> Halo Zone
>  by Rookie109
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Orbit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Prologue)
After long years of reconstruction and thriving prosperity throughout the Galaxy, an old enemy of the Human race comes back from the darkness to once again to annihilate their kind from existence.
In the year 2632, the New Covenant Order begins an invasion in the Outer Colonies, their destination was New 
Arcadia. It was six long dreadful days of the Covenants relentless attacks on the major cities of Arcadia and decimating UNSC heavy defenses, it was certain that Arcadia was falling into the hands of the Covenant.
The only choice left for the UNSC defense system of Arcadia was to save as many survivors as they could and leave the system. The UNSC tried to evacuate as many survivors as they could from the cities that were being bombarded and marauded by Covenant forces, all the centuries of reconstruction on Arcadia was being once again turned into a battlefield of a hole new war.

The UNSC may have saved  many survivors, but not the ones that were left behind, killed, enslaved, and determined to stand their grounds for a fighting chance to fight off Covenant themselves.
The UNSC fleet of Arcadia fled from every direction for a blind jump to not be followed by the Covenants newly powerful fleet. Thanks to vast influence of advanced technological achievements  that Humanity has greatly progressed for many centuries, a new Slip Space Drive was built  in UNSC ships to improve their 
slip space travel to make a more blind and efficient jump that the new Covenant could 
couldn't be much aware of or capable of finding out yet.

A Phoenix class vessel named the UNSC Tycora,would take its voyage to the beyond the unknown.



(Unknown Space)

As the UNSC Tycora jumped from out of Slipspace, the Humans were nowhere but in the quiet empty void of unknown space, but then there was visual of an unknown planet that the Tycora was heading for. The planet they were approaching, looked like "Earth".

The Tycora's AI Eva was having difficulties identifying where the ship is at and what system they were in. It was puzzling to the Captain Holland of the UNSC Tycora that  the ships AI couldn't tell where they were and what planet were they approaching. It was only a matter of time before Eva had realized that her systems were being tampered with by an unexpected disturbance, it was coming from the ships engine drive.
The drives that were built into the new UNSC ships was named the Celerium, it was  a deep step forward in more advanced slipspace travel. The Tycora may have been a colony classed vessel, but it also had potential assets to keep the drive from becoming unstable. The most important asset onboard was Dr.Erik, he was one of ONI's hardworking scientists that was a part of engineering the Celerium Drive. As Captain Holland hanged on to his patience for Eva, she wasn't responding due to the unexpected malfunctions she was picking up.

As Captain Holland was communicating with the engine room, he was only hearing  faint buzzing that Dr.Erik couldn't be heard from. In a matter of twelve seconds, communications with the engineers and the doctor were cut off. The UNSC Tycora was undergoing strange disturbances  that made every light on the Tycora change in a variety of colors. As the colors stopped flickering, the ships drive was rapidly overheating from the energy source. As the drive was fully over heating, a blast was then released from inside the engine room throughout the entire ship leading to a new slipspace anomaly.
As the slipspace drive was unexpectedly depleted, it was now a matter of time before the Tycora was going for a collision course onto the surface of the mysterious new planet 

(10 Minutes Later)
The entire ship was in a state of panic, the ships slipspace drive was unexpectedly depleted leaving many innocent lives onboard close to meeting oblivion. The Captain was not going to let this be the end of the crew and the ship, which is why he is ordering the crew to get off the ship at a minimum close and safe distance from where the Tycora was going to orbit.
But unfortunately, the captain was not going to leave his ship, he was going down with it, Eva still wasn't  responding  due to the electric pulse that occurred from the overheating of the slipspace drive. Half of the crew would not go because they thought their captain might not survive and that the ship is the reason they were alive, some wanted to get off the ship because they didn't want to risk their own lives. 

As Captain Holland was preparing  the ship for a rough landing, Eva quickly came back to alert the captain when she was quickly cut off. They needed to find the safest place to land on the planets surface, Eva showed the captain a part of the planet surface that showed visual of high ranged mountains where the ship was calculated to crash into.

During Eva's silence, she also scanned life on the planet and lots of it. Now that the Captain was given the coordinates of where to land, they had to act quickly before its too late. What mattered now was survival.

(Crew Bay Hallways)
The ships crew was quickly doing what they can to get to the lifeboats while those who stayed onboard would go down manually with the ship; meanwhile, a group was on their way into to the lifeboats near the engine room. One member of the group was about to make a risky decision, if they had the time left.

"Which way do we go?" questioned Glenn, the muscle of the group.

"We have to get to the engine room," said Lee, the confident one. But the group discouraged by Lee's choice of direction due to the fact that the ship is being evacuated. 

Then Kent, the kind of person who wasn't the type to attempt such extremes, made retorted reply. "What, why would we wanna go to where everything bad happened!" From his tone he took the situation seriously compared the the rest of the group.

Lee in some situations, had the feeling not to leave innocent people behind, he wouldn't never let something like that happen."The Doc and the engine crew are back there, we can't just leave them there!" Lee shouted in response, it would be a reminder of the same mistakes that were made on the battlefield of New Arcadia.

One voice joined in on Lee and Glenn's argument, his name was Mike. "What if a rescue team was sent to get them out of there,"said Mike trying to calm down the escalating argument.

Unfortunately, no one was going to change Lee's mind "We have to save them!"Lee shouted once again.

Another voice joined in on the argument, but instead of going against Lee's choice, he agreed with him. His was Dale, he was a pilot of New Arcadia's air defenses. "We all don't even know what happened, but Lee has a point, we should get them out of there and into the lifeboats as fast as possible." said Dale who was the first to agree with him. He also gave the group a good reason why they should save them, there was an asset in the engine room named Dr.Erik who was one of the experts in charge of the slipspace drive. If they could save him too, he could also be the solution to fixing the Tycora before the situation blows over. From Dales point supporting Lee's choice, the group agreed, putting aside their nonsense and attitude toward eachother and we're on their way to the engine room.

When the group made it to the engine room, it was a catastrophic. There was firespreading, alarms going nonstop, three engine crew members were left unconscious, the rest of the engine crew have fled to the lifeboats leaving Dr.Erik along with two engine crew members to wake him up from unconsciousness. Luckily a group of brave men came to save them.

Lee tried to help up Dr.Erik, but he wasn't getting up, then two crew engineers came to multitask "What's going on, is he ok?" Lee questioned the crew engineers.

He's gonna be alright, he's just been unconscious when the blast went off from the core and three engine crew experts not waking up anytime soon," the crew engineer said.

"We need to get him off this ship." Lee asked the crew engineers.

The two crew engineers hadn't got a reason to say no to Lee's request,for three reasons that they had three experts unconscious, the rest of the engine crew left to evacuate to save themselves leaving two crew engineers to deal with the issue they couldn't handle alone, and the core being heavily damaged. If the experts couldn't wake up soon enough, they fear that the worse would happen to them than what will become of the Tycora's slipspace drive. From their worry the crew engineers were feeling, they neede help and had to get one of the experts off the ship, there also wasn't even a clear prediction to what will happen when the ship crashes on the planets surface. They made their decision, they would let the Lee and his friends take Dr.Erik off the ship while they find a way to get the two other experts to a safe area on the ship, for time was being wasted and they had to make it fast.
"We have to hurry,do you two know a quick shortcut to the lifeboats?" Dale questioned.

"Of course, said the crew engineer, there might be two of them left by this bay, you and your friends better move." It was hard to understand how two engineers could handle such difficult situations on their own, but they had faith in themselves, the Captain ,and faith on the brave men saving the life of those that mattered. Lee was sure hoping that the two men in the engine room will be ok when the ship hits down on the surface.

While Lee was looking back, he was back to focus from the sound of Glenn shouting calling him out"Why are still here talking, lets get moving!" 

The Tycora was getting closer and closer every moment passing with thousands getting off before reaching the planets atmosphere. The group carrying Dr.Erik were nearing the lifeboat hearing a large number of crew members crowding the their way off the ship. Glenn had the strength carrying the unconscious doctor wondering where inside the lifeboat is he going to be strapped onto if there's any room left to have a seat. About twenty six were boarding plus Lee, Erik and his friends.

"How's the Doc doing?"Dale asked Glenn huffing and puffing while he was carrying Dr.Erik and running at the same time.

"He's fine, but still sleeping."replied Glenn. While Dale and Glenn were taking a moment to check on the Doctor and a break from the running, a loud orderly tone of a high ranking sergeant called them out.

"Hey the both of you,get on this lifeboat now!"Shouted Sergeant Maddox.

As they all got into the last lifeboat, they have now departed from the Tycora and we're now heading towards the planet with inhabitable life they were also uncertain of, the planets earth like features were an enigma them and Captain Holland aswell. When all the lifeboats were approaching the planets atmosphere, it took the pilots a moment to realize that the Tycora was right behind them. Lee and his friends along with Erik were being squished with only little room to get space because the lifeboat had a lot of people taking up so much space, Lee however on the other hand managed to squeeze through a few people to talk to the pilot.

"Where are we landing?"questioned Lee squeezing his way through the people taking up the space 

"We're not actually landing on land, its splashing in the ocean."when the pilot turned to see who was talking to him, his attitude shifted to control to seriousness.

"Hey you, find somewhere to hang tight to or you'll hurt yourself!" said the pilot raising his voice in anticipation before he turned back around to face the controls of the wheels readying the lifeboat to orbit the planets atmosphere.

As the lifeboat was getting closer and closer to the planet, Dale felt curious to what will happen to the Tycora's landing,  "What's gonna happen to the Tycora?" Dale questioned the pilot who wasn't in the mood to be distracted by anything in the way of his task getting the people to a minimum safe distance, but then someone else answered his question anyways.

"The Captain is doing an effort to minimize the ships rough landing, but it sure is going to be quite a long distance to where were landing."stated Sergeant Maddox hanging on tight to a secure handle bar near to where 
the top emergency hatch in the middle of the lifeboat.

When the Sergeants statement was cut off, the pilot shouted an alerting response to the people on board the lifeboat.
"We're about to land, everybody hang on!" Shouted the pilot as the lifeboat had now entered the planets atmosphere into dark clouds.



(Canterlot Castle)
On the far side of the planet was a kingdom, a magical kingdom that shined above on the mountains. It was midnight when the stars would sparkle in the night sky, the Celestial Princess would never get her eyes off the moon when she would always have the time to do some stargazing in the Solar Wing of the castle. When Princess Celestia moved the telescope to gaze at stars, her eyes quickly caught a mysterious object falling from the sky. She first thought it would be so e kind of giant meteor, but when she took a closer look with the telescope, it wasn't a meteor. The Princess was seeing something that she has never seen before in her lifetime. The object is a ship that was burning up. It was quickly  disappearing into the dark clouds far from where the Princess was watching, what she can tell about the weather according to the stars she's been gazing at, the giant falling object was going into the eye of the storm in the Celestial Seas of Equestria.

(Twilights Library in Canterlot)
As time went by in the night, it was time for Spike the Dragon to go to get some sleep after a restless day of working in the library. Before he would do that, he had to check and see how Twilight was doing, she's a kind of Unicorn who studied and read century old books like always. When Spike found Twilight, she was focused on yet another book about Starswirl the Bearded, Starswirl was Twilight's magical idol in her studies of unicorn history. As Spike was about to ask Twilight it was getting late, a loud boom suddenly cut both of them in a state of panic. Twilight couldn't understand what could make such a loud disturbance. 

"What was that?"Questioned Spike who was hiding under Twilight's desk.

"I don't know what that is?" Said Twilight left in shock, whatever it was, I think it's gone now."

After that, the sound was audible enough to wake up all Canterlot. The sound was heard even in some parts of Equestria including, it was certain that Princess Celestia would concluded from her spectation in the skies that it was more than that, that they were about to visited by another world.

(Appaloosa)
It was a quiet night for the town of Appaloosa, Braeburn and the towns ponies getting some shut eye for yet another busy day. But suddenly, the loud noise which came from the sky was loud enough to wake up an entire town and could be seen where it was coming from. Braeburn turned his head upward in the sky like everypony else was doing, looking at something massive in the sky that was burning up and descending. The massive object was falling in the deserts far from Appaloosa. As it was falling, it then vanished in the night clouds leaving the ponies of Appaloosa astonished and worried about what the massive object falling from the sky was and where did it go.

The massive object that was the UNSC Tycora, was a spectacle that all of Equestria as it appeared to those on the surface  as a meteor or a star. But little did the inhabitants of this planet realized, that it was going to make a rough landfall in the peaceful land of Equestria.




(Celestial Seas)
When the lifeboats made landfall, they didn't expect to crash in the ocean, which was in the middle of a heavy thunderstorm. The sea was waving violently pushing and spinning the lifeboat, the crew were struggling to hang on to something as the sea storm was taking them for a ride. In a matter of seconds, the UNSC Tycora comes through the storm clouds colliding with the ocean. If the ship collided with the ocean, it would make a giant tidal wave which would make it unfortunate for those on the lifeboat to survive. But one way or another, the Tycora would end its voyage by being swollowed by the ocean. Then the Captain however, managed to bring the ship upward and straight somewhere far and far until the shape of the vessel Was gone. From the ships menuvers, it still managed to make collision with the ocean creating a wave which violently forced the lifeboat sideways into the wrath of the relentless storm.
> Chapter 2: The Earth Like Planet
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Two Hours Later)

It was pitch black inside the lifeboat, the people inside were unconscious except for one, Lee was the first to wake up from the riding of the storm. He had woken up to find himself on the floor in a pile of crew members and marines that were thrown to the ground from the storm. But now that the storm has passed and the lifeboat was still intact with everyone in one piece, Lee had to see where they are. Lee could hear the the sounds of the waves outside the lifeboat, when he was curious to know where the lifeboat had taken them, Lee would have to open the top hatch to check outside. Lee didn't hesitate to open the hatch, as he managed to push it open, he was blinded by the sunlight. As Lee tried to cover his eyes from the painful brightness, he then looked down at his surroundings, the lifeboat apparently washed up on a calm beach.
The planets air was also breathable, from many planets that were colonized by the UNSC had breathable air. He then turned from looking at the ocean to see a big jungle in the direction of the beachfront, the beachfront from Lee's perspective was beautiful from left to right. Eva's analysis on the planet was confirmed, it was Earth like.

Lee had to cut his sight seeing short, he had to wake up the people on the lifeboat to show them the situation. It took him a few moments to manage waking everybody up, the first three people he was able to wake up were marines, one of the three marines was Sergeant Maddox, he was loud and fearsome enough to wake up the whole lifeboat, Sergeant Maddox was highly encouraging according to his rank and his bombastic enthusiasm. 

As every crew member and marine made their way out of the lifeboat into the new world they made landfall on, there was some worry and confusion among those who got out the lifeboat. For reasons that that they were on an unidentified planet inhabited with life they don't even know of yet and that their means of getting off this planet, has suffered unexpected damage causing the Tycora to crash somewhere far away from their at right now. The argument and confusion was quickly getting out of hand, but suddenly a loud orderly tone of Sergeant Maddox got everybody's attention.

"ENOUGH, all of you!" Shouted Sergeant Maddox.

After the tone of Sergeant Maddox's voice get everyone's attention, for he had something to say to man them up. 

"This is not the time or the place to shout on about this nonsense!" The Sergeant strictly stated, "So we ended up on another strange planet now did we, you all need to man up!" 

"Us marines have handled many situations like what we're in right now, what I need from everyone here at this very moment now is to remember one thing, we are the UNSC ,and we need to pull ourselves together if we want to get off this beach and find the Tycora's crash site." Sergeant Maddox finished in a determined attitude. As there was silence among the crew and marines, a question came out of turn from the group.

"Pardon my interruption sir but, what should be our first objective?" Questioned Lee.

"That's a good question you asked kid, I'll tell what are first and only objective will be." Said Sergeant Maddox.

"We're all gonna get off this beach and find the Tycora's crash site, when we get there, we will then get off this strange planet." Sergeant Maddox finished.

It was time to put their misfortune aside and focus on their objective, to prepare for their long struggling journey into the strange new world. Their primary objective was through the enormous jungle, many questions wanted answers, but what was important now was getting off the beach and find the ships crash site. The group tried to gather what they could find from the lifeboat, the lifeboats distress beacon was unfortunately damaged due to the impact from the unexpected landfall. Luckily their was supplies that was enough for the group to survive on their journey ahead, there was medical supplies, food, travel equipment, and tools. But there was one important thing that was missing, weapons. For reasons, the lifeboat wasn't supplied with fire arms when panick was happening on the Tycora, some lifeboats had weapons and some did not. There was no time to organize thirty percent of the ships inventory while escaping the Arcadia system, this situation would make the journey difficult for the group without a means of protection against any threat they might face along the way.

There was no telling if the inhabitant life on the planet was either hostile or friendly, but it wouldn't be necessary as as long as they stay as one big group, but for now, they had to get off the beach and into the jungle.



(13 Minutes Later)

It was 13 minutes wandering the jungle, in was in fact endless and huge from what they thought. The trees were ginormous showing streaks of the sun shimmering through the open spaces in the bushes. While some people were spectating, Dr.Erik awake and observing, was busy recording for document researching, he was a big deal and a essential member to the group. Dr.Erik had the tracking device and the intelligence to lead the way to the Tycora's location.
Dr.Erik's documenting was interrupted by Sergeant Maddox grabbing him by the shoulder, it was his way of telling him to put away his science ambitions and focus on the task at hand. 

While there was a few moments of silence, the group suddenly heard sounds of birds, roars of alpha lions, and sounds that were hard to identify. Even though they heard similar sounds of common animals on Earth, they then heard another loud much audible noise that stopped the group and drawing their attention, it was from an animal that they never heard the sounds of before. It was so loud and fearsome that the other noises stopped, it was then getting closer to the group. The creature they we hearing was shaking the trees above them, it also made the sound flapping wings as it flew above them.
As it was above them, it was hard to see what it was, but one of the people in the group was able to see from clear sight in the small opening through the trees, it had giant wings and appeared to be covered in red scales, Erik saw a dragon fly above them with his own eyes.



As the dragon flew above past the group below in the jungle, everything went nice and quiet again, as one of the crew members of the group began panicking from seeing a vicious monster flying above them.  Erik escalated the panicking by  accidentally peeping out the word dragon when he was boggled with realization. Dragons were only mythological creatures in human culture, but wasn't anymore from what they had just seen from above. They were considered in mythology to be hostile or friendly, but the groups thoughts in reality highly saw them as fire-breathing behemoths of destruction. To some of the people of the group, they thought of it as an illusion and couldn't believe what they saw. Once again, Sergeant Maddox had to quiet everything down. 

''Everyone be quiet!'' Sergeant Maddox ordered

''If all of us are expected to get to the crash site through this jungle, I am expecting all of you to keep it down, Sergeant Maddox said, I am gonna tell every one of you something clear and you all better remember well, we are not the only things crawling out here.''Finished Sergeant Maddox.

From the discovery that was just made moments ago, it had made Dr.Erik very curious of what kind of world they were on, a planet very similar to Earth, but also inhabited with mythological species thought to be fiction. In the history of humanity, secrets were unraveled of their kind not being alone in the galaxy discovering the Covenant and the mysterious ancient race known as the Forerunners, even the fact that a long time ago every living thing in the galaxy was annialated by the divine power known as Halo, this fierce weapon was built to cleanse the galaxy. After the end of the noble Forerunners, they left the work of their technology to repopulate every world the Halo ring cleansed of life, like if nothing was never lost in the process of saving the galaxy from their ancient enemy. But worlds, was hard for Dr.Erik to believe they were highly advanced enough to create a world with life they didn't believe was real. 

As time went by, it was now night time, stars were now shining in the dark blue and purple sky looking like a canvas painting in the sky, but was real and beautiful. It was time for the group to set up camp somewhere for the night, luckily for them, there was a safe area for a spaced out peaceful camp site. The area was in open grass with three boulders surrounding the area, one of the boulders had a small cave which was only room for one to sleep in for the night. It was obvious that the person in charge would take up the perfect spot in the cave, Sergeant Maddox called the cave while the others would set up their tents. From Lee's opinion, he thought it was unfair that the Sergeant would be sleeping in the most safest spot while the others set tents up in the opening, just because he was high-ranked doesn't mean he can take up the safest spot for himself. Lee wouldn't have persuaded him to at least let the nervous or exhausted to sleep safely in the cave, for another reason Sergeant Maddox chose the cave cause it reminds him of what he's strongly made of. 

Lee thought of persuading the Sergeant to give the cave to Dr.Erik, but unfortunately he didn't care about sleeping in a cave. He wasn't in the camp in with the group but was sleeping at a different spot, he was lying on his back on the grass plain away from the others, but he wasn't the only one wanted time alone. It was the people who saved his life, Lee, Dale, Mike, Kent, and Glenn. They wanted to see if he was doing alright.

"Thanks for saving my life, I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you guys." Said Dr.Erik.

"Your welcome, we couldn't just leave you in the middle of all that." Lee replied.

"What you guys did back there was very courageous of you all, and make a great team too." Dr.Erik said in appreciation. As Lee and his friends were having time with Dr.Erik, they where about to ask him a question.

"So what are doing out here by yourself when you can be safe where everyone else is?''Kent questioned Dr.Erik.

"Well since you asked me that, just because I'm the groups navigator and also the person who can fix the Tycora's drive doesn't mean I can't have the time I need for myself to analyzing everything  like the genius everyone thinks I am." Said Dr.Erik who was felling exhausted from being ordered around by Sergeant Maddox.

Glenn agreed with Dr.Erik's opinion."Of course, the Sergeant couldn't give you a break, he couldn't give us a break either, we've been wondering the jungle for a while now, but finally we get to have some sleep after all this walking." Said Glenn.

"I know that but this is serious, he's only being strict and on guard because we're on a planet that I don't even know a thing about yet, not like what the UNSC discover while exploring the galaxy. We have landed on a world where we discovered a mythological creature, who knows what else this planet be inhabited with, what if there could be more to this planet than what the Forerunners had to offer?" 

Lee and his friends were at that riddling question as much as Dr.Erik was, he also couldn't get the time to document data on the planet, but luckily he had new friends to help him.

''You know, we could help you with your recording and documenting on this planet,''said Lee.

Dr.Erik was relieved when Lee was glad to lend a hand with his work.''Thanks, that would be really helpful of you guys, there is something i have to tell you guys, when I was recording little data, there was something...''

His sentence was interrupted by the tone of Sergeant Maddox telling everyone to go to sleep. Erik would have tell the portion of his sentence in the morning of the next day. The group had to set up two tents in Erik's spot, there was a big day for them tomorrow depending on how long it takes them to get there. As everyone was getting into their tents, Erik looked up in the sky at the moon with a puzzled look, Lee joined in on what his friend was looking at.

''What are you looking at?'' Lee asked Erik.

''The moon, it looks strange, i haven't seen anything like this before.'' 

As Lee was looking in the same direction that Erik was, he was also puzzled from what he was looking at, the moon had a shape of an animal on the moon, the animal was a unicorn.



''Is that, a unicorn?''Said Lee. 

''I believe it is, but i don't understand, how can something that strange just form by itself on the moon?''Erik said with a puzzled thought.

''Maybe we will look more into the next night, for now we need to get some rest, it's been a long day after all."Said Lee

After they stopped looking at the moon, Erik forgot to ask Lee one of his questions he forgot while he was explaining himself.

"Their is something I forgot to ask you and your friends, what are your names?''Said Erik.

As the others were finished with the tents, they joined in with Lee and Erik. 

''Of course, my name is Lee."

''Dale Spade, but you can call me Dale."

''Mike, what I easily go by.''

''Kent, cautious and alert.''

''Glenn, you know, the one who was carrying you while you were dreaming.''

''It's great to know you guys and glad to make new friends too, you can just call me Erik.'' 

As they were finished introducing each other, it was time for them to get some rest. As the lights in the camp went off, everyone was now asleep. At that very night, was their "last night being human!"
> Chapter 3: Bizarre Anomaly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was now bright and early, Lee's woke up opening his eyes from the sun beaming through the trees in the tent,  the tent had been unzipped for unexplained reasons. Lee felt something wrong with him, he was feeling a minor headache along with his eyes hurting. He also couldn't even get up on two of his legs feeling something fuzzy all over himself. Lee on all fours attempted to get out of the tent still not clearing his hurting vision and mind, he neede to wash his to relieve himself of the pain he was feeling. As he mad it to a small pond, he would soon realize that there is something very off about himself than his pain and headache. When he extended his right arm forward to reach for the water to wash his eyes in the pond, his minor headache and blurry vision quickly went away for Lee to see himself in shock. Lee had no hands, he had a gray smooth and hairy skin, then he looked into the pond slowly to see his reflection to see in shocking realization to see an animal in the perspective of his reflection, the reflection of the animal he saw had green fur, a black mane of a horse and had the same brown eye pupils as Lee did, that animal was Lee. 

Lee was left in shock breathing heavily to not let out a panicky scream, Lee had turned into small horse, he was then quickly cut off as he looked up at his forehead seeing a strange appendage on his head, he was a unicorn. It was only a moment before Lee had let out an scream loud enough to wake up the entire campsite giving everyone a shocking wake up call.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

After Lee had made such an audible scream, he tried to stand up on two of his legs, but unfortunately, he couldn't due to the circumstances of his new form. As he was attempting to stand up on two, he then tumbled backwards on his back, Lee  had no other option but to stand on all fours anyway. As Lee was able to move his limbs steady, he then realized something from looking into the pond again at his reflection, he thought that he might not be the only one that turned into what he is now.  As that wild guess went into Lee's head, he had to hurry his way back to the campsite where his friends were probably waking up from his loud little scene moments ago.                                                                                    

Lee quickly running on four limbs, he made it back to tent with its zipper door still oddly open. When Lee got in the tent, the first to wake up from their sleep was Mike from the sound of his voice, he was feeling the same way as Lee felt when he woke up. After the sleeping bag sheet fell off of Mike, he was the same thing Lee was, a small horse, gray fur, black mane but in different style, and having the same horn on his forehead. Lee called out his name to see if he was alright. As Mike 
faced in the direction Lee was standing in, his vision was cleared up to see good enough at what he was looking at. His eyes grew wide with his mouth agape and was at the point where he was about to scream.

''Mike, listen to me very carefully, just remain calm and don't panic, its me Le....''

Lee had been cut off by the sound of Mike panicking from hearing a talking animal, then he looked at his arms from pushing away not believing what he was seeing, hearing and what had happen to himself.                         

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT IS THIS, LEE? Mike questioned hesitantly. ''WHAT HAPPENED TO US, WHAT'S GOING ON!?''
From Mike's panicking, he woke up Kent, Glenn, and Dale; but Erik wasn't in the tent. It was an obvious guess that he unzipped the tent as Lee went outside. The same as Lee and Mike, they panicked trying to stand up and think straight and looked like the same animal that Lee was. The group in the tent had different features to their new forms and normal ones including; Dale had wings resembling a Pegasus that was the same height as his friends, Glenn was the size of a normal horse taller than the others, Mike was a Unicorn like Lee, and as for Kent, he had black and white stripes resembling a zebra. As the group in the tent calmed down from their fiasco they were making, they were full of questions about what had happened to them. 

''Guys, what the heck happened to us, what are we?!'' Said Glenn as he was attempting to get up.  

''We don't even know that answer at the moment Glenn, we all woke up looking like animals, maybe we shou..!'' As Dale was about to finish, he had fell backwards on his back next to the edge of the tent, as Dale applied weight on the edge of the tent where the support claps held 
everything together, the entire tent suddenly collapsed on top of the group in the tent. As Lee, Dale, Glenn, and Kent struggled to get out of the tent, they then found the opening where the zipper door was, they had to make their way out of the collapsed tent one by one to not make their situation any difficult from what they were dealing with moments ago. When they got out of the tent, they then made a head count and missing one person, it was Erik.                                                                                     

''Ughh guys, where's Erik?'' Questioned Glenn who was now a tall and pale yellow horse with brown hair.    

What Erik, where did he go?'' Asked Dale who was a the same color as Glenn but different height, red and yellow hair and had the wings of a pegasus.

''I think he went that way.'' Said Kent who looked like a zebra but the same height as the three of his friends. He pointed a hoof at the trail of footprints leading to the opposite direction Lee went.

''Wait, the campsite, we weren't the only ones that changed into these things right? We have to see what happened the the others and the Sergeant.'' Said Dale.

''Your right, we should separate, me and Mike will find Erik while you, Glenn and Kent regroup with the Sergeant.'' Said Lee.

While Dale, Glenn, and Kent were regrouping at the campsite, Lee and Mike had found Erik. Erik was a white pegasus with the same black hair, he on the other hand now hoof was calm compared to their reaction. Lee with a puzzled look saw a symbol on the side of his flank looking like a molecule or atom, he then looked at his own flank seeing a symbol but was different, Lee, Mike, Erik, Dale, Glenn, and Kent had different symbols on their flanks Lee had realized just now from spectating Eriks appearance. As the wind breezed peacefully, the silence was interrupted when called out his friends name.

"Erik, is that you?" Questioned Lee.

As soon as Erik heard Lee's voice, he stood up to turn and face Lee seeing that he wasn't the only one that has changed.

"Lee and Mike, the same thing happened to to guys." Said Erik.

"Erik, what are you doing out this far? Lee questioning Erik. Do you have any idea what happened to us and why we are these things?"

"I woke up early, I couldn't walk straight, and then I saw my reflection realizing that I turned into this mythological creature, we have transformed into one state of matter to another!" 

From what Erik just said, Mike wasn't believing a word he was saying.

"So let me get this strait, we transformed into mythological creatures!?" Mike said worried and confused. 
"Hypothetically speaking, yes we have. Can you see that by looking at yourselves in the mirror, Lee and Mike are unicorns and I am a pegasus, this could be a serious situation, what has become of us could become of the whole group at the campsite!" Erik said hesitantly.

After that, Lee, Mike and Erik suddenly heard screams of terror from the direction of the campsite, they were quickly running on all fours back to where the group and their friends were at, but the situation at the campsite would be way worse than how Lee and his friends did the moment they woke up. As they approached the campsite, crew members and marines were freaking out. As for the Sergeant, he was the tallest creature of the group, taller than Glenn. Everyone could not stop the panicking due to the fact that they were now small horses with horns and wings. The situation was getting to out of hand that not even Sergeant Maddox could handle alone, all around Lee was panick and confusion, it was at that very moment, Lee was about to put foot down to reason with everyone. 

"QUIET!" Shouted out Lee with his horn unexpectedly glowing with an orange light on the tip of his horn.

After a moment of the bright light that shines from Lee's horn went off, everyone stood still with all eyes on Lee. Sergeant Maddox was left in shock thinking in his head what he had just seen happen right before is eyes.

"What on Earth was that?" Said Sergeant Maddox who was still shocked from what Lee just did.

As everyone remained calm in the disorganized camp, they had now focused all their attention on Lee. 

"Everyone listen to me, whatever has happened to us is terrifying and I understand that feeling, this is a world that is not like any others we have explored and discovered in the galaxy. Whatever is on this very planet we walk on now is the reason we are these things, but at this very moment right now all of you losing hope in yourselves, we as soldiers must remember to stay strong to survive. When we make it back to the Tycora, we will find a way to fix and undo what has happened to us, we cannot let fear take hold of us because of how much we achieved for many generations and the reasons we have to live on for the next. If we are going to survive this, we have to stay together, so that Humanity may have a future."

From Lee's encouraging and emotional speech, it made the group still silent with their heads tilted down forward in sorrow. While all was silent, Erik was experiencing flash of memories coming back to the UNSC Tycora, he also believed that this bizzare anomaly was set in motion when the engine room was damaged by an unknown energy source. It was a big surprise for Erik to discover that this new advanced slipspace drive had faced yet another slipspace anomaly. This anomaly had a side effect not like any other, the anomaly had changed the human state of matter into another with new shape and form, and Erik had been the only one to answer that situation for the work he was assigned to in the past. Years ago, Erik was chosen to be a part of a secret project directed by ONI, Erik worked as an ONI scientists with many brilliant minds that volunteered in the project, the project was about engineering and creating the Celerium Drive. The Celerium wasn't just made with brilliant minds, but with raw salvaged materials from the wreckage of a destroyed Forerunner ship. The wreckage also had remains of a Forerunner artifact called the Composer. The Composer was irrationally used by the infamous Didact to turn ancient humans into Forerunner soldiers called Promethean's, the ship along with the Composer was destroyed by a Spartan-117 at the incident of New Pheonix. The ship and artifact may have been destroyed, but there was so much to salvage from the remains of its destruction, it's remains were salvaged from big pieces to small shards. Project Celerium was kept secret from the public for a long time until later on it was presented as a greater advantage for the survival of humanity, but the creation of the Celerium was kept in secret for the scientist to keep to themselves, Erik was one of those scientists. As the memories of the secret he was told not to speak of came back to him piece by piece, there would be a time and a place when he would reveal that secret to his friends. As Erik was finished recollecting himself, everyone with horns, wings and without horns and wings were calm and were struggling with their new forms. 

They no longer had hands to pick things up, the couldn't stand up on two legs, and some of the members of the group had horns and wings to get use to. Packing up the tents became unorganized and a mess leaving the ones without horns and wings to use their mouths to grab things in place to put them away, the ones with wings had trouble controlling their reflexes with repeating wing smacks to the face and other places, and as for the ones with horns, they could levitate objects, this helped relieved the group of their current situation. Their ability to levitate objects became fascinating to Erik, the process of the idea almost helped even though packing the camp wasn't that easy as they thought. 



(One Hour Later)

The group were moving on and were busy dealing with their new situation, it wasn't easy being a small horse with horns, wings and neither, and so far the group was not able to find a safe place to rest. Sergeant Maddox on the other hand was  as much annoyed getting use to this new for like everyone else, from observing this current situation gave him an idea. Sergeant Maddox decided to form three separate groups to be trained and adjust to the abilities of their new forms, as the Sergeant was planning things out, one of the marines spotted a secure area which the Sergeant can work on his plan with the whole group, but he would need three other members of the group to help with the training. As Sergeant Maddox's command to secure the perimeter was completed, he then had an announcement proposing his plan.

"Everyone listen up, it has occurred to me that all of us have been struggling with our new situation, which is why I have a plan, we are going to train and adapt in our new forms, we have to separate into three groups, the first group will be Unicorns led by Lee ,the second group will be Pegasus's led by Dr.Erik, and the third group without horns and wings will be with me and besides, I don't have the horns and wings to levitate and fly."

Lee and Erik were suprised to hear that a high-ranked sergeant gave them the task to lead the two groups. As the chattering was finished, Sergeant Maddox was almost done talking.

"Now that our objectives are clear and what each of our groups is met to do, it's now time for all of us to..."

As the Sergeant was about to say the last sentence of his announcement, he was suddenly interrupted by the boom of lightning in the sky. It was certain that there was rain drops coming down on the group leaving a Sergeant Maddox with an annoyed and frustrated expression on his face along with the whole group doing the same. As the rain continued pouring down, he had to finish his announcement involving the rain.

"Everyone get under a tree and set up some tarps, hopefully this rain ends soon." Said Sergeant Maddox in a calm manner.

As the rain came down in the jungle, some of the members of the group were staying dry inside giant hollow trees, some tried staying dry under poorly set up tents that were levitated ant tied to some branches of the trees with water dripping through the tarps, and the rest that didn't care sat in the rain getting soaked and wet. Lee and his friends remained under the tarp dripping endless drops on top of them, if they were in the hollow trees, then Glenn would have made it a tight place to be in. The group sat with their hooves crossed with boredom waiting for the rain to stop, Erik then had a few words to say on their current situation.

"This is going to get harder get use to this then I thought." Said Erik.

Lee turned away with a sigh with the rain dripping through the tarp. Lee and Erik were going to be assigned to task with many trainees depending on them, which met they had a busy day ahead of them.



(Forty Minutes Later)

Now that the rain had ended in the afternoon, the group would now separate to proceed with the Sergeants plan in learning their new abilities. Lee and Mike were in the group of unicorns starting their training in yet another grass plain area but with huge and small boulders everywhere, their first task would be to levitate the boulders  like what they did with their equipment and to figure out what else they could do with their horns. Unicorns in fairytales were known as magical creatures, the group would test their abilities on the rocks to see what magic they are capable of doing. As the group continued clearing the area with their levitation emitting colorful auras from the groups horns, in attempt of levitating one of the bigger boulders from the area, one of the members accidentally tripped on a small boulder losing his hold on the big boulder that had been high above that was about to fall down on Mike. Lee quickly noticed the boulder as it was about to fall and crush his freind like bug, he pointed his horn directly at the boulder hesitating not to miss and shot out an orange light beam from his horn destroying the boulder into many bite sized pieces.

After that, Lee opened his eyes to see if Mike was alright, for some reason everybody was looking at Lee with shocked expressions on their faces. Mike just saw his friend shoot a laser beam from his horn that would prove to be a means of protection along the way, he then nervously asked Lee a question from what he just witnessed.

"Lee, how did you do that?" Mike asked Lee.

"W-well all I did was just horn at the boulder focused with this power I felt. I think I figured out another use for this sort of thing, if unicorns have magic, we can do all sorts of things that couldn't be possible." Lee finished.

From what Lee said made the group boosted with confidence, when he described how he shot the beam at the boulder, Mike and the group would do the same thing. Some of the group asked Lee a question that Lee could maybe be certain of.

"Are you sure this is how it works?" Questioned the marine.

"Yes that's how I did it so why not, now aim and focus your energy at the target."

Well alrighty then, like the kids instructions. The unicorn marine said to himsel. First aim at the target ,focus your energy and..."

As the marine released the surge of energy from his horn at the object, a blue beam of light had burst out from his horn shooting a burnt hole through a tree with birds flying out of it. The others felt thrilled of what the marine managed to pull off with simple instructions. 

"I did it, I did it, did you guys see that right there, boy I could get use to this thing just fine!" Said the Marine as he was touching the tip of his horn feeling if it was hot from the laser he shot from it.

After the marines try, two more beams of light in the colors of green and white shot at two boulders with the same positive outcome, then it was the whole group making progress with a light show of cool colors. The objective in clearing out the boulders had now been an easy task for the unicorn group thanks to the guidance of Lee. Lee managed a perfect job at testing out their second greatest ability in their training, the boulders had now been reduced into smaller pebbles when the group had been using them as target practice. Now that the unicorns have mastered a way to defend the group, they had much to do with their levitating after what had happened with the boulder almost crushing somebody. Little did Lee and Mike know that they were not the only ones doing what they can to make progress.

The group of pegasus le by Erik were still learning how to get off the ground, the group had felt nervous of heights and did not want to do something that would lead to fractured injuries. Erik's group was becoming desperate in their attempts to fly including Sergeant Maddox's group without the magic or flight, they were the brawn and muscle from the strength they now had. Learning to fly and and controlling their new strength would be a difficult task for trainees to overcome, but luckily their doubt was brushed off when Erik and Sergeant Maddox gave them an example of the strength they didn't see in them. Erik led his group to a cliff edge, Erik was determined to teach a thing or two about what his group is capable of doing, by jumping off high ground in order to fly. Eriks idea may have been risky but he wasn't going to have anyone injured, at the bottom of the cliff was an airbag that was set to avoid a hard fall. Dale and the group felt nervous about Erriks idea in helping them fly, Erik needed a first volunteer.

"Ok everyone, I know this is going to be a risky but all of you need to trust me on this one so that we can make it through this." Said Erik as he was watching his step towards the edge.

When Erik saw that no one would be making the first jump, he then had another risky idea that could make his group fly like eagles. 

"No first volunteers? Ok then, I'll go first." Erik said as he jumped off the edge of the cliff in free fall.

Dale and the others were too late to stop him, when they first saw Erik falling close to the ground,they then unexpectedly saw him in a blur shot straight up into the sky above the ground with the group looking at Erik with suprise. While Erike was now high above the group flapping his wings in the air, he looked down at them with a confident smile. 

"What are waiting for? Erik questioned the group.

"Come on!"

Now that Eriks group felt confident, one-by-one with Dale leading them jumped off the edge and taking flight alongside Erik, like the unicorn group, their training in their forms abilities has skyrocketed. The group of unicorns and the group without horns and wings looked up into the sky seeing familiar faces soaring I the air, Lee, Mike, Glenn and Kent were impressed to see that Erik did far more then what their were in the middle of. Erik ,Dale and the whole pegasus group did a circle formation readying to maneuver their flying capabilities in the sky, it had been a sign of courage and potential for the other groups. Now it was time for the group without the horns and wings to show what their made of. After 70 minutes of training, they had finally made great progress with their strength. The group would be the brawn and muscle to carry things and shove things out of the way, they had the Sergeant to thank for their training, Glenn proved to be a great example due to his buff size and strength, and as for Kent the zebra, he had a strong grip with his tail. The three groups proved that they were capable of doing three things: the pegasus group would be the eyes in the sky, the unicorns were the firepower in defending the group, and the group without horns and wings were the brawn and muscle to carry heavy objects and push them out of the way.

It had now been nightfall, the unicorns made setting up the camp much easier thanks to all the hard work in their training, and as for the six friends, they found a spot peaceful enough for them to camp in. The night sky had been the best wonder   since they first arrived on the planet, as Erik and the other we're looking at the stars, he then pointed a hoof at the moon getting his friends attention. 

"You know, I've been thinking about the strange wonders of this world for quite a while now." Said Erik.

"What have you been thinking of so far Erik?" Questioned Lee.

"I'm thinking that we might be encountering strange things along the way, or a civilization on this planet that we didn't even know exists, and I wonder every day on this planet what we will encounter along the way next." Erik stated.

"So do I Erik, so do I." Finished Lee as he and the others were going to sleep for the next morning.

What Erik said made Lee very curious, but he was learning so much about this world that he didn't believe at first, and what they have become and the creature they have seen was a bigger question that had no possible answers that members of the group couldn't explain. And the part when Erik said that there could be a civilization, maybe a kingdom somewhere on the planet that could lead to an explanation to the bizzare anomaly and what kind of planet they were on.
Also the last part of what Erik said that there is no clue to what they will encounter next, but whatever comes next, it might give them the help and answers to all of their questions.
> Chapter 4: Strange Encounter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the morning sunlight shines through the trees, Lee had woken up with muscle cramps from yesterdays hard work, Lee stretched out like a cat to loosen himself up while everyone else started waking up. While the group was taking a moment to stretch themselves out, they suddenly heard some noise, it was close to them, it was the sound of a women screaming, and from the sound of it made it clear that she was in trouble. 

The women's scream had woken the whole camp up ready and alert for what was coming, Sergeant Maddox gave the group an order.

"Everyone stay together, prepare yourselves and remember what you've learned!"Sergeant Maddox commanded everyone as if they were about to be attacked by some other strange creature. 

Lee wanted to find where the scream was coming from, but doing that would be disobeying direct orders from the Sergeant, but he had to save who was in trouble, and he wouldn't be the only one ignoring orders. As Lee ran off towards the source of the scream, he was being followed by Erik, Glenn, and Dale while Mike and Kent were stuck with the group. When Erik, Glenn, and Dale followed Lee, he then suddenly stop, instead of hearing the sound of the women screaming, he heard the roar of a beast. Lee and his friends had to pick up the pace and save the women in trouble, as they got closer and closer to where the sounds were coming from, they then heard footsteps quickly heading their way popping out of the bushes in a blur of yellow and green running pass Lee and Dale but crashing into Glenn causing the creature to tumble backwards. The creature sounded like a women when she moaned in pain from colliding face first with Glenn Lee, Dale, and Erik looked at the creature with wide eyes, she looked like them but shorter race, had green hair with a yellow coat, and a tattoo on her flank looking like a carrot. 

The female creature had gotten back up terrified and confused by the strangers she bumped into, as the group exchanged confused looks at eachother, the the source of the second sound had pounced from out of the bushed in front of the group. The group would not believe the next thing they were seeing, the beast had the body of a lion, the wings of a bat, and a scorpions tail. This beastly creature was a manticore.


As the manticore charged towards the group along with the newcomer, Lee stood his ground against the manticore readying to ignite his horn emitting a blinding light that managed to frighten the creature and scaring it away back to where it came from. After that, the group opened their eyes to see that the hostile creature was gone. It was a relief to the group that their new tactics had worked in protecting themselves, they then needed to see if the women was ok. She was breathing heavily in and out from her near death experience as she was surrounded by strangers, Glenn did not hesitate to be the first to make contact with the strange creatures of this world eye to eye.

"Are you alright ?" Glenn said to the now calmed down mare.

"I-I'm ok, thanks for saying me from that manticore, I'm sorry I ran into you like that, i was afraid it would get me if I hadn't stopped running" 

"It's fine, your safe with us is what matters." Said Glenn helping the mare back up.

"By the way, what are you four ponies doing out here anyway?" The mare questioned the stallions.

As the group heard the mare refer to them as ponies in the question, they were strucked with confusion with the words she just said.

"I'm sorry, but did you just say po...?" Dale said being cut off when Lee punched his right wing, it was obvious if they revealed to the mare that they were not of this world, she would be terrified of them instead, Lee would ask the mare.

"Sorry we didn't get that, what did you say?" Lee asked

"I said what are you ponies doing out here, are you four the only ones here?" The mare questioned again.

Lee, Glenn and Dale were nervous to answer the mares specific question, but then Erik chose to answer the question.

"We were actually for help, and we're not the only ugh ponies out here. We seperated from our group when we heard you were in trouble." Erik stated.

"Seperated, how many ponies are out here?" The mare questioned.

"Lots of us, we are trying to find our way out of this jungle so we can.." Erik quickly had to replace the word ship with something else to not make the mare curious of them. "So we can find a town or settlement nearby." Said Erik.

"I think I can help you and your friends, I was on my way to a town called Appaloosa, I was going to deliver some carrots for their crops but unfortunately, I lost the cart to the manticore. Maybe the ponies of Appaloosa can help you."

"Th-that's very helpful, thanks mame." Erik said.

''No need to call me that, my name is Golden Harvest.''

Lee, Dale, Erik and Glenn could not believe what they were hearing, the multicolored pony they were talking to, the name she had, and the name of the place she talked about.

''So ugh, can you tell us what jungle are we in, or do you have a map?'' Erik questioned Golden Harvest.
When Golden Harvest heard Erik's question, she then felt nervous and remembered something she had dropped while being chased by the manticore not far from her demolished cart. Golden Harvest felt certain that they were in bad place to be in.

''I believe we're in a jungle that is dangerously close to the Badlands, this is a place that isn't safe for anypony. We have to get far away form here, who knows what else is going to pounce out of nowhere!'' Golden Harvest said feeling worried. 

''The group, we have to get back to the Sergeant!'' Lee said hesitantly.

I'll take it from here, i'm going to fly low so you can follow me. I don't think we got too far from them.'' Replied Dale.

As Dale would continue to lead the way back, Erik wanted to bring the newcomer along.

''You better come with us, they need a map and help finding away out of this jungle.'' Erik said to Golden Harvest. 

''I'll go, you ponies are lucky to still be out here in one piece.'' Said Golden Harvest as they followed the pegasus back to the camp.

When Dale led his friends and Golden Harvest back to their group, they started eyeing at the green haired pony that was Golden Harvest who was also hiding behind Lee, Dale, Erik, and Glenn as Sergeant Maddox came towards the four of them with the newcomer. Golden Harvest was curious and nervous as to why everypony was looking at her oddly, as for  Sergeant Maddox, he was about to rant at Lee and his friends for disobeying his direct orders.

''What were you four doing out there, and what is that thing behind you!?'' Sergeant Maddox demanded

Erik was nervous to how the Sergeant was reacting to their short absence.

"W-well we found out where the noises were coming from and..." Erik was too nervous to to finish his sentence because of how displeased the Sergeant was with him and his friends actions, then Golden Harvest interrupted.

"I'm a she and my name is Golden Harvest, these ponies saved my life!" Golden Harvest retorted. "And you ponies need to get out of this jungle."

When Golden Harvest spoke out of turn, she made the group felt more nervous and confused. 

"Did she just call us ponies?" Said the marine.

"Saved from what, what els is out here?" Said the crew member.

"I knew something this jungle was dangerous, it's full of things ready to eat us!" Said the second marine that was worried even more.

"Everyone calm down!" Shouted Sergeant Maddox. "As you were saying."Sergeant Maddox said letting the pony finish what she was saying.

"This jungle is dangerously close to the Badlands, I have a map, but I'll need help finding it." 

Sergeant Maddox was thinking about all the words he heard coming the girls mouth made him rethink his objective little by little, they were in a whole new world not aware of what kind of monsters and creatures inhabited it, what's important now was to trust this newcomer who could help guide him and his group out of the jungle.

"Well then, where is this map?" Questioned Sergeant Maddox.

"It should be on my cart, it isn't far from here though." Said Golden Harvest.

Sergeant Maddox looked at Lee and the rest of his friends giving them an affirmed nod, he then motioned to the whole group giving his next order.

"Alright everyone, now is the time we find a way out of this jungle, and let's get moving!" Ordered Sergeant Maddox.

Sergeant Maddox now put his faith to let Golden Harvest lead the way, for it was certain that this pony guiding them knows about the regions of the planet and what lies ahead for their journey. As Holden Harvest found her demolished cart, she looked around the back to finding her saddle bag hanging with the map safely inside of it, and when she found the map, it was certain for the group that their difficult journey would now be an easy one.

(10 Minutes Later)
Thanks to the guidance of Golden Harvest, the group  wouldn't have to deal with the long distance into the dangerous jungle. As they were making their way out of the jungle far from the Badlands, the group were entering in what Golden Harvest refereed to as the Hayseed Swamps. The Hayseed Swamps had frogs croaking and had similar features to the swamps on their home planet. As the group wandered in the swamp, Mike and two other marines looked at a large lake with bubbles popping out of it as if something was under the water, it was a lumpy shape with sharp eyes looking back at them. Mike and the two marines looked nervously at the water beast, they were soon cut off when the Sergeant noticed their fears.

"Hey you three, stay focused, and quit fooling around while your at it!" Said Sergeant Maddox trying to keep his men focused.

When the three heard the Sergeant's tone, they immediately ignored what they were looking at and kept on walking, the odd shape with the reptilian eyes sank back down into the lake of the Hayseed Swamp. 

(Twenty Minutes Later)
The group were now making their way out of the swamp, as for Erik along the safe path out, his attention had been strangely drawn to something. As the group took a short resting break, Lee, Dale, and Mike followed Erik trying to search back in the end of the Hayseed Swamps. Where Erik guided himself, it got foggy and darker where he was going. Erik then heard a rumbling in the group causing him to fall into a hole underground. Lee and his friends once again had to find Erik.

"Erik, where are you?" Lee shouted out finding his friend.

Lee and his friends were on the right path, then Dale found where Erik had vanished to.

"Hey look!" Dale said motioning to a hole in the ground with Erik's hoof prints leading into it af if he had taken detour underground. 

Erik had gotten up on his hoofs clearing his vision to see what strange place he had ended up in from the fall, as his vision cleared up, he then saw somethings that was drawing his attention. It was a black rotten tree, which appeared to have been busted open, and all around the decayed tree was greenish tar. Erik just stood still looking at the strange tree, it wasn't long for his friends to find him as they also looked at the tree as well. Erik wondered what made those markings all over the tree, and what kind of living thing would burst out of decaying tree that would give off such an alien feeling to him and his friends. After they were done looking at the strange tree, they went back up to the surface, and as for Lee, he took one last glance at it and left.

Now that that the group managed to make it through the dangerous jungle and the Hayseed Swamps, the Sergeant was then coordinating with Erik and Golden Harvest to pinpoint where they were heading to next. Golden Harvest pointed a hoof on her map on the place she talked about, Appaloosa. It was a good relief for the group to for the group to know that they were now out of the worse part of the planet and were now entering the brighter side of their journey, but it wasn't over yet, their way to Appaloosa would be through a humid place with no trees and only sand and rocks. Their next destination would be through the desert.
> Chapter 5: A Town They Call Appaloosa
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The desert had western features like the ones on their Earth, the settlement the group was reaching did sound like a western town from how Golden Harvest described it as. As the group was walking, they spotted what appeared to be a herd of buffalos being led by a smaller and leaner buffalo, Golden Harvest also mentioned to the group that there was problems between the buffalos and the settler ponies of Appaloosa. This situation Golden Harvest informed them reminded Erik about what happened in the history of his species, the fact that the buffalos are like Native Americans who lived on their lands for generations and that the settler ponies were like settlers who would travel to the west to claim land for farming and establishing communities. Erik thought to himself that maybe the buffalos were unhappy with the settler ponies for taking up some of their land.

After a long distance through the desert, the group saw a town, a town they called Appaloosa. As the group made their way into the town, they saw many colorful ponies dressed like westerners, Sergeant Maddox and Erik needed everyone to act natural so that they would not draw so much attention to themselves in Appaloosa. Golden Harvest, Erik and Sergeant Maddox were suddenly welcomed by a kind greeting country pony.

"Hey everypony. Welcome to AAAAAAA-PPLE-LOOSA!" Said the country pony greeting Golden Harvest and the newcomers. "My name is Braeburn and its..." Braeburn was soon cut off as he recognized Golden Harvest.

"Golden Harvest, your alright!" Braeburn said giving the mare a big hug. "Everypony was getting worried about you, what happened?"

"I'm fine, these ponies saved me from a Manticore when I accidentally took a wrong turn into the Badlands." Said Golden Harvest 

"A Manticore, in the Badlands, the Badlands is full of nasty critters, and who are these ponies?" Braeburn questioned.

"We're just travelers that walked a long distance looking for a place to stay for the night." Said Sergeant Maddox joining in on their conversation. 

"As you can see Braeburn, these ponies have made a very long distance from the Badlands to here."

"Wow, now that's quite a journey, of course I'm able to spare plenty of room for your new friends to rest for the night, and long distance travelers deserve a good nights rest." Braeburn said shaking Sergeant Maddox's hoof. Like Golden Harvest, Braeburn was curious about the mysterious group of ponies, but what matters now is rest for the group and what they seek on their journey.

"Thanks for your generosity Braeburn, my name is Maddox, it's very important that we speak in private." Said Sergeant Maddox being the first to introduce himself. 

Braeburn wasn't sure what he was on about, Sergeant Maddox brought Erik and Golden Harvest along so that they can help decide their next destination. One of the Appaloosians led the group to the bar, lucky their had been some open sleeping quarters upstairs, on their way inside ponies were exchanging odd looks at the strange newcomers that were entering the bar. Dale and Mike were sporting an almost fake smile doing nothing as all eyes were on them, and some of the members in the group tried their best to do the same.

"Why are they looking at us like that?" Mike whispered to Dale.

"I don't know maybe the fact that we have pale coats or were straight terrible at not drawing so much attention to ourselves." Dale whispered back at Mike.

As the group made their way upstairs taking up space in the upper floor of the bar, Sergeant Maddox, Erik and Golden Harvest were at Braeburn's home discussing about their destination, but the Sergeant didn't want to mention anything that they are from another world turned into their kind with a ship heavily damaged unable to determine if it would still be intact and fly again. If they were to tell these ponies the truth about them, they would think they were crazy, but the point is that they needed help and lots of it.

"I need to ask you an important question Braeburn, do you know where we can find someone or something that knows a whole lot about this world we are in?" Asked Sergeant Maddox making such an odd question for the earth pony to easily  answer, Braeburn was confused to why anypony would ever ask a question, it might be because they weren't born in Equestria  and came from another land far somewhere else. 

"Why uh yes of course, you know a question like that makes me curious that you ponies aren't from around here are you?"

"Your right, we're newcomers to this land and we need to know all we can of where we are." Erik interjected.

"Well as a matter of fact, I know somepony who can help you and your friends, she is the most powerful being in the land, she brings daylight everywhere and is the most kindhearted ruler who watched over and protected us for many generations. Her name is Princess Celestia."

"Princess Celestia, are you sure that she can be willing to help travelers like us!" Questioned Erik.

"She's just the help you ponies need." Braeburn stated.

"Great that's perfect, where do we find her?" 

"The Princess lives in the capital city of Chanterlot." Said Golden Harvest. Her kingdom is above in the tall mountains that shines from the radiant sunlight, you can reach Chanterlot by train, and it's an overnight trip too." Golden Harvest finished.

"Lucky for you guys that the train to Chanterlot arrives here tomorrow morning, and you should definitely get some shut eye so that you and your friends don't miss the train and be there on time when it arrives."

As the sun came down, Sergeant Maddox and Erik led by Braeburn were heading to the bar where the group was resting in for tomorrow. With the group fast asleep, Braeburn was still puzzled with what he has been seeing lately for the past days, first it was a strange giant object falling from the sky and the town is visited by odd newcomers that are not even from this land. But Braeburn sought to keep those thoughts to himself and call it a day. 

(The Next Morning)
The sun was rising and the train screeched to a hault making a loud whistle signaling that the train to Chanterlot had arrived. The train was audible enough to be heard by Sergeant Maddox falling over the bed and looking out the window to see where the noise was coming from, he saw the smoke from the train putting him in worry to wake everyone else up. 

"WAKE UP, EVERYONE WAKE UP!" Shouted Sergeant Maddox startling everyone wide awake.

Every member of the group in the sleeping quarters instantly woke up in panic worried that they all would miss the train, instead of getting down the stairs in an orderly fashion, they were tumbling down the stairs in a hurry out the door to the train station, and after the small turmoil out of the bar ended, the group were now calmly organized nearing the train station. When the group reached the station, Lee and Erik spotted Braeburn and Golden Harvest waiting for their departure. The Conductor saw the group signaling the train operator to wait for the additional passengers to board, Golden Harvest wanted to say goodbye to the ponies that saved her life.

"Hey wait up!" Shouted Golden Harvest getting the attention of Lee, Mike, Dale, Glenn, Kent and, Erik. "Since you guys are leaving now, I just want thank you six for saving my life in the Badlands and getting me safely to Appaloosa."

"Your welcome, and sorry about what happened to the cart." Said Dale.

"Oh it's ok those things can sometimes be replaced, it was nice to meet you ponies like you, and I'll never forget you." Said Golden Harvest quickly wrapping her hooves around Glenn with a tight hug goodbye.

Glenn's eyes were wide as he was being embraced with a hug by the earth pony, after their short farewell, Lee and Erik then went to say goodbye to Braeburn.

I'm glad y'all had a good nights rest, I do hope you find what your looking for from Princess Celestia, it would've been great if you could stay for a little while to enjoy what Appaloosa has to offer." Said Braeburn.

"Wait, we don't have something to pay to get on the train!" Erik interrupted.

"Don't worry about that, we Apples got ya covered." Braeburn said relieving the situation holding out a sack of coins to give to the conductor.

As Lee and Erik finished their goodbyes, they rejoined the group forming into a line on the train. With other ponies boarded the train, the next to board was the group needing to pay the conductor. The conductor had a puzzling look at the new passengers, but then Braeburn came to the conductor to let the group board the train. After the group finally got on the train, Lee and his friends looked out the window to see Golden Harvest and Braeburn waving goodbye as the train began moving to depart from Appaloosa to the capital city of Chanterlot.
> Chapter 6: The Royal Palace
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lee and his friends were nicely relaxed on their train ride to Chanterlot, they even had a booth to themselves so that they wouldn't have to deal with the tightest spot on the train cart, and Erik was also relieved that all their questions will be answered on their way to the Princess. Lee and the others shared some laughs and some stories along the way. Dale even mentioned the story of the Spartans who fought on Reach in the past Human Covenant War in 2552, some of the group was curious about one Spartan that was left behind in the Fall of Reach if he lived or died. Erik remembered an old saying that "Spartan never die." There were Spartans that were unbeatable and some who risked their own lives to save millions, it was in a time of great interstellar conflict for survival. Discussing about the human covenant war did take up quite the conversation in the booth, Erik even told Lee and Mike that he had to make the group fly by jumping off a cliff, and Glenn thought that was a crazy move coming from a pony who is afraid of heights. What Erik and Dale did that day was a memory that would never be forgotten in experience. 

Outside the window were green forests with wide ranged mountains beyond the distance for the group to see, they looked at it all with amazement, Mike looked at the mountains with the patches of snow along with Glenn admiring all the trees forest reminding him of the colony he grew up in, while the group looked out the window admiring the view, Sergeant Maddox was busy concerned about the Tycora, the crew and its captain. He was being so strict with leading everyone else because he didn't want to risk lives at stake that he doesn't even know are alive or done for, being on this planet has been a big concern with what they have encountered and what else they will find along the way, and luckily the old enemy that they feared does not know where they have ended up.  As it was once again nighttime, every passenger on the train was going to sleep along with the group getting some rest for the next morning.                                                                   





(Chanterlot Royal Palace, Sculpture Garden)

Princess Celestia had sat quietly for hours with her eyes closed in the garden, for some reason she was trying to sense some entity or presence of something unknown. Ever since she saw the strange object fall from the sky, she has been sensing a new kind of source of magic, magic she believed to have come from the object in the sky, and this new kind of magic was alien to Equestria. Princess Celestia then felt another presence from the alien magic, it was coming towards Chanterlot, and it was coming by train.

(The Next Morning)
Erik woke up to nothing but pitch black on the train as it was going through a tunnel, when Erik looked around to see if there was any light illuminating, he was then too late to react to the bright sunlight at the end of the tunnel, Eriks reaction to the blinding daylight caused him to tumble backwards with everyone also waking up to the painful light. For moments of recovering from the painful light, Erik was quickly able to clear his vision catching a view through the window, it was the city of Chanterlot. From the view outside showed that the train had been moving on a mountainside getting closer to the station.

"So that's the crown jewel." Dale said.

"Sure looks like it, definitely fit for a princess." Replied Erik.

As the train was reaching its destination, Sergeant Maddox told the group to ready for departure, including the other six members of the group that were looking out the window getting their direct attention.

"You six better be ready, were almost there." Said Sergeant Maddox.

"You heard the man lets move!" Said Dale leading the way out.

When the train passed through the gate into Chanterlot, the train then went to a hault at the station. Lee and the others were accounted for as they whole group was getting off the train, the place they were in was beyond compared to Appaloosa, and it showed to be a place of higher status including. And now that they arrived in Chanterlot, they must now find the princess. There was not much eyes on them in Appaloosa, but there were many eyes on them here in the city of Chanterlot, the city was filled with shoppers, cafes and fancy dressed ponies all around them. The distance to the castle was only a few blocks away for the group to see. 

As the group continued walking to the castle, four ponies exiting out of a boutique shop started staring at the group of odd ponies with a discussed look.

"Ugh where did those ponies come from a swamp." Remarked the mare wearing a white shirt and pink draped sweater.

"Can you believe what those ponies are wearing, it's like they pulled out a tattered piece of fabric from a mud puddle." Remarked the stallion wearing a green shirt and white draped sweater.

The snobby comments was disregard by Sergeant Maddox as some of the group found it to be the wrong thing to say to the wrong kinds of ponies who they were laughing at. Lee and his friends use to deal with those kind of people that had higher standard to show off to the people in the outer colonies that struggled to keep up. And Dale on the other hand wanted to give those ponies a piece of his mind.

"Do they have any idea who they're messing with?!" Dale whispered to Lee and Erik's ears.

"Keep it cool Dale, we have to keep our distance and not to try and provok them into making them think we're not invaders from another world ok!" Erik suggested to Dale not wanting to be watched by the whole place.

After block by block, the group was now one block close to the castle. Lee was looking around the place admiring the architecture, when he soon looked to the left, he was suddenly too late to react to a purple unicorn crashing into him. While Lee and the purple unicorn got back up clearing their vision, the purple unicorn mare grunted looking around seeing that her parchments and books were scattered, so she immediately got up on her four legs levitating all her disorganized belongings saying quick words.

"Sorry gotta go bye!" Said the purple unicorn as she quickly running off somewhere else in a hurry.

Lee didn't get the chance to anything because the unicorn was quickly gone, when Lee got back up, Erik, Dale and Mike to see if he was alright.

"Lee are you alright?"

"I'm fine, it was just an accident." Said Lee feeling his snout from the collision he just had.

After passing the last block, they were at the guarded entrance of the castle. There were four royal guards blocking the entrance with spears pointed at the strangers approaching them, and they were not going to let a group of odd ponies into the Royal Palace that easily.

"Stay where you are, what is your business here?" said the armored pony in an orderly tone to the strangers in their presence.

"My name is Sergeant Maddox, these are my men, and we came a long way here to gain information by seeing the princess." Said Sergeant Maddox making the guards concerned reminding them what the princess told them to be aware of.

Princess Celestia gave an order to the royal guards to escort strange newcomers that she sensed an alien presence of, and it was obvious that she was referring to the strange newcomers the guards are confronting right now. After realizing the orders the guards were given, they then decided to let them in to escort the group to Princess Celestia's throne room. The door to the inside of the castle was huge with stairs going to two separate wings with banners stretching from the ceiling down to the floor, the floor was so spotless they could see their reflection. The most interesting thing the group saw in the castle was the tall corridors with beautiful stained glass windows leading towards the throne room. And the throne room doors tall like windows reacheding the sky, opened now appearing in the presence of Princess Celestia.

The entire group had nervous and wide eyed expressions what they were in the presence of, Princess Celestia was taller than every pony in the room along with Sergeant Maddox, she had a longer horn with wings of an angel, and hair the flowed with brightly eligant colors. The princess resembled in their perspective as a living goddess right before their eyes, and she even had the symbol of the sun on her flank showing that she holds a great responsibility Erik thought.

"Who are you, what are you, and why are you here? Questioned Princess Celestia ina direct tone.

Sergeant Maddox and the group were all silent coming up with precise words not trying to make a bad first contact with the this worlds lawful ruler. Then Erik came fourth putting his nervousness aside as the first to speak to ask her the questions that him and his kind need answers to about what happened to them.

"My name is Erik your majesty." Erik said we aren't from this world, and we came here on a ship that traveled far beyond into unknown space. When we jumped into this system, our ship had taken unexpected damage crash landing who knows where, and we were not your kind when we landed here, we turned into your kind the very next day." 

"What did you met when you said that you were not our kind when you first arrived here?" Princess Celestia questioned Erik.

"Well as you can see your highness thats what we need an answer about, and it has do with our slipspace drive. Lee interjected.

"What's is a slipspace drive?"

"It's a device that allows us to travel faster through farther distances into space, we are a technological race that made a great amount of scientific achievements, there was an anomaly that happened in out ships drive that turned us into your species, and we came a long way here to see if you can tell us what this world is and what we are in it" Erik stated in curiosity.

Princess Celestia had so much going on in her mind with these aliens, and from what she was hearing from them made her feel that they have need so much to learn about this world, and she would be willing to help these aliens with all the help she can offer.

"You are in the land of Equestria, You have turned into Equestrians, there are three kinds that are Earth ponies, Unicorns and Pegasai. As for me, I am an Alicorn Princess, I have the strength of an earth pony, the wings of pegasus and the horn of a unicorn. I use my magic to maintain peaceful harmony in Equestria, the other night I felt the presence of alien magic that you brought into this world, is there anything else you can tell me about this anomaly?"

"The anomaly I believe was triggered when the slipspace drive was exposed to an unknown energy sources that emitted from the planets surface, it was powerful enough, and it could've caused great devastation to the ship. It was powerful, it was bizzare, it was... Magic." Said Princess Celestia interjecting the last word in Erik's sentence.

"Magic?" Erik said surprised.

"Of course, magic is what actively and passively surrounds all of Equestria, in my ability using magic to maintain harmony, i raise the sun and moon. Evan though magic has been used for good purposes, it is also used for evil and discord, and I believe that your ships drive was exposed to magic from our world creating a new kind of magic so strong that it not only damaged the state of your vessel but shaping your forms into our species." Princess Celestia finished. 

It was all finally clear from all that had happened for the past days, scientists thought that it would be the safest and powerful next generation slipspace drive, but when the means of it came to being used to flee from their old enemy into unknown space, their predictions were far more than what they had imagined. From Erik's theory that the pieces of the Didact's weapons forged into a new slipspace drive resulted not only in a powerful means of slipspace travel, but an anomaly unlike any other in scientific history. And Erik may be the first to discover this new anomaly himself.

"Whatever this kind of magical energy we became affected by has put us in a hard position, as you can tell we came a long way here in need of desperate your help." Erik said kneeling before Princess Celestia being meaningful of all he was saying with Lee, Dale, Mike, Kent, and Glenn by his side. 

Princess Celestia could highly understand how much that these aliens had been through, they may be aliens from a whole new world not knowing yet what they could be capable of , but in the princesses eyes she didn't see them as aliens, but as her kind that was struggling in a world they have never set foot in before. She got up from her throne towards Erik putting her hoof on his shoulder.

"There is no need to beg, I've been around for a long time watching over Equestria for many generations, for I will use my powers to help you and your people make it through this situation. I will promise to teach you about us, our world and are magic, And your kind is also welcomed to make a home here in Equestria."

"Thank you very much, this will mean a lot to our kind and yours." Erik said feeling very relieved.

"You are very much welcomed, now that you all are here, I now believe we should continue to find where your ship and its captain have landed. We will all be going there by chariots, the royal guards can make the flight go by fast depending on how far your ship has landed." Princess Celestia signaling the guards to get the door.

"You can sense where are ship is at too?" Lee questioned

"Of course, your crashed ship has been emitting magic far miles from here getting stronger and stronger by the minute, and it's important now that we must go." 

As the group now being led by the princess made their way out the throne room, Erik was feeling very curious about the stained glass windows and the story behind them.

"Excuse me princess but what is the history told by these Stained glass windows?" Erik said questioning the princess.

"They tell the stories of events that have happened in Equestria every generation."

"That's fascinating, but what is the story behind that one?" Erik said pointing at the window with the two alicorns circling around a strange creature, it was one that Celestia had remembered very much being by someone she cared for.



"That tells an event of Chaos being Overthrown, me and my sister had to defeat an evil Draconequus called Discord, we had to defeated him by using the Elements of Harmony. The Elements of Harmony are powerful artifacts possessing the aspects of harmony, and using them to turn Discord into stone saving Equestria from his chaos he will no longer bring, and as you can tell, I wasn't the only Alicorn. There are three Alicorn Princesses; me, Princess Cadence, and Princess Luna."Princess Celestia slowly paused when she mentioned her sisters name.

"Princess Luna, my younger sister who raises the moon, grew bitter and jealous in Equestrias citizens living more of the day than the night, she soon refused to lower the moon turning into a mare of darkness called Nightmare Moon. I the elder sister harnessed the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful magic in Equestria which is met to restore peace and balance against my own corrupted sister banishing her to the moon for 1000 years, and now I am here left with the responsibility to raise both the sun and moon and watch over Equestria." Princess Celestia finished leaving Erik to discover something he thought was impossible.

"Wait a minute, Erik said abruptly, how long have you been around for?" Erik asking Princess Celestia in confused manner.

"For thousands of years, alicorns have an immortal lifespan ruling throughout many ages in Equestria." Stated the princess leaving Erik with his mind blown along with the group.

"So this tall beauty is immortal, first I thought the mythological creatures was bizarre enough but an immortal princess, this planet is incredible." Dale said astonished along with the group members whispering from the facts Princess Celestia shared with them.

There was so much more to discuss and learn more of for the group, mostly what can be done in the future with their worlds magic and the UNSC's technological advances can be a great step forward not just for Equestria, but for the Human race, but it would not something to bring up yet, for were other important matters to be dealt with. As the group being led by the princess made it to the last doorway, two guards opened the doors revealing an open courtyard with a line of eleven pegasus-drawn chariots awaiting for their passengers. In the front middle was Princess Celestia's chariots, then the group got on board the chariots with Sergeant having one thing to say to the group before they take flight.

"Alright everyone, our long journey has finally paid off, and now we're going to go back to the Tycora and back to our captain,were ready lets go!" Announced Sergeant Maddox motioning to the princess with a hoof soon hovering off the ground into the sky towards the destination of the UNSC Tycora's crash site.
> Chapter 7: UNSC Tycora
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chariots were flying a very far distance away from Chanterlot, the princess could sense the alien magic getting closer and closer to where they were heading, and it was in the dry and humid desert. Glenn tried to avoid looking down from the tremendous height the chariots were going in through the clouds, and pass the clouds, they saw the Tycora. 

Like what Princess Celestia saw in the sky days ago, was now right before her very eyes, but instead it was now touched down in a very hard place. The ships position was hanging on the edge of a huge canyon valley, from the ships mass, the group on the chariots could hear distant rumbling seeing thousands of ponies in the valley around the Tycora, and the thousands of ponies around the Tycora were the ships crew. Princess Celestia felt worried what could happen if there was nothing they could do, and they were in desperate need of her help. 

One of the guards handed their princess the telescope looking at the thousands of ponies in the valley, she then spotted a tall unicorn stallion motioning to his crew very closest to the ship, the princess had found their captain. 

"Is that your captain down their?" Questioned Princess Celestia levitating the telescope to Erik's eyes.

"Yes that's him, that's where we need to land!" Motioned Erik pointing towards the area near the ship.

Princess Celestia made a bright enough light from her horn to signal their chariots approach along with Lee, Mike and the other group members getting the attention from below with  Sergeant Maddox ordering the crowd to clear a way.

"Captain look!" Shouted out one of the tech officers pointing a good towards the light in the sky.

Captain Holland saw before him being greeted familiar and unexpected newcomers as the chariots soon landed, the first to get off was the princess calmly making her way to the leader of the alien visitors. As the light from Celestia's horn started to fade down, one of the superior officers that was now an earth pony could now see what was approaching them along with the Captain Holland and the tech officer, they now saw what appeared to be the most unbelievable thing they have ever seen in existence, and it had the graceful beauty of a guardian angel. As the crowd began clearing a way for the princess, she looked down the edge of the cliff and around her seeing what kind of situation these creatures were dealing with, that their ship was going to slowly tumble down and the fact that it was also giving off so much magical energy. 

Princess Celestia was making her way towards the captain, the captains troops stood their grounds in defense as if she posed a threat, but they did not know what she is and what her purpose is here, and she halted her movement to state her purpose.

"My name is Princess Celestia, I am the ruler of Equestria, I know you what you are and what brought you here, and I come here not as a threat but as a friend. I know how afraid and confused you all feel about what has happened to you creating a situation that overwhelmed you all. I will help give you knowledge, strength and the ability to survive. So let me help you all in peace." Princess Celestia finished extending her hoof in peace to Captain Holland who was standing calmly in silence as his mind was left speechless from what he came in contact with.

In Captain Hollands mind, he was in desperate need of help he could not have imagined was possible, from what he has experienced for the past three days being on this bizarre alien world becoming one of them, it would be a bad choice to refuse the help from such a powerful majestic creature. It would be a story unbelievable to their world, if they had the power to make it back to their Earth. 

Captain Holland extends his hoof trying to shake hers not to lose his balance standing up, after that, the group rushed off their chariots to both the captain and the princess.

"Sergeant Maddox reporting for duty Captain, we had along journey, and as you can see, we brought just the help we need." Sergeant Maddox interjected.

"Good job Sergeant, it's good to se that you and your men made it back in one piece, and where's Dr.Erik?" Captain Holland Questioned.

"Right here sir, what's the status on the ship?" Erik implied.

Well so far as we can tell it's been hard for us since we crashed, it's been hard for us to build, sleep and work on any way to fix the damage that the ship has taken, the ship had also been pulsating strong unstable amounts of energy from its slipspace drive that not even a group of transformed experts can try to fix it back in shape."

"It's because it can't contain or handle the exposure of this worlds magic." Stated Princess Celestia.

"Magic?"

"Yes sir, magic, its what exists on this planet and it is an exposure to the ships drive. When the Tycora jumped from  slip space, the drive was somehow exposed to the planets passively surrounding magic resulting into a rare anomaly that transformed us into Equestrians."

"Equestrians?" 

Equestrians are what we are, what the princess is but more powerful than any other, there are earth ponies, unicorns and pagasi. The princess is an Alicorn, resembling the traits of all three. But that will be something we should talk about later, for now our ships core is going through a strange reaction. Erik stated thinking through the possibilities.

"And what would that be?" Questioned one of the officers on Captain Hollands right side.

"From the core being exposed to immense amounts of magic resulted in not only the transformation of our human forms but far worse than i could have expected." Erik said as he began to picture what would happen to the ship if they could not contain the situation.

As Erik observed the state of the Tycora, if it were to fall forwards of the edge of the cliff or overcharge on too much energy, could result in a catastrophic supernova. Learning from the event of the Battle on Installation 04 and on Reach of the slipspace drive being used as a bomb proved to be a dangerous example of destructive power in space, but on the surface of a planet with a newer and more destructive device is far worse than Erik could imagine, if it were to go supernova on the surface, Erik feared it would mean the destruction of all life on this planet.

"The ships core will go supernova on a full scale wiping everything out thousands of miles from here!" 

What Erik frantically stated created panic in the valley realizing that their salvation could be the end of thousands and many more on this planet. From what Lee and the others had been through for the past days, every living being on this magical world along with all the good souls that survived will all soon be gone. But it was a fate that Lee and his friends will not let this planet face in the end. 

"Erik look!" Lee said to Erik pointing his hoof at the back of the ship, something in the back had caught Erik's direct attention.

Erik's mind had sparked an idea the moment he looked at a familiar spot on the ship, he first needed everyone's cooperation if his idea was going to work.

"Captain!" Shouted Erik getting the attention of Captain Holland and Princess Celestia.

"What is it Dr.Erik?"

"The position of the ship, it's what's rupturing the containment shield on the Celerium drive, it's the reason it's so unstable, if the ship falls off the edge, then it will go supernova. We have to pull the ship back up in its straight position in order to seal its shields back up, but a huge amount of the Celerium drives energy exposed to magic must be disposed of where it can't do any..."

"Wait, the tech officer interrupted, your suggesting that we relinquish our only means of getting back home as a plan of preventing this catastrophe, the Celerium drive happens to be our only way off this planet, and we're not upjust going to be stuck on this planet for days but for decades!" The tech officer abruptly stated.

"It's the only way, in order to save life on this world, we must get rid of our slipspace drive." Erik finished.

"He's right, Captain Holland agreed. I'm not going to let this planet endure the fate of destruction, this is our fault, and we must do everything in our power to stop it."

Captain Holland looked at the Tycora with deep concern thinking what would happen if the plan would end up putting him and his crew in a whole new direction, he had no other option to come up with, and he was as curious as to how he and everyone else will do their part in Erik's plan.

"What do we first do doctor?" Questioned Captain Holland.

"We first need to keep the ship straightly positioned in place, we need something to keep it in place so that we can go in the engine room and seal the containment shield. Then we will need the help of the ships AI Eva to transfer the Celerium drives energy to the ships cannon releasing it where it cannot do damage.

"That plan seems to fit perfectly Erik. Dale implied. But the Tycora's front cannon could shoot straight, we would have to release it somewhere up, what will we do about that?"

"The princess herself could help us with that, with her strength and power could just about be strong enough to release the energy somewhere that can't do any damage at all, into space."

"That sounds like its just about good but what about holding the ship straight?" Mike questioned.

"With support beams, down there are supply ships, and they should have enough beams that's strong enough to hold it together. The unicorns can smelt the beams together so that it can be straightened by the pegasai pulling it back in order for us to containe and release the energy."

"And from the plan succeeding, means that we just saved the planet." Glenn positively interjected.

"Yes, yes it will." Erik stated confidentially.

"But Erik, what if the Celerium drives energy does something different, what if it doesn't work."

"Lee."

"What if we.."

"LEE!" Erik shouted.

"This plan will work, we can do this."

Princess Celestia felt concerned to where that plan would go, she surely did not expect to be blasted with alien magic and to also shoot it into space.

"This magic may be alien, but if I'm powerful enough to raise the sun and moon, then I am sure powerful enough to tame this alien magic." The princess agreed.

"Perfect, now that everyone understands every phase of the plan, are we all ready to do this?" Erik questioned the audience he had in front of him counting his friends.

Lee, Mike, Dale, Erik, Glenn, and Kent had been through so much on this planet, they have looked out for each other and even looked out for their own kind from the fall of Arcadia, and they may have been too late to save their planet, but they were not too late to save their planet.

"Ok, let's do this!"





The first phase of Erik's plan was now proceeding in motion, the unicorns below the valley were levitating enormous beams with all their magical strength they had putting them together in place behind the ships starboard, as soon as the beams were all together, the unicorns below used the magic from their horns to smelt the beams together the moment the pagasi above started pulling the ship back into straight position, and after the ship was soon held straight with the support of both the pegasai from above and the unicorns from below the valley, became the end of phase one.

For phase two, now the the ship was in a straight position, it was now up to Lee, Mike, Erik, Captain Holland and five other crew members to board on to the ship to contain and dispose of the Celerium drives energy. Lee, Mike, Erik, and two crew members would take the engine room where they will contain the energy as Captain Holland and three crew members would operate from the bridge bringing Eva online to link with the engine room transferring the energy to the ships front cannon where it will be relinquished from the ship.

The second phase was risky for the group heading to the engine room, without the proper care and inabilities to fix what had been done, the engine room would be very unstable. The moment the group got there, the engine room was surrounded with high voltage, the possible reason was certain that it was from the cracked opening of the containment shield, since it was not contained for too long, it had turned the entire engine room into an electric trap on the verge of going supernova. One of the crew members felt overwhelmed with the engine rooms unstable condition.

"So how do we get through that?" Questioned the crew engineer looking around for another alternative of the plan.

Erik looked around to see if there was any other way through the electric field, then he looked at Lee and Mike coming up with another risky idea.

"Lee, you and Mike could help us go through this field."

"Through it, how?" Mike questioned.

"You and Mike are unicorns, you two can create a magical barrier that could deflect the electricity for us to find a way to clear out and contain the drives energy."

"Erik, you come up with the craziest of ideas, but you're real genius when it comes to times like this!" Said Lee.

Lee took a moment concentrate very carefully with his magical ability, making sparks and lasers was one thing he almost mastered, but making a barrier would be careful concentration with delicate time at risk. As Lee concentrated harder, his eyes began to flicker with light soon creating what appeared to be sphere forming from the point of Lee's horn, when the sphere was enclosing around himself, he needed Erik, Mike and the engineers inside. 

"Guys, huddle around me!" Lee groaned trying to maintain the barrier around him.

"Are you sure he's got the hang of this?" Questioned the crew member.

"He does, let's move in!" Erik said motioning to Lee that they are ready to move in the engine room.

As the group entered the hazardous condition of the engine room, it was just as Erik had thought, the barrier was suddenly deflecting all the electricity around them as they were making their way carefully to the broken containment shield. The shied was entirely damaged, meaning that the shield must be replaced with a brand new one, and Erik knew exactly how to replace it.

"Well how are we supposed to fix this?"

"By making one." Erik implied.

"Lee, you think you can create another barrier?" 

"Yes, I think I can but what about all this around us, we'll be electrocuted!" Lee added feeling concerned with the idea of holding back the unstable energy of a slipspace device.

"Erik, I'm gonna say this more than once because I know so, this is crazy!" Mike abruptly pointed out.

"Lee made a barrier that's able to block off the electricity, and he can also hold all that energy in the containment long enough to transfer it out of here!" Erik retorted back.

"Listen guys, I know you all are going to feel nervous where this is going to go but, i don't know if this barrier is going to last any longer!" Lee said trying to hold it together.

"We have to stay close together if Lee is going to seal the containment shield up!"

"ARE YOU GUYS READY!" Lee shouted getting in the center of the containment shield.

Mike along with the two crew members gave an affirmed nod with Erik readying a countdown.

"3, 2, 1, NOW DO IT NOW!"

In a Matter of seconds, Lee shifted his barrier right into the containment shield along with the high voltage energy it had absorbed holding the barrier in place as long as he can to buy Erik and the crew some time reroute the energy from the drive and to signal the captain in the bridge. Mike saw that Lee was struggling to keep the barrier in place, Mike quickly ignited a spark from his horn creating a beam of light supporting the barriers strength on the containment shield.

"Hurry Erik!"

"We're holding it back as long as we can!"

As Lee and Mike kept the barrier in place, the crew members were switching the route for the drives energy with Erik readying as fast as he can to initiate the transfer, and what he was waiting for now was for Captain Holland and his crew at the bridge to reactivate Eva.

Captain Holland and the bridge crew immediately brought the ships emergency power back to interface with the ships  console, he first reactivated the primary weapons systems, then communications, and finally the ships AI Eva. When her form appeared on the console, she looked exactly the same as before surprisingly, her condition was green, and she was slightly concerned what happened while she was gone just by looking at it.

"Eva, this is Captain Holland, do you read?" 

"I read you Captain and I'm doing fine, I'm sorry to ask but why do you look like a horse, am I seeing things fuzzy or am I really seeing things?" Eva questioned.

"Its a long story, but right now, the ships Celerium drive has gone unstable and must be relinquished from this ship immediately."

"Relinquish our means of getting back home, how will we do that?" Eva questioned looking around towards the front view outside of the ship realizing right away how they were going to relinquish the drives unstable energy.

"Well then, what's the plan so far captain?"

"We need you to link up with the engine room to transfer the energy to the ships main front cannon, and we be o make it quick before the doctor loses his grip on the shields. This is a risk I'm willing to take for the lives on this planet, we'll find another way back someway somehow."

Soon everyone was getting to the next and final phase, Erik had his hoof on the master control switch as the captain readied the cannon for the energy to be transferred by Eva from the engine room to the ships firing mechanism. Princess Celestia was right in front of the ship with the cannon directly pointed at her, she has dealt with many challenges throughout the ages in Equestria, but what she was about to do was a very life risking. Erik was waiting for the captains confirmation on the transfer. 

"Dr.Erik, Eva is ready for the transfer, what's going on back there?" Captain Holland questioned through the ships intercoms.

"My hands are right on the switch, I'm ready at the switch!"

"Alright doctor, Eva prepare the energy transfer!" The captain commanded with his crew priming up the cannon.

Princess Celestia worried of the kind of power these being were capable of with what she was about to brace herself for, and she was ready in position along with everypony else. Eva on the other hand was worried deep in the inside about the lives of captain and the crew if the plan does not work accordingly. And as for Erik, he was ready to pull the switch on the final phase.

"This is it, now is the time to make it happen!" Erik announced in anticipation for everyone to prepare themselves.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, NOW!" Erik shouted pulling the switch.

When Erik initiated the transfer, magical energy surged from the back all the way to the front of the ship emitting a power fluctuation, Eva felt the energy being transferred as she rerouted it into the weapons systems along with Captain Holland at the ready to fire out the unstable energy.

"FIRE!" The captain shouted to his crew firing the weapon.

In a matter of seconds, the ship bursted a powerful beam of energy from its main cannon that was now heading towards the direction of Princess Celestia, when the beam collided with the princess, she created a barrier holding the energy back, it was as powerful as she predicted, and she was struggling to redirect its powerful impact.

With the power operational on the ship, the monitors showed Princess Celestia struggling to hold it, it was soon obvious that she was need of more firepower. 

"I knew that energy was too unstable for her to handle!" Erik said looking at the monitor outside the ship.

With the drive taken care of and the engine room cleared out, here was no reason to wait for Erik's plan to fail without the help of thousands more.

"The princess can't do this alone, we have to help her before its too late!" Lee interjected quickly pacing out of the engine room with Erik and Mike right behind him.

Lee was going through a familiar way, the way that him and his friends took to get Erik off the ship, but the problem with that was the lifeboat was not there. Erik then realized what Lee was about to do, Erik's plans may have been crazy to everyone else, and what Lee was attempting to do was going to be crazier. When Lee made it to the lifeboat sector, he only saw an empty airlock showing the outside looking down revealing how high up he was, Lee did not have wings to fly, but he did have the power to levitate objects and possibly people. As Lee looked down the edge taking a deep breath, Erik, Mike and the two crew members caught up too late as they looked in shock as Lee leaped out of the airlock at a tremendous height.

"LEE!"

Lee was now in free fall, everyone down below in the valley screamed in horror as they saw the unicorn fall from out of the ship. Closing his eyes, his horn suddenly began to glow in attempt of another magic trick. When Lee felt the breezing wind in his face, when he slowly opened his eyes, he saw an orange aura of his own magic around himself floating him in the air with the crowd looking above both surprised and shocked that he was flying. After that, Lee calmly lowered himself down to the ground above the valley as steady as he could. Erik and Mike were relieved almost having a a heart attack that their friend would have been dead from doing such a dangerous move.

"This guy is insane!"

"He's incredible!"

"He's brave technically speaking." Erik accurately noted.

When Lee finally reached the ground, he then ran through the crowd clearing a way for him to reach the edge of the valley seeing the princess holding the energy beam back, and from the looks of it she was about to lose her hold on the energy. Lee decided that there was only one way to help the princess, and that was to shoot at the energy beam with everything they got. Lee aimed with his horn releasing his magic out at the energy beam supporting the princess in holding it, then soon immediately one by one, streaks of light beams igniting from every unicorn in the valleys above joined with Lee to fight off the magic they brought into this world with everything they got to aid the princess in redirecting the magical energy.  When Captain Holland looked outside from the bridge seeing the streaks of light being unleashed on the energy beam, he too unleashed the light of his magic shooting it right through the glass window of the bridge joining with the thousands of light beams being released on the energy beam.

With the power of the alien equestrians unleashing their magic, it became bright enough to be seen from hundreds of miles from the valley, Dale with the pegasai above concealed their eyes with Glenn and Kent below also blinded by the light.

"What's happening!" Kent shouted with the light growing brighter and brighter.

"They're magic, its getting too strong!" Dale shouted through the coms.

Princess Celestia's strength was quickly regained with the aid of the thousands of unicorns, she soon grabbed a hold of the alien magic, like using her Alicorn magic to raise the sun and moon, she used her Alicorn magic to absorb the last of the alien magic from the ship fading away the beam forming a magic orb containing the magic. With the remaining Alicorn strength she had, she aimed the orb upwards into the stars, her horn growing brighter and brighter until a matter of seconds, the powerful light from Princess Celestia created an enormous boom of light shooting the orb of alien magic straight up into space in the blink of an eye.

When the magical energy vanished in the sky, it then created a tremendous explosion of a dying star, it was a sign showing that millions of lives were saved and that it was all over. Princess Celestia hovered in the sky relieved that her peaceful land was still alive, and she felt exhausted with two words to say to herself.

"It's over."

(Two Hours Later)

It was now noon, with little by little the UNSC learned from their Equestrian forms for resourceful purposes, the  unicorns would use their magic to salvage resources for fuel, power up their technology and provide greater protection for their survival. The earth ponies would use their strength to maintain the ships support systems for a fact that 70 percent of them were engineers that organized the systems and power lines in their establishments of alternative resources for emergency matters. And pegasai would scout the perimeters being the eyes in the sky watching for any threats or suspicious activities. 

From the loss of the ships Celerium drive along with its engine, the UNSC would be in Equestria for a long time as their ship the Tycora would remain grounded where it lies in the valley, but along with all the vehicles, supplies, and colonizing hardware they had, the UNSC would build a base of operations in the valley. As for Princess Celestia, she also kept providing the UNSC with teachers of unicorn magic, pegasai flying and earth pony strength. In return of the princesses knowledge and generosity, the captain offered knowledge and history of the United Nations Space Command.



With the UNSC having a technological advantage over the planet and Equestria, it would be for the best to keep their presence to the world a secret, it was an agreement between Princess Celestia and Captain Holland to ensure a safer world from those who would use their technology to endanger Equestria. 

As all was quiet, Lee stood on the clif looking towards the horizon at the sunset, he felt the wind blowing so many memories he had leading him to the most greatest of moments he had in his life, even his life with many friends he had with those alive and possibly gone, and while he was thinking to himself through the wind, he was then visited by his friends who also came to admire the view. 

"Its beautiful isn't it?" Erik asked Lee.

"It sure is, it looks just like home." Lee implied looking at all the hills and mountains beyond the far horizon.

"I wonder how long were gonna be here for, hopefully its not decades."

"Well based on our current situation, its hopefully for decades Dale." Glenn interjected.

"There's possibly going be so much things to adjust and maintain ourselves to if we all are going to be here for a long time, and this planet is full of wonders that no human being thought could be real." Mike positively noted.

"I just want to point something out here but, what do these things mean?" Kent questioned pointing his hoof on the tattooed symbol on his flank.



After what Kent pointed out, the six of them had unique symbols on their flanks meaning something about them, the princess gave knowledge to the UNSC about Cutie Marks which symbolizes a ponies special talents. They looked at their marks with curiosity figuring out what kind of talent they all had.

"It's gonna be a long time getting use to this." Dale added.

"Erik, you think we will fits perfectly for this world?" Lee asked.

"We sure will Lee, we sure will." Erik replied looking in the direction towards the sun going down.

From their long journey in this new world, these ponies forged a bond that would not be broken from how much they could accomplish together and stood up for, after fleeing from their own world, it was hard to know what was going on and what they would do in order to come back. The UNSC was in a whole new different world far beyond comprehension, and it was only just the beginning.
> Chapter 8: A New Beginning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Three Years Later)

After three years living Equestria, life became much easier for the UNSC with the help of innovation and knowledge its smartest have managed. After adjusting to their Equestrian forms for months with the help of Princess Celestia's best teachers and flyers, teams of scientists created advantages for the earth ponies and pegasai making something capable of defending both the ground and sky since their old standard means of protection proved to be obsolete. Luckily the unicorns did not any improvements since they already have their magic and firepower, the scientist created mobile sentry packs for the earth ponies being the ground support along with the pegasai being the air support for their pelicans and cargo ships. Mini bases and outposts were established through farther regions to scan for complete visuals and resources on the planets surface in Equestria to maintain their supply and manufacturing with the UNSC taking steps little by little in making an efficient working colony. The mining outposts provided tremendous amounts of gems and minerals resulting in a greater working economy and manufacturing capability to improve their surroundings and technology, but along the way involved many set backs with the progress being ruined by dragons and other meddlesome creatures that lurked from the bad parts of Equestria, and in order to resolve further problems resulted in minor conflict to protect their outposts and bases. The UNSC kept their peace with the equestrians, but with the other creatures on the planet not handling their presence, the only thing the UNSC would not want to get into was a war with a whole new species that would risk everything they have worked tirelessly for,  the future.

The UNSC still held on to their promise with the princess still remaining hidden and unnoticed by the rest of the outside world, the command center was perfectly hidden within the valley as their ship stood above lifeless and hidden with magic by outsiders, the Tycora's was still grounded while the power inside was still alive and useful. The command center was improved with a network of underground tunnels and built in generators for backup power in case of emergency, and for the valley around the command center became their fortress fortified with anti-air and infantry turrets around every corner of the perimeter in and out. It was hard for the UNSC to gain any contact with their own world having no clue what horrors their race was enduring from the new Covenants wrath, but it would be a fight that they would one day go back to and finish it, but where the UNSC are now was a whole new world with threats far beyond comprehension. 

(UNSC Command Center, Day of Summer Sun Celebration)
Lee, Mike, Dale, Kent, and Glenn were waiting patiently by the corridor of the briefing room as their commander was preparing the team for their mission in the outside world once again, Erik was running late to the briefing as he made a shocking discovery looking at the date and time. 

So much was going on in the command center as they showed feed from the picture of the moon three years ago and now, years earlier they detected a magical energy source coming from the moon like it did from the surface, it had a dark powerful presence remaining dormant for quite some time, and now it was emitting an even stronger presence, as if it was about to be set free. While the rumors were being spread about this latest development, Commander Clovis, one of the captains high ranking commanding officers exited the briefing room levitating a holo panal of the teams mission. 

As Erik made it to the corridor of the briefing room, Commander Clovis came up to the group levitating to them the holo panel of their mission, it was going to be a covert operation into civilian territory, for the past decades since the promise of staying hidden from the outside world, they would secretly spy on the outside world to better understand what goes on outside their boundaries, and UNSC intelligence were not the only ones who made the discovery. The mission was to follow a suspect who knew way more about what little the UNSC learned about. Commander Clovis revealed to the team the suspect that they would be tracking down and where to start, she was a unicorn who lived in the capital city of Chanterlot and is the prized pupil of Princess Celestia. She had dark blue purple hair, her coat had the color of a pale orchid and had a cutie mark that symbolized a sparkle. Her name was Twilight Sparkle.