//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Dark Reveals and Agreements // Story: Star Trek: Equestrian Assimilation // by firelordzx5 //------------------------------// Chapter 10: Dark Reveal and Agreements Chapter 10: Dark Reveal and Agreements Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash was chasing the shady stallion, flying with all her speed but the forest was dense and thick, forcing her to dodge the trees and slow down. The stallion, being an unicorn teleported to avoid the trees without difficulty, making the chase difficult for Rainbow. Behind her the three aliens were following them both. "Come back here!" shouted the pegasus mare. The chase's prosecution was getting more heated. The unicorn was launching magic beams from his horn trying to slow Rainbow down. Because of her dexterity and agility, she managed to dodge them all with ease but this slowed her further. The unicorn teleport again, th is time out of her sight . "Huh? Where is he?" She heard some movement in the bushes. Smirking, she charged forward toward the noise source, rammed it and tackled it to the ground. "You think you can outmatch me? I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, learn it!" she said with pride and authority in her voice. "Ugh! ... and I'm Vaner, Admiral of the Federation Fleet. Nice to meet you Miss Dash and now can you get off me?" said a female voice beneath her. She opened her eyes and saw one of the aliens. Her eyes widened and she quickly got off the trill admiral. Two other aliens soon appeared. The Federation admiral rose up and stared at Rainbow Dash, not angry but a little upset yet intrigued by what she was seeing. "Sorry there, I wasn't looking" the mare apologized quickly. Rainbow was quite amazed at how the aliens looked so similar to the ponies... except for the almost flat face, lack of fur, pale skin and small eyes. She looked at each side of the female alien's head and notice the black spots. That make a trill. "Apologize accepted little one, but where is the other equine-?" "Pony," Rainbow corrected the trill admiral. "Pony," she said, correcting her sentence. "I lost him. He shot at me and disappeared." "And yet you proclaim yourself as the faster flyer of all this country," commented the armored general in sarcasm, gaining a threatening glare from Rainbow Dash. Before she could comment on how useless Blackheart was right now Ge'dan spoke, holding up her tricoder that was detecting multiple life signs. "He is not far from here but stay alert, he is not alone. Follow me!" They did. With Ge'dan at their head the group exited the forest only to arrive at a cliff. There the hooded stallion awaited them in the company of five other s shady ponies. "There is no place to run. Don't worry, we won't hurt you. We come in peace," spoke Vaner. "I don't who you are, but I bet my Wonderbolts posters that you are the ones responsible for that!" stated Rainbow Dash, pointing with her hoof at the rising smoke column. "Now now, don't be so hasty," began to stallion, this time addressing Ge'dan. "Yes we planted the bomb but we didn't expect you to leave the shuttle immediately, terrorist." snapped the supposed leader. "Terrorist? What are you talking about, we barely know about your species!" exclaimed Blackheart. Ge'dan didn't like the situation. He had not been called a terrorist since the Tal'shiar Conflict. Unless... "You are not ponies are you?" spoken the romulan admiral. She was connecting the dots between the supposed assassination attempt, Tal'shiar symbols and these ponies. The only logical explanation was that these ponies were actually Tal'shiar agents. Impossible! The Tal'shiar are unorganized! They barely explore this sector for borg tech and that is suicide their condition! she yelled in protest in her mind. "No, we are one hundred percent Equestrian ponies and in case you are wondering yes we work for the Tal'shiar. We are something more than mere ponies." He and the other ponies showed their forelegs. On one of them was a bracelet device that was not recognized by the aliens or the pony with her. With a hoof they pressed something on the bracelets, making the hooded ponies glow. "Rainbow Dash!" a new voice called from behind her. It was Twilight and her friends. "What the hoof were you thinking?!" scoffed the unicorn. Rainbow Dash explained the situation from the beginning. They noticed the green glow that surrounded the ponies and stood next to the three aliens. Before anyone could react, the visible pony silhouette from the group of ponies change, twist into something else. They became humanoids. Pale and furless with their green coats and hood fitting their new anatomy, covering most of their bodies. Suddenly they drew devices that the ponies didn't recognize but the high ranking officers did. "Plasma pistols," muttered Blackheart. "Ponies! Take cover, they are armed!" Vaner's sudden outburst surprised the ponies. They complied and quickly hid behind the trees, all except Rainbow Dash and Applejack. The latter was confused while the pegasus mare was indignant, eying the "weapons". "Rainbow... I think we should hide too," said Applejack. One of the "pony-humanoids" was staring at them. "Really? These toys are their weapons? Come on! Don't make me laugh-" One of them shot at Rainbow Dash. She dodged but her left wing wasn't fortunate. "AGH!" She abruptly landed, holding her wing with her hooves. "RAINBOW!" The rest of the Mane Six came out of their hiding spot to join their in-pain friend only to be stopped by the "pony-humanoid" who had shot her. "Where do you think your going? Colonel-" His words cut off when Blackheart himself punched him right in the face. The others notice it and began to aim at him. Vaner and Ge'dan saw this opportunity and drew out their own phaser and plasma pistols and started shooting at them. A skirmish between the admirals and the pseudo-humanoids began. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Danube Runabout, Landing Zone Janet was frustrated. After the explosion, by instinct she initiated a scan to make sure that there was not explosives in the remaining shuttles. She thought about going outside and assisting her admiral and captain, Vaner, but she got this new order from her that didn't make sense at all! Flashback, during entry to atmosphere. "I got new orders, Jimmy." "Janet! Captain please!" she told her in annoyance. "Okay Janet, I changed my opinion. I don't need companions for this but I got a backup plan." She knew that this would happen. After all, Vaner regularly changed her opinions when thinking in different scenarios. Sometimes she was paranoid. There was a time when she received an order from Starfleet Command. She and her crew succeeded in finishing it but not in the way they wanted. She went completely crazy. She thought of many possible scenarios and none of them were pretty, there was even an execution scenario, how had she even thought of that? This forced her former first officer to stun her and move her to the medical bay of the Intrepid she used to lead. "Yes Ma'am, What is it?" "Instead of running around with a phaser rifle, I need you to pilot the shuttle. I need ALL the firepower available, just in case I need you." "But Admiral isn't that, eh, overkill? I mean, the Equestrians seems pretty harmless." She didn't like questioning her, but this was probably too much. She had never though of this kind of plan before and it seemed pretty barbaric. The admiral spoke once more. "It's not for the Equestrians, it's for the klingons. I don't trust Blackheart, Janet. As you know he, I and Anther have an history. Forged in steel by an hammer full of hostility, distrust, even outright hatred coming from him and pointless battles whose losers are our own crew, our people. But I learned something about him. He dislikes transporters so much that he doesn't even care about reading transporters signatures. Don't ask me how I know that, just he doesn't. He will see me alone. Do not worry if he thinks you are cloaked beside me, the helmet he always wears has thermal vision and he will think that you teleported out" she finished. As much as Janet wanted to ask, she stayed silent. The shuttle landed softly. Vaner rose up from her chair. Before going out and meeting the leaders he turned back to her weapon specialist. "Remember, do not exit until you receive new orders. Wish me luck." She went out and began receiving the flashes of the camera ponies. Flashback Ends Commander Andreina Janet "ShyClaw" Gonzales was concerned not only for her admiral but also for the Romulans. She didn't care about Blackheart. From the records, he was the most infamous general in the Klingon Empire. He had multiple names; The Destroyer, The Impaler, The Dominator, The Champion, The Pillager, The Inheritor, The Dreadnought. Many names but all related to him, the very rival of Vaner and Anther. "Janet?" Vaner's voice came from her communicator. She patched the signal to the shuttle's main computer and the image of her captain appeared. She had bruises and cuts, there was plasma shots behind her and she was in cover. Janet asked if it was the klingons but her admiral shook her head and responded to her with the name that echoes in the minds of many Romulan Republicans. "No, Tal'shiar agents, but not only that Janet, Pony Tal'shair agents! They have us pinned down and we have civilians ponies with us. They need to be evacuated from this area immediately, Janet! I want the runabout at my coordinates now!" she said and close the channel. Janet was confused and shocked. Pony Tal'shiar? she asked herself in her mind while taking off in the shuttle. Flying toward the designated coordinates, she ignored the various confused stares of the crowd of pony folks as they watched the silver shuttle leaving and going toward the forest. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ponyville, edge of the Everfree Forest With Celestia having gone into the Everfree alone, Princesses Luna and Cadence along her husband Shining Armor and three squads of Royal Guards were organized for a search mission. Their objective was to search for the six Elements Bearers and get them out, Luna adding the aliens as part of their objective. Shining Armor protested believing that only ponies should be rescued and not the aliens. Luna reminded him that they were the ones that saved Ponyville and Equestria. Cadence was observing her husband's behavior, noticing the hash and aggressive part of him was more dominant, her defensive and naive but warm husband was almost a memory. This is not the Shiny I married, that's for sure. she thought in disbelief. She coughed gaining the attention of h er aunt and husband. "Princess Luna," began Cadence "maybe it would be better if I lead the squads myself." This caught the attention of a few Royal Guards, including her husband who about to protest only to be shut up by a dark hoof at his mouth. Next to him was a dark pink unicorn mare with Luna's guard armor, red maned but the feature that Luna noticed the most was her cat-like emerald eyes. "Commander Red Knightmare at your service Princess," the mare bowed. Luna hadn't called any member of her Night Guard. She herself knew Red Knightmare and she wasn't a morning pony. The thestral was grinning and gave a wink to the Princess of the Night. She noticed who she really was and nodded. The commander rose up. "Commander Knightmare, you will escort Princess Mi Amore Cadenza along with the Elite of the Guards with you." "But Princess!?" Before Shining Armor could object, Luna continued. "Shining Armor will stay to form a shield around the town while the guards remaining will search for clues as to who is this stallion culprit and if is possible, the organization he works for." Finished, the commander saluted and with Cadence and a squad of three Royal Guards galloped toward the forest. The Captain of the Guard reluctantly did as ordered and formed a shield around Ponyville and the Guards began to do their work. Meanwhile, inside the forest, Princess Celestia herself without any escort followed the silver ship. As an alicorn, her stamina was higher that the most athletic pony of Equestria. She managed to keep going but barely. The ship was flying faster than her full galloping speed she got tired fast. The runabout proved to be much faster than her since she has only one wing and was still weak from yesterday. The group with the commander and Cadence found the Princess of the Sun pretty quickly. "Aunt Celestia!" The voice of Cadence caught Celestia's attention. She saw three of her elite Royal Guard, the commander and Cadence herself leading them. "Niece, what are you doing here? This is dangerous, return back to Ponyville and wait-" "No. I will not sit idle while you risk your life, Twilight's and her friends. They need you, but you need us aunty. Please don't do this alone. You have us, let us help you." pleaded the Princess of Love. She was right, Celestia couldn't do this alone. Right now she was weak, not the strong and confident alicorn of before. She really needed help but was this the help she need? "I know niece, but..." "But what?" asked the commander. "This feeling, this... this... fear... Something is wrong, very wrong, I fear that stallion is not alone in this, not mere racism or equestrian-supremacist terrorist plan. For some reason, the aliens seem to know what is going on. The stallion, the culprit of that attempt is not a normal pony. I cannot expresses it in words how but... I just don't know, Cadence." The commander's expression showed no emotion in her. "Could it be the borg, princess? Yesterday during the assault at Ponyville one of the aliens mentioned something about assimilated ponies." "No, the borg 'drones' were different, I could feel them, hundreds of minds, individuals begging for death. With others I could still feel them but not in the same way. It was similar to Ta'lash before being liberated. I could feel his mind but faintly before the Elements managed to fully save him." "You... can feel the Borg's true mind? Why didn't you tell us that yesterday when an ARMY of them appeared outside the town?" asked a shocked Cadence. They all started trotting deeper into the forest. "I couldn't do it in a very weakened state. I wasn't aware back them." "And the supposed fleet in the sky or space?" Celestia sighed after hearing said question. "... I felt them too but very faintly, almost no existent. I thought it was only a odd feeling. I didn't think it was anything else." After she said that they all heard screams from the deepest part of the forest near a cliff that only a few ponies including Celestia knew. "Did you heard that?" said one of the escorts. "Yes, the girls are in troubles!" said Cadence. She, Celestia and the rest galloped toward the deep forest. When they arrived they found an scary sight; the aliens were behind a fallen tree, using it as a barricade, fighting bipeds with the same cloak as the stallion. Ge'dan's right arm was burned, Blackheart was using a disruptor rifle supplying them cover fire while Vaner was healing Rainbow Dash's burned wing. Luckily there was Vaner's shuttle being piloted by Janet. However, for some reason, one of the shady humanoids fired a disruptor device a it. I did not do much damage but it disabled the Weapon subsystem. "What is the meaning of this!?" exclaimed the sun monarch. This alerted the group of Tal'shiar agents and they began to point their weapons at her. This alerted the escorts, one of which was an unicorn who began to fire magic beams at them. When one of these beams hit one of them it was stopped short by an invisible shield. They laughed. "Your pathetic magic can't harm us! We have the best personal shields of the Tal'shiar!" "You can't even touch us sun horse!" said one of them arrogantly. This angered her followers but not Celestia herself or Cadence. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash's wing had been fully healed by Vaner. She wouldn't rush at them again but her pride had been permanently wounded. Blackheart noticed something familiar about the personal shielding of the shady pony/bipeds. Something like the borg would use. "Blackheart what are you doing?" asked Ge'dan while still firing her plasma pistol at them. Unfortunately she could not breach their shields. "Remodulating the frequency of my weapon." Both admirals stared at the general in confusion. "They are Tal'shiar not borg," said Vaner as she start to shoot. "Yes I know but the Tal'shiar are obsessed with borg technology. They might have reversed engineered the borg drones' shields. If my theory is correct then we could fight against them in equal force." As he said this he rose up pointing his disruptor at one of the Tal'shiar group. They smirked confidently. "Expected from the barbaric kling- ARG!" he was silenced by the sheer force of the recently modulated disruptor, killing him instantly and surprising everyone, including the Tal'shiar ponies. "Damn, they know! We need to retreat! ... UGH!" A female operative was hit by Vaner's phaser, stunning her. Vaner wanted to interrogate her for information and he had the best person for the job. Ge'dan, while she though to kill them for being Tal'shiar operatives, her scientific curiosity wanted to study them first. One of the many traits of the Romulans and Vulcans was being curious about something new to them so like Vaner she programmed her pistol to stun. "We'll be back!" The rest of the Tal'shiar force started to beam out leaving three paralyzed at the mercy of the allies. "Don't leave us!" one exclaimed but it was too late. The rest were gone. The shuttle landed in a clearing near to the allied group and the royal ponies. A human woman exited the shuttle wearing black and red Federation Sierra uniform, looking for her admiral. When she found her she was treati ng the wounded Ge'dan. "I healed the most that I can but you must go to your ship's sickbay for further treatment." Ge'dan nodded. "Before I go Vaner sent me one them for interrogation and study," said Ge'dan as she got up, looking at the paralyzed Tal'shiar. Much to her surprise, one of them had gotten his bracelet damaged and reverted back to his original pony form, much to the ponies shock. "Very well, one of them will go to the klingons for equal share." Blackheart grunted in agreement. "Good." The romulan admiral activated her comlink to her ship. "Ge'dan here, one for transport." She was engulfed with green light and she was gone. Seeing no more danger, Celestia and the Mane Six started to approach the remaining alien leaders, while the Royal Guards were looking at the stunned operatives. "I do believe I owe you an apology." The Mane Six looked at her in surprise. "I didn't know that one of my ponies was involved with some terrorist organization but you also own me an explanation as to why some of your species were involved as well." Celestia said in a soft but stern voice directed to Vaner and Blackheart. "Princess! They are not aliens, they are ponies, all of them! They used a strange bracelet to take their forms," said Twilight. She didn't want to believe it but she had seen it herself, how these ponies became humanoids with similar builds to the aliens rather than minotaurs. "Really Twilight?" She then gazed upon the paralyzed humanoids and the single pony. She was about to say otherwise but she was interrupted by Vaner. "She is telling the truth, your Highness. They are all ponies but for some unknown reason they are working with a space faring terrorist organization called the Tal'shiar.” She then point to their bracelet. "However, they seem to be using a very complex piece of technology that allows them to take a humanoid form." This perked up the interest of the ponies present, Celestia raising an eyebrow. "We were about to beam them to our ships for interrogation. It is possible that the real Tal'shiar are on this planet working in the shadows. If we get enough information we could find them and take them out." "Real Tal'shiar? Are you saying that they are like you?" Cadence asked. "No. The Tal'shiar, like Ge'dan's Republicans are romulans but that's the only thing in common. They were the spying organization of the former Romulan Star Empire before their homeworld's incident." Vaner carefully hid a few important pieces of information to the natives, after all they don't need to know a lot. "After that, the Empire and its army dissolved and the Tal'shiar stepped out of the shadows and changed from being a secret organization to a military one. Over the years they became more and more opressive and ruthless even with their own people. They began to do anything to restore their destroyed Empire to its former glory." "But why are my ponies in that warmongering organization?" Celestia asked, really worried now. It seems that the borg weren't the only ones that wanted Equestria. "We don't know. It is possible these are not ponies but clones or brainwashed victims believing that they are Tal'shiar from the start. The organization has been known to use other servitors races to do their job, like brainwashed remans. That's where we enter. We will discover why the Tal'shiar are doing this. "What about the dead ones?" Celestia asked while looking at the four dead bodies. "We will take them for investigation-" "Wait a minute! Are sayin' that ya'll goin to dissect 'em like lab rats? They are dead for Pete's sake, let the dead rest in peace!" exclaimed Applejack earning a shocked expression from some of the pony folks. "Yeah! They may be bad but they're ponies too! We can't just let you use our dead like they were experiments!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash Celestia wanted to argue with both her subjects but they were correct. She could not let her dead subjects be experimented upon. She was about to voice that thought but she was interrupted once again. "Look!" pointed Twilight at a dead Tal'shiar. The skin started to lose its color as the bodies began to decay in a very unique way. Everyone looked with morbid fascination and disgust as the limbs start to petrify, crumble and becoming dust. In the end the bodies became piles of dust along with the bracelets. "Ma'am, I picked up some thalaron radiation coming from the bodies' bracelet before their..." "It isn't necessary to say that now , the point is how and why. Not to discover their secrets?" Vaner interrupted. "Heh, so the commander is starting to destroy the bodies. He will get us out of he- AAARGH!!" "What?! What is happening AARRGH!!" The ponies and the aliens saw the inevitable demise of two of the paralyzed agent begin. Like the dead bodies they became dust in a painful and slow way, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie could not look while Rarity covered her mouth with her hoof. Applejack covered her mouth with her hat, Rainbow Dash look away while Twilight try to not to throw up her lunch. "Do something!" yelled Celestia hoping that their demise could be prevented. "That is thalaron radiation. It is not possible to counter something like that and it act very quickly," Blackheart said emotionlessly as the bodies were now dust. There was only left pony that looked at the dust of her teammates fearfully, scared that she might join them in the painful death she close her eyes for her inevitable demise. But it never come. "Uh?" was the only intelligent question that came to her mind. Then it hit her. The damaged bracelet held a small thalaron device. It was possible that the phaser had vaporized said device and rendered the artifact useless. "It seems that we have a single prisoner now," stated the klingon general. While Celestia was confused, she was quite grateful that the pony hadn't died in a horrible way. Before anyone could say anything, she goes toward the mare looking at her with a critical eye humming while examinating her entire being. She sat down while her horn glowed and touched the mare's forehead. "What is she doing?" asked the human officer. "I don't know but I'm picking up low levels of chroniton energy coming from her," said the klingon general. "She is seeing her memories, probably how she ended up with these people." stated Twilight, hoping that the mare could be redeemed as well her friends. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mare's Memories, Celestia. Celestia had already entered the mare's mind. While she knew mental magic, she was not good in it. She only knew a few spells, most from Relikia. She was seeing the memories through the mare's eyes. She could feel and hear everything the mare had experienced during her life. At first she felt small, like being a foal again. She looked around only to seem to be trapped in some glass capsule full of weird green warm liquid. Through the glass she could see multiple lights, consoles and such. A few of these were connected to more of these capsules but what froze her heart was the content of these weird capsules. Unborn foals, all of them. Who are these sick people?! she yelled in her mind. They were experimenting with her ponies even before birth! How dare these Tal'shiar! Suddenly a door opened revealing three Romulans. Two of them were wearing white uniforms and had the same hair style. The third was completely bald, missing his right eye, and his uniform was quite different from the other two. She guessed he was a high rank. "Colonel, these are experimental clones they are very rare. They come from a very remote world hidden in borg territory. Clones? This mare and these foals are clones? she asked herself while listening to the conversation. "I want those ready at once when they reach maturity. If not they are good as cannon fodder if they won't develop the energy that YOU were telling me!" She felt sick upon hearing these words. How can this man be so heartless? "But sir, give us a few months and they will be ready for you," one of the scientis ts said nervously. "Hakeev! I hope that this project of yours comes out as good as you told me.” There stood a romulan woman with blond hair wearing the same uniform as Hakeev. “The remans and the rebels are more active and we need everything to counter them. Remember that the klingons and the Federation are most curious about our affairs." "Empress! Do not worry, our new 'ally' is keeping the "Republic" rebels busy while I have a plan to keep away the interlopers of the Federation and the barbaric klingons! They will never know about us, them and this!" said the male romulan pointing toward her or rather the unborn foal that was this mare before.. Soon the memory changed into something more direct. Now as a filly out of the capsule, she was firing magic blasts from the tip of her horn. She was in a holodeck fighting against romulans, klingons and Starfleet officers, Celestia didn't know how she know this but it must have been the experience of the mare that lived through this stage of life. "They were training her and every clone pony to be a killing machine," she thought sadly and in disgust. "Alright clone T3-M4, your test is over. Go to the lab for indoctrination upgrade. T3-M3, come forward for your test." The holodeck paused as she exited through a materialized door, only to met with a red with yellow mane pony clone. By look alone this clone was sick and about to pass out. "Good luck in there M3." the mare said to her fellow clone as he entered for his test. As she was going into the laboratory, she overheard some romulan scientists watching the test of M3 on a screen. He seemed to have a hard time with the holo-enemies. "He is not going to last. He is a failure." "Yes, since he started to reach maturity his results started dropping." "We should get rid of him." "We could better use him as cannon fodder and dress him as an agent for the Republic rebels." She looked down, depressed for the clone whose function was now cannon fodder rather than elite operative. Now this is just sad for them. The clones are weapons that are easy to replace. They are trying to weaponize our magic. The next memory showed clone M4 going into a shuttlebay equipped with her morph-bracelet. The mare changed into a humanoid woman. Disguised as a Romulan Tal'Shiar Centurion Medic, they were on their first mission, an invasion of a rebel colony. A subcommander was addressing her and her unit. "Alright recruits this world is Virinat, a colony world whose colonists declared themselves independent from the Empire. Our mission is to capture the colonists and make them see the error of their ways. We made an agreement with the elachi that some of these scum will be for them. Kill anyone who opposes you and your unit. For the Star Empire! "For the Star Empire!" all the recruits shouted at the same time while entering the shuttles. They were getting to the dark side of the planet. As they entered the atmosphere an odd giant triangular ship that was overlooking a agricultural town was noticeable. She could see more romulans but these were not Tal'shiar but civilians that were running from some strange robots that abducted them and brought them to the odd ship. The town is in flames, chaos and confusion rules over them... these Tal'shiar aren't trying to rebuild an empire, they are looking for slaves! As the memory progresses, the centurion's unit entered into the conflict with some resistance. Celestia couldn't help but look at the valor and bravery of the romulan colonists that were defending their home. Needless to say that she found respect for them. Even if they put up a fight against them, their defeat is inevitable. The memory progressed further and the centurion's unit separated to look for more colonists. Odd mechanical walkers were descending from the elachi ship. Soon M4 found a teenage girl, said teenage girl was wounded and had disruptor burns at some parts of her body. There was something familiar about this girl. "Why are you doing this?! We are romulans, like you!" yelled the girl only to be pointed at by M4's disruptor. "We are doing this for the reconstruction of the Empire. Any resistance is pointless. Surrender and face trail for your treason." "TREASON?! I have lived here since I was born!" That girl isn't that... "GE'DAN!" M4 got hit in the neck. Before falling to unconsciousness she notice a romulan man with a thick brown scarf around his neck and a tattoo over his eye. "Tovan! Thanks the elements you're here! What's going on?" asked young Ge'dan. "Tal'shiar, that's was going on. We should go with Shenek to evacuate before we get overrun." Celestia spend long minutes looking at the memories where she spied, stole, assassinated and maimed various colonists, entering into battle against the Federation and Starfleet, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Republic. So this is the Tal'shiar, there is no honor in their actions, using cowardly tactics and superweapons from stolen dangerous technology to gain unfair advantage, borg technology no less. Celestia though The next memory was with M4 again inside a capsule in the same laboratory where she was created, seeing blurry figures. One of them was a white pony with blue mane that seemed to be an unicorn stallion. "You have failed the Empire but you will serve once more. You will go back to the planet where your DNA was extracted to help me against the traitors and interlopers. Your mission is to sabotage the first contact and kill the traitor admiral and the Federation and Klingons leading officers... Failure isn't an option." he said with the arrogant voice similar to the previous Colonel Hakeev. Celestia, seeing that was enough, cancelled the spell... _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Equestria, Everfree Forest. They waited for half an hour. While they waited, they were talking among themselves. Twilight and Rarity found the Starfleet admiral interesting, Twilight finding a similar mind to talk with while Rarity was mesmerized by the uniform Vaner wore. Blackheart for some reason got into a "heated"(hostile) discussion between Rainbow and Applejack, even if he didn't say anything. Janet was talking with Fluttershy and Pinkie. Janet was overjoyed because... well talking quadrupeds but hey! This is space! Weird things happened everyday! Janet and Fluttershy were talking about animals. The young officer was surprised that most animal could be found at Earth as well as the most exotic, mostly from myth and legends of ancient earth, could be found in Equinux or Equestria as they called it. Pinkie was getting info on Star Trek Online's season 9... I mean getting ready for the next party, yes, the next party for the heroes of Equestria. "Princess!" One of the Guard noticed that Celestia opened her eyes. As she got up she noticed that her ponies were talking with the aliens. This might end well after all she thought. "Aunty? What did you find? Is this mare innocent? Brainwashed? Manipulated?" asked Cadence. "Cloned." "Uh?" the Equestrians were confused by that remark however the klingon and trill got the idea. The Tal'shiar was known for cloning members of other species for a successful spy or assassination mission. "We better go back to Ponyville. I will tell everything I found inside of T3-M4's mind. You may take her if you want good aliens." "Princess!" Before anypony could argue, she raised a hoof to stop them. "Everything will be explained on the way to Ponyville." "Alright your highness." Vaner activated the comlink to her ship. "Beam the Tal'shiar prisoner at your mark." 'Energize' came from the comlink and the mare was beamed up to the Inquisitor for further interrogation. During to trip back to Ponyville (Janet moving the shuttle back to the Ponyville Landing Zone), Celestia retold all she found in the mind of the clone T3-M4, who the Tal'shiar were and what they did. There were many reactions but the most common was disgust and shock and least surprising of all, fear. Even if Rainbow didn't want to admit it, she got pretty nervous. "Don't worry Rainbow Dash, the Tal'shiar are nothing more than bandits in space now." "Me, worry? O-of course not!" the small shuttering from Rainbow was quite an amusing sight for her friends. When they got back to Ponyville, they met the sight of a shield covering most of the town. Luna waiting outside of it with some Royal Guard. "Sister! I though you were lost!" she galloped toward her, trapping her in a bone crushing hug. "Lulu... cannot... breath...!" Just a few seconds before Celestia fainted from lack of oxygen, Luna release her from the hug and ordered the Royal Guard to drop the shield in order to resume the First Contact. An hour later most of the population of the town and a few important ponies were once again reunited to present the true First Contact. "Without any more interruptions, shall we?" said the Princess of the Sun. Again the second hoof/hand shake with Vaner took place in Ponyville. While Blackheart didn't make a hand shake with Luna, she repeated the klingon's hand/hoof to chest salute. Ge'dan returned beamed down with her arm healed. she bowed in front of Cadence and she returned the gesture. First Contact was a success. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ponyville's edge, Four hour later. Many things had been discussed and many things had been revealed. The princesses and the aliens discussed mostly the borg and their collective, how they worked and operated. When they reached the topic of technology Vaner abruptly refused to talk, citing regulations, rules and the Prime Directive. Blackheart and Ge'dan however had no problem in telling them about the klingon's and romulan's technology, much to Vaner's dismay. Upon talking about their species, the princesses and the ponies with them were interested in how many species made up the Federation and the Klingon Empire. While the Romulan Republic hadn't such diversity, they did have members of the species of their allies. The next topic was how the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the Republic were formed. Vaner explained how the Romulan Star Empire had been at war not only with the humans but also with the vulcans, andorians and tellarites. They had joined together and after the crisis, they remained together and founded the Federation. They were explorers and scientists that preferred searching for peaceful solutions first and frown upon conflict of any kind. Most of their ships had been science vessels and long ranged exploration vessels but with recent conflicts they had been forced to recall every ship and refit them for war. The Klingons' history was more bloody. It all began with the klingon race and the Emperor, Kahless the Unforgettable. After Kahless united the Houses, the klingons expanded until they became one of the major power of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. They had been in conflict with the Federation many times until reaching a breaking point. They continued expanding even to this very day and admitting new races swearing allegiance to the Empire only. They had conquered many worlds and crushed rival empires such the Gorn Hegemony, the Orion Syndicate and the nausicaans (who had been mercenaries of the gorn during their conflict with the Empire). The Romulan Republic dated back to Spock, a human/vulcan hybrid that wanted peace and reunification between the vulcans and the romulans on Romulus, the original romulan homeworld, The Romulan Star Empire did not allow this so Spock began his mission of reunification in secret. Many of his followers were people that wanted to escape the constant fear and paranoia that pervades the Star Empire. The princesses asked what kind of life was on the homeworld. Ge'dan said that she didn't know because she lived outside of the Star Empire but Shenek and many survivors that had escaped the super nova knew better. After the destruction of Romulus, the Federation wanted to help the survivors but the Tal'shiar, who were more equipped and prepared at that time, had not allowed that in the end. D'tan and many of the survivors of Romulus wanted a new start for the romulans and remans, one free from the Tal'shair and the Romulan Star Empire renmant thus the Romulan Republic was born. Many other survivors were scattered in multiples colonies so it was a race between the Republic and the Tal'shair to gain more supporters. The Republic remained without a homeworld until one of the Republic's explorers found one, Dewa III, a real paradise in space that they renamed Mol'Rihan or New Romulus. The princesses continued with the topic of the Republic and the Tal'shiar to know more of this dark enemy lurking in the shadows of Equestria. "The Republic is not really a major power of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant, is a minor one with a much higher voice. We do not have a powerful military like the klingons or supplied like the Federation. We are a faction conformed mostly of refugees, colonists, retired members of the romulan military and Tal'shiar agents who grew tired of the oppression and danger of their ways." "But how did you stand against an enemy that was more prepared and with plenty of resources while the Republic had none?" asked Cadence. "That was easy, we did something they will never do - forms alliances with the empire's formers enemies. The Federation helps us with the supplies and resources we require for our infrastructure and ships and the klingons with our military progress. Even if Starfleet is helping with that too, they cannot afford many ships in our current conflict with the borg and others difficulties. Those are stories for another day." "I must said that I am interested in the remans, a race active mostly at night while resting in day," added Luna. She was overjoyed with the idea of a nocturnal species in Equestria and Shenek was one of them! "Yes, the remans were romulans that settled on Remus instead of Romulus. The planet was tidally locked meaning that one side of the planet had constant daylight and the other constant night. The remans' civilization was located on the night side of Remus." "Constant night? Meaning 'eternal night?'" asked Celestia a little bit uneasy, she fought against her jealous sister for the sake of her subjects to live in the day and night yet a race had lived on a planet that had the same effect. "If you want to put it in that way, then yes." Many ponies next to them murmured about 'alien Nightmare Moon' and 'eternal night' as well as 'a race of vampires' and 'night species'. A mare said 'the horror' two times. Blackheart chuckled darkly and murmured "I bet the remans on the Jolan Tru are hearing this." Ge'dan stayed emotionless while Vaner frowned upon hearing these ponies. The princesses saw this and alarmed that they might have upset them, decided to continue with another topic. Howeve Ge'dan decided to let the matter go since the ponies did not know the whole story regarding the Remans and the Republic. The meeting between the Equestrians and aliens was finishing with plans and tactics in case the borg or Tal'shiar reappeared. The borg wanted to assimilate the ponies into their collective while the Tal'shiar had a way to clone ponies and use them as tools for their own agenda. "The Tal'shiar are obsessed with borg technology. It is possible that the borg traced a signal from an artifact that the Tal'shiar have to find this planet," said Blackheart. "It is also possible clones infiltrated as ponies," Ge'dan added. "Our science teams are already studying the prisoner's bracelet. The technology in that little artifact seems too advanced even for the Tal'shiar." Vaner stated. "What about Equestria? No, what about the entire world?" asked Luna. "We might need to do a Search and Destroy operation to search for Borg and Tal'shiar bases that made it to the planet. This means that we need personnel here in Equestria and at different sites across the entire world," Blackheart answered. "We can let you do that here in Equestria but I don't know about the other nations. Zebrica maybe but the Dragons and Griffin kingdoms might not allow that. They're not very friendly to foreigners" said Celestia sadly. “Two incidents occurred thanks of two ambassadors that were noble ponies in these two kingdoms. The incidents mysteriously involved eggs, chickens and for some reason, iguanas. A war was averted but they don't want ANYPONY in their nations ever again.” "Now the last topic is the ambassadors and delegates from the Federation, the klingons and the romulans and from you Equestrians to continue a relationship between us and your people or in your case, ponies." said the Starfleet admiral. "Yes, I can send one of the captains of my fleet. Each captain of the Romulan Republic is trained to handle diplomatic meetings," said the romulan admiral. "Agreed. I have the best delegate of the Klingon Empire. He is a captain as well," said the general. "Yes, like Ge'dan's fleet, each Federation captain is trained to handle diplomatic meetings in case an ambassador is not on-board. I can sent one as well." finished Vaner. "That's good but right now I don't have ambassadors available," said the Princess of the Sun. In truth she did have ambassadors but the majority were arrogant noble plotholes. She didn't want them to send one of them and have them repeat the same mistake. "You will find one eventually. After all, who doesn't want to be on a starship?" Vaner chuckled as well Celestia and Luna. Cadence and Blackheart just looked flatly at them. Cadence wasn't sure about the whole idea. Her "husband" was probably a clone while the real Shining was missing, meaning that the imposter might have influence over the Guard while sabotaging the entire peace talk. Blackheart was not sure if he would let weaklings inside of his respected warriors' ships. He used to have weaklings on his but all of them had been thrown out of the airlock. When the First Contact meeting ended the admirals and general were about to depart when something caught the eye of anypony and of the aliens. Something or somepony was being transported in between the princess and the aliens. When the green light faded the ponies gasped at the sight of a malnourished, tortured and wounded white stallion with a blue mane and tail and a starred shield for a cutie mark. "SHINY!" "BROTHER!" "Captain Armor!" He look on his fellow ponies, princesses and wife and smile weakly. They rushed to him, Celestia calling the medics. Shining Armor turned his gaze to the aliens, his face becoming serious. Ignoring the protests of others he walked toward them, ignoring the pain in his muscles, then stood in front of them. They stared at him and he stared back. "Which of you is Vice Admiral Ge'dan?" It was simple question, a very simple one. "I am," replied the romulan admiral. "Good" he smiled weakly. "Princesses, friends... I need to tell you something, there is an imposter in the Guard." Everypony gasped, especially the Guard. "Who is the imposter?” asked Luna. "A Clone of... Me." Again everypony gasped. Shining collapsed. Cadence rushed to grab him before he fell to the ground. "I knew it! Search for the imposter! Bring him to me!" ordered Cadence. The Guard did as ordered but the imposter captain was gone. They began to search every corner of Ponyville. "It is no use... he wanted to send my dead body here in hope to destroy any peaceful talks with the aliens but I was rescued by a Republic agent. He sent me in hope to find and deliver her," he said, pointinhg a hoof at Ge'dan who knelt along with Vaner administering a hypospray at him "A message." "A message?" asked Ge'dan. "A message. the leader of the clones, the very same one who is impersonating me," said the Royal Guard captain. Some medic ponies arrived, about to bring Shining Armor to the hospital. "A name, the leader of this Tal'shiar cell?" asked Vaner, the stallion nodded. "He has my body cloned but... his memories, his entire personality and being is from a dead alien..." Everyone stared at him uneasily, especially about the 'dead' thing. This meant that this clone was different from the others. "Who is he?" asked the klingon general. Before Shining could say the name, he pass out, the medics carry him to ponyville's hospital, leavin the aliens and the Princesses (Celestia and Luna) as well many ponies of the crowd..