Discovery
“Why didn’t it work!?” screamed Admiral Tomalak. He was chiding his science officer whilst every other Romulan scurried about hurriedly. The Romulan warbird had suffered a great deal of damage, most of which had been caused when their new weapon failed to protect them against the Borg ship.
“I do not know, Sir!” he answered bitterly. His head kept bouncing from component to component on the device, like a mole popping his head in and out of the ground. Whatever he was looking for was clearly not going to be found so easily. “The energy charged just as it had before, but once it reached beyond the levels used in the tests, the excess energy burned off somehow; the horn is unable to contain it.”
“It was foolish to trust this ship to your idiotic tinkering!” yelled the admiral. “It is clear to me that you were not the proper choice for Science officer aboard this ship. You are relieved. And be ready for a hearing on your actions when we return to Romulus!”
The stunned scientist could say nothing. Like most Romulans he craved power and enjoyed serving as Science Officer under the admiral. It was a much more influential post than serving as a generic research scientist back on Romulus. He believed this “magic” could have been his ticket to head of the Romulan Science Directorate. But from this point on, “magic” was a word that would bring nothing but a sour taste to his mouth.
He left the room with his head hung low in angry and bitter defeat. As he exited through the archway, he could see his faithful and remarkably beautiful assistant staring back at him as he left. He smiled at her in a half-forced manner, before it dropped to a scowl.
The look on her face was not one of admiring respect for a fallen comrade. Instead, she held a smug smile on her face that suggested she knew all along what went wrong, and now she would succeed him and steal the all that glory and power that came with harnessing this new energy.
The failed scientist left the room flabbergasted and alone.
With her former superior now gone, Lieutenant Kitara turned to the Admiral with a new air of confidence.
The admiral regarded her, unsure whether she was as good as her composure wanted him to suggest. “Can you fix what went wrong?” he asked the officer, his eyebrow cocked in doubt.
“I already have a theory, Admiral. I require a few hours. I will have a report by then.”
“Don’t disappoint me,” he spat as he marched out of the lab.
The other technicians were looking at their new leader. Kitara returned their glance, smiling.
“I want each of you to stop work investigating our predecessor’s device,” she commanded.
They all looked at her incredulously.
“The issue with the machine is that it relies on storing the energy within the horn itself. It’s obvious the creature was never meant to absorb such a large reserve of energy. We need to analyze the energy itself. We must discover what this “magic” truly is!”
The streets of Canterlot were chaos. Had Discord been on the planet, he would have rejoiced in the pandemonium. Ponies from dozens of towns and villages had gathered in the city. Mayors and assembly ponies were shouting through the crowds, fighting in vain to maintain some level of order.
Mayor Mare of Ponyville was leading the charge for her own town at the far end of Canterlot, adjacent to the palace gardens. Familiar and unfamiliar ponies were all intermingled, and the mayor was desperately trying to keep her townsponies all together.
“Everypony please,” she yelled into a large funneled cone to amplify her voice, “we need to get all Ponyvillians together in a group so we can get a head count. If you are missing a member of a family, approach the podium so we can attempt to reunite one another…”
While the mayor continued frantically to sort out the mess, Lyra and Bon-Bon huddled within the crowd, squished to the point of not being able to breathe.
“We can’t stay here like this!” Bon-Bon shouted.
Lyra nodded vigorously in agreement. She stood on her hind legs and held her snout up so she could take in fresher air. In doing so, the space around her closed, and she could no longer even bend back down onto all four hooves.
Lyra tried in vain to stay together with Bon-Bon, but it was too late. A large muscular Pegasus with red eyes and wings the size of an infant’s had pushed through. As large and burly as he was, his face was that of a scared little filly’s.
“Little Wing!” he cried looking around. “Little Wing! Where are you!?”
Lyra briefly wondered how anypony could have smaller wings that his, but now she panicked. Bon-Bon was somewhere beyond this behemoth-sized Pegasus. She tried to squeeze first around, then under, to no avail.
“Snowflake!” a tiny voice cried out.
“LITTLE WING!!?”
“Snowflake!” shouted a muscular miniature of the massive Pegasus, who flew up over the crowd.
“LITTLE WING!!!” the gargantuan pony screamed again upon spotting his kin. He flapped his tiny wings and lifted his massive body off the ground with great effort, soaring off to reunite with Little Wing.
Lyra thought this would be her chance, but Bon-Bon was no longer on the other side of where the Pegasus had been. She must have tried to get around the Pegasus too and now they were as separated as those two Pegasi were. Still on her hind legs, Lyra stood frozen. She hadn’t even noticed a hoof suddenly clutching hers.
“Lyra!” cried Bon-Bon, holding on to her friend’s hoof tight.
“Bon-Bon!” Lyra turned and grabbed Bon-Bon into a tight hug. “I thought I’d lost you!”
“We need to get away from all this,” said Bon-Bon, tugging Lyra through the crowd.
Both ponies were walking on two legs, allowing them to never once break contact. Bon-Bon held on so tight it was nearly a death grip. Lyra squeezed even tighter. At last they came to an opening in the crowd. The narrow passageway opened deep enough to escape.
When they were finally past the crowds, they found themselves in the middle of the Palace gardens. Not sure where to go or what to do, they finally released their hooves and lowered themselves back down onto all fours to rest.
Lyra was panting. Her magic was never strong, but all of this could have been avoided if she still had her horn. She could have signaled Bon-Bon; communicated somehow. They could have broken free so much easier. Once again Lyra was reduced to tears.
Bon-Bon comforted her friend. She hadn’t even noticed the unusually large group of palace guards circling the gardens. Had she noticed, it wouldn’t have even occurred to her to wonder why so many were needed to protect a garden.
Lyra did notice something, but it was not the guards. A bright flash of navy-blue light shot out from the center of the gardens, with seven ponies appearing in its center. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Princess Twilight, and Princess Luna were all there!
She didn’t have time to notice anything different about Luna’s appearance. All she could think of was getting to one of them to help her.
“Princess!” she shouted out, suddenly galloping.
“Wait!” Bon-Bon called after her, trying to keep up.
“Princess!” she shouted again.
She ran straight at them at full speed, which made her collision with the guard’s spear all the more painful. She was thrown back against the ground, dazed and confused.
“You are not aloud to be here!” the guard barked angrily. He was clearly not a pony to be messed with.
“I need to talk to Princess Twilight!” Lyra shouted. “I need her help!”
“All royalty are currently occupied trying to protect all of Equestria’s citizens. You will have to wait until the danger has passed.”
The guard made no mention of Princess Celestia’s sudden disappearance, precisely as he was instructed. If anything, he felt he needed to be twice as alert, twice as strict as he had been if he were to ever atone for such a disgrace.
Lyra felt betrayed. She could see them all heading back into the castle. Her salvation lay only just out of reach. She sulked backward in solemn defeat. Bon-Bon took her hoof again.
“Come,” she said softly. “Princess Twilight will help you get your horn back after everything has calmed down. You just need to be patient.”
Lyra nodded stiffly, with a short sniffle.
The guard regarded them both as they started away from him. “Just a moment!” he called out after them.
They both turned slowly, confused.
“Did you say your horn was missing?” he asked with a great deal more interest then before.
“Yes,” said Lyra.
“She was filly-napped in the night,” Bon-Bon explained. “When I finally found her, her horn was missing right off the top of her head.”
The guard looked pensive. He seemed to be contemplating whether or not he should care. After a pause, he drew his breath.
“You better come with me,” he said finally. One of his instructions was to leave the Princesses and their friends alone unless they encountered something highly unusual. This seemed like just that to the guard.
He lifted his spear and tilted his head in the direction of the castle. Lyra and Bon-Bon exchanged glances before following him inside.
“Start the accelerator,” instructed Lieutenant Kitara.
The technicians complied. A large circular machine started whirring around the Unicorn horn. Lights flashed by at dizzying speeds.
“Charge the horn!”
The horn at its center started to glow. Wrapped within the center of the device, the mint green aura was pulled away from the horn into the particle accelerator. Readings came through on the display.
“Yes… Yes… Of course!” she shouted. “Focus the beam; break down the structure below subatomic levels.”
The machine’s engines whined into a higher pitch until it was nearly unbearable to listen to. The laser narrowed to subatomic widths, analyzing the core nature of the mysterious mint green aura.
It was so difficult for the Lieutenant to prevent the smile that was drawing itself upon her face, so she simply let it. She grinned from ear to ear as the results of her little experiment compiled together. On the display before her lay the very structure she had sought after.
“The Unicorn Particle…” she whispered excitedly, the subatomic structure sparkling in her eyes.
“She suddenly appeared out of nowhere with no horn and no memory how she got there… and that’s the story, Princess,” Bon-Bon finished explaining to Princess Twilight.
They were standing inside the throne room. Lyra and Bon-Bon had never expected to see such a place in their lifetimes. Even as they recanted their stories, they seldom looked at Twilight, but instead stretched their necks to drink in the scene around them.
The guard had taken them straight to Princess Twilight and Princess Luna, but Luna had already taken her leave with Data to get more details about the Borg cube and what most likely happened to her sister. Twilight stood in front of Celestia’s throne. Even though she was now considered royalty, it felt too awkward, and overstepping, to presume she could sit in Celestia’s throne while she was gone.
Twilight’s expression was tight-lipped, but concern was clearly discernible. Finally, she said, “I’m sorry, but I know of no magic that can regrow horns once they’ve been severed. There are spells to mend chipped horns and I could probably reattach it if we had the horn, but…” She trailed off.
She thought for a moment about the massive libraries between here and the Crystal Empire. No doubt one of those two places would carry a book with knowledge of such a magic, but time would not permit it at present.
For a moment her thoughts shifted to her brother and Princess Cadence. The empire was not evacuated. It was simply too large to do so. Instead, their own palace guards would hold the responsibility of keeping them safe. She greatly feared they would not be up to the task.
Finally she looked back at her friends from Ponyville. “When this is over, I will do everything I can to help you. But for now, we need to focus on keeping everypony safe.”
“What about Celestia?” Lyra asked hopefully. “Maybe she knows how to fix it.”
There was a hint of desperation in her voice, but it went unnoticed by Twilight. Her face had turned rigid and her eyes became watery. She was fighting to hold back the tears, but her attempt was equally as noticeable.
“Hem…” she coughed. “Celestia is occupied at the moment, but I promise to ask her when I can.” It was as much of a hope as it was a promise. Celestia would need to be returned to them safe before she would be able to fulfill any promises involving her.
“Yes, your majesty,” Lyra replied, disappointed. She and Bon-Bon bowed and started for the exit.
“I’m glad to see you made it here safe,” Twilight added. “Has everypony from Ponyville made it?”
“Mostly,” said Bon-Bon. “There were a few who refused to leave. I think the Apple family stayed.”
Twilight did not like hearing this news, especially since she had not heard it from Applejack herself. She probably didn’t want to worry Twilight, but she should have told her anyway.
“They’re a pretty tough family,” Twilight tried to say reassuringly, possibly trying to reassure herself in the process. “I’m sure they will be okay. In fact, I would be more worried for any enemy who gets on their bad side!”
Bon-Bon smiled weakly, before turning again to leave. She turned face to face with a monster unlike anything she had ever encountered. Before either Lyra or Bon-Bon could react, the guard who escorted them into the palace had already shoved a spear through the back on the Borg drone’s skull. It struggled to remove the spear, but was unsuccessful before its systems were compromised. The Borg fell to the ground.
Another guard burst in through the doors.
“Your majesty!” he screamed. “The invasion has begun!”