Lee and his friends were nicely relaxed on their train ride to Chanterlot, they even had a booth to themselves so that they wouldn't have to deal with the tightest spot on the train cart, and Erik was also relieved that all their questions will be answered on their way to the Princess. Lee and the others shared some laughs and some stories along the way. Dale even mentioned the story of the Spartans who fought on Reach in the past Human Covenant War in 2552, some of the group was curious about one Spartan that was left behind in the Fall of Reach if he lived or died. Erik remembered an old saying that "Spartan never die." There were Spartans that were unbeatable and some who risked their own lives to save millions, it was in a time of great interstellar conflict for survival. Discussing about the human covenant war did take up quite the conversation in the booth, Erik even told Lee and Mike that he had to make the group fly by jumping off a cliff, and Glenn thought that was a crazy move coming from a pony who is afraid of heights. What Erik and Dale did that day was a memory that would never be forgotten in experience.
Outside the window were green forests with wide ranged mountains beyond the distance for the group to see, they looked at it all with amazement, Mike looked at the mountains with the patches of snow along with Glenn admiring all the trees forest reminding him of the colony he grew up in, while the group looked out the window admiring the view, Sergeant Maddox was busy concerned about the Tycora, the crew and its captain. He was being so strict with leading everyone else because he didn't want to risk lives at stake that he doesn't even know are alive or done for, being on this planet has been a big concern with what they have encountered and what else they will find along the way, and luckily the old enemy that they feared does not know where they have ended up. As it was once again nighttime, every passenger on the train was going to sleep along with the group getting some rest for the next morning.
(Chanterlot Royal Palace, Sculpture Garden)
Princess Celestia had sat quietly for hours with her eyes closed in the garden, for some reason she was trying to sense some entity or presence of something unknown. Ever since she saw the strange object fall from the sky, she has been sensing a new kind of source of magic, magic she believed to have come from the object in the sky, and this new kind of magic was alien to Equestria. Princess Celestia then felt another presence from the alien magic, it was coming towards Chanterlot, and it was coming by train.
(The Next Morning)
Erik woke up to nothing but pitch black on the train as it was going through a tunnel, when Erik looked around to see if there was any light illuminating, he was then too late to react to the bright sunlight at the end of the tunnel, Eriks reaction to the blinding daylight caused him to tumble backwards with everyone also waking up to the painful light. For moments of recovering from the painful light, Erik was quickly able to clear his vision catching a view through the window, it was the city of Chanterlot. From the view outside showed that the train had been moving on a mountainside getting closer to the station.
"So that's the crown jewel." Dale said.
"Sure looks like it, definitely fit for a princess." Replied Erik.
As the train was reaching its destination, Sergeant Maddox told the group to ready for departure, including the other six members of the group that were looking out the window getting their direct attention.
"You six better be ready, were almost there." Said Sergeant Maddox.
"You heard the man lets move!" Said Dale leading the way out.
When the train passed through the gate into Chanterlot, the train then went to a hault at the station. Lee and the others were accounted for as they whole group was getting off the train, the place they were in was beyond compared to Appaloosa, and it showed to be a place of higher status including. And now that they arrived in Chanterlot, they must now find the princess. There was not much eyes on them in Appaloosa, but there were many eyes on them here in the city of Chanterlot, the city was filled with shoppers, cafes and fancy dressed ponies all around them. The distance to the castle was only a few blocks away for the group to see.
As the group continued walking to the castle, four ponies exiting out of a boutique shop started staring at the group of odd ponies with a discussed look.
"Ugh where did those ponies come from a swamp." Remarked the mare wearing a white shirt and pink draped sweater.
"Can you believe what those ponies are wearing, it's like they pulled out a tattered piece of fabric from a mud puddle." Remarked the stallion wearing a green shirt and white draped sweater.
The snobby comments was disregard by Sergeant Maddox as some of the group found it to be the wrong thing to say to the wrong kinds of ponies who they were laughing at. Lee and his friends use to deal with those kind of people that had higher standard to show off to the people in the outer colonies that struggled to keep up. And Dale on the other hand wanted to give those ponies a piece of his mind.
"Do they have any idea who they're messing with?!" Dale whispered to Lee and Erik's ears.
"Keep it cool Dale, we have to keep our distance and not to try and provok them into making them think we're not invaders from another world ok!" Erik suggested to Dale not wanting to be watched by the whole place.
After block by block, the group was now one block close to the castle. Lee was looking around the place admiring the architecture, when he soon looked to the left, he was suddenly too late to react to a purple unicorn crashing into him. While Lee and the purple unicorn got back up clearing their vision, the purple unicorn mare grunted looking around seeing that her parchments and books were scattered, so she immediately got up on her four legs levitating all her disorganized belongings saying quick words.
"Sorry gotta go bye!" Said the purple unicorn as she quickly running off somewhere else in a hurry.
Lee didn't get the chance to anything because the unicorn was quickly gone, when Lee got back up, Erik, Dale and Mike to see if he was alright.
"Lee are you alright?"
"I'm fine, it was just an accident." Said Lee feeling his snout from the collision he just had.
After passing the last block, they were at the guarded entrance of the castle. There were four royal guards blocking the entrance with spears pointed at the strangers approaching them, and they were not going to let a group of odd ponies into the Royal Palace that easily.
"Stay where you are, what is your business here?" said the armored pony in an orderly tone to the strangers in their presence.
"My name is Sergeant Maddox, these are my men, and we came a long way here to gain information by seeing the princess." Said Sergeant Maddox making the guards concerned reminding them what the princess told them to be aware of.
Princess Celestia gave an order to the royal guards to escort strange newcomers that she sensed an alien presence of, and it was obvious that she was referring to the strange newcomers the guards are confronting right now. After realizing the orders the guards were given, they then decided to let them in to escort the group to Princess Celestia's throne room. The door to the inside of the castle was huge with stairs going to two separate wings with banners stretching from the ceiling down to the floor, the floor was so spotless they could see their reflection. The most interesting thing the group saw in the castle was the tall corridors with beautiful stained glass windows leading towards the throne room. And the throne room doors tall like windows reacheding the sky, opened now appearing in the presence of Princess Celestia.
The entire group had nervous and wide eyed expressions what they were in the presence of, Princess Celestia was taller than every pony in the room along with Sergeant Maddox, she had a longer horn with wings of an angel, and hair the flowed with brightly eligant colors. The princess resembled in their perspective as a living goddess right before their eyes, and she even had the symbol of the sun on her flank showing that she holds a great responsibility Erik thought.
"Who are you, what are you, and why are you here? Questioned Princess Celestia ina direct tone.
Sergeant Maddox and the group were all silent coming up with precise words not trying to make a bad first contact with the this worlds lawful ruler. Then Erik came fourth putting his nervousness aside as the first to speak to ask her the questions that him and his kind need answers to about what happened to them.
"My name is Erik your majesty." Erik said we aren't from this world, and we came here on a ship that traveled far beyond into unknown space. When we jumped into this system, our ship had taken unexpected damage crash landing who knows where, and we were not your kind when we landed here, we turned into your kind the very next day."
"What did you met when you said that you were not our kind when you first arrived here?" Princess Celestia questioned Erik.
"Well as you can see your highness thats what we need an answer about, and it has do with our slipspace drive. Lee interjected.
"What's is a slipspace drive?"
"It's a device that allows us to travel faster through farther distances into space, we are a technological race that made a great amount of scientific achievements, there was an anomaly that happened in out ships drive that turned us into your species, and we came a long way here to see if you can tell us what this world is and what we are in it" Erik stated in curiosity.
Princess Celestia had so much going on in her mind with these aliens, and from what she was hearing from them made her feel that they have need so much to learn about this world, and she would be willing to help these aliens with all the help she can offer.
"You are in the land of Equestria, You have turned into Equestrians, there are three kinds that are Earth ponies, Unicorns and Pegasai. As for me, I am an Alicorn Princess, I have the strength of an earth pony, the wings of pegasus and the horn of a unicorn. I use my magic to maintain peaceful harmony in Equestria, the other night I felt the presence of alien magic that you brought into this world, is there anything else you can tell me about this anomaly?"
"The anomaly I believe was triggered when the slipspace drive was exposed to an unknown energy sources that emitted from the planets surface, it was powerful enough, and it could've caused great devastation to the ship. It was powerful, it was bizzare, it was... Magic." Said Princess Celestia interjecting the last word in Erik's sentence.
"Magic?" Erik said surprised.
"Of course, magic is what actively and passively surrounds all of Equestria, in my ability using magic to maintain harmony, i raise the sun and moon. Evan though magic has been used for good purposes, it is also used for evil and discord, and I believe that your ships drive was exposed to magic from our world creating a new kind of magic so strong that it not only damaged the state of your vessel but shaping your forms into our species." Princess Celestia finished.
It was all finally clear from all that had happened for the past days, scientists thought that it would be the safest and powerful next generation slipspace drive, but when the means of it came to being used to flee from their old enemy into unknown space, their predictions were far more than what they had imagined. From Erik's theory that the pieces of the Didact's weapons forged into a new slipspace drive resulted not only in a powerful means of slipspace travel, but an anomaly unlike any other in scientific history. And Erik may be the first to discover this new anomaly himself.
"Whatever this kind of magical energy we became affected by has put us in a hard position, as you can tell we came a long way here in need of desperate your help." Erik said kneeling before Princess Celestia being meaningful of all he was saying with Lee, Dale, Mike, Kent, and Glenn by his side.
Princess Celestia could highly understand how much that these aliens had been through, they may be aliens from a whole new world not knowing yet what they could be capable of , but in the princesses eyes she didn't see them as aliens, but as her kind that was struggling in a world they have never set foot in before. She got up from her throne towards Erik putting her hoof on his shoulder.
"There is no need to beg, I've been around for a long time watching over Equestria for many generations, for I will use my powers to help you and your people make it through this situation. I will promise to teach you about us, our world and are magic, And your kind is also welcomed to make a home here in Equestria."
"Thank you very much, this will mean a lot to our kind and yours." Erik said feeling very relieved.
"You are very much welcomed, now that you all are here, I now believe we should continue to find where your ship and its captain have landed. We will all be going there by chariots, the royal guards can make the flight go by fast depending on how far your ship has landed." Princess Celestia signaling the guards to get the door.
"You can sense where are ship is at too?" Lee questioned
"Of course, your crashed ship has been emitting magic far miles from here getting stronger and stronger by the minute, and it's important now that we must go."
As the group now being led by the princess made their way out the throne room, Erik was feeling very curious about the stained glass windows and the story behind them.
"Excuse me princess but what is the history told by these Stained glass windows?" Erik said questioning the princess.
"They tell the stories of events that have happened in Equestria every generation."
"That's fascinating, but what is the story behind that one?" Erik said pointing at the window with the two alicorns circling around a strange creature, it was one that Celestia had remembered very much being by someone she cared for.
"That tells an event of Chaos being Overthrown, me and my sister had to defeat an evil Draconequus called Discord, we had to defeated him by using the Elements of Harmony. The Elements of Harmony are powerful artifacts possessing the aspects of harmony, and using them to turn Discord into stone saving Equestria from his chaos he will no longer bring, and as you can tell, I wasn't the only Alicorn. There are three Alicorn Princesses; me, Princess Cadence, and Princess Luna."Princess Celestia slowly paused when she mentioned her sisters name.
"Princess Luna, my younger sister who raises the moon, grew bitter and jealous in Equestrias citizens living more of the day than the night, she soon refused to lower the moon turning into a mare of darkness called Nightmare Moon. I the elder sister harnessed the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful magic in Equestria which is met to restore peace and balance against my own corrupted sister banishing her to the moon for 1000 years, and now I am here left with the responsibility to raise both the sun and moon and watch over Equestria." Princess Celestia finished leaving Erik to discover something he thought was impossible.
"Wait a minute, Erik said abruptly, how long have you been around for?" Erik asking Princess Celestia in confused manner.
"For thousands of years, alicorns have an immortal lifespan ruling throughout many ages in Equestria." Stated the princess leaving Erik with his mind blown along with the group.
"So this tall beauty is immortal, first I thought the mythological creatures was bizarre enough but an immortal princess, this planet is incredible." Dale said astonished along with the group members whispering from the facts Princess Celestia shared with them.
There was so much more to discuss and learn more of for the group, mostly what can be done in the future with their worlds magic and the UNSC's technological advances can be a great step forward not just for Equestria, but for the Human race, but it would not something to bring up yet, for were other important matters to be dealt with. As the group being led by the princess made it to the last doorway, two guards opened the doors revealing an open courtyard with a line of eleven pegasus-drawn chariots awaiting for their passengers. In the front middle was Princess Celestia's chariots, then the group got on board the chariots with Sergeant having one thing to say to the group before they take flight.
"Alright everyone, our long journey has finally paid off, and now we're going to go back to the Tycora and back to our captain,were ready lets go!" Announced Sergeant Maddox motioning to the princess with a hoof soon hovering off the ground into the sky towards the destination of the UNSC Tycora's crash site.