The object had appeared over Equestria several days earlier. They had deftly dodged several attempts to 'throw the sun and moon at them' and remained in much the same high orbit that they had initially taken.
Too high for even an alicorn to reach, freeing Discord was not an option, yet.
The capture of a number of ponies from all over Equestria had changed dull concern into raving panic among some ponies.
Celestia reread the scroll she had received earlier that day. 'They've taken Pinky.' No salutation, no additional comments and the misspelling told Celestia all she needed to know about her student's state of mind when she sent it.
"Without Pinkie Pie, we cannot use the Elements of Harmony. Did they know, were the others taken to disguise the neutralization of Equestria's greatest and last defense?" Celestia asked herself as she waited.
The kidnappings had started two days ago, and had ceased as suddenly as they started. The mages, diplomats and functionaries pored over all the records they could about the captives, searching for a pattern, searching for a response, and searching for a way to drive the aliens off.
The few ideas they'd come up with ranged from the chillingly practical: they took a cross-section of the populace as a test segment for the whole population, to the absurd: have everypony hide and set out hundreds of pony-dummies filled with firework to trick the aliens into blowing themselves up.
"That's like the vow for everypony captured to sneeze on the aliens to give them a virus," Celestia said as she stared at the ugly, almost industrial spaceship.
"Hey Princess! Whatcha lookin' at?" Pinkie asked.
The princess jumped at the unexpected arrival. "How did you escape?"
"Which time?" Pinkie asked, then her mane stood on end.
A moment later so did Celestia's and that of every other pony in sight. The air seemed to shimmer and shudder as the alien's power filled every corner of Equestria.
"Here it comes," Celestia thought. She'd prepared several speeches. Utter defiance, abject begging, and several gradations in between. Which she'd use would depend on the aliens.
"We are the Borg, we have subtracted your biological and technological distinctiveness from our own. Our culture will adapt to leave yours alone. Resistance was futile."