//------------------------------//
// Episode 17: Security and Unity 
// Story: Star Trek Equestria: Reformatted: Wild Access 
// by Captain_Cosmos 
//------------------------------//

“They have managed to overcome EVERYTHING we have thrown at them so far. We need a new plan. And we need it SOON!” Growled the deep voice of Unicron.

In front of the mystical figure knelt Bio Bionic, who was smirking. “I believe I do have a plan, my lord. We use their separation ability against them.” She proposed. “We’ve managed to locate them at an Energon Deposit. It would seem they are doing one of their puny mining pit stops. I’ve sent three of our own “Multi-Vector” as they call it capable vessels. Let’s see how they like it when we fight fire with fire.” She said.

“You sent the new Combo Megabot Terrorcons after them...for your sake they had better work.” Unicron responded.

“At the very least, it will strike fear into them that one of their greatest strengths now also belongs to us.” Bio Bionic replied as a hologram appeared and showed a trio of ships jumping to warp. “They have no idea what’s coming. Mwahahaha!” She laughed maniacally.




(Start to about 1:24)
Space: The final frontier. This is the story of the USS Equestria. A ship fresh out of construction, with a crew fresh from the Academy. Together they will embark on a mission of discovery, and evolution. They will explore a strange new frontier, seek out new life and a new civilization, and boldly go farther than anyone has ever gone.



“Tactical Officer’s log: Stardate 32120801.09. We are once again at an energon deposit conducting a mining operation. Which means it’s the perfect chance for our resident Junior Warrant Officer in training to shadow both the Security and Tactical Departments, since they often go hand in hand with each other.”

On the bridge of the USS Equestria, the ship which was parked over an asteroid containing Energon. Yamik and Shron were at their stations, running regular scans of the area. “No Terrorcons coming up in sensors.” Shron reported.

“And I haven’t heard anything from Blitzwing. Looks Like Harmony might have an easy shadow day today.” Yamik commented in response.

“Knock on the console.” Shron responded, knocking on the tactical console for good luck.

At that moment, the turbolift opened and Harmony stepped onto the bridge. And by the sound of it she was talking to someone. “Captain Maxima, you have a Video call request coming in from Starfleet. It’s your parents.” She said into her combadge.

“Acknowledged. Route it to my combadge.” Maxima responded from down in the Energon Mine.

“Aye captain.” Harmony responded before she walked over to the communications station and did as she was told. Having gotten the notification as she made her way to the bridge.

Norman meanwhile watched Harmony slide up to the station next to him. “Morning JWO CyberSpark. Ready for your shadowing of Tactical and Security?” He asked.

“Aye sir.” Harmony responded as she routed the signal.

“Good to hear.” Yamik replied as he got up from his usual spot and walked to the back of the bridge where Shron and Harmony were.

Harmony meanwhile routed the video call to the captain and turned to her superior officers. Shron nodded. “Alright CyberSpark. You’ve shadowed Engineering, Science, and Operations. And you’ve gotten a taste of Security during the whole…incident recently involving a certain pair of whackjobs.” He said.

“And you are a month away from your Starfleet Entrance exam. I trust you’ve been keeping up with your studies while off duty?” Yamik asked.

“Aye sir.” Harmony replied with a confident smile, looking back on all the hours she’d already spent studying. “Put in 5 hours a day hitting the books.”

“Impressive.” Shron responded. “We might just make an officer out of you yet. But you still have a ways to go.” He reminded her.

“Understood sir.” Harmony responded.

Yamik nodded. “Now. Let’s start off with a little pop quiz. How many souls are on this ship?” He asked.

“175 officers, 3 pets, and 3 cybertronians for an overall 181 life forms onboard.” Harmony responded.

“And how many can pose a threat at any time?” Shron asked.

At that, Harmony tilted her head to the side in confusion. “Er, excuse me?” She asked.

“How many of those 181 souls could pose a threat to us at any time?” Yamik repeated.

Harmony heard the question, but it still did not make a whole lot of sense. “Uhm…I’m not sure I understand sir?” She finally admitted after a moment.

In response, Yamik just tapped the console next to him and security logs popped up on the screen. “Let’s go down memory lane shall we? You remember the day before we came out here right? And you left drydock prematurely on the sole word of Blitzwing?” He asked.

Harmony couldn’t help but blush and her ears drooped down. “Yeah…I remember.” She said.

“And as a result, we were forced into battle with the Emerald Rogues, which was a dangerous situation. And danger is related to threat.” Yamik explained.

“For a more recent exhibit B, Commander Sela going insane and assaulting 3 Starfleet officers. During that time she was a threat as well.” Shron chimed in.

“Yes sir.” Harmony responded, not quite getting it yet.

“In both cases, the people involved were those that do not normally act out in such a way.” Shron explained. “They became threats.”

“You could say that sir…” Harmony responded, her brain module starting to put together what Shron and Yamik were trying to explain to her.

“The point we are trying to make Harmony, is that anyone can become a threat to the rest of us at any time.” Yamik explained. “And it’s the job of security to do everything we can to minimize the possibility of threats internally.” He said.

“Yes sir. I understand now.” Harmony responded.

Meanwhile, in the captain’s chair, Sela couldn’t help but overhear when they brought up the incident recently, and her fingers curled into a clenched fist as she recalled her perspective. She took a deep breath to recompose herself before calming back down. ‘Do not pay it any mind Sela.’ She told herself. ‘So long as you have the Dream Crystal, they cannot touch you, and they cannot terrorize everyone else.’ She thought as she pushed it to the back of her mind, while also subconsciously gripping the crystal around her neck. Her thoughts wandering to Proxima, the mare who saved her.

Meanwhile, down in the mine, Proxima tapped her combadge, and two holograms of her parents projected from its built in emitter. “Captain Maxima, can you hear us?” Asked her mom.

“Loud and clear mom.” Proxima responded. “Looks like using the Equestria as a repeater is working nicely.” She observed.

“That’s good to hear.” Prodima’s momma, Belana, said. Looking around at the cave. “Is this a cave?” She asked.

“The Equestria is currently undergoing a mining operation to top off our Energon reserves.” Proxima explained, lighting her horn and laser cutting an Energon Crystal from its lodged base in the rock. “We do it anytime we come across an Energon deposit on the way. Just in case we end up going through a suave of space that is devoid of Energon deposits. We won’t be screwed right away.”

“That’s actually really smart.” Hannah responded. “Better to keep the tank filled as much as possible.”

“Exactly.” Proxima responded, talking while working as she moved onto another crystal. “All that being said. Hope you don’t mind me multitasking.” She said.

“Not at all.” Belana responded. 

“How’ve you been Proxi? Everything going alright out there?” Hannah asked, smiling.

“For the most part everything’s been A-OK here. Aside from a rather intense incident that involved a pair of nutjobs we all know and loathe.” Proxima admitted.

Belana frowned at the mention of Nutjobs. “What did they do to Sela this time?” She asked. The three of them all knowing who Proxima was referring to.

“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing.” Proxima responded. “All I’ll say is, you guys back home better find them as quickly as possible. We’ve put up a defense against them but given that they accomplished what we all thought was impossible before…” Proxima trailed off.

Her parents nodded, understanding what Proxima was saying. “We’ve got several eyes looking for them, but so far nothing.” Hannah reported. “But we’ll keep looking.”

Proxima nodded. “So.” She said, changing the topic. “Aside from that, how’s it going back home?” She asked.

“Nothing out of the ordinary. Few skirmishes with the Emerald Rogues demanding to know where our “super weapon” is, but other than that. Just the usual.” Belana said.

Proxima couldn’t help but chuckle, knowing that the rogues meant the Equestria as the super weapon. “Were they told to go outside the galactic barrier to find it?” She asked.

“We did actually.” Hannah said. “But considering they are still demanding to know where, I doubt they believe us.” She said.

“Typical.” Proxima responded, rolling her eyes.

“So, Proxi, there IS a reason we called.” Belana said. “There’s something your mom and I have been talking about and we wanted to get your opinion.”

“Alright. Shoot.” Proxima responded. Curious what her parents had in mind.

“Remember that one time when you were three and you wondered if you had any siblings, and then subsequently asked if you were going to get siblings?” Hannah asked.

That caught Proxima off guard. “Uh...Yeah?” She responded, confused and curious where this was going if that was the first thing her mom asked her. She thought back to when she was three. Her parents brought her to the playground to play and she had her first experience encountering siblings.

“Well, your mom and I were thinking of adopting again.” Belana announced. “Grow our family with another bundle of joy.” She said.

Proxima froze in her tracks at her momma’s words. “...O-oh.” She said, taken aback by the news. “That’s uhm...” She tried to form words, but her brain was still trying to process it.

“The house has been quiet ever since you left for Starfleet Academy and...well, we don’t exactly do quiet apparently.” Hannah explained. “We kinda miss the noise.”

“Ah. I see.” Proxima responded.

“To be clear, this isn’t us trying to replace you. We don’t love you any less than when we first brought you home.” Belana clarified, sensing what Proxima might have been thinking. “We just thought it might be nice to grow our family is all.” She said.

Proxima inwardly breathed a sigh of relief when her momma clarified that. Though she had faith that her parents still loved her, it was nice to get that reassurance.

Proxima was about to respond when she heard jet engines roaring closer and she turned to see Blitzwing transform and land in front of her. “Captain, sorry to interrupt, but I found something you need to see.” He said.

“Can it wait Blitz?” Proxima asked.

“It can’t.” Blitz responded. “It’s a matter of life or death. I’m not kidding.” He explained.

“If you need to go Proxi, we understand.” Hannah said.

“Duty calls for a captain.” Belana said.

Proxima glanced between her parents and Blitzwing, before she sighed. “I’ll call you back later.” She said before she cut the connection. Blitzwing transformed into jet mode and opened his canopy. “Get in.” He said.

Proxima lit her horn and levitated herself into his cockpit, her wings being useless in the vacuum of space. When Proxima was secure, Blitzwing rocketed out of the mine and flew through the asteroid cluster. “So, what is this thing that you found Blitz?” She asked.

“It’s better if you saw it first, but it will be a familiar sight to you.” Blitz responded.

Proxima’s curiosity was piqued. It should be familiar to her and it was a matter of life or death. Now what could that be referring to?

She was brought out of her thoughts when Blitzwing spoke up again. “So, what did your parents want?” He asked.

“They uh...They want to adopt another kid. Grow our family.” Proxima responded.

“Adopt? Isn’t that where an organic takes a smaller organic under their wing in place of the smaller organic’s biological family?” Blitz asked.

“Yeah. It’s what my parents did for me when I was first discovered, and when it was determined that I had no family...” Proxima trailed off. Remembering when she first lay eyes on the environment she would come to call home.

“Hm. They are some brave individuals. Taking on an infant like you.” Blitzwing responded. “I mean, surely your magic was unpredictable at times.” He mused.

“Heheh. Yeah...Good thing for replicators replacing what I accidentally destroyed.” Proxima responded, she glanced out the canopy towards the front, and after quite a bit of time, she spotted something lodged into an asteroid they were approaching. “What in the world?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Blitzwing responded. “Found this on my routine patrol on mining day, and suffice to say, we should bring it with us.” He said.

He landed on the asteroid near the object and let Proxima out. Proxima set her hooves on the asteroid and approached the object, which indeed looked very, very familiar. A round sphere that bore a striking resemblance to her own pod that they had in their cargo bay. “It...It’s my pod.” She said in disbelief.

“Indeed.” Blitzwing said as he transformed and miniaturized.

Proxima meanwhile had her mind racing. The features of the pod looked identical to her own pod down to the tiniest detail. After a moment, she tapped her combadge. “Maxima to Equestria, confirm that our life pod is still in our cargo bay?” She asked.

“Captain?” Asked Norman.

“Confirm that my pod is still in our cargo bay.” Maxima repeated.

After a moment, Norman’s voice spoke up again. “Confirmed Captain.” Norman responded. “Pod’s still here, what made you ask?” He asked.

“Blitzwing and I are looking at a pod of the exact same model right now.” Maxima reported.

“And what’s more, there is SOMETHING in this pod. I can pick it up on my scanner.” Blitzwing chimed in. “Which is why I suggested we take it back with us.”

Proxima’s eyes widened. She knew full well what her pod had in it when it crashed on Earth 22 years go, and if this pod was the exact same as her own... “Maxima to Equestria, send a shuttle to our coordinates.” She ordered.

“Aye sir.” Norman responded 

On the Equestria, Sela and the rest of the bridge crew all shared glances with each other. “Did I hear that right? Blitz and the Captain found a second pod...With something INSIDE it?” Prestine asked.

“Sure sounds like it.” Norman responded as he tapped his combadge. “Lt Obelisk, take a shuttle out to Blitzwing’s and Captain Maxima’s Coordinates. They discovered something to bring back.” He ordered.

“Why not just beam it back here?” Paris asked. “Sounds like that would be faster.”

“If something is inside that thing, it’s better to use a shuttle so the transporter can’t screw with whatever the pod is carrying.” Prestine responded. “Though the fact that they found a second pod like the captain’s, and our sensors didn’t detect it, is...off putting, like there’s more to this than we know.” She said.

“I do not disagree Cmdr Prestine.” Sela responded. “It is rather curious we would make such a discovery. Although, starfleet has always had the theory that the captain’s pod was not the only one.” She pointed out.

“Still, something seems off about this.” Prestine said.

“I’ll alert Yamik so that security can be there in case things go sideways.” Norman responded.

Meanwhile, in one of the Equestria’s phaser cannon emitter stations, Harmony, Shron, and Yamik were doing a routine check on weapons systems. “Updating security protocols. Compiling firewall systems.” Yamik reported.

“Reinitializing Prefire subroutines, CyberSpark, how’s the Prefire Chamber looking?” Shron asked.

“All systems go across the board.” Harmony reported, her voice having a slight echo due to her being in the chamber itself, she exited the chamber and closed the hatch. “Remind me again why we aren’t doing all 6 of our cannons at once?” She asked.

“Some things can only be done manually.” Shron responded. “Our weapons systems need regular TLC to continue functioning at peak efficiency. Mining Ops provide that chance since the odds of encountering Terrorcons in these belts is low.” He explained.

“And as the old saying goes, Treat her like a lady, and she’ll always bring you home.” Yamik said. “Not a perfect analogy but the principle is the same. We take care of the Equestria and her systems, they’ll take care of us.”

“Which...now that I think about it, that kinda takes on a new meaning with the Equestria.” Shron pointed out.

“Because of me?” Harmony asked.

“Pretty much.” Shron responded as he reactivated the Prefire chamber. “We’re taking care of each other out here. As it should be.” He said.

“Yeah.” Harmony responded after giving it some thought. “Guess we are.” She said as the prefire chamber roared to life and the chamber itself became filled with teal colored phased energy. Harmony glanced into the chamber through the window, before a thought occurred to her. “Hey, why aren’t we using Energon?” She asked.

“Pardon?” Yamik asked.

“Blitzwing and Cliffjumper both say that Energon is used for ammunition in weapons. So why aren’t mine powered by Energon?” Harmony asked curiously.

Shron and Yamik glanced at each other, struggling to come up with an answer. “Uhh…” Yamik trailed off.

“We…don’t know actually.” Shron admitted. “Maybe it’s because of the circumstances of your emergence?” He suggested.

“I mean…the electroplasma I was running on before was replaced with Energon. Wouldn’t that have propagated to our weapons too?” Harmony asked.

“We...really can’t answer that Harmony.” Yamik responded with regret. “We weren’t expecting our ship to turn into a Titan, and we weren’t expecting our entire power grid to change over to Energon. It’s something that’s never happened in the history of the Federation before. That’s partly why we’re out here looking for Cybertron. So we can get some answers to these questions.” He explained.

“Ah. Ok. Well, hopefully we find Cybertron then.” Harmony said.

“Knock on the console.” Shron responded, knocking on the console next to him for luck.

At that moment, almost on cue, they heard the phaser cannons powering up automatically as the console turned red, spooking the three officers. “What the, Shron what did you do?” Yamik asked.

“I didn’t do anything.” Shron responded as he looked at the console. His eyes widened when he saw what was happening. “We got incoming!” He exclaimed. “Terrorcons.” He said.

Meanwhile, at the asteroid where they found the pod 3 hours ago, Proxima and Blitzwing watched as a shuttle from the Equestria landed near them. The hatch opened and out walked Obelisk in a spacesuit. “Someone call for an uber?” He asked jokingly.

“Very funny Lt Obelisk.” Proxima responded.

Obelisk approached them and saw the pod. “Whoa. Is that your pod captain?” He asked, having seen Proxima’s pod along with everyone else.

“A replica of it. Yeah.” Proxima responded. “And it appears that there is something in there.” She added? Having her compadge tricorder HUD up. “I am very much detecting a life form in this thing.”

“How on earth did it crash here?” Obelisk asked.

“I don’t know, but we can’t leave it here.” Proxima replied. “Let’s load it up and—“

She didn’t get any further before everyone noticed the pod beginning to glow, and shake on the ground. Making all three of them step back from the pod. “What the hell?” Asked Blitz

A small hole opened up in the pod, and projected a beam of light that began moving in a circle. It was probably a scanning system. After a few passes, the scanning beam stopped at Proxima and began to do a more detailed scan of her. After a few seconds, the beam retracted and the pod dimmed its glow, after which four red dots appeared on the pod. The leftmost one turned green…and then all activity stopped.

Silence. Silence befell the situation as Blitz, Proxima, and Obelisk all stared at the pod, and glanced at each other. “Ok, anyone want to take a guess as to what just happened?” Obelisk asked.

“It looked like it scanned Maxima…and maybe now it’s beginning a process to open?” Blitzwing guessed. “I don’t see what the dots could otherwise indicate.”

“We better get it back onto the ship before the other three dots turn green.” Proxima deduced. “Get it into a breathable—“

“Equestria to Captain Maxima.” Came Sela’s voice through Maxima’s combadge. “Captain, we have a situation.”

“Situation?” Maxima asked. “What’s going on number one?”

Obelisk noticed something in his peripheral vision and glanced up to see something that made him jump. “Uh, guys. Look!” He said as he pointed up.

Maxima and Blitz looked to where Obelisk was pointing, and saw three ships with familiar markings bearing down on them. “Scrap.” Blitz cursed.

“Terrorcons!” Proxima identified the threat before them.

To Be Continued…