Chapter 1
Dark clouds gathered over Ponyville as the Princess of Equestria walked to the cemetery to see somepony very important to her. It has been a month since the Princess last came to the small, quiet town to visit, for royalty reasons of course. But whenever she got the chance to, Celestia would always come by to pay respect to her student. By the time she reached the correct tombstone the rain started to come down.
Celestia swore she could feel tears running down her face along with the rain as she gazed at the tombstone in front of her. The loss she felt by just staring at the piece of stone made her heart just break. The amount of grief she felt in her heart at that moment was the worst she had ever felt. looking around the Ponyville Cemetery she saw nopony else except her sister, Princess Luna, who came along to support her in her time of sadness. out of everypony else who felt sorrow for losing her, Luna felt almost as sad as Celestia, for she had lost her best friend.
Being an immortal deity, Celestia had gone through many huge spurs of emotion throughout her rule over Equestria. She felt great happiness when she had her coronation as Princess of the land, when she got her cutie mark, and when she learned that Luna would rule alongside her. But she felt extremely depressed when she lost parents, the passings of her past friends and family, and when she had to banish her sister to the moon for 1000 years. She always felt sorrow when she was ever reminded of those moments, but she just got lost in her emotions when she read what was on the tombstone in front of her.
Here Lies Twilight Sparkle
Element of Magic, Best Friend to All, and Loving Family Member
Will Always be Remembered in our Hearts
"Tia please, its already been a year. I don't think she would want us to grieve over her like this." Luna said to her emotionally distraught sister, she herself on the brink of tears.
'A whole year' Celestia thought to herself, 'I can't believe it has been an entire year since she disappeared'
That long prior, Twilight had been working on a portal spell that the princess had assigned to her. The goal was to create a portal system for instantaneous travel. The catch was that the spell was never tested on a living creature before so neither side could determine what would happen. A few weeks later, to everone's surprise, Twilight had managed to create a portal large enough for a pony to walk through safely and had volunteered herself to be the first pony to teleport through the portal to surprise Celestia with her findings. A distinctive whirring noise was being generated by the active portal, much to everypony's annoyance.
"Okay everypony, I'll be back as soon as I can after I give Princess Celestia my findings." she said to her friends, who were called to the library by Twilight so she could show them what she had created.
"Why do you need to go Twilight?" Spike asked her with concern. He was worried about her big 'sister' putting herself in possible danger. "why can't we just send her a letter?"
"We could, but I want to surprise her with this breakthrough on portals by showing up in one." she replied, "Now, all I have to do is to add the coordinates for the princess's throne room..."
But as Twilight prepared to adjust the portal, the door was slammed open by a pink party pony with a bunch of instruments, ranging from a tuba to a triangle, strapped to her body being blasted a full volume and waving a banner that read 'CONGRATULATIONS TWILIGHT' in bright purple letters. The intrusion was so sudden that it scared the librarian into stumbling forward into the unfinished portal. Just as she did the portal, with no magic source powering it, destabilized and disappeared into nothing, the whirring noise leaving as well.
"NO TWILIGHT!" her friends shouted in horror.
"Oops..." Pinkie quietly said, trying to sneak out of the room.
Since that day a search went out all over Equestria to find Twilight, wherever she might have been.The five of them checked all the nearby towns for any sign of her. The searched ranged from Canterlot to Los Pegasus, with no luck. Celestia even tried using a magic detection spell to try and find Twilight's magic signature, but again with no luck. Neighboring nations were also asked into helping to searching for her, but to no avail.
The search went on for months until it was called off about 4 months ago. Celestia declared her missing, possibly dead, and had erected a memorial site for the nations fallen hero. The site was just a simple plaque on the wall of the library and her grave was placed in the Ponyville Cemetery. Celestia suggested to place her burial site in Canterlot, but her friends said that she would have liked it if she stayed in Ponyville. She agreed with a sad tone, but knew it would be for the best for her.
Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty, continued to search for her even after it was called off. She only stopped 2 months prior when Celestia told her stop when she got caught searching for her in griffon territory. She couldn't blame her though, she wasn't the Element of Loyalty for nothing.
The rain started to really come down as the two alicorn princess's continued to stand in front of the tombstone, reliving happy memories they both had with the lavender unicorn. As they did though they failed to notice six newcomers, five ponies and one baby dragon. When they walked up to the distracted princess's with no response, Applejack broke the silence.
"Howdy Princess Celestia, Princess Luna." she greeted the two rulers.
"Oh hello Applejack," Celestia responded, "You too Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Spike." she addressed to each individual.
"Greetings to all of you." said Princess Luna.
"Hello Princess"
"H-h-hello"
"Hi"
"Hey"
"Hello"
"Are you all here for her as well?" Celestia asked the element bearers. She already knew the answer to that question but she just wanted to ask.
"Yeah" they all said together in a sad tone.
"Would thou like to join us in remembrance of her?" asked Luna "I think Twilight would like to see her best friends."
"We would like that. Thanks" answered Rainbow Dash
The rain started to pour down even harder on Ponyville and thunder could be heard in the distance. As they gathered around the tombstone they all started to remember the good times they all had with Twilight. All the adventures and parties they had together, the Royal Wedding and the trip to the Crystal Empire, they all thought of the good times they had. That's when Spike went up to the tombstone with a white rose in his hand.
"Twilight," he began, "Please, wherever you are, please come back home. We know you’re out there somewhere. Everypony thinks you’re dead. Your parents, Shining Armor, even Candace. Just please, if you can hear me, just please come back home to us."
They all stood there for another five minutes to pay respect for their missing friend. The rain kept falling on the distraught friends and family member with no intention of letting up.It was getting dark and lightning could be seen in the disstance with the booming thunder coming seconds later. It was then decided that they should return home before they could catch a cold.
As they were about to depart a bolt of lightning struck down with a huge flash right on Twilights gravestone. The resulting explosion was soon met with the loud booming of thunder right on them, sending flying fragments of stone around the shocked ponies. After whirring sound was soon heard after a minute passed when everyones ears were clear of a high pitch ringing sound. The source of the noise was not located until Spike looked up over the destroyed gravestone. "Look, up there!" he pointed. Everyone’s head turned to where Spike was pointing and the Elements realized it was the exact same portal Twilight had created.
Suddenly, a huge flash of light came from the portal and a tall and muscular figure came flying out. It flew out with such velocity that it made a crater when it landed on the ground about about 20 feet away. As soone as it was clear the portal soon destabilized and collapsed, disappearing from existence.
As quick as it came the ponies and dragon present rushed over to the crash site of the fallen object. They all waited outside the crater waiting for anything to come crawling out.
"What is that thing Princess?" Spike asked Celestia.
"I don't know Spike" replied the princess, "But Luna and I will go see it the thing is hostile to us or not. The rest of you will stay here and..."
"Nuh uh, not without me you’re not." Rainbow butted in. " I want to see what this thing is too you know."
"But Rainbow what if its dangerous?" Rarity asked, concerned for her friend.
"Then I'll beat it up like its nothing. I mean, it can't be that tough right?" she said confidently.
"Come with us then, but be careful." Luna told her. The slopes of the crater had become thick, slippery mud due to the rain which still had not let up. The ground was unstable and dangerous to anypony who was walking on the slick crater walls. Luna was about to tell Rainbow to be careful, but then saw the blue pegasus flying just above them and dismissed the thought.
As they entered the the crater the Princess's and Rainbow soon saw that the object appeared to be some sort of machine mixed together with bipedal creature. The things entire body was covered in what looked like a strange purple armor, with gaps in the purple that shown a gray under layer that covered the entire body. It had what looked like a long silver pipe on its back with a weird rectangular shape on top. On its thigh it had what appeared to be a small pack containing unknown objects that included five boxes with four pieces of metal in them. Where its head should have been was instead a weird looking helmet with a slim magenta face plate. No facial features could be made out on the face but one thing did stand out on the armor that Rainbow noticed. She got closer and saw that on the top right breast plate was a large magenta star surrounded by five smaller white stars.
It was Twilight's cutie mark.
As soon as she saw this Rainbow told the Princess's what she had found. When they both saw the cutie mark they immediately used their magic to hoist the unconscious being out of the crater and onto the wet grass. As they exited the crater the rest of the group joined them and they gathered around the strange creature. As it was not moving they got in closer for a better look at it. They stared in confusion at the cutie mark on the armor until Spike started walking closer.
"Spike?! What are you doing? What if its a big meanie pants and tries to hurt you?" Pinkie yelled.
"I'm just getting a closer look that's all. I'll be okay." he said. He then walked right next to where the mark was examined it. Around the mark the armor was scratched and worn down, some places revealing the silver colored metal beneath. It was when he looked around the neck that he saw at what appeared to be a loose flap or something that connected the helmet to the rest of the suit. he then reached for the helmet to take it off.
The others were about to protest, but Luna stepped forward and used her magic to pull back Spike from the unconscious creature before anyone could do anything. With a nod from Luna, Celestia used her magic to grip the loose helmet from the beings head. The golden color of magic grabbed the helmet and gently pulled the helmet off. With a hiss and a pop the helmet came off of its head and revealed its true face to everypony present.
Its face was horribly pale, like it never came out of the armor it wore for years. It was also covered in scars, with small ones all over and a long gash going down its left eye. A part of its ear was also gone and had a large gash on its lip. What stood out though was its hair. It possessed dark blue hair with a purple and magenta streak running through it. This feature is what shocked the ponies the most.
Was this thing Twilight Sparkle?
As soon as the cold rain fell on its face the being started to regain consciousness from its crash induced knock out, they backed away nervously, unsure on how it would react. Upon seeing its unknown surroundings and the ponies nearby, the creature sprang into action. It jumped up onto its feet with blinding speed never seen before by the pony eye. Once on its feet it grabbed the pipe on its back and aimed it right at the group. Lightning and thunder booming as it did. Surprising the group with its speed, the Princess's quickly, stood in front of the element bearers, ready to protect them with their lives. It surprised them even more when spoke to them in perfect Equestrian.
"What are you things?" it asked in a calm but menacing voice "And where am I?"
'Hmm, judging by the pitch of its voice i believe that its a female.' Celestia thought. She was about to answer the beings question until Rainbow yet again butted in.
"Were ponies bub and you’re in Equestria. Who are you tough guy?" Rainbow retorted.
"That's classified." was all the creature said back.
"We will answer your questions if you answer ours. Now, we just ask you what your species is because we have never seen anything like you before." Celestia quickly said before Rainbow could interrupt her again.
"Very well then. I am a human, a Spartan to be exact, from the UNSC. That's all I'm saying." the human answered "Now, from what I heard from the rainbow headed one is that you’re all horses or something?"
"WE ARE PONIES AND YOU WILL NOT TALK TO ROYALTY LIKE THAT ALIEN!" Princess Luna yelled in her Royal Canterlot Voice.
"Calm yourself Luna, she did not know we are royalty." Celestia said trying to calm her sister. "Yes, we are ponies from the nation of Equestria. I am their ruler, Princess Celestia, along with my sister here Luna. I respectfully ask you for you name for I have given you mine."
The human then lowered her weapon she had aimed at them and then told them her name. Lightning struck and thunder boomed as she did so.
"My name is Twilight 149."
Author's Note
Hey my first story back from nothing. If I can get any editors that would be greatly appreciated.
Chapter 2
“My name is Twilight-149.”
Shock, that was all the ponies surrounding the Spartan were feeling. They were expecting their missing unicorn to come back all safe and sound. Instead they got a human giant saying that she was Twilight. The sudden shock of news only magnified when they all looked at her imposing appearance. The human stood at a height of 9 feet tall. This made everypony, including Celestia, have to look up at the giant. Her pale skin gave her a ghost like appearance which was only intensified when lightning flashed in the sky, causing Fluttershy to run and hide behind Rainbow Dash. The amount of scars on her face alone was enough for the Element of Harmony to slightly cower in fear, only the Princess’s stood their ground against the unwavering gaze of the Spartan. Only Pinkie seemed to be unfazed by the the human’s appearance. This was shown even more when she suddenly ran out to Twilight to give her a hug like it was old times. She was only stopped by the lightning quick reactions of the Spartan as she grabbed her before she even made contact.
“Hey, I don’t know who you are. But where I’m from running up to an unknown being is considered a death wish.” Twilight said as she brought the pink colored pony up to her scarred, unamused face. She then dropped her in front of her feet.
This only surprised the already shocked ponies even more. Even Pinkie was surprised by this sudden news. What did she mean ‘who they were?’ Didn’t she know them? Wasn’t she still their best friend?
“Twilight darling, don’t you recognize us?” Rarity asked.
“Sorry, don’t know any of you.” the Spartan responded as she walked back the crater to grab her helmet. She grabbed the rim on her helmet and slipped it back on her head, sealing with a click and thus hiding her pale face from the world yet again. “Thats better.”
Picking up her weapon, an S5 AM Sniper Rifle, she checked over herself to feel for any injuries and making sure all her gear was secured. Reaching into her sidepouch, she pulled out five clips for her sniper rifle. Seeing that they were all fully loaded, she put them back in her pouch. Feeling in her pouch, she fished out six magazines for an M6 sidearm. Realizing that she didn’t have her dual pistols on her thighs, she went back and jumped into the crater to try and find her missing weapons.
All the while observing the Spartan’s actions the ponies wondered what she was doing. They all huddled together in a small circle and tried to escape the Spartans ears. They then began to gather ideas on what was going on.
“Hey AJ, is this alien thing telling the truth?” Rainbow asked her.
“Ah hate to say it girls, but she wasn’t lying. That human is Twilight.” AJ said with a hint of sadness.
“Oh my, s-so you’re saying t-t-that Twilight i-is a...” Fluttershy stuttered.
“Yeah,” she said, finishing her friends sentence, “She’s a human or whatever she calls herself.”
“So she’s no longer a pony? Sweet Celestia thats horrible! That means that she can’t enjoy parties or cookies or cupcakes or anything we used to do! It’s all my fault! Why did I have to do what I did that day that turned her into what she is now? I’m such a horrible friend!” Pinkie shouted in one lung full.
“Pinkie, you’re not a bad friend and it’s not your fault that she became what she is now. None of us knew what could have happened to her on that day.” Celestia said trying to calm her down. “Besides, I have a plan.”
“And what is this plan of yours sister?” Luna asked her with curiosity.
“I’m going to use the memory spell she used on the Elements of Harmony from when Discord corrupted them and use it in her. That way she would remember us and forget whatever happened to her.”
“Thats a great idea Tia, but how are we going to convince this human to allow us to use a spell that could possibly change her life?” Luna asked.
“I think that will be a problem.” Rainbow hurriedly answered the Princess.
“Why is that?”
“I think she heard us, because she’s running towards Ponyville.” she replied with worry.
All the ponies ears fell at hearing this horrible news, thunder boomed in the distance. They all ran towards Ponyville as fast as they could. They had to find her before she caused a panic among the townsfolk, or they’ll lose her again in the resulting chaos.
As the Spartan ran towards Ponyville, she went over in her head what she had just heard from the ponies. She stopped running and hid at a nearby tree to recount everything she had learned from them. From what she heard, she was a friend or former resident of this colorful world and one of the ponies asked the pony named AJ to confirm if her name was really Twilight. It was at that time that she found her missing pistols and, after securing them to her thighs, peeked out over the crater edge to listen on the whispering ponies.
“... memory spell she used on the Element of Harmony from when Discord corrupted them and use it on her. That way she would remember us and forget whatever happened to her.”
That was enough information for Twilight to book it out of there. No way was she going to let that pony use a memory spell on her and possibly wipe her clean. She needed her experience of combat and survival skills to survive on this world and possibly find a way back to Earth. Losing that knowledge meant she might be stuck on this planet for years before the UNSC could find her. No way was she going to let that happen.
Peeking over her tree, Twilight used her suits binoculars to look into the nearby town to see for any population. Upon seeing that the streets were filled with ponies in rain garbs, she decided that to avoid a panic among the townsfolk she would have to sneak either through or around the town. Choosing the latter she was about to make her move until she saw that the original group of ponies she had encountered.
Seeing that going around was not an option, she decided to try and sneak through the town. Checking her gear to make sure she had everything she noticed something she had forgotten. Her current armor ability was an active camouflage she got from the UNSC Infinity’s armory before she left with the Master Chief on his mission to stop the Didact from retrieving the Composer.
“Perfect” she said to herself. Activating the device she soon became nearly invisible to the naked eye. After looking over herself she began her trek into town, hoping not to get spotted.
The ponies started to search for her on the outskirts of Ponyville. Rainbow checked from the sky to see if she can spot her from above while the rest searched the fields and outlying roads. Celestia had sent Luna back to Canterlot to tell Shining Armor and Candace about Twilight and to come help confront her once they had found her.
“Gah! I can’t find her anywhere! How can you lose someone that tall?” Rainbow told Princess Celestia when she came back from her aerial sweep of Ponyville.
“I don’t know where she could be. It’s not like she can blend into the crowd or something. Not with that horrid outfit she’s wearing!” Rarity said with disgust.
“Um... girls?” Fluttershy tried to put out.
“I mean she was like what? 10 hooves tall?”
“girls?”
“And that armor she was wearing, purple and black do NOT go together.”
“Girls?”
“Seriously! She was a freakin...”
“Girls!” Fluttershy shouted.
“Yes Fluttershy, what would you like to say?” Celestia said to the shy pony.
“Where’s Pinkie?”
Looking around, everypony saw that the party pony was nowhere in sight. Fearing the worst, they ran into town hoping to find the bouncing ball of pink fur before she started a panic.
‘Okay, I’m almost on the other side of town, just a couple more blocks till I’m through.’ Twilight thought to herself. She had a close encounter with a bunch of ponies with different flowers on their flanks when she shook one of their flower carts while trying to get through the market district. The one with a rose cutie mark came to see what shook the cart but upon seeing nothing they continued on their trip to the market.
She was almost clear of the town when her motion sensor picked up a single individual coming up on her from behind. When she turned around to combat the oncoming threat she was tackled to the ground and wrapped in a strong hug, deactivating her camouflage unit in the process.
“There you are Twilight,we have been looking everywhere for you! My Pinkie Sense told me that I would find one of my friends in the market and that she would be hard to find and then I saw a moving shimmer and I assumed it was you and I wanted to tell you to wait so that the Princes could use a spell to give your memories back and...” Pinkie said with one lung full.
As this was happening the surrounding ponies had noticed the thud of a 1000 pound Spartan being tackled down by the towns resident party pony and the latter talking her head off to the super human. All they did was stare in fear of what was happening in front of them. It was at this point that the flower pony named Daisy screamed at the top of her lungs.
‘ALIEN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!”
This resulted in the entire town to go into a panic. Ponies everywhere fled for their homes or the nearest building to hide in. While Pinkie was trying to calm the hysteric crowd the Spartan slipped out in the resulting chaos. Running toward the nearby forest, she disappeared from sight.
The rest of the group came running towards the sound of screaming and panic to see that the whole main street was empty. The only one out was Pinkie Pie who was sitting in the middle of the street. Rainbow Dash flew up to her friend to ask what happened.
“Pinkie what happened here?” She asked her.
“I found Twilight, but when the town saw her they all started to panic and ran away. I lost her in the confusion of trying to calm everypony down.” Pinkie answered with a sad tone.
“Which way did she run off to?” Celestia asked.
“She took off down the street towards the Everfree Forest.”
This got everypony worried. If they lost her in the forest then there was no way they would be able to find her again. They all took off to the forest in haste in hope catching up to her in time.
Meanwhile over in a clubhouse in Sweet Apple Acres, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were planning what to do next for their cutie marks. Applebloom suggested rapping, Sweetie Belle said no and then suggested rock climbing. This continued on for a while until the third member, Scootaloo, burst in through the door.
“Girls guess what!?” she shouted. “I know what we could get our cutie marks in!”
“What is it this time Scoots?” Sweetie asked her.
“I was in town on my way here when I heard the town screaming the word Alien over by the market. So I went over there and I think I saw the alien run out towards the Everfree Forest. You know what this means?” she asked the other crusaders,
They all inhaled at the same time and shouted simultaneously.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ALIEN CATCHERS YEAH!”
With this they grabbed their capes, boarded their wagon that was attached to Scootaloo’s scooter, and took off towards the forest, hoping to earn their cutie mark
Author's Note
Edited by The Journeyman
