Voyages of the Lightbringer: Episode 2: The Deity of Azure

by Admiral Wyatt Stone

Captured

"Captain's Star Log; Equus Date: 2/29/2274: We've finished having our shore leave at the planet of Risa and are departing the system on our first mission. After a recent temporal incident involving the I.S.S. Discovery, Admiral Quinn wishes for us to examine the psionic patterns and properties of the planet Pahvo. We are to find out how these crystals react and behave around certain subjects and entities and determine the level of risk this planet poses should it end up captured by an enemy force."

Pahvo System, Planet Surface|

I tapped my Pipbuck as I began scanning another one of the large crystals that sat on the ground, Velvet and Calamity trotting to two other ones as they made their own scans. A short time after we had departed from Risa, Admiral Quinn at Earth Spacedock contacted us for a job he wanted us for. Shortly before I became a new agent, the U.S.S. Stratus was sent into the Pahvo system to check for a disturbance there. From their report, the problem was the I.S.S. Discovery, which was brought into our time by a temporal anomaly, along with a load of Klingon warships. After a skirmish between the three sides, the Discovery was sent back to it's own time by the Stratus, the former's captain, Silvia Tilly, having disappeared to a random place in the galaxy via a beam generated by the crystal spire on the surface. The report also said that they were trying to turn Pahvo into a superweapon of sorts, one that could threaten the entire galaxy if left unchecked.

Admiral Quinn believes that the system could be vulnerable to many other dangers besides Captain Tilly and her allies, and asked if we would be willing to stop by the planet and go on a research mission. Wanting to finally get back on our feet after our break, we agreed and set course for the system. Fortunately for us, there were no other ships in the area, allowing us to get started without incident. Along with myself, our purple alicorn, Velvet, and Calamity beamed down to begin our mission, arriving right next to the Pahvan crystal spire in the center of the old Vulcan research area from the Stratus' mission.

As my scan concluded on my Pipbuck, Velvet trotted up to me, a single crystal held in her magic as she spoke. "This is intriguing, my scans show that there is a high trace of psionic energy within these crystals. I think we should take a larger sample back to the ship with us for further study."

"Good idea." I replied as Calamity flew in the air, the two of us looking to see what the problem was. Velvet and I jumped a little as well as we saw a strange being made of blue energy, it had two white eyes on what I assumed was the head of the entity.

"Don't shoot it, Calamity." The tall purple mare ordered my friend, the pegasus hovering back a little as the alicorn trotted up to it, the native lifeform of Pavho merely watching.

"What is it?" Velvet asked as I turned to face her.

"It's a Pahvan, they're the resident species of this place. From what I've heard, the crystals have a heavy influence on them." Velvet nodded in understanding as we turned back to face our friend, the mare holding a hoof up to the large blue alien.

The alicorn closed her eyes as she held her hoof to the creature, Calamity raising an eyebrow as I asked, "What's it saying?" The Pahvans communicated via telepathy, I heard from Captain Na'Zev before we set out on our mission. Our friend was more than capable of understanding them this way, as she had been a part of a large collective group of minds years before.

"They... They are permitting us use of that large crystal over there." The tall mare said as she moved her hoof in the direction of a large patch of crystals to our right. There were several smaller ones around it as well, but the one in the center stuck out like a sore thumb.

Velvet smiled at her friend's answer as she replied to the creature. "Thank you, with your help, we can prevent another tragedy like the incident from several weeks ago."

The creature stood before us, unfazed by us as the alicorn put her hoof down, the Pahvan fading away as Calamity flew to the directed patch of crystals nearby.

"She said the large one, right?" Velvet nodded as Calamity began pulling the large crystal from it's spot, finally breaking off after a few tugs.

As Velvet put her tricorder back into her saddlebags, Calamity flew over with the large crystal, setting it down in front of the four of us as I tapped my combadge. "Littlepip to Lightbringer, we've acquired enough data down here and are bringing a sample back to the ship for study. How's it going up there?"

"We've picked up no hostile signatures nearby, we're ready to beam you all up on your word." The voice of the blue alicorn said back to me as I looked to my friends, all of them nodding in confirmation before I replied.

"Energize." As I said that, the purple alicorn picked up the large crystal in her magic, fields of blue energy surrounding us a moment later. As the fields surrounded us completely, the sight of Pahvo vanished from view, the Lightbringer's transporter room appearing seconds later.

I stepped off of the green and gold transporter pad, the pegasus mare managing the console smiling as she asked, "I hope there were no issues during transport?"

I nodded in response, looking back to my friends as they joined me. "Velvet and I will take the crystal to the research lab, we shall analyze it after we've looked at our data from the scans." The officer nodded to the alicorn as we all made our way out the door, entering the hallway that led to the ship's bridge.

(||||||)

I sat in my command chair as I took a sip of my bottle of Sparkle Cola, my friends all operating their consoles as I stared out into the system of Pahvo. Our research had given us more than we'd hoped to find, the crystals could be manipulated by doing certain things to them, whether it'd be physical or psychological. With the right tinkering, they could be coerced into being able to fire psionic beams powerful enough to destroy entire fleets of ships that weren't prepared for such attacks. We'd also found that the crystals could affect any other beings capable of performing psychic abilities, including alicorns.

It had been a few hours since our return and the examination of the crystal, Velvet and her alicorn friend having returned with their analysis. Sitting up in my seat, I looked to Steelhooves as I asked, "What's our status, Steelhooves?"

The armored stallion looked at his console as he replied. "Our ship is at full power, shields are fully charged, and our weapons are standing by."

I smiled as I turned to Calamity, setting my drink down into a holster slot at the left side of the chair as I spoke. "Calamity, hail Admiral Quinn, I think he'll like what we've found so far."

"Ya got it, should only take a s-" My friend stopped as he looked at his now beeping console, the stallion giving a worried expression as he turned to speak to me. "Pip, Ah'm detectin' several Tholian vessels on an intercept course!"

"Red Alert! Shields up, ready weapons!" I ordered as the ship's klaxons sounded throughout the bridge, the room's upper lights glowing with a faint pink tint as we readied ourselves for a fight.

As I looked to the viewscreen, I saw the Tholian ships drop out of warp in front of us, three Mesh Weavers and a Recluse. The small Weavers were based on the more iconic design of Tholian ships, a similar appearance to the Widow fighter, only bigger and with slightly different fins on the end.

The Recluse was a much larger design, it had three pointy arms that extended out of the main section of the ship, tips of blue boasting off of the hull.

The ships sped towards us, blue tetryon beams shooting out at us as Calamity tapped his console. The Lightbringer returned fire with three pink beams of magical energy, all of them missing as the attacking Mesh Weavers flew around us.

"What? Why are they all flyin' past us?!" Calamity exclaimed as I looked to Xenith.

"Aft viewer!" The zebra nodded as she tapped her console, the holo screen appearing to show a view of the ship's engines. The three Tholian frigates fired blue beams of energy at the Lightbringer's shields, which flickered out in mere seconds.

"Our aft shield is down!" Velvet said as I saw one of the Mesh Weavers fire a spray of torpedoes at the engines, which exploded with fire and plasma as they were hit.

"Engines are disabled, we're dead in the water, Pip!" Calamity cried out as I saw the Recluse fire a shield-draining beam of its own, the shields flickering as they started to fail.

"Grab the Mesh Weavers in a tractor beam, hit 'em with a spread of torpedoes!" I said as Calamity and Velvet worked at their consoles, two of the enemy frigates being caught in tractor beams a few seconds later. Two volleys of green Balefire torpedoes flew away from the Lightbringer and struck the two Tholian ships, both of them exploding in balls of orange fire not a moment later.

"Good shot, Calamity!" I praised as the Recluse fired several more tetryon beams at us, our forward shield flickering out after five hits.

"Forward shields failing! I'm reading transporter signatures!" Velvet said fearfully as six blue transporter beams phased in, Tholian soldiers appearing in their place. We didn't even have time to react as they all fired a bolt of energy at each of us, my friends and I yelping in pain as we fell to the floor.

I felt paralyzed on the ground as the Tholian boarding party took positions at our consoles, one of them picking me up my the neck as he ordered, "ORDER YOUR CREW TO STAND DOWN, OR WE WILL KILL THEM."

I tapped the comms panel on my chair before speaking, gasping for air as the Tholian held his tight grip on me. "Ach-Attention all decks, this is the Captain, stand down and r-relieve yourselves of your weapons!"

As the Tholian held me, he put a ring around my horn, one of the other officers checking one of the consoles as he spoke to the commander holding me. "ALL DECKS HAVE REPORTED THEIR COMPLIANCE, SIR."

"GOOD, DISABLE THE TURBOLIFTS AND RESTRAIN OUR CAPTIVES." The armored spiders nodded as they performed their tasks, the lights above the turbolift doors turning a blood red color to signify they could not be used.

"Why are you doing this?!" Velvet said as she and her alicorn friends were brought to their hooves, similar rings to the one on my horn being placed on all of theirs.

"Yeah, why didn't ya kill us already?!" Calamity growled as he was picked up and made to stand on his hooves by one of the soldiers.

"YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUIRED BY OUR LEADER. WE WILL BE TAKING YOUR SHIP TO THE AZURE NEBULA, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RESIST WHILE WE DO SO." As he finished, the Tholian commander released me from his claw, myself coughing several times before being picked up and escorted by another guard. I joined my friends in a group as we were all huddled to the back of the bridge, the commander taking position in front of my chair as he ordered, "T'SKANG, TAKE THE LIGHTBRINGER IN TOW AND SET COURSE FOR THE AZURE SECTOR, MAXIMUM SPEED. INFORM OUR LEADER THAT WE HAVE HER GUESTS IN CUSTODY."

The Recluse class warship caught the Lightbringer in a tractor beam at his words, both of our ships turning away from Pahvo before going to warp, the view changing to show several stars flying past our ships.

I looked to my friends as we stood together at the back of the bridge, Calamity gritting his teeth angrily at the Tholians as Velvet spoke to me. "What do you think they want with us?"

I shook my head as I replied. "I don't know, but I don't think it involves that gun we found back on Risa a few days ago." We all then turned to face the window, the stars passing the T'skang and the Lightbringer as we flew at warp to the Azure Nebula.

||||||

We had arrived into the Azure Nebula in less than half an hour, our three ships taking position over a large asteroid. The asteroid was converted into a base by the Tholians, the only noticeable detail was the large docking port for captured ships.

Shortly after taking position around the large asteroid base, we beamed down with our Tholian guards, three of them in front of us and three behind us as we trotted. Velvet's alicorns surrounded her defensively while the rest of us stayed in line behind them, Steelhooves looking to one of the spider-like escorts as he asked, "We want to know, what have we done that has attracted the Assembly's atten-"

The Applejack's Ranger was cut off as the mechanical voice of the Tholian replied back. "WE DO NOT SPEAK FOR THE ASSEMBLY, WE ARE AN... INDEPENDENT GROUP ACTING ON OUR OWN GOALS."

"I see." Steelhooves replied with surprise as we all made our way through the hallway, which ended at an open doorway that led into a large room. When we entered, we all stood in shock at what we saw, the room looked as big as a colosseum, except instead of rows upon rows of seats, there was just metal that went all the way to the ceiling high above us. In the middle of the room was a large cylindrical structure, the top of which emitted a familiar green glow. Around the large structure were several more Tholians and... alicorns?

I raised an eyebrow when I saw them, the trio of sisters in front of us gasping as they witnessed the sight. The alicorns in the room all turned to us simultaneously, looking at us as we entered the room. Like when we entered Maripony for the first time, it was fucking creepy, even more so with the fact that they looked malicious this time.

As we stopped in front of the Tholian commander, the spider in armor spoke to the large structure in front of us. "WE HAVE ARRIVED WITH THE PRISONERS YOU REQUESTED, YOUR MAJESTY."

I shivered with fear as I heard a familiar, distorted laugh come from the structure, a cloud of smoke rising up from it as we all watched. The cloud shifted and floated around in the air until it took the form of a familiar unicorn pony, fireworks shooting out as it took it's final form.

My friends and I all gasped with fear as we heard the Trixie abomination speak, it's voice reverberating around the room. {{WELCOME TO THE NEW HOME OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL GODDESS, MY DEAREST GUESTS!}}