MLP Halo: The Equestrian Event...

CH2

XXXXX

All in a day's work...

XXXXX

Carl had never really known much about ponies, but seeing as how a hundred or so of them were looking at him, he'd probably say that they were shocked and a bit angry if not scared. And the lavender pony he had on his shoulders was any indication; he was in a bit of trouble, so he just decided to take a few steps away. He could see that things weren't going to go well if the ponies decided to crush him under sheer weight.

The lavender pony was yelling something, he noticed that his EVA field functions were still active, he hated manual changes, but he activated Planetary Functions and then disabled his auditory mufflers. He then found out that his mind wasn't playing tricks on him, the pony could talk, and it could pretty much be very angry. The lavender pony's voice sounded high pitched, female, and frustrated.

"I don't know what this thing wants, but it has me hog tied and it's very fast!"

Carl watched as 5 ponies from the crowd moved forwards with worried looks on their faces, one seemed to edge carefully around him, and the others just waited and watched, it was then he watched as the cyan Pegasus with the rainbow mane yell out.

"Okay bub, no big alien takes our friend and gets away with it!"

In a flash Carl watched in slow motion as a blue blur ran at him at high speeds, he was amazed that a being like that could survive shooting off at that kind of speeds without deafening themselves from the rush. He was also surprised that the Pegasus could even move that fast without using a gravity drive.

Needless to say, he decided to just move aside and watch as the Pegasus shot past and halt from the movements of the Spartan. Carl didn't know whether or not to take things seriously; these were ponies for crying out loud. On top of which, ponies that could talk and react, he did know that harming other sentient life was probably not the best of ideas, especially if that life happened to be rather primitive. Carl watched as the next pony threw a lasso at him, the thing caught his arm, but the pony who threw it couldn't manage to tie him down.

He watched as 4 others joined the cowboy like pony and pulled on the rope, he felt his arm jerk slightly from the combined effort of the ponies, but he decided to just jerk his arm back. The 4 ponies were flung forwards into the ground, the rest of the population just facehoofing at the disaster.

He just stared and wondered what these ponies were doing, he didn't have long to wait as he was suddenly attacked by a pink fluffy pony with a scary type of smile, he was taken aback from being scared by the pony and it seemed to just smile and say.

"Hello? Anyone home?" The pony tapped on his helmet.

Carl didn't know what seemed off, the fact that a pony managed to get on his head and was now tapping on it or the fact that the pony was actually not afraid of him. She rolled off his head and landed in front of his feet on all four hooves and said.

"Hey are you new here? Why are you blue? How is it like being made of metal? Blah, blah, blah..." The pink pony was muffled out as Carl couldn't be bothered listening to the pink being who was now speaking at a few hundred words a minute, and he really didn't know why she was so captivating with her voice.

He then noticed that his suit was a few pounds lighter than it had been earlier, and then he checked as he found that there were ropes on his back, but the pony had escaped. He turned about to see that the lavender pony had brought out something very heavy; it looked like a giant cup, probably someone's water tank. The lavender pony levitated it and dropped it on top of him with a loud 'CLANG'.

His view was suddenly dark, until he turned on his helmet lights, the inside of this large metal tank seemed made of sheet iron, which in truth wasn't strong enough to hold him. But it wasn't like they could actually trap him, but he'd like to see what was going to happen, besides better let them feel safe rather than scaring the living daylights out of them by ripping his way out from the thick iron cup. He would wait these curious creatures out, unless they proved hostile, then he'll remain where he was.

XXXXX

With a heavy THUD, Twilight watched in relief that she had no longer needed to fear the armoured bipedal giant which had taken her hostage, she was just so tired from the whole ordeal. She watched as the others quickly rushed to her side, Applejack leading the way to her with her friends, she hugged them as they arrived by her side.

"Twilight, we were so worried, that thing didn't hurt ya did it?" Applejack asked.

"No. It just tied me up and ran through the forest." She replied with some relief.

"That sounds traumatic!" The white unicorn named Rarity exclaimed.

"Not really, it didn't know about my teleportation ability, I'm just lucky that it ran in this direction." Twilight said.

"Well, least it won't be harming anyone else." Applejack said pointing her hoof at the tank.

Rainbow Dash arrived rubbing her legs. "Ow, anyone get a licence plate on that carriage?"

"Yeah, and that carriage is now safely stuck behind that." AJ pointed at the tank again.

"Oh, well at least I could have take it on, but that thing is fast." Dash commented.

They nodded in agreement and decided to just rest upon it, Twilight asked. "Does anyone know who could send a message to Canterlot as soon as possible, Spike's out like a light and I don't want to bother him."

There was a bit of a rustle as they found their pony to get going, the grey and blonde haired Pegasus arrived, her flank with the few bubbles and awkward eyes.

"You need something, muffin?" She asked.

"Um, Ditzy could you send out a message for me to Canterlot, you have direct access to the princess so it would be helpful." Twilight said.

"Sure thing..." The Pegasus replied.

Twilight took a moment to get a message written up and prepared and then she gave it to the postal Pegasus and then watched as the grey pony flew off into the direction of the capital. They'd receive a message by the morning, or maybe the princess would send some help. Twilight and the others finished with their talks with everypony else about what the massive bipedal being was and gave sufficient explanation of what happened.

When they were finished, some of the others were left to guard the mysterious being, meanwhile Twilight decided to get some rest, the night was long and she had rather fancy a bit of rest. Hopping along, she headed back to the library and then into bed. She found that Spike was still in his bed snoring away, she headed to bed and then just hit the hay, but she had this itching feeling that he beast in the tank let her capture it.

XXXXX

"Celia status report!" Commander Thomas asked.

"Nothing good if that's what you want to know, the UCAF didn't make these damned frigates to last being shot to pieces like that, or being shoved so damned abruptly. We've taken external damage across the lower hull, but nothing had been compromised, all the internal plating is holding well, we're getting reports from the damage teams." She said materialising on the table.

"Good, that's a start, anything from Carl?" Thomas asked.

"No sir, Carl's signal went as soon as we hit the atmosphere, all I can say is that his frame had crashed about 200kms in any direction." She replied with a mumble.

"Okay, looks like a search and rescue and a repair operation." Thomas said with annoyance.

"Let's just hope that he hasn't gotten into any trouble." Celia added.

"You should probably worry about the trouble, because you know about Carl, he knows how to deal with trouble." Thomas said calmly amongst the chaos of his ship.

XXXXX

Carl spent the next 6 hours waiting before he had heard the ponies outside begin to move from their position, he had found that they were busy doing something else than guard. He observed his situation, stuck in a water tank with a means of escape, suit's functionality was optimal, and his guns and ammo sufficient, and he had an objective, getting back to UCAF territory. He sighed, and decided to reflect on some things of his life, he was one who took orders and did them, and he knew how to get them done. Other times he acted rather indifferently. He worked about the whole situation; he knew that the leader of these sentient ponies would most likely wish to see him, if they had one.

Or they might decide to kill him, but that's what most hostile primitive races would do, he knew that these beings were probably not warriors and they didn't really fit that sort of a role, also they seemed to lack the armour and technology to do so, unless they had some nukes stashed away. He listened in as the noise increased, he could hear chatter increase and the ponies outside shuffling over to the water tank jail that was above him.

The screeching of metal and soon there was a neat cut hole in the side, a voice somewhat feminine and yet inquisitive asked.

"You inside, can you understand us?"

He held his silence and found that if he answered, then it was either an interrogation or a simple question. He made his decision; he picked himself up and answered.

"Yes."

It took a few shouts from the outside and some talking before the pony returned to ask.

"Who are you and why did you attack one of our friends."

"I believed that your friend was strange and oddly unique, and she was following me, and my training kicked in to remove such possible threats, so I decided that she would tell me why she was chasing me." He replied.

"That doesn't answer who you are." The voice probed once more.

"That's because I won't answer to someone who doesn't show their face, and I won't respond very well to interrogation." Carl said clearly.

"Well we'd like to move this thing, but it's rather heavy." The voice said.

"Very well I'll just do it." Carl said moving over to the rim of the metal tank, he couldn't hear the surprise from the pony who had been talking to him, but it didn't take long as he lifted the rim up and then pulled upwards. The whole tank was lifted as though it was nothing to him, it would weight about a ton, but he could easily do this.

The whole thing lifted up and he was soon in the presence of the whole town, he just showed them it and said. "You know I could have just done this the whole time before right?"

The only pony within range of the metal tank was the purple mare he had run across the day before; she had brought out some questions on a note pad and was quivering in fear as he dropped the tank down to the ground. He looked at her and said.

"You were saying something about asking questions?"

Before he could react, he was tossed to the ground by an invisible force, he didn't know what it was, but it felt like someone just laid a whole warthog on his chest and made sure that he couldn't move. The ponies within range of him had moved away and he could register another energy source, this time much more powerful, it was as if someone had gotten a dozen gravity hammers and were pushing them all onto his chest.

"Okay, so it seems that you don't really need much physical force to hold me down." He said as he lay on the dirt floor.

It was then a regal voice answered him. "No it would not. And it seems as though you require physical forces more than we do stranger."

The voice he could hear was like silk upon water, he didn't know what could make it sound like that, but his posture slightly relaxed as though in a trance. His neural synaptic relays kicked into motion and soon he got back full control, the being was using some sort of hypnotic messages through her voice. And he could hear those voices, he moved about uncomfortably and looked over to where the being was, he watched as the shadow fell over to him, a rainbow mane moved in the non-existent wind, she had a smile that could calm a tide of sorrow and looked as majestic as any being he had encountered since the rise of the Inheritor.

"Who are you?" She asked with a clam and soothing tone.

"I am Lieutenant Carl-2011, Spartan Alpha, UCAF Naval Spec Ops." He replied to the being.

"Good, I am Princess Celestia of Equestria, the lands to which you are present within. I am sorry that I had Shining Armour bind you to the ground, it was a necessary precaution." She stated gesturing to the armoured guard in purple with a star engraved shield on the front of the breast plate.

"I would like to be able to stand up, I swear on my oath as a soldier for the alliance to uphold my honour as a sentient not to attack should I be released." He said.

The princess didn't really trust the being, seeing as she had heard about how he had ponynapped Twilight and then ran about the town terrorising the whole population. And now of this show of physical force, the being was finally pinned to the ground, by most of Shining's magical grasp. The captain of her guard asked.

"Princess, should I release him?"

The being seemed to grunt with effort as it said.

"You know I think that it might be prudent if we could talk properly." Carl said testing the magical strength of Shining by attempting to push against the magical anvil. Shining poured more magic into his hold on Carl, but it was slowly taking a toll.

She had her reservations about the Spartan, but she didn't want the Spartan from doing anything dangerous, also because Shining was starting to wear, but it seemed rather sure that he'd keep his hands from harming anypony. She left out a sigh and then motioned to Shining and said. "Release him."

Shining looked at her questioning if this was such a smart thing, but he released if not hesitantly. The human didn't take long as it jumped up in a forward flip and looked at her, its strange face scan her, the silver visor scrutinised her and then said.

"Greeting princess, I apologise if that my appearance here might have startled you, but it was necessary that I assess my situation before acting, and thus I captured your student here without intention." Carl said respectfully but also cautiously.

The princess replied.

"Thank you for clarifying that, and I would like to welcome you to Equestria Carl."

Pinkie arrived and said.

"Yay, now we have a new friend to add to the list! And can someone please get me an invite to their Xbox live? Its P1NK13..." No one bothered to listen to the pink party mare's crazed rant.

XXXXXX

It took about a few hours to get things cleared up in the library, which seemed rather cramped for the Spartan, he was almost 3 times their size, he just got through the doorway and got into the room, he sat down and watched the ponies get him things, he looked at a cup that was now present in front of him and the many objects strewn about.

The Princess had asked for Princess Luna, a princess of the night as he was told to arrive as well, she was present after arriving in a hurry, she teleported into town and scared most of the inhabitants of Ponyville, it was a funny scene for him, if not for the dozen or so guards in heavy dark armour arrive with the princess. At the moment he was just having an interview with the princesses.

The ponies in the room were just the six colourful creatures he encountered, and the few guards, and the captain of the guard who were waiting at every window and entrance in the library. Princess Celestia was across from him on a fold out table and Princess Luna had taken to sitting above him on Twilight's open bedroom floor.

He took his mind off things and observed his environment, the library wasn't like any others he had seen, old ones like the ones on Valence, but this seemed to be rather small and quaint, but he had no complaints about the design, it was organic and structurally sound. He just sat quietly as the ponies talked and the 'Alicorn' as he had learnt about was busily getting things sorted out, she brought out a scroll and said.

"Mr Carl-." She was about to begin when he interjected. "Just Carl."

She adjusted. Very well, Carl, I would like to know more about your unique situation, as of this moment, you are the first being to arrive on our world, and one of the most peculiar. Spike here, shall work as out scribe and record our discussion, this is merely to ensure our records are clear."

He looked at the small green scaled lizard which was a baby dragon from what he was told, the little green scaled creature looked at him nervously as he looked at him.

He turned back and asked. "Very well, where would you like to begin?"

Celestia cleared her throat and asked.

"What is your race?"

"I am human, or by my situation my class is super human."

She didn't deviate from her questions; she'd have Twilight to ask to inquire later.

"How did you arrive here?"

"My ship was struck by a blast of enemy fire and my commander ordered us to exit out FTL and re-enter real space, however in the process we were thrown forwards to the planet's gravity, when that occurred I landed here."

"Are there others like you on this world?"

"My ship crashed a fair distance off into the west, I do not know where they had gone, but they are here on the world with me."

"Are your people violent?"

"Yes, but only when we are required to be, in hostile situations we are required to fight."

"Interesting, do your people look as you do?" She asked.

"No, this is my armour and this is my suit, it is part of my existence as a soldier, or by your standard a warrior, I am not allowed to remove this suit, mostly because as long as I am inside I am safe from dangers of wildlife and possible threats."

"So you look different?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Would you be able to reveal to us what your look like?"

The ponies looked at him with curious eyes, except Pinkie Pie who was busy bumbling about with a tray of muffins. The elements of harmony were all present, and it seemed as though ponies were just as curious as the princess, even Shining Armour who was inside looked on in curiosity, the Spartan had a feeling the guard didn't trust him. Luna was quietly observing the Spartan from her perch.

He worked around his armour locks and detached his neck brace and then took his helmet off, he had been curious as to what the air smelt like or how the air flowed around him, he hadn't taken his suit off in years. When he took the helmet off the fresh air came inside, and the smell of muffins and ponies, which smelt odd, so he couldn't figure out why they smelt like soap and flowers.

The ponies were hushed, they could see his face, it was pale white and very odd, it was flat and slightly boxy, it had eyes, beady and green, the mane as they could figure was slightly spiky and heavy black. The face of the being made them gasp, Luna looked at Carl with intense curiosity, and Fluttershy looked as though she could just jump at him.

"So, none of you ever see a human before?" He asked.

"No, you're the first other being who's managed to come from the skies and talk to us like this." Celestia said.

"Well not being rude, but this is kind of new to me as well, never been on another world where there were actual beings that could speak which weren't as humanoid as others that I've seen, and also you're not trying to kill me, so that's also a little bit different." He said.

"What?"

"Nothing, you shouldn't need to worry about that little problem, let's just say that I'm happy to be in the presence of such a being like yourself." He said.

"Very well, would you like to continue with our discussion?"

XXXXX

They talked again, but this time with a more calm posture and attitude, the Equestrians asked about what the UCAF was and how it affected them as a race, Carl was keeping things from diving too far into the history of the human race, he asked an equal amount of questions and learnt a few things, the ponies history was nothing serious or even that significant, it seemed to have just a lot of peaceful years and a few cultural and social changes and governmental.

Carl had noticed that the Ponies had literally no conflict aside from random events, or minor confrontations between dragons and griffins and other odds and ends; he had exchanged a brief summary of the human race's wars in the past millennium to which the ponies seemed mortified about hearing about how long the human race had been fighting.

He didn't go into the details of the human/covenant war, but he skimmed over some of the records, Celestia could understand that Carl didn't wish to talk about much about the UCAF's war against the inevitable destruction at the hands of the covenant. But he did mention that there were dangers involved in space and wherever there was sentient life.

He also questioned a few things as to how Celestia and Luna raise the sun and the moon, it was odd, ponies with magic, this whole thing was surreal to say the least and it was very much confusing. Magic and forerunner quantum abilities were two very different things, and he needed to get a proper science team to check into this whole thing once he got back to the ship.

At the current moment in time, he was spending his day with the ponies of Ponyville, Celestia had allowed him to stay at the library or a place of his choosing for the few days, he had offers to stay at Applejack's Farm house, Bon Bon and Lyra had a spare room for him, and then there was Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Cheerilee who had wished to also offer a place for him to stay. He decided to go with staying at Twilight's Library, the thought about being stuck in some place strange didn't appeal to him. Even though being here was unfamiliar as well.

It didn't take long before Celestia finished her talk with Carl and headed off back to Canterlot, she had an important meeting with some officials and also some of the local guards about any strange sightings aside from Carl's crash into the dense thicket outside of Ponyville.

Carl remained at the library and helped around, the lavender unicorn had said it wasn't necessary, but he insisted and helped wherever he could, he sorted out the library in moments and helped out with dinner, but it wasn't really necessary as he had his own dinner to make.

"So, what do you eat?" Twilight asked.

"I've got a few ration packs; do you have any hot water?" He asked.

"Yes just in the kitchen, the pot is on the stove." She said.

He acknowledged and walked over to the stove and placed the water inside and then started the fire, he started it with a few chemical cubes, the insulated heating chemicals react as soon as the safety seal is torn, the coils started and the pot was boiling up in a few minutes.

He removed the pot from the stove and moved it to his side, Twilight had already begun to eat dinner with Spike when he had finished. He removed his rations of dinner, 3 packets, and 2 being the potatoes and gravy while the other was cooked and marinated beef with starch, the last was a packet of vegetables. Pouring the boiling water into each packet he prepared his meal in moments and then began to eat, the meal was warm thankfully for the early autumn weather.

The smell of meat caught the scent of Spike who asked.

"What is that smell? It smells kinda good."

"That's what you call beef, and it's a piece of meat from an animal that has been cut up and cooked, I'm just eating it with some other vegetables and soup." He replied.

Twilight's expression from listening in asked. "You're eating an animal?"

"Yes, that's why I mentioned that I was an omnivore along with most of the human race, I eat meat and vegetables and other things, meat is just a usual thing that most of us do eat, except those who have protein supplements or vitamin supplements, then that's different. But for those who do eat meat, well it's just the way it is." He said chewing up another piece of flesh.

The lavender unicorn knew that other animals ate other things, she just added that to her mental list and then turned away, she couldn't help but feel sort of curious from thinking about how ponies would react at the human eat the flesh of another being, she watched as Spike honestly didn't care but was intrigued by the food. He then proceeded to ask.

"What about other meats?"

Carl set down his food and said.

"Well, the human race has lived off many other creatures such as fish and poultry and so on and so forth, but the usual things we tend to consume are from cows." He said picking up where he left off.

Once the sounds of scraping metal and chomping continued, the baby dragon asked.

"So what does it taste like?"

"Warm chewy and rather mild, it's something you usually have for dinner so it's just the way it tastes." Carl said finishing off the last of his vegetables.

Twilight really prayed to Celestia that taking in the Spartan as her temporary house guest was a good idea. It wasn't long before they needed to hit the hay, Twilight went over to her bed, meanwhile the Spartan remained in his armour and lay down on the lower level with his suit on and a couple of sheets and a pillow, he made sure to keep an eye on things for the night.

XXXXXX

It was about midnight when there was a strange sound, Carl pretended to be asleep, and he could hear the whole world around him, even with his armour off, his auditory sensors made sweeps over his area and searched for what might have been making the noise. The sound was about 8 meters away, he could hear 3 individual beings, their voices were hard to ascertain, but they were close, they sounded way too much like grunts, but then again, this was a pony town, so it was possible it was either spec ops grunts or just some little kids getting themselves into a world of trouble.

As the feet got closer they reached his legs, one whispered. "See ah told ya it was asleep."

One poked his suit's legs and then moved to his hands. "Do you think aliens fall asleep?" One asked.

"Well we can see it now."

Carl knew better than to let the little ponies touch any of his sensitive gear and decided to give them a minor scare. He jumped up and said. "BOO"

The three little fillies screamed out aloud, it caught the attention of the whole neighbourhood and over to the other side of town and then they ran around through the room, it was then Twilight awoke to figure out what the hubbub was about and found 3 scared little fillies and one rather bemused human looking around.

XXXXX

"Look here girls, you can't just sneak in at night and then try to see if the alien had a cutie mark, as a matter of fact this alien is called a human, and no, they don't have cutie marks." Twilight said.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity were also present, along with Applejack who looked annoyed that her little sister crawled out of bed and went to see the alien with her own eyes. Rainbow was only there because Scootaloo was under her watch for that day and she didn't realise that the small filly could escape her sight so easily. Sweetie Belle was under the gaze of a very annoyed older sister who looked perturbed that her little sister managed to get herself into so much trouble.

"Sorry, we only wanted to see the Spartan." Sweetie Belle said.

Applebloom added. "An get our explorer cutie marks."

"Applebloom ya know better than this though, ah even said not to come here." Applejack warned.

"Yea, but we jus' wanna know." Applebloom was cut off.

Twilight then interrupted. "Well I think the girls have a good understanding of possible issues with going to see people they don't know. I think we should get them home; I need to sleep because princess Celestia said she'd return tomorrow to decide upon one few things. And staying up now isn't the best thing to do."

Rarity agreed. "Yes quite, I do require my beauty sleep. However that doesn't mean that any of you are off the 'hook'." She ended.

Dash said. "All of you are grounded for the next 2 days."

A series of AWWW's came from the ponies. "Now no grumbling, you three could have gotten into serious trouble if this wasn't a nice being from outer space, now say you're sorry to Twilight and let's get going."

They all apologised for bothering their sleep at night and headed off. Twilight wheeled around once she closed the door, she said to the Spartan. "So, why did you give the girls such a scare?"

"Just comical relief, besides I've had worse from grunts, they tend to shoot while running away. I'm sure that they learnt their lesson from this." He said.

"I'm sure that they have. Well goodnight." Twilight said heading to bed once again.

The Spartan smiled and dropped into his previous seat and quickly went into sub-sleep. (He doesn't sleep like others.)

XXXXX

Elsewhere…

"Ship master, we have picked up on the human's trail, the slip-space fields state that they headed through this region of space no longer than a cycle ago." A tactical officer announced.

"Good, we'll tail them to their hideaway, the covenant maybe broken, but we shall not relent against the humans. Prepare the vanguards." The Ship Master ordered.

XXXXX

AN: (2012) This was when I was playing Halo Reach and a going through all the wiki's on the Halo Universe to help me make the story and a few things from my more common Halo/ME fiction writing, it's quite common.

Also i am currently editing stuff in the story the original didn't have shining armour or Cadence or explained where Luna was or had a lot of things in it, i'm currently just revising things slowly. If anyone would like to take over for me that'd be appreciated.