My Brave Pony: Starfleet Nemesis

by Scipio Smith

By Luna's Light: Sunset Shimmer & Friends

By Luna’s Light: Sunset Shimmer & Friends

There were six of them in total. Six mares to save the princess.

When Sunset had been picking her crew for this assignment, it had seemed an auspicious number.

She was one, of course, she was the only mare Leilani knew, almost the only pony Leilani knew apart from Colonel Stern and her doctor, and she didn’t want to startle the girl or, honestly, have to rely on anyone else being able to win her over in a short space of time. Probably they would be able to do so – Leilani was a sweet girl, and trusting – but in the circumstances…Sunset wanted to do this herself, for Leilani and for Princess Celestia.

Number two was Bon Bon, a cream-coloured earth pony with a two-toned blue and pink mane. Sunset didn’t know her very well, and she’d been a bit wary about taking her on with her injured hand, but Bon Bon herself insisted that she was fine; and she was a former Monster Hunter, and those mares were hardcore. If Bon Bon said that she was up for it, then as far as Sunset was concerned she was up for it.

She’d never actually met a real Monster Hunter before, she was curious to see what Bon Bon could do.

Number three was Lightning Dust, because what team of heroes would be complete without an egotistical pegasus with a bad attitude and a rare talent for flying? It had certainly worked out okay for Twilight in the past, and who was Sunset to argue with that. Besides, she was a damn good flier (Rainbow’s exact words were ‘the best there is apart from me’) and they might well need one of those before this mission was over. Sunset had had a few misgivings about picking her due to the fact that she was a Starfleet trooper, but a short interview had convinced her that Lightning Dust had no real allegiance to Starfleet.

She wasn’t entirely sure that the pegasus had any allegiance to anyone but herself, but at the same time Sunset also felt that she wouldn’t actively betray them; that wasn’t the kind of pegasus that she thought she was.

Number four was Dawn Starfall, a unicorn who kind of looked like she could have been Sunset’s kid sister if she’d had such a thing, what with her butter yellow coat that was only a shade lighter than Sunset’s own and her similar green eyes. Her mane was a series of long strips of red and white intermingled so that they looked a little maypole streamers waiting for the kinds to dance around it. She wasn’t the most powerful spellcaster ever – no slouch, to be sure, but not on the level of Twilight or Sunset either – but she was one of the fastest spellcasters that Sunset had ever seen, and loyal; she’d die before she betrayed Celestia, if only in the hope that Celestia would say something nice about her afterwards.

Dawn, in turn, had brought in number five: Razor Wind, a grey-coated pegasus with a silver mane who had spent enough time in the same foster homes with Dawn that they were family in everything but law. She was also a natural rough-houser, one of those that Sunset went to when there might be violence on a job. Sunset very much hoped – very, very much hoped – that that would not be the case here, but since they were sneaking into the palace, well…she couldn’t say there wouldn’t be any trouble, and she didn’t want to get caught out if there was.

Number six was Silver Service, a bespectacled earth pony in the livery of the Palace. She didn’t have any particular skills necessary for the success of the infiltration – she was a sous-chef in the palace kitchens – but she was their ticket inside; thanks to her, they were all wearing servants’ uniforms and inside the palace without attracting any suspicion. Soon the borrowed uniforms would start to attract more attention than they deflected, especially in certain sectors of the palace and HQ complex, but they had been invaluable for just getting through the door and for that Silver deserved the thanks of Equestria.

Six mares to save the princess. Six mares and a stallion for luck, because Spike was always around somewhere even if nobody remembered him. Now Sunset didn’t have a dragon to bring along, baby or otherwise, so she’d made the best of what she did have.

If Dawn looked a bit like the sister that Sunset didn’t have, then Scoop Story was kind of guy you’d want to marry your sister, or your daughter for that matter. He had a dark red coat, wore square glasses which only somewhat concealed a pair of intense blue eyes, and had a dark mane combed over to the right with a split curl, a style that so screamed clean cut and honest that Sunset had suspected he was hiding something.

He was hiding something alright, just nothing like Sunset had originally feared. His servant’s uniform was several sizes too big for him, even though he’d given Silver Service the measurements himself. He always did that, and Sunset wasn’t quite sure why.

Not that it mattered. All that mattered was the job they were here to do.

Save the princesses, get out, and link up with the rest of the Canterlot Resistance which she had ordered to assemble en masse at one of their safe houses.

If she was right about this, the time for hiding would soon be over.

Sunset took a deep breath. And another. This was it. The moment was now. Everything she’d been preparing for had been leading up to this: the salvation of Celestia and the start of the rebellion to retake Equestria.

She couldn’t deny that a part of her wanted to get on board the Princess Twilight with Rarity and the rest and hare off after Twilight, you know, really return the favour, but she knew that her place was here.

She was the Princess’ pony, and her place was with the princess and her daughter.

Just like the place of Twilight’s friends was at Twilight’s side.

Sunset just hoped that she could hold together an Equestria until Twilight got back.

They were outside the kitchens, huddled in the corridor while a big screen bolted to the wall broadcast the Grand Ruler’s nonsense. Sunset could hardly watch as he slandered Twilight, and her friends, as he made her out to be…all lies. So many lies, had he ever spoken a single word of truth?

I swear, Sunset vowed, staring at his face, so large in the screen, ranting forth his hatred and his calumnies, I swear that I will bring you down. I swear that I will see you face justice for what you’ve done to Twilight, to Celestia, to this country.

I will not let this continue.

I won’t let you win.

Although, she had to admit, that when the Grand Ruler began to lead his legions in a chant, as that cry of ‘Sieg Starfleet’ rose from a million throats, as a million fists were raised in the air like a grim forest promising death to all the unwary children who wandered into it, as their cry echoed out across the land, as the screen cut to show all the might warships looming in orbit and all the regiments and garrisons across the stars…then, Sunset would admit, her heart quailed.

It seemed impossible that they could prevail against such strength. Her plans, her plots, her subtle scheming seemed like so much childish fantasy in the face of the Grand Ruler’s power and the might of Starfleet. So much hatred, so much strength, so many enemies…how could they overcome them all?

Sunset stared up at the screen, and listened to the battle cry, and could not find an answer within herself.

And then Princess Luna interrupted the broadcast, and as her words- righteous, accusing, but at the same time gentle…and brave, brave most of all – replaced the frothing hatred of the Grand Ruler, Sunset felt her heart begin to return to her. Not because Princess Luna had magically shown her a way to achieve victory, but because she was demonstrating with her own example that the lack of same was no excuse for inaction. Maybe Sunset couldn’t see a clear path to bringing Starfleet and the Grand Ruler down, even if – when, when, she had to have faith in them – even when Twilight’s friends returned with Twilight in tow, it wasn’t as though Twilight alone was going to be enough to save them all as much as Sunset might like it if she were. Maybe Sunset couldn’t see the steps that lay between her mission now and her ultimate goal.

But that didn’t mean that she didn’t have to try and get there.

Evil is real, she had told Leilani, and it must be fought. Well, here was the evil, and here was the fight, and she couldn’t back away from it just because there was a chance that they might lose.

Sunset had also said, to Celestia, to try and comfort her, that last stands sounded noble to those who weren’t making them. Well…that was why Sunset was going to do her best to win, that was why everypony was going to do their best to win, but if it turned out that that was impossible, with all of their courage and all of their friendship and all of their hearts beating as one…Sunset guessed that there was something to be said for going out swinging.

We have friendship on our side, and love and compassion and all of the things that the Grand Ruler and all his myrmidons will never understand or even try to. We have one another, and because we have one another we have something worth fighting for, which is more than any soldier of the Starfleet can say. We’re all standing together with all of our hearts and all of our souls and all of our strength as we fight an existential battle for the very soul of our society, and quite frankly if we can’t manage to eke out a win with all of that going for us then we don’t deserve to survive.

Bring on your fleets, bring on your armies, bring on your great and terrible machines of war, turn upon us all the fury of your science and all the terrible fire of your magic. We’ll fight you in every town, upon every street, on every hill, in the air and even in the stars if we have to. We won’t ever surrender.

Either Equestria will be free when the dust settles…or there’ll be nothing left of what was once Equestria at all.

“You okay, boss?” Lightning Dust asked. “You were kinda staring into nothing there.”

Sunset snorted. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She turned her attention away from Princess Luna’s speech. The princess was buying them time, she couldn’t waste it listening to her oratory.

She turned on her earpiece. It was tuned to be able to receive some of the Starfleet comm traffic, but not to communicate with it directly. That way Sunset could listen in without being overheard.

It also put her in the position of being able to listen to Major Wonder’s conversation with the young lieutenant left minding the shop while his captain and most of the other senior officers were at Rhymey’s funeral.

“Pull all guards out of sectors Red Delta and Orange Tango,” Major Wonder ordered. “And focus deployment around Blue Bravo and Blue Alpha, the main approaches to the inner sanctum.”

“But there’s nobody in the throne room right now-“

“Of course not, these cowards wouldn’t dare strike when His Majesty was present, but they may look to secure some sort of propaganda victory in his absence,” Major Wonder declared. “Besides, there’s nothing of value in Red Delta is there?”

“No, ma’am, there’s just Millstone and I can’t imagine even seditionists being interested in her. I’ll issue the orders now.”

Millstone? They call Princess Leilani Millstone? Am I supposed to be grateful that you don’t just call her Freak and be honest about it? I mean come on, she’s a little girl and one who you’ve kept locked up for all her life, how is she supposed to be different than she is?

“Good boy. Now, aside from Blue floor the obvious place for some kind of propaganda effort would be His Majesty’s own chamber in Black Lima, so pull anyone you have in Green Charlie out redeploy them there.”

“But…if I pull the guards out from Green Charlie won’t that leave Waifu unprotected?”

Waifu? Who in…oh. Oh no. Oh no you didn’t. Please tell me that you did not just…please tell me that you don’t all…

I’m going to have to stop thinking about this before I revert to my demonic form and kill someone.

“I’m sure the Queen will be perfectly safe, these primitives worship her after all.”

“I suppose so, Major, okay. I’ll issue the orders.”

Sunset couldn’t control the contempt that dripped out of her mouth. “Waifu. Princess Celestia’s code name, Princess Celestia, is Waifu?”

“Everyone has a code name assigned to them by the guards if they spend enough time in the palace,” Major Wonder replied in a tone of studied neutrality.

“I know but waifu?” Sunset cried in disbelief, ignoring the sound of Lightning Dust sniggering behind her. “I mean come on! Seriously, you people.”

“Do you want to know what you’re code-name is,” Major Wonder asked.

Sunset hesitated. I’m not at all sure. “I don’t know, do I?” Probably it’s something terrible or demeaning. Or both

“Turbulence.”

Sunset blinked. A slight smile spread across her face, for all that Major Wonder couldn’t see it. “Huh. That’s actually pretty cool.”

“It’s not supposed to be a compliment.”

“Maybe not, but it absolutely is,” Sunset replied. I guess even Starfleet gets it right once in a while. She glanced back at her team. “Now, we’ll wait a few seconds for the guards to start to move and then-“

“Command, this is admittance security, we have an unauthorised intruder loose in the building!”

What? But no one saw us coming in, we were so careful! And if they knew about us then why are the alarms only going on now? It can’t be because they didn’t realise we were intruders before, we haven’t done anything yet.

Really? Were you that careless as to be seen coming in? “This is Major Cerise Wonder, what’s going on?”

“Some kind of crazy blue unicorn came in here demanding to see Colonel Glimmer, and when I saw that the Colonel has been black-flagged I tried to tell her to get lost but se wouldn’t listen. So I order security to escort her from the building, but she dropped some kind of smoke bomb and took off. I don’t know where she’s gone.”

“Copy that,” Major Wonder said. “Sunset, what are you doing?”

“She’s not one of mine, it sounds…” Blue unicorn, smoke, looking for Starlight Glimmer…oh no.

Oh, Trixie, you poor fool. What have you gotten yourself into this time?

“What?”

“Sweet Celestia, that sounds like Trixie.”

“Who’s Trixie?”

Somepony who’d die if she heard you ask that. “A mare with a good heart and a lot of bad luck,” Sunset said. She and Trixie had been at school at around the same time, although Trixie was just a little younger than her. Sunset remembered a showy but rather hapless unicorn, one who meant well but let some combination of temper, ego and insecurity get the better of her as often as not. She would have said that she reminded Sunset of herself, but frankly Sunset had been far too much of an ass at school to warrant the description of ‘a good heart’. Whatever she’s doing here, why ever she came…I started this resistance to save Equestria, and that means that nopony gets left behind. “Can you keep them off her?”

“I’ll do my best, but I make no promises,” Cerise replied.

“Your best will have to be good enough,” Sunset said. “We’ll stick to the plan for now, but we’ll also try and find Trixie as we go. Thank you, Colonel, good luck.”

“You too, Miss Shimmer.”

Sunset glanced over her shoulder at her team. “Okay, we rescue Princess Leilani first. Remember: quickly, quietly, and don’t make a fuss unless absolutely necessary. We aren’t here to fight unless forced to.”

“Unfortunately,” Lightning Dust muttered.

“You’ll get your chance, probably,” Sunset said. “I’d be astonished if this went completely without a hitch.” She didn’t mention the fact that it had already failed to do so thanks to Trixie’s unexpected intervention. “We’re not that lucky. Let’s move out.”

The palace was divided into sectors, while each individual floor was colour-coded; hence Red Delta, the highest floor in the Delta section of the palace, where Leilani's tower was located.

So far, as Sunset led her lucky seven (including herself) up through the palace towards Leilani's chamber, it seemed that Major Wonder's interference was working out okay. They didn't come across any guards blocking their way as they climbed up the stairs or crawled through the corridors, no Starfleet troops waylaid them.

It was almost enough to make a more paranoid mare suspect a trap. After all, she was taking a lot on trust with Cerise Wonder, officer of the Starfleet; but if she'd wanted to betray them then she'd had plenty of opportunities to do so before now. And Sunset had read her file; you didn't go from war hero to hiding in a prison for twenty years if you were completely comfortable with all the things that you'd done.

Sunset trusted her. Sunset had to trust her. Because whatever happened, assuming that this didn't all end with the Grand Ruler and the Starfleet stamping them flat like ants, then when the new day dawned then they would have to live with the space ponies in exactly the same way that the space ponies were going to have to live with them. It wasn't as though they could exile them all, even if that were possible it would make them almost as monstrous as Starfleet itself to do so. They would have to find a way to coexist, to realise Twilight's dream of the two races living together and learning from another; and they would need the help of people like Major Wonder to make that dream a reality.

They were climbing the east tower now. Leilani's tower, the highest and darkest tower in the palace. The pads of Sunset's hooves were itching in anticipation. Finally, finally, that sweet girl would be free of her confinement.

Free to squat in a warehouse or a bolt-hole which she shares with a score or more of resistance ponies.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't the kind of escape that Sunset had dreamed of for her, and it almost certainly wasn't the kind of escape that she had dreamed of for herself, but she would be out, and free and around other ponies for the first time in her life. She could see the sky and the sun, a little at least.

And she'd be with her mother. That alone had to make it so much better than what she had right now.

Sunset raised one hoof to pause her crew.

"Something wrong?" Bon Bon asked.

"I'm not sure if the guard on the door will have left his post when everyone else did," Sunset muttered.

Lightning Dust slammed her hooves together. "Finally. Some action."

"Wait here," Sunset hissed. "I'll take care of this."

"Aww," Lightning Dust muttered. "At this rate I'd have had more fun staying in Starfleet."

Everyone glared at her.

"Okay, okay, not funny, sheesh," Lightning Dust said, rolling her eyes at their prudish self-righteousness. "It's called a sense of humour, people."

Nevertheless, their personal desire to get into a scrap aside, the others all hung back out of sight as Sunset padded up the steps towards the armoured door that held Leilani captive.

Her instincts were confirmed when she saw that the guard was still there, waiting outside the door, like always.

Unlike always, he actually seemed surprised to see her this time, although the surprised look in his eyes was soon replaced by the cruel leer on his face.

"You," he said.

"Me," Sunset replied. "You should know why I'm here by now."

"You're a little late if you wanted to say goodbye," the guard said. "The Colonel's already come to take her away."

Sunset felt a chill run down her spine. "Where is she now?"

"Still inside, but not for much longer," the guard said. "But as for you...I've got new orders, I was told that if you came poking around again...ice axe!" He held out one arm as his weapon of crystaline transparency materialised in his hand, the cold, sharp blade gleaming earily in the gloom. "I'm going to enjoy this."

Sunset's horn flared, she stepped backwards, the axe rose in the guard's hand. A green bolt flew from the tip of Sunset's horn to strike the guard beneath the chin. Starfleet claimed that it's armour was magically resistant, and unlike so many of their boasts this one was actually correct - it would have to be resistant to something, since it didn't do much to stop physical force - but unfortunately for him the guard wasn't wearing his helmet. Sunset's attack had much the same effect as an uppercut delivered by someone with superstrength, sending guard flying upwards and crashing into the door behind him with a thud.

He fell to the ground face first and lay there limply. His fingers twitched to indicate that he was still alive.

"If you wanted to kill me then maybe you should have opened on that instead of gloating," Sunset spat.

Not that I want them to be smart; we need our enemies as stupid as we can get them.

She heard her crew following her up the stairs.

"You okay?" asked Dawn.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sunset said. "Watch him and make sure he doesn't come round."

"Gotcha," Dawn said, as a pale glow began to cling to her horn.

"Scoop," Sunset said, as she typed in the key code for the door. "Ordinarily this first door will close as the second one opens; this time can you keep the first one open for me?"

"Sure, Miss Sunset, I think I can do that."

"No need to call me Miss Sunset, Scoop, we're not in Smalltown any more."

"It's, uh, Smallville, Miss Sunset, and I'm not sure what my mother would say about me being so informal."

"Suit yourself," Sunset said, as the first door rose, revealing the second door on the other side.

She walked into the chamber between the two. The first door began to close behind her, but the whirring of the engine that drove the door was soon replaced by the squeal of metal and the protesting shriek of the motor as the door's descent was abruptly stopped in its tracks.

Sunset looked back to see Scoop holding the door up with one hand. The metal was crumpled and bent beneath his fingertips.

"I hope this was what you had in mind, Miss Sunset," he said.

"Yes, that's exactly what I was hoping for," Sunset said. "Well done."

"Okay, I have two questions," Lightning Dust said. "One: how are you doing that and two: can you teach it to me?"

Scoop shrugged. "It's just the fresh air in the heartland of Equestria helped me grow up fit and healthy."

Lightning Dust eyebrows rose in scepticism. "Fit and healthy. Sure."

Although the first door had not yet closed - could not, in fact, close while Scoop was standing underneath it - the second door, the red and white door that always seemed as though it should come with a warning klaxon, began to rise.

And she saw Lieutenant Colonel Stern sitting on the floor with his head in his hands, and no Leilani in view.

"Where is she?" Sunset demanded, in a voice that came out as more of a snarl than perhaps she had intended. But the guard's cruel words had made her worry, what if she was too late? What if they had already taken Leilani to the New Orleans; what if she was too late to save the child who trusted her?

"Sunset?" Leilani's voice replied. "Sunset, is that you?"

"Yes!" Sunset cried. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the safe place," Leilani said. She paused. "Colonel Stern told me to hide here."

Colonel Stern sighed. "It wasn't a fool-proof solution, and it doesn't make me look particularly competent that I can't get a child out of a hole...but it was all I could think to do, to buy time."

Sunset walked into the room, circling around the colonel on the floor and towards the den with its bolt hole where Leilani was hidden. "Buy time? Buy time for what?"

Colonel Stern looked up. His eyes were wet with tears that had not quite sprung, but nevertheless he managed a wan smile. "I suppose that, subconsciously, I was waiting for you...to save the princess, and provide a way out of all this."

"What's going on?" Sunset asked.

"Operation Nemesis," Colonel Stern murmured. "I received my orders this morning."

"I know the name, but I don't know what it is."

"No one does," Stern replied. "But I have orders to get Princess Leilani and report to the Neigh Orleans. My wife, my daughter and my elder son will be joining me there."

"And that's a problem for you because...wait a minute, your elder son? You only..." Sunset trailed off, as the pieces fell into place in her mind. "What's the matter with your younger son?"

"I don't know," Stern admitted. "We can't take him to a doctor to find out for obvious reasons. He should have been...but when I saw the way that his mother looked at him when he was born, when I held him in my arms and watched him smile...I couldn't just consign him to the flames. He's my son." He bowed his head, and his body was wracked by a sob. "I couldn't throw him aside then and I can't just abandon him now...but I don't have any choice."

"There's always a choice," Sunset said. "Your choice is so obvious that you've already started making it."

Stern looked at her. "I have."

"It's the choice you made when you decided to raise your son in secret rather than condemn him to death," Sunset said. "The choice you made when you told Leilani to hide rather than fulfilling your orders. The choice to be better: better than Starfleet, better than your orders, better than this system that is so cruel to so many who deserve it least. The choice to be better than you were yesterday, the same choice that we all have, everyday, if only we have the courage to take it."

Stern frowned. "I'm no one special," he said. "I'm just a soldier."

"But you can be more," Sunset said. "So much more, if you're willing to try."

Stern stared at her for a moment, before he wiped the tears from his eyes and climbed to his feet. "What do I have to do?"

"For now, not much," Sunset said. "Go home, gather your wife and children and go to Number 14 Rani Street; knock on the door and tell them that the Mare in the HighCastle sent you, the password is hope. They'll know what to do."

Stern nodded. "I...thank you, Sunset Shimmer."

"No need to thank me yet," Sunset replied. "I don't know if we can help your son; but I promise you that we'll try."

"For that alone," he said. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, if that's what you want to hear," Sunset said. "Go, we'll meet again soon."

Sunset's ponies parted to let him pass as he walked briskly down the stairs.

"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Dawn asked. "What if all that stuff about his son and all that was just an act?"

"Then I've just given away one of our safe houses, and the alarm will be raised very soon," Sunset admitted. "But that sort of trickery isn't the Starfleet way, they love their brute force too much to take a different tack. Princess Leilani?"

"Yes?"

"You can come out now."

Leilani scrambled out of the safe space and the den, emerging clutching all of her stuffed dolls, of Twilight and all her friends and Sunset Shimmer's own demonic form.

"Are you alright?" Sunset asked, and when Leilani nodded Sunset wrapped one hoof around her and pulled her into a hug. "Thank goodness. When I couldn't see you I was so worried."

"I don't understand," Sunset," Leilani said. "What's going on?"

Sunset looked the young princess in the eyes. She had never lied to this girl, in all the cruelties of her life it had seemed to Sunset that a little honesty was the least that she deserved. So she had never lied, and she would not start now. "I must tell you the truth, princess. Your father's cruelty has grown too great to be borne or endured. Already he has done things too terrible to be forgiven, and I fear what he may do next: to you, to your mother, to all of us. And so the time has come for you to leave this place. Come with me, we'll find your mother and then begone from here, to somewhere safe."

Leilani's blue eyes widened. "Leave? You mean...you mean leave? You're going to take me away from here? And I'm going to see my mother?"

"Yes," Sunset said. "Princess, it will not be easy. Your father's ponies may hunt for us, and your mother and I will have to work as hard as anyone else in order to...to defeat him. I am sorry, but it must be done and I must do it. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it...once you are free."

For a moment, and then a moment more, Princess Leilani looked at her in silence. Then she flung her arms around Sunset's neck and buried her face in her coat. "To see mother...to be away from here...whatever happens, however hard it is, it will be worth it all just for that. Thank you, Sunset, thank you so much!"

Sunset craned her neck downwards, and kissed the little princess on the temple. "This is as little as the poorest and least fortunate of girls are born with, princess: to see the sun, and know a mother's love. If this is all that I can give you it is little enough, and less than you deserve."

"But more than I ever hoped for," Leilani whispered.

Sunset let her linger there a moment, embracing Sunset tight and close, as though she were no pony but a dream, a mirage of freedom that would vanish as soon as she was released. But then she said, "Climb on my back, princess, and hold tight to my mane. What happens next may be dangerous so you must be brave for me, as brave as the little princess, can you do that for me?"

Leilani scrambled up onto Sunset's back, holding her dolls against her with one arm while she wound her fingers into Sunset's flame-coloured mane. "I will, Sunset, I promise."

"Then say goodbye to this place, and off we go," Sunset said, as she walked out of the door which Scoop was still holding up, one-handed, with no indication that it was taking any strain on him whatsoever.

Nevertheless, once Sunset and Leilani were out, he let go. The door crashed to the ground with a great thud and a screech of pain and outrage from the machinery.

"Princess," Sunset said. "These ponies here are all good and true servants of your mother. Everypony, this is Princess Leilani, daughter of Celestia."

The five mares and stallion all knelt before her.

"Our honour, princess," Razor Wind murmured.

"Your mother is as kind as she is wise, and has treated some of us far more nobly, and with more generosity than we deserve," Dawn said. "If there is aught that you would have of us then ask, and it shall be done. As your mother has our love, so you possess our loyalty."

"Um, thank you," Leilani said. "Sunset, where are we going now?"

"To see your mother, princess," Sunset said. "To find her...and to rescue her, if need be."

---

Contrary to the malicious opinions put about by some people, the Great and Powerful Trixie was not completely self-absorbed.

Trixie was, for example, perfectly capable of noticing that Trixie's girlfriend hadn't come home last night.

That in itself was unfortunately not unusual; Starlight often had to work late or even all night, and so she either came home after Trixie had gone to bed or not at all. Trixie wasn't altogether happy about that but Trixie had learned to accept it. This was Starlight's job and it was a job that she...saying that she liked it was a bit of a stretch, but it was the job that she wanted anyway...and it was the job that was responsible for their nice apartment, comfortable standard of living, and absolute lack of any scrutiny into their domestic arrangements. And so, as much as Trixie would had preferred Starlight to be home for dinner every night, Trixie had gotten used to the fact that it was not to be.

What was unusual was that Starlight hadn't called at all. She always called, unless she told Trixie in person that she wouldn't be home, and yet last night - unless you counted that very weird phone call that Starlight had made for no seeming reason other than to worry Trixie out of her mind - she hadn't heard a word out of her. Not last night, and not this morning either. And it was driving her mad.

That phone call. I want you to know that I love you? Who said things like that? People who were in trouble, that's who! People who were worried about their future and wanted to say goodbye without actually saying goodbye!

And so when Trixie had woken up alone, to an otherwise cold and empty bed, with no Starlight in evidence, no messages and not so much as a post-it note on the bedside table...it had made her sick to her stomach with worry about what might have happened. Trixie had been worried enough to try and call Starlight at the office, which Trixie knew that Starlight hated, because she was just that desperate for the sight of her face, the sound of her voice, or just for a little bit of news about her. But the call never went through. The number had been disconnected. Trixie's fingers had shaken as she'd called up the Starfleet helpdesk, the one-stop shop for finding out if your loved ones had been reported killed or missing in action yet.

From them, Trixie was peremptorily informed that there were no records of a Starlight Glimmer having ever served in Starfleet in any capacity. Then they hung up.

Anger had warred with fear in Trixie's heart, and fear had won. How could there be no records of Starlight? She was a colonel, with a big apartment and privileges that put her beyond scrutiny or reproach? What could have happened to her? Trixie tried not to pay too much attention to the rumours of disappearances more sudden than any she had achieved in a magic show, of senior officers vanishing in the night, their names and histories scrubbed from the records, even being erased from photographs like they were never there at all. Trixie tried not to listen to those kind of rumous, if only because she didn't want to worry too much about Starlight...but now that Trixie was really, desperately worried she found that she couldn't stop thinking about them.

Trixie had to find out what was happening. Trixie had to find Starlight.

And so Trixie grabbed her hat and cloak and headed for Starfleet HQ.

Trixie's moon-and-star cloak billowed out behind her as she walked so briskly that she was almost running down the streets. Space ponies, some in the uniform of Starfleet and others not, gave Trixie the occasional dirty look as she swept past, but she ignored them; there were more important things on her mind.

On every street corner, and partway down each of the streets down which Trixie walked, giant screens had been erected ready to broadcast...something. Trixie thought that someone might have died, although Trixie wasn't entirely sure. It wasn't something that particularly interested Trixie.

Okay, so maybe Trixie was a little self-absorbed.

Regardless of who had died and why they were such a bigshot that their funeral was getting televised across the whole city when Starlight was getting treated as though she'd never existed at all, Trixie eventually reached Starfleet Headquarters and walked in via the visitor entrance.

A slightly overweight sergeant with beady eyes sat at the desk, staring at something on his monitor. A screen on the wall was broadcasting some kind of speech by Princess Luna, would have been surprising - she never said anything these days - if Trixie had been remotely interested in it. A couple of young Starfleet soldiers, armoured in those battle vests with the big shoulder pads they seemed to like so much, lounged on either side of the glass doors.

Trixie paid no attention to them whatsoever as she made her way towards the desk. Her heels clicked dully on the scuffed linoleum floor.

She reached the desk, and waited for the sergeant to notice her.

He didn't.

Trixie cleared her throat impatiently.

The sergeant looked up with the air of someone supremely put upon by the demands of others. "Can I help you?"

One thing that headlining her own performing stage show - also available for children's birthday parties and other private bookings at a reasonable rate - had taught the Great and Powerful Trixie was how keep her nerves off of her face. In consequence, nobody watching would ever have guessed that Trixie was consumed with anxiety as she leaned insouciantly upon the desk said, "Hello, sir, I'd just like to inquire as to the whereabouts of Colonel Starlight Glimmer."

"Mm-hmm," the sergeant murmured. "And why is that of any interest to you?"

"Oh, it's just that she's my room-mate and she didn't come home last night, or call or anything," Trixie said.

"Right, I'll see what I can do," he tapped a few keys, and then stared at the monitor. He glanced at her. "I'm afraid you need to leave, now."

"Leave?" Trixie repeated. "Why, is there a problem?"

"I'm afraid it's a very serious offence to waste my time, and there is no Starlight Glimmer on record here, colonel or otherwise."

Trixie straightened up. "But that's not possible. She must be here, she works here! Trixie knows she does!"

"Look, I don't know if you're deluded or crazy but you need to go home and forget all about any Starlight Glimmer. She doesn't exist."

"I know that you know something that you're not telling me!" Trixie snapped. "I am not leaving until I find out what is really going on!"

The sergeant sighed. "Security, take this unicorn down to the holding cells and get-"

"Stay back!" Trixie yelled, as the two guards advanced upon her. "Unless you want to feel the destructive force of the Great and Powerful Trixie's ultimate special attack!"

The two guards glanced at one another. "I think we can handle it."

"Well don't say Trixie didn't warn you! Avada Kedavra!" Trixie yelled, as she dropped smoke and booked it down the nearest corridor while the space ponies were still coughing it out of their lungs.

Then the alarms went off.

Trixie plunged into the maze of corridors before her, going she knew not where, pursued by the sounds of Starfleet boots thudding relentlessly after her.

She didn’t know where she was going, and even if she had possessed a destination she wouldn’t have known how to get there. She wanted to find Starlight, but she didn’t know how she was going to do that. Her main concern at this point was just to avoid getting caught by the guards.

And so she ran through the corridors, turning and twisting through the labyrinth, changing direction whenever she heard footsteps coming towards her, dropping more smoke when she needed to, always trying to stay one step ahead.

Where are you, Starlight? What’s going on?

And then Trixie rounded the corridor and came face to face with a cream-coloured earth pony sneaking around. The two collided, sprawling into a heap together on the ground as Trixie’s hat got away from her; it rolled away from her on the floor.

Trixie shook her head. “Doesn’t Trixie know you from Ponyville?”

“Trixie?”

Trixie looked up. “Sunset Shimmer? Why do you look like that?” And what are you doing here with all of these ponies?

“Like we ought to look, you mean?” Sunset said.

“Yes! And who’s the kid and what is-“

“There she is!” cried the first member of the three pony patrol who, in pursuing, Trixie, had stumbled onto Sunset and her friends.

Sunset looked as though she wanted to curse, but it seemed the presence of the young girls was preventing her from doing so.

“We have additional intruders in Orange Delta! Requesting backup!”

A rocket launcher materialised in the hands of the third member of the patrol, a mare by her slightly smaller build and the pitch of her voice. “Rockets away!”

A trio of yellow rockets with fiery tails leapt out of the launcher in quick succession. A trio of beams of golden magic from the horn of a unicorn who looked like Sunset’s kid sister struck each rocket in turn, destroying them in a blazing trio of explosions, before her horn erupted in a hundred bolts of golden light as she fired off attacks in the direction of the Starfleet at an astonishing rate.

None of them seemed to be doing too much damage, most of them were simply absorbed by the Starfleet armour, but the sheer weight of the barrage that was being laid down on them was enough to force the space ponies to take cover.

“Dawn, can you hold them off here?” Sunset demanded.

“Are you kidding? I could do this all day?” the one called Dawn replied, a manic grin upon her face. “Razor, you got my back?”

“Always and always, Dawny,” declared the grey pegasus with the silver mane. “Against the whole wide world.”

Sunset looked up at the two of them, the unicorn and the pegasus, with an expression torn with indecision.

“Go!” Dawn declared, not letting up her barrage for a moment. “Save the princess. Save both princesses. Tell Celestia I love her still…and tell her…tell her I had plenty of regrets, but this wasn’t one of them.”

“Tell her yourself, Dawn, and don’t do anything stupid.”

“You know me, Sunset Shimmer.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about,” Sunset said. “Hold them off, buy us time, and then get out.”

“We’ll do our best,” Dawn said. “Good luck.”

“You too, both of you,” Sunset said. She turned away, but Trixie could see that her eyes were damp. “Trixie!” she snapped. “Come on, follow me.”

Trixie scrambled to grab her hat off the floor, and jammed it back onto her head as she followed the remaining ponies.

From there it was even more scrambling to avoid even more guards, although Sunset seemed to have someone on the inside giving her directions, and helping her avoid the guards, at least for a while.

“We’re nearly there,” Sunset said, although where they were nearly Trixie could not have said, but it was enough to make Sunset quicken her pace. “Come on! We’ve nearly-“

An armoured figure stepped out in front of them. It was just possible to tell that it had once been a pony, although right now it looked more like a robot than anything else. It was encased in armour, a carapace of black plates like some particularly well-protected beetle. When it walked, as it now advanced upon them with a tread that was both ponderous and inexorable, whirring and hissing mechanical noises emerged. One of its eyes was red, like a laser glaring out upon the world.

Only on the other side of the face was anything organic visible, anything to show that this was not simply a robot. Only by looking at the patch of lilac fur, and the blue-green eye set in that face, could you tell that there was anything alive underneath all of that.

Lilac coat and a blue-green eye.

No, Trixie thought. No, please, no, no, no!

She didn't really hear whatever it was that Sunset said. She didn't really register all the other ponies recoiling away in fear and not a little horror. Trixie's focus was wholly...wholly upon Starlight, and what had been done to her.

No, please. Trixie wanted to deny it. She would have given just about anything to deny it. But it was undeniable. She would recognise that eye in that face anywhere. Starlight. Her friend, her lover, her protector, her inspiration...what had they done to her? What had they done to her?

"Starlight," Trixie murmured, her voice trembling as she stepped forwards. "Starlight, what have they done to you?"

"Trixie, careful," Sunset growled, but Trixie ignored her. This was Starlight, Starlight and she'd never hurt Trixie, never ever, not ever.

"You have the best part of me. You know that, right?"

"Are you saying that Trixie doesn't have all of you? Are you saying that Trixie has to share?"

Starlight laughed as she played with Trixie's hair. The two of them were lying in bed, naked, a mingled afterglow of shared contentment engulfing the pair of them. "I suppose that you could put it that way," she admitted, before she kissed Trixie on the forehead. "You have all the best of me, and my work has all the worst."

"Trixie supposes that she could live with that," Trixie said, glancing up at Starlight with a smile, as she stroked Starlight's face with one hand. "I wish you didn't have to do what you do?"

"We wouldn't be living here if I didn't."

"So?" Trixie asked. "Trixie could be happy anywhere with you. We could live in a wagon in the woods where no one could find us."

Starlight chuckled. "That sounds...surprisingly idyllic. Perhaps we'll do that some day."

"But not right now?"

"No. Not right now. I...I have something that I need to do. Something that only I can do." She kissed Trixie, on the temple and on the ear. "I love you. You...you're my hope."

"Starlight," Trixie repeated. "Starlight...it's me. It's Trixie."

Starlight halted her advance. She stared at Trixie. There was no recognition in her organic eye.

"Starlight," Trixie cried, half-sobbing now. "Starlight, please, come on. It's me, it's Trixie, it's...you must remember, you have to. Trixie demands that you remember who I am! And who we are to one another."

Starlight stood still and inscrutable, silent but for the noises emanating from her machine parts, whatever they were, whatever had been done to her.

Whatever had been done to her beautiful Starlight, to snuff her out and cover her in darkness.

Trixie walked towards her, arms held out by her sides, sniffling and trying to smile at the same time. Starlight had to remember. She couldn't have forgotten. She couldn't have left Trixie all alone.

"No matter what happens, I'll protect you. Everything I do is for you, I want you to remember that Trixie. No matter what people say about me, no matter what happens to me...I did it all for you."

"Starlight, what have they done to you?" Trixie asked. "Starlight, what happened? Please, Starlight, why won't you answer me?"

"Trixie!" Sunset yelled, and Trixie felt herself yanked backwards by magic moments before Starlight's arm - and the cruel sickle blade that now protruded out from it - slashed through the place where she had been.

Did Starlight just try to kill me?

Starlight leapt after her, blade gleaming. The bespectacled earth pony of Sunset's group sprang forward to meet her. He blocked her slashing stroke with one hand, and for a moment the two stood there, pushing against one another, seeming evenly matched in strength.

A particle cannon emerged from Starlight's other arm.

Sunset cried out a warning, but it was too light. Starlight had already fired a burst of glowing blue energy into the earth pony's gut. He grunted in pain as she fired again, once, twice, three more times straight into his stomach at point blank range. The earth pony collapsed to his knees, clutching his stomach in pain.

Starlight ignored him, focussing instead upon Sunset Shimmer and the young filly who rode upon her back.

Sunset's horn flared green as she conjured a shield as big as the corridor itself, a barrier between them and Starlight.

Or whatever Starlight had become. Whatever they had made of her. This...this wasn't the real Starlight, this was, this was...this was an abomination of Trixie's friend, a mockery of her.

This was not the Starlight Trixie knew.

Was there any way to get her Starlight back?

Starlight, not-Starlight, studied the shield for a moment. Then she began to fire again, blasts from her arm cannon slamming into the shield like hammers.

Sunset scowled. "No! No, this cannot be happening, not now, not when we're so close."

"Starlight, Starlight, please stop it!" Trixie yelled, as Sunset's shield began to crack under the ceaseless bombardment, with fissures and fractures appearing in the energy barrier like breaking glass.

The shield shattered.

And a rocket flew over Trixie's head to strike Starlight squarely in the chest.

---

Cerise Wonder threw the rocket launcher aside as she advanced down the corridor. It was a standard launcher, a backup unit intended for when the power on your suit ran out and you couldn't summon your regular weapon. As such it wasn't nearly as effective as her Crimson Rockets, but since she'd been red-flagged Cerise guessed that the morphing grid would be denied to her now. It was why she hadn't tried to power up her suit. It was why she hadn't even brought her transformer with her.

She twirled her spear in her hands. It was another backup, a standard spear, lacking any of the unique qualities of her Magenta Lance. Again, however, it would serve.

It would have to, she didn't have anything else. She hadn't even trained in the use of her own magic - uniforce excepted, and she couldn't very well fire it with Sunset and the young princess and everybody in the way, so it would have to be spear, and guts, and a little luck.

The cyborg - Starlight had been the name yelled by the blue unicorn whom Cerise could only take to be Trixie, and Starlight Glimmer was the name of the pony she come looking for. Gods, could this be THE Starlight Glimmer, the spider of Intelligence, the unicorn from whose knowledge and ambition space ponies of old families and distinguished records ran scared? If she had been turned into this then it would explain why she had been black-flagged - advanced out of the smoke of the explosion, not visibly harmed.

Still, she seemed fixated on Cerise now, which was the main thing.

"I'm guessing that you have some sort of programming that directs you to focus on the immediate threat," Cerise said. "That's good, because right now I'm the biggest threat there is."

Starlight Glimmer walked implacably towards her.

"Can you understand a word that is said to you?" Cerise asked. "Or has your head been rewired to make you incapable of free thought? Wasn't it enough for Starfleet to demand the souls of its warriors, now it's demanding your body too?" She shook her head. "Look at us. Look at what they make us give."

Starlight said nothing. Starlight attacked.

It took Cerise only moments to realise that she was completely and utterly outmatched.

Starlight was so strong, so fast, whatever had been done to her had made her more than the equal of any space pony. She drove Cerise back, and it was all that Starlight could do to the relentless slashing strokes of Starlight's blade upon the shaft of her spear. The metal staff clanged as the blade clashed against it, notching it in a half-dozen places. Starlight raised her arm cannon. Cerise dodged the shot, and used her spear as a pole to vault into the air, driving both feet into Starlight's chest. She didn't even more. Cerise leapt backwards, rolling to her feet as Starlight fell on her again.

Starlight jabbed with her spear at Starlight's visible organic eye, but Starlight parried the blow in a manner that would have been contemptuous if she'd been capable of showing any emotion before she resumed her relentless attack.

Cerise's arms were jarred by the shocks against them, and the counters that she could make rebounded harmlessly off Starlight's armour. She couldn't see a way to win this.

And yet, for all that, Cerise Wonder was smiling like a maniac.

This was what she had joined Starfleet for! This was what she had been seeking, not brutal campaigns of conquest against an outnumbered and half-defenceless people, not running the hole where the Grand Ruler threw all of his undesirables until they rotted away to nothing, not putting out fires on the fringes of empire, this! Desperate battles against deadly foes, fighting the fight for a worthy cause, protecting those weaker than herself, the fires in which heroes were forged! This was it, this was what a girl from Maressouri had dreamed of and though she'd thought that girl had perished a long time ago, the long-delayed fulfilment of her dreams was enough to put a grin on Cerise Wonder's face.

The fact that she'd had to rebel against Starfleet to get here wasn't lost on her.

And then the far end of the corridor exploded in fire, engulfed in an instant by a raging inferno. And then, bellowing in pain and anger, her whole body rippling with flame so that it was hard to tell where the inferno stopped and the mare began, Queen Celestia strode through the fires.

Her body burned, her mane burned, her wings burned.

And in her eyes burned hatred.

Author's Note:

So, a couple of false starts but I got there in the end.

Dawn Starfall and Razor Wind are two OCs from my second MLP fanfic, Vengeance of Dawn, (technically, Dawn was called Breaking Dawn in that fic, but I changed her name because...yeah); even though it's been years since I wrote anything with the character I still have an immense well of fondness for her; if any OC is my personal totem, it's her. Hence why she comes out of nowhere to a sort of weird prominence in this chapter. I just can't help it.

Scoop Story is Golden Age Superman, when he was only faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound before he got all those ridiculous God-mode powers in the Silver Age. He comes via a SunLight fic I wrote with the very on the nose name of How the Sunset Sparkles, where a Clark Kent pastiche was introduced for a scene as Sunset's future brother-in-law.

Colonel Stern is probably the first character in this story to come to Jesus without having been inspired by Twilight Sparkle in some way. I can't decide if that's a good or a bad thing.

Next chapter: the wrath of Celestia!

Comments

[Alchemystudent]

Wow, you were really booking it with these chapters coming out. Great job.

I'll admit, I was crying a little at seeing Trixie in pain at the lost of her marefriend. That's mainly because I love Trixie that much. I alos loved how this playe out, showing the scene of Luna's battle from different perspectives.

[N Harmonik]

I wonder how a pony is more powerful than a locomotive?

[heavens-champion]

Poor Starlight. Do you think she can be free?
As for Celestia... well, things are about to get hot.