//------------------------------// // Welcome home // Story: Halo: Equestria // by shenadri //------------------------------// It was a dark night, the wind blew over the trees , as the soldiers marched to the monotonous sound of their own footsteps , while civilians were walking to a hurried trot, trying to escape the horrors that were unleashed on the city that now burned in the valley, at the end of the line of refugees,one filly raised her head , looking down a shooting star that manifested itself on the dark smoke rising into the sky. Canterlot Castle, Equestria "Your Majesty , the city of Manehattan has fallen" Princess Luna simply sighed , 4 years since the war between griffinheim and Equestria had started, and steadily, the equestrians have been losing ground, and the griffons now controlled one of the important naval ports on the equestrian soil, the bountiful nation now torn apart by constant warfare, was almost irrecognizable, there were however, safe havens, at least for now: Canterlot, Ponyville and the outside of the Everfree forest being the only regions that have not yet fallen into enemy hands, however, the equestrians were losing this war, and sometimes Luna thanked the stars that Celestia hadn't surrendered yet. After the dissapeareance of Princess Twilight Sparkle and Applejack, there were a time of peace, however, after 13 years, all the other elements have been scaterred around the Equestrian territory, and then, the war started, nobody remembered how it began, but the first attack was on the city of baltimare, a complete fleet of griffon destroyers simply razed the city to the ground. "So many lost..." Luna muttered, remembering the aftermatch, however, one of the most haunting scenes still giving the princess of the night nightmares, the broken body in pink fur, extracted from below a building, Pinkie Pie was on the city as her traveling and smiling tour stravaganza was in town when the attack hit. She barely maded it, however, she couldn't walk anymore. After the initial attack, the crown had searched for all the remaining elements, the only one missing was the quiet animal caretaker, Fluttershy, when the soldiers arrived to the soft spoken pony cottage, they found it abandoned, nopony knowing where the animal caretaker has run to. Then, the war got worse. In just four years time, the war ravaged all of the outside of Equestria's borders, all the outer cities and towns easily overpowered or simply destroyed, all the remaining elements were to be kept in Canterlot for avoid more casualties, however, no word has come from the old allies of the ponies, and then the griffons had stated that they were openly working with the changelings to destroy the equine tiranny, or so they proclaimed. One by one, all the allies of the pony princesses witdrawn, leaving Equestria to its fate, the only ones that answered the summon were the Cristal Empire, and now they were under siege for two months. "Luna, this can't continue" a sophisticated voice rangs from the left, startling the alicorn, an alabaster pony surging from the shadows, her stilized purple mane and tail hanging out a set of ornate robes, signaling her as one of the magis court "I know Rarity, but my sister is right, we can't surrender, because we haven't done anything wrong!" the lunar alicorn exclaimed, stomping her hooves on the ground, cracking the tiles of the throne room under the amazing force and frustration the alicorn put in the action. "I know darling, but we don't have the resources or the pony power to stop them" the ex fashionista said, raising her own hooves in a placating manner, after being rescued from a hostage attempt, Rarity had spend all of her remaining fortune as a fashionista, trying to help hospitals, orphanages and even some war companies, from all the remaining elements, she was the only one wich had actively participated or helped the war, even Rainbow Dash, who was forcefully expelled from the wonderbolts due to security reasons, was now wandering out in the castle, a husk of her former self, however, if the fashionista was right, the ex wonderbolt would be near the barracks, trying to help or to be "loyal" to the soldiers. Pinkie Pie, being her own weird pony, had been helping out, trying to put together as many parties or gatherings to help boost the morale, also trying to defeat her own disability with a bright smile and a few comfort words to anypony who was near her, however, the white pony know better, and the pink party pony was as devastated as anypony else, and she was feeling the most useless of all of them, not being capable of even stand and help out being on a weelchair. "We now are on faust's hands darling..." the white mare concluded, rising her head and looking past the moon princess, and ont the brilliant star falling from the sky. "...And we need a miracle" UNSC Harmony, above Equis orbit "Im bored" one distorted voice said, after a while, a brilliant dot of light appearing suddenly, tearing appart the darkness on the empty cockpit, after a couple of seconds, a little humanoid figure appears,monitoring via screen one of the two capsules in the back room of the ship, both of them emiting a annoying beep sound, meaning its occupants are alive. "Cut it out Dusk," another voice exclaimed, and then a second figure stands out, this one being a femenine one, "they need to be on cryo untill we arrive" the female said, crossing her arms over her chest, "also we need to check all the tech that the humans and Halsey give to us." "but that's it, Seed, why the humans helped Warlock and Cowgirl out of the blue, giving them the terapy and augments of the spartans, an even Halsey trying to replicate the Cortana protocol with us, thanks to Twilight giving her the missing algorithm to avoid rampancy..." Dusk says, looking over the other AI. "Because, thanks to Twilight and Applejack, the second reckoning was avoided, also, they promised to talk to their leaders so the UNSC could get a foothold on a new habitable planet, also one with aliens that doesn't want to exterminate all life in the universe due to a religious missconception" Seed droned for the thousand time to the newer AI, "Besides, thanks to the position as Princess, Twilight could help the UNSC to gain some valuable knowledge and advantage over the remaining flood and forerunner tech, due to her inventions and her investigation mixing magic and technology... Dusk, come on, we already had this conversation like 3 million times before!" the orange AI exclaimed. "Yeah, yeah, anyhow, we arrived" the other AI replied, raising his hand, and at the same time, lifting the heavy duty protective curtains and flooding the cockpit with light, also starting the awakening process on the two passengers of the modified cruiser. quickly transporting himself and her disgruntled companion towards the cryogenic bay, both AI's waited for the capsules to open, revealing a pair of ponies, however, they were changed, loosing they cuadrupedal instance, instead, being bipedal, their front hooves changed to hands, the first one to be awaken was Dusk's owner, Princess Twilight Sparkle, codename: Warlock. "Ugh... my head," the purple alicorn said, lifting an armored hand, trying to shield the piercing light of the cryogenic bayfrom her sensitive eyes, "what the fuck happened?" "Hey boss," chirped Dusk, "we finally arrived to Equis" Those words snapped the Alicorn fully awake, she stepped out the cryopod, looking herself over, her bulky Spartan VI E armor in pristine condition, as always, next to her cryopod, a weapon rack with a MA5D assault rifle and her reliable Norfang Sniper was on standby, gearing up, she turned around, only to quickly dodge out as the other pod's door literally came out of its hinges, a powerfull leg coiling down after an allmighty buck. "Damn it all, those bucking doors always jammed on me" a sleepy southern drawl was heared, as the other occupant, a behemoth clad on Spartan VI assault armor, stepped down of the cryopod. "Applejack, for Celestia's sake, I always had to repair that fucking door" Twilight cried on dismay, looking the bent piece of metal that a moment ago was a twelve inches thick sealing reinforced door. "Relax Twi," the farmer said, waving a hand off "however, whats up Seed" the ex farmer said, peeking out the open door near the cargo bay, wich was next to the cryo station. "All systems on the UNSC Harmony are full operational, the ammo factory and the stasis shield are online, all the systems are fully functional, the medical bay is in top shape, the spartan armor assembly line is operational, all robots are in their posts, the fuel station sustained slight damage, but that was due to a two ton door slaming one alimentation pipe near the cryo chambers, the two longswords, the pelicans, the scorpion tanks and the warthogs in the hangar bay are ready and primmed for use..." Applejack quickly drowned down her AI's voice, moving to the cockpit and looking down the blue and green planet, after a while, a purple graunlet came to the farmer's shoulder, taking her out of her daydreaming. "We made it, Applejack," a trembling voice said, turning around, Applejack looked to a unhelmeted Twilight, tears on the face of the princess. "We are home."