> DisQord Continuum 2: Friendship is Futile
>  by ZoidbergIsBestPony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Ship in Distress
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ship in Distress

Previously on “DisQord Continuum: Equestria Rising”:

[NOTE: If you have not read “Equestria Rising” (Formerly: “The Legend of Hearth’s Warming Eve”), this intro should spoil all you’ll need to catch up.]

The coronation of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna was in full celebration. Everypony gathered in the center of what would become the new palace. The new city was to be named Canterlot, and the reign of the two Alicorn sisters would usher in an era of peace and love for all ponies for generations. It was a day of joy for all. Had anypony bothered to look up at the sky that day, they would have only seen their newly formed sun shining across a bright and beautiful blue sky. No one could notice the two pairs of eyes staring down at them from two hundred miles above.

In orbit of their new colony, remnants of the Windigos ship lay spread out from its destruction at the hooves of a young Alicorn filly named Celestia. With the discovery of the Elements of Harmony, Celestia was able to ignite one of the planet’s two moons into a miniature dwarf star. The eruption destroyed the ship and saved the pony race. Marooned on a new world, the survivors crowned young Celestia, and her younger sister Luna, princesses of their new home: Equestria. 

Floating lazily amongst the wreckage of the Windigos’ ship, two figures watched the festivities from above.

“It would appear that we have failed,” the blonde-haired figure sighed.

“I don’t think that we did, Q,” the other figure with brown hair and a rather large nose answered with a look of chaotic glee. “We set out to eliminate a potential threat to the Continuum. And now there are but a few small handfuls of ponies left over, and they’re stuck on some backwater planet with no means of escape. I would say that we’ve achieved our goals. They no longer pose a threat to us.”

“Don’t they?” the blonde Q interjected. “We’ve seen how powerful they can get. We’ve seen that their ability to understand and use their powers is increasing. It’s best we simply eliminate the rest now and be done with it.”

“Come now Q. Are we no better than humans?”

The blonde Q shuddered. “Perish the thought! Those creatures kill their own like it were sport! “Which of them are killing the other at the moment?”

“I believe it’s the Romans’ turn,” Q replied, rolling his eyes.

“Remind me to eliminate them next!”

“You can’t just get rid of a species because they don’t suit you,” Q commented. “Besides, we can have so much more fun if we don’t!” Q's mind began entertaining all the possible trials and tests he could put those humans through.

“You find everything fun Q,” the blonde Q said dismissively. “We’ll hold off on the human question until they start venturing too far for their own good. Now, what are we to do with these leftovers?” He looked down at the celebration as though he were watching ants scurrying about their business.

A large grin spread wide across Q’s face. “I suppose I can always pop in on them from time to time and make sure they’re behaving; put a little chaos in their lives as it were.”

“I still say eliminate the lot of them,” said the blonde Q coldly. “But do what you will. I won’t stop you. Just remember that means they’ll be your responsibility, Q. If the Continuum has to step in, you’ll be living inside an asteroid for the next hundred million years or so!”

“You worry too much, Q,” the brown-haired Q laughed. “I know just the trick to keep those ponies in line.

The blonde Q was interested now. “I wonder what shape you’ll take to greet them. You’ve always had a flare for the dramatic.”

Q smiled as he began to transform. “I think a little chaos now and again will be good medicine for them, so I’ll bring them a nice heap of discord.”

As he said that, his body slowly took shape. One arm transformed into an Octurian Eagle’s claw, while the other became a Manticore’s paw. His left and right legs transformed into a Proto-Vulcan Elk and Equestrian dragon’s leg respectively. His torso was thick brown fur that could have belonged to any of millions of species. His tail was scaled, long, and notably pink. The head lifted up, stretching the neck until its head weighed it back down in a hunched manner. The dangling head elongated into an Earth billy-goat with one long fang hanging down his mouth. The horns of two more species, from two other planets, and two different times in history spiraled out of the top of his head. Finally, two very different wings exploded out of his back as though they’d been trying to break free for years. Every part of him consisted of a different animal in one way or another; quite possibly including his organs. 

The blonde Q started laughing as he looked over this new form. “Ha! Like I said Q: flare for the dramatic!”

Discord laughed along with him as he admired his new image in a mirror that instantly appeared in front of him. “You know, I rather like this form. Chaos really does suit me.”

The blonde Q gazed around at the wreckage of the Windigos’ ship. “Fascinating, this species. They sacrificed everything they are to technology in order to achieve perfection, and in the end, they succeeded in losing everything. Why did you choose to use this race, and in their current state, knowing what they become?”

Discord looked back at the blonde Q. “They were just right for the job I think,” he replied. “They were able to do what we needed, without getting any understanding of our powers.”

“But should they ever learn about those particles, they could become more of a threat than the ponies ever were!” The blonde Q gave Discord a very serious look of concern.

Discord merely smiled back at him. “Which is why I prevented them from contacting any of their people during this whole little exercise. Anything they may have learned, they couldn’t have shared.”

The blonde Q was still unconvinced. “We need to be careful. Just remember, this is the species that started it all. The origin of the Borg Collective itself: Species 001!”





Two thousand three hundred and seventy-three years later:

“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Byron,” the Ferengi bowed low in a more-than-pseudo gesture of respect.

“It is not normally our policy to negotiate with Ferengi, DaiMon Tye,” the Vulcan archaeologist replied. “But if the artifact is as you described and is in decent condition, I may be willing to negotiate on behalf of the Vulcan Science Directorate.”

“I can promise you, you won’t be disappointed.” The DaiMon waved his arm gently leading his guest to the cargo bay area.

As soon as Byron walked into the cargo room, DaiMon Tye called his attention to a green and rather diminished piece of technology, before the Vulcan’s eyes had a chance to explore the room. The artifact stood on top of a Federation cargo box that had no doubt been plundered. The device itself was cylindrical and worn down at both ends. Dust had caked into a thick layer of dirt all around. Parts of the device had been wiped off by the Ferengi or another previous owner.

“As you can see, it contains markings similar to that of Borg technology, but is the oldest known artifact on record.”

Bryon looked at it skeptically. Before he could attempt negotiations with DaiMon Tye, he would need to truly evaluate the device for its authenticity, then determine to what degree the Ferengi captain would attempt to deceive him.

He reached out his hand to inspect the device.

“Nah-ah!” Tye grabbed the device away from him, shaking his head. “If you would like to get a better look at it, you’re going to have to purchase it.

Byron looked upon the captain with even more skepticism. It was becoming more and more likely that he was looking at an old battery from a Ferengi cargo ship like the one he was standing in, than a priceless archaeological find.

“DaiMon Tye, if you would like to make a trade, I must first inspect the item for its authenticity. It must be visually assessed and quantum dated before I would be willing to negotiate.

The DaiMon didn’t look happy. He had no clue as to whether it was a priceless artifact or a piece of junk, and the more that small pointy-lobed Vulcan looked at it, the more likely it would be proven as such.

Reluctantly, Tye handed over the artifact.

Byron looked carefully at it, noticing the signs of wear and tear with age in the vacuum of space. Several markings did indeed appear similar to Borg interface technology, but was different enough to possibly be a facsimile.

Taking out his scanner, he ran a quantum dating on the object and discovered that it indeed was over two thousand years old. Bryon still had his suspicions but felt a more accurate analysis was necessary. 

“This interface is not specifically of Borg design. However, it may warrant further study as to its origins and purpose. What would you like in return, DaiMon?”

Tye lifted his head in surprise and glee. “Well let’s see, now…I had to trade for it from its previous owner, transport it across the quadrant to you; then there’s the Ferengi tax code, and commissions…”

Byron reached into his pocket and extracted a small bag from it.

“I understand your preferred currency is Gold-Pressed Latinum. I have been authorized to offer you five bars and no more.”

He offered the bag to the DaiMon, who grabbed it and pulled out one of the bars. He tasted the gold and tapped it, listening to the liquid Latinum inside splash ever so slightly. His drool had given him away a bit.

“If it is too much, then I will trade for three bars,” Byron offered.

“Five bars should be enough to cover all of the costs, thank you,” Tye quickly replied. He opened the bag and counted three times to make sure there were five.

Byron bowed in agreement and the negotiation was over. The DaiMon escorted him back to the transporter, but was interrupted by a blast against the hull.

“Report!” the DaiMon yelled, but no response came back.

He could sense a tractor beam had locked onto the ship. Rushing onto the bridge he could very clearly see the source of the tractor beam. A massive Borg cube stared back at them.

“What should we do, Sir? Do you think they’ll take a bribe?” the young Ferengi asked, nervously.

DaiMon Tye sunk in his chair. He was speechless.

Byron calmly replied instead. “You should target the source of the tractor beam and try to make an escape.”

Several shots fired off, but their weapons had zero effect.

“Now what?”

Bryon’s face may have been cold and logical, but his expression nonetheless frowned slightly. “Now we wait to face our fate…”





U.S.S. Tecumseh, Captain John Raymond Presiding

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 50921.2:

With the close of the recent Federation-Klingon War and the recent attack on Earth by the Borg, we’ve arrived at Deep Space 4 to perform patrols near our closest border to the delta quadrant.

Early reports reveal no present Borg activity. Other than small banal cosmic phenomena, the only mentionable activity is energy readings coming from the Horse Head Nebula. However, per Starfleet’s orders, we have been prohibited from investigating that region of space.

We are continuing to monitor the area and scout for any potential Borg activity.”





“Just how long are we supposed to stand around here twiddling our thumbs, Captain?” the helmsman groaned.

“As long as they want us to twiddle, Ensign,” Captain Raymond replied. “From what I’ve heard of these Borg, we should be so lucky as to have nothing to report.”

The young ensign sighed. “Aye Sir.”

“Continue the patrol; let me know if there are any developments. I’ll be in my Ready Room. Mr. Hakins, you have the con.”

“Yes sir,” Commander Hakins answered taking his seat in the captain’s chair.

Captain Raymond left the bridge, a little tired, but more annoyed at the present situation. With the Klingons under control, he was a great deal more concerned with the new Cardassian alliance with the Dominion than the Borg. According to the reports, the Enterprise and her captain were able to eliminate the Borg Queen nearly a month ago. If that was true, then they really were there just twiddling their thumbs when they could be over at Deep Space Nine, protecting the Federation.

His good friend, Captain Benjamin Maxwell, had his suspicions regarding the so-called peace treaty between the Cardassians and the Federation. And now they’ve seen that he was one hundred percent justified in attacking those Cardassian “freighter” ships. He had already written Starfleet several times on the matter regarding the appeal and reinstatement of Captain Maxwell.

Perhaps that is exactly why the Tecumseh was ordered to this sector. He sighed as his picked up his old-fashioned paper novel, sat at his desk, and tried to relax. It would be a good long while before anything interesting was going to happen.

Seventy-two hours later, something interesting happened.





“Captain, you’re needed on the bridge,” came Commander Hakins over the comm. 

Half-asleep, Captain Raymond smacked the comm. badge on the table next to him. “I’m on my way,” he said, sleepily.

He rolled himself out of bed, throwing a uniform over himself, and hurried off to the bridge to find out what the situation was. 

“Report,” he said, stepping off the turbolift. 

“We’ve detected a small craft adrift,” Commander Hakins said, relinquishing his seat. “It’s currently two hundred and twenty thousand kilometers to port.”

Up on the main screen, a rather tiny vessel was displayed that looked even smaller than a shuttle pod. Its architecture was unlike anything he had ever seen. If he had to guess, he’d say it resembled someone who took a centuries old Earth van and somehow made it space-worthy.

“Life signs?”

“We can detect five life signs aboard; all very faint.”

“I’m not familiar with this type of craft,” said the captain, “Does anything show up in the ship’s databanks?”

“No sir, but sensors are picking up some very unusual readings. They match those coming from the Horse Head Nebula.”

“If that’s true then we shouldn’t be intervening,” said the Captain.

“But sir, if we don’t do something, they’ll most likely die,” the Lieutenant sitting at communications rebutted.

Captain Raymond sighed, debating his options. “Have you tried hailing them yet?”

“Yes sir. There is no reply.”

“Hmm…” he thought aloud. Turning to his number one he said, Commander, get a team together. See if you can repair their systems and get their life support back online. Let’s see if we can get them back on their feet with minimal exposure.”

Commander Hakins nodded and left the bridge to gather his team. Within ten minutes, himself, Ensign Kelly Savetz, and Lieutenant Junior Grade Akai Tishatsu were assembled in front of the transporter pad; EV suits on and equipment in hand. Kelly was a recent addition to the junior medical staff and Akai was among the more skilled engineers. Hakins would have liked to have taken an extra security officer, but their simply just wasn’t enough space in the craft.

“We’re ready, Captain,” Hakins announced, standing on the transporter pad.

Back on the bridge, Captain Raymond gave the word, “Energize.”

Within moments the transporter beam wrapped around the three of them, rematerializing on board the small ship. And small it was.

“Uhmf!” Lieutenant Tishatsu yelped as he materialized with his helmet smacking against a beam.

Between the away team and the current residents sprawled out unconscious on the floor, there was barely any room to maneuver about the cabin.

Ensign Savetz immediately got to work examining the creatures, while Akai stumbled his way over to the main console. They appeared to be a four-legged species similar to ponies with some striking differences; most notably were the horns and wings on a few of them. 

Akai tried to make heads or tales of the terminal screen, which appeared to be nearly destroyed, but not from an attack. The console looked as though it had withered away with age. Taking out his tricorder, he tried to run a quantum dating on the computer.

“That’s impossible,” he muttered aloud. “Commander, you’re not going to believe this!”

Commander Hakins stumbled next to him and looked at the tricorder readings.

“This ship is over two thousand years old!” said the junior grade lieutenant.

“Can anything be done to repair life support?” asked the commander.

“I’m afraid if I touch it, it may very well turn to dust!” said Akai, continuing to scan each system. “Wait…I’m picking up some strange readings…”

“Anything that may have caused their current predicament?” Hakins asked.

“Maybe…I don’t know…it looks like…temporal anomalies.”

“Temporal?” the commander repeated more concerned. “As in time travel?”

“I believe so sir,” he answered. “It looks like they attempted a time jump. Whether they were successful or not is another question. I need to take some more readings.”

“Let me know when you’ve completed your scans.” Switching gears, the commander turned to Ensign Savetz. “What’s the situation with the crew here?”

“Most are just unconscious from low oxygen,” she reported. “This purple one here is another matter. I think we need to transport her back to sickbay.”

“See what you can do here, otherwise we need to avoid contact as much as we can,” the commander ordered.

“Aye sir.”

“Sir, I’m detecting some kind of buildup,” said Lieutenant Tishatsu. “It looks like a small quantum singul-AH!” An electrical discharge spiked from the center of the ship. Akai was thrown back against the wall. His body fell limp to the floor.

Ensign Savetz tried to rush to his aid, but a small light started building up again from the same point as the first electrical discharge. More charges seemed to be spiking outward. Commander Hakins shot around to avoid one of the electrical bursts.

“Hakins to Tecumseh, eight for emergency beam out!” he yelled into his communicator pin.

Light quickly enveloped the commander, ensign, and the junior lieutenant, as well as the five pony crew members.

Captain Raymond watched from the bridge as the quantum fluctuations spiked around the ship, condensing it into a singularity. Before he could blink, the ship was gone.

“Chief, have we got them?” he asked, tapping his comm. badge.

“Yes sir, we’ve got injured, they’ve been beamed to sickbay,” the voice answered over the line.

“Understood; I’m on my way,” said the captain.

Closing the channel, he left the bridge leaving the helmsman at the con.

When he reached sickbay, he encountered a scene he never could have imagined in his thirty-five year career: Pastel-colored ponies were sprawled out on the beds being examined by the nurses and medical officers. 

“What’s the situation?” he asked the chief medical officer.

“I’m sorry to report Lieutenant Tishatsu didn’t make it,” he answered.

Captain Raymond knew the young junior. It's never an easy thing for a captain to lose one of his officers, but duty required grief to take a back seat until questions were answered. 

“Understood,” he said, nodding. “And our new guests?” 

“Four of them are recovering well under sedation,” the doctor replied. This one however…” he gestured to the purple pony with both a horn and wings. “This one is on life support. Her body is apparently suffering from a lack of a specific nutrient. But I cannot determine what that substance is nor how to replicate it. At best we can keep her alive for only another two or three days at most.”

As if on cue, the pony lurched up, grabbing the captain’s hand yanking him close. How exactly did she grab him with a hoof, was a complete mystery for him.

“C-Ca-Captain…P-Picard…” was all she managed to say before she passed out again.
> Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reunion

“Mr. Worf, I realize you’d like to get back aboard the Defiant and head for Deep Space 9 as soon as the repairs have been completed,” Captain Picard explained as they headed toward Docking Port B, “but I’m wondering if you’d consider coming back aboard the Enterprise briefly, to visit some old friends.”

“Old friends, Sir?” Worf asked, curiously.

“Captain Raymond aboard the Tecumseh has contacted me with regards to some refugees they’ve picked up just outside the Horsehead Nebula.”

“Horsehead Nebula…” the name was mulling around in Worf’s mind. “The ponies, Captain?”

“Yes, Mr. Worf: the ponies.” Picard repeated. “Captain Raymond has rescued several ponies, including one who asked for me. From the captain’s description, it sounded like Miss. Sparkle and her friends.”

Mr. Worf remembered their surreal experience on Equestria, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be involved in such a peculiar situation again. As he considered it, however, his memory of the “Fearsome Cute Warrior” came to mind. He would be interested in catching up with the one called ‘Fluttershy’ again.

Taking a sighing breath, he said, “The Defiant will be ready in another seventy-two hours… I will need to be back aboard by then. The Defiant is needed for the protection of Deep Space 9 from the Dominion.”

Captain Picard smiled. He had a feeling Worf would be interested in this excursion as he too was now looking forward to reuniting with one of the more intriguing and surprising species they’ve ever encountered.

Once they reached the docking port, Picard turned around and said, “Well since this is no longer a goodbye, I will leave you to make your arrangements, and I shall see you onboard within the hour.”

“Understood, Captain.”

Picard turned and boarded the Enterprise as he went to check on the status of his own repairs. 

The U.S.S. Defiant and U.S.S. Enterprise were docked at Deep Space 4, as the damage to both of their ships had been significant in the attack on Earth by the Borg. Deep Space 4 was roughly half the distance from Earth to Deep Space 9 and was equipped with the latest weapons and technological research against the Dominion. 

Their ships would be not only be repaired, but would also be receiving some additional resources to assist them against the Dominion. Should an outbreak of war happen to occur, which seemed to be more and more likely as time progressed, they would be ready.

An hour later, Lieutenant Commander Worf boarded the Enterprise and stepped off the Turbolift onto the bridge.

“Glad you could join us, Mr. Worf,” said Captain Picard.

Worf nodded in return and looked around for a station he could take. As he was no longer a member of the crew, his old position had already been filled in his absence.

Realizing his situation, the captain looked over toward his current head of security. “Lieutenant Kamala, perhaps it would be beneficial to gain some insight from an officer who has served as Chief of Security aboard this vessel’s predecessor for over five years.”

Lieutenant Kamala looked a little affronted, but hid it well. “Of course, Sir.” She stepped away from her station, allowing Worf to take over.

Captain Picard smiled slightly, before returned to his duties. “Mr. Data, are we cleared to leave space dock?”

“Yes, Sir,” Lieutenant Commander Data answered succinctly.

“Very well. Take us out, one quarter impulse.”

“Aye Sir; one quarter impulse.”

Sounds of the docking clamps being released echoed across the ship. From the port windows many families onboard watched as the ship slowly backed away from the station.

Once clear of the station and outside of the solar system, the captain gave the order.

“Set course for the Horsehead nebula, warp six… Engage.”





“Thank you for getting here so quickly,” said Captain Raymond as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Lieutenant Commander Worf, and Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge were beamed onto the transporter pad aboard the Tecumseh. 

“Fortunately we were docked at Deep Space Four when we received your communiqué,” replied Captain Picard. “How are they?”

Captain Raymond gestured for them to follow. “I’ll take you to them now if you like.”

Stepping off the transporter pad, they followed Captain Raymond as he escorted them to sickbay.

“For the moment, most of them are fine,” Captain Raymond explained as they walked toward the Turbolift. “Since we weren’t sure of the situation, we’ve kept them under sedation until Starfleet provided guidance. I’ve been instructed to leave that to your judgments, Captain… There is one of them, however, that your doctor may want to have a look at. She hasn’t responded to any of our doctor’s treatments. Deck Five.”

Exiting the Turbolift, they reached sickbay where the ship’s Chief Medical officer was seated at his desk, analyzing the data. He stood as they entered the room. On the beds laid five sleeping ponies. Worf searched the room, but did not see Fluttershy amongst them. He did not let his disappointment show itself on his rigid expression.

“This is Dr. Ludvick, our chief physician,” Captain Raymond gestured.

“Which patient needs attention?” Dr. Crusher asked Dr. Ludvick, medical tricorder already in hand.

“This purple one over here,” he answered, walking over to the table. The pony was lying on a table, with a massive life support belt arched over her. All of her systems were being controlled by computer alone. 

Captain Picard saw right away that it was none other than Miss. Twilight Sparkle. But something was different. Last he remembered, she was a ‘Unicorn’, not an ‘Alicorn’, if he remembered his terminology right.

“Her blood pressure is dangerously low,” commented Dr. Crusher, “and she has a extremely high fever." It looks as though her hypothalamus isn’t functioning correctly.”

“That was my assessment as well,” Dr. Ludvick confirmed. “But normal treatments proved unsuccessful.”

Dr. Crusher, having treated pony patients before, quickly realized the issue. “Captain, I believe she has been drained of those particles they use for their magic. In addition to their magical abilities, it also serves as a homeostatic mechanism within their bodies. Without it, the body is unable to regulate its basic functions.”

Both Captain Raymond and Dr. Ludvick glanced at each other in confusion. “Magic?” they both thought to themselves.

Captain Picard paused to think. “Can we awaken the other ponies? Perhaps they might know how to restore her particle imbalance. And maybe they’ll be able to explain what happened to them, exactly.”

The Tecumseh’s doctor nodded in approval. “As I said, the rest of them seem just fine; just needed a little oxygen after being trapped in that tin box for too long.”

Dr. Crusher set the gauge on her Hypospray to awaken them and began injecting the dose into each of them. Slowly, they all began to stir back to consciousness.

Applejack was the first to speak. “Where am I?”

“Miss. Applejack, was it?” the captain confirmed. “You are on board a Federation vessel.”

“Captain Picard? Gosh. I reckon we must of made it then.” She sat up, exploring her surroundings.

“Wow-wee! That was one heck of a dream! Where are we now? Wow this place is big. Ooh! Geordi! Worf! Captain! We found you! Yippie!” Pinkie Pie had apparently fully recovered and was very much awake.

“That was the worst-possible-way I have ever been forced to travel!” Rarity sat up rubbing her eyes to focus. Remind me to tell the princess that that ‘HoverCar’ of hers desperately needs to be remodeled for both design and comfort!”

“Listen,” the captain tried to explain. “Your friend, Miss. Sparkle, needs medical attention that is beyond our abilities. Can any of you help her?”

“What’s wrong with Twilight?” Applejack asked, getting out of her own bed and over to Twilight’s. “Rarity, you know a heck of a lot more about this stuff than I do. Why don’t you take a gander?”

Rarity came over to Twilight’s bed and looked. She did not look well at all. She was quite pale and sweating badly. Rarity placed a hoof on her forehead.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was magically drained.” Then it hit her. “Oh my! She said this new alteration to the time spell required a tremendous amount of magic. You must give her some of yours immediately!” She stared at the three Enterprise officers.

“That’s the problem,” Geordi explained. We don’t have any means of providing her with monoceros particles at the moment. Would you be able to give her some of yours? After all, you are a Unicorn, right?”

Rarity looked a little offended by that, but possibly mixed with embarrassment. “Twilight is far better at spell casting than I, I’m afraid. Now if you would like me to find some nice gems for you, I would be only delighted to oblige.”

“Please, give it a try,” Dr. Crusher insisted. “Your friend may die if you don’t.”

That hit Rarity hard. She glanced down at Twilight, who looked worse and worse by the second. She sighed as she tried to think how she could do this.

The tip of Rarity’s horn started to glow. She strained herself and held onto the bed as she struggled to pull as much magic as she could. Her horn glowed brighter and brighter until the entire room appeared dark by comparison. Leaning over Twilight, their horns touched. After a moment, Twilight’s horn started to glow. The energy left Rarity and moved off into Twilight as Rarity pushed with all her might.

Twilight stirred. Her eyes fluttered and gradually opened. The first thing she could see was Rarity, panting heavily over her. She looked extremely worn out. 

“Rarity?” Twilight asked. 

“Yes Princess Twilight. I’m here,” she replied. 

Picard and Geordi exchanged glances. “Princess?” they thought together.

“What happened? Did we make it?” Twilight tried to sit up in the bed, but was still weak. Applejack gave her a hoof to help her up.

“Looks like you pulled it off there, Princess Twi,” Applejack said, “but we nearly lost ya in the process.”

Twilight looked around and spotted Captain Picard. “Captain Picard. Do we have you to thank for saving us?”

“Actually Miss. Sparkle, or is it Princess Sparkle now? It would seem a lot has happened since we last met. It was Captain Raymond here who rescued you. You’re currently aboard his ship, the Tecumseh. And your friend, Miss. Rarity, was the one responsible for saving your life.”

Captain Raymond smiled and bowed his head slightly. 

Twilight smiled back and nodded. “Thank you for saving us, Captain Raymond.”

“Glad we could help,” he replied. Never in all his life had he imagined himself having a conversation with a pastel-colored pony princess who had supposed magical powers, yet there he was. He decided to let it go and pretend like nothing was unusual about the whole situation.

Turning to her friend, Twilight said, “Thank you too Rarity.”

“Oh, it was nothing, your majesty,” Rarity replied.

“Rarity, how many times have I asked you to keep calling me Twilight? And that goes for all of you.” She directed her statement to all of her pony friends, as well as the Enterprise crew.

“Sorry, Pr- Twilight.” Rarity corrected. 

"How long have I been out?" Twilight asked.

"Two days," Dr. Ludvick answered.

Realizing she had already lost two days, Twilight's eyes opened wide. She sat up carefully, but as quickly as she could manage. She needed to get down to business.

“Captain Picard, we need to speak immediately,” she said with a most dire tone of conviction.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Dr. Crusher intervened. “Your blood pressure is still pretty low. I’d rather you remain in sickbay for awhile.”

Twilight didn’t have time to argue. “Then we’ll talk in here, but I need to speak with you now. It’s an emergency!”

Captain Picard approached Twilight and straightened his uniform. “Very well. What did you need to tell us?”

“Equestria is under attack a week from now!”

The captain looked over at Geordi and Worf to see if they were as confused as he. “I don’t think I understand. “Are you saying that your world is going to be attacked a week from now?”

“No it’s already under attack. It just…hasn’t happened yet.”

The captain remained as confused as before. Twilight realized she needed to more properly explain the situation.

“It all started three days from now…”





“That’s the last of them, I think” said Rainbow, hurling a net full of Tribblesprites onto the cart attached to Applejack. “I hope.”

“I hope so too there Rainbow,” said Applejack, pulling the cart away. “I don’t reckon we can handle another round of these critters.” She pulled the cart up towards the Everfree Forest. 

Rainbow soared off to her favorite napping cloud. Applejack pulled the cart up past Fluttershy’s cottage on her way to the forest, Fluttershy was waiting for her with another puffball in her hands, purring. 

“Get that thing in the cart Fluttershy!” Applejack yelled. She was in no mood for Fluttershy’s obsession with cute critters. Half of her apple farm was destroyed from those pests. 

Fluttershy kissed the little guy just above his eyes. “Oh…be good little Furby,” she cooed to the original one of them she had found in the forest. She lowered him into the net and retied the knot. 

“Make sure that knot’s good ‘n tight, now. Don’t want no more of ‘em escaping… again.”

“Okay, Applejack,” Fluttershy nodded. “They’re ready.”

“You swear there’re no more in your tree, in your chicken coop, in your yard, or any other place I may have forgotten to mention?” It was Applejack’s turn to give Fluttershy ‘the stare’.

Fluttershy blushed as she sunk lower. “No more,” she replied.

Fluttershy was a terrible liar. And Applejack knew it. 

“Pinkie!” she yelled. From out of nowhere sprung a One-Pony-Band-Stand Pinkie Pie, suited up with every musical instrument in town, and even some non-musical ones.

“Ready!” Pinkie Pie saluted. 

“Administer the test!”

As Pinkie banged, clapped, squeezed, chirped, and played her ‘Lemmings to Water’ ballad, the Tribblesprites began bouncing in time to the music, still harnessed by the net. After only a moment’s pause, the door to Fluttershy’s cottage burst open as another twenty of them bounced forth in a synchronized march.

Her face redder than a melon, Fluttershy whimpered, sheepishly, “Maybe I kept just one.”

“Mmm hmmm. Let’s go Pinkie. Mind helping me into the forest with the last of ‘em?”

Pinkie could not reply while playing, but gave an extra hard CRASH of her cymbals and started marching with the last of the Tribblesprites in tow. 

Applejack began pulling the cart again and together, she and Pinkie paraded off into the Everfree forest. Fluttershy remained behind, mourning her loss. Angel was at the ready with a fresh ice tea to ease her thoughts, and cool off in the summer heat.

“Thank you, Angel,” she patted him on his head and took the ice tea. “You’re so thoughtful.”

Fluttershy went back inside her cottage to play with her remaining animal friends. Luckily, none of them were ultra cute, super-spawning, plagues of nature.

A few hours later, Fluttershy was feeding her animals dinner, when a strange noise and glow outside caught her attention. She peered out the window just in time to see three of the strangest creatures appear from out of nowhere in a green haze. 

Fluttershy had never seen anything like them. They stood on two legs, with pale skin and no hair. The only way to describe their outfits was the complete collection of Rarity’s worst nightmares all rolled into one. 

If she had to guess, they almost reminded her somewhat of the humans who visited them a couple of years back. But they looked a great deal scarier than Geordi, or even Worf. They didn’t look friendly at all. 

She opened her door just a crack to get a better look at them. They appeared to be just standing around. Their movements were slow, stiff, and clumsy. Maybe they were lost.

Fluttershy debated introducing herself. They were pretty scary looking, but she had faced a dragon before, and nothing could be scarier than that. Though that was becoming more and more debatable the longer she stared at them. The door moved back and forth as her mind changed back and forth. Go. Stay. Stay. Go…

Finally, she took a deep breath of courage and pushed herself out the door.

“Um…hello?” Fluttershy quietly introduced herself. It was so quiet that it wasn’t surprising when they completely ignored it.

“Hello?” She called again a little louder, but they remained disinterested in her. She flew a little closer to them. “Are you humans?”

One of them twitched into a direct stare at her. Fluttershy jumped back in fright. When he did nothing else, she hesitantly approached again, though her bravery was rapidly depleting.

“Um, are you friends of Captain Picard or the Enterprise, maybe?”

That did it. The creatures all turned to face her. Before she could escape, one grabbed her hoof and two silver vines sprang forth injecting themselves straight into her arm.

“Ow! Let go! HELP!” she screamed. 

Within seconds, her skin began turning gray, her eyes lost their color. Her individuality was drained away. Angel hopped out, furiously attempting to stop them, but they completely ignored him. His teeth did nothing to slow them down. 

When it was finished, the vines retreated back into the creature's arm. It stood up straight and the three of them disappeared back into the same green haze they arrived in. 

Fluttershy appeared to be in a trance. Angel jumped back and forth, tried smacking her upside the head, and anything else he could think of, but it was useless. She simply ignored the lower life form.

It wasn’t until Applejack stopped by for some advice on Winona the following day, that anypony realized anything was wrong.

Angel raced up to Applejack and tried to explain what happened. 

“Howdy, Angel!” Applejack smiled as he ran up to her. “How’s Fluttershy doing after her loss?”

He turned stiff and rigid, raised his paw with his two ears popping out of it in two lines; showed himself suffocating; then zombifying. Applejack could not begin to translate what he was trying to say, but figured it meant she was taking it hard.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, but maybe I can take her mind off it a bit.” She started walking again toward the cottage. She spotted Fluttershy standing just outside it.

Angel was digging his feet into the dirt trying to stop Applejack from approaching, but had zero success. He looked over at Winona who was clearly more aware of the situation then her master was. 

“Hey Fluttershy!” Applejack called, running up with Winona by her side. “I wondered if you might have a look at Winona. She’s been acting a mighty bit strange lately; barking her head off nonstop.”

“Grrrrr.” Winona stared daggers at Fluttershy. “Bark! Bark!!!” she growled at Fluttershy in a defensive stance.

“Winona! What in the hay is the matter with you? It’s Fluttershy!”

Winona continued to bark angrily. Angel joined in pointing at Fluttershy in fear.

“See what I mean?”

Fluttershy looked as though she had not heard a word of the whole conversation. She looked pretty pale too. 

“You okay there Fluttershy?” she asked.

Fluttershy twitched into a stare with Applejack, which caused even her to jump back, startled.

“Um… Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy straightened up and opened her mouth, slightly. What came out was not her voice. It wasn’t even a single voice. It sounded as though a group of ponies were speaking out of one mouth in unison.

“We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”









> Escape To The Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Escape To The Past

“Beg Pardon?” Applejack asked, confused. 

“You will be assimilated.” Fluttershy repeated in a voice unlike anything anypony had ever heard before.

“Fluttershy? What’s wrong?”

“You will be assimilated.”

“I can’t understand a word coming outta your mouth,” said Applejack.

Fluttershy lurched forward raising her hoof. Two tubules launched out of her hoof toward Applejack. Before they could connect, Winona had jumped between her master and the wires, striking her instead. 

“WINONA!!!” Applejack screamed.

The dog yelped as it collapsed to the ground. Applejack stared down at her pet lying unconscious, mortified. 

“Who are you?” Applejack demanded, her eyes glaring back in anger and tears. “And what in the hay did you just do to Winona?” Whoever this was, Applejack knew Fluttershy could never bring harm to any animal.

“You will be assimilated.”

“Yer startin’ to sound like a broken record,” she said, growing more and more alarmed. On the ground, Winona started to stir. Applejack leaned over her injured pet. “Winona, are you okay?”

Winona’s eyes snapped open. In stiff but controlled moves, she slowly got back up onto her paws staring back at her.

“You will be assimilated.” 

To Applejack’s horror, it was Winona now reciting those strange words. Her pet’s paw lifted as the same silver lines stretched out from it. 

Applejack didn’t wait. She ran away as fast as she could all the way to town. 

With Princess Twilight back in Canterlot, tending to her new royal duties, Applejack wasn’t sure who she should contact first. By a stroke of good fortune, she found Rarity and Spike together walking around town. She remembered Rarity was babysitting Spike for the weekend. When she spotted the pair of them, she dashed as fast as she could until she nearly collided into them.

“Spike! We’ve got an emergency! I need you to send a letter to Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia!” 

“What the emergency? Spike asked, seeing the panting and sweating Applejack. 

“My goodness Applejack! What ever is the matter?” asked Rarity.

“Look I don’t have time to explain it twice. Spike, take a letter!”

Spike shrugged and grabbed his quill and parchment. “Ready.”

“Dear Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia, something strange has happened to Fluttershy.” 

“What has happened to Fluttershy?” Rarity interrupted, now very concerned.

“I’m trying to explain that!” said Applejack. “If I were a little filly, I’d say she turned into a Zompony!” 

Spike gasped. “A Z-Z-Z-Zompony?”

“Spike there ain’t no such things as zomponies!” Appljack reassured him. “But Fluttershy put on a dern good imitation of one. Her fur looks grey and her eyes are empty. She spoke in riddles in a strange voice. She even tried to attack me!”

“Gasp!” It was Rarity’s turn as the shocked expression spread across her face.

“As I was saying,” Applejack pressed on ignoring any further interruptions, “she tried to attack me with these weird silver snakes that came out of her arm. I ain’t never seen nothing like it before. Winona protected me and was struck in my place. Now Winona is acting like Fluttershy and speaking in the same voice!”

“Winona’s talking?” Spike said, looking up from his parchment in shock. “She’s never spoken to me before.”

“She’s never spoken to anypony before Spike. She’s a DOG! But that didn’t stop her from saying the same words Fluttershy had spoken, ‘You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.’ Then my own best dog tried to attack me! Please your majesties, send help as fast as you can. Your loyal subject, Applejack.”

Spike finished scribbling the last of the words shocked by each of them. He quickly rolled up the scroll and belched them off in flames to Canterlot.

It wasn’t a minute before Spike regurgitated a response, which Applejack immediately read aloud.

“I have declared a royal emergency. Tell the town to evacuate immediately for Canterlot. Anypony who repeats those words in that voice is to be treated as lost and avoided at all costs. Mares and fillies alike! I will be sending the new Red Guard to assist with the evacuations. Get to Canterlot as quick as you can. I will explain more when you arrive. – Princess Celestia”

Applejack, Rarity, and Spike all shared the same horrified expression.

“Fluttershy is…lost?” Rarity said, shaking. “Evacuate?” She was completely befuddled. 

Applejack snapped into action. “You two go and find Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, then head over to the apple farm and get my family all to the train station. Wait for me there. I’m gonna go to the mayor and get the town evacuations going.” 

She instantly darted off away from them, letter in hoof, to the mayor’s to begin the evacuations. 

The Red Guard had not arrived until night fall. By the time they had arrived, panic had already spread throughout the town. No pony was quite sure exactly what was going on, but several more ponies were unaccounted for, which increased the hysteria. Two trains had already left for Canterlot and there was only one train left for the night. The train was overcrowded and uncomfortable. Ponies squeezed between one another, trying to stay with their families. Many children had to sit on laps, while others had to stand for the ten hour trip. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike were the last to board and anxiously waiting for Applejack to get there.  

Then she appeared.

“Look it’s Fluttershy!” Pinkie cried happily. “Maybe it’s not too late! Fluttershy! Over here!” she called.

Behind Fluttershy marched several dozen ponies in perfect synchronization. Together with Fluttershy, and in one voice, they spoke:

“We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”

Panic Erupted. Ponies began screaming as their former family members and friends began marching toward them. The Red Guard formed a line between them and the train. Their captain shouted out, “Get that train moving now!” 

The engineer was only too happy to oblige. The train started pulling slowly away from the station. 

“Wait! We don’t have Applejack yet!” Pinkie shouted.

The Red Guard had already engaged the enemy. The train was starting to pick up steam and gain speed as it left the station.

Suddenly, the doors of the bake ship burst open, Applejack rushing out with two babies in her mouth. She ran full speed at the train. Mr. and Mrs. Cake immediately followed, but they were already gone.

Applejack reached the station and leapt off the platform with as much force as she could give. 

It wasn’t enough. 

However, before she crashed onto the tracks, Rainbow managed to fly out in time to get her the last two feet. They landed hard onto the caboose of the train, bowling into other ponies onboard. The twins were giggling and laughing from the ride. 

“Are you okay, Applejack?” Rainbow asked, reaching out her a hoof.

“I’ll be all right,” she replied taking it. “I just needed to make sure we got the young’ins. I wasn’t able to save their folks though. She looked down at the floor in shame. 

Rainbow patted her on the shoulder. “You did the best you could.”

“What about Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith?” Applejack asked, nervously.

“They’re all onboard and safe.” Rarity answered as she reached the pair of them. “You saved the town, Applejack. You’re a hero.”

Applejack didn’t feel like a hero. She let so many ponies fall victim to whatever this was, and left the Red Guard behind to fight them off.”

Despite the frequent panicked shouts and cries of the passengers, Applejack heard nothing but the silence of those left behind. The train took many hours to reach Canterlot. The sun of the following day had already risen when they reached the outskirts of the city. 

Surrounding the city was the great shield Prince Shining Armor was skilled at performing. The train entered through the barrier allowing the refugees of Ponyville entrance. 

Princess Twilight was waiting for them on the platform. She had given up the royal fashion in favor of the more mobile freedom of no clothes. Rarity was making a comment in her mind, but held her tongue under the circumstances.

“Twilight!” Pinkie yelled hopping off the train into a hug. “It’s so great to see you! How are your princessly duties? Are you in charge of Equestria yet?” 

“Pinkie, it’s good to see you too,” Twilight said returning the hug briefly, “but we’ve got more serious matters to deal with. The guards will handle the rest of the townsponies. Everypony follow me.” 

Without so much as greeting the others, Twilight turned and started trotting toward the castle. The gang obediently followed, exchanging nervous glances as they did. As they made their way through the city, they noticed the guards were all armed with fairly odd-looking weapons. Funny enough, they kind of resembled handheld versions of Pinkie’s party cannon, though significantly more intimidating and probably a lot less friendly to its targets.

“What are those do-hickeys the guards are carrying?” Applejack tried to ask.

“You’ll find out in a bit. This way!”

If the level of panic in the city was any indication of the seriousness of the situation, inside the palace escalated that by a factor of a hundred. Guards were wearing armor that normally hung in museums, while others wore even stranger armor none of them had ever seen before. 

No less than twenty guards stood outside and inside the royal hall. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood at the throne. Luna was near white and Celestia was a rather unpleasant shade of green. Something was seriously wrong.

They walked up in front of the princesses and bowed. Twilight joined the princesses’ sides on the throne. 

“Were you able to evacuate Ponyville?” Celestia asked in the way a mother would ask a doctor if her child was going to live.

“Yes, your highness,” Applejack spoke for the group. 

Celestia let out a small breath of relief. 

“But we lost at least a dozen townsfolk, and I don’t know the status of the Red Guard.” 

Celestia’s short-lived breath of relief quickly returned to choked stress. “There is something I must show all of you,” Princess Celestia explained, rising from her throne. “Come with me.”

Together they left the throne room and made for the Hall of Secrets. On the way, they retrieved the Elements of Harmony, including Fluttershy’s, despite her no longer being with them. Twilight placed the butterfly necklace in a small bag she wore under around her neck.

From the amount of security surrounding the door to the hall, the four bewildered ponies thought it must hold the most incredible artifacts of tremendous magical power. 

They were right. 

Hundreds of blinking lights flashed at them from every corner of the hall. The floor was cluttered with hundreds of containers and metal structures flashing more blinking lights. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash were wiping their eyes and pinching themselves to make sure they weren’t dreaming. 

“Wow, this looks a lot like that stuff those humans had,” Rainbow commented. “Did they give us all this?”

Twilight shook her head, “Actually these are ours.”

The others stared in awe of all the equipment. Pinkie twisted her neck around as she struggled to see everything. 

Rarity noticed something else about the room. It was incredibly filthy, and most of the equipment was covered in centuries of grime. 

“When you say this is ours… how long have we had all of this?”

“Two thousand years,” Princess Luna answered. Gasps came from the four ponies. “We art fearful that, from the situation at hand, Celestia and I can no longer keep this all a secret from our people. We will need this technology to survive.”

Princess Celestia took over. “I need to explain to you what happened to our people over two millennia ago.”

She explained the true origins of the “Legend of Hearth’s Warming Eve” story and how their ancestors once roamed the stars in ships, but were deceived into fighting each other by an enemy of legend. In the end they united together to bring an end to the war and the threat posed by the Windigos.”

“The Windigos were an unstoppable plague that was nearly impossible to destroy.”

“How’d you stop them the first time around?” Rainbow asked.

“I used the Elements of Harmony to ignite one of our moons into a small sun.”

“One of our moons?” Rarity asked confused. “We only have one moon.”

“Now we only have one,” Celestia explained. “The sun in the sky used to be a moon, and this planet was paved in darkness eternal before that.”

Princess Luna lowered her head and scraped her hoof slightly in embarrassment. Rainbow Dash noticed, but didn’t think twice of it.

“So if we needed to explode a whole moon before, how the hay can we possibly stop them now?” Applejack asked.

“Alas I do not know,” Princess Celestia replied, lowering her head in frustration. “I’ve handed out what’s left of our ancient weapons, but those ‘Silent Storm’ rifles were useless two thousand years ago, and twenty centuries out-of-date now. That is, if they even still work.”

“But princess, how do we know what we saw in Ponyville has anything to do with the Windigos?” asked Rarity. “We didn’t see anything of what you described.”

“I know because of this…” she gestured toward a terminal with a screen containing flashing images. 

The group gathered around the screen and its operator, who played back the video. Up on the screen were two strange beings hovering over a third, even stranger being. They were using tools on the top of his head.

Princess Celestia continued to explain, while the film played back. “When the Windigos’ ship was destroyed, thousands of pieces of debris rained down on the planet. Very few made it to the surface. Most burned up like shooting stars in the night sky. The few things that did make it through, we gathered and studied, trying to learn as much as we could. 

This file took years of research to uncover and many years more to translate their strange language. Once we learned what they were saying, we added the dialogue over the images on the screen.

The film showed two scientists working over a test subject. They were manipulating his brain. Many of the words on the screen they couldn’t understand even in plain Pony. But one thing jumped out at Applejack. 

The subject opened its eyes, raised its arm, and those same silver snakes jumped out of its arm. 

“That’s what came out’a Fluttershy and Winona!” Applejack yelled.

Celestia and Luna exchanged nervous glances. This confirmed their theory. Back on the screen, the being spoke in a monotone voice exactly like that of Fluttershy, but in the alien language. The words on the screen read, “You will be assimilated. Resistance is Futile.”

The snakes attacked one of the scientists. Within moments, the scientist repeated the same mantra as the test subject. He had been assimilated. The second scientist tried to escape the room, but fell victim as well. The video cut off there.

Now there was no doubt. Whatever was going on in Ponyville, the Windigos were responsible. 

The door to the room opened as a guard came scrambling in.

“You majesty!” he cried. “Manehattan has fallen!” 

Princess Celestia’s face easily revealed her agitation and fear. It was a look most unbecoming of royalty. She quickly pushed her feelings back inside her and wiped them off her face. She turned to the group and commented, “Fillydelphia fell during the night.”

The group gasped at the news.

Twilight could see the pattern unfolding. “First Ponyville, then Fillydelphia, and now Manehattan; it looks like they’re circling around toward Canterlot.”

“So it would seem,” Celestia noted. “We need to hurry. Twilight, have you worked out the modification to Star Swirl’s spell?”

“I think so,” she replied, “but it will take more magic than I could possibly produce.”

The whole chamber shook hard. Dust and bits of rock broke off from the ceiling. 

“What was that?” Pinkie shrieked. 

Pinkie had been quiet this entire time. There was nothing she could joke about. Nothing she could do to make things seem brighter. Her hair fell in fright. 

An eerie buzzing sound rang through the chamber. Almost like a buzzing sound, but very different all the same. Green light penetrated the walls and swept across them.

“What was that?” Pinkie shrieked again.

“I do not know,” Celestia answered truthfully. 

Outside, the magical barrier was being scanned by the beam of green light. With its analysis complete, the scan disappeared and was replaced by a ball of green energy that impacted directly into the magical shield, shattering it in one shot.

“THE BARRIER IS BREACHED!!!!!” one of the guards screamed.

“There’s nothing you can do here,” said Celestia. You need to escape and bring help.”

“We’re can we go?” Rainbow asked. “We’re trapped down here!”

“Get into the HoverCar,” Celestia said, pointing to the old spacecraft. “It belonged to Star Swirl. He saved my sister, my mother, and I in that car. 

It was the first time in a long time, Celestia had mentioned her mother. A tear dripped from her eye.

The hall shook again. Bits of dust fell from the ceiling.

Celestia reached out and pulled Twilight close, their horns touched as she breathed her magical aura into Twilight’s. They broke apart following the sound of another impact.

“Go now! Find Captain Picard!” she yelled. “He’s our only hope!”

Twilight ran over to the dusty old large metal wagon. “Get in here, quick!” 

“What in the hay is that gonna do?” Applejack asked, confused.

“You’ll see, now come on!”

The four ponies followed Twilight into the cramped vehicle. 

“Now what do we do?” Rainbow asked.

“Hold tight.” Twilight powered up the ship’s engine. Her horn glowed bright; very bright. Her violet aura expanded outward covering not only them, but the entire craft itself. Her eyes were clenched as hard as her teeth; sweat dripped from her forehead; and she howled in pain as she thrust the energy into the spell.

The entire ship vanished from the room.





“You see I modified Star Swirl the Bearded’s time spell and used it on the HoverCar.” Twilight explained to the two starship captains. “His spell only let a pony travel back one week in time and only for a few moments. I cast the spell on the entire ship. It was my hope to be rescued from the ship before it was sent back to the present, leaving us still in the past. I guess it worked.”

Captain Picard was befuddled by her story. It took a few minutes to regain himself and follow up. “So you are saying that you traveled from the near future to try to prevent this attack on your world?”

“That would explain the temporal anomalies we detected in the ship, and why it vanished right in front of us,” said Captain Raymond.

“Yes. I don’t know why the Windigos have come back, but can you help us?”

“Miss. Sparkle, I’m not familiar with these ‘Windigos’, but I am vividly familiar with the Borg, which is the species you have just described. And this is a very serious threat. And I have a dreadful theory as to why they would be interested in a planet as primitive as yours.”

“What would that be, exactly?” asked Captain Raymond.

“The Borg are only interested in that which brings them one step closer to perfection,” Picard explained. “As far as I have witnessed, they’ve never assimilated the knowledge of Unicorn magic.”

“There’s that word again,” Captain Raymond said. “What do you mean exactly, when you say magic?”

“In the past, we have encountered a few species of beings who possess abilities that are above our current level of understanding. The Q Continuum are one such race. These Unicorns are another. Their ability to manipulate matter would appear as magic to the naked eye. If the Borg collective ever assimilated these abilities, the balance of power in this, and every other, quadrant of the galaxy could be dramatically shifted.”

“So how can the Tecumseh help?”

Over the comm. badge, a voice announced, “Captain, you’re needed on the bridge.”

“Acknowledged, Mr. Kalandra,” the captain replied.

“Make that you’re needed immediately, sir,” said the officer.

“Would you care to join me on the bridge, Captain?” asked Captain Raymond.

“Can we come with you?” Twilight asked, already standing up.

“I’m sorry, but civilians are not permitted on the bridge,” was the captain’s reply.

“Allow them on my authority,” said Captain Picard. “We may need them.”

Captain Raymond sighed. Before he could answer, the entire ship shook hard, triggering a Red Alert. 

“I don’t have time to argue, let’s find out what’s going on.”

The captains, officers, and ponies made for the bridge. Up on the monitor was a massive anomaly. Space looked as though it were a windshield that had a planet-sized baseball smash into it. Blinding white light shone through the cracks.

“Report,” Captain Raymond ordered.

“Sir, the sensors are in overload,” Science Officer Kalandra explained. “Near as we can tell, the universe just got ripped open. Both time and space around the anomaly are collapsing.”

“Do we know what triggered it?” the captain asked.

“No idea, sir.”

“Can we seal the tear?”

“It’s expanding too rapidly. This whole sector may be lost!”

The tear ripped even further, space was being torn apart like a page being torn out of a book. 

“BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!!!” the captain yelled.

Within seconds, the tear overtook them and everything went white.





Captain Picard opened his eyes. He found himself standing in a jungle. Coming from all directions, he could hear weapons fire and screams. He could make out Worf, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, and the ponies, as well as Captain Raymond. 

“What just happened?” Captain Raymond screamed. “We’re are we, and how did we get here?”

Before anyone could answer, a green blast of light shot out from the thick of the woods, impacting into Captain Raymond’s chest, launching him off his feet. He died before his body hit the ground.

A strangely familiar voice shouted out from deep within the thick of the trees, “GET DOWN!!!!!”


> From Here to Eternity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Here to Eternity

Dr. Crusher rushed over to Captain Raymond, who was lying on the floor with a gaping hole in his stomach. Not that it was necessary, but she scanned him quickly and shook her head, confirming he was gone. 

Another blast rippled outward in a shockwave. 

“I said, get down!” the voice rang out again.

From the brush brandishing two massive guns, Q emerged, firing off into the jungle.

“Q!” Picard screamed. “I should have known. What is your game now? You’ve just killed one of the best captains in Starfleet!” 

“Captain, I’d love to argue,” another explosion thundered much closer to their position, “but as you can see, I’m a little busy at the moment. For now, just try not to die.”

Picard was outraged. Just what did he mean, ‘try not to die’? 

The answer came in the form of a tree blasting apart right on top of them. Everyone jumped away from the crash as Q resumed his firing.

“Take that you cowards!” he shouted out.

Twilight and her friends were terrified. They’d never heard explosions like that before. They ran for cover hiding from whatever was happening; all except for Pinkie Pie, who was too curious now to be afraid.

Twilight counted her friends and quickly realized one was missing. She peered over a fallen trunk only to find the most impossible, absurd sight she had ever encountered. 

Pinkie Pie’s body was trying to balance itself, standing on its own head. 

“Ha ha ha! This is super-incredibly fun! Twilight! You’ve got to try it!”

The synapses in Twilight’s brain snapped. It just wasn’t possible! Pinkie had done many strange things from time to time. She sometimes appeared to pull objects from out of nowhere, managed to chase down Rainbow Dash with no wings, and of course she had her Pinkie-Sense that somehow predicted imminent events before they happened. But she had never seen Pinkie pull off her own head, place it on the ground and stand on top of it. No sir!

Pinkie started performing a dance routine on her head, concluding with a graceful leap, launching her head into the air with her hind leg, and catching it on her shoulders. 

“Twilight! Did you see that!?” 

Twilight jumped from behind the log and grabbed Pinkie by the arm. “I don’t know what you just did, Pinkie, but we need to hide. You saw Human-Discord. You heard the explosions.”

As if to add to her point, another explosion burst through the trees, shattering a group of them to splinters.

Captain Picard and the other Enterprise officers, meanwhile, were trying to fight in a battle they knew nothing about, with no phasers to actually fight with. 

“Q! Answer me! What is going on here!?”

Q was nowhere to be seen, but he no longer needed to answer. The brush several hundred meters ahead of them had given way, providing them a clear view for Picard and the others to see. Several Borg drones were advancing on their position.

“How about some weapons, Q!” he called out.

All of them were instantly equipped with weapons in their arms from all across the galaxy. Many, they had never even seen before, let alone knew how to use them. 

“I can’t promise they’ll do you any good!” Q called out, conjuring up an unusual looking cannon in his arms and firing directly at the drones. 

Picard could see the impact. The drones’ personal shields did a lot more than merely absorb the blast. They transformed the energy into the shapes of missiles, growing straight out of their chests. At once the energy field was fired off back at them. 

They jumped away just in time for the energy to impact the ground, sending dirt flying into the air.

“That’s new.” Geordi commented.

The Borg drones continued their march, now nearing to within fifty meters. One of them raised their arm and allowed their assimilation tubes to reach out into the open air. Clouds of spores began pouring out the ends of the tubes and soared off in their direction like a swarm of locusts.

“No!” Q shouted, realizing what was happening. Before he could respond, Pinkie Pie, in a second act of defiance for physics, expanded her own body into a giant trampoline. The cloud of air-travel ready Borg nanoprobes bounced off her skin, somehow unable to penetrate. They flew off in random directions away from the group.

“Way to go, Pinkie Pie!” Q shouted, entirely out-of-character. He waved his arm and the cloud of spores vanished. “I’m almost done, everyone. Hang on!”

“Almost done with what, Q?” Picard screamed, firing his own weapon, which appeared to be a handheld cannon that fired millions of metal projectiles that ignited on impact. But its effect appeared to be little more than fire crackers popping against the Borg’s shields.

“Just one more second.”

The Borg had reached their position. And in addition to this first wave, the drones had a lot more friends; an endless army of millions of drones were marching across the land in a synchronized horde.

Pinkie’s tail started shaking violently. 

“Twitcha-twitch!” Pinkie cried. 

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all looked at each other, then looked up. 

A volley of green energy burst high into one of the tree trunks lobbing the top twenty feet off of it. 

“Twitcha-Twitch!” Pinkie repeated.

They made a run for it, but the tree knocked over another tree and it was impossible to escape. They clenched their eyes shut as the trunk fell right above the heads.

A brilliant flash of light burst straight through their tightly closed eyelids. When the trunk hadn’t killed them, one by one, they opened their eyes staring out into oblivion.

Captain Picard stared all around him. He was able to see everyone and everypony floating amidst nothing but endless white space. The thought of purgatory briefly entered his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. He was still breathing, and he could feel his heart pounding against his chest. But, before Picard even had a chance to ask what was happening, the universe wrapped itself around them in a dizzying speed. 

Stars whirled around them in a globe effect. It looked as though the universe was sliding over them as it reset its position. The last thing they could see was the Enterprise enveloping them inside, when it had finally stopped, they found themselves on bridge; about five feet off the ground. 

*OOMF!!!*

They collapsed onto the floor as gravity took its hold on them.

“Ugh...Report,” Captain Picard ordered, while trying to get his eyes to refocus. 

“You were momentarily beamed off the ship, Captain,” Data answered. “However, you were only gone for 6.38 seconds, Sir.”

“Tecumseh to Enterprise, would you care to explain why our captain was beamed off the ship and beamed back a few seconds later with a hole in his chest?”

Picard quickly replied, “There’s been an incident. Stand by and I’ll fill you all in.”

Captain Picard looked around the room. Lieutenant Commander Worf, Mr. LaForge, Dr. Crusher, and the ponies were all present and accounted for. There was an additional passenger lying on the floor as well.

“Get up, Q!” Picard barked.

Q’s seemingly unconscious body slowly morphed from its human form into that of his character persona known as ‘Discord’ to the ponies.

“Enough Q! Explain what just happened!”

Discord stirred slowly back to consciousness. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around the room. 

“Did it work?” he asked, softly.

“Did what work?”

He sat up and realized the form he was in. “Thank me, I’m not human!” He carefully pulled himself up into a sitting position and looked back at the captain’s penetrating stare.

“Captain Picard,” he started off a little more formally than Picard was used to hearing from him. “Welcome to the final week of the universe!” He waved his arms in the air.

The captain had very little patience for Q’s theatrics, and it was rapidly wearing thin. “What does that mean?”

Discord sighed and looked up as though he was talking to God with his hands spread wide. “Computer, would you be kind enough as to describe the nature of the universe?”

Geordi tried to say, “The computer can’t answer a –”

“The universe is a spheroid structure 21,734 light-years in diameter,” the voice of the computer replied. On the main screen, an image of the spheroid structure was displayed.

“Captain, I’ve seen that before!” Dr. Crusher commented.

“Yes, you have, Beverly,” said Discord, as he started to stand “You’ve lived inside one for a short time. It’s a S–” 

“Static Warp Bubble,” she completed. “Are you saying we’re trapped inside one right now?”

“My dear Beverly, of course not. This isn’t some little science experiment cooked up by your novice son. No, no.”

She was a little offended by his description of her son’s brilliant work so far ahead of his time, even if it had almost killed her.

“This, my dear,” he continued, “is all that is left of the entire universe.”

Picard analyzed the structure on the screen. It looked identical to the one created in Wesley Crusher’s ‘Warp-Bubble’ experiment.

“Captain,” Data chimed in. “This ‘universe’ is approximately only one-fifth the size of the Milky Way galaxy. The computer shows those stars that should appear beyond that range to no longer exist. And Sir… Earth’s solar system is outside that range. It no longer exists.”

Twilight, who was rubbing her horn after the hard landing, was trying to follow the conversation, but once again, she found herself lacking the knowledge needed. “If only I had access to a library on the ship!” she thought bitterly.

She attempted to speak up anyway: “Discord, where were we just now?"

"Why it's the same place you were once before, my dear Twilight." he explained. "You were in the Continuum."

Twilight was confused. "That didn't look like the Continuum. When I was there, there was nothing but a long road and an old building."

"What you saw was a physical representation that was drawn in such a way so you could understand it. The Continuum is a little too difficult to explain to such an underdeveloped species, suffice it to say, you see what you want to see to make sense of what you can't."

Twilight was lost and gone. She gave up asking about it and switched topics. "So, when you say the last week in the universe…what does that mean?”

The face Discord presented Twilight caused her to jump back in fear: Anger and actual terror were both spelled out across his face. Finally his head sank low.

“It’s my fault,” he muttered in barely a whisper.

“I’m sorry?”

“I said, IT’S ALL MY FAULT!!! OKAY!?”

“What is?”

“All of it, my dear Twilight…all of it.”

“Tell me what happened.”

He started to explain as though he were remembering an anecdote of an interesting story that happened to him: “Do you remember Celestia mentioning how you guys fought a war around oh say two thousand years ago, and I mentioned how I was sort of involved a bit?”

“A bit? A BIT!?” Twilight screamed. “You told me you were the one who nearly made my people extinct!” 

“Well…you see…What I meant was, I may have pitted your kind against the predecessors to the Borg back then. You’d know them better as ‘Windigos’.”

All five ponies gasped. 

“Q, what the devil have you done here?” Picard could feel the vein in his forehead trying to break free.”

“I was careful!” he said, defensively. I made sure that they never learned anything about ‘Pony Magic’. I separated them from the rest of their kind before I sent them to attack all of Ponykind. And their ship was destroyed, nothing but bits of harmless debris that would drift aimlessly and uselessly. I just… accidentally missed a piece, is all.”

“Missed a piece?” 

“A data store from the Windigos’ ship managed to escape the wreckage intact and drift through space for over two thousand years. Unfortunately, it was a Borg ship that discovered it before we did.”

“I thought you were all powerful, all knowing, Q,” said Picard.

“I am all knowing, thank you very much,” Discord retorted back.

“Than why didn’t you see this coming and stop it?”

“I didn’t think of it.”

This was getting nowhere. “Why then, were you not able to think of it?” he asked in a slow soft manner, like he was talking to a child.

“My dear Jean-Luc. You know the ins and outs of this ship, do you not?”

“I do.”

“Then could you please tell me, why haven’t looked at the current efficiency of your warp nacelles? You are aware they’re only at 87.1 percent currently?”

“There haven’t been any reports which would indicate a–” 

“Of course not!” he interrupted. “You simply didn’t think to check! Well it’s the same with the universe for me, Captain. If I can think of it, I can see it. If I didn’t think of it, I simply wouldn’t know about it.”

“Fine, moving on,” the captain pressed forward. “What happened after the Borg assimilated the data store?”

“They learned about “Magical Ponies” and came to investigate and assimilate the phenomena. Only, when they succeeded, they quickly discovered about the Continuum and launched a campaign against us. But by then, it was too late. That’s why you saw the Borg in the Continuum, Captain. You should feel honored. You were able to witness the destruction of the entire Continuum!”

Picard was still processing the information.

Q continued. “After that, without knowing how to properly control the power of the Q, the Borg unwittingly destroyed the entire universe! Fortunately, I managed to setup this warp-bubble just in time to save a small fraction of us.”

“How could you do that!?” Twilight yelled, after letting him finish his story. Tears were falling from her eyes. “How could you send such horrible creatures to murder us? And we called you our friend!”

Captain Picard thought he may have missed a step. “Friend?” he asked.

“Celestia gave him a chance to become a good creature. She summoned him through his statue and Fluttershy taught him the true value of friendship. Had Fluttershy known how much of a monster Discord really was, she would never have let him be her friend!”

Discord frowned. “Twilight, I don’t–”

“No! You lost the right to talk to me. Thanks to you, Fluttershy is now one of those horrible things!”

“Actually, Twilight…she’s not.”

Twilight wiped her eyes and stared at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, Fluttershy is perfectly safe in Ponyville at the moment…at least the Fluttershy in this timeline.”

Twilight started to catch on. She wiped her eyes and said, “Doesn’t that mean that there are also another Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and myself down there?”

“Indeed it does, Twilight. Now we have twice the chance of succeeding where you failed the first time.”

Twilight was confused and embittered. “How exactly did WE fail?”

“You didn’t use the Elements of Harmony to stop them before it was too late! Instead, you chickened out and escaped to the past.”

“How dare you!” Twilight screamed. 

“Anyway,” he ignored her shout, “there’s still a chance to fix all of this. That’s why I brought everypony here.”

“And that is?” asked Picard.

“If we can stop the Borg before they assimilate the ability to destroy the universe, I’ll be able recreate the universe from this timeline …Also before this bubble collapses in five days.”

“Why only five days?” Rarity asked.

“This bubble was created around you and your friends’ time-jump, Miss. Rarity. If we don’t succeed, then the time loop will have ended as before and the bubble will collapse on itself.”

“Fine, let’s get to work and fix your mess,” Picard agreed, “but you had better remember well, Q. You played God one too many times, and now you have to pay for it!”

Discord did not like admitting to such a thing. “Yes, Picard,” he sighed. “For once, we are in agreement.”

“Mr. Data, inform the Tecumseh that we’ll be making for the Horse-head Nebula. Explain the situation. Have now acting Captain Hakins contact me in my Ready-Room, once he’s been briefed. Then get us to Equestria as quick as you can.”

“Aye Sir.” Data began programming all of the necessary details into his console.

“Mr. Discord!” Pinkie chimed in. She wasn’t as cheery as her usual self, but she needed to hold herself together and keep on smiling. 

Discord leaned down close to Pinkie, forming his own grin with his one fang jutting out. He whispered, “Well done today, Pinkie. I knew you could do it!”

“Thanks!” Pinkie replied, “But HOW did I do all that?”

Discord mulled it over for a minute. “Perhaps it was because you were in my realm, and in my realm, anything is possible!” He winked.

Pinkie was left to imagine what that realm would be like if it weren’t filled with a bunch of grey baddies.
> Double-Double, Two Pinkies, More Trouble!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Double-Double, Two Pinkies, More Trouble!

U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain Jean-Luc Picard Presiding

Captain’s Log, Stardate 50926.8: 

The U.S.S. Enterprise and U.S.S. Tecumseh have found ourselves in a rather grave situation. After having been contacted by the ponies of Equestria, we’ve learned of a Borg plot to assimilate the scientific basis behind “Unicorn Magic”. If they discover the existence of the Monoceros particle and learn how to manipulate them, there could be drastic consequences for the balance of power in the galaxy.

According to Q, the threat posed by the Borg expands beyond their usual primary mission of assimilation and expansion to the invasion and destruction of the Q Continuum itself. The manipulation of the laws of physics could result in the destruction of the entire universe.

If we are to believe everything as Q as explained it to us, something which I am not eager to do, then these events have already played out once before in a previous timeline and have resulted in said destruction of the universe.

By a random act of a short time-jump one week into the past, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends may have created one last opportunity to stave off destruction. Q has said he was able to contain the contents of this “last week” and allow for the opportunity undo the damage that has supposedly already been done.

While confined within the Static-Warp Bubble, these logs may never actually reach anyone from Starfleet. However, I will continue them for as long as I can. 

Lieutenant Commander Data has shown that Earth and, by extension, Starfleet Headquarters not exist within the confines of the bubble, but other Starfleet vessels patrolling with its range may still be around to assist us.

In this regard, I’ve sent acting Captain Hakins aboard the Tecumseh to set out on a recruiting mission. He will attempt to contact any and all available ships that can reach Equestria, before the Borg are supposed to arrive in three days, and are willing to help. With the death of the Borg Queen two hundred years in the past, the remaining Borg may be operating on more of an autonomic impulse, or instincts, rather than under the single conscious direction of a queen. If we are lucky, we may be able to use that to our advantage. Though as a Starfleet captain, I will never rely on luck.

We will coordinate our efforts for a defensive perimeter in orbit of Equestria, with a fallback defensive position on the ground with local government forces.





“Come on, Pinkie!” Twilight called out from the Transporter pad. 

Pinkie had never been aboard a spaceship before and was trying to get her eyes to see everything they possibly could, she even tried to pull her eyes out to see more. She succeeded in poking herself in the eyes.

“Ow! Be right there!” she yelled back, but continued to veer off toward a sign that read, ‘Jeffries Tube A17.

“Why does Jeffrey get his own tube?” she asked, trying to head through the hatch door.

Worf quickly blocked her path and guided her back toward the transporter room. He felt like a babysitter for these ponies. 

Pinkie headed into the room and straight for the transporter console, staring at all the shiny buttons.

“Oooh!” she exclaimed. “What does this do?” She reached out, trying to slide the targeting scanner. 

The transporter chief quickly grabbed her hoof, before any damage could be done. He shook his head as though he were telling a child it was not a toy.

“Come along now, Pinkie,” Applejack called to her.

With Pinkie joining the other ponies and the Enterprise crew, standing on the transport pads, Picard gave the order:

“Energize.”

The transporter beam glowed just outside of Ponyville as the landing party materialized. The party included all five ponies, Captain Picard, Lieutenant Commanders LaForge, Worf, and Data, as well as Discord. Before the rest of the team could even get their bearings, Pinkie was off running.

“Pinkie! Where are you going?” Twilight yelled out to no avail. In seconds Pinkie Pie became a pink spec in the distance.

Pinkie headed straight for the bakery. Inside, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were busy at work putting their finished baked goods out on display.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Cake!” Pinkie called out, entering the shop.

“Hello Pinkie,” Mrs. Cake answered. “Would you like to sample our latest creation?”

In a flash of pink, a salivating pony stood hungrily, two inches away from the baker.

“Oooooh! Is that the YUMMY?” Pinkie asked, remembering having tried it last week in the future.

“Why, Yes. It is the Yogurt Under a Massive Marshmallow Yam!” Mrs. Cake and her husband grinned at one another, sharing in their accomplishment, “How did you know?”

“Oh! Well I guess it just simply looked so yummy, what else would you call it?” Pinkie quickly made up on the spot.

“Well, I guess so,” Mrs. Cake nodded smiling.

She handed Pinkie a sample on a small plate. Pinkie’s face enveloped the treat so fast, Mrs. Cake had to quickly pull the plate away, fearing Pinkie was going to eat it as well. By the time she managed to pry the plate back, not even Sherlock Hooves would have been able to determine that there had ever been any food on that plate.

“Well?” Mrs. Cake inquired. “How was it?”

Pinkie looked up at the ceiling scratching her chin in deep thought.

“Hmm…” 

She made a highly critical face, which quickly dashed the Cakes’ dreams, before she replied. 

“Eh…it was only the most super-incredible-stupendous dessert in all of Equestria! But you know…whatever you think is fine, I’m sure.”

“Oh…OH! Thank you Pinkie!” Mrs. Cake clapped her hooves, realizing what Pinkie had actually said.

“You’re welcome!” Pinkie said merrily humming as she continued back out of the shop.

After a minute, Pinkie came back in the shop and noticed the YUMMY.

“Ooh! Is that a new dessert, Mrs. Cake? Can I try?”

The Cakes looked at each other in confusion.

“But you just tried it a minute ago…”

Outside, Future Pinkie continued on over to a low floating cloud with a powder blue pony snoozing away on top of it.

“Hey Rainbow Dash!” she called out to her.

Rainbow opened her eyes lazily, rolled over until she could make out a pink blur. 

“Pinkie? … What’s uu…uuuup?” she yawned out.

“Oh nothing much. Just your usual time travel-end of the universe-come back to warn her friends-kind of day. Speaking of preventing future injuries, you really should move your cloud over a smidge to the left.”

“Uhh…what?”

Pinkie pointed her hoof up to the sky. Rainbow looked up just in time to see a box of cake plummeting out of the sky, opening and landing straight onto Rainbow’s face, cake first. Rainbow sat stunned for a moment with two banana slices covering her eyes.

Pinkie snorted with laughter. “I tried to warn you!” She continued laughing. “It’s even funnier the second time!”

When Rainbow finally snapped back, she shook some of the cake off her face and looked up at the source. A few hundred feet above her was a delivery cart, with a certain cross-eyed, grey mare apologizing red-faced.

“How come I didn’t see your Pinkie-Sense go off?” she demanded, turning back to Pinkie Pie.

“Silly, my tail did go off; a week today ago!”

Rainbow was even more confused. Future Pinkie got up, still chuckling.

“I’ll see you later Past-Dash!” she sung, as she continued on her way.

She was followed moments later by a second Pinkie Pie, running up shouting.

“Rainbow! Twitcha-Twitch! Are you okay?” she called out. 

Her tail stopped twitching by the time she reached Rainbow Dash as its cause had already happened. Upon seeing the cake covered pony, Past-Pinkie burst out laughing.

Rainbow had to do a double-take.

“Pinkie, weren’t you just here?” she asked.

“You’re the second pony to say that to me today!” said Pinkie.

“You don’t suppose that Twilight missed one of your doubles?”

“Oh no!-What if she did?-We have to find that Pinkie Pie and send her back to the well!” Pinkie cried. “I’m the really Pinkie!-I can’t go through that again!-You believe me don’t you Rainbow?” she jumped up and grabbed Rainbow’s hoof. “Tell me you believe I’m the real Pinkie Pie!-PLEASE TELL ME!!!!!”

Pinkie was kneeling on her hind legs with her front hooves clasped into a begging stance. She looked up at Dash with the biggest sad puppy-dog eyes.

“Relax Pinkie, I believe you,” Rainbow consoled. “Let’s find Twilight and get to the bottom of this.” She shook off some more of the cake. 

What landed on Pinkie disappeared behind a long tongue. “Mmm, cherry!” Pinkie said, bouncing up off the floor. Together, they set out to find Twilight and find out what was going on.

Meanwhile, Future-Pinkie had already wandered over to the library and stopped in to see Twilight, who was, as usual, nose-deep in books.

“Hey Twilight!” said Pinkie when Twilight answered the door.

“Hey Pinkie Pie,” she welcomed. “What can I do for you?”

“Well you see I’m actually talking to you from one week in the past, but since this is the past, then this would be the present, but technically its not the present for me so maybe I would be one week behind or ahead of…”

“Uhh… Pinkie? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“THERE SHE IS!!!!!” A voice shouted out in the distance.

Twilight looked over Pinkie’s shoulder to see Rainbow Dash and another Pinkie Pie headed their way.

“Stop that imposter!” Pinkie yelled.

Future-Pinkie turned to see herself charging straight into her. The two tumbled until Future-Pinkie was pinned to the ground on her back by the extra-angry Pinkie. She whipped out a wooden cannon ready to fire streamers and balloons straight up the other Pinkie’s nose.

“Waiitt! I can explnn!” Future-Pinkie muffled into the barrel of the cannon.”

Rainbow Dash flew up to Twilight. “Twilight, we think this may be a mirror-copy from that well Pinkie used.”

“Unh-uh!” Future-Pinkie muffled, shaking her head.”

“STOP!” another voice shouted out in the distance.

Present-Pinkie wouldn’t budge. She was ready to fire.

Present-Twilight did look up though and saw Herself running towards them, but she wasn’t alone. Rarity, Applejack, and a second Rainbow Dash were rushing toward them with several others rushing behind. Those others turned out to be the humans from the Enterprise.

Present-Twilight lowered Pinkie’s cannon. “Hold up, Pinkie. I don’t think she’s a mirror-copy.”

Future-Twilight caught up with them, and Present-Pinkie finally lowered the cannon when she saw two Twilights and two Rainbow Dashes surrounding her.

“Did everyone go into the well?” Present-Pinkie inquired, thoroughly confused.

“Actually Pinkie, we’re from one week in the future,” Future-Twilight answered.

Present-Twilight had to think about that one.

“Wait. How can you be from the future? Doesn’t Star Swirl’s time spell only work for a few moments, before sending you back?”

“This will take some explaining…”

By the time Future-Twilight had finished explaining everything, both Present-Applejack and Present-Rarity and caught up with them, and both Pinkie Pies managed to fall asleep from boredom.

They were quickly awoken by sudden screams. 

“FLUTTERSHY!!!” all of the Future-ponies cried as Present-Fluttershy was the last to catch up to them. They all grabbed her in a tight hug that nearly suffocated her.

“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked in a soft voice. 

Tears were streaming down all of their eyes.

“We know it’s not you, darling, but we’re just so happy that you’re here and that you’re okay,” Rarity replied.

When everything had calmed down, and the explanations had finished, two sets of the Mane Six ponies, less one Fluttershy stood outside of the library. Now that everypony was caught up, the time had come to prepare. 

Discord, who had remained far behind, and oddly quiet, finally approached them.

He was greeted by eleven pairs of eyes glaring angrily back at him. He looked away from them with embarrassment. He quickly shook it off and pulled himself together. He lifted his head and looked them all back into their eyes.

“What’s done is done. But what is done can also be undone. I will help you in every way I can.”

Discord had never sounded like that. Poetic yes; but sullen and helpful, definitely not.

The ponies continued to stare at him. It was Present-Pinkie who spoke first.

“So, Mr. Discord, if you can make a the whole universe bobble-wobble around to whichever you like, why can’t you do that now and just make the baddies go away before they get here?”

Present and Future Twilight looked at Pinkie in surprise. Despite the childish way of saying it, it was a very good question.

Discord frowned again. “Alas, I am using the bulk of my powers to hold this universe together. The reason I chose the Draconequus as my form was for its abilities.”

“Draconequus?” Picard interrupted.

“It’s what they call my little creation. I specifically chose parts from species that had more magical abilities or otherwise superior traits. Anyway, while I remain in this form I can use those abilities that I would have as an actual Draconequus rather than all the power of a Q. I can help you, but this problem is too big for me alone.”

“You still haven’t said you’re sorry,” Future-Twilight commented.

For a Q, Discord felt angered by such gall as to demand an apology from him. But it was true. He was wrong.

His head hung low he mumbled, “Sorry.”

“What was that?” Twilight asked him to repeat.

“Sorry.”

“Come again?”

“I’M SORRY!!! ALL RIGHT!!? I’M   SORRY!!!!!”

Both Twilights were almost willing to accept his apology, but neither was ready to forgive him; especially since the universe still needed to be saved.

Picard interrupted, “We need to get to the palace and inform the princess… Princess Celestia, and seek her help,”

While the Enterprise crew started to round everypony up for transport, Discord snuck over to Fluttershy.

“Can you ever forgive me, my friend?”

It was only a whisper, but it reached Fluttershy’s ears just fine. She looked up into his eyes and could see just how sorry he truly was.

She nodded, with a small smile.

Discord pulled her into a soft hug, if only briefly so nopony else could see.
> Puppies in a Dungeon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Puppies in a Dungeon

“It is good to see you again, Captain,” Princess Celestia said, welcoming Captain Picard as he entered the throne room. “Though, I wish it were under better circumstances.”

Two dozen guards were at full alert encapsulating the walls around the room. Princess Celestia was seated at her throne and Future Princess Twilight stood next to her. She had entered first to explain the situation, while the Captain, crew, Discord, and multiple sets of ponies waited outside.

“For me as well, your majesty,” Picard replied bowing slightly. “I trust you have been filled in on the situation?”

“Indeed I have. From what this Princess Twilight has explained to me, we have much to prepare for. I have taken the liberty of unsealing the vaults that contain the weapons of our ancestors. The guards have begun distributing them, though I’m afraid there is little time for training.”

“No use, your royal magnificence! No use I tell you!” Discord sung as he barged into the room behind Picard. 

Dozens of spears immediately pointed straight at Discord’s throat by every single guard in the room.

“Fellas, I thought we were past spears and locking people away in statues?” he asked, looking at the shine of one of the more sharp spears aimed at him.

“That was before learning of our current predicament and the part you have played in it,” the princess replied coldly. “If you wish to regain my trust, Discord, you will have to earn it… It will not be easy.”

“Your majesty, I have every intention of helping you in every way I possibly can. After all, if the universe ends, then I would end along with it. Now we can’t have that!”

Celestia stared into his eyes warily. It was hard to see just how serious he was. His motives may indeed be exactly as he explained. However, a “God of Chaos” will always have an ulterior intention being worked behind the scenes. 

“Very well,” she said, nodding to the guards. They lowered their spears and returned to their posts around the room. “If you are truly here to help us, then explain to me exactly why our weapons will be of no use, and how then shall I prepare to defend against the Windigos.”

“Highness, the Windigos have been extinct for almost two thousand years; not long after you defeated that one ship, actually. They initially created the beings that have now become the race known as the Borg Collective. Their entire race was assimilated into it. As a distinct species, they are no more.”

“Then how exactly should I defend against these ‘Borg’?”

“Well you see, the most important thing is to prevent the Borg from gaining access to any material involving Monoceros Particle knowledge. So any magical weapons will only help them and hurt us. We must not use them.”

Celestia leaned over to one of her guards. She whispered into his ear, before he sauntered off out of the throne room. 

“I have instructed him to stop the distribution of the Silent Storm rifles and recollect them. I hope you have an alternative in mind.”

“Indeed I have, Princess, with the help of the Enterprise, and my vast knowledge of the universe, I think we can cook up a few surprises for our future guests, but it will take time.”

Princess Celestia looked over at Picard. “Captain, I will entrust Discord to your care, but I advise the utmost caution with him.”

“You and I are in complete agreement, your majesty,” said Picard.

“Where’s the love?” Discord asked jovially. “I’m only trying to help!”

“Then what else can be done to prepare for the coming storm?” the princess asked.

“Well, with no exceptions, we must immediately round up every last Unicorn and remove them from society.”

“I beg your pardon!?”

“We just need to keep them hidden someplace beyond their scanners,” Discord corrected, realizing the misunderstanding. “We need to remove them from every city, town, farm, and dwelling on the planet.”

“That is absurd!” the princess screamed. “Why exactly do we need to hide all Unicorns?”

“They contain the highest particle concentrations and therefore are the biggest threat if they fall victim to assimilation. They must all be segregated from society immediately!”

“Now you listen here, Discord.” The princess’s voice was deep and angry. “This world has not been segregated since its founding! I have stood watch over my people for two thousand years. We have put aside the prejudices of the past. I will NEVER allow such a thing to happen again!   ARE    WE    CLEAR!?”

Discord was momentarily taken aback by her tone. He quickly recovered and said, “If we can not segregate every last Unicorn, then we must evacuate everypony from every major city and town and concentrate our defense efforts here in Canterlot. Ponies should be evacuated to far remote regions of the land with as few clusters of ponies as possible. The more ponies want to ‘Stay Together’, the faster they will be assimilated by the Borg. Every pony assimilated is another soldier for the enemy. You must remember that well, Celestia.”

Celestia motioned for another guard and whispered in his ear. The second guard bowed in acknowledgement before retreating from the room.

“I have sent the order, Discord. This will not be an easy task.”

“Which is why I said just get rid of the Unicorns…” he muttered under his breath.

“Did you say something?” the princess asked.

“I was saying, the Elements of Harmony must remain out of enemy hands. Thanks to the time loop, we now have two sets to utilize. But are there any other superior magical items or persons we should be aware of? Anything that could cause the tide to turn horribly against us? Or possibly something we can use against them?”

The princess had to think. “There is the Reflecting Pool of Eternal Darkness… but that’s been sealed since the first fall of Nightmare Moon.”

“Can it be un-sealed by the Borg?” Discord demanded.

“Shouldn’t you already know that, Q?” said Picard.

“I have already told you, Captain. My powers are concentrated on holding this universe together in one piece. If you’d like me to let it break apart while I take the time to look up the information, just let me know!”

Picard straightened his uniform, but said nothing.

“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted!” Discord continued. Picard rolled his eyes in reply. “Can it be unsealed?”

“Not without the Elements of Harmony,” Celestia answered.

“Is there anything else?”

“Well…” the princess hesitated to mention her thoughts.

“Well what?” Discord asked.

“There is another powerful magical object in the castle; something which may pose a risk and may be beyond my control.”

“And that would be…?”

Princess Celestia swallowed hard, before rising from the throne. “Follow me.”

She led the way out of the throne room, guards in the front and rear. The rest of the humans and ponies were waiting for them just outside the room. 

“So what’s the plan?” Future-Applejack was the first to reply. “We gonna get ready for the fight?”

“Preparations are underway,” the princess answered. “For the moment I would prefer if the rest of you remain here. I will explain more in a few minutes.”

“What about me, Princess?” Present-Twilight asked.

Celestia looked down at her former pupil. “You will be filled in very shortly, Twilight. For now it’s important there be only one Twilight where we’re going.”

“But your –“

“No buts, I’m afraid. Please wait here for me.”

Present-Twilight was a little irked by Celestia choosing the future Twilight over her, but she did understand it. She bowed and remained behind with the others. Princess Celestia, Future-Twilight, Discord, and Captain Picard, along with several guards protecting them, headed toward the opposite end of the castle.

When the finally reached the end, they found themselves at the top of a narrow stone spiral staircase leading down.

Leading up to the staircase, many guards stood watch at regular intervals. The stairwell itself was bathed in darkness. On a wall near the top an unlit torch was hanging. Celestia used her magic to levitate the torch and light it. 

The light from the flames flickered down the walls of the staircase. Picard was reminded of the ancient castles of his homeland in France: with secret chambers and dungeons. He used to have fake sword fights with his brother near the ruins of one. They often searched for hidden secrets within those castles, but never succeeded in finding anything more than broken bricks and overgrown moss. Anything of value had long been plundered by thieves or recovered by archeologists over the centuries. But that didn’t stop them from trying.

As they descended the stairs, a strange high pitched noise echoed across them.

“What was that sound?” Picard asked, curiously.

“You’ll see,” was all the princess was willing to say.

The noise repeated, like a high-pitched yip. And then another. And another. Eventually the yipping was overlapping. Picard could finally recognize the sound.

“Are those puppies?”

“Yes, Captain,” Celestia said.

“Why are there puppies in a dungeon?”

“You will see,” she repeated.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairwell, two more guards had the path blocked by crossed spears. Upon seeing the princess, the spears rescinded, allowing them entrance into the dungeon.

The last time Picard was in Equestria, he found the world to be an almost utopia, except for the chaos caused by Q of course. Everyone seemed happy, life was simple, and all the ponies helped one another constantly. But now as he entered a real working dungeon, his vision had been shattered thoroughly.

The air in the room was stuffy and hard to breathe. The temperature was very cold, and if he weren’t wearing his uniform, he would probably have been shivering. The smell was horrendous. The ground was covered with old hay feed. The cells were small and dark. This was definitely not the criminal rehabilitation centers Picard was used to.

All of the cells were empty, save for one. That was the one where all of the barking was coming from. As they approached some of the puppies noticed and climbed off the black rock they were bouncing on to greet them. One of them squeezed through the bars and jumped up on the captain’s foot all excited.

“That’s mine!” a cold deep voice echoed from the cell. “I want it back.”

Picard tried to get his eyes to adjust to the room, but there appeared to be nothing but the puppies on a rock. A sharp crooked point slowly protruded from the rock with a head attached to it. 
Dark eyes opened with green flames emanating around them.

“I want it back, now!” the creature demanded.

“Captain Picard, Discord, meet Former Queen Chrysalis,” Celestia introduced.

“The Draconequus?” Chrysalis commented, speaking more clearly. “I’m a big fan of your work. But what is a Picard?”

“I’m a human,” he replied.

“Very well, human. Give me my puppy back!”

Picard lifted the puppy still hugging his leg and was about to hand it back to her, when he was stopped by the Princess.

“No. First we need to talk. If we like what we hear, you may have possibly even more than a single puppy back?”

“My freedom?” she asked, sullenly. 

“Possibly.”

Chrysalis sat up straight. A few puppies rolled off her as she did. They seemed to enjoy it. “What do you want?”

Ignoring her, the princess turned toward Discord and said, “This creature is a changeling who feeds off love, hence the puppies.”

“Did you say changeling?” Picard asked nervously. 

“I did. Why?” 

“This is a very serious threat.” He turned to the changeling. “How long have you been on this planet? Are you in communication with the Dominion?”

Chrysalis looked beyond bewildered. “I have no idea what you’re referring to. Dominion? Planets?” 

Picard eased up a bit, but was ever more cautious. “Could you change for me? I want to witness your transformation,”

“Captain, what is this about?” the princess asked also confused.

“I’ll explain in a minute. Now please, change!”

Chrysalis shrugged. In a flash of green light, she became the spitting image of Picard. After a few moments, she reverted.

Picard relaxed. “I apologize, but you are not the first changeling I’ve encountered.”

“Oh? You have met some of my loyal subjects?”

“No. There is a race of changelings from a world far away. They are a very serious threat to the alpha–to this region of space. But from your transformation, I can say you are not of the same species as them.”

“Uh..okay…” said Chrysalis, still confused.

“Apologies, your majesty,” Picard said. “Please continue.”

Discord chimed in, “Yes indeed, a changeling of any variety would be a serious threat for us if it’s assimilated. We should eliminate it now.”

“What?” Chrysalis cried in shock. “You can’t! You wouldn’t!”

The princess shook her head. “No. I would not. But as he said, you are threat that needs to be dealt with. I am offering you a chance. Work for us and earn your freedom. What say you?”

Chrysalis salivated at the thought of freedom, but had to ask, “What would I need to do?”

After the situation was explained to her, she seemed to understand the threat of the situation, but not her role in it.

“So if these ‘Borg’ can ‘assimilate’ everypony, how can I help to stop that?”

“We shall see, but do you swear to me, that you will help us defeat this foe, and when you have earned your freedom, you will never try to infiltrate this kingdom again?”

Chrysalis had to pause. She thought of her subjects. “How can I feed my people, Celestia..err..Princess? They must feed to survive.”

The princess seemed to be holding back a key piece of information. After a pause she spilled it. “Your kingdom no longer exists.”

“What!?” 

“Your people were starving. We offered them a solution and they took it.” 

“What did you do to them?” she cried nervously.

“We allowed them to become members of our society. They chose forms of random ponies of the past and now regularly adopt and exchange pets with local ponies to feed on their love. They can live happily, without making everypony else miserable.”

Chrysalis wasn’t sure how to respond. Her people were safe, but her kingdom was gone. She contemplated in silence her current situation.

“I am offering you the same,” said the princess. “Help us, and I will help you integrate with pony society. Do we have a deal?”

Chrysalis could see no other option, and this did mean her freedom. To help her decision, one of the puppies stretched out on her leg. It looked up at her and barked lovingly.

“Agreed,” she said, nodding. “I will help you.”
> The Enemy of My Enemy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Enemy of My Enemy

The cell door glowed gold as Celestia unlocked it. As the puppies ran out eager to meet new friends, Chrysalis stretched out her hooves and carefully raised herself up off the floor. It had been a long time since she had stood on her own hooves and was a little shaky at first. When she finally felt ready, the former Queen of the Changelings stepped out from her cold dark cell and followed Princess Celestia back up the long staircase leading out of the dungeon.

As they reached the top, Picard took a deep breath of fresh air, but it was nothing compared to the breath Chrysalis took in. For her, it was not just the freshness of the air, but the scent of freedom carried with it. A small tear dropped from her cheek. 

Only Celestia seemed to notice, drawing small smile to her face. The princess absolutely loathed having to ever use that dungeon, but for Chrysalis, it was the only option, and from the looks of things, it seemed to have worked. She led the way back toward the throne room.

When the ponies spotted Chrysalis, they grew angry in a hurry. 

“What’s she doing here!?” Future-Rainbow Dash yelled. 

“Are you in danger, princess?” Present-Twilight asked, ready for a fight.

“No girls,” Celestia tried to explain, raising a hoof to stop. “She has volunteered to help us.”

“How can she help us?” Pinkie Pie asked curiously.

“I’m not sure, but I fear we will need all the help we can get.”

Picard seemed to be mulling the idea over in his mind. “I may have thought of a way you can help us.”

“What did you need me to do, human?” Chrysalis asked growing concerned. She understood Celestia’s ways, but nothing about this creature’s.

“Do you require actually seeing a person before you can take on their form?” he asked. “Or can you replicate it from just an image of them?”

“A photograph will suffice,” she answered, “but any details hidden by the photo will have to be guessed and may not be a hundred percent.”

“Fortunately, I have a three dimensional hologram you can use that can give you the finer details.”

“Dimensional…hologram?” Chrysalis asked, confused.

“If you will come aboard my ship, I can show you what a Borg drone looks like as though there was a real one present in the room.”

“Aboard your ship? In space? I don’t know. Why do you need me to look like a drone anyway?” 

“If we can beam you aboard their ship, you can obtain access to the more sensitive areas and possibly sabotage their systems.”

“Wait a minute!” said Chrysalis, starting to back away. “I didn’t volunteer to go into space and ‘beam’ aboard an enemy ship!”

“If you want your freedom, you will do exactly as Captain Picard asks,” Celestia said sternly.

Chrysalis resigned herself to the idea, frowning. “Just tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it.”

“Very well,” Picard said nodding. “Mr. Data, if you and Commander Worf would remain here, perhaps you can provide the princess with tactical analyses for the evacuation plans and battle-readiness, in the event any Borg drones successfully transport to the surface.”

“Aye Captain,” said Worf.

“Yes sir,” Data acknowledged.

Discord stepped forward. “I should come aboard with Geordi to start work on replicating more effective weapons to give to the ponies,” he said.

“Absolutely not,” was Picard’s quick reply. “The Prime Directive specifically forbids providing weapons to lesser developed civilizations; especially ones with no formal diplomatic ties with the Federation. It is out of the question.”

Discord actually laughed. “Captain, Captain. Do you really think the Prime Directive applies to anyone anymore? The universe will end in a few more days unless the Borg are stopped, and if we do succeed, I can remove any weapons or technology the ponies didn’t already possess in a flash. So stop worrying so much!” He smiled crookedly.

“Like how you removed all the knowledge of monoceros particles from that Windigos ship?”

“Yes…well…heh,” he gulped, “I’ll just have to be more thorough this time, won’t I?”

Picard’s face was rigid as his teeth chewed on the information. He sighed loudly. “Very well. You and Commander LaForge can work together to begin replicating weapons for the Equestrians.”

Picard, Geordi, Discord, and Chrysalis grouped together, preparing to beam up to the ship. He clicked his communicator pin. “Picard to Enterprise four to–”

“Just a moment, Captain,” Celestia interrupted.

“Standy-by,” he said, closing the communication with the ship.

“You should take the ponies from the future with you. They may be of help.”

Picard mulled it over briefly. He was far more open to that idea, than arming them with advanced weaponry. “Very well.” He tapped his pin again, “Picard to Enterprise, nine to beam up.”

Future-Pinkie turned to Present-Pinkie. “Well it was fun meeting me!” 

“Me too! We should do again sometime.”

“We totally should!”

“Just promise me, I won’t try to kill me with balloons and streamers again.”

“I promise.”

“Do you Pinkie Promise?”

“Cross my heart. Hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye!”

“Pinkie, hurry up!” Future Twilight called.

Pinkie joined the group huddled in a cluster.

“Energize,” said Picard.

As the transporter beam enveloped them, Chrysalis started to panic.

“What’s going on?” she screamed. “What’s happening to us?”

Before anyone could answer, they had already begun to rematerialize on the transporter pad. 

“Where am I? What is this place?”

Twilight could see how not being in control in such an alien environment was causing Chrysalis to panic. She was a long cry from the arch villain she once was. Twilight tried to comfort her. 

“Relax. You’re safe. We’ve just teleported onto the captain’s ship.

“Just follow me Chryssi!” Pinkie shouted, trying to race out of the transporter room. 

The transporter chief was a step ahead of her this time. He blocked the pink pony’s path before she could get lost on the ship.

“Don’t call me Chryssi!” Chrysalis said, agitated. Despite the agitation, Twilight could no longer see the fear on her face. It was progress. Though, she wasn’t exactly sure in which direction.

Captain Picard took the lead, “Chrysalis, Q, you may follow Commander LaForge and myself to the holosuites. Everyone will be provided quarters and limited access around the ship. The Chief here can escort the rest of you there now, or to ten-forward if you would like some food and beverage.”

“Can’t we come with you?” Twilight asked. “We didn’t come here to just sit around and eat you know.”

“I know, Miss. Sparkle, but allow me the time to get Chrysalis here up to speed on everything and how she can help us, while Q and Geordi work on finding a way to fight back against the Borg. We may need your help soon enough, but for now, there is nothing else for you to do.”

Twilight sighed. “I understand.” 

Picard turned to his present security officers. “This person …or pony… is a rehabilitated criminal. When she is not with me, she is to be kept under guard, but she it not to be treated as a criminal. It is just a precaution.” He turned to Chrysalis. “Do you agree to those terms?”

Chrysalis didn’t seem to like it too much at all, but she nodded anyway.

“I … also would like you to visit the ship’s doctor and have a tracer injected into you.”

“Absolutely not!” Chrysalis yelled. “I may not know what a tracer is, but I will not have it injected anywhere!”

“I’m afraid this is non-negotiable. It is for both our safeties. When you go aboard the Borg ship, it will give us a means of finding you and getting you safely out of there when the job’s done, but it will also help us make sure you don’t decide to go back on your word.”

Chrysalis was grinding her teeth in anger. She looked around the room. All eyes were on her. Humans in red held boxes at her that she could only assume were weapons. She was in a foreign place with no clue how to escape or even where to go if she did. Once again she was defeated and left with no alternatives.

“Very well, do what you will.” Her voice was cracked. It sounded almost pitiful.

“Follow me,” said the captain.

All parties adjourned to there respective destinations. Discord and Geordi left straight for the holosuite to begin work on designs for whatever Discord had in mind. 

The captain escorted Chrysalis to meet with the ship’s Chief Medical Officer. Chrysalis felt humiliated throughout the exam, but at least not a single part of the it was painful, and their doctor was very kind to her.

By the time they reached the holosuites, Chrysalis had settled from her initial shock and fear, and had started to explore the ship more with her eyes and ears as they walked down the corridors. 

So many different creatures past them by: some were blue, some had pointed ears, some had antennae, and more. She also noticed, all of them looked relatively like the captain. 

“Are all of these creatures human?” she asked, curiously.

“We have many different species from many different worlds aboard this ship,” he answered.

“But why do they all look so similar? Aren’t there any pony races?”

“There are all kinds of species in the Federation, which is a union of worlds from all across this region of space. They work together in peace. Many of them have evolved similar features that have helped many races reach the stars. There are several species though who look a great deal dissimilar from humans. You would not want an encounter with a Tholian I can tell you. But there are very few quadruped species that have made it to the stars. They are out there though. I don’t believe we have any on the ship at the moment though.”

“Quadruped?” 

“Four-legged…for instance…ponies.”

“Oh.”

Chrysalis did not want to admit how fascinated she was by all this. When the doors opened to the holosuite, her curiosity was peaked. She entered the room, which was quite vast. Bright lights shined on along the walls and ceiling with no candles in sight.

“Where are we?”

“This is called a holosuite,” Picard explained. “From here I can show you exactly what a Borg drone looks like.

Picard spoke out into the echo of the room. “Computer, display the image of a Borg drone.”

In an instant, a Borg drone materialized in the center of the room. 

“Ahhh!” Chrysalis jumped back in fright. “What is that thing!?”

“This is a Borg drone,” Picard explained calmly.

“But… But it’s right here! How do we kill it?” she asked trying to retreat away from it.

“This is not an actual drone. This is a holographic representation. A facsimile.”

Chrysalis stared at the creature before her. It was wearing a beyond-bizarre black uniform with hoses and metal devices every which way. One of its eyes was covered by a red blinking light. Its skin was a sticky grey with no fur. The more she looked the less real it seemed. It remained perfectly still and didn’t even breathe. She started to accept it wasn’t actually real.

“Do you think you can shape-shift into this form?”

Chrysalis looked the creature up and down; from head to toe. After she finished studying some of the more unusual details (she had trouble remembering it all), she flashed green flame around herself until she was the spitting image of the Borg drone.

“How is this?” she asked, still in her normal voice.

Picard examined her recreation. It was perfect.

“Well done,” he said, smiling. “Well done indeed.”

Chrysalis returned to her original form. She felt more at ease on four legs. 

“So what would you have me do as a drone?”

“We’ll go through all that. For now, rest and feel free to explore. Security can escort you to your quarters or ten-forward, if you would prefer to get something to eat.”

Chrysalis’s stomach grumbled loudly. Dungeon cuisine wasn’t always the finest. “Erm, perhaps I’ll get have a small something in this ten-forward.”

Picard escorted her from the room and handed her off to her security escorts. With Chrysalis now under the care of the guards, the captain was able to return to the bridge. Commander Riker was at the helm, keeping The captain’s chair warm for him. He immediately changed seats as Picard stepped off the Turbolift. 

“Welcome back, Captain,” he said.

“Thank you number one. What’s the status of our orbital defenses?”

“We’ve launched several long range monitoring buoys, so we should have ample notice when the Borg are inbound. Captain Hakins’ communiqué is now two hours overdue.”

“Open a subspace channel. See if we can make contact,” Picard ordered, taking his seat.

“U.S.S. Tecumseh, this is the Enterprise. Are you receiving us?”

After a long pause, the image of Captain Hakins was displayed on the screen.

“Hakins here. Sorry for the delay. We were still convincing a less-than-willing Tellarite freighter to join us.”

“Were you successful in your mission?” Picard asked.

“So far we’ve confirmed there were two Galaxy-class starships still docked at DS4 as well as the Defiant. They’ve all agreed to help form a defensive net around the planet. They should be here within the next few hours.”

“Excellent. Were those the only ships you were able to recruit?”

“No sir. We’ve made contact with two Klingon Birds of Prey as well as a Vulcan Science vessel, the Tellarite freighter as well as an Andorian one. And also a Ferengi warship has agreed, under the condition they claim rights of salvage aboard the remnants of the Borg cube.”

That last one caused Picard some pause. He neither liked nor trusted the Ferengi. Very well. When will they all arrive?”

“They are all at different ETA’s, but have agreed to arrive at the planet within two days.”

“Very good. Return to this system as soon as you’ve finished contacting any more ships still capable of reaching us in time. Picard out.”

The channel closed. Commander Riker turned to Picard and said, “Two Freighters and a Ferengi ship?... We may be in over our heads here, Captain.”

“That may well be Will, but if Q is able to assist us in our defensive and offensive equipment aboard all ships, we could have a chance.”

“It’s not like you to leave something to chance,” Will said with doubt in his eyes, “especially when that chance relies heavily on Q.”

“I admit, the thought does repulse me, which is exactly why I intend to utilize his assistance only as required and no more. I won’t have a dangerous scenario be complicated by that character.”

“Sir!” a young ensign shouted from his station. “I’m reading Tachyon emissions coming from three hundred meters to port!”

“Tachyon? On screen.” Picard Ordered with a sneaking suspicion.

Sure enough, as the screen displayed the view of empty space adjacent to the ship, it immediately became filled with the image of a Romulan warbird decloaking.

“Red Alert!” Commander Riker yelled. “Shields up.”

“We’re being hailed,” the same ensign said.

Picard nodded. Up on the display, the commander of the Romulan vessel smiled at the captain.

“It’s good to see you again captain. I thought we might be of assistance.”

Picard clenched his jaw in frustration.

“I’m not sure I would ever want assistance from you, Commander Tomalak.”

“Actually, it’s Admiral now,” said Tomalak. “All thanks to you, actually.”

“Thanks to me?”

“Well, thanks to your part in helping me root out that traitor Jarok a few years back.”
That struck a nerve in Picard. “Fine. Admiral. What are you doing here in Federation territory? You do realize that you are in direct violation of the Treaty of Algeron!”

“Relax, dear captain. We are simply here to help of course.”

“I’ll bet.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” said Tomalak. “At least, I believe that is how that ancient Earth saying goes. And I also believe this incoming Borg threat seems to satisfy that scenario quite nicely. Wouldn't you agree?”
> Cracks in the Ice
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cracks in the Ice

“I am hereby ordering you out of Federation territory and back to the Neutral Zone! If you do not comply, it will be considered an act of war!” Picard hollered.

“Perhaps you should check your star maps again, Captain,” Admiral Tomalak replied calmly. “If you’ll notice, there is no Neutral Zone anymore – It no longer exists. From your communications traffic, I am wagering you know a lot more about it than I presently do. Perhaps we can discuss this more aboard my ship? As my personal guest of course.”

Picard found himself as trapped as the criminal changeling helping him. He exhaled his frustration audibly. “Drop your shields and we will beam you to the Enterprise, as our guest,” he said.

“Very well, Captain. As a gesture of good faith in our new friendship, I will come to you.” 

“We’ll make arrangements to have you transported over in two hours,” Picard said.

“Why the delay?”

“It may not have occurred to you, but we are currently spread very thin trying to accomplish as much as we can before the Borg are expected to arrive.”

“All the more reason we should meet right away.”

“Two hours, Picard out.”

The channel closed.

“The Romulans are lowering their shields,” said the ensign.

“Stay at Red Alert for now, but lower our shields,” the captain ordered.

By the time the arrangements for the meeting with the Romulans had been prepared, an hour and a half had passed. Looking over toward Will he said, “Commander, I’m going to check on Commander LaForge and Q’s progress. You have the bridge.” Picard left the bridge via the Turbolift. “Deck One,” he commanded.





U.S.S. Tecumseh, Acting Captain Thomas Hakins Presiding

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 50927.9:

We’ve completed our scans of all sectors for ships within range of reaching the Horse Head nebula within the next two days. We are now at least one day away from returning to the system, prior to the expected arrival of the Borg. 

The only other ship we’ve been able to reach was the U.S.S. Magellan. The Magellan is an old Constellation-class starship and with weaponry a half-century out-of-date, would be little more than cannon fodder to a fully operational Borg cube. Despite this, Captain Conklin has pledged the services of his ship to stopping the Borg from achieving their objectives at all costs. The Magellan is currently two days away at maximum warp.





“Now add a molecular interchanger to the quantum phase device…” said Discord, pointing to the schematics displayed on the screen.

“For the last time Q, we don’t have a quantum molecular interchanger,” Geordi argued, “and the replicator can’t create one. You’ll have to make due with our current technology and build from there.”

“Oh pish posh! Step aside, and let me show you how it’s done!” Discord replied, smiling and cracking his knuckles.

He fingers and claws started working the keys rapidly, as his horns started to glow. One horn glowed red, the other glowed black. On the display the schematic was being altered three different ways. His fingers created the visual base. The magic from his left horn was adding a quantum fluxed atomic containment pod, while his right assembled the components for a molecular decoupler and matter rearrangement devices. When he was finished, the computer rendered the design of the completed weapon. It seemed to have no problems accepting the data inputted.

Geordi would liked to have known how Q managed to convince the computers to replicate technology more advanced than the replicator itself was, not to mention learning the specifications for those advanced pieces of technology, but for now it looked like they had a decent prototype.

“Computer, display a holographic version of the weapon and simulate a Borg force of…” he looked at Q.

“Twenty drones,” Q finished.

Twenty holographic drones appeared around the holodeck. The new weapon appeared in front of Geordi. 

“Twenty?” Geordi questioned in disbelief.

“Trust me.”

Geordi took the weapon into his hands. It was a little shorter than a phase rifle but three times as big around. The nose of the gun was cone shaped with a spinning end piece that reminded Geordi of a classic nineteenth century Gatling gun in miniature.

Its only drawback was the weight. It seemed to be made for broader shoulders than a human, with more than two hands.

“This is fairly heavy and cumbersome,” he commented as he tried to position the weapon for firing.

Discord sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Computer, could you give this poor weak man a shoulder strap for his little gun?” he asked mockingly.

The computer obliged and attached a strap to the gun. Geordi fixed the strap onto his shoulder across his chest, held the two handles on the sides of the weapon, and still needed additional support. He anchored the gun onto his thigh to steady the weapon for firing.

With his left hand twisting the handle forward, and his right pulling back, he fired the weapon off at the enemy. He was quickly disappointed.

The end of the weapon spun fast and a bright flash of light illuminated the room for a fast moment, but the Borg drones remained standing.

“Did we miss something?” Geordi asked looking around the ends of the gun.

“Nope, it worked perfectly.”

“Perfectly? They’re still standing!” he said.

The holodeck door opened, and Captain Picard walked in; just in time to see twenty Borg drones explode simultaneously, landing in bits and pieces all around the room.

Picard picked a piece of holographic Borg flesh off his shoulder. “I take it you’re making progress?”

Geordi was a little in shock from how well that worked; though the shock may have been from being much closer to the blast and being significantly more covered in chunks of drone.

“Ah Captain! I’m so glad you could witness our little demonstration,” said Discord happily. May I present to you the Borg Fighting Gun! Or BFG for short.”

“How does it work?” asked Picard.

Geordi replied, “It takes normal matter and breaks it into its individual atoms, then enters them into a state of quantum flux. Finally, an enhanced micro-transporter transports the unstable atoms through the Borg shields and attaches themselves to individual Borg nanoprobes. When the atoms in quantum flux attempt to restabilize themselves using molecules from the Borg nanoprobes, they trigger several million micro explosions within the drone.”

“Death by a thousand paper cuts!” Discord shouted.

“Intriguing, but how would you be able to transport the probes through their shields, and even if you could, wouldn’t they be able to adapt?” asked the captain.

“That’s the beauty!” said Discord, “I programmed this bad boy with every known and to be known Borg personal shield frequency. This is the ultimate anti-Borg gun to ever exist.”

“Very well. Commander, get the plans to the replicators as soon as possible and begin mass production.”

“Yes sir!” Geordi complied.

“Q, I need you to come with me. There is a delicate situation that has arisen and I will need your help to explain things more smoothly.”

“Would this have anything to do with the Red Alert we experienced recently?”

“Yes. A Romulan warbird has decloaked and is offering to render assistance. It would be fair to say I trust them less than I trust you.”

“I thought you trusted me implicitly, Jean-Luc. I’m hurt.”

Ignoring his comment, Picard continued. “Follow me to the briefing room. Try not to mention too much about Unicorn magic, our new weapon, or the changeling. The less information the Romulans know the better.”

“If he’s willing to be an ally, shouldn’t we be sharing everything?”

“Q, your antics, while both bizarre and dangerous, have always had some semblance of a decent purpose behind them; though you usually could have just saved a lot of trouble by simply talking to us. However, in my dealings with the Romulans, they tend to always have some ulterior motive that only benefits themselves at the expense of everyone else.”

“If you’d like, Captain. I will keep your secrets.”

Picard led the way toward Transporter Room One. 

When they arrived, a security team was already waiting for them. 

“Are the Romulans ready to beam over?” Picard asked the transporter chief.

“Yes sir. Romulans have responded and are standing by.”

“How many are in their boarding party?”

“Three, sir.”

“Very well. Energize.”

Three Romulan delegates materialized onto the transporter pad. Admiral Tomalak stood center in the group. 

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Captain,” he gestured, smiling.

“Unfortunately, I cannot say the same,” Picard retorted.

“Really Captain, that is no way to start our discussions,” said Tomalak, shaking his head, but still smiling; that is, until he noticed the much more bizarre creature hovering in the background. “Um…Captain, would you care to introduce…and possibly explain this extra guest in the room?”

Before Picard could reply, Discord had jumped ahead, open paw out front. “It’s an absolute pleasure to make your acquaintance, Admiral,” he said, shaking the Romulan’s hand vigorously. “The name’s Discord. I’m a Draconequus from the planet below.  

It took three tries for Tomalak to free his hand from the tight grip of Discord’s large paw. “Yes…a pleasure, I’m sure,” he said uncertainly.

Picard realized Q had decided not to share his true nature with the Admiral and for the moment, was grateful. 

“This way to the briefing room, Admiral,” Picard said, gesturing toward the hallway.

Admiral Tomalak and his two associates followed the captain and Discord to the briefing room. The Romulans took their seats after the Captain and Discord.

Picard felt he should go first. “Admiral, you mentioned the Neutral Zone and Romulan space no longer seem to exist. How much are you aware of the current situation?”

“Now Captain, I didn’t come here to give you a report on our findings when clearly yours are more detailed. But I would like to try a little honesty up front for a change, as the situation does seem that dire.”

Picard shifted in his seat slightly. He expected a lot more tiptoeing and dancing before getting to the truth.

“You see, we noticed you were attempting to recruit ships from all across this sector into defending against a Borg invasion of this backwater world,” Tomalak explained.

“By ‘noticed’ I assume you mean: 'intercepted our communications',” Picard accused.

“I am not going to simply divulge our intelligence gathering methods, but suffice it to say, I became curious as to why you wanted to recruit everything from ships still being repaired, to freighters with nothing more than obsolete phase canons and torpedoes covered in dust to fight with, all to save this planet of primitive pre-warp ponies.

“I also have a sneaking suspicion that our lost contact with the Romulan Empire and this supposed Borg invasion are most likely interconnected. I am here to find out exactly why the Borg are interested in this planet, why is it worth dying to defend, and why exactly I should help you.”

Picard didn’t respond right away. He needed to choose his words carefully, but if he paused too long, the Admiral would never believe anything he told him.

“There is a genetic advantage the native species carries that the Borg wish to assimilate,” he said carefully dancing around the issue.

“And that is…?”

“They carry the ability to…to…” he stumbled.

“Oh just tell them, Picard,” said Discord, rolling his eyes.”

“Cu-Discord!” Picard glared at him.

“The ponies have a psychokinesis that allows them to move objects with their minds,” Discord explained matter-of-factly.

Tomalak looked surprised for a moment, but quickly put it past him. 

Picard quickly caught on, but had to play the act through. “Well there’s no point in denying it. The Borg wish to assimilate this biological ability into their drones. It would give them a powerful advantage against us.”

“I see,” said Tomalak calmly. “And what exactly does that have anything to do with the disappearance of more than two-thirds of the galaxy?”

Discord took the lead this time. “They already possess the ability to travel back in time, you see. So if they were to assimilate this ability, they could travel back and rearrange the universe to their liking. We are at the precipice of that timeline.”

“And just how exactly do you know all this?” one of other Romulans inquired suspiciously. “If you are supposedly native to this primitive world, how did you come by this knowledge?”

“Oh, did I not mention? I’m not a native, just a resident. I’m actually from a race that was assimilated by the Borg long ago. I come from the future to stop the Borg from succeeding here.”


The Romulans shared a quizzical look with one another.

“Do you really expect us to believe this tall tale?” the Admiral asked.

“It’s the truth,” said Picard. “If you’re here to help as you originally claimed, then help us set up an orbital defense net to stop the Borg from succeeding here.”

“Captain, I came here for the truth. Not some tall tale about time travel and psychotic ponies.” He stood up to leave. “If you have no useful information to share…”

Picard stood as well, “Admiral, whatever you believe or don’t believe about Discord’s account does not negate the urgency of this situation. You offered to help and we’ll accept if you’re still willing. When this is over, we can worry about the finer details.”

Tomalak looked at the captain bemusedly. “Captain, I do not like being lied to, and the only thing keeping me from returning home is that my home no longer exists. If, as you say, stopping this Borg invasion will resolve my conundrum, then I will help. When this is over, if Romulus is not exactly where I left it, you will become my next target. Are we clear?”

“Understood Admiral,” said Picard.

With the meeting adjourned, the captain led Admiral Tomalak and his guests back to the transporter room.





Onboard the U.S.S. Magellan…

“Sir, Engineering reports they’ve gotten the engines up to 98.7% percent efficiency,”
the officer reported. “We’re now capable of accelerating to Warp 7.2.”

“Excellent, Ensign,” Captain Conklin replied. “Helm: accelerate to warp 7.2.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Sir, I’m picking up something on long range sensors,” the science officer announced. “It’s…Sir, it’s a Borg cube!”

“Red Alert! Accelerate to Warp 7.5.”

“Sir! The engines will burn out if we remain at that speed.” 

“That’s an order, Lieutenant!”

“Warp 7.5…Aye sir… The Borg are matching our speed and accelerating.”

“What’s the Borg’s time to intercept?” the captain asked.

“If their speed and ours remain constant: two hours.”

“How long until we reach the Horse Head nebula?

“Twenty-nine hours, sir.”

“Well we’re not going to be outrunning them. Ready the phase cannons. Adjust them to rotate frequencies in a random pattern. Do the same for the shields. If we’re lucky we can get off a few good shots and slow them down long enough to escape.”

“Yes sir!”

For two hours, every man and woman on the ship recalibrated, readjusted, and upgraded every last piece of equipment they could manage. When the Borg cube came into range, every station on the ship was at the ready.

“Wait until the cube closes to within two hundred thousand kilometers,” said the captain. “Then drop to impulse and initiate pattern Omega Six.”

“Yes sir!” the helmsman yelled.

Over the ship’s audio the Borg’s collective voice spoke out. “We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”

“The hell it is!” Captain Conklin shouted. “Ready?”

“Fifteen thousand kilometers more… Ten thousand… Five thousand… Now sir!”

“Initiate pattern Omega Six!”

At once the ship dropped out of warp, flipped vertically over itself so that all forward phaser banks and torpedo launchers were now pointed straight at the cube.

“Target their engines and FIRE!!!”

Phasers shot out, blasting a small hole in the side of the cube. Torpedoes immediately followed, enlarging the hole, but the damage to the engines was negligible. The cube closed on top of them. 

The Magellan shuddered as the green aura wrapped around the ship.

“They’ve got us in a tractor beam, sir!” the ensign shouted.

“Target the source of the tractor beam and fire! Try to go back to warp!”

Shots sounded across the ship as the phasers and torpedoes launched at the cube. As they reached the hull, the same green aura shielded their weapons from causing any further harm.

“They’ve adapted, sir!” The young ensign’s voice cracked in fear.

Twelve Borg drones materialized on the bridge. The captain was the first to draw his phaser. He fired into two of the drones. They both fell to the ground. Two more phasers fired at other drones but their shields adapted.

“Computer. This is Captain Thaddeus Conklin. Initiate Auto-Destruct. Authorization Conklin alpha seve–ahh!” 

One of the drones inserted their nanotubules into the captain’s neck. He sank to his knees as his veins turned black from the borg nanoprobes.

“C-c-com-p-put-ter! Erraase all d-d-d-data-b-b-b-b-ba…”

“Command was not recognized,” the computer replied, softly. “Please restate your request.”

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”





Onboard the Romulan Warbird…

“Have we secured it?” Admiral Tomalak asked as he rematerialized onto the ship.

“Yes Admiral. We’ve brought it to the main chamber.”

“Excellent. Let’s find out what Picard was trying to hide from us.”

He followed the guard through ship until they reached a large black door. When it opened, the room was pitch-black inside. A small light switched on just above a chair in the middle of the otherwise empty room. Seated on the chair was an unconscious Unicorn: a mint green Unicorn with a tattoo of a musical lyre on its flank. It sat unconscious in its restraints.

“Now, I think, we will get some answers,” Tomalak said, smirking.
> A Hands-On Interrogation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Hands-On Interrogation

Bon-Bon awoke in her bed, yawning and stretching. It took her a moment to remember this was the day she was going to the beach together with Lyra. Giving an extra stretch and smiling, she hopped out of bed and went to wash up. 

“Lyra – you better get up!” she called out to the adjacent bedroom. “We need to leave early. The beach gets crowded this time of year!” 

She splashed some water over her face and studied her reflection in the mirror. She was eager to try out the new bathing suit she’d bought for the trip. It had candy pieces decorated across the fabric to accent her matching cutie mark. 

“This ought to bring in a few looks from the colts,” she thought.

After putting it on, she realized she had yet to hear the stirrings of the anti-early bird. 

“Lyra?” she called out again. “Are you up yet?”

She poked her head out into the hallway. and noticed that Lyra’s bedroom door was still shut.  

“Lyra, come on! We have got to get going!” 

She stood outside Lyra’s door, knocking. “Lyra, open up! …Lyra! …Lyra?”

She gently turned the doorknob and opened the door slowly. Peeking into the room, Bon-Bon quickly noticed the drawings plastered everywhere. Hands… more hands… still more hands…”

Bon-Bon shook her head. “Ever since those humans showed up a few years back…” she thought.

She opened the door fully, revealing an empty bed. Lyra wasn’t in the room.

“Maybe she went downstairs already?”

She headed down the steps towards the kitchen.

“Lyra, why didn’t you answer me?” she said as she reached the bottom of the steps. Unfortunately, she found herself talking to an empty kitchen.

“Where did she run off to? What about our beach trip?” 

She looked down at her new bathing suit, disappointed.





“Have the memory probes taken effect yet?” Tomalak asked his subordinate.

“They should be working now,” he replied. “We will know once the images start feeding through.”

“Good. Let’s see what we can extract.”

The display came on with fuzzy shapes and images. After a few seconds, they sharpened into a clearer picture. They found themselves staring at a pair of human hands.

“What are we looking at?” the admiral asked. 

“I’m not sure. I’ll try to get her to focus.” 

Leaning over the sleeping Unicorn, the soldier asked, “What abilities does your species possess?”

Lyra frowned. Something was upsetting her. The display shifted to the image of her gazing down at her own hooves. 

Tomalak grew impatient. “Can you move things with your mind?” he demanded.

Lyra smiled. The image showed her horn glowing as her hooves changed into mint green hands.

“What is this nonsense? Show me how you move objects with your mind!” 

Tomalak’s face was close enough to Lyra’s to breathe on her. She coughed from his horrible breath as the image changed again to show the subject at a shop in a market. The shop appeared to be selling various nick-nacks and sculptures. She pointed one of them, a sculpture of two hands reaching up toward the sky.

The admiral jerked Lyra’s chair angrily. “This specimen is obviously defective. We’ll need to get another one.”

As the pony went to pay for the artwork, instead of reaching into her bag, its horn glowed again with the same aura. Several coins floated up from her bag, landing in the shopkeeper's open hoof.

“What about her horn, sir?” the other officer commented.

“What about it?” 

“Did you notice how it glowed in the images every time she manipulated something?”

“And?”

“Well sir, couldn’t the ‘ability’ the Enterprise captain spoke of be related to that ‘aura’ that surrounded her horn each time?”

“Are you suggesting we’re somehow dealing with magical ponies that use their horns to change feet into hands and pull change from their purses?” he answered mockingly.

“Of course not sir, but it is possible that the horn can produce some form of energy that somehow manipulates matter.”

Tomalak rolled his eyes at that comment. “I’m going to humor your thought for the moment. You’re going to find out if this pony actually can perform ‘magic’. And if she cannot, you will be put into that device until you honestly believe you can fly and jump out the nearest air lock! Are we clear?”

The officer gulped. “I will be find the truth, sir; no more, no less.”

“That’s the most intelligent thing you’ve said to me all day – Get to work.”

“Yes sir!”





“Good Morning, Bon-Bon,” said Octavia, yawning softly. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Morning,” Bon-Bon replied, minus the qualifier. So far, it had not been a good morning. “Have you seen Lyra anywhere? We were supposed to go to the beach together, but she seems to have run off somewhere.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t seen her this morning. Perhaps the other one might know…”

Bon-Bon noticed the dark red circles under Octavia’s eyes. She was probably kept awake again by her partner.

As if on queue, Vinyl Scratch popped up yelling, “WHAT UP EGGBEATAH!!!!?”

Octavia’s hooves were holding her ears, annoyed, until they suddenly switched to her backside. Very red-faced and angry, she shouted at Vinyl in a whisper. “Hooves! I’ve told you before!” 

Bon-Bon pretended to see nothing. “Hey Vinyl. Have you seen Lyra today?”

“You looking for Minty-Mamma?” she replied.

Bon-Bon still had trouble translating everything Vinyl said. “Erm… yes… I think.

“Let me hook you up. Hold on…”

Vinyl ran off to the second floor of the house.

Bon-Bon was hopeful for a moment. Maybe Lyra spent the night hanging out with Vinyl. That thought quickly disappeared when she noticed the roof of the house opening. The entire roof was parting down the middle and spreading open like a cardboard box.

Octavia was still standing in the doorway, but could read the reaction on Bon-Bon’s face. “Oh, not again,” she sighed. She quickly grabbed two pairs of ear muffs and put one of them on. She handed the other to Bon-Bon. “You may want to put these on.”

“Why would I need…” 

Her question was answered for her as a massive phonograph horn, nearly the size of the entire roof, emerged from within the house. She quickly put on her pair of ear muffs just before the world was drowned in Wubs. 

Wub-Step vibrated across the town. Anyone who might have still been sleeping most definitely was not anymore. After an agonizing twenty seconds of ‘music’ blaring, Vinyl lowered the volume and spoke through the horn. 

“Yo, what-up Ponyvillians! We gots a MIA out da house. You catch Minty-Momma Lyles around, be sure to tell the Bons! Peace out!”

The music finally stopped completely. When Octavia removed her ear protection, Bon-Bon assumed it was now safe to do so.

Vinyl popped back up at the front door. “She’ll get ya, no probs!”

“Erm… Thank you?” said Bon-Bon uncertainly.

Ocatavia added, “I’ll be sure to let you know if I see her.” 

“Thank you.”

“Yo, Octo-moms! Let’s get out your fiddle and get in a duo round.”

Octavia’s grew beet red. “It’s not a fiddle…” she mumbled. Turning back to Bon-Bon she said, “Good luck in your search.”

“Thanks.”

Octavia closed the door. Walking away, Bon-Bon could hear strange sounds coming from behind the door. 

Walking more quickly, she thought, “I don’t hear anything; I didn’t see anything; I see nothing…NOTHING!!!”

She glanced around the neighborhood, looking for anyone who might have an idea where Lyra could have run off to. She walked around town asking a few passersby, but nobody seemed to have seen her. Finally, she wandered across a mailbox that read, ‘Whooves’. She looked at the house, which was nothing more than a small blue box. 

Realizing it was Dr. Whooves’s place, Bon-Bon figured he might have at least an idea where to look for Lyra.

She walked up to the tiny structure and knocked on the door. It took a few moments, and Bon-Bon could hear sounds like someone tripping over metal equipment in a rush. When he answered the door, he seemed out of breath.

“ ’Ello!” he said. “What can I do you for?”

Bon-Bon blushed slightly. She always did love his Trottingham accent.

“Yes, hi. Doctor, have you seen Lyra anywhere?”

“Oh is that was that Vinyl was going on about? I thought she was looking for Mint Chocolate Bon-Bons.”

“No. Lyra and I were supposed to go to the beach today, but she wasn’t home when I got up this morning.”

“Is that right? You don’t suppose she got caught up in a time vortex and got kidnapped by aliens made of plastic, do you?”

“What? No, of course not.”

“Pity.”

“Do you know where she could have gone?” she asked.

“Well, I suppose it’s possible she could have slipped into another dimension in her sleep. Does your tongue feel like it’s made of chocolate?”

“Um… no.”

“Again… pity.” 

His accent wasn’t saving him from his outlandish behavior.

“Look, just tell me if you see her anywhere, okay?”

“Roger! I shall scan the timelines for you!”

He started to go back into his box.

Bon-Bon’s curiosity got the better of her. “Isn’t your home a bit small?” she asked.

“Oh it’s bigger on the inside! Allons-y!”

He closed the door. 

“Well that was pointless,” she thought, rolling her eyes.

Bon-Bon turned around, trying to scout where she should search next. At once she heard a beyond-bizarre sound coming from right behind her. She froze in place. When she managed to move again, she carefully turned back around to see the source of such a frightening sound. She just managed to catch a glimpse of the blue box vanishing from sight.

“Today has been a very strange day, so far.”





Lyra slowly drifted back to consciousness.

“Where am I?” she said, dazed. 

Looking around, she found herself sitting under a piercing white light surrounded by darkness. In the corner of the room she could just make out some small lights blinking behind a shadow. The shadow spoke.

“Welcome, pony,” it said.

The shadow slowly approached her, standing on two legs. As it stepped into the light, Lyra could make out the five digits attached to a palm. For a moment, Lyra got excited.

“Are you the humans?” she asked, hopeful. She hadn’t taken her eyes off of the stranger’s hands. It wasn’t until it was inches from her nose that the stranger’s face drew her attention away.

“Perish the thought!” he replied bitterly.

Now that Lyra could make out his face, she could see it most definitely was not the humans she met previously. From the pointy ears, to the ridges in its forehead, to the expression on its face, he did not seem very nice. “Maybe he's a human monster,” she thought.

“What do you want?” she asked, nervously. She tried to stand up but found her legs bound to a chair. “Let me go!” she demanded, growing more frightened.

“I will… once you show me your special talents.”

Lyra felt confused. “All this for a performance? Okay… I’ll need a lyre and some sheet music.”

The stranger seemed agitated. “Not those talents!” he yelled. “I want you to use the talents in your head!”

Again, Lyra looked quizzically back at the man. “Okay… la La LA lA la la laaaaa…” she sang.

“NOOO!!!” the man screamed angrily. “Show me your MAGIC!” 

Lyra wasn’t sure why the man seemed to say ‘magic’ as though it were a bad word. “What would you like me to do?”

“Anything! Just do it!” he screamed.

Lyra shrugged. She thought for a minute, and got an idea. Her horn glowed with a mint green aura, just like her fur.”

“Yes! That’s it. Show me your talents.”

Lyra lifted up a piece of equipment from behind the man. She swung it around until it collided with his head. The man fell to the ground unconscious. Lyra quickly used her magic to teleport herself out of the constraints. 

She was just about to leave the room when the door opened for her. Standing behind it was another one of those creatures. This one seemed much more intimidating than the first. He started to clap. 

“Well done!” said Tomalak. “Well done, indeed.” He gestured his hand behind him and waved for several guards to fill the room. They quickly grabbed her.

“LET ME GO!!!” she screamed. She tried to teleport again. Her horn glowed and she closed her eyes for the jump.

*ZAP*

The pony collapsed to the floor unconscious again.

“Get her to the surgical wing,” Tomalak instructed the guards. “Inform the doctor we will need to extract this creature’s horn for further study.”

The guards bowed slightly before dragging the unconscious pony out of the room.

“Looks like they can do a lot more than just move objects around,” Tomalak noted with a hint of excitement under his breath. 





Most of the day had already passed. The beach trip they had planned together was no longer possible. Bon-Bon had searched everywhere she could think of: the market, the spa, the bakery... She even asked the mayor, but it didn't help. Nobody had seen Lyra once that day.

Her last hope was Princess Twilight Sparkle, if she would see her. When Bon-Bon reached the library, a sign hanging in the window dismissed her last hope before she could even knock:

“The library is closed. I am currently performing my royal duties in Canterlot. Please see the mayor for any troubles you wish to resolve.”

“I just came from the mayor’s!” Bon-Bon thought bitterly.

That’s it then. Lyra wasn’t anywhere in town. Bon-Bon was now very concerned for her friend. She went to bed last night with Lyra in the room right next to hers. Had she left in the middle of the night? If so, why? 

Bon-Bon wandered aimlessly until she found herself just outside Fluttershy’s cottage on the border of the Ever-Free forest. She wasn’t sure why she was there, but maybe she thought Fluttershy’s critters might cheer her up a bit. She grabbed some feed and let some of the animals eat out of her hooves. It cheered her up a little, but Celestia was retiring the Sun, Luna was raising the moon. Nighttime was drawing nearer, and Lyra was still nowhere to be found.

Out of the corner of her eye, a green light flashed near the forest. Bon-Bon looked over at the source, but it was already dark again. She tried to focus until she could just make out a small mint green shape...

“LYRA!!!!!” she screamed, racing over to her friend, who lay unconscious upon the ground.

The Unicorn was out cold, bundled into a ball. It wasn’t until Bon-Bon had lifted her up in her hooves that she noticed. She gasped loudly. Lyra’s horn was completely gone.

Lyra stirred back to consciousness.

“Wh-where am I?” she asked.

“It’s okay,” said Bon-Bon, still holding her in her hooves. “You’ll be okay.”

“What happened?

“That’s what I was going to ask you. Where did you run off to?”

“I-I don’t know. Last thing I remember was going to sleep in my bed.” 

She reached up to rub her forehead, but Bon-Bon stopped her.

“Don’t!” she said sternly. “There’s something I need to tell you...”
> The Best Laid Plans...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Best Laid Plans…

Apple Family Farm… Twenty-one hours remain until Borg arrival:

“What do you mean you’re staying?” asked Rainbow Dash, confused.

“I mean, we ain’t goin’ nowhere!” Applejack explained.

“But you heard the princess’s orders. Ponyville is being evacuated!”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack were arguing at the entrance to the Apple farm. They had arrived in town to begin the evacuation of Ponyville, but when Applejack heard her family was staying behind, she knew what she had to do.

“Well, no pony or Borg is gonna kick me and the rest of the Apple family outta our home!”

“You heard the princess. Anypony remaining is likely to be captured by these things! They need to get to Canterlot!” 

“Nothin’ doin’!”

While Rainbow and Applejack argued back and forth, the rest of the Apple family was busy at work battening down the hatches and gearing up to defend their homes.

“Listen, Rainbow. I need to go an’ help my family. Tell Twilight I’m sorry, but I need to stay and protect them.

“Applejack!” Apple Bloom ran up to the pair.

“I’ll be right there, Apple Bloom. I’m just finishing explaining to Rainbow here that I’m staying with my family.”

“Applejack, we need you,” Rainbow pleaded.

“I said no!”

“Applejack?” Apple Bloom called softly.

“Not now, ‘lil sis.”

“Applejack!” she persisted.

“What do you want?”

“Applejack, you have to go!”

“What’re you talkin’ about? I’m staying right here an’ protecting my family!”

“You can’t protect us here. If you want to protect us, you gotta go with Rainbow Dash!”

“But what about the farm? What about you?”

“We’ll save the farm. You go save everypony else.”

“Eeyup!” Big Mac concurred, joining the conversation. “You better git going there, Applejack.”

“Big Mac…”

Applejack was torn. She needed to stay with her friends, but she also needed to protect her family. “Will y’all be okay without me?”

Big Mac nodded, but said nothing.

Apple Bloom ran up and hugged her big sister. “Good luck!” she said.

“You too,” Applejack replied with a tear in her eye. She let go of the hug and turned back to Rainbow. “We better git back to Princess Twilight then.”





Ponyville… Twenty hours remain until Borg arrival:

Bon-Bon knocked gently on Lyra’s door. “Are you ready Lyra? We need to get to the train soon.”

She couldn’t hear any sounds coming through the door. Bon-Bon gently opened the door and peered in. Lyra was sitting on her bed with her head down. A hat covered her now blank forehead. She was crying silently to herself.

“Lyra…” Bon-Bon walked in and sat down next her friend. It was awkward for her to sit with her front legs up and her rear ones on the ground, but Lyra always felt more comfortable sitting that way. She put one of her hooves around Lyra’s shoulders.

“It’ll be okay. There are dozens of Archmages and highly skilled Unicorns in Canterlot. When this ‘Borg’ thing is resolved, I’m sure one of them will be able to fix this. Maybe Princess Twilight will be able to look at it. She can do anything!”

Lyra sobbed and nodded. She leaned into Bon-Bon rested her head on her friend’s chest. “I just don’t want to be seen like this. I’ve never felt so… useless.”

“You know I’m an Earth Pony, right?” said Bon-Bon, smiling. “Trust me. Magic is a nice tool and can do many things, but it’s not the only thing in life. You’ll see. C’mon, let’s get you packed and ready.”





Canterlot Palace Courtyard… Fourteen hours remain until Borg arrival:

“The last time I encountered the Red Guard, they fought with no honor!” Lieutenant Commander Worf spoke aloud.

The newly re-formed Red Guard stood lined at attention, facing the commander. Even the new captain of the guard stood in the line. 

“When you fight for your land and for your people, you fight with honor! These Borg are powerful foes and will stop at nothing until each and every one of your friends and family are made into one of them. However! They are not invincible. They can be defeated. We have engaged them in battle before, and we have defeated them. 

“Their only drive is the assimilation of species and technology that make them stronger. In my hands is a plasma rifle. It is a weapon from our ship and a powerful piece of technology. When it is fired at a Borg drone, it will fall, but not before transmitting all the information about this weapon to the other drones. When I fire a second time, the weapon is useless. The Borg will have adapted.

“That is the enemy we face. Every tool, every weapon, every plan, can only be used one or two times before they will adapt, and it will no longer be effective. That is why those of you who possess magical abilities are forbidden to use them under ANY circumstances. If the Borg gain the knowledge behind your abilities, they will adapt and be able to use that same knowledge against you. We must face them with new weapons, new tools, new plans… We must make sure that they are defeated here and now!”

“HOORRAHHH!!!” the line shouted.

“Captain, delegate the troops around the castle. Pass out the BFG weapons and remember: These are only to be used against large groups when there is no other alternative. Assign the patrols and rotate shifts regularly. In fourteen hours, I want all shifts present and available.”

“YES SIR!!!” The captain saluted. He stepped forward and turned toward the line. He issued the orders to each of the divisions to prepare for battle.





Canterlot Palace Throne Room… Twelve hours remain until Borg arrival:

“Based on my calculations, only fifty-four percent of the planet’s population will be able to fit within the city and only thirty-seven percent will have arrived before the Borg are expected to arrive,” Lieutenant Commander Data reported. “It is lucky that your population is so small as to fit so high a percentage in its capital.”

“You call saving only thirty-seven percent of my people ‘lucky’?” asked Princess Celestia, bitterly. 

“I meant no offense,” he replied. “I was merely trying to establish a strategy for evacuation that would maximize our efforts, while understanding the size of acceptable losses.”

“THERE ARE NO ACCEPTABLE LOSSES!!!!!”

“Understood. Then might I recommend, rather than attempting to have all of your people evacuate to the city, we have them evacuate to rural regions in small groups. While losses are unacceptable, please keep in mind, they may also be unavoidable, and it is best to limit them where possible.”

“You’re not human are you?” the princess asked, suspiciously.

“No. I’m an android.”

“Android… I remember seeing a movie when I was a little filly about androids, though that was over two thousand years ago… So you’re a walking, talking machine?”

“That assessment would be correct, but only in the most literal sense. I am actually a higher-functioning computer capable of processing several billion instructions per second. I am capable of independent thought and endeavor to become more human.”

“Fascinating, I’m sure, but could you show a little more heart in discussing the possibility of my people being killed?”

“I do not possess a heart, but I do have an emotion chip installed which allows me to experience emotions. However, in times that require a more logical approach to a difficult situation, I find the emotions to be distracting. It is currently deactivated.”

“That distraction is called a conscience. It is a necessary part of difficult decision making, and I suggest you RE-activate it.”

“Yes, Ma’am…” Data twitched his head. “…Done.”

“Now then, we were discussing how to save each and every one of my people...”





Romulan Warbird Haakona… Eleven hours remain until Borg arrival:

“What’s your progress?” Admiral Tomalak inquired, entering the laboratory.

“We’ve learned the horn is absorbing an unknown particle from the surroundings,” said the Romulan scientist. “We haven’t been able to detect the particle itself, but we can witness the effects caused by its buildup.”

“Explain.”

The scientist activated a device that held the Unicorn horn enclosed within. A humming sound could be heard and the horn started to glow.

“You may want to stand back a bit, Sir.”

Tomalak moved away from the device behind the scientist. The horn glowed brighter and brighter until the entire room was bathed in mint green light.

The light erupted forth from the horn into the wall in front of them. The wall didn’t explode or burn. It disappeared. It completely vanished, exposing the lab to the outer hallway.

“What just happened?” ask Tomalak, a nervous excitement pulsing through his veins.

“The matter that makes up the wall has been rearranged so that it no longer interferes with this plane of existence. It has been rendered out-of-phase.”

“Can this be weaponized?” the admiral asked, greedily.

“Absolutely. I need to run some more tests on its effects on shielding, but we may be able to remove a ship’s shields, rendering the hull vulnerable, or possibly even removing a segment of the hull, resulting in a breach.”

“Wonderful. When the Borg are defeated, we can deliver this new technology to the Romulan Senate. This may very well be the ticket I need to become the next Praetor!”





U.S.S. Enterprise… Ten hours remain until Borg arrival:

“Report Commander,” Captain Picard ordered entering onto the bridge.

Commander Riker relinquished the Captain’s Chair and took his seat alongside it.

“All ships but one have arrived,” he answered. “The U.S.S. Magellan is overdue and out of contact.”

“Keep an ear out for them in case they make it. In the mean time, how is the defense perimeter looking?”

“The defense perimeter has been established, and advanced warning buoys have been placed. If Twilight Sparkle’s timeline was accurate, then they should become visible on our sensors in six hours and arrive four hours after that.”

“Excellent. Open a channel to the fleet.”

“Channel open, Sir,” said the ensign seated in Data’s chair.

“This is Captain Picard. When the Borg arrive, we will target the vulnerable area of the cube. After my last encounter at the Battle of Sector 001, they have no doubt relocated their plasma exhaust manifold, among other things. I will assess the cube and determine which area to focus our attack. Until then, focus all fire on their weapons platforms. The Borg will be able to repair them, but this could buy us the time we need to successfully destroy the cube. We’ll keep you informed of all developments. Picard out.”

“Sir, the buoys are picking up something on sensors,” the ensign announced.

“Is that the Magellan coming in?” Picard asked.

“No sir. The sensors are picking up Borg Signatures. It’s definitely a Borg Cube.” 

“Alright. It looks like our dinner guests are arriving earlier than expected. Go to Red Alert and send word to the fleet. We’ve got four hours left to prepare.”

The sound of Red Alert rang through the ship as the red lights flashed along the walls.

“Um…actually, Sir…” the ensign squeaked turning a mixed shade of grey and green.

“What is it, Ensign?”

“The Borg are accelerating their speed. They’ll be here in two hours.”

“Fine. Send word we’ve got two hou–”

“Sir…” he interrupted.

“What is it now?”

“It’s not just one cube.”

Picard swallowed hard. “How many are there?”

“Sir… there are three Borg Cubes headed this way.”


> The Quest For Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Quest for Darkness

Canterlot, Twenty-five minutes after the Borg reached the defensive perimeter…

“Worf to Enterprise,” Lieutenant Commander Worf tried once again to reach the ship from the throne room. Silence was the only reply.

After the Enterprise’s transmission that they had engaged the Borg, there had not been a single update into how the battle was progressing. A sinking feeling was steadily growing in Worf’s stomach. He tightened his grip on his bat’leth.

“It has been sufficient time without contact to assume the battle has not gone well,” Lieutenant Commander Data informed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who remained by her sister’s side after retiring the moon.

Princess Luna gulped audibly.

Princess Celestia held a tight poker face. She knew if the Enterprise and the other ships assisting them were defeated, they stood little chance of success there on the ground.

“Alert the soldiers!” she announced, her sharp words echoing loudly along the walls of the throne room. “Battle is imminent!”

Data shifted his feet slightly, something he had never done before. 

“Your highness,” he started. He looked down at his hand and realized it was shaking slightly.

“Yes, Commander?”

“I know you requested that my emotion chip be reactivated, but I am currently suffering a 12.8% decrease in my cognitive capabilities as I experience the emotional sensations of anxiety, fear, and anticipation. It would be wise to deactivate the processor until the situation is resolved.”

“Data, I explained to you before. Fear doesn’t always bring the most logical judgment, but it tests the makings of a true being. If you wish to be a computer, then switch yourself off, because I don’t need you.”

Data looked at the princess curiously. “It is still my desire to become more human.”

“Then leave that chip active, Commander. Make the best judgments you can, and listen to your gut when it tells you something.”

“I do not possess any processing capability in my ‘gut’, but I believe I understand your use of symbolism.”

“Good. Now then, Twilight: have all of your friends returned yet?”

“Rainbow Dash and Applejack are the last to come back. Their train is pulling into the station as we speak.”

“Very well, go and collect them and bring them back. We must be at our strongest if these creatures should–”

Green light emanated around the throne room. Four Borg drones appeared directly inside the room, right next to Princess Celestia.

Data was the first respond using his modified phaser. He fired at two of the drones, who both collapsed to the floor. 

Worf fired his in sequence, taking down another one, but the fourth had adapted. The phaser fire merely impacted on the drone’s green shielding, causing no damage. But the bat’leth sticking out of his chest finished the job well.

“The invasion has begun!” shouted Worf. “We need to relocate the princesses immediately!” 

Another ten drones beamed in. 

Worf swung at the first. Data kept trying to modify his phaser in rapid sequence to prevent adaptability. The royal guards charged at the drones with their spears. Twilight, unable to use her magic, saw the drones were targeting Celestia. She charged at them head on – horn out, but two drones had already latched onto the princess. They beamed away with her in hand.

“SISTER!!!!” Luna shouted, not entirely sure what had happened. 

The Borg fighting Worf in turn beamed away, followed by the one closing in on Data. Finally the drones lying on the floor disappeared. The room was quiet again with no signs of struggle. It almost looked as though nothing had transpired, except the leader of Equestria was now missing.

“What has happened!?” Luna demanded. “Where have they taken our sister? Why did they cease their attack?”

Data tapped his communicator pin. “All security teams report the situation.”

“Security team 1, nothing to report in Canterlot.”

“Security team 2, nothing to report in Ponyville.”

“Security team 3, nothing to report in Manehattan.”

…

“All security teams have reported no other incursions with the Borg,” Data reported to the group. “This stands to reason that the Borg were deliberately seeking to capture Princess Celestia.”

“But why?” asked Twilight, tears forming in her eyes.

“A logical assumption would be to assume that, since they became aware of the powers possessed by your people, they have also learned of your former advanced technological status. As a result, they acquired the only known specimen old enough to have sufficient scientific knowledge of the monoceros particle. From this, we can ascertain that they have halted their attack while they assimilate this new information.”

“But that would mean…” said Luna, trailing off.

“Correct, it is likely the Borg will soon be able to harness the power of the particle and use it to complete the invasion and assimilation of Equestria.”

Worf growled angrily, striking his blade through a wooden table, splitting it clean in half.

“What can we do now?” Twilight asked. “Can we go after them?”

“That would be impossible without a ship. The only ship on this planet at present is the ship which your future self piloted to contact us originally. I am afraid that particular vessel is incapable of defending itself against one Borg cube, let alone three.”

“WE ARE ABLE!!!” Princess Luna shouted angrily in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“I am not sure I understand what you are implying,” said Data.

“WE ARE ABLE TO REACH THE HEAVENS!!! WE SHALL GO AND SAVE OUR SISTER!!!”

“I’m afraid that would be a futile attempt. There is no means that I am aware that would allow you to succeed in rescuing your sister.

“OUR TASK IS GREAT, BUT ONCE BEFORE, WE POSSESSED THE POWER NEEDED TO SAVE OUR SISTER. WE SHALL POSSESS IT ONCE MORE!!!”

Twilight had a sudden realization. “Wait! You can’t mean you’re going to…”

“YES, TWILIGHT SPARKLE! WE WILL GO TO THE PLACE THAT ROUGHT THE FIRST DESTRUCTION OF EQUESTRIA AND HARNESS IT FOR THE GREATER GOOD!!!”

“You can’t! I won’t let you turn back into her!” Twilight yelled. “Nightmare Moon is Evil!”

Luna coughed until her throat cleared. In a much softer tone she spoke again. “Young, Twilight, the power which possessed us so long ago once held the power to do great good. It was we which were so corrupted by its power that we became the villain known as Nightmare Moon. With thy help, we believe thou can maintain the good in us.”

“But how can I possibly help? We had to use the Elements of Harmony to stop you before!”

“And that is exactly how thou shall protect us now.”

Twilight looked highly uncertain.

“Gather thy friends and meet in the courtyard. Our quest begins!”

Twilight turned slowly away from Princess Luna. She looked from Data to Worf.

Worf quickly offered, “If you are journeying on a quest that will involve danger, allow me to join your party!” He held up his blade.

“No, Worf,” said Twilight. “Please stay here and protect this city. You are the most learned in the battle strategy and we need you here for when the Borg return.”

Worf looked a little disappointed, but accepted the role. “I will lead with honor!”

“Good.” Twilight looked to the guards, who were less then helpful in protecting the princess. “You will all follow Lieutenant Commander Worf’s leadership. That is my order.”

“And our order as well!” Luna concurred.

All the guards bowed low in compliance. They were ashamed of their inability to protect the princess.

Twilight left the room to collect her friends.

By the time everypony had gathered in the courtyard, Princess Luna had arrived and started to think, pacing in a circle. Pinkie Pie thought she was playing a game and started to pace in a circle as well.

“Whatcha trying to do, Princess?” Applejack asked.

“We are trying to remember how to get to the Reflecting Pool of Eternal Darkness.”

Fluttershy shuddered in fear, “E-E-Eternal D-D-Darkness!?” she tried to run away, but rainbow had already placed her hoof on Fluttershy’s tail. Fluttershy struggled to break free in vain, until she eventually gave in.

“It was so long ago that we stumbled upon this place. We were but a filly then. It was the first time we had ever teleported. At the time t’was our desire to break free of our new life in the palace. We wanted escape. I wanted to be left alone.”

Twilight noticed the sudden change in Luna’s vocabulary, but didn’t say anything. Luna closed her eyes and concentrated.

“I wish to go to a place where I cannot be found,” she announced inside her mind.

Luna’s horn glowed starry blue and its aura wrapped around the entire group. It twisted around them at a dizzying speed until, all together, they vanished from the courtyard.

When Luna opened her eyes, she found herself in a dark forest. So much had changed in two thousand years. Not a single tree remained from that time.

“Did we make it?” Pinkie asked, looking around curiously. “I don’t see any pools.”

Twilight tried to see if she could figure out where she was, but could not find one landmark to guide her.

Luna looked around again and again, she had a feeling she was in the right place, but had no idea which way to go from there.

“I think it’s this way,” she said, pointing off into the darker side of the jungle.

The ponies followed the princess down the path. Shortly followed by running back into the lighter area desperately trying to remove the spider webs they all walked into. The spider who spun the intricate web was very upset when they barreled through its creation.

“I-I guess it wasn’t that way after all…” said Luna. She looked down at the ground guiltily.

“It’s okay, Princess,” said Twilight. “Try to remember how you found it last time.”

“The last time I was here, a voice called out to me. It told me where to go.”

“Try to listen,” Twilight instructed. “Maybe that voice still calls would be visitors.”

Luna nodded and closed her eyes. Her ears twitched in every direction, listening carefully. She could here the rustle of the anxious Applejack’s hooves; the flapping of Rainbow Dash’s wings; the banging of the large base drum by Pinkie Pie.

Luna opened one eye to see Twilight yelling at Pinkie. Luna smiled slightly, before closing her eyes and concentrating again. Just below a whisper, a soft voice called out to her.

“Follow…” it said.

“This way!” she said, heading towards the source of the voice. As she came closer, the voice grew louder.

“Follow…”

“I can hear it!” cried Pinkie.

“I can as well,” said Rarity.

Fluttershy squeaked in terror. “Who said that?” she demanded.

“It is the voice of the well,” Luna answered. It is what drew to this place when I was young.

They continued to follow the voice as it called out again and again, growing louder as they approached. It wasn’t long before they arrived at the reflecting pool, at which point, the voice completely stopped. The pool was square with four great pillars on each corner. Strange writing was littered about them. Silence hung in the air above the pool.

“Wow!” Rainbow commented looking around at the scene. 

Fluttershy followed, but mostly because she was locked hoof-in-hoof with Rainbow from fright.

Pinkie was already trying to see what was so special about the water.

“Do not look into the well!” Luna spoke out, causing Pinkie to jump back.

“Sorry!” she said, blushing.

Twilight was more interested in the writing. “I think I’ve seen this writing before,” she said.

“How could you have?” asked Luna. “No pony has been here in a thousand years!”

Twilight looked more carefully at the etchings. “I’ve seen this in the Canterlot library.”

“But how is that possible?” asked Luna.

“This is the writing of the Ancients,” she explained. “I once read a book on ancient mythology. It described a race of ponies unlike anything we have ever seen. The only times they’ve ever been mentioned are in old pony tales passed down for generations. I always just thought it was all a hoax, like BigHoof!”

“BigHoof’s real!” shouted Pinkie. 

“When my sister first discovered the Elements of Harmony,” Luna recanted, “we were inside a cavern that contained writing that moved. It explained the legacy of an ancient race that was defeated by a great evil. The Elements were their last hope, and they failed… But that writing was very different. It was more drawing then writing.”

Twilight tried to translate some of the symbols. She read aloud, “Here lies … soul … darkness… stole the light… spell hold trapped… return… darkness eternal.”

Twilight put the pieces together. “What if they didn’t fail?” she offered. Luna looked at her curiously. “What if the writing to find the elements was found by somepony and used to vanquish the evil that was spoken of and that imprisoned that evil here with writing to serve as a warning to stay away?”

“I suppose that is possible,” said Luna. She gazed at the black water which currently only reflected the ceiling of the forest. She closed her eyes to prepare herself.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Luna?” asked Twilight. The other ponies watched in awe as the princess prepared to resume her role as one of Equestria’s most powerful villains.

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “We are sure!” she said confidentally, renewing her prior tongue. “Art thou ready?”

Twilight placed her crown upon her head. As she did so, the other ponies followed suit and dawned their own Elements of Harmony. Twilight received confirmations that everpony was ready.

“Good luck, Princess Luna!” said Twilight as her horn started to glow. 

At once all six ponies’ necklaces glowed brightly as they synced with Twilight’s. Their combined magical aura enveloped Princess Luna, lifting her off the ground. The Alicorn hovered directly over the reflecting pool. Luna opened her eyes, gazing into her reflection. But it was not her reflection, but that of Nightmare Moon’s. Luna concentrated hard with her sister deep within her thoughts.

“Lower me!” she said confidently.

The aura protecting Luna lowered her down into the well. After a few seconds, Twilight lifted the princess back out of the water, but Luna was gone. 

Nightmare Moon rose high from the water. Tall and sleek with her violet armor an elongated horn, her fur turned blacker than the night. Nightmare Moon laughed maniacally. 

“Well, well, well, look who we have here, ha ha! I have returned my little ponies!” she boasted. “And now, I will deliver this land unto darkness, once and for all!”
> Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aftermath

“Mua ha ha! I have returned!” the Alicorn boasted. “Now, I will deliver this land into darkness, once and for all!!!”

Nightmare Moon's eyes glowed white. Dark clouds emanated from beneath her. Lightning flashed together with loud claps of thunder. Her evil laughter rolled with the sounds of the thunder. 

Five ponies looked from one to the other, not sure what they should do. Twilight's focus remained trained on the "Harbinger of Darkness". 

“You are under our control, Nightmare Moon. You are bound to the Elements of Harmony! You will help us!”

Nightmare Moon laughed maniacally again, before turning into a heavy cough. The glow in her eyes faded as her expression softened. Through her eyes, Princess Luna could be seen, even through the powerful outward appearance of Nightmare Moon.

“Heh, heh,” she giggled slightly. “Just kidding…”

Twilight blinked. “Did you really just make… a joke?”

“Ahem, well. It was too easy not to,” said Luna, blushing.

Pinkie was the first to smile back. “That was the most stupendous, wonderful prank anypony has ever pulled! Way to go, Princess!”

Twilight thought it was also possibly the most inopportune and inappropriate time for Luna to be experimenting with her inner-pony, but she let it slide.

“Princess Luna,” she said, in a more dignified tone, trying to return their focus to the task at hoof, “how do you feel?”

“We feel well enough,” said Luna replying in kind. “We possess the power of Nightmare Moon, yet remain in control thanks to the Elements of Harmony.”

“Good,” said Twilight. “We better get back to the castle, before anything else happens. Can you transport us back from here?”

“We can,” said Luna her magic starting to circle around the entire group. 

“Thou shall never do such a thing again!” Luna thought to herself, as the spell built around everypony.

“But why?” said another voice, deep within her mind. “You trusted us once before… Why do you not wish to do so again?”

“Thou hath deceived us in the past. We shall never fall prey to thy silver tongues again!”

“We have never deceived you. You came to us all those years ago. You wished for our help: help to be big and strong; help to be more powerful than your sibling; help to become the most influential pony in all of Equestria! It was us who made you who you are! It was you who asked us to make it happen!”

“That was in ages past, and we were naught but a scared little filly then. We are no longer so young and foolish, and this time, we have our friends to protect us!

“Your  friends, maybe. You claim not to seek our help, yet here we stand again. We can help you in your quest… but we shall require complete control. That is the only way with which you can succeed.

“Never. We will use your powers to aid in our task, but we shall not fall victim to thy will ever again. The Elements of Harmony will shield us from thou!

“The Elements of Harmony protect you for now, but their power won’t last forever… Soon you will be forced to make a choice. And that choice will be us!”

“Never!” Luna accidentally whispered aloud.

“Everything alright there, princess?” asked Applejack.

The other ponies all noticed the spell was taking unusually long to cast. They were staring at Luna curiously.

“Oh, nothing!” she replied, refocusing her efforts on the spell.

The spell finished enveloping the group and whisked them back to the palace courtyard…





 Just outside the Equestrian solar system, one hour thirty-five minutes after the Borg breached the defensive perimeter…

“Damage report!” Commander Riker yelled, rubbing his head. He ignored the blood dripping from it.

“Hull breaches on C Deck and G Deck!” an ensign reported. “Communications are still offline. The left nacelle is venting plasma and is beyond repair.”

“What about the right one,” the commander demanded.

“Still functional… barely. 

“Bridge to Commander LaForge,” said Riker into his communicator pin.

“LaForge here.”

“How soon can we go to warp?”

“Sir, I can’t guarantee more than warp one or two at the moment, and I would highly recommend against it. The current damage to the hull would tear the ship apart at warp. We need to seal off those compartments first.”

“What about shields?” 

“Shields are running on emergency power only. The warp core is currently sealed until we can vent the radiation around it. I should hopefully have shields back up to forty percent within two hours.”

“Stay on top of it, Geordi. Riker out.” He closed the channel. Opening a new one, he said, “Bridge to medical bay. How’s the captain?”

Within the chaos that was the medical bay, bodies lined one side, and the dying lined the other. A dozen different nurses and volunteers were running franticly trying to treat as many people as possible. 

“It doesn’t look good, Will,” said Dr. Crusher. 

The captain was already in the surgical chamber. The doctor was attempting to stimulate his neural functions.

“Will, his neural cortex is not responding to any treatments. There’s minimal activity. There may be nothing I can do.”

Riker could hear the pain in the doctor’s tone of voice. He knew the situation was grim, but at such a critical time, he could not allow weakness to be seen in the eyes of the crew. He needed them to perform their duties without excess fear. He opened a ship-wide channel.

“As of now, I am assuming command as acting captain. With the captain incapacitated and unable to perform his duties, I am setting our priority on shields and communication. We need to locate all ships that managed to escape and assist each other in repairs. We must regroup as soon as possible with a new plan of attack.”

Closing the channel again and opening a third one, Riker ordered, “Q to the bridge!” 





“Locutus…” a strange voice whispered out into the darkness. 

Picard opened his eyes into nothing. Everything was black. The only thing he could discern with his eyes was a black fog surrounding him. As the fog slowly drifted apart, more of his surroundings started coming into focus. 

He was standing, or at least he thought he was standing, in a vast empty room. The only light to be found was coming out of a far away corner of the room. The light appeared to be dancing around a dark shadow. It’s outline slowly took shape as it approached the captain.

“Locutus…”

“Who knows that name?” Picard called out. “That is not my name! I am Captain Jean-Luc Pic–” 

“Really, Locutus… You do not recognize our voice?”

“Princess Celestia?” asked the captain, recognizing her voice, but something was different.

“I suppose you could call me that… though my status has changed, somewhat… I guess you could call me… Queen Celestus… of Borg.”

Picard’s eyes narrowed sharply. Through the fog, the figure in the light took shape. When it neared to within a few meters of the captain, the image of Celestia stood before him. However, the princess was no longer the princess that he once knew. Her white silk fur had paled and grayed. Her hair had fallen and frayed and was partially removed from one side. One of her eyes had been replaced with an ocular implant. Princess Celestia stood before Picard as a fully assimilated Borg… but not a drone.

“I see the Borg have chosen you as their new queen?”

“New queen? I am the queen that has always been. I am the ruler of all Borg. I am the Borg.”

“I killed the Borg Queen three hundred years in the past. She no longer exists!” Picard shouted angrily.

“I wondered what became of me… when Earth remained unassimilated in this timeline, I realized you must have somehow defeated me… But did you honestly believe that you could ever truly destroy me?” 

“But the queen was still part organic. I killed her. She is dead. You are nothing but a ghost of her.”

“All Borg are in some way organic. But my conscious thought need not be. So long as the Borg live, I shall live… forever.” 

“Enough of this! Where am I? How are you talking to me?”

“You shall be with us once more, Locutus. Very soon…”

Queen Celestus of Borg turned away from Picard. 

“Wait! You need to know. This venture is pointless! If you succeed, the entire universe will be destroyed! You must not pursue this course of action!”

“I am aware of this possible outcome… and I welcome it,” she said without turning back.

“Why would you destroy yourself? How can that possibly serve to help you?”

Celestus finally looked back at Picard. The smile staring back at him put every nerve in his body on edge.

“When this universe is destroyed, a new one shall arise from the ashes to take its place!” 

Picard could actually see the twinkle in her good eye as she spoke. 

“A universe of nothing but pure perfection! The ultimate goal of the Borg Collective shall at long last be achieved!”

“You can’t do this! We will stop you, no matter what!”

“Your friends are calling you, Locutus. Run to them while you can…”





“Jean-Luc,” spoke the soothing tone of Beverly Crusher’s voice.

The captain opened his eyes. He was staring up into the faces of Will, Beverly, and Discord. 

“How do you feel?” Dr. Crusher asked.

“I…” he started to say. “What’s happened?”

“We lost you for a bit there,” said Commander Riker, patting the captain on the shoulder gently.

“Lost me?”

“Why you were dead, Jean-Luc!” said Discord with a slight glee in his voice. “And I brought you back!”

Picard tried to sit up, but his head was spinning. 

“You need to lie down, Captain,” said the doctor, pushing him gently, until he settled back down.

“What’s the status of the other ships?”

“We’ve heard back from the Defiant, one of the Klingon ships, the Andorians, and the Romulans, Riker listed. “Every one else is either destroyed or disabled. We’ve confirmed the Tecumseh, the Tellarite Freighter, and the other Bird of Prey were destroyed.”

“How soon can we get back in the fight?”

“We’re still making repairs. We’re staying in communication with the other ships, but there’s no way to determine if the invasion of Equestria has started.”

“How did we even escape?” asked the captain, recalling the events of the battle and how badly they became before he was thrown by an explosion on the bridge.

“When the Borg arrived, they smashed through the perimeter without even stopping.”

“I remember that. We chased them to the planet and attempted to disable the lead ship, but… I don’t recall what happened after that.”

“The lead ship took a significant amount of damage, but too many ships were destroyed or disabled before we could take any advantage of it. With our communications down, we were forced to retreat. That’s when one of the Borg missiles impacted into the hull. You were thrown and rendered unconscious. The only thing that saved us was the Borg refused to leave orbit.”

“What? With three cubes, not one left orbit in pursuit?”

“That’s right. Once we reached beyond their weapons range, the attack was over.”

“Celestus will stop at nothing to get what she wants,” the captain commented.

“Celestus, Sir?” asked Riker.

“The new Borg queen contacted me while I was unconscious. The Borg have assimilated Princess Celestia and downloaded the consciousness of the original Borg queen into her mind.”

Dr. Crusher gasped at the news. Riker clenched his jaw.

“We need to save her, Captain,” said Dr. Crusher. “Those ponies depend on her.”

“We will find a way,” said the captain, reassuringly. “In the meantime, what’s the status of the Enterprise?”

Discord had remained silent throughout the recanting of events, but he grew frustrated at being ignored for so long.

He butted in, “Aren’t you going to ask how I saved your life!?”

“No.”

Discord’s face turned a slight red. “Well I’m, going to tell you anyway! I sacrificed five percent of the entire universe, just for you, Captain.”

Picard looked at Discord frowning. “When you say five percent? Do you mean that–” 

“Of course! I had to let go of my hold on the glue that is holding this universe together long enough to bring you back. And I did it by only sacrificing five percent!”

“Q, if your powers are the only thing holding this universe together, than I expressly forbid you to ever use your powers like that again! If you are incapable of holding this universe together, than we will all perish, yourself included! Am I making myself perfectly clear!”

“But Captain, I did it to save your life. See how much I care for you!” Discord’s eyes grew wide and watery, like a puppy being abandoned.

“Q, I want you to never– …" he trailed off in a sigh. "Thank you for saving my life. But don’t ever do that again!”

“Very well, Captain, but it would appear that you owe me one now!” Discord smiled and winked.

“I owe you nothing! You’re the reason for all this in the first place. Never forget that!”

Discord frowned and didn’t reply.

Picard took the opportunity to get back to status information. “Now, what about the package?”

...





Former defensive perimeter, one hour forty minutes after the breach…

The orbit of Equestria was littered with debris. Two starships floated about in ruin, their hulls ripped apart and their engines shattered to pieces. Half of the Tecumseh floated nearby. The Ferengi ship lay intact, but dormant. The Tellerite’s ship could not even be distinguished among the pieces.

At the center of the field of death and destruction lay three massive Borg cubes. One had a large chunk missing from a corner, but its inner workings were fast at work on repairs. The other two ships remained entirely unharmed. The ships lay in waiting, before the invasion was to begin.

Within the confines of the lead cube, through the circuit-covered hallways, with never ending access terminals, conduits, and recharging stations, very few drones were actually even awake. 

Unsure what to do first, a lone Borg drone stood in the middle of one such hallway. She was not sure which way to go, nor how to perform her task when she got there. In a sea of voices, none of which she could even hear, she was alone. Chrysalis had successfully infiltrated the cube.
> Through Uncharted Waters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Through Uncharted Waters

Chrysalis stood in a corridor leading off to an unknown section of the Borg ship. She walked slowly and carefully as she passed drone after drone, deep in their slumber within alcoves lined along the walls.

After fifty, she lost track of how many drones she had passed. She had seen fewer ponies at her almost wedding, than drones in that one hallway. At first she was afraid one of them might notice her sweating profusely, that is, until she realized most every drone’s skin had a slick sheen of some unknown substance stuck to them.

After twenty minutes had passed, she happened upon her first conscious Borg drone. She froze in place, completely forgetting everything that Picard had explained to her. The drone was walking in her direction and continued to do so; right passed her as though she wasn’t even there. 

When the drone had moved far enough away, she breathed an audible sigh of relief. She then recalled the captain explaining how the drones would simply ignore her until she became a threat. She continued another forty meters until she came into a room with five conscious drones, hard at work. 

Each drone was manipulating several green terminals. This looked like one of the rooms Picard tried to explain to her. She racked her brains trying to recall exactly what he said…





One hour and forty-five minutes before the Borg arrived at the Defensive Perimeter…

“Pay attention!” Picard said, growing impatient with the changeling.

Chrysalis was in fact paying attention, but honestly had no clue what she was paying attention to. “What am I looking at?” she asked.

“This room houses one of several Power Waveguide Conduits,” he explained. Notice the color of the node in ceiling. This color represents the conduit. The conduit controls the flow of information throughout the ship. Whenever you encounter one of these nodes, attach this device off to the side to avoid detection.”

Picard held up a tiny circular device. It was small enough to lose and difficult to see from far away. A small light was blinking in the center.

“When you’ve attached the device, push the light in the center. The light will turn off. It is now armed.”

“What does it do?” asked Chrysalis.

“This device uploads a Borg command to all drones within range of the conduit to go to sleep.” He held up another tiny circular device with a blinking light at its center. “This device, however, needs to be attached to all Power Distribution Nodes. Computer: Change to Borg Power Distribution Node room.”

At once the scene around them changed, but not by much. In fact, the only thing Chrysalis could discern was the device in the ceiling was now a different color. 

“This room houses the Power Distribution Node which delivers power to all of their systems. You place this device on all of these nodes. They are micro-explosives design to disable the node. It is armed the same way. When in doubt, remember the colors of the two types of nodes.” He held up the two devices. “Put these devices on the red nodes, and these devices on the green ones. It is vital you get this right.”

…





Chrysalis looked up at the ceiling of the room. A red node stuck out from the center. Was this the Power Distribution node or the Power Wave Conduit? She couldn’t remember.

She started to panic. She was standing in the middle of the hall, in plain view of the drones operating the controls, but they seemed to remain blissfully ignorant to her presence. Even so, she still couldn’t shake the feeling they were well aware that she was an imposter. 

She clumsily walked into the room, giving her best Borg impression she could manage, considering she’d only ever seen a ‘hologram’ of one before. She looked straight up at the node. 

The red light glared back at her, mocking her as she tried to figure out which device was supposed to be attached to this. She reached to her sides where two secret compartments were attached. Opening one, she saw dozens of little devices with blinking lights. Opening the other, she saw dozens of different little devices with blinking lights. 

She reached for one randomly and started to place it onto the node. She was about to click the light when she realized it was green. She took out the other device and noticed the light on it was red. 

She blushed slightly, which was unimaginable for a Borg drone, before putting away the green-lighted one and attaching a red-lighted one to the red-lighted node instead. She pushed the light switch in, arming it. She had no idea if she had just armed a sleep spell or an explosive spell. But she at least hoped she guessed which device to use correctly. 

She took another look around the room. The drones still seemed completely oblivious to her. She breathed a small sigh of relief and left for the next corridor. 





“Ow!” said Rainbow Dash, rubbing her head. “That really hurts!”

The other ponies were collecting themselves in Ten Forward when the ship finally stopped shaking. Rarity had passed out cold. Rainbow was flying at the time of the first impact and slammed head-first into a wall. The other ponies were mostly okay with just small cuts and bruises. 

Guinan came over from the bar to help them.

“Is everypony, all right?” she asked using the correct vernacular. She offered a bar napkin to Rainbow who reluctantly took it.

“We’re fine, but we frustrated!” Twilight said, helping Rarity back to her feet. “We came here to help the captain, not just sit in a bar.”

“Yeah!” Applejack agreed. “And for a bar, you should know, your cider has gone really rotten. I can’t even taste the apples in it!”

Guinan smiled and almost laughed. “I think I can get you something more to your liking.”

“Later,” said Twilight bitterly. “I want to see whoever’s in charge now.” Riker had just announced the captain’s incapacitation.

Guinan could see so much determination for such a young pony coming from her. She walked over to an intercom and said, “Guinan to the bridge.”

“Riker here Guinan,” came the reply. “Is there something you need?”

“Our Equestrian ambassador is requesting an audience.” She smiled at Twilight who didn’t get the joke.

“Now’s not a good time. When we have shields, weapons, and warp back, then I’ll come down.”

“I think you’ll want to hear what she has to say, Captain.”

“…Fine. Escort Twilight Sparkle to the bridge. Riker out.”

The channel closed abruptly.

“Thank you, Guinan,” said Twilight, “but how did you know how important what I had to say was?”

“In all the time I’ve spent tending to this bar, as you call it, I have encountered and listened to many different people from many different worlds. Eventually, I’ve come to learn quite a bit about them. Looking at you now, I know exactly how important your words are for both you and the acting captain.”

Five wooden mugs of steaming hot apple cider appeared in the replicator behind her. 

“When did you…?” Twilight started to ask curiously.

“It’s the job of every bar tender know exactly what their patrons need most. Come, everypony. Enjoy your cider, and when you’ve finished, I will take you to the captain.”

All the ponies grabbed a steaming mug from the tray and took a sip.

“Oooo! Thank you!” cried Pinkie, throwing the piping hot cider straight down her gullet. “This is delicious!”

“Oh my!” Rarity exclaimed. “It is indeed, most delectable.”

“Well bust my hump and call me a griffin’s uncle! That is just what doctor ordered. Where’d ya get the apples to make this here recipe?”

“I may have sampled one of your apples from your bag earlier, Applejack,” said Guinan slyly. “I have to say they were one of the sweetest apples I have ever tasted.”

Applejack checked her bag and saw one apple was missing. “How did you…? When did you…? You know stealing is wrong!”

The replicator opened again with a fresh new apple. Guinan handed it to Applejack smiling. “My apologies. Please accept this new one as my gift.”

Examining it closely, Applejack could almost not tell the difference between this apple and her own. It was a bright shiny red, just soft enough for maximum ripeness and single bright green leaf attached to its end. She could sense the difference, but not enough for to complain.

“Well… I… Thank you, Guinan.”

“You’re welcome. Now enjoy your cider, and Twilight, when you’re finished, will go see Captain Riker.”

“Thank you Guinan,” said Twilight sipping the hot cider. 

She had to admit, the warmth of the hot cider in her belly was precisely what she needed most at this exact moment.





Sweat dripped down from Chrysalis’s Borg forehead. She couldn’t understand how these things could possibly function in such heat. She needed to modify her appearance in some way if she was going to be able to survive in such a sweltering climate.

After she placed the fourteenth device on the fourteenth random node she happened upon, she couldn’t go on without doing something to cool herself off.

She found an area where all the alcoves were empty, and no drones were anywhere to be found. A green aura formed over her bald head. The mechanisms surrounding her body all twisted and maneuvered slightly. When they finished, everything looked nearly identical to the way it had been before, but now small air pockets were flooded throughout the suit, allowing for a constant breeze to pass through her. The air was still muggy and unbearably warm, but the breeze at least let her continue on for a little while longer.

The green aura faded. Chrysalis breathed deeply. The humid air made it so difficult to so. She crept back into the corridor and was about to press on, when she spotted no less than twelve drones blocking her path and closing in on her position. 

They were still too far away to really notice her. She ducked back into the room and tried to think. The room only was composed of a bunch of empty alcoves. Chrysalis recalled from Picard’s lecture that the Borg use the alcoves in the same manner as she consumes love. With little time remaining, she hobbled over to one of the empty slots and tried to climb in. 

She pressed her feet back until they locked into place. Her back arched and locked in. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back until it rested onto the plate with miniature green lightning shooting through it. 

At once she felt a strange surge. Though she was merely a chameleon of a Borg drone, her copies were exact enough for the energy to flow through the suit’s mechanisms, charging them. 

She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was. She was alone on a ship where love was just another of a bunch of nonexistent emotions. She hadn’t expected the energy to feed her, but was grateful when she felt the rush of energy flowing into her. She almost forgot the reason why she was standing in the charging station. Until she could hear several drones’ feet shuffling as they neared to within a meter or two away from her. 





“If you should ever find yourself in a dire situation, I can give you this one chance,” Picard explained from the Holodeck.

He held up a very different device from the little circular ones he had been explaining to her earlier. This device was a square box with all different kinds of lights blinking away merrily. Chrysalis couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“What does it do?” she asked.

“If you are in imminent danger, with no hope of escaping, activate this device. It will trigger what’s called an EMP blast. All of the devices, the Borg, their technology, everything that carries electricity readily will shut down around you.”

“That sounds like a very powerful magic,” said Chrysalis. “Why do we not simply use this ‘EMP’ across the entire Borg ship?”

“It’s complicated, I’m afraid...” Picard tried to think of a good way to explain. “If you were at war with an enemy, and that enemy begins firing arrows at your city constantly, what would you do?”

“I would use my magic to deflect them right back at the enemy, of course.” 

Chrysalis could not draw any connections from this explanation to the device.

Picard had to rephrase. “What would other, non-magical, ponies do if they faced that same situation?”

Chrysalis paused to think. She shrugged. “I suppose they would construct shields to protect themselves.”

“Exactly! Now, how long would you say it would take to make enough shields for everyone?”

“Several days at least with no magic.”

“Now for you, magic speeds that time up considerably. For the Borg, technology does. Now matter what trick we come up with: arrows, cannons, phasers, EMP, etc., they always come up with shields to protect them in a very short amount of time.”

“Okay…” Chrysalis nodded, unsurely. 

“The Borg have long since created shields to protect itself from EMP, so using it against the ship will not work.”

“Then how would it work for me?”

“Inside this device is a shield frequency disruptor. The device will analyze the drones’ current shield frequencies and momentarily disrupt them long enough for the EMP to work.”

Chrysalis was vaguely starting to comprehend the captain, but this was all well above of her level of understanding.

“I still don’t see why we wouldn’t just use this device against the whole ship then,” she persisted.

“An individual drone takes a certain amount of time to process the information and come up with a solution to the problem. Thousands of drones working together simultaneously across the entire ship would arrive at the solution before the weapon could even be fired. This trick will only work on a small scale, and it will only work once.”

“Only once?”

“Once this device is used against them, the other Borg will become immediately become aware of it and quickly devise a counter to it. Not to mention that the device itself would be destroyed by the EMP blast.”

“So you’re giving me a weapon that will only work once and immediately alert the entire ship to my presence?”

“Correct. But I’m afraid it’s a little worse than that.”

“How much worse could it get!?” Chrysalis shouted angrily.

“If you use this device, any remaining devices you carry, both the virus and the explosive, will become useless. So remember, this is a last minute, no way out defense. And once you use it, you will be on the run…”





Chrysalis was trying to hold her breath as they neared her. She kept one hand on the EMP device, her finger a twitch away from triggering it.

The drones were not speaking out loud, but somehow, she knew they were talking about her. She cracked her eyelid the tiniest bit. A Borg drone was staring at her. She could hear the others proceeding to their alcoves.

“How stupid could I be?” she thought. “I’m probably standing in this thing’s bed!”

Sure enough, after a moment, the Borg spoke audibly. His voice was sharp, deep, and carried the voices of more than one person. “You are not in the correct designated regeneration alcove, and your link to the hive mind has been severed. Proceed to Sector 5027 for Subspace Transceiver repair and general diagnostic.”

Chrysalis blinked her eyes open. She nearly froze, but held on as tight as she could to her focus. She stepped off the Alcove, stiffly, feeling the drain of the energy flow dissipating as she did, and proceeded back out into the corridor. She turned and saw the Borg who spoke climbing into his alcove. 

Chrysalis quickly remembered her finger was a centimeter away from triggering the EMP device, and moved it away. She disarmed it and continued onward in search of the next node.

> Discovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discovery

“Why didn’t it work!?” screamed Admiral Tomalak. He was chiding his science officer whilst every other Romulan scurried about hurriedly. The Romulan warbird had suffered a great deal of damage, most of which had been caused when their new weapon failed to protect them against the Borg ship.

“I do not know, Sir!” he answered bitterly. His head kept bouncing from component to component on the device, like a mole popping his head in and out of the ground. Whatever he was looking for was clearly not going to be found so easily. “The energy charged just as it had before, but once it reached beyond the levels used in the tests, the excess energy burned off somehow; the horn is unable to contain it.”

“It was foolish to trust this ship to your idiotic tinkering!” yelled the admiral. “It is clear to me that you were not the proper choice for Science officer aboard this ship. You are relieved. And be ready for a hearing on your actions when we return to Romulus!” 

The stunned scientist could say nothing. Like most Romulans he craved power and enjoyed serving as Science Officer under the admiral. It was a much more influential post than serving as a generic research scientist back on Romulus. He believed this “magic” could have been his ticket to head of the Romulan Science Directorate. But from this point on, “magic” was a word that would bring nothing but a sour taste to his mouth. 

He left the room with his head hung low in angry and bitter defeat. As he exited through the archway, he could see his faithful and remarkably beautiful assistant staring back at him as he left. He smiled at her in a half-forced manner, before it dropped to a scowl. 

The look on her face was not one of admiring respect for a fallen comrade. Instead, she held a smug smile on her face that suggested she knew all along what went wrong, and now she would succeed him and steal the all that glory and power that came with harnessing this new energy.

The failed scientist left the room flabbergasted and alone.

With her former superior now gone, Lieutenant Kitara turned to the Admiral with a new air of confidence. 

The admiral regarded her, unsure whether she was as good as her composure wanted him to suggest. “Can you fix what went wrong?” he asked the officer, his eyebrow cocked in doubt.

“I already have a theory, Admiral. I require a few hours. I will have a report by then.”

“Don’t disappoint me,” he spat as he marched out of the lab.

The other technicians were looking at their new leader. Kitara returned their glance, smiling.

“I want each of you to stop work investigating our predecessor’s device,” she commanded.

They all looked at her incredulously.

“The issue with the machine is that it relies on storing the energy within the horn itself. It’s obvious the creature was never meant to absorb such a large reserve of energy. We need to analyze the energy itself. We must discover what this “magic” truly is!”





The streets of Canterlot were chaos. Had Discord been on the planet, he would have rejoiced in the pandemonium. Ponies from dozens of towns and villages had gathered in the city. Mayors and assembly ponies were shouting through the crowds, fighting in vain to maintain some level of order.

Mayor Mare of Ponyville was leading the charge for her own town at the far end of Canterlot, adjacent to the palace gardens. Familiar and unfamiliar ponies were all intermingled, and the mayor was desperately trying to keep her townsponies all together.

“Everypony please,” she yelled into a large funneled cone to amplify her voice, “we need to get all Ponyvillians together in a group so we can get a head count. If you are missing a member of a family, approach the podium so we can attempt to reunite one another…”

While the mayor continued frantically to sort out the mess, Lyra and Bon-Bon huddled within the crowd, squished to the point of not being able to breathe.

“We can’t stay here like this!” Bon-Bon shouted. 

Lyra nodded vigorously in agreement. She stood on her hind legs and held her snout up so she could take in fresher air. In doing so, the space around her closed, and she could no longer even bend back down onto all four hooves.

Lyra tried in vain to stay together with Bon-Bon, but it was too late. A large muscular Pegasus with red eyes and wings the size of an infant’s had pushed through. As large and burly as he was, his face was that of a scared little filly’s.

“Little Wing!” he cried looking around. “Little Wing! Where are you!?” 

Lyra briefly wondered how anypony could have smaller wings that his, but now she panicked. Bon-Bon was somewhere beyond this behemoth-sized Pegasus. She tried to squeeze first around, then under, to no avail.

“Snowflake!” a tiny voice cried out.

“LITTLE WING!!?” 

“Snowflake!” shouted a muscular miniature of the massive Pegasus, who flew up over the crowd. 

“LITTLE WING!!!” the gargantuan pony screamed again upon spotting his kin. He flapped his tiny wings and lifted his massive body off the ground with great effort, soaring off to reunite with Little Wing. 

Lyra thought this would be her chance, but Bon-Bon was no longer on the other side of where the Pegasus had been. She must have tried to get around the Pegasus too and now they were as separated as those two Pegasi were. Still on her hind legs, Lyra stood frozen. She hadn’t even noticed a hoof suddenly clutching hers.

“Lyra!” cried Bon-Bon, holding on to her friend’s hoof tight.

“Bon-Bon!” Lyra turned and grabbed Bon-Bon into a tight hug. “I thought I’d lost you!”

“We need to get away from all this,” said Bon-Bon, tugging Lyra through the crowd.

Both ponies were walking on two legs, allowing them to never once break contact. Bon-Bon held on so tight it was nearly a death grip. Lyra squeezed even tighter. At last they came to an opening in the crowd. The narrow passageway opened deep enough to escape.

When they were finally past the crowds, they found themselves in the middle of the Palace gardens. Not sure where to go or what to do, they finally released their hooves and lowered themselves back down onto all fours to rest. 

Lyra was panting. Her magic was never strong, but all of this could have been avoided if she still had her horn. She could have signaled Bon-Bon; communicated somehow. They could have broken free so much easier. Once again Lyra was reduced to tears. 

Bon-Bon comforted her friend. She hadn’t even noticed the unusually large group of palace guards circling the gardens. Had she noticed, it wouldn’t have even occurred to her to wonder why so many were needed to protect a garden.

Lyra did notice something, but it was not the guards. A bright flash of navy-blue light shot out from the center of the gardens, with seven ponies appearing in its center. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Princess Twilight, and Princess Luna were all there!

She didn’t have time to notice anything different about Luna’s appearance. All she could think of was getting to one of them to help her.

“Princess!” she shouted out, suddenly galloping.

“Wait!” Bon-Bon called after her, trying to keep up. 

“Princess!” she shouted again. 

She ran straight at them at full speed, which made her collision with the guard’s spear all the more painful. She was thrown back against the ground, dazed and confused.

“You are not aloud to be here!” the guard barked angrily. He was clearly not a pony to be messed with.

“I need to talk to Princess Twilight!” Lyra shouted. “I need her help!”

“All royalty are currently occupied trying to protect all of Equestria’s citizens. You will have to wait until the danger has passed.”

The guard made no mention of Princess Celestia’s sudden disappearance, precisely as he was instructed. If anything, he felt he needed to be twice as alert, twice as strict as he had been if he were to ever atone for such a disgrace.

Lyra felt betrayed. She could see them all heading back into the castle. Her salvation lay only just out of reach. She sulked backward in solemn defeat. Bon-Bon took her hoof again.

“Come,” she said softly. “Princess Twilight will help you get your horn back after everything has calmed down. You just need to be patient.”

Lyra nodded stiffly, with a short sniffle.

The guard regarded them both as they started away from him. “Just a moment!” he called out after them.

They both turned slowly, confused.

“Did you say your horn was missing?” he asked with a great deal more interest then before.

“Yes,” said Lyra.

“She was filly-napped in the night,” Bon-Bon explained. “When I finally found her, her horn was missing right off the top of her head.”

The guard looked pensive. He seemed to be contemplating whether or not he should care. After a pause, he drew his breath. 

“You better come with me,” he said finally. One of his instructions was to leave the Princesses and their friends alone unless they encountered something highly unusual. This seemed like just that to the guard.

He lifted his spear and tilted his head in the direction of the castle. Lyra and Bon-Bon exchanged glances before following him inside.





“Start the accelerator,” instructed Lieutenant Kitara. 

The technicians complied. A large circular machine started whirring around the Unicorn horn. Lights flashed by at dizzying speeds. 

“Charge the horn!” 

The horn at its center started to glow. Wrapped within the center of the device, the mint green aura was pulled away from the horn into the particle accelerator. Readings came through on the display. 

“Yes… Yes… Of course!” she shouted. “Focus the beam; break down the structure below subatomic levels.”

The machine’s engines whined into a higher pitch until it was nearly unbearable to listen to. The laser narrowed to subatomic widths, analyzing the core nature of the mysterious mint green aura.

It was so difficult for the Lieutenant to prevent the smile that was drawing itself upon her face, so she simply let it. She grinned from ear to ear as the results of her little experiment compiled together. On the display before her lay the very structure she had sought after.

“The Unicorn Particle…” she whispered excitedly, the subatomic structure sparkling in her eyes.





“She suddenly appeared out of nowhere with no horn and no memory how she got there… and that’s the story, Princess,” Bon-Bon finished explaining to Princess Twilight.

They were standing inside the throne room. Lyra and Bon-Bon had never expected to see such a place in their lifetimes. Even as they recanted their stories, they seldom looked at Twilight, but instead stretched their necks to drink in the scene around them.

The guard had taken them straight to Princess Twilight and Princess Luna, but Luna had already taken her leave with Data to get more details about the Borg cube and what most likely happened to her sister. Twilight stood in front of Celestia’s throne. Even though she was now considered royalty, it felt too awkward, and overstepping, to presume she could sit in Celestia’s throne while she was gone. 

Twilight’s expression was tight-lipped, but concern was clearly discernible. Finally, she said, “I’m sorry, but I know of no magic that can regrow horns once they’ve been severed. There are spells to mend chipped horns and I could probably reattach it if we had the horn, but…” She trailed off. 

She thought for a moment about the massive libraries between here and the Crystal Empire. No doubt one of those two places would carry a book with knowledge of such a magic, but time would not permit it at present. 

For a moment her thoughts shifted to her brother and Princess Cadence. The empire was not evacuated. It was simply too large to do so. Instead, their own palace guards would hold the responsibility of keeping them safe. She greatly feared they would not be up to the task.

Finally she looked back at her friends from Ponyville. “When this is over, I will do everything I can to help you. But for now, we need to focus on keeping everypony safe.”

“What about Celestia?” Lyra asked hopefully. “Maybe she knows how to fix it.” 

There was a hint of desperation in her voice, but it went unnoticed by Twilight. Her face had turned rigid and her eyes became watery. She was fighting to hold back the tears, but her attempt was equally as noticeable.

“Hem…” she coughed. “Celestia is occupied at the moment, but I promise to ask her when I can.” It was as much of a hope as it was a promise. Celestia would need to be returned to them safe before she would be able to fulfill any promises involving her.

“Yes, your majesty,” Lyra replied, disappointed. She and Bon-Bon bowed and started for the exit. 

“I’m glad to see you made it here safe,” Twilight added. “Has everypony from Ponyville made it?”

“Mostly,” said Bon-Bon. “There were a few who refused to leave. I think the Apple family stayed.”

Twilight did not like hearing this news, especially since she had not heard it from Applejack herself. She probably didn’t want to worry Twilight, but she should have told her anyway.

“They’re a pretty tough family,” Twilight tried to say reassuringly, possibly trying to reassure herself in the process. “I’m sure they will be okay. In fact, I would be more worried for any enemy who gets on their bad side!”

Bon-Bon smiled weakly, before turning again to leave. She turned face to face with a monster unlike anything she had ever encountered. Before either Lyra or Bon-Bon could react, the guard who escorted them into the palace had already shoved a spear through the back on the Borg drone’s skull. It struggled to remove the spear, but was unsuccessful before its systems were compromised. The Borg fell to the ground. 

Another guard burst in through the doors.

“Your majesty!” he screamed. “The invasion has begun!”
> Intermission: Recap
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intermission: Recap

While writing last week’s chapter, I found myself having trouble keeping track of my own storylines and side plots. (And I keep notes!) Since many of you have been following since the beginning over three months ago, I thought that you might appreciate a little “Where Are We Now?” recap chapter:





Previously on DisQord Continuum...

In the fallout from the attack of the Windigos, the origin species of the Borg Collective, a single memory databank, containing knowledge and information relating to pony magic, escapes the debris of the destroyed ship.

Q had orchestrated the attack to eliminate the pony threat posed by their advancements in magic and technology. The science behind the magic, Monoceros particles, are the building blocks of what gives the Q their powers, which could one day be used against them. 

Having reduced the advanced pony race to a backwater planet millennia away from rebuilding enough to become a threat, Q removed every last trace of the debris, with the exception of the databank he did not see.

This databank drifted across the stars for two thousand years until it was recovered and then assimilated by the modern day Borg. In search of this “pony magic”, the Borg set off to assimilate this powerful ability.

By the time anypony had become aware anything was wrong, Fluttershy had already been assimilated. The rest of the Mane6 escapes to Canterlot. When the Borg invasion spread to Equestria’s capital city, Princess Twilight uses a modified version of Star Swirl the Bearded’s time spell to transport all five ponies, carrying their Elements of Harmony (even Fluttershy’s), one week into the past aboard the last remaining scout ship, saved from the days when ponies had traveled the stars.

Their ship is picked up by the U.S.S. Tecumseh, which enables them to get in contact with Captain Picard and the Enterprise, fresh from repairs after their encounter with the Borg Queen three hundred years in the past, to warn them of Equestria’s pending fate.

The consequences of the Borg’s successful assimilation of pony magic enables the Borg to enter and destroy the Q Continuum. Q, in a last-ditch effort to save the universe, creates a temporary universe-in-a-bottle: a one-week long static-warp bubble containing only 20,000 light years of the galaxy. 

With one-week remaining until the end of the universe, and only a few days before the Borg are expected to arrive, Q charges the Enterprise and the ponies from one week in the future (henceforth known as the Future5) to help him stop the Borg from succeeding. In doing so, the timeline would be altered enough for Q to grow the universe back from the confines of the warp bubble.

Geordi, together with Q, developes the Borg Fighting Gun (BFG) to use against large groups of Borg that would be difficult for them to adapt to in any useful amount of time.

When they make contact with the present Mane6, they proceed together to Canterlot to prepare for the invasion. While preparations are being made on the ground, the Tecumseh sets out to recruit available ships in the area, capable of reaching Equestria prior to the Borg arrival.

Princess Celestia decides to recruit some help of her own. She offeres Chrysalis, who had been imprisoned after their last encounter, a chance to redeem herself and live freely. Chrysalis accepts the offer.

Splitting their forces, the Enterprise leaves Data and Worf on Equestria to help with evacuation and military preparations (including distribution of the BFGs to the Equestrian guards), and bring the Future5 and Chrysalis onboard the ship.

Picard crafts a plan for Chrysalis, as a changeling, to hide aboard the Borg cube and sabotage the ship from within.

Of all the ships the Tecumseh is able to make contact with, only one does not arrive. The U.S.S. Magellan encounteres the Borg en route and is captured and assimilated. Through this, the Borg learn of the plot to stop them and recruit two extra cubes for support and increase their speed. 

One of the ships to respond and arrive was a Romulan Warbird commanded by Admiral Tomalak. He is not convinced by Picard’s explanation of why the Borg would want to assimilate a primitive pre-warp society and takes matters into his own hands. Kidnapping a random Unicorn from the surface, Lyra, the Romulans interrogate the pony into divulging information of pony magic. They discover that the horn is the source of the magic. They surgically extract Lyra’s horn and return her to the planet.

Without any scientific basis to explain the existence of “magic”, Tomalak charges his Science Officer with learning and weaponizing its abilities. Without knowing the true science behind the magic, the scientist still manages to use technology to force the horn to absorb large amounts of magic until it bursts out, resulting in the target to shift out-of-phase, rendering it out of contact with the physical world. The scientist is confident this can be used to remove large sections of hulls resulting in breaches on enemy ships.

As evacuations are made from Ponyville, the Apple Family resigns to stay behind. Applejack wants to stay and help her family, but Rainbow Dash, combined with Apple Bloom and Big Mac, convince her that her place is with her friends. 

Lyra, under Bon-Bon’s watch and care as she rebounds from the loss of her horn, joins the crowd aboard the last train heading for Canterlot.

With the unexpected early arrival and extra reinforcements of Borg cubes, the defensive perimeter is utterly decimated. Those ships that retreated survive only because no Borg cubes pursued them. The cubes remain in orbit of the planet.

The Romulan’s new weapon overloaded during the engagement and failed to fire as originally intended. Admiral Tomalak dismisses his Science Officer and promotes his next in line, who was more adept at researching the nature of pony magic. She is able to discover the Monoceros Particle (a.k.a. the Unicorn Particle). 

Meanwhile, with the arrival of the Borg, their first act is to kidnap Princess Celestia. As the oldest living pony in Equestria, she is one of two ponies old enough to have knowledge from the time when ponies understood science and magic together. She is assimilated not as a drone, but has the consciousness of the Borg Queen downloaded into her. She is transformed into the new Queen, Celestus of Borg.

Captain Picard was injured in the attack and is near death. As Picard is sometimes capable of hearing the Borg in his mind, he is contacted by the new Borg queen while in a coma. He learns of her interest in the particle and her plans to rebuild a new universe through her view of perfection.

When Picard awakes, he learns that Q had used some of his powers to save his life. In doing so however, he was forced to relinquish some of his grip of the universe sacrificing five percent it of it. Picard forbids him from doing something so reckless again, even if it’s to save someone’s life.

Princess Luna takes the kidnapping of her sister personally and charges herself with finding and rescuing her sister. She wasn’t sure how she would do it, and she knew she wasn’t strong enough on her own. She askes the Mane6 to help and protect her. She needs to regain the power of Nightmare Moon without falling prey to its evil influences. They succeed in obtaining the power from the Reflecting Pool of Eternal Darkness Luna had last encountered as a little filly. 

While the Elements of Harmony prevent the power of Nightmare Moon from completely influencing her, its voice still carries in Luna’s thoughts. She must to fight to keep it at bay.

While the first engagement with the Borg ended in disaster, there had been one small success. Chrysalis was successfully transported onto the lead cube. She is camouflaged as a Borg Drone and begins to explore the innards of the ship looking for key targets. 

For each red node (Power Waveguide Conduit), Chrysalis attaches a device that would, upon detonation, send a command to all Borg connected to the node to ‘sleep’ (enter their alcoves for regeneration). For each green node (Power Distribution Node), Chrysalis attaches a small explosive. 

Picard also gave her a small EMP device which, as a last-ditch / no way out alternative, would disable all drones and technology within the several yards of the device.

Lyra and Bon-Bon spot Princess Luna, Princess Twilight and the rest of the Mane6 in the palace courtyard after they return from the reflecting pool. They explain to Princess Twilight of the disappearance of Lyra’s horn and ask for her help in getting her horn back. Twilight knows of no such magic and does not have time to research it in the library at present. 

Before Lyra and Bon-Bon could leave, a Borg drone materializes in the throne room. A guard quickly dispatches the creature with his spear as another guard bursts in announcing the start of the invasion.





As of now, there are several concurring storylines:
-	Enterprise, DisQord, and the Fleet
-	Future5
-	Romulan’s exploration of magic
-	Princess Celestia / Queen Celestus of Borg
-	Princess Luna / Nightmare Moon
-	Chrysalis and the Borg Cube
-	Mane6 and the Defense of Canterlot
-	The Defense of the Apple Family Farm
-	The Lyra and Bon-Bon Story

I realized a little too late I may have spread myself a little thin here, but if you can keep up, all storylines will eventually come together.

I hope this helps keep you in following the story and continuing to read!

See you next week!





> Plan B
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plan B

“Gentlemen, please!” Captain Picard held up his hands to the bickering feud going on amongst the various images of starship captains on varying screens in the conference room. 

None were in any position for a face to face meeting, and most had only just gotten their communications systems back online. Each captain faced one another from screen to screen. The backgrounds behind each captain showed the varying extents of damage their ships had all suffered. 

In the Enterprise’s conference room, Captain Picard stood with Discord and Princess Twilight Sparkle who, after demanding to be more involved with the ongoing mission, was permitted to attend the meeting.

Blame for the misfortunes they all suffered flew across the communications lines at a dizzying pace, however most shots were rapidly fired off at Picard. His hands raised themselves higher into air vainly trying to return to any form of order.

“Please, listen to me,” he repeated, shouting out over the din.

“No you listen!” the Andorian captain snapped back. “My ship is in no condition to face those cubes again. We tried our best to help you when you said we were facing one cube; we stayed despite three cubes showing up, knowing the odds as we did; but I do not command a battleship, Captain. This is a freighter, and we will already be limping our way back home now. I will not have my ship, and my crew, become sacrificial tahn-tahns to the slaughter!”

“I most certainly understand how you feel,” the Captain Picard acknowledged sullenly. “You have contributed everything you possibly could to the success of this mission, and I will not ask your crew for more than that.”

“Puh!” the Klingon commander spat. “You flee because your ship and you crew are afraid to die? Go then! Run away like the p'takh you are!”

“I’ve lost three men, Commander K’vada. My warp engines are offline, my shields and life support are on emergency power, and my weapons are gone. We are a floating brick in space, Commander! I will not simply throw my crew to their deaths. It would serve absolutely no purpose.”

Picard tried to regain control. “We all must do what we think is necessary to protect our people. I thank you Captain Stahn for your efforts. Now, we need to focus on how to defeat the Borg. Has anyone been able to gather any intelligence on the Borg’s current activities?”

K’vada crossed his arms and shook his head. 

Tomalak had an almost unnoticeable but disconcerting smile on his face. “I’m afraid we have been focusing our efforts on making our ship prepared for battle once more, Captain,” his said calmly. “I have nothing new to share at this time.”

Picard had a distinct feeling the Romulan knew something more he was not sharing. In military strategy, Picard found this to be the Romulans biggest weakness, and even used that to his advantage at times. But now he found this to be the weak-link on his own side. He chewed silently on the Romulan’s words, but said nothing.

Finally, the acting captain of the Defiant seemed to have more fruitful information to provide.

“I have something to report, Captain,” said the Defiant’s acting captain. 

“What have you been able to find out, Captain Dax?” Picard asked.

Jadzia Dax sat tall in the captain’s chair of the Defiant. While Worf remained on the planet below, Dax, as first officer, had assumed the role of captain. 

“We were able to get our cloak back online and do a brief scan of the ships and the planet. All other ships are lost. Most lie in pieces. The Ferengi ship is intact, but the life support is offline and there are no more life signs aboard.”

Her face was plain as she spoke, but distinctly negative. Picard swallowed each new piece of information as she continued.

“The Borg have started to invade the planet. They seem to be only sending small skirmishes across the planet. I’m not too familiar with Borg strategy, but for now they seem to be moving at a snail’s pace. I’m not sure how long that will last though.”

“The Borg are both methodic and patient, Captain,” Picard Explained. “However, they know we are still here, and they will be gathering their strength for the next attack. We need to launch as soon as possible.”

“There’s more,” said Dax, hesitantly. “We’ve detected a pony onboard the lead cube. Its signature is now Borg.”

The only thing that could have given even greater shock to Twilight than surprise of this news was the lack of surprise written on Captain Picard’s face.

“You knew?” Twilight asked accusatorily. 

Picard hesitated, exhaling deeply. “The Borg are directed by their queen, Miss. Sparkle,” he explained slowly. “I thought I had destroyed that queen, but it would appear that they have acquired a substitute to replace her.”

“What substitute?” she asked, starting to dread the answer.

“… Princess Celestia was assimilated by the collective… to take the place of their Queen.”

The surprised expression quickly changed to anger on Twilight. “How could you know this? Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

The other captains on the line were equally as eager to learn the source of this revelation. 

Picard pulled himself upright and quickly responded, “It was one of the last things we detected in our retreat.”

It was a lie. He did not wish to lie to Twilight, but his time amongst the Borg was not common knowledge, and potentially dangerous information in the hands of the Romulans or even the Klingons.

“We detected the energy signature of a Borg teleport from within the Palace. The most likely reason is to assimilate her knowledge and given her abilities would be the prime candidate for the queen’s replacement.”

Twilight still looked mutinous. She would hold her tongue for the sake of the meeting, but Picard had gone too far not telling her that her princess had been worse than kidnapped.

Picard could easily read her face without her speaking, and took the opportunity to press on. “Gentlemen, I’m afraid the news is worse now because of this development. The world and people we are defending are no ordinary pre-warp society. They were once a race advanced enough to reach other planets as well as possessing an ability that, until now, the Borg have never possessed nor even knew about: the ability of magic.”

“Ah ha!” cried Tomalak. “So you admit you were keeping this information from us!?”

“Wait… magic, Captain?” Dax asked confusedly. “… as in fairies, spells, and potions?”

“Well, I don’t know about fairies,” Twilight started, before stopping. She looked at Picard who nodded in return. 

“Show them.”

Twilight’s horn glowed in a violet color. A glass on the desk before them rose into the air. She concentrated harder and the glow intensified. The glass changed colors from clear to red, then to blue. She set the now blue glass back onto the table.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, Captain Dax,” said Picard thoughtfully.

Most of the captains were astonished by the feat. Tomalak however, was not amused; nor even surprised, it seemed.

“The Federation has had dominion over this technology, and you deliberately kept it from the Romulan Empire!” Tomalak accused. “You will hand over all information relating to this magic at once!”

“He will do nothing of the sort, my dear Tommy,” a sharp voice cracked adjacent to Picard. Discord grinned as his largest tooth pulled forward. His eyes were narrowed at the Romulan.

“Captain, who is this man!?” Tomalak demanded, a vein in his temple pulsating in a copper color.

“I am Q!” he announced proudly. “And you will listen to me, and what my dear friend Jean-Luc here has to say.”

The air of recognition silenced every last person on the line, knowing of or about the rumors surrounding the Q. Only Tomalak seemed to have white hot fury brazenly written out across his face.

“Captain… Picard…” he tried to say calmly through his irritation. “Am I to understand that you have been taking orders from the Q?”

“The Continuum has as much of an interest in the success of this mission as any of us,” Picard explained. “The balance of power in the galaxy is seriously at risk if the Borg are allowed to assimilate and utilize these abilities.”

“I will have no part in anything to do with the Q!” Tomalak spat.

“Oh pish posh!” said Discord mockingly. “So you lost a few ships when your people failed where the humans succeeded. Get over it!” 

Fire flickered in Tomalak’s eyes. “Captain Picard… Romulus or no Romulus, I will NOT stand here and help in ANY plan involving that THING!”

“Oh yes you will!” said Discord smiling. He closed his eyes for a moment, and in that moment, the entire universe shook. Every last ship in the entire system shook with an intensity that triggered the alarms of several vessels to sound.

“What was that?” Tomalak demanded.

“Check your sensors, Admiral. Has anything unexpected just happened, hmm?”

Tomalak took his face away from the screen momentarily. At the same time, a report came from the bridge of the Enterprise. 

“Captain,” said Geordi through the intercom, “the static warp-bubble has decreased by one percent.”

“Acknowledged,” said Picard, glaring at Discord. “I told you not to sacrifice any protection on our only means of survival!”

“So it’s true?” Tomalak stated in shock and anger. “The Q are the ones responsible for the bubble we’re currently stuck in! Charge weapons! Target the Enterprise!” 

“Admiral please!” Picard begged. “Listen to me for a moment!” 

“I will destroy that thing!” he yelled enraged.

“Oh I wouldn’t recommend that, Tommy!” said Discord coolly.

“STOP CALLING ME TOMMY!” the admiral shouted at the top of his lungs.

Discord shifted and changed his expression. “Admiral, if you would like to calm down, I would caution you that I am currently the only thing that’s holding this universe together in one piece. If you kill me, then we will all perish. The entire universe would come crashing to an end.”

Picard stared at the image of Tomalak on the screen. He had never seen a Romulan lose his composure in such a manner in his entire career as a Starfleet officer. For the first time in his life, Picard felt a small measure of sympathy for the Romulan admiral. 

“Admiral, under any other circumstances, I would love to rid myself of Q, permanently, if I could,” Picard started.

“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” said Discord. He expression looked almost genuinely hurt, if not for the smile still etched about on his face.

Picard continued on without acknowledgement. “The Borg are the ones responsible for our current predicament. Q is holding the last strands of this universe together to stop it. If we can succeed, everything should go back the way it was.”

“And just how do you expect to defeat three Borg cubes with four ships when eleven ships did little more than put a small dent in the armor of one cube?” Tomalak demanded.

“With an Enhanced Warp Breach,” Picard said plainly. 

He barely realized what he even said. It wasn’t an afterthought or a plan he had been developing as they talked. It just left his mouth as nothing more than the answer.

The look on all their faces suggested to the captain they believed him to have lost all of his remaining faculties.

“And just how are you going to ‘enhance’ a warp core breach to get through the Borg shields? How are you going to get a warp core close enough even to detonate it without destroying everyone else in the process? Or before the Borg catch you and destroy it from afar?”

“A Trojan horse, Admiral.”

“I’m not familiar with Earth equines, Captain. Do enlighten me.”

“I will explain everything, Admiral, but first we’ll need to recover that disabled Ferengi ship…”
> By the Light of the Moon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the Light of the Moon

The Borg drone’s head rolled along the ground until it finally came to a stop under a black shoe. Lieutenant Commander Worf placed his foot on it in a proud visage of triumph, if only momentary. Still holding his Bat’leth in hand, he stared out amongst the Red Guard soldiers, glaring back at him dumbfounded.

Many of them appeared rather green, which matched their combat experience. Worf knew the horrors of war would not bold well on such a peaceful society.

“Many of you have never seen an enemy slain!” he yelled out amongst them. “It is your duty to look down upon the dead with confidence in yourself! Do not waiver and do not hesitate. If a citizen has been taken, then they are no longer a citizen. They are the enemy! Only death can save them! The enemy will show you no quarter, and it must be the same for us. If you do not want to be forced to slay your own, then protect them from turning into the enemy! Now do your duty! Protect this city! Protect its people!”

The Red Guard shouted their war cry, softer than Worf would have preferred, before spreading out in the hunt for more drones and their first victims.

Worf looked down at the head beneath his feet. Whoever this once was, he could rest now. His battles were over and his honor restored.

Back inside the palace, Data was conferring with Princesses Twilight and Luna.

“I would advise against what you are planning,” Data stated plainly to Princess Luna. “It is unlikely you will be able to exit the atmosphere of the planet safely, let alone board the ship. It is more probable that you will be deemed a threat and destroyed. I do not think you would be capable of deflecting a Borg disruptor with your magic.”

“It is decided, Mr. Data,” Luna said boldly, confidently. “Our sister needs us and we must go to her!”

“Princess Luna,” Twilight started, placing a hoof on Luna’s shoulder. “We don’t know what you could find up there. Princess Celestia may already be gone. We hav–”

“Enough!” Luna cut her off. “We shall not cater to such unpleasant assumptions. We shall go to her. We shall save her as she once saved us!”

Before Twilight could argue, Princess Luna, in the stronger, more confident form of Nightmare Moon, pushed Twilight aside with one of her long black wings and took off, leaving them behind.

“We shall… we will save her!” she whispered to herself.

“Yes… we will…” said a second voice her mind.

Luna ignored it as she soared ever higher, heading straight for the bright open sky, illuminated by a sun which should have been set over an hour before, if not for her sister’s capture.





“Tie that rope real tight there, Big Mac,” Granny Smith said pointing. 

Big Macintosh gripped the rope tightly between his teeth and pulled hard, lifting the log a little higher into the air. He twisted the rope around a trunk until the tension eased. The knot was made and the trap was set.

“This’ll teach those whatcha-call-its from trying to take our farm!” she commented, shaking her hoof slightly.

“Granny, I put the egg basket where you said, but I don’t think it will do much,” said a doubtful Apple Bloom.

“You leave that to me, young’n,” she answered. “Your old granny was around in the last dragon war, ‘n I can tell you, those overgrown lizards never forgot the Apple family name!”

“Dragon war?” Apple Bloom repeated, confused. “There’s never been a dragon war that I know of.”

“Dern tootin! That’s ‘cause the war only lasted for five hours! You can still find Ole’ Lumpy flying around dizzyingly from time to time. Never did get that big bump outta his noggin. Heh-heh.”

Granny Smith donned her cooking pot helmet with the camouflage of a few green leaves tied to it for good measure.

Suddenly, out of thin air, two Borg drones materialized looking around, their laser sights analyzing the scene about them. The red beams settled upon the three ponies, turning to face them.

“I see we have our first catch of the day!” Granny Smith commented, smiling deviously. “You ready, Big Mac?”

“Eeyup!” 





Luna rose up passed the cloud line higher up into the sky. As she rose into the stratosphere, she noticed the moon off into the distance. It sat quietly, awaiting its master to position it for the next night.

Moving celestial objects was never an easy task. Each time her sister and she moved them, they nearly depleted every last drop of magical power they could muster. After completing a rotation, both princesses would often rest together in the castle, one getting ready for bed, the other recuperating to begin the night or day. 

Luna sometimes wondered how her sister managed rotating both the sun and the moon while she was banished for a thousand years. Most times these thoughts brought a melancholy shame for putting her sister through that pain.

And now, here she was, possessed by the very thing that resulted in the thousand years of anguish. But it would be different this time. She was protected by the Elements of Harmony and the noble cause of rescuing her sister. No matter what that thing whispered, she held tight onto that goal, acting as a talisman against its attempts to consume her.

Her thoughts carried through her journey until she caught sight of the moon. Luna suddenly had an idea. She altered her course. Instead of flying straight into the jaws of the beast, she veered off toward the celestial object she was so fatefully bound to.

“With the power of Nightmare Moon, I should be able to move the moon and still have the power to continue fighting!” she thought.

Hiding in the shadow of the moon, her strength gathered as the blue-black aura concentrated into a thick pulsing beam. The beam struck the moon with a bang heard by none in the vacuum of space. The magic surrounding the impact site spread wide into the shape of a tremendous hoof, thrusting the massive sphere forward, keeping its orbit. 

Occasionally peeking around the edges of the lunar surface, Luna stared at the massive objects before her. Three perfectly square crafts lie still in orbit of her world. The middle one was positioned slightly closer to the surface. She surmised that must be the lead ship, and that is where she would find her sister.

The moon lay in a geostationary orbit, not that Luna knew that or what that even meant. However, she was distinctly aware that such a low orbit left a rather large gap of empty space between the moon and the ships that she would still need to fly across. She would have to run the gauntlet and hope to make it to the other side.

As expected, she did not feel nearly as drained as she normally did after completing a rotation, thanks to her newly reacquired powers. She stared at her target contemplating where best to penetrate.

That robot had explained to her about the shields, weapons, and described several points of potential entry, none of which seemed reasonable. She would have to take a leap of faith and hope.

She closed her eyes tightly. If she could inhale, she would have deeply, but in space, only her magic sustained her.

“Relax…we’ll be with you the whole time,” the voice tried to reassure her.

It had the opposite effect. She would need to rely once again on the word of the voice, the same voice that led her astray all those years ago. It was not a comfort.

She crouched down low on the moon’s surface. Her eyes narrowed sharply on their target. With a large whoosh of her wings and quick kick off the ground, Luna sprung off the moon, launching herself toward the lead cube. 





Chrysalis wandered lost in the middle of the Borg cube, entirely unaware of where she was or where she was supposed to go. Each corridor looked identical to the last. She ran into over a dozen nodes of one color or another, attaching its corresponding device to each.

At one point she found herself facing a tremendous void in the middle of the ship. I looked like a tunnel so large that it could fit the whole of Canterlot twice over within its spaces. Chrysalis realized she must have reached the center of the ship, like an enormous castle in the center surrounded by a moat of empty space. The void was so massive, there was simply no easy way around it.





She turned back the way she had come and made a different turn. At once the incredible view was gone, replaced by the familiar, and almost never ending identical corridors.

After a time, Chrysalis started to feel fatigued. Maintaining the image of Princess Cadence was easy when everypony around her loved her. This abhorrent façade of a Borg drone would not even receive love from its own mother, let alone any living being on that ship.

She found a compartment of charging alcoves with no drones within. She quickly figured that all of them must be actively working at present, and she probably would not be caught.

She hastily climbed into one of the alcoves and locked herself in. The surge of energy whooshed through her. The tingling sensation triggering euphoria as it coursed through her veins. 

She would have loved to close her eyes and let experience take over her senses, but she would not lose caution to the wind. She was in a dangerous place and needed to maintain her wits about her. So her eyes remained open, vigilant, while her body replenished its energies.

Time had lost its meaning for her somewhat and after what felt like blissful years in the alcove immediately came to feel like seconds upon leaving. She managed to pull herself away though. She was strong enough to accomplish her mission and she needed to press on. Her freedom, and potentially her life, depended on it.

She continued on aimlessly, occasionally stumbling upon another node. The drones continued to ignore her, just as Picard had said. Her sense of danger started to diminish somewhat, that is, until she nearly walked into a scene that should not have been possible.

She rounded the corner of a particularly long corridor, leading off into a large chamber. Green lights from varying computers and machines glared brightly from every direction. There were no less than twenty Borg drones scurrying about in their soulless activities, and at its center was Princess Celestia.

Chrysalis blinked upon seeing the princess. She nearly called out to her, happy to see anyone she recognized, even if it was her former nemesis and jailer. However, she held her tongue and stayed off to the side in close observation. 

If the princess was here in the middle of all these drones, than it is likely she is their prisoner. She walked gingerly around the room, pretending to investigate charts and figures, occasionally glancing at the Alicorn. Something was different.

The princess’s fur was no longer white, but a dulling grey. Her crown wasn’t in fact a crown at all. It was some kind of machine. As she rounded on one side of the room she noticed a glowing red light covering one of her eyes. 

Chrysalis froze. 

“They’ve turned her into a drone!” she thought nervously. She started to ponder if this would become her fate as well; to have her mind and soul stripped away, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind. 

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the supposedly mindless drone of Princess Celestia suddenly spoke aloud.

“So… it would seem my dearest sister has come to try and rescue me… How wonderful.”

Chrysalis watched as the echoed voice coming from the princess ceased but her eyes twitched. Each twitch resulted in an action from one or more drones. A visual display appeared in front of Celestia, showing Princess Luna advancing towards them.

“Let’s have a little fun, shall we, dear sister?”

At once a large bolt of green energy shot out at Luna. Chrysalis watched in horror as the younger princess just managed to dodge the attack. 

“Princess Celestia is controlling them!” Chrysalis thought wildly. “And she’s attacking her own sister? What is going on here!?” 





Luna flew straight at the cube. There was no place left to hide. She would do everything she could to reach her sister. Then she saw the first green explosion of a Borg weapon.

A colossal fireball of brilliant emerald shot out from the lead cube. It was so massive that the princess would be nothing but a flick of dust in the path of it. With only seconds to respond, she dove as hard as she could, whilst throwing a shield around herself. 

The ball of flame whooshed by her, missing by mere inches. The heat from the flames scorched her shield, burning its energy, until it just popped. She survived, but if the next shot was any closer, she knew she would most likely burst into flames.

The energy from the Borg weapon continued its course behind Luna, impacting into the moon. A large black crater appeared behind the cloud of debris.  

Luna quickly decided it would be wiser to fly in a zigzag pattern, if anything, offering less of an easy target. After a second blast shot out from the cube, Luna was able to dodge it a little more easily. Then the Borg shot two more at her in a cross pattern. She swerved to squeeze through the narrow gap between them before it closed.

She slid through tightly, her shield burning away a second time. The fireballs converged just behind her. The impact of the two triggered a massive explosion. 

“Ahhhh!” Luna screamed. 

She was no match. Her shields broke, her outlying feathers burned, and she was thrown forward from the blast. In a daze, the blast carried her the rest of the distance to the cube. She suddenly felt the cold hard metal of the hull as she impacted into it. 

Her eyes were blurry, but she could just make out a hole in front of her, with lots of green light emanating from within. It was an opening into the ship. 

“I made it,” she said softly. 

She smiled briefly before losing consciousness.

> Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part I)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part I)

“Now!” Granny Smith yelled out. 

Big Macintosh bit through the rope on the first trap. Two massive tree trunks swooped down from the treetops. They impacted straight together, crushing into one of the drones. Completely squished, the remnants of the drone collapsed to the ground sparking.

The other drone started forward in their direction. 

“You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” the Borg drone spoke. 

“Well we’ll just have to see about that, you overgrown talkin’ garbage can!”

With a nod from Granny, Apple Bloom pulled the cord on her trap, sending a basket of eggs soaring high into the air. The Borg drone analyzed the incoming weapon and assessed the situation. Adjusting for the trajectory of the eggs, it side stepped out of their path. The eggs splattered harmlessly onto the ground, not a single egg hit the mechanized man. 

“I told’ya it wasn’t going to work!” Apple Bloom huffed, upset her little trap didn’t do anything to help.

“Actually, young’n… it worked perfectly,” Granny replied.

The drone started forward toward them again. With a single step, the drone fell right through the floor into a pit that had been disguised with leaves and twigs.

Apple Bloom started over toward the pit to see the trapped drone, but was suddenly stopped by Granny’s hoof.

“Hold it there, young’n. You won’t want to see that. Trust me.”

“But I want to see him stuck down there!” she complained now that her trap had suddenly worked better than she thought it would.

“I’m afraid this isn’t your usual playful trap there, Apple Bloom. This creature won’t be stirring no more. Best let him rest in peace down there.”

Granny Smith winked at Big Mac who, looked at his work in the pit and flinched. The Borg drone lay splayed upon jagged spikes that Big Mac had set up earlier. Granny trusted Big Mac was old enough to handle the reality of war, but Apple Bloom was far too young for such a harsh lesson in life.

Big Mac gulped and looked back at Granny. He grimly nodded his head.

“Well…” Granny started, “now that that’s settled, let’s reset these traps and keep making–”

Another three Borg drones appeared 

“I see they’re not going to give up so easily…” Granny Smith noted. “We’ll just have to prove that Apple Family Farm is not for sale!”





Swords were being parried by robotic arms. Spears snapped like twigs mid strike through the air. The Canterlot guard fought tooth and nail to make a dent in the drone lines, but they were simply endless. For every one drone that fell, ten more beamed down to take their place. 

Despite Worf and Data’s warnings, every other minute, a BFG would be fired. Bright flashes of light would be followed by groups of drones exploding into pieces in bright flashes throughout the kingdom. Additional drones continued beaming down throughout the city; some right in the middle of crowds. The two Starfleet officers knew all too well that with the weapon being so readily used, it was only a matter of time before the Borg adapted.

Worf was out in the field, wielding his Bat’leth, targeting those drones attempting to assimilate civilians. Data stayed with Twilight Sparkle within the confines of the palace. With both princesses now gone, she was in control of Equestria. She would have given anything to not have been given this responsibility.

The security of the brick walls of the palace meant nothing to the Borg, who simply beamed directly inside in their attempts to assimilate the head of state to quickly terminate any meaningful resistance. Guards fought hoof to hoof when necessary, but kept there last leader safe. 

“At this point,” Data started, “we should begin to consider possible alternatives in the situation.”

“I’m open to any ideas!” Twilight commented firing a beam of her own magic at the drones. 

Rather than attacking individual drones, she settled for creating shields around them to obstruct them. The guards could still penetrate the shields and quickly stabbed at the trapped intruders. 

“Since we have lost contact with the Enterprise, we need to assume that the Enterprise has been destroyed. I… I cannot think of any alternatives at present other than continuing to hold out as long as we can. My judgment is being affected by my emotion chip. It would be wise to deactivate it so I can process the steps required to ensure the survival of the species after the invasion has succeeded.”

Data looked perturbed. There was an argument being fought inside his head. That much, Twilight could see.

“How can you say 'after the invasion has succeeded'? And what do you mean ‘regrow the species’?”

“I have calculated our overall chances of survival at 0.389%. Our chances for the survival of the species increase to 4.697% if we can collect a sufficient number of genetically diverse subjects and hide them until the assimilation is over. After which we could attempt to rebuild the population. However, my judgement is currently in a conflicted state, preventing me from completing this alternative due to the hindrances of my emotion chip. I have been ordered to carry out the Equestrian leader’s orders, so that decision now falls to you. I would ask that you reconsider your predecessor’s decision to leave my emotion chip running during this crisis.”

There was an almost pleading in Data’s voice, though it was hard to tell from the straight face and even leveled tone of voice. But Twilight could see behind that. She would say it was through his eyes, but they were a still and steady as the rest of his android frame.

“What is your emotion chip telling you?” she asked softly but determined.

“It is difficult for me to comprehend the sensations of the emotion chip and associate words to them… but despite my analytical judgments, there is a part of me which says to hold out for the Enterprise… despite the odds.”

“Than that is exactly what we will do, Mr. Data,” said Twilight, smiling. 

Data looked puzzled. “I do not understand. Why would you take the lowest probable solution to such a difficult and dangerous situation?”

“Mr. Data, what you described just then, was your gut. It is your body telling you what the mind cannot see. That is the spirit with which we base our most difficult decisions on. And my gut agrees with yours. We will hold out hope for Captain Picard and the Enterprise.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”





Worf stabbed his Bat’leth into his twelfth drone. Signs of fatigue started to appear on his face. If the status quo did not change soon, they would not be able to hold out indefinitely. His thoughts carried across the streets of the city, and before his eyes, he saw the status quo suddenly change.

Pony citizens had been assimilated. Implants were hastily spread across their bodies. With no alcoves on the ground, and no technology to construct them readily, their technological abilities were limited. There would be no ocular implants, no exo-plating armor, no utility arms. But they had something far more threatening. They had magic.

One of Red Guard charged at the assimilated ponies, infuriated at their loss. Before he could get within ten feet of them, one the assimilated unicorns fired a beam of magic at the guard. The beam shielded thousands of Borg nanoprobes which, upon impact, buried themselves within the guard’s body and started work on his assimilation. 

Worf had witnessed the scene and realized the threat. “FALL BACK!!!” he shouted out to all who could hear. Unicorns out front! Shield anything that is fired at us!” 

The Unicorns within the Red Guard formed ranks in front of the others. Several more nanoprobe-filled beams were fired off at them, but the guard’s own magical shields protected them. Worf failed to realize the second threat from assimilated ponies.

Borg Pegasi soared down from the sky. Their nanotubules extended in a quick stabbing into the guards' necks as they whizzed by. All around them the lines were falling.





“Get to the barn, quick!” Granny Smith ordered as she attempted to run at a snail’s pace.

Big Mac scooped her up onto his back, lifted Apple Bloom up by the scruff of her neck with his teeth, and galloped into the barn at a pace that could have won the Pony Derby Championship. Once inside, he set them down and closed the barn door. He could see six more drones heading in their direction.

“How many more traps did we have set up?” Granny asked, genuinely forgetting how many traps they had set up.”

“Just this last one, Granny,” said Big Mac.

“Didn’t we still have the Bad Guy Sling Shot?”

“Ah-Nope!” Big Mac shook his head. “We just sent that last one flying over the orchard with that.”

“We did? Oh, well I guess this one will have to do then. What was this one again?”

The barn door burst open. The drones’ laser sights peered across the darkness of the barn. They found the three ponies huddled in the back.

Apple Bloom shouted at the top of her lungs, “RATTLESNACK!!!!!”

“A Rattler!? Where?” Granny Smith jumped.

Immediately dozens of loud noises resounded across the barn.

“MOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!”

Forty cattle cried out in a panic from the outcry of a rattlesnake. They charged straight towards the only source of light: the barn doors. The stampede ran straight through the drone line, bowling over them without stopping. By the time the last straggling cow scattered through the opening, there was barely anything left of the six drones other than pieces buried in the dirt.

“I’d say that about does it!” Granny said smiling as she stepped out to admire her work.

“Do you think it’s over?” Apple Bloom asked, not too sure.

“If those good-fer-nothings got any brains at all they’d stop while their behind!”

They waited in silence for another wave to follow. They were out of traps. They would be defenseless. But after full minute had passed with no sign of further attack, they started to breathe again.

"Looks like they're rethinking their strategy before messing with us again!" Granny smiled, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Come. Let's get a move on. Best get those traps set back up and add a few more fer good measure!"

Big Mac and Apple Bloom nodded with confidence.





“Where am I?” Princess Luna spoke softly, slowly regaining consciousness.

“Welcome dear sister,” a familiar yet strange voice replied.

Luna opened her eyes and gazed around. From the strange background and peculiar noises being produced around her, she surmised she was inside the ship. Standing before her was Princess Celestia.

“Big Sister!” she cried happily, starting to get up off the floor. She was about to embrace her when she stopped in her tracks. This was not the sister she had grown up with.

“Tia?” she asked hesitantly, fearing the truth. “Is that you?”

“Yes it is, dear sister. I have taken control of our foe. We are now as one!” 

“But these creatures are still attacking Equestria!” Luna cried. “You must make them stop!”

“They are not attacking Equestria.”

“They are not attacking?”

“No. They are joining with us so we may all become as one.”

Luna jerked back in reply. “If you were truly our sister, you would never allow such a thing to happen!” 

“Dear Luna, you do not understand. None of you ever do. When we are all as one, all pain and suffering goes away. We all live as billions of voices united in one. Is that not the best possible thing we could ever do for our people?” 

“Well… I-”

“Think of it Luna. Together we can bring the entire galaxy to peace and perfection.” 

“Listen to her…” the voice in Luna’s head hissed. “Together we can all rule united. Think of the power at your hooftips…”

Luna shook her head. “Sister, you are betrayed. These things have poisoned your mind. You are not in control of them. They are in control of you!”

“Dear sweet Luna. Don’t you see? They have selected me as their new queen. You were technically right. I am no longer Princess Celestia of Equestria. I have evolved. I have reached ever closer to perfection. I am Queen Celestus of Borg, and you can stand at my side, Dysnominox of Borg!” 

“Dysnominox?” Luna asked, thoroughly confused.

“I see you have regained certain powers you once held. It was wise to seek such power. You can use that power to aid me. Your new name shall reflect this power in your rebirth. Nightmare Moon reborn!” 

“Why not listen to her?” the voice persisted. “She’s right, with my power to aid you and control of these creatures, you would be more powerful than her. You could take control. You could usurp her power and become Queen!”

Luna’s lips were quivering. Her brain was in overload. On one side, if she didn’t accept she’d likely be made into just another one of those horrid things. If she did accept, the voice was partially right, she could use her powers to defeat her sister, restore her and rid Equestria of the creatures once and for all! But all that power could do so much more good. She could keep the power. She could take control and bring peace to her world and the galaxy. She could succeed Nightmare Moon. She would become Queen Dysnominox of Borg, ruler of the Galaxy!

Luna’s eyes flashed white. A small sound, like the breaking of glass could be heard by none but her. The protective spell had shattered. Nightmare Moon had been reborn.

“We will accept this role, dear sister and we will aid you to bring this chaotic universe to peace and under OUR rule!”

“Wonderful, dear sister! You have seen the path towards perfection. Come to us and embrace your destiny!” 
Nightmare Moon started forward towards her sister’s welcoming hooves.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!” a Borg drone suddenly screamed, running straight towards Luna.

> Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part II)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part II)

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!” a Borg drone suddenly screamed, running straight towards Luna.

Celestus neck snapped in surprise in the direction of the unknown Borg drone running straight for her.

“I cannot read your thoughts.” Celestus demanded, “Who are you?”

The drone ignored her. “Princess Luna! Do not forget who you are! You must stop her!”

“We are no longer Princess Luna,” was the reply. “We are Nightmare Moon and we shall become Dysnominox of Borg! Do not stop us.”

“No you’re not! You are Princess Luna of Equestria. You are the sister of Celestia. Was your sole purpose for daring to infiltrate this ship, with nothing but your magic to protect you from the weapons she fired at you, to simply come here just join her cause?”

Nightmare Moon paused. “We came here to save our sister. But we see now that there is nothing that requires saving.”

“That’s not true and you know it! Do you want to spend the rest of your life controlled by these things? Does Celestia look at peace at all?” 

Two real Borg drones grabbed the imposter by her shoulders and restrained her.

“If you came to save your sister, then save her!” Luna shouted again. “Don’t join her! I’ve heard the stories about Nightmare Moon. Remember who you are and how you felt when you finally became Princess Luna once more. Remember how you felt!”

“Don’t listen to her!” said the voice inside of Nightmare Moon. “We are one. We will rule together. You are me!”

“No,” Nightmare Moon whispered. “We vowed we would never be you again! I vowed I would NEVER be you again!” 

A second flash of light flickered in the eyes of the black Alicorn. The light dissipated and Luna’s softer eyes remained.

“I am here to rescue you dear sister, and I shall bring you home!” Luna announced proudly.

Celestus sighed, “Such a shame. You could have been so much more, but there is always room for another drone.

While Celestus was talking, a voice suddenly whispered into Chrysalis’s ear. 

“Chrysalis, this is Captain Picard. Are you still there?”

The shock the cried out through the changeling’s eyes immediately retreated into hiding. 

“They came back!” she thought, happy to hear the captain’s voice once again. She quickly tried to figure out a way to respond to him without letting Celestus become aware. 

“And you…” Celestus turned to the imposter drone. “I should have known. Trying to usurp my throne again, Chrysalis?”

“We will stop you Celestus!” Chrysalis spoke loudly with Picard listening on the line. “Luna and I have both tracked you here to the main control room and we will stop you!”

“Princess Luna is there as well?” asked Picard. “Listen, we are almost in position to come for you. Is the trap prepared?”

“It will be a great irony how you both came so far and worked so hard, only to end up as mindless drones who will assimilate those you love.” Celestus gave a harsh and curt chuckle to her own wit.

Chrysalis bounced off of the Borg queen’s words to reply to Picard. “We haven’t failed yet…”

Picard took that as a yes. “Good. If you can, try to get as close to the outer hull as possible. If you can’t, you must do what needs to be done. Release the trap. We’re on our way.” 

Chrysalis gulped. She knew all too well what that meant. If she couldn’t get herself and Luna out of this predicament, they were sitting ducks.

“And just what does that mean?” Celestus demanded, growing wary. 

Celestus quickly searched through the collective mind. One of the drones quickly discovered a foreign device attached to a power distribution node.

“No!” she whispered, realization dawning on her.

The fake drone morphed before the queen. The mechanical components of her absorbed into her pale clammy skin which darkened until it was pitch black, covered in matching fur. Her arms lengthened as her hand and arm apparatus morphed into hooves. Holes spread through her body as an elongated horn sprouted from her forehead and crystal-clear wings spread out from the center of her back. Chrysalis now stood before the queen in her original form, with one exception. The devices Picard had given her were strapped around her waist. 

Her metamorphosis loosened the drones’ grip on her long enough for her to buck them back. She grabbed the activation device from her side.

“Yes!” Chrysalis proudly replied, pressing the trigger on the device.






Onboard the Enterprise, Picard quickly spread the word.

“Picard to the fleet. Our package is being delivered. Standby to engage.”

Picard switched channels. “Picard to the Ferengi vessel, have your secured the vessel, Captain?”

Onboard the bridge of the Ferengi vessel, the lights were on and the air was flowing. Life support had returned. With her helmet removed from her protective suit, the captain breathed the fresh air of the room.

Nodding to her communications officer, the line was opened between the two vessels. 

Captain Twilight Sparkle’s image played on the view screen on the bridge of the Enterprise.

“Yes, Captain,” Future Twilight replied, smiling. “Engineering reports life support is back and all other systems are operating normally. This ship has now been renamed the ‘United Equestrian Ship Harmony’. Now we just need to figure out how to operate it.”

“Excellent. Fortunately Ferengi ships are possibly the easiest vessels to pilot in the quadrant, but you’re still going to need some good piloting skills behind the helm.”

“I’ve got my best flyer on it!” Captain Twilight said with a nod to her helmspony. 

Rainbow Dash was looking a little doubtfully at the buttons, switches, and controls, but when Twilight made that comment she straightened up in her chair, narrowed her eyes, and replied confidently. I got this!” 

Twilight looked less then convinced. “Captain, perhaps we should take a few more minutes to test things out.”

Back on the Enterprise, Riker called out, “Captain, Chrysalis has triggered the package!”

The view screen cut off from Twilight and switched to the lead cube. The green lights emanating from over one third of the ship suddenly went dark. Small explosions could be seen spreading outward from a central point.

Picard flipped back to Twilight. “No time. We need to launch now. As soon as you’re ready, enter the fray. We will protect you as long as we can. Good luck, Captain.”

“You too, Captain,” Twilight replied. 

The channel closed and Twilight opened another. “Bridge to Engineering.” 

Within the confines of the sweltering, cramped armpit that was the engineering section of the Ferengi ship, Reginald Barclay was covered head to toe in wires.

“Barclay here,” he said unconfidently.

“Reg. Are the engines ready?”

“Well, I-I… I just need to fix a few more things.”

“I thought all the systems were working?”

“Well… yes… technically they are, but…”

“But…?”

“But, if we d-d-don’t want t-t-t-to die horrible d-deaths, I need to get the engines ready to eject the warp c-c-core at exactly the right time.”

“Can’t we launch while you’re working?” Twilight asked, a hint of frustration steadily building in her voice.

“Well I s-s-suppose you could, but I w-w-ould need to get to–”

Twilight closed the channel.

“Helm, you ready to do this?”

“Aye Ma’am!” she said, positioning herself as though she were about to fly this ship with her wings.

“Tactical, how are weapons looking?”

“It’s just point and punch, Cap’n,” said Applejack. “You tell me what ter hit, and I’ll give ya the best darn sharpshooting you never did see from an Apple farmer!”

Twilight wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or bad thing, but Applejack certainly looked ready.

“Comm., stay on the line and listen up for the Captain or anything else we need to know about. Let me know the second you hear anything.”

“Yes of course, Twilight dear… I mean: Yes, Captain,” said Rarity.

“Mr. Pinkie!” said Twilight.

Pinkie Pie was seated next to the captain in the first officer’s chair with her head upside-down and her hind legs waving in the air. “Hi Twilight!” she replied, smiling widely.

“Pinkie, why are you upside-down?” Twilight asked, cocking her head to try and look her in the eyes right-side up.

“We’re in space silly. There is no upside-down!”

“Oookay. Mr. Pinkie, keep your eyes out.”

“Eye Eye Captain Twi! With two Eyes!” she said with both eyes bulging outward as she saluted. The salute caused Pinkie to lose her balance entirely. She collapsed to the floor, landing on her head. She sat up to find birds flying wobbly around her head in a dizzy.

Twilight shook her head. “Helm, how fast can we catch up to the other ships?”

Rainbow smiled slyly. “Ten… seconds… flat!”

Twilight nodded. “Make it so.”





One hour and fifteen minutes before the Borg arrived at the Defensive Perimeter…

From within Holodeck 1 aboard the Enterprise, Captain Picard was explaining the EMP device to Chrysalis.

“Once you use it, you will be on the run…” said Captain Picard gravely.

Chrysalis gulped at the gravity of the situation. Her mind worked back and forth trying to process so much new information. The question that finally rose from her mind was one she never could have expected from herself.

“What happens to these Borg when the EMP goes off? With the machines dead, would they return to their old selves and help me?”

Picard frowned. “Unfortunately, the Borg’s relationship to its technology is symbiotic. One cannot survive without the other. Those machines regulate their bodily functions. When they go offline, the host will die.”





The explosions going off all around her caused Celestus to rage with anger. Her mind was working away trying to locate any unexploded devices and deactivate them, but she found hundreds of her drones were not responding. They had somehow all entered regeneration cycles and no longer processed her commands.

Chrysalis knew she had to move quickly. She tried to sneak over toward Princess Luna so they could run together. 

Celestus snapped her mind back to the room and shot daggers straight at the changeling.

“YOU DID THIS!!!” she screamed charging straight for her.

Chrysalis looked mournfully at Luna. “I’m sorry,” was all she could muster. She closed her eyes tight and squeezed the trigger on the electronic box at her side. 

A burst of lightning shot outward in a ring that appeared to penetrate straight through the walls and continue forward. Everything the ring touched flickered, sparked, and then died. With Celestus’s hoof outstretched and her eyes boiling with anger, she dropped inches away from Chrysalis’s neck.

“NOOOOOO!!!! Luna screamed running to her sister’s side. She picked up her sister in her hooves and shaking her. “Tia!” she called. “Wake up! Please! Answer me!” She turned to Chrysalis. “What have you done to her?” she demanded.

“Princess, I’m sorry,” she tried to explain. “I had no choice.”

Luna was about pounce on her for making such a cold statement, but something caught her attention. She leaned her face until it was barely an inch away from her sister’s. She could feel it.

“She’s breathing!” Luna proclaimed; her eyes blotchy, and her nose beginning to sniffle. “Help me get her up!”

Chrysalis stared in amazement. “That’s not possible,” she whispered under her breath, but Luna could hear her and cast a penetrating glare at her.

“You can either help me rescue my sister, or I can kill you now for what you’ve done!”

Chrysalis was taken aback. “No… it’s not like… I just… I’m glad she didn’t…” She lost her words. Since she couldn’t explain herself, she decided instead to help as the Alicorn had demanded. They each took a hoof over their shoulder and dragged her out of the room.

In truth, Chrysalis really was glad Celestia was somehow still alive, and not just because her freedom probably depended on it. She would never admit this to either of them, but Chrysalis never wanted to be the villain. She actually wanted to be the hero her saved her people, but her last desperate attempt failed so poorly, in the end, it was Princess Celestia who actually saved her people. Regardless of the ways things turned out, she was grateful for that, and she owed more than just her freedom to the princess for it.





Borg Pegasi scoured the skies, dive-bombing down into the crowd. Palace archers shot off arrows left and right attempting to bring them down to no avail. The Pegasi would simply dodge each attack. Not a single arrow made contact with its target. 

The Pegasi bared down the archers, poised for assimilation, when a streak of rainbow came soaring out from the clouds. 

Present-day Rainbow Dash had been holding out for as long as she could stomach not doing anything until ordered, but she had had enough. Her acceleration pushed her faster and further. She needed to time it just right for it to work.

The flying Borg realized something was approaching and attempted to adapt to the situation, but they simply weren’t fast enough.

Rainbow’s tail followed in her wake as she jetted down from the sky, bouncing just above the drones’ heads. The massive Sonic Rainboom burst forth from the epicenter of her touchdown. The blast flashed through the drones as a rainbow mushroom cloud rose up from the blast. None of the Pegasi drones remained.

“Awwww Yeaaaaah!” Rainbow celebrated, the Rainboom spreading outward in the sky.

On the ground, the scared ponies took the beauty of it as a sign. A sign that they can fight. A sign that they can win! Citizens and guards alike took to arms and burst forth after the drones down on the ground. 

Worf was lying on the ground. His last kill had used up every last drop of his strength. When he heard the battle cries of everypony around him, he felt his spirit lifted. He turned over onto his back and saw it.

The Sonic Rainboom was still spreading outward; a massive multi-colored ring shining down onto him. He could feel its radiation rejuvenating him. His skin felt alive. The cold metals of his blade felt soothing to his hand.

“It is a good day to die…” he said softly. He thrust himself off the ground, his blade at the ready. “…but not for me!”





Lyra and Bon-Bon has gotten themselves lost in the palace. With the onslaught of strange creatures, they were ushered away from the princess and started to be escorted back outside until more creatures suddenly appeared. The guards left the two of them behind while they focused their efforts on the fight. 

The stranded ponies tried to find their way back outside, but just kept getting turned around by another guard fighting another monster.

Eventually, they turned down yet another endless hallway, but this one had no monsters or guards running through it. They took a chance and tried to see where it might lead.

“Bon-Bon,” Lyra started, “I don’t think we’re supposed to be here. I haven’t even seen a guard in the last ten minutes.”

“That’s because they’re busy protecting us,” Bon-Bon tried to reassure her. 

“Are you sure this is the way out?”

“For the last time, Lyra, I have no idea. But it’s the only hallway with no monsters in it, so I’m going down it!”

Lyra nodded noncommittally. She followed her friend as they continued forward. At the end of the corridor, they found themselves staring down a dark spiral staircase. A musty aroma emanated from within. For some reason, Bon-Bon could have sworn she heard the sounds of puppies barking.

“I don’t think this is the way out,” Bon-Bon confessed. “I thought maybe we could have stumbled upon a side entrance or something, but this clearly isn’t it.”

She tried to keep positive for Lyra’s sake, but she was finding it more and more difficult to hide just how scared she was.

“We better go back to where there are more guards around,” she suggested. “You know… to ask one how to leave the palace of course,” she quickly added.

Lyra clearly wasn’t fooled, but was also in complete agreement. She nodded rigorously and quickly shot around to head back in the other direction. Her head smacked straight into a black suit of armor. 

She looked up int the pale gray face of one of those monsters staring straight back down at her. His arm was already reaching for her.

“Lyra!” Bon-Bon cried.

The tubes launched outward and immediately collapsed. The rest of the drone quickly followed suit, collapsing to the ground with a spear sticking straight out of his back.

Lyra almost passed out, but a voice snapped her back.

“Are you girls alright?” A figure further down the hallway called out. The figure approached them until it took the shape of a rather handsome Palace guard.

Lyra was still dazed from what had just happened. Bon-bon, on the other hoof, was in a different state. Her eyes lost focus as she swooned over her rescuer. 

“I-um… that was… um-thank you!” she finally managed to say through her blushing.

“Thank me later,” the guard snapped back. “If you girls want to survive, you’ll come with me right now!” He extended his hoof toward them.

Bon-Bon grasped it gently. “I’m… I’m Bon-Bon… Oh and this is Lyra.”

“Lyra, Bon-Bon, I’m Arrow Point. Now if we’re through with introductions, come on!” He yanked her hard and trotted off back down the hallway. 

“Wait up!” Lyra called out, scared of being left behind. 

A faint “yip” followed her out.

“What was down that stairwell?” Lyra asked as they ran. “It sounded like puppies."

“That’s the dungeon,” Arrow replied.

“Why are there puppies in a dungeon?” Bon-Bon followed up.

“It’s a long story.”

> Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part III)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part III)

“Picard to Data,” the voice came over the communications channel.

Data flipped a Borg drone straight over himself, from back to front, twisting its neck as it landed. For the moment the throne room was Borg free.

“Data here, Captain,” he replied contentedly. “It is good to hear your voice.”

“Data, we’re launching a counter-attack as we speak, what is the situation on the ground?”

“The invasion of the planet has commenced. We are presently holding the main forces back, but reinforcements are continually beaming down. It is unlikely we will be able to contain them for much longer.”

“Do what you can. We’ll try to stop additional troops from beaming down from up here. Picard out.”

The channel closed and Data looked at Twilight in surprise. 

“Looks like your gut was right after all, Data,” Present-Day Twilight commented, smiling.

“It would appear so,” Data replied thoughtfully.

Another two drones appeared in the room. 

“Then let’s keep this momentum going, shall we?” Twilight said, her horn glowing at the ready.

Data brandished one of the guard’s spears. “Saddle up. Lock ‘n load.”





In the aftermath of the explosions onboard the lead cube, the other two cubes quickly altered their orbits defensively. As the remaining fleet entered the engagement zone, Picard took the lead.

“Picard, to all vessels. We need to concentrate our fire on the lead cube. With its current damage, it is our best shot for taking it out. Captain Dax, when the ponies onboard the lead cube are within beaming range, cloak if you have to, but get them out of there.”

“Aye, Captain,” the Defiant’s captain replied.

“All ships… Engage,” Picard ordered.

The Enterprise, Defiant, and Klingon and Romulan ships entered the fray while the U.E.S. Harmony readied itself for its approach. The Klingon ship immediately cloaked and veered off from the group. The Romulans did the same. Lastly, the Defiant disappeared into empty space. To the three Borg cubes bearing menacingly ahead of them, it appeared as though only one ship was on the approach; one ship, running the gauntlet: the Enterprise.

The Borg were quick to reply. They positioned themselves with the two undamaged cubes out in front and the heavily damaged cube protected behind them. The Enterprise made no attempts at a course correction; no maneuver to evade attack. It continued on course, straight for them.

“Hold her steady,” Picard commanded his helmsman.

As they neared the cubes, the green lights from within started to glow brighter. It was all too obvious what was coming.

“Ready on my mark,” said Picard.

The green lights collected into multiple beams the shot out at the ship.

“Now!” Picard yelled.

The ship lurched as it rapidly entered warp. The beams passed straight through where the Enterprise had been moments before. The Enterprise reappeared less than a moment later on the other side of the cubes, aft torpedoes immediately firing at the damaged cube.

The Klingon ship decloaked right beside the Enterprise firing into the same location. The Romulan ship and Defiant waited. When the two healthy cubes maneuvered to intercept, the two ships decloaked and fired off into the areas Picard had recommended on the healthy cubes. The Borg weaponry momentarily ceased on both cubes. They were vulnerable, if only for a moment.

All ships started attacking at will. A tractor beam would be launched from a cube onto one ship, only to have it readily destroyed by another. 

“Any sign of the ponies onboard the lead cube?” asked Picard.

“Nothing yet,” Dax replied. “They need to get closer to the hull if they can.”

“Picard to Chrysalis, report.”

Chrysalis and Luna were wandering aimlessly from corridor to corridor. Every alcove they passed had a drone inside it, apparently asleep.

“Hold up a second, Princess,” Chrysalis told her.

Luna was still angry, but stopped. “Why do we need to stop?”

“Because I have Captain Picard on the line and he’s the only one who can help us now.”

Luna had almost forgotten why Chrysalis was there in the first place. She nodded softly. 

“Chrysalis here, Captain,” she said into the comm. “Can you get us out of here yet?”

“You need to get closer to the hull. Can you do that?”

“I don’t even know which way the hull is!” she cried in frustration. 

Luna was angry again. “You mean to tell me that I’ve been following somepony who doesn’t even know how to get out of here!?”

“Captain, can you help us?” Chrysalis asked again, ignoring Luna’s comment.

Picard was trying to think. It would be too difficult to directly guide them in the midst of a battle.

Finally it was Discord who spoke up. “I’ll take care of it, Captain,” he said plainly.

His face was resolute and confident. There was no pompous arrogance or deviousness in his expression. 

It completely threw Picard for a loop. “Chrysalis, stand by,” said Picard, closing the channel and staring at Discord. “You? You’re going to help them?” 

“Don’t be so shocked, Jean-Luc. As I said before, I have as much at stake as you do.”

“And what if something happened to you? If you’re captured or killed this all ends!”

“It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump Captain,” Discord reassured him. “I’ll just flash over there, grab them, and flash right back.”

“Q, I told you before. I forbid you to use the powers of the Q. It is too dangerous!”

“Relax, Captain. Relax. I’m only going to use the powers of the Draconequus. No universe-shrinking powers. I promise. Just get me as close as you can to the cube.”

“How close?”

“I’ll let you know.”

Picard frowned as he weighed his options. It really only boiled down to the one option.

“Fine,” he said, reopening the channel. “Chrysalis, keep trying to get as close as you can to the hull. We’re sending help to get you.”

“Thank you, Captain,” said Chrysalis. She looked at Luna who was eager to hear what the captain had said.

“Someone’s coming to get us, but we need to keep trying to find the hull.”

“Let’s get going then,” Luna said, looking straight ahead. 

With Celestia on their backs, they continued down another corridor, looking for the way out.



 

Down on the ground, the city of Canterlot was in chaos. With the drones ignoring boundaries, guards, and groups, they appeared right in the middle of crowds of civilian ponies. The panic and scattering made it nearly impossible to navigate the city. But that’s just was five ponies were attempting to do.

With the kick-start from Rainbow’s Sonic Rainboom, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy sprang into action.

Fluttershy without being told and without hesitating became the beacon of salvation for the young fillies and colts. Every little pony she found orphaned in the fight she swooped down upon them like an eagle capturing its prey. 

But with no intentions of eating her catch, Fluttershy brought the distraught little filly out of harms way into the nearby forest, away from the fighting. Many of them were quite shocked to see a great bear with sharp teeth and long claws waiting to greet them. 

Fluttershy set the little filly down in front of the bear, who amazingly smiled at her. It was too much for the child who quickly broke-down into tears again.

“It’s okay, dear,” Fluttershy cood. “Mr. Bear is here to protect you from any baddies. He won’t hurt you. And look; there are others here too.” 

She pointed to growing group of young ponies hiding behind their bear protector. They waved cautiously, still nervous themselves from all that had happened. Slowly, they young filly walked over to them. When she turned back, Fluttershy was already gone, flying back to rescue more of them.

While Fluttershy took the children from harm’s way, Rarity and Applejack were making their rounds to keep Borg away from the crowds.

Applejack was running full speed with Rarity a short distance away. 

“You ready, Rarity?” she called out.

“Oh I hope this works,” she replied.

“Let’s round ‘em up!”

Applejack grabbed a rope from her back and quickly spun it around to build up speed. She launched it over the heads of a dozen Borg drones that had been bearing on a nearby group of civilians. 

Rarity just caught the rope and galloped around clockwise while Apple run full steam in the opposite direction. In a dizzying circle, the drones were quickly tied together in a bundle.

Before they could even take a breath, the drones already had their cutting tools working through the ropes so they quickly became untied.

“Now! Quickly!” Applejack shouted upward. 

From the sky a team of Pegasi released their payloads. A gift from Princess Twilight, hundreds of magically modified parasprites descended onto the drones. Rather than consuming normal foods, the bugs devoured the components of Borg technology, stripping the drones of most of their machinery. 

After that, the palace guards moved in and dispatched the defenseless drones, now attired in their Borg birthday suits.

“Yeeeeee-haaaa!” shouted applejack. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

The parasprites swarmed over to a second group of drones and devoured their implants, but upon reaching the third group, their mouths were stopped by adapted Borg shielding.

Meanwhile Pinkie-Pie was flinging pies as fast as she could throw them. Jams, jellies, creams, cakes, anything and everything she fired off at the baddies. Some struck the drones dead in the face, temporarily blinding them long enough for the guards to do their thing, but more and more, the Borg anticipated them and adapted. Pinkie was running out of desserts to throw.





Onboard the U.E.S. Harmony, Future Rainbow was flying the ship at a dizzying pace. Within minutes she found herself performing maneuvers most Starfleet cadets have never dreamt of trying. 

Beam and Beam shot out at their ship, but Dash merely dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged through the engagement zone. Meanwhile the rest of the crew was starting to turn green. Even the inertial dampeners couldn’t keep up. 

“Rainbow, please!” yelled Captain Twilight. “Try to keep the ship a little more steady.”

“But this is so cool!” Rainbow protested. “The enemy can’t even touch us!” 

“That’s an order, Helm!”

Rainbow muttered quietly to herself. “Aye, Captain,” she finally replied.

The ship steadied itself, it only a little. Rainbow still needed to evade being shot at.

When the Twilight’s last meal finally moved back down to her stomach, she turned to Applejack. 

“Are we good on weapons?”

Applejack shook her head until her eyes stopped spinning.

“I think so, Cap’n. What should I shoot?”

“Only shoot when other ships are in trouble. Remember, we need to stay quiet for as long as possible until we launch our gift.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Twilight to Engineering. Are we ready to launch?”

Reg was seated in the middle of the room, covered up to his waist in wires. One area of wires was covered in Reg’s previous stomach contents.

“It would g-go a lot f-f-faster if you could hold the ship steady for t-t-t-two minutes!”

“Sorry, Reg. I think we’ve got it under control now.” 

Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash who turned beet red.

“How much longer do you need?”

Reg looked around the room. As messy as it was, the engine was working smoothly, the warp core had already been disconnected, and the system had been rigged trigger an overload and jettison the core within seconds. 

“I think I almost got it. Just n-need one of you t-t-to come and enhance the core.”

“Great, I’m on my way,” said Twilight, closing the channel. “Mr. Pinkie, you have the con.”

Pinkie looked at Twilight confused. “I’m not a crook. I swear! Those colts wanted to give me their cupcakes!”

“Pinkie, I mean you are in charge while I go help Reg.”

“OOOhhhh! That makes much more sense. Okie-dokie-lokie!”

Twilight shook her head and started to leave the bridge. She quickly looked back at everypony.

“Keep everything together until I get back, okay?”

“You can count on me!” Pinkie sung.

“You betcha!” said Applejack.

“Yes, of course we will,” said Rarity. “Good luck, darling.”

“You too,” said Twilight. She left the bridge and headed for engineering.





“Take us in,” Picard ordered. 

The Enterprise thrust forward into the heart of the battle. Explosions sounded as their impact shook through the hull. 

“Shields are down to forty-eight percent,” Geordi announced.

“Hold course. Hold much closer, Q?”

“As close as you can, Picard. I’ll flash over as soon as it’s close enough.”

Another explosion burst out directly in front of them. It was friendly fire from the Klingon ship.

“Picard to the fleet, we’re going to attempt to drop off Q onboard the lead cube. Target the other cubes while the Enterprise gets into range.”





Chrysalis and Luna were nearing their wits end. Every corridor looked the same. Every alcove filled with sleeping drones. Nothing to clue them as to their whereabouts. 

“I need to rest a bit,” Chrysalis said, her throat dry and her body shaking.

“No!” Luna replied tersely. “You will help me rescue my sister and you will not stop!”

Chrysalis answered in the form of collapsing to the ground.

“Get up!” Luna decried.

Chrysalis just shook her head exhaustedly.

“Get up, I said!”

“I’m sorry.”

Chrysalis could feel the hatred burning in Luna’s heart. It’s black aura worked to drain her even faster than just a lacking of affection had on its own. She could feel herself weakening by the second.

Chrysalis started to close her eyes, entering a sleep she was not sure she would ever wake up from, when a strange figure appeared before her. Through her blurry eyes she could just make out some of its more distinguishing features, such as two entirely different horns on the top of its head.

“Discord,” she whispered.

“Looks like I needed to get here a little sooner.”

“Discord!” Luna shouted in surprise. “How did you get here?”

“I still have some powers, you know,” Discord replied, soundly slightly insulted. “Now let’s see what we have here.”

He looked over at the changeling, who looked extremely slickly. 

“Just leave her. Let’s get my sister out of this place,” Luna replied coldly.

“Now, now. Let’s not be rude. You do know why she came here in the first place right?”

“She only seeks her freedom. If she had her way, she would have taken that freedom and used to attack Canterlot again!”

“Quite wrong, your majesty. Quite quite wrong. She came here to fulfill a debt to your elder sister. A debt for saving her people.”

“I’d say that debt will be left unfulfilled,” said Luna. “She tried to kill my own sister.”

“She did what she was told to do in order to save you! When you truly understand that, you will realize that you are as much in her debt as she is in Celestia’s. Now, let me have a look.”

He leaned in over the changeling, until there faces were inches apart. He opened his mouth and breathed on her.

For Chrysalis, it was the most revolting thing that had every happened. His breath was putrid, and she was too weak to turn away. But he stayed, transfixed on her. Breathing an aura through him into her.

The aura wasn’t love. Q could never amount to something as primitive as love. It was something else entirely. Almost like respect, with an air of amused affection. It wasn’t love, but it was enough to rejuvenate the changeling.

Chrysalis coughed, still trying to avoid the creature’s bad breath and sat up straight. Discord stopped his breathing into her and helped her to her hooves.

“All better?” he asked tenderly.

Chrysalis sighed. “I’m okay now.”

“Good. Then let’s adjourn from this dreary place.”

“How do we get out of here?” Luna asked.

“Oh that’s easy it’s just a sn–”

A great explosion wrang out. Debris flew through the air in every direction. The entire ship lurched from the impact and tilted into a spiral. Sparks shot out of various consoles. A dust cloud fogged the room. Chrysalis and Luna slowly got back onto the hooves and tried to see what had just happened.

When their eyes adjusted, they discovered Discord, attached to the wall, with a pipe sticking out of his chest.

> Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part IV)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part IV)

The lead cube lost most of its stabilizers from the impact of the blast. It spun slowly, but uncontrollably along the all three axes. An entire corner of the cube, roughly an eighth of the ship was simply gone. 

The Enterprise itself was forced to alter course and dive to avoid being damaged in the wake of the weapon used. The shockwave hit them regardless, and the Enterprise was thrown back away from the cube. 

“Report! Just what the hell was that?” Picard screamed, pulling himself back into the chair he had been thrown from.

Geordi scrambled to his terminal and started reviewing the logs. 

“Sir… That came from the Romulan Warbird!”

“OPEN A CHANNEL TO THEM!!!” he screamed, his blood boiling.

Admiral Tomalak appeared on the main viewer smiling, apparently oblivious that he nearly destroyed the Enterprise along with the Borg cube.

“Need something Captain?” asked the Admiral mockingly.

“Firstly, I expressly forbade you to fire on the lead cube while we were trying to rescue our party onboard. SECOND… That was not a Romulan weapon you fired. What did you do, Admiral?”

“Captain, Captain… Don’t you see that I saved your life? Why, that cube was about to destroy you when we intervened, entirely at of the goodness of our hearts.”

“You used magic, didn’t you?” Picard accused, knowing full well the answer.

“We simply took the opportunity to learn more about what this fight was all about and how best to succeed. You would have, and have done, the same in your position, Captain.”

“Your stupidity nearly cost us everything! Q is onboard that cube! If he’s captured or killed, the game is over, Admiral. Restrain your dog. When this is over, Don’t be surprised if Q stops you or I or anyone from access to magical science.”

A flash of green impacted into both ships. Each vessel shook under the pressure from the weapons fired by the other cubes.

“I’m afraid we shall need to deal with this later, Captain. As you can see, we have a fight to finish.”

With that, the admiral closed the channel abruptly, leaving a red-faced Captain Picard behind.

Onboard the Romulan Warbird, rather than angry, Tomalak was overjoyed at the situation. 

“Well done, Lieutenant! Well done!”

Lieutenant Kitara bowed slightly in acknowledgement of her accomplishment. 

“How soon can we fire the weapon again?” the admiral asked, excitement building readily.

“It will take more time to absorb enough of the magic particles into the ship’s systems before we can fire another volley. But the longer we store up energy, the more powerful the blast can be. However, it will require at least an hour to recharge the capacitors to the level we just fired with.”

Tomalak didn’t like the idea of one hour delays between shots. He would have to plan his attacks strategically. “Let me know the moment we can fire again.”

“Yes, Sir.” 





Chrysalis and Luna stood in horror of the scene before them. Discord lay against a wall, hoisted off the ground by the pipe sticking clean through his chest. The pipe was positioned straight through the middle of the creature. Nopony could have survived such a wound.

“Ow-wee!” 

Twin stunned faces gaped at the creature suddenly coming back to life in front of them.

Discord shook his head, cracked his neck from one side to the other, then scratched the area around the pipe.

The two ponies’ jaws dropped to the floor simultaneously.

“Shouldn’t you be dead?” Chrysalis asked, looking him up and down for anything that could have possibly explained this.

“Why? Did you think a little pipe could hurt me?” He pushed himself off of the pipe, landing on his feet as though he had merely hopped down from a barstool. He stretched out and cracked his back some more.

“That pipe went straight through your heart!” Luna protested. “By all accounts, you should not be alive.”

“Oh pish posh!” said Discord, waving his hands in dismissal. “I would never keep my vital organs in such an exposed place.”

“Then where…” Chrsyalis tried to ask, but merely trailed off as her imagination completely failed to provide any possible explanation.

“Now, now, a girl never tells! Shall we adjourn to a more hospitable locale?”

Discord clicked his fingers and waited to reappear onboard the bridge of the Enterprise. To his surprise, he found himself and the two ponies still standing onboard the Borg cube.

“Oh poo!” Discord sulked. “The pipe most have hit my teleportation gland. I knew I should have put that somewhere else!”

“So what do we do now?” asked Luna.

“I guess it has to be the old fashioned way.” Discord tapped his little comm. badge from Picard. “Oh Captain, my Captain. It would seem we’ve hit a bit of a snag and will need some assistance from our gracious host.”

Picard’s voice came through the comm. garbled from static. “I’m a little busy at the moment, Q. Can’t you transport yourself back?”

“I’m afraid that capability has been momentarily blocked.”

“We still can’t beam you out of there until you’re closer to the hull, can you manage to get there?”

“Fortunately my exceptional sense of direction was unharmed. We are not that far now.”

“We need to launch soon, I’ll send the Defiant, but you’ll only have one chance. If you’re not there in ten minutes, you won’t be getting off that cube!”

“We’ll be there Captain,” Discord said confidently.

“Picard out.”

The channel closed. Discord looked at the two of them. “We may need to speed things up a bit. I may have exaggerated how close we really are.”

“What do you mean?” asked Chrysalis nervously. “How long will it take?”

“Between carrying Luna’s sister and my unfortunate wound, I’d say closer to twenty minutes.”

Both ponies gulped. “We better get moving then,” said Luna. 





“Helm! Swirl around the cubes in a circle as fast as you can! Tactical! Fire at anything green except those friendly greens!” 

Pinkie’s command was anything but conventional. The only advantage was, with such overwhelming randomness, the Borg found it difficult to adapt to her patterns. 

“Pinkie, Captain Twilight says they’re nearly finished charging the core thing,” Rarity reported. “She wants to know when to release the trap.”

“How should I know?” asked Pinkie.

“I think she means to contact Picard and ask him, Pinkie,” Applejack commented.

“Oh! Okie-Doke! Rarity could get the shiny-domed person on the line?”

With the connection established, Picard stared back at them on the main screen.

“Are you nearly ready to deploy the weapon?” he asked.

Pinkie saluted for some reason. “Yes sir! Captain! Sir!”

“Good,” Picard replied, ignoring any outlandish antics from Pinkie. “We are going to attempt one last rescue of the stranded ponies onboard the cube. Get into position and try to avoid provoking the cubes. Launch as soon as you get the word. Then get the hell out of there. Understood?”

Pinkie crossed her chest with her hooves, waved them, and stuck one in her eye.

Picard was at a loss. “Is that a yes?”

Applejack cut across. “That’s a yes, Captain. We’ll be ready.”

“Good. Picard out.”

“What?” Pinkie asked in reply to the stares she was getting from Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash.





“Come about!” Commander K’vada yelled aboard the Klingon Bird of Prey. “We’re going through the bottleneck!”

“Sir?” one of his subordinates questioned, trying to understand the order.

“We’re going to run the gauntlet, right between the gap between those two cubes.”

“That’s suicide, Commander!”

“Do it or relieve yourself, Lieutenant!” K’vada barked.

“Aye, Sir.”

The Bird of Prey flipped around, straight on course to run between the two massive ships. 

“Ready the disrupters, but do not fire. Wait until their soft underbelly is fully exposed.”

The crew had no idea what their leader was planning but was fairly sure it would involve a trip to Stovokor. The IKS Hegh’ta had fought many successful campaigns. Their commander had fought many more, but in all that time, the crew or its ship had never attempted such a risky maneuver. Before they neared even a hundred kilometers, the energy blasts of Borg weaponry shot out to greet them.

A tractor beam locked onto them, only to be released by a quantum torpedo from the Enterprise.

“Evade their pitiful attempts and hold her steady on course,” said the commander, eyeing the scene carefully.

The helmsman dodged shot after shot as it neared the gap. The Bird of Prey paled in comparison to the size of the massive cube, but in that lay their advantage.

“Prepare to fire, but wait for my command.” 

All around them, shots burst forth from both cubes aimed straight at the ship. The Helmsman evaded most shots, but the occasional shot would impact the shields and drain them down to the bone. 

“Arrgh! I said evade those weapons you useless bloodworm!”

The commander threw his helmsman out of the chair, and took control. He spun the ship wildly in a circle as blasts from the cubes missed the ship and impacted instead into the other cubes.

“Target those impact points and FIRE!!!” he screamed.

The red glow of the disruptors shot across filling the holes left by the impacts of the Borg’s friendly fire. Secondary explosions burst forth from each opening.

The crew cheered their commander who flipped over and headed for another run of the gauntlet. Once again the Borg shot out weapons to stop them and resulted in further damaging themselves in the process. The Hegh’ta helped the process along further opening their wounds for them.

“That’s how you take on two giants!” K’vada yelled, reveling in his great feat. He only just caught sight of it, but after it was too late to do anything about it. The gap between the two cubes closed together at one end until the two cubes smashed into one another. 

“For the Empire!” was all K’vada could say before his ship impacted into the Borg ships. The explosion was massive up close with damage reeking havoc all around, but from the perspective of the two cubes in their entirety, it was nothing more than a large dent in their sides.





Across the comm. channel, Jadzia Dax’s voice echoed in the endless Borg corridor, of countless more Borg corridors. And within that maze of endless passages, Discord, Chrysalis, Luna, and the still unconscious Celestia were struggling to reach their goal.

“Chrysalis, Q, are you almost at the rendezvous point?” she asked hoping for the right answer.

“Not just yet,” Chrysalis admitted, huffing as she ran to get there. “We need a few more minutes.”

“I’m afraid you don’t have it. We simply can’t hold out any longer. You’ve got one more minute!”

Chrysalis and Luna shared a worrisome glance. In silent agreement, they nodded. Luna thrust the bulk of her sister up onto her back as best she could. Her wings spread wide, the powers of Nightmare Moon still flowing through her system. Chrysalis spread her own wings lifting off the ground and scooping up Discord in her hooves.

Discord did not fight. The two ponies shot off down the corridor at lightning speeds despite the weight of their burdens.

“Left… Right… Right… Left…” Discord directed as they sailed down hall after hall. 

“Are you ready?” Dax asked again, sounding more urgent.

“Nearly… there…” Discord answered.

“I don’t have any more time!” Dax yelled.

The group entered a large chamber with a massive wall in front of them and bridges connecting all around. The massive wall was the inside of the hull. 

“NOW!!!” Discord shouted.





The defiant decloaked as it soared by the lead cube. 

“Get them out of there!” Captain Dax yelled from the Captain’s chair.

Within the transporter room the familiar glow of hazy blue particles began circulating along each transport pad. The outlines of three ponies and a Draconequus started to appear, not that the transporter chief had any idea was a Draconequus looked like. 

The ship banged hard, sending its crew flying. The Defiant had taken a massive hit to the engines. The shields had failed and the damage was irreversible. 

“Report!” Dax screamed through the haze of smoke from small fires that cropped up along the terminals in the rear of the bridge.

“Warp drive is offline, Engine 1 is offline, and Engine 2 is down to thirty percent power. We’ve lost weapons and shields.”

Dax wiped the streak of blood trickling down her forehead. “What about the Equestrians? Did we get them?”

The transport chief floundered about trying to get back to his terminal. The transporter had only reached fifty percent reconstitution. 

“I’ve got their patterns, but I need more power!”

“Helm, get us out of here!” Dax commanded. 

The Defiant limped away from the lead cube, which had turned and now set its sights on the crippled ship. An energy blast shot out only to impact into the saucer of the Enterprise instead, which swooped in to take the hit away from the Defiant.

“Defiant, are you alright?” Picard asked over the line.

“Thanks, Captain. You saved our asses. We need to make an emergency landing. Can you keep them off our backs?”

“We’ll do what we can. What about Q and the others? Have you got them?”

“We’ve got their patterns. We’re working to get the transporters some additional power.”

“Get clear as fast as you can. Picard out.”





Captain Twilight Sparkle had returned to the bridge. They were ready and maneuvering around evading enemy fire as best they could.

“Picard to Twilight, are you in position?”

“We’re ready, Captain,” Twilight replied confidently. “Just give us the word.”

“You have it. Launch your package then get the hell out of there. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Captain.”

The view screen cut off.

“Twilight to Reg, start the overload.”

“Yes, Captain,” said Reg looking around for what he needed to do next. 

He connected the last of the loose connectors, feeding additional anti-protons to create an imbalance. From the terminal, he deactivated the safety net and set the warp core to progressive acceleration. In three minutes time, there was going to be a spectacular show for those who could see it.

“Overload started. Three minutes until core implosion.”

“Launch the core, Mr. Barclay,” ordered Captain Twilight.

“Aye, Ma’am.”

Reg activated the sequence on the console. All around the core, small locks unhooked and separated. With the core disconnected and the anti-grav unit taken offline within the protective shielding, the core floated loosely off the ground. 

“Transporting the core now, Captain,” he reported as he activated the transporter.

The core started to fade behind the glow of the transporter field, but sparks immediately replaced them.

“No.” 

The transporter sparked and popped as the circuits within overloaded and burnt out. Smoke rose from the fried hardware.

“No, no, no, no, no! Not Good! Captain, we have a problem.”

“What is it Reg?” 

“The transporter’s offline, I can’t fix it in time!”

“WHAT!?” Twilight cried with simultaneous expressions of horror filling every other pony’s faces.  

“What ever shall we do?” Rarity cried. 

“You reckon Picard might come back in get us if we asked him?” Applejack offered.

“It’s worth a try. Twilight to Picard. Twilight to Picard! We’re in trouble. The overload has started, and we can’t get away. Can you help us?”

Static was the only reply. 

Reg looked at the timer he had setup to keep track of the core implosion. Only another two minutes remained. He didn’t realize it was going to be the countdown to his own demise.

“We…your message…. We’re…oming…get you.” a garbled message came in. Twilight couldn’t recognize the voice. 

The cubes detected the overload and attempted to leave. But their last command had been to protect the lead cube at all costs, and no new commands had arrived. The other two cubes latched onto the lead cube with tractor beams and attempted to maneuver away at sub light speeds. The lead cube was too badly damaged to survive at warp.

The U.E.S. Harmony sat adrift unable to flee with a warp core bent on the destruction of everything in its reach.

The five ponies left their posts and joined together in one last hug. 

“It’ll be alright.” Twilight whispered to them. She didn’t actually believe that, but it was all she could manage.

Pinkie, ever the high spirit, lifted her head long enough to spot a blinking light on a terminal.

“What’s that?” she asked hopefully.

Twilight walked up to the terminal and examined the information. 

“I don’t believe it!” she said, honestly shocked.

“What? What is it?” asked Rarity.

Before Twilight could reply a blue haze of transporter particles enveloped everypony, and they were whisked away from their doomed vessel.

When they rematerialized, Twilight was again astonished to find their rescuer was none other than the Andorian freighter captain. 

“Welcome aboard,” Captain Stahn said, smiling. “Get us out of here!”

The freighter lurched into their highest warp possible, which wasn’t very fast at all, but it was enough. The freighter disappeared from normal space leaving behind the three cubes limping away from the Harmony, which appeared to be following them from behind.

Reg smiled to himself as he stepped off the transporter pad. With the ship having no place to escape to, he altered its course to follow the Borg.

The warp core levels reached critical aboard the ship. The last component of the puzzle, monoceros particles flooded the anti-matter mix chamber with a spell to bind them to every explosive reaction.

A bright flash of light shot out, with an empty darkness following suit. The darkness surround the cubes before twisting into a spiral. The three cubes were helpless in its wake. Everything outside the wake lay still and unbothered. Everything within was forced into the dark spiraling disk, pulling everything down into its center, a micro-singularity. As the cubes neared the center the pressure surrounding them burst through their shields and started compressing the hull. The cubes rapidly compressed themselves together into one condensed sphere. By the time they reached the center, that sphere was no bigger than six meters across.

The condensed ball disappeared along with the micro-singularity behind it. Space returned to normal as if the cubes had never been.
> You May Have Won the Battle…
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You May Have Won the Battle…

“Prepare for emergency landing!” Captain Dax yelled over the con. “What’s the status of the shields?”

“I’ve got emergency shields holding on auxiliary power, but it’s the only thing keeping up from burning up!” said the nervous ensign.

“Dax to O’Brien, what’s the word on engines and power?”

“I’ve got thrusters back to a minimum, we should be able to control our entry into the atmosphere, but not much else,” Chief Engineer Miles O’Brien replied from engineering. “I’ve got the warp core pushing out enough power for shields to hold.”

“Excellent,” Dax replied happy to hear some good news. “What about the transporter, can you divert that power to the transporter temporarily?”

“Aye I suppose I could, Ma’am,” he replied confused, “but why on Earth would you want to do something like that?” 

“Just do it, and ready yourself to divert again the second I give the order.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Dax to Transporter Room 1, have you got them yet?”

“I’m bringing them in one at a time,” the transporter chief reported. “I’ve got two so far with two more to go. I need another five more minutes.”

“Our orbit is decaying fast, Chief. Have it done in the next two minutes or I need to pull the power to shields before we burn up. Understood?”

“Yes, Captain.”

Dax watched the trajectory of the Defiant slowly slipping down orbit after orbit. The shields were started to feel the first taste of atmosphere as the heat started to build up. One way or another, they were landing this bucket, likely hard.





“What’s the status of the Defiant?” Picard asked onboard the Enterprise. 

“They’re beginning their entry into the atmosphere now, Captain,” a young ensign replied, sitting in Data’s chair. “Their shields are still weak.”

“Can we get them out of there?”

“No Sir. They’re too far into the burn to get a lock.” A small spherical burst of light pushed out from the Defiant. “They’ve got their shields back, Captain!”

“Excellent. Let’s found out the situation on the ground. Picard to Data.”

“Data h-here, Captain.” He replied struggling with another Borg drone.

“What’s the situation, Commander?”

“Not good, Sir. A few minutes ago, thousands of Borg drones suddenly beamed down onto the surface. We’re losing ground rapidly. We’ll be overrun within the hour.”

Picard grimaced. He hadn’t anticipated the Borg attempting an evacuation prior to the detonation of the warp core. 

“I’ll send reinforcements, but try to get to the defiant. They’re entering the atmosphere and will be making an emergency landing just outside the city. Q is onboard. He may be able to lend assistance.”

“I’ll try sir.”

“Picard out.”

“Sir, the Andorian freighter captain is trying to reach you,” the ensign stated.

“On screen,” Picard replied.

On the main view screen, Captain Stahn and the five ponies were smiling back at him.

“You have my thanks, Captain,” Picard opened to the Andorian captain. 

“With our transporters back, we figured maybe would could be just a little more than a flying brick in space.” He winked.

“Captain,” Twilight Sparkle asked. “What about Equestria? What’s happening?”

“I’m afraid the situation on the ground is not going as well as it had in space, Miss. Sparkle. The city is about to be overrun. I’m sending reinforcements.”

“We’ll be beaming down as well,” Twilight stated as fact. There was vigorous nodding from the other ponies.

Picard knew he had no chance of saying otherwise. “I would advise against it, but if you are going to go anyway, Data and the others are currently in the palace throne room.”

“Thank you Captain.”

“Good luck, your Highness,” he replied, smiling.

Twilight blushed slightly, before nodding. The channel closed, and the view screen switched back.





Lyra lost track of how many creatures Arrow Point had dispatched, nor how many lefts and rights they had made. She was completely lost. She noticed that her friend was oddly lost too, but for an entirely different reason. 

With every heroic act of bravery, Bon-Bon felt closer and closer to a princess being rescued by her knight. Luckily for her, Arrow Point seemed oblivious as he focused on keeping them alive.

“We’re almost back to the main chamber,” the guard shouted back as they ran. 

The sound was low, but building. Lyra was the first to notice. She started looking around as they ran for the source, unable to pinpoint it. Eventually the sound became so deafening that all three were stopped in their tracks. Lyra found a window and looked out to see what could possible cause such a noise. She couldn’t believe her eyes. 

A massive ball of fire was headed straight at them. It was only seconds away from touchdown. 

“GET DOWN!!!” she yelled, not knowing what else to do.

The object struck the ground with a bang that shook the whole of the palace. Lyra huddled with head between her legs, begging for it to stop. The sound was so loud, she couldn’t hear anything. The world around her was clouded ash and silence.

The first sounds she could hear again were rocks being shifted. She tried hard to see through the ashen dust.

“Bon-Bon?” she cried, looking for her friend. “Mr. Arrow Point?” No pony replied.

She started to search around frantically with her hooves, feeling the ground. She felt the floor lead into a pile of rubble. 

“Bon-Bon!?” she called again, getting more desperate. 

She started throwing rocks around frantically, hoping to find something. At last she felt a hoof. 

“Bon-Bon!?” she called again pulling rocks away as fast as she could. As the dust finally cleared, she managed to unearth most of the pony, but it was not Bon-Bon. Arrow Point’s body lay still.

“BON-BON!!!” she shouted, panic building.

“L-Ly…ra…” a faint voice whispered out. 

Lyra rushed her way to the source of the whisper, until finally she found it. Her friend was alive, but buried under a boulder much to big for her to ever lift.

“Bon-Bon, are you okay?” she asked, brushing some of the smaller rocks away from her friend’s face.

“I’m… I’m here…” she said dryly. “I… I can’t move my hooves.”

“Just hang on. I’m going to get you out of there.”





“The Defiant has landed on the planet,” the bridge officer reported.

“That makes it that much easier.” Admiral Tomalak grinned. “Can’t we fire yet?” 

“We still require another twenty minutes, Admiral,” Lieutenant Kitara replied.

“That’s not good enough!”

“I’m afraid that’s the best we can do. The strength of the blast is exponentially proportional to the amount of energy stored. If we do not wait until it’s fully charged, the blast will not be enough to take them out.”

“I’d say it’s worth the risk,” said Tomalak through bared teeth. His mind had been set on the day he could have his revenge on Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise, and his time was at hand.

“Sir, are shields are nearly depleted, our hull is fragmented in three places, and our standard armament was mostly used up in the battle,” his tactical officer advised. “We would not stand a firefight against the Enterprise.”

“They are as badly damage as us and even after a blast only half as big, their ship would be defenseless.”

“What about Q?” Another officer questioned again. “Don’t we still need him to recreate the universe?”

The green vein in Tomalak’s temple was throbbing. “You heard Picard. Q died onboard that cube, and the universe didn’t end. This was clearly a lie to get us to do his bidding, and he will pay for that dearly.”

“Then who is responsible for our predicament?” the tactical officer braved, seeing how steamed their leader was getting.

“The Borg of course. It was always the Borg. Picard just wanted to play his favorite human card game. I folded to early, but I’m now going to call his bluff!”

“Then what about the situation on the planet, Sir?”

“What about it?”

“The Borg will overrun the planet and with the power of the magic particles, they’ll be stronger than ever.”

The Admiral’s temper was shortening by the minute from all of his officers’ attempts to delay his victory. With a deep breath, he finally relaxed his shoulders the tiniest bit, long enough for a tiny flicker of tension to loosen. His mind cooled, and his better judgment returned to him.

“We will wait twenty minutes, and not a minute more,” he said coldly. “When the Enterprise is destroyed, we will carpet bomb the surface until every last drone is destroyed. They are trapped down there, and most have centered themselves around the largest city anyway. When the universe reasserts itself, we will contact Romulus and ensure the entire planet is left without so much as a microbe left behind!”





Lieutenant Commander Worf slashed his way through to the emergency hatch along the hull of the Defiant’s wreckage. The ship had landed nearly intact, but the extent of its damage meant she would never fly again. 

Worf entered the combination to release the door and allow entry into the ship. He only had a few minutes before they would likely be overrun. He needed to work quickly.

The systems were all badly damaged. Wires hung from the ceiling. Small fires flickered like candles burning inside of data terminals. Debris was strewn about haphazardly. There was only one thing missing.

Worf searched the transporter room. There was nothing. He found the bridge. There was no one. Not a single person or corpse could be found. He approached the engine room cautiously, thinking only of Dax, and if he could reach her in time. They had only been together for a few months, but he would not stand if anything had happened to her.

The latch was tight on the door to the engine room. He used his Klingon strength to force the latch, and the door released. The room was dark. All he could see was the flashing red lights in the background. His eyes scanned the area, but could not make out anything. The first thing he found was a hand tightly clenched around his throat.





There was no way out. The present day mane six and Data were trapped within the throne room. Since the cubes were destroyed, no additional drones were able to suddenly beam directly into the room, but the horde outside that had beamed down just before their ships’ destruction was rapidly approaching their position. Every soldier and civilian alike who fell became another soldier in the line.

A light appeared within the room. Their first thought was somehow, more drones were beaming down from some unknown location. But that fear turned to shock as the five ponies from the future all beamed down.

“What are you all doing here?” present-day Twilight asked her counterpart. 

“We’re here to help save Equestria, of course!” Future-Twilight replied.

“That might be a bit hard at this point,” said Present-Applejack. 

As if to accentuate her point, a loud bang thundered against the throne room doors.

“They’re at the doors!” Present-Rarity proclaimed. 

“Whatever shall we do?” Future-Rarity added.

“We use the Elements of Harmony!” said both Twilight’s together.

“Without Fluttershy, though, we don’t have a complete set,” Future-Twilight noted solemnly. “So we’ll just have to back you up and protect you. Right gals?”

“You’re darn tootin’!” said Future-Applejack.

“Aww yeah!” Future-Rainbow concurred.

“I may require a full spa-day after this, but it will be well worth it,” was Future-Rarity’s reply.

Future-Pinkie hadn’t replied. She and Present-Pinkie were too busy copying one another’s movements as though they were looking in a mirror. 

“Pinkie!?” Future-Twilight called out loudly.

Both Pinkie’s turned in unison, still in mirror image and voiced together, “Yes Twilight?”

“Do you know the plan?” 

“Of course!” Both grinned together. Finally, one broke the routine to grab her element, while the other got into attack formation.

Future-Twilight nodded and looked to her counterpart. “Good luck, Princess.”

“You too, Princess,” Present-Twilight replied, nodding.

The doors to the throne room burst open. At first there were no signs of drones, just the dust in the air fogging the entrance. The first sign of them were their laser sights scanning the interior of the throne room. Their heads soon followed along with their bodies as the spread out into the room.

Their approach was different from normal. They appeared to be filling out the room, rather than a direct approach. The only remaining guard in the room lifted his BFG and fired off into the crowd, scared beyond all measure.

The light flashed out through the drones, but even after a pause, none of the drones exploded. None of them even collapsed. The green shielding shined out to meet the light wave from the BFG and absorbed its energy. They adapted.

Before the guard could even scream from his failure, a Borg-Pegasus swooped down and lifted the guard off his feet. He fell back to the ground, twitching as the nanoprobes began their assimilation.

Data and eleven ponies readied themselves for their final attack, but the drones suddenly stopped their advance. They stood completely still. Those around the doorway sprung back to life and cleared a passage. Standing in the doorway was a navy blue Alicorn.

“LUNA!!!” they all shouted, happy to see her again.

Their shouts of joy were quickly shattered as Chrysalis joined Luna in the doorway. Both ponies were stiff and mindless. 

In unison, they spoke. “Resistance is futile.”


 


They too cleared the path through the entrance revealing a third: Queen Celestus of Borg.





“NO!” The all cried.

“Yes,” Celestus replied with a crooked smile. “This one here, nearly defeated me,” she pointed to Borg-Chrysalis, “I am always prepared. I shielded myself from her weapon just before its full effect reached me. I was rendered unconscious, but my systems were intact. That setback cost me my ships, and for that she will pay dearly.”

She glanced at Borg-Chrysalis, who dropped twitching on the ground. Her systems were shocking her repeatedly in infinite pain, without so much as the capability to scream. The best she could manage was to open her eyes wide as tears spilled out and her body twitched.

“STOP IT! STOP IT!” Present-Twilight screamed.

It was another ten seconds before Celestus finally let up. Borg-Chrysalis lifted herself off the ground and looked back at them plainly, as though nothing had happened.

“Fear not, Twilight Sparkle. As you can see, she is undamaged and remains a most loyal member of the collective. As you all will become.”

“We will stop you!” yelled Future-Twilight.

“We have the magic of friendship on our side!” Present-Twilight added, her horn started to glow.

“Friendship is futile, girls, as are your precious Elements of Harmony.”

The Present-Six lifted up into the air as the magic of the elements wrapped around them.

Celestus nodded as a Borg-Pegasus who swooped in an attacked Present-Applejack. The spell collapsed without their sixth member, who struggled on the ground as the nanoprobes infected her.





Future-Applejack immediately jumped in with her element and the spell renewed. The others jumped into action trying to protect them at all costs while the spell built up. The drones all pushed forward.

Data, unable to be assimilated, freely pushed through the drones, pulling cables, tubes and wiring for critical components on drones. He left a trail of struggling drones in his wake. 

The others did everything they could. Future-Rarity bucked one drone into the other on the ground while Future-Rainbow spun circles around the Borg-Pegasi in the air. Each collision meant two more drones falling to the ground. 

Celestus mind controlled the drones as the battle waged. She had little time before the spell was ready. A Borg-Unicorn fired an assimilation beam at Present-Rainbow Dash, who tumbled out of the spell into the throngs of the nanoprobes. Future-Rainbow soared in to take her counterpart’s place to start the spell again.





Celestus saw the flaw. There was one pony who could not be replaced. All the Borg centered on Present-Fluttershy. Future-Twilight attempted to keep them back from the front, while Data tried to reach them from behind. Future-Twilight became overwhelmed and missed an assimilation beam, which struck her right in the chest.





Future-Rarity attempted to fill the gap, but had nowhere near the magical strength of Twilight. It was only a matter of time before she too fell to the Borg nanoprobes.





A human Borg drone grabbed Present-Fluttershy from behind, and Fluttershy’s scream echoed out into the collapse of the spell for the third time. With no replacement left, the spell collapsed permanently, and the every last pony was assimilated into the collective.


 


Celestus examined her accomplishment with a glee she had not felt in a long time. Despite her setback she had achieved her goal, and even had a crashed ship to make their escape. Her emotions were probably the only emotions felt among the collective, and it bellied up within her, bubbling up into a wicked laugh.

 “MUA HA HA HA HAAAAA!!!”
> Friendship is Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friendship is Magic

 “MUA HA HA HAAA!!!”

Twilight Sparkle. 
Pinkie Pie. 
Rainbow Dash. 
Fluttershy. 
Rarity. 
Applejack. 
Present and future. 
All lost. 

Data stared out in frustration and fear as the drones restrained him completely. His emotion chip was in overdrive, rapidly overloading his systems. He held his mind together, but only by a thread.

The Borg 6 and their counterparts stood together in front of their queen, awaiting instruction. Their individuality had been stripped from them entirely. They were no more than mindless vessels to the collective Borg mind.

“Activate the Defiant’s transporter. Reconstitute our Continuum friend from his ethereal holding cell.”





Lyra clenched in pain as she struggled to lift he rubble off of her friend. Bon-Bon looked worse and worse. She needed to be taken to the hospital straight away. 

As far as Lyra could discern from the clouds of dust and rubble all about her, she figured they couldn’t be that far from throne room. Torn tapestries of family houses and broken stained glass windows surrounded her. The ceiling above them had partially collapsed, lying in a pile blocking their path. If they could climb over it, they could escape, but Lyra still had to get her friend out from under all of it first.

She starting digging around Bon-Bon, pulling away smaller bits of debris and rubble from the pile. When she managed to clear away all of the smaller rocks, what remained was something far bigger. A large slab of stone twice as big as either of them was resting rather uncomfortably right on top of Bon-Bon’s back right leg.

“I don’t think I can lift this!” Lyra cried, worry steadily growing.

All around them, the room groaned and creaked with instability. The walls and floors above their heads threatened to collapse at any given moment. 

“Lyra, just go! *cough*” Bon-Bon said weakly. “Get out of here!”

“NO!!!” Lyra screamed. “I’m not leaving you!”

Lyra knelt beside her friend and wrapped her hooves tightly around the boulder and heaved. 





“HOW MUCH LONGER!!?” Admiral Tomalak demanded. His patience had entirely run out. 

His vengeance was finally at hand. He would have his revenge against that starship captain who bested every single plan, scheme, and strategy he made against the Federation. 

He now held aboard his ship the very power he would need to thrust himself to the top of the Romulan Empire, or create a new one where the federation still stands. And it was all thanks to this new weapon. But he first needed to fire the weapon and dispose of his greatest rival once and for all!

“Only two minutes, Admiral!” Lieutenant Kitara exclaimed from the lab. Her excitement was also growing equally as ambitious as her aspirations toward the top of the Romulan Science Directorate were about to be realized.

“Good,” Tomalak noted. “Get me Picard. I’m going to enjoy this so much. And target the Enterprise! Prepare to fire the moment it’s ready.”





“Well, well, well, Discord, it would seem your final effort has failed you,” said Celestus, boasting with a wicked grin.

The Draconequus lie still in the arms of two drone escorts. His horns had been covered by an unknown material. Whatever it was had rendered his magical powers null and void. 

Discord remained silent. His thoughts were scattered. The only thing that seemed to reach him was the fact that Celestus had called him Discord as her host once did, rather than Q as the Borg queen should know him by. His only hope was that something of Celestia remained, and that somehow, the fight was not yet over.

“Would you like to admire my work?” she asked bemusedly. She gestured to the six ponies, who stepped forth to reveal themselves.

Their fur had grayed from their nanoprobe-saturated skin underneath. It was almost like when he himself had grayed them as he brought chaos to their lives in Equestria. But this was very different. That had always been a test, and their minds were still free. Only their perceptions had been altered. There was no life at all beyond the cold eyes of the six pony drones standing before him. The only things that remained untarnished in condition, but corrupted on their bearers, were the Elements of Harmony.

“With the power of the Elements of Harmony at my disposal, I shall destroy the Continuum and rebuild the universe you and your kind so carefully controlled and manipulated. It will be sculpted into a universe of pure perfection. Think of it…a universe with no war, no discrimination, no pandering species bickering over territory and resources. All life will be the same life. All thoughts will be of one mind, one consciousness. The Borg Collective will become eternal life!”

Discord stared at her incredulously. Not only was she an egotistical monster, but one with the power to destroy the universe. He doubted very much whether she could fulfill the latter part of her plan to rebuild no matter how much control she thought she had.

“So why entertain me then, hmm?” Discord asked mockingly. “You seem to have everything could ever want, so why waste your time on your ridiculous evil mastermind monologue on little old me?”

“I know all too well that we are currently within a static warp bubble. I also know that this bubble has been constructed entirely by you. When you are destroyed, this bubble will collapse and the original timeline will be restored. And I wanted you to know beyond any doubt that you have failed in your goal. You have lost. And without further delay… I think it’s time for you to die.”





“It’s no use,” Bon-Bon tried to convince her friend again. “You need to escape before it’s too late.”

“No! I’m not leaving you!” Lyra rebutted again, lifting hard with her front hooves. When that failed, she tried nudging it with her back. When that failed, she tried bucking it.

“Ow!” Bon-Bon cried out in pain, the boulder pushed deeper into her leg.

“I’m sorry!” Lyra quickly apologized checking to see if she had done more harm than good.

The walls groaned again. The metal frame within a broken window bent downward under the weight until it snapped. The wall broke down sending another wave of rubble into the room. The other walls still held and both were unharmed, but Bon-Bon was covered in a fresh pile of rocks.

“No no no no NO!!!” Lyra screamed, outraged. She cleared some of the small rocks again making it easier for her friend to breathe.

“Lyra. You have to leave. You’ve done everything you could. Thank you, but it’s of no use. We both don’t need to die in here.”

The word ‘die’ shot through Lyra like kicking a hibernating Ursa Major. 

“No,” she said plainly and resolutely. She stood back on all hooves and lowered her head. Her face clenched together hard in the struggle. Bon-Bon wasn’t quite sure what her friend was attempting to do.





“I want to congratulate you on the successful battle, Captain,” said Tomalak over the view screen.

“The celebration is a little premature, Admiral. There is still a devastating situation still developing on the planet.”

“Yes, yes. That’s a dreadful problem, I’m sure, but that is no concern to us. But we have fulfilled our little deal and demand that Romulus be put back where it was.”

“I’m sorry, Admiral, but there’s nothing I can do for the time being. As I tried to explain, the situation on the ground is still dire, and the fate of the universe still hangs in the balance.”

Off screen, a Romulan officer took the admiral’s attention away. Tomalak turned to hear the information and nodded.

“Well, well, well.” Tomalak smiled with absolute glee. “You know, Picard, I think I have had about enough of your lies, and for once I’m in somewhat of a position to do something about it.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, Picard… FIRE!!!!!”





Lyra wrenched her face into a tight scowl; clenching, straining, grunting like a pregnant mother about to deliver a filly. 

Bon-Bon stared at her friend. She realized what she was trying to do, but it was useless. Her horn was go–

The tiniest bit of light shined out from the center of Lyra’s bare forehead. The twinkle started glowing brighter and larger before her eyes. Bon-Bon had never seen anything like it before. Her eyes widened, and her mouth hung low. She was so flabbergasted she nearly forgot how much pain she was in.





The Borg 6, carrying their Elements of Harmony, lifted up into the air as their spell initiated. Borg Twilight’s horn glowed brightly, enveloping the group in the emerald aura of the Borg. The symbol adorned on each element illuminated in the same green light. The spell was nearly ready. 

“So long, Discord,” Celestus said calmly.

“Not that! Anything but that! NOOOOO!!!”





The weapon, housed within the lab aboard the Romulan ship was in full gear. Monoceros particles had collected to their peak quantities and were ready to be shunted straight through the Unicorn’s horn, and out into the Enterprise. There would be no hope. No escape. And then the horn vanished.





Something had changed in the Borg 6’s spell.

“What’s going on?” Celestus demanded. “How can this be happening?”

Borg Twilight’s horn changed. The emerald green aura of the Borg’s cybernetics in sync with the Unicorn magic had changed. At the very tip, a violet glow poked its way through. The purple aura spread down the horn into Borg Twilight’s head, but did not stop. 





“FIRE!!!!!” Tomalak yelled.

Lieutenant Kitara initiated the pulse. At once, every last capacitor, containing every single stored monoceros particle, released its payload into the device. It shunted down into the horn chamber, with no horn contained within to channel it. 

The energy shot through wildly, overloading every system and continuing to spread outwards. The magic infected every system, terminal, and databank. Machinery began exploding within the lab, but the particles did not stop. 

“Something’s wrong!” Kitara shouted over the comm. 

Admiral Tomalak’s face twisted into a snarl that could melt the face off a child. “WHAT!!?”

The terminals on the bridge began pulsating with electrical and magical energy. Blue and white lightning discharged across, zapping several officers. Explosions started bursting out from every corner of the room and all across the ship, heading straight for the engines.

“AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!” Tomalak raged in unbridled fury as the energy breached their core.

Picard watched aboard the Enterprise as the Romulan warbird burst apart from within. A radiating pulse of magical energy shot out from its center spreading outwards.

“Shields!” Picard yelled as the wave swept over them, but by the time the pulse had reached them, the energy had mostly dissipated, and what remained, bounced lightly off the shields and swept around the ship harmlessly.





The walls creaked their last creak within the castle as they gave in to the pressure of weight of the second floor hanging tenuously over the heads of the two trapped ponies. The walls caved, and the ceiling collapsed. Thousands of tons of debris crumbled on top of them.

Bon-Bon screamed and closed her eyes tight, waiting for quick embrace of death. But it never came. She dared to open one eyelid, looking around to see what had happened. All she could see was this bright white light.

The white light focused until Bon-Bon could start to make out shapes. She found the outline of Lyra standing before her, with her horn somehow returned to her. Magic was shooting out from her with such fury and intensity that it contained the entire building collapse within its grasp. 

At once, every last brick returned to its place and rebuilt themselves. Cracks within the stones and bricks sealed tight, and tapestries re-knitted themselves. The large slab lying on top of Bon-Bon’s leg lifted off and returned to the floor above, fitting expertly in place as though it had never fallen.

Bon-Bon felt her leg twinge as the magic enveloped it. She could see the bone sticking out, which nearly caused her to faint right then and there, before she realized the bone lowering gently and painlessly. It was mending right before her eyes. The skin closed over it, and her fur covered that, until the wound was completely gone. 

The white light dissipated until all that remained was the mint green pony, who collapsed unconscious to the ground.





The violet aura spread down across Borg Twilight’s body until it spread to every other pony. The green faded all around them until all that was left was the violet aura and six unassimilated ponies.

“This just can’t be!” Celestus cried, outraged and shocked. “This is impossible!”

The full force of the Elements of Harmony shot forth aimed not at Discord, but at Queen Celestus of Borg.

“NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!”

The wave enveloped her and the cybernetic implants caved under the force of the magic. The ocular implant shed from her face where a new eye regrew. The pale grey skin softened until the silky white fur shined through. Princess Celestia stood before them, renewed.

> Memories Out of Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Memories Out of Time

The Elements of Harmony remained active, spreading far and wide. From drone to drone, the magical energy wrapped around them, coursing through their bodies. All across Canterlot, every last drone felt the unfamiliar embrace of individual life together with the many voices of friendship. 

From within the castle itself, Lyra and Bon-Bon finally made their way back to the throne room where the scene lay before them. They stared in awe as the spell chained from drone to drone, straight through the walls and out across the land.

When the spell finally ceased, the six ponies lowered down to the ground completely drained. The spell had taken a lot of them, but it had given them so much more in return. 

Discord had watched in silent glee while the spell did its work. When it dissipated, he finally voiced himself.

“Well done, my little ponies! Well done, indeed!” He was applauding loudly as he spoke, the singular clapping echoing even louder across the stone room.

Present-Twilight got up off the floor shakily. She was in a confused daze. “Wha– What just happened?”

“You did it, my dear! That’s what happened!”

“We did? How? The last thing I remember, I– I was being infected by those... things.”

The other ponies started to recover slowly, sitting up to hear the conversation. Princess Celestia joined in, equally as interested.

“Discord? What has happened? I don’t recall much, but I– Oh no! What have I done?” The princess’s face dropped in horror as bits of her memory from her time as Celestus suddenly returned to her. 

“You, my dear, have done far more than even I could have hoped for! But I don’t want to repeat myself. There’s someone else who deserves to hear all about it.” 

Discord flicked his fingers and Captain Picard instantly appeared before them. Picard looked around briefly to see where he was then centered on Discord.

“Q?” he asked still looking around. “What’s the situation?”

“The situation couldn’t be better, Captain. We did it!” 

“The Borg situation is contained?” the captain inquired.

“In so many words, yes. But that’s not the point. The point is, with all the blank stares at me, was how it was done. You see everything would have been lost if it wasn’t for my favorite princess here.”

“Me?” Celestia asked, confused. “What did I do right? I did such terrible things!” The princess blushed with her guilt, but stared hopefully at the Draconequus. 

“Yes... Yes you did...” Discord nodded solemnly, but in more of a mocking manner. This did not help the princess’s face, which reddened even further. “But you also managed to do the one thing most species could never do. You managed to keep vital information from the Queen while assimilated.”

“I– I did?”

“Yes, you did. You managed to hide what the true nature of the Elements of Harmony really is! When Celestus took control of your ponies and the elements they possessed, she thought she could use their powers to do her bidding. After all, it is a tremendous store of magical energy with abilities far beyond that of a mindless Unicorn or even Alicorn drone. She thought she’d found her prize.

“But what she did not understand, was what the heart of such power stems from: Friendship. When she activated the elements among the six ponies, their link within the Borg Collective provided an even stronger bond to their friendship; strong enough even to break free. The spell didn’t kill the Borg nanoprobes, so much as use them against the Queen. With such a strong bond, they were able to seek out others in the link, starting with you, my dear Celestia.”

“I can remember the anger… the fear. My link– her link to the Collective was being used against her. She couldn’t stop it…”

Discord listened thoughtfully, nodding. “Yes, and by then it was too late. The magic of friendship spread across the link seeking out every last drone and given them back their individuality and passed onto them their friendship.”

Princess Celestia smiled as tears streaked down from her eyes. 

Picard straightened his uniform with an obvious confusion written about his expression. He shook it off and decided to not even bother to question the magic of friendship.

“Um– Yes, well… That’s that then, I suppose,” Picard sputtered. “Now what about the universe?”

“Oh there’s plenty of time for that now, Captain. No need to be so impatient. Can’t you see this sweet little mint green pony is just dying to ask me something.” He looked down at Lyra, who had been listening raptly as she approached cautiously. He smiled at her and nodded.

“Well… do you know how my horn disappeared, and then suddenly came back? And then did things I never have been able to do? And…”

“Well first, your horn was taken from you by a most unsavory man known as one Admiral Tomalak.”

“HE WHAT?” Picard yelled out in surprise.

“He stole her horn. I just said that, Picard. Pay attention!” 

Picard scoffed.

“Like I was saying, this Romulan man stole your horn in the hopes of learning the secrets to magic. In doing so, he ensured his own sweet demise. He collected all of the Monoceros particles his ship could find – magical energy to you – and stored it aboard his vessel. There was so much energy stored on that ship that your horn absorbed large quantities naturally. 

“Now, severing a Unicorn’s horn does not break the magical link between the horn and its owner. That link remained, and when you so desperately needed it, the magic bond reunited the two together, and with all the excess energy your horn had absorbed, you were able to do everything you willed yourself to do to save your friend here.”

Lyra looked at Bon-Bon who looked back at her grinning.

“Now as to what happened to our Romulan friend, Captain,” Discord continued turning towards Picard. “When he fired his magical weapon, he poured all that stored up energy into his weapon with no horn to channel it. That energy had to go somewhere. And his ship was the casualty of its instant release.”

“I see… but you still haven’t told us about the universe. From you’re demeanor, I’m guessing it’s no longer in jeopardy.”

“Quite right, Captain. Quite right. The universe is already rebuilding as we speak. Once it reforms fully, all that remains to do is to reset the timeline, and this will have never happened.”

“Never happened?” Future-Twilight asked. A thought had dawned on her. “What about all those Borg people we just freed? Do they go back to their families then?”

Discord finally frowned. Twilight Sparkle always had to ask the uncomfortable questions. “Eh-hem… um… no, I’m afraid. They will return to being drones. But your people won’t be. They should return good as new!”

Present-Applejack spoke up. “Ain’t there nothing you can do for those folks there, Discord?”

“Sigh… I’m afraid not. There are things that must be done, and things that cannot be done. And this is one of those things, dear Applejack.”

“Then what will become of us?” Future-Twilight gestured to her other friends from the future, now nearing the present. If this timeline was eliminated then we would all cease to exist.

Discord read her mind and smiled. “I wouldn’t worry about that, but I would ask a favor: When this is over, there are things which I can do, and things which I can’t. But, that does not mean that there are not things that you can do. Make sure what’s owed is given.”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. 

“Q…” Picard started. “If this timeline is going to be erased, then why bother telling us anything if we’re simply going to forget?”

“That is my gift to you, Picard and to you as well, Princess Twilight. That… is my gift for helping to save us all…”

Discord faded away into nothingness, and the world around them melded together. Everything went blank.

...





“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Byron,” the Ferengi bowed low in a more-than-pseudo gesture of respect.

“It is not normally our policy to negotiate with Ferengi, DaiMon Tye,” the Vulcan archaeologist replied. “But if the artifact is as you described and is in decent condition, I may be willing to negotiate on behalf of the Vulcan Science Directorate.”

“I can promise you, you won’t be disappointed.” The DaiMon waved his arm gently leading his guest to the cargo bay area.

As soon as Byron walked into the cargo room, DaiMon Tye called his attention to a green and rather diminished piece of technology, before the Vulcan’s eyes had a chance to explore the room. The artifact stood on top of a Federation cargo box that had no doubt been plundered. 

Byron looked at the device briefly, before turning to the DaiMon. 

“Is this the device to which you referred?” Byron asked, looking mildly disappointed and bemused. 

DaiMon took a second look and realized the problem. The device was a cylindrical piece of plastic worn down at both ends. Dirt had been haphazardly caked on all around. Dull green Borg-looking symbols had been painted on amateurishly. 

“I– I don’t understand,” said Tye staring at the piece of junk before him.

“It was a most unusual offer when you had sent me the communique regarding the artifact, which is why I felt it was at least worth a look. Now I can see that my first opinion of Ferengi was the more accurate one. If there is nothing further…” Byron turned to leave.

“Wait! Wait! I have many other things you might be interested in. What about this rare Archetulan fossilized egg?” The ‘fossilized’ egg broke in his hand, spilling out the yoke on the floor. Bryon walked away hurriedly. “Oh… How about an ancient Hoo-mahn bible? It was hand crafted by the King James himself! Wait! Please! Come back!”

…





“Captain’s Log, Stardate 50920.4:

I awoke this morning recalling an entire week that never occurred. When I shared my memories with other members of the crew, none appeared to have any recollection of the events that had transpired during that time.

Counselor Troi has suggested it may have been just an unusually vivid dream, but I disagree. There are no gaps in the timeline normally associated with dreams. I can recall the details of the entire week that passed from awaking at the start of day, to returning to sleep each night. I have never had such a dream before, and I am inclined to believe that this timeline once truly existed. 

As a point, while the Enterprise is still docked at Deep Space 4, and its repairs are nearly complete, I have decided to offer a small shore-leave to my crew on the planet Equestria, where I might pay my respects to some old friends and converse with them once more regarding these mysterious recollections.”





Three days and Princess Twilight Sparkle’s head was still spinning. She kept recalling events from a time that never existed. Or did it? Moreover, she held in her head two different accounts of everything that may or may not have happened.

One recollection showed her onboard a ship as its captain, destroying three massive green cubes with an enemy called the ‘Borg’. A second showed her rescuing the evacuated ponies in Canterlot against these Borg drones. 

When she told her friends about it, they all seemed to think she had one crazy dream. They just couldn't believe that such a fantastic story could be true. Somehow though, Twilight knew in her heart that it really happened.

As Twilight worked to recall all of the events that had happened, she suddenly remembered something Discord had told her. 

“There are things which I can do, and things which I can’t. But, that does not mean that there are not things that you can do. Make sure what’s owed is given.”

Twilight made a point to visit Canterlot and share her memories with Princess Celestia. The princess seemed perfectly normal as listened to Twilight explain everything she could remember.

“That is quite a story, Twilight,” the princess said, “though I would not fancy becoming such a terrible villain.”

It was when Celestia said the word ‘villain’ that it finally dawned on her. “Chrysalis!” she cried.

“What about her?” the princess asked thoughtfully.

“Princess, I know you think that this was all a dream, but you must believe me that this really did happen, and I know Chrysalis did her part to save us all. You made a promise, your majesty, and we need to fulfill our end of it. We have to set her free!”

Princess Celestia frowned. “That is no small favor you ask of me, Twilight. Chrysalis has done a terrible thing, and she must pay for her crime.”

“Please your majesty. I know there is still good in her. I owe it to her to see she gets a second chance.”

Celestia paused in deep thought. After a moment’s time she looked back into Twilight’s eyes and nodded. “I will give her another chance, but she will be in your care. She will stay in the library with you in Ponyville, where she can be watched carefully. If she shows any signs or ambitions of overthrowing me again, the dungeon will be waiting for her once more.”

Twilight bowed low. “Thank you, your majesty.”

“You will have to stop doing that at some point, my dear Twilight. You are a princess now. There is no need for such formality with me.”

“Heh,” Twilight blushed slightly. “Force of habit.”

Twilight left toward the dungeon to give the former Queen of Changelings her freedom.





Deep in the Ever-Free forest, where the tribblesprites roam free, a young gangly colt with bad acne wondered around aimlessly. He found himself bored one afternoon and decided to go for a stroll. He knew the forest could be dangerous at times, but felt he would be fine in the middle of a sunny afternoon if he didn’t venture too far.

He came upon a small brook, where he settled down for a refreshing cold drink from the cool water flowing quickly along over the rocks. 

“Ahhhh,” he said as he gulped down the water. 

“Preeeee!” a noise sounded out startling the colt, causing him to trip face-first into the shallow water. 

“Whaa?” he said looking at the source. 

A great ball of fluff with large blue eyes looked at him smiling with its tiny mouth. “Preeee!” it called again.

“Heh-heh. You scared me, little guy,” the colt said examining the creature. “You’re so cute and purty.”

The creature bounced closer to him and snuggled its soft fur against him. 

“Awwwww” he swooned. He petted the creature gingerly. It was just so adorable. Then a thought occurred to him. He looked around the forest to see if anyone was around. There was nobody in sight.

“Preeeee!”

“Heh-heh,” he laughed petting the creature some more.





Chrysalis was slowly beginning to adjust to her new life in Ponyville. It was a great deal better than a cold dank dungeon, but a far cry from Queen of the Changelings. She had to be grateful though, in spite of it all. 

Her people were safe. They’ve effectively blended into society, and it turned out there had been more than enough love to go around. Yet she didn’t feel any of it. She still felt like a prisoner, trapped in Ponyville under the careful eye of Princess Twilight. She’d never felt so alone.

During the day she was allowed to roam free, under the promise she’d check in each night. It was a risky move on Princess Twilight’s part, but it was she who secured her freedom in the first place. In the weeks since she’d been released, she'd never missed a check-in.

So with nothing to do on a warm afternoon, and the townsfolk still afraid of her presence, Chrysalis decided to venture into the Every-Free forest. It was quite peaceful in a loud silence that bathed the forest in birdsong and trees whistling. 

She had ventured passed the Zebra’s hut, and paid her a visit. It was unusual, considering the zebra's riddled manner of speaking, but Zecora had invited her in without hesitation, and they chatted for a time. 

Celestia was beginning to lower the sun into nightfall, and Chrysalis thought she’d be best on her way. She made her goodbyes and was given a small potion for comforting a lonely heart. It was only temporary, but it was a very generous gift. 

Chrysalis started to make her way back when a disturbance in some nearby bushes startled her. 

“Who’s there?” she called out apprehensively.

The bushes shook again. Then Chrysalis could swear she heard strange licking sounds. From behind the bushes a mysterious pony appeared before her. It was unlike anything she had ever seen.

“Who are you?” she asked.

The pony said nothing. From the look on its face, Chrysalis had a feeling this pony might not be the brightest tool in the shed. 

She tilted her head and the pony smiled. It walked up to her and hugged her gently without so much as a word. Chrysalis felt it immediately. She had never felt such adoring love since she had taken Princess Cadence’s place in Canterlot.

“Do you live around here?” she tried asking again, and again, the pony just stared aimlessly at her. A cold wind announced the coming of nightfall. The pony shivered slightly.

“I’m staying in the Ponyville library if you would like to come with me,” she offered.

The look of glee on the pony’s face startled the changeling. “I– I guess that’s a yes.”

Together, Chrysalis and the strange pony headed back to the Library.