> Adventures Across Space
>  by zalla661
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Birth of Tomorrow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


In times of great peril, we tend to think of ourselves. How will this affect me? What will I lose because of this? What do I gain from this? My fellow citizens, I ask you not to think of just yourselves. In these times of great peril we mustn't stand together, as one unified nation, country, or state. No, WE must stand together as a WORLD! When I went under the banner of Nightmare Moon, I commanded legions of bat ponies and fey ponies. We came to understand that only together could we accomplish our goals. Only together would we survive! Now we stand on the threshold where the nations of our world will stand together, war and poverty will be a thing of the past!  Ponies, dragons, griffons, fey ponies, and the changelings, I ask you to join me and my sister in unifying our nations as one! Let's reach across the stars and into the infinite together and create a new world for us all to live together in peace, and harmony!
Luna, founding of the Equestrian National Federation August 12, 2045.

I remember reading about this speech back in grade school. It was a time when Princess Celestia and Luna united all the major races of our world together under a common banner. It was a monumental task, and one worth fighting for. The centuries prior to this conference were full of blood and death. The Griffon Kingdom assured its dominance over the western part of the world, while Equestria controlled the eastern part of the world. Dragons roamed the world as they saw fit, for none would challenge the dragons. Skirmishes between the griffons and Equestria were common, Luna and her Night Guard stood fast against any foreign threats. 

On the other hoof, Luna's Lunar Legion sought out high ranking officials and eliminated them before having a chance to act against her and her sister.Thankfully the Lunar Legion was rarely called upon; otherwise, the conference might have gone very differently.

At the time the changelings were all but myth and legends until one day about 20 years prior on January 2, 2025, when a group of changeling royals came to Equestria seeking refuge from a dragon that destroyed their home in the Badlands. Wary of the new creatures Celestia welcomed the new delegates with open arms. By this time the fighting had dwindled both Equestria and the Griffon Kingdoms forces, and neither wanted to continue to fight.

Rumors of peace talks were whispered across the nations. It's largely debate on where it started, but it's said to have started in the Griffon Kingdoms and spread to Zebracon land of the zebras, past the badlands, and then to Equestria. Using this rumor to their advantage the Royal Sisters and the newly formed Changeling Empire, under the watchful eye of the Royal Sisters, decided it would behoove them to set a grand conferences of nations. And so all the great races of the world gathered: ponies, changelings, griffons, fey ponies, bat ponies, buffalo, sea ponies, zebras, even the breezies were present. In the end a treaty was signed by all who ere present at the conference. Many feared the changelings and voiced this opinion, but all were silenced by Luna who defended the changelings without hesitation.


Not long after around midsummer of 2048, Luna and a few of the worlds leading scientists launched a occupied probe into space. Its mission to lay a stone obelisk made of obsidian on the moons surface. Inside were LT Commander Gusty a pegasus mare, 2 of 3 aka Clicker a changeling, and my ancestor Lunar Legionnaire Misty Lulamoon.

Together they were launched into space from a base in the southern part of the Badlands. Thirty-six hours later they touched down on the surface of the moon. Together they three brave representatives of our world placed the Obelisk down. As they did, Misty Lulamoon radioed back to based and announced, "Lunar Module One to Equis, we're down and package has been delivered I repeat Equis package delivered." That was the start of a new age for our world. For one thing, no one said, 'our world' when referring to the planet we lived on after that. In fact the term Equis went global within a year everyone started calling the planet Equis.

World spread like wildfire across the globe, while the event was televised, talk of Lunar Module Ones mission lasted for months. Luna was always ambitious yet no one ever thought she was serious about "reaching to the stars". Once again the Griffons, not wanting to be outdone by the ponies of Equestria especially changelings, began to build space rockets sending satellites to space. On Sept 12, 2065 the griffons had completed the first orbital space station designated Station Griffon-1 or Station G-1, officaly this lead to the Great Space Race.
Over the next century Equis had vastly changed from a world of late industrial development to a futuristic utopia. Massive cities began to populate the world, towers of glass and steel towered over the clouds.Mountains, even Cloudsdale was shadowed by these massive structures housing thousands of residents at a time. Chariots were replaced by solar powered and self-propelled chariots called, cars. The education system was completely redone, medicine was revolutionized, and raw materials could be produced off world while not taking the limited remaining resources of Equis, most of which come from a planet called Jansis. Airships became the common to most income groups, and the moon now had a completely self-sustained colony of 2 million plus, and Equis had an organized fleet of 30 starships. 

These starships were really glorified cargo haulers very crudely designed and no combat capability whatsoever.  It didn't change the fact that each captain and crew was proud to be part of the Equis Fleet, even if all they did was haul cargo. The ships were cylindrical in shape, massive twin eingines adorned the aft end of each ship and the command bridge was in the smack front of the ship dead center. They weren't fast, in fact they would take months to bring materials back to Equis, that is until the Horizon Drive was invented.

In the year 2099 a zebra and changeling duo created the Horizon Drive. Their names were Zafran Conran and Echo. This new drive when installed on a starship created a stable energy field that allowed ships reach past the speed of light without destroying themselves. The first ship to test the new engine was dubbed, Event Horizon. On October 25, 2102, the Event Horizon took its maiden voyage from Equis to Jansis in a series of trials. three times they activated the Horizon Drive, and three times they succeeded without a hitch. The Horizon Drive was a success. 

By the end of 2120 every ship in the Equis Fleet had the new drive and materials and travel became routine. Colonies were established all over the "Equis System", 50 colonies over 4 planets and nine moon, and the Event Horizon and her crew were deemed heroes along with Zafran and Echo. However, when the Event Horizon was testing a new improved H-Drive, they never reached their destination. It had vanished without a trace. A search was made to find out what happened the the ship and her crew. After three months of searching for the Event Horizon, Equis Fleet Command called off the search claiming the ship and crew destroyed during testing. 

Unfortunately, there was no mourning the lost of the Horizon or her crew. On Sept 22, 2121 a hostile species was encountered at Jansis 4 Colony. A single ship attacked and nearly destroyed the colony, crashing into the main reactor killing almost everyone there. No remains of the alien ship or crew was recovered. With no answers to this tragedy the rulers of Equis called an emergency meeting to determine how to deal with future threats from hostile species. While they had a fleet of over 150 starships none were combat capable and virtually no armor for defense. It was determined that a fleet of warships would most likely be needed to protect transports. New ships were build to compliment the cargo fleet, effectively separating into two groups, the War Fleet and the Logistics Fleet. While the Logistics Fleet focused on maintaining cargo and transporting it, the War Fleet was built for the sole purpose of combat. Their ships were smaller but they were fast and heavily armed, thus securing all the main routes for the Logistics Fleet to safety transport cargo without fear.

January 5, 2133 was the day a race of aliens came to visit Equis claiming to be friendly, we were extremely distrusting, yet our leaders welcomed the new comers of course escorted by a fleet of warships. The aliens called themselves the Thrane of a world called Atun. Thanks to the magic of the unicorns and alicon sisters the language barrier was nullified. They were pony like in a physical sense resembling bat ponies without wings their eyes narrow and the irises were slit. their ears were longer and fluffy and instead of a mane or tale they had long gossamer looking fins like a beta fish would have, and they were always had white fur. They were a peaceful race with powerful ships, they came chasing a fugitive in one of their transports. It was later determined that the crashed ship on Jansis was the fugitive trying to escape the Thrane. Convinced of their sincerity Equis and Atun joined together as allies. 

Over the next few years the Thrane helped us to improve not only our ships but our, medicine, industry, mining became less wasteful. Our solar technology was improved, and living conditions only got better at home and the colonies. And in that time, the Equestrian Space Academy and Officer Academy gained a boost in enrollment , the likes of which hadn't been seen since the inventing of the horizon drive. Thousands herded to the Academy looking to the future. It is here in the class of 2154 where I was graduating at the top of my class in the Officers Academy, ready to take command of my own ship.

I am Trixie Lulamoon, and this is my story.
> Night Run
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equis Officer Academy
June 10, 2154

Within the confines of the Academy, a lone mare walked down its sterile halls under the cover of darkness. She had a silver mane and wore a azure cloak to match her coat. The halls were practically bare they held no grand spires of stain glass windows depicting of heroes, even depictions of  Zafran Coran and Echo didn't don the halls. No, they were simple marble floors and steel walls colored similarly to the floor and every so often when a corner would emerge, they were outlined by a dark grey columns to help them show.

This hall; however, was different it housed one of the Academies greatest treasures the Lunar One Module.  The lone mare continued down a long hallway with no adjacent corridors looking for the Odyssey Hall where the greatest collection of space ships were collected and preserved, including the Lunar One Module.  She walked for ten minutes before she reached  Odyssey Hall. Two large doors, easily over twenty feet tall, blocked her path. After school hours the hall was closed to all but the security staff and the lone mare had to be careful, wandering the halls after hours could lead to disciplinary action against students, but breaking into them was cause for expulsion. Carefully she inspected the door noticing a ID lock to the side of the double doors leading inside. from inside her cloak the mare pulled out a small black PDA. Connected was a single wire and a transparent filament which she stuck to the ID scanner. Quickly she began to override the lock creating a temporary proxy account from a security guard she knew. it took her over a minute to finish but it'd be worth the wait.



	
/// Override complete ///

Begin ID scan? Y/N...

Y Beep... Processing... Override in progress.

The mare took a quick glance around making sure no pony was around. Satisfied in her solitude she typed Y and pressed begin. The PDA flashed green as a status bar appeared.




0%...12%...24%... The mare glanced over her shoulder, nothing, back to the PDA.

31%...51%...71%... She looked back and once again only darkness and silence save for the PDA.

89%...97%...100%... Beep...Welcome Trixie XD.







She couldn't help but grin at the message she loved it when she got to hear her name, even if it was read from a PDA. She removed the filament from the ID scanner and removed the wire from the pad placing them back in her cloak. As she did  a short double clicking could be heard as the doors slowly opened inward revealing a museum of space history.

Once inside Trixie tapped the ID scanner, now that she had access for the next hour, she closed the doors behind her. She immediately began to search for the Lunar One Module. She walked past the main entrance and glanced over to the tour guide desk. Deciding not to chance it she grabbed a map of the museum opening it she looked for the room which had Lunar One. Apparently it was moved recently to the farthest end of the museum in a special room now dedicated to the Lunar Landing.

First was the Horizon Drive exhibits, the NX-13/14a displays, and finally after the ion engines was the Lunar One Module. 
"Easy." she said grinning to herself.

Trixie walked to the west wing heading for the H Drive exhibit. Once inside she found a cornucopia of different drives some that she knew and a few experimental ones that never made it past the prototype stage. These drive were huge compared to her and ranged from being 30 to over 60 feet in length. Some of them were simple cylindrical pods with others running at length with the rest. Others were Hexagonal and one was shape like a tube with small rings around the ends and mid sections leaving areas without rings. Trixie recognized that drive, it was the new H-Drive invented for the new NX-20 Class starship she hoped would be hers to command. As she continued down through the exhibit she began to wonder about her choice to become an officer. 

Originally she wanted to be an engineer she scored high on the aptitude test, and her knowledge of H-Drives and starship systems was second to none. She could have become any kind of engineer she wanted. It was her childhood dream to become one since she got her cutie mark. She always wanted to be a engineer yet something changed as the years rolled by. When she turned sixteen she applied to the Equis Star Academy and after three years, no one knows why, she quickly transferred to the Officers Academy completely throwing away any hopes of becoming an engineer. No one expected this especially her friends and family. 

Many of her closest friends transferred to the Officers Academy with her including her marefriend Spitfire. Among Trixie's friends were the ever obsessed human fan Lyra who believed humans existed somewhere in the universe. Then there was Octavia Von Clef earth pony, refined tastes, and inspirational speaker, and a total Filly Scout when it came to the rules. Unlike Octavia Lyra wasn't against breaking the rules, in fact, it was Lyra who gave the security codes to Trixie earlier in the day  to enter the museum. And last was Spitfire. Spitfire was a pegasus, she was brash, cold, commanding, and trained to become a MARE Marine commander. Each joined the Officers Academy for their own reasons, in fact each one was planning on telling the others they had intended to transfer at the end of the coming semester. Trixie's quick decision to transfer early prompted them to follow suit after the semester was over.

Trixie was glad each decided to come with her. She never considered the fact she was going to leave them behind at the time. Now when she thought about  it seemed so selfish. She could have lost her friends had they not been planning to transfer in the first place. She knew she lucked out on this one. Since then she made an effort to never separate from them again.

Walking down the halls to the next exhibit Trixie's trail of thought ended when she encountered an unexpected obstacle. In front of her was another security door one she wasn't expecting. She cursed herself for not researching into this before her little venture. Pulling out her PDA and reconnecting the ID scanner she placed the filament on the scanner.

"Well, time to improvise. Thank you Lyra for the wonderful gift." she said to no one in particular. With a heavy sigh she began the override.





Begin override? Y/N

Y...Processing command...Command override in progress. Beep
.




A small status bar appeared once again Trixie began tapping her hoof impatiently. Occasionally she'd peek around to make sure no guards were around as she continued hacking. 

"I'm so dead if I get caught. I won't be able to weasel my way out of this one." she said looking over her shoulder. The tapping became faster her patience wearing thin.

Beep.



///Message Incoming ///
Override successful...Welcome Trixie XD. Beep message received from Octachello.

Sent to GPTrixie. June 10, 2154 2301

Trixie it's me Octavia. I have been silent but I won't' stand idly by while you jeopardize your chances at becoming an officer. You need to stop while you can. If you get caught there's no guarantee you'll get off easy as you have in the past. Please if not for yourself then do it for Lyra. If you're caught the PDA will be traced back to her and she'll suffer along with you. I will never forgive you if she's hurt because you couldn't let it go.

End message.

Reply? Y/N 

Y Processing...

Reply to Octachello on June 10, 2154 2302

I won't get caught.

Beep... Message sent.




"Well now that that's out of the way," she placed the PDA back in her cloak, "time to finish what I started." she opened the door to the next room.

When Trixie entered the next room she was greeted by a Massive scale model of the NX-13/14a Typhoon starship. It wasn't terribly impressive looking but it was the first frigate class warship. In essence Logistic Fleet ships were designated as MX category when named, and warships were designated NX. The Typhoon was the fastest warship of its time and still to this day remains the backbone of the Equis War Fleet. As she walked down the hall she obsereved several other ships in display cases and a few more scale models hanging from the ceiling. One in particular stood out the NX-20 Thunderchild. The Thunderchild was the first cruiser ever built, and is hoped to be the new front-line warship of the fleet.

As Trixie walked past its display she noted how different the ship looked from others she'd seen. Unlike the traditional rectilinear design in most ships this one was shaped like a combat knife from the side view. a closer inspection revealed a second identical hull connected in the rear by a two sided fin-shaped hull piece that was perpendicular to the rest of the frame, with two large engines directly behind them.
The ship was impressively designed she thought. In truth, she never really liked how starships looked. The NX-20 was by far the most aesthetically pleasing ship she'd seen, from her point of view. Another major difference was the weapons. Instead of traditional canon-like structures protruding from the hull the designers replaced them with weapon nodes instead. This effectively will make the weapons harder to hit and easier to maintain in theory.

"Soon my friend. Soon." she said placing a hoof on the model before moving on. She really couldn't wait.

Quickly withdrawing and heading to her next destination she pulled out her PDA and prepared to face another security door. To her surprise there was no door this time only a small sign saying closed. 

"... I really hate this place right now." she mumbled. She placed the PDA back inside her cloak.

She slipped past the door now she was on a serious time crunch. It was 2344 and at 2350 is when security began reopening the museum. This barely left her enough time to finish what she came here to do and make a hasty exit. She quickly trotted past the ion engine exhibits and made way straight to the Lunar One exhibit hall. once there she took a quick glance at her watch reading, 2347.

"Damn!" she cursed beginning another override for the door. "Why did I waste so much time looking at the exhibits?!"

She knew she should have been done by now, yet she knew she wouldn't have been able to resist taking in the sites on en-route. She'd seen the exhibits so many times she could probably give the full four blindfolded. Once again she was met by a security door. She smacked her head. Of course! It couldn't be open like the last one! NOOO! It just had to be bucking locked! she mentally cursed beginning her override routine vis PDA.




Beep... Override command in progress... 17%... 22%... 44%... 61%...

Come on come on!

87%... 90%... 98%... Beep! Welcome Trixie. XD




Finally! She thought while removing the filament and the door slid open with a soft whoosh. She placed the PDA in her cloak.

Peeking inside she had found what she'd come for. Standing before her was a- no THE Lunar One Module along side full scale figures of the three crewmen. The suits were the same suit they'd worn on the moon landing all those years ago. Trixie glanced at her ancestor wondering what she was like, what it was like to be there. Luna was banished long ago by her sister Celestia and yet no one knew or even questioned her as to what being trapped on the moon was like. On? In? It bothered Trixie to no end this question and not knowing the answer.

She walked over to her ancestor retrieving her PDA once again and took a series of photos including one of herself with the figure of Misty Lulamoon. "Finally!" she growled placing the PDA back in her cloak. I really need to find a way to keep this on my arm or something taking it in and out is so tedious.

"Well I got what I came for. Guess it's time to make my exit." she glances to her watch 2351. DAMN! She began to run through the halls making a hasty exit.

Not wanting to get caught she left the Lunar One exhibit and ran past the ion engines no door here, past the starship exhibit closed the door, and to the main exit closed the door.

No security? WOW! I really lucked out this time! she thought to herself. I need to thank Lyra for this. with that she trotted quickly down the halls back to her dorm where she'd finally make use of her prize which could have cost her academic career.
> The Letter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 11, 2154
0600 Equis Officer Academy

Time. Time was always an issue for Trixie as it was something she always seemed to lack. She was once again reminded of this when a loud beeping started going off.  BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Argh I hate mornings! she thought. Smacking down on the annoying alarm clock. She laid back staring at the ceiling for sometime before reomving the sheets and heading to the bathroom.

Her dorm room was very spartan she had a simple bed with grey sheets and covers. She had a single nightstand along with a architects desk which was littered with books and PDAs. The walls were gray and covered with posters of the Wonderbolts/Shadowbolts, starship designs, and a poster of the NX-20. 

After her 'night raid', as she liked to call it, she made her way to the dorms to use the photos she collected to make it part of her presentation that was due in the morning. The presentation was a family history report which needed photos to receive top marks. While Trixie could have taken them from her family archive her laziness got the better of her.

She had plenty of time to finish, yet when the time came to start collecting photos she went out the previous night to party with Spitfire. Needless to say that night went by fast and both could hardly remember what happened. The following day both got sent to the Academy Deans office. Spitfire got off easy as it was her first offense while Trixie got an earful and the promise that one more slipup would lead to expulsion from the academy.

After her meeting at the Dean's Office she spent the next two days with Spitfire and completely forgot her project.

This lead to her overnight skirmish into the museum to gain photos of the one exhibit to which she had no family documentation ironically. She often wondered why her family never documented the event. Every time she asked she was met with resistance to outright denial of the event. In fact many members of the family deny relations to Misty. I wonder why this is? 

As the thought ran through her mind, Trixie reached the bathroom and began her morning routine. Hair brushed: Check, teeth brushed: Check, shower: Check, uniform: unchecked. She looked in the mirror checking her eyes making sure she was presentable. There was a dark underlining under her eyes from a lack of sleep from the previous night but there wasn't anything she could do about that. Satisfied she prepared her uniform for the day.

Heading to the main room she approached her uniform which hung on the door next to the NX-20 poster. The uniform was a one-piece top black with white shoulders. She had two bars on her collar and a universal translator/comm. unit on the chest. On the floor beside the door lay four black boots to be worn with the uniform. 

After a minute she donned her uniform and walked over to her desk. She reached underneath to get her UNK storage pack, a small black egg shaped backpack for universal storage, and placed it on her back. A short click let her know it was in place and she reach for her PDA.

She glanced around the room once her bed was unmade, papers all over the floor with PDAs, and socks so many socks. I should really return those to Spitfire sometime. With the thought of her marefriend in socks she felt a warm sensation in her checks placing her PDA in her UNK and heading off to class.








As Trixie made her way down the halls ponies and non-ponies were up and about going to classes or just wandering about the halls. Passing by the museum she saw a group of children heading into it and decided to see the tour. Classes don't start until later, I have time.

As she walked towards the entrance the admission pony recognized her uniform allowing her to pass, students get to enter the museum for free. Spotting the children she tried to see the teacher leading the group but found none. After two minutes a maroon mare with a pink mane approached the group calling for their attention. 

"Students can I have your attention please?!" she yelled not loud, but enough for everyone to hear her. 

As though trained from birth all the students at ant attention in front of their teacher. Her cutie mark was three sunflowers with smiley faces on them arranged in a triangular formation. Trixie then looked over the class, most of them were earth ponies, a few pegasi, two unicorns, and six changelings. She thought it was adorable how they sat at attention listening to their teacher obediently. 

The mare walked up to them. "Okay class, today we'll be learning about the Lunar One landing! Now who can tell me the names of the individuals that partook in the landing?" she asked glancing among the students. Immediately three hooves went in the air.

"Yes Silver Spoon?" the mare asked pointing to a small grey filly.  Trixie took note of the filly's cutie mark a silver spoon? Seems familiar. Wonder why? She thought observing the young filly.

"The ponies involved in the Lunar One Landing were Lt. Commander Gusty, Clicker, and Misty Lulamoon Miss Cheerliee." Silver Spoon responded smiling.

Cheerliee smiled at her student sitting down in front of her. "While you are correct Silver Spoon, you should say, 'the ones involved' as 2 of 3 or Clicker as she was known was a changeling.." She was cut off by a small black hoof with a hole in it rose from the crowd. 

"Yes 1 of 6?" she asked pointing to the little hoof as a changeling approached her.

The changeling was small for his age, he wore a red ball cap with the Wonderbolt insignia on it and had matching saddlebags. Sitting in front of the group he asked, "Miss Cheerliee, why do ponies emphasize the need for individuality and species?"

"Well 1 of 6, it's simply how most beings live. You see, and I speak only for ponies in this case, we emphasize individuality and hold it to a high standard." she started. Glancing around she tried to come up with a more definitive answer to the younglings query. 

Tapping her hoof on the ground a thought hit her as she watched a blue mare observing her class in an academy uniform.	
"It's about standing out my students. You see ponies wish to be different from others as much as possible. While not true for all, generally we seek to be different from others while still fitting into groups like you and the other younglings. Take that blue mare for example." she said pointing at Trixie who raised an eyebrow.

"She's wearing a uniform of the Officers Academy yet the color of her uniform shows she's a top student and the two golden bars on her neck signify her rank among the students in the Academy, thus separating her from her peers, much like having a name." Cheerliee beamed with excitement with her statement.

The youngling seemed more confused by this tilting his head to the side and scrunching his face. Before he could ask for clarification the tour guide appeared leading the gorup inside the museum while the silver filly remained. Looking at Trixie she smiled and ran to her hugging her.

Trixie smiled back and stroked the fillies mane hugging her back. "You've grown so much since I last saw you Silver Spoon." she spoke softly.

"I know! It's been like a year since I've seen you Trixie!" 

Releasing Trixie she began to hop around Trixie.

Silver Spoon bombarded her with questions. "So are you going to be an officer Trixie? Will you get your own ship? OH! OH! Can I be your first mate?" her line of questions halted as Trixie grabbed the bouncing filly with her magic halfway through a hop. She then brought Silver Spoon towards her setting her on the floor.

Bless the fillies little heart, but she can really shoot that mouth off non-stop. She hated thinking of Silver Spoon like this, but it was the truth.

"Sorry Silverdrop, but you know there's no such thing as 'first mate' anymore its first officer. And you'd have to come to the Academy to be an officer." she glared at her. Silver Spoon hung her head low with a frown, it bothered her that Trixie seem to lack tact among other things. She could appreciate the honesty behind her words though. That and she loved her nickname.

Seeing that her teasing worked Trixie smiled lifting up her head so to see Silver's eyes. "But you can apply to the Academy in about, what four years?" she asked, "gosh almost eighteen already aren't you? Growing up so fast." she said grinning.

Silver Spoon grinned back swatting her hoof away. "Yeah, soon I'll be as old as you. OLD lady." she emphasized old greatly on borderline sarcasm.

Trixie gave her an unamused stare as Silver Spoon heard her name be called. "SILVER SPOON! WHERE ARE YOU?!" screamed Cheerliee as she came back to the from the main doors. Seeing Silver Spoon with a strange mare her teacher instincts kicked in. Stepping between Silver Spoon and Trixie she glared at Trixie while holding Silver Spoon like a mother protecting her child.

"Who are YOU and what are you doing with MY student?!" she yelled at the blue mare. Everything came to a screeching halt, no one moved and not a sound was made except for the monitors which displayed the news. Apparently terrorists attacked the subway again. No surprise there racism is still strong. Trixie wondered what they wanted in a subway though most terrorists targeted high ranking officals not civilians. 

Observing Cheerliee holding Silver Spoon she thought of how her life would have changed if Silver Spoon wasn't there. She wondered if Silver Spoon felt as safe with her as she did in Cheerliee's. The thought angered her bringing her blood to a boil she glared back at Cheerliee Silver Spoon shivering. 

As the two stared each other down a pair of mare security ponies and a griffoness approached the scene. Each was wearing standard armor which consisted of a red uniform shirt with golden colored armor plates and a badge.

The griffoness approached Trixie. "Miss Lulamoon the Dean requires your presence in his office at once." she said. Trixie nodded as Cheerliee walked to the rest of her class scolding Silver Spoon along the way.








Trixie was escorted to the Dean's office at the top of one of the Academies many spires. The Dean loved height said it reminded her of home. She, along with the security guards, were in a elevator heading to the Dean's office. Once there the doors slid open to the side and the griffoness entered followed by Trixie and the guards mares.

The room was a massive collection of book cases easily over 16 meters high. Trixie saw all the books were arranged based on genre and timeline. all the walls were covered with books or shelves for books, the floor was white marble and the ceiling had a few light nodes otherwise the room was relatively unimpressive. At the end of the room was a massive window overseeing the academy. in front was a large wooden desk with several books around it and piles of data pads. At the head was a pink Pegasus mare with a milk white pink mane tapping away vigorously at one of the pads. Her eyes were blue and she wore slime pink glasses along with a pink band on her shoulder. she wore a white collar with a pink bow tie. 

Trixie hated looking at the Dean. It wasn't that she hated her or found her unattractive, in fact she founder her to be extremely attractive, but she really hated pink which was the Deans favorite color. It was a fact that made Spitfire jealous at times.

As they approached the Dean looked you hearing the sound of hooves on the marble. Seeing Trixie she sighed removing her spectacles and rubbed the ridge of her nose. She then made eye contact with the griffoness. "Thank you Goldenwing you and the others may go." she waved a hoof to them.

Nodding the griffoness and the security mares left without a word. once the elevator closed Trixie sat in the chair opposite of the Dean. Boy she looks mad about something. Trixie thought this might have to do with the previous night but waited patiently.

"Welcome Miss Lulamoon. AGAIN I might add." she said putting both hooves together placing them on the desk. She looked stoic very unusual for her Trixie thought. Something must have happened.

"Look Admiral, whatever it was I'm being accused of it wasn't me this time. I was in my dorm preparing my report to early morning and my friends-" she was cut off by the Deans hoof rising.

"First of all Miss Lulamoon it's Dean Silverlining. Second this has nothing to do with you breaking into the museum last  night." 
Placing her hoof down Trixie immediately blurted out, "Well if it wasn't THAT then what am I here for?" she asked shrugging her shoulders. Silverlining's eyes narrowed causing Trixie to stutter. 

"N-not that a MODEL student such as moi would EVER do such a thing after her previous mishap! Ha ha…" she tried to hide her embarrassment but Dean Silverlining was not happy. She pulled drawer out not taking her eyes off Trixie she activated a monitor behind her displaying the news, the terrorist attack specifically. Silverlining got up from her desk and calmly approached Trixie observing her. 

"As you know last night the group known as the Equestrians for Species Segregation attacked a subway station in Manehatten killing over 2000 with several hundred still unaccounted for. The damage was extensive and recovery efforts are being hindered due to the threat of structural collapse. Now we go to Note Word for further details live at the scene."

The monitor blinked as a brown earth pony with a mic and headset appeared in a darkened tunnel presumably the subway.

"Thank you Dina, and what a catastrophe it was indeed. Behind me are bodies of ponies, changelings, griffions, minotars, and even a few Thrane. She then gestured to a crew of ponies cutting away at debris. As you can see the crews are hard at work tying to dig out any survivors. From what we've seen the odds aren't favorable. 33 bodies in the last hour have been recovered but none were alive. We now- beep."

Dear Trixie Lulamoon,
We regret to inform you of the untimely passing of your parents who were killed in a terrorist bombing on June 10th, 2154. Your parents bodies are being held at Baltimare Medical Facility off Third and Mane St. Your other family members have been contacted as well and should be arriving tomorrow evening.

Scincerly, 
Baltimre Medical Chief Admin
Still Heart

The monitor disappeared as Silverlining flew over her desk and shutting down the monitor. Once done she sat back in her seat watching Trixie, who for her part looked very confused. What does this have to do with me? She thought. As if on cue Silverlining reached into her desk a took out a letter placing it on the desk it read: To Trixie B. Lulamoon. Grabbing the letter with her magic she read it twice each time looking to the Dean who nodded to her to proceed. Tearing it open she pulled out the letter and read.


For what felt like hours Trixie sat staring at the letter focusing on the word parents. It rang in her head over and over like a bell. Trixie never really got along with her parents before, but she never wanted them dead. The last time she saw them she had told them she was transferring to the Officers Academy. To say they weren't happy was an understatement, they were both furious with her. They wanted her to become an engineer but she'd decided to become an officer. To think it all started with- "Miss Lulamoon!" Trixie jumped at the sound of her name.

Silverlining was staring at her like she was waiting for a response. Not wanting things to escalate Trixie buried her tears and stood up. 

"What?!"

"I asked if everything was alright. You were silent for almost ten minutes." Silverlining gestured to the clock.

Trixie looked up to see that she had in fact been staring at the letter for some time now. She looked back to Silverlining noticing the scowl on her face Trixie immediately sat back down crossing her arms. "Was the letter all Ma'am?" she asked hastily.

Letting out a heavy sigh Silverlining leaned back in her chair waving her hoof, "Yes Trixie that's all." With that Trixie arose about-faced and proceeded to the elevator.

"Miss Lulamoon!" she stopped looking over her shoulder waiting for the elevator. "You don't have to deal with it alone. Talk to your friends family, someone. I promise it'll make things easier for you." Silverlining said with a small but noticeable smile. 

Trixie knew that look. She knew Silverlining well from all her visits here, she knew what the contents of the letter were. Ding! Without a word Trixie entered the elevator and waited for the doors to close before hitting 12 on the monitor. As the elevator descended she contemplated on what to do about her family. Did she want to see them? Could she? In either case she'd deal with it tomorrow, for now, she had a report to do. A report on family ancestry.
	
> Undiscovered Country
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been five months since Trixie received notice that her parents had died. Since then she's been hard at work keeping up with her classes for the time remaining at the Academy. On November 9, 2154 she graduated at the top of her class with a Command recommendation. After a three week recovery period, Trixie partook in the Officers Initiation Ceremony where she was awarded the rank of Captain. Trixie then went to the ENQ Space Port, where she was taking a shuttle to her ship, the Hydra.

Shuttle on route Space Dock

Trixie sat in a shuttlepod looking out the view port. Stars littered her view as the sky  beck devoid of color. Darkness consumed the shuttlepod, and Trixie thought about what was coming once she was on the Hydra. She stared blankly out the viewport thinking about her parents, and how she didn't end on good terms with them. Not that she hated them, she loved them dearly, the issue was they didn't see eye to eye. The last time she saw them, she had fought with them and left without so much as a goodbye. Now, she regrets never making amends.

As she thought about her parents, the shuttlepod made a sharp right turn causing her to shift in her seat. Trixie glanced at the pilot briefly before looking out the cockpit viewport. Her heart melted as a massive vessel entered view, the NX-20, formally known as the Hydra.

It was a massive vessel compared to previous ships. It had a long hull that curved up to a point, like a small birds beak. It had two massive nacelles sticking slightly out the sides of the ship near the back, slightly bent downwards, connected to a upper module housing the H-drive aft of the ship. It was several shades of grey in a digital-like design, and had no markings on it. This struck Trixie as odd, all ships were named and tagged to identify them from the outside, so why wasn't the hydra?

Trixie never thought why the ships were ever designed to show their names on the hull, they just did and she never asked why. Now, seeing no name she thought it strange. She watched through the view port as the shuttlepod circled around the ship heading to the aft. once the shuttle reached the aft, it slowly went beneath the ship coming up to a docking port just under the command center.

The shuttle turned away from the ship, then slowly began to reverse towards the Hydra's port. The pilot, having done this hundreds of times, masterfully danced his hooves across the console directing the shuttle without so much as a word. It seemed so effortless from Trixie's perspective. A minute later the grinding of metal on metal was heard as the shuttle mated with the Hydra's port. The shuttle jolted slightly to a halt, as soft hiss was heard shortly after.

The pilot pressed a few more buttons and the console spoke, "Equalizing pressure. Please wait."

Trixie stood by the doors, grabbing her duffel bag, she couldn't wait to get on the Hydra and begin her job as Captain. She once again thought of her parents, wondering if they were watching her from… well, wherever they were. She never really thought about what came after death, but now she couldn't help but wonder what it was like to die.

"Pressure equalized." The computer stated. 

She took a deep breath and waited for the doors to open. When they did she left the shuttle without a word. She found herself in the cargo bay, ponies, griffons, and changelings,  were hard at work gathering supplies and storing them. All of them were wearing standard uniforms, black boots and colored shirt tops based on their job, and ranks/insignia's. There were Thrane here too, but none of them were a part of the crew, they were specialists who assisted in the construction of the NX-20 class.

Clunk! Clunk! Clunk! Trixie looked to her side as a loader mech walked by. It was approximately 4 meters high, bipedal design, with two arms carrying a massive container easily three times the size of the mech. The pilot was in the body of the mech with a roll cage style cockpit with several monitors projected in front of him. The arms and legs were very minimalist in design. Simple frame wires, and minimal armor cover which made it look incomplete, but it was one of the sturdiest loaders designed to date.

As the pilot walked by he noticed Trixie and side stepped simultaneously walking into another loader knocking over several containers. Trixie used her magic to prevent him and his mech from falling, allowing him to regain balance. "Thanks for the save ma'ma." he said turning to face Trixie, who simply nodded.

"ENSIIIGGN!" a familiar voice echoed through the entire bay. It was the voice of one very angry earth pony, a pony you had to work HARD to invoke even the slightest bit of agitation from, Commander Octavia.

"What in the hell was that!" she barked at him walking straight up to the mech. She then pointed to the containers which were now open with odd shaped cylinders in them. "Do you KNOW what these are ensign?" she asked.

The mech looked to the container and back to the Commander. The pilot was nervous as he noticed what he was carrying, and knocked over. "yes ma'am! they're the experimental torpedoes that use antimatter warheads ma'am!" he stated.

"Yes ensign, ANTIMATTER!" she hopped onto the mech poking the glass causing the pilot to move the mech back, Her eyes were dilated and her left eye began to twitch slightly. It was quite comical to observe. "You could have taken out not only yourself, but everyone in this bay! Along with most of the bay! Watch what you're doing next time!" Her ear twitched to the sound of laughter.

She turned about to scold whoever was laughing, before she noticed it was Trixie. She held a hoof over her mouth trying hard not to laugh even more, she wasn't very successful. 

Octavia simply stared at Trixie blushing in embarrassment from her outburst. Jumping down from the mech, Octavia adjusted her uniform, then turned to the pilot with a stoic expression. "As you were ensign!" she barked at him. He saluted then proceeded to clean up the fallen torpedoes.

Trixie approached Octavia with a huge grin. "Well, somepony is having a bad day." she jabbed at the Commander. 

"Well, it seems you're in good spirits now." Octavia responded pushing the hoof away. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd laugh again. well, since we were children I guess." Octavia gestured to the turbo lift, leading Trixie to it. 

The doors opened with a loud hiss, and both ponies entered. Octavia pressed a button on the console labeled 'bridge', causing the doors to close with another hiss, and the turbo lift began to rise. Trixie read the monitor taking note of each deck. Wow, over ten decks 12 total that's amazing! Those Thrane sure know how to make ships. she thought. 

Octavia stood at attention waiting for the lift to reach its destination. "So Trixie, or should I say, Captain?" she looked from the corner of her eye to Trixie. "How have you been since the incident? Lyra's been asking about you." she pressed a button and the lift came to a halt.

Trixie looked at her taking a deep breath. "I've been busy with graduation and final exams. The time for mourning came and went, as it always does." Trixie reached for the console pressing the same button Octavia did, and the lift continued.

"You know, you can talk to us Trixie. You don't have to take this all by yourself."

"I know what I'm doing Commander." she glared at Octavia. "I don't need anyone to help me through this. I can take care of myself."

"What about Spitfire? Lyra, Me?" this caused Trixie to pause. She looked at Octavia in confusion. "You say YOU don't need anyone, but have you considered what WE felt when you shut us out? AGAIN?" she snarled.

Trixie took a step back, feeling uncomfortable, she looked at Octavia with concern. "What do you mean, again?"

Octavia took a step closer causing Trixie to back against the wall of the lift. "You know damn well what I mean! You left us to go to the Academy! You left ME your friend!" She hissed jabbing Trixie in the chest. "We use to be best friends you and I, now … I don't know what we are anymore." she turned away from Trixie. "You may command this ship, and I'll follow your orders, but you'll have to work hard to earn back my trust Trixie."

Trixie looked down in shame. Yes, she did leave with no intention of looking back, but she hoped it wouldn't hurt her friends for her to leave. Of course, Trixie figured this out long ago, it just hurt to hear it from one of her friends. She respected Octavia, it hurt her greatly to hear her distrust her.

"I'm sorry, Octy. I really am." She grabbed hold of Octavia's shoulder. "I promise I learned my lesson, just be patient with me. I'll prove you CAN trust me again."

"I know you will." she replied. The doors to the turbolift opened revealing the bridge. It was relatively simple layout. It was a half circle with the Captains Chair in the center, five different stations positioned around the chair. At the back was the command center for mission briefing with senior staff and the turbolift left of it. The bridge was dull grey and silver colored with colorful buttons, and displays of the Hydra's system depending on the station. As they entered the bridge a pony called out, "Officers on the bridge."

It was Lyra who was standing at the communication station. All the ponies stood at attention as the Trixie and Octavia made their way onto the bridge. 

"As you were." Trixie stated, and everyone went back to work. Looking at the crew Trixie took note of each individual. Lyra was at the comm. station, she's the one who called the crew to attention, a changeling at the helm 3rd of 5, tactical was a white unicorn with a blue mane with a visor of sorts named Vinyl Scratch, the security station was empty, and the science station had a griffon, that was really odd. The griffon was working at the console not looking at what was going on around him, then he left the station and went to the security station taking a seat. I'll have to find out his role from Octavia before we leave.

Turning to Octavia she leaned over to whisper in her ear. "So, who's the griffon? What's his role on the ship?" She asked Octavia.

Octavia looked back to her whispering back. "His name is Claw, Lt. Claw. He's our Chief of Security. The best we have." she took her seat next to Trixie's. "I'll introduce you later."

"Thanks." Trixie said sitting down in her seat.

"Commander." Octavia looked to Lyra who had a headset over one ear. "The Dock Master is requesting an update on the ships status."

"Tell the Dock Master we're ready to leave space dock, and that, Captain Trixie Lulamoon has arrived and assumed Command." Octavia replied to Lyra.

Lyra nodded and sent a message to the Dock Master. A minute later Lyra spoke again. "Dock Master has granted clearance to leave space dock when ready Captain."

Trixie took a deep breath before standing up, looking around at the bridge crew she noticed the science station was empty still. She looked back to Octavia with a curious expression. "Where's our Science Officer, Commander?"

"We're to pick up our Science Officer once we leave space dock, Captain." she gestured to the empty station. "We'll be heading to rendezvous with the Haymaker at the Jansis 12 Refinement Colony, where we'll transfer Lt. Sunny Smiles to the Hydra."

"Thank you, Commander." Trixie said. She then glanced to Lyra. "Open a channel to the Dock Master." Lyra complied with the command. After a series of button pushes later she slipped her headset off. 

"Channel's open, Captain." Lyra said.

"Space Dock this is Hydra. Requesting permission to depart."

"This is Space Dock, Hydra permission to depart is granted. Good luck out there." said a male voice over the comm.

"Acknowledged, Hydra out." Trixie sat back down looking at the changeling. "3rd of 5, clear all moorings please."

The changeling complied with the command. "Aye ma'am, clear all moorings." He started to work on the console, as loud clanking noises were heard.

The docking clamps removed themselves from the Hydra's hull, slowly retracting into the dock itself.  Once complete the Hydra's engines came to life, causing a slight vibration throughout the ship.

"All moorings cleared, Captain." 3rd of 5 stated.

Trixie took a deep breath, she then pushed a button on her personal console opening a ship wide comm. "Attention crew of the Hydra, this is your Captain speaking. I wanted to say before we head out from dock that... I know it'll be tough out there. We're on a mission of peace, and exploration. We'll be far from home over the next year, going into uncharted space. There's no telling what we'll find out there, but I want all of you to know, that if we stand firm and keep a level head we can take on any challenge we face out there." she then circled the bridge continuing. "I guarantee we will run into trouble out there. And when we do, we will be prepared for it. Were the best of the best from Equis Command, so let's go out there to the undiscovered country and make history." She made her way back to her seat silencing the comm. She then looked to 3rd of 5."3rd of 5, take us out 1/4 impulse."

"Aye ma'am, 1/4 impulse." he said. As her worked the console the ship began to vibrate slightly before the dampeners kicked in, reducing the vibrations to the point of near non-existence. Then the ship began to pull out of space dock, clearing the docks cage like appendages, the Hydra made its way into open space.

"Heading, Captain?" 3rd of 5 asked.

Trixie looked to him and then the view screen. "Set course for Jansis 12 Refining Colony Ensign.  Best possible speed. Let's see what the Hydras got."

With that said, 3rd of 5 began setting coordinates to the Jansis Colonies. Once finished he input the execute command. This made the Hydra's nacelles go parallel to the main hull, a bright light enveloped the ship as the H-drive propelled the ship forward into a bright blue blur, instantly disappearing from sight to its destination. 


> Meeting the Engineer and First Encoutners
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captains log stardate November 10, 2154. We're underway to the Jansis 12 Colony. The  crew is performing better than I ever imagined. We're due to arrive within the hour. In the meantime I've taken the liberty of getting better acquainted with my crew. I'm heading to engineering where I will meet my Chief Engineer and staff.

Trixie made her way to engineering. Along the way she greeted several of the crew members she encountered. Maintenance crew, galley personnel, the chef. She really liked the chef. He made her a beautiful salad that was almost to good looking to eat. It felt like a crime to do so. But hunger and the anticipation of the chef forced her to consume the Delicious meal. Unfortunately a mustard stain got on the sleeve of her uniform. It was dark grey with black boots and pads on the shoulders. 

Afterwards she made her way to engineering without distraction. upon arriving, she discovered engineering was completely abandoned. A slight humming was emanating from the core. It was long. It ran across the floor suspended by several X shaped support beams. It was black in color and had red light pulsating along the frame from one end to the back end. The area was three decks worth. the center of engineering was the center deck then one above and one below. To Trixie, it was an oddly designed area, the Thrane love suspended areas hence the style. It was common knowledge that Equis engineers loved simple designs. While the Thrane, loved elegant complex designs.

As Trixie made her way down the main deck, she noticed a large rolled up banner near the front of the main engine. It was a bright pink in contrast to the darker grey and silver bulkheads and panels. She observed the banner. She tread closer to investigate the strange sight, when a loud shrilly voice broke the silence. 

"SURPRISE!" it said, as a pink earth pony appeared seemingly from nowhere. The azure unicorn jumped in fright unholstering her personal disruptor firing it in a random direction. Trixie suddenly found herself surrounded by the entire engineering staff who also yelled 'surprise!' startling her. Then the banner unrolled revealing text saying 'Welcome New Captain!'

The pink pony was in a gold and black uniform uniform with a utility belt around her waist with several tools. She had her communicator badge on her right shoulder and a balloon insignia below it. While everyone else hid, some daring to peek from hiding, the pink pony bounced happily in place. 

"Were you surprised!? Huh, huh, huh?" she repeated over and over again. 

It was too much. Trixie holstered her weapon and glared at the pony.  She then used her magic to take hold of the annoying pony stopping her mid hop. 

"Lt. Commander Pinkie Pie I presume?" she asked the mare. The pink pony nodded in confirmation. "Well then Lt. Commander," she started, placing her back on the floor. "Care to explain why my engine room is a party zone?"

Pinkie inhaled deeply. "Well I was going to-"

"THAT WAS RHETORICAL! I want this place back in order by the time I get back or else!" The azure mare about faced heading to the lift. "We'll be arriving at Jansis 12 within the hour and I want this ship ready for anything!" The tapped her hoof on the ground for emphasis. "That means no parties. No horsing around. No nothing except engineering work! Understood!?" she yelled making everyone salute.

"Yes ma'am!" the entire staff said in unison.

Trixie saluted and walked out, the doors closing behind her.

Once she was gone everypony went back to work. Some took down the banner others simply went back to their stations. All of them were sad though. All except pinkie, who had a determined look on her face.

"I'll win her over yet." she grinned looking at the lift. "She'll love the after party I've planned." she smiled holding up a smiley face sign she pulled from seemingly out of nowhere.

***

Trixie made her way down the main shafts of the Hydra, inspecting the main power lines and other essential systems. She specialized in Starship mechanics and thus took it upon herself to assists the crew with routine maintenance when she could. Plus, it was a good distraction from the worries of life. Her family in particular. She never realized just how far she'd taken that loss. She pushed her friends away, her love away, and shut out the world for a long time wallowing in her sorrows. Her encounter with Commander Octavia caught her by complete surprise. 

The mare always scolded her for being rash and never considering the consequences of her actions. She always blew her off thinking the mare was out of her mind. She was like that with everyone. Anyone who messed up was subject to her rants, and quite tiresome they were, and they were repetitious. She kind of missed it. She wouldn't admit to it openly, but she liked Octavia's commanding presence.

Lost in thought, she didn't realize a pink pony had made her way beside her in the shaft. 

"Hi!" she squealed in a high pitched voice.

Trixie screamed dropping a plasma torch she was holding. Still on it grazed the mares uniform cutting right through her shoulder. Thankfully it soldered the wound at the same time but it hurt like you wouldn't believe.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" she screamed to the pink pony, grabbing the torch with her magic deactivating it. "That could have killed us!"

The pink pony cringed at the sound of Trixie's voice. Wether that was due to the echo of the shaft or fear of her no one was sure. Never the less she squeaked at her CO's outburst and began to apologize. 

"I'm so sorry Captain! I just wanted to see if you were alright from earlier." she sniffed.

"Well don't!" she yelled at the pink pony as she crawled out of the shaft. Pinkie followed close behind. Once out the two mares went to main engineering and Pinkies called out. "Ensign, Fluffles!"

A pink unicorn stallion one deck up looked over the railing. "Yes, ma'am?"

"I'm escorting the Captain to the Medbay! You're in charge until I get back!"

"Ye-yes ma'am!" the pony saluted disappearing back over the rail.

"Come along Captain. We needed to get you to Medbay." Pinkie said walking Trixie out of Engineering.

"Fine."

On their way to Medbay neither pony spoke to the other. Trixie refused to peak to the annoying pink pony, and Pinkie was too worried about upsetting her to say anything. Once in Medbay Pinkie sat waiting for Trixie to recover. Thankfully it was a short wait. The wound was healed with minimal scaring thanks to the advancements in medical technology provided by the Thrane.

The doctor treating Trixie smiled at his work giving her the OK to return to duty. So long as she stayed away from plasma torches for a while.

As Trixie exited the bay, she found Pinkie staring at the wall looking sad. Her mane had a almost deflated look to it. I was sure it was poofier than that. she thought.

"Hey." Pinkie greeted her. "Look Captain, I'm really sorry about the plasma torch."

The blue mare waved her hoof dismissively. "Think nothing of it. Just don't do it again." she said sternly.

"Yes ma'am." the pink pony said.

"Come on let's get back to engineering." Trixie said walking past Pinkie.

Beep! "Bridge to Captain Trixie!" The voice was Commander Octavia's.

The blue mare stopped at the sound of one comm. unit signaling for her. She walked over to a small panel on the nearby wall. It had a small pad with a single button on the side. She pushed the button speaking loudly to it.

"This is Trixie. Go ahead bridge."

"Captain we need you on the bridge. The Jansis 12 Colony is under attack! We've increased speed to the max and should be there in two minutes!" the Commander said.

"Battle alert! All hands on deck! Senior Officers to the bridge!" Trixie didn't even think of her response it was instantaneous. "Lieutenant let's go!"

"Right!" the pink mare said following Trixie to the turbolift. Once on the bridge both ponies went to stations. Octavia sat in the command chair, relinquishing it to Trixie. Pinkie went to the side console by Lt. Claw. Octavia took her place beside Trixie.

"Report Commander."

"We received a distress call from the Jansis 12 Colony. An unknown ship has entered the system and is attacking them." Octavia replied. "We just arrived in the system."

"Esgin Scratch, bring weapons online." Trixie commanded. 

The ivory unicorn nodded. A series of beeps a tweets came from her console. "Weapons armed Captain. Torpedoes aren't yet available."

Octavia scrunched her nose, glaring at Trixie. "Captain." She tapped the blue mares shoulder. "I advise against powering weapons. We don't know the state to the station and could provoke the invading ship more."

"That's just it Commander. They are attacking us. We will respond with force. I'll offer them a chance to surrender and leave peacefully. If they refuse," she tapped the pad on her chair. "I will blow them out of the stars." She turned to face Lyra at the Comm. Station. "Do we have visual?"

"Yes Captain." the mint mare responded. "Bringing it up now."

The main view screen came to life showing a large station orbiting a small planet. The station was cylindrical in shape standing tall with a series or rings around it's main structure. Several smaller sections shaped like ovals cover the ring in seemingly random intervals making it look like it had warts all around the surface. Sections were missing and there was no sign of the aggressors.

"I'm not picking up any ships Captain." Vinyl called out. "I can't locate the Haymaker either."

Her scanner read nothing except the station and the planet it orbited along with debris. She pressed a few buttons to scan when a beeping came from the console as a red light appeared  near the station. "Captain reading ahead! A single vessel unknown classification! The have weapons charged!"

Everyone looked up to the screen as a small green vessel appeared from nowhere. It was a round saucer shape with short wings that bent upwards and a single fin along its dorsal section. At its tips of the wings were two large nacelles that were curved and pointed at both end. They glowed w bright neon green color, pulsating slightly.



The two ships faced each other down. Both were still.

Trixie all the while, stared at the view screen filled with anticipation. First contact with a hostile species was not something to take lightly. She knew it would be foolish to assume the alien craft was weaker than their ship. As the saying goes, expect the best, prepare for the worst. 

"What does the scanner say?" she asked Vinyl not looking away.

The unicorn adjusted her visor and a few moments later she scanned the ship. "Judging by the readings I'd say it was a scout ship Captain. Minimal shield readings disruptors, and a large plasma launcher of some kind. We could easily take them with minimal damage. so long as we avoid the plasma launcher." she concluded adjusting her visor again.

Plasma weapons. Trixie cringed at the thought. One flaw the Thrane were renown for was the susceptibility heir shields had against plasma based weapons. True most races, according to them, shied away from such simple archaic weaponry. It was considered primitive to most of the known races to the Thrane. The few who did posses it were considered high level threats. Thrane shield technology was far more advanced than other races but it had its flaws. This is one of them. Trixie thought.

"What's it doing?" Octavia asked leaning forward to the screen, resting her chin on her hooves contemplatively.

"They're stationary Commander."

"Open a channel to the alien vessel." Trixie ordered.

"Channel is open Captain." Lyra replied from the Comm.

"This Trixie Lulamoon, Captain of the Hydra. You are invading sovereign territory of the Equis Untied Federation. Stand down and leave this system immediately or you will be fired upon." she warned.

A few moments passed. She then looked over to Octavia, who shrugged in response. She then looked over to Lyra, working on the Comm. "Nothing." she said. She took out her headset replacing it with a ear piece that came with a visor covering only her left eye.

Trixie was just about to order the ship to be moved in when 3rd of 5 called out suddenly. "Captain they're coming straight at us!"

"Evasive action!" Trixie ordered. Standing from her seat she leaned over 3rd of 5. "Get us away from them."

The changeling nodded, his hole covered hooves ran across his console making the ship turn to avoid a collision with the alien craft. However this put them at a disadvantage. It left their side wide open, which was the largest face on the ship.

"They're firing weapons!"

The ship suddenly jerked violently to the side as green bolts flew from the wings of the green vessel hitting the Hydra. The shields absorbed the majority of the damage but the impact still shook the ship greatly.

"Shields are holding." Vinyl said. "Return fire Captain?"

"Fire disruptors!" Trixie ordered sitting back down. "I want them out of the system by lunch." 

The side of the hydra came to life as the weapon node glowed before firing red bolts similar to the green ships weapons. A intense volley of ten disruptors all focused on the ship flew across space hitting their target. The shields of the craft glowed yellow as they were absorbed by them forcing the ship to bank left away from the Hydra. Now both ships were heading in opposite directions at full speed.


At this moment both ships turned to face each other. Volleys of red and green flew from their corresponding ships and hit their targets. Both ships glowed as their shield absorbed the majority of the damage received from the volleys leaving neither ship truly affected at all.

"Weapons had minimal effect Captain!" Vinyl reported reading her monitor showing little damage was done to the aggressors shields. "Our weapons aren't dealing enough damage!"

"What's our status?" Octavia chimed in.

"We're in just as good condition as they are. Our shields are taking little damage." Vinyl responded.

"Increase output to disruptors. Helm, bring us about."Trixie grinned. "I love a challenge."
> The Battle Rages On
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the Hydra charged straight towards the enemy ship, red bolts of energy fired from the diruptor nodes of the hydra hitting the small green ship. The ship returned fire flying past the Hydra. Pass after pass the ships danced around doing minimal damage to the other. Neither was dealing enough damage to the others shields to penetrate them.

"Captain we aren't doing enough damage! We just keep passing the enemy ship!" Vinyl said.

"Then arm the torpedoes!" Trixie snapped at the unicorn.

"I can't they aren't calibrated to the ships systems!"

"Lieutenant Pinkie get to engineering at calibrate the torpedoes. we'll need them." Trixie ordered.

"Yes, Captain!" Pinkie saluted running off to engineering.


Trixie racked her brain to find a quick solution to end this battle. The enemy ship was still going strong, so was the Hydra. There was no telling how long this would last. Neither ship was better than the other. They were literally locked in a stalemate. Trixie refused to allow invaders to tarnish her reputation. She would win this fight somehow.

"Incoming plasma torpedo!"

The ship jerked to the side as a massive ball of green super heated plasma flew across the stars impacting the starboard side of the Hydra. The alarms sounded and the lights flickered. Ponies and changelings flew from their consoles either hitting the floor or for the lucky few hovered above where they stood.

Then an idea hit her. 

"Ensign Scratch!"

The ivory unicorn looked up from her console.

"Do we still have access to the ion canon?"

"Yes ma'am. Engineering reported it's functional but not recommended to use." she pressed a few buttons reading a report from a hew hours ago. "It says here if used it could overload the ship's systems."

BANG! The ship jerked again this time the lights began to flicker as the ship rocked from the impact of another torpedo. 

"Shields are taking heavy damage captain!" Vinyl screamed over the alarm.

At the same time, Lyra yelled over the comm. to someone over the mayhem. "Say again? Jansis 12 we're losing your signal! Boost your power!"

The comm. responded with a garble of white noise mixed with the occasional word the mint green unicorn could make out. She tried boosting their own signal but nothing seemed to work.

"Captain I can't get through to the Jansis colony! I think they can hear us though! I am getting something from them!" Lyra yelled.

Trixie had enough. The alarm was blaring and she couldn't hear herself think with all this noise and commotion on the bridge. Ponies ran from station to station screaming over the alarms. She inhaled deeply into her lungs before bellowing out, "Silence those damn alarms!"
In a moment the alarms ceased and ponies were able to hear each other finally. Why the designers made the alarms so loud was beyond Trixie's comprehension. In fact, a lot of things about the Hydra were either stupid or faulty in design. 

From her seat beside Trixie, Commander Octavia was barking orders at 3rd of 5 while ordering Lt. Claw to check the security sensors on the ship for boarding parties.

Trixie pressed the internal comm. from her seat. "Ensign Pinkie! What's the status of the torpedoes?!"

"We still need to calibrate them captain! It'll take an hour to do them all!" Pinkies voice shrilled over the speaker.

"Damn! Why wasn't it done sooner?!"

"It wasn't put on priority captain." Pinkie replied.

Trixie was absolutely livid by this point. How had the ship been so ill prepared for battle? No weapons in unknown territory and if they were attacked? How was this over looked? 

"Captain! Problem!" Vinyl yelled. 

"Ugh, what now?!" thee blue mare screamed losing her composure.

"Engineering reports a problem with the reactor! Shields are failing and we're losing main power!"

Octavia say that Trixie was dumbstruck and as second in command took the reigns. "Switch to the secondary batteries and restore main power!" she said to the ivory unicorn. "Take weapons offline and give all power to shields and the engines! Get us out of here!"

Vinyl was about to follow the order when Trixie stomped the ground pulling her disruptor and shot a bolt next to her head, missing it by centimeters. All eyes were on her now, Vinyl shaking her hoof just above the console daring not to move for fear of being shot instead.

"Don't you dare retreat ensign! We stand and fight to the end!" Trixie stomped towards the screen defiantly.

The alien ship turned and began another run along the ships stern shooting as it passed by shaking the Hydra. The green  bolts still being absorbed by what remained of the shields. Octavia jumped from her seat going over to the cowering Vinyl holding her close.

"Trixie! That was out of line!" she barked at her commanding officer.

"That's Captain, Commander!" Trixie sniped.

DEET! DEET! Lt. Claw shoved the two ponies aside reading the console. "Torpedo!"

"3rd of 5 evasive action!" Trixie holstered her weapon looking over to Claw. "Lt. Claw? Is the ion canon ready?"

The Hydra dodge right the torpedo tried to seek it but missed by a huge margin. The Hydra leading in a game of chase the alien ship close behind. It fired green bolts half of which hit while the other half missed. The ships flew across the stars circling around the station and dodging between the debris.

Claw meanwhile,  looked over the console and chagrined the canon. Looking up he nodded to Trixie. "Yes, Captain, but it will most likely take out half the ships systems but I think I can get them in one shot. It's slim but-" Bang! The ship shook and another torpedo hit the Hydra. The console had a red screen pop up with a power indicator showing power output at 12% "Shields are at 12% and falling!" Claw reported.

"That tanks it! 3rd of 5 bring the ship about! We make our stand here! Prepare to fire the canon Lt. Claw!" Trixie turned to sit in her seat. "I'll blow these bastards to whatever deep cesspool they crawled from. Give me the tactical display!" she ordered Claw.

The view port changed to show tactical data such as distance to relative objects, power to weapons, shields, even engine output.

"Yes ma'am!" Claw prepared the cannon to fire. All he had to do was wait for 3rd of 5 to turn to face the enemy and victory was assured. The canon had enough power from what he calculated, to take them out in one hit. And this wasn't crippling them, but utter annihilation. There was going to be no ship left as long as he hit the enemy ship.


But the ion cannon was designed for larger targets like stations of battleships, not small scout craft. Either way this was going to make or break the battle in ones favor one way or another. Either one ship is destroyed and the other is crippled and left to the mercy of the other. On the other hand both ships could end up as smoldering debris if things go badly. The Hydra's canon had a good 50/50 chance of destroying itself in the process but if they hit them it was over for the enemy ship. 

The ships circled the station jockeying for a tactical position over the other. Neither gaining any stand against the other. After a minute of chasing the green ship turned to circle the station in the opposite direction, flying counter clockwise around the station as the Hydra continued clockwise round. Within seconds the two ships were facing each other down. Lt. Claw targeted the ship with the canon awaiting the order to fire.

Meanwhile Trixie eyed the tactical display on the screen. The enemy ship was only a few kilometers away closing fast.

She stood up walking over to the helm. "3rd of 5?" the changeling looked up. "Fly directly at them and don't you dare turn. Got it?"

The changeling was scared. He dared not defy her orders from fear but he did trust her. She was the captain for a reason. Like a queen her orders had to be followed or others could die. Something he learned the hard way. "Yes, captain." he droned on turning his attention back to the console.

Trixie smiled patting him on the back showing support. She sat back in her seat and watched the tactical display. The enemy ship fired several torpedoes which struck the Hydra dealing heavy damage. Several consoles were set ablaze the main support structures wailed under the pressure. The alarms started anew all over the ship.

"Claw stand by." Trixie said calmly. "3rd of 5, give me the count."

"16 kilometers."

"14."

"12"

"Trixie! This is suicide! Think of the crew!" Octavia screamed running over to 3rd of 5. "I'm ordering you to turn this ship around 3rd of 5!" she barked at him.

He didn't even budge. His focus was on the task given to him and by damn he was going to do it. He was a drone. It was what he was literally born to do, follow orders. So he would do just that. Octavia nostrils flared as she smacked the console. "I said turn you bug!"

"8 kilometers!" 3rd of 5 said ignoring the insult towards him.

Octavia tried to shove the changeling aside but Trixie jumped from her seat using her magic to hold her back. The ship took another torpedo making it shake violently. Trixie pushed the earth pony commander to the side making her face hit Claw's console with a dull thud. Vinyl ran over checking up on the commander, glaring at Trixie in the process.

"6 kilos captain!"

Trixie turned to face Claw. "Fire the ion canon!"

Without a word the griffin fired the canon. The nose of the Hydra glowed red for a few seconds before a massive surge of red energy fired from the nose to the enemy ship. The small craft banked casing the beam of death to strike its side, engulfing half the ship obliterating it to nonexistence. Now half a ship remained its engines driving it towards the station.

Unfortunately, the hydra suffered a ship wide system failure. Both ships drifted into each other bashing together .The Hydra and the other craft came to a halt as the engines of both ships ceased. The Hydra was in utter chaos. Everyone rushed about trying to restore power to the ship, thankfully gravity remained or it would have been a monumental task.

Trixie was flung from her seat into 3rd of 5, Claw grabbed Vinyl, who held onto Octavia. Lyra's head was bloodied from hitting the console after the ship came to a screeching halt, and two pony crew were impaled by one of the supports that gave way during the crash. Their intestines sprawled on the floor beside her,the mint unicorn's cheeks bulged as she turned losing her lunch from the gruesome sight.

Octavia recovered at the same time Trixie did. "What is our status?" The earth pony asked rubbing her head.

Claw was recovering reading the display. "Main power's offline, secondary generators are on and the ships engines are offline." he reported.

"Whats the condition of the enemy ship?" Trixie asked climbing back into her chair. Her head was red and her ears were ringing. She pressed a button on her chair speaking into the comm. receiver. "Medical team to the bridge." echoed throughout the ship.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Captain! The enemy ship is going critical! They're suffering a massive overload!" Claw was panicking. 

Trixie scoffed waving a hoof at him. "It's a reactor breach it can't hurt us."

"Its an 9000 SDM reading!" Claw yelled popping the display on the main viewer. 

"9000! But only antimatter reactors have that kind of power! And they were banned! What crazy being are these things?!" Octavia clenched her head as her outburst caused it to throb. "Damn it Trixie! This is all your fault!"

'Excuse me?!" the blue mare  screeched. "Commander you're out of line!"

"No, you are! You got two ponies killed! Nearly destroyed us! And you've doomed us with your reckless actions! We should have left and prepared for the fight rather than-"

"I didn't hear YOU suggest anything!" Trixie pointed an accusatory hoof at the grey mare. "I didn't hear you give any suggestions!"

Just then the enemy ship exploded creating a black rift in space. The Jansis colony slowly began crumpling into the dark swirl. 

"BLACKHOLE!" Vinyl screamed.

Now everyone was in full panic mode. The alarms had sounded as the ship and station slowly drifted towards the black hole. Trixie upholstered her disruptor firing it at the ceiling. Everyone stopped and looking at her.

"That's enough! Vinyl are the transporters online?" the blue mare asked holstering her weapon, again.

"Yes, ma'am." she replied.

"Start transporting as many survivors to the medbay. COMMANDER! You'll assist the medbay. There'll be a lot of scared ponies there. Keep the peace." She placed a hoof on her shoulder. All their anger gone, the two made a silent pact to deal with the situation first then each other later. "3rd of 5 prepare to activate the H-drive."

Octavia stopped her ear twitched. This just smelled of a terrible plan. "Trixie." she said warningly. "What are you planning?"

We can't escape so we'll activate the H-drive heading towards the black hole and catapult our way out of here." Trixie stated factually.

"Are you INSANE?! NO don't answer that! Your're utterly mad! SUICIDAL! That's it!" Octavia stood at the command chair. "As second in command I deem you unfit for command and hereby relieve you as captain, Trixie!"

Vinyl was the first to speak. "I really don't think now's the time Commander! Our lives are on the line! We need to try something!"

"Captain the station is rupturing!" Lyra called over from her station.

As if on queue, all eyes turned to see the Jansis 12 colony fall into the swirling vortex and get crushed as it passed through. Trixie sighed turning to Octavia.

"Once we're out of here I'll happily relieve myself of command, but we're still in danger and I'll be damned if you are going to stop me from saving our lives!" She said to the commander. She walked up to her string eye to eye with her. "Do you have any, ANY other suggestions?" Octavia averted her gaze. She had no other ideas. Not for a black hole anyway.

It was true, there was no escaping a black hole. So what choice did she have at this point. If this plan didn't work they were dead anyway. Sighing in defeat, Octavia took her place in the Commander's seat beside the captain's chair. Trixie nodded to her, the alarms blaring in the background like white noise to them. She sat beside the Commander placing a hoof on hers smiling at the grey mare. Octavia smiled back. 

"Very well, Captain." Octavia said, in a low voice.

Trixie turned to face the crew. Everyone left on the bridge looked to her with anticipation. "This is it everyone. we're activating the h-drive in a last ditch effort to escape certain doom." she looked over to Lyra, Vinyl, Claw, and the rest of the crewmen. "If we are lucky, we'll get to live another day. If not... well, we'll find out what eternity is like. It was an honor to serve with you all, even if it was short."

she sat down facing the view screen. Her hoof never let go of Octavia's. "3rd of 5, activate the H-drive and turn us towards the black hole!"

"Are you sure captain?" He turned asking his CO. Trixie nodded. "Very well. H-drive charged. Thankfully it wasn't damaged." he muttered the last part.

Everyone braced for the inevitable doom that lay before them as the ship turned towards the rift. Octavia's grip tightened. Trixie looked over to her and saw her shaking. She looked terrified. Like death was staring her in the eye and said her time was up. "Activate the H-drive." she said. After a series of beeps the ship shifted it nacelles and a loud humming sound echoed throughout the ship signaling all they were about to jump.

The logic was sound in Trixie's mind. The H-drive would make a wormhole and launch them past the black hole. It would most likely not work, but at this  point there was nothing to lose. She cupped her hooves around Octavia's comfortingly. She then leaned into the grey mare placing her head on hers. She then whispered into her ear, "I would have said yes if you asked." Octavia blushed looking up to Trixie who bore a confident look.

"If we die I'll never speak to you again, Trixie." She said pulling on Trixie's arm. "Also, I want a hoof rub after this is over."

The blue mare grinned. "You got it, tubby tavi." she said making Octavia growl at her but smiled none the less.

"3rd of 5," she looked forward extended a hoof towards the screen right at the image of the black hole. "Activate the H-drive."

The changelings hooves ran across the console with a series ob beeps. He then hit a single button without pause and the Hydra hurled itself into the black hole vanishing in a light vortex as the black hole collapsed in on itself leaving no trace of the station, nor the two ships behind.



> Breakdown and Recovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deep in space, no one can hear you scream, no one can hear you cry, no one can save you. That was the basic principles you needed to understand when in space. It was you against the universe. Trixie understood this, everyone on the Hydra knew this. However, the danger that just showed itself was so fast no one had really any idea what happened until it was too late.

Deep in uncharted territory, the Hydra came out of a vortex of light as the reeving of the engines came to a dead halt. The ship was scorched and the nacelles were badly damaged. The hull was bent awkwardly to the side and the paint was blackened all over. The crew was still in full panic mode as they scurried to restore power to the ship. Trixie and Octavia looked over the bridge crew. Aside from the two dead no one else was hurt during the escape. 

Lyra hurled seeing the corpses, again. Vinyl sighed taking the mint mare to the side and helped her recuperate. Octavia was shaking badly as she held a vice-grip on Trixie refusing to let go. The blue mare didn't mind though. She liked it when Octavia got scared. It was a rare moment indeed, and it made her look cute in the blue mare's eyes. But now wasn't the time for that.

"Commander. Commander." the grey mare didn't respond. "Octy. I need to get up," she whispered into her ear.

Octavia eventually found herself letting the unicorn go. Not before she gave a swift right hook to her jaw sending Trixie flying out of her chair and to the floor. Trixie looked bewildered at her as Octavia angrily stomped toward the turbolift and smashed the already damaged pad sealing herself in. I think I went to far this time. Trixie thought looking at the lift.

"You should talk to her later captain. For now, I have the ship status report." Vinyl came up handing her a datapad.

Trixie took it with her magic and looked it over frowning. "That's a lot of red."

That was an understatement. Over 67% of the ship's systems were damaged or non-operational. As luck would have it the weapons seemed t be the only thing partially working. everything else was on the verge of breaking down. Engines and life support were a top priority along with internal communications.

"Ensign Scratch, get the internal comm. operational and get to work on restoring power so we can access the ship's systems. I'll be in engineering."

She threw the pad to the ivory unicorn and headed to the turbolift. It opened to reveal Octavia huddled crying to herself. She jumped like a cat at the sudden intrusion not expecting to see Trixie. She glared at her and turned her back to her wiping away a few tears.

"What are  you doing?" Octavia snapped at her.

Trixie sat beside the angry mare placing a hoof gently on her back, rubbing it with soft circular motions. "You OK?"

"I'm fine." she snapped. "Why do you care?"

"You're my friend. And I'll always be there from now on," she said placing a comforting hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Now come on we got a ship to fix and crew to lead in this time of great turmoil." Trixie finished theatrically.

Octavia gave a hearty laugh with her as they stood up. Trixie tried to activate the turbolift but nothing happened. The two looked at each other with exasperated looks.

"Do we have to climb this damn thing?" Trixie whined. 

"It seems so." the grey mare said pulling out a utility panel revealing an emergency lock leaver. While she did this Trixie worked on opening the hatch. Once set the two ponies crawled out of the lift to the main shaft with ladders at either side which were also the grid which the lift used to travel.

The two mares started climbing the shaft heading up to deck ten, three decks high. Octavia went after Trixie much to her annoyance. The blue mare was always lazy and never really put any effort into her physical training. Thus she was prone to weak lungs and weak muscles making even a short trip like this seem like a marathon.

After reaching their destination Trixie was sweating her uniform drenched and she literally crawled out of the shaft and sprawled on the floor panting. "Trixie... pant... hates exercise." she moaned in agony.

Octavia, completely fine, walked up looking down at the pathetic mare smiling smugly. "You shouldn't have neglected your training, CAPTAIN," she walked around her CO. "If you didn't you'd probably have a better sex life. I feel sorry for anyone who beds you. It must be so sad passing out after foreplay."

"At least I can get someone to bed me. OOF!" Octavia jabbed her in the side smiling. Had it been anyone else Trixie would have had them filed for assault and disorderly conduct. But Octavia was the only exception. She cared for the mare and when things were getting ugly for them she thought hard about her decision to activate the H-drive. Thankfully it worked.

The two walked through the darkened halls leading to the aft end of the Hydra to the engineering section. Along the way, they helped anyone who was hurt or needed assistance. It was bad. In the short distance, it was to engineering, relatively speaking, they found six ponies buried, thirteen dead, and two MARES commandos dead along with a section of the ship missing. This was because the emergency bulkheads were in place to prevent any further loss of air or personnel.

Trixie stood near the bulkhead running a hoof down it. Octavia stood beside her a look of worry on her face. "I wonder how many were beyond this point when it happened?"

The grey mare beside her pulled her close into a hug after making sure no one was around. Th two held onto one another in a warm embrace for a while. Eventually, Trixie separated from her and said, "Let's go we need to get the ship operational."

The two made their way to engineering with no further distractions. As they arrived partial power to the ship had been restored so they had light and environmental controls were fully functional. But engineering itself was chaos.

Pinkie was calling out to everyone telling them to do this and that. She herself had a massive utility belt and several tools when the two officer ponies entered. The pink engineer gasped running over. "Captain! Commander!" she yelled saluting.

"Ensign," Trixie said.

"It's Lt. Commander captain." the pink pony said.

"Not if you don't get this ship running you won't be," Trixie replied.

"Captain, surely it isn't necessary considering our condition to start demoting ponies is it?" Octavia reasoned.

Trixie snorted and continued down the hall of engineering ignoring her completely. "What's our status, Lt. Commander?"

The pink pony gasped rushing over to a central hub activating it to show a 3D view of the Hydra. Several sections were red covering the sides of the ship while everything else was a deep orange signaling them to be near critical condition. There was no green at all. 

"Where do I start?" Pinkie sighed shaking her head. "Main power will be back within the next three hours. Engines thirty minutes after. Weapons seem to be fully functional, with the exception of the ion cannon. I won't even try fixing it."

"Why not?" the commander asked bringing up the ion canons display. A closer inspection revealed that over 80% was damaged beyond repair. "That's not good." She stated.

"That canon nearly destroyed the main power." she frowned at the display. "What DID destroy main power was that crazy horizon slip jump (HSJ) we made. What happened up there anyway?"

The two officer ponies spent the next several minutes explaining the battle and how the destruction of the enemy ship lead to the creation of an artificial black hole. Afterwards, Pinkie sighed as did the two officer ponies.

"So how long until he can get the H-drive up and running again?"

Pinkie did a few calculations in her head while staring at the monitor. After a minute Trixie began to get irritated, Octavia too, and just as they opened their mouths to speak Pinkie took action. "Six hours after power is restored. Not a minute more. It's either by the book or the next party this ship goes into will be very short."

Trixie smacked the console with her hoof growling. "So, a grand total of nine hours? Can't you possibly speed that up? Anyway without compromising the ship and crew any further?"

"Sorry captain. Nine hours minimum. No exceptions. I'm not a miracle worker." she said dejectedly. "I can get by maybe with eight but that's pushing it. If I did that I'd have to rewire half the ship to get power from the secondary batteries. It'll give us ten hours worth of power or one HSJ anywhere. That's it."

Octavia and Trixie pondered this long and hard. Eventually, the commander spoke up to Trixie. "I suggest we do it the safe way and wait the nine hours. We need to get back to dock ASAP." she said gravely. "We can't wing it like you did last time Trixie. Which, by the way, I want to talk to you about." she turned to walk away stopping at the door to one of the many rooms in engineering. "NOW," she said forcefully, looking back at Trixie.

There was a long period where Trixie and Octavia yelled at one another in the room. Only the slightest sound was made from their screaming voices. everyone in engineering could barely make out what was being said. Eventually, Trixie stormed off and Octavia remained behind grasping her head giving out a frustrated yell banging her head on the console.

Once changeling who was observing beside Pinkie leaned over to whisper in her ear. "This crew is seriously messed up Lt. Commander."

"Ye sit is. But that's what will make us great one day." The pink pony replied.

"What do you mean?" the changeling asked tilting his head.

"You'll see one day," she replied.

The hours past by at a snail's pace. After a lengthy stay at the armory, Trixie made her way back to engineering after some much needed 'venting.' She was now assisting with the repairs to the engines when a changeling came up to her.

"Captain?" he asked getting her attention.

Trixie looked over her shoulder eyeing him. "What is it, crewman?"

He used his magic to levitate a datapad to her. "Here are the figures you needed. The Lt. Commander says the main couplings need to be recalibrated and the main wires in junctions 3 and 4 need replacing. Do you require assistance, captain?" She took the pad scanning over it quickly. It was a simple procedure for somepony with a master degr in starship engineering mechanics. "No, that'll be all crewman," she said returning to her work.

"Aye, captain." he saluted flying back to his station in the upper deck of engineering.

Trixie meanwhile made her way to the main couplings in junctions 3 and 4 to repair them. She crawled into the main junctions, barely big enough to fit in herself. She inched her way along the small shaft eventually reaching her intended target. As was in the report the main wires were indeed damaged in sections 3 and 4. Trixie feeling in her element began the repairs.

It was strangely relaxing to her. She ran the plasma torch along the wires severing them from the main lines after deactivating them. The smell of smoldering metal reached her nostrils making her relax. Her conversation with Octavia long forgotten she pulled out spare relay wires and slowly and tediously began to reconnect them. An hour later she was finished and worked her way out of the shaft. 

Halfway the main power was restored lighting the once darkened ship. The red emergency lights turned to regular light and she was thankful for the change. The red light hurt her eyes and being in it for hours gave her a headache. Suddenly the ship jolted and the alarms sounded. The shaft Trixie was in collapsed trapping her inside.

"Son of a- Thunk!" Trixie passed out as a large bulk of metal fell on her head knocking her out cold. 

*Bridge*

Octavia was on the bridge pouting after her talk with Trixie about her unconventional methods. Needless to say, she was in a bad mood. She glared at the blank monitor as time passed. Power was still down and had been for the last few hours. She felt uneasy. Something was amiss. She looked over at Lt. Claw who was working on his console not paying her any mind. Lyra was working, Vinyl and one of the medical personnel was still here tending to the bodies of the two dead crewponies.

A few moments later a beep came from her PDA. Pulling it out Octavia unlocked it to find she had a message from the Chief Medical officer. 

Message Received from: Dr. Kane

Commander,

I got everypony in medbay stable. Lt. Sunny Smiles is on her way up.

Return Message? Y/N

Y Processing... Reply Commander Octavia November 12, 2154

Great work doctor. Please have the medical staff on standby until further not-

Beep! Octavia stopped typing as a humming came from the ship as the lights went from red to regular light. Finally we can find out where we are! She thought. "Power has been restored Commander," Claw said as a series of beeps came from his console. "Captain I'm picking up a signal. A transmission."

The commander looked over placing the PDA on her armrest. Damnit! "On screen."

The blank void she'd stared at for the last few hours came to life as a strange yellow/pinkish hairless ape in a black suit began speaking.

"My name is John Fredrick Praxton. I've just taken over the Verteron Array on Mars. I can now fire on any vessel or ship entering the system."

The ships console beeped. Claw's head went back and forth in an odd saw-like motion. "A massive energy surge captain!"

The Hydra jolted as a massive beam of energy flew past barely missing them as it struck a small moon that was behind the Hydra. The alarms sounded as the ship shook violently. The lights flickered and the consoles faded in and out while the beam fired onto the surface of the moon. A massive dust cloud formed around the epicenter. After it cleared a massive crater was shown and the man named Praxton continued to speak.

"I have no intention of using this weapon again provided that every non-human in our system leaves immediately. A new era is at hand an era that will shape our future, the future... of the human race. And expose the concept of interspecies unity as an absolute and vicious lie! An era that will witness the advent of a human-centered consciousness that will place our world before all others."

Octavia and all the others were listening intently as the strange creature turned to nod at someone off-screen. A visual display of the Hydra and the moon crater was now visible. Thankfully the focus was the damage to the moon, and not the Hydra if they were lucky maybe this, human hadn't seen them.

Sweat rolled down Octavia's head. She was nervous. Scared even. this was Trixie's element, not hers. The man turned back with a neutral face and continued.

"As of this moment, mankind throws down the shackles of alien interference and now determines its own fate. Terra Prime, forever."
> Assault on the Array
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mars Verteron Array

After the transmission Praxton sighed as the screen went blank. He turned to face another man at his back named Greaves. He was dark skinned and tall, standing at least six foot 4 and had a strong athletic build. His bald head was layered with sweat from the high temperature of the room.

Greaves stood at his station monitoring various things on his monitor, but one thing intrigued him.

"Sir." 

Praxton turned facing him. "What is it, Greaves?"

The man tapped his console a few times making an image of the moon crater they'd shot appear. Praxton stared at it like it wasn't very impressive.

"What am I suppose to see, Greaves?"

He crossed his arms, eyeing the man patiently.

"There's a large vessel near the moon sir." He made the view screen zoom in on a small spec on the moon, revealing a long odd shaped vessel just outside the moons gravitational pull. "An unknown vessel sir. Nothing like it on record."

The suited man watched the monitor as the view screen zoomed in to show the ship near the moon. Praxton nodded as he watched the vessel.

"Why didn't we detect it before, Greaves?" he asked patiently. He was surprisingly patient for a radical in the minds of his followers but that was one of the best traits he had.

"Until we connected to the grid, we weren't able to detect the ship. Its signature was barely detectable and it has no warp signature." the man said looking at his monitor. "We actually nearly hit them with the array."

Praxton circled around his station and stood beside the man looking at his monitor. He pressed a few buttons and read a digital readout of the ship. It was knee deep in read. That ship was in bad condition and it was very obvious from the readings they were in a bad fight. Probably tried escaping and got hit by the array.

"Are you sure we didn't hit them, Greaves?" he asked looking at him. "If you did, tell me now and not later."

"I'm absolutely sure sir. But we sure came close." Greaves said checking the monitor playback. "See sir? It was close but I'm sure we didn't help better their condition."

Praxton was about to make a suggestion when the monitor went partially green. Greaves and a few others started getting more lively. 

"What is it?" he asked.

"The ship's powering up, sir!" another man said from beside Greaves. "Their weapons are online!"

"Then let's show them what we can do. Fire a warning shot at them." Praxton ordered. "I don't want them destroyed only get them to leave.

Greaves nodded powering up the array, locking onto the small ship.


*Hydra Bridge*


Octavia was now in full panic mode. Never in her life had she seen a weapon of such power and magnitude. Her armored uniform clanked as she sat, shaking in fear of these humans. The power of their weapons was immense, and she feared that she'd make a mistake. That's why she ever accepted her own command. 

THIS was her Achilles heel. Commanding a starship. She feared commanding such responsibility and it made her quake in her boots to think about it. Where was Trixie when she needed her?

Claw turned his beak towards his monitor as it began beeping rapidly. "Commander! The array is locking on us and charging!"

"Evasive action 3rd of 5!" she screamed at the changeling. 

"Aye, commander!" he called to her taking immediate action to move the ship.

The Hydra's engines roared to life propelling it forward evading the initial blast from the array. The ship banked left avoiding the next blast from the array, but it was very close. The hydra was a very fast nimble ship. It's thruster and engine output was far more than necessary to the eyes of others, but it has so far proven invaluable. 

Whereas the average ship had an output of .45 to .67 thruster output, the Hydra gave a whopping 1.22 output. Thus making it the most nimble and mobile vessel in the Equis fleet. While in the hands of a master pilot, like 3rd of 5, the ship became a sword of death to all who came across it. Or more in this case an annoyingly evasive fly.

The verteron array continued to fire and miss the Hydra as it ventured closer to the red planet it resided on, but the closer they got the closer the shots got. Once they reached a certain point 3rd of 5 stopped his approach and began to circle around the planet to avoid fire from the array. Unfortunately, the array was vast covering all angles of the planet. No place was safe.

"Commander, I can't get any closer without getting hit by that array." he buzzed his wings agitated.

Octavia sighed tapping her hoof on the console on the chair. "Bridge to Trixie."

No response. "Captain respond!"

The grey mare looked over at the security station. "Lt. Claw, find the captain!"

"She's down in engineering. Her vital signs are faint. She might be injured." he said reading the internal sensors.

BOOM! The entire ship shook as the verteron array hit the Hydra, clipping its side. The alarms blared as the ship rocked from the impact. The shields had absorbed most of the impact from the shot, but the power was vastly drained from it.

"Commander, shields are at 22%!" Claw screeched. "I have torpedoes armed ready t fire on command."

"Light that array up!" the grey mare ordered. 

Several torpedoes flew from the launchers towards the verteron array but were subsequently shot by the beams of death. Claw tried a spread in several directions but that didn't work either. Then a second beam hit the Hydra causing the shields to collapse as the ship retreated from the verterons range.

"Commander we have no way of getting to that array! If we get hit again there's no guarantee the armor will hold!" ensign Scratch yelled over the alarm.

Octavia growled pulling at her mane, then slamming her arm down on the chair. She then looked deep in thought as she picked up her PDA and made a few quick calculations. She then walked behind 3rd of 5 and whispered into his ear. He nodded at whatever she had said to him and brought the ship hard about and hid behind a large asteroid.

Octavia then pulled up the internal comm. "All MARES assemble!"


***


Deep in the Hydra, a group of mares was armored up and ready to fight on a moments notice either to defend the ship or perform an assault. They were known as MARES (Mare Assault Recon & Espionage Squads) Commandos. The ponies were of varying age and type. Several were earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, and even a few changelings. 

One thing really stood out about them however, they were ALL mares, except for one new recruit. He was a small unicorn stallion. He was white with a short spiky red mane and tail and his cutie mark was a three-circle reticule signifying his sharp sight. His name was Scope. He was barely old enough to be called a stallion, only being, 17 years old, and was the newest member of the famous group called MARES.

Though he often found the term quite sexist himself, it was a group exclusive to females only before now. As they geared up he sat alone in a corner placing his body armor on, which consisted of a survival suit for zero-g and extreme weather conditions, an armored vest, arm guards, leg guards, and a visor helmet. 

Everyone was allowed to color their own equipment but he stuck with the traditional black with white strips.

Several of the mares glared at him, seeing him as an intruder to their once pure group. He felt the intense glares as he huddled in the corner by himself. He was the first to fully gear up and was checking his disruptor rifle when a unicorn mare shoved him aside, knocking him to the ground.

"Move it beef stick!" she yelled kicking him in the crotch as she passed.

He gripped his sore gentiles as she grinned at his misery watching him squirm in pain. She and several others laughed at him as they finished gearing up. One mare watched and felt a ping of guilt not helping him, but she didn't laugh t his misfortune either.

"Man, what a loser." a unicorn mare said pointing at him as he slowly got up using his boxy rifle for support.

"Yeah, what's a stallion doing in our group anyway?" another earth pony mare said watching him adjust his scope.

"Maybe he had sex with one of the Majors as a favor to get in." another said, making the others look at him in disgust.

The poor guy was alone here and no one wanted him to be here. All his life he wanted to join MARES, but he couldn't make the cut. True it also had to do with him being male, in a female-dominated society,  but that had changed while he was trying to get in. Now, MARES had an open door policy letting everyone from every gender in on it. It was no longer a mares only club. That did mean a lot of trouble for him though. Contrary to popular belief, the part of the world he was from, Equestria, was very sexist towards males.

He listened to all the false rumors about how he was allowed in when the ship shook and the alarm sounded. Everyone started moving with great speed as they finished gearing up. Moments later Major Spitfire, ex-Wonderbolt and ace flier, came trotting into the locker room in her signature MK-V battle armor. It was much like Scope's armor but it was thicker looking, but lighter materials. His armor was the old MK-III much heavier but fewer parts.

"Alright MARES! Let's get our butts geared up and ready to roll! Commander's go a mission for us!" the yellow mare called.

"Yes, ma'am!" They all said in unison.

"Alright ladies," she said marching up and down the row of ponies and changeling, Scope scoffed at the word mares, "We have a mission. An alien species has fired on our ship and we are to take over this array on a small outpost. Questions?"

"No ma'am." they all said.

"Good," Spitfire said with a grin. "Now, let's pair up and get to the fighters and transports!"

Scope sighed as all the others paired together and he was left alone. Spitfire took notice and approached the young stallion. 

"No one to pair up with again, Scope?" she asked sympathetically.

"No Major." he sighed. "I'm still the 'beef stick' outcast."

"Guess you're out this op. as well then private," she said patting his shoulder. The clanking of his armor against hers rang in his ears. It was a sound he liked.

"Guess so-"

"MAJOR!" a unicorn mare in deep royal blue armor approached the two. She was a cream colored unicorn with a light brown curly mane and light blue eyes. "I'll pair up with him!" she said smacking his back, making him lurch forward.

Spitfire eyed her. "You sure corporal Pansy? You've never lead before and he's very green," she said pointing to him. "He's never been out of the simulator before."

"He can do it, captain." Pansy replied in an obnoxious tone. 

"Grr. I'm not a captain anymore, and you know I hate that!" she barked at Pansy. She got a cheeky grin. "Unless you really are a pansy?"

"Don't worry Major, I'll keep an eye on him." she patted his shoulders from behind. "Come on hot stuff! Let's get going or we'll miss the transport!" she said cheerily as she ran off with her helmet in her magical aura.

Scope was adjusting his strap when Spitfire cut him off. "Don't do anything reckless private. You have nothing to prove to me or the others. Just stay with Pansy, she'll show you the ropes."

"Aye, ma'am. I'll be careful," he said. 

Spitfire smiled smacking his helmet affectionately, making it fall over his vision, before swatting his rear making him blush. "Adjust that strap private, hustle HUSTLE!"

He quickly adjusted his strap and went into a full gallop to the hanger. Five minutes later he was running beside Pansy as she made way to her personal fighter. He tried to break off and head to the transport but he felt himself float towards the fighter instead.

He was levitated over it as the cockpit slid forward and he fell in the front seat with a loud clanking from his armor hitting the panels. She jumped into the back seat and pressed the activation switch bringing the fighter to life. Scope looked back at her concerned.

"I've never flown this class of fighter before ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am. Makes me feel old!" she scolded him playfully.

"Ye-yes ma- Pansy!" he sat up at attention while sitting.

Pansy giggled to herself at his reaction. She then closed the cockpit and the fighter lifted just off the ground turning to face the main hangar doors. A minute later the bays opened up as the ship shook making crates fall. A series of green and red lights lit in sequence signaling the fighters to fly after their corresponding ones did, as to not crash into each other.

When Pansy's signaled they flew out of the bay with great speed and banked left just quick enough to avoid the verteron array from hitting them. Thirty fighters flew in formation heading towards the surface of a small red planet where a series of beams chased after the Hydra as it nimbly dodged every one of them and fired its disruptors back at the surface.

"You see that?!" Scope cheered watching the Hydra fire back. "That's what I call a sight!"

He gasped as he nearly hit the fighter next to him and jerked back into formation. A beep from the comm. interrupted his good mood when a familiar angry voice barked at him over this speaker. "

"Hey, beef stick, watch where you're flying!" it said condescendingly.

Pansy frowned turning off the comm. She reached over the seat to tap Scope on the shoulder. "Hey give me control, I'll let you practice later. You did well."

"Thanks," he said smiling, reversing controls to the back seat. Just then a shadow covered the console in front of Scope, as another ship came into view. "Pansy look! It's another ship!" He screamed pointing to the right as a large ship flew past the formation of fighters.

It was large but not as large as the Hydra. It had a massive saucer section with two large naccels sticking out from the sides and bore the name NX-01 as it flew overhead.

"Oh, that's not good," Pansy said focusing on the red planet. "Hope the commander's ready for a fight."


***


Hydra bridge

Octavia was now frantically giving orders to evade and find a way to take out the verteron array but they weren't close enough to actually target the array without missing or getting hit themselves.

"Lt. Pinkie!" she screamed over the interact comm. "Can you rig a torpedo to avoid the fire from the array so it can take out the main facility?"

"Sorry, commander I can't," a sad voice replied. "It'd take a few minutes to do if I had the parts, which I don't I'm afraid," she said apologetically.

Vinyl heard a beeping from the console in front of her as she yelled over to the active commander. "Commander! Ship inbound!"

"What!?! Reinforcements?" she growled smashing the console.

"Commander! We're being hailed by the vessel." Lyra said calmly.

"Put it through," Octavia ordered the view screen came to life. "This is Commander Octavia, active captain of the Warship Hydra. To whom am I speaking?"

A large man much like Praxton took the view, but this one was wearing a blue uniform. He was light skinned and had short brown hair and an aged looking face. 

"This is Captain Archer of the USS Enterprise. We saw you were in trouble and came to offer help," he said pausing. "A radical faction of my people has taken over the array on Mars. We detected your ships flying inbound to the main platform. Perhaps we could work together."

"I'm listening," Octavia said leaning back in her chair.
> New Friends, Old Enemies part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hydra Bridge

Octavia gave a sigh of relief. She allowed herself to slump down in her chair as Lt. Claw flung his arms in the air.

"Goddesses, above be blessed! Allies at last!" he cried ceremoniously.

Octavia and the rest of the crew laughed at the sudden outburst from the griffin, to be honest they all felt the same as he did. The man on the screen chuckled.

"I felt the same way when we first started our mission as well." he said walking around his chair. "I'd be happy to tell you about it once we take care of that array." he said smacking his hands on the chair.

Lyra was squealing to herself, but was doing a terrible job containing herself. She watched as the man gave a concerned look to her. Archer then took a deep breath and sat back in his chair.

"We have a team ready to assist you  with the array. While they take care of it we'll keep them busy up here with our ships so they won't destroy the assault force."

The grey mare scrunched her nose at the implication. "And what is that suppose to mean?"

Archer gave a weary sigh as is ships alarm sounded and Enterprise took evasive action and hid behind the same asteroid as the Hydra.

"A whole set of heavily armed ships, don't usually go somewhere to give flowers." he said.

"Agreed." she replied, with a grin.

A beeping was heard over both ships. The asteroid was under heavy fire from the verteron array and was beginning to buckle of the assault. Archer gave an order to evade and the ship banked around the asteroid. Then Octavia had an idea.

"Captain Archer," she said getting his attention. "Keep your ship behind ours. I have an Idea, standby."

She looked over to Vinyl who gave he an odd look. "What's up commander?"

The grey mare looked over the crew on the bridge, they were counting on her, she had to make sure she kept them safe. But she was afraid. Afraid of failing them and getting more of them killed. She wondered if this was the same feeling of helplessness Trixie felt when she ordered the ship to jump into a blackhole, hoping it would work.

She sighed shaking her head. She leaned back in her chair, not taking Trixie's, she felt like she didn't deserve to sit in that chair. Captains commanded authority and never faltered in their decisions. She walked over to Vinyl's station, standing beside the ivory unicorn.

"I want you to get the tractor beam online." she said bringing up a display of the asteroid. "We're going to use it as a shield to get closer to the surface of th planet, take a few of the array outlets offline." she said.

Vinyl looked at her like she grew a second head. "Are you sure, commander? This sounds dangerous."

"We're out of options. Get it done." the commander said taking her seat beside Trixie's empty chair. "Captain Archer, stay right behind us. We're going to takeout part of the array."

"Acknowledged Hydra. We'll be right behind you. Our team is ready to get underway when we clear the path."

"Understood. Stay far enough away so if this goes badly you can at least have a chance to stop this, Terra Prime.' she said tapping her chair console. The view screen went off leaving a view of the asteroid. Octavia looked over to Vinyl and Claw. "Get the tractor beam online and set a course for the planet. Lieutenant, prepare a volley of torpedoes and prepare to fire on the relay as soon as we're clear."

"Aye commander."

The grey mare took a deep breath, steeling herself for the fight ahead. This was the moment when everything came together for better or worse. So this is what it's like to command? she thought questioningly. Ready she opened a channel throughout the ship, a light whistling sound signaled the crew that a ship wide message was about to be announced.

"Attention crew, all hooves to battle stations, medical teams standby to receive casualties." she closed the link sighing. 

"Nice speech there Commander." Lyra said sarcastically.

"Oh, shut it Lyra." she snapped at the mint green mare, who was chuckling to herself. "Vinyl activate the tractor beam."

A moment later, a long green beam shot from the head of the Hydra at the surface of the large asteroid. Slowly as the ship put all of its energy into the engines it began to gain momentum. The ship shook violently for over a minute sending personnel to the floor and objects flying as the Hydra forced itself forward under the stress of the kilotons of rock.

Enterprise followed a few hundred kilometers behind, keeping a safe distance from the larger ship in case the array either broke through or they needed to make an emergency stop. The array continued firing at the asteroid, completely ignoring the strike force inbound to them.


Enterprise Bridge


Archer watched as the ship known as the Hydra, made an impressive display of moving the asteroid with relative ease. It was humbling to see such a show of force without firing a single shot. To him this was arguably more intimidating to see than a show of force. It proved that these, alien ponies were very intelligent, of course they had to be flying a ship of this caliber in space.

The sleek long shape of its hull reminded him of a straight sword with a curved edge. An elegant ship with the name of one of the most fierce monsters in all of human mythology. Human mythology. He thought about that as he watched chunks of the asteroid break off from the sides as they closed in on Mars.

The hydra, a mythical beast of ancient lore, was something they knew about. Had they visited Earth all those centuries ago? Were these aliens directly involved with Earth and its early civilizations? Then it hit him, the commander was a equine like being, perhaps they were distant cousins to Earths equine species. He made a mental note to ask about that later after this whole mess with Terra Prime was over.

"Distance?" Archer called over to a man behind him. 

A man was in a similar blue uniform looked down at his console reading the distance. "40000 kilometers and closing. The asteroid won't make it that far though." he said seeing the array was focusing on it solely. 

"Malcom, let's get ready. Don't want to keep our friends waiting."

The man at his station, Malcom, nodded leaving his station as another personnel took his place. Archer looked over to a woman with a round face, and a long black ponytail. "Hoshi, if we're not back in time you're ordered to complete your mission. Understood?"

"Yes, captain." she stuttered.

"Hoshi, we can't allow them to kill innocent lives." he said grabbing her shoulders gently. "Now, I'm leaving this up to you. Do what you have to. You have the com."

He walked back of the bridge to a large tubular shaft where the man named Malcom waited for him. The door closed and a minute later the two men were in a locker room with three others dressed in black and grey uniforms.



Two of them were male one female, were all dressed up ready for battle. The woman was fair skinned and had long black hair tied back. She had dark brown eyes and a small scar in her bottom lip. The two men were of average build and stood taller than her by a foot. The first man was dark skinned and had short curly black hair and placed a backpack on and slung his rifle on his shoulder.



The smaller of the two was a lighter skinned man with shorter blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a larger pack on his belt and filled it with explosives before he slung his rifle over his shoulder and joined the others shoulder to shoulder as Archer and Malcom made their way into the armory.

After gearing up the five humans made  their way to their shuttle bay at he bottom of the saucer section of the ship. It wasn't a massive area like the Hydra had. This was small with their shuttlepods side by side only inches apart held up by long magnetic clamps on the top of them around the pods were walkways that hugged the hull with chained flimsy ladders that descended to each shuttlepod.

The five pole ran inside with Malcom in the lead followed by the MACOS and then Archer at the rear. Just as they rounded the walkway to climb down the ladder to the pods the ship shook violently and the alarm sounded. Unlike the hydra's it was a relatively silent alarm, but loud enough to be heard. Archer nodded for them to continue when a beeping stopped him. 

He pulled out a small handheld silver colored device in his hand. The top prat was brass colored and he flipped it up holding it close to his face and spoke into it. "Archer here."

"Captain, another vessel just entered the system. It's Klingon." a voice said warning.

The ship shook once again as Archer made his way back to the turbolift. "Malcom, get the shuttle ready and head to the surface. I'll deal with this." he called form the lift.

Malcom nodded heading down the ladder into the shuttle followed by the MACOs. Archer entered the lift just as the ship shook again from a powerful impact. Pulling out his communicator he flipped it open. "

"Archer to bridge. I'm on my way make sure to protect the Hydra." he ordered.

"Acknowledged." a voice replied.

He pushed be top most button on the lift and it ascended to the bridge.


Hydra Engineering

Trixie's head was ringing. She slowly regained consciousness and rubbed her aching head. The sounds of the alarms were muffled from her daze and she was having trouble seeing. A blurred outline of another pony was before her and a large support beam. The pony was a vague yellowish color with red. In her daze, Trixie was unable to make out any other features on the pony.

She could hear the ponies voice calling out as the beam lifted in a emerald green aura. A changeling came in and pulled her out as the yellow figure dropped the beam behind her. After a good minute the medical team got there and were tending to Trixie, who had a monstrous gash on her head.

As the changeling tended to her wound the yellow pony loomed over them inspecting Trixie. 

"How is she doc?" she asked flinging her mane back.

"She'll live, but I need to get her to the medbay, but the lift is down." the changeling said lifting her up with his green magical aura. "I'll carry her there and tend to her."

"Right I'll head to the bridge." the yellow pony said running off.

She made her way to the turbolift and pried i t open with her magic. She inspected the lift and opened the top panel climbing to the top of it. She adjusted her uniform top and climbed until she got to the bridge. Once there, she pried the doors open to find the bridge in complete disarray. 

Commander Octavia was screaming at ponies as the ship shook violently as they tractored a large asteroid in front of them, pushing it somewhere. Lt. Claw was busy at his controls and Vinyl was yelling over to one of the crew ponies telling her to adjust the energy output or the tractor beam would break causing them to fly into the asteroid.

Just then Lyra poked her headset and listened intently. She looked over her station and yelled over the alarm, "Commander! New contact bearing 117 mark 002. Enterprise is on an intercept course. They say they're not friendly!"

"Gah! Can this day get any worse!" the grey mare cried smashing her arm on the chair.

Adjusting her uniform the yellow mare stepped from the turbolift shaft and walked in front of the acting commander. Octavia looked up at the new arrival with an angry glare. "Address yourself." she ordered.

The yellow mare flung her two tone red and yellow mane to the side, her cutie mark of a setting sun dawned her flank. "Lt. Sunset Shimmer reporting as ordered commander!" she said, saluting.
> New friends, Old Enemies Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Octavia eyed the mare named Sunset Shimmer. She was wearing the standard black and red style uniform of the Equis Fleet. She had a utility belt with a tricorder and a small disruptor. Her boots, like Trixies, were armor plated and had a kick spike at the tip. Her mane was red and yellow like a flame tied back in a ponytail with her bangs hanging in front of her face to the side.

All in all, Octavia was not impressed. "So, you're the new transfer?  Sunny Smiles?" she asked the new arrival.

"Yes, ma'am. But I prefer my original name Sunset Shimmer please." the pony saluted.

"Very well. Station Lt. Shimmer."

"Aye commander!" she stomped her hooves together and went to her station behind Lyra's.

Sitting in her chair, Sunset stuck her head into the console after extending a visor from it. She pressed a few buttons, not bothering to look up, and read several tactical displays. In the meantime, Octavia walked over to Lyra's station and tapped her shoulder.

"Yes, commander?" 

"Call the strike force and tell them to fall behind us so they don't get shot out of the sky," She said, showing a PDA with a flight plan. "We're going to fly towards the planet behind the asteroid and once at this point," she tapped the display which changed showing the Hydra veering off from the course to the planet. "We will fire a full volley of torpedoes and have them go to the surface while the torpedoes are the arrays main focus."

"Aye ma'am. I'll send the message out." Lyra said sending the message.

Sunset then revealed her head form the visor. "Commander, the alien craft attacking Enterprise!"

"Damn it! Tell them we'll help once we takeout the array." Octavia yelled at her.

Sunset looked shocked by the outburst, but took it as work related stress instead of personal. She then nodded silently, sending Enterprise a response.


*Enterprise Bridge moments Earlier*


Archer reached the bridge. He stepped out of the turbolift and walked over to his chair where a crewman left to relieve him. He stood looking over the bridge before he saw the tactical officer on duty, since Malcom was part of the strike force going to Mars. 

"Status report of the enemy vessel?" Archer asked sitting in his chair.

"It's a Klingon Bird of Prey sir." The tactical officer said, pulling up the view screen. 

To his left, an Asian woman with jet black hair was listening to her headset when the ship shook. "They want you sir, they say they won't destroy Enterprise if you surrender to them." The ship shook again.

"Archer is an enemy to the Empire. He must be brought to justice, if honor is to be regained." she said, looking to Archer.

"Duras." 

Archer fell into his chair as the green vessel turned and headed straight for Enterprise head on. 

"Torpedoes. maximum yield." Archer order to the tactical officer.

As the two ships came within meters of colliding with each other, the Enterprise fired a volley of three torpedoes hitting the bird of prey. It green shields fizzed as it continued to fly past firing its disruptors at Enterprises nacelles. A direct hit made the silver ship bleed plasma from the starboard nacelle. 

Enterprise banked hard to starboard as the bird of prey soared overhead. The silvery ship fired it's dorsal phase canons hitting the vessels underbelly with minimal effect. But the Klingon's weren't done yet. They turned for another pass this time targeting the Enterprises impulse engines. The green bolts of energy soared through space like vengeful daggers, hitting their marks with easy. 

"Captain, we're losing power to the impulse engines!" Mayweather said from hi station. The dark skinned man pulled back on a manual throttle bringing the ship to full speed, which was 1/2 impulse by now.

"Evasive action. Get us out of here!"

"Aye, captain." 

Mayweathers hands flew across his panel with expert precision, like that of a master surgeon. In less than two seconds the Enterprise banked heading deeper into the system towards Earth. But the Klingon's wouldn't give up easily. Ironically, the Hydra was preventing the verteron array from taking out the Klingon ship, due to having blocked it with the large asteroid.

"They're pursuing captain!" Mayweather said urgently. "We're not outrunning them sir."

"Send out a distress call for backup, Hoshi." 

"Aye captain." she said. 

In seconds she sent out a distress call, but to her dismay, it was being jammed. Outside communications were being blocked. She scanned the waves and found the source to be coming from the verteron array on Mars.

"Sir, the array is jamming all signals. I can't get a message through!" she said urgently.

"Get us back to the Hydra. Maybe our new friends can help us out." he said hopefully. 

The ship turned around as the bird of prey overshot them. It fired a torpedo but missed completely due to the ship turning, and Enterprise limped back after the Equine ship.


*Bird of Prey Bridge*


In the dark dank bridge of the bird of prey, a Klingon stood at his center chair with a look of triumph. He grinned, exposing his sharpened teeth.

"Damage report." he demanded.

One of the Klingon's in front of him was manning the ships flight controls and monitoring the shields and power. Contrary to belief, Klingon's were excellent multi-taskers. 

"Shields are holding." he said flying the bird of prey over Enterprise. 

The green bird of death soared over the ship firing it's disruptors at the engines. A direct hit left the Enterprise completely helpless. Their momentum the only thing keeping them going.

"Their engines are down, but their weapons are still online." the Klingon said.

Duras, he was a might Klingon. He stood over well over 2 meters tall. And wore a leather shoulder pad that attached to his disruptor holster on his left hip. He stood tall and proud as he watched his enemies ship come to a halt. He laughed at his victory circling his chair, as he watched. 

"Bring us about." he said, never taking his eyes off the screen. "Prepare a boarding party."


*Strike Force En Route toMars*


As the fighters and craft flew in formation behind the Hydra, the human craft close by, they awaited the signal to begin the attack. Pansy was happily humming to herself as she piloted the fighter. Scope sighed as he watched the Hydra tractor the asteroid toward the surface of the red planet below them.

He thought about what he would do if they met resistance. He was sure the humans would know they were coming. He was shaken from his thoughts, as Pansy shook him by the shoulder. 

"Hey, you alright there Scope?" she asked him calmly.

"Yeah. I was just thinking about what to do if we fight." he replied. "I'm not sure what to do."

Pansy smiled reaching over the seat and wrapped her arms around his neck. Gently she pulled him into a hug. He blushed from the intimate contact, but took no action against it. He liked it, he would even dare say he loved it. He looked at her hoof, it was large. Pansy was no fat pony, but she was a big mare. She easily was double his height and twice his weight, he was considerably small for a stallion.

He was embarrassed to have to admit it, but he was sure she'd end up saving him a lot on this mission. He was great in combat simulations, but he was very nervous. He wanted to fight. That's why he joined MARES to begin with. They were as famous as the Wonderbolts, if not more. He wanted to join so he could fight and travel the stars, see new places, meet new species. It was to be a grand adventure for him. Now, he wasn't so sure.

He shook at the thought of dying on his first mission. His armor clanked slightly as he shook. This made Pansy tighten her grip around him. She began to hum a soft tune as she began to stroke his hoof with hers. 

"It'll be alright private Scope. You'll see." she cooed to him. He smiled rubbing his nose on her arms. His muzzle ran across a patch of unprotected fur. He inhaled as he past, and the sent of summer flowers filled his nostrils. Sighing in content he looked outside to see the Hydra breaking off from the tractor beam as the asteroid split in two. Now fully awake from his stupor, he managed to clam himself and Pansy withdrew her hold on him. He frowned at her releasing him but knew she had to.

The ship turned hard left before returning to it's course towards the red planet. A volley of twenty torpedoes rained from the ships side as it turned hard to port and dogged another beam fro the array. They were so close to the planet that they could almost make out land features on it with the naked eye. The torpedoes flew across the sky down towards the surface, many were lost due to the array, but several hit their targets destroying a good portion of the array.

Pansy cheered as did all the MARES commandos when Commander Octavia ordered them to begin the assault. Pansy slapped Scope on the shoulder smiling at him.

"See? I told you we'd get through this!" She gunned the throttle sending the fighter soaring towards the surface. "Now the real fun begins."

"He-yeah. Fun." Scope said nervously.

*Hydra Bridge*

Octavia leaned back in her chair, relieved the plan had worked. The strike force was on its way to the surface and they were finally able to get a signal to them after several attempts. But it was short lived. Once the message was out, the array increased the jamming frequency halting all communications.

Octavia sighed, relaxing visibly. She allowed her shoulders to relax, her jaw and teeth were sore from biting down the entire time. She was just about to say something when Lyra spoke from her station.

"Commander!"

"Oh, what is it now!?" Octavia screamed throwing her arms up.

"The Enterprise has taken heavy damage to her engines!" Lyra exclaimed. "They're dead in the water ma'am!"

Octavia growled smashing her arm into the chair again. This time there was a visible dent in it. She stood up and walked behind 3rd of 5. 

"Get us back to Enterprise. Prepare all weapons Lt.Claw!"

"Aye ma'am. All weapons ready!" he stated proudly.

Octavia sat back in her chair watching the viewer as the red planet banked to the side and a small silhouette of two ships came into view. A green ship circled the human ship firing at it. Octavia gritted her teeth as she watched the Enterprise take the green bolts while firing back. It was very clear to her who was winning.

"Get us there faster 3rd of 5!" she yelled at the changeling. "They'll be space dust by the time we get there!"

"Aye ma'am." He increased to full impulse.

Now here was where the hydra was at a disadvantage compared to other ships, top speed. While most ships flew at an average of 1.67 impulse speed, the Hydra had only an output of .997. It was considerably slower than most vessels. In fact it was barely faster than the Enterprise. 

The Hydra flew past several asteroids as it went to the aid of its crippled ally. Octavia watched as the Enterprise took an direct blow to her starboard nacelle and began to vent plasma. She hated watching this. 

"Time to intercept?"

"Thirty seconds ma'am." Sunset replied from her station. She took detailed scans of the alien craft attacking Enterprise. It was a highly advanced ship compared to the human vessel, but not by much. She determined from her scans, that the ship was heavily shielded forward, but its aft was very weak. 

She read her console: Forward output 2.28, Starboard output: 2.43, Port output: 2.44, Aft Output: 1.57.

"Commander. I may know a weakness in the enemy vessel."

"Explain." 

"Their forwards shields are reinforced, a direct assault would most likely end in failure." she said as Octavia walked over to her station.

"We're in range ma'am." Claw said targeting the bird of prey. "Shall I open fire?"

Octavia looked over to him. She was determined to help her allies survive at all cost. It's what Trixie would have done.

"Open fire."
> Battle of Wits and Brawn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Mars Strike Force*

Scope gripped the thruster bars at the head of the fighter he was in as Pansy piloted it down to the red surface of Mars. Pansy grinned knowing she would be in the heat of battle soon. The look on the mares face would have scared Scope, had he been able to take his eyes off the console in front of him.

The unicorn mare laughed as the squadron spread apart as a beam from the Verteron Array shot past them. Several ships spun around the beam like a ball down a spiral slide, never touching it. Scope gripped his eyes shut not daring to look out the cockpit.

Pansy cackled as she brought her fighter around a large mountain formation as she ships dampeners kicked in during entry. She scanned the surface of Mars, picking up large structures giving off readings of immense energy. The Verteron array appeared moments later. The pilots flew low and blanketed the entire area around the array dispenser dishes wiping them clear off the map. This left a huge gap in the Verteron arrays firing area where it couldn't reach any ships anymore.

The strike force cheered at their victory as they landed by the main building. 

The was simple in design, like a saucer but very geometrical with flat faces. It had a long metal claw that extended out towards ti main array uplink which gave it complete control over the entire array on Mars. The strike force left it intact knowing they might need it to fight off the Klingons.

That being the case time was of the essence. Quickly landing their crafts the strike force of ponies in armor bailed out of their craft with expert precision as did the humans from the shuttle. Thirty ponies and five humans. The atmosphere was enough to keep life sustainable but the air was extremely thin on the planet. The humans had masks on to ease their breathing and the ponies had helmets on with vital suits built into their armor with the exception of Private Scope. The young stallion had to were a breather tank since his armor was too old and was missing the air recycle like the rest of his team.

The ponies moved into small groups of five, their rifle in hoof. They immediately charged silently without a word as the humans got their bearings following close behind them. Reed took point followed close by the ponies and his team in the rear. Scope stood beside Reed with Pansy behind him. They piled up at the main entrance to the station. Reed pulled out his datapad and hacked the system opening the large door which rolled to the side like a wheel.

Inside was a single human armed with a rifle, Scope picked up his rifle without thinking and fired a stun bolt hitting the human in the shoulder knocking him out. The encounter last only five seconds before the two teams piled in sealing the door behind them. On the way in Scope had his leg too far out an done of the mares tripped over him falling making all the members look at them. Reed helped the fallen pony up.

"Are you, OK?"

"I'm fine," She said haughty gripping the stallion. "You idiot watch what you're doing-"

She spun around as Pansy pushed her shoulder, making her land into the bulkhead and pinned her against it. The mares glared at each other in a stare down. Just then a beeping alerted them to the presence of another lifeform, human. Reed and several of the ponies saw the blip on their close range scanners and prepared an ambush.

The group took point in the narrow hall, which was standing only six feet high. They stood at the corner of the hall which was at a four way intersection with the blip coming from their right. As the blip came closer Reed and his team took the front and readied themselves to attack. When the beeping from their scanner was at it peek they jumped out the weapons up and ready to fire. 

What they saw seemed to surprise them. A blonde haired human unarmed, raised his arms defensively gasping at the sudden appearance of other humans. He then saw the armored ponies and pointed at them trying to form words but got nothing out. 

"Commander, glad to see you're alright," Reed greeted the human.

"Same to you, Malcom," he then pointed to the armored ponies. "Friends of yours?"

Lt. Reed looked back at them nodding. "Yeah they're helping us but right now we need to get out of here."

"No we need to take control of the array," The human named Tucker declared. "Praxton is going to use it to destroy Starfleet Headquarters and will probably take half off San Francisco with it."

Just then one of the ponies started talking into a small communicator. Putting it away the pony walked up to the lead pony a mare with yellow fur and and Orange mane. 

"Major Spitfire, the Hydra's under attack by a hostile alien craft."

"What kind of ship?" the Major asked. 

"Not one I'm familiar with. The Commander said the humans knew them. Something called Klingons."

All the ponies looked up at the humans and seeing the shocked looks on their faces said it all. 

"We have to get to the main array now!" Tucker said rushing past with Reed and the MACOs behind. 

The group of humans and ponies marched without fault through the maze of paths in the mobile station. They met almost no resistance. Tucker reported they there was only about five or six guards including Praxton himself. Seven or so in total. With this in mind the assault team of some thirty strong marched down the halls.

One guard stood alone but was quickly subdued by one of the MARES Commandos. It was the same unicorn mare that always called Scope 'beef stick'. She grinned nodding to her team as they gave  a quick cheer for her. In her display of bravado she didn't realize she left herself exposed as another human rounded the end of the hall she was in. 

Just then a blue bolt shot through the mares expose shoulder making her cry in pain as she fell.

Without thinking Scope rounded a corner where another human stood with a rifle in his hands. Bringing his own rifle up, Scope shot a red bolt into the humans head stunning him. The human fell, his rifle made a dull thud noise, as he fell to the floor.

Scope quickly dragged the downed mare behind cover, as he used his magic to hold his rifle up. Several other MAREs rounded the corner with  Lt. Malcom Reed and his team while Scope tended to his downed teammate. He pulled off her armor to see her wound bleeding badly. Quickly he put as much pressure on it to keep the wound from bleeding any more. 

The mare did her best to relax but felt tense due to the burning pain in her shoulder. But she managed to crack a smile at the stallion as he looked down at her. 

"Thanks 'beef stick'," She smiled weakly at him, earning a smile from her. 

Pansy stayed close by. She watched around as two other commandos stood by making sure no one snuck up on them. She smiled as the young stallion tended to the mare without any trouble before they joined up with the others. Both teams, pony and human, stood at the threshold of the main control room where Praxton and his men stood ready to defend their views of human supremacy.

Reed took point turning to face is newly acquainted allies. "OK, we need to be careful. There's no telling what is beyond this door."

Everyone nodded prepared to face whatever was beyond the door. 

*Hydra Bridge*

Octavia was very nervous now. The Enterprise was dead in open space and any second the Verteron Array could come to life and destroy them and the Klingons. As the Hydra darted across space the Klingon vessel came to a halt over the Enterprise. Moments later it turned to face the Hydra flying head on at it. Octavia turned in her chair to face their science officer.

"Lt. Sunny Smiles! Are you ready?"

"Yes, Commander!" The yellow mare turned to face her CO. "And the name's Sunset Shimmer ma'am. Sunny Smiles is a nickname."

Octavia cringed. She hated getting names wrong, but under all this pressure she'd forgotten that Sunset was the mares real name. "Sorry, Make sure the info is ready for Claw."

"Aye ma'am."

Sunset then returned to her monitors reading the digital readouts. She scanned the enemy ship and the readings came up the same as before. She sent the info and numbers of the ships shield readouts to Claws station who deciphered it as the following. 'Shoot front bad, shot back good.'

Octavia turned to face the viewer as the Klingon ship passed overhead shooting the Hydra with lime green bolts from its disruptors. The ship shook as red bolts returned hitting their target. The bird of preys shields absorbed the red energy bolts as it banked left. The bird of prey circled around an asteroid disappearing from sight. 

Sunset lost the signal from the digital readouts. She used a short range scanner but found nothing but the asteroid where the ship disappeared.

"Commander, I lost the ship behind that asteroid!"

Octavia turned looking rather irritated. "What do you mean you lost it?! How do you lose a ship?!"

"I think they're using the asteroid ass cover. I can't detect them while they're there." she then returned to scan again but the readings came back negative.

Octavia watched the monitor with it's tactical readout. Nothing was there but at the same time they couldn't turn away for fear of attack. So it was Octavia racked her brain for a way to defuse the situation. She sent most of her commandos to the surface but now there was no way to contact them until they captured the array. Or if they even can. Octavia thought.

"Surface contact! Energy blast incoming!"

Suddenly there was a blast from the array hitting the asteroid the Klingon vessel hid behind. The array split the asteroid in half and sent the ship itself in full retreat. The bird of prey turned hard about before it vanished into oblivion as it warped away. Octavia sighed in relief as vessel disappeared from view. she took a moment to finally relax settling down in her chair.  

But it was not to last. 

A moment later Lyra looked over from her station to her Commander. "Commander! The Enterprise is still requesting assistance! They were boarded!"

"Good lord! Why?!" Octavia bellowed. 

The grey pony turned to face the mint green mare. "What is going on over there?"

"They have Klingons in their upper decks. They need our help." Lyra replied holding the comm unit to her head.

Octavia looked really irritated now. She needed a moment to relax but now she was forced into the fray yet again. She moved up to the weapons station where Claw worked his controls. 

"Do we have any disruptors online?"

"Most are still online ma'am," Claw said with a salute.

Suddenly the alarms blared as the ship shook. Octavia looked around just as Sunset turned to face her. "Three ships approaching!"

The ship shook again as several consoles burst into flames and sparks. The shaking sent Octavia back into her seat. She gripped the chair as the ship shook again. 

"Who is it? Who's attacking us?!" Octavia barked angrily.

"Three Earth vessels."

From deeper in the system three earth vessels appeared from warp surrounding the Hydra. Each fired a bean of concentrated orange energy at the saber shaped ship. They swarmed the Hydra like flies to rotten meat. Their energy weapons hitting the larger ship from all sides. The Hydra shook violently sending the crew flying about.

Claw looked at his console and was distressed by what he saw. "Shields have failed Commander! They're targeting our weapon nodes!"

"Return fire! Disable only!" Octavia commanded. 

The Hydra came to life as it circled around trying to dodge the earth vessels fire, but failed catastrophically. But luck would have it the ships were taking heavy damage from the Hydra, but they were in far worse shape having survived three encounters thus far without repairs. 

"We have no choice retreat!"

"But ma'am the strike team isn't aboard!" Claw rebutted.

"I'm sure they'll be fine! We can come back later to get them once things settle down," Octavia looked at the view screen. "I think the humans will treat them well."

Suddenly the ships lights blacked out and the ship alarms continued to blare. Claw worked at the consoles firing all he could a the Earth vessels. But with their shields down they were vulnerable. Although the Hydra boasted well designed heavy armor it was still not able to stand the constant bombardment of three vessels.

The power to the lights out, the emergency power lights kicked on. The ship shook again as the red lights flickered again threatening to go out. 3rd of 5 clicked his wings as he ran his hooves across his panel bringing the engines to life. 

"Get us out of here! Activate the H-Drive!"

The Hydra lit up its necceles as the Earth ships charged after it firing their orange beams at the ships rear as it opened a dark vortex and vanished.

*Enterprise Bridge*

Archer was furious. 

He paced back and forth in his personal quarters. After he heard of the attack on his recently formed allies he voiced his frustration to his superiors. Once his team returned he took them to the debriefing where he learned of the ponies assistance in taking out the rouge group known as Terra Prime.

As he paced his pet beagle laid on his side as his master continued his furious line walk on the bulkhead. He was awaiting a transmission from his superiors to hear about what they were going to do with their new captives. He refused to allow them to be held prisoner due to this misunderstanding. 

So, in his typical manner as man y have come to expect of him he extended his generosity by allowing the pony strike force to stay on his ship until they found the Hydra. Once the doctor gave the, OK that they didn't carry any contagious pathogens or anything unknown the ponies were allowed to roam the ship freely so long as they didn't cause trouble.

He was just about to go to the bridge when a beeping from the ships internal communicator. He walked over to the edge of his door where the communicator was located pressing a small black button as he cleared his throat. "Archer here."

"Captain, please report to the brig." came the voice of Malcolm Reed. 

"I'm on my way." Archer replied leaving his quarters. 

When he arrived minutes later at the brig he saw Reed standing in front of the brig entrance. The man was standing alone with his arms crossed over his chest with a distressed look. Archer could tell this wasn't going to be good. He knew the look Reed had.

"What happened, Malcolm?" Archer asked him.

"There was a brawl, sir." he said entering the brig with Archer close behind. 

Inside were three separate cells in a row. To the far left was a set of two ponies one was a unicorn stallion white with his spiky red mane slicked back laying on a larger cream colored unicorn mare in her deep royal blue armor. She had his head in her lap as she pet his mane. The stallion had a black eye and a large cut across his muzzle. 

Archer took note of his condition and looked to the other cells where three other mares were being held and in the final chamber was Commander tucker. The mares were all unicorns all wearing identical armor said for their colors. Each was badly bruised and beat looking, Commander Tucker was in no better condition. 

Archer gave a weary sigh as he looked them over. All eyes turned to face him except for the stallion who looked like he was asleep. 

"What happened?" he asked.

"Well sir, it seems these three," he gestured to the three mares together. "Were antagonizing the little one there."

He pointed to the wounded stallion. 

"Apparently these three didn't like him helping during the rescue. They ganged up on him and beat him senseless. Commander Tucker was around at the time and tried to help him. They didn't take well to that." Malcolm said. He leaned closer to his Captain. "I saw them use some sort of telekinesis sir. We had to stun them just to detain them."

Archer looked at the stallion and mare in the room. "What about them?"

"They didn't resist when we moved in sir. The lady, er... mare sir only requested she be with him." he gestured to the stallion again. "I guess they're attached?"

"Attached? Isn't that against regulations?"

The smaller human shrugged. "Well sir, there's no rule saying all alien species follow the same rules we do."

Archer gave a light chuckle as he turned to see all the 'captives'. "Make sure Tucker is back on duty soon, we have a lot of damage to repair and we need him."

"Aye sir." Malcolm said as he watched his captain leave following close behind, cracking a smile.
> Nerves of Steel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out at the edge of the Sol system the Hydra emerged from a large dark vortex. Its engines once again clanking as the nacelles went dark. The ship came to a halt as the emergency thrusters stopped it from advancing further.

Octavia shook in the captains seat gripping the armrests like they were her life line. Once the ship halted, 3rd of 5 scanned the area with the assistance of Sunset Shimmer. The fire maned mare tied her hair back in a low pony tail as she continued scanning. Finding nothing but a planet and a few smaller moons she found one with a large ring around it. 

Big enough to hide the ship. She reasoned.

"Commander." she said getting Octavia's attention.

"What is it Lieutenant?"

"I found a small moon with a large enough ring where we can hide the ship." she said adjusting her uniform collar. "It would behoove us to hide while we attempted to repair the ship. We're in complete disarray and need a safe place to hide."

Octavia scrunched her nose, making a funny looking face to Sunset. She turned to face the main view screen tapping the chair. "Show me."

The display of the ship came up on the main viewer. There was no green yet again, but now there was more yellow and red indicating damage to the ship and its systems. Octavia groaned loudly in an undignified fashion burying her face in her hooves. She couldn't stand this. She hated having so much responsibility. It was maddening. 

Sunset unaware of her distress started reading off the list of damaged systems as per regulations.

"Main power is barely functioning, life support is operational, disruptors are down, all torpedo launchers are offline except of two starboard launchers and the main aft launcher." she paused to catch her breath. "Cargo bay is damaged badly and is sealed off. We have a plasma leak in the reactor, Ion cannon is still down, and the H-Drive is not operational anymore."

"Stop!" Octavia said raising only her left hoof. "Just tell me what IS working."

Sunset sighed but readjusted the computers settings to readout only functioning systems. "Main Power, previously mentioned torpedo launchers, life support," she paused at the next one. "Self destruct is still operational."  she said with a shrug.

"Oh, great! So we can just kill ourselves faster?! Isn't that wonderful?" the grey commander exclaimed madly spinning in her seat. "What else?"

"Well, the short range comm. is down but..." she paused reading the system list again and smiled. "Long range communications are up!"

"What good will that do us?" Claw said slapping his talon on the console her sat at. "We can't reach home."

"Actually I'm getting a signal from the Haymaker!" Sunset beamed.

"The Haymaker? Where are they?" Octavia called to her mint green friend.

Lyra tapped her console bringing it to life. She sent of a signal and after a few minutes of intense silence she got a response. "I got a message to the Haymaker Commander! They're on their way to assist us!" 

At this everyone on the bridge cheered. Octavia felt relieved. She slumped down into her seat and allowed herself to relax once again. "Time to intercept?"

"They'll be here in an hour." Lyra replied happily.'

"An hour? Why so long? We got her instantaneously." Octavia said incredulously.

"Perhaps the black hole was the cause of it?" Sunset offered.

Octavia sat n her chair nodding. "Great so we have to stay hidden for an hour. Do we have propulsion?"

3rd of 5 clicked his wings test firing the engines. All was good. "Engines are operational Commander!"

"Good. Lt. Shimmer you have the con." Octavia said walking to the turbolift. "I'm going to check on the Captain keep us hidden unless we run into trouble."

Sunset saluted taking position at the captains chair while Octavia entered the lift. Seeing it was still nonoperational she opened the hatch leading to the main shaft. She took hold of the railings and slowly made her ascent three decks up. Once there she pried the doors open while she stood over the shaft three decks up. 

As she pried open the doors she lost her footing sending her spiraling down. Luckily her training kicked in and she reached for the railing catching herself just quickly enough to slow her fall as she hit the turbolift. Her body made a loud think that echoed trough out the main shaft. She panted heavily, her heart was racing, and she was now sweating from the sudden scare and took a minute to recollect herself. 

Once she fully recovered she restarted her ascent once more. Reaching her destination she pushed the slightly ajar doors and slipped inside without much effort. She took moment to check herself over. Noticing some dust on her shoulders she took a moment to sweep the dust off her uniform she always took presentation seriously even in the worst of times.

Once convinced she was presentable, Octavia wandered the halls until she reached the Medbay. Upon entering she was overwhelmed by the sounds of chatter. Refugees from the doomed Jansis 12 station were aboard and all huddled in the Medbay. There were so many injured and the bay itself was in shambles. No doubt because of the recent attacks. 

The grey earth pony walked through the crowded bay until she found Trixie standing by a bench talking to Dr. Kane. Kane was a massive changeling standing at almost two meters tall. He wore a dark blue uniform with a red band across his left arm. He wore a beret of royal blue that bore his old posts insignia which was XIII.

He turned to salute the Commander as she approached. Saluting him back her returned to his talk with Trixie.

"And make sure you come back for a followup so we can make sure you're really fine afterwards." he instructed her. 

Nodding silently Trixie saluted him and turned to face her commanding counterpart. "So Commander?'

"Hmm?" the grey mare tilted her head with a curious look at her blue CO.

Trixie gave her a cheeky grin. "Tired of yelling at recruits already? Ready to have the Great and Powerful Trixie take the helm again?"

The grey earth pony scoffed sticking her nose up in the most obnoxious manner with a loud harrumph. Trixie snickered to herself as Octavia growled at her not realizing the earth pony was really upset.

Octavia suddenly stormed off pushing everyone aside as she made a bee line to the doors. They slipped open with a hiss and closed behind her leaving a bunch of angry confused ponies behind at her sudden outburst. Trixie had a look of shock on her face and hurried past the disgruntled group after her grey friend. 

Exiting the medbay Trixie craned her neck to see her friend rushing down the halls. Following close Octavia ran through the ship to her personal quarters and locked herself inside. After a quick hacking of the door lock, Trixie loved doing it even if it wasn't necessary, she opened the doors and walked past the threshold. Instantly she ducked as a potted plant flew over her head crashing into the wall behind her. 

She glanced around seeing Octavia glaring at her from atop her large queen-sized bed at the end of the room. To the left was a small nightstand made of metal built into the ships structure. To Trixie's right was a large bookshelf with tons of paper and hard covered books. This was Octavia's pride, her very own vintage collection of books. A large vintage lamp was to the right of the bed where six variations of cellos hung on the wall with their bows beside them. There was also a large vintage piano and several flutes and tin whistles the mare had collected over the years or were passed down from her family.

The unicorn looked over at the angry earth pony who was propped at the beds edge with a hateful stare. Trixie slowly walked over to the bed as Octavia turned away and crawled under a large black comforter. The mares lower body stuck out from the cover and Trixie slowly climbed on the bed and laid beside the dark lump. She looked away humming as she gently ran her hoof over Octavia's back. The mare shuddered from the touch.

"Trixie!" she screamed shooting upright glaring at her.

The blue unicorn smiled slipping part of her body under the covers settling beside the grey mare.

"Hey." 

"Hey."

Trixie glanced casually around her in the dark. "You alright, Tavi?"

"NO I'M NOT!" Octavia screamed hitting her head against the bed. "How do you do this so well?"

Trixie looked at her confused, as Octavia threw the comforter off and on the floor. "How am I good at what?"

"Commanding? Running this ship? The responsibility! Everything! How can you stand it knowing that all these lives are in your hooves!?' she screamed pulling her mane with her hooves baring her teeth. "IT'S SO NERVE RACKING!"

The unicorn reared back for the outburst nearly falling off the bed. She reached for the grey pony pulling her close. At first Octavia resisted but after a few seconds she relented allowing the gentle embrace. Octavia buried her face in mares shoulder bawling like a foal. While she cried Trixie looked over at the wall at all the various instruments. 

She then spotted a small brass penny flute that she was very familiar with. Using her magic she levitated the flute over taking hold of it in her hooves. She used her magic then to hold the flute and patted the grey ponies mane.

"Octy, it's fine. I know you were under a lot of stress. It's been tough the last 24 hours." Trixie said kissing her cheek.

"It's not fine Trixie." she hissed. "I'm not cut out for this."

Hearing her friend lose all faith in herself made Trixie burn inside. She hated seeing someone she cared for give up. She wrapped her arms around the mares waist pulling her hips closer making Octavia have to wrap her legs around her waist. This action made the grey mare smile as she latched her lips to Trixie's. The two shared a brief kiss before parting. Octavia saw the unicorns horn was glowing and saw the flute she was holding in her magic.

"You still play, Captain?" she asked kissing her again.

Trixie grinned kissing back. 'I do once in a while. Do you still play the piano?"

"I do." Octavia replied detaching herself from Trixie. 

She climbed down from the bed, slowly making her way to the old piano. It was old but well kept. She opened the lid revealing the ivory colored keys beneath. She sat by the piano and tested a few keys of varying range. Once she finished testing them she began to play Bethoovens Moonlight Sonata. 

For several minutes Octavia played, her eyes were closed and her hooves moved like they had done this since the day she was born. Her hooves hit each key with great precision of a master and the melody played was that of a small harmonic symphony to Trixie. The unicorn sat at the beds edge smiling as she listened to her friend play.

Halfway through the piece Trixie stood up and took a seat beside the earth pony who stopped playing abruptly. She glanced over to her friend who took the penny flute in her magical field placing it at her lips. And she played an old melody she knew from long ago.\

Now it was Octavia's turn to watch in awe as the mare played. 



As the unicorn played the flute, it was enhanced by her magic to reach a perfect level of resonance, as though it were being played in a empty grand hall. Once she finished and was about to loop her song Octavia stepped in playing the piano in a similar fashion. The two leaned into each other their eyes closed, as they played along in perfect harmony.  The worries of the galaxy temporarily forgotten as they played in bliss. 

Trixie thought about a lot of things as she played. But no matter what her thoughts always landed back on Octavia. She knew the earth pony mare cared for her, even loved her. But deep down she felt conflicted on whether to act on these feelings or hold them back. In either case she took this time to bond with the mare as they played together without a care in the world. Time slowed down and both could feel the others presence like they were connected through the cosmos. 

It was that perfect moment when all seemed right in perfect harmony and all seemed to come to a standstill. 

And they loved it.
> No Rest for the Weary
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a pleasant two pony performance Octavia and Trixie lay in bed together resting. The long day had worn them out but they knew it was only a matter of time before the Haymaker would appear to assist them. The crew would need them to be strong. 

Octavia wondered what Trixie had in mind for when the Haymaker arrived. If she knew Trixie she would have some crazy scheme thought up for any problem or more than likely she'd just wing it as she always did. One thing that upset the mare was Trixie's tendency to fly by the seam of her pants in everything she did. From her habit to acting impulsively, hence why they were here in the first place.

When they got back Octavia knew she'd have to tell her superiors what happened but feared telling the whole truth. She knew Trixie worked hard to get her command but it was her responsibility to report anything she felt was a danger to the crew and the ship to them. But if Trixie hadn't done what she did would the loss of life been greater?

She didn't know what to think. All she knew was she needed to get use to being in command, because Trixie wouldn't always be there to lead and as the Second Officer it would inevitably fall to her to lead the Hydra and crew in time of great peril. 

She rolled over deep in thought getting a good look at the blue mare beside her. She smiled nuzzling her. Suddenly the alarms sounded and there came a beeping from beside the bed. Trixie's personal communicator was beeping signaling a message. Trixie reached over picking it up with her magic. Holding it in her aura she let open a second layer of magic pushing the ATC.

"Trixie here."

A second voice mistakable Lyra's came from the speaker. "Captain, the Haymaker is here and we need you on the bridge ASAP. We have trouble."

"On my way!" she replied shoving the device into her uniform pocket. "Come on, Octy! Duty calls!"

"I'm right behind you!"

The two mares made their way out of the room and down the halls of the ship heading straight for the bridge. Once there, after an intense climb for Trixie, the two commanding ponies took their positions at the center of the bridge. 

"What's the situation?" Trixie asked Lyra.

"The Haymaker is under attack ma'am! It's the aliens from before." she said ominously.

Trixie and Octavia looked uneasily at one another. The aliens they defeated from before with ships that potentially had antimatter reactors of some sort. It made them feel uneasy. Trixie hit the internal comm. directing it towards engineering. After a quiet beep, she paused allowing the signal to reach its destination. 

"Bridge to Lt Commander Pie."

"Pinkie here, Captain." the pink ponies high pitched voice squealed over the speaker. 

Trixie's mane stood on end as did Octavia's to the shearing loudness of the voice over the speaker. Rubbing her ears Trixie spoke quietly into the speaker. 

"Lt. Commander, are the torpedoes ready this time?" she asked in a serious tone. 

Another brief pause passed before a calmed voice of Pinkie replied, "Yes Captain. I anticipated another attack and made weapons and shields a priority. We still don't have the ion cannon and shields are only at 68%"

Trixie nodded to Octavia who nodded back walking behind 3rd of 5, and whispered in his ear. The Hydra began to leave the asteroid ring and headed further outside the system while Trixie continued her conversation to the Lt Commander.

"Good work, Lt. Commander!" she said praising the mare.  "Now, work on the-" BOOM!

The ship shook as green bolts of energy hit the port side of the ship. Three more bolts hit its port engine while a smaller ship flew over it fleeing from two green ships identical to the one that attacked Jansis 12.

The Haymaker. It wasn't the biggest ship in the Equis fleet but it wasn't the smallest. Of all the ships in the fleet the Haymaker was unique even for its class, the NX-17D. It was a special variant of the NX-17 which boasted heavy armor and a new experimental shield design. It was one of the most heavily armored ships, even more than the Hydra. While the Hydra had better shield ratings all across the board it had about half the amount in armor. Out of all the ships in the fleet, it was the only one that didn't look like a tube of metal with rockets strapped to its side. 

The ship looked like a giant wart with two larger oval shaped ones under it as the main engines. Several smaller ones littered the main oval shaft of the craft. At the front was several antenna structures that was part to the external communication devices, before they started putting them inside the ship in the NX-19s. 

Its shields turned a blue hue as the smaller craft circled around the Hydra while the smaller green ships turned hard about staying side by side retreating some distance before turning again to face down the Hydra and the Haymaker, which was now beside the saber shaped ship. 

In the hydra's bridge Lyra was hard at work at her station when she received an incoming transmission. Slipping her headset around her neck she turn d in her seat to face her COs in their chairs. 

"Captain! Incoming transmission, its the captain of the Haymaker!"

Trixie and Octavia looked at each other nodding.

"Put it through." Trixie ordered.

Lyra quickly slipped her headset back over her ears activating the main view screen. The image of the green crafts disappeared and was replaced by one with a pony at the center. The bridge of her ship in the background looked heavily damaged. Ponies ran all over back and forth as a large panel fell from above missing the mare in the center by inches. The mare was purple with a darker purple mane with a single pink highlight.

Trixie and the mare gasped initially seeing one another, but their expressions turned to hard glares as they both did their best to burn holes in each others heads.

"Lulamoon."

"Sparkle."

*Enterprise*

Captains star log stardate November 10th 2154. Enterprise has been in pursuit of the alien craft known as the Hydra with our, hopefully equine friends. After a great and lengthy conversation with Starfleet Command, we were sent out to find them, however, their jump methods have left us with no leads. As luck would have it they reemerged just outside our listening post at Pluto.

Hopefully we'll be able to get their cremates back to them and we can discuss compensation for their invaluable services and the damage they sustained.

Commander Charles Tucker III. 

Chief Engineer of Enterprise and one of the best Engineers in all of Star Fleet.

He has served on the Enterprise all his career and had a brief stay on the USS Columbia the Enterprises sister ship commanded by Captain Erika Hernandez. He was tall and proud of his work. The engine of the Enterprise was his baby and no one dared tell him otherwise. Besides, the man practically lived in that said engine. He knew where every bolt, and beam was that he could disassemble it in his sleep if he wanted too. 

He was humming to himself as he walked along the corridors heading back to his quarters. He was happy today. His engine was in perfect condition, and his replacement was already a master of the engine. With all that, he also had a great meal the chef made for him and with a happy belly he was ready to take a nice long nap he was long overdue for.

Now, he was not one to gripe about anything. At home back on Earth he was raised to be a proper gentleman and always took what was given to him with dignity and grace. Not to mention thankful. But today would prove that even he had his limits. Captain Archer, captain of the Enterprise had mandated that several crew members would be doubling up with their equine allies. Many refused to house the, animals, in their personal quarters but Commander Tucker was happy to take a few of them in, provided they didn't stink the place up.

It took some time but a few of the crew finally gave in, some, but few, were initially willing to allow the equines into their quarters. He was happy to allow two of them to stay together in his knowing it would probably upset them if they were separated. But when he entered his quarters something seemed off.

Immediately he heard moaning and screaming coming from his bathroom. 

At first he was sure one of the equines was being hurt, possibly by one of the human crew, but then he heard loud grunts and moans from another voice, male. 

"OH, hell no." he swore under his breath. "They are not..."

He marched towards the closed door opening it. The shower was running hot. Steam ruched out hitting his face making him feel a tinge of sweat over his brow. The screams and moans intensified as he entered the steamy room. To his left the shower was on and the curtains drawn. He stood in front of the curtain with his hands on his hips shaking his head. 

He waited. For a minute until the screams got to their climax, then he quickly opened the curtains revealing two ponies, a mare and stallion, sandwiched against the wall. 

The stallion was pushing his lower body up into the mares, who was twice his height and was standing upright leaning against the wall with her tongue hanging to the side. When the curtain was drawn back the stallion squeaked loudly retracting himself from the mare who turned to face him, then Tucker with an angry scowl.

The stallion however at least had the decency to look embarrassed doing his best to cover himself while the other two had a awkward face off.

The stallion, Scope, silently crept to dry himself while Pansy growled at Tucker. "Did you really have to interrupt?!'' she bellowed at the human shaking her hoof. "I was so close!"

But Tucker didn't even flinch. Keeping his right hand cupped at his sides he turned off the shower off with his left never blinking. 

"No, there will be none of this," he gestured to the two ponies. "None! OF this in my shower or quarters! Now, I'm letting you two stay out of kindness and hospitality. All I ask is you don't go rutting each other in my shower. Take it somewhere else."

Just as the mare was about to retort, Scope scooted up to her, nuzzling her chin with his muzzle giving her a pleading look. The mare rolled her eyes pulling him closer and rubbed his mane. 

"Fine. But if you interrupt us again I'll turn you inside out." Pansy threatened. 

The human rolled his eyes walking out of the bathroom. "Just make yourselves decent and please, please don't do this again."

He then left closing the door behind him with Scope at his heels. The small stallion was about half his height and could easily be mistaken for a house pet. At the corner of the room was a pile of armor from both ponies. Their weapons were safely stored in the armory along with the human compilation of arms and weaponry. 

Taking off his jumpsuit uniform, Tucker threw it into a retractable chute were his dirty uniforms were stored until cleaned. Scope went to lay in a small makeshift bed where he and Pansy were going to sleep. The stallion stood on the bed circleing it twice before lying down curled up like a cat and watched as Tucker put on some shorts.

A minute later the human realized the pony was staring at him, making him feel exposed. 

"You mind turning around?" Tucker asked Scope, making a twirl of his hand.

It took a minute for the young pony to realize what he meant. Blushing he averted his gaze by shifting his body to where he was facing the wall.

"Sorry mate." he said quickly. "I didn't know your species was so keen on privacy."

"Well, don't you? I mean, doesn't you kind care about decency in public?"

"Actually, most ponies and, others of my home world don't usually wear clothes. They're more for the elite and the ones who do jobs that require them. Take me for example," he endeavored to explain as Tucker listened after finished dressing up. "I'm a solider, a private, in a famous military group known as MARES."

"MARES? As in a female horse?" Tucker asked without thinking.

"Actually horses are on my world but the term mares is universal for all equine species on my world." he pasued. "Are you decent?"

"Yeah, you can look now." Tucker chuckled.

Scope turned around to preposition himself on the plush bed. "As I was saying, MARES is an acronym for Mare Assault Recon and Espionage Squads. They are the best of the best all around fighter Equis has."

"Equis? Really?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is everything on your world a pun of some kind?" Tucker asked in an almost sarcastic tone.

"Not everything. There are all sorts of beings and creatures on my world." he held up his hoof as if to count on it. "Let's see there are three types of ponies, earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns."

That caught Tuckers attention. "Right I remember some of your friends were unicorns, but pegasai?"

"It's plural for a pegasus."

"Oh, right I see." he said leaning back on the bed. "Please, continue."

Tucker was indeed fascinated by the little equine. He always loved to learn about new cultures, and here he was getting the crash course. It was truly amazing how something from human lore was common on his planet, Equis.

"Now as I was saying, three pony tribes, then there are griffins, dragons but they tend to keep to themselves. Then there are like I said, horses, oh yes and of course the changelings!"

"Changelings?"

"Hmm. Perhaps I shall start from the beginning?"

"Oh, please don't bore the poor human with your dull history lessons." came a snarky voice from Pansy.

The mare had a smug grin while the stallion scowled at her. 

"My lessons aren't boring! You're just a muscle headed dunderhead!" he retorted.

Pansy rolled her eyes walking over to him and poked his forehead making him fall over. "Clutz." she said sitting beside him.

Jerkoff." Scope retorted to her.

"Bet you'd love that wouldn't you?" she asked in her best sultry voice.

That tanked it for Tucker. "That's it you've officially overstayed your welcome!"

With that he picked up the mare, her arms flailed as she screamed and kicked wildly with no effect.

"Unhoof me you ruffian! I am a dignified dainty mare! Release me at once! Scope! SCOOOPE! Help!"

The small stallion smirked waving to his friend as she was carried out of the room like a pet. She growled grinding her teeth as she swore unholy vengeance on the stallion. Tucker carried her through the ship until he reached another room. He pressed a button on the control panel making a chiming noise. Pansy was still kicking and demanding her release all up to this point. 

Now she was silent wondering what the human was going to do with her. A moment later a voice called over a speaker telling him to enter. The door slid open and inside was a small quaint room. Candles littered every corner and at the center was a large glass table with a woman sitting on her knees in front of the table. She wore long black robes and her ears and eye brows were pointed, she looked as though she was just in prayer when she was interrupted.

The woman stood up to greet her visitors. "Commander. It's agreeable to see you again."

"T'pol I have a favor to ask." he said holding out his arms and dropping Pansy on the floor.

The mare bounced once on her bottom, she rubbed the sore spot on her bum tenderly shooting a menacing glare at him before turning her attention to the woman.

"What is this?" T'pol asked looking down at the pony.

"Her names Pansy. And she's a guest along with the other equines, er... I caught her and her... partner doing-private business in my bathroom"

Pansy groaned smacking her face with her hooves. "Good lord just say it human! We were fu-"

"MATING! They were mating in mah shower. Please keep her until we reach their ship T'pol I can handle the other, but this one..." he shook his head.

The woman nodded gesturing for the mare to sit across from her, as she herself sat down on the pillow again. Pansy looked up at Tucker who also pointed to a second pillow and she made her way to sit on it. It was soft and very plush. She liked it. Shortly after T'pol introduced herself and Tucker made his way back to his quarters, where he found the stallion fast asleep. He smiled thinking the pony was almost dog like. Slowly he crept towards his bed and slipped under the covers, his head rested on the soft pillow as he thought how strange his day was.

Then again, strange was exactly what he signed up for. He lay there for ten minutes before sleep finally took him for a ride down the road to dream land.
> The Clash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Hydra Bridge*

Trixie and the purple mare were engaged in a stare off. The crew on both sides were tensely waiting for either mare to blink or make any indication they're still alive.

Finally after what felt like an eternity the two mares grinned at each other.

"Good to see you again, Captain." Trixie said smugly.

But the purple mare donned a smug look of her own making Trixie flinch. 

"That's Admiral to you, Captain." the mare replied crossing her arms leaning back in her seat.

Trixie growled but held on to her grin trying to save face.

"My apologies, Admiral." she said through her grinding teeth. "I was not aware of your promotion."

The Haymaker shook as the green ships made their way towards them. The Admiral grinned looking at her blue friend. 

"I'll let you grovel at my hooves later Trixie." her ship shook a gain. "For now we battle."

"See you then Admiral Twilight." 

The view screen went blank briefly before showing the green ships flying in formation around the two ships but kept their distance. Trixie took her place beside Octavia, scanning to see her crew around the bridge. They each gave her a knowing nod, ready to fight and defend the ship. 

Trixie made sure to get Lt. Claws attention before hand. "Ready all weapons. We're engaging the enemy."

"Aye Captain!" he said powering all weapons. "Ma'am the ion cannon is still down!"

"Irrelevant! We'll see to it that those ships were destroyed and we're heading home." she declared.

The Hydra and the Haymaker both came to life in an instant. The two ships flew side by side heading straight for the two enemy craft. The two green vessels broke apart flying outside the two equine ships. Their disruptors firing at nearly pointblank range as they skimmed the surface of the ships.

The Hydra and Haymaker returned fire dealing little damage to their assailants. Seeing they were doing little damage both  the Haymaker and the Hydra began to focus fire on a single craft. That did the trick. As the two ships came around for another pass, the Haymaker took point at the front of the Hydra and flew close to it firing a volley of bolts from its disruptors while the Hydra followed up with a volley of torpedoes. The onslaught made lucky contact with the enemies ships main reactor forcing them to turn and flee.

For a brief moment, Trixie entertained the idea of destroying them, but decided to let them go. The Admiral however had other ideas. The Haymaker loomed over the craft firing another volley from its main batteries and disabled the ship while the other cloaked, no doubt to retreat. 

But the Haymaker circled around the fleeing ship left behind, shooting out its main engine preventing it from escaping. Just when Trixie thought it was over Octavia called to Sunset Shimmer.

"Lt. Shimmer, scan that vessel get as much as you can on it, and its crew."

"Aye ma'am!' and with that the mare turned and worked on her console. 

She just initiated the scan when the Haymaker fired on the ship rupturing its outer hull. Suddenly the ship emitted a general distress call which hit the Hydras Communication officer, Lyra.

"Captain!" the mint green unicorn called out, "The vessel is sending a distress call signaling their surrender!"

"Good, whats the condition of the Haymaker?" Octavia asked.

Her answer came as the ships console beeped and Claw saw first what was happening beyond the ships hull. The Haymaker circled the first ship firing an endless barrage until it exploded into a cloud of debris. Before anyone could react the Haymaker turned on the other ship and destroyed it. The crew watched stunned as the Haymaker destroyed the ship slaughtering everyone without mercy despite signaling their surrender.

Before anyone could react, Trixie was out of her seat rushing for Lyra who was thrown from her seat as Trixie took over her station. A quick few button presses later she signaled the Hyamker and moments later Admiral Sparkle Appeared on the main view screen with her smirk. But Trixie held onto her anger as she stomped over to the view screen with a murderous look.

"What the hell was that?!"

> Long Live the Empire!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What the hell was that!?" Trixie howled at the image of 'Admiral' Twilight Sparkle.

The purple mare had a slight look of shock at first by the sudden outburst but turned to a smug grin moments later. She then stood up allowing her entire body, except her boots, come into view. She wore a tight black uniform similar to Trixies, but with some major differences. To her left side was a holster with a long straight knife on it. Several silver pins and medals donned her uniform and she had should CFFs with her Admiral Bands.

She held onto her smug grin and placing her left hoof on it and sauntered around it, not taking her eyes off the view screen.

"Now, now, Captain," she replied mockingly. "You know the rules. If you challenge me you better be ready to back it up."

Now Trixie was angry beyond reason. She started to breath in deeply expanding her chest like she was about to start screaming like a child would but made no attempt too. Instead she crushed her hoof over the communication station console, making Lyra, eep, out of fear of being struck.

Twilight cackled loudly as most of her bridge crew chuckled behind her.

"Now Trixie, watch that temper of yours. We both know Empress Celestia would hate to have to tell her sister that her prodigy student died in say, and unfortunate accident?"

"Empress?" Trixie muttered looking confused.

"well, regardless your blunder seems to have not tipped the Terrain Empire about our invasion force." the Admiral said taking her seat again leaning on her right hoof resting it on the chair arm.

"Invasion?" Octavia asked looking confused at the Admiral.

"Yes, mudpony. Invasion." Twilight growled at the grey mare. "Honestly your kind is so dumb, no wonder we use your kind as hard labor only."

"Mu-mudp-pony? MUDPONY!?" Octavia bellowed standing up. "How dare you! You stuck up-"

"Finish that scentence and I'll destroy your ship. Mudpony." Twilight threatened waving her hoof.

Claw looked down at his station when a loud beeping caught his attention. "Captain, they've locked weapons on us."

"What!?"

"I wouldn't recommend we challenge them ma'am." the griffon said wearily. "They easily outgun us three to one. Especially in our condition."

The blue captain growled stomping the steel frame floor hard. Her metal layered boot made a loud clang, as it impacted the surface. This seemed to amuse the purple pony, for she let out a hearty chuckle at the mares antics.

"Oh, dear captain. You'd best listen to the griffon he seems to be the smart one. Think of it this way, you'll always be second best." she then paused giving Trixie the most smug look of superiority she could. This made the blue mares blood boil. "But second best still ins't the best. Now rendezvous with the rest of the fleet at these coordinates. Don't screw this up or I'll have you shot, Captain."

The mare spoke the last word as sweetly as possible, but everyone knew there was venom behind it. The Admiral then smacked her chest with her right hoof and extended it straight out. "Long live the Equis Empire!"

instinctively without thinking, Trixie imitated the purple mare shouting back, "Long live the Equis Empire!"

The transmission ended leaving a view of the Haymaker on it.  The ship banked left revealing large yellow lightning bolts on the sides with a icon of a sun with a ring of fire around it. Suddenly the ship became blurry as it became transparent like a reflection in a pool of water. Seconds later it completely disappeared into the blackness leaving the Hydra behind. 

Trixie growled while her crew looked bewildered by the purple mares behavior. It was nothing like nay of them expected. Trixie however seemed unfazed. She seemed deep in thought as the crew silently went about repairing the ship. About seven minutes later, Trixie sprung to life walking over to Sunset Shimmer. The yellow mare turned to face her. 

"Captain?"

Trixie circled the console bringing herself behind the mare and whispered into her ear. "I want you to bring everything up on Twilight Sparkle. Service record, her command, everything and tell no one. Understood?"

"Yes Captain." Sunset replied obeying without hesitation. "It'll take but a moment. Standby."

Moments later Sunset had the info but nothing she had matched up with what happened. 



Name: Twilight Sparkle

Rank: Captain   Command: ESS Haymaker

Biography 

Age: 25 Primary Profession: Science Graduate 1st Class 

Early career shows Twilight Sparkle to be a sensitive and compassionate leader. Showing excellent leadership skills and an expert on diplomacy, Twilight Sparkle has been chosen as the lead negotiator of the Equis Thrane initiate. Currently missing in action along with Haymaker.




Sunset looked up at her CO pony. She read the file as well, and Trixie looked aggravated. 

"How is she an Admiral if she isn't actually one? She's a captain?"

"Apparently so. The file also says that the Haymaker and crew are missing." Sunset said quietly glancing around. "And I've never heard of this Empire she spoke of. And the Haymaker shouldn't be more powerful than this ship. The Hydra is far superior technologically speaking. Whoever that was wasn't Captain Sparkle."

"Are you certain?" Trixie asked skeptically. 

"I was her roommate back in the Academy. I'm also her childhood friend. We were actually born in the same room and our mothers were childhood friends too. Trust me, that was not Twilight Sparkle." Sunset reaffirmed.

Trixie looked to the blank view screen. "Then who was it?"






> Back to Earth?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trixie walked back to her seat taking her place beside Octavia. The grey earth pony was still shaken from the encounter with Twilight. Never had she been so cruelly spoken to by anyone. She was not sad but infuriated so that she shook in her seat. She then felt a hoof touch hers. She saw Trixie's hoof lay across hers making her feel much better instantly as she gazed at the mares warm smile. 

"It's fine, Octy." Trixie said comfortingly. 'We'll get to the bottom of this."

Octavia smiled pulling up the hoof and gave one gentle kiss before releasing it.

Trixie quickly averted her gave and put on a hard expression. "Helm, set heading back to Earth. And keep an eye out for our earth friends."

"Aye ma'am. Heading 221 mark 015. Captain," he turned back to face her. "Engineering reports H-Drive operational."

"Excellent! Set course for Earth." the unicorn ordered.

The helm changeling clicked happily complying with the order. After his ritual of running his hooves over his console the ship's engines glowed as they adjusted themselves to prepare for jump. A dark rift once again appeared before the Hydra and it slowly slipped through as the vortex vanished once the ship was through, leaving no trace they were there.

Not more than a few seconds later, another ship bearing the mark NX-01 appeared from a bright flash stopping just over where the Hydra once was. The ship circled  around the area several time orbiting the spot where the pony ship use to be.

*Enterprise Bridge*

Archer was getting antsy. He was told the ship would be here but there was no sign of it or the other ship. He stood at his chair at the center of the bridge waiting for T'pol to give him her analysis of her scans. Finding nothing here, t'pol suggested they do a deep scan of the area moments later she had the results which were staggering. 

"Captain." the Vulcan turned at her station from behind his right side. "I have the results of the scan."

"What did you find?" Archer asked walking in front of her station resting g his hands on the panel.

"Not long ago there was a slip space rupture of some sort. I'll need more time to do a more detailed analysis." she concluded. 

Archer released a deep sigh shaking his head dramatically. "Let me know what you find. In the mean time find that ship."

"Aye, sir." 

Archer checked around the bridge seeing if anything was out of place. After their encounters with the Suluban, a race of shapeshifters with uncanny invisibility capabilities, he always made a habit to search around where he was. As the saying goes, old habits die hard.

He exited the bridge heading for the turbolift and headed down to E deck to pay a visit with his guests. The trip was less than thirty seconds and he was on deck E. As soon as he exited he was greeted by a massive gathering of bodies outside the mess hall. The ponies and several of the human staff were gathered around the entryway and the hall. A sound from an accordion rang in hes ears perking his curiosity.

Archer squeezed through to find that several unicorns were in the mess performing some sort of show for them. Seven were dancing around in a circle around a eighth pony who was playing the accordion. The crew clapped in sync with the ponies who were happy as could be. Archer himself found himself grinning at the silly looking scene. 

He left heading back to the lift feeling relieved when the alarm sounded off. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks while their brains took a second to process the sound of the battle alert and ran to their stations.

"Captain Archer to the bridge." ht sound of T'pols voice called from the internal comm.

Archer quickly made his way to the bridge where T'pol was in his seat. Quickly abandoning the chair she walked to the turbolift when Archer exited. His senior staff was on the bridge manning their stations. 

"What's the problem?" he asked the vulcan.

T'pol looked uneasy, afraid even. For a vulcan that was saying something. They were a race that was well known to show little to no emotions at all. Their race were masters of suppressing their emotions. T'pol was the exception. A few years prior she'd suffered neurological damage hat made it difficult for her to suppress her emotions, but seeing her like this made him feel uneasy.

"T'pol?" Archer stepped closer to her. "What's wrong?"

She sighed looking him dead in the eyes. "Earth in under siege."

Archer was shocked. He took a moment to let the news process in his mind. Earth, under attack? In the years he'd commanded this vessel he'd gotten use to the  threat of Earth being attacked. It was once before and it was devastating, now it was under attack yet again? It was unsettling.

"By whom?"

"We don't know. But they're extremely hostile." she walked over to her station and pulled up a grid. "They've destroyed six outpost and captured Jupiter Station. The fleet has them on hold at Sector 001."

"How many ships?"

"Three sir." T'pol then sat down at her station. "We've been ordered to return to help defend Earth."

The human turned quickly returning to his chair at the center of the bridge. He spared a glance at the helmsmen from behind. "Mr. Mayweather, set a course for Earth. Maximum warp."

"Aye sir. Setting course for home, warp five point five." 

Enterprise's engines hummed to life as the ship turned heading back towards the core of the system. In a flash of light the ship was gone heading back to Earth. 

As they approached, Archer had to wonder, how was a vessel let alone three able to get past all their ships and defense posts? The aliens were either really cunning or their ships were very powerful. In either case Enterprise was going to defend her home as she had done in the past. They would repel the invaders as they have done so in the past.

And they would not fail.

*Hydra Bridge*

Lyra was hard at work monitoring the Haymaker's communication line. But it was proving to be difficult. The signal was heavily encrypted and it took her a while to get through again. What she deciphered from the message was disturbing.

There was talk about the entire fleet being present to take over Earth as a forward operating base for some sort of militaristic expansion. As she listened the Hydra was on its way to meet up with the fleet when they stopped halfway. Lyra looked up to see Trixie talking to 3rd of 5. The changeling nodded several times as she whispered into his ear.

Once finished he left his station and Trixie took over while he went to talk to Sunset Shimmer.

Lyra watched from her station pretending to be busy while she watched the crew scurry about. She could tell Octavia and Trixie were tense. Something about Twilight was bothering them. Perhaps it was her demeanor or the cruel smile she gave them. Personally she didn't like that mare, but according to what she heard Twilight seemed different. She wasn't sure, having never met the mare before, and could only assume she was much nicer than their first encounter.

Setting her attention back on her work, Lyra continued monitoring the channels of the 'Haymaker' until Trixie brought the Hydra out of the event horizon. Trixie brought up the view screen and saw two fleets engaged in heavy combat. Trixie called 3rd of 5 back to the seat and took the command chair once again. 

The battle alert alarm sounded blaring over everything as the crew readied for battle. Lyra then received a fleet wide order for the Souzun and the Lunas Revenge to attack with the Haymaker, intending to tear through the earth fleet. The three Equine ships got into a reverse triad formation, leaving then in a forty-five degree angle from one another.

Like a sword they tore through the earth vessels by focus firing on one vessel destroying it with relative ease. The other seven vessels scattered breaking formation, but one accidentally ran into the side of the right most Equine vessel, the Souzun, making both ships take heavy damage. Now all the earth vessels were focused on the Souzun making the Lunas Revenge flank them.

The battle was getting intense as both sides showed the other no mercy. The Equine vessels were plowing through a small fleet of seven earth vessels. Some of the smaller triangular vessels with two wing lie nacelles at the rear of them with their bridges located at the front of the ship were trying to out maneuver the Luans Revenge and succeeded.



Four other much larger and faster ships circled around the three Equine vessels, including the Haymaker which lead the charge. They were shaped like battleaxes from what Lyra could tell. They had long hulls with a half circular saucer section with two nacelles suspended above it by two large structures at the rear of the ship. While the smaller vessels circled around the larger ones these ships flanked them and focus fired on the lead ship, the Haymaker.



The battle wasn't going well for the Equine ships, who made a hasty retreat from the battle heading towards the systems star. Lyra received a transmission from the Haymaker, marked urgent. Opening the message she  took her headset and put it back on over her ears calling out to Trixie, "Captain. Urgent message from the Haymaker."

Trixie shook her head grasping it like it was the most delicate thing in the galaxy. 

"Put it on."

Lyra complied. The view screen came on and there was a very angry looking Twilight Sparkle there to greet them. Her bridge was in shambles, ponies were running around screaming as their alarm sounded from behind, and Twilight herself was in poor shape as well. Her left eye was cut with a monstrous gash that bled badly. Her uniform was torn and bloodied and her mane was an disheveled mess.

She growled looking at Trixie who had a calm demeanor, which seemed to only enrage her more. 

"Where were you?! We were forced to retreat because of you!" the Admiral screamed gripping her mane with her hooves. She then stomped the unseen floor making a loud clank. "You did this on purpose the high horsed glory hound!"

Although the crew was in shock by the unicorns outburst, Trixie seemed unfazed. She leaned back in her seat and rested her arms behind her head with a smug grin. 

"Well, if you trained you crew to be half as good as you then maybe this wouldn't have happened, Admiral." she said emphasizing the ponies rank on a mocking tone.

Admiral Twilight growled. She inhaled and with volume matching the Royal Canterlot voice she called out, "Flash Sentry!"

From behind her an orange pegasus in  and armored uniform ran up behind her, bowing. "Yes, Admiral!"

"Contact the main fleet. We will-"

"Admiral! earth ship inbound!"

"What another?!" the purple mare growled rubbing her mane in a furious motion.

She then looked up at Trixie with a smile. "Oh, Captain Trixie."

"Yes, Admiral?" the unicorn responded sarcastically.

"Could you be a dear, and destroy that earth vessel?" Twilight asked in a sweet tone making Trixie, and most everyone o n the bridge, gag. 

"Of course Admiral." Trixie said nodding to 3rd of 5 who turned the ship around to head towards the earth vessel. "Oh, and Admiral."

Twilight glanced at Trixie. "Watch your back, I think I see a dagger there."

Just before the view screen went blank, Twilight yelped jumping like a cat and looking behind her and shot Flash Sentry in the chest with a blast from her horn. The violet beam struck him dead center of his chest sending him flying to the back of the bridge just as the screen went blank.

Octavia frowned at Trixie who was chuckling to herself. The grey mare looked over at Lyra. The mint green unicorn was too busy watching Trixie she didn't notice her staring at her. 

"Miss LYRA!"Lyra nearly jumped out her seat, as Octavia's sharp call to her snapped her out of the stare.

"Ye-yes Commander?!" she replied saluting from her seat.

Trixie thought it was adorable the way she saluted from her awkward sitting position on her seat. While most sat on the seats with their bodies and legs on the seat, Lyra had a habit of sitting with her legs hanging down off the seat. In cases like this she'd have to use her magic to hold herself on the seat because her uniform would make her slip out of it otherwise. 

Octavia however was to amused. "Scan the communication frequencies and find out what's going on with the rest of the fleet."

"Aye, Commander!" Lyra replied and continued scanning.

Meanwhile Trixie was deep in thought. She wondered if the earth vessel that helped them was here or out there somewhere. They needed allies and she and her crew had no notice from home about an invasion. Then again, it could all be a misunderstanding. The vessels from the station back in their home system were destroyed in a black hole leaving no evidence behind. The invasion could have easily been a retaliatory strike.

They cold have tracked the Hydra to this system and thought they were being attack by the humans. But that didn't explain what was wrong with Twilight. She was unusually vicious. It wasn't like her.

"Captain, the earth vessel Enterprise has just appeared on sensors!"

Trixie and Octavia looked over at Claw. He was facing down at his console scanning the Enterprise which read it was on full battle alert status, hull armor charged and weapons loaded and ready for use. "They're weapons are charged ma'am. Should I arm our weapons?"

Trixie pondered this question leaning on her chin with her left arm. Octavia wasn't sure what she would have done had she been in Trixie's position. After everything that happened in the last day, she had a greater respect for her Captain knowing the heavy weight of her decisions had on the crew and the ship. It was so much responsibility.

Now, it was up to Trixie to decide whether to make enemies with the Earthlings or to side with them against their own kind. She wasn't sure if she could even make such a decision. War would lead to so much death, yet that is what the Admiral clearly wanted. Something was amiss, the thre grey earth pony knew it.

It seemed Trixie did too. She leaned upright adjusting her shirt to straighten out a wrinkle around her waist. Octavia recognized this tick she had when she made a deep decision. Whatever Trixie was about to say, there was no changing her mind.

"Claw, do not charge weapons." she waited for him to respond before turning her attention to Lyra. "Comm. officer, contact the Earth vessel."

"Aye ma'am."

A few seconds of scanning and Lyra found the signal to the Earth vessel in question. To her surprise it was Enterprise. IN a happy tone she threw her headset off and waved to Trixie and Octavia. "Commander! I found them! It's the Enterprise!"
> Preperation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trixie stared at Lyra with a happy relieved look. Finally some good news. She waved her hoof at her mint green friend signaling her to open a communication line with them. Moments later the viewscreen was active with a very disgruntled Archer on it. 

"Captain Lulamoon."

"Captain Archer." Trixie replied in a bored tone. "So, what brings you here?"

Archer gave the mare an unamsued stare. Letting out a heavy sigh he shrugged his shoulders shaking his head. Trixie chuckled covering her mouth.

"It would seem we have a misunderstanding. We need to end this fight as soon as possible." he said in an irritated tone.

This made Trixie frown. "I couldn't agree more. I need access to you communication HUB."

"What for?"

"Ours is damaged beyond repair. It'll be fast if we send a subspace message to you and have your ship amplify it so we can contact our home world."

'Captain!"

All eyes turned to Octavia who had a worrisome look on her face. "Could I speak to you in private for a moment? Before, we send the message?"

Trixie nodded. "Captain Archer, we'll setup the link to  you I'll be back in a minute."

"Of course."

The two officer ponies retreated to Trixie's private room to the left side of the bridge where Octavia spun around the second the door closed behind them. 

"What are you thinking?"

The unicorn furrowed her brow. "I'm thinking about a lot of things now, be more specific."

"Telling them where our homeworld is? Are you insane? What if they retaliate?! You saw what that human Praxton did to his own kind! What if he gets hold of some super weapon and attacks home?"

Trixie smacked her head with her hoof, dragging it down her muzzle. "Do you think I didn't think about that? We have no choice."

Octavia was about to object, but Trixie held a hoof up silencing her. 

"First off, we're in bad shape and if the fleet is here we need to signal EQSC and tell them the humans are our allies and work out negotiations."

Octavia stood in place with a slack jaw expression. Trixie took her silence as her queue to continue. 

"On top of that, the ship is too heavily damaged and we'd never make it back on our own." Trixie turned to face the door behind her. "Besides, something isn't right. Twilight is MIA and so is the Haymaker. And I know her. She not like this."

"You knew her?" Octavia asked tilting her head. "I remember you two talking like you knew each other, but how do you know her?"

'I knew her back at the Academy. She's a smart, driven individual. That pony wasn't her. It was a poser or an impostor." She turned towards the door using her magic to activate the open switch making the door slide to the side. "I will find out the meaning behind this madness and then put an end to it."

She exited the room and reentered the bridge where Archer was still standing silently waiting on the viewscreen. As Trixie approached her chair she gave a nod to Lyra who unmuted the sound allowing Trixie to speak to Archer. 

"Sorry about that Captain." she said taking her seat, Octavia by her side. "My first officer wanted to voice her concerns to me about trusting you with such... sensitive information."

'I understand. We're ready to receive the signal and send it to your homeworld." he paused before adding, "And I promise, your people won't suffer for this attack. Earth won't retaliate for this."

"Thank you, Captain Archer." Trixie said bowing to him, he nodded in response.

Octavia, unwillingly, turned to face Lyra. "Lyra, send the signal. Message Priority A23. Military assets required."

"Yes, Commander!" she replied with a salute. 

Lyra frowned as she readied the message. She knew Priority A23 was a call to arms for an invading fleet. It was suppose to be used for defending the homeworld, but in this case it was a cry for help. Once the message was ready, she turned to her commanding officers before sending it. It was proper protocol to always gain permission to send any transmission before hand, even if told to do so.

"Message ready, Commander."

"Excellent. Send it to Enterprise and have them send it." Trixie quickly said clapping her hooves together. 

Octavia however, seemed unsettled and Trixie noticed. Archer looked to his side nodding to someone off screen. "The message has been sent. It could be a while before we get any response."

The blue unicorn shook her head. "Never mind that, once our home receives the message it'll be a short time before help arrives. We'll have to buy some time, however."

Trixie bent over laying her chin on her arm rest. She sighed looking very bored, but Octavia and Lyra both knew she only did that if she was truly upset or worried about something. She suddenly sat upright when Lyra said, "Message has been sent Captain."

"Great now we stall. Contact Enterprise tell them we'll support them against any threats. And tell Archer to get our people back."

"Aye."

A few minutes later, Enterprise had transported all of the Hydra's personnel back and most of their ships. Spitfire reported to the debriefing room shortly after arriving. She sat across from Trixie in the rectangular room, Octavia commanded the bridge in her absence. Eager to hear of her victory Trixie leaned over the table with an excited look asking, "So, what happened Spitfire?"

The armored pegasus grinned leaning back in her seat with a cocky look. "We had those humans on the run! It was truly epic! Songs will be sung of this day for generations to come!"

"Well, maybe not yet Major. We still have a lot of ground to cover." Trixie said in a serious tone. "Seems the homeworld wants to invade and conquer the humans."

"What?!" Spitfire yelled nearly jumping from her seat. "Invasion? Why?"

"I don't know," Trixie said with a shrug. "All I know is we need to find out what's going on and find a way to prevent this situation from escalating."

"Why don't we just contact Equis Command?" Spitfire asked.

"We sent a message but we had to piggyback it on the Human ship using a subspace transceiver. But we won't get backup or a response for sometime. But that's not what worries me."

The Major cocked her head in wonder. 

"It's what Admiral Sparkle said about the Equis Empire. I think she might be suffering some sort of trauma." Trixie said.

"Trauma? You mean you think she's delusional?" the pegasus asked.

"No, I think she might be an impostor."

"Changeling?"

"It's possible. But I need to know for sure. In the meantime we will be monitoring the ships and respond accordingly." Trixie stood and walked behind the mare. "I need you to have all the commandos ready at a moments notice. Armed and ready 24/7. Understood? Until this is over we will act as though we're at war."

"Aye, Captian." Spitfire saluted leaving the room.

She used her wing to open the door, by pressing the open switch. She stopped in the doorway for a moment before calling to Trixie, "Hey, you doing alright, hon?"

"Yeah," the unicorn sighed. "It's been stressful. I need-"

"Bridge to Trixie!" the sound of Octavia's voice echoed over the speakers.

Trixie immediately jumped from her seat and ran to the internal comm. turning it on with her magic before she even got there. "This is Trixie, bridge what's going on?"

*Haymaker*

Admiral Twilight sat in her chair tapping her hoof at her chin. She was waiting for something. As she sat there she pondered what to do next against the humans. The Empress was expecting results and this was taking longer than expected.

"Their ships are more numerous than we anticipated. But weaker." she whispered under her breath.

Admiral Twilight was in a bad mood. News of her earlier defeat ran through the ship and the rest of her fleet. Now, her command was in jeopardy with her first officer gunning for her.

"Admiral."

Speaking of the devil. Beside her was Captain Derpy Hooves. The grey pegasus was a warrior at heart and vicious when dealing with her enemies and just as merciless with those under her command. She was also the violet unicorns second in command. He long blonde mane shined like a well polished hull and her one lazy eye was complimented by her right eye-patch that covered over a massive scar that ran across her face.

She wore a black uniform like Twilight's with a knife sheathed boot and a golden tiara with a red and yellow sun at the top. She had a silly grin as she greeted her superior officer. Twilight hated that look.

"What is it, Captain?" Venom clearly laced in her voice.

"We just received a communique from Lunas Revenge, the Hydra isn't ours. It this realities. Ours is still missing." Derpy said, flinging her mane to the side with her hoof in a snooty manner.

Twilight looked over the mare incredulously. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"I'm sure." Derpy replied sarcastically. "What do you think I was born yesterday?"

The tone of her voice made Twilight growl. "We're you anypony else I'd show you to the airlock. Get back to your ship and signal the fleet to prepare for the attack!"

"Yes, Admiral!" Derpy saluted and flew off.

Twilight sighed smashing her hoof against her chair arm. A pony mare to her left with a large headset turned to face her, hearing her slam her hoof down. She was a yellow pegasus mare with a long pink mare and tail. She wore a bright pink uniform in contrast to everyone else dark black uniforms. 

She had a very timid expression and looked fearfully around her as another pony approached her station. The pony in question jumped slightly when a hoof tapped her shoulder. She let out a loud squeak covering herself from the pony. Twilight shook her head at the miserable sight. A mare in the Empire needed to be strong and brave. Fearless even. 

That mare, Fluttershy was a coward in the worst possible way. And she was stuck on her ship.

Before long one of the other officers received a signal from the Lunas Revenge. 

Twilight nodded not bothering to look at the pony. "Good, good. Signal the fleet! Tell them to engage all earth vessels!"

The officer pony hesitated, looking back at his purple officer. "But, ma'am, the Hydra is there with them."

"Irreverent. Trixie has sided with them against us. We'll show her what happens to traitors." the mare said in a bored tone inspecting her booted hoof.

"Aye."

Moments later the signal was sent a mass of ships emerged from the back of the Sol Star. Admiral Twilight grinned. She knew they had both superior numbers and tech against the humans. It was only a matter of time before they fell.

She pulled up a tactical display showing the system like a green and red grid. The green was where her ships were and the red was either neutral or enemy ships were present. She was sure she'd have the system by the end of the next Sol Cycle. It was a Commanders duty to the Empire to be fierce and deadly. Victory was all that mattered now. Otherwise the Empress would be displeased.

Twilight cringed at an old memory of her mentor becoming angry. It sent a chill down her spine making her shiver.

And nopony liked it when she was displeased. It usually meant they'd die.

From outside the ISS Haymaker there was a cloud of ships emerging over the sun. No doubt the humans were in full panic now at the sight of over two-hundred ships both Equine AND others. Several green vessels flew side by side with the Equine ships. Their figures familiar to most in this quadrant, the human had very little contact with them and each encounter was more fierce than the last.

Romulans. 

The two fleets merged into one leading a charge towards Earth, who only had forty ships at their disposal. Admiral Twilight cackled in her seat spinning in it like a madmare exclaiming, "It's a good day to die!"

she paused dramatically staring at the screen with a view of Earth. "A good day to die if you're a human." she finished with a sneer.


> Battle for Earth Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trixie watched the main view screen on the bridge of her ship. A mass of some one-hundred ships amassed over Earths sun and were flying towards them and the Earth fleet. From what time they had Trixie was able to learn about the green ships and who they were. Archer claimed they were a cousin species of sorts to the Vulcans apparently a close equivalent to the Equine Thrane. Very logical and philosophical people but their cousins the Romulans were more warlike and volatile.

It was a brief talk but the information could prove invaluable later.

Enterprise provided detailed scans of the ships which wasn't much but it at least told them the ships weapons and structural outline. But the scans also confirmed their initial scans of the Romulan vessels, they were in fact on par with the Hydra. They outgunned all the human ships two to one. Unfortunately the Romulans had numbers on their side while the Hydra and humans didn't.

It was going to be an uphill battle.

But Trixie always took her challenges head on.

But she knew she'd have to find a way to stall the enemy fleet until help arrived. Archer and his crew were not able to send a distress signal out before the fleet jammed their communications. So that left only the Equis fleet and there was no guarantee they'd arrive in time. If at all. They had no way of telling if their message was received or not until they either got a response or help arrived.

It would be difficulty, but Trixie had every confidence in her crew and the ship. 

She watched as the Federation ships lined up in a large diamond formation and flew a few kilometers before coming to a halt. They stood vigilant like a loyal guard to his master ready to fight and protect till the last fell. The Hydra stood by the Enterprise and her sister ship, USS Columbia. The two large saucer ships flanked the Hydra waiting for the signal the charge.

She'd sent Octavia to the hangar to help coordinate the troops and crew during the attack. It was a chance for her to get use to commanding under a battle without having to make any big decisions. 

Trixie had every faith in her. 

"Captain! The fleet is beginning the charge!"3rd of 5, called out. "Should we follow?"

"No," Trixie said pausing for dramatic effect. "We will lead the charge. Full speed ahead!"

"Aye!"

Suddenly the Starfleet vessels charged forward towards the enemy fleet. On Trixies order to charge the Hydra came to life hurling towards the enemy command ship, the Haymaker. Instantly mayhem took hold. Chaos and destruction befell both sides as waves of plasma and torpedoes flew past hitting ship after ship. Around the Empire/Romulan fleet the Empire ships lead the charge.

The plasma torpedoes from the Romulans flew past the Empire ships hitting the human ships dead on. Out of the fifty or so human vessels three immediately went up in flames as six to five torpedoes hit each of them. The balls of plasma tore through their primitive hull plating destroying them almost instantly.

The third was hit hard off its port, which tore the port half of the ship off sending it colliding into the ship beside it. This chain of events sent both ships flying into the lead ship, destroying all three at once.

On Starfleets side they focus fired in groups. Groups of eight ships each focused on one target launching torpedoes onto the lead vessels either heavily damaging them. This sent two ships ablaze while the rest had their shields destroyed and left them vulnerable. A second wave of torpedoes later the ships leading hadn't had time to rearrange their ranks and were torn apart from the torpedoes.

Then things got really chaotic.

When the two fleets merged together several vessels scattered while many ended up flying into one another. The Romulans managed to lose the fewest ships due to their extreme maneuverability. The Empire and Starfleet vessels weren't so lucky. Several flew into each other but the Hydra and Haymaker managed to find each other in the chaos. 

On the Haymaker, Admiral Twilight cackled like a madmare at the sight of Trixie's ship. She kicked her legs out like a excited kid as it turned tail to flee.

"Kee, kee, kee... Oh look at her flee! The coward!" she squealed with glee. "After the Hydra! Don't let them escape!"

The Haymaker flew recklessly through the colliding fleets chasing after the Hydra.

Due to its massive size and engine output the larger vessel was unable to keep pace with the elusive vessel. Though the Hydra was only smaller by a fraction in comparison it had a larger engine output than the Haymaker and was lost among the fleet of vessels.

The violet unicorn growled gripping her seat leaning forward as far as she physically could. The angered look in her eyes seemed as though they could kill any who dared look at them. She scanned each vessel but quickly realized the Hydra was gone for now. She grunted smashing her hoof on the chair making the crew around her jump in fright. She turned to face the weapons pony behind her yelling, "Find the Hydra! I want the destroyed!"

The pony in question was an earth pony stallion. He was brown with white spots all over him and wore a red vest top with his rank on the left chest. He nodded to Admiral Twilight nervously before he began to scan for the Hydra's signature. Due to the mass amount of vessels, finding a signature in this was going to be a monumental task for anyone. But no one ever said, no, to Admiral Twilight. Unless they had  a death wish.

To his surprise, he found the vessel in question rather quick. To quickly for his liking. It was then he realized where the signature was coming from behind them.

He quickly tried to target the now pursuing ship but not before the Hydra managed to fire a full torpedo volley at them from behind. Ten orange and red hued photons of death flew straight and true hitting their intended target, but the shields of the Haymaker minimized the damage to almost nothing.

Despite taking little to no damage, Twilight became furious. She smacked her arm against her chair several times like an angry child having a tantrum. She stood up and walked beside the weapon pony as he cowered from her advancing on him. She lit her horn and focused on the Hydra. Her aura stretched out wrapping itself around the whole ship. A bead of sweat ran down her brow as she gave in all her focus on her magic. 

She then condensed it down onto the Hydra until she could feel her magic pushing through the shields. She then took control of the weapons and used her hoof to guide the targeting system onto the weak points in the shields. The Hydra was elusive but Twilight was exercising great patience as she focused on the magical weak points she made. She waited for an opening, while the pursuing ship fired on them with its disruptors hammering the shields constantly making the ship shake.

Twilight waited.

Her crew began to grow concerned with her inaction. 

The Haymaker swerved out of the way of two Earth vessels that tried to attack head on. The smaller vessels split off, one flew left the other to the right, and both came about flanking the Hydra from both sides. Together the three ships fired on the Haymaker doing serious damage to the shields, still Twilight didn't fire. The weapon system pony glanced down at his station seeing the shields dwindle down from the punishment. 80%... 66%... 51%.

He was scared that the Admiral was trying to kill them all.

Suddenly she fired a torpedo which was launched from a rear launcher. With great precision the weapon homed in on the layer of magic Admiral Twilight setup on  the Hydra, hitting a weak point in the ships shields. The red torpedo grinned against the shield bending it inwards for two seconds, then it broke through the energy barrier and hit the main hangar.

On the Hydra, everything shook violently and the lights flickered after the impact. The alarm sounded, signalling a structural failure in the ship.

Sunset scanned the ship for structural damage then reported, "Heavy damage to the hangar bay and a loss of ten personnel, Captain."

"Bring us about! Take cover in the fleets!"

3rd of 5, nodded obeying his captain. He turned the ship hard to starboard, and flew the ship into the mayhem of the intermingling fleets. Fortuneatley the lost the Haymaker, but flew straight into a death trap. One Starfleet vessel had lost one of its nacelles and was spiraling out of control when the Hydra came by, and clipped its side. 

The small 

Lt. Claw looked over the readings from the impact with a startled look. "Captain! Port shields have taken quite a beating! They're down to five percent!"

"Get us out of here! And reroute power to the shields and equalize them!" Trixie turned to Lyra. "Send a signal out to Enterprise! We need to focus on the Haymaker!"

"Aye!"

While Lyra managed the signal to Enterprise, Sunset Shimmer scanned the Haymaker. She found a magical surge coming from the bridge of the Haymaker. She scanned the reading and it match the magical signature used by unicorns. She was sure it was the cause of the Haymakers  successful counter attack on them.

She stood up, using her magic to steady herself as the ship took another hit from the Haymaker, she made her way to the turbolift and entered. 

"Captain, I'll be in engineering. I might have a way to disable the Haymaker."

Trixie grinned approvingly. "Great work Sunny Smiles! See to it!"

"I hate that name." Sunset grumbled as the door closed and she descended to engineering.
> Battle for Earth Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Sunset descended into engineering, everyone was running around trying to keep the ship together. Pinkie was on one of the overhanging platform giving precise orders to other members of engineering.

Sunset was amazed by the chaos that took hold of everyone there. It wasn't from panic or fear that ponies scowered about like rats, it was determination. Each knew what needed to be done and did their designated tasks without question. Earth ponies were throwing gear and equipment to unicorns who lifted them with magic to their places while pegasi all flew around securing rigs in place.

Sunset glanced around at the chaotic pace everyone was going. After she entered main engineering she wasn't able to take a single step without nearly colliding with another pony at some point. At first a pegasi nearly ran her down flying past the entryway and slipped past two others with a large coil in his arms. Sunset had to step back into the turbolift just to avoid him. 

Next, she was nearly pinned by a large support beam being lifted by a group of unicorns. The support beam flew towards her and clamped itself against a large bulkhead and was soldered in place by a pegasi team. This dance went on for well over a minute, putting Sunset on edge. Finally after pinpointing Pinkie Pie, she used her magic and teleported up to the overhang where the pink pony was yelling to her teams.

Sunset popped into place behind her, seemingly oblivious, officer.

"Skips! Make sure that bulkhead is secure!" Pinkie said to a pegasus crewpony.

"Aye!" he saluted to her, finishing his work.

The pink pony turned to the group of unicorns who were using their magic to hold the support beam that nearly pinned Sunset. "Make sure you five got that! I don't want anyone getting crushed! Got it?" she asked as the ship shook from impact.

The unicorns clenched their eyes as they held the beam in place after the ship shook, but each gave her a nervous smile reassuring her they had it. Afterwards Pinkie turned to Sunset and saluted her.

"Ma'am. Lt Commander Pinkie Pie at your service."

Sunset saluted back.  "You realize you outrank me right, ma'am?"

"Oh, of course silly!" Pinkie squealed snorting as she laughed, bouncing slightly. "But we're all friends here! So, what 's up?"

"I need access to the ion cannon maintenance shaft." Sunset said walking past the pink pony, putting on a utility harness.

"Why do you need to get in there?"

"I need the Power core of the canon." Sunset replied flatly.

"Why would you need a J-77 power core?" Pinkie asked tilting her body around the mare so she could see her face.

Sunset sighed saying, "So we can disable the enemy flagship and turn the tide of the battle in our favor before we lose more lives, Lieutenant Commander."

Pinkie stood still for a moment. Her pink body shivered sporadically and expanded like a oversized balloon animal before she deflated back to her normal self. She shook her head while Sunset continued to work on her harness, not noticing the ponies body spasm. Pinkie hummed to herself while Sunset finished her harness and walked to the maintenance shaft to that lead to the ion canon. There she stopped by a shielded door where she waited. 

Pinkie still hummed to herself before she realized the yellow unicorn was waiting for her to open the door.

"OH!"

In a flash of pink the pony dashed over to the main console by the sealed doors, and pressed one big yellow button that made the doors slide open. Next thing Sunset knew, there was a loud explosion as the doors suddenly shot open and a large blue canon fired at her, splattering a large cake all over her. 

Sunset's eyes opened wide. The cake splattered all over her slowly crumpled off of her. She gave the canon a hateful glare before turning to her CO pony and asked, "Why is this here?"

Pinkie laughed saying, "Silly Sunny, I always keep my party cannon nearby! Yo never know when you'll need it!"

BOOM! The ship shook again and all the world seem to come rushing back full force on Sunset, who slowly began to panic. "Lt. Commander, I need to get in there without anymore distractions. Is there anything else I should know about before I enter this, party filled deathtrap?" she asked spitefully. 

"Hmmm. Nope!" Pinkie replied with a toothy grin.

"Very well." 

Sunset then entered the maintenance shaft, crawling down on her stomach into the dark narrow passage. The pink pony then donned a look of concern. She tapped her chin looking around like she forgot something important. "Hmmm." She hummed to herself, as a massive explosion sent three crewponies flying down from the upper deck colliding with two pegasi who then fell onto one of the support struts.

Two more ponies ran to help them while the alarms blared all around, and Lt. Commander Pinkie Pie sat in her spot wondering what she forgot. Shrugging to herself she bounced over to the downed crew members and offered her assistance. Once the injured ponies were clear and taken to the med-bay, Pinkie got hold of a zebra maintenance member and pulled a large device from her hair and gave it to her. 

"Could you pleaaaassee, take this J-77 core to the armory to be stored there Star Stripe?" she asked the zebra mare.

"Sure thing Lt. Commander Pie!" she said in a surprisingly happy tone. One other crew pony saw the exchange and made a whispered comment to another, 'It's like there's two of them.' The other nodded in agreement.

"Thanks!"

And with that the zebra ran off deeper into he ships to the armory to store the ion canon core there, leaving Pinkie to her work. 

Meanwhile in the maintenance shaft, Sunset struggled against the narrow passage until she hit a four way cross shaft. The ship shook again, making the lights flicker before they completely died out. Sunset gasped, feeling trapped, she pulled out a small device from her harness and activated it. A short beep later a neo green light illuminated the passage. The dark path hissed when a vent line broke releasing  high pressured gas from it. She yelped, colliding with the upper part of the shaft. 

In her fright, she managed to hit her head on the shaft leaving a sore sensation in her head. Rubbing her head she slowly crept down the left shaft and deeper into he darkness. A few minutes later she managed to get to her destination. The main structure to the ion cannon. The main hub of the cannon was a power relay that supplied power to the main emitter outside the ship.

She slowly crawled forward, her breathing became erratic from the dark confined space. Quickly she pulled out her PDA and accessed her main HUB. 




/// System Error ///

System reboot in progress. Please wait

......

Power relay heavily damaged. Ion Cannon offline.




"Useless piece of junk." she cursed, pressing in her override code.




/// System Error ///

Code override denied.

Command ICN Input: SunnySmiles A22474.

Processing.... System override access granted. Ion cannon subsystem now accessible. /// Warning! /// Main power supply for Ion cannon not found. 







Sunset stared at the PDA for several seconds. A burning rage flared up inside her as she slowly began to shiver, grinding her teeth together she smashed her PDA against the bulkhead spewing out curses and vulgarities that no dignified lady would say to anypony. But she was no lady.
> Battle for Earth Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The battle continued on over the Earth. Archer was on the bridge of the Enterprise and just got word from his comm. officer Hoshi saying the Hydra was calling for help. Quickly and decisively he gave the order for Enterprise to alter course and find their equine friends in the fray. The human ship maneuvered carefully through the colliding fleets, which now were meshed together.

The Romulans flew in large formations of seven ships cutting through Starfleet ships with ease. In retaliation the Starfleet ships focus fired on the lead ships. The damage this caused forced the lead Romulan warbird to break formation which shattered the entire squadron together. Enterprise was lucky when one such formation scattered when the lead ship was destroyed. The green birdlike ships flew in every direction while the debris from the lead ship hit the flanking warbirds as well as the Enterprise.

The masses of green metal hit the human ship shaking its very foundation. 

The lights flickered all across the ship as power surged through it's frame. On the bridge of Enterprise the alarms blared loudly for all to hear. Archer gripped his chair tightly as if afraid he'd fly out of it at a moments notice. Straightening himself Archer yelled over the alarms to get the attention of his Tactical Officer Reed. 

"Malcom! Damage report!" Archer called to him.

"Damage is minimal but I wouldn't recommend we get hit again sir. Hull plating might not last another hit like that." he warned Archer.

"We'll make due. Reinforce the hull plating and ready torpedoes." 

Malcom nodded and prepared both torpedo launchers with high yield torpedoes and then reinforced the hull by diverting power from their phase cannons to the hull plating. A common practice for humans but not for many other races. The added power to the hull came no a second too soon. For after power was diverted another warbird came from above the Enterprise and shot the hull. Damage was done but not enough to stop the Enterprise. 

Flying past the birdlike ships flew though the fleet easily evading fire as it nimbly maneuvered around the massive Empire and Starfleet ships. Overall the battle was going poorly for Starfleet. Despite their best efforts they were simply outnumbered and stood no chance against the might of the Romulans and the Empire.

Archer was beginning to worry that this was going to be the end of Starfleet. Though they had been lucky so far it seemed luck was finally running out for the human race. He leaned back in his chair and was about to order a long range scan but Malcom yelled saying, "Captain! I found our friends!"

Not missing a beat Archer ran over to his tactical officers station, standing close by and leaning into Malcom's ear. "Pin point their location."

"Aye sir."

"Mr. Mayweather. Let' go find our friends."

And just like that the Enterprise was on course to help their newly appointed allies.

*Hydra*

Sunset was making her way back to the main engineering hub when she came across a zebra in a grey uniform skipping along the hallways happy as can be. She had a long grey and black striped tail and a short spiky mane unlike the traditional Mohawk zebras usually had. On her head bounced what the yellow mare sought. 

"Excuse me crewmare!" Sunset called to her.

The zebra stopped midjump suspended for four seconds looking at Sunset who was gawking at her. The zebra fell slowly down to the ship just as it shook and the alarms began blaring again. Sunset fell to the floor hitting her head on the walkway but the zebra managed to stay in place perfectly, keeping her silly smile.

"What can I do for you ma'am?" she asked.

Sunset got up of he floor to dust herself off. "I'm looking for that device on your head. Please relinquish it to me."

"Sure Lieutenant!" the mare said offering the small device. "What do you need it for?"

"I'm going to give it to our enemy." Sunset said darkly.

The zebra cocked her head with a worried look. "If I may be so bold ma'am, why give it to our enemies?"

"Oh I think you'll like what I have in mind. It'll be a blast." 

"Oh well, OK! I have to get to engineering. Be careful with that m'am!" the zebra said skipping along down the hallway.

Sunset shivered at the thought of Pinkie Pie and the zebra in the same room. *Scary.* The ship shook again and Sunset quickly ran opposite of the zebra mare and down towards the turbolift. She quickly pressed the call button and waited impatiently as it came down with a *beep!*
Entering the lift Sunset set for the hangar pulling out her communicator. 

"Lieutenant Sunset to bridge." 

...

"..."

......

"...... ugh. Lieutenant SUNNY SMILES to bridge."

"Lieutenant! Trixie hopes you have your plan in motion! we're getting creamed!" *BOOM!* DEET! DEET!* "See?! Now what 's our plan?"

Sunset scoffed with a grin, not realizing there was a set of eyes behind her. "I got the J-77 power core ma'am. I'm gonna give it to the enemy flagship and blow them sky high with the XO-1 Saber Craft."

There was a brief pause before Trixie's voice replied over the comm. device, "Negative. I need all senior staff on the bridge immediately."

"Bu-but ma'am-'

"No buts, Lieutenant! Get to the bridge immediately! That's an order!" 

After the order was given the comm device went silent. Sunset growled smashing the device into the side of the turbolift and destroyed it under her hoof. She panted heavily as she ran her hoof down the side of the shaft. She turned around to see two eyes right in her face and a large toothy grin of white and black.

"HI!"

"GAH!"

She fell over and landed on her head in the lift effectively knocking herself out as the zebra Star Stripe glanced down at the unconscious mare. She took the power core in her mouth and with a whip of her neck flung it into the air and it landed perfectly on her tail. 

Sunset glared at the striped zebra mare, who continued to smile at her.

"Wipe that smile off your face."

"Sorry ma'am." the zebra replied. "But I overheard your conversation and might have a solution."

"And that is?"

"I'll show you!"

The ship shook as the zebra and unicorn waited for the turbolift to reach the hangar bay once there they realized everything was in absolute chaos. Off to the side of the bay was a whole section of the ship missing revealing the blackness of space beyond. The protective shields were up to sustain pressure and life support as ponies ran around like ants trying to get the remaining crafts secure and crates latched in safety. Mechs ran around and Commander Octavia was on a large platform barking orders to everyone with great precision. 

Star Stripe skipped down between the ponies and mechs easily avoiding them as she made her way over to one of the large metal crates and opened it while still humming to herself. Sunset had more trouble, not being nearly as nimble as the zebra. She had to dodge the mechs and crew ponies as she made her way over to the zebra who had just finished opening the crate. Inside was a large device that was big enough for a pony to stand on. It was round and only about two hooves high. It had a white panel on top with a large metal ring around it and a small console beside it.

Sunset inspected the device over. "What is this?"

Star Stripe grinned looking at her CO. "It's a long ranged transporter!"

But, transport tech in not allowed to be used on living things! How am I going to get over to the ship and set this core to detonate... oh! You are clever." Sunset gave the zebra a silly grin nudging her shoulder playfully. "I'll have to rethink my opinion of you!"

Sunset placed the core on the panel and ran off to the side pulling a large cable over and attached it to a small circular port on the side of the device. While she secured the cable, Star Stripe ran the other end of the cord over to a mech and attached it to the power core and set the mech to stand by mode. The process took less than ten minutes before she was ready.

Sunset then activated the J-77 power core and set a small explosive fore ten second detonation, and placed both side by side on the transporter. Sunset then activated the transporter and prepared to transport the core to the Haymaker.

"I gotta get to the bridge. Wait for my signal to transport the core and remember to arm it before-hoof!" 

"Aye ma'am!" the zebra said with a salute.

Sunset made her way to the bridge. The journey took less than three minutes before she got there. Trixie was livid at this point turning to face her the Captain rushed over to her.

"What happened down there?"

Sunset grinned. "We setup a plan to get the Haymaker and cripple it ma'am."

Trixie's eye twitched as she raised a shaky hoof. "I told you NOT to do anything without my explicit orders." she growled at the mare.

"Captain we aren't going to get anywhere running like this. We have to fight!" Sunset declared grabbing hold to the wall as the Hydra took another hit. 

"Shields are down to 10% a'am!"

"Trixie ground her teeth with a disgruntled look. She looked around like she was expecting some miracle to appear before her eyes to save them from their misfortunes. Finding none she sighed taking hold of Sunset's shoulders with her hooves. "Can you get the Haymaker off us?"

Sunset grinned in response. "Yes ma'am. All we need is to get their shields down long enough to transport the bomb onboard and cripple them." Sunset handed over a diagram of the Haymaker. "Assuming this is the Haymaker all we have to do is transport the bomb to these coordinates and we'll successfully cripple them for days."

*Enterprise Bridge*

Archer was getting antsy as the battle continued. Starfleet was losing more ships than the enemy was. It was quickly spiraling out of control and nothing seemed to be working. The enemy fleet was simply too massive for their small fleet to handle. Their tactics were sound but the number of ships made it impossible to make any major difference.

Their efforts to assist the Hydra were proving more fruitful than anything else.

"Captain, the Hydra has taken significant damage." Commander Reed said from his station. "I don't think they'll last much longer."

Archer sighed tapping his chair with a finger nervously drumming it. 

"Call in the Dakota tell them to focus on the enemy flagship."

The message was sent and within second a ship smaller than Enterprise broke formation and flew beside the earth ship  flying after the Haymaker. Both ship fired phasers on the massive ship damaging it shield to the breaking point. On the Haymaker, Admiral Twilight was fuming at the turning tide of her battle.

The unicorn was rampaging across the bridge of her ship while her officers cowered in fear.

"You are all incompetent!" the unicorn howled at her weapons officer. She then turned to her timid yellow pegasus officer who hid from sight at her approaching. "Where is my backup?! We have an entire fleet over two-hundred and not ONE ship could come to help!?"

"So-sorry Admiral. but the fleet has been ordered to withdraw. I just got the message." the pegasus said hiding.

"UGH! Who sent the message?! I want to know so I can have them shot!"

The pegasus delayed to respond only served to anger the unicorn more until she finally said, "It's from the Empress." Twilight's face went pale. She stumbled backwards into her chair as the rest of the crew on the bridge went silent. The timid pegasus then continued, "She's unhappy with you Admiral. She said and I quote, "The Admirals failure to defeat this realities primitive fleet has displeased me so. I shall take it upon myself to see this realities destruction personally." She paused watching as the Admiral slumped over in her chair burying her face in her booted hooves. "In the meantime all ships are to retreat and rendezvous at the Sol Star. I shall arrive shortly."

Twilight stared at the screen in shock. 

Her failure. 

And the Empress of the Empire was coming, HERE to salvage what she could not?

Inconceivable.

With her orders clear Admiral Twilight ordered a full scale retreat to the given coordinates and the entire fleet fled towards the Sol Star awaiting their Empress thus leaving the enemy fleet in shock by the sudden retreat but a welcomed one.




> Betrayal Part 1 of ???
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Admiral Twilight was not happy in the least. Here she was, the pride of her Mistress’s empire and now she was going to be in trouble for her failure. 

The admiral paced around her chair at the center of her bridge as the Haymaker made it’s retreat with the rest of the fleet back to the Sol Star. As her ship banked to starboard aligning itself with the fleet the Admiral could feel her heart rate increase. Nopony every angered the Empress and lived to tell about it.

Before they got far a group of six earth vessels and the Hydra came around the front of the Haymaker and performed an alpha strike. Each vessel fired every single weapon port they had, focusing their fire on one point of the Haymaker’s shields.

The Haymaker shook violently as their shields went down. The alarms blared in Admiral Twilight's ears as she screamed out orders like aerial animal. Several of the other officer ponies ran around looking over several monitors to assess the damage. TWilight cursed Trixie and the Terran Empire as she watched them flee to regroup with the rest of their fleet.

Meanwhile in the engine room of the ISS Haymaker, an engineer pony found a strange device next to the main reactor. She was a unicorn in a black suit boots and a utility belt around her waist. She had a long blonde mane and looked down at the strange device with curious emerald eyes.

“What’s this?” She asked lifting the device in her magical aura.

Inspecting it she looked the device over. It was small like a 20oz can. It was yellow with warning labels on one side of it. She took a moment before she recognized what it was.

She trotted over to her work station and set the device down and pulled out a small PDA and activated it. She held the PDa in her aura and spoke into one corner of it as she inspected the device she found while the rest of the engineering crew was running around trying to fix the ship.

“Engineering personal log, Lieutenant Sandy reporting,” She said looking over the device in her hooves. “I just found an old J-77 power core near the main reactor. Heh, I haven’t seen one of these since my academy days!”

She took another PDA, thinking fondly of the days she spent at the academy in question. She entered a data log for the J-77 and looked into where she’d store it. She took a moment to glance over at a old photo of  her and a stallion beside her. She smiled at the photo rubbing her slightly large belly tenderly.

“I’ve just finished cataloging the J-77 once the campaign is over. For now  my thought’s are on my beloved. I’ll be home soon love. Then we'll start that family you always wanted.”

She chuckled lightly as she stored the eJ-77 core away under her desk.

“So, now that that’s done we still need to calibrate-”

KABOOM!

The poor mares words were cut off as the desk where she put the core suddenly exploded. She never saw it coming.

On the Haymaker bridge, the ship lost all power, losing all lights within. Admiral Twilight growled yelling profanities at her luck.

“Somepony get me some light!” She yelled running over to Fluttershy's station. “What happened, feather brain?”

“There was a… a …. Explosion in main engineering. It’s all gone.” The timid mare squeaked under the Admiral’s tense gaze.

“Well, get the power back! We’re sitting ducks out here-”

“Admiral! We have a transmission from the LUna’s Revenge!” another pony yelled out interrupting her.

As the secondary batteries came on, the light’s inside the Haymaker turned red. All Empire ships had them. It usually meant there was no saving the ship. Admiral Twilight sighed in relief when partial power came back on a few moments later.

Just then the transmission from the Luna’s Revenge came upon the main viewer. There with a smug grin was Captain Derpy, smiling down at Admiral Twilight.

“Hellooooooo Admiral!” Captain Derpy said in a sing song voice.

The mare gasped dramatically, covering her mouth with her hooves. “YOur ship is sooo badly damaged! Oh, my dear Admiral do you require assistance?” Captain Derpy asked in mock concern.

Admiral Twilight growled at the mare, dragging her booted hooves across the floor.

“Get your lazy butt out here and tow my ship, Captain!” The Admiral demanded.

Derpy didn’t comply however. Instead she hissed then began to laugh loudly and obnoxiously. The violet Admiral stared at her underling in bewilderment, as did the crew. Nopony had ever laughed at Admiral Twilight’s face like that, with trixie being the only exception.

“How dare you! I’ll see to it you hang for this!” Twilight threatened.

Just then another transmission, audio only, cut through the main viewer as a small audio box. From it came a familiar voice that made the blood over everypony run cold that heard it.

“Be silent foolish child,” The voice said calmly.

Twilight immediately lowered herself to the floor and bowed, so did every other pony. Even Derpy did as she continued to hold her smug grin.

Then the voice spoke again, “I am disappointed in you, Admiral Sparkle.” 

The voice was filled with nothing but venom and sarcasm behind it. The words rang true in the Admiral's ears. She felt afraid. Very afraid.

“Heh, he, please my Empress, I can fix all of this! I just need-”

“More time?” The voice said over the comm. “You  have had plenty of time, Admiral.”

Suddenly the view screen opened up to show a white alicorn mare sitting upon a gloriously elaborate throne of white stone covered in red cloth. The mare herself was as tall as a human, her horn made her a foot taller, and had golden armor over her body.

Her mane and tail were bright blue flames that crackled loudly, complimenting her deep magenta slit eyes. She wore a four pronged crown with a violet emerald on the front most prong.

She glared down at the fallen unicorn and scowled at her.

“You failed me catastrophically Admiral. I gave you a chance and you squandered it,” She said looking at her hoof with disinterest. “However, you can redeem yourself, Admiral.”

The fallen unicorn stood up immediately. *This is my chance to get back in her good graces!* She thought smiling, Derpy frowned.

The white mare looked down at Admiral twilight with a stern expression that could pierce the hull of a capital ship, and said, “I want you to find my sister’s student and bring her home, Admiral. Vice Admiral Derpy will help assist you.”

Twilight gawked at her Empress. She then shifted her glance to the wall eyed mare. There was a smug grin on the grey mare's face, as she waved to Twilight.

“Of course my Empress!” TWilight bowed again. “For the Empire!”

The Empress saluted as the view screen went blank. Derpy followed suit with a salute and her part of the screen went blank.

Admiral Twilight growled smashing her hoof against the metal floors of her ship. She was in a quite a pickle now. She had no ship to command her Empress was very displeased with her, and now Derpy was right behind her in the rank structure.

It wasn’t looking good for her, but she had an idea. One that would solve both her problems at once and get her back in favor with her Empress. Turning to the timid pegasus pony under her command she called out in an angered voice, “Fluttershy!”

“Yes, ma’am?” The yellow pony squawked.

“Get Flash back up here!” Twilight ordered.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Not thirty seconds later, Flash Sentry appeared on the bridge from the turbolift with two other stallions in security uniforms at his side.

“Yes, Admiral?” He asked saluting Twilight.

Twilight saluted and the the ponies rest.

“We have a mission. It is of the utmost priority!” She said.

“What’s the mission?” Sentry asked, as Twilight walked past and into the turbolift.

“We’re going to capture that traitor Trixie.” Twilight snarled, as the doors closed.

*Hydra Engineering*

Pinkie Pie was running around like a mad mare. She was replacing coils here, a relay there, clapping hooves with a zebra as she ran by, and gave a hydrospanner to another pony. Engineering was a tussle of madness due to the battle.

Relieved when she heard the ship was going to take a breather while the fleets rallied up, Pinkie took the opportunity to make as many repairs as she could. In her own record breaking time she managed to get one-hundred systems back up from her previous seventy, in under an hour.

She was positively beaming with joy at her success. Of course she’d never admit it was not her doing. She would say it was due to her great crew under her command. Teamwork always won the day here.

While Pinkie nose dived into a shaft to being reparing several more systems, the doors to main engineering opened up revealing Scope and his friend Tucker, Enterprises Main Engineer.

“-and this is main engineering for the Hydra!” Scope said with pride.

Tucker whistled at the massive size of the ship's engine. 

“Wow, you ponies sure love things tall,” Tucker said looking straight up.

Scope chuckled walking beside the human. “Nah, actually the race that we ponies made contact with called the Thrane were the ones who designed this.”

“The Thrane?”

“Yeah, after looking over the data archives on your ship, the closest race you’ve come across that’s like them is the ones you call the Vulcans.” Scope said.

“Ugh, yeah… Vulcans,” Tucker said with much heated sarcasm. “Are these, Thrane like babysitters to you guys?”

“Babysitters? No. We’re partners!” scope explained walking Tucker to the service lift.

“You see Mr. Tucker, it was about the year 2133, when we first met the Thrane. They came to our world seeking a fugitive who escaped from them. That fugitive was the one that nearly destroyed one of our colonies and made us focus on a war fleet that I told you about.” Scope said allowing Tucker to recall the story.

Shaking his head, Tucker stepped off the service lift and looking down over the railing. It was at least one hundred feet down from here. He was impressed by this ship.

“Ah recall, so these thrane are friends” Tucker asked in his southern drawl. 

“Yeup, they’re our friends,” Scope said. “Although they can be very…. Annoying to talk to.”

“Are they?”

“Yes, it’s kinda like… I don’t know.” Scope admitted. “It’s kinda like talking to T’pol. Although she is much more easy to talk to than you described her as.”

Tucker laughed placing his hands on his hips. “Yeah, she has come a long way after she was first put on Enterprise.”

“Well be that as it may, Pansy is the worst kind of mare to be around,” Scope said with a chuckle.

Tucker shared a laugh with him. “Yeah, that pony friend of yours is something else.”

Both the pony and human walked along sharing tales with one another as Tucker was given the grand tour of engineering. Meanwhile, Pinkie was listening in on them from an overhead maintenance shaft when she received an audio message from the bridge.

Taking out her PDA she activated the audio talk function and spoke happily into it, “Engineering this is Pinkie Pie speaking!”

“Pinkie, what is the status of the ship's reactor and the H-Drive?” asked the voice of Captain Trixie.

Inkie read back from the loud voice from her PDA. 

Gently rubbing her ears she replied back, “H-Drive is still down, but all the major systems are back online. Weapons and shields are at 80% capacity. The hangar is still under reconstruction but operable.”

A brief silence passed while Pinkie waited for her response. 

“What’s the status of the bombers?”

“Bombers are still operable, but the hangar still can’t be opened right now.” Pinkie said with some concern in her voice. “Will we need the hangar?”

“Not as of now Lt. Commander. Get back to repairing the ship. I’ll keep in touch, Trixie out.”

“Bye…” Pinkie said somberly.

A few minutes passed and Pinkie just sat there feeling drained. He wasn’t sure about it, but something in Trixie’s voice made her very sad. She never got over the angry look that Trixie gave her after her first few attempts to impress the mare.

She felt bad when she made Trixie drop a lit torch on her arm and had to be rushed to the medbay. Suddenly she felt a large jolt run through her body as it ran down her back to her tail. Gasping she felt her tail spas out then her ears flopped and then her hooves ached. 

Once she regained control of her body she jumped down from her place and unto the scaffolding. Making a mad dash to the nearest control console she hit a ship wide alarm and voice over the internal comm., “Intruders in main engineering! Security response-”

The pink mare was cut off as the area around her lit up with a deep green light. Several ponies in heavy armor appeared from thin air as the green receded into them. Pinkie had just enough time to roll for cover as the first pony in armor shot a green bolt from his rifle into the head of one of the engineering crew. The poor stallion was caught unaware and took the bolt to the head and dropped dead on the sot.

The armored ponies looked around a once said, “We have main engineering. We’ll search the ship for the Captain.”

Once the pony was done talking, they ran past Pinkie's hiding spot and into the main engineering area. They began to shot at all ponies who were fleeing right as the Hydra’s Security force came rushing in. At the front of it was Major Spitfire and her MAREs Commandos. 

The invading ponies looked around assessing the situation, when another mare stepped forward and looked over the scene. Pinnie looked at the mare in her officers uniform and recognized her immediately.

‘Twilight?”

The pony named twilight looked around pulling her rifle  off her back in her magical aura, rallying her troops. 

“Take them! Kill them all and find Trixie!” She yelled charging at the MAREs commandos followed by her troops. “AD Victoriam!!!”


> Betrayal Part 2 of ???
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trixie was feeling the pressure of her command. Her head ached and for the millionth time since they first launched Trixie was feeling the anxiety of commanding a starship. As the security alarms went off, Claw squawked that intruders were in main engineering. Among the was Admiral Twilight Sparkle. 

Trixie had a feeling this was personal. 

The Admiral had a very direct personality, brash, and brutal. She was very much the opposite of the Twilight she grew up knowing. Everything was piled against her and her crew and nothing was getting easier as time went on.

Trixie looked over to CLaw and gave him a serious look.

“Claw, take a security team to engineering and assist the MAREs commandos,” She ordered.

Nodding the griffin jumped over his station with a powerful thrust of his wings. His armored vest clanked with the console as he jumped over landing hard on the steel floors with a thud.

Claw ran to the turbolift and entered with his security rifle in his claws. Down he went deeper into the ship.

Meanwhile deep in engineering Pinkie was struggling to keep things under control. She could see Twilight shooting at her crew pinning them down while her soldiers were holding back the MAREs commandos. Twilight and her crew were across a scaffolding where there were ten of them. Above them was Spitfire, Pansy, and several other MAREs. 

Twilight was holding a poor stallion as a hostage/meat shield. She was holding a small pistol in her magical aura and shooting up at Spitfire and her team. 

Spitfire ducked as Twilight shot a green bolt at her head. The bolt of energy skimmed past her head clipping the bangs of her mane. She smelled the stench of her mane burning fur, which made her fume. 

“That little... “ She swore incoherently under her breath.

Pitching over her cover Spitfire let loose a rapid volley of blaster bolts from her rifle. The rain of energy bolts fell down on the intruders forcing them to take cover. One stallion pegasus was feeling brave and flew up above them to the next level.

Pansy shot after him, but the stallion was too nimble for her to hit. His wings flapped hard and his body twisted like a serpent as he dodged through the metal support beams and around the engine core. This forced more MAREs to focus fire on him as he rained shots down on them.

Twilight grinned, using the aerial assault to her advantage she ordered the strike team forward. They entered the room where Pinkie was hiding under a console. Twilight ordered her team to cover the entrances which split them into three groups. From above the orange pegasus stallion flew down and landed by her.

Twilight Threw her hostage to the floor aiming her pistol at him while he cowered in fear from the mare.

“You did well Flash Sentry... my love,” Twilight cooed, leaning into the stallion locking lips with him. 

After a brief kiss they separated and the stallion gave his mistress a cocky grin.

“Anything for you, Two,” Flash Sentry said taking position next to her.

“So what is our next move, Admiral?” Flash asked.

Twilight sighed looking around the room. Finding a maintenance shaft she crouched near it and opened it. She inspected it carefully seeing it was a relay junction of some sort. 

She looked over to the hostage stallion she caught and glared at him. She trailed her sidearm at his head making him wet himself.

“You! Tell me where does this shaft head to?”

The stallion looked over at the shaft before saying, “That’s maintenance shaft B-22. It goes to the main hangar and the Ion cannon power relays,” He said.

“Good,” Twilight said looking at him with a sinister grin. “Now I don’t have any use for you.”

“Oh, wait what?!”

The poor stallion screamed as a sound of a single shot echoed through main engineering. Spitfire glared at the room where the intruders bunkered down. She heard the sound of a masculine scream followed by a blaster shot.

Suddenly she saw the hostage get thrown outside. A dark spot was in the dead center of his head. His body then glowed a bright pink and was tossed over the railing to the bottom of the main reactor core.

“Grrrr. Damn them,” Spitfire growled.

She hated seeing ponies die under her watch. Most of all she hated when intruders got on her ship and killed ponies under her watch. 

“We need to get to them,” She said with a hint of urgency in her voice. “Anyone got ideas?”

When no one spoke Spitfire peeked around the corner from her cover. From there she saw nothing but two ponies guarding the entry way. She didn’t doubt the other entryways were guarded as well. She had to figure out what they were doing and fast.

Just then, Claw and his team came rushing in from the opposite end of engineering, effectively pinning the intruders in the room. Spitfire looked across the way to the griffon. They nodded to one another knowing what was going through each other's heads.

Silently, Spitfire rallied her team up and prepared to storm the room. She readied  her rifle and so did her commandos. Once prepared she counted with three waves of her hoof. On the third both teams rushed into the room to find only two of the intruders left. 

One was a mare unicorn the other was an earth pony stallion. The mare was looking down at the stallion who was trying to crawl into one of the junctions shafts while the mare was waiting for her turn. 

Caught by surprise the mare turned to face Spitfire with a raised rifle only to be shot from all sides by the commandos and security team. Riddled with holes the mare fell to the floor, her rifle clanking against the metal floor and the stallion held his hooves up as all the attention quickly turned to him.

“Wait! I surrender! Don’t shoot!” He cried.

Spitfire walked over to him, slinging her rifle on her back, she reached down and gripped the stallion by his arm. She lifted him roughly to his hooves and shoved him into a seat. From under the console nearby Pinkie crawled out and made everyone trail their weapons on her from her sudden appearance.

“Whoa! Wait there everyone!” 

Spitfire pushed several rifles down. Once everyone saw it was the Lt. Commander they lowered their weapons.

“Pinks!” Spitfire exclaimed hugging the mare. “Glad to see you’re alright, ma’am.” 

Spitfire gave a quick salute to Lt. .Commander Pinkie who giggled in response to being addressed formally.

“Glad to see you too,” She said looking over to Claw. “Thanks for the save everyone!”

Claw nodded silently. He then returned his attention to his new captive. Taking hold of the pony intruder, Claw escorted him to the brig with the rest of his team. Meanwhile Spitfire questioned Pinkie about what the intruders were up too, asking if she heard anything useful.

“Actually Major, there is,” Pinkie said looking at the pegasus. “The intruders are being led by Twilight Sparkle. They’re here to capture the Captain.”

“What? How?”

Pansy looked down at the maintenance shaft. She then asked Pinkie, “Where does this go?”

Pinkie didn’t even look and simply answered, “The Ion cannon.”

Taking note of this information, SPitfire opened a comm. To Private Scope.

“Scope,report in.” Spitfire said into her headset.

*ZZZT This is private Scope. What’s the situation Major?*

“Hostiles were pushed from main engineering, we think they’re after the captain,” Spitfire said. “I want you to take the rest of Squad six and proceed to guard the Captain.”

*Aye, Major. ZZZT. Scope out*

Spitfire sighed looking over at the few dead ponies around her. Some of them were new, others were ponies she had known since her time in the Wonderbolts. It saddened the mare to see so much death, but what was worse was seeing her friends off.

She sat down to readjust her rifle before slinging it on her back. She then stood up and looked over her commandos. Pansy stood ready, as did two there mares.

“Alright let’s head to the bridge.”

*Hydra Bridge*

Commander Octavia was pacing back and forth around the bridge when news of the intruders escaping reached her ears. Trixie sighed feeling uneasy having intruders on her ship and potentially sabotaging it. Not that the ship needed to be sabotaged considering their luck thus far.

Trixie at this time was working with Vinyl Scratch on something while Octavia grew more antsy with every passing minute. Lyra remained at her station relaying communications between the Hydra and Starfleet.

Sunset was at her station with her new zebra companion, Star Stripe at her side. They were going over the shield relays and trying to recycle them before the next major incursion. 

“If we reroute power from the main engines were can get the excess power to help reinforce the shields.” Star Stripe suggested.

Sunset furrowed her brow deep in thought. “No, if we lost the engines the shields would lose all power.”

Star Stripe smiled saying, “Not, if we relay power through the junction shafts. We do that the power will still flow through the primaries and we won’t lose shields if power to the engines goes out.”

While the two mares went on  Trixie was beginning to get anxious. She knew the intruders were still on her ship, but somewhere was Admiral Twilight Sparkle. That made her uneasy. The violet mare had shown a merciless streak that was very uncommon for ponies. If she was a pony after all. 

As she thought on the doors to the turbolift opened and Claw reentered alone.

“Claw, report,” Trixie asked o the griffon as he passed her.

“The intruders went into the main ducts of the ship ma’am,” Claw responded clacking his talons on the metal floors. 

“Any idea’s where they are going?” Octavia asked.

They want the Captain,” Claw replied. “Squad Six from MAREs is one deck down and stopping the lift every time it passes. They won’t get here Commander.”

Octavia gave the griffon a stern glare. In return he shrugged and returned to his station. The grey earth pony looked at Trixie as she went over the comm with Lyra. She was talking to the Enterprise Captain about Charles Tucker and made sure he got back safely. Octavia shook her head looking at the mare's rump.

“You always looked out for others rather than yourself, Trixie,” She whispered to herself leaning against Sunset’s station.

One deck down Scope was not having fun. Under normal circumstances he’d be fine with being security detail during and ship intrusion, but there was somepony with him that made him cringe at the sound of her very voice.

“Hey beef stick! Look alive!”

Scope cringed glaring at Silica. She was a unicorn from MAREs who despised him to no end. She was born into a noble family of Unicorns and Clydesdales making her a large mare with beautiful mane and fur. Her emerald eyes were sharp and could pierce into your soul. Her mane and tail were long and curled at the end in strands of white and gold. She was one of the older members of MAREs and wore the most up to date equipment.

Scope had come to realize that she didn’t flaunt over the title as a noble like many old nobles back home did. She was more respectable and hard working than many of them. In many ways more so than even him.

Scope could appreciate that much about her if she didn’t insult him every second they spent together. Yet, the worst part was no one stopped her from the squad.

“Come on, don’t look so bored!” Silica laughed, smacking Scope on his back. 

Scope groaned standing upright after the strong mare stuck his back. 

“Aww, why the long face?” She said with mock concern. “Did I huwt your feewings?”

Scope ground his teeth as he tried to control himself, as the other MAREs mocked him.

“Yeah, good one Silica!” A pegasus mare said.

Another unicorn mare laughed with the pegasus shoving past Scope. She stopped and flicked her tail and his hindquarters making him squeal loudly. The mare laughed at him as he blushed returning to his position by the turbolift.

“You ladies need to focus! The ship has intruders sent to kill the Captain! Be serious!” Scope warned the group of mares.

Silica scoffed indignantly, “You think I don’t know that, BEEF STICK?” She asked with emphasis to Scope’s nickname she had given him. 

Scope pushed the mare away from him, sending her a few steps back. The rest of the mares gasped at him. Silica growled standing in place.

“Oh, you just don’t know when to quit, do you?” She asked dangerously.

Scope ignored her and continued to stand guard, which only made the mare more angry.

“Don’t you ignore me, beef stick!”

Scope sighed as the rest of the mares murmured to one another. Suddenly the turbolift opened and Spitfire entered the hall. Everyone saluted as she eyed the group. For several seconds no one said a word or moved a muscle. Finally after sometime Spitfire sighed flexing her wings.

She ran her hooves through her mane and asked, “Well? Who’s got the report!?”

Everyone flinched and Silica stepped forward giving her CO a salute.

“Ma’am! Nothing to report. The enemy has’t attempted to use the turbolift,” Scilia reported.

Spitfire nodded walking past Scope. She paused at his side giving him a playful wink before continuing down the hall. When she reached the end of the hall she spoke briefly to the other mares at which time she returned to the lift.

Just as she entered the turbolift  there was a large explosion from the far end of the hall. Two of the MAREs commandos fell from the explosion as energy bolts flew from the dust and smoke. Everyone Except for Scope, Spitfire and Silica, were shot. The three aforementioned ponies managed to get into the turbolift just as the dust settled revealing Twilight and her strike force.

As the lift went up to the bridge Spitfire pushed Silica and Scope out and to the side, while she herself stormed to trixie’s seat. The unicorn was in the captain's chair responding to a message on her PDA when she noticed Spitfire at her side.

“Major?” She said acknowledging the pony without looking up.

“Captain! The intruders are one deck below us! They just blew through the previous one to get there! We need to move you!” Spitfire suddenly bellowed. 

Trixie shook her head. She was no coward, far from it. Octavia looked across the room at her Captain with a stern expression as she listened in.

Trixie put her PDA in its holster and looked to the Major, “Non, Major, I will not leave my post.”

“Captain!”

“I said no, Major. That’s final!” Trixie said with defiance.

The pegasus Major stared at her CO with a baffled by the Captains defiance. It wasn’t advantageous for her to leave the bridge. If she were to perish the ship would fall into disarray.

Just then the floors around the entire bridge blew open making several holes around the bridge. Up through came the invasion force in groups of three one after the other. Before anyone could react the bridge was flooded with bodies, and the crew of the Hydra was now being held captive at gunpoint. After the crew secure Admiral Twilight flew up through the largest hole with Flash Sentry, who was carrying her in his arms. The orange pegasus let Twilight go on the solid deck where she pulled out her pistol in her aura and pointed it at Trixie.

Admiral Twilight had a calm posture. There was a void of emotion as she looked down on Trixie. The crew of the Hydra remained still, no one wanted to aggravate the intruders any further.

“Captain, I need you to come with me.”

Trixie looked up at Twilight with a defiant glare but silently stood. Admiral Twilight swung her postil to the side, letting Trixie know she wanted her to stand by her.

Trixie complied and stood by the violet mare.

Admiral Twilight stood by as Flash Sentry lowered the shields to the Hydra. Another one of the ponies shoved Lyra to the side and after Flash gave him the, ‘go’ signal.

Admiral Twilight pulled Trixie close to her with her physical arm until the mare was only inches from her side. 

“Signal the Luna's Revenge. Tell Vice Admiral Derpy, that we’re ready.”

“Aye ma’am.” The pony said. 

The pony sent a simple unsecure message out from the Hydra to Lunas Revenge. A minute later a message came back and the pony received it through the Hydra’s communication console. Afterwards the intruders centered around Trixie and Admirala Twilight and were transported off the ship.

Octavia ran forward reaching for Trixie as the blue mare faded away in a red dust of energy. The last thing of Trixie she saw was the unicorn turning to face her, and gave a playful wink with her right eye.

Spitfire gasped along with most of the crew at the sight of the intruders transporting away.

“I can’t believe what I just saw!” Spitfire exclaimed, inspecting the floor as if to find some remains of the ponies who were once there.

Scope looked around the bridge while Sunset went to a shaken Lyra, who was trying to calm herself.

“Lyra, you alright there?” Sunset asked the shaking mare.

“Yes, I’m fine ma’am.” Lyra said in a gracious tone.

The mint mare sat back into her chair as Sunset patted her shoulders comfortingly.

After a minute of cooling down the crew became active once again. Spitfire took her remaining commandos off the bridge and Sunset left with Star Stripe to go to engineering. Claw went into the ship's security and began the tedious task of changing all the codes. Octavia stood shaking in place.

*I lost Trixie.*

 She ground her teeth sitting in a chair. She brushed her mane back with a frustrated sigh. She thought of Trixie in the last moments she saw her. *The wink of trust*. She thought. It was something they developed back in their Academy days. If anything were to happen to the other they weren’t sure they’d return from , hat pony would wink with a grin with their right eye.

For Trixie, as she once put it, it was a sign that she would most likely not be coming home. This angered Octavia. She was suppose to protect Trixie and the crew. By her standing she failed catastrophically. For now she was thinking of a plan to save Trixie, until a message from Enterprise came through to Lyra.

The mint unicorn pony got a communique from Enterprise and said, “Commander I’m receiving a message from Enterprise.”

Sluggishly, Octavia ran her hooves through her mane again and looked up at the view screen, just as Pinkie and some of her engineering crew entered the bridge and began repairing the floor.

“On screen.” Octavia ordered.

On the main viewer the blank black screen came to life with an image of Captain Archer. The tall human stood tall and proud in his blue jumpsuit uniform. Octavia thought he was very much like Trixie in that manner.

“Commander?” Archer said with surprised tone. “I was expecting Captain Lulamoon to be on the bridge. The fleet is ready to attack and there is no sign of the Klingons.”

Octavia sighed letting her shoulders sag. Archer noticed the change in the mares posture and gave her a worried look. 

As if he knew something bad happened, he looked at the mare and asked, “What happened?”

“... Trixie was captured.” Octavia barely managed to choke out as tears ran down her face. “Trixie was… captured and… taken…”

*Meanwhile on the Luna's Revenge*

Admiral Twilight walked briskly down the halls to the bridge of the Luna's Revenge. Her team was being escorted by the ship's security forces with Trixie at the center. Trixie had her limbs partially restrained so she couldn’t run, her horn had a magical suppression ring on it, and she had been stripped of all her gear and uniform.

She was bare naked as she was escorted through the cold ship of the Luna's Revenge. As its name sounded the ship's interior was dark, cold, and unforgiving. It’s passages were long and narrow, the doors were so small the group of ponies had to walk single file to get through.

As they passed through a threshold they arrived on the bridge of the Luna's Revenge. On the bridge was a dark scene. Dark dim red lights lit the bridge. The crew was in black uniforms with black boots and all of them were armed.

At the center was an armored grey pegasus mare with a long blonde mane.  Despite the goofy wall eyed appearance she had, her golden yellow eyes promised untold amounts of pain and suffering to all who dared look into them.

The mare walked up to Admiral Twilight and greeted the violet mare with a hung and a sinister grin.

“Admiral! Well done on the capture of Captain Trixie!” She cheered loudly, hugging the Admiral and pattin gher on the back. “I was sure you wouldn’t make it, Admiral.”

Admiral Twilight scoffed at the mare as if she were completely insulted, though it wasn't far from the truth.

“Of course I succeeded, you dim witted, wall eyed, defect!” Twilight barked at the mare in anger.

The grey mare scowled, and Trixie was sure she saw her left lazy eye twitch.

Admiral Twilight smirked seeing the angry scowl on the pegasus's face and continued, “You should know your place, pegasus. Or do I need to remind you of your daughter?”

The grey mare's scowl turned into a strained smile as she put on her best, ‘I’ll try hard to not murder you in your sleep’ face. Admiral Twilight grinned as she nodded to Flash Sentry, who nodded back. The stallion whispered into the ears of his team and they slowly dispersed around the crew of the Luna's Revenge while Twilight distracted the grey mare.

Meanwhile Trixie watched with a feeling of unease in her gut. She knew something was about to happen, and by the looks of both groups on the bridge, it was going to get ugly.

“Of Derpy, you shouldn’t have angered me,” Twilight cooed at the mare, who stood perfectly still. “Flash take out the Vice Admiral for me and kill the crew.”

Suddenly the strike force with twilight aimed their weapons at the crew of the Luna's Revenge, surprising the crew of the Luna's Revenge. 

“See, Derpy? You didn’t stand a chance.” Twilight said.

The mare listened carefully to the silence expecting shots to be fired any second. Not hearing anything she turned her head to see her own crew holding Flash Sentry at gunpoint and Derpy's ponies were trailing their weapons on Admiral Twilight.

Trixie stood perfectly still as she watched the events unfold. She dared not move as the mutiny went on around her. Trixie did look to see the shocked expression on Admiral Twilight’s face.

“What are you doing!? I ordered you to kill them!”

Derpy chuckled lightly while Twilight looked at her mutinous crew holding her lover hostage. She thought vile things upon them.

“What’s this mutiny!?” She bellowed as Flash Sentry was brought to her side and forced to the floor along with her.

Derpy had now gone into a full blown cackle bending herself backwards like she were possessed by an evil spirit. Trixie was forced to sit beside the two other captives while Derpy looked over Twilight’s face with a smug grin.

Twilight gave the grey mare her most heated glare she could muster. 

Derpy laughed, “Oh, little Twilight,” She laughed at the violet mare. “You should have known better than to try and kill me on my own ship. I figured you would sooooo, I planted my best agents on your ship before you beamed to the Hydra.”

Twilight’s face contorted hearing this. Trixie could tell there was nothing but boiled up rage behind that face.

Derpy chuckled. “Unfortunately for you and Flash, you won’t get to see the glorious triumph of our empire.”

“When the Empress finds out, she will see to it you hang for this treachery!!” Twilight screamed out.

Vice Admiral Derpy cackled pulling out her own pistol from her side holster. She took aim at Flash Sentry and shot the stallion through the head. The bolt tore through his skull, melting through it like it was nothing but air.

Admiral Twilight screamed out at the sight. She flopped herself onto the fallen pegasus calling out his name. For the first time since they met, Trixie saw this mare cry tears for someone else.

Derpy smiled evilly at the fallen Admiral, ‘Yes, cry for me. Cry. CRY! Your tears are delicious!”

“I’LL KILL YOU-” As Admiral Twilight lunged forward to tackle Derpy, the violet mare was shot by her mutinous crew and flopped to the floor with a shocked expression. 


Trixie gave the Vice Admiral a most appalled look. Never before had she seen such a disregard for life as she had seen in this Empire. She knew one thing for certain now, the Empire was in this fight and would most likely fight to the last pony.

As Derpy holstered her pistol away, she turned to her crew and without even looking back she said, “Take Trixie to the brig, and throw the trash out into space.”

Trixie was then hauled away along with the bodies of Flash Sentry and Twilight. While this was happening the Vice Admiral turned to her communications officer.

“Send a message to the Sol Dios. Tell the Empress I have apprehended Captain Trixie,” She instructed. “And tell her her student, Admiral Twilight Sparkle, perished on her mission.”

“VICE ADMIRAL! It’s the Sol Dios!” Another pony yelled.

“What about them?” Serpy asked rolling her eyes. “What is the Empress sending us a TDS?”

The other pony spoke in a hushed frightened tone saying, “N-no ma’am, the Sol Dios IS HERE.”

The grey mare went stiff. She looked back at the pony and gave him a single nod. He nodded back and powered up the main viewscreen to show a picture of a large sphere hovering over the Sol Star.

It was a massive construct as big as the star itself. So big the scale was unimaginable to any unless they knew what it was. Spherical in shape, the craft was on a galactic scale of its own. It was the size of Saturn, roughly 11,000 kilometers in diameter, white, and had millions of spires across its surface, with a single moon sized node at the front with a decal of a wavy sun.

Derpy was happy she used the facilities beforehand, otherwise she would have wet herself in front of her crew. She knew this was bad news. If the Empress came to a reality on her own accord it meant she was furious about something, and blood would spill.

Just then the same pony from before called to the Vice Admiral, “We’re receiving a message from the Sol Dios!”

“Open a comm.” Derpy said, stuttering bit with her words.

The viewscreen came to life again, but this time it showed a white background with five thrones. The thrones were arranged in tiers with ponies on each of them.

The first two at the lowest points were the left and right most thrones. The left one had a young pink alicorn mare with puffy light violet mane with three teal stripes and teal blue eyes. She wore a the pointed crown and had a cutie mark of a shatter crystal heart. 

The rightmost was another pink alicorn with a pink and light yellow mane. She was taller than the other pink alicorn and had a longer mane. Unlike the other she was wearing a full suit of traditional armor made of a light blue and silver and bore a serious expression.

The next two thrones had a midnight blue alicorn with a starry mane that flowed like it was in the wind. She wore a black suit with a rapier at her side. Across from her was a white unicorn stallion with a deep blonde mane wearing an officer's uniform and a smug grin that only a posh noble could muster.

And at the center of them was the Empress. White alicorn, taller than the rest, and had a blue fiery mane that cracked as it flowed like it was in the wind. She wore golden armor with a helmet that functioned as a crown with a large violet gem as the centerpiece backed by four spikes. Her golden armor was well polished and on her left side was a short red cape.

Derpy looked at the entire group of ponies and bowed.

“My Empress! I had no idea you were going to be here,” Derpy said trying to sound as sincere as possible. “And with the council too! What an honor it is to have-”

The Empress’s voice boomed over the mare. Despite being on speakers the intensity of her voice was still enough to shake the room.

“You may dispense with pleasantries Vice Admiral. I want my report. Have you retrieved my sister’s student?” The Empress tapped her hooves on her crystal throne, impatiently waiting her her answer.

“Ye-yes my Empress,” Derpy said, fumbling her words. “But, there was an… incident.”

The Empress cocked her head.  “What sort of incident? You know I don't like surprises.”

“I’m terribly sorry my Empress, but Admiral Twilight,” She paused thinking of how to word her next words. She knew she had to be careful, otherwise she could be next in line to face the Empresses wrath.

“I’m sorry to say you student was killed capturing Captain Trixie.” Derpy finished.

Everyone gasped and looked at the Empress. The white alicorn seemed very well composed for the time. Until her mane grew in intensity making, burning the rugs beneath her, and made everyone around her flinch.

“I want to know who did this Vice Admiral, so I can dispose of them myself…”




> Clash of Titans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Empress glared down on the Vice Admiral. The grey pegasus was shivering in fear under her rulers intense glare. She had not thought of who to blame should Twilight betray her. Though she expected it from the ambitious unicorn. She thought that perhaps it would have been better for her to tell the truth of the Admirals betrayal? In either case it was done.

Quickly she thought back on a list of ponies who would have wanted to see Admiral Twilight dead. It was a very long list, but most of the candidates were either deceased or deathly loyal to the Empress such that the thought of offing her prized student wasn’t an option.

In fact, the only other pony who tried to kill the former Admiral, aside from herself, was Captain Trixie. It was well known in the Empire of their rivalry, but neither went so far as to outright try and kill the other. Then she remembered the fight Twilight made to capture Trixie.

Composing herself, the Vice Admiral adjusted her collar with her hoof and looked up at her Empress with a straight face.

“She, that is Admiral Twilight was killed in a firefight while trying to capture Trixie on her ship,” Derpy lied. “We think there might have been a mutiny aboard the Hydra.”

“A mutiny?” The dark blue alicorn asked incredulously. “I find that hard to believe with such a loyal crew.”

The white unicorn across from her spoke up saying, “I agree with my Aunt Luna, Vice Admiral. It seems highly unlikely that such a thing would happen on, Lulu’s, ship.”

The two pink alicorns nodded in agreement with him.

Vice Admiral Derpy sighed, “Be that as it may be, Regent Blueblood, the fact is that the Admiral was killed, shot to death, while on the Hydra.” The grey pony flexed her wings nervously. “I can see no other reason why this happened unless Admiral Twilight attacked them and they responded with selfdefense.”

The five ponies seemed to take this into consideration. The Empress seemed to be deepest in thought, when the youngest alicorn spoke up from her throne.

“Aunty Celestia, perhaps Twilight did attack the Hydra.” She said calmly.

The Empress flared her wings and mane, standing on her throne as her voice boomed over the room, “You dare suggest MY student would attack my sister’s student!? YOU DARE FLURRY HEART!?!”

The young alicorn cowered under her aunt's threatening voice when the older pink alicorn spoke up. 

“But, Empress, your student has been at odds with Trixie for a long time,” She said flicking her mane with a hoof, looking rather bored.

The Empress looked upon the alicorn.

“So? What does that have to do with this?”

Luna stepped on her throne flaring out her right wing at her sister. “Your student has actually threatened my student, in my presence I might add, on numerous occasions.”

The white alicorn growled flaring out her wings with a frustrated growl. 

“Fine! That’s not the point!” The alicorn sat on her throne once again, taking a deep breath to calm herself. She then turned to her sister who stood silently by her side. 

“Luna, take you ship, the Avenger, and meet with the 3rd Fleet. I want you to spearhead the human fleet and wipe them out. Take the entity with you.”

Luna slauted. “Yes, sister!” 

Turning to the side the blue alicorn marched down her throne and exited through a door off screen. The Empress then turned to face Vice Admiral Derpy through the main viewscreen.

“Vice Admiral, join up with the 3rd Fleet. You are under my sister's command.”

Derpy saluted to her Empress. “Yes my Empress!”

The view screen went blank. The Empress turned to the two remaining alicorns. 

“Cadence, take your daughter Flurry Heart and take your ships to your fleets and deploy as instructed,” She said looking from one to the other. “I want the defense stations destroyed and I want you to destroy Earth. Go.”

The alicorns left without a word leaving the Empress and Blueblood behind.

“Regent Blueblood?”

“Yes, aunty Celestia?” 

“Take your ships into sector S143-N. Destroy the planet Sirenum.”

“Yes aunty.” Blueblood said, politely bowing to his aunt before leaving.

The Empress, once alone, sighed allowing herself to relax a moment. She looked down at her throne thinking of her student and all the time she spent grooming her to be the new Empress.

“All that time wasted.” 

She then looked out past where her main viewscreen was and out into the cosmos. She smiled thinking about the immense satisfaction she would have taking this reality under her empire. The battle would be intense, humans had a knack for being resilient, and had an unnerving knack for showing up when one least expected it.

For now she had to prepare the Sol Dios for battle.

*Hydra Bridge*

Octavia sat in Trixie’s chair at the center of the Hydra bridge.

She was commanding ponies all over the ship, preparing for the battle ahead. She was just about to send a communication to Enterprise, when said ship contacted her first. The main viewer opened with a picture of Captain Archer, in his bridge with a very disgruntled look over his aging face.

Octavia smiled seeing a friendly face like Archers.

“How are you Captain?” She asked her human ally.

Archer sighed shaking his head slightly to the right before slapping his hips with his hands.

“I would love to say, ‘good’ but that’d be a lie,” He said sitting down in his chair. “So, Commander, do you want to hear the bad news first of the worst news first?”

Octavia took pause at his odd question. She thought things were bad now, but what would Archer tell her that could be worse than what was already going on?”

“Um, let’s go with bad news, then worst news.”

Archer sighed once more sagging his shoulders and resting his hands on his head. He then swept his hands back over his short hair, letting out a deep gurgle sound as the hands came to rest on his lap.

“My science officer, T’pol tells me there is a Klingon fleet on its way here. They’re being lead by Duras, and his sole purpose is to kill me,” Archer said somberly. “He’s not with this Empire that's invading us, but he is going to attack anyone who gets in his way to get to me.”

Octavia felt her headache return with a vengeance. She facehooked saying, “What could possibly be worse than telling me that we’re fighting a three way battle?”

Archer paused for a moment. Octavia hated it when he did that. She always thought he was some bad joke in a drama sitcom, taking the dramatic pause before giving the bombshell of an answer to her query. Unfortunately, in this case she was mostly right.

Archer inhaled deeply after a three second pause and said, “The worst news is that a large planet sized craft has appeared over our sun and the enemy fleet is forming around it. Smaller groups have broken off and left the system, another is preparing to strike we think.”

“That’s not so bad,” Octavia said rubbing her ear.

“Actually,” Archer said, raising his hand. “The planet sized craft is absorbing out sun. In three hours there won’t be a Sol Star left and our system will die.”

“.... Damn the gods above.” Octavia cursed the cosmic heavens.

Archer nodded giving Octavia a sympathetic look. “Yes, damn indeed. We do have some good news.”

“Please! I’ll take any good news at this point!” Octavia all but bellowed wanting to hear anything to brighten her mood.

“We have contacted our closest allies, several have replied saying they will offer whatever assistance they can.

Octavia and the bridge crew all cheered at the news.

“How many?” Octavia asked Archer.

“That’s the catch. With everything that’s happened so far over the last few years, we’re only getting one hundred and fifty ships. Vulcan, Tellarite, Andorian, and Xindi.”

“Well, that’s good I guess,” Octavia said.

From Archers end of the screen a voice called to him from off side, “Captain, the fleet is ready to deploy. That smaller fleet is heading for us.”

Archer looked at Octavia. The two made eye contact with each other. “Will you join us, Commander?”

Octavia nodded. “We’ll be at your side for this. We won’t let you down.”

Archer nodded. He then turned around in his chair looking back to his vulcan science officer, T’pol. The Vulcan was busy at her station when she noticed Archer was facing her.

“Yes, Captain?”

“Send word to the fleet. We’re ready,” He ordered. “And send the Hydra our preliminary reports on the station over our star.”

“Aye, sir.” 

T’pol looked down at her console and prepared to send the data they collected on the massive craft over the Sol Star.

Once the data had been collected it was sent over to the Hydra. Once Vinyl Scratch got it, she gave the Commander  an affirmative nod.letting her know the data was received. Octavia then took a  moment to thank Archer for the intel and closed the channel.

Octavia looked down at 3rd of 5. The little changeling was looking up at the Commander waiting for his orders. Octavia thought it was both sunny and sad that changelings devoted themselves to their leaders so much that it seemed to be the only reason for them to live.

She wondered if it was really what it seemed. She never knew any changelings personally. Yes she met several but never once had she conversed with one.

Putting her thoughts aside she looked at 3rd of 5 and ordered him to take the ship at the head of the fleet. Once there they waited for the signal to charge. Surrounding the Hydra was the entirety of Starfleet. The USS Enterprise and USS Columbia flanked the sleek ship on either side with the rest of the fleet behind them in several groups.

As the enemy fleet came close to the earth blockade, the lead ship came to a halt, bringing the entire fleet to a standstill. The two fleets were evenly sized with three lead ships and the rest of the respective ships behind the leaderships.

On the Hydra, Commander Octavia looked out at the enemy ships by the main viewscreen. The lead ship was small, perhaps the same size as the Hydra, but it was more advanced with a higher shield output, and more weapon nodes.

To its side was two ships identical to the ISS Haymakers design. These ships however looked brand new. Their paint was a urban digital camo desgin and had several antennae sticking out from the front of the leading edges.

The view screen came to life and on it was Princess Luna. Her black uniform and rapier at her side, and in the background was Trixie in chains, with a disfigured statue beside the unicorn surrounded by guards.

“Greetings humans! I am Luna! Heiress to the Equis Empire!” The alicorn bellowed in a loud voice. “We demand your surrender to the Empire! Do so and you will be spared, don’t and you will die in glorious battle!”

Octavia snorted, jerking her head to the side. *Such an arrogant pony.* She thought assessing the alicorn. She was Princess Luna. Yet everything about her was wrong. Octavia met the Princess once. Not personally but at a party for the christening of the Hydra. She was elegant and graceful, but very authoritative. Princess Luna had the charisma of a great leader and the skill of tongue to back it up, this Luna was a brute, and it showed.

Octavia thought of this as her chance to make up for all her past failures since the Hydra departed from its drydock.

As Octavia looked upon the viewer she took note of Trixie, who seemed to be staring at the statue at her side. Almost as if she were listening to it. She felt relieved to see the blue unicorn unharmed, sighing in relief. Then, a humans  voice broke the her thoughts as he came up on the view screen. It was an aged man probably in his sixties wearing a black suit with Starfleet markers on his shoulders, several medals, and Admiral Stars.

The man gave Luna a tense but calm glare. It wasn’t full of hostility, but determination.As he spoke, the human spoke in a deep voice with a hint of a southern accent.

“This is Admiral Gardner of Starfleet. We will not surrender to the likes of you,” The human said holding his hands together. “We will stand against you and all that you represent.”

Luna laughed at the human, “Well, then it seems war is the only option.” Luna laughed again looking back to Trixie. “We shall crush your fleet under our hooves and claim your star system for our Empire!”

Gardener nodded in a condescending manner at the pony. “We shall see.”

After his words, Luna’s screen went blank leaving only an image of Admiral Gardner. The human looked around and gave a few last words of inspiration to the fleet before he finished saying, “Captain Archer, launch the fleet.”

Once this signal was gone, Archer opened a channel line to the Hydra so he could have open communication with Commander Octavia. It was only with words they’d speak but it would be sufficient for now.

“Are you ready, Commander?” He asked Octavia over the channel.
Octavia flicked her tail with anticipation. She saw Trixie there with luna and wanted to save her badly, but for now she had to lead the fleet into battle. Trixie would always put the mission first. Such thoughts made Octavia sad. Was she really always going to play second fiddle to missions?

She knew it was selfish but she couldn’t help feeling that way. Pushing these thoughts to the side, Octavia signaled Archer, “We’re ready, Captain. Follow my ships lead and have Columbia and the Apollo behind us. We’re going for the enemy flagship.”

“Acknowledged.” Archer replied going silent.

Octavia looked to 3rd of 5 once more. 

“3rd of 5, set course for the enemy flagship that signaled us,” Octavia commanded the changeling.

“Yes, Commander!” 

Ever so diligently the tiny changeling huddled over his station and ran his holed hooves across his digital console. Like lightning he activated the ship's engines and propelled them forward towards the enemy fleet. 

Starfleet and their allies charged right behind as the Empire ships, lead by the Avenger and the Luna’s Revenge. Octavia was sweating in her seat as she watched the blank viewscreen. She was unsure of what to do and decided to take a look despite not wanting too.

“Lt. Scratch! Bring up the main viewer!”

Vinyl remained silent but powered the main viewer so the Commander could see what was happening outside the ship. Everyone looked to see the enemy fleet closing in on them like a dark grey cloud.

As the ships closed in Claw had powered up weapons and loaded all the ships torpedo bays. Lyra was keeping the comm. Channels clean, while Sunset was busy at her station monitoring all the scans she took of the enemy ships, trying to find any weaknesses.

As the fleets came to nearly point blank range Commander Octavia gave Claw the order to open fire on the Avenger.

“Lt. Claw, fire a volley of torpedoes at the lead ship.” She said calmly.

“Aye,” Claw replied.

From the Hydra’s forward launchers twenty torpedoes flew out in groups of five from four different launchers at the Avenger. The ship quickly darted port, thus was only hit by half the torpedoes. The Avenger retaliated with a torpedo volley of her own. 3rd of 5 pitched the Hydra hard to port taking moderate damage from the torpedoes, but managed to minimize it by avoiding the majority like the enemy ship. Moments later both fleets began to exchange fire as the ships either collided with one another or broke formation to avoid collisions.

Romulan ships split through Starfleet and its allies. Several of the smaller Romulan warbirds fired torpedoes at the more powerful Vulcan and Andorian ships.

The Andorians retaliated by sending their largest ship into the Romulan fleet. The massive capital ship was easily the largest ship in this battle thus far, easily four lengths of the Hydra and twice as big, it was a massive ship to behold. 

Its sleek lengthy design gave it a very appealing look like a dark saber cutting through the Romulan fleet. Soaring through the enemy the Andorian Capital ship shot it’s high output particle cannons, easily cutting through the Romulan ships after hitting them with a few shots. 

This forced the Romulans to focus on the Andorians leaving the Empire ships to quell with Starfleet and the rest of their allies. At the head of the charge the Hydra slipped through the Romulan fleet with the Enterprise and Columbia at her tail, but due to the amount of ships weaving in and out of the way they were falling behind.

3rd of 5’s mastery over the Hydra made maneuvering the ship through the fleets easy. As 3rd of 5 took the Hydra into a small group of Romulan warbirds, the Andorian capital ship came through breaking the formation and firing its particle cannons destroying three ships and damaging the others. The Hydra’s disruptors tore through what remained of the other ships destroying the small group without getting hit once.

Fro behind the Columbia and Enterprise fired torpedoes at an Empire cruiser heavily damaging it. The Empire ship turned hard about and returned fire on the human ships. The Enterprise took several direct hits while Colombia took the lead, shielding Enterprise with itself.

On the bridge Octavia was gripping her chair like it was a life preserver. She could feel her body heat up and being to sweat. The sweat fell down her forehead and down her neck giving a much needed sense of coolness she needed.

“3rd of 5, take us to the enemy flagship!”

“Aye, ma’am!”

3rd of 5 took the hydra and darted straight down past another small group of Empire ships. Three of these ships turned to give chase to the Hydra opening fire as soon as they were in firing range.

The Hydra took many direct hits after, shaking its frame under the constant fire of energy bolts. 

Octavia nearly fell out of her seat when a stray plasma torpedo collided with the Hydra after missing its intended target. This impact hit so hard the entire ship staggered to the side leaving it vulnerable to enemy fire.

Octavia looked own at Trixie’s command chair reading the tactical dispaly.



/// DAMAGE REPORT ///

*Shield damage 6.6% 

Power regulator 3 & 4 down




Meanwhile, 3rd of 5 struggled to get the ship back on course. The plasma torpedo had pushed the equine ship into another group of Romulan ships forcing them to scatter, but not without taking a few potshots at the Hydra as it past.

Not missing a beat Octavia ordered Claw to open fire on the ships as they past, using her open comm. She sent a message to Archer and asked him to assist in this minor skirmish. In the seconds to come the Hydra past seven Romulan ships shooting all of them with great precision that Claw had come accustom to doing.

The Romulan ships remained in formation but were an easy target since they were so focused on the Hydra to notice the Enterprise and Columbia. The two earth ships fired their phase cannons destroying three of the Romulan warbirds and forced the others to regroup.

This left the way to the Empire lead ship in view heading straight for the Hydra with its two support ships right behind it.

Octavia glared at the view screen at the ship with the distinct symbol of Luna's cutie Mark on it. The ship was long and recliner in shape with two large engines in the rear section side by side. Connecting these two sections was a wide Octavia section that acted as a hangar.

What was most notable about this ship was the large barrel that looked to be built within the full length of the ship. Octavia observed this, being familiar with the Hydra’s ion cannon it was safe to assume this ship had a large weapon attached to that barrel, and there was no doubt it was fully functional.

*Luna on the bridge of the Avenger*

As the distance between the two groups closed in the Romulans had been forced to retreat due to poor formation flying and bad tactical decisions. The Romulans fled to rejoin the rest of the 3rd fleet.

Luna sighed seeing their so called, ‘powerful allies’ flee from the simple human ships. She was surprised to see the fleet retreat as she brought her ship alongside the Luna’s Revenge and the Helios to charge the enemy lines.

The blue alicorn looked to Trixie who was now glaring at her silently.

“Don’t give me that look my student. You know we have to do this to succeed with our mission,” Luna said to Trixie. 

The alicon then turned to face the main viewscreen. She flexed her wings behind her back as though she were at parade rest. She took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders before turning to her weapons officer, a threshold, or batpony as many came to know them as.

“Commander! Charge the mass driver.”

“Yes mistress!” The threshold replied.

Moments later he tapped his console until a small red screen came up. From there he saw a circular node and tapped the edge with his hoof and spun it 360 degrees around until it became green.



///System Engaged///

WARNING MASS DRIVER ACTIVATED PROCEED?

Y/N ?



The threshold commander clicked the small Y, and powered up the mass driver. A small bar appeared to the side with a red percentage sign that indicated how much charge the mass driver had.

Quickly it read 56%.

77% - 89.3% - 100%

It took less than five seconds for the mass driver to completely charge from falah way. When it did the batpony saluted from his station and gave word to his mistress.

“Mistress, the mass driver is charged! Shall I target the incoming craft?” He asked.

Luna glanced out into the forming enemy fleet. She then noticed the Andorian capital ship, which was now leading the charge. At its side was the Hydra and the two earth vessels, Enterprise and Columbia.

The alicorn shook her head and replied to her officer, “No, target the Andorian ship,” She said sitting down on her seat. “Let’s see just how powerful they really are. And how smart they are.” She finished with a sinister grin.

*Enterprise Bridge*

Archer was standing by his seat at the center of his bridge talking to the Andorian Supreme commander on their capital ship, the Vosa. He had been trying to convince the Supreme Commander not to charge into the enemy fleet head first without taking precautions.

“-all I’m saying Supreme Commander, is that we don’t know the extent of their weapons and ships,” Archer said dissuading. “We have no idea what these other ships are or what they’re capable of.”

The Andorian Supreme Commander was a fat blue skinned Andorian. He had chubby cheeks and a potbelly that could give some humans a run for their money. He had a look of arrogance in him, and a smug grin to match as he lazily waved off Archers warnings.

“They are allied with the Romulans who attacked our homeworld!” He shouted to Archer. “We will not take this lying down!”

Archer gave a short exasperated sigh. “I understand sir, but we can’t-”

“I’ve heard enough!” The Commander said dismissively. “If you will cower like a Tellarite so be it. We won’t sit back while our allies are destroyed and our home attacked!”

The moment he finished speaking the Supreme Commander hit his chair cutting off the main view screen. Archer sagged his shoulders in defeat, not sure of what to do. He looked around at his senior crew, as he did on many occasions. Though nothing was said, the looks they gave him suggested they supported him in his efforts to dissuade the Andorian commander of his foolhardy charge.

Taking his seat Archer gave Mayweather, his helm officer, the go to follow the Hydra alongside the Andorian Supreme commander's ship.

“Steady as she goes Mayweather, be ready for anything.”

“Aye sir.” Mayweather replied powering the Enterprises engines coming alongside the Columbia and Hydra.

As the fleet began to advance they noticed over ten ships of identical design took position as a mini blockade between the Empire and Starfleet.

Noticing this Archer took caution and told Mayweather to fall back. As the Enterprise took back on its speed Mayweather gave them enough space to fall behind the Andorian capital ship in case something went wrong they could use it as cover. Columbia seemed to have the same idea and flanked the Enterprise opposite side of the ship.

Lieutenant Reed then took note of a massive power surge coming from the line of ships.

“Captain, I’m reading  power buildup emanating from the blockading ships,” He said looking over his readings. “I think they’re powering up some kind of weapons.”

Archer felt unsettled. Something wasn’t right. The enemy was waiting for them to do something. Was it so simple that they were waiting for the fleet to come in range so they’d fire on them? Or perhaps it was a ploy to break them apart.

No matter the case the fleet was dedicated now and nothing was going to stop them from the charge, or so he thought.

DEET DEET!

“Captain! The blockade is firing some kind of large scale cannons!”

Quickly Archer ran behind Mayweather and gripped his shoulder. “Evasive action Mayweather!”

“On it sir!”

THOOM!

The entire Enterprise shook when a large blue beam shot from the leading ship in the blockade hitting the Andorian capital ship head on and cut right through it like it was wet tissue paper.

Archer looked at the screen as the Hydra suddenly shot forward into the enemy fleet as nine more particle beams fired from the other nine ships tearing through the larger ships in the fleet. Most of the larger ships from the Andorians and Xindi took the brunt of the fire, but a second volley hit the smaller starships from Starfleet and the Tellarites destroying them in seconds.

Archer growled lowering his head in frustration. He then turned on his heels and ran back to his seat sitting down on it and securing himself he ordered Mayweather to follow the Hydra in.

“Mr. Mayweather take us in full speed!”

“Aye sir!”

Archer then turned to face Lt. Reed, “Malcolm! Fire phase cannons and repair a torpedo spread! Fire on my command!”

“Aye sir, torpedoes ready.”

“Mayweather take us in behind the Hydra then as we pass the enemy blockade take us directly past the lateral hull of those blockading ships!” Archer ordered.

“Yes, sir!” Mayweather replied with enthusiasm. “I’ll take us within a rock's throw away sir!”

“Good, T’pol scan those ships.”

The vulcan officer nodded silently taking several long detailed scans of the ships. I need a minute Captain. Mr. Mayweather, try to keep us within ten kilometers of the enemy ships.”

“No problem.” 

Taking the Enterprise behind the Hydra was easy enough, butt the Equine ship was far more maneuverable than the Enterprise could ever hope to achieve. As the Hydra passed the enemy ships it twirled along the axis of one blockade ship shooting its disruptors at several focused points. 

Within the seconds of the pass, Lt Reed noticed the enemy shields had be dropped and prepared to fire his torpedo spread, but waited.

“Captain? Permission to launch our spread?” He asked Archer.

“Do it.”

Taking no time Reed launched his torpedoes into the enemy ship right down the barrel as they passed. The interior of the ship began to explode as large sections of the ship gave way to balls of fire. Several explosions later the ship blew apart into two sections effectively disabling it.

“Well done Mr. Reed, Mayweather.” Archer said patting mayweather on the  back.

Archer took his seat once again. *Do I really get up this often?* He wondered, looking down at his seat. Remembering to think about it later he order the Enterprise to follow the hydra again ready for another pass.

The Enterprise then flew back behind the Hydra as it made another mad dash to the next ship in the line. This time however, the enemy was prepared. While the Hydra and Enterprise charged behind enemy lines the rest of the fleet had now made contact with the blockading ships, which were now fully mobile and engaging.

The Romulans had regained their foothold and were now engaging the enemy fleet with more precision and grace than they did before. Several larger warbirds decloak flying like giant falcons swooping down on their prey. They easily were four times the size of most ships and had a large wingspan with large spearlike nickels at the tips matched only by the long necks of the ships that lead to a hooked beak structures at the head.



These larger Romulan vessels broke through Starfleet and its allies tearing their ships apart with green bolted disruptors and larger more powerful plasma torpedoes. There were six of these ships and all of them were alone taking larger groups of vessels on their own easily outmatching their adversaries ten to one.

Archer looked at the green Romulan craft and gave T’pol a surprised look. After her scans were complete she had a most perplexed look.

“This can’t be.” She said looking over her scans.

“What is it?’

“My readings aren’t coming up right.” T’pol said as Archer joined her side. “According to these reading the carbon dating on those six Romulan vessels is -33.”

“What?! Are you sure?” Archer asked worried. “Carbon dating is always positive, unless… Are you suggesting-”

“I don’t know what I’m suggesting Captain.” T’pol admitted flatly.

“Did you - THOOM! - did you run a diagnostic?”

“Positive sir, I ran a diagnostic. The readings still can’t be right.” T’pol said looking at Archer.

“Those ships are from the future.” Archer said worried looking at the viewer as these ‘future’ vessels flew around the battle.


> *SNEAK PEEK EXCLUSIVE*
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Detainment Cells Battleship Avenger*

On Heiress Luna’s ship Trixie was being escorted to a detainment area and placed in a cold cell by herself. As she passed by several chambers she noticed that all of them had prisoners in them. One in particular had a strange device in the center with a strange statue in the center of it. 

It was a large two legged serpent thing with strange mismatched horns and a goofy smile on it. It had a lion paw and a raptor talon for its arms and cloven hoofed legs. It stood like it was in the middle of a dance.

Trixie regarded this statue with a sense of unease. Seeing it made her worry something bad was about to happen.

She could hear a voice, whispering deep in her mind. It was like hearing an echo all around her. A perfect resonance that made her think the voice was all around her. As she was forced into her cell, and energy field came up ceiling her inside, and silenced the voice in her head.

She thought it was strange, but she could have swore she heard the voice before. Yet she could not place where or when she ever heard it try as she might. Over the next few minutes she sat in her cell thinking about the battle raging on outside the ship.

Every time it shook Trixie could feel a throbbing in her head. Like something was trying to pry into her mind. After five minutes of enduring this, Trixie sat down and let her mind wander. A feeling of nausea overcame her.

The feeling only grew as time passed on. Then she became dizzy. Her disorientation forced her to lay down on the cold steel surface of the Avenger. After getting as comfortable as possible she fell into a deep sleep. 

Trixie felt the nausea pass as time seemed to go on for eternity. As she lay there on the cold surface the world around her turned to black and Trixie found herself floating in what seemed an endless black void.

Was it a dream? She wondered. It felt like a very strange dream. As she looked around in the void she heard a small resonance of some sort. That resonance grew and eventually became a full blown laughter followed by a most obnoxiously joyful voice.

(Helloooo! Hellooo! Welcome my friend!)

Trixie groaned hearing the annoying voice echo in her head.

(What do we have here? A little pony? Oh, is that Trixie!? My goodness the time flies!) The voice said as a main in a red uniform appeared.

Trixie looked at the human. He was tall light skinned with short curly black hair and a large mischievous smile that made Trixie’s fur stand on end.

*Insert image here*

(Well, hello again Trixie.) The human said bowing in an exaggerated manner. (I am Q! And do I have a deal for you!)

Trixie groaned not wanting to deal with this right now. Getting ‘up’ she floated in suspended space as the human floated around her several times before setting himself on the void and ‘stood’ there.

Trixie glared at him. “What do you want, and better yet what are you, and how do you know me?” Trixie asked.

The man sighed with a most pathetic face. (What- did I not introduce myself earlier? I’m Q?)

“Q?”

(Q.)

“......”

(......)

“Okay, what do you want, Q?” Trixie asked again crossing her arms still floating in place.

Q grinned taking a step forward towards Trixie and slowly he began to circle her.

“Well you see I need your help with something.” He began. “I have a friend who was recently captured by Evil empress Sunbutt OP Queen of the multiverse and I need your help freeing him.”

Trixie looked at Q as he stopped in front of her. 

“Say I did help you, what do I get in return?” Trixie asked.

“Well, I can help you. I can help your friends…. Or well, more specifically my friend can.”
> Sol Dios Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

*???*

Personal log stardate…. 

I… it has been three days since he was taken from me. After the fall of the Solar Imperium in the mirror universe Cole was taken by a new enemy who rose from the ashes of the failed alliance between the Terran Empire and the Solar Imperium.

Now he’s trapped on that ship, the Sol Dios. A ship, no more like a planet sized station powered by a star at its very core. I’ve managed to track their movements with a little help from our old, acquaintance Q and now all i have to do is wait for the ship to prepare for wormhole entry.

Hang on Cole, Trixie is coming.

(End Recording)

*Enterprise Bridge Archer*

Captain’s log stardate November 20, 2154.

After a spacial anomaly sent the enemy fleet back to their battle station over Earth's star it has given us some breathing room to reform our ship ranks. I'm revealed to hear that most of our ships made it despite having to face 24th century technology. Although, I wish Commander Octavia shared my enthusiasm. From what I've seen... that appears to be only a human trait.

Turns out the Romulans and the Empire's ships were far more numerous than we imagine, but all hope is not lost. We have devised a plan that with any luck will lead us to victory. A plan to destroy the enemy capital ship that’s consuming our star.

After consulting with Commander Octavia it was decided that the Enterprise and the Columbia would lead a strike force to destroy the enemy battle station before it consumes the star completely. After this turn of luck I’m feeling confident that we’ll be able to stop the Empire’s advance and win this fight.

(End Recording)

Archer looked at the viewscreen at the futuristic Romulan vessels from his seat on the bridge of the Enterprise. They were massive, fast, and hit hard. In the two minutes it took the Enterprise to analyze them the future Romulan craft destroyed over a dozen ships.

Starfleet and its allies were now on the defensive. Their weapons were proving to be little match to the large future Romulan warbirds shields. Scans showed them to have an output that made all but the Andorians and Xindi weapons useless. This forced the fleet to focus on protecting the Andorian and Xindi ships while they focused on the future craft. This was proving to be costly however.

One advantage they had was the versatility of the Xindi fleet. The Xindi were a race that had six distinct species and with each came their own spin on their ships. 

First was the Reptilians and insectoid Xindi. Both are warrior based and have a knack for building great warships. The reptilians preferred larger more powerful ships while insectoids had smaller but more agile ships. However advanced their warships were the reptilians had narrow mind berserker mentality making them nearly obsessive with one goal so much they might ignore all but that one goal. The insectoids seemed to have more, flexible thinking.

Then there were the primate and aboreals. Primates were almost human physically while the arboreals were more like giant yeti. Their ships were more scientific than anything and were rather small in size. Archer had personally been one one before and it was only big enough to hold a crew of ten at best.

The last and most elaborate of all the Xindi were the aquatics. Whale like in shape with long arms these Xindi need water to survive. Essentially their ships are giant water tanks out in space. Their ships boast great shield, armor, and weapons vastly overshadowing every other Xindi species. That being said their only problem was if their ships were damaged they could lose water fast.

The last of the Xindi was the avians, but they went extinct long ago according to records.

Not long ago the Xindi were tricked into attacking humanity by transdimensional beings from the future attempting to wipe humanity from existence. Turned out that humanity would lead a rebellion against these beings in the future and save the galaxy with their allies, including the Xindi. After many intense battles and many losses the Xindi finally allied with humanity but the seeds of mistrust still linger in the hearts of both Xindi and humanity. Archer hoped the alliance would hold until the Empire was dealt with.


After their charge behind enemy lines, the Hydra and Enterprise had to retreat from their cavalry raid past the enemy lines to help defend the Andorian vessels which were being targeted by the future Romulan vessels. This was due to the Andorian vessels being rather slow compared to most of the other ships in the fleet. Andorians, like Klingons, focused on power versus speed in their ships. Their ships weren’t slow by any means but their lower mobility was proving to be their achilles heel as the Empire ships out maneuvered them at every turn.

Powerful as they were the Andorians had to rely on their allies for cover as they charged into battle. The fleets had to engage close quarters or risk being destroyed by the enemy rail canon ships, but left themselves vulnerable to the Romulans who used this to their advantage. As a result more Starfleet and their allies ships were being destroyed than they were taking out from the Empire.

The Xindi were just as bad off. Their smaller ships stood little chance in a firefight and the larger ones were proving to be too slow to dodge enemy fire. It was a simple numbers game. Starfleet and its allies had the power to overcome their enemies, but the enemy fleet outnumbered them considerably to where it made no difference, and Starfleet was suffering great losses as well.

All in all the battle as going poorly.

Archer gave an order to Mayweather to take the Enterprise and have it placed side by side with an Andorian vessel called the Kimari. The Kimari was a vessel he’d come to know well and respect along with its captain.

Coming alongside, Archer ordered a communication channel open to the Kimari. Once upon a blue Andorian appeared on screen. His two blue antenna lifted from a droopy position at the sight of Archer.

“Captain Archer…. How long has it been?” The Andorian asked in a calm tone.

Archer gave the Andorian a small nod. “Too long Shran.”

“Indeed. We always seem to meet when trouble brews. You are nothing but a trouble magnet, you know that?” Shran asked in a play tone, pointing at Archer, making the human grin.

“Yeah, we do seem to do that often.” Archer had to agree with his blue friend. “More often than not you seem to helping us.”

Shran scoffed with a dismissive gesture. “We only help because i hate being indebted to anyone,” Shran looked at the screen with keen interest. “Especially to the likes of you pink skin.”
Archer groaned at the nickname Shran called him by. It was what the Andorian originally called humans during their first encounter at a Vulcan shrine on the moon of P’jem. It was there that Archer and some of his crew discovered a Vulcan listening post to spy on Andorian, homeworld to the Andorians. This inadvertently started a conflict between the two worlds and Archer was thrown right into the middle of it. Thanks to his relations to Shran however he was able to stop the conflict at its source.

Since then Archer and Shran have run into each other on several occasions but never when the galaxy was at peace. Archer figured Shran prefered it that way despite all his belly aching he does.

“Shran, I need your help with something.” 

Shran looked at his human friend with peaked interest. “What is it Archer?” 

“I need your help to get a friend who was taken by the enemy.”

Shran gave a look that said Archer wasn’t probably going to like what he had to say. After giving it some thought Sharn leaned over in his chair and rested his chin on his hands.

“Alright Archer, I’ll help you. BUT, I expect a favor in return.”

“Consider it done.” Archer replied. 

Shran then leaned back in his command chair allowing his body to relax. “What do you have in mind?”

“I think you’ll like what I have in mind.”

*Detainment Cells Battleship Avenger*

On Heiress Luna’s ship Trixie was being escorted to a detainment area and placed in a cold cell by herself. As she passed by several chambers she noticed that all of them had prisoners in them. One in particular had a strange device in the center with a human being held suspended inches above it. 

For a brief moment they made eye contact

She could hear a voice, whispering deep in her mind. It was like hearing an echo all around her. A perfect resonance that made her think the voice was all around her. As she was forced into her cell, and energy field came up ceiling her inside, and silenced the voice in her head.

She thought it was strange, but she could have swore she heard the voice before. Yet she could not place where or when she ever heard it try as she might. Over the next few minutes she sat in her cell thinking about the battle raging on outside the ship.

Every time it shook Trixie could feel a throbbing in her head. Like something was trying to pry into her mind. After five minutes of enduring this, Trixie sat down and let her mind wander. A feeling of nausea overcame her.

The feeling only grew as time passed on. Then she became dizzy. Her disorientation forced her to lay down on the cold steel surface of the Avenger. After getting as comfortable as possible she fell into a deep sleep. 

Trixie felt the nausea pass as time seemed to go on for eternity. As she lay there on the cold surface the world around her turned to black and trixie found herself floating in what seemed an endless black void.

Was it a dream? She wondered. It felt like a very strange dream. As she looked around in the void she heard a small resonance of some sort. That resonance grew and eventually became a full blown laughter followed by a most obnoxiously joyful voice.

(Helloooo! Hellooo! Welcome my friend!)

Trixie groaned hearing the annoying voice echo in her head.

(What do we have here? A little pony? Oh, is that Trixie!? My goodness the time flies!) The voice said as a main in a red uniform appeared.

Trixie looked at the human. He was tall light skinned with short curly black hair and a large mischievous smile that made trixie’s fur stand on end.

*Insert image here*

(Well, hello again Trixie.) The human said bowing in an exaggerated manner. (I am Q! And do I have a deal for you!)

Trixie groaned not wanting to deal with this right now. Getting ‘up’ she floated in suspended space as the human floated around her several times before setting himself on the void and ‘stood’ there.

Trixie glared at him. “What do you want, and better yet what are you, and how do you know me?” Trixie asked.

The man sighed with a most pathetic face. (What- did I not introduce myself earlier? I’m Q?)

“Q?”

(Q.)

“......”

(......)

“Okay, what do you want, Q?” Trixie asked again crossing her arms still floating in place.

Q grinned taking a step forward towards Trixie and slowly he began to circle her.

“Well you see I need your help with something.” He began. “I have a friend who was recently captured by Evil empress Sunbutt OP Queen of the multiverse and I need your help freeing him.”

Trixie looked at Q as he stopped in front of her. 

“Say I did help you, what do I get in return?” Trixie asked.

“Well, I can help you. I can help your friends…. Or well, more specifically my friend can.”

Upon hearing Q say friend, made trixie take pause. She knew she didn’t have many options. She had no way of escape, no way to get to the Hydra, and worst of all she saw the battle fared poorly for her allies, meaning the Hydra was in jeopardy.

Considering her position Trixie thought it behooved her to help Q get his friend back. She had a responsibility to her crew and the lives of those fighting against the Empire. Plus, this man Q seemed to possess some kind of power, if her being in a black void was any indicator. That or she was hallucinating.

“I can assure you, little pony, that you are in fact not hallucinating.” Q said with a smirk creeping across his lips, as he crossed his legs. “If you doubt my limitless powers I can show you something that’ll change your mind.”

Snapping his fingers, Q expanded the scene of Octavia which zoomed out to show the Hydra in full view. The Hydra looked as though it was put through a starship blender. The outer hull was heavily damaged. One naccel was inoperable, the hangar was in shambles, and power was out over several decks.

Trixie felt her heart beginning to race as a group of Romulan warbirds, including one of the larger ones, charged the Hydra. The equine ship turned tail to retreat back to the safety net of its allies but was being pursued without remorse. Green disruptor bolts flew across space to the Hydra hitting it from every conceivable angle at its rear. Tiny explosions appeared all over the ship as the shields lost power and the Hydra began taking heavy damage.

Enterprise and the Columbia, along with several Andorian cruisers, charged trying to assist the Hydra. Their energy cannons hit their marks on the Romulans. Changing tactics the smaller Romulan craft took cover behind the larger one using it as a shield against the incoming fire.

The Empire and the Romulans were on the verge of overrunning the Federation and its allies when a bright flash surrounded the entirety of the Empire's fleet and sent them back around the Sol Dios.

Trixie sighed in relief seeing her friends were fine. Her ship survived, and that meant Octavia was fine. Seeing the enemy fleet reassemble Trixie quickly turned to Q who gave her a gesture that said, ‘what will you do now?’

“Okay, I’ll help you.” Trixie tried to say in a non demanding tone.


“I’m glad to see you’re more cooperative than most. My dear friend Picard and Cole are nothing if not entertaining but getting them to do anything can be a most boring chore.” Q said thinking back fondly at the memories. “Cole was especially fun to deal with! Oh and the fun we had! I could tell you stories. There was one time with a mariachi band-”

“Has anyone told you you’re a irritating imbecilic fool… Q?” Trixie asked in an irate tone to Q.

Q stopped in place for three seconds before he laughed (the fakest laugh Trixie ever heard), slapping his hands over his thighs. Trixie growled feeling her temper rise as Q continued his mock laughter.

Finally calming himself Q went to adjust his red uniform top and gave Trixie a most serious look. His humorous grin faded giving way to a deep contemplative purse of his lips. Then his eyes narrowed, not in a hostile way, but in a casual analytical way.

He approached Trixie kneeling down to her side and said to her in a low tone, almost a whisper.

“I’d think carefully before you insult a superior being. After all,” He paused and with a wave of his hand, made an image of Octavia appear. “Don’t you want to save your little friend?”

Scanning over the image, Trixie felt her heart nearly stop. Octavia was sitting in her command chair yelling at other around her on the bridge of the Hydra. Trixie gasped as the ship shook and sparks flew over Octavia forcing her to cover her face.

Sunset and Star Stripe were trying to put out a fire at their station behind her. 3rd of 5 was on the floor unconscious, Vinyl was at the helm in his place. Lyra looked like she was desperately trying to communicate with other ships and the bridge itself was a heaping mess.

Trixie glared up at Q. “What do you want me to do, Q?”

“Well as you’ll soon find out I can’t really do much in this reality due to rules from the Q Continuum and such since I was told to hold back. Dumb Picard….”

Trixie rolled her eyes clearly waiting for Q to get over his sob story.

“-anyways, I have a friend that was taken and I need you to free him. You see the Empress has him and he would be more than willing to help… if you help him.” Q said with a playful smile on his lips. “Maybe then he’ll help you, cause I’m not allowed to.”

“Right… So where is this friend of yours?” Trixie asked, with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Q chuckled. “Well as luck would have it he’s in the cell next to you, but I’d hurry he might not be there long.” Q said causally.

He then snapped his fingers creating a bright flash of light that blinded Trixie. The unicorn averted her gaze and covered her eyes from the bright light. The feeling of nausea returned full force and she felt like she was thrown by some mighty force.

Suddenly the light disappeared and Trixie’s eyes shot open. She sat upright quickly feeling disoriented from her experience, but she could remember every detail. Not waiting for her feeling to pass, Trixie, clumsily waddled to the edge of her cell and looked into the next one over.

Just as Q said there was a prisoner there, the same human from before. He was staring straight ahead with a calm expression, but defeated. 

Just past him she could see group of security ponies walking towards the cell from the entrance of the brig. Quickly, Trixie reached for her hind leg boots and detached the heels with her hooves. Having a magical suppression ring sucked but she was just as good with her hooves as she was with her magic. Having an earth pony mare friend didn’t hurt either.

Quickly she pulled a small device from her first heel and replaced it back on her boot. From her second heel Trixie wired the first device to a small battery and attached the device to the side of the energy field of her cell. As the guards came up to the cell next to hers Trixie activated her device which sent a pulse through the frame of the ship and shut off the energy field with a loud hiss.

The guards turned just in time to see a flash of blue before they were knocked out. Having dealt with the guards Trixie dragged them into her now unoccupied cell and left them there. Returning to the cell where the state was Trixie approached the statue cautiously.

Taking the security ponies to her cell she locked them inside. She then returned to the cell where the human was and gave him a good look over. He was tall but a bit on the short side and an average build for a human from what Trixie figured.

He looked shocked by the sight of Trixie. The look of shock was quickly replaced by a playful smile.

“What kept ya, Trix?”

*Hydra Bridge*

Commander’s Log stardate November 20, 2154.

Archer has come up with crazy plan to destroy the enemy battle station. Actually it’s more along the lines of suicidal. I only agreed to it so we could save Trixie. Personally if it were up to me we wouldn’t be doing this plan, but I know Trixie would be up for it. 

That mare friend of mine.

I swear Trixie is insane and when I get back she and I are getting very familiar with our beds. (Pause)

“Computer delete last line.”

(Last line deleted. Do you wish to continue?)

“Yes.”

Ahem. Trixie has a bad habit of jumping head first into things. Sometimes I feel she’s trying to win the crews approval, or maybe even prove herself. Whatever her reasons I’ll be having a few choice words with her once this is over. (End Recording)

Octavia let out a breath of relief. She was sure the enemy had them and it was all over. Thankfully some kind of spacial anomaly sent the pursuing ships back and gave them time to retreat and lick their wounds, but she wasn’t counting on it happening again.

The fleet had retreated to the Sector 0 point to blockade Earth. All in total they lost about 1/3rd of the entire fleet. With time running out Archer and a few of his allies came up with a plan to save the Earth. It would be costly but it was necessary to save the galaxy.

First though, the Hydra had to be repaired as much as possible.

“Damage report…” Octavia said to nobody in particular.

From behind her Sunset looked over her station, scanning the ship as a roster of the ship wide systems came up. Her face contorted to a frown as she furrowed her brows assessing the damage.

“It’s bad Commander,” She said looking down the list. “The ship has taken heavy damage to the outer hull, armor is almost gone, most of our major systems are down, inertial dampeners weapons, propulsion, navigation, we’re barely holding main power, and thrusters are barely functioning.”

Octavia groaned in a most unlady like manner. While she prided herself to being as dainty as possible, and everyone knew she wasn’t, she found it hard not to just give up on the spot.

“Augh, since we left dry dock, nothing I mean NOTHING has gone our way.” She whined.

The remaining crew looked at their commander with worry. The grey mare's eyes were worn and tired. Bloodshot red with dark bags underneath. She looked to be the walking dead, yet she lived and breathed.

“Why can’t we just have one good thing happen for once?” She complained throwing her arms in the air. 

Just then the ship's proximity alarms sounded, and Octavia groaned again in frustration.

“What is it now?!”

“Commander! We have another spacial anomaly coming from directly behind us!” Claw said.

Sunset confirmed the readings with a short ranged scan. “Confirmed ma’am. It’s some kind of… temporal anomaly. *THOOM* We’re caught in the wake of the anomaly.”

“Vinyl get us away from the anomaly, Lt. Sunset Shimmer, continue monitoring the anomaly.”

Everyone performed their tasks without question. Vinyl steered the ship clear from the temporal anomaly while Sunset continued her monitoring. Just then the computer beeped signaling an approaching ship originating from the anomaly.

“Commander! There’s a ship coming from the anomaly! It’s coming right for us!!” Sunset yelled.

“SOUND COLLISION ALARMS! VINYL EMERGENCY THRUSTERS, ANYTHING JUST MOVE US!!” 

“Aye!”

Vinyl turned the ship hard to starboard. One thing Sunset wished she said was the inertial dampeners were offline. For when Vinyl shifted the ship to starboard with the emergency thrusters. The sudden movement, topped with the inertial dampers being offline threw half the crew and Octavia to the opposite side of the ship.

Vinyl herself was flung from her seat and into the wall just above Lyra. The mint green unicorn ducked just in time to avoid the 110 pound pony from smashing into her face. Octavia barely managed to see the main viewer to see a small ship skim past.

It was a small ship. Smaller than the Hydra but just slightly smaller than Enterprise. It was similar to the human ship's, saucer section but was triangular in shape, two naccels of blue and red, and was very fast.

http://home.earthlink.net/~joemcmullen/images/Nova/scirocco-pose.jpg

It flew past the Hydra scraping along the full length of the hull before managing to pull away before it hitting the hangar bay at the rear of the ship. 

Once the ship was clear it veered off in a wide turn flying up along side the Hydra. Several Starfleet ships circled around mistaking the craft for an enemy ship, but held fire while Commander Octavia opened a communication line.

“Lyra, hail the ship… let’s see who we’re dealing with.”

Lyra’s head poked from under her station desk. Vinyl was lying on top with a silly grin on her face. Lyra rolled her eyes and shoved the mare to the floor. Vinyl landed with a heavy thud and the ship shook slightly just as she made contact with the floor.

Everyone on the bridge looked at the white mare who was beet red like tomato.

“WHAT!? It wasn’t me!” Vinyl cried indignantly. “It’s the inertial dampeners! They were offline!”

Octavia sighed remembering Vinyls antics back in the Academy days. There were many fun filled days, often involving the Academy Dean and security, but they were fun none the less.

“Of, course Vinyl.” Octavia sighed. “Miss Heartstring, please open the line, and Vinyl…”

The white mare in question looked at her CO.

“Go to deck ten. We have a gym there. I won’t have you breaking the ship cause you can’t go one day without your apple crumpets.” She said with a playful smirk.

Vinyl was about to retort when the entire bridge crew snickered, even Claw had to snap his beak shut to not outright laugh. Defeated Vinyl slunk to the back to the bridge and sat beside Sunset Shimmer who regarded the more sympathetically.

“I like those crumpets too,” Sunset said.

Looking up from her console, Sunset noticed Vinyl was smiling at her which made her blush.

“Y-you wanna grab some after this is over?” Sunset suggested.

“I’d like that.” Vinyl replied.

Meanwhile, Lyra put on her headset and opened a line to the new starship. When the view screen came up everyone stopped what they were doing and stared. On the screen was a blue unicorn mare with a simple silvery mane, deep amethyst eyes and wore a red and black top with Starfleet's insignia on it. Around her neck was a small necklace that depicted a black alicon head with wings and a red jewel in the center.

This mare was equally surprised to see the ponies on the other side of the screen as she stared slack jawed at them.

“T-trixie!?” Octavia bellowed loudly before fainting.

Vinyl shook her head tapping her violet visor. “Drama queen…”

*Sol Dios Celestia’s Chambers*

Empress Celestia looked upon the battle from her throne. Several view screens showed her the battle from several angles, most of which were from the perspective of her ships. She was impressed by the resolve of the enemy fleet. She walked over to one of her balconies looking over her battle station as it absorbed the radiation from the sun below.

It was like looking into a large fiery tube being sucked up by a vacuum into space. Empress Celestia loved it when her station absorbed another star. It was what kept her going. 

It was a technological marvel of her own design. Large, powerful, and was capable of destroying entire star systems. Empress Celestia was ready to crush the humans once her station had absorbed the Sol Star.

Until then she would commit her forces to soften the enemy fleet. Though it was really just to buy time for her battle station to get ready.

Opening a channel to her sister's ship Empress Celestia was surprised to see her sister frantically running up to the screen. Her right leg was missing and her ship appeared to be in complete disarray.

Frowning, Celestia glared menacingly at her sister who cringed at the white alicorns glare.

“What happened?” She hissed at Luna.

Heiress Luna chuckled. “Well, heh heh, funny story...”

Empress Celestia furrowed her brow, sparks flew from her horn onto the ground burning through the polished floor and through the steel floors beneath.

“Speak.” The Empress snarled.

*Earlier Avenger Holding Cells*

Trixie released the human from his restraints allowing him to move about freely. While the human got his bearings Trixie ran to the edge of the cell to look around. Suddenly she felt the human pull her into a bear hug.

“Hey what are you doing?” Trixie asked alarmed by the show of affection.

The man put her down and gave her a confused expression. A few seconds passed and the man got a look on his face like he just realized something.

“Sorry, thought you were my Trixie. Sorry about that.” He said.

He ran out of the cell and went to the edge of the brig where a single console was. Trixie still confused as to what was going on ran up behind the human and tugged his pants with her hoof.

“Uhm, excuse me? How do you know me?” Trixie asked annoyed by the human ignoring her.

“Huh? What do you mean? You don’t know?” The man asked as he tapped the control panel.

Trixie sat by his side, almost like a dog companion would, and tapped her hooves impatiently on the steel floors making loud clopping noises.

The man stopped momentarily to look down at Trixie making her stop. Once she was done tapping her hooves, the man went back to trying to open the doors.

“My name’s Cole by the way. Cole Stevens.” He said reaching out with his hand.

Trixie regarded the hand for a moment then shook hooves with Cole.

“Very well, Mr. Stevens. Care to explain to me how you know me yet?” Trixie asked yet again. 

Cole had to try really hard to not say some smart remark at Trixie. 

“I’m from an alternate reality.” He said. Seeing the confused look on Trixie’s face he racked his overactivity imaginative brain for a way to explain this concept to her. 

“It’s kinda like… Okay, think of this,” He unzipped a pocket from his flight suit and pulled out something Trixie hadn’t expected to see, a small piece of paper. 

Cole ripped it into two pieces and balled them up in his fists showing both to Trixie. “Okay, alternate realities crash course. Think of these two balls a two different galaxies. You with me?” Trixie nodded and Cole continued. “Okay, now instead of galaxies imagine, if you will, that this ball of paper (left hand) was your entire universe and all its being. This one is just like the first one but let’s say for example you were left hooved instead of right hooved-”

“Trixie is left hooved.” 

Cole groaned throwing the ball of paper away. “And the analogy is lost. That’s not the point though” He added quickly. “Look, simply put there is a whole multiverse of realities where, how can I explain this? Ugh, it’s easier when you see things… Just think of realities as little balls where each ball has an entire universe in it. Now, each one has differences. Some are small and subtle, like the hoof analogy I used,” Trixie nodded in understanding as Cole continued. “Others are far more different. Like in my universe there is no space program for Equestria, but here there clearly is.”

“Oh! Trixie understands! So does that mean there is a universe where Q isn’t a bastard I want to kick in the face?” Trixie asked almost hopefully.

“YOu know Q?” Coles demeanor soured immediately at the mention of Q’s name.

Trixie sighed. “Yeah, he said if I freed you, that you’d be willing to help me save my ship and friends.”

Cole immediately perked up. The change in his posture was so quick Trixie was sure she felt some whiplash from it.

“Well, in that case we should get going.” Cole said opening the sliding doors to a hall. “Here let me get that off of ya.” 

He reached for Trixie’s horn, but the mare backed away still feeling wary of him. Cole allowed her to get some space between them so she could be comfortable. Which seemed to payoff. Slowly she inched back towards him and allowed his finger to take hold of her magical suppression ring and gently slipped it off.

Cole then put the tiny device in his pocket and zipped it up. 

“Come on let’s go.”

As the two set off down the hall they were surprised to see very few ponies. Most of the ponies they ran into were servants consisting of earth ponies, pegasi, and zebras. They ignored the human and unicron as they made their way through the ship. Stopping at an intersection Cole consoled Trixie, “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’s the plan’?” Trixie asked sarcastically.

“Well, you freed me! So what’s the plan?” Cole hissed back at Trixie.

“I don’t have a plan!” Trixie said through stained teeth.

“Well we can’t run around the ship and hope that-”

Cole stopped mid sentence as the ship's alarms sounded. Quickly the ran into a room off to the side right as a security team of ponies ran past heading back to the brig. Cole stood there looking around trying to come up with a plan when trixie used her magic to pull the last security pony into the room and slammed her head first into the wall. 

The poor earth pony fell to the floor, her full riot style gear clicking on the metal floors. Cole took point to watch for any other patrols while Trixie bused herself with stirpping the pony of her gear. The mare groaned rubbing her head as she slowly began to wake. She opened her eye sto see Cole and Trixie as she was being stripped of her gear.

Her eyes went wide with alarm. She then attempted to break free from Trixie but the blue mare used her magic to hold her down and delivered a hoof punish across her face knocking her out cold. After a good two minutes trixie finished putting on the mares gear and dragged her body to a nearby escape pod and threw her inside after binding her.

Once stored away Trixie launched the mare into deep space with a grin on her face. She turned to see Cole giving her a stern expression, almost disappointed.

“What? She could have ratted us out?” Trixie said shrugging her shoulders.

Cole’s expression hardened. 

“Oh, don’t give me that look, at least I didn’t jettison her into open space.”

“Ugh, fine. So what do we do now?” Cole asked.

Trixie then pulled out a stun baton from her belt. With a whip of her wrist she brought the baton to life as blue energy streamed through it and Cole got a worried look, backing into the wall.

“Don’t worry Mr. Stevens. I have a plan but I need you to buy me some time.” Trixie said tapping the rod against the wall making it spark. “To do that, I need you to get captured.”

“W-what are you doing?” He stuttered. “I don’t like where this is going.”

“Trixie promises it won’t hurt that much,” Trixie said calmly like she actually believed it, then again it could have been her poker face for all Cole knew.. “Now, clench your teeth.”

“What the Hell does that- GAHHHH!!!”

In space no one can hear you scream. In this case there was no way anyone could hear a full grown man scream like a little girl as a blue unicorn tased him to unconsciousness.

***

A short while later Cole could barely register the sensation of being carried. His vision was blurry and he felt a sore pain in his gut. He barely remembered being tased by Trixie in a room then nothing.

He could see a faint outline of the halls as he was carried somewhere wide and open before he was dropped in the center of this large room. 

Slowly his vision began to clear and he was greeted by a large blue muzzle in his face with the harshest looking eyes he’d ever seen thus far. He nearly gasped at the sight of Heiress Luna grinning down at him. 

“Welcome back, Mr. Stevens.” Luna said. “So glad you are here to witness the destruction of an entire universe.”

Cole looked around and saw he was surrounded by security guards from every angle. He tried hard to pinpoint Trixie from the crowd but found no indicator that she was here. Rather he saw no evidence of her being here at all.

He weakly looked up at Luna with a smug grin. This made Heiress Luna do a double take. 

“What’s that look for?” She asked him coyly. “Know something I don’t?”

“You only have me. That means my companion is out on your ship doing some damage.” Cole said.

Heiress Luna laughed loudly. Behind her some of the crew even managed to chuckle lightly. 

“Oh, Mr. Steves! Hahaha, I never knew thee to have such a sense of humor!” The alicorn barked out between laughing and choking.

To her surprise when she managed to calm down she saw Cole wasn’t smiling at all. In fact he looked rather serious. So serious she almost bought into it.

“It doesn’t matter anyways. Your friend won’t remain free for very long. I have guards all over this ship and in just half an hour this entire universe, this entire reality will be nothing more than an empty point in the multiverse.”

Luna then went into a full blow maniacal laughter while Cole sighed waiting for the next big event to happen, unaware that someone was at the weapon station eyeing him.

The security pony slowly walked over to the weapons station and relieved the officer there. Sitting down the pony began to work on the console. Cole watched this pony carefully until Luna stepped in front of him.

“It’s not nice to ignore a lady talking to you, Mr. Stevens.” Luna cooed at him.

Cole scoffed looking away trying to seem cool. “Funny, I don’t see one here. All I see is a mare who has a nose browner that wet mud during a rainstorm.”

Lunas eye twitched and her ears flopped. Flaring her nostrils her horn glowed a dark blue and Cole regretted opening his mouth entirely.

“I hate-” 

THOOM!!

The Avenger shook as its mass driver fired destroying three other mass driver ships along with two of its Romulan warships.

Luna's attention immediately went to the weapons station and to pony who occupied it. The pony looked up just as Luna lowered her head to fire some kind of spell at them. Cole barely had time to register what happened when he instinctively leapt forward hitting Luna's body full force with his.

In the end he was only able to surprise her into shooting past the pony at the weapons station. To him it felt like he threw himself into a brick wall. Despite her small size Luna was surprisingly heavy.

Landing on the floor he looked up and quickly rolled to the side as Luna’s large hooves came crashing down where his head was denting the metal floors. Finishing his roll Cole managed to get up as his restraints fell to the ground and a disruptor floated over to him in a pink glow.

He looked back at the weapon and saw the pony who was at the weapons station removed her helmet revealing it to be Trixie. Not a surprise but he grumbled wishing the mare told him of her plans earlier.

Trixie pulled her own disruptor from her belt and shot at the four other security ponies dropping them before they had a chance to react to what was going on.

Luna quickly put up a magical shield as two more bolts came flying at her. She then grabbed hold of Cole and threw him at Trixie. Cole yelped as he flew towards the blue mare but was quickly grabbed by her pink magical aura and set down beside her under the cover to the console.

By now several security ponies had stormed the bridge while the enemy fleet was in disarray. Cole popped over the counter and fired at the nearest security pony. The pony dropped to the ground with searing hole in his chest.

Cole looked over his weapon for the stun setting but realized there wasn’t one. 

Concerned he nudged Trixie beside him, “Hey where’s the stun setting?”

“Stun are you kidding?” Trixie yelled at him. “We don’t have time for that!”

“Mind letting me in on the plan then? I’ve been pretty patient so far with you I deserve to know!”

“Do you always complain so much?” Trixie retorted shooting over the counter again.

“Only when crazy mares like you are involved.” Cole replied dryly.

“Well if you’re done belly aching we need to get off this ship and get to the Sol Dios.”

“I’m sorry, but what? Are you insane?!” Cole nearly scream as bolts dodged over head. “Never mind, you’re Trixie and if there is one constant in the universe with you is that you're a tsundere storm of crazy.”

“Trixie is not tsundere! Yandere or anything of the sort!”

“... You actually know what that means?” Cole asked surprised.

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Look we can discuss this later. For now we need to get out of here!” 

As the words slipped from her mouth Trixie leapt over the counter and put up a magical barrier that absorbed the energy bolts from the security ponies weapons, followed close by Cole. Luna was beginning to get furious as she stood by watching the chaos ensue.

“Stop them don’t let them get away!”

Trixie Bashed her way through the security ponies with  her magical barrier. Once they reached the door Cole smashed his palm against the door panel, opening it.Trixie slipped past Cole and pressed herself against the wall allowing him to follow.

Using her magic Trixie Sealed the door and shot the controls with her disruptor making it sizzle and spark.

“That should hold them for now.” Trixie said.

“Yeah but not long,” Cole added. “So what’s next?”

“Next we run and steal a shuttle before the ship explodes.”

“Oh, right ship explo-what!?!”

BOOM!!

All around them a series of explosions filled the ship's interior. Flames erupted and Trixie had to put up a shield bubble around herself and Cole to prevent them from getting hurt by the initial explosions.

After the initial blasts a piece of debris fell on top of several ponies including Trixie’s shield. The impact of the debris cracked the shield and forced Trixie to put more magic into it. Cole watched in awe at first, but then he realized Trixie was struggling with holding the shield.

Thinking Cole gentle picked up Trixie, which surprised her, and he walked to the edge of the magical barrier. He leaned in a gently whispered in her ear to lower the magical shield. Trixie was unsure at first but hearing the man's gentle voice she decided to take the risk.slowly she retracted the energy from the magical field and made it shrink in size. 

Cole slipped from underneath the debris and made a mad dash towards a hallway where there was a small clearing from and debris.

Gently Cole set Trixie Down as ponies ran around them, completely ignoring them.

“You alright, Trix?” He said.

Trixie blushed slightly from the nickname. “I’m fine. Come,” She said standing up on her wobbly hooves. “We shouldn’t dattle.”

Not missing a beat Trixie Began running down the hall with Cole at her heels. 

“What did you do?” Cole asked as the rounded a corner.

Trixie shot two more guards at the next bend. Cole jumped over them still keeping on Trixies tail. 

“I set the mass driver to overload. If we don’t get off the ship there’s no telling whether we’ll still be here or cosmic dust in the end.” Trixie said rather calmly.

Cole ran up to a pair of blast doors as two ponies jumped him and Trixie. “You’re awfully calm- for, considering…” Cole punched the pony on him in the muzzle sending him spinning to the floor.

“Nice job,” Trixie Said head butting the last pony.

“Yeah, shall we?”

The two continued running down the halls of the ship. To their surprise there were very few ponies aboard the ship and security wasn’t a tight as one might have expected. In fact aside from the occasional guard and servant pony there was almost no one aboard. It took them less than two minutes before they reached the hangar bay. Once inside they were surprised to find the hangar was empty except for a small squadron of fighters that Cole recognized on sight.

“What are these?” Trixie asked inspecting the ship's.



These are Jem’Hadar Fighters.” Cole said.

“What’s a Jem’Hadar?” Trixie asked looking for a way to enter one of the fighters.

Cole walked past her to the rear of the fighter and opened it. After reading the unicorn inside Cole ran in and closed the door to the fighter. Afterwards Cole ran to the bridge of the fighter and took the pilot seat while Trixie took the copilot seat.

“Can you fly this thing?” She asked in a worried tone.

“It’s just like any other ship, how hard can it be?” 

The inside of the Jem’Hadar fighter was dark. Unlike traditional Jem’hadar craft this one was painted dark blue inside with black making if very dark inside even with the lights on.

Despite this Cole found it very easy to control the ship. Powering up the Jem’Hadar fight lifted off the ground of the hangar. The fighter hovered a few feet off the ground and spun around to face the closed doors of the hangar. Trixie tried activating the hangar doors while Cole took hold of the controls and activated the thrusters.

“Let’s do it-”

THOOM!!

Not paying attention to what he was doing, Cole accidentally put the fighter in reverse and sent it flying backwards into the walls with a loud boom.

“...”

“Idiot.”

“Tsundere.” Cole muttered under his breath.

Trixie glared at Cole who silently and awkwardly altered the thrusters and the ship began to slowly head for the hangar doors. Trixie rolled her eyes and activated the fighters homing beacon and piggybacked the signal to the hangar controls and opened the door.

As they flew out of the hangar they looked back to see the Avenger and blown apart into two pieces and was now surrounded by Starfleet and its allies who had engaged the enemy fleet. Once they were underway Trixie nudged Cole and pointed to one ship out in the chaos. 

Trixie scanned the area and found her ship the Hydra making a mad dash towards one of the open ports on the Sol Dios. Trixie nudged Cole and instructed him to follow the ship while she sent a signal to them. Cole muttered some smart alack remark under his breath as he turned the fighter to pursue the Hydra.

While on approach they received a communication from teh Hydra. After getting everyone up to speed on the plan the Hydra reduced speed to allow the fighter to catch up to them. meanwhile Cole looked at Trixie and wondered how different she was from his Trixie. (Who he dubbed prime Trixie from his universe).

When he thought back to the Avenger he noticed that Trixie's magic was extremely weak for some reason. It made him wonder what made her magic so weak. He'd seen first hand what unicorn magic was capable of, and his Trixie was no slouch, so what was the deal here? Being himself he decided to ask in the most sensitive way he could.

"So, hey back on the ship, what was up with your magic? Did that suppression ring dull it or something?" He asked cautiously. "I mean if it's not something you want to talk about it's fine too." He added quickly.

Trixie didn't say anything at first, but after a few seconds while they aligned with the Hydra she decided then to give him his answer.

"It was something I was born with. A birth defect caused by an accident from long ago." Trixie explained.

"Oh, sorry about that." Cole said sincerely.

"It's fine. Your ships... they use warp technology that uses antimatter?" Cole nodded. "Well, we once tried utilizing warp technology long ago. At the testing facility in our capital Canterlot, there was a facility to test the first warp drives we developed. However, there was an accident that left a mark on all who were there. A defect that suppressed the magical capabilities of all who were near the drive when the incident happened.' Trixie explained easing the controls to allow the Hydra's tractor beam to pull them in. "The reactors of the drives blew and sent out a shockwave that was never identified, but it suppressed the magical abilities of all in the blast radius to near nothingness. I am the third generation to suffer from this affliction from my grandmothers side."

Trixie ears drooped down and she gave a sad sigh. "I once wanted to be a Logitech engineer, but my magical limitations prevented me from pursuing that dream. I have more magical capabilities than the average afflicted pony, but I'll never have more than a foals level of magical capabilities for the rest of my life," She said rubbing her horn gently. "Instead I pursued a career in mechanical engineering and became a Master Engineer First Grade."

At her words Cole felt both guilty and proud of her. Even though her dreams were dashed, she never gave up on the core of her dream. Becoming an engineer. It made him wonder what drove her to keep that goal in mind and never lose sight of it. He soon got his answer when they landed in the hangar bay of the Hydra and while Trixie stood outside the craft getting dressed in her own uniform, Cole looked away until a grey earth pony mare ran up to Trixie and tackled her from behind.

*Archer's Ready Room Enterprise One Hour Earlier*

Octavia managed to get herself back up after fainting at the sight of Trixie on the screen. Once everyone managed to settle down Trixie managed to explain to Octavia that she was from an alternate reality and was her to save her closest friend. Considering they were running out of time, Octavia made the call to just accept what was said and question it later.

For now she and Archer had a plan that involved flying into the Sol Dios and destroying it from the inside. This other Trixie Showing up just provided an opportunity that Octavia and Archer were all too willing to exploit, but first they needed Trixie’s help.

From the comm. Channel Archer, Trixie, Commander Shran of the Andorian Imperial Guard, and Octavia were having a private 4 way conversation in their own personal quarters.

Archer started with the opening statements right after Trixie finished explaining she was from an alternate reality to the group. “Alright, now that we are all up to speed we need to discuss what we’re going to do about this battle station the, Sol Dios?” He asked looking at Trixie over the channel.

Trixie nodded. “Yes captain. You see when me and my friend Cole first met we were dragged to another reality where we faced off against an Imperialistic equestria that was at war with another faction called the Terran Empire. A version of Earth and Starfleet, if they were militaristic expansionist.”

Trixie then looked over to Octavia.

“They were fighting against Equestria, which was called the Solar Imperium. Like the Terran Empire they sought to expand and conquer the galaxy. When Cole and I left we shattered an alliance between the two and in the wake we left came the Equis Empire from the next reality over. They seek to conquer all and destroy anything in their path. Your universe was next on their list.”

From her position Trixie noted the reaction from each of the commanding officers. Archer and Octavia looked worried. Archer paced around his chair like it was a nervous tick, Octavia began twirling her hair with her hoof, but Sharon didn’t seem convinced. He seemed to be deep in thought but his look said it all. He didn’t believe her one bit. If his look wasn’t enough for all present his words would reinforce that.

“How can we trust you?” He asked. “How do we know this isn’t some kind of trick?”

“Shran.” Archer hissed at the blue Andorian. 

To his surprise though Octavia jumped in to defend him. 

“I agree with Commander Shran,” Octavia said calmly, almost Vulcan like. “We don’t know where she came from. If this alternate reality thing is real, and I highly doubt it, how can we verify the story?”

Archer seemed at a loss for an explanation. That didn’t stop him however, from coming up with something to say.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.” He said slamming his palms on his desk. “I will not stand by and watch my homeworld die because I couldn’t reach past my limited understanding of the universe.”

Archer quickly sat back down in his chair and leaned closely to his monitor. It was an odd habit but it was one he’d picked up on over the years during his travels across space. He would never tell anyone who asked but the truth is, he did it to give the sense he was invading someone's personal space when really there was a great distance from them. 

“My homeworld is going to lose it’s star in a matter of minutes. That is very real. It is happening. Regardless of this, alternate reality thing, I don’t care about any of that! I want to save my world, my people! If destroying that battle station and relying on the help of a stranger is what it takes, then I’m all for it. That’s only because, I’m out of time. We’re out of time.”

Archer looked at prime Trixie.

“Trixie, I know we don’t know each other, and I have no right to ask this of you but, can you help us?” Archer asked. “We need a lot of small ships for a plan we came up with to destroy the station.”

Trixie looked at each of them before asking, “What is the plan?”

Archer looked to Octavia and the grey earth pony mare took the helm of the conversation. 

“We plan on attacking the Sol Dios directly.” She said.

“WHAT?! Are you crazy!? Why would you do that?” the other Trixie all but yelled in surprise to the suicidal plan.

Octavia adjusted her collar can calmly stood up. She brought up a detail scan of the Sol Dios.

“Scans made by Enterprise show the Sol Dios to have one major design flaw. All around it are these weapon ports. We believe these are weapon port that house some sort of high powered weapon. They’re big enough for smaller ships like Enterprise and the Hydra to go through, but larger ships like the Kimari and the Xindi can’t”

Trixie gave a wary look. “You aren’t suggesting-”

“Yes, we’re going to take several smaller ships into these ports and fly down them into the battle stations main reactor. From there we’ll unload a full alpha strike on the core and destroy it. Then there’s just the matter of escaping the blast.”

“Escaping the easy part,” Shran added into the conversation. “But the question is will there be enough time to destroy the reactor? How many ships should do this?”

“Five ships, the Enterprise, Hydra, Columbia, Area, and with your permission we’d like to have your help Trixie. We could use a 24th century ship on our side.”

Trixie looked like she was about to explode. “Okay, so let trixie get this straight. You want us to go down a random hole in the station and fly down it like some Star Wars movie and hope we make it there and maybe have enough time to destroy a planet sized reactor with five tiny vessels?”

When put like that Archer had to admit it sounded very stupid.

Trixie will agree to this, but only if you help her find her friend.” Trixie said in a demanding tone.

“Agreed.”

“Heh, this plan sucks.” Trixie said.

“Then we’re all in agreement then?” Octavia concluded when she noticed the internal communication line was beeping.

Tapping the comm. She spoke loudly into the mic, “What is it?”

“Commander the fleet has engaged the Empire's fleet.” Lyra's voice said from the speaker.

“Guess so we’re out of time.” Shran said with a sense of urgency in his voice.

“Shran is right. Our star is going to be wiped out if we don’t act now. Let’s go to work and good luck.” Archer said closing the communication line.

Octavia shook her head heading back to the bridge from Captain Trixie’s ready room. 

“Alright everyone! It’s time to go to work. Just like we planed! GO!”

At her command everyone went to work. 3rd of 5 powered up the Hydra’s engines, Claw brought weapons online, and Sunset and Vinyl were both working silently in the back of the bridge while Star Stripe went back to engineering.

Outside the Hydra came alongside the Columbia while the Enterprise and Kimari joined up with the USS Ares in front of the Hydra and Columbia. Once they formed up Octavia took a deep breath to help relax herself. And not a moment too soon. Once she did Claw signaled that there was an incoming ship with two life signs on it. 

Once they realized Trixie was one of them they opened the hangar doors and slowed down to allow the Jem'Hardar fighter into the hydra's hangar. once secure the fighter landed and the Hydra continued full speed with its allies towards the Sol Dios.

*Hydra Hangar*

Octavia made a mad rush through the ship taking the turbolift until she reached the hangar bay. Once there she was greeted by the usual sight of the bay being overrun with ponies, griffins, and changelings. She spotted the Jem'Hadar fighter easily among the bombers stored there and made a her way towards it.

Then Octavia noticed Trixie who was talking to a human while she changed into her spare uniform. The human was looking away while she got dressed. Even though ponies never wore clothes regularly it was still nice to see humans had a sense of decency in them. From what little interactions Octavia had with Archer, humans seemed to be a very modest and humble species.

She ignored the looks she got as she ran as fast as she could towards Trixie and tackle hugged her from behind. She cried into the mares back holding her tightly, while Trixie gave her an annoyed look and tried pushing her off.

"Octavia... everyone's looking at us..." She whispered harshly.

Octavia shook her head and ignored her. "I don't care. It's just great to have you back Trixie."

Cole looked on the happy scene before him until his view was blocked by a bag of Crispy Chex. He grinned taking hold of the bag in his hands to see his Trixie smirking a few feet behind him.

She ran up and hugged him as he lifted her like a cat in his arms swinging her around playfully as they embraced each other.

The reunion was cut short when the alarms sounded and the voice of Sunset Shimmer was heard over the speakers.

"All MAREs commandos to your fighter! Repeat all MAREs commandos to your fighters!"

> Sol Dios Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the alarms across the Hydra blared the MARES commandos gathered in their fighters. Pansy and Scope jumped in their bomber and quickly took off into space with the rest of the squadron. Each fighter and bomber took flight and after the Hydra’s cargo bay depressurized and the doors opened they were off into space.

The squadron flew into a maelstrom of destruction and chaos. 

As they breached the safety of the hangar the squadron broke hard left to avoid colliding with the ships as they skimmed the surface of the Sol Dios. The squadron formed up into a tight arrow formation and took a nose dive into the smallest opening of the Sol Dios weapon port. The hole was just big enough for them to squeeze through.

As they made it through the squadron scattered into smaller groups. Three squadrons formed, two fighter supports and one bomber squadron. They circled back in the interiour of the weapon port to face the blast doors that closed. The fighters circled around nearby as the bombers began blowing away at the doors. 

Private Scope and his pilot Pansy were leading the formation, dropping their bomb load onto the blast doors. They would fly close to the surface just skimming it as they ran across the contoured surface. Once the doors were in sight they pulled up dropping their photon bombs on the doors.

Outside the Sol Dios the Hydra, Enterprise, Columbia, Ares, and the Ranger fired their weapons at the doors trying to break through by doing a series of Beta Maneuvers.

The ships would fly about 1000 meters out from the surface firing their primary weapons at the doors. Once they passed by they would fly out make a U-turn and do it again while the larger ships provided back up and fire support on the doors.

On the Sol Dios the Empress grew angry with each passing moment of the five ships attacking her station, and succeeding. Then she saw on her personal comm. There was a message coming in from her younger sister’s ship. Sighing, the Empress opened the channel to see her dark blue sister gasping for breath and head bloodied. The background showed a scene of death and chaos as consoles were ablaze, crew ponies were down or helping the injured, and the readings showed the ship was on the verge of destruction.

Empress Celestia scoffed narrowing her eyes at her sister, she was not pleased.

“SISTER! It’s I Luna! We need your help, cough!” The younger alicorn begged, through bloody coughs. “Hugh! My ship has been badly damaged we need more help! Please sister!’

“Oh, dear little sister of mine,” Celestia cooed with a sinister grin. “You have failed to keep your prisoners. You lost several of our ships. I have to say this doesn’t look good for you. You have one last chance to redeem yourself in my eyes. Use the entity and destroy those ships attacking my station!”

The younger alicorn nodded as the screen went blank leaving the Empress to herself as she walked towards an old fashion wooden wardrobe. Opening the wooden doors, they creaked loudly under aged stress revealing a set of ancient looking battle armor in gold coloring. 

The Empress slipped off her uniform and crown and donned her armor. First was her body armor, then her helmet, gauntlets, braces and her life support pack. Once she was done she grinned and stomped loudly out of her chambers and into the Sol Dios.

On the Hydra things were going poorly. The extensive amount of damage the ship suffered had caused had the crew working constantly to keep it functioning and not break apart from the seams. Simply flying around was breaking the ship apart, the main reactor was on the verge of a complete breach, and the weapons were only functional if the shields were down. All in all not  a very good situation and on the bridge. Octavia was hyperventilating in Trixie’s arms as the azure unicorn barked orders to her crew.

“-Sunset, help Lt. Scratch with the new weapon she’s working on!”

Sunset saluted and got to work with the white unicorn at their station preparing the new weapon.

Trixie then turned to Lt. Claw. 

“Claw keep firing, but don’t burn out the power cells!” The griffin saluted keeping his beak in his monitor firing as the Hydra continued it’s passe. “3rd of 5, keep us going as long as you can. Octavia,” She suddenly whispered the hyperventilating mare in her arms. “Sweetie you need to calm down.”

“I AM CALM!” Octavia screamed in a very stressed voice.

Trixie reared back rubbing her ears.

“I’m sorry, I’m just stressed. We’re literally breaking apart at the seams, and we are so far from home I just…. I can’t-”

Octavia was cut short from her breathless rant when Trixie hugged her. The unicorn pressed the grey mare against her chest and storked her mane trying to calm her down.

“It’s fine Octavia. We’ll get through this,” Trixie said to her friend. “We have the best crew in the galaxy, and the best ship of three major nations of our world. Nothing's gonna stop us.”

Octavia sniffed hard wiping her eyes feeling rather foolish at her open display on the bridge. “Really?” She asked Trixie.

The captain of the Hydra nodded with a kind smile. “We’ve been through some tough times since we left dry dock, but the Hydra is still here, we’re still here and we will defeat this enemy. We have a plan. We have ample allise for it to succeed, we just need to stay the course use our heads and we will emerge victorious!” 

Trixie didn’t realized that her old show boating habits kicked in and she had managed to stand on her chair while she gave her speech and was now in a heroic pose on her chair.

The ponies on the bridge stared in awe at her until the awkward silence made Trixie realize what she just did. Slipping back into her seat with a blush, the mare coughed in her hoof and adjusted her collar. 

“Well, don’t just stand there gawking at me! Get to your stations!” Trixie yelled.

“Aye ma’am!” 

The crew saluted feeling invigorated by her short speech and got back to work working extra hard to make it through this battle. Deep in the engineering things were starting to get really hectic. Pinkie Pie was rushing around trying to get things under control but was overwhelmed by the sudden mechanical demands of the ship due to long term damage. 

The pink pony was nothing more than a blur as she rushed from one station to another telling ponies and changelings what to do next before she rush off to do something herself or prep another station to be taken charge of. All around engineering sparks flew, consoles started to malfunction, the reactor was now in the critical zone, needless to say things were getting out of hand.

On the Enterprise T’pol was monitoring some strange readings when something strange caught her attention. On her display there were several new warp signatures entering the system. She did a series of long ranged scans and found it was a fleet of warships from the Klingon Empire.

After warning Archer, which upset him greatly, the human captain got up from his chair and paced back and forth trying to keep his mind preoccupied. It didn’t work long. When he paced the tenth time the ship shook at its very core as a powerful beam weapon shot though the battle fleets and struck them dead on the dorsal section of the saucer. 

Limping towards them was the Avenger with several Empire ships and Romulan ships shielding it. It charged it’s canon again and fired. The shot missed the Enterprise and impacted the surface of the Sol Dios leaving a decent amount of damage to the weapon port covers.

Seeing this as an opportunity the Hydra and Enterprise joined up to focus fire on the weapon port while the Ares, Columbia, and Ranger took on the enemy vessels. 

A message was sent immediately to the fleet and the entirety of Starfleet and her allies focused fired on the damaged weapons port. The fighters quickly diverted away from their attack run and watched as the Earth vessels formed a small cluster and fired their phasers and torpedoes at the hatch. Their phases were like long lances piercing the outer hull as scraps of debris broke from the main body of the Sol Dios. Then the torpedoes hit destroying larger chunks of the hatches, combined with the concentrated fire coming from the other ships the hatch was easily destroyed. 

Octavia watched from the bridge with Trixie by her side. The Ranger was side by side with the Hydra and Enterprise when the main weapons port hatch was destroyed. The firing ceased and Trixie saw the opportunity to strike. 

“3rd of 5, make haste and take us in the weapon port!” Trixie ordered.

3rd of 5 nodded pouring all power to the engines hurling the Hydra towards the weapon port. Archer and Cole barely noticed the ship making its mad charge towards the hatch when a fleet of Romulan vessels stopped them from advancing with their equine friends. Moments later the Romulans dispersed into two groups and gave chase to the Enterprise. Columbia and the Stargazer diverted from their attack to help defend Enterprise from the Romulans as they fired their green bolt disruptors at their prey.

Distracting the enemy ships the fighters followed their mother ship into the depths of the Sol Dios. Scope took the controls of his bomber while Pansy worked on the weapons. 

“Hey Private,” She said getting Scopes attention. “Try not to fly into anything, ‘kay?” She said playfully winking at him.

The young stallion blushed looking outside the cockpit.

“Shut up!” He cried out spinning the ship.

Pansy chuckled watching the radar. The squadron was close up on the rear of the Hydra. Their ship was leading them through a barrage of turbolaser fire which was of no threat to the ship, but to the fighters and bombers it would have been a death sentence for them had the Hydra not been there to shield them.

Scope looked outside the cockpit at the Hydra, its massive engines reverberating the bomber he flew in. From behind him he missed the subtle playful grin Pansy gave as she watched him look outside the cockpit.

“It’s really amazing isn’t it?” She asked him, leaning over his chair.

“Yeah, I know it’s a war out there but, there’s something about flying that I wish I could experience for myself.”

Pansy reached over the chair and touched his shoulder rubbing it gently. Scope smiled touching her hoof with his.

“”Maybe I can show you after this is all over,” Pansy suggested to him. 

“I think I’d like that-”

*Deet Deet Deet!*

The console suddenly went red and started beeping loudly as Scope and Pansy looked over it. 

“What’s going on Pasny?” Scope asked alarmed.

“The lasers. They’ve stopped.” She said looking outside.

Pansy looked over her console when a series of low beeps caught her attention as the radar seeing a large blip coming from behind them.

“We have an unidentified bogey coming in! All fighters prepare for close quarters encounter!” Pansy screamed over the comm.

A series of rogers and confirmations later the squadron adjusted their formation as a large craft came speeding towards them. The craft was a large once easily two of their bombers in size. It matched their speed as it came between the fighters and bombers and remained stationary for a moment. Nobody moved their ships, a moment later it spun around flexing its massive arms out bashing into two fighters and sending them into spiraling doom.

A panicked voice called over the comms., “Break formation! Break! BREAK!!”

Scope turned the controls spinning the bomber into a spin and nose dived below the Hydra as the lasers resumed firing picking off any ships that veered too far from the protection of the ship. The bomber stopped just shy of the opening for the turbo lasers as Pansy relayed instructions to Scope.  The craft came into view of them, it was a sight to see. It had a base shaped like the body of a crab with three sharp wing like structures around a single huge engine that attached to the rear. It’s massive slaw like arms were bulky and menacingly clamping as it reached for the bomber.

Inside the craft the empress smirked as she looked out the cockpit of her fighter with nothing but hostility in her mind.

Scope panicked at the closing claw and drove the bomber under the Hydra skimming the surface of the shields as he not only dodged the pursuing craft, but the turbo laser fire as well. The dance of dodging ensued and for a while it looked as though the two ships were dancing in space, with the laser fire flashing around them like a well choreographed show when the shields of the Hydra absorbed them.  

As they danced around the surface of the Hydra another fighter came up behind the Empress’s craft and fired its twin disruptors forcing her to retreat. Nimbley the craft dodged around the disruptor fire and disappeared around one of the Hydra’s neccels.

Scope and Pansy sighed in relief when a voice cut through the comm. Making them look at their consoles. 

“Hey, beef stick! You and I are even now!” 

Pansy stifled a chuckle as Scope groaned hitting his head against the glass polymer of the fighter's canopy.

“Ugh, I hate you so much Scilica….” Scope whinned.

“Aww, you did miss me,” Scilica said with a playful tone in her voice.

Pansy scoffed Crossing her arms and glaring at the console. 

Scope smiled and responded kindly with a chuckle to Scilica, “Thanks for the save.”

“Whatever, just stop playing with your beef stick and help us. The Hydra’s about to penetrate the inner sanctum to the reactor chamber!” Scilica said with a hint of irritation slipping into her tone.

“Confirmed. Where’s the hostile?” Scope asked.

He got his answer as Scilica's fighter suddenly burst into flames and spiraled downwards vanishing from sight. The Empreses craft dove down from above and began it’s attack on the MAREs Squadron scattering them again. The attack was so sudden that it made a few ships break formation into the open where they were easy prey for the turbolasers.

*Hydra Bridge*

Commander Octavia was busy watching the main view screen. The Hydra had just passed through the weapon port hatch and was making it’s way down towards the main reactor core of the Sol Dios. Trixie had retreated to main engineering, Sunset and Vinyl were working hard to finish their new weapon, Lyra was working on the comms, and Lt. Claw was preparing for the fight ahead. 

Octavia felt herself take a moment to relax and rest her aching shoulders. She hadn’t realized just how tense she was until just now. She took a deep calming breath allowing her lungs to fill with the ships filtered air. It was relaxing as she felt her body melt away the anxiety from the past few day; but it was short lived. 

A loud beeping sounded and Octavia looked over to Claw who was busy trying to do something. He had his eyes narrowed as he scanned over his console, like he was fixated on something.

“Lt. Claw, what’s going on?” Octavia asked him.

“An unknown craft has appeared on sensors and is attacking the MAREs Squadron!” Claw said. “I can’t lock onto the enemy craft, not without risking hitting our own ships.”

“Order the squadron to fly into the hangar, have a strike team ready to fend off the intruder.” Octavia ordered. “Major Spitfire, get your team ready for an intruder in the hangar.”

*Deet* Roger that, Commander Tubby!* Deet*

Octavia growled, grinding her teeth and rubbing her clentched hoof over the armof her cahir. She hated the nickname Spitfire gave her ever since the Academy. Shrugging it off she got up and went to the turbolift.

“3rd of 5, you have the bridge.” She said as the lift opened and she stepped inside. “Try not to burn the ship down while i’m gone.”

As the lift doors closed 3rd of 5 looked over his shoulder to Lt. Claw. He waved his holey hoof at the griffin to get his attention.

“Why did she say not to burn the ship down?” The changeling asked. “Why would I want to do that?”

*MAREs Squadron*

Scope looked out the cockpit to see if he could find any trace of the enemy craft. Seeing no sign of it he pulled the bomber down beneath the Hydra once more for cover and rejoined the rest of the group only to see Silica's ship barely keeping itself together.

Just then the Empresses ship came about from the side and began to fire at the bombers. They took evasive action as the craft sped through them without hesitation. As the craft circled around there was a mass communique from Major Spitfire over the comms.

“All mares return to the hangar. We’re going to draw the enemy to us and strike when they arrive,” Spitfire said, as the squadron flew up into the hangar bay. 

There in the middle of the hangar was Spitfire and several more commandos and security personnel with power armor and rocket launchers. She used a single baton to order the eships into the hangar not to land but remain on standby.

Scope tried to fly the ship in the tight quarters, but lost control and began to panic as the ship moved itself into position. Once he realized the ship wasn’t going to crash he looked behind him to see Pansy had taken control. She positioned the bomber in front of the fighters as the first line of defense for them. Once in position she left the ship to hover above Spitfire and her commandos and the security staff, she then looked down at Scope and gave a playful wink to him. He smiled and looked outside the cockpit ready to take control of the ship if need be.

Outside Major Spitfire walked behind her troops giving them an inspiring speech, which consisted mostly of her yelling about the glories of past MAREs commandos and such. He power armor made her rather bulky looking and gave her an awkward waddle in her step. In spite of all this and the encumbrance of the armor she had a wide grin on her face as she walked behind a changeling commando and swat her flank with a armor clad hoof.

“-and remember commands, if you run or cry like little fillies I’ll throw you in the brig and line you up afterwards for public humiliation! Now, what are we going to do?!” She asked with her drill sergeant voice. 

“Defend this ship with our lives!” The commandos droned.

Spitfire looked at them with a smile filled with pride. She puffed her chest out and nodded to them saying, “That’s right! You’ll defend this ship as you were trained to do in the academy! Our enemies are all around us, and we need to be prepared! I want rocketeers on the rafts-” (Several ponies saluted and used rocket packs on their backs to leap onto the rafts above the fighters and bombers. “-I want rocketeers at every door and behind every barricade!”

As Spitfire offered them the ponies and changelings each dispersed into designated groups and leapt to their defense posts. Spitfire herself leapt into the air and landed on Scopes bomber. She landed on the cockpit and looked down inside seeing the young stallion inside looking up at her in awe. She winked at him and prepared to hold her rocket launcher up. Then she waited.

Outside the ship Empress Celestia growled seeing the fighters and bombers retreat to the Hydra hangar above her. She hated losing in fights, but she decided that a retreat still counted as a victory. 

She looked around and saw the Hydra was about to get to the core. The Empress growled. She powered up her ships shields and pulled back on her throttles. This started a chain reaction that made the ship transform. It slowly opened up its shell and readjusted itself into an almost octopus like structure before shooting upwards towards the hangar. 

Instantly she was barraged with rockets and disruptor fire from the fighters, bombers, and the commandos. The Empress landed her craft on the hangar floors, the rockets and disruptor fire did little damage to its shields, which were being reinforced by her magic tenfold. 

The craft twitched with every rocket that hit it, but shrugged it off like they were nothing. Spitfire leaped into action from the bomber landing on one of the claw arms. She shot her last rocket as the main body nearly point blank. Thanks to her power armor she remained uninjured from the blast. She then slipped her disruptor rifle from her back into her hands and started shooting the claw she stood on at the elbow gears trying to destroy it.

The Empress hissed adjusting her ships claw to strike at Spitfire. This forced the armored pegasus to leave her perch or risk being crushed. With a mighty leap she was off the machine as its other arm crashed down where she was moments ago. Spitfire sighed in relief when suddenly the Empress pressed forward and started thrashing about in her craft. Its several tentacle arms and two massive claw arms tore through the already heavily damaged hagar and started tearing through the first bomber.

Scope panicked and was yelling and flailing around as Pansy turned their bomber to face the Empresses craft. 

“Pansy! What are you doing?” Spitfire yelled over the comm. Seeing them turn to face the Empress.

A moment later Pansy replied calmly, “I’m gonna use a photon bomb on the enemy-”

“ARE YOU CRAZY!?!” Scope’s voice screeched over the comm, causing a feedback loop to occur in Spitfire’s ear. “You destroy us with the enemy!!!”

“Got a better idea?” Pansy asked.

Spitfire shook her head ducking as a metal arm skimmed over her head. “NO GO PANSY! NO GO! I am ordering you to lock down your bombs! I mean it solider!”

*BOOM!* *CRASH!* *THOOM!*

“Damn it!” Spitfire curse activating her comm to the bridge. “Major Spitfire to bridge! *THOOM!* We got an enemy in the hangar and we can’t get it! How long until we reach our target!?”

*STATIC* “This is commander Octavia, Major, what’s going on down there!?”

“Enemy has boarded us and we’re getting our flanks handed to us down here! We need ETA for the drop on the core!” 

At this point several commandos surrounded the invading craft and were firing small arms at it with little effect. The craft turned to face them and with a powerful straight beam it fired an intense blast that incinerated several of them at once and tore through the hull like it was wet tissue paper.

Spitfire felt her heart race seeing the amount of damage that was being done. 

“Bridge! I say again, what’s our ETA!?”

*STATIC* “Major, this is the bridge. We’re on target now. Launch all fighters and bombers!” Octavia’s voice said over the comm.

“Roger!” Spitfire affirmed changing the channel on her comm. “A craft we’re on target in the core! LAUNCH! LAUNCH!”

Spitfire ducked again and rolled just intime as a damaged fighter was thrown across the hangar and landed near her. She was standing up when the fighter exploded. The force from the explosion sent her flying across the area and into the nearby wall under one of the bombers. A piece of debris had pinned her shoulder to the wall and another through her gut. 

She cried out in pain as she tried to move but felt the debris pinch at her insides. Groaning she reached over to activate her comm. Another explosion later and Spitfire felt a searing pain run through her arm and part of her lower arm went flying off. 

“MAJOR!”

Scope saw this and without thinking he ejected the cockpit and leapt over it. He landed on the ground rolling and rushed to the side of his CO. From behind he could hear Pansy calling out to him, but he ignored her. 

Several of the fighters and bombers flew out of the hagar. The Empress swung her crafts arms outward and managed to destroy two of the fighters as they passed, but the majority of them got out. Transforming to its fighter from the Empress left the hangar and gave chase to the fighters and bombers.

Scope was hiding behind cover when the enemy ship left. Seeing the opening he rushed to Spitfire’s side he knelt down and inspected her where the debris had pierced her body. After a quick examination he made the following assessment. 

“Well, good news Major,” He said, Spitfire looked up at him worriedly. “You’re not going to die. Yet.” He said with a smug grin.

Spitfire chuckled in pain swatting his arm with her one hoof she had left.

“You are soo going to the brig for this,” She said to Scope.

Scope reached for his communicator and activated it with a tap of his hoof. “Medical emergency in the hangar, Major Spitfire has been injured. Send a team down now!”

Spitfire grabbed hold of his armor and pulled him closer. “I need you out there soldier.” She said weakly.

“B-but Major-”

“BUT NOTHING PRIVATE!” Spitfire groaned clutching her severed limb. “Listen. I want you to take your bomber with Corporal Pansy and do what you can to destroy the station. We don’t have much time before they drain the star and destroy this-gah!”

“Alright Major. Stay here the medical team is on its way.” 

Without another word Spitfire nodded to him, panting heavily as she watched him enter his bomber. Pansy sealed the hatch and seconds later their bomber hovered closer to the center of the hangar, where it remained for three seconds. The sound of it’s engine reverberating sent a chill down Spitfire’s spine, but she cracked a smile watching as it launched from the hangar into the battle to come. 

“Good luck.” She said before blacking out.

*Hydra Moments earlier*

The Hydra sped through the weapons port with neck breaking speed. All around the turbo lasers fired on it doing little to no damage to the nearly crippled ship. When the Hydra made it into the inner sanctum of the Sol Dios it’s fighters and bombers left the safety of their mother ship and began an attack run towards the core followed closely by the Empresses craft.

On the bridge Octavia was still in command having a hard time with it. She was thankful Trixie left her with easy decisions to make like destroy the enemy instillation, but she was still hesitant to do so. The bridge crew could tell something weighed heavily on their Commander, but were too engrossed in their tasks to ask anything. 

Still they motioned on and when the Hydra arrived at its destination Commander Octavia gave the order to attack as ordered. The core itself was in a large circular chamber and was massive. Thousands of kilometers in diameter where all the weapon ports joined to the main firing unit on the core. The core was a gravity suspended sphere with several large spike protruding it. Each spike was a node that lined up with a weapon port, around it was a light blue energy field that kept it suspended in place. 

After conducting an intensive scan of the reactor Sunset discovered that the core was an entire star condensed into a small containment unit. To destroy it she determined the only way to bring down the reactor was to destroy the gravity wells that were atop and below the reactor. The problem was they were protected by energy shields. 

The empress was less than pleased.

This left the Empress with little choice. With her enemies on the verge of a potential victory, she opened a comm. To her sister and ordered several of their ships to enter the Sol Dios to protect the core. In the meantime the internal defenses came online. Turbolasers and massive missile pods ejected from the walls into small independent drones that flew after the Hydra and its fighters and bombers. Several plasma cannon nodes opened up around the core and fired blue beams of highly concentrated plasma at the Hydra as a second shield went up around the core. 

The Hydra did its best to evade the plasma cannons but with so many around it was nearly impossible to dodge them all. Several of the plasma beams hit the Hydra clipping it and shaking the internals of the ship. Several of the missile pods fired simultaneously unloading hundreds of missiles. 

Close coordination with the Squadron was kept. While the squadron flew in a tight formation flying towards the upper portion of the Sol Dios shield generators, the missiles followed leaving themselves exposed. The Hydra made a passing run, and thanks to come well placed disruptor fire from Lt. Claw the missiles were all but destroyed. A few survived the past but were evaded with ease by the fighters and bombers as they made their first pass firing and dropping their photon bombs into the generators. The first one was destroyed by the initial pass and the MAREs squadron cheered in their victory, but were cut short when the Empress cut through them forcing them to scatter once again. 

Main engineering was a mess. Trixie and Pinkie were both working hard trying to keep shields and weapons online. Trixie was in one of the many power coupling ducts trying to reroute power for disruptors through the tertiary systems. All the while Trixie cursed their rotten luck. To her the ship was performing phenomenally considering they went through five major battles and had next to zero repair time. She was also impressed with her crew's performance under these stressful times. 

Pinkie was as joyful as ever. While most of the crew were thrown or tossed around like ragdolls due to a slight malfunction with the inertia dampeners, Pinkie was bouncing around in her usual manner like nothing was wrong. She assisted Trixie in completing their repairs and not a moment too soon. Soon as they finished a plasma discharge form a weapon node on the Sol DIos penetrated through the shields and armor of the ship damaging primary power. 

The secondary and tertiary systems kicked in and brought the weapons online as quickly as they fell.

This gave Claw the power he needed to destroy one of the shield generators at the base of the Sol Dios power core, but that is where things got difficult. 

From one weapons port came the Avenger and several romulan vessels. The plasma nodes reduced their fire to not fit their allies as Heiress Luna positioned her ship within striking distance of the Hydra, but far enough away to not confront it directly. The Romulans whoever went full force to engage the Hydra in close quarters.

The mass amount of ships not only made life hard for the Hydra but the MAREs Squadron as well. To avoid the Romulans they MAREs were forced to retreat back to the Hydra after signaling for an emergency pickup. 

When Octavia received word of the retreat she found herself in a difficult position. 

“Ugh, what do they want from me!?” She cried.

She looked at the tactical view screen seeing they barely destroyed any of the generators. In their current condition they wouldn’t be able to succeed anytime soon either. A series of strikes from the weapon nodes shook the ship expelling Octavia from her chair. 

Stumbling forward Octavia grabbed hold of 3rd of 5’s chair and used it to prop herself upright. 

“Fire torpedoes!” She ordered to Claw. “3rd of 5, bring us to coarse 313 mark 003. We need to pickup our fighters!”

BZZZT!!

“Yes, Commander!” 3rd of 5 chirped as he turned the ship around heading to the squadron. “We’re coming on them no-” *THOOM!*

“We just took a direct hit to deck eight and seven!” Sunset yelled over the blaring alarms.

“Seal off those decks! Helm get us behind the core so we’re out of line from the enemy cruiser!” Octavia turned to Lyra and waddled over to her while the ship shook. “Lyra, signal the squadron about our course change, tell them to follow us and dock as soon as they’re able.”

“Yes, Commander.”

Having taken care of that Octavia returned to her seat and sat down. Deciding what to do next. The Hydra took cover on the opposite side of the core but the Romulans were flanking them forcing them to expose themselves after each attack.  A few minutes later Lyra signaled that the MAREs squadron were back in the hold and secure. 

A moment later Sunset came up beside Octavia and leaned to her ear and said, “Commander, we completed the weapon. Lt. Scratch and i are ready to try it out.”

Octavia sighed in relief feeling that this would be a good turn of events for them, but Sunset added one last thing that shattered that moment of fleeting relief.

‘There is one problem. We don't have enough power for sustained use. We use it once and the ship will lose all power.” Sunset finished with a sigh.

Octavia lowered her head into her hooves feeling a headache coming on. 

“Why can’t we seem to catch a break?” She asked. 

Looking up she casually glanced up at Sunset Shimmer. For a moment her heart skipped as she looked deeply into her light blue eyes. Something about the unicorn emanate confidence and sent chills down Octavia’s spine. She stared at her until Sunset cleared her throat knocking her out of her stupor. 

“Oh, sorry, I’m just stressed. What does the weapon do?” She asked Sunset.

“It’s a short ranged Ultrasonic Scrambler, Commander.” Sunset said without any hesitation, and a hint of pride in her voice.

Octavia cocked her brow nodding mindlessly, when the ship took another hit and the alarms blared again. Two Romulan vessels flew past the Hydra and made wide turned to double back for another pass. 3rd of 5 worked fast to evade the two ships. He managed to squeeze between them as Claw launched a volley of torpedoes destroying both ships as two more Romulan craft came up behind them and gave chase while the Avenger circled around the core to cut off the Hydra.

Octavia took the time to direct her attention back to Sunset. 

“Alright, Lt. Shimmer, what does that mean exactly?”

“Essentially we can knockout the enemy shield grid and leave the gravity wells exposed. With a volley of torpedoes in these areas,” She gave Octavia a PDA to show her her plan. “We can destroy the gravity suspension of the core and destroy it. Problem is it’s a oneway ticket for us, but it WILL bring down the station. I guarantee it.”

“Great so we save the universe to die for it?” Octavia asked sarcastically. “Great. Just how I wanted to be remembered in the history books.”

The grey earth pony thought for a moment when the sight of the Avenger made her hold her breath. The Romulan ships split apart from their chase as the Avenger powered her forward cannon. 3rd of 5 saw it coming and brought the ship into a dive skimming the surface of the core. The Avenger fired missing the Hydra and caused significant damage to the shield around the core. 

The Avenger took after the Hydra following it around the core trying to get and angle on it, but the smaller ship proved too maneuverable for them to track and eventually broke off the chase to regroup with the Romulans.

*Empress Celestia*

The Empress grew tired of watching her sisters folly. 

Seeking to destroy the nuisance herself she prepared her ship for a risky maneuver. Transforming it into an almost drill like form she flew towards the Hydra with great speed. In moments to come she was within the Hydra’s range as her ship began spinning like a drill. 

Her ship penetrated the hull and shields of the Hydra stopping two decks below. When her ship stopped moving she ejected her cockpit and leapt out to see ten crew ponies in various states of shock. She smirked evilly at them as the scrambled to get away from her. 

Using her magic she levitated all of them towards her as she drew a small object from her armor. She gave the object a quick flick and out came a long reed energy blade that hissed. It reached a meter in length humming loudly as she used her magic to bring the ten crew ponies towards herself and stuck them down without mercy.

The red blade cut through the ponies one by one and she discarded the bodies to the side after each one was struck down. One pony while waiting for his inevitable doom reached for his comm activating it. He was a young earth pony stallion, light brown with a dark brown mane. He was pudgy with bright yellow eyes and a goatee.

“Ensign Porkins to the bridge! Enemy has boarded the ship! I repeat and enemy has boarded-AHH!!”

The stallion was stuck down and thrown to the side as the Empress smirked at her defeated foes. 

“This is where this little rebellion ends.” She sneered.

*Hydra Engineering*

Trixie wiped her brow after running through the entire section like a madmare she was given a list of things from Pinkie to look into when her PDA beeped in her chest pocket. She was sitting near a maintenance shaft when she heard her PDA. She pulled it out and looked at it to see she received a message from Octavia. 



Message received from: Octachello

Sent to: GP Trixie November 19, 2154

Trixie, we’ve lost internal sensors and communication. A missile has penetrated our hull in the messhall. We can’t seal it so we’re venting atmosphere. Please assess and repair.

Commander Octavia, Commanding officer of the Hydra

PS Your seat is very comfy. XD



Trixie groaned smacking her head with the PDA. She knew Octavia had a sense of humor, but she knew from past experiences this was different. She knew Octavia was relaying trouble to her because the internal communication was down, but the jokes were her way of showing her nervousness. 

Trixie shook her head slipping the PDA back into her jumpsuit pouch. She grabbed several tools and a box. She walked towards the turbolift with a quick pace. She spotted a pink blur rush past her and she called out.

“Lt. Pinkie front center!” 

Suddenly the pink pony was beside her with a big tooth smile. 

“Hiya Captain! What can I do for you? Yes.” Pinkie asked her CO.

“First off Lieutenant, that was the worst way to address and officer,” Trixie grumbled at the pony. “Second I want you to come with me so we can fix a breach in the messhall. Come with me.”

“Okie dokie Captain!” Pinkie said skipping after Trixie.

They both entered the turbolift but before it closed Pinkie stuck her head out inhaled deeply and loudly. Then without warning she pulled out a megaphone and yelled into it, “STAR STRIPE YOU’RE IN CHARGE UNTIL I GET BACK, KAaaaaaaaayyyy!!!!????!!!!”

Several ponies fell to the ground gripping bleeding ears and/or crying out in pain. A zebra stuck her head over one of the railings smiled and waved to them. “Okay! See you then Pinks!”

Pinkie smiled closing the lift door and hummed to herself. The megaphone disappeared without a trace, and Trixie Glared at her pink companion with complete spite. It wasn’t long before they reached their destination and the doors opened to reveal a large armored pony glaring down at hem.

VZZZT!

A large red beam sword of some kind reverberated sending chills down their spines. Trixie and Pinkie both smiled nervously at the figure as it grinned down at them with narrowed eyes. Quickly Pinkie Closed the turbolift doors as the beam cut through missing both her and Trixie by inches.

The ship shook and the lift doors were slowly being cut open as the red blade cut in a large circle like motion making huge portions of the doors drop. Trixie and Pinkie acted quickly to exit the lift into the turbolift shaft and started to climb the ladders to the next deck. Beneath them the Empress of the Equis Empire burst through the doors and looked up to see the escape hatch they used and began to cut through it. Trixie Glared down at Pinkie who had a look of panic on her face.

“Still got that megaphone?” She asked.

“Yes?” Pinkie replied. “Why?”

Trixie rolled her eyes not liking the edea she just came up with. 

“Remember what you did in engineering? How you told Esgin Star Stripe she was in charge?”

“Yes! Why?” Pinkie asked again.

“I want you to do it to that pony chasing us! Trust me she’s nuts!” Trixie Said seeing the empress cut through the lift and was now clumsily flying towards them. “Do It now Pinkie!”

“Okay!”

Pinkie stopped climbing and flicked her head upwards. Out from her mane the megaphone flew out in front of Trixie’s face and down into one of Pinkie’s hooves. She looked behind herself to see the Empress glaring at her with her weapon ready to strike.

Pinkie gave her a big warm smile.

“HI! I’m Lieutenant Pinkie Pie! What's your name?” Pinkie greeted her.

Both the Empress and Trixie stared at her perplexed. Trixie hit her head on the ladder and continued climbing when the Alicorn looked up to see her.

“YOU!!! You will not escape my wrath!” Empress Celestia scream beating her wings to chase after Trixie. 

She was ready to strike as she beat her wings bringing herself up to Trixie;s level with her weapon ready to cut through the unicorn. Trixie looked back to see the red blade closing in on her head. Time seems to slow down as Trixie watched the blade come closer and closer when suddenly it skimmed past her head and the Empress began to float upwards flailing herself uselessly as she ascended promising to return.

That was when Trixie noticed several giant rubber balls attached to some sort of cable wire attached to the back of the Empress as she floated up. Trixie looked back down at Pinkie who was smiling as she climbed back down towards the lfit. Trixie shook her head and followed the pink mare back down the shaft and they both entered the lift and used the opening to the deck the were trying to reach.

Dusting herself off Trixie turned to Pinkie who was working at a panel and Trixie opened another one beside hers and got to work.

“So, Lt. Pinkie,” She started.

“Yes, Captain?”

“What… what did you do to the intruder?”

“Oh, you mean the Empress OP Queen of the Multiverse? I attached balloons to her back!” Pinkie said with a smile continuing to work.

Trixie stared disbelieving at the mare. She could not believe the answer was so simple. Balloons. An all powerful being such as an Alicorn out matched by a childs entertainment toy? Balloons. Was the answer so simple?

Working quickly at her panel Trixie used a plasma torch to work on the relays as she thought back to her days in the Academy with Spitfire, Octavia, and Lyra. She wondered if they could all get together after this crazy war was over. She then thought what would happen when they returned to home? The crew, the ship, their allies? So much of the future was uncertain, and it filled Trixie with both excitement and anxiety.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a bulkhead slammed shut and the area beyond was depressurized. The sound of hissing could be heard from a small crack in the seal where the bulkhead didn’t completely close at. 

“Nice work Lt. Pie.” Trixie Said patting the pink pony, wearing a smiled from her. “Let’s get back to the bridge so we can-”

*THOOM!* *BOOM!* 

The walls from the turbolift blew apart revealing the angered form of Empress Celestia. Her wings flexed at her side covered in the stink from the balloons as she panted like a wild bull ready to charge.

Trixie and Pinkie stared at her in shock before bolting down the nearby hall. 

“ARG! YOU WON’T GET AWAY FROM ME LULAMOON!!” The mare screamed chasing them down the hall. “I will slay you Lulamoon for the death of my pupil!”

Trixie panted running around a corner pulling her disruptor out from its holster with her magic. She rounded the corner to double back to the mess hall only to find she was blocked off. She looked back to see the alicorn turning the corner, skidding into the turn and continued running. 

Trixie panicked and fired her disruptor at the Alicorn. The Empress deflected some of the bolts with her weapon, but some of them still hit her but were absorbed by her armor. The alicorn leaped striking horizontally with her weapon aiming for Trixie’s head. Trixie closed her eyes thinking this was the end of her life, when a strange sound made her open her eyes. 

She saw a pink body in front of her was Pinkie. The pony had jumped into the Alicorn as was hit by the weapon through her gut. Pinkie gasped falling to the ground. She wasn’t dead but she was in bad condition. This enraged Trixie. 

She stood up and glared down the alicron before her. Empress Celestia smirked at her blue rival. Deactivating her weapon and putting it in a compartment in her armor. 

“So, you’re the pony who’s caused me so much trouble?” Celestia said with a snooty chuckle. “Honestly, I expected more from my sisters pupil, then again you’re not THAT Trixie aren’t you?”

Trixie didn’t reply. 

“Hmm? Well then I guess if you want to die in silence that’s your prerogative. I for one am angry that you interfered with my plans to take this reality within my Empire. For that you will die here with your crew.”

Trixie sighed putting her disruptor away and pulled out a length of cable from her utility belt. 

“You talk a lot.” She said wrapping part of the cable around her waist.

She used her magic to drag Pinnie over to her and wrapped the other end of the cable to the bulkhead and then to pinkie Pie. 

The Alicorn laughed at the little unicorn with a most obnoxious laugh.

“Bwahahah! What are you doing? Planning to hang yourself and your friend?” The Empress asked.

Trixie grinned under her mane. 

“Nope, but you’re about to.” Trixie said, pulling out another piece of cable.

The Empress had no time to react when Trixie suddenly opened the bulkhead by slamming her hoof into the panel beside it. Suddenly the three ponies were pulled by the suction power of a pressurized ship venting into open space. 

The cable snapped tightly as Trixie held onto Pinkie who was still secure to her and the ship. The Empress found herself at the mercy of the powerful forces. She was flung forward and pulled past Trixie. 

As she flew by Trixie lassoed the new portion of cable around the alicorns neck. Celestia's eyes dilated when she realized she was in trouble. Either her neck would snap under the pressure of this damned noose Trixie put over her, or she would be sucked into the vacuum of space. She closed her eyes and concentrated her magic in her horn. The horn glowed bright yellow as she disappeared and reappeared at the far end of the hall. Trixie tried to blast her but the alicron erected a barrier that absorbed the bolts. The alicron then closed the bulkhead with her magic sealing it and then blasting the panel.

Trixie and Pinkie both fell to the floor with a loud thunk. Empress Celestia slowly walked towards them both, panting, but with a smile on her face. Not the good kind either.

“Oh, ho ho ho. You almost had me Lulamoon. You almost had me, but unfortunately your weak mindedness is going to be your undoing. Now prepare to die!”

Without another word to her declaration Celestia drew her blade once more and struck downwards missing Trixie When she rolled to the side with Pinkie in her grasp. When the Empress readied another strike a series of transporter beams of deep red appeared around them as Klingon warriors materialized around them. The Empress stopped her attack and impaled the nearest Klingon in the chest with her blade as the rest of them let out battle cries and charge her and Trixie. 

“Oh shit.” Trixie said with a sigh.



> Desperate Manuvers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trixie and Pinkie stared in shock as large brown human like creatures beamed aboard the ship and began to attack the Empress with large curved swords and disruptors. The empress deflected the bolts with a magical barrier she erected around her and her horn pierced through the Klingons armor like with was nothing.

Two Klingons noticed Trixie and Pinkie and went after them a the dead end of the hall. 

Trixie pulled her disruptor out and shot the first Klingon point blank in the chest. The second got a faceful of confetti from Pinkie’s Party Cannon, which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Trixie looked bewildered at the large blue cannon before shaking it off and shooting the confused Klingon square in his chest. Using the confusion of the boarding Klingons Trixie and Pinkie slipped into the destroyed turbolift. 

They could see up where Empress Celestia tore through. Using the opening they quickly climbed up. Pinkie slipped her Party Cannon into her mane and went first as  Trixie straed at her in disbelief. *How does that thing fit in her mane!?* she thought to herself as she followed Pinkie up the shaft. They climbed on either side of the turbolift tunnel where the turbolift rails were and used the emergency ladders to climb upwards to the next level. 

The sounds of battle and death cries echoed in the turbolift as they made their hasty retreat. Then about halfway to the next deck a Klingon screamed signaling his imminent death and from beneath the Empress looked up at the two fleeing ponies from her spot in the destroyed lift.

Once they were at the next deck Trixie looked back down. She used her magic to holster her disruptor pistol and released the clamps that held the damaged turbolift in place. The Empress had a look of shock as the lift suddenly feel to the dark depths of the shaft. Sighing in relief Trixie continued after Pinkie who was working on getting the shaft doors open.

On the bridge Commander Octavia was having a very bad day in what seemed to be a series of unfortunate events.

“Commander, disruptor batteries have been exhausted, and we have only twelve torpedoes left in stock,” Claw said as the disruptor arrays went offline.

Octavia groaned achieving for the hundredth time it felt at the news.

“Commander, the squadron is reporting that enemy fighters have begun to pursue them along with the Klingon vessels. Archer is on his way with Columbia to support,” Lyra said from her station.

*It was nice to have a bit of good news for once.* Octavia mused ruffling her unkempt mane. She took several calming breaths, and closed her eyes. She tried hard not to focus on anything around her for a short time. It was an exercise she did with Trixie back in the academy and it had served her well over the years as a means of temporary stress relief. With each breath she took the world around her faded out. The alarms were silent once more. The commotion on the bridge was a simple harmony of white noise to her. The smell of burning iron and plasma burns became a welcoming scent. It took but a moment for her body to relax to an optimal state before Octavia opened her eyes moments later. Years of practice had honed this skill to a science for her. Having an obnoxious marefriend like Trixie made it easy to get said practice, though Octavia would never tell her that.

Once her eyes were open Octavia rna through a series of thoughts in her head. Their weapons were all but gone. Shields were on the brink of failure. Hull integrity was compromised, to say the least. The only saving grace was the comms, and life support were unaffected it seemed. All in all not a good situation to be in. 

Just when Octavia was about to give her next order Lt. Sunset Shimmer stepped to her side as the ship took another hit.

“Commander, Ensign. Scratch and I have finished the modifications to the deflector array. We’re ready to test the new weapon,” Sunset said with a cocky grin.

Octavia nodded taking note of the unicorn mares grin. Something about her was off. Sunset Shimmer took the nod from Octavia as a “go” signal and went back to her station by Vinyl Scratch. The visored pony was huddled over her console and running calculations and power distribution flows and redirecting them to the deflector array.

Sunset Shimmer stood by her side and the two exchanged a brief dialogue before Vinyl started drawing power to the deflector array.

*Enterprise Bridge*

Archer was pacing again around his seat. The turbolasers from the station were proving ineffective to the Hydra’s shields. The Enterprise however was taking minor cosmetic damage from the lasers. Columbia was in a similar state as the two ships flew side by side into the depths of the Sol Dios. 

Archer was pursuing the Klingon attack force into the station afraid they might compromise the operation to destroy it. With mere minutes left there was no room for error. Archer had ordered Enterprise to enter the weapon port to assist their allies. Columbia followed close behind.Archer knew the Captain of the ship well. Erika Hernandez. 

Captain Hernandez was a close friend of Archers and a welcome ally in their desperate hour. She would help him and die by his side no matter what. She was a good friend and a loyal officer to Starfleet. He did however have an advantage that would hopefully pay out in the end. He thought back to his gamble and hoped he made the right choice.

As they approached the core they were greeted by a wall of high yield missiles. Both the Enterprise and Columbia flew to the upper portion of the core chamber where the Hydra was fending off several Romulan, Empire, and klingon vessels. Although the Klingons were a third party attacking everything in sight that wasn’t Klingon.

Just as the Enterprise and Columbia came within weapons range Lt. Reed got a proximity warning from his tactical station. 

“Captain, I’m reading a power buildup from the Hydra, sir.”

Archer quirked his brow stepping towards Lt. Reed.

“What kind of power buildup? It’s not dangerous is it?” Archer asked worried his allies were critical.

Malcolm Reed shook his head after reading his scans over. “I don’t think so, sir. I think it’s intentional.”

Archer thought it was odd. What could they be doing? He thought. Just then Archer watched as the Hydra made a dive for the core with the Avenger and the Romulan ships at her tail. The fighters and bombers from the Hydra returned to the ship as the energy buildup reached a critical point.  

Archer and the crew watched as the Hydra circled around the core repulsors. Reed watched his console to see the Hydra was building a critical amount of energy. Meanwhile T’pol was monitoring from her station conducting a series of scans when the hydra released a powerful shockwave of energy around it. 

The shockwave expanded all around the Hydra like a bubble that knocked out several systems onboard the Enterprise. 

“What happened?” Archer asked as the lights died across the ship.

“Status report!” 


“We’ve lost main power. Engines are offline,” T’pol said calmly.

“What can we do?” Arched asked, stumbling over to T’pol as the ship shook.

“I’m attempting to bring main systems back online.”

As T’pol said this the Enterprise began to slowly descend towards the core due to gravitational forces pulling them with no propulsion. The Columbia too was succumbing to the gravitational forces and falling behind the Enterprise towards the core. 

The Romulan ships and the Empire ships collided with the core. The impacts caused severe damage to the core and its shielding. The Avenger collided with one of the Romulan vessels and was split into two.

When that happens the Enterprise and Columbia regained power and joined with the Hydra as it circled around the power core repulsors.

“Captain, I’m receiving a transmission from the Hydra,” Hoshi said.

“On screen.”

On the main view screen Commander Octavia came to view in the captain's chair on the Hydra bridge. Archer stood by his seat  holding himself up with the chair.

“Commander, what’s going on? What was that shockwave your ship created?”

“There’s no time to explain Captain Archer. We are at the brink now,” Octavia said with a wistful tone. “Our weapons aren’t enough to destroy the core. We’ll need help.”

Archer looked at Lt. Reed and gave him a silent nod. Reed nodded back and prepared all their weapons while Archer addressed Octavia.

“Commander, what do you need from us?” Archer asked.

“We need your help to destroy the repulsors. Once that’s done we can destroy the core and escape through the weapon port.”

“Understood. In the meantime we’ll-”

“Captain, I’m reading a subspace distortion coming from the Avenger.”

Archer looked at the view screen as T’pol brought up an image of the two halves of the Avenger falling towards the reactor. Then the two parts of the ship suddenly stopped in place and became suspended in place as T’pol monitored the subspace distortions coming from the ship.

*Warship Avenger*

Heiress Luna gasped feeling her head throbbing. She lay on the floor as the ship was falling apart around her. Her ship's alarms were blaring, and the remainder of her crew was trying to get to the escape pods.

Heiress Luna rubbed her sore head as she tried to reach for her command chair when a crew pony came to her and helped her up from the floor.

“Heiress! We need to get off the ship! The crew has already evacuated we should-”

*BWA HAHAHAH!*

Both Luna and the pony looked terrified as a high pitched cackle echoed throughout the ship. The two ponies looked around in fear as the laughing intensified. Then from around them a slithering mismatched being formed around them. It was a serpentine creature, with a brown body. It had a goat like head with a lion paw for one arm and a eagle claw for the other with two mismatched legs of a goat and dragon with two tiny wings on its lower back. 

The creature wrapped around Luna and the pony and gently around them. The creature gave them a cruel grin as he placed his face against Luna’s. The creature patted the alicorns head gently as he looked into her eyes with his deep yellow ones and gave a hearty chuckle.

“Hello, Lulu. How looooong has it been?” 

“D-discord… Gods help us…” Luna muttered in fear.

The creature Discord chuckled again and looked at the crew pony. He then snapped his clawed fingers as the crew pony turned inside out on the spot. Luna gagged as the pony screamed, if you could call it a scream as his insides sprawled all over the floor. Luna slowly began to pant heavily as Discord grinned at her.

“Oh, the fun we’ll have today…”


> Jumping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the Hydra bridge Octavia and Archer were talking via the onboard view screens when the Avenger suddenly burst into a large bouquet of flowers from both halves. The two halves of the ship then expanded to the bursting point until they both exploded into a torrent of pedals. 

Suddenly after the explosion the crew on both ships were stunned when a creature appeared in a flash of light on the bridge of the Hydra along with Heiress Luna. The dark blue alicorn looked around like she was ready to run, but stopped when several security ponies surrounded her.

Octavia drew her pistol and trailed it on the larger mismatched creature who was chuckling like a kid in a candy store.

“Oh, dear oh dear that won't be necessary,” he said snapping his talon claw.

He disappeared and reappeared on the bridge of the Enterprise next to Archer. 

“Captain!” 

Reed jumped from his seat and drew his phase pistol and trailed it on the creature.

Archer sighed looking into the deep yellow eyes of their intruder.

“Who are you and what do you want?” He asked annoyed.

“Why I’m Discord! Master of Chaos! At your service,” Discord said, bowing in a French Maid outfit, and giggling with a blush.

Archer rolled his eyes and held up his hand, thus signaling for his crew to stand down. After a moment of hesitation Lt. Reed and the security team on the bridge of Enterprise holstered their weapons and allowed Discord to remain. Discord chuckled snapping his fingers and disappeared and reappeared in his normal form with his arm wrapped around Octavia’s neck. 

“Why I just wanted to give a helping hand to the ones who saved my life!” Discord said, with a hearty cackle. 

Octavia rolled her eyes again groaning and swiping the pawed arm from around her neck. Discord gave a slightly offended gasp.

“Oh! My my I think somepony has a bit of a shrew.”

“Okay, that’s enough you insane buffoon. What do you want?” Octavia snapped at Discord, feeling her temper rise with every word he said.

Discord snapped his claw again covering himself in a bright flash. Once the flash dissipated he was standing there in a Starfleet uniform. The dark blue jumpsuit completely clashed with his own mismatched form, making him look rather ridiculous. At least more so than Octavia and many others thought.

“Well, since you freed me, I would like to offer you a little token of my appreciation,” Discord said, with great emphasis on appreciation. “Now, watch as I help save you universe!”

With another snap he was gone and everyone from the two ships were left in a bewildered state. On the Hydra, Lt. Claw slapped both of his taloned claws over his head and screeched loudly.

“What the actual fu-”

Meanwhile Heiress Luna used the distraction to send a message to her sister. The message was transmitted without any hinderance due to the crews being distracted.

On the Hydra Celestia just finished killing off the last Klingon when her chestplate began to let out a low beeping. She pushed a violet gem in the center and her the sound of her younger sister whispering to her in a recorded message.

*Sister, tis I. The entity escaped and has allied with our enemies. We must flee.*

Empress Celestia growled and brought her arm to her shoulder plate and was transported to her commanded chamber on the Sol Dios. She quickly ran a series of scans for major anomalies and then sent a mass withdrawal message to all her forces. She got a proximity alert saying something was happening. Bringing up the outside monitors she saw a bright flash and Discords figure appeared beside the battle station Sol Dios. He was easily the same size as the Sol Dios and was cackling as the Empire ships circled around him firing all their weapons at him.

Discord laughed at the vessels snapping his fingers. A few of the ships seemed to spontaneously explode around him. When the dust cleared he kept snapping his clawed hand but nothing happened. 

“Oh, tish tosh. Way to ruin my fun,” He pouted crossing his arms. “Oh, well. If at first you don’t succeed try another approach.”

Discord cackled maniacally and grabbed a Romulan Valdore ship from the future in his eagle claw as it made a pass at him. As the Empire and Romulan ships tried to circle around him Discord got a sneer and glint in his eye. Discord focused a tremendous amount of his power into the Romulan ship, making it glow a bright white. Then with a mighty throw he threw the Romulan ship like a boomerang sending it through the Empire and Romulan vessels. 

The Valdore class ship tore through its allies like they were wet tissue paper splitting them into pieces as it circled around hitting every ship in its path. Once the boomerang ship circled completely around Discord once it stopped suddenly, and for a two second count nothing happened. Discord grinned. He then snapped his eagle claw and all around them the ships exploded in succession to who got hit first thus creating a wave of explosions all around him like a ring of fire. 

The Empress hissed and cursed her sister for her stupidity. A scan showed they lost over half their ships from Discords attack alone. She then opened a communication to the Lunas Revenge and got Vice Admiral Derpy. The wall eyed pegasus was struggling to keep her balance as her ship was hit by enemy fire.

“Now that’s what I call a show!”

“My Empres! The fleet is evacuating and we’ve just activated our EDM shields,” The vice Admiral said in a panic.

“Get the fleet out of here. I’ll handle the enemy ships.”

Empress Celestia shut off the view screen and looked out at Discord. 

“Damn you Luna…”

Empress Celestia powered up the Sol Dios and used the power from the core to power up the remaining weapons ports. Using them she locked onto her fleet ships. In the core the Hydra, Enterprise, and Columbia were unloading everything they had into the core. 

The Hydra exhausted their photon torpedoes, Enterprise and Columbia soon exhausted theirs as well. The last few days of prolonged battles forced them to continue fighting without any possible time to resupply. Moments after the Klingon vessels began to pull out from the core as it powered up and powerful dedication anomalies began to form around the core.

“Commander, we are reading heavy temporal anomalies!” Sunset said to Commander Octavia.

“What? Any idea why this is happening?” 

Esgin Scratch ran a series of scans she was able to come up with a theory.

“Commander, I’m reading heavy chronometric particle buildup in the core as well as heavy gravimetric distortions,” Esgin Scratch said. “I think they’re getting ready to time jump.”

“Then we have no choice. Set an escape course 3rd of 5!” octavia commanded.

3rd of 5 nodded and gunned the throttle. The Hydra circled around the core heading for the nearest weapon port. The Enterprise and Columbia were close behind. As the three ships flew along the corridor a badly damaged Luna's Revenge came from behind chasing them. 

Its canons fired powerful beams of green disruptor energy striking the fleeing vessels from behind. The Enterprise and Columbia lowered their speed to fall behind the Hydra and protect them from the rear. The Luna's Revenge fired a volley of two torpedoes striking Enterprise with both. Their hull plating took the full force of them but did not falter.

The Enterprise and Columbia returned fire with both phase cannons and torpedoes. The narrow passage made it nearly impossible to evade for the larger ship. With no room to maneuver the Luna's Revenge was forced to divert all power to the forward shields while chasing the fleeing vessels.

Though the Hydra was making good time on its exit, Octavia wasn’t liking having to flee from an enemy without putting up a fight. 

“Ugh, Claw can we get weapons back online?” She asked the griffin. 

“No Commander. Disruptor banks are dry and we have exhausted our compliment of photon torpedoes,” He said to her.

“Damn it... “ Octavia cursed under her breath.

As the words  left her mouth the turbolift doors opened and trixie came crawling out with Pinkie Pie behind her. The two ponies were very battered looking. Their uniforms were torn and dirty looking. 

Pinkie had a big smile on her face but Trixie looked tired and drained. The unicorn in question stumbled out of the lift and lazily waddled over to her command chair where Octavia hastily ejected herself from. 

“Captain, good to see you back.”

“Ugh, don’t patronize me Commander,” Trixie grumbled sitting in her chair. “What’s our status?”

Octavia took a seat beside her and gave her the status report.

“All weapons are down. No power, and no torpedoes left in stock. We also have a rupture on deck 3 and 4 and we’re trying to escape the Sol Dios before it time jumps.”

“Great. How long until we reach the weapon port entrance?”

“About a minute Captain,” Sunset chimed in.

“Ugh, what about Enterprise and Columbia?”

Octavia looked back to Claw who was watching his monitors. A quick scan revealed that the two ships in question had taken extensive damage from the Luna's Revenge.

“They’re not doing well. They’ve taken heavy damage,” Claw reported.

“Is there anything we can do?” Trixie asked.

“We could use our new sonic weapon we made to disrupt the enemy ship,” Vinyl spoke up from the rear of the bridge near her station.

Trixie and Octavia turned to face the white mare. Vinyl bobbed her head up and down slightly as she sat waiting for a response. 

“What risk is there to the ship, Esgin?” Trixie asked.

“None, Captain,” Vinyl replied. “The problem is the sonic weapon will affect our allies as well.”

Octavia looked down at her tactical pad in her chair. The tiny digital holo-monitor displayed data in a 3D image of the hydra relative to the other ships around them. It showed Columbia and Enterprise engaged in a firefight with the Luna’s Revenge. A quick scan showed they were in terrible condition.

Captain, the Enterprise was taking heavy damage, their hull plating is failing, as well as life support,” Octavia said showing her scans to Trixie. “The Columbia is switching positions with the Enterprise to take the rear, but they won’t last long.”

Trixie thought for a moment leaning into her arms and resting her elbows on her legs. The crew waited and watched as she mulled over the possibilities in her head. One thing Octavia knew Trixie was good at was weighing her options mentally. Though she didn’t agree with most of Trixie’s choices since they left drydock, she couldn’t have come up with anything better herself. She knew it too. Trixie was one to take action where Octavia knew she would have hesitated. The initial contact with the Romulans and the core rupture they had at the Genesis 12 Colony was proof of that. 

Trixie was always certain of her actions. Even when they fail she believes in her mind that whatever she does is the best possible choice for the safety of the crew. It was at this moment when she weighed the responsibilities of the crew versus even greater odds.

Standing up she looked back at Vinyl who was looking at her with an expectant look. Though she wore a visor to see Trixie knew the look she had on was a determined one. With a nod Trixie ordered the sonic weapon to be brought online. Then she walked behind 3rd of 5 and leaned over the changelings shoulders.

“3rd of 5, when I give the signal I need you to stop the ship and wait for the enemy ship to fly over us.”

“C-captain?”

The changeling looked nervously back at his CO.

“Wh-what if they stop as well?” Octavia asked.

Trixie glared back at Octavia making the grey mare shiver before catching her mistake.

“S-sorry. I mean, ‘what if they stop as well, Captain?’” She corrected herself.

“3rd of 5, stand by on my order,” Trixie got a nod from the changeling and turned to look back at Vinyl. “Ensign Scratch, what’s the range of the sonic weapon?”

“About ten-thousand kilometers.”

Trixie nodded looking down at the floor panels. Furrowing her brow she looked to 3rd of 5 and reached for his controls slowing the ship to ¼ impulse. A proximity alert notified 3rd of 5 that the other three ships were closing in. Seconds later the Enterprise and Columbia narrowly dodged the Hydra after its sudden deceleration. The sudden change forced them to split and go around the Equestrian Battleship.

Trixie made a mental countdown as she read the monitor. 10 thousand. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 

“3rd of 5 emergency stop!” Trixie ordered. “All hands brace for emergency deceleration!”

As the crew braced for the sudden change in speed, the Hydra came to a sudden stop. The minor damaged intera dampeners made it hard for the crew not to suffer from the change in speed, but they managed. The Luna’s Revenge sped past the Hydra creating a great distance between them and the Hydra before slowing to turn and face them.

Within seconds the Luna’s revenge was turned and facing the Hydra face to face. Lyra got a message from the enemy vessel and put it up on the screen showing the Vice Admiral Derpy grinning at Trixie.

“So, Captain, decided to save us the trouble and turn yourself over to us?” Vice Admiral Derpy gloated with a cackle.

Trixie chuckled in response making the wall eyed pegasus glare at her.

“What’s so funny? I’m the one who has you on the ropes! What’s so damn funny?”

Trixie looked up at Vice Admiral Derpy with a big smug grin. 

“You know Vice Admiral, I was just thinking back to my academy days. They said i was very… over confident in my abilities” Trixie reminisced tying a message on her chair and sent it to Vinyl.

(Stand by sonic weapon.)

While Trixie went on about her time at the academy and the trouble she use to get into, Vinyl and Sunset worked at their station drawing as much power as they could to the new sonic cannon. Once they were done moments later they sent a message to Trixie’s command chair signaling they were ready.

“-and that’s why I can no longer go into the academy mess on Thursdays,” Trixie finished quickly.

Vice Admiral looked like she was about to burst in anger. Her eyes shot into perfect alignment as a vein throbbed in her forehead, as she gritted her teeth together, trying her best to bore a hole in Trixie’s head.

“Captain, I am going to wreck your pathetic ship-” Trixie nodded to Vinyl. “-and then I’m going to take your ship and crew back to our glorious Empress and send you to her to do with whatever she pleases. Then I’m going to-” DET DET DET! “What was that?!”

The Pegasus glared back at a pony behind her. A shaken voice spoke up, “A power surge in the Hydra Vice Admiral!”

The Vice Admiral's eyes went back to normal at the news. Slowly she turned back at the view screen looking at Trixie who waved to her as the screen went to the view of the Hydra.

“Admiral! They're accelerating towards us!” A crew pony yelled as the alarms blared.

“HARD TO PORT!!!” Derpy yelled at her helm.

The Luna’s Revenge poured all its power into its lateral thrusters moving the ship out of the Hydra’s way allowing them to pass. Before they were completely past the Hydra emitted a powerful Sonic Pulse that shot outward from the ship and hit the Luna’s Revenge disabling it completely.
“Captain it worked!” Claw cheered. “They are completely disabled! We’re lear!”

Good work everyone. 3rd of 5 get us out of here-”

“Captain the Enterprise was hit by our sonic pulse!” Sunset relayed from Vinyls station. “The Columbia is out of the port but we’ll have to take enterprise with us!”

Trixie smacked her hoof on the chair. 

“Dagh! Activate the tractor beam, Lt. Claw,” She ordered to the griffin. “We’ll pull them along with us.”

Sunset shook her head looking at her station monitor.

“It won’t work Captain. With Enterprise in a tractor beam we won’t make it out of the weapon port in time before they jump. I estimate it’ll take over thirty seconds to get clear before they jump, but we only have… 20 seconds!” Sunset said after a brief pause to allow the time to match.

“Damn it. Lyra send a message to Equis Command. Tell them we’re making a blind jump.”

T”WAHT!?! AGAIN!?!”


Octavia looked bewildered at her Captain. It was the same look she gave her when they made the same kind of maneuver back when they first encountered the Romulans and Jansis 12. 

“YOU’RE INSANE! We could end up literally anywhere in the galaxy if we did that!” Octavia yelled at Trixie.

“Not to mention the enterprise-”

“3rd of 5!!”

Trixie’s booming voice echoed over the bridge making everyone look back at her with looks of shock and fear. Vinyl ducked under her station worried she’d be shot at again, while Lyra finished her message to EFC. Trixie leaned forward with a hard look at the changeling. 

“3rd of 5. Prepare the horizon drive,” The changeling nodded and Trixie activated internal comms. “Bridge to engineering.”

*Engineering to bridge, Captain what’s going on up there? We just lost a lot of power-*

“No time Lt. Commander Pie. We’re preparing to do a jump. I need all the power you can must to the horizon drive take it from life support if you have to.”

*Okay, I anticipated this would happen. The drive is ready for use Captian.* The once cheery voice said glumly. 

Trixie deactivated the comms as the Hydra swept over the Enterprise and activated their tractor beam towing the human ship just behind them. All around the power relays of the Sol Dios powered up preparing to transfer all its energy to the core for its massive jump. Inside the port the Hydra sped  down as all reality around them distorted.

On the Bridge Trixie was awaiting the final count to when the Sol Dios would jump.

“Time to jump?”

“Five seconds Captain!” Sunset said.

Trixie took a deep breath and took Octavia’s hoof in hers and pulled the mare from her seat and onto her lap. Octavia blushed feeling exposed as Trixie kissed her in front of the entire crew. A moment after they kissed they broke apart and Trixie braced herself with Octavia in her arms.

“3rd of 5 activate horizon drive!”

*4*

“Aye!”

Complying with his order 3rd of 5 activated the horizon drive and created a swirling vortex of energy that tore the very fabric of scape around it. The formation of the black hole was complete and the hydra sped towards it with Enterprise right behind it in the tractor beam.

*3*

All around them the Sol Dios glowed bright red as the relays transferred energy to the core. 

*2*

“Trixie. I love you and i’m sorry I yelled at you so much,” Octavia said in a low tone.

*1*

Trixie smiled back at Octavia leaning into her cheek with her muzzle. The grey earth pony was in tears holding onto her tightly kissing Trixie’s cheek repeatedly.

“Trixie loves you too.”

*0*

When the relays reached their zenith in power flow they became so heated they were bright white. The heat they emitted was greater than earth's sun, yet they didn’t melt or deform in any manner. The Hydra screeched past and pierced the event horizon and disappeared into the dark vortex as it collapsed in on itself. 

Moments later the Sol Dios and all the remaining Empire ships disappeared in their temporal vortexes and left Starfleet and her allies wondering what happened. Discord remained floating in space, after returning to his normal size, and was filing his claw when the Sol Dios disappeared.

“Well, that was fun. Guess I better get old King Cole and Trixie back home,” He mused looking over his filed claw. “But before that, I feel I owe it to Trixie from this reality. She was indirectly responsible for my escape and saving Cole. Guess I can give some minor assistance.”

He snapped his claw. Sensing his magic at work he smiled giddily and bounced in place before “standing” up. 

“Well, that should do it. Good luck Lulamoon!” he said laughing as he dissolved into nothing, leaving no trace of himself behind. 

> Dead Stop
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

THOOOM!! VOOOooooooommmmmmm….

The Hydra was hurling through the horizon vortex with Enterprise still being towed behind them vis tractor beam. The stress on both ships was immense and threatened to tear both apart. On the Enterprise the jump was more like an unsteady rollercoaster ride, but the Hydra was breaking apart at the seams.

On the bridge of the Hydra everyone was scrambling to get where they needed to be. Ponies and changelings ran over, under, around, or a combination of them to get to the deeper parts of the ship. The outer hull was breaching and falling apart so Captain Trixie ordered everyone to move deeper into the ship. 

Engineering was buzzing with all kinds of sounds and activity.

Pinkie Pie was running from station to station like a pink bolt of lightning. She would be on the base deck talking to a changeling crewman, then next moment she’d be two decks high talking to another pony and then back again in the blink of an eye. Most of the crew had become accustomed to her doing this, so it was mostly expected from the pink pony to do such. 

“34 of 69! Get the valves closed on the second and third EPS manifolds!” 

“Aye, Lt. Commander!”

The changeling ran off to do her assigned task, and Lt. Commander Pinkie Pie turned to face the core just as the sides burst into flames and sparks. A single pony caught fire and screamed out in a fiery pain. She then fell over the railing from the second deck and down to the bottom of the engine core as it blew again. This time it was followed by a violent shaking of the ship.

The engine room was now full of heat and steam. The engine core itself was expelling large amounts of dry plasma and coolant. Pinkie gasped dramatically and ran to the nearest communication pad. 

“Coolant leak! Everyone facilitate the engine room! Now! Now! Everyone out!” Pinkie yelled pushing the groups of ponies and changelings along. 

The pink pony ran to the engine core and looked down to see the pony from earlier still down there. Her uniform was charred black and her mane and tail were all but gone. She was barely moving. Pinkie climbed down and reached for the pony and pulled her over her shoulders to carry her. Pinkie was then assaulted by the smell of burned flesh and hair. Gagging she climbed quickly back up and hurled herself over the railing as the ship shook again. 

Once over the railing she adjusted the pony on her back and continued to run out of the engine room as the dry plasma and coolant collided casing a smaller chemical reaction that burned at her tail and uniform. Pinkie skidded to a halt and slammed her hoof into the side panel which activated the emergency bulkheads, and sealed the engine room off from the ship.Two nine crewmen came to her and helped take the burned pony off the Lt. Commander’s back.

“Get her to sick bay!”

“Yes, Lt. Commander!” One of the ponies said, taking the injured pony with them.

Pinkie then returned to the panel and activated the internal communications.

“Engineering to bridge-THOOM!- if we don’t stop, the core is going to overload! I have several EPS manifolds ruptured there’s a coolant leak causing the core to overheat!” She yelled as the ship shook and the alarms sounded. “We need to stop otherwise we’ll end up destroying ourselves!”

*Engineering stand by!*

“Okay!” Pinkie said in a cheery voice smiling.

While waiting for a response Pinkie began humming a tune swingin back and forth in place as a pony went flying past her after an explosion sent her across the room. Two ponies went to help the poor pony. A changeling came running into the room on fire as several ponies put him out with a fire extinguishers. After about twenty seconds of chaos around her Pinkie’s ear twitched when the communication pad beeped.

“Bridge?” She asked the panel and waited.

*Engineering, we can’t shut down to H-Drive! We need you to manually deactivated it!*

“Okay!”

Pinkie happily skipped towards the back of engineering humming a happy tune with her step. She went to the back of engineering while everyone around her scurried about with their tasks. She went right up to a panel and pulled it off revealing a big red lever switch that read: Don’t Pull Except in Emergencies!

“Lt. Comander! What are you doing?!”

Pinkie looked at the switch, ignoring the pony behind her, and without wasting a second more she pulled it down. Suddenly the entire ship shut down as it shook violently before it decelerated and sent everyone on board flying across the rooms due to the intera dampeners failing. 

The Hydra came out of the horizon vortex with the Enterprise right behind it. The tractor beam failed and the two ships went into a spiral as they exited the vortex The Hydra was completely powered down and Enterprise had to take a moment to get its bearings again. The human ship was quick to recover and was soon coming about to fly behind the Hydra who was still drifting aimlessly without power.

*EnterPrise Bridge*

Archer and his crew were quick to recover from the sudden change in speed since their ship was in peak condition. Archer was in his chair with his bridge crew in their stations. Lacom Reed was in tactical scanning the area for hostile ships. Hoshi was at communications scanning for any signals to indicate other ships in the area. T’pol was doing a ship wide system diagnostic to determine any damage to the Enterprise. Mayweather was at the helm controls steering the ship with the spinning Hydra as it drifted in open space.

Archer shook his head in his chair feeling a slight disorientation as he tried to adjust his collar from his uniform. 

“What’s our status?” He asked to noone in particular.

T’pol was first to answer with the systems briefing. 

“We have a minor power fluctuation in the antimatter regulators. Commander Tucker is working on the problem as we speak,” The Vulcan said calmly. “We also have taken minor damage to the dorsal plating but nothing extensively dangerous to report.”

Archer nodded his head looking at the view screen. It was blank black which meant it was completely off. Normally it would be showing the bow of the ship but now it was showing nothing. Archer walked to Lt. Reed, circling around his station and stood behind Reed and his chair looking over their sensor readings.

“What’s out there?”

“Not sure sir. Long range sensors are down,” Reed said with a hint of regret. “I’m working on the problem sir.”

“See to it you get sensors online as quickly as possible. I don’t want to be flying around blind.”

“Aye, sir.”

While Lt. Reed worked on the problem Archer hurried back to T’pol who had just finished scanning the Enterprise for any more mechanical failures.

“Captain, long range sensors were damaged by the anomaly we went through. Commander Tucker says it could be a few hours before we get the sensors online again.”

“Tell him to make it his priority,” Archer ordered walking to the lift. “You have the bridge Sub Commander.”

T’pol watched as Archer went to the lift and opened the door. As the human stepped in she stood up quickly getting his attention before the doors closed.

“What are you planning, Captain?” T’pol asked with a hint of concern in her tone. 

Archer had been working with T’pol for years now. Her species, the Vulcans, were a race who believed in logic and a strict code of emotional control. The years they served together brought them close. For Archer, he considered T’pol among his short list of Vulcan friends, and he would trust her with his life. She too would trust her’s with him.

Taking a relaxing breath and expending his chest, Archer held his hand in the lift doors preventing them from closing. “I need to get to engineering. Hoshi contact the Hydra tell them we’ll assist them in any way we can.”

“Aye, sir.” Hoshi replied.

Archer nodded to T’pol, she nodded back, and he removed his hand from the door allowing them to close. Once he was sealed in the lift he could feel himself descending to the lower decks. From there he’d head to the back of the Enterprise where Engineering is. 

Once he arrived on the deck Archer doubled back to follow the halls to the back of the ship where he turned left to another junction of two that connected engineering. There he was met with the sounds of loud clamoring and people yelling at one another from the upper decks to lower decks, and vice versa. In the center of it all was Charles Tucker, the main engineer and a man Archer would agree knew the NX Engine better than even the designer of the engine himself. 

Tucker was busy keeping the engine running when he noticed Archer enter the hall hatch. He stopped what he was doing and quickly made his way down towards his captain.

“Captain, what's going on up there?” Tucker asked concerned. “We were in real trouble there for a minute. I was sure the engine was gonna blow with whatever you did.”

“We ran into some trouble. We caught an unexpected lift from our pony friends,” Archer said solemnly. 

“Soooo, what now?”

“I need you to get a team ready. We’re going to get over to the Hydra and assist them,” Archer said patting Tuckers shoulder. “I’ll be bringing Phlox with us. They may have injured. Get that team ready, and have Kelby takeover engineering and meet with me in the shuttlebay.”

Archer started walking away leaving engineering and headed to the medical bay. It wasn't long before he was back in the turbolift heading down one deck. From there Archer headed to the medical bay where Dr. Phlox was busy helping the last of his patients. The doctor was just finishing a final scan of one of his patients when Archer came in.

Doctor Phlox finished his scan and turned to face his captain with his usual cheery smile and a warm open gesture with his arms. 

“Captain? What can I do for you today? As you can see I’m quite busy,” Phlox said.

“I know Phlox,” Archer said sympathetically holding the Doctor’s arm with his hand. “But I need you to get your gear. I need you in the shuttlebay and get ready to go over to our friends ship. They may need help.”

Phlox of course made no attempt to dissuade Archer from this course of action. If lives were at stake Dr. Phlox was more than willing to lend a helping hand. Given the past actions Archer took it was no surprise he’d extend a helping hand to others. So it was no surprise to Archer when Dr. Phlox agreed to help without question. 

Once the order was given Archer made his way back to the Shuttlebay, by the time he got the Commander Tucker and his engineering team were already there getting their gear into the shuttles. A few minutes later Phlox was in the shuttle bay with his gear. It was at this time Archer received word that the Hydra cleared them to take the shuttles to their landing bay. Once the order was given the two human shuttles were away to the Hydra as it continued to drift due to a complete power loss.

Captain's Log November 21, 2154

After our outrageous horizon jump I think I finally pushed the Hydra beyond its limits. We’re now adrift with no way to see where we’re going or have anyway to control it. Our systems are down life support is failing, and we have no idea what’s out there. We’re blind. 

Sensors are down. All we have to go by are the visual reports from the crew across all decks while we attempt to repair the Hydra. Hopefully our human friends are in better condition than we are.

*Hydra*

In the Hydra’s shuttle bay Major Spitfire was being taken away to the medical bay. The crew was hard at work trying to get the main structure repaired, but the main power was down all over the ship. Life support was barely functioning and the ship was nearly pitch black like space.

The sounds of hooves and voices echoed throughout the silent ship. With no power the ship was eerily silent. The unicorns and changelings had been using basic illumination spells for a while now and many had collapsed from magical exhaustion from prolonged use. Private Scope was in the cargo bay beside the shuttlebay reloading his bomber with photon bombs, Corporal Pansy was helping him, and the other MAREs Commandos were tending to their fighters as well. 

Commander Octavia was there too helping with the mech power loaders, bipedal machines that were used to carry heavy loads. She was assisting a group of ponies and changelings reenforce the superstructure of the ships shuttlebay. 

Deeper in the ship Trixie was with Lt. Commander Pinkie Pie going over the ship's damage. Trixie sat in a chair across from Pinkie in a large circular room with one door for entry and exit. The center of the table was a ship wide 3D model with all systems and subsystems color coded and cycled by a specific order for review. Trixie sat frustrated as Pinkie Silently went over the ship systems. Trixie was a Captain, but she was also a Master Grade Engineer it would have been considered redundant for Pinkie to reiterate what Trixie could already see and understand for herself. What she saw was nothing but daunting.

“I can’t believe this,” Trixie grumbled under her breath. 

Pinkie sighed shrugging her shoulders and gave Trixie and ‘I told you so’, look.

“Not a word Lt. Commander,” Trixie growled at the pink pony.

“I told you the Horizon Drive wasn’t ready, Captain,” She said glumly at Trixie’s harsh tone. “We didn’t have the power for a prolonged fight and we did a H-Jump at the sametime.”

“I KNOW!” Trixie yelled slamming her hooves on the table. 

Pinkie flinched at her tone and the 3D display flickered slightly. Pinkie’s mane deflated at Trixie’s angered tone. Trixie sighed rubbing her mane back with her hooves and tried to calm herself. She rubbed the base of her horn and looked across at Pinkie Pie and tried to put on a softer expression. 

“I’m sorry Lt. Commander. I’m just under a lot of stress. I didn’t want to activate the Horizon Drive, but we had no choice. It was either that or we’d end up someplace more dangerous than we were. Trust me we’re better off like this.”

Pinkie Pie nodded as she cycled through another set of systems. Again Trixie groaned this time slamming her head on the table. Pinkie flinched again but slowly made her way around the table and sat beside her unicorn captain. Pinkie was cautious. Her previous attempts to appease the unicorn always ended with her getting in trouble or angering and injuring her Captain. So this time she decided on a more subtle approach. Pinkie sat beside Trixie and gently patted her back trying to calm the unicorn as she groaned with her face flat on the table.

Trixie visibly relaxed as the pink hoof rubbed around her back in small circles. Trixie sighed flexing her shoulders and rolled her face to look at the pink pony beside her. Pinkie noticed her turning to face her and gave a weak smile at Trixie and took her hooves off her when she noticed a blank stare looking at her.

Trixie used her magic to hold Pinkie in place as she leaned upwards in her chair.

“Thanks Lt. Commander,” Trixie said patting Pinkie’s back.

Trixie looked over the damage to the ship again. 

“I can’t believe this. Nothing, I mean NOTHING is going to work. Great. I’ve doomed the ship and crew because I made a selfish choice to save ourselves and our friends in the only way I thought possible.”

Pinkie shook her head, “No, Captain. It wasn’t your fault. We were dealt a bad hand from the start. The fuses and coils that were incorrectly typed for the ion cannon is what did us in. Not you,” Pinkie confided to her.

“Lt. Commander, what can we do to get main power back online?” Trixie asked.

“Not without help Captain,” Pinkie said twirling her mane. “We have no remaining spare parts and I’ve already rearranged more of the ship than I could say was safe to begin with. We need to get to a station and get repairs underway. We can’t do it ourselves.”

Trixie shook her head burying her head in her hooves when her PDA signaled her. She pulled out the PDA and looked to see she got a message from Octavia. 

///Message Received///

Message received from: Octachello on November 21, 2154

Sent to: GP Trixie

Trixie, the Captain of the Enterprise has sent two shuttlecraft and is requesting permission to dock with us. They saying they wish to assist us with our repairs and injured.

PS I want a fancy dinner tonight. >->

Trixie chuckled at the message and wrote a quick reply.

///Reply Message///

Don’t worry love, after tonight The Great and Powerful Trixie is gonna make you feel like a Queen. Love you. 

///Message Sent///

Trixie put her PDA back in her holster and looked back at the 3D image of the Hydra. 

“That ion cannon fuse really messed us up didn’t it Lt Commander?” Trixie asked Pinkie.

The pink pony nodded bringing up a image of the ion cannon. 

“Yeah, it sure did,” She said using a pointer. “I figured out what happened. While the fuses and coils weren’t designed for the ion cannons output, that alone wasn’t the sole reason for our crippling condition.”

Trixie quirked a brow. She was a master engineer and she knew the hydra’s systems pretty well for a Captain, but Trixie didn’t know what could have caused such a problem to occur, but she didn’t like what Pinkie had to say.

“No, it was also wired through the Horizon Drive. When we fired it damaged the horizon Drive and when we jumped the damaged drive was wired to over half the ship. You can guess what happened there.”

Trixie knew the answer. The ion cannon was designed to take power from every corner of a ship in equal measure to create a powerful energy burst. To prevent damaging any single system the ion cannons in the war fleet were designed to take energy equally from all sources they were wired to. There was one fatal drawback. If something as essential as the Horizon Drive was damaged, or in this case, had the wrong power fuses and coils it created an unstable power flow which overloaded the entire power grid and shorted out the entire ship. Fro what she just heard that was what happened to the Hydra and what left them in this crippled state.

Trixie took out her PDA again and made a note to have the ion cannon reviewed at a later time for possible removal. Once that was done she put the PDA away when the doors were forced open and Octavia came in with Archer and his team. Archer stepped around the group and made his way to Trixie. They had met a few times in person but it always struck the human male just how tall the ponies were. Most were just under four feet tall,and Trixie was as tall as his waist.


Archer greeted Trixie with a kind smile and a handshake with her hoof.

“It’s good to see you again, Captain Trixie,” Archer greeted her.

“You too, Captain Archer,” Trixie said back to him. “As you can see we have a lot of damage to my ship. I don’t think your engineer, despite his qualifications, could do this.”

Trixie gave a casual sideways glance to Commander Tucker as she emphasised this point. The engineer rolled his eyes and crossed his arms looking at Trixie directly.

“Ya’ll don’t know me very well. I can fix almost anything if I can get a good look at it,” Tucker said, with a hint of pride.

Trixie scoffed pointing at the 3D image of the Hydra and its systems, just as Octavia elbowed her. 

“What!?” Trixie squealed glaring at Octavia.

Octavia rolled her eyes, “You know what you did.”

“Ugh,” Trixie groaned throwing herself into her chair and spun to face the 3D image of the ship. “Mr. Tucker. If you can fix this it’d be a miracle.”

Once Tucker looked at the image he quickly realized just how much work he had to do with his team. 

“That’s a lot of red. How did this happen?” He asked.

Trixie sighed and offered a seat to all who were there. Once everyone was sat down Trixie and Pinkie explained the whole situation to the human team. Trixie explained the situation from when they left drydock to the first encounter with the Romulans and then to their jump to Mars. Everything after was self explanatory.

“-and that’s why we’re here now,” Trixie leaned back in her chair, creaking as she finished her story. “So tell me, Commander Tucker can you help us now that you know our situation?”

*Sigh* “I could see about getting some spare parts from Enterprise. We could have main power up in a couple of hours and maybe helm and a few other major systems.”

Archer leaned forward and looked at Trixie and then to Tucker. “See to it Commander, Captain Lulamoon, my ship will remain close by for support. We’re in open space and no place to hide.”

“Thank you Captain,” Trixie said standing up. “Let’s get to work.”

*DEET! DEET! DEET!*

Trixie’s ear twitched a the sound of her PDA going off. She pulled it up and saw she had a message from the bridge. She looked it over and became confused by what she read. Once she finished she levitated the PDA to Archer who read it. 

“We may have a problem.” He said giving the PDA back to Trixie. 

“What kind of problem?” Octavia asked.

Archer looked at his friend Tucker and gave him an odd look. It was a tired worried look one that both Commander Tucker and Dr. Phlox seemed to recognize. The message eluded Octavia and Pinkie but Trixie realized what it was. It was a look that a leader gave his or her troops or people when they knew bad news was going to follow. Archer stood up and adjusted his collar like a nervous habit. 

“We’re approaching a drydock out in open space. My crew and I are familiar with it. That means we know where we are as well. We’re on the Romulan border.” Archer said looking at everyone. 

“Several years ago enterprise came across an seemingly abandoned space dock. It was self automated and could adjust to fit any sized ship. It was able to repair Enterprise from heavy damage we sustain in a Romulan minefield sometime earlier,” He explained. “When repairs were complete there was an accident  that took one of my crew. We soon discovered that the station's computer core was using the synaptic pathways of humanoid hosts to enhance its processing capabilities. It took my crewman to replace another humanoid who died in the ‘brain ‘ of this station. We saved my crewman and destroyed the station, or so we thought.”

Octavia, Trixie, and Pinkie looked at one another. 

“We have to do this Captain. We won’t get far without this kind of help. Even With Commander Tucker and his team we’ll never get home or very far in our condition,” Pinkie said, and Octavia nodded in agreement.

Trixie sat silent for a moment before she spoke in a low soft voice.

“What is the condition of Ensign Duskwing?” She asked.

“She hasn’t gotten any better Captain,” Octavia said.


Archer and the other humans looked confused but then were taken aback when Trixie stood up and struck her hoof against her chest with a loud pound.

“Captain Archer. I need you and your team to help get my ship operational to get us to the dock please.” Trixie asked of him.

> The Station Situation Part 1 of ?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Failsafe.

It was a word made by cadets at the Equis Officer Training Academy in its earliest years. It was something that gained a lot of reputation when a famous spacer named Dallia went into deep space with her freighter and small crew. 

The story goes something like this. Dallia Captain of the Calisto, a older MX-12 cargo freighter, went into deep space on a routine supply run mission to Jansis 2 Colony. The story goes that he ship made a successful H-Jump, but ended up in an unknown region of space. For twenty years the fate of the Calisto remained unanswered until a listening station near the newly developed Jansis 13 station received a degraded transmission from the Calisto. Turned out the ship had came out of the slipstream and into an asteroid field. 

According to the transmission they had a malfunction with the H-Drive that propelled them into an unknown region of space and crippled the ship. The message was abruptly ended when an asteroid collided with the ship destroying it. The remains of the Calisto were found decades later by another MX Logistics Fleet who attempted a blind jump after Thrane pirates tried to steal their cargo.

Since that incident the Thrane and Equis Shipyards Engineers have always tried to balance ships systems with emergency backup systems and redundant failsafe systems. However there was one that wasn’t taken into account. That was weapons.

Trixie rummaged over the damage report for the Hydra for the tenth time in the same day. Commander Tucker from the human ship Enterprise was hard at work with Lt. Commander Pinkie in engineering. Archer and Octavia were in the debriefing room looking over the ship's damage as Trixie thought about the weapon failsafes of her own ship. 

As a master engineer she was suppose to know things like, how to put in a power regulator, or replace an EPS Manifold. Heck, she could even build a H-Drive from scrap and spare parts, if given enough time. Weapons were simple if they were designed right. Disruptors and phase particle weapons had many failsafes. Torpedoes, especially antimatter warhead ones, were outfitted with several safety features. 

Ion cannons were a different matter completely. 

An ion cannon was an over powered particle weapon that discharge a massive amount of energy and antimatter into a condensed stream in a rail cannon that is propelled forward nearly at the speed of light at its target. The damage of such weapons is something captains and crew both respect and fear. 

The very core of how these weapons worked ironically is why Equis Command never fail safed them. By drawing power from the entire ship the idea was if there was a malfunction due to a power feedback it would dissipate over several of the EMP and EPS manifolds and cause minimal damage to the ships. In practice it actually proved true, but not for the Hydra. Trixie overlooked several areas of the ship over the last few hours and found hundreds of power coils and fuses were the wrong type. In this case the coils and fuses were unable to handle the amount of energy discharge from the canon as the feedback went throughout the ship's systems. Instead of dispersing the energy the fuses and coils either blew up or melted to slag and caused power build up over several systems and damaged every systems they were attached to.

Trixie groaned as she looked over one replacement fuse. It was what was known as a Type-33X Microlight fuse. A standard fuse used in most ships through the fleets of Equis Command. The hydra was designed for a brand new line of fuses that were the MK-V Microlight fuses. The Type-33Xs were designed for 3000UI of energy flow, where the MK-Vs were designed for triple that output. In essence the Hydra was flying with fuses designed to run ⅓ the amount of power the ship needed, thus making sustained combat a problem.

To Trixie disdain the Hydra was instead built with every fuse being the obsolete Type-33Xs. This was a direct reason why their disruptors were so ineffective during their first encounter with the Romulans at Jansis 12. 

Trixie made a note to file a complaint to whoever requisitioned the fuses to be put up for charges when they got back to dock. In the meantime the ship was adrift with Enterprise nearby and a crew that was on edge after nothing but mishaps and near death experiences.

Taking moment to look away from the digital display of her ships systems Trixie looked over to Archer and Octavia. Octavia had come back from the cargo bay and was updating Archer and Trixie about what was going on. 

“-we’ve gotten most of the disruptors offline to transfer power to the engines. With any luck we’ll be able to get to this dry dock without any problems.”

Trixie nodded. “What’s left then?”

“We just need to wait for engineering to send word to us about the engines and we’re good to go, Captain,” Octavia reported putting her PDA back in her side pouch.

Archer let out a tired sigh of relief as did Trixie.

“Captain Archer, thank you for lending your team to my ship in our time of need,” Trixie said kindly to the human extending her hoof to shake his hand.

Archer too the hoof in his hand and shook it with a kind smile in return. 

“Not at all. You saved my planet. Earth and Starfleet owes you a great debt,” Archer said.

“It was Trixie’s pleasure to help. My crew too heavy losses since we left home,” Trixie lowered her head thinking about the few crew members they lost in the last few days. “We left our home with around one-hundred fifty.. We’ll be going back with thirty less now.”

“It’s never easy losing one of your crew<” Archer said sagely. 

Trixie recognized his tone. She heard it from one of the older MAREs Commando XOs. Her name was Firefly V, and she was the sole survivor of a mission gone bad. A hostage situation on a colony opposed to Thrane immigrants from a colony took a school hostage in protest. Firefly’s commandos were ordered to take back the school, after negotiations went south. The end result was catastrophic.

The protesters saw the Commandos coming and had enough time to prepare. The MAREs commandos stormed the school and were slaughtered, but they pressed on determined to save the hostages. The protesters resolve was stronger than the MAREs Commandos determination to save hostages. In the end the protesters used home made explosives and destroyed themselves, the school, and the hostages. Firefly lost her entire squad that day and was the only survivor. She always spoke with a sad longing tone that was filled with guilt of being a survivor. Trixie knew it as survivor's guilt, and Archers tone was filled with regret when he spoke to Trixie about loss. 

Trying to be sensitive, Trixie looked up at Archer who was doing his beast to give a supportive smile as he continued on with his point. 

“You can’t second guess what you did. You did what you thought was the best option. Your crew died to save the others in it. That’s commendable, but you learned from it and you tried your best to make the best out of a bad situation,” Archer said standing up and patting Trixie on her back gently. “If I were you and our situations were reversed, I’d have probably  done the same thing.”

In that moment Trixie and Archer made a connection. A deep emotional connection that could only be made by two individuals who had suffered through the same thing. From behind them Octavia watched when her PDA started to beep. Looking at the PDA Octavia realized Lt. Commander Pinkie Pie was signaling the engines were ready. Octavia nodded behind the human at Trixie getting a silent nod in return.

“Seems like engineering is ready, Captains,” Octavia said walking next to Trixie. “Shall we?”

“Of course. Captain Archer, would you mind joining us on the bridge?” Trixie offered her human friend.

“I would be honored.”

With that said Archer, Octavia, and Trixie went to the turbolift and went directly to the bridge. The lift was slower than usual. It took over two minutes to go up the four decks to the bridge. The lift had to stop on every deck as a safety precaution made by Lt. Commander Pinkie in case the lift railings failed. Thankfully the lift made it in one go and no problems.

On the bridge Lt. Sunset and Vinyl Scratch were working at their stations. Claw was sitting with his arms crossed and a bored look since his console was dead without power, and Lyra was busy with 3rd of 5 trying to get the ships navigation back online. Just as they finished and Lyra turned around she spotted Captain Archer, as he ducked to get out of the turbolift. Her eyes went wide, her mouth turned to a toothy grin, and she shook as her eyes dilated, and she let out a girly shriek of delight that deafened everyone on the bridge. 

In a blur of teal green Lyra dashed instantly before Archer and stared wide eyed and happy at his hands. The unicorn was bouncing in place staring at Archer's hands making him feel uncomfortable. Then without asking Lyra took his hands and started caressing them in her hooves making awkward squee noises as she did. 

“I like you, umm…” The unicorn stared at Archers fingered appendages. “Claws?”

Archer took his hands back slowly and put them subtlety behind his back giving the unicorn a weary look. 

“They’re hands if you must know, miss?” 

“Heartstrings, Sir! I’m Ensign Lyra HEartstrings, communications officer of the Warship Hydra!”

Archer chuckled while Trixie groaned facehoofing her head along with most of the crew. Then suddenly Archer noticed Lt. Claw at his station unholstering his disruptor and not so subtly aimed at Lyra.

Taking a quick step between the griffon and Lyra Archer turned to Trixie, blocking Claws shot. 

“So, um.. Captain Lulamoon. Shall we get this underway? Wouldn’t want to keep our engineers wailing?” He subtly hinted.

“INdeed. Trixie agrees,” She turned to Octavia sticking her nose up slightly a the earth pony. “Of, course, if there are NO MORE OBJECTIONS?”

“Har, har.”

Trixie nudged Octavia making the earth pony blush as Trixie gave 3rd of 5 the order to take the Hydra to the dock. 

The Hydra’s engine roared to life and slowly the wounded ship limped to the dock rings. Then as was told by Archer the rings of the dock expanded and became elongated to take the Hydra’s full length and height. It started round but became more of an oval shape as they Hydra slowed down as it entered the docking area made by the station.

As the Hydra came to a slow unsteady stop, the entire ship shook as the power core shutdown and the internal alarms sounded off. The ship was now dark save for a few red lights offering some help to the disgruntled crew.

Several unicorns lit their horns with bright magical light as they scurried like bugs in the dark, trying to regain the ship's main power. Trixie and Archer remained perfectly calm. Without a word Trixie went directly to the turbolift with Archer and went down to the cargo bay. 

ONce there Archer and Trixie boarded a small bomber. Archer had to sit cramped in the back seat with little leg room. The bomber was larger than the fighters, but even so it was designed for smaller ponies not full grown humans. Archer was by no means a giant for a human, he was average standing about 5’ 4”, but the bomber was still too small for him. 

Regardless he managed to keep his head as the bomber flew out of the badly damaged cargo bay. Trixie flew the bomber around the station once and overlooked it. A bright light overcame the tiny ship blinding Archer and Trixie momentarily. Trixie struggled to keep the bomber level and not crash into the station. Once her vision cleared she then spotted a mechanical umbilical extending out from the center most piece of the station and changed form to fit the bomber. She looked back at Archer who seemed rather calm by what happened.

“It was an intensive scan,” He said. “The station scanned us to determine the best suitable atmosphere for us.”

“You destroyed this station once before you said?” Trixie asked, taking the bomber to dock with the umbilical. 

“I did. After we saved my crewman we had to make a hasty exit. We destroyed the station, or so we thought.”

Trixie nodded taking the bomber in slowly to not crash it. Using her magic she created a barrier around the top hatch of the bomber and used it as a sensing guide. Since the ship had no external sensors or cameras this was standard practice for all pilots and crew able to fly bombers or fighters.

Carefully she positioned the bomber sideways and with her magic managed to align the umbilical with the bomber and attached it with ease. With a slight shake the umbilical magnetically sealed the bomber to it and equalized the pressure. Trixie powered down the bomber which gave a low humming that died down. Then she used her magic to release the seal from the bomber and opened the hatch above Archer. 

The human stood up slowly, as to not bonk his head on the console above, and pushed a small button and opened the sealed door to the umbilical. Once they climbed out, and played a balance game with changing gravity, the two made their way across the umbilical towards the station. The umbilical and the core of the station were very much the same. Clean white walls with bright white lights all around. It was so clean it was as if the station was brand new, there wasn’t even a single scuff mark on the clean white floors. 

The room was different from what Archer remembered. As they entered the central chamber there was a digital display of the Hydra, much like the engineering 3D display that was on the Hydra itself. It showed the entirety of the Hydra, deck by deck, even down to the individual bolts in the superstructure of the ship.

The console that displayed it was hexagonal in shape with tiny spike like features about six inches tall pointing at the image of the Hydra. Trixie and Archer both assumed it was image emitters of sorts. Behind the console and opposite of the doorway they came through, there was a large panel the size of the wall with a digital display of the Hydra in a 2D side view format of its power systems.

“This is impressive. It got all this data on my ship from one intense scan?” Trixie asked looking it over. 

“Yes. It is a very complex station,” Archer admitted with a hint of amusement in his voice. “A bit more than I expected, even though I encountered it once before.”

Trixie nodded looking over the Hydra’s systems when she noticed the ion cannon displayed on the console. She touched it and it enlarged the image of the canon and several parts to it. Then she made an amazing discovery. Ths tation also knew about the correct fuses and breakers that were needed to fix the canon and details on how they were made.

“Did this station download our entire data drive?” She asked alarmed seeing this.

Archer looked over the display and nodded. 

“Yeup, the station did the same for us. When we encountered it it said it’s purpose was to help, meet, and catalog all new species it encounters. It’s truly a wondrous and terrible thing.”

Trixie looked back at the console nodding in agreement. “Yes, indeed.”

Then the panel on the wall suddenly drew back startling Trixie to draw her disruptor with her magic. She took aim at it, but Archer held his hand up signaling her to not attack. Reluctantly Trixie holstered her disruptor as the console opened up and a digital display came out from the opening. 

Then a female mechanical disembodied voice came from the display said, “Please select your inquiry.”



> Station Situation: Part 2 of ? (Repairs at a Cost)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Automate Repair Station* 

Trixie stared at the panel that pulled out of the self automated repair station. Archer seemed calm and simply walked towards the panel and looked at it. He came to a stop just an arm's length away from it, but looked back at Trixie giving her a reassuring smile. These humans baffled her. In the short time she had known humans she had seen a variety of emotions and behaviors from them. These ranged from kind and open, to downright hostile and xenophobic. 
 
Archer seemed to be a good balance of both. He wasn’t xenophobic by any means, but he was reasonably cautious when need be. He was also open and kind to Trixie and her crew. Even after Lyra’s abhorred behavior Archer still found it amusing somehow when the teal unicorn squeed like a fangirl at a concert. 
 
Despite this interaction Archer remained as calm and collected as he always been. Trixie took a chance and approached the panel and looked over it. It was a small transparent panel that was free floating with various details about construction and repairs for the Hydra and what it would cost to do the repairs. 
 
The first one was the most costly and it would require giving up several key components to the station as payment. Parts they couldn’t spare. Then there was 50 kilos of dry plasma, doable but still a bit costly so trixie put a hold on that one. The last was asking for several kilos of biomatter. 
 
Trixie looked over to Archer who was just standing by. Waiting for her to make her decision. It wasn’t hard for Trixie. She chose to give the station the biomatter. It was easy enough to procure since they had so many dead. Trixie made a mental note to talk to Octavia about it later if need be, but otherwise she decided for the betterment of her crew this should be kept secret. 
 
“Please select your inquiry and method of payment to begin the repair process.” The panel said once again.
 
Taking her hoof Trixie and hovered over the biomatter option. Not pressing it initially she looked at Archer with a concerned look on her face. She Only knew him for a few weeks at best, and she didn’t completely trust him on some random station she knew could be dangerous. Seeming to sense her unease feelings, Archer stepped around the panel and stood next to Trixie and crouched beside her. 
 
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
 
“Trixie doesn’t like this situation. It makes her fur stand on end.”
 
Archer nodded empathetically. 
 
“I understand your concern, but trust me the repairs will make it all worth it. If you’re willing to pay the price for it,” He said with slight serious tone at the end. “I know you plan to give one of your crew to the station as part of this payment, but can you live with that?”
 
Trixie kept her hoof over the panel for another two second count. She breathed in synch with the seconds counting, one then two, and then she pressed the button on the panel with the payment option for biomatter.  Having made the selection the station panel retracted and the display on the center 3D imager changed into a long list with times and dates for when the repairs for the ship would take place and where.
 
“Thank you for your selection. A repair log has been transported to your ship,” The station automated voice said. “Please, ensure that all areas undergoing repairs are vacated and properly sealed while the repairs are underway. The crew has now full access to the recreation hall and commodities. Please enjoy your stay.”
 
Off to the side a slide door opened up right from where Trixie and Archer were standing. The station panel was now completely retracted into the station and sealed. Trixie, not wanting to stay contacted the Hydra vis her PDA. After informing Octavia of the manifest log and repair schedule Trixie turned to Archer once more as they head down the airlock back to the bomber. 
 
“I can live with the choices I make Captain Archer. The universe is a cruel place. We learn that in the Academy. Officers are the ones who make the tough choices not the crew.” Trixie explained.
 
“Why’s that?” Archer asked. “If the crew doesn’t know what the Captain is doing how can they hold them accountable?”
 
Drawing open the hatch Trixie slipped into the bomber and was followed closely by Archer. Once both were in Trixie sealed the hatch and brought the bomber online. After detaching from the station the bomber flew over the dorsal section of the Hydra, where Trixie saw the arms from the station beginning to tank some of the outer parts of the hull off. She brought the bomber to the Enterprise a few kilometers out from the station. 
 
Attaching to the docking airlock on the Enterprise Trixie released the hatch and allowed Archer to leave the bomber, but used her magic to tug at his pant leg before he got completely out. Looking back from the hatch he looked directly at Trixie in the eyes. They were pained eyes. Eyes that he’d seen for years himself. Something in his mind told him that she lost someone like he lost his father. 
 
“Trixie once had a family, I lost them when radical terrorists bombed one of our railway systems on my homeworld. Trixie was back in the Academy then, and was just about to graduate when she heard the news.”
 
She wiped her eyes trying to hide the tears that were forming in them.
 
“Trixie became Captain to make the decisions that no other could make. So, that the ones under me wouldn’t have to suffer like I did. It was a naive and silly notion, but Trixie want’s to make a difference in the galaxy. Trixie want’s to make sure no one loses their loved ones like she did.”
 
Archer gave a long pause giving what she said some thought. Getting out he stood by the hatch with his hand in so Trixie wouldn’t close it on him. 

“I understand what you mean.”

Trixie looked at him in surprise.
 
“Years ago my father, helped a man on my world develop one of the first warp drive engines. He died of a disease not long afterwards. So, believe me I know what you mean by not wanting others to suffer as we have,” Archer said letting go of the hatch. “Keep in touch. I’d still like you and your officers to join me for dinner on my ship.”
 
“Trixie will hold you to that.”


Smiling the two shook hand and hoof before Trixie sealed the hatch and Archer sealed the airlock on his ship side. The Hydra bomber then detached and flew off back to the Hydra once again. As the repairs started to happen section by section Trixie managed to get back to her own quarters to find Octavia sleeping in bed. The grey mare was out of her uniform and laying on her belly on the bed with the covers just covering her from the waist down.
 
Trixie smiled at Octavia snoring away. Trixie unbuttoned her uniform top and slid it lazily off her shoulders and threw it into the dirty clothes hamper nearby the bed. Trixie removed her belt and jumpsuit with her boots afterwards. She unclipped her disruptor and placed it by her bed and gave it a gentle tap as it rested on the small nightstand. Trixie then went to the shower and took a nice cold shower cleaning days of grime, oil, and other nasty ship fluids off herself. 
 
The cold water was almost therapeutic for her. It gave her aching back time to ease up and relax itself while she gave deep thought to her parents and what her last encounter with them was like. She remembered the dinner she had with her mother, father, and older sister. It was just weeks prior to her graduation and Trixie was at the top of her class in engineering. As a celebration her family took her to dinner at her favorite restaurant in Ponyville on her homeworld. 
 
It was the best night of her life, but only because it was the last time she spent with her family.
 
After the bombing of the railway system she lost her mother and father, leaving her sister and herself as the sole survivors to the Lulamoon name. After their deaths Trixie all but cut off contact with her sister after a huge falling out with her at their parents funeral. 

Trixie sobbed silently in the shower glad that the sounds of it would cover her tears and not wake Octavia in the room. A short while after she cried herself out of tears in the shower Trixie exited and dried herself as she went to bed. Once completely dry she threw the towel on the floor completely ignoring it and slipped under the covers beside Octavia. 
 
As she settled in the sudden slight disturbance stirred Octavia awake. The grey earth pony’s eyes fluttered open rom her deep sleep. Her vision was slightly hazy at first, but it quickly cleared up as she blinked and rubbed her tired eyes. This was the first “good” sleep Octavia had since they left dry dock. Turning slowly over she came face to face with Trixie who had fallen asleep right as she hit the pillow. 

Octavia shook her head with a tiny smile on her lips at the slight snoring Trixie made while she slept. Wiggling closer Octavia pulled Trixie’s head and let it rest against her fluffy chest and rested her chin over Trixie’s forehead with a gentle kiss. Trixie instinctively nuzzled the mares chin with her nose in her sleep making Octavia giggle lightly before falling back to sleep herself with Trixie in her arms.
 
As the next few hours went on, ponies and changelings aboard the Hydra left the designated areas for repairs. The stations massive arms extending over centralized areas would detach entire bulkheads of the ship, and disintegrate it in a blue light, like the materials were dissolving to tiny molecules. The arms would then create a wide triangular intense beam that wiped out any debris from the halls while smaller arms removed massive areas of the ship's hull and the superstructure. 
 
From the station’s recreation area Enterprise Engineer Charles Tucker was with Lt. Commander Pinkie Pie watching the repairs go over the Hydra. 

“You know, when Enterprise was here last I told the Captain that it would take the boys at Jupiter Station 3 months to repair Enterprise like this,” Tucker said, reminiscing with a glass of wine in his hand and Pinkie had a milkshake. “It even got rid of this annoying squeaking noise in one of the floor panels. *whew* This station is amazing. Wish Starfleet had something like this.”
 
Pinkie slurps a huge gulp of her milkshake then licking her lips with her huge pink tongue. This made Tucker give the  pink pony a slight look of disgust as she giggled and nodded in agreement with him. 
 
“I totally get what you mean! Our ship would have taken us a month maybe more to repair! That is if there was nothing wrong with it after all the current problems we found.” Pinkie said wonderingly, tapping her chin.
 
Tucker quirked his brow in confusion and looked down at his pony friend. “What does that mean?” He asked.
 
“Well, if I’m honest, the Hydra had problems from the start since we left dry dock,” Pinkie said slurping up the last of her milkshake and throwing it in the waste unit behind her. 

Tucker looked as she casually tossed it over her shoulder and it flew perfectly into the waste disposal unit at the opposite end of the room. Everyone there, both human and pony, clapped and cheered at the amazing display. Pinkie bowed politely a few times for the crowd before she turned back to face Tucker and the ship. 
 
“Yeah, when we left Drydock,” She started to say as if nothing happened moments ago. “We tried to use our ion cannon and nearly destroyed ourselves. That was just the start of our troubles. Systems started breaking down all over the ship and we ended up using a years worth of spare parts in a week. It was awful.”
 
Pinkie slumped over the railing like a ragdoll and her mane slightly deflated. This made Tucker look at her with concern. 
 
“Is that, is that normal for you to do?” He asked pointing at the pony. 
 
“Is what normal?” Pinkie asked suddenly reinflating to normal. 
 
Tucker said nothing. He just slowly turned away from the confused pony and continued looking out the window. He stared off into the distance when he noticed something odd. Some of the stars were disappearing and reappearing in their place. Tucker pulled out his communicator from his shoulder pocket. 

The small silver device intrigued Pinkie who tried to use the railing with her front hooves to see like a curious cat would. Tucker ignored her as she tried to look at his hands as he flipped the silver top of his communicator up and made it beep, signaling Enterprise.

“Tucker to Enterprise.”
 
“This is Entreprise.”
 
Tucker knew the voice was to Hoshi the Enterprise Communications officer Hoshi Sato. A kind person and a linguist specialist. She cold learn almost any language if given enough time. With one exception, but that was a story for another day. Tucker narrowed his eyes to try and focus out at the distance where he saw the strange occurrence.
 
“Enterprise, do you read anything off the sensors?” He asked.
 
“Nothing as far as we can tell. Why? Is something wrong, Commander?” Hoshi asked over the communicator.
 
Tucker shook his head, not realizing that Pinkie was now atop his head looking down at his small communicator. “No, I thought I saw something, but… I guess it’s nothing. Sorry to bother you Hoshi.”
 
There was a slight giggle over the comm. “No problem Commander. We’ve all had a rough week. Just try to relax and take it easy. Okay?”
 
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Tucker replied.
 
“Good, we’ll let you know if anything comes up. Enterprise out.”
 
After the communicator cut out Tucker flipped it closed and put it back in his arm pouch. Pinkie leaped off his head without him noticing much to the surprise of everyone watching. As they continued to watch out the window Tucker felt an odd lurching in his stomach. Something wasn’t right. He could feel it. There was something out there, and if there was one thing Tucker always could count on it was his gut. It almost never failed him before. 
 
Deeper in space far off from the station a small group of three Klingon birds of prey were hovering just within an asteroid field. They were powered down for the most part but the lead ship had its weapons on standby. The three ships observed the Enterprise and Hydra that was within the repair station. 
 
On the bridge of the lead ship Captain Duras was sitting in his command chair on the bridge of his ship. He observed the two ships, specifically the Hydra that was in the middle of its repairs. 

“Have they detected us?” Duras asked one of his crew.
 
The Klingon directly behind him responded, “No sir. The human vessel is orbiting the station, and shows no signs of detecting our process.”
 
“Good,” Duras growled. “This time we’ll finish them. Contact Captain Sal Mogh and Captain Trell. Tell them to prepare for battle. We’re going to attack them now.”
 
With a low sinister growl Duras’s crew prepared their ship for combat. The three birds of prey completely powered up. The lights from their engines lit up, their weapons came to life, the torpedoes were armed and ready to launch. The three birds of prey spread into a wide area several kilometers apart and formed a line and made a straight charge for Enterprise and the station the held the Hydra.
 
Duras smiled with his jagged sharp teeth. He patted his chest with a powerful fist feeling his chances of getting back at the humans and ponies was at hand. This was his moment of glory, and nothing short of a miracle would save the humans and ponies from his vengeance. 
 

> Station Situation: Part 3 of ? (Klingon's)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Pants down.”
 
Everyone on the Hydra looked at Lyra funny. Sunset and Vinyl shrugged and went back to work while Claw glared at the teal unicorn. Lyra managed to get a glance from him seeing him glaring at her. She smiled and waved to him, which only annoyed him more. Lyra giggled at the griffin who growled blushing and pretended to work on his dead console. 
 
The repairs to the Hydra were proving to go by very fast. The station had already repaired a significant amount of damage to the ship and it was only the first few hours in. Sunset was impressed with how fast the station worked. The sections of the ship that were repaired, she did a visual inspection and the areas were like it was brand new. Better than new in fact. 
 
Somehow the station repair the ion cannon and replaced all the fuses with the appropriate ones, rewired it to spec, and even replace the J-77 power core with a brand new one. Best of all the inspection showed no anomalies in the power flow nore the superstructure of the canon.  All in all a good day.
 
She was now at her station writing up a report about the repairs in her log when 3rd of 5 had a proximity warning from his station at the helm. 
 
“Lieutenant, I have a proximity warning of port.”
 
Sunset looked up from her position at got up to walk over to the changeling. She lifted her upper body and rested her front hooves on the back of 3rd of 5s chair and looked at his console. Three small red reticles were approaching from just out of their sensor range. The heavy damage they took made it nearly impossible to see anything unless it was dager close, like within a few kilometers. 
 
A second warning lit up on the screen signaling some sort of energy discharge. Sunset immediately ran to Claw yelling, “BAttle alert! Incoming-”
 
Her words were interrupted when the ship shook after a massive impact. The alarms sounded on all the decks as ponies scrambled to get either out of bed or scrambled to their stations from a break. 
 
Sunset ran back to her station and activated the internal comm. System. “Bridge to Captain!”
 
*Trixie’s Quarters*
 
Trixie and Octavia were still sound asleep in bed together when the ships shook and the alarms sounded flinging them from the bed together. The alarms blaring in their ears and the sudden rude awakening left them both disoriented and groggy. Trixie was the first to recover from the fall, shaking her head clear, she stood up and offered a hoof to Octavia. The regy earth pony took it graciously and lifted herself up with Trixie’s help. Suddenly the ship shook again and the internal communication panel signaled with a beep.
 
“Bridge to Captain! We’re under attack!”
 
It took Trixie a moment to recognize the voice, still a bit groggy from the rude awakening. Trixie stumbled to the comm, and pressed a tiny red button to activate it.
 
“Bridge this is the Captain, Lt. Sunset what’s our status on repairs?”
 
“Ma’am, the station has us locked up still and we can’t leave the dock!”
 
“Who’s attacking us?” Trixie asked ash the ship took another hit.
 
There was a heavy sigh from the other side of the comminution panel speaker as Sunset paused for a moment before replying, “Klingons.”
 
 
At the name of the warrior race a light clicked in Trixie’s mind. There was only one Klingon that she heard of that had this much out for them and Archer. A Klingon who would travel the ends of the universe to get back at Archer and now her. 

“Duras. Has Enterprise seen them yet?”

“Yes, ma’am, they’re currently engaged with two other Klingon vessels. A third is attacking us.”
 
By now Trixie and Octavia were both clothed and ready to resume their posts. Trixie clipped her disruptor to her belt and walked out the door with Octavia at her heels. “We’re on our way to the bridge.”
 
“Aye!” Sunset said turning off the comm.
 
Trixie and Octavia quickly exited the room as the ship shook again. By the sound she was hearing Trixie guessed the shields were operational again. *Good thing too. I don’t want to add to the repair cost to the station.* She thought dodging a changeling as she came running down the hall. 
 
Octavia was unusually calm. Trixie of course knew the reason. She had woken up and didn’t have any coffee. Add to the fact she has been extremely stressed the last few days without coffee, sleep deprived, and now she was woken up from a firefight, Trixie guessed it would be an interesting fight to say the least.
 
As they entered the turbolift both ponies were packed in the next deck up as more ponies gathered in with them. Once they reached the bridge Trixie and Octavia were the only ones getting off while the others went back down to engineering. Another quirk of pony tech. Turbolifts always gave ranking officers priority to destinations on the turbolifts.Trixie didn’t like it, but there was nothing she could do about it. 
 
Trixie took her spot in the center of the bridge with Octavia by her side. 

“Lt. Claw report?” Octavia asked.
 
The griffin nodded and saluted. “Ma’ams. We are still being held by the station. Repairs are still underway, but the station has started working unusually fast. The repairs should be done within the next few minutes.”
 
“A few minutes? I thought we still had a day's time before they were complete?” Octavia asked.

“I don’t know, Commander,” Claw shrugged. “All it know is as soon as we were attacked the station sent out an emergency notice about the speed up to our repairs and  I had all the work areas vacated for the duration.”
 
“Good work Lieutenant.” Trixie said to the griffin. 
 
This made him swell with pride. If there was one thing griffins loved more than being recognized for their hard work, it getting notice from their superiors for it. It showed they were doing their jobs right. Something Trixie admired about them as a whole, for the most part. 

“Where’s the Klingon vessel?”

“Port side ma’am. Disruptors are still offline but we have the ion cannon and torpedo!” Claw suggested with a hint of enthusiasm in his voice. 
 
This didn't go unnoticed by Trixie. She ordered the torpedoes armed and ready for use then made a call for all her MARE’s commandos to prepare for battle.
 
*MAREs Dressing Room*  
 
Private Scope was always the first to gear up when it came to combat readiness. It was something that made him standout from all the other MARE Comandos. It also helped his quarters were just down the hall. The other shad to come down from one deck up while he was already checking his weapons. 
 
By the time the group was dressed and ready he was already set to go. 

He never bragged about it before, but ever since Pansy took him under her wing he always loved hearing her praise him. Sure he got praise from Major Spitfire, but Pansy was different. She was his friend. Perhaps more so. The young stallion watched as Pansy put on her jumpsuit then followed by her armor. She was very quick to change taking less than thirty seconds to become completely armored up. A minute later her rifle was ready charged, and set to go as Major Spitfire came trotting in. 
 
“Alright MAREs listen up! We go a huge mission!” She barked standing in the center of the room surrounded by the commandos. “We’re not doing a full on strike today. Today's mission is two parts! We use fighter and bomber to lay hell on an enemy Klingon vessel then we take a boarding party over and take the ship!”

“YEAH!”
“BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!”
“Let’s get us some Klingon for dinner!”
“FUN FUN FUN!”

Spitfire stomped the metal floor with her armored hoof making a loud clanking noise. The noise was enough to break through the cheering and brought the MAREs Commandos to silence. Scope however wasn’t looking forward to fighting a Klingon on its own ship. He encountered one before when the battle with the Sol Dios took place, and he nearly lost his life to the Klingon he faced. Had it not been for Major Spitfire he’d most likely be dead. That however wouldn’t stop him from fulfilling his mission even if the chances of him dying were astronomically high. 
 
Fortunately for him, Spitfire had a specific task in mind for him. One that didn’t involved him fighting a Klingon close quarters. 
 
“Private! Front center!”
 
Like a well oiled machine Scope was up on his hooves and standing before Spitfire saluting her. One thing he learned early on in his career was to always be tentative with the officers. If they said jump you jumped. If they said squawk like a duck you better squeak like a duck. 
 
“Major!” The private squawked. 
 
“Private, I have  a special assignment for you and Silica-”
 
“WHAT!?”

Spitfire groaned trying not to slump, she had to maintain her image after all. 
 
“Yes, Private Scope AND you will be piloting the Jem'hadar fighter we collected and use it against the Klingon vessel with our fighters. Being more advanced from what we have you’ll have a tactical advantage against eh Klingon vessels.”
 
“I get that,” silica said glaring at Scope, making him feel small. “What I don’t get is why I have to do it with, him!”
 
Spitfire looked back at the shrinking stallion. Looking back to Silica Spitfire narrowed her eyes at the other Major. 

“He’s the best strategic bomber we have, and you are the best pilot we have. I want you two to work together and damage the Klingon vessel aso we can take it.” 

*THOOM!* 

The ship shook again after being struck again. Spitfire called her commandos to stations and glared back at Scope and Silica. 
 
“Well? Get your butts on that ship or so help me I’ll throw you both out the airlock at the Klingons myself!” 

With the order given Spitfire turned and ran out of the locker room and down to the hangar bay. Silica growled at Scope making him cringe and shake in fear. The poor stallion was now alone with her and the mare was blocking his path to the entrance to the room. To make it worse he was about to be in an enclosed environment with her in a minute and he feared for his life.
 
With a snort Silica stormed out of the locker room leaving the stallion alone, much to his relief. The ship shook taking another hit, and he stumbled forward from the sudden movement. Once her recovered he felt his body warm up as a strong magical aura took hold of him and slid him across the floor towards the door. 
 
Suddenly from around the corner Silica’s head popped out and she glared at him. He was sure he would wet himself as he gazed into those deep soulless eyes she had. At first he was sure she’d suck the soul right out of him. For a moment his life flashed before his eyes, from his earliest foalhood memories and everything that lead to this point. All the while he felt weightless like he was floating in a sea of nothingness, yet there was a certain softness around him that wasn’t the cold and rough edges of his armor. His thoughts turned to Pansy. 
 
The mare who made his life a little less miserable, and bearable. He thought about the time they spent together from the day she first paired up with him to their solo missions together in her personal bomber craft. The times they spent together in bed, the showers, the dinners, the lunches, the benches they sat on, the list went on and on. All he could think of was her and how beautiful she was and how gentle she was when she feld him in her arms and- *CRACK!!*

“HEY! WAKE UP BEEFSTICK!!”
 
Suddenly Scope found himself in an unfamiliar environment. His head rang as he was thrown into the Jem'hadar fighter. He figured he must have momentarily blacked out. His head had collided with the center console which had awoken him from this stupor. Silica scoffed and kicked him between his hind leg again making him moan in pain as he rolled over. 
 
“Oh, suck it up you pansy!” Silica groaned taking the pilot seat. “Get up here! We don’t have all day!” 

Scope tried his best to recover from the blow he’d received. He practically crawled to the bomber seat and strapped himself in as best he could, considering how much pain he was in. Silica however wasn’t a very patient mare. While He was still strapping in she had already powered up the ship, cleared for docking, and was flying out after the rest of the squadron out of the hangar bay and into open space. After dodging a few docking clamps that were repairing the Hydra the squadron was in the clear and coming hard to starboard to face the Klingon vessel. 
 
To their surprise the vessel was just sitting there out of harm's way and shooting at the docked Hydra. 

“Cowards, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel!” Silica cursed at the Klingon ship. “Let’s kick these guys out of the system and send them crying back to their  homeworld!” Silica cheered over the comm.
 
A short series of cheers followed as the squadron made their run. The fighters started by shooting their disruptors at the bird of prey. Its shields absorbed most of the damage glowing red as the red bolts of energy dissipated over the surface of the shields. 

The bird of prey remained in place and continued its attack. 
 
“We didn’t do anything to it!” A mare said over the comm.
 
Silica nodded, seemingly impressed by the klingons ship and their steeled nerves. “Let’s see how they can handle a lateral bombing run. All fighter form up on the bombers. We’re making a lateral bomb run, fighters support us with disruptor fire!”
 
“Aye!” came a unified response from several voices over the comm. Scope prepared himself for the bombing run. Thankfully the Jem'hadar fighter wasn’t too complicated to learn. In fact is was strikingly similar to their own bombers and layout, with a few tweeks. 
 
He loaded up a full supply of bombs and was ready for the deployment. He looked down at his own console and put up a digital display for what was beneath. He had to time this right or his payload was going to miss the target. The real saving grace to this was the ship they were going to hit was stationary. The problem is what comes after. No doubt the plan was going to work and they might disable the ship. For sure they were going to knock out their shields, but then it came to if they could disable it before the bird of prey began to move again. After All a moving target is a lot harder to hit than a stationary one. Scope was worried that they wouldn’t be able to maneuver around the bird of prey once it got moving again. The fighters and bombers were fast and nimble, but a starship was a different kind of fast and nimble. They could simply out run them turn around and strafe them, thus picking them off one at a time. If need be they could just run into them too. 
 
Scope tried to wipe those thought out of his mind as the squadron made a quick turn and made another pass at the bird of prey. The took advantage of the fact the ship had no dorsal weaponry so if they decided to retaliate they’d have to turn which gave them time to escape if need.
 
Scope was shivering in his seat. 

He felt his body go cold as his shaky hooves held onto his display console. He didn’t realize he’d started to grip it so hard he was actually bending it slightly. He felt his breathing get heavy as cold sweat ran down his face and dripped on the display. Just when he thought his clenched jaw would snap under the pressure he was putting on it, a soft touch nearly made him jump out of his seat. 

Silica had reached over and was holding his hooves with her left hoof. Her right hoof still piloting the craft and she didn’t take her eyes off the open window to their target. She seemed really focused yet very calm. 

Her calm demeanor reminded him of a story Pansy told him once during dinner. Apparently many of the other Commandos, including Spitfire, thought that she didn’t have an adrenaline rush when flying anymore. Supposedly she had flown so much and seen so much that her body never pumped any adrenaline when she flew. It was her element, and nothing could phase her. 
 
That seemed to hold true here as she held his shaky hooves and was able to stay calm. It almost put Scope at ease.
 
“Get ready beefstick, if you miss I’ll eject you to space.”
 
Until she spoke again. 
 
Shaking his head Scope focused on the panel ready to drop the payload. The bombers closed in, and the fighters formed a protective cocoon around them. As they closed in the last stretch the fighters began to fire all at once. Their disruptor bolts colliding on a fixed point doing the most concentrated damage they could. The bird of preys shield glowed red in that one spot of concentrated energy. AS the bombers closed in Silica began to count down under her breath.
 
“Five kilometers”
 
Four kilometers.”
 
“Three kilometers.”
 
Scope clenched his jaw again, his hooves hovering over the drop button. 
 
All bombers release payloads!” 

On command, Scope jumped a little but managed to release his payload. The bombers and fighter skimmed the surface of the bird of prey dropping their bombs on the dorsal shields before pulling hard u to port flying past the rear of the bird of prey and into open space. To their joy the plan worked in crippling the ship's shields and even damaged it extensively. The problem now was the bird of prey is focused on the squadron. 
 
The green ship lifted up and quickly began to pick up speed as it turned and gave chase to the squadron. Scope felt nervous again as the sensors read the bird of prey was beginning to pursue them. To his surprise he felt Silica tighten her grip on his hooves. He glanced at her and noticed she was sweating slightly. 

“You alright?” 

*THOOM!*
 
“All ships take evasive action!” Silica yelled turning the bomber to dodge the bird of prey. 
 
All the fighters and bombers scattered as the Klingon ship flew right through them. All the fighters managed to steer clear of the green ship but one bomber collided with the bird of preys underbelly and was destroyed instantly.
 
Silica cursed the Klingons as they turned around to make another pass. Then as it came around heading for the scattered squadron its main disruptors fired along with its four supplementary ones. The tiny ships dodged shot after shot, but were so distracted on evasion they flew into the bird of prey destroying themselves in the process.
 
Damn ti! They’re doing this on purpose!” Scope yelled. “They're hitting us on purpose!”

“I KNOW STOP SHOUTING!!” Silica snarled at Scope. “Major Silica to Hydra. We’re taking heavy casualties! We need support!”
 
“Roger that, Major. A torpedo package is on its way!” A cheery sounding Lyra replied over the comm.
 
“Wit what?! All ships prepare for evasive maneuvers! Torpedo assets incoming!” 

Silica quickly pushed the throttle to max sending the jem'hadar fighter into full speed towards the bird of prey. 

The ship's closely followed behind them and scattered as the bird of prey flew past again. Just then the Hydra launched a series of torpedoes from the aft launchers. The orange hued projectiles made a hard turn and flew at the bird of prey, striking it from the side hard. 
 
The antimatter warheads tore into the heavy composite armors easily since the shields were down. The torpedoes managed to hit a power coupling and sent the ship into a slow drift as its engines died down slightly. The bombers quickly reacted swarming the ship and dropped ion bombs disabling the ship. 
 
As soon as the ship's disabled the bird of prey a larger drop craft left the Hydra and made a beeline to the Klingon vessel. 
 
Silica made a pass by the transport as it made its way over, and Scpe smiled at it knowing that Pansy and Spitfire were on it, but felt uneasy as well. 
 
“Good luck,” He whispered.
 
> Station Situation: Part 4 of ? (Best Laid Plans)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Bird of Prey*

Inside the cargo hold of the disabled bird of prey, Spitfire and her team scattered around their ships readying themselves for what would be the fight of their lives. Spitfire had gathered intel from the Hydra’s scans showing there was only about a dozen Klingons aboard the vessel after sustaining damage from the bombing run. However, from their brief encounters with the Klingons Spitfire was taking no chances. This was their ship and they would have the advantage over Spitfire and her team.

Sparing no expense for this Spitfire brought every able-bodied commando she had left. Now she had over thirty commandos on the enemy vessel and hoped their overwhelming numbers would suffice. Klingons were a hardy bunch and she had no delusions of this. This was going to get messy and fast. Signaling her team to split into three one team remained behind as Spitfire and the other team pushed into the ship. The tench of the Klingons was overwhelming their noses to the point some of the ponies were gagging or on the verge of passing out.

“Perhaps we should have worn a hazmat suit,” one commando said wide-eyed.

Spitfire snorted. “Don’t mind the smell, just stay focused. The Klingons will be on us soon. Team two move ahead we’ll follow close behind. Be ready.”

The group designated team two moved forward from the cargo bay and into the bird of prey. The lights were dim giving off the feeling of a moonlit night inside the ship. The narrow halls made maneuvering hard, but the smaller sized ponies were able to fit easily two at a time in these narrow halls. Already Spitfire was painting a picture in her mind about what she suspected of these Klingons. They seemed to be a warrior race hands down, simple, and to the point. Their ships were a clear indication of this too.

Simple walls without paint other than the writing on the walls, possibly to indicate where they were. There were no carpets, no different materials for the floors, the lights were minimal possibly to conserve power, and the ships armor and shields were built to take a beating. Even the future jem’hadar fighter had to take a few shots at the ship to disable it. Granted they wanted to capture the ship not destroy it so they were holding back. According to the reports from Scope and Silica the fighter could have destroyed the bird of prey easily if the bombs were set to their maximum yield. However, if it wasn’t for that fighter the fight would have been prolonged and very costly.

The Hydra would have even been through its paces. If anything worked.

Spitfire frowned thinking about the poor state their ship was in after they left. She scanned the hallways listening as her team's armored hooves echoed loudly across the halls. No doubt they would be detected instantly if any Klingons were around. As they worked down a hall they ended up at a turbolift. Spitfire opened the doors after a bit of effort and signaled a group to enter. A unicorn and three pegasi mares entered and took the lift up one deck. The signaled Spitfire that the ship only had four decks. They were clear for the moment. The next few minutes the commandos went up the lift until they were all on the second deck. According to the Hydra’s scans, the bridge was on this deck. Their plan was to take the bridge and capture the ship. As they gathered up the ponies rushed through the deck storming room after room even coming up on the galley at one point. The smell of Klingon food was nauseating for them. Spitfire was sure of one thing if the smell was the thing that killed them first the Klingons would.

As the scoured the galley a lone Klingon warrior was there. From the unpreparedness, he had when they stormed him and overpowered him with several disruptor shots to his chest it was clear they didn’t know the ponies were on the ship. Spitfire was sure that the weapon discharge would be the dead giveaway they were aboard now. Sure enough shortly after the alarms on the Klingon vessel blared loudly.

“We lost the element of surprise!” Spitfire yelled.

“No ma’am! I’m right here!”

Spitfire gave a flat glare as she slowly turned her head around to face a light cream colored pegasus behind her with a bright yellow cotton styled mane smiled back at her. Spitfire cocked an energy cell in her weapon and readied her weapon in her hooves and hovered just off the ground. “Everyone! Move forward!

With her order given the ponies stormed towards a narrow hall where a group of Klingons were bunkered up and ready for them.

The first pony in took a green energy bolt to her face. She let out a gurgled scream as the bolt tore into her helmet and she fell over limply. The rest of the ponies hid behind the large strut frames that lined the hallways using them as cover and returned fire. There was an intense exchange of fire between the ponies and the Klingons in the ship.

“Zelenka, Iron, form up!”

From the back two unicorns hooped over their friends and stood in the middle of the hallway. Their horns lit up with magic as they created a magic shield that was used as a barricade for the other MAREs Commandos to hide behind. The beauty of this spell was that while not powerful, it did allow energy to flow out, but not in. This effectively made the ponies safe from energy fire, and they could shoot back without exposing themselves.

“Zelenka and Iron, move up! We’ll cover your flanks!”

The two unicorn mares nodded and slowly began to walk forward. The two armored commandos absorbed every bolt of energy the Klingons shot at them. The Klingons were shocked by the advancing ponies. Their disruptors were of no use and they were about to be overrun. One Klingon threw his disruptor to the side and drew his mek’leth and charged the ponies down the hall. He was easily mowed down by the narrow volley of returned disruptor fire from the ponies before he got more than five steps in. He fell back onto the floor, his mek’leth clanking at his side and the pony commandos walked right over him continuing unhindered. The bridge was within sight and they would take it no matter the cost.

Captain Sal Mogh snarled punching his fists into his command chair on the bridge of his ship. The alarms sounded as one of his officers alerted him of intruders in their cargo bay. A Klingon a the security station told his captain that there were well over thrity invaders abord the ship. Mogh growled drawing his disruptor from its holster and taking his his bat’leth in hand. He ordered the remainder of his crew to prepare themselves when they received a transmission.

The communication officer on activated his panel, keeping his disruptor rifle ready in case the intruders got through. The sound of Duras’s angry voice spoke over the muffled sounds of the fighting beyond the doors of the bridge.

“Captain Mohg. You allowed those pathetic creatures to get aboard your vessel?” Duras mocked him.

Mogh growled smashing his bat’leth on his chair cleaving it through several inches.

“You dare, Duras!? You dare mock me as my ship is invaded and my crew dies?!” Mogh snarled at Duras. “Once I’ve defeated these intruders I will show you who the real Klingons are! Unlike you, I still have a sense of honor and loyalty to the Empire and not to myself!”

As if the universe was testing his resolve the doors to the bridge began to glow white hot. The center of the doors began to spark like a cutter was sawing through the alloys. The Klingon’s prepared for battle keeping their bat’leths in hand because of the close proximity they’d have to the intruders. Duras chuckled as he watched. The battle went well outside for the Klingons but Mogh was about to lose his ship which was unacceptable.

The doors exploded in a bright flash of white temporarily blinding the Klingons. Some of them took cover as their eyesight recovered just as the MAREs Commandos stormed the bridge like a tidal wave. The first pony got a bat’leth blade to her chest followed by a dagger to her back. The Klingon chuckled at his victory but well over thirty deadly disruptor bolts sent him to the afterlife.

Then there was chaos.

The Klingons attempted to stop the ponies from flooding through the doors but weren’t able when they realized the ponies were using some sort of shields. Their weapons useless the Klingons went to hand to hand with their bat’leths charging the ponies but were all lifted into the air glowing brightly and smashed against the bulkheads knocking them out. Captain Sal Mogh snarled and charged one of the ponies, a yellow pegasus mare with an orange fire mane. The pegasus stood her ground and faced Mogh. Mogh swung his mek’leth for the pony who ducked and rolled to the side. She drew her rifle up to fire at him, but Mogh was too quick. He spun around cutting upward with his mek’leth and cut the rifle in two.

Spitfire growled and flared her wings. With a mighty thrust of power behind her wings the mare tackled Mogh full force and sent them both into the wall across the ship bridge. Mogh grunted dropping his mek’leth, but he didn’t stop after being disarmed. Mogh simply grabbed Spitfire by the scruff of her neck and lifted her into the air and smashed her face into the wall behind him. Spitfire yelped as her head made contact with the wall. Dazed she struggled to get to her hooves as Mogh got his mek’leth and prepared to decapitate her. Spitfire wipes a small trail of blood from her forehead and turned her head to see Mogh’s feet beside her. She looked up to see him readying his blade to strike. Instinct and years of training and experience kicked in and Spitfire flapped her wings to launch herself backward and that made Mogh’s mek’leth miss by an inch at best.

Spitfire reached behind her left wing a drew out a stun baton and whipped it to the side sending a burst of electricity surging through it. Mogh grinned as the remaining ponies gathered around the bridge to watch, having dispatched the remaining Klingons with sheer overwhelming forces.

Spitfire circled around Mogh intent on knocking him senseless. Charging forward she jabbed at Mogh with the baton, but her attack was met with a kick to the face. The kick sent her flying back to the floor. Spitfire’s armor softens Mogh’s blow but only so much. It was enough for her to recover quickly and take a defensive posture against Mogh as he brought his blade down on Spitfire. Moghs strength was great and it forced Spitfire back as she used her own wings to support herself and her baton to hold back the blade.

The struggle continued for a few seconds as the commandos circled around them and readied to shoot Mogh from all sides. Spitfire grunted. “No! He’s mine!”


With that said the MAREs Commandos lowered their weapons. Several broke away to scoured the ship while a few remained behind to watch Spitfire fight Mogh. They cheered for their pegasus leader and booed Mogh, but that didn't’ dissuade Mogh’s Klingon spirit.

Outside the ship, Private Scope and Major Silica were waiting for orders when the Hydra was hit by a stray torpedo. The primary systems were badly damaged, and being under repair many systems were exposed, and that caused significant damage to the ship. Effectively the Hydra was out of the battle now.

Silica swore under her breath seeing the ship hit and Scope became worried about Pansy. He hoped to the stars she was alright. Not wanting to wait for any longer Scope turned in his chair to face Silica.

“Major, we have to take the ship and help the Enterprise.”

“Why should we do that, Private?” Silica asked.

“Well, if we don’t do something the Enterprise will be destroyed at this rate, and then the Hydra will be completely unprotected. Together I think we can take the two remaining Klingon vessels and save the ship,” Scope explained.

“And what are we gonna do? We’re almost out of bombs and torpedos. We won’t have any support so what then?”

Scope turned back to his station and pulled up small tactical display for the Klingon bird of prey. He then zoomed in towards the main body near the top rear portion of the ship and pointed to where a large orange blip pulsed.

“Here,” He said pointing to the blip. “The ship's main plasma junction is here.”

“How do you know that?” silica asked scrutinizingly so.

“I ran some scans when we passed over the ship. Cool thing, these Jem’hadar sensors are the best thing I’ve ever seen!”

“Ugh, you sound like a techno-nerd. . .” Silica grumbled. “Nevertheless let’s make quick work of that bird of prey. The Enterprise is getting whipped.”

Scope nodded and took over weapons while Silica brought the Jem’hadar fighter into a hard turn. The large craft flew towards the two birds of prey circling around the Enterprise. The two green Klingon vessels took turns hitting the Enterprise and then veering off to allow the other a chance to attack. The two-pronged hit and run tactics seemed to be working.

Just as they began to approach Duras’s bird of prey broke off and started heading towards the disabled bird of prey. The giant green ship flew past Scope and Silica ignoring them completely. It didn’t take long before Scope realized where the ship was going.

“Silica, we need to turn around! They’re heading for the disabled bird of prey!”

“We are NOT  on a first name basis, beefstick!” Silica snapped at him but turned to chase the bird of prey.

Duras’s ship suddenly opened fire on the disabled bird of prey with all of its disruptors. Several fiery explosions appeared as the green bolts hit the ship in no particular pattern. However, the damage was extensive almost immediately. Having taken damage already the bird of prey was in bad condition. Silica flew straight for Duras’s ship and Scope released a torpedo volley hitting the bird of prey significantly damaging its shields.

“Direct hit!” Scope said. “They took heavy damage to their aft shields. Can you bring us in for another pass, Sil-” Silica glares at him making him shrink. “-I mean, Major.”

Silica nodded and went back to focusing on the controls while Private Scope went back to loading their last torpedos and bombs while grumbling to himself.

“Major pain in my ass,” He said under his breath.

*Hydra Bridge*

Captain Trixie was tapping her hooves on the ground impatiently as the next phase of the repairs to their ship were underway. The battle was going sideways and she hated not being able to do anything. Octavia was sitting next to her Captain. Her grey ear twitched every time Trixie’s hooves tapped the metal floors each adding to a growing irritation inside of her. Finally, after almost half an hour she finally stomped her own hoof down straddling Trixie and everyone else on the bridge.

“Captain, perhaps we could stop that tapping?”

“Ugh, I can’t help it! While we’re sitting here reading our ship our allies and commands are out there fighting! I hate sitting on the sidelines like this!” Trixie complained.

Octavia nodded and patted the mare on the back gently.

“I understand Captain, but we can’t do anything right now. The station took our weapons offline so the last repairs could be done,” Commander Octavia said softly to her with a smile. “Don’t worry. In a few minutes, the ship will be complete and we can go to help our allies. Until then we wait.”

Trixie sighed and adjusted herself in her seat. She glared at the view screen watching as Duras’s ship began to attack it the disabled ally. Meanwhile, the Enterprise was fighting off the last bird of prey while the jem’hadar fighter made an attack run on Duras’s ship. Trixie sighed wishing them all luck as she waited for the repairs to be complete.

*Mogh’s Ship*

Spitfire was winning her fight against Mogh. Her smaller size and nimble flying made her almost impossible for the massive Klingon to strike, once she figured out his fighting style. It was a clumsy fighting style but Mogh was adapting quickly to her changing style. Yet her wings provided much of the needed advantages Spitfire needed to gain the upper hand against Mogh.

Their fight had reached its apex when the ship was stuck by disruptor fire. Mogh and Spitfire nearly fell over as one of the ponies ran to the nearby console and looked it over.

“What’s going on?” Spitfire asked.

The pony looked over the console. It wasn’t telling her anything useful, but Mogh shoved her aside and started to work the station. The view screen came on showing Duras in his command chair on his ship.

“Duras you worthless backstabbing-”

“Don’t mince words with me Mogh. You allowed your ship to be taken by these, creatures and your crew massacred. You are lucky I waited this long, to begin with. However, I shall return to the homeworld and tell the High Council how I was unable to save you from this terrifying threat.” Duras said grinning at Mogh.

Mogh narrowed his eyes and let out a deep gurgling growl at Duras as the screen went blank and Duras continued his attack. Mogh chose to ignore the ponies as he scrambled to his weapons station and tried to fight back, but it was hopeless. Alone his ship would never survive an attack from Duras’s ship. However, they weren’t alone.

The Jem’hadar fighter made one last attack run on the bird of prey before veering off. Duras gave chase leaving Mogh’s ship alone for the time being. Spitfire opened her communicator to Major Silica.

“Major Silica, report.”

“Major, we’ve exhausted our compliment of photon torpedos and bombs. Our primary weapons are still down from when we captured the vessel. We’re heading back to the ship!”


“Good work. We’re preparing a backup plan right now. Tell the Captain we’ll be in contact.”

“Roger that, Major Silica out.”

Closing her comm. Spitfire waved her hoof overhead signaling the rest of her commandos to circle around. Surrounding her with a few keeping an eye on Mogh, Spitfire thought about what the next best course of action would be.

“Alright everyone, we need to get this ship moving. Let. Lilly, go to engineering and see what you can do,” Spitfire said to a light yellow pegasus mare. “Take team two with you. Go. Lt. Iron, take team four and secure our ships and standby. The rest of you take a station.”

“No! You will not take my vessel!”

Mogh’s outburst had finally pushed Spitfire to the edge. She pulled out her disruptor and replaced the power cell with another one and aimed at Mogh. Before he could respond a blue sonic wave hit the Klingon. Mogh shook as if hit by a powerful shock that lasted three seconds before he fell to the ground knocked out. Spitfire looked over her disruptor amazed by its effectiveness as if she didn’t believe it would work.

“Guess I own Lt. Scratch an apology,” She muttered holstering the disruptor.

Spitfire took the command chair and perched herself on it. Since it was made for a larger humanoid she was really small compared to it, but it was fine for now. She only wished they could be removed the stench of the Klingons from the ship so it didn’t smell so bad. Alas, there was no such way and the threat of impending doom made her quickly forget the smell.

“What’s our status?”

One of the commando mares shrugged. Another shook her head, but one of them had a hopeful look.

“Major, I think this is the helm. I think the impulse engines are still offline.”

Spitfire gave a quick nod and activated her Comm.

“Major Spitfire to team two, how're the repairs going?” She asked urgently as the ship shook from another attack from Duras.

“This is Lt. Lilly, Major we have significant damage we can’t repair the impulse engines in time! We have to evacuate!”

“We need this ship Lieutenant!”

“I’m sorry major, but that’s not possible anymore- THOOM!”


“Damn it,” Spitfire muttered. “Alright, I’m calling it. Everyone get back to the ships! We’re abandoning the plan to take the bird of prey!”

The order was given and sent to the personal comms. Of the teams. Everyone made a mad dash for the hangar bay as the ship shook from the continued attack from Duras. The fighters and bombers ready for team four. The commandos entered their ships and after blowing open the hangar doors they flew out from the bird of prey as Duras made another attack run on the bird of prey. Enterprise had begun to run interference as the Equestrian fighters and bombers made their way back to the Hydra which was still docked with the repair station. Spitfire in her personal fighter sighed in relief. They lost a few ponies along the way, but the majority survived and that was a good thing. They already lost too many from the start of this venture since they left for Jancis 12.

Just as the squadron was making its way towards the hangar bay of the Hydra, the repair station's arms began to retract from the Hydra freeing it. The large metal rings around it expanded to allow the ship free passage through, and the Hydra flew free from its ringed prison. Spitfire watched in awe as the Hydra dashed towards the Enterprise and flew alongside it while shooting all its weapons at the second bird of prey that chased them.


The commandos all cheered as the bird of prey broke off pursuit and regrouped with its sister ship. Both birds of prey turned to face off against the Hydra and the Enterprise. All four ships came to a stop and a silent showdown began. The fighters and bombers of MAREs returned to the Hydra while both sides made a plan on what to do. One thing was for sure, the next few minutes were going to be intense.
> Station Situation: Part 5 (Finale)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mogh was not happy. The tiny ponies violated his ship, his crew all but dead, and his ship crippled beyond repair. Now he was left to die alone while Duras and Lav’ek took the glory of battle without him. Not only that but the ponies managed to escape with only a few casualties. He was dishonored to the highest caliber and left to die in the worst way for a Klingon. To die alone in space without a crew and ship. Still partially recovering from the attack Mogh managed to limp to the helm station of this bird of prey and performed an internal scan. He was surprised to see he had five surviving crew scattered around the ship. Inputting a series of override commands Mogh activated the ships internal communications to address his remaining crew members. A loud beeping signaled the comm was activated.

“This is Captain Mogh, all crew report to the bridge!” He yelled over the ships internal comm.

His loud raspy voice echoed over the battle damaged ship and within a minute the five crew members of his ship emerged on the bridge. He was disappointed, to say the least. The first was his Lieutenant and second in command, Kel Vogh. A young and eager warrior who lacked common sense. A feat sorely missing in the Empire these days as far as Mogh was concerned. The next was a pair of female officers from engineering, Wassi, and Khidri of House Lak. The two were older and far wiser than the two younger Klingons near. Then there was the junior helm cadet, W’thaq energetic and eccentric for a Klingon, but showed a lot of ingenuity. Though small in size and stature he was brave as any Klingon and that’s what Mogh wanted. Lastly, there was the cook Ukad Barpot. A fat old Klingon whose house served the House of Mogh for many generations. Ukad was fat and old, but he always wanted to be a warrior despite his position.

A ragtag group if Mogh ever saw one. While not his best it was all he had left. Oh, how the mighty fall before the gates of Gre’thor, he mourned in his mind. Growling as he looked at his remaining crew, he scoffed giving the notion he was unimpressed as they remained at attention.

“Well, well, well, so this is the best my ship has left to offer?” He asked, snarling angrily at them. “Pathetic. Yet fortune smiles upon all of you this day!”

He turned and walked over to the helm station and activated the view screen. The two birds of prey belonging to Duras and Lav’ek. The birds of prey started towards the Enterprise and Hydra as both groups exchanged a volley of disruptor and phaser fire, intermixed with photon torpedoes. The crew muttered quietly while Mogh let them soak it in.

“That is our destiny! To fight in glorious battle to either victory or death,” He hissed the last part between his sharpened teeth. “Now, I have assignments for all of you. Wassi, Khidri, report to engineering and get this ship flying again!”

The two female Klingons saluted and ran off the bridge heading for engineering. Mogh then turned to Kel Vogh.

“Lieutenant, take command while I assist in engineering. W’thag is young and inexperienced. Take him and prepare the bridge for combat,” Mogh ordered.

The younger officer nodded and pushed the junior cadet aside to the bridge consoles. As the two Klingons began working Mogh pulled Ukad to the side.

“Ukad Son of Gall, today is the day you prove yourself as a warrior. Today we were invaded by tiny creatures that violated our ship. You are but a cook, after today you will either die a warrior's death or bring glory to your house. Will you serve this ship as one of its few remaining warriors till death or victory?” Mogh asked the fat Klingon.

Ukad nodded with a loud grunt.

Mogh grinned patting the old Klingon on the shoulder and sent him to assist in engineering. When Mogh arrived in engineering the twins were hard at work repairing the damaged warp core. Ukad assisted replacing coils, a simple enough task for him, while Wassi was running a diagnostic on the core. Several support structures were broken or damaged and were being repaired by Khidri who was welding a beam in place above the main warp core. Sparks from the welding as well as damaged consoles, panels, and wires made for a hazardous workplace, but for a Klingon ti was considered normal. All around were about a dozen dead Klingons from engineering buried or impaled by debris.

Mogh sighed at the unsavory sight of his ship and crew. There was a lot of work to be done. Grabbing a support beam he held it up for Khidri who began to weald it in place with extra support. Sparks danced around Mogh as he breathed slowly and deeply to keep oxygen running through his body to hold the beam in place. Meanwhile, outside his ship, a battle was ensuring that was proving to be one-sided.

The Hydra, now fully repaired and completely operational due to the repair stations precise and deep repairs, was proving more than a challenge to the two birds of prey. In truth, it was going a lot faster with Enterprise running interference while the Hydra was dealing with one ship at a time. The focus intense barrage of disruptor fire was heavily damaging the shields of Lav’ek’s ship. Duras was holding his own against Enterprise, but a call for help from Lav’ek forced him to shift tactics. The maneuverability of the Hydra was only matched by the birds of prey, but the Enterprise was slow and unsophisticated. Alone it would have stood no chance against two birds of prey, but the Hydra was on equal footing with both of the old ships.

As much as he hated to admit it, Duras was captain of a really old ship. Aged and worn with time the Rotaran was long overdue to be decommissioned by many standards. It was proving to be a problem as the battle progressed. Now he was focusing on the Enterprise intent on destroying it. If he knew the ponies well enough he figured they’d try to help the crippled Enterprise and leave themselves open to attack. An advantage that grew smaller as the battle dragged on.

Both Birds of prey circled the slow enterprise like rabid wolves would hunting a deer. The human ship was leaking dry plasma from its port nacelle where Duras’s ship focused the majority of its disruptor fire. The green bolts missed their target mostly, but the few that did hit delivered massive damage to the nacelle. As predicted the Enterprise did call for help and the Hydra did respond by trying to reposition itself with its broad side facing the Klingon ships. This effectively protected Enterprise, since it was far smaller in profile on its side compared to the Hydra.

Duras took full advantage of the situation and ordered both ships to broadside the Hydra. The birds of prey now fully maneuverable and the hydra keeping pace with the slower Enterprise left it a tempting target. Which left Duras ignorant or why they would do such a foolhardy thing until his ship came closer.

*Hydra Bridge*

Trixie was back on the bridge and in command once again. Major Spitfire took over the tactical station, and Commander Octavia was at the science station with Lieutenant Sunset Shimmer. 3rd of 5 was at the helm as usual completely fixated on his piloting, Lyra was missing with a replacement crew pony at her station.

Trixie had just given the order to flank Duras’s ship when they received a signal from Enterprise calling for support. In their haste to capture the crippled bird of prey, they neglected to protect Enterprise. That and with their quick launch from the repair station things were very hectic currently for the Hydra crew. Nonetheless, Trixie ordered 3rd of 5 to bring the ship's broadside against the Enterprise to protect them.

Of course, commander Octavia saw no logic in this maneuver at all and was first to voice her concerns.

“Captain, with all due respect why are we broadsiding ourselves to the enemy?” She asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

Of course, Trixie had already thought ahead. She leaned back in her chair with a confident smirk. She tapped her hooves together as Commander Octavia sighed and slouched in her own chair after receiving only silence as a response.

“Captain, the two ships are coming to port,” 3rd of 5 said. “Should we evade?”

Trixie shook her head.

“No, stay with Enterprise. Bring the disruptors to overload and prepare the ion cannon. Let’s see what happens when it functions properly, now that the station fixed our coil problem,” Trixie said confidently.

“Aye, sir.”

3rd of 5 obey his orders. He slowed the Hydra down to keep pace with the slower Enterprise. Side by side now the birds of prey flew alongside the two ships then flew perpendicularly straight at the Hydra’s side.

“Fire disruptors,” Trixie said calmly.

Spitfire locke onto the lead ship and fired the entire arsenal of disruptor nodes on the port side of the Hydra. The red bolts of energy ripped against the shields of the Klingon ships. The intense barrage struck the shields for the first ship forcing it to pull away. The second ship was barely touched and they too pulled off behind the first ship.

Trixie saw the opening she had been waiting for. This was a tactic that only the Hydra was capable of performing. As the birds of prey veered off they made the mistake of heading towards the bow of the Hydra. By sheer luck they never witnessed the ion cannon in action and Trixie was hoping they never scanned the ship thoroughly enough to find it.

Ordering the Hydra to pitch hard to port the massive ship lined up like a gun as it charged the main gun. The sudden surge of power filled the batteries with pulsating energy.In engineering, the coils burned bright pink as the reactor went into overload. Then the replaced coils kicked in. The excess energy was siphoned off the main lines and distributed to the disruptors which temporarily overloaded them and other systems. The feedback going as it should, and Lieutenant  Pinkie Pie monitoring the energy output, she gave the Captain the green light.

“Fire the ion cannon.”

Trixie could only grin as the Hydra’s ion cannon fired its intense beam at the leading bird of prey. The ship quickly dove barely escaping the blast but the second ship was obliterated. The intense ionized energy beam tore through the shields and the main hull of the bird of prey. The Klingon ship vaporized in a fiery explosion that just as quickly died out as it started, leaving only a bit of debris from the wings left. The remaining ship turned to flee and quickly warped away leaving the stranded bird of prey behind.

Trixie let out a sigh of relief as the last enemy ship disappeared from sight. The rest of the crew seemed calmer too. Major Spitfire cracked her stiff neck and shoulders as the ship was brought out of battle alert status.

“Commander, take the con. I’ll be in engineering. Major, set up another security team and prepare to-”

“*Beep! Beep!*

“Captain another ship just enter the system,” Lieutenant Sunset relayed. “It’s hull and configuration matches that of a ship from the twenty-fourth century. I think it’s an Imperial Ship!”

Trixie groaned loudly. “On screen.”

The view screen activated with a hum and showed a narrow profile.

It was definitely an Imperial Starship. Similar in design to the other Imperial Ships from the battle with the Sol Dios. It bore the Empresses mark across its dorsal hull and a fierce narrow tip at the front of the hull. It had two nacelles that stick out of its backside with a long narrow tail like structure to the back housing a vast torpedo arsenal. Beneath the nacelles was two large pods that were just as long at the nacelles themselves.

Trixie groaned again as she ordered the ship back to battle alert. The alarms barling once again and ponies scrambled to their stations after their short, and fleeting rest.

“Commander, keep the Enterprise safe and destroy that ship,” Trixie said entering the turbolift.

The grey earth pony Commander began to panic at the thought of being in command overwhelmed her again. Her hooves shook, her body began to sweat, and she was sure her teeth would shatter under the pressure from her locked jaw. She nodded as Trixie gave her a reassuring smile and whisper, ‘you’ll be fine,’ as the doors closed.

Octavia sighed rubbing her head. A raging headache was starting to form from her stress.

“3rd of 5 bring us about to face the ship! Lt. Shimmer, scan that ships weapons and shields. I want to know what we're up against.”

“Yes, Commander!”

Quickly Sunset SHimmer got to work. She scanned the ship thoroughly. Unfortunately, the Hydra was a combat vessel and didn’t have a very sophisticated sensor array. She sent a subspace message to Enterprise asking for a more detailed scan.

Meanwhile, aboard the Imperial Vessel, a stallion with blonde hair and a black officer uniform was sitting in his command chair in the center of his bridge. He leaned forward and stared at the view screen which showed the Hydra and Enterprise side by side. The larger equine ship covering the human ship like a shield.

The unicorn stallion laughed as his crew blankly continued to work in silence. Standing at his side was a tall stallion with white fur and a dark blue spiked mane. He too wore an officer uniform and bore a Captains marks. Yet he was not the one in charge of the ship. He stood silently as the ship came to a stop far out of weapons range of the Hydra and Enterprise.

“So, what do you think, Captain Armor?” The stallion in the center asked.

The pony shrugged casually not taking his eyes off the screen.

“Nothing we can’t handle. Our transphasic torpedoes can tear these ships to shreds Regent Blueblood,” Captain Armor replied.

Blueblood smiled and nodded. He rested his chin on his hooves and stared at the screen.

“True, but auntie wants them alive and intact. She wants to destroy them herself. Ever since we nearly lost the Sol Dios she’s been rather cautious with her fleet. We have so few ships and the prolonged war has cost us dearly.”

Armor shrugged.

“Then what are we doing here?” He asked Blueblood. “If we’re not here to destroy them why are we here?”

Blueblood’s smile curled. She chuckled darkly at the screen as the stare down continued.

“We’re here to make sure they get to their next destination, Captain Armor.”

Captain Armor stared blankly at Blueblood for a moment then remembered what they did last. He nodded and joined the regal stallion in an evil laughter that sent chills down the spine of every pony on the bridge.

“Set a course for Sector S143-N, and get us out of here.”

The helm pony nodded and entered the course into the ship's computer. He then brought the ship around away from the two enemy ships. Its nacelles glowed brightly and in seconds it vanished in a blink of an eye from sight.

*Archer, Enterprise Bridge*

Archer furrowed his brow at the Imperial ship leaving the system.

It wasn’t like the Imperials to just leave so suddenly. Something was amiss. He turned and left the bridge heading for the turbolift. He pushed the side button to open the doors. A mechanical *whoosh* sounded when the doors opened. He entered the lift and nodded to Malcolm.

“You have the con.”

“Aye, sir.”

As the doors closed Archer found himself deep in thought. He pushed a button that leads to deck B where he needed to confide in an old memory. Once on deck B Archer opened the doors to exit the lift, but found himself in an unfamiliar place. As he realized he wasn’t on Enterprise anymore he tripped over something. He yelled out as he fell forward while another female voice screamed at him.

Archer impacted the floor with his face and felt the sharp pain run throughout his skull, but was also enforce by a loud screaming voice.

“Get off Trixie, you oaf!”

In a second Archer felt himself being lifted high above the ground. He gasped reaching for the floor but was swept up above it and dangling upside down with a bright pink glow around him. He realized the floor was metal bulkheads with lush maroon carpet that cried in both directions like a hallway. Underneath him was Captain Trixie who looked more startled than anything.

She was rubbing her head when she looked up at the dangling human and quickly realized her mistake. She gasped and lowered Archer to the ground safely and softly so she could orient him to his feet. Once safely on the ground, the glow over him disappeared and Archer breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thanks,” he said sarcastically.

“No problem,” Trixie replied.

The unicorn mare looked around the immediate area. The curved hall was lined with light much like enterprise was but was far more advanced looking. Far more lavish if Trixie had to describe it with one word. Yet, she had no idea where she was.

“So where exactly are we?” She asked Archer. “Are we on your ship? Looks different.”

Archer took a moment to look around himself. It took a minute before he recognized where they were. He turned to Trixie and looked straight at her. The look he gave her made the mare feel uneasy. There was a deep look of distress on Archer's face which he made no attempt to hide. He shook his head turning around to face the bulkhead and placed on hand over his hip and put his weight on one leg and leaned against the wall.

“I think I know where we are,” he replied slowly. “I don’t like the idea of being back here though. I thought my dealings with them were over.” As he talked he spoke around like he was addressing someone else but remained hidden from sight.

Archer paced around the area as Trixie drew her pistol, but a quick gesture from Archer gave her pause.

“You won’t need that. Trust me. You’ll want to hear this,” Archer said to her.

Holstering the disruptor Trixie sighed and stepped beside Archer And followed him down the hall. They followed the hallway down until they reached a viewport. They realized they were on a starship as it flew over a planet in orbit around it. Archer sighed once more lowering his head and closing his eyes to calm himself for what was to come next. Trixie was confused by the human's behavior. It appeared to her that by his reaction to this strange occurrence that hits happened before. Possibly on a regular basis. And just when she was about to ask what was going on, a man in a black suit walked around the corner startling her. She drew her disruptor again and aimed it at the man who seems to take little heed of her reaction. Archer sighed and looked at the man with the most annoyed look he could muster.

Trixie continued to trail her weapon at the man as Archer stepped past her to stand face to face with the man. The man smiled and shook his hand, which seemed to lighten Archer's mood.

“It’s good to see you again Captain,” the man said.

“It’s good to see you too Daniels.”
> Relief & Uprising
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daniels shook Archers hand firmly gripping the past Captains hand. Trixie stood silently by as the two humans exchanged. She kept her magic on her disruptor just in case. She glanced outside the porthole to the outside of the ship they were on.They were still orbiting the same planet as before, now there were several hundred stations like large claws with ships inside them. All of them shared a similar shape and design. Large dorsal saucer sections, twin naccells, and larger body portions attaching them.

Trixie surmised they were Starfleet ships. Although they seemed much larger than anything she’d seen thus far. “Trixie, come here I want you to meet someone important.” The sound of Archer's voice caught Trixie’s attention. She craned her neck to nod at her human friend, but glance once more at the porthole before walking back to Archer and Daniels.

“Trixie Lulamoon, this is Daniels. He’s a friend of mine,” Archer gestured to the the man next to him. Daniels bowed politely, but Archer gave a leering glance at him with a long exasperated sigh. “Because we’re both here I ASSUME  you know Captain Trixie?”

Indeed Daniels nodded confirming Archers suspicion.

“Yes, in fact the reason I brought both of you here is of the utmost importance.”

Daniels made a swift hand motion to follow. He brought Archer and Trixie to the porthole to show them the planet they were orbiting.

“We have much to discuss, but I don’t have a lot of time. Archer, the war is over but now there are elements pouring in from other realities trying to cause as much damage as possible,”Daniels paused and glanced around, as if he were expecting to catch someone watching them. He then leaned in and whispered to Archer and trixie pulling them close to him. “Listen to me Archer, remember the Temporal Cold War you stopped  a few years back?”

Archer nodded, and Trixie listened. “Yeah, what’s that gotta to do with anything? I thought it was over?”

Daniels gave Archer a discerning look. “You did. After the Temporal Cold War ended there was a new council established. They make major decisions concerning missions of Temporal Agents. However there was an unforeseen event as a result of ending the Temporal Cold War. Realities split. That’s why the new council was created. We make decisions based off these alternate realities and try to keep the timeline intact while monitoring these alternate timelines. The result has been disastrous. As you may have surmised the Solar Empire has made an appearance in your reality? Well, they were a direct result of you stopping the Temporal Cold War.” Daniels passed to recollect his thoughts. “Actually, I should say the other you, Archer.”

Now both archer and Trixie were confused, more Trixie than Archer. Trixie struggled to wrap her mind around the conversation, but now all this talk ot time agents, alternate timelines, realities, other Archers, it was overwhelming her. Archer himself, though quite familiar with these concepts already, was also struggling to make the connections, btu knowing Daniels it would be explained if he listened and asked straight forward questions.

‘What other me are you talking about? And what does this have to do with the Empress?” He asked.

But then Trixie butted in with several questions of her own. “What’s all this talk about alternate timelines? What’s a Temporal Agent? And where are we?!”

Archer attempted to calm the now twitching pony beside him.

“Captain Trixie, I know this is a lot to take in. Trust me, when I first learned about this it was overwhelming for me too,” Archer patted his pony friends shoulders reassuring her. “Don’t worry I’ll explain everything later, but knowing Daniels this is isn’t going to be a long conversation so I need to hear what he has too say. Okay?”

Trixie nodded slowly begrudgingly. “Okay.”

Archer stood up to face Daniels, and placed his hand across his chest and leaned against a support beam that curved with the ships shape.

“Archer, the other you I’m referring to is from the reality we refer to as, the Prime Universe. The source where all realities derive from. The Empress and her fleet were also from the Prime Universe, but they were from another galaxy entirely. So, they never encountered humans before in the Prime Universe. However, they were part of the Temporal Cold War. When the other you stopped the war a shockwave rippled across time and realities resetting many things that were directly resulted from that war.”

“The Empress and her allies escaped by jumping ahead in time. Covering themselves in a temporal wake. As a result the temporal shockwave passed over them. Essentially, they were shielded by the changes to time and reality altogether.”

“This did also removed many of the Temporal Agents from existence and left the Empress relatively unopposed as she moved her fleet between realites. She was set on attacking the Prime Universe in the early 21st century. Me and several other agents managed to plant false information in their ranks, thus resulting in them coming to this universe. I’m sorry, but it was the only way to stop them from attacking the Prime Universe.”

Those last words resonated with both Archer and Trixie. They knew the Empress had the power to destroy realities, but they did catch the importance of the prime universe.

“So, what would happen if the Empress were to destroy the Prime Universe?” Trixie asked out of the blue.

Daniels sighed pulling down his uniform from the waist with his hands. Turning to face the open port he gazed at the stars with a contemplative manner.

“She doesn't want to destroy it. Quite the contrary, she wishes to conquer it,” Daniels replied in a dark tone. “Just know the entity she possesses is what can destroy all life as she pleases. But she doesn’t completely control him.”

Daniels looked up again, this time with more concern. He looked back at his two friends and gave a simple short nod to them. “I know this is a lot. Please, be careful. Archer.” He nodded to the other human across from him. Archer responded with a silent nod of his own.

Trixie sighed accepting the fact she would most likely learn what happened in time. The future man turned to face away from his guests walking down the hallway as it curved out of sight. With one last glance he gave them sympathetic eyes that put them both at ease one. If only for a moment. He gave them a kind smile and tapped his hip twice before continuing.

“Captains, there will be a moment soon where you will have to make serious decision that will affect the outcome of many things to come. I ask that when that time comes, be very careful. There are forces at work to undermine our very way of life. And they have not stopped yet.”

Daniels looked above him causing Trixie to glance up above as well. Archer made no reaction to this however as the future human stepped back.

As he did the world around Trixie and Archer went dark. Then  in the blink of an eye they were back on the turbolifts from their ships. On the Hydra, Trixie looked around at the inside of the turbolift of her ship. She sighed feeling annoyed by what had transpired. Though she wasn’t sure if she imagined it after so many prolonged battles, or if she was just losing her mind. In either case she continued down to engineering as she planned.

Down in engineering, PInkie was having a ball. She was able to get the minor damage the ship sustained during the battle with the Klingons. Now she was passing the time with routine maintenance checks on the various systems. A service pony watched as the Pink commander curled up into a small pink ball and rolled into the jefferies tube like it was a hole in a pinball machine. The ponies in mina engineering were used to the commanders antics that seeing such behavior was no longer jarring to them. However it did raise questions about her upbringing in most of them, and whether she really was a pony or some alien hybrid.

Lt. Commander Pinkie rolled through the tubes, unhindered by the cramp space in the tubes. As if guided by some unseen force she rolled through tube after tube until she reached her destination. There she would unroll in this seemingly impossibly way and be laying on her back while she conducted her routine maintenance checks. After she finished her checkups the pink pony rolled up again and continued on her way.

After she finished every access point she exited the jeffries tubes she came into contact with a pony tripping them from under their hooves. The pony grunted as they fell atop of Pinkie pinning her to the ground under their weight.

Pinkie shook her head to stay off her dizziness when she realized who it was she tripped. Glaring down at her was Captain Trixie. The azure mare’s glare was intense enough to burrow a hole in Pinkie’s head. With a nervous giggle Pinkie lifted her CO off her and placed her gently on her hooves. Trixie’s glare never softened, in fact her eyes grew narrower at the Lt. Commander. Pinkie nervously grinned dusting Trixie’s uniform off. A quick swat to her hoof made the pink pony stop. Trixie’s glare softened only slightly as she walked away with a weary sigh. Lt. Commander Pinkie followed her Captain towards a console which brought up all power distributions to the Hydra.

“Lt. Commander, what’s the status of the ships ion cannon?” Trixie asked her pink officer.

“The power flow is now being properly managed with the fuses that repair station made, Captain,” She replied pulling the diagram up. “All the new fuses are fully functional and working properly. I gotta say it Captain, that station is a engineering marvel.”

“A term you don’t use lightly I hear,” Trixie said. “I would agree wholeheartedly.”

Pinkie nodded when the internal comm activated.

“Captain, the is the bridge. We’re in pursuit of the Imperial warship but we lost them.” Commander Octavia's voice said over the speakers.

Trixie turned away from the power relay console and looked around the engineering section. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular but she chose to settle her sight on the glowing reactor while she spoke.

“Any idea where they were heading?”

“Yes, their last course has them heading towards Sector S143-N. It’s an isolated system that borders our charted space.” Octavia replied over the speakers. “Aside from that we next to nothing about this sector. In fact the last known location of the Hyamaker was in this sector, now that I recall.”

Trixie thought about it. With both the Enterprise and Hydra fully operational they could easily get back home. However she was also interested in maintaining relations with the humans.

“Commander, open a channel to Enterprise. Ask if they’d be interested in continuing to escort us back home. I think the prospect of future relations would intrigue Captain Archer. And extend an invitation to the Captain to dinner. I’d like to speak with him in a more casual setting.” Trixie said.

“Yes, Captain. I’ll send word to Captain Archer. Commander Octavia out.”

When Octavia’s voice died out Trixie returned to the console behind her. She brought up powerflow of the disruptors. With Pinkies help.

*Hydra Bridge*

They were in pursuit of the Imperial ship for over an hour with the Enterprise. After an hour the Imperial ship managed to get too far ahead of them and they slowed their pace to not blow out their engines. The Enterprise continued tracking their warptrail while the Hydra followed. Since the Hydra had minimal scientific capabilities they were almost completely reliant on Enterprise to track the Imperial ship.

Commander Octavia was on the bridge rubbing the ridge of her nose. She was feeling a headache coming along again. She really had no idea why she was here anymore. Her parents told her that this wasn’t the career choice for her, but she didn’t listen.

“Ensign Lyra, open a channel to the Enterprise.” Octavia said.

“Aye, Commander!” The mint green unicorn saluted.

A few seconds later Archers face appeared on the main viewer screen. He looked well all things considered. His uniform had a tear in the shoulder area, but other than that he seemed well enough as far as Octavia could tell.

“Commander, what’s going on?” Archer said with his usual cheery disposition.

“We’re about to go into night shifts. The Captain wanted me to extend an invitation to you and your officers to join us on the Hydra for dinner, Captain.” Octavia said.

“We would be delighted. When should we be expected?” Archer asked smiling back at the grey pony.

“1900. We have a special order in mind. Please come hungry. I guarantee you won’t leave otherwise.”

“Looking forward to it. Archer out.”

The screen went blank and Octavia turned in her chair facing sideways to the viewscreen. She tugged at her tight collar, fiddling with her officer bars on the neck. She waited a few minutes drowning out all the sounds around her trying to calm her nerves. The idea that they could go into battle again at any moment terrified her. The Klingons were worthy adversaries, but the Imperials had a huge technological advantage over them. Even with the Enterprise they stood little chance against the small ship. Octavia thought about it and turned to Lt. Claw. The griffon was busy fine tuning the disruptor guidance array when he noticed the Commander staring at him.

“Is, uh, something wrong Commander?” He asked scratching his claw on the console frame.

Octavia didn’t answer him. She was in her own little world right now. The sounds of the ship and even the Lieutenant were drowned out to create a blank white room in her mind. However lt. Claws voice proved to be stronger than Octavia's will at the time. He called out to her again startling her out of her mindlessness.

“Commander!”

“Huh? What is it Leutantae?”

The griffon cleared his throat and leaned over his station to get a better view of Octavia.

“You were staring ma’am. Is something wrong?” He asked softly.

Octavia felt herself moved by how gentle his voice was. Every griffon she met had a hard loud and proud voice with a screech to match. It was unusual to her but a welcome change to all the fast pace action and yelling. She quickly realized she was staring again and Claw was waiting for an answer form her. To save face she diverted back to why she started to stare at the poor griffon in the first place.

“Lieutenant, were you able to get a detailed scan of the warship before it entered warp?” She asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What did the tactical analysis come up with?”

Claw pressed a few buttons on his console and a tactical display of the ship in question came up. He read each line and spoke them aloud as he went down the list.

“Five powerful concentrated phasers, photon torpedoes, and two backup torpedo pods. Tehir shield output was off the scales. From what I can tell they easily outmatch us one to one.”

Octavia nodded and turned around to face towards Sunset Shimmer, with Esgin Vinyl. The two were working hard on their new weapon. Octavia unbuttoned her top button form her collar exposing the pull of the suits zipper. She pulled it down to loosen it around her neck and breathed a sigh of relief. She then pushed herself out of her chair and turned to Sunset Shimmer.

“Lt,. Sunny Smiles, you have the bridge.” Octavia said walking past the mare heading towards the turbolift.


Esgin Vinyl snickered and Sunset glared at her. “It’s, Sunset Shimmer ma’am.”

Octavia stopped and turned around facing the yellow fiery maned amre. She gave Sunset a polite apologetic bow. “My apologies Lieutenant. I’ll change the records to show that. Please take care of things here.”

Sunset smiled at Octavia nodding to her. “Thank you, Commander. Have a good night.” The mare said.

Octavia then turned to enter the turbolift. When she was in the lift she pressed the button for deck ten. She then unzipped her back left leg pouch and pulled out a small red lensed eye visor. The visor was a huge tear drop shaped earpiece that hung off her left ear and covered her left eye with a red transparent lens. Such devices were uncommon but they were given to commanding officers in the fleet. They were the replacements for the PDAs. Smaller, durable, and processed data quicker than any PDA at the time. However Octavia rarely used hers for anything other than to tell the time. She never went on away missions and she never got into situations where she really needed it, but she always kept it handy in case. With Trixie as Captain there was no telling when she would need it. In fact it was a most certain guarantee she’d need it soon, it was just a question of when.

Placing th evisor on she tapped a large button on the side and the red lens became filled with lines of text. Her eye became an optical reader and blinking was how she ‘clicked’ a text or command without using her own hooves or verbal commands. She pulled up a digital clock to show the time. It was nearly 1840 so she had time to freshen up before dinner.

When she reached deck ten she got off the turbolift and walked down the halls until she reached her quarters. Entering her quarters she fully unzipped her uniform top and slid it off throwing it on top of her bed. She then slipped off her boots and pants. Lastly she took off her visor and left it on the end of her piano and went to take a shower.

The bathroom was simple, white with a lavatory and a standup shower with a frosted transparent aluminum polymer structure. Octavia slid the door open and turned the nozzle for the hot water. After the water temperature rose to the perfect setting she stepped into the shower. The warm water running over her sweat matted fur was a welcoming feeling. After wearing her uniform for so long it was nice to let her body breath again. Despite the water being recycled it felt nice to be clean again. She used a lavender scented shampoo to give herself a nice aroma for dinner. Later she planned on having another duet performance in her quarters if trixie wasn’t too busy. After a long shower Octavia stepped out and dried off.

While she was drying her mane the chime to her quarters rang. She hadn’t been expecting anyone and it was still eight minutes until dinner so trixie should already be set. Then again, Octavia knew the mare was prone to doing things last minute. She sighed wrapping up her money quickly and went to answer the door. To her surprise Spitfire was standing there.

The yellow mare was leaning against the door frame wearing a black t shirt and an old brown leather flight jacket with her old Wonderbolt dog tags.

“Major, to what do I owe this unexpected meeting?” Octavia asked the mare.

“Hey Octy, just stopping by to say hi.” Spitfire said casually. “You got a minute?”

Octavia craned her neck back into her room to see her clock. The digital readout said 1880. There wasn’t much time but she could spare a moment. She turned back to Spitfire and stepped aside letting the pegasus mare into the room. Spitfire stepped over towards the piano and allowed Octavia the freedom to get ready for ehr dinner. Octavia rushed into the bathroom and closed the door behind her with a fresh uniform on her back. Spitfire shook her head as Octavia retreated to the bathroom.

Then she smelled it. A trace of lavender that filled the room. Spitfire got a cheeky grin and leaned on the piano flexing her wings.

“I can smell your special lavender scented shampoo. What’s the occasion? Gonna try and seduce Trixie in the officers mess?” Spitfire asked with a sly tone.

Octavia scowled at her yellow friend. Spitfire replied with a toothy grin. Octavia was unable to hold her scowl for very long and burst into laughter. Spitfire joined with Octavia on jovial laughter. For a good minute the two friends held onto their laughter. After which they were able to calm down, and Octavia playfully swats Spitfire’s shoulder. The pegasus mare cried out in mock pain rolling on the floor playing off as if she were in immense pain.

“Oh! The pain! The agony! Officer down! Send help!” Spitfire cried from the floor.

Octavia rolled her eyes and smiled watching Spitfire roll on the floor holding her arm. Octavia heard her clock chime then proceeded to walk on Spitfire to get to her old uniform. Spitfire grunted as Octavia unceremoniously stepped on her unprotected gut. Spitfire rolled onto her belly glaring up at Octavia as she slipped on a new uniform.

This time however she put on her visor and strapped a disruptor holster on her right leg. Spitfire watched as the grey mare then proceeded to her dresser. Opening it Octavia pulled out a large disruptor pistol. Spitfire stood up and looked over Octavia’s shoulder to see it.

“Still got that old thing?” she sadi recognizing it.

“Yes,” Octavia replied rubbing the weapon in her hooves. “It may be an old Mk II, but they were hard hitting and reliable in even the worst conditions. Simplicity at its finest.”

“What do you even need it for? Expecting trouble in the officers mess?” Spitfire asked seriously.

Octavia shook her head holstering the pistol in her hip-holster.

“No, I just want to be prepared. We’re in hostile space until we return home after all.” Octavia said walking towards the door. “What did you want to talk about, Spitfire?”

Spitfire followed the mare out of the room and down the halls of the ship. Spitfire stayed side by side with the earth pony while they traveled together to the officers mess.

“What? A friend can’t just say, ‘hi’ to another friend and escort her to dinner from time to time?”

Octavia scrunched her nose at Spitfire’s remark.

“What?” Spitfire asked nonchalantly.

Octavia sighed rolling he reyes. She stepped out the side when a passing ensign walked by after giving both mares a brief and nervous greeting. Octavia quickly realized it was the same ensign she yelled at back in the hangar in the power loader. She made a mental note to try and remember to talk to him about that sometime in the near future. For the rest of the walk both mares were silent as they entered the turbolift and headed to the Officers Mess.

*Sol Dios*

Empress Celestia was very upset.

That was putting it lightly. Everyone who stood in her way was either throw aside into the walls leaving sizeable intendations of their bodies in the metal alloys, or they were blasted aside as she rampaged through the halls of her master battle station. After reading the damage reports to her beloved station atop of her students untimely demise and the loss of most of her fleet and Discord, she was in a intensely foul mood. She stormed through hall after hall until she ended up in a large room with two ponies inside.

The ponies were a pegasus stallion and a unicorn mare. Both were still young adults with matching mustard yellow fur and dark amber manes. They both wore matching white lab coats and black framed glasses. They were completely engrossed in their work monitoring two different consoles with various gauges and graphs overlaid on digital displays. In Front of these consoles were two large glass capsules clamped to the walls on either side of the square room. Around the top of each capsule was four large coils that feed light blue energy into the capsules with a constant flow, never breaking the flow. The two ponies were chatting to one another, seemingly unaware of the Empress standing behind them. However, she stood behind them and waited patiently, despite being very irritated by the wait while they finished their work.

“-make sure the ether flow is constant sister!” the stallion said, fluffing his wings.

“Of course brother!” The mare across from the stallion snapped back. “Just keep the energy flow steady. Any fluctuation over .5% could release the entries!”

“I know! I won’t let the system deviate. Just keep the power regulate you dodo!” The stallion grunted glaring at the pony beside him.

The Empress sighed as the two ponies finished their calibrations. The beeps and clicks from their consoles played like a symphony in the Empress’s ears. She glanced casually up at the chamber pods. She looked closely at the left one where she was sure she could see a claw scraping against the pod, but it quickly subsided as the twins added more power to the containment field.

Finished with their work the two ponies turned to face the Empress. They bowed politely to her, and she gave a sharp nod of acknowledgement. As the two ponies rose from their bows the Empress walked up to the consoles and used her wings to fly up towards the pod where she saw the claw moments earlier.

“How is the containment field holding up, Gemini?” She asked, touching the pods surface gently.

The mare walked up to the Empress staring at the pod she was touching. She gave a confident smirk and nodded in affirmation. “Of, course your majesty. I guarantee the Douwd is perfectly secure!” She said confidently.

The stallion came up to his sister but with a less confident stride in his step. “THe other one, Eris, is proving more difficult my Empress.”

“How so?”


The twins glanced to each other. As if they were mentally connected they both nodded as a passing thought came through their minds and they returned their gazes to the Empress.

“Eris being a draconequus has brought with her a set of unique problems for us to solve,” Gemini said. “However we are able to adapt to her bodies fluxuations and keep her contained. My brother Gemini II was able to create a modular program that can rotate containment modulations in the computer without the need to pony interaction.”

The Empress glanced back at them and then to the pod. She squinted rubbing her hoof against the transparent polymer and used a spell to enhance her vision. She could barely make out the outline of the draconequus inside curled up into a ball.

“Very good you two,” The Empress said, stepping away from the pod. “Now, what if they escape containment?”

Gemini I reached into her lab coat with her hoof. She pulled out a small violet glowing vial and held it up to the alicorn.

“This is the solution to the draconequus,” Gemini I said.

“What is this?” The Empress asked looking at the vile.

“This my Empress is a vile of a behavioral adjusting potion!” Gemini I stated proudly.

“How does this program work?” The Empress asked.

The twins eyes met and they both smiled. Clearly they were very proud of themselves.

Gemini II spoke first, adjusting his coat over his body.


“The “potion”, as my sister calls it, is really a biochemical inhibitor. What it is is a series of inert strands of ribonucleic acids. Should Eris ever regain consciousness, the nucleic acids will activate and attach to specific strands of her DNA. Specifically the ones tied to her reality altering powers.” Gemini II explained. “These sequences will then arrange her DNA linking to her reality bending powers and rendering them inert.”

The Empress sighed glaring down at the twins. “Spare me you puedo-science techno babble. So, it will stop her from using her powers forever?”

“No Empress. By their very nature draconequus are creatures of chaos. Thus their bodies are as chaotic as their personalities,” Gemini I explained.

Gemini II stepped forward nodding at her brothers statement. “Essentially we can’t permanently take her powers away. But that’s not what the inhibitor is for.”

Empress Celestia glared down at the two ponies. She felt her patience wearing thin but she held back the urge to snap their necks. She wanted to hear what they had to say at least first.

Gemini II spoke nex. “The inhibitor prevents rsi from using her powers to cause chaos. Chaos is so integral to a draconequus existence  that if one were to suddenly stop-”

“-then the draconequus would disappear and cease to exist!” Gemini I finished.

Empress Celestia's lip curled with a cruel smile.
> I Changeling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

3rd of 5 was a changeling.

He always loved starships. He always wanted to pilot one. It was his dream since he first crawled out from his home and saw his first ship flying over his home. It was his destiny to fly starships.

He came from the lower Badlands where his hive of changelings resided. Much like other hives his was an intricately connected hivemind with all individuals sharing their thoughts with one another all the time. There were no secrets, no deceptions, and no loneliness, but each changeling was its own individual.

But here on a starship it was different.

Here, there were no other voices. No others thoughts. Only his own. 3rd of 5 was alone. For the first time in his life he understood what ‘silence’ was. It frightened him at first when he joined the Hydra crew. Though his dream was realized, he didn’t anticipate how lonely it would be. So he engrossed himself with flying the ship and keeping it on course and following orders as best he could.

It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. The recent events of the past week have taken their toll on him as well as the rest of the crew. Thankfully after encountering the Klingons last time they have had time to recuperate. So 3rd of 5 decided to go mingle with the crew on his off time. After his shift was over he relinquished his station to the next pony and went to the crew lobby and bar area.

I wasn’t a terribly fancy bar. A simple oval enclosed space with many beverages safe and secured. Ponies and zebras filled the area and 3rd of 5 had trouble finding a seat at the bar for himself. He felt at ease here at times like this. While phones and even zebras often sought the company of others for changelings it was necessary for survival. Without the voices of his fellow broodmates he had to find other ways to mingle. This was his solution. The sounds of voices surrounding him, filling his mind with the thoughts of others.

Which brought up another social anxiety of his. He was uncomfortable without changelings being around. Being the only remaining changeling aboard, he often got awkward stares from many of the crew who never seen a changeling before. He was an unusual sight about a pony ship. Changelings had their own ships. They also tend to stay with changeling crews. Which made 3rd of 5 an unusual case. He left his unit of five to transfer to the Hydra when he heard there was an opening for a pilot.

Sometimes he regretted the decision. He often found himself thinking about what it would have been like had he stayed with his unit. Had he gone with them to the changeling carrier Shadows Lament. More recently was a comment he received from the Commander when she called him a ‘bug’. That upset him greatly. However he knew the crew was on edge at the time, so he tried to forgive and forget. It still hurt though.

He was so deep in his own thoughts he didn’t realize a zebra mare standing in front of him. She was the barkeep named Azzella. She was an older middle aged mare with a long history of serving on ships as a cook and bar keep. She cleared her throat getting 3rd of 5’s attention. The sudden sound startle him out of his thoughts and made his gossamer wings buzz.

“Wha- huh? Sorry, we were lost in thought.” 3rd of 5 said.

“That’s fine honey.” Azzella said kindly to him. “What’chu gonna have, hon?”

“Give us an ale please. Thranian Ale, please.” 3rd of 5 requested.

“Coming up, hon.”

In what felt like the blink of an eye, Azzella had a green bottle and a glass on the table. A second later the glass was full and slid in front of 3rd of 5s holey hooves. The changeling blinked in amazement at the speed which the older mare poured her drinks. He then witnessed her arms going into a blur as she readied three more drinks and slid them to her customers. To 3rd of 5s surprise there was no response from the ponies other than a simple ‘thank you’ from them.

3rd of 5 still stunned by her speed, took his drink and sipped it. His wings buzzed in delight from the bitter taste of his ale. Though the Thrane were a brilliant race they sure did make a mean ale.

“Wow, we needed that. Thank you Azzella.”

The zebra mare smiled winking at him. “Think nothing of it hon.”

She walked around the bar opening a small door and closed it behind her. Azzella then walked over to 3rd of 5 and sat beside him as a crewpony left their chair. 3r dof 5 sipped his ale and watched as Azzlella took the seat.

“Something on your mind, hon?” Azzella asked 3rd of 5.

“Yeah. We are finding it difficult to adjust to living without others to meld with,” 3rd of 5 said glumly.

Azzella nodded in understanding. “Not use to the quiet aren’t ya?” She asked the changeling.

3rd of 5 only nodded in response. Azzella rubbed his back, taking care not to hurt his gossamer wings. The little changeling felt his back loosen up at her gentle touch. 3rd of 5 sipped his drink and glanced over his shoulder to the large zebra mare. She smiled and looked around at the crew. Her ears twitched and honed in on their conversations like powerful radar dish. 3rd of 5 tilted his head watching ehr listen around.

“Do ya hear that?” She asked the changeling.

3rd of 5 looked left then right at the other crew ponies around him. He heard somepony talking about the engines and then something about “beef stick”, everything else blurred together.

“What are we listening too?” He asked Azzella.

She looked back at him with a warm smile. He felt his cheeks heat up at her radiant smile. She nudged him with her shoulder and pointed to one group of mares in the corner of the room. One was a white earth pony mare with a light blue mane with a dark black streaks. She was wearing a red uniform from the engineering team.

“She’s talking about a party the Lieutenant Commander Pinkie is setting up in her quarters later,” She then pointed to a unicorn mare in heavy armor with  the MAREs logo talking to another unicorn mare in similar armor to hers. “That one's talking about her crush on a stallion in her unit.”

3rd of 5 nodded and listened in. His ear adjusted to where he was looking. He tried to filter out the noise around him so he could hear what the unicorn mares were talking about. But it was harder to filter out voices he had no control over.

“Ugh, I can’t hear them. There’s so much noise around here.”

Azzella smiled and gently nudge his shoulder with hers. “Exactly.”

“Huh? Exactly, what?” the changeling asked.

Azzella faced the unicorn mares and watched as they carried on. The first one who was talking about her crush blushed when the other said something to her. She turned away from her friend crossing her front leg across her chest blushing.

“Exactly,” Azzella repeated. “You are always surrounded by voices 3rd of 5.”

The small changeling tilted his head not getting where she was going with this point. Seeing the confusion on his face the zebra attempted to clarify.

“You are lonely because you can’t hear your hives voices, correct?”

He nodded affirmatively.

“Well, then you need to listen and hear these voices instead. This ship, this crew, they’re your new home and family while you’re on board. When you were back in your hive, what did changelings do most of the time? What were their duties?”

“Well, most of the time we served the queen,” 3rd of 5 replied.

Azzella nodded. “Mmmhmm, and the crew of this ship serve the Captain. What else?”

3r dof 5 gave it some thought before he answered. There were many things the changelings did in the hive. However, he assumed there was a finer point to his zebra friends point than mindless servitude. Well, mindless in the sense they were undyingly loyal to their queen, but that was aside form the point. After taking some time to gather his thoughts he answered in one line statement.

“Well, we help defend the hive, we help repair it, help it grow, and help bring the next generation of changelings to be well respected members of the hive?” He answered in an unsure manner.

Azzella nodded smiling at him. “Yes, exactly 3rd of 5!”

She wrapped one arm around his neck and pulled him cheek to cheek with her. Her large grin never fading, while the changlein blushed at the close contact.

“So what you’re saying is all changelings help serve the hive in their own ways and all together right?” He nodded at her. “It's the same here on the ship, love. We all serve the Captain, who commands. We help defend and repair the ship, and we are all part of the same group. Sure, the crew isn’t related by blood in most cases, but we’re still a unit. And in time the unit will become family.”

3rd of 5 took what the mare said in , but the thought of being family with non-changelings seemed too foreign to him at the time. In response, he stared blankly at the zebra who after first, didn’t seem to notice his skepticism. When she did her smile disappeared, and she shook her head at him. She then proceeded to rubbed her off over his bald head and pet his head fins back. He grunted and swatted her hoof away and she got up to head back to serve drinks. She stopped a few steps away and looked back at him one last time.

“You remember what ah said now, ya hear? Life too short out here, love. Make the  best of it with the time ya have.”

3rd of 5 watched as she walked back around the bar and continued to serve drinks to the patrons. After he was alone once again 3rd of 5 digested what he’d been told. Sure he was the only remaining changeling on the ship, but did that mean he was alone?

According to Azzella he wasn’t. While not his hive the ship and its crew were his. No that he owned them in any fashion, just that they were connected. He sipped his drink and looked at a group of stallions from the engineering units. He saw them happily chatting with one another sharing drinks. He watched as they shared a laugh when one looked over and saw him observing them. The stallion nudged the pony next to him and gestured toward 3rd of 5 with a jerk of his head. The other stallions smiled and waved the changeling over. 3rd of 5 smiled and nodded back. He stood using his horn to magically grab his drink and walked over to join them. They my be his crew, but in time he’d like to think of thm s friends, but first he had to integrate once more. Which is easy for a changeling. It was like infiltration, only this way you got more friends in the process.
> The Hunters Shadow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captain's log, Stardate October 2, 2154.

It has been some time since our last encounter with the Klingons and the automated repair station. Since then things have been quite for both us and the humans. Since our departure from Earth we’ve explored 4 class M planets filled with life, and 1 Class E that was still in early development between to binary stars. A very rare astronomical phenomenon according to Lt. Shimmer and Captain Archer.

As a Master Engineer, I admit my own knowledge is limited on this. One thing I realized about the humans on Enterprise was they were all universally knowledgeable about both ships systems, with few restrictions by rank and profession, and most are able to understand the minute nuances of most major areas of study on the ship. This seems to include astronomy, most of the sciences, even quantum theory for some. But one flaw I can’t get over his how universally skilled everyone is and yet none are specialized, again with a few exceptions such as Commander Tucker the Chief Engineer and such. I must confess this way of thinking can have advantages, but at the same time not having any crew specialize, or so few, I feel can be a hindrance in the long run. 

I’ve spoken to Captain Archer about this once before, and he did clarify a few things on the subject. Everyone on a Earth Starship knew the basic functions of all essential systems. But specialists do exist for specific things such as antimatter assembly, warp core maintenance, weapons, everything. Astronomy and science are also heavy in the crew because as it turned out, Enterprise is a exploration vessel not a combat vessel as I once assumed. 

Yet for its size it is a capable combat ship nonetheless. Where the Hydra is a pure combat vessel I feel having our Earth allies will help alleviate some problems in our journey and vice versa. Both ships are great in an area the other lacks, and together I feel our alliance will only flourish as we discover new things out in the universe. 

On a side note, Lt. Shimmer, and Lt. Scratches Sonic Canon is ready for its first test run. So, we diverted from our return home to an dead star system with no life to test the cannon in a nearby asteroid belt. 

*Hydra Uncharted Star System*

Trixie sat in her command chair with Commander octavia at her side. The Hydra was flying side by side the Enterprise as they approached an asteroid belt in a dead star system. The Hydra took point after they reached 20,000 kms of the belts edge. Once they reached 10,000 kms both ships stopped with the Hydra still in the front and Enterprise about 100 kms off the Hydra’s aft. 

The asteroid belt was massive spanning thousands of kilometers in diameter. Initial scans from the Enterprise suggested the system was once a thriving system with over twelve planets and over one-hundred moons. 

Now, all that remained was a system sized asteroid belt. A graveyard of worlds. Trixie thought it was oddly fitting for such a place to be the test site of their new weapon. 

Glancing behind her, Trixie saw Lt. Vinyl Scratch at her station. Her bright neon blue mane matching her visor stood out in contrast to the dark grey panels in the ship. Then again, it wasn’t hard to find anyone with a few exceptions in the ship. 

“Status report, Lieutenant?” Trixie asked the mare.

Lt. Scratch looked up grinning at her Captain. Placing one hoof on the top of the console she was at, the unicorn lifted herself to stand on her hind legs over it. 

“All systems are ready, Captain. All we need to do is make sure Enterprise is no less than one-hundred kilometers from us and we’ll be ready to test,” The mare said sitting back down, but then she abruptly stood up again. “Oh! And we need to be within one-hundred kilometers of an asteroid to be sure the weapon works!” She added hastily.

Trixie nodded turning back around in her chair to face forward again. 

“Very well, Lieutenant. 3rd of 5, take us into the asteroid belt. Slow and steady. Comm. have Enterprise monitor from a safe distance,” Trixie commanded her two crew.

3rd of 5 responded with abuzz of his wings and obediently took the Hydra into the asteroid belt at ¼ impulse power. Lyra at the communications lifted a foam thumbs up hand from under her station that also had ‘#1 human’ written on it. 

“Sure thing, captain!” Lyra siad.

Trixie rolled her eyes at the Ensigns antics. Octavia scoffed looking rather offended at the mint unicorn. She then turned to Trixie tapping her shoulder and leaning close to whisper into her ear.

“I know we went to the Academy together, but you really should run this ship tighter, captain!” Octavia said under her breath.

Trixie nodded resting her chin on her hooves, bracing them on her legs. 

“Don’t worry, Octavia,” Trixie said gently punching Octavia’s shoulder. “The ship is a well oiled machine. If things get out of hoof, then I will put on the bad pony  mask. Until then let things go as they are. The crew needs some breathing room. We’re a long way from home, and it’ll be awhile before we get back. Until then we need to keep the crew active and happy. If that means being lenient on command structure then so be it.”

Octavia seemed to think on this while Trixie kept her attention on the main view screen. The Hydra was slowly maneuvering into the asteroid field when suddenly the screen started to blur with static. Trixie twitched, and tilted her head slightly, before turning back to see Lt. Sunset Shimmer by Lt Scratch.

“Interference from the asteroid field, Captain,” Lt. Sunset explained without Trixie needing to speak. “This particular field has a particular mineral we call raw tritanium inside some of these asteroids. We need to find one big enough to simulate the structure of a typical ship, that way we can measure the sionic canons effectiveness.”

Lt. Scratch nodded in silent agreement, with a wide grin on her face. Her visor flashed forming two pixelated eyes showing happiness. Both Trixie and Octavia felt uneasy looking at a digital representation of a pony's emotions instead of their real face. Then again, Lt Scratches record says she’s a friendly upstanding officer. So, they had nothing to complain about. Other than it was peculiar.

Shaking herself and regaining her composure, Commander Octavia sat upright and adjusted her collar out of habit before returning her gaze to the mares. “How does this help us test a weapon? Will it destroy the asteroid?” She asked bluntly.

Lt. Scratch chuckled shaking her head, but Lt. Sunset Shimmer scoffed and rolled her eyes. 

Lt. Sunset stepped forward giving an arrogant stance towards Commander Octavia. “No, this weapon isn’t so crass as you, Commander. It-”

She was interrupted by Lt. Scratch jumping from her seat and rushing beside her. The white mare grabbed hold of her fellow unicorn grinning, as a pixelated sweat drop formed on her visor. “W-what she means, Commander, is that the weapon isn’t a conventional weapon.” She said wagging her stubby tail. “It’s a modification to the ion cannon that charges ionized particles that overload a ship's systems sorting them out. If a ship is shielded this will heavily drain their shields.”

Octavia nodded at this. She could see the advantages to such a weapon, especially considering what they’ve faced so far. Romulans, Klingons, advanced ships from alternate realities and the future. She truly felt this was a welcomed asset. TRixie however had a skeptical look on her face, as if she could already see something wrong with this. Octavia took note and waited to see where the blue mare said before making a potential fool of herself. 

Trixie leaned forward standing up and walking up to the mares. She closed the gap where only a few inches of open space was between her and the two Lieutenants and asked, “What’s the drawback?”

The two mares looked confused for amount, and then to each other and then back to her. 

“What do you mean, Captain?” Lt. Scratch asked, with a pixel question mark appearing in the middle of her visor in place of the eyes.

“You do realize that if you do this you’ll short out the canon? It wasn’t built for that kinda thing.” Trixie stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe. 

Lt. Sunset Shimmer however scoffed rolling her eyes again. Trixie took note and narrowed her gaze at the unicorn. 

“You got something to say, Lieutenant?” Trixie asked, in a authoritative tone and stepping face to face with Sunset.

The yellow fire maned unicorn was a few inches taller than Trixie. Better built too, but Trixie didn’t even flinch at the sight of the mare. She stood with such confidence that left most on the bridge dumbstruck. Lt. Claw nodded in silent approval of Trixie’s stand. Lt. Sunset however looked unimpressed.

“Of course we knew that, Captain. That’s why we rerouted power through the shield grid as a way of dispersing the energy though the shield grid.”

Trixie said nothing, but raised her brow. Her tail swishing side to side in an irate manner that was clear on her face as well. “And? That’s all you did? You don’t see any potential problems with this, Lieutenant Sunny Smiles?”

Sunset narrowed her eyes at her Captain. There was a clear lack of respect present in the mares posture and behavior. The rising tension between the two was so thick it threatened to suffocate everyone on the bridge. Lyra and Scratch hid behind their station consoles, Claw had one claw over his disruptor, and Octavia was starting breathing at a faster rate matching her racing heart. 

“If you use the sonic canon the way you have it setup you’ll cause feedback in the ships shield grid, which is tied to the main power relays, and what happens when the relays overload? Trixie asked, knowing full well the answer. She was testing to see if either of the unicorns knew.

To her surprise Lt. Scratch slapped her hoof against the head as if she suddenly realized her folly. Sunset only glared at Trixie.

“Don’t worry, Captain!” Vinyl said saluting her. “We’ll get it fixed and then we can run a simulation to see if it works.”

To everyone's surprise, and especially Octava, Trixie sighed shaking her head and turned to sit back in her chair and left the conversation hanging. Octavia knew better though. Trixie care a lot for engineering. She wasn’t going to let this go lightly, or at least she never did before.  Lt. Sunset snorted and went back to her station and sat in her seat silently. With the conflict averted the crew went back to their tasks. 

3rd of 5 kept the ship on a steady course. Lt. Scratch was now scanning the asteroid field and found a suitable target. Grinning to herself, she tapped her visor and turned to face the to COs.

“Captain, I found a suitable asteroid, bearing 010 mark 025.” The unicorn said sending the coordinates to the helm.

3rd of 5 adjusted the heading to match the coordinates. Soon the view screen was filled with more static rendering it useless. Trixie glared at the screen feeling uneasy not being able to see. Through her training at the Academy taught her how to deal with things should this happen, she still prefered being able to see what was out there. 

“Lt. Claw, give me the tactical readout.”

The griffon compiled by adjusting the view screens settings. A digital tactical layout of the asteroid field came into view. It was crude but it satisfied Trixie. While they settled into position, Octavia excused herself from her seat and walked up to Sunset Shimmer. The fire maned unicorn was hanging over Lt. Scratch adjusting the sonic canon. She was so fixated with what she was doing she didn’t notice the grey mare behind her.

Octavia glared at the back of the mare who was ignoring her. She loudly cleared her throat getting Sunset’s attention. The unicorn turned suddenly almost colliding with the earth pony behind her. 

“Lieutenant, can I speak to you in private?” The mares tone clearly indicated that she wasn’t asking, she was telling Sunset. 

The yellow unicorn nodded and they both walked to the turbolift. Stepping inside they scrunched together inside as the doors closed them in. Octavia turned her neck to face Sunset Shimmer face to face with a nasty scowl on her face. 

“Lieutenant, I want to make something very clear to you,” Octavia started to say with a stern but calm tone. “If you have something to say, say it. If you ever have information vital to the mission, by all means share it. However, you do not ever disrespect the Captain, or the ranking officers in front of subordinates. It’s unprofessional and goes against the Officer Code of Conduct.”

Sunset rolled her eyes in a dismissive manner but nodded. “Yes, Commander.”

“Don’t you dare roll your eyes at me again, Lieutenant.” Octavia said with a growl. “Or I WILL demote you on the spot, and I’ll have you scrubbing the pylons until we reach home.”

Sunset and Octavia glared into one another's eyes. A tense feeling rising in both of them. A power struggle that both mares were determined to win. Neither wanted to back down, but they knew they couldn’t remain here forever. So it came down to who would blink first. 

*Asteroid Field*

Among the asteroids a larger asteroid was sitting in place surrounded by a few tiny ones. Among the floating pieces of space rock was a small squadron of ten ships. They were single person craft, shaped like arrowheads with two stubby but long tail fins that were parallel with the arrow frame hull. The majority of the top of these ships was transparent for the pilots to see out of. Where the fins met the main hull two leg dangled nest to to large engines on each ship. Most were ponies, but two were griffons. 

One of the ponies inside a ship was resting. Her snoring unheard to her comrades as she lay their waiting. Suddenly a loud beeping from her ship signaled something was approaching. 

“Dash! Wake up! We got ourselves an easy target today!” A gruff masculine, but clearly female voice said over her comm.

The pony snoozing stuttered awake. Her head smacked against the top of her ship rattling her brains in her helmet. 

“Huh, wha-? I’m awake! What’s going on?” The mare asked readjusting inside her pony sized cockpit. She reached forward with her front legs and wrapped her hooves around  two red glowing stick throttles gently sliding them forward to bring life to her once silent ship.  Her viewport became lit with glowing orange HUD information. The ship screen zoomed in on a large disc like ship with two navels on the end of it with an adjoining pylon. The pony named, Dash, hadn’t ever seen such a ship but her scans showed it was lightly armored and not well equipped to fight. 

Scans showed another ship nearby but it was far into the asteroid field it wouldn't be able to interfere for some time. The dart shaped craft beeped and Dash saw the round ship was initiating a deep scan of the large asteroid they were hiding around.

“Alright! It’s time! Lets disable that ship and snatch what we can! I’m sure the Ferengi will pay handsomely for anything we can procure!” The masculine female voice said. 

“You got it, G,” Dash said adjusting her helmet. “I’ll take point, Gabby, you got my tail?”

“Don’t worry, Rainbow, I’ll have you covered,” a softer female voice said over the comm. 

“Alright then,” The voice named G, said. “Storm Breakers! Engae!!”

With the order given the small fleet of ships shot one by one out from behind their asteroid cover. Ten red and black arrows of death swarmed together before scattering into five groups of two each. Two groups went above, two went bellow, and the last went straight for the ship the hoped to pillage. 

*Enterprise*

Archer was sitting in his quarters at his desk, with his dog Porthos sitting on his lap. Porthos was a loyal beagle hound who loved cheese as much as Pinkie Pie loved to party. Archer was catching up on some reading from an old book he managed to procure before leaving Earth. It was an old book that told tales of ancient mythical creatures on Earth throughout history. This particular one was about griffins and their iconic usage in history. Ever since he learned that griffins were a real thing he decided to read up on them from human history and then read about how griffons were from Equis. It was amazing to him when he learned unicorns and pegasi were real, but griffons among other things? Changelings, and dragons, there was truly a whole universe of diverse species all around.

He then got to thinking if there was one time when all these creatures once inhabited Earth. Maybe another planet? The possibilities are endless as the star were. One thing was for certain, the pictorial images in the book were spot on with how Lt. Claw of the Hydra looked. So that means that humans at some point did see griffons in enough detail to take great paintings and details of them. 

Porthos pawed the chest of his blue uniform whining loudly at his owner. 

“What’s wrong boy?” Archer asked his dog placing the book down. “You want some cheese? Well, we can’t tonight bud. Chefs gonna have a cow if we sneak in again. Captain or not.”

Porthos responded with a wag of his tail and another paw to the chest of hi s owner. Archer laughed picking the dog up and holding him above him. Archer then pulled the small dog close and pet him gently on the head, ruffling his fur. Porthos wagged his tail happily from the affection he was receiving. 

“Captain Archer to the bridge.”

The man sighed. He put Porthos down in a small dog bed he kept at the foot of his bed. The tiny dog barked at his master. 
“Sorry boy. Duty calls again.”

Archer said walking out of his quarters to the bridge of the Enterprise. Like most Federation vessels of the age the Captain's quarters were alway on the bridge for fast response. Archer slowly emerged and walked over to his center seat.

“What’s going on?” He asked Lt. Reed. 

Malcom Reed was the tactical officer of Enterprise sitting to the Captains right on the bridge. The man was looking down at his sensor reading screen seeing a few blips that constantly appears only to disappear again. 

“I’m getting ghost readings, Captain. I’m not sure but I don’t think we’re alone out in this field, sir,” Reed said. “I recommend we go to tactical alert.”

“Are you sure? Isn’t it just debris and asteroids out there?” The human captain asked.

“Perhaps, but we’ve encountered threatening races out in the middle of nowhere before, sir. Based on past experiences I strongly recommend we go to tactical alert,” Lt. Reed suggested.

Archer couldn’t deny that. In all the years the Enterprise was out in space they indeed met several hostile aliens species. Some retaliated from them trespassing, others attacked without reason. One such race was the Arkonians. A race of reptilians that were at odds with the Vulcans for centuries. There were many species out there yet to be discovered, and as T’pol once said, ‘not every spices thinks like humans do’., or something along those lines in Archers memory. The point remained the same. Not everyone out deep in space was friendly, so Lt. Reeds caution wasn’t unwarranted, but arming  could also be seen as a threatening maneuver. 

Regardless though Archer knew Lt. Reed meant well. Atop of his stunning reputation he was usually right about these things. Archer trusts him that much. 

“Very well, polarize the hull. Keep the phasers charged, but don’t deploy them yet,” Archer instructed his weapons officer, and sitting in his chair. “If someone’s out there I don’t want Enterprise to seem like the aggressor.”

“Aye, sir,” The man replied.

Following his instructions, Reed did as Archer ordered. The ship’s hull was polarized and weapons were ready to be deployed at a moments notice. In the meantime he kept a close eye on his external sensor scans. If there was a ship or ships out there, he would find them. He would need a little help though.

“Sub Commander, a word please?” Lt. Reed asked their vulcan officer. 

T’pol the vulcan science officer, and second in command of Enterprise stood up and slowly walked over to Lt. Reed’s station and stood behind him in an almost regal way. Lt Reed didn’t care for many Vulcans, but he always admired their strict discipline. Like his ancestors in the English Royal Navy, Vulcans stood tall, almost proud looking. Pride of course was beyond a Vulcan since they worked hard to suppress all their emotions. Pride was seen as a dangerous thing to Vulcans, but T’pol proved otherwise, so long as things didn’t get out of hand.

“Thank you, Sub Commander, I need help. This asteroid field has some unique properties that are causing my readings to get a bit sketchy. Think you could help clear things up?” He asked the Vulcan.

T’pol raised her brow with her usual curious expression.

“Sketchy, Lieutenant?” She asked him.

Lt. Reed cleared his throat looking back at his Commander eye to eye. It was proper after all. 

“Sketchy. It means to be unclear or lacking in detail. My readings are “sketchy” because of the interference from the asteroid field and I believe there are ships out there, but I can’t know for sure.” The man clarified, with gesture towards his sensor readings.

T’pol looked down at his monitor to inspect it thoroughly. Indeed there was a lot of interference on his screen. 

“I’ll have to divert power to the dorsal sensor grid. Should take less than a minute. Let me know if you see anything, peculiar.”

“Thank you Sub Commander,” the man said. 

As T’pol walked back to her place, she immediately began to transfer power as she said she would. With the increase to power and a few minor adjustments the dorsal sensor grid was beginning to send a clearer picture of what was it there. Ten blips appeared to be closing in on Enterprise at a rapid pace. Lt. Reed saw it almost immediately and though his readings were unclear he began a deep scan of these ships. 

Indeed he confirmed ten small fighter sized craft approaching Enterprise with weapons charged and shields raised. 

“Captain! Ten ships are approaching from the bow, their weapons are charged!”

Archer almost had a feeling this was going to happen. When their voyage started years ago he often wondered if finding hostile species was normal. Turns out it was such a regular occurrence he’d call but become numb to it when he heard they were under attack. 

That didn’t cause him to shrink from his duty as a Captain. He steadied himself, his years of experience all collected into his thoughts and he created a nice easy step by step process. 

“Malcolm, ready phasers. Arm torpedoes. Hoshi hail those vessels and send a message to the Hydra that we have company.” Archer ordered to his crew.

Like a well oiled machine the crew was on alert and ready for battle. Lt. Reed armed all weapons in less than three seconds, and Hoshi was already transmitting to both the hostile ships and the Hydra. However as she tried to raise a link with the Hydra all she got was interference. Like she was trained she stopped what she was doing and gave the initial report.

“Captain, there being jammed by the hostile craft. I can’t hail them or raise the Hydra,” Hoshi relayed to him. 

“Keep trying, in the meantime get us out of here Ensign Mayweather. Take us back to the Hydra.”

“Aye, sir!”

Mayweather steered the Enterprise into a wide turn making an run through the fighter craft. Like flies they scattered into three groups to give Enterprise room to not collide with them. The three groups spread skimming over the surface of the Enterprise, some taking a few shots with powerful beam cannons from their bows. The polarized hull was barely enough to fend off their attacks but the dart shaped craft didn’t stop. Once the human vessel cleared them they regrouped to give chase. 

The one named Rainbow Dash bolted forward with two craft on her tail. The ship spun on its axis revealing a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt shooting through it. The mare herself went into a low attack with her two friends at her side. The three ships flew in perfect synch, left then right, like they did  it a thousand times before. 

Their combined phase beam fire was enough to scorch the polarized hull but barely made a dent in it. Suddenly the Enterprise phase cannons opened a barrage of fire onto them. The three scattered across the hull. Dash was able to avoid all the shot, but one of her wingmen came under fire taking several direct hits. Its shields collapsed and two more direct hits set the small craft ablaze from a plasma fire. 

“This is Gabby! I’m hit! I’ve lost lateral control!”

“Gabby, get out you’re no good anymore. I’ll take care of things!” Dash grunted, feeling worried for her friends safety. “Cloudchaser, you got my tail?”

“I’m on it, Dash!” A second voice said with bold confidence.

Dash along with Cloudchaser at her tail weaved over the hull of the Enterprise targeting the phase cannons. The polarized hull was able to deflect most of the damage but when the two ships focus fired on one dorsal cannon and destroying it completely. 

Dash and Cloudchaser cheered for their victory, but were quickly distressed when the Enterprise suddenly spun on its axis. The wide saucer section hit both ships sending them into an uncontrollable spin out into the asteroid field. Dash was barely able to take back control of her fighter when she came face to face with a large asteroid. 

She pulled back on the throttle and her fighter’s internal alarms blared. The inside lights became dark red and Dash Struggled to keep her craft in control as it scrapped against the asteroid taking massive amounts of damage. Cloudchaser was worse off. 

Her fighter collided head on with a smaller asteroid damaging her ship to near non functionality and sent drifting into the field. A group of the fighters banded together to take on the Enterprise. Their fire concentrated on its weapons. However, the Enterprise took cover behind a large asteroid and continued to weave between the giant rocks forcing the fighters to scatter into even smaller groups to keep up. 

On the Enterprise Archer was in the command center at the back of the bridge with T’pol discussing possible strategies to beat their pursuers. The ships shook as the fighters laid fire on them as Mayweather tried to evade them. 

“What are our options?” Archer asked his Vulcan officer. 

“There aren’t many options. There are strong pockets of ionized rock, methane ice, and large concentrations of dry plasma in the larger asteroid bodies,” T’pol suggested. 

Archer had known T’pol for many years, and so he picked up on tiny quirks of hers. In this instance there was a slight pitch raise in her voice, her left ear twitch slightly, and she had an almost exasperated tone in her voice. Under normal circumstances Archer would have poked fun at T'pol's ‘human’ habits, had the situation not been dire. 

“Could we ignite those concentrated plasma spots?” he asked.

T’pol nodded. “Like we did against Duras? Perhaps. Our photonic weapons should be enough to set off a plasma fire that would disable their ships, but without sufficient distance between us we’d leave ourselves disabled as well.”

T’pol then looked at the view screen of the pursuing craft. 

“I also, doubt Mr. Mayweather, despite his skills as a pilot could ever hope to evade these craft long enough to gain sufficient distance for us to safely ignite the plasma.”

The male human captain sighed loudly trying to come up with a plan. 

“What about the Hydra? Any word on them?”

“No sir. The interference from both the ships and the asteroid fields own unique qualities make it impossible to determine their location.” T’pol said factually.

Archer really hated Vulcans sometimes, but he understood their blunt logical behavior.

“Then we can’t locate them?” He asked feeling a slight headache in his near future.

“I’m afraid not sir. Close proximity would allow us to detect them and vice versa. Hence, why we can see these smaller ships.” The Vulcan stated.

“Mr. Mayweather, take us to the Hydra’s last known location.” Archer ordered. “Malcom, keep firing. Try to set torpedoes to proximity detonation and fire at will.”

With both officers complying, Archer returned his focus on t’pol. “Any other bright ideas?”

*Hydra Bridge*

Commander Octavia was on edge again. 

Her bout with Lt. Sunset Shimmer had her in a bad mood, not to mention the mares blatant disrespect not only to their Captain, but to her as well. She wanted so bad to court martial the mare, but she had to put that on hold. 

On top of all that, Trixie had been gone for several minutes leaving her in charge again to go fiddle in engineering. Octavia was beginning to feel anxious. It had almost been ten minutes since Enterprise sent their last transmission, and Octavia was starting to worry. 

“Ensign Heartstrings, any word from Enterprise?” The mares asked the mint green unicorn.

“No ma’am. Not a peep since they last transmitted.” Lyra replied still trying to send a message out.

Octavia was about to reply when a loud grunt from Lt. Claw get her attention. For several minutes now he’d been trying to boost his scanners when he detected strange anomalies in the asteroid field, but were inconclusive.

Octavia stood up and walked over to the griffin. She placed a hoof on his shoulder gently to get his attention. His beak turned slightly so his eyes could meet his commanders. 

“Commander,” He said nodding.

The grey mare nodded back patting his shoulder. “Lieutenant, what’s got you all riled up?”

“Ugh, these sensors are garbage ma’am. Archaic! When we get back we need to upgrade these damn things,” Claw complained, with violent gesture to his screen. 

Octavia glanced at the machine with a odd look on her face. Nothing seems wrong aside from they couldn’t tell what was it there. There were indeed several anomalous readings but nothing conclusive. But to call these sensors old? That  seemed odd.

“Why do you say these are ‘old’ Lieutenant?”

“Because ma’am these sensors are old. This ship has old K5 multispectral sensors, some of the newer ships in the logistics fleet are on K7 hardware now.” He said tapping the screen. “These are good for combat compared to the K7 upgrades, but they have better IRR (Interference refresh rate) than our K5s do.”

Octavia nodded knowing where he was coming from on this. It was widely known that K5 multispectral sensors were designed with the specific task of assisting the automated point defense system of the Hydra. This would leave the gunner to only have to worry about the main disruptors and photon tubes. But one fatal flaw of the K5 sensors was it’s lack of good IRR, which helped filter out interference from outside the ship, such as gas giants, nebula's, and other spatial anomalies. This left them with the old K5 sensors, which were still great for combat, but not suited for exploration or finding things.

Thinking about this then brought Octavia’s attention back to the anomalies on the sensors currently. They were erratic, and they were getting closer and more clear. It made her think it could have been Enterprise doing a weapons test on the asteroids, but why were they moving so oddly?

She decided it was time to investigate.

“Lt. Claw keep an eye on those anomalies and arm all weapons,” She said sitting back in her command chair. “Raise shields and go to battle alert.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Claw replied.

Octavia turned to 3rd of 5. 

“Helm, takes us to course 111 mark 050. Ahead nice and steady. Keep an eye open for any story asteroids.”

“Yes, Commander.” The changeling said. 

The ships engines roared to life and the Hydra made a quick turn heading for the anomalies in the asteroid field. 3rd of 5 was good at dodging the asteroids but the Hydra was too big to miss every single one. Thankfully Lt. Claw used the disruptors to destroy any larger ones they couldn’t avoid. The two worked well without saying a word. Between them was a mutual respect for one another. 

Whenever 3rd of 5 maneuvered the ship Claw almost always managed to hit his target. Octavia continued to be surprised by the crews growing synergy despite them barely knowing each other.

It wasn’t long until Claw managed to isolate the anomalies. Bringing them on screen showed the Enterprise being pursued by at least seven small ships. Claw did a quick scan. It wasn’t clear but he did get enough information to know what was going on.

“Commander, the Enterprise is being pursued by some old saberdart fighters.”

Octavia looked surprised by that. She turned to face him directly, a look of disbelief written clear as day on her face.

“Did you just say those were saberdarts? No one uses those anymore, Lieutenant,” She said almost accusingly at the griffin.

“I don’t know what to tell you ma’am, but those are saberdarts, and I think I know who they are,” Claw said enhancing the image of one.

It bore a insignia that Octavia immediately recognized. Two wings, a horn with a upside down horseshoe behind them came into view. Most of the crew gasped at the insignia, Lyra and Vinyl both nearly hid under their consoles. Octavia let out a nearly feral growl smashing her hoof on her chairs armrest, before tapping the internal comm button. 

“Captain, you need to comet on the bridge.” Octavia said in an ordering tone.

A few seconds passed before she got a reply.

“This is Trixie, I’m on my way. Octavia, what’s going on up there?” the blue mares voice asked.

Octavia’s face contorted into a angered expression.

“It’s the Equestrians for Species Segregation, Trixie. They’re out here and they’re attacking our human friend,” Octavia said coldly. 

“.... I’ll be there as quickly as I can.”

The comm went silent and Octavia leaned back in her chair. She took a deep calming breath trying to steal her resolve. She needed to be strong now. Her crew need her leadership until Trixie got there. Using her anger to help focus her stress, Octavia leaned forward almost out of her chair staring down the screen as if she were in a staring contest with it, and determined to win at any cost. 

“3rd of 5 take u directly into that swarm of ships! Claw, get the point defense grid online! When we strafe the Enterprise I want those ships to be turned into space debris!”

“With pleasure, Commander,” The griffin said overcharging the disruptors. “All set Commander!”

Octavia grinned. Most of the bridge crew were on edge to see such a sudden show of aggression from the usually team and calm commander. Lyra thought it was like looking at a rabid timberwolf out for blood. It made her shiver to see such a crazed look on her old friends face. 3rd of 5 felt a cold absence of love from the Commander that made his blood chill, but Claw was enjoying it. 3rd of 5 could only describe what he felt from them as a sick twisted love coming off the pony and griffin.

Octavia glanced once at Claw and nodded to him. He nodded back preparing to fire as soon as they were imposition. Then Octavia gave one last order. 

“3rd of 5, take us in.” She said.