//------------------------------// // Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part III) // Story: DisQord Continuum 2: Friendship is Futile // by ZoidbergIsBestPony //------------------------------// Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part III) “Picard to Data,” the voice came over the communications channel. Data flipped a Borg drone straight over himself, from back to front, twisting its neck as it landed. For the moment the throne room was Borg free. “Data here, Captain,” he replied contentedly. “It is good to hear your voice.” “Data, we’re launching a counter-attack as we speak, what is the situation on the ground?” “The invasion of the planet has commenced. We are presently holding the main forces back, but reinforcements are continually beaming down. It is unlikely we will be able to contain them for much longer.” “Do what you can. We’ll try to stop additional troops from beaming down from up here. Picard out.” The channel closed and Data looked at Twilight in surprise. “Looks like your gut was right after all, Data,” Present-Day Twilight commented, smiling. “It would appear so,” Data replied thoughtfully. Another two drones appeared in the room. “Then let’s keep this momentum going, shall we?” Twilight said, her horn glowing at the ready. Data brandished one of the guard’s spears. “Saddle up. Lock ‘n load.” In the aftermath of the explosions onboard the lead cube, the other two cubes quickly altered their orbits defensively. As the remaining fleet entered the engagement zone, Picard took the lead. “Picard, to all vessels. We need to concentrate our fire on the lead cube. With its current damage, it is our best shot for taking it out. Captain Dax, when the ponies onboard the lead cube are within beaming range, cloak if you have to, but get them out of there.” “Aye, Captain,” the Defiant’s captain replied. “All ships… Engage,” Picard ordered. The Enterprise, Defiant, and Klingon and Romulan ships entered the fray while the U.E.S. Harmony readied itself for its approach. The Klingon ship immediately cloaked and veered off from the group. The Romulans did the same. Lastly, the Defiant disappeared into empty space. To the three Borg cubes bearing menacingly ahead of them, it appeared as though only one ship was on the approach; one ship, running the gauntlet: the Enterprise. The Borg were quick to reply. They positioned themselves with the two undamaged cubes out in front and the heavily damaged cube protected behind them. The Enterprise made no attempts at a course correction; no maneuver to evade attack. It continued on course, straight for them. “Hold her steady,” Picard commanded his helmsman. As they neared the cubes, the green lights from within started to glow brighter. It was all too obvious what was coming. “Ready on my mark,” said Picard. The green lights collected into multiple beams the shot out at the ship. “Now!” Picard yelled. The ship lurched as it rapidly entered warp. The beams passed straight through where the Enterprise had been moments before. The Enterprise reappeared less than a moment later on the other side of the cubes, aft torpedoes immediately firing at the damaged cube. The Klingon ship decloaked right beside the Enterprise firing into the same location. The Romulan ship and Defiant waited. When the two healthy cubes maneuvered to intercept, the two ships decloaked and fired off into the areas Picard had recommended on the healthy cubes. The Borg weaponry momentarily ceased on both cubes. They were vulnerable, if only for a moment. All ships started attacking at will. A tractor beam would be launched from a cube onto one ship, only to have it readily destroyed by another. “Any sign of the ponies onboard the lead cube?” asked Picard. “Nothing yet,” Dax replied. “They need to get closer to the hull if they can.” “Picard to Chrysalis, report.” Chrysalis and Luna were wandering aimlessly from corridor to corridor. Every alcove they passed had a drone inside it, apparently asleep. “Hold up a second, Princess,” Chrysalis told her. Luna was still angry, but stopped. “Why do we need to stop?” “Because I have Captain Picard on the line and he’s the only one who can help us now.” Luna had almost forgotten why Chrysalis was there in the first place. She nodded softly. “Chrysalis here, Captain,” she said into the comm. “Can you get us out of here yet?” “You need to get closer to the hull. Can you do that?” “I don’t even know which way the hull is!” she cried in frustration. Luna was angry again. “You mean to tell me that I’ve been following somepony who doesn’t even know how to get out of here!?” “Captain, can you help us?” Chrysalis asked again, ignoring Luna’s comment. Picard was trying to think. It would be too difficult to directly guide them in the midst of a battle. Finally it was Discord who spoke up. “I’ll take care of it, Captain,” he said plainly. His face was resolute and confident. There was no pompous arrogance or deviousness in his expression. It completely threw Picard for a loop. “Chrysalis, stand by,” said Picard, closing the channel and staring at Discord. “You? You’re going to help them?” “Don’t be so shocked, Jean-Luc. As I said before, I have as much at stake as you do.” “And what if something happened to you? If you’re captured or killed this all ends!” “It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump Captain,” Discord reassured him. “I’ll just flash over there, grab them, and flash right back.” “Q, I told you before. I forbid you to use the powers of the Q. It is too dangerous!” “Relax, Captain. Relax. I’m only going to use the powers of the Draconequus. No universe-shrinking powers. I promise. Just get me as close as you can to the cube.” “How close?” “I’ll let you know.” Picard frowned as he weighed his options. It really only boiled down to the one option. “Fine,” he said, reopening the channel. “Chrysalis, keep trying to get as close as you can to the hull. We’re sending help to get you.” “Thank you, Captain,” said Chrysalis. She looked at Luna who was eager to hear what the captain had said. “Someone’s coming to get us, but we need to keep trying to find the hull.” “Let’s get going then,” Luna said, looking straight ahead. With Celestia on their backs, they continued down another corridor, looking for the way out. Down on the ground, the city of Canterlot was in chaos. With the drones ignoring boundaries, guards, and groups, they appeared right in the middle of crowds of civilian ponies. The panic and scattering made it nearly impossible to navigate the city. But that’s just was five ponies were attempting to do. With the kick-start from Rainbow’s Sonic Rainboom, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy sprang into action. Fluttershy without being told and without hesitating became the beacon of salvation for the young fillies and colts. Every little pony she found orphaned in the fight she swooped down upon them like an eagle capturing its prey. But with no intentions of eating her catch, Fluttershy brought the distraught little filly out of harms way into the nearby forest, away from the fighting. Many of them were quite shocked to see a great bear with sharp teeth and long claws waiting to greet them. Fluttershy set the little filly down in front of the bear, who amazingly smiled at her. It was too much for the child who quickly broke-down into tears again. “It’s okay, dear,” Fluttershy cood. “Mr. Bear is here to protect you from any baddies. He won’t hurt you. And look; there are others here too.” She pointed to growing group of young ponies hiding behind their bear protector. They waved cautiously, still nervous themselves from all that had happened. Slowly, they young filly walked over to them. When she turned back, Fluttershy was already gone, flying back to rescue more of them. While Fluttershy took the children from harm’s way, Rarity and Applejack were making their rounds to keep Borg away from the crowds. Applejack was running full speed with Rarity a short distance away. “You ready, Rarity?” she called out. “Oh I hope this works,” she replied. “Let’s round ‘em up!” Applejack grabbed a rope from her back and quickly spun it around to build up speed. She launched it over the heads of a dozen Borg drones that had been bearing on a nearby group of civilians. Rarity just caught the rope and galloped around clockwise while Apple run full steam in the opposite direction. In a dizzying circle, the drones were quickly tied together in a bundle. Before they could even take a breath, the drones already had their cutting tools working through the ropes so they quickly became untied. “Now! Quickly!” Applejack shouted upward. From the sky a team of Pegasi released their payloads. A gift from Princess Twilight, hundreds of magically modified parasprites descended onto the drones. Rather than consuming normal foods, the bugs devoured the components of Borg technology, stripping the drones of most of their machinery. After that, the palace guards moved in and dispatched the defenseless drones, now attired in their Borg birthday suits. “Yeeeeee-haaaa!” shouted applejack. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” The parasprites swarmed over to a second group of drones and devoured their implants, but upon reaching the third group, their mouths were stopped by adapted Borg shielding. Meanwhile Pinkie-Pie was flinging pies as fast as she could throw them. Jams, jellies, creams, cakes, anything and everything she fired off at the baddies. Some struck the drones dead in the face, temporarily blinding them long enough for the guards to do their thing, but more and more, the Borg anticipated them and adapted. Pinkie was running out of desserts to throw. Onboard the U.E.S. Harmony, Future Rainbow was flying the ship at a dizzying pace. Within minutes she found herself performing maneuvers most Starfleet cadets have never dreamt of trying. Beam and Beam shot out at their ship, but Dash merely dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged through the engagement zone. Meanwhile the rest of the crew was starting to turn green. Even the inertial dampeners couldn’t keep up. “Rainbow, please!” yelled Captain Twilight. “Try to keep the ship a little more steady.” “But this is so cool!” Rainbow protested. “The enemy can’t even touch us!” “That’s an order, Helm!” Rainbow muttered quietly to herself. “Aye, Captain,” she finally replied. The ship steadied itself, it only a little. Rainbow still needed to evade being shot at. When the Twilight’s last meal finally moved back down to her stomach, she turned to Applejack. “Are we good on weapons?” Applejack shook her head until her eyes stopped spinning. “I think so, Cap’n. What should I shoot?” “Only shoot when other ships are in trouble. Remember, we need to stay quiet for as long as possible until we launch our gift.” “Yes, Ma’am.” “Twilight to Engineering. Are we ready to launch?” Reg was seated in the middle of the room, covered up to his waist in wires. One area of wires was covered in Reg’s previous stomach contents. “It would g-go a lot f-f-faster if you could hold the ship steady for t-t-t-two minutes!” “Sorry, Reg. I think we’ve got it under control now.” Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash who turned beet red. “How much longer do you need?” Reg looked around the room. As messy as it was, the engine was working smoothly, the warp core had already been disconnected, and the system had been rigged trigger an overload and jettison the core within seconds. “I think I almost got it. Just n-need one of you t-t-to come and enhance the core.” “Great, I’m on my way,” said Twilight, closing the channel. “Mr. Pinkie, you have the con.” Pinkie looked at Twilight confused. “I’m not a crook. I swear! Those colts wanted to give me their cupcakes!” “Pinkie, I mean you are in charge while I go help Reg.” “OOOhhhh! That makes much more sense. Okie-dokie-lokie!” Twilight shook her head and started to leave the bridge. She quickly looked back at everypony. “Keep everything together until I get back, okay?” “You can count on me!” Pinkie sung. “You betcha!” said Applejack. “Yes, of course we will,” said Rarity. “Good luck, darling.” “You too,” said Twilight. She left the bridge and headed for engineering. “Take us in,” Picard ordered. The Enterprise thrust forward into the heart of the battle. Explosions sounded as their impact shook through the hull. “Shields are down to forty-eight percent,” Geordi announced. “Hold course. Hold much closer, Q?” “As close as you can, Picard. I’ll flash over as soon as it’s close enough.” Another explosion burst out directly in front of them. It was friendly fire from the Klingon ship. “Picard to the fleet, we’re going to attempt to drop off Q onboard the lead cube. Target the other cubes while the Enterprise gets into range.” Chrysalis and Luna were nearing their wits end. Every corridor looked the same. Every alcove filled with sleeping drones. Nothing to clue them as to their whereabouts. “I need to rest a bit,” Chrysalis said, her throat dry and her body shaking. “No!” Luna replied tersely. “You will help me rescue my sister and you will not stop!” Chrysalis answered in the form of collapsing to the ground. “Get up!” Luna decried. Chrysalis just shook her head exhaustedly. “Get up, I said!” “I’m sorry.” Chrysalis could feel the hatred burning in Luna’s heart. It’s black aura worked to drain her even faster than just a lacking of affection had on its own. She could feel herself weakening by the second. Chrysalis started to close her eyes, entering a sleep she was not sure she would ever wake up from, when a strange figure appeared before her. Through her blurry eyes she could just make out some of its more distinguishing features, such as two entirely different horns on the top of its head. “Discord,” she whispered. “Looks like I needed to get here a little sooner.” “Discord!” Luna shouted in surprise. “How did you get here?” “I still have some powers, you know,” Discord replied, soundly slightly insulted. “Now let’s see what we have here.” He looked over at the changeling, who looked extremely slickly. “Just leave her. Let’s get my sister out of this place,” Luna replied coldly. “Now, now. Let’s not be rude. You do know why she came here in the first place right?” “She only seeks her freedom. If she had her way, she would have taken that freedom and used to attack Canterlot again!” “Quite wrong, your majesty. Quite quite wrong. She came here to fulfill a debt to your elder sister. A debt for saving her people.” “I’d say that debt will be left unfulfilled,” said Luna. “She tried to kill my own sister.” “She did what she was told to do in order to save you! When you truly understand that, you will realize that you are as much in her debt as she is in Celestia’s. Now, let me have a look.” He leaned in over the changeling, until there faces were inches apart. He opened his mouth and breathed on her. For Chrysalis, it was the most revolting thing that had every happened. His breath was putrid, and she was too weak to turn away. But he stayed, transfixed on her. Breathing an aura through him into her. The aura wasn’t love. Q could never amount to something as primitive as love. It was something else entirely. Almost like respect, with an air of amused affection. It wasn’t love, but it was enough to rejuvenate the changeling. Chrysalis coughed, still trying to avoid the creature’s bad breath and sat up straight. Discord stopped his breathing into her and helped her to her hooves. “All better?” he asked tenderly. Chrysalis sighed. “I’m okay now.” “Good. Then let’s adjourn from this dreary place.” “How do we get out of here?” Luna asked. “Oh that’s easy it’s just a sn–” A great explosion wrang out. Debris flew through the air in every direction. The entire ship lurched from the impact and tilted into a spiral. Sparks shot out of various consoles. A dust cloud fogged the room. Chrysalis and Luna slowly got back onto the hooves and tried to see what had just happened. When their eyes adjusted, they discovered Discord, attached to the wall, with a pipe sticking out of his chest.