“WHAT?!” Twilight and the friends exclaimed simultaneously in mixed feelings of shock and anger.

“I’m sorry, but it’s part of protocol,” Kenwood explained calmly. “We didn’t wish for the rest of your friends to join in this matter, Princess Twilight; but it seems they insisted on imposing.”

“Hey! Do not call my friends imposing!” Twilight shouted, clearly infuriated at the UNSC’s deception and accusations. “They had every right to know about this from the beginning, but no--it all had to be kept from them!”

Twilight then snapped her attention on Aaron, who looked uncomfortable over the situation.

“How could you do this to us, Aaron? After all of us accepted you as our friend! Is this how you repay us? Are all humans this way?!

Twilight and her friends gave Aaron a seething stare, except for Fluttershy who looked emotionally hurt.

“No, of course not,” Aaron protested. “You guys brought this upon yourselves, alright?”

“Well didn’t you think about how this would affect the loved ones they would be leaving behind back in Ponyville? How they would think of you for this sort of imprisonment!” Twilight demanded.

“Who’s going to take care of the animals?” Fluttershy weeped. “Please. I don’t want to be here.”

“Mah family needs me to help out on the farm as well,” Applejack insisted. “How could ya forgotten about that?”

“Applejack. I..” Aaron began.

“You do realize I’m leaving behind a younger sister who is capable of causing trouble,” Rarity cut in. “Celestia knows if she’s messing up my dresses now as we speak.”

At a thought like that, Rarity began fretting again.

“You didn’t think this through at all, did you?” Rainbow asked, disgusted.

Aaron was going to make a return argument, but he couldn’t find the words to say. He couldn’t believe how many times he has been outwitted by these mares, and he didn’t like it--but they always had valid points.

Aaron then turned to Kenwood and said, “Sir if I may make a suggestion, couldn’t we just have them on a parole instead of an imprisonment? They don’t look like as if they would commit any crimes against any of our protocols.”

Kenwood put a hand underneath his chin as he thought.

“I don’t know, son. These equines may have come in peacefully, but I’m not sure if we can fully put our trust in them from slipping up any classified material to unwanted ears.”

“Please, captain,” Twilight begged. “I know them well enough that they won’t give away anything to anypony.”

“Uh, Twilight. I sort of stink at keeping secrets, remember?” Pinkie confessed with an embarrassed smile and a squee.

“That’s why I’ll use the same spell that Trixie used to remove your mouth,” Twilight replied.

Pinkie emitted a nervous gulp. She never truly recovered from the horror of having her mouth removed. Franky through, it brought everypony else a sigh of relieve for a bit.

“I’ll be sure to restore it when necessary,” Twilight assured, making Pinkie relax again.

Kenwood took another moment to think.

“Very well then,” he finally said. “Your friends will be allowed to maintain their normal lives in Ponyville, but you will be under surveillance.”

“You don’t mean you're going to be watching me when I take a shower, do you?” Rarity asked, appalled. “I’ll have you know I won’t stand for such perversion!” she harrumphed.

“No, ma’am,” Kenwood assured. “We respect civilian home privacy. It will only when you go out in public, or have unauthorized guests over.”

Rarity studied Kenwood’s face carefully to be certain that he was being sincere with her. Not only did Rarity have keen eyes for fashion, but also for perverted intentions. A mare of her class attracted all the stallions in town, but it was mostly for a slice of her pie. She didn’t mind as long as she found them as attractive and petite as she was.

“Very well,” Rarity affirmed. “But don’t think that I won’t be scanning carefully for anything suspicious.”

“Thank you,” Twilight said, now calmly. The rest of her friends looked relaxed as well. Just then, an audible rumbling came from her stomach. It was soon followed by similar rumbles by the rest of the friends.

“I assume that you all have skipped lunch?” Kenwood asked Twilight and the friends.

They all nodded wordlessly.

Kenwood turned toward Aaron and said, “Jensen. Since you are the only soldier here who is well acquainted with Twilight and her friends, why don’t you show them to the mess hall for some proper nourishment. When they’re finished, will you show them to their cabins? We’re going to be stationed here for a while.”

“Yes, sir,” Aaron replied, nodding.

“Wait. How are they going to contact their loved ones of where they are?” Twilight asked worriedly. The friends looked equally concerned.

“I’ll give word to send telegrams to their homes to notify their family members that they are safe with us, and will be returned when everything has calmed down a bit,” Kenwood assured.

That seemed to relax Twilight and the rest of the mares. As long as somepony knew where they were, that would ease most of their tensions.

As Aaron escorted the mares to the mess hall, there was at first uncomfortable silence between them both. Aaron assumed that they were probably still a bit mad at him about earlier, but that couldn’t be right since it seemed that they have made up. Still, Aaron knew that deceiving them like that had an impact on their trust for him.

After it seemed like the entire trip was going to be dead silent, Twilight finally spoke.

“I’d like to thank you for what you did for my friends back there,” she said softly.

“For what?” Aaron asked, confused.

“For maintaining their rights to stay in Ponyville. I should probably apologize for snapping at you, and your captain like that."

"It's fine, Twilight. I had you and the others worried, and you had the right to be. Neither one of you should be taken away from your own homes and lives. You know, I should be the one who is sorry. For everything. Sometimes I think it would've been better if I didn't become acquainted with any of you at all."

"Now why would you say that?" Twilight asked, clearly confused.

Aaron opened his mouth for a reply, but all he did was draw a blank.

"Never mind," he said a bit embarrassed. "It was a dumb thing for me to say. I'm glad that I've made contact with such interesting beings as yourselves. The rest of the UNSC should feel the same way, too."

Twilight and her friends looked at Aaron and each other with concerned and confused expressions painted on their faces. It seemed as if Aaron was keeping something from them that he did not want them to see or express. They had to admit that they were a bit uneasy being around him now because he was being mysterious and unpredictable, but they were still thankful for what he did for them.

The best thing now was to just go with it.

"If you say so," Twilight sighed.

As Aaron and the mares entered the mess hall, all current eyes within the room focused their gaze on Twilight and her friends. Just like Aaron, they felt very uncomfortable in this type of situation.

"W-why are they s-staring, A-Aaron?" Fluttershy whimpered while hiding her face behind her mane and tail.

"Doesn't this captain of yours teach these unkempt gentlemen some manners?" Rarity added. "It's very uncouth to stare at a lady you know."

"There just curious about you guys as we are of you,” Aaron explained. “Your species are the first non-hostile contacts that the entire UNSC has encountered, after all.”

“Oh,” the mares said. They really didn’t have a reply to this new fact.

“Just ignore them and help yourselves to whatever looks tasty. We do have vegan entrees to meet the standard equine nutrition requirement.”

The mares nodded and headed for the serving tables.

Twilight and her friends were surprised and delighted by all the vegetable and fruit servings that these humans had, and were grateful that it was being shared with them. The entrees consisted of peas, potatoes, carrots, corn, tomatoes, and to Applejack’s appeasement--apples.

Once they all had what they wanted, they seated themselves at one of the occupied tables. Aaron joined them to make sure they didn’t seem like outcasts, and to make them more comfortable in this strange environment. Plus, he was the only familiar human that they knew.

“Wow! This is delicious!” Rainbow remarked, now sounding content and enthusiastic instead of bitter and disdainful. She was practically stuffing her face so her words were a bit muffled.

“I second that. This cuisine is simply divine,” Rarity added with an equally positive attitude. She used her magic, to Aaron’s mesmerization, as she levitated utensils to delicately slice up her portions into bite-size slices before putting them into her mouth to be chewed with grace.

“Say, for dessert, do you have any cake or sweets?” Pinkie asked Aaron eagerly.

“No, I’m afraid we don’t,” he replied. “All soldiers diets are strictly prohibited to only high nutritive supplements of food to stay in healthy fighting condition. Anything else that doesn’t have the required vitamins and minerals for good health is out of the question.”

“Aw poo,” Pinkie stated, disappointed that she wasn’t going to get candy; which was a good thing of course since she was hyper enough as it is.

“But we do have some Hot Cocoa if that makes up for anything,” he added.

“Yippe!” Pinkie cheered and darted for the drinks' dispenser.

“Ah gotta hand it tah ya, Aaron. This is the best food Ah ever tasted,” Applejack stated , impressed while eating nearly the same way as Rainbow. “Of course it tastes nearly the same, but Ah ain’t gonna complain.”

“Glad you’re enjoying it,” Aaron said with a smile and turned his attention toward Twilight, who was surprisingly just looking down at her food, solemnly and barely touching it.

“Twilight? Are you okay?” Aaron asked, now concerned. Her friends then followed suit as they set their sights on her.

Twilight then snapped out of her daze.

“Huh? Uh, yeah. I’m okay. Why do you ask?”

“You haven’t touched your food, darling,” Rarity said.

“I guess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought,” Twilight excused, trying her best to sound convincing, but it was obvious to everyone that she was hiding something.

“That’s ridiculous,” Rainbow stated. “How can you not be hungry at lunchtime?”

“Surely somethin’s on yer mind, sugarcube. Ya can tell us, you know,” Applejack added, providing the assurance that Rainbow should’ve.

“I know, but like I said: I’m fine. Really.”

“Darling…,” Rarity began, but was interrupted when Twilight suddenly brought down her hoof and slammed it hard in frustration against the table, startling everyone. It even captured the attention of the other souls in the mess hall.

“Didn’t I say I was fine?! What part of that is so hard to understand?!” Twilight snapped. She then quickly realized what she had done and relaxed, but remorsefully.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, her voice cracking a little. She then faced Aaron. “I think I wish to see my room now, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course, Twilight,” Aaron confirmed. “I’ll show you at once.”

He then faced her friends.

“If any of you feel ready, I’ll show you to your cabins as well.”

The friends just nodded. They couldn’t find what to say, but they knew their alicorn friend was deeply troubled at this moment.

Without a second of hesitation, the mares followed Aaron to the lower area of the ship where the cabins were located.

Once Aaron and the six friends arrived at the cabin quarters, he showed them which room each one of them would have individually.

The cabins weren't really impressive and it left a distasteful atmosphere to Rarity, but their were no fancy suites for her so she would have to deal with what she got--even if she had to do it against her will.

Aaron gave the mares the right to visit each other in any of their rooms, but were not allowed to venture in any other part of the ship without a UNSC personnel escort.

“I hope you all are going to be comfortable,” Aaron said. He knew that was a dumb thing to say, but nothing else came to mind.

“We’ll make it work! Don’t worry about a thing!” Pinkie said gleefully, trying to lighten up the heavy atmosphere, but to no avail.

“We’ll be fine, Aaron. Don’t worry about us,” Twilight assured with a small smile, but was still strangely sorrowed.

“Okay then,” Aaron said, but was unsure if Twilight’s statement was the truth. “I’m going to check in with my team and Kenwood to see if there’s any updates on any intel. If anything happens, stay in your cabins and seal your doors until any UNSC personnel are there to give you instructions. Understand?”

The mares nodded.

“Good. I’ll be back to check on you later. Just relax or visit. Don’t worry, you’re safe with us.”

With that, Aaron walked away leaving everypony to wonder what they would do next. Twilight however was already in her room and was already to close the door behind her.

“Twi. We’re really worried about ya. Can you at least tell us now what’s troublin’ ya. We’ve never seen ya like this before,” Applejack said.

“Now’s not the best time, girls,” Twilight replied, still sounding depressed. “I won’t want to yell at you all again. I think it’s best if I’m alone for a few moments. Maybe then we can all talk alright?”

Twilight’s friends looked at each other and back to Twilight with concern and suspicion painted on their faces, before a decision was made.

“If that’s what ya think is best, sugarcube, then we accept. Right, girls?”

The remaining friends were hesitant for a quick moment, but went along with Applejack’s response.

“Thank you,” Twilight said, looking a bit relieved. She used her magic to press a switch on her door which initiated its closing and auto-seal process.

Twilight’s friends could only watch as Twilight disappeared behind the door, inch by inch until their vision of her was completely cut off.

For a few seconds, Twilight’s friends just stood there like statues as they pondered on the situation. They knew they had to be there for Twilight, but she was refusing their comforting company, which worried them greatly.

Giving in reluctantly, the friends decided to head for their cabins, but not before they heard a faint sound from Twilight’s cabin.

Now rushing to the door and pressing their ears against it, the friends could make out the clear audible chokes of Twilight sobbing uncontrollably.

At first they couldn’t understand what was making their friend cry so badly and wanted to be let in; but then it quickly dawned on them.

The UNSC mentioned earlier that this thing they're calling the Covenant invaded the Crystal Empire where Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor and his wife, Princess Cadance resided.

From what they heard, the Covenant had to be the UNSC’s enemy, which meant that both Shining Armor and Cadance may surely have come to harm. No wonder why Twilight was very upset.

The anxietal thoughts now came to everypony and pushed them toward nearly the same state as Twilight.

The big question is, what became of both Shining Armor and Cadance?