Star Trek: Equestrian Rescue

by Blake Skies

Chapter Nine

“Any word from the princess yet?” Blaze asked as he finished hooking up his armor.
“None as of yet sir, we have been trying to reach her for the past hour.” Sul’Vin answered.
The duo, as well as Gorear, Seren, Three of Five, and M.A.C.O officers Sargent John Benedict and Private Polaris Rah were in the quartermasters getting ready for the away mission. Normally M.A.C.O’s and members of the Hazard Team would remain on the ship during away missions to a peaceful planet. They would only be deployed in hostile or unknown situations. Hazard Team members would even get the benefit of being the Evans ship defenders, acting as the Marines did of old.
This time, Blaze wasn’t going to take any chances with what he had heard about the Everfree Forest. Also Star Fleet regulations had his hands bound, as M.A.C.O officers were required to escort Admirals on away missions. The only thing that was delaying the beam down was Blaze didn’t want to bring an armed force down without permission. However, neither Celestia nor Luna was answering their phones.
“I’m not thrilled about going down there without an invitation.” Blaze said hooking up his Anti-proton rifle.
“However Sir, I must insist that we investigate immediately. That piece of technology may alter whatever development the planet intends for it.” Seren told him.
“She does have a point sir, for a Romulan.” Gorear added.
“That being said, whatever is down there, we must find it.” Sul’Vin agreed.
Blaze nodded, “Agreed, if we do run into the Princess…”
Just then Tran signaled from the bridge, [Sir we have located Princess Celestia. She and a few other members of yesterday’s party are with Twilight Sparkle in Ponyville.]
“How far from the target location,” Blaze asked.
[Several Clicks, but enough of a detour to remain within acceptable tolerances,] Tran answered.
“Very well, Sul’Vin is on his way back up to the bridge.” Blaze said before the communications line went dead. Then the Admiral turned to his first officer, “The ship is yours Sul’Vin.”
“Aye sir,” Sul’Vin answered.

“Ah don’t care what you say!” Applejack shouted just as the Admiral’s party beamed in. Most of the Ponyville’s residences were gathered in the town square near Princess Celestia. Applejack and Rarity were closest to the princess, Rarity’s eyes blood read and Applejack looked very alarmed.
Twilight was trying to calm her friends down, but was having little luck. Even brash Rainbow Dash was trying to keep things together, but she too seemed to be failing. When Blaze noticed this, he knew instantly that something was wrong.
“Applejack, please we have been sending search parties in all morning. As I’ve told you before we haven’t found any sign of them.” Princess Celestia soothed.
“That ain’t good enough!” Applejack shouted.
“AJ please, you know we’re trying our hardest.” Twilight said softly.
“Maybe we can be of some assistance?” Blaze said as his team walked up.
Princess Celestia was stunned they had appeared, but then quickly changed her complexion to that of relief. “You people seem to have a good sense of timing.” She said trotting over to them.
“Depends upon what your definition is of good timing,” Gorear answered.
“We registered a reading of unknown origin within the….Everfree forest…last night just after the party.” Blaze explained, “We beamed down to investigate its origin as none of our sensors could identify what it was.”
“Then maybe our interests are aligned.” Princess Celestia explained, “Over the past few weeks, some members of Ponyville have wandered into the forest never to come out. We’ve been sending search team after search team into the forest to locate them…”
“Yea but like they never find anything, and sometimes the teams themselves never come out. It’s really spooky, and I should know a thing or two about spooky since I giggle at ghostlies all the time. But I mean this one is really spooky and now we’ve….” Pinkie Pie cut in before Rainbow shoved her hoof into Pinkie’s mouth.
“Yes and last night three fillies wandered into the forest after trying to recover their paper airplane.” Twilight explained.
“And these were…?” Blaze asked.
“Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo,” Fluttershy asked, “Oh my goodness I’m so worried about them.”
“And I’m not,” Rarity hiccupped, “Oh the horror! To think of what horrible thing my dear sister has run into out there!”
Blaze nodded, despite rolling his eyes at Rarity’s dramatic performance. “Where is the general location these ponies have gone missing?”
Twilight levitated a map over to the Vice Admiral and opened it for him. The moment Blaze read the location, his eye brows rose in surprise. He leaned back to allow Seren and Three read the map.
“Sir,” Three asked, “Isn’t that the spot…”
“Yes it is Three,” Blaze answered, and then he looked at the princess, “It seems our interests are more aligned then I thought.” He then turned the map around to show them the location, “This is the same general location we’ve noticed the object.”
The Princess nodded, “Then I formally ask for your assistance.”
Blaze nodded, “Will do.”

About twenty minutes later, Blaze and his away team were combing their way through the forest along with the six ponies. Twilight had kept Trixie and Spike behind in case of anything major and Dangerous occurring. Princess Celestia also excused herself from joining the investigation, despite not giving a reason. Blaze had his weapon drawn, as did the rest of the team as they combed the forest.
Twilight hung close to Three of Five, despite her un-comfort. Three noticed, “You needn’t worry, I don’t bite.”
“Oh I’m sorry, it’s just you look so….scary compared to the others.” Twilight answered meekly.
Three chuckled, “I figured that Thatak would’ve brought out that reaction, I guess I was wrong.”
There was a moment of silence between the two of them as they walked through a brush. Then Twilight spoke again, “Well then, what are you exactly.”
“I am human,” Three answered immediately, “But, when I was two years old…my family was abducted by the Borg.”
“The who?” Twilight asked.
Three stopped and looked down at Twilight with a surprising smile, “A long story. I’ll explain later if you would like but I feel it necessary that we focus on the journey.”
Twilight nodded as she began to walk again, “Right we should….WHOA!” Just then the purple unicorn disappeared. Three spun around and ran over to where she last saw Twilight. The purple pony had slid down a ramp into an underground tunnel.
“Are you damaged?” Three asked.
Twilight was slow to get up, but she nodded, “Yes I’m fine.”
Three then taped her combadge, “Admiral, I think we found something interesting.”
“We’re on our way.” Blaze answered.

A few minutes later, the whole party had gathered around the opening Twilight had found. Polaris and John had lowered themselves down the ramp and into the tunnel along with Twilight.
“What do you see?” Blaze asked.
“It’s a tunnel of some kind, goes pretty far down here.” John answered.
“Sargent, remain there,” Blaze answered before tapping his combadge, “Johnson to Evans.”
“Go ahead Admiral,” Sul’Vin answered.
“We’ve located a tunnel roughly near the location of the foreign object, we’re going to investigate.” Blaze answered.
“Roger sir, and be careful.” Sul’Vin answered.
One by one, the team and ponies slid down into the long, square tunnel. The walls were black with no light shining in. The only light that came was a dim light down the tunnel, the away team’s flashlights, Rarity’s and Twilight’s magic, and the sun shining through the trees. Once they were down there, a few of them began to move in. Just as they did the roof slid closed with a loud bang.
“Huh,” Blaze said calmly, “Didn’t think it’d do that.”
Fluttershy squealed in terror, “Oh no, are we trapped?”
“Not if I can’t help it!” Gorear said raising his weapon.
“Hold it commander,” John stopped him, “We don’t know what that could do to the tunnel.”
“Sir,” Polaris said, he was standing at the left wall looking at a square that was a different shade of black than the tunnel, “I think I found an access terminal. It’s low on power but I think I might be able to reactivate it and that door.”
“Roger that,” Blaze said. Then he tapped his combadge, “Johnson to Evans.”
There was no reply.
“Johnson to Evans?” Blaze asked again.
Again no reply. Seren brought out her tricorder, “Communications are being jammed, as are most of the tricorder functions. I can’t get a good reading of the tunnel.”
“Guess we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Three you stay with the private. The rest of you come with me, let’s investigate this tunnel.” Blaze said as the group began to walk forwards.
The tunnel seemed to go on forever as they made their way. The walls were bare black and very dimly lit. All eyes were scanning the area around them, but nothing was coming into view. The light in front of them was getting bigger and brighter, it was a tealish green color that barely brightened one room.
“My word, do you think our sisters came through this tunnel?” Rarity asked Applejack.
“Good probability, Ah’m just worried what’s in front of us.” Applejack answered.
“The Answer to our problem.” Blaze answered.
“Oooh look,” Pinkie pie pointed out, “Another tunnel!”
She was right, there was another tunnel linked with this one. It too had a light coming from it in the distance, it was a white light.
“Interesting,” Gorear said.
“Not the type of term I’d use.” Blaze answered, “John check it out.”
“Right, Uhhh Rainbow and Pink come with me.” The Sargent said.
Rainbow saluted while Pinkie smiled brightly. Then the trio headed down the new tunnel while the rest of the party continued down the first one. Soon the main party came upon three rooms, separated by a pillar and a some type of opaque curtain. Blaze ducked his head into one and found nothing. He exited the room to see another hallway adjacent to the far left room.
But Seren wasn’t so fortunate when she looked into the far left one. “Oh god Admiral!” she said.
Just then Fluttershy screamed and Rarity fainted. Blaze headed over into the other room and gasped. “Holy shit,” he said.
Lying on one of the tables was a decapitated Pony, its insides sticking out. Seren approached it gingerly and took bio readings. “Death was almost instantaneous for this one. And it doesn’t match the signatures of the missing fillies.” She said.
“He never felt it?” Applejack asked.
Seren nodded.
Nodding, Blaze ventured back into the first room. Something about it was drawing his attention.
“Sir,” John’s voice came over on the combadge.
It was spotty and hard to hear, but Blaze chimed in, “Go ahead.”
“We’ve found some of the ponies, they’re down in a long, square, rocky pit. Some of them are digging down into the rock, some are gathering the broken rock, and others are overseeing the work. The three missing fillies are apart of them.” John explained.
“Can you make contact?” Blaze asked.
“Negative, they have some type of device on their heads that’s controlling them. I ain’t taking it off without knowing the side effects.” John said.
“Roger.” Blaze answered.

Meanwhile up onboard the Evans, Sul’Vin was trying to break through the interference and find the away team.
“Anything?” he asked Lotar.
“Nothing sir, whatever is blocking communications, I can’t pin it down.” Lotar answered.
Sul’Vin nodded. He was about to give an order with Elal said, “Sir unknown craft coming from behind the moon.”
“Yellow Alert,” Sul’Vin said immediately as he headed over the Captain’s chair, “All hands to alert stations, civilians prepare to move to safety areas.” Once he said down, the alarms were ringing. He then looked at Quells, “Why didn’t we detect it on our initial approach?”
“Debris and spatial anomalies have blocked out sensors.” Quells answered.
“Vessel coming into visual range now.” Thatak shouted.
“On screen.” Sul’Vin said. The screen changed and a shadow was cast into the bridge. Sul’Vin rose from his seat when he saw the craft, his Vulcan face hiding his horrified shock. Quells, Viz, and Lotar gasped when they saw the craft. Thatak was stunned beyond reason when he looked upon it. Even Elal and Tran were mortified to see what they were seeing. Then Sul’Vin gave his order, his voice shaky, “Red Alert.”

Blaze motioned towards one of the walls in the room he was standing in. A cobweb had covered a strangely familiar panel. He brushed his hand over it, removing the cobweb.
“Sir,” Gorear asked poking his head in, “What is it?”
“I’ve seen this before…” Blaze said. Just then he touched the panel, and it activated. The whole tunnel lit up with lights. In that same moment, the walls in the room Blaze was in rose revealing a horrifying sight. In shock and horror, Blaze took a step back before shouting, “EVERONE OUT!”
Seren and Gorear looked alarmed at Blaze’s volume. But just then more walls opened up revealing what he had seen.
“What! What’s going on!” Twilight asked.
Seren screamed as Gorear pulled her, Applejack, and Rarity of out room. Blaze bolted out of his own room faster than he had ever had before. The beings began to fill the room and follow him.
“What are those things!” Fluttershy screamed.
“No time just run!” Blaze answered.
Fluttershy was more than happy to do that as she flew down the tunnel back to the exit. Twilight stood there in horror for a moment before Blaze grabbed her tail. “LETS GO TWILIGHT MOVE IT!” he shouted.
With due haste, the main party tore down the tunnel until they reached the intersection of the other one. John, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie had all raced over to see what was going on.
“Blaze what’s happening!” John asked.
“RUN JOHN,” Blaze answered, “CODE BLUE, CODE BLUE!”
John looked down the hall and saw what approaching. His eyes widened in horror before he too screamed, “RUN, RUN NOW!” Then the full party took off in a flight down the tunnel. The menace several feet behind them.
Finally the party returned to the exit, which Polaris was still trying to open. But both he and Three were surprised to see the party run right at them. “What, what’s going on!” Three asked.
“Shut up and get ready, code blue, code blue!” Blaze shouted pushing the ponies towards the ramp.
Three became alarmed and Polaris gulped as the away team drew their weapons and pointed it down the hall. John literally threw Rainbow dash back on to the ramp with the rest of the ponies shouting, “Stay there! Stay behind us.” Then he dropped to a knee and pointed his rifle down the hall.
The Away team took up a defense potion in a line, three on a knee and two standing. Three began to set up defensive shields in front of the team as footsteps echoed down the hallway slowly becoming louder.
“Polaris, get that door open!” Blaze shouted.
Polaris lowered his weapon and began to work on the door, “On it!”
Twilight motioned up to Blaze, “What’s going on who are they?”
Blaze gulped, steeling himself for the confrontation to come. But he was also readying a good answer for Twilight. “They are everything that we fear, the demons that roam the night in our sleep. Beings that haunt and hunt in a unifying goal. They are the closest thing to pure evil I or anyone else have ever faced, existing without reason or mercy. They are our galaxy’s greatest creation, and greatest threat. They are our greatest enemy…”
“Contact!” shouted Gorear, “Here they come!”
A row of black silhouettes appeared through the light of the tunnel. A row of ten humanoids walking in unison. Red lasers danced around in front of them as they drew closer. Soon the flashlights of the Away team shone upon them as they drew to ten feet from the team. When they reached eight feet, they stopped walking and spoke as one: