//------------------------------//
// CHAPTER 21 
// Story: A Thousand Voices 
// by SpartanD014 
//------------------------------//

CHAPTER 21


"You are sapient life, but not like us."




Twilight Sparkle slowly opened her eyes as the sun rose over the horizon, filling her room with its warm glow. The soft sheets of her bed begged her not to move, but to simply stay and embrace their comfort. But Twilight knew that she could not do that; today was a big day, and she could not miss it. Carefully lifting the sheets off of her, Twilight slowly crawled out of bed, trying as hard as she could not to wake the sleeping form of the dragon on the other side. He had clung to her almost all night, begging her not to go. Twilight felt bad that she was causing him to worry, but she had to do this. For Equestria. 

She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the forehead, then turned around and exited the bedroom, softly closing the door behind her. She would make sure he was properly cared for if she did not return. It was a morbid thought, but Twilight had to face the reality that this could be the last thing she ever did. Even so, if she had to pick her last great action, saving Equestria would probably be it. 

Breaking into a trot, Twilight began to head for the royal hospital. Luna had instructed her to go to her recovery room the instant she woke up, to continue discussing the plan of attack. No doubt Legion was already there, while Cadance would be busy keeping everypony calm. With any luck they could get to the hive, complete their mission, then come back without anypony knowing anything. 

After a few minutes of walking, Twilight finally came to the door of Luna’s recovery room. She already heard voices inside, one of which was the unmistakable voice of their geth ally. Twilight knocked on the door and instantly the voices stopped.

“Come in!” came the voice of Luna. Twilight complied and opened the door, stepping inside as she did. She closed the door behind her, and stepped up to the princess’s bed. “Ah, Twilight. It is good that you are here.”

“Are we almost ready to begin?” Twilight asked eagerly. As nervous as she was, she wanted to see this mission through.

“Griffon soldiers have begun moving in to our cities,” Luna said. “They should have control over them by noon today. At that point, we can launch this mission.”

“We have our ship prepared for take-off as soon as everyone is ready,” Legion added. “Once there, we will land a kilometer back from the entrance and walk the rest of the way.”

“Captain Silent Dart is preparing his best Nighthawks as we speak,” Luna continued. “They’ll be ready.”

“What do we do in the meantime?” Twilight asked, stifling a yawn. “It’s still a few hours until noon.”

“There really is not much to do,” Luna answered. “Without more information we really can’t make our plan of attack any better. For now, all we can do is wait.” Twilight frowned, but nodded. Having a few hours of nothing to do would cause her mind to wander, and she would begin fretting about the plan. Perhaps there was a good book to read while she waited… 

Before Twilight could exit the room, the door opened and Healthy Heart entered, shaking nervously. She slowly walked up to Princess Luna and looked to the floor.

“Your highness…” she began, her voice shaking with fear. 

“What is it, Ms. Heart?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“I… just got a letter from Doctor Quick Fix at Canterlot General…” the mare continued. “A colt came in this morning… he has the nanovirus.” Luna’s pupils shrunk to small dots, and Twilight felt her knees weaken in fear. “In addition to that, I’m getting reports from Fillydelphia and the Crystal Empire. They have it too.”

“… The collectors must have found out about our plans with the griffons somehow,” Luna finally said. “They’re moving quickly.”

“What do we do, princess?” Twilight asked, her voice quavering.

“The only thing we can do,” the lunar princess answered. “We proceed with the plan. We know how this thing spreads; if one pony reports that they have it, we probably do too. We have no reason to assume that the virus reacts differently to alicorn physiology, so you will have an hour or so before you start feeling symptoms. A couple hours after that you’ll be comatose. We don’t have time to wait for the griffons to get into position, we need to go now.”

“We will be waiting in our ship,” Legion said, exiting the room. 

“Twilight, go to the armory and tell the Nighthawks that it’s time,” Luna commanded. “You must go quickly if you are to complete the mission before going comatose. Good luck, Twilight Sparkle.” Nodding, Twilight turned and sprinted out of the room, trying to recall the path to the armory from the royal hospital. She had visited the armory many times as a filly while Shining Armor was training there, so the route was ingrained in her mind. It was not horribly far from the royal hospital; in the event of an injury, guards could easily be transported from the armory to the hospital with no trouble at all. 

Turning down a few more corridors, Twilight came to the armory door, which was guarded by two soldiers with their spears interlocked. They moved their weapons out of the way as the princess approached, and one of them lit his horn and opened the door for her. Stepping inside, Twilight noticed it was so quiet she could hear a pin drop. All of the guards in the barracks, some of whom had on their armor and some of whom didn’t, had stopped their banter and turned their attention to the princess. They all bowed as she stepped inside, which Twilight waved off with a hoof. 

“You’re off duty, no need for that,” she said as the guards stood back up. “Now, can somepony tell me where Captain Silent Dart is?” 

“That way, your highness,” one of the guards answered, pointing his hoof towards a side room. Nodding her thanks, Twilight trotted in the direction she had been shown and stepped into the room. It was smaller than the main barracks, and was decorated quite differently. While the main barracks had banners of the sun and moon, this one only had banners of the moon with a sword over them – the insignia of the Nighthawks. Inside were five Nighthawks, all of them wearing very dark colored armor. It overlapped in several areas, providing far greater protection than the standard armor worn by regular guards. The helmets also provided more protection by covering the entire head, rather than leaving the face open. Small slits over the eyes were the only means of sight that the Nighthawks had. One of the elite soldiers, this one not wearing a helmet, turned and faced the princess.

“Are you Captain Silent Dart?” she asked. 

“Yes, ma’am,” the soldier answered, bowing. “How can I help you?”

“Ready your squad,” Twilight ordered. “We’re leaving for the hive immediately.”

“Your highness, I thought we weren’t leaving until noon?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The situation has changed,” Twilight said. “I’ll explain on the way to Legion’s ship. Come on, time is of the essence.” Nodding, the Nighthawks all grabbed several weapons and walked over to the princess. Twilight turned and left the room, the soldiers right behind her.




Moving quickly, Legion jumped into its ship and sat down at the pilot’s seat, bringing all systems out of standby. With a hum, power surged through the ship and brought the engines online. The cockpit lit up with a blue glow from the holographic displays all around it, and Legion set in a course for the badlands. No sooner had it done this than Twilight and several Nighthawks entered the aft compartment of the ship. The princess herself came up into the cockpit with Legion, while the soldiers stayed in the back.

“We’re ready, let’s get going,” she said, strapping herself into the copilot’s seat. “I’ve told them that we have no more than four hours before we’re all comatose from the nanovirus, so we need to move quickly.” 

“Acknowledged,” Legion said, confirming the course with the press of a button. The ship instantly shot out of the docks and angled up, rising through the atmosphere. “If our plan proves effective,  then ideally the operation will not take long.”

“Yeah…”

A moment later the ship cleared the upper atmosphere and entered orbit around the blue and green planet beneath them. Legion throttled up on the main engines to speed up their trip, sacrificing precious fuel to do so. With the amount of flying that the geth had done, the ship was dangerously close to running out. Of course, that didn’t matter at all if Legion could not find any element zero to power the Mass Relay. It would be trapped either way.

The ship began to angle back towards the surface as they came in over the badlands. It shook as flames licked the outer hull, heating it to hundreds of degrees. Legion noticed an increase in anxiety from Twilight Sparkle, and was reminded that her kind was still not familiar with space travel. Had the geth not accidentally come here, they would have remained unfamiliar for hundreds of years.

The outer hull temperature began to decrease as the ship re-entered the atmosphere, now flying only a few miles above the surface. Running a depth scan, Legion began to search for the entrance that it had been shown by the changeling. Just as the creature had promised, a large entrance was being detected around a kilometer from the main entrance. Looking for a suitable place to land, Legion lowered the ship closer to the surface. 

“Entrance has been located,” it reported. “Prepare for landing.” Twilight tensed up as the ship settled several meters above the ground, then vertically landed on the rocky soil. As soon as the landing gear touched the ground, Legion powered off the ship and opened the door. It stood from its chair, as did Twilight Sparkle, and the two walked into the aft compartment. 

“Is everypony ready?” Twilight asked. 

“Yes, your highness,” Captain Silent Dart replied. “Also, here…” He levitated a short blade over to the princess, who grabbed it in mid-air with her own telekinesis. “Just in case.” Staring at the blade uneasily, Twilight nodded and grabbed a matching sheath, placing it on her back. 

“Time is of the essence,” Legion said, stepping up to the open door. “Twilight Sparkle, is your invisibility spell ready?” Nodding, Twilight lit her horn and a small field appeared around her. Twilight disappeared from the view of the geth, but reappeared as the field expanded to include it. 

“The field is relatively easy to maintain at this size,” she said. “Though I’d prefer not to go any larger. Also, it can muffle any sounds we make, so we can speak with one another without being heard.”

“Acknowledged,” Legion said, nodding. Before stepping out, the geth grabbed a small radio and tossed it to the alicorn. She stared at it, confused. “It is a short-range radio. Place it in your ear. We can use it to communicate while separated.” Twilight did as she was told and placed the small radio in her ear. It did not fit particularly well, but it stayed nonetheless. 

“Well, if that’s everything, then let’s go,” Twilight said. Receiving nods from all around, Twilight stepped out of the ship, followed by the geth and the Nighthawks. They stayed close to the princess, doing their best not to stray from the field of invisibility. Twilight motioned for Legion to take the lead, and they all started to follow the geth to their destination. 

“Our entrance is seven-hundred and fifty meters to the east of this landing site,” it began. “Commit its location to memory, as it will also serve as our exit. Once inside, we will go to an antechamber at the top of the main chamber, where the pony prisoners are being held. It is at this point that we will split up; you will get into position outside of the main chamber, while we will go to the main lab. Once there, we will download all data on the virus to our omni-tool. This data should include a means of opening the pods. As soon as this unit has this information, we will tell it to you over the radio. You will find the pod belonging to Princess Celestia – it is near the bottom. Open hers first. You will then escort her back to the ship. We will meet you there as soon as possible.”

“What about the collectors?” Captain Silent Dart asked. “When do we kill ‘em?”

“Do not kill any until we have the data on the virus,” Legion warned. “If our presence is detected before this data is secured, it could jeopardize the mission. If a collector accidentally wanders into your magic field, you said that sound was dampened. Killing it should not draw attention, just do not let it escape.” The captain grunted in acknowledgement, and remained silent for the rest of the walk. 

As they walked, Twilight inched closer to Legion until she was walking right beside it. This had the effect of forcing the Nighthawks closer as well, to remain within the field of invisibility.

“Once you download that data…” she began. “How long do you think it will be until we have a cure?”

“You are worried that more ponies will die before a cure can be synthesized,” Legion inferred. “It greatly depends on the complexity of the nanovirus. We will need to understand everything about it in order to create something to kill it. The most efficient cure would be to create another nanovirus, this one designed to target and destroy the original. Again, depending on the complexity, it could be a few days.” Gulping, Twilight nodded and fell back behind Legion. She nearly walked right back into it as the geth stopped in its tracks. They had reached the entrance. Legion scanned the area, looking for any signs of life. A moment later it turned to face the Nighthawks. 

“If there are changelings here, we cannot see them,” it reported. “We must continue on. You only have a few hours before the disease begins affecting you.” 

“Lead the way then, geth,” the Nighthawk captain said, drawing a short blade from its sheath. Legion nodded and crept forward, looking down the wide tunnel leading into the hive. It was well hidden for such a large entrance, but Legion would not have left it unguarded. Then again, this area of the badlands was only occupied by the changelings. They likely did not often have to worry about intruders. 

Legion began climbing down the tunnel, its M-98 Widow held close at hand. Twilight worked her way down behind it, making sure everyone stayed in the invisibility field. The tunnel levelled off after several dozen meters, stopping at a large semi-organic door. Legion had seen it before – there was another one at the bottom of the main chamber. Down there, it had opened with proximity. Here, it should do the same.

The geth’s assumptions were confirmed as it stepped within a few feet of the door. It split into four uneven parts and receded into the stone walls, revealing an empty chamber beyond. Linking to the chamber were several tunnels, all of them going down. From what the captured changeling had told it, the centermost tunnel led to the main chamber, while the one on the far left would lead back to the main entrance, near where the laboratory was. Legion slowed to a halt as it entered the antechamber and turned to face the ponies.

“The central tunnel leads to the main chamber, head that way and get into position,” Legion said. “We will go to the main lab. Once the data has been downloaded, we will contact you with instructions on how to open the pods. Be ready.”

“We won’t let you down, Legion,” Captain Dart reported. “All right, move out!” Nodding, the Nighthawks surrounded Twilight and led her to the central tunnel. They disappeared from view as the invisibility field passed over Legion, leaving it exposed in the antechamber. Acting quickly, Legion activated its personal tactical cloak and set off down the left tunnel, calling up its map of the hive. It did not know exactly how to get from here to the main lab, but it could make educated guesses based on its current position relative to the destination. Moving at a light jog, Legion began to descend further into the tunnel, ready to complete its part of the mission…




Twilight moved slowly down the central tunnel of the antechamber, surrounded on all sides by Nighthawks who were looking out for trouble. So far no changelings or collectors had been encountered, but that would not last for long. She only hoped that Legion did not take too long, or else she would be unable to keep the field up. That, and there was the threat of the nanovirus working on knocking her out. She and the Nighthawks only had a few hours of consciousness left, they needed to move quickly. 

After a few minutes of walking down the tunnel, it levelled out and they found themselves in another large chamber, this one filled with empty cocoons. They were stacked horizontally on top of each other, going from floor to ceiling all over the room. These must be the pods that the ponies are kept in, Twilight thought. They were all unoccupied, it was likely that this was where ponies were first brought after being kidnapped. The thought caused Twilight to shudder, and she chose to direct her attention towards finding another door. 

“Stay close, we need to find the main chamber,” she said, receiving nods from the soldiers. Twilight maneuvered through the maze of empty pods, soon finding another large door. It opened as it detected her presence, and what lay beyond caused Twilight’s jaw to drop. Stretching before her was a massive chamber, hundreds of meters high and around two hundred meters across. Pods were fit into every nook and cranny, either stacked vertically or hung on the walls. Each pod had a set of tubes that fed up to a large metal structure at the top of the chamber. Inside every single pod was an unconscious pony.

“Sweet Celestia…” Captain Silent Dart whispered in shock. “How many of ‘em do you think there are?”

“At least a thousand, probably more,” Twilight answered. “Most are probably from Manehattan, if I had to guess.” They were silent for a moment, simply staring in horror at all of the prisoners. Finally, Twilight shook her head and remembered their mission. “Come on, we need to find Celestia.” She began walking forward, the Nighthawk soldiers keeping their close circle around her. The bottom floor of the main chamber was large, and very densely populated with cocoons. The princess could be in any one of them…

A quick walk around the perimeter of the room held no results. The princess was not in any of the pods there, narrowing their search down by a very small amount. As Twilight moved to search in another area, she tried thinking about it logically. The princess had been captured fairly early on, only after Appleloosa had been infected. By that time, the entire population of Westrock – only around a hundred – had been kidnapped, and Appleloosa was missing quite a few as well. It made sense to Twilight that the collectors would start filling in the bottom, then build up. Because Celestia had been one of the earlier victims, she would likely be closer to the center of the room. 

Turning to the center, Twilight moved at a slightly faster pace. The Nighthawks stayed with her every step of the way, never risking getting too far from the princess. Turning down another line of pods, Twilight finally found her target. Floating in the gelatinous green fluid of one pod was an unconscious Princess Celestia. 

“She unconscious? Or just sleeping?” Silent Dart asked, looking around them carefully. 

“Legion said he spoke with her,” Twilight rationalized. “She’s probably just sleeping… Hang on, I’m going to drop the field. Fan out, keep watch. If you see any changelings or collectors, come back and warn me and I’ll put the field back up.”

“Yes, your highness,” the Nighthawks said. Twilight’s horn dimmed and the field of invisibility receded back into it, once again revealing the ponies to the rest of the world. The Nighthawks immediately spread out and quietly took up watch at the end of the line of pods, their vigilant eyes watching for movement. Twilight approached her mentor and knocked on the clear side of the cocoon, trying to wake her up. It was not difficult; after a few knocks, Celestia’s eyes slowly opened. She looked around, confused, until her gaze settled on Twilight. She smiled warmly, before immediately changing her expression to one of fear.

“Twilight…?” she croaked. “What are you… doing here?”

“We’re going to get you out of here, princess,” Twilight said proudly. “Legion is on his way to the collector’s main lab now. He’ll find out how to open these pods and we’ll free you.”

“No…” Celestia said. “Too… dangerous…”

“Relax, Celestia,” Twilight said. “We have a plan. Legion is also going to download the information on the virus itself. We’re going to break everypony out and get a cure.” The solar princess frowned, but nodded. Twilight stepped back from the pod and motioned to the Nighthawks to return to her. As soon as they were all grouped together, Twilight smiled calmly at Celestia and lit her horn, disappearing instantly. Legion would hopefully reach the main lab soon and they could get away from this forsaken land. They could defeat the collectors and secure peace once again for Equestria…




Legion crept down the rounded stone tunnel, its back pressed up against the wall. It had its pistol – a simple M-3 Predator – equipped and pointed at the floor as it slid along the wall to the door of the main lab. As soon as Legion was at the threshold, it spun into the doorway, pistol held up and looking for hostiles. It lowered the pistol as no enemies were detected, and immediately ran up to the computer in the center of the room. 

Wasting no time, Legion activated its omni-tool and began trying to run a bypass of the computer’s encryption. As it had expected, the encryption was much stronger than on the other computer it had hacked. To speed up the bypass, it deactivated the cloak and put as much processing power as it could spare into the omni-tool. 

With almost all of the 1,183 programs dedicated to the bypass, it did not take long to crack the encryption. As soon as the computer was open to it, Legion rushed in and began downloading all of the data to its omni-tool. Several petabytes of data were stored on the terminal, but Legion did not have time to pick and choose what to download. It would simply have to take all of it. Fortunately omni-tools came standard with drives capable of storing several exabytes. The geth would have no problem downloading everything. The only drawback was the speed at which the data could be moved. At this rate it would be several minutes, plenty of time to be discovered. Just to be safe, Legion crouched behind the side of the computer opposite of the door, taking up a defensive position. The collectors would not risk firing on their own computer, lest they lose everything on the nanovirus. 

At this time, the download was at ten percent completion. Checking the thermal clip on its pistol, Legion prepared for the possibility of combat…




The collector captain stood in a large chamber of the changeling hive, looking over the cargo that was stored here. It was not much – just the element zero that the collectors had managed to salvage from their crashed ship before leaving. With this store they had more than enough to power the weapon and the Mass Relay. The rest the captain was considering making into an explosive to use on their target as well. It was better than letting any of the species on this planet get a hold of it.

Turning around, the captain exited the storage chamber and re-entered the labyrinthine tunnels of the changeling hive. He had begun to finally remember most of the routes around the hive, and no longer had to rely on his omni-tool to point him in the right direction. If he was right, then one of their medical labs was just a few tunnels away. Before he could make it too far, the captain was interrupted by the sounds of claws running on stone. He turned around and found a collector drone running at him, appearing alarmed.

“Captain!” he yelled. “Security systems are detecting a breach of the main lab terminal. We are detecting a data download in progress.” Growling, the captain stalked up to the drone and grabbed him by the throat. There was only one thing on this planet that could hack their computers and download their data.

“Do not let anything take our data!” he shouted. “Send a response team there now! Kill the geth!” 

“Yes, captain,” the drone said. “Would you like to lead them?” The captain thought for a moment before shaking his head.

“No, I have somewhere else to go,” he answered. “Where is Queen Chrysalis?”

“Her personal chambers, captain,” the collector said. Releasing the drone, the captain spun around and stalked away, taking a turn leading to a tunnel that sloped upwards. The geth would only be attacking their main lab for one purpose: to create a cure. This was useless as long as ponies were still his prisoner. There would be more with the machine, and the collector was going to find them…




Legion stayed crouched behind the computer, motionless, as the download neared completion. It had taken several minutes, but the progress bar on its omni-tool told Legion that 75% of the data on the computer had been copied and transferred. So far it had been perfectly quiet. No collectors or changelings had come across the lab, and the geth hoped it would stay that way. If they could download the data without drawing any attention, then their chances of success in later objectives would increase exponentially. 

Eighty percent. Only a few more minutes now, and the data would be secured. It just had to hold out a little – 

BANG

Legion ducked its head down instinctively, dodging the bullet that whizzed overhead. It impacted on the far side of the room, creating a small hole in the stone wall. Legion popped its head up over the computer for a brief moment, scanning the area. Stacked up against the doorway were two collectors – Legion could see the edges of their arms. If there were more, then they were not in view. One of the collectors turned its body into the doorway and fired a burst from the assault rifle in its arms. Two of the bullets hit Legion, dropping its kinetic barriers to two-thirds strength. The geth dropped back behind cover, hoping that its assumption that the collectors would not fire on the computer was correct. It seemed to be right, as the gunfire stopped as soon as it ducked down. 

Raising the hand holding its pistol, Legion blindly fired several shots, hoping to hit something. As it fired, Legion checked the progress bar once more. Eighty-five percent. The fire that it had taken had used processing power to activate the kinetic barriers, which was slowing down the download. It had to choose: faster download, or greater chance of survival. 

To Legion, the choice was obvious. It didn’t matter how quickly it got the data if it was destroyed. Pulling more processing power away, Legion overclocked its kinetic barriers and stood up from behind cover, firing off several precision shots with its pistol. The bullets hit one of the collectors, and it fell to the floor, dead. The second poked its assault rifle past the door and fired at Legion, taking its barriers down to half strength. The geth dropped back behind cover and quickly activated its radio.

“Twilight Sparkle?” it called urgently. “Please, respond.” There was silence for a moment, before the geth finally heard the radio crackle.

“Sorry, Legion,” Twilight responded. “Couldn’t figure out how to turn this thing on. What’s your status?”

“We are taking enemy fire,” the geth reported. “Download is at ninety percent. We are running a program through the data downloaded so far to see if information on the pods has been recovered yet. So far, nothing.”

“Are you going to be okay!?” Twilight cried through the radio, worry in her voice. “Because we can—“

“Negative, hold position,” Legion ordered. “We will be fine. One moment, we may have found something.” Legion quickly popped up and fired a few shots, killing the second collector. It was going to be a short-lived victory – the geth could already hear the sound of their claws on the stone floor outside. Ducking down behind the computer, Legion checked to see what its scanning program had found. 

“We have found schematics of the pods,” the geth said, accessing the data its programs had tagged. “Are you in position?” There was another pause before Twilight answered.

“We’re ready, go ahead,” she said. Calling up the schematics of the pod, Legion scanned it for a release. 

“On the left side of the pod there should be a small green square,” it began.

“… Got it.”

“Upon pressing it, you should see a holographic display.”

“Yes, there’s a grid of buttons on it. What do I do?” Legion scanned over the schematics, looking for the release code. 

“Top-left,” it answered. “Bottom-center. Bottom-right. Center.” There was another pause, during which Legion poked its head up over the computer. It was forced to duck down again as a flurry of bullets flew towards it, impacting on the back wall.

“Got it!” Twilight said excitedly. “Pod is open! Wait, we’re…”

“Twilight Sparkle, please continue,” Legion requested. 

“Hold on Legion, one of the Nighthawks thinks he heard something,” Twilight explained. “I’ll get back to you.”




“Got it! Pod is open!” Twilight said, excitement in her voice. The holographic display disappeared, and the glass door of the pod extended out a few centimeters before it then slid up. The green fluid keeping Celestia immobile flooded out onto the floor, and the princess came with it. Captain Silent Dart caught her in his hooves before she hit the floor, then lowered her slowly the rest of the way. The solar princess was in bad shape; she was breathing heavily, her mane was solid pink and was no longer flowing of its own accord. Twilight made to step up to her mentor when one of the Nighthawks shouted, surprised.

“Wait, we’re…” she started to say, looking at the Nighthawk, confused. 

“Thought I heard something, your highness…” the soldier said, holding his sword out. Cautiously, Twilight approached the soldier.

“Hold on Legion,” she said as she walked. “One of the Nighthawks thinks he heard something. I’ll get back to you.” She lowered her hoof from the radio, cutting it off from her end. “What is it?”

“I thought I heard something walking on the stone…” the soldier explained. Twilight looked into the shadows, squinting in an effort to see through them. 

“I don’t see anything…” she said, shaking her head. “Come on, everyone group up. I’ll reactivate the invisibility and we can get out of –“

BANG

The Nighthawk before her crumpled to the ground as a projectile flew through the top of his head, embedding itself in the stone floor beneath him. 

“EVERYPONY DOWN!” Silent Dart shouted, throwing himself to the floor. Twilight did the same and held her hooves over her head, screwing her eyes shut in fear. The three remaining Nighthawks fell to the floor as well, brandishing their blades. One of them crawled into cover between two pods, while the other two closed in on Celestia, willing to give their lives to protect her.

Twilight opened her eyes, and looked around. At the end of the line, she could see the elbow of a collector sticking out from behind a pod. It suddenly spun out into the open, holding a long rifle similar to Legion’s at the ready. Twilight’s eyes widened when she realized that she was looking straight down its long, menacing barrel.

Before the collector could fire, it was hit in the chest by a burst of magic. Looking behind her, Twilight found Silent Dart on his hooves, his horn alight. The other two Nighthawks were standing as well, while the third was nowhere to be seen.

“Stay in cover, princesses,” Dart ordered, his tone emotionless. “There will be more where that came from.” Twilight nodded and jogged over to Celestia, who remained in a heap on the floor. She lay down next to her mentor, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest. The elder princess’s eyelids drooped, and her wings sagged. 

Another shot rang out, and an instant later a projectile fired through the glass of an occupied pod. The green fluid began draining out, though the pony remained unconscious, completely unaware of what was going on. Twilight turned her head in the direction of the shot, only to find the third Nighthawk leaping onto the back of a collector. He dug his knife into the alien’s neck, jumping off as it fell to the ground, dead. 

Before any celebrations could be made, the Nighthawk was cut down in a spray of bullets. They tore through his armor like it was made of paper, sending blood and steel fragments flying into the air. As more collectors approached, Twilight felt something tackle her to the ground. She closed her eyes, wincing as she came down hard on the stone floor.

There were more gunshots, and three more thumps as three more bodies hit the floor. Slowly, Twilight opened her eyes and looked upon the carnage. Celestia seemed unharmed, and Silent Dart was uninjured on the floor next to Twilight, but the two Nighthawk soldiers were dead. Twilight slowly crawled over to her mentor, looking Celestia in her eyes. 

“We’re going to get out of here,” she whispered. “We just have to wait for Legion. He’ll know something is wrong and he’ll be here as soon as possible.”

“I highly doubt that,” a deep voice said from behind Twilight. She slowly turned her head and looked up, finding a giant collector standing before her. He was easily seven feet tall, and had six glowing eyes that looked down right at her. In her face was the end of a long object that somewhat resembled Legion’s weapon. Behind the collector were two smaller ones, each one holding another one of the weapons. With them was Queen Chrysalis, staring blankly at the wall in front of her. 

“This was a daring raid, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the collector said, lowering his weapon. He leaned down and picked Twilight up by the scruff of her neck, bringing her up to eye-level. She looked challengingly into the six glowing eyes, glaring angrily. “It was foolish as well. You have delivered yourself right to me. You shall join your other princess in imprisonment, and be used as fuel to power our device.”

“That’s what you’re using us for?” Twilight asked, horrified. 

“They… melt… the ponies…” Celestia croaked, weakly coming to her hooves. “Feed them up… through tubes…” 

“Correct,” the collector continued. “Not long after meeting the changelings, we discovered that pony magic could be used to enhance the destructive force of our beam weapons by several orders of magnitude. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Especially with the knowledge that my kind has been slaves for the past fifty thousand years, I had to take the chance.” 

“Monster,” Twilight spat, glaring at the captain. 

“My kind once ruled the cosmos,” the captain said. “In my cycle, you would have been wiped out for being too weak. Now at least you can serve a useful purpose.” He dropped the princess unceremoniously onto the floor, and turned around to face the other two changelings. 

“Retrieve pods for her and the soldier,” he ordered. “And get me a status update on the geth. If it is not dead yet, I will kill it myself.” 

The collectors did not have time to respond before one of their heads exploded. 




EARLIER

Legion fired off several more shots from its pistol, killing the final collector just as its omni-tool began flashing green. The download was at one hundred percent. Quickly standing up, Legion fired several shots into the computer, watching as it exploded with each shot. With the computer effectively ruined and the data on Legion’s omni-tool, the geth reactivated its cloak and ran out of the door before more reinforcements could arrive. Twilight Sparkle had sounded troubled when she disengaged radio contact, and if they were in trouble, Legion was going to help. 

“Twilight Sparkle, please respond,” it said, trying the radio once more. There was nothing but static. “Twilight Sparkle, please come in.” Again, nothing. Either she was actively ignoring the geth, or she was in a position where she could not use the radio. Both possibilities were troubling. 

Speeding up, Legion called up the 3D map of the hive and began heading for the main chamber. It was relatively close to the lab, and at top speeds Legion made it to one of the doors in only a few minutes. It stepped inside, equipping its M-98 Widow just to be safe. Silently, Legion crept through the rows of pods, heading for the one where Celestia was kept. When it came upon the pod, it immediately ducked down. Standing right by the pod were Queen Chrysalis, two collector drones, and the collector captain himself. The three collectors were armed, with their weapons trained on the ponies standing across from them.

“If it is not dead yet, I will kill it myself,” the captain said, finishing whatever it had been saying before the geth arrived. Before anyone else could do anything, Legion trained its sights on one of the collector drones and fired. The heavy slug round flew right through the collector’s head, blowing it up and sending blood and gore flying through the room. Before the other collectors could react, Legion ejected the thermal clip, slammed in a fresh one, and fired again, this time on the second drone. Before it could fire a third time, the collector captain sent a biotic attack right at the now-uncloaked geth. It sent Legion to the ground, its weapon flying from its hands. The captain stalked up to the geth and grabbed it by the neck, bringing it up into the air. 

“YOU!” he shouted. “Since you are still functional, I assume that my soldiers were unsuccessful in stopping you from downloading everything.”

“Affirmative,” Legion answered, looking past the collector. Silent Dart was in Celestia’s old pod, already unconscious. Queen Chrysalis had her horn lit and was busily keeping Twilight and Celestia suspended in midair where they could do nothing. They looked to Legion with pleading eyes, waiting for it to make a move.

“I should have known better than to take you prisoner,” the captain said. “I will not make the same mistake twice.” 

“Acknowledged,” Legion said, pulling the trigger of the pistol it had pointed at the collector’s side. The collector roared and dropped the geth, who immediately cloaked and ran behind a pod, equipping its assault rifle as it did. 

“COLLECTORS! TO ME!” the captain yelled, his screams echoing throughout the hive. Legion knew that the time it had before being swarmed was dwindling, so it quickly stood up and fired a burst from its rifle. The captain ignored the shots, deflecting them with his barrier, and charged at the geth. 

Once he was in range, the collector swung a fist at Legion, hitting it quite hard on the side of the head. The attack would have killed an organic opponent, but for Legion it simply sent it to the floor. The captain’s hand glowed blue with biotic energy, but before he could bring the hand down onto Legion, the geth rolled out of the way and hopped back up, firing another burst at the captain. His barriers popped and went out, but before Legion could deal a finishing blow, bullets from an assailant behind it delayed its attack. The captain took advantage of the diversion and ducked behind a set of pods, allowing his collectors to have in on the action. 

“Destroy the geth!” he commanded. “I want to see it in parts!”

Several more collectors joined in on shooting at Legion, and in only a few moments its barriers were down. More bullets impacted on the shell of the geth, though they caused negligible damage before it could get into cover. Placing in a new thermal clip, Legion swung out from behind cover and opened fire on one of the drones, killing it in a few shots. It put a bullet into the next closest drone, but was forced back behind cover as more collectors began firing. 

Quickly peeking its head up, Legion looked over to where Celestia and Twilight were being held up by Chrysalis. Whatever she was doing, it was preventing the two princesses from using magic. Otherwise they would easily have overpowered the queen by now. Legion was forced back down as bullets continued flying towards it, and the geth quickly relocated to a different area of cover. 

As it was about to peek back out and continue firing, another biotic attack shredded towards it. The attack hit Legion right in the chest, sending it flying backwards and taking down the kinetic barriers. The collector captain wasted no time in leaping onto the geth, sending his fists into its curved head. Quickly, Legion fired a burst of electricity over its platform. It was low-level enough not to fry any of the electronics, but was effective in getting the captain off of it. Legion quickly took advantage of the situation and fired several shots into the collector captain, but was forced back as his drones advanced, firing their assault rifles. 

Legion reengaged its camouflage as it snuck away, trying to get behind the collector drones. So far its plan of attack was not working; the collector captain was strong, and they outnumbered the geth by quite a large margin. As it snuck through the rows of pods, it began to recalculate. It needed a distraction, something to give it a window of free attack. Looking up, Legion found it. The large box containing their weapon was far too thick to penetrate with standard bullets, but the tubes feeding up were not. Aiming its assault rifle, Legion let loose a torrent of bullets, sending them across several tubes and causing the gray fluid within to spill to the ground. 

“No!” the captain yelled angrily. “Drones, stop the geth!” It was not difficult for the drones to find Legion – the gunfire made it quite an easy task. When they did, they opened fire and forced the geth back down into cover. Popping up, Legion killed two more before the thermal clip was filled to capacity. The geth ejected the clip and slid a new one into place, then continued firing and killed the last two collectors firing on it. Between the collectors at the lab and the collectors here, Legion had killed close to twenty. Their numbers were growing thin, but the captain still had one ally left. 

“CHANGELINGS! ATTACK!” 

Legion’s kinetic barriers began taking hits from above, and the geth looked up to find changelings firing magic attacks from balconies along the walls of the chamber. They were not as effective as bullets, but there were significantly more of them. Quickly ducking behind cover, Legion ejected its thermal clip and planted a new one in, waiting for a lapse in the fire to attack. 

It never got the chance as the collector captain, his hand glowing blue, leapt down onto the geth from the top of a set of pods and dispersed his biotic attack into the ground. The energy coursed up Legion’s platform and disabled the barriers, while the collector swung his fist right onto Legion’s head. The force of the blow sent the geth to the floor, and also sent the assault rifle flying from its hands. The collector captain stalked over to the discarded weapon, picked it up, and moved back over to the immobilized geth.

“And now you will be silenced,” he said, pulling the trigger. Much to the captain’s surprise, a single bullet flew out and hit the geth straight in the head before the thermal clip was filled. A burst of steam followed as the weapon overheated, and the collector threw it to the ground angrily. He instead elected to pick the geth back up by its neck, and threw it at a nearby cocoon. Legion fell to the ground, its systems in disarray. From the constant barrage of punishment, the unit was sustaining heavy internal damage. It was all repairable, but if it could not fight back, then that would not matter. Struggling to stand, Legion equipped its pistol, the last weapon it had, and fired off a few shots at the approaching captain. Changelings joined the captain in his approach, and soon Legion found itself surrounded on all sides. 

“You fight against inevitability, geth,” the captain gloated, beginning to walk closer to Legion. “You defend these ponies, yet you don’t know why. They will be used appropriately. Stand down and let their ascension continue.” 

“No,” Legion replied. “We will not allow you to decide their fate.” It glanced up quickly, examining the tubes that were feeding the dissolved ponies into the machine at the top. Just a few more steps…

“Their fate was decided from the moment we arrived here,” the captain continued. “The purpose that we have for them is far greater than anything they could achieve on their own. Our intervention is a gift.”

“A gift for whom? Them, or you?” Legion asked, preparing its pistol. The collector continued walking closer and closer to the machine. 

“We are their salvation!” the collector yelled. “We are their only hope!” Legion had heard enough. It raised its pistol, fired a single shot, and waited. The collector captain looked up to see what the geth had shot at, only to be blinded as a gray liquid fell onto his face. The changelings surrounding Legion reacted instantly, firing combined magic blasts at the geth. Legion dodged them and ran to the temporarily blinded collector, punching him hard in the face. It lowered the pistol and fired two shots into his abdomen, causing the creature to fall to the ground. Now beginning to take fire, Legion overclocked its barriers, picked up the collector, and threw him over a row of pods. It picked up the fallen assault rifle, inserted a new thermal clip, and made short work of the changelings firing on it. 

The threat temporarily eliminated, Legion ran to where it had thrown the collector, and found itself back in the center where Princesses Celestia and Twilight were being held captive. Queen Chrysalis kept them suspended in a magic field that was quickly eliminated when the geth grabbed her bent horn. She screamed in pain and fell to the ground, temporarily incapacitated. The two princesses dropped to the floor, breathing heavily but otherwise uninjured. As they struggled to stand up, Legion crossed to the injured collector captain on the ground. 

“You… foolish… geth…” he spat, sitting up. “You know not what you do!”

“You would use your weapon to harm organics,” Legion said. “We will not allow this.”

“You know nothing of our plans!” the captain screamed. “Our intention was never to kill organics! Our intention was to save them!” Lowering its pistol, Legion stared at the captain, confused. 

“Elaborate.”

“With help from the changelings… we discovered that pony magic is… very powerful,” he began to explain. “When combined with our own technology, it strengthens our beam weapons by several times. Enough… enough to kill a Reaper in a single shot.”

“… How many shots can your weapon fire?” Legion asked. 

“Legion!” Twilight cried from behind the geth. “Don’t listen to him!” Legion nodded to the pony, and turned back to the collector. 

“One thousand and sixty-two, if every single pony is taken,” the captain answered. “Not enough to kill every Reaper, but enough to make a significant dent.” The captain looked up to the geth, anger flashing in its glowing golden eyes. 

“So, geth,” he began. “Will you put down your weapon? You want to help organics, well this is the way to do it. Without our weapon, the organics of this cycle are doomed to die. If we sacrifice the ponies, the rest may just have a chance to live.” Slowly, Legion turned its head to face the two ponies behind it. They stared at it with pleading eyes that seemed to be brimming with tears. 

“Please…” Celestia whispered.

Legion turned back around to face the collector. It ejected the thermal clip from its pistol, and placed in its final one. The geth stalked over to the collector, and raised its pistol to its head.

“No,” it said. “If we allow this to continue, if we allow you to use the ponies as simple tools, then we are no better than the quarian creators. We are no better than the Reapers themselves. This will end.”

“YOU FOOL!” the captain screamed. “YOU WOULD DOOM ALL OF US! YOU WILL—“

A single shot rang out, echoing through the main chamber and continuing through the stone tunnels for all to hear. It was joined by two more shots, and the collector captain fell over with three holes in his head. Blood spilled out of the wound, soon creating a sizeable puddle that filled around the geth’s feet. Legion stepped away from the body, holstered its pistol, and approached the two princesses, who stared at the body of the dead captain. They looked up to the blue photoreceptor of the geth standing before them, and smiled weakly.

“Thank you,” they both said. 

“We will not decide your future,” Legion said. “You will build your own future.” Twilight and Celestia both struggled to stand on their hooves, and nodded to the geth. 

“Now what?” Twilight asked. 

“The collector lab equipment is intact, and we have all data on the nanovirus on our omni-tool,” Legion replied. “We will devote processes towards making a cure. However, it could be several days until one is synthesized.” 

“And what about her?” Celestia asked, pointing a hoof to Queen Chrysalis, who was staring blankly at the far wall. Legion equipped its pistol and approached the queen. “Can anything be done to help her?”

“Brain implants for the purpose of mind control cannot be easily removed,” Legion explained. “We do not have the knowledge or the tools to complete the action.” It raised the pistol and was about to fire when Celestia put a hoof on its shoulder. 

“Wait, Legion,” she said. “Let me… let me try speaking with her…” Nodding, Legion stepped away and rejoined Twilight Sparkle, who was standing in front of Celestia’s old pod, which was now occupied by Silent Dart. Legion activated the holographic display, typed in the access code, and stood back as the pod opened and the Nighthawk fell out. 

“Ugh…” he said, weakly coming to his hooves. “What happened?” His eyes fell over the body of the dead collector, and immediately he turned to face the geth. “You did it?”

“Yes,” Legion replied. “The threat has been eliminated, for now. There are still thousands of changelings in this hive. Hopefully Princess Celestia will be able to take care of it.” The three turned to face the solar princess as she approached, an expression of sadness on her face.

“She’s completely lost,” she reported. “But… I was able to use my magic to use her as a relay and contact all changelings in the hive. I told them that if they allow us to go peacefully, we won’t destroy them.”

“Acknowledged,” Legion said. “Would you like us to…?”

“Yes.”

Nodding, Legion approached the completely unaware queen from behind, raised its pistol to the back of her head, and fired. She crumpled to the ground, blood oozing out of the wound. The geth rejoined the ponies, holstering its pistol. 

“We will return to the main lab and work on creating a cure,” it said. “You should work on opening the rest of these pods. There are many to get through.”

“We’ll be fine here,” Celestia said, nodding. “Come back once you have something for us.” Nodding, Legion turned and exited the main chamber, heading for the main lab…




Princess Celestia watched as the geth left the room to synthesize the cure. As soon as he was out of sight, she turned and crossed back over to Twilight Sparkle and Silent Dart. They were both sitting by one of the pods, not saying anything. Celestia joined them and simply stared at all of the pods. 

“I was worried for a minute there…” Twilight finally said, breaking the silence. “If Legion hadn’t picked us—“

“He did,” Celestia interrupted. “He is an ally of Equestria, and a friend to us. I knew he would not let us down.” Twilight smiled up at her mentor. “Now come, we should get to opening these pods.” 

“That sounds… like a… oh dear…” Twilight’s eyes rolled back into her head and she fell to the ground, unconscious. Celestia immediately bent over her, checking her pulse.

“What happened!?” she cried, sighing with relief as she saw the steady rise and fall of her student’s chest. 

“The nanovirus hit Canterlot sometime this morning,” Silent Dart explained. “We’ve both got it, that’s why we had to rush to come here. It’ll be knocking me out soon enough, so we should get to work.” 

“I see…” Celestia said, stepping away from the lavender alicorn. “You should start down here. I’ll fly up and bring ponies down from the walls. There’s at least a thousand pods here, but most are still empty… they dissolved all of them a couple of days ago, and have been steadily refilling them since.” 

“Roger that, ma’am,” Silent Dart said, stepping up to the first pod. “They’ll still be unconscious on account of the nanovirus, so we can just set ‘em down next to Princess Twilight.” Nodding, Celestia flared her wings and began flapping up to the top of the chamber. As she neared the top, her eyes fell over the large metal box that contained the collector device. They would need to do something about that, most likely simply destroy it. It was too powerful to be left intact, and a lot of ponies died to give it that power. Destroying it was the right thing to do. 

Celestia carefully approached the pod closest to her, and pressed on the side causing a display to pop up. She typed in the code that she had seen Legion use, and the pod door opened with a hiss. The pony inside began slipping out, but was caught by the princess before she could fall to the ground. She was still unconscious, so Celestia flew back down to the ground and placed her next to Twilight’s still form. One down, a few hundred to go. Celestia flew back up, prepared to repeat the cycle. There was much to do…