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."