Vanguard

by Material Defender

Unexpected Arrival

"Urgh." Matias Orion let out an unintelligible grunt as he picked up his head, looking around the wrecked cockpit of his crashed fighter. There were alarms going off, their shrill sounds the only complement to the flickering controls.

"Undetected, my ass," he muttered under his breath. He took stock of his cockpit. Pretty much everything was smashed, save for his own equipment lockbox. His omnitool, thankfully, was intact. And after a few active checks on his L5n implants, was sure that he was still combat-capable as a Vanguard. His head throbbed painfully, but that was par for the course, crash-landing a fighter.

He couldn't make out anything beyond the fighter's crashed cockpit glass; it was covered in dirt. He slammed the release button and the hatch explosively opened.

He brought a hand over his eyes as the bright sun crashed through his rebreather helmet, the glare reflecting off of his own N7 heavy armor. He looked around. The planet was surprisingly green, and had... breatheable air... and TREES! Now that was surprising. He'd been on Mako runs before on Alliance patrols; most planets tended to not have--

Wait. It could be possible that he crash-landed on a planet listed as off-limits by the Citadel Council. If this was true, they might be willing to overlook his transgression, given his situation, but...

It didn't matter. Not while the Reapers were out there.

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Orion was stationed with Admiral Hackett's fleet when the Reapers struck Earth. They had little to no warning as huge percentages of the fleet were smashed through in a matter of minutes, despite their heightened readiness. He himself had little to no time to deploy; it didn't take long before the battle went beyond south and Hackett ordered a full retreat, leaving Earth to fend for itself.

The initial decision was met with reluctance, and eventually anger as Alliance soldiers realized that they had just been ordered to leave their homeworld to die. There was a lot of talk of deserting, even mutiny, but they were soon quashed by Hackett himself as he issued a fleet-wide transmission: they had found plans for a Prothean superweapon that could defeat the Reapers, and all resources were to be immediately diverted to building it. Dislike him as much as he'd like, Orion needed to give Hackett credit: the man was practically a walking and talking wall of steel, and everyone followed his orders.

The soldiers, despite their grumblings, knew that complaining would solve nothing. They knew full well after seeing what happened in orbit above Earth that they couldn't stand a chance against the Reapers conventionally. So they picked up their tools and started construction; anybody who could hold a tool was thrown into the project. Morale was boosted after it was stated that the legendary Commander Shepard himself would be rallying the Council races to war against the Reapers, and to provide much needed resources for this new project, dubbed the Crucible.

However, Orion, and the other N7 operatives that were still alive, were needed to hold back the Reaper tide as long as they could, wherever they could. Many times, he found himself working alongside other N7 operatives and even Council special forces, like the famous Asari commandos, Salarian STG, Turians, and even Krogan, Quarians, and Drell. They held off the tide against the Reapers, rogue Geth, and even Cerberus (where they had gotten enough soldiers to march in full force Orion had no idea).

But on this particular op, after weeks of fighting and severe casualties, Orion was deployed, alone.

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He jumped out of the cockpit and surveyed the rest of his surroundings. He began an omnitool scan of this world to at least try to get what he could out of it.

Well, for one, it was breatheable. Orion took off his helmet and took in a deep breath. The air was fresh, fresher than anything he'd even inhaled before. Or maybe it was because he was just happy to be out of a metal coffin. Further information revealed that this world was very much like Earth, with mountains, rivers, clouds, and obviously, the trees. Actually, almost exactly like Earth, now that he thought about it.

He ran a hand through his short-cut brown hair. Looking in the reflection of the cockpit's glass, he noticed that most of his facial features seemed intact, stubble and all. He held the gaze of his own brown eyes momentarily before looking away. The wind swayed his hair a bit, but it was otherwise quiet, aside from some birds chirping.

"Hmm, that's strange..." The Omnitool began giving off weird readings. There was some strange type of Element Zero on this planet that Orion wagered that no species had ever seen before, and in rather insane amounts. It looked like the deposits were untouched, and were so abundant, it permeated the air itself. He wasn't sure what would happen if he was hopped up on Eezo, though, so he put his helmet back on, sealing it with a hiss, just in case. He could scan if the airborne Eezo could affect him, but that would take too much time right now.

He'd made a note of that, but now he had to take stock.

He pulled his lockbox out of his cockpit, but not without difficulty. The box, labeled with a serial number and the N7 logo on it, was huge, and locked to the immediate right of his seat.

"Damn techs..." he muttered as he dropped the huge box with a thud on the ground.

He waved his omnitool over the box and the locks popped with a hiss. He surveyed the contents of the matte-black box:

An M920 Cain. Well, it was a deep-strike mission, heavy ordnance was expected.

An N7 Crusader shotgun. His loyal N7 weapon, with years of service under the belt.

An M-99 Saber semi-automatic rifle. His own, actually, he was actually quite the sharpshooter with it.

And an M-5 Phalanx. His trusted sidearm. There were still scuffs on it from battles past.

Given his operative nature, this was a lot to arm a Vanguard for this mission. But he was given much promise by the techs that they had replaced as much as possible with lightweight materials and refitted heatsink mechanics. They can all fire indefinitely, but they had to cool down if fired for too much, much like the retrograde weapons they had during the Saren incident. Orion didn't mind, it saved him the trouble of running out of thermal clips, which were already a dwindling commodity in deep-strike missions. The weight promise certainly came through; he could walk around at full speed, even faster, which would help a lot with cooling down his implant abilities.

He holstered his weapons, and after making sure he had everything he needed, he checked his mission computer.

This wasn't the world he was supposed to be on, that was for sure. He flipped open his omnitool, and found that his intended target was... nowhere? He double checked again. His omnitool couldn't get access to the Alliance database. That was strange. Did something happen en route to his destination? Maybe that was how he crashed. He was being followed by those damn orb-fighter things (Oculus, the reports called them) that the Reapers seemed to have in spades. His fighter was armed with an experimental FTL drive for solo missions deep within Reaper territory. He distinctly remembered taking an engine hit just as the drive activated. Maybe it destabilized the drive and threw him... somewhere else. The following engine failure forced him to land on this planet.

It was just supposed to be another mission, damnit, another trek deep into enemy territory, another few months spent eating crap just to get the chance to maybe die a little later than usual. Reaper hotspots, Geth nodes, Cerberus bases; each and every one after the other, no downtime, no rest, not until he was dead. But his former standard objective of infiltration, elimination, and information retrieval had suddenly been shot down.

The fact of the matter was: he was now stuck on a planet that may or may not have natives that have access to interstellar travel technology, and even if they did, he can't just up and go anywhere without the coordinates of his current location, which he couldn't get because he couldn't access the database. Otherwise he'd be floating around in space like a sitting duck. So he essentially couldn't do ANYTHING.

He frowned. "Damn. Failed the mission before I even got there... shit."

He mentally kicked himself as he'd just realized that he'd been standing here for too long. N7 training had taught him that you never leave yourself in the open for too long, especially after a loud crash, and he'd done exactly that. Seeing that he was surrounded by trees, he immediately began for the dense forest that seemingly encircled his landing zone.

To the natives, it was known as the Everfree Forest.

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"Hey, Twilight!" said Rainbow Dash, flying in through the treehouse's front door. "You gotta come with me! I saw an explosion near the Everfree forest!"

"That's dangerous, Dash. Maybe we should--"

"No way! We gotta check it out! Come on, come on, please!"

Twilight sighed. "Alright. But I'm sending a letter off to Princess Celestia first, just in case. We don't know what it is yet."

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This place was dark, Orion noted. Really dark. He could barely make out any of the ground features. He stumbled over a root a few times.

He readied his shotgun. He didn't like this place. It was like something was watching him...

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Deep within the recesses of her own mind, Nightmare Moon awoke.

Someone new was here. Someone she could use...

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"What the HELL!" Orion shouted, sprinting through the forest. There was someone--someTHING--chasing him. It looked like some mix of an assload of animals back on Earth; what was the word for it? A Chimera? Yeah, he'll call them that. He fired off his Crusader a few times to no avail. This thing wasn't having any of it.

"Shit!" he shouted as he ran through the forest. His arms glowed as he readied a Pull ability. Maybe if this worked...

"Better... than... nothing!" he shouted as he pointed his arm at the creature. Surprisingly, given the mass and size of the creature, it started to float.

"Yes! How do you like me now, asshole?!" He spun around and readied Incendiary Ammo for his Shotgun. "Burn, sucker!" He unloaded into the monster; the shots tore through the flesh, much to Orion's amusement.

The beeping noise and hissing sound of his weapon indicated that he needed to let it cool down. The Pull field faded, and the monster flopped to the ground in a bloody mess. He noticed a clearing and sprinted for it. Now he could finally get out of this--

Aw, damn it. He was back where he started. He'd ended up going in a circle.

"Huh?" He noticed two... things... examining his crashed fighter, who had just turned to him as he entered the clearing. Two... colorful... ponies?

"Huh?" he spouted back, panting. He pointed his Crusader at them. "I don't know who are you, but get away from the wreckage! Do it, or I'll shoot!"

The ponies seemed to give looks of fear on their faces as they slowly backed away from the jet. They seemed to understand him, at least.

Orion couldn't freaking believe this. Ponies. Colorful ponies. And a Chimera. Are there Thresher Maws now, too? His mind was in a torrent of thoughts as he still had his gun raised to them. N7 training doesn't cover in-depth interactions with other species, unfortunately.

"Um... hello... uh, my name is Twilight--" said the purple one as she slowly walked towards him.

"WHOA. STOP. RIGHT. THERE. You can TALK?"

"Um, yes."

There was silence for a moment. "Who are you and where am I?" Orion asked, his voice echoing through his helmet.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend Rainbow Dash." She gestured towards the rainbow-maned pony with wings. "And you're in Equestria!"

Equestria. Equine. Orion didn't study animal anatomy in school, but he could piece two and two together. This was some Planet of the Ponies stuff going on here or something.

"Right... Equestria..." he muttered, lowering his weapon. "Listen, I just need to find a way off this planet. I need to get somewhere else and I need to do it soon."

"Is that what this thing was for?" Dash pointed to the fighter.

"Yeah... well, it's smashed now," shrugged Orion. "Can't use it."

"What in hay are you, anyway?" asked Dash.

"I'm... a human. A human soldier. What are you?"

"I'm a pegasus, dummy." Orion took further notice of her wings. Flying ponies. Fantastic.

"Right..." Well, these ponies were smaller than him. And they didn't seem harmful. Or out for blood. He holstered his Crusader and approached them, hand out for a shake. "I'm Matias Orion. You can just call me Orion, it's what my friends do."

Twilight shook his hand using her... hoof? "Pleasure to meet you, Orion." Dash stepped in quickly afterwards and did the same, nearly tripping him in the process.

"So... what are you again?" she asked.

"I'm a human. Uh, you know what that is, right?" They shook their heads. "Well, consider this your first interaction with an extraterrestrial species."

Twilight seemed piqued by this, but decided not to push the issue at the moment.

"We should head back to town before more things show up," she said. She must have heard the commotion in the forest. "We can talk more there."

"Uh, sure. Is it okay to just leave my crash sitting here like this?" Orion asked. The fighter's engine was still smoking. "I'll just vent the systems and shut it down..." He leaned into the cockpit and pushed a few buttons. The engine gave a whir, then went silent, and the smoke disappeared.

He hopped off the side of the fighter, closing the glass hatch, and after a long look at the surroundings, he sighed. "Lead on, Miss... uh, Twilight."

The trio ventured off towards Ponyville.

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Celestia was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming. Standing in a dark, dark room, she turned, and saw it.

Nightmare Moon. Her form was huge and her power immense. She walked slowly towards Celestia.

Celestia couldn't scream. She couldn't use her powers. She could do nothing but shrivel in fear as Nightmare Moon approached her.

Then she saw it. Something appeared in front of her, holding some strange weapon in his right hand and glowing with an eerie blue energy. He vanquished Nightmare Moon using his fearsome power and turned towards her, towering above her and watching her through his helmet. His armor was black, bulky in size. He had blue trim on his armor, with what appeared to be a triangle on his right shoulder, with white line trim.

The last thing Celestia remembered before waking up was an inscription on his upper-right torso armor.

N7, written in white letters, with a red triangle at the bottom right corner.

And then she noticed a letter from Twilight sitting right next to her. Opening it, she was interested by this sudden incident of an unexplained explosion in the forest. Perhaps her dream and the explosion weren't entirely unrelated...

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"So... wait... where are we again?" Orion was sitting in Twilight's treehouse, with a cup of tea in front of him. He had taken off his helmet, and after scanning that the tea was indeed free of poison, had taken a liking to it. However, he did have a bit of hard time trying to sit down in his rather bulky armor.

He had been making conversation with Twilight, while Dash's eyes were seemingly stuck on taking in every detail of his armor, especially the parts where they glowed.

"You're in Ponyville, Orion."

"Pony... ville..." he repeated, taking a sip. He figured he shouldn't be surprised. This planet was seemingly inhabited by talking ponies. It was as if somebody took the rainbow and painted this world with every kind of color imaginable. It felt odd compared to the dull colors of homeworld Earth. "Sorry, it's just that I'm having trouble... getting used to, uh, talking ponies." He looked over his shoulders as Dash started poking at the glowing lights on his back.

"It's okay. You're new around here."

"NEW?! SOMEONE NEW?!" you hear someone shout from outside. This new pink pony pokes her head in through the door and lets out a loud gasp. "SOMEONE. NEW." Her fuzzy pink hair seemed to jump as if for emphasis.

"Hey, Pinkie Pie." Orion gave Twilight a look. Their names were about as strange as Hanar soul names. "This is Matias Orion. You can call him Orion for short."

"Well, NICE TO MEET YA, ORION!" She had closed the distance from the door to his face in about one second, which caused Orion to jump back. "You know what this calls for? A PARTY!" She skipped out the door.

"She's... uh... cheery."

Twilight giggles. "Yeah, she's Ponyville's resident party thrower. She gives everyone new in a town a welcoming party."

"Even for me?" Orion was surprised.

"Yes, even for you," Dash joked. "Everyone gets one, whether they like it or not."

Twilight and Orion started talking about Equestria, the Princesses, and the day-night cycle...

"Whoa, hold on. You mean the sun and moon have to be raised and lowered manually?"

"Yes." Orion had a shocked look on his face. "I take it that doesn't happen in your world?"

"Well, no. They do it on their own..."

His stomach grumbled, and Orion took that as a sign that it's time to finally pop some MREs.

"Hungry?" Twilight asked. He just nodded and made for his bag, which he'd brought with him from the fighter. He took out what appeared to be a cylindrical tube and popped open the lid, and proceeded to drinking from it.

"Uh, what is that?" asked a curious Twilight.

He swallowed hard. "Ugh. Military rations. They're far from fantastic, and taste like crap, but it gets the job done." He downed another gulp and finished the rest. "There. Good until my next meal."

"That's not going to work out very well..."

"Hey, Twilight, how's it--whoa! Who's the guest?" asked Spike, coming down from upstairs.

"Hey. I'm Matias Orion. You can just call me Orion."

"Well, we were just about to have something for lunch, Spike. Would you mind making something?"

"Oh, no, not at all..." Spike walked into the kitchen while giving Orion a strange look, as if to say "I'm watching you."

"So, what's he?"

"Spike? He's a dragon."

"Kind of small for a dragon, don't you think?"

She laughed. "He's still young."

"Oh." There's going to be a lot to get used to here... He began introspecting about his circumstance, and found it odd that he'd accepted it so quickly. He assumed that contact with other extraterrestrial species helped a lot in dealing with talking colorful ponies. He wasn't sure if English was the actual language they spoke or if it was just his universal translator kicking into gear. Maybe he should ask--

Orion was broken out of his stupor by a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," Twilight said as she approached the door. She opened it and was surprised to find two Royal Guards awaiting her.

"Ma'am," said one. "Princess Celestia wishes to--" He tensed up as he noticed Orion, who was sipping his cup of tea. "Get back, ma'am!"

He ran in front of Twilight and drew his wings in an intimidating manner, while the other guard entered the treehouse. Rainbow had retaliated and jumped in front of Orion.

"Hold it!" shouted Twilight. "He's a friend!"

"He might be dangerous!" responded the guard.

"He's NOT dangerous!" Dash shouted in response.

"Hold on, now!" Orion shouted, putting down the cup and holding his hands up. "I don't mean any harm. I was just having conversation with Miss Twilight there." He made sure to stress the 'don't mean any harm' part.

The guard looked at Twilight, who nodded her confirmation. "Hmph." He lowered his wings. "The Princess wishes to see you, ma'am."

"Duly noted," she responded. "Orion, you should come with me! It'd be a good idea to talk to Celestia; she knows some powerful magic! Maybe she can help!"

Spike, who had returned to the room, dropped his plates in shock. "Whoa!" he shouted as he scrambled to grab them. "Twilight, what's going on?"

"Your, uh, Princess wants to speak with her," Orion shrugged. "She wanted me to go with her."

"Oh! Well, if that's the case, I'm coming, too!"

"Not with us, Spike. The Princess wants to speak with all the Elements of Harmony. Could you do me a favor and gather them at Canterlot, please?"

Spike sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

Orion picks up his helmet and follows Twilight outside. Spike follows her out, leaving for a trail towards some farm in the distance. Twilight locks the door and smiles at you.

"Uh... Elements of Harmony?" Orion asked. He hefted his helmet along his right side, and looked over his shoulder, making sure his weapons were still there.

"Yes, the Elements of Harmony. That's what me and my friends are. A while back, we sealed off an ancient evil using our powers and Equestria has been in peace ever since."

"How old is this evil?"

"Pretty old, but I'd say probably about a thousand or so."

"Oh, so nothing like Reapers," he muttered.

"Beg pardon?"

"Reapers," he repeated. "It's what my people are fighting against. They come around every 50,000 years or so to 'extinguish all life' or some crazy stuff like that. I guess they can also be considered an ancient evil. We aren't... really doing well against them." He looked towards the distance, holding a steely gaze, remembering Earth and the skies of burning wreckage.

"Oh... well, we should go talk to Celestia to see if she can help you."

"HIYA!" shouted Pinkie, appearing out of nowhere and now hopping circles around Orion. "Where ya goin'?"

"We're headed to Canterlot, Pinkie. Celestia wants to talk with the Elements of Harmony," Twilight smiled.

"Really?! I'll be sure to join you all soon! I need to bring cupcakes and streamers with me!" She started to skip away.

"What for?" asked Twilight.

"To throw a party for our new friend when we get there, of course!" her voice fading as she bounded around a corner.

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Orion learned on his omnitool, in between bouts of casual conversation with Dash and Twilight, that the planet's Eezo factor was insanely high. Tests run seem to indicate that they could even supercharge his biotic powers, knocking cooldown rates to practically zero and pump up power to near ludicrous levels; he'd wager that if he decided to harness the latent "advanced" Eezo on this planet, he could probably run a Reaper through just with a single charge. Despite the allure of becoming a biotic god, though, he wasn't sure if his body or his implants would be capable of taking the large strain of hyper-induced biotic combos.

Further scans seem to show that he couldn't be affected by it. The ponies were, obviously, but they seemed to have built a resistance to the stuff after being exposed to it for so long. He wondered if all this Eezo could explain why unicorns could use magic. Or maybe even mutate pegasi to have wings? Or maybe alter the endurance of the Earth ponies? Orion didn't read much at Twilight's treehouse, but he got the basics down of the pony types, at least.

Twilight seemed to have a vested interest in his omnitool, after Orion had explained what it did. Orion's eyes were constantly glued to it, but so were hers.

His helmet clanked on his armor as they walked. He'd found a strap and managed to tie his helmet to his utility belt. Wearing a helmet all the time is functionally smart, but could become stifling, and Orion figured that if the Eezo couldn't affect him, there was no harm in getting some fresh air.

"So, what's your home like?" asked Dash, floating around his head in circles. "The other Earth?" Orion was surprised that they had called their world the same as his, though the feel felt different. That, and the lack of rubble.

"It was nice. Was."

"Was?"

Orion stopped and looked up into the sky, sun shining down on his face. "Yeah... was."

"What happened? Did you leave?" asked Twilight.

"The Reapers found it." Twilight didn't know much about the Reapers aside from what Orion had said earlier, and drooped her head a bit.

"Oh..." Dash knew nothing, but even she could that something as intimidating as "Reapers" sounded bad.

Orion wasn't really one to mull over what happened. He was a spacer, much like the legendary Shepard, and grew up going from Alliance station, to cruiser, and lots of places in between. He didn't really know much about Earth aside from pictures and videos, as shameful as that sounds, but there was one place he grew fond of.

"Man. I miss Rio."

"Rio?" asked Dash, poking at the blue stripes on his combat armor.

"Yeah, Rio." Orion broke out into a grin. "You wanna know how I became one of the best?" Dash's ears perked up. Orion could tell that she was definitely one of the competitive types.

"Yeah! You're one of the best?"

"What do you think this N7 means? Only the best of the best get this small thing on their armor. Oh, Twilight, just how far are we from Canterlot?"

"About an hour or two. We'll be there before the sun goes down, don't worry."

"Great. So, Dash, Rio's this awesome city, great for parties and stuff. But that's where my people had a training base for the best of the best. We called it the Vila Militar, or the N-School, for the occupation letter. Oh, that's what the N means. It means special forces. It already takes the best of the best just to make it to the top without the N, but the N-School turns them into lean, mean fighting machines."

Orion seemed to be holding Dash's rapt attention, and seemingly Twilight's now, it seems. He assumed that the city that was sticking out of the mountain side must be Canterlot. Making another mental note, he continued.

"Man, it was crazy. You guys--er, ponies, ever been to a party?" They nod, remembering Pinkie's parties. "Well, imagine that, except it's all about the strictness and the training and all that stuff. We trained endlessly for months there, doing drills, running practice, simulating all this stuff that could mean life or death if we won or failed."

"Wow, how much did you guys train?" asked Twilight.

"No less than twenty hours a day."

"A day?!" asked Dash. "That's crazy!"

"Only for the best of the best! And that was just to get in!"

"Wow, totally harsh entrance exam," she chimed.

"Yeah, just making it into the N-School is like being handed a medal. No one says it, but damned if everyone-er, pony, doesn't respect all that work. And then you go through more training on other planets, until you hit N6."

"Then what?" whispered Dash.

"Then it's the final run!" Dash was practically sitting on his shoulder now, and he looked at his armored hand and closed it into a fist. "The only way to earn your N7 stripes is by taking all that training and putting it to use... in the field."

"Whoa. What'd you do to get yours?"

"I blew up a facility that was running illegal experiments. Mostly small-fry stuff, but still important enough to throw someone like me in there. And, man, when I got my stripes, I was the happiest man in the world." It occurred to Orion that regaling these talking ponies with his graduation story seemed a bit strange, but then again, he did have a conversation with an elcor once, and it was terrible; this was a much better change.

"Wow, that sounds awesome!" Dash started flying again, making circles in the sky above them.

"That's because you're not the one that had to do it," laughed Orion, remembering all the sleepless nights, endless drills, and all the yelling.

They had been climbing this mountain for quite a while now, circling around a multitude of paths and trails, and came upon flat ground, and the entrance to Canterlot. Orion was glad to have made it without too much incident.

"Finally!" he panted. "Flat ground!" Twilight and Dash had to stifle a giggle as he kneeled over to kiss the ground. The sun had just began to lower.

"We should probably head to the castle as soon as possible," Twilight reminded. Orion didn't really feel like complaining.

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There were a lot of gasps and whispers as they approached the castle. Orion figured that non-ponies were extremely rare around here. That, and Orion essentially looked like a walking tower of armor to the ponies' eyes, aside from his face, that is.

The city itself seemed like some really hoity-toity place, the kind you could expect from a bunch of rich folk. He didn't really much like it, most grunts like him never really fit in that well in high society.

They passed through the city without too much incident and passed through the gates and into the castle. They then proceeded into the main hall without any further incident, following a nod of acknowledgement from two guards.

"Ah, Twilight, I--" Princess Celestia cut her sentence short as they saw who had accompanied them, this strange being in excited conversation with Rainbow Dash. The rest of the Elements of Harmony were also present. Pinkie Pie had a party hat on and fired a small streamer cannon.

"WELCOME!" she said, hopping up to Orion with a tray of cupcakes.

"Oh, thanks. Wow, these are good!" said Orion, between bites. He figured that if he could drink their tea, he could probably eat their food. So long as they weren't dextros, which, judging by their world, they obviously weren't, he could eat their food.

"Thanks!" Pinkie returned.

"Princess, is there something wrong?" asked Twilight.

"You... he's... it can't be... Twilight, we need to talk..."

"Princess?" Twilight asked again; she walked up to her and they began having a hushed conversation.. Orion was still in the middle of wolfing down cupcakes, Pinkie beaming with pride. Celestia seemed to space out, her gaze fully intent on the black-clad human before her.

"Wait, how'd you get up here before us?" Orion asked Pinkie.

"Airship!" she smiled back.

"Hey, we should have taken one!" said Orion, turning to Rainbow Dash, who shrugged.

"We didn't think you'd fit," she said flatly. And she was right, those things were made for ponies, not a human, and definitely not a human wearing armor, for that matter.

He frowned and returned to eating the delicious cupcakes. He'd noticed that Twilight was now next to Celestia, at her throne, and talking about something. And then he noticed the other ponies walking up to him. He quickly cleaned himself up and gave them a smile.

"Howdy there, pardner. Name's Applejack."

"Nice to meet you, Applejack. You own the farm outside of town? I saw it on the way up here."

"Why, yes, I do! You should come by sometime to try our apples!"

"I'll keep that in mind," he smiled, turning to a yellow pony with a pink mane.

"I'm... uh, Fluttershy. N-Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too. Don't worry, I don't bite," he laughed. The meek pony returned a shy smile.

"And I am Rarity!" said a purple-maned white-coated pony, giving a dramatic flourish by throwing her hair back.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Rarity." He bowed and elicited a giggle from her. Then he turned to all of them. "My name is Matias Orion. You can just call me Orion for short. I'm a human, and I sort of got here by... well, actually, I don't know. I think it was an accident. That's what we're here to find out." He gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his head.

He noticed that Twilight and Celestia had ended their conversation. "Step forward, Matias Orion," Celestia said.

Not really knowing what to do, Orion simply went with what he knew about royal figures and kneeled before her.

"Interesting to see one who knows royal etiquette," Celestia chimed. "But enough of that. I have need of your services."

Orion looked up at her. "Need me? For what? Er, your Excellency."

"It is best that we retire to somewhere more... private. Twilight, please bring Spike and the Elements of Harmony with you." They all followed her into a library, where the guards closed the door behind her.

After everyone sat down and made themselves comfortable, Celestia turned towards Orion. "I have seen you in my dreams."

Orion blinked for a few moments. "That sounds awfully coincidental."

"Yes. Ponies, Nightmare Moon stirs in her slumber, and she is set to awaken soon. But the Elements of Harmony are not enough to stop her this time." She looked at Orion again. "He must be the one to bring her existence to an end."

"Uh, I'm not sure I follow..." he said.

"That's not surprising. You read some books, but you don't know a lot about our history," said Twilight. "We should fill you in."

And so they filled him in on the past. The beginning of Celestia's rule and the creation of Equestria, the Windigoes and Hearth's Warming Eve, Discord's reign of chaos, and the banishment of Princess Luna as Nightmare Moon. They went further into the raising and lowering of the sun and moon, and the ponies' role in keeping the land safe.

"Well, that's mighty fine, ladies, but this stuff seems a bit over my head. I mean, I'm just a new... uh, person, and you're already asking me to... well, banish a great evil?"

"You will not be banishing Nightmare Moon, Orion. You will be the one to end her."

"Yeah." He sighed. "Well, I suppose I'll be ready for that when it happens."

"Are you sure you're a soldier?" asked Applejack. "You sure don't seem like one."

"I suppose it doesn't seem like I am, doesn't it? It's nice to take a break when you can, so I'm not really all gung-ho at the moment."

"Aren't you in the least bit concerned that you're talking with us? I'd imagine this is your first time talking to a pony," asked Rarity.

"Nope. Where I come from, we've already made contact with so many other extraterrestrial races, another one on the list just seems par for the course. Double points for being something I can recognize and talk with without getting lost in translation," he smirked.

"Very well then. This meeting is over for the time being. All of you are welcome to stay here at the royal castle until further notice." The other ponies left, eagerly chatting amongst themselves.

Orion, figuring that he could use some fresh air, decided to go walking around the royal gardens.

================================================================================

"Hmm. Strange statues," he muttered, as he walked along.

"Do you wish to return?" he heard a voice ask. He pulled his Phalanx out in response, aiming it around.

"Who said that?"

"I did."

"Who is 'I'?"

"Over here, my friend, to your left."

Orion turned and noticed a statue of some dragon-esque thing.

"And just what the hell are you?"

"I'm Discord." Oh, him. The ponies had told him. "I'm sure the ponies have told you ALL about me."

"Yeah. What're you getting at?"

"I can help you get back."

There was silence. Then Discord was mentally thrown back as Orion started laughing out loud.

"Back? Back? Buddy, you don't know the half of it. If you knew how to get ME back, the last thing you'd WANT is for me to get back."

"...I don't follow."

"Help me get back, and you open Pandora's box."

"Uh..."

"You're saying you want to knock on the door of the little shop of horrors." Orion knew the truth. If he was still... where he was, he'd need a mass relay to return home. But the problems was that there WERE no mass relays nearby. Even if he wanted to leave, he couldn't. Which was a problem. The lack of comm buoys, which were normally everywhere he went, in the sector also seemed to cement that Orion was in someplace that no person should normally be. And if he could get back home from here, that also meant that the Reapers could get here the same way.

God knows what the Reapers would do if they found themselves a new galaxy to... "purify", as much as the term disgusted Orion. Shepard didn't just have supporters in other Spectres, he also had the support of many of the N7 operatives, as well, after they saw his mission feeds dealing with Sovereign and Harbinger.

Discord was wordless. "You're just asking for trouble, pal. And I hope you stay in that damn rock form of yours, because if you get out, I'm gonna give you an old-fashioned human beatdown!" Orion shouted defiantly, knowing that Discord was probably someone who he, and his new pony friends, probably didn't want getting out.

"You fool! I WILL make you my pawn! You don't know what you're denying; the power you could HAVE! I WILL HAVE YOU!" said Discord, his voice becoming increasingly desperate and manic. His statue started glowing, his voice eerily reminded Orion of what he'd heard Harbinger say in voice logs.

"You can try..." growled Orion, readying his hand into a fist and form beginning to glow with blue-purple energy.

"Orion! Wait!" he heard somepony shout. But it was too late. Whatever Discord had waiting, shot into Orion.

And what happened next was unlike anything anypony or anyone had expected.

Discord's statue exploded into pieces, and Orion stood there, unharmed.

"What the hell...?" Orion muttered, looking at the bits and pieces of rock flying everywhere. Celestia, Spike, and the Elements of Harmony ran up to him.

"What did you do?" asked Spike. "That was crazy!"

"I... I don't know," said Orion. "One minute, we were at odds, and then he turned into a pile of rubble!"

Celestia seemed to know. "It would seem you... have an odd element inside of you, Orion. A new one."

"Do tell, please," he said, folding his arms. The others gave Celestia a questioning look.

"You seem to have the element... of order. A new element of harmony, unlike anything seen before."

There was a palpable silence that followed.

Orion didn't figure himself to be stupid. He'd read up a lot on Reapers and their technology after the Saren incident at the Citadel. The biggest connection he noticed, was that Element Zero is inherently connected to the Reapers, because the Reapers were the ones who used it first; how else could they around with mass effect fields in dark space? And the Reapers wanted Element Zero to be used by advanced civilizations to develop them down a certain ordered technological route, so that the Reapers could cripple them all in one fell swoop after everyone had played right into their hands, and bring in their "order" to the galaxy. Rinse and repeat every 50,000 years, and you've got yourself an endless cycle of repeating "order".

By that logic... Eezo was an inherently "ordered" element, given it's heavy association with the Reapers, and seemed to fit in with these "elements" of harmony! Sure, it sounded stupid, and maybe a bit crazy, but it was the best explanation he could piece together.

"Discord represented the nature of disharmony and chaos. When he came into contact with your element, it undid everything that his nature stood for, and in doing so, destroyed himself."

"Well, I'm not complaining. I would have pulverized the bastard anyway," Orion shrugged, rubbing his shoulder. Despite active testing, he was still unsure if he could still use his implants, and was kind of eager to be able to test it out. "Say... is there, like, I don't know... something I could... smash?"

Celestia blinked. "Why so?"

"Need to practice a bit. Don't want to get rusty, especially after that little accident."

"Ah, the crash in the forest. Do not worry, Orion, I will dispatch my guards to bring it here."

"You sure? It's kind of broken... and heavy."

"Do not worry, they will be able to handle it."

"If you say so."

"I will ask the guards to prepare training dummies for you." Celestia said, walking off.

"Wow, that was crazy!" Spike came up, waving his arms around.

"Talk about bringing business," Orion said, looking at his hand. "Didn't know I had it in me. Well, literally."

"You said something about practicing?" asked Dash, throwing a one-two hoof for emphasis. "I wanna see what you can do!"

Orion smiled. "You're going to LOVE this."

Comments

[EndGamer]

Whats this, A ME/MLP crossover? I'll give it a shot....
Well, at least RD didn't attack the heavily armed/armored alien that could kill her with the flick of the wrist. *reads*
Hmmm, for someone who has been all over the galaxy he wouldn't believe for a second that a single being moves the sun and moon around the planet and would be quick to correct this, but I'm willing to overlook it. *reads more*
Really? Another HIE where the random human turns out to be an element never seen before or even mentioned earlier and given a paper-thin explanation based on what the genocidal alien robot crustaceons say they represent.
That aside, you at least had good grammar and spelling

*sigh* well, it seems I must continue my search for a decent ME/MLP crossover.

[Anquietas]

Liking the story.
452855 Pony Effect is a good ME/MLP crossover, ponies replace humans.

[Ozymandias]

453261
That is more of a fusion than a crossover.

[Clappie]

Yeah, I kinda lost it here, making more Elements of Harmony doesn't work, and making it a human nonetheless is just plain bad. Anyway the story is atleast very well written.