The sun shone brightly down on the Canterlot Gardens, the gentle breeze blowing through the bright green leaves of the trees and bushes of flowers. Chief was walking through a section of the gardens that contained various statues. His heavy footsteps were the only cause of sound other than the birds chirping and the soft whisper of the wind.

As Chief looked to each statue Eris began describing what each one represented. Soon they came across a familiar looking statue.

'Well, looks like he's still here.' Eris said as Chief looked up at the statue of a male Draconequus, Discord.

"He's in a different pose." Chief pointed out.

'I noticed, he looks almost... scared.'

"Maybe he escaped and was trapped by the elements again." Suggested Chief as he looked at Discords new pose, a small smile appearing from under his mask as he looked back on his first few weeks of living in Equestria after the Griffin War, including the times he had faced off against the spirit of chaos.

'That may be so, either that or Celestia wanted him in an even more ridiculous pose.' Eris chuckled and Chief remained silent. 'You used to laugh at my jokes Marcus.'

"Yeah, used to." His smile faded and was replaced by a frown. Taking one last look at the statue he continued on his way, enjoying the peace and quiet of the garden.

That is until a curious mare decided to join him. "Hey Chief, wait up!" Looking back Chief spotted Twilight quickly walking up to him. She caught her breath when she reached him and looked up at him with a smile. "Mind if I join you?"

"I don't." With his reply Chief turned around and continued walking with Twilight by his side. The two of them walked in silence, comfortable for Chief, uncomfortable for Twilight.

Twilight just walked alongside him, only reaching up to his thighs height wise. She began thinking of conversation starters to begin talking on a more friendly note, rather than just bombard him with questions like she wanted to, but she knew that would just annoy him. "This garden is beautiful isn't it?" She finally asked.

Chief said nothing and merely nodded.

"Did they have gardens like these back on your world?" She asked, trying to reach at least some level of communication, but only received another nod. "You don't talk much do you?"

"Twilight, is there a reason you wanted to join me or did you just want to ask me questions?" The spartan asked turning to the mare.

"Well, I just wanted to talk, maybe be friends." Twilight answered nervously.

Chief reached to the back of his helmet and pulled out the chip that held Eris and gave it to Twilight. "If you wan to talk, talk to her."

Twilight looked at the chip confused until the small hologram of Eris appeared. "Hello." Twilight jumped slightly at the sudden appearance. "Oops, sorry if I scared you."

"No no, it's fine, k just wasn't expecting somepony to appear from this thing." Twilight looked the chip over with interest. "What is this anyway?"

"It is my portable AI chip that allows me to connect with various forms of technology, including Chief's suit." The small hologram replied happily.

"AI? You mean artificial intelligence?" Asked Twilight with great interest.

"Yes, although I may appear to be an AI, I am actually a normal Draconequus. I merely took this form to help Chief here with technical stuff and to feed him information without having to pester him to listen." Eris smirked and looked up at Chief who turned his head slightly.

"You must have a ton of information archived in your memory, can you perhaps share some with me?" Twilight asked, eager to learn something new.

"Sure, but let's move away from Chief, he needs some time to himself right now." They both looked up the the silent soldier and walked down a different pathway. "Now, what do you want to know?"

Twilight placed a hoof to her mussel in thought. "Do you have any files on Chief's home world?"

"I do, ask away."

Meanwhile in an unknown location, Queen Chrysalis shakily got to her feet as she felt her wounds being healed by a strong, dark presence. Looking around she found herself in a small clearing in a forest of dark brown trees with black leaves, the sky was grey and a small amount of dark purple mist seeped out from the forest floor. There was no light other than the faint purple glow of the mist. "Where... Where am I?" The Queen looked around in confusion.

"Queen Chrysalis..." A dark, crackled voice spoke from the air around the changeling.

"Who's there? Show yourself immediately!" She demanded, her horn glowing slightly in caution.

"Relax my dear, I am a friend not foe..."

A small portion of the mist gathered in front of Chrysalis, sliding to the spot like snakes under her hooves. The mist shaped itself into the shape of a humanoid. "What are you?"

"A creature of darkness, of a species labelled a parasite by the beings of this world, like you and your... children..." The figure dragged its feet across the ground as it approached the changeling while slouched, it's dark purple body seeping more of the mist and its piercing yellow eyes glowing in the darkness. "I... We, are the Nightmare Fuels."

Chrysalis chuckled. "Oh what a ridiculous name for a species."

Nightmare stopped and glared at the Queen. "Our name, must like the name changelings, represents what we are. What we can do. What we can be. It is a name given to us by our victims, not by our own choosing was that name given, now all that stand against us call us by such a name."

Chrysalis looked around and saw many more Nightmares exiting the shadows in the trees, accompanied by strange creatures that looked like ponies and humans with plant-like limbs and three strange antenni growing out of their faces, with tiny creatures similar to them. "What are these?"

"They are another parasite, known as The Flood. Our kind found common ground and an alliance was forged." Nightmare placed a claw on Chrysalis' shoulder. "We would like the changelings to join this alliance."

In a black void there was a circular white platform. It had a door leading to nowhere on the edge, two white couches at one side, a desk and chair on the other and a large magic screen showing multiple videos of different words curved around one side. Symbol stood staring at the screen with watchful eyes, taking in every last detail, searching for any sign of the Nightmares.

"Are you still looking?" The boy heard a female voice ask from behind him. Pausing the screen he turned around to see a mare with beige coat. Her mane was brown and tied into a ponytail. Her eyes were sapphire blue and her cutie mark was a grey cloud with a sun behind it and a four pointed star in front.

"Yes Abi, I'm still looking, and I'm not gonna stop." He turned his attention back to the screen.

"Why is this any different from any other Nightmare sightings? You are never this serious when it comes to this." The mare said as she looked at him in confusion.

"Because all other times we were dealing with one or two Nightmares, this is an entire swarm of the things and now they've joined forces with the Flood. This is a dangerous situation and I will not allow it to go unchecked. Not after what happened with the world we visited last month." Both shuddered at the memory of what they had seen, everything was destroyed and torn corpses of ponies and other creatures were scattered everywhere with Nightmares feeding off of the dead bodies and leaving them half finished.

"Ok, I see your point." Abi sat down beside Symbol and started watching the screens. Meanwhile a man in a green hoodie with a metal sash over his right shoulder looked into the room from the doorway that was now open, revealing a long hallway of similar doors. He breathed through the green scarf that hid his mouth. His green hair was styled much like Vegetas from Dragonball.

"Hmmm, this could be troublesome." The man stood up straight and walked into the hallway of doors, closing the door behind him and concealing the hall.

Chief returned to the castle after his relaxing stroll and headed to the dance hall where Pinkie Pie was putting the finishing touches on the party as the sun was beginning to set. He wasn't going there to see Pinkie, he was looking around for Celestia. After a few minutes of walking down the marble hallway he came across a large door leading into the dance hall. Opening it up he looked around at the decorated room, streamers were everywhere, confetti floated freely in the air and there was a ton of different treats and foods layed out

"Hey there!" Chief stepped back a little by the sudden appearance of Pinkie Pie who bore a huge smile. "Come by to help with the decorating?!"

Chief looked at the mare and shook his head. "No, I am looking for Princess Celestia, do you know where she went?"

Pinkie scratched her chin in thought began a lightbulb appeared above her head. "The Princess said something about that room me and my friends found you in, she might be heading there."

Chief frowned behind his mask. "Thank you Pinkie." With that Chief turned around and walked out the door.

"Glad I could help!" The energetic mare called after him.

A few minutes later Chief arrived at the steps that led to his armoury. Sure enough the lights were on and faint beeping could be heard from someone typing on a console. Walking down to the room he spotted Celestia by the other three pods typing at a control pad at the side.

Chief walked over, pushed Celestia out of the way and cancelled the activation of the pods. Celestia frowned and glared at him. "What was that for?"

Chief turned around and looked down at the alicorn. "We are not waking them up, not yet."

"There is a huge threat to Equestria that could show up at any time, we need to have them ready for battle." Celestia was about to restart the activation when Chief stepped in her way.

"No, whatever this threat is it hasn't shown itself, there is no reason to have them walking around." He stated firmly.

"Marcus, move aside." Ordered Celestia.

Chief stepped closer to her and their faces were only a few inches apart. "No ma'am."

"I'm giving you an order Marcus."

"With all do respect Celestia, I'm refusing to follow it."

The two stared each other down before Celestia sighed. "There's no arguing with you right now is there? You're in soldier mode." Chief remained silent. "Very well, but at the first sign of danger you are to activate them, are we clear?"

"Transparently." With that the two walked out of the room together, Chief keeping a watchful eye on Celestia to make sure she didn't try something she'd regret.

Author's Notes:

I'm sorry if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes. I am currently looking for an editor. If anyone would like to volunteer I'd be grateful.

The Flood, The Changelings and The Nightmares together? This spells trouble. The Nightmares are of my own creation, I thought it would be good to include my own original villain to avoid a whole bunch of Halo villains showing up.