Chapter 11: War and Diplomacy.
Equestria
Three days have passed since First Contact and Shining Armor’s return with his cryptic news about the Tal'shiar cell's leader. When he woke up, being able to remember nothing but sudden flashbacks, the three admirals initiated Operation: "Road of Damnation". The mission was search and destroy on a planetary scale. Officers from each faction started to search and scan for any Tal'shiar signals in Equestria. First, however, the Klingons and Romulans tried to extend their searches to Zebrica and the Gryphon Kingdom, without contacting their respective governments.
The intense radiation from the surface heavily obscured the three factions' sensors which led to the deployment of Danube, Tiercel, Toron, and various other classes of shuttles to the surface. They found two abandoned Tal'shiar bases in the badlands and one poorly defended in Zebrica's Grand River.
The situation in Equestria has been vastly improving, shuttles from the various ships in orbit landing to gather the corpses left over from the sphere for disposal or possible liberation. Two assimilated ponies were found, one alive and, hopefully, a candidate for liberation. The other, unfortunately, was found slashed apart by the distinctive curve of a Klingon Bat'leth. Joyous news for one family, devastating for another, both coming from a noble caste. Shining and Cadence returned to the Crystal Empire thanks to the Federation’s medical resources. What would normally be weeks of bed rest ended in hours, leaving Shining.... well, healthy as a horse. Before his departure, he issued a formal apology to the allied captains as well as to his friends, the Guard and Relikia for the actions of his clone.
The next day, the three factions' ambassadors arrived.
First up was the captain of the U.S.S. Tewkesbury, Tyler Chambers. Vaner’s orders were to ensure smooth diplomatic relations with the Equestrians. Human, young-looking and redheaded with a short beard, he fashionably rocked the Federation diplomatic uniform. His two escorts also rocked their OMEGA uniforms.
The Klingons sent the captain of the I.K.S. Wraith Guard. David was a normal Human male with brown hair and a short beard much like Chambers'; unlike him, he wore the traditional Klingon uniform. Poised like a warrior ready for battle, he was escorted by two klingon Honor Guards, their armor similar but with lower shoulder pads and less vivid red styling.
Finally, a familiar face arrived. Shenek, the Reman captain of the R.R.W. Jolan Tru, arrived somewhat miffed that he had to go during the day. Being a nocturnal species, it was understandable. For his sake, the meetings were held at du sk. He was escorted by two reman Shadow Guards.
The news of their arrival graced the ears of the other ambassadors, namely Razorclaw and Darkwing, who wanted to meet these aliens and establish a relationship with these new empires. However, Tyler requested only three ambassadors be with the Princess at any time. Enraged, the dragon and gryphon insisted that, if they weren’t included in the talks, they would break off all relations with Equestria. Much to the allied captain’s dismay, Celestia folded and allowed them in.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Canterlot Palace. 7:30 P.M
“I already told you, we aren’t interested in establishing talks with either of your nations!” Tyler sighed.
The relentless dragon and gryphon duo had been tag-teaming him and the other ambassadors to establish trade agreements. David was also annoyed and Shenek was resting his head in his hands, resisting the urge to telekinetically vaporize the two “ambassadors”.
“We have everything that you could possibly need!” The Gryphon, Razorclaw, continued to insist, mainly to try and establish the Gryphon Kingdom as a superpower. Both he and Darkwing were desperately trying to assert themselves.
Suddenly, Shenek snapped. “Like what?"
Darkwing and Razorclaw both drew a blank. They simply had nothing to offer the captains didn’t already have.
"There is one thing you can offer, both of you." David piped up, being unnaturally quiet. Dreams of grandeur suddenly flooded the two ambassadors' heads.
"Really?" They snapped up, almost exactly in unison.
“You can let us search your lands for bases of the terrorist organization known as the Tal'shiar”
"Terrorist organization?!" Again, in unison.
Darkwing adamantly insisted that there were no terror cells anywhere in or near his land.
“You probably wouldn’t know about it.” Tyler chimed in. “We can offer you medical and humanitarian aid if you need it.”
Still rather displeased, Shenek looked over to the only two equines that were saying nothing, Relikia and Zalune.
“You two are strangely silent. Do you wish to speak?”
“I do not. We have nothing to offer or request, and technology is not a new concept to us. I am more worried about these ‘terrorists’ you speak of.” Uncharacteristically not in rhyme, Zalune had finally spoken up.
Relikia also spoke. "I was thinking about something else. The Borg may also be interested in my people as well.”
“Why do you think that?” David asked.
“Well, we changelings can use alicorniangic and if the Borg are interested in the ponies, they may be interested in us as well.”
Apprehensively David asked, “Changelings?”
"Changelings. My people are called Changelings."
The captains and escorts tensed at the word, especially the klingons. In the Dominion war, the Changelings were the main spies and saboteurs for the Dominion, as well as the “Founders”. The “Founders” were gods to their artificially created races, such as the Vorta and the Jem’Hadar. The infiltration into the Klingon High Council, by both the Dominion and the Undine, was still fresh in the minds of many klingons. With all these new threats, the Klingon Empire was on red alert for any signs of honorless Quhame’Quv - To be immediately destroyed.
Yeah, klingons have a tendency to go overboard on everything.
One of David’s guards suddenly spoke. “Changelings, huh? Do you have any subjects, like the Vorta or Jem’Hadar?”
“I...don’t quite know what you mean by that, but no. We don’t have any subjects at all.”
“Fascinating!” Strangely out of character for David, he pulled out a tricorder and pointed it at Relikia. “So how do you change form, then?”
With a sigh, Relikia stood up and burst into vivid, red flames. Suddenly, what appeared to be Shenek was left standing there.
"This is how we shift.” Her voice had also changed to Shenek’s. While this moderately impressed Tyler and the OMEGA guards, Shenek remained slightly less uninterested while the klingon guards, showing no emotion thanks to their masked helmets, appeared uneasy. Their weapons were primed.
“Fascinating! A massive energy buildup occurs during shifting, similar to the Undine’s. However, a thin energy field forms around you, creating the appearance of Shenek. Your voice changed as well, is that an anatomic change?”
“Yes, we have separate vocal chords and trachea.” Relikia said, using her normal voice.
Holding the Scanner, David chose to use a simple explanation. "When you shape change there is a charge of energy which is allowing you to alter your form. On the outside you are almost indistinguishable, On the inside you are very different."
"Intriguing. Can you tell me why you fear the Borg’s involvement now?” The princesses were oddly silent, allowing the various ambassadors to learn more about each other’s cultures.
"Well, from what I’ve seen inside Ta'lash’s head, their goal is-"
"Wait... Inside Captain Ta'lash's head? Like mind reading?"
David was suddenly no longer pensive and instead jumped to a more defensive tone. This gained the attention of Tyler and his guards. Shenek, on the other hand, wasn’t surprised. He continued drinking the tea Celestia had suddenly teleported in front of him. He still wasn’t fazed.
"Yes, it was necessary to-"
Suddenly, one of the klingon Honor Guards stepped forward and yelled in an alien tongue. The Equestrian ambassadors couldn’t understand it, but the Universal Translator-linked captains could.
"I knew it! She is another honorl ess petaQ! This is an outrage! Probing the mind of one of our captains!” The guard thrust his disruptor forward at Relikia, who still had no idea what was going on. David stood up, turned around, and pointed his disruptor pistol at the guard with impossible speed.
“Stand down! Stand DOWN!” David was in a rage, but the guard didn’t show any signs of doing that.
“Captain! She probed the mind of one of our captains! And she uses honorless shapeshifting tactics! That’s why we were in a war with the Federation, because of dishonorable infiltrators!”
Luna began to charge her magic but stopped at the sound of disruptor fire as a green bolt of energy erupted from David's pistol, impacting the klingon and knocking him into a wall.
The offending guard dropped to the ground, which earned a few startled yelps and a scream from Zalune. David turned to the guard left standing.
“Make sure he stays down, and when we get back to the ship lock him in the brig." The other guard nodded, pointing his rifle at his fallen comrade. “What?" asked David, getting annoyed by the stares skewering him from around the room.
"Y-you killed him! You killed your own guard!" Razorclaw exclaimed in disbelief.
“I don't killed him, I stunned him. He disobeyed orders from his superior officer. I gave iron clad orders my crew was not to draw their weapons unless in self defense and he will face punishment back on the ship now. Now we may continue this meeting.”
"Actually I think the meeting is over," said Celestia for the first time in a while.
“Very well. I will return tomorrow, hopefully with a more obedient guard. Good night, your highnesses.” With a slight bow, he left. His guard, carrying the fallen one, followed shortly after.
Darkwing and Razorclaw left as well leaving the human, the romulan, the Zebrician, and the Changeling. Celestia and Luna remained where they were .
"What just happened? Was that guard was about to kill me?" Relikia looked a little shaken.
“Actually, that was to be expected. Klingons aren’t fond of telepathic species, even if they’re a part of the Empire. The Great Houses were once infiltrated by a shapeshifting species, also called the Changelings, that caused strife between the rulers. Another shapeshifting species, the Undine, also infiltrated the High Council. They were an extremely xenophobic race, that wreaked enough havoc to launch all three of us into an intergalactic war.” Shenek explained, lowering Luna’s blood pressure for a bit, then jacking it right back up.
“What is the plot? Ally with them, why did you not?” The familiar Zebrican rhyming system kicking back into gear.
With a bit of a sigh, Shenek launched into the same explanation he had told countless others. “The Federation tried, but the Changelings were part of the Dominion, a group aiming for total control o f the galaxy, starting with us. They created servitor races, namely the Vorta and the Jem’Hadar. That’s what David was asking you about before. They desperately called the Klingon and Romulan empires to join the fight, but the Dominion gained allies of their own. Eventually we won, but there were heavy casualties. The Undine, however, were a different case. Way off in the Delta quadrant, where the Borg are from, they tried to open a rift into a region of subspace called ‘Fluidic Space’, that is inhabited by the Undine. For better or for worse, the Borg’s assimilation nanoprobes were completely ineffective.”
Relikia continued to ponder the situation. “But wouldn’t that be a good thing? Why didn’t you ally with them?”
“They don’t see us like you do. They are extremely xenophobic, which means they see everyone else as a threat. The only want our complete destruction, to ‘cleanse’ and ‘purify’ the galaxy. I’m off to look around for a bit, explore the castle, if you excuse me.” With that, he exited, leaving only Tyler at the mercy of the multicolored friendship equines.
“I’ll be in my shuttle. There are new reports coming in about the Tal'shiar, and it’s my duty to review them.” He was about to turn and leave when Celestia called to him.
"Why don't you stay in the castle for the night? We have some spare rooms," Celestia said in a motherly tone. Unable to refuse, he nodded.
"I would like that. It also comes as a surprise to me that you physically control the solar and lunar bodies. Is it difficult?” Tyler got up out of his chair and followed the Princesses.
“Oh, that’s nothing when you have thousands of years of practice.” Celestia said with a wink. Expecting surprise on Tyler’s face, she instead got sorrow and understanding.
“Huh. Immortal? It must be hard watching everyone you know grow old and die around you.” He looked down for a bit. “ Sorry if that’s annoying you.”
“That isn’t a problem,” Celestia said, soothing as ever. “We’re more interested in you.” The thought of another immortal being flipping through their minds.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you much. Is this the room?”
The princesses nodded.
"Excellent! I’ll see you tomorrow, princesses.” With a slight bow, he closed the doors.
"He seems to be a good man. What are your thoughts on him?" Celestia asked, turning to her lunar sibling.
"I agree, but is he... you know... an Immortal?" she asked.
"I believe he is, or at least knows the weight of it. Someone close to him died, I can definitely see it in his eyes." They both nodded and returned to their respective duties, waiting in preparation of the next day’s duties. The Equestrian ambassadors would be traveling to the orbiting ships the next day and they all needed to be well rested.
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Canterlot palace, Garden
Shenek was contemplating the moon, studying his surroundings and admiring the beauty of the stars. For some reason, it made him feel... nostalgic? It reminded him of his life as slave for the Romulan Star Empire's mining labors, being part of the Dominion Wars, seeing the rise of Shinzon as Praetor of the Empire...
No. The ‘Nostalgia’ was just rage and despair wrapped in a bundle of false emotion. During the Dominion War, his friends were killed in a suicide assault on a Jem'Hadar base. He was in the same D'deridex battlecruiser. While he managed to escape the singularity core, his friends weren’t as fortunate. For some reason, he always blamed the romulans for their deaths.
No. He had a very good reason.
During Shinzon’s reign, he thought it would be different. There was little opposition from the romulans, and ever ything seemed good. But Shinzon wanted revenge against the Federation and humanity by destroying Earth. His flagship, the Scimitar, was destroyed by the crew of the Enterprise.
After that, the romulans returned to power. The remans didn’t give up though. They demanded a world where they could live free, but the new praetor didn’t believe in that. There were multiple skirmishes, but, in the end, Donatra gave the remans full citizenship and a place in the Senate. However, nothing really changed between the two peoples.
That is, until it was discovered that Remus couldn’t be mined for dilithium anymore. While rejecting the offer for a continent on Romulus, the original demand of a new reman homeworld was accepted. Thus, the Remans made the move to Crateris.
But everything changed with Xiomec, the reman general, and Donatra’s disappearance during the Hobus supernova that destroyed Romulus. Things finally boiled over with the Tal'Shiar’s aggressive movements and Sela’s rise to power.
“So, you’re here in the garden. Normally it’s closed at night, only the princesses or guards usually come here.”
He could tell from the voice that it was Relikia, the changeling ambassador. “I was so lost I decided to come by the gardens ... and think.” His eyes still fixated on the moon. He was able to feel a similar presence approach from behind him.
"Relikia, Shenek, I wasn't expecting you two here."
“I was just conversing with the captain here, Princess. I’m more surprised that you aren’t in the night courts,” Relikia responded.
“Since my return, nopony really goes to the night courts. Most of the royal duties are done by my sister, and thanks to that I’ve had time to learn modern Equestrian. I’ve been keeping up with the customs, and I hope I’ve been successful.” She was a little sad about the night courts thing, but she turned to the reman captain with a smile on her face. She had wanted to learn more about the remans since the first contact, but her smile faded when she noticed the sadness and hint of anger on the reman’s face, outlined by the moonlight.
“You seem to have quite the interest in my species, Princess.” He turned to look at the two equines with a fairly neutral expression on his face.
“I’m sorry if I came at a bad time, I can come back later.”
“Oh, I have time. I have already sent my reports to the admiral, and this is probably your last chance to ask. The admiral assigned me and my ship to the Zebrican Tal'shiar bases. I’m sorry, but you won’t be seeing me tomorrow.” Luna looked disappointed.
“Who will be the Republic’s ambassador?” Relikia snapped out of her daze.
“A young captain by the name of Keidak has been selected by the admiral already.”
“When are you coming back?” Luna was slightly saddened a bit more.
“I don’t think I will.” He answe red very plainly, but that was enough to elicit another reaction, surprise, and then a frown on Luna’s face. Relikia remained stoic, but her disappointment was still evident.
“Wha-Why?” Luna asked.
“I will be returning to New Romulus afterward for supplies, maintenance, a computer overhaul, hull micro-fracture repairs, warp-field calibration, singlularity core replacements and a good deal more. I’m surprised my ship is still functional. We took quite a beating fighting the borg and my ship is just a prototype for a new class of ships. Anyway, what are your questions?”
Luna looked at him, with a soft smile, happy she would get her questions answered. “Tell me about the reman culture. We have a long night for talking.” Luna sat down on a nearby bench with Relikia.
Shenek sighed inwardly. It was going to be a long night.
***
Canterlot Palace, Throne room, Morning
Today was the day for the Equestrian ambassadors. Celestia had wr itten a letter to the Elements, seeing as they were the best candidates for ensuring smooth diplomatic relations with the aliens. The captains all had different opinions of Equestria, her ponies, and their missions. Twilight and her friends were far better qualified for this task.
Luna now couldn’t sleep. Shenek’s tale was frightening. It was also interesting, and she learned much about the remans. Free from the slavery of the Romulan Star Empire and finally free in the Republic, she felt...happy for them. She learned how the remans strived for liberty and freedom from the Tal'Shiar’s tyranny, Sela’s state-sponsored torture and oppression and all of the other terrible things the remans had been forced through. She also learned more about the Hobus supernova that destroyed Romulus and Remus, killing billions of romulans and remans, earning some tears shed from both Luna and Relikia. When Celestia was told of everything, she was surprised and saddened, both by the t ale of Shenek’s species and of the news of his departure. She however understood and bid him farewell.
The princesses began their trek to Canterlot’s central plaza, where they would make an announcement to all of Equestria, making official the relationship between the ponies and their space-faring counterparts. A crowd of ponies, from reporters to business ponies were gathered, ready to extend their wealth to the stars, mixed in amongst nobles that wanted news of their loved ones and others who wished to find a position between the stars they had admired all their lives.
“Ready, Tia?” Luna turned and asked her sister, already on the podium. Television cameras were there to broadcast the speech not only to the entire nation of Equestria, but to the entire world. (Yes, this Equestria has television unlike many other FIMfictions - Author)
"Yes, Lulu... Ahem!" The crowd silenced almost immediately, waiting for the Princess to explain all of the recen t occurrences.
“My little ponies...” Celestia began with that familiar phrasing, “Just recently, Equestria was visited by many different beings and empires from the stars and beyond. As you may remember, three days ago, a black sphere descended from that same space and wreaked devastating destruction upon everything in its path. Not even the most powerful magic under my command could halt it.” She lifted the shawl she had had draped over her back, revealing an ugly line of scar tissue where her once majestic wing had been.
“I was dying, and in our darkest hour heinous machines began to appear from the sphere. They began to abduct us, using us to create more of them. There was nothing we could do. But then, a miracle occurred.” As she said that, a rippling whoosh could be heard from the sky, and a sizable portion of Canterlot was covered with a bird-like shadow. It was Shenek’s Ha’Feh warbird decloaking and leaving for orbit. It rose into the sky, its pow erful green impulse engines thrumming away, getting smaller and smaller, until it stopped. It lingered for a second and then suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing but two very long, green streaks.
"What was that? It looked like a giant bird!"
"A bird?! It was too big to be a bird!”
"I remember that, it’s the alien spaceship that repelled the sphere!"
Many of the ponies chittered and whispered amongst themselves, until the princess caught their attention with a very audible chuckle.
“That....” she said, motioning with her hoof upward at the now-vanishing warp trails, “Was the miracle. Well, a third of it. The aliens came to our aid and stood victorious against the machines.” She stood there, looking over the stunned ponies, until a lone hoof drifted up out of the crowd. “Yes?”
“What were those machines? And what did they want?” The reporter seemed to be asking out of his own curiosity, rather than that of his employer’s.
“They are called the Borg. They’ve augmented themselves with machinery, to make themselves better. But their mistake was letting it into their minds. They’re all linked into a collective ‘hive mind’, and they strive for perfection by ‘assimilating’ individuals or even whole planets to gain their knowledge. These people become mindless drones, set out through the control of the Collective to assimilate others and gain their knowledge. Each drone is a victim of the Collective’s twisted goal of perfection and total assimilation.” The ponies began to mutter amongst themselves about yet another existence-threatening apocalypse. Luna stepped forwards and began to speak.
“What my sister is trying to say is that an evil race of machines is here for the sole purpose of our enslavement, to use us to conquer the galaxy. Not as ponies but as a part of their mind. Thankfully, they were repelled by heroes from three intergalactic empires. We owe our lives to the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the New Romulan Republic.” she ended with an smile but this gained some worried expression from the crowd until a noblemare raised her hoof for a question.
"Even if hero aliens from space can defend us and help us, why we can't defend Equestria ourselves? Why do we have to relay on foreign help? I'm sure that the Royal Guard and the Pegasus Air Force can defend us from any threat," she said with an air of smugness and most of the ponies agreed.
However the princesses didn't shared the same sentiment. "That's the problem, my little pony, they can't." began Celestia.
Many ponies looked at her in surprise, especially the stoic Royal Guard were surprised of this remark. 'Did the princesses have little faith of their military?' they thought.
"They don't want Equestria or our kingdom's resources. They want us to be part of their Collective, to destroy and reshape the galaxy in their image. If we send soldiers, even entire armies, we'll be just making it easy to the borg to assimilate us."
The Royal Guard paled. The thought to being sent to a fate more worse than death wasn't appealing at all. The crowd wasn't any better. A few were already panicking, while others were completely uneasy about this threat. They were all glad that the aliens were here to defend them but what was their motivation to help them thought an businesspony. The stallion raised a good question for the princesses.
"Why they are here? I mean the heroes and nation offering protection to us? Why are they suddenly helping us?" The stallion was sincerely curious about this. There was always a good reason.
"They are offering their help because they fear us if we fall into the Collective" All fell silent allowing the Solar Princess to continue "Unicorn magic would be frightening to fight against. Earth pony strength is impressive but augmented with borg implants would make minotaurs and drakes appear as weaklings in comparison and a pegasus' ability to fly would overwhelm the ground dwellers where there is no chance to counter. They fear that with us being part of the Borg, we would destroy their homes and the galaxy and all against our will. But there is hope that we can take. These aliens, these nations from space are helping us against this impossible enemy."
The mood seems to be improving. The crowd are seeing the shining hope on relying on the allied forces. It didn't seem as bad as most had though.
***
Ponyville Library, One hour later
After the Princesses' announcement on television, Twilight and her friends were in deep thought. The princesses had given them an important diplomatic task and that was to ensure smooth and clean relationships with the different aliens' captains... on their starships.
"What do you think, darling?" asked Rarity.
Twilight sighed while reading the message and some biography papers. Along with the task in the message the princesses had sent some records and some (restricted) written biographies supplied thankfully by the alien ambassadors about most of the captains that were willing to let the ponies onto their starships. For a such big fleet, only a very few had offered their hospitality to them.
For the Federation and Starfleet, only H'rarrirre, Svensei and Vaner herself would let them aboard their ships for diplomatic talks. For the Romulan Republicans only Keidak and Ge'dan,. For the Klingon Empire none had offered.
Applejack commented something funny on the romulans, like having a connection with them. It was the same with Rainbow Dash but only for their "cool" bird-like ships. Pinkie Pie happily commented that the klingons were being shy but they would be welcome to her party in Ponyville, a sentiment not shared by most of her friends, especially Twilight. While discovering the truth about her brother's clone, she still had the fresh memory of Shining beaten up by Ta'lash.
"I don't know girls. Honestly I'm glad we don't have to go to any klingon ship for now," commented Twilight.
"Ha! They aren't that rude, Twilight. Don't let them intimidate you," said Rainbow Dash trying to cheer her up but the first contact's talk with the klingon general and the memory of Blackheart fighting and killing without even feeling remorse didn't help her in any kind of way.
"I don't know Rainbow, I say that because the klingons seems to be a warlike nation. Don't you remember three days ago? Ta'lash killing spree of the borg, Blackheart eliminating the clones without remorse or second though and don't make me talk about the klingon battle force against the sphere's borg! They seems to enjoy the thrill of battle!"
"I do like them!" say the happy voice of Pinkie Pie while jumping around like always, surprising most of her friends but this was quickly dismissed, thinking that it was just her randomness. They moved off the topic of the klingons and now were getting back to the task at hoof.
"I'll go to Vaner's ship" announced Twilight. "The U.S.S. Inquisitor. I like it! I finally get some information about the Federation's politics and race members!" she squeal in delight. "Imagine so much to learn about them, even the possibility of being members of such a galactic society!"
"Ah'll go with this Ge'dan fella. R.R.W Peacekeeper, sound about right to me." said Applejack, reading Ge'dan's paper.
"I'll go with you Applejack. I'm quite sure that you might need a hoof with the romulans."
"Thanks Rares *ahem* I appreciate that." The sudden change of accent went noticed by no only Rarity but also to some of her friends. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash knew the cause but Fluttershy, Twilight and Rarity didn't.
"Darling... did you talked in a..."
"Fancy accent? Sure I did. I spend time with my family in Manehattan for a few days, I learned a few things from them." Rarity squealed and murmured something about "hope" for Applejack, who rolled her eyes in annoyance, much to her friends' amusement.
"Keidak sounds cool. R.R.W. Vastara? What is R.R.W?" said a confused Rainbow Dash while reviewing the paper and hovering around her friends in a circle.
"R.R.W is an acronym, Rainbow. It stand for 'Romulan Republic Warbird'. As well U.S.S. means 'United Star Ship' and the klingons is 'Imperial Klingon Starship' or I.K.S." answered Twilight. She was looking forward to go to the stars. The firs t ponies to be in space (not counting Nightmare Moon) sounded exciting as did gaining knowledge from the aliens and sharing it with the masses, hoping that one day ponykind would be along side with them in the stars.
"Warbird? That's the name of their ships? Awesome!" exclaimed the cerulean pegasus.
"I-I like the Infinity. The captain seems nice," spoke Fluttershy for the first time.
"U.S.S. Shangriwah, Captain Harriry? What funny names the Feds have," commented Pinkie Pie.
Amused at their pink friend's antics they starting to talk among themselves, planning and practicing their speeches, offers and words for the captains. They knew that each nation had a different policy and also that each captain had different opinions of the mission, the world and the very ponies they had to protect. They need to be careful of their words. That's when they heard multiple knocks from the door.
"Miss Twilight, I am Ensign Turak from the U.S.S. Salvation. The admirals would like to know your answer. If you all do not feel ready, the talks can be arranged for another time." a male monotone voice could be heard from the main door. Spike grumpily opened the door, revealing a tall vulcan man in a black and yellow uniform making his career known as engineer for his fellow officers.
"There is no problem, good sir. We have made our choices," said Twilight as she and her friends approached him. "Right girls?"
"Absolutely."
"Yeppers!"
"Yeah!"
"Of course, dear."
Fluttershy just nodded.
Turek nodded. "Good. Please follow me to the landing zone. Some shuttles have arrived and the pilots are awaiting your answers and destinations."
The ponies looked each each other before follow the humanoid to the landing zone... not noticing a giggling mint green unicorn stalking them.
***
Lan ding Zone, Ponyville's Outskirt, Allied Campsite
On the way toward the LZ, the site was where the sphere's borg drones had beamed out. The camp was pretty isolated from the town and was where the three nations' officers could at least recuperate or liberate borgs to their former selves and be individuals. However it was a grim view for the ponies seeing borg bodies laying around as the officers moved them into tents to identify them and if they were alive, to liberate or destroy them. However there were very few that had been liberated and many were dead.
"So much death," said a deflated Pinkie Pie. the sight was depressing indeed. "Why we can't all be friends instead?"
"The Borg do not care about talking, trading or even negotiating, only assimilation. The first attempts at contact proved unsuccessful," the answer came immediately from the Vulcan in passing by disoriented liberated borg humans and romula ns and a depressed liberated borg klingon. Applejack noticed that and decided to break the silence.
"Why is he so depressed? Didn't he want to be liberated?"
"For klingons, being assimilated is the worst thing that can happen to them. They value honor in battle and to die as a warrior is the most preferred way of dying. Being assimilated and used against his own will by the Collective is considered most dishonorable and regrettable."
"What about the others? Will they be alright?"
"They will try to live a normal life but it will be difficult," again the Vulcan came with an immediate answer. "Some might need immediate counseling to forget their traumatic experience of assimilation. Here is the landing zone."
They had arrived at the back part of the camp where there were five craft - three Danube and two Kestrel runabouts. The pilots were talking among themselves.
"Here they are. Now if you will excuse me, I must go back to my duties. Live long and prosper." He saluted with the typical vulcan sign and returned to the camp leaving the ponies at the mercy of the pilots.
Before anyone could say anything, one of the pilots said "I hope you all don't get space sick. I just recently polished the consoles."