Commander Sobolynski loomed over the TAC Pad lying on his desk. His squad's scout had recently discovered a hidden plan of the remaining Covenant left on Reach. The scout, Rain, over heard the Elite general speak to the other officials about a newly discovered galaxy just beyond Reach. Rain had brought along a mic and her TAC Pad. She recorded the aliens, and thanks to the translator built into her device, she was able to successfully record their conversation.
The Commander stands up from his desk and grabs the TAC Pad. He leaves the room and heads through the hallway toward the Soldier Barracks. He passes by a man in orange and blue armor kneeling in front of a control panel.
"Morning Commander," the man closes the panel.
"Ah, Travis, just the man I wanted to see," The commander stops next to the armored man. He stands up, a black wrench in his hand.
"What do you need?" he lowers his goggles to look at his commanding officer.
"I need you to take a look at this," he presses the screen then hands the Pad over to Travis, "what do you make of this conversation?" Travis listens to the Elite conversation. After a few minutes he taps the screen,
"Well it plainly shows that the Covenant have found some new nearby galaxy, what seems so strange about that?"
"You need to hear the rest of it, it seems that they plan on going to this galaxy, the Covenant don't just randomly choose to risk troops and tech just to explore. I think there's something more, something special to them about this galaxy."
"Point taken, knowing the Covenant, there may be some sort of religious character there, or perhaps there's a great power source that's driving them into leaving Reach to go and obtain it. The Covenant have never been very easy to understand. Beyond being able to roughly translate there languages, we can't determine what they do next."
"Hmm, yes, you're right, but it appears that they are launching a ship out at around 1900 today. If we want to find out what they are doing, we're going to need someone to get aboard their Corvette."
"Who should we send?"
"I think you know who exactly we are going to have execute this, there's no one better for this than Dragon. I need you to find a nearby space craft that the Covenant won't see as a threat, I'll inform the Spartan of his next objective." The armored man saluted and ran off down the hall to their left. The commander continued forward down the initial hall and turned to enter a door to the right.
The door opened to a cafeteria with four men inside. In the middle tables sat a small marine in a casual jump suit. This soldier was the youngest of the squad at the age of 20. His name was David and he was only 3 weeks out of the UNSC's Flight School. Sitting across from him was a larger, older man who had a smile on his face. He was the squad's main pilot and the one who made constant jokes in an attempt to bring some sort of happiness to his allies. Seated next to him was the heavy weapons guy, Antonio. Finally, far in the corner of the room was the man Sobolynski was looking for. He was the tallest of the group and always kept a weapon on hand. The other soldiers saluted at their leader as he passed by before continuing on their conversation. Dragon looked up at Sobolynski as he reached the table.
"You got a new job for me, right?" he crossed his arms, the commander nodded, "lay it on me, Commander."
"Your new mission is relatively simple, I need you to get aboard a corvette, hack into the Covenant's data base and extract some information, and if possible, destroy the vessel. But, if you cannot escape alive if you deploy the bomb you will be given, then just abort and find a way back. The ship will be beyond our range so once you are on board, we cannot contact you. It leaves at 1900 so we'd better prepare right now." Dragon stands up, salutes and exits the cafeteria. He walks down the hall to the armory.
He enters and looks around before grabbing a UNSC MA37 Assault Rifle. He exits the armory and walks on down to the Armor hold. He enters and find's his custom MJOLNIR Mark V armor held up in an easily reachable display. After suiting up, he grabbed his Type-1 Energy Sword he obtained on a mission years in the past. The curved hilt consisted of what is believed to be Forerunner symbols. He attached the weapon to his right side hip closing the door upon exiting. He walked on down to the loading bay to find Travis standing by a banshee with odd looking turrets protruding from the front.
Dragon looks at the banshee then back at Travis.
"You're not the only one good at infiltration. Luckily there was a small nearby Covenant hanger with this Type-27 Exoatmospheric Multi-role Fighter, or Space Banshee, in it. There was mostly only Grunts guarding this so it wasn't too hard to get." Dragon stepped up to the alien spacecraft, taking a final look at the elongated frontal plasma cannons.
"Don't worry about knowing where to go, I set it up the waypoint on your HUD, the corvette should be leaving Reach's atmosphere by 1910, you should be able to get aboard before they enter slipspace. Dragon nodded before entering the banshee. He powered it up and shot out of the loading bay.
Dragon ran his objective once more through his head. He was ordered to find a way into a specific corvette and obtain the information stored within. He would then destroy the corvette preventing the rest of the Covenant from hearing the important Intel.
Upon landing his Banshee into a hanger that appeared to be empty, Dragon stepped out of the Banshee and walked over to a door leading out of the hanger. Just to be safe, he reached over his shoulder and gripped his gun. Separating it from the magnetic field, he readied his assault rifle and faced the tip toward the entrance. The door began to open; Dragon shifted off to one side and waited for the worst. What walked out was just a lone grunt. Dropping his gun, Dragon quickly grabbed the grunt, and snapped the confused little creature's neck. He dragged the grunt over towards a pile of boxes and placed it behind them. He jolted back to the entrance and picked up his weapon.
Dragon peered down the hallway and was glad that there was no one else in the hall. He then began walking down the way keeping his guard up just in case he ran into any trouble. He reached the halfway point of the hallway when he heard footsteps coming from around the corner. Dragon noticed a door to his left and entered it. Thankfully the room was empty so no one would have seen him. He quickly closed the door and lowered himself against the door. The footsteps got louder; he could hear a door open and close as the footsteps sounded more and more distant.
Dragon stood up and then looked around the room. Within the room, there appeared to be little panels with what looks like a map of the ship. Underneath was alien writing that pointed to different sections of the map. Dragon activated his translator built in his helmet and began to read what each section was. One of the sections showed to him that he was in the ship's only empty room besides the map and that the Intel room isn't far. He switched his translator off and carefully exited the room. According to the map, the Intel room should be straight forward and at the end of the hall to the right. Dragon was able to walk to the end of the hall without any interference. When he entered the room, he ran into an elite. Lucky enough, this elite was one of the Heretic spies that worked with the UNSC.
"Wait! Spartan, don't shoot!" the elite exclaimed raising his hands in the air. Dragon lowered his gun slightly,
"Why?"
"I can help you, I know how this ship works," the elite replied.
Dragon pointed at the elite,
"Heretic?"
"Yeah, I didn't believe that the Prophets should lead the Covenant, so I read up on you humans and I find that you have a much more powerful reason to win this war than the prophets do. I also read up on the Spartan program, I ran into your profile, your name's Dragon right?" Dragon nodded, answering his question.
"Wait, how did you access our database?" Dragon questioned the elite.
The elite lowered his hands,
Reach has so many empty and abandoned human bases, some of them still work and are connected to the central database."
"Hmm... makes sense."
"My name's Grte Deseti by the way."
Dragon nodded his head as if to say nice to meet you.
"You don't talk much do you?" Grte asked.
"No time," Dragon answered as he walked over to the holograms in the center of the room. Dragon put down his gun and pulled out a small device. He placed it over the control panel then pressed a button. A small blue shock spread through the panel causing the holograms to fizz slightly. He then realized he didn't know what the Covenant called the newly found galaxy. Grte noticed Dragon stop and walked over to him.
"The Covenant labeled the galaxy you’re looking for under ‘the newly discovered places of the Great Journey’." He said. Dragon knew what Grte meant by the Great Journey and searched the corvette's databanks. Once Dragon had found what he was looking for, he hooked his armor up to the machine and started downloading the information into his data storage. Thankfully he was able to successfully download the Intel without any trouble. Not too long after he deleted the information of the galaxy from the Intel controls, the ship started to shake and suddenly speed up. The corvette had gone into slip-space, and was going to the galaxy it had recently found. Dragon hacked into one of the external cameras on the ship. He was able to briefly see the planet that was said to have life on it just before the corvette suddenly shut down. Dragon knew that if he was to get on this planet, the only way was to steal a vehicle and fly to it. The reason was that since the ship lost control of its direction, it would float endlessly forward until it hit something. Grte knew Dragon was going to blow up the corvette so he had placed a detonator in the engine room beforehand.
"Dragon, I have set a bomb in the engine room. All we have to do is find a Phantom in one of the hangers and then I will detonate the bomb once we are out of range." Dragon nodded, picked up his rifle, and walked toward the door. He opened it and Grte followed behind him as he headed for one of the hangers. When they reached a hanger, they noticed that in the middle of it were a Phantom and a Space Banshee. The only problem was that there were many elites surrounding the space crafts.
"I've got an idea," Grte started, "I will distract them, and when I get them out of range, you run into the Phantom. If I don't get on within 5 minutes after you get on, leave without me." Dragon nodded and Grte walked out over to the other elites, starting his plan. Once the elites were far enough away from the vehicles, Dragon ran for the Phantom and ran up its back ramp into its storage area. Within the storage area were a few boxes with plasma weapons inside. Dragon ignored the boxes and went into the cockpit of the Phantom. He started it up and waited for Grte. Four minutes had passed and Dragon prepared to leave when he heard something come up the Phantom's ramp. Dragon whipped around and saw Grte enter the Phantom quickly closing the back door.
"Go!" Grte shouted. Dragon turned back around and used his knowledge of driving a Phantom to lift it up off the hanger floor. He space locked the door and lift entrances; then fired up the accelerators and flew out if the hanger. He then located the planet similar to Earth and headed straight for it. Grte then detonated the bomb. He could see the center of the corvette light up as it started to explode.
Dragon and Grte head toward the unknown planet in their stolen Phantom. As they enter the planet's atmosphere, Dragon grips the controls a bit harder as the Phantom begins to shake violently. A bright blue aura appears around the Phantom before eradicating leaving the phantom's hull to feel the embrace of the atmosphere. The planet's ground draws closer and closer, bringing the pair to hard and painful impact.
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Dragon's POV
"Urgh" My whole body felt strange. Pain was imminent, for crashing a spaceship into a planet would normally kill most other soldiers. Especially the lightly armored marines. I attempted to stand up, but I could feel a heavy object on top of me.
"..." what? Is that a voice? I lifted my head up. The voice sounded distant. My vision was messed up; all I could see was a blurry violet blob.
"H...? ...e y... o...?" huh? What was that? It sounded closer, but what is this violet blur in front of me? Good, my vision is clearing... Wait, the violet blob looks like a pony. A bright purple pony. I tried to get up again but something must have been on top of me because I still couldn't move. The voice sounded even closer.
"Hey! Can you hear me?" the pony's muzzle moved along with the words. Wait, did that pony just talk? I must be imagining things, ponies can't talk. Right?
"Can you hear me?" That defiantly was the pony.
"Um, y-yes," I said meekly.
"Okay, that's good. Although you look hurt."
"W-what makes you say that?" I said still in shock.
"Well for starters it looks like that thing behind you hit you and some heavy material landed on top of you." I twisted my head around and saw that the phantom had crashed, and I had fallen out. I turned back and got a good look at the pony. She had a violet coat and her mane and tail was a dark navy blue. Within it were light purple and pink stripes. At her forehead was a horn. Huh, guess unicorns do exist, but I might be hallucinating, I had only just gotten conscience again. Her eyes were a darker shade of her coat. She had a mark on her flank that looked like a purple star with little white stars around it.
"Wait, who are you?" I asked. Considering that the planet I'm on is unknown to both the UNSC and the Covenant, assuming that these ponies were the dominant species were my best guess. The shock disappeared from my voice.
"Well I am Twilight Sparkle and this is my friend Rainbow Dash," she answered pointing toward another pony I hadn't noticed. The other pony had a sky blue coat with a rainbow mane and tail. Her eyes were colored magenta. On her back was a pair of wings. She had a mark on her flank that looked like a lightning bolt in a cloud. The bolt of lightning had streaks of red, yellow, and blue in it.
"Here, let us help you out from under that... thing."
"I don't need any help!" I reached around to grip the grass to crawl out from under the metal plate with no luck; the numbness in my fingers stopped me from advancing.
"You’re going to need our help."
After a few minutes of struggling, I gave in, "Fine."
Twilight and rainbow Dash then pulled me out with their... hooves, I guess. They each wrapped their hooves around opposite shoulders. Normally I would have readied myself just in case the ponies were to attack, but I couldn't find my weapons and I hurt pretty bad, so I just laid on the ground.
"What is your name?" Twilight asked after they helped me out from under the Phantom.
"I am Lima-030, but I am normally called Dragon," I answered.
"What were you doing out here before this thing crashed?" Rainbow Dash asked me. "You don't look like you’re from around here." I didn't show it, but I was confused, ether I all of a sudden have sight problems or hallucinations and I'm imagining them as ponies or there are more humans on this planet.
"Wouldn't my appearance give it away?" I asked.
"No not really, you look like any other pony," she replied.
"Huh?" I then looked down at myself and noticed that my hands and feet were replaced with hooves, and my skin had turned to a light orange color. There was a mark on my flanks that resembled two light blue lightning bolts. Also, I had a tail and a mane that was a dark orange. Wait, are those wings? Apparently I have wings, and I'm a pony. No need to panic, there's a reason I was transformed. Plus when have I ever panicked? Never before, but then again, this is the first time I've become a whole different species. Let's go over what happened before our rough, sudden landing. The last thing I remember is feeling a tingling sensation all over, and then crashing straight into the control panels due to the abrupt landing. I stared at my hooves blankly as I thought, attracting the rainbow maned pegasus's attention.
Rainbow Dash looked at me with a confused expression, "Are you okay? You look like you just lost a leg or something." Before I could answer, I could hear rustling of metal shards moving behind me. I spun around to see the remains of the door between the cockpit and storage of the Phantom move as if something was pushing it from the inside. The heavy purple remains then burst open as Grte appeared out of the entrance. And what does he do? He starts talking to himself.
"With the damage of the cockpit, there is a very slight chance that anyone could have survived, even a Mgalekgolo could barely survive." He then looked to his left and saw Twilight, Rainbow Dash and I.
"Huh, you must be this planet's species," Grte said to himself. All the while, Twilight and Rainbow Dash were staring at him with a surprised look on their faces.
"W-who are y-you?" Twilight asked nervously.
"Why, I am Grte Deseti, a Sangheili. And who might you be?" he answered.
"I-I am T-Twilight Sparkle," she then pointed to Rainbow Dash, "this i-is Rainbow D-Dash," she finally pointed to me, "and t-this is D-Dragon."
"Dragon?" Grte then looked closely at me as if he was scanning me to see if I am who he thinks I am. He walked down the remains of the front of the Phantom to where I was laying down and crouched before me.
"Do you mind?" I asked moving my head back a bit.
"You remind me of someone I know, or to be more exact, just recently met," Grte said,”might I ask, how did you get all scratched up like that?"
I pointed my hand, I mean hoof at the Phantom, "I was hit by the Phantom."
"How did you know that the ship is called a Phantom?"
Crap, I forgot that this species doesn't know what a Phantom is.
"Um...I...uh," I stammered.
"You’re the Spartan, aren't you?"
"Yeah... I am," I said while staring at the ground.
"If you’re him, then that means that you survived the crash and somehow turned into one of this planet's species! Haha! What an interesting outcome," He exclaimed standing back up.
"Wait," Rainbow Dash cut in, apparently not scared of Grte anymore, "you’re not a pony?"
I looked back up at Rainbow Dash, "um, no."
"If you’re not a pony than what are you?" Rainbow Dash asked while hovering in front of my face, making me feel pressured by her.
"Uh...well, you see...um," her stare was making it hard for me to form words.
"If he is the Dragon I know, then he would be a Human," Grte had saved me from Rainbow Dash's question. Rainbow Dash then backed away from me and sat on the ground. "Hey Twilight, are you okay?"
I almost forgot that she was still shocked from seeing Grte. Rainbow Dash walked over to her and waved a hoof in front of her face. Twilight snapped to her senses and looked straight at me.
"So humans look like ponies?" she quickly asked me.
"No, actually humans look more like Grte than ponies, but are smaller and have jaws and a few other differences like our hands and feet are different," I explained.
"Well then how did you turn into a pony?" she asked.
"I'm not really sure, Grte and I had escaped in this space craft here, and when we got into the atmosphere I had felt some strange aura form right before crashing. The last thing I remember after blacking out was you waking me up." Wow, this is the most I've ever talked before now.
"hmm... if that is true, then that means that neither of you have a place to stay. Oh! I know! You two could stay at my house. I have plenty of room," Twilight stated.
"How would we get Grte to you house without people seeing him, I could blend in but Grte would stand out," I said.
"That would be a problem," Twilight added. After a few minutes, Rainbow Dash spoke out. "I've got an Idea! We could hide him in the back of a carriage or something like it, and bring him in when it becomes night!"
"That's a great idea Rainbow Dash!" Twilight then turned toward me, "Dragon do you think you can come with me?" I had almost forgotten about being all bruised and scraped, but a Spartan fights to their last breath. Even if they turned into a pony. I started to stand and could feel pain more intense than anything I've felt before, surge throughout my body. I then decided to use my new wings to help lift myself to my feet. Even though I felt a lot of pain, I said,
"I can go."
Twilight responded with,
"Are you sure? Rainbow Dash and I could..." I cut her off,
"I'm fine."
"Okay, if you say so," she turned to Rainbow Dash, "Rainbow Dash, can you stay with Grte while we look for a carriage?"
"Can do!" Rainbow Dash saluted to Twilight as she turned back to me.
"Well then, let's get going Dragon." I nodded and we started walking away from the Phantom.
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Dragon's POV
Twilight and I have been walking for about 10 minutes and I'm about to ask when we should get to where ever we are going when I see a town appear.
"Is that it?" I ask.
"Yes." Upon entering the town, I notice that they don't seem to have most of the inventions that our species have. They appear to be in an Age similar to the medieval Times. Also I notice a pink pony with a slightly darker puffy pink mane and tail turn toward us as a smile grew on her face.
"Hey! Twilight! Who's your friend there? I haven't seen him before! Oh! Is he new to Ponyville? What's his name? Where's he from? Is he from Cloudsdale? He must be, for he's obviously a pegasus, Ah! We should have a party! How about at the library! No, oh! We should have it at Sugarcube Corner! What kind of cake should I get? Chocolate, Vanilla, how 'bout both!"
"Pinkie! This is Dragon, he doesn't have a home yet so he is going to stay with me for a while," Twilight explained.
"Oki doki loki! Hey, why's he all scratched up? Did he crash while trying to perform some trick like Rainbow does? No, wait, you can tell me at the party! I'd better send invites! See you later!" Pinkie then happily bounced away.
"So, who was that?" I asked.
"That was Pinkie Pie. She can be a little strange and talk a lot, but she is kind-hearted. So now to find a carriage." Where would there be a carriage, to make things harder, I don't know this town.
"Maybe Applejack has a carriage or a wheel barrel we could use," Twilight murmured to herself.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Applejack is a friend of mine, and her family owns an apple farm called Sweet Apple Acres. We could ask her if she has something we could hide your friend in that we could borrow. Follow me," she answered. As I follow Twilight, I notice that other ponies are staring at me. Most likely this is due to how scratched up I am. My legs are starting to feel weak; I should rest for a while before I...
"Urgh" my legs gave out.
Twilight heard me fall and turned around, "Dragon! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, but my legs hurt too much to walk."
"Maybe you should just fly the rest of the way."
"Fly?"
"Yeah, you have wings."
"Oh yeah, I do." I slowly opened my wings and raised them up. I've seen how birds fly; I can do the same can't I? I then quickly brought them down and back up then repeated over and over. I then began to levitate off the ground and I could feel the pressure disappear off my legs. Flying isn't as hard as I thought it would be; I could even say it feels natural.
"Ready?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah." We started heading toward Applejack's apple farm. I looked at the building to my left and I was sure that someone was staring at me. It made me feel uncomfortable.
*******************************
Dragon was being watched. Within the building Dragon had looked at was one of Princess Celestia's guards that was spying on the injured pegasus.
"Princess! The guard you sent to look at the alien crash-site, he spotted a pony."
"A pony?"
"Yes, the pony was underneath the object, but before our guard could get close to the thing, Miss Sparkle and Miss Dash went over to it."
"What were they doing out there at the time?"
"We're not sure, but the guard flew back to the castle to get reinforcements to spy on the unknown pony. As far as we know, Miss Twilight and the pony are heading through Ponyville apparently looking for something. Also the pony is extremely hurt to the point that his legs gave out and used his wings to get around..."
"What does he look like?"
"I'm sorry your highness, what was that?"
"What does this pony look like?"
"Oh yes, well he has a light orange coat with a darker orange mane and tail and he has an average pair of feather wings."
"What is his cutie mark?"
"His cutie mark is two light blue lightning bolts."
"Keep an eye on this pony and my apprentice. That pony doesn't seem to be from Equestria."
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Dragon's POV
I'm sure that we're being followed. As I flew next to Twilight Sparkle toward Applejack's apple farm, I had looked behind me a multitude of times. Although every time I was sure I saw someone or thing hiding behind a rock or tree. When we got to the farm,
"Twilight, I think someone is following us."
She turned to look at me, "What do you mean?"
"Well," I spun around and gesture to a point behind us, "I was sure I saw something over there behind those rocks and trees." Twilight began walking to the spot I had pointed to.
"Wait!" I flew up behind her as she neared rock. We peered over it and we saw a young looking pony. The pony looked up at us. The pony was a unicorn with a dark blue coat and a dark purple mane with light blue highlights. Her eyes were dark blue to match her coat and her cutie mark was a raincloud. For a while we just stared at each other. Twilight was the first to speak,
"Who are you?"
"I'm Nova Rain."
"Why were you following us?" I asked.
"Well, you're orange friend over there looked injured so I started following you. I work part time at Ponyville Hospital and assumed he needed some help."
"Don't worry about me I'm fine," I cut in.
"Oh, and I heard that the two of you were at the crash site of that alien thing, I've always been a fan of Science Fiction so I wanted to know what it's like."
"Where did you hear that?"
"From one of the royal guards."
"How did you get a royal guard to say anything to you?" Twilight seemed shocked by this.
"My father's best friend is a royal guard and he tells me everything he knows. By the way, what were you and Rainbow Dash doing there?"
"We were... Wait, how do you Rainbow Dash's name?"
"I told you, my father's friend tells me everything! Also I know your name is Twilight Sparkle and your other friends are Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie!" Nova said cheerily.
"Wow, your father's friend really does tell you everything! Wait, what does your father do?"
"He owns a business in Canterlot. Also have you seen Derpy? Not to go off topic, but she's the mailmare and a few ponies around here haven't gotten their mail yet."
Suddenly something fell out of the sky and as I looked up, I could see what looked like a grey pony just before it crashed on top of me. Pain came back to me as the pony laid on me.
"Ow... That didn't feel very good. Oh! I'm sorry sir!" The grey pony said.
It really hurt but, "It's fine, but could you get off of me?"
The pony got off of me, "I'm really sorry, it's just that I hurt my wing earlier and it's hard to fly." I then got up and looked at her; she was a light grey pegasus with a blonde mane. She had five bubbles as her cutie mark. Her iris was similar to her hair, a yellow blonde color. She was carrying a mail bag on her back, but her most noticeable feature was that her gold eyes weren't looking in the same direction.
"Derpy!" Nova had run out from behind the rock and hugged the blonde pegasus.
"Hey, you’re my muffin's friend right? Nova Rain wasn't it? Oh yeah, Twilight, your book you ordered came in," Derpy reached into her bag and pulled out a blue cover book, "Here you go!"
Twilight took the book from Derpy with her magic, "Thank you Derpy!"
"Okay! I'll be going to my next stop now!" Derpy started to fly away when,
"Wait!" I stopped her, and she then looked back at me. "Why did you suddenly fall out of the sky?"
"I wasn't paying attention and ran into a cloud. Bye now!" she then turned back around and flew off.
"Howdy Twilight!" I heard behind me, when I turned around, I saw a light orange pony with a blonde mane. Her mane was held together by a red band close to the end of her hair. Her cutie mark was three apples, and she wore a cowboy hat with a circular cut in the front to match her southern accent.
"Hi Applejack! I would like to introduce these two," she pointed at Nova and I. "This is Dragon and Nova Rain. Dragon and I were wondering if we could borrow a wheel barrel."
"Well sure, y'all can borrow one, but what do ya need it for?"
Twilight leaned near Applejack, "Can you keep a secret?" AJ nodded.
"Pinkie promise?"
Applejack crossed her heart and put her hoof over one eye, "Pinkie promise." Twilight got even closer so Nova couldn't hear and whispered to AJ about Dragon and Grte.
"Are ya sure?"
"Yeah, Dragon came from his planet, was turned into a pony and crashed his... Um, I think he called it a Phantom."
"Hey Dragon," I heard Nova say.
"Yeah?"
"I have to help out Ponyville's nurse, so can you tell Twilight and Applejack I left?"
"Sure."
"Thanks!" The little unicorn then ran off out of Applejack's apple farm.
"Okay! Let's go get the wheel barrel Dragon!" Twilight said, “say, where's Nova?"
"She told me that she left to go help out Ponyville's nurse," I explained.
"Okay, well anyways, Applejack, can we borrow a wheel barrel?"
"Sure! Come wit' me," we followed Applejack to her family's barn. She pushed the barn's door open and walked inside. I could hear her moving something around, and not to long after, she came out pulling a red wheel barrel.
"Here we are! Now y'all can get this Grte fellow to Twi's house."
"Thanks Applejack! You're better at carrying heavy things, so could you come with us?"
I stepped forward, "I can pull the wheel barrel!"
Twilight put her hoof on my shoulder, "Hold on Dragon, I'm sure you could if you weren't so injured. We need Applejack to pull Grte because he probably will be too heavy for you."
"Well sure ah can pull yer friend. Where is he?"
"He's over near Everfree Forest with Rainbow Dash. Follow us!" Twilight turned around and told me to get in the back of the wheelbarrow. Since I am a soldier, I followed orders. When we reached the crash site, I could see that Grte had taken out some of the undamaged weapons that were in the Phantom. Rainbow Dash was floating near his head. I quickly flew up to Grte, "What are you doing?"
"Guah!" he dropped the plasma rifle in his hands.
"Oh, it's just you Dragon. Don't just sneak up on people like that!" he reached down and picked up the rifle.
"Still, what are you doing?" I asked.
"I was showing Rainbow Dash our weapons. Also, Dragon we found your armor and Energy Sword."
"Really! Where are they?" I was quite excited about this. I hadn't seen my armor since I was a human.
"It's over there by the..." I ran over to it before he could finish talking.
Over where Grte pointed to, there was my Sage Mark V armor laid out across the ground. I ran over to the helmet and picked it up. I stared at the visor before turning it around and lifted it on top of my head. It was very tight on my muzzle but I still was able to fit it on. I turned on the helmet's HUD to see if I still had the data I acquired. Thankfully it did, but it would be difficult to look at or add data to the helmet as a pony. To solve this, I opened my armor's hip storage pack and pulled out my TAC pad. I took my helmet off and placed it next to the TAC pad. I hooked the two together and turned the TAC pad on. I went to type something but then realized that I don't have fingers. I was too preoccupied with my armor that I hadn't noticed that everyone was staring at me.
"Uh... Why are you staring at me?"
Grte was the first to speak, "Dragon, you were talking to yourself this entire time."
Twilight spoke next, "That was a little creepy; it was like you were talking to the helmet like it was another creature."
"Um... well let's pretend that never happened," I could feel sweat drip down my neck, "more importantly, how would I type on my TAC pad?"
Rainbow Dash flew over to me, "I'm not sure what a TAC pad is, but if it's this rectangle thing then you could use a stick, or maybe Grte could type it for you with his claw things." I looked around for a branch. I saw a tree nearby and flew over to it. I found a reasonable sized stick and used my mouth to break it off. I flew back to my helmet and sat in front of it. I took the stick and typed the transfer code on the TAC pad.
"Dis is find of diffifult."
"What?" I spit the stick out of my mouth.
"I said this is kind of difficult."
"Oh," Rainbow dash sat down next to me and looked at the TAC pad, "what exactly are you doing?"
"I'm transferring the combat and civil data information within my helmet's memory storage to the TAC pad."
Rainbow Dash stared at me.
I sighed, "I'm moving stuff from the helmet to the box."
"That's better!" Rainbow Dash flew back to the others. Once the transfer was complete, I shut the helmet off and picked up the TAC pad. I walked over to Applejack.
" 'Ey Dragon, do ya need a bag fer yer Pad thingy, right?"
"Yeah, do you have one?"
Applejack reached into the wheelbarrow and pulled out a bag that was similar to Derpy's mailbag but slightly larger.
" 'ere ya go!"
I took the bag and placed it on my back, "Thanks!" I put the TAC pad inside it. I walked back over to my armor and noticed my Energy Sword next to it. I picked it up and placed it along side my pad in my bag. I then sat on the ground realizing that we were going to wait until night time.
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Dragon's POV
I took out my TAC pad and looked at the screen. During the wait until night, I had put a description of everyone I've met since this morning. So far I've seen all of Twilight Sparkle's friends except Rarity or Fluttershy. I left their file blank until I see who they're like. The sun has almost gone down; I put away the TAC pad and the stick I use to type on it. I got up and walked over to the wheelbarrow.
"You ready?” Twilight said, "Grte is in the wheelbarrow with a big cloth over him and Applejack's ready up front."
"Let's get 'er started!" Applejack began pulling the wheelbarrow towards Ponyville with Twilight, Rainbow Dash and I following behind. We walked the way there with no problems other than the time I tripped over a small rock. We went into the town and as we thought, everyone was asleep. We reached Twilight's tree... Library... House thing. Twilight and I helped Grte out of the wheelbarrow as Applejack hid it behind Twilight's house. She then entered with Rainbow Dash. Grte had to crouch to walk into the library. Once inside, Twilight spoke to us,
"You two will be sleeping in the room down those stairs," Twilight pointed at some stairs, "I will be upstairs if you need anything. Oh, and Applejack, Rainbow Dash, thanks for the help."
"Yer mighty welcome Twilight!"
"No problem!" The two mares then opened the door and left. I stared at the stairs wondering how I was to walk down them with my current form. Grte nonchalantly walked past me into the lower regions of the tree. I swear I could see what looked like a smirk, but mandibles are so unknown to me. I slowly started my walk down,
"Wait! Dragon, just so you know, I have an assistant named Spike," Twilight looked back at me.
"Why's his name Spike?" I asked.
"Because he's a baby dragon!"
"Okay." I turned my head back around and continued down the stairs. I tripped on one of the steps and tumbled down the rest of the way. I heard Grte laugh at me as I stumbled to stand up. I walked past him and crawled into the bed.