A/N: welcome everypony, i am happy to say that when i write at school, the creative joices just flow. this chapter is my longs yet, and i hope for them to stay this lenght or even longer. enjoy everypony.

The group trotted toward the castle, human keeping up from behind. He had one of the weapons in his hand, looking around to find something to shoot. Twilight found this running to be time to ask some questions.

“So, what spell did you use to change yourself?” Twilight asked the large human.

“I would love to tell you, but I don’t think it is anyone’s best interest for that information to be out in the open. There is a counter for it, so in case somepony decides to change me back in the middle of fighting a Brute, they won’t be able to. Besides, why does it matter, I’m here now, and ready to fight,” the human just kept up the pace with the group without showing any signs of wearing out, but then again the armor did hide all his features.

“O.K., so what about the weapons you have on you. Can you tell me about them?” Twilight asked, hoping for an actually answer.

“Yep, this one in my hand is called a Mauler. This is just a hand-held shotgun with only five rounds per mag. The range is decent, but the real kicker is its melee ability. See this blade on the handle? It is not just for decoration. This blade can cut straight through your head with a mild swing.” He took a break, which was enough for him to hear a new noise, and a red blip to appear on his radar. “Halt. Get behind me.” He ordered and jumped to the front of the group. Literally jumped to the front and landed with a light thud.

When he landed, a deep growl could be heard in front of them. Everypony froze, except the human, he just put the Mauler up and grabbed and handle thing from his lower back. It was silent for the next few seconds, and then suddenly a table was thrown towards them, which Shining just grabbed with his magic and tossed it away. The thing though was terrifying. It was massive, at least ten feet tall and looked more of a skeleton than anything else. The arms that hung down had massive claws and were as thick as an apple tree.

The monster roared, causing the ponies to try and cover their ears. The human just stood there, looking at the creature. The creature then charged at the human, who braced himself and waited for the creature to run him into the ground. That never happened though as the creature impacted into the armored human and was stopped dead, literally dead. The human pushed the dead monster over, pulling out a weird blade.

The blade had dual prongs in the front that were 3 ½ feet long each. The blades looped into the handle he was holding keeping the blade in front of him. He then turned toward the group and started to laugh.

“What’s funny this time?” Shining Armor asked, still irritated about earlier.

“Your faces. Do any of you know what the look on your face is? It looks like this,” he said, slightly tilting his head and kept his visor looking at them.

“Um…like what? We can’t see your face,” Twilight said, slightly confused.

“Oh, sorry. Forgot I was wearing this. Anyway, I suggest we get moving. A single brute is no problem, but where there is one, there are more. I want you all safe before I go get killed,” he said, then turned and took the lead, jogging at a fast pace. The pace surprised all of them, not knowing he could run that fast.

“What do you think he means be getting killed?” Fluttershy asked Rainbow Dash

“I don’t know, but I don’t think he expects to make it through this in one piece. I’ll go ask him.” She flew up to him and before she could say anything, he answered her question.

“I don’t think I’ll make it. I might be faster, stronger, smarter, and more powerful than any being around, but even I can fall on bad luck. You pray for the best, and prepare for the worst. I have the best weapons possible, but surviving this will be no picnic; this will soon become a warzone, and I need to get ready and civvies out of harm’s way a sap. So please go back and allow me to focus,” he said in a manner that told Rainbow Dash she had met her match in thick headedness.

The group kept moving until they were right in front of the castle. The doors were open so all ran in to find both Princess Celestia and Luna standing there, wondering what was going on.

“What is the meaning of-” Celestia started.

“No time to explain. Close these doors and build up a barricade once I get out there. I suggest getting your best guards and yourselves prepared in case I fail. Things are about to get complicated,” the armored human told the Princess, not even giving her time to process what was happening as he ran right back out the door carrying a long weapon the was made of just metal.

“Twilight, would you mind explaining who that was and what is going on here?” Celestia asked her star student.

“Apparently, that was Anthony. He used some transformation spell and changed into that. We were eating lunch when-”

“When suddenly, this weird creature started coming towards us and fired some red globes at us and blew the table up into the air. Anthony magiced the table on its side and got us all behind it. Then whoosh, a bright light and there stood this creature that was him. And he grabbed some round blue thing on his belt that looked like a blue berry and threw it at the creature and the thing exploded in a mist of blue.

“He then got us all here, but on the way he fought this gimongus beast that almost ran us over. But he stood his ground and stabbed it with a two bladed tuning fork thing. He tried to make a joke, but that helmet killed it. And now we’re here.” Pinkie ended, winded by the amount of information she crammed out. The Princesses just stood there, wondering what to do next.

“I say we do as he said, and barricade the door. That will at least give us something to do. I will go out and try to find him, sister. I wish to speak with him anyway,” Luna said, flying out the door to find the human.

The Spartan

Anthony was laying on his stomach, holding the sniper rifle and peering down the sight. The reapers weren’t here in a sizable force, but they still were a threat. The human waited for more to walk down the street, his radar told him just one was left. Probably just a Marauder, but still a problem.

Luna landed right next to the Spartan and was about to speak, when he held one finger up to silence her for just a second. The Marauder came out of cover, rifle ready when a .50 cal shot tore his head to ribbons. The Spartan than got up and looked at the Lunar Princess.

“I’m surprised you hadn’t found me earlier,” he stated matter-a-factly.

“It was more difficult hen I thought. I didn’t know humans could move so far in such a short time span?” Luna said, trying to see him through the visor.

“Not all humans, just me. Now, if you will excuse me. I have some Reaper forces to destroy.” And with that he jumped from the tall building right onto the ground, cracking the cobble stone road. He then took off towards the direction the Reapers had come from.

Luna just stared at him as he ran. Not even an earth pony would make it down that without some form of injury. How strong is he? Looks like it’s time for some aerial reconnaissance. Luna thought as she spread her wings and took flight.

She flew around the lower half of the city, looking for the human. This took her half an hour, and still hadn’t found him. She only found the dead bodies of his kill; Husks, Ravagers, Marauders, Cannibals, Brutes, and Banshees. But no him.

Just as she was about to give up, she found him. Or really he found her.

“Nice view up her, isn’t it?” Luna heard behind her. She flung around and found the human flying there, like he wasn’t even fazed by it. “You know it’s impolite to stare. And I know, how am I flying? Technology is a powerful tool. This suit has a built in jetpack, Armor lock, Invisibility, and Holographic Double. Any other questions?” he asked while Luna shook the confusion out.

“Yes, how did you come up with that look?” Luna asked, starting from the beginning.

“In my world, there is a game called “Halo” and this armor is from it. This variant is custom, but they all are in the game. The built-in jetpack though, I got from a comic book series called “Iron Man.” The Armor Lock, Invisibility, and Holographic Double are also from “Halo.” I chose this though because it seemed like a god idea at the time.

“Spartans, that’s what I am, are the cream of the crop, best of the best. They make the best look like rookies. A Spartan is 280 lbs. of pure muscle, a reaction time that is not chartable, and has a mental capacity that is 300% faster than the average human. We can left twice our body weight easy, and are trained from young to be the soldier the UNSC needed them to be. Spartans were later augmented with unbreakable bone, high muscle density, the thought capacity, natural regeneration, perfect night vision, natural zoom capabilities, and the best military training ever.

“These statistics do not include the armor. The armor is the MJOLNIR mark V variant. The suit itself is a thousand pounds, made of titanium grade-A, ship armor, has a crystal layer to speed up reaction time, and has a motion tracker with an IFF transponder in it. The suit also has the capability to carry all the weapons you see now. The shielding on this system is powerful enough to take a tank round twice before the shields start to fail. Any more questions?” he finished, giving more information then Princess Luna thought. She took a minute to think of the next inquiry.

“Is this the real you, or a copy of someone else?”

“Both. This is my real thoughts and action, but I took the body so I would be of some assistance. A regular human would have died long ago, but a Spartan can survive a vast punishment long before the thought of breaking even enters their mind. I think I still have most of my facial features stayed the same, but more tone. I would offer to show you now, but that is a big NO on so many levels. Later definitely. I think I have time for… never mind. Big on in bound, heading, this way!” he said, pulling out a weapon from behind him that was purple and aimed it at where something was coming.

The thing was like a massive bird/bug hybrid that had been skeletonized. The thing also had what looked like technology in it, and there where three of them. The Spartan depressed on the trigger and gained purple bolts of plasma flying toward his targets. The front creature took all the shots and started to melt and then crashed into a nearby building, which was the only one that time. The second one crashed right into the Spartan, and took him into another part of Canterlot on the ground, while Luna was engaged in combat with the third.

The Harvester that had grabbed Anthony thought it had the upper hand, until the Spartan brought out his Energy Sword. The sword sliced through its left wing and tore a large section to ribbons. The Harvester howled and started to crash, but the Spartan wasn’t going to let off that easy. He took another grenade, primed it, and flew right to the beast to deliver the present. What he didn’t expect for the Harvester to grab him and hold on with all its strength.

The two plummeted with a primed grenade close enough to kill both of them in three seconds. The Spartan did the only thing he could; throw the grenade into the beast’s jaws and prayed that his armor itself would protect him after his shields died. The explosion did its job at killing the Harvester, and his shields. The claws unfortunately did not loosen up at all. The explosion had also sent him in a spiral, giving him no sense of up.

Breaking the claws would have been done sooner had he known how close he was to the ground. The impact would have broken all his bone and killed him, but thanks to the augment and titanium armor, he just going to be sore in the morning. And now had a few dents in his fresh armor, those things are not cheap to fix.

He crawled out of the rubble and attempted to fly, to find that his jetpack had been damaged in the crash.

Shit. That might be an issue later. He thought. Fuck! Luna is still up there fight one of these things. Damn it. Where the hell is she anyway?

When he finished that thought, the third Harvester fell on top of its fallen brother, died too. Luna fluttered down, standing in front of the Spartan.

“Damn and I thought I was tough. Well that’s some good news. Harvesters only do combat when other enemy forces are no longer available. This means they should all be dead. Now we have to find the portal they came from. My guess is that it is or was here in Canterlot. Any idea where that might be?” The Spartan asked, appearing to look Luna over, his helmet hiding his features.

“Yes, some of the guards that had made it to the castle before you said this started in near the south gate. Inside the gate. I think that this might be a good place to start,” Luna said, earning an approving nod from the Spartan.

“Then I guess we have no time to waste,” he said, taking off on foot, confusing Luna.

“Um, I thought you could fly?”

“I could, but the crash damaged it, so now I’m grounded. Running is my only option. I think though I would win in a race there against you, with you flying.”

“Oh, really. And what makes you think that?” Luna was shooting a questioning glare at the Spartan.

“With this suit, I can maintain 45 miles per hour easy. A full sprint for about ten minutes is 75 Mph. I think I would win,” the Spartan said, adding to his laundry list of skills at his disposal.

“Fine then, let’s race. And if you’re so confident that you’ll win, how about we place a wager on it?” Luna suggested, adding a devilish smile at the end.

“All right, if I win, then you have to do what I say for a full twenty-four hours.”

“And if I win, then I think I want you to do what I say for a full twenty-four hours. Deal?” Luna said, sticking her hoof out.

“Deal.” And the two shook on it. And thus began the race as the two took off for the southern gate to close the portal.

The Southern Gate

The Spartan made it to the Gate first and was completely exhausted. He was so tired that he didn’t notice the Banshee come up to him and grab him.

He had no time to react and had his combat knife in the Banshee’s neck, but not before she jabbed him right in a kink in his armor that now had a nice three inch long gash that went half way into his left lung. He hit the ground and started to cough. He removed his helmet to get some fresh air and found he was coughing up blood.

“Shit, that’s going to ruin my day,” he said as he got up and staggered at the portal. The thing just needed a high energy force to disable, and Anthony had an idea. He took his last plasma grenade and primed it. The grenade was then thrown at the portal just before it exploded, so all the energy was in the portal.

The portal faltered and sputtered. It finally collapsed and was gone forever. The Spartan inspected his success before collapsing on the ground from blood loss. The last thing he saw was Luna’s figure descending toward him like an angel.