//------------------------------//
// One hell of a bang. 
// Story: Good luck sir. It's been an honour. 
// by Jessofages 
//------------------------------//


This is an attempt at a Halo crossover featuring Sargent Forge from Halo Wars. It's my first go at a crossover, so apologies if it's a pile of crap.


"Sir it's already overheating. I'll have to separate the core and align them manually when they need to blow."

"Son, I have a feeling that before this is over, we'll need ever last spartan in the fight. I can do this. Report back to the ship." 

".....Good luck sir. It's been an honour."

The short conversation played itself over and over again as Forge began his ascent in the elevator with the slipspace drive. Those were his last words. 
He couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Report back to the ship." His last sentence had been an order. No fancy speech or philosophical realisation on what life meant. Just an order. 
As the elevator continued to rise he wondered whether this was going to be worth it. Would his sacrifice make a difference to the war. Or was there just another covenant armada waiting just outside the plants orbit, waiting to shoot any UNSC vessels that emerged from its core ?
He would never know. He would never need to know.

As the elevator began to slow and the opening at the top slowly began to recede, Forge gave a sigh of relief. 
He was meeting his end and he felt none the worse for it. He knew what had to be done and he was more than prepared to do it. Just as his training had instructed.
And he wasn't about to go and waste a spartan, one of the UNSC's more prized and valued soldiers, to detonate a bomb. That's what expendables like him were for. He, and all the others who had passed in this hell-hole were just another statistic. Another number......

Reaching the top, he began the necessary preparations for the detonation to come. 
He followed the directions given to him by Anders to the letter. Even though she had explained it to him as though he were a gorilla learning sign language. "Red one goes here, blue one goes here. Don't touch that bit !" He thought to himself, mocking Ander's in his mind as he did. He was especially going to miss that princess. There was something about her reckless nature that made him almost enjoy some of the countless missions they had gone on together. Rather, the ones she insisted on coming on. 
He cracked another smile to himself as he finished his work and waited for the 'all go' from Cutter.

He had once again drifted into a state of reminiscence when his com-link flared to life and he heard the familiar voice of the captain.  

"Sargent Forge, all ground forces are evacuating to the 'Spirit of Fire'."

"Copy that. Get our people out of here, I'm blowin' the core."

And with that his com went dead as he clicked it off. He wouldn't be needing it any-more.
Returning his assault rifle to its holster on his back and turning back towards the drive, he allowed himself on last large intake of breath. Savouring the feel of the crisp air in his lungs and the feeling of the heat against his skin. 
Recollecting himself, he hovered his index finger over the detonator, giving himself some last, reassuring thoughts around the fact that this was the end. 

"Here we go." He muttered to himself as he pushed button underneath his finger until it gave the expected, 'Click.'.

Not a moment later a viscous hum emanated from the cores interior, slowly escalating into a full-blown roar as the core aligned itself  and begun the fusion-based detonation. 

Forge watched in awe as the core finally let loose a deafening 'Boom'. 
His surroundings turned ghostly white, coupled with an almost unbearable heat as his world quickly disappeared before him. 
Moments later his world went completely black. From blacking out or death he couldn't tell. 
What he did know was that he had done his part. And for the human race. 
The fight went on.

---------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle stood on her balcony, overlooking the moon-bathed streets of Ponyville. He telescope and trusty assistant Spike by her side. 
She had chosen tonight to be her monthly star-gazing night. Both because it fitted in with her schedule and because Luna had told her that a meteor show was due in just a few hours. 
Being the egghead she is, she was ecstatic to have the opportunity to observe and study a meteor shower. Even though she had done it several times before, the novelty had never seemed to wear off and she found herself in the same excited state every-time anything astronomical was mentioned.  

Looking into the eyepiece of her telescope, she gave the night sky a thorough going-over.
"Ten pm. No sighting. Shower due in twenty minutes." She took her eye off the telescope and turned to Spike.
"Did you get that Spike ?"

The baby purple dragon just gave a yawn in response and sleepily replied, "Twi, why do we have to take recordings before the showers even started ?"  He gave another large yawn. 
"I mean, I could be in bed right now." He pointed out. 

Twilight just grinned and shook her head. "We're taking measurements now in-case something happens before the shower." She explained. "And as for being in bed, you've had all day to sleep." She pointed out jokingly. 

Spike didn't have the energy to respond. So he just accepted Twilight's answer and jotted down what she had said on the notepad he held and resumed his nearly fruitless attempts at keeping his eyes open.

The next twenty minutes went as Twilight had expected. Not even a glimmer had appeared in the inky canvas that was the sky. But then, almost like clockwork, the first bright, trailed speck appeared over the Canterlot mountains. 
Nearly jumping several feet in the air, Twilight rushed to her telescope and planted her eye firmly on its piece, stating every little detail she could observe to a groggy, recently re-awoken awoken Spike, who wrote as fast as his claws would allow as the lavender unicorn's speech border-lined gibberish.

As the shower began to subside and the unicorn began to calm down as the last of the glinting specks disappeared over the horizon. Spike frantically wrote down the last of Twilight's observations and went over what he had written making sure he had gotten at least most of what the mare had been jabbering at him for the past ten minutes.

"So, Spike. Did you get all of that ?" The unicorn finally asked, pulling her eye away from the telescope, a small, faint pink circle around her right eye after being compressed on the eyepiece for so long. 

"Well, uh. Yeah I think I got most of it." Spike replied with a sheepish grin.

"Most of it ?" Twilight asked in a disbelieving manner. "Exactly how much is....."
She began to ask, but was cut off as a thunderous boom echoed over Ponyville. Returning to her telescope in a flash, Twilight was amazed to see a bright flash of white emanating, not from the sky but from within the Everfree forest. 
Delighted at this strange occurrence, she had spike write down the details of what had just happened and also to re-arrange her schedule so they could go and investigate the source of the flash in the morning, as she had decided it was too late to be exploring the Everfree. 

"So, does this mean I can go to bed now ?" Asked an anxious Spike. 

"Of course you can Spike. Sweet dreams." She called in to the dragon who was making hasty progress towards his bed. 
Giggling at the way the dragon ran when he was tired, Twilight decided she may as well go to bed too.
As she ascended the stairs to her room, her mind was racing with theories on what the flash could have been...


--------------------------------------------------------

He was floating. At least he thought he was. Nothing at this point felt real.It was as though he were dreaming. 
Forge felt he was finally at peace, he knew he was dead. How couldn't he be after being through such an event.
He continued to experience this state for several more minutes before a gleam in the distance appeared before him.
Assuming that this was the 'light at the end of the tunnel.', Forge made his way towards it. At least he thought he did. He wasn't sure on how he was moving.

As he neared the gleam, its white radiance became unbearable. Closing his eyes, or whatever the equivalent of them was here, Forge allowed several seconds before re-viewing the world, or sub-world, before him.
However, when he did re-open his eyes, he found himself not blinded by a dazzling white light. But rather by the sun.
"The sun ?" He thought to himself, slightly confused. Wondering how this was even possible.
As his eyes began to adjust to the harsh rays of light, his other senses began to kick in. The first being his hearing. His ears soon became full with the various noises around him. Including the sound of the long, drawn-in and raspy breaths he was taking and what he assumed were birds somewhere nearby. 
The next sense he noticed was his touch. He felt the hard earth below him and what he assumed was a tree on which he had his head resting. Next of course came his smell. At first he was overwhelmed with the scent of various pollens. Scrunching his nose at the sudden burst of odours, Forge felt another sensation. One he wished he couldn't feel. 
His entire body ached. Some parts more than others. 
Groaning, he managed to sit up and give his surroundings a more thorough going over.
Clutching his sides and wincing as he did, he noticed that he appeared to be on the edge of some-sort of forest. 
"Where the hell am I ?" He asked himself, hoping the answer would somehow come to him by itself.
With some more excruciating pain, he managed to pull himself to his feet. Not immediately finding his balance, he found himself leaning against the tree he had be slumped against. 

After several more minutes of stretching and assessing his injuries. Forge found he had nothing too severe wrong with him. At least nothing a few hours in the R&R unit wouldn't solve. 
Checking his equipment, he found his MA5B still firmly in its holster on his back. His M6C likewise on his hip. 
Raising a hand to his left shoulder pauldron, he found that 'Lucy' had survived whatever had happened to him, as had his trademark ace of spades, which surprised him somewhat.
Inspecting the rest of his armour, he found that it was in almost the exact same condition as it was when he detonated the core. 
He managed to crack a grin as he began to wonder exactly had happened after the explosion. "I've beaten death." He chuckled to himself. The guys back on the ship were never going to believe this one. 

Returning back to the situation back at hand, he began to wonder how he was even going to get back. He couldn't see anything that could be considered anything close to civilisation or even covenant presence nearby. 
Checking his watch he noticed it read, 'Oh, two hundred hours.', "Well that's obviously wrong." He said to no-one in particular with a raised eyebrow, as he looked back up and noticed the sun looked as though it had just risen. 
Shrugging, he spotted a nearby hill and decided it would be best if he briefed himself better on his surroundings before wandering off aimlessly.
Reaching the peak of the hill with some difficulty, he found a rather peculiar sight awaiting him. 
Before him lay a rather strange looking settlement. Its buildings almost looking cartoon like in both appearance and structure. All of which, he noticed, were coloured in nearly every colour imaginable. 
"Well, you've really gone down the rabbit hole this time." He thought to himself as continued to scan the town.
Pulling his binoculars from one of the pouches around his waist, he began to notice what he thought were horses walking around the place. 
Peering down the binoculars, his suspicions proved correct. There were indeed a multitude of multi-coloured horses walking around the town. Some he noticed had wings while others had horns. "What the hell is this ?" He muttered to himself, with growing suspicions that this was some kind of new covenant force he hadn't encountered before. 
After the flood, he wouldn't be surprised if these creatures were hostile. Almost every species in the know galaxy, apart form other humans of coarse, wanted both him and his race gone.

After what felt what felt like hours of laying and observing, Forge found himself fascinated with the colourful creatures going about their business before him. 
Having a thought to record what he was seeing. Forge lowered his binoculars and reached into another pouch, searching for his audio-log. Something he carried with him to vent his thoughts into ever since the incident with the crew of the 'Prophecy.'
"Where the hell is it ?" He grunted to himself as he continued to rummage through the assorted pouches that lined his waist. 

Then came the unexpected. He froze dead where he lay when a muffled gasp resonated from somewhere behind him.
As would any other soldier, Forge assumed it to be some sort stealth attempt. Grinning at whatever it was behind him's failure at the attempt, he snapped his had from his pouch, ripped his side-arm from its holster and spun around into a low, crouched stance.
Raising the barrel of the weapon, he found himself aiming at one of the creatures he had been observing before. This one was purple, with a similar coloured mane that had a pink streak down its centre. He also noted that this particular one had a horn. 
"Your move, covvie." He thought to himself with a blank expression, holding his fire as he decided it would be best to determine whether these creatures were hostile or not before he began shooting up the place.


--------------------------------------------------

Jumping back slightly as the creature snapped around and faced her with some sort of metal-looking device pointing in her direction, Twilight considered the option of turning and bolting back to Ponyville and away from this.... whatever it was. 

Her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she had decided to investigate the sight of the flash from the previous night as soon as dawn had broken. 
She had come alone due to her friends either still being asleep or in Applejack's case, too pre-occupied to accompany her. 
And now here she stood, face to face with some sort of creature she had never laid eyes on or even read about before. 
It was roughly six feet tall, from what she had seen when it was laying against the hill. It wore what looked like armour from where she stood, some of its plates were scuffed or had scratches on them. 
From what she could see, the creature was bi-pedal with five small appendages on the end of its fore-hooves, apparently used for gripping and holding objects. 
But the feature that interested her most, was the fact that this creature didn't posses a tail and had either very short or no mane atop its head, with the exception of some very short hair lining its jaw. 
The expression the creature wore gave Twilight the impression that it wasn't about to attempt any form of communication.
Taking the risk of first contact, Twilight decided to at least see if the creature 'could' speak.

"Uh.... hi." She said in a shaky voice, raising a fore-hoof and giving a small wave to the creature, which still held its device in her direction.


"It can speak English ?" Forge thought to himself as the colourful horse before him attempted a greeting. 
Still not lowering his pistol, Forge looked the creature over. Attempting to locate any sort of translation technology, similar to the kind the covenant elites wore. 
Finding nothing of the sort, he made the assumption that the inhabitants of this world did in fact speak English. 
Wanting to prove his theory, he remained silent and kept his pistol level with the horse's fore-head, waiting to see if it would speak again.


Receiving no reply, or even a change in the creatures body language, Twilight began to feel as though the creature before her couldn't understand. Hoping she was wrong, she continued her attempt at communication. 
"Can you, uh...... can you understand what I'm saying ?" She asked, hopeful that the creature would respond. 


"Alright, this thing is talking to me." Forge noted to himself.
"This thing waved, and is talking to me." He re-assured himself, almost not believing what he was witnessing. 
As the creature began to look disappointed with his lack of response to its last question, he decided it would be best if he did try and communicate with these horses. "Hell, they might even know a way to get me back." He thought hopefully. 
Lowering his weapon slightly, Forge cleared his throat and stated a single word. 
"Yes."