"Chief! Wake up! I need you!" Cortana's frantic yelling cut through the haze that was clouding the Chief's thought process. "Chief, if you don't wake up now, we are both. Going. To. Die!" Cortana started screaming, momentarily flashing red. It was this little detail that caught the Chief's attention. That little flash of red began to worry him as he quickly climbed out of the cryotube, but he just took that worry, and shoved it down to a spot in his mind where it would not bother him.
"I'm here Cortana, what is it?" Chief quickly became concerned again when it took Cortana three seconds to answer him back, but he just pushed it down again.
"Chief," Cortana began weakly, then quickly regained her composure, "Master Chief, we are currently falling into the atmosphere of an unknown planet. I did the best I could with scanning, seeing as how we only have the most rudimentary equipment. This planet is only about a third of Earth's size larger, with the same amount of gravity. The atmosphere is made up of seventy-eight percent nitrogen, twenty percent oxygen, and two percent of various chemical traces. Put into simpler words, the atmosphere is exactly the same as Earth's." Cortana finished. She saw the Chief's split second tense of surprise, remembering of how she had felt almost the same when she had read the statistics.
As soon as she finished with the information and after his pause of surprise, Master Chief quickly asked, "Is the planet inhabited? Are there any humans?" The Chief already suspected the answer shortly before Cortana answered him.
"I'm sorry Chief, all I could make use of for life forms was the thermal camera. None of the heat signatures matched the human profile. There were no Covenant signatures either." Cortana added quickly, not wanting to completely demoralize the Chief. "Well, unless you like crashing and burning in the back half of a frigate, I would suggest we get moving." Cortana said, quickly getting back into their usual routines of conversation.
The Chief gave an acknowledging nod to show that he had confirmed what she had said. He quickly pulled the data chip containing Cortana and stashed a handheld holographic projector. As he was about to leave the cryo room, he paused, turned around and grabbed the assault rifle he had left next to his cryo tube. "Don't want to forget our favorite toy now do we?" Cortana sarcastically stated as they exited the room for the final time.
As the Chief went to reset his mission clock, he noticed that his last one said that he had been asleep for three years, four months, twenty-two days, thirteen hours, and five minutes. Then, he reset it, setting it to zero seconds. At the same time, Cortana started a countdown timer in the bottom center of his visor. It read twenty-three minutes and fifty seconds. Without even needing to ask, Cortana said, "This is the amount of time we have left until the Dawn begins to enter the planet's stratosphere. I would suggest having a safer way to get the planet's surface by then. I'll mark anything useful and easily portable with a navigation marker."
As Master Chief quickly ventured through the ship, the first nav marker appeared on his screen, pointing to a small shining object on floor in front of him. When he picked it up, he found that it was the hilt of a fully charged energy sword. He attached it to his magnetic holder on the side of his thigh.
By the time the Chief reached his destination, the O.D.S.T.s' drop room, he had gathered a rather substantial supply for what he would need to survive. Before he went to the last remaining intact drop pod, he triple checked his inventory. This all included an assault rifle with six extra magazines, a pistols with three more clips, a shotgun that contained a full load already plus thirty-six shells, a battle rifle with four reloads, a fully charged energy sword, a portable holographic projector, three canteens, a flint and steel, and ten MREs. He was ready. He quickly checked the countdown timer to see that they had exactly two minutes until they reached the stratosphere. He walked briskly over to the pod and began strapping himself in. The timer was down to thirty seconds when he was ready to go and the Dawn was using the last of her power to launch this last pod.
"Any last minute prayers before we go free-falling to our death?" Cortana said, the nervousness beginning to show in her voice.
"We'll be fine." Chief simply said, as the countdown timer hit five seconds. He did not have the time nor the energy to currently spend on staying uninjured; surviving would have to suffice for now.
"Well aren't you just the greatest boost of confidence? Hold onto your helmet!" Cortana exclaimed as the timer hit zero, and the drop pod began its long descent into the alien land, its occupants not knowing what to expect, for at the moment, they just wanted to survive.
~~~~~~~~~
As Twilight and Luna watched, the Forward Unto Dawn, which they had decided that that was probably its name, began to be enveloped in a coat of fire, signifying that it was entering the atmosphere. However, what they also noticed was that the metal object was getting closer to Ponyville as well.
"Luna, quickly! We have to warn everypony in Ponyville just in case this..thing lands anywhere near us!" Twilight shouted at Luna, who appeared to be in a daze. At least, she was until Twilight began to shake her back to her senses.
"I'm sorry Twilight, forgive me. I didn't think something like this would ever happen." Luna hung her head just like on Nightmare Night when she thought that nopony liked her and that they would only ever fear her.
"Well, it's good to have you back. Now I'll head out over the East side of Ponyville and you take-" Twilight was suddenly interrupted by Luna, who had put her hoof over Twilight's mouth to quiet her.
"Actually Twilight Sparkle, I think I have a better idea, one that would take a much shorter amount of time." Luna said with a small smile. Then she took in a deep breath, "CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE! WE ARE AWAKENING THEE BECAUSE OF AN EMERGENCY! NOW WE NEED THEE TO BRING THY FAMILY TO THE LIBRARY AND ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED!" Luna shouted using the royal voice. Almost immediately, the ponies were coming out of their doors with their families in tow.
Once Twilight's ears stopped ringing, she began to wonder how it was logical that the ponies woke up immediately during the second royal voice but stayed asleep during the first one. She immediately stopped that thought process right there. She remembered how that had gone with Pinkie and she did not want a repeat of that. Surprisingly, Even the Apples were able to show up. Luna had somehow awoken everypony within a three mile radius.
As all of the ponies were gathering, a few of them noticed the ball of fire that was getting ever so closer. The local mathematician, Cheerilee, predicted that it would take about five minutes to impact and that it would land and slide in the Everfree forest for about one-and-a-half miles. As all of the present ponies sighed in relief, there was a small boom that echoed across the valley, quickly followed by another. As they all looked up at it, they realized that the object had broken the sound barrier with a large explosion following right after.
This almost caused all of the ponies to panic, but the calm demeanor of Princess Luna and the six elements kept them from running around in mass fear.
"So Twilight, what is this thing? It doesn't look all that tough to me." Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. She just couldn't see how this object, that couldn't even fly properly no less, could be that much of a problem.
Applejack came up next, shaking her head at Rainbow, "It's not that it can't fly all that well sugarcube. The biggest problem is the size of that there varmint." Applejack however, was still relieved that it wasn't going to land anywhere near the Acres.
"Well, it certainly could have looked a lot nicer. It just looks so drab in metal shell." Rarity, the fashion freak, described her complaints without fail yet again.
Fluttershy, who had been hiding in the library ever since Luna had used the royal voice, peeked out from behind the door, "I certainly hope that it doesn't harm any of the animals in the forest. I mean, if that's alright." When she was answered with another sonic boom, she squeaked and ran back inside.
"Alright, looks like we have everypony here. Wait, does anypony know where Pinkie is?" Twilight asked, confused, since the excitable pink mare was almost never late.
She got her answer when she heard another small boom, but not from the ship. Rather from Sugarcube Corner to be exact. She jumped out of the way just in time, as the pink mare landed right where Twilight had been standing. "Hey guys! Sorry but I had to grab my welcome party kit for the newcomer! Although, I'll have to clear a large area for the party." Pinkie said with a frown. "Oh well! I'll worry about that later!"
"Uh, I hate to burst your bubble Pinkie," Applejack began, "but that thing ain't alive. It's just a big hunk o' rock er metal."
"Of course it's alive silly!" Pinkie said, rolling her eyes. "My Pinkie sense said that somepony would be coming to Equestria right aboooooout now!" As she finished, the ground shook as the Forward Unto Dawn impacted exactly where Cheerilee said it would.