Halo: Only Death Stops Them

by WarKing76

Prologue II: Into The Mists of Confusion

Yup, it’s official, she had finally lost it. She knew being in those freezers for too long would have an effect on her. And now she was seeing things, like this for example: one of her best pals now looked like a diminutive little pony. A definite sign of her going insane, or was it?

She slowly stepped closer to Rarity, and did the most predictable thing Rainbow Dash would’ve done.

She repeatedly poked her.

"Will you stop that?!" Rarity demanded. "You are ruining my exquisite appearance."

"Yup, you’re Rarity alright," Dash said dryly. "What the hell happened to you though? No wait, what happened to the both of you?" Pointing at Fluttershy, who was hiding behind Rarity and in her mane.

"Darling, I think you have got it all wrong. The real question is what happened to you?"

What happened to me?

Dash thought for a moment.

I’m fine and I’m still me… I think.

Rarity looked up at the towering figure. "I mean look at that dreadful outfit. Black and azure? This will not do, not at all."

"Hey! You said it yourself that I look fabulous enough not to break any uniform protocols." Dash said angrily while slightly imitating Rarity’s voice when she said fabulous.

"And besides, I think blu-" this is the point where Rainbow Dash realized she was distracting herself. "Wait no! I mean look at you," she pointed at the white mare. "You’re a tiny horse!"

"Pony," Rarity corrected the large figure.

"Whatever!" Dash raised both of her arms up in frustration. "All I want to know is how the hell you both turned into ponies."

Rarity and Fluttershy were befuddled. ‘Turned into ponies?’ They had always been ponies for as long as they could remember. How could they be turned into another creature if nothing had been changed to them in the first place?

"Darling, I think you are mistaken. It is not us that were altered, it was you." The white unicorn claimed.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, hold on there. Last time I checked, I had my fingers ever since I first gazed upon the stars, not hooves."

This had sparked utter confusion between both of the two. What was going on? Both of them knew themselves, but yet they did not fully know each other. And so, the weird creature and the unicorn kept on arguing on who was truly who.

"This is where you are wrong my dear. You are Rainbow Dash, are you not?"

"Well yeah but-" Dash attempted to counter the mare’s speech, however, she was interrupted by the white mare.

"Then there you have it, you were once a pony and you will be again. We just need to find T-" It was her turn to be interrupted by the bombastic dare devil.

"Just stop right there buddy, there is no way in hell I’m turning into some pink fluffy unicorn." Rainbow Dash protested.

"Well technically darling, you are a pegasus-"

"Same thing!" she said as she stomped the stream beneath her, sending a minor surge of water and mud at Rarity.

Rarity attempted to jump away from the incoming muck, but her reflexes were sluggish and some of the muddy projectiles impacted on the sanitary pony.

"My coat!" she cried.

"What’s wrong, Rarity? Can’t handle a little dirt? Ya know, no matter how long we’ve been fighting together, I still don’t understand-" However, before she was able to continue, she was tackled into the muddy watercourse by an enraged Rarity.

"You ruined my coat! Do you know how long it takes to clean my coat?!" Humorously enough, her actions caused her to gain added filth to her already muddy fur.

But as soon she finished those words, she was toppled back down by the bigger and stronger Rainbow Dash.

As the mudslinging duelists battled one another, the creamy yellow pegasus attempted to calm both of them down.

“Uh... could you both stop fighting?” Fluttershy whispered.

The sounds of the water thrashing between the duelists was too loud for them to hear Fluttershy’s pleas.

“Please?” She attempted to gain their attention.

And again, the combatants kept on ignoring her and focused on fighting each other.

“If we could just-” Her eyes suddenly darted to the creature. It was attempting to reach out to grab hold a black handle attached to it’s chest piece. Whatever it was, it could potentially harm Rarity.

When the creature grabbed the handle, a scream could be heard next to the pair.

"STOP!"

The thundering scream was enough to cause all the nearby birds, who were on top of the trees at the time, to flock away from the scene in terror.

Rainbow Dash winced to the sound of the scream and let go of the combat knife’s handle. She then twisted her head to the source of the scream, which was the yellow-furred pony. Meanwhile, popping head first out of the water was the once pure snowy-white Rarity, now covered in swamp foliage and sludge.

"Um… sorry to bother you both… if you two don't mind… but can we just… you know… talk?" There were a lot of pauses in Fluttershy’s words but it was enough to convince the two mud wrestlers to agree to her proposal.

"Alright, I’ll talk. But only to figure out what the hell is going on here." Dash said as she crossed her arms.

"I’m afraid that I must agree with her. I want to know what took place that made Rainbow Dash," -Rarity then pointed at Dash with both of her hooves and raised them up and down- "this."

This is when Rarity's eyes finally trailed down to look at her own hooves. She shrieked in horror, and hastily jumped out of the water. She then rubbed off all the nasty, unwanted undergrowth and sludge on her coat.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew." Rarity whined.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash calmly wiped off some of the mud that was on her armor and, walked back to the pod which was now free of smoke.

"Um, Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?" Fluttershy asked.

"Just getting my stuff from inside the pod,"

After a moment or two of rustling through the pod’s storage, Rainbow Dash jumped out from the crashed bowl carrying a metal bag in one of her hands, another one on her back with a short black pole stuck out of, and a long green, metallic tube over her shoulders.

Fluttershy and Rarity watched Rainbow Dash carry the excessive amount of baggage away from the pod. Whatever happened to her must have made her really robust. Even Big Mac, an earth pony, might have a problem carrying that much weight at once.

"Sorry, but I need to properly clean myself," The unicorn said while scraping the last pieces of muddy flora off of her fur. "I'll come back later. And dear, please do not start your story until I come back. I do want to know what happened to my dear friend, after all."

She was about to set off but suddenly she turned back to face Dash.

"Oh and I am sure that our dear Twilight would also like to know what has just transpired here."

And with that, she trotted away from the two in the direction of the Spa.

Rainbow Dash just watched as Rarity went on her way and motionlessly stood there for a few seconds, but quickly shook it off a minute later and spun around to face Fluttershy.

"Hey, do you know where I could sit down? Because these things are getting heavy, ya know?"

"Oh… um… right, come with me then."

And so, the two strolled towards the cottage; leaving behind the empty drop pod.

---

"Would you like some tea?" Fluttershy asked.

"No thanks," Dash politely declined.

Fluttershy placed the teapot back on the table in front of her. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were sitting on their respective chairs, waiting for Rarity to come back.

When Dash had first arrived, she had thought of sitting down on one of Fluttershy’s chairs, but when she saw them, she’d thought that she might break the chair with her own weight. Fluttershy assured her that they were made with the one of the toughest trees in the Everfree forest.

Currently, Fluttershy was warily gazing down at the floor and trying not to make eye contact with Rainbow Dash, but she glanced at the large tall black figure once in awhile out of curiosity. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash just stared at the wall and entertained thoughts of her own.

What’s going on here, am I hallucinating? Or maybe I'm in some sort of coma while the girls are actually trying to wake me up somewhere out there?

Her contemplations paused for a minute before she started her theories again.

Or I could be dead. And if so, is this where everybody stops and finally takes the big break? Is that why-

Then, there was a knock on Fluttershy’s door.

"Darling, I’m back, and I brought a friend along too." Rarity said from behind the entrance.

The door opened, but not to reveal the spotless white pony, but instead a purple-coated unicorn with an indigo mane bearing a consecutive pink streak running down it. Rarity, meanwhile, was behind this purple unicorn and was intrigued to see what happened next.

When the purple pony saw the tall, black, shadowy being, she was perplexed to see an undiscovered sapient species in front of her. And so, she slowly walked towards the creature.

Rainbow Dash simply glared at the fascinated unicorn as she crept in the woman’s direction, making her helmet's silvery visor follow her every movement, even when the purple mare made a full circle around her like a fascinated scientist examining a new specimen found in the wild. Fluttershy wasn't sure who to be frightened of, the tall faceless black biped, or her friend now eyeing the creature like a predator circling around it's prey.

When the purple unicorn stopped in front of Rainbow Dash, she finally spoke.

"Hello there, my name is-"

But before she could introduce herself, Rainbow Dash interrupted her.

"Twilight Sparkle," Dash said darkly.

"Ah right, Rarity told me that there was somepony who claimed to be Rainbow Dash, but didn't look like her." Twilight Sparkle attempted to sound as equally menacing as possible.

It was true that Rarity came to the library earlier this morning, talking about some strange creature coming from the sky, claiming she was Rainbow Dash, but it didn't mean she believed everything from just one source. So she accepted Rarity’s offer to come along with her to investigate on this ‘Rainbow Dash’.

"Yup, that’s me alright." She smirked under her helmet.

Twilight inspected the large black armored being closely again.

"What are you?"

"I’m human,"

"I see," Twilight absorbed that information. "But are you not supposed to be a myth?"

"Excuse me?"

"Humans are just folklore and fairy tales made up by parents to scare their colts and fillies,"

When those last words came out of Twilight’s mouth, the woman could not hold it any longer. And with that, Rainbow Dash laughed like there was no tomorrow.

"What’s so funny?" Twilight asked in confusion and annoyance.

She kept on giggling but she eventually got herself together.

"It’s just that I could say the same thing to you."

This earned her an elevated eyebrow from the purple librarian.

"When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me about unicorns and pegasi in some far away land filled with magic and sunshine. When I got older though, I figured out that it was just, quote in quote, ‘folklore and fairy tales’." She explained.

This is when she finally put the pieces together.

"And I think figured it all out."

"The Rainbow Dash? The egotistical mare who charges head first without rational thinking, figuring things out? Ha! Now I know that you are definitely an imposter!" Twilight pointed at the phony dare devil.

"Whoa, hold on there ponygirl, hear me out first. After we woke up from cyro-sleep, Cortana told us that the ship was forced into a wormhole or a portal of some kind which had unidentifiable energy patterns. And when reached the other end, Cortana couldn't find the proper coordinates of this star system, it was almost like it never existed.

"But since she was in the stages of rampancy, we first thought that she was unreliable, but then she told us the sun had a strange orbital pattern. So we took a closer look, and there it was: the fucking sun was orbiting the even more fucked up-looking planet."

She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "Ugh, no offence."

There was an awkward moment of silence between all of them before Rainbow Dash spoke again.

"You have no idea what I was saying, do you?" She asked all three of the ponies.

And it was like they were telepathically linked; the mares shook their heads in sync.

"Okay long-story-short, I think I’m in an alternate dimension… or something."

"Wait, how are you sure? You also mentioned we and something about a spaceship. Are you planning to invade Equestria?!" Twilight said, adding more paranoia into the situation and herself.

Twilight wanted to further study this ‘Rainbow Dash’ but there was a chance that she could be a changeling, or some space invader that only wanted to gain access to their personal lives. And if she posed a threat to her friends and family, she would gladly strike her down and bring her in front of the Princesses herself.

"If that space ship was just floating debris and only six people, including me, being the invasion force, then I would say yes." Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.

"Alright Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, not fully convinced by her words, "tell me everything I want to know."

"Okay," She shrugged.

Twilight stepped back slightly at her last statement. Was she willing to give it all up, or was this some kind of trick?

"That’s it? No confidential information that you're going to keep to yourself?"

"Well, actually yes. To begin with, under The Cole Protocol, I’m not to under any circumstances convey the location of mankind’s home planet. Furthermore, I would like to keep my private life aside thank you very much, but other than that, yeah sure, I’ll talk."

Interested, Twilight and the other ponies sat down on their respective seats and listened to what this ‘Rainbow Dash’ had to say.

"One thing you should all know, is that my name isn't really Rainbow Dash."

The purple pony nearly shot to her hooves to protest, but Rainbow Dash quickly put a stop to that by facing towards Twilight.

"Rainbow Dash is just a nickname I earned when I was in the academy."

"So then, what is your actual name?" Twilight asked.

"Isabel Miles."

"It must be a very big coincidence, since the real Rainbow Dash’s middle name is Isabel."

"Huh interesting," Rainbow Dash uttered. "So Carmen, what would you like to know?"

"How did you-"

She was surprised to hear her middle name because only her closest friends knew it.

"Oh right, the ‘I'm Rainbow Dash from a parallel world’ theory of yours." She realized.

Twilight scratched her chin, wondering what question to ask next.

"Hmm… where are your other companions, the ones you mentioned earlier?"

When Isabel was trapped in the pod, she attempted to contact the rest of the group, but there was still too much interference in her helmet’s comms, so she really couldn't tell whether they survived the crash or not.

"I don’t know," she answered.

"And what are those things beside you." Twilight gestured at the three metallic boxes beside Isabel.

"None of your business," Isabel said menacingly.

"Okay… where are you from?"

"Mars."

"And what does U-N-S-C mean?" The purple unicorn pointed at the bottom of Isabel’s chest plate.

"It’s short for United Nations Space Command."

"So, you're in the UNSC?"

"Yes."

Twilight observed the chest plate to see an angled sentence she could not describe.

"And what does this mean?" She motioned at the two grouped words.

"Semper Fidelis, it means Always Loyal."

"That sounds a lot like you," Twilight said to attempt to sway Isabel off.

"Yeah, a… friend of mine said that it suited me well. He was a nice guy and a great friend too." Isabel said with a saddened tone.

Hearing Dash's sudden depressed voice, Twilight’s paranoia evaporated, only to be replaced by pity.

"Oh, I didn't mean to-"

Twilight wanted to apologize but Isabel cut her off.

"It’s not your fault,"

This was not going very well for Twilight, she needed answers but now she had already upset the human. She needed to find out why she was here, and figure out whether she was a threat or not.

"Do you want to explain it from the beginning?" Twilight asked.

"You mean, like how it started?"

"Yes, tell me how it all began."

"Okay, but I suggest you make yourselves as comfy as possible, because this is going to take a while."

Following Isabel’s advice, the ponies sat in the positions they were most comfortable in, and began to listen to her story.

"It all started on Harvest…"

Author's Note:

Added more logic, grammar fixes and fancy words.

And a big thank you to Man Of War, Katherine Kerensky, plainoasis and Sprite for proofreading this chapter, kudos to all of you.

Stomping on Grunts,
WarKing76

Comments

[Alucard1243]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Toast]

Being a massive Halo fan myself, im looking forward to see how this goes.
Nice work
-Toast-

[aceraynor117]

huh. talk about "reality check", know what I mean?

so basically, the next chapter is about Rainbows or in this case Isabels life in UNSC as an ODST or Helljumpers as most like to call them.

great chapter, hope to see more soon
P.S. I have no Idea who these people are sorry

[Rainbow87dash]

[youtube=djOt3CDRq9A]

[WarKing76]

2373522

P.S. I have no Idea who these people are sorry

Would you like to care to explain what you mean't by not knowing certain people?

[WarKing76]

2373426
Being a massive toast fan myself, I'm looking forward to eat you.

Very hungry,
WarKing76

[Toast]

2374193
Its dangerous to eat me alone... take this
cheesemaking.com/images/recipes/35Butter/Pics/pic51.jpg

[leafz pegasus]

many questions answered, thank you

[aceraynor117]

2373708

I mean ODST Rainbows name: Isabel and Carmen, which I figured to be Twilights middle name.
sorry, I don't know many people

[WarKing76]

2377591
Ah I see, let me clear things up. The 'Human' Rainbow Dash's full name is Isabel Miles, while the 'Pony' Twilight's full name is Twilight "Carmen" Sparkle. And if you really want to get specific, the 'Pony' Rainbow Dash's full name is Rainbow "Isabel" Miles.

The rest of the humanized mane six's actual names will be revealed later as we go deeper into the story.

[Chaos Nightmare]

2377626 dude by your logic we already know that pinky pies human name will be Diane