Chapter 2: Contact

Daniels sat in the back of the pelican, trying to decipher their next move. The Chief and everyone else went to the surface, but there was plenty of fighting to go on in the atmosphere as well

"I'm getting strange readings on the radar" Young said

"What frequency?" Harvest asked, suddenly worried

"Not one that'd make your explosives go off" Young answered, "I think it's a-"

The Pelican jerked, Daniels strapped in

"What's going on?" Young shouted

"Shut up and hold on!" Daniels ordered, "We're riding this one out!"

Luckily pelicans were built to withstand plenty of force, so the machine was fine. The belts held and the weapons didn't fly off, but the display screens cracked and shorted out

"Where are we going?" Young asked

"No idea" Harvest answered

"Hold on to your helmets!" Daniels warned

[…]

Twilight was waiting for the object to land, she saw a shooting star and wished that the object she hit wouldn't hurt her

The stars turned, Twilight looked through her telescope and saw that they were flying straight for her!

Twilight focused, she created a force field around Ponyville that should keep it from causing too much damage

The falling stars barely skidded over the force field before impacting into the Everfree forest behind her

"Spike? Get me my supplies; we're taking a look at those stars." Twilight said

[…]

Daniels opened his eyes; he was still strapped into the seat inside the pelican, the ship was on its side so he was hanging

"Sir, are you alright?" Harvest asked

"More or less" Daniels shrugged, unclipping himself and dropping to the forest floor

"What is this place?" Young asked

"No idea" Harvest said, "It doesn't register on my UGPS"

That was a shock, it was a Universal GPS, and that meant they were far from any UNSC territory

"I'll use the Tacpad" Daniels said, "See if we can contact anyone in range."

When Daniels looked at the small device on his wrist, he felt uneasy at what he saw

"There's nothing" he said, "Not on the E band or even the K bands."

"So" Harvest looked at him, "We're on vacation?"

"Not even funny" Young snapped, "We're far away from any UNSC support and we're low on supplies."

Daniels walked up to the Private, she was going through the weapons that were inside the pelican when they crashed

Sadly the only assault rifle was broken from the crash, the only thing that seemed intact was a pistol, at least it was the only one left open for the ODST to take

Daniels picked up the magnum with the ammo that they had spare, for now they'd have to make do with what little supplies they had with them

"There isn't much in terms of transport" Harvest pointed out

"We can find some sort of civilization" Young was sure to be smiling behind her VISR, "We're ODSTs, we're trained for this sort of thing all the time."

[…]

Twilight was hidden in the bushes, several tall metal golems were speaking in some language she didn't understand, it was some short and heavy grunts and some gibberish.

She accidently brought aliens to Equestria, what were the odds?

'Well the odds are 150,403 to 1' Twilight calculated

The unicorn snuck away from the golems whilst they conversed with one another

But being alone in the Everfree Forest on your own in the middle of the night was never a smart idea, even if it was for science Twilight hadn't thought of the risks before venturing out.

So it was no surprise when a hungry looking manticore found her

Twilight backed away silently, not wanting to attract any more predators of this forbidden forest

The manticore leaped and Twilight couldn't help but yelp when she narrowly dodged the swiping paw, being bogged down by all of her scrolls and quills

Twilight figured she was close enough to be heard by anypony in Ponyville, "HELP!"

[…]

Daniels was standing as the two other ODSTs got some shuteye, but he heard a strange sound out inside the forest

He nudged the two other troopers awake, they sat up and stretched

"What is it Daniels?" Harvest asked

"HELP!" the cry came from not too far away from the camp

"Troopers move!" Daniels barked

The three ODSTs dashed out into the forest, turning on their VISRs in order to find the source of the cry

When Daniels crashed through the brush he saw two things highlighted by his VISR

One was a giant lion- thing. It had wings and a scorpion tail. It was highlighted red, meaning it was an enemy

The other one was a… Daniels did a double check, a purple unicorn that was highlighted a bright white, meaning there was no FOF tag

Harvest stepped in between the two creatures, holding his DMR towards the manticore

Young and Daniels stood on each of Harvest's sides, holding their guns towards the strange lion like creature

The purple unicorn tried to shrink away from the troopers, but they ignored her

Daniels fired a quick warning shot into the air, sadly enough it just angered the manticore

The manticore charged, Harvest and Young unloaded as much ammunition into it as they could

For Daniels time seemed to slow down, he turned around and saw the unicorn, they frightened the living daylights out of her

There was a loud crash in front of them, Daniels saw that the manticore was down on the ground

"What was that?" Harvest finally got to asking

"God knows what else we're gonna find on this planet" Young said

"How about a unicorn?" Daniels offered

Young turned around and saw the unicorn cowering behind a bush

"Oh you're kidding me"

[…]

Twilight wasn't sure why they hadn't attacked her the way they had the manticore

When one of them turned around to look at her, she saw the strange single eye they had, it was black, and it scared her more than the weapons they carried

But… what was it doing with its head?