The sun was rising in the quiet town of Ponyville. Over at Sweet Apple Acres, the Apple family was already up, getting ready for a long hard day that coincided with working on the farm. Over breakfast Granny Smith was talking to Applebloom, telling her about the old days, while Applejack was talking to Big Mac about the upcoming applebuck season.
“Yah know, we always buck apples by ourselves. Maybe this year we should try n get volunteers, or somethin'. What do yuh think, Big Mac?” Asked the orange pony, curious as to what Big Mac's opinion was.
“Ah dunno, AJ, we always get it done-” Big Mac was suddenly cut off by Applejack. “What in tarnations is that?!” She exclaimed.
Everypony suddenly looked out the window at what Applejack was pointing to and saw multiple giant pieces of metal trailed by debris hurtling toward the apple trees. Moments after it was called to attention, there was a loud resounding boom as it hit the ground.
“Big Mac, let’s go see what that was. Applebloom you stay inside with Granny Smith until we figure out what’s going on!” Applejack said in a worried tone.
A few minutes of trotting later and they were at where they saw the things land. In about a mile radius, there were large chunks of metal and wires. The chunks of metal were still sizzling from entering the atmosphere.
Applejack stood there for a few minutes longer, with a look of pure shock and horror frozen on her face. Partly from the fact that, at the very least, she just lost a good portion of her trees. Partly from the fact that a giant chunk of metal fell from the sky and crashed in her backyard.
About the time she started to recover, the other residents of Ponyville began showing up. Her friends ran up to her while the town's ponies talked among themselves.
“Are you okay, Applejack?” Twilight asked, a look of worry etched on her face.
“Yeah, but I’m still ah bit shocked.” Said the orange pony as she shook her head. “Maybe you should contact thuh princess." She finished, looking over at the crash site again.
“I already have, though she probably saw it when it crashed.” Said Twilight.
“Or she sensed it before it crashed.” Rarity commented, flipping her hair out of her face and into a position she better preferred.
“It’s possible.” Twilight began. “Well, whatever the case, she should be sending some ponies to check it out soon.” She finished, convinced that the princess would do just that.
“Well while we wait, maybe we should check out what this thing is.” said Rainbow Dash, flying ahead her friends energetically, a look of excitement on her face. “I mean, you know they're just going to cart this stuff out of here and deny it ever existed.”
“Maybe so, but I think it’s a horrible idea. We should just trust what the princesses wants.” Said Rarity, mainly just not wanting to risk the chance of getting dirty.
“I dunno, waiting is sooo boring.” Said Pinkie Pie, bouncing up and down.
As the five were arguing no one even seemed to notice the quiet yellow Pegasus trying to get their attention. In fact, they didn't notice anything until a pony in the crowd yelled. “What's that moving over there!”
Everypony turned their attention to the movement that was close by, in the midst of one of the mounds of metal.
With a grunt Master Chief reached his hand around in the open, glad he was finally close to climbing out.
Second hand up, then he started lifting himself. He was still looking up at the surprisingly fluffy clouds and bright blue sky when his head came out.
“Cortana, what planet are we on?” He asked as he looked down, then he stopped in his tracks.
“Definitely not Earth, I can tell you that much.” Cortana said.
Chief blinked hard a few times, hoping that what he was seeing would go away. But, of course, it did not. Or rather “they” did not. Because standing in front of him, or rather, standing and flying, were four legged creatures.
“Cortana, what are they?” Chief asked, a bewildered tone in his voice.
“Well, the ones that have no other appendages are like ponies, they were a race of animal on earth. Though they all died off for some unknown reason around the year 2343. The ones with wings are Pegasus. They, along with the horned ones, unicorns, are mythical creatures. Though of course, none of them were colored like this." Cortana spoke, then paused.
"But altogether, I would say we are in an awkward situation.” She added. “They also seem sentient and intelligent, or at least, intelligent enough to build a barn and farm apples.” And with that, Cortana finished her summary.
“Well, they don’t appear to be hostile. Maybe we should try and make contact with them.” Chief said, a hint of confusion still in his tone. Still unsure of this new place, it felt nothing like Reach, or Earth, or anyplace he had been. It had this... Peace, and happiness to it.
“Well, it appears that purple unicorn is approaching us.” Said Cortana in response.
Chief suddenly torn from his thoughts, looked down at the unicorn. Its coat was a light purple. Its hair was dark indigo, with pink and purple mixed in. And its eyes were a smooth violet.
The strange creature stopped, hoofing at the ground, she appeared about to speak, but when Chief started swaying slightly her violet eyes widened before slowly backing away.
Wow.. he was feeling really.. drowsy. “Chief, are you okay? Chief?!” He wanted to respond, but he couldn’t sleep was overtaking him.
Memories started playing in front of him, almost like he was in a theater.
The Master Chief was in the driver's seat of the M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle, or as some people like to call it, the Warthog.
As he was driving at top speed through the collapsing and exploding Halo ring, his alien companion, the Arbiter, on the mounted machine gun on the back of the vehicle.
“Ninety percent, firing sequence initiated.” Said the artificial intelligence Cortana inside Chiefs head as the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn FFG-201 Light Frigate (He just called it The Dawn) came into view. He was going to have to jump, he was sure he could make it, but it still made him nervous.
Chief decided to remain silent, mainly because he was trying to dodge large chunks of metal from the ground flying in multiple directions along with giant, fiery explosions.
He was now on the downward slope directly before the jump, suddenly the ramp looked a lot farther away from the ship than it did from farther away. “Gun it Chief! Jump! Right into the hanger!”
The Warthog hit the floor of the hanger... upside down, Chief started to lift himself up, he glanced up at the Arbiter who had also been laying on the floor. Everything started to move forward, the Arbiter made a sprint for the door towards the front half of the ship while Chief just barely escaped being pinned against the wall by the Warthog by jumping on top and over it.
As his boots hit the floor he looked towards where the Arbiter had ran, a M808 Main Battle Tank, or Scorpion, had hit right into the doorway, only leaving a small area that was blocked by boxes. It would take him too long to find a place to insert Cortana into the system if he tried to go farther into the ship, but luckily there was one right in the hanger. He nodded to the Arbiter. He saw him sprinting off down a hallway.
He ran over to the podium for the A.I. and inserted her. When the blue female hologram appeared on the podium she said, “Hang on.” as the ship started suddenly accelerating.
Everything was practically vertical now, and everything in the front of the hanger started falling towards the open back. As he was trying to hang onto the podium for dear life one of the warthogs hit him, sending him spiraling backwards.
He barely caught himself by digging his armored fingers into the floor before he had to duck to avoid being hit in the face by a tank.
He climbed his way back to the podium and stood in front of Cortana for a second before going behind the podium to stop himself from being dragged back.
“If we don’t make it-"
"We’ll make it.” Chief cut off what Cortana was going to say, knowing that they would make it out of this... hoping. “It’s been an honor serving with you, John.” Cortana finished.
Chief put his head back as the hanger was enveloped in bright, blinding white light.
Chief woke up in the hangar, still alive, surprisingly. “What happened?” Chief asked as he floated towards the A.I.s hologram.
“I’m not sure. When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. Did a number on the Ark. The portal couldn’t sustain itself, we made it through just as it collapsed. Well... some of us made it.” As she said this Chief had been moving towards the podium that Cortana was in, he took her out and started heading through the ship. “But you did it, Truth, the Covenant and the Flood, it’s finished.” Chief inserted her into the podium and started heading towards one of the cryotubes. “It’s finished.” Chief agreed, turning off the lights built into his helmet and putting his gun next to the cryotube.
“I’ll drop a beacon, but it’ll be awhile before anyone finds us... Years even.” Cortana said. Chief got into the cryotube and the front started to close.
"I’ll miss you.” Cortana said.
“Wake me, when you need me.” He said as he layed down and started to fall to sleep.
He dreamed of the destructive powers of the Halo rings, and how they were made to eliminate the Flood, and how they were likely still out there. And how he killed a prophet of the Covenant, basically disbanding it.
Then he started remembering more recent memories, how he woke up four years later because the Covenant was boarding the ship. Fighting his way through to ship to the escape pods, but they did not work, then crashing down to the surface of this strange planet.
“Wake up, Chief!” Said Cortana. “Wake. Up!”
“Well, it appears this.. thing, is waking.” This female voice is unfamiliar.