"Chief! Chief wake up!" John instantly snapped awake. Cortana was not one to sound this frightened, so whatever was going on must have been serious. He quickly turned on the lights attached to his helmet, and kicked open the door to his pod.

"John!" Cortana shouted as he floated over to her.

"I'm here. What's wrong?" He asked. Just then, an explosion went off, sending a piece of the ship flying right towards Cortana. With haste, John got her into his head and pushed off. The debris crashed into the station, completely destroying it.

"As I was saying, what's wrong?" He asks as he nonchalantly floats down and touches the ground.

"There's a black hole right in front of us, and we've already been pulled into it's gravity field!" She says. John hops and floats over to a small canister and punches it, triggering an alarm. He pulls out his magnum, and slides out it's clip. It's fully loaded, just like he left it.

"Any thrusters online?" He asked as he slammed his fist into the bulb sending forth a red light, causing it to shatter. The glass floats around as he launches off again towards the pilot's seat. He grabs the seat and sits himself down, then turns off the auto pilot and checks on the key systems.

"All our thrusters were destroyed by a meteor that got pulled in with us. We don't have anything to get away." John nods as he inspects the engine report. The hologram flashes and twists quickly to a certain area, then glows red. An alarm goes off, signaling damage. They're trapped.

"Well, if we stay on the ship, we're going to die. We abandon it, we could make it out alive." He says as he sets the ship to self destruct.

"Don't you think that's a little risky?" Cortana asks as he rips open another, larger canister. This one contains the Battle Rifle that he had stowed away, along with it's extra magazines. He grabs it quickly as the ship warns him of the time remaining until self-destruct. Two minutes, more than enough time.

"No less risky than using that bomb to destroy the covenant ships." He says as he launches off of the control panel. More explosions go off, sending more pieces of the ship spiraling towards him. He flips and dodges one of the pieces, afterwards performing a barrel roll to evade another piece of debris. Slamming down onto the hangar doors, another alarm goes off, shouting the word 'warning' over and over again. John looks to his right, and instantly shoves his fist through yet another canister, triggering another alarm. He pulls out his arm, revealing blasting caps. The warning tells John that the ship will explode in one minute.

"Hold on tight." He says as he activates the caps, throwing them against the door. He throws himself out the door as the explosion goes off, and an inner suit warning goes off, telling him that his shields are now down. Instantly he feels himself being pulled deep into the black hole, but turns around and activates his jetpack, slowing his decent. With haste, he also activates his boots, slowing him down even more. He watches as the ship falls into the black hole, engulfed by small explosions. His inner warning stops, and he hears a small humming noise. His shields are back online.

"What's the rest of your plan John?" He hears Cortana ask as the Chief disables his jetpack and boots. The ship explodes, and he evades the fiery burst. He barrel rolls away from the large amounts of debris, and forces himself downward, in a face first dive into the black hole.

"I'll let you know when I think of it."

...

"John... Wake up."

"Never fell asleep." John says as he opens his eyes. The impact had gone well. Nothing had gone wrong. At least, not right now. He looks up and sees a distorted sky, unusual, but not something to worry about. He flips over to his front, and places his arms underneath him. He pushes up and brings himself to his feet, and looks around. The area seems to be made of rainbows, or at least the atmosphere does. Whatever was happening, it couldn't be good. He would have to put a stop to it. He looks to his right, and sees his magnum resting on the ground, as well as burn marks along the grass. Must have been one heck of a crash landing.

"Cortana, can you find out wherever we are?" He asks as he walks over and grabs his pistol. He inspects it, and aside from some scratches, it's mostly unscathed. He gives it a slight spin and places it to his side, right along side his knife. He can still feel his battle rifle on his back, so he takes that and inspects it. It is also undamaged, much to John's delight.

"Uh... John? I don't think we're in the right sector... I'm not getting any readings." He hears Cortana say. The Chief nonchalantly looks up to the sky, Battle Rifle in his hands.

"Then we just take it one step at a time." He says as he takes a step from the valley. He steps over a small boulder and places the Battle Rifle on his shoulder.

...

John looked up, feeling the strange leaves in his hand. They still felt like regular leaves, but they had a strange animated quality to their appearance. He took his knife and cut the leaves away, after which they floated to the ground just like a regular leaf would. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he would get to the bottom of it. He pushed himself through the wall of leaves, and found himself in a maze. Just like the leaves, everything in the maze had an animated quality.

"Well this doesn't look promising." Cortana says. John looks to his right and hears foot steps.

"Try to keep positive Cortana. Something is bound to go right eventually." He said as he placed his knife back to his side and brought out his Battle Rifle. He comes to a fork in the maze and looks to his right, then the left. Neither side looks like a dead end, but mazes always had something like this. It didn't bother him, not many things did. Once again, he hears footsteps, which are very close. He backs up, and prepares his weapon. The sounds of the steps gradually get closer, and he prepares himself.

"Maybe it's friendly?" Cortana suggests.

"Not likely. We'll find out in a minute." John says. The sounds are just to the side of him now, and he launches himself out, aiming down his sights at the direction of the sound. What he sees is somewhat surprising. A pegasus, and a yellow one at that. It's rather small, and it's face is constructed more like a humans, save for the ears. It stares at him, tears forming in it's eyes. He lowers his rifle slightly and inspects the creature. It has a long pink mane and tail, and what looks like a tattoo of butterflies on it's rear. It's eyes are blue, and are sparkling with tears. It begins to breathe heavily and back away.

"Maybe you were right Cortana. I doubt this thing is hostile." He says as he lowers his rifle to his side and walks closer. The pegasus gasps, much to the Chief's surprise. He wasn't surprised he was running into this, after all, he'd seen stranger. The pegasus begins to let tears fall as it breaths evenly more heavily. John comes to the conclusion that he's scaring it. He places his hands up, in a surrendering position, in order to try and calm it down. This causes it to scream, and it runs away. John watches it for a while until it vanishes along a turn in the maze.

"Well that was interesting..." Cortana says as the Chief places his rifle onto his shoulder once more. He waits a few minutes, then decides to get moving. He comes to a turn, and looks behind him quickly, checking for any more of these strange creatures.

"EAT THIS FREAK!" He hears from the side. Turning, he sees a rainbow colored dash rushing towards him. He ducks and reaches his arm out, closing his hand. He feels something, and slams it down on the ground. It gives a groan of pain and tries to get up, but John grabs it's neck gently, and picks it up. It's another pegasus, a female one judging from the voice. He brings it close to his face, and inspects it. It has an angry and determined look in it's magenta colored eyes. In addition, it has a rainbow colored mane and tail, along with blue fur. It also has a tattoo on it's rear, but this one is a cloud with a rainbow colored lighting bolt.

"Let me go! You don't know who you're messing with!" It shouts as it thrashes. Underneath his helmet, John rolls his eyes and lets the pegasus go as he checks his wrist. The pegasus tries to attack again, but John stops it by grabbing it's neck before it gets too close.

"That's not going to work." He says. The pegasus stares at him, seeming to be shocked he could speak. John lets it go again and looks to the ground, where his Battle Rifle was. He crouched down and picked it up, inspecting it. It was still alright, good. No telling when it could come in handy.

"Cortana, you there?'

"I'm still here John. Need something?"

"I need you to track out progress, I'm going to need a map for this place."

"Working on it."

"What are you? Why can you talk? And who are you talking too?" The pegasus asks. John turns to the pegasus, who has a confused and frightened look on her face. He reaches to his helmet and grabs Cortana.

"I'm Master Chief, Spartan of the UNSC. Genetically engineered human." He said. He brought out Cortana to his palm, and lets her show.

"This is my partner, Cortana." He said as he observed Cortana appear. She looked up to him and gave him a strange look, afterwards turning to the pegasus. The pegasus was wide eyed, seeming to be astonished by what was going on. John placed Cortana back in his head, and brought his Battle Rifle back into his hands. Looking slightly behind the blue pegasus, he saw the eyes of the yellow one, and walked closer. The blue pegasus seemed to know what he was thinking and flew in front of him, blocking his path.

"Oh no you don't buster! You're not going anywhere near her!" She shouted. The yellow pegasus slowly rounded the corner and revealed herself, scraping her hoof on the ground. John calmly places his battle rifle on his back and told them he meant no harm. The pegasi talked for a while, then told him to follow them. They seemed harmless enough, so the Chief agreed.