> Long Night of Solace
>  by dukesofhazzardftw
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One: Equilibrium
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Spartan slowly walked through the steel corridors of the small transport ship Avalon.  Destined for the Cygnus system, a handful of very delicate UNSC materials were aboard.  Hidden behind the cloak of civilians, ONI figured nobody would recognize its importance, nobody would intercept the ship.  The Avalon's crew and passengers had been aboard for a little over two days.  
Their slipspace jump to the outskirts of Cygnus III, New Jerusalem was scheduled for mere minutes from now.  Riley was making his trek through the corridors towards seating.  The passengers, 15 marines, and lone spartan would strap in on one of the many seating decks before the jump.  Riley turned a corner to face a large open room, seats scattered through the room with large 3 point harnesses.  He seated himself in a lone seat near the bulkhead, a large U shaped bar coming down over his head as his harness.  Like a rollercoaster, or the harness on a Pelican Dropship.

'Specialty seating' He thought with a small smirk.  A klaxon began sounding in the ship, passengers who weren't already seated rushed to their chairs, strapping in.  Two crewmembers began their rounds, checking seatbelts, before taking their own seats.  

"Belts, double and triple check your belts!" They called loudly, the captain chattered over the intercom.  When the crew were satisfied with their search, they took their seats by the wall, pushing a red button on the sides of their chair once they were both seated.

A loud whirring could be heard within the depths of the ships, it grew from a low droning to a high pitched whine, much like a jet engine spooling up.  Riley gripped his harness and double checked his helmet, a motion that would save his life.  He played with the helmet's seal, and pressurized the suit to satisfy his obsessive compulsive disorder.  A large, dark purple orb expanded from below the decks.  He could see the edge of it cut off at the bulkhead.  It didn't expand further.  Riley's heart pounded.  In a last ditch effort, he called out to the crew across from him;

"CANCEL THE JUMP!"

A deafening roar drowned out his cry.  The ship beyond the bulkhead disappeared in a bright light, replaced by the darkness of space.  The oxygen immediately drained from the pressurized cabin, and the sudden decompression created a whirlwind of blood in the space, as capillaries and sinus membranes burst in every single person's faces.  Almost all of them were unconscious immediately.  Riley stared, dumbstruck.  His shields screamed in protest from the electromagnetic pulse, and a few seconds later they re-charged.  
Riley forced the harness up as the cabin went pitch black, the last of the power in this section running out.  He turned on the flashlights mounted on his Mark V helmet, slowly scanning the room.  His heart ached as he watched handfuls of colonists grasp at their throats in reflex as their brains yearned for oxygen.  Within 30 seconds, the room was still.  Riley pushed himself out of his seat and secured himself to the steel deck with the magnetic attachment points on his boots.  He slowly stepped to the gaping hole beyond the bulkhead, revealing empty space.  Examining the hole, he saw the cargo hold directly below him. 
A box labeled UNSC teetered on the edge, slowly drifting away, clearly one of the boxes he'd been sent to protect.  He pulled himself along the floor with his hands, and threw himself at the box.  With one hand he caught the mysterious crate, with the other, he caught the lower decking of the ship.  Riley slowly pulled himself into the hold, spotting weapons crates everywhere.  Seizing the opportunity, he raided one of them for ammunition.  He filled up on ammunition for his sidearm and assault rifle, blatantly stealing two frag grenades from the UNSC crates as well.  All of the crates except the small brief-case sized object in his hand, were large weapons crates.  He eyed the small case suspiciously before he walked along the deck to the missing half.  He slowly finessed his way to the outer hull, walking along it.  No lights were visible anywhere along the hull.  Riley walked vertically along the until he came to stand on what was the roof of the Avalon.  A gleaming green, blue, and white jewel of a planet lay below him.  He looked around to try to spot stations, space elevators, anything to signal it was Cygnus III.
He found nothing.
Riley noticed the ship was clearly drifting closer to the planet.  He glanced at the case in his hands, a serial number was stamped on it. MIL - 3291.  It was an A.I. serial number.

"Hey buddy..." Riley spoke to the case quietly.  "Wonder who you are..." 

A low rushing pushed him back.  He'd hit the atmosphere.  

"We don't have long..." Riley voiced his thoughts. He opened it to find a glass AI holding case.  He cracked the case open by twisting the carry handles opposite each other, and snatched the AI chip.  Taking a risk, he inserted it into his helmet.  A brief VISR message ran across his HUD, giving statistics too quick for him to read.

"Hello?"

"Identify." Riley stated.

"Jessica, 3291, UNSC Logistics and Assault." Came the reply.  She seemingly noticed their predicament for the first time. "What happened?!"

"God only knows." Riley answered, shaking his head lightly as he looked at the wreckage, pacing the edge.

"What are we going to do?!" She asked, the hull began to glow a dull red along it's edges. 

Riley thought about this question for a split second.  Being inside the ship would mean nearly certain death.  He hadn't seen any re-entry packs in the cargo bay, and knew there were no escape pods on this section of the ship.  Riley slowly looked one way, then another.  

"Pray Halsey knew what she was doing." Riley stated, disabling his magnetic boots and pushing off the hull at a sideways angle with all his might.  

He careened away from the ship at a startling 30 meters per second.  He just hoped he wouldn't land in the wreckage.  Jessica held her tounge, so to speak.  She hoped the atmosphere wouldn't be a thick one, or he'd likely be killed during the re-entry.  If the fall didn't kill him.




----------------------------------------------------------


Twilight sat in silence, she slowly glanced from her telescope to her book.  Her gaze fell finally on her book, jotting down some notes.  She smiled in quiet serenity, staring up at the night sky.  She enjoyed her work, documenting the change of stars relative to Equis over time.  Spike had been in bed for nearly an hour, and she'd just been quietly jotting away notes into her book.  A new star appeared, much dimmer yet larger in size.  It quickly went dull.  Twilight looked around with her telescope, trying to find the object she'd seen to no avail.  It was probably a meteor burning up in the atmosphere.  Twilight shrugged off the phenomenon and glanced down at her book, trying to find her place marker she'd been focused on before her distraction.  When she glanced back to the sky, she noticed the new star had re-appeared.  It was most certainly a meteorite, as it was burning up in the atmosphere.  Large chunks broke off and scattered, hundreds of sparks shattered away from the main streak.  It seemed to be moving slower than a meteorite, actually entering the atmosphere instead of simply skimming off it.
Twilight looked through her telescope at the object, and after some brief calculations of the scope's zoom...  She decided it was big.
Very big.  She watched in bizarre fascination as the object careened past the mountain ranges of Canterlot.  A flash over the hills told her it had impacted the ground.  Surely the princesses had seen it, right?  

"I'd better send a letter, just in case..." Twilight voiced.  She jotted down a letter before walking to her sleeping assistant.  "Spike." 

He grumbled and rolled over.

"Spike!  Spike?  ...Spike, just send this letter and you can go back to sleep~!" She called in a sing-song tone.  A tired claw shot out, took the letter from her magic grip, and a small head popped up under the blanket.  Spike incinerated the letter, and rolled over to sleep.  Twilight, satisfied she had done her duty, returned to her study of the stars.




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Luna was frazzled, to say the least.  She'd been observing a strange object in Low Equis Orbit since it appeared.  It had a rapidly decaying orbit, in mere moments it would fall from her night's sky.  It was a nice night.  This strange new variable made her sad, it upset her nice sky.  Luna walked to the large telescope on her balcony.  Focusing it with her magic, she gasped.  It was clearly not natural.  Reflecting the light of the stars, the object looked to be made of some form of metal.  Her view of it was ruined as the object was enveloped in a bright orange glow.
Luna looked away, staring at the floor tiles in thought.  She calculated something in her head quickly.  Luna rushed out of her room, down one of the massive marble hallways.  She burst into a room without knocking, and roughly shook her sister awake.

"Sister!" Luna yelled.

"What is it?" Celestia asked, concerned.

"Something is coming, we need to ready the guards.  They must mobilize at once, we don't have long!" Luna insisted.

"Calm down, my dear sister...  What is coming?"




-------------------------------------------------------


Hot.  All Riley could think about was how hot he was.  The metal plating on his boots glowed a brilliant orange, his shields beeped loudly as he plummeted.  

"Are you okay?" Jessica asked him, barely audible over the noise of his shields.

Riley's only reply was a grunt.  He had been plummeting for what felt like hours.  After a few more minutes he began to feel cooler.  His shields stopped beeping and recharged.  The roar was dissipating, replaced by the whistling noise of wind.  Riley stuck out an arm and rolled his weight, flipping to his stomach against the airflow.  Moments later, the ship smashed into the ground far below him, sending up a fireball several stories tall.  Riley attempted to maneuver in the air.  He'd been skydiving before outside of his armor, but maneuvering in almost half a ton of plating proved difficult.  Far below, he spotted nothing but rocks and mountains.  Riley tried his best to direct himself towards a valley, and rolled on his back, locking his armor.  Riley gritted his teeth as he neared the ground.  With a tremendous 'BOOM' as he struck, he was unconscious.





-------------------



"Wake up." Riley heard a voice.  It sounded distant, almost pleading. "Wake up, please you have to wake up!"

He slowly forced his eyelids open.  They were as heavy as concrete and he mentally fist fought himself just to keep them open. "Jessica, are you there?"

Riley couldn't move a muscle, stuck in an awkward position.

"Oh thank god, we need to move, quickly, please get up!"   She cried, suddenly back in his ears.  "I'm unlocking your armor now.."

Riley fell limp and let out a yelp.  Slowly, he rolled onto his stomach, pushing himself onto all fours.  Putting one leg in front of him, still kneeling, he shakily rose to his feet.  The Spartan limped forward, looking up at the wreckage of the large ship.  The white letters AVALON across the side were still visible, though streaked with soot.  The 40 foot letters loomed over the Spartan.  He looked around for a moment, and found his sidearm laying near his landing site, his rifle sitting under a piece of steel.  He slowly limped towards the weapons, scavenged them off the ground, and holstered them.  

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Riley asked Jessica.

"No idea, I can't pick up radio signals anywhere on the planet.  It seems to be completely devoid of technology." Jessica replied.

"Well shit..." Riley said quietly.  "I'm Riley...  Sierra 201."

"I know who you are." She replied. "Black mark V armor, huge Spartan II?  They don't build them like you anymore.."

"Good to meet you too." Riley chuckled.  He limped up the hill. "What was so urgent?"

"Them.."

A waypoint appeared on his HUD.  Riley spun around, and faced the marker.  A group of equines in gold armor, carrying spears, were approaching the clearing.  The creatures poked at the steel from the ship, digging through the rubble.  They slowly prodded at the hunks of steel, before seeing the name.  The massive name on the side of the ship. "AVALON."  Their gazes all slowly followed the letters straight down to the human.  He slowly stepped, turning his body to face them.  They reacted in an act of fear, stepping back.

He slowly reached around his back, gripping his assault rifle.  The armored horses grabbed spears from across their sides, holding them at the ready.

A chunk of the ship collapsed, crushing the horses to the ground.  Riley holstered his rifle and turned to leave.

"Riley!  You have to help them!" Jessica squealed.

"Why." Riley more stated, then asked.

"They'll die!"

"They're not my responsibility."

"But they need help, we don't have any UNSC contacts locally, and you need to think about winning over hearts and minds!" She tried to convince him.  Riley sighed.  He walked to the horses, who struggled to try to escape.  He gripped the edge of the sheet of steel, and with one hand, he flipped it up and off of them.  They scrambled out from under it, one dragging their wounded comrade back.

"Happy?" Riley asked.

"Mhm..." Jessica said quietly.  

"The demon talks?" One of them asked.  Riley looked at the creatures in bewilderment.

"Jessica?"

"Beats me." The A.I. replied. "Fascinating..."

"Who are you?" Riley asked the creatures.

"Squad E, Platoon 4, detachment 5 of the 92nd Royal Guard Scouting Corps." The small horse replied.  About the size of the average miniature horse, maybe 9 or 10 hands in height, 290-300 pounds each.  The creatures only came up to the spartan's waist.  He'd probably call them miniature horses, maybe ponies. "And what is your purpose here, demon?"

"I'm going to give you about four seconds to think about how stupid that question is." Riley held an impatient hand out to the wreck. "I demand to speak to your governmental leaders."

A few of the horses looked at each other uneasily.  "Blue, are you able to fly?"

One of the horses spread large feathered wings in reply.

"Go on, tell the guard we're headed back to the city, have them prepared for company."  The leader instructed.  The other one nodded a reply and pushed off, taking off into the sky at a startling rate.

"Woah." Jessica stated, Riley watched silently.  

"Follow us."




-----------------------------------------


"You wish to bring the creature here, to Canterlot?" Luna asked, bewildered.

"Yes, Princess, it speaks and assisted in freeing our soldiers from a piece of wreckage.  It shows amazing strength, some kind of strange armor."

"Bring it to us.  We will meet you at the gates, personally to defeat him if we must." Celestia said.  

"The squad and the creature will be nearly half of an hour before they arrive.  Whenever it is convenient for you, Princess." The guard bowed, retreating to the doors.  



----------------------------------

The walk had been made in silence, neither party speaking to each other.  Jessica was running analytics the entire trip, trying to study the local fauna and flora as best she could on the move.  The group dropped over the mountain pass onto a winding path.  Steel rails, bound with wooden ties lead up the hill.  A few hundred feet away were the gates of a large white city, and the groups approached.

"HALT!" A voice cried from the battlements atop the wall.  Riley paused.

Two horses, one nearly as tall as Riley himself approached.  They looked at him with worry.

"They say you can speak." Celestia stated.

"Funny, they never told me you could." Riley quipped sarcastically.  Celestia looked almost surprised, before she smiled.

"Who are you?" She asked, softer.

"Staff Sergeant of the UNSC, Sierra 201." Riley stated. 

"A soldier?" Luna chipped in. "Why are you here?"

"Some kind of malfunction with the ship I was aboard.  We wrecked here.  There were no other survivors." He answered flatly.

"Come, let us discuss more in private.  I trust you to remain civil, while within our city?" Celestia asked.

"As the situation dictates."

"Good." She replied.  Her horn glowed a brilliant white before the world around him flashed blinding colors.  When his vision cleared a split second later, they were inside a marble room with a high ceiling, a table laid before them.

"What was that?" Riley asked, trying his best to not sound as alarmed as he felt increasingly nauseous.

"A mere teleportation spell, do not be alarmed.  Come, sit." She stated, leading him to the table.  It was low to the ground, like a coffee table, pillows surrounded the appropriate seats.  Riley followed them, Celestia sitting on the end, while Luna voted to sit beside the Spartan, examining him closer.  

Riley looked around, nervously.

"So, Staff Sergeant.  You've told us your rank and serial number, what is your name?" She asked.

"...Riley." He replied, softly, after a moment of hesitation. "And what is yours?"  

"I am Princess Celestia, raiser of the sun, co-ruler of equestria." She replied.

"Co-ruler?" Riley questioned.  The actual query he had was about the 'raiser of the sun' bit, but he opted to ignore it.  He looked to the other pony. "Let me guess..."

"I am Princess Luna, Guardian of the night, raiser of the moon.  I rule with my sister." She nodded, nearly a bow.

"It's an honor to meet you both." The realization that he was representing an entire species landed on Riley, and he became stressed.

"May we ask you some questions?" Luna asked.

"May I ask my own in reply?"

"Of course." She giggled, Celestia looked at her surprised.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat. "What nation do you serve, what is the name of their forces?"

"I serve the United Nations Space Command, the nations of my home world having banded together several hundred years ago, I serve for all of humanity." He replied.

"Home world?"

"We've spread out, colonizing other planets in our galaxy." He replied.  They looked impressed.

"What is the purpose of your armor?"

"I'm a Spartan.  It protects me, helps me to complete dangerous tasks other soldiers couldn't fathom, to give me the edge needed to surpass any other fighting machine." Riley replied, firmly.

"You sound rather confident in it."

"Ma'am, need I remind you I fell from orbit, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 17,000 miles per hour, temperatures almost half that of the surface of the sun, and survived to walk here?" Riley added for emphasis.  The deities looked at each other almost nervous.  Neither of them had seen the wreckage, neither had thought of that.  He survived with barely a scratch.  Truly, there was something powerful about this man.

"That's..  A good point..."  Celestia said, thinking of words. "What kind of magic is it enchanted with?"

"I meant to ask you about that, you said 'spell' earlier?  Magic..  As far as we've known..  Isn't a thing outside a myth.  Evidently that's not true, but by all accounts we can't use it, nor do we have it.  It's this fabulous thing called technology." Riley spoke.

"Ah..  Can we...  See your face?" Luna asked, inquisitively.

Riley thought,

"Jessica?" 

"I mean, the atmosphere is able to support you just fine, but if you get killed I'm detonating this suit and incinerating all of us." Jessica said sarcastically.  



Riley slowly removed his helmet, it hissed briefly as the pressure equalized.  He removed the helmet to show his features, slowly lifting it from its familiar place on his head.  Their view followed the motion of his helmet, slowly upward from his chin.  A solid squared jaw littered with 5 o'clock shadow was the first thing they met.  Several sizable scars ran across his face.  A more prominent scar cut across both his full, light red lips.  He had a delicate nose that seemed nearly feminine in nature.  Combined with the rest of his face however, it just made a nice contrast, adding to his masculinity.  Hazel eyes with a brilliant blue sheen over them set in his head, a long scar running across his left eye, including the eyelid.  The iris looked distorted around the edges following a straight line of a cleared shape.  After 10,000 years of being around living beings, the princesses knew exactly what it was.  It was a scar on his eye.  His eye wasn't milky, from his awareness it was clear Riley could see from it, which was damn lucky given the force of whatever split his face open.  He had a head of chestnut brown hair cut in a high-and-tight haircut to top off his pale skin tone.  He hadn't seen much sunlight in years.

"My.." Luna breathed in amazement.  Celestia herself was rather surprised.  He looked absolutely delicate, yet completely untouchable.

"Do you have anyone I could talk to who has the stars mapped out in great detail?" He asked.  The princesses looked to each other.

"It is clear you do not have lodging, and it would take you time to adjust to our planet...  We would like you to stay with one of my personal students in a small town nearby...  They have the information you would need, and I'm sure they'd value your insight." Celestia smiled gently, standing.  Princess Luna followed suit, and slowly, Riley stood.  He put his helmet back on in one swift movement.

"When do I leave?"

"I will have an escort come to take you to the station shortly...  How did you acquire all those scars?" She asked.  He faltered.  

"Perhaps next time." He nodded gently.  She understood.  10,000 years...  She was no stranger to war.  To the scars it could leave on a man, inside and out.

"Next time." She acknowledged.
> Chapter One, Act two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Next time.” Celestia had nodded gently.  She smiled, this creature puzzled her. How could something be so invincible and yet so vulnerable?  Perhaps Twilight and her studies of friendship could help the metal man, to soothe his soul so to speak.  She slowly stood from the table, and thought about her next move.  “Would you excuse me, while I make your arrangements?”

“Of course.” The black and gold armor replied to her.  The sight of the visor was unnerving to her, unable to see his face.  No emotion.  Almost like some kind of spirit, entirely unreadable.  She turned with a subdued shudder, walking from the room.  Her alabaster hooves clopped gently across the marble floors, until a large wooden door was opened before and shut behind her.

Riley watched her intently, Luna stood behind him.

“My sister is rather trusting of you.  You seem very trusting of her as well.” She began.  Her teal eyes narrowed at him as he turned, trying to pick some form of emotion out of his golden visor.  The smooth lines indicated a total lack of life as she spoke. “I know a creature of darkness when I see it, demon.  I will trust my sister’s judgment...  My trust for you however is next to nothing.”

“Then the feeling is mutual.” Riley stated.  He’d satisfied the princess’s curiosity about him, but he got the funny feeling most of these other ‘ponies’ wouldn’t get that privilege.  Luna’s face seemed bewildered at first, then it twisted in frustration. She opened her mouth to speak in anger as the heavy wooden door to the room swung open.

“Sister!” She called, trying her best to look innocent and calm.  As someone who didn’t know the alicorn, it was clear.  Someone who’d known her for thousands of years...  She might as well have been wearing a sign around her neck reading ‘I’m threatening the powerful alien in your absence’.  ”That was quick!  Did you encounter any trouble?”

“Not at all.” The taller princess affirmed. “I take it neither of you had any trouble, either?”

‘Nah, just this paranoid grape trying to be intimidating’ Riley thought, before speaking “None at all.”

“Alright then, Staff Sergeant.” Celestia began, a warm smile crossing her face. “If you would, follow me.  You will take the evening train to the town of Ponyville, my prized student Twilight Sparkle will meet you there.

“Yes ma’am.” He stood, following her footsteps. ‘Twilight Sparkle?  Ponyville?  What a crock.’

They exited into a large corridor.  The floors were marble, the walls looked to be made of large stone blocks, painted white and grey, blotches of pink thrown in every so often.  The Spartan followed the monarch down a winding hallway until they arrived in a massive grandiose foyer.  A chandelier hung from the middle of the ceiling, hundreds of crystals were hung by thin, golden chains.  Two guards opened the large iron clad wood doors, allowing the two to spill into the streets of Canterlot.

“I trust you can make it on your own from here.  At the gates of town there is a train station.  It will be the fourth car, a partially enclosed flatbed car, which you are to take.”

“I thought you were sending an escort?  If anyone interferes?  What of my ability to return home?”

“None of my ponies should interfere.  Even if they wanted to, I’m sure you could shrug them off with little hardship.  I will have my scribes and mages researching around the clock, your insight with Twilight should be more than sufficient help in the matter.” She replied, giving him a curt nod.

“Princess.” He nodded back, walking down the stone steps to the cobbled walkway below.

“Do be safe, until we meet again!” She called behind him, walking back into the castle, shutting the door, and teleporting beside her sister.  Luna looked over quizzically at her sister. “Twilight can handle him, right?”

“We shall see.” Luna replied cooly.  She wouldn’t voice the fact she was having a crisis that her older and wiser sister would ask her that question..

Riley strolled down the streets, the citizens parting like water around him.  His boots cracked some of the ancient stones as he walked.  He stared at the beautiful blue sky, the brilliant green grasses and colorful flowers.  Riley was shocked, it had been a long time since he’d seen raw, unabated beauty like this.  Even Reach never had beauty like this.  He dared to switch his suit filters off, breathing in the fresh air.  It smelled somewhat sweet, a mixture of flowers and perfumes.  He was surprised, half expecting the city to smell like a barn.  
Riley could see the train station up ahead, a small pink engine and carriages lined up on a single track.  An industrial looking car was coupled to the end of the locomotive, a flatbed.  Riveted to its four corners were steel posts, reaching about 8 feet tall.  The posts formed a box frame, adorned by a canvas rainfly, much like a carport tent on wheels.  He neared the station, and climbed aboard the car without a word.  The leaf spring packs compressed over his weight, the decking creaking.  The conductor making his rounds of the train gulped at the Spartan’s large frame.  He stepped his hoof into the stirrup of the car ahead of the spartan.  He checked his pocket watch, putting it away he called in a loud voice,

“All aboard!  All aboard!”  A handful of ponies flocked to the train, mounting the cars from the station’s platform.  Riley noticed one pony, a young mare.  She was crying, hugging what he presumed was her family.  She let go of them, grabbed her bag, and rushed to the train.  He slowly turned away.  Riley sat in the middle of the car, dumbly looking around.  He scooted up towards the forward coupler, leaning against the steel moulding of the car.  

“All aboard!” Called the conductor one last time.  Seeing no one in the crowd move, the conductor waved up to the engineer.  The locomotive chugged heavily at first, a loud ‘clunk’ coming from each coupler as the train began to move.  The locomotive slowly began to pick up speed, pulling away from the platform.  Riley watched the steel rails materialize behind the car, moving faster as the train chugged down the mountain pass.  

“Well, Jessica.” Riley began. “Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

“Riley, the chances of ever getting back to Reach are one in a quintillion.” Jessica said, in quiet desperation.

“Then the odds are even.” He said.

“God you’re stubborn...” Jessica sighed.  “Well, on another note, we are currently traveling 58.7 miles per hour, north northeast.”

“That’s neat.” Riley admitted, with a nod. “What’s your favorite dinosaur?”

“My favorite..  What?”

“Dinosaur, y’know?”

“Triceratops.” Jessica laughed.

“Yeah?” Riley scanned the mountain tops, looking around. “Mine’s the Giraffatitan.”

Jessica laughed audibly, before adding “Okay, DinoMan.”

“Dinos are sick, my guy.” Riley countered, rolling his eyes. “Giraffatitan isn’t going to try to shoot plasma shit at me.  He just wants to eat plants and go on adventures.”

“You might get stepped on.” Jessica replied, her rolling eyes was audible in her tone.

“Nahh.  What do you make of the princesses?” Riley asked his AI Companion.

“Well..  Celestia seems alright enough, but Luna seems a bit paranoid.” Jessica offered. “I still cant believe you took your helmet off...”

“I figured that it’d be the fastest way to build trust, seeing as closing myself off to the deity would be a little untrustworthy.” Riley argued, wiping a smudge from his helmet’s visor with his thumb. 

“I probably would have done the same, to be frank...” Jessica replied.  “I mean, you could totally take some colorful horses.”

Riley chuckled, watching the shrubs pass as the incline leveled off, the train now on relatively flat ground, heading toward Ponyville. He stared at the countryside, thumbing at his dog tags.  

“Few Spartans still wear those...” Jessica commented.

“Big brother Jorge got me into wearing them.  If I go, they have something to pass on.” Riley stated.

“Why aren’t you named in the database?  I can see your ID but your records and name are blank.”

“Because I’m not supposed to exist.” Riley stated flatly, Jessica not questioning the answer.  He clutched the dogtags as he stared at the distant forest, whizzing by as the locomotive sped along the steel rails.  Riley gripped the riveted steel flatbed’s side with his other hand.  He didn’t want to have to put up with this, but surely he could get home.  He just needed to find that pony the princess was so fond of.  ‘Twilight.’

Who names their kid Twilight?
> Chapter One, Act Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“A Spartan?” Twilight asked quizzically.  She skimmed the letter the princesses had sent her.  One of her ears was cocked at an off angle, as if to punctuate her confusion.  “What’s a Spartan?” She put the letter down.

“Guess we’ll find out, huh?” Spike laughed, almost a snobbish laugh, like a noise a pug would make.

“What’s got you so chipper?” She asked, running a hoof along his spikes as she walked to the door.  He reached up feeling atop his head to rub the spot she’d upset.

“Half the time when something like this comes along you freak out.  I have a running bet, so I’m just waiting for when you do.” He sighed, now lightly annoyed with his spikes.  His attitude changed when he asked,  “When’s it coming?”

“The princess says he boarded the train nearly an hour ago, by the time I get to the station he’ll probably be here.” Twilight stated, stepping out the door.

“Can I come?” Spike shouted after her.  She paused.

“I thought you were cooking?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.  Spike paused, and slowly twiddled his thumbs together for a moment.  He tried to hide the panic on his face.

“Oh yeah.  Heheheh.” He giggled awkwardly, sprinting to the kitchen.  A waft of grey smoke billowed from the doorway.  She shook her head and walked out the door as the sounds of a fire extinguisher filled the library.  Twilight walked onto the busy streets of ponyville, waving at a few residents as she made her way along the dirt walkways.  She trotted happily along, passing the downtown market on her way to the station.  

“Well Hi, Twilight!” Twilight stopped to face the voice,  Her orange friend was walking towards her.

“Hey Applejack! How’s the apple stand?” She asked.

“Same old, same old, I just got off my shift.” She replied.  The two looked to Applejack’s brother, standing behind the countertop of the wooden booth. “What are you up to today?”

“The princesses have found something that needs help.” Twilight replied.

“Whadd’ya mean?” Applejack asked, cocking her head.

“Some kind of creature called a Spartan, poor thing needs to find it’s way home...  They’re sending it to me from Canterlot, they think I can help it get back where it came from.” Twilight replied.  

“That’s just fantastic!” Applejack replied with a hearty grin, she threw an arm around her friend, “You’d be the perfect pony here to help em’.  Could I come?” 

“Sure!  I dont see why not!” Twilight smiled. “Cmon, he’ll be arriving at the train station any minute.” 

“Hot dog!  I like meetin’ new folks!” The orange pony claimed, a broad smile plastered on her face.  They headed down, off Cobble Street.  They could see the black column of smoke coming over the flatlands, a shrill whistle pierced the air with two long blows.

“That’s odd.” Applejack commented.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked as they continued down the dirt path.

“The engine from Canterlot usually only hauls six cars Ah thought.” Applejack shook her head.  

“We can’t even see the train yet.” Twilight commented, in deadpanned annoyance.

“Can’t ya hear it?  It sounds different than usual.” The orange mare looked to her friend. “Ah, when you’ve lived in Ponyville as long as I have, sounds like that seem to stick.”



Riley quietly played Galaga inside his helmet, quickly darting his small ship around, firing at the alien sprites.  He quickly closed the game as he heard the pitch of the locomotive’s smokestack change.  A loud, high pitched steam whistle ripped the air apart. The chugging sound of the twin pistons slowed considerably.

“YOU WERE FIFTEEN POINTS FROM THE RECORD!” Jessica exclaimed.

“We’re stopping.” Riley explained.

“FIFTEEN MILLION, NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-“ Jessica began, exasperated.

“I mean that we’re here Jessica.  I get the feeling we’ll have time to kill later.”

“How did you even get that ancient arcade game to run on your VISR program?!”

“I have been around a long time, Jessica.  You learn how to make some customizations.  If Mum found out she’d kill me.  Or maybe she’d be impressed I managed to change her software at all.” Riley replied.  He wondered where Doctor Halsey had gone since his deployment.  He hoped she’d be safe.  She was the closest thing he had to a mother anymore.

“How do you plan to find this Twilight character?” Jessica asked.

“Look for the sparkly one.” Riley quipped.  The train was slowly chugging up to the platform, Riley jumped from the slow moving vehicle, surfing the gravel aside the track.  The spartan exited the slide with two large steps, setting his hands on the wood planks of the station.  He came to a stop at the end of the platform, beside the flatbed car.  Every pony at the platform stared at him in wide-eyed anticipation.  He looked over the small crowd.

“I don’t see any sparkly ones.” Jessica commented.

“I’m looking for Twilight Sparkle.” The spartan announced.

A purple unicorn slowly shrunk back before walking towards his lumbering form.

“A-are you the S-Spartan?” She made out, quivering.

“That’s me.  Ms. Sparkle?” He asked, in presumption.

“P-please, follow me.” She cleared her throat, standing upright.

“I was told you might have the data I need to get home.” The Spartan replied, walking around the side of the building as to not crush the platform’s thin wooden planking.  He met the unicorn around the front of the platform. “I need a detailed map of the stars as far as your kind has known, I’m hoping it can help me find my way back.”

“And if you don’t know any of them?”

“Then I’m stuck here.” Riley replied.

“Wow, you sure are big!  ...Are you from outer space?” Twilight’s orange companion asked eagerly, if hesitently.

“No.  Nobody’s from space, I’m from a planet like everybody else.” Riley quipped as they continued through the dirt streets.  The same paths that had been bustling with life were now completely devoid of all populace.  Except one stand, an apple cart.  A large red stallion sat behind it.  The spartan nodded at the stallion, the stallion nodded back.  A mutual respect.

“But you’re uh..  An Alien?” The orange one rephrased.

“No more alien than you are to me.” Riley replied.  Twilight entered a building inset into a large tree.  Riley ducked under the low doorway, nearly crawling into the building.

“I believe, I have a few of my star maps up here...” He heard Twilight say as she crossed the room.  She walked up a flight of stairs set into the wall.  On the second floor, she darted through a doorway, out of earshot.

A small purple and green lizard slowly entered from a side room.  The creature barely came up to his knee.

“Woahhh....” The creature spoke. “Duude, what are you?  Are you the Spartan?”

“I am.  What are you?” Riley asked the reptile.

“I’m a dragon!  Well, a baby dragon...” He crossed his arms.  Riley had always had a soft spot in his heart for children, even if they were dragons.  He knelt down, bringing himself closer to the dragon’s height.

“What’s your name, bud?” Riley asked.

“My name’s Spike!  What’s yours?”

“Hey Spike!  You can call me Riley.” The spartan smiled.  He held out a balled fist, Spike met it with a fist bump. “You’re a pretty cool dude.”

“Thanks!” Spike giggled.

“I found my maps and- Oh!  Spike!  Have you met the Spartan?” Twilight stood on the landing atop the stairs, looking down at the pair.  Riley slowly stood back to his feet, standing just below the edge of the landing.  He held out a hand, Twilight levitated the maps to him.  Riley slowly opened each map, laying them all out in the middle or the floor.  Maps of constellations, as well as hundreds of other stars and estimated distances to each star were imprinted on the paper.  He looked to each map, slowly.

“I’ve got a model assembled, I can’t really show you without a holotable, but it’s fascinating.” Jessica said, a hint of disbelief in her voice. “I can’t make out anything resembling any known StarNav maps...  This star system here appears to have an artificial planet!”

She pinged a marker on his hud, the map in question.

“And how the hell can you tell that?” Riley sighed, calling bullshit on the A.I. “There’s no way you can tell that from standing here, looking at that.”

“I could detect them when we were aboard the Avalon, I was assisting in navigation at the time...  I didn’t see much of this system in the few seconds the bridge still had power, but its gravitational properties and electromagnetic shielding closely matches that of a large station, rather than a planet!”

“You were assisting...  From inside a briefcase.  What kind of tech are you?” Riley asked, hesitating.

“Some real smart, sexy, new kind of fabulous tech.  Duh.” Jessica commented.  Jared sighed at the antics of the entity. 

“Cool, there’s a fake planet 62 Lightyears away, no known Colonies, and no way to hail the UNSC.” Riley threw his arms out to his side.  “I can’t even try to rig something together, the SlipSpace drive was in the other half of the ship.”

“I’ll keep refining this map but...  Keep your hopes up, Riley...  Hope is always worth fighting for, and this is going to be a long fight...”

“Uhh...  Are you okay, Spartan?” Twilight asked.  Applejack looked quizzically at him.

“Huh?  Oh, Jessica, get out here.” 

A small yellow holograph of a woman, about a foot tall, appeared beside him for a moment.  She had straight, blonde hair that sat on her shoulders.  She was dressed in a black UNSC dress uniform.

“Really?  This is Jessica.  She...” He tried to think of an affiliation. “She’s my A.I.  Helps me to be more efficient.”

“Ohhhhh.” The two ponies droned in unison.

“Ah...  What’s the A stand for?” Applejack asked.
> Chapter Two: Posession
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“My A.I.” 

The words rung in Jessica’s head.  She smirked gently as he talked to the creatures.  She liked the idea of being a spartan’s A.I.

Of being his A.I.  Something about it was exhilarating to her.  To have Spartan ring-side seats instead of being stuck aboard a ship...  Now that was badass.

“Artificial.” Riley crossed his arms, slightly annoyed.  He knew where this was going.

“Ohhh.” Applejack replied. “What’s the I... Stand-“

“Intelligence.” Riley cut her off.  “Who is this?” He shot a thumb at Applejack, looking to Twilight. 

“This is one of my best friends, her name is-“ Twilight began.  The orange pony bowled over her magenta counterpart, Holding out a hoof.

“Ah’m Applejack!  A pleasure to meet you.” The mare introduced herself.

Riley paused.  He knelt down to one knee, slowly reaching for the hoof.  Twilight got to her feet, rubbing her head gently. He held a balled fist, then motioned to grab her hoof, then paused. “Is this a shake..?  What is this?”

“A hoofshake!” Applejack laughed.

Riley sighed under his breath, shaking the mare’s leg.  She had a strong grip for such a small creature with no fingers.

“Darn fella, did you come from a labor background?  You’ve got a firm grip!” She called, with a hint of respect.

Images of shoving rocks and trees away to clear an LZ filled his mind.  He could see troopers on stretchers, a wounded spartan on the ground.  He pulled a smoke grenade from his thigh belt, striking it in a swift movement.  He tossed the red smoke out in front of him as the noise of rotors filled the air.

“Something like that.” Riley commented after a swift pause.  

“What do these markings mean?” Applejack tapped the three golden chevrons over one rocker painted on his chest piece collar.  Two small crossed golden M1 Garands were in the center field of the insignia.  He stood, putting distance between himself and the pony before answering.

“Staff Sergeant, UNSC Marines.” 

Twilight’s eyes grew in understanding.  The massive scary creature wasn’t just a scary creature.  He was military.  He was disciplined.  Respectable.  Or so she hoped.


“S-Staff Sergeant, Spartan?”

“Spartan isn’t my name.”. He stated, almost dismissively.

“Is that your race?” Twilight asked, curiously.  Her momentary fear was replaced by interest. 

“I’m from the human race.” Riley then added, “Spartan is mostly just my type of soldier.

“Mostly?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah.” Riley turned away from them, effectively leaving the conversation as his patience wore thin. “Jessica, what’s our plan?”

“Plan?  I don’t...  Have a plan, we’re just...  Stuck, Riley.  We’re stuck here.”

“You’re supposed to be a Smart AI, there has to be options..” He gritted his teeth as he slowly circled the room.  “The covenant are working their way, colony by colony to Earth. We’re LOSING dammit, we NEED to get back, stuck isn’t an option.”

“What do you want me to do?!  We have nothing to work with, no equipment, no contact.  NOTHING.”

“What would we have to do to launch an orbital distress beacon?” Riley paced a small circle, the creatures watched him intently.

“The one from the Avalon deployed successfully, sending out coordinates and a distress call for about 46 minutes before it went silent on re-entry.” Jessica offered, she held her hands together nervously. “It’ll travel through space just fine, but when anyone will get it is anybody’s guess.”

“There has to be more options!” Riley’s voice almost cracked, wavering. “There’s always another way out of it!  We just.  We need to find how to get in contact with that planet.”

“Riley!” Jessica snapped at him, appearing in front of him. Her figure stared almost angrily, hands out to her side in exasperation.    “We’re stuck.  It’s out of our control.  We can only hope for the princesses to be able to do something.  You can’t just shoot your way out of this one...”

Riley sighed and hung his head.  He slowly stepped around the library, clenching a fist.

“So what, I’m unable to do anything?” He asked the A.I.

“Riley, we have to wait.”

“What am I supposed to do in the meantime?!  What CAN I do?  I have one purpose and you know it.” 

“Mr..  Spartan..” Twilight nervously took a step to the heated creature, he sighed, slowly turning face them.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sure we could find someone needing help.” Twilight insisted firmly.  She stood tall as she posed her venture. “Ponies are always in need of help, maybe you could lend a hoof to them to bide your time and prove your purpose here!  In the meantime, I could show you around town!  Maybe you could meet some of my friends?” 

Riley sighed.  He looked at the ponies.  They were kinda cute, in a ‘watch them with your kids cuz you have to’ sort of way.  “I’ve been incredibly rude by raising my voice in your home.  I apologize.  I’d love to meet them.”

“You’re far from home and understandably stressed, don’t worry Staff Sergeant.  I’m positive the princesses are doing their all to help you.  If you’ll give me a few minutes, I’ll write them to tell them our findings, and meet you out front when I’m finished.” Twilight smiled kindly up at him.  She gently pawed at the floorboards as he spoke.

“Alright Ms. Sparkle, I’ll be waiting.” He slowly walked to the front door, ducking under the oak doorframe.  He gently closed the door behind him as he stepped out of the library. “Jessica...”  He began.  She knew what was coming next.

“I understand, its fine.” She insisted. “I just hope the Princesses can help you more than I could..”

Riley sighed.  He felt like an asshole, he knew by all means not to let his emotions get the better of him, especially in that situation.  He could only hope she was right.










-------------------------------------Canterlot, 18:30 Hours, May 26th, 2552-------------------------------------






In the Canterlot palace, the two princesses sat in silence.  The two sat on opposite ends of a fairly modest dinner table, they were both internally stirring on the Spartan.  They were unsure if they could send him back, much less if they should even try.

“Sister...” Luna slowly looked to the floor. She took several breaths, searching for words as she shifted uncomfortably at the table side.  “I believe the creature..  I think his intent may not be good, he has a very negative energy surrounding him.  A darkness I’ve only felt around the most hardened of my own night guard.  I do not trust him...”

“If his kind has had to advance merely their armor as much as his...” Celestia began. “Think of the horrors he must have seen.  Perhaps you could pay him a visit in his dreams, to try to see if we should truly help him...”


“A fine plan.  I shall let you know when I have any new findings.” Luna gently lifted a china teacup on its plate..  The two sipped from their teacups at the same time, the aristocratic stereotype fit almost too clearly.  "When the sun sets, I'll see if I cannot influence a dream from his past."

"Be careful what you see, sister.  I'd hate for you to become scarred from such an endeavor."





----------------------------Ponyville, 19:00 Hours, May 26th, 2552----------------------------








Riley was about to voice his concern, to apologize to Jessica when the door behind him opened.  He turned his face, looking to Twilight and Applejack as they walked through the door.  The heavy oak door was shut behind the two with a 'click', the ponies started down the gravel path.

"C'mon, it's getting late, let's go meet up with Rarity, she'd love to meet you." Twilight gestured down the street with a tilt of her head.  She paused for Riley, he matched the pony's stride.  

"Aw shucks." Applejack looked to the nearby town square, a clock tower loomed in the distance. "It's nearly 7 O'clock.  I ought to help Big Mac pack up, Granny's gonna be sore I missed supper." 

"It was nice meeting you!" Jessica called.

"Aw, it was good meetin' you too!" Applejack gave a small wave as she trotted away, towards the market.

"C'mon, it's the round building down this laneway." Twilight lead the way.  At the end of a long gravel path stood a tall, ornate building.  Somewhat resembling a carnival ride or circus tent, the building didn't match the tudor style of nearly all buildings in Ponyville. "Carousel boutique!"

She knocked on the front door gently, a conversation could be heard loudly through the door.

"Puh-LEASE!  We HAVE TO CHECK ON HER!" A voice yelled.  "They're HERE!"

"Calm down dear, I'm sure it's-" The door opened to reveal a pure white unicorn with purple curled locks.  She entirely ignored Twilight, her gaze slowly working up Riley's form.

"B-b-b-b" She stuttered for a moment.  Riley slowly looked to Twilight, then back.

"Are...  You alright, ma'am?"  Riley asked.

"Twilight..?" Rarity's gaze did not fall from the Spartan. Her tone was a steady uneasy curiosity. "How dare you bring a Diamond Dog to my home?"

"Rarity, this is Riley.  He's not a Diamond Dog." Twilight rolled her eyes. "He's a Human, he's going to be staying with me for a while and I wanted him to meet my friends."

"A pleasure." Riley added, giving a curt nod.

Rarity had a nervous smile, looking from Twilight to Riley.  "Why don't you come inside, Pinkie Pie was just telling me about our friend."

"Oh Really?" Twilight's ears fell.  Her expression was not amused. "That's funny, she hasn't said as much as a word to him yet, I wonder what she'd have to say about a scary newcomer."  

Rarity looked confused at first, then her eyes grew. She slowly formed the word "Zecora?"

"Mmm-hm." Twilight affirmed.

"Come in." Rarity stepped aside.  

"Ladies first." Riley held out a hand, letting Twilight enter ahead of him.  He ducked under the doorway, walking into the building.  It seemed fairly small at first, though he could see into a kitchen, bathroom, and workroom from where he stood.  "You have a lovely home."

"Aw, why thank you!" She called, walking towards the kitchen. "Would you like some tea?" 

"Actually.." Riley thought for a moment. "That sounds wonderful, thank you."

"I won't be just a moment~!" She called, strutting into the kitchen.

"You mentioned Pinkie is here?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, but she left through the back when she realized it was you two...  I'd leave her be for a while.  She's not exactly in the soundest of mindsets right now." The sound of dishes and a sink wafted from the kitchen.  

"Oh well, Pinkie will be Pinkie." Twilight smiled and shook her head.  "What'd she say?"

"She claims her Pinkie Sense is saying there's going to be a doozy." The unicorn laughed as she re-entered the hallway.  He could hear the kettle rumbling in the other room. "She said he's a scary pony eating monster."

"You don't..  Eat ponies do you?" Twilight slowly looked up to Riley.  Rarity paused, conflicted that Twilight didn't already know this.

"Do I look French to you?" Riley quipped. "Wait, don't answer that.  No, I don't."

"So what's with your..  Outfit..?" Rarity circled a hoof in the air, gesturing generally at him.

"It's my armor." Riley summarized.  Surely, those gold-plated nitwits at the castle meant that people understood what armor is.  She nodded.

"Where's the flair, where's the pizzazz?" She asked, almost disappointed. "I thought military uniforms were supposed to be flashy!"

"Dress uniforms, maybe.  Not combat uniforms.  They need to be practical." Riley replied. "My dress uniform is nice, I just never get a chance to wear it.

"What's the color scheme supposed to represent?" She asked, indicating his black and gold armor.

"Camouflaging a Spartan is kinda hard sometimes.  Black's good for night ops.  Gold is just because that's how I wanted it.  The visor is gold plated to better resist the radiation of the sun while in space." Riley pointed to his arms and helmet as he talked.  

"Don't you think it would be better to have colors that maybe..  Complimented each other better..?" Rarity suggested offhandedly.

"Black goes with everything.  I like my colors, I'm keeping them." 

"Okay, fair enough." Rarity slowly circled the Spartan, looking his armor up and down once again.  The kettle in the other room was now whistling, steam billowed from the spout to the ceiling.  She walked into the kitchen, to pour them all some tea. "You said it was a 'combat' uniform...  Have you seen much combat?"

Riley stared blankly ahead.  He didn't like the thoughts swimming in his head.  "Yeah."

The sounds of a needle rifle's high-pitched whirring filled his head.  The noise of plasma weapons and MA5s slowly faded in before he forced himself back into the current moment. "You might say that."

"That's simply dreadful!  Why?" Rarity took a seat at her kitchen table, pouring tea into three cups, delicately placed on small saucers.

"Some outer colonies were upset at heavy taxing, they're just farmers mainly...  They rebelled.  They wanted to strike out on their own, a little like the United States did back in the day...  Started a huge damn war against the Unified Earth Government.  The United Nations Space Command took swift action, but they were losing.  It came to a brutal stalemate, and the tide began to turn with the creation of the Spartan program.  We began winning, turning the tide but..." Riley looked out the window to his left, watching a few small ponies, probably children, playing in the nearby field.  "We both banded together when the Covenant showed up."

"The Covenant?" Twilight asked, infatuated.  

Riley slowly reached for a teacup, then realized he was wearing a helmet. "Ah the hell with it.  You two seem decent." 

He reached up, removing his helmet.  He sat on the floor by the table, crossing his legs.  He held a teacup gently, taking a sip.

The two were both somewhat surprised at his face.  Strangely masculine, yet delicate in appearance.  He took a long sip from the tea, feeling the warm liquid wash through him, a wave of relief coursed over him as the herbal tea calmed his nerves.  "The Covenant.  Some, murderous band of alien bastards looking to advance their 'great journey'.  Their aim is to completely destroy humanity in pursuit of some...  Spiritual reward. They're tough.  Really tough."

"Is that how you acquired that scar..?" Rarity took a sip from her tea as she watched him intently. "Fighting this Covenant?"

"Yeah.  An Elite's energy sword...  I'd rather not talk about it." Riley held the cup in his hands, like one would hold a coffee cup on a cold day.  'Improper' maybe, but he didn't really care at this point.

"I understand." Rarity nodded gently.

Twilight watched intently, her ears were perked and her eyes wide. "Are they more than one race of alien?"

"Twilight, he said-" Rarity looked at her friend, making a 'tut-tut-tutting' noise at her, holding a hoof to her mouth.

"It's alright." Riley said. "Yeah.  Their main upper echelon are the Elites..  Then there's the Brutes, big bastards they send in to break the lines...  Grunts make up their cannon fodder, while Jackals usually act as these godforsaken snipers.  Then there's the Drones.  Awful buggers, creepy as hell.  Make your skin crawl just looking at em..." 

"There's that many?" Twilight cocked her head, clearly memorizing everything he said.

"Yeah...  There's different classes of warrior, but those are the base nicknames for the species.  I only remember a few of the regular ones but..  We can talk about that later..."

"Of course." Twilight looked away, quickly sipping from her tea, nearly spilling it.  She was trying to avoid looking as interested as she was.

"Oh my, it's nearly 8 o'clock." Rarity looked at the wall clock, ticking softly in the quiet.  "I must go find Sweetie Belle, it's getting late."

"Thank you very much for the tea." Riley said, finishing his cup and putting his helmet back on.  He slowly stood, following the two to the front door.  

"I'm sorry Twilight, could we maybe meet your other friends tomorrow?  It's getting late, I'm rather tired." Riley rubbed his neck, the soreness of his fall earlier that day had caught up to him.  

"Of course.  Let's head home." Twilight trotted out the front door, heading back down the road.  Rarity rested a hoof on Riley's shinguard, Riley turned to face her.

"Mares find scars exotic, you know." She winked at him.

"I'll...  Keep that in mind." Riley nodded gently, following Twilight at a light jog.  He just wanted to sleep.






----------------------------------Golden Oaks Library, Basement, 01:30 Hours, May 27th, 2552----------------------------------







The Lunar Princess slowly paced through the Etherial Plane.  In a mist, she walked through what would normally be the ground, entering the basement through a wall.  She slowly walked up to the resting Spartan, he twitched in his sleep.  His breathing was fast.  It was fairly clear he was having a nightmare.  Usually ponies would have a small dream bubble surrounding them as they slept, allowing the princess to see into them, to transport herself into their psyche.  His was exceptionally small for his size, his mind was more shut than even her guards.  The night guard were some of the most well disciplined troops in Equestria, and his mind was more controlled than theirs.  Even in nightmares.  Her horn glowed, she shut her eyes, and a wind blowed through her mane.
The smell of death perfumed the air, the sulphur-y scent of gun smoke wafted gently in the breeze.  In the distance, booming explosions shook the ground.  Smaller pops surrounded the immediate area.  She opened her eyes as Riley ran right through the pony, not even noticing her.  She rippled, not physically present to his dream world, a mere spectator at the moment.  He traveled with three other Spartans, one was a deep blue color, the other was a light grey.  Those two were shorter than Riley by a large margin.  The third towered three inches above Riley, a massive mountain of a man in a brownish-burnt orange armor.  He carried a massive weapon, like a larger version of the small rifles the rest of the squad carried.  The bore of his machine gun was like that of a golf ball, utterly destructive.
The Spartans ran and slid down a hill side to the east.  Luna slowly walked to the edge of the hill, looking down below.  A battle raged on in what was left of a city, an urban environment like Manehattan.  She could see purple flashes of light, as well as yellow fire sprouting from each of the Spartan's weapons.  The four took cover behind portions of broken buildings.  The blue one held a cylindrical object with a trefoil symbol on it.  The Spartan cradled it, as if protecting it.  A loud mechanical shifting was heard, luna looked above.  A massive purple ship hovered over the remnants of the city, a portion of the ship was shifting, transforming, spinning slowly.  

"Is it bad time to say hello?" The blue, female spartan asked Riley in a thick accent.

"NOW OR NEVER!" Riley yelled.  The big man moved up further, moving right of their position.  The blue one leapt the wall and sprinted into the fray, heading for a point directly under the spinning portion of the ship.  Soldiers in camouflage, smaller but similar armor surrounded the Spartans.  Riley waved a knife-edged hand, indicating for them to move up.

"PROTECT THAT SPARTAN AT ALL COSTS!" He screamed, leaping the wall to follow the blue one.  Blue was far ahead of him at this point.  An explosion sent the spartan spiraling into the air, landing on their back.  The device was beside them.  Riley sprinted for the fallen soldier, the Grey spartan outpaced him, picking up the object.  His metal backpack shifted, he jumped as flames leapt from the pack, propelling him up to the ship.  Riley grabbed the hands of the fallen Spartan, trying to drag her to cover.  Her right arm ripped off midway up the bicep.  Luna was horrified at the sight.  Riley stopped, picking the spartan straight up and throwing her over his shoulder, still holding the arm.

"Hang in there!" He called.  The big man's machine gun suppressed the enemies trying to chase the Spartan down.  A resounding explosion sounded, the ship above them began breaking apart, cascading for the ground.  An elite stepped out from behind a building and kicked Riley in the chest.  He tumbled to the ground, dropping his comrade and their severed arm.  The Elite raised his glowing blade and reached to stab the Spartan's face.  The big man immediately raked his fire over the Elite.  The elite fell backwards, dead, dropping the sword.  It fell across the Spartan's helmet.  He tried to turn his face, too late.  The blade melted into his helmet's chinguard and brim, cutting large holes in the metal.  The visor exploded with the heat piercing the glass.  He screamed and forced it off with his right hand.  It had only touched him helmet for a second, but the damage was done.  He saw blood drip from the melted hole in his glove, then saw it dripping from his helmet's chin guard.  His vision was cloudy.  He shook it off and threw Kat over his shoulder once more.  He forgot the arm in his haste.  He rushed back to the position of the large man as the ground shuddered, large portions of the ship crushing much of the nearby city.

"My radio's dead, call for Med-evac." Riley stated, gently laying her behind the wall.  He grabbed a rifle that lay on the ground.  He leapt over the rubble and landed feet-first on a Jackal.  The creature's disgusting birdlike maw was immediately crushed to a pulp with one punch of the angry Spartan's right hand.  He was trying to work his way to the wreckage of the ship.  Luna could see him firing at unseen targets, noticing he could generally see them before she could.  Luna slowly walked down the punchbowl shaped hill, into the battlefield.  As she got closer, the smell of burning filled her head.  Rubber, wood, steel, gunpowder, all of it burning.  She could taste the smell. 
The smell of rotting, burning flesh came next.  She gagged, but forced forward.  UNSC Marines and Covenant forces fell around her, she stayed focused on Riley.  He was behind enemy lines, pushing forward.  He disappeared into part of the flaming wreckage of the massive ship.  Luna looked around, completely engrossed in the battle around her.  A handful of Marines were escorting what looked like civilians the same way Luna had come, towards the Spartans.  
A large, ape-like creature rushed past her with a massive hammer.  He spun wildly, sending Marines into walls, blood splattered through the air like she'd never seen.  He was quickly gunned down by the big man's mighty gun.  Riley walked through her again, and she suddenly remembered she was supposed to be evaluating him.  He was holding something in his left hand, walking through the battlefield slowly.  He was firing on enemies with his assault rifle, shooting one-handed into the fray.  The battlefield was quickly falling silent.  He walked up behind a small Grunt, picking up the creature by its neck, he threw it as hard as he could into the ground, never losing the two small tags on a ball chain in his left hand.  He stomped on its head, blood splattered everywhere. 

"You god-DAMN COVVIES." He screamed.  An Elite rushed up to him from the side.  Riley saw this attack coming, ducked, and tackled the alien.  He began mercilessly beating the creature's head in. The gunfire had stopped.

"You think that's it?" A marine shouted his question.  Two green ships flew in low over the battlefield, circling and landing behind the Spartan with the machine gun.  The back doors lowered, revealing four more Spartans, six field medics, and eight Marines.  The Marines ran down the ramp, heading for covered positions, the Spartans sprinted to their injured friend.  The noise of Riley beating the alien still filled the air, even over the whirring of the turbojet engines.  Luna could see a blue Spartan ask the big man something.  The big man pointed in the direction of Riley.  The blue Spartan jogged across the battlefield.  He splashed through a large puddle, past bodies, and found the crater Riley was in.  He continued to beat the pulp of an alien, its head now completely gone, nothing but brain matter and blood was left, spare the occasional bone fragment.

"SPARTAN." The Spartan yelled. "That's ENOUGH.  Where's Thom?"

Riley slowly got to his feet and turned, the blue spartan took a step back at the sight of his helmet.  He then looked down and saw the tags.

"Are you alright?" The Spartan asked.  Blood and tears covered the Spartan's sweaty face. "They're calling for you at the orbital ship breaking yard.  An escort mission."

"I'm fine." Riley roughly held the dogtags to the spartan's chest.  The spartan put his hand over them, taking them.  Riley paused. "When Kat comes around...  Tell her I said hello."  

"See you next time, Riley." The spartan said after a short pause.

"Next time..." Riley replied, slowly stepping away.  He walked over to the big man, and the injured spartan.  They were loading her on a stretcher.  "Next time..." He placed his hand on hers, gently, as they carried her away.

"Riley." Came a voice, a large hand was placed on his right shoulder.

"They want me to go.  ONI wants another escort."

"I see...  That's a shame...  If you see mum first, tell her I say hi."  The big man said.

"Same goes for you."  Riley turned, gripping the man's hand in front of their chests, bringing him closer for a hug with the other hand. "Take care of them for me.  These Spartan IIIs would get themselves killed without you."

The big man gave a short chuckle as Riley stepped into the bay of the ship, holding a steel handhold on the side of the doorframe.  The ship slowly lifted off, Riley gave a small wave to the big man.

Luna had seen enough.  She exited his dream.  The force of the exit sent ripples through his dream state, destabilizing it and causing it to collapse.   He let out a quiet cry as he bolted upright, looking around.  He breathed heavily, switching on his Helmet lights.  He swept the room with his gaze, to convince himself he was still there.  The princess, still in the Etherial Plane, watched him curiously.  He slowly laid himself back down on the floor to rest.  At least there was always hope for the morning, that maybe tomorrow would be better.

Maybe the next time around would be a little kinder.

Maybe the next time he saw that band of merry misfits, she'd still have her arm.

Maybe...  Next time.

Riley slowly faded back into unconsciousness.  The princess's horn glowed, she gently helped the Spartan into his sleep, a peaceful, calm sleep that would last through the night.  She needed to talk to her sister.  



And to speak to the demon.
> Chapter Two, Act Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Riley slowly awoke, gently opening his dim and tired eyes.  The room was still dark, and his movements were sluggish.  He slowly sat upright, cradling his left knee to keep himself upright.  Sunlight shone dimly beneath the crack of the basement door, telling him it was morning.

"Jessica, what time is it?" Riley rubbed the sore spot on his neck, still hurting pretty good from his fall.  He slowly pulled his other leg close, pushing himself to his feet.

"It's 07:24.” Jessica replied, quietly. "Sleep well?"

"Something like that.  Best sleep in a long while, actually."  He stretched his arms, then his legs.  He turned his torso to and fro slowly, trying to pull out the cramps in his muscles.   He bent down to retrieve his weapons leaning against the wall, attaching his magnum to his right thigh, and his MA5 to his back.  Riley slowly stepped up the thick oak planks that made up the stairway.  He ducked as he went to push open the door to the main room.

"I should warn you." Jessica began.  Riley paused, listening. "There's been a ton of movement and shuffling in there, there's a lot of something beyond that door."

"Can you light up Friend-Or-Foe tags?"

"Negative, they don't have UNSC or Civvie tags, they don't have tags at all, they'd be marked as enemy by default." Jessica's voice carried through his head as she spoke.  He felt drowsy, groggy even.  He held his right palm to his temple as he sighed.

"Jessica...  About yesterday..." 

"No, I get it.  You're a Spartan with nothing to do.  I don't blame you."

"Well I do blame me." He stated firmly.  "It wasn't an excuse to go off like that.  We're stuck here together, I'm sorry."

Jessica didn't reply.  After a few seconds of silence, Riley decided that she must be ignoring him.  He sighed and turned the doorknob, walking into the library.

It was dark.  He was about to turn on his lights when the curtains were ripped open and the lights came on, he instinctively drew his magnum in the same instant a small crowd shouted "SURPRISE!"

He looked around for a moment, lowering the Magnum, letting it fall to his side.  There were thirteen ponies in total, sitting in the room.  Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack made up three of them.  The two princesses sat off to the side with a detachment of four guards, a third alicorn accompanying them.  One guard was clearly an officer, purple accents decorated his golden armor.  Six other ponies sat with Twilight, under a large banner.  It read 'WELCOME SPARTAN' in flowery text.

"What is this?" Riley asked, bringing the handgun back to his thigh.  Luna looked to her sister, almost smugly as the pistol stuck to his hip.

"Good morning~!" Rarity cooed.

"The girls who didn't get to meet you yesterday wanted to get up early to prepare a surprise party!" Twilight smiled up at the spartan.  He shook his head gently.

"Thank you very much." Riley held his hands out to his sides, out of words. "I-I don't know what to say."

"This is Pinkie Pie..!" Twilight gestured to a neon-pink pony, bouncing cautiously towards Riley. "Rainbow Dash!"

A pegasus sporting every color of the rainbow in its mane did a small loop in the air before speaking what sounded like a "Yo."

"And Fluttershy!" Twilight held out a hoof to a small butter-colored pegasus.  She looked rather emo, hiding behind her mane.  She made a noise similar to that of a small dog toy as she attempted to make herself look smaller.

"A pleasure to meet you all...  I appreciate this get together...  But I get the feeling the princesses didn't bring their guests for the party." Riley slowly turned his face to look at the three alicorns.

"Quite." Luna stated.  "Would you girls possibly step outside for a few minutes?"

"Oh...  Of course!  C'mon girls!" Twilight slowly backpedaled, opening the front door for her friends to head outside.  Pinkie never ceased her bouncing.  The heavy oak door shut with a solid 'thunk'.  The room stayed silent for a short moment, Riley was the one to speak up.

"I presume you must be another princess?"

"Princess Cadence." Cadence gave a curt nod, affirming his suspicion.  

"Is this about my ability to return home?" 

"In a way." Luna appeared to stare a hole in his chest, not bothering to look in his visor "Riley...  Would you remove your helmet, I'd like to look you in the eye when we talk."

Riley paused, his gut dropped like a child being scolded by their parent.  He slowly reached up and removed the helmet, Jessica was yelling in protest within the metal dome.  

“No don’t trust them, RILEY-“

"I have a special ability as princess of the night." Luna slowly swirled a hoof around the rim of a china teacup, looking into it before gazing back into his eyes.  “I can influence a pony's sleep, visit their dreams to give them aid on deep rooted psychological issues they may never find the answer to, to help them understand and fight their nightmares."

He knew where this was going.

"And you decided to spy on me... And witnessed the battle for Fumirole.  Didn't you." Riley's question was formed as a statement. His jaw tightened as he took a shaky breath. 

"The atrocities I saw you committing..." 

"They're monsters." Riley stated.  His eyes narrowed at the audacity of the deity. "They won't talk peace, they won't surrender.  They slaughter civilians without remorse, they're determined to play the part of monsters.  So I must play mine, the part of the Spartans."

He slowly stepped across the hardwood, pacing parallel to their group. His boots resounding on the oak with a soft shudder as he moved away.

Thud.  Thud.  Thud.  Thud.

"What might that be?" Celestia asked, now curious.

"The men who stop the monsters." 

Riley was about to pull his helmet back on with one hand, it had barely cleared his crown when Luna's words stopped him in his tracks..

"You gave the creature no mercy when he was clearly beaten.  How can you justify this?" Luna asked, with renewed distrust.

Riley lifted his helmet back off, dropping it on the floor.  He walked back to them, his step quicker than before.

"You were there.  There were civilians to the east.  Three families all in that burnt out shack on the hill.  They were beaten.  They were given no quarter.  Every human is put to the sword when it comes to the Covenant.  Maybe a handful of humans have been spared in this war, that a lone Elite or two took pity on.  If we don't do the same, we will die.  It's been almost 30 years we've been at war with them.  20 BILLION Human lives lost." 

He was gesturing angrily, a hand outstretched with an accusatory finger pointed at them.  He stopped only when the tip of his finger was in Luna's face.  "Don't you DARE try to INSULT ME as to say to have mercy or pity on them.  IF they showed some other form of sentience, beyond consciously choosing murder, maybe things would be different.  Somehow, I doubt that many of your species have died at ALL, much less in war.  We are on our last legs as a species."

The princesses looked at him.  Mixed emotions were clearly present in the room.  None of them looked directly at him, save for the officer.

"I don't fight them because I think I'm better than them." This had their attention, all eyes were now on him.  Luna's gaze warily met his, it was clear that the fight had left her, that all of them were uncomfortable at the pure hurt that outclassed their right to be angry.

"I don't do it, because I just want to win, because I inherently want them to disappear.  I do what I have to do because it's RIGHT.  Because they've proven that they want us all dead, but in rare occurrences, of the handful they HAVE had mercy.  They have individual minds, and they CHOOSE to be this way.  I do it because those little people, those civvies on that hill?  I couldn't protect them.  They died afraid, scared, alone.  One ‘acceptable casualty’ is somebody else's everything.  If I can save one life, if I can save ten, it makes it worth it.  Maybe they won't live long, maybe they won't survive at all, but I have to try.  We all die at some point, you're gonna die too."

The princesses continued to stare at him.  Their eyes drilled into his skull, seeing nothing but a sadness, indescribable rage, and an unwillingness to fix it.  His face was livid, his eyes burned with a passion they'd not believed the Spartan capable of, his energetic hand gestures and pure frustration filled the room with a heavy air.  

"So what would you die for." Riley asked. "When your whole existence is threatened.  When everything you love has been turned to ash...  When your friends fall around you and you’re expected to pull through, hoping they hit the ground face down, so it's a little easier to leave em'...  When the very sand around you is turned into glass...  The pained cries of families cut off as the heat evaporates the flesh off their bones...” He appeared to be staring clean through the princesses as he spoke.  Riley only appeared to animate again as he looked away to add to his point.  “What I'd die for is who I am.  Who I am is why I will make my stand."  

The door behind the spartan cracked open.  The heavy slab of oak swung open a few inches, but not all the way.  The princesses eyes darted to the door, then back to Riley.

"Where I stand..." His voice faltered. "Is where I fall."

The princesses were completely silent, watching him put his helmet back on.

“If you have nothing to say, other than trying to contest the morality of my fight, then I’d say your business trip is done.  If you have something meaningful about my travel, about my return to the fight, then make your point.”

The princesses were all silent, Cadence slowly spoke up, to challenge the Spartan.

“I get it...” All eyes were on her, watching this pink princess intently. “You’re hurt...  You’re angry..  You’ve probably been fighting this war for most of your life...  But there is a kindness in you...  A respect that wants to surface, but is buried behind the mess of emotions from being stranded.”

“So I take it that means the trip is over.  Thanks for stopping by.” Riley turned his back and stepped over to a table of what looked like snacks as the door opened.  Scooping his helmet from the floor, he examined the assortment of goodies as the group of ponies made their way back in.  Riley pulled his helmet back on, waiting for another round of yelling by Jessica.

“Actually..” Cadence piped up, the six ponies slowed to a stop, looking nervously between the Spartan and the princess. “Would you take a walk with me?”

The officer stepped forward, as if to protest.

“Would you come with us?” She asked the guard.  He nodded silently.

“Got nothing better to do.” Riley shrugged, looking into a cup.  He swirled the contents for a minute before he sat it back on the table.  The Spartan turned to follow the princess out the door, Luna quietly deliberated with her sister, looking ashamed.

Riley walked out into the bright sunshine of the day, ducking under the low doorway.  The princess and her guard talked quietly for a moment.  The guard nodded, and as Riley stepped up beside the two, they went silent.  The gravel crunched under their hooves, small rocks exploded into dust under Riley’s boots.

“This is Captain Armor, of the Royal Guard.” She introduced him.

“Great, someone else who gets paid more than me.” Riley shook his head.  Armor smiled and gave a light huff.

“What’s your rank, soldier?” Armor asked, continuing the leisurely pace.

“E-6.  UNSC Marines.”

“30 years and only an E-6?” The captain rose his eyebrow.

“Long story in a few words?  Cryostasis, clerical errors, and the fact I owe my life to a janitorial robot.” Riley sighed. He shook his head once more, kicking a few pebbles down the empty dirt street. “You give so much and the only thing they give you is a “Fuck you, you’re obsolete.”  Course, then you save them again and they keep you around until the new Spartans show up, and repeat the process.”

The trio continued walking quietly for a moment before Armor piped up.

“I’ve only been in for 12 Years..  Entered as an officer...  Served in the battle of Raven Peak and Deadhorse, almost nothing but skirmishes and guard duty since...” Armor countered.

“What’s the score on those battles?”

“3000 KIA, 185 KIA.”  The guard kept his gaze ahead, almost feeling inadequate next to the veteran Spartan.

“185?”

“Holding back 5000.”

“God-damn, son.  You’ve seen some things, haven’t you?” Riley looked down to the pony, a camaraderie and respect for the creature welled inside him.  The guard’s gaze met his visor before looking down.

“Yeah, you could say that...” Armor nodded.  The three ponies continued down the street, to nowhere in particular.  Headed for a nearby ridge, Riley looked at the sun, high in the sky before glancing back down to earth.  He wanted to watch the sunset on that ridge.

“Why’d you join up, and what’s this story of a 'Janitorial robot?”

Riley scoffed a laugh, then patted his helmet twice. “Jessica, what’s the chances of us really getting home, realistically?”

Jessica appeared in front of the three, making the ponies pause momentarily.

“Realistically..?  I think you should have hope..”

“So basically it's entirely impossible.  Well then...  My dad was ODST.” Riley continued walking as she was quiet again, her form looking at the ground, unable to answer his question.  “When I was 7, an ONI infiltration team kidnapped me from me home in Missouri, Earth.  At 15 I underwent augmentation.  As far as the official ONI records go, I died in that augmentation.  And I did.”

Armor stopped walking, looking up wearily.

“You looked pretty alive to me...”  

“While I lay dead on the table, a janitorial robot was dispatched to mop up the cascade of blood from my sinus cavity.  Somehow it managed to fry itself, electrocuting me with it.  ...Which started my heart, then the good doctor just set me aside and went with it...  They appointed me to the Marine Corps, and sent me off to run all the Marine’s errands without the paperwork of Marine-ONI joint ops.” Riley sighed heavily, his gaze falling to the pony beside him. “Not that it mattered much anymore when the Covenant arrived.  Then, everything was a joint op.”

“Sounds like...” It was Armor’s turn to shake his head. “When did you first encounter these enemies you were talking about?”

Riley looked ahead, the events came to him vividly. “When I got my armor...  They attacked the UNSC Commonwealth...  Gave each of us a nuke to blow the enemy ship to kingdom come, I think only Sam, Kelly, and John made it in, I ended up a grease stain on the hull when plasma fire killed my jetpack, but it served to prove the immense impact-dampening power of the suit, later leading to the development of the energy shields helping to harden the suits..  Sam never made it out, and it pushed John to be the best of the best, I think they promoted him recently, but last I heard he was in cryo.”

“Did you destroy the ship?” Cadence piped up, her face filled with concern and awe.

“No.” Riley replied, looking to the princess. “But Sam did.”





————————————





“Princess Celestia...  What was that about..?” Twilight slowly looked up to her mentor, her gaze tracking the grain in the wood, the Princess’s fetlocks, up to her eyes.

“I fear we misjudged him...  And we may have jeopardized our relationship with him through it...” Celestia shook her head, resting a hoof around her student.  

Luna’s eyes were still wide, she turned to her sister. “Tia, surely there can’t be more than 20 billion of them!  That’s absurd!”

“Sister, I fear that’s the entire point...  His anger, the way it entirely fuels him...” Celestia felt like shrinking inside herself, she didn’t want to deal with this problem anymore.  They’d made an awkward misjudgment and now she had to live with it, tainting his impression of them.  "I don’t think there are that many humans...."

“Not anymore...”
> Chapter Two, Act Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Riley slowly entered into the library.  It was dark now, having spent the day talking with Shining Armor and walking the town.  The princesses had long since retreated to their own quarters, wherever that was.  His boots echoed on the floors as a light in the corner of the room clicked to life.

“You’re back late...” Twilight called quietly from her chair.  

“Your brother took me drinking.” Riley chuckled, shaking his head gently.  He then added “I made him some money.”

“Really?” Twilight perked up immediately. “..How come?”

“My metabolism is too fast.” Riley slowly shut the door behind him.  “Can’t get drunk, drank half a dozen ponies under the table, hustled some pool..   ...Look, I’m sorry for earlier...  I can handle anything but the silence..  I hate not being able to do the one thing I’m made for...  And being hated for doing it...”

“I get it...” Twilight slowly stretched her front legs, moving to stand and walk towards the lumbering Spartan. “Well...  I don’t really get it...  But I know you mean well.”

“I wish everyone shared your sentiments.” Riley strode across the floor, trying to step quietly on the hardwood flooring. “Is Spike asleep?”

“Yeah, he’s been out like a light for a few hours...” Twilight nodded gently in affirmation, her voice barebly above a whisper, soft and low against the gentle hum of the dim yellow light in the corner.  

“Gotcha.” Riley paused his trek to the basement door, turning to face Twilight.  “Twilight, you’re well-read.  Is there any chance this world has some kind of faster than light travel that you know of?  Long range teleportation?”

“Afraid not..” She looked down, almost ashamed. “Long range, sure but not that long enough to travel the kind of distance to the planet you'd mentioned.”

“I just wish I had some way to contact the UNSC, another Spartan, anybody...” Riley turned his face, the visor of his helmet glinting off the lamplight, appearing as an eerie golden glow in the evening dark.  The small shield generators upon his armor shone a pale blue glue against the wall as he reached for the basement doorknob.  

“Goodnight, Twilight.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.” Riley’s words echoed in her mind as he opened the doorway, ducking as he passed through it.  The spartan made his way down the oak stairs, navigating past the desks and workspaces at the landing.  He slowly turned, setting himself on the floor with a ‘thud.’  Riley leaned his back against the wall behind him.  His eyes were heavy, he was tired.  Very tired.

He heard a sharp inhale in his helmet, the precursor to a sentence.

“Jessica?” Riley asked. “Are you alright?”

“I was debating whether or not to ask you the same thing..” 

“Don’t worry about me, I just want to move.  Large amounts of constant adrenaline that's not getting used is making me tired as hell.” Riley replied as he leaned his head back against the wall.  “Goodnight Jessica.”

“Goodnight Riley..”

The spartan closed his eyes gently, feeling his weight gradually slip away as he fell into unconsciousness.



---------------



Riley watched the steel door close in front of him, the sections lowering into place, sealing tightly against their frame.

“Ready, boys?” A Sergeant yelled from the hall, climbing into his own drop pod.

“OORAH!” Sounded among the pod bay.  Blue HUD screens in the pod lit Riley’s helmet as the group prepped.

“Soldiers!  That anti-aircraft battery offends me!” Called out over the comms systems, it was the voice of the ship’s captain. “Remove it!”

The pods were released in their chutes, rocketing towards the surface.  He watched the UNSC Say My Name dissappear above him.  The pods breifly glowed a brilliant orange as they plummited upon reentry, flames licking the sides of the steel chambers.  Riley watched the other pods through his windows with adamant interest.  The group gained quickly on the ground below, the battle to reclaim Harvest.

“Hey, it’s not so bad!  At least we’ve got a big bad Spartan!” echoed over the radio.  Laughter filled the airwaves.

Riley gripped his harness tight as the ship vibrated.  He was 15, and absolutely terrified.  He tightened his jaw as AAA fire lit up the sky below the soldiers.  He could hear rounds deflecting off the bottom of his pod.  One drop pod outside his window burst into flames, plummeting towards the ground, spinning wildly out of control.  He could hear screams across the radio, causing his speakers in his helmet to crackle.  The screaming was in his skull, becoming a part of him as the man in the steel coffin mere yards from him was burned alive.

Their chutes deployed, Riley was forced into his seat as the pod’s thrusters fired, slowing him minimally before he struck the ground.  Things happened fast.  The door of his pod exploded outward, shooting off against a distant rock formation.  He grabbed his rifle from beside him and launched out of the pod.  He could see the flaming wreckage of a pod in front of him.  The trooper clearly didn’t survive.  He glanced around to catch his bearings, finding the looming tower of an AA gun in the distance.  Riley took a deep breath and advanced.

He rushed forward towards a looming hillside, the ground around him was cracked and scorched.  Deep crevices filled the landscape.  As he reached the foot of the hill, plasma fire lit up the air around him.  He turned to see ODST of the Second Shock Trooper Battalion following him in the distance.  Determined to prove his worth, Riley charged the hill.  His body seemed to move without his mind, in a surreal way.  His arms raised his assault rifle, riddling several Unggoy as they attempted to find better positions.  Four elites were stationed in a pillbox several yards up the hill.  His legs carried him quickly up the terrain, his arms throwing a grenade into the window of the armored position.  After the grenade exploded, he opened fire in the bunker, eleminating what was left.

Riley crested the small hill and found himself at the base of the AA cannon.  Surrounding the upper deck of the installation were several elites, and dozens of grunts.  Determined, the boy rushed through the masses, firing in a mad dash.  Something struck his back plate, his shoulder felt like it was on fire.  He could feel hot liquid running down his skin inside his suit.  He was flat on his face in the dirt, gravel pressed up against his visor.  His hands were empty.  Something stomped his head, his visor shattered agaisnt the rocks.  Stunned, he rolled onto his back.  An elite stood over him, about to stomp him again.  Riley grabbed the alien leg, mid fall.  In one swift move he threw the leg to the side, surprising the elite with his strength.  The beast fell to the ground, Riley quickly shoved his magnum into the creature’s mouth, pulling the trigger until it clicked empty.  He stood as fast as he could, trying to find his assault rifle.  He grabbed the weapon from the dirt and quickly raised it to dispatch of several more covenant.  

He raced toward the cannon, his head was ringing.  He reached the core in several bounding steps, it consisted of an energy shield covering a plasma battery.  Trying to save his ammo, he punched the shield as hard as he could, once, twice, three times.  The shield fell.  Riley dropped a grenade in the capsule and turned to run.  He was surprised to find himself staring at an elite.  It grabbed him by the neck, lifting him off the ground as he turned.  He struggled for air, making startled, choking noises as he tried to breathe.

“Now they raise their young against us.. You shall die with your cause, little demon.” The elite held him close to the reactor.  The grenade detonated, sending shrapnel into the one compromised point of his armor.  It seared, burning his flesh.  He tried to scream but there was no air in his lungs left.  He fumbled his thighs and found what he was looking for.  With the last of his strength, he shoved the knife into the elite’s neck.  The grip was released.  Riley fell to the floor, taking several deep breaths.

And then the reactor blew.

The gun collapsed around the Spartan, the blast sending him clear of the structure.  The ODST had just made their way to the foot of the hill as the explosion knocked them to the ground.  They hustled up the steep hillside with little resistance, and crested it to find the battery destroyed.

A small green figure was on the ground, several hundred yards from it.  Sergeant Hunnicut rushed to the fallen soldier.  He rolled him over.  Riley’s eyes snapped open.

His ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton.  They rang intensely.

“Ho-ho-holy shit kid.” The sergeant helped raise his torso off the ground, the spartan forced himself to his feet.

“Big bad spartan is goddamn right.  If we had a hundred of you guys we would have never lost Harvest in the first place.” An ODST commented.



--------------



Riley awoke with a yelp, his eyes were wide, his breathing heavy.

“I’m sorry to wake you Riley...” It was Twilight.  She floated a peice of parchment towards him. “We got a letter..”

The golden visor hid his sceptic look.  He grabbed the letter from the air, browsing its contents.

‘...Twilight, inform the Spartan two larger objects has been spotted in Low Equiis Orbit.  The orbit is slowly decaying, we expect an impact to be made within the next 72 Days.  These are far bigger than his own ship was.  One appears completely intact...’ 

“Jessica?” Riley asked, as he read the letter several times in his head.  “Can you...  See any signals on the scanner?”

“You won’t like it.”

“I don’t care if I like it or not, tell me.  You should’ve told me before.”

“I’ve got two UNSC distress signals, and two Covenant signals, they seem to match a ship’s distress beacon as well.”

Riley sighed heavily. “Why’d I have to ask for things?”

He slowly turned his head, facing the stairs of the library. “Have we got a tragectory for it’s landing?”

“Have you got a map?” Jessica answered the question with a question.

“Twilight, world map?” Riley panned his gaze over to the pony.

“Just a moment.” She slowly got to her hooves, walking across the wood floors.  She scaled the stairs, Riley slowly getting to his feet and following her.  They climbed the oak staircase from the basement.  By the time they reached the interior room of the library, Twilight had already pulled the map from it's place on a shelf.  She spread it across the floor.  Jessica appeared, walking above the map.  

"We're in this village?" Jessica asked, gesturing towards 'Ponyville' on the map. "If their calculations are correct, and gravity is roughly 9.8 meters per second...  Given from the orbital trajectory of the beacon in orbit, it's going to land somewhere around here..." 

Riley approached the map, looking at the spot she had pointed to. "Crystal Empire?"

"Not the city, my best guess would be about 13 miles northwest of the border."

"A frozen wasteland, basically." Riley prompted.

"The Crystal empire has very barren surroundings...  An ancient evil follows those outside the barrier in the center of the kingdom..." Twilight spoke hesitantly.  

"You said long range teleportation does exist, I've seen examples of relatively short range.  Can you get me on one of those ships?" He asked.

"I mean, maybe it's possible but..  Only a princess could..  Why not wait for it to crash?"

"Those ships arrived via slip space, and mostly intact.  Seeing as they're in a decaying orbit, they're not being crewed.  At the least the crew is incapacitated...  Meaning I may be able to do something about it, before they crash." Riley explained. "Can you get reach one of the princesses for me?"

"I'll do my best." Twilight nodded energetically. "Spike!  Take a letter!"
> Chapter two, Act Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Luna was the first to barge into the library, followed by Princess Celestia.  Luna seemed almost panicked, energetic.  Celestia held a calm demeanor, but her subtle fear betrayed her expression.

"Spartan, we arrived as soon as we could." Luna began, catching her breath as she circled to come to a stop on his right.

"It hurts to ask further help from you, but I have to ask.  Currently there are two Covenant signals and a UNSC distress signals in low orbit.  Jessica tells me it's going to crash somewhere northeast of the Crystal Empire.  I need a way aboard one of those vessels, preferably the UNSC one, before they wreck."  

"How can we distinguish them?"

"The green and black one will be UNSC, all the Covenant shit is purple.  If you can't visibly see them with optics and your magic stuff, then any one and I'll make do." Riley summarized.  He was grasping at straws, hoping that with their god-like abilities they could place him aboard one of the ships.  More than anything, he wanted to be able to use their slipspace capabilities to return home, if possible. 

Someone outside screamed, screams rose in volume very quickly, the hairs on the back of Riley's neck stood up.  Knowing that there were Covenant at least in orbit, he drew his handgun and slowly strafed towards the door.  He cracked the heavy slab of oak, peeking through the gap for a split moment.  Trying to assess the threat, he saw it.  His hands dropped limply to his side, his handgun magnetically gripping to his thigh holster.  The oak slab swung open slowly.  The princesses looked past the towering figure, ponies outside were panicking in the streets, running back and forth between buildings.  In a few seconds, the streets were quiet.

High above, a figure shrouded by the light blue glow of the atmosphere was barreling across the sky.  It was massive, a smaller, yet clearly gigantic figure followed it closely.  Being able to see the figures in the daylight was bad, being able to see them while in an orbit that high was worse.  This object was completely gargantuan.

Riley's heartbeat raced, he could feel the veins in his neck and temples throbbing with the rush of hormones increasing his heartbeat.  Far above, he could clearly make out the shape of a Covenant Supercarrier.  It was halved, yet still distinguishable in it's curved shape.

"Oh my god." Riley spoke under his breath.  His thoughts swam for a moment, before he turned to face the princesses. "You need to gather your troops, as many as you can spare.  Have them at the Crystal Empire, prepared to mobilize on the crash site, I don't care how long they need to wait."

"What about you?" The princess asked. 

"I need to get up there.  The big one is a Covenant Supercarrier, or rather was.  With the loss of that some smaller ships will no doubt be dispatched soon enough.  The other, smaller one we can see is a Corvette.  I could clear a Corvette." Riley stated, beginning to walk around angrily.

"How do you propose you arrive there?" Luna asked, perplexed by how matter-of-fact he said it.

"As I was rambling about earlier, Twilight told me you have some form of long range teleportation.  Use a telescope and eyeball it, I don't care.  If I don't get there, Thousands could die from these bastards.  If not the whole planet..."  Riley was frustrated, he'd never had to explain how terrible the Covenant is.  It was always common knowledge.  Now that he was having to try and convey just how dire the situation was, he found it increasingly difficult to hold his temper.

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances nervously.

"We've never attempted to teleport such weight, such distance, to such a precise location.." Luna spoke softly, in a tone to avoid challenging him, while suggesting different action.  "It very well could kill you.  Rather than risk losing our only knowledge on the subject, it may be best for us to wait for its crash."

Riley sighed heavily, aggravated.  He knew very well they were right, if it was out of their capabilities, the risk was too great.

"It could last in orbit as long as two years.  It could come crashing down within a couple months.  I don't have accurate enough sensory data to make a precise estimation." Jessica commented quietly.  Riley's eyes moved back and forth as he thought, as if reading a book.

"So now that I FINALLY have an objective, a clear path, with my sole purpose in mind...  I'm back to waiting?" Riley asked.  He held his arms out in dismay. "There's no way to get up there? I have to wait for the orbit to decay, for them to crash?  I got excited over nothing?  You can tell where but not when it'll crash?"

"Yeah.  I can." Jessica stated indignantly. "Maybe if we can recover some equipment from the Avalon we could attempt to increase my scanning capabilities.  But I suggest we have scouts across the planet maintain a watch for any Covenant landings or troop movements.

"Consider it done.  We will mobilize any spare troops not critical to defense, and leave those critical on standby.  We will attempt diplomatic reasoning to encourage other nations to increase their patrols, while tripling our own." Celestia stated without hesitation.

Riley breathed deeply for a moment before addressing everyone in the room.  "Sorry for the tones of urgency and panic.  I thought perhaps if I was able to board the ships I'd have a way home, while being able to destroy any covenant force that could threaten you at the same time.  I guess that's not really feasible right now though, is it?"

"All is well, Spartan." Luna spoke for them with a gentle smile, and a nod. "Though I do believe we must address the citizens, their panic will not be calmed until they are somewhat aware of the situation."

"Yeah.  I suppose so." Riley agreed, if not hesitantly with the Princess.  

"Spartan, perhaps in the meantime perhaps we could help in your acquisition of material from your ship." Celestia began in the patronizing, soft tone she had perfected.  While cocking her head at him in some emotion he didn't understand, she added "While we cannot teleport you to the ships, we could send you there fairly simply, being as we've both stood in the wreckage."

"I think that would be the best course of action.  Could we arrange for a train to pickup the materials in Canterlot, bring them back out to Ponyville where they're more out-of-the-way?" Riley suggested.

"I think that would be fairly wise." Celestia nodded.  "When do you wish to return to the crash?"

"No time like the present." Riley shrugged, stretching his arms momentarily across his chest.  He stamped his feet on the oak flooring and flexed his hands a few times. "There's much work to be done."

"Very well." Celestia's horn began to glow, increasing in intensity.

"See you Twilight, thanks again." Riley spoke, the last sentence before he was enveloped in the light of the Princess's magic.  The familiar sick feeling in his stomach returned, as he was wiped from the library's living space.
> Chapter Two, Act Five, the Christmas Act
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Popping and buzzing noises filled Riley's head as the world enveloped his vision again.  The noises dissipated as the light around him faded.  Something that was immediately clear was the snowfall in the valley.  There was about eight inches of snow on the ground, completely surrounding the   He slowly panned the surroundings area to find he was directly below the "AVALON" scripted on the hull of the ship.  A small squad of Royal Guards walked towards him at a leisurely pace.  One of them, a pegasus, had a scroll tucked under his wing.

"Spartan." The pegasus announced, slowly advancing on the soldier. "The Royal Throne has alerted us of your arrival, we're Recon Team Hoof.   We had started recovery of any notable materials before you joined us.  In a section of the ship to the west we've stacked what loose debris and items we could gather.  We will be around the valley should you need us."

Riley nodded in response, turning his head until his HUD indicated he was facing west.  A corridor of the ship was largely intact, laying on its side in the snow.  The spartan trudged through the white landscape, working his way to the hall.  He crawled into the wreckage, finding piles of debris and miscellaneous equipments haphazardly thrown into the cocoon of steel.  Hopping from the doorframe into the piles, he trudged through the garbage.

"It's fascinating, the air temperature shouldn't be able to grant snowfall..." Jessica commented as Riley began digging through the rubble.  "I thought the trees looked like they had several months of foliage left on them.."

"Maybe it's just the way their weather works.  We could consult Twilight when we get back to Ponyville."  Riley suggested as he spotted something, mounted to the wall above him.  Really the object was once level with the floor, as the ship had rolled 90 degrees.  The Spartan reached up until his fingertips brushed the glass top of the object.  The holotable sprung to life, glowing a shade of amber that illuminated the entire cabin.

"You ready to venture outside my head?" He asked, reaching to remove the AI chip from his helmet.

"I suppose..." Jessica sounded unsure as he removed the AI, inserting it into a side port on the holotable above his head.

Her form lit up, level with the table and parallel with the surface Riley was now standing on.  She began bringing up diagrams around her that only another A.I. would understand.

"Well, you can't say that Laughlin Steel works doesn't build quality ships..  We've got both an active and a passive radar still up, ranged to 1450 miles no less!  The next time those ships make a pass over the valley, I'll be able to get a better reading on their height and speed.  Then I can tell you exactly when they're going to crash."  Jessica beamed.  She seemed incredibly excited to have technology to inspect once more. 

"The reactor appears stable, it has a useful life left of close to two years at this output!"  

Riley continued digging in the scrap as she examined the craft.

"Wait..  We have a connection on the passive radar." She announced.  Riley picked up a box of pistol ammunition, looking at the A.I. intently with this announcement.  

"Doesn't passive radar need another antenna to connect to?"

"It is..  The UNSC signal I could read before, we've connected to their radar antenna." Jessica announced.

"What can you tell from the data you're getting?"

"An encrypted message with ship data, it's a Pelican Class drop ship, it's at roughly 150 miles off the surface, it's likely to splash down within 5 days and 13 hours if the orbit isn't changed."  Jessica informed.  "Near the Crystal Empire...  I have an inkling it may be with the Covenant ships.."

Riley shook his head slowly, returning to his digging.  "Poor bastards.."

"Hm..  According to the Avalon's databanks, it's May.." Jessica added.

"We jumped in August.."

"Pass go, do not collect $200."

"Explains the snow.  Their winter season lasts quite a while, huh?" Riley stood upright, finding nothing else of interest in the scrap piles.  

"It must." Jessica said.  "The phenomenon of snow with the current air temperature and barometric pressure is completely bizarre regardless...  I don't really have a grasp of what the local time is.."

"Well, what now?  What else is there to do?  Surely that pelican is with the covenant ships, so we have a reliable time frame now.  It sure as hell doesn't look like anything's usable in this shit"  Riley waded out of the junk pile, pulling himself up into the doorway he entered through.  He turned to face the holotable.

"Pale horse?" Jessica asked, quizzically. "You were assigned to an ODST squadron as your first real op?"

"Recall code alpha cirrus." Riley stated in a gravelly tone.  Anger seeped from his voice.  Jessica was quiet at first as she returned to his shoulder.  He pulled the A.I. chip from the table, re-inserting it in his helmet..

"Come on, tell me about it..?"

"No."  Riley turned and leapt from the doorway, landing hard in the snow.  Flakes were still gently falling, the entire valley felt still and quiet with the snow's dampening sound.  Peaceful.  "We have a time frame, that's all we needed right now.  It'll be down by next week.  We can report back to the princesses."

As he rose to a standing position after the jump, he noticed a burning fire in the valley.  A campfire.  The squad of Royal Guards were huddled around it, trying to beat the cold.  Riley slowly walked towards the group.  He trudged his way through the calf-deep-snow, until he was standing beside the guards members.

They began to rise at his appearance, until he sat in the snow beside them.  The ponies settled back into their spots.

"Gentlemen." Riley commented.

"Sir." The pegasus commented.  The valley grew dark as the sun was blocked from the sky by the mountains, the snow clouds serving to further blacken the valley in the middle of the day.

"It seemed like it was still mid autumn, what's with the snow fall?" Riley asked the ponies.

"Yeah, the weather team decided it was more than late enough, snow should begin." The pegasus shrugged, huddling closer to the flames.

"Weather team?"

"Yeah, the pegasi that control the weather.  Don't you have a weather team where you're from?"  The pegasus cocked his head curiously.

"Can't say we do." Riley's head rocked back and forth in a 'no'.

The group sat in silence for several minutes, the only noise was the crackling of the campfire in front of them.

"To be on patrol in the middle of nowhere, on Hearth's Warming day no less." One of the earth pony guards scoffed, the others chipped in noises of jeers, before the guard continued. "I had plans to spend Hearth's Warming with my special some pony...  But I guess now she's off with friends while I'm out here.."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." The pegasus sighed, his own heart heavy.

"Hearth's Warming..." Riley 'huh'ed.  "What's it about?"  

All eyes turned to him, then the ponies glanced at each other.  Initially it bewildered them how he could not know what the holiday was, but one by one they seemed to understand the fact he was an alien.  The pegasus spoke up with an explanation.

"Essentially, it's about the divisions of the pony kingdoms banding together, before the rule of the Royal Throne...  How they came together in camaraderie.."

Riley nodded his head in acknowledgment, his gaze staring into the fire still.

"Where I come from, we celebrate a holiday known as Christmas...   It's not Christmas yet as far as the UNSC calendar goes..  But I suppose that would be sometime around today on your planet." Riley spoke, his gaze locked to the campfire.  Brilliant orange tones danced in the glow of his visor.  Jessica listened intently, staring at him from his shoulder.

"Yeah?" A unicorn guard directly across from him perked up. "What's that about?"

"Well, in a nutshell, several thousand years ago a ruler of the Roman Empire named Constantine began mixing two religions, Christianity and Paganism to attempt to sway Pagans to convert.   See he was Pagan before he rose to power in Rome, and accredited his victories to the Christian God.  Something to that effect.  A lot of aspects of the holiday are taken from there, there's a few stories of a gift giving man, now sharing gifts and spending time with loved ones have become the main focus of the holiday.  Not a bad thing at all, I quite enjoy it.  In its origin it was a celebration of the birth of the Christian messiah, with bits of pagan traditions of celebrating like the decorations sprinkled in."  

"Christian Messiah?"  

"Well, they believe God came from heaven in flesh, as a man named Jesus Christ, to save humanity from its own evils.  That this all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God created the universe, and those who inhabit it.  And that he was killed in human form and rose from the dead to save them.  Their title is Christians, or followers of Christ."

The ponies stared in wild anticipation, quietly at first.

"Dude.  That's nuts."  One commented.  "Like...  Did that really happen?"

"There's no way any pony could be all-knowing, all powerful, and all-loving.  No way.  Especially if at least some ponies are evil like you said." One countered. "That's just completely impossible, how could he let anyone be evil, let bad things happen to good ponies."

"I've thought about that a lot myself, as of lately yknow.  I don't know."

"So does that mean you believe in this story?" The guard sitting nearest to his right asked, shivering in the cold, as the sun sank further behind the mountain tops.

"Before I was...  Inducted into the UNSC...  My family ran a small place of worship, the only one in the community..  I don't remember much as I was very young at the time.  I'm inclined to say I believe it..."  Riley stated.  "But I don't know that I can call it bullshit, with the amazing things I've seen..."

"Amazing things?"  The earth pony of the group asked, pulling off his helmet and letting his mane fall freely.  He tussled his hair out of his face.

"Just...  The sheer beauty of the cosmos...  Dust, rising off the hull of a ship in the vacuum of space, this big blue jewel of a planet below, the cradle of humanity...  The sunsets of dozens of different planets...  I've seen strange shit that'll churn your stomach...  But with how vast and beautiful it can all be.  It makes you think."  Riley shrugged his shoulders, a layer of snow that had built up slid from his armor plating. 

"Religion is one of the many things the UNSC has barred from its Spartans.  But when I was a young man, on a planet very far away, I was very sick.  We didn't have access to medical attention at that point, and I was likely going to die.  My mother had prayed to God that I would get better, that if I would she would do all in her power for me to become a minister.  Heh.
Clearly I'm the furthest thing from a minister, heaven only knows if I can even be 'forgiven' for the things I've done.  But by some divine intervention, I've gotten really damn lucky, far too many times for me to explain.  That memory stuck with me and made me curious."

"Pale horse..." Jessica spoke quietly.  "That ODST squadron didn't get their name until after you were assigned there...  Was that you?"

"Yeah.  It was..."  Riley replied, offhanded.  "But Christmas time, whether you're religious or not, is a time for people to come together in fellowship, for their God or for their family.  To sing songs, enjoy banquets, decorations...  It's a season where everything just feels nice if you stop and sit quietly for long enough...  To wish each other a "Merry Christmas."  Even in tragedy."

"Well..."  The pegasus sitting beside him gently slugged the arm of his suit.  "You've certainly got a lot of knowledge about something you don't know if you're a part of...  But it's clear that you don't have to know just to enjoy the holidays.  Merry Christmas, Spartan."

"Merry Christmas." Came from the mouths of each of those circled around the campfire, staggered greetings that made Riley feel warm inside.  Feel human.  The emotions that had made him go off on the princesses, the panic, these were things that hadn't began to set in until he'd known he was truly isolated from his purpose as a Spartan.  The first Christmas time where he felt he was more than just a soldier.

"Merry Christmas guys." His voice wavered.  "Happy Hearth's warming, and a Happy New Year."  From the unicorn came a clear bottle of alcohol, the pony sipped the beverage and passed it along.  After a few moments, the bottle was rounding the fire.  The pegasus took a swig from the glass bottle, and held it out to Riley.  The spartan hesitated.  He pulled off his helmet and raised the bottle.  

"Happy New Year.  May she be a damn sight better than the old one, and may we all be home before she's through."  Riley took a swig, one that burned his throat on the way down, and passed the bottle down the line.  He recoiled gently at the cold touch of the snowflakes landing on his head, something he hadn't felt in a long time.


"Hear, hear!"  Came a chorus of the four guardsmen.  Jessica appeared, sitting on Riley's helmet in the snowbank beside his leg.  She appeared quiet in thought.  

"What kind of songs do you sing for Christmas?"  The unicorn prodded.

"Yeah, man!  Sing us one!"

Riley thought for a moment, trying to remember the words to any Christmas song.  The snow flakes continued, making the whole valley feel still, despite the racket of the group.

He stared into the fireplace, his voice seemed to change tone altogether as he carried the tune.  

"Silent night, holy night.  All is calm, all is bright.  'Round yon virgin mother and child.  Holy infant so tender and mild.  Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in Heavenly peace."

Riley stopped at this verse, trying to remember more words but much to his surprise, the others picked it up.

"Silent night, holy night.  All is calm, all is bright.  'Round yon virgin mother and child.  Holy infant so tender and mild.  Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace..."

"Merry Christmas Spartan."

"Merry Christmas, Guardsmen."
> Chapter Two, Act Six
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The snowflakes fell in silence over the mountain, slowly piling on the figures 'round the fire.  Riley had pulled his helmet back on when he started to catch a chill.  They joked and laughed as they sat, yet the unicorn lay mostly quiet in thought.  

"What's wrong, Blitz?" The pegasus asked once he noticed, his ears perking up.

"Huh?  Oh, just thinking...  That little ghost with the Spartan said something about 'Pale Horse'.  You..  You don't kill ponies do you?" The unicorn asked the spartan.

"No, I don't."  Riley replied.  After a moment of quiet, he re-iterated. "No, I do not."

"So why pale horse?"

"Well, Pale Horse was a mistranslation, its more of a 'pale green horse'.  My armor was this off shade of OD green from everyone else's, I don't know what they fucked up to make it like that...  Reference to the end times." Riley corrected.

"Oh." Blitz replied, seemingly satisfied with the answer.

"So you're a soldier right..?" The pegasus asked Riley.  The spartan looked to the pony, snow falling off the sun visor of his helmet.  

"Yeah."

"You see much action?"

Riley sat quietly for a moment, not responding.  After several seconds he finally replied with a hoarse "Yeah."

"Equestria's been in conflict with the Griffons for decades.." The pegasus stated

"We haven't seen anything between the lot of us." Blitz scoffed. "I put all of my savings into stocks for defense contractors.  They say war is profitable, I'm just glad I haven't seen any combat..."

Riley felt a twinge of anger, but brushed it off, the noise of his suit gently moving as he returned his gaze to the fireplace.

"Well..  It's getting late." He slowly rose to his full height, the snow had fallen to his knees, fairly deep all things considered. "I hope to see you fellas again.  Thanks for making my Christmas something to remember." 

"Hey, of course!  You seem like a good guy.  We take care of our own." The pegasus gave a slight smile.  Riley smiled gently, though they couldn't see it.  He gave a curt nod and began trudging off through the snow.  He walked through the valley, over the snow-covered boulders, quietly thinking about the last few hours.  They'd sat near the fire until midnight had come.  Riley walked with a bit of a limp, having had his still-healing legs crossed under him for that long had made them ache.  

He paused, turning back to look at the ponies round the campfire.  He could make out the glow of the fire through the snow, but at that distance, none of the soldiers.  Riley continued his trek, towards Canterlot.

"I don't want to see them have the same fate as humanity." Riley spoke aloud, to Jessica, but mostly to himself.

"I know you don't..."

"We’ll do whatever it takes." 

"I know you will..." She replied.  He continued trekking through the snow, the wind began to pick up, the snow became thicker.  The snowflakes skittered off his helmet, collecting in the corners of his visor.

"You think they'll be okay out there?" He asked, the weather quickly turning to a blizzard.  His helmet lights clicked on, trying to see something, anything in the dark.  The light almost made it worse, reflecting off the snow.

"I think they'll manage."

He navigated through the valley, through the dark, he spotted a faint glow through the brutal snowfall.  Presumably it was Canterlot in the distance.  Silently tramping through the piling snow, he watched the terrain around him intently.  All was quiet.  Riley cleared the valley, stepping onto the ledge he knew to be the trackbed of the railroad.  the snow on the tracks was untouched, the rails remained uncleared, knee deep in snow.   Riley made his way towards the city, receiving a slight respite from the howling wind as he cleared the gates, the stone walls holding some of the storm off the streets.

He looked to his sides, finding guards huddled against the wall, some gathered around firepits and torches for warmth.  In the darkness, the lights of the buildings lit the cobblestone streets with a warm glow, a welcoming feeling that made Riley's heart swell.  Riley made his way towards what he knew to be the part of the castle where the princesses lived.  He plodded along empty cobblestone streets, glancing in shop windows that glowed a warming yellow, pastries and presents, goods and wares, all behind panes of glass with logos painted on them.  He looked ahead as he kept walking.  A creature stepped out from a side alley, it had a lion's body, with the feet, wings, and head of an eagle.  The creature wore a black, shiny leather tunic, adorned with chromed buttons.  The tunic had a collar that came around the creatures neck, shielding it somewhat from the cold.

The creature leaned against the wall, and flashed its sharp claws as Riley neared.

"Your bits.  All of them." The creature began, in a gruff tone.  The tone sounded somewhat adolescent, potentially female.  "Or they'll be using you to wrap presents."

"Lucky for both of us, I don't have any bits."  Riley continued walking.

"Then gimmie that necklace." The creature demanded.  Riley paused, taking his dogtags in his fist.  He let them go, slowly turning his head to face the creature.

The black helmet slowly turning to face her, coupled with the emotionless gold visor sent shivers down her spine.

"Not funny." Riley took a step towards the creature. 

"Didn't laugh." His other foot hit the cobblestones, and the creature tried to backpedal.  In one swift move, he grabbed the creatures wrist, picking her off the ground effortlessly.  She probably only weighed 200 pounds.  She began protesting, kicking and scratching to no avail as he walked her down the street.  She began screaming as he neared the guards post at the base of the castle steps.

"Guards!  Guards!  Help!  A monster has me!" She insisted.  The guards appeared unamused as Riley stopped in front of them, and let go of the creature.  She fell to the ground in a heap.

"She tried to mug me." Riley said, walking past the guards into the castle.  The guards turned to the Griffon, who audibly gulped as she saw them disregard the towering Spartan.

Riley made his way inside the castle, shutting the front door to the entryway gently behind him.  A maid stood, polishing the wooden top of a teak cabinet.  He turned to the pony, and in as soft a voice he could muster, Riley spoke.

"Excuse me, ma'am.  I've returned from reconnaissance and I need to speak to the princesses." Riley began.  The maid looked somewhat fearful, he had her full attention.  "Where might I find them?"

"P-ahem." The maid began, stuttered, then cleared her throat in an attempt to hide her fear.  She took a deep breath before beginning again. "Princess Luna has retired for the evening to oversee her duties as guardian of the night.  Princess Celestia is currently in her personal chambers and not to be disturbed."

"Thank you, ma'am, I must speak to Princess Celestia at once, it is a matter of national security."  Riley explained.

The maid weighed her options, before waving him along and walking down the hall. "Follow me."

The two made their way down the marble hallways, Riley's boots clunking loudly with his massive frame.  They twisted through the tall, extravagant hallways, until they came to a room with two guards posted out front.  The maid nodded at Riley, then the door, then started walking back down the hallway.

"Identify." Riley stated.

"Royal Guard, Princess detachment, Company C. Lieutenant Stone." The one to Riley's left barked out.

"Lieutenant, I'm Staff Sergeant Riley, UNSC.  I have an urgent Recon report for the Princess, it cannot wait." Riley stated, saluting the Lieutenant, at attention.  There was a brief pause, until the Lieutenant returned the salute. 

"She's been awaiting you, Staff Sergeant.  Enter." 

He approached, knocking twice before opening the door slowly.  He entered the dark room, it was a large bedroom, with a massive bed built upon an extravagant stand, drapes surrounding it, steps leading up to the bed on all sides.  The room was dim, save for a light under the door of an adjacent room.  He closed the main door behind him, and crossed the floor.  He knocked on the door, to no reply.  He then knocked louder.

"Who is it?" came the muffled reply.

"Staff Sergeant Riley, UNSC." Riley stated.

"Oh, enter!" 

Riley walked into the room, closing the door behind him.  As he turned to face the room, he could feel his face immediately flush.  The princess was in a large tub, filled with bubbles.

"What information did you find, Spartan?"

"Ma'am, we've determined an approximate crash time of 5 days and 7 hours, at a location 85 miles North-northwest of the Crystal Empire.  We have a confirmed UNSC Pelican-class dropship, as well as two Covenant ships.  One is approximately the foreward third of a CSO-Class Supercarrier."  I would recommend a large force, as many as you can spare.  The total crew of a Supercarrier is close to 2.8 million, and some are bound to survive the crash.

Celestia froze.  "Million?  With an M?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Spartan, we don't have that many ponies on the planet."

The news hit Riley hard, he took a deep breath.  "How many troops can you rally?"

"In that time span?  25,000." She replied, clearly distressed.  "I will have them all shipped to the Crystal Empire and awaiting orders before dawn, you will be on that train.  Celestia stepped out of the bath, Riley blushed again.  As if she could see straight through his helmet, Celestia spoke up.

"Something the matter?"

"No, Ma'am." He replied, keeping his composure. 

"Glad to hear it."

"Ma'am..." Riley began.  "I know that my appearance was unexpected and unfortunate...  And I know that if you dont currently resent me, you'll probably learn to...  But I thank you for taking this matter seriously."

"Spartan..." Celestia began. "Riley...  Thank you, for helping us..  I'm assigning you an assistant, I want the two of you to create a presentation to give to the troops describing the threat, weaponry, and warrior classes if possible."

"That's absolutely possible, ma'am.  If you could get me someone who can draw and interpret, even better." He nodded.

"Consider it done." She assured.  Her mane and tail were wet and flat, she towel dried herself as she proceeded to her sleeping quarters.  Riley followed her through the door to the other room.  She peeked her head out the door, giving orders to the guards posted out front.

"Please, make yourself comfortable.  It will take at least 3 hours for the railcrew to prepare the locomotive." Celestia instructed.  Riley made his way to the corner and sat on the floor, leaning against the stone outer wall.  Celestia scaled the small steps to her bed and laid down, patting the mattress beside her.

"Ma'am, with all due respect, my armor weighs nearly 1000 pounds, I'd break your bed." Riley replied.

"My bedding is rated to nearly ten times your weight, believe me, I was tired of breaking it." She winked.

"I think I'd prefer to sit here."