Cadance was once again back in her prison cell with the thoughts of never seeing her friends or loved ones ever again. Not only was she a prisoner, but was used as a source of food for Chrysalis’s drones.

Every hour or so, one or a few changeling drones would be allowed in her cell which was guarded constantly by two Sangheili minors, to rape her for her love. This was the reason why Cadance was now restrained in her own cell.

Cadance pleaded for her captors to show mercy, but it was replied by either cold shoulders, or an energy electrocution that was delivered from her chains. Technically however, it was normally a combination of both. In the end, Cadance could only weep and submit to her pain without any hope of being rescued.

She began to think that being imprisoned in the Canterlot Mountains was way better than being trapped on board an alien ship. Truthfully, it was not, because she had no food or water to aid in her survival. If Twilight didn’t get imprisoned in the mountains with her, Cadance would’ve been dead in days. Still, she wasn’t used as a pleasure toy or a cuisine to changelings. Being taken advantage of was putting a toll on her dignity and peace of mind.

As unconscious sleep began to fall upon her, she was snapped out of it when an alarm came on out of nowhere.

At first she thought the ship was about to blow up, but then she noticed that the guards were apparently putting one of their hands to one side of their heads as if they were listening in on instructions.

Momentarily, Cadance’s cellblock was filling with multiple troops either with weapons, or fortification gear which consisted of barriers, supplies caches,  and turrets.

It was obvious to Cadance that they were setting up for an assault; possibly a rescue party.

***

From the cockpit, the Pelican pilot saw a flurry of purple streaks beginning to exit from the bottom of the Covenant Supercarrier, and it’s sides where the docking bays were located.

“Enemy has begun engagement! Bring all weapon systems online!” the pilot ordered over the intercom to the escort ships.

The separate Pelicans that accompanied Aaron, AJ, Zeke, and their Fireteams were being supported by a fleet of five Paris-class heavy frigates, three Autumn-class cruisers, and hundreds of YSS-1000 fighters, GA-TL1 interceptors, and F41-EM strike fighters.

The Savior’s Light unleashed several hundred T31 XMFs’, T26 fighters, about ten T52 Gunboats, and a few CRS-class light cruisers.

Fighters from both sides were the first to engage one another.

The UNSC fighters unleashed a torrent of anti-armor and shield piercing lead rounds. while the Covenant returned fire with their signature plasma bolts. However, when a T26 was in the right angle of its enemy, it could land a devastating fuel rod blow to the enemy’s shielding and hull integrity.

Missiles proved quite useful for quickly eliminating Banshees due to their light armor, but with a T31 (Seraph), they proved ineffective with the fighter’s shielding. However, machine guns were able to penetrate the shields until they broke. it was then that missiles could be launched to finish the fighter off. This sort of engagement was mostly left to the Sabres’.

Soon, the heavier ships joined in the exospheric dogfight above Equis. The frigates began firing rounds from their M910 point-defense machine guns which aided in the takedown of either Banshees’ or Seraphs’, while cruisers used their M58 AMDS against Phantom Gunboats, and against the Covenant’s own cruisers.

The Gunboats countered with a volley of their plasma torpedoes which obliterated several of the UNSC fighters that were unlucky enough to unintentionally be in the trajectory of fire. The UNSC cruisers could avoid the torpedoes thankfully if they used their emergency thrusters--but unfortunately this was only a temporary tactic since it may run the risk of the vessels reactor overheating.

The CRS cruisers fired their pulse laser turrets to engage and destroy enemy fighters within a medium range. When an enemy got closer however, its plasma turrets were engaged to strip shielding, and eventually melt the enemy’s Titanium armor hull until it finally vaporized into shrapnel.

Through all the chaos of the battle, the boarding Pelicans did not fully engage in the attack. They both were Gunship-class so they managed to clear themselves a path either with their GAU/53 70mm MBHRC Autocannon or the M8C G/GNC which acted as the basic M6G/GNR.

The pilot of Aaron’s Pelican performed constant maneuverable banks and turns to avoid taking fire. As a bonus, he even performed barrel rolls and loop-de-loops. Twilight was definitely spot on about the ride not being pleasant, and she regretted it because she was starting to feel a bit queasy from the pouch.

I wonder how often Aaron has to go through something like this? she nauseously thought to herself.

As the carrier neared, the Covenant fighters seemed to grow more fanatical in their efforts to destroy the Pelicans by attacking in flanking and head-on groups rather than individually.

The pilots requested some backup in order to shake off the fighters, but it was doing little good for distractions.

The pilot tried desperately in firing the Gunship’s weapon systems at anything he could while continuing evasive maneuvers. Unfortunately, his attempts were in vain because in a matter of short moments, one of the Banshee fighters managed to place a precise fuel rod shot in one of the Pelican’s engines!

The interior alarm sounded as the Pelican began to lose control and began a collision course with the carrier.

The pilot tried his best to steady the Pelican, but the controls were not fully responding to the pilot’s intentions. He also radioed in a distress call and told everyone on board to brace themselves.

Never in her life has Twilight been this terrified.

Shakes and anxiety about failing her exams or turning them in tardy was one thing, but this was a hundred times worse!

She may have had the will before to give her life for her friends, and everypony else that she cared for--but this was way too early for that deed to be done. At this point, her, Aaron’s, and everyone else on board would’ve died for nothing.

Despite wanting to scream in a frenzied panic, Twilight wished to try using magic in hopes of making sure the Pelican made it to the carrier in one piece. She may have been small, but that was not stopping her from attempting spells at such a size.

Closing her eyes tight and focusing her mana quickly into her horn, Twilight concentrated on what needed to be done--and hoped that she would be successful.

As the pilot struggled to gain control, the Pelican somehow, but miraculously began to even out--but it was still on a collision course.

The pilot aimed the Pelican directly at what looked like the entrance to one of the carrier’s shuttle bays. Even if he somehow got control over his Pelican, he knew the landing wasn’t going to be pleasant--and he couldn’t have been more right.

The Pelican fishtailed from side to side and banked a bit just moments before hotly zooming through the shuttle bay’s open passage, and skidding head-on into a pillar.

Aaron and his team, which was doned as Bravo, had already braced themselves for the impact before it happened, yet it left them a bit shook up. Unfortunately, the force of the impact killed a few of the marines of Echo, and the pilot. The surviving marines only had minor to moderate injuries. As for Twilight, she was disoriented, but unharmed.

She had already had enough of being in the ammo pouch and quickly got out of it before she was discovered.

“Are you alright, Jensen? Do you read me? Over,” Zeke radioed over Aaron’s COMM.

“I read you,” Aaron replied a bit weary. “We’ve lost our pilot and few of our fireteam members, but the rest of us are alright--I think. What’s your status, Fredrickson?”

“We’ve got a lot of bad guys on our tail, but we have effective covering fire. We should arrive sometime later,” Zeke replied.

“Copy that, but make it soon,” Aaron urged. “Who knows what the Covies have planned for Cadance, or the rest of us.”

“Also try not to get yourself killed,” AJ added in. “If you or the princess dies, it’s all over.”

“Thanks for the encouragement,” Zeke replied, strangely in high spirits before he ended the connection.

“He’s probably going to get himself killed, right?” Aaron asked AJ.

“I’m not going to take bets,” he replied flatly.

“Fair enough. Now let’s get ready for engagement. The Covies have probably already secured a defensive perimeter around our crash site, and are ready to fire on anything that dares to emerge from it,” Aaron warned. “Now everyone take some additional ammo. These boys won’t need it,” he ordered, indicating to the unlucky marines. The surviving marines nodded and began taking ammo from their fallen comrades. Aaron and AJ did the same thing.

Twilight’s marine was one of the fallen ones unfortunately, and she was in a pouch that AJ took.

When Aaron and Bravo team were finally prepped up for combat, Aaron signaled for his team to ready their weapons as he proceeded to open up the back hatch which was miraculously still functional after the impact.

As the door opened, they were greeted with rounds of plasma and needle fire as Covenant troops engaged, just as Aaron had predicted.

To clear the Covenant squad that was pinning them in the Pelican which consisted of one Elite Minor, five Grunt Minors, and three Jackal Minors, Aaron grabbed his M363 from his belt and fired a grenade which latched itself onto the Elite’s chest.

Before the Elite had a chance to recover and pull the grenade off, Aaron manually detonated the explosive which thankfully obliterated the entire group.

“Move out!” Aaron ordered and lead his team out of the Pelican.

As soon as they exited the wreckage, Bravo noticed that more Covenant troops have perched themselves on higher decks, and that a few Jackal snipers were in the area either with a T51, or a T27.

“Get to cover behind those barriers,” Aaron said and pointed to a few Covenant barriers that were luckily in the room.

As Aaron and his team ran for cover, the Covenant began firing on them once again, but way more aggressively.

Few of the marines were strafe-shooting in order to provide some covering fire. They had no trouble dealing with either Grunts and unshielded Jackals since they could be taken out more easily with headshots. Of course shielded Jackals however took two shots to kill with a BR85 or M395. One at the notch of their shields to make them flinch and expose themselves; the second to finish them off. Unfortunately, Elites were much tougher. The MA5D equipped marines excelled at stripping or weakening their shields with suppressive or short controlled burst fire, but didn’t have enough bullets in their magazines to finish the job.

Aaron and AJ also performed their part in the strafe-shootout as well. Of course that had to beware of how much damage their shields were taking. It was worse when either a Jackal or Grunt charged up their T25s’, and fired an overcharged plasma bolt which temporarily neutralized their whole shield, leaving them vulnerable to suppressed enemy fire, and snipers willing to take off any head that popped up. Both Spartans managed to evade a few attempts already by diving behind supplies crates which were scattered in the area.

Aaron and his team were successful at getting behind the barriers, but several of the marines were weary from their combined injuries from plasma, and the crash. What was even worse was that they were still pinned down.

“Any ideas, Jensen,” AJ asked Aaron.

Aaron took a moment by peeking through the cracks of the barrier to analyze the enemy positions, ranks, and weaponry. He then began to mentally formulate his tactic.

“Hold position here and don’t move until I say so,” Aaron finally said. “I’m going to take care of that bastard right there,” he indicated to the commander-class Elite wielding a T51 C.

He  was standing at the same level as Aaron’s team and was accompanied by three Grunt Minors with T25s’ and two Imperials both wielding T33s’.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” AJ asked, concerned.”

“Positive,” Aaron assured. “If things are starting to get ugly or goes amiss, go ahead and engage at your own discretion.”

“Alright then,” AJ confirmed. “Just be careful out there.”

Aaron just replied with a nod before he vanished into thin air as he activated his T3.

Aaron had exactly forty-four seconds to make it to his intended zone before his camouflage shut off and needed to cooldown, which took seventeen seconds.

Aaron quickly but carefully made his way behind the targeted Elite who seemed unaware of his cloaked presence. As long as Aaron moved carefully and kept a certain distance, the distortion from his camouflage wouldn’t be noticed and give away his position to attentive enemies.

Just when the timer of the T3 on his HUD turned red to indicate that it was about to be used up, Aaron swiftly pulled a combat knife from his waist and tackled the unsuspecting Elite before he rammed it into the back of the head where the brain and spine connected, which resulted in a quick and painless death.

The Grunts yelped in surprise before fleeing in terror. However, the three remaining Jackal snipers began to fire upon Aaron.

Thankfully the snipers couldn’t fire their rifles in a ballistic succession because just two rapid fire shots caused the T27 to overheat. Also that it only had ten uses before the battery would be in need of recharging.

Aaron did what he could to make himself hard to hit because one shot to the body would pop his shield and leave him exposed for a follow up shot to kill him . On a worse case scenario, a single shot to the head even with his shield fully charged would be a fatal one. That’s why he hid himself behind another supplies crate.

As he rested for a bit behind the crate, he noticed that his motion sensor picked up five red dots that were approaching him and moving into a flanking formation. Apparently the fleeing Grunts must have mustered up their courage to fight, or were ordered by one of the snipers to flush Aaron out.

Aaron readied his M45D incase one or two of the Grunts dared to get too close to him; but as if they knew Aaron’s intentions, the red dots disappeared at a certain distance where his shotgun would prove ineffective.

Aaron had once again been pinned, but thankfully his T3 was already fully charged and ready for another use. This meant he could proceed to sneak up on one of the Grunts and assassinate it. However, Aaron knew he had made himself predictable so surely the Grunts were now on full alert. He had to try a different tactic.

Aaron wished to conserve his remaining three grenades for his M363 until the princess was recovered, but it seemed as if he was forced to use another one.

Aaron activated his T3 again and backed up a bit from his cover in order to get some distance so he hopefully wouldn’t be spotted by an attentive enemy. Once he got the distance he wished, Aaron crouch-walked to the side in order to get a view of the Grunts that were remaining stationary, but were looking around constantly at full attention.

Aaron selectively chose one of the Grunt Imperials’ as his target before aiming his M363 at it. When the reticle on his HUD turned red, he fired another grenade at the Grunt, sticking him right between the eyes.

In a panicked frenzy, the Grunt screamed and ran toward his fellow allies who just stood frozen in their places, not knowing what to do.

The Grunt was out of Aaron’s visual range, but the M363 had a built-in motion sensor which displayed itself whenever a grenade was launched.

When Aaron saw that the central and circled red dot was in a close proximity of four other red dots, he once again manually triggered the detonation to mop up the whole squad.

“Engage now,” Aaron ordered over to his team via COMM.

AJ and Echo squad fired upon the unsuspecting snipers, bringing them down in seconds.

“I tell you, Jensen. That was pretty ballsy of you,” AJ stated as Aaron regrouped with him.

“What can I say? I have a knack for being a daredevil,” Aaron shrugged.

“Save it for the circus,” AJ chuckled. “For now, we better get some new and useful weapons. Who knows if these firefights are going to get more intense the deeper we go into the ship.”

“Agreed,” Aaron nodded and hinted to Echo squad that they should do the same.

Aaron and his team scavenged bodies and the post-firefight battlefield for dropped weapons and ammunition, along with grenades.

The marines that either had BR85s’ or M395s’ as their primary weapon, swapped their M6Hs’ for T25s’ as a more complementable sidearm. Aaron decided to swap out his M45D for a dropped T51 C because of its higher rate of fire and precision. As for AJ, he decided to abandon his MA5D and replace it with a T33 since he knew there would possibly be firefights in straight corridors. As for his M6 G, he traded it with a marine for another MA5D.

“Ooh, sparkly,” the marine commented when the weapon was given to him.

Of course AJ wasn’t going to keep the rifle. Instead, he swapped it for a T27 which was dropped by one of the Jackal snipers. Sure it seemed like a ridiculous choice since there were very few areas within a Covenant ship where sniping could be possible.

Throughout the entire first firefight, beginning to end, Twilight finally witnessed Aaron and his comrades in action against Covenant forces. She was both intrigued and a bit appalled by all the blood-spattering action that took place. The constant firing of guns deafened her a bit as well, but thankfully it was a temporary state.

Twilight had read books about the Pony-Griffon War, imagining how gruesome the violence was since both sides attacked either with spears or mortar cannons. What happened just now between the UNSC and the Covenant didn’t match anything to what her books described. If all of Equis became involved in something like this, it would be the end of everything that Twilight, and everypony else knew.

When she noticed that Aaron and his team were starting to proceed to the deeper parts of the ship, she quickly but quietly flew after them. She also made sure to keep her guard up because something told her that more Covenant encounters would be coming, far more deadlier than the previous. If things begin looking rough for Aaron and his squad, she knew she had to perform intervention whether it got her in trouble with the UNSC or not.

She would do anything to save her homeworld, and everypony she cared for--including her closest friends. She just hoped they were alright.

On the bridge of the Express, Kenwood, along with the accompaniment of Princess Celestia and Luna, spectated the firefights via a first person POV camera linked to each active marines’ HUD.

Celestia and Luna were shocked on how aggressive and mercilessly the Covenant fought the UNSC forces. Luna however was the most disturbed because this is exactly what she saw in her visions. Plasma searing off flesh, lead bullets ripping through bodies and taking off heads, and needles impaling armor before violently detonating causing a bloody mess; it was all too much for Luna to take.

“I’ve seen enough,” she stated while closing her eyes and turning her head away from the main interface terminal. “I can’t stand to see anymore of this offensive fraying.”

“I know, sister,” Celestia said while putting a comforting hoof on Luna’s shoulder. “It’s been ages since we’ve seen such conflict. I guess we let those times slip away from our memories.”

“You have permission to leave if you are not comfortable, your majesties,” Kenwood offered.

“We’ll be fine, captain,” Celestia assured while still comforting Luna. “But I’m afraid I can’t watch anymore either. Me and my sister will remain here, though, incase there’s something you really want us to observe.”

“So be it,” Kenwood nodded and turned back to the interface to continue his monitoring.

Moments later, an officer came onto the bridge to announce that four of the mares wished to enter the bridge. Kenwood thankfully gave permission allowing Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy to enter the deck and join Celestia and Luna.

Both Celestia and Luna acknowledged and smiled a bit to see four of the Elements of Harmony safe and unharmed, but were concerned when two of them were not present.

“Where’s Twilight?” Celestia asked.

“And Rainbow Dash?” Luna added.

The friends didn’t answer the questions. Instead, Fluttershy gave Celestia a folded up piece of paper. The look on her, and the rest of the friends’ faces was pure angst, indicating that whatever was on the paper, it wasn’t going to be good news--or a friendship report.

Celestia telekinetically took the letter from Fluttershy’s hoof and unfolded it to reveal that it was a letter; a shocking one at that.

As both Celestia and Luna read the letter, their eyes went wide with shock and their mouths hung open with disbelief. Soon, tears began to trickle from their eyes--especially when they discovered that Twilight’s full name was signed.

Celestia then dropped the letter and gazed back at the four friends.

“How did this happen?” Celestia said quietly, but with hints of how upset she was.

“We have no clue,” Applejack replied solemnly. “We wanted tah talk to her, but she insisted that we let her be.”

“I don’t understand. She would never do something like this at all. Didn’t all of you try to make her see reason for letting you in, even if she didn’t want you around?” Celestia asked in a semi-stern tone.

“We wanted to,” Rarity said. “But by thinking we were being good friends, we let her tend to her wishes.”

“Good?” Celestia asked darkly while glaring daggers at the friends. “The deed that all of you performed was not one that even good friends would do! Why would any of you let her push you away when she really needed you the most?”

The calm and quietness of Celestia’s tone was gone now, and it scared the four friends because they have never seen the princess this angry before--especially when it was directed at them.

The four friends couldn’t find an answer in fear of enraging Celestia more. They knew now they have made an error in the meaning of friendship and harmony. Strong waves of guilt began to build up in each of them.

“Well?” Celestia seethed, making the friends cower even more. Fluttershy even began to cry.

“What’s going on here?” Kenwood intervened. He couldn’t understand the sudden hostility of Celestia toward one of her most respected subjects.

Celestia didn’t say anything, and just stormed off the bridge without even bothering to take Luna with her. Normally, Celestia wouldn’t do such a thing, but Twilight somehow felt like her own child; and the anxiety of losing one was in Celestia’s mind. The thought of what the Covenant were doing to her niece made it worse.

Luna was heartbroken by her older sister’s abandonment, and it brought back memories of being alone for a thousand years on the moon. Reliving this memory brought Luna down to sit on her haunches and sob.

The four friends took the liberty upon themselves to comfort Luna the best they could.  They understood how the Princess of the Night felt about Celestia’s changed demeanor, and it worried them greatly. All they could do is hope that everything will turn out good in the end.

Upon not receiving a response, Kenwood focused his attention on the dropped letter before he proceeded to pick it up and read it. When he was finished, he immediately understood what had made Celestia upset. Princess Twilight had illegally stowed away on a UNSC operation, and that she’d somehow found out about the mission itself.

Kenwood was about to notify Aaron and his squad about Twilight’s interference, but he was interrupted when one of his officers made a report saying, “Sir. One of our Pelicans is launching unauthorized; it’s one of the experimental models with a slipspace drive.”

“What?” Kenwood asked, stunned.

“Uh, captain,” another officer said. “I’m getting a report saying that Cell 182 in the brig has been opened, and that it’s empty.”

Cell 182 was where Hvu ‘Umam was kept.

“Order the pilot of that Pelican to stand down, and have all available security units find ‘Umam and re-arrest him,” Kenwood ordered.

“I’m trying, sir. But the pilot must’ve shut off the transponders. I can’t make contact at all,” the first officer replied.

“And I’m getting nothing from security,” the second officer added. “Their beacons are active indicating they’re still alive, but none of them are responding for now.”

“Sir,” the first officer said now sounding glum. “The Pelican has jumped without providing a set of coordinates.”

Kenwood didn’t understand what the meaning of these events were, but it didn’t make him see that they were somehow connected. What he wanted to know was how it happened? No convict could escape the brig and bring down security without an accomplice.

He decided now he should just contact Aaron and his team about Twilight’s stowing and inform them of what has happened.

The identity of ‘Umam’s accomplice would have to be looked into later. Right now, the only thing the UNSC could do was to hopefully get the Covenant off of Equis, and save Princess Cadance from their grasp.