At the same time that Chrysalis had left for the transporter room, Twilight Sparkle was snooping around the ship. The Borg had assimilated her, true, but they had botched the job as they tried to also find a suitable changeling to take her place. She was still an alicorn, nothing had changed in that way, but she had thought that her senses had been heightened, and maybe her magic too. However, she couldn't check.
"HEY! I FOUND SOMETHING!" A scream burst through the quiet of the ship, and Twilight jerked upright.
"Pinkie?" A thought ran through her mind quickly, and she jumped up and started running, nearly running into one of the escaping changelings who had passed her door.
"Hang on, Pinkie!" Twilight kept running and soon found herself in a room that was full of broken supplies – a sort of assimilation room.
Pinkie was standing there, a look of shock on her face. With a jolt, Twilight noticed that the schematics on the screen were hers. Pinkie turned around, and jumped as she noticed Twilight standing behind her. The two ponies ran toward each other and hugged.
Pinkie looked at Twilight. "Twilight! How?"
"I was scouting." Twilight shrugged. "I got caught by Celestia."
"No, I mean, how are you still you?" Pinkie asked.
"Oh. They were more focused on conquering Equestria than assimilating one alicorn. So they botched my assimilation. They heightened my senses and stuff, but they didn't insert me into the hive mind." Twilight shrugged.
Pinkie nodded. "Ah."
"So where are the others?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, we separated." Pinkie said, and Twilight facehoofed.
"Isn’t that a really bad thing to do? The first rule of hide and seek and what not?" Twilight said, and Pinkie looked confused.
"This isn't some fillyhood game, Twilight!" Pinkie said, and Twilight rolled her eyes.
"I know. But it's the same logic." Suddenly, Twilight's eyes widened. "Somepony's coming!"
"Who?" Pinkie asked.
"Just play along!" Twilight hissed, and put her horn to Pinkie's neck. Pinkie gulped.
The door opened, and in walked Applejack and Rarity. Twilight sighed, and removed her horn from Pinkie's neck. Pinkie sighed in relief, and Applejack turned toward them.
"Pinkie? Twilight?!" Applejack gasped. "Whoo-ee! It's mighty good to see y'all. I was worried."
"So was I, darlings!" Rarity said, then her eyes widened. "Twilight? Why is there metal on your ears and horn?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "There's metal on my ears and horn?"
Pinkie and Rarity both nodded, and Applejack said, "Yep."
"Oh, yeah. I got caught by Celestia while I was scouting." Twilight shrugged. "However, there's some kind of secret thing called Unimatrix Zero… I think? It allowed me to stay, well, me." The others stared at Twilight, utterly confused. "What?"
"Twilight… you were with us… after you scouted the ship. Right?" Rarity asked. "I mean… wasn't she?"
Applejack nodded. "Yeah, you were!"
Twilight gasped. "That must've been my changeling replacement!" Suddenly, Pinkie gasped even louder than Twilight had.
"TWILIGHT! What about Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike?! Where are they?!" Pinkie was freaking out. "We can't let them be assimilated! Unimatrix-thingy or no Unimatrix-thingy!"
Applejack placed her hoof on Pinkie's shoulder. "Of course we'll find them, sugarcube. Just calm down. We've got this…" She took her hoof off of Pinkie's shoulder and placed it in the middle of the four friends. One by one, the others stacked their hooves on top of Applejack's.
"Together!" With that, the four friends lifted their hooves and ran off in search of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike.
***********
"Oh dear… oh dear…" Fluttershy looked around the room that she had hidden in. She and Spike had hidden in the same room with Twilight, but when they had finally found a suitable hiding spot, Twilight had suddenly transformed. She had been a changeling the whole time! Fluttershy had screamed, and the Twilight-changeling had flown away. Now, Fluttershy and Spike were hiding by themselves, waiting. Nopony had passed by.
"Are you sure we shouldn't go out there and look for the others?" Spike asked.
"I'm sure." Fluttershy did not want to go out there. It was too scary for her. Suddenly, she heard a faint noise behind her.
Fluttershy turned quickly, and an assimilated alicorn was staring at her. It looked a lot like Twilight, but after the changeling incident, Fluttershy didn't want to take any chances.
"Stay back!" Fluttershy whispered. "I have a loaded dragon! He will shoot fire!" Spike
stared at her with a WTT (What the Tartarus) expression on his face.
The assimilated alicorn smiled. "Fluttershy! It is you!" Turning around, she shouted, "Guys! I found Fluttershy and Spike!"
"Yay!" Pinkie Pie's voice came out of the dark hallway, and a moment later the pink Earth Pony, as well as Rarity and Applejack, came bouncing into the room. "Am I ever glad to see you, Fluttershy! And you too, Spike!"
"Pinkie… how did you find us?" Spike asked.
"Oh! It was easy. We looked on the locator maps! It shows heat signatures! Ponies' heat signatures resonate differently than Borg heat signatures, so we followed the pony and dragon heat signatures first! That's when we found you!" Pinkie smiled widely. "Twilight here had the idea to pretend she was a drone so she could enter, in case any actual drones were in here!"
Fluttershy blinked. "So that is Twilight?"
"Yep." Twilight said, and grimaced. "Once this is over, I'm going to have to ask Luna if she knows anypony that can get this metal off of us."
"I'm afraid it won't be that easy," a new voice replied. The ponies and dragon gasped, and Twilight turned around sharply to confront the intruder. As the lighting was very bad in the hallway, she could only see certain parts of the intruder at a time.
First, Twilight saw the intruder's white legs, ending in metal-plated hooves. Next, her torso, which was largely untouched except for her wings being set in a metal casing to improve her flight. Finally, Twilight noticed that the intruder's horn had been also set in a metal case, so that her magic could be improved. With a gasp, Twilight understood immediately who the intruder was.
Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria and Raiser of the Sun, was standing right in front of them.