Author's Notes:

Theme for this chapter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPShAEtLMr8

In this chapter, see how the Swords of Sanghelios find themselves on the Equestrian's planet, and how Twilight, Spike and Rainbow Dash make a discovery in the mountains.

"It's kind of chilly this morning," observed Spike from Twilight's back as she trotted down the cobblestone road.

The unicorn only sighed; she was simply too focused to indulge in small talk, one of her rider's many talents. The cloud of smoke over the mountains in the distance had withered and was now barely visible, but still present nonetheless. If she were to retain any hope of concluding the rising column of soot's origin, she would have to make good time into the hills, and that required unshakeable focus. If she wavered, her goal may be lost to her forever.

"I said, it's kind of chilly this morning," repeated Spike, raising his voice since his last announcement as he leaned back, spreading his hands out behind him on the unicorn's back, "isn't it Twilight?"

There was no response, save the sound of hooves striking against the road with an unwavering pace. Spike burred his lips, partially to mock Twilight as an equine, and partially to express dissatisfaction with being ignored, both in an attempt to reacquire his friend's ear. Still no response came from beneath him, so the drake resorted to drastic measures.

He bent forward and grabbed Twilight by her jowls, and pressed his eyes to less than an inch away from hers.

"Chilly out here, huh Twilight?!"

The unicorn bucked and shook her head violently back and forth, tossing the dragon rather unceremoniously from her back and into the grass on the side of the road.

"Spike, what are you doing?!" she trilled.

The dragon picked himself up from the soil that had broken his fall, brushing earth from his shoulders and shaking his spines free of dirt.

"Well that wasn't very nice," Spike mused as he ambled back to the road, crossing his arms when he stood before Twilight, steam practically rising from her scalp.

"Why'd you do that?" asked the equine, well beyond irritated.

"Why were you ignoring me?" Spike countered to receive silence before continuing with a tone between sarcasm and concern, "Look Twilight, as your friend, assistant, and closest personal advisor, I can say without a doubt that you are obsessing over this whole thing."

"Me?" she began, placing a hoof over her chest and acting offended, "Obsessed?"

Spike's eyes shifted awkwardly to the side as he pondered whether she was serious before responding, "Yeah, obsessed."

"Absurd!"

Spike sighed again, and let his hands fall to his hips.

"You say that I'm obsessing over this, but you're showing no regard for what could be a groundbreaking discovery!"

"If, by groundbreaking, you mean a crater?"

Twilight snorted.

"What are you hoping to find at the end of this day hike anyway? We know everything about space already. If it's as important as you say, then where are the professional scientists? You know, the ones that get paid to make discoveries."

"Anything," she replied energetically, "and it could literally be anything causing that smoke up there. We could find extraterrestrial geologic samples from a meteor that could have impacted a forested area, or we could discern the chemical makeup of an asteroid in a smoldering impact zone. Smoke like that just doesn't occur naturally."

Spike rolled his eyes slightly, before huffing a deep breath in, and exhaling a small puff of green flame, prompting a minute column of grey haze to rise from his nostrils. Then, blatantly sarcastically, he raised his hands to the 'almighty' smog that now encircled his head.

"It's smoke," he said, widening his eyes and flailing his hands like he was telling a ghost story.

"Spike, you are being very rude, and I do not appreciate it," the unicorn said, sounding unmistakably like an irked mother.

A sudden downdraft displaced Spike's smoke rings, and a blue feather quietly drifted down on a breeze between the pair.

"Hey guys," came a raspy voice from above, "What's goin' on?"

"Twilight's become fascinated with a byproduct of fire," responded Spike, looking up to meet the magenta eyes of Rainbow Dash, who had recently taken to hovering above them with an amused smile on her face; Twilight's face immediately became redder with frustration and embarrassment with Spike's response, but her seething breath prevented her from speaking in her own defense.

"You mean the smoke?" the pegasus asked, interest peaking her tone as she turned her gaze westward, "I was just on my way over there to check it out. Could be a forest fire or something."

"Yeah," agreed the unicorn, her lavender eyes reddening as she stared at the source of her warranted albeit useless frustration, "or something."

"We were heading over there too," Spike said, ignoring the searing gaze of Twilight, her chin thrust forward slightly in her universal irritated expression, "Twilight thinks it might be a space rock."

"A space rock?" Dash responded, her voice climbing in excitement, "That'd be way cooler than a forest fire!"

She zipped down to eye level with Twilight, her pumping wings keeping her aloft just beyond the unicorn's nose.

"What if it is a space rock, and it gives us super powers or something when we touch it? What if it gives me super speed, and since I'm already super fast, I'd have super, super speed?! I'd be so fast nopony could even see me! I'd be able to..."

"Rainbow!" Twilight interjected suddenly, causing the pegasus to stop mid-gesture, her forelimbs cast above her head in imagined triumph as she no doubt pictured herself on a pedestal, surrounded by thousands of screaming admirers, "I hate to say this, but we're kind of in a hurry to get there."

"You're in a hurry?" the cyan mare said, once again descending to eye level, "Well why didn't you say so? I could never leave you hangin'! I'll get us there in twelve seconds, flat!"

"Rainbow, I don't think that's necess-Wah!"

The unicorn was cut off as her friend performed an aerial loop, gaining momentum before swinging around to scoop her and Spike up in her forelimbs, dragging them both through the air as they held onto her for dear life. They whistled through the atmosphere as a prism followed their arcing streak across the midday sky, tears forming in the passengers' eyes as they reached speeds near the sound barrier, all while their pilot confidently relished in the velocities she achieved.

Exactly twelve seconds later, Spike and Twilight were courteously dropped into a grassy mountain meadow, although the landing was less than smooth. Meanwhile, their valet performed another loop above them, a dazzling display of color tracking her path through the bluebird air. Twilight was halfway to her hooves when Rainbow came in for a fantastic landing, skidding to a stop in the thin mountain soil, flaring her wings and turning her nose up in theatrical pride once she stopped.

"Told ya I'd get us here in twelve seconds."

"I'm kind of glad I don't have wings," admitted Spike under his breath as he pulled himself from the dirt for the second time in recent memory.

"I'm sure it's different when you're in control," said the unicorn as she shook her head free of the terror that had just passed, "but on the bright side, we did just cover a few miles in seconds. So thanks, I guess."

"Don't mention it," Dash responded, her posture not changing in the slightest until she allowed her gaze to stray above the trees, "Hey, the smoke's not far. Come on."

The pegasus led their procession as they traversed the meadow, and entered a copse of trees as they made for their goal of the smoke column's base. The farther the trio pressed through aspen branches and juniper spruce, the birds became quieter, until their songs were absent in the nursery of branches above. Onward they went, Dash blazing a trail through thick shrubbery. Eventually, they met an exceptionally thick concentration of scrub oak, their sharp branches completely hindering substantial vision.

Rainbow Dash, persistent as ever but not wanting to simply fly over the wild thicket so as to stay with her friends, again led the way as she pushed through and weaved around myriad thick, thorny branches. Grumblings carried through the alpine forest, as branches scratched at hides and jabbed at eyes, and the procession kicked up a murder of previously silent crows from their arboraceous roost.

"Do these shrubs go on forever?" grumbled Twilight as she dodged a branch's attempt at her forehead, trying her best to keep up with Rainbow Dash's flexible weavings around branches that seemed to be causing her little to no trouble at all; the unicorn stole a look back at Spike, whose convenient height was enough to allow him to simply stroll beneath the limbs' influence. She was the only one having any trouble.

"Don't worry," Dash said over her shoulder as she contorted her body to squeeze under an eye-height limb, "I think I see the end."

"Finally," breathed the unicorn, immediately before running into the flank of her friend.

After staggering back a bit shocked, Spike doing the same, Twilight hesitantly asked, "What is it?"

Rainbow Dash remained silent.

"What's wrong?" asked Spike, peeking around Twilight's legs.

Quietly, Rainbow Dash responded, "You need to see this."

She quickly vacated the shrubbery, light pouring in through the branches as she tore a hole through the sylvan veil and emerged into the open air once again. The other two quickly followed her into the fresh light, and after blinking their eyes back into focus, froze in awestruck fascination as well.

They found themselves standing on the edge of a titanic crater, at least one hundred feet deep and several more in diameter. The land beyond the radius of the scorched, black earth was still as thickly forested as the terrain they'd just come through, but within the radius of effect, there was nothing but black rocks and ash. The force and heat of the obvious impact had been nothing less than tremendous, and in the center of the massive pit, a pillar of smoke climbed lazily into the clouds.

"I think we found it," Spike muttered, leaning to look over the lip and at the steep slope of the impact crater.

"That's awesome," Rainbow Dash, hovering at Twilight's side, observed as she marveled at the sheer size of the dent in the planetary crust; her chosen words were startlingly accurate.

"Still think I'm obsessing Spike?" Twilight said, her tone kind and a bit playful as she made an unspoken peace with her smaller friend; if she'd allowed her eyes to stray from the sight before her, she would have seen him shaking his head 'no'.

"Come on," Twilight urged as she shook herself from the humbled trance she'd fallen into and stepped to the edge of the crater, "We didn't come this far for nothing."

She took a deep breath in, and with a fair amount of courage, stepped onto the incline of the crater's outer slope. Rainbow Dash was quick to follow, leaving only Spike at the edge.

"What the heck?" he said with a shrug before he too leapt onto the slope, sliding on his back not unlike sledding in wintertime.

It took a considerable amount of time and a very careful descent to reach the bottom of the crater, where the slope flattened greatly over a small area. Twilight led the procession towards the epicenter now, the other two closely behind her.

"What is it?" asked Rainbow Dash as Twilight reached the exact center of the massive divot they now occupied.

"I don't see anything," she responded, looking at an expanse of uniformly scorched stones and soil all around her, "Look for a rock that stands apart from the others."

"All rocks look the same," Rainbow Dash said in hesitant retort as she kicked the gravel at her hooves slightly, a cloud of charcoal dust rising in response.

"Look for differences in color or luster," Twilight responded as her horn sparked a glow, and she began sifting through the earth, "Normally the part of a meteor that survives the fall is metallic."

"And, what colors count as metallic?"

"Silvers, greys, blacks," Twilight began in response, preoccupied in her search more than slightly.

"Purples?" came Spike's voice, hesitant and very near fearful, and Twilight and Rainbow both looked in his direction, legitimately concerned.

"Purples?" Twilight asked in disbelief as Rainbow Dash zipped to the dragon's side.

"Purples," the pegasus confirmed after following Spike's gaze into the ashen soil.

Twilight immediately dropped the stone she'd been inspecting and trotted to where Spike's talon was pointing in the dirt, to see a small, glossy purple surface protruding up through the greyscale dirt. Carefully and very gingerly, she reached out a hoof to touch the object, and upon finding it cool, tried to lift it in her magic. However, it was much heavier than she'd anticipated, and after giving it a firm tug, the soil all around them began to displace. Twilight's eyes widened a bit as she realized that, whatever this object was, it was much larger than the superficial section she was currently tampering with, and the rest of it was buried.

"It's under us," she simply said before she began throwing the soil around her hooves away, quickly to be aided by her friends.

It took longer than she'd expected, but eventually they'd unearthed a large purple object. It was strange, to say the least. It was very heavy, which meant it was very dense given its volume, and apart from the dirt that coated its exterior it seemed unblemished, each surface perfect and smooth. Each of its superficies but one were contoured and without corners; the surface in question was not very different from glass, although opaque and dark. It had a shimmer like silver or polished steel, but its color was far too vibrant to be any known metal, although its conductivity had yet to be tested.

"Come on Twilight," Rainbow Dash urged nervously from behind the unicorn, who was crouched in the dirt as she observed everything she could about their discovery, "you're the smart one. What is it?"

"Sure as heck isn't a meteor," she admitted, "At least, not like any meteors I've ever heard of."

"Can we go home?" asked Spike nervously.

"I'm not leaving until we figure out what this is," she said as she ran a hoof over the smooth purple surface.

She tapped the lavender exterior, hearing the bell-like ring as it responded. She then ran a hoof over its surface again, which she was realizing was too perfect to be naturally formed. But, when she touched the opaque, flat surface of the object, she was surprised when it lit up. A verdant light suddenly came from underneath the surface, and white symbols began flashing before the unicorn's wide eyes as the object began humming with a static energy.

"What did you do?" asked Rainbow Dash, her voice fearfully reverent.

"I don't know, I just touched it," responded Twilight, backing away.

"This is freaky," said the pegasus as she too put a healthy amount of distance between herself and the object, "I mean, what kind of... space rock, does something like that?"

"It's definitely not a rock," Twilight said slowly, "but it must have fallen from the sky last night. We saw it, and a crater like this doesn't just form randomly."

There was a solemn silence before Dash spoke again.

"What exactly did you see last night?"

"We thought it was a meteor shower," responded Twilight, "Just, bright lights streaking across the sky."

"Like that," said Spike from behind them, his voice shaking; the two whipped around, momentarily forgetting the still active object just meters away from them.

They followed Spike's talon, extended upwards to the sky, to see a fiery ball descending from just beneath the sun. It raced earthwards, fragments coming off of its exterior as it barreled in their direction. It roared through the air as it shot over them, in between the ground and the clouds, and continued on farther to the north.

Rainbow Dash turned her eyes, sparkling with a glint of awe, from the sky to Twilight, then to Spike, and then without saying a word, darted back up to the lip of the crater, leaving a blue feather fluttering downwards in her place. Twilight and Spike shared a fearful look as well, before forsaking their discovery to scramble up after her.

Earlier...

The hangar of the Shadow of Intent was stagnant with warriors. Sangheili, Unggoy and Mgalekgolo, the united races of the Covenant Separatists, covered the flight deck as they waited for the coming battle together. Phantom drop ships, their exteriors smooth and aerodynamic, were gathered in droves, the troops they were to transport lined up in formation outside their purple hulls.

The flight deck looked like an ocean of cobalt and crimson, the extravagant armor configurations of the warriors directly responsible. But, in the midst of the sea of color, stood a section of black. These warriors were set apart from the rest of the force by more than just uniform, but in prestige as well. These warriors were of the Special Warfare Group, and the champion of the fleet stood at the front of their column.

The weapons they brandished held the firepower of a much larger unit, compressed into only a few squads. Type-25 Energy Rifles and Type-1 Energy Swords clung to their hips, but Type-33 Light Anti-Armor Weapons, Type-51 Carbines and Type-50 Beam Rifles were fit into slots on their backs. The variation in the armament among the unit replaced the niches normally filled by varied species with niches filled by specialized warriors.

The staging area of the hangar was stiff with tension and discipline, none moving nor speaking, but listening. The silence of thousands nearly echoed through the bowels of the ship, just as it had when the silence had been of tens of thousands in campaigns since past. The memories of those tens of thousands contributed all the more to the quiet, and to the insufferable agony of waiting for the coming fire.

The Arbiter stood at the head of his column of eighteen Sangheili, two Mgalekgolo towering over the formation from the rear: twenty-one of the finest fighters in the fleet. The Arbiter's eyes were locked forward, but he could see the faces beneath the contoured helmets of every SpecOps Minor that stood behind him. They had followed him into battle countless times, as they would again soon. They were the night, silent, dark and dangerous, just like the inky blur of slip space, just beyond the hangar's doors.

Eventually, the uncorrupted silence was shattered as the voice of the Shipmaster boomed from the ship's announcement system.

"Attention warriors, prepare for combat! We will be exiting slip space shortly."

Without another word, the sea of soldiers was set into motion as the Phantoms were boarded, and the silence was no more as marching feet and the whirring of drop ships' engines resounded throughout the cavernous hangar.

The Arbiter was the first to step through the ventral doors and into the cargo hold of his respective Phantom. From there, he extended his hand to each Sangheili as they in turn climbed into the drop ship. He exchanged nods and glances, and the occasional clap on the shoulder with each of them, until all eighteen were aboard. They said nothing; no words were needed. Once all were aboard, the Arbiter turned and strode into the midst of his comrades as the Hunters lumbered up after him, the Sangheili taking up positions behind them, facing the doors.

However, before the doors were sealed, another found his way into their company.

"I trust you have room for another?" asked Shipmaster 'Vadum as he stepped into view from the bow of the vessel; he carried a sword hilt on his hip, opposite a Plasma Rifle on the other, making it clear his purpose for coming to the flight deck.

"Shipmaster,'' acknowledged the Arbiter, respectfully placing his fist over his chest in synchronization with the other eighteen warriors at his back in salute.

The Arbiter stepped between the Hunters in the doorway, and extended his hand downward to 'Vadum, more out of courtesy than necessity. Regardless, he took it, and stepped up into the Phantom's hold.

"Shipmaster," began one of the SpecOps Sangheili from the middle of the tightly packed hold, "surely you would not accompany us, if our task was not arduous and essential."

"You are right, brother," he responded as he, followed by the Arbiter, stepped back through the space between the Mgalekgolo, "Our path will lead us to the heart of the enemy fleet."

"The battle-cruiser?" asked the Arbiter to receive a nod from his counterpart.

"Would you have it any other way?"

The only response came in a unified determined growl from all present, and with that, the Phantom's doors tilted upwards, the light of the hangar to be drowned in darkness as they were sealed within the vessel. However, the glowing, seemingly floating eyes and power nodes of the SpecOps Sangheili's armor cast an eerie, dull blue glow, like the light of a distant star, across the interior of the hold. Compressed gases hissed as the doors became airtight, and the hum of the engines went from a whisper to a hum as the Troop Carrier began hovering above the flight deck.

Out of the darkness came voices, familiarity betraying anonymity.

"Will we be alone in the pursuit of our quarry?" asked the Arbiter.

"We should be infiltrating the vessel with ten other drop ships, if we all make it past their defenses."

A new voice sounded in the helmets of the warriors: the pilot of the drop ship, talking over the battle-net.

"Leader, we embark. Make ready for departure."

The warriors once again were silent, and they fell into proper ranks facing the doors as the vessel began to sway and shift slightly. The Phantom noticeably picked up speed, and banked to the left after presumably leaving the hangar's safe embrace.

The pilot was silent, as were those he transported. In the quiet dark of the drop ship's belly, with the unknown just outside the doors, the brothers waited for danger they could not see. All that existed was the motion of the ship around them, and the glow of their armor and weapons, like bioluminescence in the deepest, darkest cave.

A shock reverberated through the ship as it jerked suddenly downwards, and sounds like quiet thunder rattled in from outside. Again, the ship lurched, changing direction slightly and banking, and more thunder penetrated the hull. All aboard knew what was happening; they were in range of their foes' weaponry.

Though it was dark, but no longer silent nor still, the voice of the Shipmaster made itself known with unrivaled vigor and passion.

"You are the Elites that make up the heart of our force! So long as you live, our cause will never falter! Have courage this day, for no matter how dark the night, these blades will light our way!"

His response came in surprised grunts as again, harder this time, the ship jerked downwards. This repeated again and again as the thunder erupted outside.

Suddenly, the Phantom changed its vector rapidly, the inertia causing a few Sangheili to fall on those at their sides as they lost their balance. The engines' hum began to falter, and again, the ship jumped at an unseen and very loud force outside, betraying those it carried and causing them to stagger.

"Pilot!" yelled the Arbiter into his communicator, "What happened?"

Static replied, and again the vessel was battered to the side as an undeniable explosion punished the front of the ship. The warriors again righted themselves after stumbling, but found the floor of the ship no longer stable.

"We are hit!" yelled the Shipmaster as a crushing G-force pulled them all to the floor.

The ship rolled, and the wall became the new floor as the sturdy warriors were tossed about like dolls. The walls were hot, and again the ship lurched. The vessel changed course again, negative G's now causing the warriors to leave the floor and float in the air of the cargo hold, only to be slammed back down as the Phantom pitched and rolled around them.

"We are in the planet's atmosphere!" yelled the Arbiter, explaining the recent addition of non-artificial gravity as well as their battering.

"Ready yourselves!" yelled 'Vadum as he fought against the motion of the drop ship, crawling and staggering to the wall of the hold, where he struggled to sit supported with his back facing the front of the vessel.

The air outside the doors screamed and howled as it rushed past, the Phantom cracking and moaning as if in pain as it descended. The engines roared, crying out against their failure as their propulsion was overtaken by gravity and momentum. Something screamed, the Hunters roaring out as the Sangheili yelled over the battle-net and to those around them as they struggled to the walls of the ship to brace for the coming shock. The noise was deafening, and it only grew as they fell.

"Brace for impact!"