Luna was watching the night sky, soaking in the light the moon offered. The night court was so boring, but at least here she could be in peace, and enjoy her night sky. But something caught her eye, a meteor had broke through the atmosphere and was on a collision course for the mountain valley. She followed it until it was was out of her sight. Though it's crash still echoed through the valley.

     "GUARDS!" Luna shouted, and no more than two seconds later several guards rushed into her chambers with battle ready faces.

     "Yes your Highness!?" asked one of the higher ranking guards with a salute.

     Luna raised her hoof dismissively to tell the guard 'at ease' "Follow me, we need to secure that meteors crash site before any pony is harmed." All the guards saluted and the pegasi stepped forward to follow Luna on her journey to the crash site. Luna turned and jumped off the balcony, immediately spreading her wings. She would usually take a night fly slow and steady so she could enjoy the brisk air the night offered. But she couldn't afford to go slow, every moment wasted was another moment she let the possibility of harm come to her subjects.

     With the meteor coming into to site it became apparent that it was not in fact a meteor but a small metal... House? Quickly nose diving Luna came to a graceful yet speedy landing. Now that she was closer she could make out some lettering on the side of the metal House like object. The letters were hard to read due to the dirt and soot covering it. "U.N.S.C?" she questioned wondering what that could possibly mean.

     Luna jumped back at the sound of rattling coming from the house, then a large bipedal creature walked out of the smoke. Staring at Luna the creature began to move forward, then dropping to the ground it began to crawl, but with every movement the creature's will to survive diminished. The being had finally stopped moving and closed its eyes.

     One of the many guards that had followed Luna came to her side. Luna turned to look at her soldier and ordered him to get a carriage ready for the being, and to conceal the incident. She needed as few ponies to know about this as possible.

    Celestia sat in awe. The immortal being had seen much in her life, but nothing quite like this, peering through the one way mirror Celestia stared at the pasty being that Luna had discover no more than seven hours ago. Badly bruised, cut and burned the site was horrific. The being was monitored by the massive amount of monitors surrounding it. Several tubes were shoved down its gullet in an attempt to regulate its breathing. Laying naked it was clear the alien was male. The best words she could conjure up to describe the being was 'If a minotaur and an ape and a hairless offspring' though that wasn't quite right. This ape like creature had just survived a thirty mile fall. Though it was apparent that the fall was life threatening. The being had only a day or so to live, and in that time it wouldn't be living well.

     Celestia turned to Luna, "How many of his kin did you say died?"

    "We counted a total of nine dead, though we presume two were dead long before the crash happened. Due to the injuries they had." Luna stated in such a cold, and matter-of-fact voice.

     Celestia grimaced at the thought, nine dead, this poor being. Celestia thought to herself. "Have you thought of any plans to save the creatures life?" She inquired

     Luna reverted her base from the mutilated male, "Well, we've discovered that it is only receptive to a small amount of magic. Some aiding his body in the healing process, others almost killing him." Luna looked over to the clipboard she had been carrying, and then back to Celestia, "None of the major healing spells seem to work, only minor ones, though we were able to fix his broken bones." Luna said while levitating the clip board over to Celestia.

     Celestia took grasp of the clipboard via magic, and gave it a quick glance. Going through the many pages, after setting the clipboard down, she turned to Luna, "Luna, I have an idea that could save or kill this creature, I propose we bring the Elements here."

    "And risk killing it? This is one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever! And you want to risk it all on the off chance that the Elements can save it?" Luna had the largest stake in the life of this being. She being the pony to find it, and revive it several times. Expending massive amounts of time and energy to ensure that this creature lived, she had made it more than clear she wanted it to live.

    "Luna." Celestia said putting a hoof on her back. "You've done the best you could, but this creature's time is limited, and the Elements might be his only hope. Desperate times call for desperate measures." her tone serious but yet also calming. Luna hung her head in a somber defeat knowing that Celestia was right. "Luna, these are the Elements of Harmony, if anything can save him it is Twilight and her friends.

    Luna looked up to Celestia the back to the one way mirror that overlooked the naked alien. "I hope you're right Tia. He must have went through Tartarus to get here, I'll write the letter to Twilight. You can get back to your sleep. " Luna looked back to Celestia with a smile which Celestia returned.

    Pinned down behind the concrete wall of one of the many buildings of New Alexandria Sergeant James Blucher found himself rethinking his situation and shit was the best he could currently come up with. He and his team of six were trapped on the forty-fifth floor of a recently abandoned hotel. Running low on ammo and alcohol the soldier knew his time was limited. The elites and grunts were making steady progress forward, they never stopped hammering their position. Flinging himself around the corner James was able to get several shots off before retreating back behind his cover. Though his hit and run killed two elites it didn't stop them from marching onward. These damn zealots, don't they know when to quit? But the Covenant's advance across the walkway was short lived as a barrage of bullets flung into their side.

    Peering through a small bullet hole in the concrete wall James breathed a deep end long sigh of relief when he saw six Spartans jump packing their way into the enemy's flank. One of the few times I'm glad to see a Joint Op squad.

     Seeing as how the Spartans quickly finished the covenant troopers, James waited until all firing ceased before extending his arm out from the cover the wall offered and began to wave while shouting "Friendlies!" He and the remainder of his eight man squad stepped out. James was quickly greeted by a eight foot tall Spartan with blue armor on. "Carter-A259, Commander of Noble team."

    James quickly saluted the Spartan seeing as how he was out ranked. "Sergeant James Blucher of Alpha 1, sir!" he saluted, holding the pose until commanded otherwise. The silence only lasted a few seconds but to James it's seemed like hours. Well more like 15 or 30 minutes.

   "At ease soldier. Hmm, Alpha 1? Why is a reconnaissance unit stationed at Reach?" asked the towering Spartan with a tilted head.

     "Hell if I know, any information we might have offered died with him." James said glancing back to the mutilated remains of his commander. He had taken a plasma round to the face, it had caused the metal helmet to fuse with the skin. Only leaving a burnt mess of flesh, plastic and steel. James turned back to the Spartan. "We had zero notice of the attack. We got our hands on some weapons but that was about it. And we lost our communications specialist in the fight so we had no way to request reinforcements."

    "Shame," Carter then raised his hand to a small button on the right side of his visor. "This is Noble One, we are requesting air evac for eight, four capable, two wounded and two dead. Over." it wasn't long before the Spartan received a reply.

    "Copy that, what are your coordinates?"

      "33.7550° N, 84.3900° W"

    "Roger that ETO in five minutes." removing his hand from his helmets the Spartan turned back to James and handed home a red smoke canister so he could signal the pelican. "Well it was nice meeting you, Noble, let's move out." leaving in a rush. It made James wonder why they were in such a hurry. Shrugging it off he popped the smoke after about four minutes in anticipation for the pelican.

     Once the pelican arrived James loaded up the dead and wounded before hopping in the ship himself. He assumed the pilots would drop him off at one of the many armories on the planet, but much to his surprise the ship broke through the atmosphere on their way to the  Halcyon-class light cruiser  "Pillar of Autumn". Looking through the small glass window James could see the crumbling Covenant Supercarrier. The Covenant must be retarded if they thought they could destroy Reach with one ship.

     The door that led to the cockpit of the ship was left open, allowing any and all to hear what was happening. "This is 27A Foxtrot to The Pillar of Autumn we are carrying wounded grunts and request immediate landing. Over." Spoke the female pilot.

     "This is the Pillar of Autumn to 27A Foxtrot, we read you. You are clear for landing in Bay- wait... We are reading several slipspace ruptures... Do not land, I repeat, do not land. Over."  At soon as James heard slip space his ears were perked. Running to the cockpit he began to look in all directions for the covenant ships. His heart sank deep into his stomach when he saw over 300 super carries begin launching an attack on Reach.

   "The Pillar of Autumn is activating their slipspace engines, THEY'RE JUST GONNA LEAVE US HERE!?" shouted

the pilot to his left. James put his hand on the pilot's shoulder causing him to look up at James.

    "They are not leaving us here. Put all power to the forward thrusters and get into bay 7 while the shields are still down!" following his order without hesitation the pilots began prepping the engines. And before he knew it the Pelican was going faster than sound. Though it's speed was impressive, it still wasn't enough to make it to the bay before the large  Halcyon-class light cruiser entered slipspace. But the Pelican did get close enough to get sucked into the slipspace rupture.

    The Pelican was spiraling out of control. The shock wave of energy that the slip space caused after like an EMP and now all systems were down on the small ship. O God, is this how I am going to die!? This can't he how I die, it's too anticlimactic! James was in a fit of hysteria, and ready to vomit at a moment's notice, but much to his pleasure he found himself slowing down. The Pillar of Autumn had dropped he and his men at some unknown planet. He began struggling to find out which way was up until he realised he was in space and there was no up or down, momentarily laughing at his own stupidity he called out.

    "Is everyone alright?" His only replies where groans and nods of the head. "Great, so where are we?" James asked the pilots.

    "Hell if I know, the systems are fried. We could be in the land of Oz or still in Kansas." She said with sarcasm and anger dripping from her teeth. James decided to ignore the bitchy-ness and take the gist of what she said. Great lost in the middle of space, with no working gear, and the possibility that we are hovering over a Covenant planet. Just peachie. James then turned his attention back do the blue planet. Wait, are we getting closer? "Hey, is it me or is that planet looking bigger?" he asked with a concerned tone.

     The pilots looked up at the planet and stared for a few moments before one replied. "Shit! We got caught in the gravitational pull, fuck we are Oscar Mike." Not questioning what Oscar Mike meant in that context James asked how long they had until impact.

     "I don't know, seven or so minutes." said the pilots while pressing any and all buttons hoping for a response.

    "And how long would it take to fix the thruster?" James asked.

     "At least two hours, fuck. Everyone, brace for impact!" both pilots began to buckle up. James took the hint and threw himself down to the closest seat. He began fumbling around with the buckles until he hooked himself in. This is going to hurt.