The Chief and Celestia walked side by side in silence. It was a very uncomfortable situation; neither enjoyed the others presence, and Celestia made sure to keep Chief's weapons well out of range of him. It was not until they had put a fair bit of distance between themselves and the clearing that Celestia spoke.
“I do wish for you to have a pleasant stay here, truthfully, but for that to happen we must put all of our issues behind us,” she said calmly. She continued after a short pause, “All of the violence we have created towards each other, and others, is making this situation quite difficult.”
Chief said nothing in return.
“I understand that after all that has happened in the short time we have known each other, that is asking a lot, but do you not agree?” she asked as she turned her head to his faceplate.
“I agree with you,” he said. “That only adds to why I need to get off this planet,” he added.
Celestia continued silently looking into his visor as if to tell him to continue.
“Myself and Cortana are not meant to be here. I can tell that this world and its people have most likely seen little violence, and it would be best if we left as soon as we could.” He turned his head to face her. “So I need you to tell me: do you know of any way at all for us to get off of this planet?” he asked with the faintest bit of hope in his voice.
“No species on our planet is space-faring,” the princess answered with disappointment.
“No species that belongs on this planet, that is...” Cortana said slowly.
Knowing immediately what Cortana was hinting at, Chief fired off a volley of questions at Celestia, hoping that at least one of her answers would be the one he wanted.
“Maybe so, but have any other humans ever been here? Or any species that may have left some sort of vessel behind?” Chief knew that even for him, this was testing his luck quite extremely, but he had very few options.
“Not that I know of,” Celestia answered calmly as she continued looking into his visor. Almost too calmly, it seemed.
“Then have you ever encountered any strange structures? Structures that may seem out of place?” he asked with a final hint of hope in his voice.
“No structures like that have ever been recorded,” Celestia replied, as calm as before.
Even though Chief had expected nothing of what he had described to exist on their planet, he was still disappointed by Celestia's answers. She sensed that he did not like them.
“I'm sorry,” Celestia said. She then began walking at a faster pace. “Come, we must exit the forest before night is upon us. Once we reach civilization and get you settled in, we will try to help you in any way we can.”
“I appreciate your hospitality,” Chief said, “but I'd prefer not to waste time 'settling' in. Cortana and I don't have much time.”
“Very well, but remember that you will be under watch at all times.” Celestia said, keeping her pace.
“Chief, just a heads up, I detected the faintest increase in her heart rate when you asked her those questions. I don't know what, but I think she may be hiding something. Keep your eyes open and stay alert, I don't trust her.”
“Affirmative.” Chief then matched Celestia's pace, and they began walking in silence once more.
-
Princess Luna lifted aside a heap of dangling vines with her magic. Behind the vines was a larger path that had been somewhat cleared to make travel easier, despite still being quite overgrown. It was a good sign, as it signified that they were nearing the edge of the forest—most likely near Ponyville.
Luna looked back to the six mares in dismay trudging along in an unorderly fasion behind her, and frowned slightly. They have had a rough time during the last eighteen hours—everyone involved in this mess has.
“Come, girls. Just a couple more hours,” she said softly as she began moving again.
Fluttershy was still crying, but her sobs had reduced to quiet sniffles and single tears. She walked alongside Rainbow Dash, who held her close with her wing. Rarity was off to their right, her eyes wandering lazily over the ground in front of her, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie walked a few feet behind her, with nothing but a blank look in their eyes. Other than Princess Luna, Twilight was the only one that seemed to still be registering their situation—just barely—and she walked off to the left of the group, trying to process her thoughts.
None of them knew how to handle any of this. Their everyday lives were based around friendship, peace, happiness, all of the things that made up Equestria, but in less than a day, their lives had been turned upside down. Sure, they had dealt with evil and violence before, but nothing as brutal as this. No opponent they had faced had been this extreme, and seeing so much violence and death shook the peaceful ponies to their very core.
“How are you holding up?” Rainbow Dash asked Fluttershy in a quiet voice.
“I... I don't feel good...” Fluttershy answered weakly. “Can we take a break?” she asked in an even weaker voice.
“Of course,” Luna replied. “Are you injured?” she asked Fluttershy.
“I just feel faint...” she said as she stumbled over to a tree to lean against.
The rest of the group began sitting down to rest, except for Luna, who stood looking over them.
After a few moments of silence, Fluttershy spoke, just loud enough for everyone to hear,
“I just don't know what came over me. I've never felt like that before... I have been angry before, but... I... this feeling was different. I wanted to hurt him, and as bad as he is, I don't like that I felt like that. I just wish none of this happened.” She then proceeded to lay down against the tree, staring sadly at a pine cone on the ground near her.
“It's okay, we understand why you felt that way,” Twilight said.
“How's your neck, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy reached her wing up to feel the wound, and winced as soon as it made contact with the seared flesh.
“My apologies,” Luna said, “I should have noticed that you required medical attention earlier, but my mind was elsewhere. May I?” she asked as she lowered her horn to Fluttershy's neck. When Fluttershy nodded, Luna's horn glowed a faint blue, and the same colour formed around the burn on the injured mare's neck. Fluttershy gasped slightly, and then it was over. Everything but her fur and some of her burnt tissue had been healed, and the pain was completely gone.
“Thank you,” Fluttershy said weakly. She looked up to see Luna smiling at her. She tried returning the smile, but only got as far as a slight crease in her lips.
“We will wait here until Celestia and the Human catch up with us. Get some rest while you can, girls,” Luna said as she sat down near them.
For the remainder of their break, everyone was quiet, keeping to themselves. They thought about what would happen once they returned to Ponyville and Canterlot, and how the rest of Equestria would react to the extraterrestrial. What everyone was most worried about, though, was how the extraterrestrial would react to them.
Luna did not trust the Spartan at all, and she didn't expect that to change. He had demonstrated extreme aggressiveness when threatened, and when faced against an entirely new world full of new beings, threatened is one thing he is sure to feel. And he hasn't even been exposed to civilization yet.
She would be ready for a fight at all times, but would much rather see the Spartan leave their planet instead. Of course, there is no known way for him to do that, so he would have to wait for his species to find him, and that would mean more humans in Equestria. Luna did not like that thought at all.
With all of these thoughts racing through her mind, Luna almost didn't notice Celestia and the Master Chief approaching the group. As she rose to her hooves, she shot a stern look towards the Chief—which he ignored—then moved to her sisters side, and matched her pace. The girls fell in behind them, and without so much as a word, the group was moving once more.
The girls kept more distance between them and the Chief this time though, mostly for Fluttershy's sake. Even though her stare seemed to be highly effective against him, she doubted she could do it again. The main reasons she would not try to do it again, however, are because she was afraid of trying it again, and she did not like the feeling of anger that came over her before.
When they return to town, she would avoid the Spartan, and hopefully, everyone could return to their normal lives. Oh, how she would enjoy tending to her garden right now, or being curled up next to Angel. She realized that she would have to come up with a reason for her neck being bare and slightly burnt, but for now, she just wanted to think about how nice it will be to return home.
-
“Cortana, watch the yellow one closely,” Chief said.
“Hopefully sh-she's smart enough to stay away from you, f-for her sa-sake,” Cortana replied. Chief could tell that the forest was harming her again; she sounded distorted, and her sentence was broken.
“Are you alright?” Chief asked.
Suddenly, his heads up display began flickering.
“Cortana?” he asked more urgently.
As soon as he said her name, his already malfunctioning heads up display turned red, and Cortana spoke in a devious tone,
“Oh, I'm fine, it's that pony that I'm worried about! Like I said, hopefully she's smart enough to stay out of your way, or she m-might meet your e-energy sword, and this time, Celestia w-won't be able to stop you!”
“Just take it easy. All I wanted was for you to keep an eye on her. Can you do that?”
“Oh, I can do much more than that, Chief. She's an equine, I'm an artificial intelligence. I'm superior.”
“That's not necessary. Just watch her,” Chief ordered. He was becoming very worried about Cortana. She seemed to be attempting to disobey his orders, something that rampant AI's will do. He also knew that normally, Cortana would not be so devious.
“We'll be out of this forest soon,” he thought to himself.