Pog looked again at the Borg ship, through the viewscreen. It was huge – at least ten times as tall as his tiny trading vessel, and more than fifty times as long – but it didn't have the cubical shape common to all the Borg ships he'd ever heard of. It was a smaller, flatter craft, probably holding thousands of drones... and it had seen them.
If it actually attacked, Pog knew, they wouldn't have a chance. Their only hope was to flee and hope that they could pass – and outpace – a more tempting target on their way...
“Frem!” he yelled, into his comm. “Why isn't that warp drive working yet?”
* * *
Translator's note: The Borg refer to other species by number only (for example, the Ferengi are referred to as “Species 180”. For ease of reading, all occurrences of the phrase “Species 180” in the following document have been replaced by “Species 180-FERENGI”, and similarly for other species.
NOTES: SPECIES 2187-PONIES
Species 2187-PONIES is subdivided into five known subspecies:
Species 2187-A-ALICORN: Greatly valued as potential Borg drones for their subspace manipulation abilities, flight, weather control abilities, durability, and physical immortality. No currently assimilated specimens. Assimilate with priority A+++.
Species 2187-B-UNICORN: Greatly valued as potential Borg drones for their subspace manipulation abilities. No currently assimilated specimens. Assimilate with priority A+.
Species 2187-C-PEGASUS: Greatly valued as potential Borg drones for their flight and weather control abilities. No currently assimilated specimens. Assimilate with priority A.
Species 2187-D-NEGASUS: Greatly valued as potential Borg drones for their flight and weather control abilities. No currently assimilated specimens. Assimilate with priority A.
Species 2187-E-EARTH-PONY: Greatly valued as Borg drones for the possibility that Species 2187-A-ALICORN, Species 2187-B-UNICORN, Species 2187-C-PEGASUS or Species 2187-D-NEGASUS DNA can be extrapolated from their genetic information; and for their physical strength. No currently assimilated specimens. Assimilate with priority A-.
ASSIMILATION LOG: SPECIES 2187-PONIES
ATTEMPT I: Foiled by class-Q entity Disqord
ATTEMPT II: Foiled by time-travelling entity Dr. Whooves
ATTEMPT III: Foiled by Species 2187-A-ALICORN entity Princess Celestia
ATTEMPT IV: Commencing: Examples of Species 2187-B-UNICORN, Species 2187-C-PEGASUS, and Species 2187-E-EARTH-PONY successfully lured off-planet.
Class-Q entity Disqord: ABSENT
Time-travelling entity Dr. Whooves: ABSENT
Species 2187-A-ALICORN entity Princess Celestia: ABSENT
Note: Examples of Species 2187-B-UNICORN, Species 2187-C-PEGASUS, and Species 2187-E-EARTH-PONY are present only in very small numbers, and the ship in which they are travelling is small and fragile. The assimilation process must therefore take more care than usual, to ensure that specimens are not unduly harmed prior to full assimilation.
Two members of Species 180-FERENGI are also present. Species 180-FERENGI only has an assimilation priority of C---. Damage to, or failure to assimilate, these specimens is acceptable.
No other species in this area of space have an assimilation priority greater than B-.
* * *
“The focusing crystals look untouched!” Frem said. “Whatever those prisoners did, must have been really subtle. I'm going to have to refocus them manually, and that'll take -”
“No time!” argued Pog's voice, from the communication link. “They look fine, great, I'm turning the warp dive back on again!”
Frem screamed in frustration. “If the focusing crystals aren't properly aligned we'll all die! And we've been running at a loss!”
“We're worse than dead if we stay here!” objected Pog, as the warp drive warmed up.
“What, why?” asked Frem.
“Borg.” said Pog.
Frem screamed louder, this time in fear. He started flicking off the safety switches, allowing the warp drive's power curve to rise at dangerously unsafe speeds...
And it was at this point that the Borg probe's beam hit. It did no physical damage to the ship, but the warp core suddenly lost all power, and the ship was forced to switch to emergency power; barely enough to keep life support, lights, and artificial gravity running.
* * *
*CLANG!*
The grating shook as something hit it, hard, from the inside. It dented, but it held.
*CLANG!*
*CLANG!*
On the third kick, the grating finally flew from the wall, the latches that had held it in place finally giving way and snapping. A pair of small yellow hooves drew themselves back into the gap, and after a moment, a small yellow filly's head appeared in its place.
“So?” asked Sweetie Belle, from further in the duct.
“Ah dunno.” said Applebloom. “It looks like someone's room. There's a door, but Ah can't see if it'll open or not.”
“Well, go and see!” called out Scootaloo, from further in. “I'm sick and tired of this air duct!”
“Ah dunno if Ah'd be able ta get back in here.” said Applebloom. “It's quite a bit down...”
“Oh, come on!” objected Scootaloo. “This air duct is horrible! Anywhere would be better than being stuck in here!”
“Yeah,” said Applebloom, “but at least here, we got a way ta move on. If we can't get back in here, we might not be able ta get outta that room. An' then we'd be stuck. Ah say we go on ta the next one, an' try there first.”
There was some muttering from inside the tunnel, and then Scootaloo's voice said “I vote that as soon as we get a place with a bit more space, we make Applebloom go in front.”
“Yeah,” agreed Applebloom, “that would probably be better.”
“Hey,” said Scootaloo, “did anypony else notice that the breeze stopped?”
* * *
There was a clatter in the cells as a pile of wood re-formed into a timberwolf. With a snarl, it leapt at the space where a forcefield had been...
...but the forcefields were not powered by emergency power. The Borg's beam weapon had drained them.
For the first time since appearing on the ship, the timberwolf completed its leap, landing in the corridor. It howled triumphantly, and then looked about at the wider spaces now open to it.
Scent... there was the scent of delicious ponies in the air. They had left some time ago, but the scent trail led... that way.
As the timberwolf trotted past the cell that had once held the changeling (on its left), there was a growl to its right. The timberwolf turned to look, and met the gaze of a fearsome manticore.
Caution was evidently advised. A manticore was one of the creatures capable of knocking a lone timberwolf into kindling with relative ease, after all. But, for some reason, this particular manticore seemed unwilling to step out of its cell(1).
The ponies' scent trail didn't lead into the manticore's cell. With a cautious growl, the timberwolf began to shuffle along the corridor after the delicious scent, hoping to bypass the manticore. Both animals tensed up, ready to fight or flee at the slightest provocation...
It was at this point that, without warning, a Borg drone teleported into the corridor; several metres away from the timberwolf.
(1) The manticore had only had to walk into the forcefield three times to learn to avoid it. Unfortunately for it, this meant that once the forcefield was down, the manticore was still trying to avoid it.
oh that poor poor drone and Timberwolf
the Borg don't know about dragons or manticores or changelings
Still let me say I hope no gets assimilated
3556180 Let's see how well Borg forcefields protect against manticore claws, fangs, or stingers. >:)
How do Borg assimilate energy-formed Timberwolves??
They don't.
Poor drone.
Oh, and the CMC plus others are saved The Borg are practicing caution remember? Enough time for Twilight and crew to turn up, hopefully!!
.....I wonder what Elements of Harmony + Borg ship looks like.
Yeah, kinda hard to adapt to getting a star dropped on your head.
Now I need to see the Daleks vs Cybermen vs the Borg, especially since as the Borg has stated no one on the list is available to stop them from before so we need an intergalactic/dimensional/temporal showdown
3556180
Timberwolves are hard to kill. Permanently, I mean.
3556694
dun dun dun DUN!
The Borg may be better informed than you think...
3558231
Indeed. One would have to see.
3559205
Of course, that doesn't apply to the manticore. And it's not as if assimilation is all the Borg can do.
They're going to just sit around and not assimilate the CMC for three whole days while the Elements catch up?
I'm thinking lots and lots of rainbows.
3559374
It would be hard. But that's not how she stopped them.
3560574
That would be an interesting three-way showdown. The Borg can probably assimilate either other side; the Daleks would be horrified at the thought of inferior (i.e. non-Dalek) technology polluting their pristine selves; the Cybermen would probably note the similarities between what they do and what the Borg do, probably further note the physical improvements caused by assimilation, and might even start politely queueing up outside the Borg cube for orderly assimilation. (Only to be scattered when the Daleks attack, of course).
The Daleks would get even more upset when the Borg start adapting to their weapons...
3560574
AGREED!!!!!!!!
For the love of Arcelestia, AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Arcelestia= the Pokemon God, Arceus + Celestia.)
3561835
Well there IS Species 8472 whom they were never able to assimilate despite Captain Janeway letting them in on Species 8472's weakness. So assuming, in this period of time, that Picard is still Captain of the 'Enterprise 1701-D' ship and Voyager is still close to its third year in the Delta Quadrant, the Borg don't have this capability.
Extremely doubtful. Especially if the Borg just, you know, block her subspace abilities the same way any Star Trek faction can block subspace stuff (probably at range, too, since they're the Borg and therefore a living plot device with all the power that entails). Or just, you know, shoot her with a ship's phaser set to wide-area stun. Occam's Razor.
6560204
The Borg have been foiled by perfectly ordinary humans as well before. They don't have any magic at all. Removing Celestia's magic isn't an auto-win button...
What's a negasus? A bat pony?
6649282 Yes... probably not the best name.
I give an 80% on the Borg report of assimilation attempts. They would be more efficient in their words.
Also, the creatures I'm the brig, that should be interesting to see how that plays out.
"negasus"
Seems they didn't detect Dawn. Wonder why...