The light within the ship was dead as the only remaining lights that were working were flickering, the broken ones spraying sparks around the room. Small patches of smoke and a few fires were spread throughout the room as coughing and grunting voices sounded as well. After most of the smoke dissipated from the room, Rainbow Dash coughed a few more times before opening her eyes and looking to the console. The screen was cracked all over, unable to function as a result from the crash. Once she checked herself for injuries and finding only bruises and a bad cut on her right forearm, she turned to see the others in their seats, some letting out a few coughs as the smoke finally cleared out completely. The rest of the room wasn't anymore fortunate, broken pieces of metal and glass littered the room, making walking a little painful. Dash took a good breath of air for a moment before she spoke up from the crew. "Is everyone alright?"
Twilight tapped her lock with her hoof as she started to fly with her wings as she spoke. "I'm okay!" The Princess then looked to Flash, who'd done the same actions as Twilight and formed up next to her. The three equines then heard a few other voices speaking out to signal their presence.
"I'm okay." Fluttershy said as she freed herself from her seat.
"I'm only getting a few-AGH, cuts, but I'm alive." Rarity said as she attempted to get her sister out of her restraints.
"My balloon's still flying!" Pinkie said as she stood from her seat.
Dash then freed herself from her restraints and stood on her hooves as she looked to the crowd of survivors, there was a lot of movement, and upon taking to the air for a better view, she noticed that everyone seemed to be alright, save for one. As she examined the group, she heard a loud cry of pain from her right, and turning to it, noticed Windy Whistles holding onto Bow Hothoof, who had been struck in his stomach with a piece of metal that most likely flew into his chest, his wound leaking blood as Dash grew a terrified look.
"Dad!" Dash yelped as she streaked towards her parents, Bow grunting from the pain in his stomach as Windy shed hot tears down her face. Dash stood on her hooves with caution as she inspected the wound with her tricorder. Upon getting results, she gave a worried look as she spoke to her parents. "It hit you in the stomach, if you don't get medical attention, you'll bleed out!"
Windy then turned to the front of the ship as she yelled out. "We need a doctor over here!" She said as she raised a hoof into the air before Fluttershy took to the air and flew over to them, her expression turning to one of panic as Dash spoke to her.
"Fluttershy, get a first-aid, quick, my dad will die if we don't!" Fluttershy nodded as she raced to the back of the room to get the supplies out. Dash then looked to her dad, his wound bleeding out as she spoke to her mother. "Mom, help me get his shirt off."
"What good'll that do?!" Windy asked in worry.
"I can use it to stop the blood, it'll take a moment for Fluttershy to get the gear needed to heal dad here, so we'll need a substitute for the moment." Windy then tapped the button on the belt, which Dash pulled apart as she then proceeded to tear her dad's shirt off of him, slightly wadding it up and placing it on Bow's stomach.
Twilight looked to the windows at the front of the ship, thinking about where they were, she charged up her horn before blasting it with a bolt of magic, the glass breaking apart and getting a few screams from the crowd as Twilight flew down and grabbed Spike, who held onto her as the two flew out the window, Flash joining them a moment later. The crowd inside the ship gathered near the window, Rarity and Sweetie Belle appearing in a flash on top of the ship's nose as Twilight and Flash examined the world they were on. Other than the grassy plains and the strange mountains they could see, they flew higher to get a good view of the back, the ship had left a trail of torn dirt and grass in it's wake.
"What a beautiful world, Spike, I can't even think of the possibility that the Tzenkethi would try and destroy this place." Twilight said as her partner replied to her.
"Well, if we can find a way to get off this world, then we might be able to do that, Twi." The dragon said as he observed the grassy land in front of him. The trio then heard a booming sound behind them and turned around, only to see a fireball slowly coming down from the heavens, several parts of the burning wreck flying away from the main one.
Twilight and Flash hovered in the air as they watched the ship burn, tears starting to well in Twilight's eyes as she spoke. "All that power they used on us, there was no way we could've saved her.."
Flash looked to his Princess as he spoke to her. "We didn't know, Twilight, it was bound to happen anyway." They heard a low whimper nearby, and the two looked down to see Rarity wiping her eyes as she cried at the sight of her dead ship falling to it's grave. Twilight frowned solemnly as she spoke to the fashionista.
"I'm sorry we couldn't save our home Rarity, she was a good ship."
Rarity wiped her eyes again before looking up as she replied. "Indeed, Twilight..*sniff*... don't worry about it, *sniff* at least.... at least she gave the last *sniff* shot."
Twilight and Flash then flew back towards the window, Spike hopping off of the Princess' back as she used her magic to clear the glass out of the pathways while the trio stood in the room. At this point, everyone was out of their seats and were tending to their injuries as Pinkie trotted up to the Princess and spoke to her. "Other than a few scratches and boo-boos, everyone's okay, Dashie's dad is hurt in the stomach, and while some of the supplies were damaged, we've just gotten all we could get. Should we start looking for that Tzenkethi we were looking for?"
Twilight looked to the room again, she saw several security officers standing with the others, and taking another look out the broken window, she looked to the party pony before she answered. "Yes, I want our security guards keeping everyone here safe while our team is out. Flash, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Starlight, Trixie, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and I will head out so we can search for the Tzenkethi ship..... By the way, how close are we to them?"
Pinkie looked around the room before finding a damaged, but operable console and trotting to it, tapping a few buttons, she smiled as she gave her answer. "They're only a few miles, but there's another signature near the ocean over there."
Twilight raised an eyebrow as she responded. "Really? Can you identify what it is?"
"I'm not sure, our sensors are badly damaged, but from what I can get, it seems to be a Starfleet signature."
"Starfleet? How..... How would a Federation ship have made it to this area of space before us?" Spike asked in shock as Pinkie Pie replied.
"Beats me, maybe it could've been one of those ships from K-13 and they didn't return."
"Maybe, but we'll have to figure that out later, we've got a job to do." Twilight said as she looked to the crowd in the room. "Everyone, listen up!" She waited until everyone focused their eyes onto Twilight as she began. "I'm planning to lead a small team out to find the Tzenkethi adversary we were looking for before the attack, Flash, Rarity, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Starlight, and Trixie will be a part of the team and we'll most likely be gone for some time. I'm placing my remaining security officers on guard of this area and all of you and I also want a few of you to keep an eye out for any falling escape pods coming towards the surface until we return. Any objections?" The crowd looked to each other and around the room before the shook their heads and Twilight finished. "Good, now get yourselves ready and fixed up, who knows how long we have until they start looking for us."
The group then continued to converse with each other, the summoned team members trotting or flying towards Twilight as the Princess looked at her side, her weapons and gear were all placed in their sockets, and her combadge was still intact. Pinkie Pie then handed Twilight a isolinear chip, which the Princess placed into her tricorder. Rainbow Dash was still standing at her dad's side, still bearing a worried expression like her mother as Twilight trotted over to her and the pegasus asked her, "Twilight, if it's not a problem, can I please stay here to tend to my dad here? He's hurt pretty ba-"
She said but was stopped by her dad, who tried to give a smile as he spoke. "N-no, Dashie, I'll be fine, you just help your friend with your job, got it?" Dash gave a faint smile before nodding and looking to her mother who spoke to her.
"Don't worry Dash, I'll take care of him, you go and find those guys." With that, Dash stood and went to Twilight's side as the Princess spoke.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Whistles, your daughter will be fine, just try to stay alive here. We'll be coming back." Windy nodded before Twilight's group gathered together and Twilight's horn glowed before a flash appeared, the team vanishing after it dissipated.
Another flash appeared outside the ship before the group appeared and began to look at their surroundings, Twilight then pulled out her Tricorder as she tapped a few buttons on it. She looked at the device until it showed the results. "Alright, so if the data is correct, we'll need to head this way in order to reach the ship. Everyone's got their weapons, right?"
Dash looked to the others, seeing weapons in their pockets and holsters before she spoke. "All set Twi, we're ready on your word."
"Very well then, follow me." Twilight then turned towards a pair of mountains, which both stood tall between a lush, pink colored, forest-like area with small and large hills as the group followed suite, each of them giving slight glances at random areas of the land as they ventured into the forest.
.....................
The hike had gone on for about 2 hours now, not a single escape pod had crashed near them, neither had a Tzenkethi patrol come down to finish them off, what they had been doing besides walking, however, was taking an observation of the forest they were now in. The trees seemed to look similar to Earth Trees, but there were several pearl-like bulges on certain parts of each tree, and instead of leaves, the trees seemed to sport what looked to be flowers, but when Fluttershy took a scan of it, the results showed a liquid within the veins of each of the 'flower leaves', possibly the blood for the tree, not only that, but upon another look at the flowers, they seemed to move in a manner similar to a human's body when it's taking a breath. Around certain trees, there were what seemed to be strange roots that had a hole on the tips of each of them, what was inside of the roots was anyone's guess, but when Fluttershy took a scan of one of them, it seemed to have an acid-like substance within them, and Fluttershy wasn't willing to risk triggering it at the chance of accidentally hurting herself or her friends, so she went on with the rest of the group.
The group continued on trotting through the forest, some of them taking glances at different areas of the forest for trouble as Rainbow Dash spoke up. "I don't mean to seem impatient, but how close are we to the ship at this point?"
Twilight took a look at her tricorder before she answered her friend. "From what I can tell, we're almost there, once we clear this forest we should get some kind of view of the Tzenkethi ship. Once we find it, we'll go in and try to find them."
Applebloom took a sip of her water-filled thermos as she spoke to her friends. "Well, since they called us out to this place and being stranded here at the cost of our ship, if they are pulling a scheme on us, what do we do then?"
"Then we'll just do what we're gonna do to those guys up in space if that's the case." Dash said as she frowned at the thought of another trap, she'd already lost her ship and some of her colleagues to those invaders thanks to the 'distress call', and she wasn't going to have it one bit if she indeed did end up fighting their target upon arriving there.
The group was forced to stop their thinking as they heard a loud male voice from out of nowhere. "HALT! Drop your weapons!" The group looked around the forest before they spotted the speaker, he had thick eyebrows, as well as pointed ears, and he was wearing a uniform that seemed to resemble Romulan attire, but none of the group could pinpoint what generation of uniform the officer was wearing, nor did they have time to as several more beings wearing similar uniforms appeared from behind the trees and began to gather behind the officer, some of them circling around the group. Twilight stood firmly as she spoke to the lead officer. "Well, I wasn't expecting to deal with Tal Shiar outcasts in these parts of the sector." She said with a chuckle.
The officer kept his weapon at the ready and examined Twilight as he spoke to the alicorn. "You are mistaken, young equine, but we are of the Romulan Navy, and you are violating ground claimed by the Romulan Star Empire, you will be escorted to a nearby refuge where you'll all be tried of your crimes."
Rainbow Dash gave a raised eyebrow as she questioned the officer. "Crimes?! When did you claim this area of space? I didn't see any Romulan structures in orbit of this world, and by the way, the 'Romulan Star Empire' is no more these days after the Hobus supernova! If there's any government that the Romulans have made nowadays, it's the Romulan Republic!"
The officer was about to strike the pegasus with his hand but stopped as he gave a curious glare at Dash. "Strange, how do you know of the Empire and it's history? I don't remember ever hearing of a supernova that put an end to the Empi-" The Romulan officer was cut off as he and the two groups heard and saw a yellow energy bolt flying across the area before it struck one of the trees, an orange ring of heat expanding out before finally stopping and leaving a scar in the tree.
"AMBUSH! Stand your ground, troops!" The officer said as they separated and took cover behind several of the trees, Twilight and the others grabbing their weapons and galloping to another section of trees. Twilight aimed her weapon at one of the Romulans and fired, an orange phaser bolt striking the soldier before he collapsed on the ground. After taking cover behind a tree, Twilight then took a peek around the area before she spotted the newer arrival that was now taking cover, the being was humanoid, but was wearing different attire than the Romulans, the uniform seemed to resemble a Starfleet uniform from the 21st Century, but upon closer inspection, she noticed something different on the uniform, but was unable to examine further as a green bolt hit the tree she was standing behind, Flash making a retaliation shot at another Romulan with his rifle before taking cover once again.
Starlight tapped a few buttons on her phaser pistol before breaking cover from her tree and firing at one of the officers, who was struck by the blast and glowed in bright red before disintegrating into vapor. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were having no trouble fighting either, as they had deployed a shield in front of them as they threw a few photon and plasma grenades out into the field, which later exploded and struck two of the now eight remaining officers, falling as they let out cries of pain from the blast.
After taking another shot at one of the soldiers, Twilight turned to Flash and spoke to the guard. "Flash, cover me, I'm going to get a good look at that other guy over there!" Flash nodded and readied his rifle. Upon Flash's confirming nod, Twilight sprinted towards the human on the other side, a few green bolts flying by her as Flash made several shots at three of Twilight's attackers, who fell to the ground after being hit by his shots. Twilight then took cover behind a tree that was right next to the human's tree before taking another look at him, he was definitely wearing a similar uniform to the 23rd Century style attire, but it seemed to have more detail to it, a diamond pattern was spread out all over the shirt part of the uniform, while the pants were pretty much the same as the ones Twilight had seen. The human gave a look to the alicorn before he spoke up.
"Can you help me out here?! We're all dead if we don't finish these pointy-eared bastards off!" Twilight nodded as she broke cover and aimed and fired her weapon at one of the soldiers, the bolt hitting the officer as he fell to the ground not a second later. She then charged her horn and fired a bolt of magic at another soldier, who collapsed to the ground upon being struck by the blast. The Princess then took a look at the rest of the area, only three of them we're left standing behind the trees.
The human turned to her and gave a smirk before he spoke. "Good shooting, I think I can handle the rest! Can you hand me your weapon?" The Princess nodded before tossing the officer the weapon before he broke cover and fired at two of the remaining exposed officers, who fell from the impact of the shots moments later. Taking cover again, he flicked a spot on his pistol before the main barrel of the weapon flicked to show a blue-colored version of the same barrel before he broke cover and took one last shot at the officer, a blue bolt hitting the soldier on his chest before he fell to the ground and lay still.
Twilight's eyes shrunk in surprise of the weapon's abilities, while it seemed to be similar to a phaser from yesteryear, she'd never seen one do something like that before. The officer then looked to her and handed her weapon back to her before he spoke again. "Thanks for the help there, I almost thought we wouldn't make it out of this." Twilight then took a moment to examine the officer's face, he had green eyes like Wyatt, but he did have some differentiations, for one thing no mutton chops like her friend had. The officer gave a curious look as he spoke to Twilight. "Is something wrong miss?"
Twilight snapped out of her examination as she responded to the human. "Oh, no, I was just taking a look at you, you look familiar to someone I know."
The human gave a smile as he spoke to her again. "Really? Well I guess we'd be great pals, huh?" He said as the two made their way to the stunned officer, Twilight's friends joining up with her a moment after. "The names John, Captain of the U.S.S. Antares, I was out here investigating the remains of an attacking Romulan ship that followed us here a while ago, but after destroying it, we started to pick up several ships within the sector, so we took cover within the oceans of this planet. I was leading an away team down here to find any remaining Romulans that had beamed down here, and after a few skirmishes, I'm the only one left of the team."
Twilight gave a confused look at the officer's explanation as she thought, holding a hoof up to her chin before she gasped in surprise. "Wait, you're not that one ancestor of Admiral Wyatt, are you?!"
"What do you mean?" John asked the Princess.
"Captain John Edward Stone, the Admiral has the same last name as yours, I'd read about your missions when I was checking his family history out of curiosity a while back, I believe I remember him looking similar to you, but with a few differentiations to your exact self, of course."
John gave a shrug as he responded to this information. "Well, I do have a family back at Earth, but I've never heard of a man that shares my last name that is one of my descendants. When this is over, I'd be happy to meet him."
Twilight took another look at John as he knelt down to take some of the downed Romulan's supplies before she spoke again. "Well, one other thing is, what class is the Antares?"
"She's a Constitution class Command Cruiser, one of the most powerful ships we've built next to the Vengeance class."
Starlight gave a confused look at the Captain before asking, "Vengeance class? I've never heard of a ship with that name before, is it some kind of prototype?"
John stood and took a breath as he answered the mare. "It was, but while the first one was destroyed by the U.S.S. Enterprise thanks to Commander Spock's efforts, the Federation had learned of it's combat capabilities from the crew, so they've been building more of them in order to be ready for a war with the Klingon Empire."
Scootaloo gave a curious look as she thought for a moment before speaking up. "Wait, aren't you the Captain's duplicate from the Kelvin Timeline?!"
"Kelvin Timeline?" John asked in confusion as the filly continued.
"Well, you see, I'd gotten some time to speak with Wyatt after an incident with the now defeated TLF, and he told me of one of his ventures involving the Sphere Builders, he said that he'd gotten to learn more about the Kelvin Timeline from Daniels, and he told me and my pals here about the Vengeance." She said with a grin as the Captain replied.
"The Sphere Builders? You've dealt with them too?" He asked in shock.
"Yes, we fought in the Temporal Cold War, and your realm was one of those involved." Twilight said as the Captain spoke again.
"Well, I'll definitely be happy to be getting to know you all, by the way, how did you get down here?" John asked as he looked to Twilight and her friends.
"We... we were attacked by a race known as the Tzenkethi, an old enemy of the Federation. Me and my friends had picked up a distress call from someone named Tzen Terrak, who claimed that he wanted to help us out on stopping his superiors from using protomatter torpedoes to exterminate innocent worlds far from the Federation and it's allies, but when we arrived with a fleet, we were attacked and my crew and I evacuated and destroyed our ship before ending up down here. We're heading this way so we can meet them."
John gave a stunned look at the Princess' story before he spoke up. "Well, my ship is on the other side of where we're heading, so I think I can help out with this, may I come along?" Twilight nodded as she looked to her friends before she noticed something, Trixie was missing from the group. She was almost about to call out for her, but halted when she heard a voice coming from the edge of the forest. The group turned to see a blurry form of Trixie looking to them as she yelled to them.
"Guys, I think we've made it to our target!" Twilight and the group trotted over to the magician as they joined her at the end of the forest. The group then took a look at the sight below them, the edge of the forest seemed to be a cliff, and on the ground below were a few more mountains up ahead, which still gave a good view of the sunset. More plains and hills filled the open area below, as well as another sight, a small ship with a dark brown colored hull and bright orange lights on it.
Twilight smiled as she noticed Terrak's ship before speaking. "Well everyone, I think we've finally found our friend there."
"So, am I gonna have John on my back, or are we gonna make our way down through another path?" Dash asked as the Princess answered her.
"No, I've got another idea..." Twilight said as her horn glowed in a magenta color before a flash appeared around the group, who all disappeared upon the flash vanishing away as soon as it came....