:Prologue:
(0637) Hours August 30 (Military Calender) UNSC Cruiser Pillar of Autumn, location planet Reach.
The battle for Reach; the UNSC second most heavily guarded and fortified planet, had taken a turn for the worst. The orbital 'super' MAC guns were overran by covenant spacecraft, the UNSC fleets that had been fighting fiercely to defend the planet now lay in tatters and was retreating. Those ships too damaged to run were blasted into oblivion by covenant plasma fire, exploding in a brilliant but horrific light show. The fight on the surface had fared no better. Entire cities now laid in ruins, thousands upon thousands of civilians and combatants laid dead as covenant forces overran whatever human forces stayed behind. The Master Chief could only watch and clench his fist as three dozen covenant craft moved towards gamma station in the now inept orbital defense platform. Plasma fire streaked towards the stations, melting them with a boil. The rest of the covenant fleet moved towards the planet. The Master Chief saw the covenant fleet circling like sharks around the bleeding husk of the planet. Clouds boiled away as the first of many plasma bombardments were launched towards the surface. It was sickiningly familiar to John, who had seen the same process on previous campaigns. Once the covenant finished clearing out resistance, they would move into orbit and begin glassing the world. Despite the familiarity, this time was different, this time they were glassing a world with his men still down there and there was nothing he could about it.
'Am I the last spartan left?'He thought. The captain approached him and interrupted this chain of thought.
"Doctor Halsey's mission," he said, "Is now more important than ever. It may be the only chance Earth has, we have to focus on that." While the chief would rather finish this fight alongside his men, he knew that the captain was right. Putting his feelings aside he watched as Keyes turned away from him and began to bark orders at the bridge crew.
" Ensign Lovell! If you haven't done so already, give us every scrap of acceleration we have, I want to enter slipspace as soon as possible!" Coming directly on the heels of this order Cortana, the Pillar of Autumn's temporary A.I spoke up.
" Excuse me captain, six covenant ships are inbound on a intercept course."
" Continue evasive maneuvers! Prepare the slipspace generators and give me a randomized exit vector!" He yelled.
" Aye sir." Said Cortana, navigation symbols flashing along the length of her holographic body. The Master chief continued to watch as covenant ships closed in on them.
"Generating randomized exit vector per the Cole protocol," Cortana said. The Chief glanced at her translucent body, which looked vaguely like a younger doctor Halsey. Tiny ones and zeros slid over her torso, arms and legs, Her thoughts literally worn on her sleeve.
" Something on your mind Master Chief?" She asked.
" Those symbols, I thought I've seen them somewhere before," He said. " It's nothing." Cortana got a far off look in her eyes. The mark cycling on her hologram shifted and rearranged.
" Jump to slipspace Ensign Lovell!" Ordered captain Keyes. "Get us the hell outta here!" John remembered Chief Mendez's words. That they have to live to fight another day. He was alive and there was plenty of fight left in him, he would win this war. No matter what it took.
" Twilight!" Yelled Spike. " Twilight where are you?!" He stopped to catch his breath. Twilight and Spike had been invited to an excavation site to study ancient ruins in Zebrica. Actually it was Twilight that had been invited, but nobody said she couldn't bring her friends along. It didn't hurt that Princess Celestia was hoofing the bill for all the expenses. It had taken them a week to arrive, but that didn't matter. What the Zebras had found shocked the entire world.
Stretching several kilometers was an ancient super structure, the construction beyond the capabilities of any known current or past civilization. From the air it resembled a metal fortress, half buried in the sand. According to Twilight and several other archaeologists, the structure was made from an unknown alloy, composed of material that did not appear to be native to the planet.
Many of planet's races had sent their best and brightest to study the ruins. The griffins were interested in the possible military applications of the find, while Equestria and the Crystal Empire were focusing on uncovering the origins and nature of the relic and the race built it. The Zebras believed whoever had built the structure were responsible for all life on the planet and thus akin to gods.
Entry to the alien structure had been difficult for the metal that the structure was made from was so dense that nothing they possessed could penetrate it; that was until Twilight Sparkle found what appeared to be a half broken door to the structure. The interior shocked and surpassed everypony expectations. Inside, blue light zigged zagged and could be found going from the floor to the ceiling.
Nopony could guess on how old the structure truly was for even though it had just been found, the interior looked brand new and intact as if it were built to last forever. The archaeologists hypothesized that the structure had it's own power source due to the lights and opening doors.
Spike had been running around the empty hallways looking for Twilight. All the other excavation teams, site surveyors and archaeologists had decided to call it a day and made camp outside. Her friends were planning a huge party in celebration and invited everypony to come, leaving Spike and Twilight as the last two inside. Not wanting to be late, he continued to search. He soon found her studying and examining what appeared to be a door to another room.
"Twilight! I've been looking all over for you!" He said panting. "Everypony else has already left. We gotta go!" Twilight waved her right hoof in the air.
"In a minute Spike. I just want to take one last look at this door." She levitated a quill and scroll and began to write details. "My gut tells me that theirs something big behind this door. I don't know what yet, but I know I gotta get though this door." She said with a determined face. Spike simply frowned.
"You know what my gut tells me? That its very hungry." He said. Twilight sighed. It was getting late and no matter how she looked at it, there was no way to get inside. The door also repealed magic so that wasn't an option.
"Hey what's this?" Twilight turned and saw Spike looking at the blue orb she found earlier. It sat on some pedestal and was covered in hundreds of different symbols.
"I believe thats the switch to open the door." She said. " But it only seems to respond to a specific touch or perhaps some combination. At least a few other archaeologists have tried to open it but failed." She then levitated her materials back into her saddle bag.
"He he. It makes funny sounds." Said Spike as he touched the symbols on the blue sphere.
"Spike! Stop that! You don't know how fragile that artifact could be!" She exclaimed.
"It's okay Twilight. It's just a glowing blue ball-" Spike then planted his entire claw on the orb. The symbols aligned and glowed white at his touch. The room then suddenly began to rumble and shake as it came to life with a loud hum.
"Spike, what did you do!?" Asked Twilight looking around frantically.
" Uhh, whatever I did I didn't mean to!" He said in fear as he placed his arms above his head. "I was just playing around with it!" Suddenly the door that Twilight stood next to began to rise.
"Spike look!" Twilight shouted. The door finished opening with a thunderous roar. She and Spike then peeked inside at the next room as the place calmed down. There eyes opened wide and their mouths dropped to the floor. Inside was a large room with four large metal pillars surrounding a platform. In the center of the platform was another blue orb, above it was a large metal machine resembling a stalagtite. Glowing blue lines ran all around the room, onto the pillars and ended at the blue sphere.
"Spike I don't know how you did it but you opened it!" Said Twilight jofully hopping insides towards the center of the room. Spike follwed her in shrugging.
"Umm, your welcome?"
Twilight began to examine the room in awe. She couldn't begin to comprehend or theorize how the room worked or what it was for and why. She then turned her attention to the orb in the center. She put a hoof to her chin as she looked it over.
'These symbols are the same as the ones on the orb outside. Maybe if they worked the same way . .'She moved the orb a bit with her hoof. It responded with a negative red glow and returned to it's oringinal postion. 'There might be only one way.' She then turned to her scaly assistant.
"Spike come here!" He ran over to her and stood right next to glowing relic.
" Spike, I want you to do whatever you did before with the other artifact outside and try it on this one." She genstured towards the orb. Spike nodded and gulped. He reluctantly strated to press on all the symbols like before. All of his efforts were met with the same negative results. Twilight signed in frustration.
"I actually don't know what I did before." Said Spike innocently. "The last thing I did was put my claw on it like this." He placed his claw on the artifact. The sphere responded with a white glow and a ping. The room began to shake like before and came to life. Twilight and Spike took a step back as from out the large device above the orb shot out white light. They sheilded their eyes as the light consumed everything in the room. When it subsided, they opened their eyes to a unexpected discovery. Floating around them though the room, was a 3D holographic physical representation of the galaxy. Twilight looked in awe and amazement as she saw planets, stars and entire solar systems float right before her very eyes.
'It's like some form of an advance star chart. Or perhaps a map!' She thought.
"I can't believe this Spike! Do you know what this means!?" She said hugging him close.
"No. What? That we can go back and eat now?" He said hopefully. Twilight let go and spun around in a circle like a ballerina.
"It means they not held a better understanding of the stars, but they also had the ability to travel among them!" She said as if she just figured out the anwser to life. She looked and touched some indivdual holographic stars.
"All I see is that we found a map of the stars?" Said Spike blankly. " How dose this prove that they had space ships?" He asked. Though in his mind, he wished he could see how aliens could do that.
" Well first, this structure is made from a material not found on Earth." She said in her lecturing tone." And second, this map is made from not only advance materials but also shows a accurate representation of what I believe is the galaxy." She then turned to Spike. "How on Earth could you know what a star looked like from light years away without a telescope?" She said with a grin.
"Uh, bigger telescope?" He said cheaply. He then turned and looked at the stars before him until one caught his eye. "Hey Twilight. Whats this?"
Twilight trotted over and came to where Spike was and saw what he was gensturing to. It was another planet no doubt, but what caught her assistants attention was what was next to the planet. Right next to the planet was a large ring.
"What is that Twilight?" Asked Spike.
"I don't know Spike." Said Twilight dumbfounded. She didn't know why, but the image of the ring had a certain . . . allure. She started to raise her hoof to touch it, much to Spikes alarm. As she felt herself drawn towards the ring, it began to glow a bright white.
"Uh, Twilight. I don't think you should do that!" Said Spike begining to panic.
"But Spike, there's so much to learn and see." Said Twilight entranced by the glowing ring. "I just have to know more." Spike quickly grabbed her hind legs and began to pull.
"Come on Twilight! I think you've had enough of these alien ruins for one day!" He said in a futile effort to pull her back to reality.
"Oh Spike, you don't know what your're talking about." She said as she neared the ring.
"You don't either!" Said Spike in vain. Right before she could touch it, the room began to roar once again. She returned to normel, causeing Spike to propel backwards into the orb. Suddenly, the large device above them began to whine and the room shook once more. Twilight gave Spike a 'What did you do?' look.
"Uh, oop's." He said in a sorry tone. Suddenly Lighting shot out from all four of the metal pillars and struck the centered device.
"Spike we're leaving!" Shouted Twilight waving him over. He ran over to her, as she prepared a teleportation spell. But before she could finish, a beam of light shot out form the orb and sped towards Spike.
"Spike look out!!" She Shouted. The little dragon had no idea what was coming up behind him. Having no time to think, Twilight lunghed herself at him. She pushed him out of the path of the beam but in doing so got hit instead. Her entire body froze up, the sensation was not painful but instead it felt as though every part of her body was going numb.
"Oh no Twilight!!" Shouted Spike. Twilight couldn't even scream as yellow light enveloped her in bright yellow circles.She soon found herself being blinded by light. The only sound she could hear over the whine of the beam was Spike calling her name. And without one more sound, she vanished.
Author's Note
Well, that wraps up the first chapter. Feel free to point out any errors, misspellings and any other conumdrums in a positive conscriptive manner. As for any halo fans who read this; I originally wanted to do a halo 4 crossover. But then I decided not to and instead, go back to the begining. The very begining. And yes, it will be explained what was the artifact that Twilight found and how did it teleport her. Also, a free internet cookie to whoever guesses where Twilight ended up? 'Hint' , She is not on halo yet. Ciao everypony, and see you on the frontlines in halo 4!
:First Contact:
Twilight awoke with a pounding headache. Her eyes felt like they were trying to be squeezed out of her skull, despite the pain she slowly opened them to find she was in total darkness. Pushing herself up the first thing she noticed aside from the complete lack of illumination was that the floor felt different against her hooves. Tapping it softly it rang with an altogether different tone than the floor she had been standing on before whatever happened…happened.
“How did I get here?” She quietly mumbled, ‘Where is ‘here’’ for that matter?” Finding the darkness was not conducive to answers she channeled a small trickle of power into her horn causing it to glow with a dim purple aura. Twilight stumbled backwards a half a step and sat down hard. The room she found herself in looked nothing like where she had been. Rows upon rows of strange devices laid in racks against the wall. Crates were stacked around the room and there was a row of metal lockers next to what appeared to be a door.
'What is this place? It looks like some sort of armory,' Twilight thought. Her brother had shown her the royal guard barracks and armory when she had visited one time, so she was familiar with what one looked like. 'But if this was an armory, then what kind of weapons are these supposed to be?’ She thought as she rubbed her chin with her right hoof. Not being sure how they worked and remembering the lessons her brother had taught her about the deadly respect you had to give any weapon she cautiously stepped closer and increased the brightness of her horn to get a better look.
The object was at near thirty-five inches in length and had what looked like a built in flashlight on one end alongside a small cylinder. The device also had an opening, which she assumed was some handle. The final feature she noticed was what looked to be a trigger at the end of the handle. The device had similarities with the crossbow the royal guards used back in Equestria. Thoughts of her brother triggered associations in her mind and suddenly Her eyes widened as a flood of recent memories came rushing back in like a waterfall.
‘Spike! The alien ruin!' She turned away from the weapon racks as her headache came back with a vengeance. 'There was an accident and I couldn't get us out in time.' Images of pushing the little dragon out of the line of fire only to be hit herself. Once she regained her composure, she relit her horn and observed her area with a careful eye.
'That artifact sent me here. The question is where? And perhaps why?' Before she could think further, alarms began to blare from the wall and red lights snapped on lighting the room but giving it a menacing feeling. She looked around as fright took hold of her. 'What's going on!? What's happening?’
Suddenly a door near the end of the room slid open and three large bipedal beings rushed in and crouched down sweeping weapons identical to the ones in the racks as they surveyed the room. Nearly as tall as Celestia they wore armor with forest pattern camouflage, and helmets that covered all sides of their heads except their face. Twilight knew for a fact that these creatures were not from Equestria or any place on her world, that only left one possible conclusion.
'Oh Celestia! They’re aliens!' She wished that she still had her quill and paper so that she could write down questions to ask them. ‘If they are connected to ruin, they could teach us so much!’ In her excitement she accidentally knocked the weapons rack with her back hoof causing it to rattle loudly in the metal room. As the lights from the alien weapons quickly swept in her direction She quickly hid behind a large crate, to try and come up with a plan.
"Who's there!?" shouted the lead alien. "Come on out with your hands or other freaky appendages in the air quietly!" Twilight was confused by the request so She kept quiet and hoped the aliens would give her enough time to finish her plan, so far she had not made it past ‘Item 1: Find materials to create a checklist.’ It was at this point she found herself half blinded by the white light coming from the alien weapons and the three of them staring menacingly at her. Shielding her face eyes with her foreleg she cringed and hoped the aliens wouldn’t attack her before she had a chance to talk to them.
Mentally preparing herself to teleport out of the line of their weapons she lowered her leg and tried to look as un-threating as possible while her mind went over worse case scenarios. ‘I'm going to die far away from my home. Away from my friends, never to see them again!' She fought to hold back the tears at the thought. During the brief moment it took to mentally compose herself and refocus on the aliens she found their expressions had changed. If they were Ponies, she would call it….hesitation working its way towards confusion
The lead alien then put his hand up to the side of his head and spoke.
"Bridge! This is private Jetson." Said the alien. The other two continued to watch her as this Jetson Alien talked to himself, much to Twilights confusion.
'Who is he talking to?' Wondered Twilight. She got her answer when another voice came out of the aliens helmet.
"This is Captain Keyes. What is going on marine?" it said. " Did you find the source of the energy fluctuation?" The alien returned his gaze to her but his look of hesitation had not changed.
"Yes sir, we have. But you are not gonna believe this."
"Well spit it out marine. What did you find?" said the voice called 'captain'. The alien lowered his weapon and spoke. "Sir, with all due respect. I think it would be better if I showed you." The alien pressed a few buttons on his helmet. " I'm sending visuals to you now Cortana."
~~~~~
A few minutes earlier . . .
"Captain!" Cortana materialized out of her pedestal with an alarmed look on her face. "I've detected a number of sudden unknown energy readings coming from within one of the armories!" Captain Keyes looked at her with surprise.
"Can you determine the cause?" he asked. Cortana shook her head.
"Negative. The type of energy I've detected was unlike any I've felt before, but I am getting life signatures from it. My best guess is that we have an intruder on board." The officers on the bridge overheard this and stopped. It didn't take a mind reader to know they were all thinking the same thing. What had gotten on board and how did it get past their sensors and defenses?
"Covenant?" Asked Keyes with a raised eyebrow.
"Unknown. The readings I got were brief. But if it was Covenant, we should have known it by now. Whatever got on board either isn't Covenant, or the ship’s having a serious malfunction." said Cortana. The captain then turned towards the officers on deck.
"Dispatch a squad to investigate and put the ship on combat full alert! We don't know what we're dealing with and I want the crew ready incase things get ugly." He turned back to Cortana. "Send the Master chief as well."
"Aye aye sir," said Cortana. Captain Keyes took his pipe and placed it back in his pocket. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he questioned what could have gotten aboard. ' What if it was a covie? How did it slip in undetected?'
"Captain, the marine squad has reached the source. Master chief is on his way to join them." Cortana said, interrupting his thinking.
"Very good Cortana. Contact them immediately. I want to know what the hell this-" The Captain was interrupted by crew chief Cullen, the communications officer.
" Captain, I've received a call from the squad. Patching them though."
"That was quick," said Cortana. The marine’s call came through loud and clear on the comm channel. The captain then pressed a button and responded.
"This is Captain Keyes. What's going marine? Have you found the source of the energy fluctuation?" The comm was silent for a few seconds, and then the private spoke up.
"Yes sir, we have. But you are not gonna believe this." The marine had spoken with hesitation. Keyes was starting to get annoyed at the situation.
"Well spit it out marine. What did you find?" he ordered. The private spoke again but with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
"Sir, with all due respect. I think it would be better if I showed you," the marine said. "I'm sending visuals to you now Cortana."
"Put it on the main monitor,” said Keyes. The main screen changed and was replaced with what the marine squad was looking at. Everyone who looked at the screen suddenly stopped what they were doing and stared. Some officers even stood up from their chairs while another one who had been drinking coffee suddenly did a spit take. As Keyes continued to watch the monitor, he began to question his sanity "Cortana, what exactly am I looking at?"
"Well sir. From all the information I have and from a logical point of view," she began. "I'd say we are looking at a unicorn. A mythological creature that is said to have the ability to perform magic with it's horn. To my knowledge no animal living or extinct resembles it. But it has been described consistently in fictional works." Hiding what Keyes thought sounded like a chuckle she continued, "But from what I'm seeing, I'm beginning to doubt that last part."
No one on the bridge could believe their eyes as they saw the unicorn on screen move around a bit. It was roughly half the size of an adult human. It had a purple coat, a dark pink-streaked mane and tail and it had a purple horn on it's head. From the looks of it, the pony had backed up into a corner was looking at the marines with a scared and nervous expression. It’s looked like a kid who was scared witless. After a few seconds, Keyes regained his composure.
"Marines. I want you to bring that . . . 'unicorn' to quarantine immediately. Keep a close eye on it, it may look harmless but don’t take any chances." The marines nodded and the visuals were then cut off. Keyes then looked at Cortana who was returning his gaze with a look of confusion.
"Sir, nothing in my database can tell me what that is. If I’m going to get answers, I'm going to need to go to quarantine and examine it myself." Keyes simply sighed as he took out his pipe again.
'This day just gets, stranger and stranger.' He then faced Cortana. "Get to quarantine and get me some answers, assuming the thing can speak. Redirect the Master chief there, if this thing proves hostile then I want it put down immediately. Understood?"
"Yes captain," said Cortana with a nod. She then disappeared with a hiss. Keyes then turned to face his officers who looked at him as if they had all gone mad. He simply stood silent and shook his head, prompting the crew to get back to work without questions. But as they returned to work none of them could take their mind off of what they had just scene. The captain returned his gaze to the window of the bridge and sighed one more time.
‘Well, it hasn’t declared it want to wipe humanity from the universe, yet. Just how many other surprises is this galaxy hiding?’ He silently hoped that whatever that creature was, it wasn't hostile.
~~~~~
Twilight found herself being escorted by her alien captors to place they called quarantine. How they spoke perfect equestrian eluded her, every time she attempted to ask them questions they would only respond with silent looks of tension. She decided she would hold her questions until she met someone not pointing a weapon at her. Twilight had a feeling that if these aliens had wanted to hurt her, they would have done so already, but she didn’t want to do anything that would make them change their minds about that. Hopefully this ‘quarantine’ place would have someone she could talk to.
Twilight was both intrigued and terrified. She wanted to go home very badly, but she was also fascinated by everything she was seeing. ‘The things I could learn from these aliens, the technology, the history, the culture!’ This though was followed by her pessimistic side kicking in. ‘That is if they don’t shoot me, or eat me, or shoot and then eat me! Ahh what have I gotten myself into?!?’ While they were walking she had had very subtly performed a location spell had discovered that wherever she was it was so far away from home that the spell simply returned the impression ‘you are not here.’ There was no possible way of performing a teleportation spell When she had no idea where she was in relation to home, let alone the power it would take to bridge what she assumed was an incredible distance. Her only real hope was that the aliens had mastered interstellar travel, but even if they had getting them to dedicate the resources to returning her to equestrian seemed unlikely. Her sadness was beginning to return as she wondered what the aliens would do with her.
She shuddered as her thoughts turned pessimistic again. Turning a corner they walked to the very end of a hallway and towards a gray door. The door slid open with a hiss causing her to yelp in surprise. Her escorts chuckled as they led her inside. Shelves full of various medical supplies, glass vials, and several pieces of technology that Twilight could not readily identify lined the wall to the left of the entrance, while the opposite had well over a dozen beds. Next to a cabinet, a pedestal of some sort stuck out of the ground.
Across the room from the entrance was another door similar to the one everyone just passed through, above which the word “QUARANTINE” was stenciled in big block letters.
As she was led inside, another alien entered through a different door. This one, unlike the others, wore no armor but instead wore a lab coat and had a pair of glasses on. It had small brown mane on its head but the rest of its body seemed to have no hair at all. It carried a clipboard and it knelt down to look her in the eyes.
"Well what do we have here?" it said. Judging by the sound of its voice, it was male like the others. ‘That is of course if they have dual genders like ponies.’ Her thoughts about alien biology were sidetracked as the new alien spoke again. "Is this some kinda joke? Cortana told me to be expecting some unknown alien life form." He then stood up and re-adjusted his glasses. "Not some sort of mutated mythological creature." Twilight took immediate offense to this and shouted out.
"Excuse me? I'll have you know I'm not a creature!" The alien jaw hung open and shock was written across his face. " My name is Twilight Sparkle and I want to know where I am and what you are!" The room went silent as no one seemed to know how to respond to that or to the fact that they had a talking purple unicorn in the room with them. Without warning the pedestal emitted a blue light, which coalesced into the form of a miniature, young blue being. It looked like the other aliens in miniature, but this one was nude and seemed to have a lighter build. She guessed that it was female but it obviously wasn't like the other aliens.
"To answer your question miss Sparkle, you are currently onboard the Pillar of Autumn and as to what they are, they are humans," she said. Twilight gazed in amazement.
"What are you? Who are you?" She asked, her scientific curiosity returning. "And what are humans?"
"My name is Cortana. I'm the Pillar of Autumn’s shipboard A.I," she said with a smile. Twilight cocked her head a little.
"A.I? What is that? Ship, what kind of a ship?" she asked. Her fears got shoved to the back of her mind as her naturally curiosity exerted itself. She wanted to know more, she HAD to know more. Cortana shook her head.
"How about this. I'll answer your questions if you answer mine," she said. Twilight nodded. " Alright, first what is the name of your species? And where do you come from?"
"I'm a Unicorn and I'm from Equestria. It's a land located on Earth." Everyone in the room looked surprised at this. Private Jetson watched as the advanced shipboard A.I. and the creature from mythology started to chat with one another like school girls sharing the latest gossip. He paid attention for a little while longer, ‘Well nerdy schoolgirls, anyway.’ He leaned towards one of his friends.
"This is gonna be a long day.”
Author's Note
Alright, this concludes the second chapter! yay! Next chapter, Twilight will meet the Master chief and the rest of the crew. I originally intended for this chapter to be longer but I rather type and write as much as I can before I hit writer's block. Which I hope I don't hit. I already finished writing the next chapter and begun typing it. As soon as I finish typing it, I'll send it to my editor. I'll soon start writing the next few chapters where they go to halo. Ciao everypony!
OH! And let's not forget to give a shoutout to the greatest editors and proof readers ever!
sopchoppy:
Nonameknight:
Perception Filter:
I wouldn't be able to do this without their help.
