4. Ghosts Of A Civilization Past
Canterlot: Royal Castle
Celestia, with two royal guards flanking her, slowly walked to her throne in the center of the room and sat down.
"Now then," said the elegant alicorn in a much kinder voice than what she had used to introduce the rather unfortunate changeling a moment before, "I'm sure that Twilight, here, has already asked you for information on your situation. Am I correct?" Celestia looked between Twilight and the group of humans.
Twilight simply nodded while John looked at Celestia and gave a short "Yes, ma'am."
"Good," said Celestia with a small smile. Then she said, "I know you have already explained this all already, but, I would like to hear the details first-hoof, just so there is no confusion."
The Marines gave each other quick sidelong glaces at the use of this modified word, "first-hoof", but quickly shrugged it off and continued standing just as still and stoically as the multitude of Royal Guards through out the room.
"Of course their language would be slightly different from ours, given their lack of hands... and the fact that they are ponies." thought Luke.
"Alright." replied John, and quickly launched into a brief summary of what had happened, giving Celestia more or less the same explanation Luke had to Twilight.
____________________________________________________________________________
UNSC Pillar of Autumn Bridge
"Captain." the stereoscope operator called out on the bridge of the Pillar of Autumn.
Keyes walked the short distance over to where the operator was stationed.
"What is it?" asked Keyes.
"Sir, the deep scan has been completed and there appears to be major deposits of silver and copper in various spots around the planet. Large quantities of both ores will be needed for the repair of the FTL drive, sir. It looks like we are going digging."
"Yes, it appears so." said Keyes as he picked up a radio ear piece and walked to the middle of the bridge.
"Lieutenant Dominique," said Keyes to the communications officer.
"Yes, Sir?"
"Get me the Chief."
"Aye, Captain."
____________________________________________________________________________
Canterlot: Royal Castle
"And that is more or less the extent of our situation." finished John.
"I see and do you know how long the repairs to your ship will take?" asked Celestia
"A rough estimate is somewhere around eight to ten weeks."
"Ah, well, we will be more than happy to aide you in the repair of the ship. Is there anything specific you are in ne..."
Just before the princess could finish her sentence the radio in John's helmet crackled to life. John inclined his head slightly and put a hand to the side of his helmet causing Celestia to stop mid sentence and look at him with interest.
"Master Chief, come in Master Chief." Captain Keyes' voice came in loud and clear.
"Yes, Sir? Chief here."
"Chief, you and the Marines with you are talking with the ruler of the country, correct?" asked Keyes.
"Affirmative." replied John
"Good, put this radio frequency on your helmet's external speaker, I would like to speak with them for a moment."
"Yes, Sir." came John's quick reply.
John patched the radio frequency through to the external speaker and said to Celestia, "Our Captain wishes to speak with you."
"Very well," replied Celestia, "But how will we communicate? Isn't he currently on your ship, like you said?"
Yes, he is but you two will be able to talk through my radio." said John to Celestia, "You're on Captain, patching visuals through now."
"Good work chief." came Captain Keyes' voice both inside his helmet and outside to the rest.
"May I ask who it is I am addressing?" asked Keyes
"Princess Celestia, diarch of Equestria," said Celestia in her usual calm and collected voice. "And who is it that I am addressing?" asked Celestia.
"Captain Jacob Keyes, UNSC Navy."
"It is a pleasure to meet you Captain Keyes," said Celestia, "Now, you wished to talk with me about something?"
"Yes, ma'am," came Keyes' respectful reply, "In order to make the necessary repairs to our ship we need raw materials such as copper and silver to rebuild the electrical circuitry that was damaged. We have detected several large deposits of both around the Marines current location and around the small town they were at a few hours ago. Is there any chance that there are some running mines in the area of these two locations?"
After a brief pause and with a thoughtful look Celestia slowly nodded and said, "Yes, if memory serves me correct, I do believe that there are some open mines in both locations."
"That's good news. With your permission, your majesty, we would like to mine what raw ore we need. We will supply all the machinery and man power for this job."
"Very well," said Celestia, "You may mine as much ore as you need, I will give the group here a map of where the active mine sites are and they can relay the information to you."
"Thank you, ma'am," said Keyes "We will start preparing at once."
"You are quite welcome, Captain Keyes." said Celestia.
There was a small click as the radio signal disconnected, and the room was again quiet.
"Well," said Celestia, "It looks like there is some digging in your future."
"Looks like it huh," said Luke, "Well at least our machinery does a lot of the work for us."
"Ah, yes, your captain said something about machines, what kind of mining machines are they exactly?"
"They are called Nightcrawlers. They are long machines that have a fast rotating head at the front with many large metal teeth that chip and break the rock as the entire machine is pushed forward. The broken rock is then transported to the back of the machine where it collects in a hopper and periodicity empties into a large truck that drives the rock out of the tunnel."
"My, you are a rather technologically advanced race, we mine with explosives, picks, shovels, and rail cars."
There was a slight pause here and Luke then said, "So, wait... if you don't have hands to be able to grip tools such as picks and shovels, how are y'all able to mine?" asked Luke. "Do unicorns do all the work with their magic?"
"Oh no, not just the unicorns, the earth ponies work in the mines too and every once in a while a pegasus but thats rare considering most pegasi are not to fond of enclosed spaces."
"Wait, earth ponies? Is this planet called Earth?" asked Luke
"Yes, it is... why?" asked Celestia.
The Marines quickly looked at each other then to Luke and then up to Celestia.
"Its just that... uh, one of our planets is named Earth as well." said Luke
"Ah, I see," said Celestia. "Anyway, like I was saying, pegasi don't generally mine all that much.
At this Rainbow Dash gave a visible shudder and said, "Ugh, caves, never liked them. They have always given me the creeps. I'd much prefer the open sky any day."
"My point exactly." said Celestia with another gentle smile towards the Marines as she gestured at Rainbow Dash.
"Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not scared of them or anything," Rainbow said looking at the Marines, "I just don't like them." she said matter of factly.
Celestia nodded knowingly and continued with her explanation, "It may seem odd to you but all three pony species have some magic, pegasi can walk on clouds and move them around allowing them to create weather. An earth ponies' magic allows them to be strong and know the right times to plant, harvest and find water, and, of course, unicorns have their innate magical abilities and due to this magic that everypony has within them, all three species can pick up and manipulate objects with their hooves.
"That clears things up a little... I guess." said Luke.
Celestia gave a small chuckle and said, "Yes, magic can be a little confusing."
"Especially when you aren't used to it." said Luke
Celestia nodded and said, "You know, it may surprise you to learn that pony kind used to be a fairly technologically advanced race as well, but this was hundreds of years ago."
"Really?" asked a more than a little surprised Twilight, "What happened to all of it?"
"Well, soon after the evil ruler of Equestria, Discord, was defeated by me and my younger sister, Princess Luna, we sought a way to become as powerful as possible, just in case Discord or some other threat tried to do Equestria harm. This was a agonizingly slow process, but during this time, a group of archaeologists stumbled across an ancient ruin that appeared to be alien in origin. Though we were not able to decipher their language, the machinery and other technology within told a lot of the story."
"Wait, did these ruins look like this?" asked the Chief as he pulled a miniature holo pad from a pack and inserted a small memory card, and with a press of a button an image a Forerunner artifact blazed up.
Celestia looked at the image intensely and said, "Yes, that looks similar to what was found."
"We have come to call the race that built these places Forerunners, they were a people that were technologically
advanced beyond belief." said John as he put away the holo pad recalling the information that Cortana had gathered.
"Yes, that sounds comparable to what was found here. At the time of the discovery we decided to put forth a mighty effort into creating our own technology with the..." Celestia paused for a second and carefully said the new word, "Forerunner's ideas as a base. I drew together some of the smartest ponies in all of Equestria, actually, I believe one of them was related to you, Twilight. Smarts must run in the family." Celestia said with a gentle smile as Twilight blushed slightly and smiled sheepishly at the ground.
Celestia continued, "Anyway, with this team of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers we were able to come up with many things; from life support systems for medical purposes to advanced weaponry. Admittedly, there were several flaws with the almost everything but we managed to work a lot of things out. The weaponry though, because there were no functional devises, we mostly had to go off the diagrams we sometimes found. Many of our prototypes either did not function or, what happened most of the time, blew up in an enormous explosion. Due to this we had to resort to creating our own weapons. They actually looked rather similar to yours. Even down to the projectiles they fired." said a thoughtful Celestia.
"We even found a suit of armor that appeared to be powered by some form of super efficient battery." said a new voice from behind Celestia.
Celestia turned around and said, "Ah, Luna, I see you are up and about. Have you already raised the moon?"
Celestia turned to the window she had recently thrown the Changeling from, remembering this she gave a small chuckle, saw that it was dark, and turned back around to the group in front of her.
She only saw confused looks from the humans.
"Oh, my apologies, this is my sister, princess Luna who I mentioned earlier and and to explain what I said a moment before, Luna here and I, raise and lower the sun and moon with our powerful magic."
"So, you mean to say that the sun and moon here don't rise and set on their own?" asked a very confused Luke.
"Well, technically, yes, they would; but the orbit of the planet is slightly irregular and for a good long growing season constant alteration of the planet's orbit is needed."
"It is more or less the same situation with the moon." said Luna as she walked up next to Celestia. "Without our, er, my interference, the tides of the oceans and seas here would be so chaotic and hazardous that they would quickly destroy anything along the coasts."
"Still not exactly used to the new way of speaking." said Luna under her breath to Celestia.
Celestia merely gave a knowing nod.
"Wow," said Luke. "That's really impressive."
"It's nothing big, you get used to it after a while." said Luna.
There was a slight pause then Celestia said, "Well, back on topic. Luna, if I remember correctly, you took a great liking to that suit of armor."
"Oh, yes. I even had a sub group made out of the group Celestia had just for studying the armor. It was rather quite amazing. It was somehow able to project a personal energy shield that was able to deflect blows by many objects and explosives. It looked, to be honest, quite like yours," Luna pointed at the Chief with a hoof, "but it was much more slim and not as bulky. Eventually we managed to come up with a pony version that looks more like yours than the original and could do amazing things such as, run incredibly fast, lift heavy objects, and increase the wearers' reaction time, sight, and hearing capabilities."
"That sounds familiar," thought the Chief, "I'm going to have to ask Dr. Halsey some questions when I get the chance."
"Soon after we had discovered a great deal of this technology though, Luna and myself decided to switch from technology to a more magic based society. We did this in order to keep Equestria safe. A lot of the research was starting to turn more towards weaponry than anything else and we feared that to much technology especially weaponry would cause ponies to start fighting among themselves over even some of the most insignificant things."
"So, you mean to tell me," said Rainbow Dash, who was angrily hovering in place with the others, "that we had all this awesome technology and stuff and you just gave it all up for magic?! And with all the stuff that tries to attack Ponyville and Canterlot?!"
"It is not as simple as that." said Celestia gently. "The technology is still here and being worked on by a present day team of scientists, but for the most part it is secretive. This team and both Luna and I, swore we would never use the majority of this militaristic technology unless Equestria was on the verge of complete collapse. One of these events happened recently with the Changeling attack. Thankfully, Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence were able to defeat them before we had to take drastic measures. This is why Luna was not attending the wedding for the most part. She was cataloging the equipment that we have at our disposal due to the threats that we had received before the wedding, just to be sure that if something major happened we would be able to defend ourselves.
There was a long pause here as the information sunk in that the Changeling battle could have been far more violent.
"But, to end on a happy note, we did not have to resort to such drastic measures, what weaponry we have is still secret, and it was a happy ending to a rather eventful day."
"Agreed." Twilight said.
Everypony nodded, but were still a little shaken up at the realization of how close they had all come to possibly being killed in a counter attack against the Changelings.
"Well, I do apologize, but it is getting late, and as always, I will have to rise early in the morning. Here is the map of the active copper and silver mine sites that was promised."
Celestia's horn glowed a light yellow and a rolled up piece of parchment glowed with the same light and floated over from a desk at the far side of the room. John held out his hand and the small roll dropped into it.
"Good night to you all, and safe travels, oh and may I suggest resting for the night somewhere here in Canterlot? It is already getting late, maybe the Gilded Horseshoes? Tell them to just charge me." said Celestia with another kind smile.
"Oh, Princess, thank you!" said an excited Twilight.
"That's the most famous and luxurious place in all of Canterlot, besides the castle here, of course. Oh this is so exciting!" said Rarity.
The Marines looked at each other, unsure, but decided, by the reactions of both Twilight and Rarity that it was a good place. then again they all have been in worse before.
Both the humans and ponies bowed and started walking away towards the door, all except John and Luke. the others turned and looked at them with a questioning expression on their face and Luke said, "We will be there in a moment, wait outside, we just need to tell the Princesses one last thing."
The others nodded and walked out the door closing it behind them.
"Yes, what is it you need?" asked Celestia.
"Do you remember the alien race, the Covenant, I mentioned earlier?" asked the Chief.
Celestia's disposition stiffened slightly and she replied, "Yes, I remember you describing them."
"We are not sure about this, but they may be following us. If they are, they are probably about a two months away but we should be repaired and moving out by then. We just wanted to let you know that if they show up earlier than expected we will let you know and we will stay and fight with you. You may still have to use your cashed technology though."
"Very well," said Celestia "If they come we will be more than ready."
Both Luke and John gave a quick nod, spun around, walked to the doors, and rejoined the group outside, and closed the great doors.
As their hoof and foot steps died away, Celestia turned to Luna and said, "Put the research team on full alert and enact operation Midnight's Light."
"Understood," said Luna, "let us just hope nothing comes of this."
"Agreed." said Celestia as she paused at the doorway leading further into the castle. "But if worst comes to worst, we've rebuilt Equestria before, and we will rebuild her again if necessary."
Ok guys, I'm so sorry that it has taken so long to get this up here. I've just had so much stuff going on at once that I haven't had a lot of time to write. That's why this chapter is also my shortest. I know there are going to be mistakes here. If you happen across any, please point them out and I will try to get in and fix them.
An interesting turn of events.
Another great chapter! I just love Halo/Equestria Stories, it combines my two obsessions I to one, and creates lots of interesting moments. Keep up the great work!
its fine
723608
Thanks! and will do!
723618
723625
Ok, cool, thanks for keeping an eye out anyway.
no worries atleast your still worrking on it anyway damn... i think celestia is seriousely rpeparing an end game defencee plan. the covies better not try and attack equestria unleass they want to be shattered by the insane power of the pony's humans are no mach for what trained pony warriors can do.
So Equestria isn't as vulnerable as it appears...
I personally loved your explanation of the sun and moon goddess's powers as applied to common astrophysics. They don't rotate the planet, they keep the orbits aligned. Brilliant.
So Luna was busy when the changelings attacked... that makes a bit of sense too. If the location was isolated then she wouldn't have learned of the event and mobilized for some time. That's legit enough.
Celestia, Luna, you magnificent chessmaster JERKS! you mean Equestria has forerunner ruins and tech, and you are sitting on your PLOTS and hiding it?! I grant that magic is almost worth the sacrifice, but surely you understand the concept of magitech? Sheesh...
Also, they sure are being very accommodating with regards to the humans... seems like they don't care about the planet's resources. Is it because they have alternate sources of raw materials (magical element fabrication) or mining options?
There is one flaw as of yet, however. As stated in the Halo encyclopedia, Covenant FTL Drive-tech is obscenely superior to human slipspace tech. So much as to beat the Pillar of Autumn to Halo by at least a few hours, probably days, and that's with them leaving after it. On the other hand... I am curious as to the more advanced applications of slipspace drive trickery, like using a drive to get just outside of a system on one vector, and then changing direction and jumping again. Is that traceable in slipspace, or can you only engage your drive and follow the vector the first ship was on and drop out when you get somewhere?
723780
They know that the Covenant will probably get there early due to their advanced tech. That's why the Chief and Luke offered their help, and the Covies beating them to Halo, heh, I'm working on it. The whole mining thing is only going to take place at a few sites so there will be plenty of ore left at several other mines. What I've always thought is that It is slightly traceable when the first ship drops out or engages, but to change direction the ship would have to drop out, change direction, then engage again. But I could be wrong in that regard.
"Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria," said Celestia in her usual calm and collected voice.
The italicized words should read: "Princess Celestia, diarch of Equestria," said Celestia in her usual calm and collected voice.
It IS basically what you should say here and its much easier to say.
"Oh, my apologies, this is my sister, princess Luna who I mentioned earlier and and to explain what I said a moment before, me and Luna here, raise and lower the sun and moon with our powerful magic."
It should be: "Oh, my apologies, this is my sister, princess Luna who I mentioned earlier and and to explain what I said a moment before, Luna and I here, raise and lower the sun and moon with our powerful magic."
And these are the only two I saw
Hope you fix them soon!
723865
Fixed!! And thank you for your keen eyes, the first does make perfect sense and the second, I was unsure of it so I put it in Microsoft Word and it started messing with me. So, anyway, Thanks.
723863 I know a ship would have to drop, turn, and engage again, but if it turns out that you CAN'T track that... WHY DON'T THOSE IDIOT HUMANS DO IT INSTEAD OF COLE PROTOCOL?!
723906
Well, I guess it could be along the lines of, better safe than sorry.
723916 Eh, perhaps. I'll watch for more then shall I?
723928
It may be, I remembered it from something, but I could not remember what it exactly it was from.
723921
Sure
723899 YW!
BTW: I'm a Grammar Nazi General, saying:
fbclick.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/cbf1f_funny-dog-pictures-you-shall-not-pass.jpg
to grammatical errors
723955
Uh, what is the picture suppose to be, It's not showing it for some reason.///////////////////////////// Never mind it's showing it now.
You live! Hallelujah!
723981
Heh, yeah, I'm still here and working. Like I said, I'm so sorry it has taken so long.
Well with halo 4 you will have plenty of forunner guns to choose from. Like that light gun in the E3 trailer.
Oh Wow. That was exceedingly contrived. No true struggle to be had here, the ponies had Forerunner tech the whole time! Never mind the fact that a lot of their subjects lives could be made easier infinitely easier with that technology. They don't need to use weapons, what about teleportation grids or repulsor tech? The Princesses wanted more power and when they got it they went right the heck back to magic? Not too mention leave their people in the middle ages in regards to technology. All I can really ask is why?
Aside from that Celestia and Luna are waaaaaaay too open towards the humans. I mean a bunch of aliens just showed up on their doorstep, have knowledge of the alien technology that the Princesses had hidden away, and they blatantly tell the alien race who showed up with weapons that they know really nothing about aside what the aliens themselves have said that they kept some of the Forerunner weapons around for self-defense. Why doesn't Celestia just hand them her crown and where she keeps her hidden stash of Strapping Stallion magazines while she's at it?!
Sorry if I'm being fickle here but I that Installation 04 was the first piece of forerunner tech that John knew of. All the other pieces (like at Castle base) was kept under wraps and extremely classified. How does he know what it is and how does he have info on a tablet?
725052
Humanity knew of strange artifacts that the Covent were hunting for long before the action on the first Halo. It is possible they came across the name Forerunner before Halo.
723906 Just to inform you, Cole Protocol is basically what you said. When going to a UNSC controlled planet that hasn't been discovered by the Covenant, the jump in a random vector away from any UNSC planet and then change corse after ensuring the haven't been followed. 723916 So therefore I think that the initial FTL vector can be tracked, but any subsiquent corse changes cant be tracked, all you may see sensor wise is that they jumped again.
Also great chapter, keep them coming when you can.
Guard99 out.
724030
Yeah, I think I subconsciously recalled that and used it. I remembered the line but I could not think of where I heard it from at the time.
725052
Well, there is no telling what Cortana has told the Chief especially considering she was with Halsey for a while.
724282
True, but like Celestia said, they feared that to much tech would cause in-fighting, and the ponies lives are relatively easy as they are right now. And trust me, this Celestia... lets just say after the Changeling attack, you do not want to mess with her.
725577
I thought it was just Earth they jumped from. Fuck, I'm missing a lot of knowledge on Halo just from that.
726470 Heh, the fact that I know that makes me feel like such a Twilight. Lol, reading the Halo books FTW!!
726742 you think your a twilight I've read all the halo books assassin creed books you name it I've read it
Worth the wait.
Liking this fic so far
Hope it keeps on rocking!
727323
Thanks!
Thanks for putting in a plausible explanation for Luna's absence during the Changling invasion (one of my biggest issues with the season 2 finale.)
So, suits for ponies were developed? Is that where the cover art came from?
...
As for mistakes, there are very few that I can see (just the occasional missing period, which is pretty negligible anyway.) Looking forward to the next update!
Side note: can someone explain how the bold/underlined/italicised text options work? Every time I use one, I only get letters in brackets, and I have no idea what those mean.
727735
Ok, thanks for keeping look out. Yeah, I wanted to explain where Luna was the entire time because it seems a lot of people were wondering where she was. And it was the other way around, the cover art kind of inspired the pony suits for the story. As far as the bold and how all that works, just click the which ever button you want and write what you want between the brackets. Then when you are done and publish, the brackets go away and you are left with what ever you wrote between them as bold and all that. Hope that helps.
I liked it so far until you included the technology part for ponies which was rushed into the story. I mean I do see the cover but ponies in armor isn't that exciting. Mostly because the ponies already have an advantage with wings and magic, humans just have the armor and guns. It is their only advantage you know? Maybe the technology can never be used again would be better. The secret should have not been shoved all at once because it was a big story.
I don't know, I mean if I was making this I would never have included that at all.
Also, Master Chief should speak a lot more I mean he is the main character in the game.
728221
I know, I know, I'm sorry. I'm still trying to figure out what's good and what I need to avoid. This is my first fic. ever, and as for the Chief, I'm trying to balance his usual silence, and him being the main character and everything. Anyway as for the tech. uh, well, its going to make a reappearance but not a lot of it and only majorly towards the end. And the humans have air support with Hornets, Pelicans, Vultures, and Short and Long Swords and all the other stuff like that, the only thing that the ponies have a really big advantage in is magic, and most unicorns can only use a little bit of magic related to their special talent.
728307 Hey you have nothing to apologize for, It's a great fic.
Masterchief (if you haven't seen the preview in e3) does talk a lot more now.
I would like to see the tech but not as much compared to the humans or covenant because they aren't made for technology. I mean Ponies get cool things but we only have hands. It seems to unfair!
727884
Thanks. I always thought to use standard typing rules (i.e. press "ctrl-i"once to start and then once more to stop).
One more thing about the suits: I'm assuming the cover art is some kind of spoiler for the story...if (when) the Covenant catch up to the Autumn, it would follow that
1. The Covenant would land and try to seize the Forerunner tech, and then
2. The Mane 6 and the UNSC would mobilize to defeat them.
Just a guess.
Edit: Yes! It worked, it worked, it worked! Now it seems so obvious. Thanks a million.
728336
Thanks, and yeah, I did see the E3 gameplay, he does talk more, and on a side note, Halo 4 is looking pretty bad ass, anyway, I see what you are talking about now, keep tech low for ponies but keep it in and make the Humans their usual bad ass selves, maybe with some equipment sharing?
728340
No problem, glad I could help. And, well, I can't really say, you don't want me to spoil it do you?
728377 Yeah! Equipment sharing to an extent though, remember they were made by humans for humans. Maybe they share a warthog or something.
Keep up the good work.
And halo 4 being badass is an understatement! I know what I'm getting this September!
728511
Of course and good idea and will do.
728398
"And, well, I can't really say, you don't want me to spoil it do you?"
...
Good point. Great stories should always be entertaining. Spoiling said story would take away some of that "great" factor...
Thus, thou hath refuted me.
P.S. Pretty good for a first fic; keep up the good work!
P.P.S. Halo 4 is looking very impressive indeed. Here's to hoping 343i can do Bungie one better!
729452
Thanks, and I hope they can.
Yes! This just keeps getting better and better!
734166
Thanks!
The characters in Halo Wars can be used, as they are just MIA in a carrier, and not dead. I think... This includes the Spartans as well.
741079
Possibly, but I'm not sure. I've already got the entire crew of the Pillar and the Pillar herself. But maybe I'll find a way of bringing them into play somewhere along the way, but it probably won't be a very major role.
I know I'm several days late on this comment, but a few things I want to point out.
-The biggest good thing: you have done a much better job with pacing than you did in the earlier chapters! Kudos to you there
Alright, now my criticisms..
1) Umm... if this takes place JUST after Reach fell, then Master Chief SHOULDN'T know what the Forerunner are, let alone anything about their structures, their name, or anything like that. Chief and Cortona figured those all out on Halo.
2) You're on Captain, patching visuals through now." Considering that he never appears as a hologram, probably should say "audio"
3) On that note, and this is very very minor, why did Chief make those motions when getting on the radio? At first, it makes sense, but think about it and how that would even work or help Chief listen better, it kinda doesn't...
4) I hope it doesn't, but this is starting to turn into the same "Halo in Equestria" stories that are out there (ponies are attacked by Covanent, ponies get human weapons, a few get spartan-like armor, etc). Its a little overdone, but not something I'm going to stop reading because of.
5) I saw someone else addressed the whole "lets slam all this explaination of technology to the reader" idea, so I won't point it out further.
6) How do the humans know EXACTLY when they are going to be there? For all they know, they were flung very very very very far away, and aren't sure if the Covanent are following them. Knowing the exact speed of a Covenent ship is... unlikely.
I know I stated a lot more negatives than positives, but don't get me wrong, I liked it very much, and hope to see more soon
752589
I understand, thanks for the criticism, don't worry there will be more soon. And I'm trying to make it different from all the other Halo/MLP stories. There is going to be similarities, but I think I have some plans to make it all different enough.
If you ever need help with Halo knowledge, just PM me. I know almost everything there is about Halo, Master Chief, and the Covenent.