From War to Peace

Chapters

First Contact
Questions and Answers
Of Dreams and Nightmares
The Only Easy Day...
Gods and Demons
The Ghosts that Linger
Strangers in Town
Touring the Town
Unwelcome Guests
Wanted Alive
Another Day in Paradise
Unexpected Plans

First Contact

First Contact
Ever free Forest, Equestria
6:30 A.M.

The first thing to register for me was cold. I snapped to attention and groaned as waves of electric pain surged through my sore body. Groaning, I looked around in my drop pod, grimly noting that if I ever let anybody adjust the drop trajectory ever again, it had better be for a pretty damn important reason. I popped the hatch to my pod and stepped out and stretched. “Well, that was painful,” I muttered to myself as I rubbed my back. I observed my environment. The early morning sunlight was shining through the trees of the thick forest. Various trees and flora ranged from small coniferous shrubs to what could be described as giant Redwoods covered in hard bark. I looked at the tree to notice a scar; chunks of wood and bark were removed from the pod’s impact. A frown creased on my face as memories from last night’s drop flooded my mind.

1:30 am Last night

“Mike, turn left, turn left.” Said Matt with an urgent voice as I tried to control the pod's descent. My hands flew over the control panel.

“Yeah, I’m trying, but the controls are locked up,” I yelled as I tried to move the now locked up controls.

Lane stood up and checked the computer terminal on the table. Contorting his face in conflict, Lane began to explain,” Well, the good news is that you are currently heading for a forest, the bad news is that your current descent vector is too steep, you’re gonna have to bounce off some trees to decelerate.” Lane continues to calculate the specific odds and trajectories.

I noticed Gunny tap Blake on the back of the head and began to complain. “Dammit, Blake, I told you not to change the trajectory. It was fine, to begin with.”

Blake simply shrugged and grabbed some more chips and drawled a simple “He’s been through worse.”

I looked out the fire-engulfed canopy to notice that I was quickly approaching the trees, “Well, here comes the fun part.” I said to myself in a sarcastic tone. The thruster kicked in, trying to slow down the pod. I braced myself expecting the worst.
Present time

I sighed as I looked at the beaten up pod. It had bounced off a couple of trees and slid several yards before stopping completely. “God, it’s like the New Mombasa slip-space event all over again,” I said quietly jokingly to myself. I reached in the pod and retrieved my rouge helmet, I looked into the reflective visor before putting it on, and then I reached in and grabbed my weapons. I holstered my pistol, then grabbed my assault rifle and loading it with explosive rounds.

“Hey Mike, you there? Mike?” Matt’s voice cracked over the comms, and then Wolffe chimed in.

“Nah, man, I think he’s seriously hurt… We should get some help.” I smacked the side of the helmet, causing their video feed to clear up.

“Oh, quit your whining, guys. I’m fine, and next time you change the trajectory during a drop… my fist and somebody's nose are gonna have an argument,” I said jokingly. I pulled the video feed from the camera they set up in the barracks on my HUD. I saw money exchange hands as Lane looked rather smug. I sighed in hopes that they weren't betting on my survival odds.

"Ya had us worried there for a second; five hours silence, we were sure the pod crash had killed ya," I heard Blake drawl as he walked into the barracks, some plates of breakfast in hand. Blake smiled as he sat down on his bunk and drawled out with a mouth full of cereal.

"Herll, wer just bout ready… to draw straws as to who would go tell Del Rio." Blake smiled and blew a bit of his messy auburn hair from his face, green eyes sparkling with mischief. Rolling my eyes and sighing in resignation, I pulled the action back on my assault rifle and let it go making a metallic clank, then focused on the nav point on my HUD.

I strolled through the thick forest listening to the birds' chirps and the crunching of leaves as I walked. Looking around at the beautiful scenery, I glanced at my motion sensor and noticed three unknowns at about twenty-five meters out. Deciding to play the caution route, I activated my active camo and walked quietly over to them. As I got closer, I ducked behind a fallen tree.

Peeking my head over the log, I spotted a few of these strange wolf-like creatures; they were dark in color, jagged in shape, and had sharp green piercing eyes.

“That’s new,” I muttered to myself, deciding that now would be a good time for a tactical retreat. Trying to move away quietly and not attract attention, I got up but stepped on a twig causing it to snap. One of the creatures let out a spine chilling howl, and the pack began to stalk towards me, malice in their eyes.

At this point, I heard Gunny laugh and smartly quipped, "Well, Mike, making friends already, I see."

From somewhere in the background, I heard a very light but forceful, "SHOOT IT IN DA FACE!" I sighed and shook my head, "Guess Brayden is awake now." I muttered in entertainment.

Rolling my shoulders, I drew my Assault Rifle, “Well, no need to hide now.” I said dryly. Taking aim, I quickly dispatched each creature as they charged. A few assault rifle bursts later, I slung my rifle and walked up to the corpses to find a rather peculiar find. Upon being shot, these wolves had splintered and shattered like wood. My curiosity now peaked. I kneeled down next to the remains and examined them. "Well, what in the hell?" I muttered with a shocked voice. Their remains contained no blood, no organs, no muscle structure, nothing even remotely flesh and blood organic in nature whatsoever.

“Well, I have been on my fair share of forerunner installations, and not one thing can compare to this.” Lane said with a confused look on his face.

"How is that even possible?" Wolffe asked, shock evident in his words as his medical background told him this had to be a lie.

"Nothing we've ever encountered has had a body structure like this; it's almost like they're held together by magic?!” At this point, I figured if I stuck around much longer, Wolffe might have a coronary, so shrugging, I stood up, “Yeah, well, maybe we can capture them and examine them later… if Del Rio will allow us to set up a research station.” I said, reassuring him as I walked off.

Eventually, I got closer to the waypoint placed on my HUD, reaching the edge of the woods. Looking out across the wide-open fields, I noticed a small town in the distance. Knelling down, I brought up the zoom function of my helmet and examined the town closely. As the zoom cleared up, I eventually discovered what the town's inhabitants were, "Oh, you have got to be fucking…" I slowly spoke, Matt finishing my thoughts.

"Are those horses… WITH HORNS!?" he questioned, incredulously creeping in on his voice as he sat on his bunk, his empty plate falling to the floor.

Lane jumped up and tried to get a closer look, "Oh wow, that's different… kind of makes sense, what with the planet mostly being wide open fields… but still, so exciting!" Lane practically squealed in joy.

Rolling my eyes and trying to retain my sanity, I began the long march towards the village. Weaving through fields of grass and alcoves of trees, I finally reached the outskirts of the village to see a unicorn standing next to a smaller horse that was trying to move a large boulder off the path.

"Lovely, Mike, do try and avoid the natives." Drawled Blake as Gunny collected the plates and headed back to the Mess hall. "Lord only knows wh- OH MY GOD!" Blake yelled as we all gasped in awe at the unicorn.

The unicorn's horn began to glow a vibrant blue, as did the boulder as it began to float into the air. The unicorn flocked its head to the side, and the boulder came flying straight at me. Shaking out of my revere, I dropped to the ground as the boulder whizzed past me, only inches above my head, and into the field behind me where it landed with an earth-shaking thud and rolled for several feet before stopping. The unicorn, looking rather smug, nodded to the little horse, and both proceeded to canter into town.

I lay there in the tall grass and tried to control my rampaging heartbeat. Judging from the silence over my comms the channel, I'm pretty sure Matt crawled in a corner and died a little after watching the event. Lane was astonished at this as he stared at the video feed. “Did you guys…” I managed to stutter as I tried to stay as low in the grass as humanly possible.

"Just see that? Yes.” Said Lane jubilantly as he interrupted me, grinning ear from to ear; he stood up and fist pumped, “THIS IS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!” Lane yelled; apparently, Lane's jubilant yells were enough to shock Matt out of his catatonic state, and in a flurry of motion, Matt crawled back into view and sat there looking at Lane like he was crazy.

“No offense Lane but that one lifted a rock…. WITH IT’S MIND." Matt yelled, shaking his hands around in a rather comical manner, "I think if Mike just wandered into the town, they would more than likely just rip him apart. Can you imagine what telekinesis will do to flesh and bone?” Matt continued with his rant.

Fighting my nerves down, I turned on active camo and crept closer to town, keeping close to cover. “Alright, all I have to do is keep to the shadows, and I’ll be fine,” I whispered to myself. I ducked into an alleyway and watched as a few ponies walked past me. A cyan-colored one with a rainbow mane glided past. Opening my mouth in awe, I stuttered out a simple statement, “That one is flying.” Lane seemed to explode in excitement at this, “WOW, THIS DAY IS JUST GETTING BETTER!” Running over to his bunk, he grabbed a journal to take notes. Sighing heavily in defeat, Matt facepalmed and shook a hand at the video screen. “Mike, just place a beacon in the center of town and call it a day,” Matt said.

Gunny chose this moment to walk in, observing the chaos that was our squad, and with a quizzical look, asked the million-dollar question. "Oookay, what did I miss." Brayden stood up and rolled his shoulders. Limping over to the fridge replied, "Well, it turns out the horned ones have telikensi, telekinesi, screw it they move stuff with their minds," Brayden nonchalantly waved his hand as he grabbed a jug of water and some aspirin, standing and rolling his shoulders he continued his explanation, "There's also the fact that Mike also almost got turned into a paste, but that's beside the point." Brayden shrugged and limped back to his bunk past a now face-palming Matt and a chuckling Blake and Wolffe.

Overlooking Brayden's casual attitude and huffing in indignation, I peeked around the corner to clear the area. Ensuring that the coast was clear, I crept out of the ally and stuck to the sides of the streets, keeping a casual pace. I got closer to the center of town and started to prep the beacon. I quickly darted over to a tree, and I was quickly running out of places to conceal myself. I glanced over to the motion sensor to see three rapidly approaching dots heading my way. I looked up to see an orange pony riding what looked to be a scooter heading right at me with two of her friends in tow. I tried to roll to the side and move, but it was already too late to move out of the way.

CRASH

I brick-walled the three ponies; they sat there rubbing their heads in confusion as to what they hit, and the one with the pearly white coat looked dead at me, her face changing from confusion to fear. My active camo had shut off from the impact; I drew my pistol, thinking it would be relatively easy to silence them with the non-lethal round but hesitated when I considered the consequences. Shooting them might incite them to attack me. Trying to make a split-second choice, I looked to the comms for any advice, but sadly they weren't much help… “Shoot it in the face, shoot it in the face!” Brayden yelled over the comms as Matt, Blake, and Wolffe motioned for me to run. Sadly my choice had been taken from me when one had started to scream. While I was busy cringing from the sudden loudness, I failed to notice the other two had slipped away from me and had gotten a few of their friends.

Drawing my aim to silence the white one, I was suddenly thrown to the ground by the earlier cyan-colored pony. She glared at me with anger in her eyes as she stood ready to stomp my face into the dirt, then I heard a sweet southern voice say. “Y'all better explain yourself, or you’re going to be in some major trouble.” I turned my head to see a tan pony with blonde hair and what looked like a cowboy hat standing over me with calm but determined eyes with the other two ponies hiding behind her. “Holy… you speak human English,” I said with surprise. They looked at me with confused faces. "What's a human? Or English for that matter?" The Blonde one said, suspicion and intrigue gathering in her eyes.

“WHAT? Did it just speak perfect human English?" Matt screeched as he dropped his head on the pillow in behind him. “Lane, pass me a beer,” Matt muttered. Lane stood there, shocked into stillness at the discovery, and Brayden shook his head as he continued to mutter, "Shoulda just shot it in the face, no stinkin ponies can use their fancy-ass magic powers when there's a bullet in their head." Blake sat on his bunk rather quietly with a semi-amused look on his face, and Wolffe sighed and passed out the beers, "Ya know Mike, now might be a good time to turn on the diplomat." Wolffe said as he plopped down into his chair.

Taking Wolffe's advice to heart, I slowly but surely raised my hands in a pleading manner. For a second, I was sure that the cyan one was about to snap my neck when I moved my hands; this was not going to be easy. “Alright, alright, if you guys let me go and escort me to a place where we can sit down and talk, I can explain myself,” I said, desperately trying to plead for a deal. “How do we you know if you’re not just going to run away?” The cyan-colored one said, inching close enough for me to practically feel the aggression roll off her.

A purple-colored pony approached me from the blond one's right and got close to my face. She stared at me, examining me closely. I could practically see the gears turning in her head as she eventually sighed, “I think we can trust him, girls.” The others looked at her in confusion, the cyan-colored one practically in utter shock, expressing her confusion in a question, "What do mean you think we can trust him?" The purple one nodded her head to me and stated calmly and clinically eerily similar to a certain DMR marksman scientist I know, “Look at him, he’s three times bigger than us if we just wanted to get up leave right now, he easily could.”

The cyan-colored one rolled her easy and leaned back a bit, hooves on her hips in an eerily human manner. “Please," she said mockingly, "I pinned him down so easily.” She rebutted. Seeing a chance to redirect the attention, I decided to put in my two cents, “Okay, in all fairness, you caught me off guard. But I am impressed you really blindsided me.” I said in a pleading manner as the cyan one tried to keep her composure. Finding his humor once again, Blake coughed over the comms, “Kiss ass,” igniting a fit of laughter in the silent barracks. Silencing my speakers, I vainly tried to defend my honor, “Hey, you would be impressed too.” I said, rebutting Blake’s comment.

The ponies group continued to stare at me, and I decided that seeing a face might help if they were indeed rather human-like. I put my hands near my head and grabbed the helmet, pulling it off, revealing my face. Pale Caucasian skin shined with traces of sweat. I was in my mid-twenties; my body strived for some fresh air. With my face now showing, I became somewhat self-conscious of my appearance; my dirt brown hair was messed up and tousled from my helmet, sky blue eyes shined with a friendly spark betraying the scar's intimidation factor over my left eye. Shrugging, I looked up at the group and smiled, “Sorry girls, I was talking to some friends through an ear piece.” I said with a grin. “Alright, I promised an explanation of why I am here. If we could go somewhere quiet, I can tell you why.”

Questions and Answers

Chapter 3
From War to Peace
Questions and Answers

The horses looked to each other and made some motions, a nod here and a shake of the head there. It would seem I was being debated on whether to be trusted or not. Eventually, Cyan backed off, and the Purple one marched up to me and motioned for me to stand,

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to escort you to my house where we can talk, and you can speak your peace, then we’ll decide whether or not to trust you… alright?” She stated while observing me.

I nodded stood up, grabbing my helmet from where it had fallen, “Crystal.” I patted the dust off my helmet and moved to place it on my head, but before it could get past my chest, a rather mysterious numbness coursed through my muscles beneath my neck, and I looked down to see my body enveloped in a bluish-purple glow.

“I’m sorry, we’ll hear your story out, but we don’t trust you not to bolt, you understand, right?” The Purple one said apologetically while squinting her eyes. I noticed the horn was glowing and suddenly got a rather sick feeling in my stomach as I began to levitate, my muscles still locked in place. Well, it seems we now know what their telekinesis does to flesh and bone.

We proceeded to walk through town as the Cyan one moved forward to secure me and make sure I didn’t somehow break free. The blond one stayed behind, whispering soothing words to the little ponies and sending them off to catch up with their friends. I figured by the end f the day. My little arrival would be the talk of the town.

As we proceeded through town, hordes upon hordes of ponies, all different shapes and sizes and even colors flooded out to stare at us. They all had in common that they all had a look of awe and feared battling in their eyes, almost as if they were trying to decide whether to run and hide or come up and investigate.

“Alright, y’all, clear the way now.” Yelled the Blond pony as she trotted up and addressed the crowd in a calming and commanding yet friendly manner, “We need to discuss with our new friend here, so if you could all just clear the way first, we’ll get back to you all on what’s happening all right? Now move along, come on.”

The crowd seemed to take this as a legitimate answer and began to disperse, heading back to their homes and shops. A few lingered and walked up to the blonde one to ask a few questions. In particular, one pink one seemed rather livid, bouncing around and yelling with what looked to be a permanent smile plastered across her face.

Eventually, we approached a tower-shaped structure that looked to be a house, and I assumed this was our final destination. As we approached the door, I looked up at the sky and wondered absent-mindedly if I was just going out of the frying pan and into the fir-

CRACK

“Sorry!” Yelled the purple one, strain evident in her voice as she tried to manhandle my tall figure through the door. Eventually, after a few more tries, a couple of sighs of frustration, and numerous bruises. The purple horse managed to move me through the door and into a large atrium-like room.

I looked around the room in a decent bit of awe at the walls covered in what looked to be books and tomes of all shapes and colors. Upon the second floor, I noticed a large window with a telescope, of all things, pointing out into the sky. Looking around a bit more, I was shocked out of my reverie when the door slammed closed, and the blond one giving off a sigh of relief and nodded to the purple one.

With an all-clear in mind, the purple one let go of her psychic lock on me and looked to me and in a deathly serious tone began to speak, “Okay, here’s how this is going to go, I’m going to ask a question, and you will answer as truthfully as possible, if I think you are lying I will warn you. If you persist in lying to us, we will take to the Ever-free forest and leave you there for the Timbers, and if we ever see you here again, we will take action against you, clear?” Asked the Purple one, her voice ending in a clip that frightened even me.

I nodded my head and made peace with the fact that I was gonna be here a while.

UNSC Infinity, Bunk bay Alpha 10:30 A.M.

“Wellllll, that went down to hell in a handbasket right quickly…” Calmly stated Blake with an almost bored look as he stood and stretched, popping his knuckles. Things had gotten rather tense in the bunks when Mike got captured and frozen. Still, the guys realized that there was nothing they could do, so rather Brayden decided that laying down and passing out would be a good idea, and Lane was busy trying to sketch the “Ponies,” as he called them, for his science journal. Other than that, it was strangely peaceful in the bunk bay.

“Well, I have a med bay duty in twenty, so I’ll jet,” Said Wolffe as he stood and popped his knuckles with a resounding crack. Picking up his gear Wolffe walked over to the door and said, “Also, do call me If Mike bites it or not. You guys got my Helmet number.”

As the door hissed shut behind Wolffe, we all sat in a pregnant silence until Gunny stood and started towards the door as well. Punching in the access code, Gunny began to drawl lazily, “Well, I got a training session down in the war room in about half an hour, so I better go and get-” Before Gunny could complete his sentence Wolffe crashed through the door, a clear look of panic etched in his face,

“GUYS QUICK!!! Del Rio and Palmer are on their way here for a report!!!” Yelled Wolffe in a barely controllable panic. We were all to our feet the second. He mentioned Del Rio. Moving like greased lighting in precise movements that could pass for clockwork, we all rushed to put our gear away, be semi-presentable, and make sure Brayden was kept far away from any weapons that could be used to shoot, stab, or bash Del Rio in the face.

“GENTLEMEN! OFFICERS ON DECK!” Yelled Lane as we all snapped to attention as Del Rio and Palmer walked through the door. Del Rio looked around at our bay and barely hid a look of suspicion from his face as he looked around at the now mostly spotless Living space and five Spartans standing at rigid attention in front of him… and the one drunken ODST on his bunk in the far corner.

“Gentlemen… Might you explain to me why you all have a live feed directly to a secret operation of the UNSC?” Del Rio Growled out in a contemptuous, filled voice. Gunny began to fidget as he realized he forgot to hit the off switch on the Television set mounted behind them, showing Mike being paraded through the streets of the settlement down below.

“Well, Sir, simply put, we wanted to monitor his situation and make sure that he… uh… didn’t end up hurt and... Uh… that Mike was alright and not being ripped apart by the local wildlife, yeah.” Matt feebly tried to answer while looking down and fidgeting with his Tee shirt.

Del Rio sighed in a barely controlled effort not to throw the men in this room out the airlock, and Palmer shook her head, trying to come up with the idea that would keep Del Rio from killing these five men.

“Sir, If I may,” Lane experimentally stated while reluctantly raising a hand in inquiry, “I think we should set up a research base here. The local wildlife is displaying rather interesting capa-“

“CAPTAIN I don’t particularly care whether or not the local wildlife can self replicate or teleport halfway across their world in the blink of an eye… All I CARE about is are they a THREAT to the UNSC!?” Yelled Del-Rio, finally snapping, his face beet red with barely controlled fury. He marched up to Lane, barely hovering an inch away from his face, and continued his rant. “ALL I want you to do CAPTAIN is monitor Hill’s progress and tell me what he is DOING!!! Understood?”

Lane glared and replied with a short and terse, “Crystal.” Before Del Rio backed off and ran a hand through his thinning hair and turned back to face us with a metaphorical stone mask of calm before resuming his questioning.

“So, Do tell me WHAT is going on down there.” Del Rio asked, scorn and fury tainting his voice as he gestured to the screen, which now showed Mike being questioned by a purple horse.

Many questions and screaming matches later…

“Let me get this straight. Captain Hill was captured and questioned by…. by these things?” Del Rio asked in frustration as he massaged his temples. He really needed a bottle of Advil right now.

“Ponies.” Lane said stiffly, trying to suppress his scientist urge to address everything with its proper name. “Ponies, sir.”

Del Rio looked at Lane again with murderous intent in his eyes as the rest of the line of Spartans took a healthy step away from Lane in caution. “I don’t care what they are Spartan if you don’t get a hold of Captain Hill, I’m calling in a strike team to go get him. Am I understood?” Said Del Rio, Anger, scorn, and a hint of murderous intent coursing through his words as the five Spartans all stood in a slightly flabbergasted shock, even Palmer managed to show a little concern for the Captains now paper-thin patience.

“Understood, sir.” Muttered Lane as if on autopilot. Lane then turned to the computer to contact Mike. Meanwhile, the rest of us dispersed to whatever jobs we had to do that day while Lane continued to tap away at the keyboard. Trying both to contain his fury and contact Mike.

Planet side Equestria

“So let me get this right. You’re from a planet called Earth, your part of a military organization called the UNSC, and a part of a super-soldier program?” Twilight asked as she paced frantically around the room, trying to understand all that I told her and not go mad from the information.

“Yep, that’s it in a nutshell,” I said with a smirk on my face.

“You must have done and seen so much,” Twilight said, Fascination thinly veiled behind a façade of formality as she stared at me with wonder-filled eyes.

Cocking my head to the side, I thought about my years in the UNSC. “Eh… sort of…” Most of the time I’ve been in the UNSC consisted of either being in a cyro-tube or combat with the Covenant. I seldom got the chance to enjoy the things around me, but I enjoyed it when given a chance. I could tell Twilight was about to ask more when I heard a loud buzzing come from my helmet sitting next to me on the table to my left.

“Mike. You there?” Lane asked over the comms. I reached over and grabbed my helmet, then pulled out the earpiece and placed it in my ear, bracing myself for the likely barrage of questions that were about to assault my ear.

“Lane, what’s….” I asked before being cut short by a rapturous yell from the other end of the line causing me to flinch and my eyes to water from the pain.

“SPARTAN!” a voice I recognized as Del Rio’s yelled, “Do you know that your breaking protocol? If you some much a give them a shred of sensitive information, I WILL have you arrested for treason.”

I grimaced in pain. That man really has anger management issues. “Sir, I was just explaining why I was here and wh-“ I tried to say before being cut off.

“I don’t care, Spartan, just get back on mission. You have until noon tomorrow before pick up. Del Rio–“ Del Rio Ranted before I interjected.

“WAIT! Sir, these locals have some pretty neat tricks like lifting boulders with their minds...” I knew Lane had probably already tried this appeal, but I had a secret weapon that Lane would never use Del Rio’s pride. “Stuff I think ONI might be interested in, and I bet a captain could go straight to admiral if he found a power that helped put us one up on the covies, Right? But of course, you’d do it for the sake of the good old UNSC.” I finished as I walked over and looked out the window at the mid-afternoon sky.

I could almost hear Del Rio’s glare off the Mic. Finally, he replied in an almost gleeful voice. “Tell you what, Captain Hill, You’ll have your science team, a full team, and security team to reverse engineer the Telekinesis trick… They’ll be there at noon tomorrow. Del Rio out.”

I pulled my earpiece out and clutched it in my hands in Puzzlement. If Del Rio was happy with giving in to Lane and me, then there was a DEFINITE gain for him and probably a regrettable loss for us. I continued to glare at the earpiece, almost as if demanding it gives up the secrets I desire before I heard movement behind me and turned.

“Mike, you alright?” Twilight asked, confusion lacing her voice as she and the cyan one I heard called Rainbow dash earlier came up behind me.

“Yeah, just my boss Del Rio chewing me out, nothing you need to worry yourself with.” I paused for a second, and after considering Del Rio’s words for a few seconds, asked, “Can I stay with any of you? I’m stuck here for another day.”

Twilight smiled gleefully and replied, “You can stay with me.”

Rainbow Dash looked like she would flip and nudge Twilight in the side before asking in a serious tone, “Twilight is sure that you can trust him?” She said, glaring at me like I was the anti-Christ.

“Yes, Rainbow.” Replied Twilight in a calming voice, “I’m sure I can trust him. But thanks for the concern.” she added on trying to reassure her friend.

Raising my eyebrow in curiosity, I pocketed my earpiece. “Why don’t you trust me, Dash?” I asked, feeling I knew the answer but wanted to hear it from her.

Dash turned to look at me with a near murderous look in her eyes. “You were sneaking around, and you pointed a weapon at Sweetie Belle!” Dash said, looking me up and down, trying to find a weakness in my armor to exploit immediately.

“And for that, I apologize. All of what I did was out of habit.” I said, raising my hands and giving a universal surrender motion of hands up by my head in my defense.

“Riiiiight, of course, it was,” Dash replied, sarcasm soaking her words as she shook her head and started towards the door after one last reassuring look from Twilight.

I shrugged and called after her, “Give me time, Dash. You never know.” Rainbow Dash looked back one last time and rolled her eyes, stalking off into town.

Recognizing the rumbling in my stomach, I chuckled nervously and asked one of the most important questions I could think of. “Hey, Twilight. Is there a place where I can get some food? I’m starved.” I asked, trying to figure out whether or not Del Rio would try and starve me out for disobedience.

Twilight sat back and rubbed her chin with her hooves in thought. “What is it that humans eat?” Twilight asked, her curiosity reaching a new high.

“We are omnivores, so we eat vegetables, fruits, and meat,” I replied. Any food would be nice, but hoo boy, I’d kill for something sweet right now.

Nodding her head in understanding, Twilight replied. “We can cover that. We can go to Sugar Cube Corner.” I smiled, liking the name's sound, but I noticed Twilight had a bit of an uneasy look on her face after hearing the “meat” added to the list. As a thought crossed my mind, I smirked. If Matt’s down here, he’ll starve if he can’t eat meat.

“Alright, sounds good to me,” I replied with a smile. We left Twilight’s house and started to walk to Sugar Cube Corner. While we were walking, the busy streets quickly emptied as the whole town went into a lapse of terror and hid in their houses and shops. I looked around and noticed the locals were peering through the windows out of curiosity, and I imagine slight fear.

We finally reached Sugar Cube Corner and proceeded to enter. I watched in slight fascination as the ponies inside were chatting, silenced, and either left or turned to watch me with either curious or suspicious looks on their faces. I smirked as my mind drew analogies to my treatment here, and as a Spartan by ODSTs, it turns out being a badass guarantee you a minimum safe distance boundary against normal people, man or horse.

“Hey, Pinkie! You there?” Twilight yelled in behind the counter as she worked her way up to the counter past the other horses. Almost before Twilight was done speaking, a pink pony popped up from behind the counter almost faster than my eyes could track.

“OH MY GOSH!” The supersonic pink blur I assumed was called Pinkie yelled. I was surprised when said blur managed to rush up to me and start similarly bouncing around me. A rubber ball would attract the rest of the restaurant's attention and destroy what was left of my anonymity as she began a barrage of questions. “An alien. Where did you come from? What’s your name? What are you wearing?” Pinkie asked as she bounced around the room.

Thinking on my feet and trying to calm the pink blur down, I said the first thing came to mind. “Uh, Pinkie… can we get some food first, then me and Twilight can explain everything.” This seemed to satisfy the little pink horse-blur, and to my utter surprise, she stopped dead in her tracks… literally. By some defiance of physics, she had stopped perfectly in mid-air. I could tell Matt and Lane were gonna flip their shit when they got here.

“Okie, dokie, lokie.” Pinkie said before jetting off into the kitchen, leaving a fire trail that took a second to manifest. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I registered that nobody seemed to pay attention to the apparent disregard of physics. If anything, it seemed to be a normal occurrence… yep, Matt and Lane were definitely gonna flip their shit.

Shaking myself out of my reverie, I manage to think up a quick and somewhat witty response to physics's apparent middle finger. “Sir Isaac Newton is rolling in his grave,” I said to myself as I trailed over to the short table that twilight had already occupied and sat myself down.

“Yeah, Don’t mind her. Pinkie has her own set of physics somehow.” Twilight replied, chuckling as she made herself comfortable.

“Definitely… Pinkie just essentially broke physics in half and tossed their remains into a giant blender that makes cupcakes.” I replied, still in shock. “Christ, Matt has probably turned to the drink already.” I chuckled mirthlessly as I imagined my friend’s reaction.

Pinkie soon returned with enough food to feed an army; there before me was a tray full of a vast array of cookies, plethora’s of cake, and enough pie to kill Blake, our local pie eater, ten times over. My mouth watered at the smell of the sweets, and I silently thanked the big guy above for the mind read blessing.

“Sweet Jesus in a manger, that looks AMAZING! Thanks, Pinkie!” I yelled, barely controlling both my stomach and my jubilee. Pinkie smiled and gestured to the feast before us.

“Alright, everypony dig in,” said Pinkie with a smile. I looked at the table, unsure where to start, and eventually grabbed a slice of apple pie. When I took my first bite, a rush of flavor flooded my mouth and dulled my staved senses of good old terrestrial grown food. I was pretty sure I was about to start moaning. It was so good, but I managed to control myself.

“Wow, that’s some good apple pie,” I said with a mouth full of food, temporarily ignoring any semblance of etiquette.

“Well, you are eating the finest apples of all of Equestria, thank you very much.” Said a voice proudly from behind me. I turned around to see the blonde one from earlier, and I think they called her Apple Jack, come waltzing in through the door.

I nodded my head and smiled, trying not to look like too much of a goof. “Just keep doing what you’re doing. I want to come back in thirty years, having it taste the same if not better.” I said, laughing with the rest of our little crew at our table as she walked up and joined the fray.

“Sure thing, sugar cube.” She said with a smile as she reached over for a slice of cake.

Thinking about my squad and the chewing they likely got from Del Rio and how much Blake would love a slice of this pie, I called over Pinkie and asked, “Hey, Pinkie, can I get some of this for my squad back home tomorrow?”

Pinkie jumped up and nodded her head as fast as she could. “I’ll bring a couple of pies for your squad. Sound good?” I nodded my head and immediately got back to eating; it had been a while since I’ve eaten.

“I looked around at everyone enjoying their meal, and Twilight was explaining to Pinkie what I was and what I was doing here. After a period of time, we finished, and Twilight gave me the grand introduction of everyone. I was quite impressed with them; Twilight, the element of magic, AppleJack, the element of honesty, Pinkie Pie, laughter, Rainbow Dash element, the element of loyalty, Rarity, the element of generosity, and Flutter Shy, the element of kindness. I still haven’t met Flutter Shy or Rarity yet, but I hope to meet them soon.

After a few hours of chatting and meet and greets, the day had just about the past, the sun resting on the horizon giving away to the dark of night. I was at Twilights house, improvising a cot out of hay and spare cloth, getting ready to hit the hay.

Knock, knock, knock

stood and decided to walk to the door, seeing if I could remember who it was at the door out of the preverbal army of faces I met today. As I got closer to the door, Twilight trotted up, and I hung back watching the door to see if I could actually get a name right.

Twilight trotted over to open the door and smiled in elation. “Hey, Flutter Shy, Hey Rarity,” Twilight said with a smile. I watched the two ponies standing in the doorway; one was a well-groomed pearl white-colored, and the other was cream-colored and was lagging slightly behind the pearl one.

“Ah Twilight, what a pleasure to see you again. I simply wish we could talk, but Fluttershy here would like to talk to you.” Rarity said, regretfully raising her hoof and motioning Fluttershy forward with a comforting but firm hoof on the back.

Flutter shy shuffled forward and began to stutter out a statement. “Twilight, the animals, have been acting strange lately…” Flutter Shy paused as we made eye contact. “AAAAAHHHHH A MONSTER.” She yelled before ducking back behind Rarity.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy. He’s a friend,” Twilight said, trying to calm Fluttershy. I moved forward slowly, trying to keep her calm as I popped on a knee.

“Are… are you sure?” Fluttershy asked, poking her head out around a calm Rarity.

I raised my hands and began to back up towards my cot. “I might not look that nice, but I am a nice person once you get to know me,” I said wistfully while trying to fix up my cot.

“Oh, so that’s the monster that everypony is talking about.” Rarity said her curiosity peak, and I could tell she also wanted to spam me with questions, “Well, I was here to return the fashion book that I borrowed Twilight. I would love to stay and chat with…”

“Michael, my name is Michael.” I filled in as I began to remove the plates of my armor.

“With Michael, but it is getting late, maybe we can chat over some breakfast?” Rarity asked as she tried to help Fluttershy keep her calm.

“Sounds like a plan,” Twilight replied, smiling ear to ear.

“Good night,” I said while Twilight and I waved them off. Flutter Shy waved shyly back, and Rarity gave a very graceful goodbye before they walked off into the fading evening light.

Heading back to get ready for bed, twilight turned out the light and got in bed, and I did the same. I looked out the window to see the moon slowly rise into view. A strange pang of sorrow filled my chest. The moon reminded me a lot of home, and with that, I let out a sigh as memories flooded my mind.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked as she rolled over and looked down to the floor at me.

Not really looking for a conversation, I shrugged and answered as noncommittally as I could. “Oh, nothing really, just watching the moon reminded me of home.”

Twilight nodded and smiled down at me and laughed, “Well, at least you have some friends on your ship… will we get to meet them?”

“Yeah, they should be here tomorrow. Well, good night Twilight.” I chuckled as I tried to soothe myself to sleep.

“Sweet dreams Michael.” She said sweetly as she yawned and quickly fell to sleep.

I soon began to doze off, and once again, I began to slip into the same nightmare I’d had for the last couple of years from the human-covenant war that started to flood my mind. I frowned as my mind slipped deeper and deeper into my own little personal hell. Every conscious night since the end of the war, I’ve been living in the same hellish nightmare.

Of Dreams and Nightmares

From War to Peace
Chapter 4
"Of Dreams and Nightmares"

The nightmare had been the same for all four years since the war. Sure there were small variations here and there, maybe one of the marines would say something else, or a different creature from hell would round the corner, or even the marines themselves would change into different people or faces. Still, generally, it was always the same.

Panting like a dog, I ran through the sewers with my men following close behind. I couldn't really remember where we were, but all I knew for a fact was that there was something behind us that really wanted us dead, so I didn't really care.

I rounded a corner in the sewers that lead up a slope to a gate at the top. Deciding this was a decent enough position to defend from, I turned to my fellow Marines and yelled, "Alright, gents, let's set up here. We have the high ground, and we should have an advantage over the shits as they round the corner."

With a collective "OOHRA!" the men rushed to several positions scattered around the corridor, a few ran to a mangled dumpster near the bottom of the slope, more fled to the top where I was and pointed their weapons downrange, waiting for an excuse to fire.

One marine came up to me; close-cropped brown hair and grime-covered skin glistening in the artificial light of the sewers. It took me a moment to realize one of his eyes was missing with blood sluggishly flowing out of the socket. He hefted a rocket launcher and spoke, "Sir, I got one more shot left in this thing, permission to open the salvo?" he asked, smiling grimly in the dark.

I nodded and smirked, "Sure, just be sure to get the fucker right in the face." I said as I raised my Battle Rifle and got ready as thudding footsteps sounded through the sewers. I tried desperately to control my breathing as I realized the only thing large enough to make those noises were.

I began to shake slightly as a hunter the size of a small elephant rounded the corner; it's spikes scraping ominously against the top of the sewers. "Christ, that thing is huge," one of the marines said, slack-jawed. The hunter heard him and whipped around to see us; it's plasma cannon charging an ominous green as it growled with a ferocity that made it feel like we were fighting a titan.

Quickly reacting, the One-eyed Soldier stood up and yelled at the top of his lungs as he fired his rocket launcher, "SURPRISE JACKASS!!!" The rocket screamed out of the tube and flew down the slope hitting the hunter square in the chest, making its cannon aim up and fire.

The other marines and I ducked down as the shot cut into the slope and up over us into the ceiling. I looked up and noticed that the One-Eyed soldier hadn't been fast enough and now was only a pair of legs, a black burn mark on the wall behind us.

Fighting back the tears of rage, I stood and yelled with a vengeance filled voice, "OPEN FIRE!!!" Our entire troop opened fire with various weapons ranging from Assault rifles to Battle rifles and a few pistol shots.

The salvo kept up for a few more seconds as the hunter convulsed under the constant fire. Orange blood and worms began to flow down the giant's metal legs and arms as it began to slide to the ground; it’s cannon no longer glowing.

As we stopped firing, I ordered the men at the bottom of the slope to come back up top and help defend the position as we all reloaded our weapons and tried to control our emotions. We mostly tried to ignore the now smoldering legs of our comrade. Eventually, after what felt a few minutes, I walked over to the corpse and picked it up and placed it over by the wall where it wouldn't be in the way.

"Wait… what's that noise?" Said a marine with a shotgun as he looked up and cocked an ear to hear better. I stood and readjusted my standard-issue chest plate and tried to listen and hear what he was hearing.

"Ah chill, Zimmerman," Said one marine as he hefted his Battle Rifle and rolled his eyes, "there's nothing else down there. Covies should be topside by no-"

"EVERYBODY, tight formation, we got buggers." I interrupted as I recognized the scratching noise. Sadly my warning was too late as a solid wall of drones rounded the corner and flooded up the slope to our group.

We desperately tried to fire at them, but there were hundreds of the little bastards. They swarmed up, chirping and firing the odd plasma pistol as they flew through our group, clawing and biting at any exposed flesh. I watched as one marine was swarmed by eight of the drones and ripped apart limb from limb.

By now, tears were freely flowing from my eyes as I yelled and kept up the fire, popping the little buggers in the head and body where I could and swatting away whatever got too close. It seemed we were going to win as the drones began to fall back, and I yelled in triumph as I turned to look at my men.

My cry of victory died in my throat as I turned to look at the only man left to stand was lifted into the air by an invisible hand a skewered on a glowing white sword. As my comrades' corpse fell to the ground, I looked at the now blood-soaked specter standing over my friend's corpse as it growled in a deep voice and sauntered towards me.

Acting on reflex, I dropped down and grabbed the shotgun from Zimmerman's now disembodied hands and rolled forward, and fired into the stealth Elite's chest, making the towing beast stagger back and it's active camo fail. The creature looked to me with hate-filled as it charged forward and slashed at my face.

I pumped the shotgun and pulled the trigger again only to hear a click as nothing happens, and I realized Zimmerman only had one shot left. In one last desperate bid to survive, I held the shotgun forward and tried to block the blade as I fell backward.

The slash cuts through the shotgun and slashes across my left eye and cheek, leaving a deep burned and bloody scar on my face. As the elite began to saunter forwards towards me, I scrambled back towards the slope, hoping that I could roll down the slope and escape this hellish creature.

As I was about to roll, the creature stomped on my left leg and broke the shinbone as it pinned me. Screaming in agony, I looked up into the monster's eyes as it lifted the sword to slash down into my chest.

But just as it was about to slash, a burning orange blade plunged through the creature's chest as it gasped and fell backward with the blade. I sat there petrified as I looked into the dark behind where the elite once stood to see a pair of hate-filled burning orange eyes as an ear-splitting scream tore through the air, and the eyes became a burning orange skull screaming in my face before I blacked out.

Twilight Residence, Equestria
05:39 AM

I snapped up in bed and grabbed the pistol residing beneath my pillow. I looked around in the dark of Twilight's house and ran a hand through my short hair as I continued to paint in terror.

I'd been having that dream for something like four years, and it had NEVER changed in all that time. But that last part, it was new and different… I sat there and looked up out the window into the pre-dawn sky, continuing to ponder the strange change in dreams.

Reaching over to check my tac pad after a little while, I found that it was going on at 6:00 in the morning, so I decided to get up and get some fresh air. I walked out into the field just a few hundred feet from Twilight's house and sat down, looking up at the pre-dawn sky.

The sun would soon be above the horizon, but the sky was a gorgeous spectrum of colors until then. Reds and pinks and oranges dominated the eastern sky while purples blues and violets with speckles of stars dominated the western sky, leaving the area in-between a dreamlike swirl of blues and reds.

Lying there in the dark, I felt an amazing sense of peace wash over me as I tried to recall the last time I was relaxing on a planet and not trying to kill or capture something… to be honest, it was a really long time before I could find any semblance of that kind of memory.

I remembered a wide field, just open air and plentiful plains, and a night sky looking down on Ashley and me. I remember we were lying there, wondering if the war would ever end but not really caring. Because at that moment we had each other and that had been enough.

"Hey Mike, What are you doing out here?" I heard Twilight's voice echo over the open field. Grasping at the memory as it slipped away, I opened my eyes and looked into the now dawn sky, and sat up, my skin suit constricting around my chest.

"Yeah, just remembering things. But I'm fine." I yelled as I stood up and began my walk back to Twilight's house. Twilight raised an eyebrow as looked me up and down as I sauntered towards her.

I could practically see the gears in her head turning as she tried to analyze the situation and whether or not she should press the topic, Man she and Lane will really get along well.

"You sure? I heard you woke up startled last night, and I was a little worried. Having bad dreams?" She asked slowly, trying not to step on any raw nerves I might have as we walked back into her house.

"Oh, that? I'm fine. Just reliving memories, both good and bad." I said as we sat down at the table in her kitchen. I saw her mouth about to open to ask the question I didn't want to hear, so I beat her to the punch.

"Fret not. You don't have to worry about it. It's just something we have to live with." I said, trying to cut off her questions and attempts to talk it out. I've had that question asked too many times, and while I appreciate the thought, it doesn't help, so it's better just to let it go.

As we sat at the table with a heavy silence in the air, I desperately scrambled to change the topic and avoid the awkwardness that usually follows these talks. "So," I said loudly, trying to shake Twilight out of her thoughts, "We had breakfast with Fluttershy and Rarity today, correct?" I asked, my eyebrow cocking in a questioning manner.

Twilight nearly jumped out of her seat as her hooves flew to her head, and she sprinted into the bedroom, yelling, "Oh gosh, I completely forgot! I need to get cleaned up and ready. I guess you can relax or get dressed or whatever it is you humans do in the morning."

I peaked an eyebrow and looked around the corner to see the stuff on the walls and furniture were spinning in a very comical manner as she ran by. I shook my head and sat down; here, I thought the Pinkie was fast.

Eventually, I stood and walked over to where I'd set up my cot and gear. I kneeled and checked my tac pad for any news from the Infinity. Flipping through the messages as I donned my armor plates and calibrated my suit, I noticed one of the messages was from Del Rio.

Stopping in the middle of my armor assembly, I opened the message and skimmed through it, checking for any news. As I finished the message, I put my tac pad down and slowly continued with my armor assembly, just much less enthusiastic this time around.

Del Rio's message had been a confirmation of the change of stations, the staff list, which consisted of a large part of my own team and a few of the support scientist, and a list of equipment shipped planetside. However, the thing that threw me off was that Del Rio addressed me by my full title, Captain Michael Hill of the UNSC Spartan Program, at the end of the message. Del Rio only did that one other time, and that was when I was first stationed on the Infinity, and Del Rio thought I was another copied and pasted officer.

I finally finished piecing my armor together and held my helmet in my hands and stared at it as I tried to piece together why Del Rio would be so happy and address by my normal title rather than the captain or just Hill. I continued to stare into my helmet until Twilight called for me, at which point I placed my helmet on my head and walked out of the house to meet her.

We walk down the street. In the early morning sunlight, the town looked very much like an old medieval town in Western Europe. Already some ponies are out and about setting up shop and preparing for the day to come.
As I looked around, I was rather perplexed; in some cases, some ponies were carrying on with their daily lives like I never existed in the first place, while others studied me with fearful yet curious eyes and moved with practiced, cautious movements and wary glances as they continued through their routines.
After some time, I looked back to our path to note our destination. We arrived at Sugarcube Corner and outside stood Flutter Shy and Rarity.
“Ah, so nice of you to join us.” Rarity said happily as we walked into the store and took a seat. I nodded to the two of them as I continued to scan the store. There were far fewer ponies in here today than yesterday, so I got a better read on the building’s tactical and strategic points, such as the counter’s well-paced firing positions on the door. Shaking myself out of my analysis, I looked to our breakfast host and smiled.
“Morning ladies, have a pleasant night?” I asked, trying to turn on the charm and focus on the conversation. The usual fine and very nice answers chorused, and everyone started to order their breakfast. I just ordered a cup of the closest thing to coffee I could find as perusal to my morning routine.
“Michael, may I…. I ask you a question if you don’t mind?” Fluttershy asked typically shyly enough. I lowered my coffee and sat back, relaxing into my chair at the table.
“Sure, go ahead,” I said, almost seeing the gears in her head turn as she tried to think of the best way to ask her question.
“What is it like on your planet?” She asked cautiously, and I could see Twilight and rarity looked over from their conversation, now curious as well.
I paused for a moment. “Well, I’m from a colony called Cygnus-3, from a city called New Jerusalem,” I said casually as I leaned back and sipped more from my coffee. “But our homeworld Earth is incredibly similar to this planet.”
“How similar?” Rarity asked, her interest peaked, and I could see that Twilight and Flutter shy also wanted to know.
I cocked my head to the side and reviewed my memory for anything that could be different. “Even though the dominant race here is ponies there, pretty similar,” I answered. Admittedly Earth’s ecosystem and wildlife were way different, and our cultures were different, but other than that, not much was different.
“And of the cities?” Rarity asked, her voice pitching in interest.
“Large mega-cities with everything you could need, the population is astronomical though, so it gets more than a bit crowded in places,” I answered, recalling my childhood in New Jerusalem, years before it was glassed.
“Wow, they must be a sight to see.” Rarity said, her and Twilight’s eyes gleaming in amazement. However, Fluttershy’s brow creased in confusion.
“Not really my taste after eighteen years of living in one, but for you, it would be incredible,” I said while Rarity dreamed of what Earth looked like.
“Well… What... What about the animals?” Fluttershy asked, her brow creased in confusion. I pondered how to answer this. On the one hand, the animals of earth mostly lived outside the cities on designated reserves, but the reserves typically double as zoos, so I figured that would be a bad thing to mention.
“Well, most of the animals of Earth have either adapted to love unnoticed by people in the city or live in the numerous wildlife reserves scattered around the planet,” I answered slowly and carefully, trying not to upset her with the news that they pretty much lived in designated areas for either research or entertainment.
Luckily my answer seemed to satisfy her, and she nodded in understanding and began to dream of Earth. Nodding in satisfaction, I lifted my coffee and drained it, ordering another one as the conversations went on, and I listened in.
Eventually, after several cups of coffee and a few pastries vaguely like a pop tart, I lifted my tac-pad to see what time it was. I nearly choked on my coffee as I realized that it was almost 10:45 am… The rest of the team should be here at about 11:30.
Standing up and grabbing the last pop tart, I made a move for the door. “Excuse me, ladies,” I said as they looked to me in curiosity, “but I need to do a little recon and receive my team. Hopefully, we’ll be back for dinner later this evening.” I reached over and grabbed myself one last coffee. Nodding their heads in understanding, they all waved good-bye.
“Bye, Michael, have a good day,” Fluttershy said quietly. I waved back and made my way out towards the field to the north, that Fluttershy is sweet enough to give a person diabetes.

The Only Easy Day...

Chapter 5: The Only Easy Day…
Firebase Victor Site, Equestria
11:30 A.M.

I stood in the open field that would soon house Firebase Victor, my residence, until further notice. I closed my eyes and let the wind blow over me and ruffle my short hair as I stood in the sunlight and contemplated my own demise… Well, rather, I was contemplating why Del Rio was so glad to cave to my request for a full science suite and team.

I know I bribed the man but come on, Del Rio isn't quite bad enough to submit and give a full Science team just on a hunch… there was definitely an ulterior motive. I just need to figure it out before it probably kills me. I squinted in the sunlight and looked around in a search for anything that Del Rio thought might kill me.

The area was a fairly flat and open field with knee-high grass and shrubbery with a few trees here and there along with some rock outcroppings every once in a while… but nothing particularly dangerous or deadly. I tried to think of any predators that might get me, but Twilight said anything dangerous was pretty much exclusive to the forests, so nothing wildlife like would probably kill me.

I looked down into my helmet as I stared into the visor of my Rogue helmet, almost demanding that it surrender the answers as to why Del Rio was so elated to waste all these resources on an expedition he thought a waste of time.

Sighing in resignation, I placed my helmet back on my head and put the thoughts of my demise on the back burner as I looked into the sky and checked the clock. The clock read 11:45 in the morning, and Del Rio said the pre-fab base would be here at noon, so I continued to scan the noon sky, searching for an incoming Albatross heavy lifter.

I chuckled darkly as I continued to scan the horizon, "I wonder if Del Rio is trying to get me killed via eggheads." I mumbled as I recounted a few of my less than positive experiences with less than cautious eggheads who thought it a good idea to yell, "For Science!" when activating the dormant sentinels and trying to get everybody killed…. good times, good times.

"Captain Hill, this is Charlie five-nine. I'm on approach with your security team and a section of the firebase. Where do ya want this thing?" I heard a gruff southern voice over the comms as the wind swept past me and the familiar roar of a pelican's engines sounded over the wind. I turned around to see the pelican hovering about a hundred feet above the ground, awaiting orders.

I reached down and grabbed a laser designator from my rucksack and pointed out a spot on top of a hill about three hundred feet from me, "Just place down at the waypoint." I said as I designated the waypoint with the designator.

The Pilot grunted and swung his pelican in for the drop and placed the base down and flew back towards my position to drop off my men. I looked at the base and noticed that it looked a lot like the old barracks buildings from those pre-fab bases during the earlier days of the human covenant war.

The only major difference was the now airlock doors and the still building two extra floors in the form of a huge guard tower sticking out of the middle of the small house-sized base, almost like a chimney, an enormous and room-sized chimney but still.

I looked back at the pelican as the five Spartans hopped off the pelican, and the ODST more so stumbled off the pelican. All of them were either looking around at the scenery or were talking and chatting with each other.

Lane and Blake meandered past me up the hill towards the base as Lane set up his experiments, and Blake trekked along to make sure Lane didn't blow himself up or something. Gunny and Wolffe stood and argued with each other over the local wildlife's apparent "Magic" and how it could be explained scientifically.

I looked around at the six men in the field, and a thought dawned on me as the Pelican took off into the blue sky. "Whoa, wait a minute... where's the rest of the people?" I asked, looking at the six soldiers before Matt spoke up. "Well, as for the scientist, they'll be on their way down with the science suite on the Albatross convoy later today. As for your security team…" I felt a heavyweight hit me in the back as I turned around and grabbed my rucksack and looked at Matt, his grey eyes narrowing and his blonde hair trying its damnedest to whip in the wind as he held up a hung-over Brayden.

"Well, as for the security team, you're looking at it." Drawled Matt as he began to drag both his and Brayden's gear towards the base while Brayden limped along, too hungover to care.

As I stood there looking at my team, I finally realized why Del Rio was so elated to get me the science base. It got all of the 'Special Attention' personnel of the Infinity and out of Del Rio's hair.

Feeling just a bit player and frustrated, I readjusted my rucksack and began to walk up towards the base, trailing Matt as we all headed in to check out our new accommodations.

I looked around at the dormitory section. It was a long hallway stretching to the center room. As I walked down the hall, I counted twenty rooms, ten on each side, and looking inside the last room. I noticed Brayden passed out on one bed with the other bed on the other side of the room housing his ruck. Sighing, I walked in and put his Ruck in the locker next to his bed, and walked off, deciding that it would be better to let Brayden sleep off his hangover rather than trying to wake him up and possibly get shot in the face.

I walked into the center room and looked around. The room was moderately sized, with four doorways branching out and a spiral staircase in the center leading up into the room above.

Deciding to explore more, I veered off to the left and walked into a recreational room. There were couches and a few TVs scattered about with a pair of pool tables at the far end of the room alongside a large Wall sized TV attached to some game system that Gunny was tinkering with.

Moving along, I walked into the kitchen on the far end of the room where Wolffe was looking through the pantry taking stock of what we had for food. It wasn't a terribly large kitchen, but it was big enough for the machinery to cook us up some food and serve it to the odd forty of the personnel who would soon inhabit this base.

Walking through the currently uninhabited Mess hall, I noticed a projector mounted to the ceiling above and pointed at the wall so the Mess hall could double as a briefing room if need be.

Continuing onto the next room, I found Blake sweet eyeing a wall of holographic guns that could be used for marksman training should we need to train the scientists on how to use the weapons in the armory without wasting the ammo or meds should they end up shooting someone.

Heading past Blake as he picked up a Rocket launcher, I continued into the room beyond. It was a training gym with a Combative ring to the left and a variety of weight lifting equipment off to the left with a practice dummy against the far wall. As I walked towards the door that leads back into the central room, I passed by Matt as he beat the living snot out of a dummy, executing a variety of taking downs on it.

Entering into the central room again, I ascended the staircase and walked into the tower's second-floor room. It was a large command center on one side, featuring various tools and equipment with Lane monitoring the Comms array, sighing as he rubbed the black stubble on his jaw with a boring look. On the other side of the room was a large wall of weaponry ranging from boxes of handguns and their assorted ammo to lockers of sniper rifles and rocket launchers with ammo.

Whistling in appreciation, Lane spun around in his chair and cocked an eyebrow in appreciation. "Real beauty, isn't it?" Lane stood and walked over to my side, coffee brown eyes glimmering with mischief. "More guns than we could ever use and enough ammo to launch a full-scale war against whatever wants us dead."

Lane walked up to a vault next to the wall and knocked his fist against it with a smug look of satisfaction on his face. "They even were kind enough to give us 500,000 rounds of paint ammo should we feel the need to do some training of the troops." Lane said, his grin growing as he drawled on and walked back over to the Comms array.

I stood there in awe for a few more seconds before shaking myself out of my demeanor. 'This defiantly is a hell of a nice base.' I thought as I tossed my rucksack down next to a seat and pulled up the mission brief on my server account. Hearing a ringing noise, I turned to my left to see the command table light up with the words "Call Incoming."

Looking over to Lane, "Who's calling?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and walking over to the terminal built into the command table.

Lane played with the computer and eventually looked up. "It's the Infinity. It looks like Del Rio wants to make sure we're not destroying our new toys yet." Lane said as he rolled his eyes and got back to messing with the computer systems.

Activating the terminal, a large picture of Del Rio and the rest of the command bridge came upon the Command table's holoprojector. Nodding my head in acknowledgment Del Rio began to talk. "Ah, Captain Hill. Still amongst the living, I see. How is the base treating you?" Del Rio asked, disinterest dripping from his voice.

Figuring I shouldn't pick a fight with the hand that controls our supplies, I answered back. "Wonderfully, sir, the men are settling in nicely, and the weapons systems work, so the scientist should be safe to conduct their research here," I said, and then I began to notice that the bridge crew was moving around and getting ready for what looked like a slip space jump.

Scrunching my face in confusion, I asked, "Sir… Is the Infinity getting ready to jump, sir?" I asked in slight trepidation as I began to worry. We had plenty of supplies, but if the Infinity left us with an extra 34 people to feed, I think we'd last less than a week food-wise.

Smiling smugly, Del Rio straightened and answered, "Why yes, we are. The Infinity has picked up a distress signal in a part of an unknown space. As we are the closest, the Infinity is being mobilized to investigate." I paled slightly as I tried to consider how we were going to get food.

"Ah, but fear not, your science team and four months of food are inbound later this afternoon. I'd say about three-ish. After that, we will jump out for the signal's location." Del Rio said after a few moments of letting me bask in my own fear.

I cursed myself internally for being so easily fooled by Del Rio but then began to wonder what would be so important that the Infinity of all ships would be sent to investigate before it dawned on me like a sack of bricks.

"Wait a moment… They think they've found him, haven't they?" I asked, disbelief heavy in my voice. "They think they've found the Master-Chief? I asked, almost not believing what I was saying.

Almost immediately, Del Rio's smug look melted away to one that spoke of unbridled rage. "This is confidential information, if you or anyone else in that room speak a word of it to anyone else outside that room, I WILL have you court-martialed, is that understood?" seethed Del Rio as he tried to keep this conversation as quiet as possible.

I narrowed my eyes, seeing what he was getting at and feeling a slight bit of indignation at his implications. "Yeah, you don't want the rejects joining the hunt. I gotcha, happy hunting Del Rio. Firebase victor out." I said coldly as I cut the transmission.

Sighing as I sat in my chair, I looked over to Lane and drawled out, "Lane, call a meeting over the intercom. Tell them to meet us up here in the control room." Lane nodded his head and reached over for the microphone to the intercom.

"Attention all personnel, meeting in the command room in five, I repeat meeting in the command room in five. In other words, get yer all asses up here pronto like. Thank you." Said Lane as he sat back down in the chair and stared at me for a few seconds before we both burst out in laughter.

It wasn't terribly funny laughter; rather, it was a relieving fuck all laughter one has when the world has told them to die in a hole, and they say no back to the world and get away with it.

After a few minutes and a loud “GO TA HELL!” from trying to wake Brayden up. The entire Firebase Victor security team was lined up in front of the Command Table as I paced back and forth trying to decide what course of action was best; should I tell them about the Master-Chief, or should I leave them in the dark?

Eventually, I came to a decision and rounded to face my men. “Alright, Gents,” I yelled to get the commotion under control. “I hope you’ve all settled in well cause we’re gonna be here a while. The Infinity is going on a quick errand for a few months, and until they get back, we have domain over the firebase.” I explained as I walked back and forth.

I could see Matt’s face scrunch up in confusion as he, too, wondered what could be so important the Infinity would leave. Silently I pleaded he wouldn’t ask the question so I wouldn’t have to answer, if just for a few more hours. I continued my briefing before Matt could collect his thoughts.

“So, seeing as the good old UNSC has gifted us with some training utensils,” I drawled as I walked over to the weapon’s locker and pulled out a Battle Rifle. “I think it’d be a good idea to test these good old boom-sticks out in a nearby canyon I found,” I explained as I saw the men’s eyes light up like the Fourth of July.

“Lane walked over to a terminal and pulled up a map of the canyon. “Well, I took the measure of scoping it out, and it’s pretty much a box canyon in the middle of nowhere with two little alcoves on each side of the canyon, a metaphorical red and blue base if you would.” Lane said while typing away at the terminal, making the canyon map larger with more details.

“Each side has a variety of small boulders to hide behind, with the center of the canyon boasting a large rock that would make an excellent sniper nest. Any questions, gentlemen?” Explained Lane as he stood next to the terminal with a disinterested look.

Matt chuckled darkly as he picked up the Grenade launcher, grinning devilishly in the half-light of the control room. “Nope, If anything, this seems like a great plan,” Matt said as he held up the grenade launcher in the light to examine it.

The rest of us, excluding Lane, grabbed some gear and got ready for the inevitable firefight that awaited us.

Box canyon “Blood Gulch,” Equestria
2:18 P.M.

Matt shrunk behind the boulder as another sniper round ripped through the air and impacted the earth behind him. “Hey, Mike?” Matt Yelled across the small distance, separating him from Wolffe and me as we all hid behind boulders from Brayden’s sniper fire. “Remember how I said this was a great plan? I lied.” Matt Yelled as he let off a burst of Assault Rifle rounds at Brayden up on the rock. Matt looked back across and yelled, “If anything, this is the worst plan ever… of all time.”
I rolled around the corner, rolling my eyes as I lined up a shot with the Battle Rifle and tried to suppress Brayden before he fired back. Crouching behind the barrier of stone between Brayden and me and I wondered where we went wrong.
The fight started pretty easy. Matt had blown Gunny up with a well-placed Grenade, and Blake had finally fallen under a barrage of Assault Rifle fire and Grenades when he tried to ambush us in our base. But Brayden… Good god, Brayden was just destroying us with that sniper rifle. Of course, it didn’t help that Matt’s left leg was painted from a good shot by Gunny, so the Odds of Matt going anywhere quick were slim to none.
“Guys, try and keep him busy,” Wolffe yelled as he holstered his DMR and grabbed his sniper rifle. “I’ll try and peg him.” Matt and I nodded and rounded our respective rocks to play sniper bait. As Brayden stood to take the shot, Wolffe quickly lined up a shot before Brayden noticed the sunlight on Wolffe’s scope, and in a moment of almost cartoonish comedy, Brayden dropped down like a sack of bricks as the sniper bullet passed inches from his helmet.

Swearing quietly, Wolffe yelled while shaking his fist in frustration at Brayden. “Dammit, Brayden, stay still!!” Brayden quickly popped back up, firing a lightning-quick shot with Wolffe clutching his shoulder as the paint residue hardened his armor.
Popping back into cover and laughing with his crow-like cackling laughter, he yelled, “Go to hell ya jackwagons!!!” as he reloaded his rifle.
I kneeled next to Wolffe and checked his armor. Grimacing, I realized his armor had been hit on his shoulder right where the servos for his right arm are. Grimacing in pain, Wolffe looked to me and chocked out a mangled, “W-well…how ba-bad is it?” I looked at him and shook my head. He wouldn't be firing any kind of weapon for the rest of the match with that kind of would.
Hobbling over while firing at Brayden, Matt rolled into cover next to Wolffe and crouched down. Reloading his rifle and panting slightly, Matt looked over and asked quietly, “So… How bad are we doing?” Matt looked down and surveyed Wolffe’s wound as we ducked from the odd sniper bullet.
“Well, at best, we have a very wounded knife, capable soldier…. and at worst, we have a meat-shield.” I said as I checked my Railgun’s charge, I only had one shot left in it, and my Battle Rifle was out of ammo. Wolffe looked up at us with an anxious feel to his movements. “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m good with a knife, right guys?.. Guys?” Wolffe asked as his voice slowly got more and more desperate.
Matt and I looked at each other and silently debated before finally, Matt broke the silence, “Mike, you grab Wolffe and bum rush Brayden’s position, I’ll give you fire support.” Matt said, his grey EOD helmet shining in the sunlight, giving him an intimidating look.

Wolffe looked up and grabbed Matt’s arm in a desperate hold, and yelled, “WHAT?! You’ve got to be kidding me!!”
I looked at Matt and crossed my arms, “I agree with Wolffe.” I said, narrowing my eyes at him behind my helmet, as Wolffe looked to my hope in his eyes. “You should bum rush him with Wolffe. You have the Assault Rifle.” The hope in Wolffe’s eyes died in an instant as I continued on my rant. “I only have a Rail gun. What am I gonna do? Run in and yell, ‘Freeze, let my gun charge so I can kill you.’ I finished with sarcasm dripping from my voice.
Matt waved at his paint-coated leg as he argued back. “So? I have this bum leg. What am I going to do? Hop my way to Brayden’s nest and pray he doesn’t shoot me while Wolffe absorbs more paint than I can carry.” Ranted, Matt As Wolffe covered his aqua-colored Scout helmet’s faceplate. Rolling his eyes, Matt eventually broke the silence.

“Okay, how ‘bout this. We play rock paper scissors. Does the loser have to bum rush Brayden, deal? Matt asked as he made his hands into a proper playing shape. Seeing an opportunity, I nodded to him.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot,” Matt said as he made his hand into a fist. He looked at my hand and asked, “Mike, what’s that?”
My index and middle finger were pointed out, and my thumb was up in the air. “That’s gun, gun beats everything, and you lose,” I said smugly. Matt simply sat there, trying to process what happened before finally facepalming.

Finally, Matt sighed and grabbed Wolffe by the neck and leg, and stood up, “Alright, let's get this over with.” Sighed Matt as he began to hobble out into the line of fine.
“YOU GUYS ARE ASSHOLES!!!” Yelled Wolffe as he and Matt rushed into the line of fire, sniper rounds flying downrange and splattering upon Wolffe’s armor and making him yell out in pain.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, Matt and a now paint covered Wolffe made it to the tower. Matt lowered the now paralyzed Wolffe down next to the tower and patted his armor before climbing up into the tower, with his assault rifle in one hand and a knife in the other.
“I HAS YOU NOW, YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!!” Matt yelled as he jumped into the nest. I waited in anticipation for Matt to yell clear, but Matt finally broke the silence after a minute of silence. “OH YOU RAT SON OF WHO-“
As Matt tried to jump from the tower, the sniper nest exploded in a shower of paint as Matt was sent flying. After a few seconds of airtime, Matt crashed into the dirt by my position. As I tried to shake the ringing from my ears, I realized what happened.
Brayden took his grenades, fashioned a mortar shell out of them, and set them up as a tripwire trap for when we bum-rushed him. I stood and tried to orient myself. The only question now is, where’d Brayden go?
My question was answered by a yell of, “For Valhalla!” As I narrowly ducked under a swinging Sniper Rifle, Brayden tried to knock me out. I spun around and delivered an uppercut to his gut and pushed him back a few feet. With Brayden winded a few feet away, I jumped for my Rail gun and spun around, hoping to catch Brayden off guard.
Turning around, my hopes were soon crushed as Brayden quickly recovered and kicked the Rail gun's barrel to the side, forcing my shot to hit Matt square in the side, causing him to yell out in pain.
Now ammo less, and in a CQB situation with Brayden, I rolled out of the way as Brayden buried the training knife in the dirt. Swinging around, I delivered a blind haymaker to the side of Brayden’s ODST helmet. Rolling with the punch, Brayden pulled up his T-knife and swung around, glancing it off my shoulder plate.
Rolling forward past Brayden, I jumped into the air and kicked back, planting my boot on Brayden’s back causing him to flail forward and drop his knife.

Sprinting forwards, I rolled over the T-knife and grabbed it, bringing it down like a hammer as I came to my feet only of Brayden to catch my wrist in his hand and deliver a series of brutal punches to my stomach before I finally dropped the T-knife from my hands.

Kicking me forward next to Matt, Brayden reached down and grabbed the knife before sprinting towards my position. Seeing Brayden charge at me, I rolled backward and grabbed Matt by his shoulder and lifted him to block the training knife’s arc.

As the knife clanged against Matt’s helmet, he yelled out in pain, “Ow! What is with you dicks and beating up my dead body?” He asked as I threw him forwards onto Brayden and rolled over, running over to Matt’s body and grabbing the training knife from his chest and bringing it down onto Brayden’s left hand, causing a small electric shock to paralyze his left arm.

Roaring in pain, Brayden brought his right hand up and slapped the side of my helmet, knocking me onto my side before grabbing his T-knife from his left hand and bringing it down in a hammer strike towards my chest.

Catching his wrist in my hand, we wrestled for a minute, each of us adamantly refusing to give in before I finally countered Brayden and threw him over my head and drew his T-knife over his neck, stunning him and ending the match.

As I sat in the dirt and rested, everybody’s armor unlocked, and they all slowly began to get up and stretch. I stood and helped Brayden to his feet as he clasped a hand on my shoulder and nodded.

“That was the single most epic knife fight I’ve had in a while, man,” Brayden said as he laughed in a less crackling tone. “You did well,” he said as he reached up and took off his helmet, tan unruly hair spiking up and emerald eyes glimmering in mischief as he smiled as wide as he could.

“Yeah, well, both of you are dicks.” Said Matt as he hobbled over, clutching his side in pain. “You, Shot me with the Rail gun, and you sliced me in the head.” Matt grimed as he rolled his shoulders and grunted in pain.

“Well, ALL of you are dicks!” Yelled Wolffe as we all wheeled to face him as he slowly hobbled over to us. “YOU two argued over how to use me as a meat shield. And YOU shot me full of paint.” Yelled Wolffe as he smoothed down his Jet-black hair and massaged his sore muscles.

Quietly Brayden laughed and muttered, “It’s true, I wasted almost all my ammo on him for the hell of it.” He snickered as Wolffe stared daggers at us.

“Guys! We have a situation here!” I turned around to see Lane, followed by Gunny and Blake, run up to us. Lane handed me a Tac pad and explained. “We just received a message from the Albatross. They’re in trouble.” Lane said with a grim look on his face. I activated the tac pad and watched the message.

There was an Albatross pilot in the video, and he was struggling to evade bolts of what looked like fire. “This is Papa-539. We are being pursued by a hostile, they’re just firing warning shots right now, but they’re getting progressively closer. We need assistance ASAP!” Repeat this is Papa-539 requesting assistance over.”

I looked up from the video and looked to Lane. “Alright, where are they now.”
Lane pointed up and looked up, “Well, right now, up.” We all looked up to see the Albatross being pursued by what looked to be a rainbow Pegasus firing bolts of fire from its forehead with a flock of pegasi following it all wearing armor.

“Is that a fucking rainbow Pegasus shooting fireballs? Jesus Christ, I need a drink.” Matt said as he faces palmed and limped back towards where the two warthogs were parked.

I placed my hand to my helmet and tried to raise Papa, “Papa-539, this is Captain Hill of Firebase Victor. If you can try and land near our base, we’ll deal with the flock of seagulls following you.”

“Roger that Hill, they’re missing right now, and if I land, I think they’ll follow me down so if you can try and meet us there.” Replied Papa as he tried to dodge another firebolt.

I looked over to Lane as I signaled us to head for the warthogs. “Lane, can you outfit the Hog’s gun with paint rounds before we get back to base,” I asked as I hopped into the shotgun seat of the Warthog Matt was driving.

Lane climbed up into the gunner’s spot and popped the ammo off the gun. “Fifteen minutes to do something techs take an hour to do. Do you even have to ask Mike? I’ll be done in five.” Replied Lane as he crouched down and started to change the ammo.

I nodded to Matt, and we began to drive towards the base with Brayden and his group behind us, loading their rifles with paint rounds. It looks like it’s time to place peacekeeper.

Gods and Demons

From War to Peace
Chapter 6
Gods and Demons

I grimaced as I watched the albatross quickly descend, fire trailing from one of the engines, and landed in the field outside our base. As we drove up and out of the canyon, I quickly loaded my sidearm with shredder rounds.

Reaching over and tapping Matt on the shoulder, I singled out his comm line, “How much farther?” I asked as he shifted the warthog gears and made the roaring engine quiet to a modest growl as our team flew over the fields, briefly catching air every few seconds.

“About two more kilometers.” Matt finally answered, his voice grim and determined as he silently asked the question that was lingering in all of our minds. Sighing and placing my sidearm away, I sat a little taller in the warthog and looked over to Brayden’s warthog and activated the all call on our comms.

“Alright, gents, those contacts looked about as professional as we’ll see on this planet, so I want everybody locked and loaded with stun rounds just in case…” I yelled over the comm. Signaling in acknowledgment, my team began to load their weapons with the paint rounds. We may not be out to kill, but if anything got in our way, we’d be ready to go down swinging.

As I sat in the warthog, I began to run through scenarios as to whom these ponies were. Considering Twilight didn’t warn me, I’m betting they are an expected element. I looked ahead as a few more ponies descended from the sky; all were wearing golden armor and were either armed with a spear or what looked like a mounted ballista, meaning that whoever these people were was likely the best armed in the region. Frowning, I sat back down and tried to channel the diplomat in me. I had a horrible feeling I was going to need it.

“ETA one minute, guys, hold onto your guns. We’re going to make an entrance.” Matt yelled as he braced himself. With a sinking feeling in my gut, I reached up and grabbed the roll cage as we approached a hill with a rock jutting out of the top of it in an almost ramp-like way. Paling in horror, I looked over and realized what he was going to do.

“Oh no, don’t you dare you to rat son of a bi-“ The rest of my protest was drowned out by the roaring of the warthog engine as Matt shifted the warthog into a lower gear and gunned the engine. As we hit the ramp and flew into the air, I managed to look down into the assembled crowd of ponies and odd humans.
At the forefront of the crowd was the pony who towered over the rest and had a white body, a man literally made of a rainbow, a golden crown on her head, and most humorously of all, wide eyes and an agape jaw.
The rest of her crowd was too shocked to respond as we landed in between the two crowds and swerved to a stop. Clutching my seat, I looked over at Matt with pure malice in my eyes as he put the warthog in park and casually looked over to the awestruck pilot and two scientists.
That bastard knew I hated when he did those kinds of jumps, and as I was about to tear him a new one, he managed to beat me to the punch when he took his helmet off and, grinning like a maniac, looked over to the pilot and with a grin that should have gotten his teeth punched out said, “Somebody calls 911?”
Silence reigned for a moment as Brayden pulled up behind us, dismounted from the warthog, walked up to Matt, and slapped him across the face. Yelping in pain, Matt looked into Brayden’s helmet and asked in an incredibly undignified tone, “What the hell was that for?” sighing in shame, I got out of the warthog and signaled for Lane to grab Brayden and follow me.

“You damn well KNOW what that was for, boy.” Brayden replied as he crossed his arms on his chest. “I mean, seriously, what kinda one-liner is that? God boy, what the hell did I teach back in the war that didn’t sink in?” Vaguely I registered that Lane had grabbed Brayden’s arm and was slowly dragging him over to my position in front of the white Pegasus… unicorn… pony.
As I stared up into her eyes half a foot above my head, I understood why the scientist was scared. While she didn’t necessarily give off a threatening aura, she certainly gave off an aura of power, and it showed. Most of the other ponies I’ve met have been small and, while telekinetic, not much of an issue, but the one before looked as if she could rear up and bash my skull in with a hoof and not even try.

“Who are you?” I shook out of my reverie as I registered she had spoken. I unconsciously reached for my sidearm but stopped when I remembered that I had loaded it with shredder rounds and that my friends were behind my so I had support.

“I am Captain Michael Hill of the UNSC Infinity,” I said, trying to keep the shakes out of my voice as she narrowed her eyes at me in a distrusting manner. Gesturing to my right and left, I continued, “These men flanking me are colonel Brayden Donovan and Captain Lane Rapp, respectively.” Lane nodded respectively, and I could tell that he was dying to study the local wildlife. Meanwhile, Brayden simply stood to the side and nodded with his arms crossed his hand on his foot-long knife’s handle. I really need to tell him to keep his devil’s toothpick in the car.
The White pony looked at each of us, and her expression was generally neutral for both Lane and me, but her expression seemed to be a slight bit pitiful or even sorrowful as she stared at Brayden. In my peripheral vision, I could see Brayden tensing and clenching a hand to his knife. “My name is Celestia, I am the Princess of Equestria, and I must ask what you are doing here.” The White horse eventually responded as she looked to stare me in the face.
Smiling, I decided that it might be fortuitous to talk face to face, so I reached up and removed my helmet, letting the cool afternoon airbrushed my face. With a grin plastered across my face, I responded in kind to Celestia, “A pleasure to meet you. We’re here as part of a science mission to study the rather peculiar wildlife’s abilities.” I said as she looked down at me with curiosity in her eyes. I looked over to see Lane take off his recruit helmet and nod as well, his black stubble of a beard offsetting his pale skin and amber eyes.

“If you don’t mind me asking, where are you from that these abilities would seem so outlandish? I’ve traveled this globe, and never before have I seen anything akin to your kind.” Celestia responded as she scanned both Lane and me over. I could see several guards looking on in fear; most were a tad bit shorter than us and looked rather mystified at our appearance.

“We are from a place far, far away called Earth. It’s a lot like this planet, just more varied, I suppose.” I said cautiously, Del Rio was an ass about protocol, but even Lasky would have my ass court-martialed if I told Celestia about Earth.
As I tried my best to manage a poker face and not be forced into detail, I could see Celestia’s curiosity peak, and her stance changed to a more cautious stance as she likely ran through possibilities. “Is there any reason as to why you can’t tell me where you and your allies are from?” I could tell that she wasn’t going to be fooled by any lies or attempts to throw her off, but I couldn’t just tell her about Earth.

“Errr,” I quietly said.
I could tell Celestia wasn’t terribly amused by the look on her face. “Why ever not? Is there a reason your people are xenophobic and would rather sneak in a science base rather than communicate with the area’s leader?” Celestia asked, an accusing tone in her voice.
I cringed a little and frowned. She had us on that aspect. I could see in my peripheral vision the guards were getting a tad bit jittery and seemed to have an itchy trigger finger… or spear hoof as the case warrants.

Sighing at my silence with a frustrated look on her face, Celestia began to speak, “Listen, you seem like a good group of people, and if it were my way, I’d have a representative occupy your base and tell me if you were doing anything questionable… but my court will never stand for such and as such I must either ask you to leave and come back after we have a designated area, or we must take you into custody until you either tell us what we need to know… What say you?”
I could see the sincerity in her eyes, but I knew that I couldn’t tell her. I was about to respond when I was cut off by the sound of a knife being removed from its sheath and a growl from my right.

“Well, considering we just got done with a 25-year war with another species, so we’re just a little paranoid.” I paled and looked over to Brayden, who had removed his knife and was clutching it for dear life. “So how about no.”
I could feel the cold fist of fear in my gut, and the crowd around me seemed to reflect such. The pony soldiers were quickly arming themselves with spears and what looked to be shoulder-mounted ballista. I could hear Lane and the others shifting and murmuring with occasional swear and cocking of a weapon. Things were going downhill fast.
Whipping around to look into Celestia in the face, I could quickly see that any chance of a peaceful resolution was quickly going out the window. “What war are you talking about?” Asked Celestia, her eyes narrowing as she thought of an ultimately more sinister thought. “If you are attempting to establish a colony here to recover from your war, we WILL resist.” Celestia nearly yelled as her guards soon leveled their weapons, and she stood to her full height. To be honest, she was terrifying, with the afternoon sun seeming to be directly behind her head.
Stuttering, I tried to assure her that wasn’t our intention, but Brayden beat me to the punch, “ Resist, huh? Just say it now, you’ll attack us with intent to kill if we don’t comply, don’t you!” Brayden yelled with rage, barely concealed in his voice.
Turning faster than I thought possible, I turned to him. In the mid-afternoon light, Brayden’s knife glistened and shone dangerously as he readied for what I was sure was an attack.

“Brayden!” I yelled in an urgent but controlled voice. I could tell that if I couldn’t get him under control soon, the guards wouldn’t wait for an order to fire. He snapped back to reality with a sudden jerk and turned in response to argue, but before he could even mutter a word, I cut him off. “Go back to the warthog,” I said calmly, trying as hard as I could to be the superior officer and not flip on Brayden.
For a moment, Brayden’s eyes shone with a fury that burned with the intensity of a thousand suns. Still, before I could repeat myself, Brayden put his knife away and walked to the warthog, the few scientists and my own men parting the way as Brayden stalked back to the Albatross. Praying to recover this peace talk, I looked to Celestia to see her staring at Brayden. However, I was beyond surprised to find her stare filled with pity and sorrow, if I had to guess; putting that note aside in my mind, I coughed nervously and began to talk. “I am very sorry, ma’am, Brayden has been through a lot he’s… he’s.”

“Broken,” Celestia said sadly, finishing my sentence; I looked in surprise at her guess. “He’s been through so much. What happened to him?” she asked, sorrow and pity obvious in her eyes.
Contemplating my next words, I bitterly laughed at the irony that Brayden’s outburst might have just saved us. “Well, a better question might be what didn’t happen to him? Long story short, he has been in the war since day one, the fall of Harvest.” I said, my voice losing its edge as I mentioned Harvest. I could see I had Celestia’s full attention, and honestly, I contemplated telling more of our story but thought better of it as I considered the backlash from Del Rio. “He has seen more people be taken from this world than any man should.” I finished, crossing my arms and looking back to see him and Matt quietly arguing, a look of understanding on Matt’s face.

“I see,” Celestia spoke, her tone quiet and reserved and her head held a little bit lower.
Seeing an opportunity, I tried to negotiate. “Look, all we want is to study your world, that is all. We are not here to do any harm. You have my word.” I said pleadingly as I motioned around to the rest of the area; for a few moments, Celestia paused and thought on the matter, her eyes darting to and fro as she considered what to say.

Eventually, she sighed heavily and answered, “You can stay and do your research on one condition that you don’t disturb the balance of things.” She said with a weary smile and heavy eyes that gave off a very maternal and comforting feeling much different than the god-like aura from before.

I let out a breath I didn’t even know I had been holding as the guards surrounding us relaxed a bit as well. I looked around at the now much friendlier guards and then at my tired squad. Smiling from ear to ear, I responded with a simple, “Sounds like a deal to me.” As I spoke, I reached my hand out for a handshake. Celestia looked down at my hand and raised an eyebrow; I blushed in embarrassment and mirthlessly laughed. I could hear Lane behind me, chuckling silently. “Sorry, old earth tradition,” I said, trying to play it off.

Celestia laughed quietly and responded, “Not a problem, though, in the future, I’d appreciate a warning before you set up a base.” Celestia dryly said, a warm smile on her face as she nodded a little bit.
I laughed sincerely and, after a moment, responded, “Sure, next time, I’ll ask for the locals to take me to their leader.” I said, chuckling at the chance to get to use the age-old cliché. Celestia raised an eyebrow in response before shaking her head and turning to leave.

“Well, if that is all I’ll leave you to your compatriots, it looks like you have some unpacking to do.” Said Celestia as she spread her wings and, after a moment, leaped into the air and began to fly towards the far horizon, her personal honor guards also taking flight and following her off into the horizon.
I stood in the now empty field in front of the Albatross for a few moments longer, trying to reign in my heartbeat before finally succumbing to gravity and falling back onto my butt and leaning back to enjoy the summer sun.
After a few moments, I heard a figure approaching on my left and sigh, “Well, another day, another disaster avoided, and even a first contact situation saved… I wonder how tomorrow will be at this rate.” Spoke Lane dryly as he sat down next to me and scratched at his black stubble disinterestedly.

I laughed mirthlessly, having no other reason to laugh other than just to laugh. “Yeah, I wonder if this how it felt at harvest…” I said in a tired and weary voice. We sat there in the field for a while before Lane sighed heavily.

“You know we have to unpack the automated builders and set them up before sundown for the scientists, right?” Asked Lane rhetorically. I blanched and facepalmed as the crushing properties of reality caught up to me.

“Lane, why’d you have to go and kill my joy there?” I asked as I stood and stretched in the early evening light. As I began to walk back to the Albatross and the rest of my staff, I could hear Lane chuckling in the background tauntingly.
Rolling my eyes, I marched up to the pilot who was ordering Matt, Blake, and Wolffe around the albatross, having them carry the large cases and push the large auto-builders out into the field. I passed more than a few scientists gossiping on the way to the pilot and got a good look at him. At about 5’8” with a lithe but muscled build and his helmet still on, he looked like the model marine.

“Papa!”Ass I got close, I yelled out. He turned to look over his shoulder and nonchalantly waved at me. “Give me a minute. Hey Cline, please at least try not to break the important stuff there. This gear isn’t like your first date. Use some finesse.” Growled Papa as Matt lumbered out of the Albatross, exciting a round of laughter and snickers from Wolffe and Blake.
I bit my tongue as I struggled not to laugh at Matt as he carried what looked to be an entire Chemistry lab the size of a warthog out of the Albatross and place it next to its fellows. Leaning over, trying to catch his breath, Matt gave a one-finger salute as his response to our now rapturous laughter.

“I always wondered how we’d do as movers. Maybe I should start renting these guys out for a little extra revenue for the squad.” I manage to choke out as I tried to suppress my laughter.

“Yeah, well, you’d lose a lot of money on damages. You boys have no finesse.” Said a smooth woman’s voice from behind me. Whipping around, I made a shocking discovery.

“First Lieutenant Sasha Hawkins.” As I stared, I had to fight off the urge for my jaw to drop. Standing in front of me was a perky and snarky brunette, hair brushed over to form a wave over her left temple and tied up in back for a small ponytail. Her amber eyes peeked up in interest as I continued to stare; luckily, Matt managed to save me.

Moving with a speed that shouldn’t have been possible with his supposed injuries, Matt was in front of me, “Hey, kiss me if I’m wrong, but dinosaurs still exist, right?” Matt said in one of his corniest pickup lines I’d ever heard in our long friendship. For a moment, her mouth hung open before she burst into triumphant laughter, and Matt’s shoulders sagged in confusion. Briefly, I had a moment of déjà vu as I could Blake and Wolffe betting in the background.

“Ha-ha-ha, then hoo boy, had I been from any other colony than Saurus VI, you might have gotten a slap, but on my planet, there ARE dinosaurs, but nice try Casanova.” Said Sasha as she tried to suppress her laughter. For a moment, Matt looked puzzled before her statement took full effect, and he laughed Mirthlessly and scratched the back of his head bashfully.

“Well fuck, that sure as shit backfired like a homemade IED.” Said Matt, a hint of bitterness in his tone as he lifted his grey EOD helmet and placed it on his head. “Well, I’ll get back to moving stuff around. Welcome to Equestria LT.” With that, Matt briskly marched off towards the containers.

“Poor guy, the one woman that wouldn’t have actually worked on… Oh well, I need to get back into orbit,” said Sasha as she replaced her helmet, her deep voice returning through the voice filters, “the Infinity’s meters still ticking.” As Sasha began to walk into her now empty Albatross, I cocked my eyebrow in curiosity and looked to the now falling sun. If I had to guess, it had to be passed four on this planet.

Following her up to the small cockpit at the front, I could hear the systems beeping and warming up as she went through pre-flight checks and tried the radio. “UNSC Infinity, this is Papa-485, do you read? Infinity, do you copy?” Asked Sasha over the comms, her only response being static. Sighing and leaning back, she muttered under her breath with a hint of bitterness, “Damn horses must have hit my comms array.”

As I walked up behind her, I had to think of how to put this, our base was only equipped with bedding for 40 people, and even though I’m sure we have a vehicle maintenance bay with the facility, it would still be interesting. “Lieutenant,” I said as I came up behind her, she quickly turned behind her and asked me confusedly, “Captain? I’m about to leave, so why are you on my bird?”

Scratching my head with a sheepish look, I asked her the question that would complicate things, “I’m gonna guess Del Rio left out the fact that the Infinity was making a slipspace jump at 3 o’clock with you or not?” As I said this, I could practically see her amber eyes widen behind her visor and hear her jaw drop in disbelief.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” She asked loudly as she stood up and grabbed her helmet, fury laced with disbelief in her voice. Quickly turning around, she pulled up the display on her nav computer, and sure enough, the time was 4:13. Yelling in a fury, she turned around and kicked her chair,

As she continued to vent for a few minutes, I stood off to the side quietly. I could tell she was speaking Russian but could only translate a few words, but those few words were rather energy-filled, and I could tell she was pissed. Eventually, she quit her punching and threw her helmet blindly in my direction before slumping to the floor. ”Sorry,” She said quietly as I caught her helmet and gave it back to her. “Just can’t believe that ass would leave me here. What was so bad about this damn place that he’d give me an untold time limit and leave me without me?” She asked while throwing her hands in the air in frustration.”

Laughing bitterly, I stood and began to walk away, “That my dear Lieutenant would be our merry band of misfits. I’ll have the boys arrange sleeping quarters to be built somewhere along with hygiene facilities.” I said as I walked off. I could hear her quietly grunt in acknowledgment and walked back outside to find an astounding sight in the evening sun.

“Twilight, what are you-?” I began to ask before I noticed Pinkie Pie and the rather large cart of food next to them as they looked around at the scientist and my men. “Oh, right, the food,” I said, slightly dumbstruck. In all the rush of today, I forgot that yesterday I’d asked for some snacks. Reaching up, I keyed the comms button on my head and keyed Gunny and Blake, “Gunny, Blake. I need you two to escort some exceptional guests up to the base and deliver some food to the pantry. They bring sweet gifts, so play nice.” I said as I walked up to Twilight, trying her best to keep Pinkie Pie from bouncing into too much stuff.

“Michael, what is this place?” Asked Twilight, awe evident in her violet eyes as she stared at one of the science base sections constructing itself in the valley beneath our base. I smiled at her awe and motioned around me.

“Well, this lovely little complex is Firebase Victor,” I said, no small amount of pride in my voice.

“Wow, I’ve… I’ve never seen anything like it.” Said Twilight as she stared at one of the scientists calibrating another auto-assembler to move down into the valley. Even Pinkie Pie stopped for a moment as sparks shot from two modules welding together to form an atrium.

“Yeah, it’s definitely something…” I said I watched some of the modules beginning to form into what actually looked like a science facility. Looking over to see Gunny and Blake coming up the hill, I decided to get to the point. “So,” I said as I looked over to the cart the size of a warthog filled with food. “Unless you guys are having a picnic this far away from the town, I assume this is the food I asked from… I got to say, I was expecting some treats, not a banquet for a castle…” I said as I stared at the cart, my mouth watering at the memory of the food.

“R-right.” Said Twilight shaking her head and focusing, “We figured we’d bake a lot for you guys to store but, it looks like you got more people than we thought.” Said Twilight as she looked around at the mob of scientists.

“Whelp looks like I got more baking to do!” Said Pinkie Pie with a smile on her face as she looked at the enormous workload; I had to admit I admired her tenacity for work.

I was quick to assuage Twilight’s fear as I chuckled, “Nah, don’t worry, the scientist and my guys will make this wagon last a while, believe you me.” I said as Blake and Gunny came up on my flank. “Ah, here are you’re escorted to the pantry. Captains Blake Hubbard and Ike Sims. We just call him Gunny, though. However, before either of my friends could speer, Pinkie Pie was up bouncing in front of me and unleashing a barrage of questions upon Blake.

“OH, BOY! Where are you guys from? Why are you wearing that armor? What’s the UNSC? How do you guys like it here?” Asked Pinkie Pie as she jumped up in his face. As she did this, Blake took off his crimson Soldier helmet, and smiling ear to ear, answered her in rapid succession.

“That would be Reach, cause it’s awesome, my bosses, and it’s very nice here, in that order.” Responded Blake with a smile. Gunny just shook his head and removed his yellow Air assault helmet.

“If you'll follow me please, preferably before Blake begins his description of the Spartan corp.” Said Gunny as he grabbed the cart and began to march towards the base with food in tow and Blake and Pinkie animatedly talking as they ascended the hill.

Laughing quietly, Twilight and I shared a few partings. “Well, hopefully, I’ll see you around.” Said Twilight as she began to catch up with the others. Chuckling, I waved and walked over to Matt, who was currently directing the scientists and assigning living quarters.

“Matt, you got everything covered here?” I asked as he keyed a holo-pad and did inventory. “Yeah, I got this cove- Hey doc, try not to get in the way of the machines. They will crush you if you get in the way.” As a scientist, Growled Matt finished his readings and dashed out of the way of the assembler. Nodding my head in confirmation, I sighed and decided that I’d eventually need to confront Brayden and now was probably the best time.

“Mike,” Yelled Matt as I began to walk away back to base, I turned to see him take his helmet off and his grey helmet, and his eyes betrayed his worry. “Be careful man, Brayden’s gone through a lot of shit in his years, and it’s left him a little bit more than broken.” Matt ran a hand through his hand, sighed as he put his helmet hand on his hip, and shrugged. “I guess what I’m trying to say is be understanding, please.” Said Matt as he replaced his helmet and went back to work.

“Yeah… I know… here goes.” I said as I walked up the hill into the base. Passing the halls, I registered that the scientists were moving in well and accommodating very well. Moving through the Atrium and the gym and into the range, I come across Brayden unloading a magnum clip into the target at the end of the range.

Sighing in frustration, I thought about how best to approach this; ‘Brayden, we need to talk’ no, that was way too stuffy, ‘Hey man, what’s going on?’ Nah, that’ll get my ass shot full of paint or lead. I knew I should have sent Matt to do this…’ I scrunched my brows in concentration and almost missed Brayden talking.

“There a problem there, Captain?” Asked Brayden as he unloaded his magazine and inserted another one, his voice cold and calculating, usually only a tine reserved for either Del Rio or a diplomat that needed to be pleased, neither of which was a good category to be in.

“Brayden, What the fuck happened out there?” I asked briskly. I figured the direct approach was the best, “You damned near got us killed, cause you lost your shit there man, Never in the five years we’ve worked together have I seen you lose it that bad, so what’s happening?” I questioned as Brayden fired off another clip into the head of a brute shaped target at the end of the range.

For several moments Brayden just stood there, his pistol smoking in his hand and his body white and tensed as if expecting the brute target to come to life and rush us. Suddenly the silence was broken by the clattering of his spent ammo clip clattering to the floor and his pistol being placed gently on the table in front of him.

“MacArthur once said that the soldier, above all else, prays for peace… for he must carry the wounds of war the longest… I fully agree with him except for one thing.” It was then that Brayden looked me in the face, and I could see his mud. Brown eyes betrayed a fear that I was not used to seeing in my bombastic, upfront friend. For once, I actually could see the age in his eyes. The 25 years of war had made him an old veteran that was just so tired.
“You gents have only been fighting for something like a decade, a good time, and at that point, you still remember the peace and pray for it, but add another five or so years and peace only becomes a vague memory, a scent or sound that reminds you that war and fighting aren’t all there is to life… but by 20 years of war, peace is just another word, just another memory that we still lust for but can no longer achieve.”

By now, I could see slight tears forming in his eyes and a slight shaking in his left hand that would normally hold his weapon. Once again, I couldn’t shake how utterly old he looked, Brayden was only about 45, and a good decade of that had been in cryo transit. Still, here pouring his heart out and trying his damnedest not to lose his grip, he looked decades older.
“That Michael is what happened out there, I remembered Harvest, and I couldn’t remember the last time I knew peace, so yeah, I assumed they would try us. I just lost it when she mentioned being detained cause, to my mind, that meant interrogated,” At this point, he snorted and walked away from the bench and through the door, but as he reached the frame, he stopped and looked back over his shoulder and spoke, “Guess this old soldier has no place left in this world.”
With that, he was out the door and into the atrium before I could even utter a word. Sliding down the wall, I sighed, I knew this would be a hell of a talk, but still, that was heavy… I almost felt pity for Brayden but knew he wouldn’t want it, so I just sat there on the plate metal and looked up at the green and grey colored walls and just thought about what Brayden had said and what demons we all faced on our own.

Still, Brayden’s words echoed through my skull, and I found myself asking more than a few questions; do we, soldiers, still belong anymore? Is there really such a thing as peace anymore? For Christ’s sake, who am I to judge with the loss issues I have? Sighing and running a hand through my hair, I stood and headed for the command room. I had a feeling I’d be reading through a lot of reports tonight.

Author's Note

Sorry for it being late, my friend and I had a crazy problem with writer's block and with said read and enjoy.

The Ghosts that Linger

From War to Peace
Chapter 7
The Ghosts That Linger

Firebase Victor, Equestria
April 3, 2556
7:40 P.M.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes as I finished reviewing yet another initial report from the science team; they were all essentially the same, requests for funding and clearance, endorsements, and technical jargon that would leave my head spinning.

Turning the light on my desk off and placing the report away in a file, I looked around the command center; the room was black as pitch with only a few lights on in the darkness and the UNSC eagle screen savers rotating in the darkness. As I stared at the symbol, I couldn’t help but think about what Brayden had said earlier, ‘Is he right? Is peace ever truly possible again? Hell, after the war, I sacrificed my body to become another tool of war… Maybe peace is just an illusion.’ My mind plagued me with these thoughts as I stared into the darkness.

“Ahem,” noise to my right shook me out of my daze, and I looked over to my right to see Sasha standing at the foot of the stairs that lead to the top of the tower where she, Lane, and Gunny had set up a small cabin for her to stay in. A smirk plastered her porcelain white face, “Drifting off, captain?” She mocked coyly, with an eyebrow cocked. “I thought you Spartans had stamina enhancements?”

I looked her over as I stood and stretched, her raven black hair hung around her shoulders and covered the top of her standard-issue UNSC PT top, though it looked just a size too small, smirking to myself in the dark, I now understood why I thought she had broad shoulders. Her hands were positioned on her hips, and her UNSC marine sweatpants hung loosely on her slim runner’s frame. Her hair and skin shone with a slight gleam of sweat, and her shirt and pants were damp. In her arms were a towel, some PT shorts, and a pair of cherry red boxing gloves suggesting she’d just returned from the gym.

Rolling my shoulders and walking out of the darkness, and leaning against the command table, I shrugged. “Hey, I wasn’t sleeping; I was just thinking,” I said quietly as my mind returned to Brayden’s broken look. Shaking myself out of it, I smirked and pretended to pout, “Besides, the Stamina Enhancements are for other things.” I said, and Sasha laughed as she leaned against the railing that leads up to her room.

“Oh, right… ‘Pondering’ maybe if you were pondering the insides of your eyelids.” She mocked back as I threw my hands up in the air and shook my head in surrender. Laughing even harder now, Sasha had to reach over and grab the railing to make sure she didn’t fall. However, she soon stood back up, and her eyes held a mischievous look that boded ill for me.
“Well then, Michael,” her tone low and slightly seductive, “You’ll have to show those enhancements sometime.” She said as she leaned forward and showed some slight cleavage. I flushed and started to stammer as my mind ran through countless scenarios, most ending with me doing something that would either get me court-martialed, sent to hell, or both.
Smirking, she raised her boxing gloves and snickered, “In the ring, of course.” She said, barely controlling her choked fits of giggling before bursting into laughter and falling flat on her ass on the stairs, hands clenching her sides.
For several moments I stood there, jaw agape, and faced a bloody crimson as she continued her laughing fit before she finally managed to stand and smirk at me, “Ha heh heh, sorry bout that, couldn’t resist.” She said as she began to climb the stairs, tears of laughter slipping out her eyes. “I’ll see you in the morning, Captain.” Winking, she left out the top hatch, and I stood there for a moment longer before a loud cough from my left shook me out of my shock.
To my left, at the top of the stairs into the atrium, stood gunny, his short choppy hair tousled and a grin spreading from ear to ear. “I only caught the end of that conversation, but I get the feeling now is a bad time…” he said in his typical twangy accent.
Breaking into a new blush, I fought it down and glared daggers at him, causing him to break out laughing. “What did you want, Ike,” I said slightly menacingly to try and get him to drop the event by using his first name. Eventually, he ceased laughing and smiled genuinely as he held up a tac pad with a movie on it. “It’s movie night in a mess, and we’re watching an old 21st-century classic, The Book of Eli.” He said as he handed me the pad to read the description. “Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, great movie with a decently low budget.”
I smirked as I listened to Gunny, continue to describe the movie. Gunny loved movies, and whenever we could, he’d try and get us to watch some movies as a team, old classics from the last five centuries. Some were really good, others not so much. “… So, you in?” Asked Gunny as he started his way down the stairs.
Smiling and handing him the tac pad, I began to walk down alongside him. “Sure, why not,” I said as we slowly walked down the stairs. Smirking, Gunny looked over at me, snickered.
“So, Stamina enhancements? That’s your new pick up line?” Asked Gunny as he snickered at my no doubt beat red face. I reached over and punched him in the shoulder with slight force.
“Shut up. She was hitting on me.” I growled as he broke out into laughter again. Growling and mumbling, I stalked ahead of Gunny, “It’s Matt and Brayden’s fault, been hanging around them too much, need to wash my mind out with soap.” I quietly grumbled to myself as I stalked past the rec room and kitchen into the mess hall where Brayden, Blake, Lane, and Matt had set up some couches and popcorn in front of a holo-projection screen.
Plopping down on the far right couch and grabbing some popcorn from the nearby table, I sat down and puffed in indignation as I began to eat the popcorn while waiting for Gunny to start the show. Both Blake and Lane glanced over at me with inquisitive looks, but a glare to both of them quickly silenced any possible questions.
Coming through the kitchen and walking up to the front of the room, Gunny smirked and began his typical grandiose introduction, “Gentlemen and friends, comrades and brothers, tonight I present to you a classic movie of hope and survival in a wasteland, I present to you… The Book of Eli.” Gunny said as he bowed and activated the movie from his tac pad, quickly taking a seat by Matt and Brayden’s sides.
I sighed and pulled up a chair. Once the movies started, the lights in the mess hall dimmed.
“What are you guys watching?” A voice asked from the hall on our left. Looking over, I saw Twilight walking into the room, her violet eyes curiously scanning the Wall as the opening credits played.
“How did you…” I began to ask as she trotted over next to the couch I was sitting on, the entire time her eyes were glued to the screen. Shaking my head, I decided to see if she wanted to join us. “Never mind. We just started to watch a movie called The Book of Eli, care to join us?”
“Certainly. Is it alright if my friends can join?” She asked, her eyes lighting up in joy.
“Sure, the more, the marrier,” I said, shrugging. Smiling from ear to ear, Twilight looked into the darkness of the hallway and nodded. Almost immediately, a pink blur rushed into the room, followed by the rest of the ponies I’d met over the course of my stay on Equestria. Pinkie Pie galloped over to Blake and sat down next to them, and their conversation drowned out by the opening scene’s music. The rest of the group soon filed in and sat in various places around the room as the movie began to play.
************************************************************************************

A few hours later and the movie had ended with some satisfied smiles and some jubilant laughter.

“Wow, that was a pretty rad movie!” Yelled Rainbow Dash as she jumped over the back of the couch, swinging her hooves as she tried to imitate Eli’s swings with his machete.

Scrunching her face up in concentration and putting her hoof to her jaw, Twilight hummed with concentration. “So the book of Eli was actually a ‘bible,’ and this bible had an essential part in your culture…” Twilight paused and continued to ponder as everybody began to stand, stretching and talking, “It was called The Holy Bible what is that?” She asked as I sat on my couch and tried to come up with an appropriate answer. Meanwhile, Blake and Pinkie were jumping around and imitating scenes from the book of Eli.

“Well, the holy bible is the basis of a religion called Christianity. I could spill on and on, but it would take me a life time to explain it all.” I answered carefully as I tried to provide a satisfying answer.

“Religion.” Said Twilight slowly, as if she was testing the word out. “What is that you worship?” She asked with wonder in her voice.

“ Well, religion altogether is just the belief in a greater being that tests us to make us better,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. I honestly didn’t know how to explain a concept such as religion to somebody who didn’t have an innate experience with it already. It was kind of like describing color to a blind person.

“Are there different religions?” she asked after a moment of contemplation and looking over to our friends as they laughed and talked a little bit.

“Yes, an innumerous amount of them, too many to count anymore,” I said as we watched Gunny imitate the Gatling gun from the movie and explain how it worked.

Twilight scrunched her face up again, and I could almost see the gears turning in her head. “Wouldn’t that cause conflict between your people similar to what happened between the humans and covenant?” She asked with a grim tone to her voice. At that very moment, I knew that this conversation had gone south.

Looking over at her with a startled look, I asked her, “How did you….”

“Know?” Twilight finished for me. She smirked slightly at my shocked face and sighed, “I had a meeting with Princess Celestia after I delivered the food this afternoon, and she told me to make sure I knew what I was getting into.” She said everything about her seemed weary when she spoke of the war, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her.

We sat in silence for a few more moments as I tried to figure out how I should approach the situation. After a few silent moments, which felt like a lifetime, I had decided to spill the bean to her as the rest of the group continued to talk.

“Alright, Twilight, I will share the history of the Human-Covenant and my experiences while I served with the UNSC. Be forewarned. However, this is some dark stuff, and I’m telling it to you alone as my team still has some open wounds from the war, and this is dark, dark stuff that I don’t want to share with the rest of your group necessarily… now are you sure you want to know more?” I said in a hushed whisper to her. For a moment, she looked tired and forlorn, as if I had already shared the war with her, but after a moment, her gaze steeled, and she nodded her head and gave me her absolute full attention.
Sighing quietly, I pulled out a drink from the cooler to my right and spoke. “Get comfortable. This is going to take a while.”

Hours seemed to pass as I shared the UNSC’s righteous victories and demoralizing defeats as well, including our personal experiences, both good and bad, All the while, our friends shared plenty of laughs and stories with our new found pony friends.

After what seemed to be a lifetime of memories and fears, I finally concluded the war with a retelling of the arbiters accounts of the events on the Ark and how the Master Chief and Cortana had detonated a halo right above the Ark to kill all of the Flood and save the entire galaxy from extinction.

After that, we sat in silence as she processed what she had heard, and I looked to see, to my chagrin, that somewhere along the line, the rest of the group had joined in and listened to some part of the war.

After a few moments of contemplation, Matt broke the silence. “Well… that’s a mood killer there.” After a moment of groans, Eye rolling, and sharp elbow jabs to the ribs, Twilight asked a question.

“How long were you all in the war?” For a moment, we were all silent, and Matt, Blake, and Lane sat down while Gunny leaned against a chair and Brayden stood hard-faced. They all looked like they had aged a thousand years in a matter of minutes. I imagined I looked no different than them.

“11 years.” Said Gunny as he stared vacantly off into space.

“13 years,” Said Lane as he pulled out a tac-pad and began to fiddle with it.

“13 Years for me as well,” said Blake with a mournful tone to his usual southern drawl.

“15 Years myself.” Said Matt as he rubbed his eyes in a hurried effort to fight tiredness.

“I was in it for 12 Years.” Said Nick as he fiddled with the Wolffe nametag on the chest of his fatigues jacket.

“I joined in 2538, so 14 years,” I said with tiredness in my voice that I’d only heard from my grandfather and the other older veterans of the insurrection.

I quietly looked over at Brayden, who was taking a slow drink from the beer he’d been nursing for a good hour now, as I knew his bombshell would be a hell of a shock.

“I fought the war for 26 years.” Said Brayden as he took another long drink from his beer as the ponies stared at him in utter shock. Brayden just looked into his beer as if it’d tell him the secrets of the universe and slowly sat down.

“B-but how?” Asked Twilight, who looked utterly awe struck, “How did you manage to fight for essentially ALL the war?” Brayden simply sighed and finished off his beer as the rest of the ponies looked on in a mix of sadness, awe, and pity. The rest of us veterans simply looked on with empathetic stares and nods.

“Well… I guess you just learn to fear death and fight as hard as you can to live another day, to see another dawn.” Began Brayden as his eyes began to lose focus, and he stared off into the distance. “Certain parts of you die, and the ghosts really add up over the years, but-“ Brayden stopped and looked down at his hands as they clenched his jeans in the dark of the room, the white screen of the projector giving him an unnatural looking halo of the hospital like white light; sickly and pale.

“No, the physical and psychological damage you eventually just shoulder through and live with, what really breaks you are the memories of what you’ve lost; the ghosts.” Said Brayden in a quiet and reserved tone as several of us nodded our heads, and Fluttershy, Twilight, and Applejack seemed to have some sense of what Brayden was talking about.

For a while, we all just sat there with the only noise coming from the hum of the projector light before a small, timid voice eventually decided to venture forward. “What are the Ghosts?” Asked Fluttershy, her large eyes speaking of empathy and understanding.

For a moment, Brayden was deathly quiet, and in the dark of the mess hall, it looked as if he was reliving every death and battle he’d ever lost and fought in the span of a few seconds. Eventually, he answered with a slightly choked voice, “Most of the ghosts are the memories that come and go, dissipating before any clarity can be resolved from it, and it’ll only leave a sad or angry feeling as it slips through your fingers.” Said Brayden as he stared at his now open hands as if the ghosts were slipping through his fingers right then and there.

Looking up, his normally amber eyes had turned a dark brown, and he looked like he was verging on 65 rather than just 45. “The second kind of ghosts are more punishing but can be conquered, they’re still clear in certain parts so you can remember the important parts, but the finer details escape you. Eventually, you either conquer them and move on, or they just become routine, a nuisance at worse.” Explained Brayden in a very sober and weary tone.

“Then, finally, you have true ghosts.” Said Brayden as he sat back in his mess hall chair. “These are the memories that as soon as they come on, they stop you like a ton of bricks. The second you hear or see the trigger for the memory, you simply stop and look for it, it's an unconscious action, and most of the time, you only stop searching when you remember that person or place is gone; ashes upon the wind of your memories.” Said Brayden, and from the corner of my eye, I could see several of us nodding in agreement with Brayden’s assessment. “Those are the true ghost you never get over and never forget, you can remember what you had for breakfast that morning and what the person was doing an hour before they died or the place was destroyed… those are the true ghosts, the Ghosts that linger.”

For several moments we all sat in shock and agreement. Those who had been in the war knew exactly what Brayden was talking about and thinking about the nightmare I did too. After a minute, the small, timid voice spoke up once again. “Well… I-I may not have k-known you for very long… but I think you’re a nice but hurt person, and maybe all you need is someone to help you remember what living is about.” I sat in awe, and so did Brayden and the other, judging by their slack jawed expressions and eyes full of amazement.

For a moment, Brayden simply sat in his chair, eyes wide and jaw slack, as he processed what he heard, and for a moment, a small smile appeared on his face, and he stood up and giving a caring rub to Fluttershy’s head, he spoke in a tone that I barely heard but smiled when I did. “Thanks, sweetness, you really helped.” After a happy smile from Fluttershy, Brayden stretched and threw his empty bottle in the recycling bin next to the mess door. “Whelp, I’m whooped, so I’m gonna hit the hay.” He said as he stumbled drunkenly through the door towards the rec room and dorms.

Looking at his watch, Matt sighed and stood up. “Well, I better make sure he doesn’t go into one of the scientist’s rooms on accident.” Said Matt as he left the mess the same way, the same way Brayden did, and as he left, I heard him mutter quietly, “The last thing we need is ANOTHER sexual harassment suit.” Quietly I snickered and stood myself, as did the rest of my group.
“Well, I think Brayden has the right idea. As such, I think we should call it a night, eh gents?” All around me were nods and groans as the men said their goodbyes and shuffled off to the dorms. Looking to Twilight, I smiled, “Well, thank you for joining us. If you need a place to stay till morning, I bet we can dig something up.” I said, considering it was going on 10:00 outside, I figured they might not too entertained with navigating the field in the dark.
Twilight simply shook her head. “No, thank you, we’re good. Ponyville isn’t too far away from here, so we can just walk, Right, Girls?” She asked as she looked to her friends, who all were in agreement.
Nodding in agreement, I began to walk towards the front door by the dorm rooms. “Well, in that case, I’ll walk you lasses out, and then I’m hitting the hay,” I said as I led them through the hallway containing all the dorms. Over my shoulder, I could Rainbow Dash ask Twilight why we hit the hey before bed. Snickering, I considered explaining the concept to her before deciding that certain mysteries could stay for now.
After escorting the group outside and bidding my farewells, I walked back to my bunkroom with Lane, writing some in his science Journal before finally falling upon his bed into a deep, dreamless sleep,p and I soon did the same.

UNSC Bunker, Selene-VII
September 13, 2526
3:40 P.M.
Brayden’s POV

Breath rushed through my lungs, and tears rolled down my cheeks as I ran through the old military bunker outside the capital city. I consciously knew what would happen, but I just couldn’t stand by and not try. I dashed and jumped past broken and fallen cabinets and lockers that cluttered the dark faded green and gray hallways, all the while hoping against hope that I wasn’t too late and that I wouldn’t fail, not like before.

After a couple more minutes of running, I finally burst through the double doors into the command center. The green boxy consoles that lined the walls were coated in dust, and on the far wall of the room, several bunker windows were looking out onto the savannah that surrounded my home city. But more importantly, where the alien ships in the sky. At the time, I didn’t know what they were, but I’d soon come to know them as covenant supercarriers.

Sprinting full tilt, I ran up to a console beneath the title ‘transit tunnel’ and began to activate the doors that would allow the refugees on the trains from the city to enter. I jumped as a crackle in my ear reminded me of the radio I had been given by Sergeant Major Collins the day before; had it only been a day? It felt so long ago… “Brayden, can you hear me, son? Are the doors open, and is Natalia still with you?” Rang the gravely voice of my father over the radio.

My hands danced across the keyboards as I activated the doors, “I can hear you, dad.” I yelled over the radio as I looked at the security console to see the doors opening. Maybe this time, the doors will open all the way. “Natalia is still down in the opening bay, ready to lead you guys to the underground bays.” My voice was hoarse and cracking from all the running. I was only 15, and I was scared for Natalia, my best friend and the girl of my dreams I had left back at the doors to help everybody. Honestly, it sounded like something off a poorly written novel. I wish it had lasted.

Just as I remembered, the light on the power panel flickered and sparked with a loud crack as the doors stopped opening, just short of being wide enough for a single man to squeeze through. Feeling my panic rise and a fresh batch of tears welling, I screamed at the panel and tried to reroute the power, “Dad, the doors are jammed. I can’t get them to open any more!” I screeched as I looked outside to see the ships in the sky were glowing on their tips.

“Dammit! All right, son, listen to me, listen to me!” Pleaded my father over the radio as I simply stared at the raining plasma that was approaching the city's site and would cause the event that destroyed my life. “Son, It’s just you and Natalia. I won’t be there to back you up anymore, so I need you to promise you will take care of her and that you will survive this… Do you understand me, Brayden?” Finished my father as the plasma touched down and flashed melted the skyscrapers. In the distance, I could see the blast wave that would kill everyone but Natalia and me.

I numbly nodded my head before remembering that my dad couldn’t see me. “I will call dad. I’m… I’m sorry.” I cried as I ordered the computer to close the shutters over the windows. Just as I began to back away, the shutters caught, and the blast wave hit the windows. Fire and glass flooded into the room and a single piece of glass sliced along my left eye and back to my ear before the fire knocked me on my back and blinded me momentarily.

As I lay there in the dust of the old bunker, blinded by the fire, I listened to the screams of my people dying over the still open radio channel before a metallic click above my head confirmed that the bunker had sealed. Tired and in pain, I cried, cried that my family and friends were dead, cried that Natalia and I had no home to return to, but most of all, I cried because I had failed just like I had for the past 15 years of my life and would continue to for the next 30 years of my life and pain and survival.

After what felt like an eternity of crying, I slowly stood up and clutching my left eye, which had been covered in blood, I began to walk back towards the loading bay. ‘Natalia should have escaped from the blast and returned to the command room as we agreed ages ago, so where was she?’ I thought worriedly as I stumbled through the base.

Just as I was about to enter the bay, I heard a cry, “Help me!”, it was a voice I didn’t recognize. It was slightly airy but sweet, like a woman’s voice from Earth that I had heard once in a hospital. Rushing around the corner as fast as my delirious brain could move me, I found Natalia’s motionless form on her side next to a large mountain of rubble in front of the door. Her black private school uniform and crimson hair were sung in certain places and covered in dirt and blood. She lay on her side with her back to me as a mangled whimper managed to escape her throat, and she tried to move.

Running over the fallen I-beams and pile of concrete blocks, I sprinted to her side and rolled her over to check on the burns I remembered coating her chest and face. But to my surprise and horror, I found her face replaced with a burning screaming skull that engulfed my vision and caused me to be a blackout. The burning orange eyes seared into my brain.

Firebase Victor, Equestria
April 4, 2556
3:58 A.M.
Brayden’s POV

Gasping in terror, I shot up like a bullet. I looked around the small dorm room Matt and I shared. The late-night moon shone through the small window above the desk that separated our beds. Looking over at the clock, I saw that it was still early morning yet. Matt lay in a heap under some covers, and the wall remained hanging with both our Assault rifles. All was right in the world, so what had so riled.

I leaned back against the wall as sweat creased down my brow. ‘That voice didn’t belong to Natalia, and her face didn’t look like that, I KNOW that.’ I thought to myself as I stared into the dark. I snorted to myself as I remembered the crying, “Pfft, Christ, I was a crybaby back then. Maybe the war has its uses after all.” I muttered hollowly and sardonically as I reached under my bed and grabbed a beer from my stash, and began to drink it in earnest.

After a while, I finished my beer and lay back down to sleep. ‘Still, there’s something about that dream, something felt… altered and artificial, I guess...’ I wondered to myself as I stared at the ceiling for what felt like an eternity before I finally let go and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Strangers in Town

From War to Peace
Chapter 8
Strangers in Town

The morning air was cool on my face as I looked out the door into the open fields facing Ponyville, the sun was due to rise in about half an hour, and I knew that after last night’s emotional venting session, the guys could probably use a break, if only I were so kind. Smirking, I turned and clicked the radio on, “Lane, hit them with Reveille.” The sound of the age-old song roared over the speakers, and I withdrew a standard M6D with an affixed silencer and loaded a small clip with beanbag rounds. Trumpets roared over the speakers as scientists and my men groggily limped out of their rooms, and in the case of my men stood at attention.

“All right, gents, be dressed and ready for PT in five minutes, you’re the only defense this base has got, and as such, you WILL be ready to defend this complex at all costs and at any time. Now move it!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as my group ran back into their rooms and then outside into the field.

Grinning like a madman, I turned to the assembled scientists, who all had mixed looks of awe and terror. “Don’t you all worry. You may go back to sleep if you like.” I said with a slight chuckle as the music ended, and most all of the scientists returned to their dorms save a few who headed for the mess hall.

Clicking my radio on, I called up Lane in the control center, “That means you as well, Lane.” I laughed as a loud groan sounded over the radio, and several curses and complaints sounded over the mic.
*******************************************************************************************

After we completed our morning PT routine, Gunny and Wolffe split off to supervise a few experiments that the eggheads were working on. Deep down, I was sure that while we pitied them, we were all glad that it was them rather than any of us; the eggheads had a nasty way of blowing stuff up with you near it.

Bidding farewell, the five of us settled into the mess hall for some breakfast. We all sat together at a table underneath the projector as scientist shuffled into the mess hall and sat to eat. Our group discussed the typical Spartan-IV conversation material; explosions, black ops, scuttlebutt, and weapon performance.

“Hey, Mike, you remember that time on Hades Gamma VII when we rigged a Phantom with some C-12?” Began Matt as he messed with his unappetizing mush from the mess hall, “And when we finally had all the charges set, an elite fleet master walked underneath it?” I grinned at the memory as Matt began to chuckle lightly.

“Yeah, the look on the fleet master’s face was priceless. Probably would have been funnier if we didn’t laugh so hard and alerted the elites.” I said with a laugh as I remembered the Elite’s wide-eyed look right before the burning husk of the phantom crushed him in a brilliant blaze of azure.

Lane quietly snickered, “Hope their life insurance covered friendly fire.” Lane said in as dry a voice as he could. Immediately we all laughed in an uproar, drawing more than a few stares and glares for the early morning noise, including a certain pilot whose raven hair was in a mess and her expression induced a four-foot safety zone around her.

As we were talking, one of the scientists approached me and handed me a tac-pad with mission specs on it. As the rest of the team was talking and going on, I was examining the mission specs. The scientists wanted us to go to where the most powerful energy source is, which is located in what we might believe is the capital city. Also, while we need to collect food samples, the scientist believes that the food might hold the secret to the pony’s telekinesis.

“Alright, Gents, listen up!” I yelled to my merry crew. Off in the corner of my vision, I could see Sasha approaching our group, a look of interest upon her face. “The scientist just gave us a field trip. So Armor up and load up in Albatross in fifteen mikes.”

“Oorah!” Yelled Brayden. Fast as lightning, the group shot out of their seats and ran to the dorms. I could see more than a few impressed faces from the eggheads and even Sasha at the guys’ speed; I guess those enhancements did more than just make us armor capable.

Dumping my tray to follow after the guys to get armored up, I look over to Sasha, and she just nods her head and walks out to get suited up. Heading into the room Lane and I share, we both don our armor weave and grab whatever we will need for the trip.

As Lane and I exit into the hallway, the rest of our group falls in behind us as we head out into the early morning sun and over to the massive three-story facility about a hundred yards away from the firebase. The shale colored science facility was both large and compact simultaneously; over a hundred labs all packed into the area approximately the size of a college library facility.

We enter through the garage and pass several of the technicians tending to the woodland green Albatross, fueling the massive airship and calibrating its engines for now lightened load. Passing the garage by, we entered into a large circular room with seven alcoves. Each alcove had various weapons and armor modifications in them, but six of the alcoves had large armed machines, each with its own set of armor.

Breaking off from each other, we each headed to our respective alcove. I entered my own and began to slide the sage-colored greave plate pieces on. It was moments like these that I adore my rogue specialized armor, allowing me to slide my armor on and off, unlike my comrades.

Looking across the room, I saw Lane flat on his back in the air, suspended in a ring of mechanical arms, with each arm placing a piece of his dark purple recruit armor. I smiled as I placed my chest plate. Lane was the only one of our group who decided to stick with the traditional recruit armor, though that’s more likely because it was just easier to hack and modify than anything else.

“Hey, just uhh… popping a question here, but what happens if the power were to go out WHILE we were in these machines?” Asked Matt off from the right side of the room where he hung face down as the machines strapped his brown EOD armor to his back, the arms screwing the armor to Matt’s suit until an audible hiss could be heard from the pressurization.

“What, pfft, please.” Drawled Blake off from the left of my spot, peeking over to Blake, I watched as Crimson Soldier pauldrons were screwed into his shoulders before finally releasing Blake, who walked out into the center of the room, his helmet under his arm. “The Generators are reinforced at the center of the science facility. I doubt that anything on this little planet could even scratch the thing. “ Said Blake confidently as he placed his helmet on his head, the red glass of the eyespots lighting up as the helmet powered up.

Grabbing my own helmet and walking, Matt and Lane walked out to meet me halfway. “I suppose so, but it’d suck to be stuck upside down only half armored because the enemy had the good sense to hit the generators first.” Said Matt as he subtly shrugged.

“Bout damned time you ladies got dressed, we only got three minutes before we need to be ready to fly.” Looking off next to the door, we all saw Brayden, decked out in his usual CQC variant of ODST BDUs, standing there with a bored expression on his face and his infamous modified 8-inch K-BAR, “The Devil’s toothpick,” dancing around in his hands. Standing up and walking out into the garage, I could just barely make out Brayden’s complaints. “God damned women and their gossiping…”

After a moment, Lane remarked, “Well, somebody is in an excellent mood.” Matt only shook his head as we all followed after Brayden. Eventually, we arrived outside the garage to find the Albatross sitting in the field while Brayden and Sasha stood and talked. However, my attention was more on the small group of six ponies gathered around the pair of humans.

“Hey, Twilight!” I yelled. “Where y’all heading?”

The violet unicorn turned to answer. “We were just on our way to the train station to go to Canterlot. We just swung by to say bye because we’ll be gone a day or two. Where are you guys going to?”

I walked over, pulling up a map of the location of where we’re heading on a tac-pad. “I don’t really know, but here’s a map if it helps.” I threw the tac-pad in her direction, and she caught it in a haze of purple energy. As she levitated it to herself, she closely examined the map, taking a few moments to orient herself. She eventually smiled and floated the tac-pad back towards me.

“Yes, that’s Canterlot. Care to join us.” She asked with a smile.

“Well, how ‘bout we offer you guys a lift, the Albatross will have us there in twenty minutes flat,” I said while pointing my finger towards the woodland green boxy looking aircraft. Twilight starred at the Albatross intently, examining the aircraft as if she a chief mechanic.

After a few more moments of speculation, Twilight finally answered with a shrug that suggested she was more than a little bit skeptical, “Sure. Why are you guys heading to Canterlot for?” She asked her curiosity, wiping whatever remained of her skepticism.

“The scientists are having us gather food for an examination, that’s all,” I answered as our large group proceeded towards the titanic aircraft. Mid stride towards the vehicle, Twilight stopped for a moment with a look of realization on her face.

“Oh, I almost forgot, if you guys are going to buy food, you’re going to need some bits,” Twilight remarked.

“Bits?” I asked in confusion, our group coming to a halt. Twilight rummaged through her backpack and pulled a small gold coin, and levitated it to me. I took the coin and examined it in a few seconds before handing it around our group; on one side of the coin, I recognized the imposing face of Celestia, a strong and inspirational look stamped onto the coin. On the reverse side was another figure with what looked to be a billowing mane of stars imprinted onto the coin, the small lettering beneath the visage said ‘Luna,’ and I briefly wondered if the ponies somehow had two god queens.

Suddenly the radio on my HUD lit up green, and the typically skeptical tone of Matt flooded over the TeamComm, “Oh lovely, this is why I prefer digital credits, no place to imprint the face of the current ruler or important person, much less egotistical if you ask me.” Snarked Matt as he handed the coin to Lane. Lane then began to examine the coin with an almost rabid curiosity.

I silently deactivated my audio, “Then it’s a damn good thing nobody asked you, Matt.” I snarked back, trying not to provoke a fight between the ponies and us. Light laughter and snorts reigned over the comms as Matt shut up and shook his head.

“Mind if we borrow some bits then, we’re sort of hard for cash, military pay, and all that,” I said jokingly, as the rest of the squad silently laughed at the inside joke.

Twilight smiled and levitated another small pouch out of her saddlebag, “Sure, here’s a hundred bits, food is pretty cheap, and prices are open to a certain extent of haggling if you want the price cheaper.”

“Thanks, Twilight.” I paused and looked over Twilight to see the rest of the pony gang. “So how many of you lovely ladies care to join us today?” I asked; briefly, I heard Blake cough ‘Kissass’ and the familiar sound of armor fists bumping together with Lane, Matt, and Blake’s snickering sounding over the comms, I silently made a note to shoot the three of them with the training pistol the next opportunity I had.

Applejack Shrugged, “Wish I could, but I can’t. I need to work at the farm for a while. I was just here to see them off.” Nodding her goodbyes, Applejack turned and began to saunter off back towards Ponyville.

“Yeah, think I’ll stay here and clear the skies, not really one for big cities or cramped spaces.” Rainbow Dash replied dismissively as she spread her wings and began to run to take flight. I silently frowned beneath my helmet. While the two of us didn’t really get along with each other, I kind of wanted to get to know her so that we could stop being so antagonistic towards each other.

“You sure?” I paused; I quickly made up a plan. “Oh well, you’re missing out on some good flight time,” I said, trying to taunt Dash into joining us. My plan worked as Dash stopped midflight and turned to our group, eyes full of mistrust and skepticism.

“Psh, that flying box couldn’t keep up with me.” Dash scoffed as she looked at the metal titan with a slightly disapproving look. I could quietly hear Sasha mumbling into the TeamComm about how her bird was being dissed. Seeing my opportunity to make a push, I placed my hands on my hips and smirked.

“I wasn’t talking about the Albatross. I was referring to myself.”

I could tell my comment threw Dash for a spin, “You don’t even have any wings. How are you going to fly?” Dash asked in confusion as she tried to make sense of an armored giant flying.

I smirked in victory; I knew I had her attention and that she was curious. “Got one good jet pack. The things are just as good if not better than wings. You game?” I said with a grin. Dash narrowed her eyes in consideration. It looked as if she was going to back down for a few moments, but then she smirked and spread her wings and crouched towards the ground.

“It…is…on,” Dash said with an intense stare that spoke of competitive fire.

“Well, with that settled, let the best man or pony win,” I said as I extended my hand for a knuckle bump. After a brief moment of hesitation and confusion, she bumped her hoof against my fist, sealing the deal. “Alright, Dash, jump on the Albatross, and on the way to Canterlot, we’ll do our little fly-off.” Nodding her head, our group resumed our walk towards the albatross. After a moment, I felt a tap on my back, and I looked back to see Matt’s brown EOD helmet staring back at me. After four years of working with Matt, I could tell that behind that mask was a smirk unlike any other that spoke of a unique mix of pride, cynicism, and assurance.

“Mike… you are so screwed,” Matt said, barely holding back his laughter as he brushed past me and headed into the belly of the titanic flying ship.

After loading the Albatross with the necessary equipment and gassing it up, we all piled in. The cargo hold was windowless and dark with a few red lights lighting the interior, seats lined the wall, large enough to fit a whole platoon of marines. Sasha was doing a last-minute system check in the cockpit, making sure that her bird was in safe working order.

“Alright, kiddos, go ahead and buckle up. Once we get in flight and at a stable altitude, you may move freely about the cabin. The Estimated Time of Arrival for the Landing Zone is 30 minutes. Thank you for choosing UNSC airlines, please fly with us again.” Said Sasha with a laugh. Twilight examined the interior, staring intently at it as if she had x-ray vision, ‘she must be trying to piece together in her head how the Albatross works.’ I thought with no small amount of humor, ‘She and Lane will get along famously, I can tell.’

“This thing is massive. I won’t even get off the ground.” Dash said with no small amount of skepticism as she knocked a hoof against the metal interior of the airship.

Sasha overheard the comment made by Dash and whipped around in her seat to glare at the azure horse. “Well, someone is an aerospace expert. How did you think we got here in the first place, Toots?” Sasha said defensively with a slight barb at the end of the phrase. The entire bay was silent save for the sound of the engines warming up.

Dash rolled her eyes quietly, knowing she had pressed a nerve. After taking our seats, we sat there for a moment in silence as the cargo hatch sealed shut, making the red lights the only source of light available.

“Keep yourself seated at all times and your cargo secured when we reach ten thousand feet; you may use electronic devices and walk about the cabin. Thank you for flying with us today.” Sasha said over the Albatross’s intercom, a hint of her original humor returning. The Silence was broken with the engines' sudden roaring. The ponies jumped at the sound of the engines while the rest of us stayed relaxed. The Albatross began to lurch, giving everyone the very distinct feeling that the vehicle is in motion.

For a brief time, we sat in silence. It seemed only as if everyone lost interest in talking to each other. Idly I checked my clock to see it had only been a few minutes. Frowning, I decided we needed something to liven things up. “Hey, Sasha!” I said, breaking the silence, “Got any music you could play?” I asked desperately that flip music crap would be better; if nothing else, it might cause some interesting discussion.

“Yeah, sure, got any preferences?” Replied Sasha as her fingers flew over the command board.

“Umm, 21st-century music… Anything you got that’s of a more rock genre.” I replied. Even though it’d been 500 years since the 21st century, there was still a large population today who listened to music from the 21st century.

“Let’s see what I got.” Said Sasha as she began to flip through a few menus on her console. Eventually, she perked up as she read from the album selected, “How bout Linkin Park?”

Almost as I heard my group quietly groan as I smiled ear to ear, to say I liked Linkin Park was like saying people enjoy being alive, just a bit of an understatement.

“Dammit, Sasha,” Groaned Matt as he slapped his faceplate in a movement familiar with a facepalm. “You have no idea what monster you have unleashed today.”

Rolling my eyes and giving a good punch to the arm as my thanks to Matt, I defended myself. “Ignore them. They’re just a bunch of philistines without the ability to enjoy quality music. What songs you got anyways?”

Ignoring the grumbling from my compatriots, I focused on Sasha as she laughed heartily and replied, “The better question is what music don’t I have? My little brother loved this band, so I learned to love it too. Got any preference?”

“Bleed it out, if you could,” I replied as I sat back in my seat. It didn’t escape my attention that Sasha had said her little brother ‘Loved’ as in past tense. Hopefully, it was just because the lad had moved on.

“Gotcha, one kick-ass song coming up.” After having said that, she flips the song on over the speakers. I started tapping my foot to the song's beat; Matt and Blake started singing along, while the rest of my squad sat there mellowed out.

“Alright, gents, we were about 5 minutes out from our LZ. Mike, if you plan on settling this bet, your best bet is to do it now.” Sasha advised me. I grinned as I stood and unbuckled a Jet pack from the wall of the albatross. The model T-49 Jetpack was a backpack-sized jet that Spartans and, in some cases, ODSTs would strap to their backs to achieve short bursts of flight. Usually, the Jet pack’s safety feature would only allow for 30 second short bursts of flight to prevent the pack from overheating, ‘Usually.’ I thought with no small amount of mirth. Still, with Lane’s help, I’ve managed to counteract the safety feature allowing the jetpack to keep me flying for well over fifteen minutes of flight before I’d have to worry about the pack exploding.

“Alright, drop the ramp,” I said as I adjusted the jet pack, making sure the pack was secure. As the ramp opened, I looked outside. There was a grand and large city built into the mountain's side. Towers and spires all reaching up to around buildings and plazas and at the center of it all built into the mountain were a large and illustrious castle, battlements, towers rising out of the main structure like ridges and trees hill. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed that a species without opposable thumbs had managed to build all this.

Shaking off my Awe, I looked over to Rainbow Dash, “You ready to rock?” I asked with a challenging tone.
Dash stood up and stretched her wings out, smiling as the wind caught her wings. “You ready to fall like one?” I heard a round of suppressed laughter behind but managed to shake off the burn. We both stood near the ramp, looking out into the clear blue sky.

I stood on the edge of the ramp and looked down past the buildings and spires to a relatively clear spot on the far side of the city. I then turned to Dash. “The first one to the far side of the city to that clearing wins,” I yelled and pointed out the specific spot so that she could understand. “On the count of 3. Got it?”
“Ok…3!” Dash yelled, Grinning like a madwoman as she jumped out of the Albatross.

“Oh, you tricky little bastard.” I jumped out after she tries to keep up. Dash was in a full nosedive, and so was I. Speeding towards Canterlot, Dash opened her wings, and I activated my jet pack to get into sustained flight. As we flew through Canterlot, I jumped and rolled roofs and spire walls, bobbing and weaving through the intricate mess of buildings and trees.

Dash was still relatively close, as she had to hit the airbrakes to maneuver through the mess of buildings and trees.
Seeing my chance to take the lead, I jumped off a particularly low spire and fired my jet pack at full throttle. The jet pack screamed. My vision grew dark around the edges as the jet pack sent me flying past Dash. Just inches over a building, seeing a pony hanging some rags on a line, Spartans can react at about 300% the rate that a normal human can, and that’s probably the only reason I survived that little run. I managed to make it over the line, but while I had pulled up, Dash had caught up, and we were on the final leg of the race, the clearing was only about half a kilometer away. Going full speed, me and Dash we neck and neck when she yelled to me over the screaming wind, “Hey Mike! Think fast!”

“Ready for what! OHH SHIT!” I yelled as Dash broke the sound barrier causing a flash of light that blinded me. After the shock wave from the sonic boom hit me, I went tumbling towards Canterlot, I tried to bob and weave past the structures as my jetpack failed, but the best I could do was slow myself down. I bounced and skipped both the buildings and the ground.

Finally, I bounced off a particularly ramp shaped roof and flew through the air, I was finally able to activate my jet pack again, but my modifications came back to bite me. As I fired it, the engines screamed and went full throttle, launching me forward with a thunderous scream as I broke the sound barrier. Trying to regain control, my Spartan reflexes kicked in as I flew towards one of the towers of the castle, faster than they’d ever moved; my hands undid the clasps holding the jetpack to me and fell.

As I fell towards the ground, the jetpack, now free of its load, skyrocketed and screeched as it flew upwards and exploded in a cloud of fire. That’s when reality hit me in the form of another spire. Pain racked through my shoulder as I bounced and rolled against building after building before finally being launched off a final roof and into the clearing where Dash and the others were waiting.

“Mike, you okay? I didn’t know that thing would explode!?!?!?!?” Dash yelled with a tinge of worry in her voice as the others gathered around, and Brayden and Lane helped me to my feet.

I shook my head, trying to lose the ringing in my ears, and gave her a thumbs up. “Yeah, I’m good. Just a few sprains and bruises, nowhere near as bad as it was back in the war.”

Almost immediately, Dash smiled and lost the worry to her voice, “Hehe, you know what, Mike, you fly pretty good… for a brick.”

“Thanks…. Ouch, that hurts,” I said as I rotated my shoulder to loosen it up. I thanked Brayden and Lane and dusted myself. Once we came together, I started to think of how we should split up. “Alright, listen up; here are assignments; Brayden, Fluttershy, and Matt, you guys head to the Market district and get the food samples. Blake and Pinkie, you guys, head to the academy and see if you can learn some Intel of tactics. Lane, Twilight, and I will head to the historic district.” I looked over to Dash, Rarity, and Sasha. “The three of you are clear to do as you wish,” I said as I rotated my shoulder again, that spire frigging hurt.

Author's Note

AN: So…. It’s only been a couple weeks since we last updated right?... No? What do you mean it’s been a month and a half? Oh, uh… EMERGENCY PLAN GOLF GO!!!!
Spartan: So in all seriousness I am so sooooo sorry about the lateness, what with finals, moving, and the fact that my co-author is a lazy procrastinator we’ve had a hell of a time trying to get this thing out. BUT FEAR NOT!!! This is only half of the chapter, the other half is almost complete and just needs a few more touches to it, instead me and the co-author; Hunter-113, decided to keep this first half as a chapter just incase we didn’t finish the second half before I moved… which is exactly what happened.
Hunter-113: In my defense I did have I just have to make it look pretty and for once we’ll actually update without a month in between updates. There are really miracles : D
Spartan: so in summary, my compatriot is a lazy deadbeat, we’re sorry for the slow updates, and we’ll have another chapter out as soon as my internet returns after my move. Till next time.

Touring the Town

Chapter 9
Touring the Town
Canterlot, Equestria
April 5, 2556
1143 hours
Matt’s P.O.V.

“So… How’s your day going?” I asked in a half-assed attempt to break the awkward silence that had descended upon Brayden, Fluttershy, and me as we strolled down the brick path towards where Mike had said the marketplace was. Judging by the loud groan from where Brayden was, my attempts were less than successful.

“Err… good… I suppose.” Fluttershy muttered as she continued to shrink herself into as small a target of attention as possible. We’d been constantly bombarded by stares of awe, fear, and curiosity as we continued our walk towards the market place. It turns out being around a pair of aliens decked out in half a ton of armor gains a person a lot of attention.

Though there was the one horse with the hourglass on his flank, who regarded us like normal fellows.’ I mused mirthfully as I continued down the path, not really paying attention to where I was walking. I was shaken out of my reverie when Brayden called over the intercom.

“Hey, Earth to Matt. How long till we reach the market; I need something to do. My trigger finger is itchy.” Said Brayden as he strolled down the street, hand lingering on his M6D every few seconds. I could see a few of the guards were giving Brayden a less than approving look… then again, that look could be aimed at either of us.

“Chill Brayden, we don’t want another Firaxia incident; I’m still paying that incident off, and that was ten years ago,” I complained quietly as I pulled out the map of the city Mike copied for us from Twilight. That little horse was full of information and letters.

“Pfft, that incident wasn’t so bad… not like what you did on Gamma Epsilon VI.” Countered Brayden, I could hear the wolf grin in his voice. I flushed red still at the memory of that god-forsaken world and the temptress that almost got me arrest and executed even fifteen years later.

This meant war.

“Oh, for one, she had a fake I.D., and two, you were feeling her up first.” I countered while trying my best not to show my embarrassment. I smirked as I thought of a final way to counter him.

“Well, that time was nowhere near as bad as our little shore leave in Vegas on Earth back in 2540,” I replied with a victorious smirk as we continued to walk down the street. Seriously how long is this road?

“…Bro, you don’t even have to say that kind of stuff, man.” Mumbled Brayden over the private Comm, “Remember man, what happens in Vegas...”

“Stays on the Waypoint… Yeah, I get the point.” I replied as we rounded a corner and came into a large pavilion. Rows upon rows of stalls filled with food and trinkets lined the pavilion and formed a large circle around a fountain in the pavilion center.

“This is the market place; you will be able to find all the food you guys need here,” Fluttershy explained as she walked forward in front of Brayden, gesturing at the stalls and me. “Do you need any help?”

I looked around the pavilion and frowned; the thing had hundreds of stalls, all selling a wide variety of things. The pavilion itself looked to be about the size of a griffball arena, a good half-mile square. “Oh yeah, we’ll use all the help we can get. Brayden any idea where we should… Brayden?” I asked as I turned around to find Brayden staring at a large wooden sign, painter bright reds, and greens.

After inspecting the sign, I found it was an advertisement for a local Cider bar. In the ad, a pale yellow horse in a waistcoat and a monocle, of all things, was sitting at a table with what looked to be a pocket watch in one hoof and a jar of cider in the other. ‘Pale horse cider; the drink of a scholar, gentleman, and a sir.’ Beneath the slogan was a name and directions.

“Bucking Jack’s Cider bar, Matt, it’s only a block away.” Brayden said quickly and eagerly, “Food collection can wait. Rule 43 must be sated.” Brayden finished as he looked at me with an expectant look.

I scrunched my eyebrows under my helmet for a moment, “Rule 43 is no reprogramming the smart AIs into sexbots.” I said in confusion. Brayden simply faces palmed his helmet and sighed.

“Fine Rule 44, if a planet has a signature alcoholic drink, it must be tried.” Explained Brayden in a curt tone as Fluttershy stood by and watched us bicker.

I pursed my lips in thought, ‘Mike would probably have my ass scrubbing toilets for the rest of the month if I let Brayden get hammered on assignment… but considering Brayden’s recent mood, he may very well kill me for not letting him drink, hmm the choices.’ I mirthfully thought to myself as I stood and stared at the sign one more time.

Interestingly enough, it was Fluttershy who broke the silence, “Well, I’ve heard of the place, they serve good apple juice as well, and I am sort of thirsty.” Fluttershy quietly mumbled as she tried to make the last part of her sentence as quiet as humanly possible.

“Whelp, that’s settled then,” Brayden said jubilantly as he dashed ahead of our group, “To the bar we go!!!” Before either Fluttershy or I could speak, Brayden was off and halfway to the bar. Sighing to myself, I motioned for us to follow.
Finally catching up, I gave the bar a once overglance. The building was tall and mostly made from cut lumber with a few stones and concrete pieces to add stability and flavor to the building. Hanging above the door was a sign with the same picture as before on it, and more importantly, in front of the door was Brayden tapping his foot and waiting for us to catch up.
Walking in through the front door, we entered into a large room with dozens of tables and a bar in the back. Off on the right, a band played what looked to be drums and few other instruments. Almost all the tables were full of ponies who I assume were enjoying their mid-day meals. The room was roaring with the noise of glasses moving, music playing, the voices of at least three dozen ponies talking… course, it all stopped as soon as we walked a few feet past the threshold.
“Well, I see they’re rolling out the welcome mat,” I muttered quietly, Fluttershy either didn’t hear it or didn’t care, and Brayden simply shrugged and marched forward down the slight ramps that lead to the door. About halfway to the bar, the band started up again, and everything went back to normal noise-wise, excluding the fact that the ponies were now a little more on edge.

Walking up to the bar, Brayden sat on one of the stools and waited as, amazingly enough, the horse from the advertisement walked up to Brayden from behind the bar with confidence and a menu. “So, what can I do you for?” the pale horse asked. There was a slight tinge to his voice that suggested that he’d rather we be gone, but the bag full of bits hanging from Brayden’s chest plate seemed to be enough to keep the bartender from ordering us to leave. I quietly snorted to myself as I lightly leaned against the bar. As it turns out, businessmen are the same no matter what species.
Taking off his helmet and smiling a broad grin, Brayden opened the menu and glanced through it before looking over to Fluttershy and me; “Either of you wants something?” Brayden asked sincerely.

Fluttershy peeked her head over Brayden’s arm and looked at the menu in detail. “I’ll just have an apple juice, please.” She asked politely. The Bartender, who I assumed was named Jack, Smiled back and leaned under the counter to grab a bottle of simple apple juice.

Brayden glanced over to me, and I simply shrugged, “Eh, one of us needs to be sober for this mission, so I’ll have the same.” I replied nonchalantly as I continued scanning the crowd behind us; the crowd was a veritable sea of yellows, grays, browns, even some blues, and pinks, and I could swear there was an aqua green horse in one of the corner booths a ways back from the main bar.

Brayden grinned wolfishly and looked over to the bartender. “Right, the lady over there will take the same.” I could visibly see the bartender do a double-take as he looked me over, confused, obviously taking Brayden’s comment seriously, before ducking under the counter and grabbing another glass.
Sighing irritably, I glared at Brayden from behind my EOD helmet’s visor. “I see the Vegas comment stung as little more than anticipated,” I muttered quietly to Brayden.

Brayden simply snorted as he continued to look through the menu. “What can I say? Payback is like that one ex who when she sees you she shoots first then yells at you later.” I sighed audibly and facepalmed my helmet as I remembered that particular ex of his… well, mostly I remember the bullets she put in my upper thigh but still. Glancing in his direction, I noticed his eyebrows were peaked in interest at an item on the menu.

“Ah, did you find something of interest, my bi-pedal friend?” The bartender asked as he passed a pair of apple juices towards Fluttershy and me and proceeded to shine a glass. Grinning wolfishly, Brayden confidently placed the menu down and smiled ear to ear.

“Yes, sir, I’ll take the Vintage Mother Bucker.” Replied Brayden in a confident voice, then several things happened at once; the band immediately quit playing, every head in the bar looked to Brayden with a look of awe and fear, several of the gents at the bar dropped their food and looked to Brayden with an expression akin to untold horror. Most spectacularly, the Bartender’s jaw dropped along with the glass in his hooves. All of this happened in the span of a few seconds, all over a single drink… I quietly shuddered as I thought of the implications. ‘Toilet duty here I come.’ I thought sardonically as I removed my helmet and took a long swig of apple juice.

After a few seconds, the bartender recovered and looked to Brayden, who was still grinning like the cat that ate the canary and cleared his throat. “Now, sir… you do realize this is the most powerful drink on all of Equestria… as in only a few brave souls have ever managed more than three or four sips; Nightmaremoon, even the princess Celestia only managed to drink half a glass before yielding…. Now, are you sure you want a shot of this drink?”

I raised an eyebrow and quietly looked to Brayden for assurance. I’ve known this crazy awesome bastard for nearly two decades as everything from a superior to a friend and a brother, and the lord above knows I’ve seen him knock back enough drinks to kill a man but this? This was a little much even for Brayden.

Placing a hand on his face and stroking the small tan stubble on his chin before standing up with a somber look on his face. However, his emerald eyes betrayed a mischievousness that warned me of what was to happen a moment before it actually did. “Alright, in that case, I’ll take the glass.”

Gasping out loud, the crowd grew deathly silent, and the Bartender stood stone still as he likely considered his options. Seizing the opportunity, I facepalmed, “You know Brayden, if you listen real quietly, I think you hear your liver crying for mercy... or trying to commit suicide, one of the two.” I ruefully remarked as I took another swig of apple juice, savoring the bittersweetness.

Eventually, the Bartender smiled and laughed loudly, breaking the silence. “I’ll tell you what, you’re one crazy creature, and I like that, so I’ll tell you what, manage to drink a quarter of a glass, you’re bill is free and drink half a glass, it’ll be a free round of drinks for everyone on the house, deal?” replied the bartender, a confident grin adorning his face. I could hear some loud whispers and excited chatting in the background and already knew exactly what Brayden would say.
“Deal.”

With a roar, the bar cheered, and the Bartender left to fetch the poison of the hour. Fluttershy quietly nudged Brayden, “You know… even I’ve heard of this drink, I think it’s a bad idea.” She said with a scared looked on her face.
Smiling sincerely, Brayden shrugged. “Eh, don’t worry, I’ve beaten my liver with torrents of alcohol over the years. I doubt there’s a single drink in the galaxy that could topple me with half a glass.” Explained Brayden in a soothing voice as he patted Fluttershy on the shoulder. I raised my eyebrow in interest as the two continued to chat. It had been a long time since anyone outside our group had heard Brayden speak with such softness and sincerity. I’d say it was creepy, but when I remembered our foxhole in the Battle of Cygnus VIII, it actually seemed right to see Brayden in a comforting role.

Suddenly the entire bar lowered to a hush, conversations dropped, and the small number the band had tried to resurrect had immediately silenced. Looking to the right, the bartender rounded a corner carrying a small barrel about the size of a human head. On the side of the barrel was a mug with what looked to be a pocket watch in the middle of the mug, the family emblem, I assume. Placing the barrel of the counter, he opened the valve, and the most noxious smell of alcohol I’d ever smelled assaulted my nose as the nearly clear liquid flowed into the glass.

“This, my friend, is from the batch that was brewed the day I was born; thirty-three years, eight months, and five days ago.” Quietly and reverently whispered the bartender as he placed the glass in front of Brayden. “Now do remember,” Started the bartender as Brayden grabbed the glass and, wasting no time, took a small sip of the drink; his eyes crinkling slightly in a tell I knew meant the drink probably burned like acid. “It’s perfectly alright if you call it after only a few sips. It is the family secret recipe that has been handed down for gen-“

“You’re done.” Remarked Brayden, a victorious grin upon his face.

“Wh-What?!?!?!” Said the Bartender, a look of pure horror as Brayden gripped the glass tightly and raised it high in the air.

Gasping in a mix of horror and awe, the crowd and Bartender watch in horror as Brayden brought the glass to his mouth and slowly tipped the drink back, chugging the entire glass in about forty seconds before placing the glass back down on the counter.

I watched as Brayden’s muscles tensed and relaxed and then tensed again as he Fought to keep the pain from the drink under control; just when I thought he was about to scream in agony, Brayden opened his eyes and smiled, letting loose a loud laugh that soon ignited cheers from the crowd that had amassed behind us filling the bar.

Breathing heavily, Brayden smiled, “I do believe… you owe the crowd a drink.” Remarked Brayden, his voice raspy and croaking as he slowly stood and walked away into the crowd and eventually outside.

Smiling and grabbing my helmet, I looked over to the bartender, who was still in a slightly catatonic state and still gaping as I fish. “Well, I’ll give you credit,” I said as I put five bits on the counter. “The drink burned, but I have yet to meet a drink that would knock Brayden on his ass in a single glass… good try, though.” Turning on my heel, I grabbed my helmet and led Fluttershy and me through the sea of patrons coming up to the bar for a free drink.

Walking out into the open market again, I briefly indulged in the cool breeze and sunshine on my pale skin before placing my helmet on my head again. “Where did Brayden go?” Questioned Fluttershy as she looked around the immediate area and didn’t find him. Scrunching my eyebrows as I failed to find him either, I brought up the IFF function on my HUD and noticed that his IFF was over in the middle of the Market area.

“Follow me,” I said to Fluttershy as we walked into the throng of market stalls. “He’s over this way,” I yelled over the roar of the marketplace as I weaved my way through the crowds, Fluttershy right behind me. Eventually, we entered an area where the stalls thinned, and a fountain and several benches stood in the center. They're on a bench was Brayden sitting on a bench looking into his helmet’s visor.

Walking up, Brayden smirked, “Hey Matt?”

“Yeah?” I replied as I stood above, not trusting the bench to support my armored bulk.

“That drink… I lied, I think my liver has finally had enough and is trying to commit suicide.” Said Brayden as he continued to stare at his helmet.

“Perking my eyebrows, I kneeled and got eye level with him, “What makes you say that, man?” I asked as I visually inspected him; nearly all his muscles in his arms and legs were slack, his breathing was heavy and slow, and the small movements from his fingers were sluggish and erratic. I’d only seen Brayden like this once before, and that was in Vegas.
Slowly looking up, Brayden smiled, his emerald eyes slightly glazed and his unruly tannish brown hair standing at odd ends. “Well, simply put… I can’t move my legs… or my arms… or anything else other than my head, come to think of it.” Brayden replied as he groaned and squinted his eyes in the sunlight. “God, that drink was a bad idea, but it was fun to show that smug bastard up.” Brayden Chuckled as his head rolled back.

Standing to the full height, I began to laugh. After a few moments, I settled down to see Fluttershy glaring at me. “What’s wrong with you? Your friend is violently drunk and sick, and you’re standing there laughing?” Fluttershy Spit out in a vehement tone as she continued to glare at my now chuckling form.

“Nah, I’m worried, alright…” I began as I struggled to keep my laughter back. “It’s just. This is the only drink that’s even put Brayden down with a single glass.” I continued as another fit of laughter overcame me.

I continued to laugh until suddenly, a strong force hit me in the gut and knocked the wind from my lungs. Kneeling and gasping for breath, I looked up, my hand instinctively reaching back for my shotgun to see pair of hooves flying towards my face. Employing my Spartan reflexes, I rolled away and stood up to see Fluttershy furious.

“Enough!” Yelled Fluttershy in an unpredicted moment of ferocity, “Now either help me care for Brayden or go do your stupid collection mission but DO NOT laugh at him!!!!” I raised my eyebrows in a silent moment of praise as I observed her posture. Low to the ground, eyes fiery and focused, and a glare that could make most Drill Instructors cry in pride… I immediately knew what my only option was. I raised my hands in defeat.

“Okay, I’m sorry. Brayden will be fine in a few hours, but he always keeps some feel-good pills on his armor for the days when the hangovers are horrid.” I said as I walked up to the now unconscious Brayden and rummaged through his pockets before pulling out a pair of green pills and Brayden’s canteen. Raising his head back, I put the pills in his mouth and slowly poured some water into his mouth. After making sure that Brayden swallowed the pills and was breathing easily enough, I pulled out a tac-pad and wrote a message on it saying that we’d be out getting food, and I told him not to go anywhere.

Standing, I look over to Fluttershy, who was still giving me a rather frosty glare. “Alright, he’ll be good now. I left a note telling him where we’ll be. But I still need your help to find what I need here. After that, we’ll come back, pick Brayden up and head back to the Albatross, deal?” I asked, holding out my hand to make peace.

Still glaring at me slightly, Fluttershy sighed in defeat and offered her hoof, “Deal.” I reached out and grabbed her hoof, smiling as I did so.

“I swear this happens every time we go on shore leave; we meet a nice lady, go get drunk, and then I leave him somewhere while I go and handle clean up. It’s totally routine.” I said nonchalantly as we began to walk off into the market.

“Yeah, well, I just hope he’ll be okay….” Muttered Fluttershy with a longing look as she looked over her shoulder with a glance full of worry, as we walked off and disappeared into the crowds.

Brayden’s P.O.V.

The first thing my mind recognized was the rhythmic pounding in my head. A steady and familiar thump-thump, thump-thump that indicated my heart was still beating; always a good sign. Opening my eyes and letting out a pained groan, I sat up and looked around the immediate area. I was still on the pavilion bench, and nobody was around.

‘Great, the brat left me behind… again.’ I thought with a grimace as I rolled my shoulders and stretched out my aching limbs. “At least I can move my limbs again,” I growled in relief, moving and popping the joints in my arms and legs before trying to stand.

Slowly standing, I was forced to reach out for the bench to steady myself as my vision swam in and out as the pounding in my head amplified tenfold. Taking a few deep breaths, I groaned and soldiered through the pain, and steadied myself. ‘God, that was some hard liquor.’ I thought to myself in a chastising manner.

Looking around once more, I noticed a small tac-pad where I had been resting. Leaning over, I picked the pad up and began to read it.

So, on the bright side, we finally found the almighty ass-kicking alcoholic drink that’ll put you down with a single glass. The bad news is that you’re out like a light, so Fluttershy and I are gonna head into the market and buy the food we need and then head back to your position. From there, we’ll make stuff up as we go. So PLEASE just sit tight and wait for us. The last thing I want to do today is hunting you down through a crowded place.

-Matt

1213 hours

Grimacing at Matt’s teasing, I tossed the tac pad on the bench before looking down at the small digital watch on my wrist. “Alright, it’s almost been an hour since they left, so they shouldn’t be too long,” I mumbled to myself. Suddenly I grunted in pain as I felt a wave of nausea and lightheadedness before I sat down, taking more deep breaths.

Opening my eyes after a few seconds, I saw that my vision had cleared… but not wanting to try that little experience again, I decided to just sit things out for a bit. Leaning back, I stretched my arms out and closed my eyes, letting the sunlight warm my face and the sound of running water from the fountain soothe me into a semi-conscious state.

While I may have only been semi-conscious, years of living on the battlefield had honed my senses to a razor-sharp point even with the alcohol. So when I picked up the light clopping of some hooves coming closer, my mind awoke to soothe my body’s instinct to grab a gun and shoot whatever it was in the face.

Discretely cracking my eye open, I saw a smaller gray pony inching towards me, a basket of flowers in its jaws. On the small sign hanging from the basket, it said, ‘flowers 1 bit.’ “What are you doing out here, kiddo?” I asked, startling the small pony, who recoiled back a little but held strong.

“My momma is at work, and I wanted to help her, so I went and picked some flowers to sell… would you like some?” The small horse explained in a small squeaky voice as I leaned forward and looked at the small horse. The horse was way too small to be full-grown, so it must have been a child.

“Sure, kiddo,” I replied in a relaxed manner as I grabbed a one-bit coin and put it in the basket as I grabbed a small yellow flower and twirled it in my hand. “Mind me asking why you need the extra bits?” I asked as the kid should probably be out playing somewhere.

“Well, momma works long hours as a waitress in an uptown restaurant, and dad… well, I never knew dad.” The kid explained as he sat on his haunches and looked down at the pavement. I nodded my head quietly at the last bit. I guess every species has its sob stories. The kid looked up again, a certain fire in his eyes this time, “That’s why I need to help my momma in any way I can, and if that means I need to be out here all day, then so be it.” Said the kid, smiling with a kind of vigor that would take him far in life if he kept it up.

I smiled to myself and could almost feel little specks of moisture near my eyes. Bah must be the fountain splash. Smiling, I picked up the bag of bits and tossed it into his basket. “Here, kiddo, you’re the man of the house now, so you need to help your mother in any way possible, alright?” I said with the voice of a veteran. “It’s not going to be easy,” I said as I placed a hand on his shoulder and looked into his awed eyes. “But it wouldn’t be worth it if it wasn’t. Now run on home, kiddo and remember my words; you’re gonna have to be strong now.” I said to him, my confidence seeping into him, making the shocking expression disappear.

“Y-yes, sir, thank you very kindly.” The kid said as he smiled widely and turned to run off towards home. “I’ll never forget you!” He yelled back as he ran off into the distance. For some reason, I found myself feeling proud, and I took the small flower and stuck it into one of the seams on my chest plate.

‘Bah, forget me, kiddo, just don’t forget what I said.” I muttered to myself as I placed my helmet on my head and leaned back, falling into a deep sleep.

During my deep sleep, I jumped between several dreams; dreams of past battles, dreams of Selene-VII, and more often than usual, dreams of Natalie. Her crimson hair, Viridian green eyes, and earthy and loving voice haunted me more than I cared to admit, especially recently. Probably because of that nightmare I’d had the other night. I continued to dream of a home before being awoken by the one thing that does that the most often; Matt’s voice.

“Brayden… What the hell is that on your chest?” Matt’s signature slightly gravelly voice rang out in question. Opening my eyes, I sat up and looked at him and Fluttershy. Matt was carrying a small messenger’s bag, and Fluttershy had what looked to be a bag of oats hanging from her side.

Looking down, I remembered the flower sticking out of my chest plate. Deciding to play it off, I shrugged and plucked it from its seam. “Hell if I know, I said as I placed it on the bench. “And what the Sam hell is that you two are carrying.”
This time Matt shrugged and opened his bag to show small pastries and sweets. “Well, as you know, the synthesizer at the base doesn’t have a real grasp on sweets, and Pinkie’s sweets are for everyone, so I went and secured some extra rations for myself.” Matt quickly explained in as non-committal a tone as humanly possible. “Fluttershy here got herself a quick bag of spiced oats.” Fluttershy looked up from her bag and nodded, smiling to see me all right before dipping back in.
I stared at Matt for a moment, “Private sweets rations, huh?” I asked with a healthy dose of suspicion in my voice, causing Matt to shift from foot to foot and rub the back of his neck. “Pfft, whatever, just help me up, fatty.” I jabbed sarcastically as I stuck out a hand.

Feigning shock, Matt stepped back a moment, hands on his mud-brown EOD helmet. “Shut up. It’s glandular.” Matt replied, sarcasm dripping from his words before he grabbed my hand and pulled me up. “Come on, old man, the rendezvous point is back at the albatross, so let get-go-“

Before Matt could finish his sentence, a Pegasus in full battle armor landed in front of us. Spear brandished at us and body low to the ground in attack position. My hand flew to my M6, but a hard impact hit my hand before I could reach it. Looking around, I noticed that four more pegasi had surrounded Matt, Fluttershy, and me.

“Halt, Princess Celestia requests an audience with you. Resistance is futile.” Shouted the first Pegasus, who had a white stripe on his helmet, denoting him as the leader. Matt and I stood back to back with Fluttershy between us as the pegasi formed a semi-circle around us.

“You know, I have a feeling requests reads as demands.” Snarked Matt as he looked the group over, staring at the spears that probably couldn’t hurt us. I could hear Fluttershy breathing heavily between us and knew Matt wouldn’t try anything because we wouldn’t be able to take her with us.

“Yeah, Matt, you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked as I mentally considered our options. I might not have the Spartan augments that let me run through eighty plans at once, but I’ve been doing this a lot longer than any others.

“Well, if it’s anything like Omega station, then we’re gonna need more guns.” Remarked Matt as he braced himself for a fight.

Running my left hand over my M6D, I knew I could draw a bead and fire at least three stunning shots before any were in melee range. Sighing out loud, I brought my ends up in a defensive posture. “Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of our little tour of Arcadia back in ’43,” I growled as I knew Matt would get the message immediately.

Matt turned his head around and lowered his fists, “Seriously? He asked, incredulousness in his voice. “I mean, that’s probably our best plan, but I really wasn’t expecting that from you,” Matt said as he resumed his posture.

“Yeah, well, you gotta know when to hold them and when to fold them,” I said as I mentally and physically prepared for what I was sure was to follow our maneuver. “On three. One.” I said as I lowered my body into a defensive posture.

“Two,” Two replied Matt as he braced.

“Three.” Simultaneously we both raised our hands in defeat, and the guards moved forwards and surrounded us and began to escort us towards the castle.

“Damn.” Muttered Matt to my right as one guard prodded him in the shoulder with a spear.

“What?” I asked as we continued to march.

“I just thought of our stint in New London back in ’51.” Muttered Matt as he rolled his shoulders. “That would have been a better plan than being jabbed with a spear over and over again.” Hissed Matt as the guard behind him smirked some and jabbed again.

Canterlot, Equestria
April 5, 2556
1152 hours
Blake’s P.O.V.

“OOH, and there was that one time that Fluttershy stared down a basilisk. It was all like BUCARGHH, and she was all like HMMMMM, and she stared it down and made it turn all our friends back to normal even if we were all scared.” Yelled Pinkie Pie as she bounced around. We were walking down an empty cobblestone street towards what Twilight had said was the guard’s academy at the foot of the castle.

“Oh yeah,” I replied as I grinned under my cherry red Soldier helmet. The more I heard about these ponies, the more I found they were a bit like our little awesome band. “That reminds me of this one time we were in an alien installation. We’re creeping around right, expecting monsters to jump out at us when Matt goes around a corner out of sight, and all of a sudden, we hear this buzz and a high-pitched scream and then nothing.” I explain as we began to approach a large building.

Pinkie Pie is at full attention now, nodding as we walk. “Well then, all of a sudden, Matt comes running full tilt around the corner and hides behind Lane, shaking like a leaf.” I begin to chuckle at the memory of it all lightly. “Well, we’re all freak out now, and no one wants to look around the corner before Lane finally does, and then he screams too, but he RUNS around the corner. So we all peak around the corner to see Lane looking at this giant lizard-like creature that’s frozen in a roaring stance.” I finish, laughing at the look of Matt huddled in a corner in fear of the giant T-rex with Matt mumbling something about Jurassic Park.

Pinkie smiles and laughs at the story with me as we finally come to a stop in front of the Guard’s academy. The building was a large three-story brick building, with lots of windows and murals on the walls depicting everything from festivals to battles and more. Looking past the gate in the wall, I could see a group of soldiers training in the yard, a greyish-white older unicorn pacing in front of the group, yelling into the crowd and awaiting them to yell back.
“Wow,” I muttered under my breath. My smile stretching from ear to ear. These guys were just like the troops back home. I began to march towards the gate to get inside and check it out.

“Err Blake, are you sure you want to go in there?” Asked Pinkie Pie with a questioning glance as she watched the group. “I mean, these guard types are always no fun.” Continued Pinkie as she continued to walk by my side, slightly less jubilant than before.

“Hey, don’t worry,” I said reassuringly as I walked up to the gate and pushed it open. Slowly strutting into the yard. “Don’t worry; I’ll pop in, look around, and then we’ll pop out and explore the town, deal?” I said as I turned to Pinkie Pie and offered a brofist. Staring at the leader yelling at the group, Pinkie hesitated for a moment before finally sighing and bumping her hoof against my fist.

Smiling beneath my helmet, I turned around to see the leader marching towards Pinkie Pie and me with a furious look on his face. ‘Uh-oh, this is gonna be fun.’ I thought to myself as I waited for the Sergeant to reach me.

“What in the unholy name of Chrysalis are you?” The sergeant yelled at me with a curt, clipped, and most of all, angry voice. Breathing in to answer, I was interrupted when the sergeant held up a hoof. “Wait, never mind, I don’t care. All I know is that you’re unauthorized to be here, so do me a favor and GET OUT!” The sergeant yelled as he pointed his hoof.

Nodding reluctantly, I turned and began to leave with Pinkie Pie, marching past the front of the amassed group of soldiers. I kept walking until a snickering and yell from one of the troops stopped me in my tracks. “Pfft, that hunk of metal probably can’t even fight.” Laughed a blue trooper.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my blood boiling in my veins; I don’t mind being mouthed off to by a sergeant or being told to leave, but when some greenhorns insult my combat capabilities, shit gonna get real.

“Err, Blake. You probably shouldn’t tick these guys off. There’s like a bajillion of them and one of you.” Remarked Pinkie Pie as she watched me march up to the recruit who insulted me.

“Come on, let’s fight,” I said as I stood in front of the blue recruit. He had to look up, and I had to look down so that he could make eye contact. Judging by his wide-eyed look, he wasn’t too talkative anymore.

“W-what?” Stuttered the recruit as he stared up at me. Two of his friends moving up to flank me.

“I’m sorry, did I stutter? You and me, let’s spar, and I’ll show you my twenty years of fighting skills.” I said in a flat tone. Inside I knew that I shouldn’t have been causing a ruckus like this, but these little shits had woken the wrong bear… besides, Brayden would have just shot them in the face, so at least I’m giving them a chance.

“You have no right!” Yelled the yellow recruit to the right of the blue recruit in front of me.

“Yeah, you have no position of honor in this academy to even consider demanding a sparring session with any of us.” Complimented the brown recruit on the left.

“No, but I can.” Looking off to my far left, I saw the sergeant walk up, and all three recruits visibly paled. “After all, you three hotshots have been riding to open up the sparring ring, now might be an excellent time to show you what combat is like.” Drawled the sergeant, looking me top to bottom; the sergeant nodded and looked to the group. “Considering this outsider’s skill, I think three on one might be sufficient.” Almost immediately, the three recruits lit up again, smiling at the chance to prove themselves. I just smirked. There’s a reason I’m the CQC expert of a Spartan strike team.

All three recruits sat at attention and nodded to the sergeant, aggressive grins adorning their faces. “We won’t fail you, sir.” Yelled the blue recruit. As the three recruits marched off towards the armor bench, I could hear the rest of the recruits murmuring with an energy that was pretty familiar considering my days back in the ODST corps. It was an energy of superiority, of pride, of vicious aggression.

Feeling a hoof on my side, I looked to the sergeant, who had a mask of impassiveness. “Don’t break them, please, just wound their egos.” Said the sergeant quietly out of earshot of the troops. Nodding my head discreetly, I turned to Pinkie Pie, who looked excited.

“Oh boy! Are you guys going to fight? Cool!” Squealed Pinkie Pie as she jumped around laughing as I stood silently chuckling at her display. Suddenly she stopped in mid-air and looked to me, a questioning look on her face, “Wait, what are you gonna use to fight?” She asked as she looked over to the recruits who were armed with spears with glowing tips.
I reached down to my hips and pulled my two blades from their sheaths; in my hands were a pair of 8 inch curved steel knives reinforced with a titanium-A core from the first ship I served on the UNSC Alaska. There were showy but strong and my favorite weapons to use. “Well, I got these two little beauties,” I said as I brandished them in the sunlight, the light gleaming off them.

“Ooooh, Pretty.” Remarked Pinkie as she stared at my blades before I sheathed them. Hearing the gong from the training arena. Walking over, I got to my side of the twenty-foot diameter ring of sand. Looking over at my opponents, I could see that they all were greenhorns, still getting used to the feel of the armor and brandishing their weapons in overextended manners.

I quietly smirk viscously, ‘These guys are done.’ I thought to myself as I stared at the recruits as they tried to organize an offense against me. I noticed the sergeant get into position to begin the fight and noticed the three recruits were still debating how to fight. ‘Oh man, these guys need to get their stuff together, or they have screwed something fierce.’ I thought mirthfully as I slowly withdrew my right blade only, deciding the lads could use the handicap.

After a few moments, the recruits' group got close together to form a tight defense as their fellow recruits and Pinkie Pie formed around the ring. After a few moments, the tension was palpable in the ring as I lowered my body into an offensive and quick stance, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
“FIGHT!!!”

With a roar, the Blue recruit in the center rushed forward as his Yellow friend on the right moved up along the right, and his Brown friend hung off and back to the left. Smirking, I rushed forward and juked right past the blue recruit’s spear and grabbed the shaft of it with his left hand and yanked the spear from the pony and rolled off to the right, and swung the spear in a low wide arc towards the yellow pony who jumped backward to avoid the swing narrowly. However, by moving backward, I had cornered him against the edge of the ring.

Using the spear's centrifugal force, I spun and threw the spear towards the blue recruit, who narrowly ducked beneath the spear’s glowing tip but failed to dodge the shaft, which smacked the blue recruit in the side of the jaw, stunning him. Ducking down and continuing my counter-clockwise spin, I leaped into the air, swinging my right leg towards the yellow horse to keep the recruit on the defensive. As my leg narrowly swung past the yellow horse’s neck, the brown recruit finally made his move. Rushing forwards and swinging the spear in a top-right to left arc, the brown horse attempted to catch me as I landed and smash my head with a spear.

Acting on a whim, I rolled forward and left away from the yellow horse but now into the Brown horse’s guard. Rising on a knee, I brought my knife up and across the recruit’s chest plate, hitting three straps and causing the right shoulder pad to hang freely from the horse’s leg, hampering his movement. As I came to my full height, I spun my knife in my hand to make the handle facing towards the recruit's head. Swinging my hand in a hammer strike, I struck the butt of my knife against the recruit’s head with a swift crack. Falling to the ground unconscious, I turned to face the last two recruits, one on each side, both with their spears firmly pointed at me. ‘One down, two to go.’ I thought to myself as my grin grew even wider.
By now, the crowd was roaring with excitement as the two recruits and I stared each other down, neither party wishing to renew the assault, but neither team was willing to let the other team strike first. I knew that now that they knew what I could do, they would be all the more cautious, so I needed something to tilt the odds in my favor. Looking to my feet, I smirked and quietly laughed. “Think fast, lads,” I yelled as I got ready.

Shifting my feet, I put the shaft of the stun spear from the brown recruit in between my legs and shifted my feet, kicking the spear upwards where I caught the bottom of the spear with my hand and threw it overhanded like a hatchet forwards towards the yellow recruit on my left. Juking left, I sprinted onto the left side of the yellow recruit as he juked to my left. Bringing my left foot up, I snap kicked the yellow recruit’s helmet. Knocking the recruit onto his side and unconscious as the Blue recruit advanced with a low sweeping strike with his spear.

Leaning back and jumping, I began to execute a backflip. Still, I was quickly stopped when a large force collided with the back of my helmet, knocking the metal cover from my head, stunning me for several seconds, and knock my knife from my hand as I rolled across the ground, dodging the several cleaving strikes aimed towards me as I tried to figure out what happened. After a few seconds, my mind pieced everything together. The recruit must have quickly switched directions of his spear and knocked my helmet off.

Rolling to my feet and gritting my teeth in concentration, I jumped over another sweeping strike. As I landed, I spun and ducked a high sweeping strike before rising with an open palm and striking the blue recruit under his jaw and sending him flying backward unconscious.

Raising both fists in the air, I smiled in victory as sweat poured through my buzz cut varnish colored hair. The crowd roared in victory and applause as some other recruits pulled their friends out of the ring. Bouncing over to me, Pinkie Pie bro hoofed me and smiled from ear to ear. “Congrats, How are you doing?” Asked Pinkie Pie.

“Good if a little sore,” I replied as I walked over and grabbed my helmet and knife, replacing both pieces. As I stood and turned around, the crowd immediately silenced, and the sergeant marched over to me.

“Impressive work. What’s your name?” Asked the sergeant, a small upward curve of his lips the only physical hint of his praise.

“Captain Blake Hubbard, UNSC Spartan-IV program,” I replied as I gave off a small salute.

“As I said before, very impressive… but not your best. You got two of those blades, but you only used one.” Replied the sergeant as he marched into the circle, His bright white and gold armor shining in the sunlight with polish. Smirking, the sergeant’s horn on his head began to glow, and four spears began to glow off the weapons rack and fly over to the sergeant, who continued to hold them in mid-air.

“Now,” Said the sergeant as he lowered himself into a combative stance as the four spears floated around him for a second before locking into place with two spears in defensive poses and two spears in offensive poses. “Show me what you got.”

To say the crowd was shocked would be an understatement; nearly all the recruits were awe-shocked, and the few left who weren’t were starting to cheer and chant. I smiled and smirked as I grabbed my two knives again and activated the video record button on my helmet. ‘If we're gonna have an awesome-sauce duel, we might as well get proof at the same time.’ I thought mirthfully to myself as I lowered myself into a defensive position, my two knives held forwards ready to strike.
“Alright, let’s roll.”

Canterlot, Equestria
April 5, 2556
1315 hours
Mike’s P.O.V.

“Wow, this place is amazing!” Lane all but shouted as we left Canterlot’s main library. Several books about magic, history, and culture weighing our rucksacks down with weight, I rolled my eyes as Lane and Twilight continued to talk shop and make jokes about history; honestly, I was beginning to feel like a third wheel here as we walked through the upper city area surrounding the library. Eventually, we found a water fountain, and I greedily made a break for the ledge, setting the bag of books down and stretching my shoulder.

‘Ah, stings a little.’ I thought to myself as I rolled the joint, popping it several times while I waited for Lane and Twilight to catch up. Sitting on the ledge, I watched the crowds as they walked by; everything from scholars and professors to aristocrats and nobility hung around this area, and I couldn’t blame them. Several trees and gardens surrounded the area and numerous fountains, each with a different figure placed atop them.

Remembering my promise, I opened the compartment on the side of my rogue armor and pulled out the scanner. I activated the scanner and slowly waved the machine around, pointing the antenna at several buildings before I stopped at the castle where the readings were skyrocketing. ‘I suppose the home of a demi-god princess would have a lot of magic to it.’ I thought mirthfully as I replaced the scanner, and Lane and Twilight walked up to me.

“What was that, Mike?” Asked Twilight, only a slight amount of suspicion in her voice as she and Lane walked up and sat on the fountain’s ledge as well.

“Don’t worry. It was just a device designed to measure and detect magical energies. The scientist’s back at base wanted us to look and see if it’s the natural habitat that causes your magical powers.” I explained as I pulled the small tac-pad device out and showed Twilight, activating it and swooshing it around to get a few recordings before putting it back. Twilight looked at the device in curiosity as Lane messed around with his helmet.

“Hey, Mike.” Began Lane as he took his helmet off to examine it. “Check your comms and try and reach the others. I’m not getting anything from Matt, Brayden, or Blake.” Remarked Lane as he scanned over the part of his recruit helmet that contained the radio array. Furrowing my eyebrows in confusion, I reached to my helmet and keyed the comms.

“All teams, this is Mike. Sound off.” I ordered over the comms only to be replied with by static. Deciding something was definitely off, I stood and tried to find a better signal, “I repeat, this is Mike. Sound off.” I repeated as I looked over to Lane, who gave a non-committal shrug of confusion.

Standing around with my worry growing by the second, I was suddenly bumped into from behind. Spinning around to look, I found a paint colored guard Pegasus on his rear shaking his head in confusion while another group of guards rushed off with an excited look in their eyes.

Coming up behind me, Twilight helped the guard to his feet. “Where are all you guys going?” She asked with a mix of confusion and curiosity in her voice while Lane and I stood off to the side. Our day here in the big city had taught us many things, but one thing was for sure; the guards are not too fond of us.

“Oh, there’s this big red metal guy in armor sparring against sergeant Buck. They’ve been going at it for like forty-five minutes now, and we’re all going to watch.” Said the Pegasus, a wide grin on his face and excitement in his eyes. “You’re free to come to watch as well.” The Pegasus said as he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck before remembering his buds left him and running off. “Hey, wait up, guys!!!” He yelled as he ran off into the distance.

“Big red metal guy, huh?” I commented as only one figure came to mind with those specifications. To my right, I saw Lane place an armored hand on his face and sigh loudly.

“Well, that accounts for Blake.” He grumbled as he let the hand slide down his face, his amber eyes narrowing in concentration. “Now, if only we could find Matt and Brayden, and we’d be set.” Finished Lane as he placed his purple recruit helmet upon his head once again.

Sighing loudly and picking up the rucksack full of books, I began to jog after the Pegasus. “Come on,” I yelled over my shoulder as Twilight and Lane began to jog with me. “If we find If we find Blake, Matt and Brayden probably won’t be far behind.” I finished as we continued our jog ahead.

“What… What makes you think you’re friends will be with your other friend.” Twilight yelled as she readjusted her bag to fit more comfortably.

“Well, that’s simple.” Said Lane beating me to the punch line. “It’s Matt and Brayden. If there’s a fight going on, the two of them are likely either close by, part of it, or making bets on it.” Finished Lane.

Continuing our jog for another thirteen minutes, we finally arrived at the academy to see a veritable sea of guards in the building's courtyard. Towards the center, I could hear the telltale sounds of wood cracking against metal and metal clashing with more metal. Slowly pushing our way through the ponies crowd, we finally arrived at the center to find a rather interesting sight.

In the center of the ring was Blake dodging and weaving and jumping around an older unicorn who had three spears twirling around him, blocking almost all of Blake’s slashes and jabs while Blake kicked and blocked and dodged every spear strike, sweep, and feint.

“Oh, hi guys!” Yelled a familiar pink pony that had pom-poms in her hooves. “You’re just in time to see the end of the fight.” She said as she continued to cheer and jump around. Twilight sighed and followed Pinkie to the other side of the arena as Lane and I watched to battle continue.

The battle had become one of attrition as Blake swished and jumped around calculated and accurate spear strikes and sweeps. “Christ,” I said as I watched Blake slide under a sweep that was but centimeters from his head as Blake bounced up and spun to kick away another spear as it tried to come down onto Blake’s back. “Three spears against two knives? Blake’s doing pretty good considering.” I commented as I watched Blake do a flip over the pony’s back and do a cross block with his knives to stop another sweep.

“Four.” Yelled Lane over the roar of the crowd as we both winced when a clever spinning sweep distracted Blake long enough for an overhead cleaving strike to nail Blake square in the shoulder, sparks flying from the spear as a small electric charge was discharged.

“What?” I said confusion as Blake managed to grab onto one spear and use it to block another sweep before slashing at the unicorn’s armor and breaking a strap, causing one of the many plates to slide off the unicorn.

“Four spears, Michael.” Yelled Lane as he pointed to some splintered remains on the far side of the arena. “It would appear that Blake decided to remove one of his opponent’s weapons earlier.” Commented Lane as we both cheered at a successful strike against the unicorn from Blake.

“Damn,” I muttered in praise for Blake’s Martial arts capabilities. “Then I lied. Blake’s doing incredible considering.” I murmured as Blake did a backflip over two sweeping spears and rolled as he landed, dodging a third diagonal spear strike as he rushed forward and delivered an open palm strike to the unicorn’s ribs before rolling a few yards back and assuming a defensive position. The sergeant did the same, still twirling each spear to keep Blake guessing. At this point, both parties had to be running on fumes as if the entire battle had been like this.

Seeing an opportunity, Blake put away both knives and rushed forward, and slid on his knees for the last few feet to catch the spears in his hands. Grappling the spears, Blake tried to push forward but must have forgotten about the third spear as it drew back behind the sergeant to come forward in a cleaving strike. Seeing the movement, Lane put together the plan and yelled. “DO A BARREL ROLL!”

Hearing the phrase and acting on instinct, Blake jumped and rolled to the right, twisting the two spears in front of him as the third spear cracked to the ground a foot away. Seeing his opportunity, Blake stood and spun on his heel while lifting his right leg and then bringing it crashing down on the shaft of the third spear, shattering the shaft and making the crowd roar in amazement.

Still moving from his spin, Blake put both hands on a single spear and yanked it from the sergeant’s telekinetic grasp. Jumping forward and away from the sergeant, Blake spun back around to face the sergeant and was about to charge into the fray when a commanding voice broke the silence.

“ENOUGH!” Yelled a deep gravelly voice that brought every single recruit to attention. Even I had to fight the urge not to stand at attention and salute. Looking over to the academy building's front door, I saw a large horse decked out in ornate white and gold armor that was decorated with numerous medals and ribbons.

Marching forward to our little group, the literal sea of troops split before the officer like Moses and the Red Sea. Coming to a stop in front of the sergeant, the Officer looked down onto the sergeant with a perked eyebrow. “Sergeant Adrian Buck, might I ask what is going on here?” The officer questioned a hint of amusement in his clear-cut but gravely voice.

“Yes, General, A few recruits got rowdy when the captain here came to look around, so they challenged him to a duel. After he thoroughly trounced all three, I saw the opportunity to train the recruits here in some more… complex offensive maneuvers.” Explained the Sergeant, who in his defense stayed calm and clear the entire time, likely used to such inspections.

Changing targets, the general sauntered over to an alert Blake who stood at attention and looked the general in the eye. “And that brings me to my second question,” drawled the general as he looked Blake over, inspecting several pieces of Blake’s armory and physiology. “Who are you?” Asked the general with an inquisitive look.

“Captain Blake Hubbard of the United Nations Space Command Spartan-IV program… Certifiable bad-ass, I have papers to prove it.” Said Blake, Finishing with an almost audible grin. Almost on instinct, both Lane and I face-palmed. If it wasn’t Matt or Gunny’s corny jokes, it was Blake’s pride and swagger.

Squinting at Blake and appraising him once more, the general nodded. “I see, my name is General Terrance Vindictus, and it was imposing that you fought Adrian here to a standstill.” Said Vindictus as he nodded over to the Sergeant standing at attention. “The horse is a war hero after all, and in all my years as headmaster of the guard’s academy, I have yet to see anyone defeat the old bucker.” Continued the general as he nodded over to Sergeant Buck before facing Blake once again. “Tell me, Captain, do you know where you’re fellow… ‘Spartans’ are right now?” Asked General Vindictus, hesitating at the Spartan part, as he glanced through the crowd, I could tell his piercing eyes had picked up both Lane and me.

“Well, sir, I can only speak for myself, Pinkie Pie, and I’m gonna guess Lane is somewhere in the crowd. So Mike and Twilight are likely with him..” Drawled Blake as he shifted his feet and rolled, no doubt sore limbs. “As for Matt, Brayden, and Fluttershy, I can’t say.” Finished Blake. Vindictus, who had been pacing so far, stopped and nodded.

“Excellent, if you and your friends would follow me to the castle, I will reunite you with your fellow Spartans, Matt, and Brayden. Princess Celestia would like to see you.” Explained Vindictus as he turned heel and began to walk through an arch towards a road that leads up to the castle. Glancing at each other, we nodded and began to follow the general, with Twilight and Pinkie following us.

Looking over to Lane as we passed through the arch, I had to grimace. If Matt, Brayden, and Fluttershy were up at the castle, there were only two answers, either there had been a big fight, and the guards subdued them. ‘Unlikely, VERY unlikely,’ I thought to myself. Or they’d willing went to the castle and were likely not going to be leaving until we pull their asses out of the fire.

‘Great,’ I thought as I looked up the castle and rolled my sore shoulder once again. ‘Out of the Fryingpan and into the fire we go.’ I thought as we continued up the path and towards the castle, our friends, and though I didn’t know it at the time, our destiny.

Author's Note

The largest chapter YET!!! Did you guys have fun with this one?

Unwelcome Guests

Chapter 11

Unwelcome Guests

April 7, 2556
Firebase Victor, Equestria

“So what, another round of 20 questions?” I asked as Brayden and Matt stood at my ten o’clock and two o’clock positions. Matt looked to Brayden, who shook his head subtly as his hand twitched to raise his gun. The awkward silence continued for another few minutes, and my patience was thinning greatly.

“All right guys, ho-“ I couldn’t finish my sentence before Matt was up in my face. His foot smashed against the back of my knee before I could finish my sentence. The world spun as I fell back, and Matt grabbed my head by my hair before placing a knife along my throat. The seconds dragged on for what felt like forever before Matt dropped me and spoke.

“All right, if you were one of the little bat demon things, ya would have just bit me there. Drawled Matt as he sheathed his knife and walked over to a terminal in the wall. I say he is clean.” I scrambled to my knees and put a hand to my burning throat. Pulling my hand away, I found a crimson smear on my hand. The bastard nearly cut my throat! Glaring daggers into his back, I stood as Brayden walked over to me and gave me a look over.

“Ya look like shit.” Drawled Brayden as Matt cursed in the background and growled at the terminal. I looked to Brayden with a scowl; I apparently had been changed into a patient’s gown during my time in the infirmary.

“Well, I am terribly sorry, but I didn’t have time to clean up during the two days of unconsciousness. Then I wake up to this.” I snapped as I made a motion to the mess hall, making special emphasis on the dead scientist. “It’s a small wonder why Del Rio never liked putting us in charge of shit.” Rubbing my throat absent-mindedly, I looked around the mess hall for a drink. “Christ, I am thirsty. The hell happened while I was sleeping?”

A small bark of mirthless laughter came from Matt as he ran a hand through his blond hair; “The better question is, what didn’t happen while you were sleeping?” Looking over to him, I saw him stand and toss a bottle of water over to me before giving up on the terminal and sitting on one of the few clean tables. “Well, first off we found two scientists dead, then some bug-eyed pony monster thing happened to be able to transform into our guys and impersonate them, and finally we flushed him out, but he bit me in the shoulder and then shot me for good measure and hacked the security systems and locked most of us in our rooms and activated the turrets up top to kill pretty much anything they see.” Drawled Matt as he counted each event off on his fingers before thinking for a few seconds and looking to Brayden with a deadpan look. “Did I miss anything?”

Brayden snorted as he leaned against the wall and leveled Matt with a playful glare, “Wellllll, there was the part where you screamed like a bitch when the thing bit you in the shoulder.” Snarked Brayden as Matt glared at him and rolled his eyes. Shaking my head in disbelief, I tried to process what they just said.

“So let me get this straight; there is an indigenous monster on the loose that can transform into our people, it hacked our security system and turned the turrets and lockdown procedure against us, and now we don’t know where it is or who it is?” I asked as Brayden and Matt looked to each other for a second to confirm before nodding in affirmation. I could feel a small twitch building in my left eye as I tried to control my temper. “Well, where the hell is everyone else?” I yelled, my patience wearing desperately thin.

“Lane and Wolffe were working on a project in the labs when the lockdown went into effect, and Blake and Gunny were running interference for us by making a big show about looking for the beasty over in the labs while we cornered him in the CIC upstairs,” Brayden said as he took a look at the terminal, Matt had given up on earlier, after a few seconds he gave up on it as well.

“As for Sasha, well, I haven’t heard from her since she came down to check on you yesterday.” I tensed slightly as I remembered the fight with her and how I had pressed the wrong buttons. “That was about eight hours ago, I think, so I honestly don’t know if she’s alive, dead, or something in between.”

I sighed and sat down on a table for a few moments and let everything sink in. The only noise in a mess for a few minutes was the sound of Matt's grumblings. Finally, I fought down the lingering fears and stood up. “The well, the first thing I need is to get some real clothes,” I grumbled as Matt knelt and messed with a bag. “Next thing we need to do is regroup and figure out how the hell to fix the system.”

Standing up, Matt tossed me a set of ODST BDUs that he had pulled from the bag. They were a lot like the pairs Matt and Brayden were wearing, only not covered in blood. “Here, we raided a spare container full of clothes when the little tricky bastard hit the power relay for the armor room. Luckily none of us were in it when that happened, but sadly none of us were armored when it happened either.”

Nodding and sliding the BDUs on under the gown, I looked to Brayden, who had a bag in his hands. “We also raided the weapons range, so we have some form of defense.” Reaching into the bag, Brayden pulled out a pistol and an ammo clip and tossed them to me separately. “There are three pistols and an assault rifle. We have two clips for the Assault rifle and nine for the pistols.”

Loading the pistol and strapping it into the holster on my side, I nodded and looked at both of them. “Good, so how we getting to the lab without being made Swiss cheese?” I asked as we began to walk through the halls towards the door outside.
“Well, they're always splitting up and running for it. One of us will make it probably.” Said Matt with a smug look as I glared at him. “What? I’m slightly faster than you two, so I’m confident I can make it.”

“Pfft, You’re also the biggest fatass out of us so that the turret will lock onto you first, jackass.” Snapped Brayden as he pulled the Assault Rifle out and popped a clip in. “I have a much more entertaining idea.” Chuckled Brayden as Matt glared at him, and I gave him a deadpan look.

“Brayden, if it involves shooting up the generator to disable the power to the turrets, we are not doing it. We still need those.” I said as Brayden stopped and looked at me with a slightly confused look.

“Oh shit, I was just going to shoot the turrets up and call it a day, but that plan is way better!” Smiled Brayden as he laughed. I just sighed and facepalmed miserably as we stood outside the airlock door.

“Ya know, just when I think I have you figured out, ya go and do that,” I complained as Matt and Brayden laughed somewhat.

“Dude, I’ve known Brayden for as long as I’ve been in the military, and I STILL haven’t figured him out.” Snarked Matt as he placed a hand on my shoulder, “Hell, I gave up after the first fifteen years.”

After a few moments of laughter, I got us back on track. “Anyhow, I think we can combine those two plans. Split up and sprint for it, but cover each other by drawing fire from the turret if any of us get shot at, deal?” After a quick nod from both of them and us all drawing a firearm, we stacked up on the door, and I pressed the release button.

The door opened, and we all entered the chamber before the door behind sealed shut, and the pressurization process began as we were mentally prepared for the sprint. After a few seconds, the door opened, and we sprinted out and split off as bullets rained down behind us.

I split right, and Matt split left as Brayden trucked forward for about twenty yards before spinning around ad unleashing a few rounds from his assault rifle at the turret. The rounds bounced off the reinforced hull but saved Matt the pain of a few bullets. “Thanks!” Yelled Matt as he crossed towards the research building.

Brayden turned to start sprinting, but a few rounds dug into the steel plates around him. “FUCK!” Yelled Brayden as he fell to the ground, his assault rifle bouncing just out of reach. Spinning around, I drew my pistol and fired off four rounds into the machine's hull.

“HA, gotcha bitch!” I grinned with triumph for a few seconds before it turned and acquired me as a target. “Oh shit.” Losing my grin, I turned and began to run as the bullets spewed past me and buried themselves into the dirt. I kept running and finally made it to the science facility entrance where Matt was waiting, his pistol barking off rounds at the turret.

Rolling into the alcove where Matt is standing, I turn to add my own pistol fire at the turret chasing Brayden. After a few more seconds of tense firing and sprinting, Brayden dashed into the alcove, and Matt slapped the activation switch, snapping the door shut as rounds bounced off the door for a few seconds before finally subsiding. The only sound for a few minutes was us panting in silence. Finally, Brayden broke the silence.

“Whe-where the fuck… Where the fuck, where the fuck was that supporting fire earlier?” Chuckled Brayden playfully as Matt gave him the bird and slid to the floor.

“Hey, screw… screw you, man. I gave you assholes tons of covering fire.” He laughed at Matt as he leaned against the wall and sucked in deep breaths of air. After a few seconds, Matt laughed and smirked. “Told you I was faster.”

I laughed from my position where I laid on the floor and quipped, “Yeah, only because you were full on sprinting and not covering us.” Brayden chuckled, and Matt just pouted, so I pressed my advantage. “Where did you learn to run like that? Your prom night when your two dates figured out you went with both of them?”

This time Brayden laughed out loud, and Matt just glared at me. “All right, last time I ever tell you a funny story motherfucker.” Growled Matt as he walked up to the door and activated the switch as Brayden and I laughed. “Now, if you will excuse me ass holes,” drawled Matt as the door began to unseal and open. “I need to go have a long talk with a recent friend.” Matt stepped through the door and into a shovel that swung around the corner and into his face.

Author's Note

WE'RE BACK!!!!

Wanted Alive

"Who the Fuck are you!" The female voice shouted at the now crippled Matt. He Looked up, Clutching his bloodied and broken nose. Matt pulled gently pinched his nose and winced in pain before pulling his hand away and looking at the blood.

"Fucking Hell... Sasha, you could have killed me." Matt muttered before stumbling back to his feet. Brayden helping him up on his feet and guiding them to a desk. Wolffe, who had been in the room with Sasha working on bypassing the local area's security turrets, had come over to examine Matt.

"Good news and good news." Wolffe gripped Matt's nose and gave it a firm twist. Painfully snapping Matt's nose back in place. Matt yelped and recoiled in pain before pushing Wolffe away. "Your shit is fixed," he said with a huff before going back to the terminal and working on the turrets. "He human, Sasha. His blood is read." Sasha shot a nasty glare at Brayden and me.

"Then I'll break their noses too to find out." She said as she raised her shovel, ready to take a swing at us. We both quickly raised our weapons and leveled them, aiming at Sasha.

"Ya! Well! How do we know you ain't one of those damn things!" Brayden yelled as he stepped closer, his finger on the trigger, ready to kill if needed.

"I swear to god..." Wolffe mumbled frustratedly, "I'm not resetting another damn nose because, some shovel happy bitch." He said from behind the computer terminal, the glow from the monitor only highlighting his displeased stare. "Volunteer to cut your hand or something... Idiots, I swear."

"Wait... Like from the movie, 'The Thing'?" I muttered before lowering my weapon slightly, pointing the muzzle at Sasha's leg. "What color does it bleed then."

"They bleed green. Better now, it's bioluminescent." Sasha said as she lowered the shovel, "One of those things mimicked one of those egg-heads. It tried to jump me while I was trying to turn in on the night I knocked you out cold, Captain. I gave it that same mean right-hook, pissed if off real bad too. Blood all over my knuckles."

"Seems simple but, why haven't the Egg-heads figured it out yet?" Brayden asked as he slackened up a bit and lowered his assault rifle.“We at least have the advantage of checking the personnel here.” Brayden muttered angrily, “So does anyone know where Blake, Lane, and Gunny are?” He asked as he scanned the room, checking to see who was still miss from the group.

“Range and the Armoury are the last places I remember seeing them before the lockdown.” Wolffe, with a soft chuckle, the idea of those three being locked up together was frightening entertaining to him. “They can only leave with command overwrite codes. And the only two people here that have them are in this room.” Brayden looked to me with a look of grave concern.

“Oh god… Blake is locked in a room with guns, ammo, and a shit ton of C-12.” He said we a bit of a shake in his voice. Brayden wasn’t necessarily concerned for Blake but more concerned about what monstrous improvised weapon of mass destruction he'd create. Lane being confined with him doesn’t help in the least bit. He doubles as our directed energy weapons tech. “God damn… I think those things are the least of concern. We need to be more worried about Blake and Lane blowing this damn base to hell.”

“So what gives?” Sasha asked, not understanding the shared concern that the rest of the room has.

“Long story short. Blake and Lane are the kings of breaking things and making things work in ways that baffle the science teams at times.” Matt said bluntly. His mind hard at work trying to think of a plan to get us to the armory to arm ourselves and prevent a colossal disaster.

“Okay… but you Spartans have a thing for that kind of trouble, so it would have been a one in a million for me to believe you,” Sasha said skeptically, still not convinced. After attempts to loosen the security protocol, Wolffe, who was staring daggers at the computer terminal, had failed. He slapped the machine on one side panel and stepped away.

“Blake once managed to tie his armor’s reactor to a Spartan Laser with Lane’s help. Luckily when he did it, he and a squad of Marines were ambushed and backed into a corner. Blake used that laser to blow through what was 10 meters of rock so they could escape.”

“Christ…” Sasha softly gasped as she tried to imagine the technological fuckery that needed to be pulled to keep them from blowing up anyone due to failure.

“Ya, and you wonder why we are scared,” I said before moving to where Wolffe was, seeing where he was on getting the security bypass. “No luck? Maybe my command codes?” Before trying to type my codes into the terminal, I asked only to be notified that I would need to access the command center for this to work. I looked to Matt and Brayden and shaking my head. “No good. Well, the command center to lift the lockdown, but we can hit the armory first and spring the rest of the team.”

“And what about those things? We cleared to engage?” Brayden asked as he pulled the magazine from his pistol to see how many rounds he had left.

“Negative,” I said quickly. The room promptly brought its undivided attention to me. Looks of concern and even distrust became very apparent.

“Mike. Those things have killed several egg-heads, and you want to try to capture those damn things. Well, shit. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re one of them.” Matt said with a bit of a frown.

“Ya the fuck, Mike?” Brayden questioned, stepping closer to me with his magnum in hand before holstering it. Sasha and Wolffe were looking at each other before looking back at me with sharp disapproval.

“Guys. I Understand but, we need to capture these things alive. They show a high level of intelligence, and if they are like the locals, I’m one-hundred percent sure they are gonna hate us if we kill or excessively harm them.” I said calmly, trying to rationalize the entire situation while being a soldier and a diplomat.

"With all due respect..." Brayden quipped

"We both know that just a polite way to say go fuck yourself." I fired back, "Go ahead and speak your mind, Donovan."

"Ya. Fuck it; I will then." He said with a grunt and walked over to me with his rifle at his side. He stood only inches from me with a face that was twisted anger. "That's a fucking dumb call. We can kill these things and dump them on some Egg-head's table to dissect then have the bodies incinerated." He growled, his hand clenched in a fist like he was ready to strike me.

"And if their disappearance is noticed, don't you think they'll immediately point fingers at us?" I rebutted, stepping a little closer, my chest to his face practically. "Sure as shit, that's what will happen. So Donovan, how about you step off, and when you can pass a psychological evaluation, then you can talk about leading troops." I said bluntly, my eyes staring coldly into his. After a few heated seconds ticked by, Brayden lifted his rifle and quickly jabbed the muzzle into my gut. Causing me to stagger back and hunch over in pain. Matt and Wolffe quickly jumped it, but only after Brayden had struck me a few good times with the butt of his rifle. Matt pushed Brayden to one side of the room, and Wolffe pushed me to the other. Wolffe quickly examined my face and declared nothing major, just some bruising, is all.

"Jesus... No wonder Del-rio left you all here." Sasha said, looking disappointed at the ill-disciplined group of Spartans. "I bet he was hoping you'd kill each other while he was jerking off on the other side of the galaxy." She huffed and walked to the door to check the hall. She gestured it was all clear. "So let's get our shit together and get the hell out of here." Brayden still frustrated, pushed Matt away and stacked up behind Sasha, handing her his pistol so she could take point. The dysfunctional group slowly crept out of the room and into the dimly lit hallway. They all hugged on the side of the wall out of instinct and checked rooms as they moved to where the armory was but, as they moved, Matt felt a bit uneased by the noise coming from the ducts. He motioned a stop, and we halted.

"Something ain't right..." He muttered softly, "I know these pre-fabs have some issues, but that clanging in the vents is following us." He lifted his Magnum at one of the vents and kept aimed there. The rest of the group followed suit and cover the vent. We all paused, not hearing anything but the low guttural growl from the generators.

"Might just be paranoid," I said with a chuckle, trying to lighten the mood. "Plus, these bases make all sorts of noises." I lowered my handgun and gestured to move forward. As the group removed their focus from the vent, something had crashed through it and tackled me to the ground. Matt turned around and tried to fire but decided against it, not wanting to risk shooting me by mistake. I panicked and yelled as I tried to push the creature from me. I felt its chitinous shell sent shivers down my spine before it let out a pitched sequel follows by insect-like chattering. "Fuck! Pull this bugger off me!" I yelled. My breathing started to hitch as flashbacks of New Mombasa filled my head. Matt ran up and kicked it as hard as he could in the side, knocking it off of me. It had slammed against one of the bulkheads; you could hear its wings panicky buzz as it tried to the right itself scrambled away and got some distance from the creature. Wolffe then quickly followed up with a bash with his fist, forcing the bug back to the ground as it tried to fly away from the confrontation.

"Please stop!" It shouted as Wolffe was readying his fist for a second blow. The plea had made us all pause, not quite registering what had just happened.

"Damn, bugger spoke English!" Brayden said with a bit of surprise. Sasha and Matt soon gathered close to examine the creature. It had the basic silhouette of a pony but had blue glowing eyes, thick black chitin and, bug-like wings. The creature curled up and whimpered softly as the pain from the beating flooded its body. I stayed clear away from it, almost tucking myself into a corner as my team surrounded it.

"Please... don't kill me..." It pleaded as it covered its head with its forelegs.

"Shit... Kinda fell like an ass now." Sasha said softly as she watched the bug-like pony plead and whimper.

"I say we kill it," Brayden said coldly. The bug's eyes quickly shot up and skitted as fast as it could to Sasha, who was the only feeling any sympathy for it. She was reluctant to hold it first, but its behavior mimicked that of a wounded dog, and Sasha couldn't help to shield it.

"The fuck, man. Can't you see it's had enough?" She growled lowly at Brayden before turning to face the badly beaten bug. "I don't suppose you have a name?" She asked softly

"Th-Thorax... and I'm a changeling." He said weakly and nuzzled gently against Sasha's arm.

"Changelings?" Wolffe questioned before shaking his head, "This planet is literally every D and D nerds dream.

"Well, Mike, You got one," Brayden said sarcastically before looking over to see me staring blankly at the wall, still trapped inside my head with my demons. "Yeah... and I'm the one that needed to pass the psych eval. Dick."

Author's Note

Long time, no see. How's everyone doing?

Another Day in Paradise

From War to Peace
“Just Another Day in Paradise”

Ponyville, Equestria
1:30 A.M.

Twilight frowned as she looked through the telescope at the star splattered sky. Sighing, she rubbed her eyes and looked up. The stars have been blinking out in a rectangular pattern, almost always in a small area. Twilight, the ever-curious one, had been trying for the last three nights to track and identify it. Yawning loudly, she placed a hoof over her mouth, stretching the stiffness out of her muscles.

Looking up, Twilight noticed a bright star falling. Smiling in remembrance of an old tale, she decided to wish on the shooting star, " I wish I could learn about more new and exciting things" smiling as the star flashed almost as if in response, she looked to the moon's position and decided that it would be prudent to call it a night. Stretching and walking back into the house and straight to her bed, she fell into a deep sleep. However, had she taken her telescope and looked at the falling star, she would have seen that the star was a metal pod containing a being who could very well help her with her wish.

-Eight hours earlier-
UNSC Infinity War Room
5:30 P.M.

My mind raced as tracers passed over my head; I dove behind a flipped warthog Matt followed in right behind me, water splashing up around his knees. “Jesus Christ, they got that position locked down,” Matt muttered while ducking as a Sniper round ripped through the fuselage of the warthog. I stood up, firing off a mag of my assault rifle, and then ducked back down and reloaded, flinching as more tracers flew by.

“Well, that mantis is not making this easy,” I said, glancing around the corner to look at the towering base. Matt grunted in agreement and stood up, trying to let lose a mag of suppressive fire.

CRACK

The sound of a sniper rifle rang out from the other side of the narrow box canyon. Matt's head snapped back as blood and bone flew through the air before his body went limp. I yelled in surprise as my breathing hitched and my emotions got the best of me. I grabbed his corps, pulling it up and next to the warthog. I check for any vitals but already knew he was gone as I stared at the bloody hole in the front of his EOD helmet. I sighed heavily and, suppressing my emotions, striped Matt of any useful ammo.

I loaded up, and after a few seconds of planning out the trajectory over the hill, I sprinted to the next piece of cover. As I ran, the mantis spotted and started shooting at me. I felt my life slow down; dirt flew up into the air, tracers screamed passed me, fellow Spartans fell one by one trying to take the position. It was complete and utter hell out here. I slid behind the nearest rock, my eyes searched, trying to find a weapon that would destroy or at least disable the mantis.

I spotted a plasma pistol not too far from me, probably only a few feet. I crawled over and picked it up, hitting the holographic button. The pistol hummed to life and glowed a bright green. I charged the pistol, and an orb of energy formed at the end of the pistol. I took aim and fired off the overcharged shot at the mantis, the shot found its mark, the mantis shuddered to a stop in front of the fortress, its massive weapons now steaming in the smoke-filled air. I hopped over the rock I was hiding behind and ran straight at the mantis, while running I primed a frag grenade and jumped on the back of the mantis and after jimmying the door open a tad, shoved the grenade in the cockpit.

Before jumping off, I could hear the pilot cursing his head off as he proceeded to play hot potato with the now live grenade in his lap. The mantis exploded violently, causing the giant two-legged mech to fall lifelessly to the ground. I turned to the now exposed fortress to renew our assault before a loud booming voice interrupted me.

“FLAG CAPTURED, GAME OVER!”

My surrounding flashed a bright white and then faded to a flat grey atrium as Spartans picked themselves up and stretched while others groaned in pain. I walked over to Matt and picked him up. As he stood he shrugged his now paint-splattered helmet off and began to rub the red paint off his faceplate. Face scrunching up in frustration as the paint refused to come off. “God damn it! Damn sniper every fucking time.” Matt angrily announced. I smirked and rolled my eyes. Matt ALWAYS lost when snipers were involved,

“Rule number one, Matt, always keep your head down,” I replied with a mirthful smirk on my lips. Matt, momentarily distracted from his now red splattered helmet, leveled a glare that could kill and, in the flattest voice possible, droned, “You don’t fucking say.” chuckling, I motioned for us to move on.

We both walked over to the mantis, and I looked down at the Spartan who piloted it. Raising my eyebrows at the now red splattered Spartan before me, I spoke, “Blake, watch your flank next time.” He picked himself up, dusting himself, and shrugged playfully.

“I tried, but the turning sensitivity was too low. You just barely stayed in front of the reticle,” Blake said, somewhat annoyed.
Glancing over at Matt, Blake smirked, a mischievous glint in his eyes, "Besides, at least I didn't die the same way I have for the last eight matches."

Now a very bright red, Matt stammered a retort, "Wha- I- Oh fuck you too, hey at least I didn't get so close that Mike didn't have to aim the plasma pistol to get hit, just missile spam him next time." I rolled my eyes as Matt continued to rub his helmet free of paint vigorously, and Blake broke into a slow drawling laugh. We walked out of the War Games room and then headed to the locker room.

As we changed out of our armor and cleaned ourselves off, Commander Palmer strutted into the locker room in her skin suit bottom and an army-issue tank top, marching over towards our little group. Matt looked up with a huge smile and flirtatious grin. He patted his crew cut blonde hair down and brushed some paint off his skin suit as he drawled out, “Heeey Palmer, what do we owe the honor of your rather... Different attire change and visit?”

Matt's eyes were scanning her rather, well skin-tight skinsuit. In my peripheral vision, I could see credits changing hands and vague whispers of "Here we go" or "Bet you 20 creds she slaps that grin off his face." Palmer glanced over and, with a laughable look and sardonic smile quipping back.

“I think I am a bit out of your league, trooper.” She smiled, and Blake snorted as she placed her hand on his shoulder and leaning next to his head, and said, “And next time, do keep your head down.”

The locker room busted out in a series of collective damns and light chuckles. As Palmer backed up, Matt shrugged playfully and muttered, "Yeah, yeah, the story of my life."

Smirked and walked over, placing a hand on his back, “Better luck next time, right Matt?” I said, trying to perk him back up.

Shaking his head and shrugging on his shirt Matt replied with a sarcastic “Maybe next time Mike, maybe next time.” I lightly chuckled and grinned as Blake gave his run at the condolence act while slipping on his boots. We'd been doing this activity since we all got stationed on the UNSC Infinity over a year ago. Matt would always make a move, get shot down, and after some condolences, he'd reply, 'Maybe next time, maybe next time.' it was almost a routine.

“Captain Hill, Del Rio needs you on the observation deck in 20.” I perked up at the mention of my name to notice Palmer standing there with a mirthful yet analytical gaze. The orders registered, and I smiled and nodded my head in confirmation.

“Tell Del Rio I’ll be there in 10." I continued to change out of my jumpsuit, and after switching to a clean one, I reattached my armor then made my way to the Infinity’s observation deck.

I opened the door to the observation deck to see Del Rio looking down at the planet we were orbiting. Walking forward, I glanced at the large planet beneath us. Sometimes you just got to stop and stare. Snapping out of my revere, I moved up next to Del Rio, activating my calm persona.

“Palmer said you wanted to see me, Captain,” I said calmly.

Del Rio turned around, a pensive and untrusting look on his face. “Spartan, I need you to run a recon op.” He waved for me to come over. I looked down at the planet. It was one massive continent with extensive green forests and gigantic mountains. I looked back to Del Rio and asked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“What is it that I am looking for, sir?” Del Rio turned back to the window and continued to stare off into space.

“Orbital scans show signs of life, but we are not entirely sure what it is yet, so that’s why we are sending you down first as a scout. Meet with Palmer in the briefing room for the rest of the Intel.” I snap to attention and salute.

Nodding to me, Del Rio flatly replied, “Be on your way Spartan.”

I exited the observation deck. Walking out, I sigh in frustration. Regs are good and all but Del Rio has a stick so far up his ass he could be used to fend off the Covies. Upon arrival in the briefing room, I meet Palmer, as I walk in she stands over a holo map studying the planet's surface. Walking up and rolling my shoulders I scan the map and ask, “So what is the mission objective commander?” Palmer zoomed the image into what looked like a village. “Your mission captain is to recon the area and observe the local population,” she said showing the layout of the land, it was mostly woods and plains with some mountains here and there.

“What is the local population?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.
Looking over at me with a confused glance, Palmer replied, “Captain, if we knew that, why would we send you down?" I briefly flush at my mishap and chuckle lightly. Rolling her eyes, Palmer shuts down the table projector.

“Well if that's all the conversation, get to your pod and ready to drop,” Palmer said.

I snap to and salute before replying and heading for the pod bay. “Yes, ma’am.”

I made my way to the pod bay, running potential scenarios through my head and planning out my course of action. As I entered the bay and walked up to the briefing table, the ship’s armory master walked up and placed a box of weapons and ammo on the table.

Smiling vigorously and rubbing my hands together, I gleefully chimed, “What are my weapon choices today?”
He reached into the box and handed me an assault rifle and magnum, both fitted with suppressors, "Here, standard quiet op gear," he said, reaching into the box and rummaging about.

“Do you have any ammo types I can choose from?” He raised a hand in a waiting gesture and peeked back out of the box with four boxes of assault rifle mags with different colored strips going across the side of them.

“We got armor-piercing, shredder, explosive, and non-lethal.” He handed the mags to me one by one.

Weighing the ammo and considering my options, I eventually nodded and pocketed the explosive and non-lethal rounds, “Get me five more of the explosive and three more of the non-lethal.” I requested. He handed me the mags for my weapons, and I stored them in my ammo pouches. Patting the pockets down, I sat down in the drop pod, then the door closed, sealing shut with a satisfying hiss. I felt the pod detach from the ship, giving me the feeling of weightlessness until the thrusters kicked in, pushing me back down into my seat. I looked up to see the Infinity slowly shrinking into the distance.

"This thing even on?" I jumped in surprise and looked down at the comm panel to my left, noticing a crackling image. Reaching over I adjusted the signal until the image cleared; in the image was a small briefing room and several off-duty personnel.

Sighing, I realized what was going on, "What the hell are you guys doing?" I asked my squad as they perked up partly in surprise that Gunny's jury-rigged comm system even worked.

The black-haired one of the groups smiled and grinned in victory, "What else do you think? We're enjoying some Saturday afternoon entertainment,” laughed Gunny as he sat down next to Blake and Lane.

Blake smiled and lifted a beer to his lips; "Yeah, besides, somebody has to critique your work, and Lane is too busy modding his gear to critique." drawled Blake as Lane looked up.

"Nah, really, we're all just bored, and Del Rio won't let us set up a game of infection on the war games deck." Gunny shrugged and smiled, trying to conceal his laughter. I sighed in resignation, knowing that nothing I could do would shake them off, this would be a pretty dull op, and some running commentary would be nice.

Glancing at the screen again, I noticed a distinct lack in the typical audience, "Where’s the rest of our merry band of misfits?" I asked while quirking an eyebrow, Gunny opened his mouth to respond but Lane beat him to it.

"Matt's getting his nose reset, Wolffe is busy fetching more beer and food discretely, and Braden is sleeping off last night's drunken shenanigans," Lane says without missing a beat or looking up from the helmet he was working on. For several seconds we sat in silence as Lane busied himself away with the armor mods.

Eventually, I broke the silence with a simple "What?"
Lane sighed and leaned back in his office chair holding the helmet he had been working on in one hand like some metal skull in a play and gesturing with his other hand.

"Matt broke his nose when a rookie engineer down in hangar 4 was working with a mantis and sacked him, so now he's in the med bay getting it set." Lane paused for a second to stretch and place the helmet on the table and stand to look out the window, "I need not explain Wolffe's measures, and Braden got drunk and went on a rampage in last night's free for all on Ragnarok last night." I nod in understanding and smirk at Matt's misfortune. The guy can't catch a break sometimes. I glance down and notice that I'm beginning reentry.

"For the record, I hate that god damned map." Groaned a voice over to the right, we all glanced to see a bruised Matt limp into the room dressed similarly in casual attire as the rest of the group.
Blake grinned and laughed at Matt. "Still amongst the living, I see."

Lane only sighed and proceeded to work on his helmet while Blake and Gunny laughed at Matt's bruised ego. Rolling his eyes, Matt replied, "Yeah, yeah, kick a man while he's down." noticing the comm TV, Matt nodded my way and proceeded to grab a beer and plop on down in a seat. Shaking my head in resignation, I looked out at the planet, thinking to myself it would suck if I died on this planet. It seems too beautiful to die on.

Unexpected Plans

Chapter 10
Unexpected plans
Canterlot Equestria

As Lane, Blake, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and I wandered through the halls of the castle in Canterlot, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that despite the castle’s splendor and condition, it was much, MUCH older than we would believe. We continued to walk through the massive granite halls and archways made of stone. The castle was a beautiful piece of architecture.

“Pretty nice castle here,” I said as I admired the structure. Lane nodded his consent and was almost assuredly about to launch into an in-depth explanation of the architecture’s style when we rounded a corner and found Brayden, Matt, and Fluttershy sitting on a bench next a giant pair of doors. Both soldiers had their helmets removed, and the scowls on both of their faces were something to be revered.

“Yeah, trust me, it’s much better when someone isn’t jabbing you in the back with a spear,” Brayden said in annoyance as he glared at a guard next to Matt on the far side of the bench with an annoyed glare. The Guard just smirked and moved forward and pulled the general aside for a moment to talk in hushed whispers. Approaching the two, we all removed our helmets, we may be Spartans, but even we enjoy some time out of those helmets.

“Yeah, we’re pretty good at keeping the locals a little edgy,” Matt said with a laugh as he rolled his shoulders and stood from the bench. “So small miracles persist as we got the food and are having it delivered to the albatross, and we managed not to die… though just barely.” Matt continued with a stupid grin as he shook hands with the rest of us. Off to the left, Twilight and Pinkie Pie were conversing with Fluttershy in a concerned tone. “So, was your mission any better than ours?” Matt asked as he looked around the hall once again. “Also, anyone else wonders how the hell a race of small horses, without any sort of opposable thumbs, managed to carve a castle straight from the side of a mountain? And check the architecture, it looks a lot like…”

“Yeah, yeah. To answer your first question, we found several books with details and descriptions of fundamental concepts of magic for the scientists.” I interrupted before Matt could go on one of his architecture rants. A couple of college classes, and all of a sudden, he was spouting architecture design concepts and facts. “And to answer your second answer, Magic,” I said while waving my free hand in front of Matt’s face.

The guards eventually returned with a scowl on their faces and a mistrustful glint in their eyes. “Princess Celestia would like to see the… humans only, please.” General Vindicus explained softly, though he did trip over the word human due to his unfamiliarity with the word.

The guards finally decided to open massive doors that lead to the throne room. The Throneroom had more high arches and balconies along the sides, and the center strip of tiles was of a darker shade leading up to what I assume was the pony equivalent of a throne, a large circular raised platform with a cushioned seat at the top. “Ya know, What is it with high power positions that demand stairs?” Grumbled Matt in his typical cynical manner as we bypassed the throne and approached a balcony open to the spring air where Celestia stood, starring out onto her kingdom. As we approached, she spoke to the guards.

“That will be all. Tell Twilight and her friends that I will be with them momentarily.” She commanded with a neutral tone as she turned to face us. Dark rings surrounded her eyes, and bloodshot eyes and a slightly less vibrant sheen betrayed a certain kind of sadness to her. “The captain and I have a business to discuss.” She ended flatly as the guards and General Vindicus left the throne room.

Celestia sighed heavily and asked a question seemingly out of the blue after a small awkward moment of silence. “Tell me, Captain Hill, do you have any siblings?” The question threw me for a loop, and I was more than a little confused, but I figured answering truthfully would get us out of this mess faster.

“Yeah, I have a younger sister. She should be in college right now.” I said in slight confusion as to where her questions we going. A slight look of confusion crossed Celestia’s face, and I realized she probably didn’t know what college was, but she apparently just shrugged it off.

“Well, then you’ll likely understand my situation,” Celestia replied as she once again stared out into the open blue skies. “My sister has gone missing.”

“Ah, that explains the secret police like a pickup, if a god-like being disappeared off the face of the earth, people tend to get panicky.” Matt quietly whispered behind me as I took in what she said.

“She has been gone for some time now, I know she often leaves to explore, but she usually checks in every once in a while.” Celestia continued with a slight tinge of panic in her voice as she continued to stare out into the sky.

“I am surprised that you’re asking us. You sound like you have some ability to track your sister.” I replied in confusion to her queries. I mean, sure, we’re Spartans and have been trained for search and rescue, but a planet with magic kind of goes outside standard operating procedures.

“I have tried more than once to contact her, but with no success.” Celestia continued as she turned to us once again, this time with certain steel to her voice.” But I have found that she is being blocked to me by different means than magic. I’ve sent scouting parties out into the all across Equestria, and but none have been capable of finding her.” Celestia walked away from the balcony and up onto her throne, all the while we silently followed and positioned in front of her throne.

Scratching my head in confusion, I decided to be blunt finally. “Well, ma’am, if they can’t find her, what makes you think we can?” I asked with a small amount of desperation to my voice. She was really beginning to confuse me.

Celestia straightened up, and all traces of her earlier state of depression seemed to fade away. “Captain, there are places on this planet that use a… peculiar form of magic that is unknown to many who inhabit this planet.” The princess started, a small look of confusion on her face. “This magic defies all rules of known magic and operates in a select few special places, ancient ruins made of a metal that is stronger than almost any power on this planet. I believe that if Luna somehow found her way into one of these ruins, the magic there could very well block communications and incapacitate her.” Celestia finished with a grim look on her face.

I stood there and pondered what Celestia had just said. We barely had any experience with magic, much less magic that the ponies can’t control… yet parts of that sounded vaguely familiar. “Alright, princess, if you have a location, we can go check it out at some point here, I suppose,” I replied.

“Sadly, that is the problem. The location of the ruins has been lost to time. Your best bet would simply be to look for massive signs of magic or investigate places that our people consider dangerous.” Celestia firmly answered with frustration evident in her voice. She turned around and faced out into the afternoon sun and gave off a long sigh of frustration as her muscles sagged, and she let her royal air fade for a moment.

I bit my lip for a second before quietly sighing and snapping off a salute. “We’ll try our best, ma’am,” I said as I signaled for us to begin backing out of the room. “But we’re Spartans, not miracle makers, so don’t hold your breath.”

Heading out back into the main hall, Twilight and the rest of our group waited for us. “What’s going on?” asked Twilight as some guards entered the throne room and closed the doors once again.

“Nothing much, just a few questions,” I said. I wasn’t exactly lying, but I wasn’t going to tell Twilight that Luna had gone missing. Matt may be paranoid, but sometimes his comments bring up a good point. “Tell you girls what,” I started as I continued to plan out our next move. “I think Celestia wants to talk to you soon anyhow. So the rest of the guys and I will go load up the food and meet you, girls, by the Albatross. Deal?” I asked, kneeling and offering my fist for what I had found was a bro hoof.

Twilight looked to my fist for a few seconds before smiling and nodding her head. “Deal.” She replied as she knocked her hoof against my fist. The doors to the throne room opened with a loud moan, and General Vindicus marched out.

“Twilight, the princess would like to see you and your friends now.” The general replied in as soft a tone as his grave voice could manage. As Twilight and the other sauntered into the throne room and the door closed behind them, Vindictus looked over to us and nodded with a blank face. “Spartans, I hope that should we ever meet again, it’ll be under better circumstances.” The general replied as he marched off down a side hall and out of sight.

Standing up, I turned to the rest of the group, who had just been mingling and relaxing. “Alright, team, break times over. Let’s move out!” I ordered as I strode down the hallway that we came in through and out into the early afternoon light.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“So not to be the Debbie-downer here.” I started Matt over the team commas we marched through the market district and crowds of ponies; it was never a good thing if Matt started a sentence like that. “But this planet is roughly the size of Earth with only about 25% of it being the ocean, and the rest of the surface is mountains, forests, and fields. What the hell the game plan here, Mike?” Matt asked as he accelerated his light jog to match me.

“Well, it should be easy; we send out a couple of the scientist’s survey drones and have it search for these ruins…” I said with a lax tone as I swerved around a group of ponies in a heated discussion. ”Or the problem could just solve itself.” I finished wistfully.

“Pffft, Mike, I wanted real solutions, not a fantasy,” Matt said with a laugh as he ducked under a clothesline and swerved around a stall full of fruits.

As we exited the city gates and marched over a small little knoll, we came across several small crates next to the Albatross. Marching up to one and popping the wooden lid off, I found piles of fruit loaded in neatly. “Alright, gents grab your fair share and load her up,” I yelled as I replaced the lid and picked up the box.

Everyone their own version of yes and got to work. After about half an hour of work, I saw three familiar figures crest the knoll. Looking up, I saw our favorite pilot and her two merry pony friends… or at least one was merry.

“Well, good afternoon. How’s the morning been?” I asked as I put the crate I had been messing with down and removed my helmet.

“It was entertaining, to say the least,” Sasha said, trying desperately not to laugh or chuckle. I raised an eyebrow in confusion as Dash and rarity descended the hill behind her.

“How so?” I asked through my question was swiftly answered as Dash marched past us, odd bits of jewelry and makeup hanging from her body as she tried desperately to shake them off and readjust her hair, which had been manipulated into a very lady like style.

Dash looked up to meet Sasha and mine’s gaze before Sasha burst out laughing. Squinting her eyes in a very deadly manner, Dash hissed. “Never. Speak. Of. This. Day. EVER. Again.” Before she marched into the Albatross.

“ Ohh, she is so overreacting. It was so much fun.” Rarity said with glee as she pranced past us and into the Albatross.

“Well, I mainly went to watch Dash to make sure that she didn’t throw herself out the window when Rarity forced her to go clothes shopping.” Started Sasha as she subdued her rampant laughter and pushed some hair out of her face. “But then it became a source of cheap entertainment, and I definitely tagged along.” I grinned and chuckled, glad to see that Sasha was getting along well.

“Hey, Mike, the cargo is loaded up,” Matt said as he peeked out of the Albatross.

“Alright. Sasha, I’ll debrief you on the way back to base about our new assignment. We got a new and unexpected mission.” Sasha nodded back and entered the Albatross. Once everyone was aboard, the cargo ramp was raised and sealed, making it dark for only a moment before the interior lighting kicked in and bathed the hold in a red hue. Within a few moments, the engines roared the life and began to lift the Albatross.

I sauntered over to a seat after a quick explanation to Sasha and sat next to a confused Twilight. Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, I decided to check on her. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I am trying to figure out what Celestia wanted from you guys,” Twilight replied blankly. “She seemed so worried, even if she was putting on a show.” Twilight continued, her brow furrowing deeper in concentration, the metaphorical gears spinning in her head, finally, her shoulders sagged. “I guess I’m just worried.” She finished with a sigh.

I paused to think about how to reply; Matt had a good point, but Twilight had a solid head on those shoulders, so she could probably take the fact. I decided to sleep on it and end with some humor. “I could tell you, but I’d have to shoot you afterward,” I said with a predatory grin on my face. Twilight had a terrified look on her face before I burst out laughing, and she calmed down a bit. “Just joking, it was nothing big. I’ll try and tell you tomorrow once I get my story straight, deal?” I said as she just nodded her head, a frustrated look adorned upon her face.

Across the Albatross, Matt and Lane were carrying on a conversation about how their days went, and not too far from them was Brayden, who was a tad bit tipsy from the cider he had earlier today. Fluttershy was sitting right next to him, playing nursemaid from the looks of it. Fluttershy had been surprisingly open with Brayden, and even more surprisingly, Brayden had been open with Fluttershy. It was good to see Brayden open up a bit, man has had a hard life, and I don’t envy Matt for knowing a lot of it. Off to the right were Blake and Pinkie Pie was carrying on a conversation about the silly and funny things they have done over the years.

Before we knew it, we had arrived at the base. We got out and started to unload the Albatross. The ponies bid farewell for now headed to their homes while we unloaded. As we worked, I started to feel uneasy, like there was something in the cargo bay. As the rest of the guys began to filter off back towards base, I stood in the bay's darkness and activated my helmet’s low light scanners.

Scanning from left to right, the entire bay looked empty and desolate, all the food had been unloaded, and all the people had left, even Sasha passed me by and gave me a passing questioning glance before a quick nod from me assured her that I was just checking for something. Turning to leave, I heard a quick hissing noise, akin to steam escaping a pipe. Whipping around, my pistol is drawn. I scanned the interior once more, metal walls and fabric harness all to greet me.

“What in the fu…” I began to mutter before another hiss screamed from one of the hydraulic pumps to my left. Sighing at my paranoia, I slowly holstered my pistol and walked out of the bay and into the vehicle garage before sealing the door shut behind me. Lingering for a moment, I listened to the sound of machines whirring in the background and to sate my paranoia.

Pushing my paranoia aside, I walked out of the garage and across the small field bathed in the late afternoon light to the main base. I entered through the main bulkhead and listened for the door to hiss shut behind me. As I went farther down the hall, the door opened again with another loud hiss before snapping shut a moment again after again. I twitched for my pistol, but I shrugged it off, ‘These older deployable bases have minor issues with the sensors. Nothing big might have been a bug that tripped the bulkhead sensor.’ I quietly thought to myself in an attempt to reassure myself as my hand flexed by my pistol. It didn’t work.

“HEY, CAP!!!” Gunny yelled from the atrium, a smirk the size of Texas on his face. “Hurry up, Wolffe is feeling hungry after all the experiments on him today, and your food is looking mighty good!” Gunny laughed as he turned to head back to the mess hall. A loud grumbling from my gut told me my paranoia could wait till this evening before bed to be dealt with.
Sprinting off to the hall, I came through the door to see the odd group of scientists and maintenance workers gathered in the hall before I laid an eye on my group. Lane, Blake, Matt, Brayden, Wolffe, Gunny, and Sasha all sat around a table. Various jokes and food being thrown across the table and square between Blake and Lane sat my spot. Smiling on the content, I removed my helmet and sat at the table, a plate thoughtfully left at my spot.

“So, Wolffe. How are ya feeling?” I asked as I looked at his haggard face. The light in his brown eyes had a certain dullness to them that several years of working together told me his day had been rough. “Ugh, I’ve been poked and prodded places that should remain unpoked and unpadded.” He drearily stated as his head fell to his hand.

“Well, to put it simply,” Gunny said as he spun a piece of pasta around on his fork. “Some scientist got it in her head that the horses get their powers from the water or something and was testing the water when Wolffe here came into the wrong lab and got exposed to the sample,” Gunny said, all the while chuckling.

“Five fucking hours….” Wolffe groaned into his arm. Matt Chuckled as he drank his rehydration juice, Gatorade, I think. Sasha just shook her head as the rest of us laughed at Wolffe’s misfortune.

“So, Captian.” Sasha began to drawl as she scooped some chili up out of her bowl. “What do you lads do for fun around here?” She finished with a raised eyebrow as she glanced at all of us. Looking around and at each other, we all stumbled for answers.

“Errr, we got some games in the rec room.” Said Matt as he scratched the back of his head in thought.

“We also have Weapon maintenance and customization, I suppose.” Mentioned Lane as he toyed with some of his food.”

“And there are always simulation firefights,” I add as I tried to figure out where this was going. “Why do you ask?” Sasha just shrugged as she finished her bowl.

“Eh, just looking for a hand-to-hand combat specialist to help me sharpen up.” She replied nonchalantly as she picked up her tray and returned it to the mess. Glancing at each other with confusion, we all had the same question, but no one wanted to ask.

As Sasha sat down, Blake bit up the courage to ask. “Alright,” He began to drawl as he finished his drink. “You’re looking at the team’s CQC specialist, and Captain Cline here is my assistant.” A quick withering glare from Matt later and Blake continued. “So, how can we help you?”

Grinning manically, Sasha chuckled. “Well, for starters, you can meet me in the ring tonight for a sparring match. It’s been years since I actually had a real competent fight on my hands.” Looking at each other, I could tell Matt and Blake were thinking the same thing; ‘What the hell?’

“Errr Sasha,” Began Matt with a confused but proud grin, “I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re kinda Spartans… If you’re looking for a sparring match, I think there are better fights than going up against super soldiers.” Finished Matt with a lopsided grin as he leaned back in his chair.

“Pffft, please, Cline, I’ve seen you fight. All I have to do is avoid the mean right rook and charges, and I’ll have your ass down in five rounds.” Sasha dismissed, causing a round of laughter from our table, as she leaned forward with an aggressive look in her eyes. “Hubbard, on the other hand, has some more reach to him, so he might be able to tag me a bit, but he’s too predictable in a fight. Feint, feint, strike, feint, and roll out of the way; rinse and repeat. Once an opponent keys in on his movement, he’s done.” She finished as she stood and rolled her neck.

“Now, if any of you boys feel like fighting the MMA 2545-2551 champ of New Alexandria Reach, she’ll be in the ring from 8-10 tonight, boys.” Bragged Sasha as she sauntered out of the mess hall. Our entire table was silent for a moment.

“Well… Shit.” Said Matt as he took another long chug of his drink. “Guess that’s where she gets off fighting super soldiers.” Brayden merely looked over to him from across the table and swatted Matt on the head. “Ow! What the hell?”

“’ What the hell?’ Boy, she just marched in your house, and pimp slapped you.” Yelled Brayden, drawing more than a few stares from the rest of the tables. “You need to take control of the situation!” Continued Brayden as he stabbed a piece of pork with his fork.

Sighing, Blake stood and rolled his shoulders, “Well, Matt Brayden has a point. She did just call us out.” Blake said as he returned his tray, “I’m gonna go get prepped. I get a feeling this fight will be rather interesting,” Blake finished as he left for the dorms.

After we finished our meal and Brayden yelled at Matt enough to get him to take the match, I headed to the armory and stored my armor and whatever gear I still had. Afterward, I had stripped off my jumpsuit and subbed it with some old UNSC PT clothes. I headed to my bunkroom to record today’s events on my tac-pad.

The entire time I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. About 30 minutes had passed when I finally finished putting everything in my tac-pad. As I sat reviewing what I had written, a loud bang came from my door. Jerking for my pistol on instinct, I sighed in frustration when I heard the banging again, but this time with words. “Mike, you need to check this shit. Man Sasha is a badass! She’s beating the chit out of both Blake and Matt… At the same damn time!!!”

That caught my attention; I opened the door to find both Wolffe and Gunny standing outside my door with an excited look on their faces. I had a surprised expression on my face, “Really now.” I asked as I placed my tac-pad down and joined Gunny and Wolffe. I could hear the fight from down the hall, and I could hear Brayden’s complaints about how Matt fights like a ten-year-old little girl, swiftly followed by a quick ‘Shut up!’

Gunny, Wolffe, and I showed up just in time to see a quick swipe of Sasha’s foot smash into Matt’s head and bring him to his knees. On the other hand, Blake was holding his own, bobbing and weaving around most of Sasha’s quick viper like strikes. Sasha was able to keep Blake at bay with a hail of quick kicks and punches. The bout continued for another minute or so as money exchanged hands from the scientists and crew to Brayden, who appeared to be running a betting ring. I was tempted to break it up when Sasha eventually broke Blake’s defenses. A quick jab, jab, cross, uppercut combo had busted Blake's defense, and a quick snap kick to Blake’s jaw rattled his brain and sent Blake sprawling. Blake laid motion for a moment until he groaned moved his head before letting a low and mild “Oww.”

The group around the ring went ballistic as cheers and whoops of excitement rang through the small room. Brayden was dealing money as he went over and helped pull Matt off the ring before assisting Blake, who could barely walk straight. As I marched up to the ring with the intent of calling it a night on the whole, “beat my troops to a pulp” racket, Brayden noticed me and yelled over to me.

“Hey, Mike! It looks like Blake is through.” Brayden said with a laugh. “Your turn for the meat grinder.”

“No, Brayden,” I said firmly as I looked up to Sasha, who was soaked with sweat and taking a water break. “Sasha,” I began as she looked down at me with a wide grin. “Is there a reason you’re beating the snot out of my troops?” I asked in a controlled voice, hoping it would possibly calm her down.

“Well, in my defense, they challenged me; besides, it’s fun, a great way to relieve stress, and it’s raising morale something fierce.” She said as the crowd reached a crescendo in their cheers. Of course, this wasn’t going to be easy.

I sighed and rubbed my face. “Shooting things relieve stress, is a lot of fun and doesn’t break my men,” I said in a counter to Sasha’s statement. At this point, I knew there was essentially only one way to get this to stop and to save face with my men. I could order her to stand down... but that’s simply not how it’s ever worked in our squad.

“Alright, I tell you what,” I said as I hoisted myself into the ring, “You beat me, and I’ll leave this alone,” I said as I walked to the other side of the ring, where Brayden tossed me a pair of gloves and shin pads, which I proceeded to put on. “BUT if I win, this is the last little fight like this, deal?” I asked as I placed my last glove on and got into a combat stance. I probably should have taken those lessons from Blake on CQC.

Sasha grinned madly and laughed. I knew that was a yes, but there was more to it. “I like that cap. Let’s sweeten the deal. The loser has to do one thing for the winner, no ifs, and, or buts.” She replied as she also adopted a stance. I frowned in worry. Those were very damning conditions.

“What are 13?” I asked in reply as the crowd whooped in anticipation.

“If I said yes?” She countered, causing the crowd to laugh.

I rolled my eyes, “Fine. Let’s g-“ I never got the chance to finish that sentence as Sasha bull-rushed me and opened with a swift kick to my side. I managed to block it, but that wasn’t the end of her assault. Punch after punch and kick after kick, Sasha attacked, and I defended. I growled in frustration. The woman was going to burn me out if this kept up.

Eventually, in the valley, I was able to get a quick open palm strike for Sasha’s stomach, causing her to let up for a second long enough to go on the aggressive, so I let loose a flurry of punches and kicks aimed at her legs and arms hoping to tucker her out. Some of my hits landed, but because of her much smaller frame, she could move out of the way of most of my punches or just flow around hits.

The crowd roared as our fight went on, and I could see Brayden and Matt running the betting ring. I was beginning to burn in my arms in legs, so I knew I was beginning to run on reserves. I need a new tactic fast.

“Your pretty good, Sasha.” As I went back on the defensive, I said if I could distract her and get her to open up a hole large enough for me to strike, I could end this quickly.

“Thanks, my brother taught me.” She said with a smile that was slightly winged with sadness.

“He must have been one hell of a fighter.” Sasha tried to get a quick jab, but I blocked it. “Because you've put two of my Spartans down already, and you’re working on your third,” I growled as I cringed from a sidekick that crashed hard against my right leg. With that, I noticed that Sasha started to intensify her attack and her grin was less pronounced.

“He was.” She said flatly as a fist rocketed into my open palm, and I swiped it away and countered but still hit nothing but air.

“Trust me, I know how it feels,” I said, trying to block her high kick.

“No, you don’t.” She said in a low tone while attempting to sweep my leg from underneath me. I jumped up over the sweep and tried to bring an open palm down on her head, but she rolled out from under me and came up with an ax kick that I managed to block at the expense of my arm. Cringing in pain, I returned to my guard, waiting for an opening.

“Trust me, I do,” I replied as I remembered my old marine squad back in New Mombasa. I frowned as a punch connected with my ribs. My plan did not seem to be working. I could see the fire Sasha’s eyes burn, and her grin turned to a feral snarl as she unleashed punch aft punch and kicked after kick.

“Oh, Really?” She screeched in a furious tone. By now, the only noise in the room was on punches, kicks, and Sasha’s voice. “Did you lose the man who practically raised you? Did you watch as he was torn apart by fucking brutes and drones?” By this time, there were tears just streaming from her eyes. “Did you run away because there was not a god damned thing you could do?!” She screamed as a fist connected with my jaw. I could see stars behind my eyes and knew my defenses had cracked. Trying to recover, I was met with several fists to the gut, each punctuated with a scream. “Then. You. Don’t. Fucking. KNOW!”

I stumbled back and looked at Sasha for a moment and knew exactly what was going to happen. Her legs curled and released as she flew up a good four feet in the air. Her body curled, and her leg stretched out and smashed into the top of my head, smashing it into the mat and flooding my vision with darkness.

The first thing to return to my senses was the throbbing sensation in my head, followed slowly by my vision, tinted red. I looked around to see that the emergency lighting was on. Groaning in agony, I got out of the bed and attempted to walk to the door. ‘Man, my head is throbbing. Feels like a Brute beat me over the head with a gravity hammer.’ I thought to myself. After making it to the door, I looked down the hall to see it lined with the emergency lights, something in the back of my head told me this was wrong, but my head felt so fuzzy I couldn’t tell. I went to the mess hall to see if anyone was there. As I stumbled closer, I could hear people arguing. Two voices were Matt and Brayden. The third was unfamiliar.

I walked into the mess hall to see a scientist flailing a pistol around Matt and Brayden. They all looked haggard-looking, and Matt had a blood-soaked bandage wrapped around his shoulder. The scientist looked delusional, and he's waving a pistol around wasn’t helping. No one notices me because I had come in through a darkened doorway.

“It can be any one of us. Hehe. But I know it isn’t me, I know it isn’t.” The scientist said with fear and nervousness, drenching his tone. Matt and Brayden slowly tried to approach the man, but a shot at the floor between them was enough to discourage them.

“Look, buddy, I don’t get time for this,” Brayden growled as he kept his eyes on the pistol. “You’re clearly fucking delusional, but go ahead and ask me anything to see if I know it.” Brayden said.

“Okay, Okay.” This seemed to calm the scientist down slightly. “When was the fall of Reach?” The scientist asked.

“I ended on August 30, 2552. “Brayden answered resolutely. “It started in late July, so the conflicted lasted just a little over a month,” Brayden answered.

“Okay, that only leaves you, Captain Cline.” The scientist accused Matt, who was making his best impression of a Brayden in the morning.

“You fucker.“ Matt growled as he pointed to his shoulder, “The little bastard bit me and then fucking shot me.” Matt said as he folded his arms. I could tell his patience was wearing very thin.

Deciding that this needed to end, I came out of the shadows and put my hand on the scientist’s shoulder, and said, “Stand down, sir, what in the hell is going on here?” The scientist turned slowly, and when he made eye contact with me, his face went pale and was contorted with fear.

“No, no, NO, NO, NO!!!” He said with panic as he spun away from me and pointed the gun in every direction possible while hyperventilating. “ You might be one of them too….. This …..This was a setup, a trap to draw me out…. To get me.” The scientist screamed as he started to laugh a hollow laugh.

“What?... No. Buddy, that’s Captain Hill. He got his ass knocked out by Sasha two days ago. You were there. Hell, you won like five hundred credits that night.” Matt said in as comforting a tone as his short temper, and foul mood would allow.

“Yeah…… my head is still killing me….” I replied before realizing what he said. “Wait, two days?” I asked incredulously.

“OH NO! That’s bullshit! You… you’re not going to get me not that easily.” The scientist yelled while laughing maniacally before bringing the pistol to his head. With a muffled bang, the scientist fell to the floor, gore dripping off the wall. We stood in shock for a moment.

“I guess he had a mental blowout,” I said, too tired and sore for this bullshit.

Brayden let out a mild chuckle, but Matt was shocked at what I said. “Really, Mike, Really,” Matt said as he narrowed his eyes in disapproval. I rolled mine and gripped my head as it rang intensely for a moment.

“Hey, look, The worst thing you got during the fight was an ugly mug. I might have a concussion, so forgive me for being a little off.” Matt gave a glare, and I could tell he was about to go into how he had been shot and bit. “Brayden sit-rep, now,” I ordered.

“During the match, three scientists had gone missing. Two were found dead in their labs with puncture marks on their necks or arms. One is still MIA.” Brayden replied as he picked up the pistol from the dead scientist.

“Any clue as to what is it might be?” I asked as I sat down on one of the tables to get the world to stop spinning.

“Not really sure Mike, the only thing we know is that it can change into one of us.” Brayden replied with a stare as he gripped his pistol. I looked up frowned; this was going to be a long fucking day.