Twilight was running through a forest, the Everfree Forest to be exact. She hadn't gotten a good look at what was chasing her. All she knew though, was that she had to put as much distance between it and her. The tree to her right about ten feet disappeared in an explosion of flames. She couldn't tell what color because she was running so fast. If she could just get back to Ponyville and her friends, she might just stand a chance.
Wait a second, hadn't she seen that tree before? Was she going in circles? She slowed to a trot, eventually down to just walking. She couldn't hear the thing anymore. Was it gone? She looked around, not seeing a thing. Wait a second, was that Applejack and Rainbow Dash calling for her? She started to run towards their voices, sure it was them. What was that smell? She stopped again. She squinted into the darkness, trying to place the smell emanating from directly in front of her. That's when it hit her. Besides, it was kind of hard to forget the smell that she had realized was associated with the green glow that began emanating in a small green ball in front of her. Suddenly, the ball shot forward in a line of green death.
~~~~~
"AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Twilight shot out of bed, soaked in sweat. What was that about? She hadn't had nightmares for years, so where had this come from? She shook her head, trying to shake her thoughts clear of the nightmare; she didn't have time for this. There was an adventure to be had!
She gathered up the saddlebags that Spike had graciously helped her pack the previous night. She quintuple checked that she had everything in her bag and even then she wasn't sure. Oh well, if her first plan went wrong, she had all the way up to Plan W.
When she walked outside, she found six guards, the two princesses, and her six faithful friends all waiting outside, and it looked like they had been waiting for awhile. "How long have you guys been out here?!" Twilight practically screamed, worried that she may have been asleep for hours.
"Hold on there, sugarcube. We ain't even been out here fer two hours!" Applejack comforted Twilight quickly, knowing that if she didn't that the safety of Ponyville would be at risk. "We heard ya scream a couple o' minutes ago though. Anythin' you want to tell us?" Applejack chided, worried about her friend's sanity.
"Don't worry AJ, just a bad dream. Alright everypony, shall we get started?" Twilight asked, not wanting to think about her nightmare the previous night.
The other ponies shared a look and sighed, knowing they would get nothing out of her. "Ok Twilight, you got the best view of the direction that the smaller object flew in. Lead the way." Celestia stated coming in behind her loyal student.
"Princess, are you sure you want me to lead? I mean, what if I take us in the wrong direction? Or lead us into a pack of Timberwolves?" Twilight's breathing was quickly escalating, "What about Ursas? The guards wouldn't be able to do a-" Celestia quickly stuffed her hoof into Twilight's mouth, forcing her to be quiet.
"It's okay, Twilight. Don't worry, I believe in you, and so do your friends and my sister. If I believe you can lead, then you can. Consider it a test, if you will." Twilight's eyes suddenly widened and she calmed down. She would ace this test no matter what is what her eyes were saying. This is what told Celestia that she had said the right thing.
"Okay everypony, follow me!" Yelled Twilight as she ran off into the woods, hoping to get to the object before nightfall. When she was about ten feet in, looked behind her and found that all of the other ponies were following close behind.
After many hours of alternating between trotting and sprinting, Twilight decided to call for a break and consulted with Celestia. "Princess, I'm sure we should've found that smaller object by now. There's no way it was so far into the forest!" Twilight suddenly gasped, "Princess! I'm so sorry! I failed your test!" Twilight through herself to the ground before Celestia.
Celestia simply chuckled, "It is alright Twilight, you have not failed." The lavender mare looked up at her with hope. "When the larger object landed in the forest with such force, it disrupted the natural magic of the forest, making it impossible keep one's way. It will take at least another day for the magic to correct itself." She then leaned down to the young unicorn and whispered, "I would suggest looking around for a little longer to find shelter for the night. Luna will have to raise the moon in about an hour."
Twilight stoop up with a smile on her face, "Okay everypony! Break's over! Let's look around for a little bit and see if we can't find some shelter!" As she said this, all of the other ponies groaned and stood except for Pinkie Pie.
In fact, she rather jumped and yelled, "GUYS!" As everypony stopped and looked at her, she simply stood there and pointed in a direction, "We'll find shelter that way. My Pinkie Sense told me!" And with that, she started hopping in the direction she had pointed. Nopony had the energy nor sense to argue with her.
What they found after thirty minutes of walking however, shocked them all. It was a large purple structure that looked as though it had crashed into the ground rather than have been built there. It was about the size of a house in Ponyville and had five prongs sticking off of the top. However, it was not the object that they were currently looking for. This object had obviously been here for years. After ten minutes of discussion, they decided that they had no better place to stay.
After Luna had raised the moon, the leader of the present guards started a fire and explored the inside of the purple structure. On closer examination, it revealed hundreds of thousands of small hexagons that covered the entire structure. When he ventured inside, he came running back out after five minutes. "Princess Celestia! I found something inside of the building! On the floor, there was what looked like a set of armor, although whatever was in it, which died by my guess, has long since disintegrated with the passage of time. It was much too large to be a pony too."
After he finished his long explanation of whatever was inside the ponies all stood still, lost in thought. However, before they could think too much, the ground trembled a little bit. "Hey guys, have any idea what that possibly could have been?" Rainbow Dash asked a little nervous as to what could cause the ground to actually shake.
"All of the debris from the larger object has already fallen to the ground. Whatever it was, it's nearby and it's getting closer," said Luna as the trembling grew in size and the bursts were more frequent. "Guards, douse the fire! It's leading this thing straight to us!" She exclaimed as a couple of the guards poured water onto the fire.
As they waited, the trembling grew even larger until it just stopped. Suddenly, Twilight's nose twitched as she scented a familiar smell. While she was trying to place it, a small translucent green ball materialized out of the darkness about fifteen feet away from them. Then, right as Twilight remembered where she had smelt this before, she heard Fluttershy scream the loudest she had ever been heard as the ball shot forward towards Twilight in a line of green death.
~~~~~~~~~~
After the Timberwolf fight the night before
~~~~~~~~~~
"What do you mean it's made of wood? That just doesn't seem physically possible." Chief said as bent down to examine one of the corpses. He wedged his fingers into the ribcage of the wooden wolf. When he pulled it apart, he saw that she was, in fact, correct. Different sizes of sticks and twigs had fused together, forming what appeared to be respiratory and digestive systems. Suddenly, his visor filled with red.
"Why are you asking me this?! I simply said that it was made of wood! I have no idea how it could even be possible! Next time I tell you something, use your brain before you ask me a senseless, QUESTION!" As shouted the last word, there was an power surge in the Chief's armor, depleting his shields. Although they did recharge, he was still worried. Cortana had a sharp intake of breath, "Chief! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to. It's just, when you asked that question, my exasperation just went straight to rage for whatever reason." John pulled out the projector, and Cortana appeared on it.
"Cortana, what is wrong?"
"John, I'm fine, it was just the crash, I'll be fine now." She knew he would not believe her, but she still gave herself points for trying.
"Cortana, something was wrong before," Chief said, recalling how she had flashed red when she had been waking him up. "Tell me what is wrong," He continued, focusing all his attention to her.
Cortana sighed, knowing the time to tell him had come. "Chief, you know how A.I.s begin to deteriorate after seven years right?" When he nodded, she continued, "Chief, I'm seven and a half years old." Chief looked at her in surprise and suddenly made a decision.
"Halsey, she'll know how to fix this." Chief knew it was a long shot, but he would do anything to keep Cortana safe. "If we can find that town or castle, we might be able to get into contact with the UNSC. We could back to Earth and Halsey."
Cortana looked at him for a few moments and sighed, "Don't make a girl a promise, you know you can't keep."
With the conversation now out of the way, Chief put the projector away and checked on all of his supplies. Satisfied that all of his equipment was still there, he began to clear the area closest to the pod. At some point before he started, he checked the horizon through a small opening in the leaves; the sun was just coming up.
Clearing out the area took much longer than he had originally thought it would. It was as though the trees had a mind of their own. When he looked up into the sky through the same small patch, he found that it was now past noon; probably about two o'clock. "John, you need to rest. I'll wake you if anything too dangerous comes near," Cortana said with a smile in her voice as the Chief began to head towards one of the forking in the branches in a nearby tree.
"Cortana, if we go uninterrupted while I rest, wake me in four hours." Chief said as he settled into the fork, propping his assault rifle into the crook of his elbow and against his shoulder. He closed his eyes and had one of his shortest dreams yet.
~~~~~
He was walking through the same forest that his physical body was currently sleeping in. It was nighttime. Suddenly, he heard short, gasping breaths as somebody or something drew closer to his position. He melted into the shadows just in time as a lavender unicorn that was obviously female from the pitch of her breaths, ran right past him. Since he knew it was a dream, he didn't question the unicorn fact; he had seen far stranger things. On her haunch, he glimpsed a picture of what appeared to be a six-pointed star.
It was apparent she was running from something. He followed silently for a few seconds, when she suddenly stopped. Wait, could he hear voices in the distance? One sounded a little tomboyish while the other was a southern accent. The mare perked up at the sound of these voices, and started to walk forward when she stopped again, sniffing the air. Had she smelled him? As this thought crossed his mind, a small green ball materialized in front of her. Why did it seem so familiar? Suddenly, it shot forward in a green line of death towards her. It was about to hit when suddenly-
~~~~~
"JOHN!" Chief's eyes snapped open as Cortana called him. From the coloration of the night sky, it was around seven. "Oh thank goodness, I've been trying to wake you up for an hour!" Cortana exclaimed as he slipped down from the tree. "About thirty minutes ago, I picked up the heat signature of a controlled fire about two hundred meters away."
"Possible civilization?" Chief asked, grabbing only his assault rifle, pistol, and a grenade.
"It's quite probable. I'll switch your visor so it's easier to see where to go," Cortana said as she changed his visor to thermal. What appeared to be a campfire was clearly apparent on the screen now. He started heading towards it when the ground suddenly shook. It wasn't the type from falling debris, but of the footsteps of something big, very big.
"Cortana, what was that?" The Chief quickened his pace towards the fire, which now had fourteen red blobs sitting around it. Two of the blobs appeared to be larger than the rest. Then, one of the smaller blobs threw something onto the fire, extinguishing it. They had felt the shaking as well apparently. Luckily, Chief could still follow their heat signatures. As he got closer, he activated the night-vision just in time to hear a loud scream, higher pitched than any he had heard before.
"Chief! You need to help them! They're being attacked by a hunter!" Cortana yelled as John looked around a tree just in time to see an all-too-familiar green ball rush forward towards the lavender unicorn from his dream in a line of green death.
~~~~~~~~~~
As the line got closer to her faithful student, time seemed to slow for Celestia. When the line was just mere inches away, one of the guards shoved Twilight out of the way and into cover, taking the hit himself. From the resulting explosion, Celestia got a good view of what had attacked them. It was standing up tall on its hind feet, at least fourteen feet tall. It was covered in thick armor on every part of its body. On its back, were six undoubtedly razor-sharp spines. On its left foreleg was a shield as big as herself while on the other one was a contraption that now glowed the same green as the explosion.
T
here was nothing left of the guard's body in the crater. Celestia looked over to her student who was in shock. That could've been her if not for the fast reflexes of the guard. In their hiding spot next to the purple structure, the beast could not see them.
"Majesty, when we caught that glimpse of the creature, I saw that on its back there was an unarmored section. I will run out as a decoy. When it turns to me, give it everything you've got, but don't stay here, get as far away as possible," said one of the guard ponies,. Celestia looked to him and saw that he knew full well what kind of sacrifice he was making. Celestia nodded and the guard bolted out as she readied her horn. As the beast turned towards the running pony, something unexpected happened.
Celestia heard a click then a thud as another creature that stood at seven and a half feet jumped to the ground in front of them, holding a small ball in his right hand, a tiny red light flashing on its surface. It began to run on its own hind feet towards the turned back of the larger creature, which was preparing another green ball aimed towards the decoy guard. As the smaller creature got close however, the larger turned and hit it full force with the shield, sending the smaller flying backwards next the remaining ponies. As it got up again, it glanced at them and began running again towards the larger. Just as the larger fired another line though, the smaller jumped on its shield, throwing off its aim. It then jumped over the shoulder, landing planted on its back.
"Hey whoa! What is that thing doing on that bigger guy's back?!" Cried out Rainbow Dash, as mesmerized by what was happening as the rest of them. Suddenly, the smaller shoved something inside the bigger creature's unarmored lower back, then jumping off and rolling backwards twice, yet again landing next to them.
At first, nothing happened as the giant creature shook itself, making sure that the smaller was no longer on its back. When it stopped shaking, another unexpected thing happened.
It exploded.
Fluttershy let out a muffled scream as the giant's life was ended. On the ground was a large worm about two feet long struggling. Celestia used her magic to pick it up and place it inside a container that they had brought with them for later study. Celestia turned towards the victorious creature, hoping it spoke the same language. "Now who, do we owe our thanks to?" For a few moments the creature was silent, but it then replied in a raspy male voice.
"Call me Master Chief."