//------------------------------//
// Battle 
// Story: Where Nopony Has Gone Before 
// by Kane Magus 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 10 - Battle


“Report, Lieutenant,” said Picard.
A junior officer named Lathrop was manning the tactical station while Worf was down on the surface with several contingents of security officers.  It had been determined that if the Enterprise failed to stop the Borg from reaching the planet, which was extremely likely, the security teams on the planet would aid the ponies in resisting the Borg invasion.
Lathrop quickly scanned the tactical panel and said, “They’re definitely on their way, sir.  They’re moving at warp nine point eight.  At that speed, they will be here in about forty seconds.”
“One minute they’re sitting there essentially asleep,” said Riker, “and the next minute they’re coming at us like a bat out of hell.”
The Captain tapped a button on the armrest of his command chair and said, “Picard to Princess Celestia, do you read me?”
“I do,” came the voice from the other end.  “Thank you for letting us borrow these communication devices, especially now that the unpredictable ‘window’ left behind by the Q has disappeared altogether.”
Picard said, “And they will come in handy very shortly, I’m afraid.  The Borg are on their way now.”
“Hmm, that’s not the most pleasant news I’ve heard all day,” said Celestia.
“Believe me, I definitely know how you feel,” said the Captain.  “I trust that our contingency plans are proceeding apace?”
“We’re as ready as we’ll ever be down here,” said Celestia.  “Also, our plans for the Borg ship up there are ready as well.  But, as we discussed last night, it will be up to you to get them into the proper position first.”
Picard sighed and said, “If we can get them to focus their attention on us enough to pursue us, then we’ll do our best.  We’ll keep this channel clear so that we can contact you at a second’s notice.  Be ready.”
“Luna and I are prepared,” said the Princess.
“Very well then,” said Picard.  “For now, we’ll try everything we can to keep the Borg away from the planet, but tell both my and your people down there to be ready, because the Borg could start beaming down without warning even so.  Picard out.”
“Sir, the Borg ship is within visual range,” said Lt. Lathrop.
“On screen!” said Riker.  The view of the planet changed to show the Borg ship dropping out of warp.  No matter how many times he saw one, the sight of a Borg cube never failed to send shivers down Riker’s spine.  He glanced at Picard, noting that the expression on the captain’s face was entirely inscrutable.  There was no telling what exactly was going through his mind at the moment, given the circumstances.
“All right people, the dance begins now,” said Picard after a few seconds of silence.  “Ensign Gates, lay in an intercept course to the Borg ship.  Lt. Lathrop, arm the phasers and photon torpedoes.  For now, however, use our normal ordnance rather than the specially prepared variants.  While our normal weapons have any effect at all, we shouldn’t tip our hand too early.  Ensign Gates, engage at maximum impulse.”
The starship banked away from the planet and began to move toward the menacing metal cube that was approaching.
“It’s a good thing that Q’s lockout of the helm controls ended when he lost his powers,” noted Troi, who had arrived on the bridge moments earlier.
“Indeed, Counselor,” said Picard.  He tapped a sequence of keys into the arm of his command chair and said, “Lt. Lathrop, as soon as we are within weapons range, cut loose with everything you have at the coordinates I just fed you.  The target in this case is the Borg’s propulsion system, at least insofar as we can target individual systems on a Borg cube anyway.  We need to slow them down as much as possible.”
“Aye, sir,” said Lathrop.  “Coming into weapons range… now.  Opening fire!”
The distinctive chirp that indicated weapons fire emanated from the tactical console.  On the forward view screen, several phaser beams and a tight spread of photon torpedoes could be seen lancing toward the Borg cube.  The phaser beams scored deep stretches of blackened metal into the surface of the Borg ship and the torpedoes ate moderate chunks out of their hull as well.
“Damage to the Borg ship,” said Lathrop.  “However, their speed has only dropped by eight percent.  They will be within transporter range of the planet in twelve seconds!”
Picard said, “Damn!  Continue firing, Mr. Lathrop!”  He slapped the comm panel on his chair and said, “All hands on the planet surface, prepare for imminent invasion!”



“Listen carefully, everypony!” said Princess Celestia as she stood in front of the arrayed forces of the royal guard and her remaining court mages, with Princess Luna standing at her side.  “As we planned, my sister and I will be teleporting the enemy into the valley nearby.  However, we will be relying upon all of you to give us the time and space we need to use our magic.  Don’t let them get close enough to touch you.  Our human friends have warned us that this is how they begin their assimilation process.”
As the princess continued speaking to her guards, the two Qs, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack stood off to the side.  They’d only just arrived when news that the Borg were on their way had reached them.
“Pinkie, this could be another opportunity for you to test your powers,” said Pony-Q.  “When the Borg begin beaming down, you should try to aid the princesses in their efforts to teleport the drones down into the valley.”
Pinkie nodded.  “Okay, I’ll try my best.”
“And don’t ya worry none,” said Applejack.  “We won’t let them get close to ya while yer tryin' to help out the princesses.”
“You can count on us,” said Rarity, her horn beginning to glow slightly in anticipation of the coming battle.
“I really wish I had my powers right about now,” muttered Human-Q.  “Hell, I’d even settle for one of those horrible little hand phasers.”
“You and me both,” said Pony-Q with a sigh.  “It’s a terrible feeling knowing that we’re actually the least useful among the whole bunch here.”
“Just stay out of everypony’s way and that’ll be helpin' plenty,” said Applejack.
Before either Q could say anything in response to that, Princess Celestia suddenly shouted, “Get ready, everypony!  They’re coming!”
Before she’d hardly finished speaking, green flashes of light could be seen appearing in various places within the vast hall of the court.  Every pony in the room recoiled with revulsion at the sight of the cybernetic abominations that were the Borg drones.  Before the drones could do much of anything, however, the princesses worked their magic and enveloped them in glowing yellow light, in Celestia’s case, and swirling purple tendrils of smoke, in Luna’s case.  With that, the Borg were gone, on their way down to the waiting ambush in the valley below the mountain.  Celestia and Luna launched into the air and flew out of the nearby windows in order to deal with any drones that had appeared outside in the city itself.  The royal guards and mages rushed out through the doors to follow them.
“So far so good,” muttered Human-Q, “but there are many more where those came from.”  His eyes widened and he screamed, “Pinkie!  Look out!”
A green pulse of light had appeared directly behind the pink pony, leaving a Borg drone in its wake.  She spun around, but the drone was already advancing toward her.  She squeaked in fright and scrambled backward to try to get away from the drone.  Before it could do anything to her, however, the drone found itself surrounded in a blue aura of magic and unable to continue forward.
“Urgh!” groaned Rarity as she held the drone in place.  “I can’t hold this thing for long!”  The drone turned to face the unicorn and raised its prosthetic arm toward her.  A spark of energy could be seen dancing along the business end of it.
“Oh no ya don’t!” shouted Applejack.  She charged the drone, spun around, and bucked it as hard as she could in the side of its torso.  The drone went sprawling to the floor just as a burst of electricity flew from the end of the monstrous appendage, barely missing the white unicorn by scant inches.
“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?!” shouted Pony-Q.  “Don’t just sit there!  Get rid of that thing before it kills somepony!  Or worse!”
Pinkie Pie had been sitting on the floor in shock, watching as her friends did battle with the drone, but at the urging of the burgundy pony, she stood up and her face twisted into an expression of terrible anger.  “Nopony tries to hurt my friends and gets away with it!” she shouted.
The Borg drone disappeared in a burst of pink light and the sound of her party cannon being fired.  Pinkie blinked.  “Wow.  That was easier than I expected it to be.”
“What did you do?” asked Rarity as she looked at the spot on the floor where the drone had been.  “Did you send it to the valley?”
“Yep, I sent it to the same place the princesses are sending theirs,” said Pinkie.  “I just did what they told me to do.”  She nodded toward the two Qs.
“Don’t look now,” said Human-Q, “but there are plenty more where that one came from.  Actually, no, it would probably be a very good idea if you did look!”
Pinkie spun around to see no less than five more drones nearly on top of her.  “Gah!” she said in disgust.  “Get away, you big nasties!”  And, just like that, five more drones popped out of sight in a pink flash of light.  “Ha ha, this is actually kind of fun.”
“Well,” said Applejack, “here come some more, so feel free to have all the fun ya want, sugar cube.”
“Whee!” said Pinkie as she turned to face another dozen or so drones that had beamed down nearby.  As she mentally flicked these drones off to join their brethren in the valley below, she said, “All right everypony, just stay near me and don’t let them sneak up behind me.  I’ll take care of the rest!”  With that, they charged out of the now empty throne room and into Canterlot proper to help the princesses protect the city.



“They’ll be here any second!” shouted Worf.  “Get ready!”
He was currently located in a field at the base of the mountain into which Canterlot had been built, a few miles from the outer limits of the city.  The railroad tracks that led to and from the city could be seen in the distance.  This was also the area in which Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and the others had been practicing earlier.
The plan was that Celestia and Luna would protect the city itself, along with their royal guards and the remaining court mages that hadn’t been beamed up to the Enterprise.  Any Borg drones that beamed directly into the city would then, in turn, be teleported by the princesses to this location outside of the city, into the waiting crossfire of the Enterprise security teams as well as the Equestrian weather teams.  While there were a few contingents of Starfleet personal stationed in some of the surrounding cities and towns, including Ponyville, the hope was that the Borg would focus most of their initial efforts on Canterlot itself, given that it was the most technologically advanced city on the planet.  As such, the bulk of the forces were arrayed around Worf’s position.  They intended to hit them with everything they had.
Worf shouldered his Type-III phaser rifle.  His weapon, like all of the others, had been modified to randomly alter the emission frequency after each shot.  Hopefully, this would allow them to take down several drones before the Borg adapted to their weapons.  “As soon as they appear,” he ordered, “open fire with everything you have.  Switch your targets quickly and take out as many of them as you can before they are able to adapt.”
Nearby, Rainbow Dash was similarly barking out orders to the weather teams.  “Lightning teams, be ready to cut loose as soon as they show their ugly faces.  Water team, hold back for now, but be ready to flood the valley on my signal.  Everypony, be ready with your tornadoes to take on any that somehow survive the lightning and the flooding.”  She looked over at the rest of the pegasus ponies that were hovering next to her.  She smiled as Spitfire gave her a wink.  Spitfire was there along with Soarin’ and the rest of the Wonderbolts, and they were all prepared to show the Borg that the “bolt” part of their name wasn’t just for show.
A sudden, huge burst of yellow light, accompanied by a swirling vortex of dark purple energy indicated that the battle had been joined in Canterlot, and that the incoming Borg were indeed being redirected by the princesses as planned.  Dozens of Borg drones were being dropped into the valley.  Worf had never seen so many at one time, save for the few occasions he’d been on board a Borg cube itself.  He raised an eyebrow when he noticed that along with the golden and purple colored magic, he was also seeing flashes of pink as well.  If he didn’t know any better, he could have sworn he was seeing bits of what appeared to be confetti floating down to the ground after these pink flashes.  However, he couldn’t let such things distract him at a time like this.
“Attack!” shouted Worf and Rainbow Dash at the same time.  The previously quiet valley was suddenly alive with the whine of phaser fire, which was very soon joined by multiple loud cracks of thunder as lightning bolt after lightning bolt slammed down on the Borg drones.
But the Borg just kept on coming.  Along with the ones being teleported in by the princesses, Worf also noticed that many drones were now being beamed down to this location directly by the Borg ship itself.  Apparently, the Borg realized that the vast majority of the resistance was here, and were trying to stamp them out.  Even worse, the phasers were beginning to lose their effectiveness.  To Rainbow Dash’s amazement, even the lightning bolts were starting to be absorbed by the personal shields of the drones.
“Lightning teams!” she called out.  “Pull back for now!  Water teams!  Get ready to unleash the flood!”
“Security teams, move to the agreed upon fall-back points!” Worf ordered.
Once everyone except for the slowly advancing Borg drones were out of the way, Rainbow Dash shouted into her headset, “Fluttershy!  Now!”
Worf looked into the distance, toward where looming black rainclouds had been present all morning and had been busily filling up a nearby hastily constructed dam with water.  He heard a low roaring sound coming from that direction, which was quickly getting louder and louder.  And then it was visible.  A huge torrent of water was flowing down from the now intentionally busted dam.  Above it raced Fluttershy and several other pegasus ponies who were working hard to keep the flood moving in the intended direction.  The Borg drones were completely unprepared when the water suddenly bounded a small crest and then crashed down upon them.  Hundreds of drones were swept away by the newly formed river.
And yet, the Borg just kept coming.
“All teams, switch to tornadoes!” shouted Rainbow Dash.  “Mr. Worf, you’d better start getting your people out of here.”
“Acknowledged,” said Worf.  He tapped his combadge and said, “Worf to Enterprise.  What is the situation up there?”
“We’re hitting them with standard phasers and torpedoes,” answered Riker’s voice, “and they haven’t completely adapted yet, but we’re still not doing much to them and they’re utterly ignoring us.  How are things down there?”
“We’ve destroyed hundreds of drones,” said Worf, “but they’re still coming.  They’ve adapted to our phasers, as well as to the lightning bolts used by the weather pegasi.  Ground teams are going to need evac as soon as possible.”
“Acknowledged,” said Riker.  “Prepare for transport.  Riker out.”
“All security teams, prepare to beam up,” said Worf.  He watched as transporter beams began to grab people and transport them up to the Enterprise, many of them being immediately redirected to join the security teams elsewhere on the planet.  As planned, he would be the last one to be transported up.  He turned to watch as the pegasus ponies began to use their last trick.  Small whirlwinds were being formed as ponies raced around in circles over various Borg drones.  As these whirlwinds gained in power, the drones were sucked off of their feet and dragged hundreds of feet up into the sky.  Then the whirlwinds were terminated, leaving the drones to crash to the ground.  This method of attack was taking them out as effectively as the phaser beams and lightning bolts had been before, at least before the Borg had adapted to those.  Worf noted that Rainbow Dash and the ones that she’d introduced as the Wonderbolts were particularly effective with this method, as they were grabbing upwards of a dozen drones at once, each.
“Enterprise to Worf,” came Riker’s voice again.  “The Borg have opened fire on the ship.  As such, we are unable to continue lowering the shields for transport.  On the bright side, it doesn’t look like they’re beaming any more drones down to the surface at this time.  It looks like we managed to transport everyone up except for you.  I hate to say it, but you’re on your own down there for the time being.  Get to cover as well as you can.  We’ll try to get you out of there as soon as possible.”
“Acknowledged, Commander,” said Worf.  He wasn’t too worried, at least for the time being.  What remained of the Borg were still down in the valley, being tossed around by the tornadoes.  As he’d expected, it didn’t appear that the Borg were able to easily adapt to the blunt force trauma of being lifted and dropped on their heads.
Suddenly, his entire field of view was filled with nothing but green energy.  When the glared died down, he realized he was completely surrounded by yet more Borg drones.  He spun around and looked at them as they all started to advance on him.  There had to be at least thirty drones in the area around him.  Perhaps it was a little going-away present from the Borg before they fully turned their attention to the Enterprise.
“So it takes this many of you to get rid of me, you honorless petaQs?” he muttered.  Knowing that his phaser rifle was now useless, he tossed it aside.  The Klingon reached down to his boot and drew a d'k tahg that he had sheathed there.  “Come then!  Today is an excellent day to die!”  Before he could charge the nearest Borg drone, however, he heard voices calling out over his headset.
“Rainbow Dash!” shouted Fluttershy.  “What are you doing?!”
“Can’t talk now, ‘Shy,” said Dash.  “Gotta save Worf.”
“Dash, wait!” shouted another voice that he vaguely recognized as that of the Wonderbolt called Soarin’.  He glanced up to see what was going on.  Regardless of whatever was happening up in the sky, however, he knew that he only had scant seconds before the Borg reached him.
As soon as she’d seen the Borg appear around Worf, Rainbow Dash knew she’d only have one shot at saving him.  She launched herself upward into the air at a breakneck pace and then immediately angled around on a downward approach toward Worf.  The now familiar force cone began to build up around her.  Trusting that the signal from the headset she was wearing would reach him, since she knew for a fact that she was already moving several times faster than the speed of sound and thus her voice had no chance of reaching him normally, she yelled out, “Hold up your hands, Worf!”
The Klingon acted on instinct and did as she said, dropping his dagger in the process.  The pony was little more than a blue blur as she rapidly approached him.  As soon as she grabbed him, whatever magic it was that prevented her from being affected by what had to be phenomenal g-forces was apparently extended to him as well, as otherwise his arms would almost assuredly have been ripped from their sockets.  Almost instantly afterward, the pegasus and the Klingon were several miles above the ground.  Worf looked back down and was astonished by what he saw.  At the point where he had been standing mere seconds before was now a rapidly expanding rainbow colored shockwave.  In addition to that, a large, similarly rainbow colored mushroom cloud was billowing upward from the point of contact as well, apparently due to the fact that the explosion had occurred so close to the ground.  As for the Borg drones… they had all been utterly annihilated by the blast.
“Well,” said Rainbow Dash with a wide grin, “you wanted to see a sonic rainboom?  There you go.  What do you think?  Pretty cool, huh?”
“That,” said Worf in utter amazement, “is a vast understatement.”



“Picard to Phaser Control,” the Captain’s voice emanated from the nearby comm console.  “Do you read me, Miss Sparkle?”
“Yes, Captain,” said the purple unicorn.
“We’re going to switch to the magically infused weapons now,” said Picard.  “The torpedoes are being loaded and armed.  Are you ready to aid with the phasers?”
Twilight nodded to the phaser technicians in the room with her and said, “Yes, sir.  Ready when you are.”
“Very good,” said Picard.  “Begin immediately.  Picard out.”
Twilight took a deep breath and began pouring every bit of magic she had into the phaser capacitors.



Picard gripped the armrests of his chair as the ship shook from another hit from the Borg weaponry.  “Well, Number One,” he said, “it looks like we have their attention now.”  Riker nodded grimly in response.  Picard raised his voice a bit and said, “Mr. Lathrop, let’s try our new phasers.  Target the cube dead center and fire a single beam on my mark.  Sustain the beam until I say otherwise.  Ensign Gates, back the ship away from the cube to the minimal safe distance for our new torpedoes.  Mr. Lathrop, fire!”
“Firing, sir,” said Lathrop.  The tactical console chirped again.
On the view screen, they saw a single phaser beam leap out of the saucer’s ventral phaser array and make contact with the Borg shields.  At first, it seemed normal in that the Borg shields were simply absorbing it as before.  However, they saw a thread of purple energy as well, spiraling around and intertwining with the red of the regular phaser beam.  As the purple energy hit the green Borg shields, it began to fan out from the point of contact in a web like pattern.
“Sir!” said Lathrop excitedly, “in the areas where the purple energy is coming into contact with the Borg shields, their shields are… dissolving!”
On screen, the phaser beam suddenly lanced through the Borg shields and drilled into the hull.
“Continue firing, Mr. Lathrop!” shouted Picard.  “Launch the torpedoes!”
They watched as photon torpedoes every color of the rainbow sailed out and smashed into the Borg ship.  Picard assumed that this was due to each torpedo having been prepared by different ponies with different color signatures to their magic, similar to how Twilight’s was purple.  While these torpedoes weren’t nearly as powerful as the one that had to be jettisoned during Twilight’s tests earlier, they were still a few hundred times more powerful than standard torpedoes.  It was a testament to the toughness of the Borg that the cube wasn’t immediately vaporized.
“Massive damage to the Borg ship, sir,” said Lathrop.  “I read at least forty-seven percent of the ship has been damaged.”
“That still won’t be nearly enough to put them away,” said Picard.  “Keep firing, Mr. Lathrop.  I want-”
“Sir!” said Data from Ops.  “The Borg have initiated some sort of feed back loop through the phaser beam!  It will reach the ship in 1.2 seconds.”
“Cease phaser fire immediately!” shouted Picard, knowing it was already too late.  The ship rocked violently before he had even finished speaking.
“Damage reports coming in, sir,” said Lathrop.  “Phaser Control has taken a direct hit, due to the feedback from the Borg ship.  All phasers are completely offline.”
“Transporter room!” yelled Riker.  “Beam everyone out of Phaser Control and directly to Sickbay.”
Chief O’Brien’s voice sounded over the comm channel.  “I can’t, sir.  The room is filled with some nasty sort of radiation that is preventing a transporter lock.”
Riker jumped to his feet and looked down at the Captain.  Picard nodded, and Riker raced to the turbolift, glancing at Troi as he went by.  Troi’s eyes mirrored his own concern.  “Emergency teams, meet me at Phaser Control immediately!” he shouted into his combadge.
As the doors closed behind Riker, Picard said, “Ensign Gates, initiate maneuver Celestia Alpha One.”



Commander Riker arrived at the Phaser Control room at the same time as the emergency teams.  Dr. Crusher was with them as well.
“Will, I’m reading fires inside the room,” said the doctor.  “The suppression systems don’t appear to be working!  And that damn radiation is still there as well!”
“Get that door open,” shouted Riker.  “Now!”
He stood ready at the door while one of the technicians opened the panel on the wall and pulled down on the manual release lever.  As soon as the door opened, they all had to move back as gouts of flame lunged out at them.  The technicians opened up with portable fire extinguishers to beat back the fires.
A man stumbled out of the room and collapsed on the ground.  “Lt. Johns is dead, sir,” the man struggled to say through heavy coughs.  “As for the unicorn… I’m not sure, but she took the initial brunt of the feed back from the Borg ship.”
Riker took another quick look inside the room, raised his arms to cover his face, and then charged inside, completely ignoring Crusher’s shouts for him to come back.  Smoke was everywhere and it was very hard to see, but he soon found a purple form lying on the floor a few feet away from the wall containing the access conduit to the main phaser capacitors.  He knelt down next to Twilight, folded her legs beneath her, and lifted her up in his arms.  Kneeling low as he moved, he rushed back out through the door.
“Dr. Crusher,” he said as he gently laid Twilight on the floor outside of the room.  “How is she?”
The doctor ran a tricorder over the unicorn’s body and then shook her head grimly.  “She’s alive, but barely.  In addition to smoke inhalation, she seems to have gotten the worst of the radiation as well.  I need to get her and Ensign Tompkins to Sickbay immediately.”
Riker nodded, and then swayed on his feet.  His legs buckled and he dropped to one knee next to Twilight.
“Commander, you took a huge dose of radiation yourself just now,” said Crusher.  She slapped her combadge and said, “Chief O’Brien, are we clear with the transporters?”
O’Brien’s voice said, “Yes, doctor.  There’s still some residual radiation in the corridor, but I can get a lock on you now.”
“Beam me, Riker, Tompkins, and Twilight Sparkle directly to Sickbay!” said Dr. Crusher urgently.



“The Borg are following us, sir,” said Lathrop.
“Good,” said Picard.  “That’s exactly what we want them to do.”
The Enterprise continued to launch multi-colored photon torpedoes at the Borg ship, but without the help of Twilight’s magic along the phaser beams weakening them, the torpedoes exploded harmlessly against the shields, despite their increased yield.
“We are approaching the star, sir,” said Data.  “We will be within range in one minute seven seconds.”
“Steady as she goes,” said Picard.  “Ensign Gates, initiate maneuver Celestia Beta Two.  Engage.”
“Aye, sir,” said Gates, her fingers playing over her control panel.  The starship angled down toward the surface of the star, with the Borg cube in close pursuit.
Picard watched as the star loomed ever larger in the view screen.  “Ensign Gates, plot a course that will take us away from the star.  On my mark, engage at warp nine.”  He waited a few more seconds, then tapped the console on his command chair and shouted, “Princess Celestia, now!  Ensign Gates, get us out of here!”
The starship surged forward as the warp engines engaged.  At the exact same moment, a gargantuan X-Class solar flare erupted from the surface of the star.  It completely enveloped the Borg cube.
“Slow to impulse, Ensign,” said Picard.  “Bring us around.”  He watched the view screen intently.  With a sudden intake of breath, he saw it.  The Borg cube, or at least what was left of it as it didn’t look much like a cube anymore, exited the still ongoing solar flare and flew in their direction once more, travelling at high warp speed.
Data worked the controls to the sensor array and said, “I am reading approximately seventy-two percent of the ship has been destroyed, but what remains is still coming this way.  They are also somehow managing to regenerate their damage, even from such a severe state.”
“Damn it,” said Picard.  “I was afraid of this.”
“What do we do now, sir?” asked Troi.
“I… don’t rightly know at this point, Counselor,” said Picard grimly.