!" Crawfish shouts into the comms panel before, shutting it off. "Sir, Lieutenant Jessica Freeman, reporting for duty sir!" Jessica salutes. "At ease, Lieutenant." Crawfish turns around to face her. "I take it that you are Captain Crawfish." She said. "Lieutenant, I ain't no Captain. I'm just a spook." "A spook, sir?" "Someone who doesn't exist. Officially anyways." "Sir, how are you a spook?" "I got too good at my job, found a few of ONI's dirty little secrets, I ended up blackmailing them and they gave me this ship, a crew, and a few other things." "What kind of secrets, sir?" "Mostly, stuff about the SPARTAN-II program." An Elite comes up behind Jessica. "So you're the new recruit?" Asks the Elite. Jessica is frozen with fear. "Lieutenant meet Vaht 'Komtaree, our chief navigator." Vaht takes a seat at the nav console. "Um, hi Vaht." "The pleasure, is all mine." Vaht clicks his mandibles together. "Any other surprises, Captain?" Jessica asks. "Well, our chief engineer is a Huragok, and our weapons specialist is you." Crawfish turns on the engines. "A what sir?" "A floater, a jellyfish, an engineer." "Thank you sir." "Anytime, now get to your station Lieutenant and get ready for pre flight check list." "Yes sir." Jessica sits down at the weapons console. "Samantha, are all systems good to go?" An AI with the form of a teenage girl appears on a holo terminal, next to the captain's chair. "All systems are ready for take off. May I suggest that you actually tell the tower that you are about to take off, we would not like a repeat of last time." Said Samantha. "What happened last time?" Asked Jessica. "Nothing, all you need to know is that all of the orphans survived." "Barely." Murmurs Vaht. "Stow it Vaht." Crawfish radios the tower. "Tower this is UNSC vessel Bayou requesting permission for takeoff." "Bayou, this is tower you are cleared for take off at heading 04563." Responded the tower. "Alright, you heard 'em Sam." Said Crawfish. "Yes, sir." The ship slowly ascends, before the main engines kick in, and the ship is rocketed towards space. "Sam, show the Lieutenant, here to her quarters." Crawfish picks up a data pad. "Yes sir." Samantha appears on a holo terminal next to Jessica's station. "Alright, lead the way Sam." Jessica picks up the duffel bag, she brought on bored that no one noticed. "To reach your quarters, exit the bridge and enter the second door on the right." Sam returns to the holo terminal next to Crawfish. "Gee, thanks Sam." Jessica exits the bridge, and follows the corridor until she found her room. When she opened the door she was greeted with a floating half jellyfish, half machine creature so she did what anyone else would do in a situation like that, she screamed. "Don't worry Lieutenant, that's just Blasto he's the chief engineer." Said Crawfish over the loudspeaker. "You almost gave me a heart attack Blasto." Blasto floats out of Jessica's room and floats towards the engine room. Jessica drops her duffel, next to her bed and begins to unpack when the loudspeaker comes on again. "Attention all crew, we are about to enter slipspace, please report to your stations." "I don't even have time to fully unpack." Jessica sighs as she exits her room, and makes her way back to the bridge. "Vaht, are the coordinates set?" Asks Crawfish as Jessica enters the bridge. "Yes sir." Replies Vaht. "Good. Lieutenant take your seat and we can make the jump." Says Crawfish. "Yes sir." Jessica goes over to the weapons station and takes her seat. "Punch it Sam." Says Crawfish. "With pleasure sir." Says the AI as the Bayou enters slip space. 0o0o0 "Come on Spike, we're going to miss the meteor shower." Said Twilight Sparkle checking off the last item on her checklist. "I'm coming as fast as I can." Said Spike as he climbed down the stairs carrying ink pots, rolls of paper, and a telescope. "You know Spike, Rarity will be there." Said Twilight. "Rarity's going to be there?!" Spike rushes over to Twilight's side. "Yep, now let's go over and meet the girls." Twilight leads Spike out of the library, and towards an open field where her friends are waiting. "Jeez, Twilight you almost missed the meteor shower." Said Rainbow Dash as Twilight and Spike neared the group. "Well, I would have been here sooner, but Spike forgot where he put the ink wells." Said Twilight. "Look look look! It's starting!" Said Pinkie hoping up and down as Spike set up the telescope. "My, word have you ever seen such a marvelous sight." Said Rarity as the meteor shower began. 0o0o0 "Um, Vaht are you sure those coordinates are correct?" Asked Crawfish as looked at the planet that was supposed to be the grey wasteland of a planet that was Reach. "Why do you question my coordinates?" Asks Vaht. "Because unless we went back in time, I am looking at a planet that is not Reach." Said Crawfish. "Well how can you tell it's not Reach?" "Because it's not a grey wasteland!" Shouted Crawfish, Vaht looks up from his console. "Ah, I see your point." "Sam whats our location?" Asks Crawfish. "I don't know, it appears that there was an anomaly during the jump to slip space." Replies Sam as she gazes at the planet from the holo terminal, just as warning lights flash, and sirens sound. "Sam, what the hell is going on?!" Yells Crawfish. "It appears we that we are caught in a gravity well of some sort, we are being pulled towards the planet." Replies Sam. "Looks like ONI won't be getting their MJOLNIR back for awhile." Says Crawfish as an image of Blasto the head engineer appears on his data pad. "Oh no, if Blasto starts a video chat with Crawfish, you know it's bad." Moans Vaht. "What do you mean, the engines are disabled? You tuned them up right before we launched." Said Crawfish. "Vaht, are we in trouble?" Said Jessica. "More then likely, yes." He replied. "Alright guys, we are entering the atmosphere now, prepare for a crash landing!" Shouted Crawfish. 0o0o0 "Look at that one, no look at that one!" Pinkie bounced around pointing at all of the meteors. "Um, Twilight can I ask you a question?" Asked Applejack. "Well technically you just did but, sure go ahead." Replied Twilight. "Are these meteors supposed to look like they are about to come crashing down on us?" Asked Apple jack. "Why would you ask a question like that? Of course their not supposed too." Replied Twilight. "Well, one of them is heading right towards us!" Shouted Apple jack as a meteor flies right over their heads, and crashes a half mile away from them. "Whoa, Nelly! That was a big doozy, I wonder why my Pinkie sense didn't go off?" Said Pinkie. "We don't have time to wonder about that Pinkie, we have to investigate." Said Twilight as she began to walk over to the crater with the rest of her friends. "What is that thing?" Rainbow Dash, said as the group arrives at the crater, with a black ship in the center of it. "It's a space ship! I wonder if the aliens inside like cupcakes?" Shouts Pinkie. 0o0o0 "Is everyone alright?' Shouts Crawfish. "Nothing major." Replies Jessica. "Just some scrapes and bruises." Replies Vaht, as Blasto enters the bridge. "Glad to see that your okay, Blasto." Said Crawfish as he turned his attention to the holo terminal. "Sam whats the status of the ship?" "Engines are offline, and there are multiple hull breaches, but all other systems are online at the moment." Said Sam. "Crawfish, I have movement on the sensors!" Said Jessica. "Let me see." Sam appears at the holo terminal next to Jessica, and takes a look at the screen. "Sir, we have ponies."
First contact protocal be dammed"Say again Lieutenant" Crawfish walks over to Jessica's station. "We have ponies." "Don't you mean horses?" Asks Crawfish. "No, ponies. The life forms on the sensors are equine in origin, but are too large to be considered horses." Said Sam as she leaned towards the screen from the holo terminal. "Wait a second is that a horn?" Crawfish points to a section of the screen. "I believe so sir." Reply's Sam. "Great, so we got unicorns and ponies. What else could be out there?!" Crawfish shouts. "It looks like two of them have wings." Points out Vaht. "For the love of the Master Chief!" Crawfish yells. "They do not appear hostile sir." Said Sam. "Neither do Uggoy, but they can still kill a marine." Crawfish says as he walks out of the bridge. "Sir, where are you going?" Asks Jessica. "Follow me and see, you too Vaht." Says Crawfish as Jessica and Vaht follow Crawfish to the ship's armory. "Crawfish do you really think that ponies pose a threat?" Asked Vaht. "Vaht, the first human to die in the Human Covenant War was killed by an Engineer so don't tell me that ponies are harmless!" Crawfish begins to undress. "Woah! Put your pants back on sir." Says Jessica trying not to stare at the now naked body of Crawfish. "Sorry, Lieutenant but in order for me to put on my armor I gotta be naked." Crawfish pulls a body suit from a locker. "Sam is my armor repaired?" "Yes sir." Says Sam over the inter-comm. "Good. Alright suit me up Sam." Crawfish walks onto a platform, and raises his arms to his side as robot hands hold them in place. "W-whats going on?" Asks a startled Jessica. "You see Lieutenant, when ONI gave me this ship, they also made me into to something with the help of some augs."Says Crawfish as claws take pieces of armor from who knows where and begin wielding them to Crawfish's bodysuit. "Y-your,a Spartan." Says a bewildered Jessica. "A Spartan IV actually." Says Crawfish as his chest plate is bolted on. "Should I take a plasma repeater or an energy sword?" Asks Vaht trying to pick between the two. "Just bring both." Says Crawfish as he steps off the platform, and grabs an EOD helmet with a black visor from a locker. "Thanks." Vaht holsters the repeater on his back, while grabbing his helmet from his locker. "You ready?" Asks Crawfish as he puts on his Helmet. "Sure." Vaht closes his locker, and walks out of the armory towards the exit ramp. "Sir are you sure that this is wise?" Asks Jessica as Crawfish grabs a DMR from a weapons rack and follows Vaht. "Lieutenant, I have no idea." Crawfish exits the armory and follows Vaht towards the exit ramp. "Sam open the ramp." "Ramp opening" 0o0o0 "Oh Twilight look it's opening!" Exclaimed Pinkie as the ramp to the ship opened. "Nopony go near it." Says Twilight. "Twilight I am the toughest pony around, no alien is going to hurt me!" Rainbow Dash flies over to the entrance. "Come on you cruddy alien show me what you got!" Vaht walks down the ramp, with Crawfish in his black EOD armor next to him, seeing the pony challenging him he activates his energy sword and says "Blarg!" "Ahhhhhhhh!" Rainbow Dash screams ah she runs away from the ship and back to her friends "Did you see that thing try to eat me!" "Ain't no space alien going eat my friends!" Apple Jack charges at Vaht only for Crawfish to step in front, seeing no other option Apple Jack rears up and bucks Crawfish in the groin, however she did not know that Crawfish's armor could survive a fall from orbit, however before her hooves could make contact with the armor they hit an invisible wall, and were broken at the ankle. "Ahhhh, ma legs!" "Hold on Apple Jack!" Twilight begins charging up a telekinesis spell. "Sir, that pony's horn is glowing!' Points out Vaht. "It's charging up for an attack. Open fire!" Crawfish let's loose with his DMR wounding Twilight in the leg before she could fully charge up the spell. "Twilight! Now your in for it you overgrown tin can!" Rainbow rushes towards Crawfish who uses his DMR like a baseball bat and nails Rainbow in the face with the butt of the rifle, Rainbow crumples to the ground unconscious. "P-please don't hurt me." Flutter Shy slowly walks up to the entrance ramp. "Should we shoot it?" Asks Vaht. "Nope, it looks like a medic, Rules of Engagement dictates that we can't fire on a medic." Says Crawfish as Flutter Shy drags Apple jack off the ramp and back to the mouth of the crater. "Since when have I followed ROE?" Crawfish asks as Flutter Shy comes back and pulls Rainbow Dash's unconscious body out of the crater. "There was that one time." Says Vaht as the group of ponies slowly heads back to town for medical assistance. "Hey, I didn't know that 10-year old had a magnum." Replies Crawfish "Looks like they're gone, let's head back in they will likely be back." Crawfish and Vaht walk back into the ship and raise the entrance ramp. "What did you do?!" Screams Jessica as the two entered the bridge. "Let's see. I hit a home run, when that rainbow pony flew at me. I broke that orange pony's legs with my mind, and I shot that purple pony in the leg. Any questions?" Crawfish takes off his helmet only to get slapped by Jessica. "We just got out of a war with aliens! Now you want to start another!?" Jessica throws her hands up in the air. "Relax, they are ponies what's the worse that they could do?" 0o0o0 "Nurse Redheart! We need your help!" Spike shouts as the group enters Pony ville General Hospital with Pinkie carrying a bleeding Twilight, Rarity carrying an unconscious Rainbow Dash, and Flutter shy carrying an immobile Apple jack. "Oh, my word! What happened?" Asks Nurse Red Heart as she check the three wounded ponies. "It was those meany pants aliens!" Says Pinkie. "Those meany pants what?" Asks Nurse Redheart. "Aliens, their ship crashed. And they were like Blarg! And Rainbow Dash was like Ahhh! And then Apple jack was all Ahhhhh too, and thats what happened!" Says Pinkie. "Oooookay. Hey get three gurneys stat!" Shouts Nurse Red Heart, as three other nurses pushing gurneys arrive and take the three wounded ponies and load each on a gurney and ships Twilight off to surgery, Apple jack to X-ray, and Rainbow Dash to a Cat-Scan. "I'd better tell the princesses." Spike begins taking a letter. Dear, Princesses Celestia A few minutes ago an alien ship crashed outside of Pony ville, but when we went to investigate the ship the aliens attacked us, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Apple jack are all hurt with Twilight being the worst. Please send help. Love, Spike P.S, When are you going to tell me where you got my egg from? "Here we go." Spike breaths fire on the scroll sending it to Princess Celestia. 0o0o0 Celestia was enjoying something that she almost never had time to do, relaxing in bed. When a scroll dropped in front of her "A friendship report?" Celestia opens the scroll and reads it, as her eyes read over the letter she becomes more and more worried, until she could not take it anymore and shouted. "Guards!" "What is it your highness?!" Shining Armor, and three guards burst in. "Send all of the guards you can to Pony ville, I fear it is under attack from aliens." Says Celestia. "Aliens, your highness?" Asks Shining Armor. "Yes, aliens and they have already attacked your sister and her friends." "T-twily?!" Gasps Shining. "Yes, now go!" "Yes your highness." Shining runs off to alert his guards. "I pray that this is all a misunderstanding." Celestia steps onto a balcony and looks in the direction of Pony ville. 0o0o0 "Uh, Crawfish you might wanna take a look at this." Says Jessica looking at the sensor panels. "What is it, Lieutenant?" Crawfish walks over to her. "I have eyes on 150 plus armored ponies heading right for us." Jessica says. "Well then I better go out and greet them." Crawfish walks out of the bridge. "Vaht, Blasto be on your toes and stay here." "Yes sir." Says Vaht as Blasto raises a tentacle in salute. "Your going out there unarmed?!" Says Jessica as Crawfish approaches the ramp. "I got a combat knife in a magnetic sheath, but other then that I have no weapons." Crawfish opens the ramp. "Sam when I am off the ramp, seal it." "Yes sir." Says Sam. "Alright here we go." Crawfish walks down the exit ramp, his black EOD armor ready for combat, when he steps onto solid ground the ramp seals shut behind him. When he reaches the top of the crater he can see the over 150 guards in front of him. "By order of Princess Celestia surrender!" Shouts Shining Armor, as several of the guards begin to have second thoughts about going up against aliens. "How about no!" Crawfish shouts back, making several guards wonder how he speaks the same language as them. "So be it! Alpha and Beta teams attack!" Shining Armor shouts as 60 ponies break file and charge. "Hostiles detected!" Crawfish gets into a fighting stance, just as the first guard reaches him spear drawn. Crawfish grabs the spear breaks it in two and proceeds to break the guard's jaw with a single punch. More guards charge him, Crawfish is a flurry as he delivers punches and kicks at incredible speeds. After seven minutes 75 guard lay unconscious, several others dead, however the battle has strained Crawfish as he drops from exhaustion, the last thing he sees before slipping into unconsciousness is Shining armor looking over him. 0o0o0 As Crawfish awakes he realizes that his hands are bound, however he manages to break the rope easily. "Where the hell am I?" Crawfish looks around his surroundings that appear to be a dungeon. "Great, a dungeon, what could possibly happen now!?" The door to his cell opens, Crawfish quickly puts his hands back behind him so that his captors can't tell that he broke his bounds. As he looks towards the door, he sees a large white Alicorn walk in with three guards and Shining Armor escorting her. "Who are you?" She asks. "Your mother!" Crawfish replies. "Show some respect towards the princess!" Shining fires a bolt of electricity at Crawfish. "Is that the best you got?" Crawfish says as his armor absorbs the electricity giving him an over shield. "Next question." Celestia is not phased by Shining Armor's attack. "What are you?" "I am a demon, and not the kind of demon that was drafted into the Navy at six years old and replaced by clones, that died a year later. If that's what your thinking." Says Crawfish replacing the word spartan with the Covenant's nickname for Spartans. "This is pointless, we will return later and maybe then you will be more willing to talk." Celestia and the guards leave shutting the door behind them. "Crawfish come in." Crawfish's helmet filled with sound as Sam radioed him. "Crawfish here, go ahead." Crawfish replies. "Sir, where are you?" "Hell if I know Sam, but I think I am at some sort of castle since I am in a dungeon." Crawfish says as something catches his eye. "Sir, the ponies have formed a barricade around the crater, and we only have so much food left." Says Sam. "It's okay Sam, I am going to get to you." Crawfish kneels down in the corner using his helmet's zoom feature to reveal that what caught his eye was a glowing symbol carved into the rock. "Sam what the hell am I looking at?" Crawfish turns on his helmet's camera and begins sending photos to the Bayou. "Hold on, it appears that ONI has a reference to the symbol, however it is in Dr.Halsey's files." "Halsey." Crawfish murmurs her name, and feels a bit of guilt. Halsey might have only worked on the SPARTAN-II project but to the SPARTAN-IVs she was the mother of all SPARTANS, the only SPARTANS to not treat her as a mother were the SPARTAN-IIIs for which the 2's and the 4's hated them for it. "Open it Sam." "Alright, it appears to be the Forerunner symbol for Reclaimer." "Forerunner huh." Crawfish had learned a good deal about the Forerunners a few months back after hacking into ONI's database for the fifth time that week. Crawfish places his hand on the symbol, which begins to glow brighter until it disappeared into the rock, moments later a door appeared in the wall, Crawfish seeing no other option walked though the door.
Could this day get any worse?As Crawfish walked down the dark staircase, he felt a sudden feeling of regret about the killings of the guards. "I know what your thinking about." Samantha chimed in though the radio. "You did what you were trained to do." "Sam, this is the third time you gave me this speech.and as usual it does not help." The walls around Crawfish begin to lose stone, and become a shiny metal. "Well, I am just trying to make you feel better." "I know, at least you can take pride in one thing." "What is that, sir?" "You're better at lifting my spirits than BB." Crawfish chuckles. "Please don't bring up Black Box." "Why, do you and BB have something going on? Not that its possible or anything." "Well you see. Black Box and I experimented and the result was the A.I Discord." "Wait a second. Discord was an out of control A.I that crashed a Halcyon class cruiser, into a covie super carrier. How could Discord be the outcome?" "You know how A.Is can fragment, right?" "Of course." "Well, Black Box produced a fragment, I produced a fragment, and we combined the two." Samantha said, blushing as only an A.I can, by turning her entire body red. "So you are the first A.I ever to get pregnant basically?" "No, Discord was never in my system." "Yes but, a baby is one half of his father, and one half of his mother, and seeing that BB is a blue box." "A blue cube." Samantha blurts out. "Could you please not correct me Sam? Now as I was saying, since you are the only female in that exchange, you are classified as the mother, you got that?" "Yes, sir. Now could we please stop talking about BB?" "Alright, fine with me. Sam can you get the Lieutenant, or Vaht on the radio?" "Of course captain." The radio goes silent as Samantha cuts the connection to Crawfish's helmet, seconds before Vaht opens a channel of his own. "Vaht whats the situation, back at the ship?" "No good, the locals may not have basic firearms, but they can still hurt us!" A massive thump can be heard. "Vaht, what was that?" "Blasto, says that the locals are hurling boulders at us." "Just hold out, maybe shoot a few of them, hell shoot off a few of the missiles if you have to, but do not let those ponies get on my ship." "Yes sir!" "Alright, the tunnel is widening out a little. I am going to lose you when I enter." "See you later, sir." Vaht cuts the connection. "Alright now, lets see what we have here." Crawfish walks into the cavern, when suddenly the whole cavern fills with blinding light, luckily the visor on Crawfish's helmet is polarized. "Ah, a reclaimer wonderful!" A voice with what appears to be Irish accent chimes. "Who's there!" Crawfish shouts as he draws his knife, as a monitor floats down from the rafters. "Stow your weapon reclaimer, I am 259 Translucent Flame, at your service." "Whats a monitor doing here?" Crawfish sheaths his knife. "I was appointed to watch over this science facility when the order to fire the Halo Array was given." "So you have just been waiting here all this time?" "Of course, it does get quite boring though, the sentinels do not make good conversation, so I mostly just watch the experiments." "What experiments?" "Oh, I am sure that you have already met them." "The ponies?" "Yes, you see the ponies were in their original form horses brought over from your home planet, and after a little crossbreeding, and some genetic alteration, you get the four breeds of pony. Earth pony, Pegasus, Unicorn, and Alicorn. Now the Alicorns are a special case because, they were originally created as weapons against the Flood." "Who would make ponies a weapon against the Flood?" "The only Forerunner opposed to the Halo Array; the Didact." "The Didact, of course! Why didn't I think of that. Quick question, who is the Didact?" "He was the supreme commander of the Forerunner military." "And he opposed the creation of the Halos?" "Yes, he believed them to be a sin beyond measure." "Thank you Flame." "Anytime Reclaimer. Now if you could please follow me." Flame begins floating off. "Hey, wait up!" Crawfish runs after Flame, who leads him to a room with a single glass pod in the center. "What is this place?" "The stasis chamber for this facility." "Whats in the pod?" Crawfish points towards the pod. "I can't quite remember, I think some of my memory is corrupted. However, I will open the pod and we can both find out, but to open it I need six keys, that the ponies currently have possession of. The ponies call them, The Elements of Harmony. Quite an odd name, but the ponies are an odd race. Now if you will follow me to the armory we can arm you, because the keys are tightly guarded." Flame floats out of the chamber with Crawfish in tow. "So, what made the forerunners create the ponies?" Asked Crawfish. "Well, it all started back when the Forerunners were at war with Humanity, and their allies the San'Shyuum. At the end of the war when Humanity was devolved, we needed a way to make sure you did not try to take to the stars again, so we engineered the ponies, and released them back on Earth, but they did not follow orders, and they were captured and brought back here, but not before Humans could create legends around them." Flame opens a door leading to the armory. "Jeez, I thought it was only you and some Sentinels?" Crawfish says gazing upon rows of Forerunner weapons. "This armory is actually a new addition, because a few hundred thousand years ago the ponies, rebelled and we had to bring in many Prometheans, to quell the rebellion and when the warriors left, they forgot their weapons. SO feel free to take anything that you wish." "Thanks maybe I will." Crawfish starts browsing the arms before settling on a Light Rifle, and a Suppressor. "Reclaimer, you do not know how thankful I am that you are helping me, now enter the portal at the far end of the armory and you should be transported to an empty building a few miles from where the keys are." Crawfish nods and walks over to the portal before jumping in. 0o0o0 "I do not understand, why you need me to deal with an alien?" Candace asks as she is escorted down to the dungeon, by Celestia, Shining Armor, and a trio of guards. "The reason I need you to talk to the alien is because, you are the only one of us who seems the least threatening, I mean your pink." Shining states. "Gee, thanks dear I will remember that in bed." Candace rolls her eyes, as they approach the cell that was formerly inhabited by Crawfish. "Now Candace this alien is blood thirsty, so don't hesitate to use force if-." Celestia begins saying only to be interrupted by Shining Armor. "The alien has escaped! Lock the palace down!" "Oh, no. How could this day get any worse?" Moaned Celestia. "Um, Aunt Celestia don't you have that meeting with the Griffon Empresses today?" "Candace don't remind me." Celestia rubs her face. "Guards tell Blue blood that he will be meeting with the Griffon Empress, and somepony get me a doughnut!" (A/N: Well it looks lite our good friend Tia, is losing it, so see you guys next time, don't forget to thumb up, favorite and comment.)
You just has to say that didn't you"This is spartan W232 to Bayou, do you read?" Crawfish said as he looks though a window in a abandoned building at the building that houses the Elements of Harmony. "This is Bayou, go ahead." Vaht responds over the radio. "Bayou be advised I have made contact, with Forerunner monitor, repeat I have made contact with Forerunner monitor." "Great, when the Forerunners are involved the Covenant are bound to be close." "Yeah, lets just hope they don't visit this planet while we are still on it. Also, I am about to attempt to acquire six keys that are currently in the pony's possession, by request of the monitor. "That's a big risk, running errands for a monitor." "I know, but what other choices do we have? Besides it might be able to help us repair the ship." "Possibly, listen just be careful for all of our sakes." "Got it. See ya later." "You to." Vaht closes the comm channel. "Now let's see what we have." Crawfish peers though the window just in time to see a carriage pull up the building that he was watching and deposit the six ponies that he fought at the crash sight, but slightly different. The orange one was in a wheel chair, the purple one walked with a limp, and the blue one had a bandage all around the top of her head. "Great, those six again, well time to show them what a spartan can do." Crawfish backs up and charges destroying the wall, and making the ground where he landed crack. Ponies gasped and ran as they saw this six foot tall, armor suited, bipedal alien running towards the royal palace. 0o0o0 5 Minutes Earlier "Twilight, I don't see why, I have to sit in this gosh darned, wheel chair." Complained Apple Jack as the carriage they were riding in neared the building that housed the six Elements of Harmony. "Relax Apple Jack, at least you don't have any permanent injuries." Twilight sighed thinking about how the doctors told her that she would probably walk with a limp for the rest of her life, because of where the bullets hit her leg. "Your right, Twilight I just feel helpless in this chair." The carriage stops. "Well, I do hope we never see that ruffian ever again." Says Rarity as she steps out of the carriage. "Um Rarity, it wasn't the alien's fault." Murmured Flutter shy. "What?! Did you see what it did to use!" Rainbow Dash yells. "But." Flutter shy says before being cut off by Rainbow Dash. "But nothing, that alien is a no good piece of manure!" Rainbow Dash yells at Flutter shy causing her to cry. "Rainbow! Look at what you did!" Twilight tells Rainbow as Rarity and Pinkie try to consul Flutter shy. "Um Twilight, whats that down the street?" Apple Jack points to a dust cloud at the other end of the street. "I don't know, but I don't like it. Let's get inside." Twilight and several guards ushered in the rest of the mares before entering the building themselves, closing and barring the doors, but not before Twilight caught a ellipse of Crawfish running towards them. "Twilight Sparkle!" A regal voice calls out. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaims as she runs towards the voice that she recognizes as Princesses Celestia. "Yes Twilight. I have called you and your friends here because Equestria faces the greatest threat it has ever seen. "The alien." Twilight mutters. "Yes, which is why I intend for you and your friends to use the Elements of Harmony and destroy the creature." "Sister, are you sure that is wise?" A voice calls out from the shadows. "Yes, and it is the only way." Luna emerges from the shadows. "Sister, we may be getting in over our heads. From what I have gathered from witnesses, there were two distinctly different aliens when the craft first opened. I fear that we may have just declared war on a inter-species alliance. "Luna, we are two of the most powerful beings in the world." "Yes, but the aliens' weapons are far more powerful then our own, their species probably have gone though decades if not centuries of war." "That may be true, but the Elements of Harmony will destroy all evil." Celestia said confidant. "Now girls, get the elements and be ready." Twilight and her friends don the Elements of Harmony and wait. 0o0o0 Crawfish approaches the massive wooden doors, that blocked him from his goal. "Wood, really? Guess they never expected a spartan." With a swift punch he created a hole in the door, and after a few more blows the door was almost entirely gone, triumphant Crawfish enters the building. When suddenly a yellow aura surrounds him. "Now girls!" A voice shouts, and a few seconds later the six ponies from the crash site were around him, and the jewelry they were wearing was beginning to glow, however without warning they stopped and a mechanical voice could be heard. "Reclaimer detected." Suddenly the pieces of jewelry flew off of the ponies and began to circle Crawfish. "Reclaimer, state your purpose." "I am here under the order of the monitor 259 Translucent Flame." Crawfish states. "W-what's going on?" Muttered Celestia. "Foolish ponies, there is an entire galaxy out there filled with religious zealots, terrorists, and parasites, but Humanity conquered them all." Crawfish begins charging his shields. "I told you so." Luna says slipping back into the shadows. "I will give you one chance release me, or else!" "Or else what?" Asks Celestia. "Or else I will do this." Crawfish overloads his shields causing a bolt of electricity to shoot though the beam of magic and right into Celestia, knocking her back. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight shouts as she runs towards her teacher. "Take me back to the monitor." Crawfish says to the Elements of Harmony. "As you wish reclaimer." The elements begin to circle Crawfish faster and faster. "I will not let you leave!" Shouts Twilight as she runs towards Crawfish horn glowing. "Twilight, no!" Shouts Celestia, as Twilight enters the circle of elements. Moments later there is a flash of light and there is no sign of Crawfish, Twilight, or the elements. 0o0o0 "Aw, Reclaimer I am filled with joy to see you not dead, and you brought one of the experiments, do not worry the sentinels will take care of her." Flame says as Crawfish, and Twilight appear in the main hub of the complex. "Thank you monitor." Crawfish says as sentinels pour in and restrain Twilight with their energy beams. "W-w-what is all this?" Stammers Twilight. "This is science installation 047, where your ancestors were created by my creators, the Forerunners." Flame says as the Elements of Harmony begin to stop circling Crawfish. "Monitor, why have you requested us?" Asks the Elements of Harmony. "It is time to open the stasis pod." "Yes, monitor." The elements begin to float slowly towards the stasis chamber. "Come, Reclaimer, I may need protection." Flame begins to follow the elements. "What about the pony?" Crawfish opens a video link to the Bayou. "I suppose we can bring her to." Flame says as the crew of the Bayou crowd around the screen trying to watch what was unfolding. "Yes, monitor." The sentinels say as they fall in line with Crawfish. "So, Flame. What do you think is in that pod?" Asks Crawfish. "Like I told you, my memory pertaining to the pod's occupant is corrupted, it could be anything." Flame says as the procession enters the stasis chamber. "Beginning transformation." The elements say as the begin to transform into cubes, and then slide into six holes spread around the stasis pod. "Here we go." Crawfish mutters as the pod opens with a hiss, and a figure falls out of the pod onto the hard metal floor. Crawfish rushes over and examines the body. "My god." He mutters. "What is it Reclaimer?" "It's a living Forerunner." The bridge of the Bayou begins to go crazy, as warning sirens go off. "Sir, multiple ships just exited slip space." Jessica says though the radio. "Can you get a positive ID?' Crawfish lifts up the Forerunner and carries t to the medical room next to the stasis room. "I have one, and you aren't going to like it." "Covies?" "Yes sir, three frigates, two cruisers, a carrier, and a capital ship." "can you get a name of the capitol ship?" Crawfish lays Forerunner down on a bed, while medical sentinels begins scanning it. "Its the "Devout Crusader." "Isn't that Vaht's brother's ship?" "Yes it is." Vaht growls. "Well, we're screwed." Crawfish takes off his helmet and sits down on one of the beds. Author's Note Well, things are looking bleak for our heroes, don't forget to comment, rate and favorite.
