Altered Destiny
By Admiral Q
As Celestia's sun shone through the window, it was time for Star Wanderer to begin her day. She was a unicorn with red fur and a gold mane with a red zigzagging stripe going through it, with a gold six-pointed star as a cutie mark. She washed up, had breakfast and got her saddle bags on and locked up her house.
Most of the time, Star hired herself out as a unicorn for hire. Whenever a construction crew or a company or a family needed a job done that only a unicorn could do, she was the mare Ponyville hired. But that just payed the bills. Her real job was finding lost artifacts, especially magical ones. Every few months or so she would take a break and head out, searching for an artifact she had heard about.
Basking in the glow of the sun for a minute, she looked at the latest addition to the humble town, the Rainbow Castle. Created from a chest from the Tree of Harmony itself, it now served as the home for the fourth Princess of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. Star considered herself fortunate; while not as close to the Princess as her fellow Element bearers, she had become good friends with her. Their love of knowledge and magic made that easy, and Star was proud to say that she could give Twilight a run for her money in the magic and spells department. Twilight always had the edge, though. Heck, she was the Element of Magic, so it was only logical that she best Star every time, but that fight was getting harder and harder for Twilight to win. That had all been before her ascension to the rare ranks of alicorns, and now Star was completely outclassed, but she still occasionally duelled with Twilight, if only to see how well she mastered a spell.
And speaking of a certain purple alicorn, she saw Twilight walking nearby. “Hey Twi!” Twilight looked over and smiled at the sight of her friend.
“Hey Star, going adventuring again?”
“YUP! Got a clue about something in the western forest emitting magic energy, so I'm going to check it out. So, what are you up to today?”
Twilight sighed. “I've got to mediate a debate later today with some of the business heads for the town and the local branch of the Children of the Night. The mayor asked me to help after she failed to solve the issue.”
In the months since the Princess Luna had returned with the Children of the Night, a group that loved the night and had Luna herself as a patron had been reintegrating themselves into Equestria. Most had decided to form a new town while the rest spread out. Two of the biggest branches were in Cloudsdale and here in Ponyville, with a population of nearly double the town’s size. And that has lead to some head banging. Once, out of curiosity, Star had asked a Child of the Night name Lunarmoon why so many came to Ponyville. The answer she got was this: one, it was close to Canterlot, thus allowing them to be close to Princess Luna, and two, it was the closest town to the Royal Pony Sisters’ Castle. When they had heard of its existence, they had flocked to Ponyville, and while they were still building their section of town, they planned to continue the restoration that Twilight had begun on the place.
And three, Sweet Apple Acres. Star couldn't argue with that last one.
“Ouch. I think you need more luck in that than I do,” Star said to Twilight.
“Thanks a lot,” Twilight said sarcastically, causing Star to chuckle.
“Well if any can do it, it should be the Princess of Friendship herself. See ya later Twi.” Twilight shook her head.
“Have fun, Star.” And the two parted company.
For the next several days, Star traveled to the western forests with not much to break the routine of walk, eat, and sleep. Finally, she entered the forest, focusing on her horn and its ability to sense magic. She slowly trekked her way through the woods, slicing any vine or branch that got in her way, not to mention any creature that tried to hunt her.
For hours she plowed through the forest, until she came upon a ruined castle. She slowly approached the ancient ruin. The thing was in even worse condition than the Royal Pony Sisters’ Castle. The bulk of the stonework was covered in vines and decay. She had to be very careful in this place, for magic was being emitted from it. She passed the outer wall with no trouble, and went through what had once been the courtyard and the main doorway. Star looked around and was amazed at how the place stayed up. So many supports were gone or compromised that the place seemed to stay up on sheer stubbornness. She stepped on a stone in front of her and it crumbed and fell into some darkness below.
“Great, now I have to watch where I step.”
She had a couple more close calls before she ended up in the center of the castle ruins. She stopped and took a breath before focusing on her horn and which way she needed to go.
“Let's see…downward...I have to go downward.”
She spent a few minutes looking before she found a stairway going down. Slowly, step by step, she walked down the stairway. Good thing too, for halfway down, a step gave way and she nearly fell. She just managed to teleport to another step, which was thankfully solid beneath her feet. She spent a couple minutes taking deep breaths. “THAT was too close.” She continued down the stairway, being very cautious. A couple more steps gave way, but this time she didn't have all her weight on that hoof, so she didn't go plunging to her death.
As she neared the bottom, she saw a light. It pulsed white, gold and red and illuminated the surrounding area. It definitely helped her spot places not to go. She made her way down, but still managed to get another weak step. That caused a cascade, and several stones fell. She had to dodge around until they finally stopped.
She looked around. She was in a big room, and in the middle was an orb that emitted the pulsing light. She cautiously approached the orb, its magic washing over her like wind. The closer she got, the warmer it got. It was like a fireplace. It felt nice. Before she knew it, she was right next to the orb. Before she could go further, though, she heard cracking and more of the ceiling collapsed. On instinct she dodged, but her horn hit the orb, and then she knew nothing but white.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in a strange room. It was seemingly lit by the ceiling, and everything was bathed in a white light. The room had a red carpet, and in front of her was a very large window showing stars and some construct she had never seen before. Just in front of the window, she saw a pair of desks with some kind of creature behind them. The creatures had small manes and odd fur, if what they had counted as fur. The way they moved reminded her of Spike, Twilight's baby dragon. She looked around some more and saw a door in an alcove on the upper left side of the room, then another desk with another creature working behind it, then a wall filled with moving lights, which more of the creatures touched.
Looking to her immediate left, she saw the start of a wooden railing tinted red with two seats, one very small with little back support, and the other larger with complete back support. The larger was occupied by another creature with a long brown mane and green eyes. As Star got closer, she realized that what she had mistaken for fur was really a kind of outfit these creatures wore. This particular creature was mainly black, with blue around the barrel area and forelegs. It wore a pin on its left side with a weird-looking silver triangle. It was like the triangle was trying to be a star, and it had a slim oval in gold behind it. It wore two solid gold pipes with a third hollow one.
Star then looked to her right and saw a similar layout to what was on the left. The creature next to her on that side wore a similar outfit to the one she had seen before, but this one was red where the other was blue. She looked down at herself, and she had changed. She looked like the creatures, but she had a lot more gold with the red coloring on her outfit. As strange as this place seemed, it also felt familiar.
"Admiral." She felt herself perk up, and looked behind her to see the top of the red wood railing and a creature behind her. "I have the Defiant on long range sensors."
"Just the Defiant?" She, or more correctly, he, asked. That was a male voice coming from Star’s mouth.
"No sir, I read two Klingon ships behind her. A bird of prey and a Vorcha attack cruiser."
"Brave, but foolish. Between the Defiant, us and Deep Space Nine, they will be slaughtered if they try to attack."
"Maybe, not sure. Reading several ships de-cloaking."
"Onscreen." The window changed in front of Star, showing several shimmers that she guessed were ships. Some kind of invisibility spell, she guessed. Dozens of ships appeared like predatory birds, their menacing green hulls poised to attack.
"Red alert!" Star said in her male voice, and she saw a change in her surroundings. Red lights began flashing and a noise went off. The creatures around her acted with more haste and were more tense. From her right, she heard a male voice.
"I can't believe we are about to fight the Klingons. Decades of peace and an alliance, gone like that."
"Fear can motivate people to do stupid things, Jack,” Star heard herself say. "The Dominion could be among the greatest threats to not only the Federation, but the Alpha Quadrant itself. Especially since its top leadership can change forms. The Klingons have reason to worry, but sadly, have acted hastily."
"Sir, the lead ship has hailed Deep Space Nine,” the male behind her reported.
"Let's listen in." What followed, Star didn't fully understand, but it sounded like one group had a group of VIPs and the other wanted them even though it had been proven they weren't changelings. Yeah, that would be a big deal if these changelings are like the ones she heard of. But the first group was refusing.
"And here we go. Good thing the civilians are back on Bajor." She felt the room shake as it was fired upon. "Mr. Hemmerjer, phasers full spread, and unleash the torpedoes. Spare nothing. Helm, start moving us within firing range of the Negh'Var. Take her out, and it will dishearten the Klingons a bit."
The view moved, and Star saw beams and bolts of light fly both ways. Ships were engulfed in flame. She felt what was now her own ship shake a lot. After only a few minutes, one of the walls exploded. A fire started by that wall.
“Damage report!” she heard herself yell.
"Decks 10, 14, 20, 25, and 30 through 35 all have hull breaches. Shields are gone and there's damage to the warp core. We also have several casualty reports."
The ship lurched again from the opposite side. The lighting became dim, and more sparks appeared. “That was deck 42." She felt her muzzle rest on a blunted claw and felt sadness mixed with a deep resolve.
"That's it." She pressed something on her chair and heard a chime. "All hands, this is the Admiral. Abandon ship! I repeat, all hands abandon ship!” A new alarm started and she saw the creatures start to flee the room. With a nod to her companions, they both got up and left. Star stood up and looked around with immense sadness running through her. Lost another one. With that, she heard something snap and a white light engulfed her.
She awoke with a start and found herself in a dome of gold magic. Looking beyond it, she saw the place was collapsing. She focused hard, and with a pop, she teleported outside and watched the castle ruins just crumble.
‘That was way too close,’ she thought to herself. 'Where did that shield come from, and where's the artifact?' With a sigh, she started to walk home, declaring this an epic failure. She had just entered the woods again when a pair of figures dropped from the tree tops. They were bipedal ponies with black fur. She had never heard of these ponies before. Both looked at her with angry eyes.
"You should not have come here, pony. That fragment was to be left alone, and now you will die, to be sure no one ever knows of it."
A ball of magic appeared in his hand and he threw it at Star. She suddenly found herself ten feet to the left. She had been thinking of dodging left, but she went farther and faster than she had planned. The bolt hit the ground where she had been a second ago.
"What? How did she get over there so fast!?"
"She's got it. She has the bloody fragment. We have to kill her now, or she'll get them all and bring him back." Several more bolts appeared and Star managed to dodge them. It felt like she was teleporting, but she wasn't focusing on her teleport ability, nor did she feel wind while doing it. She finally stopped and was flanking them. She charged up her own bolt and fired it.
It flew true, and hit the lead pony. It did more than she had expected. Instead of a small burst, it was an explosion, and she heard a brief scream. The other creature raged and continued to chase her. She was running fast, so she couldn't look behind her to fire again.
'If only I could shoot without looking behind,’ Star thought. She let her magical energy charge up into a ball at the end of her horn, and the bolt shot out behind her. Another explosion and a longer scream reached her ears. She slowed down and turned to see half a body fall to the ground. She raced off again, to the edge of the forest. Trees whizzed by faster than she'd ever seen, and she quickly dodged any in her way. To her surprise, she suddenly found herself out of the forest.
Star paused to take a breath. 'Okay, what the hay happened back there?!’ she thought to herself.
Not only had she created a shield while unconscious, but she had dodged magic bolts like they were nothing and easily took out two unknown ponies from a tribe she had never seen before. She had killed them. She had never killed anypony before, but they had been trying to kill her. One of them had said she had a fragment. Was that the orb? She needed help, and she knew one pony who could give it to her. She started walking towards Ponyville and Twilight Sparkle.
Months earlier
In the woods north of Equestria, all was quiet, except for a couple dozen ponies in a nearly abandoned complex making a living. Some miles from them, a patch of forest was a mess, with broken branches everywhere, except around a black shape. The shape almost blended with the night, but its purple mane and tail stood out a bit. Then, suddenly, the mane and tail started flowing even though there was no wind. Then the mane and tail started to look like a starfield with a purple back drop. Eyes opened to reveal turquoise eyes with dragon slits.