> Star Trek Online: A Larger World
>  by Admiral Wyatt Stone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter I: The War's Events
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stardate: 4033.8 (2268 A.D.)


Sol System


The stars shined brightly over the human homeworld as ships zapped in and out of sight near the primitive, light-filled body of Earth, Class-F shuttles passing by the larger capital ships and structures as they continued onward toward their designated paths. Several vessels, ranging from small Pioneer class utility frigates to large battlecruisers and dreadnoughts, some varying from the Ranger class and the near retiring Federation class starships, flew by and away from the ESD as they performed their duties. 

The starbase itself was much smaller in size when compared to the colossal ESD of the 24th-25th centuries, it also had a short, wide cylindrical section that served as the main section of the station, sporting a small command dome on top and on one side a force field-protected shuttlebay. Below it was a much less wider, taller cylinder, more like a column if you take away the other sections, which held onto the secondary cylindrical section, which was more wider but still smaller than the main section of the station, below that a small section that shortened in width as it continued down the hull.

As a small patrol group was making their way to the warp-out point, another vessel blinked into the system with a flash of light and retaining the normal visual shape and length as it entered it's home sector. The ship was one of the famous Constitution class starships that was currently in service in the time period, with minor differences such as small spots of wear and tear on unrepaired parts of the hull, as if the ship, despite being polished for her new mission, was centuries old. On the saucer was two rows of texts that revealed the ship's name and registry, "U.S.S. Amarillo NCC-1976". Only a second later did a sister ship arrive near the cruiser, on it's top front hull plating was the text: "U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701". Another temporal incident had  once again led to the rescue of the famous flagship, the Amarillo, a new ship requested into service by Admiral Wyatt and his crew, was able to intercept and thwart the attempted tampering of the timeline before anything could go wrong. Not only that, but an earlier incident involving the famous Babel conference had nearly gotten Captain Kirk killed, had it not been for Temporal officers Chekov, Daniels, and Wyatt, who at the time was recently appointed, the Enterprise would've been destroyed by a Na'kuhl bomb and the conference would've been a failure. The Temporal Cold War was getting out of hand, having to deal with marauders and yesteryear's Klingons wasn't an easy task, and now with the death of a Tholian Queen and the loss of U.S.S. Defiant, history would take a turn for the worse.


On the bridge of the Amarillo, Admiral Wyatt, who had recently switched his usual attire with one of the 23rd Century's Starfleet command tunics, sat in the chair of his antique starship as Earth Spacedock came closer towards the viewscreen, a moment later, he turned towards his Female Andorian officer, Ensign Tarsi, as she spoke up with information. "Captain, Spacedock has granted permission to beam aboard, as a matter of fact, Admiral Garret wishes to see you in his office."


"Good," the Admiral replied. "let Captain Kirk know I'll be beaming down, and I'll speak with his crewmates after my debriefing. Also, Agen Daniels has asked all of you to join me at a private booth in the bar. Understood?" The crew nodded to him before he finished. "Excellent, I'll contact Tarsi when the word is given, until then, get everything set." The Admiral then turned to the turbolift and flipped the switch inside the lift before the doors closed, sending him to his destination within the ship....


~Earth Spacedock~


As the bar doors opened, Wyatt could hear the loud chatter throughout the entire room that was the bar, officers sitting, drinking, and chatting as they relaxed from their duties. At least these people were fortunate enough to be away from the war for the Timeline, at least until they were killed and most likely recruited as Temporal agents like his ancient crew would soon be. Had the original officer not been murdered by a Krenim assassin weeks before he joined the crew of his new frigate, the Kali, he might've never gotten such an honor now. He could only hope to make that officer proud like the rest of the war's casualties, but dragging himself away from depressing knowledge, he grew a smile as he noticed Enterprise officers Ensign Pavel Chekov and Lieutenant Montgomery Scott sitting near the front of the bar. He walked and sat near the two to have a chat. "So, I hear we're having a blast of Whiskey after the trouble we went through with the Klingons." 


Scotty chuckled before he answered. "Aye lad, we've already laid one on for you, those devils won't be ruining the fun for us."


"And they won't believe how many furballs we've put into their cargo holds that they'll have to deal with." Chekov finished, and the trio laughed a bit before Wyatt had started.


"Yes, I might as well stay as long as I can, I have a meeting with Admiral Garret in his office, once I'm done, I'll be down here. It shouldn't take long." The two men nodded before Scotty finished the chat.


"The fun won't be here forever, be as quick as you can." Wyatt smiled before turning towards the turbolift and standing inside. As the doors closed, he pulled the lever inside the small space and waited for the lift to cease. Upon the lift stopping and the doors opening, the Admiral stepped out of the lift and moved towards the desk of Garret's office. The room was a decent size for an office, behind the Admiral was a set of three windows revealing the view in orbit over Earth, on the left wall was a flag of the Federation, colored in red and the letters; "U.F.P." were visible on the center of it. The left wall had a picture of the primitive Daedalus class soaring the sea of space in a wondrous purple and green nebula containing an earth-like planet, on Garret's desk was a few unchecked PADDS, a computer to contact others on the station and on Earth, and a gold-colored model of his newest ship, the U.S.S. Yorktown NCC-1717 near his computer. Near the desk was Garret himself, some of Wyatt's new officers, Tarsi, Micah, T'Met, and surprisingly, Agent Daniels. Wyatt nearly stopped in his tracks at the sight of his time-travelling friend, but kept walking toward the table and standing with his officers as he thought to himself, "Why is he here? I didn't get word that Daniels would be involved in this..." 


Garret was the one to break the silence as everyone listened. "Thank you all for coming so soon, I apologize for not informing you of your friend here, Admiral," Tarsi looked at Wyatt before Garret continued. "he wanted to speak to me privately before you came back. Nonetheless, your friend here wishes to discuss something." The group turned to Daniels before he started. "Yes, forgive me for not explaining sooner than I am, I know that you haven't known about Wyatt much since the incident at Taurus II, but he is actually from a later point in time, specifically the 25th Century, and I've brought him here because, as I've revealed to Admiral Garret, the officer you all would've come to know was murdered by a temporal assassin." Wyatt's crewmen gasped silently before Daniels continued. "If I hadn't brought Wyatt here sooner, the Timeline would've been altered forever, and as temporal agents we can't let that happen. I'm also telling you this because, according to the temporal records..." He looked to Wyatt's crewmen before speaking. "you unfortunately meet a tragic end at Caleb IV." The crew gave shocked and saddened looks before Wyatt spoke up. 


"I've been allowed to witness the records, and according to the archives, the Kali was lost in a battle in that system." 


As Wyatt turned to Daniels, the rest of the group looked to him as he spoke. "Yes, and we've decided that you'd make excellent recruits for the Temporal Division, so we wanted to inform you of this news now so that we can get your decision, besides, there's a lot more of the story than I'm telling." 


The crewmen looked to Wyatt before he spoke up. "I'd agree with him, better to be defending history than be dead and merely watching."


The group looked to Garret, then each of them thought for a moment before they turned and Tarsi answered. "Well, since I'd like to have a longer life than history intends me to, I think we can all agree when we say we'll join in. I think those vampires need some payback for what they did to K-13."


Daniels smiled as he replied. "Thank you, once the battle at Caleb is taken care of, we'll send you to the New Khitomer in the 28th Century, there you'll learn all you need to know about the past events and what's happening so far. Mr. Garret, I appreciate your involvement in this matter, just one note, this is to be classified even beyond Starfleet's highest authority." 


Garret nodded after he finished, and spoke to Wyatt upon turning to him. "I'm glad you're keeping the timeline safe, Admiral, just wish we could work together more often after Caleb. Good luck out there, meet with the task force once you depart."


"Understood, and by the way, I think this won't be the last time we see each other, as long as the war lasts, we've got plenty of chances." Wyatt replied as Garret nodded and Wyatt walked to the turbolift along with Tarsi. As they went down, Tarsi looked to her C.O. and spoke.


"So, after our training, are we heading to your timeline, I heard that you have another crew on your hands?"


Wyatt smirked as he answered. "Certainly, I think we could have some new members to have as a part of the family, but first, get the crew ready, I promised Scotty that I'd be there for a drink before our departure."


"Aye sir, we'll be ready by the time you're done, count on it." With that said, the two stood in the turbolift as it went down to the bar, seconds passing as they waited for fate to lead them to face death and passing their lives in the 23rd Century... 


~2410, Equis System, 3 weeks later~


The morning was blooming with life as another peaceful day in Equestria had arose, birds slowly but surely filled the skies above and ponies filled the towns and cities across the land, Canterlot especially was bustling with life as the day started, not all of it, however, was involving peaceful matters. In only about 5 months after the Terran incident over the equine world, alliances between Canterlot and many other neutral and enemy governments and groups had changed so much, thanks to Wyatt's risky efforts at restoring power to the Sacramento during the battle, the Changeling kingdom, after hearing the news, came to offer a truce to their now former enemies, and even mentioned a few things about a "traitor" near the Crystal Empire, a Changeling named Thorax who became good friends with Spike, was soon allowed into the Empire to make friends, had it not been for Starfleet's diplomatic assistance as well, things would've gone worse for the poor Changeling soon after. Not only the Changelings, but the Dragons, who have recently appointed former Princess Ember as their new leader, or "Dragon Lord", have been getting involved in the talks thanks to Spike's assistance to get Ember to be a leader, but while new allies benefits the situation, the war has gotten worse overtime, the Na'kuhl have been attacking key points in Federation history, with the incident in WWII being thwarted by Captain Archer and the Enterprise NX-01. The Terran Empire has recently been reported for destroying the I.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 and I.S.S. Reliant during the Battle at Mutara and stealing the Genesis Device to use against the Klingon Empire in their universe, had it not been for David Marcus' mirror counterpart, the I.S.S. Pastak would've gotten away and caused more trouble. But most troubling is Krenim Rebellion led by Noye, they've recently caused trouble alongside the Na'kuhl in the 23rd Century, they attempted to get the Romulans of that time period to use a Planet Killer to attack neighboring empires, but thanks to the crew of the newly launched U.S.S. Amarillo, the plan failed and the Doomsday Machine crashed on the surface of the Galorndon Core, saving countless lives. 


But events of the Temporal Cold War have gone as far as to involving the inhabitants of Equestria, several attacks have been stopped by Alliance forces recently, but the enemy hasn't run out of rocks to throw at them, and because of these attacks, the city of Canterlot has planned to host a conference involving the war, Princess Twilight and her friends, Admiral Stone and his crew, President Okeg, and several other Alliance diplomats have been called to discuss their next moves. The conference room was rather Twilight's own conference room where she and her friends would discuss friendship problems throughout Equestria, however the room had some minor changes, a few new flags, a total of 7, were placed within the room, on the left side were two flags with the symbol of Twilight's cutie mark, the three in the back side of the room were Alliance flags, the first being one of the Federation symbol, the second being Klingon, and the third a Romulan flag. Instead of one table with six seats, there were now five smaller tables each with six seats and several refreshments, which consisted of Romulan Ale, apple cider, cakes courtesy of Pinkie Pie and the Cakes, and many other different foods. 


Sitting near Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, the group had began their discussion as they took a few drinks of Romulan Ale, Twilight was the first to speak. "I'm glad to see you in one piece, Cadence, things haven't been going well for the war."


Cadence replied with a frown on her muzzle. "So I've heard, we've recently been building our first ships with the help of Starfleet, and yet we still can't get them to stop, and I'm worried that they could reach us and harm our people." She looked to Shining Armor as he spoke up.


"Yes, while Starfleet's technology is quite superior, some of us are still trying to get the hang of how it works, making modifications to it isn't too much, but my boys haven't handled much if anything of advanced technology, and constant attacks from the Na'kuhl aren't helping out much." He looked down with a grim expression on his face as Celestia started.


"The good news is that we'll be having assistance from experts on how to use our new ships, and even better, we have some new friends who wish to assist, at least I hope they do." The Princess said with a smile as she tried to brighten up the mood.


Wyatt then spoke up about his news that would hopefully bring a happier mood to the group. "Another thing is that I've gotten some of my guys and some Equestrian engineers to work on newer starship designs and I think we came up with something." He pulled out a small device before touching a button on it, causing it to project a small hologram of a starship. The ship seemed to resemble a Constitution class by its shape, but the look of it was a bit different, most of the hull had more of a dark gold color, with a arc above the saucer held by about five pylons that extended out, on the arc were about five spherical gems and blue crystals placed in positions corresponding with each pylon below the arc, the secondary hull seemed a bit more curved and looked to be one whole section rather than a neck and a cylinder-like section, the deflector dish instead being a turquoise orb, with curved pylons that served as the wings, on top of those were large nacelles, mostly in a dark blue color, being held by the pylons. 


"Wyatt gave a smirk as he looked to the marvelous ship in front of his face as he spoke. "The Star Trotter, she's supposed to be an exploration vessel like the Galaxy, but with a design inspired by the Constitution class ships. She also has some new weapons and different power resources, beam arrays made of magic, torpedoes built to penetrate shields on any frequency, she's got quite gear needed for the job. Unfortunately, she's still not ready for launch just yet, but in about 3 more months at most, she should be ready to sail the stars."


Rarity gave an adoring look towards the hologram vessel and responded. "She sure seems like it, with a ship like that on the front lines, they'll never be able to stop us."


The group kept admiring and commenting on the prototype in front of them before a noise stopped their conversation and made them turn to see who it was making the noise. In front of them, an equine as tall as Princess Celestia with holes in her hooves and horn and dark green, reflective hair and a tail sporting the same details stood near them, along with light green eyes. Next to her, a cyan dragon with dark blue diamond-shaped markings on her body and red colored eyes, and a normal sized equine with similar details to the taller one near him, except no hair on his mane or tail and both of his eyes were completely colored in green.


After clearing her throat, the tall changeling known by many as Queen Chrysalis was the first to ask the group. "Am I interrupting something?" The group shook their heads and Twilight pulled a seat for the Changeling Queen and offered two more for the dragon and the Changeling minion. Chrysalis started again as she got comfortable. "So, I hear this "Temporal War" we've been going through threatens all of Equestria and its neighbors?" 


Twilight answered her question in disappointment. "Yes, I've been fighting alongside our allies recently, and it's not going well, we've lost over 40 ships during the last confrontation, and I've recently gotten word from my friend here that Starbase K-13 in the 23rd Century was lost in a time portal activated by the Na'kuhl, one of the enemies we're fighting. The good news is that the many times they've tried to alter the timeline, specifically trying to destroy several 23rd Century Federation starbases with a planet killer, Wyatt and I managed to prevent any further trouble from them, had it not been for a heroic officer in that time period, Montgomery Scott."


Chrysalis nodded before rethinking the Princess' words and taking a look at her friend that she mentioned, after a moment, she recognized the stallion. "I believe you sir are the one who saved my hive and many others months ago?"


Twilight nearly cringed at the memories of that fateful battle, but Wyatt bore no hesitation as he answered. "Yes, you're correct on that, your highness, and if it wasn't for Princess Celestia here, I wouldn't be sitting here today."


Chrysalis immediately grew a confused and worried look as she turned to Celestia, who explained to her what had happened. "Yes, you see, after a risky ramming attempt that led to the destruction of the Terran superweapon in orbit, the ship we were on soon died of power and we were falling towards the surface. Before we could crash, however, Wyatt nearly sacrificed himself for us by going into a plasma-filled power control room and fixing the power in time for us to lift up and keep a position over your hive, and by the time we made it down to the control room, he was already suffering from plasma radiation."


Twilight couldn't hide her expression now, making the Changeling Queen look to her in worry. "Twilight, is there something wrong?"


The mare in question steadied herself before answering. "...No, it's just that, before that battle, Wyatt here had not only saved my friends and I when we disappeared from here, but he taught me everything I needed to know in Starfleet, and I... I had to watch him suffer like that, tears in my eyes as we spoke for what I thought would've been the last time, had it not been for Celestia."


Chrysalis and her two companions took a minute to understand Twilight's pain before she replied. "That.. sounds quite traumatic to see."


"Yes..... but, putting that aside..." She shook herself up before turning to Wyatt, who then spoke up.


"Ah, yes, I also wanted to say that it's an honor to meet you, your highness, I've heard of several feats you and your subjects have made."


Chrysalis looked down and back up to the group before answering. "Yes, but my hive and I intend to make better ones compared to the ones that've happened recently," She gave an apologetic look to Cadence, who to her surprise, gave an understanding smile. She'd remembered what she'd done to Cadence's wedding from some time ago, posing as her and threatening to take control of Canterlot, it was once one of Chrysalis' most exciting memories, but now, she thought of it as a terrible mistake that no one could forgive her for. "as of now, I've learned a thing or two from some of your friends here, and after all that's happened, and some important words from my friend here, I intend to change my ways, and I hope my hive can agree on that."


Chrysalis looked to her mentioned friend as she began. "Ah, yes, my name is Ember, Dragon Lord of the Dragon Lands. It's an honor to meet you, Admiral."


"I feel the same way meeting you, your majesty, I heard you we're successful in competing for the torch to be Dragon Lord, quite a role to have." He said as they acknowledged their statements, although Wyatt had heard of what really happened at the event, he didn't want to reveal the truth to the group in hopes of not causing an argument or something worse to happen.


"Yes, it was, in my opinion, a mere test for my skills, but I prevailed easily, I've heard of your adventures as well, Admiral, if it wasn't for your most recent victory, all of Equestria would be lost to the Terran Empire." 


Wyatt took a moment to hear her statement before replying. "Indeed, and now with an alliance between all of us, the Empire can't break our bones anymore." Everyone smiled at that fact before the Admiral noticed the familiar Changeling near Ember, and started to speak again. "So, how's it going with the rest of Canterlot and the Crystal Empire, Thorax?"


The Changeling's ears flicked a little upon hearing Wyatt's question, and he looked to him as he started. "Oh yeah, some of the townsponies were a little worried at first, but when word got out that I was a rogue and that Spike befriended me, things began to calm down. I've recently just made friends with a few fillies at a nearby school this morning, they almost crushed me 'cause they were excited to see me, but the teacher calmed them down, and I wasn't hurt either, a little dazed at worst." The group chuckled a bit and Cadence spoke up after they stopped. 


"Yep, kids do go a bit crazy sometimes, at least Flurry Heart wasn't there, she still has to keep control of her magic." 


"So I've heard." The group chuckled some more until a ding-ding sounded, forcing them to look and see the Alliance diplomats arriving, President Okeg of the Federation, Chancellor J'mpok of the Klingon Empire, and D'Tan of the Romulan Republic. The three of them each walked to their positions and shook hands with other diplomats in the room.


"Well, it appears our time to do our part is now, if you'll excuse us." Celestia said to the group, who all nodded as she, Chrysalis, and Ember made their way to the platform.


A bartender carrying a plate of 5 glasses of Romulan Ale trotted towards Twilight's group and asked them, "Does anypony want some more ale?"


Cadence was the first to answer. "Yes, please." Thorax slightly raised a hoof as well as Wyatt, after the drinks were set down, the bartender left out the entrance door of the conference room. Cadence took a sip of her drink before turning to the Alliance leaders, her aunt now standing alongside them.


Once everyone was settled in the room, President Okeg was the first to speak. "Members of the Alliance, respected leaders of Equestria, honored guests, a grave storm looms over us all, one so dangerous it threatens history itself, and to stop it, we must put our grudges aside and unite under a common goal." The crowd looked shocked as Okeg continued. "Today, we've called upon our newest allies to assert our plan to protect the timestream, Queen Chrysalis of the Changeling Kingdom and Dragon Lord Ember of the Dragon Lands. With their help, we can stop Noye from destroying history as we know it." He looked to Celestia and waited for her to start. 


"Yes, the battle with the Terran Empire was only the first we've seen of the dangers in the stars, and with the Temporal Cold War happening at this moment, we'll need to clear this mess with those who threaten to change history." The crowd gave approving cheers and smiles for a moment before Celestia spoke once more. "Today, we'll announce the plans and tactics Chrysalis and Ember have set up, and inform you all of several ne-"


There was a noise that stole the room's attention, it sounded normal, but then changed to something horrid, somepony was coughing badly in the audience. Most of the crowd was looking around the room, wondering who was interrupting the Princess' speech. Twilight was the first to notice, however, the coughing was next to her, forcing her to turn around and see Cadence, giving a painful look on her face, she seemed to be choking on something, what it was, she didn't know. Worried, she looked to her sister-in-law. "Cadence?" She didn't respond, but her coughing became worse, she started to stand out of the chair, coughing for a moment longer until she collapsed to the ground, her coughing ceasing as she fell unconscious. 


The room was full of gasps and screams of terror as they looked down at the unmoving Princess, Shining Armor kneeling at her side as Twilight let out a yelp before speaking. "Cadence!" 


Wyatt gave a gasp and not a second later after Twilight's cry of worry did he pull out his communicator. "Stone to Chestnut, medical emergency!"


Fluttershy pulled out her tricorder and quickly made her way to Cadence, who still lay unmoving. She waved the device over her before letting out a terrified squeal. "S-sweet Celestia, there's a toxin flowing in her blood streams, she's been poisoned!"


The room was even louder as ponies let out terrified screams, Shining looked up to the table and saw the glass of Ale that his wife drank, growing a frown, he looked to one of the nearby guards. "You, head to the kitchen, see if you can find the one who poisoned the Princess!" The guard nodded and quickly made his way to the kitchen.


Chrysalis also called in one of her minions, he arrived a second later before she ordered, "I need you to help that guard in finding the assassin, quickly!" The minion saluted and quickly flew past the gates to assist the guard.


Twilight looked down at Cadence, she gave a worried frown before hearing a transporter beam sounding, four officers appearing seconds later. Twilight then looked to Fluttershy, who was scared the most at Cadence's body lying on the floor, and trotted to her and asked, "Can we save her, Fluttershy?!" 


"I believe so, b-but you'll need to hurry!" Twilight nodded before trotting up to her brother and speaking to him.


"Shining, Fluttershy thinks we can save her, but we need to act fast, can Wyatt beam her to your ship to fix her up?" Shining nodded and started to speak to the medics, but they already heard what the Princess said.


"Don't worry, Captain, we'll make sure your wife's okay." Twilight and Shining nodded before the crewman pulled out his communicator and spoke once more. "McCarthy to Chestnut, five to transport." The four officers and Cadence's body were surrounded by blue particles before they all disappeared, not a trace left.


Above the conference room, a small cylinder like tube faintly stuck out of the openings in the upper walls, through a scope on top of the tube, a grey humanoid with red eyes kept his focus on the crowd, after taking a good look, he spotted his target, he focused his scope on the purple winged and horned equine in the middle of the crowd and steadied his weapon, prepping for the right shot.


In the crowd, Flash had turned to look at Twilight, and upon seeing her noticed a small green dot on her head. Immediately, he lunged towards Twilight and screamed, "Twilight LOOK OUT!!!" Letting out a squeal, the two fell on the ground and not a second later did the shot go off, hitting Rarity's tail and forcing a shriek of terror from the fashionista. The room also quickly became full of screaming and panic, ponies looked around the room for where the shot came from, Flash, after helping Twilight up, quickly looked up to where the shot sounded and noticed a grey humanoid getting up and running past the halls. "Up there! Don't let him get away!" Twilight, Wyatt and the rest of their group looked to see the assassin attempting to make his escape. They all grew furious frowns and expressions, Shining Armor gritting his teeth as he found his wife's assailant, and they all ran out the door after him. 


Chrysalis let out one last order before she followed them. "Guards, stop that assassin, he's escaping to the top floor! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!"


On the upper floor, the assassin kept his pace, looking swiftly for an exit or a place to hide, he heard footsteps behind him as he made his way up the building. As he ran, however, a green flash appeared before revealing Chrysalis, who attempted to stop him with her magic, but instead got pummeled by the alien. She gained hold of him with her hooves but the assassin was quick with his fists and struck a painful punch on Chrysalis' face, stunning her and causing her to let out a growl. By the time he was free, though, the group had already caught up with him. He threw out a device, and after it activated, Twilight tried to stop him with a freezing spell, but her horn merely sputtered dead energy. "He's using some kind of magic inhibitor, I can't stop him with my magic!" 


As quick as he threw the device, he pulled out a plasma blade and deflected any shots the rest of the group had fired at him, Wyatt put away his phaser and pulled out his Bat'leth and the two fought for a moment, the blades clashed several times before Wyatt kicked the assassin, stunning him and then swiping his blade down on the plasma weapon, slicing it in half. He then made another kick to the alien and knocked him against the wall, but before he could get up, the Admiral placed the blade at his throat, breathing heavily as he warned him. "I'd suggest keeping your ass on the floor if you want to live." 


The group quickly surrounded him, keeping him pinned to the wall with angry faces and weapons pointed at him. "Disarm him." Kapor and Nelen did so and removed every suspicious piece of tech on him. The group then let some of their guard down but kept a sharp eye on the Na'kuhl officer, who spoke up furiously.


"Alliance scum, once again, you're meddling in the affairs of innocence, alien!" The Na'kuhl gritted his teeth viciously at the Admiral before Twilight retaliated.


"Meddling? You're the one who ruined our conference!" She yelled with a furious face as the alien responded.


"Ugh.... fools, just like the Alliance, first you change time, and now you're squabbling with affairs in other realms. Noye was right to fight you, look what harm has come to your 'new friends'."


Shining Armor grabbed the alien by his chest with a hoof before he furiously growled to him. "So you think Wyatt and his friends were the one who poisoned my wife? Yeah, I'm stupid enough to hear the words of an alien who tried to take my sister's life!"


"Captain, I don't think now is the time." Flash said in an attempt to calm his Commanding Officer down, after hearing him, he held him for a second before tossing him back to the wall. 


While Chrysalis kept her glare on the Na'kuhl along with another low growl, Wyatt heard his communicator beep and he pulled it out of his pocket. "Yes?"


Elisa's voice sounded from the small device. "Elisa here, sir, we've just picked up a ship arriving in orbit, it's the U.S.S. Pastak, they say Captain Walker should be down there any second."


"Understood, how's Cadence?" Shining Armor looked at the Admiral upon that sentence.


"She's alive, but still unconscious. She should make a full recovery in a few hours."


Smiling, Wyatt finished as a blue transporter beam appeared nearby. "Thanks, also, I think Chrysalis may need a medic, she took a punch to the face from our 'friend' down here."


"Understood, Elisa out." With that, Wyatt put away the communicator and looked to the now present Captain Benjamin Walker, who was standing with a pair of security officers behind him.


"Ah, I see the culprit's been caught." Walker said as he walked towards the group. 


"Yes, he put up a fight until we broke his sword, he gave Chrysalis here a bit of an injury, but nothing else." Walker nodded before he continued.


"Yes, obviously he was attempting to stop this Alliance from happening, fortunately, though, with you all working together, the enemy will have more problems to worry about. Assassinating Cadence and Twilight would've taken away most of the peace, and they were also hoping that killing them both might start something between Shining and the Changelings again." Shining let a very low, but audible growl at the alien before Thorax replied.


"Well, he's lucky we didn't start picking on each other, I already want to beat him to a pulp for what he did to Cadence and what he nearly did to Twilight!" He said as a began to glare on the Na'kuhl.


"My officers and I will see if we can find his ship, then we'll be on our way." Wyatt nodded before shining spoke up.


"Captain Walker, with your permission, I'd like to put this monster in the dungeon for a while, I think he deserves some good treatment from a bunch of timberwolves, if you know what I mean."


Walker nodded and replied. "Do what you wish with him." He then turned to Wyatt as he finished. "When we find his ship, we'll come back to let you know before we head out." Wyatt nodded before Walker and his guards walked down the other way down the hall to find the shuttle the assassin used to arrive down on the planet.


Shining looked to Chrysalis before asking her, "Your majesty, if you'd like, I can let him be a beating bag for you if you wish." 


She gave a smirk before answering. "Gladly, I think he needs more than timberwolves for what he did to my face." The Na'kuhl merely frowned over the torture that awaited him in the dungeon.


Flash saw the two guards they'd summoned to the kitchen earlier, who stopped when they saw their target before Flash spoke. "You two," He looked to Shining and Chrysalis, who merely nodded to him before he continued. "Take this prisoner down to the dungeon, if you would. He's gonna be there for quite some time." The two saluted and carried the assassin up after putting cuffs on him, taking him down the hallway. 


Once they left, Twilight looked to Wyatt before she spoke. "I hope everyone down there is okay, we should get back down there."


"Yeah, they're most likely wondering if we're still alive." With that said, the group walked back down the way they came, prepping themselves for the conference. They'd just hoped that there wouldn't be any more trouble from temporal assassins for the rest of the conference, because this assassination attempt was the first of what they'd expected to see for the rest of the war....
> Chapter II: Forgotten Friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unknown Realm

"Human World"

2 hours after the conference...


The sun was shining brightly over the planet, the city below bustling with noise and life as evening was near. Cars were being pulled out of driveways and people and students were walking out of their workplaces and schools and back to their homes, not a single troublesome thing was happening today, within the city, a large school was shutting down for the day, the main building was a brownish color with dark turquoise windows, as well as a dome on top of the school with a golden statue resting atop the dome. At the front of the school was a statue of a horse, as well as another to the left of that one of a golden horseshoe. At this time of the day, students were exiting out the front doors of the school for the day, Vice Principal Luna could be seen also leaving the school with no trouble from the students at all as she made her way home.


Inside the school, the hallways were still bustling with students, most of them leaving while some of them stayed to chat with their friends. Among these students was a lone human girl with a yellow skin color, along with hair in yellow and red and green eyes, wearing a black jacket that bore orange arrows on the arms with a bright green skirt under it, and under that a yellow skirt. She wore dark turquoise pants and grey boots with orange arrows and metal buckles on them. 


While the day was over Sunset Shimmer had been feeling more and more down over the past five months, she made several attempts to contact Celestia and Twilight and waited for them to respond, but nothing came back to her. Every time she hadn't gotten a response from sending something to her, she became more worried everyday, thinking something bad might've happened to her friend, did Twilight go on some kind of mission from which she never returned? What if something horrible happened in Equestria and her friends were in trouble? This possibility was one Sunset never wanted to think about. While looking through her locker, she heard a familiar voice down the hallway.


"Hey Sunset!" Rainbow Dash said to her friend as she, Rarity and Fluttershy walked towards her. She gave an excited grin as she spoke again. "How's it going?"


"Oh, hey Dash, it's going great, just...."


"Haven't gotten word from Twilight?" Rarity asked.


"..Yeah, that's it." Sunset said as her voice sounded drained of energy.


Dash gave a frown before she replied. "Nothing, huh? You know, I figured that she was on some kind of mission or something, but c'mon, FIVE MONTHS and she still hasn't talked to us yet! As much as I hate to say it, I think I'm starting to get worried."


Rarity started up as well. "Yes, you don't think she left us for good, do you?"


"Or maybe that she got hurt or something?" Fluttershy asked.


"I don't know girls, but I'll see what I can get, I'm gonna write to her again and I hope this time I can get something." Sunset said as the others smiled.


"I hope you can, I don't like feeling left out either, I mean, she's the Princess of Friendship, and friends don't leave friends behind." Dash said to her as the group stood in silence for a moment until Sunset broke it up. 


"So, where you headin'?" She asked.


"Oh, we're heading out for a movie later, I just heard that the new Daring Do movie trailer started appearing in the theaters, I'M SO HYPED!" She said ecstatically as Sunset let out a chuckle before she replied.


"That's great, I'll try and get this done as quick as I can and try to catch up with you."


"Cool, hope to see you there!" Dash said before she started to make her way out.


As the trio left, Rarity spoke once more before heading out the door. "Try not to get so down, darling, I'm sure she'll reply sometime." Sunset nodded before they walked out and she was once again alone.


She stood still for a moment, thinking about what Twilight would say if she did reply, she at least hoped it was nothing horrible. After being still like a statue, she opened her locker again and pulled a book with a sun on it out, looked at the clock, and seeing that she had about 35 minutes left, she sat and started to write, building a smile as she hoped to get a reply.


"Dear Princess Celestia......"


...................


U.S.S. Equestria, Beta Quadrant

Stardate 87001.5, 1 day after the conference.....
.

For a first day in the war, not a single attack was happening today, the girls had expected to get a distress signal or two, whether it involved a freighter being attacked by temporal raiders or another temporal battle involving another starbase of yesterday, but at the moment, nothing, not a single thing was happening but the ship flying to another conference involving a different topic. Was the TLF planning another large assault on a critical location or point it time, or were they just sitting on their flanks wasting time in planning for their next move? Who knows, all they knew was that the sea of space was quiet, no storm was nearing them for the moment, it seemed like they had all the time in the world to do what they wished.


On the bridge of the Equestria, Dash was taking the conn at the moment, Twilight and Flash had went off to their quarters to get some rest several minutes ago, leaving Dash and Spike to take command for the moment. Dash seemed to like sitting in the Captain's Chair, while she liked flying her ship more, sitting in the seat of the commanding officer was quite comfortable, she'd bet Spitfire would've loved having a ship like Twilights. 


Sitting comfortably in the chair, Dash looked to Applejack, who was taking her position as the helm officer, and asked her, "Hey AJ, how far are we from the conference?"


"About 2 hours by estimates, sugarcube, that's if we don't fall under attack." She replied to the pegasus.


"Cool, I'm kinda worried about why those demons for people aren't out causing trouble." She said with annoyance at the mention of the 'demons'.


"Yeah, that one varmint almost killed Twilight, if he'd done it, I don't think I could even stand to look at one of his kind."


"You think? I wanted to break his neck for what he did to her and Cadence!" She growled before taking a deep breath and continuing. "But, the good thing is that nobody's getting hurt by them at the moment, right?"


"Yep, at least we have a moment before they DO decide to cause trouble." Applejack smirked as she said that.


"Yeah, hope Twilight doesn't mind, I'm gonna see what messages we've got." She said with glee.


"Just don't look at what you're not supposed to see." Applejack warned her.


"Not a problem." She replied. Looking through the first few messages, she saw nothing but the usual, from invitations by newly discovered alien races to messages from the fleet talking about the events they were planning to celebrate, nothing appeared strange, that is until she made it down about two flicks of her wing fin that she saw something, a yellow colored message titled: "Return to Equis immediately." Dash gave a confused look until she saw the date, it was sent yesterday. Worried, she looked to Rarity before she spoke. "Uh, Rarity, do ya think Twi would've missed any messages? We got a lot this morning, but I don't think she'd miss anything from the Princess." She showed Rarity the PADD, she looked at it for a moment before responding.


"Hmmm... I don't think that's normal, I'd say you should contact Twilight, I know she needs rest, but if this is something from Princess Celestia, then she should know, especially if it must be read immediately."


Dash nodded and prepped herself for Twilight's response to her call, it'd most likely be an annoying one from her. Clearing her throat, she tapped the comms panel on one of the arm-rests and spoke. "Bridge to Twilight." She said, but immediately felt her breath leave her as she heard moaning through the speakers, even worse, almost the whole bridge could hear the two. "Great, I had to ruin their fun time again..."


The moaning stopped a little, but still sounded a little as Twilight spoke. "Oh... Yeah, Dash?"


Dash almost wanted to shut the comms off for the interruption, but kept her cool as she spoke. "I know you're trying to sleep, but I just checked the messages and you've got one from Princess Celestia, it's urgent."


"Twilight and Flash moaned in pleasure and annoyance as the Princess responded. "Uhhh.. Okay, I'll be up there. Sparkle out."


Dash quickly cut the comms off before looking at Applejack with pinprick-sized pupils in her eyes and mouthed to her, "What the BUCK did I just hear?!" Applejack shook herself as she tried to not think of the intimate moment Twilight and Flash were having, whether they were 'doing the deed' or just making out was her guess, but she wanted to shake it off as bad as Dash. Before sitting back, she got the bridge's attention as she addressed them. "Everyone, if you heard that, just at least TRY to forget you heard it." The crew nodded and tried to focus on their jobs with no trouble, Dash thought in her head as she smacked it against the headrest of the chair. "That.... was just violating."


The bridge operated like normal from there until Twilight and Flash entered the room, fortunately, no one said a word or even thought of their 'fun time' incident, but Dash seemed to gulp as the Princess and the Guard came to sit in her place as she stood. As she held the PADD, she noticed Dash acting strange, worried, she asked her, "Dash, are you alright?"


Dash didn't speak aloud, but she mouthed "Mute bubble please?" Twilight nodded and her horn glowed as a noise-proof force field surrounded her and Dash. Dash then asked her, "You think you could get headphones in those things the next time we arrive at ESD?"


Twilight was about to ask but noticing her comms and thinking about Dash's message, she realized that the whole bridge might've heard her moaning. She blushed and gave an embarrassed "Yeah, sure." Before she deactivated the bubble so Dash could get back to the helm. Dash thought in her head as she walked to her console, "At least Scoots and her friends are sleeping in their quarters, they shouldn't have to hear that."


Twilight got comfortable as she looked for the message Dash mentioned, and in a few seconds, she found it, and immediately opened it. What it said, however, made her sit frozen still.


Dear Princess Twilight: I hope I didn't interrupt your time by sending this, but I have urgent news, do you remember one of your old friends, Sunset Shimmer? She's been trying to get to you for the past five months, and I didn't even bother to check it since we've all been busy with working on alliances and such. She's also been quite worried, she's thinking that you've gotten hurt or that you've gotten lost during a mission of yours and many other things she says she's thinking, so I want you to come back here so you can talk to her. I'd also like Wyatt to come too, I believe he can help with this. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.


Sunset Shimmer, a friend she'd helped out back in the other human realm where she went to a high school and met human counterparts of her friends and many others, she was trying to talk to her ever since she and her friends had been brought to the very place her ship was in now, and she hadn't gotten a word from her since. She had to go back, she had to see if she was alright. She looked to Dash and ordered, "Dash, that conference will have to wait, contact Wyatt and activate the Universal gateway, we're heading back to Equis!"


"Really? May I ask why, Twi?" She asked.


"Someone I know is worried about me, someone I haven't seen the face of for months now, we need to see if she's okay." She stated.


"Alright, I hope this isn't a ridiculous time wasting joke, I don't want any ambassadors choking me up with being late." 


"It won't be." Twilight finished as she waited for Dash to inform her of the gateway. 


A few seconds later, she said, "All set, Twi, Wyatt's on his way and we're ready to go."


"Engage."


The ship was surrounded in a blue energy field and a large blue portal like the ones made by the Preserver spheres opened in front of it, encompassing the ship quickly before the portal collapsed with a 'boom', leaving nothing left in it's wake. Twilight hoped that the conference was willing to wait for her, this was something that deeply worried her to her core, and she hoped Sunset wouldn't be angry with her when they arrived.....
> Chapter III: Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canterlot High School

1 day later

0700 hours (7:00)


*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP,*


Morning started off noisily for Sunset Shimmer as she picked her head up from her pillow, rubbing her eyes so she could find her alarm clock. Once she tapped the button on the noisy contraption, she yawned and slowly got out of bed. Another tiresome morning and the rest of the day would most likely be the same, no word from Twilight and just more work to do, fortunately, she had decided to bring the book back home in case something came in the night, she was willing to risk a few hours of sleep to hear from her friend. So far, however, she'd not gotten a single thing from Princess Celestia or Twilight yet, maybe a little longer could suffice. For the moment, though, she had to get ready for school, after taking a stretch, she left her bedroom to get out of her pajamas and something nicer.


After almost 15 minutes had passed, all Sunset had to do was get her stuff and head out, once again, she entered the room and grabbed her backpack, as she went for the book, however, the sun symbol on it started to glow, as if her attempt to grab it was its queue. Sunset immediately picked the book up and started to open it, and making it to the page she was looking for, she saw what she hoped to see for some time, but it still gave her worry as she read.


"Dearest Sunset Shimmer: My dearest apologies for not getting to you so sooner, ever since I last sent you a message, a lot has happened. I'm sure you've been worried about Twilight and the rest of Equestria, so if it will take some of the stress away, we're all alright here, but.... all I can say is that a lot has changed, Twilight and her friends have changed a bit as well, so much that I don't believe a letter is enough to explain. I hope it doesn't bother any of your friends there, but I believe you must come back to Equestria for a day or so, there's so much that we must explain. Sincerely, Princess Celestia"


.....That letter didn't seem right, Sunset was assuming something was going to be up when she got a reply, but to be called back to her old home just to know what Twilight has been doing seemed very worrisome. She wondered what her friends would think about the message she was sent. Walking out of her room, she pulled out her phone and typed in Rainbow Dash's number, and waited for her voice to sound.


A moment of static later, a voice sounded. "Hello?"


"Ah, Rainbow, I'm glad you answered, I just checked my book and I finally got a reply!"


"Really?! I figured she'd answer at some point!" Dash said with excitement.


"Yeah, but something's off about the message." Sunset said worriedly.


"What about it? Twi's not hurt or anything, right?" Dash asked with worried curiosity.


"I.... I don't know, I think I'll have to show you once we get to school." Sunset replied.


"Uhh, OK, see you there!"


.......The School.......


When Sunset arrived, the school was already bustling, students and teachers were already going into the school and getting ready for the day. Surprisingly, she saw her friends, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight's human counterpart, and Rainbow Dash, all standing near the school doors and waving to passing students. She hurried through the field of students before finally reaching the six of them, Dash was the first to speak to her as she smiled. "Ah, hey Sunset, you're finally here, I called the girls to hear about this, hope ya don't mind."


"Not at all, Dash." Sunset said with a smile before she continued. "Now, about that message I wanted to show you all,"


"Oh yeah! I'm so excited to hear from Twilight, I wonder how she's doing." Pinkie yelped aloud.


"Yes, darling, what's Twilight been up to that's been keeping her away?" Rarity asked as well.


"Yeah, did she get hurt?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.


"Uhh, maybe you'd want to see for yourself." Sunset then pulled out the book, opened it to the page she saw the message on and handed it to Dash for the girls to see. 


After a moment of reading, the girls' expressions changed from worry to surprise and confusion, and all of them looked to Sunset before Dash asked, "Wait, so Princess Celestia wants you to head back to your world?!" Dash asked with worry.


"Apparently, something must've happened there, and it must've been quite a big thing for the letter to say that." Sunset answered confusedly.


Fluttershy whimpered a little before she asked, "Does that mean we have to say good-bye?"


Sunset shook her head. "No, if it was that, I think she would've said to do that. She says she and Twilight need to talk to me about this, so I think I can come back to explain this."


"I can understand that." A familiar voice sounded behind the gang, before they all turned to face Principal Celestia, who was frowning over their discussion.


"Principal Celestia! I thought you were already ins-" Sunset said in surprise.


"About that, I had to have some coffee for the day, I was tired a bit too." She answered before she started up again. "If Twilight and my counterpart need you back in your world to tell of what's happened, then I won't hesitate to permit your departure. I do hope you return, though, no one here likes unofficial farewells."


Sunset stood in silence for a moment before she spoke up. "...Thank you, Principal, I intend to return and explain what's happened."


"Good, now, for the rest of you, say what you can, it's almost time for class." The girls nodded before Celestia continued on her way through the school doors.


"Well, getting permission was easy," Dash said as she turned to Sunset. "I.... I hope you try and be careful and I hope Twilight's not too worried for you." Dash said before Rarity spoke up.


"Just make sure to come back, darling, I intend to hear about what Twilight's been up to." Fluttershy then spoke up as well.


"..Just be careful, okay?" She said worriedly before Applejack spoke up.


"Ah'm sure she will, sugarcube. Ah hope you're able to see Twilight, tell her we're all worried about her."


"I will, I'll be back girls, just try to not worry over me too much." Sunset said before she looked to the nearby mirror and made her way to it, before stepping into it and disappearing, her friends waving until she vanished into the mirror.


"...Be careful, Sunset." Sci Twi said quietly to her now departed friend.....


-Equis System, 0750 hours-


The deafly sector of space that was Equis had soon lost it's silence as two blue colored portals opened up, flashing and glowing brightly as two ships exited from their maws, a small Constitution class cruiser and a star cruiser with parts varying between Odyssey and Yorktown classes, before both portals shrunk quickly and collapsed suddenly, leaving the two ships sitting in orbit over the planet. On the bridge of the Equestria, Twilight sat in her seat alongside Flash and Spike before Dash spoke up. "We've arrived at Equis, Twi."


"Good, Rarity, hail Wyatt, I need to speak to him." Twilight said as she smiled while Rarity tapped a few buttons on her console, a second later, Wyatt's face appeared on the viewscreen, of course, in his preferred Equine form for when he visited his friend's homeworld.


"What is it, Twilight?" Wyatt asked.


"So, you're wondering why we're here, right?" Twilight asked him back.


"From what Dash told me, it's about an old friend you met a while ago." He answered.


"That's right, you see, a mare I met some time ago named Sunset Shimmer has been quite worried about me ever since that incident with us and the Omicron, and I've been told to come here and to bring you along so we can explain to her what's happened recently." Twilight explained.


"Understood loud and clear, I'm always happy to help, Princess." Wyatt replied before Twilight smiled at him and she finished her talk.


"Good, I'll see you down at the Crystal Empire, I've sent the coordinates." The Admiral nodded before the channel cut and the view of Equis and its sun was on the screen again. She then looked to one of her officers and told him, "Lieutenant, tell Princess Celestia that we're on our way down now and that we'll be there very shortly."


"Yes, your Highness." The officer answered before Twilight, Flash and the others stood up and made their way to the turbolifts and on the way to the nearest transporter room.


In one of the turbolifts, Dash asked Twilight, "So, Twi, do you think Sunset might be angry a bit that you haven't spoke to her in a while?"


"I hope not, honestly, I believe she's more worried than angry if she is." Twilight said worriedly as they waited for the lift to reach it's destination.....


.......


On the stone concrete of the Crystal Empire, 14 beams of blue energy appeared in front of the castle before showing the forms of Princess Twilight and her friends, followed by Admiral Stone and his crew. The guards, seeing familiar faces, lowered their guard and instead bowed in respect to the purple alicorn and her friends. Following Twilight into the castle, the group made their way to the throne room, only to see the three other Princesses and Shining Armor, and behind them a silhouette of another pony. Twilight was the first to start the talking.


"Princess Celestia, we're here." She said as Celestia looked to them, Twilight's friends all bowing in respect before the Sun Princess spoke.


"Hello Twilight, it's good that you're all here, and I see you've brought your friends as well." She said with a smile before Wyatt saluted and spoke up.


"I would've come anyway, I'm always wanting to help out, as are my crew." Wyatt said as he looked back to his crewmates, then back to the Princesses.


"So, we're not too early or late, are we?" Rarity asked Celestia curiously. 


Celestia smiled before she answered. "Actually, you've arrived just in time, as you can see." She looked behind her and motioned the silhouetted pony behind her to come forward, the pony was revealed to be an orange mare with green eyes and a mane and tail with yellow and red for the colors. She stood and looked at Twilight like it had been forever since they'd seen each other's faces, and for both of them, it actually felt like it.


The two stood in silence for a moment before Sunset broke the silence and spoke to her friend. "Hey Twilight.... It's been a while."


"Yeah, it has been." Twilight could see the sadness in Sunset's eyes, and a second after saying her sentence, the two joined together in a tight embrace. The two didn't let go for a moment but Sunset could be heard speaking to her. 


"I've missed you, my friends have missed you." She said, tears welling in her eyes as she held her friend.


"I know, I'm sorry if I didn't get to you sooner. I.... went through some stuff with my friends." She said before the two finally separated, Twilight wiping Sunset's tears away before she spoke again. "I would've come to talk to you, but... there's a lot we need to discuss."


The Princess of Friendship motioned her hoof for Wyatt to come next to her. He looked to her and held his hoof out before introducing himself. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sunset, my name is Wyatt, Captain of the Federation starship Chestnut, these are my officers, Miolii, Kapor, Zarva, and Nelen Exil. Princess Twilight and Celestia wanted us to come here to help sort out everything." 


The two shook hooves before Sunset said for everyone to hear, "Wow, I can see that there's a lot that I'm gonna be hearing today."


"Yep, I hope that's not an issue, a lot of stuff has happened over these past few months, so I think we'll need to talk." Sunset nodded at Twilight's statement before she noticed somepony else in the group, a familiar orange pegasus in royal guard armor standing next to Twilight's friends.


"F...Flash?" She said, pupils shrinking from fear as Flash slowly made her way to her. Back when she was in Equestria, she and Flash we're in a romantic relationship, but after a tense moment between her and Celestia, she stormed out and Flash and her had broken up. Now, here he was, the stallion that she had stormed out in front of, was he still angry with her? She couldn't be sure, she'd just have to wait for whatever would be coming to her. 


To her surprise, Flash didn't have any kind of angry look in his eyes, rather a solemn face towards her as they looked at each other for a moment. Flash broke the silence after a few seconds. "...Hey, how've you been?" He said calmly.


Sunset tried to utter words, but couldn't even seem to breathe, just staring at him as still as a statue. Flash took a deep breath before he took a step towards her, holding out a hoof as he spoke again. "I'm not angry with you, Sunset, I don't think I'd be standing here if I was. I'm actually happy that you've changed, so, please, just one hug?"


His words seemed to snap Sunset out of her frozen stance and she looked down to her ex-boyfriend's hoof, and held it in hers before they were locked in an embrace for a moment, Sunset felt like a tightrope wrapping his whole body, behind his head, he could hear Sunset speaking into his ear. "I.... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for how I acted, I-I shouldn't have acted like that, I didn't unders-"


"It's alright, Sunset, I understand, you don't have to feel sad, everyone here understands, so don't cry on us, please." Sunset let the tight grip loose, but with her hooves still around Flash, she wiped her tears from her eyes again before she looked at him, a faint smile building on her muzzle as she spoke.


"...Thank you Flash." She sniffed a little before she spoke once again. "So, we're still friends right?" Flash nodded before Sunset's smile grew wide and she once again hugged him tightly, Twilight smiling as she saw and old wound being healed.


After a moment, the former couple separated before Sunset spoke up. "So, um.. about what we needed to talk about..."


"Yes, about that, I know some place where it'd be perfect, by the way, I've invited some of Twilight's friends over to meet you, if that's not a problem." Celestia said to Sunset.


"No, that's perfect, I can't wait to meet them." Sunset said with a smile before Celestia Spoke once more.


"Good, now, this way everyone." She said as she made her way into the castle interior, as did everyone else. Sunset and Twilight were trotting with each other along with Wyatt and Miolii, who they'd decided to chat with on their way to the conference room. For all that had happened while Sunset was in the human world, she had no idea what she'd be hearing when they started their talking......
> Chapter IV: News of the Storm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crystal Empire Castle - Conference Room

1400 hours


The conference room was full of voices and noises from everypony for a while as the conversation went on. For hours, Sunset had been listening to the words of Twilight, Celestia, Wyatt and many others, from hearing about the history of the Federation and it's allies to what happened to Twilight and her friends during her disappearance, the group shared shockers and low cheers from everyone as they shared memories, and she'd also had a bit of a shock when she saw Chrysalis and Thorax being in the same place as her friends without engagement, it made her feel deceived at first, but after seeing some shown evidence, she was convinced that there wasn't an invasion by the Changelings. It wasn't until after Sunset explained her adventures that the group began to discuss newer problems. Sunset asked Twilight after they had finished hearing her tale of visiting Camp Everfree, "So, I've noticed earlier that some things have happened recently, I heard others mention some snippets, but I didn't hear them out fully, so what's all the commotion over this issue with a war?"


The question that had been dreaded by the gang had finally been asked, Twilight mustered up the courage to inform her friend about what had just happened. "Well, you see, the Alliance has been involved in a time war, which many have come to call the "Temporal Cold War". The war has involved us and three alien races that have recently formed their own alliance, the Na'kuhl, the Krenim, some of them to be exact, lead by a former ally named Noye, and another race that go by the name "Sphere Builders", who've formed the 'Temporal Liberation Front' and because of actions and mistakes that they believe the Alliance was responsible for, they've been trying to destroy us for some time, especially after the incident with the Tholians at the Na'kuhl homeworld." Her words made Sunset form a grim expression, but she kept focus on the situation as she asked another question.


"Why did everyone seemed so scared when you arrived? I noticed that some of your friends had panicked a little when they saw you upon arrival." She pointed her hoof to Minuette, Moon Dancer, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine, who'd arrived to join in on the discussion.


Twilight hesitated before she explained. "Well, you see, yesterday, we had a conference involving several empires on Equis working with the Alliance against the TLF, but as the talks were about to start, my sister-in-law, Princess Cadence was poisoned by a Na'kuhl assassin, who put poison in her drink, and he then tried to, well...." She shook a little at the thought of what had happened that day before she looked to Minuette, who was also present, but was among the panicked crowd at the time.


"He... tried to kill Twilight, Sunset, if it wasn't for Flash, she really WOULD be dead."


Sunset gave a horrified gasp at this before looking to Flash, who gave a frown before he responded. "Yeah, I saved her at the last second, we then chased after him and restrained him had it not been for Queen Chrysalis." The guard gave a smirk to Chrysalis who while appreciating the thanks soon frowned and held her jaw with her hoof before replying.


"Yes, and I got a good toothache from a punch to my face from that hideous foe." She said as she gave a low growl.


"Yes, and if he'd not complied with us, he'd have had his throat slit by my blade." Wyatt said as he smirked over the duel of yesterday before Sunset, out of curiosity, asked him another question.


"Um, if I may ask Admiral, what do you mean by 'blade'?" Wyatt grew a smile as he answered the curious mares question.


"Oh, yes, I had entered an event some time ago, and one of the many rewards the participants got was this." As he spoke, he had pulled out the blade and activated it, several sharp looking energy blades glowing in blue as he held it out for show, for a moment, Sunset was stunned the moment it activated, but she kept her focus on Wyatt's story. "Nanopulse Bat'leth, an elite weapon that few commanders wield in their hands, or hooves, in my case." He chuckled as the group gave a slight laugh, Sunset admired the blade as she observed it, and she didn't need the old 'don't touch' warning, the blades looked like they'd cut through the crystal that made the table that they sat at.


After sharing the laughs, Sunset then asked something about the war again. "One other thing I wanted to ask, why does Noye want to kill us?"


The group gave mostly confused looks before Wyatt spoke up. "Ah, that.... well, you see, before the Temporal Cold War was afoot, we were at war with another, more advanced alien race known as the Iconians, a race that had kept themselves hidden for 200 millennia. After a large battle at their homeworld, resulting in the deaths of countless lives and the loss of many ships, we had no choice but to use the only weakness the Iconians of our time had: Time Travel." The group, except for Twilight and her friends, gave a shocked and slightly horrified look to Wyatt before he continued. 


"Yes, apparently, their current physical forms would cause them to lose their memories if they'd attempted such an act, so when we found a hidden Krenim outpost from the old Vaadwaur war centuries ago, we decided to work together to stop them. During the test runs, three were the first choices we had. But choice one resulted in the fall of the Romulan Empire and the destruction of the Federation while number 2 led to the Delta Alliance never forming and the Iconians surviving. The third, however, was promising, the idea was that if Hobus' supernova hadn't reached Romulus, which was thanks to a subspace rift that allowed the supernova to reach the doomed world courtesy of the Iconians, Romulus would survive and the Iconians would never show up, what we didn't think about, though, was the fact that there was increased Borg activity in Romulan space, and when we began the test and checked Romulus, the results were horrifying. Romulus was completely assimilated, no friendly ships were in range to help, only us and the Annorax were there to see it. After a data raid on the nearby unimatrix that orbited the planet, we decided to go back, but the Borg had damaged the Annorax enough to the point where something went wrong, the planet known as Tuteria, an ally of the Krenim, was lost to the Borg as a result of our tampering, and one of the unfortunate souls that my crew and I remember every day from that incident was Noye's wife, Clauda, who was also pregnant with a child. But having been on Tuteria at the time of the invasion, she died and Noye lost her in the process, we only know of all this happening because she stored her final logs in the ship's computer."


Sunset, along with the group, gave horrified looks and opened mouths upon hearing those words, especially Rarity and Fluttershy, who were tearing up at the fact that an innocent woman was lost to a risky game that the Alliance was willing to play. Wyatt then continued after letting the incident sink in. "Unfortunately, it didn't make Noye any better, in fact he was enraged when he saw the logs, and he made a few more logs regarding his plans for the war and his revenge, he threatened my life and the Alliance, when I went to see him after an incident at the Temporal Accords, the historical signing of a treaty that would prohibit time travel, Noye turned on us by injuring one of his colleagues, stealing the Annorax, and... you can guess the rest."


The group sat in silence for a moment, remembering everything Wyatt had described to them just now before Starlight spoke up. "I can understand why you wouldn't take the risk of fixing it, for one thing.." She paused for a moment before continuing. "..I myself once tried to change history. When Twilight and her friends stopped me from my wrongdoings, I chose to get revenge by altering the past to where they all didn't have cutie marks, and I learned that mistake the hard way. Each different future was worse and worse every time it was changed, from a war with King Sombra to Nightmare Moon ruling Equestria, I was too blind to see the error of my ways, and I always regret doing such a thing." Wyatt, while he hadn't heard of this scheme Starlight had once committed, he felt her pain from her crime, he wished he didn't have to do such things in his life, he'd wished they could try to repair the damage and try to save Tuteria, but some mistakes like this one were learned the hard way, the only thing to do was to not make that same mistake again.


Sunset sat in silence for a moment before she looked to the group with slight worry in her eyes before she spoke. "Well... we can't let Noye keep this war ablaze while we sit here, he's ending innocent lives because of a mistake that he, along with the Alliance, made in a risky attempt to keep the galaxy safe from a former foe! Besides, if he can reach Equestria with enough firepower to cause a genocide, many more lives are in danger! I know I just came back for an informative briefing, but I want to help, and..." She paused for a moment before she finished her statement. "..I think we should warn my friends back in the human world, they're in just as much danger as we are!"


Sunset's statement forced shocked expressions and gasps from the group upon her saying it, the room sat filled silence for a moment before Wyatt spoke up. "Sunset, as crazy as your idea is, I think even if we said no and if the enemy never did succeed in arriving in that world and harming its inhabitants, we're bound to meet them at some point, either way on my part, I agree that this should be done to keep your friends safe."


Wyatt looked to Princess Celestia for her approval, and she wasted not a second to answer him. "As much of a risky decision this is to make, I permit this action being taken, it's a better option to let them know of our existence and keep them safe from harm rather than letting the enemy find them and kill them all because of our ignorance. Are there any objections?"


The group looked to each other to find an argument in this idea of Sunsets, when they all nodded to Celestia, Chrysalis spoke up. "I believe we all stand with your decision, Celestia."


"Excellent, let's get ourselves ready and prepare to head out." The room was full of cheers and salutes from the group before everyone stood and made their way to the exit doors of the conference room.


As the group passed through the doors, Twilight trotted over to Wyatt and asked him, "Hey Wyatt, you aren't planning to head back to your ship to get ready, are you?" 


Wyatt gave a confused look and a raised eyebrow before answering. "Maybe, I was planning to change forms and get the ship ready for the job. Why do you ask, Twilight?"


"Well, the mirror that Sunset came back from has some effects that'll save you the trouble of having to go back to your ship and change, besides, you look prepped up already."


"Ah, good, besides, with this Floater I recently upgraded," He pointed to his Risian floater, which sported a yellow color along with three thrusters on the bottom of it, along with a set of mechanical wings that could connect with Wyatt's pony form through interacting nanoprobes as well as retract into the floater, and also an openable section which contained much needed equipment along with his phaser rifle, while the Bat'leth was placed on a grapple hook connected to the floater before finishing his sentence with, "there shouldn't be a problem with this mission."


The two smiled as they walked, then Wyatt looked at Miolii and Celestia, whom he motioned over to him and asked the Sun Princess, "Princess Celestia, if it isn't a problem, do you think we could get a scan of the mirror and send it's data to the Chestnut? I believe we'll need our ships just in case something does come up."


"Done. We'll need to do whatever it takes to stop the TLF from harming the human realm, they don't deserve to suffer for another's mistake." The three smiled before Wyatt pulled out his communicator and spoke into it.


"Stone to Amarillo, come in."


"Amarillo here sir." The device's speakers sounded upon the Admiral's calling.


"Princess Celestia has permitted us to get data on this 'Magic Mirror' that Sunset used to get here, so we'll send you the data in order for you to follow us."


"Aye sir, we'll be waiting for the signal." The crewman responded.


"Excellent, Stone out." He finished before closing his communicator and looking to Celestia. "Thank you for allowing this, your Highness."


"It was my pleasure, I'm as keen to help out as you are, Admiral." She said with a smile as they trotted through the hallways towards the room containing the mirror.


The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked to Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow as Applebloom asked, "So, since we're all in on this, mind if we help out like all of those other missions?" 


"Ah'm sure you're up to it, you've all grown up so fast ever since that death filled battle from months ago, just please keep your personal shields on, Ah don't want mah little sis or her friends being vaporized." She said with a shudder at the thought of such a horrific sight.


While Applebloom had seen such a thing happen once or twice, she wasn't afraid to fight. "Loud and clear!" The trio said as they saluted to their relatives. The group kept the air filled with words and laughs as they all trotted to the mirror nearby, getting themselves ready to enter a world most of them had never been to before....


~Canterlot High School~


The end of the school day was near as the girls finished their work in class, the day had been fair for them, not a bit of trouble for anyone in the school, well, maybe for Sci Twi, hearing about her 'counterpart' being gone and Sunset being very worried about it had still plagued her, especially now that she was gone. She was having more thoughts about what was happening in that other realm, was Sunset hurt too? Did she find Twilight and manage to learn about what'd happened? She'd have to wait a little bit until she came back, if she ever did. Her thoughts were paused for a moment as the bell rang and Cheerilee announced her remaining news for the day before she said her farewells. "Study hard tonight, everyone, quiz tomorrow!" She said kindly as she went to her desk and began to get the place set for the night.


The girls were already finished grabbing their things when Cheerilee had reached her desk, they all walked out after saying their good-byes to Cheerilee for the day. They then made their way out of the school, but as they were walking through the entrance hallway, Flash saw them and walked by them to talk with the 6 girls. "Hey Rainbow Dash, how's the day been?"


"Pretty easy, but we've been a bit worri-" She noticed the look on Flash's face when he noticed that Sunset wasn't with them. She then asked him, "You're wondering where Sunset is, aren't you?"


"Yeah, she didn't get sick or something today, did she?" Flash asked with a worrisome look.


"No, she..." She paused before she continued. "..she went to go see Twilight in Equestria. We haven't heard from her in a while."


"What? Is she okay? Did Sunset hear something about her?" He asked in shock.


"We don't know, this morning, she got a message after sending one of many letters to Celestia and Twilight, and Celestia answered and she was told to come back quickly because they had to 'explain some things'." Dash answered as she frowned at the fact that she hadn't come back yet.


"Well, didn't she say even a little bit to her, even a little snippet of what's happened so we can take a guess?" Dash shook her head and Flash frowned as they stood silently.


"But, let's just hope nothing bad happens, cause if she doesn't come back, then we're taking the risk of going through that portal, whether anyone approves or n-" She was cut off as three younger students barged through the doors, worried looks seen on their faces as Applebloom spoke to the gang.


"Sis, Sunset's back, but there's a bunch of other ones with her! Ah think one of them is Twilight, but Ah can't tell what some others are! Ah think some of them are you guys!"


This was a bit alarming, some of the students grew scared looks on their faces before Applejack replied to her sister. "Stay here, you three, we'll go see what the fuss is about!"


The group then ran outside to see the mirror, when they saw the intruding group, they could see Sunset standing with them, but they also saw a familiar face, Twilight, but she looked a bit different, while she was still wearing the same attire they'd seen her in every visit, she was wearing some kind of belt that held several pieces of gear as well as one pocket that held what seemed to be a gun of some kind. She also had a small metal badge of some sort that was shaped like an arrow with an oval behind it painted in gold. Some of the others were similar in physical appearance to the group's attire, but they also wore the same equipment on them, but each of them carried a different looking gun, but the one who seemed to be a duplicate of Flash had a sword behind his back as well. The rest were unfamiliar to the girls at all, they varied in appearance, one had ridges on his head, another was female with a blue skin color and no hair, another seemed to have elf ears, and the most alien one seemed to look like a dinosaur. The last one, who stood next to Twilight, had a whitish-yellow skin color with brown hair, and had a unique looking outfit like each of the other officers had.


Dash seemed to think they'd somehow possessed Sunset and were invading, at least that's what the others thought when Dash started to run towards the arriving group, Applejack, however, was quick enough to grab Dash by her hair in order to stop her. "OW!! Let me go AJ! THEY'VE TAKEN SUNSET HOSTAGE!!" This alerted the nearby group as they heard the yelp of pain and they turned to see who had yelped.


Sunset immediately grew panicked at the sight of her two friends starting to fight,  Dash looked like she was about to kick Applejack in her legs as Sunset raced over to break up the fight. "Rainbow Dash, what're you doing?! Stop fighting with Applejack!"


"Not until I beat those guys into a pulp for taking you prisoner!" Dash responded angrily. Wyatt heard Dash's human counterpart and motioned his officers to keep their weapons put away, even if she got free.


"They're not taking me prisoner, Dash, now STOP IT!" Sunset said as she held Dash by her arms tightly to try and restrain her. Twilight hurried over to help, hoping to keep the fight from escalating.


"We're not holding Sunset captive, Dash, and we're not invading, they're here to help. Just please stop!" Dash seemed to show a little less resistance, but didn't stop. Twilight then tried to tell her of the soccer game they had when she first came. "Don't you remember, Dash? When I first came, I had to get your help by beating you one on one in soccer! Don't you remember, Dash?"


Her statement seemed to do the trick, as she instantly stopped trying to wrestle her way out of Sunset's grasp and looked at Twilight and Sunset, then looking back to the Princess for a long moment, her pupils getting smaller and smaller as she looked before stuttering, "T-T-Twilight? ...Is.... t-that you?" She asked with shock as she kept her eyes on her friend.


"Yes, it's me Dash, just please calm down." 


She said with a smile before Dash stopped standing still like a statue and immediately hugged her tightly, the others standing and watching the two reunite for a moment before Dash asked, "....W-why didn't you talk to us Twilight? Was it them that kept you from coming back?" She sounded like she was starting to cry. Twilight couldn't blame her, though, she felt sad herself, and she also noticed the others starting to tear up and went up to embrace Twilight as well. Wyatt and the others stood and watched the girls hug for a long moment, the reunion lasting for almost a whole minute before they finally separated, the human counterparts of her friends behind her looked at her before Rarity's counterpart spoke.


"...What happened to you, darling? You look like you went through a war with that stuff on."


Twilight started to frown as she replied. "Yeah, I kinda have been." The girls gasped upon hearing this.


Sunset decided to step in to try and calm her friends down. "Girls, I've heard what's happened back there, and.... I just have to say that a lot has changed, and we need to talk about this now, there's a big problem that we need to discuss."


The group was about to ask Sunset why before Fluttershy's counterpart looked towards the group and saw her and her friends' counterparts right before her eyes. She stuttered as she asked, "I-I-Is that u-us?" She squealed.


Fluttershy stepped out to calm her down as she spoke. "Yes, it is. Don't panic, though, we're here to help like Twilight said."


Fluttershy's counterpart calmed down as they all looked to Sunset and Twilight, who were looking at their friend's counterparts before Sunset spoke. "Yes, as I said, we need to go inside or someplace to talk. This is very important because....because we're all in danger." 


~Unknown ship, Planetary Orbit~


The hallways were silent save for noises from several consoles as a humanoid officer appeared, she had blonde hair and wore a dark orange colored uniform as she walked to the next room. Moments ago, she'd been called by her commanding officer regarding plans for their attack on the group that'd arrived below, and since two Federation ships were arriving any moment from now, they had to act fast if they were to destroy them. She walked in front of the door as they opened before she stepped inside of the room, the doors shutting behind her as she stopped to face the captain of the vessel.


"So, I've heard our newest manipulation device is ready for use?" A male voice facing away from the woman said to her.


"Yes sir, the civilians on the planet don't have any advanced weapons that rival ours, so finding a pair of subjects for the job should be easy." The woman answered him before he spoke again.


"Excellent, with the devices set up and ready, I need you to gather an away team" He started before he turned around to reveal his face. He had tan colored skin and had a beard on his chin, as well as feathered out hair like his beard was, he also seemed to have a scar on the right side of his face as well as brown eyes. He grinned viciously before he finished. "because you're going down there right now to get them."
> Chapter V: The Rising Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Canterlot High, 1400 hours~


"So, let me get this straight, Twilight: you and her friends got pulled into another universe by some strange portal, rescued by a bunch of soldiers and left to serve in this government called the 'United Federation of Planets'. Soon enough, you and your teacher here, Wyatt, found this portal leading to your home after several months, and when you arrived, you all got attacked by some evil guys called the Terran Empire, then you got reinforcements to arrive before heading through another portal that appeared at the same time. You guys then found some kind of universal portal that led to other places in this 'mutliverse' we're all in, and then you had a huge battle with the Terrans again before they left for good. Then for the rest of the time you were gone, you are now involved in a war against some other aliens that want to change history and threaten to kill us all in the process?" 


Twilight nodded before she replied. "Yep, that's about it."


While the two crews would've explained all of the things they'd told Sunset, they assumed they didn't have time for history lessons, only to explain their reasons for coming to their world. After they had went inside, Sunset managed to convince Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna to stay in order to warn them of what's happening, they'd spent almost half an hour telling them all about the incident that Twilight went through, along with the battle against the Terran Empire and the now occurring war with the TLF. About halfway through the discussions did the crews' ships arrive to keep them safe in orbit, keeping an eye out for temporal marauders as the talks went on. It was about 3:00 according to the school clock when they'd finished saying all that had to be said, Sunset standing up as she spoke again. "I apologize if I didn't come here by myself to tell you all this, but this is something we need to be ready for. Who knows whether or not an enemy ship is in orbit waiting to take us out? You all are in danger, and I want to keep you all safe as much as my friends do."


Principal Celestia nodded to her before turning to Wyatt and asking him, "So, how many of your ships have you brought here with you?"


"Only two for the moment," He answered before adding, "depending on what enemy vessel comes to attack us, I may have to order our ships to keep a distance if a enemy task force or fleet show up, but with the gear we have down here, we should be able to hold them off long enough for our ships to get reinforcements. If we lose our ground here, our ships can beam us all up and we can remain there until we get the area under control." 


The Principal then nodded before Luna looked to Twilight before asking her, "So Twilight, Wyatt told us you've gained some knowledge about how to fight these 'marauders', what do we have to keep this place safe?"


"Our entire away team is fitted with several different beam weapons, phasers, polarons, disruptors, many different kinds of energy. We also come equipped with personal shields that should let us take a few shots before we can really get hurt, Some of us, including myself, come along with a few of these." She held out a small device that intrigued the Vice Principal before Twilight explained the device's capabilities. "Mobile emitters, they're able to generate security holograms that can provide support upon deployment, if heavy force comes, then these'll come in handy."


Twilight permitted Luna to examine the device before Dash's counterpart spoke up. "Okay, now that's really cool." Her counterpart smirked at her duplicate over her compliment before Applejack looked spoke up.


"Some of us also come armed with several deployable shields and turrets to help hold the line against them, it shouldn't be much of a problem for us." 


Luna nodded before Wyatt stated, "As for orbital combat, our ships come equipped with shields, beam arrays, and torpedoes, as well as several pieces of gear that rarely comes with most starships, a console that can modify a torpedo to track down a cloaked ship, one that can emit an energy wave capable of disabling other ships, and many others, as well as enhanced hull strength on both of our ships. With that set in, we shouldn't have to worry about having to evacuate at this time, let's just hope that nothing happe-"


It seemed like a cue for trouble as a watch guard for the school could be heard running towards the Principal's office yelling to the group as he made his way to them. "Prinicpal Celestia!" He said several times in a frightened manner before he finally entered the room, gasping for breath as Wyatt stood and questioned him quickly.


"What's the problem, sir?" The Admiral asked before the guard looked up to him swiftly and answered.


"Two of our students seemed to have come back, and they were asking for someone named "Princess Twilight" and her friends, but as I was about to ask, they pulled out these weird looking guns and told me they didn't have time to waste and they would hurt me if I didn't listen!" The guard said in a panicked manner before Wyatt grew worried and spoke up.


"Speak of the devil!" He said in annoyance before the group quickly got up and attempted to make their way out, the guard went with them too, wanting to help them out to where the students were before Wyatt turned to Celestia and told her, "Prinicpal, as much as I understand you wanting to assist us, it'd be best if you and the Vice Principal were to remain in here just in case." The two women nodded before Wyatt then followed up with the others.


Upon reaching outside, they found their targets, and upon seeing the two, gasped when they saw the perpetrators. Snips and Snails were standing right near the statue in the middle of the school, holding small alien pistols as they stood. Upon the two noticing the group's arrival, they kept their weapons ready as Snails ordered. "There you are, don't move a muscle!" 


The group would've had their weapons out, but they didn't know what setting the two weapons were on, and stood still before Sunset asked in fear, "Snips, Snails, what are you doing?! Put those guns down!"


"I'm sorry Mrs. Shimmer, but we can't do that, our boss wants you to hand your leading officers over." Snips said before the group heard another voice, one that forced Wyatt and his crewmembers' eyes to shrink upon hearing it.


"Yes, you heard the young man, everyone, now stand still." Noye's voice ordered to the group, forcing all of them to gasp when they heard it.


"Oh, you think you can make our friends hurt us?! I'll show you!" Dash's counterpart said angrily before jetting towards the two, but Dash managed to topple her as soon as she started and grunting, "Are you crazy?!" to her before the two fell down. At the same time, Snails fired his weapon out of panic, the purple beam struck the night guard who was standing in front of the group, the second he was hit, he screamed in pain as his body quickly turned to red energy before turning into nothing but vapor and smoke. Fluttershy's counterpart screamed at the top of her lungs as the group took a step back. 


"Don't move another step!" Snails ordered as the group stood still from the horrifying act they just saw.


"Snails, is something wrong?" Noye asked impatiently.


"N-no sir, we're ready for your next said, sir." Snails said as he stuttered and slightly shook from the power of his weapon.


"I thought I told you loud and clear what you were to do, Snails. Point your weapons at Princess Twilight and Admiral Stone, and fire." 


The group stood shocked and slightly gasped upon hearing Noye's order, even Snails and Snips' eyes shrunk at the order. They'd been ordered to kill a friend of theirs by some bloodthirsty maniac. Twilight and Wyatt slightly motioned to their friends, telling them to back away and waiting for Snails and Snips to do Noye's dirty work, but the two seemed to be having trouble cooperating.


"What are you standing around for? Shoot!" Snails shook even more but did not fire, he started to speak weakly.


"Sir, I... I can't, we just killed anoth-AAAAAHHHH!!!" Snails tried to say before he screamed in pain from an unknown source. He didn't fire his weapon, allowing Wyatt and Twilight to step closer, but Snails quickly pointed his gun and kept his aim, both friends stopping as he stood at the ready. 


"Fire the gun, NOW!!" Snails gritted his teeth at the pitch of Noye's voice, he stood for a moment before he moved his mouth as he tried to mouth, 'I'm so sorry.' to the others. 


He then slowly pointed his gun at his chest, Rarity's counterpart's eyes then shrunk to pinpricks as she started to scream, "Snails, NOOOO!!!" But her words were too late as he fired the weapon, screaming as his body then glowed red before turning to vapor, nothing left in the spot he once stood at.


Snips then groaned as he held his head and closed his eyes in pain, his groaning turning to screams before he fell to the ground, dropping his weapon before Fluttershy and T'Vrell quickly jogged over to the student and pulling their tricorders out. 


Wyatt then pulled out his communicator while Twilight stood in shock and fear from the suicide she just witnessed. "Stone to Amarillo, medical emergency! Bring your shields and weapons up and get a team down here immediately!" He quickly put it away before he looked to Twilight, who snapped out of her frozen state before they both ran over to Snip's body.


"Is he going to make it?" Twilight asked Fluttershy with worry.


"I don't know Twilight, some kind of device has been put into his brain and damaged his nerves, if we can, we need to get him to the ship, now." 


Twilight then tapped her combadge before noticing the medical team arriving the second she tapped it. "Sparkle to Equestria, we have an injured civilian we're sending to you right now, he needs treatment right away!"


"Got it Twi, Spike out." Her dragon friend said before the signal cut out and the group was left in silence save for Fluttershy's counterpart's crying over the horrific scene.


Principal Celestia and Luna came out of the building with worried looks on their faces as they walked over to Wyatt, who looked to them with a solemn face as they spoke. "What happened? We heard screaming coming from out here."


Wyatt hesitated before he replied. "Principal, your students....Snips and Snails killed the night guard, then Snails turned his weapon on himself and fired, he was vaporized.... I'm sorry." 


The two women gave light gasps as they heard of the tragic event he and the others just witnessed. "That..... that is most unfortunate, were the temporal marauders behind it?" 


Wyatt nodded before he replied. "Don't worry though, we heard who was the one pulling the strings, and he'll pay for what he's done, Principal. I swear it."


"As do I and my friends." Twilight said as he stood next to Wyatt, her friends, who being lead by Sunset, soon standing near her before Celestia spoke.


"....Thank you, thank you all for your offering of assistance." The group then saluted to the two sisters before Fluttershy's counterpart, who had finally stopped crying while still in panic mode spoke up.


"A-are we going to call the police to help us out?" She stuttered before Applejack spoke up.


"Yes, we'll also send some friends of ours to help out, by the way Principal, we wish to send Snips up to your ship so we can fix him up, if that's not a problem." Celestia nodded before Wyatt spoke.


"Alright, let's get this place fixed up and get some more of our friends up there, we need to be ready if Noye had just spoke to us." 


Everyone nodded before they made their way towards the school, Twilight then tapped her combadge before saying, "Spike, get some reinforcements up there, I think we're gonna have trouble very soon. Also, get down here and send Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle down here along with you to help out, we need to get defenses up and ready for this place to be safe."


"Got it Twi, I'll get Minuette and the others to keep your seat warm for ya, Spike out." The signal cut again as Twilight and the others then made their way inside the school to begin setting up defenses, the medical team then stood next to Snips before one of the officers tapped her combadge.


"Holloway to Amarillo, five to beam up." She said before they were all surrounded by a blue field of energy before they disappeared along with the field. Trouble was coming to Canterlot High, and everyone had to get themselves ready if they were to succeed in stopping it.
> Chapter VI: First Fight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Human World' Orbit

1410 hours


The two ships was quiet in space as they both sat like sitting ducks in space, not a single weapon or enemy ship could be seen or detected in the system. Shortly after Wyatt and Twilight had given their orders to their ships, supplies were sent to keep the city below ready for hostilities on both air and ground, while the crews onboard the two vessels in orbit wasted no time in getting the ship ready for a skirmish against whatever ship was sitting out there, waiting for the perfect moment to attack them. They unfortunately couldn't get a lock on the ship's location as neither ship could detect them, cloaking was an excellent stealth tactic for many captains to use, but in these cases, it was the weapon of a coward, why would they sit and hide away from two ships rather than come out and fight? Nonetheless, the two ships kept their guard sharp and their orbit steady.


On the Equestria's bridge, Moon Dancer, Sweetie Drops, and their friends all kept their positions at their friends' positions, Twinkleshine watching over the helm, Lemon Hearts focusing on weapons, Minuette keeping a sharp eye on the comms for any detected signals, and Moon Dancer of course had the liberty of keeping Twilight's seat warm for her. The four kept taking a peek or two at the viewscreen, watching out for any allies or enemies that may arrive. After a few silent moments, Lemon Hearts then spoke over to Moon Dancer. "I've managed to set the weapons up to where all arcs will give a decent bite to whatever beastie comes along to snatch us up for dinner, how's our allies?"


"They've just departed a few minutes ago, they should be here an-" Minuette started to answer before a noise on her console and the appearance of a blue portal forced her to pause, turning to look at the sight of several ships emerging from the portal before speaking again. "Saved by the bell, they've just arrived." Minuette then noticed another beeping coming from her console, realizing what it meant before she spoke. "The Enterprise has arrived with the rest of the fleet, they're hailing us."


"Onscreen." Moon Dancer said before the screen changed to Captain Shon sitting in his chair, another officer on each side of him as he spoke.


"I hope we didn't arrive too late, we gathered all of the ships we could spare and made our way here."


"Thanks, nothing's happened yet, but we're keeping an eye out. Twilight and the others had an incident down on the surface and they're getting the place set up for defensive measures." Moon Dancer replied. 


"Got it, we'll keep an eye out for any ships trying to break through to the surface."


"Understood." She said before the signal cut out and now showed around 37 ships alongside the Enterprise. Moon Dancer then looked to Vinyl Scratch, who was managing the sensors console. "Vinyl, how's our sensor array? Is that new jamming device you made ready?"


"Oh yeah, if they try to call for help, it won't be coming as long as that thing's running!" She said as she gave a cocky grin and once again turned to her console, which displayed the sensor controls as well as a new button upon further examination, "SCRAMBLE COMMS". 


"Good, keep it ready in case we pick up comms signals from enemy ships." Moon Dancer said before she focused on keeping the crew on their feet.


Right near Minuette, Dr. Hooves stood near his console, keeping an eye on his newly made temporal console before it beeped, part of the console's programming was to detect any and all energy signals and alert them to the officer using the console, Dr. Hooves thought it could be useful to detect possible weapons signatures aimed at them, and it would come in good use for what he was about to see. On his console he saw that some kind of energy surge, and quickly analyzing it he saw that the energy field was the size of a large starship, what the ship was, he couldn't tell. "Uh, Miss Moon Dancer, I think I found a problem."


"What is it?" Moon Dancer asked.


"It's some kind of energy signature, and it's large. I think it's some kind of cloake-" He froze in midsentence as he looked to the viewscreen, and a second after he did everyone else also panned their eyes in shock to see a large ship out in the distance of space. The ship seemed to have a ring being held by several pylons which was held from a larger ring from what they could see, but that was all they were allowed to see before the ship started to emit a rainbow colored orb, getting larger before Moon Dancer yelled out.


"EVASSIVE MANEUVERS, NOW!!" She ordered before Twinkleshine shouted out.


"Hold on!" As she said her words, the ship suddenly felt like it was turning downwards, so quickly that everyone immediately held onto their consoles as the ship jetted down under its former spot before they switched to the aft viewer to see a rainbow beam of energy pass over the ship's nacelles, nearly hitting the shields before the ship suddenly jerked up as it did when it went down, now facing the enemy ship as the front viewer came on. From the lower view they had of the ship, what followed after the rings and pylons was a spherical section that held behind it six claw like fins that pointed forward. As they got a good view of the enemy ship, several other ships decloaked around it, some of the ships having sleek, red colored hull with engines emitting plasma that seemed to resemble the shape of a teardrop, while others had a similar design to the lead ship, some of these ships having three curved, cylindrical, wing like sections with domes on the front of each wing, while others had 2 of this same wing style, the larger ones also bearing a brownish color while the small frigates were a blackish color. 


"It's the Annorax!" The Doctor exclaimed before he focused on his station before the order was given.


"Red alert! Lock all weapons and fire!" Moon Dancer said as everyone manned their stations as soon as Moon Dancer ordered them all to attack the ships and klaxons blared through the ship.


The screen now showed laser fire blazing all over the viewer, gold, red, turquoise, purple, and dark green colored beams and bolts shot from the two sides of ships, their shields being hit by the beams as the ship shook from the impacts of the weaponry from the enemy fleet. Wave after wave of varying energy beams and torpedoes shot from the Equestria, hitting most of the incoming frigates and crippling most of them and obliterating the others. After the frigates were damaged, the ship spared not a second for the enemy ships before the ship fired another wave of weaponry at the frigates, finally finishing them off before the ship turned towards the other ships. A Valiant class escort closed in on a Daemosh cruiser and blasted several phaser bolts at it, damaging the ship's shields before the ship quickly swung around and went back so it could start another run. The Amarillo also seemed to throw some rocks at the TLF fleet, taking on a rogue Krenim science ship and frigate on her own while the other ships fired on their targets.


Moon Dancer then looked to Minuette as she ordered, "Minuette, contact Twilight, tell her we've got company!" Minuette nodded before she tapped on the console and waited for a response.


~Canterlot High~


The sky had been mostly peaceful for some time, the evening mostly involved everyone gathering and setting up turrets and combat-ready exocomp droids as they prepped the school and any other prioritized areas for defense, the police had been called in as well to help out. But now, one place in the sky was flashing with blinks and glows of light, brighter than any of the other stars in the sky. Twilight looked up to see how the skies were doing when she saw it, random blinks and slight flashes in one spot in the sky. The sight made her grow worried quickly, but her worries were quickly revealed when her combadge chirped. She tapped it and spoke. "What's up?"


"Twilight, get your gear ready, those marauders are here, and they've brought the Annorax!" Moon Dancer said to her friend, forcing a worried expression on Twilight's face, she looked up again before replying to her.


"Keep me informed of what they're sending down, don't let them get to the city, we'll hold off any ground forces here! Sparkle out!" The Princess said to Moon Dancer before she tapped the badge off and began running to her friends.


"Get yourselves ready! They're coming!" She said as she pointed up to the strange spot in the sky, the two crews and gathered cops running to their positions and getting ready to deal with whatever was coming to them. No ground troops showed up yet, but apparently someone planned to give the troops a head start as several plasma torpedoes fell from the sky, mostly hitting granite and small parts of the school, about three houses were hit, some damaged heavily and others lightly. When Applebloom took a look at the battle above, she noticed some more flashes that got bigger with every second, squinting, she noticed that the closer explosions were fighters, both allied and enemy.


"Look out, everyone, we got fighters!" They looked to see Federation Stalker fighters and Na'kuhl fighters flying towards the city, engaging in combat en route. Everyone took cover while some, including Applebloom and Applejack, took the risk of firing at the fighters in an attempt to damage them, about two of them were hit badly by some of the shots the two sisters made, but it was the fighters that had the last hit. Applejack smiled at her sister's effort at damaging the fighters, the two continuing their shooting spree at the enemy fighters as they held the line.


Twilight's combadge once again chirped as she tapped it.


"More trouble Twi, they're sending in ground troops! We're sending what we can to you!" Minuette said to her friend the moment she tapped the badge.


"Got it, we'll keep them off!" She tapped her badge again before looking to the two farm sisters shooting into the sky before she called out to them. "AJ, take cover, ground troops inbound!" The moment she started her sentence, however, three large groups of TLF soldiers had just beamed down, some being immediately gunned down by cops and Twilight's friends while others started to evade incoming weapons fire.


Applebloom noticed the incoming troops and had already started to take cover, but Applejack took a little longer as she got one more good shot at one of the other fighters. By the time she'd fired her rifle, one of the enemy troops had their weapon aimed at Applejack. "AJ, get down!" Appleboom yelled to her older sister.


"Hold on, I'm comi-AAUUGGHH!!!!" She was cut off as the one cocky officer had hit her with a polaron shot to the side of her stomach, she started to fall before being caught by her sister, who fired her weapon at the same time, killing the soldier on the spot.


"SIS!!!" Applebloom yelped in fear as she held her injured sister, laying her down carefully as she looked over to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, help my sis out here!" Fluttershy ran over to her friend before Applebloom looked down at her sister.


"D-Don't worry 'bout m-me, sis, just take out th-unnnghh... those varmin." Applejack said as she grunted in pain, her sister looking down at her as blood started to leak from her wound. Applebloom crouched down over Applejack with a solemn face at first, but then grew a face that made her look as angry as a bottle of shook-up soda as she spoke to her injured sister.


"Don't ya dare die on me, sis!" Applebloom said before steadying her weapon and fired as many shots at the enemy as she could, not stopping other than to cool the rifle whenever it overheated.


The field was filled with beams and explosions from grenades thrown by both sides, while Twilight and Wyatt's crews were taking out more of the enemy than they were of their troops, the enemy wasn't relenting even slightly, after one group of troopers were killed, another would fill the gap. They seem to want to keep pushing until they'd have control of the area, they wouldn't be getting their prize, though, as the group fought off the invading marauders without hesitation. Wyatt grabbed his rifle and pressed several buttons on the rifle's touch pad before he shot out into the fray, hitting and killing several troops in front of the field, leaving about a third of them remaining. He then grabbed his new Type-2 Phaser pistol and fired both weapons at the incoming troops, old and new. Twilight readied her rifle as she motioned Flash over to her, both of them taking cover under the small barricades they'd set up earlier. Both of them looked to each other for a moment, nodding to each other before they fired their weapons all across the field, hitting almost all of the troops, who fell to the ground dead as they kept watch.


Dash looked to Sunset, who was keeping a lookout for the school gates that still stood unpenetrated, and called out to her. "Sunset!" Sunset heard her and ran over to her as she spoke. "I know you haven't been shown how to fully use one of these, but we need some help here. Can you use this?" She held out a phaser pistol, which Sunset briefly examined, the device seemed to look like a mix of a normal gun and a smartphone from what she could tell. After taking a quick look at it, she answered her friend.


"Yeah, I think so." Dash smiled before handing her the pistol, Sunset then crouched behind the barrier her friends stood behind and took a shot at one of the heavier soldiers that just arrived, a science officer with a polaron pulsewave minigun, upon hitting him, he glowed a bright red before turning to vapor, she'd vaporized her first target.


"YEAH!! Nice shot, Sunset, keep it up!" Dash shouted with a cocky grin before pulling out a plasma grenade and taking a good look at the remaining troops. "This is for Snails, you monsters!!!" She yelled before throwing the grenade, the explosion killing several troops around it.


Sunset grinned at the fact that she'd done excellent at trying her first 'ray gun' as her friends would call them, she kept her focus as she fired several more shots at the incoming soldiers.


Miolii ceased her shooting spree as she looked to Wyatt. "Admiral!" She called him over before they crouched together behind the barricade as the feline spoke.


"I think there's a way we can stop their troops from gathering here, I have my stealth module with me, if you and the others can distract those troops for me, I might be able to give us some time to heal up!"


"I think I can help on that, Admiral." Spike said to the two as she stopped firing her rounds. Wyatt stood with a worried expression before he decided.


"Be careful, do what you can." The two nodded before activating their stealth modules and quickly made their way around the entrance ways, carrying several components as they went to the first setup point.


Applebloom took a moment to check on Applejack after killing about a dozen troopers. Sunset's friends were attending her while she was helping out against the enemy. Her sister was doing better thanks to Fluttershy's assistance, though she could tell that the bloodstain on her sister's stomach which had soaked through the bandages was a sign she'd need to be back on the ship. She knelt down to face her sister again, who looked to her and said, "Ah'll be alright, sis, I just won't be able to keep shootin' for the moment, that.... bastard got me good."


"... Just stay alive for me, okay? we don't want to lose anyone here." Applejack nodded before her younger sister returned to shooting at the enemy soldiers.


Wyatt was focusing his fire on the troops before he crouched under the protective wall and pulled out his communicator. "Stone to Amarillo, what's happening up there so far?"


"Most of our remaining ships have sustained minor damage, but we've lost a third of our ships, we're starting to push back, though, Princess Celestia, Luna, and Cadence have shown up in a star cruiser to provide assistance, and boy I wish you could see the tweaks they've made, sir." Elisa replied to her commanding officer before he finished.


"Excellent, we're working on stopping them from transporting more soldiers to the surface. Keep them off us. Stone out." After putting away his communicator, The Admiral then checked the field, about half of the inhibitors were set up with no trouble at all, allowing him to keep his arms ready for the troopers. 


Wyatt then looked to see that the remaining troops had formed a shield around themselves to hold a position in the field, a waste of gear is what Wyatt was seeing as he focused fire on the shields covering the TLF soldiers.


Twilight took a small peek at the enemy foothold as she was refilling her ammo to see one of the troops behind the shield speaking to his communicator attached to his arm, she didn't know what the officer was talking about to the enemy fleet, but she was about to find out.


Sunset kept her ground along with the rest as she struck several troops with her pistol, she was getting a thrill from shooting the enemy several times without getting hit, but the adrenaline turned to excited fear as she heard a strange noise before looking down on her body to see a small field of energy surround her before she completely disappeared in front of her friends, not a single trace of her left.


"SUNSET!!!" The human counterparts of Twilight and her friends all screamed in horror before they looked to the field, the remaining troops tapped their wrist comms before each and every officer disappeared behind a field of energy. The ground assault problem was taken care of, but now Sunset had been kidnapped.


"Twilight then tapped her combadge swiftly before saying, "Sparkle to Equestria, respond!"


"Moon Dancer here, I think we've won, Twi, they're starting to break off. Seems pretty stupid considering how much they threw at us!" Moon Dancer said before laughing over the comms.


"Well we're not done with them yet, get our ships ready, they've taken Sunset!"


"What?! Is that why they're leaving so soon?" The Princess' friend said in a panicked tone of voice.


"Yes, it must be. Wyatt and I are heading back to the ship with the rest, we'll keep the fleet here to protect the planet, but we CAN'T let Noye escape with Sunset, who knows what he could do to her!" She said to her friend before finishing. "Also, get sickbay ready, we've got wounded!"


"Copy that Twi, Moon Dancer out!" The signal cut out before Twilight stood up and announced her plan.


"Everyone, Noye's attempting to escape with one of our friends, we cannot allow him to get away!" The group looked to her with understanding looks before Wyatt spoke up.


"We'll send some reinforcements to hold this place until we can get our friend back and either capture the Annorax or fight them off."


"Well, whether you like it or not, we're coming too!" Dash's counterpart said to Wyatt as he turned to see her and her friends standing with her, all giving an angry look to him before Fluttershy spoke up in defense.


"I know we don't have the kind of battle training like our.. counterparts, but we're not going to sit here while Sunset's probably being tortured right now, we want to help her!"


Wyatt looked to the seven students before he responded. "..OK, just try not to get hurt while you're with us, please. I'm sure Prinicpal Celestia wants you to be as okay as we are." The seven of them smiled before Twilight tapped her combadge and spoke.


"Sparkle to Amarillo and Equestria, 22 to transport, we're going after the Annorax!" Each person in the large group was then surrounded by blue waves of energy, before completely vanishing in the now expired transporter beams. Noye would've wanted to take this place in order to gain a foothold in Equestrian space, so capturing Sunset and attempting to flee was possibly Plan B for Noye, and they couldn't let that madman do whatever he had planned for the young schoolgirl who was their friend.
> Chapter VII: 'Plan B'
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annorax Transporter Bay


Low humming and console sounds were the only thing that sounded through the ship in the Annorax's main transporter room, the room was similar to a Starfleet transporter room, the base color of the room was silver, and the very top parts of the ceiling were braced by zig-zag like sections that would be about 3 feet from the ceiling to the ground. The ceiling braces followed down to the sections under them to show triangular wall consoles glowing a turquoise color showing data involving certain sections of the ship, while a singular triangular pattern-style console sat in front of the transporter pads. The pads themselves were in a triangular pattern as well, enough for about nine officers to step onto, a turquoise color emitted from each of the individual pads, with each of their centers having a small pink glow within.


A long moment of silence filled the transporter room before a glow of energy filled the space around one of the individual pads, the wave shortly dissipated before a light-orange colored human with red and yellow hair and clothing that was expected from the civilians on the planet below appeared and stood in shock. Her shock, however, faded quickly when she looked to the operations console at the edge of the room to see a single officer standing there, giving a glare at her as she stood.


"Don't try anything funny, I could stun you right now if I wanted to." The lone officer said as he and Sunset glared at each other for a moment until three other officers stepped into the room. 


"Well done on capturing our newest prisoner, Lieutenant." Noye said to the transporter operator before turning to Sunset, giving her a mischievous grin before she growled at him.


"So, now you want to take hostages instead of taking our home, Noye? You hurt my friends, used two of them as your little pets, and now you're gonna kidnap me and hold me here until you get what you want?" Sunset angrily said to her captor before he replied.


"Oh, you're more smarter than I expected, Mrs. Shimmer, indeed that is what I'm going to do to you, and if I don't succeed, then we'll simply use you as an escape attempt if we can't get through your 'friends' and their allies." Noye said in a taunting manner before Sunset grew angrier by the time he finished his sentence.


"What makes you think you can simply commit the actions that you've already done tonight and act like they didn't cause any harm to anyone around you or down there? You're a madman if you think nobody will miss Snails after what he did to himself because of you!" Sunset retorted before Noye spoke back to her.


"You seem to misunderstand me, Mrs. Shimmer, Snails, as you call him, was doing what was right for those lost in the Iconian War, for Tuteria and all of it's children who suffered at the hands of the Borg, and did you forget who made that happen? Did you forget that the Federation was using time travel for their own schemes before they decided to prevent such an act from happening again?" Noye said to her with a barely audible growl before she retorted again.


"You seem to forget that it wasn't just the Federation that did made such a mistake, YOU were in on it too, Noye, YOU had helped them try and save billions of lives from a terrible foe that threatened not just the Alliance, but everyone around you. And now you're making the situation worse by trying to fix that mistake the wrong way, do you think destroying the Alliance will save your people, Noye? Do you think that genocide of other races will save your wife?" Sunset said to him in anger.


Noye didn't speak for a moment, rather letting the silence remain for a moment before he spoke again, seeming like he did not regard Sunset's statement. "As much as I'd like to continue our conversation, Mrs. Shimmer, I have delicate work to do." Noye said before turning to the security guards next to him.


"Take her to the brig, if she tries to escape, stun her. Do NOT kill her, is that understood?" He ordered to the guards, who nodded before standing next to Sunset, taking her weapon and walking behind her out the door and into the hallway while Noye went down another hallway. Sunset didn't make an attempt to resist or run, she was unarmed and would be shot the moment she were to fight back, the only thing to do was hope for a rescue...


~U.S.S. Amarillo~


The transporter room was full of tension and shaking from the battle outside the ship as the operator stood at his console, pulling down a switch on the button-filled console as he performed his duty. About five of the six transporter pads glowed in yellow before six fields of gold colored energy appeared on the platform. The energy fields soon revealed five people on the pads before the energy fields disappeared and the five officers stepped off the transporter pads. Wyatt took the lead as he spoke to the operator. "There's several guards coming here to beam down to the surface, when they arrive, beam them down to our previous location."


"Aye sir." The officer said before the five officers went to the door and made their way to the bridge.


Upon reaching the antique ship's bridge, the officers took their positions while Wyatt took his seat and tapped his comms panel. "Stone to Equestria, you there, Twilight?"


"Yep, we're with you, Admiral. The Royal Sisters are holding the line against the enemy fleet, and it looks like they'll be running from us soon!" Twilight said before Wyatt replied to her.


"Even if we win this fight, I don't intend to leave a friend on that ship, Twi. I think if we can get a pair of cloaking devices from our allies, we might be able to follow the Annorax and get Sunset back, and maybe even sabotage the ship." Wyatt explained before Twilight replied.


"Got it, contact us when you're ready!"


"Understood, Stone out." Wyatt then tapped the comms again to shut them off before he then looked to T'Vrell. "T'Vrell, hail one of the Klingon ships, I need to ask them a favor."


A moment later, the viewscreen changed to show a humanoid with ridges on his head and a uniform with robes covering the detailed sections of it. The Klingon captain then cheered lowly as he spoke to the Admiral. "Qapla, Captain, our enemies run like young targs while we bathe in victory!"


"And the victory will be sweeter very soon, I must ask a favor, do you have a cloaking device or two to spare? A friend of ours living on the planet below has been kidnapped and we must chase after them, and also try and sabotage their ship if we can." 


"Ah, you've asked at the right time! My crew was tasked with carrying supplies before the battle, but I can spare some for you and your allies!" The Klingon replied with a grin before Wyatt responded.


"Excellent, see if you can hold the line while we follow them through their escape route. Oh, and we'll do our best to keep the cloaking devices safe." He said before the warrior on the screen finished.


"Bah, don't worry about it, two lost cloaks can't destroy us! Qapla!" The screen then cut and Wyatt tapped on the comms panel.


"Twilight, we've got the cloaking devices for our ships, stick with me and we'll sneak in with the enemy ships. Once we're in, we'll board the Annorax, find Sunset, and get off before they can stop us." Wyatt said before the Princess replied.


"Great, we'll contact you when we're set, Sparkle out." The comms then cut out before T'Vrell spoke up.


"We have the cloaking devices, sir, Engineering says it should only take them a moment to install it."


"Excellent, let's move our two ships behind the rest and jam their scans so we can cloak without their notice, when I give the order, we'll move in quickly towards their escape route." Wyatt said to his Vulcan officer before she replied.


"Aye sir." T'Vrell then continued her work before Wyatt heard a beep from his comms panel, he tapped a button on it and heard Twilight's voice from the speakers.


"We've gotten the cloak installed and we're waiting on your word, Wyatt."


"Understood, we shou-" He said before another beep interrupted him.


"Sorry to interrupt sir, but the cloak is ready, just give the word." Zarva said through the speakers before Wyatt replied to both of his friends.


"Good, activate our cloaks, Twilight, stick with us when we start making our run."


"No problem, Sparkle out." The channel then cut before Lon spoke to the Admiral.


"Sir, I'm getting a signal being transmitted from the Annorax, they're hailing us."


"Onscreen." Wyatt replied before the screen changed to a small bridge, two consoles stood in front and behind the center seat, which was taken over by a single man with feathered out hair and a beard, along with a dark orange uniform.


"You may have bested our fleet here, but you'll never be able to stop us from escaping this time!"


"Just stop this meddling at once, Noye, our fleet outnumbers yours 50 to 1, just give it up old friend, or we'll open fire, and you know I don't want to do that." Wyatt replied to the traitorous scientist before he retorted.


"Well then, you won't have to, Admiral. You see, I have your friend in the brig at the moment, and if you fire upon my ship, I'll order her execution." Wyatt then gave a false expression of worry and anger, trying to keep his act up in order to fool Noye. Fortunately, his false emotions slipped right by Noye once he responded to him.


"..Alright, but don't come back, if you do, I'll have to break that promise." He said to him before Noye finished.


"Well see about that, Admiral." As soon as he said his words, the signal cut out before a beep sounded from Wyatt's comms.


"Admiral, you don't really intend to let him go, do you?! We can't let him escape!" Shon said before Wyatt replied.


"I don't intend to Captain, Twilight and I have a friend on that ship and we're going to get her back! Don't worry about us, though, contact Captain Walker and tell him we're in pursuit of the Annorax and see if he can assist us!"


"....Understood, we'll do what we can to get your ships some help on stopping Noye. Shon out!" After the channel cut out, Wyatt then tapped his comms panel again.


"Twilight, get your engines ready, we're going in!" Wyatt said to the Princess before she replied.


"Understood!" Wyatt then turned off the comms and turned to Lon.


"Lon, full impulse, now!" Upon his words, Lon tapped a few buttons on the console before the ship jerked forward at full speed towards the recent portal the Annorax had generated. The two ships sped past the fleet, completely invisible to both eyes and sensors as they raced towards the wormhole. Shortly after the Annorax entered the portal, the Amarillo and the Equestria silently soared past the other enemy ships previously surrounding the now departed Annorax before entering the vortex, which shortly after closed and left the enemy fleet to escape by their own means.


On the Equestria, the bridge seemed more crowded than usual, besides Twilight and her friends sitting at their stations, Vinyl, Moon Dancer, and their friends stood alongside the human counterparts of Twilight and her friends, watching the space around their ships slowly move past them as the Annorax flew in front of them, unaware of their presence within the time portal. Twilight looked to Rarity and asked her, "Rarity, can you scan the Annorax? I want to see if there's a safe spot to beam to."


Rarity took a moment to tap several buttons on her console before she replied. "There's one spot in the secondary cargo bay, I'm detecting Sunset's life signs in a brig a few decks away from the beam-down target. Oh, by the way, their shields are down."


Great, we'll need some stealth modules to use in order to get to her as safely as possible, if we were to get caught, the Annorax'll know of our presence and we'll have to make a run for our lives if we're to come back. Derpy, contact Wyatt and tell him we're making our attempt at rescuing Sunset and to keep guard for our two ships." The mailmare nodded with a smile before Twilight continued. "Let's get our gear set and head out, Lyra, Bon Bon, Doctor Hooves, we'll need your help too."


Bon Bon gave a cocky smirk as she replied. "You got it, Twilight, the three of us are always ready to help."


"What about us? What can we do?" Fluttershy's human counterpart asked the group before Vinyl spoke up.


"Well, since the Doc, Lyra, and Bon Bon are heading out with you guys, mind if they help out? I know they haven't been trained yet, but I think we can show them the ropes of manning the ship." Twilight nodded to her before Starlight stepped out from the group and spoke to her mentor.


I want to come too, I think I can help out with keeping the guards off of us if we get into trouble. Twilight looked at her for a moment before replying.


"Sure, just try not to get hurt." Twilight's student nodded to her before the Princess looked to her friends.


"Alright then, to the transporter room." With that said, the group of 11 walked to the varying turbolifts, fitting as many of themselves as they could before the doors closed on all of the three turbolifts being used. In Twilight's turbolift, Flash looked to Twilight before speaking to her.


"What do you think they're doing to her, Twi?" The Princess' guard asked before she replied.


"I don't know, she can't be dead though, they probably put her in the brig, from what I assume. Let's just hope she's okay for the moment." The group stood in silence as the turbolift moved through the ship, shifting slightly on occasion as it made it's way to the group's destination....


~Annorax: The Brig~


The brig, boring, cramped, and.... annoying, those were the things Sunset thought of when she was brought into the brig. The brig wasn't too fancy looking for a brig, besides the door behind the, there were just several small sections in the room, some of them containing prisoners that Sunset heeded no attention to. Upon reaching the designated cell, one of the two guards stood with her as the other tapped a few keys on the panel, deactivating the force field before Sunset walked inside, the force field turning back on as the guard tapped the panel again and the guards walked away to continue their duties on the ship, leaving the school student in her cell with the other prisoners. She didn't notice it at first, but she noticed that there was a small section of both walls that had a button near them, when she pressed it, the small section would open up for her to communicate with the other prisoner inside the cell next to her. In her case, she was sitting in the left section of the room, and when she took a listen for a voice or sound of some kind to enter her ears, she didn't hear a thing. Needing some air, fresh or not, she sat back and relaxed for a bit on her bed as she closed her eyes and pondered over what would happen to her during her stay here.


"What will they do to me when they don't need me as an escape tool to slide by my friends? Will they kill me? Turn me into some kind of slave like those Orion women Twilight mentioned to me about earlier?" Her thoughts swirled in her head before she started to talk to herself quietly. "Okay, so since this ship isn't in a battle at the moment, that would mean the shields are down right now, so maybe I could find some way of getting off this ship if Twilight and the others haven't been able to reach me. But.... if I were to do that, I'd have to be very careful at not screwing up, they'd shoot me if I gave them even a slight chance at stopping me."


"Pfft.. Good luck, girl, these guys will knock yah to the ground if yah make one simple mistake, like one of mah friends made." Sunset nearly jumped when she heard the voice, it sounded a bit distorted, but she could make out a woman's voice in it.  Seeing the opening in the wall, she took a look inside to see who it was. At first, she didn't see a thing in the room next to her, but when she took a good squint, she could faintly see a faint silhouette in the dark room, the shadow-like form seemed to resemble a pony, about the size of a filly, but she noticed that there were faint colors around the edge of the being's form, yellow seemed to show around the main body of the pony, while the mane and tail seemed to be red. The silhouette then opened it's eyes to reveal small pupils that showed the color of orange within. The filly then came up to the opening and looked at Sunset, and getting a closer look, she noticed the hair to look similar to Applebloom's hairstyle. The dark filly then grew a curious expression as she asked Sunset, "Hey, yah ahright? Is something on meh?"


Sunset snapped back to her senses before replying to her new friend. "Oh, no there's nothing on you, only a familiar face." 


"Really? Who was that?" The filly asked her.


"A filly named Applebloom, she was one of my friend's little sisters, she serves aboard a ship that one of my other friends named Twilight commands." Sunset said to the dark pony.


"So, you've met mah mirror counterpart, huh?" Sunset grew surprised upon her words.


"Counterpart?! What do you mean?" Sunset asked before the dark being who claimed to be Applebloom's mirror self explained herself to the schoolgirl.


"Well.... ya see, Ah'm from another realm, one that has a darker tale to it. The Royal Sisters are conquerors trying to take over Equestria, and mah sister and her would-be friends in your universe are nothing but troublemakers, at least, some of them. One mare, Pinkamena, wanted to make friends and when Ah met her, we became good friends and Ah abandoned mah sister to stay with her. But... while time passed on, THEY came, you might know them as the Terran Empire, apparently while they'd found a way into your realm, they'd found mine, but without the strength we needed to defend ourselves, they invaded and took our world very swiftly, they slaughtered the Regal sisters and many of the civilians and other empires on the planet. Mah sister and her friends, Ah don't know what happened to them, but when they found meh and Pinkie, she wasn't going to let them take us, and for defying their orders, they beat mah friend unconscious and took her to who-knows-where. And meh.... they were going to use meh as some kind of resource, whether it was domestication as a pet or for slave work, Ah don't know, but when Ah was being taken, this group of officers came and took meh as a prisoner as they killed the Imperials. Later on, Ah was taken to this ship, and Ah've been a prisoner ever since now."


Sunset took a long moment to process Applebloom's counterpart's story, she then came back to the conversation and spoke up. "Wow, and that would've happened had it not been for my friends." After taking another look at the dark filly, she was confused over her appearance. "Wait, if you're Applebloom's counterpart, then why is your fur so dark?"


"Oh, yeah, Ah got caught in a bit of dark magic one time and... Ah think ya can guess the rest." The filly said to Sunset as she replied.


"Well, it'd seem a little weird to call you Applebloom if we were to get out of this place, how about if I give you a nickname?" Sunset asked the mirror filly.


"Whatever floats your boat, what do you think would work?"


"Hmm.... you do have an intimidating appearance in the form you have, how 'bout.... Creepybloom?"


"Huh, sound's funny, but it fits to meh. Creepybloom it is."


"Cool, it's quite nice to meet you, Creepybloom."


"You too, Sunset..."
> Chapter VIII: An On-Time Rescue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annorax Cargo Bay 2


The Annorax's cargo rooms were what almost every ship had for a cargo bay, the room was nothing but boxes of rations and goods left unguarded. No noise except for a low humming from inside the walls emitted within the room until several small fields of energy appeared in a clear spot around the cargo boxes, each revealing a humanoid being before disappearing seconds later, leaving a total of 11 beings in the room with the cargo. Twilight took a good look around the room to check for any security systems checking for intruders, when none were spotted, she looked to her crewmates. "Looks like we're clear, get your stealth gear ready and set up defenses, me, Flash, and the Doctor'll make our way to Sunset's brig and bust her out while Dash, Bon Bon, and Lyra plant some bombs on nearby key sections of the ship, about two at the least, once both of our groups get back here, well call our ship and beam off and find out where Noye's going."


"You remember where her brig's at, right?" Twilight nodded to Dash before she finished.


"Alright, try to be quick and not trip any alarms, let's go!" The group then split into three other groups, Dash's group activated their stealth modules and quickly made their way to their first target to bomb, while Twilight's activated theirs and made their way out and raced to the brig, leaving the remaining members of the last group to guard their beam-out zone. Twilight and her two friends jogged quietly towards Sunset's brig, very few officers ventured this section, making it easy to get to the next room without any trouble. 


They'd passed about seven other doors before reaching their target, 'DECK 11 - BRIG' was printed on the sign near the door, and the group started to reach the door, but Twilight then stopped her friends and spoke to them, "Wait, we can't just go in there and expect the guards to think it was some kind of ghost, we'll need a distraction." The Princess then looked around the hallway to find a good place to attract the guards for some time. "There!" She saw a section on one of the walls of the hallway, it was opened up for engineering officers to repair, but for the moment it exposed several cables and wires that kept the ship working. Twilight then grabbed a photon grenade, activated it, and placed it into the field of wires, the metal ball appearing after she let go of it before she ran from the explosion and told her friends to get clear. A second passed before the bomb exploded, causing fire, smoke, and electricity to emit from the blast before a voice sounded over the intercoms seconds later.


"FIRE TEAMS TO DECK 11! FIRE ALERT! FIRE TEAMS REPORT TO DECK 11!" Shortly after the voice spoke up, the doors to the brig opened and released a pair of guards from the room, the two of them fleeing from the nearby blaze for safety. Twilight then motioned her friends into the brig before stepping inside herself, she saw several other rooms with force fields blocking their openings. 


"Twilight, right here!" Twilight heard Flash say before they deactivated their stealth modules and the Princess made her way to Sunset's room. 


"Sunset, you're okay!" Twilight said to her imprisoned friend, she was looking at her three friends with a smile before Flash deactivated the force field, allowing the schoolgirl out of her prison. "Let's get out of here, the guards won't be distracted for long!" Twilight said to Sunset before she responded.


"Wait, please tell me you have some gear to spare, there's a friend in that cell next to mine and I'm breaking her out too." 


"You mean this filly?" Flash said before the others stood by him to see Sunset's new friend, it was a dark filly with an appearance similar to Applebloom looking at them with worry.


"The name's Applebloom, but since ya have an Applebloom Ah want to go by Creepybloom, y'all can laugh at meh later." While the name was a bit humorous to the group, they didn't chuckle but kept their smiles as they deactivated the force field, allowing the filly out of her dismay.


"Come on, put this gear on and follow us, they can't see us with the stealth modules activated." Twilight said to the two before they quickly put their new equipment on and activated it before they followed behind the three officers. They'd fortunately not been caught as the smoke from the fire blotted the hallway, preventing anyone on the other side from seeing the door open.


On the other side of the deck, Dash and her team had already found an area worth bombing; the shield generator. When they saw the door, Dash pulled out a pair of plasma grenades and, upon getting near the doors enough for them to open, threw them into the room. The bombs exploded before several of the officers began to fall over from plasma poisoning, leaving about two resilient officers left to deal with. Entering the room, Dash grabbed her phaser pistol and fired both her weapons out into the room, killing the remaining guards, allowing Lyra and Bon Bon to place their bombs onto the consoles and the generator itself while Dash kept a lookout for the guards. After a few moments, the two friends came up to Dash and nodded to her before they continued on to the next critical system. "I've taken another scan, there's a power control room nearby, hitting that should make this ship have a sick stomach!" Dash nodded to the spy before they raced to their target. They immediately stopped to see several Krenim officers making their way to the shield generator room, after they'd passed, Dash lifted her arm up and kept her finger over a button on her arm. A few seconds after the officers entered the room, she pressed the button and detonated the bomb in the nearby room, the three girls then raced to the control room.


They'd ran for some time through about two corridors before they'd reached the control room, apparently the Krenim didn't think that it was an attack happening on their ship, as the doors to the control room remained open. The group stepped back before more officers came out of the control room and raced to the shield generator room, leaving the three girls to step inside.


"Cool, the room's empty, be quick, Bon Bon, they'll be back to check on this place eventually!" 


"Let's just hope we have enough time!" Bon Bon replied before she and Lyra began setting up the bombs on several power conduits in the room, some small, others large. About a minute passed before the two friends came back, Dash acknowledging them before the trio left the room and raced to the beam out point.


"Dash to Sparkle, we've taken out the shields and a power junction on this deck, we're heading back now!" Dash said before Twilight replied.


"Good, hurry up, though, they'll find out what caused all the ruckus soon!"


"Got it, Dash out!" The three ladies then raced past the previous rooms they'd bombed moments ago unnoticed as they kept their eyes out for any attention being drawn towards them.


In the cargo bay, Twilight, Sunset, and the others entered the room and quickly hid behind a large stack of cargo boxes, which hid their beam-out point. Pinkie Pie grew ecstatic upon seeing the new face in the group. "I see you've all made a new friend, guys!"


"Yeah, she's actually Applebloom's mirror counterpart, she and I bonded in the brig before our rescuers came." Sunset said to the party girl.


"By the way, call meh Creepybloom." The dark filly said to Pinkie before she responded.


"Sure! You look scarier than a pack of timberwolves! No offense." Pinkie stated before Creepybloom smiled happily at the compliment.


A noise sounded from the room entrance before the group looked to see Dash, Lyra, and Bon Bon entering the room, taking cover as Twilight's group did a moment ago.


"I think we're good to go, Twi, we've taken out the shields and we're ready to ge-" She was interrupted when shaking started up in the room and a beeping noise sounded from Twilight's combadge before she tapped it.


"Twilight, bad news, the Annorax is exiting the portal and... ....you better get back to the ship quick, it's not good." Moon Dancer said to Twilight before she replied.


"No problem, we've got another friend coming along as well, get a lock on us and beam us out before the guards arrive!" 


"Understood, Equestria out." The signal cut out and about a second later several fields of energy encompassed the group, their bodies disappearing before the transporter beams did, leaving only the cargo boxes in the room.


~U.S.S. Equestria~


The bridge was full of noises from consoles and low chatter from the crewmen in the room, their eyes focused on the viewscreen before all three turbolifts opened, several officers entering the room before Moon Dancer looked to see Twilight leading the group on her right. Twilight stopped in her tracks when she saw what was on the viewscreen, a large, spherical structure similar to the one they'd seen five months ago was sitting in space, which contained no stars, only darkness with a few blue colored surges of energy appearing now and then. 


Twilight and her friends stared at the sight in front of them, the Princess left wide-eyed before Moon Dancer spoke to her. "It looks like Noye found a way here, his ship is sending out a signal to a TLF fleet." 


"He must've found a way to gain the data on where this place is, and how to get to it." Twilight said before Minuette spoke up as well.


"Yeah, and since he's found a way here, he'll most likely try to gain the data needed for accessing the other universes this can lead him to, and if he does that... we're screwed."


"We..... we can't let him get the data on the other universes, who knows what he'll do to the beings within them!" Twilight said as she went up to her command chair and tapped a button on the comms panel. "Sparkle to Stone, do you read me?"


"Loud and clear, Twilight, we can see it too, we're detecting a transporter signature coming from the Annorax, and Noye's life signs aren't on the ship anymore!" Wyatt said as Twilight replied.


"I'm sending an away team down there, can you help us out?"


"No problem, I'll be down there shortly!"


"Understood, Sparkle out!" Twilight tapped the comms panel and looked to her friends before the turbolift opened to reveal Applejack, Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle exiting out of the lift before the doors shut behind them.


"Applejack, you're okay!" Pinkie Pie said to the farm girl.


"Yeah, I've taken a minor scratch on my stomach, but I'll manage." Applejack said before Applebloom noticed a new face on the bridge.


"What the? Who in the hay is this? She looks a lot like me." Applebloom said to the group before the dark filly responded.


"Your mirror counterpart is who you're lookin' at, but ya can call meh Creepybloom." The group almost looked as if they wanted to laugh, but kept their focus on the task at hand as Twilight spoke up.


"Alright, now we need to get onto that sphere and stop Noye from tampering with the other realms it leads to, Flash, Applejack, Pinkie, Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Thorax, Starlight, Trixie, you're all with me, the rest of you maintain the ship until we come back." The crew nodded before the group made their way to the turbolifts, the doors shutting in front of them upon stepping in. 


Starlight looked to Trixie as they waited for the lift to stop and asked her, "I hope we can snap some sense into Noye, I don't want to have to fight him." 


"Neither do I, Starlight, he's causing too much trouble already, let's just hope he doesn't try to harm us or anyone else while we try to stop him." Trixie said to her best friend as the eight friends stood in the turbolift, a slight movement happening every now and then as they were taken to their destination.


~The Sphere Archive~ 


The archive was expected to be swarmed by Krenim soldiers within minutes, but instead, only a few guards took their positions on the balcony, Noye being the only one on the main platform. He and his men had beamed into the archive moments ago, eliminating the guards near the archive and avoiding many more of them at distant areas, and now they were about to access the archive and get the data they needed to infiltrate the other realms that this sphere provided access to. Noye himself didn't waste no time in walking to the archive, pulling out a data chip and inserting it into the main computer upon reaching it. He looked at the screen on the console in front of the archive with high anticipation. "Soon, the Alliance will pay for their crimes against the timeline, and they'll hear it from our soon-to-be friends too when we meet them." 


"Noye!" A male voice called out to him, forcing the traitorous scientist to turn around and see about fifthteen humanoid officers and three equines standing on one of the platforms that was connected by a pathway to the archive. The group gave varying expressions as they looked at Noye, some of them angry and others looking remorseful to him, Noye, however, only gave a sadistic grin as he responded to the Admiral's call.


"Ah, and I thought you were already washed out by my friends back there.... and it seems you've made a prison break for your friend. Well, at least you can watch while we gather some much desired assistance."


"You're already causing too much of a ruckus, Noye. Please, stand down and we can just go home, we don't need to fight about this." Wyatt said to his old friend before he retorted.


"Me, causing a ruckus? I'm trying to clean up a mess that you and your lackeys have made to the timestream, and soon you'll learn what happens when you try to control the way others live!" Noye said before Twilight spoke up to him as well.


"Noye, if the Alliance wanted to control others, do you think I'd be in this uniform right now? Do you think I'd have my own ship if we were truly puppets to the Alliance?"


"Of course, a puppet would wear such a barbaric uniform, your friends have ended millions of lives with their attempts at 'saving the galaxy' as you say, well you're about to see the error of your ways, Princess!" He was about to focus on his console once again before another voice spoke to him.


"No, you are the one who must see yours!" He looked back to see a pony with a similar fur color to Twilight's along with a mane and tail of purple and streaks of green within them walking out from the group, looking at him with a disappointed look on her face before she continued. "Changing the course of history is only going to lead to worse things happening, the galaxy could fall to the Borg, the Dominion, or even the race that forced you to make a mistake that you personally regret the most and blame us for." She stopped for a second before continuing again. "I don't want to have to fight you Noye, NONE of us do, and if you think I'm just another one of Wyatt's friends trying to butcher you and your friends, I once made a mistake like yours, one that threatened my friends and the land of Equestria when I went with it, and I regret doing such a thing every day even though Twilight and I fixed it in the end." She kept her eyes focused on Noye, keeping herself steady as she explained to Noye of her story.


"Before I befriended Twilight, I had become distant from everyone around me when I was a filly, it was all because of a cutie mark." She looked to her flank before she looked back and continued. "A friend of mine had gotten his before me and we became distant afterwards. I had felt so infuriated over that incident, even when I got my own cutie mark, I'd eventually went to a town and gained a powerful device which allowed me to take away everyone's cutie mark, while I lived a lie of a life trying to appear like everypony else in the town. When Twilight and her friends had arrived and I tried to make them join the town, they ended up freeing the town of the curse-like situation I'd put them in. And I was so angry with her after that, I wanted to get revenge on her by stealing a powerful scroll which helped me use a spell that allowed me to travel into the past and prevent Twilight and her friends from ever coming together. What was the price? King Sombra at war with Equestria, Chrysalis having taken over Canterlot and the remainder of Ponyville being led by a friend of ours named Zecora, Nightmare Moon bringing eternal night to Equestria, so many terrible outcomes came out of my actions, and I didn't even realize what I'd done until Twilight showed me the right of way. You don't have to be like me, Noye, don't do this. Let's just put our guns down, and go home... please."


The two looked at each other for a long moment, their eyes seemed to look into each other's minds, seeming like they both realized they shared the same pain. Starlight then extended a hoof out to Noye, offering herself to be his friend. Noye stood for a moment in front of the mare, looking down at her hoof as he pondered in his thoughts. He started to extend his hand out, looking as if he understood Starlight, before a blade immediately appeared out of his wrist armor. Upon his arm thrusting into Starlight, the blade impaled her through her chest, dark blood squirting out and more of it dripping out of her new wound as she yelped in pain. 


"STARLIGHT!!!" Trixie screamed in horror at the sight of her close friend being attacked by the mad scientist as her friends next to her gasped in terror and shock at Noye's sudden action at Starlight, who grunted in pain as she looked to Noye as he spoke.


"You think that a simple cutie mark as you call it is something to destroy your home for? THEY murdered billions of innocent lives because they wanted to eliminate a race that wanted to take over the galaxy! Is that a good move to make, ending an entire world just to save the rest of the galaxy?! And you say WE, THE TWO OF US, ARE ALIKE!" Noye said to the injured mare before he pulled the blade out of the mare's chest, blood spirting out and dripping on Starlight as she stood, shaking slightly with shrunk pupils. Starlight started to feel dizzy as she stood, her legs feeling weaker every second before she lost her footing and fell to the ground, her body lying on the ground, almost unmoving.


Twilight started to tear up at the sight of her student on the pathway, she'd been forced to watched her friend suffer at the hands of an old friend right in front of her eyes, and everyone else. Not even friendship could get to Noye, this time, the only way to get his attention was bloodshed, and Starlight was another one of his examples. Trixie, however, was enraged at the sight seconds later, as she let out a vicious cry of anger and hatred before grabbing her pistol from her leg holster with her magic and firing at Noye. The shot hit him in the shoulder, he yelped in pain and growled upon being hit. The guards above the group then began to fire on the group, the two away teams setting up several shield barricades around them before they heard Noye speak again.


"Take care of them, I need to get the data for the portals!" Wyatt took a peek around the shield he was behind to see Noye focusing on the console as he tried to get the required data needed for transport to the other realms. Wyatt then looked up to the soldiers shooting at his friends around him before he pulled out his Phaser pistol and fired, a blue beam shot out from the small weapon before it hit one of the soldiers, turning him bright blue before he disappeared.


Twilight then formed up with Flash behind his shield and the two fired on several guards on the left flank, hitting each one with several shots until about seven of them were down. The two then took cover as another officer fired his weapon at the Princess and the guard, hitting the shield as they kept behind the shield. 


Thorax took a careful look at the console Noye was attempting to access and, using his horn, charged up a powerful bolt of magic and fired at the console, which exploded in fire and smoke upon impact. Noye, however, didn't seem to change much, other than a frown and what looked to be mumbling to Thorax, he looked to the guards on the balconies and ordered, "Cover me, I've got enough for us to use on the enemy fleet!" Noye made his way towards another nearby platform as the soldiers above kept their focus on the group below. 


"Take out the guards, Noye already has some of the data! We'll stop him once we get back to the ship!" Twilight said before she pulled out a photon grenade and threw it at a large group of TLF soldiers, all of them being shot against the wall within the balcony as the device exploded. Flash then grabbed his pistol and shot a good six soldiers as he dual-wielded his two weapons, then taking cover as another officer shot at him and missed as he crouched behind the shield. 


Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle kept their focus on the right wing of the balcony, firing their weapons at the remaining 8 soldiers behind the railings as they took cover several times to keep safe from the enemy's shots. Applebloom then looked to her two friends as she spoke to them. "Ahright, I think if I can use these plasma grenades well enough, we can wipe that wing clean of soldiers! Cover me!" The two fillies kept themselves as the focus for the right wing's attackers while Applebloom stood and threw a total of four grenades into the balcony, releasing toxic plasma gas as they exploded. With the troopers stunned by the plasma radiation, the three fillies altogether fired their weapons at as many of the guards as they could, eventually leaving not a single trooper left in the right section of the balcony.


Wyatt looked to both balconies to see that the left wing had only three troops left at the moment, before looking to Noye to see that he had now arrived at the other platform, he tapped his wrist comms and spoke into it. Though Wyatt couldn't hear what Noye was saying, he could tell that he was making a run for it as a field of energy surrounded Noye before it disappeared along with Noye himself. He then looked to the left balcony to see that the other troopers had ceased fire, forcing the group to take a look and see that the remaining soldiers were tapping on their wrist comms as well before they too were surrounded by transporter beams and vanished.


"Cowards!" Dash yelled out before the troopers completely disappeared, leaving the group to take control of the room. After double-checking the room for enemy troops and seeing that there were none, Twilight looked to the pathway to see Starlight, lying on the ground in a recent pool of blood. Scared for their friend, Twilight and her friends ran over to Starlight to check on her injuries, because of the bloodbath they had after she'd been struck, she was left to bleed out from her wound, even if she wanted to, she couldn't get up.


Trixie sounded as if she was living out the end of the world as she sputtered to her friend. "S-Starlight, don't c-close your eyes, s-stay awake!" She then turned and spoke to Fluttershy, who was attending to Starlight at the moment. "Fluttershy, p-please tell me you can save her! I-I don't know if I can take this!" 


Fluttershy was taking her scan of Starlight as Trixie stuttered to her, and the answer came when she finally finished her scans, which forced a solemn expression on her face as she answered. "S-....She's lost too much blood, we won't be able to get her to the ship in time." Fluttershy looked like she was tearing up as Trixie tried to speak.


"...N-no... No! Starlight, don't you dare fail on me now! Please!" Trixie begged her best friend before she faintly began to speak, grunting a few times as she tried to breathe.


"T-Trixie...I'm....sorry if.... we didn't get muc-UUGGH... time together...... ..... don't.... wo-worry about....me.... just-NGGHH.......stop....N-Noye...... please." Starlight managed to say before she started to grow weaker, her breathing slowly stopping and her hooves losing their grip, before Starlight fell to the ground for good, her eyes closed and her wound still bleeding before Trixie started to stutter again.


"No, no, NO! Starlight! DON'T GO! PLEASE!!! STARLIGHT!!!" At that statement, Trixie had lost control of her emotions as she buried her face into Starlight's chest, crying rivers of tears as she struggled to face the reality of the situation, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy started to crack as well, tears welling in their eyes before the three of them began holding each other in a sorrowful embrace, Sweetie Belle. Dash and Applejack were tearing up as well, but the farm girl rather closed her eyes and took her hat off in sorrow while Dash looked away from Starlight's body as she tried to hold back the tears. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were tearing up too, Applebloom stood strongest out of the trio while Sweetie Belle bawled into Applebloom's shoulder and Scootaloo let her tears run free as she held her friend's other shoulder. Twilight, however, looked like she lost a child, Starlight was her student ever since the day she'd proved that she can make friends no matter what past anyone had, and now, she was dead, murdered right in front of her eyes by Noye, one who once served alongside them all in battle. She was about to burst when Flash came up to her and comforted her as she mourned her dead student. Wyatt, while he did seem to shed a tear, began to hang his head down as the rest of the crew did before Kapor looked to Wyatt, both of them understanding the Klingon way of mourning, they both lifted their heads up to the ceiling of the room and cried out a battle roar like most Klingons would do when their brethren had fallen, nearly scaring the bejesus out of Rarity and Fluttershy before they continued sobbing.


Twilight let some of her tears fall for a long moment before she wiped away the rest and tapped on her combadge. "...Sparkle to Equestria, a-are you there?"


The voice of Spike sounded from the console upon her words. "Spike here, Twi, has Noye been taken care of?"


"...No, he's gotten back to his ship and is getting ready t-to invade the other realms, we're beaming back immediately..... and.... get sickbay ready.... we have wounded down here."


"Got it. ......Twilight, you OK?" The dragon asked her friend before she answered him.


The Princess sniffed a little before trying to resist the urge to cry. "....No, it's bad, just beam us up."


"No problem, Spike out!" As soon as the signal cut out, Wyatt walked over to Twilight and spoke to her.


"I'm sorry Twilight, Noye'll get what's coming to him very soon." Wyatt said with a mournful expression as Twilight replied.


"I'm sure he will, Admiral." The rest of Twilight's friends tried to stop crying as they got ready to head back to the ship, they didn't want to be seen broken by what'd happened here. A moment after things had grown almost completely silent, several fields of energy surrounded each officer in the large group, their bodies vanishing before the fields did. Starlight would have to be mourned later, as they had a big mess to clean up, and they had to hurry before it got bigger.
> Chapter IX: The Chase - Part I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S.S. Equestria

The transporter room was set up with a medical team and a stretcher as the crewmen in the room waited for the away team to beam up, within almost ten seconds of arriving, the away team appeared behind a field of energy as the field dissipated and allowed the officers to step off the platform. Some of the crewmembers gasped slightly when they saw Starlight's corpse on Trixie's back, who walked up to the nurse and ordered, "Get her to sickbay, quickly!" Twilight then grew slightly surprised as she'd expected the magician to want to sit in sickbay and watch over her friend's deceased form before she walked up to Trixie and spoke to her.


"Trixie, are you sure you can handle the weapons station?" Twilight asked as her friend answered her.


"Yes, I'm sure..... Starlight would want me to help out here." The two then motioned their friends behind them as they went past the doors and made their way to the bridge, while the medical team placed Starlight's body on the stretcher and took her to sickbay to preserve her body for later.


Upon arriving at the bridge, the group quickly took their positions at their consoles, the previous users assisting them at the second console while Twilight sat down in her seat along with Flash. Spike then grew a worried expression as he saw that Starlight was not on the bridge, he looked to the Princess and asked, "Uh Twilight, where's Starlight?"


"She..... she's dead, Spike. Noye stabbed her with one of his weapons and she's being put into sickbay right now. We don't have time to mourn, though, we have a multiverse to protect." Twilight stated as Spike grew a grim expression before the two faced the viewscreen, which was filled with several ships and weapons from both sides firing at their targets on the battlefield, explosions shook the ship slightly before Twilight noticed the Annorax, the ship was barely scratched on the hull, small plasma leaks and flames emitted from the ship before the Princess looked to Dash and ordered, "Dash, take us towards the Annorax, we can't allow her to escape into their portal without us!" Dash nodded before tapping a few keys on her console and the ship shot forward, fighters being passed by as the ship made it's way to it's target.


The comms panel then beeped and Twilight answered it to hear Wyatt through the speakers. "Mind if we help out, Twilight? We also have a bone to pick with Noye."


"Not at all, stick with us and blast them out of the sky!" Twilight said to her mentor before he responded.


"No problem, Stone out!" The signal cut out and left Twilight, Flash, and Spike to face the viewscreen as their ship sped towards the enemy ships, blue and yellow phaser beams from both the Amarillo and the Equestria impacting the nearby TLF ships, some of them being destroyed with ease as they pursued the Annorax. 


Trixie grew a malicious grin as she set the tractor beams up and charged the weapons up with as much power as she could give to them. "This is for Starlight, you SCUMBAGS!!" Trixie yelled out before firing every readied weapon at the enemy ships ahead of them, the phasers and photons hitting the larger Acheros battlecruisers and Krenim destroyers while the tractor beams grabbed the smaller Tadaari frigates and throwing them into the larger ships as they either crippled or destroyed the warships. 


The Amarillo, while a small ship, was greatly enhanced as the Chestnut was, as she held off quite the fight, Na'kuhl raiders fell to or ran with major damage from the Amarillo as she dealt them great deals of damage, while the antique ship assaulted the larger Krenim science ships and Daemosh cruisers with phasers and Photons as they raced past the enemy fleet. It wasn't until they'd taken out about 14 out of the 25 ships they'd passed before a larger ship was in front of them, a Khaerops dreadnought, the largest ship class in the Na'kuhl fleet. The ship started to emit a green glow from its front side, signaling a plasma wave charge.


"Plasma wave! Evasive maneuvers!" The ship started to turn away from the expanding wave of energy that would soon hit them before Rarity spoke out.


"Twilight, I'm picking up new contacts, a Federation Pioneer class and a few dreadnoughts!" The group looked to the screen to see the Khaerops' plasma wave shut down immediately as it was hit by several phaser beams and photon torpedoes, diverting it's attention to the newcomers. One of the incoming allies was a small frigate, having a saucer with a small secondary hull under it, along with a pair of pylons and nacelles on the top of the saucer, on the ship's saucer was the ships name and registry. "U.S.S. Kali, NCC-1599"


The ship stopped nearby the two starships before Rarity heard a beep from her console once again and checked it. "Twilight, the Kali's hailing us." Twilight nodded before the fashionista put the signal onscreen. The screen showed a bridge that appeared remarkably similar to the Constitution bridge of the 23rd century, with minor changes, in the center seat sat Commander Tarsi, looking at the Princess with excitement as she spoke.


"I hope we came at the right time, Admiral Garret had lost a few good ships and I managed to spare them for this!"


"Indeed you have, cover us while we pursue the Annorax!" Twilight heard Wyatt's voice say to the Andorian officer through the comms before she replied.


"If you wouldn't mind, the crew of the Kali would like to help out in stopping her, my boys can handle those ships."


"Granted, just be careful when you choose your targets!" Wyatt said before Tarsi replied.


"Aye sir!" The comms cut afterwards to show the three ships facing the Annorax far out in the distance, the trio of ships then accelerated towards the Annorax as they blasted any incoming ships, the frigates falling swiftly while the cruisers and battleships ran or merely kept a distance from the ships. 


"Twilight!" Dash called out to Twilight before she turned to see the Annorax generating a portal and was starting to enter it.


"Full impulse, NOW!" Twilight yelled before Dash tapped a key on her console and the ship started to shake slightly as it jetted towards the timeship and its portal. Twilight then tapped on her comms panel and spoke. "Sparkle to Shon, keep those ships away from the archive, we'll take care of Noye!"


"Understood, Chrysalis is bringing in a ship that is being used as her personal flagship, as well as several escorts, we'll hold them off here, so don't worry about us!"


"Understood, Sparkle out!" The comms cut out as the three ships stayed behind the Annorax, which was entering the portal and right as the ship seem to disappear into the portal, the ship started to shake as the three Alliance ships were being pulled into the portal. After the three ships were completely inside the portal, the vortex flashed a few times before it collapsed, leaving the other Alliance and TLF ships to their bloody battle near the Preserver sphere.


~Unknown Realm~


The area of space was nothing but stars and a large planet within the sector, behind the shadow of the planet, a large anomaly formed and flashed several times before four starships appeared out of the portal, the portal closing upon the ships completely exiting the portal. The Annorax maintained fire on the three Alliance ships, which showed no more mercy than their target as they assaulted the ship.


On the bridge of the Amarillo, Wyatt kept his eye on the Annorax as he asked T'Vrell, "Where are we?"


"Unknown, sir. We seem to be in an area that very much resembles Sol, eight planets with the nearby one having a single moon, no starbase or advanced structure of any kind." She then tapped the console again before she looked to Wyatt. "The Annorax is badly damaged, sir, she may attempt to hide."


"T'Vrell, I think you just queued their move, their breaking off!" Elisa said as the crew looked to the viewscreen to see the Annorax turning away and boosting towards the planet, seeming as if it were trying to enter the planet's atmosphere.


"Well, we can play it the hard way, let them cower in the shadow of the planet while we fix ourselves up." Wyatt said as Kapor laughed at the sight of their foe hiding near the planet. The laugh was soon cut off as the ship immediately shook from an unknown force that struck the ship. "What was that?!" Wyatt asked before Kapor tapped his console a few times and waited for a moment before answering.


"It's an unknown ship, sir, it seems to have the armaments of a destroyer, there's only one ship in this system, sir." 


"Good, that shouldn't be a problem for us, return fire." Kapor then tapped a few buttons on his console before the Amarillo fired several phaser blasts at the ship, which took a good scratch before the ship retaliated with several laser blasts from the wings of the ship, merely shaking the ship slightly before the alien vessel was hit by another beam from an unknown target, the enemy ship being pushed back as it was hit.


"Sir, that blast wasn't from any of us, I've detected another target, it's..... very small, sir, about the size of a humanoid." Nelen said as he checked his console.


"What? Put it on viewer." The viewscreen changed to show a small humanoid figure floating near the ship, the image was too blurry to get any specific details, but Wyatt could tell that it was apparently capable of navigating itself through space. "Magnify." The image then grew larger as it showed the humanoid figure in greater detail, the being looked to be some kind of robot, with thrusters placed at the feet, along with a sleek design that, upon further inspection, seemed to resemble a female with a bra-like section and a section that seemed to resemble shorts, the head was basically spherical, and had two triangular ear-like thrusters on the head. The being's colors seemed to be mostly white while the clothing sections and a part of the head as well as the ear thrusters seemed to be blue. "What in the galaxy..." Wyatt said as he sat in his chair before noticing the figure move slightly, as if it was communicating to the ship somehow. "Nelen, is there a signal coming from that being? It seems to be moving strangely."


"Not a thing, sir, if it communicates, it must be in the manner that humanoids do." Nelen replied as the crew stared at the strange robot on the screen.


The entity looked at the ship as she readied a weapon built in her arm, she held out her arm and a beam shot from her palm, impacting the alien ship and leaving a scratch before the being heard a beep and a small screen emerged from her chest and she faced it. "Uh, Jenny, I don't mean to interrupt, but do you think that ship behind you might cause some trouble?" The entity known as Jenny turned to the strange ship behind her, the ship didn't resemble anything that the forces of Cluster Prime would build, but for what power it had, they'd definitely want to get control of it.


"I don't know, Brad, let me see if I can talk to it." She was about to fly past the saucer and see the ship's upper section before the ship shot three more projectiles at the Cluster warship, the ship screeched from the impact of the weapons before it exploded in brilliant flames and flying debris. "Well, that takes care of our problem, now let's see here..." The teenage robot then got higher above the ship to where she could see it's name. "Huh, U.S.S. Amarillo, NCC-1976, well that's definitely not a part of the Cluster." Jenny kept examining the strange ship before she heard another beep and Brad spoke to her.


"Looks like they wanna talk to you, Jen, you think we sho-" 


"No, I think I got it." Jenny said before she tapped the button on the screen before another screen separated from the main one and showed another sight, a human face, the being had brown hair and mutton chops on his face. "Well.... hello there, you look similar to my friends." The being then spoke back to her.


"Yes, well, I guess we took care of your trouble for you, huh?" 


"Uh, Yeeeaaahh, I guess so, but where'd you come from, Mr.....?"


"Wyatt, well, if I were to tell you, we'd have to talk sometime later because were in the middle of a huge fight right now." Wyatt warned the teenage bot before she replied.


"Just as long as you don't hurt any of us, I'll listen."


"Alright, we're from another universe, an enemy from our realm is travelling to other realms to tamper with them, and it seems that your universe is one of those targets." Jenny was about to ask another question before another voice spoke from behind the screen.


"Sir, the Annorax is coming back!" Jenny looked around until she looked back at the planet to see a large ship about the size of one of the friendly ships she'd just seen, the ship looked quite scary looking, but the real terror set in as the officer from before spoke again. "She's firing on the surface!"


"Stop her, before she-" His words were too late as the large vessel known as Annorax fired a projectile towards the surface, eventually hitting the planet before the officer spoke again.


"Sir.. it hit one of the nearby cities on the surface, I can't get a reading on the casualties." Jenny gasped in horror at the sight on the planet below before she looked to the screen and spoke.


"That ship seems to be making a run for it, do you think my friends and I can help you guys out?"


Wyatt gave a pondering expression as he responded. "Even if you don't, well still have to come back to explain what's happening later on, but I believe I can find a way around it if it won't affect your home while you're with us." 


"Eh, the Cluster won't be back for a while, they'll want to try and plan another way on trying to get rid of Earth's people, so I think they'll be fine, Besides, we already have something to complain to THEM about."


Wyatt took a breath before he replied. "Very well, if you can get coordinates for your friends, then we can bring them along if you want, but be quick, we can't allow the Annorax to escape." Jenny nodded before she looked to Brad and her mother Nora, who tapped some buttons on a machine before she spoke to her 'daughter'. 


"That should do it, send them that, and we're right behind you, honey." Jenny tapped the button on the second viewscreen before another voice sounded on Wyatt's screen.


"Data retrieved, now I'd recommend that you should keep still during transport, it's a very delicate process." Jenny gave a confused look before her friends and family in the other screen were enveloped by waves of yellow energy, disappearing with the fields before the officer spoke again. "Hmm, about 4 of your friends are human, while the other 8 are like you." Jenny rolled her eyes before Wyatt spoke to her.


"Transporters, I can explain that too, now we can beam you aboard o-" He was cut off as Kapor alerted him.


"Sir, the Annorax is opening a portal!" Jenny looked around the ship to find a good entrance, she went full speed to the back of the ship before seeing a set of doors on the aft side of the hull.


Wyatt had apparently noticed what she was aiming for as he spoke. "The shuttlebay, huh? I'm willing to play that risk!" The shuttlebay doors opened, allowing Jenny to boost inside, the moment she'd made it inside, however, the ship jerked to the left before boosting alongside it's allies and chasing the Annorax down into the portal. "By the way, we've sent a medical team down to the planet to help out the town, hopefully there's survivors!"


"Let's hope you're right, Wyatt!" Jenny said as she steadied herself onto the metal floor while the shuttlebay doors shut within seconds, the ship speeding towards the portal before the Annorax entered it. Upon the Annorax's departure, the three Alliance ships entered the vortex before the vortex closed, leaving the area of space around the planet silent once again....
> Chapter IX: The Chase - Part II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Unknown Region (2)~


The space within the sector was silent before a large vortex appeared, four ships flying fast out of it before closing. The Annorax began firing on the three Alliance starships once again as they did the same, purple, blue, and orange beams firing from each of the ships as they kept the chase on.


Wyatt sat in his chair comfortably as he looked to the viewscreen, there seemed to be a blue colored nebula within the sector and, upon further inspection, several large, some even colossal, pieces of debris that were laid out across space, on the exterior of most pieces seemed to be hexagonal patterns on them while the other parts seemed to be simply large chunks of metal floating in space. "So much so soon, Nelen, have you taken a scan?" Wyatt said to his helms officer as she looked to him.


"Yes sir, I believe the large pieces of debris were once a part of a spherical structure, perhaps a planet. The metal also has slight readings of damage caused by weapons fire from long ago, it seems that whatever this place was, it was apparently in the middle of a war." Wyatt slowly looked back to the screen to see the Annorax returning fire to the Kali, when the timeship started to overcharge one of it's polaron beams, a wave of laser bolts hit the Annorax, forcing the ship to break off for a moment.


"Sir, there's several unknown ships nearby, they're coming towards us!" Lon tapped a button on his console to switch the viewscreen to another sight, several large, strange ships were closing in towards the four newcomers, one of the ships had a more curved look on its top, along with several spikes and fins along the sides, while the others were small ships with two large jet-like engines on the sides at the aft along with several parts that seemed to resemble guns of some sort.


Shortly after seeing the unknown ships the nearby turbolift opened to show Jenny and 4 of her friends entered the room, Jenny looked to Wyatt before she spoke to him. "My sisters decided to help out with your friends, if that's no-" She stopped to see the new ships coming towards them. "What in the world are those things?!"


"We're about to find out, keep our weapons and shields ready, try and hail them." Lon tapped the console a few times before a voice came through Wyatt's comms panel.


"Unknown ships, you are in violation of territory of the Decepticon Regime, stand down and you will be escorted to our superiors!"


Wyatt gave a worried expression as he replied. "As much as we'd like to listen, that'll have to wait, there's an enemy ship here that wants to try and tamper with other universes, including yours, and we're here to stop it."


"Very well, then we will take care of your problem AND you as well!" The signal cut out as the Decepticon ships began firing at the four ships, which all retaliated with beams and torpedoes against the fighters and cruiser. 


Wyatt tapped his comms panel quickly before speaking to Twilight. "Stone to Sparkle, let's see if we can focus our efforts on those Decepticon ships, perhaps the cruiser could cause a major drain if we take it out!"


"Right, we're forming up now, Sparkle out!" Wyatt then looked to the viewscreen as he saw the now larger battle, the scout ships began to close in on the Annorax while the cruiser engaged the three ships, apparently they'd realized the danger of the Annorax as they closed in on the timeship. The Amarillo shook as its shields were hit by several shots of energy from the warship before the Amarillo bit back with several phaser shots at the ship, the ship took the shots mercilessly as it seemed to have no shields on it, Wyatt then watched as a spread of photons shot out at the Decepticons, tearing the ship into millions of pieces as it exploded from the attack.


"Well, that was a bit easy, wasn't it?" Wyatt said as he raised an eyebrow at the broken ship before T'Vrell looked to him.


"Sir, I've detected another ship matching the configuration to the Decepticon fighters, however, it's closing on the ships attacking the Annorax." 


"Put it on viewer." The screen changed to a shot of the incoming ship T'Vrell mentioned, which started firing on it's sister ships in a vicious fashion, taking out three of the eleven ships as it sped around them. "See if you can hail the ship, and give it a hand!" 


The Admiral's comms panel sounded with a similar voice to the one they'd heard when the enemy ships first came. "What do you want with me? Don't attack my craft, I'm through serving Megatron's glitches and I'm joining the Autobots!"


"This is Admiral Wyatt Stone of the Amarillo, we were actually going to help out, if that's not a problem!" Wyatt said to the pilot of the ship before he replied.


"Good, and maybe Mr. Ramjet can help out in return, you said that ship those fighters are attacking is threatening us all? Help me with my old friends and I'll do what I can!"


"No problem, Stone out." Wyatt tapped the comms off before he looked to Lon and ordered, "See if we can lend our new friend a hand, fire on those fighters!' Lon nodded before tapping his console a few times and several torpedoes and beams hit four of the remaining enemy fighters, the photons hitting three of the fighters along with a blue beam shortly after, blowing them to oblivion. The attack left only two of the Decepticon ships flying in space before the Kali made a good shot at the two remaining ships with a spread of photons, one of them being destroyed with ease while the other was hit but left to spiral towards one of the nearby pieces of the destroyed metal world. 


"Get me a focus on that ship." The screen changed to show the out-of-control ship, which seemed to shoot something out of it before it finally crashed into the debris, while the ejected object revealed itself to be a pilot, which appeared to be a strange-looking robot upon closer inspection, Wyatt was about to order a phaser shot at the being before it started to change, it's body parts shifting and changing until it shifted from a humanoid form into some kind of strange spaceship, about the size of a fighter from their realm, before it emitted a pair of thrusters and boosted at a fast speed, racing away from the battlefield and out into the sea of space as the other ships sat like sitting ducks. Wyatt then heard his comms panel beep and he tapped it.


"I think we can let him go, he won't wanna fight us with what scrap he has." Ramjet said before Wyatt replied.


"Yeah, so does your ship need repairs? I think my buddies in Engineering can fix you up."


"Maybe later, it looks like your friend's trying to escape." Wyatt then looked to the screen to see the Annorax turning away from the three ships, a portal opening in front of it as Wyatt spoke. 


"Let's get our engines ready, don't let that portal close before we enter it!" Ramjet then spoke through the comms once again.


"Oh speaking of help, let's see what I can do here!" The comms were silent for a moment before the ship jerked slightly, as if something hit the hull.


"Sorry for the bump, my ship has attached to your engines to provide a faster boost. Hope it helps!" Ramjet answered Wyatt's worried curiosity before he replied.


"Thanks, hang on though, it'll get bumpy. Stone out!" The comms cut out before the trio of ships boosted towards the Annorax, which had entered the portal by the time they'd reached her. "Everyone hang on, we're soaring in!" Everyone in the room hung onto the nearest thing they could reach before the ship entered the portal, the Equestria following behind next to the Kali before the portal flashed several times until it finally closed, the space around the debris field silent once again.


The Annorax kept it's distance as it sped away from the ship, the Amarillo keeping up as it pursued the timeship. Wyatt then looked to Lon as he asked him, "Lon, try and fire a photon at them, see if we can get their shields down!" 


"Lucky for us, they're already down, let me see if I can hit one of those wings!" He said as he smirked while tapping on the console and firing several torpedoes at the Annorax, most of them missing while two of them hit two of the six fins on the aft end of the timeship, blowing them to smithereens before the portal around the ships fluctuated.


"Everyone, brace yourselves!" Wyatt yelled before the ship shook and the portal opened up once again to reveal a bright nebula sporting orange and purple on the screen. The ships sped out of the anomaly before it closed, leaving the four ships in another foreign realm once again.


"Report!" Wyatt ordered before Nelen tapped his console, taking a moment before responding.


"We've entered another realm, sir, I'm detecting a lone ship in this area, it's unknown to our configuration, but they haven't noticed us!"


"And the Annorax?" Wyatt asked the Voth officer before he checked his console again and replied.


"She's attempting to generate another portal!" They looked to the screen to see their target boosting away from the trio of ships, a portal opening up after several seconds. 


"Stay on her, don't let her escape!" Lon tapped his console before the ship boosted towards the Annorax, the target entering the portal as they approached it.


Nearby, a scout ship sailed slowly through the sea of space as it neared the brief incursion, the ship itself was slim, curving black lines covering the main areas of the ship, with red lines inside and white sections around the black sections of the hull. The ship had slim wings that slightly hung down under the ship,  holding white colored engines that emitted plasma energy. On the side of the hull read a word in stylish text: "TEMPEST". On the bridge of the ship, an officer stood on a platform-like section connected to a floor near the window of the bridge, holographic screens hovering around the officer as she observed the site, the trio of strange ships were closing in on the portal as she spoke to one of her comrades as she witnessed the scene. "What's the status of those ships, Harper?"


"They're on a pursuit course, Ryder, they're apparently involved in a battle as there were large amounts of damage to their target." Cora said as Sara turned to her current helmsman, Liam Kosta.


"Set a course into that portal Kosta, let's see if we can lend a hand." Kosta nodded before she tapped a few keys on her console and the ship sped towards the portal, the portal fortunately held itself open long enough for the Tempest to make it through before the portal finally collapsed and they were stuck within the portal.


In front of the ship was the four ships they were following, and they didn't look familiar to anyone on the ship. The closest ship was a slightly larger vessel that looked more like something out of an old sci-fi show from the ancient age of the 60s, though history records on the Tempest didn't record such a ship in the databanks. A saucer was held by a slim neck-like section which was also connected by a cylindrical hull that held two straight pylons that held up smaller cylindrical engines, that was the best that Ryder could describe it specifically. She then tapped one of the panels in front of her, waiting for a hail to come through for a moment before her wish had been granted as another screen appeared and showed a man's face on the screen, who gave a shocked look as she spoke. "I'm Commander Sara Ryder of the S.S.V. Tempest, we detected your ships and have noticed that you've been in combat. Care to explain?"


The officer grew a frown as he answered her. "Well, I'd hoped we didn't intervene in your realm, I'm Admiral Wyatt Stone of the Amarillo, we're after a timeship known as the Annorax, her crew is intending to tamper with other realms, and we cannot allow that as it could jeopardize all of us." 


"Well, Admiral, since you have trouble and since we noticed it, mind if we help out? I'll see what I can do to keep you out of trouble." Sara asked the Admiral before he replied.


"I might as well, we've made two other new friends as well, just be careful in here, turning in the portal could tear our ships apart." 


"No problemo, Ryder out." The signal cut out as she once again faced the four ships in the great chase as she thought to herself. "Let's hope that whatever we're getting into, we don't end up screwing ourselves afterwards."


~Unknown Realm (4)~


The star-filled sea of space was silent and void of battle as a lone starship sailed the stars, the ship had a bulky look to it, the front section seemed to be a wide command section of the ship, being held by a less wider, yet long neck which was also connected by an aft section that held the engines, two main engines on each wing. 


On the bridge of the ship, an officer stood at the windows of the bridge, several officers behind him manning the consoles near them as they operated the ship. The officer had seen much recently, he'd faced countless foes as a soldier of the Terran Dominion, most recently the forces of the Defenders of Man, and he'd now have a moment to get some peace and quiet, or at least he thought he would. He turned and walked over to the map console nearby his former spot and looked to his comrade. "So, Matt, you lookin' to do something for our time off-duty?"


Matt gave a scoff as he answered his friend's question. "Not really, probably gonna get some sleep, practice on using my gear so I'm ready to smack some heads the next time we enter battle. What about you, Jim?"


Jim gave a slight shrug as he replied. "Not much either, I've been planning on checking the maps later on to see if there's any trouble, but I think we'd better enjo-" A beeping noise interrupted his words as he turned to look, the sensors console near the window was alerting him of a nearby anomaly. Curious, he jogged up to the console to check it as he also noticed a strange vortex appearing out of nowhere. "I'm picking up some kind of anomaly forming nearby, something's coming out of it." He looked to the portal again before five ships emerged from the strange, blue portal, four of them engaging against a larger, strange-looking starship. He scanned the large ship that was under attack, and spoke up once he got results. "It looks like that large ship that's getting hammered is some kind of timeship, she seems to have an armload of weapons, as well as shielding. She's taking heavy damage from the other ships a-" He stopped as his scanner beeped again, this time in a way that signaled a sinister action. "..she's locking weapons on us! Red alert!" He then moved to another console as he set up defenses. He looked to the window again to see that the damaged timeship to see a projectile flying towards them from the ship, the weapon flew towards the Hyperion for a few seconds before one of the timeship's larger-scaled attackers raced around the ship to take the hit for the Terran battlecruiser, Jim closing his eyes for a moment and opening them again to see the battle once more.


"It looks like that ship that just past us is the ally we're looking for, I'm gonna see if I can talk to them!" He tapped his console several times before a screen came up showing a humanoid being with a light purple skin color sitting in what he assumed was the center chair. He kept his focus on the officer as he spoke to her. "Well, I have to thank you for taking that hit for us, ma'am, we wouldn't have known what it could do."


"Yeah, don't worry about that, I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle of the U.S.S. Equestria, and that ship that tried to attack you is attempting to toy around with your realm, as well as many others, and we're here to keep that from happening, we can't afford to destroy it, though, the ship is carrying a wanted criminal and we want him alive."


"Well I hope you don't mind, but I think we need to help teach the scumbags driving that thing a lesson, we're forming up!" Jim said to the Princess before she replied.


"Got it, just try not to get killed, Sparkle out!" Upon her sentence, the signal ceased and left Jim to look to the battle ahead. Another ship seemed to appear on the field, a small fighter-like ship was bombarding the timeship as it dodged the beams and projectiles that shot at it, it would also shift at certain points in time, but otherwise remain in the same form as it continued it's attacks.


"Give that timeship all we have, rip it's teeth out!" Jim said as the ship fired several laser bolts towards the timeship, the ship's hull taking several new scratches as it fought. The other ships were keeping their focuses as well, as the Annorax shot out several torpedoes towards the ships, one of the ships, most of the time being the Amarillo, fired on the torpedoes to prevent them from hitting her allies. The Annorax kept itself sharp for several moments before the spherical section of the ship started to glow. "What the?! What is she do-" He stopped himself as the Annorax then duplicated itself, adding two more Annoraxes to the field. "That ship seems to have duplicated itself, prepare yourselves, everyone!"


On the Equestria's bridge, the Annorax could be seen making a run for it as the ship turned and boosted away from the attacking ships, only seconds later did the two duplicates turn to the Equestria and bombard the ship with polaron beams and chroniton torpedoes. The shields took most of the beating, however, it wasn't until about two torpedoes were left that the shields went down and one of the beams scored a good shot of the hull, nearly striking the bridge. The impact shook the ship, Rarity and Sweetie Belle's console also exploded, knocking them back and forcing out a pair of screams as the ship took the vicious attack before firing back with nearly as much force courtesy of Trixie. "Sweetie Belle!" Rarity yelled as she quickly got up with Applejack's assistance and looked to her sister, who, upon rolling over, had a bloody scratch above her head, though it was not a fatal cut, as well as blood coming from her nose. "Applejack, help get my sister to sickba-"


"No sis, I can manage, besides, I'm not stopping until this whole battle is over!" Sweetie told her older sister as she spoke to Applejack again.


"Correction, get a medic up here, quickly!" Applejack nodded before heading back to her station to call a medical team up to the bridge while Rarity attended to her sister. Twilight looked at the screen again to see that the Annorax was starting to form another portal, as well as the two duplicates disappearing before Twilight yelled out.


"She's getting away, don't let her get away!" Upon her order, the ship jerked for a moment as it shot towards the portal, which the Annorax entered upon them nearing it. The fleet of ships, now in a total of 5, went through the portal, which closed behind them and left the sea of space around it undisturbed once more.
> Chapter X: The Chase's End/A New Piece on the Board
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Unknown Realm (5)~


The sector was more tense than the previous ones, noise encompassed the sector in orbit over a desert planet as a large portal opened, 6 ships flying out from the vortex before it closed, leaving them in the dangerous area of space. Shortly after exiting the portal, the bridge of the Amarillo became more darker after a good hit to the ship's shields from the Annorax disrupted the screen's visual signal, as well as cutting out several lights. The ship continued it's focused attack on the timeship as Wyatt spoke. "Report!" 


"Minor damage to hull, our location is again unknown, we seem to be in orbit of a desert-like world, and...." Nelen stopped to look to the screen as he finished. "We are not the only ones in the sector, sir." He tapped his console to change the viewscreen towards another sight, one that brought a gasp from Wyatt as he witnessed it: Over the desert planet, several starships at a much larger scale than any of their ships were in the middle of a colossal battle, Wyatt could tell the difference in the two combating sides as he examined their ships. One side of the fight had varying ships that seemed to have a bulky section that had parts trailing down below the ship, connected to it was a long piece of hull that held a section that from the front and back of the ship seemed to be in the shape of a diamond in a 2-dimensional manner. Another type of ship was larger and seemed to look curved, several bulged sections curving further out from the rest of the ship, much smaller bulges were sprayed all around the ship, several cylindrical engines sporting from behind the ship as well as two short pylons that held another oval-like section on the tops of two tall bulges on the ship. The rest of them were similar to the large bulged ships, but with only minor changes, one variant even seemed to have wing-like sections with bulges as well.


The other side, looking to be the losing side, seemed to have a different style of configuration, but very similar by size, the other ships looked like triangles with bulky sections on the top that slowly became higher until a certain level of the ship, where it was followed by a slim neck that held a nearly rectangular section holding two spheres that seemed to be the bridge, the underside had nothing but a hemisphere-like section that's purpose was unknown to Wyatt at the moment. The battle was nothing but carnage, mostly for the losing ships as some of them were turning towards the surface of the planet, whether it was because of massive damage or suicidal crews, and eventually crashing on the planet, one of the ships looked to be colossal, with a slightly similar design to the rest of the ships and was emitting fire and smoke from the engines. The remaining ships simply continued their barrages on their targets, at least almost all of them. As soon as Wyatt was about to turn to Lon to give orders he noticed two of the ships, one from each side, turning away from the battle and slowly moving towards the Amarillo and her allies, several small craft could be seen coming with them as well, but he couldn't get a good view of the small ships before turning to Lon. "Lon, it looks like some of the locals have noticed us, let's see if we can talk to them." Lon nodded before he tapped his console a few times and shortly after Wyatt could hear a voice speaking from his comms panel, but this voice seemed to have an accent to it.


"Unknown vessels, this is the Imperial Star Destroyer Inflictor, we ask that you identify yourselves!" As soon as the officer's sentence was finished, another voice, this one with no accent, sounded through the speakers.


"Unknown vessels, this is General Nom Carver of the New Republic starship Freedom's Dawn, state your business here." The voice of the other captain said before Wyatt answered.


"Very well, if you won't shoot us afterwards, I'm Admiral Wyatt Stone of the Federation Starship Amarillo, we've come here because an enemy ship of this configuration named the Annorax has entered your universe, as well as many others, and we cannot allow it to cause turmoil in any manner. As you can see, we've made some friends that already have some complaints against them, so if you can either help us in disabling them in any way that we can or stay away from this battle, that would be appreciated!" The Admiral said as he tapped several keys on his other panel before he heard Lon's voice.


"Sir, another ship is arriving, it's the Pastak!" Wyatt looked to the screen to see a blue portal appear before a Wells class timeship exited from the portal, which closed after the ship's arrival. Nom Carver then spoke up again.


"More friends, I assume?" He soon got his answer as another voice sounded through the comms.


"This is the Pastak, we've been ordered to provide assistance to you, Admiral... and I see that you've made some friends." Captain Walker said as Nom spoke again.


"Indeed, and this battle seems to have gotten larger, I believe my crew and I can be of assistance, I'm calling in all my squadrons that I can grab to help, and if we may, follow you and assist in stopping this havoc that your friend there is causing." The Imperial Captain then started up as he calmed down from the previous fight.


"Well, since the Empire has fallen already, I can see that there's no reason to stand up for such a foolish government like them, that damned fool Rax has nearly driven me and my crew to insanity! General Carver, while we have been enemies in the past, I wish to ask for a truce and assist in stopping the Annorax as well, even if we must face trial, at least we'll do something right for a change." Walker then spoke upon his last word.


"I believe that can work, besides, according to the temporal records of this timeline, your two ships end up being destroyed in the battle nearby, but I believe we can work around that. Also, if you can, I'd like to have us all join up at one of our facilities so we can discuss this." Nom's voice then spoke up once more.


"No problem with that, sir, and Captain Ree, don't worry about trial, I think we've started to work for something bigger than ourselves this time."


"Indeed, form up and let's see if we can get their engines and weapons disabled, Stone out." The channel cut out before the two large cruisers slowly turned towards the Annorax, which turned to them and fired with whatever remaining force it had. "Try and break her legs once we can get their shields down again!" Lon nodded to the Admiral before he continued operating on his console, together with their allies, as well as the Freedom's Dawn and the Inflictor, the Alliance ships all kept their focus on the Annorax as they bombarded the ship with weapons fire, from beams and torpedoes to laser bolts and powerful blasts from the Hyperion's Yamato cannon, the Krenim timeship was taking a merciless amount of damage as it's shields quickly came offline. Once the shields went out on the Annorax, the Amarillo fired a torpedo at the ship's spherical section, breaking one of the side domes on it open and almost completely tearing it off as the ship flew back slightly. The scoring hit managed to be the queue for Annorax's retreat, however, as the ship immediately turned away and boosted from the seven ships, activating another portal as expected. 


"She's already shattered her shield and she's still able to do that? Stay on her, make sure our friends follow!" Wyatt said as Lon tapped his console a few times before the ship shot forward, racing closer to the Annorax as it started to enter the anomaly.


A signal then sounded through Wyatt's comms as Lon turned to him in an attempt to warn him. "I do wish I could play more tag with your friends, Admiral, but I'm afraid I must attend to more delicate matters!" The signal cut out as soon as it came on before Wyatt turned to Lon and spoke to him.


"Stay with him, tell the others to stick with us, I think we're heading into the eye of the storm!" The ship sped up after his sentence, the other ships following suite as they entered the portal, the anomaly closing behind them and leaving the battle over the desert world to the New Republic and the Galactic Empire.


~The Preserver Sphere~


The battle had lasted for a long time, growing larger with every minute passed as ships were destroyed by weapons fire or ramming and new ones came to replace their positions. Queen Chrysalis and her forces had arrived in kitbashed Klingon warships, a Bortasqu with modified Borg tech being the Queen's personal flagship, in an attempt to assist the Alliance fleet with the TLF as the battle ensued. The bridge of the Enterprise was mostly intact other than several destroyed consoles and small fires around the room, and of course, injured crewmen, around several parts of the room. Captain Shon looked to his current helmsman as he asked him, "Report, Savel, how're our allies holding up?"


"Our ships have taken considerable damage, but we're holding them back. The enemy has lost three fourths of their fleet, they look like their trying to push back and make a post nearby the sphere!" Shon grew worried at her words as he replied.


"Take out as many as you can, we can't let them gain a-" He was interrupted by one of his officers as he spoke up.


"Sir, I'm picking up a portal nearby, the Amarillo is arriving along with the Annorax, and it seems they've brought some friends!" Shon then looked to the viewscreen to see a blue portal in front of their ships, which ejected eight ships from it, four of them being the Annorax, the Equestria, the Amarillo, and the Kali as they flew away from the portal alongside the four other strange ships, the portal closing once they were all back inside the Sphere's space. Shon grew a smile as he replied to his officer.


"Hail Wyatt, Lieutenant, I need to speak to him!" The officer nodded before he tapped his console to show Admiral Stone on the screen, sitting in his chair as he spoke.


"Well, I hope we didn't arrive too late, Captain, as a matter of fact, I've made some friends along the way!" Wyatt said before Shon replied to him.


"Yeah, I can see that, I'm getting Chrysalis and the others on the comms now, shouldn't be much of a problem with you all here!"


"Yes, now let's teach these butchers a lesson about karma!" Chrysalis said in a mischievous manner before Celestia spoke up as well.


"Indeed, they've ended too many lives today, now is the time to quell this massacre!" Celestia then spoke up as her former student finished.


"Well, with our new friends here, that'll be a piece of cake, Princess!" Twilight said before they heard brief snippets of static before another voice joined the talk.


"Not so fast, I believe we have one more thing left to do before we're done with you." Noye said as Shon looked to the screen to see the Annorax boost away from them, as soon as it'd gotten a good distance from the Alliance fleet, another ship joined the Annorax, this one, however, looked different, it had a spherical section that was connected to a marked cylinder-like piece that held three claw-like wings around the ship.


On the Amarillo's bridge, Wyatt's pupils shrunk as he recognized the strange newcomer that sat in space next to Noye's flagship. "No... he wouldn't..." He said silently as Noye then spoke again as the ships faced away from the fleet. 


"As you can see, we won't go out so easily, and I believe my good friends here will take care of you swiftly. I had almost wanted to keep toying with you all, but I can see that war calls for desperate measures. Farewell, murderous fools." As soon as his statement was over, the Annorax charged up a large rainbow colored ball of energy before firing it at a very far distance from the two timeships. Upon the beam stopping, a large, bright light filled the sector before a spherical structure far smaller than the Preserver sphere and bearing markings of some sort appeared in front of the Alliance fleet, several other ships similar to the newcomer appeared in front of the Annorax, taking defensive positions as they prepared to fight their targets.


"What is that thing?!" Twilight said through Wyatt's comms as he answered her.


"...It's the Sphere Builders, they've brought in one of their spheres, like the one I encountered during a mission to a realm called the Kelvin Timeline, it was a day before the conference we had recently!" 


"What?! What makes you so worried, Admiral?" Ember asked as Wyatt answered the Dragon Lord with worry.


"From what I read in the NX-01's logs, those spheres are capable of generating an energy field powerful enough to tear every ship in the area apart, in other words, if that thing gets enough time to charge up, we're all dead! And unfortunately, there's no way to destroy it from the exterior, but I know a way." 


Princess Luna then spoke. "How?"


"It's risky for us, but if we can get an away team aboard that sphere with some bombs to use, then we might have a chance, but we can't waste any time! I'm sending the data to you now!" He looked to T'Vrell, who tapped her console a few times before she nodded to him.


On the Equestria's bridge, Sunset spoke in a more confident tone than her friends had expected. "I think I can do that, send me and my friends along and we'll stop that thing from taking us out!"


Twilight then looked to her as she argued. "But Sunset, your friends haven't been shown how to use those bombs yet! Even if you all know how to use those weapons, you could get yourselves killed, and I don't want to risk you all on this!" 


"We know that, Twi, but we want to help, and if we need a tutor for using those bombs, then that'll do! Besides, you're too important to lose, as well as your friends, so please, let us do this." Applejack's counterpart said to Twilight as she pondered for a moment, Creepybloom then spoke to the Princess in a cocky manner.


"Ah think we need to, it'd show them what happens when they mess with other universes, besides, I've always been wanting to give Noye a piece of my mind!" Twilight sat in her chair for a moment before she finally answered.


"....Okay, grab your gear and get ready, and.... please, try to come back alive." Sunset nodded before she and her friends started to head out the turbolifts, Trixie then stood up and spoke to Twilight.


"I know you'll want me here, but may I go along with them? I think they'll need a good marksman." Twilight took a second before lightly nodding to the magician as she then made her way into Sunset's turbolift, the doors behind her closing as she stood with Sunset and five of her friends.


Twilight then asked Rarity, "How long do we have?" Rarity scanned the sphere before she answered.


"About five minutes, once that thing charges up, we're done for." A familiar voice could be heard speaking through the comms as the crew heard him.


"Well, I believe it's about time I do something very useful." 


"Discord! You're here?!" Fluttershy said in excitement as her friend spoke to her.


"Indeed I am, Fluttershy, now let's see what I can do about those 'Sphere Builders' you're talking about...." They looked to the screen to see several of the Sphere Builder ships disappearing, leaving about two left to deal with. They then saw the Annorax open another portal before it flew in, the portal closing afterwards. 


"Well, there goes one problem, now what did you do, Discord?" Twilight asked the draconequus before he answered.


"Well, besides getting rid of some of our enemies, I checked the data Admiral Wyatt sent all of us and I've managed to buy us some time by using a freezing spell on one of the generators inside the sphere. Don't ask too much of me, though, I'm not like that omnipotent being named Q Wyatt told me about." Twilight then turned to her comms panel before she spoke. 


"Well, let's see what we can do, everyone, see if you can distract those Sphere Builder ships while I make a run around them and try to beam Sunset and her team down!"


"Copy that!" The other Commanders said before the signal cut out and the Princess looked to Dash.


"Dash, full impulse, quick!" Dash nodded before the ship turned and shot forward as the other ships engaged the enemy ships, sparing them no time in trying to pursue the Equestria. They'd made a good run around the battle before they finally reached a good spot away from the fight and slightly closer to the sphere. Twilight's comms beeped before she heard Sunset's voice.


"Thank Celestia you have a transporter room close by, we're all geared up and ready, Twi!" Twilight then built a hopeful smile as she gave the word.


"Good luck, remember to bring those emergency transport units, you'll need them!"


"Already got them, Shimmer out!" The signal cut out as Twilight waited for them to beam down to the sphere, a moment passed before Applejack spoke up. "They've been beamed down, we can help out our friends now!" Twilight then looked to the screen as she spoke to Dash.


"Take us towards the battle, Dash, let's kick some tail!" Dash nodded as she grinned before tapping the console a few times and the ship jerked forward once again as it turned to the battle. They'd made it this far, and while the Annorax would get away once more, they'd at least given her a bad beating this time, and now they had to hold the line, with Sunset and her team being the only officers on the sphere to do the job, she and her friends were their only hope at protecting the Multiverse from tyranny....
> Chapter XI: The Fight for the Multiverse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Delphic Sphere Interior~


The room was almost barren of sound save for the energy coursing through the walls of the sphere, the room was made up of several circle-shaped platforms, some of them having short cylindrical consoles in their centers, that were connected by railways, with a few platforms that were closest to the walls of the room had platforms to the doors that lead to the next room. One of the platforms disturbed the silence in the room as it became aglow with light, with 9 humanoids and 1 equine appearing from the field of energy before they'd dissipated. Sunset looked around the room to look for any sign of security, the transporter officer would be getting a raise for where he'd put them later on, as there was not a single guard of defense turret in the area. The schoolgirl then looked to her friends before speaking. "Alright, we need to find the core generators, Twi, you know where they are?" 


Twilight tapped her tricorder a few times before she replied to her friend. "Well, it seems that that transporter operator put us right near it, and there's several officers within the chamber, so we'll need to blast anyone we see before they can hit us."


"Ha! That'll be easy, I've rigged some power cells into some of the weapons already, so they should take out their personal shields with one good hit!" Trixie said before Sunset spoke up.


"Good, now, our plan is to get to each of those generators and plant the bombs while Trixie, Creepybloom, and I take out the guards inside, once we've done that, we'll beam off and detonate the bombs!"


"Ahright, now let me see how many of these power cells can do y'all for your shields." Creepybloom then inspected her saddlepack before she pulled out a few containers carrying several power cells, most of them being medium ones.


"Use them wisely, they won't show any mercy in stopping us, so grab what you need and let's go." The group then grabbed almost all of the power cells inside the boxes, with each person carrying around six or seven, and made their way across the platforms. They'd ran around several consoles before reaching the door to their target, Rarity scanned the door with her tricorder before turning to the group.


"The door's sealed, but it isn't shielded, so I think a good explosion from a bomb should do it." Applejack then pulled out three photon grenades, set their charges, and set them down in front of the door before they all stepped back for cover.


Inside the generator room, Noye and one of the Sphere Builders stood in front of the middle platform, which was connected to two pathways holding two other platforms, along with another pathway leading to the entrance door. Each of the platforms had several consoles on them, each being operated on by security officers and showing data for the energy wave being prepared. Noye looked to the main console as he smiled in malice before speaking. "With these in our hands, the Alliance won't stand a chance, and my wife's murderer's blood shall be shed across the stars!" 


"Yes, at last, vengeance for the dead, vengeance for Tuteria!!!" The Sphere Builder said as the two continued their focus on the console. Their excitement was interrupted, however, when a large blast occurred at the entrance door, blowing it to smithereens before several beings appeared from the smoke, Noye had recognized most of them, especially the small pony alongside them. 


As Applejack set up a shield in front of the group, Noye looked to his guards and ordered, "Kill them, don't let them reach the generators!" before they all started to pull out their weapons, Sunset and Trixie were ahead of them, though, as they'd had their weapons out and started blazing at the troops. One of the guards managed to shoot at Applejack, who was running behind her escorts as she held onto the detonator for the bombs, knocking her against the railing as the bolt narrowly missed her arm. 


Sunset ran towards the console as she fired her rifle at the right wing of guards, holding the trigger down as the rifle fired rapidly, hitting all of the guards on the targeted wing, while Trixie took the other wing with her minigun, spraying lasers across the room and killing all but one of the guards on the left side. As the others made their way to the consoles to ready the bombs, Sunset had made it to the edge of the railway before she was tackled by the surviving guard, but Sunset was resilient as she smacked her head against the guard's, before smacking him with her rifle twice as the guard flew over the railing to his death at the second swing. Sunset wasn't free for long, however, as the Sphere Builder lunged at the schoolgirl and tackled her to the ground. Noye attempted to pull out his pistol and shoot Sunset, but Trixie raced towards the scientist and tackled him as well, Noye tried to pry himself free of the magician's grasp, but Trixie smacked Noye in the face with her elbow, ripped off his weaponized gauntlet, and sliced Noye in his stomach before throwing him across the platform. He'd landed near the railings and tried to get up before Trixie tossed the gauntlet down and pulled her phaser out and aimed it at Noye, looking at him with an infuriated face as she spoke.


"You're lucky I won't kill you, you're coming with us." She said viciously before Noye responded.


"Well I'd call it a date, but I'm afraid I must attend to another lady I admire." He said as he placed a small device on his chest before a field of energy surrounded the scientist, Trixie firing her weapon at the field too late as the beam vanished. She then turned to look at Sunset, who was wrestling the Tuterian against the console. Trixie then ran towards the Sphere Builder and attempted to strike her, but the time traveler was quicker as she smacked Trixie in her face with her fist before the magician shot back to the floor. Sunset then smacked her head into the Sphere Builder, forcing her back as Sunset attempted to attack her. She managed to score a good hit on the Tuterian's shoulder, and another near her neck before the Sphere Builder grabbed her fists upon the third try, and then grabbed the schoolgirl's other hand with hers as they stood right next to the railings, Sunset wasn't holding back as she pushed harder than the Sphere Builder was, nearly allowing her to throw them into each other's positions over the railings before Creepybloom turned to the two and leaped at the Sphere Builder, but was grabbed by her neck by the time traveler as she threw Sunset towards the console, hitting the floor as the Tuterian held the filly in her hand tightly, pulling out a Na'Kuhl plasma blade before speaking to Creepybloom.


"So disappointing, I was hoping to keep you as a pet later on, but apparently some things never come to pass." 


"L-ike your v-ictory." Creepybloom retorted as Sunset looked to see the gauntlet Trixie had tossed to the ground beside her, grabbing it, she got up and ran to the Sphere Builder before impaling the alien with the blade, the Tuterian grunting in pain as she stopped her arm from striking the filly with the blade. Blood started to leak from the wound as the energy blade turned off and fell to the ground as the Sphere Builder became weak and slowly fell to the ground, Sunset holding her as she pulled the blade out before laying her down. 


Sunset looked at the Tuterian with remorse, as much as she'd felt sorry for having to hurt her, she couldn't let her friend get hurt. The Sphere Builder, however, looked at her with disgust as she lay dying. ".....B-butchers, just l-ike-AHH-.... your f-friends...." The Builder said before Sunset replied to her.


"You left me no choice, I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't tried to hurt my friend." After a moment of frozen tension, the Sphere Builder grabbed Sunset by her shirt, holding her tightly as she spoke her last words.


"..A-at least I'll die with the co-omfort that you.... and your lackeys... burn with us on this station." After her words, she let out one last weak grunt before she fell to the ground, no longer moving as Sunset then stood over her dead form. She looked to the other platforms and saw her friends making their way back to the main platform from the third one, looking to Sunset as Dash spoke up.


"You guys OK? You looked like you in quite a fight." Dash said before Sunset answered her.


"Y... Yeah, just some bad bruises is all, how're the bombs?" Flash then stepped out to speak to her.


"About that, the good news is that we've got about two and a half minutes to spare and all of the bombs have been placed, the bad news is.... well, I should've told you a moment ago during all that fighting, one of those damned guards managed to nearly hit Applejack and knocked her near the railing on the way through and... the detonator was damaged. We can still use it... but one of us will have to stay behind as it's signal is cut down a bit." 


"What?!" Sunset said as the group gasped in worry before Twilight spoke up. 


"I'll stay behind, I know Spike will miss me, but someone needs to blow this thing up."


Sunset then looked to Flash as she spoke. "No, I'll stay behind, you all have things to take care of back there, please, Flash... get back to the ship, I'll handle this." 


The group looked to each other and then back to Sunset and Flash as they looked at each other, giving sad expressions before Flash spoke up. "Actually, Sunset... I'll be the one to put my life on the line." He said as he placed a transporter chip onto Sunset's chest, her body being enveloped by the beams before Sunset yelled to him.


"Flash, NOOO-" Was all she could say to him before her body disappeared with the rest of the field, the girls gasped a Flash's action before he spoke to them.


"Girls, head back to the ship, and... tell Twilight, I'm sorry that I couldn't come back, and that my counterpart takes good care of her." The girls fell into a stunned silence, looking at their friend for a long moment before Twilight finished as well.


"You heard what he said, everyone, get back to the Equestria, and.... tell Sunset to take care of Spike... please." The others looked at them for a moment, tears welling in Rarity and Fluttershy's eyes as the fashionista spoke to them.


"We.... *sniff*... we won't forget you, darling. Good luck." After her words, the group then placed their transporter chips onto their chests, all of them being surrounded by energy fields before disappearing, leaving Flash and Twilight alone in the room as Twilight looked to Flash. 


"We... we gave them a heck of a run, didn't we, Flash?" Twilight said as the two fell in an embrace, holding each other tightly as Flash replied to her.


"..Yep, we did, Twi... we did." The two held each other as they closed their eyes, hearing the countdown slowly reaching it's mark. 


"NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX," Flash held the detonator around Twilight, the two forcing their eyes shut as Flash pressed the button. And the last thing they'd heard was the sound of a large explosion before everything went out....


~U.S.S. Equestria~


The bridge was almost painted with sweat as the room was hotter from the fighting, the fires had been put out, but the tense fighting and destruction had heated up the room as Twilight wiped beads of sweat from her forehead before giving her next order. "Fire on the cruisers, let's take the heat off of Luna and her crew!" The current weapons officer then tapped on his console before a spread of torpedoes shot out and struck the large Sphere Builder cruiser, breaking off fragments of the ship's hull before the ship turned away and kept on for another run. 


Rarity then looked to Twilight shortly after her console chirped before she checked it. "Twilight, the transporter room says that we've gotten our friends back, but two of them are missing and Sunset's on her way up here!" Twilight raised an eyebrow at the news of two away team members, she had started to think of what'd happened to them, but her curiosity was halted as Dash yelled out.


"Twilight, the sphere!" The crew looked to see the sphere starting to sport cracks all over it's hull, the sphere then crunched down to a smaller and smaller size before it finally collapsed, ringing out a large flash of light before the crew was full of cheers and excitement over their victory.


"Yeehaw! We did it, Twi!!" Applejack said as the rest of them cheered at the sight of the destroyed sphere and the retreating TLF spheres on the screen before the left turbolift opened to release Sunset, who wore a panicked expression on her face as she looked to the screen.


"..No.... No.. they're gone." Her words were heard as the crew calmed down to see Sunset, standing near the doors as Twilight spoke to her.


"What, Sunset? What's wrong?" Sunset snapped her attention to Twilight, but tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke to her.


"Twilight, you and Flash's counterparts... they..stayed on the sphere to detonate the bombs. They didn't make it." Her words drained the happiness from the room as Twilight's pupils shrunk upon them, she looked to the viewscreen, as did everyone else, and stared at the spot where the sphere once stood, small fragments of debris flying through the sector as Twilight took in her friend's statement and grew tears in her eyes. Rarity and Fluttershy started to overflow as their mouths quivered before Rarity tried to speak.


"No, not again.... I can't bear this, not like back at the Archive, *sniff*" Rarity said before she and Fluttershy held each other as they sobbed uncontrollably, Applejack pulled her hat off and looked to the viewscreen with a solemn face, while Dash started to tear up as she looked to the screen as well. Pinkie's hair deflated as she started to break down, while the other crewmen simply hung their heads down. Shortly after Sunset had arrived her friends followed her behind, looking at the screen as they too started to break down. Twilight was then snapped out of her thoughts of Flash's human counterpart as a chirp was heard at Rarity's console and she turned to it. "Sorry... we... we're being hailed, it's Wyatt."


"...P-put him through." Twilight said as Wyatt came up on the screen.


"Well done, Twi, we've stopped the Sphere Builders thanks to your friend, Sunset, and the Multiverse is safe once again. Oh, and I believe our friends would like to say something to us." He said before Nom's voice spoke through Wyatt's comms panel.


"I'm glad we were able to fight alongside great leaders like you, Princess Twilight, it looks like we should get fixed up."


"...Yes.. we should." Twilight's manner of speaking worried Wyatt as he spoke to her.


"Twilight, is something wrong?"


Twilight sniffed a little before she steadied herself and replied to her mentor. "..Yes, I've.... we've lost a few friends on that sphere, they died blowing that thing up."


Wyatt sat in silence for a moment before he spoke. "I... I'm very sorry, Twilight, I wish we could've done something."


"We... we didn't see it coming, Wyatt, it was bound to happen anyway." Sunset said as Wyatt spoke to his friend.


"My crew and I are sending repair and medical teams to your ship, as is everyone else. Should I head over there?"


".....Sure, I... I need a moment. I'll see you in my ready room." Twilight said to the Admiral before he finished.


"No problem, Stone out." The signal cut out as Twilight steadied herself before turning to her friends and speaking.


"Applejack, Applebloom, could you prepare the shuttlebay for our friends, please?"


"...Absolutely, Twi. It'll be done in a snap. The farmgirl said before Twilight looked to Flash and spoke to him.


"Flash, if you'd join me in my quarters, please." Flash nodded before he turned to Spike.


"Spike, if you could keep the Princess' seat warm."


"Not a problem, Flash." He said before the two slowly walked into Twilight's ready room, the doors closing as they entered. The rest of the crew then continued to perform their duties as they tried to put their sorrow away for later. So many lives... so many friends had been lost today because of Noye, and while he would pay dearly for his crimes, he had now scarred more people than he could've back when he was a friend to the Alliance, and Princess Twilight and her friends had to come to terms with their friends' deaths later on after this tragic battle had ended.
> Chapter XII: Time to See What's Out There...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

~Canterlot Royal Castle~

~4 Days after the Battle~


The day was bathed in sorrow and silence over Canterlot as the day went on, most of the townsponies being gathered at the Castle under Princess Celestia's word. The battle had taken away over hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides of the fighting, and, while the taste of victory could be felt afterwards, many had felt the cold breeze of defeat once the sphere was destroyed. About four days after the tragic events, the Universal Defense branch was finally passed, with Nom Carver of the New Republic and Captain Ryder of the Tempest showing their support, but today in Equestria, there was nothing but tears and mourning within the castle, Starlight's friends were all informed of her passing shortly after returning from the Preserver sphere, Sunburst, Night Glider, Party Favour, and their friends had nearly dropped to their knees upon hearing of the murder, and quickly showed up to express their friendship with Starlight before her passing. It was in the castle of Canterlot where the funeral was held, over two dozen rows of 6 seats for each filled the room, Twilight and her friends sitting in the front left row, while Starlight's friends, Trixie, Sunburst, Night Glider, Party Favour, Sugar Belle and Double Diamond were all seated in the front right row and Thorax and Discord chose to stand by their side. Lyra, Bon Bon, Moon Dancer and the others were all seated in the rows behind them, tissues held in their hooves as they listened to the words spoken by each pony when they were called up, and last but not least, behind them was Wyatt and his crewmates sitting behind the rest of their friends. Sunset was standing in front of the podium, speaking to the crowd of Twilight's student as the crowd listened. Near the podium was Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Shining Armor with Flurry Heart, standing near the coffin that held the deceased unicorn within it. 


Almost all of Starlight's friends had already spoken their speeches of their friend and were sitting to hear the others who hadn't, and the only one who was left to speak was Twilight, who was sitting near her friends. After Sunset had stepped away from the podium, Applejack nudged the Princess to tell her it was time for her speech. Readying herself, Twilight got up from her seat and slowly walked to the podium, placing one of her hooves on the top of it before she began. "Thank you all for your kind words, it comforts me to know that my student had more friends than she'd thought. Starlight was one I'd known ever since I'd met her in Equal Town, where my friends and I had also met Double Diamond and the others." She looked to them, the four ponies smiling through their tears as the Princess continued. "When she became my student, I'd taught her all I had learned in Friendship, and with those skills, she made so many friends that I can't count all of them up. And when she helped out during the Terran attack and the past temporal incidents, she had never given up no matter what challenge came at us. And...." She stopped as she started to tear up again, but kept her composure as she continued.


" ...4 days ago..... that all shattered at once, Noye, believing that he was changing history for a better cause ended her... and all of my friends saw it, I saw it. I watched my student suffer and die right in front of my eyes, my friends, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Thorax, and... even her best friend Trixie, we all were forced to watch her fade away as we broke down before continuing on with the mission, and... I think that that sight will haunt me for the rest of my life. I... I know that we all wish we could've saved her, I wanted to save her, but I believe that she wouldn't want us to stop because of her, she would want us to keep fighting, to continue on with our lives while we have it. Starlight died defending the timeline... and the best we can do to honor her memory is to preserve history as it is, whatever the price may be. And.... as Wyatt had taught me a long time ago, we shouldn't think of Starlight, nor any of the dead being gone from us, but that they're watching over us as their souls soar the heavens beyond." After Twilight had stopped, the crowd applauded her words, hooves and hands smacking together as they all looked to Twilight. For a moment, Twilight could see Chrysalis starting to shed a tear as she spoke once more before stepping off. "Starlight Glimmer will be missed." 


She stood off the platform to sit with her friends as Celestia walked up to the platform and spoke. "I believe we've said all we can for Starlight... for now she should not think of sorrowful ones, but of more pleasant and peaceful memories with her. There are refreshments in the dining room next door, if you'll follow us, please." The crowd stood up and waited for the royalty to pass them all before they followed them out the doors, many of them speaking to each other as they walked.


Twilight and her friends were speaking with Wyatt and his crew when Sunburst and the others walked to them, staying by their side as Twilight spoke. "Oh, Sunburst, I hope I didn't start to break you down with my words, I almost did myself." She said before Sunburst replied to her.


"It's alright, I... I actually let it all out back when you first told me and the others, Starlight and I were old friends since foalhood." Sunburst said as he wiped his eyes to erase the tears before Trixie spoke.


"I think I feel the same way, even when serving Starfleet, I felt Starlight was a sister to me, and losing her had broken me down, all of us." As the magician finished, another voice spoke to the conversing group of friends.


"I understand your pain, everyone, but I believe there is a chance of hope for Starlight." Agent Daniels said to the group, who turned their heads to see him as they all walked. 


"Agent Daniels! How'd you get here?" Miolii asked the temporal officer before he answered her. 


"I'd managed to enter after conversing with the guards to witness the funeral, I'd been waiting for everyone to finish their speeches before I'd speak with you all. I also wanted to inform you that your friends, Nom, Ree, Ramjet and the others sent their condolences for your friends."


"Thank you, Mr. Daniels, and you wanted to talk about what?" Trixie asked as Daniels answered the mare.


"About Starlight, you see, the timeline works in so many different manners, and with what's to come, I believe Starlight may yet return to us at some point."


The group gave confused gasps as Pinkie Pie spoke. "But we won't be seeing Noye for a bit as far as we can see, and who knows when we stop that party pooper!"


Daniels chuckled slightly at Pinkie's statement before he responded. "Perhaps, but there's always a possibility that at whatever time we stop Noye at, Starlight's death will be prevented, and she'll be alive and well afterwards." The group looked puzzled for a moment before Wyatt spoke to his time-travelling friend. 


"I can believe it, who knows, maybe that battle we last faced him at will be the second to last one for Noye, or maybe something else will come out of it.... so no matter what, let's hope for the best to come." Twilight smiled at the Admiral's statement before Creepybloom spoke to Daniels. 


"Well, Ah know Ah've just met y'all, but I want to help too. Do ya think there's something Ah can help out with?" Wyatt then smiled as he looked to the filly and answered.


"I have a place on the Kali that I think you'd like, especially since it's on the bridge, and I always like having a new member of the family. And I hope Daniels can agree with me." He looked to Daniels, who nodded to his request for Creepybloom. The filly smiled in excitement as the group murmured to each other as they walked, listening to each other's stories and trying to make the rest of the day a good time as they neared the dining room...


~Equis Orbit, 8 hours later~


The Equestria sat in orbit above Equis as it set itself still near the new starbase that was finally finished, it resembled a Federation fleet starbase, but one of the two Federation symbols was replaced with the Equestrian flag's symbol, with a curved pink paint mark going around the two symbols. Near the starbase were several drydocks, one of them containing the unfinished Star Trotter prototype that awaited to be launched upon completion. In Twilight's ready room, the Princess stood near the window of the room, gazing out at the stars outside the ship before a beep snapped her back to reality. She turned to the door and spoke. "Come in." The doors opened to reveal Sunset, along with her friends, and Spike's counterpart, who entered the room as Twilight spoke once again. "Oh, Sunset, I thought you were getting ready to head back home, what brings you here?"


Sunset seemed to be holding back an ecstatic smile as she spoke. "Well, Twi, I think we're officially star trekkers now, 'cause something awesome happened earlier today."


"Really? What was it?" Twilight asked before her friend answered her.


"Wyatt said that while I do have a role back at Canterlot High, he sees me as Starfleet material for what happened back at the Preserver sphere, and he's gotten a ship ready for me and my friends!" Twilight almost seemed to burst out with excitement at her friend's news, but she calmed down in order to keep the crew at stations as she replied.


"That's awesome, Sunset, we'll be sailing the stars together, keeping the universe safe in our ships from now on!" She said as she smiled before curiosity demanded another question. By the way, Sunset, what ship is it?"


"Well, from what the Admiral told me, it's supposed to be one of the ships that got damaged back at the Archive battle a few days ago, but she's been fixed up and is ready for service." Twilight smiled before Sunset grew a frown as she asked, "And... it all seems a bit much to take in for the day, do you think I'm ready, Twilight?" 


Twilight nodded to her friend before she answered. "I know you are, but if you ever need help, don't hesitate to contact me for help, I'm always there for you."


"Thanks, Twilight, and believe me, it won't be about trying to learn how to fire a photon torpedo by using the con-" Sunset was cut off as another beep came from Twilight's desk. The Princess then walked over to tap the comms panel on the table before Flash's voice came up.


"Sorry to bother you, Twi, but Wyatt says he needs us all on the bridge, it's urgent." Twilight looked to Sunset and spoke to her before turning to the table and speaking to it as well.


"It looks like your skills are about to be tested, Sunset. We'll be right there, Flash. Sparkle out." After turning off the console, the group then made their way back through the doors to the bridge, the doors shutting as they entered and stood near Rarity and Sweetie Belle while Twilight sat down and tapped on her comms panel on the armrest of the chair. "What's the problem, Wyatt?"


"Ah, sorry to disturb you, Princess, but I've gotten a message from Agent Daniels, it looks like we have more trouble on our hands and hooves today, Temporal Command has sent out a distress signal, and we need to head there right away!"


"Understood, we're ready, and Sunset's about to head to her ship too, should she come as well?"


"Only if Sunset's okay with it, other than that, I have nothing to object." Twilight looked to Sunset, who nodded and spoke to her friend before tapping her combadge. 


"No problem, Twi, we're right behind you." Tapping her combadge, she spoke one last word before she was surrounded in a transporter beam. "Energize."


After Sunset and her friends had beamed to the bridge, Twilight turned to her comms panel and spoke again. "I believe it's settled, then, she's with us on this. We're right behind you, Admiral!" 


"Thanks, we're about to head out now, stick with us. Stone out!" The comms cut out before Twilight looked to Dash, who spoke to her as soon as she focused on the speedster pegasus.


"Warp drive is ready on your word, Twi!"


"Punch it!" The four ships, the Amarillo, the Kali, the Equestria, and the newly re-christened Shimmering Light, a kitbashed Eclipse intel cruiser, growled with power as their nacelles glowed in a bright blue. A portal opened and the four ships zapped through the vortex, the portal closing shortly after and leaving the shipyard to it's work. While combat was dragging away time from the three commanders, soon they'd put an end to this nonsensical bloodshed across time and space, and their reward would, if nothing more, hopefully be able to voyage the stars in peace once more....