//------------------------------// // First contact, Star bound // Story: Recovery ten // by Carmine Prophet //------------------------------// “This is a General order From the United nations Space Command. The covenants relentless assault continues to rage on. And so all decommissioned synthetics Android, or otherwise From the year 2048 onward are now to be brought back online to bolster our troops and hopefully turn the tide of the war agenized the covenant. January fourteenth, 2538” “Uugh... what the hell was that? I feel like I just went five rounds with Harvest and Arcadia at the same time.” Reach grunted in pain. As he and notices that Maine was also managing to sit up as well. The wired thing is that he seemed to be a lot calmer now. “I can barely move, I have no I idea where I’m even at, and I don’t even have my Fucking riffle. This cannot get any worse.” The bedridden soldier thought to himself as he closed his eyes to rest them for a few seconds. “Growl” “Hay Maine.” Reach said before looking to his left and seeing that Onyx was still out cold. “So hay why so calm and collected? Aren’t you supposed to be pissed all the time?” “Growl hiss grooowl” “Well I guess you are right we were here for your armor. But your Recovery beacon activated. Mind you it was like 15 years later but it still went off.” “Growl?” “Ya. It was fifteen years before your recovery beacon turned on. And yes there were still freelancers.” “Growl, Hissss” “Ya truce.” Reach said with a smile “Wait listen there is someone outside the door.” Reach said holding up a finger. “I have never seen anything like them, this is an entire new species just waiting to be documented and studied! Just think we will be the first to make contact with this new intelligent species that has just appeared in Equestria for the first time in Equestrian history. Just think of what they could teach us.” One voice squealed. “What makes you think they’re intelligent, Twi?” another laughed “From the little that he spoke I could tell that they are able to speak and form full sentences. And those weapons, and that armor.” “That red one, He’s mighty strong and fast for somepony so scrawny, if ya ask me.” A Sothern voice said “Pff, not as fast as me, I’m not impressed.” A tomboyish voice scoffed “Say’s the mare that got a wing boner jus’ from watchin’ them fight.” The same southern accented voice from before said with a sarcastic smile if the tone of voice could be believed. “….” “That’s what I thought.” It continued. “Have you ever seen that kind of armor before?” “No it I haven’t. And it’s Light-years ahead of anything I’ve ever seen! And then there was that one with the Grey armor. The one that saved Rarity, whats up with him?” Another said “He certainly is dashing, but his fashion sense is simply HORRID! Did you see the rags he was wearing!?” a dramatic voice said. “I still don’t know why you did it?” “Because it is the proper thing to do after he saved me.” “A New Species I can’t wait to study them I have so many questions for them!” “Darling you should take it easy on the poor stallions, they haven’t even woken up yet and the doctors said that they were lucky to be alive. Especially the brave stallion who saved me.” The proper voice said as their voices faded away. “Ok but any…” was all Reach got out before the door opened. Now they had never even gotten a good look at the new inhabitants of Sidewinder. And this one appeared to be a strange looking pink woman with beautiful light blue eyes with wild and pink poofy hair that looked like it has never seen a come in her entire life. What caught him off guard the most was the girls feature, her ears were pointy and on the top of her head and they would flick every now and then. Her pink skin turned out to be a pink coat of fur that covered her entire body, and her face appeared to resemble that of a horse’s muzzle, along with that, instead of feet she had hoofs. Overall she resembled some type of horse like woman. She was nose to nose, or in this case muzzle to nose with him, and she had a grin that went from ear to ear. Before she disappeared out of the door and down the hall and after another two seconds she was back. “HiI’mPinkiePiewhat’syournamedoyouwannabefriendswhat’syourfavoritetypeofcupcakeoohdoyoulikecupcakes.” To Reach and Maine’s horror and amazement she said all of this in one single breath without pause or stopping for air, and she said it so fast that he could not understand half of what she even said. As Reach was awe struck at what he just witnessed. “Oh oh oh do you like parties!?” she said as she pressed her face closer to his pinning him against the backrest of the bed. “I am going to have an aneurysm!” he yelled. All of a sudden the door to the room burst open as more of the strange horse girls he saw from the forest came running into the room at full speed. ”WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA IS GOING ON!?” Screamed a purple horse girl that he saw with the white one at the stadium At this point everyone was now staring in awkward silence at Reach with Pinkie on top of him, nose to muzzle. “Maine! Help me! Freelancer down!” he yelled causing the others to look over and see that the monster was awake. “Growl” “You’re an asshole!” He responded making the others question how he was even able to understand him. “Pinkie get off him, you done scared him half to death!” Applejack said while pulling Pinkie off of the injured recovery agent. “Don’t worry sugar cube she does this all the time to everyone.” She said trying to calming Reach down. “I can’t believe this is one of the ponies that took down that thing! He can handle monsters, but he can’t handle talking to a mare!” Rainbow Dash said while trying to stifle her laughter. “Rainbow Dash, show some respect for the poor stallion, he did save our lives after all!” Twilight said while shooting a glare at the cyan Pegasus, causing her to quickly cease her laughter. “I’m so sorry for Pinkie and Dash’s behavior.” Twilight said with worry. “Fuck off!” He yelled while tacking deep breaths with a hand on his chest dramatically. “What is your problem anyway?” Rainbow dash asked. Reach and Maine were speechless at what he was seeing in front of him. What he saw in front of him both shocked and amazed him, these girls had coats of fur covering their bodies with bright colors that no normal horse that he has ever seen have before. Along with that he noticed that they all had muzzles and tails that would swish around every now and then and instead of feet they had what could only be described as hoofs and they were all wearing twentieth century style clothing. What caught his attention the most was the fact that some of them had wings while some of the others had horns sticking out of their heads while some of them had neither one. And one had both a purple one. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that they weren’t playing tricks on him but sure enough they were real. Snapping out of his state of shock, and realized that everypony was now staring at him with worried looks. “It’s fine it wasn’t her fault, I shouldn’t have screamed her.” Reach said with a serious but somehow kind look on his face causing everypony in the room to sigh in relief. “Ya sure I don’t care. But I have some questions to.” Reach said getting a squeal from twilight. “Yes, of course! Do you wanna go first!?” Twilight said with a high pitched squeal while clapping her hands together in excitement causing Reach to role his eyes at her childlike innocence. Most freelancers hated that shit. “Ladies first.” Reach said politely. “Such a gentlecolt! He truly is my knight in shining armor!” Rarity said with excitement, causing everypony in the room to roll their eyes at her dramatics. “Well I must say it is quite a relief to meet someone of intellectual standing.” Reach responded dramatically putting his hand on his chest for dramatic effect. “Oh great it is like having another Rarity.” Applejack said. “First question, what is your name?” said Twilight with a quill and parchment in hand ready to record his answers. “ONI Freelancer Agent Reach. The fucker over here is Agent Onyx. And that Agent Maine. What are your names?” He says gesturing towards everypony in the room. “Growl” “Yes ok. He also goes by The Meta.” Reach added “Oh! I’m sorry,” Twilight said with a slight blush, causing her to cease her writing. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia and these are my friends here” The lavender unicorn said with pride as she turned and gestured for her friends to introduce themselves. “The name’s Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria! So don’t think you can beat me with those fancy moves of yours!” the cyan Pegasus with the tiny black shorts and blue tank top said while flying up to his face with a little edge to her voice. “Ya. Bull shit not any more my pelican can out run you.” The buzz cut agent said to the rainbow mane Pegasus causing her to flash a cocky grin. “You know what, you’re on, but that still doesn’t mean I trust you.” She said still maintaining her cocky grin right before going back to her friends. “Good. I don’t trust you either.” Reach said getting a growl in agreement from Maine. “Neither does he.” He added. “How can you understand him?” the young alicorn asked “You know I actually don’t know.” he responded rubbing his head in apparent discomfort. Then he saw the orange mare with the cowboy hat, flannel shirt, and jeans approach him it in. “I’m Applejack nice to meat ya.” She said with a Sothern ascent. “Nice to meet you. Now if you don’t mind. I need get my stuff.” Reach said as he tried to get up this caused the mare who he helped immediately rush to him in worry, trying to check on him and make him lye back down. She had on an elegant form fitting dress “Is my armor alright!? Did it make it out!? What about my weapons!? What about you ok ma’am?!” Reach asked said through the pain in a worried tone. Grabbing her by the shoulders at the end. “Don’t worry darling their alright.” Rarity said as she too began to tear up as she looked at the wounded Recovery agent and remembered how he almost died in order to save her and her friends despite being a total stranger. Despite the fact that it landed him in a hospital bed he was still worried about them. “And In fact here.” She said before walked out and dragged in a trunk of some kind it looked heavy. She then reached in and pulled something out. “I don’t know how you where this it is so heavy.” She said before she handed him his helmet and to their shock he just took it like it was nothing. “You fixed it?” he asked as he stared at the pieces of his visor that were cracked seemed to be repaired somehow. He was relieved to have his armor again he felt naked without it. Like Spartan twos and threes, Freelancers rarely got out of there armor if ever it was like a second skin to them. “Well I did the best I could.” Rarity said with a blush. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you” He said he said as he looked it turned it over. “You even replaced the paint?” he added seeing that instead of being its usual dark grey it was replaced with a much lighter shade almost white. And instead of having the Freelancer and his ONI symbols it had three blue gems. “I thought it could use a personal touch.” She said while looking at the Floor digging her foot,hoof thing into the ground. He then pulled her into a hug something neither of them expected to happen but they both embraced each other and stared at each other her blue met his dark brown. “Growl.” The Meta grunted before they both split apart. “S-so what’s your name?” he asked “M-my name is Rarity, I wanted to say thank you for saving me as well darling. I don’t know what I would have done if anything happen if you hadn’t showed up.” She said as she wiped away a tear from her eye. “I must say this is quite strange?” they all heard making them jump. And when they all turned they saw the Gold and blue form of Zeta which they hadn’t seen since the stadium. “What’s strange?” Twilight asked. “This.” Zeta said gesturing to Reach and Rarity who weren’t even paying attention. “Agent Reach suffers from acute paranoia. He has never shown this much trust for anyone. Especially people he works with, only other Freelancer Agents.” He said. “What do you mean hadn’t trusted anypony?” this got everyone’s attention. “You see every time he..” “Zeta.” “I am simply trying to..” “Zeta! Command override. Shutdown.” Reach said sternly “Complying” he said before disappearing “Growl?” “What was that about?” Twilight said. “You wouldn’t understand.” He said “Darling I’m sure we will understand.” Rarity said to him. Getting agreement from the other mares. “Growl.” “Alright. Every time I would get paired with a team of non-freelancers I would get paranoid and think they were plotting against me. And I thought they were going to turn on me.” He said looking at his helmet. “So what did you do?” Twilight asked causing him to put his forehead on his visor. “Come on you can tell us dear.” Rarity said putting her hands on his “I didn’t let them turn on me.” He said “Why would you do that?” Rainbow dash yelled at him. Before his helmet turned on and activated its projector. And they saw another Freelancer in dark Grey and Yellow armor get shot in the back by a freelancer in purple and green armor who then ran away leaving them. “Growl.” “What did he say?” Pinkie pie asked “That was what happened to my mentor Agent Washington. He was just as paranoid as me after this.” He said “He said Washington and him were friends that is why he let him live.” Reach said “Oh my, but how did it happen to you?” Rarity asked “Well I guess since you asked.” He said before the picture changed to reach with a Spartan four following him. (Flash Back) “Look stay low and follow my orders.” Heard the freelancer say as he aimed his DMR. “I don’t follow orders from some ONI Spartan Replacement.” Spartan said. “Look I don’t like it either. I fucking hate Spartans fours any way. Always act like they are so high and mighty, always thing they can get away with anything, well let me give you a reality check every time a Spartan team fucks up its us freelancers who have to come and fix your mess.” Reach said as they passed an insurgent outpost. “Hay what’s that you see it’s the leader?” the female Spartan said to him and while he looked threw the scope of his Designated Marksmen Riffle or DMR for short and indeed saw that it was the target they were searching for. “Alright how are we gonna do this?” Reach asked “I’m not. But you are.” “What! You Fucking Bi…” was all he said before he was kicked down a cliff, Smaching his head on a rock, crushing his DMR and crashing into the middle of the insurgent camp with nothing but his MA5D, three mags and a knife. The camera then fast-forwarded and when it stopped it showed the Spartan getting in some kind of vehicle. “Hay Palmer!” “What Reach? How are you alive?” She asked “Where are you going?” He asked aiming his newly acquired needle riffle at her. “Back to earth. What are you gonna do? Sho…” she was then shot threw the visor with said needle riffle. The needle went through with ease they were meant for use on Spartan twos and threes after all. “Yes.” He said emotionlessly. Before he turned her around and tore out her shield unit and set her armors self-destruct. “Pilot! Let’s go.” He yelled before the video cut off. (End flash back) “Well now you know.” he said while looking up at rarity. “It’s alright dear, if you need anything just let me know darling.” Rarity said as she walked back to her friends when Pinkie Pie began to bounce around the room and said “Come on everypony cheer up, enough with all the tears and mopey faces. We still haven’t finished introducing ourselves.” The pink mare with the bright pink t-shirt and blue jeans said as she bounced up to Reach. “Hi I’m Pinkie Pie, sorry for scaring you earlier. Oh and do you like parties!” She said as her mane deflated at the thought of making somepony feel bad. “It’s alright Pinkie Pie, you just surprised me is all and to answer your earlier question, yes guess I could be your friend” Reach said with a smile which caused the pink mare’s mane to inflate immediately to his surprise. “And I have never been to a party. Hay Maine have you?” “Growl.” “He says no. and I know he hasn’t” he said gesturing to the still unconscious form of onyx. “You’ve never been to a party, THAT’S TERRIBLE! HE NEEDS A PARTY STAT! I’LL THROW YOU THE BEST ‘WELCOME TO PONYVILLE AND THANK YOU FOR SAVING US’ PARTY EVER! When we get back.” Pinkie said with a shout. At Maine pulled him into bone crushing hug making him struggle to get her off. “Hehe…sorry.” Pinkie said with a sheepish grin after she dropped Meta into a sitting position on the edge of the hospital bed. “It’s..*huff*…Ok.” Reach translated said while trying to catch his breath. After catching his breath for a few minutes he turned to Pinkie and said politely. “Growl,hiss” “Ma’am, have to bother with-” Reach translated but was cutoff. “She’s already gone sugarcube.” Applejack said to reach causing him to look around the room in shock at the fact that she vanished in thin air and right in front of his eyes no less. “She’s like caboose?” Reach muttered to himself slightly disturbed how she could just appear out of nowhere and disappear as if she was never there to begin with. “Don’t worry, Pinkie just loves throwing parties for everypony that she meets. Don’t worry, I’ll tell her to hold off on the party until you’re in better health.” Twilight said with a small laugh. The room grew silent as everypony in the room turned to look at Fluttershy who was trying to stay out of sight by hiding behind Applejack. “And what’s your name?” Reach asked the cream colored mare. “Fluttershy” “I’m sorry couldn’t hear that.” Reach said “Growl” “Fluttershy? How could you here that?” Reach asked everyone looked in the direction of the Meta who let out a low moaning sound. “I think he likes you.” Reach said making the yellow mare turn away from Maine with a blush. “Well now that we have introductions out of the way I’d like us to get back to the questions if you don’t mind.” Twilight said impatiently. “Whatever Twilight, Ma’am.” The ex-ONI Merc said “Ok then, oh and just Twilight is fine.” She said as Reach and Maine nodded. “What are you three exactly?” Twilight asked. “What do you mean?” “C’mon Twilight, can’t you see that there human!” Pinkie said as she popped out of nowhere surprising Reach and the others with her comment. “Pinkie don’t be ridicules, humans are just a myth.” Twilight said with an annoyed tone. “Some myth, myth Busted.” Reach said to the lavender unicorn causing her eyes to go wide and her mouth to drop and her left eye to twitch. “Y-y-you’re a h-human?” Twilight asked in surprise, realizing that these three matched all of the descriptions of humans from her books on mythical creatures in her library. She just stared at Reach for what felt like hours in awe but was just ten seconds. “If I hear the word Shizno come out of your mouth, so help me god. I will shoot you.” Reach said annoyed his answer caused Twilight to snap out of her trance. “Growl.” “And the Meta aggress.” “Oh my Celestia! This is a HUGE turning point in the history of Equestria! We have just made contact with a creature that has been thought to be only a myth, I have to record this!” Twilight said as she quickly scribbled down everything that was happening with her quill. “From how you handled yourselves out in the stadium, and that video, I believe it is safe to say that you’re a warrior of some sort?” “Yes, you are correct. Onyx and I are Mark 2 or Second Batch, But Maine over there is an original, but we are all freelancers.” Reach said with an innocent look on his face. Hearing this caused Twilights eyes to go even wider with excitement as she continued to record everything that was being said. “Oh yes yes yes, I was right! I can’t wait to study you!” Twilight said while clapping her hands together in excitement causing Reach to feel a small sense of fear, but he just shrugged it off thinking that he was worrying for nothing. “That word is used a lot what. What does it mean?” rainbow Dash asked “What word?” “Freelancer.” “Well you see the freelancer project was originally made to help designed to aid humanity in the Great War. But the agents never saw combat outside of the insurgency. So we became a special Operations program created to study soldiers with A.I. implants in order to win the war with the Covenant. They were sent to simulation bases to test their skills. In various situations in fact there was one group of simulation soldiers who took down most of the original freelancer by themselves. However after the Meta’s actions during the Reconstruction event the original program was shut down.” He answered. “Ok what happened then?” Twilight asked as she scribbled on her parchment. “Well you see when the covenant found Reach.” He said before sitting up and putting his legs over the side of the bed. Despite Rarity’s pleas for him to not get up. “Humanity got desperate we and to come up with something. Some kind of trump card we had already re-commissioned our synthetics early on in the war. The Spartan program was good but it took too long and was lost with reach.” He said getting up as he gestured for them to turn around which they did. “What do you mean? You lost your self you keep mentioning that you are a place how come.” Twilight asked. “Oh right yes well Reach was the fortress world for humanity. It was our main military planet. Hay can someone zip me up?” Reach asked having most of his black Nano fiber under suit on. “Growl/ I’ll do it.” Both Maine and Rarity answered. “Well you are closer. And you can turn around now.” He said before turning his back to Rarity and the others turned around and they all gasped when they saw two large scares on his back along with a lot of others. “Oh ya that big one? Covenant energy sword to the chest, Big gnarly elite but I took him down.” He said as Rarity zipped his suit. “Wait, you mean that Humans are an interstellar race?” She asked “Ya. Even set up a simulation base here. Named the planet Sidewinder.” He answered nonchalantly as shimmied his way into the waist armor. “But any way we are getting side stacked. Any way after Reach, ONI decided that making freelancers was more cost-effective agenized the covenant, and if you ask me we fight better.” Reach said. “one of the first of the UNSC Freelancers was an ODST which stands for Orbital, Drop, Shock, Trooper.” He said as Twilight scribbled down notes. “Any way his first mission was on earth during the battle of New Mombasa. He was to go and find out what happened to his squad. After a drop pod collision, He was an experiment to see what would happen if one were to get to many new AI. He functioned efficiently. You see each piece he collected easy actually an AI fragment. And when he finally got them all he was pretty tough. But there was one side effect that we didn’t account for.” “Wait what happens if you get to many AI of these?” twilight asked “You turn into that.” Reach said gesturing to The Meta “What do you mean?” “The Meta lost control and was in being controlled by the Sigma AI. Then he hunted down other freelancers to get there AI and armor enhancements.” Reach said “So he is like Princess Luna.” “Who?” “Princes…” “HAY! How were you able to do those things you did during the fight?” Rainbow Dash demanded cutting twilight off. “What do you mean?” Reach asked still confused with the whole situation, causing Rainbow Dash to pull out her cell phone to show him his fight with Maine that she recorded. As the video of the fight played out on the hand held device Reach could not help but marvel at the prehistoric technology that was in front of him. “What is?... this dreadful device?” Reach asked discussed reaching over and holding it up with his armored hand. “It’s a cell phone.” “Hay Maine! Check this out!” he yelled as he ran over and showed the phone to his fellow freelancer. “growl, hiss, hisss” “I know right! They still use cellphones.” Reach laughed “What! Don’t you have cellphones?” Rainbow dash somewhat offended “Fuck no! Humans haven’t used cellphones since 2125. They are a dead technology like mp3’s.” Reach explained “What’s an MP3?” Twilight asked “Digital music. But we use Mp48’s.” Reach said “What’s the difference?” “Nothing really. Just bad marketing.” “What are you exactly? You appear to be some type of horse people.” Reach asked with curiosity “Actually we prefer to be called ponies.” Twilight said “I have never met a talking pony before, I meant no disrespect.” Reach said before looking over his chest armor. “Oh it’s quite alright darling, you didn’t know.” Rarity said with a reassuring smile. “Where is my riffle, can’t miss it has pink needles on the top?” Reach asked. “Oh and there armor?” he asked as he gestured to Maine and Onyx who had woken up about ten minutes ago. “It is in the other room. We couldn’t figure out how to use it. And it is too far ahead of our level of technology to even try to reverse engineer.” Twilight explained and by the look on her face the three freelancers could tell that annoyed her to no end. “Wait what is this?” Reach asked gesturing to the areas where the cracks in his armor were filled in with some kind of metal that was yellow in color. “Well I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. And your armor was the only one actually damaged of the three of you. So I pulled some strings and patched it up with the same metal the Royal guards use for their armor.” Rarity said “Zeta? What is this?” reach asked “Well it is yellow and shiny. So it is gold.” The AI said “You fixed my armor with gold?” reach asked “Yes darling why do you ask?” Rarity somewhat concerned that he wouldn’t like it “Well aside from the fact that Gold is one of the weakest and most expensive metals in existence. I am going to need to get new chest armor.” He responded “But thank you.” Reach said “Now my riffle?” Reach asked as he put his helmet on. “Oh oh, here it is!” Pinkie said as she pulled Reaches Needle Riffle out of nowhere. As she moves towards Reach to give him his rifle she trips and when the riffle hit the ground it fired causing a pink shard to go soaring through the air, causing the shard to come out of the barrel and stab right the wall right between reaches legs, and wiz just inches away from his codpiece. This caused everypony in the room to gasp and gather around Reach with worry. “OH MY CELESTIA, REACHY I’M SO SORRY ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?” Pinkie asked with worry holding his riffle “Give me that!” Reach yelled snatching the alien weapon from the pink mare and attaching it to the magnetic strip on his back. Not wanting to shoot her for risk of ruining first contact with this race. “And drop every one of our weapons.” Reach yelled and almost immediately the three freelancers weapons were taken from now where even the bruteshot. “Growl.” “Hay where did you say that there armor was?” Reach asked reaching down and picking up his MA5D assault rifle and holding it agenized his chest the barrel pointed at the ground. “Um down the hall to the right.” Apple jack said. “Ok you guys go get your armor on and come back I’ll wait here.” Reach ordered “Sure/ Growl” the two freelancers said as they both got up and walked out. “So Reach, what humans eat for a regular diet.” Twilight asked trying to break the silence. “Oh, humans are omnivores.” Reach said causing all of the ponies in the in the room to grow pale and silent. “Y-you m-mean that you don’t just eat plants b-but m-m-meat as w-well?” Twilight asked fear in her voice. “Yes Miss Twilight, why do you ask?” Reach asked with no concern in his voice “D-do you eat p-ponies?” Twilight asked her fear and worry now clearly showing. “No, I would never eat a pony that I wouldn’t. Honestly I never heard of anyone ever eating a pony before. Why do you ask Miss Twilight?” The grey and Teal armored Mercenary replied while in his head he was wondering why they would ask such a question, but considering that they were talking ponies that probably only ate vegetation, he could see why they would ask such a question. His answer causing all the ponies in the room to let out sighs of relief. “Well you see as ponies we don’t eat meat, we’re herbivores and we were just a little worried is all. Don’t get us wrong, we ponies know and interact peacefully with a few species that eat meat. It’s just that…instincts you know heh heh.” Twilight said with a nervous laugh. “There is nothing wrong with being cautious. That’s what my mentor always said.” Reach replied. “Can you tell me about him!?” Twilight said as she had her quill at the ready again. “Well he was a Synthetic in charge of the blood Gulch Blue team. I don’t have any child hood memories or anything. In fact the farthest back I remember was hitting my head in that fall. Then nothing before that any more. He then took this one on as his personal student and taught me almost everything I know. He was even the one who recommended me to the UNSC’s Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI. And after that he was assigned as my mentor and I was shipped to outpost 17b. And from then he taught me almost everything I know, and that’s… pretty much it.” Reach said remembering how his mentor was the closest thing he had to a father. “Wait…that’s it, there’s nothing else that you can tell me about him, the soldier that raised you and trained you for years and that’s all you know? and what’s a synthetic?” Twilight asked surprised. “Pretty much. And to answer your other question pretty much a synthetic is a robot designed to do jobs deemed to hard or dangerous for humans. By the way where are we anyway?” Reach answered trying to change the subject, due to the fact that Twilight’s eye was starting to twitch which annoyed him he guessed that it was because of the lack of information on his mentor. Reach guessed that she was the very studios type that loved to learn for the sake of learning. But the main reason that he changed the subject was that Reach was happy to do anything to get a break from the questions. “You’re in the hospital silly, you’ve been here a little over a week so they could fix your boo boos.” Pinkie said. “You. Don’t ever say that again.” Reach said seriously “Ya pleas. That was painful.” A voice said and when they turned around they saw Onyx and Maine walk in “Growl” “So how did you all get here? Why are you here?” Twilight asked “Well…” One explanation of the first chapter later. “Thank you girls for saving my life, but we must be going.” Reach said as began to walk off with Onyx and Maine following him. “What are you talking about, you’re a being from another world, and we can’t just let you roam around all by yourself. You don’t even have a place to stay, what Kind of pony would I be if I didn’t offer the human who save my friends a place to stay. Besides since you’re from another world, you’re basically like an ambassador for your people, we can’t let anything happen to you. Besides I still have many, many, many more questions for you about your world this is the biggest discovery ever! But most of all Princess Celestia, cadence, Luna and Queen Chrysalis will want to meet you… Also The Crystal Empire is the only thing around for miles. You’ll stay at the library with me and I won’t take no for an answer, and form what you said you have been here since King Sombra was the ruler here!” She said as she grabbed Reach and the others with her magic surrounding him in a lavender aura bringing him back in front of her causing Reach’s eyes to go wide at what just happened. “Besides darling, it would be a crime against fashion if I just let go without some proper attire while you roam around in those rags, I will make you an outfit fit for a warrior of your caliber.” Rarity said before running up and grabbing Reaches arm. “Twilight… What was that purple glowing thing you just did?” Reach asked while still in shock at what he just saw. “Huh oh, you mean my magic.” Twilight said in a casual tone as if it were nothing at all. “Magic? Ookay Bullshit” Reach said “Yes, how do you think you healed so fast, as unicorn’s Rarity and I are able to perform magic at will by using our horns, while Pinkie and Applejack are earth ponies they have increased strength and stamina, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are both Pegasus which means they both have wings and are capable of flight. Why do you ask anyway, doesn’t your kind have magic?” Twilight explained. “No, magic is just a myth in my world that it is.” Reach said trying to get over his shock. “What! Really I couldn’t imagine a world without magic, we use it for everything, how does your world even function!?” Twilight said with surprise. “Sais the bipedal talking pony with cellphones and twenty first century medical practice, yet no form of modern weapons or vehicles! We use electricity and shit like that.” Reach said “Hay we have modern things!” Rainbow dash yelled “Yes because the fact that you use carts and shit. And that someone tried to stab The Meta with a metal sword is so advanced.” He responded shutting her up “Oh I almost forgot, I still haven’t sent a letter to the Princesses about this!” Twilight said as she quickly wrote up a letter and made it disappeared with her magic. Making Reach only that much more confused. “Hey Twi I thought ya needed Spike to send those letters for ya whenever ya wanted to talk to the Princess.” Applejack said. “Well usually yes, but I just created a spell few weeks ago that would allow me to send the Princess a letter in case of emergencies. The only problem is that it takes up a lot of energy.” Twilight explained. “Who is Spike?” Reach asked as he finally overcame his shock at the existence of magic. “He’s my number one assistant at the library and he’s basically like a little brother to me.” Twilight said with a smile. “The Purple Reptile from the Stadium that tried to punch you.” Rarity said. “Oh.” “I’m sure you two will get along just fine.” She said as Reach and her friends all made their way out of the hospital before she noticed the way that Rarity was still hanging on Reach. “Actually…” There was then a flash of golden light and before them were four women and the others all dropped to their hands and knees and bowed to them “Princess!” the main six yelled before bowing. “What the Fuck!? I just want to get back to our pelican!” Onyx yelled “Growl.” “Meta’s right let’s just keep walking.” Reach said and to the mares horror the three stallions they just met just talked on past the princesses and Queen Chrysalis. “What are you doing? Do you know who they are!?” Twilight asked as the three continued to walk “Nope.” Reach and Onyx said at the same time making them sweat drop at their attitude. “What the? Don’t you even care?” Chrysalis asked “I’m not paid to care.” Reach said “What?” the ten of them asked at once “Easy we are not being paid to care. Now if we were to be paid that might change.” Onyx said. “So they are like mercenaries?” Celestia said “Sort of. We are Government mercenaries.” “I have an idea. Auntie” Cadence said “Wait? So if I were to say pay you to kill Chrysalis you’d do it?” Cadence asked “Is this a hypothetical question or should we start talking numbers?” Reach asked “I am going to walk over here now.” “Any way we have to get to the ship any way if you all want to come we don’t care. And don’t get in our way.” Onyx said. “Or what?” Rainbow dash asked “Easy I’ll shoot you.” Onyx said aiming his SMG at her “He will do it to. He has more team kills than me.” Reach said before turning around and walking in the direction of his and Onyx’s ship. “Are you coming or not? We can get introduced on the way.” Reach said before walking off with the ten females following them. Thirty minutes later. “So you tried to invade a capital of a country’s capital. During a wedding while most of the guards were in said capital?” Reach asked as walked over a hill “Yes. She did. She ruined my wedding.” Cadence said “That seems like a completely reasonable strategy.” Reach said “WHAT!” “I am just saying. Given it was poorly executed.” Reach said “Is that it?” Twilight asked as they walked over a bigger hill and they saw a large grey thing they saw that it appeared to be damaged in the back. “Well here we are.” Reach said as they walked over to the rear door. “What is this drab and may I say ugly thing?” Rarity asked. “It is our pelican.” Onyx said before hitting the code to unlock the rear hatch. “Hay I have be meaning to ask. Is there any difference in your armor?” Celestia asked “There is. Age mostly.” Reach explained as the door opened. And they were marveling at the technological marvel in front of them. The small ship appeared to be much bigger inside than it was outside “Don’t touch anything and follow me. Onyx see if you can get our long range comms working. Maine see if you can repair that engine.” Reach ordered “Got it.” Onyx said before walking off towards the cockpit. “Grunt.” “Hay I have be wondering? You seem to be in charge but at the stadium you said you were the same rank. Why is that?” Cadence asked. As they walked around a corner and they reached a room labeled armory. “Well since we are all freelancers we go by who is higher on the freelancer leaderboard.” Reach said unlocking the armory and walking in with the girls walking following him. “Any way to answer your question Celestia. The difference in our armor is actually quite substantial.” He continued as they watched him takeoff his helmet and put it on a bench. “You see ill start with Maine since his armor is the oldest. He where’s a modified Mark six EVA armor set up, it is much heavier than other variants and he is the strongest one in freelancer mark one so it was a good set up. The EVA armor was originally used for work in a vacuum.” Reach explained. While taking off his chest piece and throwing it in a big bin labeled damaged armor. “What about Onyx?” Luna asked “Well he where’s a Mark seven ODST armor variant meant to be tough but maneuverable since it was based on the armor used by the ODST’s during the war who used to use drop pods to fall from orbit into the battle field or behind enemy lines.” He continued reaching into a closet with his name over the door. “And what about you dear?” Rarity asked as they saw him looking for something. “Let’s see here. Gn, Gn Here we are! Scout!” Reach cheered as he pulled out a chest piece that had some kind of wings looking devices on the back. And just as they were about to ask again he went back in and pulled out a helmet. “Here we go.” Reach said as he sat down on the bench in front of them. “Well you see I have the newest armor of the three of us. I use mark eight. It is used mainly for an armor ability platform which is why I am able to use more than one armor enhancement and still have an armor ability which in a case is a jetpack.” Reach said they then watched him put on the strange chest piece. “What are those for? They look like wings.” Chrysalis asked gesturing to his new Scout Chest piece “That is exactly what they are. They are sensors that act as stabilizing wings that. They take readings and change their position depending on different things. But they are mainly used to get more maneuverability when I use my jet pack.” Reach explained “Reach darling I was wandering why you are getting a new helmet. After I took the time to fix it?” Rarity asked “Well dear. As much as I enjoy the sentiment and it sure does mean a lot. There was a fatal flaw in the repairs.” Reach said “What was that? Was it the material? The color? The style? What?” Rarity asked franticly “Well…” he started. “You see…” the others were waiting to hear what it was. “The thing is…” Reach said trying to find a way to say it without sounding like a douche. “The visor is still broken.” He said and the room fell quiet before the ten mares fell over. “What! But I took every precaution! Every measurement I even replaces the glass.” “That’s the thing the “Glass” was the important part. It has my HUD.” Reach said “Oh.” “But thank you it means a lot.” Reach said before picking up the new helmet. “I don’t get it? How can you see out of that thing anyway?” Twilight asked as they eyed the helmet it appeared to have no visor at all. “Well It us a heavily modified and experimental version of the Spartan three Gungnir helmet variant which uses exterior cameras to put on a screen inside the helmet. Almost like the screen on a cellphone. But this.” Reach started before pointing to a black streak that went from the left side of the helmet across the front where his eyes would be and to the right side in the center they could see some kind of lens. “The helmet uses a Mono-Eye camera system, which was used in conjunction with several cameras mounted around the helmet giving me excellent visibility from the enclosed helmet.” He explained before he put on the helmet and they saw an eerie red light circle formed in the center of the black thing. They saw it swivel around the slot before coming to rest on them before Reach spoke. “I can see you Rainbow Dash Put down the chair before I kill you with it.” he said his voice sounded strange now that they thought of it all of their voices sounded strange they were muffled by the helmets they wore but not enough to where they couldn’t hear them but enough to notice. “Oh ya I’ll be right back.” Reach said before walking into a nearby cylinder. And when he came out he was colored he same colors Rarity had painted his armor it even had her cutie mark where it was before. But what they saw was that he had what looked like a Black wasp with Gold stripes holding a blue circle in its legs on his shoulder. Which was now standard mark six like his other shoulder. “Now that we are done here let’s move on.” Reach said before standing up and picking up his weapons and putting his jetpack on his back and leading them back to the back of the cockpit. Actually this Ship was not as big as it seemed it was just compact. And it was now that they also noticed a little quirk with him and the other two freelancers that they hadn’t before as they watched Reach, Onyx and Maine who had shown up walking with each other. And the question needed to be asked. “OK why do y’all do that when you talk?” Applejack asked. “What do you mean?” Reach asked “THAT! That right there!” Chrysalis said “What right where.” Onyx asked “Growl?” “This why do you do this when you talk.” Luna asked bobbing her head. “OH you mean this!” Reach said doing an exaggerated head bob. “It is obviously because they have helmets on Duh!” Pinkie pie stated “Pinkie…” “Actually she is right. Everyone does it where we are from if they have helmets on. That way you know who is talking.” Zeta said “That makes no since?” “Actually it makes perfect since. Zety is right.” A new voice said. And when they turned they saw a pink and gold AI next to Onyx’s head. “Who are you?” “I am the Freelancer AI fragment Lambda. But they call me Pandora.” She explained “There is so much love coming off that thing it could feed the changelings forever.” Chrysalis said “Well I would surely hope she is the Emotion of Love from the Beta AI.” “Beta AI? Fragment?” “You see the Beta AI is the personality of a Spartan that ONI captured and took its consciousness and everything that made the Spartan a person and made it into an AI.” Onyx explained “What happened to the person?” Fluttershy asked “Well with usual smart AI the person survives. But because Beta is more than experience and memories. The process left the Spartan a vegetable. So we shot him.” Onyx said flatly. “Well any way we have to be going.” Reach said “What do you mean going?” twilight asked “Well we have to see if any humans are left so we plan on going back to UNSC space for a bit. And if not we will return here after gathering what we can.” Reach said. “Oooh can I come please!?” Twilight asked “WHAT!” they all asked. “Think about it we could see how a new Species lives. And on top of that we could use that we would be acting as an ambassador from Equis to the human race.” Twilight explained “You just want to ask us more questions don’t you?” Onyx asked “Ya I guess.” She said “Well I suppose I could allow it but only if you stay out of there way. And give Luna a Full report on what you have learned from them.” Celestia said “Wait Sister why do you want her to give us a report and not you?” Luna asked “Because I am going with them.” Five minutes later “Ok now since we know who is coming?” Reach said before doing a head count. There was Himself, Onyx, Maine, Twilight and her friends and Celestia. And Cadence for some reason” “Wait don’t you have an empire to rule over?” Onyx asked Cadence "They can dule them selves for now." she responded “OK than it is settled we leave in two days.” Reach said “Roger!” they all said. “Now there is the terms of security.” Reach said “Yes will pay you when we get back. We will give you a sum of money and lodgings in Ponyville.” Celestia said “Deal.” “And why are you coming?” Reach asked Chrysalis “Well you are the only one to talk to me for more than five minutes I guess I have gotten attached.” She answered. “Whatever.” Two days later. “Ok people lets go. Everyone strap in.” onyx said from the cockpit as every on but Maine who was copiloting did so. “Alright Five seconds brace yourselves.” They all heard as the bracers came down over them like a roller-coaster. “Ok people hang on to something!” Reach said to the cabin with the eight mares and one dragon in it. “Why is that? The countdown hasn’t even started you…” Celestia started “Five!” Was all they heard before they blasted into the air and were his with some serious G forces. “AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!” all eight mares screamed at the same time “Well here we go. This is going to be fun.” Reach said sarcastically