//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: One Hell of a Ride/Enter Harmony // Story: Star Trek Online: Sacrifice - Part I // by Admiral Wyatt Stone //------------------------------// "I see you still draw breath, Starfleet, this pleases me." Legends You hear about them from others, in some cases, you see them, and in few cases, you are them. Legends are something people tell of to remember them or to entertain. They help to inspire those who hear them, to make them do something in the world, to make things better. When I succeeded in one of my missions, DJ Pon3 would tell the whole wasteland about it. My exploits inspired many to lead their own charge against the villains of the Wasteland. And while I wasn't very fond of the name "Light Bringer", it was something that brought hope to the people of the Equestrian Wasteland. And I wanted to bring hope to the races of the Milky Way Galaxy, and with my newfound capabilities, I had high hopes for that. But it seems the universe wants to test me once more before I go saving the day... --------- We arrived within the Laurentian System in mere seconds, the light of the sun hitting my fur upon the portal closing. The Laurentian System was a small place, a single planet with a starbase in orbit along with a destroyed moon. There was also a nebula around the area, adding more beauty to the system we were in. Near the starbase were a few ships, they were too far away for me to make out, but one of them was an Yorktown class, or a modified version of it. We'd have to get closer to see the details on the hull. Lt. Traz spoke up as we neared the starbase. "There's the Laurentian outpost, the E.A.S. Harmony is docked here. It should only be a few minutes until we dock." "Great." I replied back. From what I heard, the E.A.S. Harmony was piloted by the Ministry Mares, more specifically, their counterparts from another reality where Equestria didn't go through and world-ending war, and strived to unite the many species of Equus together. I even heard that Twilight made a School of Friendship recently six of the students appearing to be her own star pupils. Looking to Traz, I asked, "Twilight Sparkle is on that ship, right?" "You are right, I also heard six of her students from her School of Friendship are visiting aboard the ship on a tour across the Beta Quadrant, so you'll have quite a lot of friends to meet before y-" The helmsman stopped as he heard a beep from his console and tapped his console. I tried to ask him what was wrong, but what appeared in front of us was enough to tell me. "Brace yourself, Littlepip, we're under attack!" Traz said as a small 23rd Century Bird of Prey appeared out of warp. This was one of J'ula's warriors, the ship had a strange design like J'ula's ship, it had large, organic looking wings that drooped downward from the ship, with a short neck holding the bridge, a very ugly little beast, it was. The vessel wasted no time in charging its weapons, two seconds later the ship fired its disruptors, the fact that the disruptors missed us on the first volley was pure luck! "Hold on!" Traz said before the shuttle jerked to the upward, the shields taking a single hit from one of the Bird of Prey's many shots. We returned fire right after, two orange Phaser beams striking the shields of the Klingon vessel, barely getting through. I started to tap the console, giving myself access to weapons as I spoke to my pilot. "You fly, I'll shoot!" Traz nodded as he focused, turning us to the left and around the ship. tapping the console, I locked weapons onto the aft side of the ship and fired twin shots, keeping the beams focused until they broke through the aft shield, hitting them right on the ass end that was the engine. As we broke away, another beep sounded on the console, checking the sensors, I noticed it was an allied ship, but it wasn't from the starbase. As I looked out the window another ship dropped out of warp, it was a Walker class, with a similar appearance to the Shenzhou, only instead of red markings they were yellow. The moment it dropped out of warp, it fired a flurry of shots at the Bird of Prey, destroying the small warship in seconds. Our shuttle barely managed to get out of the lethal range of the explosion. A rapid chirping sound from my console signaled that we were being hailed. I tapped it and heard a male voice from the comms panel. "This is Captain Na'Zev of the U.S.S. Stratus, we are here to assist you." "Perfect timing, Stratus, we would've been dead if it weren't for you!" Traz replied back before asking, "Say, could you escort us to the starbase in case any more of them show up?" Na'Zev's response was calm and immediate. "Affirmative, Shuttle 37, we'll cover you." Above my head, I could see the Stratus taking position over us, like a mother bear to her cubs. We resumed our previous course and made our way to the starbase, a few seconds after we returned on course another chirp sounded. I pressed the console to hear a familiar voice. "This is Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Starship Harmony, identify yourselves." The captain of the Harmony ordered through the console. Traz responded for us. "This is Lieutenant Traz of the Universal Alliance, we are here to transport an operative to your vessel, your Highness." The Princess on the other end responded with slight surprise. "Oh, well dock at our shuttlebay then, we weren't expecting quite an entrance." "Neither were we." I said with a chuckle as I finished with, "We'll be there in a few minutes, Shuttle 37 out." With the Stratus behind us, we flew our way to the Harmony's large shuttlebay, it looked big enough to house at least fifteen shuttles! The rest of the ship was magnificent, the hull was a dark grey color, with purple and gold markings all along the hull. The ship's name and registry read "E.A.S. Harmony, ECC-2010". The vessel had a Yorktown class saucer, stardrive, and pylons, along with Odyssey class nacelles. The Stratus broke off her escort as the large door to the shuttlebays interior opened. We saw only about six shuttles of various classes, along with several people standing near the edge of the shuttlebay, 6 of them being ponies and one being a small dragon. I assumed that was Twilight's crew. As the shuttle landed the window opened to let us out, Lt. Traz stepping out first. Grabbing the PADD out of my saddlebags with my magic, I got out of the shuttle, readying myself up to face Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The princess was the first to start introductions. "Welcome to the Harmony, I'm Twilight Sparkle, the ship's captain. These are my fellow officers and friends, Helmsmare Rainbow Dash, Chief Engineer Applejack, Science Officers Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and Nurse Fluttershy." As I was introduced to the crew, I bowed in respect to the princess before speaking. "It's an honor to serve among your crew, your Highness." Twilight was a little stunned upon my action, but started laughing. Before I could ask if I had done something wrong, she replied. "Thank you, but you don't have to do that." "My apologies." I said back as I brought myself back to my hooves. Twilight only smiled. "It's alright, I still do the same thing with the Royal Sisters back at Equus." Realizing I hadn't introduced myself as well, I started. "I'm Agent Littlepip, I was tasked with assisting you with a dangerous enemy that threatens the U.A." Rainbow Dash gave a curious look to my appearance upon hearing my name. "Say, haven't I heard about you before?" The rest of us gave her looks of confusion. She explained my story to us. "What? You haven't read the Book of Littlepip? I got myself a copy from the U.A. Central Library back on the Home Sphere. It's awesome!" Twilight, still confused, responded calmly with, "No, unfortunately I haven't. I bet it's pretty good." Rainbow handed her copy of the book over to Twilight as she replied. "Here, take my copy, you gotta see how good it is! And you," The rainbow-maned pegasus hugged me before I could permit her to. "I can't WAIT to go on adventures with you! Are your friends with you? Can I meet them?" I frowned as I answered my newest fan. "No, they're still on Equus, or my Equus, that is. I came alone with Traz here." Rainbow frowned as she heard the news, but brought back her smile as she responded. "Well, it'll still be awesome to have you with us! You know she saved the entire Equestrian Wasteland back at her home, right?" The other girls were surprised, but still a little confused. Spike walked up to me and asked, "Well, maybe you can explain your story once you're all settled in, right?" I smiled as the idea of telling stories to new friends was a nice way to get to know me, I nodded and stared to speak, but the shuttles console beeped again and Traz went to answer the hail. "Yes?" "Stratus here, we're requesting permission to guard the starbase should any hostile vessels approach." Snowdrop's voice spoke through the console. She was on the Stratus! I grinned excitedly as I trotted up to the console, Traz speaking to the pegasus on board our allied vessel. "Permission granted, Stratus. Let us know when you're ready to leave." Before he shut off the console, I tapped a hoof on it and spoke. "Snowdrop! You're on that ship?" The cute mare's voice responded happily. "Yes, I told you the ship's bridge would need a good engineer or two." "That's amazing! Your ship is quite the fighter too!" "Indeed she is." Snowdrop replied before finishing with, "I'll see if I can stop by for a visit before we depart. Stratus out." As the comms panel shut off, I turned to see Twilight and her friends giving me quizzical looks, Traz smiling as I blushed hotly. Applejack broke the silence. "Ah take it you two have met before?" "W-we were... classmates." I replied back as my blush faded, the crew giving me odd looks before changing the subject. "Ah reckon we should get to the bridge, we have a trip to K-7 to finish." As I nodded, the doors to the turbolift opened, and six other creatures stepped out of the cylindrical space. A griffon, a stallion, a dragon, and three other creatures I didn't know of. One was of a similar stature to the griffon, only taller and with hooves for her hind legs. Another was a large, hairy being with braids in her hair, she looked sweet despite her size. The last one was a small pony-like being with bug-like wings, and green eyes, she also had a horn, which was sharper than that of a unicorn. As the six creatures arrived at our meeting spot, the stallion spoke up. "I understand we were supposed to stay on the bridge, Professor, but Silverstream here really wanted to meet your new officer." "Yeah, and she's a temporal agent! You know, like the ones that our Professors helped out in their earlier missions!" The flying creature whose name was Silverstream said before giving me a gleeful look. "Yeah, and nothing was going to stop her, not even me." The griffon said as he looked to me. "Well, she wasn't what I was expecting." The dragon said dourly. "Now now, Smolder, is that how you treat a new friend?" The bug-like pony scolded the dragon. "Yona likes new friend!" The big creature called Yona said excitedly. I stood stunned for a moment before politely saying, "Whoa, hold on. May I ask who you all are?" "Oh yes, my name is Ocellus. This is Yona, Smolder, Sandbar, Silverstream, and Gallus." The bugpony named Ocellus said as she pointed to each of her friends. My confusion still visible on my face. "Um, Ocellus, I think you're the first of your kind she's seen, why not explain to her?" I heard Rainbow Dash whisper to her student as the young creature beamed happily. "Oh, I'd love to! I'm a changeling, I can use magic to change into different things." She said before a wave of green energy shot up around her, before turning her into a perfect copy of me. "See?" She said in my voice, eliciting a gasp from me as I replied. "That's pretty cool! And you?" I looked to the large being called Yona. "Yona is a Yak, Yaks strong, but don't use magic." The adorable Yak said proudly. "Oh, I'm a Hippogriff! We used to live in the water as Seaponies, but after the defeat of the Storm King, we could come in and out as we please!" Silverstream explained excitedly to me. I couldn't help but chuckle at how adorable she sounded. "That's pretty interesting. My name's Littlepip, formerly pipbuck technician apprentice turned Wasteland Savior turned Temporal Engineer." I said as I stopped to catch my breath, that was a mouthful. Smolder gave a curious look as she asked, "Wasteland? What happened to your home?" I took a deep breath as I answered. "I'd love to explain right now, but maybe when we get to the bridge I could explai-" I was cut off as the Red Alert klaxon sounded throughout the shuttlebay, all of us standing with heavy concern. Twilight tapped her combadge and spoke to it. "Report!" "We've got a fleet of hostiles approaching! They have a similar signal that that one ship had!" A male voice said through the badge. "Get us a visual!" Twilight ordered. As a viewscreen appeared out of the ceiling of the shuttlebay, a large Klingon warship warped in front of the starbase, then another, and another.... By the time they were done warping in, there were over forty ships around the starbase! This place wouldn't last a minute the moment they started firing! The sight of J'ula's fleet held me still, letting me only mutter one phrase to myself. "Oh, Luna fuck me with the moon!"