Stargate - Rise of the Sun God

Chapters

2 - The Visitor
3 - Waking Up
4 - Mysteries
5 - Not Alone
6 - Subversion
7 - The Enemy
8 - Disease
9 - Death Sentence
10 - Resistance
11 - Execution
12 - Prologue
14 - Fugue
15 - The Rise
16 - Release
18 - Apocalypse
19 - Cleansing
20 - Epilogue
1 - The Dead Planet
13 - Second Chances
17 - Escape

2 - The Visitor

Equestria, eight thousand years earlier. Thirty hours before first contact.

"Each one of you has taught us something about friendship, and for that we will always be grateful."

The sun hung low in the sky as Princess Celestia stood, reading the inscription below the statue for what might well have been the thousandth time. She often took this route through the Canterlot gardens on her morning walks before the day's work began, and when she did she always made a point of stopping at the Harmony memorial.

Atop the pedestal bearing the inscription stood an ornate carving of six ponies: Princess Twilight Sparkle surrounded by her five companions, the white marble glistening in the morning sunlight. It was a little over a century now since their long lives had come to their peaceful ends, but Celestia was certain she would never forget them. Together they had brought about an age of true unity for all races, and Twilight's studies of the Elements had revolutionised their understanding of magic. There was still much to be explored, but more had changed in the last two centuries than in the thousand years before that.

A cool breeze blew past, ruffling the fur on her neck and drawing her back to the present. Remembering the time, she turned her gaze to the slowly brightening western horizon and waited, hoping she would get her timing right today. She watched patiently for a minute, until a bright spot appeared over the hills and began its leisurely traversal of the sky, slowly fading away behind the ambient blue as it approached the east.

She smiled. That small point of light was proved how far they had come; the first truly multi-species venture of their still-young space age, known almost universally simply as the Space Station, was a testament to the spirit and drive of Equestrians to push the boundaries of what they were capable of. On the station at that moment three ponies, two zebras and their gryphon commander were busy testing theories and performing experiments that would have been impossible just decades ago. Celestia hoped she would one day be able to travel up there herself to see what it was like to look down on their planet from orbit, but there were just too many demands on her time. Exploration would have to be left to others for now.

She heard the sound of voices approaching in the distance. Closing her eyes, she took a series of deep breaths, clearing her head and chasing the last remnants of tiredness away. This first meeting of the day was likely to be short, but it could well be very significant.

Moments later, two ponies emerged round the end of a hedgerow and entered the clearing surrounding the memorial. The first was Celestia's younger sister, Princess Luna; She looked tired, no doubt looking forward to the end of this meeting just so she could go to bed. Her companion looked quite the opposite, however; Starburst Nova, the Astronomer Royal, looked like he had enough energy to run a marathon and was busily chatting away about something technical. The unicorn's crimson coat and long golden mane were thoroughly dishevelled and there were huge bags under his eyes, making Celestia wonder when he had last slept, but he was so excited that he didn't seem to care. Judging by the huge pile of scrolls he was carrying, the two of them had had a productive night.

"Good morning sister, Starburst," she said as they approached. "I trust your observations went well?"

Luna opened her mouth to reply but Starburst beat her to it.

"Went well?" he laughed. "I wish you could have joined us too, Princess! Last night was truly the most incredible night of my life! Our observations may completely reshape our understanding of the entire universe! This could be the most ground-breaking discovery in the history of…"

He trailed off, remembering where they were and glancing over to the statue looking down over them.

"Uh, not that I would wish to belittle—"

"Don't worry," Celestia interrupted, smiling and dismissing the comment with a wave of her hoof. "I fully understand your excitement and do not wish to deprive you of it. I am sure you enjoyed yourself as well," she added, turning to Luna.

"Oh yes," Luna yawned. "Riveting night. Look through telescope, write down numbers, look through telescope again…"

Celestia smiled sheepishly. She did feel bad about farming all the observational work off to her sister, but her schedule had just been a lot harder to clear.

"I'm sorry sister," she ventured. "You've done a week of this now; I can take over for the next week."

Luna nodded, but Starburst cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"Actually, we may not need to do any observations next week," he said.

Celestia looked round, surprised. "Really? So soon?"

Starburst nodded. He put the scrolls down on the grass and rolled one out between them. On it was a hoof-drawn map of the inner solar system, an image which she had become very familiar with over the past few days. Her eyes automatically went to a point not far out from Equestria's position and ten or so degrees anticlockwise away from the planet, where a large cross had been drawn. It was at the end of a line which curved slowly back toward the outer solar system, with similar crosses marking it at regular intervals.

"There it is", Starburst said, pointing at it, "almost exactly where we predicted it would be."

Whatever it is, Celestia thought to herself, staring at the enigmatic cross. It represented the single greatest puzzle of Equestrian history; a large unidentified object, first spotted by telescopes just a month ago, whose path appeared to originate far outside the solar system, which was going to pass so close by Equestria that anypony with a telescope would be able to see it. Nopony knew what it was, but its detection had caused great excitement and division in the scientific community.

Many dismissed it as nothing more than a rogue comet, and were doing everything in their power to keep others from what they saw as unnecessary speculation. But many were much less sceptical. They pointed out a number of anomalies; it had no visible tail, for one thing, and its absorption spectrum didn't match any minerals known in their system. And then there was the strange gamma-ray burst detected from the same quadrant of the sky just days before it was spotted… the list went on. Starburst had become convinced – and Celestia was starting to be won over by the theory as well – that there was something much more exciting happening here.

"Wait a minute," she said. "You said almost where we predicted?"

"Yes, Princess," Starburst went on, barely able to contain himself. "It's been travelling through the system on a hyperbolic path with no deviations whatsoever, and we were expecting it to pass Equestria in the next few days and make its way back out into interstellar space. From last week's measurements we predicted exactly where its path would put it tonight."

Celestia looked up. "But…"

"But," he said, unrolling another scroll which showed a much closer view of the object's path. The projected path was drawn on in black, but then a short series of red dots had been drawn on, tracking off to the side away from it. He paused for effect, clearly wanting to make the most of this moment.

"It's accelerating," he said.

Celestia stared at the map, feeling a huge weight in her stomach. Those two words changed everything. The red line of dots had been extended somewhat shakily across the map, and the path it showed left no doubt as to what was happening. Something had entered the solar system, and was now headed straight – and deliberately – toward them.

"So you were right," she said. "There is an alien intelligence at work here."

"There has to be!" Starburst said. "I never dreamed I would get to see this day!" he went on, pacing restlessly in circles round the clearing. "We finally get proof that there's life in the universe beyond our planet, and it's coming to visit us! I might actually get to meet a creature from another world! It's… it's…"

He stopped, then fell backwards onto his haunches, the night catching up with him.

"I need sleep," he said.

"I should retire also," Luna commented. "This night has been a lot to process, and…"

Celestia nodded. "Starburst," she said, "When will it arrive?"

"Uh, tomorrow afternoon," he said, "at which point I assume it'll enter into orbit around the planet."

"Okay," she went on. "You two should get some rest. And take the night as well. We must all be fully alert when it arrives, and prepared for anything."

Starburst stood. "Certainly," he said. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. Good night… er, day, Princesses."

He turned and started to leave. Luna was about to follow, but Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder. "Sister, wait," she said. "We have more to discuss."

Luna looked up at her, and nodded silently. The two of them waited until Starburst was out of earshot.

"You look tired," Celestia said. "And it's more than just the long nights, isn't it, Luna?"

"Yes, sister," she replied. "I have been hiding it as best as I can so Starburst does not notice, but…"

She paused, took a deep breath, and looked her sister in the eye. "Every night it gets worse. In all my centuries I have never had any difficulty with raising and lowering the moon. But now, it is as if it does not want to be raised. It persists for you also?" she asked.

Celestia nodded. It had been nearly four months now since they had first noticed the change. Slowly but surely their heavenly charges had become more and more inaccessible. Where once they had been able to move them across the sky however they wished with a single thought, it was now taking all their power just to keep them steady on their allotted path.

"I am worried, sister," Luna went on. "We may not be able to hide this much longer. And what happens to Equestria if we lose control completely?"

"We will not," Celestia asserted, putting a reassuring wing over her sister's back. "We will remain strong, for our subjects. And for each other."

Luna nodded wearily. The two made their way back to the castle together, looking up at the sky above them; the sky which was filling with more and more mysteries each day.

"Do you think these events are linked?" Luna asked.

"Given the timing…" Celestia said, but hesitated. This was the question that had been weighing on her mind ever since the strange object had been detected. But something still didn't seem to fit.

"Honestly," she continued, "I cannot understand why they would be. We will have to wait and see how the next few days play out."

Luna nodded. With nothing more to say, the two of them walked the rest of the way to the castle in silence. Once inside, Celestia made her way straight to the court chambers to find out what was next on her agenda. It was going to be a long day.

The following afternoon, the two sisters made their way to Space Command in Canterlot. A tall, stone building with smoothly curving painted roves, it was expertly matched to the ancient architecture of the old city, and wouldn't have looked out of place there five centuries ago. But the illusion was broken as soon as they stepped through the doors.

Inside was a maze of corridors, all the same identical sterile white, pictures of planets, nebulae and spacecraft hanging in the spaces between enumerable doors leading off to labs and offices. The events of the last week had kicked Command into a frenzy, and staff members – predominantly ponies and zebras – were running back and forth pushing trolleys full of equipment or trailing huge reams of paper. The princesses carefully moved their way through the chaos along one corridor, then climbed up a flight of stairs and pushed through the glass double doors which led to Mission Control.

The room was no quieter than the corridors outside. The rows of workstations which filled the room in front of them were packed with technicians, who were galloping back and forth between their stations, calling orders to each other over radios, and generally getting in each other's way. A middle-aged earth pony with a white waistcoat and close-shaven mane pushed over to the two of them through the crowd as they entered.

"Good afternoon, Princesses," he said. "You're just in time. We're scheduled for an uplink in five minutes."

"Thank you," Celestia said. "We certainly wouldn't want to miss this."

"Yes," the flight controller said. "I would like to say, though, that I don't feel comfortable with the military being brought in to this," he added, nodding to the far side of the room. Confused, Celestia looked round and saw a minotaur in blue dress uniform approaching them.

"Princesses," he said, saluting them. "The ESS Shining Armor is deployed in the Eastern Sea and awaits your command."

Celestia looked round at Luna, confused.

"I'm sorry, sister," Luna said. "The navy has protocols for unidentified potential aggressors for a reason. I thought we should take the precaution."

Celestia sighed. "I suppose so," she replied. "Let us hope it does not come to that, though. Thank you, General," she said, turning to the minotaur again. "Stay vigilant, but fire only on our command."

"Yes, your Highness." He saluted the two of them again and walked back to the observation seats at the back of the room.

The flight controller cleared his throat. "I'm hoping today will be remembered as a victory for science and curiosity, not the military," he said. "I've read enough science fiction to think we don't want to fire the first shot at an alien race."

Celestia chuckled.

"What are your thoughts on this?" Luna asked him. "You seem remarkably unfazed by the prospect of a visitation from aliens."

He laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty crazy, but I've been in the space industry thirty years. In that time I've seen things my great grandparents couldn't've dreamed of. Sure, driving a robot on another planet pales in comparison to this, but as far as I'm concerned, crazy is just part of the job."

Celestia smiled. "Very astute," she said.

"But while we're on the subject of crazy," he went on, "I was wondering if you could do something about your friend over there."

He pointed down to the rows of workstations. In the midst of the throng of white-shirted staff was Starburst, his red fur standing out like a sore hoof. He was moving restlessly back and forth between the workstations, peering over shoulders, and causing a bit of a mess. His mane was in an even worse state than last time they had seen him.

"Oh dear," Celestia said.

"Starburst!" Luna called. He froze at the sound of his name, looked round and spotted them after a few moments.

"Luna! Celestia!" he shouted, pushing his way toward them. "I mean, Princesses." He stopped in front of them and gave a little bow. The controller shook his head and wandered back to his post.

"This place is incredible!" Starburst said, his eyes daring round the room. "They've got three different telescopes monitoring it in real-time! We know exactly where it is! And to think I'll get to talk to real astronauts as well!" He was almost dancing on the spot. "Thank you both so much for getting them to let me in!"

The princesses exchanged glances. "When was the last time you slept?" Luna asked.

Starburst stopped to consider the question, counting under his breath. "Uh, seven, maybe eight... days ago," he said. "But it's fine, I drank about a gallon of coffee this morning, and I've done plenty of all-nighters before, you should've seen me when I was writing my thesis, I must've… got to..."

He slowed down, like his batteries were running flat. Eventually he came to a halt and just stood there with a vacant, cross-eyed expression. Celestia looked round at Luna, and saw her horn glowing.

"Sister," she said, shaking her head.

"Just a simple relaxation spell," Luna replied sheepishly. "He should wake before anything important happens, and will with any luck he will be somewhat more lucid."

Celestia sighed. "I hope this all settles down soon," she said, "if only for the sake of his health."

"Agreed," Luna said as Starburst walked in a trance over to the observer seats and sat himself down, falling asleep with his head rested against a rather confused minotaur. "Hopefully the proceedings will begin soon."

Right on cue, a window appeared on the wall-screen, a mess of black-and-white static resolving after a few seconds into the feathered face of Commander Razorbeak, current leader of the team aboard the space station.

"Hello, Canterlot!" the gryphon barked, his gruff voice rattling the speakers. "Can you hear me down there?"

"Loud and clear, Commander!" one of the technicians replied. "You're in luck today, it would seem; you have a clean uplink and a royal audience!"

Razorbeak peered closer into the screen on his end, searching round until he spotted them.

"Ah, Princesses!" he bellowed. "I wondered if you'd come for this."

A young zebra cantered over and gave the two of them earpieces. Celestia clipped hers to her ear.

"It's good to see you again, Commander," she said. "How is life in space treating you?"

"Well enough," he replied with a hearty laugh. "My wings're getting restless though. When I come back down I think I'm going to fly around the world."

He pushed back away from the camera, perching on a bulkhead just behind. "But you're not here for the conversation, are you?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"No, we are not," Luna replied. "What can you tell us of the object?"

Razorbeak chuckled. "I can tell you this," he said. "Your astronomer friend was right on the money."

He pushed back over to the camera and pulled out a keyboard, his talons tapping away at the keys. Moments later, a three-dimensional rendering of the planet appeared on the monitor next to him. A red line arced across the screen, passing very close to the surface before heading back off into space.

Celestia looked over at Starburst; he was half awake already, and he was watching the screen with interest.

"Its trajectory's brought it within spitting distance of the planet," the commander said. "We've been tracking it since it came into range, and it's been following a constant-acceleration path which puts it within five hundred kilometres of the surface. That is, it was… until five minutes ago, when it began to decelerate. It'll attain stable orbital velocity any minute now."

A spontaneous round of applause broke out in the control room, hooves clattering away on the floor. Celestia smiled; she couldn't help but share their excitement.

A zebra floated up into view and said something quietly to the commander. He nodded, and she turned to address the screen. The room went quiet again.

"We have a stable polar orbit!" she announced. "Four hundred and eighty seven klicks above sea level!"

There was another burst of applause. The zebra then disappeared back off the bottom of the screen.

"Sorry my crew's being so absent," the commander said. "But it seems they can't pull themselves away from the view from the telescope."

There was a sudden commotion behind Celestia. Starburst had jumped to his hooves and was staring, wide-eyed, at the commander.

"You have pictures?" he shouted.

The commander stared at them blankly.

"Oh, sorry," Celestia said. She passed her microphone over to Starburst who clipped it to his own ear.

"You have pictures of it?" he asked again.

"Yes, of course," the commander laughed. "We've all been glued to the screen ever since it got close enough. Here, I'll send you a downlink."

He pushed some more buttons, and a third window appeared on the wall. The image was blurred, probably zoomed in as far as they could go, but the important features were clear. The object on the screen was a sharp, symmetric triangle, glowing bronze in the sunlight. Scale markings on the image put it at over two hundred metres wide.

Silence fell in the control room, as all eyes turned to the image before them.

"There's no doubt up here that it's artificial," Razorbeak said. "We've already started calling it 'the ship'."

"Do you think it has a crew?" Luna asked?

"Your guess is as good as mine," he replied. "We haven't seen any activity on the ship's surface yet, but... well, something must be telling it where to–"

The image suddenly broke up, static and distortion filling all three displays. Then, barely a second later, they were back.

"Do you still read us?" a technician said.

"Yeah, still here," the commander replied. "We only lost you for a moment. What was that?"

One of the technicians in the front row stood up. "All channels just picked up a broad-band sweep across the entire spectrum. No damage, but..." He stopped, scratching his head and staring at his monitor like he didn't believe what he was looking at.

"Flight," he said, turning to address the controller, "I think we've just been scanned."

Silence fell. One by one, all eyes turned to look at the image of the ship, still apparently just sitting inert in orbit.

What are you doing up there? Celestia thought, her eyes narrowing.

Then the image suddenly changed. There was a bright flash of light at the base of the ship, and something shot out from it, disappearing off the edge of their view.

The room filled with panicked chattering. Celestia stared in disbelief, frozen to the spot. While she had imagined plenty of worst-case scenarios after since she had heard about the object, she had never really expected any of them to happen. Even now, she refused to believe that this was supposed to be a hostile action.

"Princesses," the general said, running over to their side. "We're under attack. I need my orders."

"Stand by," Celestia said. Then she addressed the room at large. "I need information! Give me everything we know!"

"Tracking it now!" one of the technicians called. New lines started appearing on the display, falling down from the ship to various points on the planet's surface.

"We're attempting to get a visual up here," Razorbeak said, before disappearing from view.

Celestia waited, the seconds dragging agonisingly on, as she watched predicted trajectories jump around on the screen. Then, finally, they began to settle down to a single path.

"It's headed straight for us!" somepony shouted. "It's going to hit Canterlot!"

There was a scream, and in an instant the entire room devolved into panic. The flight controller was shouting something, trying to keep calm, but he could barely be heard over the commotion.

Celestia felt a hand on her shoulder, then it pulled her round so she was face to face with the general.

"I need orders!" he yelled.

"Give me a minute!" Celestia said.

"We may not have that long!" He growled, pointing at the screen. "We are under attack! Let me do my job!"

Celestia stared at the screen, watching the object as it fell toward them. Was this really how this was going to end? Was her first interaction with extra-terrestrial life to be to destroy it?

"Impact in three minutes!" another technician shouted. Celestia sighed.

"Okay, General, you're cleared to—"

"Wait!"

The entire room froze, all eyes turning to Starburst. He pushed past between Celestia and the general and walked forward, eyes locked on the screen. For a long while he stared at it in silence, transfixed.

"It's going too slow," he said.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked. "Why does it matter how fast it hits?"

Starburst shook his head.

"I've been studying spaceflight all my life," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "I know what something falling through the atmosphere looks like, and it's not speeding up enough."

"He's right actually," the flight controller said, scratching his head. "There's no way that thing's ballistic."

Razorbeak appeared on the screen again suddenly.

"We've got a picture of the projectile!" he said breathlessly, typing away at his keyboard. "You need to see this!"

The image of the ship was replaced with a still photo of an object, cyclindrical in shape, a glowing wake pouring from its sides as it pushed through the upper atmosphere. In front of the object was a second glow – a jet of plasma pushing out ahead of it, like a rocket.

Starburst's eyes went wide. "Retro-boosters," he said. "It's not an attack."

"It's landing!" Celestia said.

"Position update!" the tracking technician yelled. "It's coming down in the forest, just south of the city!"

Celestia was paralysed with relief, completely forgetting the general waiting by her as she stared at the new image of their visitor on the screen. Luna took up the initiative.

"Belay that order, General!" She said. "Notify the guard; I want a shield up over the object the moment it hits the ground! Celestia, come on." She turned and galloped for the door. Dazed, Celestia followed.

The two of them burst out into the corridor, pushing past confused staff until they got to the stairwell. They climbed to the roof, taking entire flights in a single bound, burst out into the open air and flew up into the sky.

"Thank you, sister," Celestia said as her eyes scanned around them.

"I do not wish to fire the first shot, either," Luna replied. "I only hope we are right."

"As do I," Celestia said. Her eyes darted back and forth across the clear blue sky, looking for any sign of the mysterious object, but she couldn't see anything anywhere, until—

"There it is!" Luna said, pointing to the north, where a thin white line was streaking across the sky, directly toward them. The two watched it in silence, waiting and hoping, as it drew nearer and nearer. Eventually it got close enough that Celestia could tell, to her great relief, that it indeed wasn't headed for the city. It was headed straight for the uninhabited woodland in the valley north of Ponyville. But something still didn't look right.

"It's still not going slowly enough," she said.

Sure enough, when it hit the ground moments later it was still travelling at incredible speed. A great cloud of dust and dirt was thrown out in front of it, completely obscuring their view of the crash site. Then a translucent blue dome began to stretch across the area as the national guard contained the blast.

Silently, the two sisters bent forward and swooped down into the valley to meet the new arrival.

A guard pegasus met them as they landed at the edge of the shield.

"Report, Lieutenant," Luna said as he saluted them.

"Ground zero's about fifty metres that way," the guard said, pointing through the shield. "It ploughed across a road as it hit the ground, but nopony was hurt. We've completely cleared the quarantine zone."

"May we enter?" Celestia asked.

The lieutenant nodded. "You can cross the shield freely from this side," he said.

"Thank you," Celestia said. "Please have an ambulance and guard escort meet us at the crash site," she added, "just in case."

"Already on their way. If I may," he asked hesitantly, "what's going on?"

"I'm afraid we do not have the answer to that question," Luna replied. "Not yet."

The guard nodded, then waved them past. The two sisters walked through the shield and took to the air again, heading for the crash.

The dust was beginning to settle, but they weren't able to get a good view of the craft until they were right on top of it. It was a long, lozenge-shaped object, its metallic surface battered and streaked with scorch marks. It lay atop a pile of broken trees, the forest surrounding it flattened by the impact, and the two of them had great difficulty finding somewhere to land in order to properly inspect it.

Celestia made her way carefully toward it and reached out a hoof to touch its surface. There in front of her was absolute proof that they were not alone in the universe. As she stared at the alien object she felt a rush of confused emotions; she was wary, with no idea what this thing was or where it came from, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel honoured. For some reason its creators had deemed them worthy of coming all this way to see.

Something moved on the surface. Celestia pulled her hoof away, stumbling backwards and staring as the outline of a door appeared on the smooth metal, air hissing through the opening seal. The two sisters exchanged glances, but then moved slowly forward again as the door slid open.

Celestia's heart stopped at the sight. Inside the ship was a single creature, about the size and shape of a pony but otherwise completely alien. Its body was covered in scales and bone-like armour plates, and its mouth was framed by a pair of sharp, protruding tusks. It stared up at them through a pair of narrow, dark eyes set underneath broad horned ridges. But despite all its armour it was clearly seriously injured. A dark green fluid was oozing from beneath its scales, its movements were forced and slow, and its eyes were filled with pain. The creature was fighting for its life.

"Hello?" Celestia said. "Can you hear us?"

At the sound of her voice, the creature suddenly turned and looked directly at her, its eyes looking straight into hers. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment, before its eyes rolled backwards in their sockets and it slumped back into the craft, unconscious.

"For what it is worth," Luna said, "welcome to Equestria."

Author's Note

This chapter features a single spoken line from a zebra. I spent ages trying to come up with a rhyming version of the line, but in the end decided that I'd just leave that as a quirk of Zecora rather than a racial trait. It didn't really fit in the setting.

3 - Waking Up

"We're on Equestria?"

Jack was cantering back and forth across the chamber, nervously peering behind the columns as if he expected a monster to jump out at them from the shadows.

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Daniel said.

"No I do not!" Jack barked, emerging from behind a column and marching over to him. "You do realise what we've just done, don't you?"

"He's right, Daniel," Sam said. "Technically, we're committing a court-martialable offence just by being here."

"By accident!" Daniel protested. "Don't you guys realise what this planet represents?"

"I know enough," Jack said. "I know this is the planet that got the Goa'uld so scared they wiped its location from every record we've ever found, including the cartouche on Abydos! I know the Jaffa believe it's a threat to all life in the galaxy! I know that we've been ordered to never under any circumstances try and find out why!"

Daniel cringed. He knew all that, of course; he was the one who had told Jack most of it, after all.

"But Jack," he said, "it's so much more than that! This is the planet where the entire pony race originated! This is the world Ra took Earth's ancestors from thousands of years ago! This is where Ra was killed—"

"Ra and his entire army," Teal'c clarified.

"Yes, I know the stories," Daniel said.

"In a single instant," Teal'c added.

"Now see," Jack said, waving a hoof at Teal'c, "this is what I'm talking about! That sounds like something we should be afraid of!"

"Still," Daniel replied. "It could just be a protected planet, like Cimmeria."

"And I'm sure we all remember how well our first time there went."

The two of them stood, eyes locked on each other for a long moment. Then Jack sighed.

"Well I guess it doesn't really matter," he said. "We're stuck here either way." He looked back up at the inscriptions covering the walls. "I guess it's your lucky day, Danny boy. We need to get off this planet, and the key to working out how may well be somewhere up on those walls. So… translate away.

"But," he added, looking Daniel in the eye and pointing a hoof at him, "remember that we are currently trapped on a blacklisted planet with a supposed superweapon. If you find anything which looks even potentially dangerous, do not turn it on under any circumstances. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly," Daniel said, still glaring at him.

"Good," Jack said, turning away. "Teal'c, walk with me."

He headed back along the chamber toward the door, Teal'c joining him by his side. The two of them went outside and looked out into the sprawling maze of grassy ruins which spread out away from the temple. There was a slight breeze blowing, the air warm and dry but unsettlingly devoid of the sounds of life.

"What's your read on this?" Jack asked Teal'c.

"This is the Tau'ri," he replied. "The First World, from which all pony life in the galaxy descends. It was here that the Goa'uld domination began, and it was here that the first Jaffa were created. It is to be revered."

"Try to contain your excitement," Jack said; Teal'c raised a single eyebrow, but continued staring toward the distant hills on the horizon. "But what about the other stuff?"

Teal'c frowned. "Since I was a kal'ma, I have been told stories of Equestria," he said. "They served to ensure that no Jaffa would ever wish to find this world, lest they suffer the same fate which destroyed Ra, or worse, release the evil trapped here and set it loose on the galaxy."

"Evil?"

"A demon," Teal'c explained. "Some call it the Ra'shek – the spirit of Ra surviving beyond death in order to seek vengeance. Some say it is the same entity which killed Ra, wishing to finish what it started. But it has been trapped here for eight thousand years, and if it is still alive today it is said to be an unrelenting killer. It will not rest until all life has been destroyed."

Jack stood silently for a moment, thinking over the concept of such a creature being here with them, and was feeling more and more anxious to leave.

"You think that's what Zipacna's coming here for?" Jack asked. "That seems a bit stupid, even for a Goa'uld."

"Indeed," Teal'c said. "But many believe the stories to be legend. Some Jaffa do not even believe that Equestria is a real place. He may think that the Ra'shek is simply a weapon, which he could control."

"We can hope," Jack said, turning to go back inside. "But given our luck, I wouldn't count on it. You go and see if Daniel needs help with the translation." Teal'c nodded and walked over to join the archaeologist, who was sitting in a far corner poring over a notebook, and Jack turned and went over to Carter, who had removed her backpack and was sitting in a corner, sorting through her equipment.

"Do you really think we're in danger here, Colonel?" she asked as he approached.

"I don't know, Major," he said. "But I want to be absolutely certain before I rule it out."

Sam nodded. "What do you need me to do?"

"I'd like you to build us a Stargate," Jack said, "but as we don't have any toasters here, I'll settle for you running some tests to find out as much as you can about this planet." He looked over at the door, where bright orange sunlight was still streaming through. "I'm not sure if that's going up or down, but we may not have much light left. I want to know where we stand before nightfall."

"Yes sir," she said. "What are you going to be doing?"

A smile spread across Jack's face for the first time since they'd arrived. "I'm going to take a look around," he said. He then turned and galloped out through the door, spreading his wings and soaring up into the sky.

"Well that was a waste of time," he said as he glided back into the temple an hour later. He landed softly on the stone floor and shook his wings down while looking around at his team. Daniel was still scribbling away in his notebook, and Teal'c was meditating in a corner. Carter was carrying a small device around the room, apparently measuring something. Weighing his options up, he decided to bother Sam first.

"Found anything, Major?" he asked, walking over to her.

"Actually, yes," she said, looking up and putting the device back in her pocket, "a lot of things. There's something very strange about this planet."

"As long as it's not trying to kill us, I can handle strange," Jack said. "So what sort of things are we talking about?"

"Well..." she said. She stood for a moment, thinking, then gestured for Jack to follow her. She led him back over to the door and pointed out at the sky.

"There's that," she said.

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Jack replied, raising a hoof to shield his eyes and looking out toward the sun. They'd been there an hour already, and it was still sitting just above the horizon, exactly where it had been when they arrived.

"That's not normal, is it?"

"No, sir," Sam said. "The planet must be tidally locked."

Jack nodded. "So… no surfing?" Sam shook her head, smiling.

"It means the planet's stuck with one side facing the sun," she explained. "Half of the planet's always in daytime, and the other half's always in night-time."

"Ah," Jack said. "So like Tuplo's planet."

"Almost," Sam said, heading outside and leading Jack round to the side of the temple. "Although here they lack the Goa'uld atmospheric engineering necessary to maintain the sharp divide between…"

She stopped; Jack was giving her a look.

"Yes," she said instead. "We're in a sort of twilight band here around the equator," – she gestured in a long north-south arc over their heads. "That's why it's cool enough here to have grass while the rest of the day side is a desert."

There was a flight of stairs at the side of the temple, and Sam led Jack up them onto the temple roof. From there Jack could see the entirety of the ruins surrounding them; the temple was the only intact structure remaining, and the land beyond the city consisted mostly of grassland, so their view was unobstructed all the way to the ring of hills that formed the horizon. Sam had left some instruments set up on a tripod in the centre, but she ignored them and walked straight past, heading over to the far end of the roof.

"But the sun isn't the strange part," she said.

"It isn't?"

She shook her head. "Well, the idea that the pony race evolved on a tidally locked planet yet are adapted to a day-night cycle is pretty strange," she said, "but even stranger than the sun is the moon."

"What moon?"

"Exactly."

Jack looked disparagingly at Sam. He hated it when she did that.

"I spotted it on the sensors while we were on the ship," she said, "and at first I assumed it just hadn't risen yet, but then I came up here and happened to notice…" – she pointed away from the sun at a mountain range on the opposite horizon – "…that."

Jack looked where she was pointing, eyes scanning the skyline, but all he could see was mountains. Then, after a few moments, he spotted it; nestled in the gap between two peaks was the moon, the top of its arc barely visible as it hid just below the horizon.

"It's not moving either," Sam said.

"Huh. It's tidally locked as well?"

"No, sir," Sam replied, shaking her head. "That would just mean we were always seeing the same side of it, like Earth's moon. For it to not even be orbiting… Well, sir, to put it simply, that just can't happen naturally. It could if it was a lot further away, but even then it wouldn't be stable. Where it is at the moment, it should be falling down on top of us."

Jack nodded, at least relieved to hear that it wasn't.

"But still," he said, "no surfing?"

Sam laughed. "The point is," she went on, "that there is something very powerful holding the moon in place."

Jack nodded. Something very powerful. That didn't sound reassuring.

"So," he said hopefully, "I assume you've been taking some readings?"

"Yes sir," Sam said, nodding and pulling out the device she'd been carrying around earlier. Jack saw her using it quite a lot; it was able to pick up traces of magic, and was very useful for finding hidden technology.

"It's like nothing I've ever seen," she said. "The ambient magic here's off the scales. I'm not detecting any fluctuations or sources, though. It's just… everywhere.

"And I think it's affecting my own magic as well," she added. "It feels like it's getting easier to cast spells, like it's powering me somehow. I didn't notice it at first, and don't know how long it's been around. Maybe it was on the ship as well; I'm not sure. But now I know it's there, I can feel it."

"Bottom line it for me," Jack said, starting to get a headache. "Is this our superweapon?"

"I don't know."

"And does it help us get off this planet?"

"No sir."

"Okay," he said, rubbing his forehead and going back to the stairs. "While I'm sure this is all fascinating, it doesn't really help us at the moment. I'm going to see what Daniel's got."

"Yes sir," Sam said, following him down the stairs. "Did you find anything?"

"Rocks and grass," Jack replied. "We're in the ruins of a large city here – I'd estimate ten klicks each way at least – but almost none of it's intact."

"Makes sense," Sam said. "Equestria's been lost for millennia. It's amazing that anything's survived that long, really."

"I also saw a few bits of burnt ground," he continued. "The area must prone to the occasional brushfire, so we should watch out for that. I thought I saw movement at one point," he added as an afterthought.

"An advance scout for Zipacna?"

"Maybe. But if there was somepony there, they were long gone by the time I got there. It could've just been—"

They reached the door, and the words jammed in Jack's throat as he took in the scene in front of him.

"Daniel!" Sam screamed.

Two minutes earlier.

Daniel stared up at the wall, running his eyes across the lines of symbols over and over again, trying to understand their meaning. He had made a lot of progress so far – the formal scripts tended to stay fairly consistent over the centuries in comparison to everyday dialects – but still he'd occasionally find a symbol he just didn't recognise.

The passage he was working on seemed to be some sort of history, describing how Ra had saved Equestria from a catastrophe which he couldn't translate either, and now it was telling of his taming and vanquishing of the evil spirits which once controlled the land. He suspected that the mystery symbols must be some sort of name, of a god from a belief system predating the Goa'uld perhaps.

The idea of that was mind-blowing in itself. This text was impossibly old – it was from a few centuries after Ra's appearance at most – and it was possibly the only surviving description of pre-Ra pony civilisation. Anything else from that time was suppressed to the point of non-existence by the Goa'uld.

He felt privileged to have the chance to translate it. Nopony had seen these writings in millennia. This was an archaeologist's dream; it was the one surviving record of a lost planet, and of a culture which had been dead for thousands of years.

A culture which Ra destroyed.

The thought popped into his mind out of nowhere, and he shrugged it off, but a feeling of sadness remained, the sense loss hanging in the back of his mind. He gave up on the mystery word that was blocking his progress, just putting it down as 'chaos' – which it most closely resembled – in his notebook, and moved on. Jack and Sam had wandered off somewhere, and no doubt the colonel would come to talk to him once Carter had given her report, so he wanted to get as much translated as he could before that.

He knew that Jack wasn't going to be interested in most of it, though. None of the text had mentioned anything which would be of any use in getting off the planet, and there was no mention at all of any superweapon. Daniel was beginning to doubt that these walls would be of any use to Jack at all. He got why Jack wanted to focus on the mission, of course, but he could never understand how somepony couldn't be fascinated by the things he was learning.

Because it's gone. It doesn't matter anymore.

He was starting to get a headache. He sat down, resting against one of the pillars, and pulled out his flask to have a drink of water. All of a sudden he was having trouble concentrating; something about the planet was setting his teeth on edge. Trying to shake the feeling, he picked up his notebook and scanned over what he'd got already, to give his mind something to think about. But for some reason the words just made him angry.

It all talked about how Ra had saved ponykind, and described in poetic detail all the blessings he had bestowed upon them. He wondered if it could really have seemed that way at the time; he had seen enough worlds enslaved to know that the truth was probably very different. How many had died before Ra had gotten them to believe it? And how many had died since?

Ra lied. He tricked them.

The worst part was where it described the birth of new gods, and how some ponies had been ‘blessed' to become hosts. And then there was the creation of the Jaffa. Ra had brainwashed the population to the point that they were willing to give up their own bodies to serve as nothing but vessels for a parasitic race. And they were happy about it!

The Jaffa are abominations.

He looked up at Teal'c, who was sitting on the other side of the room, his eyes closed in a state of kel'no'reem. The Jaffa had been no use, recognising even less of the older scripts than he had.

Daniel felt a strange sensation at the sight him. The idea that they had been in a team together, fighting alongside each other for so long, felt… wrong. As he looked at the Jaffa, thinking about what he represented, and about the creature he carried within him, all thoughts began to wash away, the void being filled with disgust, even hatred.

Kill it.

Daniel stood again, crossing the floor as quietly as he could so as not to wake Teal'c. He stopped, looking down at the Jaffa with anger as he thought of how many innocent ponies he must have been responsible for the death of.

Kill it.

He unholstered his sidearm, sliding its strap over his hoof and levelling it on the Jaffa's gut. He took a deep breath, taking care to ensure his aim was good. Once the Goa'uld larva was dead the Jaffa would be easy enough to deal with.

Kill it now.

"Daniel!"

He jumped at the sound of Sam's voice, wheeling round just in time to see Jack, flying full-speed across the room, hit him in the side and tackle him to the ground. The impact set the gun off, but Jack had already pushed Daniel's hoof away from Teal'c and the round embedded itself in the wall with a shower of dust.

"What the hell are you doing?" Daniel shouted.

"What am I doing?" Jack yelled back as he tried to get a hold of all of Daniel's writhing limbs and hold him down. "You just tried to kill a member of your own team!"

"How stupid are you?" Daniel said. "You know we can't trust him! He's one of them!"

"Colonel O'Neill?" Teal'c said, waking up in the commotion.

"Help me hold him down, Teal'c!" Jack said, dodging a hoof as it nearly hit him in the jaw. Teal'c grabbed Daniel's front hooves and leant on them, pinning him to the floor.

"Get off me, Jaffa!" Daniel shouted, trying in vain to throw him off.

"Stop this right now, Daniel!" Jack shouted. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but—"

"Wait!" Sam shouted, cantering over to them. "I think I do! He's been brainwashed."

"What?" Jack and Daniel said in unison.

"Hold his head still, Teal'c," Sam said. "I want to try something."

Teal'c shifted his weight so that his shoulder was pinning Daniel's head to the ground. Sam leaned in, doing her best to ignore Daniels' protests, and placed her horn against his forehead.

Ever since she was young she had always had an aptitude for sensing magic. If there was a spell on Daniel she knew she'd be able to find it, and hoped she'd be able to displace it. But as she listened to the magic flowing around and through him she was surprised to find much more than just a spell. She could feel a presence, something else clinging on to him, like there was another mind in there feeding him its own thoughts.

Who are you? She thought. But instead of responding, the presence recoiled away from her. She pushed again with her magic, forcing the other mind away until she couldn't feel it anymore. She opened her eyes again to find Daniel staring at her in confusion.

"What just happened?" he said.

"You tell me," Jack said. "How're you feeling about Teal'c right now?"

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked, confused. Then, suddenly, his eyes went wide in shock.

"Oh God, did I just—"

"That's good enough for me," Jack said, letting go of him. Teal'c did the same and pulled Daniel up into a standing position.

"I think it's safe to say that we're under attack," Jack went on, going back to where they had dropped their equipment and picking his P-90 up again. "That means our mission parameters have now changed. Get ready to leave, everypony. Until we know what this is and how it can attack us, I want us to keep moving just in case. We'll take turns resting, only one of us sleeping at any time."

"Wait," Daniel said. "What about the temple? I haven't finished translating—"

"You've been taking pictures, right?" Jack asked.

"Well, yeah, but—"

"Good. You can keep translating on the move then. But our top priority is survival."

Once he was ready he walked back to the door and looked out into the perpetual sunset, wondering what other surprises would be waiting for them out there.

"You think that'll be enough?" Sam asked, walking up next to him a few moments later.

"I've given up on knowing what to think at this point," Jack said. "Teal'c thinks this is the spirit of Ra, by the way," he added.

"It doesn't seem to like Jaffa much, though," Sam commented. Jack nodded.

"Well, whatever it is," he went on, "at least we now have a fair idea why this world was abandoned."

He raised his eyebrows, and let out a deep sigh.

"And on that cheery note," he said, "let's move out."

The other two joined them, Daniel trying hard to avoid eye contact with the others, and the four of them set off silently into the unknown.

High above the surface, the crippled ship continued in its perpetual course around the planet. The sun shone in through the window of the bridge, filling the empty room with warm light. Then, as had happened hundreds of thousands of times before, the sun slid down below the horizon and the light faded away to nothing, revealing a sky dotted with stars.

As the final rays of the sun disappeared from view, a soft glow illuminated the bridge, filling the air with azure light. It lasted only for a moment, before fading away itself and returning the bridge to darkness.

4 - Mysteries

Fifteen days after first contact.

"Hello? Are you there? Can you hear me?"

Luna walked alone through the darkness, listening. All around her, far in the distance, she could hear the quiet murmur of voices whispering to each other, but she pushed them to the back of her mind. She searched the void, not listening for just any voice as she normally would, but looking for one specific one.

Yet when she focussed on where it should have been, when she called out to it, all she found was silence. Nothing was resisting her presence or drowning it out; there just wasn't anything there to hear.

"Sister?" came another, familiar voice, echoing into the dreamworld from outside. Luna sighed. Deciding she had been trying at this for long enough, she opened her eyes.

A hospital room materialised around her. There was a single bed in front of her, and on it lay the mysterious creature, its eyes still closed, and its chest slowly rising and falling as it breathed. An IV drip had been fixed under one of the scales on its foreleg to feed it a mix of basic nutrients, and to the doctors' immense relief this seemed to be sustaining it.

She looked to her side and found Celestia standing there.

"Is it evening already?"

"Yes," Celestia replied. "I will need to lower the sun in a quarter of an hour. Have you had any luck?"

"No," Luna said, shaking her head. "I am beginning to wonder if it is even capable of dreaming."

"Maybe it's just too far under," Celestia mused. "It's been like this for weeks."

"Perhaps," Luna said, studying its strange form. "Or perhaps it is just too different from us. We know nothing about its species, and what the doctors have been able to work out barely makes sense."

Celestia raised her eyebrows, curious. "Have they found anything since my last visit?" she asked. Luna nodded.

"I talked to the doctors when I arrived this afternoon," she said. "They have been attempting to measure its brain activity, but…" She thought for a moment, trying to remember what they had told her. "But they said they could not isolate any thought patterns. They were detecting signals, but they looked distorted, as if there were something else interfering."

Celestia walked forward and stood over the creature, watching it sleep.

"I only wish we could speak to it," she said. "There's so much I want to know. Where is it from? Why did it come here? Why now?"

She sat down, resting a hoof on the edge of the bed. "Would you even be able to understand us?" she said. "Will we ever be able to communicate?"

No response came. The creature just lay there, completely unresponsive, as it had done for two weeks now. The doctors had managed to clean up its wounds when it was brought in, but none of them had been willing to try doing anything to wake it up. Given how little they knew about its biology, there was a chance that they'd just end up hurting, or even killing it.

"I hate this uncertainty," Luna said. "We have no idea what its motives are."

Celestia stood again. "You fear that it may be hostile?" Luna shrugged.

"I do not know," she said. "This does not seem like an attack. But why come all this way, alone, just to crash and die on an alien world? And then there is the timing of it all. This all just seems… suspicious."

"I see your concern, sister," Celestia said, her eyes still fixed in contemplation on the creature. "But I hope you are wrong."

"As do I."

There was a sound of commotion outside the ward, cutting the conversation short. Celestia stared at the door in confusion, and Luna let out a sigh.

"Starburst," she explained. "He has been here all day, trying to persuade the doctors to allow him in here." She paused, then added, "He is not in a good state."

"I suppose we should talk to him," Celestia said. She returned to the door and pulled it open, and the two of them stepped through, nodding to the guards stationed at the door as they passed. Starburst was standing at the nurses' station down the corridor, a pot of pens strewn across the floor round him, waving a hoof at a pair of completely bewildered nurses. As soon as he saw the two princesses appear he turned and galloped over to them, trying to get a glimpse through the door as they closed it. He skidded to a halt, nearly falling over at their hooves on the tiled floor.

"Princesses," he stuttered, picking himself up again. "I've been trying to get in there all week, just so that I can have a look, and they keep telling me that you've ordered them to keep me out! Half of them don't even know what I'm talking about! Why are you keeping me away from my discovery?"

"Starburst," Luna said, "please understand—"

"No!" Starburst shouted, slamming a hoof down on the ground. "I'm fed up of this! I want to help! I want to know what's going on! Why are you hiding it from me?"

Celestia was becoming very conscious of the fact that nurses and passers-by were stopping and staring at them now.

"Please, Starburst," she said. "May we discuss this somewhere more private?"

He looked behind himself, and jumped as he realised how many were looking at him. He nodded, and Celestia directed him round the corner to the next ward, which was being kept empty to avoid any patients overhearing what was going on next door. The three of them entered and Celestia shut the door behind them.

"Now will you tell me what's going on?" Starburst said.

"First," Celestia said as she turned to face him, "I want you to understand that we're not hiding this from you specifically. We're trying to keep this as quiet as possible for the time being, and that means telling only those who need to know."

Starburst looked sceptical. "Why should we hide this?" he asked. "The rest of Equestria have a right to know about this!"

"And one day they will," Luna said. "But imagine what would happen if we told them now."

"Everypony would want to see," Celestia said. "The hospital would be overrun with visitors, and it would become impossible for them to care for their patients."

"So, what," Starburst said, "you're doing this to protect it?" He looked round at the wall, behind which the creature lay sprawled out on its bed. "Is letting one more pony in there going to cause that much damage?"

Celestia walked round and knelt down on the ground so she was at eye level with the astronomer, and rested a hoof on his shoulder.

"You tell me," she said. "We're worried about you as well. How much have you slept in the last two weeks?"

Starburst opened his mouth to respond, but then sighed and closed it again, falling backwards into a sitting position. He massaged his temple with his hoof.

"I'm trying," he said. "But do you have any idea how hard it is? There's a creature from another world in this building! Another world! I've been dreaming about this since I was a colt!" He stared longingly at the wall. "I need to see it. I feel like I've been waiting for this my whole life, and I don't think I'll be able to think about anything else until I have."

Celestia felt sorry for him. His dream had come true and it was crushing him. She wanted to help him, but at this point there really was only one thing she could give him that would make any difference.

"Okay," she sighed. "We'll let you see him."

"You will?" he said, suddenly looking excited again.

"On one condition," Celestia continued, raising a hoof. "Go home and get some rest. Please. Ask the doctors for something if you think you need help. But try to have just one night where you don't think about this, and then I'll let you in tomorrow. Can you do that?"

Starburst sighed. "Okay," he said. "You're right. I should really try harder to…"

He stopped, rubbed his eyes, then stood up and walked unsteadily toward the door. He put his hoof on the handle, then paused and looked back at the princesses. "And you promise you'll let me see it?" he said.

"We promise," Luna replied.

"Thank you," he said. Then, with a yawn, he pushed the door open and walked back out into the corridor.

Luna turned to her sister after he had left. "On the subject of matters we have been hiding," she said, "I have been wondering whether we should inform him of the problems concerning the sun and moon as well."

Celestia raised an eyebrow, standing up and facing her sister. "I think he has enough to deal with already," she said.

"I know," Luna said, pacing back and forth across the room. "But it has occurred to me that, as an astronomer, he knows a lot more than most about the heavens. Perhaps he has some knowledge which would help shed light on what is happening."

Celestia smiled, but shook her head. "Sister, none know more about the sun and moon than us," she said, "and we have not been able to figure it out. I'm not sure to what extent he would be able to help."

Luna sighed. "You are right," she said. "Perhaps I am just growing tired of hiding this. But if it reaches the point where we are no longer able to control the sun and moon, we will not be able to hide it at all. Perhaps it would still be wise to try and take more proactive steps in remedying it before that happens."

Celestia walked over to the ward's window and looked up into the dimming evening sky. "Is the ship causing this, do you think?" she said. "Or even the creature itself? As you said, this does not seem like an attack, but it could be that its presence is inadvertently interfering with the planet's magic."

"I do not believe so," Luna said, walking over to stand next to her sister. "I spent some time today meditating on the matter, and I sense no strong magic emanating either from the creature or from anywhere in orbit. Besides which, this began long before the ship ever appeared. It would explain a lot for these two events to be linked, but it would also raise too many new questions. I have to say, I remain unconvinced."

Celestia nodded, glad to hear that she was not alone in her indecision. Blaming this creature for their problems was by far the simplest option, but the only solution it suggested was to destroy the ship and the creature and hope that this restored the heavens to their natural rhythm. She was willing to admit that she shared some of Starburst's excitement, and she didn't want to ruin the possibility of peaceful first contact with an alien species out of baseless paranoia.

"While we are on the topic," Luna added, "perhaps it is time."

"Indeed," Celestia said, staring at the sky. The sunset was fast approaching. Together they closed their eyes, and their horns lit up with magic.

She reached out, and she found the sun exactly where it should be; sitting just above the western horizon waiting for her command. Through force of habit she tried simply willing it to move first, but in response received the strange feeling of vertigo she was becoming accustomed to as the spell rebounded on her. Taking a deep breath and spreading her hooves wide on the ground, she tried to picture the correct motion of the heavenly spheres as they moved around each other, and focussed all of her magic into pushing the sun down across the horizon. It started to fight back, the mass of the planet resisting the command to continue turning, but she gave a second push and it relented.

She opened her eyes, collapsing to her knees and pulling in a sharp, deep breath. Moments later her sister did the same, and the two stood up again and watched as the sky went dark and stars began to appear. Celestia's brow was cold with sweat, and she wiped it clear with her hoof.

"It does feel as though it is getting easier," she commented.

"Indeed," Luna replied, "or perhaps we are merely growing accustomed to it."

The two of them turned and made their way to the door. "There may still be hope that this will resolve itself on its own," Celestia said.

"We can certainly hope so," Luna said as she pushed the door open again. The two of them walked out into the corridor and made their way toward the exit, neither of them noticing Starburst, hiding behind the open door, his eyes wide with shock.

5 - Not Alone

Time passed at a disorienting pace as SG-1 made their way through the ruined city. For a long while none of them said anything to each other, the events at the temple weighing on their minds, and as the sun still sat motionless in the sky it was impossible to tell how long they had been walking for. Jack kept glancing at his watch every few minutes, trying to count the seconds in his head, in the hope that giving himself something to concentrate on would stop whatever had happened to Daniel happening to him, but he knew he was grasping at straws.

Whenever they found a relatively intact building, Daniel would walk inside and look round for anything useful, but each time he would come out a few minutes later shaking his head, and then they'd set off again, Jack picking a new direction and the others following. He didn't say so, but he kept them moving in the rough direction of the area he'd seen movement in earlier, walking approximately toward the hiding moon. He still didn't know if he'd been imagining things, but if there was somepony else on the planet, then there was a chance that there'd be a means of escape as well.

Moving that way also had the advantage that it kept the sun behind them. Its light wasn't unpleasantly hot at least – although the air was so dry that they were going to exhaust their water reserves very quickly – but the way it just perpetually hung there gave him the uncomfortable feeling that he was being watched. If Sam's evaluation was correct, he really had more reason to worry about the moon, but at least it was easier to ignore.

After a deceptively long two and a half hours, he brought the team to a halt outside the remains of a small house, and called a rest stop, giving Sam the first turn sleeping and telling Teal'c to keep watch. The Jaffa nodded and took up a position by the door, while the rest of them went inside and settled down. After removing his backpack, Jack sat down in the shade of a half-collapsed wall and poked idly at the grass under his hooves. It was wilted and slightly damp, deprived of direct sunlight by the shadow of the wall, but for his part Jack was glad for the coolness.

After a while the silence started getting to him. Sam was asleep and Teal'c was… well, Teal'c, but he and Daniel had barely said a word to each other since their rather tense exchange at the temple earlier. Daniel was sitting on his own in the far corner, a pile of photos from the temple spread out in front of him, reading them over and over and visibly avoiding Jack's eyes. Morale was running low; with the way the mission was going they were going to be at each other's throats within the day, Ra'shek or not.

Figuring it was about time to rebuild some bridges, Jack stood up and walked casually over to Daniel, settling down on the grass next to him.

"How's it going, Daniel? Found anything interesting?"

The archaeologist closed his notebook and looked up at Jack through narrowed eyes.

"Do you really want to know the answer to that?" he said.

Jack sighed. "Come on, throw me a bone here."

"Okay," Daniel said. "I haven't found anything about how to leave, if that's what you're asking. It talks about the Stargate, but as far as we know that's just the one up there," – he pointed to the sky – "so we're still stuck here. Other than that, it's just history."

Jack pulled one of the photos over and looked idly down at it. "Anything about this 'demon' thing?" He asked.

"Nothing," Daniel said, reaching over and turning the photo the right way round. "It doesn't mention Ra's death either, so I think whatever happened here must've been very sudden."

"Entire fleets destroyed in a single instant?" Jack asked. "That sort of thing?"

"Yeah." Daniel sighed. "We haven't seen anything quite that powerful here, though. Just…"

He trailed off. After a brief awkward silence he opened his notebook again and went back to writing.

"Look, Daniel," Jack said, "I'm sorry about earlier. I get that you're excited about being here, but I just have to think about other things first. Now I love a good temple as much as the next stallion, but—"

Daniel gave a dry laugh. "You think this is about that?"

"…no?" Jack said awkwardly. "What is it, then? Just tell me what's up."

Daniel shook his head and stood up, pacing back and forth across the grass for a few moments. Then he stopped and looked down at Jack.

"You saw what I did back there," he said.

"Come on," Jack said, standing up. "That wasn't you."

"Yes it was!" Daniel snapped. "Everything I said, everything I thought… I can remember it all, and I can remember believing it all! I can remember wanting to kill my own friend! Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"No, I don't."

"But I do," Teal'c said. The two of them turned round and found him looking over at them from the door.

"Daniel Jackson," he said, "do you remember when you were captured by Apophis several months ago?"

Daniel nodded. "It's pretty hard to," he replied.

"I swore my allegiance to Apophis once more," Teal'c continued, walking toward the others, "and I betrayed and imprisoned all of you. If Apophis had ordered it, I would not have hesitated to kill you all, and I would have been glad to do so. I will have to live with the memory of that for the rest of my life."

"You know I don't blame you for that," Daniel said.

"Indeed I do," Teal'c replied, putting a hoof on Daniel's shoulder. "It is for that same reason that I will never blame you for what transpired today."

Daniel nodded. "Thanks, Teal'c," he said. "I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with this, but that helps. I guess I'm just worried that it'll happen again."

"Yeah," Jack said, "but there's not much we can do about that. As long as we stay alert, though, hopefully we'll be able to spot anything odd before anypony does something they—"

"Not the neck…"

They went silent. All eyes turned to Sam, who had slumped over onto her side and was rolling about in her sleep like she was having a nightmare, pushing away invisible enemies.

"What did she say?" Daniel asked.

"No… not again…" Sam said, kicking out at something.

"Do you think we should wake her?" Jack said, taking a few cautious steps toward her.

"No!" Sam shouted, jolting awake. She continued to kick at the imagined enemy before realising where she was, freezing still and looking up at Jack in confusion.

"Never mind," he said. "Bad dream, Major?" He held a hoof out to her and pulled her upright.

"Sorry, Colonel," she said, shaking her head clear. "I… I think I dreamt I was being implanted with a Goa'uld."

"That makes sense," Daniel said; Jack gave him a confused look. "I mean, you're probably worried about being possessed. I know I am."

"I guess so," Sam said. "It was a very… vivid dream, though."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, massaging her temple.

"Headache?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," she said. Then, as if remembering something, she stopped and looked up again, turning to Daniel. "Can you remember what it felt like?" she asked. "I mean, what happened in the temple?"

"Can we not talk about that again?" Jack said, but Daniel raised a hoof, waving him back.

"No, it's okay," he said. "It didn't really feel like anything; I jut felt sort of distracted. Although, now you mention it, I did have a bit of a headache. Why?"

"Because," Sam said, sitting down again, "I can remember a strange feeling from the dream. It was like there was somepony else there with me. It was like..."

"Like you were being watched," Teal'c said.

"You too, huh?" Jack asked; Teal'c nodded. "Do you think this was the same thing that got Daniel?" he asked Sam.

"Yeah," she said. "It definitely felt the same – like there was another mind watching mine, saying things. It's all fuzzy, though. I can't remember anything specific."

"But no urges to kill any of us?" Jack asked. Sam shook her head.

"Whatever it was," she said, "it's gone now. I think it might know that I can sense it."

"Well the important thing is that we're still alive," Jack said. He checked his watch and glanced reflexively up at the sky. "Now that you're up," he continued, "we might as well move out. There's still a lot of city left out there."

"Yes sir," Sam said, standing up again. The four of them gathered up their equipment again, Sam helping lift their rucksacks onto their backs. Then, once they were all ready, Jack turned and addressed the team.

"Okay, if I remember correctly, the most in-tact buildings were north east of here," – he pointed at an angle half way between the moon and the direction which he had arbitrarily decided to call 'north' – "so that's where we're going next. Carter, you think you'll be able to fight this demon off if it attacks us again?"

Sam nodded. "I think so, sir, and I think I should be able to sense its magic if it tries attacking me."

"Good," Jack said. "So we can defend ourselves then. Now I know this hasn't been easy. We've only been here four hours, and we've already been attacked on one, possibly two occasions. We're all stressed, and things aren't being helped by the fact that something is actively trying to turn us against each other. But if we keep our heads and stick together, then it shouldn't—"

"Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said. Jack turned to the Jaffa, wondering what surprise he had found this time, but the look on his face was not encouraging. He was by the door again, and his eyes were fixed on a point in the distance, attentively watching something further down the street.

"Something out there, T?" Jack said.

"I am unsure," Teal'c replied.

Jack made his way over to the door and peered round the side of the frame, looking along the street in the direction Teal'c was staring. Behind him Sam and Daniel readied their weapons just in case.

"I don't see anything," Jack said. The grass was moving back and forth in the wind, and small wisps of dust were billowing off the stone walls, but other than that the ruins were completely still.

"Oh wait," he said, as a shadow shifted for a moment in one of the buildings about fifty metres down the road from them. "There is somepony over—"

The wall above him exploded.

"There is definitely somepony else here!" he shouted as the four of them dove for cover behind what remained of the wall.

"Those are staff weapons!" Sam said as a long stream of blasts bombarded the ruins and threw clouds of debris up around them.

Teal'c jumped out into the doorway, firing a burst from his P-90 before pulling back as a staff blast flew past him and impacted against the back wall.

"Two Jaffa," he said, falling into cover. "A pegasus and a unicorn."

"Must be an advance scout," Daniel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c said, dodging a chunk of falling masonry. "It is a standard Jaffa reconnaissance team."

"Wonderful," Jack said. He pulled out his sidearm and leaned out through the door to try and line up a shot at their attackers, but another burst of fire forced him back into cover.

"We're sitting ducks here, Colonel," Sam said, pulling out a periscope and looking over the top of the wall. "I can't get a line of sight with this wall in the way, and they'll just keep blasting at us until our cover's gone."

"Yeah, I noticed that," Jack said, coughing in the growing cloud of dust. "Any ideas?"

"Just one," Sam said. "You do a cannonball run, and we use the distraction to move forward to the columns on the left."

She levitated the periscope over to the colonel, and he looked through it and surveyed the field in front of them, memorizing the layout, and spotting the two Jaffa for the first time; it looked like a master and student; an old red pegasus alongside a much younger, steel-grey unicorn. Their cover was light, and the ground leading up to them was almost completely clear.

"Yeah, I can do that," he said. "Good call, Major."

"Hurry up, guys!" Daniel shouted, as a large chunk of wall broke loose and fell to the ground next to him.

"Okay, Major," Jack said. "Can you give me some cover?"

"Yes, sir." Sam ran over to the doorway and fired a blast of magic out into the street. It hit the ground a little way short of the Jaffa's position, throwing a plume of dust and dirt up into the air and completely blocking their view.

At the same moment Jack leapt up, clearing the top of the wall and pushing himself forward with his wings. He aimed himself as well as he could at the spot where the Jaffa had been moments before, accelerating as fast as he could, and dove head-first into the dust cloud.

An instant later he was through the dust, and he saw the unicorn just metres ahead of him. They collided before the Jaffa had even had time to react and the two of them tumbled across the grass, chunks of earth flying up around them as they kicked at each other with their hooves. Jack tried to pin the young unicorn down, but he shifted out of the way, grabbing Jack's forehoof and pulling it out from under him. The colonel fell back-first onto the grass, and the Jaffa was on top of him in an instant, holding his hooves to the ground and summoning a spell.

Jack had sparred with enough unicorns during his training to spot the spell coming. He threw his head forward, butting the Jaffa squarely in the nose; the spell spluttered out and the unicorn fell backwards, a drop of blood running from his nose down through his grey fur.

Jack threw the dazed Jaffa off himself and took advantage of the moment of distraction to look around for the other Jaffa, spotting the pegasus hovering above him in the sky, staff weapon trained on him. The Jaffa fired a blast down, and Jack rolled out of the way just as it hit the ground where he had been lying. He leapt to his hooves and pushed off the ground, corkscrewing up toward the Jaffa and dodging the stream of staff blasts that flew down to meet him.

As he closed in, the pegasus tried to dodge out of his way, but Jack flipped over and stretched his neck out, grabbing the tip of the Jaffa's wing with his teeth. The two of them cartwheeled round in the air, the Jaffa screaming in pain, before they tore apart and the pegasus fell to the ground minus two feathers.

Jack pulled out of the roll and steadied himself, spitting the feathers out of his mouth, but he didn't get long to catch his breath as the unicorn was already on his hooves again and firing staff blasts up into the air. Jack shot some suppression fire down at them from the P-90 strapped to his side, but his advantage was gone, so he dove back to the ground toward the cluster of stone columns that his team were now sheltering behind. The other three were already holding the Jaffa back with sustained fire and Jack landed behind a pillar in line with them. As soon as he was in cover, the staff blasts returned, tearing chunks out of the columns above them.

"Thanks, Colonel," Sam called over as he landed. "That's raised our odds a bit."

"Yeah, I hate a fair fight," Jack replied as he hunched down and pulled the spent magazine from his gun.

"Where'd they come from?" Daniel said. "Do you think they've got a ship somewhere?"

"I was wondering that too," Jack said.

"Are you considering commandeering their transportation?" Teal'c asked as he pulled back to reload his weapon.

"I am," Jack replied. He leaned out and fired another few bursts at the two Jaffa, forcing them down behind their cover again.

"We're not going to be able to take them out here," Sam said. "They've got too much cover to hide behind. We can push them back, but we'll run out of ammo eventually."

"Should we surrender?" Daniel said.

Jack poked his head out again but put pulled back as a staff blast clipped the side of the column. "I'm not sure these two would accept a surrender," he said. "They're more the shoot first, ask…"

The staff blasts stopped.

"…questions?" Jack said, poking his head cautiously out again and looking toward the enemy position in confusion. No fire came this time; instead he saw the Jaffa scrambling to their hooves and galloping away from them at a dead run.

"Maybe they realised who we are," Jack said, "and decided to cut their losses."

"I don't think so," Daniel said, standing up slowly, eyes fixed on something behind them. Becoming aware of a low rumbling sound, Jack turned round as well.

"Oh," he said, his eyes going wide. Over the top of the wall behind them he could see a great wall of fire rising up into the sky, the flames burning white-hot, and coming straight toward them.

"Holy Hannah," Carter said, seeing it too. "Where'd that come from?"

"Run!" Jack shouted.

The four of them scrambled to their hooves and followed the Jaffa, heading away from the advancing wall of flame as fast as they could run. They vaulted over a wall and wove their way through the interior of another building, then the ruins cleared and they found themselves running down a narrow street, the two Jaffa visible nearly a hundred metres ahead of them, making a break for the still-distant edge of the city.

Jack leapt up onto a large rock as they passed, using it to push himself up into the air. He climbed for a few seconds, then turned to get a better look at the firestorm. It was at least five hundred metres across, nearly a hundred high, and it was steadily advancing on the team. He could feel the heat radiating off it already, even though it was still a long way off, so he swooped back down to join his team on the ground.

"That's no brushfire!" he shouted over the growing roar of the flames. "This planet really doesn't want us here!"

"Can we get round it?" Sam asked.

"Negative," Jack replied. "It's moving too fast. And it's too hot to fly over, so don't bother suggesting that either."

Another stone wall appeared in front of them and they vaulted over it, Daniel stumbling as he landed.

"How long's this going to go on for?" he shouted.

"I don't know!" Sam said. "It could keep burning for days in theory!"

"Then we need to find shelter!" Jack said. "Hope we can wait it out!"

"Or not," Daniel said, pointing ahead of them. The two Jaffa had slowed, and appeared to be arguing about something, looking repeatedly back over their shoulders at SG-1. Then the younger one, the unicorn, slowed down and turned, galloping back toward them. He skidded to a halt just in front of them and started running with them, pulling up alongside Jack.

"We have a ship!" he shouted. "You can shelter there!"

"And why would we want to do that?" Jack said.

"You will die out here if you do not," the Jaffa replied.

"He's got a point," Daniel said.

Jack looked round at Sam and Teal'c. Sam gave him a confused look. He looked behind them at the advancing wall of fire; they probably had a minute at most before they were caught up in it.

"Any port in a storm, I guess," he said. He turned and nodded to the Jaffa. "Alright then, lead on, Macduff."

"My name is Koresh," the Jaffa said.

"Right. How silly of me."

The four of them followed the Jaffa as he pushed on ahead of them before veering right at a fork. They followed him round the corner, and ahead of them they saw the other Jaffa, waiting for them next to a collapsed building. As they got closer, he pressed a button on a device strapped to his leg, and a cargo ship decloaked next to him, its hull half-embedded in the remains of the building.

The ship's door opened and the two Jaffa ran inside. Jack stopped to make sure his team got in safely, then leapt through the door just as the flames engulfed the ship. He hit the button to close the door, stopped to beat out a bit of fire that had caught on his shoulder, then followed the others into the ship.

"Well, that was close," he said, brushing the dirt off his jacket.

"Uh, Jack…" Daniel said. Jack looked up to find two staff weapons levelled at him and his team.

"Drop your weapons," the older Jaffa said. "Immediately."

"Right," Jack said with a sigh. "Should've seen that coming."

A minute later, their weapons and equipment confiscated, Jack and the others were herded into the cargo bay. He turned and marched back to the door, but the young Jaffa was blocking his way, a triumphant smile on his face.

"And we were getting on so well," Jack said.

"Quiet," Koresh snapped. "You will remain here until told otherwise. The cargo bay has a magic dampening field," he added, looking over at Carter, "so do not try anything."

With one final smirk at O'Neill, the Jaffa hit a button by the door and it slammed shut between them, locking SG-1 in.

"That's fine!" Jack shouted. "We'll just be in here, enacting our cunning escape plan!"

"We have a plan?" Sam asked.

"No," Jack replied, "but they don't know that."

He walked back into the room, taking a look around at their prison but not really expecting any surprises given how many cargo ships he'd been in over the years. The floor didn't look as comfortable as the grass he'd been resting on previously, but at least they'd have air conditioning now.

"Well if it's any help," Daniel said with a smile, "I've found us a ship."

Author's Note

Writing this chapter was a bit odd; as it just felt so at odds with the setting for the Jaffa characters to appear to stand a chance against SG-1.

Also, writing combat sequences is fun.

6 - Subversion

Celestia woke before sunrise the next morning, dragged herself out of bed and walked over to her dresser. For a long while she just stood there, staring at herself in the mirror. She'd barely managed to get any sleep that night, and it showed; her eyes were red and sore, and she was having trouble even keeping them open.

I hope this ends soon, she thought. The strain of trying to comprehend everything that was happening was draining her of all her energy, to the point that she no longer looked forward to raising the sun in the morning. It took so much effort for her to do so now, and she knew that the sunrise would just be followed by a long day of keeping secrets from her subjects. She was honestly amazed that she'd managed to keep her tiredness hidden for so long.

After slowly getting dressed, she turned, took a deep breath, and made her way out onto the balcony. She gazed idly down into the city, toward the hospital where the mysterious creature lay unconscious, and wondered if today would finally bring any answers about it. She also remembered her promised appointment, and hoped that Starburst had had a better night than she had.

The streets of Canterlot were already busy with early risers heading to work, their presence a reminder that she couldn't wait forever; even a small delay in the sunrise would attract questions before long. She turned to face the distant eastern horizon and closed her eyes, took some deep breaths as she warmed up her magic, then reached out to the heavens.

She opened her eyes again, scanning the horizon in confusion. Something was wrong.

Closing her eyes, she tried again. She reached out, calling to the sun with her magic, but for the first time in her long life she got no response. She pushed harder and harder, trying to find the sun, but the emptiness she felt was absolute. She couldn't feel the sun anywhere.

She opened her eyes, staring in bewilderment at the sky, and it finally registered just how dark it was. She stumbled back into her bedroom and looked up at the clock to make sure she hadn't woken up early, but the time was exactly what it was supposed to be.

"Sister!" Celestia turned at the voice and saw Luna landing on the balcony, her eyes filled with worry.

"You too?" she asked, walking out into the open air again.

"Yes," Luna said. "I tried to lower the moon, but…"

"But it's gone."

"No, it is still there," Luna said, pointing into the sky. Celestia looked where she was pointing and saw the moon still sitting in the sky, about an hour's travel above the western horizon.

The two of them stared in silence at the moon as the situation sank in. There was no chance now of hiding this and hoping it blew over; with the sky dark and the moon plainly visible, the population below would start noticing the problem very soon. Celestia's mind raced, her imagination filling with worst-case scenarios. The loss of the daily cycle could mean nothing good for the planet.

"What do we do?" she said.

"I… I don't know," Luna said. "We are powerless. If we cannot find a way to repair this, then…"

"I know," Celestia said, sitting and staring down at the busy streets below. "The time for secrecy is gone. Maybe, with help, we can figure this out. But we must look to the safety of our subjects first. How long can they survive like this?"

There was a knock at the door.

"Princess Celestia!" came a voice from the other side. The two sisters looked at each other in confusion, then Celestia went over to the door and opened it. A guard pegasus was waiting on the other side, her helmet under her foreleg and her back rising and falling rapidly as she took deep breaths.

"Sorry to disturb you, your Highness… er, Highnesses," she said when she saw them both there, "but there's a problem at the hospital, which—"

"Oh no," Celestia said, turning and looking at her sister. The coincidences were becoming impossible to ignore now. Had they been wrong? Was the creature behind this after all? The look on Luna's face showed that she was thinking the same. The two of them turned and galloped out onto the balcony, leaping out into the night air and swooping down to the hospital.

Ten minutes earlier.

"You're here early," a doctor said as he walked past. Starburst looked round, nodding vaguely in response.

"I've got an appointment with the princesses," he said. "I wanted to make sure I didn't miss it."

"Right you are," the doctor said, continuing on and going back to reading from the clipboard he was carrying. "I'd hate to keep those two waiting. Dark morning today," he commented as he disappeared round the corner.

Starburst nodded, turning back to the window he had been staring out of for the past hour. He hadn't had a moment's sleep last night; he was too preoccupied worrying over what he'd heard the princesses talking about the previous evening. And now, as the sky outside remained stubbornly dark, his fear only grew.

After overhearing their conversation, he'd gone straight home and looked up some observational data for the sun and moon from Space Command's public archives. Sure enough, the motion of the heavens had been noticeably off for over four months now. Erratic orbital speeds, above average variance in sunrise times: all of it pointed to a very serious problem with the magic tied to their motion, and the princesses had been hiding it for ages!

He looked over his shoulder at the door at the end of the corridor, where two guards were still standing. Was the creature behind that door responsible for what was happening? And if so, why was it doing this? Starburst knew that if this was the creature's doing, then he had played a part as well by convincing the princesses not to destroy it when it landed. He wanted to help fix this if he could, but first he needed answers, and that meant he needed to get through that door.

He couldn't just wait for the princesses, though; it was clear now that they were keeping things from him. They probably thought they were protecting him, or something stupid like that, but he didn't need protecting. He just needed to know, and if they weren't going to tell him then he'd have to find his own way.

Fortunately, he had such a way. It was a ridiculous plan and he knew it, thought up while lying awake at four in the morning, but it was incredibly simple. All he had to do was talk to some ponies in the street, then wait and hope that luck was on his side.

A few minutes later, both to his relief and surprise, a security guard ran past behind him.

"What is it, Sergeant?" one of guards on the door asked as he passed.

"There's a huge crowd outside the hospital!" the guard answered, stopping in front of them and saluting. "Seems word got out about the patient, and they're all trying to get in and have a look."

"Oh great," the other guard said. "How much do they know?"

"Don't know, sir. I'm on my way to help secure the entrance now."

"Good luck," the first guard said. "We'll stay here and watch the door. Oh, and make sure the princesses know about this."

So close, Starburst thought, as the runner went on his way. This would get ugly fast if the princesses came now, but he knew this was too important to give up on. He continued to wait, the seconds passing like hours, until a second stroke of luck came. There was a loud crash at the end of the corridor, and a young pegasus and gryphon skidded round the corner, the contents of the trolley they'd just knocked over scattering across the floor in front of them.

"Told you there'd be an open window!" the pegasus said.

"Look! Guards!" the gryphon shouted, pointing at the door at the far end. "Bet 'e's in there!"

"Get out of here, you two!" one of the guards shouted as they approached.

"You can't stop us," the pegasus sneered. "It's a free country!"

"Right, that's it," the guard said. The two intruders reached the door, but the guards tackled them to the floor with ease and dragged them off, kicking and screaming, back the way they came by the scruffs of their necks. The gryphon's shrieks echoed along the hallway and all eyes turned to watch them as they were escorted away, so nopony noticed the door slowly swinging shut behind Starburst.

Starburst locked the door quietly behind him. He paused, listening, making sure nopony was coming, then he turned and saw the creature for the first time.

It was hideous. That was the only way he could think to describe it. It looked like something out of a horror story. He had no trouble imagining that this creature was to blame for what was happening, and couldn't understand why the princesses were so willing to trust it.

"How are you doing this?" he said, leaning forward and staring at the creature's unconscious face. "And why?"

He stood again, pacing back and forth across the room. "Did you come to destroy us? Is that it? You come down, drive us to extinction, loot the planet, and then leave?"

He walked round the to other side of the bed and went over to the ward's window, pulling the curtains open. The sun still wasn't rising, and he knew enough to see that if it never did, that would be the end of Equestria as he knew it. Crops would die, animals would die, and then soon after, so would everypony else.

"What I don't get, is why you came down here at all. Why not just watch silently from orbit as we all die and then come to claim your prize?"

He turned and faced the creature, lying still on its bed, and tried to perceive what its motives could be. Maybe the plan had gone wrong. Maybe the crash was an accident, and it had never even meant to come down here. It'd probably never intended to reveal itself to them. There was a strange humour to it; the creature had come here to kill them, but now it was the one dying, lying helpless in a hospital, vulnerable…

Starburst felt a rush to his head, and suddenly things started to become clear. He felt a sense of purpose well up inside himself as he realised the opportunity in front of him.

He laughed unsteadily. "I wanted to do something to help," he said. "It didn't occur to me that it would be this simple." He walked round to the front of the bed again. "It's funny when you think about it; you came all this way, went to so much effort, and now it'll be ridiculously easy for me to kill you."

He pulled the IV drip out from under the creature's scales, then picked up the drip's stand with his magic and started turning it over and over in the air, looking for its sharpest point.

"It's a shame," he said as he examined his improvised weapon. "I genuinely was excited to get to study you. But you've made your intentions clear now, even if I'm the only one who sees it. I guess we'll just have to study your corpse instead."

He lifted the stand into the air and looked down at the creature, wondering how best to get it through the armour plating. He looked at the creature's legs, where they had managed to get the IV through before; he looked at the soft underbelly, and at the neck, where he guessed he was most likely to hit the nervous system; he looked at the head...

His heart stopped. The creature's eyes were open. It was staring at him, and it was smiling.

"You're... you're awake," Starburst stammered, the stand clattering to the floor.

The creature leapt up, all sign of injury gone. It reached out with a hoof and grabbed Starburst by the neck, throwing him across the room at the far wall. His back hit plaster, and he fell to the floor, but an instant later the creature was on him again, lifting him up and pining him to the wall. It butted him once in the head, and the room started spinning, shifting in and out of focus.

"You're no princess," it said in a deep, rumbling voice, looking him over, "but you will do nicely."

"You... you can understand us?" Starburst gasped.

"I know more about this planet than you realise," it said, its voice sickeningly smooth. "This is a remarkable world, and your kind are truly unique. So advanced, yet so primitive. So..." It leaned in, staring Starburst down with its narrow black eyes and took a long, deep breath through its nose. "So… versatile."

Starburst tried to force himself loose, but the creature pushed down even harder on his neck. He could feel its armoured skin digging into his throat.

"They'll know," he gasped. "If you kill me, they'll know you did it."

"Why would I kill you?" the creature said. "This isn't how I planned to do this exactly, but I'm not going to waste the opportunity now you've so helpfully walked right into my grasp."

"What are you planning?" Starburst said. "What do you want from us?"

The creature laughed. "I have no need to explain myself to you," it said. "You'll understand everything soon enough, when you join with me."

"I'll never help you!" Starburst wheezed.

The creature grinned. "Oh, I assure you that you will."

Celestia and Luna glided down the street to the front entrance of the hospital. A crowd, a few hundred strong, had gathered at the door, and more were arriving by the minute, drawn in by the commotion. A line of security and city guards had formed at the base of the stairs leading up to the front entrance, and they were doing their best to keep the crowd under control.

The princesses landed behind the line, and a guard ran up to them.

"We don't know how," he said, "but they know. They're demanding that we allow them in. What should we do?"

"It's it secure?" Luna asked.

"Should be," the guard said. "Last I heard, there were still two guards on the door to its ward."

Celestia stared through the glass doors into the hospital, where she could see doctors and nurses staring in confusion at the crowds. She wondered if one of them had accidentally let slip what was going on, although she had other suspicions. Given his state of mind, Starburst could so easily have given the game away without realising what he was doing. But placing blame was futile. They had to focus on the current situation now.

"We need to hold the crowd back," she said, "and hope they lose interest."

"What's going on in there?" somepony shouted from the crowd.

"Everypony please return home!" Luna said, addressing the gathering throng. "Your presence is impeding the function of the hospital, and putting patients' health at risk!"

"We know you're hiding something in there!" another shouted.

"We have a right to know!" the first one added.

"That wasn't a meteor last month, was it?" There was a murmur of assent from the rest of the crowd.

"I don't think that's going to work, sister," Celestia said.

"You try then," Luna replied. Celestia frowned, but stepped forward to face the crowd.

"Please do not worry," she said, raising her voice so all could hear but trying to keep it as relaxed as possible. "None of you are in any danger. We only ask that—"

"If nothing bad's happening, then where's the sun?" somepony shouted.

"Hey, yeah!" another said. "What gives?"

The chatter in the crowd increased and turned uneasy, as more and more of them became aware of the dark sky. The crowd was still growing, a thousand strong already, as more and more came out into the street and sought answers from those already there. Most had no idea what was going on, but the few at the front – likely the first to hear about the alien – were pushing the news around as fast as they could. The princesses were losing control and they knew it.

Celestia wanted to explain everything to them, but she needed time to prepare if it was ever going to make sense. She only wished they'd calm down and give her a chance, but the fire of rumour and paranoia was already spreading through the crowd, and it was going to take a miracle to get them to wait.

The door swung open behind them, and Celestia turned to see one of the door guards run out and stop in front of them.

"Princesses," he panted. "The creature... it's dead."

"What?" Luna shouted. "How?"

"I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, your Highnesses, it was our fault. We left the door for two minutes, and..."

He turned, looking back into the hospital. "He was in there, too," he said, pointing to Starburst, who was being escorted out by the other guard, his head bowed.

Celestia stared at him in disbelief. He had wanted so much to see the alien; why would he kill it?

"Starburst, what happened?" she said as he emerged. The astronomer lifted his head and the two looked into each other's eyes, and immediately Celestia could tell that something was wrong. He looked exactly the same, but his entire manner seemed to have changed. He no longer carried himself like the pony she had been talking to the night before, and he looked at her like they had never met.

"What's going on?" she said.

For a moment, his eyes glowed bright white. The guards took a step back from him in surprise.

"Princesses, I beg understanding," he said, his voice deep and echoing. "My former body was dying. The one you call Starburst Nova came to me, seeking help, and he offered his form to me that I may convey a message. Time is of the essence, as I am sure you know."

"Where is Starburst?" Luna said.

"I am sorry," he said, shaking his head. "He needs time to adapt to the blending. Perhaps soon." He turned his head to the sky, and then to the gathered crowd, some of whom were watching them in confusion. "But what I have to say cannot wait."

There were two stone plinths flanking the staircase. Before the guards could stop him he leapt up on one of them and turned to address the crowd.

"Citizens of Equestria, hear me!" he, shouted, his voice carrying out over the noise of the crowd. One by one, their eyes turned to him.

"I bring a message of grave importance," he continued as the chattering petered out. "Your planet is in danger. The magic which sustains this world is weakening, and without it Equestria will wither and die within a generation. That is, unless action is taken immediately!"

Confused murmurs spread through the crowd.

"Who are you?" somepony shouted. "What've you done?"

"I have not done anything," he said, holding a hoof to his heart, "and nor is anypony else to blame. Your princesses have kept this from you until now because they hoped they could solve this problem themselves and continue to protect you as they have done for so long. I commend them for their efforts, but I regret to inform you that this is now beyond even their capacity to heal. This is clear for all to see." He pointed up at the black sky, and all eyes looked up, frightened whispers filling the air again.

"But you need not worry!" he shouted, and his audience feel silent. Celestia noticed yet more emerging from their houses, coming over to see who the mysterious voice was.

"I sensed your world's distress," he said, "and I have come to reawaken the magic of Equestria and ensure this great nation's continuing future! I have come to promise that from now on this world will always be under my protection!"

"Who are you?" somepony shouted again. "What can you do? You're just one pony!"

"Who am I?" he said with a smile. "I will show you who I am."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and a small point of light formed at the tip of his horn. It slowly expanded until its light was filling the street, and Celestia had to shield her eyes from the glare. Then he threw his head back, and the magic erupted from his horn, streaking away into the sky until it was lost among the stars.

Everypony watched the sky in anticipation. The crowd had fallen silent, and even Celestia found herself holding her breath, awaiting whatever was coming.

Then the ground shook, a low rumble filling her ears. A layer of dust rained down from the hospital wall behind them, and birds scattered from the trees lining the road. Celestia had to stick a leg out to stop herself losing her balance, and she looked down at her hooves, where small stones were shaking free from the cracks in the pavement.

"Sister," Luna said, placing a hoof under Celestia's chin and lifting her head up toward the sky. The two of them watched as, slowly, the stars began to rotate past overhead. The crowd, eyes still fixed on the heavens, turned to look to the east, at the far end of the street, where the stars were rising from. Excited murmurs turned to shouts of amazement as the sky began to brighten.

"I am the one who has come to save your world from darkness!" the being inhabiting Starburst's body shouted, his booming voice carrying even over the noise of the crowd. "I am the one who will open the heavens to you and bring you to glory! I am Equestria's redemption! I am Ra, and I give you light!"

The sun burst above the rooftops, its light and warmth flooding the street. A loud roar of applause broke out across the crowd and they surged forward, the guards forgetting their role and becoming lost in the throng. They surrounded Ra, pushing the stunned princesses back away from him, and he climbed down into their midst and led them away to shouts of thanks and joy.

Slowly the crowd began to disperse, running and flying away in all directions to spread the news. When the street went quiet again Ra was nowhere to be seen, and the princesses were left staring, dumbstruck, at the sky.

"What just happened?" Luna asked.

Celestia sank to the ground, overwhelmed. "I… don't know," she said.

7 - The Enemy

"How long?" Jack said.

Sam looked up. "Until what?"

"Anything." Jack was lying on his back on an empty cargo crate, staring at the ceiling. Time was passing infuriatingly slowly, and playing with the strap on his watch was fast losing its charm.

"Well, we've been in here about two hours," Sam said. "So... I guess that doesn't really help us."

Jack rolled off the crate and onto his hooves, stretching his neck and walking a lap around the cargo hold. His team were dotted around, looking equally bored. Sam was lying on a crate on the other side of the hold, and Teal'c was standing in the corner staring stoically at nothing in particular. Daniel, despite having been offered a turn sleeping, was sitting on the floor looking at some photos of the temple that the Jaffa hadn't bothered to confiscate.

"Ugh," Jack said. "I miss being shot at."

Daniel looked up, adjusting his glasses. "Not sure I can say the same thing."

"You know what I mean. At least if I'm being shot at I've got something to do. In here… I'm a caged bird, Daniel. I need to sing."

Sam laughed. "I'm happy to be out of that firestorm," she said.

"Yeah, on that we agree," Jack replied. He looked up at the ceiling. "Do you think it's still going?"

"No," Sam replied. "From the sound, I think it let up about ten minutes after we arrived. Maybe it stopped once it was clear we were safe."

"You think this was another attack?" Jack said. "Bit of a stretch, don't you think?" Sam shrugged.

"No, I agree," Daniel said, getting up and walking over to the colonel. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Thank you," Jack said, but Daniel shook his head.

"Not with you," he said. "I've been going over the inscriptions again, trying to find anything that matches what we've been seeing. But for the ancient Equestrians this world was a paradise, ideal for pony life and safe under the protection of Ra. It wasn't a tidally locked planet half-covered in desert and prone to wildfires."

"I agree also," Teal'c said, joining them. "This does not resemble the Tau'ri of Jaffa legend. As Daniel Jackson said, it does not make sense."

"It's almost like we're on the wrong planet," Daniel added.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You think we are?" he asked, but Daniel shook his head.

"If we are, then the temple is too."

There was a faint rushing noise from outside the ship. The four of them looked round at the bulkhead; it rattled slightly, but showed no signs of giving way.

"Another firestorm?" Jack asked.

"Sounds like it," Sam said. "The ship's hull's designed to be able to withstand atmospheric entry, so it should hold up for a long time, even if the storms keep coming this frequently."

"That's good news, then," Jack said, turning and walking around the room again, stretching his wings out and giving them an idle flap. "I guess we can just sit out whatever's going on out there in here, and wait for our new friends to take us home with them."

"Take us back to Zipacna?" Sam said. "So he can imprison and torture us?"

Jack shrugged. "We've escaped from prisons before. Hell, we've escaped from being imprisoned and stranded in another galaxy before. I think we can handle old Zippy."

"Fair point," Daniel said, going back to where he'd been sitting. "Although I'm not sure what I should take from the fact that both those times we were 'rescued' by evil mass-murderers."

"Also a fair point," Jack replied. "But at least we should be leaving soon."

He turned and started to walk back to his cargo crate, figuring he might as well claim his turn for a rest break. Their captors had been quiet up front – they hadn't even come in to gloat yet – and they weren't showing any signs of taking off, so for all he knew they could easily be here for a long time.

It was beginning to look like he'd have to declare their original mission a bust, though. They hadn't found any sign of their objective, and now they were under attack and imprisoned by enemy forces. It was a small consolation that he doubted Zipacna would have any more luck than they had.

"Alright," he said, "I'm going to get some shut-eye. Wake me if anything interesting happens."

But just as he sat down, the door opened; the team got cautiously to their hooves, and watched as the young unicorn Jaffa – Koresh – entered the hold. He closed the door behind himself and walked into their midst, a self-satisfied smile on his face.

"Now when I said I missed being shot at…"

"SG-1," the Jaffa said, looking round at them. "Warriors from Earth, and sworn enemies of the Goa'uld."

"Always nice to meet a fan," Jack replied.

"And you are Colonel O'Neill." Koresh turned to face him. "For your crimes, all Goa'uld wish to see you dead."

"Well, isn't that nice," Jack said. "I imagine you do too, after our little tangle earlier. How's your head?"

Koresh scowled.

"Careful, Colonel," Sam said.

"Oh, don't mind us, Major," Jack replied, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "I'm just making friends. Isn't that right, Korra?"

"Koresh!" the Jaffa growled. "Do you make a habit of mocking your captors?"

"Oh, yeah, he does it all the time," Daniel said, but koresh ignored him, staying focussed on Jack.

"I would kill you myself," he said, circling around the colonel, "but my reward will be so much greater if I leave that honour for my lord. Your lives are safe for the moment."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "So what brings you in here? Come to offer us room service?"

"No, I have come to observe you. If you had your enemy under your control, would you not study them?"

Jack took a small step back away from the circling Jaffa, watching him carefully. Behind the usual smugness, there was an odd look in Koresh's eyes; something about him seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

"You're going to try to get information out of us?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Jack said. "We won't tell you squat."

"Of course you won't," Koresh said. "Weaker ponies than you have remained loyal even under torture. I simply wish to understand you."

Jack squinted at him, confused. "I'm flattered, but—"

Koresh stopped suddenly, staring intently, inquisitively at him. "Your name is legend among the Jaffa. You have faced thousands of Jaffa and survived. You fight against gods, and still you live. How?"

Jack shrugged. "Luck, mostly. I've got a pretty good team, though."

Koresh looked round at the rest of the team, who were watching the conversation with curiosity. "Yes," he said, "without them you would certainly be dead, no doubt."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Jack said. "But yeah, I..." He stopped and returned the Jaffa's stare. "What's this all about? Where are you going with this?"

Koresh took a few steps back away from the colonel. There was something almost respectful about his stance.

"We are both warriors," he said. "I wish to see how you fight. I challenge you."

Koresh gave a bow. Jack took a few steps back himself.

"Teal'c?" he said. "Is this normal Jaffa treatment of prisoners?"

"It is not," Teal'c replied. "But if he has issued a formal challenge, it would be a sign of great disrespect to refuse. He may decide to kill you out of spite."

Jack stood for a moment, staring at the bowed Jaffa in silent consideration. While he did enjoy disrespecting the enemy, the peculiarity of their situation was stirring his curiosity.

"You're not seriously going to do this, are you?" Sam asked. Jack shrugged.

"I've done stupider things," he said. "Besides, he already said he wants me alive."

He stepped forward again, Koresh standing up again as he approached.

"Alright," he said. "I'm going to have some stern words with your supervisor later, but sure."

"My money's on the Jaffa," Daniel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied. Jack gave the two of them a disparaging look, then turned to face his opponent.

"No wings, no magic, first to draw blood," Koresh said.

"Sure, whatever," Jack replied, shrugging.

"Colonel," Sam protested, stepping toward them, but Jack waved her back.

"It's fine, Major," Jack said, turning to look at her. "Believe me, this isn't the worst I've—"

He spotted Koresh out of the corner of his eye, lunging across the room at him. It was too late to dodge, but he managed to deflect the Jaffa's hooves away from his face and use his momentum to throw him across the room. Koresh rolled to a stop and sprung up again, the two of them staring each other down across the circle of the ring platform.

"I wasn't ready," Jack said.

"What better time to attack?" Koresh replied.

The two of them moved slowly around the rings, eyes fixed on each other. Jack watched the Jaffa for any slight movements, making sure he didn't miss any more surprise attacks.

"You won't make any friends with stunts like that," he said. He took a swipe at Koresh, but the Jaffa jumped back, watching his hoof carefully.

"Irrelevant," Koresh said, giving a return kick, which Jack just managed to avoid. "If I am in battle, then my purpose is to destroy my enemy."

"Then I'm glad you're not planning to kill me," Jack said. He gave another kick, but Koresh pre-empted it and grabbed hold of his hoof, twisting it round hard. Jack grunted in pain, and had to let his body move with the hoof to stop anything breaking. His wings shot out reflexively, trying to steady him, and he landed hard on his side in a tangle of feathers.

Koresh was on top of him moments later. He pulled his wings in and kicked upwards at random to try and block the Jaffa from hitting him.

"You attacked in the ruins... while I was distracted," Koresh grunted as he tried repeatedly to make contact.

"I guess we're even then."

Their hooves caught each other mid-swing, and Koresh was knocked backwards with a clang of horseshoes. Jack rolled out from underneath and jumped up; Koresh was already standing up again, and Jack lunged for him, knocking him over sideways. The two rolled across the floor, until Jack brought them to a halt with himself on top. He lifted his forehoof, lining it up to hit Koresh in the nose, but then felt the Jaffa's hind legs close around his tail and pull hard. He froze, wincing from the pain, and Koresh immediately wrapped his forelegs round Jack's torso, pulling him over and rolling into the centre of the hold.

Regaining his senses, Jack stuck a hoof out to stop the roll, then butted Koresh in the head, knocking the Jaffa back onto the floor. He dropped his body weight down on top of Koresh's hind legs, and tried to get a hold of the Jaffa's forelegs as well so he could get the fight over as quickly as possible.

"Nice stunt," Jack said, "but what was the point? You're still not in control."

Koresh smiled. "Yes I am."

The comment caught Jack off guard; he tried not to let it distract him, but in that brief moment as he wondered what it meant, Koresh pulled his forelegs free, and used one to hit a device strapped to the other. Jack then saw what the Jaffa meant; he had rolled them into the middle of the room, right onto the edge of the ring platform.

Jack jumped up as the covering panels slid back; Koresh rolled out from under him just in time, but Jack was too slow and the rings caught him in the side of the head as they burst out of the floor, throwing him across the room. He slid to a halt by the door, his cheek stinging, and his head spinning, and when the rings cycled through and filled the room with light he thought for a moment that he was blacking out. But then they descended back into the floor and the cargo hold went quiet again. He stood up, massaging his bruised cheek, and felt a drop of blood running down his muzzle from his nostril.

"Ow," he said.

"Colonel, are you okay?" Sam called, cantering over to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, nothing's broken," he said. "Don't try and put a splint on me."

Jack walked over to the young Jaffa, who was also picking himself up off the ground.

"Now we're even," he said. "Nice trick with the rings. I'll have to remember that one."

Koresh looked silently at him, confused.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked. "Never received a complement before?"

"Not from an enemy," the Jaffa said. Jack laughed.

"Well, I did just hit my head pretty hard," he said. "But yeah, you're a good fighter. I'll watch out for you when we get round to our escape plan."

"You still think you can escape?" Koresh said.

Jack shrugged. "It's what we do."

"So what now?" Daniel asked. The two of them looked round as the archaeologist walked over toward them.

"Careful, Danny boy," Jack said. "He might decide to fight you next."

"No, seriously," Daniel said, looking at Koresh. "Did you really just come in here to pick fights with us? What's going on?"

The door to the hold opened again, and everypony looked round as the second Jaffa entered. He stood in the doorway, staring sternly at them.

"You are correct, Doctor Jackson," he said. "My name is Ro'shur, and I wish to speak to you all."

Teal'c stirred in the corner, and walked over to the new arrival.

"I recognise you," he said. "You were once first prime to Lord Zipacna. I have seen you at his side and in battle."

Ro'shur stiffened up, his feathers bristling, as Teal'c approached. "And all Jaffa know who you are, Shol'va," he said. "You are the one who betrayed your god and joined with your master's enemy. I assure you that the only reason I allowed you onto my ship in the first place was for the reward I would receive on giving you to Lord Zipacna, and I would not be standing before you now without very good reason."

The two of them stared at each other. Teal'c raised an eyebrow.

"I take it you're Koresh's master," Jack said, walking up and pushing in between them. "You make a habit of letting your subordinates beat up prisoners?"

"You seemed willing to allow him," Ro'shur replied.

Jack shrugged. "I was bored."

Ro'shur laughed. He closed the door to the hold behind him, then went further into the room, walking round among them.

"Under other circumstances I would have left you here to rot," he said. "However, my student was insistent that he—"

"Do not criticise me again," Koresh snapped. "It's only because of your order that—"

"Your reasons are not important!" Ro'shur shouted, raising a hoof to silence his student. Then he turned to Jack, lowering his voice again. "I chose to let him because I was curious to see what you would do. On your own it seems you are a fair match for Koresh, but as a team you could easily have overpowered him and used the rings to escape."

"You actually wanted us to escape?" Sam said.

Jack looked round at her and shook his head. "No, we all know what the rest of the planet's like. We were probably lucky to last four hours out there last time." He looked back at Ro'shur. "He wanted to see how stupid we were."

"Indeed," Ro'shur replied. "My suspicions have now been confirmed. It would seem that we have something in common."

"Of course," Sam exclaimed. "You're trapped here as well, aren't you?"

Ro'shur nodded. Jack looked round, confused.

"Major?" he said.

Think about it, Colonel," she replied. "Given the way their ship was stuck in the ruins, they must have crashed here. I haven't heard any engine noise either the whole time we've been on board, which must mean that the reason they haven't taken off to take us back to Zipacna is because they can't!"

Ro'shur nodded. "She is correct," he said. "We arrived in this system approximately a week ago, but no sooner than we had reached the planet, a solar flare hit our ship and destroyed most of our vital systems. We still have heat and air, but…" – he waved at the rear of the ship, at the door behind which the ship's engines were housed – "…our engines are beyond repair. We were able to land using emergency thrusters…"

"But you won't be taking off any time soon," Jack said.

"We lost long-range communications as well," Koresh added.

"So, no calling for a rescue," Daniel said.

Jack looked round at the ship he had been assuming would be their way out of here, getting that annoying sinking feeling of watching a viable plan evaporating before his eyes.

"This is all fascinating," he said, looking back at Ro'shur, "but so what? Did you just want us to know exactly how screwed we are?"

"Not exactly," Ro'shur replied. "You have on multiple occasions since we captured you stated your intention to escape. Tell me, how do you intend to do this?"

Thrown by the fact that somepony was actually taking his jokes seriously, and unnerved by where this might be going, he looked round at the rest of his team for support. Sam and Daniel just shrugged unhelpfully.

"I figured something would turn up," he said, looking back at Ro'shur. "It usually does."

"Indeed," Ro'shur said. "Your luck is also legendary among the Jaffa. You have been captured, surrounded and outnumbered numerous times by Goa'uld forces."

"They killed us once, too," Jack added proudly.

Ro'shur gave him an odd look. "And yet, here you stand."

"To give you and your team even a chance to escape would result in severe punishment," Koresh said.

"But in this case," Ro'shur added, "our only other option is certain death."

Jack just managed to resist the urge to laugh out loud. "You can't be serious," he said. "You want us to help you escape?"

"Would you rather just wait in here to die?" Koresh asked.

"Okay, you've got a point there," Jack said, "but let's say for the sake of argument that we do miraculously find a way off this planet, and we decide to take you with us. What's to stop you just turning round and capturing us again?"

"Would you not do the same?" Koresh replied.

"He's got a point, too," Daniel said.

Ro'shur gave a nod. "You are right," he said. "You have no reason to trust us to aid you. That is why I wish to offer you an exchange."

Jack gave him a sceptical look. "What on earth do you have that we could want?" he said. "You've already told us you don't know how to get out of here."

"They do have our equipment," Daniel said, but Jack shook his head. They still had nowhere to go. Having their guns back would only allow them to fight their way out into a firestorm.

"We do not have much to offer," Ro'shur said, "but we can give you information. We can tell you everything we know about this planet and what has trapped us here. I will not hide anything, and if I know something which may help, I will tell you."

‘You'll tell us everything?" Sam asked, looking at him quizzically. "Just like that?" Ro'shur nodded.

"Aiding the enemy is treason," Teal'c said. "You are willing to betray your god?"

Koresh spun round to face Teal'c. Jack knew the look on his face well, and half expected the next word out of his mouth to be "Shol'va".

"It was our god who sent us here!" he shouted. "He did not order us here to die! If we do not return as he commanded us, we will have failed him anyway!"

"Koresh is correct," Ro'shur said. "It is our duty to return to Lord Zipacna and give him the information we have gained here. If there is any possibility of us doing so and we refuse, then we will have betrayed him."

"That's a fairly relaxed interpretation," Jack said uncertainly, "but okay. That just leaves one more thing."

"What happens to you?" Ro'shur asked. Jack nodded, and waited as the Jaffa considered the question, fully expecting them to say something vague or just lie about offering their freedom, but the response he got took him by surprise.

"If we escape," Ro'shur said, "then you will be given over to Lord Zipacna."

Jack stared, taken aback. "Wow."

"I am proposing a temporary alliance," Ro'shur said, "nothing more. Even so, it would be counterproductive to lie to you."

Jack closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, considering the options. The Jaffa's proposal still felt a bit one-sided, but the fact that they were willing to even consider working with their prisoners indicated that they really wanted to get off the planet. That made Jack think that it was probably in his team's best interests to find a way to leave as well for the same reasons. Better to be imprisoned somewhere where there were only Goa'uld trying to kill them, and the planet itself. In any case, these two Jaffa seemed to be willing to trust them. Perhaps they should do the same.

"We might as well," Daniel said, walking over.

"It can't be any worse than where we are now," Sam added. "Plus, I'd be interested to know what Zipacna knows about this planet."

Jack nodded. "What about you?" he said, turning to Teal'c.

"As you say, Colonel O'Neill," he replied, "any harbour in a maelstrom."

"Okay then…" Jack turned back to Ro'shur. "I guess I must've hit my head pretty hard, because I'm going to say yes. What can you tell us, then?"

Ro'shur led SG-1 into the cargo ship's forward section, Koresh following close behind. The firestorm had let up, and Jack could see the ruins and the perpetual evening sky again. He had no intention of going out there though – there were safer ways of finding out how frequent the storms were – but the increased feeling of freedom was still comforting.

"Where's our equipment?" he asked, looking round.

"Locked away," Koresh said. "You do not need your weapons."

Jack looked over at him. "You're okay with all this as well, are you?" he asked.

The young Jaffa looked quizzically at him for a few moments. "I have no wish to die here either," he said.

"That's not exactly what I meant," Jack said. "Ten minutes ago you wanted to beat me up, and now…"

"Uh, I hate to break this up," Sam said, "but we've got a lot to talk about if we're ever going to get out of here."

"Yeah, okay," Jack said. The peculiar group sat down in a circle on the floor, looking cautiously round at each other.

"So, where to begin," Jack said.

"Why did you come here?" Daniel suggested.

"Yeah, let's go with that."

The two Jaffa looked wordlessly at each other, then Koresh nodded and turned to address the group.

"Lord Zipacna sent us here to determine if this world was safe for recapture," he said. "We were to find out if the risk once posed by the artefact still remained."

"I'm guessing the answer to that one's a resounding 'no'," Jack said, and Koresh nodded.

"Wait a minute," Daniel said. "What artefact?"

Another sideways glance between the Jaffa. It was plainly obvious that they were uncomfortable with their new position, and Jack wondered how long they'd be able to keep it up.

"It is a relic from this world," Koresh explained after a few moments, "from the time of Ra, or perhaps even before. It is said to have contained enough power with in it that the pony who controlled it could rule the galaxy. But when he attempted to seize its power, he was rewarded for his arrogance with death."

"I have not heard of this artefact," Teal'c said, and Ro'shur shook his head.

"Nor had we, until Zipacna himself told me of it. It is orak—"

"Unspeakable," Daniel said, just before Jack could ask.

"Yes," Ro'shur said, nodding. "It does not even have a name. The Goa'uld do not speak lightly of something which once killed one of their own."

Jack and Sam glanced at each other. If this artefact existed then it was the best candidate they had found yet for the superweapon they were supposed to be looking for. This meant, of course, that they once more had orders to fulfil – orders that could get a bit awkward if their new allies had already completed their mission.

"So," Jack said cautiously, "did you ever find this artefact?"

The Jaffa paused, but the discomfort this time seemed deeper than just their choice of conversation partners.

"Yes and no," Koresh said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack asked.

Ro'shur stood up, walking back and forth behind the circle. "We did not find any evidence of an artefact," he said, "though we have not have much time to search. However, I am certain that we have seen what killed Ra."

"You've seen it?" Daniel said. "What do you mean? If it's not an artefact, and it's still here… what is it?"

Ro'shur stopped pacing and looked down at him. "You have seen it too," he said, "and you have felt its presence. We were all attacked by the firestorm."

"So that was an attack," Sam said, looking sideways at Jack.

"It's attacked us in other ways as well, actually," Daniel noted. "But that still doesn't answer my question. What is it? Where is it?"

Ro'shur raised an eyebrow. "Doctor Jackson," he said, "you are a linguist, are you not? Tell me, do you know what the Ra'shek is?"

Daniel stood up. "Uh, for one thing, it's a myth," he said. "It's either Ra's trapped spirit, or the force which killed him, although what could have stayed alive here for eight thousand years I don't—"

Ro'shur held a hoof up, silencing the doctor. "That is what the legend says it is," he said, "but that it not what it is. What does the word itself mean?"

Daniel blinked, then started pacing back and forth, thinking.

"Okay," he said, "it's a compound word. 'Shek' can mean many things: spirit, ghost, usually malevolent; on some worlds it's even synonymous with the minions of Sokar. 'Ra' is obviously a name, but it's also passed into common usage to mean—"

"Daniel?" Jack prompted him. He stopped pacing and looked up.

"Ra'shek," he said. "Sun demon."

Koresh shifted uneasily at the phrase.

"As I said," Ro'shur answered. "You have all seen it."

"Wait, wait," Sam said, getting to her hooves as well. "Are you seriously telling me that we're under attack from the sun?"

"It makes some sense," Jack said, standing up next to her. "I mean, solar flares, fire storms…"

"Mind control?"

"Okay, yeah, that is a little odd," Jack sat down again, deciding to let the astrophysicist handle this one.

"Major Carter," Ro'shur said, "when I first stepped through the Chappa'ai, I did not understand it. The thought that my god had the power to send warriors across the sky with a single step seemed impossible to me, but I knew it to be true."

"Yeah, but that's completely different!" Sam replied. "I know how the Stargates work! They do make sense! What you're telling me isn't just nonsensical, it's physically impossible! A star can't be alive; the heat would destroy any coherent structures too quickly!"

Ro'shur looked over at Koresh. "Show her," he said. Koresh nodded and stood up, closing his eyes in concentration and summoning his magic.

"Show her what?" Jack asked, but as he did a holographic screen appeared in front of them showing an image of the sun, its light filling the room.

"Bright," Daniel said, raising a hoof to shield his eyes. "Could you turn it down?"

Koresh nodded. His horn pulsed, and the image faded until the glare disappeared, leaving behind a clear image of the sun's swirling surface.

The room fell completely silent. Jack and Teal'c stood up, and the four of them stared in shock at the image in front of them.

"What—" Jack said, but he couldn't think of anything more to say that did the sight justice. There in front of him, clearly outlined in the patterns of currents and sunspots dotted across the sun, was the unmistakeable image of a pony's head.

Daniel gave his glasses a wipe, putting them on and walking up towards the ghostly image. "What is that?" he said. "Who is that?"

Author's Note

And with that a dozen theories were shot down.

Having said that, there's still a long way to go here. Now we know what the enemy is, however, the story is going to become considerably darker. You have been warned.

8 - Disease

Two years after first contact.

Celestia opened her eyes slowly, as a persistent ringing filled her ears; her alarm was going off. She swung a hoof out in its direction to silence it, knocking it – along with half of the contents of her bedside table – on the floor, then pulled herself out of bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes. She trudged out onto the balcony out of habit, and stood for a long while, starting out at the bright orange horizon where the sun was already rising.

Waking up just wasn't the same any more. Sure, she still had her duties to attend to during the day, but really any pony could handle those with the right training. The sun had been the one thing that was hers, and only hers, and without it calling out to her each morning as it waited to rise, waking up had become nothing more than another chore.

She went back inside and walked over to bathroom. Running a wash-basin full of cold water, she plunged her head under, waiting for the biting cold to kick-start her senses, before pulling it out again. She shook the water out of her fur and stared at herself in the mirror through bloodshot eyes.

"How did this happen?" she said.

As she got dressed she could hear sounds drifting up from the city below though the open windows. It was some consolation to her that her subjects were so happy, but no matter what happened she never felt able to share their joy. Ever since his arrival Ra's popularity had grown steadily, every single thing he did winning more and more hearts. But despite everything he had done, she could never trust him as long as he was looking at her through Starburst's eyes. He had done his best to try to persuade her, but she never felt convinced that Starburst had ever had any choice in what had happened.

Once she was ready, she left her chambers and headed down towards the dining hall for breakfast. Luna was waiting for her at the stairs.

"Good morning sister," she said, turning and following Celestia. "Did you sleep well?" Celestia gave her a withering look, so she moved on quickly.

"I have some good news for you, at least," she said.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Celestia sighed. "Did parliament finally reach a decision?"

"Yes, sister," Luna said, "and they decided that they do still officially support us, although the vote was close this time."

Celestia nodded. Canterlot's parliament had been in session for nearly three days debating whether or not to officially recognise Ra's authority in Equestria, but decisions like that were feeling more and more like formalities with no real weight as his support grew stronger. The population respected him so much that the idea of going against his will was almost unthinkable. For all practical purposes his word was law now.

"How close was it?" she asked.

"One hundred and eighty three to three hundred and fifty seven," Luna replied, "just short of the two-thirds majority they required to authorise the new law. The majority of our support came from non-pony members, as it happens, but–"

"Thank you," Celestia said, cutting her sister off as they entered the dining hall. Politics could wait until she had a full stomach. A waiter appeared carrying their usual breakfasts, but on seeing the look on Celestia's face he hurriedly put them down on the table and ran back into the kitchens. Celestia sat down and stared at her cereal.

"I don't know anymore, sister," she said. "Should I be worried?"

Luna sat down opposite her. "For my part," she said, "I can't say I blame them. The technology he has given us has advanced our science and medicine by centuries at least. Not to mention that he is charismatic, perceptive, attractive…"

Celestia glared at her sister. "Only because of the body he stole!" she shouted. "They'd see him differently if he was still that scaled monstrosity we pulled out of his ship two years ago!"

Luna waited a moment, letting her sister calm down before responding. "I know," she said. "In fact, I agree with you. I do not believe he has been honest with us about his plans and motives. What I am trying to say is that it is very difficult to fight against such a popular figure when all we have is supposition and gut feeling. Perhaps we need to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least for a while, even if just to get close enough that we can more fully understand him."

Celestia didn't respond. Luna rested her forelegs on the table and leaned forward. "I have to admit," she said, "that I sometimes worry we may not be giving him a fair chance. Are we taking this too personally?"

"You think I'm letting the fact that he stole the sun from me cloud my judgement?" Celestia said.

"I have lost something too," Luna replied. "And we still do not fully understand what happened."

Celestia didn't respond. She had thought about this herself countless times already, but still she couldn't think of any good response. Most of Equestria believed that Ra had genuinely fallen from the sky in their hour of need to save them from a natural disaster. The idea of trusting him seemed unthinkable to her, and yet countless citizens now did. What if she was letting her own personal feelings block her better judgement? Did she have the right to declare that the whole nation was wrong?

She took some consolation in the fact that there were still some aspects of this world which Ra had not yet taken control of. There was much more to Equestria's magic than just the sun and moon, and as long as the deeper powers remained hidden from Ra, she could still feel like there was something left that was theirs.

She was starting to have enough of this conversation now, so decided to let it drop. They could discuss what to do at some other time. She picked up a sandwich from the plate in front of her and took a bite out of it.

"This tastes different from usual," she said.

"Yes," Luna said, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. "This may not be the best time to bring it up, but our old chef resigned. He… received a better offer."

Celestia's forehead fell to the table with a thud. "Of course he did. Do you have any more good news for me?"

"Just one more thing," Luna said. "Ra wishes to speak with us. He has requested that we meet with him, as there is something he wishes to show us."

"Wonderful," Celestia replied. "Perhaps he'll explain to us his dastardly scheme for world domination."

"Sister, you need coffee," Luna said. "Once you are ready, we can go over together and see what it is that he wants. We just need to remember to be civil."

Celestia took a deep breath. "Okay, I can do that," she said. She returned to her breakfast, thinking wistfully back to the days when she had enjoyed mornings.

An hour later the two of them made their way through town, walking back to the old hospital – the site of Ra's first public appearance. The location had turned out to be prescient; one of his first acts after arriving was to introduce a number of significant medical advances using his apparently extensive technological knowledge. Since then he had spent so much of his time at the hospital, healing and treating patients using his strange devices, that the doctors eventually just accepted that he'd moved in.

When they arrived, the street outside the hospital was remarkably quiet. It was often that way these days, given how many severe illnesses Ra's advances had essentially rendered harmless. There were a few curious loiterers though, probably having around hoping to meet their enigmatic saviour.

As they climbed the stairs to the entrance, Celestia noticed a number of bouquets of flowers laid on the pedestal from which he had given his first speech.

Inside, the hospital was almost empty. It was a while since she had last visited, and Celestia began to wonder if this was the norm as well, but as they made their way through the deserted corridors, she realised that something wasn't right. She tried to avoid jumping to conclusions, though, remembering her sister's advice.

Eventually, as she was starting to wonder if they knew where they were going, a young earth pony appeared round the corner ahead of them, cantered excitedly up to them and gave a bow.

"Your Highnesses," he said. "You're just in time! Follow me, he's expecting you."

He turned and headed back along the corridor. The two sisters looked at each other, then followed on behind him.

"Pardon me," Luna asked him, "but do you know what this is about?"

"I only know what my master has told me," he replied, smiling. "But I know that today will be a great day for Equestria."

"I take it you are happy working for him?"

"Oh yes," he said. "He's doing so many great things for our world, and I feel honoured to be playing even a small part."

He slowed down, looking around at the empty hospital as they walked through it. "My grandmother was here two years ago," he said. "She'd got a bad case of pneumonia, and the doctors weren't expecting her to survive long. Then Ra came, and she was up and laughing again in days! Every morning when he raises the sun for us, she makes sure to thank him for the fact that she's alive to see another say because of him."

Celestia glanced at her sister, who returned an awkward look. She had to admit that, no matter how much she felt the need to distrust Ra, it was very hard to justify it when so many of her subjects loved him that much. Perhaps she would have to admit that she was wrong eventually. She thought about it, looking at the warm smile on their guide's face, and for a moment could imagine that she may one day be able to be at peace with that.

They reached one of the wards, and their guide pushed the door open and held it as they walked through, before turning and heading back the way they had come. As she looked around the room, Celestia's brief feeling of cautious optimism evaporated.

The beds and equipment had all been cleared out, leaving the room feeling unnervingly bare, and the lights had been left off, the ward illuminated only by the sunlight streaming through the windows. Ra was sitting at the far end on a large, ornate chaise-longue, wearing a long black-and-gold robe, and a number of his followers stood to attention along the wall on either side; to Celestia's surprise all of them were wearing metal plate armour and carrying strange staffs that looked unnervingly like weapons. None of the weapons were aimed at them, and the guards actually looked happy to see them, but their being there at all was enough to unnerve her.

"Good morning, Princesses," Ra said, standing up and walking forward to meet them. "It has been far too long since we last spoke."

Celestia winced at the sound of the strange voice coming out of Starburst's mouth, but Luna's advice was still echoing in her mind, so she decided to try the friendly approach. She especially didn't want to do anything that might provoke the armed guards.

"Hello, Ra," she said. "I see you've made yourself at home here."

"Yes indeed," he replied, looking round. "It was a shame to have to turn away patients today, but what I need the space for is much more important even than that. I apologise for having to arm my aides in your presence," he added, turning and walking back to his seat. "I assure you that you are in no danger, though. In fact, they are here to ensure that."

"So what is to happen here?" Luna asked, following him to the other end of the room. Celestia held back for a moment, looking at the dozen guards and realising she recognised a few former royal guards in their ranks. Ra's influence really was spreading far.

Ra sat down again and took a moment to adjust his robe. "Very well, we can move straight to business if that's what you want. I asked you here today because I wish you to witness the beginning of the rebirth of your world. As I said when I first arrived, Equestria's magic is dying; it is losing purpose, being polluted by dark, unruly forces, and what happened two years ago was only the first sign of this."

The princesses exchanged a confused glance. They hadn't noticed anything worrying for two years now; as far as they could tell, Equestria was completely healthy at the moment. Could Ra, the newcomer, really know something they didn't? She could think of numerous secrets of Equestria that he didn't have knowledge of yet; there was no way he could have the knowledge he claimed.

"I have been able to hold back the end well enough until now," he continued, "but the decay is slow and relentless, and there will come a day when even I will be unable to control it. If this world and its inhabitants are to have a future, then it is time for the parasites which have been slowly destroying it to be removed. Then I will be able to take full control of the power of this world and lift it back to greatness."

"What parasites?" Celestia asked. "What do you mean?"

Ra smiled. "I don't blame you for any of this, of course," he said. "I doubt you ever knew what damage they were causing. You protected your nation admirably from the direct threats, but their effects were much more insidious than just outward aggression. They have no place here, so—"

There were loud noises out in the hallway suddenly: the sounds of fighting and shouting, and the clanking of heavy chains. Celestia backed away from the door as the noises got steadily louder and louder.

"Ah, just in time," Ra said. "Princesses, allow me to introduce our first guest."

The doors burst open and a squad of armoured guards came in, dragging a tall, struggling figure behind them, bound up in chains. While Celestia and the new arrival had never met, she immediately knew that it was the current queen of the Changelings.

"Let me go this instant!" she shouted as she struggled against the chains binding her wings and legs. "You'll pay for this! My hive will find me, and they'll—"

She froze when she spotted Celestia watching her, and their eyes met.

"You," she said, glaring at the princess. "Did you do this? Are you going to try to kill me too, like when you attacked my great grandmother?"

Celestia couldn't think of anything to say. Last time she had met a Changeling queen it had been in the middle of an all-out invasion, and she had been more than willing to do what was necessary to protect her nation then. But now that she saw this creature standing there, bound and helpless, she didn't know what to think.

Ra stood up from his throne and walked over toward them. "Hello, Queen… Nympha, was it?" he said. "I'm so glad I got to meet you today. Your race truly is a remarkable one, albeit a dangerous one."

"You did this?" Nympha screamed, straining against her chains to pull her head up close to his. "You attacked a peaceful hive without provocation? You slaughtered hundreds of innocent drones just to capture me? You will pay for what you did today!"

Ra didn't even blink as she drew in close to her. "Please don't try to do anything you'll regret," he said. "Your magic won't work in here, in any case."

Celestia looked across at her sister, who returned the surprised glance. She suddenly became aware of a faint tingling sensation in her horn, and when she made a cautious attempt to cast a spell, nothing happened. He'd actually managed to find a way to block their magic. No doubt this was meant for their 'protection' as well, but she was feeling more and more like she had walked into a trap.

"You shouldn't take this so personally," Ra went on, walking away from the queen again. "I am after all the Changelings, not just you. It is the only way to protect this world."

Celestia watched the queen, trying to find something to say, but her mind had frozen. The thought of the armed guards surrounding the room was still weighing down on her, and although she wanted to believe that they wouldn't attack her or her sister, she was afraid to assume anything of Ra right now.

The queen had gone silent as well, and Celestia could see the fear in her eyes, not just for her own life, but for that of her entire race. She could imagine Nympha's mind racing to try and think of something she could do to save her subjects. While Celestia had never managed to find common ground with the Changelings before, at that moment all she could feel for the queen was sympathy.

Ra was speaking again. "Anyway, I shouldn't delay too long," he said, pacing back and forth, "but I couldn't let this end without meeting you first. I truly think you are an incredible species; I'm not sure I have ever seen anything like you."

A sudden noise stopped Ra in his tracks. It took Celestia a moment to realise what it was as well, but eventually she realised that the queen had laughed.

"Have you not?" she said. Ra turned to face her again, and Celestia was surprised to see the queen appearing to fill up with confidence, standing to her full height and staring Ra down.

"I can tell what you are," she said. "There's something more to you, hidden under the surface. You and I are not so different, are we, both so loving to see through the eyes of another? Both loving to manipulate and control. But don't think yourself so powerful."

She pulled herself forward, approaching Ra and leaning down until she was nose to nose with him. She took a deep breath, then, as she stared at him in deep concentration, the scales covering her body began to change colour, a wave of crimson washing across her body from her head to her hooves.

"You can slow us down, but you cannot hope to control us," she said, grinning at him. "Our magic is more powerful than you know. My subjects will not go down without a fight, and nor will I, but if it is power you want, you could learn more than you realise from us. You would be much better off working with us, not against us."

Ra raised his eyebrows, considering her silently for a moment. "Remarkable," he said. "So there is a biological aspect to the transformations, as well as a magical one. I must say, I had wondered. That was a very enlightening performance."

The queen shrunk back, her bluff called. Ra gave her another appraising look, then said, "kill her."

"Wait!" Celestia and Luna called in unison, but the words were barely out of their mouths when bright orange bursts of energy flew in from all sides, bombarding the queen and knocking her off her hooves. Mere seconds later, she hit the ground hard, her eyes staring blankly into the distance, and the room fell completely silent.

Celestia stared at the motionless body, watching as the red pigment began to drain away again.

"Thank you," Ra said. He then addressed one of the guards who had brought her in.

"Please clear this up. We need to make space in here. How goes the rest of the extermination?"

"Perfectly, master," the guard replied, bowing. "The armour and weapons have helped considerably, thank you. We might even be done by the end of the day."

Ra nodded and the guard turned to leave, but then stopped.

"Oh," he said, "I also wanted to say, thank you for helping us finally do this. The thought of these… things always gave me the creeps. It'll be a relief to finally be rid of them."

"You are very welcome," Ra replied, smiling. "Your hard work and dedication will be richly rewarded, I promise."

The guard bowed again, then he and his colleagues dragged the dead queen back out into the hall. The two sisters listened in silence as the sound of the chains slowly died away.

"This was not necessary," Luna said, tears welling up in her eyes. "They weren't a threat—"

"I assure you," Ra said, walking back to his seat again and reclining back as if nothing had happened. "Not only was it necessary, it was inevitable. It was only a question of waiting until I was able."

Celestia stared blankly at the door, hardly able to believe this was happening. She felt like the room was shrinking in towards her.

"This was your great plan?" she said quietly. "The killing of an entire race who wasn't doing anything to harm us? The Changelings haven't attacked us in two centuries."

"You still don't comprehend the full extent of my design," Ra said. "This goes far beyond any one species. This is about nothing less than the restoration of the natural order of the entire world!"

"You keep saying that," Celestia shouted, spinning round, "but restoration from what? And at what cost? Who's going to be next to die for your plan? What's the point of saving Equestria if you only destroy it in the process?"

Celestia stared hard into Ra's eyes, searching to try and see any sign of compassion in him. But his expression remained unchanged. The Changeling queen had been more right than she'd realised; behind the friendly, benevolent exterior he had constructed, Celestia was starting to see his true nature. She really wished she had been wrong about him.

Ra sighed, then turned and sat down again. "I asked you here out of kindness," he said. "This has been your world to protect for so long, and I thought it would be only fair to let you have a part in building the new Equestria as well."

"If these are your ways," Luna said, "then we will never help you."

Ra nodded, "It is your loss," he said, "but the truth is that I never actually needed your help. There is already more happening than you can comprehend, so if your choice is not to stand with me, I must ask you not to stand against me. You will not achieve anything, and you may end up harming others."

Celestia seethed. Anger welled up inside her, but she felt paralysed. She wondered what would happen if she tried to do something then and there, but she could only picture him giving a single order and the guards around the room that had once looked up to her shooting her down as they had the Changeling queen. They seemed ready to do anything for Ra, and that thought alone terrified her.

"But enough distractions," Ra went on. "As I have said, there is much to do. And I believe our next guest is arriving now."

"Celestia," said a familiar voice. She froze, wishing that she hadn't just heard what she thought she had, but when finally she turned to face the new arrival, her heart sank. Six guard ponies were entering, carrying between them a tall metal cage. Inside it, hanging limply from manacles chained to the bars, was Discord.

"Long time no see," he said.

The guards dropped the cage onto the ground, and the two princesses ran over to him.

"We haven't seen you for decades!" Luna said. "Where have you been?"

"I was on holiday," he said, giving a weak laugh. "Just needed to get some personal space, you know?" He looked up at the chains holding him. "I guess I needed more than I thought."

"But how did they find you?" Celestia said.

"It wasn't that difficult," Ra said, walking up to them. "A magical disturbance as powerful as him shines like a beacon to one who can sense such things."

Discord looked up at his captor, raising an eyebrow. "You must be Ra, the little whiz-kid newcomer everypony's going goo-goo over. I almost considered coming back early just to meet you."

"So you have heard of me, then," Ra said.

"Yes," Discord replied, "a little birdie told me about you." He held up a hand, looking at it as if he expected something to appear in it, but nothing happened.

"Right, yes, I keep forgetting," he said. "You'll have to show me how you do that."

Ra shook his head dismissively and turned to walk away. "I'm afraid there won't be time for—"

"Wait." Celestia grabbed his shoulder and pulled him round to look him in the eye. "Stop this," she said. "Stop this now. You don't need to do this. He is a friend of Equestria."

"You really care about him enough to protect him?" Ra said, raising an eyebrow.

Celestia looked back at Discord, who met her gaze and tried to smile at her. She could of course remember all the bad things he'd done in the past, but that was all centuries behind them now. He'd learned so much since. He was a testament to how somepony could change for the better.

"Yes, I do," she said.

"I see," Ra said. He brushed her hoof off his shoulder and made his way back to his seat again. "Well as it happens, there is still something I need, so perhaps I will show him some mercy, if you can answer one question for me."

"If he asks you to marry him, say no," Discord said. "I saw you first."

"Please, Discord," Celestia said, closing her eyes and trying to keep her voice steady.

"Sorry," he replied. "I can't help it when I get nervous."

"Anyway," Ra said, "I have learned a great deal about the magic of your world since my arrival, but there is something remaining which I cannot place. This world has an immensely powerful magical field – much stronger than a planet this size should have. There has to be something sustaining it, but I have so far been unable to find the source. If I could find it and understand it there is so much I could learn, but it has completely eluded me so far."

He turned and looked Celestia in the eye.

"Do you know of what I speak?" he said. "If you do, and you tell me how to find it, I will spare your friend."

Celestia couldn't believe it. This was the closest thing to good news she had heard since her arrival. Ra didn't know about the Tree of Harmony yet. If it was still safe, then it might give them a chance at stopping him before he completely ruined Equestria.

But the excitement was short-lived. If they were to have a chance of using the Elements, they needed to remain hidden from Ra. If he learned where the Tree was, then before long it would be under his control, or worse. But was the secret worth the cost? Was it worth abandoning Discord?

There was a grunt behind her.

"Go on," Discord said. "Don't bother with me. I'm not important enough to save."

"Don't say that," Celestia said, turning and looking at him, tears welling up in the corner of her eye. "I'm not going to abandon you."

Discord shook his head. "No you're not," he said forcefully, "but you're not going to do something stupid to try and protect me either. You can't tell him something you don't know after all."

The two of them stared at each other, and a chill ran down her spine. During their interactions over the years she had become very familiar with Discord's strange ways, and knew to take anything he said with a pinch of salt, but something about the way he was looking at her told her that, perhaps for the first time in his life, he was being completely serious. He had finally learned to respect the value of the Elements of Harmony, and now it was going to kill him.

"I can't do this," she said. "This isn't right."

"Don't worry about me," he replied, smiling at her. "I've had some fun in my time, and that's what matters. Now you go, and be good."

Luna put a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up into her sister's eyes, but couldn't think of anything to say to her. They both knew that there was only one way this could go.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to Discord. Then, bowing her head and raising her voice, she said, "I don't know what you mean, Ra."

"Very well," he replied.

Unable to watch, Celestia closed her eyes and turned away. Moments later the room was filled one more with the sound of weapon blasts. It lasted longer than the first time, dragging out for an eternity as she fought to hold back her tears, but then it stopped. She didn't dare to look round, waiting until the sound of the cage being carried away disappeared before she opened her eyes. She didn't want to be able to remember the look on his face.

"Thank you princesses, you may go," Ra said. "I am glad you were able to provide me with this information."

Celestia looked in surprise, looking up at him as he looked down from his seat with a satisfied grin.

"Wait," Luna said. "What do you—"

Suddenly Ra roared with laughter. "There are hundreds of books in your library on the Tree of Harmony!" he said. "Why did you think I wouldn't be able to find it?"

Celestia couldn't believe her ears. "Then… then why…"

"Because," Ra said, "you haven't trusted me since the moment I arrived. You never were able to see past what happened with Starburst. I didn't know how far the distrust went, though. The Tree is buried in a hidden cave in the grounds of your former home, and it is one of the most powerful objects on the planet. If you were going to resist me anywhere, that is where it would have been. Before I began, I needed to know how safe you thought it was."

He picked up a small silver orb from by his seat and, looking into it, said, "We are ready. You may proceed."

He then looked up at the stunned princesses. "Very soon the Tree will be no more," he said. "My guards have been waiting for my order since before you arrived. With it gone, I will finally have full control of this world's magic, and I will be able to begin guiding it into a new era and toward its true destiny. Maybe you will one day understand the value of all this when you see what I can do, or maybe not. But either way know that your world has become a better place because of me.

"Now please leave," he said, fixing them with a forceful stare. "You are no longer welcome here."

The two princesses stepped out into open air minutes later, emerging onto a street filled with crowds of ponies who were trotting along in blissful ignorance of everything that had just happened.

"What do we do?" Celestia said. "Nopony will believe us."

Luna shook her head. "I know," she said. "I can barely believe it myself. But he will tell them himself eventually, and there must be some who will see him as we do when he does. We must find them, and we will fight."

"How?" Celestia said. "He's got everything now."

"We will find a way," Luna relied.

9 - Death Sentence

"That's impossible," Sam said.

"Apparently not," Daniel replied.

Sam stared at the image on the screen, unable to understand it. Since the first day she'd seen the Stargate her ability to suspend disbelief had been tested many times, but this was pushing it. She turned to the Jaffa; they had both backed away from the screen, possibly without realising it, and Koresh was eying it warily.

"How long's it been there?" she said.

"We first saw the image just hours after we crashed," Ro'shur said. "I was attempting to understand why it was not moving in the sky."

"And it's been there since?"

Koresh shook his head. "The patterns move and change," he said, "but the image remains."

"Okay," Sam said. She turned and looked up at the image again, thinking she'd have to throw out her stellar dynamics textbooks when she got home… if she got home.

"This is bad," she said.

"I figured that much," Jack replied.

"Sir," she went on, "this shouldn't be possible. When I said a star can't be alive, I wasn't joking."

"It would appear otherwise," Teal'c said.

Sam rubbed her forehead. "No, you don't understand," she said. "This isn't like hyperspace or wormholes or anything like that; this is truly impossible – at least it is naturally. There's some form of magic maintaining this."

"The magic you were detecting earlier?" Jack asked.

"Maybe," Sam said. "I've no way of knowing. But either way, any magic capable of doing something like this…"

"…Is something we should probably stay away from," Daniel added.

"Indeed," Teal'c said.

Jack sighed. "Okay, I get your point," he said. "But unfortunately, this doesn't actually give us any new options."

Sam nodded. They fell silent again, the new revelation still sinking in. As Sam stared at the shifting face looking down at them, her mind started filling with questions. What was it? What sort of magic could do something like this? Pushing the disbelief aside, she felt the familiar drive to understand.

"Colonel," she said, "whatever we do next, I need to study this. This is beyond any magic I've ever seen – it might be the most powerful magic we've ever encountered. If I could find out even a little bit about how it works…"

"I'll take that under consideration," he replied. "What did you have in mind? You got the equipment you need with you?"

"No, sir," she said. "The sensors on the cargo ship may be able to get more information if I can use them, but we'd probably be able to learn most if we were to go back up to the ship."

Daniel looked round. "Is that safe?" he asked. "It was in pretty bad shape last time we were up there."

"What was left was fairly stable," Sam said, "and it still had power. If we were only up there for a short time, then—"

Ro'shur cleared his throat; the four of them turned and found the Jaffa standing between them again. "Excuse me," he said, "but to what ship do you refer?"

"The big one in orbit?" Jack said. "Didn't you see it?"

The two Jaffa exchanged glances.

"We detected no other ships in the system when we arrived," Koresh said. "How long has it been there?"

"Eight… thousand years, give or take," Jack said.

"It was dead in space when we gated aboard," Sam explained. "You probably didn't detect it because it was powered down. Now we've turned the power on, we should be able to find it and ring back up to it."

Ro'shur eyed her with suspicion. "You arrived by Chappa'ai?" He said. "Zipacna had believed this system no longer possessed one."

"And he never bothered checking?" Jack asked.

"We did not question our god's wisdom," Koresh said. "But that is beside the point. If there is a Chappa'ai in this system which we can use to escape, why did you not mention it sooner?"

Jack and Sam looked at each other awkwardly.

"Ah, well, that's a bit embarrassing," Jack said, scratching the back of his neck.

"There was an explosion shortly after we arrived," Teal'c said. "The ship was heavily damaged, and the Stargate was thrown out into space. That is why we are trapped."

"I see," Ro'shur said, disappointed.

Suddenly Koresh stirred behind them, like he'd had an idea, and walked over to say something in his master's ear. Ro'shur raised his eyebrows.

"Hey," Jack said. "No secrets, remember?"

Ro'shur thought for a moment, then turned to Sam. "Major Carter," he said, "would the ship's long range communications still work?"

Sam started, surprised by the idea. "Actually, they might," she replied. "Most ships have redundant antennae, so there should be at least one on the intact portion. If the control systems are still working…"

"Yeah, I see where this is going," Jack said. "You're thinking you'll go up there and call Zipacna, tell him to send a pickup?"

"It will get us off this planet," Koresh said. "If you plan to stop us—"

"No, no," Jack said. "I can't say I love the plan, but… well, at least it's a plan."

"Then it is decided," Ro'shur said. "Koresh, go and ensure we can reach the ship by ring."

Koresh nodded and disappeared back into the cargo bay. The rest of them looked round at each other in awkward silence for a moment.

"Well," Jack said. "That was anticlimactic."

"So, what now?" Daniel said.

Ro'shur looked sternly at him. "I was clear that you are still our prisoners," he said. "If you do not wish to allow Zipacna to take you captive, then your only other choice is to remain here on the planet and await your eventual death."

"Right," Jack said. "Both options do sound so appealing…"

"Ro'shur," Teal'c said, turning to face him, "before you place us in captivity again and contact Lord Zipacna, there is something which we must discuss."

Ro'shor laughed. "Are you intending to bargain for your freedom?" he said. "No doubt you face the worst fate if you are captured."

"That is not my intention," Teal'c replied. "This matter concerns us all equally."

"What is it, Teal'c?" Jack asked.

"Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said, "I have been considering the nature of this world, and something troubles me. There are other planets declared off limits by the Goa'uld, such as Cimmeria, but their locations have always been known. If it is merely that the world is dangerous, then one would need to know where it was in order to avoid it."

"So why hide this one?" Sam said.

"Indeed," Teal'c went on. "This system was cut off from the rest of the galaxy, the only means of escape left on an unreachable ship, and the system's sole inhabitant is a dangerous being, possibly bound here by powerful magic."

"I see what you're getting at," Jack said. "It almost sounds like—"

"A prison," Sam finished.

Ro'shur looked confused. "Why should this concern us? If we are intending to leave anyway, what does this change?"

"Well," Jack said, "as it happens, this isn't our first time in an alien prison, and I know from experience that, when breaking out of one, you should be very careful who – or what – comes with you."

Ro'shur looked at the image of the sun again, still looking down at them from the screen. "I see," he said. "You are concerned that we may inadvertently allow it to escape. Are we even sure that it can?"

"Actually, that's the problem," Sam said. "We have no idea what we're dealing with here. We already know it can possess minds, and for all we know it might be able to use that to piggyback its way out of the system. You're going to need a pretty big ship to pick you up if it's not going to crash like you did, and if this… Ra'shek got its hooves on something like that…"

"Assuming it has hooves," Jack said.

"You know what I mean."

Ro'shur nodded reluctantly. Sam looked up at the screen again, at the face of their enigmatic enemy, but the more she considered this new problem, the harder she found it to think. There were just too many unknowns. What was it? Why was it attacking us? Without any information, she felt useless.

"Still," she said, "I agree with Ro'shur. If there isn't anything we can do to fight against it, then this doesn't actually change anything."

Jack shrugged, also looking up at the screen. "I'm sure we can come up with something," he said.

"With all due respect, sir," Sam replied, "I don't think so. Like I said, we have no idea what this thing is. We still don't know how its magic works, so we've got no way of blocking it, and as for trying to stop it… as far as we can tell this thing literally is the sun, so the only way to be confident that we'd killed it, or even harmed it, would be to blow… up…"

She stopped, barely able to believe the words that were about to come out of her mouth, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense, to the point that she could barely imagine not doing it. Moments later, Jack and Daniel jumped as the idea hit them as well.

"You're kidding me," Daniel said.

"Think you can do it?" Jack asked.

Sam ran the idea through her head again, amazed as all the pieces started fitting together. "Yeah, I think I can!"

"Second one this year," Jack said, smiling. "I think you've already got the record, but—"

"I hate to interrupt," Ro'shur said, agitated, "but would you explain what you're referring to?"

Sam turned to face him, took a deep breath, and said, "We blow up the sun."

Ro'shur looked incredulous. "What makes you think this is possible?" he asked.

"Because we have done it before," Teal'c said.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You've heard of Apophis, right?"

Ro'shur looked confused, then his eyes went wide and he staggered backwards as if he'd seen a ghost.

"The destruction of his fleet at Vorash?" he said. "That was you? I had assumed a rival fleet must have ambushed him! You did that on your own?"

"By blowing up a sun," Jack said proudly. "It was mostly Carter's idea, or course."

The Jaffa stood silently, eyeing the four of them carefully. He looked confused, almost scared, and Jack started to wonder if they might have told him too much. But after a short while he demeanour changed and he took a cautious step forward.

"And… you think you can do this again?" he said.

Carter nodded. "Yeah, I think so," she said. "Last time we did it by dialling P3W-451… uh, it's a planet in the process of being swallowed by a black hole," she added, when Ro'shur looked confused, "and then we used a mothership to drop the Stargate into the sun. The black hole's gravity then draws matter away from the star, making it unstable and forcing it into a supernova."

"But we have neither a… mothership, nor the Chappa'ai," Ro'shur said.

"Right," Carter replied. "The Stargate was thrown out into space."

"And… straight towards the sun," Daniel added.

"Exactly," Sam said, pushing past the others and starting to pace back and forth across the room, thinking out loud. "It's pretty far away now, so it might not be that easy to dial, but we can use our Naquadah generator to boost the signal. The distance will protect us from the time dilation effects as well. As long as we're quick about it, then… yeah, I think we can do it!"

The five of them stood in stunned silence for a moment, the reality of the situation sinking in. Ro'shur continued to watch the team with a puzzling expression, and Jack was about to ask him what was going through his mind when Daniel stepped forward.

"Wait a minute," he said. "I know we're all getting excited here, but are we sure we should do this?"

"Got any other ideas?" Jack said.

"Well, no," Daniel replied, "but I don't think we should go ahead and kill this thing just because we don't have anything else to do." He pointed up at the ever-present face on the screen. "I mean, we don't know why it was imprisoned here, or if it's actually a threat to anypony else. For all we know, the attacks were just it defending its home."

Sam sighed. "Actually, he's right," she said. "For all we know, this creature might be the only one like it in the entire universe. I'm not sure I want to be responsible for killing something like that unless I know there's a good reason."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't," Daniel clarified. "I'm just saying we need to be sure about this."

Jack thought for a moment, then sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's call blowing up the sun 'Plan B' for now."

"Hm," Ro'shur said. "At least it is… comforting to know that, should we need to destroy it, we have the capability to do so."

"You will fail."

The five of them froze, confused. They turned to see Koresh walking back out from the cargo bay, fixing them with a fiery glare.

"No power can stand in the way of the Ra'shek," he said. "Its incarceration is merely a setback, and our presence here only hastens its release."

The five of them backed away as he advanced slowly toward them. "Careful, I don't think that's Koresh talking," Jack said.

"This world will be purged of our presence," Koresh shouted, "and then it will go forth and cleanse every world in this galaxy of the life which plagues it! Everything will be destroyed and all will be made new!"

He turned to look directly at Carter. "You work in darkness, fighting what you don't understand," he said. "You think you have power over the Ra'shek, but nothing can resist the power of the light!"

He pulled out a zat gun, pointing it straight at her. Jack leapt towards him, but before he could do anything Koresh had already shot her once. He tackled the Jaffa to the ground, grabbing the zat with his teeth and throwing it across the room, and watched as Carter slumped to the floor, unconscious.

"Daniel, wake her up!" he shouted. "We need to get this thing out of him!" Daniel leapt over them and tried to pick Carter up and wake her.

"You might as well kill me!" Koresh shouted as Jack struggled to hold him down. "My death won't stop it, and you'll just save it the trouble of killing me itself!"

"Shut up!" Jack yelled. "Fight it! You can—gah!"

A zat blast hit him in the back, and his muscles spasmed, forcing him off the Koresh. He looked over and saw Ro'shur holding the gun, pointing it at him.

"What the hell—?" he groaned.

Teal'c made a move towards Ro'shur, but he raised the zat in surrender, before dropping it to the ground. "Wait," he said.

There was a tense silence for a few seconds, then Koresh stirred next to Jack.

"What happened?" he said.

Sam staggered to her feet with Daniel's help. "How did you know that would work?" she asked.

"We have been here for a week," Ro'shur replied, pulling Jack up. "This is not the first time this has happened."

"Right," Jack said. "Boy, that stings."

He shook the remaining tingles off, then turned to look at Koresh, who was picking himself up off the floor.

"You okay there?" he asked.

Koresh gave his head a shake, then looked up at the colonel. "You… attacked me?" he said, confused.

"Yep," Jack said, patting him on the shoulder. "I guess it's your turn now. Do you think it's gone?"

"Uh," Koresh said. He stared into the distance, his eyes unfocused, drawing shaky breaths. Jack looked over at Ro'shur, expecting support, but the older Jaffa just stared warily at them.

"Oy," Jack said, grabbing Koresh and pulling him round so they were looking at each other. "Listen to me, we've still got some work to do before we can get off this planet, but we're not going to go anywhere if we just stand around staring at the bulkheads. You are a good Jaffa, and you know you don't believe anything you just said. Just forget any of this happened. We can defeat this thing, do you understand?"

Koresh gave a flustered nod. "Uh, yes," he said.

"Good," Jack said. He then turned to address the whole room and said, "Now, I think we have a plan to go over one more time."

"No argument from me," Daniel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c added.

"Good," Jack said. "It's safe to say that it knows what we're doing now, so we should be careful. Let's keep the team as small as possible, just in case; Carter and I will go up to the ship and dial the Gate. Daniel, Teal'c, you stay here. Koresh—" he turned to face the Jaffa again, "you can come and send the message to Zipacna."

Koresh nodded, but Ro'shur stepped forward. "No," he said, "I will go."

The two Jaffa looked at each other, then after a moment Koresh nodded reluctantly.

"Want to keep an eye on your prisoners?" Jack asked.

"Something like that," Ro'shur replied.

"Great," Jack said. He turned to look at the image on the viewscreen again, and could have sworn that it was looking directly at him.

"Let's get ready, then. We've got a star to kill."

10 - Resistance

Five years after first contact.

The midday sun beat down on Celestia's back as the two sisters flew silently through the sky. The fields and forests of eastern Equestria scrolled past below them, dotted with the occasional pony working the land. Celestia wondered if any of them had noticed the two princesses flying past overhead, but part of her hoped they hadn’t.

Slowly, subtly, The world below was changing. Every day as she walked the streets of Canterlot, she felt more and more like a stranger in the city. She no longer received courteous bows from passers-by, all of them too absorbed by other things to notice their princesses, and gradually the acts of respect were being replaced by suspicion, even disgust. She and her sister had been left behind, abandoned, for the simple crime of not adoring Ra.

They still had their land and titles – Ra hadn't bothered to deprive them of those yet – but this was becoming increasingly worthless. Their personal staff were all but gone now, and with the nation slowly turning to a new leader, their duties had become almost non-existent. With nothing else to do, they had been left with only one option: find a way to fight back. But even this was proving a challenge.

"We are nearly there, sister," Luna said. Celestia looked up from the ground and saw, looming ahead of them, a two-hundred foot high wall of rock – the great cliffs forming the boundary between the plains of Equestria and the rough, foreboding terrain of the dragons' domain. The dragons had been quiet since the arrival of Ra, but this was nothing new – the politics of the rest of the world had always been of little concern to them. But something had changed at last, and so the princesses found their search for allies leading them there.

Celestia felt like this reeked of desperation, but to her dismay she had found allies scarce over the last few years. Even after the terrible things Ra had done, there were enough willing to stand by him, to spread word of the value of his plans to others, that he was always able to frame his actions as being for the good of Equestria. He always knew exactly what to say and to whom, and nopony wanted to argue against the one that had already done so much for the planet. The ripples of support spread across the population fast than Celestia could keep up with, and so nopony was ever willing to listen to their warnings. They were so absorbed, so fanatical, that Celestia had sometimes even suspected some kind of brainwashing; after everything else he had done, she wouldn't put it past him.

The princesses hadn't gone to the dragons earlier, as the wyrms' motives and allegiances were always so hard to discern. Celestia didn't want to draw them into the fight only to have them turn on her and strengthen Ra's side further. But now, out of the blue, they had found themselves summoned here, directed to this location by a small roll of parchment, waiting in Celestia's chambers one evening, with a map drawn on it above the words "Come immediately".

"There," Celestia said, pointing down to the base of the cliff where a river flowed out from the mouth of a wide cave. Together they swooped down, flying into the cave and following the path of the river as it bored its way through the rock. White light spread from the tips of their horns, creating strange patterns as it reflected off the slick stone.

The cave seemed to go on forever, through tunnels and caverns dug out of the rock by the stream over the millennia. Eventually they came to a fork, where a small stone ledge jutted out from the cave wall between two converging streams. The princesses set down on the narrow platform.

"This is the place," Celestia said, looking back and forth along the various paths away from the junction.

"You are certain it was he who sent the message?" Luna asked, and Celestia nodded.

"It must have been him," She said. "I only hope we do not have to wait—"

"Princesses," came a distant, rumbling voice, filling the cave. Celestia's eyes darted round everywhere, but as far as she could see they were still alone.

"Hello?" she called. "Where are you?"

"There's a gap in the rock, on the wall," the voice said. "Follow it."

Luna turned to the wall and searched its surface, and sure enough, there was an opening hidden in a shadow on the rock face, just big enough for a pony to fit through.

"This way," she said, squeezing into the gap. Celestia followed and the two of them pushed themselves along the tunnel, gradually climbing up away from the river. After a minute or so of slow progress it finally started to open out again, and Celestia saw orange-yellow light shining down past her sister. When she reached the end she pulled herself out into the open, stood up, and looked out over the most incredible scene she had ever laid eyes on.

They were on a ledge overlooking an enormous cavern, large enough to contain the entirety of Canterlot castle with room to spare. The air was alive with movement, dragons of all sizes and colours flocking together in wide spirals. Fires roared in alcoves on the walls, filling the cavern with light and warmth, while a stream of water cascaded down from a small opening in the middle of the ceiling to a lake at the bottom, the spray producing a comfortable damp atmosphere.

"Celestia, Luna," said the same deep voice from next to them, "I hoped you'd come."

Celestia turned, and there, perched on the ledge beside them, was a dragon, small by the standards of the others, but still at least ten metres long. His juvenile wings were folded back over his purple scales, while his back was adorned with a long row of sharp, green ridges.

"Spike!" Celestia said, grinning up at her old friend. "I haven't seen you in so long!"

Spike lowered his snout to them in greeting, pressing it up against the princesses' noses one after the other.

"One hundred and eleven years," he said. "After the funeral, it just didn't seem right to stay." He turned and looked out at the swarming dragons. "The nest has welcomed me, though. I am happy here."

"I am glad to hear it," Luna said. "You have been missed."

"And I miss you as well," Spike replied. "I'm sorry I didn't make contact sooner."

"Don't worry," Celestia said, looking up at him. "You have your own life to lead. I never expected you'd want to spend your entire life in Equestria."

She paused and looked out over the cavern again, almost jealous that he was living in such a spectacular place.

"So why now?" she asked. "Are the dragons doing something we need to know about?"

Spike smiled. "Not dragons." He pointed a claw down to the floor of the cave, to the banks of the lake, and as Celestia looked down she saw them: hundreds, maybe thousands of creatures from all kinds of races, gathered in large groups around the water. She could see zebras, gryphons, donkeys, minotaurs, buffalo, even diamond dogs, cows and sheep, on the land, and there were serpents swimming in the lake. They were dwarfed by the creatures flying above them, but easily rivalled them in numbers.

"What are they doing here?" Celestia said.

"Come on," Spike said, spreading his wings. "I'll show you." He slipped off the ledge, gliding down to the ground below, and Celestia and Luna followed behind him. The creatures below gathered round the young dragon as he landed, and the princesses came down next to him, looking around at the wide array of faces surrounding them.

"They started coming earlier this year," Spike said. "It wasn't easy at first, but I was able to talk the others into giving them refuge."

As the princesses looked round at the crowd, they were greeted by smiles, bows and words of welcome from all sides. It was the best feeling Celestia had felt in a long time, once more being welcomed into something, and she smiled happily back at them.

But something still felt off. As she looked round, she became aware that she could only see a small number of ponies among the crowd.

"How did all this happen?" She asked.

"That would be my fault," came a familiar voice from behind them. Celestia turned and saw a gryphon pushing his way out of the crowd.

"Commander!" she said, but as he walked up to them he shook his head.

"Not anymore," he said. "It's just Razorbeak now."

"What are you doing here?" Luna asked.

"That is a long story." Razorbeak turned and walked off toward the lake, gesturing for the princesses to follow him. The crowd parted to let them through, before spreading even wider as Spike came up behind them.

"It started about three years ago," he went on, "not long after my last scheduled tour on the station came to an end. Work had been slowing up there already, what with everything that had been going on down on the ground, but even so it came as a bit of a surprise to me when I got back and was immediately told I was being retired."

"What?" Luna said, surprised. "Why?"

Razorbeak shrugged. "They never really gave a reason, and I didn't push too hard to get one, not wanting to cause a fuss. But after a while I started noticing a trend. A lot of my friends from the military and the space program were also dropping suddenly out of the service. The zebras I'd worked with on the station went first, and one by one the gryphons I knew from flight school followed. Some of them were generals, even."

Celestia looked round at the crowd again. "But no ponies," she said. Razorbeak nodded.

"I applied to join Ra's army after that," he went on, "to see what would happen as much as anything. But as I thought might happen, they turned me away. They barely looked at my military service. They just told me there were no positions open."

The princesses glanced at each other. "How had we not sensed this, sister?" Luna said.

"Don't beat yourself up," Razorbeak said. "It took me a while to catch on as well. Ra's good at keeping things quiet, I'll give him that, and it looks like it's mainly just been happening in the military."

They reached the lake edge and came to a halt. Celestia looked round at the far edge, admiring how many there were. The numbers looked even larger now she was down among them. Spike drew up next to them and bent down to take a drink from the lake.

"This is incredible," Celestia said. "How did you get so many here?"

Razorbeak shrugged. "Carefully," he said. "It took a long time, but I'm pretty good at keeping things quiet myself. I started just with my old friends, meeting them and discussing if we should do anything. Then they went to their old friends, and the word spread. Pretty soon there were so many of us that we knew we weren't going to be able to stop Ra noticing us, so I came here. I knew where the dragons lived from my military days, and I also knew you had a friend here."

Spike raised his head and looked down at them. "After Razorbeak told me what was happening," he said, "I went straight to the other dragons. They weren't eager to do anything, but I pointed out that if Ra was planning something bad for non-pony races, he wasn't likely to ignore us forever."

"They're letting us live here," Razorbeak said. "We're still trying to talk them into fighting with us as well, but even without them we're building up a sizeable force. At this point we could probably significantly weaken Ra's advantage and stop him before he does whatever he's planning."

Celestia raised her eyebrows, her heart buzzing. She'd come here with a faint hope that she may find one or two allies, but she'd never expected to find this many. This changed everything.

"I don't know what to say," she said. "This is such a surprise!"

Razorbeak chuckled. "Yeah, I must confess that we've been rather deliberately hiding this from you," he said. "Ra's been keeping a particularly close eye on the two of you."

They two sisters exchanged glances, surprised that he had any interest in them any more.

Razorbeak gestured out across the crowd. "But we're finished hiding now," he said. "We're ready and eager to get out of here and get our home back from Ra. Your army awaits your orders, your Highnesses."

He turned and bowed to them. One by one, the others around them dropped to their knees as well. Suddenly feeling flustered, Celestia reached forward and pulled Razorbeak up again.

"Just like that?" she said. "You're all willing to go to war against your former friends and colleagues?"

Razorbeak raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to try and stop me, are you?"

"No," Celestia replied, "I just wonder what you think you're fighting against. Most of Equestria is willing to die for him, so why aren't you?"

The gryphon shrugged. "I guess he just hasn't managed to convince me of his virtue like the others. It helps that he doesn't seem to want to convince any of us; he thinks his army of ponies is enough for him.

"Once it became clear that I wasn't personally welcome, I started questioning things a bit more, and they just didn't seem to fit. It was clear he was hiding something, and my intuition told me it wasn't good. "Protecting Equestria"? After the Changeling extermination he's probably killed more than he's saved. Plus, it's no secret how much you two don't like him. You two were always very trusting – no offence – so I knew you had to have good reason."

Celestia took a deep breath, the gravity of everything starting to sink in. Suddenly the idea of ridding Equestria of Ra seemed to be a real possibility. There was no way they could protect everypony, and the thought of declaring all-out war did not come lightly to her, but she knew deep down that they couldn't pass on this opportunity. They had to do something.

Still, she was wary. Living in Ra's shadow for the past few years had left her paranoid, and she could see that there was no way he was going to make this easy for them.

"Okay," she said. "We will need to plan quickly though. As you say, he will notice that my sister and I are absent."

"And we must act decisively," Luna said. "Once you are a known threat, he will hunt you down. We need to focus on killing Ra as soon as possible."

Celestia looked round in surprise at her sister, the words stuck in her mind. Killing Ra. She had never really stopped to think what the outcome of their fight would be, and hearing it said out loud made it feel so much more real. The idea of killing anypony sent chills down her spine, but she forced herself to accept that is was by far the quickest way to end this. Ra was a very real threat, and even more lives could be put at risk if they didn't treat him as such.

"We shouldn't overcommit," Razorbeak was saying. "We're safe here, after all. The nest provides numerous bottlenecks, and if Ra attacks here, the dragons will defend their home."

"He's right," Spike added. "Razorbeak's told me about the weapons Ra uses. It'll take a lot more than that to beat a fully grown dragon, let alone an entire nest."

"We haven't got many weapons ourselves," Razorbeak continued, "but a lot of us have military training, and we've been teaching the rest. We were thinking of doing smaller hit-and-run ops first, to get some more weapons and equipment, before going after Ra himself.

"You're taking a huge risk," Celestia said. "A lot are going to die if we don't get this right."

Razorbeak sighed. "I know," he said. "But if we don't do anything, and my fears are grounded, then we might…"

Something caught the gryphon's attention, and he raised his eyes to the roof of the cave. Celestia followed his gaze, and saw a young gryphon flying down toward them from the hole where the waterfall cascaded through, trying to shout something down at them but fighting against the noise of the water.

"That's our lookout," Razorbeak said, his wings sagging. "This doesn't look good."

As the gryphon got closer, his voice started to become audible. He was still a long way off, but Celestia already knew what he was saying.

"Ra…" he panted, fear and exhaustion filling the word. "Ra's here!"

"He followed us!" Luna said.

Razorbeak leapt to action immediately, jumping up into the air and hovering above the crowd. Spike rose up on his hind legs and gave a loud roar, calling them all to attention.

"Alright!" Razorbeak shouted, his voice carrying even across the sound of the waterfall. "The enemy is here!"

The crowd stirred, filling with nervous murmurs, but Razorbeak silenced them again when he continued.

"We had hoped to fight him on our terms, but we at least get to fight him on our terrain! We can win this fight, and Ra's given us a chance to send him the message that we won't bow to his will! Today we begin to take back Equestria!"

The crowd cheered, and Razorbeak continued to speak, but the two sisters weren't listening any more.

"What is he doing?" Luna said. "Ra must know there will be dragons here; why would he take this risk?"

"Something feels wrong," Celestia replied. "How did he know we were gone so quickly?"

The lookout gryphon came down to land at the shore not far from them, his entire body weary from the hurry to get to them. After standing numbly, drawing in shaky breaths, his eyes fell on the two sisters and he started to limp over to them. The look of sheer panic on his was enough to tell Celestia that something was horribly wrong.

"Ra…" he panted again as came to a halt in front of them. "Ra's ship…"

"Oh no," Luna said.

A loud splash echoed through the cave as a great boulder fell into the centre of the lake. Razorbeak stopped talking and all eyes turned to the cave's roof, the crowd falling silent. Celestia became aware of a low rumble, as if the entire cave was shaking.

"Razorbeak!" Celestia yelled. "We need to get out of here!"

The gryphon turned to say something, but was cut off as two more chunks of rock, as large as houses, fell into the lake near them and threw waves of spray across them. The crowd snapped, groups breaking up and pushing past each other as the fought to reach the exits on the outer walls. The gryphons – and the few pegasi that had come – took to the air and headed for openings higher up, while the swarm of dragons above them streamed toward tunnels leading out to other parts of the nest. But before any of them could escape, great explosions rocked the edges of the cave, the exits collapsing in under the force of blasts from above.

The blasts tore yet more pieces out of the roof, the air filling with falling debris. Celestia looked round for Razorbeak again but he had already disappeared, caught up in the commotion. She looked up and saw a huge rock falling toward them; she ducked down in fear, but before it hit she was pushed to the side, Spike dragging her and her sister under his massive form. She felt the impact as the rock smashed against the scales on his back, and heard him groan under the force. He stood again and stepped back, looking down at them.

"Go," he said, his eyes red with pain. "Get out of here."

"No!" Celestia shouted, "I'm not leaving you—"

"Go!" Spike roared. "There's nothing you can do! Save yourself so you can continue to fight! I'll stay and do what I can here!"

Without waiting for a response he turned and limped away into the crowd, guiding and sheltering others as the rocks continued to fall. Celestia watched him go, feeling numb all over.

"He's right," Luna said, "We need to go."

The two of them jumped into the air, climbing up along the path of the waterfall to the opening above. Around them dragons were swarming in panic, falling out of the sky as the rocks caught them one by one. Some dragons had already reached the hole and they dug away at it, pushing the opening wider and wider as the scrambled desperately to reach the surface. Celestia and Luna, along with a number of gryphons, managed to push past the cascade of debris and come up behind them, following through the widening hole and into the open air.

They were not greeted by sunlight, though; above them sat a massive, hollow metal structure, its four triangular sides stretching up to a point high above them. The roar of the ship's engines shook the air itself, and Celestia found it almost impossible to fly as they and the other escapees fled for the edge of the ship, flying out through the quickly shrinking gap between it and the ground and out into the open.

Her eyes clenched tight shut and her mind racing, Celestia pushed upwards into the sky, blindly fleeing the terrible drone of the ship.

"He knew," she said. "He planned this. He was just waiting for them to gather together."

She stopped flying, hovering in the air. Opening her eyes, she turned to her sister.

"And we led him right to them."

They turned slowly, looking back at the ship. It was a great pyramid, covered in ornate golden patterns, and it was slowly pressing down on the ground below. Cracks and crevasses began to open up in the soil around the ship, until all of a sudden the entire ceiling of the cavern collapsed inward. A cloud of dust enveloped the ship, and when it settled, the ship sat motionless above a giant crater, the remains of the once-thriving nest nothing but an empty field of rubble.

Celestia scanned the sky, looking for any others that had escaped. All she could see were three dragons flying away into the mountains, but bursts of plasma from the ship chased after them, knocking them out of the sky with pained roars.

Then, silence fell.

"Why is he doing this?" Luna said, her voice weak.

Without thinking, Celestia dove back down to the ship. She circled its peak, trying to find something to vent her pain on. Then she saw an opening, a window that had pulled open on the side of the hull, and she swooped in, finding herself in a large, lavishly decorated throne room. At the far end, climbing a set of steps to a doorway, was Ra.

"You!" she shouted. "Why are you doing this?"

He ignored her.

"Ra!" she shouted. "Turn around and face me this instant!"

He stopped, and, with the minimum of movement, turned his head to look at her. His expression was drawn, and he looked at her like she was nothing more than an annoyance.

"What do you want from us?" she said.

He studied her for a moment, then without saying a word he turned again and walked through the door. It closed, leaving Celestia alone again.

She stood in the silence, looking round at the room she now stood in. The ship hadn't shown any signs of motion since his first arrival, just sitting idly in orbit. Now he'd brought it all the way down to the planet, just so he could do this. They were miles from the nearest settlement, where nopony would have seen anything, but still the message he sent was clear. He was done hiding the full extent of his power. The planet was his now and he was staking his claim. He had won.

She turned and fled the ship, leaping back out of the window and into the open air, and flew aimlessly back toward Equestria with no idea where to go next. Ra's final words from the last time they spoke echoed in her mind.

You are no longer welcome here.

11 - Execution

The three of them made their way back through the warped corridors of the old ship, lights flickering on ahead of them as they returned from standby.

"Looks like the power's getting low," Sam said.

Jack looked up at the dim lights. "You sure this is going to work?" he asked.

"Yes sir," she replied. "The DHDs already have the ability to remote-dial the Gate built in. I actually suspect the system was designed so it could be used in space. We can definitely dial it from here; the only question is just if the DHD has enough power."

Jack nodded. "Right; hence the generator."

"Exactly," Sam said, looking round at the pack on her back. "Still, we probably shouldn't hang around too long up here. We don't want to get trapped if the ship dies completely."

"Sure," Jack said. "And speaking of time…"

"I know," Ro'shur said. "We only have seven hours until the Chappa'ai reaches the sun. Do not worry; Lord Zipacna has an outpost in a neighbouring system where he was preparing ships for a possible invasion. They can be here before then."

"Good to hear," Jack said. "It'd be cool to die saving the galaxy, but if I can survive saving the galaxy, that's even better."

They reached the bridge, and Carter stopped. "You should be able to access long-range communications from in there," she said. She then turned to head on to where the Gate used to be, but hesitated for a moment. Jack noticed the pause.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Sam said, nodding. "This just all feels a bit… I'm not sure."

"I can make it an order if it helps," Jack offered, but Sam shook her head.

"No, I'm okay," she said. "I'm good." She turned and started down the corridor again.

"Okay then," Jack said, walking onto the bridge. He looked around the sparse room for a moment, looking for something that looked like a long-range communicator. The only thing of interest was the pedestal in the middle of the room, the exposed crystals on the surface glowing weakly in the failing power.

"Is this it?" Jack asked.

"I do not think so," Ro'shur said, moving instead over to the far end of the room. "The design of this ship has some differences from the Ha'taks in use today, but if we assume they are basically the same, then communications will use a secondary… ah, here it is."

He pushed his hoof down onto something hidden in the ground, and a second control pedestal rose up in front of him, a hatch at its apex opening and revealing a small, glowing blue dome.

"Nice," Jack said, going over to look at it. Ro'shur placed his hoof on the dome, and a small holographic display appeared in front of him with lines of Goa'uld text slowly scrolling across it.

"It is a crude system," he said. "I can only send and receive a text communication, but that should be enough." He stared in concentration at the screen for about half a minute, moving his hoof back and forth across the controls. Jack waited patiently as lines of text he couldn't read scrolled past, then Ro'shur turned and announced, "It is done. A ship will be here as soon as they can reach us. It should only be a few hours."

"Okay," Jack said. "So now we just have to play the waiting game."

"Indeed," Ro'shur replied. He pushed down on the communication console and it disappeared back into the floor, then the two of them went and stood by the window. The ship was listing somewhat, the planet now sitting off to the right, but other than that the view looked pretty much unchanged. The sun was visible in the distance now, beyond the limb of the planet, and Jack kept his focus on the desert below to avoid the glare.

"May I ask you something, Colonel O'Neill?" Ro'shur said after a while.

"Sure, go ahead," Jack replied.

"Did you mean what you said earlier," Ro'shur asked, "when you told Koresh he was a good Jaffa?"

Jack laughed. "You guys really don't know how to take compliments, do you?" he said.

"Not—"

"—from enemies. Right." Jack turned to face the Jaffa. "Look," he said, "if you want an honest answer... I definitely don't agree with all of your life choices, and some of them I'd take particular issue with, but... Yeah. When you're not shooting at me, the two of you seem like decent ponies. It's quite a while since you last tried to kill me, so that puts you well ahead of most of your race."

He turned and looked out of the window again. "Koresh is a good kid," he said. "He can be a bit cocky, but he seems smart. He'll go a long way if he's got somepony he respects to guide him. Good thing he's got you, then."

Ro'shur laughed. "If only he did," he said. "He respects my abilities, and my career, and he listens to me because he wishes to have them for himself some day, but I do not believe that he respects me."

"That's a shame," Jack replied. "So why do you put up with him?"

"Because," Ro'shur said, "I saw potential in him. When I first met him, he had the wisdom to become a great warrior, but not the skills. I am getting too old to be a warrior now, so I thought that training him to one day take my place would be a good use of my remaining time. I was never looking for his respect; I simply wished for him to have a good future."

"Very noble," Jack said. "Do you think you succeeded?"

Ro'shur stood silently for a long moment, staring in thought out of the window. Then he said, "I don't know. I tried to drive him by pushing him to be the best that he could be, and to be stronger than all his enemies. But I may have pushed too hard. Now he won't settle for anything less. This mission has not been easy for him."

"Why not?" Jack asked.

Ro'shur pointed at the star visible out of the window. "Because of the Ra'shek," he said. "When Koresh looks at an enemy, what he looks for is a way to defeat it – a way to beat it into submission."

Jack nodded. "But how do you beat an enemy you can't even fight?"

"Exactly," Ro'shur replied.

"Let me guess," Jack said, looking round at Ro'shur, "that's why he wanted to have a fight earlier."

"There were more reasons than just that," he replied, "but yes. Your overpowering him when we battled in the ruins only served to shake his confidence further, and if we were going to have any chance of succeeding I needed to have him feel confident once more."

"Hmm," Jack said. "I think I'd have tried a different approach, but okay. Now can I ask you something?"

Ro'shur nodded, so Jack said, "Why are you even bothering to tell me any of this? Less than an hour ago you made it very clear that we were your prisoners, and now you're letting me give orders, and telling me your life story. What's going on? "

Ro'shur grunted. He stood in silence for a while, staring silently out of the window, and Jack was just about to change topic when he said, "Consider what we came up to this ship to do."

"Kill the Ra'shek?" Jack said. Ro'shur nodded.

"I came to this system seeking a force which even gods fear," he went on. "I was more successful than I had anticipated; I found a force capable of killing System Lords, and of destroying entire fleets of Ha'tak in an instant, and I have spent the past week trapped in my ship for fear that it would kill me. And now…"

He looked over to the door. "Now I am here because you tell me that one of your team is capable of exactly that which makes the Ra'shek so feared."

Jack chuckled. "An entire fleet of Ha'tak… I hadn't thought of it like that. So, what, you're scared of us?" he asked, barely hiding his amusement. But Ro'shur shook his head.

"No," he said. "I am not. Why is that?"

Jack raised his eyebrows "Hm," he said. "Well, if you're planning on starting worshipping Carter, you'll have to get in line."

"I'm finished," Sam said behind him, making him jump.

"Don't do that, Major!" he said.

"Sorry, Sir," she said, smiling. "Anyway, the power boost worked perfectly and I was able to establish a link with the Gate and dial out. The DHD reports a successful connection, but the diagnostic signal from the Gate's coming in at a red shift of about twelve hundred percent."

Jack blinked. "So… we're good to go?" he said.

"Yes Sir," Sam replied. "Now we just have to wait."

"How long?" Ro'shur asked.

Sam turned to the window and summoned the map of the solar system again. A red line traced out away from the planet on a path straight towards the sun.

"The sensors have been tracking the Gate since the explosion," she said, "so we've got a pretty good idea of where it's going. On its current trajectory it'll get there in… six hours and fifty three minutes."

Jack looked at his watch, counting forward. "Good," he said. "Plenty of time."

"Will the Chappa'ai still be active then?" Ro'shur asked. Sam nodded.

"The black hole can power the wormhole indefinitely," she said. "At least until the Gate's destroyed in the… uh oh."

Sam's eyes went wide, fixed on the map; Jack looked up and saw a large red indicator had appeared round the star.

"The sun's flashing," he said.

"Yes Sir," Sam replied, zooming the map in until it showed an image of the sun itself; the Ra'shek's face was lost in the glare, but what was visible was a long jet of plasma spewing out from its surface into space.

"We need to get out of here!" she shouted, turning and galloping to the door. "Sensors just picked up a solar flare; a massive, focussed beam of plasma is heading straight for us!"

Jack and Ro'shur followed her into the hall, running back to the rings. "But the sun's miles away!" Jack said. "We've got, what, at least eight minutes before it gets here?"

"No, Sir," Sam said. "The ship's passive sensors are light-speed limited! We've got maybe a few—"

The entire ship rocked to the side suddenly, a wave of force throwing the three of them against the wall. There was a crashing sound behind them and Jack felt air start to rush back toward the bridge, then a bulkhead sealed behind them and the ship went quiet again.

"The viewscreen must've blown out," Sam said, picking herself up and looking round nervously at the suddenly silent ship.

"Ya think?" Jack replied.

"Was that the Ra'shek?" Ro'shur asked.

"Could be," Jack said. "More importantly, do you think that's the worst of it?"

"I don't know, maybe," Sam said. "If the damage is only superficial and it didn't destabilise the orbit, then we might be okay. Unless it hits something like—"

There was an explosion behind them; the ship rocked again, the three of them staggering as they lost their balance.

"The Naquadah generator," Sam said, her eyes wide. "I left it by the DHD…"

"Never mind that!" Jack shouted. Metallic grinding sounds were filling the air again, the ship losing integrity. Ro'shur turned and ran immediately, Jack and Sam following close behind.

There was another, more distant explosion, and lights started flickering.

"There goes another generator!" Sam shouted. "This is bad!"

Jack could see the corridor visibly twisting ahead of them as the ship began to buckle. Panels started to strain and break off the walls, and jets of gas burst from random gaps in the bulkheads. Jack pushed through them, trying to ignore the scorching feeling of the gas in his fur, and focussed on the tail of the Jaffa running ahead of him, hoping he was still leading them the right way.

"We're not going to make it!" Sam said, as the sounds of entire sections of the ship tearing away got closer and closer.

"We'll make it!" Jack replied, ducking as a burst panel flew over his head. The run was even more treacherous this time, holes opening up in the warped floor and debris piling everywhere. He tried to zone out the rising chaos, but the noises were everywhere.

Another tremor nearly knocked them over, and there was a deafening tearing sound just a few metres away from them.

"What the hell was that? " Jack yelled.

They turned a corner, and immediately found the source of the noise; an entire section of corridor had broken away, the structure surrounding it having collapsed into a cavernous generator chamber below. Ro'shur leapt out into the void, spreading his wings and gliding to the opening on the other side, but Sam and Jack skidded to a halt at the edge and stared down into the gaping hole.

"We need to get across there!" Sam shouted.

"I know!"

"I can't jump that!"

"I know!"

"Colonel, we need to get out of here!" Ro'shur called from the other side.

"In a minute!" Jack shouted back.

Pieces of metal were falling from all around the fissure down towards the generator below, which was pulsing intermittently and making strained noises. They weren't going to have time to find another way round, and he had no idea where the next nearest set of rings would be, or even if there were any. The only way was across, and he needed to get Sam over as well.

"Hurry," Ro'shur shouted.

"I'm thinking!" Jack yelled.

Another distant explosion, as another generator went. The one below them must be one of the last now, and it was a big one. They needed to leave now.

He turned to Sam and said, "You ever done a piggyback before?"

Sam went pale. "Only in training, and never well," she replied. "You?"

Jack blinked. "…Same," he said. "Come on, we need to hurry."

He turned and ran a little way back the corridor then skidded to a halt and faced back toward the opening, focussing his eyes on the end of the corridor on the other side. Sam followed and drew up next to him.

"You sure about this?" she said.

"On three!" Jack shouted. "One, two…"

A panel burst open behind them with a loud clang. Jack leapt forward, landing at a full gallop. "Three!" he yelled.

Sam pushed forward and came up beside him again. Jack knew he was faster than her on the straight, but he focussed on keeping their speed matched. The jump was coming up fast already. About five metres from the opening Sam jumped into the air; Jack ducked down and slid under her, spreading his wings out at the same time. He pushed up again, felt the major grab hold of his shoulders, and leapt out into the chasm.

He grunted at the extra weight, having to flap his wings to keep high enough. He kept his eyes fixed on the far side, where Ro'shur was still waiting, but could hear the generator growing unstable below. He hoped it would hold out another minute.

They reached the other side; Jack grabbed the edge with his forehooves, and Sam scrambled forward off his back and turned to pull him up.

"Come on!" Ro'shur shouted.

"My thoughts exactly!" Jack said. The three of them set off at a gallop again, Carter just ahead of Jack and Ro'shur leading the way. They were nearly at the rings now, although the ship was falling apart so fast nothing looked familiar now. There were girders and struts sticking out of the walls, clouds of steam bursting out from all angles, and sections had twisted out of place so much they almost had to run on the wall. He could barely see ten metres in front of him, but he eventually managed to catch sight of the ring platform up ahead when—

There was another distant explosion. A shockwave rippled through the bulkheads, and Jack saw a wide section of panelling ahead of him buckle outwards.

"Major! Look out!" he shouted, but moments later the entire section of wall gave way; Jack skidded to a halt, shielding himself reflexively with a hoof, but when he looked up again all he could see was debris.

"Ro'shur!" he shouted as he peered into the wreckage, searching for light anywhere in the gaps.

"I am here!" came his voice from the other side. "Where is Major Carter?"

"I don't know!" Jack shouted. He grabbed hold of the bulkhead panel and tried to pull it back, but the weight of it was too much and he was barely able to get it to move. The entire ship was shaking now, and he was having trouble keeping a grip on the metal.

"Help me move this!" he shouted. There was a pause that felt like hours, and Jack began to wonder if the Jaffa had left without them, but then he felt the bulkhead start to shift. The two of them pushed together, forcing the wreckage back, until it all fell away to the opposite wall. Sam was lying on the ground, bruised and unconscious, but alive.

"Get to the rings!" Jack shouted to Ro'shur. The Jaffa nodded and galloped away. Jack lifted Carter up onto his back as carefully as he could, then stood and ran straight ahead, ignoring the chaos unfolding around him. He ran straight past Ro'shur, skidding to a halt in the centre of the rings; the Jaffa hit a button on the wall then leapt in next to him; As the rings rose up from the floor, Jack felt the rumble of a distant explosion and saw a fireball rushing down the hallway towards them, then everything went white.

They were in the cargo bay again. As soon as Daniel and Teal'c saw them, they leapt up and ran over, lifting Carter off the colonel's back and lowering her to the ground. Jack spun around and pressed his hoof to the side of her neck, bending over and listening for breath.

"She's got a pulse," he said, "but she's not breathing!"

"What happened?" Daniel said.

"Later!" Jack barked. "Koresh! Get over here!"

The young Jaffa, who had been watching, stunned, from the other side of the room, jumped at the sound of his name. "Me?" he said.

"Yes, you!" Jack shouted. "You've got magic, can you wake her up?"

"I don't know!" he replied.

"Well it's time to find out!" Jack shouted, staring expectantly at him.

Koresh cantered over, looking down at the unconscious major. Taking a deep breath, he pressed his horn against her forehead and closed his eyes in deep concentration. The hold went silent; Jack could hardly breathe himself as he stared at her, watching for any signs of life.

Then her back arched up suddenly, her eyes flying open. Everypony jumped back, and Koresh looked up at the colonel.

"That's all I can do!" he said.

Sam was in spasms on the floor, her eyes darting round in panic. Her mouth was open, but no air was going in.

Koresh staggered back, shocked. "What did I—"

"Never mind that!" Jack shouted. "Everypony hold her down!"

The others crowded round and grabbed hold of her limbs, holding her securely against the floor. Jack pushed into the group and knelt down by her, thrusting his forelegs down on her chest to try and get her breathing again.

"Come on, Major!" he grunted. "You can do this."

But nothing changed. He kept trying over and over again, pushing down on her chest and trying to force some air out of her, but he was starting to worry that the blast had collapsed her airway. He was losing her. He didn't dare look up into her eyes, in case her expression was the last one he saw on her.

"Come on, Sam, don't die on me now!" he shouted. "Do you have any idea how much paperwork that is?"

Sam's chest jerked downwards. The sudden motion caught Jack by surprise and he jumped back. It happened again, then again, and just moments later she was coughing up dust and puling in deep, shaky breaths.

"There we go!" Jack said. The others let go of her and she rolled onto her side. Her breathing slowly started to settle down, and Jack approached her again and knelt down by her.

"How're you feeling, Major?" he said.

Sam laughed, coughing again briefly. "I'm not having a good day today, am I?" she said, smiling.

"Eh, it's just a few bruises," Jack said, patting her on the shoulder. "A bit of rest and you'll be good as new."

"Yes, rest," Sam said, "that sounds good..."

Her eyes slid closed again, and her breathing settled into a slow, gentle rhythm. Jack fell back onto his haunches, breathing a sigh of relief.

"How did you do that?" Koresh asked.

"Natural talent, I guess," Jack said, shrugging. "Thanks for the help, by the way."

Koresh looked at him uncertainly, then gave a small nod, turned and walked back out to the bridge. Ro'shur watched his student leave, then looked over at the colonel.

"We will leave you be again," he said, following Koresh out and closing the door behind himself.

"Yep," Jack said, scratching his head, "that went well."

12 - Prologue

Three years earlier.

A dozen Jaffa galloped through the forest. Distant horns echoed across the valley, guiding them to their destination at the top of the ridge, but there was no need; everypony for miles around must have heard the explosions.

At the back of the squad, Koresh followed closely on the others' heels. He heard the leader's voice from up ahead, but he wasn't listening. All he could think was that it was great to finally see some excitement. He'd been stationed on this planet, guarding a tiny, insignificant outpost, for an agonisingly long three years now, and he had been beginning to wonder if he was ever going to get a chance to make a name for himself.

He wondered what the commotion was. Was somepony actually attacking the outpost? His mind raced at the thought of capturing a spy or saboteur and presenting them before Zipacna himself. That would definitely earn him some recognition.

Suddenly the group turned, joining a forest path that headed up to the ridge. Koresh almost missed the turn, skidding round on the mossy floor and running to catch up with the others, but matching their pace was hard going on the steep gradient.

Realising he hadn't been concentrating, he looked round as he ran and tried to get his bearings. They were a long way from the compound now, which lay down in the valley a good twenty minutes' run from there. He could see plumes of smoke rising into the air ahead, clearly silhouetted against the bright blue sky, and he could hear shouts coming from all directions as patrols converged on the location.

The rest of the squad pushed further ahead, no doubt also eager to get their own piece of the action before others arrived. But Koresh found himself slowing down instead. As he thought about it, he realise that it didn't make sense.

Up ahead of them, apart from the plumes of smoke, there was absolutely nothing. There was no power generator, no guard outpost, no anything. It wasn't even a well-used path; the Chappa'ai was all the way down at the bottom of the valley, and the compound itself was in the other direction. He'd been up here a few times on patrols, and the only thing of note that he could think of was that you could see almost the entire valley from up there.

He skidded to a halt, his eyes wide in realisation. The spot could be seen from the entire valley. It was the perfect place to set up a distraction.

They weren't going to find the intruders up there. This was meant to draw their attention away from the real target, and he knew where that had to be.

His team were too far ahead to warn now. Making a snap decision, he turned and galloped back down into the valley, toward the Chappa'ai.

He could still hear the trampling of hooves in the distance, Jaffa approaching from all sides, all going in the wrong direction. He hoped some others would realise as well; there would have been at least two Jaffa watching the Chappa'ai, and if they couldn't protect it he wasn't sure that he'd be able to do any better alone. But he was committed now; if he turned back or delayed too long, his allowing the intruders to escape would receive a worse punishment than if he had tried and failed. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to face these intruders, and to win.

"I will not die today," he grunted.

He cleared the treeline, approaching the edge of the sunken clearing where the Chappa'ai stood. It was active; the guards must have already been defeated. He couldn't hear or see any other Jaffa approaching, but he could see four ponies gathered around the dialling device. As he drew closer they started running for the Gate.

I'm losing them, he thought. He only had one chance to do this, and no time to prepare, so he ignored his cautionary instincts and dove straight over the edge, sliding down the scree slope into the clearing and stumbling to a halt at the bottom. He went for his weapon, but as he looked up he found the barrel of a gun staring back at him.

Three of the intruders had already fled through the Chappa'ai, but one hung back – a forest green pegasus in matching green uniform, a strange black weapon readied at his side.

Koresh had heard the stories, and recognised him immediately. The intruders were SG-1, of Earth, and this was Colonel O'Neill, their leader. This was the team who had defeated Apophis, mere moments before the destruction of their own planet, and this was the very pony who had killed the supreme system lord Osiris just two years before that. A prize like this would get him any posting he wanted.

The colonel was staring back at him, eyes glancing repeatedly down at the staff weapon strapped to his side. Koresh cursed his impatience; he hadn't armed his staff before descending, and now, in the time it would take him to draw and aim it, the colonel could easily have killed him with his own weapon.

O'Neill tilted his head, puzzled.

Koresh could barely breathe. He had been stupid; he'd jumped into battle unprepared, and now he was as good as dead. He could hear the blood pumping in his ears, and started to panic as all his training failed him. He didn't know what to do. If he made a move, he'd be killed; if he didn't…

The colonel wasn't firing, though. He had a shot, but wasn't taking it. Koresh had no idea what he was waiting for, but in that moment he didn't care. All thoughts duty, of glory and honour, began to melt away, and he was left with the simple desire to survive.

Slowly, being careful not to make any sudden moves, he took a step back. Then he knelt to the ground, raising his firing hoof in surrender.

The colonel raised an eyebrow and stood, watching him in silence for a moment. Then, with a shrug, he turned and ran straight for the Chappa'ai.

Koresh watched him leave, his heart racing. Then as the colonel got close to the Chappa'ai his training kicked in again; he jumped up, activated his weapon and aimed it at the colonel—

But the colonel was already gone. The Chappa'ai shut down, and Koresh was suddenly alone in the clearing. The silence was torture, and he reared up and screamed at the sky in frustration. He'd failed. He let them get away. His masters would punish him for this when they found out.

He collapsed to his knees, pounding at the dirt with his hoof. He considered just running back into the trees and hoping nopony realised he had been there, but he felt ashamed that he was even considering such cowardly options. There was no choice now but to wait and accept his fate.

Then, out of nowhere, he felt a hoof on his shoulder. He froze, and when he looked round he saw Ro'shur, one of the Jaffa masters from the compound, standing over him, looking inquisitively at him.

"Stand up, colt," he said.

Koresh jumped to his hooves and stood to attention, his knees trembling. The old pegasus walked a circle round him, looking him over.

"Why are you here?" he said. "Was your group not patrolling under the northern ridge?"

"Yes, Master," Koresh replied, nodding. "We were called to the explosions, but they were a distraction. The intruders were—"

"Intruders?" Ro'shur said, looking round the empty clearing. "And where are they now, hm?"

Koresh swallowed. "Gone," he said. "Escaped."

"I see," Ro'shur said. "You let them go?" Koresh nodded, bowing his head in fear of the response this would get.

Ro'shur remained silent for a while, then said, "Yes, I saw what happened as I approached the tree-line. You had your enemy in clear view, and you did not fire. Why not?"

"I…" Koresh said, "I wasn't prepared. I failed to ready my weapon, and if I had tried to fire I would have been too slow."

"A foolish mistake," Ro'shur replied, "and it nearly killed you. Tell me, do you think you would have won if you had been more prepared?"

Koresh didn't answer. His ego felt irreparably bruised, and he honestly wasn't sure he knew.

"Master," he said, kneeling down and staring at the ground, "I accept full responsibility for their escape. If you wish to punish me—"

Ro'shur laughed. "Punish you?" he said. "Whatever for?"

Koresh looked up again, surprised. "Master, they escaped! I—"

"Listen to me," Ro'shur said, raising a hoof to silence him. "You were apparently the only Jaffa in this entire valley who realised it was a diversion! I should be promoting you!"

"But Mater!" Koresh protested, surprising himself with the loudness of his own voice. "I failed! I… I surrendered!"

Ro'shur chuckled. "I have lived a long life," he said, "and seen a great many battles. Tell me, do you truly believe that I must have won all of them to be alive today?"

Koresh just stood, stunned.

"There is wisdom in accepting defeat from a superior enemy," Ro'shur went on, "as long as you do so knowing that you will do everything in your power to make sure it doesn't happen again the next time."

Koresh couldn't believe his ears. He had fully expected that he would die that day, and now he was being offered a second chance. He had made a mistake, but if there was a way he could make up for it, he would definitely do whatever it took to make sure it didn't happen again.

"I think you have potential," Ro'shur said. "There is wisdom in you. You could be a great warrior one day, but you lack the experience. I have been looking for a new student; if you will let me, I will teach you what you need to know. We can make sure that, if you meet these intruders again, next time you will be the superior."

Koresh nodded, eager to accept anything that would save him from punishment. His mind filled with visions of the future he thought he'd lost. He imagined finding SG-1 again one day, defeating them, bringing them before his god...

But his curiosity got the better of him still, and he said, "Why? Why would you do this for me?"

Ro'shur raised an eyebrow. "I just have a feeling," he said. "I think you are destined for great things."

14 - Fugue

Ninety three years after first contact.

Celestia's mind was in chaos, her dreams a cacophony of memories and pain. Images flashed through her head as she remembered all those she had seen die over the years. She remembered all the friends who had stood with her and her sister in the past, and all the ways Ra had found to take them from her again.

She thought back to everything Ra had done to her beloved world – the Tree of Harmony reduced to charred rubble; the blood-stained crater where the dragons' nest once was; Canterlot destroyed and rebuilt far away to his design. She remembered the sounds of enormous, violent machines as the Crystal Empire was mined, and the smell of smoke as the Everfree forest was purged. All of it was indelibly marked on her memory, and it had haunted her every night for decades.

She remembered watching from afar as the first Jaffa, Ra's new race of warrior slaves, were born, followed soon after by the birth of new 'gods' – Ra's children. Ponies had given themselves over to be warped and mutilated for the sake of perpetuating a parasitic species that had never cared for them. The happiness in those first hosts' eyes as it happened, and the fact that they would willingly let that be done to them, was the hardest memory of all. Equestria as she had known it was gone. Its inhabitants had been changed beyond recognition. She wasn't sure if she would ever be able to call that world her home again.

"Sister, wake up!"

The voice in her ear was a blessed relief, drawing her out of the nightmare. But as her senses returned, she was only reminded that it still hadn't ended. She felt the camouflage suit pressing up against her fur, and felt the cold rock of the cave they were hiding in underneath her. Luna was standing over her, similarly dressed, with panic in her eyes.

"Were you successful?" Celestia asked as she stood up and tried to shake the dream from her mind.

"Yes," Luna said, nodding. "All the charges are set, but I believe I was seen as I left."

A horn sounded somewhere in the distance.

"We need to go!" Luna said. "Now!"

Celestia nodded, and Luna turned and ran back out of the cave. Celestia's head was still spinning, but she followed after her sister and galloped out into the dark trees, climbing up the slope to the top of the hill.

"It's a long way to the Gate," Celestia said, "but if we can make it before they do, we should be able to get through."

"And if we can't?" Luna asked.

"We will make it," Celestia replied. She was determined to get off this planet one way or another. No matter what happened to Equestria, no matter where she went, something always drew her back there. It was still her dream to one day liberate the world she had spent so long on, and she knew that could never happen if she abandoned it.

She looked up at the strange sky passing by above the trees. Equestria was out there somewhere, orbiting around one of those stars, but from this distance it was lost in the crowd, just another unremarkable point of light.

Of all the promises Ra had made, there was one which he had kept; the revelation of the Stargate had opened up a galaxy full of alien worlds, each more beautiful than the last. There were so many that she had lost count, and she imagined she had only visited a fraction of them. But it had only been a matter of time before this wonder had been spoiled as well.

"How many of those have Stargates?" Celestia wondered out loud. "Around how many of those stars are there ponies suffering right now?"

"Too many," Luna said, her eyes looking forward still toward their destination.

"Too many," Celestia repeated, thoughts of all the worlds she had visited and tried to save blurring together in her head. "This is never going to end, is it?"

"Don't say that!" Luna replied. "As soon as you believe that, they have won."

Celestia lowered her head and continued to push onward. Luna was right. Few others wanted to fight any more, and those that did were too afraid to, but they had to believe that others would one day follow their lead. They had to believe that they were making a difference.

She heard shouts behind them. Looking round, she could make out at least a dozen Jaffa in the distance, galloping towards them through the trees. If the Jaffa hadn't seen them yet, they soon would.

"They're tracking us," she said. Luna looked round as well.

"They're gaining faster than I thought they would, We may not make it in time."

Celestia looked forward, at the endless forest stretching out ahead of them, and down at the soft, leaf-coloured earth flying past under their hooves.

"We'll never lose them on this terrain," she said. "They can just follow our tracks wherever we go. We need to fly."

"Sister…" Luna said, but Celestia cut her off.

"I know the risks," she said. "They know where we are anyway. We just need to break the trail."

Luna nodded. Celestia took a deep breath, and the two of them pushed their wings out from under the covers in their suits and spread them wide; there was a burst of shouts from the pursuing Jaffa at the sudden flash of white in the dark forest. Pushing down on the air with their wings, they lifted themselves up through the treetops, and out into the clear open sky.

"We should go east," Luna said, pointing off to the right. "Head for the cliff."

The two of them turned in unison and pushed onward, skimming the top of the forest and heading for the rock face which rose up out of it ahead of them. If they could reach it, they'd have a clear run along the ridge to the Stargate.

Celestia looked behind her and saw three pegasi clearing the treeline in the distance behind them.

"They're on us again," she said. She turned forward again and the two of them flew on as fast as they could, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and their pursuers. They had the power advantage, but Celestia could already feel fatigue building in her muscles. She wasn't going to be able to keep doing this forever.

They reached the cliff, flying over the edge and plunging straight into the trees that lay beyond. They zigzagged randomly through the trees, their wings tearing through the branches, until Luna shouted "Here!" and dropped to the ground. Celestia banked hard, coming to a halt and lowering herself down next to her sister, who was standing in a small hollow surrounded by thick roots. They ducked under a protruding knot of wood, and Celestia went about covering her wings again.

"Did we lose them?" she said.

"I think so," Luna replied.

They fell silent, listening. In the distance they could hear the sound of hooves and shouting as the pursuing pegasi searched among the trees, but soon after the sounds began to die away again.

"We'll never make it to the Gate before they do," Luna said.

"Should we wait?" Celestia said, sitting down to rest her legs. "Try again for the Gate in the morning?"

Luna lay down next to her. "Perhaps," she said. "Or perhaps we can do so when the explosives detonate, and hope it provides a suitable distraction."

Celestia sighed, and rolled over onto her side, profoundly exhausted.

"How did we end up like this?" she said. "We were princesses once. We were loved, we were respected. Now look at us; sneaking around, hiding in the dark, planting bombs… It feels so cowardly."

"Do not do this to yourself, sister," Luna said. "Nothing has changed. We are – as we always have been – fighting to protect those who need it. Ra is the coward, refusing to face us, throwing his thralls at us instead."

"Thralls," Celestia said. "We should be helping them as much as any other, and yet here we are, blowing up facilities and killing who knows how many of them. I know," she added, before Luna could respond, "there are always casualties in war, and we picked an automated factory so there would be as few as possible, but I don't think that'll ever make me feel comfortable with this."

"I know," Luna said. "And I would be more concerned if you ever did. But we have to focus on the bigger picture. We are fighting for an entire galaxy now, after all. Think how many could die if Ra were to complete the fleet of ships he is planning. We have both seen what just one of them is capable of. As much as I hate to say it, it is much better that the few die now, than that the entire galaxy is left to face the alternative."

Celestia stared blankly at the soft ground. She had told herself all these things so many times already, but even hearing it from her sister didn't make any of it easier to accept.

"How long?" she asked.

"I am unsure," Luna said. "I fear I have lost track of time in the pursuit. We have perhaps ten minutes until they detonate."

"Okay," Celestia replied. "I guess we might as well—"

She heard what sounded like a twig snap nearby. Falling silent, the two of them waited for any further noises. She couldn't hear anything now, but she didn't dare move. Even a silent forest couldn't be trusted.

Luna, her head still raised, searched the trees for signs of movement, but nothing came. Celestia wondered if she had imagined the sound.

Then, at once, six Jaffa burst out of the trees, coming at them from all directions, their weapons drawn.

"Tal'bet!" one of them shouted.

Celestia and Luna got to her hooves slowly.

"Now what?" Luna said.

The Jaffa led them back out to the treeline, where another twenty or so were waiting in a circle. They were herded into the centre, the Jaffa's weapons trained on them from all sides. Celestia glanced up to the sky and saw three pegasi – likely the same from earlier – hovering overhead.

"They've got us," Celestia said. "So what are they waiting for?"

"I do not know," Luna said. "Perhaps they are waiting for their master."

"Silence!" one of the Jaffa shouted. "Our master wishes to speak with you!"

"That answers that question," Luna said.

"I said silence!" The Jaffa shouted again. "You will kneel before your god!"

"I kneel before nopony!" Luna shouted. The Jaffa looked ready to shoot them then and there, and Celestia was about to say something to try and calm her down, when the circle parted and another pony stepped into their midst. Celestia recognised him immediately.

"Typical," Apophis said. "You still do not recognise those more powerful than you. But you are mine now, and you will kneel before me."

Luna laughed. "Apophis," she said, walking towards him, "why are you out here on a planet such as this? Is Ra still giving all the important assignments to his favourite, Osiris?"

"Kek, shol'va!" one of the Jaffa shouted, raising his weapon, but Apophis stopped him with a wave of his hoof.

"You will show respect to your gods!" he shouted, looking like he was ready to explode. "Now kneel!"

"We will never bow before you or any of your kind," Luna said, her voice lowering to a growl, "not as long as a single pony remains enslaved. If you cannot accept that, then you might as well kill us now."

Celestia listened on in silence, wishing her younger sister would stop antagonising him in case he actually did decide to kill them. But at the same time she envied her sister's drive; time had almost entirely drained the fight out of her now, and she just didn't have the energy to stand up to them anymore.

But as she listened, she did find it odd that Apophis wasn't doing anything. He had them entirely under his control, and Luna was certainly giving him more than enough reason to have them executed, but for some reason he was just staying silent. It was like he was waiting for something.

"What's going on?" she said, stepping up next to Luna and looking Apophis in the eye.

"You dare ask questions of me?" he said. "I have captured you trespassing on a planet in my domain, and for a terrorist such as you the punishment will be death."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Celestia said. "And why are you even out here, chasing us in the woods? Isn't this what you have soldiers for?"

Apophis slapped her on the cheek; she thought she could taste blood, but ignored it and looked definantly back into his scowling eyes.

"If it were my decision you would already be dead," he said. "You are becoming more than a nuisance, and dealing with you like this is a waste of my time. But it is not up to me. I have been… asked to capture you so that my master may speak to you."

"Your master?" Luna asked, but Celestia held up a hoof, silencing her. She could hear something approaching fast in the distance. As she listened, she also became aware of a faint tingling sensation in her horn – one which she hadn't felt in a long time.

The noise grew louder and louder, until a glider cleared the top of the cliff, circling the group once before coming to a halt, hovering just above them. A spotlight came on, illuminating the gathering, and Celestia had to raise her hoof to her eyes to shield herself from the glare.

A circular hatch opened on the craft's underside and five rings descended from it, a stream of light filling the space between them. Then, moments later, they rose back into the glider, leaving a single pony behind in their place.

"Ra," Celestia said.

The glider pulled back, the sound of its engines reducing to a distant hum, but the light stayed fixed on them.

"Celestia, Luna," Ra replied, nodding to them in turn, "it's far too long since we last talked."

"Do not pretend that we are friends," Luna said. "Not after all these years."

"Of course," Ra said, sighing. "I dare say you have made your feelings about me clear. I am losing count of how many of my worlds you have attacked. How many of my followers you have needlessly killed?"

"And what about you?" Celestia said, walking up to him. "How many of your followers have you needlessly killed?"

The guards surrounding them started shifting and readying their weapons as she approached him, but Ra shook his head and they stood down again.

"Don't patronise us," she went on. "You've ignored us for so long. You haven't even spoken to us in decades. You've never cared about us. What's changed?"

"Celestia," he said, "please don't misunderstand my intentions. I have always had the utmost respect for the two of you."

Luna snorted. Celestia ignored her, but Ra looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. He turned and began walking slowly in a circle around the two sisters.

"I did once give you the opportunity to understand my motives," he said, "and I did always regret that you chose not to listen. You forced me to take some regrettable steps to achieve what I needed to do."

"Don't lie to us," Celestia said. "Don't try and tell me that Discord's death was our fault."

"Of course not," Ra said. "Discord had no place in this world. For this galaxy to function safely he was always going to have to die. It is having to lie to you which I regret."

Luna laughed. "I find that hard to believe. You have been lying to us from day one."

"Luna," Ra said, stopping and looking at her, "no matter what you may think, I do want us to be able to be allies. I don't wish for any of this pointless fighting. What I want is for you to be working alongside me."

"Why us?" Celestia said.

Ra raised an eyebrow. "Please, Celestia," he said. "You asked me not to patronise you. Surely you understand by now the reason why I have done all this."

Celestia didn't say anything. She didn't understand, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. She hated the idea that he actually considered his actions to be justified.

"You have lived for thousands of years," Ra said, "and you have seen the entire history of Equestria. You are extraordinary beings with extraordinary magic at your disposal. You are, in fact, a lot like me in many ways. Really, we are in a unique position to be able to understand each other."

"We will never help you," Luna said. "Not as long as a single pony remains under your control."

"Oh, I think you will," Ra said. "One day you will learn that your current ways are only hurting others." He turned and approached Celestia again. "Perhaps then you will see that my way is not what you believe it to be. You accuse me of killing my followers needlessly, but one must always remove the spoiled items to protect the store. If you were to stop fighting, and to stop encouraging others to, then there would no longer be any need to do this."

Ra looked expectantly up at her, but Celestia just stared back, her face drawn.

"You might as well kill us now," she said. "We will never change our minds."

Ra chuckled. "We will see about that," he said. "I haven't come here to have a long conversation. I just wished you to know that I haven't forgotten about you. We will talk again soon, and I think you may start to see things differently then. Now, I should be leaving. The loss of this refinery is going to set me back, so I will need to begin implementing my contingencies."

He turned to walk away, but Celestia was getting fed up. After all this time he just appeared out of nowhere and expected them to roll over for him? She hated being talked down to.

"Wait!" she shouted. The circle of Jaffa tensed, and Ra turned to face her, looking curious.

"Answer my question," she said. "What has changed?"

Ra shook his head. "That will have to wait," he said. "You will understand much more next time we meet." He started to turn again. "Now I really must leave. If you have any more questions—"

"Hold on," Luna said, walking up next to Celestia and staring at Ra in confusion. "You said 'refinery'?"

Ra nodded, a grin on his face. "Indeed," he said. "After everything you've done, I couldn't risk you learning the location of my real ship factories. This one outpost is a small sacrifice to protect my greater plans. It will be a shame to lose such a sizeable slave workforce, of course—"

"No!" Celestia shouted. She turned and ran, ignoring the guards, back to the cliff and toward the distant outpost, but all she could do was watch as, before her eyes, great explosions erupted from the facility. She skidded to a halt at the cliff edge, Luna running up beside her, and the two watched helplessly as the entire structure was consumed in flames.

"Your actions aren't saving anypony," Ra said, walking up beside them. "I have given you many chances to see this, but my patience may not last forever. When we meet next, I hope you will see reason."

Celestia said nothing, unable to take her eyes off the sight in front of her. Tears ran down her cheeks as she began to hear screams echoing up from the valley below.

"The Chappa'ai will remain unguarded after we leave," Ra went on, "but if you try to go anywhere other than Equestria, I will know. Until next time."

He turned and walked away. Celestia was only vaguely aware of the sound of the troops marching away as she stood, watching over the fruits of their work. They had been tricked, and instead of protecting anything they had only made the problem worse.

How often had this happened before? How many of their apparent successes had just been Ra misleading them, throwing them off the trail of his true plans? Had they ever actually done any good at all?

It felt like the entire universe was against her. First her own subjects, who she had loved more than anything else, had turned on her. Now, when she tried to do anything to help them, it was thrown back at her and twisted into some act of destruction that was then claimed as her fault.

But all of it, she reminded herself, Ra's doing. He had poisoned their minds and turned them against her. He had lied and manipulated, tricking her into being part of his senseless destruction. As long as Ra lived – as long as he continued to inhabit his stolen body – there was never going to be any good in this galaxy again. He had twisted her world into a monstrosity, a mockery of the peaceful place it had once been. Everything he was – everything he stood for – was unforgivable. There was nothing in him and his creations but evil.

As she watched the chaos below, her thoughts drifted back to Starburst for a moment. For all the terrible things she had seen during the last century, he had received it a hundredfold. If indeed anything of him did remain, then he was trapped in his own body, forced to watch as Ra tortured and killed countless ponies. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to live in that nightmare. Anypony cursed with that would be better off dead.

As the thought washed through her mind, Celestia felt something start to break inside her, and in her tiredness she decided to let it. She felt numb, her anger and sadness fading away as a singular feeling of certainty filled her. In that moment she knew without a doubt that, the next time the two of them met, Ra would die.

15 - The Rise

"Hello?"

Everything was dark. Sam was only aware of her own body and the ground she was standing on, but that was as black as everything else. It was like the world was missing.

The dream felt strange. It was too empty, and with no reference she had no idea even how long she'd been asleep for. The fact that she knew it was a dream was itself a surprise; she couldn't remember ever having had a lucid dream before. She could only think that there was something interfering with the dream to cause all this, and that something had to be the thing she was looking for.

"I'm here!" she called into the blackness. "Can you hear me?"

There was another empty silence, then:

"Major?"

She looked round in surprise, trying to find the voice, but couldn't see anything.

"Yes?" she shouted. "Where are you?"

"I'll be with you soon," the voice replied shakily. "I just need to… please hold on."

Sam stood still, waiting, taken aback by the voice's tone. It was almost giddy, and seemed very uncertain. She could understand what Koresh had said; this didn't sound at all like the Ra'shek.

"I have it now," came the voice again. "Prepare yourself."

Suddenly Sam felt something, as if the world was stretching out around her. She fell to her knees, barely able to breathe, but just as she started praying that it wouldn't last too long it stopped again. Everything settled down, and as she got to her knees she found she was no longer alone.

As she looked up at the stranger, words escaped her. The dark blue pony standing in front of her was nearly twice as tall as she did, much of the height given by the longest horn she had ever seen. Her mane flowed weightlessly from her head and neck as a field of deep, glowing, star-filled darkness, and her slender body was framed by a pair of enormous wings.

"Major Samantha Carter?" the newcomer said, tears of happiness welling up in her eyes.

Sam staggered backward. "You know who I am?"

"I know only your name," she replied, "and what I have seen in your dreams. You oppose the Goa'uld?"

Sam nodded. Everything was so confusing, but this was a good sign. If this… being opposed the Goa'uld too, then she may be an ally after all. She was bursting with questions, wanting to know who this pony was and how this all fitted together, but had no idea where to start.

But then her eyes caught sight of the ornamental peytral hanging round the pony's neck, its front emblazoned with an image of a crescent moon.

"Of course," she said, almost laughing. "What else would the Ra'shek's twin be?"

There was a sigh, and the stranger's expression fell at the mention of the name.

"'Sun demon'," she said. "Is that what my sister is called today?"

Sam took a cautious step toward her again. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to—"

"No no," the stranger said, shaking her head. "These truths should not be hidden from."

She turned and sat down, taking deep breaths in silence.

"I am doing this to ask for your help," she said after a moment, "but before I can, there are things which first need explaining. If you are to help me, you must know why you are doing so."

She looked round and gestured for Sam to join her. The major walked over and sat down on the ground beside her.

"My name is Princess Luna," she said. "I suspect from your reaction that you have never seen another of my kind?"

Sam shook her head. "What are you?" she asked. "How are you doing this?"

Luna smiled. "Power over dreams is but a small part of the magic my sister and I once had at our disposal," she said. "When we first came into existence dominion over the moon was given to me, along with the power to protect ponies as they dreamed, while to my sister went dominion over the sun. Using this magic we ruled over and guided Equestria for many centuries—"

"Centuries?" Sam said, jumping up and stepping away from her. "You mean, you're Goa'uld?"

Luna sighed. "No," she said. "We are a relic of a much older system of magic – one which protected and sustained this planet long before Ra ever arrived. Please, Major Carter," she added, holding her hoof out again, "I have much to explain. I need you to listen to what I have to say."

Sam sat down next to her again. Luna nodded in thanks, then took a deep breath before continuing.

"You call my sister the Ra'shek," she said, "and I can only imagine what your experience of her has been for you to give her that name, but I need you to understand that she was not always this way. When I knew her, she was a pony much like me, and her name was Celestia."

Images started appearing around them, of strange towns and cities, their streets filled with creatures Sam had never seen before.

"Equestria was a very different place before Ra came," Luna said. "My sister and I ruled over it as princesses, but we were nothing like the Goa'uld. We cared for and protected all creatures around us as best we could, and they loved us in return. We had no need for brainwashing or trickery to gain their trust.

"We were also charged with watching over the heavens," she went on. "Each morning Celestia would raise the sun into the sky, and in the evening I would raise the moon. It continued in this way for a long time, our magic maintaining the cycles and balance of the world."

Sam raised her eyebrows, but she held back from questioning it. After everything she'd seen already today, she was starting to wonder if anything would ever really surprise her again.

"In reality," Luna said, "the sun and moon were under the control of a much deeper magic than our own which radiates through the entire system, keeping it safe and stable and protecting our planet from the darker forms of magic which threaten it. Our task was merely to provide it guidance. That is, it was until Ra came.

"As we learned some time later, he had come to our system months, maybe even years before we found out about him, placing satellites in wide orbits around our planet which sapped the natural magic away, denying us access to it. He then came, assumed control of it himself, and slowly stole the planet, and its inhabitants, away from us."

Sam sat in silence, absorbing it all. She watched the images floating around her again, thinking that nothing had changed at first, but then she saw the armoured ponies patrolling the streets. All the strange creatures she'd seen before were gone as well. It was subtle, but the signs of the Goa'uld were there if you knew what to look for.

"They just let him do this?" she said.

"That was his worst crime," Luna said. "Long before he revealed his true intent, he made them love him. By the time we had sound reason to resist, they simply didn't want to. Some chose to fight, yes, but the only way to make a difference was to kill those we were trying to save. I think that is what hurt my sister most."

The images changed. This time Sam saw battlefields, filled Jaffa and ponies slaughtering each other. She saw towns burning. She saw ponies tortured, and enslaved, forced to work in prison camps. All images she was far too familiar with.

"How long did you go on for?" Sam asked.

"As long as we could," Luna said. "Even as others fell away or were killed, we persevered. We kept fighting against him because it was all we knew how to do by then. But eventually it just became…"

The images flickered and disappeared. Sam looked back round at Luna. Her head had dropped down again and her eyes were closed, holding back tears.

"If you don't want to talk about this—" Sam said, but Luna shook her head.

"No," she said. "I need to. You have to understand this. It is painful to talk about, but… I need to show you what happened."

"Show me?"

Suddenly Luna looked up again, putting a hoof on Sam's shoulder and staring desperately into her eyes, her own filled with tears.

"Major Carter," she said, "before I show you this, you have to know one thing. Celestia is the kindest pony I have ever known. She never hurt anything except to protect others. I… I owe her my life. Please remember that."

Sam was getting more and more confused, and unnerved by what might be coming, but everything about Luna's expression said that she was being genuine. If Sam was going to understand any of this, she was certain that she needed to see whatever Luna wanted to show her.

She nodded. "Okay," she said. "I will, I promise."

Luna smiled weakly. "Thank you," she said.

Then she disappeared. Sam leapt up in surprise, but immediately her back hit something solid. Spinning round, she found herself face to face with a wall, covered from floor to ceiling in a fine golden mesh. Her eyes followed the wall up as it sloped to the ceiling above her before descending down the other side again.

She was on a Goa'uld ship, in the middle of a long corridor. The architecture was unmistakeable, though it didn't quite look like any ship she had seen before. But as she glanced back and forth along the corridor to try and get her bearings, she realised that she had seen this particular ship before; at the end of the corridor, through a pair of narrow doorways, she could see the Stargate. She was right back where all this had started.

There were hoofsteps behind her. She turned again. Walking down the corridor straight towards her was Princess Luna, surrounded by Jaffa guards. Next to her stood another pony, another complete stranger to Sam but unmistakeably Luna's sister. The two walked silently past her, and as they did, Sam looked for the first time into the eyes of Princess Celestia.

"Luna!" Sam called out. "Princess!" But none of the passing group heard her.

The group went further on and turned right; Sam ran to catch up and followed them round into the bridge. Like the corridor it looked very different from when she had last seen it, its walls polished gold embossed with countless markings and symbols, but what drew her attention first as she entered, as it had the previous time, was the view.

She walked up to the window and looked out at the world below; it had to be the same planet she had been on just minutes prior, but it was completely unrecognisable. Vast oceans covered much of its surface, and the land was a mosaic of dense forests, long, snow-capped mountain ranges, and all other climates she could imagine. The geography was different, but it looked almost earth-like. It was not the barren desert she had seen before. In addition to that, she saw that they were no longer alone in space; dozens of other motherships, along with swarms of smaller craft, hung in formation over the planet.

As she gazed down at the surface, Luna's words about Celestia raising the sun came back to her. Was that what killed the planet? With nothing moving the sun, had the planet just cooked?

An unfamiliar voice spoke behind her. She turned and looked at the ponies she was sharing the room with; the guards had taken up positions along the side walls, while Luna and Celestia were standing in the middle of the room blocking her view of the one who was speaking. Walking round to their side she saw a pony – a unicorn with a crimson coat and flowing golden mane, sitting on a throne against the back wall with an ornate black and gold robe draped across him. It was Ra.

"I'm glad you could come," he was saying.

"You hardly gave us a choice," Luna replied. "I assume you've been watching us ever since we returned."

"A necessary precaution," Ra said. "I need to be able to keep my ponies safe from your actions. I wish I didn't have to deprive them of the Chappa'ai as well," he added, "but unfortunately the two of you have proven that you cannot be trusted with it. I felt it was the only viable course of action until we can resolve this."

"Resolve this?" Luna scowled. "You continue to enslave and oppress our ponies, and slaughter any who don't bow to your whim, and you think you can do anything to resolve this?"

Beside her, Celestia stood quietly, staring at Ra with a look Sam couldn't read.

Ra shook his head. "Sisters, I am disappointed in you," he said. "You continue to miss the bigger picture. I brought you up here to make one final offer, in the hopes that you will understand. Allow me to explain it to you."

He got up and walked round them, straight past Carter, to the window, where he stood and looked out over the planet.

"When I came to this world," he said, "I found something truly wondrous. There was magic here like nothing else in the galaxy. Your race – the pony race – have a connection to it at such a fundamental level that it borders on the miraculous. I saw in you potential for something great, if only I could harness, purify, and guide this connection. Imagine it: a world – no, a galaxy – bound together by a single spirit, a single force of magic. Billions of ponies on thousands of planets, all working with a singular purpose."

"And what is this purpose of yours?" Luna asked.

Ra smiled. "Perfection," he said. "Safety, security, happiness, in equal measure for all ponies. That has been my goal ever since I arrived. I have been studying your magic, bringing it under my control, uniting it as the powerful force is should be, such that I may use it to guide all ponies to perfection."

"Why are you bothering to tell us this?" Celestia said. "We've seen your world. This is not perfection."

"Sadly, no," Ra said. "I have tried for nearly a century to achieve my goals, but something has always eluded me. No matter what I try, I have never managed to bring this magic to a true state of unity. Some factor has always remained just out of reach, and this has caused pain and suffering."

He turned and faced the princesses. "As you say, you have seen it," he said. "Many follow me now, and together they work to bring my vision closer to reality, but still some lose their way and try to fight. The chaos pollutes their minds, and they become lost to me. If I could only find the final piece of the puzzle, then I could unite them all at last and there would be peace. Wouldn't that be beautiful?"

"Peace under your absolute rule?" Celestia said. Carter looked up at her, trying to understand the princess, and could see a deep anger behind her eyes, the product of a century of pain. She could understand Luna's words; this pony was being crushed by all the suffering she had seen.

"Actually," Ra said, "no." He walked back to his throne and sat again, "As I told you recently, I have plans, and they concern you."

"Us?" Luna asked.

Ra smiled. "Not just you," he said. "Do you remember from all those years ago, the one piece of information I required from you before I could begin my work?"

"No," Celestia said, her eyes wide with shock. "But you destroyed—"

"I destroyed the Tree, yes," Ra said. "It was of no use to me, nothing more than a conduit. But what I was really searching for that day, what I really needed…"

He pressed a button on the arm of his throne, and a small hatch opened in the floor in the centre of the room, a column rising out of the floor in front of the princesses. It's sudden appearance surprised Sam, and she only then noticed that it hadn't already been there. It was the same pedestal that had been there the entire time she had been working on the ship before, but she'd never even given it a close look. Seeing the princesses staring in horror at what sat on top of it though, she walked forward to see what it was.

There were crystals embedded in the top of the pillar – six of them – but they weren't control crystals as she had assumed. Each one was a different colour, and they were all carved into elaborate shapes.

"The… the Elements of Harmony," Luna stammered.

"Yes," Ra said, getting up and walking forward. "I have been studying their magic in secret, trying to learn how they work and harness their power for myself. I am now convinced that this is what I am missing, but I fear that they will never willingly work for me."

"Willingly?" Sam said, Luna echoing her question.

"Yes," Ra said. "It is as if they have a mind of their own, and they choose who to allow to wield their power. I have tried everything I can, but they are not so easily won over."

"Have you finally found something you can't control?" Luna said. Ra raised an eyebrow and looked up at her, unimpressed.

"As I was saying," he said, "I believe an opportunity has arisen – something which may finally end this unnecessary war." He turned and faced Celestia. "And it concerns you."

"Me?" Celestia said, taking a step back.

"Yes," he replied, returning to his throne. "I have studied your history books extensively, and I know that the Elements have, in the past, chosen to work with you. You have wielded them on no fewer than two occasions in fact, once entirely on your own. If you were to join me, and to bring with you the power of the Elements of Harmony, then together we would finally unite all the magic of this world under one banner."

Celestia's face screwed up as he was talking. Sam could read the princess's expression fine now – she was disgusted.

"You want me to join you?" she said.

"Think about it," Ra said, smiling with satisfaction. "You the former princess of the sun, and me the god of the sun, ruling side by side over my – over our domain. Our ponies would have two figureheads, and old and a new. We could bring unity to this galaxy as never before, and your remaining supporters would finally see that there is no need to fight. I would have the perfection that I have sought for so long, and you would have the peace you wish for.

"And then there is your unique nature," he added. "As I have said before, you are a most fascinating creature. I am certain that you would make an excellent queen."

"As a host?" Celestia shouted. "If you think—"

Ra held up a hoof. "I do not expect you to accept immediately," he said. "This is a lot to ask of you, I know, and I do not wish to force this on you. It will only make the transition—"

Then it was his turn to be interrupted, as a guard ran into the room, went up to him and whispered something in his ear. While Ra was distracted, Sam looked up at the princesses again. Celestia's expression was an enigma, and Sam noticed that Luna was looking over at her as well now, with a slight look of… was it fear?

Ra sat in silence, listening, then with a nod he dismissed the Jaffa, who turned and marched out again.

"Oh dear," Ra said. "I hate to interrupt our discussion, but something has come up on the surface. I suggest you watch this."

He gestured to the window. The two princesses turned round, Sam doing the same, and they watched as one of the motherships broke formation and started moving closer to the planet. The hairs pricked up on the back of Sam's neck; she could see what was coming.

"My guards discovered a small conclave of your supporters hiding in the mountains south of New Canterlot," Ra said. "It seems they had planned to attack the city, and could have caused a lot of damage. Naturally, I cannot allow this to happen."

The ship's weapons began to fire, burst after burst of plasma streaming down to a point on the surface. Sam winced as the first strikes hit.

"I have been tracking a number of such terrorist groups recently," Ra continued. "None have succeeded in their aims, fortunately, as the death tolls could have been massive if they had. This, however, was the last such cell. This is a momentous occasion, Princesses; Equestria is, for the time being at least, completely under my control. It is safe. If you join me, Celestia, then this will never need to happen again."

Sam was barely listening to him anymore. She couldn't draw her eyes away from the planet; she remembered what it was like on Tollana when the Tollan were wiped out, and imagined the ponies on the surface running hopelessly from the bombardment, being killed for the crime of trying to do some good for their world. She even wondered if Ra was actually telling the truth, or if he was lying and just randomly firing on his own planet in an attempt to persuade Celestia.

She looked up at the princess, wondering if Celestia was thinking the same thing, but the look she saw in Celestia's eyes took her completely by surprise. There was no anger, fear or sadness like she had expected. All the emotion seemed to have disappeared from her eyes, and she was just staring down at the planet with a simple, fixed resolve. Sam couldn't place why, but something about the princess just looked… wrong.

Luna saw the change as well. "Sister?" she said.

Celestia didn't respond. She raised her eyes and looked out into space, scanning across the fleet of ships as if she were counting them.

"Celestia, what's wrong?" Luna said, putting a hoof on Celestia's shoulder, but she ignored it.

Ra was speaking again behind them. "I will return you to the planet," he said. "In a month, I will send for you again. If you have not chosen to accept my offer by then, I will be forced to consider other options, so I ask you, for everypony's sake, to—"

"No."

The word made Carter jump. Celestia's eyes were still fixed on the fleet, but as she said it her eyes started to narrow, filling with a fiery anger.

"Celestia, please," Luna said, her voice pleading to her sister.

"I beg your pardon?" Ra said.

"No," Celestia repeated. She turned and began walking slowly towards the Goa'uld.

"You are either a liar or a fool," she said, her voice low but with a force that echoed through the room. "You offer peace with one hoof while building warships with another. You promise happiness, yet you bombard your own planets from orbit. Did you ever actually think I would fall for your lies?"

"Sister, wait," Luna said, running up next to Celestia, but she jumped back before she got close; Sam looked down and saw that the floor was actually melting around the princess's hooves. Ra stared at her, looking confused, but Sam could see him involuntarily shifting backwards in his seat.

"You can call yourself a saviour, a protector, or a god as much as you wish," Celestia went on, "but I have seen what you do. The only one you have ever done anything for was yourself. You enslave and indoctrinate those you can use, and you kill those who you don't consider worthy."

Sam found herself backing away as well. The guards along the walls were shifting uneasily, with no idea what was even happening.

"You have not saved the pony race," The princess said, her voice filling the room, "you have destroyed it! You have taken their free will, you have taken their history, you have even taken their bodies! Everything you touch is poisoned, cursed to live a half-life in servitude or slavery! You have offered me a chance to bring this galaxy to perfection, but I tell you that there is only one way that can happen now! I stand before you now to tell you that you have been judged for your crimes, and to deliver your sentence!"

"Jaffa!" Ra shouted. The guards leapt to attention, readying their weapons, but before they had a chance to fire, Celestia let out a roar; she threw her wings wide, and from their tips waves of fire lashed out and spread across the bridge. Sam shielded her face from the blast, feeling the heat of it as the memory rushed harmlessly past her. The guards were not so lucky, the flames quickly consuming them, their screams lasting mere seconds before they fell silent. Then the flames receded, leaving nothing but charred bulkheads behind them.

Sam looked back at Celestia, but the pony had completely changed. Her mane, once a beautiful aurora of flowing colours, was now a plume of yellow flames which poured upward to the ceiling, lapping against the sagging metal. Her eyes burned orange, and her entire body seemed to radiate light.

"Your influence is a plague!" she shouted, bearing down on Ra, who was now cowering in his chair. "As long as any trace of you remains this galaxy can never be good again! So I tell you that every trace of your presence will be wiped away! Today you will die, but not before you have witnessed the reaping of what you have sown! I will show you what you have longed for – I will show you perfection!"

The room was filled with light again, but this time it came from outside. Sam and Luna turned to the window and watched as hundreds of fireballs rained down through the sky, tearing through the ships in the fleet as if their shields didn't exist. She saw a few escaping to hyperspace, but in seconds the entire fleet had been reduced to nothing.

Sam hoped that was the end of it, but somehow she knew it wasn't going to be. Her fears were realised moments later as she realised the fireballs weren't stopping. They continued to fall, bombarding the planet's surface in waves. They hit everywhere, their fire spreading across the surface, until nothing of the land below could be seen.

"No," Sam whispered, unable to pull her eyes away from the sight.

"You… you can't do this!" Ra shouted. "All my work…"

"Your work is nothing!" Celestia shouted. "Every world in this galaxy will be cleansed of your evil! Once all memory of your existence is gone, only then will the galaxy be able to rise from the fire and be purified!"

Sam looked round at Luna, who was still staring down at the planet, tears in her eyes. Then she looked back at Celestia. The princess picked up Ra in an aura of yellow magic, holding him up by the neck as he struggled against her grip.

"You can't kill me!" Ra shouted. "The host—"

"—died decades ago," Celestia said quietly, glaring at him. "Now he can rest."

All of a sudden, the two of them were consumed in a pillar of flame, tongues of fire swirling around them and spreading out across the ceiling. It only took a few seconds, then the pillar began to twist, moving back and forth across the room, before pouring out through the door and disappearing down the corridor into the rest of the ship.

The sound died away, the silence broken only by groaning and popping sounds as the bulkheads expanded and warped in the intense heat. The gold-coloured coating plastering the walls had melted away, and was running down into pools on the ground, forming the smooth, charred black surface Sam recognised.

She looked over at Luna, the only other pony now remaining. The princess had her eyes closed and her head bowed. She was saying something to herself over and over again, as streams of magic flowed from her horn and bound themselves around her hooves and body. Sam wondered if Luna was reciting some kind of incantation, but when she moved closer she heard instead the words "Sister, forgive me for what I am about to do."

The magic ceased and she raised her head, wiping the tears away from her eyes. She took a few cautious steps across the searing floor, but the spells she had cast absorbed the heat. Then, after taking a final look out of the window to the burning planet below – Sam didn't dare follow her gaze, not wanting to see that sight again – she walked across the bridge and back into the corridor.

Sam followed slowly, trying to understand what Celestia was doing. No doubt she had left in order to purge the rest of the ship of Ra's forces, but why was she even doing that? Why not just destroy the ship in its entirety like the others.

But when she reached the corridor again she saw it, through the door on her right: the Stargate. Even in the heat that remained she felt a sudden chill. That was Celestia's plan; once she was done with the ship she would be finished in this system, and then she was going to travel to other planets and repeat this.

Luna seemed to have realised the same thing. She stood in the middle of the corridor, her wings held out beside her, waiting. Sam admired her courage, but couldn't see what she was hoping to do against the force they had just witnessed. Momentarily forgetting about the future, Sam was having trouble seeing how Celestia was ever going to be stopped.

Luna stood in silence, waiting, her eyes fixed on the corridor stretching out in front of her and her posture strong, but Sam could tell that she was fighting back tears.

"Luna?" she said. She knew the princess couldn't hear her, but she felt she had to say something. "Luna, I'm so sorry. I wish I could help."

Then she heard a rushing sound coming from behind her. She turned and saw a wave of fire pouring down the hallway toward them. She backed away, but Luna just stood in place, waiting for it.

The fire drew to a halt in front of Luna, pulsing forward as if trying to push her away, but she stood firm. Then, the fire pulled in on itself, and slowly it condensed back into the form of Princess Celestia, her entire form now a spectre of light.

"Sister," she said. "This system has been purged. We must leave."

Luna said nothing.

"Join me," Celestia said. "Let us go through the Stargate together, and bring an end to these cursed times."

"Sister," Luna said, her voice barely keeping steady, "before we do anything, I must speak with you. Please."

Celestia stared at her, her burning eyes blank, and for a moment her bright glow seemed to dim.

"Very well," she said. "But we must act quickly. There is so much which needs to be done."

Luna nodded. "Follow me," she said. She walked past Celestia and returned to the bridge, walking up to the window and looking down over the planet. Celestia watched her, confused, then followed behind her a moment later, standing next to her. Sam stood in the doorway, watching the two of them.

"Why are you showing me this?" she said. "There is nothing left for us here."

"This was our planet," Luna said. "We were princesses once. We had a duty to protect this world."

"And so I have," Celestia replied. "Equestria was sick, but I have wiped that sickness from it as a fever destroys a virus."

"What good is that, if the fever also consumes the body?" Luna said. "What good is left here?"

Celestia looked round at Luna, who returned her gaze. "You are left," Celestia said. "You are the one thing Ra never corrupted. You are the one good thing left in this galaxy. I want you by my side. I want you there at the end."

"You want me to join you?" Luna said. Celestia nodded.

Luna sighed, hanging her head. "After everything you have done here," she said, "after all this destruction, all this death… I am sorry, sister. I cannot join you. I cannot in good conscience let you do this."

Celestia's eyes narrowed, and she turned to stare out of the window again.

"Very well," she said.

Sam stood in the door, watching them, as a tense silence fell between the two sisters. Celestia's bright form was slowly fading, and she wondered if Luna was actually managing to get through to her.

But then, with a loud scream, Celestia spun round, throwing her wing out and hitting Luna in the side. A wave of magic pulsed out from her, throwing Luna across the room. She crashed into the wall on the other side and slid to the floor.

"I must do this!" Celestia shouted across at her. "I have no choice! If you will not join me, then so be it! If you try to stop me, I will kill you!"

Luna stood up slowly, raising her head and staring back at her sister.

"No you won't," she said.

"You think you can defeat me?" Celestia said. "You cannot stand in my way! Even when you were at your most powerful you were unable to beat me!"

"No," Luna said, "I was not. But only because you had help."

"What?" Celestia said, backing up suddenly. "No…"

Her eyes fell on the pedestal standing between them. Sam followed her gaze and saw the crystals – the Elements of Harmony, their facets charred and cracked by the heat – glowing with magic.

"No!" Celestia shouted. She charged at the Elements, her horn flaring with magic. Luna charged forward to meet her, and the two leapt up, meeting each other in the air above the Elements, but at that exact moment a plume of rainbow-coloured magic erupted upward, the light filling the room and completely consuming the two sisters.

Sam backed away from the tumult, the mere memory of the strength of the magical forces swirling round the room enough to overload her senses. In all her years of research she had never experienced anything like it; it felt like the very nature of reality was being rewritten around her.

Then, as quickly as it began, it was over. The bridge, now empty, faded back into view, and she walked cautiously up to the Elements, watching as the last light of their magic faded inside their cracked, warped shells.

"What happened?" she said.

"The only thing that could," said Luna. Sam jumped at the voice, and turned to see the princess standing next to her again.

"That was one of your memories?" Sam asked her, and the princess nodded.

"Everything which I was able to show you, yes," she said. "I do not remember the aftermath, of course. What you see now is based on guesswork."

"What happened?" Sam asked again.

Luna sighed. "These," she said, putting her hoof on the pedestal, "are the Elements of Harmony. They are a part of the magic which once protected this planet, as are my sister and I. They can be called upon to help protect Equestria and its offspring from powerful threats. Including, if need be, us.

"Their nature is closely tied to our own, and one of their stranger powers is the ability to sever the link between mine and my sister's bodies and our spirits, sealing us away either for our own protection or for the protection of others.

"I could not kill my sister, and would never wish to, so my only other choice to protect the galaxy was to use this ability. I was able to activate the Elements without Celestia noticing, and force her into an indefinite exile."

"So, her spirit's trapped in the sun?" Sam said. "That's what the Ra'shek is?"

Luna nodded.

"But…" Sam said, thinking back over the scene she had just watched, "what happened to you?"

"When she realised what I was doing," Luna replied, "my sister attempted to fight back. She tried to resist the spell, and to push it back on me, and as a result we were both affected. So as she was banished to the sun—"

"You were banished to the moon," Sam said.

Luna nodded. "Yes," she said. "The moon is my spiritual home, as the sun is hers."

She turned and approached the window again, looking out into the darkness of space. "Her interference also weakened the spell," she said. "I have, over time, managed to re-exert some of my influence over the planet, and have been waiting in the hope that ponies with the power to help me may one day return. This is how I am able to speak to you now, even though it was more difficult than it would normally have been. If my sister has been able to do so also—"

"She has," Sam said. "We've been attacked a number of times since our arrival."

Luna paused. "I see," she said. "In which case it is only a matter of time before she breaks her bonds entirely. And if that happens…" – she bowed her head – "…I do not know if I will be able to stop her from achieving her aims the next time."

There was a long pause, as the idea of that sunk in. Sam had seen what Celestia could do now, and the thought of that reaching Earth terrified her.

Then Luna turned, staring into Carter's eyes.

"That is why I need you to help me," she said.

"What?" Sam said, stepping back. "You think we can help you against this?"

"Yes," Luna said with a finality which surprised Sam. "When I sensed your presence here, and saw in your dreams that you fight the Goa'uld, I knew that you may finally be the ponies I need to help me save my sister before it is too late."

"Is that even possible?" Sam said. "I saw what happened. How can you undo that?"

Luna sighed. "I know it can be done," she said, "because it has happened to me."

Sam took a step back. Luna sat again, bowing her head.

"It happened many centuries ago," she explained. "Jealousy and hatred clouded my mind, and I became… detached. I lost sight of how my actions were hurting others, and I tried to destroy Equestria. My attack was not as overt as my sister's, but by blocking out the light of the sun I still doomed Equestria to a slow, painful death. Millions would have died, had my sister not intervened. She locked me away in the moon, and then worked until she had found a way to save me and restore my mind to balance. I owe her my life, and I must do anything I can to save her as she saved me.

"Please," she said, standing again and putting a hoof on Sam's shoulder. "I need my sister back, and she does not deserve to be remembered this way."

Sam's mind reeled. She didn't know how to respond. She thought of the Stargate, and their time limit, and wondered whether Luna's plans could be achieved by then. But then she remembered seeing the sorrow in Celestia's eyes before all this began. After everything she had been through, she didn't deserve for her life to end like this.

And even if they couldn't save Celestia, perhaps they could at least save Luna.

She took a deep breath, then looked up into Luna's wide eyes. "Okay," she said. "What do I need to do?"

A wide smile spread across Luna's face and she pulled Sam forward, hugging her.

"Thank you!" she said. "You will not regret this!"

I hope not, Sam thought.

Luna let go of her and stepped back again, wiping tears from her eyes. "First, I just need you to release me from my own bonds. I will ensure that you know how to do so when you wake. Then I will explain the rest. Goodbye, Major Carter, until we speak again."

"Wait," Sam said. "How will I—"

Suddenly the floor disappeared, and she felt herself falling—

She jolted awake, back in the cargo bay, her entire body covered in a cold sweat. The rest of the team jumped up, and Jack ran over to her.

"Major?" he said. "Any news?"

"Colonel," she panted, "we've made a terrible mistake!"

16 - Release

"Are you sure about this, Major?" Jack said. "After what we've seen so far…"

"I know," Sam said, nodding. "I thought about that too. Maybe she's lying and trying to trick us into releasing the Ra'shek."

She had spent ten minutes hurriedly trying to explain everything to the others, but she could tell that none of were entirely convinced, and she could understand why.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm not sure I'd believe it either. But… well, it's hard to explain. She was speaking directly to my mind. I could feel some of what she was feeling, and I know that she was being honest. And everything I saw… it was so clear that it's like I was there." She shook her head. "She wasn't lying to me."

"But if she can affect your dreams," Ro'shur said, "then what else can she do? It could all have been a fabrication."

"And," Teal'c added, "with everything you say this Celestia was capable of, is it wise to release her at all? Are we certain that we will be able to contain her?"

"…No," Sam admitted after a moment. "But I'm not trying to release Celestia. Not yet at least. If we can't do anything for Celestia, then…" – she looked at Jack – "…well, we've already got a contingency in place."

"Right," Jack said. "We just wait for the sun to explode."

"But," Sam said, "what if we can do something? If it turns out that's the case, then we can't just leave her to die. I think we need to release Luna, and then find out what she knows. If we can save Celestia, then we have to try. If not, then at least we can save one of them. I wish I could show you all what I saw so you'd understand it like I do. All I can really do is ask you to trust me."

The others looked round at each other uncertainly.

"She is right, Colonel," Koresh said. "We have the ability to contain this if it does go wrong."

"And we should not mistrust Celestia just because of the power she wields," Ro'shur added.

Jack looked round at them. "It's more what she used the power for that has me nervous," he said. "But okay, that's three votes for, I guess. I must say, I didn't expect you two to go for this."

Ro'shur shrugged. "We have found allies in strange places today. Perhaps it would be unwise to miss the opportunity to make another."

"I'm going to have to say yes as well," Daniel said, stepping forward. "Just think of how much we could learn from them."

"Indeed," Teal'c added.

"Colonel," Sam said, walking up to him. "I know you're not going to want to do this. I know what's at stake too. But the fact is that we're the ones who are killing them. If we don't do anything, then their deaths will be on our heads."

O'Neill rubbed his forehead. "Yeah," he said. "I thought of that." He stood in silence, considering it.

"Sir, please," Sam said.

Jack sighed. "Okay," he said. "You're right. Let's do it. But you still haven't explained how we do this."

"Right," Sam said. The instructions Luna had given – or rather hadn't given – still had her puzzled. "She said she'd make sure I knew, but then she just woke me up. I thought she was going to explain the spell that…"

She froze, her eyes wide. "Oh."

"What is it, Sam?" Daniel asked.

"Uh," she said, rubbing her temple, "I just thought about the spell that's binding her, and… I knew how it worked."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Sam said, rubbing her forehead, "that it was like I've always known. I just… remembered." She looked up suddenly. "Luna must have given me the memory."

"Okay," Jack said, stepping back. "Now that's a little weird. But can you do it?"

Sam thought about it again, and the answers just seemed to come to her. "Yeah," she said, nodding. "I can."

Then she turned to the Jaffa. "Ro'shur, I need my equipment, and access to the engine room."

The two Jaffa looked at each other, confused.

"Why?" Ro'shur asked.

Sam smiled. "I have an idea."

Half an hour later, Sam was sat hunched over the ring platform, a control crystal in her hooves. She held the crystal up to her horn, concentrating on it and feeding a spell into it.

"How long, Major?" Jack asked, walking up next to her. "Remember, we're on a clock here. Just over an hour until supernova."

"I know," Sam said. "I'm nearly done." She opened her eyes, and slipped the control crystal in to an open slot on the ring platform, sliding its covering back into place.

"Remind me," Jack said, "what are you doing?"

Sam stood up, turning to face him. "I know how to release the princess," she said, "but I'm not confident that I can properly target the… uh, reintegration. So I'm using the homing systems in the rings to act as a receiver."

"Ah," Jack said, nodding.

"I just needed to add an additional control crystal with the necessary spells on it," Sam went on, "but other than that all the components are already in place. I think I'm ready now."

"Okay then," Jack said. He looked down at the ring platform for a moment, then turned and shouted, "Okay, ponies! Let's get ready!"

The others jumped up, and they all gathered round the ring platform. Ro'shur and Koresh appeared from the bridge, staff weapons at their sides.

"Uh," Jack said, eyeing the weapons.

"Only a precaution," Ro'shur said.

"Fair enough," Jack said, shrugging. "Just don't get jumpy." He looked over at the rest of his team. "Everypony else ready?"

"As we'll ever be," Daniel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c added.

"Okay," Sam said. She walked up to the ring platform, planting her hooves carefully on the floor for balance and warming up her magic. "Ro'shur, hit the rings."

The Jaffa hit the control panel by the door, and the coverings in the floor slid back revealing the five rings, which rose up and settled into place in the air. Sam reached out and felt the spells she had programmed into the rings activating, and then she focussed her mind on the spell Luna had given her.

As the magic began to flow, she felt the entire solar system opening out in front of her. She focussed carefully on Luna, quickly finding the now familiar-feeling spirit waiting behind its restraints. She tore them down one by one, and as soon as they were gone she felt Luna's spirit rush down, surging through her. Her eyes flew open, burning white, and she had to concentrate to not let the feeling overwhelm her as she pushed the magic onward into the rings. She held on as long as it could, guiding it through, willing it safely to its destination. Then finally the last of the magic disappeared, and Carter let it go, collapsing to her knees.

The world came back into focus again just as the white light inside the rings subsided and they lowered back into the ground, the surprised-looking princess standing in their midst.

"Luna," she said, standing up.

"Major Carter!" Luna shouted, running forward and hugging her again. "You did it! I don't know how much longer I could have waited! Eight thousand years I have been trapped there! Eight thousand years!"

"Don't worry, you're safe," Sam said, aware of the time ticking away and wanting to make sure the conversation moved on quickly. "Now, we need to discuss your sister."

"Yes," Luna said, stepping back. "The sooner we… Jaffa!"

She stumbled backwards, falling to the floor and pointing over Sam's shoulder at Koresh and Ro'shur.

"Whoa, easy now!" Jack said, running up to Luna and grabbing hold of her. "They're friends! You can trust them!"

Luna froze, her chest heaving, eyes darting back and forth between the Jaffa and the colonel.

"You are friends with Jaffa?" she said.

"Well, not most of them," Jack admitted, "but these ones are cool."

"I… see," she said, standing up straight again and looking around at the assembled ponies.

"Allow me to introduce everypony," Jack said. "My name's Colonel Jack O'Neill. You've already met Major Carter. Over there," – he pointed to the two Jaffa by the door – "are Ro'shur and Koresh. And in that corner are Teal'c and Doctor Daniel Jackson."

"A pleasure," Luna said uneasily.

Daniel walked up to her and offered her a hoof. "I'm so glad to meet you," he said. "I've got so many questions I'd love to ask you about Equestria before the Goa'uld, about our species, and—"

"Daniel?" Jack said, eyeing him.

"But... we need you to tell us how to save your sister first," he finished.

Luna nodded. "Yes, of course," she said. "This is just all so overwhelming. I have so many questions of my own, Doctor Jackson, but my sister must take priority."

She stood up again, and began pacing back and forth across the centre of the room, taking deep breaths. Ro'shur and Koresh looked at each other, then put their weapons down and went to join the others.

"So far so good," Jack said as they approached.

"Indeed," Koresh said. "She does not seem evil."

Jack nodded. "By the way," he said, "did anypony else notice—" he pointed at his forehead, "—and—" he pointed at his wings.

"Yeah," Sam said. "If we get through this, I'm going to have some questions of my own."

"Okay," Luna said, stopping pacing suddenly and shifting around restlessly. "Okay, here's what we need to do. Has Major Carter told you all of the Elements of Harmony yet?"

Sam shook her head, but the three Jaffa looked round at each other at their mention.

"They are legend among the Jaffa," Ro'shur said.

"Indeed," Teal'c said. "They are said to be the objects from which the universe was born, aeons ago."

Luna raised her eyebrows. "That… may be something of an exaggeration," she said, "but—"

"Wait," Daniel said. "You mean they're real?"

Sam nodded. "They are," she replied. "I've seen them. They're what trapped Luna and Celestia."

"Yes," Luna said. "And they are the key to my sister's redemption." She started pacing again, jittering excitedly. "If we can retrieve them, then we will be able to use their magic to purge the… the sickness from Celestia's mind, and she will be able to return to us. I know where they are, and you have a ship, so—"

"Uh, Princess?" Sam said. Luna stopped in her tracks and looked over at the major, her expression dropping in fear at the way Sam was looking at her.

"What?" She said. "What is it?"

Sam hesitated, scratching her leg awkwardly.

"What's wrong, Sam?" Daniel asked.

Sam turned to him. "You remember the pedestal on the bridge of the ship?" she said. "The one with the crystals on it?"

"Yeah?" Daniel said, giving her a confused look, then his eyes went wide. "Oh…"

"Oh boy," Jack said, rubbing his forehead.

Luna looked back and forth between them, worried. "What is it?" She asked again.

"Luna," Sam said, "there's no easy way to say this…"

She paused again, trying to think of the right words, but then Ro'shur stepped up beside her.

"Princess," he said, "the ship containing the Elements of Harmony broke apart in orbit not five hours ago. I saw it destroyed with my own eyes. The Elements are gone."

Luna stepped back, her eye starting to twitch. "They're… gone?" She said. "How? How did this happen?"

Jack looked over at Sam. "You didn't tell her about that either, did you?"

Sam winced. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to."

"Tell me about what?" the princess shouted, marching up to them and standing to her full height, towering over them. "What happened?"

Jack stepped forward. "Luna," he said, looking up at her, "remember that all we knew about Celestia was that she had tried to kill us multiple times, and was planning to destroy all life in the galaxy."

Luna's eyes went wide with fear. "What did you do?" she shouted.

This time Teal'c stepped forward. "There is an active Stargate falling toward the sun," he said. "In just over an hour it will arrive, at which time the sun will explode in a supernova. This entire system will be destroyed."

"What?" Luna stuttered, backing away from them. "You… you did what?"

"Luna, please—" Sam said, running up to her, but Luna pushed her away.

"No, no, no…" she said stumbling back and forth across the cargo bay, her eyes searching around everywhere. "This can't be how it ends, there's still time to… there must be something… something I can do. Sister!" she shouted at the ceiling. "What do I do?"

Daniel tried to grab hold of her. "Princess, wait," he said.

"No!" she shouted, backing away from him. "This isn't over! I'll think of something! I have to! I can't… I can't fail. Not after all this time."

She froze, her eyes staring blankly at nothing and welling up with tears. Then, she turned and ran, disappearing through the open door into the engine room, leaving the others standing in stunned silence.

"Oy," Jack said, rubbing his forehead, "I was afraid that might happen. Still, we've managed to save one at least."

"But it wasn't really her she wanted saved," Daniel said. "We shouldn't leave her like this. I'm going to go talk to her."

Daniel stepped into the engine room, closing the door quietly behind him and peering between the inactive stacks of control consoles trying to find Luna. He could hear the sound of her crying somewhere near the back.

"Princess?" he called.

"Don't call me that," Luna said. "I am a diarch without partner or state. That title's meaningless now."

Daniel walked forward, following her voice, until he found her sitting against the wall in the back corner. She turned away when she saw him, so he backed off again.

"Luna," he said, "I just want to talk to you. Is that okay?"

"What's the point?" Luna sobbed. "It's not like anything you say can save her. My sister's going to die. I failed her."

"No you didn't," Daniel said. "You didn't fail anypony. You did everything you could to try and save her, and you never gave up on the idea that it would be possible."

There was a pause, then Luna looked round at him, her eyes red. "I lied to you," she said.

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked. He took a few cautious steps toward her and she turned away again.

"I lied when I said I knew what we needed to do," she said. "I don't know how to use the Elements of Harmony to save her! If I did, I would have done it eight thousand years ago! I never thought any of this through; I didn't have the chance! I thought when I sensed you arrive here that maybe this was a sign that it would be possible, but… there was no sign. The universe isn't that kind. If it were, the Goa'uld wouldn't even exist."

She hung her head, wiping tears from her eyes. "I've finally returned to the world, but all I can do now is wait for us to die a meaningless death."

"No," Daniel said, walking up to her and sitting down. "You won't die here. Rescue is coming, and we will leave this system soon. Your life doesn't have to end today."

Luna turned and glared at him. "I have failed my sister," she said. "I have failed Equestria, and I have failed this galaxy by doing nothing to protect it for eight thousand years. If you are going to leave, then leave me here. I would rather die with my sister than live on without her."

"You don't believe that," Daniel said.

"Don't tell me what I believe!" she snapped. "You have no idea what I'm going through! You don't understand!"

Daniel sighed. "No," he said. "No, I don't. I don't think anypony's experienced quite what you've gone through. But that doesn't mean I don't want to help you. Just… hear me out, okay?"

Luna stared at him. Daniel looked back, keeping his expression steady. He was still resisting the urge to start asking questions about her past – everything about her and her sister fascinated him – but right now what mattered was that she was scared, and he needed to help her if he could.

"Okay," she said after a moment, bowing her head. "I don't know what difference it will make, but say what you have to say."

"Thanks," Daniel said, taking a deep breath. "I don't often talk about this, but… four years ago my wife was taken from me by the Goa'uld."

She looked up. "What?" she said.

"Apophis and his guards came to her planet," Daniel went on, "and they took her. Then they left through the Stargate. I found out where they had gone, and we followed, but by the time I saw her again she had already been taken as a host. Sha're, my wife, was gone, taken prisoner by Amonet, Apophis's mate."

"I'm… I'm sorry," Luna said. "What did you do?"

Daniel shrugged. "I searched for her," he said. "My team and I travelled to hundreds of planets across the galaxy, and all the time I never stopped looking for her, or trying to find a way to remove the Goa'uld and save her. I had no reason to think that I'd ever be able to do it, but like you I never let myself give up hope. Every time we walked through the Gate, I thought to myself that maybe this would be the planet where I found her. Maybe this would be the day when we'd finally be reunited.

"But then, when I did eventually find her again… she tried to kill me. Or rather, the Goa'uld did. And she would have succeeded, if Teal'c hadn't killed her first. To find her, only to lose her forever at the hooves of a friend… it nearly destroyed me. I was ready to quit the Stargate Program altogether, to stop exploring, to leave my friends, and to never have anything to do with any of it again."

Luna sniffed, wiping away a tear. "Why didn't you?"

"Because she sent me a message," he said. "Sha're managed to speak to me before she died, and she told me not to give up. She told me I had to stay with my friends, and I had to not throw my life away when there were still important things left to be done. It took me a long time to listen, but eventually I did, and I wouldn't be here talking to you today if I hadn't."

Luna turned her head away again. "You are not subtle, Doctor Jackson," she said. "But this changes nothing. My sister is still going to die."

"I know," Daniel said. "I wish there was something I could do to change that. From what you've told Sam about her, I would have loved to meet her."

Luna smiled, briefly. "Yes," she said. "You would have. She was an amazing pony."

Daniel took another step toward her. "Tell me about her," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Daniel replied, "tell me what she was like, before all this happened. Who was she?"

Luna sighed. "She was incredible," she said. "She was the kindest, most caring pony in all Equestria. She never gave up on anypony, and she always gave them a second chance. If there was anything she could do, she would always make sure everypony was protected.

"That was what destroyed her. She tried to save an entire galaxy, but no matter what she tried, she just couldn't. Ra was just too far ahead of her. The effort exhausted her, and eventually it overwhelmed her. Right up until the end, all she wanted to do was help."

Daniel placed a hoof on Luna's shoulder. "She cared about you, too, didn't she?" he said. Luna nodded, her eyes shut, holding back tears.

"Yes," she said. "We would tease each other sometimes, but we were sisters. She would have done anything to protect me from danger. I only wish I had been able to do the same."

"She wanted you to be safe?" Daniel asked, and Luna nodded. "Do you think she'd want you to die today, if you had another choice?"

Luna paused, then shook her head.

Daniel gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Your sister may not be here to tell you this herself," he said, "but you have friends who are."

Luna opened her eyes and looked round at him. "Friends?" she said.

Daniel nodded. "I hope so."

Luna smiled. "It is so long since another pony has called me that. It feels… good."

Daniel smiled back. "The fight didn't stop eight thousand years ago," he said. "We're still resisting the Goa'uld, and we've actually managed to make some progress. If you want to, you'd be welcome to join us. You could help make sure your sister's dream eventually comes true."

Luna looked at him in surprise. "You mean… it could actually happen?" she said. "The galaxy could be free again?"

"I believe so," Daniel said. "There are entire planets of free ponies out there, and we've made some powerful allies over the years. The tide's beginning to turn, and I think we will one day stop them."

Luna listened in amazement, a smile spreading across her face. Then she wiped her eyes dry and said, "Thank you. I needed to hear that. Perhaps… perhaps there is something left here for me after all."

"There is," Daniel said, nodding. He stood up, helping Luna to her hooves. "Come on, he said. I can properly introduce you to the others."

They walked back out of the engine room together, but when they got there they found the cargo bay almost deserted. The door through to the bridge was closed, and Sam was kneeling down by the rings, various instruments stuck into an open panel.

"Hey Sam," Daniel said, "what's—"

Sam looked up at him and put a hoof to her lips.

"What's going on?" he whispered.

Sam looked over at the closed door, then back to Daniel. "Zipacna's here," she said.

High above the planet's surface, six shards of crystal were beginning to graze the edge of the upper atmosphere, wisps of plasma washing off them as they tumbled through the thin air. Blown clear in the first moments of the ship's destruction, they slowly fell lower and lower toward the planet. As they pushed into the atmosphere they started to burn red-hot, their varied natural colours washed out by the glow.

Then, as they began to crack and fragment in the heat, a burst of energy pulsed out from them, spreading silently out into the solar system. And with that, the Elements of Harmony were gone.

18 - Apocalypse

Luna stood, watching, as the column of fire twisted slowly upwards from the centre of the blaze, towering high above her. She could feel the heat pressing down on her, but she forced herself forward, getting as close as she could.

Gradually the column of started to coalesce at a single point, tendrils of fire swirling in arcs around it. Luna raised a hoof to shield her eyes, looking upward and watching as the fire came together once more into the form of a pony. Two great wings of light unfurled, the column falling away to the ground, and Celestia glided down, landing softly in front of her sister.

"Eight thousand years I have waited," she said, "and still you are here."

"You are my sister," Luna replied. "I would not abandon you."

Celestia laughed. "Is that so? Then why did you turn away from me when I asked you for help?"

"Listen to me," Luna said, walking toward her. "So much has changed since last we spoke! It is meaningless for us to argue about the past!"

Celestia shook her head and turned, walking in a circle round her sister. "Nothing has changed," she said. "I have seen what you have seen. The Goa'uld still persist. They still hold the power in this galaxy, and now they even come to reclaim Equestria, the one world I had managed to push them from! This galaxy is as diseased as it was millennia ago!"

Luna stood her ground as Celestia paced round her. "Do you truly believe that?" she said.

"I do not believe it," Celestia said, "I know it. The free spirit of ponies died long ago. Ra took it for himself, twisted it to suit his needs, and then crushed it. The ponies that remain are just echoes of their former selves, stumbling around in the illusion of happiness as the Goa'uld use them as tools and playthings. This has been clear to me for a long time. The difference between us is that I am not deceiving myself into thinking they can be won back. You cannot offer freedom to one who doesn't even know what the word means."

"You're wrong," Luna said. "Freedom is a very real in this world; I have seen it!"

Celestia grabbed Luna by the shoulder and pulled her round, bringing them face to face. Celestia's hoof felt like fire, but Luna ignored the pain.

"Have you seen it?" she asked. "Do you not remember when we were fighting Ra? So many times we felt the taste of freedom – a town liberated, a pony saved from execution, an attack foiled – but every time they were waiting to bring even greater ruin in retribution. Ra tricked us, making us think we had a chance, and we ended up playing into his hooves every time. From the moment he arrived, we have never been free."

She took a step back and spread her wings, small tongues of fire shedding from her feathers and rising into the air.

"Don't you understand?" she said. "This is what I have been searching for ever since he arrived! This is freedom! This power is mine to do with as I see fit! They have no control over me, and I can make it so they never control any pony ever again! I can rid the universe of them once and for all now! I can wipe out all trace of their presence! I can wipe out the very memory of them!"

"You will not listen to me then?" Luna asked. "I have waited so long to speak to you again, and you will not even give me a chance?"

Celestia's eyes narrowed, and she folded her wings away again. "I have given you a chance," she said. "A chance to see that nothing has changed. I know what needs to be done. If you still cannot see that, and still intend to resist, I have already told you what will happen."

Luna sighed. She had been expecting this. A mind in this state was not easily persuaded, as she knew all too well. All that mattered now was that she gave the others sufficient time to escape. She closed her eyes, bowing her head.

"Very well," she said.

Celestia looked down on her sister, her expression cold. Then, she lifted on hoof into the air, and with a loud shout, crashed it down to the ground again. Waves of fire burst out from her, consuming what remained of the grass around them. Luna braced against the fire as it tried to push her back, but she could feel it slowly eating away at her magical defences, so she spread her wings and pushed up away from the ground. The updraft from the fire carried her quickly into the sky and away from Celestia, but when she looked down she saw jets of flame chasing after her, pouring out from her sister's horn. She twisted to the side as one came toward her, rolling out of the way of a second as it grazed her neck.

"Don't resist!" Celestia shouted, lifting off and rising up to meet her. "Don't delay what has to happen!"

She continued to throw fire upwards and Luna fired spells back, deflecting and extinguishing as much as she could.

"I will never stop!" she responded. "As long as I live, I will fight to protect the life in this galaxy!"

Celestia ceased her attack for a moment. "You protect a tumour!" she said. "The only way to save the galaxy is to cut out the infected flesh! You have chosen their side, so you share their fate."

She looked to the ground, pointing her hoof down at the fires which still raged there, and with a thought drew them upward into the sky. They raced up and arced through the air, streaming in toward Luna from all sides. With nowhere to run, she summoned as much magic as she could, throwing out a protective bubble around her. The flames pushed in on the shield, the light's intensity almost overwhelming her even with her eyes closed, and she held out as long as she could, until she felt the onslaught begin to weaken again. Then she gave one more push, forcing the flames back and bursting out of the column, straight toward Celestia. The two princesses collided and spun through the air. Luna saw the fires around them weaken as her sister lost concentration, but the heat Celestia's body was giving off was too much for her and she was forced to let go after only a few seconds. She backed away, firing spells from her horn, but Celestia swatted them away with ease.

"You are weak, little sister!" she shouted. She returned a volley of spells, Luna dodging and countering them, and firing back when she could.

"I am not your sister!" she said. "I am Princess Celestia's sister! I don't know who you are anymore!"

"Silence!" Celestia shouted. She pulled back, drawing a wall of fire up between them which absorbed all of Luna's spells. Relented against the impregnable shield, Luna moved back, watching the fire carefully for movement, but as she did so Celestia burst through it, flying at full speed right toward her. She tried to dodge out of the way, but Celestia spun round and kicked her in the side beneath her wing. Her muscles spasmed and she lost control, falling down to the burning ground below, flapping as hard as she could with her other wing in an attempt to slow her descent. Her back hit the charred soil hard, and she lay there, barely able to move.

Celestia landed on top of her, pinning her down and pressing a hoof down onto her neck. Luna tried to push it away, but the heat made it impossible to concentrate.

"How do you still not understand?" Celestia said. "I am still your sister, and always have been. I have not changed. I chose this. "

"No…" Luna spluttered, "there was no choice. I know what happened; it… happened to me too, remember."

Celestia laughed. "You think this is the same?" she said, pushing down harder on Luna's throat. "What were you fighting for back then? Jealousy! Arrogance! Selfish, petty desires –nothing more! I am working for the redemption of an entire galaxy! Don't you dare compare—"

"Enough!" Luna shouted. She threw her head forward and the tip of her horn caught Celestia's chin, digging into her skin. Celestia fell back, and Luna stumbled to her feet, limping away from her sister toward one of the ruined buildings.

"Stop this!" she shouted. "You don't understand what's happening to you, and it's destroying you! Let me help!"

"Help?" Celestia said, looking up at her again. "I don't need your help!"

She reared up, a huge, fiery spectre rising from the ground behind her. Then she thrust a hoof out toward Luna, and the mass of flames raced forward over her. Luna leapt into the building behind her, taking refuge behind a stone wall as the fireball crashed into it.

A few kilometres away, the noise of the explosion drew the others' attention as they ran for the temple.

"Doesn't sound like it's going well back there," Sam said.

"Forget them," Jack said. "We need to focus on getting to the ship before Celestia does."

"What makes you think the ship will still be functional?" Koresh asked.

Sam looked over her shoulder at him. "Because Celestia knows it's her only way out of the system. She'll have left it spaceworthy."

"Right," Jack said, nodding. "That."

Silence fell again as they continued running. They had ended up on a wide thoroughfare, and Jack had a clear view a long way ahead of them, but this just made it clearer how far they had to go before they got to the temple.

"We're never going to make it in time," Sam panted.

"We'll make it," Jack said, eyes focussed forward. "Luna'll be able to hold her off."

"Actually, Sir," Sam replied, "I'm surprised she's held out this long. I've seen Celestia firebomb an entire planet."

Koresh looked round. "Maybe she doesn't wish to destroy the planet while she is on it," he said.

Daniel pushed forward, coming in line with them. "I still don't like abandoning them," he said. "We barely had a chance to get to know them."

"Yeah, I know," Jack said. "I hate leaving ponies behind as well. But remember she chose to do this. And she's doing this to try and save the entire galaxy!" He looked over his shoulder, at the bursts of fire rising from the ruins in the distance. "When I die, I hope I can be remembered for something like that as well."

"But what about Celestia?" Sam said. "She doesn't deserve to be remembered for this."

Jack sighed. "I know," he replied, "but there's nothing we can do. Best we focus on the future."

"Yes Sir."

They came to the end of the thoroughfare, and Jack led the group to the left, through a building, vaulting over the back wall onto a narrower street running approximately towards the temple. Sam landed shakily and started to slow, falling behind the team, but Ro'shur pulled up next to her and held his wing out across her back, pushing her forward.

"Thanks," she said.

"You should not be running yet," Ro'shur said. "You still need rest."

"We can rest when we're on the ship," Sam replied.

Jack looked over at Ro'shur. "Speaking of the future," he said, "what are your plans once we're off this planet?"

Ro'shur chuckled. "I do not know," he said. "Our god is dead, so for once that is entirely up to us. I have no idea where to go next."

"Rebel Jaffa numbers are growing throughout the galaxy," Teal'c said. "I have friends who would be glad to have you join them."

"You'd be welcome on Earth as well," Jack said. "You've saved our lives a few times today. I'm sure we can find some spare rooms somewhere in return."

"Thank you," Ro'shur replied, nodding.

"You know," Jack said, "a day ago I never would've thought we'd be having this conversation."

Koresh laughed. "And a day ago I would gladly have killed you! But in this one day alone you have given me more reason to respect the four of you than Zipacna ever did!"

"Indeed," Ro'shur said. "We were told that you were our enemy. I am glad we were able to learn otherwise." He then glanced over his shoulder. "I only wish we had had the same opportunity with Princess Celestia."

"Me too," Sam said. "Luna only showed me part of her life before all this happened, and I wish I could've seen more."

Jack opened his mouth, about to try and change the subject again, but there was no denying that he agreed with them.

"Yeah, me too," he said. "This doesn't feel right, just running away like this. Luna stayed to fight, and we're just… running."

"As you said," Teal'c responded, "the ship is Celestia's only way to escape the supernova. We need to leave in order to trap her here."

"Yeah," Jack sighed, "but that doesn't exactly make it a good thing."

They fell quiet again, looking onward to their destination, the distant sounds of more explosions echoing behind them. Then Ro'shur looked over and said, "Then we shall make it right."

Daniel looked round. "What do you mean?"

"We failed to save their lives today," Ro'shur went on, "so for each of them we will save a hundred lives in their names!"

"More than that!" Koresh added. "For them, we will fight to give all Jaffa the freedom we have received today!"

Jack laughed. "That's the spirit!"

"And we can do it," Ro'shur said. "Today proves it. If there is hope for us, there is hope for all Jaffa in the galaxy!"

"Hear hear!" Daniel called.

They all smiled. Sam pushed forward again, galloping onward without difficulty, and Jack realised he could feel the entire group speeding up.

"You really think we can do it?" Sam said.

"I have never been surer of anything in my life!" Ro'shur replied.

"Nor I," Koresh added. "Together we could bring the Goa'uld down forever! The six of us could give the entire galaxy freedom! We will show them what the word means!"

Jack laughed. He felt like he was thirty years old again. He didn't care how cheesy their enthusiasm sounded; he was starting to believe it himself. "Let's do it, then," he said, pushing on even harder. "Let's get out there, and show the Goa'uld what you can do with the power of friend… ship…"

He went silent. He didn't break gait, but suddenly he could feel something welling up inside him out of nowhere. For eyes unfocussed, a small spark flickering deep within them for a moment.

"Jack…" Daniel said.

"You felt that too?"

"Yeah."

"As did I," Koresh said.

One by one the others spoke in agreement, but suddenly the words seemed irrelevant. Jack's whole body felt energised. He felt like he could do anything. But more importantly he knew exactly what they needed to do.

"We need to go back," he said.

"On it, Sir," Sam said. Jack looked round at her; the Major's eyes were wide open, glowing brilliant white. Light blossomed from the tip of her horn, completely engulfing the six of them.

Luna raced through the ruins, dodging wave after wave of fireballs as they rained down from above. One hit the top of an archway as she ran under, showering fragments of stone over her.

She could see Celestia hovering over her out of the corner of her eye, smiling in her perceived triumph, and Luna wondered how close that moment was now. She had lost track of how much time had passed since the other ponies had left, and had no idea if they would have made it to the rings yet. She'd stopped trying to count the seconds, focussing only on trying to get as many as she could.

A blast hit just ahead of her and she skidded to a halt, tumbling over herself onto the charred grass. As she fell on her back she saw another heading straight for her and tried to roll out of the way. The force threw her forward and she fell through a doorway, rolling down a flight of steps into a covered basement.

She slid to a stop on the dusty ground, coughing and spluttering, but thankful for the shelter as she picked herself up and stole a few deep breaths of the basement's cool air. Her entire body was aching, and her energy was running out, but she looked around for any way forward.

She saw another opening – an old window, at about head height, leading back up to ground level. She limped over to it, grabbing hold of the frame and pulling herself up through the narrow gap. As she lay there, hind legs still hanging down into the cellar, she looked up into the sky and tried to find her sister, but she couldn't see anything anywhere. Had Celestia left already? Was it too late?

"There you are," said a voice behind her. She looked round into the cellar again and saw Celestia peering down the staircase, looking over at her, and smiling.

She turned and tried to pull herself out again, but suddenly she felt an immense heat building up behind her. The entire cellar exploded, the blast throwing her out and clear across the street. She fell back to earth, crashing into the base of a large stone wall. The wall cracked and crumbled, falling away from her, and she lay on the ground, bruised and sore.

Celestia landed metres away from her, the green grass withering and dying beneath her hooves.

"You are strong, little sister," she said, walking up to Luna and looking down at her. "Stronger than I gave you credit for."

Luna tried to move away again, but she didn't have the energy to stand.

"This is madness," Celestia said, picking her sister up with her magic and pulling her up into the air, the two hovering metres above the ground. "You are the one thing Ra never managed to take from me – the one pure thing remaining in the galaxy. It would be a crime to kill you."

"Then stop…" Luna stuttered, but she was having trouble putting sentences together. She was having trouble holding on to consciousness at all.

Tongues of flame started weaving their way around the two of them, cocooning them in a ball of fire. "I cannot stop," Celestia said. "I need to do this. But I can still have you with me. I can teach you. I can help you understand."

"No…" Luna said. "Don't…"

She was losing focus. Flames swirled round them in all directions, filling the world with constant motion. She tried to concentrate, tried to focus on her sister, but her mind felt like a sieve.

"Listen," Celestia said.

Luna scrunched her eyes up. There was a scratching in her head. Between broken thoughts, she could hear voices, but she tried to push them back. She tried to bring back happy memories, of times when she still had friends on Equestria.

Ra destroyed all that.

Images of war and destruction flashed before her. She remembered cities burning as ponies rose up against Ra and he destroyed their homes in retribution. She saw death, enslavement, and Ra's Jaffa watching over it all, uncaring.

All that remains are their thralls. Nothing pure is left.

"No!"

Luna thought of Daniel, and Sam, and their friends. They were pure. They had done so much to help her. They had tried to help her escape.

They tried to sell you to the Goa'uld to buy their freedom.

"Stop it!" Luna shouted, trying to drown the voice out. "They're good!"

The Goa'uld lie and deceive. It is their nature. None can be trusted.

"I won't… I won't kill…"

They have corrupted everything. The galaxy must be purged.

"Must… no…"

It will burn, and then it will rise anew.

"Rise anew…"

All must be destroyed. It is the only way.

"Must... be destroyed…"

The light cleared and the team found themselves galloping down a wide street, a huge sphere of fire churning in the air ahead of them.

"How did you do that?" Daniel said.

"I don't know!" Sam replied. She looked forward at the scene ahead of them. "Are they in there?"

"They must be," Ro'shur replied. "Colonel, we have to clear the fire!"

Jack nodded. The two pegasi jumped into the air and pushed on ahead of the others, flying on toward the edge of swirling ball. As they reached its edge they banked to the left, pulling into a circle around the fire and pushing themselves faster and faster, closer and closer, their wings pulling air in from the surroundings and pushing it up, drawing the fire away into a burning tornado.

"Keep it contained!" Jack shouted. "Let the fire put itself out!"

The two of them climbed higher and higher into the sky, drawing the column away with them. The flames began to splutter and die in the turbulence, disappearing into a faint pillar of smoke.

As the tongues of fire started to clear, Sam peered in through them and saw the two princesses, locked together, hovering above the ground.

"We need to separate them!" she said. "Teal'c, give me a boost!"

"Yes, Major Carter!" he replied, moving ahead of her.

"Daniel, Koresh," Sam added, looking round at the others, "get ready to catch Luna!"

They nodded, peeling off to the side. The four of them continued forward in formation, gaining quickly on the battle. Then, when they were just metres off, Teal'c skidded to a halt in front of Sam. She jumped up onto his back and pushed off as Teal'c bucked forward, throwing her up into the air and directly toward the princesses. She twisted her body to fit into the narrow gap between them, and as she passed just inches in front of Celestia the two of them locked eyes for a split second.

"Who are—" Celestia said, staring at her in shock, but at that moment the tips of their horns met; Sam released a massive burst of magical energy, the blast throwing them apart. Sam landed first, rolling across the grass and jumping back to her hooves, and she watched as Celestia's glowing form crashed down to the ground.

The spell broken, Luna fell out of the air. Daniel and Koresh caught her, laying her down onto the grass. Her body was limp and her eyes were unfocussed.

"What's wrong with her?" Daniel said.

"Let me," Koresh said, leaning over the princess and summoning his own magic. She was losing consciousness, but he gave her a boost of magic and she jolted awake, her head flying forward, deep coughs shaking her entire body.

"Daniel!" she spluttered. "Why are you here? You need to leave—"

"Don't worry, Princess," he replied, smiling. "Take it easy. We can handle this."

Koresh nodded. "You're safe now," he said.

Luna stared at them, confused, then rolled back onto her side. "O…okay," she said. "Hurry."

Daniel nodded, and the two of them a turned and ran over to join Sam. Teal'c caught up with them moments later, just as Ro'shur and Jack landed again, and the six of them formed a circle round the collapsed Celestia.

"Good shot, Major," Jack said.

"Thanks, Colonel," she replied. "That won't buy us long though."

Jack smiled. "We won't need long."

Celestia's form stirred again. She picked herself up and stood, eyes darting around at the assembled ponies. The magic aura around her horn was flickering, still recovering from Carter's spell.

"How did—?" she said. "Who are you?"

Jack looked round at Koresh and Ro'shur, and they nodded back at him.

"We," Jack said, "are SG-1, and we're here to save you."

Streams of magic burst from each of them, flowing round the circle and weaving together into a single glowing band of rainbow-coloured energy. It rushed in towards Celestia, wrapping itself round her legs and holding her in place. The air stirred into motion, lifting them all off the ground and up into the air. The sky seemed to go dark, the light of the watching sun drowned out by the magic's power.

"How are you doing this?" Celestia shouted, struggling against her bonds and staring at them in panic.

"You were wrong about this galaxy," Ro'shur shouted. "You thought its spirit had died, but there are some things which cannot be killed."

"You were trying to save the galaxy," Daniel said, "but you can't do that by destroying it. That's not how you create peace."

"No," Teal'c said, "peace is created not by ending lives, but by protecting them! By offering shelter to a pony in danger…" – he looked round at Koresh.

"…or by a simple magic spell…" Daniel added, looking at Sam.

"…or even with a well-timed joke," Sam finished. "None of us would be here right now if it wasn't for simple acts like this!"

The bonds holding Celestia started to wind their way up her legs, spreading across her body, and she struggled, tring to fight them off.

"No!" She shouted. "They lie! They deceive! I can't trust—"

"Yes you can!" Koresh shouted. "You know that trust can come from anywhere, and the Goa'uld can never completely destroy it!"

"Look at me!" Ro'shur said. "I earned the trust of my enemy simply by offering him the truth, even though it was a truth he didn't want to hear."

"And I," Teal'c said, "earned the trust of my friends by promising them mine."

"No!" Celestia yelled as the magic spread up her neck, binding her entire body. "Stop this!"

The circle parted, and Luna limped in below them. The magic reached down and flowed round her, lifting her up until she was face to face with her sister.

"Listen to them," she said. "They are here to help. Their words will do you good."

"They will ruin everything!" Celestia shouted.

"No," Luna said, shaking her head and smiling. "Not long ago I thought I had lost you. I couldn't see any way forward. But then, just by talking to me, they reminded me of what was important. They gave me the strength to fight – to fight for you, and to protect you and all you love – and I will never stop again."

"Kindness," Sam said. "Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, and Magic. All these Elements are alive in the galaxy today. Their light may be dim at times, but it will never go out. Wherever they still exist, friendship can and will appear, and as long as friendship thrives, the Goa'uld will never win."

"We are friends," Daniel said, "all of us, and that friendship will not easily be destroyed. Now we offer it to you as well."

The magic surrounding them pulsed. One by one, the teams eyes flew wide open, burning bright white, and the energy around them surged, its light drowning everything else out. As the world disappeared around them, Luna stretched a hoof out and held it to Celestia's cheek.

"Come home, sister," she said, tears running from her eyes. "You have my forgiveness, if you want it."

19 - Cleansing

The light cleared, and the world slowly came back into focus around Jack. The first thing he became aware of was a weight around his neck. He looked down; the entire front of his uniform was covered with a piece of gloss black plate armour, a small, sky-blue crystal in the shape of a pair of pilots' wings – his cutie mark – mounted in the middle. There was a soft glow coming from the centre of the crystal, which faded and disappeared as he watched it. He gave the armour a cautious tap with his hoof; It felt a lot stronger than its weight implied.

Standing up, he looked round and found the rest of the team examining matching adornments. Carter's had a magenta four-pointed star, while Daniel and Teal'c had received a pink pyramid and a red crystal in the shape of a death glider respectively. They looked up at him as he passed, glancing with interest at his own Element.

Then he passed Koresh and Ro'shur, who had received gems of their own, the same mounting plate fused onto the front of their armour. Koresh's was purple, and in the shape of two crossed staff weapons, while Ro'shur's was an orange shield. He gave Koresh a pat on the shoulder as he passed, and the three of them shared smiles, but although the colonel was curious to find out what meaning those symbols held for the two Jaffa, there were other matters which he had to deal with first.

Luna was standing a few metres away from them, her injuries from the battle healed by the Elements' magic. He approached her and stood next to her, and one by one the others made their way over as well. They stood silently, looking down at Celestia, who had been completely transfigured. She lay on the ground, her fur white and dishevelled, her mane a field of soft pastille colours flowing lazily across the ground. Her eyes were tight shut, like she was hiding from something.

Luna stepped forward, placing a hoof softly on her shoulder. "Sister," she said. "You're safe now."

Celestia's eyes flew open, and she stared up in shock at her sister, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Luna?" she stuttered. "What… what happened? Where are we?" Then her expression froze, her eyes staring into the distance. "Oh no," she said, "what did I—"

"No, sister," Luna said firmly, pulling her up off the ground and embracing her. "There will be time for that later. Now all that matters is that I have my sister back. And you have yours again."

The two of them stood together for a long while, holding each other in silence, tears running from their eyes. Celestia continued to stare blankly, her eyes searching around restlessly, but gradually her breathing slowed and she closed her eyes, the expression on her tear-streaked face still troubled but beginning to soften.

Jack stood, watching, letting them recover, but as the seconds passed he became more and more aware of the watch ticking away on his foreleg. Eventually he stepped toward them, clearing his throat.

"Princesses," he said, "I hate to have to break this up, but we need to move."

Celestia's eyes flew open again. "The Stargate," she said. She looked over at the colonel. "How long?"

"Forty minutes," Jack said, "give or take. But it's a long way – are you able to run?"

Celestia stood up, swallowing her tears back and nodding. "Yes," she said. "Sister, we need to—"

"I know," Luna said, standing and smiling at her. "We can talk more later."

"Y—yes," Celestia replied. "Later."

"Okay," Jack said. "Everypony follow me."

He turned again and began to run toward the temple one more time. The others followed after him, the eight of them galloping together in silence. He said nothing, not out of fear but due to simple exhaustion. The magical high was wearing off now, and he focussed his energy on what he estimated to be a fifteen minute run to the rings. There was a lot to discuss, but that would have to wait for the debrief.

Sam, Jack, Koresh and Ro'shur ringed up to Zipacna's ship first, wasting no time waiting for the second group before heading for the bridge.

"Everything seems intact," Koresh said as they got there. "It looks like you were right, Major Carter."

Jack nodded, examining the bridge and its only partially warped gold decorations. His eyes fell on Zipacna's throne, and he ran over and claimed it, settling down on the ornate seat.

"Okay," he said, "Which of you knows how to fly one of these things?"

Ro'shur turned round and faced Jack. "I do," he said. "I piloted many Ha'tak in my time as first prime."

"Okay then," Jack replied. "Once the others get here, get us out of this system as fast as the hyperdrive can take us. Carter can give you the co-ordinates for—"

"Actually," Sam said, turning round, "I've been thinking about that. We might not want to leave yet."

"But we will get caught in the explosion," Koresh said, but Sam shook her head.

"Not necessarily," she replied. "Think about it: we have a ship now. We could fly down and intercept the Stargate! We could stop it hitting the sun, maybe even pick it up again! We could save Equestria!"

The other three exchanged surprised glances. "Are you sure?" Jack asked. "Is that safe?"

"I don't know," she replied. "We'd be flying pretty close to the sun, and I don't know how much the time dilation will affect the ship's systems."

"Okay…" Jack said, unconvinced. "You think it's worth the risk?"

Sam shrugged. "We don't have to try to pick the Gate itself up," she said. "We could try and use the ship's weapons to overload it to redirect the wormhole."

"And that will work?" Ro'shur asked.

"I think so," Sam said. "But still, this is Equestria we're talking about. I think we need to at least try to preserve it! We have to…"

There was a noise at the door. They fell silent, looking over as the two princesses entered the bridge, followed closely by Daniel and Teal'c. Jack stood down from the throne, walking up to them and saluting.

"Princesses," he said. "We were just—"

"You think you can preserve Equestria?" Celestia asked, looking over at Sam, her expression blank.

"Uh, possibly," Sam said. "It'll be dangerous, but I think we can pull it off."

Celestia looked at her pensively, her eyes drifting down to the crystal star on Sam's breastplate. Then she walked up to the bridge's triangular window and looked down at the planet below. She stood there in silence for a long while, the rest of the team glancing round at each other as they waited.

"How dangerous?" she said.

Sam shrugged. "Uh, I don't know," she replied, "but we might—"

"Leave it," Celestia said. "Your safety is more important at the moment."

The others looked at her in surprise.

"Are you sure?" Jack asked. "This is your home we're talking about."

"I know," Celestia said, eyes still focussed on the planet, "but I am sure. We should not linger here."

"…Okay," Jack said after a moment. "Ro'shur, whenever you're ready."

"Yes, Colonel," the Jaffa said.

"You're not under my command yet," O'Neill replied. "Just call me Jack."

Ro'shur nodded, then walked up to the bridge's control console and placed his hoof on it. A few moments later there was a bright flash of light from the window as they jumped to hyperspace.

There was a moment of silence. At long last, they had achieved their aim. They had escaped. But they all felt too exhausted to celebrate just yet.

Daniel walked up next to Celestia a moment later and looked up into her vacant eyes.

"Princess," he said, "is there anything you need?"

She said nothing, her eyes watching the blue patterns of hyperspace flowing past outside the window. Then, silently, she turned and left the bridge again. Daniel went to follow, but Luna caught him at the door, shaking her head.

"Give her some time," she said. "She's been through a lot."

Twenty minutes later, the seven of them gathered round the viewscreen, watching on the ship's long-range sensors as Equestria's sun exploded, the shockwave expanding out through the system and consuming the planets one by one. Jack watched it in awe; the last time they did this he hadn't had time to actually stop and watch what was happening, but an entire solar system being slowly consumed was an incredible image.

He looked round at Sam and Luna, and saw a distinctly different reaction in their eyes. He tried to imagine what it must have been like for them to see the first destruction of Equestria all those years ago, but frankly he was glad that he didn't know.

"So that is it," Ro'shur said, "Equestria is gone."

"Equestria was gone long ago," Luna said. "But yes, it is now gone for good."

Daniel looked up at her. "You're okay with this?" he asked.

Luna stared at the screen, and sighed. "Honestly, I do not know," she said. "I have so many happy memories of Equestria… but also many which I am glad to leave behind."

She turned away from the viewscreen, laying down on the ground and resting her head on her hooves. "I do not fully understand my sister's reasons, but perhaps she was right. It was not worth you risking your lives for something that was already gone eight thousand years ago."

Sam sat down next to her, resting a hoof on her shoulder. "You'll have to tell us about it sometime," she said. "What it was like before Ra, I mean. That way you can at least keep the good memories alive."

Luna looked up at her and smiled. "That would be nice," she said.

Jack sat down on her other side, the rest coming over to join them one by one. "So, what now?" he said.

"We're headed for Edora," Sam said. "It was the closest friendly planet I could think of with a Gate, and it'll only take us a few hours to get there. Then we can send a message through to Earth and have them send another SG team to meet us."

"Right," Daniel said. "We left our GDOs on in the cargo ship."

"And then," Koresh said, "what of us?"

"You are most welcome to join us," Teal'c said.

"Yeah," Jack added. "Some of the higher-ups may need some convincing, but they warmed to Teal'c quickly enough. After that, it's up to you if you stay or go somewhere else."

Koresh and Ro'shur nodded in thanks.

"Of course," Daniel said, tapping his breastplate, "these things are going to raise some questions. I'm still not exactly sure what they are." He turned and looked over at the princess, and she raised her head and looked at down at the crystal, considering it.

"I am not entirely sure, either, if I am honest," she said. "Celestia may be able to explain them better; she always had a clearer understanding of them."

"Sure," Jack said. "I've only really got one question though." He looked down at the blue crystal, then back up at her. "Are the colours a fixed thing, or can I get something in peridot?"

Sam laughed, and Luna started to smile as well.

"I have been thinking about them as well," Ro'shur said. "It seems clear to me that the six of them are meant to be together, and it may not be wise to separate them. However, I do not think the two of us should remain with you just because we have them."

Jack nodded. "I understand," he said, but Koresh shook his head.

"No," he said, "In fact I think that we have received them because we are staying."

Jack laughed. "Glad to hear it," he said. "Welcome to the team."

The others nodded in agreement and offered their own welcomes, patting the two Jaffa on the shoulder. But gradually they fell quiet as Luna lay down again, staring blankly at the ground in thought.

"It's a shame Celestia isn't here," Jack said after a moment. "There are a number of questions I'd like to ask her, like what she wants to do next. I imagine this is going to be a difficult debrief."

Luna nodded. "She just needs some space," she said. "It may take a long time for her to come to terms with what has happened; it took me a whole year before I felt I understood it when it happened to me."

"Still," Daniel said, "I think one of us should talk to her at some point, even if just to introduce her to this time period. I could do it," he added, glancing down at his Element. "Apparently that's my thing now."

"No," Sam said, shaking her head. "I'll do it. I've seen something of what she was like before this, and how it happened. That might help me understand better."

Luna sat up again and smiled at Sam. "Thank you," she said. "I am sure my sister will appreciate the help."

Jack smiled. He looked round at his allies assembled round him, seeing familiar faces and new in equal measure. "Well," he said, rolling back onto his haunches, "all things considered, I think that went pretty well."

20 - Epilogue

Some time later, Sam found Celestia sitting alone in an observation bay in the lower decks of the ship, her wings hanging loosely at her side, watching the blur of hyperspace streaming past the window.

"Can I come in, Princess?" she said.

Celestia nodded, and Sam walked cautiously up to her, sitting down beside her by the window. They sat in silence for a while, watching the distant stars flying past.

"I have not been called that in a long time," Celestia said after a few moments. "I haven't really ruled anything since Ra's invasion. I did my best to still protect them, but…"

She fell silent again, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked her.

"I don't know," she said. "I don't know if I can be…" She stopped and turned to look down at Sam. "I don't understand," she said. "You saw me; you know what I've done. Why are you treating me like this? Why don't you hate me?"

Sam looked back up at her, and could clearly see the pain in her eyes. She'd had conversations like this before, after seeing colleagues pushed to the edge by war, but none of them quite compared to this.

"Honestly," she said, "I'm not sure I can explain it without seeing your side first. Can you tell me what happened?"

Celestia stared at her for a moment, then turned to face the window.

"I killed," she said. "I don't know how many. Ra had the population spread thin across the galaxy by that point, but there could still have been tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands on Equestria. Many were innocent, and even those who weren't deserved a second chance."

Sam nodded, looking out of the window as well. She could imagine that ten years ago she would have reacted very differently to all this, but the universe the Stargate had opened up to her had changed her perspective on a lot of things.

"A Ha'tak can have a crew of thousands," she said after a moment. "In the last few years I've destroyed or helped destroy quite a few of them. I always remind myself that the crew are our enemy and a threat to many others, but… I do sometimes wonder how many could have been saved instead. The one time we took a ship intact, many of the surviving crew did choose freedom when offered it."

"But does that make it right?" Celestia asked. "Just because a few survive, can that ever justify the loss of the others?"

Sam sighed. That was the difficult question. She was tempted for a moment to just try and say something comforting, but Ro'shur's words from earlier came back to her. Tell the truth, even if it's not what they want to hear.

"I guess not," she said. "Every death is unfortunate because you don't know what good they could have done given the chance. It can be hard to see it sometimes, particularly with a race like the Goa'uld, but we've even seen them turn to good."

Celestia's ears pricked up and she looked round in surprise. "Really?" she said.

"Yes," Sam replied, nodding. "There's a lot that we need to tell you about. But that's not the point I was trying to make. Celestia, I saw what happened all those years ago. Luna showed it to me."

"I… see," Celestia said.

"And if I'm honest," Sam went on, "what I saw terrifies me. It's going to take me a long time to shake that image."

"You're not worried that I could become that again?" Celestia asked. "I know I am."

Sam shrugged. "I try not to think of it like that," she said. "Every one of my team, myself included, have done things we regret while brainwashed or under the influence of alien technology, and we all know it could still happen again, but we can't start second-guessing each other all the time."

"But still—"

"I know," Sam said, raising a hoof. Celestia went quiet, staring at her in confusion.

"What I'm trying to say," she went on, "is that the reason why I don't hate you is because it's clear to me that you feel the same way as I do. You regret those deaths as well, and I'm sure that you would do whatever you could to repair the damage, given the chance."

Celestia nodded, tears welling up again.

"It's because of that that I think you need to be given a second chance." Sam said. "It's that desire which pushes a pony to better themselves, and to help make things better for others. You have the power to bring some good to the world, and I know you want to, so you need to be given that opportunity."

Celestia smiled, wiping a tear from her cheek. "Thank you," she said. "I only hope there is something I can do this time."

"Don't worry about that," Sam said. "The idea of freedom didn't die with Equestria; there have been ponies fighting against the Goa'uld for millennia. I owe my life to ponies like them, and not just our current allies; if it weren't for a rebellion five thousand years ago, Earth, my home planet, might still be under Goa'uld rule."

"Earth?" Celestia asked, her eyebrows raising.

"Yeah," Sam said, looking out of the window again. "Daniel thinks the slaves who led the uprising must have been mostly earth ponies. But now the planet's home to nearly seven billion ponies from all three tribes, spread across hundreds of countries."

She smiled, as memories of homeworld started coming back to her.

"When I'm offworld, fighting against the Goa'uld," she said, "sometimes it does start to feel hopeless. I can start to wonder if what we're doing is even making a difference. But when that happens I just think back to the first time I saw the Earth from orbit. I think of all those ponies going about their daily lives there, with no idea of what's happening out in the galaxy. Sure, we have our own wars to fight, but as far as I'm concerned, those ponies are free. They don't know what it feels like to live under the oppression of the Goa'uld, and every day I fight to make sure it stays that way."

She looked up at the princess, and saw that Celestia was smiling.

"It sounds wonderful," she said.

"It is," Sam replied. "I can't wait to show you it."

They sat side by side in silence for a minute, staring out of the window again. Then, Sam turned again and said, "Can I ask you a question?" Celestia nodded.

"I was wondering why you chose not to save Equestria."

"That is a good question," Celestia replied. "As you said, I would love to be able to repair the damage I caused if possible, and preserving what remains of my old home would have been a step in that direction. But, as I said, I believe that protecting you and your team takes priority. You were not certain that you could do it safely, so I decided it was not worth the risk."

Sam nodded. "I appreciate that," she said. "It just felt like there was something more to it."

Celestia smiled. "You are, in fact, right," she said. "When I said that your lives were not worth the risk, I very specifically meant the six of you. If it were just me I may have decided differently, but you…" She turned to Sam and placed a hoof on the jewel sitting on her chest. "You carry these."

"The Elements of Harmony?" Sam said.

"Yes," Celestia replied. "Back when I left Equestria for the first time, I realised that there was something different about the way other planets felt. I put it down to sentiment at first: a simple longing for my own home. But one day I realised that what I was feeling was the magic of the Elements. For millennia they had been the soul and spirit of Equestria, and their magic flowed through everything on the planet."

"I think I noticed that too," Sam replied, remembering the strange magic she had felt when they first arrived.

Celestia nodded. "I wondered if you had," she said, "given your own skill with magic. But tell me, can you feel it now?"

Sam thought about it for a moment. She hadn't realised it, but in fact the feeling was still there. She had gotten so used to it that she hadn't even noticed that nothing changed when they left. She looked down at the crystal sitting on her chest and imagined she could see a faint spark pulsing inside it.

Celestia smiled. "That was what made me choose as I did," she said. "It seems that the Elements have chosen to leave Equestria. The fight is no longer there; it's out here, in the rest of the galaxy, so that is where they are needed now."

Sam looked up. "Chosen?"

"Yes," Celestia replied. "The Elements have always had a will of their own. They rely on ponies to carry them and spread their power, but ultimately they choose their bearers, not the other way round. I find it interesting that they have chosen six warriors this time," she added. "The previous bearers were willing to fight when they needed to, but otherwise it was just not their nature. I suppose that reflects the nature of our enemy, though; we can try to avoid it, but if we resist them, the Goa'uld will give us war."

"Technically, two of us are scientists," Sam said, and Celestia chuckled.

"Your predecessor was a scientist as well," she said.

"Really?" Sam said. "What were they like?"

Celestia smiled again, wiping a tear from her eye. For the first time since Sam had met her, she looked genuinely happy.

"They were truly amazing," she said. "They lived thousands of years ago, and no doubt their names have been lost to history now, but I will never forget them. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and your own predecessor, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"Princess?" Sam said. "That's a lot to live up to."

Celestia chuckled. "You would be surprised. In fact, if you had met any of them you would not have been able to guess that they had such far-reaching destinies. But they were all capable of great compassion, and most importantly of all they were all friends. By working with each other they achieved truly great things, and together they changed the world."

"I wish I could've met them," Sam said. "You miss them, don't you?"

Celestia nodded. "Yes," she said. She then looked round at Sam, smiling down at her. "But it's your turn now, and I'm sure you'll make them proud."

"I hope so," Sam said, nodding. Then she heard a noise coming from deep in the ship, as the hyperdrive engines started to wind down.

"You should brace yourself, Princess," she said. Moments later there was another bright flash of light as the ship exited hyperspace, and a blue-green planet came into view in front of them.

"Edora," Sam said. "It's not as heavily populated as Earth, with only a few hundred ponies, but they're all free as well. We've got some good friends down there."

"It's beautiful," Celestia said, a tear running down her cheek.

Sam nodded. "And there are plenty more like it." She stood up and turned to leave. "Come on," she said, "we should go meet the others at the glider bay. Then we can go down and you can meet the ponies themselves."

Celestia stood up as well, eyes still fixed on the planet. "Yes," she said, "that sounds good. Just… let me have a few moments alone. I'll catch up with you."

Sam nodded, and walked back out through the door, giving one last glance back at the princess before leaving. When she had gone, Celestia walked up to the window and looked out again, not down to the planet, but up into the star-filled sky. She thought of the thousands of worlds out there and the billions, perhaps trillions, of ponies living on them. Many of them were still slaves, and she had to accept that, but the knowledge that there were so many free ponies now warmed her heart. The idea of freedom was out there, alive and well, and it was spreading. For the first time in a long while she felt like she could actually imagine a day when the entire galaxy was free. All they had to do was spread the message, and hopefully in time the hearts of the galaxy would turn.

She then closed her eyes, looking inward instead. She could feel the magic of the Elements flowing through her, as it had all those thousands of years ago before she had lost touch. Now their spirit was there within her again, urging her onward, pushing her to make a difference for the better. They had given her that which she needed most, and which she wanted more than anything to offer to all other ponies. They had given her a second chance.

With one last glance to the planet below, she turned to follow Sam to meet the others, saying two words quietly under her breath.

"Thank you."

The end.

Author's Note

1 - The Dead Planet

Soft blue patterns danced across the walls, the light from the Stargate filling the dark, empty room with movement. Four ponies, almost silhouettes in their Special-Forces black uniforms, emerged through the rippling event horizon, before being plunged into darkness as the Gate shut down again.

"Good morning, campers," Colonel Jack O'Neill said as he fumbled with his vest in the dark, "and welcome to P5E-862. The weather today is... dark, and we hope you all enjoy your stay."

He found his flashlight and turned it on, wincing at the sudden burst of light hitting his eyes. He then tucked it under one of his camouflage-green wings and turned slowly round, surveying the rest of the room.

One by one, three more flashlights turned on, their beams darting around the room's walls, whose smooth, matte black surfaces seemed to soak up the light as it fell on them. Apart from a single door opposite the Gate, they were completely blank.

"So, what've we got here?" Jack said.

"It looks like a dark and mysterious room."

"Thank you, Daniel. Teal'c, you got anything?"

"I do not recognise the architecture," the golden-brown earth-pony Jaffa replied. He had walked over to one of the walls and was running his hoof over its surface, examining the subtle warping patterns that covered it.

"It's not Goa'uld, then?" Jack asked.

"I am unsure, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c replied. "If it were of Goa'uld origin, there would likely be writings to indicate this structure's purpose. But the surface does appear to be damaged somehow."

"Maybe the writing was removed," Daniel suggested, "like what Osiris did to the records on Abydos."

"Perhaps," Teal'c said. "But if so, for what reason?"

Jack wandered over to one of the other walls to have a look himself, giving the MALP an idle kick as he passed. He gave the wall a knock with his hoof, and it rang like sheet metal.

"Alright then," he said. "You two go on ahead, see if you can find any writing on the wall." Daniel shrugged and headed for the door, Teal'c nodding and following behind the blue earth pony. Once they had left, Jack turned to Samantha Carter, who was still stood by the Gate. The lavender-coloured unicorn had already pulled out a small scanner and was sweeping it slowly around the room. "Major," he said, "what do we know about this planet?"

"I'm not reading any additional life-signs near the Gate," she said, looking up, "although I'm picking up the same faint power readings the MALP was detecting. Everything else was in Daniel's report," she added.

"...Right," Jack said, a look of comprehension absent from his face. "Care to run it past me again?"

With a sigh, Sam smiled and tucked the scanner away in a pocket, walking over to join him.

"Reports indicate that Zipacna's been gaining power recently by absorbing parts of Cronus and Apophis' armies after we killed them a few months ago," she explained.

"Ah, good times," Jack said.

"Yes," Carter continued, chuckling, "but he's still having trouble establishing himself as a major player among the System Lords, and there are rumours that he's trying to track down some sort of legendary ancient superweapon in order to use it to gain more influence."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "I do love a good superweapon," he said. "So he thinks it's here?"

"That's what Bra'tac was told," Sam replied, "but all he was able to give us was this Gate address. All we really know about this planet is that it's not one of the addresses listed on the Abydos cartouche."

Jack nodded, heading toward the door. "So we're looking for a big honkin' space gun, then," he said.

"Not necessarily," Carter said, following behind him. "It could be anything from a—" Jack gave her a look, "—yes sir. But if Zipacna's already here, we need to destroy it before it falls into his hooves."

"We destroy it as a last resort," Jack said. "I'd rather not blow up a new toy. But… yes, our priority is to stop Zippy getting his hooves on it. Whatever it is."

Passing through the door, Jack found himself in a small antechamber with a second door on the other side opening onto a long, wide corridor, the walls and floor made of the same smooth material as in the Gate room. Daniel was sat in one corner examining a Dial-Home Device.

"It looks intact," he said as Jack entered.

"We won't be needing the Naquadah generator to dial out after all, then," Sam said.

Jack nodded. "Good, it might come in handy as an explosive."

"Explosive?" Daniel asked, looking up and straightening his glasses.

"In case we need to destroy the superweapon before Zipacna can use it," Sam explained, walking through to join them.

"Right," Daniel said, sitting down wearily. "I do so love destroying the last remnants of long-dead civilisations."

"Not to mention a potentially very advanced piece of technology," Sam added.

"Colonel O'Neill!" Teal'c called from somewhere further down the corridor. Jack gladly took the diversion and left the two doctors debating what was going to be most tragic about this mission, walking through into the corridor where Teal'c's voice had come from, but he froze immediately as the beam from his flashlight fell on the floor.

"Whoa," he said.

Whatever had happened in the Gate room had hit this part of the ship a hundredfold. The walls and ceiling looked like they had been melted away; pools of metal had gathered and solidified across the floor around the walls, and holes had opened up in places exposing a lattice of support structures and conduits behind. Something had definitely attacked this place, and whatever it was had been very thorough.

Treading carefully around the lumps on the floor he made his way toward Teal'c's position, musing about whether it was some universal rule that giant superweapons were always on destroyed planets. Hopefully this one wouldn't be guarded by jumpy energy beings like the last one.

"Found something, T'?" he said.

"Indeed I have," Teal'c replied. He was standing in a faint column of light that was shining through a doorway leading off to the left. The Jaffa stepped to the side and Jack looked through to the view beyond, his eyes going wide.

"Holy… buckets."

The room beyond was about the same size as the Gate room, and with about the same level of damage, but the most striking difference was the window covering the entirety of the far wall, looking out into empty space. At the bottom of the vista a planet could be seen turning slowly beneath them.

"We're on a spaceship?" Jack said.

"It would appear so, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c replied. "It does indeed seem to be of Goa'uld origin," he continued, nodding to a pedestal placed in the centre of the room and throne set against the opposite wall. "This appears to be the Pel'tak."

Jack nodded, thinking. "That's a twist," he said. "Well, maybe the ship's computer's got some information we could use. I'll get Carter to—"

"Jack!" Daniel called, running down toward them with Sam close behind. "I found some writing hidden behind the DHD!" he stammered. "It's really old, but I managed to translate some of it, and I think—"

"—we're on a spaceship." Jack finished.

"Yeah," Daniel said, reaching the door and looking through. "How did you… oh."

He and Sam walked through the door and went over to the window, staring down at the planet below. Jack gave them a few moments to admire the view, then, pulling a cap out of his vest pocket and pulling it down over his short, greying mane, said "Okay, you two find a power switch and see what you can get out of the computer. Teal'c and I are going to take a look around."

Carter turned in surprise. "Sir," she said. "This ship could be centuries old! I don't even know if it's got enough power left!"

"I have complete faith in you, Major," Jack said, turning and heading down the corridor. "Come on Teal'c. This ship won't explore itself."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, then turned and left as well.

"Well, you've done trickier things," Daniel commented.

"Don't remind me," Carter said.

Ten minutes later, Carter was buried up to her haunches in a wall panel which the two of them had managed to pry open. With nothing else to do, Daniel was passing the time by watching the planet passing below them.

He had figured it was unlikely that he'd see signs of civilisation from this high up, but it wasn't often that one got to see a planet from orbit, and he'd hoped that there might be at least some interesting features on the surface. But to his disappointment the planet was entirely covered in featureless, sandy desert. There were a some lines of rock criss-crossing the surface here and there, but other than that it was completely blank.

"It doesn't look like the home of an ancient and powerful culture," he mused. "Maybe it was another mining colony, like Abydos."

"What was that?" Sam called from the wall.

"Never mind." Getting bored with watching the planet, he turned his attention to the rest of the room. Like with any Goa'uld ship, the bridge was quite sparse technology-wise. Having control panels everywhere spoiled the illusion that the gods propelled the ship through space by sheer force of will, after all. There was a single pedestal in the centre of the room, however, no doubt where the pilot would have stood. A number of crystals stuck up from the surface, their corners cracked and broken, presumably because of whatever had damaged everything else. If everything on the ship was like this, Daniel doubted it would be going anywhere any time soon.

"I really don't think we're going to learn much from ship in the state it's in," he said to Sam. "We should probably try to go down to the—"

The lights came on suddenly, cutting him off mid-sentence. Sam pushed herself out from the wall and stood up, smiling triumphantly.

"Power's back on," she said somewhat redundantly. "Shall we take a look at the computer?"

Daniel gestured toward the viewscreen. "After you," he said.

Sam raised her eyebrows, took a deep breath and walked over to the centre of the room. Standing in front of the pedestal, she closed her eyes and focussed on her magic.

As SG-1's resident mage and scientist, it always fell to her to interface with Goa'uld technology. She was after all the only member of the team who could connect directly to the magical interfaces. Of course, having traces of Jolinar of Malkshur in her system helped as well.

The computer took a bit longer than usual to respond as it warmed up, but after a few seconds she felt it returning her pings. She opened her eyes and picked the simplest command she could think of, attempting to call up the most recent active screen.

A holographic map suddenly appeared, filling the entire window in front of them. In the centre shone a star, with a number of concentric rings encircling it.

"This must be where we are," Daniel said, walking up to the map and pointing at a pulsing red dot sitting on the second ring out.

"I think it's running a sensor sweep," Sam said. "It's not picking up any other ships in the system. Well, no active ones at least, but who knows how many more wrecks there could be out there."

"So Zipacna isn't here yet," Daniel said hopefully.

"It looks that way. Unless he came by Gate, but it doesn't look like anypony's been through here in a long time."

Daniel stared pensively at the red dot. "Does it have any information about the planet?" he asked.

"Give me a moment," Sam said, closing her eyes in concentration. The magic aura surrounding her horn pulsed, and then the map zoomed in suddenly on the dot. After a few seconds, the sphere of the planet expanded to fill the view, with the red dot sitting in orbit above it. To Daniel's surprise, the planet appeared first as a blue-green garden world, before flickering and being replaced by the familiar image they could see out the window.

"That was weird," he said. "Problems with the computer?" he asked, turning to Carter.

"I'm not sure," she said, opening her eyes. "I'm having trouble understanding the interface because it's so old. I can try to find more about the planet, but with the shift in language I'm not sure if I'd even know what to look for."

Daniel nodded. "Well, bring something up," he said. "At least we can start working on translation."

"Alright," Sam said, closing her eyes again. "Let's see what I can find."

Long strings of symbols started flashing across the screen as Sam moved through the ship's file system trying to find anything they might be able to use. Daniel stared blankly at them, trying to catch anything useful as they scrolled past.

"You know," he said as he waited. "A dangerous world, not found on the cartouche… this reminds me of something."

"Yeah, I thought of that as well," Sam replied. "But do you think Zipacna would really try to—"

A small vibration pulsed through the bulkheads. Sam lost her balance, and her concentration, and the screen disappeared.

"That didn't feel good," Daniel said.

Their radios crackled to life. "Everypony okay back there?" came Jack's voice through the speakers.

"We're fine," Sam said. "I don't think it was us, but…"

She hesitated. She and Daniel exchanged worried looks.

"Well, Sir," she continued, "We really have no idea what state this ship is in. Any number of systems could be damaged beyond repair."

"And we just turned the power on…" Daniel said, looking at the open hole in the wall.

Then, in an instant, the stillness was gone. The entire ship rocked, throwing Sam and Daniel off their hooves. Terrible scraping sounds filled the air as if the walls were trying to tear themselves apart.

"Fall back!" Jack shouted through the radio, but they didn't need to be told. Daniel had already jumped to his hooves and was bolting to the door, missing the frame by an inch as the ship lurched and tried to throw him down again. He galloped down the corridor, vaulting over great lumps of metal in the flickering light.

Sam stumbled out behind him moments later, chasing after him towards the Gate room.

"Dial us out of here!" she yelled. "The whole ship's falling apart!"

Daniel stumbled to a halt at the DHD and scanned across its face trying to find the point of origin. Spotting it at the top next to serpens kaput, he immediately started dialling the address he'd entered so many times he could almost do it with his eyes closed. With the sounds of the ship breaking apart getting louder and louder in his ears and the lights struggling to stay on, he began to wonder if he'd actually have to.

Sam burst through the door as he was hitting the third symbol, falling to the ground under the force of another tremor before picking herself up again and running for the Gate room.

"Almost there!" Daniel shouted as she passed.

But before she had reached the door, the ship lurched to the side, throwing them both hard against the wall. A shutter slammed down over the door to the Gate room, completely sealing the bulkhead.

"No!" Sam shouted.

Then there was an almighty shriek from inside the walls. Sam knew the sound of metal tearing and snapping under the strain of unimaginable forces, and felt her life flashing before her eyes. She prayed that the bulkheads would hold.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The ship went dead and silent, and the lights shut off completely.

"Are we dead?" Daniel said after a long pause.

"I… don't think so," Sam answered.

Moments later, the lights flickered back on. The room looked unchanged, in spite of what had just happened. Sam stood up and limped over to the sealed door, pulling open a control panel concealed next to it and trying to open it up again.

Jack galloped into the room, followed closely by Teal'c.

"What the hell just happened?" he barked.

"I was dialling the Gate," Daniel said, looking down at the DHD where three symbols were still lit up, "and then the door sealed itself."

"Yeah, I noticed that," he said, turning to Carter. "Can you get it open, Major?" he asked.

"It's not responding to manual controls," she said, poking at the panel with her hoof. "There's something blocking the interface."

O'Neill marched over to the door, making a good attempt at staring it open.

"We need that Gate, Major," he said.

"I know, Colonel," she replied. She held her horn up to the panel and tried to get it to respond to magic, but every spell she tried just bounced back at her.

"There's some sort of safety override blocking my access," she said. "I can't open it."

"Dammit," Jack growled, banging his head against the door in frustration with a dull thud. Sam started at the sound, turning and looking at him with a concerned expression.

"Do that again," she said.

Jack lifted his head up and gave her a confused look. "What?"

"Just… hit the door again."

Jack raised an eyebrow sceptically. He took a step back and knocked the door with his hoof. The bulkhead responded with a disturbingly empty sound.

"Uh oh," Sam said. She turned and galloped away again toward the bridge, leaving the other three in mutual confusion.

"Uh oh what?" Jack called after her.

"I guess we should follow her," Daniel said.

When they reached the bridge Sam had brought up the map again, showing the zoomed view of the planet. It looked exactly as it had before, except where there had previously been a single red dot marking the ship's location, there were now two.

"Uh oh," Daniel echoed.

"Will you ponies stop saying that?" Jack groaned. "Somepony please explain what's going on."

Carter turned to face him, looking apologetic, and after taking a deep breath said, "Colonel, when we turned the power on, one of six primary power generators became unstable and overloaded. The resulting explosion tore the ship apart down the middle." She gestured at the map, where the two dots were sitting next to each other above the planet, drifting slowly away from each other. "The two halves are still in stable orbits, and both have power, so they won't burn up in the atmosphere for a year at least."

Jack walked up to the map and examined the dots. Only one of them was pulsing; he took a wild guess that they were on that one. "I assume," he said, pointing at the other, "the Stargate's over there."

"No, sir," Sam replied.

With a burst of magic from her horn, she pulled the map out to show the space surrounding the ship. A number of smaller dots began to appear, moving quickly out away from the ship.

"The Stargate was right on the seam," Sam continued. "It, along with a number of sizeable sections of the ship, got blasted out of orbit by the explosion."

The map zoomed out further, until it showed the entire inner solar system. A thin line started to track away from the planet; Jack followed it with his eyes, getting a sinking feeling as he saw where it was headed.

"It's been captured by the gravity of this system's primary," Sam said. "In a little over fourteen hours, the Stargate will have fallen into the sun."

The line continued on until it reached the star, then stopped dead.

The four of them stared in silence at the line, watching their only way home slowly drifting towards its eventual destruction. Jack pulled his cap off and wiped his brow with it.

"Oy," he groaned. "This is starting to feel like a bad day."

"Indeed," Teal'c said.

"Now what?" Daniel asked, walking up next to him and looking at the map.

Jack stood in silence for a few moments, weighing up their options and noticing just how few there were. In the end he could only think of one thing to do: keep moving.

"Are there rings on the planet?" he asked.

There was silence. He turned and looked back at Carter. "Major?"

"Uh, sorry," Sam said, dazed. Her horn's aura pulsed and the map zoomed in on the planet again. A blue line formed between the ship and a point on the surface below.

"I'm reading one set of rings below us, and there's a set on the ship not far from—"

"That's our plan then," Jack said before she could finish. "We go down to the planet and find out what's there. Here's my wish list: first, another Stargate. Failing that, a ship with a hyperdrive. Failing that, a ship without a hyperdrive that we can jump to the Gate from."

The others exchanged glances. Jack ignored them.

"And failing that?" Carter asked.

Jack shrugged. "Well, Zipacna should arrive eventually," he said. "Maybe he'll give us a lift."

"A lift," Daniel said.

"Sure. Why not."

Carter rubbed her forehead. "Yes, sir," she said after a few moments.

Jack stepped through the holographic screen and up to the window, looking down at the planet below. He figured that it was better than nothing, but, looking at its barren surface, he wasn't entirely convinced.

The transport rings lifted back up into the ceiling leaving SG-1, weapons ready at their sides, alone in yet another strange room.

"Clear," Jack said once he was satisfied. The four of them relaxed. Jack unclipped his P-90 from its strap and rested it on the ground, then stopped to survey his new surroundings for the second time.

They were in what looked like the entrance to a temple. Huge, decaying stone columns flanked them on either side, covered from floor to ceiling in intricate carved inscriptions. There was a single door at either end of the room; one was blocked off with rubble, while the other led into the open air. Beyond it the sun was sitting near the horizon, its light shining directly down the middle of the chamber.

"This looks more promising," Daniel said, wiping his glasses and going to admire the nearest column. Tea,'c following. Jack headed to the door to have a look at the surrounding area, but before he was able to look round for conveniently-placed spaceports, his attention was drawn to something much closer. As he stepped outside he felt something soft under his hooves, and he looked down to find himself standing on a thick bed of grass and moss.

"Huh," he said.

Sam appeared next to him.

"That's odd," she said, poking at the grass with her hoof and giving it a sniff. "I guess it's not all desert," she added. "Fells a bit dry, but at least we won't starve if we're stuck here."

"We're getting off this rock," Jack said in his best attempt at a reassuring tone.

"Yes sir," Sam replied, unconvinced.

"I can think of worse places to be stuck, though," he conceded.

He welcomed the silence that followed, allowing himself a few moments to admire the view and take in some fresh air before they began the task of trying to escape. He had almost managed to forget why they had come here in the first place, when…

"Colonel O'Neill!"

He closed his eyes and sighed, the moment of peace shattered. "What is it, Teal'c?" he said, turning to find the Jaffa staring at something on one of the columns with what almost looked like fear.

"We should not be here," he said.

"Yeah, I got that," Jack replied. "Any particular reason?"

"No, he's right," Daniel said, moving over next to Teal'c and staring up at the inscription. "I think you need to hear this."

"Well go on then," Jack said impatiently.

"Uh," Daniel said, scanning over the writing. "It's a welcome for travellers," he said. "'Welcome, worshippers and subjects, to the temple of the Great God Ra.'"

"Ra?" Sam asked, walking up next to them. "The first system lord?"

"Yeah," Daniel said, nodding excitedly in spite of the situation. "Of course we've only heard of him through legend and writing…"

"Right, right," Jack interrupted. "Ra died thousands of years ago; I've heard this before. Why is this important?"

Teal'c turned to face him. "There are many Jaffa legends concerning the death of Ra," he said. "There is little agreement on how he was killed, or by whom, but they are all in agreement on where he died."

"Right, that's the important part," Daniel continued, turning back to the inscription. "'…the Great God Ra, Lord of the sun, saviour of ponykind, and supreme ruler… of all Equestria.'"

Author's Note

For any fans of SG-1 who are confused by a number of details (i.e. the mentions of Osiris), let me say that these are not errors. The fact that all the main characters are now ponies is certainly not the only difference between this universe and that of SG-1. The reasons for these changes should become clear with time.

13 - Second Chances

Koresh and Ro'shur sat quietly in the cargo ship's cockpit, watching as another firestorm raged outside. It hadn't escaped Koresh's attention that the storms had suddenly become a lot more frequent after the others returned from the ship. The Ra'shek clearly knew what they were doing and, seemed to be intent on at least taking them with it.

The waiting was killing him. The hours since they enacted their plan had crawled past painfully slowly, and the potential three hours more were looming ahead of him. He hoped their rescue would arrive soon just so he would have something new to do.

But at the same time he was scared to find out what would happen when rescue did come, and when Zipacna found out what they had done. They'd been sent here because he wanted to capture this system for himself, and instead they had chosen to destroy it. Their brief allegiance with SG-1 could be hidden easily enough, but there would be no way to hide the sun exploding.

Zipacna wasn't going to accept explanations about trying to protect the galaxy, and he couldn't think of any other way to justify their actions to their god. In fact, he wasn't even sure he knew himself why he had gone along with the plan. There had been too many unexpected factors in this mission, and he was feeling lost. He hadn't been prepared for any of this, and he knew that, whatever happened when Zipacna's forces arrived, there would be no second chances. He needed to understand, and he needed to do so now.

He stood and paced back and forth across the bridge, stretching his legs. Ro'shur was sat in the pilot's seat staring out through the window in silence, as he had been for much of the time since his return. Koresh imagined the older Jaffa was struggling with the same questions he was. Despite all the wisdom he had imparted over the last few years, Koresh could see that his master would not have the answers now. There was only one place he could think that he would find them.

He turned and walked over to the cargo bay, Opening the door and stepping in. Major Carter was lying in the far corner, still resting after the events on the ship, while Colonel O'Neill and Doctor Jackson were sitting just to the right of the door, talking about something. They looked up at him when he entered; Koresh glanced over at them, but then turned and approached Teal'c, who was sitting quietly on the far side of the room.

"May I speak with you?" he said, sitting down. Teal'c nodded.

"Does something trouble you?" he asked.

Koresh hesitated. This was the Shol'va, after all – the most hated Jaffa in the galaxy. But when he thought about it he realised the two of them had something in common now.

"I betrayed my god today," he said.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied. "This planet was to be Zipacna's prize, but you have helped to destroy it instead." Koresh nodded. "Why did you choose to do that?"

"Did I have a choice?" Koresh said. "You saw what happened to me; with everything the Ra'shek can do, we could never hope to control it."

"Perhaps not," Teal'c said, "but would Zipacna not have been able to? He is much more powerful than any of us."

Koresh looked confused. "Do you believe that?" he asked.

Teal'c shook his head. "It is what you believe that I wish to know," he replied.

Koresh sighed. "I don't know what I believe now," he said. "A week ago I would not have doubted it, but… think of what I've seen on this planet. The Ra'shek has us trapped here, and has nearly killed us on many occasions. When I think of the stories of what it has done, and what it claims to be able to do… It is a being of such power and scale that I daren't even try to comprehend it."

He paused and looked round the room at the rest of the team. "And then I meet you," he said. "Your team comes here, sees a being capable of slaying gods and wiping out entire armies, and you devise a plan to completely destroy it as if it were nothing. The balance of power does not lie where I once thought it did."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but did not say anything. Koresh took a deep breath and went on to the real question he wanted to ask.

"You know what Zipacna will do when he learns what we did here today," he said. "All Jaffa I know of who betrayed or failed their gods are dead…. except you. Knowing what could have happened to you, why did you do it?"

"A good question," Teal'c said, "but first, let me ask you one. You have spoken highly of our ability to destroy a star. Now tell me, what would happen if a Goa'uld were to learn how to do this?"

The question surprised Koresh, but as soon as he thought about it he realised the answer. He had heard of entire planets wiped out by the Goa'uld for opposing them, but it happened rarely because it required assembling a fleet, and even with many ships it took a weeks or months to do so thoroughly. If they could completely wipe out an entire system in an instant with a single ship, though…

A shiver ran down his spine.

"Indeed," Teal'c said, needing no more answer. "As for your query, I think the real question is why I did not do it sooner.

"When I was young I was much like you. I wanted to be the greatest warrior I could be so that I could serve Apophis in his army. If I could do that I would have been able to ensure a safe life for my family. I worked and trained hard, and I achieved my dream and joined the ranks of Apophis's personal guard, eventually becoming his first prime.

"But as my rank increased, so did my responsibilities. I led others into battle over and over again. I destroyed Apophis's enemies and killed any who dared to stand up to him. I must have killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, by my own hoof, and I have been responsible for the deaths of countless others. But I wonder if any Jaffa can look down on a planet as their fleet bombards cities on the surface, killing guilty and innocent alike, and not question even for a moment if they are doing the right thing.

"I kept going, though, because each time I killed a traitor I imagined myself – or my wife and son – in their place. I could not protect those I loved if I were dead or exiled. I went on for years this way, occasionally trying to find a way to do some good in spite of my orders, but eventually I asked myself a question: if I had to violate my orders in order to do a good deed, what did that make my orders? I had stopped believing in Apophis' divine nature long before. I feared him and what he was capable of, of course, but I no longer worshipped him."

"But you still went on to keep your family safe?" Koresh said. Teal'c nodded. "So what made you change your mind?"

Teal'c looked over at Colonel O'Neill. "We had captured SG-1, and I was instructed to kill them and some other prisoners. I had my orders, and I was fully prepared to follow through with them, but then… he asked for my help."

"He asked you to help him?" Koresh said. "Why?"

"Perhaps he sensed that I did not want to kill them," Teal'c said. "In truth I do not know, but I do not need to. What matters is only that he asked. He chose to trust me. He had no reason to, but he did so anyway."

Koresh glanced over at the colonel, remembering the look in his eyes when he had asked him to help revive Major Carter.

"I could see that his team were formidable warriors," Teal'c said, "and I suspected that, unlike most who opposed Apophis, they may have actually had the ability to challenge him and win. I knew that if I killed them having been offered a chance to help them, I would never be able to sleep soundly again. Then, when I did help them, and when I had nowhere to go, he offered to protect me. He and his colleagues welcomed me into their team. He gave me a home, and a chance to continue to help countless others across the galaxy by fighting for the freedom, not just of my own family, but for Jaffa and ponies everywhere."

"But would you ever go back?" Koresh asked. "If you did this to protect others, then if Zipacna were to offer safety for you, your family, and any others you wished in return for your service, would you?"

"I would not," Teal'c said without hesitation, "because I could never be certain that I could trust them to keep their word. Or one day they may be killed by a rival Goa'uld who would have no issue with breaking that promise. In addition, I would always know that he had only made the promise in order to gain power over me.

"SG-1 and their colleagues are different. They are my friends; they treat me with respect, and I respect them in return. The Goa'uld may be powerful, but no amount of threats could ever make me trust them. SG-1 has earned my trust, and for that reason I will remain their allies until I die."

Koresh sat, stunned. He looked over at the colonel again. "Just a few hours ago, the colonel and I were trying to kill each other," he said. "Not long after, he asked me to help save the life of his friend."

"Much as it was with me," Teal'c said. "If you were to join us, he would soon trust you with much more, as indeed would I."

The offer caught Koresh off guard. With no idea how he wanted to respond to it, he nodded vaguely and stood up again, looking awkwardly round at the rest of the team. Once, he had sworn to himself that he would one day defeat Colonel O'Neill, and now he was being told that this very same pony would be willing to trust him with his life. It seemed nonsensical.

Walking away from Teal'c, he looked over at Major Carter, lying on the far side of the room and sleeping peacefully. He could imagine the voices of his past masters screaming in his head, reminding him that she was the enemy, and his upbringing demanded that he should hate her. And yet, all he could think about was how guilty he felt for not being able to do more to save her. He had been offered a chance to help and had failed, and it didn't seem to matter who had made the offer. He was actually relieved that she was still alive.

He turned to head back out into the cockpit and saw Ro'shur standing in the door, watching him. He wondered how much of the conversation his master had heard. But Ro'shur didn't look angry. He merely looked curious.

Koresh started walking back, when suddenly there was movement behind him. He turned round and saw Major Carter squirming on the ground, muttering in her sleep.

"Not again," O'Neill said, standing up and cantering over to her. Teal'c and Doctor Jackson got up as well and followed him over. Koresh backed away from them, not sure what was going on.

"Wake up, Major!" Jack said, giving Sam a shake. She rolled over, mumbling something incomprehensible. She kicked one of her hooves out and Jack had to jump back to avoid it.

"Come on, Carter!" he said, grabbing hold of her again. "Don't let it in!"

He gave another shake and her eyes flew open. "No, not yet!" she shouted. Then she went still, staring up at Jack.

"Major," Jack said. "You you?"

"What?" Sam replied.

"You were getting pretty jumpy there," he said, letting go of her and helping her up. "I thought the Ra'shek was in your head again."

Carter rubbed her forehead. "Yeah," she said. "I mean… I'm not sure. There was something in there. It was definitely the same feeling I had last time, but… It's hard to remember."

"Did you hear anything?" Daniel asked. "When it happened to me, I remember hearing a voice."

"Yeah," Sam said, massaging her temple. "I do remember there being a voice. But it didn't seem right. I don't think it was the Ra'shek."

The others looked around at each other in confusion.

"Why not?" Jack asked.

"Because of what it was saying," she replied. "It was asking me to help it."

"Well of course it was," Jack said. "If it knows it's about to die, makes sense it would start pleading for its life. We've all seen that before."

"No," Koresh said. The team looked round at him in surprise. "No, it wouldn't."

He walked up and stood next to them. "It has been in my head as well," he said. "The entire time you were discussing your plan it was there, listening. And I remember no fear in its mind, no cowardice. All I remember is hatred. The way it sees us… I don't believe it would ever ask us for help."

"Yeah," Daniel said, nodding. "I can relate to that."

"So, what was it then?" Jack asked.

"I don't know," Sam said. "But it wants our help. And it also said it wanted me to listen to it. Whatever it is, it's trying to tell us something."

"So this is the evil spirit's good twin?" Jack said.

"Like I said, I don't know," Sam replied. "But what if it is? If there's something else trapped here—"

"Then it's going to die too," Daniel said. "Jack, I think we need to—"

"Do what?" Jack said. "Are we even going to be able to do anything? It was hard enough getting ourselves off this planet, let alone a weird spirit that can only talk to us through dreams."

Ro'shur walked up next to them. "You gave us a chance," he said. "Perhaps we should do the same here."

"He's right, Colonel," Sam said. "I think we need to hear it out. It seemed pretty desperate."

Jack sighed. "Yeah, you're right," he said. "Maybe we can help it. And who knows, maybe it can help us. So how do we do this?"

"It's already shown us how," Sam said. "If I fall asleep, then it should try and talk to me again. All I have to do is wait."

"You sure about this?" Daniel said. "If it tries to take control of you, or worse…"

"I'll be fine," Sam said. "I don't think it wants to hurt me. And if it looks like it's hurting me, zat me."

"Well, if you're sure," Jack said. Sam nodded.

"Don't worry, colonel," she said. "It's only a dream. I'll be safe."

"Actually I meant about the zatting," Jack said. "Those things really sting."

Sam laughed. "Colonel—"

"It was a joke, Major," he said, waving her down. "Now stop wasting time and go fall asleep."

"Yes sir," Sam said, turning and going over to the corner. She lay down and closed her eyes, taking long, slow breaths.

"Okay," Jack said, walking back to where he'd been sitting. "This could take a while. Let's give the major some peace and quiet. We don't want to disturb whatever's going on inside that head of hers."

"Wait, Colonel," Ro'shur said. The Jaffa approached him, and held a zat gun out to him. Jack looked down at it in surprise.

"For me?" he said. "Why?"

"In case you do need to protect her," Ro'shur said. "or if the Ra'shek takes anypony else. We should be as prepared as possible."

Jack looked up at the Jaffa, then took the weapon and slipped it into the holster on his vest. "Thank you," he said.

Ro'shur nodded back, then turned and went to join Koresh. Teal'c passed him as he left, and the two briefly shared a look. Teal'c then sat down next to Jack with a contented smile on his face.

"I think this has been one of our better imprisonments," Jack said.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied.

17 - Escape

Five minutes earlier.

Something started pinging in the cockpit.

The rest of the group were still standing in the cargo hold, discussing the most recent developments, and wondering what would happen with Luna. Teal'c was the first to notice the sound.

"Colonel O'Neill, Ro'shur," he said, holding up a hoof and raising his head to listen. One by one the rest of the group fell silent, their heads turning toward the source.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Jack said.

Ro'shur nodded. "We are being hailed. Our rescue has arrived."

"Sweet! Time to get out of here."

The three Jaffa walked through to the cockpit to answer the hail, but Jack caught Sam before she could follow.

"Major," he said, "are the rings okay for transporting us up?"

"Uh," Sam said, looking down at them and thinking. "The spell took a lot more power than usual, and their capacitors were nearly drained. I'll need to make sure they're charged before—"

"Okay," Jack said. "Get to it, then. We need those rings asap."

"Yes sir," Sam said, grabbing her tools and cantering over to the rings. Jack turned and followed the others to the cockpit. When he arrived he found Koresh stood with his eyes closed, his horn lit with magic, and Teal'c and Ro'shur discussing something.

"What's up?" he asked.

Ro'shur turned round to face him, looking worried. "We have a problem, Colonel," he said. "Zipacna has not send a patrol ship to pick us up as I had expected."

"Uh," Jack said, "then who's hailing us?"

"He did not send a ship, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said. "He has come himself in his flagship, escorted by two more Ha'taks."

"Oh, okay," Jack replied. "That could be a problem."

"He is hailing us," Koresh said. "I am transmitting a hold signal, trying to indicate a problem with our transmitter."

"Why are you doing that?" Jack asked.

"Because," Ro'shur said, walking up to him, "there is something we must discuss. I told them that we have you prisoner; it is the only reason they were willing to come so soon, and no doubt the reason why Zipacna has come himself. So I will need to show you to him to ensure that he does not think we were lying and simply leave us here. He will then take you prisoner, and I imagine he will wish to capture Luna for study as well."

Jack gave the Jaffa a curious look, sensing that he wasn't finished. "However…?"

"However," Ro'shur said, "in light of recent events, I have decided that, once we are safely away from this planet, it would be wise to arrange for you all to mysteriously escape from your cells and leave in a stolen cargo ship."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "No complaints from me," he said. "So, what do we do?"

Ro'shur thought for a moment, then walked over to the cargo bay and closed the door. "You two stand over there," he said, turning to face Jack and Teal'c again and pointing over to the side of the bridge. "I will call you over when appropriate."

Jack nodded, and he and Teal'c went and stood where they were told. Jack looked over at Teal'c and raised his eyebrows, the Jaffa returning a satisfied nod.

Then Ro'shur nodded to Koresh and the younger Jaffa brought up the heads-up display; an image of Zipacna, sitting on his throne and flanked by two flaming torches, appeared in front of them.

"Ro'shur," he said, "report."

Ro'shur took a deep breath, then said, "My lord, I regret to inform you that this world is no longer habitable, and we believe that it has not been so for many thousands of years. However, the threat which destroyed Ra's forces does yet remain, and I would advise that you remain here for as little time as possible, as a precaution."

Jack chuckled. Using the Ra'shek as a cover for their blowing up the sun was smart. It reduced the number of questions they'd have to answer when they got on board.

Zipacna looked sceptical. "I am your god," he said. "You doubt my ability to control it?"

"No, my lord," Ro'shur replied, bowing. "I merely mean that I do not believe there is anything here to make it worth doing so. You would be better to ignore this system, and keep it hidden from those not as wise as you."

"I see," Zipacna said. He looked unsure, no doubt disappointed, but apparently decided not to pursue it further. "I understand you have managed to find me another prize, however," he added, "one which may still make this venture worthwhile?"

"Yes, my Lord," Ro'shur said. He nodded to Koresh, who walked over to Jack and Teal'c, pushing them forward into view. Zipacna leaned forward, eying his new prizes excitedly.

"Hey, Zippy!" Jack said. "Love the new headdress."

"Silence!" Zipacna shouted.

"We found them a day ago," Koresh said. "No doubt they were trying to claim this world for themselves."

Zipacna stood up and walked forward, looking down at them. "Colonel O'Neill," he said, "and the shol'va, Teal'c – we meet again. What brings you to this world?"

"Oh, you know," Jack said, shrugging. "Just looking for a new summer home. Got tired of fishing."

"You would be wise to watch your tongue," Zipacna said, frowning.

"Yeah, I hear that a lot," Jack replied. "But it's hard to, what with my eyes being on the sides of my head."

"Hm," Zipacna said, his eyes narrowing. He then turned back to the two Jaffa. "And what of the rest of their team?" he asked. "Major Carter and Doctor Jackson?"

"They are in the hold," Ro'shur said. "They attempted to resist us, and we had to restrain them."

Zipacna looked sceptical, and Jack started to wonder if they should have worked on their story more beforehand. Brave as he was, Daniel was hardly known as the fighter of the group. Ro'shur seemed to sense it too, so he went on.

"We have also apprehended another pony," he said. "A most interesting specimen, and apparently allied with SG-1. She also resisted, and is bound up with the others, but I am sure you that you will wish to study her."

Zipacna raised an eyebrow. "Explain."

"She is… difficult to describe," Ro'shur said. "But she is unlike anything I have ever seen before."

Zipacna stood silently for a moment, his face screwed up in deep thought. Then he turned back to look at Jack. "Colonel O'Neill," he said, "if this mysterious pony is your ally, then perhaps you will have an easier time of describing her. What is she?"

"Oh, she's my sister-in-law on my first cousin's side," he said. "Not much to look at, but she's a great singer."

Zipacna fell silent again, not even bothering to shut him up. Jack was getting worried; he had the distinct feeling that Zipacna wasn't believing a word of this, and was starting to worry that they'd have to take the mothership by force. Doing that in an hour, with two other ships standing watch, was pushing it a bit even for them.

Then he noticed Zipacna's eyes dart down to his side for a moment. He glanced down and realised with a sinking feeling why their story was falling on deaf ears; he'd forgotten to remove the zat gun from the holster on his side. The game was up.

"Well, this is all very interesting," Zipacna said. "It would appear that I have before me an entire ship full of traitors. The only question is, what do I do with them?"

Daniel and Luna stood with their ears pressed up against the door, trying to listen to the conversation going on on the other side.

"What are they doing again?" Daniel asked.

"They're trying to bluff Zipacna into taking us prisoner," Sam said from behind them, still hunched over the rings. "It sounds like Ro'shur and Koresh have decided to help us escape afterwards."

"Well, that's good news," Daniel said.

"I am still not clear on this plan," Luna said. "Our escape is contingent on being captured by a Goa'uld?"

"Yeah," Daniel said. "Don't worry, we do this all the time."

"That does not stop me worrying," Luna replied.

"How's it going?" Sam asked.

Daniel leaned closer to the door, listening. "Okay, I think," he said. "Zipacna's disappointed about losing the planet, but at least he's interested in us."

"I'd hope so," Sam said. "We've put so much work into building our reputation."

Daniel laughed, but Luna was frowning.

"This does not sound good," she said. "I think he must be sceptical. Wait… are they trying to sell me now?"

"They're just trying to trick him into letting us on board," Daniel said. "We're not going to hand you over to him, don't worry."

Luna nodded, putting her ear back against the door. "That is good to hear—"

She took a step back. "Sister-in-law?"

"Oh, no," Daniel said. "He's not buying this at all. Now he's deciding how to kill us."

"Oh, for goodness' sake!" Luna shouted. She pulled Daniel out of the way and marched up to the door.

"Wait!" Daniel said, but she had already hit the button on the control panel. The door opened and she strode out into the cockpit, pushing her way between the shocked group already assembled there and up to the screen.

Zipacna took a step back when he saw her, his eyes going wide.

"Iah'shek!" he said.

"You must be Zipacna," she replied. "I don't believe we've met, but I see you know who I am."

"Sorry Jack," Daniel said, running up between her and the colonel. Sam followed a moment later, stopping next to Teal'c.

"Major?" Jack asked, looking over at her.

"Sorry, sir," she said. "The rings need at least fifteen minutes before they're charged."

"I doubt we have that long," Jack said.

Zipacna was slowly backing away from the screen as if he'd seen a ghost. "This cannot be," he said. "Ra died eight thousand years ago! How is it that you are still alive?"

"Don't be a fool, Zipacna," Luna said, pushing herself up to her full height and raising her wings at her side. "You know of the power my sister and I wield. You call us demons, and with good reason. You know what happened here all those millennia ago. You know you cannot stand up to us, just as Ra could not.

"So here is what I am going to do. I am not going to make requests, demands or bargains. I am simply going to state a fact. You will surrender and give your ship over to us immediately, and you will allow us to leave this system without contest. If you do not, then you will face the full force of my wrath. You and your ships will be destroyed in an instant."

"She's bluffing," Jack whispered, "...right?"

Sam looked up at the princess and saw the anger in her eyes. "I honestly don't know," she said.

"Well?" Luna said, as Zipacna stood in silence, staring at her. "What will it be? Will you co-operate and live for the moment, or will you resist and face your death with as little dignity as Ra did?"

"You dare challenge me?" Zipacna shouted, running towards the screen and glaring down at them. "I am your god!"

"Well, that was predictable," Jack said.

"Don't be a fool, Zipacna," Luna said. "It will not protect you from your fate."

"You lie!" Zipacna said, waving a hoof at the screen. "Whatever you are, you are just one pony! I could strike you down now with a single word!" He then turned and started shouting orders in Goa'uld at Jaffa off-screen.

"He's not buying it, Princess," Jack said.

"We only need to stall him," she replied.

"He isn't going to let us," Ro'shur said, backing away from the screen. "He's arming weapons!"

"Everypony out of the ship!" Jack shouted. But before any of them could move, a siren started blaring.

"That's coming from Zipacna's ship!" Koresh said.

Jack looked back up at the screen, as a Jaffa appeared in view, bowing hurriedly to Zipacna. "My Lord!" he said. "The other two ships are gone!"

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Zipacna said.

"I don't know," the Jaffa said. "They just… exploded!"

Luna's body sagged. "No," she whispered.

"Is Luna doing this?" Jack asked.

"I don't think so," Sam said, backing away reflexively.

Another Jaffa appeared from the other side. "Fire alarms, my Lord!" he said. "On every level!"

Zipacna spun around and glared at the screen, his eyes filled with panic. "How are you doing this?" he shouted. Screams started to become audible behind him, and he looked round in fear, before advancing right up to the screen. "I demand that you stop this!" he yelled.

Luna's chest dropped, a single tear running down her cheek. "I can't," she said. "I'm sorry."

Then, in an instant, the entire image was consumed in flames. Zipacna disappeared, barely having time to scream before he was drowned out by the roaring of the fire. The entire team backed away, transfixed by the terrible image.

"Is this…?" Daniel said.

"Celestia," Luna replied.

As if responding to the name, the flames suddenly came to a halt. Then they collapsed inward, the form of a pony emerging from their midst. She stared down at them, eyes burning with hatred, her entire body radiating light.

"Luna," she said.

"Sister," Luna stammered.

Celestia snorted, then with another flare of light, the image cut out.

"This is bad," Jack said. "This is very—"

Then the entire ship began to shake under them, nearly knocking Jack off his hooves.

"Colonel!" Koresh shouted, pointing at the wall. Jack looked up and saw that the beam of sunlight coming in through the window had begun to shift, shadows of consoles panning across the floor until the light was shining straight down on them.

"The sun moved," Sam said.

"She knows where we are!" Luna said.

"Everypony out!" Jack shouted again. They all ran for the door, pushing out through it and back into the ruins.

"The rings at the temple!" Sam shouted. "We can use them to get up to the ship!" The others turned to follow her, and they charged along the street away from the ship as fast as their hooves could carry them, Koresh pulling forward to the front, and Luna bringing up the rear. Jack could hear what sounded like a missile coming in impossibly fast above them.

"Down!" Luna shouted. The others fell to the ground without question, and moments later the ruins were shaken by a tremendous explosion. Jack looked up again to see Luna standing behind them, her wings spread wide and a magical blue aura extending out from her and surrounding them. Outside it, debris and flames flew in every direction, bouncing off the shield and making a loud ringing noise with every collision. Slowly, the tumult began to clear, and behind Luna Jack saw a giant flame-filled crater where the ship had been moments earlier, tongues of fire rising out of it and twisting together in the air.

Then Luna collapsed to her knees, exhausted, and the shield died away.

"Go," she said.

"No," Jack said, marching up to her and pulling her up off the ground. "We are not leaving you behind!"

"Luna, you don't have to do this!" Daniel said, running up next to them.

"Yes, I do," Luna replied. "If I come with you, she will follow and kill us all. If I stay, I can delay her. You can escape, and she will be trapped."

"You will die!" Ro'shur said.

"It is the only way to protect the galaxy!" she replied. Then she turned and looked at O'Neill, a fierce resolve in her eyes. "Save your team so you can continue to fight! I'll stay and do what I can here!"

Jack looked back at the rising flames behind her, which were starting to take on shapes in mid-air, and then up at Luna again. He knew that look; he'd worn it himself on his first mission to Abydos. She was ready to die, and he wasn't sure he was up to talking her out of it.

"She's right," Sam said. "We can't stop Celestia, but Luna might be able to slow her down."

Jack looked up at Luna again, at her unmoved expression. He sighed, and gave a small nod. "Okay, move out," he said, backing away and turning to run.

"Goodbye," Luna said, giving a bow to the team. One by one, they bowed back and turned follow the colonel.

Standing alone in the rising heat, Luna lifted her head to the sky, feeling the sun beating down on her from above. Once more she summoned her protective spell, streaks of blue magic wrapping themselves around her body and forming an invisible shield. Then, she turned and faced the inferno.

"Forgive me, sister," she said.