> Star Trek Online: Darkness Rising
>  by Admiral Wyatt Stone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter I: Procyon V/Restoration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Year: unknown (circa 2500s)

Location: Sphere Builder space


The area was silent as death and still, small and large pieces of debris from Starfleet, Klingon, Krenim and many other ships from varying races filled the battlefield as several starships slowly made their way through the new graveyard. 


Some ships were in a certain fashion, sleek dark grey saucers with slightly curving hulls or pylons behind them carrying two pylons that held sleek, curved engines that served as the nacelles, while another group had a style of hull that seemed to be inspired by the famous Wells class ships, the colors being a slightly dark white main hull and a bright turquoise color for the window-like sections on certain parts of the ships. Two of these ships, however, stood out as they lead the fleet. One was a small ship that consisted of a saucer held by a neck holding the secondary hull of the ship, which held two pylons that also held a pair of nacelles that emitted blue plasma trails, parts of the ship painted in brown and yellow as it flew. The other ship was larger, having a long saucer that was held by the underside that was held by two neck-like sections connected to the stardrive, connected to the hull was two wings holding two nacelles by the sides of the ship. Both of the leading ships bore several scratches and scars on them, having taken damage from enemy ships during the battle. Behind the fleet was a much larger ship, it was as big as four Galaxy class ships lined up by length, was very wide, and had a near flat, oval-like saucer for the main section, behind it was a short secondary hull that held long wings holding nacelles that looked like they wouldn't hold on to the ship that well. Two rows of text were written on the saucer of the colossal ship. "U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-J".



The front view of the fleet was almost nothing but dead ships spreading out across the area, one ship that was standing out, and was the main focus of the fleet at the moment, was a large ship that had six pylons, three of them being damaged heavily, behind that were six shorter ones that held a sphere that had a circular section nearly broken off of it, and behind that was a section that held six fins, three of them were broken up like the three pylons at the front of the ship. The Chestnut and the Equestria circled the timeship like sharks ready to maul their prey, today was the day the war would end for good, while simulations were a comforting sight, it was a miracle that the Alliance was able to defeat Noye and his fleet at Procyon V. After the Enterprise-J destroyed the sphere builders with the reacquired Tox Uthat, the Annorax had no choice but to run or fight, and thanks to the latter being Noye's choice, he was doomed to his fate of answering for his crimes against his former friends and innocent lives.


On the bridge of the Equestria, Twilight Sparkle sat in her chair, focusing her eyes to the screen as she observed the broken ship, Wyatt and a small away team had boarded the ship minutes ago, and she was waiting for a response on what Noye was planning to do next. Feeling anxious, she looked to her comms panel and tapped it with her hoof and spoke into it. "Sparkle to Transporter room 3, do you read?"


A male voice sounded from the speakers as he answered. "Ensign Ray here sir, what do you need, your highness?"


"I'd like to have an security team standing by for Noye once he is captured, and if Wyatt stumbles into a situation that's more than he can handle." The Princess said as the officer replied.


"Understood, Ray out." The signal cut as Twilight looked to the mare at the sensors console and spoke to her.


"How're they doing, Pinkie? Any problems?"


"Not a thing, Twilight, but they seem to have made it to the bridge at this poi-" She halted as a beep came from Twilight's comms panel and she tapped it, hearing Wyatt's voice in the armrests speaker.


"Stone to Twilight, bad news, Noye is attempting to open a time vortex while the temporal core is damaged, if he succeeds, the ship will be destroyed and over half of the Beta Quadrant will be doomed!" Twilight quickly gritted her teeth as she replied.


"I've gotten a security team ready, I'll send some of my crewmen to the transporter room and when you give the signal, we'll send'em down!"


"Thanks, we're on our way to the core now, we'll contact you if things get ugly, Stone out!" The signal cut out and Twilight turned to her comms panel as she tapped it.


"Sparkle to Engineering, send some officers to Transporter room 3 and have them ready for transport on my order!"


"Understood." Was all that was said before the signal cut out and the Princess was left staring at the viewscreen, hoping that Wyatt could make it to the temporal core in time.


On the Annorax, Wyatt and four others followed him through the hallways as they made their way to the core room. Upon reaching the doors, they opened and the team entered inside, seeing several Krenim officers in front of them before a brief firefight began. Wyatt aimed his phaser rifle at a pair of guards and fired one charged shot at one of them, his body disintegrating as Wyatt then focused on the other soldier and fired several shots, two of them hitting the soldiers personal shield before the trooper went down at the final shot. Miolii shot out at a group of three officers, hitting and killing two of the trio before another shot took out the last one, allowing her to turn towards another officer, charging up a shot and vaporizing the last trooper before the five crewmates continued onward towards the core.


Upon reaching the platform around the core, the Admiral noticed Noye turning towards them as he spoke to them and doors opened on both walls. "I suppose it was inevitable... so be it. It's time, time I put an end to this charade, and to YOU!" Several guards exited the doors and opened fire on the group as the madman spoke again. "Handle them, I must bring the temporal core back online!" The five officers swiftly deployed several shields and turrets that fired at the attackers, Wyatt aimed his rifle and shot out at the soldiers, hitting two of them and knocking them down swiftly as his crewmates focused their fire. Kapor threw out a plasma grenade at two of the remaining officers that were left in the room, knocking one of them off of the platform and the other choking on the plasma gas before the doors opened again.


"Guards, kill them, NOW!!" The guards acknowledged and fired at the five officers, who took cover behind the shields as they kept their ground. Wyatt noticed one of them carrying a Na'kuhl plasma blade before pulling his bat'leth out and fighting the soldier for a moment, after several smacks to each others' blades, Wyatt stunned the guard back and struck him down with a good stab to the stomach. He then looked to Noye who tapped a button on a device on his belt as he spoke once more. "Fine, I will end you... ONCE AND FOR ALL!" Noye then threw out three photon grenades before the group took cover, the bombs exploding before Wyatt tapped the panel on his rifle, took a good aim at Noye and fired at him. The shot knocked out his personal shields with ease, giving Wyatt to take his next shot. Wyatt fired again and Noye let out a grunt of pain as he went down, still moving slightly as the five of them moved towards him and restrained him. Noye gave Wyatt a furious glare as he spoke to him.


"And so it ends.. fine, finish your bloody work then, send me to join Clauda in oblivion, just as you've sent the Tuterians and so many others! KILL ME, if you have the stomach for it!" Wyatt gave a disappointed frown as he replied.


"I'm sorry Noye, but I'm not going to do that, you've got some crimes to answer for." He said before the scientist responded.


"This won't end with me, others are out there watching, they'll see your tyranny and they'll rise up, just as I did! Your time will come, Wyatt... pity I won't be there to see it!" 


"I'm very sorry, old friend, but I think some of them will understand what tyranny truly is when they read the records. I'll be sure to see you at the trial." He gave a hopeful smile as he tapped his combadge and spoke. "Stone to Equestria, beam our friend here to the brig." Noye was shortly after surrounded by a small field of energy, his body disappearing with the field as Wyatt went over to the temporal core and tapped several buttons on it before the ambient noise that filled the room swiftly died down.


A moment after the room was silent, a long flash of light appeared before the away team to reveal Agent Daniels, who'd died at Temporal Command at the hands of Admiral Leeta before the battle. Wyatt became slightly stunned before speaking to his friend. "Well... welcome back, Daniels, and I thought my crazy thoughts would never actually come to pass." He said with a smile before Daniels replied.


"Indeed, I see that you've stopped Noye, and now the timeline is righting itself. Stopping him has fixed the timeline in so many ways, including one where I live, but I believe that there's more that will happen to the timestream than you all think." Wyatt stood with a look of confusion for a moment, then silently gasped before he tapped his combadge and speaking.


"Stone to Equestria, do you read?" Twilight spoke up not a second later.


"Yep, you ready to head out?"


"Sort of, I want you to beam us to your ship, Daniels has returned to us and I think there's more in store for us once we head over there." Twilight sounded puzzled as she replied.


"Huh, well I think we can do that, we'll send over the away team once we beam you aboard."


"Got it, Stone out." The signal cut out as the group stood still before several fields of energy surrounded each of them, their bodies fading away as the transporter beams vanished with them...


On the Equestria's bridge, Twilight sat in her chair as Flash looked to her after checking his armrest panel. "The away team's ready Twilight, I can give the word when you're ready."


"Good, once Wyatt and his team are aboard, send them over." The Princess then looked over to Trixie, who was focusing on her weapons console as she spoke. "Trixie, what's the damage on our ships?"


"Decks 8 through 12 have taken heavy damage from all those polaron beams, the Chestnut's taken quite a beating compared to us, her antiproton beam array on the right side's been damaged and Decks 5 through 9 have been damaged heavily, Deck 7 has a hull breach, and engineering teams are repor-" Her report was interrupted when a flash of light appeared near the right turbolift, once the flash vanished, the crew saw a familiar face that they'd thought they would never see again.


Trixie, of all the crew, was the most ecstatic upon her eyes resting on the being. "S-S-STARLIGHT!" Ignoring the crowd's eyes focusing on her, she galloped up to Starlight and hugged her tightly as her friend tried to breathe. After realizing her strength, she calmed down and released her grip on Starlight before her friend spoke.


"Uh... what did I miss?" The unicorn asked in confusion before her friend gave a confused look as she answered.


"You... you don't remember, Starlight? Noye killed you right in front of us back on the Sphere. I was looking at you before you went limp, remember?" Starlight took a moment to process her best friend's words before the turbolift doors opened to reveal Wyatt and his team along with Daniels entering the bridge. Upon seeing their once deceased friend, Daniels and Wyatt smiled as the temporal agent spoke up.


"It's just what I'd hope would happen, welcome back, Starlight." Starlight gave a puzzled look to him as well before he answered her confusion. "We've just arrested Noye and taken the Annorax, and doing so restored certain parts of the timeline, and it seems that the battle must've occurred before your apparent death, Starlight. But because Noye is in custody, he'll never have the chance to harm you or anyone else now."


Starlight then turned to Trixie, who seemed to be holding in her emotions as she looked at her friend. Twilight then spoke to the magician. "Don't hesitate to let it out, we've done it too." Trixie then held Starlight in her forearms as the two embraced for a moment, Trixie letting her tears of joy flow freely as she spoke to the unicorn.


"I t-thought I'd never see you again, Starlight, I watched you wither away right in front o-of me." She said before Starlight replied to her.


"Well, that won't happen again, Trixie. I'm okay now." The two held each other for a moment longer before they looked over to Wyatt and Trixie spoke to him.


"Well, about the battle, how about celebrating? You think Pinkie Pie can set up the ship for something?"


Daniels gave a slight frown as he spoke. "Unfortunately, this event will remain secret, no parades or celebrations on Earth or any worlds involved." His frown soon turned into a smile as he finished. "But.. if it's only aboard your two ships, I believe I can make an exception."


"That's good enough for me to hear." Twilight said as she and Wyatt smiled before the alicorn turned to Rainbow Dash and asked her, "Dash, are our engines still active?"


"Flappin' like a bee, Twi, we're ready on your word!" 


Twilight smirked as she gave her order. "Let's fly." Upon tapping the console, a blue portal opened up and Wyatt tapped his combadge and spoke.


"Stone to Chestnut, have one of those temporal cruisers beam Noye aboard to their ship before we depart."


T'Vrell replied to him in her usual calm tone. "Actually sir, they wish to follow us through under the claim that they have something to explain, with Daniel's permission of course." Wyatt looked to Daniels, who after a moment nodded an Wyatt replied to his science officer.


"The word is given T'Vrell, let's head out."


"Understood, Chestnut out." The signal cut out as the ship accelerated forward, shortly after entering the portal alongside the Chestnut and a Paladin class battlecruiser. Once the three ships were inside the portal closed, leaving the remainder of the Alliance fleet to clean up the scraps of the wrecks scattered across the sector, as well as taking in the Annorax. After months of fighting, the war was finally over, Noye would face justice, the Annorax would be repaired and returned to the Krenim facility at Kyana, and Wyatt and Twilight would finally get some time to relax. They would have to enjoy it while they could, though, as they would have something do deal with soon after...
> Chapter II: Stardate: Draconis III
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location: Alpha Quadrant, Breen Territory

Year: 2410 (1 1/2 months after the Battle of Procyon V)


The distant stars sparkled in the sea of space as ambience filled the area, some of them flying by as a ship soon passed through the area. The ship soared at warp towards the unknown sectors of the quadrant as it ventured to it's destination, its design was similar to an Oberth class science ship, looking as if it had been recently pulled out of the scrapyards. The ship had several scars and certain spots on the saucer that were once rusty were replaced with new plates of armor, especially the name. "U.S.S. Vinyl, NCC-WUB", was something that was seen to be quite strange when compared to usual Starfleet ships, but this one was for neutral use at the moment, on course for Starbase K-13, a lost space station that was recently reacquired at the Draconis system, and it would be a place that would soon get the ship up on it's feet later on.


On the bridge of the ship, 3 equines sat in newly placed seats as they operated the ship. The Captain's Chair was filled by a pony with glasses that had purple lens and a mane and tail with blue and turquoise as the main colors. On the left, a green mare with a green and white mane and tail sat at the communications station, while the seat next to her was a modified console controlling both weapons and shields, which was being operated by a mare with a bright whitish-yellow coat with a mane and tail in the colors of blue and pink. The ship was originally going to be scrapped by Starfleet engineers in order to make newer ships, but a civilian pony who'd helped out Twilight in earlier incidents, Vinyl Scratch, decided to make something unique with the old vessel, and bought the scrap heap in a heartbeat and afterwards flew the ship to a recently reacquired starbase along with her friends. Vinyl looked to Lyra at the comms station and spoke to her. "Well, I'd say that this old girl is working just fine despite her age, any issues so far?"


"Not at the moment, but she definitely won't be having any once we get this thing fixed up at Draconis. I can't believe you were actually able to get this rust-bucket, Vinyl, she must've been cheap when they were getting to scrapping her." Lyra said as the DJ replied.


"Nah, they seemed to be willing to let it off easily since the engineer was a Ferengi, and thanks to some latinum I won at a Dabo match back at Drozana, she was ours when I had the chance."


"Yeah, you may want to thank Twilight for taking us on that tour from months ago, and I assume you used some energy credits to fix the engines up?" Sweetie Drops asked as Vinyl answered her.


"Yeah, and if we hadn't visited that mining station at Vlugta, this beast would be resting in the shipyards for a bit." Vinyl smirked at the memory of blasting at rocks crisp with dilithium as she sat comfortably in the chair.


"Well, at least we have our ways in life, let me see how the Doctor's doing." Lyra said as she tapped a button on her console and spoke again. "Turner, you doing fine down there?"


"I believe so, I've gotten a few medical beds working, and Muffin here managed to get a replicator working again."


"Good, with that fixed up, we shouldn't have much trouble for rescuing a lost Deferi shuttle from a Breen attack or something like that, hopefully we'll be able to do more with sickbay once we get t-" She stopped as she heard a beeping noise from her console and saw a flash on it. "One sec Doc, I'm getting a message from... Princess Twilight?"


Vinyl smiled as she responded to her friends information with excitement. "Well, let's fire the viewscreen up so we can talk to her!" Lyra then tapped her console before the screen changed to show a slightly static image of Twilight, her face bearing a confused expression as she spoke.


"Can you hear us? We seem to be losing your signal." She sounded worried as Lyra tapped her console a few times and the screen became less fuzzy.


"That should fix the problem." She said before Twilight spoke again.


"Vinyl! What are you doing out here on a ship like that?!" Twilight said with shock and happiness as Vinyl responded.


"I managed to use some of my materials to get this old thing here, but she still needs some fixin'."


Twilight smiled as she asked her friend. "Well, I think my boys can do that for you, we're already waiting at Starbase K-13, so I think we can do something for that ship of yours. Is that a problem?"


"Not if it isn't for you, while we're holding out, I think the Doctor'll need a good shot of cider after fixing sickbay up with Derpy."


Twilight smirked as she responded. "Good, when you get here, I'll send a team over to get her ready. Understood?"


"Ya got it, Twilight. See you there!" Vinyl said as Twilight nodded and the screen changed to view the blackness of space, stars zooming by as they flew to K-13. Only mere moments after the transmission cut out did Bon Bon's console beep and the screen started to change.


"Vinyl, it looks like we've arrived, I'm setting up docking coordinates." Bon Bon said as they got a better view of their resting place; the sector was surrounded in a pink-purple colored nebula, and there was a planet within an asteroid ring, as well as a station. The station itself was mostly rusted, but had a few sections that seemed to have new hull added to them. The main section was a short, but large cylinder, with what seemed to have a open rectangular section that seemed to resemble a hangar. Under the large section was a less wider section that went down for a decent length, around the neck-like section were three cylinders that held similar sections to the main section, but with slight differences in each of their structures, under the neck was a smaller cylinder section that had a smaller one under it. Behind the arm-like cylinder sections around the station were about three long, rectangular sections that already had two ships on them, one was a Constitution class vessel from the 23rd Century that had the text, "NCC-1976" on the side of it's nacelle, while the other ship was a modified star cruiser with multiple purple and pink markings, the DJ could tell who flew the larger ship that sat docked at the station as they began their docking maneuvers. The ship slowly faced down and moved to the third docking bay at the lower part of the station, the ship slowly coming closer to the port until the side of the ship touched the docking port and finally stopped moving as the two connected.


Bon Bon gave a smile as she looked from the console and towards the screen. "And docking is complete, I think we can exit out from the ship from this area." After she tapped a few buttons, the screen changed to show a schematic of the ship, where a part of the left nacelle's front section blinked, indicating the docking airlock.


"Great, Lyra, let Turner and Derpy know that we're heading over and that we'll meet them there and let's head to the airlock." Lyra then turned to her console and tapped a button on it.


"Doc, I hope you're ready, we've docked and we'll be waiting for you at these coordinates." She tapped a few buttons on the console again as the stallion replied.


"Not a problem, Muffin and I'll be down there shortly."


"Got it." Lyra said as she cut the channel and stood on her hooves and the three mares made their way over to the turbolift, the doors closing upon entering it and taking them to the next deck. While the station was a bit old and in need of repair, the three couldn't wait to meet their friends once again on the station...


--K-13, Interior--


The station was albeit dark thanks to all the damage done, along with several pieces of broken metal large and small scattered all over the hallway, several officers in what seemed to be 23rd Century Starfleet and Klingon uniforms were using several tools to fix and enhance the damaged parts of the station. A nearby door opened to reveal a group of 10 ponies, Vinyl leading them all as they made their way to the turbolifts nearby. Minuette, Bon Bon, and Doctor Hooves were taking a glance at the officers, who looked to them and usually said "hello" to them or nodded in acknowledgement as they had work to do as the three of them walked. Once they reached the turbolifts, the group split into two groups of five and took the two turbolifts up to the main section. 


Upon the lift stopping and the doors opening, the two groups reunited inside a room that, like the hallway, had several broken parts and damage all over the place, a balcony hung over them, officers standing on it as they walked towards the bar, which seemed to be the most clean from the rest of the room. Near some of the tables were two groups of ponies, Twilight and her friends stood at one end, and the other being Wyatt along with two of his officers, Miolii and Lon, who'd all obviously used their converter to change into their equine forms. Vinyl and Moon Dancer went up to the Princess and the three hugged each other as they started to speak. "I'm glad to see you here, girls, this place is in dire need of fixing up, but she should be able to suffice in the state she's in."


"I can see that, Twi. I think I should get to helping out while the Doc takes a rest with Derpy, how's the bar, by the way?" Vinyl asked her as Rainbow Dash replied.


"We've gotten several of those replicators fixed up, and the tables have been rearranged, so I think a good rest is alright here." The Doctor smiled as he decided to sit in one of the new chairs.


"Ah, that's good then, I think Muffin and I need a good drink after all that work in sickbay." He said as Applejack responded to him.


"Ya got that right, have a seat when you want to. Now Bon Bon, I hope it's not a problem, but the station's science lab is being worked on at the moment and I'd like you and Lyra to help me an' Applebloom out."


The two mares gave determined smirks as Bon Bon answered. "I think we can do that, seems like we should come more often so we can help out."


"Good, let's head down there, I'll be seeing you in a bit, Twilight." The farmgirl said to Twilight, who nodded before the trio made their way to the doors leading to the nearby lab.


Wyatt then walked over to join the conversation. "We'd recently found this ol' relic earlier when we were helping the Lukari out with exploring the galaxy, and after a squabble with Daimon Madran and his Nausicaan bandits, we managed to regain the station and make it a part of our fleet." 


"Well, he surely won't be trying to retake this place after running to his pets now, will he?" Dash said as the group let out a laugh for a short moment before Miolii spoke up.


"Definitely, but it seems that we have bigger problems on our hands this time, when we visited Draconis III, we found that the planet had signs of a protomatter bomb detonation on the surface, and we suspect it might be an old enemy we fought back in the early 24th Century."


The group gave worried looks to the feline pony as Fluttershy asked her. "Who would they be, Commander?"


Miolii gave a frustrated look as she answered. "From what we can tell, they're known as the Tzenkethi, a race we and the Klingon Empire were at war with many decades ago. Like many others, Wyatt and I thought we were done having to fight them, but now, it seems that they may be getting ready to start another war with the Alliance."


Gasps and open mouths were the only response to her words before Minuette asked, "But, why would attack a planet like this? Last time I looked at the historical records, this place wasn't a part of Federation space when they attacked."


"Well, they would've destroyed this station if it was because of it, but it was most likely the inhabitants that were the prime target. For what reason? We don't know."


Everyone looked to the ground in silence for a moment, processing and thinking over the news they'd heard before Wyatt spoke up again. "But, we shouldn't have to worry about that for the moment, we've gotten several ships around the edge of the sector so they won't be getting through easily, so we can relax and help out with fixing this place up."


"Yeah, I've been wanting to get the defensive capabilities set up with Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Scoots here, so I think that does us for that job!" Scootaloo gave a smirk as Twilight spoke up as well.


"Indeed, on my part, I'm thinking about me and Flash getting this main area set up as best we can, and then relax for a bit." 


"Not wanting to embarrass you, but do I hear a date over there, Twilight?" Dash asked as the Princess and her guard blushed a bit before Wyatt responded.


"You know, she's not the only one, Miolii and I are thinking about doing that after fixing the shuttlebay up there." The two smiled a bit before Pinkie Pie spoke up. 


"Well, someone needs to keep the crew's spirits up, mind if I work on refreshments?" Wyatt nodded to her before she jumped in excitement, gaining smiles from a few noticing crewmen before Wyatt spoke up.


"Well, let's get started then, contact the transporter operator over there when you're done, understood?" The group nodded to him before he finished. "Good, let's go then." Everyone then made their way to their stations, Twilight and Flash staying in the main room while the others went through differing doors to head to their designated areas. Twilight gave a look to her guard, who looked to her with a smile as he spoke.


"Well, I think we'll need some time away from fighting and killing baddies out there, am I right?"


"Yeah, we'll be having more fun than others would expect." They both then began their work on fixing the nearby console on the wall near the left door. While repairs and upgrades for starbases and ships wasn't the couple's game all the time, at least they'd all have some peace and quiet, or at least they hoped, as they had an old foe causing genocide and destruction across the quadrant, and who knows when they would strike again later on.
> Chapter III: A Traitor's Call
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starbase K-13, Science Lab

1400 Hours (3 hours after arrival)


The good Doctor and his companion were in a bit of a fix as they tried to fix up the large lab they were in, the room was a bit small for the main section, seeming to have a hexagonal shape with how the walls were set up while two of those wall sections had doors that led to two other rooms that contained various technology and probes, including the infamous Nomad probe, or at least replicas of it. The main room had a few tables that had small scratches and broken bits, as well as being covered in dust, which was being cleaned off as they started to repair them. Several containers filled with equipment and liquids were spread out around the room, the right side of the room was where Derpy and the Doctor stood, fixing one of the tables as they worked.


Doctor Hooves wiped the sweat off of his forehead and used his repair kit to fix the table as he spoke to his assistant. "I'm surprised that this place hasn't turned to dust yet, lasting ever since being brought into the 1500s is quite a record."


Derpy smiled as she replied back to the Doctor while holding a broken section of the table. "Well, these space stations weren't made out of bricks, I think one of the engineers told me that they built these places out of duranium, some kind of alloy that they mine on asteroids and planets."


"Very true, I heard it lasts much longer than most alloys of the 21st Century, I think we shouldn't have to worry over anything breaking apart for a bit."


"Yeah, and that bar looks to be quite nice, and after this I'm thinking about trying to fix that up too." Derpy said as the Doctor gave a concerned look to her.


"Two places on the station today? You'll need some help if you're going to do that, I'd be happy to oblige." Derpy gave a slight chuckle before she responded.


"I was hoping you'd say that, I know we have a lot of time to go out, but I think it'd be fun doing it here." The mailmare said as a few officers gave the two surprised and happy looks, the two equines had become more and more close after all of the adventures they had with their friends, and Derpy was hoping to get Turner to go out with her for a while, but as always, duty got in the way, and she had to hold back on the chance. The Doctor blushed a little as he was about to answer the mare, but a loud cracking noise sounded and the pair looked to the ceiling right above them, a section of it was recently replaced with a newer slate of metal, but now it was quickly starting to break apart and would very shortly collapse on them if they didn't move.


"Muffin, get down!" The Doctor said before he threw himself at Derpy and the two shot across the room and impacted the wall, the section of the ceiling finally becoming loose and falling down on the table where they once were. The room was filled with coughs from the two ponies and the officers as the dust spread and dissipated before an engineering officer spoke up.


"Is anyone hurt?" Everyone simply gave nods after looking at themselves and around the room before the officer ordered, "I want someone down here to fix that ceiling... and I also need the officer who did so previously to see me immediately." A security officer, who was wearing a red 23rd Century Starfleet uniform nodded before turning to the door and leaving as the doors closed behind him. 


The Doctor looked at Derpy, who was wiping some of the dust off of herself as he spoke to her. "Are you alright?"


"Just a little dirty, nothing bad."


"Oh, good, let me see if I can get a wat-" He stopped as a noise sounded over the intercoms before a voice followed after.


"Attention, senior staff of starships Amarillo, Equestria, and Vinyl, please report to the briefing room immediately."


The two looked to each other before they stood up and looked to the officers, one of them looking around before speaking to the Doctor. "Don't worry about the lab you two, we'll handle it."


The pair nodded before making their way out the door and to the turbolift nearby, the Doctor then looked to Derpy as he asked her, "So, about that date, after our next job sound good?"


"Yeah, I'd love that." The two then stepped inside the turbolift upon the doors opening, then closing as they stood inside, waiting as they made their way to the upper levels of the station...


~K-13 Briefing Room~


The doors of the turbolift opened to reveal a room in front of the pair as they walked inside, the room had a large table with around 16 chairs around it, all but three filled by the already gathered officers. The remaining details of the room consisted of old pictures of starbases, nebulas, and starships on certain parts of the walls. The Doctor sat in one of the empty chairs alongside Derpy as they looked to Wyatt, who was sitting near Twilight as he started. "I know that we just got here and this briefing may seem a bit rushed, but unfortunately duty has called us once more."


Most of the group gave each other curious looks as they looked to Miolii as she spoke up. "A few moments ago, Commander Nelen sent me a transmission sent from an unexplored area of space, from what he said, it seems to be a distress signal." Miolii then tapped a button on the built-in console in the table, a static noise briefly sounded before a voice spoke through the distorted white noise.


"This is Aarn Tzen-Terrak of the Tzenkethi starship Fearless, we send this transmission in the hope of finding allies near our space. We were recently ordered to use a prototype weapon of ours to decimate the surface of an innocent world, but my crew and I have seen the truth of our empire's ways, and have deserted our comrades in an attempt to warn the Federation and its allies of the wrongdoings made across the quadrant. If anyone is hearing this signal, we ask that you send a ship to rescue ours as we've been attacked by enemy forces, if a fleet is needed, do so, we don't have much time, hurry as soon as you can." The signal cut out and Twilight then started as the group looked to her.


"It seems that we've got a runaway trying to meet with us, what do you think, Wyatt?"


Wyatt gave a concerned look as he answered. "I believe so, while there is a possibility that it could be a trap, I believe we can risk such a venture into that sector. Any ideas?"


Trixie gave a smile as he answered the Admiral. "Well, I believe that I can get our task force set up quickly, I'd gotten a minute on break with Starlight when I checked the maps on a nearby console, I had found a fleet of 18 ships patrolling this sector of space to keep an eye out for any of Madran's lackeys. Since we're getting some of our old ships from way back when over here, I think we can get them to come with us."


Wyatt then gave a smile as he responded to the magician. "Good idea, besides, we've gotten a few of those old Federation class ships over here, so that won't be a problem, Twilight?" The mare in question looked to him before speaking.


"My friends and I don't have an issue on that, I just hope we don't lose anyone while we're there."


Vinyl then raised a hoof before she spoke up. "Hey Admiral, is it a problem if my team and I help out? I heard those engineering teams have gotten some of the ship fixed up to the point where she can put up a fight."


Wyatt gave a smile as he answered her. "Just don't get hurt over there." Vinyl nodded before the Admiral finished. "Now, I want everyone to get themselves ready, who knows what could happen over there. Miolii, tell our crew to get ready for departure, and Trixie, could you contact the task fleet and get them to meet us at the transmission's coordinates?"


"Not a problem." Trixie answered before Wyatt continued.


"Good, now let's get ourselves ready. Dismissed." The group then stood out of their seats and made their way to the four turbolifts in the room, the doors closing as they stood in them.


Twilight then looked to Rainbow Dash as she asked her, "Dash, when we went to the academy, you said you took just about all of the different drills for varying races we've seen, correct?"


"Sure did Twi, if you need any hints or something, don't be afraid to ask me!" The Princess smiled but then gave a worried expression as she asked another question.


"Another thing, I heard we we're taking some civilians from Equestria on a tour of the ship, and I heard that your parents were apart of it. Do you think that'll be a problem?"


No, if you don't mind, can we have them on the bridge?" Twilight nodded before Dash responded. "Great, they can watch me fly this thing like how I do in the Wonderbolts squadrons!" Dash gave a cocky grin as she and her friends stood in the turbolift, waiting for the lift to reach the deck they were previously on..


~U.S.S. Equestria Bridge~


The bridge was hot with busy officers operating the consoles as the two turbolifts opened, 8 ponies coming from them as they trotted to their stations. Twilight, Flash, and Spike sat in their chairs as the Princess looked to the viewscreen to see a ship docked near the starbase, it resembled an Olympic class medical ship, with a spherical section that was held by two connected cylindrical sections, which held a pair of pylons attached to nacelles similar to the Amarillo's. The front of the ship had a small line of text that read, "U.S.S. Columbus, NCC-621". Twilight then looked to Pinkie Pie, who was at the comms station as she spoke to her. "Pinkie, pull up the coordinates we got from Wyatt, I want to see where this planet is located." Pinkie then tapped her console a few times before the screen changed to show a map of the Alpha Quadrant, above the area that held the Draconis system within it was a sector about two sectors away that contained nothing but a yellow circle that indicated the signal's origin. Twilight then heard a beep from her console and she tapped it to answer.


"Stone here, Twilight, I've gotten word from the fleet that they'll be right alongside us when we head out, so we'll be ready for them once we get there, are you all set?"


Twilight looked to her friends, who all gave confirming nods before she answered her mentor. "Everything's up and ready, just give the word."


"Good, we'll be waiting for you to give the word, Stone out." The channel cut out as the turbolift doors opened to show two ponies entering the room, Rainbow gave a smile as she saw them. Both of the pegasi were blue, but the stallion had a darker shade of it, with a rainbow colored mane and tail like his daughter, he had gold eyes and a green jacket on him as well. The other had pink eyes, a yellow shirt and a mane and tail that sported the colors of light and dark orange.


"Mom, Dad, glad you're here, I was hoping to get you to meet my crewmates eventually!" Dash said as Bow Hothoof replied to her.


"Not only that, but our little girl's going to be flying this big ship Princess Twilight has, if I heard it right!"


Scootaloo then chimed in. "Yep, but you might want to keep yourselves ready for trouble, I think you won't just be seeing Dash flying the ship today, we're headin' into unknown space and we might get attacked." The two parents gave worried looks as Dash calmed them down.


"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll all be able to handle it, besides, a nearby fleet is going to help us out, so there shouldn't be a problem."


"I hope so, I don't want my daughter to get hurt today, not when we're on a tour." Windy Whistles said as her daughter replied.


"Meh, happens everyday." She said before she and Scootaloo laughed a little, Windy and Bow giving weak ones before Dash looked to Twilight. "The ship's all set for warp Twi, just give the word!"


Twilight smiled as she answered the speedster pegasus. "Engage." Upon her order, Dash tapped the console and the Equestria's nacelles glowed a bright blue, the engines roaring along with the Amarillo's before the two ships zapped away towards the sea of space, a bright white flash appearing as the sector was once again silent.


Twilight then turned to Starlight, who was standing next to the three officers as she asked her, "Starlight, you don't have a problem sticking with Trixie for this, do you? She's been quite worried about you when it comes to handling tasks like this."


"Not a problem Twilight, I don't intend to get killed a second time, I don't think Trixie could take it. I just hope she doesn't get hurt trying to protect me." Starlight replied as the two then looked to the viewscreen, stars passing by the two ships as they sailed towards the signal's origin.
> Chapter IV: A Dangerous Trap - Part I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S.S. Equestria

Mid-Warp (1 hour after departure)


The stars zoomed through the sea of space as three starships flew in a 'V' formation towards the vast unknown, ambient silence filling the space around them as they soared to their destination. The bridge, despite being operated by several officers, was as quiet as a theater as the crew and guests locked their eyes on the screen, waiting for the ship to stop at the planet ahead of them. Twilight stared at the screen for a long moment, pondering over Terrak's message, the Tzenkethi had been making these strange attacks on primitive worlds recently, walking on their so-called "Path of Violence", but it seems that this traitor of theirs wants to help and expose the large death-bringers for their crimes. But something was swirling within Twilight's mind, what if they arrive and a large armada of ships are waiting to attack them? What if they come and they find their targets dead from an enemy ambush? She was feeling quite unnerved at the thought, but stopped when Spike turned to her. "Twilight, I've gotten a bit of data that might be helpful, it seems that a famous Klingon General named Rodek was a Tzenkethi war veteran back in the 24th Century, and it seems that he's wanting to help out with our problem over at that planet, is that a problem?" 


Twilight gave a smile after a moment as she said, "Send him over to us, I think I could use a bit of experience with the Tzenkethi for this mission." Spike nodded as he tapped a button on his built-in chair console before a small tablet-like device appeared at the armrest's side and the dragon started to tap a few keys on it.


Twilight then heard Rainbow Dash speaking to her as she looked to the pegasus pilot. "Twilight, we're arriving at the planet now."


"Rarity, would you start your scans, please?" Twilight said to the unicorn as she answered.


"Understood, Twilight." She tapped her console several times as Twilight looked to the viewscreen to see that the stars slowly started to reshape into tiny dots and a planet near a large yellow star filled the screen, the planet seemed to have no moon orbiting it, and the planet itself seemed to look earth-like, Rarity spoke up after her console beeped. "The planet is a Class-M world, atmosphere contains a fair amount of oxygen, there's several lifeforms roaming the surface, as well as marine life in the oceans." The unicorn said as she gleamed with anticipation at trying to learn about the creatures down below.


"And what about our friends? I don't see them anywhere." Twilight asked as Rarity checked her scans once more.


"I'm... I'm picking up two starships down on the visible continent, specifically in a forest-like area of the land." Rarity answered as Dash, Flash and Twilight gave puzzled looks to their friend.


"Two? Did they come across some ancient ship on the planet or did they bring another friend to the party?" Pinkie Pie asked as she looked at the planet on the screen.


Twilight gave a stern look as she spoke to the party pony. "Pinkie, try and hail the ships down there, I want to see if we can talk to them."


Pinkie nodded and started to tap her console a few times before Dash looked to her with a worried look. "Um, Twilight, I'm picking up a strange anomaly right near our ship, I think it's near our stardrive section."


Twilight grew a worried look as she responded. "Put it on the screen."


Dash turned to her console and tapped it a few times as the viewscreen changed to show the underside of the ship, along with a red area that quickly changed to show a small, blue cylindrical object, which changed back to red upon the data for the object being read.


Twilight then gave a horrified look as she noticed what the object was, raising her voice, she turned to Dash and yelled, "Emergency maneuvers, no-" Was all that she could say before a loud explosion occurred outside of the ship, the bridge shaking violently as everyone held on to their consoles, Dash's parents letting out low cries of fear as she spoke up.


"It was a mine! Our port side has sustained major damage, hull breach on Deck 18, damage teams are repo-" She stopped when she looked to the viewscreen, several ships appeared over the planet at rapid pace, eventually amounting up to 17 ships, one of them seeming to be a dreadnought behind all of the other ones. The ships were colored in a very dark grey hull color, almost looking completely black to their eyes, the ships all turned towards the Equestria, speeding faster than a gekli creature hungry for space dust as they prepared to attack.


"I knew this was some kind of set up!" Dash yelled in anger as she swiftly set up her console.


"Shields up now, target the lead ship, give it everything we've got!" Twilight ordered as Dash replied to the Princess.


"I can't get the shields online, whatever they hit us with, it must've damaged the shield emitters!"


Rarity gave a worried look as she spoke up. "Let me see if I can get some power from Life Support to help us ou-" She was interrupted when Sweetie Belle cried out in worry.


"Guys, they're locking onto our phaser arrays and torpedo launchers!" The crew looked to see the Tzenkethi ships approaching the ship, the orange beams and red balls of light coming from the ship soon halted as the ships fired a flurry of green beams and orange projectiles at the ship, hitting several areas of the ship until the only lights were the weapons from the Tzenkethi ships, which continued their assault as Twilight's eyes shrunk in shock.


"Dash, pull us away with every bit of power we have, get us over to the Amarillo before they can tear us apart!" Dash nodded as she tapped her console and the ship jerked to the left and turned to face the two escorting ships, but the ship suddenly shook with force as they heard crashing and explosions coming from another area of the ship.


Twilight then grew annoyed as she asked Dash, "Why aren't we breaking away?!"


"AJ, what's up with those nacelles?!" Dash yelled to Applejack as she checked her console with Applebloom.


The two farm-girls grew horrified looks as they gave their answer to the Princess and the pilot. "We aren't going anywhere girls, they've cut our wings off!" Applejack said as she tapped her console and the viewscreen changed to show the aft side of the ship, the pylons on the ship were being shot at by the ships, eventually breaking off of the hull and drifting off into orbit.


Rarity then grew into a state of panic as she looked and her console again and spoke loudly. "Those maniacs, one of the ships is closing in fast on the shuttlebay!"


Twilight then wiped her forehead as she tapped her console and gave her next order. "Security, I want all decks on alert, send assault teams to the shuttlebay and have them ready, don't let them get through!" She then tapped her comms panel again as she looked to Trixie and Dash. "Dash, Trixie, get down to Deck 3 and hold the line near the bridge!"


Dash nodded before Trixie looked to Starlight and motioned her to follow behind, Scootaloo joined in and the four entered the turbolift, which closed as they waited to arrive at Deck 3.


~U.S.S. Equestria Shuttlebay~


The area was bustling with noise as several officers and soldiers gathered at the edge of the shuttlebay, standing their ground near the entrances as they waited for the ship to arrive. The troops were all wearing EV suits in case things were to get dicey, holding several different weapons in their hands as they stood ready to strike. Troops were still coming through the doors of the room when the shuttlebay doors burst apart, and a small mound of hull filled the area, the ship didn't waver the troops, however, as they still stood on the floor of the ship while the unremoved shuttles were sucked out into space. 


Several command officers were giving orders to their troops before a small section of the ship was cut into from the inside and shot away from the ship seconds later, but the soldiers didn't have time to react as a wave of green bolts of energy shot out from the opening, hitting several soldiers and killing them swiftly as the troops started to take cover. When the shots became less rapid, the remaining soldiers broke their cover and got a good look at the attackers, they were larger than an average human, and seemed to have large arms at their sides, as well as wearing grey colored suits that lit in purple as they stepped out. Wasting no time, the soldiers lit the area up with phaser fire as they struck a few enemy troopers, but the Tzenkethi were already tearing them apart as they quickly took out most of the remaining troops. One soldier smacked one of the officers attacking him physically off of him as he quickly tapped his weapon and aimed it at the last line of troops, the weapon firing a blue wave of energy that forced the soldiers to the ground unmoving. 


The soldier then lifted his arm up and tapped the wristband on it before speaking in a deep, distorted voice. "All of the defenses have been taken care of sir, you are clear to board." He then turned back to the ship as a being stepped out of the opening moments later, he was wearing similar armor like the others, but he seemed to have a slight amount of gold on the armor, as well as two bulky gauntlets that seemed to look like wrist blades. 


He then gave a low growl as he spoke to his men in a low, but vicious manner. "Tear this ship apart until you find what we need, kill anyone that tries to interfere with our plans." The soldiers then turned and went towards the shuttlebay doors, some of the equipment being sucked out as they started to enter through to the other side, the leader then stood and held his ground alongside his two guards as they waited for enemy reinforcements to arrive.


................


The decks were in near complete darkness as the turbolift doors opened, two pegasi and unicorns emerging from the inside as they readied themselves for combat. Dash held her phaser pistol in her hoof as the others took position near a few broken pieces from the walls and ceiling, Scootaloo pulling out her tricorder and tapping a few buttons before speaking up a few seconds later. "I'm picking up several enemy troopers heading towards sickbay, Fluttershy won't last long if someone doesn't cover her flank!"


Dash snarled in annoyance as she looked to her sister-in-arms as she responded. "Well, let me see if I can get to Twilight, keep a lookout." Scootaloo nodded and pointed her rifle at the hallway, keeping an eye out for the Tzenkethi while Dash tapped on her communicator. "Dash to Sparkle, bad news, Fluttershy'll be pinned down if we don't get someone to help her out over there, should we head over there or call in another squad?"


"Try and get there before they can, Dash, get her and her team out of there and then continue holding the line." 


Dash smiled as she finished her talk before keeping focus on the hallway. "Got it, Dash out." 


Behind the two mares, Starlight could see an officer pinned under a broken piece of metal from the ceiling, worried, she ran over to check the officer. Pulling out her scanner, she tapped a few buttons on it and waited for a moment before she got her results. "He's still alive, but very faint." She then gritted her teeth as her horn then glowed in a turquoise aura before the piece of hull lifted and was moved over to a clear spot before the aura faded and the metal fell to the ground. Starlight then used her magic again to lift the officer onto her back and began her walk back to the trio before she heard Trixie speaking in a panicked tone as she pointed a hoof towards the window nearby.


"Starlight, RUN!" Starlight looked to the window to see a small Tzenkethi ship speeding towards the hallway, coming closer to their section of the ship before the mare raced to the group, Trixie tapping a wall console as she stood behind them. A force field activated in front of the four equines as the ship tore through the hull, the four ponies all being knocked to the ground from the impact of the ship. Fortunately, the force field remained active, but the ship was dangerously close to them, about a few meters away. A section of the hull was cut into from the inside and shot off seconds later before several large troopers came out of the opening and examined the area.


The four equines all got up and took cover as they took a peek at the hallway, seeing the troopers standing within it, Starlight then turned to Dash and asked her, "Now how are we gonna get there in time?! They've cut off the quickest route!"


Dash frowned as she answered her friend. "I think it's safe to assume that the shuttlebay is lost by now, if they're doing this... I don't know what else we can do."


"We still have Fluttershy to help out." Scootaloo said before Dash replied.


"Right, let's go!" The four ponies then looked around for another way through, they saw another hallway near the turbolift that followed down to the inner sections of the ship, smiling, Dash and the others ran into the hallways without hesitation, hoping that sickbay was still under control and their friend was alright...


.....................


On the bridge, Twilight kept her eyes on the viewscreen, the fleet was distracting the larger ships in the enemy fleet so far, but some of the smaller ships were trying to make suicidal runs at the ship, trying to crash into it. Fortunately, the Amarillo kept them away from the Princess' flagship as the battle continued on. Applebloom was attending to the helm console as she spoke to Twilight. "Those ships are packin' a mighty punch, I don't know how we'll be able to hold them off for much longer!"


Twilight gritted her teeth as she looked to Rarity. "Rarity, how're those shuttles? Are they out yet?!"


"They should already be launching by now, let me see if I can get a visual." Rarity said as she tapped her console a few times before the screen changed to show the aft section of the ship. Several small ships with red and blue as the only glowing colors were leaving the damaged, but still operational shuttlebay, but several Tzenkethi ships were firing their weapons at the small ships, obliterating them with ease as more kept flying out from the ship.


"They're killing our crew, Twilight, they're not even trying to beam any of them off of the ships!" Rarity said with horror as they watched the shuttles take more and more shots every second. Pinkie Pie then gave a worried look as she looked at her console before turning to Twilight. 


"Twilight, one of those meanies is targeting the bridge!" The Princess gasped as the screen then changed to show a large Tzenkethi warship, most likely a dreadnought, hovering over them as it's torpedo bay glowed a bright red as Bow Hothoof yelped in a panic.


"They're gonna kill us! We need to get outta here!" Twilight grew stern as her horn glowed, everyone in the room vanished upon a bright pinkish-white flash in the room, leaving the bridge empty as the warship fired, the torpedo blowing the bridge away seconds later.


In sickbay, Fluttershy was attending to several injured officers along with her staff members, near her were several of the gathered visitors that came with Bow and Windy on the tour. Fluttershy pressed a small device against an officers shoulder, a hissing sound being heard as the mare released the pressure placed on him. "There, I think you'll be okay now." The officer then stood as he began to continue his task of protecting the medbay while Fluttershy turned to the group of civilians, noticing two of them, one being a mare with a whitish-orange coat with brown hair and a baby bottle for a cutie mark, while the other had a brown coat and orange hair and a orange and white cap with a green spinning piece on it, she trotted over to them and pulled out a small tube that contained a colorful liquid and began to place it into the device. "Now, this won't hurt a bit, Mr. Mash." 


She placed the small device on the Button Mash's forearm, the device once again making a hissing noise as she began to pull the device off of his arm. A second after that, however, a bright flash appeared in the room before Twilight and the rest of the bridge crew as well as Bow and Windy appeared within the room. Fluttershy gasped in surprise at first, but grew worried as she trotted up to the Princess and asked her, "What's wrong? Why aren't you all on the bridge?"


Twilight gave a frown as she answered the medical mare. "The Tzenkethi fired a torpedo at us in an attempt to stop the ship, had it not been for my magic, we would've been dead." Fluttershy and the others gave panicked looks and horrified gasps as Button Mash spoke.


"We're not gonna die, are we?!" He said as he started to tear up, Sweetie Belle trotting over to him as Twilight spoke.


"Not if I have anything to say about it." Twilight turned towards a wall console near the door and trotted over to it, tapping it as she spoke. "Sparkle to Dash, are you OK down there?"


"Yeah, we nearly got crushed by another ship here, but we're okay. We're heading to sickbay right now, we've got wounded here!"


The group gave worried looks as Twilight replied to the speedster pony. "Good, that saves me some trouble, and... you may want to get ready for a rough ride, we won't be staying onboard long."


"What?! What do you mean, Twilight?"


"I'll explain when you get here, just get here as quick as you can, Sparkle out." Twilight turned off the comms panel before tapping a few buttons on it again and speaking once more. "Attention all hands, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, as of now..." She looked to her friends before continuing. "..I herby order all hands to abandon ship, I repeat, abandon ship. Get to the escape pods and keep yourselves alive until a rescue comes for us.... Sparkle out."


She turned the comms off once again, turning towards her friends, who all had shocked faces as Rarity spoke. "You.. you can't be serious, Twilight."


Twilight gave a solemn look as she replied. "I know, Rarity, I don't want to either.. but the Tzenkethi have taken out our weapons, shields, and the bridge, and even if the battle bridge on the stardrive is intact, we can't use it without the nacelles anyway... we have no choice."


Rarity started to hold tears in her eyes, but wiped them away as she responded. "Well... so be it then, I'll miss this ship."


"So will I, Rarity, so will I, now Fluttershy, do you have everyone fixed up and ready?" Twilight asked the pegasus as she answered.


"Yes, there's a few survival kits and suits that I have in that storage compartment over there, if I can have enough time to get everything ready before the Tzenkethi get to us, I think we'll be set." Twilight nodded as Fluttershy turned to the mentioned compartment and, along with a few other officers, began to open it and grab supplies out from it. Twilight then turned to the doors of sickbay, waiting for Dash and her team to come through them soon....
> Chapter IV: A Dangerous Trap - Part II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hallways were dark and blazing with fire, smoke and electricity as the four ponies made their way through the ship's broken interior, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo keeping their weapons at bay as they trotted to sickbay. After checking the readout of the ship, they found that the ship was not only severely damaged, but she was also being swarmed by several squads of Tzenkethi troops with ease, while the crew had their tactical training, they hadn't been prepared for such a quick move by an old threat. What worried Dash more was what Twilight was planning, only mere moments ago did she hear her friend's voice giving the go on evacuating the Equestria, and if they were indeed doing it, she'd have a bone to pick with the giant warriors for taking away her ship. 


Nearing the end of the hall, Scootaloo held her hoof up and swung her head around the wall to get a peek of the next hall, she could see a few guards near the doors of what she assumed was sickbay. Smiling, she looked to her friends behind her and motioned them to follow her.


The guards turned and had their weapons ready, but lowered them upon seeing the four equines coming around the hall, as Starlight and Trixie trotted over to the line of officers guarding the other side of the hallway, Dash looked to one of the security guards and spoke to them. "How's the lookout? Anyone in there hurt?"


"Only a few, the Princess is in there with the rest of the crew since the bridge was destroyed, but they're fine."


Dash gave a frown as she replied to the soldier. "Well, we should keep this place safe and ready for transport to the Aquarius, we'll need something to get off of this ship."


Trixie and Starlight were crouched at one of the farther arms of the defensive barricades, keeping their weapons ready as Starlight looked to her friend and asked, "Well, probably not the safest spot to ch-" She was cut off as they saw a faint dark blue field appear and then vanish before revealing a large being standing over them, he was wearing dark grey armor that had sections that lit up in purple. The Tzenkethi was soon joined by several other soldiers, who'd appeared in a similar fashion behind him as they readied their weapons.


The warrior in front of the two mares had lifted an arm up, a blade appearing from his gauntlet as he prepared to strike at the purple unicorn. "Starlight, NO!" Trixie then lunged at her friend, knocking her out of the way has she quickly got up and using her magic to form a blade-like weapon out of it, the weapon striking the Tzenkethi's as the two engaged in a duel. "Starlight, get over there and help the others!" Starlight nodded as she quickly trotted past the officers near her, who, despite being wiped out viciously, were focusing their efforts on the sudden attack in front of them.


Rainbow and Scootaloo were focusing their fire on the Tzenkethi with no trouble at all, taking out several of them before they'd left only two left, including the one fighting Trixie. Starlight trotted over and joined the two, aiming her weapon and firing at the last warrior that was coming at them, vaporizing him.


Trixie was keeping her ground with the Tzenkethi, she'd taken several tactical training sessions with Dash over her service, but while she had taken a lesson in fighting a Tzenkethi, this one had more up his sleeve than she expected. As she swung her magic blade at the Tzenkethi, the soldier smacked his blade against hers, grinding the two for a moment before the blades swung off of each other, having the chance, the warrior swung out his arm at Trixie quicker than she expected, stunning the mare for a moment before swinging his blade at the horn, cutting its upper half off with a loud crackling slice. Trixie let out an ear-piercing scream before the soldier in front of her smacked her again, knocking her down to the ground on her back. 


"NO!!" Starlight yelled as her horn glowed in a turquoise color, the Tzenkethi's arm also being enveloped by the aura before Trixie, with strength gathered from the pain of losing her horn, used her hind legs to kick at the soldier above her, knocking him down before pulling out her pistol and firing at the warrior, finally killing him.


With no enemies in sight, Starlight galloped over to Trixie, who was standing up and holding her head in pain and with tears in her eyes as Starlight spoke to her. "Come on, let's get to sickbay!" Starlight used her magic to grab the broken piece of the horn as she and the injured magician trotted over to the doors of the medical room. 


Upon entering, Twilight turned her head to see the two mares, and upon seeing Trixie, let out a horrified gasp as Starlight spoke to her. "She was fighting one of those Tzenkethi outside, can you get a med-kit for her please?" 


Twilight looked to Fluttershy, who'd taken a moment to look at the two visitors. Noticing Trixie's injury, she trotted over with a worried look as she examined it. "I think we can fix that, but we're just starting to get our supplies for the evacuation ready, and it's already packed up, can you hold until we reach the surface?" Trixie gritted her teeth in pain again before nodding to the Pegasus and taking a rest on one of the beds. Twilight looked to Flash as she spoke to him.


"We should go and help out Dash while they're getting ready." Flash nodded as he pulled out his spear with his wing, Twilight pulling out her phaser as the two trotted out the doors. When they came out, several more Tzenkethi had already shown up and were firing at Dash and Scootaloo. 


Scootaloo took a moment to duck, pulling out a few photon grenades and readying her rifle before she broke cover and shouted, "Fire in the hole!" and throwing three grenades, which exploded around the Tzenkethi seconds later. One of the warriors was still alive, however, and aimed his weapon at Scootaloo and fired, the bolt hitting the filly on her right forearm and forcing a yelp from her, but she still stood and retaliated with a shot that struck the Tzenkethi in the chest, knocking him down for good.


"Scoots!" Dash yelled as she went over to Scootaloo in worry.


"I'm fine, just a little bit hurt." Scootaloo said as she and Dash took another look at the hallway, two more were heading towards them. Dash and Scootaloo readied their weapons, but Twilight looked to them with a stern look and spoke to them.


"Get inside sickbay, we'll take care of these two!" Dash nodded as she and Scootaloo galloped to the doors of sickbay. Twilight aimed her rifle at the leading warrior in front of her and fired, the shot taking out the shields protecting the soldier, while Flash readied his staff and struck the other Tzenkethi's blade. Twilight then fired another shot out at the incoming trooper as she flew in the air with her wings, striking the warrior in the head as he fell to the ground. She looked to see Flash making swift moves around the other Tzenkethi as he managed to smack the warrior back with a rough strike to the blade. Without hesitation, he struck the blade into the Tzenkethi, the soldier standing for a moment before falling to the ground lifeless as the guard pulled out the blade. Twilight and Flash looked to each other as the Princess spoke again. "I'm sure glad I have you by me and Spike's side, Flash."


"As I've said, I'm always happy to help." Flash replied as the two then made their way back into the medical room. Twilight then looked to Fluttershy, who let out a smile as she spoke to the Princess.


"Twilight, I've gotten everything prepped and ready, I've also checked the ship and it seems everyone has evacuated but us, so should we get ready to make our way down there?"


"No, I'll get us there in time... but first," She looked to the wall console near the door as she finished. "...we have one last thing to do. Rarity? Dash?" The two mares looked to her with sad expressions, but nodded after a moment and followed her to the console. Twilight tapped the panel a few times before speaking. "Computer, initiate self-destruct sequence, authorization Twilight-Alpha-775." The screen then changed to show the code that Twilight had revealed to the computer, as well as two other blank sections as Rarity spoke.


"Computer, Commander Rarity Belle, Chief Science officer, destruct sequence Belle-Delta-Gamma-304." The first blank section changed to show Rarity's command code before Dash spoke as well. 


"Computer, Commander Rainbow Dash, Chief Tactical officer and Pilot, destruct sequence Rainbow-Delta-Theta-236."


The last bar changed to show the code Dash had given to the computer, which then changed to show a blank section as it spoke. "COMMAND CODES AUTHORIZED FOR SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE, AWAITING FINAL CODE."


"Computer, Admiral Twilight, code 101010, 60 seconds silent countdown." Twilight waited a moment as she looked to her two friends and the others behind her as she spoke again. "Enable."


The screen then changed to a message in red text as the computer spoke one last time. "SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED FOR 1:00, THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER AUDIO WARNINGS."


Twilight then looked to the group behind her as she spoke. "Well, we don't have much time, once we're there, get into your seats immediately!" Upon her sentence, the Princess' horn glowed magenta as a flash appeared around the group before they appeared in the main section of the Aquarius. Without a second of thinking, everyone got into whatever seats they were near. Twilight and her friends sat themselves in their seats as Dash hit a button on her console and everyone was held by straps holding them to the seat. Twilight looked to Dash and ordered, "Dash, emergency launch, get us away from the ship!" Dash nodded as she quickly tapped the console and the ship jerked back, the windows showing the docking port for the Aquarius getting farther out as the ship turned towards the planet and sped off towards the surface.


"Everyone hold on, it's gonna get rocky!" Dash said before she looked to the left side of the ship to see a piece of debris coming towards them fast.


"Dash, watch o-" Pinkie tried to say, but was cut off as the ship was struck by the small piece, spinning out of control as they saw the port nacelle breaking off of the ship.


In orbit, the Equestria was being torn apart by the Tzenkethi warships, the hull burning in fire as the ship slowly started to fall down to the surface. The computer screen in sickbay was flickering with static as it counted down, several Tzenkethi guards entered the room to see no one inside, the computer screen was counting down and had reached it's 5-second mark once the soldiers saw it. "05, 04, 03, 02, 01." Upon reaching the last second, the ship's stardrive section was the first to blow, the hull being blown away as the saucer went next, breaking apart in a blaze of fire as the ship made several more explosions, creating a fireball of metal and death that sped towards the atmosphere.


The Aquarius wasn't being shown any mercy either, despite finally stopping it's spinning from the impact of the debris thanks to Dash's piloting skills, the ship was moving towards the surface at a uncontrollably fast rate. Orange waves of heat covered the windows of the bridge as the crew held on for dear life. When the orange clouds, which began turning white in mere moments cleared, Dash noticed the surface, it had several mountains in the area that towered over the grassy plains below, the mountains seemed to look to be sharp and bark-like, as they didn't have the random rough curving that most mountains on Earth had. There was also a strange cliff out in the distance, which seemed to lead out to the ocean as the ship fell. Dash looked to her console, which had a large section of red text that read, "LANDING GEAR DAMAGED."


Dash looked to her friends behind her as she yelled, "Everyone hang on, We're gonna crash!" 


Rarity's pupils shrunk as she and Fluttershy closed their eyes as the ship came down. Upon impact, Rarity let out a terrified scream as the ship smacked against the ground and sled across the grassy plain. One section of the grass, a large bulge, hit the right side of the ship and tore the starboard nacelle off in the process. The ship kept sliding across the plain, metal and dirt grinding and flying into the air until it finally slowed and came to a halt, the ship's metal groaning under the applied friction between the grass. When the smoke and airborne dirt cleared, the ship sat still, a few small fires and a few lights remaining active as the ship let out a dying creak, sitting on the torn grass as broken parts of hull hung and started to fall from the ship.
> Chapter V: Assessing the Damage
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The light within the ship was dead as the only remaining lights that were working were flickering, the broken ones spraying sparks around the room. Small patches of smoke and a few fires were spread throughout the room as coughing and grunting voices sounded as well. After most of the smoke dissipated from the room, Rainbow Dash coughed a few more times before opening her eyes and looking to the console. The screen was cracked all over, unable to function as a result from the crash. Once she checked herself for injuries and finding only bruises and a bad cut on her right forearm, she turned to see the others in their seats, some letting out a few coughs as the smoke finally cleared out completely. The rest of the room wasn't anymore fortunate, broken pieces of metal and glass littered the room, making walking a little painful. Dash took a good breath of air for a moment before she spoke up from the crew. "Is everyone alright?"


Twilight tapped her lock with her hoof as she started to fly with her wings as she spoke. "I'm okay!" The Princess then looked to Flash, who'd done the same actions as Twilight and formed up next to her. The three equines then heard a few other voices speaking out to signal their presence.


"I'm okay." Fluttershy said as she freed herself from her seat.


"I'm only getting a few-AGH, cuts, but I'm alive." Rarity said as she attempted to get her sister out of her restraints.


"My balloon's still flying!" Pinkie said as she stood from her seat.


Dash then freed herself from her restraints and stood on her hooves as she looked to the crowd of survivors, there was a lot of movement, and upon taking to the air for a better view, she noticed that everyone seemed to be alright, save for one. As she examined the group, she heard a loud cry of pain from her right, and turning to it, noticed Windy Whistles holding onto Bow Hothoof, who had been struck in his stomach with a piece of metal that most likely flew into his chest, his wound leaking blood as Dash grew a terrified look.


"Dad!" Dash yelped as she streaked towards her parents, Bow grunting from the pain in his stomach as Windy shed hot tears down her face. Dash stood on her hooves with caution as she inspected the wound with her tricorder. Upon getting results, she gave a worried look as she spoke to her parents. "It hit you in the stomach, if you don't get medical attention, you'll bleed out!" 


Windy then turned to the front of the ship as she yelled out. "We need a doctor over here!" She said as she raised a hoof into the air before Fluttershy took to the air and flew over to them, her expression turning to one of panic as Dash spoke to her.


"Fluttershy, get a first-aid, quick, my dad will die if we don't!" Fluttershy nodded as she raced to the back of the room to get the supplies out. Dash then looked to her dad, his wound bleeding out as she spoke to her mother. "Mom, help me get his shirt off."


"What good'll that do?!" Windy asked in worry.


"I can use it to stop the blood, it'll take a moment for Fluttershy to get the gear needed to heal dad here, so we'll need a substitute for the moment." Windy then tapped the button on the belt, which Dash pulled apart as she then proceeded to tear her dad's shirt off of him, slightly wadding it up and placing it on Bow's stomach.


Twilight looked to the windows at the front of the ship, thinking about where they were, she charged up her horn before blasting it with a bolt of magic, the glass breaking apart and getting a few screams from the crowd as Twilight flew down and grabbed Spike, who held onto her as the two flew out the window, Flash joining them a moment later. The crowd inside the ship gathered near the window, Rarity and Sweetie Belle appearing in a flash on top of the ship's nose as Twilight and Flash examined the world they were on. Other than the grassy plains and the strange mountains they could see, they flew higher to get a good view of the back, the ship had left a trail of torn dirt and grass in it's wake.


"What a beautiful world, Spike, I can't even think of the possibility that the Tzenkethi would try and destroy this place." Twilight said as her partner replied to her.


"Well, if we can find a way to get off this world, then we might be able to do that, Twi." The dragon said as he observed the grassy land in front of him. The trio then heard a booming sound behind them and turned around, only to see a fireball slowly coming down from the heavens, several parts of the burning wreck flying away from the main one.


Twilight and Flash hovered in the air as they watched the ship burn, tears starting to well in Twilight's eyes as she spoke. "All that power they used on us, there was no way we could've saved her.."


Flash looked to his Princess as he spoke to her. "We didn't know, Twilight, it was bound to happen anyway." They heard a low whimper nearby, and the two looked down to see Rarity wiping her eyes as she cried at the sight of her dead ship falling to it's grave. Twilight frowned solemnly as she spoke to the fashionista.


"I'm sorry we couldn't save our home Rarity, she was a good ship." 


Rarity wiped her eyes again before looking up as she replied. "Indeed, Twilight..*sniff*... don't worry about it, *sniff* at least.... at least she gave the last *sniff* shot." 


Twilight and Flash then flew back towards the window, Spike hopping off of the Princess' back as she used her magic to clear the glass out of the pathways while the trio stood in the room. At this point, everyone was out of their seats and were tending to their injuries as Pinkie trotted up to the Princess and spoke to her. "Other than a few scratches and boo-boos, everyone's okay, Dashie's dad is hurt in the stomach, and while some of the supplies were damaged, we've just gotten all we could get. Should we start looking for that Tzenkethi we were looking for?"


Twilight looked to the room again, she saw several security officers standing with the others, and taking another look out the broken window, she looked to the party pony before she answered. "Yes, I want our security guards keeping everyone here safe while our team is out. Flash, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Starlight, Trixie, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and I will head out so we can search for the Tzenkethi ship..... By the way, how close are we to them?" 


Pinkie looked around the room before finding a damaged, but operable console and trotting to it, tapping a few buttons, she smiled as she gave her answer. "They're only a few miles, but there's another signature near the ocean over there."


Twilight raised an eyebrow as she responded. "Really? Can you identify what it is?"


"I'm not sure, our sensors are badly damaged, but from what I can get, it seems to be a Starfleet signature."


"Starfleet? How..... How would a Federation ship have made it to this area of space before us?" Spike asked in shock as Pinkie Pie replied.


"Beats me, maybe it could've been one of those ships from K-13 and they didn't return."


"Maybe, but we'll have to figure that out later, we've got a job to do." Twilight said as she looked to the crowd in the room. "Everyone, listen up!" She waited until everyone focused their eyes onto Twilight as she began. "I'm planning to lead a small team out to find the Tzenkethi adversary we were looking for before the attack, Flash, Rarity, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Starlight, and Trixie will be a part of the team and we'll most likely be gone for some time. I'm placing my remaining security officers on guard of this area and all of you and I also want a few of you to keep an eye out for any falling escape pods coming towards the surface until we return. Any objections?" The crowd looked to each other and around the room before the shook their heads and Twilight finished. "Good, now get yourselves ready and fixed up, who knows how long we have until they start looking for us."


The group then continued to converse with each other, the summoned team members trotting or flying towards Twilight as the Princess looked at her side, her weapons and gear were all placed in their sockets, and her combadge was still intact. Pinkie Pie then handed Twilight a isolinear chip, which the Princess placed into her tricorder. Rainbow Dash was still standing at her dad's side, still bearing a worried expression like her mother as Twilight trotted over to her and the pegasus asked her, "Twilight, if it's not a problem, can I please stay here to tend to my dad here? He's hurt pretty ba-"


She said but was stopped by her dad, who tried to give a smile as he spoke. "N-no, Dashie, I'll be fine, you just help your friend with your job, got it?" Dash gave a faint smile before nodding and looking to her mother who spoke to her.


"Don't worry Dash, I'll take care of him, you go and find those guys." With that, Dash stood and went to Twilight's side as the Princess spoke.


"Don't worry, Mrs. Whistles, your daughter will be fine, just try to stay alive here. We'll be coming back." Windy nodded before Twilight's group gathered together and Twilight's horn glowed before a flash appeared, the team vanishing after it dissipated.


Another flash appeared outside the ship before the group appeared and began to look at their surroundings, Twilight then pulled out her Tricorder as she tapped a few buttons on it. She looked at the device until it showed the results. "Alright, so if the data is correct, we'll need to head this way in order to reach the ship. Everyone's got their weapons, right?"


Dash looked to the others, seeing weapons in their pockets and holsters before she spoke. "All set Twi, we're ready on your word." 


"Very well then, follow me." Twilight then turned towards a pair of mountains, which both stood tall between a lush, pink colored, forest-like area with small and large hills as the group followed suite, each of them giving slight glances at random areas of the land as they ventured into the forest.


.....................


The hike had gone on for about 2 hours now, not a single escape pod had crashed near them, neither had a Tzenkethi patrol come down to finish them off, what they had been doing besides walking, however, was taking an observation of the forest they were now in. The trees seemed to look similar to Earth Trees, but there were several pearl-like bulges on certain parts of each tree, and instead of leaves, the trees seemed to sport what looked to be flowers, but when Fluttershy took a scan of it, the results showed a liquid within the veins of each of the 'flower leaves', possibly the blood for the tree, not only that, but upon another look at the flowers, they seemed to move in a manner similar to a human's body when it's taking a breath. Around certain trees, there were what seemed to be strange roots that had a hole on the tips of each of them, what was inside of the roots was anyone's guess, but when Fluttershy took a scan of one of them, it seemed to have an acid-like substance within them, and Fluttershy wasn't willing to risk triggering it at the chance of accidentally hurting herself or her friends, so she went on with the rest of the group.


The group continued on trotting through the forest, some of them taking glances at different areas of the forest for trouble as Rainbow Dash spoke up. "I don't mean to seem impatient, but how close are we to the ship at this point?"


Twilight took a look at her tricorder before she answered her friend. "From what I can tell, we're almost there, once we clear this forest we should get some kind of view of the Tzenkethi ship. Once we find it, we'll go in and try to find them."


Applebloom took a sip of her water-filled thermos as she spoke to her friends. "Well, since they called us out to this place and being stranded here at the cost of our ship, if they are pulling a scheme on us, what do we do then?"


"Then we'll just do what we're gonna do to those guys up in space if that's the case." Dash said as she frowned at the thought of another trap, she'd already lost her ship and some of her colleagues to those invaders thanks to the 'distress call', and she wasn't going to have it one bit if she indeed did end up fighting their target upon arriving there.


The group was forced to stop their thinking as they heard a loud male voice from out of nowhere. "HALT! Drop your weapons!" The group looked around the forest before they spotted the speaker, he had thick eyebrows, as well as pointed ears, and he was wearing a uniform that seemed to resemble Romulan attire, but none of the group could pinpoint what generation of uniform the officer was wearing, nor did they have time to as several more beings wearing similar uniforms appeared from behind the trees and began to gather behind the officer, some of them circling around the group. Twilight stood firmly as she spoke to the lead officer. "Well, I wasn't expecting to deal with Tal Shiar outcasts in these parts of the sector." She said with a chuckle.


The officer kept his weapon at the ready and examined Twilight as he spoke to the alicorn. "You are mistaken, young equine, but we are of the Romulan Navy, and you are violating ground claimed by the Romulan Star Empire, you will be escorted to a nearby refuge where you'll all be tried of your crimes." 


Rainbow Dash gave a raised eyebrow as she questioned the officer. "Crimes?! When did you claim this area of space? I didn't see any Romulan structures in orbit of this world, and by the way, the 'Romulan Star Empire' is no more these days after the Hobus supernova! If there's any government that the Romulans have made nowadays, it's the Romulan Republic!"


The officer was about to strike the pegasus with his hand but stopped as he gave a curious glare at Dash. "Strange, how do you know of the Empire and it's history? I don't remember ever hearing of a supernova that put an end to the Empi-" The Romulan officer was cut off as he and the two groups heard and saw a yellow energy bolt flying across the area before it struck one of the trees, an orange ring of heat expanding out before finally stopping and leaving a scar in the tree.


"AMBUSH! Stand your ground, troops!" The officer said as they separated and took cover behind several of the trees, Twilight and the others grabbing their weapons and galloping to another section of trees. Twilight aimed her weapon at one of the Romulans and fired, an orange phaser bolt striking the soldier before he collapsed on the ground. After taking cover behind a tree, Twilight then took a peek around the area before she spotted the newer arrival that was now taking cover, the being was humanoid, but was wearing different attire than the Romulans, the uniform seemed to resemble a Starfleet uniform from the 21st Century, but upon closer inspection, she noticed something different on the uniform, but was unable to examine further as a green bolt hit the tree she was standing behind, Flash making a retaliation shot at another Romulan with his rifle before taking cover once again. 


Starlight tapped a few buttons on her phaser pistol before breaking cover from her tree and firing at one of the officers, who was struck by the blast and glowed in bright red before disintegrating into vapor. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were having no trouble fighting either, as they had deployed a shield in front of them as they threw a few photon and plasma grenades out into the field, which later exploded and struck two of the now eight remaining officers, falling as they let out cries of pain from the blast.


After taking another shot at one of the soldiers, Twilight turned to Flash and spoke to the guard. "Flash, cover me, I'm going to get a good look at that other guy over there!" Flash nodded and readied his rifle. Upon Flash's confirming nod, Twilight sprinted towards the human on the other side, a few green bolts flying by her as Flash made several shots at three of Twilight's attackers, who fell to the ground after being hit by his shots. Twilight then took cover behind a tree that was right next to the human's tree before taking another look at him, he was definitely wearing a similar uniform to the 23rd Century style attire, but it seemed to have more detail to it, a diamond pattern was spread out all over the shirt part of the uniform, while the pants were pretty much the same as the ones Twilight had seen. The human gave a look to the alicorn before he spoke up.


"Can you help me out here?! We're all dead if we don't finish these pointy-eared bastards off!" Twilight nodded as she broke cover and aimed and fired her weapon at one of the soldiers, the bolt hitting the officer as he fell to the ground not a second later. She then charged her horn and fired a bolt of magic at another soldier, who collapsed to the ground upon being struck by the blast. The Princess then took a look at the rest of the area, only three of them we're left standing behind the trees.


The human turned to her and gave a smirk before he spoke. "Good shooting, I think I can handle the rest! Can you hand me your weapon?" The Princess nodded before tossing the officer the weapon before he broke cover and fired at two of the remaining exposed officers, who fell from the impact of the shots moments later. Taking cover again, he flicked a spot on his pistol before the main barrel of the weapon flicked to show a blue-colored version of the same barrel before he broke cover and took one last shot at the officer, a blue bolt hitting the soldier on his chest before he fell to the ground and lay still.


Twilight's eyes shrunk in surprise of the weapon's abilities, while it seemed to be similar to a phaser from yesteryear, she'd never seen one do something like that before. The officer then looked to her and handed her weapon back to her before he spoke again. "Thanks for the help there, I almost thought we wouldn't make it out of this." Twilight then took a moment to examine the officer's face, he had green eyes like Wyatt, but he did have some differentiations, for one thing no mutton chops like her friend had. The officer gave a curious look as he spoke to Twilight. "Is something wrong miss?"


Twilight snapped out of her examination as she responded to the human. "Oh, no, I was just taking a look at you, you look familiar to someone I know."


The human gave a smile as he spoke to her again. "Really? Well I guess we'd be great pals, huh?" He said as the two made their way to the stunned officer, Twilight's friends joining up with her a moment after. "The names John, Captain of the U.S.S. Antares, I was out here investigating the remains of an attacking Romulan ship that followed us here a while ago, but after destroying it, we started to pick up several ships within the sector, so we took cover within the oceans of this planet. I was leading an away team down here to find any remaining Romulans that had beamed down here, and after a few skirmishes, I'm the only one left of the team."


Twilight gave a confused look at the officer's explanation as she thought, holding a hoof up to her chin before she gasped in surprise. "Wait, you're not that one ancestor of Admiral Wyatt, are you?!"


"What do you mean?" John asked the Princess.


"Captain John Edward Stone, the Admiral has the same last name as yours, I'd read about your missions when I was checking his family history out of curiosity a while back, I believe I remember him looking similar to you, but with a few differentiations to your exact self, of course."


John gave a shrug as he responded to this information. "Well, I do have a family back at Earth, but I've never heard of a man that shares my last name that is one of my descendants. When this is over, I'd be happy to meet him."


Twilight took another look at John as he knelt down to take some of the downed Romulan's supplies before she spoke again. "Well, one other thing is, what class is the Antares?"


"She's a Constitution class Command Cruiser, one of the most powerful ships we've built next to the Vengeance class." 


Starlight gave a confused look at the Captain before asking, "Vengeance class? I've never heard of a ship with that name before, is it some kind of prototype?"


John stood and took a breath as he answered the mare. "It was, but while the first one was destroyed by the U.S.S. Enterprise thanks to Commander Spock's efforts, the Federation had learned of it's combat capabilities from the crew, so they've been building more of them in order to be ready for a war with the Klingon Empire."


Scootaloo gave a curious look as she thought for a moment before speaking up. "Wait, aren't you the Captain's duplicate from the Kelvin Timeline?!" 


"Kelvin Timeline?" John asked in confusion as the filly continued.


"Well, you see, I'd gotten some time to speak with Wyatt after an incident with the now defeated TLF, and he told me of one of his ventures involving the Sphere Builders, he said that he'd gotten to learn more about the Kelvin Timeline from Daniels, and he told me and my pals here about the Vengeance." She said with a grin as the Captain replied.


"The Sphere Builders? You've dealt with them too?" He asked in shock.


"Yes, we fought in the Temporal Cold War, and your realm was one of those involved." Twilight said as the Captain spoke again.


"Well, I'll definitely be happy to be getting to know you all, by the way, how did you get down here?" John asked as he looked to Twilight and her friends.


"We... we were attacked by a race known as the Tzenkethi, an old enemy of the Federation. Me and my friends had picked up a distress call from someone named Tzen Terrak, who claimed that he wanted to help us out on stopping his superiors from using protomatter torpedoes to exterminate innocent worlds far from the Federation and it's allies, but when we arrived with a fleet, we were attacked and my crew and I evacuated and destroyed our ship before ending up down here. We're heading this way so we can meet them."


John gave a stunned look at the Princess' story before he spoke up. "Well, my ship is on the other side of where we're heading, so I think I can help out with this, may I come along?" Twilight nodded as she looked to her friends before she noticed something, Trixie was missing from the group. She was almost about to call out for her, but halted when she heard a voice coming from the edge of the forest. The group turned to see a blurry form of Trixie looking to them as she yelled to them.


"Guys, I think we've made it to our target!" Twilight and the group trotted over to the magician as they joined her at the end of the forest. The group then took a look at the sight below them, the edge of the forest seemed to be a cliff, and on the ground below were a few more mountains up ahead, which still gave a good view of the sunset. More plains and hills filled the open area below, as well as another sight, a small ship with a dark brown colored hull and bright orange lights on it. 


Twilight smiled as she noticed Terrak's ship before speaking. "Well everyone, I think we've finally found our friend there."


"So, am I gonna have John on my back, or are we gonna make our way down through another path?" Dash asked as the Princess answered her.


"No, I've got another idea..." Twilight said as her horn glowed in a magenta color before a flash appeared around the group, who all disappeared upon the flash vanishing away as soon as it came....
> Chapter VI: Followed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Planetary orbit


The battlefield was dark and unceasingly noisy as Alliance ships flew towards the enemy ships, firing beams, pulse lasers and torpedoes at several of them as they made their attack runs at the Tzenkethi. The fighting was bloody and deadly, while the Tzenkethi ships were being taken out one by one by the attacking ships, usually two runs for each ship to destroy them, the Alliance fleet wasn't doing well either. The sudden attack had taken the Equestria out of the sky, allowing the Tzenkethi to attack the Amarillo and her allies with a high advantage, not only that, but several escorts were destroyed by the defending frigates the Tzenkethi had deployed around their flagship, protecting it from even the strongest of the Alliance fleet. But the Alliance was pulling more to it's arms, after the Equestria was lost, Wyatt had sent a distress signal to Princess Celestia to inform her of the sudden battle, and over the course of a few hours, the Regal Sisters didn't waste any time on them as they had brought several more Alliance ships, as well as Thorax, who was sent by Queen Chrysalis to lead her troops onboard their new ships into the fray, Ember and her modified Klingon ships, and the newly built E.F.S. Star Trotter, which was originally intended to launch for a trial run in it's home system. At this point, the Tzenkethi were at an impasse with the fleet, their ships couldn't break through the Alliance thanks to their new arrivals, dissolving the battle into a two-sided brawl for both sides.


On the Vinyl, Moon Dancer sat in the Captain's Chair as she looked to the screen, debris from Alliance and Tzenkethi warships lay scattered across the area, torpedoes and beams flying past the screen as the vessel fired back. Moon Dancer grew a frown as she looked to Lyra at the weapons station and asked, "What's the status on the enemy escorts?"


Lyra gave a frown as she tapped her console before answering. "We've taken out the first line, but they seem to keep replenishing them, but we're firing faster than they can keep up!"


Moon Dancer smirked at her friend's words before Octavia, who was sitting at the comms station, turned to her and spoke. "Moon Dancer, we're being hailed by Thorax and Ember!"


"Put it on." The mare said before the screen changed to show two shots, one of a being that had green fur and purple eyes, as well as white orbs on his neck and orange horns on his head between his green one, behind him was a set of magnificent purple wings. On the other screen was a blue dragon with dark blue diamonds on her body, as well as red eyes and a pair of tusks on the sides of her head.


Moon Dancer took a second to admire Thorax's new form before she spoke. "Well, I see you've been doing well, you look magnificent today!"


Thorax gave a shy smile as he responded. "Yeah, the hive has been through some changes lately, but we'll have to talk about that later, how bad is the fight?"


Minuette gave a grim expression as she turned from her console and spoke. "Well, we're holding, the enemy fleet is putting a lot of pressure onto us, but we're biting harder. And... we'd be taking more of them out if the Equestria wasn't lost."


The two commanders gave worried gasps as Thorax asked in fear, "The Equestria?! What happened to her?!"


Moon Dancer took a breath as the ship shook from a disruptor blast before answering. "Everyone... Twilight's ship was damaged by a cloaked mine before we were attacked, the Tzenkethi focused all of their effort into attacking Twilight's flagship before she went down. The crew evacuated, and I saw the Aquarius fly away from the ship, but the Equestria won't be going home with us today... Twilight activated the ship's self-destruct and blew her to bits."


"....But, they should be alive on the surface, right? Since they launched in the Aquarius." Thorax said with a sad tone in his voice.


"Hopefully, but we haven't gotten a chance to scan the planet for survivors, we're being pinned down all the while." Moon Dancer said as Ember spoke up.


"Well, we'll just have to hope they can stay alive for the time being, we've got to take care of that fleet."


"Right, we'll form up with you and the Amarillo and provide cover for the escorts on their attack runs!" Thorax said as the mare in the center seat replied.


"Got it, be careful." The screen changed once again to show the battlefield, which had gained more debris filling the space within it as Bon Bon turned to Moon Dancer and spoke to her.


"One of the cruisers is locking weapons onto Ember's ship."


"Provide cover, don't let them reach her!" Moon Dancer ordered as Bon Bon faced her console and tapped a few buttons on it, the screen soon showing a spread of torpedoes flying at the incoming cruiser, it's shields flashing from the impact before vanishing.


Moon Dancer looked to the planet on the right side of the screen with a frown as she thought to herself. "Please be alive down there, Twilight.... and if you are, be careful..."


Planetary Surface


The sun had finally fallen behind the mountains by now as the ship sat in the plain, grass blowing from the winds as the sky became less blue and more star-filled. The area was in near complete silence before a flash appeared in an open area of the grass before eleven beings, one being humanoid, appeared in front of the space as the flash vanished upon it's appearance, the beings looking around to observe their surroundings as they stood.


Twilight smiled as she turned to see the ship at a closer view, the ship had markings on it's dark, greenish-brown colored hull, as well as a few sections that glowed bright orange and windows that glowed bluish-white all over. Terrak must've been inside waiting for them, the Princess thought as she turned to her friends and spoke up. "Everyone, listen up," The group turned to her upon her order before she continued. "now, we're going into this ship and we're hopefully going to meet the Captain of this ship, who'll explain why we're here to see him. I don't want anyone to hold their weapons, but I want you to keep your guard in case this is indeed a trap, understood?" The group nodded, Dash giving a smile as Twilight finished. "Good, now keep yourselves ready while I try to talk to him."


Twilight then turned to the large body of the Fearless and tapped her combadge before speaking to it. "If you can hear me, Tzen Terrak, this is Twilight Sparkle, I'm one of the adversaries you wish to speak to."


The signal stayed silent for a moment before a deep voice sounded from the small device, startling some of the group for a moment as they listened. "Ah... finally, I had worried no one would hear our calls... Welcome, Princess Twilight."


Twilight looked to her friends before looking up to the ship and speaking once more. "We've come to discuss with you about your information, are there any issues?"


"No, not at all, but one question I must ask, I am sure that you are all prepped in the possibility of an attack, correct?" Twilight turned to her friends again, Dash giving a suspicious look before the alicorn answered.


"Yes, we are."


"Good, I heard that my former comrades had attacked you and your crew, forcing you all down here with us. I understand that they have been a nuisance to you all, but I can assure you, my crew an I do not intend to try anything." Terrak said to the group before Twilight responded.


"Good, is there a way to enter your ship, or are we to be beamed aboard?"


"Yes, we can do that, one moment..." The group stood still for a moment before several purple fields of energy surrounded them all, the area around them fading into the purple energy encompassing them before changing to a room with two tall beings in armor stood near a console, while the group stood on a large transporter pad in a hexagonal pattern. The walls were mostly blackish-grey, with a few lines of glowing orange on them.


Twilight focused her eyes on the taller officer near the console, he was wearing several pieces of grey armor on his body, lines on it glowing purple as he stood next to the operator with his attention focused on Twilight and her friends. The Princess smiled as the lead officer gave a friendly stance to his visitors as Twilight asked, "I assume you're Tzen-Terrak?"


"Indeed, your Highness, my crew and I have been waiting for a response for some time." Terrak said as he spoke to the alicorn.


"I see, is there a place to discuss?" Twilight asked as the Tzenkethi gave a response.


"Yes, if you'll all follow me please." The group looked to the Captain of the Fearless as the door leading out opened upon Terrak approaching it, the group following behind him as the doors closed and leaving the transporter operator to work on his console.


...........................


The conference room was decently lit with a total of eight lights as the doors opened and 13 beings conversing with each other stepped into the room, the room was set with a circular window on the wall, an X-like pattern built on the window as the main table in the room was circular as well, with a large hexagonal section that seemed to be some kind of emitter and a small panel with green console buttons near Terrak's seat as everyone got into the available seats, leaving Starlight, Trixie, Fluttershy and the Tzenkethi guard standing around the table as they all got comfortable. 


Twilight smiled as she spoke to the Tzenkethi Captain. "...and with our friend John here, we shouldn't be having much trouble dealing with the enemy fleet."


"That's fascinating information to know, Princess, with another ship on our side, we'll be able to put up more of a fight back into orbit." Terrak said as he sat in his chair.


'Dash gave a curious look as she turned to Terrak and began. "You know, I'm sure I'm probably rushing a bit, but I've been wondering, why were we called here to speak with you?"


Terrak gave what seemed to be a smirk as he responded to the pegasus. "Ah, yes, not rushed at all, I must do as I intended." He tapped a button on the table panel as a large screen appeared over the projection device on the table, Terrak seemingly clearing his throat as he began. "You see, I once served my people with no defiance, we were one of the many ships tasked with murdering innocent, breathing worlds with an old weapon your friends at Starfleet once made for peaceful intentions." The group gave open mouths at his words, the screen showing a holographic image at what many guessed was the infamous Genesis torpedo as Terrak continued. "I did so many times, one of my officers, Prult, believed in the Path of Peace and that we shouldn't be commiting these horrendous acts, and I should've took time to listen to him before I made a choice I now regret, out of ignorance, I killed Prult on the spot during our last confrontation.... and I thought we would be performing another test of our protomatter bombs." Dash gave a suspicious frown on her muzzle, but it faltered when the Tzenkethi spoke once more. 


"But I had a second time to reconsider, one of my fellow commanders, Tzen-Crinnu, had a change of heart and attempted to convince me into following his ideas. Initially, I told him I would consider, and that I did, as we rid our ship of every bomb in the cargo bay and made a run for Federation space... but our former comrades had found out our plan and sent an attack force to deal with us and Crinnu. Fortunately, we found this world and took cover in the atmosphere, and after a long moment of tension they left us, and that's when we sent our distress signal out, hoping that someone of the Federation or it's allies would hear our calls, and it was you."


The room was filled with silence as Applebloom looked to Terrak and asked, "But, what about Crinnu? Is he alright?"


"I do not know, we haven't been in contact since we were discovered, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to abandon my choice to help the Alliance, I've heard Crinnu's words, and they are very true to me and my crew, never again will I commit another genocide for mere experimentation." Terrak said as he looked to Twilight and spoke again. "Your Highness, I understand that your ship was lost to our enemies, but I believe that if we can get our ship's engines repaired, we can add an extra fist to your fleet."


"You've got it, I can contact Applejack and get her to bring a team ov-" She stopped as a low beep sounded from the panel, an alarm blaring mere seconds later.


Terrak gave a worried look as he tapped the panel and spoke. "Report! What's the matter?"


The officer on the other end sounded annoyed as he answered his Captain. "We've been found, sir! An enemy shuttle is bearing down on us and is about to fire!"


"Raise our shields, don't let-" He seemed to be too late as the ship shook hard and a loud boom sounded outside of the ship. Another alarm sounded as the officer on the comms spoke again.


"I'm bringing the shields up now sir, should only b-.... No! They've bought themselves a chance to board, I'm reading several intrusion teams on decks 2, 7 and 12!"


Terrak growled at the news as he responded to the officer. "Prepare the ship for battle, don't let them take the bridge! Terrak out!" He tapped the panel again and turned to Twilight, who gave a frown as she spoke.


"Well, it seems we must fight some old friends, shall we stick with you?"


"Yes, we must head to the bridge and keep it guarded, if you will, we would gladly appreciate your assistance in following us to the bridge." Twilight nodded before the Captain finished with, "Excellent, now let us go, we have no time to waste!" The group all pulled out their weapons and made their way through the door, Terrak taking a look down the long hallway of deck 3 as he and his friends followed suite.


The ship shook quite a bit at times, torpedoes and beams hitting the ship and explosions shaking the halls as the group made their way through the hallway and neared the turbolifts to Deck 2. Twilight and Terrak split up into the two separate lifts as they entered them, their doors closing as the lifts went upward. A moment later, the doors opened to show a smoke-filled hallway, green flashes and bolts flying by the group as they gathered up and took cover behind a piece of fallen metal that had fallen between the two turbolifts. Flash peeked his head out a little to see who was shooting them, among several large turrets blazing at the group were around seven Tzenkethi warriors, who upon one of them firing and nearly hitting Flash before he took cover were apparently the invaders, as the other side was focusing their efforts on the enemy turrets on the other side.


Twilight and Flash broke cover and fired their weapons at one of the turrets, which emitted a bolt of electricity before exploding near one of the soldiers as the two took cover again before Dash spoke. "Scoots and I have our stealth equipment, if we can get over there, we may be able to overload their turrets!" 


"Let's try it, but be careful, don't get shot." Dash nodded before she and Scootaloo tapped a button on their wrist pads and they faded into a faint form of energy before becoming completely invisible. The others kept their ground as they kept cover and firing on occasion when they saw an opening. Trixie took a look at a small trio of Tzenkethi soldiers holding their ground behind another piece of metal guarded by a turret. Taking cover again, she tapped the panel on her phaser and, looking at Starlight, who was also holding a pistol, nodded as the duo broke cover and took their shots at the three troops, who fell after about two good beam shots at each of them.


A moment after the warriors fell, Rarity held her rifle at the ready and, breaking cover, took a shot at one of the soldiers, who was hit by the fashionista's shot and glowed a bright red before turning to vapor. As Rarity took cover, however, one of the two remaining soldiers took a shot at her, but instead missed her and hit one of the allied Tzenkethi soldiers, who fell after being hit and Fluttershy crawled over to him to help him. A moment later, the three remaining turrets exploded in a bright orange fire, the two soldiers falling from the blast as two pegasi appearing from energy fields, they both looked to the group with pleased smirks as Dash spoke up. "Now that's a quick thrill there!" The two race over to the group, Terrak tapping his wrist comms and speaking into it. 


"Terrak to bridge, how is the rest of the ship?" He grew worried when he didn't get a response, only static as he spoke again. "Bridge? Respond!" Not a word sounded as he waited for something to speak. After nothing came, he tapped the comms off and looked to Twilight as the alicorn spoke.


"I'm guessing they're in trouble, then?" She said in annoyance.


"Yes, we must get there immediately!" Terrak then turned to his comrades behind him, who looked to the group as the Captain spoke. "I want all of you to hold this position, we shall head for the bridge!" The soldiers nodded as the group then turned to the turbolifts nearby, all of them once again splitting into two groups and entering the two lifts and the doors closed behind them. Terrak said one word to the computer before the lifts began to move up as they took them all to their target. 


"Bridge."
> Chapter VII: A Trap for the Traitors
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tzenkethi Warship Fearless

Main Bridge


The sizzling of smoke, electric sparks and pained grunts were the only noises within the bridge as the two right turbolift doors on the bridge opened, one releasing six mares, a stallion and a dragon and the other two tall Tzenkethi officers, a human and three fillies, all with weapons at the ready and inspecting the large bridge. The room was curved with several wall consoles, as well as the command chair and two consoles with seats in the front, on the sides of the center seat were two tall consoles with several buttons, and behind the command chair was a circular console that seemed to be a map-like console, as it seemed to have a hexagonal layout on it's surface.


Some of the consoles seemed to have only minor bits of damage, while a few were totally combusted from the damaging weapons fire from above the ship. Twilight trotted over to Terrak as the two took in the horrid sight, all of the officers were on the ground, most of them dead or dying as Terrak looked to his helm officer, who was faintly breathing as he tried to speak to his commander. "Forgive me T-Tzen, I've failed you...NGH." 


Terrak knelt down to his dying comrade as he asked him, "How did they overtake the bridge? Where are they?"


The officer seemed to try and let out his last few words as he tried to fight the pain. "They.. they we-re using... using... st-st-ste-" He said with a grunt before he finally collapsed to the ground for good, Terrak standing up and looking to Twilight, who looked to Rarity as she gave her scanning results to the Princess.


"They're all dead, the room's badly beaten up, but I think we can get her up and running Tzen."


"Good, we'll need to hurry if we are to-" He was cut off when Dash turned to the trio, giving an annoyed look as she spoke to them.


"Guys, I'm picking up faint energy surges all around the bridge, they're all very similar in size to us!"


Twilight looked around the room as she held her weapon, waiting for something to strike when they heard a loud clanking noise, and everyone turned only to see a small metal bomb on the ground, Terrak jumping slightly before yelling, "Stun grenade! Everyon-" Was all that was heard before the ball exploded, large, long beams of dark blue electricity striking almost everyone in the group, Captain John being the only one to avoid the attack. Several flashes briefly appeared around the room before several Tzenkethi soldiers raced to the group, restraining all but Twilight, who had activated a burst of magic to prevent capture, but her freedom was short-lived as a large Tzenkethi leaped at her, pinning her to the ground and striking her several times with fists. The Princess let out pained yelps and groans before being lifted up and struck in the gut by one last punch from the warrior and being thrown across the room, hitting a wall console with one last grunt of pain.


The warrior then turned to Fluttershy, who had gotten up and gave a terrified look at the giant monster coming at her as she spoke. "Wait, please, listen!" The Tzenkethi did not hesitate as he shoved the medical mare to the ground, lifting his leg and crushing Fluttershy's right hind leg, the pegasus letting out an ear-piercing scream of pain as John broke cover and fired his phaser at the tall being. The shots did not phase the warrior, however, as he smacked the phaser out of the Captain's hands and picking him up by the head, holding him up as he grunted in pain from the pressure as the warrior spoke in a deep, menacing voice.


"Foolish move to make, you stupid, insignificant human!" The Commander then placed an intense amount of pressure on John's head, the Captain letting out one last groan of pain before a loud cracking noise sounded, along with the sound of squeezing flesh. Fluttershy, seeing the traumatizing sight, let out a shrill scream of terror, Rarity, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle let out screams as well. Twilight, however, just stared at the dead body in fear, the brutality of the Tzenkethi had now struck her, and she was left with only horrid thoughts of the same actions done on her friends as she stared at the warrior, who threw the corpse across the room before making his way to the Princess...


~U.S.S. Amarillo~


The bridge rocked hard with slight groans of damaged metal on occasion as the crew performed their duties, Miolii looked to Elisa at the tactical station as she ordered, "Attack pattern Omega, bring in a spread of torps!" Elisa tapped her console as she looked to the screen to see the wave of gold torpedoes flying at the large cruiser, it's shields flashing for a moment before they vanished again.


Wyatt then turned to Lon at the sensors station as he spoke. "What's the status on the survivors on the surface?"


Lon gave a grim look as he turned to the Admiral and answered. "I'm picking up a lot of life signs, but Twilight's readings seem to be past a small forest resting between her and the Aquarius."


Wyatt smiled as he responded to the news. "Good, she must be looking for the Fearless, keep our transporter rooms ready and-" He was interrupted by T'Vrell, who gave an alerting look at the Admiral as she spoke.


"Sir, the enemy fleet is ceasing fire on our ships, they seem to be waiting for-" She stopped as she checked the now beeping console before continuing. "Admiral, I'm picking up a transmission, it's coming from-" She stopped again when the viewscreen immediately switched to what seemed to be a Tzenkethi bridge, smoke slightly blurring the image before it cleared to show a tall Tzenkethi Commander with grey and gold armor on him. In his hand was Twilight, who was bleeding from the nose and her forearm, as well as being covered in several dark bruises. The Princess gave a pained look as she looked to Wyatt, who gave a look of worry before he then glared at the Tzenkethi as the warrior spoke.


"How unfortunate of your comrade to suffer at my hands... she seems to be quite the fighter."


Wyatt gritted his teeth slightly at the sight before him. "What have you done to the Fearless?! Why are you attacking?!"


"Oh, we are but preparing to commence a very important experiment for the coming war, and you're intervening." Wyatt kept his glare on the Commander before he spoke again. "But, I believe that you and I, Tzen-Trinnak can make this simple and quell the riot... if you will cooperate with our demands."


Twilight gave a look of worry as she looked to Wyatt and tried to speak. "Wyatt, please, don't listen to h-" She was cut off as the Commander violently threw her on the ground, the alicorn letting out a yelp of pain and several coughs as she lay on the floor. 


Miolii, Elisa and the others stood from their consoles and gave worried looks and angry glares at the Tzenkethi, Wyatt letting out a growl before he asked, "As long as it will spare my friends down there.... what do you want?"


Trinnak let out a low growl before he spoke to the Admiral. "A very simple request, we demand that you give us coordinates for... Princess Twilight's homeworld.... Equis, isn't it?"


Wyatt raised a confused eyebrow as he questioned the warrior in anger. "How do you know of that world?"


"Oh, Admiral, our ventures into your space have gone unnoticed, our most elite spies and officers have managed to breach into your secret Universal Alliance HQ and gained ourselves some valuable information... but it wasn't THAT easy.... you see, we could not access the specific coordinates for where you could go, and if you give them to us, we can end this here, you and your friends go home.... however, Tzen Terrak will come with me for his treachery." The Admiral was about to speak before he was interrupted by the tall warrior. "BUT, if you refuse, Twilight and her friends' heads will be ours, and the survivors in that 'Aquarius' will have nothing but a burning inferno as their tomb."


Wyatt slightly lowered his head in worry, if he gave the location of an ally's world to their enemy, they would be wiped out by the Tzenkethi arsenal, but if he refused, he'd be forced to witness some of his close friends be slaughtered right before him. He took a moment to think before Trinnak then spoke again. "Unfortunately, I don't have all the time in the galaxy, Admiral.." He then saw Twilight's friends being forced onto the ground, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo being smacked in the backs of their heads by the soldiers' rifles. They then pointed their weapons down at them, Trinnak raising his hand as he finished. "The coordinates.... now."


Wyatt briefly thought for a moment as he readied himself. "I'm so sorry, Twilight..." The Admiral then snapped out of his thoughts as he turned to T'Vrell, giving her as much of a stern look as he could give. "T'Vrell.... send them the coor-" He stopped as he noticed Twilight and her friends being surrounded in yellow energy fields, their bodies vanishing as the fields quickly dissipated.


Trinnak seemed to be ready to yell as he growled at Wyatt. "This isn't over yet, Admiral, the event's only begun!" The channel cut quickly to the Tzenkethi fleet, one of them turning towards the planet as Wyatt turned to T'Vrell again and spoke.


"T'Vrell, do we have them?!"


The Vulcan officer shook her head as she replied. "No sir, that wasn't us, but I have located the source of the transport."


"Get it up on my panel and try to find out what it was. Lon, hail Princess Celestia!"


Lon nodded and tapped his console a few times before the Regal Sister appeared on the screen, two guards sitting in seats between her. The Princess gave a worried look as she asked the Admiral, "Wyatt, we'll hold off the enemy fleet, can you go get Twilight and the others before they get hurt?"


Wyatt nodded before speaking. "Not a problem, and if you don't mind, I've gotten some old and new friends that would love to smack these guys' heads, I'll send them over right now!" Celestia gave a smile and a slight nod as the screen cut to the fleet again, the ship turning towards the planet before Wyatt turned to T'Vrell and spoke.


"T'Vrell, you've got the Nimbus Team and our new friends at the ready?"


"Yes sir, I can put them on now." T'Vrell said before her commanding officer responded.


"Excellent, contact..... Skystar, I'd like to talk to her."


~Unknown ship, Transporter room~


The room was alive with light and beeping sounds filled the room as three officers stood near the main console of the transporter. The room was mainly a silver color, along with a wall blocking the transporter console from complete view of the pads, the pads themselves were glowing in blue in their ambient state, but flicked to red as a charging noise sounded from them, several fields of yellow energy filling the space over the pads. The beams vanished to reveal ten equines, three of them fillies, six of them mares, and one of the a stallion, all looking up at their new surroundings before seeing the officers near the operation console. One of the officers, an Andorian with a yellow uniform, ran over to them with another officer, who seemed to be a medic, checking them over for injuries as the Andorian spoke. "Don't worry, you're gonna be fine, just rest for a second." She then looked to the medical officer, who gave a grim look as he spoke.


"One of them has a broken hind leg... and is in a state of shock, the one you're talking to has some internal bleeding that I can treat here, and the rest have only slight injuries, I'll send a team down here to treat them."


The Andorian smiled as she spoke again. "Good, do it quickly." The medic nodded before racing over to the comms panel and speaking into it. 


Twilight opened her eyes at the sound of the officer kneeling over her, it sounded like Ensign Tarsi. Curious, she faintly looked up to the officer and asked, "I-is.. that you Tarsi?"


The officer gave a surprised look as she answered. "..Yes, but how do you know my name, Mrs.....?"


"Twilight S-Sparkle, and your voice sounds familiar to me, are we-NNH, onboard the Kali?"


Tarsi gave a slight chuckle before she spoke again. "Were, but me, Captain John and the others transferred to the U.S.S. Antares, she's a Constitution class."


Twilight wanted to give a shocked look to her new friend, but the pain halted her from doing so. Tarsi then gave a worried look as she asked the Princess, "Um, by the way, Mrs. Twilight, is John OK? We didn't pick up his signature when we got you outta there."


Fluttershy, who was trying to control her shock, faintly spoke to the Commander near her. "He's.... He's dead." She almost started to burst upon finishing, but Rarity embraced her to help calm her down.


"I'm very sorry, Commander, he was brutally murdered by a Tzenkethi commander named Trinnak, he was about to hurt me and my friends before you saved us." Twilight said as Tarsi gave a solemn expression.


"I... I understand, he was a cool guy, and at least he went down fighting.... but his family will miss him." 


The two sat in silence for a moment before Twilight then asked, "One other thing, how's Terrak and his comrade?"


Tarsi then gave a worried look as she spoke. "They're your friends?" The alicorn nodded before she raced over to the comms panel and tapped a button before speaking. "Tarsi to Transporter room 4, do not restrain the newcomers, they are our friends, bring them to Transporter room 3!"


"Understood, Commander." The signal cut before Tarsi heard Sweetie Belle let out a faint gasp of fear and looked to the Andorian before speaking.


"What about the Aquarius?! Are they okay?!"


Tarsi then tapped the panel again before speaking, "Tarsi to Bridge, what's the status on that other ship near the forest?"


"They won't be there for much longer, we're picking up several torpedoes coming from orbit towards the ship!" The group gasped in horror before Tarsi spoke quickly.


"Beam all of them up to the Antares now, cram every open space of the ship if you have to!" She then looked to Twilight, who looked to her friends as she spoke.


"Everyone, clear the pad!" The group did so as Rainbow Dash put Fluttershy on her back and Twilight made her way off of the pad with Flash helping her out. A moment later, the pad was once again filled by several bright beams of golden energy, several people appearing on the pads as the now arriving medical team entered and met up with the newcomers.


Tarsi looked to the panel as she heard the officer speak again. "We have them all, Ma'am."


"Good, I'll be on the Bridge soon, Tarsi out." Tarsi then turned towards the group behind her and spoke to Twilight. "I believe we can get you all fixed up if we had to sickbay."


"You got it." Twilight replied before turning to her friends. She was about to speak but was interrupted by her now chirping combadge, tapping it before speaking. "Yes?"


Applejack's voice sounded from the small device. "Um, Twilight, we've taken some injuries over here, and....you may wanna get Dash over to sickbay, her dad is..... it doesn't look good."


Twilight looked over to Rainbow Dash, who heard the farmpony's words and grew a fearful expression as she spoke to Applejack. "We'll be over there, AJ! Dash out!" She then turned to Twilight as she waited for her to speak.


"Alright everyone, we'll have to hold out for a moment, we need to get to sickbay, let's go." The group nodded and they all gathered up behind Tarsi, who led them out before Twilight looked to Flash. "Flash, can you help me please?"


"Of course, Twilight." Flash said as he held onto Twilight's hoof, the two making their way out the door and following behind to sickbay.
> Chapter VIII: Pain/Assistance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S.S. Antares

Sickbay


The room was bustling with doctors, nurses, injured officers, and civilians as the medical staff attempted to heal the wounded. The room was large and brilliant with lights, there were several medical beds set along the room, all of them being occupied by injured patients. There was also a glassy wall that was bent into three parts, behind it was a desk that was piled by hyposprays and PADDS. Groans and moans of pain and relief sounded constantly as the doors split open and 10 equines, one Andorian, and two Tzenkethi warriors  entered the room, some of the patients letting out faint gasps as they saw them.


Twilight gave a faint smile as she started to speak. "Don't worry everyone, they are our friends, they're here to help." The crowd calmed down upon those words, and Terrak's comrade looked to him and spoke.


"With your permission sir, may I assist in treating the wounded?" Terrak gave a nod before he walked over to a nearby medical team to speak to them, the rest of the group continuing on as they went over to Applejack and Dash's parents. Some of the people from the Aquarius were in bad shape, several officers were burnt from whatever explosion they were near, others bore bloody wounds that were being treated by doctors, one that Sweetie Belle could recognize was one of her classmates, Button Mash, who was sitting next to his mother as she lay against a wall and being treated for a decent-sized wound on her leg by a doctor.


Sweetie Belle gasped and looked to Rarity before speaking. "Sis, you mind if I go over there and help Button?" Rarity then looked at the sight before nodding to her little sister, the filly trotting over to the gamer colt and his mom before she asked, "Is your mother okay?"


Button, wiping the tears from his eyes, steadied himself before he spoke. "Yeah, I thought my mom was dying, she got a bad cut from this piece of metal when we were near one of the explosions, but the doctor says she'll be okay. Are you alright?"


Sweetie nodded before she spoke to her friend. "Yeah, I just got knocked in the head a moment ago when we got to the Fearless, they nearly had us when we were beamed here."


Button smiled as he embraced Sweetie Belle, the filly holding him as well as Button's mom spoke up. "He's been hesitant to tell you, he's had a crush on you."


Button snapped his head at his mom while Sweetie looked to the mare and spoke. "Really?" He then looked to the colt next to her and asked, "How've I caught your eyes?" She said with a smirk.


Button Mash blushed out of embarrassment before he spoke with a sigh. "You and your sister have saved our planet and many other ones so many times, and I really like the stories we've read. My mother always grabbed the papers and read the ones involving you to me every time!" He said with a excited smile.


Sweetie Belle gave a smile as well as she asked, "Well, I'd love to have a date, but me and my friends have a job to do, how about after all of this is over?" Button gave a quick nod as they then looked to the colt's mother, who smiled and spoke to the two.


"I don't mind, and your friends are going over there, Sweetie Belle, do you think you should check out what they're seeing?" Sweetie nodded and looked to Button, who gave a smile as the two stood up and trotted over to the group to try and catch up.


Twilight and her friends kept their pace to the other side of the room as they observed the injured, they'd noticed around 18 injured, minor and badly before they heard a terrified gasp from Rainbow, only to turn and look at the sight she saw. They too let out fearful gasps as they saw Windy Whistles, tearing up over Bow Hothoof, who was mortally wounded as he lay on the table, along with the now slightly healed scar from earlier, he was covered in shrapnel, most likely from one of the torpedo blasts on the Aquarius, and along with that, small, dripping lines of blood from some of the wounds and some parts of his fur were turned into a more purplish color as they were mixed with dried blood from the injuries.


Dash hit the ground on all fours upon seeing her father, her pupils shrunk down to pinpricks and her hooves feeling weak as she slowly made her way to her dying dad. She looked into her dad's slowly opening eyes, who was trying to give a faint smile to Dash as he saw her, coughing slightly as Dash spoke to him in a pained voice. "Dad, what happened to you?!"


One of the doctors turned to Dash and walked over to the group, giving a solemn frown as he spoke. "You are the one named Rainbow Dash?" The pegasus nodded impatiently before he continued. "Your.. your father has suffered critical injuries from an explosion, the impact launched shrapnel into his body, his blood levels are critical and his heartbeat is dropping dangerously low... and... because of the low amount of blood in his body, there's nothing I can do, I'm very sorry."


Dash looked as if she was about to faint upon the news, her dad wasn't coming home with them alive, and she was hoping to show him all of the skills she had for him in the sky as she slowly turned to Hothoof, Windy starting to break down as Rainbow spoke, almost frantically. "D-Dad, don't die on me, please! Mom and I can't bear to lose you!" She then looked to Twilight and gave a fearful and pleading expression. "Please Twilight, you have to help him, I can't take seeing him like this!"


Twilight tried to think of a way, but even if she healed the wounds, the blood couldn't be replaced. She started to give a tearful look as she spoke. "I'm sorry Dash, b-but I don't have a spell for such a task." 


Dash was about to crack as Scootaloo trotted up next to her and got on her hind legs to see Hothoof, Dash and Windy giving tearful eyes to the stallion as well before he started speaking. "Dashie, don't worry about me-AH.... I'll b-be alright, just stop those guys before they can hurt anyone else...." He started to gag on the blood choking his throat before he finished. "Don't cry over me, just... make the best out of later times.... I.... I love... you both...." He said as he started to slowly fall back onto the table, the light fading from his eyes as he finally lay on the bed, the heart monitor over it letting out one last beep before a constant noise played faintly.


Windy started to bawl over her husbands body, waterfalls of tears spilling over his body as the mare cried out. "Why?! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE TODAY THAT HE HAD TO GO?!" She continued crying as Dash started to burst, burying her face in her dad's chest and adding her tears to the stain of tears, Scootaloo joining in a second later. As the three bawled and wailed over their dead father and husband, Rarity started to crack, holding Fluttershy who was also weeping, Applebloom and Applejack started to cry as well, both of them holding each other in an embrace as they stood near the sorrowful scene. Sweetie Belle and Button Mash, who'd came around and saw the sight a moment ago, began crying as well, both of them joining Rarity and Fluttershy as they all filled the room with sobs and tears. Trixie and Starlight began to sniffle and tear up as they heard the painful cries of the two pegasi near Bow's body. Twilight teared up as well, closing her eyes and holding onto Flash, who tried to act as strong as he could and closing his eyes as the pair maintained an embrace.


After a long moment of crying, Dash slowly lifted her wet head from her father's chest, her face slowly turning into one of anger and hatred before she spoke. "If I ever see that Trinnak guy again..... I'M GONNA BREAK HIS NECK!!" She yelled before flying up and storming out through the doors and into the hallway.


"Dash, wait!" Twilight yelled, but she didn't halt on her call, and as Scootaloo started to go after her, Twilight put her arm in front of her. "Let her go, she needs to let it out." Twilight sniffed a little as they all looked to the doors, all of them trying to control their sobs as they then heard a beep from the nearby wall console, Tarsi walking over to it and speaking.


"Yes?"


"My apologies for the interruption ma'am, but that ship we've been monitoring has started to take off, it's attackers are following suite."


"What? Put it on." Tarsi said as they looked to the glass screen to see a rectangular image appear on it, the Fearless was flying up into the sky and the three attacking ships were flying by it's side.


"They're leaving to help out the Tzenkethi fleet!" Twilight said before the screen cut out, Twilight then turning to the Andorian before asking, "Tarsi, is the Antares operational?"


Tarsi smiled as she answered the alicorn. "Fully, she's armed to the teeth and has been ever since we landed here. Shall we head up to the skies and help our friends out?"


"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want to, get her ready, we'll be at the bridge once we get Dash back on her feet." Tarsi nodded before making her way to the doors, which shut as the Princess turned to her mourning friends and spoke. "We'll have to mourn later, we've got to get going, Terrak?" She said before looking to the Tzenkethi in question, who was merely lowering his head in sorrow before speaking.


"Yes... and, I'd like to extend my condolences on the death of your friend." He said as Windy built a faint smile, Twilight giving a sad frown before speaking.


"Thanks, Windy, are you coming with us?"


Windy nodded slightly before replying. "Yes, I just want to ask if they can keep the body safe, I don't want to lose him anymore than we already have." As she finished, one of the doctors heard the mare and nodded with a smile before responding.


"He'll be fine, I'll make sure of it."


Windy gave a smile as she then joined the group, Twilight building a determined smile as she finished. "Then let's get Dash back with us and finish this fight!" The group then made their way to the doors, which opened and closed upon them passing through, leaving the once again quiet sickbay to its troubles.


~U.S.S. Antares, Outer Hallway~


The glass window on the exterior of the hall exposed a blue ocean and a sandy, shell-filled floor below as a blue hoof touched the surface if it, quiet footsteps and low sobs from the pony sounding within the hallway. Rainbow Dash looked to the surface of the ocean above, sniffing out her pain and anger as she thought. "That damn Tzenkethi will pay for what he's done to me and my mother, I won't be letting him off if I see him again."


She stopped as she heard a familiar voice sound from her left. "Dash, honey?" She turned her head to see her mother Windy Whistles, behind her were her other friends along with Terrak. 


The speedster pony gave as good a deep breath as she could before she spoke. "...I'm sorry if I stormed out like that, mom...I....I just couldn't take it." Windy and the others looked down to the floor, remembering the scene from mere moments ago before Dash spoke up again. "Twilight, Terrak.. we don't need to get any prisoners on any of those ships, right?"


Twilight shook her head in confirmation before replying to her friend. "We won't need to capture anyone at the moment, but as much as I cared about your father, we need you to help us here, not sitting here mourning over your dad while our friends are dying up there."


Dash gave a glare at the surface again, trying to control her anger before turning to her friends and speaking again. "Twilight... what my mother and I had to experience, that hurt my heart, Twilight... they hurt me, and I ain't gonna let that monster hurt anyone else!" Her voice raised a bit upon the end of her sentence, she then shook away her head and started to tear up again. Terrak then walked up to the pegasus and lent his share of words. 


"Commander Dash, I can understand your pain as well as your mother...my colleagues, like you and your friends, are part of our 'family', and Trinnak and his minions are most likely butchering them as we speak. But mourning will get us nowhere right now... we must put our grief aside and overcome our foes, and I believe if your dad were still alive right now, he would want you to help your friends."


Dash gave one last sniff of grief before trying to take a deep breath once again, turning to her mother and looking at her pleading eyes. She could see the same look in all of her friends as well, the begging face to help them stop a threat that could hurt more if she didn't do something about it. Slowly building a smile, she wiped the last of her tears from her face as she responded. "...You're right...and if I don't want to lose anyone else, we need to get up there quickly!" She shot herself up in the air upon finishing, looking to Twilight before asking, "Twi, is the bridge all set?"


"I'd say so, and it's waiting for us."


Dash smirked as she spoke again. "Well we can't be letting those guys hurt our fleet up there, let's get going!" With that, Dash flew to her friends' side, Twilight smiling before she spoke once more.


"To the bridge!" They then made their way through the hallway at fast pace, keeping their eyes out for a nearby turbolift as they ventured to the bridge of the Antares.


~Meanwhile... in orbit...~


The battle had been lasting for some time, large, broken pieces of dead ships lay scattered around the ocean of space as the two fleets clashed constantly, another ship being lost on both sides every minute. The Alliance fleet was doing better than the Tzenkethi expected, while they had lost a large portion of their ships, their current amount of vessels pitted them against a fleet that was now only a third of theirs, and once their reinforcements arrived, the tide would be turned. 


On the bridge of the Amarillo, officers were repairing damaged consoles and treating the injured as Wyatt kept himself stern in his chair and ordered, "Roll us over, Elisa, photons at the ready!"


Elisa tapped her console, and a mere second later the ship jerked to the left, but the screen showed the ship in front of them flipping upside down and back again as the Commander then tapped her console again before several torpedoes shot from under the ship, the top part of the enemy warship being covered in burning patches of broken hull as they lifted up.


"Good shot Elisa, now set us up for another pass!" The officer nodded and tapped her console again before the Admiral heard T'Vrell's voice speaking up from behind him.


"Sir, I'm detecting warp signatures, it's our allies."


"Put it onscreen!" The screen then changed to show several ships dropping out of warp, many of the newcomers having various designs from other races as well as a few from Equis, but with modifications. One of the ships appeared to be an Xindi-Aquatic warship, with hull colors that seemed to match the ship's captain, as well as a few escorts. Another ship appeared to be an Equestrian airship with rainbow colored sails, but several metal rings encircled the ship inside an air shield, another ship looked the same as well, but it's blimp section had a black and red patch on it, with blue shapes that seemed to look similar to thunderbolts. Near them were what Wyatt called the "Nimbus Team", a Breen Chel Grett cruiser, an Orion warship, a T'varo warbird, and a modified civilian ship.


Wyatt smiled at the sight and turned to Lon at the helm console as he spoke. "Hail the Aquatic ship." Upon Lon tapping his console, the screen changed to show two female beings on the screen, both of them had forehooves and tails for their lower sections, the larger one had a white coat as well as pink and purple fins and hair, while the smaller one had a bright yellow body as well as bright turquoise hair and fins and a set of red beans to go with it.


The smaller seapony gave a gleeful grin as she started to speak up. "Sorry if we're a little late to the party Admiral, we got here as quick as we could!" 


"Not a problem, Skystar, we've held up here for a bit, and I'd say it's time we clean up this mess for good." Wyatt said as he gave a smile in response.


"Oooh, good! Commander Tempest and Celaeno had prepped themselves for this, so I'm hoping their new gadgets will work."


"Excellent, form up on us and we'll send'em packing!"


The larger seapony, whom many have known as Queen Novo finished the chat with, "Oh, that'll be easy as pie." The channel then cut to show the battlefield again, more debris visible throughout as Wyatt spoke once again.


"Weapons and shields at max, target the escorts, let's put a stop to this bloodshed!" Elisa tapped a few buttons on her console as the Admiral kept himself steady, small purple-white projectiles shooting out from the ship seconds later. While Wyatt had time to try and locate his friends down on the surface, he was going to take care of distractions so that they would be free to look without a threat, but he was going to be in for a much longer ride than he expected very soon.
> Chapter IX: Light of Antares
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S.S. Antares

Main Bridge


Beeps and sonar pings sounded throughout the bright bridge as two pairs of doors opened, one releasing an Andorian female, two mares, three fillies and two Tzenkethi officers, while the other revealed eight mares and a stallion coming through, some of them halting in their spots to admire the room. The room was almost pure white, with a bit of dark red for the floor and for the circular window on the ceiling, the consoles looked sleek and had the buttons in a bluish color. and the viewscreen was rather a window with several screens on it.


Twilight only let her eyes take one look around before she turned back to Tarsi, who was at one of the wall consoles as she spoke. "When we landed here, we sent a few officers to set up sensor scramblers above us so we couldn't be detected easily, we also managed to salvage some gear after our skirmish with the Romulans."


"Really? Well we'll most likely need it for what we're about to do. What do we have?" Twilight said as she looked to the officer.


"Some additional torpedoes and beam banks, some shield and weapon batteries, a mining drill, some red matter and a cloaking device." Twilight raised an eyebrow as she heard Tarsi's words.


"How'd you get the last three?" Twilight asked with high curiosity.


"Must've been a miracle, we've been getting all of them installed ever since we landed." The Andorian said with a smirk.


Twilight returned with a smirk of her own as she spoke once more. "Great, that'll really break the Tzenkethi fleet up into pieces, what's our status, Dash?"


Dash was admiring the design of the console she was now sitting at, but snapped out of it and took a second to examine the state of the ship. "Our systems are fully operational, shields and weapons power is at 100%. We're ready to fly this girl up on your word..... or, Tarsi's word, however it's going to work."


Twilight looked to Tarsi, who gave a shrug as she spoke. "Meh, I'm only the First Officer, and while I should take command, you all have more experience than me, besides, I'm sure that Johnny would've wanted you to take his place for the time being." Twilight then looked to Flash and Spike, who gave her a nod of approval before she looked to the screen. 


After observing the ocean the ship sat in, Twilight looked to Dash. "Dash, start her up and take us high."


Dash grinned as she tapped the console, the ship jumping slightly as they watched the now descending ocean vanish into nothing but a blue blur.


On the surface, the water moved and splashed silently for a few seconds before a gigantic blast of water appeared in the center of a large space on the water, the splashes becoming bigger and noisy as a large object appeared from the undersea land. The saucer was large and round, with a section in front of the bridge that bore the ship's name and registry, "U.S.S. Antares, NCC-3206". There were six rectangular sections on the front, left, and right of the saucer, three on both the top and bottom with spherical sections that served as the ship's phaser banks, the bridge was sleek with a window on the front of it and a long section trailing down to the ship's glowing red colored impulse engine. The neck was slim and slightly curved down to the secondary hull, a torpedo bay built on the bottom front section of the neck, the secondary hull was circular, a blue and gold deflector dish at the front and a designation reading, "NCC-3206" on the front underside of the hull. The pylons of the ship curved up slightly, holding two gigantic nacelles that had blue glass sections encasing several fins and blades rotating inside, the rest of the engine was smaller as it extended to the aft area, with two fins at the top of the ends.


The ship roared louder than the water falling off of the ship, the lights on the ship flickering to life as the ship slowly turned towards the sky. Twilight observed the beautiful scenery in front of her and the ship before she spoke to Dash. "Punch it." Dash tapped a button on the console and the ship jerked forward, the clouds flying by the accelerating ship as it tilted higher towards the heavens. The ship sped through the sky for a short moment before the last of the clouds passed by and the sky faded into a dark black, with several stars accompanying it.


Twilight stared at the sea of space in front of her, at the moment, they'd fortunately not jumped into the middle of the battle they were once apart of, but farther away, there were ships and weapons fire that could be seen from their current position. After taking in the sight, Twilight then turned to Rarity at one of the wall consoles and asked, "Rarity, can you locate the Fearless?"


The fashionista tapped her console a few times before she found her answer. "They've taken cover behind the enemy fleet, and I'm reading slight damage to the Fearless."


"Pinkie, see if you can get a signal to Wyatt, Dash, take us towards the Alliance fleet." The two mares nodded and tapped their consoles. Not a second later did the ship speed forward toward the fleet and a large screen appeared showing the Admiral in his seat. He looked unscathed much to Twilight's comfort, but gave a stunned look when he saw her new seat.


"Well, I'm glad you're okay, Twilight, but how'd you get that new ship of yours?" 


Twilight then turned to Tarsi, who gave a smile as she replied. "You can thank me and my crew for that, we were hiding down on the planet before you came and we're ready to help."


Wyatt gave a comforted smile as he spoke again. "Definitely, if you could help take out these frigates abusing us here, that'd be a real help."


"Not a problem, we'll be right on it." Twilight said, but halted her hoof from the armrest console when he noticed her friend looking at Terrak, who stood in a friendly posture as Wyatt spoke.


"I assume you're Tzen-Terrak?"


Terrak nodded at the question. "I'm very pleased to see you face to face, Admiral, perhaps when this is over we can meet in person?" Wyatt nodded as the screen changed to show the battle ahead, the Alliance fleet nearly filled the entire window as they closed on the Amarillo. 


Twilight then looked to Dash and ordered, "What's the status of the Amarillo?"


Dash tapped her console before she got her results. "Her shields are down to 20%, she's being pummeled!"


"Lock weapons on the frigates, fire at will!" Dash tapped on her console before several red bolts of energy shot out rapidly at the closest Tzenkethi ship, the shields of the ship flashing rapidly until the final flash appeared and the hull was being burned to pieces by the shots. Not a second later did the ship become one with the burning fireball, flying apart swiftly. Dash then turned her attention to another frigate and more red phaser bolts shot out at the ship, a blue beam apparently coming from the Amarillo joining the assault. The ship's shields flickered and took several shots before a single torpedo from the Antares put down the frigate for good. 


Dash gave a vicious grin upon vanquishing the two ships. "Ha! This baby's got the claws of a warship! She's pretty tough!" She halted her cocky attitude when she noticed a larger ship coming at them, a Rhas’bej class battlecruiser. "Well, that'll be true if we can kill this thing." The pegasus said quietly as she heard Twilight spoke.


"Don't let that cruiser get a chance to attack our friends back there, get it's attention!"


"Was hoping you'd say that!" Dash said with a smirk as she tapped her console and several phaser bolts and photons shot out at the cruiser, green beams firing back at the ship as they attacked.


Tarsi then tapped her console for a moment before she grinned at the data on her console and looked to Twilight. "Twilight, that drill I mentioned a bit ago has been installed, we can fire on your order!"


The alicorn smiled as she looked to Dash and ordered, "Dash, let's take a bigger piece of meat off of that beast, fire the mining drill!" Dash nodded and tapped her console several times before a large orange beam soon shot out of the front of the saucer, hitting the now vulnerable Tzenkethi warship as it turned to the right from the impact. A short moment later a large explosion appeared on the aft port section of the ship, causing it to turn ever more so to the right and crashing into one of the nearby frigates, which wrought out two more explosions from the ship, the last and larger one bringing about the cruiser's end.


Dash let out a cheer of excitement as Rarity smiled at the sight. "Nice move there, Rainbow! That'll save us some trouble!" Dash then turned the ship to the left on a hard boost of speed, forcing everyone up against their seats as the ship then made another left turn to face the enemy fleet. 


The sight of the fleet's maneuvers raised one of Twilight's eyebrows as she saw them, the ships had ceased fire and were now turning away from the Alliance fleet. Curious of the retreat, Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie and asked, "Pinkie, why are those ships fleeing?"


Pinkie tapped her console quickly before she got her results. "Twilight, I don't know why or how, but my scanners are showing high energy levels being generated on the dreadnought. They seem to be very similar to the amount generated for a universal portal!"


"What?!" She then looked to the screen and saw the lead ship firing a blue beam from it's front side before a blue anomaly appeared in front of the Tzenkethi fleet. Twilight gritted her teeth as she turned to Rarity. "Rarity, hail Wyatt, quickly!" Rarity did so and Wyatt's face appeared on the screen not a moment later. "Wyatt, our scans say they're trying to open a universal portal, they might be trying to attempt an attack!"


Wyatt frowned at the news before he responded. "Well, we don't have time to waste, we're right behind you!"


Twilight nodded as the screen shut off and Dash, without a cue, tapped her console before the ship sped forward, almost knocking everyone off of their feet as the Pegasus held onto her console. Twilight sat in her chair as she watched the anomaly fly past the Antares, thoughts flying around in her mind as she awaited their arrival.


~U.S.S. Amarillo, Bridge~


The centuries-old bridge vibrated roughly as the ship flew through the anomaly, crewmembers keeping their stances with strong effort as they performed their duties. Wyatt stared at the enemy fleet on the screen as he thought in his mind, "This is very strange for the Tzenkethi to be able to activate the portal despite the fact that they've never taken one of our ships for study, I wonder how they've found out how to do such a thing." He then ceased his thoughts as he turned to  T'Vrell and asked her, "T'Vrell, can you get any readings on the other side of this portal?" T'Vrell took a second before she answered the Admiral.


"I've gotten a faint reading of the area, but I cannot get anymore than that, there seems to be a large structure of some kind, as well as several more ships around it, but that's all I can tell."


"They might be retreating to some kind of undercover facility to plan their next attack." Miolii said as she looked to Wyatt.


"Perhaps, but the real question I'm pondering over is HOW they gained the ability to travel like this." The Caitian commander gave a grim look as she once again faced the screen, watching the enemy ships in front of them flying fast towards the end of the portal.


Elisa turned to Wyatt after looking at her console again and spoke. "Sir, we're nearing the edge of the anomaly!"


"Weapons ready, T'Vrell, ready shields and send out a signal to our friends at the Preserver sphere, tell them we've got company!" T'Vrell nodded as she performed the task and Wyatt tapped his comms panel on his armrest and spoke. "Bridge to Lon, how's the damage?" 


Lon voice sounded through the speakers with slight grunts. "My boys and I have managed to fix some of the damaged power conduits to the deck, and our-NGHHHAAH- warp core's taken only a few scratches." 


"Good, keep up the repairs, the fight's not over!" 


Lon remained silent for a moment before he responded, stopping the Admiral from speaking in worry. "Understood sir, and Mrs. Creepy wants to come up to the bridge sir, she says she may be able to help out on this matter."


Wyatt had been aware of his new officer's work, she'd been educating herself in Starfleet's history and trying to get the knows of the galaxy lately, as well as taking a look at the new datalogs involving their travels into other universes. Thinking of the possible answers they could get from her studies, he answered his engineer with, "Get her up here immediately."


"Aye." Lon said as the comms cut out and the viewscreen flashed to show a distorted area of space, somehow familiar yet not at the same time. The space around the ships seemed to be similar to the subspace areas populated by the Elachi, but the area would slightly shift in color from dark blue to a purplish red, in front of the two fleets was a large, stationary structure of some kind, it had the type of hull color the Tzenkethi ships had, but the design was nothing like Wyatt had seen from their arsenal, a tall, bulging structure with around three rotating rings glowing orange in their interiors circling around the main section, around all that was several arms attached to the large hull. Each arm seemed to have a ship or two in it. 


Curious, Wyatt looked to Elisa and ordered, "Magnify on those two arms on the left." Elisa tapped her console before the screen shifted to a closer view of the station's arms, there were three ships visible on the screen, two on one arm and one on the other. The first one seemed to resemble a civilian ship with minor signs of damage, the second was a Terran Nebula class ship, with signs that the personnel on the base were dismantling it, and the last one forced Wyatt's pupils to shrink and an eyebrow to raise, an Iconian Quas class cruiser, with no signs of tampering whatsoever.



Wyatt was surprised at the sight of a powerful vessel being held by a race that would be nothing compared to the power of such an ancient species, wondering about the status of the vessel, Wyatt turned to T'Vrell and spoke. "T'Vrell, what's the status of the Herald vessel?"


The Vulcan officer tapped her console a few times before she replied. "There are no life forms aboard, the ship's systems are shut down and the vessel itself is restrained by docking clamps on the arm of the station. I'm also reading several life signs on the station, some of them are not Tzenkethi."


"Perhaps they're prisoners.... and what of the Terran vessel?" Wyatt said as he took another look at the Imperial vessel, the turbolift doors opening and Creepybloom entering as T'Vrell answered. 


"The ship's name is I.S.S. Depression, NCC-98847, some of her components are missing, I believe that the Tzenkethi may be using them for study."


Creepybloom's pupils shrunk upon those words. "...Did you say, that ship's name was "I.S.S. Depression"?" She said as she stared at the somewhat familiar ship.


Wyatt, giving a confused look, turned to her and spoke. "Yes, is there something wrong, Creepy?"


The filly shook her head out of the trance-like stance and turned to Wyatt as she answered. "Yes, you see, when Ah was studying those datalogs, Ah decided to take a look at the databanks of a recovered data buoy we picked up in the Badlands a bit ago, and Ah found a load of data involving some of their ships. Ah looked into several of them and one of them turned out to be that ship on the screen." Wyatt then turned to the screen again to see the ship Creepybloom had been talking about before turning back to the filly. "Ah read a lot on the ships, including the prisoner data files, and.... that ship had a prisoner Ah'm very familiar with." 


Wyatt gave a curious look as he asked, "Really? Who?"


Creepybloom held herself together as she answered. "A friend Ah made when Ah was back on Mirror Equis, Pinkie, or, Pinkamena, if that'll help specify things." 


Wyatt's eyes widened slightly, after hearing the tale of the filly's capture after she joined the crew, he'd been wondering what'd happen to her. In his eyes, family was an important thing to have for him and his crew, and he started to have hopeful thoughts as he spoke. "So, are you saying that since that ship is here, she may be on that station?"


Creepybloom thought through the chances as she responded. "Possibly, Ah read further on that ship's data, and from what Ah read, the ship was reported missing after they went on patrol in Tzenkethi space, and mah friend wasn't registered as transferred when that happened."


Wyatt turned towards the screen as he observed the station, there were prisoners, and if what the filly said was true, then they might be on a rescue mission at this point. Saving the Admiral's breath, Creepybloom looked to her friend and asked, "If you'll allow meh sir, I'd like to join on an away team to the station, if we can get through to them, that is."


Wyatt stood staring at the screen for a moment, looking at the station for a few moments before T'Vrell spoke up. "Sir, the Tzenkethi fleet is coming towards us, we must hurry."


"Hail Twilight, lemme see what she can do." T'Vrell tapped her console in compliance before Twilight appeared on screen.


She gave a eager look as she spoke to her friend. "What's the plan, Wyatt?"


Wyatt gave a hopeful look as he spoke to the princess. "Twilight, do you have any special gear aboard that ship? I'm considering a... rescue mission onboard the station and I need to know what your ship's got."


Tarsi got in front of the screen as she spoke up. "I believe so sir, we managed to gain a cloaking device during an earlier scuffle with an enemy, if your team doesn't mind using EV-suits, I believe we can do that."


Wyatt smiled as he heard the officer's words. "You got it, I'll see if we can provide some EV-suits, how many do you need?"


Twilight looked to her friends, and deciding who would go, she answered. "I'd say about seven, if that won't be a problem."


"Not at all, we'll send over the suits and take cover behind the fleet until we're ready to start the operation... also, I'm sending Creepybloom over to you, she says there may be someone on that station that she knows very well."


Twilight smiled at the filly's face again as she replied. "Got it, it'll be good to see her again, we'll let you know when we're going to proceed. Sparkle out." The Princess finished with a smile as the screen cut back to the station, the Tzenkethi fleet bearing down on the Amarillo as Wyatt looked to T'Vrell and spoke to her.


"T'Vrell, contact our friends around us, tell them to cover us as we prep ourselves for the operation!"
> Chapter X: Silent Flight/True Intentions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S.S. Antares

Weapons Room


The room was noisy with metal clanks and the cocking of phaser rifles as several ponies gathered their gear up, barely any words being spoken as they placed their last pieces of gear on them, of the seven team members being sent to the facility, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Flash, and of course Twilight were gathered up within the weapons room, wearing environmental suits as they prepped themselves up. Applejack took a look at her sister as the filly turned to her and spoke. "Well, it'll be fun to work with Creepy again, I hope her friend is still alive over there."


"Let's hope you're right on that, I couldn't imagine what would've happened to her when she was taken by them." Applejack said as she placed a scope on her rifle, a click sounding from it before she placed it on her back and trotted over to her friends, Applebloom following suite as she finished.


"Well, with Creepy with us, I don't think we'll have too much to worry about."


Twilight cleared her throat once all of her friends were in place. "Alright, so, our plan is to make a space jump onto the station in an attempt to sneak in, get inside, find the prisoners, and maybe get some intel about why the Tzenkethi fleet is attacking other planets. We'll be using stealth gear for the job, but try to stay vigilant, this facility is in another place that may not be in our universe, so who knows what trouble they'll have in store for us."


Rainbow Dash gave a vicious smirk as she spoke up. "Cool, I've been wanting to give those freaks a run for their money after what they did to us."


Twilight, while understanding Dash's emotional focus at the moment, kept her sternness as she finished. "And, I understand that the Tzenkethi have put us all through horrible experiences lately, but I don't want any emotional issues blocking us from getting the job done, we'll all have the chance to do that later, am I clear?" She said as she gave a look to Dash, who gave an embarrassed smile as she replied.


"Yes ma'am." 


"Good, now follow m-" She started to say but stopped as the doors opened to show a filly with dark-yellow fur and a yellow and red 23rd Century tunic apparently made for equines her size, and next to her was Terrak's companion, wearing a suit that seemed to be an environmental suit for his race. Saving the princess's breath, he stood firmly as he spoke.


"Your friend will not be the only one coming, Terrak has requested that I accompany you all to the station, I can help you gain access to the station without having to risk destroying a security camera or two."


"Aw yeah, now we can really show'em who's boss!" Scootaloo said with a grin before Creepy spoke after.


"Yeah, and Ah've manage to make some special gear during mah time on the Amarillo, and Ah think they'll come in handy."


"I'm sure they will," Applebloom said before looking to Twilight and finishing with, "We're ready when you are."


The princess looked to Terrak's officer and Creepybloom before they gave her nods as a sign of confirmation. "Let's get down to the shuttlebay, then!" The group then made their way out of the room and raced to the shuttlebay, keeping a steady pace as they made their way through the halls.


Dash took a look at her Tzenkethi companion, giving a curious look before speaking. "Ya know, after all of this, you haven't given us your name."


The soldier gave a chuckle as he answered the mare. "Ah, yes, I forgot a while ago... you can call me Taluk."


~Shuttlebay~


The area was ablaze with weapons fire from two sides of the area, the Alliance ships and the Tzenkethi assault force. Not a moment after arriving did the battle return to the two fleets and beams and torpedoes shot from varying ships and fighters, the Antares however, sat away from the battle, both the fleets ignoring them.


On the bridge, Tarsi sat in the Captain's Chair, observing the battlefield as she heard a beep from her chair's armrest, looking down at it and tapping it before Twilight's voice sounded through the panel.


"Sparkle to Bridge, we're ready."


Tarsi turned towards an officer at the helm console before ordering, "Helm, full impulse towards the docking arm facing us," She then turned to another officer behind her and ordered, "Lieutenant, engage the cloaking device!"


The officers nodded and performed their tasks, the ship distorted and faded completely into nothing before it sped towards the nearby arm of the station, the ship jerking to the left before it faced away from the structure, the shuttlebay now almost nose-to-nose with the nearby shuttlepod docking doors on the front of the arm.


The shuttlebay, besides being larger and having several small bays for shuttlecraft, was nearly in it's usual state, the only changes being no shuttles deployed and no other officers other than Twilight and her group who'd arrived moments ago. 


Twilight and her group took a good look at the square section on the dark hull as the shuttlebay doors, taking a breath before looking to her officers and asking, "Everyone ready?" The group took another look at themselves before giving a nod to the alicorn as she spoke once more. "Excellent, on my mark..." The group then place their legs and hooves in sturdy-looking positions, getting ready to activate their boosters. "NOW!" Upon her word, Twilight and the rest of the group tapped a button on their wristbands before their boosters shot out energetic flames from their thrusters, shooting each of them out of the ship and flying towards the door on the docking arm. The group flew for a short moment before they each landed on the hull one at a time, Scootaloo being the last one to touch the surface.


Twilight then turned to Dash and asked, "OK, Dash, could you could you cut us through the doors, please?" Dash nodded before she pulled out her phaser rifle and proceeded to fire a beam onto the hull. 


"Well, I'm really customizing this baby once this is over." The pegasus said quietly as she focused her slicing.


Twilight then turned to Flash and gave a hopeful smile as she spoke to him. "Well, I'm hoping that after we get this whole storm to blow over, we can have some time together."


Flash gave a smile as well as he spoke, his voice becoming quieter as he continued. "Yeah, maybe some time in Canterlot or Ponyville will bring some fun for us, by the way, between you and me, I was able to talk to Soarin when I went to see one of their shows on one of my shore leaves, and you'll never guess who he plans to go on a dat-" The guard stopped when the pair heard a loud whooshing sound behind them before turning to see the air from the inside of the hull blasting out and into Dash's face, her head blowing back but not snapping off as the air blast finally subsided, Dash wiping her screen as she looked to the group and spoke.


"OK, maybe don't put your face over a door sealing an oxygen-filled room when you cut it open." The group gave a slight laugh before they all flipped into the small hallway one by one, This time Dash being the last one to enter the room as the group looked for any buttons within. After a short moment, Flash saw a button on the left wall, giving a smirk as he spoke.


"Ah, this should fix us up." He said before tapping the button, a pair of additional doors sealing behind the group before a low klaxon sounded within the room, the officers readying themselves before a powerful force pulled them down to the floor, hooves and feet landing in time as they hit the ground hard yet steady.


After observing the room once more, Pinkie looked to Twilight and spoke as the group made their way to the door nearby. "So, I'm assuming we're going to take one of the captured ships once we're done here?"


"Exactly my idea, Pinkie." Twilight said before everyone tapped their wristbands and their bodies faded in a flash.


Upon the doors opening, Taluk gave a quick peek down both ways in the hallway, not making a noise as he looked back and motioned his friends to follow him, all of them walking quietly down the left side as he turned and asked Applejack quietly, "Applejack, do you know where the brig is at?"


The farmgirl took a look at her scanner before she gave her answer. "I believe it's up ahead, it'll be a walk though. I've also picked up a science lab that's right up here."


"Excellent, there we can get our information and continue on towards the brig afterwards." Taluk said before he stopped to see a Tzenkethi soldier in front of the door, a rifle in his hand as he stood guard for the room behind him.


"Well, there's the lab.... and a bit of trouble." Creepybloom said quietly.


"Not for long, Pinkie, come with me." Dash said as the two mares made their way towards another open hallway and got behind a wall near the door. The two then crouched down to sit in front of a section of the wall before Dash tapped her wrist pad several times before looking to Twilight. Seeing the alicorn's nod through her tactical goggles, she turned to Pinkie and asked, "Pinkie, do you still have that pressurizer we made earlier?"


"Yep." The party pony said eagerly as she snatched the mentioned, circular device from her hind gear holster before handing it to Dash, who placed it on the wall and tapped the device a few times and twisted it's switch before she turned to Pinkie and spoke.


"If I'm right, this little baby will trigger a breach in the gas pipes inside th-" She was cut off as the device did it's work and an explosion sounded from the other side, coughing sounding from the other side before Dash grabbed the device and placed it in her holster before the two ponies raced back to the group, who were waiting at the door near the suffocating guard as Taluk reached down and grabbed something from the officer's suit.


"This should permit us access inside." He was correct as he took the data chip and placed it in front of the door's scanner, which flashed a yellowish green upon scanning. As the doors opened, the group sped inside, the doors shutting as they all stopped to inspect for security cameras. Spotting two of them, Twilight used her magic to crush the cameras into tiny fragments, allowing safe exploration for the officers as they investigated the room.


"Well, for a research facility, they sure don't keep an eye on their projects." Applejack said as she noticed no one else in the room with her and her friends, the room itself was triangular in the wall design, several computers and consoles were spread out across the room, between every two to three consoles or so being some kind of container, some of them empty, as the group took a look at several of them, they noticed several known and strange creatures within them, one of them was a tribble, another was a strange slug of some kind with dark, crusty skin. Several others consisted of strange creatures, one of them was an adorable one, the creature was a quadruple, and had a main layer of white fur, with a few sections of pink going around some parts of it's body and around it's ears, which also had two ribbons with a small patch of pink and blue on them, as well as a little pink bow on it's chest, and the creatures eyes were a bluish color. 


Fluttershy was in love with the creature, giving a sad look as she saw the terrified animal cower in fear. "Oh, you poor thing, Twilight, do you think we could get this little guy out? He looks scared."


Twilight took a look at the small animal as it yelped helplessly within it's cage. "SYLVEON! SYLVEON!" Seeing the fear on the creature's face, the princess looked to Taluk, who went over and tapped several keys on the computer before the container opened and freed the thing from it's prison, hopping onto Fluttershy's back as she chuckled slightly. Unlike the creature whom they assumed was called a 'Sylveon', another creature was fierce and sent a shiver down everyone's spines, it floated within it's glass prison, and had a green, slightly clear shell that exposed a red organic section inside, below that were around four fangs, two small ones in the front and two large ones in the back of the creature.


Fluttershy gave an uncomfortable squeal upon seeing the floating monster, almost wanting to yelp in terror. "What is that thing?!" She said in a high-pitched manner.


"I don't know, but I'm not letting THAT one out, who knows what it could do to us." Taluk said, the Sylveon holding onto Fluttershy as she opened up one of her saddlebags and placed the creature into it.


Fluttershy then turned to see a console that stood out from the rest, it was wider and seemed to have been accessed as it was left on a certain screen. "Maybe we can find out some things from that console." The pegasus said as she and the others made their way over to the console, Taluk, Dash, and Scootaloo turning around to keep guard for anyone that may come inside the room.


Twilight observed the console for a moment before noticing something. "Ah, this should be it." Twilight said before tapping a section of the screen with her hoof several times, the screen changing a few times before she saw something that caught her eye. "A video log? Let's see what this can show us." The princess said before she tapped the small section of the screen before it enlarged and revealed a familiar face, it was Trinnak, looking into the screen with a stern expression on his face, his voice sounding low and slightly moved as he spoke.


"Research log: Timestamp: 4402.87, my comrades and I have found several worlds of these strange creatures, some of them posing a possible threat to our species. We are still undertaking examinations, but I plan to see the expiration of two of them, a quadrupled that has the ability to attack with powers we're astounded by could harm us if used by our enemies, another one that we found with a woman was very dangerous, it floats and sucks the life force from another creature, and it is one that I've already placed under the termination list. We've tried everything, but not a single thing can harm it. However, one of my colleagues claims it is vulnerable to cold, so we'll be placing it in one of our coolant bays that we've shut down for maintenance later on." 


Twilight took another look at the strange creature before she thought for a moment. Despite the risky decision she was choosing, she turned to Dash and spoke. "I might be stupid for saying this, but I want you to take that container and hold onto it, I think it could be valuable." 


Reluctantly, Dash nodded as she and Taluk went over to grab the creature, Twilight turning around to watch the rest of the video log. "On another issue, while I respect the Autarch, he is a fool for some of the choices he's made, we should be wiping the galaxy of the Federation rather than hunting down insects and other galactic plagues in the galaxy. Some of my comrades believe this to be personal desires of vengeance, and indeed it is, but it is for good reason. Our people were massacred by the 'peaceful' Federation and their Klingon allies during the old war, and with talk of their new 'Universal Alliance', I have chosen to make an example of one of their new allies... an earth like planet they call Equis." 


The group let out loud gasps as they heard Trinnak's words, Fluttershy giving a squeal of terror as she shivered in fear and spoke. "Why do they want to hurt us?! What did we do to them?!" 


"Most likely to attract attention from our allies, to start another war, a REAL one." Twilight said with worry as she focused on the last section of the video.


"The planet mostly sustains sentient Earth animals, mythological and real, equines, dragons, griffons, and several others. While they are mostly peaceful, they shall unfortunately be one of many examples of why the Alliance should not play God with other realms.... This concludes this log entry." The screen cut to a shot of static, buzzing sounding from it as the group began to converse, Rainbow Dash being the first to start.


"Well, now we know why they wanna kill us." She said with annoyance.


"Indeed, and with the fact that they're planning to end billions of lives on our homeworld, we have to stop them before they can do so. Let's get to the brig and rescue the prisoners and then head to-" Twilight said before she stopped as the doors opened to reveal several Tzenkethi officers, their weapons ready and aimed at the group.


With quick precision, Dash and Tulak activated shield barriers in front of the group, protecting them from harm as green beams and bolts fired from the attackers. 


Wasting no time in doing so, Twilight tapped the console again to access the data controls, pulling out a small chip as she spoke loudly. "Cover me, I'm going to get the data from this thing! It should only take a moment!"


The group proceeded to provide cover fire as the firefight grew brighter. Flash steadied his rifle before he broke cover and fired three good shots at one of the attackers, the warrior falling before another of the now five remaining soldiers aiming at him as he took cover once again. Scootaloo pulled out a pair of plasma grenades before pulling their plugs and throwing them at the five soldiers, the balls exploding and spreading gas around the attackers. Taking a look at them, two of them were down and three of them held their ground.


The small Sylveon tried to shake itself from Fluttershy's bag as she looked down in worry. "Wait, you don't wanna get hurt out there, do you?!" The creature merely said it's name as a sign of response, Fluttershy placing it in her bag once again as the shots kept coming.


Applejack pulled out a unique-looking turret and placed it on the ground before it readied itself and began shooting what appeared to be apples at the Tzenkethi, the warriors losing their guard as they inspected the small fruits before they exploded and splattered all over the three. Taking the chance, Applejack, Applebloom and Creepybloom fired their shots at the three soldiers, two of them falling down in pain as the last one slowly got up and quickly deployed a small shield in front of him.


Twilight kept her eyes on the screen as she waited for the chip to complete the download, gritting her teeth as the bar nearly filled itself. Upon the bar becoming full, Twilight swiftly pulled out the chip and placed it into her holster on her left hind leg, turning to her friends as she spoke. "I've got it, let's go!" The group then began to get up and ready themselves for an attack on the last attacker. The Sylveon began to break free from Fluttershy's bag again, this time jumping out and sprinting towards the enemy trooper.


"WAIT! DON'T GO OVER THERE!" Fluttershy screamed in terror before the Tzenkethi readied himself and fired, the animal dodging the shots with swift maneuverability. Upon getting close, the creature shot a large pink blast at the Tzenkethi, knocking him down with ease, but not killing him.


The group stood shocked as they witnessed the sight, the Sylveon coming back to Fluttershy and hopping in her bag as Taluk shot at the dying warrior. "Well, we don't have time to waste, let's get to the brig!" Twilight said as they raced out of the room, not looking back at the room as they passed the doors.


As they made a turn towards the left of the hall, several more soldiers noticed their escape and a few shots came from behind the group, one of them hitting Creepybloom in the flank, forcing a yelp from her as she pushed onward.


"Creepy!" Applejack said in worry as she looked back at the filly.


"NGH! Ah'll be fine, let's get going!" She said as they then focused their eyes forward, keeping an eye out for any additional attackers as they neared the brig.
> Chapter XI: The More, The Better
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tzenkethi Station

Undesignated Brig


The race away from the coming firefight was a mere jump between the two rooms, the group continuously firing shots behind them as more came from the attackers. Upon reaching the door to the brig, Taluk used the data chip from the downed lab guard to open the destination up for him and his friends. Once they split open, each of the group slid in like a short, yet thin line into the large room, Creepybloom providing the last shot against the approaching Tzenkethi before the doors shut. Not wasting a second, the filly then aimed her rifle and fired at the door's seals, cauterizing and melding the doors shut and preventing an easy break-in.


After pulling out two devices and setting them down, Creepybloom turned to face her comrades, wiping off a sea of sweat from her forehead with her hoof as she spoke. "Well, Ah might've played it extreme, but with the doors forced together like that, they won't be able to get in for a bit."


Dash gave a grin as she responded. "Heh, don't worry, I've got just the thing we'll need to break outta this rattrap when we're ready."


"Everyone, see who you can find, Taluk, could you help them try and break them out?" Twilight as the Tzenkethi ally gave a nod to her request and joined with one of the team members, Creepybloom setting up her other shield barrier before she began making her own walk around the prison cells.


They'd seen several differing beings in each of the cells, a humanoid with a blue jacket and red and white hat, along with bluish-black pants and a belt that carried six red and white balls. In another cell they saw someone they couldn't recognize, the being looked female, and was covered in orange and yellow colored armor, along with two spherical sections on the shoulders with glowing green lines within them. The helmet was in the color of red, with a green window revealing the face, and on her  left arm was, shockingly, a cylindrical part that looked to be some kind of cannon.  In some of the other cells, there were several different Iconian Heralds resting within their chambers, not making a sound as the group came to inspect them.


Rarity admired the suit on the strange humanoid being. "Oh, as much as I'd hold comments like this on this occasion, I must say, that suit is very fancy, darling." She commented as the being looked to her.


"Really? Well, it's not a fashion trend in my home universe, it's what my people have come to call a power suit." The woman said to the fashionista in response to her comment.


"Well, that's most unfortunate." Rarity replied.


"Yeah..." The woman said before she continued. "Well, since you seem to be curious, my name is Samus Aran, I'm a very well-known bounty hunter in my universe, and no, not the kind to perform deeds of evil."


Rarity gave a slight breath of relief as she responded. "Ah, good, I'd almost went nuts."


Nearby, Creepybloom was trotting in worry past each of the pairs of cells that contained nothing but Heralds, her hopeful smile slowing crumbling to a depressed frown as she tried to find her friend. "What if they ended up experimenting on her? Or downright killing her?-NO, no she can't be, maybe there's another-" She halted her thoughts as she saw her target at the last cell on the right, a pony with a greyish pink coat of fur and a curved hot pink mane and tail, with a cutie mark that exactly resembled Pinkie Pies, lying down with a sorrow expression and her eyes shut.


"Guys, Ah've found her!" The filly exclaimed with relief and joy as they all raced to her, Rarity staying behind to communicate with the one calling herself Samus.


Once Taluk reached the security pad, the pink pony gave a look of fear as the tall Tzenkethi spoke. "Don't panic, Mrs. Pinkamena, we're here to help." Upon seeing a familiar face alongside the group standing in front of her, Pinkamena's shield of fear lowered instantly as the shield was deactivated, allowing the group inside.


When Creepybloom went up to her friend, she gave a gleeful, teary-eyed smile as she spoke, "Pinkie, you're okay, they.... they didn't do anything to ya, did they?"


Pinkie gave a comforting shake of her head as she replied. "N-no, other than taking a sample of my blood for inspection, I... I think I'm fine." After the short exchange, the two held each other tightly in an embrace, not letting go for several seconds before they finally separated, Creepybloom fixing her stern look as she spoke again.


"Ah'd love to have a long chat about what'd happened, Pinkie, but we're being chased by some guards, so we have to get out of here."


Pinkamena gave a worried frown as she asked, "Are we getting out of here? How many are there?!"


"Not many, silly, but there'll be more if we don't light the fires and get going!" Pinkie Pie said to her counterpart excitedly, who drawing a look of surprise at seeing someone with a similar appearance to herself.


"Indeed, but there's a few others we have to break out." Twilight said as she turned to the other cells as she trotted to one of the Herald cells, Taluk making his way to Samus' cell as the princess spoke to the Iconian servant within the cell. "Well, today's you and your crew's lucky day, we're busting you out." She said with a smile.


The Herald spoke to her in a deep, distorted voice. "Starfleet.... we are surprised to see such primitives here on an advanced facility, what brings you here?"


Ignoring the technological remark, Twilight continued. "We're here to get valuable information about why the Tzenkethi are attacking planets near Alliance space, and break you and a friend of ours out of here."


"Even if you do, what advantage do we offer for your comrades?" The servant asked with disappointment.


"You mean weapons?" Rainbow Dash said as she turned to see a large, rectangular container with Tzenkethi text placed between the left wing of cells and the door. Moving over to it, she opened the container and found several devices placed within it. "These should do, pretty stupid to have these lying around if they didn't want a prison break to be easy." She said as she laughed.


Seeing the plates around the inside of the container, Taluk spoke up. "It's a good thing too, because whoever was operating this recycling station must've come to attack us. Perhaps they performed research a bit ago."


"Maybe." The Pegasus said as she took some of the weapons out along with Taluk, turning and making their way to Twilight before placing the staffs and weapons on the ground. 


After a long moment of deactivating the force fields of all of the cells and all of the beings exited them, the group gathered up their gear and looked to Twilight as she spoke. "Alright, now that we've gotten everyone out of the cage, it's time to break out of the house. Rainbow, do you have a charge?" 


"Definitely, you might wanna stay back though." Dash said as she took a device from her saddlebag and placed it against the door, tapping several keys on it before she and the group stepped back from it, the bomb exploding seconds later and shaking the room.


Reading their weapons, the group stood waiting for an attack, only to see their pursuers were now crushed by the broken doors. Near Fluttershy, the human with the strange balls looked down at the medical mare's saddlebag, noticing the Sylveon inside. "Hey, is that the Sylveon I caught earlier?"


Fluttershy gave a smile as she noticed the creature in her bag. "Yeah, he's okay though, I'll let him out when we get to safety." She said as the creature spoke it's name in response.


"Good.... oh, by the way, the name's Calem, I'm a Pokémon trainer from a town named Vaniville, or at least I used to be." The boy said as he and the rest of the group sped out of the brig and past the fallen Tzenkethi soldiers buried under the debris, not halting their speed as they raced through the hall.


Twilight then lifted her head slightly as she spoke to Applebloom. "Applebloom, do you know where the dock to the Quas is?"


"Should be right across from here!" The filly said as they raced through the hall, eventually reaching a set of doors spread widely apart, stopping as they inspected each one. Looking to the third one near them, Applebloom spoke again. "If I'm right, the third one over here should be it." They all then looked to the third door before Taluk slid the chip inside it and opened the door, allowing the group inside. 


The group took no time passing through the doors of the dock, running through the hall without a second to spare. Upon reaching the doors to the Quas, Taluk tapped the keypad near the door before it opened, revealing a strange set of plates that could only be described as transporter pads.


The group gave a look of confusion until the Herald captain spoke up. "There was no docking port for our warriors to cross, since we use teleportation as a basic means of going and coming. This should suffice, however." Once he finished, most members of the group squeezed themselves onto each of the pads as Dash and a Herald kept watch for the incoming guards, Taluk tapping the button before they poofed out of the transporter through Iconian gateways. Once they were gone, Taluk waited for the Dash and the guard to step on before he tapped the pad once more in a rush before placing a detonator on the keypad and stepping onto the pad with the others, their forms vanishing through the brief sight of the portals.


Quas Warship, Bridge


The transition from the station to the cruiser was merely a microsecond before they were free to move, looking around the room and aweing at the marvelous designs, the top of the bridge was seemingly opened up, giving a full view of the space around the ship and the station. The consoles were mere spheres that rotated slowly and bore a gold shield with blue energy inside of it. The floor was shiny and red, reflecting everyone standing on it on it's surface, as for the walls, they were a sleek, curving set of long walls that seemed to give the bridge an oval shaped look, along with a large seat that awaited it's commander.


Twilight was amazed by the ship's interior, while she'd seen images and descriptions of the ship on the logs of the Iconian War, standing in one was like living a dream, forcing a smile as she examined the room. Remembering her mission snapped her out of her gazing, however, as she looked to her friends and spoke. "As much as I'd like to see our ride up close and personal, we have to get out of here, everyone, get to every controllable station in here, Heralds, mind giving us a hand?" The ancient warriors looked to their commander, who nodded his head as a sign of agreement, making the other Heralds joining up with the other pairs of officers and escapees and assisting them in their operations.


The herald commander gave a simple gesture at the two small spheres around the command station. "These will allow you to perform operations and give orders with mere thoughts and touches to the spheres, with the crew we have at the moment, we should be able to pilot the ship from here." Twilight nodded in acknowledgement before looking to Applejack and receiving a nod from the farmgirl. Upon this, she placed her hooves precariously on the spheres and thought for a short moment before the ship seemed to jump to life as a moan and surge of energy sounded right after.


"Alright, I think we should be able to head out with that done, Dash, how's the helm?" The princess said with eagerness in her voice.


"Ready on your word, ma'am,!" Dash replied before she readied her hooves for the go-ahead on the spheres.


"And our weapons?" Twilight asked Scootaloo as she stood at one of the consoles.


"She's armed to the teeth and ready to bite into our prey nearby!" The filly said with a fierce grin.


"Shields are also primed and standing strong, too." Appleejack said as she operated her console.


"Good, punch it, Rainbow, tear her off of the docking clamps if you have to!" Dash wasted no time as she tapped her spheres, the ship started to shake slightly before a forceful jump nearly launched everyone off of the floor as the group within the room held on for dear life.


"We're free, only a scratch on the hull, the clamps on the dock are broken." Applejack said as she looked at her console's diagnostics.


"Good, turn our ship towards the enemy fleet and commence the attack!" Twilight ordered.


Creepybloom gave a fearful frown as she looked to the princess and spoke. "Twilight, the I.S.S. Depression is startin' to activate!"


"So they'll use whatever means they have to stop us? Lock weapons on her and fire at will, let's put her down for good." Scootaloo tapped her sphere several times before the open view showed several dark blue beams of antiproton energy firing at the cruiser, no mercy being shown to the Terran warship before the vessel finally let out large, fiery explosions and a gigantic final one that tore the ship into several pieces.


"Ship destroyed, the Tzenkethi fleet is closing on us!" Creepybloom said in alarm.


"All of them? How many?" Twilight said with burning curiosity.


"About 34 ships, half of them battlecruisers, two of them are turning away, the Fearless and the dreadnought!"


Twilight gritted her teeth as she heard the Herald captain speak. "While this ship is formidable, she cannot engage such an armada alone."


"Good thing we aren't, Pinkie, tell Wyatt and Tarsi to form up on us and provide cover from the escorts, let's tear up the dreadnoughts like excited fillies and colts on Hearth's Warming Eve!" Twilight said with a smirk as Rainbow responded.


"Ya got it, Twi!" The ship jerked forward a moment after the pegasus' reply, blue beams and energy bolts shooting from the ship and hitting the large Tzenkethi ships, bright blue beams and red bolts striking the smaller escorts soon after.


The Quas tore through the fleet like an angry bull, cutting up some of the ships with quick shots and slicing several others with painful hits that forced them to break away, the Quas turning around in a swift emergency maneuver as it faced the fleeing enemy ships.


Dash let out a yelp of excitement as she grinned mischievously. "Yahoo! This is awesome, I hope the Alliance gets ships like these sometime!" 


"Same thing I hope for." Pinkie said with excitement before she heard a short droning noise from her console and spoke to Twilight. "Twilight, a portal is opening, some more ships are coming through!"


The princess and her friends looked to the screen before a large blue anomaly appeared near the Alliance fleet, several ships being spit out of the portal as it spun with speed. Some of the ships were ones Twilight recognized, the Mon Calamari cruiser that Nom Carver had commandeered by the name of Freedom's Dawn, as well as the Tempest, but two others caught her eyes, a starship that had a sleek and pointy bridge section that was held by a short neck connected to a large bulk of hull. Around the hull were four long wings with small pointy sections at their tips, with a large fin on the top that displayed a red colored marking consisting of an animal that, upon closer inspection, looked like a fox with a wing on it's back. The other seemed to resemble a large dreadnought-sized ship with bulky hull and a long shape, two slim sections facing downwards on the ship's sides served as the wings and the engines were mostly built on the back of the bulges on the hull. Another ship also brought a shocked look onto her face, A Tzenkethi Rhas'bej battlecruiser.


The vessels swarmed the Tzenkethi fleet, finishing each of them off every second before only large pieces of debris filled the small area where the ships once stood. Twilight gave a thankful smile as she spoke. "The cavalry's arrived! Hail the Freedom's Dawn, Pinkie!" The pink pony smiled as she tapped her console before the screen changed to show Nom Carver within a portal in the front of the bridge, the captain giving a smile as he spoke.


"Whooeey! I'd say we came just in time, it's good to see you again, your Highness!" 


"Indeed, we have some more friends here to help as well, and right now we need to retake the Tzenkethi cruiser nearby and stop the dreadnought before they can reach Equestria."


"That should be easy, that cruiser over there seems to be damaged, but she's still operable over there, and according to our scans, her shields are buckled."


Twilight smirked as she replied to Nom. "Excellent, that'll make fighting that dreadnought a bit easier! Dash, set a course after that dreadnought."


Dash gave a worried look as she spoke to the alicorn. "Uh, well we better do it quick, she's making her move without a second to spare!" The group turned to the screen upon her words as it split to show the Tzenkethi dreadnought opening a portal and starting to enter it.


Without giving a second thought, Twilight tapped one of her spheres and spoke. "All ships, form up and follow us full speed into the portal, we can't allow them to reach Equestria! Sparkle out!" Once the signal cut out, the ship jerked to the right and faced Nom once again as she spoke. "I'd like to explain, but there's no time. Pinkie Pie will send you everything we've found in transit, we'll contact you when we have our plan set up!" Carver nodded before the portal closed and showed the ship speeding towards the portal, several other ships speeding behind the ancient warship as Twilight ordered, "Keep our shields and weapons at the ready, Flash, may I speak to you for a moment?" Flash nodded as he and Twilight went to a vacant spot in the room as the ship shook from entering the portal, the ship moving slightly from the movement and speed within the anomaly as it and it's escorts chased on after the dreadnought and the Fearless.
> Chapter XII: Equis' Darkest Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tzenkethi Dreadnought

Transporter Room


The room was deeply quiet, save for the beeping console and officers placing a large object onto the transporter pad as the doors opened and two tall Tzenkethi entered. 


The lead one spoke up first. "Remember, my dear successor, our crew is to be considered expendable for this project's success, if it is necessary. You will hold off any and all enemy forces with as much power as you can muster, do NOT let them reach the surface."


The second-in-command spoke up to his superior officer. "Understood, and.... with your permission, I wish to strike at the small, outdated cruiser that has been with them at the start, my family's descendants have had... incidents with her captain's."


Trinnak stood silent for a moment before responding. "You are granted the honor... However, do not let the fire within you take control as you stand your ground, it will not do you good."


"...Yes sir." The officer said before Trinnak stood on the pad and looked to the chief before he spoke.


"Energize."


~Quas Bridge~


The ride through the portal felt long, yet quick as the ship shook slightly from the intense speed it was traveling at. The shaking lasted for almost a minute before the edge of the portal was reached, the armada of Alliance ships being spit out of the anomaly their targets had left shortly before them. The portal finally closed behind the fleet of ships as they neared Equis and chased after the two escaping Tzenkethi warships that were going towards an area of one of the planet's continents, one that struck Twilight's eye as she saw it on the main viewer.


"Magnify." She said with urgency in her words before the screen zoomed in to show a closer view of the ships and the area they were soaring over.


Dash frowned at her console as she spoke up. "They've started deploying turrets and mines, some are splitting into more of them."


A noise blared from Pinkie's console as she gave a look of fear to Twilight before speaking. "I've picked up a transporter signature, several Tzenkethi lifesigns have beamed down to the surface, as well as a high energy signature!"


"The bomb, they're preparing the detonation sequence!" Terrak exclaimed as he looked to the screen with a low growl.


Twilight gritted her teeth before she spoke. "We don't have much time left, Captain, any options to taking back that cruiser?" Twilight said as she looked to the Herald commander.


"Our ship is capable of taking you and your team to the ship via a gateway, there won't need to be any waiting." He said as the alicorn lifted a hand to gesture.


"Do it, Calem, Samus, Pinkamena, Creepy, I want you to stay with the Heralds until this is over, the rest of you with me!" Twilight said as her friends formed up around her, waiting for the gateway to activate.


"Actually," Samus protested, "I could lend a great amount of effort into helping you, I'd think twice." Twilight didn't waste a second before responding.


"Very well." Upon her word, Samus joined the squad of officers as the gateway opened up, everyone readying themselves as they awaited Twilight's word. "Let's go!" The group raced through the portal with not a second to spare, the portal closing in behind them shortly after.


...............


The bridge was full of officers working on their consoles without a thought of threat, words and beeps from the consoles sounded throughout before a dark blue anomaly appeared at the back of the bridge, releasing several equines and two Tzenkethi as they started shooting at the officers without hesitation. One of the officers  made an evasive roll and, upon getting back up, attempted to attack the orange winged equine with his gauntlets, which didn't prove to be much of a threat as the pegasus smacked the soldier back and impaled him with his staff before the soldier expired. As the officer in the center seat attempted to strike, he was smacked in the face by the tall traitor that once commanded the ship, the officer's body hitting the ground before he fainted.


The group took a quick look around the room before they saw all of the soldiers were down, making their way to the consoles as they looked to the screen. "Seal off the bridge, Taluk, lock the controls to the vital systems!" Terrak said before Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo made their way to the two doors and tapped the keypads a few times before they each made a confirming beep.


Twilight gave a tense look as she looked to Applejack and spoke. "What's the status of our engines, AJ?"


"They're operable." The farmpony replied.


"Good, speed us away from the dreadnought and towards the fleet, and hail Wyatt." Twilight ordered before the screen changed to show the Admiral sitting in his chair with a stern look.


"Twilight, I'm glad you made it back, I'd suggest you go take care of that bomb, we'll take care of that dreadnought!"


"What do you mean?" Twilight asked with curiosity.


"While you were down on the station, we managed to get a scan of the dreadnought, and we've found out that the core of that ship is very close to the forward section of the ship, and if we do it right, we can take it out." Wyatt answered.


"And how will we do that?" Twilight said.


"Don't worry about that, just get down there and stop that bomb, we'll hold them off!" Wyatt responded as the princess gave a stern look.


"Got it, also, we still have some troublemakers on the Fearless, I wouldn't mind if one of your ships could spare some troops. Sparkle out." The screen cut to show the alliance fleet before the ship jerked forward and sped towards them, Twilight looking to her friends before speaking. "Everyone, keep yourselves ready, they might come up here any minute." The crew readied themselves upon hearing Twilight's order as they kept their eyes on their consoles.


~U.S.S. Amarillo~


Wyatt gave a smirk as he looked to Elisa and spoke. "Elisa, status?"


"Engines ready, shields primed, tractor beams at full power!" The first officer said with a grin.


Wyatt then tapped his armrest as he spoke once more. "Moon Dancer, is your squadron ready?" 


"Locked and loaded!" The four mares said all together as Wyatt smiled and replied.


"Great!" He said as he looked to Lon before giving his next order. "Lon, keep our systems working, use the batteries if you have to!" The Admiral then turned to T'Vrell and ordered, "T'Vrell, tell our allies to focus all their firepower on the dreadnought and bring down their shields!" He then turned to Elisa once again and finished with, "Elisa, punch it!"


The ship sped forward and made swift maneuvers around the mines as it's tractor beams shot out and caught the mines at a close, but safe distance away from the ship, more of them following suite as the mines were being towed towards the dreadnought.


On the dreadnought, the Tzenkethi commander gave a growl as he turned to two of his officers and ordered, "Helm, take us towards the incoming ships, Tactical, target the Constitution class and destroy it, now." The helm officer followed his orders and tapped his console as the ship soon turned towards the minefield behind it and sped towards the Alliance fleet.


As the Amarillo made swift turns around the mines, one of the turrets turned towards it and charged it's cannons, only to be blown to bits by several torpedoes from behind the ship. As Wyatt looked to the right side of the screen, he could see the Antares and four smaller ships flying and firing ahead of them, hitting more of the turrets as they cleared the path.


"Good move, Antares." The Admiral said as he focused his attention towards the screen. 


As the dreadnought shook from the weapons fire that the incoming ships were providing, the helm officer looked to the commander and spoke up. "Sir, the weapons fire from the Alliance ships has damaged our sensors, I've lost the lock on the cruise-" He stopped as he saw his console starting to clear up. "....no, wait, I've got them, sir."


"Take us to them." The first officer ordered.


"There's no reason to." The officer said.


"Why can't you?!" He said with a furious growl.


The officer spoke as he pointed to the screen. "They're heading straight for us."


The commander looked to see the Amarillo speeding directly for the dreadnought, four small fighters flying around it. "Lock weapons and fire."


The dreadnought fired a wave of beams and torpedoes at the antique ship, the bridge shaking as the shots hit the shields repeatedly. T'Vrell turned to Wyatt as she spoke up. "We're getting a transmission from the dreadnought!"


"Good, let them taunt us with insults." He said as the screen changed to show the commanding officer in Trinnak's chair, giving a low chuckle as he spoke.


"So, your futile rescue attempt ends here, and our dead ancestors will be at peace!"


"You really think that, huh?" Wyatt taunted back as Lon looked to Wyatt and spoke.


"Shields at 30%, break off, sir?!"


Wyatt kept his eyes on the screen as he replied. "No, let them cut our claws, we'll still have our paws!"


The Tzenkethi commander laughed as he insulted him once more. "You're such a fool for what you're doing, if only my captain were here to see this, he'd be pleased to see one of his enemies whose ancestors slaughtered millions of Tzenkethi from the ancient war finally be vanquished once and for all!"


The Admiral gave a grin as he spoke again. "Yeah, well maybe you could've tried getting some extra soldiers to strike us with. I hear the True Way would make good friends with foes like you!"


"Yeah, and you saw what happened to them, I'm sure!" Minuette said through the companel on the Admiral's armrest.


"Perhaps, and even with your animal friends working your fleets, you'll merely waste more lives in trying to dictate the galaxy!" The first officer said as he smirked.


"Well, perhaps it's time you learned something about us 'animals'!" Moon Dancer said through the comms as the screen cut out to show the dreadnought once again. 


"Now!" Wyatt ordered before the ship sped towards the warship and began to make a swift turn away from it.


The Tzenkethi commander gave a look of shock as he noticed several mines being pulled in by the Amarillo as it broke away. Not taking a second to think, he turned to his helm officer and ordered, "MOVE US AWAY, NOW!" His words were too late, however, as the ship was hit by the flurry of mines, flames and fire filling the bridge a second later before everything went black.


The Amarillo flew around the large ship as it's hull broke apart quickly from the constant explosions inside, the small cruiser boosting over the dreadnought as one final explosion tore the ship into large chunks, some of them breaking into smaller ones soon after. The crew let out several yelps and cheers as the ship became nothing but fireballs as the chunks flew outwards and flew closer to the planet.


Lon calmed himself down as he looked over to the Admiral and spoke. "I've set up the tractor beams, our allies are coming to help take care of the debris, sir." 


"Good," Wyatt said with a smile. "hail the fleet and tell them to gather at the starbase for defense, who knows if they'll send more over to Equis." The engineer nodded and walked over to his console to perform his task.


~Fearless, Main Bridge~


Twilight steadied herself as she looked to her friends and spoke to them. "Alright, Rarity, Fluttershy, Dash, Pinkie, Applejack, Flash, are you all set for this? They'll most likely have the bomb charging up once we get down there, so we'll need to race over to it without too many stops, if any. If that bomb goes off, every living thing on our planet will be extinguished. We have to get rid of the guards and do whatever it takes to stop that protomatter weapon." The seven ponies looked to each other and nodded to the princess as she smiled. "Good. Taluk, you ready for this little swoop we're making?"


The Tzenkethi looked to her as he stood near his console. "Yes, You may give the word."


Twilight gave a smile as she ordered, "The word is given." Upon her order, Taluk tapped his console a few times before the ship began to face downwards towards the planet and sped towards it's target.


As the ship flew downwards, Terrak walked over to Twilight and spoke to her. "If you do not have a problem, I'm heading down with you, I may be able to provide some assistance with my former comrades down below."


"Not a problem, just try and be careful." Twilight replied as she and her team looked to the viewscreen, watching the surface of the planet get closer as they waited for their chance to strike.
> Chapter XIII: Countdown to Genocide
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fearless 

Main Shuttlebay


The turbolift doors slid open as the group of seven ponies and two Tzenkethi commanders walked toward one of the nearby shuttles, the bay was wide, and had a hexagonal shape to it. Orange lights circled the open space where the shuttlebay doors once stood. Two small, sleek shuttlecraft sat on the right of the turbolift doors, their design was intriguing, a long section that split the front section into two, in a manner that the two officers in control of the ship would operate separately. four wings, two on each side, spread out around the craft, behind those were triangular engines built between the entrance door to the shuttle. For size, she was big enough to hold twice the amount of Twilight's away team.


Dash seemed to have a bit of annoyance as she spoke this choice of travel. "Man, if they didn't knock our transporters out during our run towards the fleet, we might've gotten down there quicker." 


Twilight responded. "Maybe that's a good thing, in one way." Dash looked to her as she gave a look back.


Terrak ended the talk with, "Vengeful desires aside, we need to take out that bomb as soon as we can, that's our main priority, not smacking heads for our dead."


Rarity chuckled as she replied. "Oh, I think that will be happening, one way or another." The group stopped as the doors opened and they all stepped inside. Twilight and Rainbow were the first to reach their seats as the others settled themselves.


"Engines powering up, shields charging." The pegasus said as the ship roared to life and started to lift into the air, aiming at the open hole in the shuttlebay as she said, "Everyone ready?" When the group nodded, she turned back to face the view of Equis before finishing with, "Then hang on, it's gonna be bumpy!" Without a second to spare, the ship shot out like a missile towards the planet, the ship rocking as Twilight looked to her pilot and spoke. 


"You sure you've got this? I want us all to get down there alive."


"Hoho, yeah, I've got this." Dash replied as the ship dived down towards the mountains of Canterlot, the shields flickering around the ship as it hit the atmosphere....


~Canterlot~


The city was bustling with commerce and conversation, not hint of terror nor danger, nothing was going around about what was going to happen within less than an hour as a pony with a yellow-white mane and a yellow and black mane and tail walked around the town with two guards escorting her. After what had happened in Canterlot recently, Songbird Serenade had gotten word about the newly refurbished K-13 in another realm that Princess Twilight had visited, she had decided to bring some cheerful spirits out of those officers working there. She was just making her way to her new transport when she heard a roar in the sky. Stopping, she looked up to see a small, but visible orange ball of fire, which cooled off to reveal a small, black object flying straight towards the city. Or so she thought, as the shuttle sped right over them, heading towards the mountains and catching the eyes of many other ponies that saw it. Songbird could only watch as the ship went up and over the tops of the mountains, disappearing from sight afterwards.


The shuttle was speeding past the snowy peaks, hitting a flat area and letting out a screech as the metal clashed against the rock. The ship slid across the short hill on the peak as it groaned to a halt, dust flying into the air as a loud clank sounded and a large piece of metal shot out from the cloud. Shortly after the door broke open, Twilight stepped out of the opening and tapped a device on her hoof as she scanned the area. Finding nothing around her, she motioned her hoof as she stepped forward, her team following suite.


The alicorn looked to her left, activating and looking at her tricorder as she spoke. "Alright, I'm reading about three soldiers beyond that path, we should have no trouble handling them." The group then raced down the path, taking cover behind the rocks as they took a look at their targets, the three warriors stood in front of the bridge, keeping watch as Dash focused her eye on the middle one. Aiming her pistol at the guard's head, she took a shot, forcing a worried gasp from Twilight as the guard was hit, his body falling into the abyss of clouds as the other two turned and aimed their weapons. 


Dash sprung out and raced around the two, trying to make them dizzy with her maneuvers. After a moment, she then spun around one of them rapidly, creating a small tornado around him before the other guard fired, narrowly missing Dash's tail. The tornado then went towards the last guard and shot them both out and towards a mountain in the distance after a moment of spinning, the tornado dissipating before Twilight spoke up. "You're lucky that didn't get us killed."


Dash responded as she touched her hooves on the ground. "Whoo, yeah, next shot's for ya." Twilight smiled a little as they then went forward to the bridge. All but Rarity had made it past before a green bolt shot out, Terrak turning to see another soldier aiming at Rarity. Just as he took a shot, Terrak shot him down not a second later, but he heard a boom as he looked to see another explosion on the bridge, causing it to break apart. Rarity screamed as she started to fall, but was caught by Fluttershy and brought back to the cliff before Twilight looked over to see the Tzenkethi strike force. 


There were about six soldiers in the area, one of them standing near a device that blinked red, seemingly faster as Twilight watched it. The princess gasped as she looked to her friends and ordered, "Let's take cover behind the rocks, they'll have a harder time trying to hit us!" Upon her words, the group jumped and slid down the short, but steep hill, none of the guards noticing as they quickly took cover behind the rocks and prepped themselves. Flash readied his crossbow as he waited for Twilight's word.


After a short moment, the time came. "Now!" The group then broke cover and took their shots, hitting two of the guards at first and hitting a third courtesy of Rainbow's distracting flying skills. Once she took cover, the others followed suite, several shots hitting their shields of rock as Twilight took her phaser pistol, tapped it a few times, and carved a small hole through the rock, just big enough to see the protomatter bomb. The bomb was flickering at this point, meaning it could blow in about a few minutes. 


Twilight then snapped her head to Flash and spoke. "Flash, I'm gonna make a run towards Trinnak, I need you to take out the other two guards so I can get to him." Flash seemed hesitant at first, but nodded as he readied himself. After a short moment of observation, the princess yelled, "Fire!" The group broke cover and quickly took their shots at the two guards, Twilight galloping towards the Tzenkethi commander and shooting at him with a blast of magic. The blast hit him on his arm, but did not stop him as he then tried taking shots at the alicorn, who shot at his weapons, breaking it before Trinnak, getting close to Twilight, grabbed her and threw her on the ground before activating an energy blade from one of his combat gauntlets. Twilight kept rolling about, however, dodging every one of his strikes as he stepped on her legs and spoke. 


"You've stood in my way for far too long, and it pleases me to watch you squirm in your last moments!" He said as he raised his blade.


"NO!" Terrak said before he ran up to Trinnak, smashing into him before the two fell into the nearby abyss, the two letting out screams as the two fell.


"Terrak!" Twilight yelled as she looked over the cliff, only managing to see the two warriors for a second before they faded into the mist. Remembering her short amount of time, she turned back towards the bomb and tapped it's computer screen before it showed a message in Tzenkethi text. "Taluk, help me out here!" Twilight called out as the officer ran over to her, looking at the screen as he quickly became terrified.


"No, NO!" He said before looking to Twilight and speaking to her. "He's rigged it with an encryption code, we can't shut it off!"


"What?!" The group gasped as Twilight thought for a moment, looking up to the sky, she then looked to her friends as she spoke.


"I have an idea!" Twilight said as she tapped her combadge before speaking once more. "Sparkle to Amarillo!" 


"Stone here, what's wrong?" The Admiral said through the small device.


"Wyatt, we can't shut the bomb down, but I think we may be able to beam it up into space! Can you do it?!" Twilight asked in a slightly panicked voice.


After a moment, the device was encircled by a yellow field of energy, disappearing moments later before Wyatt responded. "It's done!" The Admiral said before the group looked to the sky to see a faint view of an opening anomaly above the planet.


On the viewscreen of the Amarillo, Wyatt and the crew watched as the screen showed a small patch of yellow energy appearing in front of the portal, revealing the protomatter bomb as it flickered rapidly for a moment longer. Once it stopped, it glowed turquoise for am moment before it exploded, the blast growing very large in front of the now arriving fleet of Tzenkethi reinforcements, which blew apart along with the fiery ball of energy. Shortly after the brilliant light grew to the size of the portal, the portal closed within a few seconds as the shockwave hit the ship, causing a slight shaking, but doing no real damage. The ball of fire then ceased it's bright lightshow and became nothing but a large, orange ball of energy, slowly fading into the space that it once encompassed.


On the comms, Tempest could be heard letting out a cry of excitement as she spoke. "The bomb's been destroyed! We did it!"


The rest of the crew joined the cheers of other voices over the comms, letting out several moments of excitement before Wyatt looked to his armrest and spoke to it. "Stone to Twilight, the battle is won, the bomb is disposed of. Any trouble on your part?" There was mere silence for a moment, prompting the Admiral to speak again. "Twilight?"


"Twilight? Are you all right down there?" Skystar said through the comms.


On the surface, Twilight was stunned as she looked at the ground, almost not hearing the voices through her combadge before she snapped out of her trance and spoke. "Yes, yes I'm fine..." She paused for a moment before continuing. ".... just, I think there's a small loss." She said before she tapped her combadge without waiting for a response and looked to her friends. "Fluttershy?" The pegasus nodded before the two flew down to the mist, Twilight using her magic to clear it away before seeing a sight that almost made the two lose focus on flying, two Tzenkethi bodies lying on the ground, neither seemed to move a muscle.


Twilight looked to her friends and used her magic to teleport her friends to the ground as she and Fluttershy stood their hooves on it. The group raced over to Trinnak, who seemed lifeless as Taluk scanned him and spoke up. "He's dead, the fall must've been hard for him along with that strike from Terrak."


Rarity scoffed at the Tzenkethi commander's corpse as she spoke. "Good riddance." 


Dash smacked his corpse as she spoke angrily. "That's for my dad, have a fun trip to Tartarus, punk."


The group heard a grunt from nearby, turning to see Terrak slightly moving and falling back on his back as they all moved toward him, Taluk getting a scan of his captain before he responded in a solemn tone.


"His legs and a single arm are broken, he has internal bleeding, and one of his lungs are crushed." Taluk said.


"Will he survive?" Twilight said with a down face.


Taluk hesitated before answering. "..No."


Twilight looked to Terrak, his voice sounding choked as he asked the princess, "I.... I assume we-we succeeded in our mission?"


Twilight forced a smile as she started to speak. "Yes. We did, Equis is safe."


"....Good, the-then we can finally put a stop t-HCH- ...their missions of extermination..." Terrak said as he lay on the ground, breathing his last breaths as he spoke once more to his friends. "Tell Crinnu that..... I... I couldn't make it back with you.... and, to give hi- ...this." Terrak handed Twilight a small data chip, the princess taking it with her magic as she looked to the Tzenkethi captain. 


"See you... in another....... realm." As he let out his last words, Terrak groaned as he lay back on the ground, his body not moving shortly after. Taluk's tricorder beeped as he spoke.


"He's gone." He said as Fluttershy started to whimper near Rarity, who teared up herself. Twilight also started to as well, but held hers back as she took a breath and looked to her friends before they all heard a low boom above them. Looking up, the group could see a partial glimpse of the bright explosion of the protomatter bomb, more low booms sounding in the sky as they watched the light show.


After a long moment, Twilight tapped her combadge and spoke. "Sparkle to Amarillo... we need a shuttle down here.... and, bring a body bag if you have one." Twilight said as she fought the urge to cry.


Miolii held back for a moment as well before she spoke. "...Understood, we're on it. Amarillo out."


The group stood in silence for a moment, standing near their dead comrade as they waited for a shuttle to arrive. The battle had been won, but all that was lost to this new foe, all that they did, there would be more to come in the later battles they would be facing very soon.
> Chapter XIV: The War Has Just Begun
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cloudsdale 

2 days later


The once booming city of Cloudsdale had become a bit quiet today, rather than laughter and smiles being present on ponies' faces, frowns of sorrow and the faint sounds of sniffling was heard near and inside one of the many buildings within the city. While the battle was won above Equis and the Tzenkethi research station was destroyed, there was a high amount of losses, 9 Alliance ships, the Equestria, and the Fearless' captain, Terrak. Fortunately, the Tzenkethi have not made another attempt of assaulting the Equine homeworld, and the Alliance has begun preparations for the coming storm. 

Two funerals were held on that day, one was for Captain Terrak, his actions and sacrifice being noted by the Alliance as well as them being sent to a comrade of his, Captain Crinnu, who had assisted in stopping the assault on Equis months ago. The other was for Rainbow Dash's father, Bow Hothoof, his wife and daughter along with the rest of her friends arriving to share their condolences, even the Wonderbolts had come to see the two mourning pegasi. The funeral was silent, many ponies sharing their best memories and thoughts about Rainbow's father until the ceremony ended with the Wonderbolts, with Dash among them, giving a performance over the area as their farewell.

Afterwards, Twilight and her friends, alongside Wyatt and his crew, made their way to the docking port, discussing their plans for their vacation while their new ship is being built. Applejack was speaking to Rainbow as she asked her, "So, Rainbow, ya sure you'll be fine with us on this trip? You don't need a bit of time to be here and relax?"

Dash took a breath and gave the brightest face she could hold as she answered. "Yeah, besides, my dad wouldn't want us to miss all the fun, I'll manage." She looked at her mother as they walked, her face starting to build a hopeful smile as they turned to Twilight and Dash asked, "So, how do you think Risa will feel like after a long day of work?"

"Oh, it'll be a breath of fresh air for us." As the group entered the Lompoc, one of Wyatt's shuttles, Twilight seated herself near Flash and turned to the Admiral and asked him, "So, how's it on your end?"

The Admiral gave a smirk as he responded. "Well, it seems we've got some new friends working with us, the Herald crew we rescued have decided to have their ship serve as part of the Alliance fleet under my command, and the Antares has decided to join us on our cause since their captain was killed." 

Twilight smiled as the ship took off and flew upward into the sky. The princess then turned to Rarity sitting next to her sister, who was sitting near her friend and classmate Button Mash and his mother. Curious of what they were discussing, the alicorn princess spoke to them. "Mind if we join in on the chat?"

Rarity nodded before replying to her friend. "Ah, yes, Button Mash was hoping to talk to you a while ago, you see, he's wanted to be closer to Sweetie here after that last battle we went through, and he and his mother were hoping to have your approval." She started to let out a laugh as she finished with, "...And, he was also going to go with us to Risa."

Twilight looked to Flash and Wyatt, the two giving understanding smiles before she turned and answered the four ponies. "I'd be happy to, just try not to get hurt."

"I doubt that'd happen." Button said as he showed the ping pong game that his mother gave him a while back. The group laughed a little as Rarity faced Twilight and spoke to her.

"So, how will our new ship look once she's finished?" Twilight gave a smile as she looked to the window, seeing a shadow pass over them as they saw what they were talking about.

"I'd say we're just now getting our first peek at her." She said as everyone looked to see the new ship that Twilight and her crew would be flying soon. 

Aside from the unfinished sections of hull, the ship was magnificent. The saucer resembled the Equestria's saucer, but the finished sections revealed some new areas peaking out over the saucer, almost like the bow of a boat, but with an added cover above it, some new gold paint was placed on the hull as well, to show it as a ship of royalty. The secondary hull was almost the same, with new windows that were not common on most federation ships were built on it, the pylons were more curved than before, with the nacelles looking like the Yorktown's, but with four long fins extending outward behind them. But the most notable change was the deflector dish, it resembled the large star on Twilight's cutie mark, with a pink color and, if she was seeing it right, a crystal ball was inside the star-shaped dish. One more thing on the stardrive was the name and registry, it was still placed on the sides of the hull, but was changed to have a different name and registry, which read:

"E.A.S. Harmony, ECC-2010"


E.A.S. Harmony

Bridge

4 months later


The time on Risa was very much needed, spending time to relax and have fun on the strange, alien beaches, taking shots of Romulan Ale, Chateau Picard wine, and several rare Risian beverages, and taking a view of the Nandi. Windy Whistles had almost let out a yelp when she had first seen the Ferengi ship sitting in the large waters, giving everyone a laugh from her reaction. Now, after five months of peace and comfort, their efforts were need once again. The Tzenkethi were making more attacks all across the worlds existing within the newly discovered area of space beyond Draconis, and the Alliance wasn't having that. 

At her station, Rainbow Dash sat next to Pinkie Pie, the two making their last check-ups on the newly finished E.A.S. Harmony, the new flagship of Equestria. They were getting the ship ready for launch as Dash spoke to Pinkie. "So, do you think this ship will be able to give the Tzenkethi a run for their money?"

Pinkie gave a smirk as she replied. "Are you kidding? Unlike last time, we'll surely be giving those meanies what they deserve!" Dash smirked as well before Pinkie spoke to her. "By the way, you sure you and your mom are gonna be fine after our vacation?"

"Don't worry Pinkie, we've both gotten over it, besides, I've promised to talk to her at least once a week to let her know I'm alive and well." Rainbow said as the two heard the doors to Twilight's quarters opened and the princess, Spike, and Flash entered the bridge, trotting to their seats and looking to the two mares at the helm.

"Dash, how's the ship?" Twilight said to the pegasus before she replied.

"Just finishing up on that." Rainbow then tapped the comms panel near her and spoke. "Bridge to sickbay, is everything all set up?"

"We're all ready when you are." Fluttershy was heard saying through the comms before Dash spoke up once again.

"AJ? Good to go?"

"She's fired up and ready for a ride down here. We're waitin' for your go-ahead!" Applejack replied over the noises in the engineering deck.

Dash then looked to her friend behind her and spoke. "I'd say we're ready."

"Good." A familiar voice said behind Dash as Wyatt appeared on the screen, Creepybloom and her old friend Pinkamena standing right behind him. The three of them gave a smile as the Admiral spoke up again. "We've been tasked with delivering Mrs. Serenade to K-13 in light of the station's finished construction, it shouldn't be too much of a task on the Harmony's first day." The Admiral finished as Twilight responded.

"Not at all, we'll be right behind you." The alicorn said as Wyatt finished the chat.

"Understood, Stone out." The signal cut out to show the Iconian vessel Twilight had acquired during their rescue mission, now with a new paintjob and rechristened with the name "Forerunner", sitting right by their side and waiting for them to follow them into warp.

Dash looked at her console and spoke to Twilight. "Warp drive ready on your word, Twi."

Twilight looked to her friends and crewmates, each of them waiting for her to get their new mission going. Smiling along with them, she said what was needed to be heard.

"Engage."

With that, Dash tapped the console, the ship roaring for a moment before the ship, alongside the forerunner, fired open a portal to their destination, and shortly after the Forerunner shot into the portal in a blue flare of light, the Harmony shot towards the portal as well, a rainbow-colored flash of light and energy floating out into the open area of space as the ships vanished, the portal closing shortly after and leaving the planet of Equis to a peaceful silence.