//------------------------------// // Aftermath // Story: DisQord Continuum 2: Friendship is Futile // by ZoidbergIsBestPony //------------------------------// Aftermath “Mua ha ha! I have returned!” the Alicorn boasted. “Now, I will deliver this land into darkness, once and for all!!!” Nightmare Moon's eyes glowed white. Dark clouds emanated from beneath her. Lightning flashed together with loud claps of thunder. Her evil laughter rolled with the sounds of the thunder. Five ponies looked from one to the other, not sure what they should do. Twilight's focus remained trained on the "Harbinger of Darkness". “You are under our control, Nightmare Moon. You are bound to the Elements of Harmony! You will help us!” Nightmare Moon laughed maniacally again, before turning into a heavy cough. The glow in her eyes faded as her expression softened. Through her eyes, Princess Luna could be seen, even through the powerful outward appearance of Nightmare Moon. “Heh, heh,” she giggled slightly. “Just kidding…” Twilight blinked. “Did you really just make… a joke?” “Ahem, well. It was too easy not to,” said Luna, blushing. Pinkie was the first to smile back. “That was the most stupendous, wonderful prank anypony has ever pulled! Way to go, Princess!” Twilight thought it was also possibly the most inopportune and inappropriate time for Luna to be experimenting with her inner-pony, but she let it slide. “Princess Luna,” she said, in a more dignified tone, trying to return their focus to the task at hoof, “how do you feel?” “We feel well enough,” said Luna replying in kind. “We possess the power of Nightmare Moon, yet remain in control thanks to the Elements of Harmony.” “Good,” said Twilight. “We better get back to the castle, before anything else happens. Can you transport us back from here?” “We can,” said Luna her magic starting to circle around the entire group. “Thou shall never do such a thing again!” Luna thought to herself, as the spell built around everypony. “But why?” said another voice, deep within her mind. “You trusted us once before… Why do you not wish to do so again?” “Thou hath deceived us in the past. We shall never fall prey to thy silver tongues again!” “We have never deceived you. You came to us all those years ago. You wished for our help: help to be big and strong; help to be more powerful than your sibling; help to become the most influential pony in all of Equestria! It was us who made you who you are! It was you who asked us to make it happen!” “That was in ages past, and we were naught but a scared little filly then. We are no longer so young and foolish, and this time, we have our friends to protect us! “Your friends, maybe. You claim not to seek our help, yet here we stand again. We can help you in your quest… but we shall require complete control. That is the only way with which you can succeed. “Never. We will use your powers to aid in our task, but we shall not fall victim to thy will ever again. The Elements of Harmony will shield us from thou! “The Elements of Harmony protect you for now, but their power won’t last forever… Soon you will be forced to make a choice. And that choice will be us!” “Never!” Luna accidentally whispered aloud. “Everything alright there, princess?” asked Applejack. The other ponies all noticed the spell was taking unusually long to cast. They were staring at Luna curiously. “Oh, nothing!” she replied, refocusing her efforts on the spell. The spell finished enveloping the group and whisked them back to the palace courtyard… Just outside the Equestrian solar system, one hour thirty-five minutes after the Borg breached the defensive perimeter… “Damage report!” Commander Riker yelled, rubbing his head. He ignored the blood dripping from it. “Hull breaches on C Deck and G Deck!” an ensign reported. “Communications are still offline. The left nacelle is venting plasma and is beyond repair.” “What about the right one,” the commander demanded. “Still functional… barely. “Bridge to Commander LaForge,” said Riker into his communicator pin. “LaForge here.” “How soon can we go to warp?” “Sir, I can’t guarantee more than warp one or two at the moment, and I would highly recommend against it. The current damage to the hull would tear the ship apart at warp. We need to seal off those compartments first.” “What about shields?” “Shields are running on emergency power only. The warp core is currently sealed until we can vent the radiation around it. I should hopefully have shields back up to forty percent within two hours.” “Stay on top of it, Geordi. Riker out.” He closed the channel. Opening a new one, he said, “Bridge to medical bay. How’s the captain?” Within the chaos that was the medical bay, bodies lined one side, and the dying lined the other. A dozen different nurses and volunteers were running franticly trying to treat as many people as possible. “It doesn’t look good, Will,” said Dr. Crusher. The captain was already in the surgical chamber. The doctor was attempting to stimulate his neural functions. “Will, his neural cortex is not responding to any treatments. There’s minimal activity. There may be nothing I can do.” Riker could hear the pain in the doctor’s tone of voice. He knew the situation was grim, but at such a critical time, he could not allow weakness to be seen in the eyes of the crew. He needed them to perform their duties without excess fear. He opened a ship-wide channel. “As of now, I am assuming command as acting captain. With the captain incapacitated and unable to perform his duties, I am setting our priority on shields and communication. We need to locate all ships that managed to escape and assist each other in repairs. We must regroup as soon as possible with a new plan of attack.” Closing the channel again and opening a third one, Riker ordered, “Q to the bridge!” “Locutus…” a strange voice whispered out into the darkness. Picard opened his eyes into nothing. Everything was black. The only thing he could discern with his eyes was a black fog surrounding him. As the fog slowly drifted apart, more of his surroundings started coming into focus. He was standing, or at least he thought he was standing, in a vast empty room. The only light to be found was coming out of a far away corner of the room. The light appeared to be dancing around a dark shadow. It’s outline slowly took shape as it approached the captain. “Locutus…” “Who knows that name?” Picard called out. “That is not my name! I am Captain Jean-Luc Pic–” “Really, Locutus… You do not recognize our voice?” “Princess Celestia?” asked the captain, recognizing her voice, but something was different. “I suppose you could call me that… though my status has changed, somewhat… I guess you could call me… Queen Celestus… of Borg.” Picard’s eyes narrowed sharply. Through the fog, the figure in the light took shape. When it neared to within a few meters of the captain, the image of Celestia stood before him. However, the princess was no longer the princess that he once knew. Her white silk fur had paled and grayed. Her hair had fallen and frayed and was partially removed from one side. One of her eyes had been replaced with an ocular implant. Princess Celestia stood before Picard as a fully assimilated Borg… but not a drone. “I see the Borg have chosen you as their new queen?” “New queen? I am the queen that has always been. I am the ruler of all Borg. I am the Borg.” “I killed the Borg Queen three hundred years in the past. She no longer exists!” Picard shouted angrily. “I wondered what became of me… when Earth remained unassimilated in this timeline, I realized you must have somehow defeated me… But did you honestly believe that you could ever truly destroy me?” “But the queen was still part organic. I killed her. She is dead. You are nothing but a ghost of her.” “All Borg are in some way organic. But my conscious thought need not be. So long as the Borg live, I shall live… forever.” “Enough of this! Where am I? How are you talking to me?” “You shall be with us once more, Locutus. Very soon…” Queen Celestus of Borg turned away from Picard. “Wait! You need to know. This venture is pointless! If you succeed, the entire universe will be destroyed! You must not pursue this course of action!” “I am aware of this possible outcome… and I welcome it,” she said without turning back. “Why would you destroy yourself? How can that possibly serve to help you?” Celestus finally looked back at Picard. The smile staring back at him put every nerve in his body on edge. “When this universe is destroyed, a new one shall arise from the ashes to take its place!” Picard could actually see the twinkle in her good eye as she spoke. “A universe of nothing but pure perfection! The ultimate goal of the Borg Collective shall at long last be achieved!” “You can’t do this! We will stop you, no matter what!” “Your friends are calling you, Locutus. Run to them while you can…” “Jean-Luc,” spoke the soothing tone of Beverly Crusher’s voice. The captain opened his eyes. He was staring up into the faces of Will, Beverly, and Discord. “How do you feel?” Dr. Crusher asked. “I…” he started to say. “What’s happened?” “We lost you for a bit there,” said Commander Riker, patting the captain on the shoulder gently. “Lost me?” “Why you were dead, Jean-Luc!” said Discord with a slight glee in his voice. “And I brought you back!” Picard tried to sit up, but his head was spinning. “You need to lie down, Captain,” said the doctor, pushing him gently, until he settled back down. “What’s the status of the other ships?” “We’ve heard back from the Defiant, one of the Klingon ships, the Andorians, and the Romulans, Riker listed. “Every one else is either destroyed or disabled. We’ve confirmed the Tecumseh, the Tellarite Freighter, and the other Bird of Prey were destroyed.” “How soon can we get back in the fight?” “We’re still making repairs. We’re staying in communication with the other ships, but there’s no way to determine if the invasion of Equestria has started.” “How did we even escape?” asked the captain, recalling the events of the battle and how badly they became before he was thrown by an explosion on the bridge. “When the Borg arrived, they smashed through the perimeter without even stopping.” “I remember that. We chased them to the planet and attempted to disable the lead ship, but… I don’t recall what happened after that.” “The lead ship took a significant amount of damage, but too many ships were destroyed or disabled before we could take any advantage of it. With our communications down, we were forced to retreat. That’s when one of the Borg missiles impacted into the hull. You were thrown and rendered unconscious. The only thing that saved us was the Borg refused to leave orbit.” “What? With three cubes, not one left orbit in pursuit?” “That’s right. Once we reached beyond their weapons range, the attack was over.” “Celestus will stop at nothing to get what she wants,” the captain commented. “Celestus, Sir?” asked Riker. “The new Borg queen contacted me while I was unconscious. The Borg have assimilated Princess Celestia and downloaded the consciousness of the original Borg queen into her mind.” Dr. Crusher gasped at the news. Riker clenched his jaw. “We need to save her, Captain,” said Dr. Crusher. “Those ponies depend on her.” “We will find a way,” said the captain, reassuringly. “In the meantime, what’s the status of the Enterprise?” Discord had remained silent throughout the recanting of events, but he grew frustrated at being ignored for so long. He butted in, “Aren’t you going to ask how I saved your life!?” “No.” Discord’s face turned a slight red. “Well I’m, going to tell you anyway! I sacrificed five percent of the entire universe, just for you, Captain.” Picard looked at Discord frowning. “When you say five percent? Do you mean that–” “Of course! I had to let go of my hold on the glue that is holding this universe together long enough to bring you back. And I did it by only sacrificing five percent!” “Q, if your powers are the only thing holding this universe together, than I expressly forbid you to ever use your powers like that again! If you are incapable of holding this universe together, than we will all perish, yourself included! Am I making myself perfectly clear!” “But Captain, I did it to save your life. See how much I care for you!” Discord’s eyes grew wide and watery, like a puppy being abandoned. “Q, I want you to never– …" he trailed off in a sigh. "Thank you for saving my life. But don’t ever do that again!” “Very well, Captain, but it would appear that you owe me one now!” Discord smiled and winked. “I owe you nothing! You’re the reason for all this in the first place. Never forget that!” Discord frowned and didn’t reply. Picard took the opportunity to get back to status information. “Now, what about the package?” ... Former defensive perimeter, one hour forty minutes after the breach… The orbit of Equestria was littered with debris. Two starships floated about in ruin, their hulls ripped apart and their engines shattered to pieces. Half of the Tecumseh floated nearby. The Ferengi ship lay intact, but dormant. The Tellerite’s ship could not even be distinguished among the pieces. At the center of the field of death and destruction lay three massive Borg cubes. One had a large chunk missing from a corner, but its inner workings were fast at work on repairs. The other two ships remained entirely unharmed. The ships lay in waiting, before the invasion was to begin. Within the confines of the lead cube, through the circuit-covered hallways, with never ending access terminals, conduits, and recharging stations, very few drones were actually even awake. Unsure what to do first, a lone Borg drone stood in the middle of one such hallway. She was not sure which way to go, nor how to perform her task when she got there. In a sea of voices, none of which she could even hear, she was alone. Chrysalis had successfully infiltrated the cube.