"Hold your ground Crimson!" shouted Lieutenant Czymbor, her stolen Suppressor flashing like a strobe light. The Covie forces had pushed us against the wall of the installation as we tried to hold our position. The marines that had been here were all dead, overwhelmed by the mixture of Covie and Promethean forces.

I raised my Assault Rifle and fired a burst into a charging, suicidal Grunt. The little demon fell over dead, the two glowing blue orbs it had been holding falling to the ground. A couple seconds later, the two orbs exploded in a brilliant blue flash that took out a couple nearby Grunts and Jackals.

"Wraith!" shouted Bale.

"Got it!" replied Logan as he jumped onto the installation's wall and blasted away at the incoming vehicle with the Machine Gun he had wrenched off it's tripod. After two Wraith blasts and what must have been the longest single burst of MG fire in history, the Wraith exploded in a shower of blue and purple sparks.

"Spread out and finish them off!" Czymbor ordered. I was quick to do so, jumping over one of the installation walls and falling on top of an Elite. With a quick wrench of it's neck, the alien dropped dead. With him dead, I picked back up my Assault Rifle and continued firing at the rest of the Covie forces.

"Area's clear," Miller sounded over the comm. I looked around and noticed that, yes, it was quite clear of any living hostiles. "Hmm," the Spartan handler continued, "it seems this base is still operational."

As he talked, I walked around to the back of the installation where the rest of the fireteam was. They were waiting patiently for the next orders.

"Can you put in the coordinates that Majestic provided?" asked Commander Palmer, her voice also coming out of the comm system. Fireteam Majestic had been sent on a similar mission as Crimson but at a different location. They had discovered that the Covie's rally points were actually transit stations.

"I just need Crimson to activate it. Marking terminals now," Miller replied. Sure enough, two waypoints appeared in my visor. A nod from Czymbor and we were all moving back up the ramps and to where we had made our stand. Brass casings and Covie corpses littered the ground, causing us to have to watch our step.

"Bale, get the other one," she ordered as she came up to one of the terminals. Bale nodded before jogging to the second terminal. Almost simultaneously, the two depressed the holographic button that appeared. The buttons disappeared and whirling of mechanics and anti-grav systems sounded.

"Commander! Something's happening!" Miller exclaimed as we watched multiple pieces of forerunner metal fly together to form a sort of circle.

"Use your words Miller," Palmer replied, causing me to chuckle under my breath.

"Crimson, that's a portal entrance set for the last coordinates. It's a slipspace rupture, just like the one Jul left in."

"Great," Palmer stated, "they have portals now. Get in there Crimson, we'll find you on the other side."

I sighed. Another crazy mission for Crimson team with no rest in between. While Majestic got the easy jobs aboard the Infinity, we were jumping through portals and getting shot at by Prometheans and Covies.

"Let's go Crimson," Czymbor said before walking to the man cannon and allowing herself to be launched into the swirling vortex of ripped space. One by one the others followed until it was just Bale and me. He turned to me and nodded his helmeted head before getting launched into the portal.

Again, I sighed before stepping up to the man cannon.

"Lyons! Watch out!" Miller cried just as a blast from a Promethean heavy weapon impacted the vortex structure. "It's destabilizing!" he cried out again. A blip appeared on my motion sensor suddenly. Quickly spinning around, I was met with a face full of Promethean as a Charger (a vaguely wolf-like machine) jumped at me.

It's impact caused me to stumble backwards into the man cannon. As we got pushed into the air, the machine snapped at my head. Using my Assault Rifle as a shield, I kept it's head away from me long enough for the two of us to enter the fluctuating portal.

Barely a second later, the two of us were falling again. I got a glimpse of a tiled roof and stone columns before my back it the floor, the Charger still on top of me. My brain registered some screaming and startled cries but that was pushed aside as the Charger reeled back it's head to try for another snap.

Bringing my knees up, I kicked against the machine's chest and sent it flying off of me. Scrambling to a kneeling position, I raised my Assault Rifle and fired. Two rounds came out before it stopped with a very audible CLICK!

"Son of a..." my curse stopped as I watched the Charger open it's mouth and saw the barrel of the built-in gun in it's mechanical mouth. A red laser came to rest on my chest. Binary rifle! My mind screamed as I tossed aside my empty rifle and brought up my left arm.

A simple neural command, transferred by the suit, caused a blue hardlight shield to pop up in front of me. Using my right hand, I drew my pistol from my thigh plate and waited. I didn't have to wait long as the Promethean's rifle suddenly discharged with a loud, electronic bang. The very powerful bolt of energy smacked into the blue shield. The shield turned orange, then red, and then dispersed completely in a couple seconds. The residual energy from the bolt caused my personal shields to flare but little more than that happened to me.

When the hardlight shield dispersed, however, I charged at the machine. Swinging my right leg back, I brought it forward and hit the Charger's head with enough force to fling it onto it's back. Bringing up my pistol, I aimed at the Promethean and fired repeatedly until the gun clicked dry and the slide locked itself back.

Breathing heavily, I ejected the clip and slid in a new one. Letting the slide snap forward, I approached the bullet ridden machine. When I got close enough, I delivered another kick to it's side.

"Mother fucker," I breathed. I clanking of metal on metal drew my attention to my surroundings. Looking up, I saw... ponies? Yes. Ponies surrounded me, staring at me in dumb shock. Most were dressed well, wearing fancy suits or dresses. The ones who weren't wore metal armor and wielded spears. Guardsmen? I mentally asked as I looked at them. When my gaze swept over them, the dressed ponies seemed to step back in horror while the guardsmen stepped forward with spears lowered.

I couldn't blame them. Being covered head to toe in power armor does make me look pretty imposing. The fact that I ruined their party with the fight probably didn't help much. Something caught my eye though. I settled my gaze on a two ponies (male and female judging by their clothing). One had a... horn while the other had... wings?

"Unicorns and Pegasi..." I mumbled, though knowing that my helmet probably made my voice loud enough for everyone in the quiet room to hear. A clearing of a throat sounded behind me. Turning around, I saw what looked like a white horse sitting on a golden throne. The horse's mane was moving without wind and it was colored the colors of a rainbow. A long horn came from it's head and I could see wings at it's side. "And something in between," I finished

The horse thing seemed to smile gently at me, "I am an Alicorn," it said in a very feminine voice.

"Oh, great," I said, motioning to the... Alicorn in exasperation, "it can talk." I looked up at the roof and laughed, "Great prank guys! Someone get me out of this damned simulation!"

After a couple moments without answer or waking up inside of a virtual reality pod, I looked back down at the Alicorn thingy to see it looking at me. The thing looked amused!

"This isn't a simulation is it?" I asked as the weight of the question fell on my head.

The Alicorn shook it's head, chuckling softly, "No. It is not."

I exhaled the breath I was unconsciously holding and nodded, "Yeah. Thought so," I whispered as I looked at the floor. The last words I heard from Miller came back into my mind.

"It destabilized," I concluded before looking around the room, "and dumped me here."

"Excuse me?" it asked. I didn't answer. Instead, I turned around to face the heap of scrap that used to be a Promethean machine.

"Son of a bitch!" I screamed before punting the thing's head. The force of the kick snapped off the head and sent it sailing through the air and into a wall, cracking it. I saw the guards take a step forward before stopping. Did it signal for them to stop. Is it their leader? It was wearing a crown, wasn't it?

The thoughts dispersed as I thought of my team on Requiem, fighting who knows what. They would be worried about why I hadn't come through. I'm sure Miller won't even know where I landed. The guy was great but he wasn't all that competent. I felt the pistol slip from my hand and clatter against the floor. My legs gave out next, my knees crunching the tiles as they hit the floor.

As the tears began to come forth, I heard a soft whining. It was steadily getting louder. I listened before I found the source. Looking down at the wrecked Charger, I saw orange light spilling from the cracks and bullet holes. The intensity of the light matched the volume of the whine. As the whine got louder, the light got more intense. It took but a second for my mind to figure out what was happening. It's overloading!

I brought my arm up and tried to activate the shield. The blue shield came into existence before sputtering back out of existence.

"Shit!" I cursed before lowering my head and crossing my arms in front of my face. My mind then remembered that others were in the room.

"Everyone get down!" I shouted. There was screaming and scrambling. I knelt where I was, defiant. I could at least prevent harm to their leader. Not a second after that thought, the Charger exploded. The force of the blast caused my shields to burst before I was sent flying backwards. Time seemed to slow as I flew through the air. I heard the incessant beeping of my armor telling me my shields were down. I felt the pain of the shockwave course through me. I saw the fancy ponies scrambling for cover while the guards used their own bodies to shield them. Still, a few fell and I hoped that they were just minor wounds.

How could I have been so stupid? They always explode! I chastised myself as I felt my back connect with something hard. My head followed closely behind. The hit sent me into the blissful blackness just as the screaming of wounded creatures caught up to my ears.

A/N: This is my new HiE. As you can tell, it does have a Spartan included. So why isn't it in the crossover section?

It is just one Spartan. That's why. Maybe as the story progresses I'll see the need to switch it to the crossover section. However, that won't be until I have more than just one aspect of Halo in Equestria.

Anyways, please leave a review telling me what you think of it. It was just an idea that popped up after playing Halo 4 Spartan Ops and while writing for Salvation. Oh, Salvation fans, don't think the starting of this one is going to cause Salvation to be put on hold. That's too much work to not continue.