//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Once Upon a Time, on an Alien Ring World 
// by Hi World 
//------------------------------//

Prologue.

Ah, the Filly of Autumn. Gracious thing to behold. Unfortunately for Captain Rarity and the thousands of Ponies aboard her, the only ones beholding the Filly of Autumn were the Covenant. Yep, them Covies had a nice little fleet waiting for them just off the Autumn's slip space exit vector.

The Filly of Autumn was a very nice warship, as nice as warships go. No pony wanted to call any ship their home, but when given no choice, those aboard the Autumn were proud to call such a magnificent vessel their home.

She was big too. Very big. Not the biggest ship in the UPSC fleet, but at over three kilometres long, she wasn't exactly medium. This size made it possible to house many features, like multiple Pelican and Longsword hangars, mess halls, armouries, external access junctions, airlocks, rec rooms, barracks, cryo bays, and, much to the Captain's delight, a spa.

On the outside, the Filly of Autumn was quite slab sided. And she was grey. She kinda looked like a giant brick with boosters at the back. None of this stopped the Filly of Autumn from widening the eyes of those that witnessed her soaring by, though.

Captain Rarity was honoured to be in charge of such a ship, but as she saw images of the nearby Covenant counterparts popping up on the main view screen in the bridge, she couldn't help but feel a little envious. Covenant CCS class battle Cruisers were sleeker, giving up height for length and width. They were also crafted out of a naturally purple, glittering metal. Protruding down from under their curvy bows, were four "fangs." Rarity had no idea what they were. Either they acted as a front spoiler to help the ships' performance in a way that only Twilight could explain, or the Covenant were massive show offs... Or it was something entirely alien. The Covenant are aliens after all.

As for the interior, well, Rarity could only imagine how they looked on the inside. She half wanted to know and half didn't want to know. She wanted to know because she figured they would be even more bedazzling on the inside, and didn't want to know because it would mean having to actually board an enemy vessel; something she definitely didn't plan on doing.

On the outside of the Covenant ships, no windows could be seen. Rarity wondered where the bridges were, and how the Covies could see out.

The Filly of Autumn's bridge was situated at the bow, under a large overhead compartment that stuck out like the brim of a baseball cap. The huge glass windows were easily visible from outside, and an easy target, but the views that came with them were so spectacular, Rarity thought it was worth the risk. Especially the view she and the bridge crew were seeing now.

Nebulae transformed the black, star filled space into purple and turquoise. An orange coloured gas giant dominated the entire left hoof side of the view. One particularly close star shone bright and white, playing the role of sun. In orbit around the gas giant was a large, grey moon, as well as the immense object that caught the attention of everypony on the bridge. A vast, silver ring. So vast, its inside surface was made out of... planet? No, that couldn't be right.

"Twilight?" Rarity hailed.
The top of a chest-high pedestal to the right of the view screen shimmered as the AI within responded, "Yes, Rarity?" Her voice was ever so slightly synthesized.
"Be a dear and zoom in on the ring's inside surface, won't you?"
"It would be my pleasure."

Twilight complied and opened a new window on the screen with an image of the colossal ring. In a second, the picture zoomed in on the inner surface. And what was the inner surface made of? ... Planet. The close up revealed a wide open desert that became very rough and rocky the further up the ring. As Twilight used the Autumn's imaging gear to scroll up, new planetary features descended into view. Sea, islands, mountains, jungles, more sea, ice land. There were even clouds floating above the variety of terrain, casting shadows, and in some areas, raining or snowing. 'Twas mind bogglingly beautiful.
"Wow," Rarity gasped, breathtaken.

Having never seen or heard of such an object, the white Unicorn turned to Twilight again. "What ever is this thing?"
"Oh, this is fascinating," Twilight stated, distracted. "We've stumbled upon something new - nothing in my records about it. Judging from its architecture, it doesn't belong to the Covenant."
This surprised Rarity. ""Doesn't belong to the Covenant?" You mean to say there's something else out there?"
"I'm not sure."
Twilight's not sure? That's a first, Rarity thought to herself.
"How can you not be sure?"
"Well, the diagnostic indicates that whatever this ring is, it's very old. Not sure how old. Whoever made it may not be around anymore!" In a change of subjects, Twilight added, "Besides, we have more important things to worry about right now."

A blinding flash before the window snatched Rarity's eye as one of the Autumn's escorting Lonswords blew a tiny Covenant Seraph fighter into free-floating molecules. Disappearing under the Autumn, the wide, black Longsword retreated to evade the arrival of four more Seraph fighters.

"Oh. The Covenant. Right." The discovery of the ring had pushed everything else out of her mind.

With the image of the ring on the view screen minimized, Twilight enlarged the image of the Covenant battleships listing into position.

Scowling, Rarity uttered, "What are they even doing here?"
Sadness entered Twilight's tone. "They... they followed us, Rarity."
Rarity sighed and closed her eyes. "How?" she quizzed. "How did they follow us? How did they get here first? How did they-"
"-They followed us through the hole we tore in sub-space. No one could've missed it," Twilight interjected. "As for tracking us all the way from Reach; at light-speed, our manoeuvring options were limited."

Rubbing her brow, Rarity glanced at Twilight's glowing terminal, then scanned a new image on the view screen that depicted the path the Covenant ships had taken to get to the ring before them.
"They were waiting for us on the far side of planet."

A rock formed in Rarity's stomach. The reason they'd made the blind slip-space jump was to escape the largest Covenant armada as it burned the Pony colonized planet, Reach, to a cinder. And they exited slip-space at the randomized co-ordinates only to find more Covies here!? The Filly of Autumn couldn't seem to catch a break.

Still, Twilight mentioned that the ring world didn't match Covenant engineering. Whoever its creators were must have been very powerful to conger up such a work of art. Rarity wondered if they were still around, and if they were friendly.

Attempting to asses the situation at hand, Captain Rarity asked, "What's happening now?"
"Our Longsword escorts are getting rid of the Seraphs now. They were just the reconnaissance," Twilight replied. "I've identified multiple CCS class battle groups closing in. Make that three capital ships per group."
There was no answer from the Captain as she thought long and hard, studying the screen.
Twilight then added, "In about ninety seconds they'll be all over us."
Oh, that takes the pressure off, Rarity thought sarcastically.

A good eight seconds passed, and just as Twilight was about to speak up, Rarity ordered, "Well this is it then... I want everypony at their station."
The AI questioned, "Everypony?" and unintentionally made Rarity doubt herself.

Twilight was the most advanced AI the UPSC had ever made. Partly because she was based on the mind of one of the most advanced Ponies that had ever lived; her friend, the Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Sadly, the real Princess Twilight Sparkle wasn't there to join her on the Filly of Autumn. She was a Princess, and had to stay and rule Equestria with the other three Princesses.

Twilight had been desperate to get out there and help her friends, and her subjects, but the UPSC wouldn't allow it. The UPSC weren't like the royal gaurds who took orders from royalty, so none of the Princesses had a say, and even if they did, the other three Princesses agreed it was for the best that they stay and defend Equestria... should the Covenant juggernaut locate Equestria, that is.

And so, Twilight came up with a solution as to how to help her friends and stay in Equestria at the same time... AI. Princess Twilight copied her brain into the form of an AI construct and sent it to Captain Rarity and the Filly of Autumn. 'Twas the idea of the centenary as the other three Princesses; Celestia, Luna and Cadence, followed suite.

With Twilight as the ship's AI, the Autumn was unstoppable.
Not long from now, the Autumn will have stopped for good.

Standing by her word, Rarity affirmed, "Everypony," and before Twilight could stall her again, she added, "Oh and Twilight? Could you please order Spartan 117 to the bridge? I need him to do us a favour."
The news from Twilight was just as surprising as it was disappointing. "Oh, haven't you heard? Spartan 117 didn't make it."
Loudly, Rarity gasped, "You mean...?!"
"I'm afraid so," Twilight confirmed apologetically. "Sorry, Rarity."
Frustrated, she groaned, "D'oohh! How can this be possible? I thought Spartans never died."
"You've been taking those motivational posters too seriously, Rarity. Unfortunately, everypony can die."
Fed up of bad news, the white Unicorn tilted her head up, her curly purple mane swishing in tow. "Hmph."

Informatively, Twilight said, "... Y'know, Rarity: I know why you want the assistance of a Spartan."
Rarity looked back at Twilight.
"At least I think I do. And while there may not be any Spartans on this ship, we did manage to salvage Spartan 117's armour, minus the helmet."
Instantaneously, Rarity declared, "If you're suggesting I don 117's armour, you can forget it. Not only would it not suit me, but I am most unqualified."
"I know you're not qualified. I wasn't thinking of you."

There was a small purple flash on the terminal as Twilight's avatar appeared. A tall purple Alicorn with wings spread wide, and a neat, blue, fringed mane with a violet and rose stripe. Her mane parted to make way for her horn. With eyes of purple and a cutie mark of stars, the miniature, translucent AI Twilight looked almost as fabulous as the real thing... Almost.

Picking up where she left off, Twilight mentioned, "I had somepony else in mind."