January 12, 2545 – Abandoned UNSC colony
After the last human fell in a burst of pink crystals, Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath and stood to survey her surroundings. Everywhere she looked laid a pile of dead bodies. Some of them were human, while some were her alien comrades. Some were even familiar ponies. They all had one thing in common, though: none of them were moving. No one on either side had survived the battle, save for herself.
I’d better meet up with command and find out what’s going on, she thought. She programmed the coordinates into her golden armor’s computer, causing a blue waypoint to appear on her heads-up display. She started off in that direction, only to stumble over another body. This one was a black pegasus stallion. Thunderlane…
She shook her head; there was no point in dwelling on it. After all, for him, the Great Journey had already begun, had it not? Besides, she still had herself to worry about. A human could pop out anywhere and ambush her while her guard was down.
She levitated a Kig-Yar’s needle rifle and removed its ammunition cartridge, then opened a section on her armor and inserted the ammo into the slot. With grim determination, she started off down the street. All the ponies who had died here had been under her command, and by Celestia, she was determined to see that their deaths would not be in vain.
Twilight Sparkle stopped at a bench and sat down. She had been walking for several hours and still had a significant distance left to go. What she wouldn’t give for a Spectre or a Revenant that moment… Heck, at this point, she’d even settle for a human vehicle. There were plenty of those lying around, but none of them appeared to be in working order. She sighed.
Her ears perked up. She’d heard something. It was a crunching sound, almost like… footsteps! Those were definitely footsteps she heard stepping through the gravel. Twilight leaped from her seat and hid behind one of the human civilian vehicles.
As she watched, she saw the distinct form of a human walk by. This human seemed different from the others, though. It wore dark-colored armor fitted with various accessories. The helmet looked tough, with a round gold-colored visor in front. As it walked away, Twilight realized she hadn’t been spotted. This meant it was easy pickings. She slowly eased out from her hiding spot and lined up a shot with the needle rifle mounted on her helmet. She pressed the button on the inside of her helmet’s bit with her tongue three times, sending a trio of needles out towards the unsuspecting foe.
To her surprise, the needles simply bounced off harmlessly as a golden shield surrounded the human, who whirled and let loose a barrage of gunfire with its assault rifle. Twilight dived back behind the vehicle. This was impossible! Since when do humans use personal shields?
She didn’t have long to dwell over it as an all-too-familiar blue glow landed in front of her: a plasma grenade. She threw up a magical shield just in time to protect herself as the grenade burst in a destructive flash of plasma. The force of the explosion sent the vehicle she’d been hiding behind flying in pieces. Twilight dashed down the street as the human resumed shooting, making sure to keep a magical shield over her backside. It wasn’t easy—the projectiles fired from the human’s weapon were powerful, and put a strain on her abilities. With a steady stream of them pouring out, she had to find cover soon. Noting that the nearest building’s corner was made of concrete, she ducked into the alleyway.
The alien stopped firing. She risked a glance around the corner, only to duck back behind as another spray of bullets streamed past. The human was approaching quickly; she had to think of something, and fast. She looked around for something to use. There was nothing but trash in the alleyway she was in; that would do her no good. She looked out into the street. There! On the other side was an upended vehicle. That, she could use. Flaring up her magic, she teleported across the street behind the vehicle.
She ducked down to see where her target was without giving her position away. Spotting the human, she began to envelop the car with a telekinetic hold. The human noticed the movement and turned to fire. However, only a clicking sound came from his weapon—it was empty. Grinning, Twilight threw the car at her foe. The armored being simply dropped its weapon and braced itself. Twilight gasped in shock as it caught the vehicle in its hands and casually tossed it aside.
As the creature pulled out its sidearm, Twilight once again took off running down the street. It fired several shots, each of which either missed or bounced off her shield. She grunted in frustration; while there wasn’t a steady stream of them, Twilight noticed that each the pistol’s shots actually put a bigger strain on her magical shield than those of the human’s rifle. At this rate, she wouldn’t last much longer. Risking a glance back, she saw the creature was actually gaining on her. That was impossible. No human could keep up with a pony… right?
The firing stopped. She turned her ears back, listening for a certain sound. She had trained to listen for certain sounds, even over the sounds running hooves and boots. It had served her well quite often, and was one reason why she was still alive. Sure enough, she heard it: a barely audible click, followed by softly scraping metal. The creature was reloading its weapon. This was her chance!
Dropping her shield, she charged her magic for another spell. With a flash, she vanished from the street and reappeared in the upper story of the nearest building. As her vision cleared, she unhooked the bit of her helmet and locked it in the standby position on the helmet’s side. She then started to take in her surroundings. Dust and debris was everywhere. The windows against the walls had shattered a long time ago—likely when the Covenant had first arrived. A staircase leading downstairs could be seen against the opposite wall. Her eyes began to adjust to the dimmer light, and she was able to see a number of shelves lined with objects. She barely stopped herself from gasping. Books, magazines, datapads, memory cores… she had just winked into a human library! Despite the mortal danger she was in, she couldn’t help but smile in excitement. She hadn’t been in a library of any kind since the day she left Equestria. She levitated a datapad off the nearest shelf and looked it over. She pressed the power button, and was mildly—and happily—surprised to find it still worked as a title screen appeared. Recalling her studies of human languages, she identified the language as “English”, the language most similar to Equestrian, and thus the first one most ponies learned. The title read: “Encyclopædia Britannica, 67th Edition –published 2528”. She turned the pad off and slipped it into a storage compartment inside her armor. That would provide some good reading later. She wished she could stay and browse the books more, but she had more important issues to deal with, not the least of which was that strange human outside.
From the periphery of her vision, she spotted an object fly through the window. She snapped her head around and spotted a human grenade land on the floor. She covered it with a shield just in time to block the explosion. She then heard the sound of heavy boots running up the stairs, and the human’s armored form rushed into view. Twilight took off running, and jumped through the window. She tucked herself up and came to a rolling landing on the street. As she stood, she heard splintering wood as the human also dived out the window and landed on its feet. Twilight started to run, but was forcefully knocked to the ground as the human tackled her from behind. It was then that she noticed just how impossibly heavy the human—or rather, the human’s armor—actually was. She struggled, but couldn’t move. The human wrapped one arm around her neck and grabbed her muzzle with its other hand. Realizing its intent, she immediately grabbed her muzzle in a telekinetic grip and fought the human’s attempts to twist her head backwards.
The human’s strength was incredible. It was taking nearly all of her magic to keep her head on straight. As her head started to turn, she realized she couldn’t keep up the struggle much longer. Desperately, she looked around for anything that would help. She saw plenty of debris and a few cars strewn about, but anything large enough to have an effect would require using more magic than she could afford without losing the struggle against the human’s mighty pull. Her mind raced as she shut her eyes from the strain. This is it, she thought. I’m going to die. This thing’s going to kill me.
Bright flashes of green filled her vision. Opening her eyes, she saw a group of four Unggoy firing in her direction. Specifically, they were firing at the monstrosity lying on top of her. The creature let go of her chin to grab it sidearm. This is my chance! she thought. She let loose a burst of magic, sending the creature tumbling off her and into the wall of the library.
Seeing a flash of gold in the claws of one of her rescuers, she leaped out of the way as it fired a volley of glowing green cylinders at the attacker. The creature lunged to the side and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the shots, which slammed into the wall and tore a gaping hole through it. The creature whipped out its sidearm, only to have it knocked out of its hand by a blast from Twilight’s horn. As the pistol went flying down the street, the creature paused for the briefest of moments. It then took off running down an alley next to the library just in time to avoid another fuel rod cannon blast. “We’ve got it on the run! Let’s move!” Twilight yelled as she took off running in pursuit, the Unngoy patrol flowing close behind.
As they emerged from the other side, Twilight looked around. She saw a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head, she saw the creature climb into a rugged-looking abandoned vehicle and start it up. She turned to an Unggoy wielding a plasma pistol. “Stop that vehicle,” she ordered. Nodding, the Minor charged up its weapon and let it loose. As the vehicle pulled out onto the street, the blast hit it square on, shutting it down with an electromagnetic pulse. The creature leaped out of its ride just in time to avoid being blown to bits as a fuel rod gun blast hit, destroying the truck in a ball of flame. The creature looked around, and then dashed across the street into a building. Her eyes shifted up to the sign above the entrance. Once again recalling her studies of human languages, she read it out loud: “Bob’s Gun Shop.” Realizing the meaning of the words, she yelled, “Oh, ponyfeathers. Take cover!”
She and her new underlings dived behind the charred remains of an armored human vehicle as shots rang out. One of her cohorts stood and pulled out a plasma grenade. With a yell, he threw it over the vehicle towards the enemy. Another shot rang out, and the grenade exploded in midair. “Well, that didn’t work,” he grumbled.
The Unggoy holding the fuel rod cannon stepped out and unleashed another volley of shots. These, too, were shot out of the air by the creature before another shot rang out and pierced the small soldier’s skull. As he fell, Twilight heard a high-pitched sound start coming out of his weapon. Twilight picked it up with her magic and hurled it at the creature’s position. With a burst of green, the weapon self-destructed, the explosion tearing out the front of the building. Flames raged out of control, heating up the ammunition stores within. Seconds later, the entire building exploded, the blast sending several adjacent structures crumbling to the ground as well.
“I think we got it,” Twilight gasped as the brief surge of adrenaline left her short of breath. More movement crossed the periphery of her vision. She turned her head and saw a violet shape approaching—a Phantom. “Oh, good; they must’ve seen the explosion,” she muttered. Moments later, the drop ship came to a stop over the middle of the street. With a sigh of relief, Twilight stepped out of her cover and stood beneath the Phantom’s gravity lift, followed closely by the three surviving Unggoy. As the lift pulled the four of them in, Twilight thought to herself, That was a close one. What kind of human was that? No, not a human— it was more like a demon…
With a loud hum, the Phantom took off to meet up with its command post. Back on the battlefield, the fire continued to smolder amidst the wreckage. A short distance from the flames, the rubble began to shift, followed by an armored hand bursting through.