WARNING: This chapter contains a bit of blood and violence, you have been warned. (Although this is a fan fic about Halo, of course it would have some kind of violence)
Twilight and I made our way to where Eric specified we would meet, right outside the Everfree Forest. As we walked up, I could see Eric waiting with a smile on his face.
"Good evening ladies." Eric said with a hint of laughter in his voice. I ignored it; there are more important matters to discuss. Although I had a feeling in my stomach that something wasn't right.
Twilight spoke up, "Alright, who are you and how does Dragon know you?" Eric turned his head to face Twilight.
"My dear, as you may know, Dragon isn't from Equestria. I am as well not from here, I am from the same planet as he, or now she is from. We were both genetically advanced homo sapiens, or humans as we’re more often called, from the massive military force called the UNSC. We fought against a large group of aliens called the Covenant. They are under the power of a species that us humans dub as the Prophets. Do you follow me so far?"
"Hmm... Yeah, although it's pretty strange, and kinda exciting, that there are all these different alien species, most of my books do say there's too much space in our universe for there not to be any inter terrestrial beings."
Eric smile grew wider, he's up to something. I look beyond him as he continues explaining to Twilight about him. As I focused on one of bushes behind my former ally, which were right along the side of the path through the dark forest, I could see some sort of movement within the leaves. Before I could look any longer at the dancing bush, I was interrupted.
"Dragon, what's in the bags?" Eric was staring at me, obviously concerned on the contents I hold.
"What? Why would I tell you? You went against your own kind to help some religious freaks!" I stated. Eric seemed taken aback by my answer. Despite this, his face shifted into an evil smirk causing Twilight some confusion.
"Wait, what's going on?" Twilight looked around as unicorns and earth ponies quickly emerged from the bushes. Pegasi flew out from deeper in the forest landing behind us. A few of the ponies had an energy sword similar to me, while the others had wooden sticks they most-likely found on the forest floor. I quickly formed a sort of plan. I know a fight is going to break out, and I have more than one disadvantage.
"Run Twilight, you need to get out of here!" I told her. I whipped out my own energy sword from my side bags. I snapped it on and it whirred to life.
"Wha-what's going on!? Who are these ponies!?"
"Jwus wrun!" I said with the heated blade in my mouth. Twilight got the message, turned around, and started galloping away.
"Oh no you don't!" Eric shouted as his horn started to glow. He was only able to grasp Twilight's tail causing her to yelp. She tripped and fell to the ground. She turned her head and focused on her tail apparently trying to break Eric's magical hold on her. While she was undergoing her escapes, four pegasi began closing in on her. I quickly unfurled my wings and shot toward the nearest pegasus. As I neared the equine, I struck my back hooves out and bucked him in the face. I could hear the smack as he was rocketed into the ground. He slid leaving a big mark in the ground.
The three other pegasi redirected their path about Twilight and flew at me. The one slightly larger than the other two flew ahead them toward me. I dodged him as his energy sword whisked past my face. It got so close that I could feel the heat radiate off of it. As he passed by, I slammed my right back hoof into his back. This sudden attack surprised him causing him to lose concentration and crash into the ground. The other two must have decided to attack me from both sides. One of them went on my left, with the other on my right. They charged at me; moments before they hit me, I brought my wings tight to my body and dropped below them. They crashed into each other, and thankfully for them, they only had sticks and ended up scraping each other's face. They snarled at each other before turning toward me.
The closest one flew toward me. I swung my head in a parallel motion at him. He tried backing off but the sword sliced across his chest. He dropped like a rock to the ground with the red liquid of the wounded drizzling out of his charred slash. The final pegasus flew at me from behind; I did a back flip and landed on his back. Before he could render my movement, I kicked him hard in the back of his head. He drifted into a coma causing his limp body to plummet into the dirt. On the other side of the playing field, Twilight managed to break free of Eric's grip. She was still confused and had become a quite scared. The enemy ponies surrounded her on all sides.
"What do you ponies want?!" she shouted with fear in her voice.
One of the unicorns spoke; he had a surprisingly low voice for a pony,
"Much like Eric or your friend Dragon, we are not the same species. Most of us are a race called the Sangheili, or as the humans call us, the elite." While the elite pony talked to Twilight, I had been fighting the winged enemy. There are seven remaining of the original twelve. One of the smaller ones flies straight at me. I shift to my left and snap his makeshift weapon out of his mouth disarming him. I kick him in the ribs causing him to stagger and hover away into the forest. One of the pegasi rose above me; He threw himself down. I hadn't noticed him so he hit me dead center between my wings. My wings stiffened outward from the shock. I plummeted to the ground dropping my sword on impact. The blade retracted as it skidded away from me. I shook the pegasus off of me and bucked him in the torso, sending his beaten form into one of his unicorn companions. This distracted the circle surrounding Twilight enough for them to look away. I saw my chance. I stared Twilight in her eyes and shouted for her to run. She acknowledged and barged through two earth ponies.
They reached out to grab her. After missing, they began chasing her while the others were focused on me. An earth pony runs toward me. When he is near enough, I wrap my hooves around his neck and twist myself onto his back. The confused pony tries to stop but rams into a unicorn as I jump off his back and extend my wings. A pegasus tries to attack me from the back, but I could feel the heat radiate off his blade. I evaded, hovering over him, and then whacking the back of his head, forcing the sword out of his mouth. I placed my hooves on his back and forced him into one of his earth bound allies. I jumped off them and tackled the nearest pony. We tumbled a few feet until we stopped with me on top. I stood there restraining him with my fore hooves. He struggled to move under my hold. I lifted a hoof and smashed it into his face repetitively. One of his teammates ran at me; I spun around lifting the pony to use as a human, I mean pony shield. His comrade crashed into him. I brutally dropped the pony causing him to land in a pony pile with his ally. I kicked at the dirt with my hind leg and spread my wings as far as they could.
As I flew back up, one of the pegasi with an energy sword manages to skim across my right wing leaving burn marks and cutting the feathers, destabilizing me and causing me to come crashing to the ground. I landed on my four hooves and folded the injured wing close to my side to lower risk of further damage to it.
One of the smaller ponies slashed his sharp weapon against my left foreleg creating a large scar across the leg. I don't want to say it but I yelped very much like a girl. It was due to surprise, not pain just so you know. The wound slowly spread, soaking the surrounding fur in red. I moved quickly; I punched the colt that cut me in my foreleg. He staggered back into another unicorn. Using my left wing, I opened the straps of my saddle bag. These wings are almost like fingers! I peered into the bag and spotted white strips of cloth.
It's a good thing I put some extra supplies in here yesterday. I whipped it out and lifted up my injured leg. With the help of my wings, I wrapped the bandage around my wound before my enemies could do much. I looked around at all of my opponents. I snarl at them as one of the unicorns runs head first at me. I shifted out of his path, but this guy was clever. He knew I was going to dodge at the last second. He jerked his head to the left and released his grip of his blade. It flies toward me; the tip of it aiming straight for my heart. I saw it just in time to back off enough for it to just barely cut the side of my chest. I decide to take a risky move and attack the source of this madness. As I run to tackle the unicorn, his horn glows pulling at my back right leg tripping me. Soon after, I am surrounded by my enemies. The rest are either momentarily knocked out or dead. A few hold me down as others damage my wings temporarily taking away my ability to fly. The ones not restricting me back off and form a semi circle as Eric walks up to me.
"Not so strong now are you?" Eric says with the smirk still on his face.
"You wouldn't hurt a girl, would you?" I smile back at him. His smirk drops into a frown.
"Well, aren’t you clever, anyways, I would like you to meet someone." he turns to the entrance of the Everfree forest, "You may come out now sir!" Out from the shadows, a unicorn appears. To be more specific, the unicorn that Applejack saw the night before. He had a coat as white as a cloud, and a mane as deep blue as the darkest depths of the sea. Wait, what is this? Poetry? Eh, doesn’t matter. His cutie mark was just like how Applejack had explained it. There was a perfect yellow circle with two curved red spikes and a green dull saw shape around it. I swear I know that symbol, I've defiantly seen it before. He walked over to me with a smile on his face.
"Hello Dragon, how are you doing?"
"What do you think? I'm being held down by ponies I believe to be elites, and I can feel my own blood soaking my fur like rain! To add to that, my wings are damaged, and don't forget me being a mare now." I stared coldly back at him.
"Hmm, that seems like a bad choice of words. Let's try again. How has your visit to Ponyville been?"
"Do you mean the entire time or just today? Because today has been extremely peculiar." I rested my chin on the ground, not taking my eyes off of him.
"Anyways, I bet you’re wondering why and how you changed gender." He steps to his right a bit, "I'd like you to meet a new acquaintance of mine, Trixie." Out of the shaded forest, a light blue mare appears. Her mane is an almost white blue color. She's the first pony I've seen wearing clothes other than Applejack with her hat. She has a pointed purple hat with multi-color stars decorating it, and a matching purple cape that obscures her cutie mark. She walks toward me and stops next to the other unicorn. She turns her head to him.
"I told you to call me the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She glares at him.
"Yes, I know, now would you mind explaining to Dragon your actions?" the unicorn said with slight irritation in his voice. He kept a straight face on as they both looked back at me.
"Alright, the Great and Powerful Trixie had turned you into a mare, so as to distract you so that you attempt to figure out how, wasting your day." She stared at me with a sinister grin on her face. "All part of the plan!"
The white unicorn spoke up, "Now, why did you help that pony Twilight escape? You could have easily run away without her. If it was for her to get help, well, you’re flat out of luck. She won't even be able to know where we are."
"I’m a Spartan, I make sure that civilians are safe, as that is my primary precaution. No matter what species they are, they shall be unharmed," I calmly reply.
He brought his left hoof to his chin, "hmm…, it seems you still know your Spartan training quite well despite being transformed into a pony," He put his hoof back down, "So, any last questions?"
"Yeah, who are you?"
He laughs softly, "Well, I am someone that you might just remember, but for now you will call me by my newly formed pony name Frost. If that is all," He motions to one of the ponies behind me, "have a nice sleep." Upon hearing that, I felt a sharp object prick my flank. Again, shamefully yelping like a girl. I turn my head to see a pony with a small needle-like object in his hooves. He has a black eye, and despite the swollen tissue, I could see the revenge he feels in those dark eyes of his.
"If you’re wondering what that is, to sum it up, it's a needle filled with knock out fluid." Oh no, not again. I began feeling lightheaded. I look up one last time to see Frost’s blurry smile. Then everything went black.
-----------------------------------------
Twilight ran as fast as she could. She had too in order to keep ahead of the two earth ponies that followed her.
I need to find Applejack she thought to herself. When she came in reach of Ponyville, she turned directions and headed toward Sweet Apple Acres. As she ran through town, some townsfolk saw the two ponies chasing her. Some thought they were Twilight's fans that wanted an autograph, while others thought Twilight must’ve had something they wanted like when she had tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, again. They only watched for a few minutes before returning to their previous activity. Twilight kept running until she ran straight into Sweet Apple Acres barn. She head on crashed into a barrel that was nearby Applejack.
"Howdy Twilight! Are y’all Ok?" she looked at her friend.
Twilight rubbed her head, "Applejack! Help me! Those ponies are after me!" she pointed to the ponies that chased her. Twilight hid behind the barrel as Applejack walked over to them.
"You! Farm girl!" the pony on the right shouted at her, "Did you see a purple pony run in here?"
"What do y'all want wit mah friend?"
"Oh, if you’re her friend, then," the other pony started, "that means you two will be coming with us, GET HER!" The two ponies pounced at AJ. She leaped to her left causing them to skid across the dirt. As Applejack grabbed her rope off the hangers on the wall, the two stood back up. AJ spun the rope above her head and one of the earth ponies jumped at her. She tossed the end of the rope at him which wrapped around his legs. She pulled the rope, tightening it, and causing him to fall. He struggled at his bonds. He tried biting the rope but AJ used the rest of the rope to bind his muzzle shut. The other one stood there in shock at how fast she constrained his partner. He tried running but tripped and was bound in a similar manner. Twilight got up and walked over to Applejack.
"Wow AJ, you work fast."
"It's all in the practice Twi. Now to figure out why them ponies were after ya." she removed the binds off one of the ponies faces. Twilight questions him, "I know I escaped from that fight, but who are you ponies and why did you chase me!?"
"I'm not telling you anything!"
Twilight got real close to his face, "If you know what's good for you, you'll tell us all you know." Little fires lit up in her eyes, but did little to phase the alien ponies.
"Ha! You think you can threaten us into talking!? We're not like you simple ponies; we are both Sangheilis, a proud and powerful species. Everyone you saw at the entrance was a Sangheili except Eric and your friend Dragon, so don't expect to get anything out of them either! We chased after you because we were instructed to capture any witnesses, and I plan to do just that!" Twilight backed off, the elite pony attempting and failing to free himself of his bonds.
"You told me exactly what I needed to hear." A snide smile spread across her face.
He stops struggling with his bonds as he comes to a realization of what he just told them. "By the rings, Frost'll surely kill us for this slip-up of mine."
"Who's this 'Frost' character? Is he the boss of you're group?"
"There's no way I'd tell you who our leader is! He's a Sangheili as well, so no way am I giving up any more information than you already know!"
"Now I know your group commander's name and species, thank you very much! Anything else you want to, 'not tell me'?"
The Sangheili freezes up, his right eye twitching. Twilight turned toward Applejack, "Hey Applejack, could you watch over our prisoners? I have some research to do."
"Can do Twilight. Ah'll watch over our special guests." Twilight nodded then ran toward her library house. Once Twilight left the barn, Applejack stared down at the two, an idea formed in her head; a twisted smile creped onto her face. One of the Sangheili ponies gulped, knowing there was no escape from whatever the farm girl had in mind.
“Oh Granny Smith! There are some ponies here who would like to meet you!”
-----------------------------------------
Dragon's POV
I slowly regained conscience. After blinking a few times, I fully opened my eyes to see a cold stone floor. I moved my arms to get up. As I stared at them, I was quickly reminded that I was no longer a human for instead of hands they were orange hooves.
"So you’re finally awake."
Looking up, I saw the same blue mare from last time stare at me through aged iron bars. I looked around to find myself inside some kind of jail cell. There were stone brick walls on three sides, a stone floor and ceiling, a bale of hay in the corner, and iron bars with a metal gate before me.
I looked back at Trixie, "Where am I?"
"Trixie will not specify, but in short you are in a prison created by griffins."
Griffins? Aren't griffins those half bird, half lion creatures from old Greek stories? On the other hand, I mean hoof, this is a magical land with talking ponies. It's best to just go with it.
I had been lying on my side. I shuffled around and pushed myself up into a sitting position.
"Alright Trixie, I have one question for you."
"And what might that be?" she narrowed her eyes very slightly.
"Why are you helping these guys? They aren't you’re ordinary group of thugs. Did they even tell you that they aren't ponies?"
She tilted her head up slightly.
"Fine, Trixie will tell you want to know. The Great and Powerful Trixie is with these ponies because they promised me they would help me get revenge on Twilight." She closed her eyes as she frowned.
"Revenge on Twilight? What did she do?"
Trixie snapped her eyes open and stared at me. Her eyes sharpened as her anger built up.
"That purple witch humiliated me in front of the whole town! I can't even get near Ponyville without getting laughed at or insulted!" I sat there waiting for Trixie to calm down as she began to ramble on about, I believe, an Ursa major or something of the like. After about three minutes or so, she calmed down and looked at me.
"Now then, onto your next question. Yes, the leader of these ponies, Frost, did tell Trixie that they are an alien race called the... Um... The Sankheals? The Shankhalls? The Sanghelas? Maybe the Sharkhulls? Well, whatever they are, it's hard to say. Trixie thinks they have mental problems and Trixie has seen them fight though. They are good fighters and those glowing swords of theirs are almost as cool as the Great and Powerful Trixie." I rolled my eyes on her complement to herself.
"Anyways, Frost wants to talk to you so he'll be here sometime. You enjoy your stay here OK?" She smirked then turned away. As she walked around the corner, it appeared that she had some kind of clear border surrounding her. It must have been some kind of fresh air spell for it was musty in here. I estimate that he won't be here for a while. Much like a cat, I circled around before resting down in a laying position and seating my head on my hooves. I looked around the cell one last time before closing my eyes. I drift into an uneasy sleep.