//------------------------------// // Arriving to Canterlot // Story: Halo: Equestria // by shenadri //------------------------------// Canterlot castle, two days later "You mean that," Celestia calmly said, looking to her counselor, Raven, "a whole battalion of soldiers and survivors of Manehattan simply disappeared." The statement came with heavy silence, when the tired eyes of the day princess came up, her trusty advisor was averting her gaze, ashamed. "Yes your highness, apparently, there were somekind of scruffle near the mountains, our intelligence found some wreckage that is being transported by train as we speak, also, we found some type of weird tracks leading us further into the mountains and near the town of Hollow Shades, however, we found massive burnt marks, over two hundred meters, on the ground placed evenly, and then... nothing." Before any of the two ponies could come to say another word, one of the palace soldier's came barreling trough, a look of pure fear on his face. "Your majesty, you need to see this!" the panicked soldier stated, gripping his lance with fear, when the alabaster alicorn went to one of the windows, her eyes bulged out, flying towards Canterlot , there was a steel monstrosity. "Mother of me." the princess said, looking to the flying machine slowly coming towards Canterlot, it was huge, if the princess could guess, because of the distance, It was at least half a kilometer long, painted black with white stripes, one white shield with an eagle angling its head left behind the letters UNSC was seen, also she could read the word "harmony" on white, blocky letters in the hull of the ship, six huge engines were moving the huge ship towards the city, also aided by little engines on it's belly, also there were two little ships "scorting" the metal behemoth, one of them was one old airship of the equestrian navy by the looks of it, the other one also was an alien design. After observing the strange phenomenon for a while, the princess turned her head, and addressing the soldier who reported the sighting of the ship, she proceeded to give him new orders. "Everyone please remain calm, apparently there is a ship of our armed forces escorting that ... thing to us, give the order to clear an area near the mountain of at least one kilometer, and someone please wake my sister, apparently we have visitors" the alabaster alicorn added, wrinkling her nose in frustration. 'What is happening now' the princess thought bitterly 'first we are at war and now we have an strange ship approaching Canterlot after some refugees dissapeareance, I really hope we can survive', turning around to the corridor, she just stared, at the end of the hallway, one big picture with one familiar purple alicorn, surrounded by her friends, was hanging as a reminder of the loss of their newest princess all those years ago. 'I wonder', Celestia mused, looking to the picture, still in her sour mood,'what would you do in my situation, Twilight.' Approaching the picture, she simply stared, lifting one hoof and touching the picture. 'Because I am loosing hope.' Near Canterlot mountain, half an hour later To say that the nobles of the city of Canterlot had curiosity was an understatement , after the appearance of the mysterious ship " Harmony " over the airspace of Equestria, however, the crown had been cautious, and they had forbidden the access to the site where the steel behemoth was aproaching, also the palace had sent a contingent of pegasus to find at least the wereabouts of the small airship that accompanied the huge black behemoth, after approaching , one of the pegasus saw with relief, the veteran captain Swift Wing on the bow of the airship, talking to a strange square device he held in his hooves. "OK , Warlock , now I need you to turn at least twenty degrees to port to avoid crashing with the mountainside, even better, can you remind me why Cowgirl is flying the Pelican if she is a better pilot that you?" "I was wondering the same thing," an static voice replied, amused, "But at least she can stop the count on how many ships she had destroyed while flying, I am pretty sure that she can't destroy the frigate." "Hardly har har," another voice replied after a while, "I need to remember you both that I am transporting civilians here, and that we have open channel communications in the frigate, so you both aren't helping to ease their worries with your comfort words, also, LT, you have friendlies coming to your ship." "Roger that, Warlock, and thanks for giving us these communication devices, they are more reliable than messages via magician, that's for sure. Steel Wing, over," turning around, he saluted the air corp soldier, which now was a little intrigued by the fragment of the conversation that he had listened. "Attention soldier," Swift Wing ordered, bringing the newcomer from his stupor , making a quick salute, the new pegasus waited orders, without questioning his superior, "we need to clear an area big enough to help that ship with the landing, plus, we need medical personnel and at least fifty other guards to direct civilians towards the capital, understood?" "Sir, yes sir!" pegasus replied, "Sir , permission to speak freely " "Granted , soldier " Swift Wing replied, moving a wing dissmisively, as he pulled a pair of binoculars and began to check for an appropriate landing area. "What the hell is that ship, sir, and why we need doctors in the landing zone?" the soldier asked, giving a stare to his superior officer. "That, soldier, is the UNSC Harmony, a ship that was given to my niece, who apparently came sent by divine providence to get us out of a very messy problem with the invaders," Swift Wing answered, looking foward, trying to spot a landing zone "now, why the doctors, you ask? well, as I understood , they have the capacity of medical facilities, but the ship has no staff to treat her at the moment." he simply replied, again looking foward. "Understood, sir, and welcome back home" the pegasus replied, before taking flight again to carry out his orders. However, a prismatic flyer shot past the airship, going instead for the huge vessel suspended in midair, curious, the seasoned warhorse pulled again the binoculars. 'I need to see this, what are you going to do, brainy grape?' he wondered, chuckling. UNSC Harmony Bridge Twilight was in pain, after loading the survivors in the hangar , making sure they could not access to weapons and vehicles kept inside the monstrous ship, she proceeded to try to get the ship to its destination , however several survivors began to fill the gaps of the crew, cooking, cleaning , and generally maintaining order inside the aircraft , therefore, the Spartan was enormously grateful to them, however , two of the ponies which stood out, according the former librarian, were Blue Cross, a medical unicorn, and Mighty Shield , another unicorn wich apparently was a war veteran, were the ones that lead the other ponies in the frigate, also, Blue Cross, being a medical pony, have helped to calm down the older ponies and thanks to the stories told by Mighty Shield, Twilight wasn't using her personal colection of old human videos to keep the little ones entretained. A sudden tap on the reinforced glass windows make the spartan to stop daydreaming, however, a grasp escaped her lips when she saw who was behind the glass. "Howdy there, stranger, do you need any help?" Rainbow said, cocking her head, unknown to her, Twilight shed a lone tear of happiness. And the idea finally registered on her head. She finally was home.