Catherine's frantic voice filled Sam's head as he came to. She sounded far off and somewhat staticky, though that quickly ended as he regained full consciousness.

He shook his head quickly, working to banish the lethargy to a distant corner of his mind. He looked around at the pod he was in, all the display screens were shattered, save one, which read: ERROR. "What happened?"

Catherine sounded relieved, "Our main chute broke and the backup couldn't slow us down nearly enough, so I fired the brake rockets early to counter it. We still came in way too fast, and you were knocked unconscious."

"How long?"

"Twelve minutes, your pulse dropped right before you came to, and I panicked a little."

Sam's lip twitched upward, "Catherine-" she cut him off.

"Please, call me Cat."

Sam gave a quizzical look, "Why?"

"It's just easier, and it gives me a sense of having a friend." She said, sounding shy.

Sam's eyebrows rose slightly, he had forgotten that as a copy of a human mind, his new AI would have social needs, "Alright then, Cat, has my armor suffered any damage?"

"Nothing at all. The armor itself is intact, all systems are green, though some are offline, and the gel layer took most of the shock out of the fall. No damage at all, you have just witnessed nothing short of a miracle, my friend." She paused, "I don't suppose you would want to get out and move around?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea." Sam said as he smashed the manual release indicators. Four lights shattered under his fist. And nothing happened. "What?" Sam said, irritated.

"The door must be jammed shut, give it a push." Sam did and the door gave slightly with a loud release of compressed air, just enough to poke his fingers through to his right side.

"Well, wonderful." Cat said, sounding defeated.

Sam just twisted his body and stuck both hands out of the small crack between the door and the pod. He then gripped and pulled his hands apart, as hard as he could. Metal squeaked and glass shattered as Sam literally tore his way out of the pod, the last functional screen winking off and tearing in half. He opened a space wide enough for him to exit through then drew his pistol and let it ease out before him. He slid out of the pod and looked back to see what had been obstructing the door. A boulder had fallen and jammed itself between the ground and the pod door, blocking the exit. The door itself had been bent around the huge rock, roughly curving away.

Cat had stayed silent until now, "Sam, that's bulletproof glass and steel, and you just bent it like plastic using nothing but your hands."

"The suit helped." He replied simply.

"Be that as it may, I've been programmed with information on Spartan abilities but that blew my mind, metaphorically speaking of course."

Sam nodded, he had expected her to be programmed with knowledge on his skills but had never had an AI unit before, so he wouldn't know what to expect. He turned away from the mangled pod, shaking his head slightly as he looked around warily. He leaned in to grab his rifle, ammunition, and grenades. Completely full on everything, he stepped away from the vehicle and looked around.

It was a beautiful landscape, the sun shining high in the brilliant blue sky. Fluffy white clouds floated along on a lazy breeze, the trees and foliage swaying with it slightly. Sam only gave it a glance before turning his attention to the forest in front of him.

Cat seemed to shake herself, "Let's get moving, live maps are down, it's like the satellites can't see us." Most human colonies used satellite images or electromagnetic scans to create live maps of the entire planet from anywhere and everywhere at all times. However, Sam's armor wasn't getting a signal from anything. Comms system, maps, even civilian radio; all of them silent.

Sam sighed in frustration, "I hate being lost."

"You and me both Spartan."

Sam placed his pistol in its respective spot, drawing his battle rifle instead. He inhaled and began walking, looking for some form of life, intelligent or not. He hadn't gone more than seven miles when he came to a small clearing. He looked around it, noticing a small patch of trampled grass on the far side from him. His curiosity got the better of him, and he went to investigate.

It looked relatively old, by tracking standards. The grass had been flattened here; something heavy had spent several hours doing... something. There were patches of dried blood mixed in with the green. It had been eating? More likely bleeding. It had moved, into the tree just behind it, it looked like, and fallen back down a few feet away. There had been a fight, slightly fresher bloody spots littering the ground. A massive animal, a cat of some kind judging by the paw prints. It had fought, and taken off for some reason. Sam noticed a few human footprints interspersed between the paw prints. There was a deep depression in the ground, the man had been thrown down hard here, then dragged away by something with small, flat, circular feet. Sam followed the direction with his eyes, noticing a distinct line in the sky. The clouds just stopped, just cut off; some of them right in half at a specific border in the sky.

"That's not something you see every day." Cat noted sarcastically. It went right over Sam's head.

"Right. If anything's doing something weird, it's in that direction. Do you think it's the artifact?"

"I don't know, I'd like to think so. It's the only lead we've got; I think we have to take it."

Sam nodded, starting forward again. He vaguely followed the trail of whatever had drug the body through the forest as it headed in the same basic direction. There came a point where he noticed new tracks, fresh tracks. Crouching to get a better look, he identified them as wolves: big ones, really big ones. They were only a couple minutes old; he hoped he wouldn't have to waste any ammo on a bunch of stupid dogs. He moved on.

He was surprised at how far the trail went. The body had been pulled through nearly three miles of dirt before suddenly disappearing for a time. It reappeared a mile later, just before Sam could make out a break in the trees.

He crept forward, low to the ground. There was a sizable hill at the end of a dirt path with... Sam was taken off guard, windows stuck out of a bushy mass in several places. He paused, stared, and laughed. The idea was so absurd, that he just happened across a bush with windows sticking out of it in the middle of a completely random forest. He calmed himself just as Cat asked, "What is that supposed to be?"

"No idea. Windows in a bush, not something you see very often, is it?"

"True that. Should we investigate?"

Sam thought about it for a moment "Is there anyone nearby?"

Cat ran a scan of their surroundings, "There is one human life signature, and the rest is wildlife. They, whoever they are, are either inside or around the hill and sleeping or unconscious according to their heart rate."

Sam weighed his options, but was interrupted. A growl sounded behind him. He turned to see two bright yellow eyes glaring at him from the cover of a bush. He turned and aimed his rifle between them. They disappeared, and then two more sets appeared to either side of him. He stood straight as six sets of eyes tried to stare him down. He backed away, slowly trying to avoid a fight. He was aware of where he was going, but was confident the sleeping person wouldn't wake.

They emerged from the trees, revealing their size. They were all roughly three feet tall to their shoulders, and made of wood. Whoever had made them was either running low on materials or desperate for camouflage.

They followed him, forcing him back while he debated whether to waste precious ammo and risk waking the civilian; or put his weapon away and take them on with his hands. He decided to go with option number two.

He slung his gun across his back and put his fists up in a defensive position. All at once, the wolves jumped at him, howling and snarling.

Sam grabbed the first creature out of the air and swung it like a bat, knocking the others away. He held it by the throat and tore its head off. Wood splintered and squeaked as he dropped the body and threw the separate head at another, the head and the leg it hit splintering on impact. The injured wolf stood over its destroyed leg for a second before the limb pulled itself back together. It resumed a fighting stance, ready again.

Sam waited for another attack; they all tried to rush him again. He grabbed two and crushed their heads in his hands, dropping them, limp, to the ground. The last three circled him, gauging, calculating. One of them tried to attack from behind. Sam put his fists together, spinning around. He brought them both down as hard as he could, catching the animal in the middle of its back. He cut it in half with the punch, and stomped in its head to finish it.

The last two were a little more cautious, approaching slowly. Sam crouched and dove for one, grabbing it and throwing it into the other. He jumped to the tangled bodies and hoisted them off the ground. He held them above his head before throwing them onto the ground. One practically exploded while the other lost a couple legs. It tried to pull itself back together, but Sam crushed its throat before it could. He looked at his handiwork, smacking himself for suck a sloppy job getting here and fighting the beasts.

"Cat, what were they?"

"I don't know. I ran tech scans through the whole fight, but came up empty every time. They weren't alive, but they weren't machines either."

Sam was slightly troubled by this, but found something else needed his attention just then. There were two small, horse figures standing in the doorway to the window house. They wore matching faces of shock, staring him up and down.

After taking two and a half seconds to process that there were two horses that looked scared of him up the path, legitimate emotion on their faces, he made a decision. "Time to leave." He muttered as he started for the forest again. A purple aura materialized around him, his shields failed and several other systems shut down. He was unwillingly held where he was, the two figures walked around him. One, a purple thing with a glowing horn sticking out of its forehead, looked ecstatic and happy. The other, a butter yellow thing with wings folded against its back, looked terrified as it half hid behind a solid wall of pink hair.

The purple one spoke, "Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. How do you do?"

Sam stopped at this, "Cat, what is this? Why can't I move?"

Cat was audibly frustrated, "I don't know! It's acting like a massive electromagnetic field or something like one. Half of your suits systems have crashed, including life support, shields, and friend or foe recognition. Everything around you just stopped!"

Sam struggled to no avail, the myths in front of him jumping back. He decided there wasn't another option, he drew his pistol, "Release me or I shoot your horn off."

They both stared wide eyed when he spoke so threateningly, but instead of letting him go, his weapon jerked in his grip. He held on with iron hands and kept his aim. He fired one round, it wasn't really meant to go anywhere, it was a warning.

The pegasus screamed and disappeared into the bushes; the unicorn jumped and released him just long enough for him to escape. They didn't give chase.

Sam slowed down two miles from the small house, running scenarios through his head. Nothing made sense, everything was all wrong, and this definitely wasn't Harmony. Cat was silent, likely thinking something along the same lines. Sam voiced both of their thoughts in five words: "What the hell was that?"

A/N

Wow, that took way longer than it should have. Sorry for the long wait, I'll try not to make a habit of it. Thank you for the two favorites! I forgot to mention earlier, remember to R&R. Let me know what you think and send me any ideas you think might work. I'm currently throwing four ideas around, including this one. If you want me to set one up, let me know and I'll get to work. Sorry for jumping around so randomly in all of twelve sentences, I want to get back to writing! I finally found some motivation! Thanks again, see you in a few day! I think. I hope...