STAR TREK: PHOENIX
S02E09
"It All Ends In Tears"
Part One
“Personal log, Stardate 51711.2
It’s been almost three months since we first formed the fleet in the nebula, and well over a month since my promotion to Lieutenant. Since that time we’ve made a number of innovations, but have also suffered numerous setbacks, principal among them being power generation and dispersal through the ship. We've tried everything from neural gel packs and modified EPS conduits to countless variations of Shimmer crystals, but we still can't get the power distribution network to accept the modifications and remain stable. Our best stopgap has been to use multiple converters hooked to both the fusion plants for the impulse drives and to the warp core. Unfortunately this means that we’ve been limited in what we can test when it comes to shipboard weapons or shields.
There’s also been no progress in the hand phaser development since Sunset's literal trial by fire with it on Deep Space Nine. The thing still uses up the entire charge pack every time, and we haven't been able to figure out why.
Adagio’s probably right. We likely won’t get anywhere without real Equus mana gems.
The one success has been with the replicators. Pog's Randomizer, as the program is now known, has become a complete success, and requires so little magical power comparatively speaking that it's already been added to every replicator in the fleet. When switched on, the results really are much more like I remember cooking could be, versus perfect replication. Not everyone likes it, but at least it works. If nothing else, it's renewed our hopes that we can somehow solve the other issues as well.
Personally I'm worried. Admiral Nechayev has been storming all over the place, thoroughly upset. She’s taken to dwelling more on the Enterprise lately. Apparently there’s rumors of the Romulans joining the war… if it proves to be correct she might take the Enterprise out of here to see about it personally.
Hopefully she leaves soon, for all our sakes.
On a more personal note, besides the promotion, there's been some changes for me as well... the result of a talk I had last night with Lieutenant J.G. R'el. Or I should say Preta. She and I…"
I abruptly tapped the button to end my log, feeling a surge of embarrassment. Embarrassment only compounded when Preta flumped onto the bed next to me and threw her arms around me. She let out a purr as she placed a kiss on my withers. "Come on, Twilight. Enough talk. Let's have some fun together."
My body warmed at that, my face especially burning crimson. "I, er…"
She snorted and turned my head. "The proper answer is, yes." Then she kissed me full on the lips.
I should back up and explain how this happened. It was just the night before, and both of us were on the holodeck, exploring my Canterlot program. More specifically, by flying an airship inside said program. Well, Preta flew it. I stood there as a passenger on deck, watching Canterlot and the surrounding area drift by, taking in the sights.
“Wow..." Preta said as we cleared a thin bank of clouds and saw the city in its full glory.
Canterlot, considered by many to be the crown-jewel of Equestria, spread out below us. Ancient stone walls ringed the city itself, following the edge of a plateau that jutted out from the side of Mount Canter in a huge semi-circle that would seem impossible to any Federation engineer.
From its snow-covered peak, a single river wound its way down the mountain, snaking through a dense, lush forest before traversing a long aqueduct connected to the city's northern wall. From there it split into numerous canals before reuniting at the top of the majestic Canterlot Waterfalls on the southern tip of the plateau.
“Past the waterfall,” I said, pointing to the southwest of our position, “the river will continue to gradually shrink in size as it heads into the valley, eventually becoming a modest stream that splits the nearby town of Ponyville in half.”
"That's absolutely amazing," Preta replied. “Just... wow.”
A cold breeze swept across the bow of the airship, courtesy of the autumnal season dominating the landscape below. Shivering, I found myself pressing up closer to Preta as she steered the ship, using the ship’s wheel and elevation controls as if she’d been trained all her life. “Cold, Twilight?” she asked, grinning at me.
“A little,” I admitted. “Computer! Can you make me a jacket to wear over my uniform?”
After a brief moment a pony-shaped jacket appeared on the deck, which I eagerly tossed on.
“Better?” Preta asked.
“Yes, better,” I answered. I smiled at her. “I’m glad you talked Sunset and me into finally implementing a controllable airship into the program. Even for me, this is an incredible view.”
“Not just that,” Preta said, her smile as wide as mine. “This airship is a wonder of technology and magic. On any other world, an airship like this would require a massive gasbag of hydrogen or helium, and the machinery required to make any of it work would make an open deck plan like this impossible. We'd be stuck in a small gondola below the bag, always at risk for something to explode.”
“Aww, now you’re starting to sound like Cadeneza,” I teased.
She cast me a sideways glare for a second, her tail lashing before it passed and she smiled again. “Hey, Cadeneza was being an ass about it, but she wasn’t wrong. Airships were horrifically dangerous. There’s a reason almost no species ever made much use of them after the invention of heavier than air flight. Then again, maybe that's why they’re so popular in fiction too.”
“That’s right,” I said, thinking back to all the various bits of Earth fiction I’d examined that contained airships. The entire steampunk genre for one, as well as a huge assortment of fantasy in books and other forms of media. “But Equus always has to be special.”
“Yeah it does,” Preta said with a chuckle. “Thanks to the enchantments built into this, you’ve got a far smaller gasbag using plain hot air, an open deck that looks like a seaship flying through the air, and turbines that practically function on clockwork! If I tried to show this design to anyone who didn’t know about Equus magic I’d be laughed out of the room.”
I patted her on the shoulder, watching as the ship passed by the peak of Mount Canter, bringing more of the plains and forests around the mountain into view, fields of orange and yellow and reddish leaves, green grass, all lit up beautifully by the setting sun.
“I am a little curious though,” I said as I turned back to her. “What made you invite only me? I figured you’d want to have Sunset and a few others along.”
Preta looked back and shot me a toothy grin. “Because.”
I blinked. “Does this have anything to do with all the time we’ve spent together lately? Don’t get me wrong, it’s been great, fantastic even, just… makes me wonder what’s been up lately.”
“What, I can’t spend time with my roommate?” Preta asked, though her smile waned a touch.
I patted her shoulder again. “Of course you can. I’m just wondering.”
Her mouth drew into a half smile as she let out a slight growl under her breath. “I like spending time with you, Twilight. I care about you.”
“Awww,” I found myself saying, warmth spreading through me as a smile came to my face. “I care about you too, Preta. You’re a good friend.”
Preta didn’t respond for a little while after that, her face unreadable. All of a sudden, she blurted, “Well, would you look at that,” pointing to the far horizon where the sun sank beneath the horizon, leaving the sky colored in reds and purples and deep, dark blues so clear it shined. “The twilight is sparkling.”
I let out a snort of suppressed amusement. “Ha, ha, ha,” I muttered, rolling my eyes good-naturedly. “Very funny, Preta.”
“I thought it was,” she said with her own light chuckle.
She piloted the ship for a little while longer, until the chill night air finally got to her too. “Alright, it’s getting too cold out on the deck. Let’s go inside.” She locked the wheel, setting the ship’s autopilot, and directed me down below decks into the airship’s interior. We’d set this one up like a small luxury airship rather than one of the larger transport ships, so it bore a small but fancy set of quarters laden with bookshelves and paintings and other trappings of wealth, as well as an accompanying stateroom, kitchen, dining area, study, and a few other facilities.
We headed to the stateroom where we had the computer provide a replicated meal via a holographic server, laid on silver plates and true silverware coated in gold filigree, on a mahogany table with cushioned chairs and an atmosphere that screamed money, even the fireplace that burned cheerfully to one side with its crenelated decorations.
I sat down to a plate of steaming catfish and fried rice. “Much better in here,” I said as I opened the bottle of syntheholic wine and poured us each a glass. My tastebuds yearned for it to be real, but even though I was much more cognizant of my limits, I was not about to risk ruining this moment with the real stuff.
“Definitely,” Preta purred as she stretched her limbs, then sat with me and dug into her own catfish. She paused after taking a bite and muttered, “Is it cannibalism if I eat catfish?”
I almost choked on my own food as I broke into laughter. “Oh my god, Preta,” I said after drinking down some water and coughing a bit to clear my throat.
“What?” she snickered. “I mean, it's a valid question. And a tasty one too,” she added before diving into the fish again.
We ate in quiet contemplation for a little while, before she adjusted her chair to be closer to me all of a sudden. “Twilight,” she said, her voice shaking. “I… we need to talk about something.”
I paused with my wine glass halfway to my mouth. “What is it?”
She took a huge breath, then slammed back the rest of her wine glass for good measure. I was about to remind the poor girl that this was just synthehol wine, not real wine, when suddenly she reached out and took my forehoof in her hand. “Twilight… listen. There’s something you need to know.”
Worry bubbled in my stomach like acid thrown into overdrive, leaving me suddenly nauseous and sweaty. “W-what is it, Preta? Did I do something wrong?”
“What? No, no, not at all,” she said, giving my hoof a squeeze. “No, Twilight, I… there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you, for a few months now. You remember my, um, incident I had with the shuttle?”
“The one you told me to forget about as soon as you told me?” I gave her a knowing smile. “Nope, don't remember it at all.”
Preta seemed ready to launch into a reply before freezing mid gesture. "I- er, well, yes. I guess I did say all that in confidence. Thanks for respecting that though, Twilight."
“Of course, Preta,” I replied. “But I do actually remember. You tried to steal a shuttle after being exposed to Claricia's pheromones and it messed with your head. But what brought this up all of a sudden?”
Preta bit her lip, her ears flattening, tail lashing against the table before she calmed herself again. “We all know the obvious effect that Claricia's pheromones had on me. Turned me into a nearly feral, lovesick kitten. But after all of that, after talking to Rodriguez, and visiting Sickbay, and all the apologies, there was one lingering effect that stayed with me. One that I've only now fully come to grips with.”
I gave her a concerned look. “What is it? Are you ok?”
“Yes, I am,” she replied. “Or, at least I hope I'll be.” She held up her other hand before I could ask what she meant.
“What I mean is... if there's a silver lining to all of this, it's that it awakened me on an emotional level; one that I had routinely ignored for much of my life because I had places to go, dreams to accomplish. One that I realized I had ignored for far, far too long.”
Ba-dum.
My breath caught in my throat. “What… what are you saying?” I whispered.
"I'm saying..." she squeezed my hoof tighter. "I realized that I can open up to others and do all of those things too. And that there's already someone here who I care for very much."
Ba-dum.
She got up from her chair and came around to my side of the table, getting on her knees to look me directly in the eye. With both hands she held my forehooves, her expression full of warmth and compassion in a way I hadn’t seen from her before, more than just the friendly kindness she’d shown me in the past, especially when I believed Sunset was dead.
This was different, more rich, more vivid, more…
Loving.
“I’m saying, Twilight,” she said as she brought her face closer to mine. “I care about you. I… I love you.”
“Oh my god,” I whispered. Hearing that filled me with sensations I’d never felt before, something instinctual.
Ba-dum.
She swallowed nervously. “I don’t expect you to just accept it… and I won’t be upset if you say no—”
I interrupted her with a kiss.
It was inexpert, clumsy. My lips barely met hers properly, I pushed a little too hard, moved my head a bit too much. Unlike Sunset, I'd never kissed anyone before. I knew Preta hadn't either, and it showed. She was just as clumsy as I was, moving her head in the wrong direction at first, then accidentally catching my lip with her fangs when she tried to push into me herself.
But neither of us cared. She paused just long enough to look into my eyes, as if checking to be sure, before she threw herself at me. We fell over, the chair clattering to the floor, the holodeck safeties preventing it from being more than a light thump to our bodies. Soon we’d picked ourselves up away from the table and moved to the nearby bedroom, where she laid me on the bed, and began to do quite a bit more than just kiss me.
I learned all sorts of things about myself that night. Places I proved sensitive, ways in which my body… reacted. And she learned just as much about herself. It was probably one of the goofiest attempts at love-making two adults had ever attempted.
And yet it was wonderful.
It was only as we both were relaxing in post-coital bliss that the reality of what we’d just done hit us both. Preta clung to me, her sweat soaking into my coat, and said, “...oh god, did we just go too far? Was that too fast? Should we have—”
“Sssh, sssh,” I said, finding myself rubbing the back of her head with my hoof. “It’s okay. I… I wanted that.”
She looked into my eyes. “But, did you have any feelings for me before I confessed?”
It took me several moments to answer, as I dug deep into myself. Then I nodded. “...yeah, I think so. I've known for a while that I was fond of you, much more so than anyone else I've met. I mean, you were there for me so often when I thought Sunset had died, you’ve been a constant friend ever since. Like you, I've spent so long repressing that side of me, I never understood what these feelings were when they did bubble up, much less how to act on them. But now that we're here, in this moment..." I gave her a small kiss on the cheek, "how could I not respond in kind?”
Preta laughed and held tighter onto me. “You’ve no idea how glad that makes me. Ever since I realized what I felt I’ve been terrified.”
“I know.” I ran my hoof through her hair. “You’ve been tense around me lately; I haven’t seen you relax until we came into the holodeck tonight.”
“Warning: Holodeck reservation time has expired. Program will end in one minute.”
We both laughed and rushed to get our uniforms back on. “I guess we’ll have to continue this in our quarters. Good thing we’re already sharing,” Preta said.
As I got dressed, I paused, and gave into the sudden urge to give her one last quick kiss.
At the same instant, the program vanished around us, and the doors hissed open, revealing Rodriguez, Ishihara, and, oddly enough, Aria, all of them dressed up for river rafting. “Apologies, Lieutenants,” Rodriguez said as they all stepped in. “I’m afraid your time is being up.”
Aria narrowed her eyes as she looked at us, then smirked. “Oh. Were we interrupting?”
“No! No, not at all,” Preta said, her face and mine burning crimson as we rushed out. “Just some fun with her Equestria program, that’s all, ahahaha. Enjoy yourselves!”
We left them with Ishihara’s boisterous laughter following us out the door, both of us doubling over in embarrassment in the corridor. “Yeah, they know,” I groaned.
“Of course they do,” Preta grumbled. She looked askance at me, then added, “Let’s get back to our quarters.”
“Right.” We hopped onto the turbolift. “Preta, before we let this go any further, we should figure out what we want from this. My sister did the same thing with her roommate on the Enterprise, and I don’t want to repeat her mistake.”
Before she could respond, the turbolift stopped at another deck and let on three more officers. She sighed and mouthed, “Wait till we’re back home.”
Soon after another long turbolift ride, we entered our quarters, falling on the sofa together. “So, you were saying we should figure this out, huh?” Preta said.
“Yeah,” I answered as I nuzzled into the crook of her neck. “I… I feel a little ridiculous, if I’m being honest. I’ve never been in a relationship before, but I know what Sunset did to Smith.”
“Oh yeah, no way. I don’t think either of us wants that to happen.” Preta kissed my forehead, then stretched out her arms before wrapping them around me. “To be completely honest, I’m not sure, Twilight. I’ve never been as, err… well, to be blunt, as horny as most Caitians. At least not until I got dosed by Claricia’s pheromones. So I never even thought I’d be in a relationship because I never felt like I needed to be in one. I… I know I care about you. I want to be with you.” She touched a hand to her chest, right over her heart. “And there's a part of me that needs you too. Beyond that?” She shook her head. “I dunno.”
“Well, I think I’d want this to be romantic too.” I reached in to plant a kiss at the nape of her neck, right where I’d figured out she was sensitive, drawing a soft yowl from her lips. “Not just sex. Sex for sex’s sake isn’t enough for me.”
“Me either,” Preta agreed. “So… romance then.”
“Yeah.”
“Good.”
Then her eyes flashed with mirth. “Wanna do it again?”
“Oh hell yes.”
I was tired for my next shift, but it was worth it.
“Hey, you okay there?” Preta asked me, drawing me back to the present as she laid atop me on the bed. We’d just finished another bout of lovemaking, and both of us were sweat-soaked and overheated.
“Yeah, sorry, just reflecting,” I answered.
“Shimmer to Sparkle and R’el.”
We both stared at each other in wide eyed panic for a moment before I managed to stammer, “Err, Sparkle here. Preta is here too.”
“Report to my quarters. Immediately.”
“Uh, sorry?” I ventured, the panic filling more of my being, till I was vibrating with it.
“You heard me, Lieutenant. That’s an order. Shimmer out.”
“Why would she want us in her quarters?” Preta asked me.
“I don’t know! But…” I sat up and all of a sudden my nose crinkled up. “We need to get cleaned up… if we walk in there, she’ll know what we were up to.”
“Right, right,” Preta said with a sigh. “We’ll have to double up in the shower… why couldn’t they have given you better quarters when you were promoted?”
I shook my head. “I didn't want to move so I never asked for anything better. You didn't ask for anything better either, you know.”
As we shoved ourselves into the sonic shower we switched it on to max setting, to try and get through in a hurry.
“Well yeah, because I didn’t want to leave you by yourself,” Preta said, giving me a quick kiss on the head as she helped me clean up.
WIthin ten minutes we were out and in fresh uniforms, and as we left our quarters, our combadges chirped again. “Shimmer to Sparkle, where the hell are you? I said to report immediately.”
“Sorry, ma’am, we had a slight technical glitch we had to resolve,” I said, hoping Sunset would understand that as a turbolift mishap. “We’re on our way now.”
Mercifully, the turbolift got us to the right deck without stopping for once, and we hurried over to Sunset's quarters and rang the bell.
“Enter!”
Oddly, the place was almost entirely dark, with the lights out in the other room and the living area barely visible in front of us. Sunset stood waiting for us, a PADD in her magic, her face drawn up in an expression I hadn’t seen since she and I had been at odds with each other. “So. There you are,” she said, flapping the PADD in the air like a humanoid might knock it against their palm.
“Yes ma’am, reporting as ordered,” I said, drawing myself up to attention, as did Preta.
“I’ve got a report here,” Sunset continued, her tone sharp, cracking like a whip. “A report that says you two were on the holodeck last night. Alone.”
“Uh… y-yes, ma’am, we were,” I said, blinking in confusion. “I wasn’t aware that was against regulations.”
Sunset’s scowl tightened. “You weren’t just alone. According to this report, you were found barely in uniform, and in a very compromising position too.” She tossed the PADD to her desk and took a few steps forward, till she was right up in our faces. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
“I… I…” I shivered, halfway to tears now, so beyond confused. “I don’t understand, what did I do wrong?”
“What you both did wrong, Lieutenants,” Sunset replied, “was making me wait so long to do this.”
The lights abruptly rose up as people burst out of the other room, shouting “surprise!” and blowing light streamers and party favors, while Sunset burst into a huge grin.
“You took way too long finally getting together, that’s what,” she said with a huge smirk. “Congratulations, you two.”
“Wha… huh?!” we both blurted, looking around at the crowd. Which, it turned out, was smaller than I thought at first… Cadeneza, Wattson, Claricia, Rodriguez, and Maia.
Rodriguez shoved a glass of some kind of Spanish liquor into Preta’s hand. “Here. You will be wanting this, Lieutenant,” he said with a wink.
“Wait, you all knew?” Preta said, her face burning redder than I’d ever seen it. And from how fiery hot my own felt, I was certain mine was doing the same. She gave Rodriguez a glare. “Did you tell the entire ship about the holodeck yesterday or something?”
He raised both hands in the air. “I swear, on mi madre’s life, I never once said a thing.”
“I realized it not long after the… incident between us,” Claricia clarified as she sipped from her own drink, some French concoction my brain struggled to recognize due to how frazzled I was. “You treated her differently.”
‘Yeah we all picked up on it, kitten,” Cadeneza said, clapping Preta on the shoulder. “You and Sparkie here, you two make a great couple.”
“But, but… why this?” I blurted, looking at my sister.
She beamed as she broke out a bottle of Andorian ale and poured her and me a pair of frothy mugs. “Because, I wanted to show you my support. And I’m technically the older sister. I have the right to embarrass you when I want to.” She winked.
“...this is payback for my shouting about that hoofmark in sickbay, isn’t it?” I grumbled as I took the offered ale, sipping at it. I blinked as the fantastic taste splashed through my palate, washing away any remaining bit of bitterness on my part. “Oh this is smooth. 2289?”
“2309,” she corrected. “But close. And yeah, it is. Payback’s a bitch, huh?” she giggled as she held her glass up to mine and clinked it. “To you and Preta. You two are gonna be great together, I can tell.”
The party continued in that vein for a little while. Cadeneza broke out a plethora of snacks, though at one point she tried to pawn off some cat food as real food to Preta – who promptly dropped it right into the plate of chips and dip Cadeneza was holding, making everyone laugh.
“Alright, alright, I’ve got a present for you two, by the way,” Sunset said, drawing everyone’s attention. “I know neither of you requested bigger quarters because you wanted to stay together, and I get that. But you've both earned it, so we're going to make that happen.”
We exchanged a brief look. “You don’t have to do that, sis,” I said.
“No, but I want to.” Sunset broke out her PADD and tapped a few keys, then eyed Preta and I and tapped a few more. “Now would you look at that. A set of double quarters just became available on deck seven, starboard side. Great view over there, I'm told. And—” she kept going before I could even try to object “I'm tossing in a few extra amenities just because I can. The quartermaster'll have everything ready for you to start moving by the time this party's over.”
Preta and I exchanged another look, much happier this time, and I broke into a laugh and hugged Sunset tightly. “Thanks, sis. You’re the best.”
Sunset held me tight. “What use is it being your commanding officer if I can’t engage in just a teeny tiny bit of nepotism?”
“Gasp! Can you believe this?” Wattson said as she pointed at Sunset, everyone else laughing once more. “Nepotism, from our first officer. For shame!”
“For shame!” Rodriguez, Cadeneza, Claricia, and Maia all echoed.
“Oh, shut it,” Sunset snorted, making everyone laugh again.
Maia took that moment to float on over and give me an amused look. “Hey, egghead. Glad you finally got your head on straight and got you your girl.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Aww, and here I thought you’d be jealous,” I snarked.
Maia shrugged and sipped at her drink. “Nah. I'll still be kickin' your ass in our sparring sessions, so that's all I need.”
“Oooh, did you hear that, Preta?” I said as I nudged an elbow at Maia. “She’s so generous.”
Preta sniffed. “Oh yes, quite generous,” she said, before downing her drink and chuckling. “Just keep her in one piece. If anyone's going to be rough with her, it's gonna be me.”
“Ooooooh,” everyone else murmured in unison as my face burned like fire.
The party went on for a little while longer, till Sunset’s terminal beeped. “Alright, everyone, it’s 22:00. Time to wrap this up. We’re all on duty in the morning.”
“Yes, Commander,” I said with a laugh. “Thanks again, sis. For everything.”
She hugged me once more. “You bet.”
Preta and I went to get our stuff moved. It only took us about a half hour, since neither of us had much to pack away. “There,” Preta declared as she finished setting the last of my books on a bookshelf in our new living room area. She set her hands on her hips. “Hmm. Feels like we’re missing a few decorations.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I said as I hopped up into my pony-designed chair at the desk to check the terminal. I smiled as I read through the details of our new quarters. Increased library access, slightly higher priority for communiques, and higher resolution on the replicator too. Compared to our old quarters, this felt like a luxury hotel already.
“Oh hey!” Preta called from the head. “Looks like we’ve got a real water shower in here, not just sonic. And it’s a big one too.” She laughed. “Would’ve been useful before the party, huh?”
I joined her, checking out the shower. “Well, there's the extra amenities sis mentioned. Nice!” It was a huge shower compared to the one we had before; similar in design to the ones we used back home in Vancouver. “You know,” I said, my voice dropping half an octave. “We could break it in.”
Preta let out a sensual purr and rubbed up on me. “Is that an order, Lieutenant?” she cooed.
“Does it need to be?” I found myself replying, desire rising in my breast.
She traced a finger along my muzzle. “Maybe. I do appreciate a… commanding presence.”
“Then get undressed and get in that shower," I said, confidence welling up inside me. “That’s an order.”
We didn’t get much sleep that night either.
A deep pride filled me as I walked the corridors on deck sixteen, an unapologetically cocky grin plastered across my muzzle. I nodded happily to each crew member I passed. Anytime I saw my reflection I veered just a bit closer so I could catch sight of that shiny third pip on my collar. My hooves were on the floor, but I may as well have been walking on air.
“If that pip is causing irritation, Number One, I'm sure Doctor May has just the thing for that.”
Next to me, the Captain gave me a bemused look that said he was thoroughly enjoying needling me a bit. My cheeks warmed as I forced myself into a more normal walk. “Sorry, sir. I know it's been almost two months, and I probably look a bit silly. It's just... well I guess I always did like to preen a lot when I accomplished something. Even as a filly.”
“Well, you've certainly earned the right,” Liang replied, clapping me briefly on the shoulder. “And that's not just me saying it either. You've got peoples' attention, Number One, and for all the right reasons. Keep this up and you might just break Jim Kirk's mark as the youngest officer to make Captain.”
“Maybe one day," I said. "But I'm perfectly happy to remain your First Officer as long as you'll have me.”
Liang let out a small snort. “I’d hope so. We’ve a good rapport, you and I. And now that I’m back in… I find myself wholly reluctant to resign again. I had considered staying only until this war was over, but now… now I think I want to remain.” He glanced at me and grinned. “As you likely gathered from our little chat a while back, I still have some unfinished business when it comes to you and your sister.”
The turbolift discharged us onto the bridge, and we both took our usual seats. “Like I said, sir, I don’t want to take over anytime soon. I’m happy to learn from the best.”
He let out a single laugh and rapped his cane on the floor. “Well said.” He looked up at Ops and Conn where Williams and Rodriguez sat respectively. “Report.”
“Nothing unusual to report, Captain,” Williams answered as he tapped his console. “Research shuttle transfers continuing on schedule.”
Liang nodded. “Any news—”
A bleep-bleep from Ishihara’s console interrupted him. “Sir, the Enterprise is hailing us,” Ishihara said.
“On screen,” Liang ordered.
The bridge of the Enterprise appeared, with Captain Picard standing in the forefront, Admiral Nechayev hovering nearby. “Captain,” Picard said, then his eyes caught me and he briefly smiled. “Commander.”
I smiled back as Liang stood from his chair. “Always good to hear from you, Jean-Luc. What can we do for you?”
“I’m afraid this isn’t a social call. The Enterprise, along with Admiral Nechayev, have been recalled to Federation headquarters. There’s been a major development.”
“Oh?”
Admiral Nechayev stepped forward. “The Romulans just declared war on the Dominion this morning; evidently the Dominion was planning some form of surprise attack. Captain, I’m placing command of the fleet in your hands for the time being; I will be returning when I can, but it may be a while.”
“Respectfully, Admiral, I thought the Brynhild was your flagship,” I interjected.
Nechayev nodded. “Yes, but as the fleet's flagship the Enterprise will be needed to help show our cooperation with the Romulans, as a sign of strength, and our commitment.”
“Makes sense,” Liang admitted. “Very well then. Good luck, Admiral, Captain. And godspeed.”
“Same to you, James,” Picard said with a nod. “Enterprise out.”
The viewscreen reverted to showcasing the nebula and the fleet. Soon enough the Enterprise disengaged, and we watched it depart the nebula. “Enterprise has gone to warp, sir,” Williams said.
“Very well. Number One, I intend to depart for the Brynhild immediately. I’ll need to coordinate fleet movements and it’s best done there where Nechayev had her command structure set up. You’ve got the ship till I get back.” He winked. “Don’t mess with my seat settings though.”
“Believe me, I won’t,” I said.
With another small laugh, he left the bridge, while I sat down in the center chair, using one of the monitors to watch the progress of his shuttle as it departed for the Brynhild.
Once he was safely aboard, I tapped the comm. “Bridge to science lab two.”
“Sparkle here,” answered my sister. Her voice sounded a bit strained, or perhaps tired. Certain as to the reason why, I made sure my next few responses contained a bit of understanding sympathy.
“Sparkle, according to the schedule the fleet is supposed to be performing another test of the magical shield systems. Have the Phoenix’s phasers already been rigged into test mode?”
“Yes ma’am,” she answered. “We’re just about prepared for the test down here.”
“Good. We’ll proceed in order. Ishihara, signal the Brynhild.”
“Brynhild reports ready for testing.”
I squirmed in the chair in a vain attempt to pop a kink in my lower back. Not for the first time I wished Liang had granted my request to make my Equestrian-style chair easily swappable with his. But of course, there was a regulation for that too. Figures. “Very well. Miss Ishihara… fire.”
We watched on the viewscreen as the low power phaser beam lanced through the nebula, bouncing off the Brynhild’s shields, holding for several seconds before shutting down. “Results?”
“Measuring now, Commander,” Twilight said. A slight sigh escaped her lips over the comm. “No regenerative effects noted. The spell matrix collapsed from the first shot.”
“Damn it,” I groaned. “Alright, record all sensor data and set it aside. We’ll have to tweak that spell matrix again. Signal the Algerie, have them ready for the next—”
“Ma’am, we’re being hailed by the Brynhild,” Ishihara interrupted.
Frowning, I stood up. “On screen.”
Captain Liang’s face appeared on screen; he was standing in a science lab. “Number One,” he said, his voice clipped, “Something about that last test has disrupted half of the Brynhild’s systems. It looks like there’s a cascading effect from the converter in the ship’s power supply.”
“Again?” I managed to keep the groan out of my voice this time. “Sir, I thought we had that fixed.”
“So did I, but apparently not.”
I sighed. “Alright, I’ll have Lieutenant Sparkle head over on the next shuttlecraft.”
“Uh, Commander,” Rodriguez spoke up. “I am detecting something unusual in subspace. A large distortion field.”
“Confirmed,” Williams added as he tapped his console. “It looks like it’s headed in this direction.”
“We’re showing the same thing over here,” Liang said.
“The rest of the fleet also reports it,” Ishihara said.
I locked eyes with the captain. “Sir,” I began, “We might want to consider—”
BOOM!
The entire ship shuddered, and on the screen there were screams and shouts, the signal breaking into static. “What the hell—”
BOOM!
“Commander!” Ishihara cried. “Thirteen Jem’Hadar fighters and a Jem’Hadar battleship have just dropped out of warp inside the nebula! They’re opening fire!”
“Damn! Get our shields back to full strength!” I ordered. “Bridge to engineering, we need our phasers back up to full power right away!”
“Working on it, Commander!” answered Wattson’s voice as the ship shook again from another volley of fire. “That first attack disrupted one of the primary EPS conduits, the one tied to the converter. We could use your assistance down here with it!”
Cursing under my breath, I nodded. “Alright, I’m on my way. Williams, you’ve got the bridge!”
“Ma’am, the Shimakaze and the Javelin have opened fire on the Jem’Hadar fleet,” Ishihara said. “They’re trying to keep them at bay. The Baltimore is joining them, and the Algerie is trying to flank them.”
“Status of the Brynhild?” I asked as I headed for the rear turbolift.
“We’re alright over here, Number One!” Liang called over the weakening signal. “Keep my ship intact.”
I nodded to him as the turbolift doors closed. “Main Engineering, emergency speed!”
The ship shuddered a few times before I was discharged into Main Engineering. I rushed into the beehive of activity, engineers running all over the place. “Wattson!” I cried as my magic activated, gathering up the nearest toolkit. “Where do you need me?”
“Over here, ma’am!” she said, pulling me over towards the warp core, where the now wall-mounted magical converter had been piped directly into the grid. “Looks like it’s the primary feed line; it’s disrupting all the other power systems.”
“I see it,” I muttered as I grabbed a hyperspanner and got to work. “Wattson, get one of these screens up. Shimmer to bridge, status report!”
“The Brynhild’s taken a severe beating, Commander,” Ishihara reported. “Our weapons are having little effect.”
“Give me a few minutes, I’ll change that,” I said. I worked swiftly, and had a tricorder up and scanning the whole while.
The ship rocked from another harsh blow. “Shields down to sixty-five percent!” shouted Hill, who was working on another panel and glancing at the screen every so often. “Commander… the Helena!”
I turned to face the screen, just in time to see a volley of torpedoes rake the underside of the Helena as she attempted a hard turn to starboard. She lurched at a grotesque angle and exploded almost instantly. “Was anyone from the Phoenix aboard?” I asked, trying to keep the horror out of my voice.
“No, Commander; the only personnel we have off-ship at the moment is the Captain,” Hill reported.
I nodded, whispered a quick prayer for the lives lost, and rushed to finish. “There!” I said, closing the panel. “Shimmer to bridge, weapons are hot! Fire at will!”
“Confirmed! Firing phasers! Direct hit on—”
BOOOOOOOM!
The ship thrashed from the worst hit yet, tossing half of us to the floor. “Shields at forty-five percent!” Hill screamed from his position. “There’s a failure in the dorsal shield grid! Hull breach on deck one!”
“The bridge,” I gasped. I tapped my badge. “Shimmer to bridge. Shimmer to bridge, respond!” Snarling, I switched tack. “Shimmer to Ishihara!”
“Ishihara here… we barely survived that hit, ma’am! Most of us got out, but… Williams, he…”
“Williams is dead?” I choked.
“Yes ma’am. Forcefields are active now, but bridge is currently inoperable.”
“...alright. Get Rodriguez down here. I’ll take over from Engineering.”
“Warning: Intruder alert.”
“Ma’am!” Hill spoke up. “New problem! We’ve got intruders; Jem’Hadar are beaming in all over the ship!”
Even as he spoke, there was the sound of a shimmering transporter, with several Jem’Hadar soldiers coming into existence, weapons raised. “Everybody down!” I screamed as they began opening fire, taking one unfortunate engineer directly in the throat and another in the side as both struggled to reach cover in time.
Hill pulled a phaser off his belt and returned fire, sending one Jem’Hadar sprawling for the deck. The rest split up and roared as they fired their disruptors, taking down a third engineer before I worked my horn up enough to retaliate, snatching their weapons from them with my telekinesis and tossing them aside.
The precious few seconds that bought us allowed us to pick off one more Jem'Hadar with phaser fire before their comrades drew their bladed weapons and charged. Engineering descended into a chaotic melee. Only the clang of weapons and the occasional burst of a phaser beam punctuated the snarls and screams and roars of a crew fighting for their lives.
I turned to see one Jem-Hadar charging me with one of those blades on a stick; the same kind I'd been tortured with. Just the sight of it drove me into a rage.
As he swung it, slicing through the air with a sharp metallic ring, I deftly juked and brought my foreleg up in a crack to his abdomen. Grunting, he stabbed his blade for my heart. My horn lit, summoning a shield to block it at the last second, then I jabbed him in the sternum with my foreleg. I heard a nasty crack and he gurgled, blood coming to his mouth. Grabbing his blade from his hands I used it to finish the job.
Leaping back into the fray I saved Wattson from having her head cut off by stabbing the responsible Jem-Hadar in the spine and yanking him back, wrenching the blade back out of him in the process. Then she shoved me down, screaming, “watch out!” as she fired her phaser, hitting the last Jem’Hadar in the face and sending him to the deck.
“Thanks,” I said as I reached for a fallen phaser rifle from a slain security officer. A fresh wave of Jem’Hadar flashed into existence, bellowing and firing their weapons. My phaser fire raked them, taking out two before a third forced me to leap behind a panel as he filled the spot I’d been standing in with disruptor blasts.
I threw up a shield in front of me and came back around the panel to eliminate two more Jem’Hadar, leaving a last one to get stabbed through the torso by another security officer who’d snatched up one of their blades.
As a smokey haze filled the air, I took a breath and shouted, “Clear! Alright, let’s—” and the fresh sound of a transporter interrupted me. “Damn it!”
A third wave then appeared in the catwalks above us on the second floor, prompting me to jack up the power on my phaser and deliberately distintegrate one of the support cables to the platform one of them was standing on, making the Jem’Hadar fall and smash his head on the warp core’s forcefield, electrocuting him. The others rained down fire upon my position, forcing me to throw up another shield. But it worked just enough to distract them, allowing Wattson and the others to pick them off with concentrated fire. I did hear a choked scream behind me just before my shield engaged.
Silence fell as I stood back up, looking at the results of the carnage. To my fury there were more dead engineers than living ones, while the living ones seemed mostly injured in easily survivable ways.
Except one. “Sunset!” Wattson shrieked, grabbing my attention.
I glanced over to see Wattson bent over Hill, who was looking up at her, his eyes unfocused, his breathing labored. She was holding her hand plus his desperately to a chest wound that bled all around it as if the pressure wasn’t even in place. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, I… I took a hit trying to…”
“Oh no,” I gasped, slapping my combadge. “Shimmer to sickbay, medical emergency in Main Engineering!”
“I’ll try to have someone on their way, Commander, but we’ve got medical emergencies all over the ship,” came the response.
“Well hurry the hell up because we’ve got people dying down here!” I shouted, even as I used my magic to grab a nearby first aid kit. I grabbed a bandage soaked in clotting agents and moved their hands so I could press it into the wound.
Wattson helped by adding extra pressure. “Come on, Hill, hang on for me. You’re going to make it out of this.”
Hill, his eyes full of tears, reached up to her with a shuddering hand even as the bandage flooded with blood, far more blood than it could handle. “I’m… I’m sorry, Amelia,” he said, his voice turning liquid as more blood ran down the edge of his mouth. “I never… never told you…”
“You can tell me later, whatever it is,” she said, cradling his head while I reached for another bandage, and then another after that one soaked. With the third soaked through bandage and no end in sight, her voice trembled harder and harder. “Stay with me, Hill! Stay with me!”
“Please… call me… Chris…”
She nodded her head almost like a ragdoll. “Okay, Chris, whatever you need. Just stay with us okay?”
His lips curled up in a slight smile. “Nice to… finally hear my first name… from you…guess that’s the best I… can hope for…sorry… Amelia…”
His head slumped.
“No, no, no!” she screamed, but it was no use. The light died from his eyes. With a sob, she laid his body on the floor and closed his eyes. “God damn it to hell…”
I felt a few tears come to my own eyes, but I pushed them away. “Amelia… we’re still in a battle. Can you stay with me?”
Wattson wiped her eyes and did her best to wash the blood off her hands with a wet cloth. “Right… right. Yeah.“ She moved over to a nearby console, and did her best to resume her businesslike persona. “We've got shields back up to fifty percent. Sensor logs show the Baltimore took out a pair of fighters with their tricobalt weapons before being destroyed herself, and the Javelin…”
I glanced up at the screen just in time to see a trio of Jem’Hadar beams penetrated the Javelin’s hull, sending it careening and listing before it abruptly exploded.
“How’s our weapons?” I asked as I made for another console and reconfigured it to tactical systems.
“Uuuhh… phaser power down to fifty percent of nominal, and we’ve lost aft and forward torpedo launchers. But we’ve still got the pod launcher.”
“Right, got it,” I said as I scanned the console then dialed up a full spread of quantum torpedoes. “Firing on the closest pair of fighters.”
I watched the sensors like a hawk as the torpedoes flew out and sought their target, while our main phaser bank pounded their shields. The torpedoes tore away at their hulls, leaving both exploding in flashes of light and Cerenkov radiation, the shockwave collapsing the shields of a third fighter.
But it wasn’t enough. I could already see it wouldn’t be enough. Even as I took aim at the next ship, the Shimakaze, trailing plasma from one warp nacelle, the other shorn off and spinning away through space, took a combined fire from the battleship and three of the remaining fighters at once, and crumpled in before its warp core detonated, sending out a shockwave that rocked the Phoenix.
“Commander!”
I looked up to see Rodriguez heading for me, his uniform torn up, a cut bleeding on his forehead and another gash in his arm tied up with a piece of torn uniform top. He took up a position at another console and swapped it to helm controls. “Reporting as ordered, ma’am,” he said, though his voice shook.
“Where’s Ishihara? The rest of the bridge crew?” I asked as I fired the weapons again, dealing a glancing blow to another fighter.
“We were separated from the rest of the crew; I do not know where they went. As for Ishihara, she met up with Zhidar and the two went to handle intruders.” Rodriguez gulped. “I was having to deal with two by myself, but I slew them.”
“Good work,” I grunted, patting him on the shoulder. “Get us on evasive maneuvers. See if you can’t get us out of the nebula… we might have to make a run for it.”
“I will be trying,” he answered as he sent the Phoenix into a z-axis dive, making my stomach fall out from under me just a little as the inertial dampers struggled to keep up. “But we will need to escape the nebula before we can be going to warp.”
The ship rocked again from another blow as several Jem’Hadar fighters fired their beam weapons. “Ventral shield is beginning to collapse! Shields at forty percent and falling!” Wattson cried.
“Keep that ventral shield up; we do not need to be boarded again!” I ordered as I fired another salvo of torpedoes, doing some serious damage to one fighter. “Damn it, where’s the Brynhild? The Algerie?”
Rodriguez gulped and pointed at the screen. “Look.”
I looked up from my panel just in time to see the Brynhild drift into view, its saucer section sheared in half, the stardrive peeled off by another set of fire before it exploded, sending what was left of its saucer hurtling in our direction before Rodriguez juked us out of its path. “Escape pods?” I gasped.
“Can’t tell; half our scanners are down from all the damage,” Wattson said.
“The Captain was on that ship,” Rodriguez said, his voice taut and shaking with fury.
My heart sank, a deep numbness overtaking me, barely able to breath, let alone speak.
After a moment or two, Rodriguez coughed for attention. “We… incoming hail, ma’am.”
I let out a quiet sigh. “On screen.”
The Algerie’s captain appeared, her face haggard and drawn. “Phoenix, we’re all but dead in the water here. We’re not going to make it out of here.”
“Captain, I—”
Their captain shook her head. “Liang's gone, which means you're in charge now, Shimmer. Get out of here and back to Starfleet. We'll cover you.”
“But that''s—”
“No time. Now go, Shimmer. We can't risk losing you, your sister, or the Sirens.”
I watched their bridge shake with alarms and shouting people as a console exploded in the background. “...yes, ma’am,” I said, nodding. “Godspeed.”
She closed her eyes, breathed, then opened them again and nodded. “Same to you.” The transmission ceased.
“You heard her,” I ordered Rodriguez. “Get us out of here!”
“Trying to, ma’am,” he answered.
I kept my eyes on my panel, showing our trajectory as we made for the safety of open space, only to abruptly bang my head into said panel as another volley of fire blew through the ship. Stars exploded in my vision as I nearly fell out of my chair, groaning from it as I tried to keep alert. Blood ran down my face from a cut, mixing with the smoke in the air to make my eyes water and burn.
“Shields are down to thirty percent! Commander, we just lost warp drive!” Wattson cried as she hopped out of her chair and ran over towards another console close to the warp core. “They’ve damaged the main EPS manifold leading to the nacelles. I don’t know if I can get it back up in time.”
I wiped the blood away best I could as I glanced down at my panel. “Torpedo launchers are offline too. All we’ve got left is a quarter strength set of phaser banks.” I stared at my panel in mute horror.
As the ship shook from yet another blow, a voice came over my combadge. “Sparkle to Shimmer. I’ve got an idea how to handle this. I’m heading to the bridge. When I get there, I need you to shunt all control of the ship’s magic to me.”
“What?” I gasped. “Twilight, the bridge has a hull breach! I don’t know if any consoles are functional up there anymore. What are you planning?”
“Just trust me, Sunset, there’s no time to explain. I’ve got this. Do whatever you can to stall them till I’m ready, okay?”
I hadn’t the foggiest idea what Twilight was planning, or what she could possibly do with the ship’s magic. But I had to believe in Twilight. She’d proven herself a capable officer, and damn it, she was my sister. If there was anyone left on this ship with a trick up their sleeve, it'd be her.
“Alright, Twilight. I’ll do what I can. Keep yourself safe, okay? Shimmer out.”
“Commander!” Rodriguez called out. “The Algerie, I think they’re trying to ram them!”
“They're what—” I wiped another bead of blood and sweat out of my eye and watched in mute horror as the Algerie turned hard about and headed straight for the Jem'Hadar battleship. Volley after volley ripped into the already burning wreck of a ship, but she managed to close enough distance to take out three more fighters when her warp core finally succumbed.
But it still wasn’t enough. The battleship and three other fighters still remained, and they bore down on our position. The ship rocked from yet another blast of weapons fire, prompting Wattson to shout, “Shields at fifteen percent! One more hit and we’re done for!”
“Incoming hail, Commander,” Rodriguez said, looking up at me. “It’s the Jem’Hadar battleship.”
I let out a loud, long-suffering sigh. “On screen,” I said.
My skin crawled as a Vorta appeared, flanked by a Jem’Hadar. And not just any Vorta. No, of course not. It just had to be him.
“Ah, Sunset Shimmer,” said Yukarin, that gleeful, oily smarm particularly foul tasting on my tongue, “how nice to see you again. For the first time, at least, for this particular clone of me.”
“What do you want, Yukarin?” I snapped, not in the mood to play games.
“It’s quite simple, really,” he said, steepling his hands. “Your fleet is destroyed; your ship, crippled. If you want your crew or any survivors of any other ship to have a chance of survival, you’ll surrender immediately.”
“And spend our lives in a Dominion prison camp? No thanks.” I spread my wings out and bared my teeth. “I’ve already experienced enough of your hospitality. I’m not subjecting any of my crew to it. Now I demand—”
Yukarin let out a small laugh, shaking his head. “Sunset, please. You are in a position to demand nothing,” he sneered, his demeanor like that of an adult scolding a petulant child, “and I am in a position to grant you nothing. I could destroy what remains of your puny ship right now, but unfortunately I can't just yet.”
“Why?” I growled, even though I knew perfectly why.
“Must you truly ask?” Yukarin pointed a bony finger right at me. “You, your sister, and those damnable Sirens, you all have magic. Magic the Dominion wants.”
A feral snarl rippled from my throat. “And do what with it? Kill more innocents? What makes you think we’d ever willingly work with you? I’ve broken out of your custody before. So have the Sirens. You take us prisoner, we’ll just do it again.”
“Oh that may have been the case in the past,” he said, pacing through and outside the viewing angle of the transmitter, “but no longer. You see, we’ve taken precautions, ample precautions. I believe you may be familiar with this?”
He tossed up a smaller picture on his end of the transmission, and my heart skipped a beat. I recognized it alright. The obelisk, from the planet where we rescued the Sirens, standing tall and proud inside a Jem’Hadar cargo bay, with all sorts of leads and diodes connecting it to their main computers.
“Never seen it before in my life,” I said with a gormless shrug.
His congenial smile vanished, replaced by an impatient frown. “Really now. You know precisely what this is. At least, that’s what the leader of the primitives on the planet we retrieved it from told us. They told us how you infiltrated their city and stole their goddesses, the Sirens, away from them, and flew off on a shuttlecraft. Though I am curious why you left this behind. It seems like such an oversight.”
“We were respecting their culture by not interfering more than we already had,” I admitted with a sigh, not seeing a point in lying further. “Without the Sirens it's a useless lump of rock, so we left it behind.”
“Ah, yes. The Federation’s vaunted prime directive.” He let out an amused chuckle. “What a pity it betrayed you here. Of course, we had no such compulsion. When we discovered it, we took it by force, and destroyed the city for daring to stand against us. You should’ve destroyed the obelisk when you had the chance; you could’ve saved… how many lives? At least a hundred thousand?”
I quivered with sheer, unadulterated rage, trembling so hard as my wings flared to their fullest extent. “You sick bastards.”
To his credit he seemed much smarter than his predecessors, as he chose not to provoke me further by laughing in my face. Instead he gave me a sympathetic look. “I do wish it had not been necessary, but we had little choice. They attacked us; we defended ourselves. Had they simply handed it over, we could’ve escaped with a minimum of violence. Nevertheless, that 'useless lump of rock' led us straight to you.”
Again I had to bite back a look of shock. What he just said shouldn't be possible. “How?”
His simpering smile returned. “Suffice it to say, we were able to use its unusual signature to develop a way of detecting magical signals over a larger distance. Once we finally solved that problem, we located your fleet immediately. Very good idea, by the way, hiding your research so close to Cardassian territory. Not a place we ever would’ve searched normally, I’ll give you that.”
“That was the idea,” I murmured.
“But, you see, that’s all we’ve been able to do with it. We cannot advance in any real sense of the word without an active source of magic.” His smile grew as he pointed at me. “Such as yourself. So. Turn yourself, your sister, and the Sirens over, and we may allow the Phoenix crew to live.”
I snorted. “Counter offer: we hand ourselves over, you let the Phoenix go. No more attacks, no chasing it down; let it return to Federation space without further harm.”
“Done,” he said, far too quick for my taste. Which meant he was no doubt lying, and probably planned to blow it up as soon as we beamed over. “Now, drop your shields—”
“I'd be glad to, but you damaged our ship so badly the internal comms are out. We'll need to round everyone up first.” I pointed to my combadge. “Give me twenty minutes and I’ll have us wearing these standing inside a pattern enhancer field; you can beam us over then.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Ten minutes. No longer. After that we will take you by force, is that understood?”
“Perfectly,” I growled.
“Very well.” He brought his hands together. “Your ten minutes begin now.” The screen winked off.
“Ma’am, you can’t seriously be considering—” Wattson began.
I held up a hoof. “Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. Shimmer to Zhidar.”
“Zhidar here,” came the immediate, if pained, response.
“Thank god,” I murmured. “Zhidar, how close are you to the forward torpedo launchers?”
“Same deck, why?”
“I need you to get five photon torpedoes rigged with combadges and set in a pattern enhancer field ready to go. There should be a holosuite on the same deck; take them there to use it to disguise their signal. When the Dominion beams them over they’ll get something they’re not expecting.”
“Hah! Brilliant. But I can’t do it alone.”
I nodded to Rodriguez, who got out of his chair. “I know. I’m sending Rodriguez up to you now.”
“Understood. And, Commander, you should know… Ishihara is dead.”
The words struck me like a punch to the muzzle. It took me a moment to foment a reply. “How?”
“Jem-Hadar swarmed us. She must’ve taken down at least a dozen of ‘em on her own before one got a lucky stab in. Saved my life. I did what I could, but…”
I fought off the tears that threatened to spill down my face. “U-Understood. You have your orders. Get it done; you’ve got seven minutes.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
“Shimmer out.” I tapped my badge again. “Shimmer to Sparkle.”
“Sparkle here.”
“Twi, I bought you ten minutes. Whatever you’re doing, get it done, and fast.”
Ever since I reconciled with Sunset and healed the rift I had driven between us over her rebirth as an alicorn, I'd spent a lot of time reflecting on the why behind it all. Why she felt she had to sacrifice herself that day on the Enterprise. I struggled mightily to understand how she could have concluded that her own death could ever be the right answer to anything.
But as I watched helplessly from the science lab monitors as our fleet was ripped to shreds, I finally found some answers amidst the carnage.
“Sparkle to Shimmer. I’ve got an idea how to handle this. I’m heading to the bridge. When I get there, I need you to shunt all control of the ship’s magic to me.”
“Twilight, the bridge has a hull breach! I don’t know if any consoles are functional up there anymore. What are you planning?”
I remembered the horror on Sunset’s face when she spoke of the Dominion torturing her. I remembered the way she cringed anytime the subject came up, how haunted her eyes looked, and how much the Sirens matched her in reaction. The only time I ever saw fear on any of their faces was when they spoke of the Dominion. Which meant we needed to stop them, by any means necessary.
“Just trust me, Sunset, there’s no time to explain. I’ve got this. Do whatever you can to stall them till I’m ready, okay?”
“Alright, Twilight. I’ll do what I can. Keep yourself safe, okay? Shimmer out.”
I grabbed my phaser and headed for the door. With the turbolifts damaged, and the faint sounds of disruptor blasts echoing in the corridor, I dove into the first Jefferies tube I could find. A minute later, my combadge chirped again.
“Shimmer to Sparkle.”
“Sparkle here.”
“Twi, I bought you ten minutes. Whatever you’re doing, get it done, and fast.”
My hooves carried me up the next set of ladders in the Jefferies tube. “I will, I promise,” I said. “And sis? I love you.”
“Love you too. Good luck.”
The channel closed, and I found myself smiling despite it all. For just a moment I forgot about the bloodshed all around me, the countless dead and dying crewmembers I had to race past as I scrambled through the chaos toward the bridge. Jem'Hadar tried to corner me on two different decks, forcing me to waste precious time defending myself before lunging into the next set of Jefferies tubes. Though my sudden appearance through a tube hatch on deck three proved enough of a distraction to a pair of Jem'Hadar that the beleaguered security team was able to gun them down, so at least I saved someone along the way.
Still, the clock was ticking, and I needed every second I could get to pull this off.
The ship shuddered under the weight of yet another impact, momentarily cutting out the lights in the Jefferies tube leading up from deck two. If not for the extra bit of magic securing me to the ladder, I likely would have fallen who knows how far. Even in here, the gut-wrenching sounds of a dying ship reached my ears.
The clang of hooves on metal preceded my landing inside the junction tube leading to the conference lounge. A quick shimmy later and I popped out of the hatch. The scent of smoke, ash, and blood hit my nostrils instantly, and I could hear the buzzing of a forcefield. Stepping out into the lounge proper, I saw how: there was a hull breach in the area from the conference lounge to the bridge.
Luckily the forcefield held as I made my way past it onto the bridge proper. The viewscreen was also a hull breach at this point, though the rest of the bridge was surprisingly intact given the massive hit it had taken. Most of the consoles were completely burned out, but one of the aft flex-consoles was still alive. "Perfect."
While I reconfigured it to Tactical and began rerouting command functions, I thought through everything a dozen more times... yet the answer never changed. This was the only way. We had no weapons, no allies left, and precious little time; and even if Sunset found a way to summon up the same power she used to destroy the Dominion battleship all those years ago, the enemy would surely try to use the obelisk as a weapon itself and neutralize her.
But there was still one trick, one spell... one magic that I know that damnable Yukarin had not accounted for. He couldn't have, because he can't possibly know it exists. Only two people in this universe know it exists, and one of them just died aboard the Brynhild.
Sunset would have confined me to quarters, battle or not, if she knew what I was preparing. Hell, Celestia would have likely thrown me in the dungeon for even knowing about this at all.
“Transfer complete. Relevant command functions now available at this station.”
I threw off the panels underneath the console and located the main EPS tap to the bridge. I closed my eyes. This was the last chance, the point of no return. Once I began, it was either succeed and die… or just die.
Taking a series of shuddering breaths, I whispered, “Forgive me, Sunset. I hope you’ll understand.” Then I tapped my badge. “Bridge to Engineering. Begin shunt of all magical power systems to the bridge.”
“Understood,” came Sunset’s reply. After another moment, several indicators on the console lit up. “Done.”
I closed my end of the channel and tuned the combadge to receive Sunset's feed instead, not trusting myself to speak another word without breaking down. Finally, I locked down any control Engineering had over the magical systems, to prevent them from interfering.
One more deep breath, and I lit my horn. “Here we go,” I murmured.
I used a telekinesis spell to magically connect my horn to the EPS tap, almost immediately feeling the bizarre surge of energy. The initial connection was tenuous, like two bare electrical cords sitting just close enough to share a spark. It took me a moment to adjust to the bizarre surge of energy, but as the connection stabilized I began turning up the converter.
Thirty percent. Forty percent. Forty-five percent.
As I pushed the converter past fifty percent, I could feel the subtle change in the power flow as pure magic began to take over the EPS grid. I felt giddy and heady, like I'd just downed a dozen raktajinos at once. My mana channels surged with energy as I drew upon the ship like a huge mana battery, and I watched a visible spell matrix begin to float in the air above me.
Normally the formation of a spell matrix has virtually no effect on the caster. Any decently trained unicorn would hardly ever feel a thing until the spell was actually cast. But not this one. This one burned the moment it began, tearing through my nerves like a runaway blaze. It bit and clawed and stung at me more and more as the seconds wore on.
I stitched together the foundation of the matrix, sweat already beading under my mane from the effort, and watched the conversion rate steadily climb.
The comms channel, still tapped into Sunset's feed, burst to life. "Twilight, what the hell are you doing?!"
Sixty percent...
“The converter's running far too high! Do you hear me?”
Seventy percent...
"The warp core is starting to overload! Turn it down!"
"I-I've got this, Sunny..." I managed to whisper, not caring that my end was still muted. "Trust m-me..."
I raised my head, stiffened my back, and began drawing the second layer of the spell matrix. Despite the immense pressure I kept my movements steady, like a conductor leading an arcane orchestra. Eighty percent. Eighty-five percent. Ninety percent.
I could feel the ship shudder beneath me, as if it too was struggling under the otherworldly forces being pumped through its veins. Screams came over the channel, Sunset’s voice louder than all of them, begging me to stop, shouting for Wattson to deactivate the converter, or even eject the warp core. Oh how I wish I could stop, sister. But I cannot.
I pushed through the mind-numbing pain and set the third and final base layer of the matrix in place.
Ninety-eight...
Ninety-nine...
Finally, the converter registered one hundred percent... and the fire inside of me became an inferno.
I cried out in agony as my legs nearly gave out. I leaned against the console, gasping for every breath. And somewhere, beneath the all-consuming pain, I began to hear an eerie sound; like the faintest whisper carried on the lightest of winds. What was that?
The console screen blinked in and out under the immense power drain, and for just a moment I caught my reflection in the glassy screen. My mouth opened in mute horror at what I saw.
My magic, such as I knew it, was gone. In its place flooded a terrible, evil, corrupt magic.
A dark magic.
What little was left of my sanity begged me to stop, to run away and pray for survival. But I had to go on. I had to complete the ritual. Stop now and we'd all be dead in minutes. Continue, and hopefully some of us might yet live.
A single tear slid down my cheek as I began my crescendo. I spoke in an ancient and long dead language of old Equus; one that neither Sunset nor the translator could ever hope to understand, but to me sounded as plain as any modern Ponish.
“Let hoof and horn be the essence.
Let wing and the root of magic be the foundation.
Let it be declared now; black is the color I pay tribute to, and in its shadow I prostrate myself.”
Those words acted like a frozen knife to my heart, turning my entire being cold in an instant. I shook under the intense cold, my nerves far too overwhelmed to even make sense of what they were feeling. That eerie voice returned too; a bit stronger than before. I could tell now it was getting closer, whatever it was.
“What the hell is she saying? What’s going on?! Commander, are you hearing this?”
“O Mirror of Darkness, reveal yourself to me.
Answer me and unlock the forsaken gate.
Throw open the Castle of Shadows and release the Umbral Star.”
“Miss Shimmer, we can see a major power build up on your ship. Surely you don't think you can fool us with some kind of improvised weapon. I advise you to stop at once, if you want to live. The Founders may want you alive, but they also did not forbid me from killing you either.”
I could barely make out what any of them were saying now. The roar of the magic around me drowned out nearly everything else. I grit my teeth and continued to build upon the finished base of the matrix, carefully setting the first key piece of the spell into place as I began the next phase of the ritual.
“Hear me, O fallen star of Equus, and rise. Rise and reclaim your rightful place in the heavens!”
The words sounded all but broken leaving my mouth, my voice a deep and twisted echo of its normal self.
“I hear it, Wattson, but I can't make any sense of it! Reset the universal translator! Now!”
“Working on it!”
“Yukarin, we’re having an issue with our warp core due to the battle damage; we’re trying to lock it down now.”
“I am growing increasingly impatient with you, Sunset Shimmer. You have less than one minute left to surrender yourselves.”
“Just give me a chance here, okay?”
I carefully set the next piece of the spell and a ghostly hum began to emanate from the matrix itself. It seemed to shrink in on itself for just a second before bouncing back, now at a considerably larger size than before. It spun and twisted before me, warbling and pulsing and filling the air around me with a smoky purple fog.
“Come forth from the chains of Tartarus, the dark beast that marks the end, and sever the threads of destiny!”
The ship shuddered even more beneath me as that eerie voice seemed to rush toward me now. No longer was it a whisper. I could clearly hear someone, something calling to me. My very soul ached, as if the bitter cold enveloping my body stretched beyond physical limits and leached into my very essence, suffocating me from the inside out.
Still I continued. The sixth piece of the spell clicked into place. My own pained cries flowed into every piece of the ship, a desperate attempt by my body to manage the sheer amount of dark mana coursing through it. The entire ship seemed to cry in agony along with me; even without the comms channel I could feel the crew's pain echoing back at me.
The entire tactical console had changed colors now, along with the EPS taps themselves. Black and purple and green suffused everything now. I blanched under the pressure, the sheer anguish threatening to break me entirely. Yet that voice reached out to me, somehow buoying me. It wasn't eerie now, but soft and pleasant. Soothing almost. It beckoned me to go further, like a lover craving one more touch, one more kiss.
“Swallow the light of the three tribes and reverse the rising sun!”
This was it. One more piece to go. Whatever was to happen, at least this pain, this agony, would finally be at an end.
“For everyone’s sake, Twilight, you have to stop! There has to be another way!"
My magic kept working the console, redirecting the energy flow, setting up the final wave.
"You can’t do this! I won’t let you do this! I won’t lose you again! Twilight! Twilight please! Answer me!”
I’m sorry, Sunset.
And Preta… I’m especially sorry.
"By my command–"
I hope one day you'll forgive me.
"Shatter the harmony! Kur Kigal Irkalla!”
What little was left of me, Twilight Sparkle, crumbled the moment I released the spell. Every last drop of the pent up magic surged into the phaser banks, overcharging them to an unbelievable level.
But through the pain, I could at least watch the results.
Every phaser bank on the Phoenix roared to life at once, sending powerful blasts sweeping in every direction around the ship. Blackish purple beams, each surrounded by a pulsing green lightning, lanced out through space.
The first Jem’Hadar fighter evaporated. No explosion, no fireball, just… gone.
Then the second, and the third. With each fallen ship, my sense of self faded away, my consciousness dwindled further and further into oblivion.
And still it kept going. Fourth fighter, then fifth.
I fell to my knees, feeling my body ripping itself apart. I watched in some insane mix of horror and fascination as the dark energy consumed my flesh, like I was disintegrating in minutes rather than seconds. That voice was there too, now at full volume, soothing me and comforting me, telling me it would all be over soon.
Then the phasers finally fell upon the battleship. Deep within my soul, I could hear the pained, agony-fueled cries of the Jem’Hadar soldiers as it tore through the ship. Too large to evaporate, this one disappeared in pieces, jetting soldiers into space, tearing apart conduits. Yukarin himself let out a gut-wrenching scream before he too was twisted into oblivion.
My head crumpled to the deck, the rest of my body entirely gone now. I watched as the battleship faded away into so much cosmic space dust.
And I smiled.
“...goodbye… Preta… Sssun…se—”
