The Borg, a menace that move in a unusual way lately has forced the starfleet, the KDF and the New Romulan Empire to sent a fleet in a untouched world threated by the Borg!
[Requesting Cover Image!] [A STO crossover] "We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance isFutile..."
The Borg, a Cybernetic life-form from the Delta Quadrant is a threat to all life in the Alpha Quadrant. The Federation and The Klingon are in a truce against this odd but dangerous enemy, eventually, The New Romulan Republic gave their best in the military to support the frontlines.
However, the Borg seems to give up, each assault become weak or reduced into lone scout parties of a single cube and few probes or spheres. Starfleet suspect that the Collective has a new target. Capturing a sphere reveals that the borg has their eyes (or optics) in a planet with unusual radiation but no only that, the natives can BEND that radiation, transforming or change it from harmless amount of it into dangerous but controlable ones, Starfleet Suggest in defending the planet from the Borg but also in secret from the natives, because if its inhabitants fall into the hands of the Borg, the war against said menace can turn into a nightmare.
The Alliance of the three factions sent a fleet to the coordinates of said Borg sphere to create an outpost and defend the planet ... Mainwhile in Equis, Equestria.
The Princesses, Celestia and Luna, have visions about aliens, fighting against abominables machine for the sake of equestria. fearful about the visions, The Princesses found in the Ancient Archive about a prophecy... a prophecy of Star Soldiers and the Machine Hive.
"Heroes beyong the skies rise against the hive" "Blue Explorers of the sea of stars brings logic against the odds" "Red Warriors of Great Honor brings valor against the Horror" "Green Soldiers of once Mighty Empire brings salvation against damnation"
"This is ABSURD!" General Va'lek yelled, with indignation in his voice. One of the most of temperamental Klingons, He would fight for the Empire, even if he was FORCED to work alongside the federation. He would live for honor, fight for honor, and die for honor.
"Calm down, Va'lek! I know that this is very strange. All they do now is send scout parties, and why?" Fleet Admiral Richard of Starfleet, in charge of the 24th fleet "Liberation Front" in the Borg frontlines pipes up. He would prefer to die than see the federation in ruins. All the attention turns to the female Romulan, Admiral Vedan.
"The boarding team in the sphere discovered this." a hologram of a M-class planet appeared embedding confusion in the faces of the admirals. Why would the borg be focused on that world? It’s... Illogical. Or, at least that’s what Richard thought.
"There’s more." Vedan simply stated, coupled with the pressing of a few buttons on the computer. The hologram enlarged slightly, along with a series of algorithms and diagrams of radiation pools, all throughout the planet’s surface. Along with those, an immeasurable amount of life signs popped up, looking like... Quadrupeds? They all vaguely resembled the ponies of Earth, but with varying color schemes and noticeable features protruding from their backs and foreheads. The multicolored equines came in four varieties, one with nothing, one with a horn, one with wings, and the final one with both. Each species had a series of equations protruding from their diagram, outlining the various similarities between the planetary radiation and the radiation emanating from these “pony's” bodies. It would appear that the natives of this landscape could manipulate the radiation, and use it for a myriad of purposes. Va’Lek, the un-amused Klingon asked, “So...The Borg discovered a new world with a ‘special’ kind of radiation, but that can’t be the whole reason. Right?” He was kind of interested, but still appeared un-amused. Borg? Interested in new life? Since when did they become a Federation? He didn’t have long to finish this thought, because the thought he had other than that erupted suddenly to the surface.
“It’s still absurd! The Borg only care about assimilation, why would they want to ‘study’ some pastel colored ponies? He spat out that last bit, as the horrible dishonor of the English language graced his sensitive Klingon vocal cords. They were used to gruff, proper shouts. Not quiet, ponies and friendship and magic. Ugh, this language disgusted him.
“You’re angry because the Borg are focused on that planet instead of us? Well, that gives us more time to regroup and organi--” Admiral Richard was cut off by the incessant beeping of the holographic projector as Vedan adjusted it, until only the radiation graphics and the algorithms were visible.
“Your foresight is short-sighted, Admiral. These transmissions that we intercepted are not theories for new forms of assimilation, but theories of how to emulate the abilities of the natives.” Both of the other Admirals traded looks, then returned their sight to Vedan.
“You said abilities of the natives, like they emanate this...radiation themselves, like living plasma torpedoes.” Richard looked slightly amused by the statement, but Vedan stayed as stoic as she was before. Va’Lek, on the other hand, studied the diagrams closer. Each encounter, each battle gave him more and more insight into the workings of the the Borg. These symbols represented much, much more than just constants and variables. They represented something big.
“You’re wrong.” Va’Lek said plainly, “You said they are looking to emulate the native’s abilities, but you’re wrong. These ponies are sentient, and the Borg are looking for a method for both assimilation and control of the radiation, using them as drones.”
“What?” Richard was confused.
“He’s trying to say that the creatures can control the radiation, and may have even learnt how to generate it. Assimilating them into drones is one step, controlling the radiation is one more, and that leads to something new in the collective’s mind, something to study, control, and use to fight. I was thinking the same thing.”
“So? We can fight back any kind of radiation.” Richard still didn’t quite see their point.
“You’re still a little blind, aren’t you?” Va’Lek added, liking the inflections he could impose on the various words in that sentence. For a weak language, it could convey a surprising amount of anger. Maybe it was okay after all. “The Borg are studying them for possible assimilation later on.” Richard sat in silence for a few seconds, until,
“They’re trying to weaponize it! It’s not dangerous to the natives, but is it dangerous to us?”
“It doesn’t appear so,” Vedan replied, “But in theory it can cause damage if the individual wishes it to.” The Human and the Klingon exchanged glances before looking back to the hologram.
“...like...” ***
“...Magic?” Asked Luna, with just a hint of fear in her eyes.
“Not like I’ve ever seen. I’ve never heard of visions this powerful or specific. I’m getting them too, but I don’t understand them.” Bipeds fighting on Equestrian soil, against black and green machinery fused with flesh, chanting the same phrase over and over, while ponies ran and hid in their houses. She didn’t know what that meant!
Resistance is futile, she thought. Her vision was much less pleasant. Ponies covered in the same black and green machinery abducting and ‘converting’ anypony they came across, complete with their tortured screams of agony. One of them was... was...
“Tia, are you alright?” Her sister’s voice snapped Celestia out of her trance. “I’m scared. These... things were...were...attacking ponies! And hurting them! I’m...I’m scared, Tia!” She began to tear up on those last few words, hugging her sister tightly. Her sister returned the hug just as tightly, refusing to allow both of the regal rulers of Equestria to cower in fear of a dream.
“I remember something similar to this, but I can’t be sure. We need to go to the Ancient Archive. I remember something about these kinds of visions.” With that, the two princesses trotted out of Celestia’s chambers towards the archives. On the way, they passed a group of nobles and guards. One of the nobles, a red unicorn stallion with a yellow mane, stepped forward and bowed, nervously.
“What’s wrong, Fineblood?” Celestia had a look of genuine concern on her face, and so did he.
“Oh, Princess! It’s terrible! Ponies have disappeared in the night!” With his magic, he lifted a newspaper, it’s whole front page covered in the names of missing ponies. “Do you think that this is Chrysalis again?” After quickly trading looks with Luna, Celestia quickly responded.
“I don’t think it’s Chrysalis, Fineblood. The Changelings abduct and replace their victims, not leaving ‘holes’ in their place.” Celestia smirked inwardly at her very inappropriately timed pun. “I highly doubt she’s planning another invasion, especially after what happened last time.” He seemed as agitated as normal. Strange, normally they calm down by now.
“Witnesses said that they saw green flashes at the time of the disappearances. I think that it almost certainly is a Changeling threat of some kind. Oh, Luna, princess of the night, you watch over the land! Do you think that there are Changelings afoot?”
“I would have detected her magic, but I have felt nothing. Again, it’s not her strategy, to leave gaps in her victim’s populace.” This seemed to calm him, but not in the way expected. He turned to face Celestia, with deep sorrow filling his eyes.
“My daughter is one of the disappeared, your highness. Sorry to bother you.” With that, he turned around and returned to the nobles being held back by the royal guard. As Fineblood began to silently weep, Celestia trotted right up to the group. Some bowed out of respect, others just didn’t care.
“Sister?”
“I know that all of you are upset. I know about the disappearance of your loved ones. But blaming the Changelings is not the solution. Many ponies have green colored magic, and the Changelings have no need to let ponies know that their loved ones have been captured.” The nobles glanced at each other, until one finally piped up,
“If it’s not Chrysalis, then who?”
“That’s the question Luna and I are on our way to answer now. I recommend that you all return to your homes and wait for us to find the answer.” Vaguely satisfied, the nobles left through the main entrance, returning to their normal lives, waiting for the return of their loved ones.
When they reached the castle’s left wing, they turned to face a giant, adorned gate. Placing both of their horns into the double lock, the gates opened with a soft click. The inside of the room was dark, the sporadically place candles not helping much with the lighting. The ancient archives were like a big library of forbidden or forgotten books. Luna looked at her surroundings. How many years had passed since her last visit down here? That’s the one question she didn’t want answered.
“Ah ha! Luna, come here! I found it!” Luna, following the sound of her sister’s voice, eventually found herself in the “P” Section of the archives. Standing in a heap of old books and scrolls, Celestia was magically leaving through a particularly old book, page by page.
“So, what book is it?” Celestia looked up with a smile plastered on her face.
“The answer to all our problems, Luna.”
About twenty minutes later, Celestia and Luna arrived in Celestia’s room with a heap of books and scrolls, “Just for reference”. After almost an hour of searching through prophecy after prophecy (many of which were already fulfilled) they reached one that caught their attention.
“Star Heroes....” Celestia muttered softly.
“Really, ‘Star Heroes’? Our father, the ‘All Seeing Eye’ said that one was almost a joke to him!”
“I know, but he also said we should be careful about things like visions and...disappearances?” Both sisters looked at each other before looking down at the prophecy Celestia held in her hoof.
Heroes beyond the skies rise against the hive.... Luna read the first sentence before Celestia took over.
Blue explorers of the star’s seas bring logic against the ignorant
Red warriors of great honor bring valor against the horror
Green soldiers of a once mighty empire bring salvation against damnation
“While this is certainly intriguing, do you really think that these verses have something to do with all of this?” Luna motioned around her with her hoof.
“Let’s find out.” Celestia continued reading.
Visions of fear, malice and war torment the immortal siblings “Tia, I think that’s us!”
Families broken of these that leave behind “The ‘disappeared’” Celestia added.
Geometrics fall from the skies, to convert all to their collective ranks
To steal our magic, and convert a royal blood
Elements are powerless against numbers
At this, the sisters began to fear. The Elements of Harmony, the most powerful of artifacts in all of Equestria powerless?
They are here to absorb us
Add our flesh, to their steel
Add our minds, to their hive
Demands us to surrender and yet we meet our demise
For some reason, the last verse packed a harder punch than the rest.
"The Borg? I don't like this Tia, this prophecy is already in motion!" hint of fear can be hear from Luna, she don't like this, after years trapped in the moon she now is free, free from the darkness of her heart and the moon... now she going to face possible the worst danger in the history of ponykind, no, the whole world...
"Resistance is, futile. I remember something like that in my vision..." both Celestia and Luna talked about the "Borg" menace and the missing ponies, for the first time in their immortal lives they WISHED that it was Chrysalis. Imagining mindless ponies with metal coming out of their body was a horrid thing.
"There is more, look…"
"NO! I won't see more of this!" Luna yelled with her Royal Canterlot Voice, this reaction startled the Regent of Sun, Luna soon regretted that.
"I'm sorry, but this... this is insane!" Luna was in verge of tears, she is the most desperate in this matter, felt like, those days as Nightmare Moon, seeing, witnessing how to make miserable her own subjects, her sister and, herself. promising eternal night and the death of the sun...
"I know this is hard to believe but... there is more" Celestia Continue reading
the stars answers and revert the mindless
Ferocity are in their side, with glory their mind
Strike like poison in the inside, rescue the fallen blood
The next page had four symbols; one looked like seal, multiples white points that looked like stars were inside of a blue circle with two elegant silver plants surrounding the circle. The next seal, three spikes or pointing blades in a triangular shape, the one pointing up was long and thin, the other two were shorts and pointing outwards and slightly down and curved in a counterclockwise direction. The other symbol was two large elegant green wings. Beneath these symbols there is one surrounded by darkness, a black cube with green points, the center of the cube has another symbol; it looked like a weird but circular claw in red.
"These symbols, these looks like..."
"Flags, flags of nations or empires" completed Celestia. They looked each other before closing the book. Celestia began to package it, gaining a look from the confused Luna.
"What are you doing? That book is important" asked the princess of the night
"I'm send it to Twilight, she know how to read prophecies" she chuckled while writing a letter and send it with her magic along with the wrapped book.
"How? I know that she is very talented but how do you know that she will decipher the meaning of this prophecy?"
"I'm very sure that Twilight is capable in this task but, I'm more concerned now in the missing ponies. I’m going to talk with Shining Armor about this matter but first" she turned to Luna.
"Is it time to raise the moon, do you think?" She smiles warmly at Luna, the sisters trot to the nearest balcony to end the day and start the night.
"Luna, what did they do to you?" Luna lay on a bed in a coma, her fur pale and now maneless, her left eye was covered with a Borg implant, the optic of said implant glowed red, tubes and cables connected in the neck, head and the implant, her left foreleg replaced with a Borg prosthetic.
"We rescued her in time, the Borg were already finishing the assimilation." Princess of the sun turned around to see the one who is talking.
"Officer Te'lan! Thanks goodness you're here, how is my sister, please!" The creature look bipedal and it was clothed with a black and blue uniform, by the voice, was female and her body was slender, her face was emotionless but you can't read emotion in a Vulcan, right?
"She will be ok. We started to revert the assimilated parts of her body. Her mind was the only part of her that remained untouched." The Vulcan replied
"The Borg will pay deadly for this." said a familiar voice behind her. Then the princess woke up...
"Wait! Please no! Keep -that- thing away from me, wait, WAIT- AAHH!!" Luna saw with fearful eyes how the Borg drag a bipedal creature, by the voice it was male, furless but his skin has healthy pale color and white hair with a pony tail on the head, the Borg trap him on a table.
And the assimilation begins...
"Leave Anther alone, you wretched monsters!" growl Luna, she was powerless, her horn and wings broken, trapped in a brig waiting for the Imminent assimilation to come.
"Prisoner 045, Prepare for assimilation, your resistance is futile." one the Borg guarding her said. How she got into this mess? her body is covered with bruisers and scars, her right hindleg burned by a Borg disruptor, make her unable to move and her left eye bleeding.
"You don't understand! You ALL don't understand! You’re not one of them, please stop!" she beg this time, a Borg appears in the door. But this time was different, it was a pony
"Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated." then the princess woke up...
"Luna! Thanks goodness, you woke up!" Luna's vision was blurry thanks ot her tears but the voice was clear, it was Celestia, her vision recover only to see Celestia with tears too. Something was wrong.
"What's wrong, why are you crying?" She asked incredulously, knowing Celestia, she was always the calm and reasonable type, but looking at her that way was almost like seeing her using the Elements of Harmony against her again, the way that she regretted using the powerful artifacts.
"I just, wanted to see you... who is Anther?" asked Celestia her voice was weak and broken like she was crying for hours, but the question remains, who and what is Anther?
"I don't know Tia. But it was in my vision; I was defending him, from these monsters..." Luna notices something, her voice was raspy too? She had shouted in her sleep? Why?
"I got a good look at these Borg, sister. Also I got a good look at the one called "Anther" it was an alien" with these words she expected Celestia to gasp or be at the least, surprised, but she wasn't,she was staring on her until she respond the word come from her was completely alien to her.
"Yes, I got a good look of one of them... Te'lan I think that was her name, she was healing you" she shifts her view trying not to remember that horrid sight of her sister becoming one of these horrors.
"Curing me, from what?"
"The, Assimilation" Luna eyes went wide from the words that she heard, Assimilated?! her?! Visions are future tellers but... her sister was a step ahead from her?! Wait... she said 'curing the assimilation?'
"I have new orders for you Vice Admirals!" Admiral Jorel Quinn said while standing at the podium, many Starfleet captains and officers sat in their respective chairs in the conference hall, the admirals near to the podium waiting patiently for the Fleet Admiral to speak.
"As you know, the Borg are retreating, but not completely." Behind the Admiral, the image of the M-class comes on the screen with the data collected from the sphere. There were murmurs and whispers. All these were silenced by another image from the screen, four types of quadrupeds with data next to them.
"The Borg are interested in these natives from the new world that we now designated: Equinux. The reason what we're also interested in this world, is this." The Image shift and become graphics and data from 'unusual radiation'. There were some murmurs of ‘Fascinating’ and others confused 'what?' from the audience.
"Sorry to Interrupt, Admiral, but I find it highly illogical that the Borg are interested in harmless form of radiation, these algorithms and theories say about new forms of assimilation, nothing new actuality." A vice Admiral Trill said from the crowd, there were more murmurs until the fleet admiral, spoke.
"Indeed this is the truth, but this not all, Vice Admiral Vaner." The algorithms change and the graphics appears again, this time in color blue and red, the red more predominant than the blue one.
"These Graphics that you all see here are a forms to make it dangerous and cause harm" The admiral points on the blue graphic "this graphic that our inteligence manage to decipher, is the harmless and less dangerous form" now pointing the red one "and this, are that we predict, the most dangerous one" some from crowd gasped others like the Vulcans said 'fascinating' and others just stare in the graphics.
"The Borg analyzed the entire planet and looks like that the source of 'that' radiation come from the natives, our scientists tell us that these natives are able to control or emulate from the most basic form of telekinesis of the Remans or Letheans or to reach the potential of a heavy cannon of our escorts. I know that this is hard to believe but the Borg has their eyes on the natives and if they achieve to assimilate all the population, Starfleet predict that the entire Alpha Quadrant will be part of the collective in few months." In solemn tone in his voice, he finished. the crowd looked uneasy, 'Impossible!' and 'can't be true' can be heard from the crowd, an human male tactical officer rise up and ask a question, a very simple question.
"We can't just tell them to evacuate the entire planet?"
"We can't tell them that, Captain Anther, the natives are still in pre-warp age and we cannot violate the Prime Directive" Replied Quinn.
"So that's it? Wait for their doom so they can make ours?"
"I never said that, Captain, we will help them in secret. The coordinates indicate a remote system in Gamma Orionis Block, Cestu Sector. Between the transwarp conduit, Hoteb and Kessik systems." The Screen show the said location, the audience still uneasy but at least, stable.
"I'll need a small fleet of 7 ships, any captain volunteers?" there are a groups of captains but none offers themselves to go, fear for their crew or themselves, to risk assimilation, however, Anther, broke the silence
"I’ll go, my ship, the U.S.S Salvation, is a Sovereign class, equipped with the hardest hull in the Starfleet." Anther rises up again with determination in his face, this inspired few others in the audience and 5 more captains did the same.
"I'll go, for the sake of the Alpha Quadrant and the Galaxy!"
"I'll go too!"
"Me and my crew will go."
"I'll go, let me kick these cybernetic asses!"
"I'll go too; the Borg needs to be stopped!"
The crowd applauded the volunteer captains for such mission and valor, but, still is needed one more captain, the Fleet Admiral recalled, but no one dared... until...
"I'll go, Fleet Admiral." eyes lay upon Vice Admiral Vaner, Member of the 76th fleet assigned to patrol inside Borg territory, her ship, the U.S.S Inquisitor-E, a vesta class equipped with the most advanced technology and crewed by 750 of the brightest members of Starfleet trained for any kind of situation, a jewel among the stars.
"It's decided then, tomorrow, you all will depart towards the new system, you'll find your ships with the assigned coordinates, Klingons and New Romulans will join you in Cestu Sector on the other side of the transwarp conduit. Don't worry about miscommunication or any other interference, both fleet have the same orders as you seven.
"With this, we conclude the emergency meeting. Good luck, captains."
"Captain Svensei, I'm glad to have you in our fleet, your experience in the Collective is valuable assert in this dangerous mission" Vice Admiral Vaner along with the Captain Svensei, a Krytanian, a race believed to be extinct by the Borg. He was rescued by a Special Ops, and brought to Earth in order to learn more about him, Scientist found him fascinating others feel sorry for him, he is the last member of the Kryptanian race, he joined Starfleet to stop the Borg before any more planets fall to the same fate like his people.
"I know, Ma'am. The Borg need to be stopped on all cost. I predict that the queen herself may review the planet in any time." The Captain, even though that his past is a tragic one, he is very patient and collected. He commands the U.S.S. Infinity; a Chimera Class Destroyer, one of the most military advanced ship in Starfleet, he along with the Vice Admiral, were on the same assignment before this new one, they are very precious in the war against the Borg... along with Captain Anther. In the same instance, the Vaner's combadge activates.
"Vice Admiral, Here First Officer in the Inquisitor-E, the fleet is now in orbit and ready to leave the system as you command" Said a Female voice in the tiny communicator, Vaner pressed it to respond.
"Roger, First Officer, Beam up in my mark” with that she deactivated the combadge's communicator and turn back to face the captain of the Infinity.
"It’s time to go, Captain..." before she can reactivate the communicator the captain answers her.
"My crew will follow you to the fluidic space if you command ma'am, we are ready for to go."
"Very well." she active the combadge and... "Beam me up, Jenny!" she reply, in the same instance she became engulfed by blue light while she is began dematerialize in front of the captain.
Onboard in the U.S.S. Inquisitor-E, Transporter Room.
"Welcome Onboard, Vice Admiral... How many times I need to remind you that stop calling me "Jenny"?" said the human Commander Tactical Bridge Officer, Janet 'Shyclaw' often called Jan or Claw for her hash personality in battlefield, but she is pretty shy around the ship, she is a weapon expect and love being in the armory, however she is very loving around animals in the Arboretum onboard Vesta station.
"I know that's why I kept calling you Jenny" Vaner teased and chuckled a little then her face turn to serious like a Vulcan. "The fleet is ready to depart, I am correct?"
"Yes ma'am, 5 ships in orbit, waiting orders, only the Inquisitor and the Infinity are docked here, captain." Janet and Vaner walks out the transporter room towards to the turbolift, while in that, the tactical officer keep her informed about the status of the weapons and the updates of it, the admiral asked her about the animals, she was happy with that question, she didn't expect that question in all!
"They are fine, Nasha give birth to 4 healthy cubs, the Eppohs are very energetic today, probably is mating season, the Saurs and Targs are very passive today, everything is, as the Deferi say 'in balance'" she say in relieved tone, both human and trill enter to the turbolift and headed to the bridge.
"Sir, the U.S.S. Inquisitor-E and U.S.S. Infinity are exiting the station" Geloon, the Andorian engineering officer of the bridge affirmed.
"Affirmative and Geloon?" Anther asked. Captain Anther was raised on Risa during the final years the dominion war. During his years in the academy, his versatility and leadership were praised among his fellow members; Geloon was his first friend during those hard but adored years.
"Yes, Anther?" since they were very close, it was not really necessary to address each other to their career or being formality.
"Wanna go to the holodeck during warp and transwarp travels? I brought "Playjoran: the Occupation: part II" both perverted Tactical and Engineering Officers chuckled while the females officers in the bridge were not amused or just plain serious, Rhasee the Lieutenant tactical officer Betazoid break the ice with her unique and special trait: her complaining speech.
"Ugh! I cannot believe that you both are our Captain and Chief Engineer! This is serious! The Borg are threatening to assimilate us and you BOTH are thinking with you damn crotch! We should be using the holodeck for tactics and strategies against the Borg! Not some perverted holonovels!
"Hey! If you were captain instead of me, you’d be out, buying the next holonovel of PlayRomulus! We all know that you have a kinky spot for Romulans, Rhasee." Teased Anther with an amused hint in his voice
"Also, We have evidence of you 'interrogation' with that Tal'shiar Agent, back in New Romulus, she was overjoyed aftermath..." the Andorian teased in the same tone.
"...I hate you, both of you..." said the Betazoid with venom in her voice.
"We love you too, Rhasee." both high ranked officers said in the horizon. The Vulcan science officer, L'der, overheard the conversation, he didn't mind after all, he had known the captain since the academy; his behavior was mostly... fascinating. From a court clown to a very disciplined and calculating captain, Logic dictated that he cool down the situation, creating another without sense.
"Captain, the U.S.S. Inquisitor-E is hailing us, it’s a fleet-wide hail!" said the helmsman
"This is Vice Admiral Vaner to the 24th Fleet 'Equinux Defenders' as we know from yesterday's revelation, the Borg’s new target is a planet with pre-warp natives, whose bodies can generate this radiation of which we spoke of, in the conference hall."
"Our job is simple, defend the planet at all cost ,but we will do it in secret, making contact is still an option but not recommended, however, if the Borg are already there, we will use guerrilla and black ops tactics, nothing about direct assault or similar!
"We will join a fleet of New Romulans and Klingons in Borg space, which will assist us in this mission, while this rule isn’t followed by either of them, they job is to clean the Equinux's space, if they do First Contact... we will assist." she already had some scenarios in her head, such Klingons messing up with the natives or deceptive Romulans or nocturnal Remans spooking the children, she chuckled in the last thought.
"Alright, you have your orders and coordinates, Engage warp to the transwarp conduit near Risa, Good luck captains!"
"I cannot BELIEVE this!" Twilight said, Frustrated, hysterical and tired; she had been reading and analyzing the book for almost TWO days! Spike was concerned, Twilight was not like this! Of course, she maybe obsessive with reading but this is ridiculous!
"Twilight, I think that you should take a nap, you have been reading that book from Celestia for almost two days!" Spike was worried, she haven't eaten neither, only reading that "Prophecy Book" from Celestia. Maybe Celestia saying in that letter, "the destiny of Equestria lies in your hooves" was a little too much.
"Spike, this is important! The Princess entrusted me with this task, she had visions of something terrible and it is my duty as her student in deciphering, this!" she levitate the book with her magic. Twilight was a mess, her mane was ruined, eyecups and bad smell from lack of bath. Twilight needed help very bad.
"TWILIGHT!" Spike yelled "You should rest! You have been reading too much!" this snapped Twilight back to reality, she looked around her, the library was a mess too! She smelled herself "Ugh!" and looked in a mirror, she almost yelped seeing her own reflection and her head hurt.
"Maybe... you're right, Spike, Thank you... I might have overreacted seeing that letter" commented twilight with an apologetic look on spike who sighed in relief, he even considered Pinkie Pie as option! is a relief that she finally entered in her sense.
"I'll take a bath, can you make…" she look on the clock and gasped in surprise, it was already night! She had stayed awaked that long!? "… dinner?" She looked at Spike again with nervous laugh, while he smiled in victory.
"Don't worry, you take the bath, I prepare dinner, salad or sandwich?"
"Salad" she said as she heard her stomach growl, it sounded like a monster lived inside of her and threated to ate her from the inside out "and the sandwich please." again a nervous laugh escaped from her mouth. She trotted toward the bathroom while Spike goes to the kitchen.
With the bathtub, Twilight sank in to the warm water, reclining herself while wandering in her thoughts; she wondered why Celestia wanted so bad to her decipher something on that while she can do it in mere minutes? Maybe it is too much, even for her? she thought.
From the celestial realm come the condemned and the saviors
The killers of the gods and the redeemed Empire come to our aid
From the darkness that come to our Land the explorers know the...
"What does that mean? Borg, what silly name... Metal Monsters fused with the victim's flesh seeking our magic is even more silly, why the Princesses so concerned about? it could be dreams and the missing ponies can be a bold tactic from Chrysalis to create confusion among-" Suddenly terror inducing screams followed by strange noises of a robot moving and rays can be heard from the outside then a green flash illuminated the bathroom entering through the window... then a deadly silence, she didn't want to move, even her curiosity was stolen away thanks the scream, the doors opens and Twilight screamed
"Twilight! It’s me, Spike!" she stopped screaming "Come on! There is something outside!" spike grabbed twilight's hooves and drag her towards the cold outside, she protested about her condition, spike noted that and brought her a towel, with her magic she covers her whole body with it.
Part of the town folks wher outside surrounding a mare... with burns and bruisers in part of her body.
"What's going on? Twilight asked, she placed herself next to the injured mare, examining her, she noticed the burns and small scars on her. "Somepony call for help! She is badly burned in her left foreleg and wounds on her abdomen! now!" A few pegasi flew towards the hospital calling for help while the others remained with her.
The mare was sobbing "Easy, everything is now fine-" Twilight tried to comfort her.
"NO! It’s not fine! A monster come from behind and attacked us! Oh my... WHERE IS SALLY? Where she is..," from the sudden outburst to a melancholic depressed tone, she continue crying.
"A monster, you mean a changeling?" someone in the asked.
"No, it was too big to be a changeling. Maybe even bigger than Celestia herself!" the small crowd that surrounded Twilight and the injure mare, gasped, whispers of ‘bigger than Celestia?' and 'Impossible!' could be heard
"Calm down everypony!" she turned to the mare on the ground "can you tell me how it looked?"
"Y-Yes, I remember. It was tall, it looked like a teen dragon but its body or armour was completely black! It had one claw and another... It don't look like a claw or anything! A small, but shining piece of metal on its left eye, glowing in red and from it back... an artificial tail like a scorpion's with strange light coming from the tip. It foalnapped Sally!
"You.... remember something more" the mare nodded
"Yes, It talked, it said that my ‘resistance is’… ‘futile’..." the mare closed her eyes and faints, Twilight know what happen... the prophecy of the star heroes is in motion! She needed to talk with princess about this...
"Jolan tru, General Obisek" Admiral Ge'dan, greets to the Reman General of the republic, New Romulus' City is almost completed with the help of the Federation and the Klingon Empire, but still with the city builded, there no way that Romulans and Remans can live in peace, the Borg threat is still present, Sela's Tal'shiar are using pirate tactics, this is low even for her using this kind of tactics...
"Greetings, Admiral, you may be aware about the recent discovery of the Borg" Ge'dan nods "this is why I called you, I selected few but resourceful captains for you in this delicate mission, you see, D'tan and I decided to bring military action against a common enemy, the Borg, recent attacks had occurred in Gamma Orionis Sector, the most odd part is the Borg are sending just scouts, they detected a planet whose natives generate some radiation that is harmless yet dangerous, it can emulate weaponry's energy, if the Borg assimilate that planet, we'll face a mortal enemy." Obisek walks toward the desk's computer, pressing few buttons a hologram of the planet appears over the desk along its quadrupeds inhabitants.
"Humans designate these natives as Equinians for their physical structure, these with horns are the prime objective of the Borg, however they'll assimilate the others as well. the Federation and the Klingon Empire had already reunited their forces in Gamma Orionis, use the transwarp conduit of new Romulus to go, and meet with the fleet "Equinux Defenders" and "Warriors of E'quiV" both led by Vice-Admiral Vaner and Lt. General 'BlackHeart'."
The hologram of the World and the Inhabitants, shifted to various Romulan ships. "Your fleet is composed of your Ha'apax Prototype and a fleet worth of warbirds more capable in this mission, their captains are the best. the elite, veterans of the old empire and the reman resistence. we have T'liss Warbirds but I think that you can handle it without cannon fodders, also their hull make them an easy target."
"Understood, General."
"Good, you and R.R.W. Peacekeeper will do exceptional work in this mission. The Borg are numerous, and their numbers increase by each soldier that fall into the assimilation and with this... we must stop their search for 'perfection' at all cost."
"Yes, General. I'll assemble the fleet immediately"
"No need to do that, Admiral. The fleet is already assembled and waiting in the transwarp conduit, go on, Admiral, make the republic proud in their new military."
Orbit of New Romulus, R.R.W. Peacekeeper, 1 hour later
"Welcome aboard, Admiral, the fleet is assembled and ready to depart on your command" S'Ian First Officer Commander of the Peacekeeper, and the only close friend of Ge'dan. Ge'dan was not always an admiral; she used to be a farmer on a colony world separated from the main Romulan empire until... that dark day that cost her, her family... and her whole life. S'lan was always like a sister to her; she shared the same destiny as her since the very beginning in her dark life.
"You seem tensed, Admiral, something is wrong?" B'rel the helmsman and Chief Enginner, young and charismatic guy only 30 year old and he was accepted for his experience in flying ships, from shuttles to mogais, he is very skilled helmsman.
"You are worried, I can sense you" Borel, Reman Tactical Officer and weapon expert, he used to hate Romulans back in resistance against the Tal'shiar and Hakeev, however during the negotiation with D'tan and his Romulans he didn't trust them until few years later, he respect them and they can be trusted but beware of the Tal'shiar. by his vast experience during the resistance, He was elected to be Bridge Officer of the new prototype of the new line of “Ships of the Republic”, he gladly accepted.
"I am always worried, Borel, I'm worried about the Tal'shiar’s objectives... Taris is dangerous, the federation should have killed her, not imprison her and now she is free, with Iconians... Sela is in command of the Tal'shair we don't know that if she is part of the Iconians’ pets like Taris, we have both dangerous foes and yet they send us to protect a remote world in a dangerous and forsaken sector... that's why I'm concerned, we are out for long time and when the missions end to return back to our new homeworld we might find Tal'shiar’s ships orbiting it..."
"As much as I find that as a logical and probable future, the Federation and the Klingon Empire are already hunting down Tal'shiar's activities in nearby sectors and D'tan is encouraging independent Romulan and Reman colonies to join the republic as we speak" L'real, Vulcan Science Officer, he is a mystery, he left Starfleet to join the republic, inspired by ambassador Spock's ways. He and others Vulcans live among the Romulan for the same cause as Spock, unification.
"If that is so, then, I trust both galactic powers in this. Helm, to the Transwarp conduit, and hail the fleet, we're moving now!" B'rel gladly did all as ordered and set course to the transwarp conduit, from the screen the assembled fleet in front the gateway is visible; he began the sequence to hail the entire fleet.
"To all the ships in the fleet, we're going to Borg territory, the Borg is a very dangerous enemy and its objective is to assimilate everything in their path, they recently discovered a species with a unique... ability, to generate radiation in their own bodies that, if used right, can emulate most of our weapons in a high potential. If the Borg assimilate this species we will face a mortal enemy even more dangerous than the Tal'shiar."
"Our mission is to support the two main defensive fleets, of the Klingons and the Federation, in case that the Borg start an invasion with drones we will send various away teams to take them out, first contact is allowed just in case but not obligatory, this is all you need to know captains. Good luck." the channel closed and the transwarp gate activates, the ships began their journey.
Qo'nos Orbit, I.K.S. Malditus Bostaquv's Warriors Hall
Multiples captains had been called to one of the main flagships of the empire, Malditus, whose general and captain species and real name is unknown, many captains have been elected for their records and famous battles among the empire, many feel honored to be invited to a prestigious ship of a highly honored general, others don't trust him for his secretism and tactics, using few bekks (warriors) for a "take and hold" mission instead an outright invasion, exterminate the problem by bombarding the planet, he prefers the direct approach using his personal guard and bridge officers, but he is someone to be respected, many worlds have been conquered by him and various citizen of said worlds now belong to the empire.
"Exterminate the planet's inhabitants by orbital bombardment, it is not honorable to do so. The very thought of it is aberrant!" one of the captains exclaimed.
"Yes, but it is the quickest way to exterminate the menace before it becomes a menace!" another captain expressed.
"I said that is a better idea to conquer them rather than exterminate them! We could use that radiation to finally defeat the Federation!"
"You don't know nothing about them... in the Borg's files, it’s said that these creatures are peaceful and their culture is similar to the ancient human past, exterminate them will dishonor the empire, killing innocent is not the way of the KDF." An Orion, Onar 'Venus', Captain of a Kar'fi Battle Carrier, I.K.S. War-Mistress, she and her crew are famous for raiding important Federation worlds such Vulcan, Earth and Andoria, also rob plans for new weapons in various facilities.
"Yes, Killing them is not our way, it is not an honorable path, it is the path of a coward!" Captain Na'Vi, Darekian from the world Dareke II, captain of a Vo'Quv Carrier, I.K.S Blade of Honor, his race is known for being blue skinned, like andoria, his homeworld is an Ice-World, instead of a beard, males grow spikes. He joined to the KDF to follow the path of the warrior. He is very serious when talking about honor, he is famous for assisting in heavy assaults on the frontline, also being the only ship standing in the battlefield, and many Klingons say that he and his crew are from Sto-Vo-Kov itself to assist the empire in the war against the federation.
"The Borg are known for their assimilation... they assimilated me, converting me into a mindless drone... that species will become one of them, if they remain untouched, it safe to say that J'mpok will want that race for the empire if the mission is a success, the probability of that happening, is 45% the remaining 55% is maintaining them untouched, physically, they are weak, and by their peaceful nature is something that the empire or J'mpok do not accept." Captain Kurama klingon captain of a heavily modified Qin Heavy Raptor, I.K.S StormCrow, he was a Borg drone and thanks to that, he's thoughful sometimes, distracted or distant, but he is well respected warrior in battlefield.
"Indeed..." a voice startled the captains, except Kurama and Venus, coming from the main door of the warriors' hall, stand an armored figure, 'Blackheart', he wore a silver armour, with honorable emblems of the empire, his head is covered by a silver helmet, the eyes are not visible as the visor of said helmet cover them, the armor of the honor guard... only few are allowed to use them but many prefer to not use the helmet, blackheart is an exception.
"He does not wish a weakling race in the empire only the stronger are allowed, but he is not a fool, he wants us to protect this simple world not for their sake but for the sake of the empire, he admit that he fear that empire may fall if the Borg take that race, we are not allowed to fail!" his voice is cold and deep, probably the helmet. "We are the pride of the empire, the Federation are just cowards that send few ships for a critical defenses, and the new Romulans thinks that they can support us. Weaklings I said to them!... we are allies to them just for now... when the mission is over, we will teach them, WHO. WE. ARE!
"Blackheart, we are honored to follow you in this mission for glory!" Na'Vi rise up and cheers for his general, many did the same, others like Venus and Kurama remain serious, they know what and who blackheart is, few know, that an exiled Terran from the mirror universe commands them.
"you have your orders, we will go to the new system to establish a defensive position in planet's orbit along with Federation and Republican ships, then protect the world from any Borg vessel around, return to your vessels and follow the Malditus!" everyone in the hall acknowledge the orders and goes to the nearby teleporter room, Kurama and Venus walk, talking to each other, about possibilities and risks.
"You think that they'll find him out someday? Working for a terran will raise chaos among us." asked Venus
"speaking logically: Only his crew know him better, mostly are like him, secretive and mysterious, like a real Romulan, but he had been in the empire for years, and by the records of his former ship, I.S.S. Damnation, he and his crew were exiled by the head states of the Terran Empire, and them assimilated by the Borg in this universe he and many of his crew got lucky, now he works for us, the Klingon Empire."
"Yeah, I know that, but those that know nothing about him-"
"Confusion, followed by distrust and speculations, treason of his command: 65%, the other 35% will remain loyal to him, like us."
"that's what I thought... Qapla' Kurama"
"Qapla' Venus" both departed in their own way to a teleported room and get in their ships.
The Tactical Bostaquv I.K.S. Malditus and a fleet worthy for an invasion departed to the transwarp conduit...
"I don't know Twilight, maybe it’s a black teen dragon that decided to jerk around, I swear if I see him I have few words for him!" Rainbow dash fumed, after the incident yesterday many in the town decided to not engage in activities in the night, for fear, Fluttershy had made a fortress in her own cottage, since then she preferred not to exit much, Apple Jack had been watchful lately, she had the excuse that "black dragons vermins" maybe planing invade Equestria, Rarity don't mind much, yes, she is concerned but sometimes, these things happen, and she continues with her business later on.
Twilight on the other hoof, she is more than concerned, Sunny Light, the earth pony witness and victim, said almost everything before fainting on her hooves, she is now in the hospital, the doctors said that she suffered various traumas but she will be okay, but she know that the thing that she was attacked, was NOT a dragon...
"I don't really think that it is a black dragon, Rainbow, black dragons are known for being territorial and prefers being in that territory than take another land, you know very well that black dragons are in the OTHER side of world, is impossible!
"Oh yeah? How can you explain the sudden attack to Sunny Light and the foalnapping of "Sally" Bright Dawn?"
"She said that it looked like a dragon but it’s NOT a black dragon, she said that it looked like he wore a black armor and by the description, maybe it’s not a normal dragon." Twilight trotted to the desk and with her magic she lifted a paper with the drawing of the "dragon" to show it to Rainbow, Rainbow looked thoughtful and doubtful. The drawing show how that "armored dragon" looked and then she fell laughing hard.
"T-that's the dragon?! HAHAHAHA! It look ridiculous!" Twilight was not laughing, she was embarrassed she is the one that draw it with all the descriptions.
"Rainbow, this is serious! We don't know if this being had relation with the Nobles' children, and if you noted in the newspapers and the recently attack yesterday, Sally and the Nobles' children are mostly unicorns! This thing or more are probably behind the disappearance!
"Mostly unicorns? Twilight do you think that you and rarity are..."
"…In danger? Oh no... No no no no no no NO-!" the suddenly realization hits her so strong than it feels like a sack filled with bricks, rainbow hit her with her left hoof in order to snap her to reality. She calmed down.
"Twilight calm down! geez, Spike is right, you're paranoid with almost everythin-" suddenly a bright light fills the center of the room, twilight and rainbow looked to see... that an armored figure is appearing slowly in the center of the light, it was the armored dragon, it looked even more weird than the drawing, and more menacing and creepy, Twilight was about to scream and Rainbow jumped between her and the "dragon" she put her best "brave-face" but in the inside she felt... fear... that thing is big! The head looked like a reptile than a dragon, a rare thing glowing in its right eye, instead of a left claw, it had a cylinder with spikes in the center glowing in green, a scorpion-like tail in its back with the tip glowing, when the light ceased. It looked at Rainbow then to Twilight... then... it spoken.
"I'm Ta'lash of the Borg, Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is Futile" Twilight screamed...
You are part of an unyielding tradiction, For over Two Hundrer Years, Men and Women served with honor, courage and wisdom.
Our first duty has always been to the truth, The guiding principles that define us.
To the stars, for knowledge, To wear this uniform is to continue our most noble mission: To explore new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before...
In this dark hour, you must shine, you must light the way for the lost and repressed
The Final Frontier, awaits.
You'll sail your ship upon sea and storm. You wear the Uniform, you carry the tradition with valour and sacrifice.
Whatever comes, Whatever finds you, Stand tall, hold fast. You are a Starfleet Officer
"I don't know who or what you are, but touch her and I BUCK YOU!" Rainbow growl in front of the weird metallic creature. It looks like a dragon or reptile, but it act like a machine and something weird was on it.
Twilight looked closer at the creature with the black armor or carapace that looked fused with it flesh. For a menacing reptile-like monster his (it sounded male) face show no emotion, no growling or any show of primal rage she expected. He said his name but also his "loyalty". Borg.
"Resistance is futile,” the metallic reptile stated. “Surrender yourself and prepare to be assimilated."
Twilight was more confused but something hit her. "Assimilated." The book had said something about conversion. Maybe this creature could convert ponies to look like him? Or maybe this creature...
"Rainbow! I don't know how, but you must knock him unconscious!" Twilight yelled.
Rainbow look back at Twilight with confusion. "What? How am I supposed to do that?"
This statement made Twilight pause. What she was thinking? Rainbow was a Pegasus yes, but she didn't have the strength or stamina of an Earth pony but Twilight remember one more thing. She was a unicorn! She almost facehoofed with that realization.
"Change of plan! I'll charge a sleep spell while you distract him!" Twilight horn began to charge with magic. Rainbow nodded and flew towards the Borg creature, right in his face.
"Tough guy, huh? Come and get me!" She waved her plot in the borg's face, mocking him, then landed and with amazing speed, she ran towards the borg's legs and bucked him right to the nuts! She looked at his face to see if he was in pain to laugh at him ... but was futile. He felt nothing; no pain, annoyance or anything like that. SHE KICKED HIM IN THE NUTS! What thing can tolerate pain like that?! Unless he was a female? She wondered...
"Rainbow what are you doing?!"
Twilight's voice snapped her back to reality, but how in Equestria could she keep him busy while Twilight charged her spell?
"Stop right there, ya vermin!"
A rope lassoed the scorpion tail of the borg. The reptilian looked back only to see a orange pony with a hat with the end of the rope in her teeth. With his claw, he grabbed the rope on his metallic tail and pulled. The pony fought to maintain control of the rope but it was futile. Without effort the borg pulled the orange pony onto his feet.
"Applejack!" Rainbow shouted and bucked the back of the creature's neck. The creature struggled to stay on its feet. Seeing that it was working Applejack bucked him on his left leg, forcing him to kneel down.
"Ta'lash... borg... designation: 1...35..."
Before he can finish, Applejack b ucked him in his face with all her strength. He finally fell on his back but was not completely defeated. Then something startled the ponies in the library..
"Kill.... me.....!!"
This surprised the two victorious ponies but before they could ask questions, Twilight fired her sleeping spell on the borg, leaving him unconscious on the floor. Rainbow fell, tired, while Applejack inspected the creature. She was surprised that it wasn't a black dragon but one with a black armor and strange... accessories.
"Are ya okay Twilight?" asked Applejack.
"Yes. I hadn't finished charging the spell but in his weakened state I thought that it wouldn't be a problem to fire on him and I was correct!" Twilight cheered at the end of her little explanation. Applejack looked at Twilight with a confused look.
"Twilight, before you fired that spell that creature wanted us to kill him!" said Rainbow Dash.
Twilight look thoughtful. She looked back at the creature, then at her friends. “The prophecy talked about conversion. The creature said assimilation. Maybe they are the same thing,” thought Twilight.
"Twilight?" Rainbow said confused.
"Yes?"
"What we do with this... eh, reptile..?" said Rainbow uneasily. Something this big needed to be maintained. Even a prideful pegasus had her standards.
"I'll contact Princess Celestia about this. Maybe she'll know more," she said then looked at Applejack. "How did you know that we were in trouble?"
"I didn't know. I wanted to invite you to a party on the farm. It's Applebloom's birthday party!”
The Princess was in a meeting with four ambassadors. The retired General Razorclaw, a griffin with a history of battles and victories of the Griffin Kingdom. The Priestess Zalune of Zebrica, while she look young, she has centuries ahead of any of her kin and she know the princess very well. Darkwing, Master of Hunting and famous warrior of the Dragon Kingdom. Ambassador Relikia, a noble of the changeling hive Honeyrock. While Chrysalis' changelings were black and green with teal carapace, she was black, red maned with yellow carapace. Not one of the royal guard or ponies in general trusted changelings thanks to Chrysalis' failed invasion. The only three ponies that trusted her most were the princesses.
"Ladies, gentlegriffin, gentledragon, we have a situation." Celestia said with a serious tone. She started to talk about the prophecy and the Borg. As she talked, Razorclaw was in his thought and Darkwing was no really interested. Zalune and Relikia were the only ones that were interested in the topic.
"Are you certain about this Princess?" asked Razorclaw. He didn't believe in any prophecy. While he was only a cub he used to believe that one day a giant black sphere would fall from the sky and destroy all. That day never came and he no longer cared about any prophecy.
"I'm very certain, General. This "Borg" menace may come in any moment. I and my sister used to believe that it was Chrysalis again but this tactic was very off even for her. There is a prophecy about disappearance and missing ponies, then Immortal sisters suffering vision from the future. We, Luna and I are the Immortal sisters. We have these vision each time we sleep and now we have this case of missing foals and nobles, mainly unicorns with a few pegasi and earth ponies.
"My queen also know about this prophecy, Princess. She said that will be the day of a disaster. Mindless creatures will come from nowhere only to abduct us and... convert us" said Relikia. Celestia affirmed by nodding to the changeling noble.
"The Shaman Circle predicted this day. Only ill and devastation are from this plague." Zalune said in the typical zebra's rhyming patois. Again, Celestia nodded.
"The Drake High Templars saw this as well but they never believed in such thing," said Darkwing, not amused and uninterested in this conversation. Celestia knew about Darkwing, a legendary warrior that defeated a drake warlock, Aldrukin, a black dragon with mastery in black magic. Darkwing, even for such a mighty dragon warrior, had very good standards in diplomacy.
"Your Templars should pay more attention to this! This can be serious!" Relikia injected, hoping to get the attention of the dragon warrior.
"I never said that I did not believe in 'that' prophecy, but the Templars are the absolute law. Also their arrogance is, like me, legendary." When Darkwing finished his sentence, a letter suddenly appeared in front of Celestia, gaining a curious glare from the diplomats. Celestia opened the letter and read carefully. When her eyes widened as she read the content of the letter, the di plomats looked even more curious.
"What is it, Princess? Is it from your student?" Razorclaw asked.
"Yes, it's very important." Her voice become more serious. "Guards, call Princess Luna, this is an urgent matter!" Two guards bowed and left the meeting room, going towards the royal quarters.
"What is more important than an ambassadors meeting?" asked Darkwing curiously.
"A... borg... is in the library in Ponyville."
Zalune and Relikia were in shock and surprise with mouths gaping open and eyes wide. “A living borg? Here?” thought Relikia. She wanted to see it. If true, then she must send a letter to the queen, a letter that might confirm her fear.
"This meeting is over, I'll be seeing this myself with Luna."
Before Celestia could go Relikia transformed into an alicorn version of herself, red furred with yellow mane and emerald green eyes. Zalune along with Relikia faced the princess.
"This a shocking news, but I must depart with you to see the true!"
"Zalune is right. I'm going with you. I need to confirm this for my hive!"
"Very well but I must tell you that we aren't going to use a carriage." Both Zalune and Relikia nodded, knowing what method Celestia would use. Both of them then looked to the two others ambassadors.
"You two aren't going to see it? This can be very important for our people's sake!" said Relikia.
"I'm interested, but not fully intrigued with the idea of see it. I've got a report to send, by the way." Darkwing rose up and went to the nearest exit. Razorclaw was also not interested, so he exit the room as well, the three mares leave the room galoping towards the balcony, when they got there, luna suddenly appears next to celestia, startling both Zalune and Relikia.
"What is going on, sister?" asked Luna. Normally she got the news when the guards entered her room but the guards had said the matter was urgent.
"We are going to Ponyville, Luna."
"Why? What's wrong there?"
"You will see, now hold on!" Celestia charged her horn with pure magic and with a blink of an eye, they teleported to Ponyville.
"Twilight? Any response from the princess?" asked Spike. He had woken up when Twilight screamed seeing the borg in front of her and Rainbow. He was hiding in the room when the battle between the pegasus and the "Draco-Machine" took place. Spike thought that the “Draco-Machine” was very scary and now, even unconscious, he was still pretty scary, even for a bipedal dragon.
"The princess should respond to me or-" Before Twilight could finish, a bright light filled the room only to fade with the princesses and other two guests appearing in front of her and her friends. "Or appears in front of us."
Applejack and Rainbow bowed. Twilight could see the expression of each. Celestia looked serious, Luna looked confused but she didn't know the other two figures next to the princesses. One looked like a zebra with a long black and white mane, very different from the Mohawk of Zecora. The other.. was an alicorn! Red coat and yellow mane with green emerald eyes. Seeing alicorns apart from the princesses was very rare. She knew Cadance but she was a princess. This alicorn must be from royalty that did not live in the castle.
"Where is it Twilight?" said Celestia with a stern voice. She caught the attention of her fake-alicorn companion who was looking very... uncomfortable.
"You don't need to fear, Relikia. They'll never hurt you if they know," said Celestia softly.
"I prefer not to take any chances. Your captain was very... anxious... for me to leave Canterlot and Equestria when he looked upon me." She sounded sad and sorrowful. Twilight looked once again on the red alicorn. She als o mentioned “captain". It must her brother. Why would he want her to leave Equestria?
"I can sense that you are good fellow with good intentions for your people Relikia," said Luna. Comforting Relikia, she extended her wing to 'hug' the red alicorn.
"Twilight, please, where is... the borg?" Celestia asked, regaining her serious expression. Luna now understood why she was in hurry.
Twilight feared that maybe she had disappointed the princess, but maybe she was just stressed, Everypony here was stressed with the situation.
"This way, Princess." She guided the princess toward the main library entrance. The group of ponies (and one zebra) followed the lavender unicorn toward the metallic beast. All was silent until the group reached the reptilian borg. They surround him and Celestia looked carefully at the body of the unconscious beast. It looked like one in her dream... with Luna as one of them.
"Are you okay, Twilight? Did this ... hurt you in any way?" Celestia asked.
Twilight shook her head but pointed with her hoof to Rainbow Dash.
"I am okay, Princess. Rainbow was the one that defended me while I was charging my sleep spell."
"Oh, it was nothing. That thing was toooo slow to get me," Rainbow said with a proud expression. Applejack was not really amused with her. She took off her hat to place it on her chest and trotted to the princess.
"When we defeated this fella, he barely said that he wanted to be killed by us." This caught off guard Celestia and the rest. Celestia looked back to the creature, confused now, wondering why he wanted to get killed... unless...
"Relikia, you're an expert in mind magic, can you see his memories?” This surprised the fake alicorn who laughed nervously. She approached to the princess with an apologetic look in her face.
"Can I talk with you? In private?" Celestia nodded and broke the little circle of ponies that surround the borg. She trotted al ong with Relikia until they reach the kitchen. In the meantime, Luna and Zalune carefully inspect the borg. Zalune look on him with disgust. The armor looked like it was fused with his flesh. Part of his body was mechanical, his left eye replaced with an implant. Luna was more curious. A life form fused with machines? This was both interesting and creepy. Her dreams showed only part of the horrors of his kind, the worst part that the machine that took control of this creature, whatever he was.
After a couple of minutes, Celestia and the red alicorn Relikia exited the kitchen, Relikia looked determined and Celestia looking satisfied she then face the trio of ponies in front her.
"Girls, I need you to maintain a secret. Whatever you see, don't overreact. Relikia, you may proceed."
Relikia sighed and red fire consumed her entire body. The trio gasped. Soon the fire faded revealing what was left... or what was, Relikia. A changeling stood in front of them. She loo ked almost exactly like Chrysalis except for her red mane, yellow carapace and red eyes. Rainbow Dash and Applejack took defensive positions. Twilight narrowed her eyes and charged her horn but before they could attack Luna and Celestia moved between Relikia and the trio.
"What did I say about not overreacting?" said Celestia.
Nothing happened. The three still looked furiously at Relikia,
Relikia, having revealed her true form hid behind the princesses. Celestia was disappointed with the girls, especially in Twilight. She couldn't blame her as Chrysalis' changelings were the ones that invaded Canterlot and ruined the wedding of her brother. She must suspect that all the changelings were with her...
"Release the princesses in this instant, you monst-" Twilight couldn't finish as Luna's eyes glowed with intensity and she hovered.
"THOU SHALL NOT INSULT OUR AMBASSADOR GUEST, ELEMENT OF MAGIC! HOW DARE THOU TO MAKE SUCH FALSE INDICTMENTS!?"
The thunderous volume of Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice convinced the girls that the princesses were not possessed by the changeling. They regained their posture in a second.
"Luna, please, come down." Luna calmed down, her eyes returned to normal and she landed on her hooves. She was still angry with the trio though...
"I should banish you all to the sun if I had the opportunity..." Luna said coldly to the trio. They all 'eeped'. Celestia could understand why Luna was so overprotective of Relikia. She was alone in a land that might hurt her horribly and with the recent invasion by Chrysalis it had become worse. Nopony would trust her in her true form. Luna could understand her pain in being alone in a land that hated her kin.
"Please Relikia, proceed, there is nothing wrong now... Twilight, can you and your friends come with me, please? I need to talk with you all." Celestia motioned with her left hoof to the kitchen. The four mar es trotted and entered. Celestia could understand why they had such racism and xenophobia toward Relikia. They had never seen the other hives, only Chrysalis' which had generated a terrible impact on Canterlot. They suspect that all the changelings were evil like Chrysalis and her minions.
"Why did you all overreact when I asked you not to?"
"I am sorry princess, I thought that it -"
"She," Celestia corrected.
"She was using her magic to control you." Celestia chuckled at the comment, confusing the mares.
"Twilight, Alicorns are invulnerable against mind magic, especially changeling mind magic. She can't control me, Luna, Cadance or any other alicorn."
"But what happens if Chrysalis is plannin' to attack Canterlot an' she's a spy?" interjected applejack.
"She and her hive are not loyal to Chrysalis. There are three hives actually. The first is Honeyrock, the hive of Relikia. To maintain our relations we both sent diplomats and ambassadors to strengthen the relations between our lands.
"Deepland Hive is a very complex hive. These changelings there are mostly aquatic and don't have wings, only horns. Their queen is ... very emotional... She and her hive prefer to live in isolation within swamp or lakes.
"The last hive is the DarkLust Hive which is Chrysalis' hive. There are minor ones too but their actions and culture are unknown." Rainbow was no fully convinced, but she could live with it. Twilight and Applejack shared the same sentiment, regret. Twilight wanted to say something but nothing came out of her mouth. She had failed her princess, her teacher.
"I think that is also my fault,” Celestia said. “I never said that she was a changeling all along without knowing your... reaction."
"I am so sorry princess, I..." Twilight was interrupted once more by Celestia, who used her right hoof to cover Twilight's mouth.
"I'm not the one you need to apologize to, Twilight."
Relikia's horn touch the forehead of the borg, scanning, searching,and localizing any trace of individualism in him. She feared that his mind was fully machine until...
"I think that I have something... oh my... this is amazing!" Relikia said. Her eyes glowed red while channeling her magic. Luna and Zalune got close to Relikia hoping that she had found something very valuable of this borg. Without anymore waiting Zalune broke the ice.
"What have you found that got us bound? said the priestess Zebra, somewhat impatient.
"I got his name, his REAL species, his rank and why he is a borg." Finished, Relikia she removed her horn from the forehead of the creature, her horn fully loaded with memories and thoughts of Ta'lash.
Luna nodded and summoned a crystal ball, floating it between h erself and Relikia. "Put it though in this crystal so we can see it."
Relikia's nodded and transferred the thoughts and memories into the crystal. The ball glowed at the very moment when Celestia and her ponies exited the kitchen. Celestia was curious as to the process and why there was an enchanted crystal ball.
"Relikia found something very intriguing," Luna stated.
"Yes. I put it in the crystal ball so we can all see it," the changeling said.
"This will be interesting," said Celestia.
There was some 'ooh's from the trio and the zebra as the memories began to be projected like a first person movie.
"I hope you found something that's worthwhile now commander," said Ta'lash, Captain of the Negh'Var, I.K.S. Ragn'Arok, Blackheart's former battlcruiser. Ta'lash sat on the bridge while talking with his commander and first officer, an male tactical orion, Erun Rok. The orion somehow looked thoughtful and proud. Normally he looked fearful each time he face him.
"I did it, sir! The information from that cube might allow us to use their energy enhancers to calibrate our ship weaponry subsystem! We can use their own technology now!" he mischievously smirked, successfully gaining his respect. He wanted to confim this.
"Helm, take us to the nearest borg vessel" There was an 'aye sir' from the helmsman position and the Negh'var warps and goes to the next sector. The Gamma Orionis was nothing more than a hunting ground for him. Where there was borg, he destroyed them without mercy. The Ragn'Arok was his pride, such a mighty vessel capable of shredding any other vessel with it disruptor cannons and beams. Torpedoes were secondary for other, bigger ships but he was never afraid in using them on problematic targets.
"We have a borg Tactical Cube in front of us. Dropping out of warp." The ship stopped to face the lone borg vessel.
"Let test our new potential, shall we? ... Commence attack!"
There they were, the Ragn'Arok fighting one of the borg's most powerful vessels, a Tactical Cube. The Cube fired all its weapons at the KDF Battlecruiser. while the Ragn'Arok's cannons and beams only scratch it. This was frustrating but... something happened! The fire rate of the cannons and intensity of the beams increased by thirty percent! The Tactical Cube's shields dropped and quickly become damaged beyond repair. Soon a last overloaded beam directly hit the center of cube and the cube exploded. The test was successful. The new energy subsystem had proved to be useful.
"This is incredible, Erun! You gave the key to fight against the borg!"
The crewmembers on the bridge cheered Erun and he received merits and credit for the new subsystem. One of the klingons offered a battle party in the mess hall in honor of the discovery.
"Cheers for Erun! Your name will be remembered, there will be songs for your discovery and our victory against our enemies!" Warriors of many races were in the mess hall celebrating, singings warrior songs and drinking bloodwine until utterly drunk. Ta'lash was eating along with Commander Thruss, a tactical lethean. He don't seem to be very enthusiastic with the party.
"Something is wrong, Thruss? Normally, you're the one that says that!"
"I know. It is just Erun... I don't trust him anymore."
"How so? You know very well that he is a coward. This is the first and only party that he can get." Ta'lash states then drank his bloodwine. This was getting interesting...
"Exactly! He IS a coward! Now he acts... acts.. like a Tal'shiar romulan!" he said with disgust.
"Or worse... Now that you mention it, he is normally fearful when he faces me on the bridge. "
"I can't even enter his mind! It is like... he is another person and... species." This caught the attention of the gorn captain. A spy on his ship was rare but not unheard of. He, five times, had discovered spies from the Federation, the Tal'shiar and other klingon houses.
"I think you're right. When the party's over I'll take Erun to Cargo Bay Seven and begin my interrogation."
The party continued for a few more hours before finally ending. The high-ranking gorn invited Erun to review supplies that had just beamed in recently, courtesy of a ferengi vendor.
"So what did you order, captain?" asked the orion in a slightly demanding tone. It was indeed a spy. He was never this assertive, especially making demands of a GORN.
"Something that you might find interesting... spy."
Before the orion could react, he was pinned onto the wall while trapped by the powerful arms of the captain. Ta'lash looked pissed while the orion ... laughed. Laughed like it were a funny joke.
The tables turned. The right arm of the orion had.. transformed into a thick long arm, pushing Ta'lash and smacked him until he fell on his back. He not was changeling, not a spy from ANY of his enemies. He was...
"Undine... you are an undine!"
The false orion just laughed and glared at the gorn captain.
"So observant, captain! I don't need this disguise anymore..." 'Erun' drop its disguise to reveal the grotesque form of an undine. Good think that he wore armor, Ta'lash thought....the armor of a Unit Commander.
"So this is the good bye, 'captain'? I was hoping to see your ship explode by the overload charge! This ship is a time bomb. When the warpcore reaches mass critical, I just... see fireworks taking place in this depressed space!" The undine talked with the orion's voice.
"So this was your plan? Sabotage my ship? I'm surprised that you're not reaching a critical position within our government, undine dog!" Ta'lash slowly rose to his feet only to find himself again on the floor by the undine's mind powers. He cursed that ability of the undine.
"I always find more fun destroying ships within this sector. Causing havok and confusion is my job, after all.”
"You know, maybe Thruss was right! Throw you out the airlock was a very good idea!" He again rose and charged only to be blocked by the long thick arms of 'Erun'. Ta'lash brought his hands to the undine's face with a photon grenade and a plasma grenade in each one.
"NO!" 'Erun' tried to escape or evade but was too late. Both grenades exploded in red and green. The explosion push Ta'lash back to the ground. His head rose. The green flames of plasma were consuming the dead body of the undine. He had done it, he had killed a extragalactic infiltrator but there something more to do. He activated his com municator.
"This is... Captain Ta'lash to engineering... deactivate the new subsystem. is overloading the warpcore. I repeat... deactivate the energy subsystem... ugh!" Ta'lash fell unconscious.
That's was the only thing Twilight managed to say. Everyone in the room was shocked, surprised and/or intrigued with Ta'lash but that still didn't explain why he was a borg. They now know that the borg use a cube as transport... and they can be destroyed, but was it really necessary? The Ta'lash in this memory was mostly a battle ready warrior and the alien or undine... this is what lay beyond the skies? She had so many questions...
"This mean that Ta'lash and everyone inside of that are-"
Before Twilight could finish, she was interrupted by Celestia. "Aliens? I think so."
"There is more but we should take a break for now" said Relikia.
"This is an interesting individual, don't you think Luna?" asked Celestia. “If this is an alien, it's possible that there is more life beyond Equestria's skies, probably even more than the common dragons, griffins and so on...”
"Probably, fair sister. Relikia, do you know more about this creature apart from what we saw?" Luna asked. While she was most concerned for the well-being of their subject, the changeling knew something more. This was a delicate procedure. It was probable that they were surrounded by these creatures or aliens, or the Borg menace would probably be already upon them.
"Yes, but only a few things. His name is Ta'lash Raleesh, his real species name is Gorn and he was the captain of hundreds of warriors in a battlecruiser." Relikia was not really a fan of mind magic or similar spells but she knew the time to use them. She was already searching for more memories of the Borg Drone Ta'lash. Three ponies were right next to her, the very same ponies that had threatened her. Twilight and Applejack were ashamed while Rainbow Dash was not. She still didn't trust her but maintained a neutral expression.
"Relikia, I am sorry that we threatened you in that way-” Twilight started to say.
"I'm not!" Rainbow interrupted only to be pulled back by her tail by Applejack. They traded glares.
"Rainbow! She's an ambassador, not one a Chrysalis' vermin!"
"And? She could be a spy from her!"
Relikia pay no heed while her horn's tip touched the forehead of the reptilian drone, recharging it with other memories of his former self. Twilight was still next to her, listening to the loud little discussion of her two friends. Celestia was drinking tea while Luna just look on at Relikia's work. Zalune preferred to stay out of the heated discussion.
"Silence!" Luna and Celestia winced at the words of the only pony that was bothered. Relikia, her horn charged, lifted her head up and and transferred the memories in the floating crystal ball. Done, she prepared the spell to review it but before doing that she turned around only to see the three mares looking at her.
"I am already tired of being treated like scum by the nobles, guards and servants of the palace thanks to the actions of a hive different from mine. My mission as diplomat of Honeyrock is to create good relations with the ponie s of Equestria and stay in Canterlot to secure it. Because of my appearance, I was unable to properly begin my diplomatic duties. My mission ended before even beginning! The invasion from Darklust Hive, their aggressive tendencies marked Canterlot and probably the entire Equestria as well now. I gave myself a new mission. My mission... is survival..." Relikia was now on verge of tears. She turned around to preserve her dignity before anypony could see her, quietly sobbing.
"Ah am sorry to hear that Relikia,” Applejack said “but Ah think you're exaggeratin'. No pony could hate you for what others did"
"You have... no idea... of how wrong you are...” She turned again to the trio of mares, her eyes red and wet. With her left hoof she grab part of her mane and moved it aside, revealing a nasty scar on her neck. The mares gasped.
Celestia and Luna's eyes widened. The only one that was unimpressed was Zalune, calmly sipping her drink without haste.
"Relikia... what happened to your neck?!" said Celestia now concerned for Relikia's well-being. She remembered the day when Relikia entered the palace hooded with all her body covered by a coat when she was at a diplomatic reunion. At the end of the meeting she found blood in Relikia's seat... Perhaps...
"Remember the day I come hooded into the reunion?" Relikia asked. Celestia and Luna nodded. "Before the reunion, I wanted to walk in the gardens cleaning my thoughts, planning my speeches and letters for my queen back in the BlackHoof Desert where my hive lives. Before I could get back to my quarters I got foalnapped. I didn't know my captors but... they questioned me, torturing me; ripping off my wings and cutting my skin with their swords, horns and daggers. They wanted information that I can't give. They raped me when my body was screaming in pain, begging them to stop. They took advantage of my tortured and bloody body. When I passe d out they threw me outside of Canterlot's walls, believing that I might die without anypony noticing..."
"That's horrible!" Twilight gasped. Applejack was speechless. She held her hat and placed it on her chest. Rainbow Dash asked if she was lying and Applejack said no, she wasn't lying, she couldn't detect any lie in her speech, all this was plain truth. Rainbow become speechless too.
"But... how you survive and more importantly, why you didn't tell us? If you were badly wounded you could have gone to the royal hospital!" Luna interjected, wanting more answers.
"I got rescued by an alicorn. I thought it was you or Celestia, but it was somepony else. I don't exactly remember what happened next. The next thing I remember is that I was in Zalune's room being healed by her." The ponies looked at the zebra who was smiling while sipping her drink.
"Who did that to you?!" Luna was upset. This was too much! Torture was outlawed in Equestria and those criminals who did such things were imprisoned or executed. Well no, Luna thought, not by Celestia's mandate but she would do it without regret.
"I don't remember, but it was a unicorn stallion with white fur and blonde mane..."
"Blueblood..." Another voice came from the main door of the library, filled with hatred and venom... Relikia could feel the hate of that mare mentioning the supposed name of her former captor. The three mares looked at the door only to see their two friends watching.
"Rarity! Fluttershy!" Twilight called them by their names while Rainbow flew to them. Fluttershy was sobbing quietly while Rarity look upset.
"Fluttershy! What's wrong?" Rainbow asked.
She got no answer, instead Fluttershy flew right to Relikia, hugging her while sobbing at her neck. Relikia returned the hug.
"How could they to torture you?! In my opinion, they are barbarians! They deserve to be punished for defiling a lady like yourself!" Rarity simply walked past her friends and faced Relikia. The princesses were glad that the rest of the Bearers (minus Pinkie) were welcoming her.
"I am Rarity. Nice to meet you darling."
"F-Fluttershy." The yellow pegasus retreated from the hug and hid behind Rarity.
"Relikia of Honeyrock..."
"This is heartwarming and all but we should continue before this creature run."
Zalune gained the look of all present. The princesses traded a look and nodded in agreement, Twilight explained to her friend how the borg drone entered and attacked them. They were shocked at first but relieved that it was down.
The crystal ball glowed and start another memory from Ta'lash appeared.
Ta'lash slowly woke up in a bed in Sickbay. His body was still in pain from the battle against the undine but most of his wounds were healed. The battle had almost cost him his arms but it was worth it. Killing an undine one to one was an achievement that only a few had obtained. When he struggled to rise up, his body didn't respond properly.
"Today is not a good day to die..."
"If I were you I shouldn't be getting out of the bed yet, captain." An orion female entered the sickbay. It was the medic. He hated the medics no matter what ship or world. He hated them with a passion, but today was different. He owned his life to the doctor.
"Broken ribs, internal bleeding, head trauma, radiation sickness. I am impressed that you're still alive, captain. A week has passed since your little fight against the undine infiltrator."
"But it was worth it, for the good of the ship and the crew." He tried to rise but was stopped by the orion girl.
"Hold on, big boy. A week has passed but that doesn't mean you're completely healed."
"That's no matter. How is the crew, where we are and what happened to the undine's sabotage?"
"The crew is okay, we are back at Battle Group Omega for supplies and the subsystem is out of our ship."
"Good, I'll go the bridge."
When he finally rose, the orion stepped back and gave him a serious look.
"Alright, but get yourself hurt again and I won't heal you the next time."
The gorn captain opened a cabinet where most of his equipment had been stored. He put on his pointed shoulders, his kit, and his weapons. The gorn captain exited the sickbay and walked among his crew, others saluting him with respect. He made his way the bridge where most of his officers awaited.
When he entered the bridge he noticed that there was no one there except for a shadowy figure in the captain's chair. Strange that none of his officers were present...
"You're late. I hope they treated you well." The voice was metallic and deep, like a speaker of a helmet
"It would be unpleasant to make you wait... my lord." He knew the voice too well. He use to server him on this very ship. The only problem was his species. He didn't hate the human race or any Federation race, but he hated to serve a being inferior to him. Blackheart was nothing like inferior.
"I am here to assign you and your crew to a 'search and destroy' mission. There is an anomaly between the Hotep and Kassik systems - another star system. Search what is it in there and if it is dangerous... destroy it."
On the main screen there were the coordinates of the star system and reports and data of the anomaly. Blackheart got out of the captain's seat and faced the gorn captain and former commander of the ship. Ta'lash hated to be seen weakened, but he didn't care. He was a respected warrior and his motto was: "Live today to fight another day."
"Qapla' Captain, I know that you won't fail me. I have already sent other ships before but... they never returned. Whatever happened to those ships, don't let it happen to you."
Blackheart walked to the turbolift and left Ta'lash alone on the bridge. Ta'lash sat down in his seat seeing the coordinates of a new star system where many Klingon ships had been lost.
In a few minutes, the bridge officers returned to the bridge to find only a thoughtful gorn captain. Thruss, his new first officer and commander of the ship reported that the Lieutenant General had departed to his new flagship. Ta'lash ordened a course to go the location of the coordinates.
Sometime after going warp, Thruss the tactical lethean asked the medical officer about the current status of the captain. She said that he was stable and could maintain himself thanks to his stubbornness. His only problem was his pride - to admit defeat would be the day of his own suicide.
"Dropping out of warp," the helmsman announced as the ship arrived at an uncharted system with a M-class world with a single moon. The anomaly came from the planet itself.
"Scanning the planet ... sir this planet fits with the reports and data from Blackheart. It seems that the planet emanates a harmless radiation... that come from the inhabitants themselves!" Curiosity mildly strikes the gorn captain. It seemed that the natives of that planet could bend the radiation... but it was useless, not made for harm.
"Can you tell me more about the natives?"
"Yes sir. Quadrupeds. Four types of them, with horns and wings quite similar to the extinct horses of the human and Federation homeworld of Earth. It seems they can control the weather and the soil with their radiation... Hold on! We have an explosion on the surface. It came from one their cities... on screen."
The screen showed black horse-like creatures with insect features flying from a explosion in the city but the city itself look und amaged. The screen shut down and returned to the view of the planet as whole.
"Interesting... too bad that is useless data... plot course back-" before Ta'lash could finish the alarm sounds.
"What's going on!?" Ta'lash demanded.
"Sir! Borg vessel inbound... it's a Borg Diamond, the queen herself!"
The ship turned back only to be encounter by the borg diamond. Warping out at the same instant, the tractor beam from the diamond traps the Negh'Var and deactivates its sub-systems, leaving only life support remaining.
"We are the Borg. Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Only audio can be heard in the entire vessel as the borg beam drones in various part of the ship.
"Sir, the borg have beamed drones in critical zones, we're being boarded!"
Ta'lash had fought the borg before. Many times he had destroyed the borg drones with ease but today was different. The borg were attacking by surprise at the vital zones of the ship. Also the Borg queen herself was here! Why? Unless... the borg assimilated worlds... and if they assimilate this planet... He knew that his warriors might do something to stop the borg... but only for a while.
"Activate the self-destruct! Erase the databank!" he ordered. He actived his comlink, connecting to the ship's entire address system.
"All warriors, abandon ship! Today is NOT a good day to die!"
"Sir, self-destruct has been activated and the databank is erased. We need to go to Shuttlebay Two in fifteen minutes!"
Ta'lash and his officers exited the bridge only to encounter the crew warriors fighting against the borg drones. There was no time to fight against an enemy that was already overwhelming. They hurried up to the shuttlebay where only the weak and the sick were boarding the nearby shuttles while the warriors held back the drones. The fight was hopeless as more drones beam in. All his bridge officers including himself boarded the shuttle however the shuttlebay's hangar doors were closed. The engineer tried to open the hangar doors while in the shuttle, trying code after code but achieving nothing.
"Dammit! The borg have overwritten the security codes of the hangar! The only way to open the doors is doing it manually the control room.”
"But the entire shuttlebay is overrun by borg drones!" The officers argued but then they noticed something...
"Where is the captain?"
He knew what he was doing. He knew that it was suicidal but for the good of his crew he need to do it. He ran toward the control room while fighting the borg using only his fists and jaw full of sharp teeth. His size was clearly bigger that of a standard human, klingon or borg drone so that was not really a problem.
"I was wrong... today... IS a good day to die!"
He grabbed a borg drone and pulverized it, ripping off its arm and using it as melee weapon. While opening his way toward the c ontrol room, another drone tried to leap at his back, only to be grabbed and bitten by his jaws. He made his way and closed himself in the control room, trying to open the hangar but it was futile too. Frustrated, he destroyed the console with his fists and the hangar doors opened. His communicator activated only to hear his engineer.
"Sir, are you crazy?!"
"No, now flee, before the ship explodes!"
"We can't leave you here sir!"
"Just do it! Live today to fight another day!"
The shuttle flew out the hangar, escaping from the imminent destruction of the Ragn'Arok. All the crewmembers status were unknown. There only being a few second before the ship exploded he got out of the control room and fought against the borg horde but the drones stopped after few moments. They were ignoring him.
"SYSTEM SELF-DESTRUCT DEACTIVATED" is heard from the ship's speakers..
What?! How?! It's impossible! No one knows the deactivation codes except me!
Various drones beamed out leaving only a few to start the assimilation process on the ship, ignoring Ta'lash for the moment. Then a borg successfully leaped at his back and beamed him with it out of the Ragn'Arok and inside the borg diamond..
"Get off!" He grabbed the drone and split it in two. He looked around to see what place he had been taken to. It was spacious and dark with only four columns or pylons in each section of the room.
"Surprised?"
A female voice is heard from behind of him. He looked back only to see the only borg that seemed to have personality - the queen herself. She was more machine than living being, only parts of her skin and "human" face remained in a frame that was mostly robot.
"I am surprised that you out of your nexus," he growled, his voice filled with venom and malice.
"Why not? I am far more interested in some planet filled with quadrupeds but to assimilate them would be... illogical. I need data from their abilities, their power..."
"If you want the data we collected then you're too late. The entire databank of my ship is erased."
"A shame but it will be unnecessary. The data I collected from the others ships are most useful plus..."
A light illuminated one part of the room. There was one table with a native from the planet strapped to it struggling to be free.
"HELP! ANYPONY HELP ME!"
"...I will gather more data while assimilating these creatures..."
"Liberate it!"
"It would be illogical to do that. It is inevitable. This universe is imperfect. I try to correct that."
Before he could attack "her" a borg drone attacked him from behind and injected nanites to assimilate him. He fell on his knee feeling how his body and mind changed, being slowly assimilated from within. His vision become darker until all was filled with darkness.
What's happened to me...? Someone... help me... kill me... whatever... my body... hurts....
Something happened with his body. He couldn't open his eyes or control his body as whole. This is madness. He couldn't feel anything until he felt a kick at the neck. His vision returned, blurry. He only saw one orange creature kicking him in his left leg, forcing him to kneel down. His vision fully cleared and he saw his body... black carapace and borg parts. Then his mouth moved alone.
"Ta'lash... borg... designation: 1...35..."
So he was assimilated? His body was still in pain but regaining the will to move. Then the same orange creature kicking him the face again. He could feel the pain now. He had fallen on his back but he regained half of the control of his body. This was useless. He would be returned back to the Collective if they didn't do something. He tried to talk.
""Kill.... me.....!!"
This startled the creatures he observed before something hit him and he returned to the nightmarish darkness.
A computer voice sounded in his right ear.
"DISCONNECTING FROM THE COLLECTIVE. STATUS: LIBERATED."
“This creature sacrificed himself to save his crew but in the end he was transformed into a metal monsters... well he is a monster but at least, a generous monster!”
Fluttershy was looking teary-eyed at the creature until she saw...
"Uhh.. girls?”
"This queen must be the head of the Borg. I can't believe how somepony could be so cruel and yet remain calm," Celestia said with sternness in her voice. Luna nodded in agreement.
"Perfection through converting anyone into metal beings... is twisted!" said Relikia
"One of the nobles' foals was in that chamber with the queen. She is studying us," Luna said.
"Yes, but he saw us! I mean he saw the climax of the invasion, Chrysalis' defeat and 'banishment'!" interjected Twilight.
"This guy is so AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash yelled gaining the attention of the pony farmer.
"Awesome, huh? This critter almost kill me!" she protested.
"He almost kill you because he was controlled," Relikia said with Twilight next to her. Twilight nodded in agreement. Celestia and Luna began to talk to each other about this menace. Twilight joined in the conversation while Rainbow and Applejack were in their own discussion as was Zalune with Relikia. The only one left alone was Fluttershy.
"Princesses, I must ask. This borg menace is controlled by a queen but we barely know about them. What we will do?" Twilight was concerned now. Nightmare Moon, parasprites, Discord and Chrysalis were one thing but aliens? This is too much!
"I... don't know, Twilight. What we know now is that the borg have vast numbers but they are different from T a'lash." She was right. Ta'lash looked very different from the other borg of his memories. Although they were all bipedal like him, they look plain and pale. Some with black carapaces, other exposing everything even innards... like robotic undead.
"Ehh... girls?"
"But Applejack, this tough guy fought against a horde of these borg-guys or whatever and alone!"
"Yes he is amazing and all, but he got defeated in the end!"
"She cheated!"
"GIRLS!"
Fluttershy's small outburst gained the look of all the mares in the library. Twilight was the first to speak.
"What is it Fluttershy?"
"Ta'lash... is..."
"What? what's wrong with him?"
The curiosity of the mares soon transformed into small terror when they saw the borg drone rising up, with his only claw stroking his head, the eye implant on but in green instead of red. He spoke, addressing the ponies that looked on him with confusion and fear.
"I am Captain Ta'lash Raleesh of the I.K.S Ragn'Arok and member of the Klingon Empire..."
"I am Captain Ta'lash Raleesh of the I.K.S Ragn'Arok and member of the Klingon Empire" the former captain made his greetings to the confused ponies.
Before anyone could say something a cyan blur hit him in the stomach. But being assimilated had an advantage in this case. Most of his body was protected by a black carapace, and his gorn physical strength made him like a walking fortress. He look down to see an equine-like creature with a rainbow mane and tail, rubbing its head in pain.
"Ow!" Rainbow Dash whined she look up only to see that Ta'lash was looking at her. She narrowed her eyes and hovered, trying to keep her courage in front of the reptile captain.
"Why did they send you here?!" Rainbow demanded until she felt her tail being pulled. She turned around only to see Applejack pulling her tail with her rope. Twilight looked at Rainbow with disapproval. The princesses inspected each part of the former captain. He was taller than they were and it seemed he was no longer a puppet of the borg queen.
"I am Princess Celestia."
"And I am Princess Luna. We are the co-rulers of Equestria, the land that you are in."
Tal'lash closed his claw and placed it on his chest while bowing his head in some form of salute. Celestia and Luna traded looks while Relikia raised a eyebrow and Zalune inspected the living machinery.
"I am honored," he said with his head still bowed. Truth to be told, he was trying to fight the pain of his assimilated parts while moving his limbs and confirming that he had total control of his body.
"Will you answer some questions for me?" Celestia while inspecting him more closely. Luna tried to warn her sister but she continued.
Ta'lash said nothing until he inspected his own arm, or weapon. He wondered how much time had passed while he was part of the Borg Collective.
"Only if you answer mine as well," he responded while lowering his arm-weapon, maintaining a neutral expression in his face.
Rarity and Fluttershy were whispering one to another things like 'how horrible he looks with that black armor' and 'is that his eye?'
Luna looked worried at Relikia, who was herself calm. "You don't look concerned, Relikia."
"I am not. I can feel his emotions and mind. If it make you feel better, he is worried too."
"Uh?" Luna said. In that same instant she looked at Appejack who as arguing with Rainbow Dash and being supported by Twilight. She chuckled until they stopped arguing. They looked at Celestia who was talking with Ta'lash, then at Luna and Relikia. Celestia motioned to the girls to stay closed to her sister. They nodded, knowing what she was trying to say.
"I must thank you for liberating me from the collective,” Ta'lash said. “I am in your debt, your majesty."
"Thank you, but it was my little ponies who saved you from that horrid destiny." She pointed with her hoof to Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack. They stood next to Princess Luna while they eyed the reptile curiously. He looked on them. They looked weak and helpless but then again, he looked to the orange one with apples on her flank.
"You must be the one who kick me in the face."
The girls looked at Applejack with curiosity. Why he was talking to her? She blushed, a little embarrassed at that statement.
"Yes it was me!" she said lively.
"I must thank you for that." Celestia looked on her with a confused look then to Ta'lash. The three Elements of Harmony were confused as well. "That kick disconnected me from the Collective, thus making me liberated from their hive mind and the queen." Applejack and Rainbow were still confused but Twilight was not. She understood what he meant.
"He means, with that buck in the face, you save him from being a drone for the rest of his life." Twilight said to Applejack, whose expression changed from a confused one to a proud one, Rainbow huffed, irritated, she was in that combat too!
"What about me?! I bucked you in the neck, that's count on something, right?" she looked to Ta'lash who was intrigued, that kick in the neck enabled his vision and part of his will, with that kick in the face, it almost finished the liberation, until something knocked him out cold, finishing the liberation.
"Your kick counts, it enabled my vision and a portion of my will." This boosted the pride of Rainbow who flew over Applejack who was no amused.
"But something knocked me out that finished my liberation after few minutes."
The girls then looked at Twilight who had a smug smile. Celestia chuckled at Twilight's little show of pride. Ta'lash was not really amused but was satisfied with the results.
"Alright, you seem to have questions. Ask and I will answer." Ta'lash said directly to Celestia.
Celestia regained her regal posture, eyes locked on Ta'lash's trying to spot any aggressiveness or deceitful intent. Nothing...
"What exactly are you, who are your leaders and what government do you serve?" she said with a neutral tone, trying to at least have some influence on him. He still had his eyes on hers, like he was expecting this question actually.
"I am a Gorn. My species has been space-faring since millennium ago. As you can see, we are reptilians, stronger than many other species and our technology can outmatch most unfortunates. We serve the royal family and council. We are divided between two castes, the warrior and the technological caste. I am from the warrior caste. My race as whole now serve the Klingon Empire as a result of a lost war against the Klingons and Orions. Our royal family was doomed to execution until the head council of Klingons decided to give them mercy as long they swore loyalty to the Empire. They quickly agreed."
Celestia and Luna's jaws almost hit the flood. The Element bearers looked shocked, surprised or just about to faint (in the case of Rarity). Relikia and Zalune were not really impressed upon hearing this information from Ta'lash. Celestia looked at Applejack who shook her head, meaning that there was no false information or lies.
"I am sorry that you people become conquered, Ta'lash" Celestia said with an apologetic tone. Part of her wanted to believe that. Another part just wanted to continue with questions. Ta'lash just smirked at the reactions of the ponies present.
"Actually, we thanked them. They opened our eyes. Many of our council and our government officials, including our prime minister, were nothing but infiltrators of a extragalactic species called the Undine trying to sabotage us from within. Our admission to the Empire gained us rights to be equals to the Klingons, even commanding their starships and serving in their armies."
Now Celestia was confused. Who were the Undine? Were they like that creature that he defeated? Well that was a question for another time. She was more curious about the 'Klingons'. While reviewing his memories, she saw many crewmembers on the Ragn'Arok. While all were bipeds some were green with almost flat faces, others just plain uglies and another with a ex tended forehead but like the greens, almost flat faced with strange facial hair or 'beards'.
"I am interested in these 'Klingons', Captain. Can you talk to me more about the Empire that your people serve?"
"Yes, the Klingon Empire is mainly composed of the klingon race, mammals like you and your equines, but bipeds like me. While short of stature for a standard gorn, most of them have your height, Princess. They are a proud, warrior race that fights with honor."
"A warlike empire?" Celestia asked concerned.
"Yes, but we have standards. The Klingon Empire claims their rewards fighting against worthy opponents at the same levels of power as us. The more powerful the rival empire is, the better. We ignore those that are not capable of fighting or are peaceful."
The regal sisters as well as the other five ponies sighed in relief. The changeling ambassador felt... discomfort and pain from Ta'lash. You're no really that tough, no? She move to Luna to whisper to her about Ta'lash's condition. Luna raised an eyebrow then she turned to Ta'lash.
"Are you in pain Captain?"
Ta'lash winced at the very mention of pain. He was in fact screaming on the inside. Supporting it was more painful.
"Luna? Why are you asking that?” Celestia asked. “I'm sure that he-"
"Yes... I am in pain... the implants are killing me. It is uncommon but when a borg is liberated, not all the implants follow that way. Some are programmed to destroy the liberated borg from within."
The mares gasped at the sudden revelation. Zalune look at him dumbfounded while Celestia and Luna's eyes widened. Relikia felt something more in him.. fear...
"You said that like its something normal, but yet you're afraid?" Relikia approached near to him, hoping that he might open a little more to the equestrian. He sighed like he was about to confess something.
"Yes. I am not afraid of my own death, I deserve it. I failed my crew and my superiors."
"Why? We can help you! We can get help from the local hospital-"
"You don't understand. Apart from me your people have never had contact with borg drones and their assimilation, making them unable to do the procedure to reverse the assimilation process. Plus, I am probably the first alien on this world. How can they know about gorn anatomy?"
Twilight was cut by the sudden explanation. He was right, Equestria or Equis as whole had never had contact with aliens before.
"You fear not death? Then was is it you fear?" The words of Relikia were emotionless, yet with a purpose. Her mind-magic was still active. She could feel his fear, something big.
"I fear... that I might have failed to you all as well."
Celestia and Luna traded looks as the rest became confused. Relikia was somewhat satisfied with the result but like the rest, she was confused as well. Zalune was concerned. “Something big is coming!” is what she thought.
"Why do you say you have failed us? You have done nothing!" Luna exclaimed.
"My optic implant is a long-range sensor. I can see where no one can see. I see that there is a borg fleet composed of two cubes and several spheres and probes in the orbit of this planet plus... a borg sphere is descending." The former captain looked at the door then looked up, staring blankly at the ceiling. When Twilight and Celestia wanted to say something, there were some screams and outright yelling from the outside.
"Over there! Something is falling!"
"Is coming right to US!
"It's getting big each second!"
Somepony knocked then suddenly opened the door, revealing another pony. Ta'lash inspected the new pony. This one was pink with a hot pink puffy mane ant tail with three balloons on her flank.
"Girls, you need to see this, the- OHMYGOSH, THE PRINCESSES!"
"There is no time Pinkie! What's going on?" interjected Twilight, very concerned now. Ta'lash was enough, the next thing could not get more worse...
Warp, Fleet about to enter the Equinus system, U.S.S. Salvation.
"Captain, I am detecting a massive borg fleet in the system. We have twenty minutes to arrive and engage," the betazoid reported with a determined look. Anther was thoughtful. After the rendezvous, Vaner was quite clear of no contact with the habitants, but she was prepared for the worst. If the borg were spreading to the planet surface they had no option but to ignore the Prime Directive. He chuckled thinking on that. He was not always 'by the book', so he would send a task force in the end. “You also have no more options, Vice Admiral Vaner. You of all people know that we will send groups to their aid” he thought. His fellow captains knew this as well.
For Dostya, captain of the U.S.S. Carlin, suggested that first contact was a priority, not an option, the natives using their radiation or 'energy' to take advantage against the borg while defending their world in the same time. H'rarrirre, Captain of the U.S.S. Shangri-La, also supported the idea. But Vaner, Tyler Chambers, Captain of the U.S.S. Tewkesbury and Jack Shepard, Captain of the U.S.S.Chakastra, were no pleased. They began to lecture about the Prime Directive and the morals of the Federation and Starfleet. This left the final decision to Svensei. The Vice Admiral was quite shocked at hearing Svensei's words.
"I think that our best course of action is to make the first contact, Vice Admiral. Using guerrilla and hit and run tactics are not the best option for this. It would make our work harder. If the borg are directly attacking the habitants, our best option is to push them back with the Equinians knowing that we are allies defending them and not their enemies."
Good choice of words, Svensei.
"Captain, ten minutes!" the tactical officer reported.
For the Klingons part, they more likely do what they do best - attack first, ask questions later. The Empire was barbaric, straight-forward and senseless but above all they were NOT stupid. The klingon fleet was commanded by one of the most feared and respected Lieutenant Generals of the Empire, Blackheart, his opposite number. Many thought that Blackheart and Vaner were the nemesis of one another. but Blackheart was more of an enemy to him. They had an "interesting" first encounter in the Badlands, a piece of Cardassian territory in the Beta Ursae sector. This first encounter marked their lives forever, to be destined to attack each other until the second wave of the Dominion forces had attacked. He thought Blackheart had been finished for good. Seeing him alive AND now member of the Klingon Empire, he knew it was just the beginning. Blackheart's forces consisted of Na 'Vi, captain of I.K.S Blade of Honor, Venus, captain of I.K.S War-Mistress, and Kurama, captain of I.K.S. StormCrow and David, Captain of the I.K.S Wraithguard.
Blackheart, you're right, we are alike in many ways.
"Captain, five minutes!"
His mind now wondered about the Romulan Republic fleet with Ge'dan as their head. The history of that vice admiral was full of misery and regret. It was surprising why she hadn't committed suicide. She has a grudge against the Tal'Shiar, some say that it was almost obsessive. But she was very logical and patient, knowing the moment to strike. Her ship, the R.R.W Peacekeeper, was a prototype of the Ha'apax, a new romulan warbird capable to separated into two different warbirds; the Ha'nom Guardian Warbird and the Ha'feh Assault Warbird. Perhaps this was a plan of D'tan and Obisek's to "ease" her, something that might end very badly.
"Dropping out of warp sir," the helmsman announced. The screen showed the planet and the borg fleet in front of them. He pressed a few buttons, opening a shipwide channel.
Twilight could not believe her bad luck and possibly, the urge to kill. Pinkie Pie, the princesses, the ambassadors and the other Elements Bearers stared at a giant black sphere that hovered over Ponyville, Rainbow Dash wanted to fly around it to see if it was dangerous but was stopped by the princesses. Fluttershy hid behind Rarity. While she carefully observed the sphere hovering over their heads, Twilight wanted to complain but was stopped by Pinkie with her twitcha twitch.
"Twitcha twitch! TWITCHA TWITCH!”
Pinkie's limbs started to shake like crazy then her mane deflated and inflated again, then 'BOOM' her body inflated like a balloon. A few seconds later and her body went back to 'normal'. Twilight was still not convinced that Pinkie was a 'normal' pony by her standards but you can't argue with Pinkie's logic, right?
"What in Tartarus is THAT?" asked Relikia with an uneasy tone in her voice. That thing was HUGE, and could not be a good sight.
"That Sphere is grim and shout malice all over it, why we don't ask to him more things about it?" Zalune said, signaling with her hoof to Ta'lash who was shocked to see the sphere floating in the air. Then he caught the attention of everyone waiting for an explanation.
He sighed. "That... is a Borg Sphere, one of the vessels of the borg fleet in orbit. Inside of each borg vessel, there are hundreds of borg; human, klingon, gorn, individuals of any race assimilated, no matter how old or young or what faction they belonged to. Inside, it is a place of only nightmares..."
Celestia, Luna and Twilight gasped, the rest of the bearers don't get it as they continue to observe the sphere with worry.
Suddenly Celestia flew toward the sphere with eyes glowing with anger and determination, her mind focused to protect her kingdom of all cost.
"YOU SHALL NOT HURT MY SUBJECTS, VILE CREATURES!" she said in the Royal Canterlot voice and fired a powerful beam of solar magic.
BOOM
The pony folk of Ponyville cheered knowing that their ruler, Princess Celestia had saved them for a horrible destiny. All of them cheered except Ta'lash who looked at the place where the sphere used to be with a grim expression in his face. Twilight notice this as well as Applejack and Rarity.
"What's wrong, darling?” Rarity asked. “These borg brutes should know not to mess with the Princess."
"Yah, she is the Solar Princess after all," Applejack agreed.
"What's wrong Ta'lash, you're not afraid of the princess are you?" Twilight asked. Ta'lash shock his head and with his claw, he pointed to the giant cloud of smoke.
"Your princess is in danger..."
Before Twilight and the others could say otherwise, various ponies shouted and screamed in fear. As the smoke cloud began to disperse, it revealed the sphere.
Celestia's eyes widened in horror seeing the sphere revealed in front of her to be completely undamaged. Then part of the sphere began to glow green. In a few seconds, the spot of glowing green light fired a beam of pure green into one of the building of Ponyville, exploding it instantly. The ponies ran in terror as the sphere began to fire at the town.
"We are the Borg..." the voice came from the sphere, it was like various individuals talking at the same time in an emotionless and cold chorus. "Freedom is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant. Strength is irrelevant. Negotiation is irrelevant. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile." With the last part said, the sphere fired at Princess Celestia. She tried to dodge the deadly ray but was hit on her right wing. She screamed in pain as she fell to the town below.
"SISTER!" Luna flew to aid her sister as she fell at high speed. When she caught her she used a teleport spell to reappear near the library and the group. She gasped and tears fell, looking at the weakened frame of her sister. Celestia opened her eyes, feeling Luna's cold tears on her coat.
"Luna..? What's wrong...?" Suddenly she screamed in pain. She looked at her back searching for the source of her pain. Her eyes widened as she looked to her wings. Her right wing was no there! In the place where her right wing use to be there was a burn mark.
"You wing was vaporised by a plasma beam. It is a good thing that you dodged it in time. You could have died," said Ta'lash while passing the group of mares. They looked at him with uneasy emotions on their faces. At the moment the town was almost deserted, only a few ponies hiding, wishing that their doom came quickly. In a few seconds, various borg drones beam in near to them, surrounding the library. Ta'lash took a defensive position, the mane six doing the same to defend their rulers and the foreign ambassadors.
Ta'lash looked at the sky, his optic-sensor capable of looking beyond the limited skies. Gaining a perfect vision of space and the borg blockage in orbit, his sensor spotted new ships, ships that he knew completely and were right now engaging the borg fleet. He smirked, sighting the Bortasqu' Dreadnought Battlecruiser firing on the cubes. He look again to the drones who were moving slowly towards them.
"Today is a good day to die!"
Ta'lash charged toward the invaders, Rainbow Dash and Applejack charging behind him.
Ta'lash charged toward the advancing borg invaders with Rainbow Dash and Applejack follow him. The former Tactical Drone and now ally charged his borg weapon but before he could use it a pink blur blocked his path and the following mares. The borg drones stopped and shifted their optics to a pink pony in the middle. Pinkie Pie, with a huge grin plastered on her face, looked at Ta'lash.
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! I've never seen you before! Oh! That's must mean you're new!" Then she turned around to see the rest of the borg drones. "And you, you, you, you and..."
While she was counting the borg with her hoof, Ta'lash looked behind him to see the other two mares looking at Pinkie then at Ta'lash. Applejack and Rainbow Dash shrugged but Ta'lash was confused.
"What is she doing? She must get out of here!" Ta'lash was a little concerned for the pink pony's safety but Rainbow Dash and Applejack were not.
"Well, she's just being Pinkie."
Rainbow Dash's answer confused the former captain even more. Then something poked his head. He shifted his view only to see Pinkie Pie very close to his face, startling him a little. She still had that huge grin in her face but she have something on her head – a blue party hat. She placed one on Ta'lash's head then with an impossible speed, she gave one to each borg drone.
"Let me be the first pony to welcome you all to Ponyville!" She pull a wagon full of musical instruments and other party things from nowhere. "Let's get ready for a party!" She pull out another thing from nowhere, this time a blue cannon. She fired it and a cake came out of it. The cake impacted a borg tactical drone's plasma arm weapon. The borg pointed its weapon at Pinkie and fired but...
BOOM
...the weapon exploded, destroying other borg drones near the explosion of pure plasma but sparing Ta'lash and company.
"That's was... unexpected but acceptable." said Ta'lash. Before anyone could move, a drone beamed in next to him, only to be destroyed by his arm plasma cannon. The farm mare looked at him with horror and surprise,
"You killed him! It could've be saved just like you!" Applejack yelled, very indignant with his action. Rainbow crossed her arms (or forelegs) glaring at him. Ta'lash sighed, How they can be so naïve?
Before he could explain a borg drone shot at him and the mares. He blocked the plasma balls from impacting the two ponies with his body. He grunted, the feeling of pain was stronger now. Luckily, his carapace reacted and adapted the plasma of the borg drone. He rose up and shot an overcharged plasma ball, the impact making a huge explosion and destroying another borg group. The ambassadors, the princesses and the ponies looked at Ta'lash in surprise. It seemed that he knew how to defend himself with his new body. His new borg body was a weapon.
"I was lucky to be liberated,” Ta'lash said. “Only a very few borg can be liberated and these cannot. There is only one way to help them and that is to kill them all..." He proceed to engage more borg in close combat using his claw, cannon and sharp teeth.
Celestia moaned in pain. She tried to get up but fell. She had used all her power on that borg sphere and had lost a wing for that. Luna tried to keep Celestia calm but she still struggled to get up. Zalune intervened looking at Celestia with disapproval.
"You need rest. You used all your magic and your wing is no more," said Zalune, this time without rhymes. This was not a situation that you needed to rhyme anyway. Relikia examined the burn mark, her eyes widen upon seeing the loss of her wing. She used all her power in a attempt to destroy that thing. It did nothing to it, but a single ray simply defeated her?
"We are overwhelmed by these borg things. Ta'lash is giving them a fight but it is not enough. We need help from Canterlot!" she affirmed to Luna who was holding Celestia in her hooves. She nodded, her horn glowed and paper, quill and ink appeared in front of her. She wrote a message for help to the captain of the Royal Guard but something unexpected happened. A green energy ball destroyed the paper, Luna turned around in fear to see a borg drone standing behind her.
"Princess!"
Rarity used her magic to levitate the borg but it was too heavy. She levitated a few rocks and threw them at the drone. Twilight fired magic bullets at it but after a few impacts a green force shield covered the drone protecting from any other energy damage. The drone moved its arm to capture the princesses. Relikia thought of something and she fired her magic at the same style as Twilight's magic bullets but the drone still had its force shield. Zalune bucked it with all her strength but it did nothing. The borg kicked her aside and proceed with its assault.
"Resistance is-"
SLASH!
Before the drone could finish its sentence a sword with a long orange crystal on the back passed through its face, killing it immediately. The ponies looked for the source of the sword only to see a bipedal with black and red attire, a slender figure and a face resembling that of a feline. pulling the sword out of the drone's body, It was somewhat smaller than Ta'lash, whatever it was and it just saved the princesses. Relikia was confused. How... is this possible?! I can hear any thought while still using mind-magic! But this... I can't hear it at all! The black figure held a strange tool in its arms, a weapon that it fired at the borgs drones. Then it spoke.
"Subcommander C'Rewott to all squads, decloak and engage." Its voice was feminine but somewhat deep and she purred as she talked. The ponies assumed that it was female, but she was also a commander? In a few instants, others appeared in various sites around Ponyville with similar weapons of different shape and size but all having one purpose - to destroy. It was a good thing that these stranger bipeds were helping them! They took down any borg in sight but more beamed in. Ta'lash looked at the newcomers, recognizing them in an instant.
"Remans... with a few Starfleet and romulans... I feel bad for the borg now." he said softly as he resumed his killing spree. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were helping him, Rainbow hitting borg in their torso and heads while Applejack was using the same method she used to take down Ta'lash at the beginning, hitting them down in their knees and apple'bucked them in their faces. She frowned at the idea of kill them, that make her sick, so she kicked them with less strength in order to take them out without killing them.
The remans attacked the borg with both their weapons and their telekinetic abilities, The lunar princess and the changeling ambassador were impressed by their abilities and they weren't even using magic! Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy looked at the borg groups, they were retreating as the new bipeds maintained their hold and punched them back. Two of them were approaching to the group of mares and the princesses only to be stopped by a very defensive Rainbow.
"Hey, don't move anymore or I will-" She was stopped by Applejack who was pulling on her tail, again.
"Rainbow! Stop now!"
"Hay no! They can't be any good! Look! They defeated these borg guys like nothing!"
"They are allies."
They looked at Ta'lash who was approaching the two individuals. He recognized them as a caitian commander and a female romulan Battle Medic. They didn't look very pleased but they were the only familiar faces he saw now. Their captain must be allied with the Federation...
"I am Captain Ta'lash of the Klingon Defense Force, Commander...?"
"C'Rewott... Subcommander of the R.R.W. Jolan Tru. We thought you were killed by the undine but this explain everything..." The female feline inspected the assimilated form of the gorn, shifted her gaze to the ponies then to the princesses that were looking at them with curious eyes.
"I need you to scan their bodies for borg nanites,” she said to the medic. “We need to avoid more assimilated ponies."
More assimilated ponies!? the mares thought simultaneously as they continued looking on them. The romulan nodded and started to 'scan' their bodies with a tool in her hands. She knelt down next to Applejack, pointing her tool at the orange farmpony. She did nothing but wait, then she rose up and pointed her tool at Rainbow Dash who looked a little distrustful of her. A few seconds later the medic looked at her tool's screen which was showing nothing.
"These two are all right. No nanites in their bodies," she affirmed. She then proceeded to do the same with each pony. Twilight and Rarity were more cooperative. Zalune and Relikia were suspicious of such an act but they did not complain. When she reached the princesses, Luna was more concerned for her sister than herself but she let her 'scan' them. A red light blinked on the tool of the female creature and she looked with horror at the screen of the tool.
"Subcommander, my tricorder doesn't pick up nanites in their bodies but the white one has a high quantity of plasma radiation in her body. Her internal organs are starting to shut down."
The mares gasped in horror. Luna was on the verge of a breakdown but before she could cry, she looked at the alien saviors with tears in her eyes while holding her sister who was crying for the unbearable pain in her body.
"She can be saved? Please tell me if she can be saved! Please!"
The ponies could not believe what she was doing, the princess of the night, begging for the life of her sister? The alien female looked at the 'tricorder' then at Celestia and smiled.
"We can save her, but we need to get her to our ship." The romulan looked to the caitian commander with a thoughtful look. She nodded and pressed a small icon on her chest.
"... a white pony who looks to be the leader of the equestrians seems to be in critical condition from plasma radiation in the process of shutting down her internal organs. Requesting to beam her to Sickbay."
Hearing the commander who was his first officer Shenek, Reman captain of the R.R.W. Jolan Tru, had a tough decision to make. There was a full out war up in orbit. The borg maintained a strong position in space. He looked at the list sent by Obisek of each captain along with each of their ship's settings. The ships had good configurations plus one more vessel going up there would not make much of a difference. His original mission had been to protect these equines or 'ponies' as they call to themselves. Their leader was dying and beaming her up to the ship to have his medic to cure her might open up good relations for the rest of the captains.
It's not like like we have no more options. My mission is to protect them, but is this really necessary? If she dies, the borg have only one alicorn with that power to assimilate... but we are at a disadvantage there, meaning that we can't protect them openly if they react negatively to my option. Time was running out fast for Shenek. He sighed and opened a channel to his commander.
"Jolan Tru to C'Rewott. Give her a transporter beacon, we will treat her." He closed the channel and sat down, rubbing his forehead and sighing heavily. He looked at the main screen, having a very good sight of the borg sphere over the town. His ship was not far away. In a few minute he could get there and bring the sphere back into orbit, but at great cost to the ship's energy while doing so, meaning that the borg sphere could attack while the shields were weak.
I really don't have option, do I?
"Helm, get us near to the borg vessel. We'll bring it back to space."
There was an 'understood, captain' as the ship began to move towards the sphere.
Razorclaw was astonished. His childhood prophecy is just floating over Ponyville. The black sphere that was destroying everything was right there firing its death ray over the town and beyond. Darkwing was next to him looking at the black sphere...
"I thought that was a-"
The drake was interrupted by the very excited and fearful gryphon flying around in panic. He found this a very funny and annoying sight at the same time. He went to his side of the table with a very hot tea heated by his own flames. He sipped a little and appreciated the delicious flavor of the tea. Then he look at Razorclaw, this time in annoyance.
"Hey! You need calm down. The princesses and two ambassadors are there. I also heard that the bearers of the Elements of Harmony live there."
This was not enough to calm him down but Razorclaw landed next to the dragon warrior-ambassador with a few tears running down his face. What was he so frightened of? It wasn't like the world might end just from a sphere. He sighed as he heard buzzing sounds all over the place. He gently left the tea on the table and went back to the balcony.
"Shhh! Can you hear that?" Razorclaw stopped for a moment then he heard the buzzing sound. The sound was getting weaker and weaker but was still there. Curious, he went to the balcony following the sound. The sound calmed him greatly, almost returning Razorclaw to his normal and hardened self. He looked at the dragon ambassador, embarrassed and ashamed. The dragon to resist laughing but failed.
"HAHAHA! I can't believe that you just freaked out over a stupid sphere! HAHAHA!"
"Shut up. We will not talk about this again."
He tried to sound as predatory as possible but the laughs of the dragon overwhelmed him greatly. In just a few seconds he calmed down and looked again at the town then to the sphere. He looked at the streets of Canterlot. The few ponies that had towers with balconies or windows could get a good view of the sphere. Pegasi could fly high to get a better view of the sphere floating over Ponyville and members of the press took their chances to take photos of the event.
"Maybe we should... alert the guards?" suggested the gryphon,
Darkwing thought for a moment. Suddenly the doors burst open revealing Shining Armor, a look of concerned on his face as he looked for Princess Celestia but there was only the two ambassadors looking together in the same direction. At him.
"Where is the Princess!?" he asked, very preoccupied.
The drake spoke. "She, along with Zalune, Relikia and her sister, Princess Luna, are in Ponyville right now." the ambassador said with a matter-of-fact voice.
Shining Armor looked beyond and behind them. The sphere was still shooting in Ponyville. He galloped to the barracks to alert the guards. The ambassadors traded looks, then they shifted back to the town and the sphere.
As they looked at the sphere, something appeared in front of it. It was big. Green with black lines, it barely looked like a metal bird floating over the town. It was roughly the size of the sphere, possibly bigger. Its wings spread down and the ends of each wing had green pods glowing with intensity. It was a rare sight...
"What is THAT?!" both ambassadors said in the same time.
"Is that... a bird? said the dragon.
"No, but it look like it.... is also made of metal!" Razorclaw had the advantage, his eagle eyes able to see farther than normal eyes. Dragons did not possess such biological features. Darkwing cared little of it.
"What is THAT?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, pointing her hoof at the new vessel that had just appeared in front of the borg vessel. It looked HUGE, green and barely had the shape of a bird with those wide wings spread. She looked at the feline commander with fury in her eyes. More aliens were appearing!
"Explain, WHAT IS THAT!?" Applejack again pulled her back. She did not look very concerned with her friend's reaction. It was pretty obvious that the ship was there to help them but Rainbow? Always suspicious about everything. The caitian growled predatory in front of Rainbow then show her sharped teeth. This startled her and she yelped in surprise and landed abruptly. The caitian returned to her neutral gaze and looked to the romulan medic who was looking at her commander with disapproval. The caitian awkwardly smirked and nodded.
"Give her the transporter beacon. Our captain's approved."
The romulan opened her breast pocket. Taking one tiny circular devices from it she placed it in Celestia's necklace before she gave the confirmation. Luna intervened.
"I want to go too! I cannot leave her!"
"Me too!" Twilight also affirmed, looking at Celestia's weak form.
Luna, who was looking at Twilight with a 'I don't think so' face said "No, Twilight Sparkle, you belong here with your friends-"
"She is my princess! My teacher... my second mother..."
Twilight's eyes shone with tears. Seeing Celestia like that was killing her on the inside. She glared at Luna while holding back tears of sadness.
"There is no time! Get together, we have only a few seconds before you three beam up!"
The sudden outburst of the medical romulan startled the ponies. Twilight hurried up and hugged her teacher. Luna did the same before a green light engulfed them together and they vanished in front of the small crowd of ponies that were leaving their hiding places.
The rest of the Mane Six and the ambassadors looked at the place where the injured princess, her sister and her friend used to be before vanishing, hoping that everything would be all right for the three of then.
Rarity was the first to speak to the caitian commander.
"They will be all right? Can we trust you?" She was concerned for the hearth of their rulers and friend. The caitian smiled warmly to her before answering.
"You can trust us. This kind of radiation sickness is common while fighting plasma armed enemies." She pointed to the new ship. "That ship came to help you. We'll eliminate that sphere that is causing all of this." More ponies started to come out of their shelters and refuges, examining their alien saviors with curiosity and fear.
"Commander? I think that it's secure. I don't pick up any more borg signature on my... Hold on! Ma'am! More drones incoming!" a reman female said before everypony ran back to their havens in fear as new borg drones beamed in. The commander activated her combadge, alerting all the battle groups in the town.
This is an interesting day... thought C'Rewott before launching herself with Tal'lash into battle.
"Captain there are borg probes to our left. They are fire on us!"
"Then shoot them back with cannons volley!"
The battle in space is heated by dozens of starship clashing with the borg blockade. The Malditus, Wraithguard, Chakastra and Salvation took the initiative to go first and handle the cubes while the rest of the fleet engage the smaller vessels. They were very tough ships and with the help of the Inquisitor and Shangri-La supporting them with work bees and hazard emitters were striking down the smaller vessels of the borg fleet while the Peacekeeper and half of the romulan fleet attack from behind.
"Captain more borg vessels on our tail!" the first officer alerted.
More borg vessels composed of spheres and probes were attacking the Carlin from behind while being pursued. Dostya looked at these vessels on the main screen while she walked toward the tactical of ficer.
"Launch torpedoes, full spread!"
The tactical officer did so, the ship firing several photon torpedoes toward the leading borg vessels. These torpedoes impacted and with a chain reaction other borg spheres and probes were destroyed but not enough as more borg vessels approached them.
"Captain, more borg spheres on our tail. Crew reporting that they are charging more torpedoes. We are finished!"
Dostya looked with horror at the main screen as more borg vessels attacked the Carlin from behind. Their torpedoes were not enough? The Carlin's turrets might do something but not against an advancing group.
"No time! All hands, eva-"
Something happened. Various borg vessels behind the Carlin were destroyed by disruptor, anti-proton beams and cannons. Venus' ship, the War-Mistress and various klingon birds-of-prey continued their havoc not noticing that they had just saved a Federation vessel. The Infinity flew over the Carlin with various Peregrines and Stalkers from the Shangri-La.
"Dostya, Svensei here.” said the voice of Captain Svensei from the communicator in the captain's chair. “Ge'dan's has reported a warbird on the surface along with a borg sphere. She requested you to support that warbird and bring that borg vessel back into orbit."
Dostya opened a private communications channel. "Dostya here. I understand but my ship is not capable of maintaining atmospheric operations. None of the ships of our fleet are capable of doing that!"
"That's true, but yours or part of yours is able to do ground operations. Use the multi-vector and send Vector Alpha to support the warbird and bring the borg back to orbit!" Svensei closed the channel and his ship separated from the pseudo-formation with the Carlin. Dostya looked to her chief engineer, waiting for a proper response.
"Ma'am, it's true. The Vector Alpha is capable to hold gravitational pressure on the surface making it capable to fly freely in atmosphere," her chief engineer affirmed, entering codes into the console, ready to activate the multi-vector function. "At your order, Ma'am!"
"Yes but using it risks losing parts of the Carlin one by one. We need support first!" She was about to deny that request but then she noticed a warbird, a Valdore-class with Scorpions, Peregrines and To'Duj escorting it, flying in formation near the Carlin while hitting hard various probes and spheres.
"Open a channel to that warbird." Her officer obeyed, the main screen showing a romulan male, young by romulan, vulcan and reman standards. He wore the typical Republic outfit by the look of it and was a tactical captain.
"Commander Keidak here of the R.R.W. Vastara to the U.S.S. Carlin. How might I help you?"
"Captain Dostya here. I require support to protect the Vector Alpha of the Carlin while descending to the surface of the planet. Various borg vessels can destroy it easily."
"All right, we will escorting you."
The channel and main screen shut down and again reveal the battle. Dostya ordered the activation of the multi-vector. The engineering officer pressed the button to trigger the separation mode.
"Mode Separation in ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Separation sequence in progress."
Twilight was amazed. Being in a space ship full of aliens is not something that happened every day but she wasn't here for knowledge, she was here to be alongside her teacher and princess. She and the princess of the night, Luna, were in a some kind of infirmary with four beds, three in three equally tiny rooms and one in the center of the 'sickbay'.
"Will she be okay?" Luna asked with worry in her voice. Celestia was in a horizontal capsule, the medical machinery were suctioning the plasma sickness from her body while a vulcan medic observed her in detail. The monitor of the main computer of the sickbay showed the percentage of plasma radiation in Celestia's body. She looked at the princess of the night.
"She will be okay. Normally, radiation sickness doesn't work in that way unless the subject's body is completely weakened internally. However, with the missing wing it was logical that most of the plasma radtiation entered her through that open wound." The vulcan proceeded, pressing more buttons to open a holographic window. The window said 'Purified' in Romulan. The capsule opened revealing a sleeping Celestia, her breathing long and calm. Twilight and Luna sighed in relief. The vulcan woman walked past the ponies and tried to carry her.
"W-what are you doing?" asked Luna.
"Carrying her to the bed, of course."
"I don't think that it's wise to carry an alicorn. Their body and mass are more dense and heavy than a standard pony so-" Twilight's lecture was cut short when she and Luna saw the impossible. The vulcan medic carrying Celestia like she were nothing with both her arms.
"Hmmm, she's light. I don't see why not. It is not logical." She walked with Celestia in her arms toward one of the beds of the sickbay, the amazed ponies following her. The medic left Celestia on the orange bed as she faced the duo.
"She is stable and her internal organs are in their normal status. She might wake up in few minutes. She can walk or trot normally but there is nothing we can do with that missing wing."
Twilight inspected her sleeping frame. She had a scar instead of her right wing, Luna walked next to her while looking at her peaceful sleeping sister. The vulcan went to her office to receive a communication from the bridge.
"Hmm, where I am?”
The voice of Celestia startled the duo as she wake up from her short slumber. She was surprised by the hug from her sister and student, screaming her name with happiness and tears of joy. She hugged them back while inspecting her surroundings, confused and curious.
"Luna, Twilight, how? ... Where we are we?" she asked. She felt weak yet good, refreshed but she couldn't feel her right wing. She inspected her back only to gasp in horror, looking at the big scar where her wing use to be. Then all the memories of the event returned to her head. She looked at Twilight and Luna.
"Where we are? Why are you here too? Most importantly, what happened to Ponyville and the aliens!?" she asked fast and worried. Before either of the two ponies could answer the vulcan walked in and answered her for them
"You're in a Ha'feh Advanced Warbird, the R.R.W Jolan Tru. In order to save you from a slow death we brought you here. Your sister and student wanted to come too. Ponyville and its inhabitants are protected by our trained away teams from the advancing borg drones."
Celestia sighed in relief but was not really calmed. She got up off her bed and inspected the vulcan medic. She wore a black and blue uniform. Her voice and face looked familiar, having an emotionless expression in her face.
"Thanks for telling me Ms...?
"Te'lan... Medical Officer Te'lan."
The name of the vulcan resonated in her head, remembering her short and yet horrible dream about an 'assimilated' Luna. Her eyes widened like plates at the grand revelation. She... she is from my vision!
"Is something the matter?" asked Te'lan, maintaining her emotionless face.
"N-no, nothing!" she lied.
"Good, we need to get you back to the town. There is a small misunderstanding between your military and our away teams."
The ponies were confused but rapidly understood. The Royal Guard might be in Ponyville harassing the alien away teams. If that was the case Celestia needed to depart immediately. Shining Armor was too prideful and very into his rank as captain to listen to the Elements and/or ambassadors and citizens. Celestia and Luna nodded and they walked out the sickbay, following Te'lan.
The small trek to the transporters was uneventful. The rulers and Element got a very good look at the interior of the warbird. The corridors were somewhat dark with green lights weakly illuminating the place. Most of the crew members ignored them while others watched them with curiosity. Some corridors had windows with view inside of others rooms. One in particular that caught the attention of Twilight was a room that had a small garden inside, probably to study the plants. As they reached a door it open automatically. This room it revealed was small and circular. What is the purpose of such small and empty room? thought Twilight.
"What's wrong?" asked Te'lan looking back at the ponies behind her.
"What is this room? It is small and empty," said Luna, curious yet grateful for the aliens that saved her sister but yet unsure about most of their intentions.
"This is a turbolift. It provides transportation to designated areas in a starship. We will go to Engineering for the transporter room and get you back down." The princesses looked each other then walked in, the doors shutting waiting for a command.
"Engineering," said the vulcan and the turbolift began to move. This startled the ponies slightly as the intelligent elevator moved one direction or another then stopped. The doors opened revealing another corridor, Te'lan and company resumed their small journey until they reached the transporter room.
"Whoa..." said Twilight. The transporter room was huge with two platforms with yellowish floors. There was a female reman, concerned as officers and crew beamed in injured or beaten. Then she noticed the medic vulcan standing there with her guests.
"Te'lan! Finally you're here with the pony leaders!" exclaimed the reman. The ponies took a good look at her. Her face was flat, eyes smaller like the rest of the aliens but bald and almost flat nosed. She looked worried.
"Can you tell me what is happening?" asked the vulcan medic.
"Since the time we got them here, everything has been messy down there. More borg drones began to strike but we deployed a dampening field to prevent more of them. But now there is another problem, look!"
The big screen at the center of the transporter room showed Ponyville from the sky. It zoomed in more to show only the library area. There was a purple dome, a shield not created by Shining Armor but by the remans of the away teams being surrounded by ponies of the Royal Guard led by Cadence and Shining Armor themselves.
"Shiny!"
"We need to get down there immediately!" exclaimed Luna.
"Agree, but how? There is nothing here," Celestia pointed out, inspecting the entire room then shifting her gaze to the vulcan and reman.
"This is the transporter room, get on the platform and the transporter officer will beam you off the ship and back to the town."
The princesses and unicorn nodded and went to one of the transporter pads. Before beaming out, they stared at Te'lan who was about to leave.
"You're no coming with us?" asked Twilight. This stopped the vulcan who turned around to see them before transport.
"No, my job is to provide medical assistance to the crew aboard the warbird. While I have combat training, the away teams have battle-medics and other medical officers. It would be illogical for me to leave the ship and provide medical support to groups that already have medics. Farewell ponies, live long and prosper."
The same green light as before engulfed the ponies and they vanished, transporting back to the town.
Ponyville, inside the Library, a few minutes before
Shining Armor and Cadence arrived in Ponyville with a battalion of the Royal Guard. The first thing they did when they got there was to engage the aliens. Many of them did not express opposition. A few with black clothing or uniforms used some kind of magic to push Guard away but not killing them. Shining grew tired of this and used his magic to fire magic bullets, injuring a few aliens but green lights engulfed their bodies and they disappeared. The Guard easily captured one alien, a reptilian who was incredibly tired but had put up some resistance.
The rest of the aliens regrouped and formed some kind of purple force shield. His Guard surround it while some earth pony Guards tried to penetrate it. Some citizens left their refuges only to see the Guard harassing their saviors, many of them booing them when they were expecting cheers instead.
"Leave them alone!"
"They saved us, unlike you Guards!"
"They're saving the princess!"
But the Guards paid no heed and followed their orders. Shining Armor created a magic shield around the library, closing himself and a trapped Ta'lash in a chair off and began a dangerous interrogation. Cadence was talking with the rest of the Mane Six and the ambassadors. she was concerned but glad that everypony was okay.
"Where are the princesses, alien monster?!" shouted Shining Armor. After hearing the news that aliens has been invading Ponyville he was pretty sure that the princesses might been in trouble. He didn't expect less resistance but this alien in particular was more defiant and aggressive, saying nothing but something about 'petaQ'. The Guards talked with the locals about the aliens. Only Applejack and Rarity knew much about the gorn. They had tried to warn him about the reptilian, telling him to avoid an interrogation but he didn't listen.
"You have no right to question me, petaQ'!"
Shining Armor hit him right in the face. He had heard the same sentence again and again. From Rarity he had heard that the princesses were in the space ship with 'wings' getting healed but he didn't listen. He thought that is what the aliens wanted them to hear.
"What are your intentions here, alien?!"
This question was easier but the answer Shining Armor received was not really clear to him. Ta'lash said his intentions before being assimilated were to investigate then return back to base. He had done so he said but in the end he was assimilated by the queen. Yet again the unicorn stallion seems not to believe him. He huffed and conjured a forbidden torture spell. A magical collar appeared around Ta'lash throat and tightened.
He coughed. "Now you will tell me the truth if you value your life." Shining Armor smirked, hoping that the alien might tell everything. That hope was crushed when he saw the gorn borg begin chuckling, a chuckle tha t turned into a full out laughter. “He is laughing at his oncoming death?” he thought, looking dumbfounded at the laughing gorn.
"You think that I'll be intimidated by you? This is nothing compared to the interrogation and tortures of the Cardassians, Orions, Letheans and the Tal'Shiar! Do your worst if you can!" said Ta'lash with a smug grin. This indeed was nothing for him.
"You're a monster... even in your final hours, you laugh in the face of death like a joke?"
"What do you expect from a honorable warrior of the Klingon Empire? Cowardice? You better think several times about that, because cowards we are not! We face death in battle and every time, we laugh at it! When our enemies fall, we celebrate our deeds! When our battle brothers dies, we honor their death so they can be ascended to Sto-vo-kor, that's the way of the Klingon Empire!"
"Honor?! That's not honor! That's insanity! You and your kind are nothing but mo nsters, barbarians and demons! Your empire holds NO honor!"
"What did you say...?" Ta'lash was growling. He had never felt so insulted! He had never before felt a death wish for a single person or 'equine' in this case. He insulted his kind, his Empire, his... honor... He immediately liberated his claw and in a fast move he trapped the stallion by tightly grabbing his throat and began chocking him. Shining Armor used his magic to active the collar and chock him but instead, to his horror, the collar broke and fell.
Ta'lash liberated himself pretty easily from his bindings since his size, strength and weight were more than that of these puny ponies, plus his borg armor making him more heavy and dangerous. Insulting a Liberated Gorn Borg was perhaps the most foolish thing that Shining Armor had done in his entire life.
___________________________________
Outside the library
More Guards were attempting to penetrate the purple alien force field, more shouts and yells of disapproval could be heard from the crowd. Commander Dreadnought, in charge of breaking the alien force shield, had attempted everything - bucking, ramming, even ramming while bucking it. The pegasus Guards were having no better luck, doing the same even deep strikes. The Wonderbolts too were doing everything to break the shield but nothing was working.
Cadence wanted a more political approach but his husband Shining Armor preferred direct force instead of talking. She had been talking to the rest of the Elements and ambassadors about this matter, her aunts, Twilight, everything that had happened in almost the last hour.
"So she has gone up there along with Luna and Twilight?" asked Cadence with a hint of fear and concern.
"Yes darling,” said Rarity. “I believe they have no deceitful intentions toward us. I mean, just look." She pointed to the force shield with the aliens inside. "They saved us from these mindless machines and yet they are not attacking us.".
"Ah'm with Rare this time Princess,” Applejack agreed with Rarity. “They told the truth. Ah' can see if someone tells a lie."
The princess looked at the aliens thoughtfully, then at the winged ship and the sphere.
"I think I will talk to Shining about-"
Before Cadence could finish, bright green light illuminated the entire area. The Guards blocked her, protecting 'probably the last princess of Equestria'. Various Guards surrounded the green lights in the library area waiting for worst things from the invaders however three familiar forms starting to appear in front of them. Their hardened stances started so soften and their faces showed surprised seeing their rulers Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with Twilight Sparkle next to them returned as the green light vanished from their forms.
"I am not used to these 'transporters', Celestia. I'm dizzy," said Luna while covering her mouth with her left hoof like she was about to be sick. Twilight was no better. She was dizzy and green like Luna but that 'transporter' had intrigued her. It used the same level of power as a unicorn's teleportation spell but at a slower pace.
"TWILIGHT!" The voices of her friends straight her up a little as they galloped to greet and hug her like a bear. She almost barfed
"Girls, please. I'm dizzy..." Twilight managed to say before being pulled out from Pinkie's tight hug. She took a deep breath, calming her dizziness, then she began to explain everything that happened inside the ship, nothing really serious. Celestia was once again lively and Luna... let's just say that one of the Guard was already cleaning off his armor.
"Aunty!" Cadence makes her way through the Guards to hug her aunt, relieved that she was healthy. Celestia received the hug and hug her back. She could hear a gasp sound behind her meaning that Cadenc e was now looking at her scar. She pulled back only to see her niece in tears.
"What happened to you?" Her voice was shaky and her tears were already trailing down her face. Celestia started to relate everything that happened to her, except for on the ship since it was Twilight and Luna who had looked out for her while she was unconscious. Her story were heard by everypony close to her. When she finished she looked to the purple shield and the aliens inside it. They were being assaulted by earth ponies and pegasi Guards along the Wonderbolts. She wanted them to stop the assault but she was still weak. She might not be able to reach the levels of the Royal Canterlot Voice, but Luna could. She looked to her sister and told her to make the Guard stop.
"ENOUGH!" said Luna with her Royal Canterlot Voice, stopping the earth ponies and pegasi. They retreated to their pre-assault positions. Celestia nodded to one of the aliens, the caitian commander. She nodded back. The shield dropped and the remans that sustained it fainted. The medical officers began their work on the overworked remans.
"Where is Shining Armor, niece?" Cadence didn't have time to say anything as a explosion of sound coming from the library caught the attention of everypony, especially Twilight who was concerned for her books (she own the library, we know that right?). The shield that surrounded the library cracked and broke, something coming out of the library at high speed and landing in front of the princesses.
"Shiny!" It was in fact Shining Armor but in very bad shape his body covered with bruises, his horn cracked, coughing blood and with an injured eye. This broke the heart of Cadence and Twilight. Shining Armor yelped as he look back at the library with fear. Coming out of the broken shield was a very pissed gorn with a overcharged arm plasma weapon, a very deadly green ball with electricity in it scaring the nearby Guards. Ta'lash was growling, with eyes locked on Shining Armor's.
Getting close, Cadence intervened along with Twilight, eyes narrowed and charging magic to defend him but Ta'lash stopped. He looked at Shining Armor then pointed his overcharged weapon at him ready to fire.
"Stop! What are you doing?! Please leave him alone!" plead Cadence, hoping that Ta'lash might find reason but it was in vain as the weapon glowed with more intensity.
"Stop? He insulted me, insulted my kin and insulted MY AND MY PEOPLES HONOR!"
"He was doing his job! Please, I beg you!" Cadence pleaded tearfully.
"Job?! Job insulting a gorn captain's honor?!" Ta'lash was completely pissed. Celestia wanted to intervene but her weak status prevented it. Luna just froze there like she didn't want to participate, looking at the deadly green orb in the gorn's weapon.
Great, now she has fear?! thought Celestia.
However something more happened. The aliens surrounded Ta'lash, pointing their own weapons at him. The gorn noticed this and retracted his weapon, the deadly orb slowly vanishing, still staring at Shining Armor with the same deadly glare.
"I'll be watching you, spineless worm!"
In a instant, he raised his weapon again, the plasma ball again overcharged. He fired his arm weapon at the borg sphere. Going at high speed it looked similar to a tiny plasma torpedo.
BOOM!
In an explosion of green lightning, the plasma ball impacted on the borg sphere. The green smoke disappeared immediately. Royal Guard, the princesses and probably the whole town went into a state of shock with jaws on the ground. The borg sphere had a tiny hole in the hull. While small, it was something that not even the princess of the sun could do. They all stared at Ta'lash who was sighing in relief.
"I needed that. Too much energy inside is dangerous."
"Interesting, you practically reached the parameters of a normal plasma torpedo," said one of the aliens, a reman science officer. A human engineer nodded in agreement.
"We have already waited enough! Engineering, activate the Tractor Beams Repulsors on my mark!"
The Jolan Tru began to move lower as it's presense whiped up wind from from it's movements as it positioned it's self on a lower plane then the Sphere.
"We are in position now sir!"
"Good! Tractor Beam Repulsors now!"
The Jolan Tru activated her tractor beam repulsors into the Sphere attempting to push the sphere up and away from the ground, but it wasn't enough as the sphere fired its plasma beams at the romulan Warbird. "Emergency power from weapons to auxiliary!" Commander Shenek ordered.
The sphere locked its gravity anchors which allowed it to remain in place despite the tearing and sheering of some of the hull. The borg inside the sphere began to formulate a way to disable the tractor beam when they came under attack from above.
"Sir, I'm picking up more ships incoming! Their weapons are locked on the sphere!" alerted one officer.
Two klingon Birds of Prey rained fire from their disruptor cannons down on the sphere, both of them escorting a Prometheus saucer section. The saucer fired her anti-proton cannons as the Jolan Tru opened fire, targeting the accessible gravity anchors. The explosions caused the sphere to shudder and rock.
The two birds of prey swung around unleashing a torrent of additional fire. The green energy bolts destroyed the last gravity anchor as the saucer section locked it's own tractor beam on the sphere pulling it as the Jolan Tru began to push the sphere up into the sky.
The two Birds of Prey approached locking their own tractor beams on the sphere and began to over power the sphere, pulling it up away from the ground back into the sky.
The sight was not lost on the ponies or Ta'lash. For the ponies it was as if three mighty birds had swooped down to attack an invader. Clawing, breathing fire and dragging the invader away from it's home or nest.
The entire town went silence for a few seconds then everypony started to cheer and celebrate, thinking that their nightmare has ended but the away teams did not. Instead, the commander's tricoder detected a larger group of borg activity outside the town, starting to move towards the town's outskirt. This caught the attention of various ponies in particular who followed them.
"What's going on? The borg are gone!" say Rainbow Dash, confused.
"Not yet! There is a large group of borg activity outside the town!" affirmed one officer of the away team.
When they reached the outskirt of the town, the away teams and various ponies were staring into an army of borg drones outside the town, marching slowly toward them. The Royal Guard behind them stared at the incoming army of drones slowly marching with their arm weapons raised forward. The Main Six and the princesses stared in disbelief.
"I thought that this nightmare ended with the borg sphere going back into space!" whined Rarity. She could not believe what they were staring at. Even for the alien away teams this was truly unexpected. The caitian thought for a moment only to realize something. The turmoil and misunderstanding in the town was a distraction for the borg sphere to beam almost every borg to another place, unnoticed.
"The borg sphere must have used our little misunderstanding to beam every single borg out of the sphere, the Jolan Tru took an empty vessel!"
The oncoming horde was huge. The away teams were nothing compared to them but they waited with their weapons ready and locked onto the borg.
"You are all are planning to go out there? That's suicide!" said one the ponies of the Royal Guard.
"Yes. It is our duty no matter the odds," said one reman.
"Guards! Defensive position-" the princess of the sun began to say.
"NO! You can't send your own into this! Our mission is protect your kind from them! If you let any one of you in our battles, you're letting them win!" said C'Rewott, interrupting Celestia. All the ponies stared at her, even the Guard.
"Why? It's our home! We are no letting invaders take what is ours!" one of the Guard exclaimed. Some nodded in agreement while others just stared at the aliens with disapproval. Celestia and Luna however thought on this. They nodded to the aliens gaining shocked looks from the ponies.
"You're right, the borg want us. We are their actual objective, but we can't let ourselves be helpless in the face of our doom."
The Guard started an argument within themselves with this statement from the princess of the sun. The Mane Six stared at the aliens, then at the princesses. Twilight noticed something in the sky. Various dots approaching.. rapidly.
"Look!" say Twilight. Everypony went silent and looked where Twilight was pointing. The dots, no, strange metal birds were approaching with great speed. Some looked robust, silver in color with triangular shaped wings with bright horizontal pylons on them. Some were completely the opposite, slim with thin wings. Others didn't have wings at all and possessed a dark color with some teal details. The away teams recognized these vehicles: Peregrine, To'Duj and Scorpion fighters coming fast in group. They launched microphoton and plasma torpedoes at the borg drones.
BOOM!
The impact of the torpedoes caused devastating blows, disintegrating drones caught in the explosion. The away teams cheered, even the ponies cheered. The borg horde stopped and started to shoot at the fighters. With the borg distracted, the away teams moved in, engaging the horde while they lost focus.
With blast assaults, pulsewaves, rifles and miniguns the rampage began. Some drones regained focus on their ground attackers. Fortunately, the drones were slow but their adapting nature made the groups constantly remodulate their weapons. More and more drones regained their attention of the reman (and Starfleet) groups. The borg attempted to surround them but the fighters wouldn't let them, firing their cannons into them. The raw firepower of the fighters was too much for the borg to adapt to, making the job for the away teams a little easier but it wasn't enough.
"Ma'am! They are too many! We need to withdraw!" a tactical officer yelled to his commander.
"Negative! Keep firing!"
"But Ma'am!"
They continue firing and remodulating. The horde was too much and they resumed their advance toward the town but the intervention of two Scorpion fighters with plasma cannons stopped them. To the away teams down there it was a hell of fight. Explosions that could leave Michael Bay in shame were too much to bear for the borg drones...
... but that wasn't enough to stop them.
The ponies witnessed the aliens fighting a battle along with those things flying around that seemed to support them. But the forces of the borg were too big. The Guard wanted to go there and fight too but they had been ordered to hold their position and observe. The Mane Six wanted to help too but Celestia made her orders clear...
"Princess, they can't win! Let us go and help them!" Applejack stared at them, uneasy. She wanted to go out there and help them, Rainbow too.
"No! Commander Dreadnought! Tell the citizen to evacuate Ponyville, immediately!" she declared.
Celestia gained a chorus of 'WHAT?!'s. Behind her, the Mane Six were not expecting to hear an evacuation order from their ruler.
"You can't tell us to leave the town! This is our home!" Rainbow Dash complained.
"Yeah! Mah granny founded Ponyville!"
"Many of us have lived here since we were just foals! Please Princess!" Rarity whined.
"I'm sorry but I can't let-"
Before Celestia could continue red, green and blue light illuminated the area around the ponies and the whole town. More newcomers has arrived! The Guard entered defensive stances as more aliens materialized in front of them. Some with shoulder armor looked at the ponies and the battle in front of them.
One smirked, raising some sort of sword in his arms, shouting "Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!" in his native language, confusing the ponies. He charged forward into the battle along with those that were dressed like him. Some were yellow color and others... were gorn!
The Klingon Empire...? thought Celestia before looking at the other new aliens: Starfleet officers, romulans and remans, the lot of them charging and firing their weapons into the horde of drones.
"Ma'am, reinforcements have arrived!"
The caitian commander stopped and looked back to the point she had left. Klingons, Starfleeters and Romulan Republicans had started shooting the borg drones. The battle has shifted significantly. The battle continued with naussican Raiders and Marines delivering explosive disruptor fire, gorn Marines and Ra'wiq raging with ferocity, klingons doing what they almost always do in battle, fighting with valor, raw anger and honor with their bat'leth swinging, the blades meeting the assimilated flesh.
The romulans and remans were different from her units. The remans were straight from the Shadow Guard, veterans of the Dominion war like the captain and the reman resistance over the years against the oppressive Romulan Star Empire and now the Tal'shiar. The romulans were the elite, veterans of the Elachi-Romulan conflicts and hunters of Tal'shiar. Their uniform jacket had black as their main color with their career colors as secondary.
She is here? C'Rewott thought, thinking of Captain Shenek, until she looked at the Starfleet officers. They were mostly composed of specialized and elite officers, some of them with full M.A.C.O. and OMEGA equipment. They didn't need manual remodulation, their weapons remodulated with each shot. With these commandos in this operation, the borg on the ground were fucked.
With their number significantly reduced by the reinforcements and the constant aerial bombardment, the borg fled toward the nearby forest but they became trapped by a force shield of an alicorn and a changeling flying above them. The allied forces surrounded them and with the firepower of their weapons, they eliminated the rest.
With the job done the klingons cheered, raising their weapons in the air, shouting 'Qapla'!' (Success!) aloud. The Romulan Republicans and Starfleeters beamed out without celebration. The klingons were the last to beam out.
Relikia and Luna returned to Celestia and the ponies who were witnessing the outcome of the battle. That the entire horde of borg drones were dead and their saviors, who had appeared to save them had disappeared when the battle ended disturbingly surprised them all. Only the away team composed of the first aliens that had saved them in Ponyville had returned and was here with them.
"Disturbing... but necessary. They saved us all..." Relikia was the first pony (or changeling) to speak.
"While I loathe any kind of violence, I agree. Commander Dreadnought, belay the original order of evacuation and tell the Guard to return to Canterlot. Your presence is no longer necessary. But have them remain on guard."
The commander was about to start an argument but nothing came from his mouth. He closed it and bowed to his princess.
"Yes, your highness."
The Guard started to leave, leaving the princesses and the remaining ponies alone waiting for the first aliens that had come to their aid. When they came some beamed out, leaving only the feline commander and two reman escorts. A the Feline Subcommander approached the princesses, up in the sky was a large flash of green light, moment later a secondary flash erupted as a green ring spread out. from the source of the flash. A few moments later a second flash followed by a second ring, and then a third set.
As the light rings filled the sky and illuminated the ground, The Princesses swallowed hard as Luna asked, "What was that?"
Over the com of the Feline commander a voice spoke, "Subcommander C'Rewott, This is Commander Shenek, The Borg Cubes have been destroyed, the remaining Borg Fleet is withdrawing. I will be down shortly."
"Our job is done Pony Leader, or Princess Celestia should I say, am I correct?" Celestia nodded, confused. How she know her name? She never presented herself to her, only to Ta'lash who had disappeared along with the rest of the klingons.
"Surprised that I know your name? Captain Shenek of the R.R.W. Jolan Tru will be here shortly so I recommend returning to the library. I should be going now."
"Why?! You should stay for my 'We-are-saved-from-evil-aliens-by-good-aliens-party'!" protested Pinkie.
"Heehee. Sorry, but duty calls. Good bye and be careful!"
Like the rest of the aliens, she vanished while surrounded by green light along with the rest of her team. The princesses and the Mane Six made their way back to the town. Celestia noticed that most of the her ponies, her subjects were looking at her, murmuring and curious while bowing. Then she remembered her lost wing. It must have been quite a shock to see her being defeated. Pegasus photographers of the newspapers took pictures of her. Luna wanted to scare them away but her sister stopped her. She let them take pictures of her and her wound. After all, they would know eventually and she wouldn't fly again. No even with most of her magic could she restore her lost wing. She was pretty much grounded.
The moment they arrived at the library they found Cadence in worry. She said that Shining Armor hadn't severely injured but Ta'lash had beaten him up. After talking with her, Shining Armor had admitted that he had insulted the alien when he began to talk about honor and this had made him to act aggressively. Celestia thought for a moment. Insulting his honor could make a patient captain into a blood lusting beast? If the entire Klingon Empire was like that, then she might prefer not to touch such a delicate topic.
A few minutes passed and green light appeared in front of them. Another alien materialized, a reman male with a harderned face. He wore a tight black body suit with purple accents and a full cape with the Romulan Republic bird and reman 'X' symbol on it.
"Greetings ponies. I am Shenek, captain of the R.R.W. Jolan Tru."
He bowed slightly to make an impression. Celestia wasn't expecting formalities from him. He looked sinister and menacing. Fluttershy hid behind Applejack while Rarity was about to faint from seeing his "horrendous clothing".
"I am Princess Celestia, Co-Ruler of Equestria, Your crew was kind to treat my wounds and my 'sickness' and saved my subjects against these abominations. I am honored to meet the captain of such a valorous crew."
"We were just doing our duty, Princess, nothing more, nothing less. You all have gotten only an slight idea of what the borg can do. They assimilate everything that can be useful to them. If it cannot be assimilated, they will destroy it. You and your ponies are their prime objective. To use you to destroy us all."
"What?" All the ponies in the library asked at same time, confused by what he had said.
"The borg want your 'magic'. For them, it is a tool that can be used as a weapon of mass destruction for us all. If they assimilated you and your ponies all our homes, the galaxy even, would be part of the Collective."
No one dared to speak. The princesses traded looks before talking.
"Yes, we know that actually. We know that thanks to visions at night. Luna cannot enter the Dream Realm for these visions."
"Ahh, visions. You had seen how Luna was assimilated while my officer treats her, and her dream was inside of a borg vessel while the borg began another's assimilation, am I correct?"
The Royal Sisters' eyes become wider than plates, dishes or disks. He knows about our dreams? Before the princesses can object, they are interrupted once again.
"Yes I know about your dreams and visions. It was I who gave you a small idea of what are our enemies are like and what they want. In an attempt to prepare you for what may come to pass. Rest assure we will do all that we can to ensure it does not happen."
For the first time of their immortal lives, they were rendered speechless by the revelation. He...he gave us these visions?! How?!
"I am a reman. My species are telepaths. We are capable of mind reading from long distance and we can send messages to other minds as well."
"You're capable of reading minds?!" asked Relikia, almost yelling. She was shocked and trembling. He may know my secret?!
"Yes, I am." and he said telepathically and your secret is safe with me, Ambassador. Relikia yelped as she heard his voice in her head. She sighed in relief but was not calmed completely. The reman captain turned back to the shocked princesses and smirked.
"I have already talked with the captains in orbit. I stated that I and my crew had already made a first contact with you and your kind. Tomorrow they will come to this little town in shuttlecrafts. To give a less frightening impression, they are willing to talk with you three, princesses." The princesses of the sun and the moon, regained their regal postured but remained unsure. Cadence had also been mentioned and had yelped in surprise.
"So it is settled then. Tomorrow we'll be here to establish diplomatic relations with you... and thank you for saving us." Shenek nodded then bowed. He pressed a few buttos of his bracer and beamed out, leaving the ponies alone in the library. They started to talk about the aliens.
"Do you think that the other aliens are like him?” Luna began the topic. “He seemed kind in a strange way."
Relikia looked at her with an uneasy expression on her face.
"Agreed, but this was completely unexpected from him. He made us see these visions as a warning!" interjected Celestia.
"So? We should be thankful for that. What would have happened if we didn't know anything about them? You could have tried to talk to them only to get killed or be converted in the end." Luna objected.
"You're right... Well, this day was a.. very eventful and stressful one. We should be getting back to Canterlot. Luna? Could you get us there?" she asked. Luna nodded. Cadence and the ambassadors bid their farewells to the element bearers before teleporting back to Canterlot. The ponies, however, continued with the topic on their own, the sun started to set, marking the beginning of the night.
He was furious. His wounds were fresh but healing thanks to some treatment and hyposprays but he was foolish. He could have lived without injures but now he was about to die thanks to some intervention by traitors of the empire and dreaded blood enemies. He groaned in frustration, his pride wounded as well.
"I should have known that the lapdogs of the brutish klingons were sensitive on that topic," he groaned in pain. His fresh wound was still bleeding but his medical officers were treating him.
"You deserve it! You're nothing but a-"
"SHUT UP!"
He activated his electric leash, electrocuting his prisoner. The scream of agony and pain were a chorus to his ears. He deactivate it and his medics begin the blood transfusion. His prisoner was weak. Since the day he capture it, he had been constantly torturing him with electric shocks but not killing him. There were day that he did nothing to him, only leaving him in the brig of the ship. The injured figure looked at the screen in the sickbay, smirking at the fleet showing.
"Let's see how these traitors and interlopers handle the old ways..."
Returning to the story AND to the GAME! Season 8 is the blast! Dear Celestia, the Dyson Sphere is amazing!
I quite impressed by the design and the buildings, and atmospheric flight? wow... I tip my hat at you cryptic. I was hopping for more episodes but man, I just cannot say no!
So here is the Poll, should I include season 8 stuff in a (far) future or not for the sake of the borg enemy?
The last cube explode violently, the auto cannons of the Malditus being too much for the Borg vessel. The battle ended with no casualties of the Federation side, much to Vaner's relief. While none of her fleet had been destroyed, Ge'dan's and Blackheart's fleets had suffered. For the klingons this was inspirational, each dead warrior ascend to Sto'Vo'Kor for eternal glory. For the Romulans, this was a huge lost. Luckily the Romulan Republicans managed to rescue the crews of each destroyed vessel, these crewmembers returning to the transwarp gate and back to New Romulus in shuttlecrafts.
"On screen," said Vaner. She along with the romulan admiral and klingon general was receiving a hail from the Jolan Tru, a prototype Ha'feh Advanced Warbird that had been on duty in Borg space. Ge'dan was not surprised at this - Obisek must have sent him to this world. After all, multiple vessels had been lost in this system. The other two high ranking captains had not expected this. They had heard rumors about the 'Ha' series vessels of the Republic. They thought that the Ha'apax was the only ship created. They were wrong.
"This is Shenek. I have news for you," said the reman commander, hailing the three heads of the fleet.
"Make it quick reman," said Blackheart. He has little love for telepaths, remans in particular. He had been betrayed by one, a pet of the Tal Shiar while in a coliseum. While one individual didn't represent an entire species, he still disliked telepaths even members of the Empire such the Letheans.
"My crew were able to defend the equines or ponies as they call to themselves. Their leader was wounded so I brought her to the ship and healed her-"
"Wait! You said their leader? You made first contact?" said Vaner in disbelief, She hadn't predicted this however if what he said was true then the outcome of the Jolan Tru could be a good thing or bad thing for the fleet. He had said that they had healed the leader so that meant that the leader was injured by the Borg.
"Yes, our crew managed to heal her and she is right now with her sister and student waiting for me. However, I must ask you something."
"What is it, Shenek?" said Ge'dan. She was glad to see and hear a long time good friend.
"The most likely action is that they will ask for some diplomatic talks. It would be wise to attend them in order to give a good impression."
Shenek was right and Vaner give him credit for that. It meant that everything went better than expected. However she couldn't afford diplomatic talks now. Her ship and her crew needed her now plus her transporters were down for repairs. Blackheart hated transporters. Ge'dan's ship was no better. The Ha'apax was heavily damaged and it was a miracle that the ship didn't explode. Ge'dan's crew were the best of the best, the elite, they could repair it faster than the standard crew of a vessel. A week max, plus with the carrier's work bees and repair drones they could get it done in five days.
"I wish I could do it today but I cannot. Engineering informs me that the transporters are offline until repaired and the shuttles are no better," said Vaner, her voice sounding a little disappointed.
"I could go but I need to attend the ship's repairs plus the fleet might need a helping hand," replied Blackheart.
"You said it yourself klingon, I need to make a list of the available ships I have at my disposal and send it to New Romulus Command along with surviving cre w and captains of the ships destroyed during the attack." affirmed Ge'dan, her voice sounded emotionless.
"What about tomorrow morning?" suggested Shenek. Being a reman meant that he couldn't be in the meeting. Remans were a nocturnal race, working during the night and sleeping in the day. However, being a ex-slave of the Romulan Empire, he had the endurance to remain awaken in the day without feeling tired or weak at all.
"Tomorrow I might have a Danube ready, so that is a yes," answered Vaner.
"Agreed. I will have a Toron ready for tomorrow," Blackheart affirmed.
"My Kestrel will be ready for tomorrow too." Ge'dan was not really thrilled with the idea but she didn't complain. She had to agree with it.
"Good, I will talk with them now. It is good to know that you all are considering shuttlecrafts instead of transporters. It will give a good impression and be less frightening than app earing in an unexpected place behind or in front of them. I will go now. I leave this topic for you two." Shenek's channel close as the Jolan Tru cloaked and returned back to the surface, leaving the admiral and general to their discussion.
"This is it, no frightening presence... Blackheart-" Vaner was interrupted by the klingon general.
"No. I will not go without my armor, I might go without escorts, I don't need protection from anyone."
"Still, that armor might cause the populace fear if you-"
"That's enough!" declare Blackheart. "You can't order a general, Vaner, and you know that! I will go without escorts, and that's enough!" He close his channel, leaving the two admirals talking.
"I see... I too will go without any frightening asserts, that's including my weapons. However, I might go with a hidden plasma pistol just in case. I might recommend you doing the same, Vaner. Maybe they're friendlies but I don't wanna test my luck. " Vaner nodded. Ge'dan closed the channel, leaving Vaner talking with her bridge officers. She came to the conclusion that going with an escort was a good idea, especially someone that had combat training. Janet Shyclaw, being the most capable, decided to assist her.
"Tomorrow will be a grand day, sister! Not only we were saved today but tomorrow we will be securing relations with aliens!" Luna was excited! For the first time in Equestria, species from beyond would be walking on equestrian soil in good faith. Aside of being saved by them recently, their leaders agreed to talk with the princesses and discuss the borg, their species and culture, and their technology.
"Indeed it is Lulu, but we must be careful. Some topics may be sensitive." Celestia was not a fool. She remember too well what had happened back in Ponyville. The very thought of how a patient captain of a space ship could become a beast at the slight insult of honor of his people and his crew could be... troublesome. Luna also remember this. Now they were going to face the very leader of the "klingons" and his people. She shook her head trying to avoid a very disgusting thought. It was a good thing that they were going to attend this meeting. A noble or other ambassador could cause the destruction of Equestria in a few minutes.
"Tia... I am still thinking on what Shenek told us," Luna said softly. She still could not believe that Shenek had send those horrid visions, all for the sake of prevention of possible disasters. They were grateful for that but was still unbelievable.
"Me too, Lulu. At least this is over." Celestia sighed, remembering how she had lost her wing. She look at her back, seeing the now healed scar. Unable to fly ever again. She knew a couple of spells that could heal a limb but regaining one was impossible.
Meanwhile, in the palace's embassy, the ambassadors were leaving the conference room. While discussing the aliens threat and their allies the mares chuckled at how the gryphon, General Razorclaw, could act so... childish. He was ashamed, embarrassed and a little annoyed by the dragon, Darkwing, who told the girls about his freak out.
Relikia was still thoughtful. There were race out there that could read minds, one of them already having scanned her thoughts. It was a good thing that she had decided not to tell a soul about it, although that information was pretty useless.
"Hey, Priestess, do you think that they will talk to us? I mean our species are also inhabitants of Equis just like the ponies."
"Equis? The planet's name is Drakonus!" objected the dragon, only to be interrupted by the gryphon.
"Drakonus? It is Gryplioum!"
Gryplioum? Really? thought both Relikia and Zalune. With both the ambassador of the gryphons and of the dragons started an argument again, the mares decided to go ahead to their rooms and start their own topic about the aliens - what they looked like, how the entire populace will react to them and the most important question, would they be friendlies or invaders?
"Do you think that aliens are interested in zebras? asked Zalune, again without rhymes.
Relikia raise an imaginary eyebrow. She thought that zebras in general rhymed in every speech. This could be wrong.
"I think they will be more interested in changelings more, unfortunately."
"Why is that?" asked the zebra priestess.
"We changelings can use magic like the unicorns or alicorns to a certain degree. I fear that the borg have their eyes on us too." They kept talking about it, reaching the quarters hallway more quickly than the rest of the ambassadors.
"Yes, it is true but you might go without thinking on that. You changelings are good at hiding your presence like any other." stated the zebra. While she got immortality like the princesses, she was not really magical at all. She was a chosen, a messenger. The priests are a treasure among her kind in Zebrica. They were gifted with immortality and if one died by external means, another was born.
"Probably but we are talking about technological aliens that are capable of find us with their tools and such. Remember back in the town, they knew about the condition of the princess by only pointing that little box!"
"Perhaps you're imagining thinks, Relikia. This day has been long but also a little... interesting..."
"More than simply 'interesting', it is just... fascinating!"
They reached their respective rooms. However, in front of the doors were a disgusted unicorn captain and an arrogant unicorn prince blocking their path.
"Changeling... why you're still in this castle!?" said Shining Armor, Relikia noticed something off about him. He looked intact, like nothing has touched him or anything! Something is not right...
"Hm! I don't understand why aunty allows such uncivilized, barbaric and unrefined creatures near her. It is so disgusting!"
Zalune narrow her eyes, looking fierce at Blueblood who yelped. If Relikia and Shining Armor were natural enemies, Zalune and Blueblood had an intriguing history of disgust, racism and high quality of insults.
"Captain Armor, I have told you and I tell you again I am here in good faith to maintain good relation between you Equestrians and the Changelings of Honeyrock. I couldn't leave if I wanted," stated Relikia.
"LIES! That's what the changelings are; Lies , Deception, Vile Creatures. If not for Celestia's blind mind, you all should be burned in the hooves of justice!" Shining was on the verge of yelling.
Relikia's almost snapped but she hold her rage. Her expression remained emotionless and unmoving.
"There is a problem with you statement Captain," she said with a hint of venom and hate. "Princess Celestia, Alicorn of the Sun, and co-ruler of Equestria is not a fool or blind minded like you. She has lived for millennia. She has known of us changelings for far longer than a simple traumatized stallion such as yourself..."
"That's a lie coming from Chrysalis' spawn! You changelings showed yourselves thanks of your failed invasion, I don't understand why the princess doesn't see this!"
"Because aunty is so too nice for her own good of course," he hummed and walk away.
Shining Armor still staring hatefully at Relikia. "I'm watching you, monster!" he said then walked away.
A few minutes passed. Relikia closed her eyes and sighed, suppressing all her anger and rage. Zalune looked at her in worry.
"Something is not right..." said Relikia.
"What is that?"
"Shining is ... fine."
"What?! He insulted you! He had no right to do that, he just wants a war!"
"I KNOW!" shouted the changeling ambassador in an almost Royal Canterlot Voice, releasing part of her anger and startling the Zebra priestess. The changeling sighed again and inhaled, calming herself.
"But... he is not wounded, not even small bruises. Also, did you see his horn? It looked fine. Ta'lash, the reptilian alien, had beaten him up almost to the point of permanent damage! His horn was cracked and an unicorn's horn does not heal in a few hours!"
"Do you think that he is an imposter?"
"I think so. We changelings are capable of reading mind even without using full magic. I can't read his."
Zalune knew the changelings well. Their mind magic was always powerful. There was almost no mind they could not enter and even manipulate. She looked thoughtful at Relikia's speech before the changeling called somepony else.
"You can come out, Princess Cadenza."
Zalune looked confused until she saw the princess of love appearing slowly from her invisibility in front of the ambassadors. She was spying? thought the priestess.
"How did you know? I thought alicorns were invulnerable to changeling mind magic," said Cadence, confused. Her spell was perfect, powerful enough that only alicorns and skilled unicorns could use it. While in it she couldn't make any sound. Somepony discovering it seemed impossible.
"While I can't read alicorn minds, I can feel them. I can feel the presence of anypony's magic powerful enou gh around me in a radius of five kilometers." she stated proudly.
"Well, I am worried about Shining. He is not himself anymore!"
"What do you mean, Princess?" asked Zalune.
"He's been on duty later than he usually does and becoming more harsh to his own guards."
If changeling has eyebrows, Relikia would have raised both at the same time. "You did know that being a captain means that he needs to do that to discipline their soldiers, right?" she asked.
Cadence shook her head. "Yes I know but he doing so while off-duty! Not only to his unit but to his very own friends! They told me that Shiny was acting off, like another pony!"
"Are you sure that it is an imposter? Like one of Chrysalis' changelings?" asked the priestess.
"No, it can't be changeling. I have used a spell on him in secret in case of a changeling infiltration, He is a pony but also something else!" She was on verge of panic and tears.
The changeling ambassador's horn glowed. The spell that Relikia used was a soothing spell, created for anxiety attacks. It worked well on Cadence.
"T-Thanks..." she said with a calmed but still worried expression.
"I think you need to calm down, Princess. If you're sure that he is a imposter why don't you tell the princesses?" the zebra asked with curiosity.
"And alarm them of another possible infiltrator in front of our noses? Many ponies will think that it is the changelings again even if he is not one. The nobles, no, Canterlot's population will demand actions. They will think that you have something behind this. You're not a bad changeling Relikia I know that," she smiled at the changeling.
"I also think that he is not a changeling. He is something else...something more disturbing," Zalune said with a grim expression in her eyes.
Relikia's sighed. "If you want, Princess Cadenza, you can come to my room or Zalune's if you want to discuss this matter." Cadence nodded and went back to her room on the other side of the castle, leaving the unlikely duo pondering. Not only would the aliens will come tomorrow but they also need to check on the Guard's Captain.
"First aliens, now possible infiltration? Is that not... coincidence?" said Zalune.
"Yes, but I wouldn't call that "coincidence". I prefer to see before acting, Priestess."
Today was the day of first contact with the natives, the “Equestrians” as they called themselves. Vaner was content. This was a special day to investigate and study the radiation of the equines or "ponies". She was well-rested and r eady with her tactical officer, Janet. She seemed to be content as well however the admiral was aware that she was about to meet with an primitive civilization. She need not show much technology and use it less frequently. Their "allies" in other hand did not have the same rules or directives as Starfleet and the Federation as a whole.
While she knew that some Romulan Republic captains were allied with Starfleet they did not follow Federation rules. They did behave around pre-warp civilizations but they weren't required to. The Klingons were another case. They only cared about conquest and expanding their empire by force. There were cases that some klingons conquered worlds with pre-warp civilization on them. Some klingons call it necessary and honorable while others found it questionable. Klingons fought with those that were their equal or superior. They found the conquering of "lesser" or weaker species highly questionable.
"Admiral? We've arrived at the shuttlebay." said Janet
"I'm aware of that, Jen."
"'Jen'? Really admiral?"
"Of course, isn't that your name?" she added with a chuckle.
"No. Admiral, please, next time say my name correctly." They walked toward the runabout ready to depart for the planet surface.
Ge'dan was already in her personal shuttle, waiting in space for the two high ranking officers in their respective smaller vessels. She was alone, piloting her spacecraft with no other crewmember. Her first officer was in command of the Peacekeeper while she was gone.
"Blackheart here. Where is the Federation's admiral?"
The image of the armored general of the klingon fleet appeared on the console's screen. His shuttle flew near to hers and by the tone of his voice it appeared that he was not up to talk much, However his question were an swered when a Federation runabout appeared next to them. The screen split revealing the face of Vaner and her tactical officer, Janet.
"Good morning Admiral, General."
"I though that we agreed on no body guards," said the armored general, clearly not impressed and quite disappointed.
"Janet is not my body guard, she is just my companion for today."
"That's no matter to me klingon, you could have brought a cloaked officer. Anyway, can we descend now?" asked the romulan woman.
"Very well. Janet, lead us to the surface coordinates."
The Starfleet runabout began to descend toward the planet followed by the other two smaller craft toward to Equestria, Ponyville...
A large crowd of ponies had formed for the first contact with aliens. The princesses of Equestria ar rived in chariots. Many other ponies from different cities of Equestria, as well reporters and journalists, arrived by train. The element bearers stood next to their rulers as well various nobles from Canterlot.
"Today is a grand day sister," said Luna. Cadence nodded but Celestia was a little uneasy. While she agreed with her sister, she still feel weak from yesterday. She was thankful to the remans and romulans but she couldn't help but feeling a little... odd.
As for the Mane Six, Twilight was excited, looking to learn about the aliens' society, customs and technology. Rarity was curious about their clothes and fashion designs, Fluttershy as always was fearful and worried but also was curious about animals of other planets, Applejack about their food and Rainbow about their sports.
"Where is Pinkie?" asked Rainbow Dash.
Twilight also noticed that Pinkie was missing. She though that she was planning a party for the aliens.
"Darling, remember that Luna convinced Pinkie to do no parties while the aliens are with them."
"Eeyup, but she said she could throw one after the meeting with'em."
"It's not like she's-"
*BOOM*
Confetti and streamers were everywhere thanks to Pinkie Pie's party cannon. She appeared next to them... just before the author of the story thought of that... damn she is fast!
"Pinkie! Where you were?" asked Twilight. While she didn't care, she asked anyway.
"I was getting some supplies for the party!" she said with a cheerful smile. Twilight groaned while she giggled.
"Perhaps, darling, you would let us know the next time. Also, you Pinkie Promised that you wouldn't do a party until they are gone, you-"
"Here they come!"
Rarity was interrupted by one of the ponies looking at the sky. It was true. Three dots were approaching as the shut tles were descending at high speed.
"Wow, are these their space ships?"
"They looks so different to the others of yesterday."
"They seem to go pretty fast!"
"Pfff, no one can be faster than me!" said Rainbow Dash with a scoff.
The shuttles started to go more slowly as they got more lower for landing. There were three of them; one silver with two blue glowing pylons, another was brown with black stripes that was slightly small than the silver one and the last one was huge compared to the other two, green in color with dark marks and green pylons.
There were "Ooh"s from the crowd as the ships landed gently, each ship's doors opening while the photographers start taking photos for the great moment.
The first alien to step outside was from the silver ship. Like the rest of the aliens from yesterday, it was biped and slender in figure. A female thought the princesses. She lacked fur and had a black mane with a pony tail. The face looked similar to an pony except for the small eyes, nose and mouth. She wore a black and blue uniform and a skirt.
Vice Admiral Vaner has landed.
The second was more intimidating than the other. From the brown ship, a rough figure came out, looking taller than the other alien. It wore significantly heavy armor with a helmet covering the face and a large cape behind it. It looked exactly like a warlord, getting some worried looks from the ponies. The Royal Guard were on alert, however they couldn't help but feel fear of the armored alien.
Lt. General Blackheart was already inspiring terror.
The third and final alien was quite similar to the first one, except for the long and wavy mane and a black tattoo covering most of the left side of the face. Like the Romulus from yesterday, she wore a black and blue uniform/jacket with golden but smaller shoulder pads with tight black pants. Rarity murmured something about rebellious yet gracious fashion.
Vice Admiral Ge'dan as arrived.
Celestia and Luna were observing their outfits in detail. They were a little stunned observing what looks like their nations symbols. Symbols that only appeared in their Prophecy Book.
"They... they are here!" whispered Luna.
"Yes... this could be a very promising day," she whispered back.
"Pfft, these are the leaders? I thought they were, you know, awesome." whispered Rainbow Dash who gained a look of disapproval from Twilight. "Alright, maybe just the big guy with armor, he look pretty awesome." quickly said the rainbow pegasus. Still her friends glare at her with disapproval. "Oh come on guys!"
"Rainbow, they are military leaders. This is first contact, everypony needs to be presentable plus one of them" Twilight indicated the armored one "is the leader of these 'Klingons', the same nation as Ta'lash! " She whispered a little loudly, making Celestia cough to straighten them up. The aliens approached and stood in front of the princesses.
"Greetings, Equines, I'm Vice Admiral Vaner of the United Federation of Planets. It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Jolan Tru Ponies," Ge'dan bows. "I'm Vice Admiral Ge'dan Allaneem of the Romulan Republic."
"Qapla'! Ponies, I'm Lieutenant General "Blackheart" of the Klingon Empire. It is an honor." The sound of his voice was deep and metallic but with hints of disappointment and bored but also with respect.
"The honor is all mine, General. I am pleased to meet the leaders of such a valorous army from the infinite and beyond. I am Celestia, Princess of the Day and co-ruler of Equestria, the land in which you have all landed." Luna steps in, cleaning her throat.
"I am Luna, Princess of the Night and co-ruler of Equestria. We are most grateful of your intervention against these abominations."
Both princesses extended their hooves while both women extended their hands, making the first ever hand/hoof shake in Equestria's history. The crowd cheered, glad that the first contact was going well... only to go downhill when one of the alien ships exploded violently.
"My shuttle!" yelled Ge'dan as her shuttle was nothing but junk in flames. The ponies began to panic and started muttering and whispering among themselves.
"One of their ship exploded! Will they get angry?"
"This is going bad! An invasion I tell you! They're gonna think that we did it!"
"Oh no, these Klop Kluz Klan are on the loose again? They will get us killed!"
Blackheart chuckled. With his helmet he was capable of hearing them all. The humanoids returned to the landing zone viewing the once romulan shuttle. Vaner use her tricoder to scan the debris while Blackheart just stood there, his helmet's visor was scanning too. Pegasus firefighters brought clouds filled with water and started to empty it on the fire much to the humanoids' surprise.
"I got something!" exclaimed Vaner, just as the fire was extinguished. Ge'dan and Blackheart start to excavate the wreckage only to find a piece of metal with an engraved symbol.
The symbol confused the ponies and surprised the humanoids, especially the romulan admiral. Her expression of surprise turned into anger and hatred, knowing all too well who did this, as did Vaner and Blackheart.
"Tal Shiar..." said Ge'dan in a low voice.
"But how? Tal Shiar aren't organized to make this kind of assassination attempt," Vaner said.
"No, unless... this was a warning." stated Ge'dan.
"A warning? What kind of warning? This is the most failed assassination attempt I've ever seen, " reacted Blackheart.
This caught the attention of many ponies and they look at each other in fear. The green alien seems to be the target of this attempt. Celestia was staring at the aliens, worried. She was glad that the admiral had exited the shuttle before the explosion. Luna's expression was blank. The Mane Six has a mixture of expressions; Rarity was surprised, Pinkie's was shocked, Rainbow Dash was on alert, Applejack was looking for something suspicious, Twilight's was fearful and surprised and Fluttershy was mostly in shock.
"That alien said an that it was an...?"
"Assassination attempt?" completed Twilight.
"Why would somepony want to" Pinkie gulped loudly "kill a hero?" she finished.
"Girls, look!" Applejack shouted pointing her hoof at a stallion with an alabaster coat with a dark green hood and mantle covering his entire body and head, leaving only his muzzle and legs visible; He was grinning
"Get him!" yelled Rainbow Dash, flying at high speed toward the hooded figure. The stallion noticed and galloped away, fleeing from the rainbow maned pegasus. The humanoids noticed the figure going inside the forest and chased him. Shining Armor organized the Royal Guard, noticing that the Mane Six were not with either of the princesses.
"I don't like this," thought the Princess of the Sun. getting a final view of the last alien entering the forest. She decided to see this for herself, teleporting into the Everfree Forest.
Rainbow Dash was chasing the shady stallion, flying with all her speed but the forest was dense and thick, forcing her to dodge the trees and slow down. The stallion, being an unicorn teleported to avoid the trees without difficulty, making the chase difficult for Rainbow. Behind her the three aliens were following them both.
"Come back here!" shouted the pegasus mare.
The chase's prosecution was getting more heated. The unicorn was launching magic beams from his horn trying to slow Rainbow down. Because of her dexterity and agility, she managed to dodge them all with ease but this slowed her further. The unicorn teleport again, th is time out of her sight .
"Huh? Where is he?" She heard some movement in the bushes. Smirking, she charged forward toward the noise source, rammed it and tackled it to the ground.
"You think you can outmatch me? I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, learn it!" she said with pride and authority in her voice.
"Ugh! ... and I'm Vaner, Admiral of the Federation Fleet. Nice to meet you Miss Dash and now can you get off me?" said a female voice beneath her.
She opened her eyes and saw one of the aliens. Her eyes widened and she quickly got off the trill admiral. Two other aliens soon appeared. The Federation admiral rose up and stared at Rainbow Dash, not angry but a little upset yet intrigued by what she was seeing.
"Sorry there, I wasn't looking" the mare apologized quickly. Rainbow was quite amazed at how the aliens looked so similar to the ponies... except for the almost flat face, lack of fur, pale skin and small eyes. She looked at each side of the female alien's head and notice the black spots. That make a trill.
"Apologize accepted little one, but where is the other equine-?"
"Pony," Rainbow corrected the trill admiral.
"Pony," she said, correcting her sentence.
"I lost him. He shot at me and disappeared."
"And yet you proclaim yourself as the faster flyer of all this country," commented the armored general in sarcasm, gaining a threatening glare from Rainbow Dash. Before she could comment on how useless Blackheart was right now Ge'dan spoke, holding up her tricoder that was detecting multiple life signs.
"He is not far from here but stay alert, he is not alone. Follow me!"
They did. With Ge'dan at their head the group exited the forest only to arrive at a cliff. There the hooded stallion awaited them in the company of five other s shady ponies.
"There is no place to run. Don't worry, we won't hurt you. We come in peace," spoke Vaner.
"I don't who you are, but I bet my Wonderbolts posters that you are the ones responsible for that!" stated Rainbow Dash, pointing with her hoof at the rising smoke column.
"Now now, don't be so hasty," began to stallion, this time addressing Ge'dan.
"Yes we planted the bomb but we didn't expect you to leave the shuttle immediately, terrorist." snapped the supposed leader.
"Terrorist? What are you talking about, we barely know about your species!" exclaimed Blackheart.
Ge'dan didn't like the situation. He had not been called a terrorist since the Tal'shiar Conflict. Unless...
"You are not ponies are you?" spoken the romulan admiral. She was connecting the dots between the supposed assassination attempt, Tal'shiar symbols and these ponies. The only logical explanation was that these ponies were actually Tal'shiar agents. Impossible! The Tal'shiar are unorganized! They barely explore this sector for borg tech and that is suicide their condition! she yelled in protest in her mind.
"No, we are one hundred percent Equestrian ponies and in case you are wondering yes we work for the Tal'shiar. We are something more than mere ponies."
He and the other ponies showed their forelegs. On one of them was a bracelet device that was not recognized by the aliens or the pony with her. With a hoof they pressed something on the bracelets, making the hooded ponies glow.
"Rainbow Dash!" a new voice called from behind her. It was Twilight and her friends. "What the hoof were you thinking?!" scoffed the unicorn. Rainbow Dash explained the situation from the beginning. They noticed the green glow that surrounded the ponies and stood next to the three aliens.
Before anyone could react, the visible pony silhouette from the group of ponies change, twist into something else.
They became humanoids.
Pale and furless with their green coats and hood fitting their new anatomy, covering most of their bodies. Suddenly they drew devices that the ponies didn't recognize but the high ranking officers did.
"Plasma pistols," muttered Blackheart.
"Ponies! Take cover, they are armed!"
Vaner's sudden outburst surprised the ponies. They complied and quickly hid behind the trees, all except Rainbow Dash and Applejack. The latter was confused while the pegasus mare was indignant, eying the "weapons".
"Rainbow... I think we should hide too," said Applejack. One of the "pony-humanoids" was staring at them.
"Really? These toys are their weapons? Come on! Don't make me laugh-"
One of them shot at Rainbow Dash. She dodged but her left wing wasn't fortunate. "AGH!" She abruptly landed, holding her wing with her hooves.
"RAINBOW!" The rest of the Mane Six came out of their hiding spot to join their in-pain friend only to be stopped by the "pony-humanoid" who had shot her.
"Where do you think your going? Colonel-"
His words cut off when Blackheart himself punched him right in the face. The others notice it and began to aim at him. Vaner and Ge'dan saw this opportunity and drew out their own phaser and plasma pistols and started shooting at them.
A skirmish between the admirals and the pseudo-humanoids began.
Janet was frustrated. After the explosion, by instinct she initiated a scan to make sure that there was not explosives in the remaining shuttles. She thought about going outside and assisting her admiral and captain, Vaner, but she got this new order from her that didn't make sense at all!
Flashback, during entry to atmosphere.
"I got new orders, Jimmy."
"Janet! Captain please!" she told her in annoyance.
"Okay Janet, I changed my opinion. I don't need companions for this but I got a backup plan." She knew that this would happen. After all, Vaner regularly changed her opinions when thinking in different scenarios. Sometimes she was paranoid. There was a time when she received an order from Starfleet Command. She and her crew succeeded in finishing it but not in the way they wanted. She went completely crazy. She thought of many possible scenarios and none of them were pretty, there was even an execution scenario, how had she even thought of that? This forced her former first officer to stun her and move her to the medical bay of the Intrepid she used to lead.
"Yes Ma'am, What is it?"
"Instead of running around with a phaser rifle, I need you to pilot the shuttle. I need ALL the firepower available, just in case I need you."
"But Admiral isn't that, eh, overkill? I mean, the Equestrians seems pretty harmless." She didn't like questioning her, but this was probably too much. She had never though of this kind of plan before and it seemed pretty barbaric.
The admiral spoke once more. "It's not for the Equestrians, it's for the klingons. I don't trust Blackheart, Janet. As you know he, I and Anther have an history. Forged in steel by an hammer full of hostility, distrust, even outright hatred coming from him and pointless battles whose losers are our own crew, our people. But I learned something about him. He dislikes transporters so much that he doesn't even care about reading transporters signatures. Don't ask me how I know that, just he doesn't. He will see me alone. Do not worry if he thinks you are cloaked beside me, the helmet he always wears has thermal vision and he will think that you teleported out" she finished. As much as Janet wanted to ask, she stayed silent.
The shuttle landed softly. Vaner rose up from her chair. Before going out and meeting the leaders he turned back to her weapon specialist. "Remember, do not exit until you receive new orders. Wish me luck." She went out and began receiving the flashes of the camera ponies.
Flashback Ends
Commander Andreina Janet "ShyClaw" Gonzales was concerned not only for her admiral but also for the Romulans. She didn't care about Blackheart. From the records, he was the most infamous general in the Klingon Empire. He had multiple names; The Destroyer, The Impaler, The Dominator, The Champion, The Pillager, The Inheritor, The Dreadnought. Many names but all related to him, the very rival of Vaner and Anther.
"Janet?" Vaner's voice came from her communicator.
She patched the signal to the shuttle's main computer and the image of her captain appeared. She had bruises and cuts, there was plasma shots behind her and she was in cover. Janet asked if it was the klingons but her admiral shook her head and responded to her with the name that echoes in the minds of many Romulan Republicans.
"No, Tal'shiar agents, but not only that Janet, Pony Tal'shair agents! They have us pinned down and we have civilians ponies with us. They need to be evacuated from this area immediately, Janet! I want the runabout at my coordinates now!" she said and close the channel.
Janet was confused and shocked. Pony Tal'shiar? she asked herself in her mind while taking off in the shuttle. Flying toward the designated coordinates, she ignored the various confused stares of the crowd of pony folks as they watched the silver shuttle leaving and going toward the forest.
With Celestia having gone into the Everfree alone, Princesses Luna and Cadence along her husband Shining Armor and three squads of Royal Guards were organized for a search mission. Their objective was to search for the six Elements Bearers and get them out, Luna adding the aliens as part of their objective. Shining Armor protested believing that only ponies should be rescued and not the aliens. Luna reminded him that they were the ones that saved Ponyville and Equestria.
Cadence was observing her husband's behavior, noticing the hash and aggressive part of him was more dominant, her defensive and naive but warm husband was almost a memory. This is not the Shiny I married, that's for sure. she thought in disbelief. She coughed gaining the attention of h er aunt and husband. "Princess Luna," began Cadence "maybe it would be better if I lead the squads myself."
This caught the attention of a few Royal Guards, including her husband who about to protest only to be shut up by a dark hoof at his mouth. Next to him was a dark pink unicorn mare with Luna's guard armor, red maned but the feature that Luna noticed the most was her cat-like emerald eyes.
"Commander Red Knightmare at your service Princess," the mare bowed.
Luna hadn't called any member of her Night Guard. She herself knew Red Knightmare and she wasn't a morning pony. The thestral was grinning and gave a wink to the Princess of the Night. She noticed who she really was and nodded. The commander rose up.
"Commander Knightmare, you will escort Princess Mi Amore Cadenza along with the Elite of the Guards with you."
"But Princess!?" Before Shining Armor could object, Luna continued.
"Shining Armor will stay to form a shield around the town while the guards remaining will search for clues as to who is this stallion culprit and if is possible, the organization he works for." Finished, the commander saluted and with Cadence and a squad of three Royal Guards galloped toward the forest. The Captain of the Guard reluctantly did as ordered and formed a shield around Ponyville and the Guards began to do their work.
Meanwhile, inside the forest, Princess Celestia herself without any escort followed the silver ship. As an alicorn, her stamina was higher that the most athletic pony of Equestria. She managed to keep going but barely. The ship was flying faster than her full galloping speed she got tired fast. The runabout proved to be much faster than her since she has only one wing and was still weak from yesterday.
The group with the commander and Cadence found the Princess of the Sun pretty quickly.
"Aunt Celestia!" The voice of Cadence caught Celestia's attention. She saw three of her elite Royal Guard, the commander and Cadence herself leading them.
"Niece, what are you doing here? This is dangerous, return back to Ponyville and wait-"
"No. I will not sit idle while you risk your life, Twilight's and her friends. They need you, but you need us aunty. Please don't do this alone. You have us, let us help you." pleaded the Princess of Love.
She was right, Celestia couldn't do this alone. Right now she was weak, not the strong and confident alicorn of before. She really needed help but was this the help she need?
"I know niece, but..."
"But what?" asked the commander.
"This feeling, this... this... fear... Something is wrong, very wrong, I fear that stallion is not alone in this, not mere racism or equestrian-supremacist terrorist plan. For some reason, the aliens seem to know what is going on. The stallion, the culprit of that attempt is not a normal pony. I cannot expresses it in words how but... I just don't know, Cadence."
The commander's expression showed no emotion in her. "Could it be the borg, princess? Yesterday during the assault at Ponyville one of the aliens mentioned something about assimilated ponies."
"No, the borg 'drones' were different, I could feel them, hundreds of minds, individuals begging for death. With others I could still feel them but not in the same way. It was similar to Ta'lash before being liberated. I could feel his mind but faintly before the Elements managed to fully save him."
"You... can feel the Borg's true mind? Why didn't you tell us that yesterday when an ARMY of them appeared outside the town?" asked a shocked Cadence. They all started trotting deeper into the forest.
"I couldn't do it in a very weakened state. I wasn't aware back them."
"And the supposed fleet in the sky or space?"
Celestia sighed after hearing said question. "... I felt them too but very faintly, almost no existent. I thought it was only a odd feeling. I didn't think it was anything else." After she said that they all heard screams from the deepest part of the forest near a cliff that only a few ponies including Celestia knew.
"Did you heard that?" said one of the escorts.
"Yes, the girls are in troubles!" said Cadence. She, Celestia and the rest galloped toward the deep forest. When they arrived they found an scary sight; the aliens were behind a fallen tree, using it as a barricade, fighting bipeds with the same cloak as the stallion. Ge'dan's right arm was burned, Blackheart was using a disruptor rifle supplying them cover fire while Vaner was healing Rainbow Dash's burned wing.
Luckily there was Vaner's shuttle being piloted by Janet. However, for some reason, one of the shady humanoids fired a disruptor device a it. I did not do much damage but it disabled the Weapon subsystem.
"What is the meaning of this!?" exclaimed the sun monarch.
This alerted the group of Tal'shiar agents and they began to point their weapons at her. This alerted the escorts, one of which was an unicorn who began to fire magic beams at them. When one of these beams hit one of them it was stopped short by an invisible shield. They laughed.
"Your pathetic magic can't harm us! We have the best personal shields of the Tal'shiar!"
"You can't even touch us sun horse!" said one of them arrogantly. This angered her followers but not Celestia herself or Cadence.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash's wing had been fully healed by Vaner. She wouldn't rush at them again but her pride had been permanently wounded. Blackheart noticed something familiar about the personal shielding of the shady pony/bipeds. Something like the borg would use.
"Blackheart what are you doing?" asked Ge'dan while still firing her plasma pistol at them. Unfortunately she could not breach their shields.
"Remodulating the frequency of my weapon." Both admirals stared at the general in confusion.
"They are Tal'shiar not borg," said Vaner as she start to shoot.
"Yes I know but the Tal'shiar are obsessed with borg technology. They might have reversed engineered the borg drones' shields. If my theory is correct then we could fight against them in equal force." As he said this he rose up pointing his disruptor at one of the Tal'shiar group. They smirked confidently.
"Expected from the barbaric kling- ARG!" he was silenced by the sheer force of the recently modulated disruptor, killing him instantly and surprising everyone, including the Tal'shiar ponies.
"Damn, they know! We need to retreat! ... UGH!" A female operative was hit by Vaner's phaser, stunning her. Vaner wanted to interrogate her for information and he had the best person for the job.
Ge'dan, while she though to kill them for being Tal'shiar operatives, her scientific curiosity wanted to study them first. One of the many traits of the Romulans and Vulcans was being curious about something new to them so like Vaner she programmed her pistol to stun.
"We'll be back!" The rest of the Tal'shiar force started to beam out leaving three paralyzed at the mercy of the allies.
"Don't leave us!" one exclaimed but it was too late. The rest were gone.
The shuttle landed in a clearing near to the allied group and the royal ponies. A human woman exited the shuttle wearing black and red Federation Sierra uniform, looking for her admiral. When she found her she was treati ng the wounded Ge'dan.
"I healed the most that I can but you must go to your ship's sickbay for further treatment." Ge'dan nodded.
"Before I go Vaner sent me one them for interrogation and study," said Ge'dan as she got up, looking at the paralyzed Tal'shiar. Much to her surprise, one of them had gotten his bracelet damaged and reverted back to his original pony form, much to the ponies shock.
"Very well, one of them will go to the klingons for equal share." Blackheart grunted in agreement.
"Good." The romulan admiral activated her comlink to her ship. "Ge'dan here, one for transport." She was engulfed with green light and she was gone. Seeing no more danger, Celestia and the Mane Six started to approach the remaining alien leaders, while the Royal Guards were looking at the stunned operatives.
"I do believe I owe you an apology." The Mane Six looked at her in surprise. "I didn't know that one of my ponies was involved with some terrorist organization but you also own me an explanation as to why some of your species were involved as well." Celestia said in a soft but stern voice directed to Vaner and Blackheart.
"Princess! They are not aliens, they are ponies, all of them! They used a strange bracelet to take their forms," said Twilight. She didn't want to believe it but she had seen it herself, how these ponies became humanoids with similar builds to the aliens rather than minotaurs.
"Really Twilight?" She then gazed upon the paralyzed humanoids and the single pony. She was about to say otherwise but she was interrupted by Vaner.
"She is telling the truth, your Highness. They are all ponies but for some unknown reason they are working with a space faring terrorist organization called the Tal'shiar.” She then point to their bracelet. "However, they seem to be using a very complex piece of technology that allows them to take a humanoid form." This perked up the interest of the ponies present, Celestia raising an eyebrow. "We were about to beam them to our ships for interrogation. It is possible that the real Tal'shiar are on this planet working in the shadows. If we get enough information we could find them and take them out."
"Real Tal'shiar? Are you saying that they are like you?" Cadence asked.
"No. The Tal'shiar, like Ge'dan's Republicans are romulans but that's the only thing in common. They were the spying organization of the former Romulan Star Empire before their homeworld's incident." Vaner carefully hid a few important pieces of information to the natives, after all they don't need to know a lot. "After that, the Empire and its army dissolved and the Tal'shiar stepped out of the shadows and changed from being a secret organization to a military one. Over the years they became more and more opressive and ruthless even with their own people. They began to do anything to restore their destroyed Empire to its former glory."
"But why are my ponies in that warmongering organization?" Celestia asked, really worried now. It seems that the borg weren't the only ones that wanted Equestria.
"We don't know. It is possible these are not ponies but clones or brainwashed victims believing that they are Tal'shiar from the start. The organization has been known to use other servitors races to do their job, like brainwashed remans. That's where we enter. We will discover why the Tal'shiar are doing this.
"What about the dead ones?" Celestia asked while looking at the four dead bodies.
"We will take them for investigation-"
"Wait a minute! Are sayin' that ya'll goin to dissect 'em like lab rats? They are dead for Pete's sake, let the dead rest in peace!" exclaimed Applejack earning a shocked expression from some of the pony folks.
"Yeah! They may be bad but they're ponies too! We can't just let you use our dead like they were experiments!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash
Celestia wanted to argue with both her subjects but they were correct. She could not let her dead subjects be experimented upon. She was about to voice that thought but she was interrupted once again.
"Look!" pointed Twilight at a dead Tal'shiar.
The skin started to lose its color as the bodies began to decay in a very unique way. Everyone looked with morbid fascination and disgust as the limbs start to petrify, crumble and becoming dust. In the end the bodies became piles of dust along with the bracelets.
"Ma'am, I picked up some thalaron radiation coming from the bodies' bracelet before their..."
"It isn't necessary to say that now , the point is how and why. Not to discover their secrets?" Vaner interrupted.
"Heh, so the commander is starting to destroy the bodies. He will get us out of he- AAARGH!!"
"What?! What is happening AARRGH!!" The ponies and the aliens saw the inevitable demise of two of the paralyzed agent begin. Like the dead bodies they became dust in a painful and slow way, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie could not look while Rarity covered her mouth with her hoof. Applejack covered her mouth with her hat, Rainbow Dash look away while Twilight try to not to throw up her lunch.
"Do something!" yelled Celestia hoping that their demise could be prevented.
"That is thalaron radiation. It is not possible to counter something like that and it act very quickly," Blackheart said emotionlessly as the bodies were now dust.
There was only left pony that looked at the dust of her teammates fearfully, scared that she might join them in the painful death she close her eyes for her inevitable demise.
But it never come.
"Uh?" was the only intelligent question that came to her mind. Then it hit her. The damaged bracelet held a small thalaron device. It was possible that the phaser had vaporized said device and rendered the artifact useless.
"It seems that we have a single prisoner now," stated the klingon general. While Celestia was confused, she was quite grateful that the pony hadn't died in a horrible way. Before anyone could say anything, she goes toward the mare looking at her with a critical eye humming while examinating her entire being. She sat down while her horn glowed and touched the mare's forehead.
"What is she doing?" asked the human officer.
"I don't know but I'm picking up low levels of chroniton energy coming from her," said the klingon general.
"She is seeing her memories, probably how she ended up with these people." stated Twilight, hoping that the mare could be redeemed as well her friends.
Celestia had already entered the mare's mind. While she knew mental magic, she was not good in it. She only knew a few spells, most from Relikia.
She was seeing the memories through the mare's eyes. She could feel and hear everything the mare had experienced during her life.
At first she felt small, like being a foal again. She looked around only to seem to be trapped in some glass capsule full of weird green warm liquid. Through the glass she could see multiple lights, consoles and such. A few of these were connected to more of these capsules but what froze her heart was the content of these weird capsules.
Unborn foals, all of them.
Who are these sick people?! she yelled in her mind. They were experimenting with her ponies even before birth! How dare these Tal'shiar!
Suddenly a door opened revealing three Romulans. Two of them were wearing white uniforms and had the same hair style. The third was completely bald, missing his right eye, and his uniform was quite different from the other two. She guessed he was a high rank.
"Colonel, these are experimental clones they are very rare. They come from a very remote world hidden in borg territory.
Clones? This mare and these foals are clones? she asked herself while listening to the conversation.
"I want those ready at once when they reach maturity. If not they are good as cannon fodder if they won't develop the energy that YOU were telling me!"
She felt sick upon hearing these words. How can this man be so heartless?
"But sir, give us a few months and they will be ready for you," one of the scientis ts said nervously.
"Hakeev! I hope that this project of yours comes out as good as you told me.” There stood a romulan woman with blond hair wearing the same uniform as Hakeev. “The remans and the rebels are more active and we need everything to counter them. Remember that the klingons and the Federation are most curious about our affairs."
"Empress! Do not worry, our new 'ally' is keeping the "Republic" rebels busy while I have a plan to keep away the interlopers of the Federation and the barbaric klingons! They will never know about us, them and this!" said the male romulan pointing toward her or rather the unborn foal that was this mare before..
Soon the memory changed into something more direct. Now as a filly out of the capsule, she was firing magic blasts from the tip of her horn. She was in a holodeck fighting against romulans, klingons and Starfleet officers, Celestia didn't know how she know this but it must have been the experience of the mare that lived through this stage of life.
"They were training her and every clone pony to be a killing machine," she thought sadly and in disgust.
"Alright clone T3-M4, your test is over. Go to the lab for indoctrination upgrade. T3-M3, come forward for your test." The holodeck paused as she exited through a materialized door, only to met with a red with yellow mane pony clone. By look alone this clone was sick and about to pass out.
"Good luck in there M3." the mare said to her fellow clone as he entered for his test.
As she was going into the laboratory, she overheard some romulan scientists watching the test of M3 on a screen. He seemed to have a hard time with the holo-enemies.
"He is not going to last. He is a failure."
"Yes, since he started to reach maturity his results started dropping."
"We should get rid of him."
"We could better use him as cannon fodder and dress him as an agent for the Republic rebels."
She looked down, depressed for the clone whose function was now cannon fodder rather than elite operative. Now this is just sad for them. The clones are weapons that are easy to replace. They are trying to weaponize our magic.
The next memory showed clone M4 going into a shuttlebay equipped with her morph-bracelet. The mare changed into a humanoid woman. Disguised as a Romulan Tal'Shiar Centurion Medic, they were on their first mission, an invasion of a rebel colony. A subcommander was addressing her and her unit.
"Alright recruits this world is Virinat, a colony world whose colonists declared themselves independent from the Empire. Our mission is to capture the colonists and make them see the error of their ways. We made an agreement with the elachi that some of these scum will be for them. Kill anyone who opposes you and your unit. For the Star Empire!
"For the Star Empire!" all the recruits shouted at the same time while entering the shuttles. They were getting to the dark side of the planet. As they entered the atmosphere an odd giant triangular ship that was overlooking a agricultural town was noticeable. She could see more romulans but these were not Tal'shiar but civilians that were running from some strange robots that abducted them and brought them to the odd ship.
The town is in flames, chaos and confusion rules over them... these Tal'shiar aren't trying to rebuild an empire, they are looking for slaves! As the memory progresses, the centurion's unit entered into the conflict with some resistance. Celestia couldn't help but look at the valor and bravery of the romulan colonists that were defending their home. Needless to say that she found respect for them.
Even if they put up a fight against them, their defeat is inevitable. The memory progressed further and the centurion's unit separated to look for more colonists. Odd mechanical walkers were descending from the elachi ship. Soon M4 found a teenage girl, said teenage girl was wounded and had disruptor burns at some parts of her body. There was something familiar about this girl.
"Why are you doing this?! We are romulans, like you!" yelled the girl only to be pointed at by M4's disruptor.
"We are doing this for the reconstruction of the Empire. Any resistance is pointless. Surrender and face trail for your treason."
"TREASON?! I have lived here since I was born!"
That girl isn't that...
"GE'DAN!"
M4 got hit in the neck. Before falling to unconsciousness she notice a romulan man with a thick brown scarf around his neck and a tattoo over his eye.
"Tovan! Thanks the elements you're here! What's going on?" asked young Ge'dan.
"Tal'shiar, that's was going on. We should go with Shenek to evacuate before we get overrun."
Celestia spend long minutes looking at the memories where she spied, stole, assassinated and maimed various colonists, entering into battle against the Federation and Starfleet, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Republic.
So this is the Tal'shiar, there is no honor in their actions, using cowardly tactics and superweapons from stolen dangerous technology to gain unfair advantage, borg technology no less. Celestia though
The next memory was with M4 again inside a capsule in the same laboratory where she was created, seeing blurry figures. One of them was a white pony with blue mane that seemed to be an unicorn stallion.
"You have failed the Empire but you will serve once more. You will go back to the planet where your DNA was extracted to help me against the traitors and interlopers. Your mission is to sabotage the first contact and kill the traitor admiral and the Federation and Klingons leading officers... Failure isn't an option." he said with the arrogant voice similar to the previous Colonel Hakeev.
Celestia, seeing that was enough, cancelled the spell...
They waited for half an hour. While they waited, they were talking among themselves. Twilight and Rarity found the Starfleet admiral interesting, Twilight finding a similar mind to talk with while Rarity was mesmerized by the uniform Vaner wore. Blackheart for some reason got into a "heated"(hostile) discussion between Rainbow and Applejack, even if he didn't say anything.
Janet was talking with Fluttershy and Pinkie. Janet was overjoyed because... well talking quadrupeds but hey! This is space! Weird things happened everyday! Janet and Fluttershy were talking about animals. The young officer was surprised that most animal could be found at Earth as well as the most exotic, mostly from myth and legends of ancient earth, could be found in Equinux or Equestria as they called it.
Pinkie was getting info on Star Trek Online's season 9... I mean getting ready for the next party, yes, the next party for the heroes of Equestria.
"Princess!" One of the Guard noticed that Celestia opened her eyes. As she got up she noticed that her ponies were talking with the aliens. This might end well after all she thought.
"Aunty? What did you find? Is this mare innocent? Brainwashed? Manipulated?" asked Cadence.
"Cloned."
"Uh?" the Equestrians were confused by that remark however the klingon and trill got the idea. The Tal'shiar was known for cloning members of other species for a successful spy or assassination mission.
"We better go back to Ponyville. I will tell everything I found inside of T3-M4's mind. You may take her if you want good aliens."
"Princess!"
Before anypony could argue, she raised a hoof to stop them. "Everything will be explained on the way to Ponyville."
"Alright your highness." Vaner activated the comlink to her ship. "Beam the Tal'shiar prisoner at your mark." 'Energize' came from the comlink and the mare was beamed up to the Inquisitor for further interrogation. During to trip back to Ponyville (Janet moving the shuttle back to the Ponyville Landing Zone), Celestia retold all she found in the mind of the clone T3-M4, who the Tal'shiar were and what they did. There were many reactions but the most common was disgust and shock and least surprising of all, fear. Even if Rainbow didn't want to admit it, she got pretty nervous.
"Don't worry Rainbow Dash, the Tal'shiar are nothing more than bandits in space now."
"Me, worry? O-of course not!" the small shuttering from Rainbow was quite an amusing sight for her friends. When they got back to Ponyville, they met the sight of a shield covering most of the town. Luna waiting outside of it with some Royal Guard.
"Sister! I though you were lost!" she galloped toward her, trapping her in a bone crushing hug.
"Lulu... cannot... breath...!"
Just a few seconds before Celestia fainted from lack of oxygen, Luna release her from the hug and ordered the Royal Guard to drop the shield in order to resume the First Contact.
An hour later most of the population of the town and a few important ponies were once again reunited to present the true First Contact.
"Without any more interruptions, shall we?" said the Princess of the Sun.
Again the second hoof/hand shake with Vaner took place in Ponyville. While Blackheart didn't make a hand shake with Luna, she repeated the klingon's hand/hoof to chest salute. Ge'dan returned beamed down with her arm healed. she bowed in front of Cadence and she returned the gesture.
Many things had been discussed and many things had been revealed. The princesses and the aliens discussed mostly the borg and their collective, how they worked and operated. When they reached the topic of technology Vaner abruptly refused to talk, citing regulations, rules and the Prime Directive. Blackheart and Ge'dan however had no problem in telling them about the klingon's and romulan's technology, much to Vaner's dismay.
Upon talking about their species, the princesses and the ponies with them were interested in how many species made up the Federation and the Klingon Empire. While the Romulan Republic hadn't such diversity, they did have members of the species of their allies.
The next topic was how the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the Republic were formed. Vaner explained how the Romulan Star Empire had been at war not only with the humans but also with the vulcans, andorians and tellarites. They had joined together and after the crisis, they remained together and founded the Federation. They were explorers and scientists that preferred searching for peaceful solutions first and frown upon conflict of any kind. Most of their ships had been science vessels and long ranged exploration vessels but with recent conflicts they had been forced to recall every ship and refit them for war. The Klingons' history was more bloody. It all began with the klingon race and the Emperor, Kahless the Unforgettable. After Kahless united the Houses, the klingons expanded until they became one of the major power of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. They had been in conflict with the Federation many times until reaching a breaking point. They continued expanding even to this very day and admitting new races swearing allegiance to the Empire only. They had conquered many worlds and crushed rival empires such the Gorn Hegemony, the Orion Syndicate and the nausicaans (who had been mercenaries of the gorn during their conflict with the Empire).
The Romulan Republic dated back to Spock, a human/vulcan hybrid that wanted peace and reunification between the vulcans and the romulans on Romulus, the original romulan homeworld, The Romulan Star Empire did not allow this so Spock began his mission of reunification in secret. Many of his followers were people that wanted to escape the constant fear and paranoia that pervades the Star Empire. The princesses asked what kind of life was on the homeworld. Ge'dan said that she didn't know because she lived outside of the Star Empire but Shenek and many survivors that had escaped the super nova knew better.
After the destruction of Romulus, the Federation wanted to help the survivors but the Tal'shiar, who were more equipped and prepared at that time, had not allowed that in the end. D'tan and many of the survivors of Romulus wanted a new start for the romulans and remans, one free from the Tal'shair and the Romulan Star Empire renmant thus the Romulan Republic was born. Many other survivors were scattered in multiples colonies so it was a race between the Republic and the Tal'shair to gain more supporters.
The Republic remained without a homeworld until one of the Republic's explorers found one, Dewa III, a real paradise in space that they renamed Mol'Rihan or New Romulus.
The princesses continued with the topic of the Republic and the Tal'shiar to know more of this dark enemy lurking in the shadows of Equestria.
"The Republic is not really a major power of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant, is a minor one with a much higher voice. We do not have a powerful military like the klingons or supplied like the Federation. We are a faction conformed mostly of refugees, colonists, retired members of the romulan military and Tal'shiar agents who grew tired of the oppression and danger of their ways."
"But how did you stand against an enemy that was more prepared and with plenty of resources while the Republic had none?" asked Cadence.
"That was easy, we did something they will never do - forms alliances with the empire's formers enemies. The Federation helps us with the supplies and resources we require for our infrastructure and ships and the klingons with our military progress. Even if Starfleet is helping with that too, they cannot afford many ships in our current conflict with the borg and others difficulties. Those are stories for another day."
"I must said that I am interested in the remans, a race active mostly at night while resting in day," added Luna. She was overjoyed with the idea of a nocturnal species in Equestria and Shenek was one of them!
"Yes, the remans were romulans that settled on Remus instead of Romulus. The planet was tidally locked meaning that one side of the planet had constant daylight and the other constant night. The remans' civilization was located on the night side of Remus."
"Constant night? Meaning 'eternal night?'" asked Celestia a little bit uneasy, she fought against her jealous sister for the sake of her subjects to live in the day and night yet a race had lived on a planet that had the same effect.
"If you want to put it in that way, then yes."
Many ponies next to them murmured about 'alien Nightmare Moon' and 'eternal night' as well as 'a race of vampires' and 'night species'. A mare said 'the horror' two times.
Blackheart chuckled darkly and murmured "I bet the remans on the Jolan Tru are hearing this." Ge'dan stayed emotionless while Vaner frowned upon hearing these ponies. The princesses saw this and alarmed that they might have upset them, decided to continue with another topic. Howeve Ge'dan decided to let the matter go since the ponies did not know the whole story regarding the Remans and the Republic.
The meeting between the Equestrians and aliens was finishing with plans and tactics in case the borg or Tal'shiar reappeared. The borg wanted to assimilate the ponies into their collective while the Tal'shiar had a way to clone ponies and use them as tools for their own agenda.
"The Tal'shiar are obsessed with borg technology. It is possible that the borg traced a signal from an artifact that the Tal'shiar have to find this planet," said Blackheart.
"It is also possible clones infiltrated as ponies," Ge'dan added.
"Our science teams are already studying the prisoner's bracelet. The technology in that little artifact seems too advanced even for the Tal'shiar." Vaner stated.
"What about Equestria? No, what about the entire world?" asked Luna.
"We might need to do a Search and Destroy operation to search for Borg and Tal'shiar bases that made it to the planet. This means that we need personnel here in Equestria and at different sites across the entire world," Blackheart answered.
"We can let you do that here in Equestria but I don't know about the other nations. Zebrica maybe but the Dragons and Griffin kingdoms might not allow that. They're not very friendly to foreigners" said Celestia sadly. “Two incidents occurred thanks of two ambassadors that were noble ponies in these two kingdoms. The incidents mysteriously involved eggs, chickens and for some reason, iguanas. A war was averted but they don't want ANYPONY in their nations ever again.”
"Now the last topic is the ambassadors and delegates from the Federation, the klingons and the romulans and from you Equestrians to continue a relationship between us and your people or in your case, ponies." said the Starfleet admiral.
"Yes, I can send one of the captains of my fleet. Each captain of the Romulan Republic is trained to handle diplomatic meetings," said the romulan admiral.
"Agreed. I have the best delegate of the Klingon Empire. He is a captain as well," said the general.
"Yes, like Ge'dan's fleet, each Federation captain is trained to handle diplomatic meetings in case an ambassador is not on-board. I can sent one as well." finished Vaner.
"That's good but right now I don't have ambassadors available," said the Princess of the Sun. In truth she did have ambassadors but the majority were arrogant noble plotholes. She didn't want them to send one of them and have them repeat the same mistake.
"You will find one eventually. After all, who doesn't want to be on a starship?"
Vaner chuckled as well Celestia and Luna. Cadence and Blackheart just looked flatly at them. Cadence wasn't sure about the whole idea. Her "husband" was probably a clone while the real Shining was missing, meaning that the imposter might have influence over the Guard while sabotaging the entire peace talk. Blackheart was not sure if he would let weaklings inside of his respected warriors' ships. He used to have weaklings on his but all of them had been thrown out of the airlock.
When the First Contact meeting ended the admirals and general were about to depart when something caught the eye of anypony and of the aliens. Something or somepony was being transported in between the princess and the aliens. When the green light faded the ponies gasped at the sight of a malnourished, tortured and wounded white stallion with a blue mane and tail and a starred shield for a cutie mark.
"SHINY!"
"BROTHER!"
"Captain Armor!"
He look on his fellow ponies, princesses and wife and smile weakly. They rushed to him, Celestia calling the medics. Shining Armor turned his gaze to the aliens, his face becoming serious. Ignoring the protests of others he walked toward them, ignoring the pain in his muscles, then stood in front of them. They stared at him and he stared back.
"Which of you is Vice Admiral Ge'dan?" It was simple question, a very simple one.
"I am," replied the romulan admiral.
"Good" he smiled weakly. "Princesses, friends... I need to tell you something, there is an imposter in the Guard." Everypony gasped, especially the Guard.
"Who is the imposter?” asked Luna.
"A Clone of... Me." Again everypony gasped. Shining collapsed. Cadence rushed to grab him before he fell to the ground.
"I knew it! Search for the imposter! Bring him to me!" ordered Cadence. The Guard did as ordered but the imposter captain was gone. They began to search every corner of Ponyville.
"It is no use... he wanted to send my dead body here in hope to destroy any peaceful talks with the aliens but I was rescued by a Republic agent. He sent me in hope to find and deliver her," he said, pointinhg a hoof at Ge'dan who knelt along with Vaner administering a hypospray at him "A message."
"A message?" asked Ge'dan.
"A message. the leader of the clones, the very same one who is impersonating me," said the Royal Guard captain. Some medic ponies arrived, about to bring Shining Armor to the hospital.
"A name, the leader of this Tal'shiar cell?" asked Vaner, the stallion nodded.
"He has my body cloned but... his memories, his entire personality and being is from a dead alien..." Everyone stared at him uneasily, especially about the 'dead' thing. This meant that this clone was different from the others.
"Who is he?" asked the klingon general.
Before Shining could say the name, he pass out, the medics carry him to ponyville's hospital, leavin the aliens and the Princesses (Celestia and Luna) as well many ponies of the crowd..
"Resitance is Futile..." say an assimilated luna. All the planet of Equis is a assimlated by the borg, none escaped from the collective...
Q however was laughting while holding copcorns in space.
"Well that was fun seeing Sunbutt and Moonbutt's ponies becoming part of the borgs, I'll miss messing their heads... Nah!" He snapped his fingers as everything returned to normal
"Arrivederci, Readers! ... see you soon!" in a snap of his fingers he banished.
Three days have passed since First Contact and Shining Armor’s return with his cryptic news about the Tal'shiar cell's leader. When he woke up, being able to remember nothing but sudden flashbacks, the three admirals initiated Operation: "Road of Damnation". The mission was search and destroy on a planetary scale. Officers from each faction started to search and scan for any Tal'shiar signals in Equestria. First, however, the Klingons and Romulans tried to extend their searches to Zebrica and the Gryphon Kingdom, without contacting their respective governments.
The intense radiation from the surface heavily obscured the three factions' sensors which led to the deployment of Danube, Tiercel, Toron, and various other classes of shuttles to the surface. They found two abandoned Tal'shiar bases in the badlands and one poorly defended in Zebrica's Grand River.
The situation in Equestria has been vastly improving, shuttles from the various ships in orbit landing to gather the corpses left over from the sphere for disposal or possible liberation. Two assimilated ponies were found, one alive and, hopefully, a candidate for liberation. The other, unfortunately, was found slashed apart by the distinctive curve of a Klingon Bat'leth. Joyous news for one family, devastating for another, both coming from a noble caste. Shining and Cadence returned to the Crystal Empire thanks to the Federation’s medical resources. What would normally be weeks of bed rest ended in hours, leaving Shining.... well, healthy as a horse. Before his departure, he issued a formal apology to the allied captains as well as to his friends, the Guard and Relikia for the actions of his clone.
The next day, the three factions' ambassadors arrived.
First up was the captain of the U.S.S. Tewkesbury, Tyler Chambers. Vaner’s orders were to ensure smooth diplomatic relations with the Equestrians. Human, young-looking and redheaded with a short beard, he fashionably rocked the Federation diplomatic uniform. His two escorts also rocked their OMEGA uniforms.
The Klingons sent the captain of the I.K.S. Wraith Guard. David was a normal Human male with brown hair and a short beard much like Chambers'; unlike him, he wore the traditional Klingon uniform. Poised like a warrior ready for battle, he was escorted by two klingon Honor Guards, their armor similar but with lower shoulder pads and less vivid red styling.
Finally, a familiar face arrived. Shenek, the Reman captain of the R.R.W. Jolan Tru, arrived somewhat miffed that he had to go during the day. Being a nocturnal species, it was understandable. For his sake, the meetings were held at du sk. He was escorted by two reman Shadow Guards.
The news of their arrival graced the ears of the other ambassadors, namely Razorclaw and Darkwing, who wanted to meet these aliens and establish a relationship with these new empires. However, Tyler requested only three ambassadors be with the Princess at any time. Enraged, the dragon and gryphon insisted that, if they weren’t included in the talks, they would break off all relations with Equestria. Much to the allied captain’s dismay, Celestia folded and allowed them in.
“I already told you, we aren’t interested in establishing talks with either of your nations!” Tyler sighed.
The relentless dragon and gryphon duo had been tag-teaming him and the other ambassadors to establish trade agreements. David was also annoyed and Shenek was resting his head in his hands, resisting the urge to telekinetically vaporize the two “ambassadors”.
“We have everything that you could possibly need!” The Gryphon, Razorclaw, continued to insist, mainly to try and establish the Gryphon Kingdom as a superpower. Both he and Darkwing were desperately trying to assert themselves.
Suddenly, Shenek snapped. “Like what?"
Darkwing and Razorclaw both drew a blank. They simply had nothing to offer the captains didn’t already have.
"There is one thing you can offer, both of you." David piped up, being unnaturally quiet. Dreams of grandeur suddenly flooded the two ambassadors' heads.
"Really?" They snapped up, almost exactly in unison.
“You can let us search your lands for bases of the terrorist organization known as the Tal'shiar”
"Terrorist organization?!" Again, in unison.
Darkwing adamantly insisted that there were no terror cells anywhere in or near his land.
“You probably wouldn’t know about it.” Tyler chimed in. “We can offer you medical and humanitarian aid if you need it.”
Still rather displeased, Shenek looked over to the only two equines that were saying nothing, Relikia and Zalune.
“You two are strangely silent. Do you wish to speak?”
“I do not. We have nothing to offer or request, and technology is not a new concept to us. I am more worried about these ‘terrorists’ you speak of.” Uncharacteristically not in rhyme, Zalune had finally spoken up.
Relikia also spoke. "I was thinking about something else. The Borg may also be interested in my people as well.”
“Why do you think that?” David asked.
“Well, we changelings can use alicorniangic and if the Borg are interested in the ponies, they may be interested in us as well.”
Apprehensively David asked, “Changelings?”
"Changelings. My people are called Changelings."
The captains and escorts tensed at the word, especially the klingons. In the Dominion war, the Changelings were the main spies and saboteurs for the Dominion, as well as the “Founders”. The “Founders” were gods to their artificially created races, such as the Vorta and the Jem’Hadar. The infiltration into the Klingon High Council, by both the Dominion and the Undine, was still fresh in the minds of many klingons. With all these new threats, the Klingon Empire was on red alert for any signs of honorless Quhame’Quv - To be immediately destroyed.
Yeah, klingons have a tendency to go overboard on everything.
One of David’s guards suddenly spoke. “Changelings, huh? Do you have any subjects, like the Vorta or Jem’Hadar?”
“I...don’t quite know what you mean by that, but no. We don’t have any subjects at all.”
“Fascinating!” Strangely out of character for David, he pulled out a tricorder and pointed it at Relikia. “So how do you change form, then?”
With a sigh, Relikia stood up and burst into vivid, red flames. Suddenly, what appeared to be Shenek was left standing there.
"This is how we shift.” Her voice had also changed to Shenek’s. While this moderately impressed Tyler and the OMEGA guards, Shenek remained slightly less uninterested while the klingon guards, showing no emotion thanks to their masked helmets, appeared uneasy. Their weapons were primed.
“Fascinating! A massive energy buildup occurs during shifting, similar to the Undine’s. However, a thin energy field forms around you, creating the appearance of Shenek. Your voice changed as well, is that an anatomic change?”
“Yes, we have separate vocal chords and trachea.” Relikia said, using her normal voice.
Holding the Scanner, David chose to use a simple explanation. "When you shape change there is a charge of energy which is allowing you to alter your form. On the outside you are almost indistinguishable, On the inside you are very different."
"Intriguing. Can you tell me why you fear the Borg’s involvement now?” The princesses were oddly silent, allowing the various ambassadors to learn more about each other’s cultures.
"Well, from what I’ve seen inside Ta'lash’s head, their goal is-"
"Wait... Inside Captain Ta'lash's head? Like mind reading?"
David was suddenly no longer pensive and instead jumped to a more defensive tone. This gained the attention of Tyler and his guards. Shenek, on the other hand, wasn’t surprised. He continued drinking the tea Celestia had suddenly teleported in front of him. He still wasn’t fazed.
"Yes, it was necessary to-"
Suddenly, one of the klingon Honor Guards stepped forward and yelled in an alien tongue. The Equestrian ambassadors couldn’t understand it, but the Universal Translator-linked captains could.
"I knew it! She is another honorl ess petaQ! This is an outrage! Probing the mind of one of our captains!” The guard thrust his disruptor forward at Relikia, who still had no idea what was going on. David stood up, turned around, and pointed his disruptor pistol at the guard with impossible speed.
“Stand down! Stand DOWN!” David was in a rage, but the guard didn’t show any signs of doing that.
“Captain! She probed the mind of one of our captains! And she uses honorless shapeshifting tactics! That’s why we were in a war with the Federation, because of dishonorable infiltrators!”
Luna began to charge her magic but stopped at the sound of disruptor fire as a green bolt of energy erupted from David's pistol, impacting the klingon and knocking him into a wall.
The offending guard dropped to the ground, which earned a few startled yelps and a scream from Zalune. David turned to the guard left standing.
“Make sure he stays down, and when we get back to the ship lock him in the brig." The other guard nodded, pointing his rifle at his fallen comrade. “What?" asked David, getting annoyed by the stares skewering him from around the room.
"Y-you killed him! You killed your own guard!" Razorclaw exclaimed in disbelief.
“I don't killed him, I stunned him. He disobeyed orders from his superior officer. I gave iron clad orders my crew was not to draw their weapons unless in self defense and he will face punishment back on the ship now. Now we may continue this meeting.”
"Actually I think the meeting is over," said Celestia for the first time in a while.
“Very well. I will return tomorrow, hopefully with a more obedient guard. Good night, your highnesses.” With a slight bow, he left. His guard, carrying the fallen one, followed shortly after.
Darkwing and Razorclaw left as well leaving the human, the romulan, the Zebrician, and the Changeling. Celestia and Luna remained where they were .
"What just happened? Was that guard was about to kill me?" Relikia looked a little shaken.
“Actually, that was to be expected. Klingons aren’t fond of telepathic species, even if they’re a part of the Empire. The Great Houses were once infiltrated by a shapeshifting species, also called the Changelings, that caused strife between the rulers. Another shapeshifting species, the Undine, also infiltrated the High Council. They were an extremely xenophobic race, that wreaked enough havoc to launch all three of us into an intergalactic war.” Shenek explained, lowering Luna’s blood pressure for a bit, then jacking it right back up.
“What is the plot? Ally with them, why did you not?” The familiar Zebrican rhyming system kicking back into gear.
With a bit of a sigh, Shenek launched into the same explanation he had told countless others. “The Federation tried, but the Changelings were part of the Dominion, a group aiming for total control o f the galaxy, starting with us. They created servitor races, namely the Vorta and the Jem’Hadar. That’s what David was asking you about before. They desperately called the Klingon and Romulan empires to join the fight, but the Dominion gained allies of their own. Eventually we won, but there were heavy casualties. The Undine, however, were a different case. Way off in the Delta quadrant, where the Borg are from, they tried to open a rift into a region of subspace called ‘Fluidic Space’, that is inhabited by the Undine. For better or for worse, the Borg’s assimilation nanoprobes were completely ineffective.”
Relikia continued to ponder the situation. “But wouldn’t that be a good thing? Why didn’t you ally with them?”
“They don’t see us like you do. They are extremely xenophobic, which means they see everyone else as a threat. The only want our complete destruction, to ‘cleanse’ and ‘purify’ the galaxy. I’m off to look around for a bit, explore the castle, if you excuse me.” With that, he exited, leaving only Tyler at the mercy of the multicolored friendship equines.
“I’ll be in my shuttle. There are new reports coming in about the Tal'shiar, and it’s my duty to review them.” He was about to turn and leave when Celestia called to him.
"Why don't you stay in the castle for the night? We have some spare rooms," Celestia said in a motherly tone. Unable to refuse, he nodded.
"I would like that. It also comes as a surprise to me that you physically control the solar and lunar bodies. Is it difficult?” Tyler got up out of his chair and followed the Princesses.
“Oh, that’s nothing when you have thousands of years of practice.” Celestia said with a wink. Expecting surprise on Tyler’s face, she instead got sorrow and understanding.
“Huh. Immortal? It must be hard watching everyone you know grow old and die around you.” He looked down for a bit. “ Sorry if that’s annoying you.”
“That isn’t a problem,” Celestia said, soothing as ever. “We’re more interested in you.” The thought of another immortal being flipping through their minds.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you much. Is this the room?”
The princesses nodded.
"Excellent! I’ll see you tomorrow, princesses.” With a slight bow, he closed the doors.
"He seems to be a good man. What are your thoughts on him?" Celestia asked, turning to her lunar sibling.
"I agree, but is he... you know... an Immortal?" she asked.
"I believe he is, or at least knows the weight of it. Someone close to him died, I can definitely see it in his eyes." They both nodded and returned to their respective duties, waiting in preparation of the next day’s duties. The Equestrian ambassadors would be traveling to the orbiting ships the next day and they all needed to be well rested.
Shenek was contemplating the moon, studying his surroundings and admiring the beauty of the stars. For some reason, it made him feel... nostalgic? It reminded him of his life as slave for the Romulan Star Empire's mining labors, being part of the Dominion Wars, seeing the rise of Shinzon as Praetor of the Empire...
No. The ‘Nostalgia’ was just rage and despair wrapped in a bundle of false emotion. During the Dominion War, his friends were killed in a suicide assault on a Jem'Hadar base. He was in the same D'deridex battlecruiser. While he managed to escape the singularity core, his friends weren’t as fortunate. For some reason, he always blamed the romulans for their deaths.
No. He had a very good reason.
During Shinzon’s reign, he thought it would be different. There was little opposition from the romulans, and ever ything seemed good. But Shinzon wanted revenge against the Federation and humanity by destroying Earth. His flagship, the Scimitar, was destroyed by the crew of the Enterprise.
After that, the romulans returned to power. The remans didn’t give up though. They demanded a world where they could live free, but the new praetor didn’t believe in that. There were multiple skirmishes, but, in the end, Donatra gave the remans full citizenship and a place in the Senate. However, nothing really changed between the two peoples.
That is, until it was discovered that Remus couldn’t be mined for dilithium anymore. While rejecting the offer for a continent on Romulus, the original demand of a new reman homeworld was accepted. Thus, the Remans made the move to Crateris.
But everything changed with Xiomec, the reman general, and Donatra’s disappearance during the Hobus supernova that destroyed Romulus. Things finally boiled over with the Tal'Shiar’s aggressive movements and Sela’s rise to power.
“So, you’re here in the garden. Normally it’s closed at night, only the princesses or guards usually come here.”
He could tell from the voice that it was Relikia, the changeling ambassador. “I was so lost I decided to come by the gardens ... and think.” His eyes still fixated on the moon. He was able to feel a similar presence approach from behind him.
"Relikia, Shenek, I wasn't expecting you two here."
“I was just conversing with the captain here, Princess. I’m more surprised that you aren’t in the night courts,” Relikia responded.
“Since my return, nopony really goes to the night courts. Most of the royal duties are done by my sister, and thanks to that I’ve had time to learn modern Equestrian. I’ve been keeping up with the customs, and I hope I’ve been successful.” She was a little sad about the night courts thing, but she turned to the reman captain with a smile on her face. She had wanted to learn more about the remans since the first contact, but her smile faded when she noticed the sadness and hint of anger on the reman’s face, outlined by the moonlight.
“You seem to have quite the interest in my species, Princess.” He turned to look at the two equines with a fairly neutral expression on his face.
“I’m sorry if I came at a bad time, I can come back later.”
“Oh, I have time. I have already sent my reports to the admiral, and this is probably your last chance to ask. The admiral assigned me and my ship to the Zebrican Tal'shiar bases. I’m sorry, but you won’t be seeing me tomorrow.” Luna looked disappointed.
“Who will be the Republic’s ambassador?” Relikia snapped out of her daze.
“A young captain by the name of Keidak has been selected by the admiral already.”
“When are you coming back?” Luna was slightly saddened a bit more.
“I don’t think I will.” He answe red very plainly, but that was enough to elicit another reaction, surprise, and then a frown on Luna’s face. Relikia remained stoic, but her disappointment was still evident.
“Wha-Why?” Luna asked.
“I will be returning to New Romulus afterward for supplies, maintenance, a computer overhaul, hull micro-fracture repairs, warp-field calibration, singlularity core replacements and a good deal more. I’m surprised my ship is still functional. We took quite a beating fighting the borg and my ship is just a prototype for a new class of ships. Anyway, what are your questions?”
Luna looked at him, with a soft smile, happy she would get her questions answered. “Tell me about the reman culture. We have a long night for talking.” Luna sat down on a nearby bench with Relikia.
Shenek sighed inwardly. It was going to be a long night.
***
Canterlot Palace, Throne room, Morning
Today was the day for the Equestrian ambassadors. Celestia had wr itten a letter to the Elements, seeing as they were the best candidates for ensuring smooth diplomatic relations with the aliens. The captains all had different opinions of Equestria, her ponies, and their missions. Twilight and her friends were far better qualified for this task.
Luna now couldn’t sleep. Shenek’s tale was frightening. It was also interesting, and she learned much about the remans. Free from the slavery of the Romulan Star Empire and finally free in the Republic, she felt...happy for them. She learned how the remans strived for liberty and freedom from the Tal'Shiar’s tyranny, Sela’s state-sponsored torture and oppression and all of the other terrible things the remans had been forced through. She also learned more about the Hobus supernova that destroyed Romulus and Remus, killing billions of romulans and remans, earning some tears shed from both Luna and Relikia. When Celestia was told of everything, she was surprised and saddened, both by the t ale of Shenek’s species and of the news of his departure. She however understood and bid him farewell.
The princesses began their trek to Canterlot’s central plaza, where they would make an announcement to all of Equestria, making official the relationship between the ponies and their space-faring counterparts. A crowd of ponies, from reporters to business ponies were gathered, ready to extend their wealth to the stars, mixed in amongst nobles that wanted news of their loved ones and others who wished to find a position between the stars they had admired all their lives.
“Ready, Tia?” Luna turned and asked her sister, already on the podium. Television cameras were there to broadcast the speech not only to the entire nation of Equestria, but to the entire world. (Yes, this Equestria has television unlike many other FIMfictions - Author)
"Yes, Lulu... Ahem!" The crowd silenced almost immediately, waiting for the Princess to explain all of the recen t occurrences.
“My little ponies...” Celestia began with that familiar phrasing, “Just recently, Equestria was visited by many different beings and empires from the stars and beyond. As you may remember, three days ago, a black sphere descended from that same space and wreaked devastating destruction upon everything in its path. Not even the most powerful magic under my command could halt it.” She lifted the shawl she had had draped over her back, revealing an ugly line of scar tissue where her once majestic wing had been.
“I was dying, and in our darkest hour heinous machines began to appear from the sphere. They began to abduct us, using us to create more of them. There was nothing we could do. But then, a miracle occurred.” As she said that, a rippling whoosh could be heard from the sky, and a sizable portion of Canterlot was covered with a bird-like shadow. It was Shenek’s Ha’Feh warbird decloaking and leaving for orbit. It rose into the sky, its pow erful green impulse engines thrumming away, getting smaller and smaller, until it stopped. It lingered for a second and then suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing but two very long, green streaks.
"What was that? It looked like a giant bird!"
"A bird?! It was too big to be a bird!”
"I remember that, it’s the alien spaceship that repelled the sphere!"
Many of the ponies chittered and whispered amongst themselves, until the princess caught their attention with a very audible chuckle.
“That....” she said, motioning with her hoof upward at the now-vanishing warp trails, “Was the miracle. Well, a third of it. The aliens came to our aid and stood victorious against the machines.” She stood there, looking over the stunned ponies, until a lone hoof drifted up out of the crowd. “Yes?”
“What were those machines? And what did they want?” The reporter seemed to be asking out of his own curiosity, rather than that of his employer’s.
“They are called the Borg. They’ve augmented themselves with machinery, to make themselves better. But their mistake was letting it into their minds. They’re all linked into a collective ‘hive mind’, and they strive for perfection by ‘assimilating’ individuals or even whole planets to gain their knowledge. These people become mindless drones, set out through the control of the Collective to assimilate others and gain their knowledge. Each drone is a victim of the Collective’s twisted goal of perfection and total assimilation.” The ponies began to mutter amongst themselves about yet another existence-threatening apocalypse. Luna stepped forwards and began to speak.
“What my sister is trying to say is that an evil race of machines is here for the sole purpose of our enslavement, to use us to conquer the galaxy. Not as ponies but as a part of their mind. Thankfully, they were repelled by heroes from three intergalactic empires. We owe our lives to the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the New Romulan Republic.” she ended with an smile but this gained some worried expression from the crowd until a noblemare raised her hoof for a question.
"Even if hero aliens from space can defend us and help us, why we can't defend Equestria ourselves? Why do we have to relay on foreign help? I'm sure that the Royal Guard and the Pegasus Air Force can defend us from any threat," she said with an air of smugness and most of the ponies agreed.
However the princesses didn't shared the same sentiment. "That's the problem, my little pony, they can't." began Celestia.
Many ponies looked at her in surprise, especially the stoic Royal Guard were surprised of this remark. 'Did the princesses have little faith of their military?' they thought.
"They don't want Equestria or our kingdom's resources. They want us to be part of their Collective, to destroy and reshape the galaxy in their image. If we send soldiers, even entire armies, we'll be just making it easy to the borg to assimilate us."
The Royal Guard paled. The thought to being sent to a fate more worse than death wasn't appealing at all. The crowd wasn't any better. A few were already panicking, while others were completely uneasy about this threat. They were all glad that the aliens were here to defend them but what was their motivation to help them thought an businesspony. The stallion raised a good question for the princesses.
"Why they are here? I mean the heroes and nation offering protection to us? Why are they suddenly helping us?" The stallion was sincerely curious about this. There was always a good reason.
"They are offering their help because they fear us if we fall into the Collective" All fell silent allowing the Solar Princess to continue "Unicorn magic would be frightening to fight against. Earth pony strength is impressive but augmented with borg implants would make minotaurs and drakes appear as weaklings in comparison and a pegasus' ability to fly would overwhelm the ground dwellers where there is no chance to counter. They fear that with us being part of the Borg, we would destroy their homes and the galaxy and all against our will. But there is hope that we can take. These aliens, these nations from space are helping us against this impossible enemy."
The mood seems to be improving. The crowd are seeing the shining hope on relying on the allied forces. It didn't seem as bad as most had though.
***
Ponyville Library, One hour later
After the Princesses' announcement on television, Twilight and her friends were in deep thought. The princesses had given them an important diplomatic task and that was to ensure smooth and clean relationships with the different aliens' captains... on their starships.
"What do you think, darling?" asked Rarity.
Twilight sighed while reading the message and some biography papers. Along with the task in the message the princesses had sent some records and some (restricted) written biographies supplied thankfully by the alien ambassadors about most of the captains that were willing to let the ponies onto their starships. For a such big fleet, only a very few had offered their hospitality to them.
For the Federation and Starfleet, only H'rarrirre, Svensei and Vaner herself would let them aboard their ships for diplomatic talks. For the Romulan Republicans only Keidak and Ge'dan,. For the Klingon Empire none had offered.
Applejack commented something funny on the romulans, like having a connection with them. It was the same with Rainbow Dash but only for their "cool" bird-like ships. Pinkie Pie happily commented that the klingons were being shy but they would be welcome to her party in Ponyville, a sentiment not shared by most of her friends, especially Twilight. While discovering the truth about her brother's clone, she still had the fresh memory of Shining beaten up by Ta'lash.
"I don't know girls. Honestly I'm glad we don't have to go to any klingon ship for now," commented Twilight.
"Ha! They aren't that rude, Twilight. Don't let them intimidate you," said Rainbow Dash trying to cheer her up but the first contact's talk with the klingon general and the memory of Blackheart fighting and killing without even feeling remorse didn't help her in any kind of way.
"I don't know Rainbow, I say that because the klingons seems to be a warlike nation. Don't you remember three days ago? Ta'lash killing spree of the borg, Blackheart eliminating the clones without remorse or second though and don't make me talk about the klingon battle force against the sphere's borg! They seems to enjoy the thrill of battle!"
"I do like them!" say the happy voice of Pinkie Pie while jumping around like always, surprising most of her friends but this was quickly dismissed, thinking that it was just her randomness. They moved off the topic of the klingons and now were getting back to the task at hoof.
"I'll go to Vaner's ship" announced Twilight. "The U.S.S. Inquisitor. I like it! I finally get some information about the Federation's politics and race members!" she squeal in delight. "Imagine so much to learn about them, even the possibility of being members of such a galactic society!"
"Ah'll go with this Ge'dan fella. R.R.W Peacekeeper, sound about right to me." said Applejack, reading Ge'dan's paper.
"I'll go with you Applejack. I'm quite sure that you might need a hoof with the romulans."
"Thanks Rares *ahem* I appreciate that." The sudden change of accent went noticed by no only Rarity but also to some of her friends. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash knew the cause but Fluttershy, Twilight and Rarity didn't.
"Darling... did you talked in a..."
"Fancy accent? Sure I did. I spend time with my family in Manehattan for a few days, I learned a few things from them." Rarity squealed and murmured something about "hope" for Applejack, who rolled her eyes in annoyance, much to her friends' amusement.
"Keidak sounds cool. R.R.W. Vastara? What is R.R.W?" said a confused Rainbow Dash while reviewing the paper and hovering around her friends in a circle.
"R.R.W is an acronym, Rainbow. It stand for 'Romulan Republic Warbird'. As well U.S.S. means 'United Star Ship' and the klingons is 'Imperial Klingon Starship' or I.K.S." answered Twilight. She was looking forward to go to the stars. The firs t ponies to be in space (not counting Nightmare Moon) sounded exciting as did gaining knowledge from the aliens and sharing it with the masses, hoping that one day ponykind would be along side with them in the stars.
"Warbird? That's the name of their ships? Awesome!" exclaimed the cerulean pegasus.
"I-I like the Infinity. The captain seems nice," spoke Fluttershy for the first time.
"U.S.S. Shangriwah, Captain Harriry? What funny names the Feds have," commented Pinkie Pie.
Amused at their pink friend's antics they starting to talk among themselves, planning and practicing their speeches, offers and words for the captains. They knew that each nation had a different policy and also that each captain had different opinions of the mission, the world and the very ponies they had to protect. They need to be careful of their words. That's when they heard multiple knocks from the door.
"Miss Twilight, I am Ensign Turak from the U.S.S. Salvation. The admirals would like to know your answer. If you all do not feel ready, the talks can be arranged for another time." a male monotone voice could be heard from the main door. Spike grumpily opened the door, revealing a tall vulcan man in a black and yellow uniform making his career known as engineer for his fellow officers.
"There is no problem, good sir. We have made our choices," said Twilight as she and her friends approached him. "Right girls?"
"Absolutely."
"Yeppers!"
"Yeah!"
"Of course, dear."
Fluttershy just nodded.
Turek nodded. "Good. Please follow me to the landing zone. Some shuttles have arrived and the pilots are awaiting your answers and destinations."
The ponies looked each each other before follow the humanoid to the landing zone... not noticing a giggling mint green unicorn stalking them.
***
Lan ding Zone, Ponyville's Outskirt, Allied Campsite
On the way toward the LZ, the site was where the sphere's borg drones had beamed out. The camp was pretty isolated from the town and was where the three nations' officers could at least recuperate or liberate borgs to their former selves and be individuals. However it was a grim view for the ponies seeing borg bodies laying around as the officers moved them into tents to identify them and if they were alive, to liberate or destroy them. However there were very few that had been liberated and many were dead.
"So much death," said a deflated Pinkie Pie. the sight was depressing indeed. "Why we can't all be friends instead?"
"The Borg do not care about talking, trading or even negotiating, only assimilation. The first attempts at contact proved unsuccessful," the answer came immediately from the Vulcan in passing by disoriented liberated borg humans and romula ns and a depressed liberated borg klingon. Applejack noticed that and decided to break the silence.
"Why is he so depressed? Didn't he want to be liberated?"
"For klingons, being assimilated is the worst thing that can happen to them. They value honor in battle and to die as a warrior is the most preferred way of dying. Being assimilated and used against his own will by the Collective is considered most dishonorable and regrettable."
"What about the others? Will they be alright?"
"They will try to live a normal life but it will be difficult," again the Vulcan came with an immediate answer. "Some might need immediate counseling to forget their traumatic experience of assimilation. Here is the landing zone."
They had arrived at the back part of the camp where there were five craft - three Danube and two Kestrel runabouts. The pilots were talking among themselves.
"Here they are. Now if you will excuse me, I must go back to my duties. Live long and prosper." He saluted with the typical vulcan sign and returned to the camp leaving the ponies at the mercy of the pilots.
Before anyone could say anything, one of the pilots said "I hope you all don't get space sick. I just recently polished the consoles."
The story has been cancelled for multiple reasons including RL problems that involve around my job and my way of life in Venezuela (the struggle is real)
It's a shame because I have all this planned out, in fact.
After the battle I would have writen chapters that were comparable to Star Trek episodes with each of any captain OC in the spotlight. after that I would have made return of the Tal'Shiar using indoctrinated pony clones with a revived Haakev leading them it lead directed into a Tal'Shiar space battle.
Then the borg return in huge numbers only to be saved by a Tal'Shiar Scimitar that hides behind the Equestrian Moon.
Then a changeling arc that connect to the mirror universe's ponies plot then the reveal that the planet is actually a Dyson Sphere or Shield World created by the Iconians as experiment for non-humanoid lifeform.
The end would have the Moon to be a Dormant Planet Sized Iconian Gateway so the entire planet could be moved toward a more secure star system in it's programmed starchart
