The six bearers of the Elements of Harmony spent the night in the Castle. The next day, they joined the princesses and proceeded to the examination room. Accompanied by a doctor, they all entered and took a look at the alien.

It was on the examination table in the middle of the marble room. It was just as tall as Celestia herself, minus the horn. It had a very short mane and a very short snout. It did not have much of a coat, just skin. Hooves were replaced with a pair of feet and a pair of hands. The doctor opened the mouth, which revealed its set of teeth designed for tearing and shredding meat.

“Carnivore,” said the doctor as she wrote down on a medical clipboard.

“Then we should keep it asleep, so it can’t hurt anypony,” muttered Fluttershy.

“Hold on,” the doctor said as she opened the jaws, which revealed a another set of teeth designed for grinding and crushing. “Omnivorous, then.”

“At least there’s a chance that it won’t eat us,” commented Rainbow Dash. She peeled back the black shirt, revealing a body forged from years of extensive ODST training. “That’s a lot of muscles. Still doesn’t look so tough.”

“A very interesting and complex muscle system. Will inspect later,” the doctor wrote down again as she said it out loud.

“What in the hay is that?” Applejack pointed to the dog tags on the neck beneath the peeled shirt. She came to the side the creature’s head and slowly took it off. “Wadda ya’ s’pose this is for?” She held up the tags by the chains.

“It must be some form of accessory,” said Rarity as she took a closer look. “But I dare say, it is very unappealing to fashion.”

Applejack took another look at the tag. “It’s a he, huh, and his name’s Garrett Archer. Lieutenant, too” She carefully placed the tags on a table behind the medical bed.

“Doctor, what does your scan say?” asked Celestia.

The doctor’s horn glowed as she said, “A short scan with my horn indicates that the alien is of course alive. I also hypothesized that a severe concussion to the head has put him in a state of sub-consciousness.”

“He’s asleep, then?”

“In short yes. Brain activity shows that he can detect some of its surroundings.”

“So... he is asleep and can hear us?” said Luna as she began to move closer to the alien.

“Hypothetically, he may be able to.”

Luna placed her mouth close to Garrett’s ear. “Garrett? Can you hear us? If so, do something to let us know.”

“I’m sorry your highness, but he is in no state to give a reply.”

“I think there’s something in his pocket,” said Twilight as she used her magic to pull out a strange object from the inside. “What is this thing?” she said as she made a data drive the size of a USB spin in the air. Finally, she placed the drive on the same table where the dog tags lay. She checked the other pockets and found nothing. “Your highness, what should we do now?”

“I know a spell that can look into his past. First, I’ll need a mirror,” said Celestia.

The guards brought in the mirror as requested. The mirror was large enough to reflect the entire body of Princess Celestia. Her horn glowed as the reflection began to transform into Garrett’s memories.

It was sunset, and Garrett and other strangers were standing in front of two coffins. Eight ODSTs in ceremonial wear stood beside them. Seven of them were wielding rifles, and the last one approached Garrett and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Any last words before we bury your father and mother?”

Garrett shook his head. “I’ve already said what I wanted to say.”

“A-ten-hut!”

The soldiers turned and pointed their guns to the yonder as the coffins sunk into the grave.

“Fire!” seven shots flew. “Fire!” another seven shots. “Fire!” the final bullets left the barrels, then the soldiers turned and saluted their fallen comrade.

After the burial ended, the same ODST approached Garrett.

“You signed up for ODST training. Am I correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When do you want to leave?”

“Now, sir.”

“Your things are already on board the pelican. Follow me.”

The trooper brought Garrett to a pelican, which was already filled with the other ODSTs that gave the twenty one gun salute. He entered the ship and took a seat. It went into orbit and closed in on the Phoenix-Class Colony Ship UNSC Burning Frost.

“Is this the new guy?”

“That’s me.”

“I’m sorry for your loss. Your mom and dad were the best I could have ever asked for. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure that those Covenant bastards pay.”

One of them extended his hand and shook Garrett’s as he said, “Welcome to the ODSTs.”

“Thank you, sir.”

After the pelican entered the ship, one trooper brought Garrett to the sleeping quarters. The ODST finally brought him into his bunk. “This is where you’ll stay until you reach the training center. Good luck in training,” said the trooper as he patted Garrett on the back and left. The recruit lied down on his bunk and fell asleep.

Garrett got woken up by an ODST with a shake.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty. Mission briefing starts in five minutes.”

Him and his fellow ODSTs, fresh out of training, were in full combat armor aboard the UNSC Burning Frost. Garrett retrieved his weapons from the armory, then proceeded with the others to the briefing room. It was filled with the ODSTs and with a hologram of the city on the center. Colonel Stanford waited for them inside the room.

“Alright, troopers. Here’s the situation. Evacuation has already begun, and Covenant forces are pushing towards the city. Your job is to make sure that evacuations will not be interrupted. There are twenty evac centers in total.” The hologram highlighted the evacuation centers equally spread throughout the city as the colonel continued, “Some of you will be separated into twenty groups of twenty to protect the centers, and the rest will support the marines down there. Get to your pods and prepare to drop.”

Everyone entered the room that contained the drop pods. Garrett stood outside his, clutching onto his mother’s and father’s dog tags and a laminated picture. The picture was of him with a diploma and with his parents who were both wearing ODST uniforms.

“Hey, why aren’t you getting inside your pod?” said an ODST as he passed by. He spotted at what Garrett was holding. “Oh. Hey man, I’m sorry for your loss,” he said as he placed his hand on his shoulder.

Garrett shrugged off the hand. “Piss off.”

The ODST backed away. He knew it was not ordinary for Garrett to be that mad, yet he knew that he was thirsty for payback.

Each trooper, including Garrett, got on their respective drop pods and strapped in, enthusiastic and pumped up for their first mission.

“Mind the gap!” laughed a trooper.

The colonel switched on the radio. “Alright, first group drops off here.”

Garrett’s pod dropped off and rapidly descended to the city. It was four in the morning in the planet’s time. Smoking wrecks of Covenant and UNSC ships lay outside the city, lighting up the dawning sky. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a small, purple, flaming object charging right at him.

“Look out! Banshee!” cried another ODST, but the warning came to late, and the banshee crashed into Garrett’s pod. It blew up in flames as it impacted his pod, sending him flying out of the formation. His pod crash landed a distance away from the landing zone.

Damn it! My first mission and it starts out like this?! Way to go, Garrett, way to go, Garrett cursed to himself as he punched the button to eject the drop pod door. He stepped outside and familiarized his surroundings. He was in an alleyway in some sort of park. Immediately, he spotted a group of five marines running right outside the alleyway.

“Hey!” Garrett called out. “Where’s the fight happening?”

“Make a guess, Einstein!” replied the marine as they continued running.

Garrett walked out of the alleyway and saw that the marines were running away from an entire legion of thirty grunts charging on all fours, laughing and barking.

“Oh crap!” He felt a jolt of panic travel through his spine as he started to make distance between him and the aliens.

Garrett joined the running marines and began to fire at the group with his silenced submachine gun, but he knew it was pointless as they just kept on charging. He noticed that the grunts were unarmed and explosive canisters were strapped to their sides. Suicide grunts. He armed a grenade and threw it at the stampede.

Deafening chain reactions of explosions filled the area. Pieces of grunts flew everywhere. After a half a minute of non-stop explosions, the air finally toned down, and scorched marks were all that remained where the legion used to stand.

“Nice throw!”

“Thanks.”

They heard a small clunk of metal down the same alleyway Garrett dropped into. Cautiously, they entered and searched it. Everything was as he left it, the pod, the garbage bins along the side, and the graffiti-free wall. They gave a thumbs up as they began to leave.

“Nothing here.”

Right as Garrett said it, a sangheili zealot rolled out of cover from a garbage bin. The alien sliced a marine’s gun in half, then grabbed the soldier and proceeded to the park, with the other humans in pursuit. The zealot stopped right in the middle of the park which was scorched thanks to the suicide grunts. His hostage was struggling and kicking in his grasp, until finally he brought out his energy sword and placed it near his neck.

The hostage froze and watched as his fellow humans stood still, pointing their guns at him and the zealot. He heard a hissing noise from his side, and found a primed plasma grenade on the alien’s hand, being aimed straight at Garrett.

“No!” He grabbed hold of the plasma grenade, intentionally getting his fingers attached to it with a loud beep. The alien roared in shock, and was immediately cut off as the explosion killed him and the human, sending both of them out with a loud bang.

Garrett and the other troopers could do little else but watched in horror as he gave up his own life to save them.

A marine mumbled as she tried to suppress her tears, “Poor guy... today was his wife’s birthday...”

Garrett took it even worse. Right next to his feet was a plasma pistol, fully charged and more than capable of taking out the sangheili’s shields. It was personal for him, because every human life, to him, was his responsibility. After all, it was what each recruit was told when they sign up for ODST training.

After jogging for a moment, Garrett made it to the evacuation center where he met his fellow ODSTs. The center took a beating with multiple scorch marks on the walls, and bodies of dead aliens lay burning outside. The sun was just starting to emerge as troopers popped out of cover.

“Well, well, look who’s late for the party!” laughed the trooper-in-command of the center.

“Yeah, very funny, Dante. Anyway, what’s happening?”

“Not much. We were able to push them back a while ago. We’re expecting them to return in a matter of mome--”

“Covenant outside the perimeter!” interrupted another ODST. “This time, it’s a group of zealots! I doubt that we can hold them back.”

A screen showed a legion of twenty sangheili zealots armed with energy swords and spears and a stampede of grunts charging to the direction of the evacuation center.

“Well it’s a good thing this is the last transport. We’ll be at least able to delay them until it leaves.” Dante pointed to a group of five ODSTs. “The five of you will stay behind as a last defence.”

“Oh, and one last thing,” he said as he ripped off his dog tags and placed it on a table beside the five ODSTs, “tell Colonel Stanford that it’s been an honor fighting by his side.”

Garrett and the thirteen other ODSTs followed and also placed their dog tags on the table. As they were leaving the room, the last five that stayed behind gave salutes. They knew that they would never see their comrades again. Out of the corner of his eye, Garrett spotted a tear fall down one of the five faces.

“Gentlemen, lock and load!”

“HOORAH!” they all shouted in unison.

Twenty Sangheili zealots and a legion of grunts charged head on with the fifteen ODSTs. A hailstorm of bullets greeted the aliens, yet those merely encouraged them to charge even faster. The two groups finally met in close quarters, howling their battles cries, but not before the troopers were able to severely damage their shields and kill majority of the grunts.

The close quarters battle was short and bloody. Knives and guns versus energy swords and plasma weapons. Garrett took down one zealot with a burst to the head, and everywhere he looked his fellow ODSTs were getting slaughtered. Some had their heads and limbs cut off, some had swords plunge straight through them, and some went down and decided to bring a zealot and a few grunts with them using a grenade.

Garrett was finally the last one standing. Him against two more zealots. As he was about to make his move, one zealot sliced his gun in half and smacked off his helmet with an uppercut, literally launching him to the air. Once he landed, he was pinned to the floor by the zealot’s massive foot. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the final transport evacuate the planet. He thought to himself, My work here is done. I’ve done my duty. He looked up as he saw the alien “smile” as he stood on top of the defeated soldier.

“Go ahead. Finish the job,” he spat with a smirk of grin triumph.

The zealot gave a short laugh. “Kill you? No, you are coming with me.”

Garrett held up his middle finger. “Screw you.”

The alien kicked him in the face and knocked him right out.

Garrett finally regained his consciousness. He was not wearing his armor, just the UNSC clothes that were beneath. His hands and feet were bound together, and he was being dragged across the floor by two elites in a Covenant corridor.

“Damn, you guys look even uglier up close!” he laughed.

“Silence, human!”

“Why do we have to bring this insect?” questioned the other. “Why not we just send it to the front line? They could use the meat.”

“Them?! What about us?! My stomach growls! Our food here tastes terrible, and we have fresh meat right here, just the way I like it!”

“Why do we have to capture this thing as our prisoner?”

“It is because he is new. I can smell it. He can easily be broken.”

They tied him to a chair in a small, dark room. Blue lights emerged from the purple walls were the source of light. Out through the door came the same zealot that knocked him out. He kicked Garrett straight at the chest, punched him square in the face, and strangled him with his massive fingers. Finishing it off, he spun around and gave one strong kick to Garrett’s ribs, and he swore he heard some crack.

“I can stop this if you want,” said the elite, “if you give me the secrets that you are keeping in your head.”

“I said it once and I’ll say it again, screw you, split-face!”

Another volley of fists and kicks attacked Garrett. “I will ask you again, where is your home?!”

“Go to hell!”

“Not a wise answer,” the zealot pummeled him again, emphasizing each word with another blow to Garrett’s face. “Why... do... you... keep... on... fighting?!” The final punch came, and blood dripped out of the his nose.

“It’s because when I fight, I know that a family can live with less fear of annihilation, and with more happiness on a field of green grass as they play under the sun and watch the stars at night. Is that something not worth fighting for?!”

“A noble cause!” said the alien as another punch came to the face, “for a noble death! Let me be the one to give it to you!” The zealot raised his fist again, but a hand stopped it from coming.

“Enough, brave warrior,” a prophet said as he came past the elite. “It is now my turn to ask him the questions.”

“Yes, Great Prophet of Vengeance.” The zealot stepped back as the prophet moved closer on his levitating chair.

“Strange for such a fragile creature to offer such resistance.”

“Fragile? Look who’s talking. You don’t even use your legs! Get me out of these restraints, and I will show you who’s ‘fragile,’ Mister Vengeance McStupid.”

The zealot grabbed Garrett by the throat, and activated an energy sword. He carved along his neck as he snarled, “You will learn how to respect our holy leaders, and I shall be your teacher!”

Garrett screamed in pain as the energy sword slowly made it through the right side of his neck, burning and slicing open the first layers of his skin. After the sangheili cut the scar on his neck, the Prophet of Vengeance pressed a switch on his chair, then electric currents traveled through every inch in the prisoner’s body. His body shook uncontrollably, but the restraints kept him to moving a few inches. He screamed in agony as the volt traveled through him.

“Where is the location of your home? You can end your painful suffering right now if you tell us. We will release you if you do.”

“Suffering? My training is more painful than this!”

“Oh? Let’s see if your ‘training’ can save you from this.” The prophet pressed a switch on his chair. “He has no more use to us,” he said to it. It responded with a quick beep. Behind him the doors swung open. Two zealots came in, bringing with them another ODST; a survivor from Garrett’s firefight.

“Johnny!”

The sangheili pair dropped the human on the ground in front of Garrett.

“H-hey, Garrett. Small universe... ain’t it?”

The zealot activated his energy sword and brought it on top of Garrett. “Say goodbye to your friend!”

“No!” yelled Johnny. “Let him live! K-kill me instead!”

Garrett looked at him in shock. His body froze and his breathing changed. “Johnny... don’t do this...”

“Shut up, Archer. W-we all know that... you’re one of the b-best shots... in our battalion. Y-you need... another day to fight.”

“Don’t throw your life away for me!”

Johnny shook his head slowly. “R-remember... Reach, Garrett. Remember our original home. D-don’t let Reach happen again. The UNSC... needs one of the b-best alive, and y-you’re... one of ‘em.” The zealot raised his sword high. “Goodbye... Archer.”

Garrett watched as the sword went through his friend, and watched as the end stopped inches away from him.

The zealot pulled out his sword and smirked as he watched Johnny collapsed.

“Johnny! You bastards! I swear I will kill all of--”

The prophet pressed the button again, and another shock came. He screamed even louder as the electricity traveled through him. It ended again, and Garrett’s head hung back as his body was breaking.

The prophet grabbed his throat and moved closer. Instinctively, the trooper thrust his head forward and headbutt the prophet right in the forehead. The alien moved back as he absorbed the attack. He was not happy and pressed the button on his chair. Another volt of electricity travelled through Garrett, and he screamed the loudest he ever did.

“I will ask you again, where is your home?!”

“Kiss my as--”

“Raise the voltage!” the prophet commanded as he pressed the button again.

Garrett was too weak to even scream as he let the electricity go through him. The shock finally ended as his vision blurred, and his hearing muffled. Eventually, he relaxed.

“He’s fading out. Put him on a cell block while he’s unconscious.”

The zealot kicked Garrett in the stomach as the alien said, “Get up.” Another kick landed on him. “I said get up!”

Garrett got to his feet. “What now? About to tell me that mouthwash became standard-issue?”

The zealot grabbed his throat. “This station is under attack. I just wanted to make sure that your rescuers will not see you alive. I just wanted you to see your end in front of your very fa--”

A shotgun went under the alien’s arm, pointed pointed to his head, and shot it with one loud bang. The headless body fell down on the floor with a crash. Behind the elite was another ODST in full combat armor, and she was one of the five troopers that stayed behind. She took a look at the heavily bruised and electric-fried Garrett.

“Archer? Is that you?”

“The one and only, Jenny,” replied Garret as he wiped the blood off his face.

“Wow... you’re beaten up to a pulp!” she commented as she freed Garrett’s bounded feet and hands.

“Whatever,” Garrett took a look at the zealot on the floor, and he kicked him right on the stomach. He spat to the alien, “For the record, I would have kicked your rear the first time if we settled this one on one.”

“We thought you were dead. When we heard that there were no survivors we thought we lost... all of our friends.” Her voice began to shake. “Arthur, Dimitri, Dante, Edwardo, Ashley, Christine, William, Johnny, and the rest... all of them... dead.”

“Hey,” said Garrett softly as he placed his hand on her shoulder, “I’m still alive.”

“Yeah, thank God for that. Here are your tags,” said Jenny as she pulled out his dog tags from her pocket and gave them back to him. “Let’s get you back to the ship and tell the others.”

“Hoorah.”

Using Jenny for support, he slowly limped to a pelican waiting outside. Everywhere other ODSTs from his battalion were cheering as they found their lost comrade. They boarded the aircraft, and the pilot offered him a cigar.

“A Sweet William?”

“Hey, you’re alive and we kicked ass. Seems perfect to end it all with a victory smoke.”

“Sorry, I don’t smoke.”

“Suit yourself.”

The sun was going down as the aircraft flew in the air. Garrett smiled as he thought to himself, What a first mission, get blown out of orbit, kill lots of grunts, fight zealots, get captured, tortured, and get rescued. All in the same day. Jenny gave him a nudge

“What?”

Jenny opened her communications. “Command, we have found a survivor, Garrett Archer. We are currently bringing him to the Burning Frost for recovery.”

“Understood, and thank God,” replied Colonel Stanford. “A frigate will be coming in to demolish the Covenant base. MAC rounds have been authorized.”

Garrett looked at Jenny in shock, eyes wide open. “MAC rounds?! That’s overkill!”

“Who cares?! We all need some fireworks!” she laughed.

They both watched as a UNSC frigate turned and aimed itself right into Garrett’s former prison. A streak of light emitted from the end of the ship, and destroyed the base with a loud bang. Hundreds of debris flew through the air and away from the fireworks of blue and yellow.

“Hoorah!”

The mirror turned back into the reflection of the examination room in the castle. “I think we’ve seen enough,” sighed Celestia. “This thing needs to be kept asleep. No matter what.”

Time to wake up, my alien friend.

Twilight moved to the table behind the examination bed. She focused her magic on the data drive. It floated and turned slowly in the air as it kept her curiosity glued to it. Finally, she said, “I want to see how this thing works.”

“Twilight, dear, we’ve already seen how much of a monster he is!” protested Rarity. “What more horrors will we find out in that thing?!”

“He’s still sleeping,” chuckled Pinkie Pie. “What’s the worse that could happen?” She stuck her tongue out in front of Garrett’s face and gave a long raspberry. No response came. She giggled and gave another one, and another empty response replied. “See?”

“It’s settled then, let’s go to his ship,” said Celestia. “Maybe we can find out how that works there.”

“I shall return to my room,” sighed Luna as she made her way out the door. “I want to rest from all of this.”

“I will go formulate conclusions on our findings today,” said the doctor as he left the room.

“If anypony needs me, I’ll be in the kitchen baking some cupcakes!” said Pinkie Pie as she began to hop out of the room.

“I think a guard needs to er... accompany Pinkie Pie to make sure she doesn’t blow us all up,” suggested Twilight.

The captain gave a nod motioned another guard to join him. Together, they followed Pinkie Pie as she hopped to the bakery.

Everypony else entered the ship, into the massive storage room. despite merely being a room without much to care about, it was still covered with white marble walls and flooring. They began searching for clues on how to activate the data drive, flipping over anything that was not planted on the floor and were extremely careful to avoid anything in the armory. They came to the computer and searched it as if there was a lost contact lens somewhere there. Twilight finally spotted a small socket the same size as the drive itself in the computer.

“I think it’s suppose to go in here,” she said as she placed it inside. The computer beeped to life.

Garrett’s voice came out through the speakers. “Hello?”

“Hello!” came an enthusiastic, female voice.

“Claire?! Is that you?!”

“Of course it is! How could you not recognize the voice of your own wife?”

“Hi daddy!” came another voice of a small girl.

“Sarah! It’s so good to hear your voices again!”

“So,” said Claire, “How is everything on the front?”

“I got into a little trouble with some zealots, but we were able to resolve it by the end of the day.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Colonel Stanford will give me time off after two more missions.”

“Daddy, does that mean you’re going home?”

“Yes, daddy’s going home. Daddy will be home.”

“Daddy’s promise?”

“Daddy’s promise.”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you too. Be strong, Sarah, because you’re a big girl now. Anyway, I have to go for debriefing.”

“Goodbye!” said Sarah and Claire simultaneously.

“Goodbye, Sarah. Goodbye, Claire.”

RECORD ENDED flashed on the screen.

“H-he has a family?” Celestia stuttered in disbelief. She began writing down a note to Luna and said out loud as she wrote it, “Luna, we made a discovery about him. He has a wife named Claire and a daughter named Sarah.” Once she was done, the note burned into ash and vanished out of sight.

“I reckon’ they’re what made him fight on during his torture,” said Applejack with a nod.

“What a gallant cause,” commented Rarity.

“He’s got a lot of guts to be doing that,” added Rainbow Dash as she approached Garrett’s armor in the corner. She picked up the unpolarized helmet.

“That looks absolutely horrid for fashion!” yelled Rarity in disgust.

Rainbow Dash slowly placed it over her head, which easily fit inside. “Well, I think it looks cool!”

Another voice joined the conversation. “I agree, but I would really appreciate it if you remove my helmet and give it back to me.”

Behind Rainbow Dash stood Garrett pointing his M6G Magnum Sidearm to the back of her head, with the end of the barrel pressing firmly against the nape of the helmet. Insurrectionists, no problem. Aliens, okay. Horses, where the hell did Charles Darwin go wrong?

The Rainbow Dash’s eyes were vinyl discs. Her body stood stiff like a stone statue. She slowly took the helmet off, placed it back into the pile, and joined the others.

Garrett’s finger was confused whether to follow code of shoot first think later, or to talk to them. I didn’t see any Covenant contraband and such when I woke up, so maybe they aren’t with them. Hell, I still don’t trust them. What am I suppose to do? I didn’t train to be a negotiator, nor was it even available as an option. “Stay right there. I’m not going to hurt you, but I will if I need to,” he said as moved to the computer terminal while he still had a gun pointing at them. He pressed the screen.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Garrett Archer of the Eighth ODST Battalion. I have crashed and require evac. The coordinates to my ship are in this message. To any UNSC ship that can hear this, please send backup ASAP!”

He pressed on the screen again and the words MESSAGE SENT appeared. Garrett ran another short scan through his ship. The word marched along his screen, which made it visible to everyone.

ENGINES: OFFLINE
SLIPSPACE DRIVE: OFFLINE
LONG RANGE COMMUNICATIONS: OFF--

Garrett punched the off button and cursed, “Damn it!” He turned and tightened his grip on his weapon. “Move over there to the wall.” They did as he ordered, and watched as he picked up his gear, placed on the armor, polarized the silver-blue visor and modified the contents of his rucksack with strange packages and objects. “Alright, I don’t want this to get ugly, so I want you to explain--”

“Hey!” shouted a guard from outside the ship. “Stop right there!” he said as he charged and tackled Garrett to the ground.

Using his left hand as a pivot, the trooper lifted himself to the air and kicked the guard right at the head. The guard fell unconscious with a loud clunk to the floor, and a massive dent lay on the left side of his helmet. Garrett’s instincts and training sparked his body to move. He got back to his feat and sprinted out of the ship in panic. The hunt has begun.

“Guards! Guards! The alien has escaped!” yelled Celestia as she took chase.

Immediately, bells went off and royal guards began rushing through the door. They surrounded Garrett before he even reached it. He slowly backed up to one of the walls and knocked on it. There’s another room behind this door. I can place an explosive charge strong enough to just blast this wall open and go outside. Note to self: do not shoot them. I don’t want to kill any non-Covenants. Garrett placed a small hand-held explosive on the wall, and stood out of the way from the blast radius.

“Hey! What are you do--” the explosion cut off the captain in the middle of his speech, and immediately they all became disoriented. Garrett took this opportunity to go through the hole.

Captain Galea placed on the last piece of his armor after he finished washing off the icing and sugar Pinkie Pie threw at him in the kitchen. He passed by the shooting range, which was filled with other guards practicing. He retrieved his arcane crossbow from the weapon rack. It was no ordinary crossbow because it had no string and no trigger. Instead of firing arrows, it fired special bolts of magic which can be changed to different purposes such as bolts of lighting, fire, armor-piercing, among others, and only unicorn guards were issued with them, since it required magic to operate.

He moved up to a target and took aim with his magic. He fired a bolt and it shot a magical arrow which glowed brightly. It stuck on the center of the target, and the bolt dissolved a few seconds later.

After a few more shots, the captain felt that he had enough practice for the day. He passed by the other pegasi practicing their weather abilities by controlling small storm clouds to fire bolts of lighting at their targets and slicing up dummies with their wings.

As he was about to lay down his crossbow, the bell of an attack rung, and all of them snapped into attention.

“Let’s go!”

Garrett activated his VISR. It immediately highlighted the hallway and showed him the path. He ran through the marble corridors as his adrenaline was pumping him up. The sun light shined through the windows as he passed them. He kept on running and found himself in another large room filled with civilian unicorns seated on chairs and with one unicorn on a stage in front of them. They each stared at Garrett with shock and confusion. His VISR, on the other hand, was having trouble marking them whether as friend or foe.

“Sorry if I’m interrupting, but--”

A guard’s voice echoed through the hallway behind Garrett, “He’s went through here! He’s inside the classroom!”

Garrett rushed to the opposite side of the room through the stage, but not before the guards and Celestia surrounded him on the center of the stage. “Let me go peacefully if you don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

“Oh, sure,” scoffed a guard. “Let’s let a crazy, bloodthirsty alien that destroyed a part of our castle, threatened our princesses and assaulted guards walk freely out of our grasp and into our peaceful land.”

“For the record, you attacked first.”

Celestia took a step forward as she said, “Garrett, please cooperate with us. Do you not you want to see Sarah and Claire again? Do you not want to see your home again?”

He froze, shocked. All of the blood on his face drained away and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Worst of all, he became scared because they found out the weakest hole is in his spirit. He cursed with his teeth clenched together, “Damn it... you found out.” As Celestia took another step forward, Garrett brought out his silenced submachine gun and yelled, “Stay back!”

He shot straight at the ground, two meters away from Celestia’s hooves. Everypony inside the room flinched as the bullets pinged off the floor, and the students yelled in fear as they scrambled out of the room. Garrett saw the opportunity. After he holstered his weapon, he charged straight through the wooden door which he tried to get through earlier. Again, he was running through another marble corridor while being chased by the guards.

Applejack took the lead of the guards as she readied her lasso. She chased Garrett all the way to the library, slowly catching up to him. Pretty fast for a thing on two legs, she thought to herself. He bashed the door open to the library and just continued sprinting through the room. She threw her lasso and caught him in the legs.

“Hold it there, partner!” She said, holding her stance. Accompanied by more guards, she closed the distance between her and the lassoed ODST. She tightened the loop and started to drag Garrett across the floor and into them. She watched as he struggled to free himself, but suddenly came to a stop, aiming high at something directly above them. One shot was enough to take it down. She dropped her rope scrambled back yelling, “Get back!”

The chandelier crashed down to the floor and caused all the students in the room to panic and scatter like ants. Amidst the screams and hooves, Garrett wrapped the rope around his arms and ran to the window, intentionally leaving behind a trail. “Thanks for the rope!” he taunted as he ran.

Garrett quickened his pace and went on to a full sprint to the window. Applejack fell for the bait and grabbed the rope, hoping to slow him down. The guards also followed and grabbed the rope.

The dominoes were falling in to place, and the human shot a clean hole right at the window. He used the resistance from the ponies to use as a stand for him to scale the wall down. The rope was finished in mere seconds, for he literally ran down a total of ten stories on the wall, but there was still another ten to go. Garrett cursed to himself, “Damn it! What now?!”

Allow me to help, alien.

Right on cue, a cluster of hay lay right below. Garrett let go of the rope and dove right into it. His landing was muffled as it cushioned what would have been a lethal injury. He jumped out and found himself in a field of green grass surrounded by the different buildings of the Canterlot Castle. The birds stopped singing. The servants of the castle stopped and stared at him.

Before he was able to ask a question on where he was, more guards surrounded the trooper, pointing their crossbows and setting up the storm clouds to aim right at him. Celestia and the rest joined in the massive army of royal guards.

“Stand down!” demanded the captain. “We have you surrounded!”

“They say a cornered cat becomes as fierce as a lion,” Garrett said with confidence. “No way in hell will I surrender to a bunch of horses. Not while I have unfinished business.”

The guards charged the alien, raising their hooves to strike. Garrett fought back with punches and kicks. The trooper kicked one guard in the face, and he fell down with a loud clunk of his golden armor. Another guard tried to attack him from behind, but he elbowed him right in the snout. A guard charged him at the front, and he punched him right in the face with the same arm he used to elbow the last one. One grabbed hold of him in the back. The ODST crouched down and the guard flipped right over him, finishing it off with a blow to side of the head. Celestia saw enough of the violence and pinned his torso to a wall with her magic.

“Enough is enough!” she yelled.

Garrett struggled to fight free of the grasp, but came to a halt as he felt the magic slowly crawl to his shoulders, seizing them. With what he had left, he found just enough space to reach for a flashbang grenade in his pocket. He pulled the pin and threw it in the air. The loud bang and flash of light was enough to disorient everypony in the vicinity.

The moment the loud ringing noise in their ears stopped, and when the blurs on their visions dissolved, the trooper was gone and was no where in sight.

“Where did he go?!” yelled the captain as his head scanned the area.

The answer came to them with a loud shriek that ripped through the atmosphere and made everypony jump, scraping their nerves like sandpaper, especially Celestia. She felt her stomach make a violent turn. Her eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped. “LUNA!”