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


Chapter 11 – Aftermath


“Princess Celestia,” Picard’s voice came over the combadge that had been given to her.  “I am afraid that our trump card has failed.  The Borg ship has somehow survived the solar flare.”
“Amazing,” muttered Luna.  “Absolutely unbelievable.”
“What options do we have left?” asked Celestia.
“The Borg have adapted even to the magically modified torpedoes,” said Picard.  “And our phasers are completely inoperable for the time being.  To be perfectly frank, I am at a loss as to what more we can do now.”
“The phasers are… Wait,” said Celestia, with sudden concern in her voice.  “Where is Twilight Sparkle?  Is she okay?”
They could hear the deep regret in Picard’s voice as he said, “I am afraid that Miss Sparkle was in the Phaser Control room when it was hit with a Borg weapon.  She is currently in critical condition, but Dr. Crusher is doing everything she can to save her life, you can be assured of that at least.”
“Oh… no,” Celestia said breathlessly.  She staggered backward a couple steps and sank down onto her throne.  “No… no…”
From nearby, Pony-Q said, “Did you hear that, Pinkie Pie?”  The two Qs were standing next to Pinkie and the rest of her friends, including Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy who had arrived a few moments ago along with Worf, the Wonderbolts, and the rest of the weather teams that had been stationed in the valley outside of Canterlot.
“Twilight,” said the pink pony with tears in her eyes, real ones this time and not the fountain jets from before.  She looked at her friends, all of whom had equally horrified looks on their faces.
Human-Q said, “Now is time for you to take center stage, my dear.”
“But…” said Pinkie, “I told you, I don’t know what to do!  How do I stop them?  Cotton candy clouds and sudsy floors and exploding chocolate aren’t going to hurt them!  Well, okay, that last one might, but I doubt it will be enough.”
Pony-Q shook his head and said, “Pinkie Pie, you have to think grander than that.  Think back to my time as Discord.  I did much more than use those paltry parlor tricks.  But in any case, whatever you end up doing will have to be done quickly.  Otherwise, we’ll all soon be assimilated by the Borg.”
“Trust me,” said Human-Q.  “The last thing any of you want is to become one with the Collective.  It’s terrible.  Your will stripped away… your sense of self eroded to nothing… the unified voice of a billion minds echoing in your head with yours joining them… forced to watch as your body is made to commit unspeakable atrocities against your fellow mortal creatures… screaming soundlessly inside your mind forever…”
“That’s enough, Discord!” said Luna.  “Cease your fear-mongering.”
“He only speaks the stark reality of the situation,” said Pony-Q.  “This isn’t some vague hypothetical here.  This is what is going to happen, to all of us, if something isn’t done.  And right now, the only one left who can save us is Pinkie Pie here.”
Pinkie was staring blankly ahead as if deep in thought.  Suddenly, her entire body started shuddering violently, which lasted for several seconds, then stopped abruptly.
“Ya okay there, sugar cube?” asked Applejack.
“Was that your Pinkie Sense acting up?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Pinkie Pie turned to look at her friends, the Qs, and the princesses.  “After listening to them talking about Discord and assimilation and whatever, I just thought of a way to save us all,” she said, “and it’s a real doozy!”
The Qs looked at each other, eyes widening as realization dawned on them as to what she had planned.  “No, wait, I didn’t mean-” said Pony-Q.
“Can’t stay to chat,” said Pinkie.  “Off to save the world!”
“Pinkie wait!” said Human-Q, but she disappeared in burst of pink light and the sound of her party cannon going off.
“I have a really bad feeling about this,” the two formerly-singular-omnipotent-entities said simultaneously.  They watched helplessly as streamers and confetti floated to the ground at the point where the pink pony had been standing before.



“Captain, the Borg ship has come to a halt,” said Data.
Picard furrowed his brow.  “That doesn’t make any sense,” he muttered to himself.  “What are they doing now?”
“Sir, we’re being hailed from the planet,” said Lt. Lathrop.
“Open a channel,” said Picard.
Expecting to hear Princess Celestia’s voice on the other end, he was surprised instead to hear Q’s voice.  The voice (Picard was unable to determine whether it belonged to the human or the pony version) said, “Jean-Luc, what’s going on up there?  Have the Borg stopped?”
Picard shared a confused look with Counselor Troi then said, “Yes.  Yes, they have.  Is this your doing, Q?”
“Of course not,” said Q, “or, at least, not directly anyway.  I, we, may have unduly influenced dear Pinkie Pie into doing something incredibly stupid, however.”
“What are you talking about,” said Picard.  “What’s going on?”
The line was silent for a moment, and then Q said, “I really think you need to beam us up there, Jean-Luc.  All of us.”
“Who are ‘all of us’ in this case, Q?” said Picard in exasperation.
“The two of us, obviously,” said Q, “along with Twilight’s friends as well as Celestia and Luna.  And your filthy Klingon, of course.  He could really use a bath.”  Picard could faintly hear Worf’s growling over the comm channel, along with one of the ponies using some rather choice words in reference to various parts of Q’s anatomy.
Picard sighed wearily and said, “Q, put Celestia on.”
“Fine,” said Q, “but it’s not going to help you.”
A moment later, Celestia’s voice came through the comm channel.  “I’m sorry, Captain.  I have no idea what he’s up to… either of them.  However, if what very little they have said is true, I believe that I agree that we should be up there.”
Picard pondered for a bit, and then said, “Very well.  We’ll beam you up and then meet in the conference lounge.”



Roughly ten minutes later found all of the command staff, minus Riker and Dr. Crusher who were still in Sickbay, along with all of Twilight’s friends, minus Twilight herself as she was also still in Sickbay, as well as the two Qs and the two Princesses of Equestria sitting in the Enterprise conference lounge just off the bridge.
“Before anything else,” said Princess Celestia, “I’d like to ask about Twilight Sparkle.  How is she doing?”
Picard frowned and said, “I’m sorry.  Her condition has not changed.  She is still critical, and she hasn’t awakened as of yet.  As soon as there is any change, Dr. Crusher will let us know immediately.”
Celestia lowered her head and closed her eyes.  All of Twilight’s friends had tears in their eyes once again, and even Luna looked on the verge of tearing up herself.  Counselor Troi watched them and couldn’t help but begin to feel the rawness of her own eyes, and not only because she was feeling the anguish roiling off of the ponies in waves.
“Oh I’m sure she’ll be fine,” said Human-Q, waving his hand dismissively.  “The one you should really be concerned about right now is Pinkie Pie.”
“So you claim,” said Picard.  “Perhaps you’ll deign to explain that to us now.”
Pony-Q looked around at the various ponies, humans, Klingon, android, and the rest who were seated at the table.  “I’ll just give it to you straight out.  I think she has teleported herself to the Borg ship.”
After the chorus of gasps had died down, Data said, “Upon what do you base this hypothesis?”
“Very simple,” said Human-Q.  “We were talking briefly about my past encounter with the ponies and also about what happens when you get assimilated by the Borg.  And that’s when Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense went nuts.”
“Pinkie Sense?” asked Geordi.  “What’s that?”
“Ugh,” said Pony-Q.  “We really don’t have time for this right now…  Oh, all right, fine.  Pinkie Pie is able to foresee the future.  She calls it her Pinkie Sense, and it consists of various unusual bodily twitches that she interprets as signs.  It was an early manifestation of her Q-like powers, which my human double and I have spent the past several hours trying to foster in her.  We mostly succeeded, but even so, I believe that she might have bitten off more than she can chew with this harebrained scheme of hers.  She has powers like a Q, but she’s still not as strong as a Q.  We just wanted her to try to blow up the Borg ship or something.  Not… this.”
“Listen, Picard,” said Human-Q.  “You need to mount a rescue operation immediately.  If Pinkie Pie gets assimilated into the Borg in her current state, it would be even worse than if either of us were to be assimilated in our current states.  At least we don’t have our powers at the moment.  …and that’s something that I never thought I’d hear myself say.”  Everyone in the room just stared at him in shock.
The voice of Lt. Lathrop suddenly issued from the comm panel.  “Captain, we are being hailed by the Borg cube!”
Picard glanced at the others in the room, and then said, “Put it on the screen in here, Lieutenant.”
A short time later, the screen on the nearby wall lit up.  It was showing the ominous interior of the Borg cube.  Several Borg drones were lined up to either side of the screen.  In the distance they saw something that chilled all of them to their bones.
“Too late,” muttered the two Qs simultaneously.
Slowly walking toward the screen was another Borg drone.  This one was different from the others, however.  For one thing, it was walking on all fours.  It was an earth pony.  All of the color had been drained from the pony’s coat, leaving it a pale gray color.  And the pony’s mane was gone entirely.
“Oh my…” said Rarity softly, closing her eyes and lowering her head.
“Pinkie Pie?” said Rainbow Dash, her tear-filled eyes wide with shock.
The pony drone stopped walking.  It was close enough to the recording device now that they could all clearly see that it was indeed the pony that used to be Pinkie Pie.
“What have they done to you, sugar cube…?” muttered Applejack sadly.
“I am… Pinkutus… of Borg,” said the drone.  Its voice was definitely that of Pinkie Pie, except that it had a strange synthetic echo to it as well.  However, the monotone with which it spoke now couldn’t have been more different from the normal cadences with which the pink pony had spoken.  “Resistance… is futile.  Your life, as it has been, is over.  From this time forward, you will service… us.”
Picard felt a tiny bit of himself die as he heard these words coming out of the mouth of this drone.  They were very nearly the exact words that he clearly recalled himself speaking when he had been revealed as Locutus.  The silence that followed this statement lasted for several moments.  None of them knew quite how to react yet.
The pony drone continued to stare forward at them, the expression on its face completely blank.  And then, it did what had to be the absolute last thing that any of them could have expected it to do.  It broke into a wide grin and winked at them.
“HAHAHahahahahahaaa…” said the drone.  “I had you all going there for a minute, didn’t I?”
“P-pinkie Pie?” said Fluttershy, as completely flabbergasted as the rest of them.
“Yep,” said the drone.  “It’s me!  I mean, seriously?  ‘Pinkutus’?  That’s just ridiculous!”  As she spoke, her coat regained its original pink color and her curly mane poofed back into existence on her head.  “These mean old Borg grabbed me as soon as I appeared on their ship and no matter what I said, they kept responding with a bunch of nonsense about everything being ‘futile’ and ‘irrelevant’ and whatever, so I decided to play along with them for a bit.”
“How…?” said Picard, his mind trying to wrap itself around this but, at least so far, failing miserably.  “How is this possible?”
The two Qs were grinning ear to ear.  “Pinkie Pie,” said Pony-Q, “I can’t believe it actually worked!  I could just kiss you right now!  Right smack on the lips.”
“Um,” said Pinkie Pie, “no thanks.  That’s kinda gross.  Anyway, the Borg have something they want to say to you, so listen closely.”  Pinkie paused as if listening.  After several seconds passed, she narrowed her eyes and said, “COME ON!  SAY IT!”
“We apologize for being big meanie pantses,” said the combined voice that the Enterprise crew recognized as that of the Borg Collective.  “We are very, very sorry for trying to assimilate you.  We know it’s wrong and we will never do it again.  Cross our hearts and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in our eyes.”
“What… the… hay…?” said Applejack, a look of incredulity on her face that matched that of just about everyone else in the room as well.
“Hold on a minute,” said Pinkie.  “I can hear the Collective speaking in my head.  Right now all they’re saying is ‘GETOUTGETOUTGETOUT’ over and over and over again.  That’s not very nice, you guys!  Hey, I know what’ll cheer up you Grumpy McGrumpersons.”  As she spoke, the view on the screen zoomed out by a factor of about twenty feet or so.  Now they could see that there were a dozen or so Borg drones lined up to either side of Pinkie Pie.  She walked a few steps forward, and the drones behind her moved up to fill in the place that she had just vacated.  Then the drones hooked their arms around the arms of the drones to either side of them and began to move.
It took a moment before those in the conference room could process exactly what it was they were seeing.
“Are they…?” said Worf.
“Dancing…?” said Celestia.
“It appears so,” said Data.  “I believe this particular dance is called the can-can.”
“Wait,” said Pinkie Pie.  “They’re trying to do something else now… let’s see… oh, boo!  The Borg have disconnected this ship from the rest of the Collective and have set it to blow up and take me out with it.  How rude!”  Indeed, behind the chorus line of Borg drones, explosions could be seen occurring throughout the ship.  When the drones that were dancing suddenly started twitching and falling over, Pinkie shrugged with an “Eh, what can you do?” kind of expression on her face.  “Well, my new Borg friends,” said the pink pony, turning her back to whatever it was that was currently recording her, “it’s been fun, but I don’t intend to get blown up with you, so I’ll be going now.”  With that, she was enveloped in a flash of pink light, accompanied by the sound of what the ponies knew to be her party cannon.  Less than a second later, she appeared in the conference room.  Now, however, she looked like her normal self, without all the Borg prosthetics attached to her.  Bits of streamers and confetti floated down around her.
The view on the screen blinked out and then reconfigured itself to show what was left of the Borg cube.  Explosions were jetting out from within the depths of the vessel at all points, and then, finally, after one gigantic fireball consumed the whole thing, the Borg cube was nothing more than scattered debris.  Stunned silence was the only reaction in the conference lounge for several moments.
Finally, Human-Q broke the silence.  “Pinkie Pie, you did it!  I never doubted you for a moment!”
“Says the guy trying to get us to mount a rescue mission just a few minutes ago,” muttered Geordi.
Pony-Q ignored the engineer as he approached the pink pony.  “So, Pinkie Pie, how about that kiss, huh?  I think you’ve more than earned it.”
Pinkie backed away and held up a front hoof.  “Ew!  Get away!” she said, sticking out her tongue.  “I may think you’re funny sometimes, but I don’t like you that much.”
“Hey, calm down a bit,” said Human-Q to his pony counterpart.  “You’re starting to embarrass me.”
The sense of relief and happiness at having actually defeated the Borg hung thick in the room.  However, when the comm panel chirped again, those feelings quickly fled, and with good reason.
“Sickbay to Captain Picard,” said Dr. Crusher, her voice sounding strained.
“Picard here.  Go ahead, Doctor,” said Picard.
“It’s Twilight Sparkle, sir,” she said.  “She has come around, but… well… I’m afraid that there’s nothing more I can do for her.  I think she has maybe an hour left, if even that much.”
“May we see her?” asked Celestia, urgently.
“Doctor, Twilight’s friends are currently aboard the ship,” said the Captain.
“Of course they can come see her,” said Crusher.  “But… she’s not entirely coherent at the moment, I’m afraid.”
Twilight’s five friend’s rushed out of the conference room as quickly as they could.  Celestia and Luna lingered behind briefly.  “Captain Picard,” said the Sun Princess, “I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for us here.”
Picard held up a hand.  “We couldn’t have done it without your help… or without Twilight’s help.  I just wish it hadn’t come at such a price.  We lost one of our own crewmembers when the Borg attacked the Phaser Control room as well.  I suppose we should consider ourselves very lucky that this didn’t turn out far worse than it did, but…”
“…you don’t feel very lucky right now,” Luna finished for him.  “I am sorry for your loss, Captain.”  She bowed her head to Picard and turned to Celestia.  “Come, sister, let us go visit Twilight Sparkle, before it is… too late.”



Twilight’s eyes fluttered open as she heard voices.  They sounded like they were at the far end of an underwater tunnel, and she could barely make them out.  She weakly moved her eyes around and saw the blurry shapes of her friends, as well as Princess Celestia and Luna standing over her.  Even Spike was there.  The baby dragon was sitting on the back of the Sun Princess with his arms around her neck with his face half buried in her mane and his large eyes locked onto the purple unicorn.  She gave him a weak smile but was distracted when, from off to her left, she heard the voice of Dr. Crusher saying something about radiation, though she couldn’t quite make it out.  She turned her head in that direction and noticed another form lying on a bed adjacent to her own.  The shock of seeing Will Riker lying there unconscious brought her senses more sharply into focus.
“D-doctor,” she said.  Her voice was cracking and her throat felt dry.
“Yes, Twilight?” said the doctor.
“What’s… what’s wrong… with him?” said the unicorn, her eyes fluttering back to Riker’s still form.
“He took a huge dose of radiation from the Borg attack,” said Crusher.  “He rushed into that room without a moment of hesitation to get you out of there.”
Twilight felt a tear sliding down her face, despite the dreadful dryness she was experiencing otherwise.  “Will he… be… all right?”
“I believe so,” said the doctor.  Twilight’s eyes fluttered shut again, so she didn’t see the look of concern on Crusher’s face when the doctor regarded the first officer.
Twilight turned her head back to face the ceiling again.  “I’m… glad,” she said, her voice slurring as consciousness started to fade out again, though she fought to stay awake as best as she could.  As she listened, she heard one of her friends, Pinkie Pie it sounded like, asking Dr. Crusher something about her condition.  She couldn’t follow the whole conversation, but it sounded like Pinkie was trying to tell the doctor something very important.  Whatever it was, it wasn’t anything that interested Twilight all that much at the moment.  She struggled against the heavy weights that she was sure had to be pressing down on her eyelids and looked over at her mentor.  “I’m… sorry, Princess,” she said, her throat tightening and threatening to close up on her entirely at seemingly any moment.  “I tried… my best…”
Tears were freely flowing down Celestia’s face as she regarded her most faithful student.  “Twilight, your efforts have helped to save us all,” she said.  “You have nothing whatsoever to be sorry for.”
Twilight swept her eyes slowly around the room again.  All of her friends, even Princess Luna, were staring at her in silence, all eyes heavy with tears.  Except for Pinkie Pie, that is, who Twilight could still faintly hear desperately conversing with the doctor.  She tried to make out what her friend was saying, but it was all garbled at this point.  No matter.  Twilight smiled at her friends as she regarded each one of them in turn.  None of them seemed to be able to think of the right words to say, but that was okay.  They didn’t need to say anything.  Twilight knew they loved her, just as she loved each of them.  Everything seemed to be getting darker and colder now, despite the fact that the dryness she was feeling was reminiscent of being in the heat of the desert surrounding Appleloosa or Dodge Junction, except much, much worse.
“I feel…” said the unicorn.  She swallowed thickly.  “Everything feels… so far… away.”  She vaguely registered that one of the nearby medical devices that had previously been beeping very slowly was now emitting a steady unbroken tone, though Twilight had no idea what it meant, and didn’t much care.  As though it was happening to another pony, the unicorn noticed that Pinkie Pie’s face was suddenly less than an inch away from her own.  She felt the warm wetness of Pinkie’s tears as they dropped from the pink pony’s eyes down onto her own face.  Pinkie was frantically shouting something about holding on for just a little bit longer, something about how they could still save her.  She could vaguely feel her body moving as Pinkie was apparently shaking her roughly, and despite the darkness that was quickly overtaking her, she saw the rest of her friends trying to pull the distraught pink pony away from her.  At the same time, Dr. Crusher was barking out orders to nurses that the unicorn couldn’t see and hadn’t even known were there beforehand.  None of it seemed important anymore, so Twilight closed her eyes and felt herself slip away entirely.



When Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes again, she found herself standing in what could only be described as bright white light.  She could see nothing else at all, regardless of the direction she turned.  She did, however, hear hoof beats approaching from somewhere in the distance, though she couldn’t see anything.
“Hello?” she called.  “Is somepony there?”  Finally, from the direction of the hoof steps, she could see the silhouette of a pony approaching her.  From what little she could make out, the pony was white.  “Princess Celestia?”
As the pony approached, it reached up with one of its front hooves and slid back the cowl that had been covering its head.  A relatively dark flash of pink contrasted with the pure whiteness that surrounded them both otherwise.
“Nope,” said Pinkie Pie.  “It’s just me.”
“Pinkie?” said Twilight in confusion.  “What are you doing here?  For that matter, where is ‘here’ anyway?  What’s going on?  The last thing I remember was lying in the Sickbay bed and…”  Her eyes suddenly went wide.  “…oh no.  Am I… dead?”
“Not quite,” said Pinkie, “but it was a very, very close thing.  Luckily, I was able to catch you here before you… crossed over.”  She lowered her head and Twilight could see tears glistening in the bright light as they trickled down Pinkie’s face.  “I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you when we were so close to saving you, so I decided to do something about it.  That’s why I’m here.”
“But… how are you here?” said Twilight.  “Wherever this is?”
“That’ll take some explaining,” said the pink pony, raising her head again to look at her friend, smiling through her tears.  “It’s all good, though.  We’ll have plenty of time later, but right now, I need to get you back to your body.”
“Back… to my body?” asked Twilight.  “What do you mean?  I’m right here!”
“In a sense, yes,” said Pinkie.  “However, it’s only your soul that’s here.  Your body is still lying on that bed back in Sickbay.  By the time we get back, Dr. Crusher will have flushed all that nasty radiation out of your system, so you’ll hopefully feel a whole lot better than you did before you… departed.”
“But Pinkie… none of this makes any sense!” said Twilight, utterly confused.  “I mean, what is this place, really?  How did I get here?  And why are you wearing that white robe?”  She had a hundred more questions, but there seemed to be something pulling at her from behind.  Her eyes widened as Pinkie Pie moved away from her.  Or, more accurately, as she moved away from Pinkie Pie.  “Pinkie, what’s happening?!”
“Relax, Twilight,” said the distance voice of the pink earth pony.  “You’re just going home, that’s all.  It’s not your time to leave us just yet.”
Twilight’s consciousness was engulfed by the light.



When Twilight opened her eyes this time, she was once again in the… well… not exactly familiar surroundings of the Sickbay, but it was still better than… better than what?  She tried to remember where she had just been, but all she could recall was bright light.  There was the vague impression that she hadn’t been alone, but the details had already slipped away like a dream.  She shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times.
“How are you feeling?” asked Dr. Crusher.  She had a relieved smile on her face.
“Like I could drink ten whole barrels of apple cider all at once,” said the purple pony, her voice sounding incredibly raspy in her own ears.  “Or failing that just put a big trough full of water in front of me and I’ll still be happy.”  Hearing soft laughter at this, she turned her head from the doctor and saw her friends, all of whom were still gathered around her.  Their eyes were still filled with tears, but these seemed to be tears of joy rather than sorrow.  While her head was turned, Dr. Crusher pressed a hypospray against her throat.
“That should help with the thirst,” said the doctor.  “I don’t think you’re ready to ingest actual liquids right now, though, no matter how you may feel at the moment.”
“Well, you’re the doctor,” said Twilight.  “And… I do feel a bit better now, thank you.”  The doctor nodded to her and turned to Riker.  Twilight turned back to her friends once again.
“Welcome back, my most faithful student,” said Princess Celestia warmly.
Twilight blinked a few more times and said, “Back?  Did I go somewhere?  I thought I’d just dozed off for a bit.”  She raised an eyebrow at the laughter again, though she got the impression that they were laughing out of relief more so than due to what she was saying actually being all that humorous.
“You’re a very lucky pony, you know?” said a voice to her left.  She turned her head again and, with the now familiar blush creeping up her cheeks, looked into the eyes of Will Riker.  “Or, I guess I should say we’re both lucky, in this case.”
“Huh?” said Twilight.
“If it wasn’t for your pink friend there,” said Riker, “I think both of us might have been out of luck altogether.”
Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie, who was favoring her with one of the biggest grins Twilight had ever seen on the pink pony’s face.  “What’s he talking about?”  She shifted her eyes to her other friends, then back to Riker, and then to Dr. Crusher.
“Pinkie Pie gave me the means to treat the radiation sickness that was, until just a few moments ago, running rampant through your body,” said the doctor.  “Before that, I’d tried every treatment I knew, but nothing was working.  The radiation itself was also unlike anything I’d ever seen before.  Due to her brief time as a Borg, however, Pinkie was able to tell me what I needed to do to properly help you, thanks to her connection to the Collective.  They may find healing to be irrelevant, but they still have very detailed knowledge about the weapons they use.  We thought we’d lost you, even so, but… something happened.  I can’t explain it, but you just… woke up again.  Pinkie Pie says that she was able to catch you before you left, but I don’t think any of us are quite sure what she means by that.”  The doctor gave the grinning pink pony a sidelong glance.
Twilight’s eyes widened as she regarded her pink friend again.  “Uh… run that by me again?” she said in confusion.  “And what was that about you being a Borg?”
“Well,” said Pinkie, “I told you we’d have plenty of time to explain everything later, and now it’s later!”  With that, Pinkie began telling Twilight about everything that had happened down on the planet after the purple unicorn had beamed up to the Enterprise that morning, pausing briefly to let the others fill in the blanks about the battle in Canterlot and the valley, and then finishing up with how the Borg had met their defeat, and how Twilight herself had been saved from her close encounter with death.  Pinkie Pie glossed over what exactly had happened in the brief moments between when Twilight had almost died and her subsequent reawakening, however.
“Wow,” said Twilight.  After a moment, the unicorn couldn’t think of anything else to say, so she just said “Wow,” again.  She raised an eyebrow briefly at the feeling of déjà vu she got at that, but then, completely out of nowhere, she opened her mouth and let out one of the biggest yawns of her life.  Blushing in embarrassment, she grinned sheepishly and said, “Uh, sorry about that.”
“I think that means visiting hours are almost over,” said Dr. Crusher.  She began to lightly shoo the ponies out of Sickbay.  “She still needs rest, and it’s pretty late as it is, anyway, so how about we call it a night for now.  I’ll let you visit again first thing in the morning.  If you’d like to remain on the ship, we will be happy to assign you some temporary quarters nearby.”
Twilight basked in the warm and loving looks she received from her friends as they filed out of the room.  “Rest well, Twilight Sparkle,” said Princess Luna from the doorway.  “I will make sure you have only the happiest of dreams this night.”
“Get some sleep, my student,” said Celestia, being the last to leave, just behind the Princess of the Night.  “We’ll be back first thing, don’t you worry.”
“I really hope you feel better soon, Twilight,” said Spike, still riding on the back of the Sun Princess and burying the side of his face in her mane.
Finally, after everypony had left the room, Twilight sighed.  She turned her eyes back to Riker.  “I know this might not be the best time for it,” she said, “but I… I think we need to talk.  And given my recent brush with death… well, I feel like I want to do it sooner rather than later.”
Riker smiled and said, “Yeah.  I can understand that.”  He turned to look at Dr. Crusher, who was still hovering over them.  “Doctor, if you don’t mind, I believe Twilight and I could use a bit of privacy right now.”
Crusher smirked and said, “Running me out of my own Sickbay, are you?  Well, okay, Tompkins is in a different room and Nurse Ogawa is seeing to the administering of the radiation antidote to him, so there’s nobody here but the three of us at the moment.  I think I should go check on him for a little while.”  She regarded the two of them for a moment, then added, “Don’t stay up too late, though.  I wasn’t kidding when I said that you need rest.  That goes for you too, Commander.  Contact me immediately if either of you need anything.”  With that, Crusher left the room, dimming the lights and also locking the door as she left to make sure nobody else wandered in.
Twilight gazed into Riker’s eyes, strangely not wanting to immediately look away in embarrassment for once.  Still, the blush in her cheeks was almost painful in its intensity as she cleared her throat.  “So…” she said hesitantly.
“So…” echoed Riker, smiling in a friendly manner.
After a not entirely awkward bit of silence, Twilight said, “I… hear that you saved my life in the Phaser Control room.”
Riker nodded and said, “I suppose I did.  Well, I was just doing what I would have done for anyone, really.”
“Really,” said Twilight.  “And why exactly were you there, and not on the bridge?  I read quite a bit in the library you conjured up for me in the holodeck.  One of those things was standard operating procedure on the ship.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Riker, shaking his head in wry amusement.  “That sounds like terribly dry reading,”
“Be that as it may,” said the unicorn, “I learned that it is usually standard procedure for the first officer to be on the bridge of his ship while it’s in the middle of an attack from hostile forces.”
“Well,” said Riker, coughing slightly and attributing it to the residual dryness that was still affecting him, “Captain Picard allows us some leeway when it comes to such stodgy regulations.”
“I see,” said Twilight.  “And so, upon exercising that leeway, you just happened to be in the neighborhood of the Phaser Control room shortly after it was hit by the Borg attack.  Just in the right place at the right time, I guess?”
“I suppose I was,” said Riker, speaking with mock-surprise.  “Huh.”
Twilight just gazed into his eyes, letting the warmth spread from her face to the rest of her being.  “T-thank you,” she said, at last.  She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.  “I’m sorry for teasing you just now.  I wouldn’t have dared dream of such a thing even just this morning, but now I feel… a bit calmer and more at peace, as if I’ve gained a new perspective somehow.  It might have something to do with almost dying.  I guess I should stop trying to put this off though.  I should be upfront about it.”
“About what?” said Riker, with a teasing smile of his own.
“I think you know already,” said the unicorn.  “But I’ll go ahead and say it straight out.  I still don’t think I’ve fully accepted it myself yet, even now.”  She took a deep breath.  “I… have feelings for you.  A crush, as everyone else who apparently knew about it even before I did myself has called it repeatedly.  And I… I don’t quite know what to do about it.  It’s kind of driving me crazy, just a little bit.  I just feel like I needed to at least tell you or I’d explode.  But… I completely understand if you don’t feel the same way about me, really.”  She said the last in a bit of a rush, as though steeling herself for the inevitable, but also with the slightest hint of hope tinged in her voice.
“Twilight,” said Riker.  He paused to try to think of what he needed to say and how to phrase it in as painless a way as possible.  “You’re a very lovely young woman.  I have grown very fond of you over the past few days we’ve known one another.  But…”  He winced slightly at the look that came over the pony’s face as he said that word.  “…I have to be honest with you, as it would be a grave disservice to you otherwise.  I… like you, as a friend, a good friend, but unfortunately I don’t feel quite the same way about you as you do for me.”
Twilight closed her eyes and sighed deeply.  Turning herself to face the ceiling, she nodded slowly and opened her eyes again.  “I think I knew all along that that’s what you were going to say,” said Twilight.  “And… I think I needed to hear it as well.”
“Are you okay?” asked the first officer.  “Believe me when I say that it is not my intent to hurt you, but… well… I know how these things are.  Sometimes we still manage to hurt our friends even when we have the best of intentions.”
Twilight didn’t answer for a long while.  She sighed again and then turned back to face Riker.  “It does hurt and more than a little, but I think I’ll survive.  More than that however, I think I’m more relieved that you don’t… hate me, and aren’t… I don’t know… disgusted by the very idea.  You know, since you’re a human, and I’m a pony.”
Riker smiled and shook his head.  “That has nothing to do with it.  Sure, in humanity’s not too distant past, having relationships with those who are different from us was unfortunately frowned upon, even if it was just between humans of different skin colors.  And, well… given that ponies on my homeworld aren’t sapient creatures, things like that are still very much discouraged even today, and rightly so.  However, between sapient creatures such as us, I personally see no problem with such a thing, despite our differences.  In fact, I’ve heard of such things blooming between creatures that are not physically compatible with one another… by any stretch of the imagination.”
“What do you mean?” asked Twilight, not quite sure if she actually wanted to hear the answer, but still curious even so.
“Well,” said Riker.  “I once heard a rather incredible story of a relationship between a medusan and a horta.  It’s one of the damnedest things I’ve ever heard, to be honest.  Medusans are a telepathic race, and make fine navigators, but their physical appearance is such that most humanoids literally cannot even look at them without going mad and even dying.  A horta is a silicon-based life form and is essentially like a living glob of lava.  They eat rocks and move through them the same way we move through the air, using an acid secreted from their bodies which makes them harmful to touch.  And, from what I’ve been told, the two of them were madly in love.  Don’t ask me how they made their relationship work, but I hear they were together for around eighty years or so.  So, yeah, a potential relationship between a human and a pony doesn’t seem all that strange now, does it?”
“I… I guess not,” said Twilight.
“Well, it’s something to keep in mind if you happen across another human in the future who catches your fancy,” said Riker.  “As I said, Twilight, pony or not, you’re a very beautiful girl, and not just in how you look but in your personality as well.  I’m sure that one day you’ll find a young man who will make you very happy.  Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say young stallion?”
Twilight blushed and said, “I hope so.  But… I’ll never forget you, even so.”
“You never forget your first love,” said Riker, a bit wistfully.  He had a far away look in his eyes as he said this.
Twilight watched him for a bit and then said, “Tell me about her.  If you don’t mind, I mean.”  She brought her front hooves close to her chest to get as comfortable as she could on the Sickbay bed.
Riker rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling, propping his hands behind his head.  “I was still a teenager, not long in Starfleet Academy when I first met her.  She was a Russian ballet dancer, and I…”
Despite Dr. Crusher’s admonitions that they get some rest, the two of them still talked long into the night.