12th Feb
2554
Equestria, Ponyville
By the time Ava-127 had finished telling Twilight the atrocities the Covenant had committed, Twilight was in tears, shocked that such a great evil existed. Once Twilight had calmed down, she smiled weakly at Ava.
"You'll stop them right? You and Jake seem... unstoppable, so you'll stop them if they come here, to Equestria, won't you?"
Ava shrugged.
"Only if we're here. But I need to get back to humanity, to Earth."
Twilight nodded, and started to walk out of the room.
"Spike is cooking breakfast, why don't you wake up your friend and we can eat? We're gonna have a busy day, the Princesses want us in Canterlot as early as possible."
Ava got up, and once she had woken Jake-039 up, they joined Twilight and Spike in the kitchen where breakfast was being made. It smelled nice in the kitchen, bringing back memories of breakfast on a Sunday, before getting taken by ONI for the Spartan-II project. Spike was cooking what looked like waffles, as well as toast.
Twilight was asking the Spartans a lot of questions, most of which were classified, such as the properties of their armor.
Eventually, Spike served up a few waffles and pancakes, he was eating toast, while Twilight was stuffing her face with waffle, seemingly forgetting all manners
Jake-039 also opted to just have pancakes, with cinnamon sprinkled on the top, in his opinion it tasted a helluva lot better than the MRE's he thought he'd have to eat. Ava-127 opted for pancakes with syrup. She hadn't had anything this sweet in a long time. After breakfast, Ava and Jake packed a dufflebag with a few weapons, and enough ammo for a firefight if the need arose. The two Spartans met the Mane 6 and spike at the train station, where Jake just shook his head upon seeing the train.
The train ride was uneventful, except for Rainbow Dash and Applejack hoofwresting, and Pinkie Pie playing "Eye Spy" with Twilight and Fluttershy. Rarity was taking a cat nap.
Rainbow Dash approached the two Spartans and chuckled
"Hey tin cans! Do you wanna join me and Applejack in hoof wrestling? I'll go easy, I promise!"
Jake chose to just watch, and Ava-127 decided to "Hoof" wrestle Applejack and then Rainbow Dash. Neither of them expected to lose within three seconds of starting. Jake decided to challenge Ava to an arm wrestle, and he just barely won.
By then the journey was almost over, and Canterlot was getting close.
Jake continued to arm/hoof wrestle Applejack and Rainbow Dash, they were determined to beat the super soldier. Ava put on music in her helmet, her favorite death metal bands in a large playlist consisting of over 600 songs, from various 21st century Death Metal and Death Core bands, such as Lorna Shore, Slaughter to Prevail, Arch Enemy, as well as some classics from Megadeth, Metallica, Rob Zombie, and Slipknot. She was a huge fan of heavy music and it kept her busy when not fighting the Covvies. Twilight was now reading, which seemed to be a favorite pastime of hers, and Spike was also reading, except it was just a comic. Fluttershy was watching Jake-039 in awe, either fascinated or scarred by how strong he seemed to be.
Pinkie was cheering on Rainbow Dash, who was currently losing, and Rarity was watching with a look that screamed disgust, probably thinking "What ruffians".
Soon the train came to a stop, and Twilight led everyone out of the train, each pony with their own luggage, and the two Spartans with their dufflebag filled with ammo and weapons.
A pony was waiting, and as soon as he saw Twilight he trotted up to her to give a bone crushing hug.
"Twily! I've missed you so much!"
Twilight hugged back, ecstatic to see the pony.
"I missed you too Shining, I always miss my big brother!"
Shining Armor looked at the two armor clad figures, confused at who they were. When Princess Celestia had said that he would be escorting somepony important, he didn't expect two non-ponies who looked like machines of war. "Twily, who are the... umm... guests? I thought I'd be escorting ponies, not... whatever they are." Shining said.
Twilight explained everything as fast as she could to Shining Armor, and he seemed less weary, though he still had his guard up.
Ava stepped forward and nodded towards Shining Armor.
"Spartan Ava-127. It's a pleasure to meet you, mister...?"
Shining relaxed, and finished the sentence.
"Shining Armor. Good to meet both of you, if you're friends of my sister then I see no reason why we can't be either. Both of the Princesses are waiting, follow me"
Shining Armor did a quick tour of Canterlot, and eventually they reached the castle where the Princesses were. Shining Armor led them through the gigantic building, showing them to the rooms they would be staying in for the nest few days.
Ava-127 and Jake-039 would be in a room with Twilight and Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash would be in their own room. Once they had gotten settled in, Shining got the Spartans and Twilight Sparkle to the throne room. The ceilings were extremely high, and the glass windows were beautiful. Sitting in the thrones of this large and breathtaking room, were the two Princesses. Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. Celestia was completely white, and Luna was pitch black almost, fitting, since they controlled the night and day. Ava still had trouble believing that, but she trusted Twilight, for now.
Both of the Spartans greeted the Princesses, and explained why they were on Equestria. They explained about the Covenant, and once they were finished explaining years of war to the Princesses, the largest one, Celestia, spoke.
"While I may not be able to get you back to your people right away, I promise we will find a way for you both to get home. Just as long as you can repay it by protecting Equestria to the best of your ability. The Changelings are coming back, and they seem much, much more dangerous. We will need help to defend everypony."
Ava looked to Jake, who nodded, and then she spoke.
"Fine. We'll help. You have our word."
Celestia smiled, and nodded
"Then we shall help you find a way home. You may leave now, and we will call upon you when your help is needed."
Twilight and the Spartans headed back to the rooms, and Twilight started to explain every little detail about the Changelings as soon as Jake asked "What the hell is a Changeling anyway?"
12th Feb
2554
Unknown location in Equis, aboard Phantom Dropship
Reto 'Danam had been on a Phantom, heading to a location that looked almost like a giant ant colony from above, to speak with a creature one of the Zealot teams had encountered. She spoke the blasphemous human language, but told the scouts a lot of information about the planet and it's inhabitants, and promised even more if she could make a pact of sorts with the Covenant, to join forces. This was a mission he had to handle, although he had multiple Sangheili Ultras with him, so if this was a trap the foolish creature would regret it.
As soon as the Phantom landed and the Elites all jumped out, armed to the teeth, the "Changelings" as they were apparently called, looked at the Elites with curiosity, but knew that their queen wanted to see these aliens. The Elites made it to the queen, and she looked unimpressed with the aliens in front of her. In english, she told her Changelings to kill the aliens, and keep their bodies for feeding. The Elites understood every word, and the Ultras drew their various weapons, two were dual wielding plasma rifles, and the other two had energy swords. Reto 'Danam drew his own energy sword, with red blades, from when he was in the Silent Shadow. The Elites attacked, cutting the Changelings down with ease. A particularly large Changeling charged at Reto 'Danam, and he sliced the beast clean in half. Chrysalis then shouted "Enough!" in human english, and stepped down to where Reto 'Danam stood
"Do not be foolish, bug. Get in my way, and I shall cut you down like I did your servants. You shall not halt the Great Journey."
Chrysalis simply just laughed.
"Oh, you'll do good. That was just a test, to see if you were worthy to fight alongside the Changelings, and you seem more than worthy."
Reto 'Danam turned his energy sword off, and nodded.
"If this is a trap, you and your Changelings will regret it all."
Chrysalis told the Elite what she knew about the inhabitants of this planet. The Changelings were planning to attack the Crystal Empire tomorrow, and the Covenant would be assisting.
12th Feb
2554
Canterlot
The Princesses had wanted to see the Spartans abilities, as they were going to temporarily defend Equestria from the Changelings.
Princess Celestia had the Spartans do an obstacle course which everypony needed to do in order to join the royal guard.
The best time was 3 minutes and 50 seconds, the Spartans completed it in 47 seconds, their enhanced strength and speed shocking the Princesses. Once they had finished, the Spartans returned to the room they were staying in. Jake-039 was using the computer device in his helmet to play old videogames, he mostly seemed to play games set in the first two World Wars, but this time he was playing Red Dead Redemption 2. Ava-127 had gotten a few books from the castle library, mostly books on the subject of magic and Equestrias history. She was still confused about the magic, it defied everything that humans had proven.
Twilight and Rarity were playing chess, and it was starting to get dark outside. Ava and Jake stayed awake, used to being awake for long periods of time, but Twilight and Rarity were now fast asleep.
Time went by rather quick, the two Spartans cleaning their weapons and taking the chess set to play a few matches. After a solid three hours of playing matches, the Spartans tied, and it was getting light outside already.
They decided to get up and make some MRE's, to have breakfast. The smell woke Twilight and Rarity up, and they wondered what the MRE's were.
Just as Ava-127 and Jake-039 were in the middle of their breakfast, a pony adorned in golden armor ran into the room, bringing news from Celestia.
"The Changelings are attacking the Crystal Empire! Princess Celestia needs all of you in the throne room, NOW!"
The Spartans and the ponies rushed to the throne room, where they were soon joined by Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.
Celestia looked very worried, and as soon as everyone was present, started explaining the situation. Luna was already in the Crystal Empire. Celestia was going to teleport the two Spartans directly there, and they'd have to evacuate the population. Celestia and The Mane 6 were going to fortify Canterlot, as well as help any ponies from the Crystal empire as they evacuated. Ava-127 and Jake-039 armed themselves, Ava with a classic MA5B Assault Rifle and a SPNKr Rocket Launcher. Jake had his sniper, and a BR55. The feeling of being teleported was strange to the two soldiers, and when they arrived in the Crystal Empire, they grew cold with hatred, as they saw a familiar enemy along with new creatures that could only be Changelings.
"Hey J, why the fuck are the Covenant here?!"
A Phantom dropship flew past them, going to the large castle structure in the city.
Large beams of light shot it down, and Luna could be seen flying around, shooting down other ships with an unfamiliar pony with a pink coat. That must be Princess Cadance.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?! Just kill the bastards, before they do any more damage to this place!"
A Spirit Dropship dropped off a lot of Elites, who opened fire on a unicorn family who had erected a magic shield, which was slowly breaking and yielding to the plasma damage. Ava opened fire, the MA5B rounds startling the Elites, and a bullet could be heard overhead as Jake shot a full magazine from his modified SRS Sniper, breaking the shields of four Elites, which then dropped to the MA5B's continuous barrage of bullets. When the mag had run dry, Ava unsheathed her combat knife and rushed the closest Elite, delivering a bone crushing kick that downed it's shields, and as it roared in anger and agony she drove the knife into the throat of the Elite, and as she pulled the knife out of the dead enemy, her armor shields pulsed orange on her torso as an Elite shot plasma rounds at the Spartan. Ava heard a few bursts from Jake's BR55, and the Elite fell to the floor, dead.
The family looked in fear as the Spartans approached, but they headed for the extraction point once the two soldiers had given a quick explanation. They fought their way to the two Princesses who were now holed up in the castle. Once inside, a couple of guardsponies had barricaded the door and held it shut with magic. When the Spartans approached the Princesses, the pink one, Princess Cadance, had a wound that was clearly from plasma. She was losing blood quickly, and Luna was crying softly as a medic looked at the wounds, confused, having never dealt with plasma before.
"J, pass the Biofoam. We can't let her die."
Jake passed a can of biofoam to Ava, and she approached Princess Cadance.
"Luna, she's injured with plasma burns. Your medic can't save her on the battlefield, she needs a proper hospital. I can stop the bleeding and infection for now, as well as the pain, but you need to get her out of here. Take the ponies who still need to be evacuated, and we'll finish off the Covenant forces here." Ava looked at Jake and he nodded his head.
Ava turned to Princess Cadance, and raised the biofoam canister to her wound.
"Okay Princess, this is gonna hurt, but then the wound will be numbed."
She inserted the nozzle into the wound gently, and sprayed the contents of the can into the wound. As expected, it stopped the bleeding and, as expected, Cadance gasped in pain as the wound burned with extreme pain for a moment, before going away almost completely.
Luna had stopped crying, and was already helping Cadance to her hooves.
"Keep her safe. And get the ponies out of here. We'll keep the sons of bitches busy." Said Jake, reloading his BR55 and SRS Sniper.
The guardsponies escorted the two Princesses to the rest of the ponies, and with a blast of magic from Luna's horn, they disappeared. Ava and Jake opened the now unprotected door, and they stepped out of the castle. There were dozens of Elites, multiple Hunters, and a large amount of Covenant Wraiths, all tearing down buildings, looking for survivors.
The two Spartans raised their weapons.
"You ready to make these motherfuckers pay for what they did to Reach?"
"Hell yeah, let's do this!"