A small shuttlecraft, drifting alone in space, about 54 hours travel from the Ferengi ship at warp six; about a week's travel at warp four
Two humans sat in cramped conditions, waiting. One rested, lying back on a bunk and reading a data pad; the other paced back and forth.
“I shouldn't have taken Celestia's offer.” said Captain Anderson, suddenly stopping his pacing.
“Don't see how that would've helped.” shrugged Trent.
“Six mares and one stallion wouldn't be warping straight into the maw of the Borg right now if I hadn't.” insisted the Captain.
“Yes, they would, they'd just be doing it real slowly in a shuttlecraft instead.” pointed out Jorge. “Or the first other ship going their way. Hey, I wouldn't be surprised if that lot would try it in an airtight crate.”
“We'd still have our ship.” continued the Captain.
“Celestia's paying us double the value of the ship for this.” noted Jorge, calmly.
“If we can trust her.” said the Captain, starting to pace again.
“Meh, she seemed on the level to me.” said Jorge.
“And now we're hoping a Federation ship picks us up before the Borg figure out we're back here, helpless and defenseless...”
Jorge shrugged. “Federation's on their way.” he said.
“...and this has all gone political.” continued Captain Anderson. “I hate political.”
“It was political from the start.” said Jorge, tapping the datapad to view the next page.
“It started out as a simple courier gig.” grumbled Captain Anderson. “Now seven more people are going to get captured by the Borg and it's all my fault.”
“They knew the risks.” pointed out Jorge. “And it's not like we could've done much to stop them, in any case.”
Captain Anderson nodded gloomily. It had taken them only three seconds to be teleported into the shuttlecraft and off the ship after he'd agreed to Celestia's proposal...
* * *
Fifty-five hours, ten minutes, and seventeen seconds after Red Dawn was assimilated, the Borg drones on the formerly Ferengi ship detected an approaching disturbance in subspace. It was very streamlined, and approaching at warp six; but was otherwise unremarkable.
The Borg hivemind took a brief moment to regret that its ambush was not yet in place. It had not considered the possibility that the Federation ship might have somehow been made significantly faster.
Fortunately for the Borg, there had not been enough regeneration chambers for all on-board drones to use at once; the Borg were forced, therefore, to regenerate in shifts. Which meant that most of the drones were up and about when the small Federation trading ship zoomed past at a warp factor its engine should not have been able to produce.
“Almost there, girls.” said Twilight. “Somepony give Flim a call? I've got to set up a delicate teleport in a minute...”
Rarity put her hoof in her mouth and let out an earsplitting whistle. There was a clatter of hooves and Flim appeared in the doorway.
“Something up?” he asked. He glanced over the six mares; they'd all managed to stay awake so far, but it had hit some of them harder than others. Rainbow Dash and Rarity seemed to have noticed it least, some sort of internal fire filling in instead of sleep; Applejack and Twilight were still standing, at least; Pinkie's mane had started to deflate somewhat; Fluttershy looked on the brink of collapse, her legs trembling under her.
“Yes.” said Twilight. “We're -” She paused to interrupt herself, muttering something under her breath that sounded a lot like “- see space as the thing that's moving, correct for warp -” and then, suddenly, the seven ponies abruptly vanished.
Without the Elements of Harmony acting as a seperate focal point for the warp bubble, the warp bubble began to oscillate wildly. The ship dropped speed from warp six right down to warp three without reducing the power flowing through the warp core, then began to shudder as the internal stresses overwhelmed the structural integrity fields.
Fifteen minutes later, the warp core breach alarm began to sound. There was no-one left on board to hear it.
* * *
“- here.” said Twilight, as the seven ponies appeared on board the Ferengi ship, in the midst of several Borg drones.
“Wha'now?” asked Fluttershy. “Slee?” she tried, hopefully.
“Not yet, dear.” said Rarity. “First we save our sisters. Then we sleep.”
“Righ.” muttered Fluttershy.
“Just got to find them first.” said Twilight, powering up a shield(1) against the strange half-machine bipeds.
“We are the Borg.” said the nearest bipeds. “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”
“D'you think these are those 'Ferengi'?” asked Dash.
“No,” said Flim firmly, “these are not the Ferengi. They had bigger ears. Oh, no, wait, there, that one in the back, he looks a bit like a Ferengi. Oh, except they didn't have all those bits of armour stuck on them.”
“L'ks like Nigh'mare Moo'.” volunteered Fluttershy, incoherently. “Li'l bit.” she added after a moment.
“They look like trouble to me.” stated Flim, nervously. “I do hope they can't get through your shield.”
Then the crowd of Borg shuffled aside, allowing an equine shape to step forward.
“You will be assimilated.” said Sweetie Belle, stepping forward – and right through Twilight's shield, as though it wasn't there. “Join us. Resistance is futile.”
“Sweetie!” Rarity stepped forward, only to be stopped by Twilight's outstretched hoof.
“Not Sweetie anymore.” said Twilight, firmly. “Nightmare Sweetie. Places, everypony! Harmony!”
Rarity nodded, and stepped back into formation.
And the Bearers released the power of the Elements of Harmony against the Borg.
* * *
Loyalty
The Borg hivemind bears loyalty only to itself. This is not true Loyalty; this is mere self-preservation.
The Element of Loyalty flared brightly.
Kindness
Kindness requires empathy; empathy requires the ability to properly understand that other being have feelings, and to act on that understanding.
The Borg consider feelings irrelevant; their own and anyone else's.
The Element of Kindness flared brightly.
Laughter
No fully assimilated Borg drone has ever been known to laugh. Even freed drones have a severe laughter deficiency; after all, is not Laughter irrelevant?
The Element of Laughter flared brightly.
Honesty
Whatever else one may say about the Borg, they have never been less than honest about their intentions. They announce their plans to assimilate before they begin to do so, and they do no more than they promise.
The Element of Honesty flared only dimly.
Generosity
The Borg do not give. The Borg only take. Every gift the Borg have ever given, they have taken back, they have intended from the start to take back; along with the person to whom they gave the original gift.
The Element of Generosity flared extremely brightly.
Magic
The Borg do not have friends. The Borg admit only the distinction between Borg drones and creatures that have not yet been assimilated.
The Element of Friendship flared brightly.
***H*A*r*M*O*N*Y***
By a five-to-one majority, the Elements acted. A rainbow flew from the Element-Bearers, arcing into the air and striking Sweetie Belle directly, wrapping around her; then Twilight's shield acquired a rainbow sheen, and sped explosively outwards, filling the entire ship.
And where the rainbow shield passed, the Borg drones were released; their implants vanished, their nanoprobes disappeared, their connections to the Hivemind were severed. Every former Borg drone on the ship stood stock-still for two point three seconds, then collapsed, suddenly unconscious; the Element-Bearers collapsed as well, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, who staggered but managed to stay on her hooves.
She stumbled towards the sleeping former drones, to one little orange-and-purple shape that had been sneaking up behind Twilight's shield.
“Sc't.” she muttered, poking the tiny pegasus with one hoof. “Said – was c'ming. Now'm here, Sc't.”
She wrapped one forelimb gently around Scootaloo, and then collapsed into unconsciousness.
Flim, the last one standing, looked around at all the sleeping ponies and aliens.
“Well.” he said. “That wasn't exactly what I'd expected...”
(1) Her brother's design, naturally
What will the larger borg ship do?
Anyone else wondering where the warp core breached?
The Borg will eventually adapt to the elements of harmony.
Attention all Borg! You will all be cured of your assimilations; resistance is futile!
3838881
Arrive too late.
3838941
At one point, I'd considered the possibility of having the ship ram into the Borg probe and then have its warp core breach happen; but no matter how sleep-deprived the Mane Six were, that didn't work for multiple reasons, starting with the reason that said mane six wouldn't simply destroy Borg drones (that could in theory be rescued) that easily.
Given how empty space is, it is overwhelmingly probable that the warp core breach will happen when there's nopony around to be bothered by it.
3839026
Maybe, maybe not; the Elements of Harmony are a weapon that adapts to deal with their target, after all. And if the Elements are capable of some mode of attack that, like kinetic impacts, the Borg have trouble adapting to... the Borg might find it easier to sabotage the Elements by, for example, killing one of the Mane Six.
But even if the Borg do adapt, they wouldn't have adapted yet.
3839140
3839757
I imagine that Data was the only one on the Enterprise able to keep a straight face when Luna and Shining Armour pulled that off.
3840634
I've purposely never assigned him a name. I don't know enough about Star Trek lore to pick out a suitable one, so I left it blank.
It would have to be someone who was Admiral while the Enterprise was active, but well after the Borg had been discovered. I'm not sure whether this would be before, after, or concurrent with Picard's assimilation.
3840686 Perhaps this would help? Admiral William Ross
3840644 1. Well, the earliest they could arrive is if there was a transwarp exit nearby, and if there was there wouldn't be a Federation or Equestria to speak of.
2. Yep, space is empty. Even considering Oort clouds which tend to reach roughly a light-year away from a star, the chances of its breach even affecting something like a ship are miniscule to the negative nth power or whatever mathy things I'm talking about.
3. Yeah, the Elements of Harmony are oh-so-very-variable. OOH PARALLELS! When the EoH freed Luna, it certainly had a similar effect.
4. A similar response.
3841346
Hmmm. Too much canon Star Trek material involves Admiral Ross; I don't know him well enough to write him (I haven't watched enough DS9), and I would almost certainly get him wrong.
However, poking around on the memory alpha website has given me a more suitable Admiral... by which I mean, one whose characterisation I can play with to my heart's content without contradicting Star Trek canon.
3841370
That Borg probe's been travelling for over fifty hours at full speed straight towards the nearest transwarp exit, and it hasn't got there yet. I think our heroes have time to escape. (You know, once they figure out how to steer the ship, and more importantly, which way to point it when they turn the engines on).
Even given that some of them are going to be asleep for days.
...I think the mathy things would work out better if it was raised to the nth power instead of to the negative nth power.
Eeyup.
3840644 perhaps they kidnap (foalnap?) a pony of each type and use them to develope defences against that (the elements are magic afterall)
I fear for the CMC's sanity.
They've been assymilated and exposed to the knowledge/actions/experiences of the Borg, with all it's horror.
How can any child be the same with those memories??
As for the Admiral, he doesn't need a name - it's not important to the story and I hardly noticed he was missing one. Giving him a name would bring unwanted detail/complexity.
3842282
Do you girls think he's talking about us?
Can't be talking about me. No way. I was over here with Rainbow Dash all the time!
Uh.... not all the time, Scoots...
3842952
That question will be dealt with as soon as the CMC wake up.
Hmmm. I think you're right. His entire purpose in this story is to sit on the other end of a computer screen and talk to people (and ponies); basically to be the official voice of the Federation, dispensing information and advice and telling starship captains closer to the action what to do, and, if necessary, making trade agreements (or any other official agreements) with Equestria.
And, on very rare occasion, to spit out his tea.
Anyhow, if he needs a name later on for some reason, I now have one in reserve.
This being a Next Generation era ship- even if a civilian one- there absolutely have to be automatic failsafe systems that cut in when the engines go wibbly wobbly vorpy warpy. Did those get disconnected in an earlier chapter?
3849046
No, but the safety features have a limit; they're only designed to handle situations that the designers thought were possible.
Having a (faked) second warp core suddenly vanish entirely from the system while the original warp core is still running, without anyone to look after it, is not exactly something that the designers could have anticipated.
Come to think of it, it'd make sense for the safety features to automatically eject the warp core before it blows... not that that'd make all that much difference to this story. Whether the safeties save it or not, that ship won't be reappearing.
Can someone be honest if they are deluding themselves into thinking their actions are for the beterment of the galaxy. For delusion is lying when they think they are doing the right thing. Also in a sick way, it could be counted as kidness if feeling are used for the borg think their actions are for the beter of the galaxy by bringing everyone to prefection. Though its the Borg, they have no emotion beside being drones.
3874543
If they were doing it in a genuine attempt to improve the lot of other species, then yes, that could count as kindness. But the Borg does not assimilate in order to help others; it* assimilates in order to expand itself, to gain new capabilities, new technologies, even new military strategies.
The intent is a selfish one; that is the very opposite of kindness.
As to honesty; I don't think the Borg are deluding themselves that their actions are to the betterment of the galaxy. I think they know very well that their actions are only to the benefit of the Borg. It's just that they don't care about anyone else; all other species are considered either resources or pests, therefore what is best for the Borg is best for the galaxy by virtue of being best for the only creature in the galaxy with any say in the matter.
Of course, that's just my view on the matter.
* Whether to use singular or plural pronouns is a tricky question. The Borg have many bodies, but a single mind (albeit one with a bad case of multiple personalities). I use singular pronouns in this first paragraph, because I believe it best presents the point I am trying to make.
3875255
Yeah, I can see that, though I do wonder if Starfleet will ask Equestria for the elements to be used in space to fight to borg since its the only weapon that can destory them.
I also wonder how the more sinister organization that will try to take them like the Tal'Shiar or Section 31 for the ultimate weapon. Well keep up the good work.
Ah, the inherent weakness of the Borg (and hive-minds in general): It's so easy to take them all out at once.
Assimilate This/Taste the Rainbow
4861231 In this case, the rainbow tastes like defeat.
7329387
I thought rainbows were spicy.
3839026
The Borg are incapable of assimilating fun.
3875255
It's actually the warp nacelles that generate the warp bubble. The core is just a special energy reactor that makes warp plasma. The plasma goes off to the nacelles, where it forms the bubble, and collapses space in front, and expands space behind. Do it fast enough, and it's like surfing on your own little pocket of space.
3840660
Indeed.
3840686
You had what sure looked like Commander Sysko earlier.
It perfectly deassimilated them? Curious.
Thanks for the tsunami of feelings.