//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Memories and Warriors Part 1 // Story: Star Trek: Equestrian Assimilation // by firelordzx5 //------------------------------// Chapter 5: Memories and Warriors Part 1 Equestria, Ponyville: Library "I don't know who or what you are, but touch her and I BUCK YOU!" Rainbow growl in front of the weird metallic creature. It looks like a dragon or reptile, but it act like a machine and something weird was on it. Twilight looked closer at the creature with the black armor or carapace that looked fused with it flesh. For a menacing reptile-like monster his (it sounded male) face show no emotion, no growling or any show of primal rage she expected. He said his name but also his "loyalty". Borg. "Resistance is futile,” the metallic reptile stated. “Surrender yourself and prepare to be assimilated." Twilight was more confused but something hit her. "Assimilated." The book had said something about conversion. Maybe this creature could convert ponies to look like him? Or maybe this creature... "Rainbow! I don't know how, but you must knock him unconscious!" Twilight yelled. Rainbow look back at Twilight with confusion. "What? How am I supposed to do that?" This statement made Twilight pause. What she was thinking? Rainbow was a Pegasus yes, but she didn't have the strength or stamina of an Earth pony but Twilight remember one more thing. She was a unicorn! She almost facehoofed with that realization. "Change of plan! I'll charge a sleep spell while you distract him!" Twilight horn began to charge with magic. Rainbow nodded and flew towards the Borg creature, right in his face. "Tough guy, huh? Come and get me!" She waved her plot in the borg's face, mocking him, then landed and with amazing speed, she ran towards the borg's legs and bucked him right to the nuts! She looked at his face to see if he was in pain to laugh at him ... but was futile. He felt nothing; no pain, annoyance or anything like that. SHE KICKED HIM IN THE NUTS! What thing can tolerate pain like that?! Unless he was a female? She wondered... "Rainbow what are you doing?!" Twilight's voice snapped her back to reality, but how in Equestria could she keep him busy while Twilight charged her spell? "Stop right there, ya vermin!" A rope lassoed the scorpion tail of the borg. The reptilian looked back only to see a orange pony with a hat with the end of the rope in her teeth. With his claw, he grabbed the rope on his metallic tail and pulled. The pony fought to maintain control of the rope but it was futile. Without effort the borg pulled the orange pony onto his feet. "Applejack!" Rainbow shouted and bucked the back of the creature's neck. The creature struggled to stay on its feet. Seeing that it was working Applejack bucked him on his left leg, forcing him to kneel down. "Ta'lash... borg... designation: 1...35..." Before he can finish, Applejack b ucked him in his face with all her strength. He finally fell on his back but was not completely defeated. Then something startled the ponies in the library.. "Kill.... me.....!!" This surprised the two victorious ponies but before they could ask questions, Twilight fired her sleeping spell on the borg, leaving him unconscious on the floor. Rainbow fell, tired, while Applejack inspected the creature. She was surprised that it wasn't a black dragon but one with a black armor and strange... accessories. "Are ya okay Twilight?" asked Applejack. "Yes. I hadn't finished charging the spell but in his weakened state I thought that it wouldn't be a problem to fire on him and I was correct!" Twilight cheered at the end of her little explanation. Applejack looked at Twilight with a confused look. "Twilight, before you fired that spell that creature wanted us to kill him!" said Rainbow Dash. Twilight look thoughtful. She looked back at the creature, then at her friends. “The prophecy talked about conversion. The creature said assimilation. Maybe they are the same thing,” thought Twilight. "Twilight?" Rainbow said confused. "Yes?" "What we do with this... eh, reptile..?" said Rainbow uneasily. Something this big needed to be maintained. Even a prideful pegasus had her standards. "I'll contact Princess Celestia about this. Maybe she'll know more," she said then looked at Applejack. "How did you know that we were in trouble?" "I didn't know. I wanted to invite you to a party on the farm. It's Applebloom's birthday party!” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Canterlot's palace, half an hour later. The Princess was in a meeting with four ambassadors. The retired General Razorclaw, a griffin with a history of battles and victories of the Griffin Kingdom. The Priestess Zalune of Zebrica, while she look young, she has centuries ahead of any of her kin and she know the princess very well. Darkwing, Master of Hunting and famous warrior of the Dragon Kingdom. Ambassador Relikia, a noble of the changeling hive Honeyrock. While Chrysalis' changelings were black and green with teal carapace, she was black, red maned with yellow carapace. Not one of the royal guard or ponies in general trusted changelings thanks to Chrysalis' failed invasion. The only three ponies that trusted her most were the princesses. "Ladies, gentlegriffin, gentledragon, we have a situation." Celestia said with a serious tone. She started to talk about the prophecy and the Borg. As she talked, Razorclaw was in his thought and Darkwing was no really interested. Zalune and Relikia were the only ones that were interested in the topic. "Are you certain about this Princess?" asked Razorclaw. He didn't believe in any prophecy. While he was only a cub he used to believe that one day a giant black sphere would fall from the sky and destroy all. That day never came and he no longer cared about any prophecy. "I'm very certain, General. This "Borg" menace may come in any moment. I and my sister used to believe that it was Chrysalis again but this tactic was very off even for her. There is a prophecy about disappearance and missing ponies, then Immortal sisters suffering vision from the future. We, Luna and I are the Immortal sisters. We have these vision each time we sleep and now we have this case of missing foals and nobles, mainly unicorns with a few pegasi and earth ponies. "My queen also know about this prophecy, Princess. She said that will be the day of a disaster. Mindless creatures will come from nowhere only to abduct us and... convert us" said Relikia. Celestia affirmed by nodding to the changeling noble. "The Shaman Circle predicted this day. Only ill and devastation are from this plague." Zalune said in the typical zebra's rhyming patois. Again, Celestia nodded. "The Drake High Templars saw this as well but they never believed in such thing," said Darkwing, not amused and uninterested in this conversation. Celestia knew about Darkwing, a legendary warrior that defeated a drake warlock, Aldrukin, a black dragon with mastery in black magic. Darkwing, even for such a mighty dragon warrior, had very good standards in diplomacy. "Your Templars should pay more attention to this! This can be serious!" Relikia injected, hoping to get the attention of the dragon warrior. "I never said that I did not believe in 'that' prophecy, but the Templars are the absolute law. Also their arrogance is, like me, legendary." When Darkwing finished his sentence, a letter suddenly appeared in front of Celestia, gaining a curious glare from the diplomats. Celestia opened the letter and read carefully. When her eyes widened as she read the content of the letter, the di plomats looked even more curious. "What is it, Princess? Is it from your student?" Razorclaw asked. "Yes, it's very important." Her voice become more serious. "Guards, call Princess Luna, this is an urgent matter!" Two guards bowed and left the meeting room, going towards the royal quarters. "What is more important than an ambassadors meeting?" asked Darkwing curiously. "A... borg... is in the library in Ponyville." Zalune and Relikia were in shock and surprise with mouths gaping open and eyes wide. “A living borg? Here?” thought Relikia. She wanted to see it. If true, then she must send a letter to the queen, a letter that might confirm her fear. "This meeting is over, I'll be seeing this myself with Luna." Before Celestia could go Relikia transformed into an alicorn version of herself, red furred with yellow mane and emerald green eyes. Zalune along with Relikia faced the princess. "This a shocking news, but I must depart with you to see the true!" "Zalune is right. I'm going with you. I need to confirm this for my hive!" "Very well but I must tell you that we aren't going to use a carriage." Both Zalune and Relikia nodded, knowing what method Celestia would use. Both of them then looked to the two others ambassadors. "You two aren't going to see it? This can be very important for our people's sake!" said Relikia. "I'm interested, but not fully intrigued with the idea of see it. I've got a report to send, by the way." Darkwing rose up and went to the nearest exit. Razorclaw was also not interested, so he exit the room as well, the three mares leave the room galoping towards the balcony, when they got there, luna suddenly appears next to celestia, startling both Zalune and Relikia. "What is going on, sister?" asked Luna. Normally she got the news when the guards entered her room but the guards had said the matter was urgent. "We are going to Ponyville, Luna." "Why? What's wrong there?" "You will see, now hold on!" Celestia charged her horn with pure magic and with a blink of an eye, they teleported to Ponyville. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ponyville: Library "Twilight? Any response from the princess?" asked Spike. He had woken up when Twilight screamed seeing the borg in front of her and Rainbow. He was hiding in the room when the battle between the pegasus and the "Draco-Machine" took place. Spike thought that the “Draco-Machine” was very scary and now, even unconscious, he was still pretty scary, even for a bipedal dragon. "The princess should respond to me or-" Before Twilight could finish, a bright light filled the room only to fade with the princesses and other two guests appearing in front of her and her friends. "Or appears in front of us." Applejack and Rainbow bowed. Twilight could see the expression of each. Celestia looked serious, Luna looked confused but she didn't know the other two figures next to the princesses. One looked like a zebra with a long black and white mane, very different from the Mohawk of Zecora. The other.. was an alicorn! Red coat and yellow mane with green emerald eyes. Seeing alicorns apart from the princesses was very rare. She knew Cadance but she was a princess. This alicorn must be from royalty that did not live in the castle. "Where is it Twilight?" said Celestia with a stern voice. She caught the attention of her fake-alicorn companion who was looking very... uncomfortable. "You don't need to fear, Relikia. They'll never hurt you if they know," said Celestia softly. "I prefer not to take any chances. Your captain was very... anxious... for me to leave Canterlot and Equestria when he looked upon me." She sounded sad and sorrowful. Twilight looked once again on the red alicorn. She als o mentioned “captain". It must her brother. Why would he want her to leave Equestria? "I can sense that you are good fellow with good intentions for your people Relikia," said Luna. Comforting Relikia, she extended her wing to 'hug' the red alicorn. "Twilight, please, where is... the borg?" Celestia asked, regaining her serious expression. Luna now understood why she was in hurry. Twilight feared that maybe she had disappointed the princess, but maybe she was just stressed, Everypony here was stressed with the situation. "This way, Princess." She guided the princess toward the main library entrance. The group of ponies (and one zebra) followed the lavender unicorn toward the metallic beast. All was silent until the group reached the reptilian borg. They surround him and Celestia looked carefully at the body of the unconscious beast. It looked like one in her dream... with Luna as one of them. "Are you okay, Twilight? Did this ... hurt you in any way?" Celestia asked. Twilight shook her head but pointed with her hoof to Rainbow Dash. "I am okay, Princess. Rainbow was the one that defended me while I was charging my sleep spell." "Oh, it was nothing. That thing was toooo slow to get me," Rainbow said with a proud expression. Applejack was not really amused with her. She took off her hat to place it on her chest and trotted to the princess. "When we defeated this fella, he barely said that he wanted to be killed by us." This caught off guard Celestia and the rest. Celestia looked back to the creature, confused now, wondering why he wanted to get killed... unless... "Relikia, you're an expert in mind magic, can you see his memories?” This surprised the fake alicorn who laughed nervously. She approached to the princess with an apologetic look in her face. "Can I talk with you? In private?" Celestia nodded and broke the little circle of ponies that surround the borg. She trotted al ong with Relikia until they reach the kitchen. In the meantime, Luna and Zalune carefully inspect the borg. Zalune look on him with disgust. The armor looked like it was fused with his flesh. Part of his body was mechanical, his left eye replaced with an implant. Luna was more curious. A life form fused with machines? This was both interesting and creepy. Her dreams showed only part of the horrors of his kind, the worst part that the machine that took control of this creature, whatever he was. After a couple of minutes, Celestia and the red alicorn Relikia exited the kitchen, Relikia looked determined and Celestia looking satisfied she then face the trio of ponies in front her. "Girls, I need you to maintain a secret. Whatever you see, don't overreact. Relikia, you may proceed." Relikia sighed and red fire consumed her entire body. The trio gasped. Soon the fire faded revealing what was left... or what was, Relikia. A changeling stood in front of them. She loo ked almost exactly like Chrysalis except for her red mane, yellow carapace and red eyes. Rainbow Dash and Applejack took defensive positions. Twilight narrowed her eyes and charged her horn but before they could attack Luna and Celestia moved between Relikia and the trio. "What did I say about not overreacting?" said Celestia. Nothing happened. The three still looked furiously at Relikia, Relikia, having revealed her true form hid behind the princesses. Celestia was disappointed with the girls, especially in Twilight. She couldn't blame her as Chrysalis' changelings were the ones that invaded Canterlot and ruined the wedding of her brother. She must suspect that all the changelings were with her... "Release the princesses in this instant, you monst-" Twilight couldn't finish as Luna's eyes glowed with intensity and she hovered. "THOU SHALL NOT INSULT OUR AMBASSADOR GUEST, ELEMENT OF MAGIC! HOW DARE THOU TO MAKE SUCH FALSE INDICTMENTS!?" The thunderous volume of Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice convinced the girls that the princesses were not possessed by the changeling. They regained their posture in a second. "Luna, please, come down." Luna calmed down, her eyes returned to normal and she landed on her hooves. She was still angry with the trio though... "I should banish you all to the sun if I had the opportunity..." Luna said coldly to the trio. They all 'eeped'. Celestia could understand why Luna was so overprotective of Relikia. She was alone in a land that might hurt her horribly and with the recent invasion by Chrysalis it had become worse. Nopony would trust her in her true form. Luna could understand her pain in being alone in a land that hated her kin. "Please Relikia, proceed, there is nothing wrong now... Twilight, can you and your friends come with me, please? I need to talk with you all." Celestia motioned with her left hoof to the kitchen. The four mar es trotted and entered. Celestia could understand why they had such racism and xenophobia toward Relikia. They had never seen the other hives, only Chrysalis' which had generated a terrible impact on Canterlot. They suspect that all the changelings were evil like Chrysalis and her minions. "Why did you all overreact when I asked you not to?" "I am sorry princess, I thought that it -" "She," Celestia corrected. "She was using her magic to control you." Celestia chuckled at the comment, confusing the mares. "Twilight, Alicorns are invulnerable against mind magic, especially changeling mind magic. She can't control me, Luna, Cadance or any other alicorn." "But what happens if Chrysalis is plannin' to attack Canterlot an' she's a spy?" interjected applejack. "She and her hive are not loyal to Chrysalis. There are three hives actually. The first is Honeyrock, the hive of Relikia. To maintain our relations we both sent diplomats and ambassadors to strengthen the relations between our lands. "Deepland Hive is a very complex hive. These changelings there are mostly aquatic and don't have wings, only horns. Their queen is ... very emotional... She and her hive prefer to live in isolation within swamp or lakes. "The last hive is the DarkLust Hive which is Chrysalis' hive. There are minor ones too but their actions and culture are unknown." Rainbow was no fully convinced, but she could live with it. Twilight and Applejack shared the same sentiment, regret. Twilight wanted to say something but nothing came out of her mouth. She had failed her princess, her teacher. "I think that is also my fault,” Celestia said. “I never said that she was a changeling all along without knowing your... reaction." "I am so sorry princess, I..." Twilight was interrupted once more by Celestia, who used her right hoof to cover Twilight's mouth. "I'm not the one you need to apologize to, Twilight." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Relikia's horn touch the forehead of the borg, scanning, searching,and localizing any trace of individualism in him. She feared that his mind was fully machine until... "I think that I have something... oh my... this is amazing!" Relikia said. Her eyes glowed red while channeling her magic. Luna and Zalune got close to Relikia hoping that she had found something very valuable of this borg. Without anymore waiting Zalune broke the ice. "What have you found that got us bound? said the priestess Zebra, somewhat impatient. "I got his name, his REAL species, his rank and why he is a borg." Finished, Relikia she removed her horn from the forehead of the creature, her horn fully loaded with memories and thoughts of Ta'lash. Luna nodded and summoned a crystal ball, floating it between h erself and Relikia. "Put it though in this crystal so we can see it." Relikia's nodded and transferred the thoughts and memories into the crystal. The ball glowed at the very moment when Celestia and her ponies exited the kitchen. Celestia was curious as to the process and why there was an enchanted crystal ball. "Relikia found something very intriguing," Luna stated. "Yes. I put it in the crystal ball so we can all see it," the changeling said. "This will be interesting," said Celestia. There was some 'ooh's from the trio and the zebra as the memories began to be projected like a first person movie. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ta'lash Memories, I.K.S. Ragn'Arok, Klingon Negh'Var "I hope you found something that's worthwhile now commander," said Ta'lash, Captain of the Negh'Var, I.K.S. Ragn'Arok, Blackheart's former battlcruiser. Ta'lash sat on the bridge while talking with his commander and first officer, an male tactical orion, Erun Rok. The orion somehow looked thoughtful and proud. Normally he looked fearful each time he face him. "I did it, sir! The information from that cube might allow us to use their energy enhancers to calibrate our ship weaponry subsystem! We can use their own technology now!" he mischievously smirked, successfully gaining his respect. He wanted to confim this. "Helm, take us to the nearest borg vessel" There was an 'aye sir' from the helmsman position and the Negh'var warps and goes to the next sector. The Gamma Orionis was nothing more than a hunting ground for him. Where there was borg, he destroyed them without mercy. The Ragn'Arok was his pride, such a mighty vessel capable of shredding any other vessel with it disruptor cannons and beams. Torpedoes were secondary for other, bigger ships but he was never afraid in using them on problematic targets. "We have a borg Tactical Cube in front of us. Dropping out of warp." The ship stopped to face the lone borg vessel. "Let test our new potential, shall we? ... Commence attack!" There they were, the Ragn'Arok fighting one of the borg's most powerful vessels, a Tactical Cube. The Cube fired all its weapons at the KDF Battlecruiser. while the Ragn'Arok's cannons and beams only scratch it. This was frustrating but... something happened! The fire rate of the cannons and intensity of the beams increased by thirty percent! The Tactical Cube's shields dropped and quickly become damaged beyond repair. Soon a last overloaded beam directly hit the center of cube and the cube exploded. The test was successful. The new energy subsystem had proved to be useful. "This is incredible, Erun! You gave the key to fight against the borg!" The crewmembers on the bridge cheered Erun and he received merits and credit for the new subsystem. One of the klingons offered a battle party in the mess hall in honor of the discovery. "Cheers for Erun! Your name will be remembered, there will be songs for your discovery and our victory against our enemies!" Warriors of many races were in the mess hall celebrating, singings warrior songs and drinking bloodwine until utterly drunk. Ta'lash was eating along with Commander Thruss, a tactical lethean. He don't seem to be very enthusiastic with the party. "Something is wrong, Thruss? Normally, you're the one that says that!" "I know. It is just Erun... I don't trust him anymore." "How so? You know very well that he is a coward. This is the first and only party that he can get." Ta'lash states then drank his bloodwine. This was getting interesting... "Exactly! He IS a coward! Now he acts... acts.. like a Tal'shiar romulan!" he said with disgust. "Or worse... Now that you mention it, he is normally fearful when he faces me on the bridge. " "I can't even enter his mind! It is like... he is another person and... species." This caught the attention of the gorn captain. A spy on his ship was rare but not unheard of. He, five times, had discovered spies from the Federation, the Tal'shiar and other klingon houses. "I think you're right. When the party's over I'll take Erun to Cargo Bay Seven and begin my interrogation." The party continued for a few more hours before finally ending. The high-ranking gorn invited Erun to review supplies that had just beamed in recently, courtesy of a ferengi vendor. "So what did you order, captain?" asked the orion in a slightly demanding tone. It was indeed a spy. He was never this assertive, especially making demands of a GORN. "Something that you might find interesting... spy." Before the orion could react, he was pinned onto the wall while trapped by the powerful arms of the captain. Ta'lash looked pissed while the orion ... laughed. Laughed like it were a funny joke. The tables turned. The right arm of the orion had.. transformed into a thick long arm, pushing Ta'lash and smacked him until he fell on his back. He not was changeling, not a spy from ANY of his enemies. He was... "Undine... you are an undine!" The false orion just laughed and glared at the gorn captain. "So observant, captain! I don't need this disguise anymore..." 'Erun' drop its disguise to reveal the grotesque form of an undine. Good think that he wore armor, Ta'lash thought....the armor of a Unit Commander. "So this is the good bye, 'captain'? I was hoping to see your ship explode by the overload charge! This ship is a time bomb. When the warpcore reaches mass critical, I just... see fireworks taking place in this depressed space!" The undine talked with the orion's voice. "So this was your plan? Sabotage my ship? I'm surprised that you're not reaching a critical position within our government, undine dog!" Ta'lash slowly rose to his feet only to find himself again on the floor by the undine's mind powers. He cursed that ability of the undine. "I always find more fun destroying ships within this sector. Causing havok and confusion is my job, after all.” "You know, maybe Thruss was right! Throw you out the airlock was a very good idea!" He again rose and charged only to be blocked by the long thick arms of 'Erun'. Ta'lash brought his hands to the undine's face with a photon grenade and a plasma grenade in each one. "NO!" 'Erun' tried to escape or evade but was too late. Both grenades exploded in red and green. The explosion push Ta'lash back to the ground. His head rose. The green flames of plasma were consuming the dead body of the undine. He had done it, he had killed a extragalactic infiltrator but there something more to do. He activated his com municator. "This is... Captain Ta'lash to engineering... deactivate the new subsystem. is overloading the warpcore. I repeat... deactivate the energy subsystem... ugh!" Ta'lash fell unconscious. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Back In Equestria "Wow... just... wow!" That's was the only thing Twilight managed to say. Everyone in the room was shocked, surprised and/or intrigued with Ta'lash but that still didn't explain why he was a borg. They now know that the borg use a cube as transport... and they can be destroyed, but was it really necessary? The Ta'lash in this memory was mostly a battle ready warrior and the alien or undine... this is what lay beyond the skies? She had so many questions... "This mean that Ta'lash and everyone inside of that are-" Before Twilight could finish, she was interrupted by Celestia. "Aliens? I think so." "There is more but we should take a break for now" said Relikia.