STAR TREK: PHOENIX
S01E09
“Confessions of an FTL Pony”
Part Two
As I appeared on a transporter pad, I took in my surroundings. Plain metal in shades of purple and blue lined every surface, stark and without the slightest bit of comfort. There were a few consoles on the walls, with keys indistinguishable from this distance. There was a single station, much like in a Federation transporter room, crewed by yet another dour-looking Jem’Hadar soldier.
Before I could take two steps, the First pressed his weapon against the back of my skull. “Move.”
“Okay, I’m cooperating, I’m cooperating,” I replied as I trotted off the transporter pad. After walking on grass, stone, and wooden flooring for years, the metal floor hurt my hooves. It was uncomfortable, cold, and left me shivering. It made me wish I’d bothered to make a few wrappings for my hooves.
They marched me through corridor after corridor, all maze-like with no distinct pattern to it. Regardless I did my best to map it out in my head. First rule of escaping a dangerous place: memorize every last scrap of information they give you. Eventually we reached an area chock full of prison cells, though their force fields were all turned off. The First signaled to one of the others to open the nearest cell, then he quickly shoved me inside. “Remove your clothing,” he barked.
“Excuse you?” I replied, shocked at the suggestion. “These are the only clothes I have! Do you know how taboo nudity is on my world?!”
Snatching up my mane in one hand, he dragged me forward and shoved his disrupter under my chin, tapping at its settings till it thrummed at maximum. “You are little more than a beast. You do not deserve clothing.”
I swallowed, then tried to relax my body despite the pain he’d just caused me. “Okay! You’re the boss. I got it.” I followed his command and tossed off the clothing, feeling more than a little weird.
“Good.” He picked up what I tossed down and tore it apart, piece by piece, smiling at my expression of dismay. Then he thumbed his disruptor’s settings down and fired, disintegrating the scraps. “You will stay until the Vorta calls for you,” he said as he stepped outside and switched on the forcefield.
I took a brief look around my cell, but there was literally nothing to see. No bed, no chair, not even a toilet. “Lovely accommodations you have here,” I groused. “Any chance you can have an extra pillow sent up?”
“I’ll be sure to let the staff know,” he growled back before he and his soldiers filed out, leaving me alone.
I waited for the doors to slide shut before letting out a loud snort. “Okay, Shimmer, time to figure out how the hell you’re getting out of this mess.” I began examining everything in the cell, from the single overhead light to every panel on the wall. Along the way I discovered a crude pop-out toilet of sorts and a sink hidden behind one panel, but nothing else that had any kind of access port or opening.
“Helloooo?” I called out, banging on the wall. “Any other prisoners out there?”
Silence was my only answer. “Anyone interested in a jail break? Huh?”
Again, nothing. “Well so much for that.”
So I sat down to think, opting to do so silently for once, rather than aloud as was my custom on the planet. Just in case they were listening in. So, I’m a prisoner on a Dominion ship. There’s no way this Vorta’s going to let me go, especially not if they discover I have magic. They’d probably experiment on me, tear me apart to figure out how it works. They obviously have no idea who I am though, so that gives me an advantage.
The question is, how do I use it? I spotted a pebble stuck in my hoof and tapped at it with my other hoof to dislodge it. I picked it up and tossed it at the forcefield, which briefly shimmered a bright orange for a second before flinging it right back at me, prompting me to duck. I could use some mass stunning spells. Maybe flood the place with anesthezine gas, if I can use magic to force it through the air vents. Or maybe even teleport them all into the brig.
“Or I could kill them all,” I whispered.
Then I scowled at myself. “What the hell, Sunset? You don’t know how many are on board this ship. You really want to be responsible for that many deaths when you had other choices?”
No. There was no way I’d do that unless I was forced to. As a Starfleet officer, I’d trained on how to deal with death. I knew sometimes, in the line of duty, you had no other choice but to kill, in order to survive. But it was never a first resort. Never. What’s more, the idea of killing another creature went against my very nature as a pony.
There was, of course, a much better option, I realized after a while. I could try to take a shuttlecraft. This is a big ship, way bigger than those small fighters that destroyed the Odyssey in the Gamma Quadrant. Which means they must have some kind of shuttlecraft aboard. I didn’t see any obvious signage while they escorted me here, and I had no idea if I could even interface with their computers, much less use it.
“But even if they do have shuttles,” I muttered, “How do I get there without getting shot to pieces? I’d need a map. That’d help. Or…”
A small half grin formed on my muzzle for a brief moment. “Or maybe a hostage. It seemed logical enough at first: take the Vorta hostage, force him to lead me to a shuttlecraft, then race towards Federation space with him stuffed in the cargo hold. Of course this all assumed the Jem’Hadar wouldn’t ever shoot down their Vorta leader. But what other choice did I have?
Some hours passed before First Rinak’tlan showed himself, accompanied by two other soldiers. “The Vorta will see you now,” he said as he jerked his weapon towards the door.
Like before the walk hurt my hooves, and my growling stomach didn’t help matters either. I’d become too used to regular meals again, and the lack of food left me feeling weaker than I would have otherwise.
He led me through a myriad of corridors, past dozens upon dozens of other Jem’Hadar, until we stepped into an unmarked room. Inside I could see a single bench, a small prison cell blocked by a forcefield, a long, low metallic table, and another one propped up on the wall. There was also a selection of painful looking devices hanging off a rack near the table.
There was also a figure standing there, very different from the Jem’Hadar, presumably the Vorta. He looked almost human, with blue eyes and short cropped brown hair. Only his ears betrayed his true nature, long and curved like twin bananas, lined with a dozen or more ridges, running from his chin all the way up to his temple.
He looked down upon me with a smug grin as I approached. “Ah, the Starfleet officer,” he said in a voice that oozed smarm. “Please, sit.” He gestured to the floor in front of him. “And don’t mind the First. He’s simply doing his duty.”
The First, who’d taken up a guard position by the door, nodded at that. “Obedience brings victory,” he said, like he was quoting a catch phrase from one of those cheesy self-help holonovels.
“And victory is life,” the Vorta finished, his eyes still trained on me. “So it is. Now please, do sit down.”
Sighing, I took a seat on the floor, allowing him to loom over me. It was a little intimidating, almost infantilizing, which was precisely what he wanted, of course. “Thank you for your hospitality,” I said, only just managing to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
He smiled as if I’d paid him a genuine compliment. “Naturally. All guests of the Dominion deserve courtesy. Oh, but where are my manners? I am Yukarin, the Vorta in command of this ship.” He extended a hand.
I took it with my forehooves and shook it. “Lieutenant Sunset Shimmer, Starfleet.”
“Oh yes. This much I do know,” Yukarin replied. “As I understand it, you were stranded on this planet. I would love to know why that is.”
I considered that, then shrugged, since I saw no reason that information would hurt. “My ship battled a Klingon Bird of Prey here a few years ago. In the aftermath of the battle I was left behind on the planet by mistake.”
“Strange,” Yukarin replied, eying me suspiciously. “You were found with no uniform. No communicator. And, pardon me for assumptions but, you don’t appear to have a means to manipulate tools. And yet according to my Jem’Hadar, you constructed a solid shelter stocked with food, tools, and equipment, primitive thought it all was. What’s more, you build a cruite subspace radio and a separate receiver. Very strange indeed.”
I gave him my best smug grin in return. “Like I said, I’m a Starfleet officer. An engineer.”
“Ah, I see,” Yukarin replied with a light chuckle. “Of course. The famed engineers that can transform rocks into replicators.” Then he frowned, his gaze turning cold. “But that explains nothing. Why were you really on that planet?”
Oh joy. Here we go. I kept up my false smile. “I was stranded. It was an accident.”
“An accident, you say. I see. But, tell me,” he replied, his voice heating up with anger. “Why were you on the planet in the first place, if your ship was fighting Klingons in orbit?”
I took a few moments to respond, carefully choosing my words in an effort to twist the truth. “The Klingons had someone on the surface who planned to fire a solar probe at the Veridian star. I stopped him.”
Yukarian shook his head. “No. No, I don’t think so. If that had been the case, you would’ve remained where we found your transmitter. But you didn’t. The place was picked clean, as if it had been scavenged by Starfleet. So, I ask again: why were you still on the planet?”
My smile shifted into a strained grimace. All I could do now was twist the facts a second time and hope it didn’t lead me into a trap. “Ah, well, see, that’s where I was originally. But when my ship tried to beam me up, there was a malfunction, and I was sent back to the planet… without my uniform or communicator. And I didn’t know where the launch site was relative to my location. It took me forever to find it again.”
Yukarian gave me a flat look. “Please do not insult my intelligence. What you just said is ridiculous, and we both know it.”
“Well, what’s the reason you’re hanging around the planet, then?” I shot back, hoping to catch him off-guard. “The Veridian system is way off the beaten track for anyone, much less a species from the Gamma Quadrant.”
“Precisely.” He considered me for a moment, then continued, “You see, the Dominion has a use for planets like this. You may have noticed the abundance of resources on the surface of Veridian III. And Verdian IV, meanwhile, provides a perfect source of labor to harvest those resources, which would make this system a perfect supply base. Off the beaten track, so to speak, meaning no Federation ship would ever have a reason to come looking. Or at least, that was the idea.”
My blood pressure jumped at his last words. “You can’t possibly think I’m a spy sent to investigate.”
“Oh, but you see my dear,” he replied with a toothy grin, “that’s exactly what I think you are. I think you were dropped off here, with a base manufactured for you, so that you could appear to be in need. Then you would simply wait around till you spotted our ship, whereupon you would pretend to be a stranded officer.”
Worry mixed with fear trickled down my spine. The longer this went on, the more likely it was he might have me executed. I’d have to enact my hostage plan after all. But how to do it? While my mind raced to cobble together a plan, I tried to keep him distracted for as long as I could. “Well, isn’t that a little silly, though? I mean, why not leave me some real tools? Even a simple standard toolkit.”
Yukarian exchanged a look with Rinak’tlan, who shook his head. “Yes, it did concern me when we found no evidence of any advanced technology save for what you put into your radio. But the Federation is well known for being able to concoct a good ruse, when it needs to. Such as when you investigate primitive planets.”
“Or,” I countered, “I’m telling the truth, I really was stranded there, and I had no idea you were around until you responded to my distress signal.”
Yukarian chortled, shaking his head slowly. “Oh, please. How do you expect me to believe that when you would need to use your mouth just to pick up a spanner?”
Behind my poker face, I felt the same kind of anticipation I felt when I knew I was only a few moves away from beating Mother at 3D chess. “Like I told your First. Magic.”
He snorted, gave me a look of sheer disbelief, then laughed in my face. “I cannot believe you just tried that. I’ll give you points for amusing me. But, well, I think I’ve had enough of this.” Rolling his eyes, he turned to Rinak’tlan. “First, would you please do us all a favor and exe–
“Wait! Wait, please, Mr. Yukarin, sir,” I said, stretching out a plaintive hoof. “I can prove it.”
He gave me a harsh glare for a moment, then it softened. He gestured for me to go ahead. “Very well. Let’s see this… magic of yours.”
I smirked. “Okay. Here goes.” I lit up my horn, causing Yukarin to jump back and Rinak’tlan to tighten his grip on his disruptor. But I made no threatening moves. Instead I picked up a single loose Dominion-style PADD off the table, and proceeded to change its color a few times, just like I had once upon a time for Mother. “You see? Magic.”
“What a fascinating display!” Yukarin gasped, completely in awe. “I take it this is how you manipulated tools, then. Telekinesis.”
“Yup,” I said, carefully inching across the room, one step at a time, very slowly, slow enough the First didn’t notice. “It’s pretty handy, you might say.”
“Hmm. I suppose I would at that,” Yukarin admitted, eyes locked on the floating PADD as it shifted from a sludge brown to chartreuse. “Tell me, can this magic of yours do anything else?”
A wide smile of triumph spread on my face as I took my final step, placing Yukarin squarely between myself and Rinak’tlan. “You bet it can. Watch this!” I dropped the PADD and immediately switched my focus to Yukarin’s throat, dragging him over to me and propping him up like a shield. At the same time I ripped the disruptor out of Rinak’tlan’s hands and placed its barrel squarely against Yukarin’s temple.
To his credit, Rinak’tlan didn’t waste time gaping at his hands, and instead reached for a small pistol at his belt. “Ah-ah-ah!” I taunted, pointedly focusing my field around the trigger of the disruptor. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, unless you want your precious Vorta’s brains scattered across the room.”
“W-well, it seems you have me at a disadvantage!” Yukarin gasped breathily around the hold I had on his throat. “Do as she says, First. Keep your weapon away.”
Rinak’tlan sneered, but did as commanded. “As you wish.”
“Now, here’s what we’re going to do,” I said, glaring at Rinak’tlan. “You’re going to get out of our way while I take your Vorta with me. Then you’re going to stay here, and you’ll order every Jem’Hadar on this ship to leave me alone. Understood?”
“Do it,” hissed Yukarin.
Barking a single, solitary laugh, Rinak’tlan moved to stand in one far corner of the room, crossing his arms. “Very well.” Tapping a single button on his arm, he sent out the order.
Grinning, I took a moment to strip him of his other weapons, and kept them all pointing at Yukarin while we headed out the door. I found myself moving past many Jem’Hadar, all of whom kept their weapons down, their eyes firmly locked on me with matching expressions of disgust and hatred.
Eventually we moved into an empty corridor. “Alright, Yukarin,” I said as soon as I was certain none would overhear. “Where’s the shuttlebay?”
“F-four decks down, section forty-seven,” he grunted. “Surely you don’t expect you’ll get very far with a puny shuttlecraft.”
“Good thing I’m bringing you along then,” I replied, searching my memory for the nearest turbolift, then making a bead for it.
Yukarin choked out a laugh. “Maybe you are telling the truth then. Because any Starfleet spy would surely know that the Jem’Hadar won’t hesitate to blow you into space dust whether I’m on board or not.”
I directed the turbolift to take us down and hesitated before responding, uncertain if he was telling the truth. I didn’t know the command structure of the Dominion. He could be bluffing. So I decided to roll with it. “I know that. I’m not stupid.”
“No. You’re not. That much is clear.” Yukarin chuckled dryly. “You are far more valuable than you first appeared. Tell me, how did you come by these abilities of yours? Are they natural? Genetic engineering?”
“Natural, plus a lot of training,” I answered, though I immediately regretted giving him any information about myself he could use.
“Interesting. So, every member of your species must be capable of these abilities then,” Yukarin concluded. When I said nothing in response, he laughed the loudest yet. “I see I’m right. Now I wonder where you’re from. I’m sure the Founders would be most pleased to learn of it. Imagine what the Jem’Hadar could do if we added telekinesis to their list of capabilities?”
The very thought chilled me to the core.
“I don't know where my home is,” I said as the turbolift came to a stop. I pulled him forward the moment the doors opened and turned to the right, passing by dozens more Jem’Hadar.
“Oh come now, Miss Shimmer,” he laughed as I dragged him forward, his feet bouncing against the deck. “And to think we’d had such a rapport going. I suppose I won’t get any more information from you, hmm?”
“Not really,” I murmured as I focused on watching my surroundings.
“A shame.” I heard more than saw Yukarin fumble for something, and then my blood ran cold when I heard his voice echo throughout the entire ship. “This is the Vorta! Please stop sitting around and recapture that officer! Stun me if you have to, but take her alive!”
My eyes widened as every Jem’Hadar around me leveled their disruptors at once. I grumbled a curse under my breath as I saw the disruptors hum as their owners prepared to pull the trigger.
Then they fired, and everything happened at once.
I hurled Yukarin at the closest Jem’Hadar, sending his shot wide as he and the Vorta went sprawling onto the deck. Summoning up a shield of protection, I then brought forward the disruptor rifle and pistol I’d stolen from the First and tabbed their settings down to what I desperately hoped was stun. As disruptor bolts flew through the air at me, they washed over my shield, leaving me unharmed.
Then it was my turn to fire back. I unleashed shot after shot at every Jem’Hadar I saw. To my horror, the stun setting seemed to do almost nothing to them. They staggered back, stumbled a bit, then recovered and resumed firing as if nothing had happened to them at all. Unwilling to jack up the settings further, I opted to hold onto the weapons as a distraction. I closed my eyes and summoned up a blinding burst of light, enough to leave them all clutching at their eyes long enough for me to fly far down the corridor.
These corridors, while wide, weren’t very tall, and I found as I flew forward the Jem’Hadar up ahead started hurling themselves in my way, trying to block me. It took everything I had and then some to dodge around them each time they did this. Then one of them clipped the top of my left wing with the barest edge of a disruptor blast. It wasn’t enough to knock me out, but it froze up my wing, sending me careening out of control.
Fortunately I was able to turn just enough to let my left side absorb most of the impact with the wall instead of my muzzle. I let my momentum slide me down the wall until I stumbled down onto my hooves, then took off at a gallop. As I passed by an intersection I saw just ahead a large pair of double doors, labeled “Shuttlebay.” Grinning, I continued to use my magic to keep their shots off me and blast light every so often.
The shuttlebay was massive. It made the main shuttle bay on the Enterprise seem almost quaint. The ceiling had to be at least thirty meters high off the ground, providing room for three whole floors worth of shuttlecraft lining the walls in bays. There was a gantry up at the top, providing control access. There were also two shuttles sitting around waiting to be used. Like the rest of Dominion spacecraft design, it was a sleek affair, twin nacelles positioned at an angle like pincers while two prongs laden with weapons stuck out the front.
The shuttlebay doors, naturally, were closed. That wasn’t going to be a problem. I’d shoot my way out if I had to. There were a ton of Jem’Hadar patrolling, watching out for me. One of them spotted me and shouted, causing the whole lot of them to race for me shouting and screaming. Disruptor fire screamed my way. Out of desperation I used a modified on the fly version of a fireworks spell to create various points of exploding brilliance, blinding them all. Then I made a break for the nearest shuttle and hopped aboard, locking the door. To my luck, it was uncrewed.
I sat down at the controls, trying to puzzle them out. After a few moments I made sense of them and started warming up the ship, getting it ready for a swift takeoff.
Then I heard a peculiar sound, similar to a transporter chime. I spun around immediately, my eyes bulging out of their sockets when I saw a Jem’Hadar soldier decloak as if he had a personal cloaking device! Before I could even process what I had just seen, much less summon a proper shield, he lunged forward and lashed out at my horn with a swift strike.
Stars filled my eyes as my magic concentration fizzled, the shield going out. I cried out in pain and tried to summon more magic, only to have the butt of his disruptor rifle slam into the back of my head.
I fell to the floor, groaning, unable to resist further. I had just enough time to mutter a curse under my breath as he fired a disruptor blast into my back, knocking me unconscious.
“Hold on a moment,” Nekamura interrupted, holding up a hand. “You were aware of what a Jem’Hadar is, but you weren’t aware they could shroud?”
“No,” I answered simply. “I only knew about the Jem’Hadar and the Vorta because they were involved with the destruction of the Odyssey. I didn’t read up on them in detail, or if I did, I didn’t recall enough detail about them to realize they had this shroud ability.”
“They didn’t permanently damage your horn, did they?” Twilight asked, her voice rising with panic.
“No, sis, I’m fine. It wasn’t even that bad a hit. It was the follow up that left me too dazed to fight back before he stunned me.”
Amina reached out to grip my shoulder reassuringly. “I’m glad you’re alright now, honey. I can’t tell you how furious I am for the way they roughed you up.”
I winced at that. “Mom, you haven’t heard the worst of it yet.”
“It does sound as if you picked up some good intelligence,” Nechayev said. She leveled a glare at me. “But we’ll have to verify it. If the Dominion plans to use the Veridian system as a forward outpost, we can’t let them. We’ll need to do something about it. Pardon me for a moment.”
As Nechayev got up and walked out, Brand and Nakamura opted to follow. “Might as well take a brief break here,” said Nakamura.
After taking a moment to use the facilities, I sat back down with my family, who all gave me worried looks, apart from T’Lona, who merely cocked her head. “Sunset,” she said. “I am growing concerned about your mental health, considering what you’ve gone through.”
“...I’m going to see Belle, Mother,” I replied. “I was already planning on it.”
“That’s not what she means, sweetie,” Amina said. She held out a hand expectantly, and after a moment I placed my hoof in it. She then rubbed the top of it with her other hand. “You were alone for two years. And then after that, unless I miss my guess… you didn’t exactly have a lot of fun on that Dominion ship.”
I pulled away and pointedly scooted my chair further away. “...no. No, I didn’t.”
The mix of pain and understanding was written all over Amina’s face. “Are you going to be able to talk about it?”
“I have to, don’t I?” I replied, my tone turning snide. “It’s not like Admiral Nechayev’ll let me do anything else.”
Amina scowled at that. “You’re not wrong. But it isn’t right.”
“It is not,” T’Lona agreed. “However, it is well within the Admiral’s purview as our superior officer. Still, I will be filing a protest after this briefing is over.”
“So will I,” Amina seconded. “This is outrageous.”
“And what, precisely, is so outrageous, Commander Riviera?” Nechayev said as she entered the room, followed by Nakamura and Brand.
Amina stiffened to attention in a way I’d never seen her be forced to do before. It hurt my soul to watch. “Nothing at all, ma’am,” she said.
Nechayev glared at her in suspicion for a moment, then turned back to me. “Continue your briefing, Shimmer. Spare no details.”
“Ma’am, with respect, what comes next is very hard for me to–”
“Don’t make me repeat myself, Shimmer,” Nechayev interrupted. “We need as much intelligence as possible.”
Gritting my teeth, I replied, “Yes ma’am. So, when I woke up, I was in the forcefield cell in the interrogation room…”
I reeled as consciousness slowly returned, pulsing agony beating a firm tattoo in my forehead. Groans escaped my lips as I opened my eyes, wincing at the bright lights. I fell back onto my butt, my stomach twisting into knots, threatening to spill its contents.
“Well, well, well,” said an all too familiar smarmy voice. “Look who’s finally awake.”
I glanced up at the sound to see Yukarin leering at me from behind the forcefield, with several Jem’Hadar, including the First, standing guard nearby. But now they were carrying bladed weapons instead of disruptors. “Oh. Shit.”
He blinked at that, his face blank for a moment. Then he said, “Well, now that you’re no longer gallivanting about my ship, I think I have a few questions for you. And this time, you’re going to answer them.”
I sneered at him and tried to light up my horn to bombard the forcefield. But nothing happened. It fizzled out with a shower of useless sparks. “What the hell?” I whispered.
“Oh, yes, we’ve taken the liberty of instituting a dampening field to block those abilities of yours.” He tittered, a nasty sounding high-pitched laugh that forced my ears to flatten. “I’m afraid you won’t be blinding anyone or ripping disruptors out of our hands.”
I almost spoke up, to say I could do a lot more than that, but the sight of those bladed weapons in the guards’ hands stayed my tongue. “You can’t keep me in here forever,” I said.
He laughed again. “Of course not. While you were unconscious, I spoke to the Founders. It seems that they’re aware of both you and your sister, Twilight Sparkle. They know of your abilities. And they’re very interested in examining you in person, so they can figure out how you do it. We’re on our way to Dominion-controlled territory as we speak. In the meantime, however, they also want me to do something else.”
The sheer matter-of-factness in his voice was like a bucketful of cold water poured all over me, drenching me in fear. “What’re you going to do with me?”
He gave me a flat look. “What do you think, hmm?” He nudged his head towards the interrogation impliments, aka torture devices. “I’ve been asked to interrogate you, see if there isn’t anything else you’re hiding. Like the location of your home planet!”
“If… if you know about my sister and me,” I answered, my voice quaking, “then you know we have no idea where our home planet is.”
“So you say,” he shrugged. “We’ll find out. First, if you would please?”
As the First approached the controls, I tensed my muscles, preparing to run for it. I scanned every Jem’Hadar swifty, taking in their positions. Thus the instant he lowered the forcefield, I galloped forward, dancing between them for the door.
I made it past two of them before the butt of a weapon smashed into me, hitting me right on the brow. I collapsed like a sack of potatoes, screeching as the pain coursed through my head like a herd of tap dancing elephants.
As a rough, leathery hand wrapped itself around me to lift me up, Yukarin came over to shake his head at me. “Tsk, tsk, tsk Miss Shimmer. I do hope you realize we’re not that stupid.”
The Jem’Hadar dumped me unceremoniously onto the cold interrogation table and strapped my legs down.
“Now,” Yukarin said as he approached me, with that same smug, smarmy grin plastered all over his face. He even had the gall to stroke my hair, making me wish I could bite his hand off. “Let’s try this again, shall we? Why were you on Veridian III?”
I clamped my jaw shut, refusing to say a word. Inwardly I continued to quake. I was wildly out of practice with the mental defenses Mother had taught me, and without my magic I had no physical defense either, meaning I was hopeless to defend myself.
After a few moments, Yukarin sighed. “I see you’re going to make this difficult. Please do understand that while the Founders need you alive, they did not say they needed you unharmed. First, if you would? Just a poke should do for now.”
Rinak’tlan’s teeth showed in a malicious grin as he raised his bladed weapon, which resembled a sickle of some sort, like the bottom of an ice skate strapped to a long rod. I squirmed against the restraints as my base equine instincts sprang into ‘flight mode.’ The cold metal pressed against my fur and I shuddered, bracing for the worst, but then he spun the weapon around and rammed the grip end into my side hard.
“Gaah!” I groaned, the pain reverberating throughout my middle. He’d avoided my ribs, managing to drive right between them. If he’d done the same with the bladed edge, it would’ve run me right through.
“I’ll ask again,” Yukarin said. “What were you doing on that planet?”
“I told you,” I hissed back, one eye squeezed shut as I tried to clamp down on the pain. “I was trapped down there after the battle with the Klingon ship.” Then I braced myself for the next blow.
After a moment, when it didn’t come, I looked up at Yukarin, who considered me. “You were reported deceased. As far as Starfleet is concerned, you perished in the battle. Except… there’s something still bothering me about that.” His hand abruptly shot forward to yank at my mane, pulling me up to look him in the face. “You were aboard the Enterprise stardrive, trapped in its engine room, with a warp core that exploded in your face. And yet somehow, here you are. Why?”
“I…” Trying to talk spurred me into a coughing fit. When it faded, I responded in a quiet, hesitant voice, “I don’t know. I don’t. I thought I was going to die. I was ready to die. And then I didn’t.”
He stared at me, shook his head, then nodded to the First. “Again.”
“No, I’m telling the–fwaaah!” I cried out, tears falling from my eyes as the First jabbed me twice this time, in rapid succession. Like before he skillfully avoided my ribs, suggesting he was doing it on purpose.
“How did you survive?!”
“I told you,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “I don’t know!”
Then the First hit me again. And again. And again, and again and again… by the time it was over, I’d been peppered with bruises, cuts, and who knows what else. They gave me minimal treatment for my injuries, enough to make sure I wouldn’t die or be crippled, then threw me back in the cell, with a promise of more to come.
I’m not sure how long I laid there, or how many of my tears were driven by physical pain or sheer humiliation. I was furious, not just with them, but with myself, for being so weak, for getting captured like this. For being tortured.
I didn’t tell them anything, in the end. I tried to tally the number of blows I got versus the number of times I said “I don’t know,” but I lost count every time the pain became so excruciating I stopped feeling much of anything at all except hopeless tears.
They let me rest for a while before subjecting me to another session. And then another, and another. Each time I found myself coming closer to breaking, to shattering, to giving them everything they wanted, saying anything, anything at all just to end the pain.
Fortunately, my fury at Yukarin and the Jem’Hadar won out over my exhaustion. When I climbed to my hooves after the latest session, it was with renewed resolve. I was not going to give in. I would escape, no matter what it took, or die trying.
But I also knew what that entailed. Death, and a lot of it. I’d have to kill a lot of Jem’Hadar to escape, maybe even all of them. There was no other choice. Not if I wanted to get out of here alive. The thought sickened me. I hated even considering it, even more than I hated having to kill those beasts down on the planet.
But I had no choice. And if I failed? If I knew I couldn’t escape? I’d destroy the ship. I wasn’t going to let them capture me again.
They hadn’t bothered to feed me, probably hoping the lack of nutrition would whittle my energy and ability to resist down. But they hadn’t bothered to tie me up either. Their mistake.
So when I stood, I called upon my memories, the meditative techniques I still remembered. To center myself. To prepare myself for what I had to do. To harden my resolve, and my heart, so I didn’t hesitate when the time came.
Once readied, I decided to test the strength of this dampening field, pushing more power into my horn with each attempt. At first, it fizzled out and died, just like before. The fizzling became more impressive with each subsequent power burst, but for a while it didn’t seem to get anywhere.
And then all of a sudden, my horn flared to life, its telekinetic grip strong as ever. When I saw it, I gasped, and the magic wavered like a flickering candle, about to be snuffed out. I allowed it to fade, but as I did so, I let out a small laugh of triumph. “It’s not powerful enough,” I whispered. “They haven’t dampened all of my magic.”
Briefly I considered using my magic to unleash a bolt of sheer force, to try and overload the field emitters. But not only was that not subtle, they’d see the problem and come running long before I could finish. No, the brute force approach hadn’t worked. If I was to have any chance at all, I’d need to be sneaky.
“So how do I break the forcefield without bringing down the house on me?” I wondered as I stared at the forcefield. And then I recalled something. My transporter spell, the one I’d used on the planet. Every security sensor they had was likely tied to that force field. But they probably weren’t looking for any kind of transporter signals. Not that I knew if my magic version would register the same as a normal one.
It was risky. I had to keep the distance small. Just the other side of the forcefield would do the trick.
There was also the possibility of someone waiting right behind the corner, where I couldn’t see them. They’d have plenty of warning to raise an alarm.
But what other choice did I have?
So, I focused. I allowed the spell matrix to form, layer by layer, piece by piece, until it was all in place. Then I slowly fed more power to the spell, just enough to get me to the other side..
I heard the musical twinkle fill the air, smiling in satisfaction as I dissolved into energy and reassembled on the other side. It took agonizingly long, so much time spent, but I was whole again. I was free.
And no one was around. At least, not in the room with me. “Yes!” I whispered, pumping my hoof in the air.
I had no way of knowing how long I’d be left alone or how long I could go before an alarm was triggered, so I didn’t waste time sitting around. Instead I very carefully opened the door.
And saw a single Jem’Hadar standing guard on the other side, his mouth opening to shout as he began to raise his disruptor.
A burst of magic wrapped around his throat like a vice and slammed him back into the wall before he could utter a sound. Another twitch of my horn wrenched his hand in a very unnatural direction and ripped the disruptor away while I quickly dragged him back into the interrogation room.
I threw him down as soon as the doors closed and stood over him. “I’m sorry.”
I exited the room a few seconds later with his disruptor tucked under my wing–and the horrible sound of snapping bone seared into my memory forever.
I located the nearest control console on the wall, and after a few moments I pulled up a deck plan. At first, I focused on the shuttlebay, but then my eyes caught sight of another vital area: Engineering.
If I wanted to take over the ship, that’d be the way to do it. And I could destroy it at any time by… blowing up the warp core with me still inside.
“Now I know what humans mean when they refer to this ‘Groundhog Day,’” I muttered.
After scanning the map for a couple of minutes more, I ducked into a nearby access tube. It'd take me longer to get to Engineering, but I had at least slightly better odds of going undetected. I hoped.
Once inside I found myself wincing as I banged my horn against the ceiling a few times. I’d grown taller thanks to becoming an alicorn, and that plus the longer horn made it harder to move quickly. Still, I did my best to scurry through as swiftly as possible, because there was no way to know how long I had before an alarm was raised.
I got maybe nine tenths of the way before I heard a ship wide address: “The prisoner has escaped! She must be recaptured immediately!”
“Oh come on,” I hissed under my breath. Crawling as fast as I could, I made my way to the access hatch at the end of the tube and opened it carefully. I emerged into a room smaller than I expected, only a couple of decks high, and likely twenty or so meters wide. The twin warp cores dominated the room, with power transfer conduits sticking out of the overhead ceiling. A few raised consoles surrounded a pair of twin warp cores. Like the rest of the ship there were no chairs for the Jem’Hadar crewing the place.
There were also four Jem’Hadar inside, weapons ready. None of them were pointed my way, to my delight. They were all aimed at the single set of entry doors.
So using my wings I gently glided around to roost on an upper balcony behind them. Then I brought out my disruptor, jacked it up to its maximum setting, then took aim. A piercing shriek broke through the relative silence as a flurry of disruptor bolts tore into the soldiers below. I cut down three of them immediately but the fourth managed to dodge just enough to spring around and fire back.
I leapt off the platform just in time. The electric heat sizzled its way through my wingtips as the disruptor bolt whizzed past me and tore through the deck plating. I swooped down from the balcony and kicked him in the face, then shot him in the chest while he was down.
My stomach lurched as the scent of burnt meat wafted through my nostrils, but I had no time to waste. I hopped over to the nearest console, located what looked like a lockdown command, and instituted it. Force fields rose at the doors and atop both access hatches. For good measure I used my horn to weld them and the doors all shut.
The controls were surprisingly simple and clear in their layout, almost like it was designed for a child. So I quickly set about changing our destination. The ship shook like crazy as we dropped out of warp. I hurried to pick out Federation space from their navigational records, but the map was so confusing I finally just had to pick a direction and hope I’d aimed correctly. Then I put us right back at maximum warp and pushed it to the redline.
Right afterwards, I heard the first bit of banging and blasting at the forcefields on the doors. I flipped through as many controls menus as I could, sealing bulkheads, disabling internal systems, and everything in-between.
“Miss Shimmer,” came a sudden voice echoing throughout engineering. “I don’t know how you escaped your cell, but you can’t possibly expect to take over the entire ship.”
I found a communications button and hit it while I continued to work on messing things up for the ship. “Really?” I grunted. “‘Cause from where I’m standing, I’m doing a pretty good job.”
“The only reason I have not ordered the atmosphere vented from Engineering is the Founder’s desire to understand your abilities. Please. Save us the trouble of having to recapture you. You will experience far less pain if you simply cooperate.”
I bristled, struggling to keep my temper in check. “I tried that. You tortured me anyway. So let me be frank, jerk: you try to break in here or vent the atmosphere, I’ll blow up the ship.”
“Oh come now,” Yukarin replied, smug as ever. “Surely someone who survived two years marooned on an uninhabited planet wouldn’t be so cavalier with their life. I’m sure you want to live, don’t you?”
“Not if all I have to look forward to is being a lab experiment for a bunch of shapeshifters.” I looked up, trying to figure out where the security cameras were. Spotting them, I proceeded to gather up every disruptor, cranked them to max, and pointed them right at the warp cores. “You can see me, right? You know I’m not bluffing. I will blow up the ship.”
“...what are your terms?”
I returned my attention to messing with the ship. “Simple: let me take this ship to Federation space, I go free, and you get to run back to your gods empty-handed.”
“Unacceptable. You have intelligence we cannot allow the Federation to acquire.”
Snorting, I replied, “Shoulda thought of that before you blabbed it to me, idiot. That’s my offer. Take it or I'll kill us all right now.”
“...very well. You wish to destroy the ship? Go ahead. If I die, it will be in service of the Founders.”
My heart skipped several beats. I eyed the warp cores, my disruptors ready to fire. One shot is all it would take. One twitch of my magic and it’d all be over, and this time I suspected subspace wouldn’t be there to save me.
I swiftly scanned the controls one more time, searching for the option I needed. It was a mere moment’s hesitation, but it was a moment too long.
“...so, it seems it was a bluff after all. Very well. My Jem’Hadar will retake Engineering. If you surrender immediately, you might still be able to walk by the time we reach the Founders.”
“Oh shut up already,” I groaned, ending the transmission. It didn’t take long for the sound of concentrated disruptor fire to begin pounding away at the entry door, plus the two hatches.
“Come on, Sunset! Think!” Retreating back to the access tubes could work, but the ship was only so big. They’d find me eventually. I frantically paged through the console screens, looking for something else I could use. “Ah! That’s it!”
Fortunately, this ship was built to fight, not to survive, as evidenced by the near total lack of redundancies and safeties in the controls. That made it very easy to trigger a computer core purge, along with enough feedback loops to tie their internal sensors into knots. “Try to find me now, suckers.”
And not a moment too soon, because I looked up just in time to seethe forcefields around the doors fizzle out with a loud pop! A disruptor beam carved its way around the door’s outer edges. Hoping I’d done a good enough job, I grabbed all the disruptors up in my magic and with several quick concentrated shots blew out every last control console in Engineering. Then I rigged four of them to overload, tossed them next to the door, and flew up to escape through a different access hatch than the one I’d come in from. I kept one disruptor handy, just in case.
I hung around long enough to hear the explosions and screams, a grim smile gracing my muzzle. “That’s for torturing me. Bastards.”
Then I scurried out and deliberately lost myself in the maze of access tubes aboard the ship. I took an entirely circuitous route that I hoped would be hard to follow at all, but would ultimately lead me toward the bridge.
I knew time wasn’t on my side, but I also knew my body couldn’t keep this pace up forever. It’d already been at least a day and a half since I left Veridian III, and while they did finally give me some water, I hadn’t slept or eaten anything.
So eventually I settled down somewhere in the tubes near the shuttlebay, carefully set up a few runes to act as alarms, and tried to get some sleep.
A violent banging sound jolted me awake perhaps a few hours later. I sprung to my hooves and readied my disruptor. Then a Jem’Hadar face poked up out of one of the nearby tubes, a weapon in his hands. I wasted no time in blasting him in the face, then ducked down another tunnel. Shouts followed me, echoing behind me as I took a side passage, then dropped down a deck and exited the tubes altogether, into a thankfully empty corridor.
The constant exertion wore away at my muscles as I galloped a good fifty meters in a random direction, only to topple head-first into the wall when the whole ship shook like a brick building in an earthquake, the hum of the warp engines grinding to a halt.
I groaned, holding a hoof to my aching head where I felt a spot of blood. “Ugh...Why’d we fall out of warp? I gotta get to the bridge.”
I hopped back inside the tunnels and made my way towards the bridge. I needed to know what was going on, and fast, because if they’d retaken control over the ship’s navigation I was screwed. Eventually I made my way there, and very carefully cracked open the hatch, finding myself looking at the rear side of a Jem’Hadar standing at a station.
Then the ship shuddered again, repeatedly this time. “Return fire!” I heard Yukarin shout.
The ship took what had to have been a direct hit, as I could see sparks fly from consoles all over the bridge. With the entire bridge crew distracted, I flung open the hatch and jumped out.
Yukarin spotted me instantly, his face twisted up in a hideous expression of rage. “You!” He pointed at me, getting the attention of several Jem’Hadar, including Rinak’tlan. “Dampening field! Now!”
Before I could light up my horn to stop them, a Jem’Hadar slapped down on a control console. Just like in the cell, my horn fizzled out, and A forcefield sprung up at the hatch behind me. “Ah hell–urk!” I grunted as First Rinak’tlan ran forward, grabbed me up by my mane and held a large blade to my throat.
Yukarin marched forward, his mouth quirking between a victorious smile and a furious sneer. Curiously, he also wore a headset I hadn’t seen before, with a small screen held right up at his eye. “So! Congratulations, Miss Shimmer,” he snarled as the ship shuddered again. “You may succeed at killing us all yet. Not only did you render the ship nearly uncontrollable, you led us right onto Starfleet’s doorstep!” He looked over his shoulder as another alarm blared. “I said fire at that cruiser!”
“Wait, we’re… Earth is out there?” I blurted, my eyes wide with surprise.
“Yes, Earth!” Yukarin screeched. “If I had control over my ship, I would retreat, but I cannot, thanks to you. All we’ve been able to do is bring it out of warp and activate maneuvering thrusters.”
I glanced at his headset again, then refocused on him, trying to ignore the blade poking into my throat. “I don’t see how that’s my problem,” I shot back.
“Oh but it is,” he said, stumbling as the ship shuddered once more. “You see, your little sabotage routine completely disabled the helm controls. So if your Starfleet friends don’t destroy us first, there’s no way to prevent the ship from plunging into the atmosphere. And if the ship is going to crash, well...”
“What?!” I cried, fear racing through my body. “But… but…”
“But what? Starfleet is down there? Your sister is down there? I know.” He laughed in my face as the ship’s inertial dampeners began to give way, the deck tilting dangerously to port. We all had to struggle to maintain our footing. “Consider it a bit of personal revenge. Perhaps the Founders will be displeased, but I am sure they’ll understand when I explain it was better to get rid of the potential threat that you and your sister pose. So I hope you enjoy your death, Sunset Shimmer. I’ll be here, happy to watch it!”
“You… you…” I ground my teeth together, shaking with righteous fury. My horn sizzled and sparked as I built up magic, fighting to overcome the dampening field.
He shook a finger at me. “Ah-ah-ah, we’ve made the field much stronger this time. Wouldn’t want you to burn yourself out before you get home, after all.” He tapped the side of his head and pointed to the viewscreen visor he wore. “Ah, there it is now. Starfleet Headquarters. Beautiful sunny day too.” He cackled like a mad fool, then leaned in even closer. “I do hope class is in session,” he whispered, his voice dripping with raw malice. “Maybe I’ll see your sister’s face right before she burns.”
I closed my eyes and tried to look inward, to find some sense of control. His twisted words, and the images they evoked became a focal point. A dilithium crystal to channel the rage inside of me. The mere thought of these monsters hurting my family... It was all too much.
"No."
I swore I felt something snap deep inside of me, as if all of my magical circuits had been flipped on their heads at once. My mane suddenly took on an almost Celestia-like ethereal glow as every hair on my body stood on end. Arcane power boiled deep within my core. It raced through my body like lightning–no, faster than that. Faster than I had ever felt before, soaking through every fiber of my body, every inch of my consciousness. I couldn’t comprehend where this power was coming from, how I was doing this, but it was so intense and overwhelming it didn’t matter.
"No."
My eyes flicked to Yukarin, his smug smile fading as he began to back away. His mouth was moving, presumably barking orders to the First, but I couldn't hear him. I couldn't hear the other soldiers, or the bridge alarms, or anything else. Everything else seemed to fade away like so much white noise against the tidal wave coursing through me. All I could hear, all I could feel, was magic.
"No."
I closed my eyes again, but when they opened everything looked different. Like the whole universe was tinted in a crimson red. Even the glow of my horn had morphed from its usual cyan to a deep, deep red. A blood red.
“NO!”
My entire body screamed out at once, snapping the forcefield like a twig and scorching every console on the bridge. I saw the remaining Jem'Hadar begin to reach for their weapons.
“NO!”
I didn't aim my magic so much as I merely thought. My horn was literally sizzling as one red tendril after another lanced across the bridge and ripped them to shreds. Rinak'tlan tried to charge me instead, his bladed weapon ready to strike. A single flap of my wings dodged his wild swing.
A single twitch of my horn carved him up like a turkey dinner, splattering the bridge with his blood.
Spinning around I saw Yukarin frantically banging away at a console. Power channeled down to my legs and I leapt forward like a missile, tackling him to the ground. I rolled him over and stomped my front hooves down on his chest, cracking his breastbone.
"You wanted to know about my abilities? What my species is truly capable of?" I sneered as I let the power flow through me even more, out to the very tips of my wings. In the slight reflection of Yukarin's headset I saw my entire body glowing red, like an otherworldly demon. "Threaten their families and you'll find out."
He was literal ash before he could open his mouth to scream.
"The rest you all know," I finished, slumping back in my chair. I let out a deep sigh. "I killed them all, sliced apart the ship, and teleported out just before impact.”
Everyone stared at me in awe. Even Nechayev seemed sympathetic for once. “I’m sorry you were forced to make that decision,” she said. “It is never easy to take a life, even if that life belongs to the enemy.”
Both Amina and T’Lona laid hands on my shoulders. “Oh honey…” Amina whispered.
T’Lona looked up at Admiral Nechayev, fixing her with a cold stare. “If I may ask, Admiral, will you still be insisting on testing Sunset?”
Before Nechayev could respond, the PADD she carried bleeped insistently at her. She frowned, picked it up, and read it. As her eyes scanned the message, I saw her shoulders slump, her posture weaken. “It… seems the Grissom, which was near the Veridian system, has verified your claim,” she said, looking back up at me and dropping the PADD to the table with a clatter. “There were Dominion ships attempting to set up a base on Veridian IV. They fled on sight. The Grissom also took detailed scans of Veridian III… and found your survival base.”
“Which means, ma’am?” I asked.
Nechayev pressed her lips together and sighed. “It means I owe you an apology, Commander. You will have to forgive me. A life in Intelligence tends to leave one… distrusting of others."
“I did say I spoke the truth, ma’am,” I replied, feeling a palpable sense of relief take hold.
Nakamura nodded. “As I thought you had, no matter how outrageous some of it seemed. It was too ridiculous to be anything but the truth.”
“Agreed,” Brand seconded.
Nechayev sat up in her chair and fixed me with a stern look. “That said, I would still like you to undergo further examination. Starfleet Medical needs proper records of your health, and I want to be sure you didn’t suffer any permanent harm, physiological or psychological. Whichever physician you are most comfortable with will do.”
I glanced at my parents, who both nodded. “I think I won’t have a problem following that order,” I said with a light laugh.
Nechayev’s mouth quirked up. “Good. Dismissed.”
I wasted no time making my way back to the infirmary, with my family in tow. When we reached it, Doctor May was all too happy to perform some more detailed scans. “I’ll want you to stay overnight for observation,” she said as she queued up the first series of scans on the display board.. “Don’t you worry, I’ll be takin’ good care of you.”
Doctor May graciously let my family stay with me, and we spent most of the afternoon chatting away while the doctor ran me through a full battery of tests. After we shared a brief meal May had no choice but to shoo the others back home before leaving me to rest for the night. I had waited two years to get back home. I could do one more night alone.
The next morning I walked out of the medical center with a pep in my step, a strict regimen of nutrient supplements and other medications to follow for the next two weeks, and a good amount of medical leave for me and my family to look forward to.
Later that evening saw me returning to my parent’s home in Vancouver.
...my parents home. I should’ve been thinking my home, but I wasn’t. Like I had no claim to it anymore. It’s supposed to be, but… is it really? After all this time, after two years spent dead... can I really call it mine?
I don’t know anymore.
So it was little wonder that as I approached the house, I found myself shaking. Twilight, who’d met me at the train station, gave me a confused look. “Sunset? You okay?”
I smacked my lips together, my mouth drying up. Nervous laughter bubbled up in my chest, spilling forth in small chuckles. “I… I don’t… everything’s so weird now.” My ears flattened and I cringed as a shuttle flew overhead.
Twilight’s confused look shifted into an irritated glare. “Sunset. I know you’ve been gone a while, but come on.”
“Wha?” I looked at her, then my cheeks warmed, and my laughter turned sheepish. “R-right, right. Sorry. Just… in a way, it feels like it’s my first time here all over again. Like it’s not my home, but a stranger’s. I’ve been gone for so long, I…” Without thinking about it, I rushed forward and wrapped my forelegs around Twilight in a strong hug, just like I used to all the time. “I missed you a lot sis.”
To my shock she groaned and pushed me away. “Ugh. I missed you too, but come on. We’re in public. Stop acting like a foal. You can hug me when we’re inside.”
Reeling as if she’d slapped me, I took several steps back, my eyes misting up. “Okay. Sorry. Jeez.”
As Twilight walked ahead, I followed in her wake, feeling more than a little hurt. The butterflies flocking in my stomach started flapping like crazy, like they were trying to punch their way out of me.
Stepping inside my old home was like walking back in time. For a moment, just a moment, I forgot what I’d gone through. I felt like a cadet again, coming back for a weekend of shore leave. I hadn’t been back since my posting to the Enterprise, after all.
Then my eyes scanned the living room and the mirage shattered. Nearly everything had been rearranged, redecorated. Where there’d once been a series of holoimages depicting us as a family together had been replaced by one featuring me at several points in my life, like a memorial. There was even a sizable painting at the center of it all, one of me smiling at the viewer and winking, like I’d just told some sort of joke.
“Oh, right,” Amina said when she saw me looking at the painting. She came over and rested a hand on my neck. “We commissioned it for you. We… we didn’t want to forget…” She sniffled, then fell against me and held me tight. “Oh honey. You have no idea how much we missed you.”
“I missed you just as much, Mom,” I whispered back. Hearing her say that soothed my quaking nerves. It was the kind of reception I’d expected to hear.
Amina gave me a watery smile. “I’m not sure about that. As much as T’Lona and I love Twilight… you were our first, sweetie. You… having you in my life has brought me so much joy. Losing you was like having a piece of my soul ripped away. I don’t ever want to go through that again.”
“You won’t,” I swore.
Amina gave me one last squeeze, then let me go. “We haven’t touched your room, by the way. We… we wanted to leave it just the way it was. We’ve been keeping it dusted, but otherwise it’s untouched. It was… just in case.”
“Thanks,” I murmured. “I… excuse me.”
I trotted up the stairs to my bedroom, pausing in the doorway for a moment before stepping inside. Just like Mom promised, it was untouched. Every decoration where I’d left it. Even my notebook, the paper one I liked to doodle with whenever I craved the touch of real materials. The lack of change threw me for a loop. It felt unreal, like an illusion.
“I told them they should’ve packed it away, you know.”
Turning, I saw Twilight, who came the rest of the way and sat down on the bed. “You were gone,” she said, her expression colder than I expected. “I didn’t see why we should act like there was any hope you’d ever come back.”
I flumped down on the bed next to Twilight and offered up a hug. But just like before, she refused it. “I wasn’t sure I was ever coming back,” I admitted. “I wanted to, but…”
Twilight shrugged. “Hey, I’m glad you’re home. I missed you a lot.”
Arching both eyebrows, I replied, “You sure have a funny way of showing it.” I opened up my forelegs again. “Come here. I want to hug my sister.”
She hesitated for a good long while before she finally gave in and leaned against me. But even then it was reluctant. Cold.
Distant.
“What’s wrong, Twilight?” I breathed.
She looked up at me, her eyes big with sorrow. “I lost you.”
“Oh…” I wrapped my arms around her tight, pulling her in and setting my chin atop her head. I wrapped my wings around her for good measure. “But I’m here now. We found each other again. I’m not sure how but I guess I cheated death. Or maybe I didn’t die at all.”
“Didn’t you?” she whispered. “You… you’re an alicorn. You even said it yourself, Sunset. The warp core breach should’ve killed you. It did kill you. Yet here you are.”
“Twilight, I–”
She wriggled out of my grasp and looked at me, her breathing heavy. “Sunset, I… when I first saw you I was so happy, I didn’t think about what it meant. But now? Now when I look at you, how you’re taller, your horn is longer, those wings… you’re different. You’re not the same sister I had before. You’re like… like a spectre, a ghost!”
“Oh come on,” I retorted. “I’m not that different.”
“Aren’t you?” she countered. She pointed a hoof at the window outside. “You cringe at every sound, you’re all over Mother and Mom and I, and you… when you mentioned in your story, about how you kept talking to us even though we weren’t there? That scared me. It terrified me.”
”What?” My face screwed up, utterly nonplussed. “That’s what scared you? Not the torture, or the–”
“Yes!” Twilight shrieked, throwing her hooves up in the air. “I mean don’t get me wrong, that torture sounds horrifying and I’m furious that they put you through it, and if they were still alive I’d rip them to pieces! But you talking to some fake mental image of us? It’s like… like you went insane. Or worse, you replaced us.”
“Replaced–Twilight, what the hell are you talking about?!” I hopped up from the bed, my nostrils flaring. “I didn’t do that because I went ‘insane!’ I did it to keep myself sane! I was trying not to lose my mind!” My tail lashed out, striking a model of a New Orleans-class starship and knocking it off the desk. “I was alone, sis. Utterly, totally alone. Do you have any idea how hard that is?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a pretty good fucking idea how hard that is!” Twilight screamed. “I lost you, didn’t I?!”
Hearing her use profanity, especially such a harsh word, was like a slap in the face. I fell back onto my rump, staring at her in mute horror. “Twilight, h-how can you say that? You still had Mother and Mom–”
“Like I said,” Twilight hissed. “I know what alone feels like.”
“But, Twilight, you–”
“No. No, you listen to me, Sunset Shimmer,” Twilight said. She stepped forward to loom over me. “You were the only connection to Equestria I had. The only creature in this entire galaxy who could help us get back to Equestria. And then you had to go and pull some fucking heroic sacrifice!”
She lifted up her rear hoof and kicked at the bed, sending it crashing into the wall. “Oh I told them at your memorial service that I didn’t blame you, that I understood you did what you had to do to save lives, but that was a lie. I spent months asking my self why. Why you threw your life away when you knew there was no real solution left. When you knew you could escape, that survival was right there for the taking! And I spent just as long wondering if I did something wrong, if it was somehow my fault you found yourself in that situation!”
She raised a hoof and jabbed me in the chest. “I was so overwhelmed by your sudden reappearance that I lost control of myself. I cried at your hooves because I felt, in that moment, like you’d forgiven me for whatever I did that made you leave. Of course I know that’s stupid, but I felt it just the same. And now? Now I don’t know what to think.” She sighed, and used her magic to right the bed. “You’re my sister. I love you. But it’s going to take a long time before I get used to you being back.”
With that, she turned her back towards me and left the room, leaving me to sit there alone and wonder.
Wonder if she had a point.
Then the door chime sounded. “Sunset, may I enter?” came T’Lona’s voice.
“Go ahead, Mother,” I said automatically.
T’Lona came in and promptly sat down on the floor next to me. “I heard everything you and Twilight said to each other,” she said.
I let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, I’m not surprised you did. Twilight, she…”
“She has changed, in the time you’ve been gone,” T’Lona said with a nod. “Losing you harmed her psychologically. To most others she appears the same, but she is not the same person she was before.”
“Which means it’s my fault,” I said, bowing my head.
T’Lona’s hand shot out to push my chin up. “It is not. Do not blame yourself.” As she held me, she infused a sense of calm into her touch. I clung to that like the lifeline it was. “I believe you made the right decision that day. You placed the needs of the many ahead of your own. In truth, I was…proud of you.”
“Proud, huh?” I said, a small smile appearing on my muzzle. “Sounds like an emotion, Mother.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “You are well aware I experience the same range of emotions as everyone else, Sunset.”
“I… I know, Mother,” I said, my smile dropping. “I was just… nevermind.”
She shook her head. “I understand. I also understand Twilight is wrong. You are not as different as she thinks you are. Physically, you may have changed. Emotionally, you are scarred. But you are still Sunset Shimmer. You are still her sister. You are still my daughter.”
I responded to that the only way I could, by nuzzling close to her. After a moment of hesitation, she wrapped her arms around me tightly. “Thank you, Mother. I really needed to hear that.”
“Of course, Sunset,” T’Lona replied as she stroked my mane. “I do not say it as often as you deserve to hear it, but I do love you, as much as Amina and Twilight, if not more. And I always will.”
Two weeks later, with my medical leave over, I found myself standing in Admiral Brand’s office once again, along with Admiral Nakamura.
“Ah, Commander, come in,” Nakamura said. “I trust you are doing well.”
“Yes sir,” I answered. The truth was, it really had made a difference, those two weeks… at least for me it had. I felt much more comfortable in society again, less afraid of every unusual sight and sound. The immersion therapy that Doctor May had recommended worked like a charm.
My attempts to reconnect with Twilight, however, had failed miserably. She… was still distant, and if anything, had grown colder towards me. The longer it went on, the more it left me flustered. “May I ask what this is about, sir?”
“Well,” Brand said, “We have a new assignment for you.”
“An assignment?” I repeated. I gave them an uncertain look. “I wasn’t sure I’d receive one so soon. What is it?”
Nakumura smiled heartily. “In a way, this is an assignment that you created. As you know, the Enterprise-D saucer has been in mothballs ever since it was towed back from Veridian III. The fleet’s thinner than its ever been since Wolf 359, and the Dominion situation gets worse by the day.”
I nodded. “Understood, sir, but I know they've already launched a new Enterprise, already fully crewed at that. What does that have to do with the saucer?”
“Commander LaForge has long argued for us to find a way to reuse the saucer,” Brand said, “and now we have just that.”
Brand tapped a few buttons on her console and brought up a picture of a starship on the screen behind her. At first glance it was bizarre. A set of nacelles, a small engineering section, and little else. Then I blinked, “Um, ma’am, is that a Nebula-class ship minus its saucer?”
“It is,” Brand answered with a smile. “Not long ago, the Borg attempted another invasion of Earth. While repelled by the Enterprise-E, there were a lot of ships damaged in the battle, including this one. This ship’s saucer was carved to pieces, leaving the engineering section barely intact. Normally, we’d scuttle what’s left as irreparable.”
“But,” Nakamura continued, “with the Enterprise-D saucer, we have a unique opportunity. Thus, your assignment. You will be overseeing the repair and integration of the two ship parts into one. We’re going to give you some hefty leeway for seeing to its command crew as well. If all goes well, and I see no reason why it wouldn’t, we intend for you to take over the first officer position once the ship launches.” He gave me a quick grin. “It’s not the Captain’s chair, but take advantage of this opportunity and you’ll be there before you know it.”
I fell back in my chair, my brain overloaded. This was so beyond what I would’ve expected. “I… I don’t understand. Why me?”
Brand’s smile slipped. “Like I said during your debriefing, Commander, we’re on the brink of war. We need every ship we can get. And you are a superb officer. You received nothing but commendations from Commander La Forge while serving on his staff. And to tell you the truth… it will also let you get back into the swing of things, having a repair project to oversee.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Shimmer,” Nakamura added. “You weren’t my first choice for this project. Far from it. We’d been planning this for some time, and we had a list of candidates. But after what I heard at your debriefing, combined with your service record? You’ve proven you’re capable.” He leaned forward in his chair and looked me dead in the eye. “And this is a test, don’t misunderstand. We’re not guaranteeing you that first officer chair yet.”
“But… I still don’t understand why you’d make me first officer. Why not just Chief Engineer? I studied engineering, not command.” I wasn’t sure why I was arguing. This was everything Twilight and I had dreamed of since we first decided to join Starfleet. This was the opportunity we needed. This was the chance to finally get a ship of our own, to be able to find Equus, find Equestria, find our old home. But it felt all too sudden. I was only twenty-six. Half the time I should’ve spent in Starfleet involved me trapped on a planet by myself! How could I have possibly earned this?
Nakamura considered me for a moment. “It’s a valid question, Commander, and one Brand and I were both asked repeatedly by the rest of the Admiralty board. It was our suggestion to offer you the position of first officer.”
His expression softened a bit as he continued. “I can see the doubt in your eyes. But while we’re sure you would make a fine Chief Engineer… you have leadership skills. Just surviving on an unknown planet is a feat in itself, yet you did just that and literally engineered your own rescue, such as it was. We don’t need you to be stuck in Engineering, Commander. We need you on the bridge.”
I nodded, a grateful smile pulling at my muzzle. “Thank you, sir, ma’am. I… I don’t know what to say. I… thank you.”
Nakamura chuckled. “I understand.”
I laughed a little with him, then a thought occurred to me. “Err, sir, you did say I had leeway as to who would be on the crew, right?”
“I did, yes.”
“Then, would it be possible to have my sister assigned to the ship?” I asked. If Twilight and I were to bridge the gap, we’d need the chance to make up properly, and we wouldn’t get that if she left on some other assignment. “I realize it’s an unusual request, but–”
Brand held up a hand. “I believe we both understand why you’re asking for it. I personally have no objections, provided you obey Starfleet regulations when it comes to family members serving aboard the same ship.”
“I see no reason to object either,” Nakamura said, “though we will be checking to ensure there’s no violation of regulations in this matter. We do take this seriously, after all.”
“Yes sir,” I nodded. “It’s not about nepotism, I promise you.”
He burst out laughing at that, a full hearty laugh that took him a moment to calm down from. “Commander, of all officers, you’re one I’d believe when it comes to that.”
“You can decide on the rest of the crew over time,” Brand said. “As for who will captain the ship, we have someone in mind, though it may be a bit difficult for you to convince him to come out of retirement.”
“Understood, ma’am,” I said. “Just, one final question. What’s the name of the ship?”
Brand eyed Nakamura for a moment before they both smiled at the same time. “It’s the Phoenix, Commander. The U.S.S. Phoenix.”
