HALO: THE PARAFLOOD
A Pony/Halo Crossover For Laughs
By: PhysicallyPossible (and almost everyone in the #EquestrianStudy Chatroom on EqD) Thanks Guys 
CHAPTER ONE:
The Friends Of Autumn
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The Friends of Autumn shook as her Equinenium-A Armor took a direct hit.
Just another item in the Coltinates bottomless arsenal, Captain Jacob Hooves thought. Couldn't have been a Plasma Torpedo or wed be free floating Pegasi right now.
The warship had already taken a beating from Coltinate forces off of Reach and it was a miracle the ship`s flank remained intact and even more remarkable they were able to jump into Rainboom Drive at all.
"Status!" Hooves neighed. "What just hit us?"
"Coltinate Fighter, sir. Celestial-Class," the tactical officer Lieutenant Ma, replied. Her porcelain features darkened. "Silly Ponies, must have powered down and slipped past our sentry ships."
A humorless grin tugged at Hoovesmuzzle. Ma was a first-rate tactical officer, utterly ruthless in a fight. She seemed to take the Coltinate fighter pilots actions as a personal insult. "Teach that Colt a lesson Lieutenant," he said.
She nodded and tapped in a series of orders into her panel- new orders for the Autumn`s fighter squadron.
A moment later, there was radio chatter as one of the Autumn`s Ponysword Fighters went after the Celestial, followed by a cheerful whinny as the tiny Coltinate fighter transformed into a momentary sun raised by Celestia herself, complete with its own system of co-orbiting debris.
Hooves wiped a trickle of sweat from his forehead with his hoof. He checked the display-they`d reverted into pony space twenty minutes ago. Twenty Minutes, and the Coltinate had already scouted them out and began shooting.
He turned to the bridges main viewport, a large transparent bubble slung beneath the Friends of Autumn`s bow superstructure a massive purple gas giant-Threshold-dominated the ponyriffic view. One of the Ponysword fighters dashed by as it continued its patrol.
When Hooves had been given the command of the Friends of Autumn, he`d been skeptical of the large, domed viewport. "The Coltinate are tough enough," he had argued to Admiral Stableforth. "Why give them a easy shot into my bridge?"
Hed lost the argument- captains dont win debates with admirals, and in any case there hadn`t been time to armor the viewport. He had to admit though, the view was almost worth the risk. Almost.
He absently toyed with the pipe he habitually carried, lost in thought. It ran completely counter to his nature to slink in the shadow of the gas giant. He respected the Coltinate as a dangerous, deadly enemy, and hated them for their savage butchery of pony colonists and fellow soilders alike. He had never feared them, however. Soilders didn`t hide from the enemy- they met the enemy head-on.
He moved back to the command station and activated his navigation suite. He plotted course deeper in-system, and fed the data to Ensign Hoovell, the navigator.
"Captain," Ma piped up. "Sensors paint a squadron of enemy Coltinate fighters inbound. Looks like boarding craft are right behind them."
"It was just a matter of time, Lieutenant ." He sighed. "We can`t play Hide and Seek forever."
The Friends of Autumn seemed to glide out of the shadow cast by the gas giant, and into bright sunlight.
Hooveseyes widened with suprise as the ship cleared the gas giant. He had expected to see a Coltinate cruiser, Celestial fighters, or some other Ponitary threat.
He hadnt expected to see the massive object floating in a Lagrange point between Threshold and it`s moon, Basis.
The construct was enormous-a ring-shaped object that shimmered and glowed with reflected starlight, like a jewel lit from within.
The outer surface was metallic and seemed to be engraved with deep geometric patterns. "Luna," Captain Hooves said. "What is that?"
A foot-high hologram of a mare faded into view above a small holopad near the captains station. Luna- the ships powerful artificial intelligence-frowned as she activated the ships long-range detection gear. Long lines of digits scrolled across the sensor displays and rippled the length of Lunas "body" as well.
"The ring is ten thousand kilohooves in diameter," Luna announced, "and twenty two point three kilohooves thick. Spectroscopic analysis is inconclusive, but patterns do not match any known Coltinate materials, sir."
Hooves nodded. The preliminary finding was interesting, since Coltinate ships had already been present when the Autumn dropped out of Rainboom Drive and right into their laps. When he first saw the ring, Hooves had a sinking feeling that the construct was a large Coltinate installation-one far beyond the scope of equine engineering. The thought that the construct might also be beyond Coltinate engineering as well, held some small comfort.
It also made him nervous.
Under intense pressure from enemy warships in the Epsilon Equindani system- the location of the UESC¹`s last major naval base, Reach-Luna had been forced to launch the ship toward a random set of coordinates, a standard procedure to lead the Coltinate forces away from Earth. Now it appeared that the Colts and Mares aboard the Friends of Autumn had succeeded in leaving their original pursuers behind, only to encounter more Coltinate forces here...wherever "here" was.
Luna aimed a long-range camera array at the ring and a close-up snapped into focus. Hooves let out a long slow whinny. The construct`s inner surface was a mosaic of greens, blues, and browns-trackless desert, jungles, glaciers, and oceans. Streaks of white clouds cast deep shadows on the terrain below. The ring rotated and brought a new feature into view: a tremendous hurricane forming over a large body of water.
Equations again scrolled across the AIs semitransparent body as she continued to evaluate the incoming data. "Captain," Luna said, "the object is clearly artificial. Theres a gravity field that controls the rings spin and keeps the atmosphere inside. I can`t say with one hundred percent certainty but it appears the ring has a oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, and Earth normal gravity. It should be quite alright for anypony inhabit."
Hooves raised an eyebrow. "If its artificial who in Equestria built it, and what in Celestias name is it?"
Luna processed this thought for a full three seconds. "I dont know, sir."
Regulations be damned, Hooves thought, he took out his pipe, used an old fashioned match to light it, and produced a puff of fragrant smoke. The ring world shimmered on the status monitors. "Then wed better find out."
Vector Spiral rubbed his aching crest with hooves that trembled with fatigue. The rush pf adrenaline that had flooded him when he received Tech Colt Shepard`s instructions had worn off. Now he just felt tired, strung out, and a little afraid.
He shook his head to clear it and surveyed the small observation theater. Each cryostorage bay was equipped with such a station, a central monitoring facility for the hundreds of cryotubes the storage bays held. By shipboard standards, the Cryo Two Observation Theater was large, but the proliferation of life-sign monitors, diagnostic gauges, and computer terminals-tied directly into the individual cryotubes stored in the bay below-made the room seem cramped and uncomfortable.
A chime sounded and Vectors eyes swept across the status monitors. There was only one active cryotube in this bay, and it pinged for his attention. He double-checked the main instrument panel, then keyed the intercom. "Hes coming around, sir," he said. He turned and looked out the observation bay`s window.
Tech Colt Thom Shepard waved up at Vector from the floor of Cryostation Two. "Good work, Vector," he neighed back. "Almost time to pop the seal."
The status monitors continued to feed information to the observation theater. The subjects body temperature was approaching normal- at least, Vector assumed it was normal; hed never awakened a Spurtan before-and most of the chemicals had already been flushed out of his system.
"Hes in a REM cycle now Chief," Vector called out, "And his brainwave activity shows hes dreaming-that means hes pretty much thawed. Shouldn`t be long now."
"Good," Shepard replied. "Keep an eye on those neuro readings. We packed him in wearing his combat armor. There may be some feedback effects to watch out for."
"Acknowledged."
A red light winked to life on the security terminal, and a series of codes flashed across the screen:
WAKE UP SERIES STANDBY. SECURITY
LOCK [PRIORITY ALPHA] ENGAGED.
x-LUNA.1.0--CRYOSTOR.23.4.7
"What in Celestias name...?" Vector muttered, he keyed the bay intercom again. "Thom? Theres something weird here...some kind of security lockout from the bridge."
"Acknowledged." There was a static-spotted click as Shepard looped in the bridge channel. "Cryo Two to Bridge."
"Go ahead Cryo Two," a mare`s voice replied laced with the telltale warble of synthesized speech.
"We`re ready to pop the seal on our...guest, Luna," Shepard explained. "We need-"
"-the security code," the AI finished. "Transmitting, Bridge out."
Almost Instantly, a new kine of text scrolled across the security screen:
AWAKEN THE SLEEPY PONY
