//------------------------------//
// Conciliatory Apothem 
// Story: Halo: Equus 
// by AK Yearling 
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	Princess Celestia's brow furrowed as she read the note from her student and her friends. It wasn't uncommon for Twilight to send her letters detailing the new catastrophe to plague Ponyville -- albeit, nine times out of ten it was just that she had forgotten there was rain scheduled for that day or something of that ilk, but on occasion it warranted some attention. For the most part, she could just let Twilight's friends handle the situation -- but this time it actually required her immediate supervision. Alien contact -- hostile alien contact at that -- could not go unremarked. As she rose, rolling the note up, she quietly hoped to herself that this was just one of Rainbow Dash's pranks gone awry, or the age-old standby, Discord.

"Oh, no such luck, I'm afraid." 

That voice. She sighed. "Hello, Discord."

"Oh, yes, hello. As I was saying, no such luck. I had no paw, hoof, claw or talon to play in this, though I certainly wonder how I didn't manage to think of it. Aliens! I shudder to think..." He smiled coyly.

"Of course. You'll understand my suspicions, I trust."

"Suspicions? You're suspicious of moi?!" With a snap, he was clothed in horizontally striped black and white clothes. "I'm innocent! INNOCENT!" He was dragged out the door by invisible guards. As the door slammed behind him, she felt his claw on her shoulder. He clicked his tongue like one would click at a filly who wasn't behaving herself. "Such a shame when the good ones go bad. You know, it's always the quiet ones..." His head pulled over toward Celestia's other ear, "we should keep an eye on Fluttershy. I think Angel is a bad influence."

"I really do not have time for this, Discord."

"Oh, but you do! It would take you at least an hour to get to Ponyville by carriage, and we both know that in your condition, you shouldn't be teleporting anywhere on your own power. You play a little game with me, and I'll have you there half an hour before you would have been otherwise," he smiled widely, "then everybody wins!"

"My condition, Discord, is not your concern." She felt the fury of the sun bubbling through the soft glow of her corona. I must not let him irk me. I must not let him win.

"I've already won, Celestia, and you know it." He chuckled.

Horseapples. I forgot he can do that.

"Which gave me a profound advantage, I assure you." He floated, upside-down, between the chandeliers of the throne room, doing a figure eight. "Don't worry, getting a rise out of you was all I really wanted." 

Discord held out a claw and snapped his fingers. Everything spun for a second, and Celestia worried that she might throw up. Her composure held, if only barely, and she blinked in the light of her Sun. Looking around, she found herself just on the outskirts of Ponyville. 

"I'd have gotten you closer," the draconequus' voice was ethereal, his body absent, "but my wonderful new friend Twilight Sparkle put up a barrier spell that won't let me teleport inside Ponyville. It's bothersome to say the least. I don't suppose you could lower --"

"No, Discord. I will walk."

"Oh." He groaned, sticking his bottom lip out before lazily floating after her. "You're a party-pooper. Did anyone ever tell you that?"

It was some time before the unlikely duo arrived at the Ponyville Library. Twilight, upon answering the door, was ecstatic.

"Princess Celestia! I'm so glad you could make it, please come in!" She bowed several more times than was necessary, ushering her mentor into the main room where the rest of the Elements were. "We're all here to try and figure out what to do with the aliens."

"Yes, about that," Celestia started, "I think there's something you need to see."

"Oh! There's something you need to see too, Princess. Rol, come out here, would you?"

There was a loud grunt, followed by several loud pounding footsteps. Suddenly, one of the doors near the back of the room nearly flew from its hinges. The eight and a half foot tall behemoth stood just a hop skip and a trot away from Celestia, towering an entire head above her. 

"Oh, my," the Princess said in a hushed voice, her face showing mild concern, "hello, there."

The Elite turned his head toward her, his saurian eyes darting to and fro as he regarded her. His only response was a curt but respectful nod of the head before turning around back into the room from which he had just emerged.

Twilight beamed, "He loves reading, Princess. I haven't been able to get him out of the Equestrian History archive all day!"

Assimilation of culture. Step one to an invasion; know your enemy. Of course, he could also be curious. Who am I to judge? "Well, Twilight, given the nature of the day's events, I think there's something about Ponyville that you should know. There is a reason why you were sent here instead of a different town. You should follow me."

"Who's going to watch after Rol while I'm gone?"

"Oh," the Princess smiled and looked at Fluttershy, who softly pleaded for mercy. The Princess ignored the demure pegasus' pleas, saying "Fluttershy has a knack with all things that aren't ponies. She should be fine!" The entire group, minus the Elite and the yellow pegasus, filed out in the Princess' wake. Where they were going, nobody seemed to know. "So, Twilight, your letter mentioned two aliens... I believe I have met one, but what about the other?"

"Well, he kind of..."

"He smashed a chair and stormed off." Rainbow Dash's typically brief description left much to be desired, Celestia was sure, but was concise enough to give a basic picture. 

"We'll just have to deal with that in a bit, I suppose." They eventually made their way to Ponyville's town hall, but instead of going to Mayor Mare's office like usual, they headed to the basement. It smelled strongly of mildew, and decades of old documents crowded the walls. Celestia hummed a bit, looking intensely at one of the back walls. 

For just a moment, the other ponies in the room thought that she had lost her mind, but just before Rainbow Dash was about to speak up, the Princess stepped forward with a jubilant little "ah!" and pulled one of the scrolls from a rack near the corner. She swiftly cast it aside and smiled, staring at the wall. Again, just when everyone was almost sure the Princess had lost her mind, the group was silenced. A segment of the wall began to glow bright blue. It was unlike any kind of magic that Twilight had ever seen. The segment that was glowing sunk backward before sliding off to the right, revealing in its place a door of metal and glass featuring angular shapes that weren't present in any Equestrian architecture that Twilight had ever heard of. There was a small cross in the middle of the door that glowed red.

"This door," Celestia started, "was discovered when I began scouting for the new capital of Equestria after Luna's little... incident... and the crew had started to lay foundation. No magic or implement could even damage it, and it has never been opened. All that we know is that its origin is extra-equestrian. I think that one or both of our new acquaintances might be able to shed some light on this. Girls," she turned, suddenly seeming very somber, "this might be the most important discovery in pony history."

Twilight nearly collapsed as her legs quivered. Such knowledge was so close, yet so far from her grasp. With his thirst for knowledge, she figured that Rol was by far the best choice. He would want to be a part of this, she was certain.

"This is ridiculous!" Discord's voice filled the cavern, and everypony in the room groaned. The draconequus materialised next to the Princess with his talon and paw at his hips. "If you had some secret door you couldn't open, why didn't you just call me? My magic is the most powerful to ever exist, save of course for the Elements of Harmony. I can have this open in a jiffy!" He smiled and cracked his knuckles. He stared daggers at the door and snapped fingers on all three of his arms at once. He didn't even know where that third arm came from, but it couldn't hurt.

The small cross in the middle of the door flickered from red to blue rapidly for a few seconds before settling on green. With a hiss, it slid open. In front of them was a long hallway, another identical door at the end with a green cross. 

"See, that wasn't so ha--" Discord was cut off when a blue beam of light struck him in the face, knocking him back suddenly. 

"Halt!" A tinny, metallic voice rang out. "Explain yourself! You're intruding on a very important experiment!" Through the door, a little metal ball came floating. It zapped Discord again as he stood up. Nopony stopped it.

After staggering up again, Discord turned to the little ball and snapped his fingers. Nothing happened.

"I have stunted your telepathic abilities. Explain your intrusion in my installation this instant!"

"Exactly who are you?!" Discord growled.

"Zero-Zero-One Point Six-Four Conciliatory Apothem. I am the monitor of this installation, and you are intruding on very important research. This experiment is nearing completion, and must not be tampered with!"

Celestia giggled at the strange little object. "Well, this was worth the wait!"





Linda rolled in her bunk restlessly. This wasn't the first nightmare she had experienced since the incident on Reach that had left her nearly dead. She still saw the gaping maw of a Zealot leaning in for the kill before John's hand entered her view, grabbing one of the beast's four jaws and snapping it backward. The appendage hung limply as blood poured from the creature's mouth and it screamed the blood-curdling call of an injured Sangheili. Only a fraction of a second later, an energy sword severed the beast's head, and it came to rest, still twitching, just a few inches from Linda's helmet. She tried to scream, but her lips wouldn't move.

There were two loud bangs on her door, and she shot up in her bunk, drenched with sweat, and grabbed her pistol in a fluid motion. Two steps had her at the door, and she nearly broke its servos as she flung it open much faster than it was designed to do. She aimed the pistol, put her finger on the trigger, and -- stopped. The barrel of her weapon was two inches from Lt. Commander Lee's nose.

"Commander?" She shook her head, tossing the pistol down onto the floor of her cabin, and walked over to her bunk again. She grabbed her helmet, which was sitting on the ground next to the head of the bunk, and twisted it on. "Sorry about that. Reflexes. They're ... a bit heightened." She managed a chuckle. "What is it, Xiu?"

"That's just it, Captain," he said after swallowing the frog in his throat, "I don't know. None of us do. We had predicted a time correction of two years to our destination, but we just dropped out of slip space... we're in orbit right now."

"That isn't possible, Commander. We must be at the wrong coordinates."

"Helm and navigation have both recalculated several times. Either the galaxy reorganized itself, or we're here."

She stood, reaching her full in-armor height of seven feet. "Well, then, let's see what we're up against." She fell in line next to the commander, and they began the walk toward the bridge. 

"Permission to speak, ma'am?" He asked tentatively after a few tense minutes.

"Just talk, Xiu." She sighed. She really hated command.

"You were covered in sweat, ma'am. That wasn't reflexes. I'm sorry if I scared you, but I want to make sure you're alri--"

"Commander," she interrupted curtly but quietly, "as I stated before, you startled me and my reflexes took over. Anything you think you saw was just the product of your imagination. I suggest you drop it."

"Of course, understood. That being said, I like to consider myself your friend as well as your Lt. Commander; I'm no Spartan, but I'll do whatever I can."

"Appreciated, Commander." She nodded to him as they walked through the door onto the bridge. She stared through the glass at a planet not unlike Earth. Blue-green atmosphere, extensive oceans, green continents, and swirling weather systems. Idyllic. "Sensor report?"

"Ideal," The Two for Flinching's resident squint, Doctor Ludmila Akulov, read aloud from the console. Her accent was standard midwest. She'd grown up on Harvest, and like many of its residents, actually had mostly American heritage. Her family had, according to her, immigrated from Russia to the United States during the First Cold War in the 20th Century. Her surname, and the tradition of Russian given names, had been passed down the line. "in fact, it's ideal in every way. The atmosphere is almost identical to 20th century Earth, the oceans have a perfect saline hypertonicity for the sustenance of Earth oceanic creatures, and most strangely, every point on its surface, with a margin of error less than twenty kilometers, is equidistant from its center. This planet is, astronomically, as close to a perfect sphere as possible. It's uncanny."

"What does that mean, Doctor?"

"It means that either this planet is the most amazing astronomical oddity ever discovered, or..." she trailed off.

"Say again, Doctor?"

"Ma'am. I believe that this planet is artificial in nature."