Chapters Cube G543-7825 ploughed its way through warp speed, keeping a reasonable distance behind its target. Only half a light year ahead, the USS Voyager continued to make its way through Borg space.
This particular cube was assigned to watch the Federation vessel from a distance, to make sure that they made it through Borg space as per the agreement that the Collective and Captain Janeway had: Voyager would help the Borg defeat Species 8472 in return for safe passage through their space.
Another reason for the cube to follow the Federation vessel was because some elements of Species 8472 may still be within Borg space, and the cube was assigned to protect Voyager if need be. Once they left Borg space however, they could assimilate the Starfleet ship.
UNIDENTIFIED ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED. PLOTTING LOCATION OF SOURCE… SOURCE DETECTED. ENERGY SIGNATURE ORIGINATING FROM USS VOYAGER NCC 74656 AT CO-ORDINATES 23416.45. COURSE OF ACTION: INVESTIGATE.
The cube picked up speed to catch up with their objective.
After several minutes of catching up with the oblivious vessel, something happened.
USS VOYAGER HAS DECREASED SPEED TO SUBLIGHT FACTORS. MATCH COURSE AND SPEED.
The cube left warp and moved slowly on impulse power. The energy signature that they picked up grew in intensity as the molecular structure of Voyager’s hull began to destabilize.
WARNING. MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF USS VOYAGER DESTABLIZING. POSSIBILITY OF WARP CORE BREACH HIGH. RETREAT TO SAFE DISTANCE AND OBSERVE.
The cube moved slowly back, as Voyager’s hull was now visibly rippling like it was made of water.
A lone shuttlecraft departed Voyager’s shuttle bay and sped away from the ship at full impulse. Naturally, the Borg scanned the ship.
MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF USS VOYAGER STABLIZING. WARNING, LARGE QUANTUM FLUX FIELD DETECTED AROUND ENERGY SGNATURE ONBOARD SHUTTLECRAFT. DISPATCH SPHERE E359-7024 TO INVESTIGATE.
One of the cube’s faces opened up to let a small sphere out. The sphere closed the distance between itself and the shuttlecraft quickly, but it was in vain. The shuttle rippled as it glowed white, before disappearing in a flash which engulfed both the sphere and Voyager, leaving the cube behind.
Voyager was thrown clear of Borg space, which confused the Borg greatly. The shuttlecraft and its occupant ascended to the next plane of existence, but the Borg did not know this. The Borg on the sphere, however, suddenly ended up twelve thousand light years from Borg space, with their link to the Collective severed.
The sphere had emerged in low orbit over what Starfleet would call an M class planet, rich with life. The sphere was unable to stabilize its orbit, thus it fell down to the planet’s surface, streaking across the night sky of the world below.
****
Twilight Sparkle gazed out at the night sky that covered Equestria through her telescope. She adjusted frequently as she jotted down notes with a quill and paper, which was being held by her magic.
As she adjusted her telescope again, Twilight caught a glimpse of something shining in the sky. Eager to investigate, she adjusted the telescope so that she could view the phenomenon. As Twilight jotted down more notes, the shining thing in the sky disappeared, to be replaced with a white streak crossing the sky.
“A meteor! it must’ve entered the atmosphere and now its burning up during the entry. This will make a fascinating report for the Princess!” Twilight thought out loud as the quill started to pick up speed as it wrote. The object that was streaking across the sky slowly curved round and soared above Twilight’s library.
Before she lost sight of it, Twilight had managed to get a good look at it, and was shocked to discover that it was an almost perfect sphere made of metal.
****
The sphere soared low above the canopy of a large forest before it crashed inside a ruin of a large stone structure. The sphere was mostly intact, aside from several patches where the exterior hull had been ripped away.
A hatch opened on the side of the sphere, and a Borg drone emerged from it, followed by five more. The six of them stood in front of their ship, scanning the area with their infra-red and eye-piece sensors. The six surviving Borg were still connected to each other, but their link to the rest of the Collective was severed. They were alone.
One of the drones, labelled as Three-Of-Ten, commanded the other five to assess the damage to the ship. The others moved back inside to perform their tasks. They reported over the link that the damage to the engines was so severe that it could not be repaired unless they cannibalized over half the ship to fix the problem.
Three-Of-Ten ordered the other drones to dismantle the ship and build a structure to house the regeneration chambers, power cells and communications relay. They all began to remove pieces of the ship and started to build their objective.
After a period of time, one of the drones, labelled as Five-Of-Thirteen, spotted movement in the tree line beyond the ruins and the ravine. It scanned the perimeter of the forest for a whole minute before it returned to it’s task.
****
Twilight stood at the edge of the Everfree Forest, debating in her mind wherever it was a good idea to go into the forest at night to look for the object that had fallen from the sky. On the plus side, she would be the first to find some mysterious object that would change Equestria forever… she might even make first contact with an alien species! The down side, however, was that it was dangerous to enter the Everfree Forest at night and when you’re on your own. Also, there were pony-eating creatures in there like Manticores.
Should she go and wake the others? It would be safer if the rest of the Elements of Harmony were with her, but her curiosity and the thrill of discovering something that nopony has seen before was overpowering. And besides, she had left a note saying where she was going, and when the others found it, they could follow her.
In the end, her curiosity got the better of herself, and Twilight started to walk slowly into the dark and scary forest.
Twilight followed the path that she and her friends had taken to reach the ruins of the old castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It was a good hour and a half before she neared the edge of the forest, with the castle ruins in sight.
A twig snapping behind her caused the lavender Unicorn to yelp in surprise and turn around sharply to face the direction in which the sound came from, but there was nothing there.
Something moved behind her, causing a similar reaction to before, but there was still no sign of the cause.
“H-hello?” Twilight nervously called out. “Is anypony there?”
No response.
After a few minutes of waiting, Twilight sighed and began to walk towards the edge of the forest.
Something leaped out of a bush, striking out at Twilight, but it missed by a millimetre.
Twilight cried out in shock as a Manticore towered over her, raising one of its paws to swipe at it’s prey. Twilight’s horn glowed purple as a protective barrier was formed between the wild animal and the Unicorn.
Not too far away, the use of magic attracted the attention of one of the survivors of the crash landing.
The Manticore swiped, pawed and headbutted the magical barrier that was Twilight’s only form of defence. Something moved in the shadows that sent shivers down Twilight’s spine and attracting the attention of the Manticore. For some reason, Twilight was filled with a strong sense of fear and terror.
The Manticore felt the same thing as it warily looked around.
Twilight screamed as a flash of green punched through the darkness and struck the Manticore, killing it instantly. She curled herself into a ball as the magical barrier faded away.
****
Five-Of-Ten approached the strange life form that was cowering in fear on the ground. The drone scanned the life form with it’s eye-piece sensor, making sure that the burst of energy did come from the strange life form.
With confirmation that it was the source, the drone picked up the life form by wrapping it’s left arm around the objective’s middle. It struggled and tried to use bursts of pure energy, but the drone quickly adapted it’s shields to prevent any harm. Five-Of-Ten walked across the rope bridge and stopped in front of the unfinished construct. The drone and the life form were surrounded by a haze of green light as they dematerialized from the outside and rematerialized inside the construct.
The life form was pathetically trying to save itself by babbling about how Spike needed it, or how Princess Celestia would come and burn the place down, or how it promised to do anything as long as it’s life was spared.
All the life form got in response was “resistance is futile.”
****
Twilight re-entered the conscious world after having blacked out due to the fear and terror of the situation she was in earlier. Twilight could’ve shrugged the events as a horrible nightmare, one that touched raw fear she never knew that somepony could experience.
But that wasn’t possible. Instead of finding herself back in her library, Twilight was lying on her back on top of a cold metal surface. She felt very cold, as if all of her coat as well as her mane and tail had been shaved. She couldn’t move her hind legs or her left foreleg, and she had no feeling at all in her right foreleg.
Twilight forced her eyes open, and found that she had been shaved of all her coat, mane and tail. Metal clamps held her limbs down, except her right foreleg, which had been removed and all that was left was a metal stump.
Twilight screamed as she thrashed about in a blind panic, completely forgetting about her magic. One of the metal creatures appeared beside her, bending down to place a metal leg onto the stump that was her right foreleg. As soon as it was connected, Twilight felt a surge of energy flow through her nervous system and could move the new limb around as easily as if it was the original.
Then another metal creature appeared beside her head, setting up some kind of contraption. When it was finished, the contraption came to life. A long, thin spinning rod of metal was slowly pushed forward towards Twilight’s skull as one of the metal creatures held her head in place.
Surprisingly, the Unicorn felt no pain as the metal creatures began to examine and perform experiments on her horn and head, then she heard the voices. The voices calling out, all alone.
Twilight could feel a darkness shroud her mind, and as a final act, she poured all of her knowledge of friendship into the link between herself and the metal creatures.
Then the darkness claimed her mind.
Captain Lightwing and his team were sat in the back of the carriage that was escorting them to the site where the object from the sky landed. His team was assembled of two Pegasi, two Unicorns and two Earth ponies. He himself was a Pegasus, and a member of the royal guard that guarded Princess Celestia.
“Are we all clear on our orders?” Lightwing asked the other five ponies.
“Yes sir,” was the response.
“Good. If you have any questions, speak now.”
“I have one, sir. Will the Elements of Harmony be joining us?” the Unicorn known as Brighthorn asked.
“No. Princess Celestia has sent a letter to the Elements telling them to stay put. And besides, what kind of guards are we if we let the Elements handle everything?” some of the team nodded in response.
“Sir, we’re approaching the drop point.” One of the Pegasi that was harnessed to the front of the carriage reported, his voice barely audible due to the wind and the carriage wall.
“Right, everypony, this is it.” Lightwing stated as the carriage descended into a clearing in the Everfree Forest. Lightwing’s team filed out, and Lightwing signalled for the two Pegasi that were pulling the carriage to leave. Soon, only the six armoured ponies were standing in the clearing.
Lightwing led the team forward as they trekked through the dark forest. It wasn’t long until they came across the dead Manticore, sickening the ponies.
“What in Equestria did that ?” one of the Earth ponies muttered as they examined the burnt flesh.
“Looks like a type of combat spell, but I don’t know one that can do damage like this.” Brighthorn said as he peered closer. After a few moments of examining, he retreated back due to the smell.
“This might be related to the object that fell. We might get some answers when we get there.” Lightwing stated. And the team was moving again. After a few minutes, they were coming up to the rope bridge, to find that somepony had removed it.
“Wasn’t there a bridge here?” the other Pegasus asked as one of the Earth ponies consulted a map. Soon, most of the team had started bickering over the accuracy of the map.
“Something doesn’t feel right…” Lightwing muttered to himself as he gazed across the ravine to the fog that covered their objective, obscuring it from view, blocking out the noise his team was making.
A green haze flooded his vision for a moment, before it faded, to reveal that Lightwing was no longer at the edge of a ravine, but inside some kind of building. Startled cries from behind him indicated that his team had experienced the same thing.
They were in a chamber big enough to fit the Princesses’ height and wide enough to cram 20 ponies inside and still have room for more. Everything was slightly dark with green lights and occasional flashes. The walls, floor and ceiling were all metal and in normal lighting they would look grey, almost black.
“Silence!” Lightwing hissed, making the rest of the team to fall silent. Something shuffled, which caught Lightwing’s attention. “Do you hear anything?” he asked Brighthorn.
“Nothing. It’s so quiet.” Brighthorn replied.
“And hot.” One of the Earth ponies muttered.
A shadow moved behind the team, catching them by surprise. But when they turned around to face the source, the cause was gone.
“Let’s get out of here.” Lightwing ordered as he led the team out of the chamber and down a hallway. The lights didn’t help their situation, which caused most to see things that weren’t there. But occasionally, some of the shadows did move. They didn’t encounter a living soul for two minutes, until Lightwing turned round a corner and trotted straight into something tall, thin and made of metal. The rest of the team bumped into him in a cartoon-like style, and as one, they looked up to see what they had walked into.
It was six foot tall, standing on its hind legs. Most of it was wearing some kind of black metal armour that had flashing lights in certain places. Instead of hooves on its forelegs, it had a claw-like hand made of pale, clammy flesh on the left and a similar hand, but with three claws and they were made of metal. Its head was also made of pale flesh, with some metal plating covering its right side. Tubes that contained unknown substances for unknown purposes were protruding from its head and they connected to its neck and back. Covering its left eye was some kind of eye patch with a weird glowing green light.
It stared down at the ponies, who stared up. Then, in a swift movement that caught them all by surprise, it had wrapped its metal claws around Lightwing’s neck. It raised its other hand and two small tubes extended from its wrist and punctured the exposed parts of Lightwing’s neck. He felt something invade him; his entire body became weak as whatever this monster was doing finished, releasing him and letting him collapse on the floor, gasping for breath.
The others yelped and backed away as the metal monster advanced forward. Brighthorn used his magic to create a barrier between the monster and the ponies, as the other Unicorn prepared a concussive spell.
That is, the other Unicorn was preparing a concussive spell. Another metal monster with different metal parts on his head and what appeared to be a saw on the end of its right arm did the same procedure to the one done on Lightwing.
The remaining Pegasus flew up to the ceiling of the hallway and tried to ram the first monster, but it caught the pony with impossible speed. One of the Earth ponies charged forwards and rammed the second monster, causing it to tumble backwards. This distracted the monster to alow the second Earth pony to leap through the air, turning in mid-flight to buck the monster with his hind legs. But the monster recovered faster than they expected, and caught the Earth pony around the neck, again piercing the coat and skin with the tubes. The other Earth pony tried to save his comrade, but was blocked by the saw, which was now spinning in a deadly and menacing manner.
A scream from behind Brighthorn told him that the valiant earth ponies had falled to the evils of these monsters. He increased the power of his magical barrier which protected him from all sides. One of the monsters reached out a hand, and it passed through the barrier like it was air. Brighthorn screamed as the first monster lunged forward, piercing the weird tubes into the pony’s neck.
****
It was daytime when Spike woke up in the library that he lived in with Twilight.
“Good morning, Twilight,” he yawned as he stood up in his basket and stretched. No response.
Puzzled by this, Spike turned to look at Twilight’s bed, which was unoccupied. In fact, it looked like it hadn’t been slept in all night. Spike shrugged this off thinking that she was asleep downstairs from her late night stargazing session.
He got out of his basket and walked downstairs, completely ignoring the scroll that was left in his basket.
Spike entered the main part of the library to find no sign of Twilight, except for a scroll on the desk. “Twilight?” he called out. No response.
Spike searched every part of the library, but Twilight wasn’t home. He walked back into the main room, pondering where Twilight could be. “She might be at one of the others, but she usually wakes me up first…” he thought out loud. Deciding to check the rest of Twilight’s friends, Spike walked out of the library towards Carousal Boutique.
****
The two Pegasus guards that pulled the carriage containing Lightwing’s team returned to the clearing after hiding out in the clouds. There they waited for several minutes, but the team didn’t return.
“They must’ve been held up somewhere.” One of the guards said to the other.
“Shall we go look for them?” the other guard asked.
“We can’t. The Princess ordered us not to follow the team no matter what.” The first guard replied.
“Shame, I was hoping on getting a look at that old castle.” The guards fell into a silence that lasted several minutes, until the first one spoke again.
“Hey, do you still collect those different metals from across Equestria?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because there’s one on the ground there,” the first guard said, pointing with his left forehoof at a piece of metal lying on the ground.
“Hey, I’ve never seen metal like this. It’s really strong yet slightly flexible… I wonder where it came from?” the second guard pondered when he picked up the piece of metal after he unhooked himself from the carriage harness and trotted over.
Something moved in the canopy above their heads, causing both guards to look up. Something darted between the trees behind them, but they didn’t notice this.
“We’ll wait five more minutes, and then we leave.” The first guard stated more to himself then his colleague.
A red dot appeared on the flank of the second guard. The first noticed this and approached it, pulling the carriage with him.
“What’s that on your flank?” the first asked.
“It’s called ‘armour’, now stop joking around.” The second replied.
“No, there’s this red dot on your flank.”
“What red dot?” the second guard turned his head to examine the red dot that was on his flank. “What is that?”
The first guard raised his left forehoof and moved it in front of the red dot. The dot was now on the first guard’s hoof.
“Let’s get out of here!” The second guard yelped as the red dot vanished. They both spread their wings and took off fast, the second guard completely forgetting to harness himself back onto the carriage.
A green beam of energy shot forwards from deeper in the forest and grabbed the carriage. The first guard cried in shock as the carriage was pulled backwards. No matter how hard he flapped his wings, he just kept going backwards.
The second guard turned round to try and help his colleague when something black shot out of the canopy and tackled the second guard. After a brief struggle, the second guard managed to send his attacker spinning away. He turned back round and flew as fast as he can to the edge of the forest, his attacker pursuing him.
The first guard watched his colleague get chased away, as the carriage came closer to whatever was pulling it. He passed the edge of the forest and the ravine, and entered an entrance into some kind of building made of metal. The doors closed and the weird magic pulling the carriage vanished, leaving the guard in pitch black darkness.
The darkness was pierced by three red lines of light, all focused on the guard. He screamed as something rushed him, puncturing his neck with something cold.
****
Fluttershy happily trotted parallel to the edge of the Everfree Forest, singing the My Little Pony theme tune, but she didn’t know that.
On her back was an owl that she had found injured near the forest yesterday.
“Here we are, Mr. Owl.” The shy Pegasus pony said as she arrived at a tree at the edge of the forest. The owl hooted happily as he flew up to his home.
“Now you be careful when flying, you don’t want to have another nasty bump on the head.” The owl hooted in response. Satisfied with her good deed, Fluttershy began to trot back towards her cottage.
A scream from deep inside the forest made her freeze in fear. Something was rustling in the forest, coming ever closer to the edge. Fluttershy slowly turned to look at the direction of the noise. Something flew straight into a bush in front of her, making her jump in the air in fear.
A Pegasus in royal guard armour fell out of the bush, covered in cuts and bruises, some of the injuries still bleeding. he looked up, and spotted Fluttershy.
“Help! There’s something in the forest… it’s attacked Captain Lightwing’s team and now it wants me! Warn the Princess, get away from the forest!” he half yelled, half pleaded to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy just looked at the guard in frozen fear, barely able to stay in the air. Then two black hooves reached out of the bush and grabbed the guard’s hind legs, dragging him back into the forest. He tried to buck at whatever was pulling him, but it continued unfazed.
“Warn the Princess!” the guard cried out to Fluttershy as he disappeared into the bush. Then a scream pierced the air for a second before everything went deadly silent.
Fluttershy couldn’t stand it any longer. She flew as fast as she could away from the forest towards Ponyville, crying. She never noticed the thing that watched her go, detecting some of the traces of magic associated with the Elements of Harmony, like the residual magic that was found on Twilight when the Borg did a thorough scan on the Unicorn.
Author’s notes: I just wanted to say a quick thanks to everypony that has read, thumbs up, commented, faved and decided to watch me. I didn’t expect for it to become popular and with fanart.
****
Captain Shining Armour entered the throne room where Princess Celestia resided. He quickly made his way to the Princess before he bowed.
“You wanted to see me, Your Highness?” Shining asked.
“Indeed I did. Do you know when the recon team will return?” Celestia enquired. Shining rose from his bowing position and looked up at the Princess.
“They should return in ten minutes, Your Highness.” Shining answered.
“Good. When they return, send them and their carriage pullers to me immediately. Nopony is to speak to them before I do, understand?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Shining answered. He turned to leave, but the Princess spoke again.
“By the way, have you received a letter from Twilight today?” Princess Celestia asked curiously.
“Not yet, Your Highness. We were due to receive her weekly letter today, but I left our house before the mail arrived.” Shining replied as he turned back to face the Princess. “Is there something wrong?”
“No, it’s just that Twilight was due to send me a stargazing report earlier today but it hasn’t arrived.” Celestia said. “I’m sure its nothing to worry about. I did tell her to only send reports when she has discovered something new.”
Shining nodded and exited the throne room. After placing Princess Celestia’s orders with the current guards on duty, Shining quickly made his way home.
After the battle with the Changelings and the wedding, Cadence and Shining armour had decided to live in Shining’s house. Shining stopped at the front door and unlocked it with his magic. He pushed the door open and entered his house.
As soon as he had entered, he had seen the mail on the table. He quickly cantered over to it and began to check it for any letters from Twilight.
“Shiny, you’re home early.” Cadence said as she trotted up next to her husband. He dropped the mail on the table when he found no sign of a letter from his sister.
“Have we received a letter from Twilight today?” he asked his wife.
“No we haven’t. Is something wrong?” Cadence asked with concern.
“No, but Twilight didn’t send a letter to the Princess when she was supposed to, and her weekly letter hasn’t arrived. She might be in trouble!” Shining said in a sudden spell of realization and was about to dash for the door, but Cadence nuzzled her husband, distracting him slightly.
“Maybe they’re lost in the mailing system. It has happened before.”
“You’re right. Maybe I am overreacting a little.”
“You’re not overreacting; you’re just a loving brother who cares for his younger sister.” Cadence said reassuringly.
“Thanks. I’d better get back to the palace; Lightwing’s team is due back at any minute now.” Shining replied to his wife. They hugged each other lovingly before Shining left for the palace.
****
Rainbow Dash flew gracefully through the air, doing some practise on some of her tricks. She dived, soared, rolled and did a spectacular loop around a cloud. She shot away from the cloud and streaked low across the field below, when something collided with her.
The thing and Rainbow tumbled out of the sky and rolled across the field. At first, Rainbow thought that Derpy or some bird had flown into her by accident, but the thing turned out to be Fluttershy, who seemed to be in a great deal of distress.
“Careful Fluttershy, you nearly broke my wing!” Rainbow said to the shy Pegasus.
“I-I’m sorry…” Fluttershy replied weakly. Rainbow noticed that Fluttershy was disturbed by something, and decided to find out what.
“Hey, are you okay? Did somepony say something mean to you?” the cyan Pegasus asked with concern for her friend.
“N-no, there w-was this pony… he was wearing r-royal guard armour… and something grabbed him! It pulled him into the Everfree Forest, and did something bad to him! I could’ve helped him, but I’m too weak and cowardly and now he’s dead!” Fluttershy broke down in front of Rainbow, who comforted the Pegasus with a hug.
“It’s okay; let’s go see if we can find him.” Rainbow said reassuringly, allowing her soft side to take a rare opportunity to help her friend. Fluttershy nodded and they flew off together towards the Everfree Forest.
After several minutes, they were at the spot that Fluttershy had seen the royal guard.
“I’ll go see if he’s still there.” Rainbow said to Fluttershy as she stepped into the bush.
“Be careful!” Fluttershy weakly called out.
“Don’t worry; nothing can harm the fastest flier in all of Equestria!” Rainbow Dash called back as she entered the Everfree Forest.
The forest interior was dark and deathly silent. None of the usual animals were around, and everything looked downright scary in the gloom. Rainbow made her way deeper into the forest, all of her senses on alert to detect any signs of danger. After ten minutes of wandering the forest, she entered a clearing, and gasped.
In the clearing was a discarded helmet made of gold, like the ones the royal guards wear. She approached it, and picked it up with a hoof to examine it. On the inside of the helmet, she spied the royal coat of arms engraved at the back, meaning that the helmet was issued to a royal guard, but its owner was nowhere to be found.
A twig snapping made Rainbow jump into the air, dropping the helmet as she took up a fighting stance. One of the bushes rustled, before Zecora came through, with saddlebags full of items from her home.
“Zecora! You shouldn’t sneak up on ponies like that… not that I’m scared or anything.” Rainbow said in relief, before her braggish tone made a return, but it was false.
“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing in here? For something evil lurks very near.” Zecora said as she looked around the clearing warily to make sure that they were alone.
“Fluttershy saw a guard get dragged in here by something and I came to check it out. You haven’t seen anything, have you?” Rainbow asked as she nervously lowered herself to the ground.
Zecora shook her head in response as she glared at something in a bush. Satisfied that nothing was in it, she turned back to the Pegasus and was about to say something when hoofsteps from deep within the forest began to echo around the trees. The pony and zebra stood still as the hoofsteps grew nearer, then they stopped.
Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, but Zecora quickly put her hoof in front of the cyan Pegasus to silence her friend. They waited in silence for two minutes, before the canopy of branches above them began to rustle.
“Out of the forest, before it is too late! Otherwise, we may share the guard’s fate!” Zecora shouted to Rainbow Dash as a beam of red light pierced the darkness and fell on the Pegasus’ forehead.
“Don’t need to tell me twice!” Rainbow replied as they ran from the clearing. Rainbow decided to match the same speed as the zebra shaman to make sure that Zecora was safe. Something followed them in the tops of the trees, keeping pace with its target.
****
Shining Armour re-entered the throne room and bowed before Princess Celestia.
“Your Highness, Captain Lightwing’s team has failed to return on-time. Shall I dispatch a search party?” Shining asked.
“No. Give them another hour, then send the search party.” Celestia ordered.
“Understood, Your Highness.” Shining said in response and began to leave when Celestia spoke again.
“Have you received a letter from Twilight today?” the Princess asked.
“No, she usually sends one today but we haven’t received one.” Shining replied, before Princess Celestia dismissed him. Sighing, she reassured herself that Twilight was fine. She had managed to hold out for a while during the Changelings invasion of Canterlot, and was sure that she could handle almost anything.
****
Several minutes of running in fear from an unknown assailant, Zecora and Rainbow Dash shot out of the Everfree Forest. They stopped several meters from the forest’s edge, watching it for any sign of movement, but there was none.
“I think we lost it…” Rainbow sighed in relief as she lay down on the ground to rest, closing her eyes. When Zecora didn’t respond, she opened them again, and found that she wasn’t in the field next to the Everfree Forest, but inside a dark chamber made of metal with green lights and occasional flashes.
“Zecora? Is anypony there?” Rainbow called out.
“RAINBOW DASH, ELEMENT OF LOYALTY AND CAPTAIN OF THE PONYVILLE WEATHER TEAM, YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.” A familiar female echoed throughout the chamber. Rainbow looked around for the source but found none.
“I’ll give you resistance! Show yourself, coward!” Rainbow flew up two feet in the air, ready to fight off any evil.
“RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED.” The voice said again. Somepony entered the chamber silently behind Rainbow Dash and came closer.
“You don’t scare me!” Rainbow said defiantly at the ceiling of the chamber. The figure as now right behind Rainbow, who was unaware of its presence.
“Boo!” the figure on the ground cried out, making Rainbow Dash scream and dart across the chamber. The figure began to laugh. “That was just too easy!”
Rainbow gave the figure a frightened look, before she recognised who it was. “Twilight?”
“Hi Dash,” Twilight said with a smile. Rainbow returned to the ground, staring at Twilight with a mixture of fear and confusion.
“What happened to you? You look… different.” Rainbow said as she trotted around her friend to get a good look at all sides.
Twilight was different. She no longer had a mane or tail, and her coat was gone, revealing the pale, clammy skin and grey veins that occasionally showed beneath the surface. Her entire body was made of some kind of armour, except for her head, with flashing lights in some places. Her horn was encased in black metal with a small branch that connected the horn to an eyepiece over her left eye.
“Oh, this is nothing. I’m fine.” Twilight said casually.
“Where are we?” Rainbow asked as she glanced around the room.
“We’re at the old castle in the Everfree Forest. Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything soon, but first, let me show you to my new friends!” Twilight said happily. Ponies that walked on all fours and on their hind legs entered the chamber. Rainbow gasped at the sight of all of them, each slightly different. The six ponies on their hind legs looked the most horrifying, with their different appendages. She then spotted four Pegasi, two of them had their forelegs and hooves removed and replaced with limbs that had claw-like hands. The Unicorns looked similar to Twilight, but with different eyepieces. The Earth ponies seemed to be the same as the Unicorns, but without the horns. Twilight smiled warmly at her ‘friends’.
“Rainbow, meet my friends. Some of them have come from very far away.” Twilight said as she gestured with a hoof at the crowd that circled them.
“What are they?” Rainbow asked in slight disgust.
“They, or rather ‘we’, are the Borg.”
****
“Spike, could you please go and fetch some needles from upstairs?” Rarity asked as she was halfway through on making the wedding dress for some upper class couple in Las Pegasus. Ever since the royal wedding, Carousal Boutique had been flooded with orders from simple frocks to bridle dresses that could make go blind from the gems encrusted on their surfaces.
Spike left and returned a minute later with some needles. Rarity grabbed them with her magic and began to start sewing the different parts of the dress together.
“Thanks Spike. You’ve been a real help. Now, what did you want to ask me?” Rarity asked. Spike suddenly realised why he was here. When he had entered the shop earlier, Rarity had made him help her in creating a wedding dress. Because of his crush, Spike naturally went along without complaining.
“Oh! I was going to ask you if you had seen Twilight today. She wasn’t home when I woke up.” Spike said.
“No, unfortunately I haven’t seen her today. I’ve been far too busy on that dress so I haven’t left the Boutique all day. Maybe one of the others has seen her.”
“Alright, I’ll go check out Sugarcube Corner.” Spike said as he turned to leave.
“Oh I hope you don’t mind if I tag along?” Rarity asked as she quickly covered the dress with a cover and joined Spike at the door.
“Not at all,” Spike said casually. ‘This is my big chance! Time for the Spikeinator to work his charms!’ Spike thought as he walked alongside Rarity.
His dreams were shattered when Fluttershy came up to them.
“Rarity, Spike! Something awful has happened to Rainbow Dash! She went into the Everfree Forest to find somepony that was dragged in there, but she hasn’t returned!” Fluttershy said worriedly.
“Fluttershy darling, I’m sure that Rainbow Dash can take care of herself. She is after all the fastest flier in all of Equestria.” Rarity said confidently.
“Thank Celestia Ah found y’all!” Applejack called over to the others as she came galloping up to them. “Zecora’s at Sweet Apple Acres goin’ on about monsters in the Everfree Forest an’ how RD disappeared into thin air!”
“Oh no!” Fluttershy whimpered.
“We’d best get Pinkie and Twilight immediately.” Rarity said. “Did Zecora say what these monsters looked like?”
“Ah don’t rightly know, but from her description, they sound like Changelings!” Applejack replied.
****
“What kind of a name is that?” Rainbow Dash asked Twilight, giving the Borg a wary glance.
“You wouldn’t understand.” Twilight replied simply. The drones left all of a sudden, some returning to alcoves while others departed to do unknown tasks. “So… what do you want to do now?”
“Go home.” Rainbow said. “I don’t like this place, Twi. It’s all spooky and stuff.” ‘And I’m scared…’ Rainbow added in her mind.
“Are you sure you want to go back? We can offer you so much. You can be stronger than ever before, you could pull off all of your dangerous stunts and not get hurt, and you can go way faster that the speed of sound if you allow us to assimilate you.” Twilight’s offer sounded temping, but only for a second.
“Thanks but no thanks, Twi. You can keep your fancy tricks. I’ll get by fine with pure, natural talent!”
“Fine, I’ll send you back. I thought that one of my friends could at least appreciate the discovery that I’ve made…” Twilight said sadly as she turned away.
“I’m sorry Twi, I do find all of this creepy, but your offer did sound tempting. Are we still friends?” Rainbow cane next to Twilight and wrapped a wing around Twilight’s body in a hug. In a swift motion, Twilight overpowered Rainbow Dash and forced the cyan Pegasus on her back on the metal floor. Twilight stood over her, a deadly glare in her eye, as she placed her left forehoof on Rainbow’s stomach to keep her still.
“FRIENDS.” Twilight said in the weird voice from before as she raised her right forehoof near Rainbow’s neck. Two tubes shot out of the hoof and punctured the coat and skin of the Pegasus, sending the nanoprobes throughout her bloodstream.
Applejack led Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike into Sugarcube corner, where Pinkie was happily bouncing on the spot behind the counter, humming the theme tune to Star Trek: Voyager, but only Pinkie knew that.
“Pinkie, have you seen Twi?” Applejack asked, interrupting Pinkie’s humming and bouncing performance.
“Yep!” the pink party pony replied, bouncing over the counter to join the others.
“Where?” Applejack asked, desperate to get more information.
“I spotted her when I was looking for Gummy. Mrs. Cake had left the back door open so she could take out the trash and Gummy loves to explore so I went out to look all over Ponyville to find him! I checked Lyra’s house, the Town Hall, the post office, Quills and Sofas, Sweet Apple Acres, Derpy's place, Voyager…”
****
“I’m telling you, I saw a pink horse!” Ensign Harry Kim cried out in frustration at Tuvok and Tom Paris as The Doctor performed a scan with a tricorder on the young ensign in Voyager’s sickbay.
“Ensign Kim, the sensors have detected no additional lifesigns apart from the crew and there are no ships present for 20 light years.” Tuvok explained in the usual Vulcan monotone.
“What about cloaked ships?” Kim suggested. The Doctor performed yet another examination of his head with a different tricorder.
“Harry, maybe the Delta Quadrant has finally got to you.” Paris said as he put a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder, but Kim shrugged it off. The Doctor had finished his scans and cleared his throat to gain attention.
“All scans that I have run on Ensign Kim show that he is as healthy as the day that he first stepped onto Voyager.” Kim smiled confidently at this news. “However, he may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after being attacked by Species 8472, or he is being overworked.” Kim groaned and buried his face in his hands.
“I suggest a few days off duty to relax, maybe spend some time in the holodeck.” The Doctor suggested.
“You heard the holoman, Harry. Rest, relaxation, and a massage by Risa’s most beautiful women.” Paris said as he walked with Kim out of sickbay. Tuvok simply glanced at The Doctor before leaving for his post on the bridge. The Doctor sighed and walked into his office, sitting down in his chair, and started humming. He was humming the theme tune to My Little Pony, but he didn’t know that.
The Doctor continued his work on writing his own piece of opera, something which he had been working on for little over a year now. He was working on it when Ensign Kim, Lieutenant Paris and Lieutenant Tuvok entered babbling about 'pink ponies' and a 'Gummy'.
Barely a minute in, Janeway entered sickbay in her night gown.
“Captain! Is there something wrong?” The Doctor asked as he approached Voyager’s captain.
“I want you to run a full scan to make sure I’m not hallucinating.” Janeway ordered as she seated herself on a biobed. The Doctor grabbed a tricorder and started scanning.
“What do you mean when you say ‘hallucinating’?” The Doctor enquired as he performed the scan.
“I’ve just seen a pink horse, and it asked me where Gummy was.” Janeway explained as she rubbed some sleep out of her eyes. The Doctor sighed as he rolled his eyes. Obviously he was going to have words with Neelix…
****
“…The Library, some clouds-” Pinkie was interrupted as Applejack shoved her hoof into Pinkie’s mouth.
“Ah jus’ wanted to know where Twilight was.” The farm pony said in exasperation.
“Oooh! Why didn’t you say so, silly?” Pinkie said when Applejack had removed her hoof. “I saw her enter the Everfree Forest! I called out to her, but I don’t think she heard me. I was going to go and say hi and ask her if she had seen Gummy when I realised that he was on my tail the entire time!” Pinkie giggled but it slowly died down as she noticed the shocked and terrified expressions the others were giving her.
“Pinkie, there’s Changelings in the forest! They might’ve gotten Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed. Pinkie gasped dramatically.
“Spike, you send a letter to the Princess about all of this right away! The rest of y’all, we’re going to go find our friends!” Applejack said. They all nodded and exited the shop at a run, Spike heading for the library while Applejack led the others to the Everfree forest.
****
A lone humanoid wearing a red and black uniform with four gold pips on the collar and a badge of sorts on his chest was seated on a fluffy pink cloud, watching everything. He plucked a piece of the cloud and ate it slowly and thoughtfully, thinking of his next move.
He was planning on returning to the fair land of Equestria to rain some chocolate milk, make pigs fly, even dye Celestia’s hair grey! But that was all ruined when that Borg ship crashed in that old, flimsy castle.
Sometimes, Q actually regretted introducing Picard to the Borg, but it would’ve happened eventually. It was because of Picard that caused it all. He had destroyed, or will destroy, a Borg sphere in orbit of his precious Earth in their linear time of 2063. The explosion that engulfed the sphere caused the wreckage to fall onto their arctic, to be discovered almost a hundred of their years later by bumbling idiots who thought they were scientists. Then Archer made a mess of things when he failed to stop the revived drones from sending out a transmission to the collective of Earth’s location, which lead to the neutral zone outposts disappearing 200 years later, and the rest is history.
The only reason he regretted showing Picard the Borg is that Voyager wouldn’t have arrived in their space and accidently send a sphere to this peaceful land, ruining Q’s plan for chaos.
Thinking about it all, he could still cause some chaos and let somebody else get rid of the Borg pests below, but who?
An evil smile appeared on the superbeing’s face4 as he rubbed his hands together.
“When there’s some Borg,
In your garden…
Who ya gonna call?” Q sang as he disappeared in a flash of light.
****
After over an hour and a half of trotting through the Everfree Forest, the four Elements of Harmony were approaching the ravine where Rainbow Dash had proven her loyalty. They stopped at the edge of the ravine, staring at the metal structure on the other side.
“How do we get in?” Fluttershy asked, backing away from the structure.
“Rarity, can ya get us in there with yer tele-magic-thing?” Applejack asked the fashonista Unicorn.
“Unfortunately not, that was Twilight’s talent; I’m a Unicorn whose magic can only be used for beauty and fashion.”
“Can ya at least try?” Applejack asked. Rarity rolled her eyes in defeat and prepared herself. Her horn started to glow blue as she focused all of her magic on getting the four ponies inside. There was a flash, and soon they were inside a dark metal chamber with green lights and occasional flashes.
Rarity swayed before she toppled to the ground out of exhaustion. The others yelped when they saw their friend down and immediately went to her side. They panicked at first, but it turned out that the effort had made the Unicorn so tired that she fell unconscious.
“Fluttershy, stay here an’ look after Rarity. Me an’ Pinkie are gonna find Twilight and Rainbow.” Fluttershy nodded shyly as the two earth ponies walked out of the chamber. The flashes of light and the mood and temperature was making Fluttershy feel scared.
Meanwhile, Pinkie and Applejack delved deeper into the foreign building.
“This is so dark and scary! It reminds me of the time I ate cupcakes with cheese before bed and I had a horrible nightmare where there was these weird cyber ponies and they were going to asinulate me! They grabbed my neck and tried to put little tube thingys into my neck like a vampire, then I woke up and discovered that Gummy was sucking on my neck.” Pinkie explained with a smile, tough it wasn’t as radiant as before.
That’s nice, Pinkie…” Applejack replied, partly disturbed by the explanation and slightly fearful of their surroundings. They trotted through a doorway, and found a room with several alcoves built for ponies, with one of them occupied.
“That’s exactly what the cyber ponies looked like! Oh they’re good!”
Back in the chamber, Fluttershy looked around more nervously. Rarity was still unconscious and all attempts to rouse her had failed. The flashes made the shadows jump out at Fluttershy, scaring her even more.
“Fluttershy!” Fluttershy perked up at the familiar sounding voice and turned around to face the source.
“Twilight!” Fluttershy called back, and spotted the silhouette of her friend in the darkness of a corridor. However, when Twilight entered the room and the green light, Fluttershy got a good look at the Unicorn. She screamed and fainted from shock to the floor next to Rarity.
“Well, this makes it easier.” Twilight said to herself as she moved Fluttershy’s neck slightly and prepared to begin the assimilation process.
Meanwhile, Applejack and Pinkie had moved on from the weird alcove room with its occupant and entered another, where they found Rainbow dash barely conscious on an assimilation table. Her limbs were held down by metal clamps and patches of her coat were gone, revealing the slightly pale skin and grey veins beneath. Her mane and tail were still intact, but her wings had lost all of their feathers.
“Rainbow!” the two ponies shouted as they tried to bring back their friend to reality.
“Huh? Applejack, Pinkie?” Rainbow muttered as she tried to move. “W-what’s going on?! Why can’t I move?!”
“Take it easy, we’re going ta get you outta here. Pinkie, try an’ get those clamps off.” Applejack explained as she tried to remove the clamp holding Rainbow’s left forehoof.
“Aye aye, Captain Applejack!” Pinkie said as she saluted, before she started to gnaw at a clamp. After several minutes of struggling, Rainbow was free. Pinkie supported the Pegasus as Applejack led the way out of the room, but their progress was halted when alarms started to go off.
Twilight looked up at the ceiling, letting Fluttershy’s head fall to the floor.
INTRUDERS IN THE ASSIMILATION CHAMBER. SEEK OUT AND CAPTURE FOR ASSIMILATION. Twilight ordered over the link between the drones.
Drones left their tasks and alcoves and started moving towards the assimilation chambers.
The trio of ponies stood in the corridor as the drone from the alcove room blocked their path. It approached them, its infra-red eyepiece scanning each of them.
“Resistance is futile.”
Princess Luna and several guards landed outside Ponyville’s town hall, where the mayor was waiting for them. Both the mayor and Princess Luna went inside to have a ‘talk’ regarding the disappearance of the Elements and a possible Changeling threat. The guards took up patrols around the town, being extra vigilant around the treeline of the Everfree Forest.
Ponyville’s residents were scared. Not only was the disappearance of six of their friends and neighbours unnerving, but having a platoon of guards in town and Canterlot on alert with a protective shield surrounding Equestria’s capital was downright terrifying. Ponies suspected others of being Changelings, and this led to several false alarms and once the entire town was evacuated when one of the guards returned bloody and bruised after having survived an ambush on his patrol from something in the forest.
It was now a week since Applejack led the others into the forest to locate their friends, and Princess Luna slowly raised the moon as she hovered above the balcony at Ponyville Library, which had been transformed into a command centre of sorts.
After the moon was raised, she slowly floated back down to the balcony and slowly trotted inside. She stopped near the flight of stairs that led to the bed that Twilight once slept in. Luna sighed as she turned away and headed downstairs.
In the library proper, several tables were placed with documents and reports from patrols and flybys of the Everfree Forest as well as maps of the forest and of Ponyville, which displayed tactical information in case whatever in the forest decided to mooch over to the nearby town.
Only Luna and the patrols were convinced that whatever it was in the forest, it wasn’t an army of Changelings. The incident with the ambush on one of their patrols proved that.
“Princess Luna, there’s a message from Canterlot,” Spike said as he walked to the Princess, holding out a scroll. Luna plucked it from the dragon’s grasp with her magic and read it.
“’No change, and no reports,’” Luna read out loud. She tossed the scroll onto a table with a map that had a coffee stain on it, covering half of Equestria. “Has the patrols reported in?” Luna asked, slightly hoping that something had happened, but she felt guilty of thinking it.
“As usual, no changes and no incidences,” Spike sighed as a Pegasus guard flew past to retrieve a book from a shelf.
“They have to make a move at some point…” Luna muttered as she trotted out of the library and out into the night. Spike followed her.
“What do you mean, Princess?” Spike asked as he jogged to keep up with Luna’s powerful strides.
“Whatever’s inside the forest is watching us, waiting for us to make the first move, as we await it to make the first move. We seem to be at a stalemate with it.” Luna explained as they walked down the path into the centre of the town. In the distance, Canterlot can be seen encased in a purple bubble around its perch on the side of a mountain.
Luna took a turn down a different street, and Spike stopped at the corner. This road led to the Everfree Forest.
“Uh… Princess Luna? This road leads to the Everfree Forest,” Spike said as he pointed out the obvious. Luna continued to trot down the road.
“I am well aware of that, Spike. I wish to take a different way tonight, perhaps meet one of the patrols.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Spike feebly said as Luna didn’t stop. He sighed and ran down the road to catch up with the Night Princess.
They left the town and continued past the abandoned home of what used to be Fluttershy’s cottage. After her disappearance, the animals that lived there just disappeared, vanished. No trace had been found of them but those that knew Fluttershy and her animals well know that they went far away to get away from the danger in the forest.
Luna and Spike spotted a patrol that was slowly moving at a safe distance from the forest edge, although this wasn’t the case. Many ponies that lived in or near Ponyville knew that a minimum safe distance was over the mountains and in Las Pegasus, or even one of the small isles out at sea from Fillydelphia.
They conversed quickly, matching the patrol’s pace. The guards showed concern that Princess Luna was out near the forest at night, but she dismissed them with a wave of her hoof. Agter several minutes, Princess Luna and Spike left the patrol and began to head back to Ponyville.
At least, that was the plan.
Luna turned around sharply when a scream from behind them startled herself and Spike. They rushed back to the patrol to find that they were under attack by bipedal monsters made of metal that were walking out of the forest.
The nearest guard had been grabbed by the horn and dragged into the forest, while the other five advanced. Luna took to the air as she powered up her magic, and sent a devastating beam of moonlight onto a metal monster, the power of the moon boosting her abilities. It was struck in the chest and was sent flying back into a tree, the lights that flashed on its body went out.
One of the Earth ponies was grabbed by their mane by another metal monster and was lifted into the air. The pony tried to buck its captor, but with failure. The poor pony was carried by their mane into the forest, screaming.
Luna sent another beam of moonlight down at another metal monster that had swung its saw appendage down at its victim, a Pegasus, and slicing the Pegasus’ left wing in half. The beam struck the chest, but the metal monster merely stumbled, before continuing its assault on its target.
A metal monster raised its cannon-like appendage and a burst of green erupted from inside. It struck Luna’s right wing as she prepared yet another beam. Caught off guard, she spiralled down to the ground in a mixture of pain and agony.
Spike, who had been sending a scroll by dragonfire ran to Luna’s side.
“Princess! Are you all right?” Spike asked as he crouched near the stricken Princess. The metal monsters had finished off the patrol and started their advance on their two remaining victims.
“Brace yourself!” Luna grunted as her horn glowed brightly with her magic, and with a flash, Luna and Spike had been teleported back to the library. The pain from her injury caused Luna to black out as soon as they had safely arrived at their destination.
The Borg had made the first move.
****
Captain’s log, Stardate 51124.8
Voyager’s long-range sensors had detected a subspace anomaly directly in our path, and after further scans, it may be a wormhole. We have increased speed to reach this phenomena with hopes that this wormhole may help us get a little closer to home.
Janeway took another sip of her coffee as she sat at her desk in her ready room, reviewing their sensor scans with those taken observing wormholes in the past.
The chime of the door broke her concentration momentarily before she called out to let the visitor in. As expected, Commander Chakotay entered the room, holding a PADD.
“Last week’s security reports,” he said as he offered the PADD to Janeway, who took it and gave it a brief once over, before chuckling. “I knew you’d find it interesting,” Chakotay said with a smile.
“Over five cases of sightings of a pink horse aside mine and Kim’s, I bet Tuvok had each and every one of them endure a thorough medical examination just to confirm that he was right and that ‘seeing a pink horse is illogical.’” Janeway said as she smiled. She placed the PADD on the desk before beckoning to Chakotay to look at her terminal’s screen.
“Come look at this,” she said. Chakotay leaned in and stared at the screen. The various lines of data and code were gibberish to the former Marquis member.
“What am I looking at?” he asked, thinking that the Captain was going to explain some interesting facts. He was right.
“I compared the sensor scans of the subspace anomaly with those taken by other ships observing wormholes. In each previous observation, the wormhole gave off a strange energy flux. It what causes the wormhole’s unstable nature. I’ve checked all previous scans, and one of the nearest ones I can find that matches this energy flux is of a scan that the Enterprise-D took of the stable end of the Barzan Wormhole. They reported that it didn’t give off the energy flux.” Janeway explained.
“But I’m guessing that the scans of our side of the Barzan Wormhole showed that our side had it,” Chakotay replied.
“Indeed. When we tried to stabilize our end, we only ended up increasing the energy flux to the point of which it had spread to the Alpha quadrant’s side, which caused it to start jumping erratically. However, the closest scan that matches it is those taken of the Bajoran Wormhole from Deep Space Nine.” Janeway said with a hint of excitement.
“Meaning that this anomaly may actually be a stable wormhole,” Chakotay finished Janeway’s line of thought. “At least it’s more stable than the previous ones that we’ve encountered.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.” Janeway said as she looked out of the ready room’s window at the view of space as Voyager continued to travel at warp speed, with streaks of light being the only indication that the ship was travelling.
****
Luna opened her eyes as she regained consciousness. She was in Twilight’s bed back in the library, and it was morning as Celestia’s sun seemed to smile warmly through it’s rays of light.
She got out of the bed and noticed that her wing was bandaged to her side. Sighing, she summoned her magic and healed the injury instantly. She removed the bandages and flexed her right wing. It felt stiff, but apart from that it was healthy.
Luna quickly adorned her royal attire and hurriedly flew down the stairs to the library proper. As she arrived, this caused the ponies and dragon in the room to gasp.
“Princess Luna, your wing-” Spike began to say but Luna cut across him.
“Is fine. I want all patrols scrapped and place watchponies at Fluttershy’s cottage. Move everypony near the forest to the other side of town. Spike, send a letter to my sister,” Luna commanded. The ponies rushed to obey her orders as Spike told the Princess that he had already sent a letter to Princess Celestia, and recited it.
“Excellent. Has there been any activity near the forest while I was… sleeping?” Luna asked.
“Nothing, it’s all quiet.” A thought struck Luna that everything and everypony was treating this situation like it was a war, and she had to agree. But how can you fight a war against an enemy you don’t know?
Luna sighed and walked out of the library and out into Ponyville, Spike following her. It was strange that he had become her assistant after Twilight and her friends disappeared in the forest, but she welcomed it. An assistant that can send messages to her sister faster than any Pegasus and that can breathe fire was helpful.
****
EIGHT-OF-FIFTEEN, TURSIORY ADJUNCT OF UNIMATRIX 01, ACTIVATE.
A Pegasus drone that looked shockingly like Rainbow Dash trotted out of it’s regeneration alcove, or stable, and proceeded down a corridor. It passed the assimilation chamber where one of the guards captured from their ambush on last night’s patrol was in the process of having one of their limbs being sawed off. He screamed pitifully, but the Borg showed no remorse, or any kind of emotion.
The drone continued down the corridor, passing an Earth pony drone that vaguely resembled Applejack.
Eight-of-Fifteen entered the main chamber in which Twilight of Borg resided. She gazed up at a holographic screen showing Ponyville. She sensed that Eight-of-Fifteen had arrived and turned to face her former friend. Accessing the link, she temporarily allowed Rainbow’s personality to surface, allowing it to take temporary control of her body. At the same time, a force field surrounded the former Pegasus.
Rainbow Dash looked down at her body, taking in every component and implant. She was horrified when she saw her wings were now just flexible metal, wires and joint connectors.
“Hi Dash,” Twilight said as she stared at the Pegasus drone.
“You! ” Rainbow snarled as she attempted to lunge at Twilight with the intention to kill, but rammed the force field instead. “You monster! I hate you!”
“That’s not a very nice thing to say, I’m your friend.” Twilight said stiffly.
“We’re not friends . We will never be friends again. You are a sick, twisted monster!”
“Insults won’t get you anywhere. I need to ask you something.”
“I’m not going out to assimilate and slaughter innocent ponies!” Rainbow shouted as she headbutted the force field several times.
“Don’t worry, you won’t. I just want to give you your freedom, for a price.”
“No way, I am not going to do anything for you.” Rainbow said with venom as she shot Twilight a death glare.
“Are you sure? I thought that you would leap at the chance to be you again, but I see that I was mistaken. Maybe I should get somepony else to do it, perhaps rarity, or Fluttershy?” Twilight said as she turned away from Rainbow.
“Fine, I’ll do it, just don’t do anything to my friends.” Rainbow sighed in defeat. Twilight smiled, which was very creepy with the eyepiece, furless and pale skin, and cybernetic enhancements.
“Great,” Twilight said, as the force field was lowered. But before Rainbow could do anything, Pinkie and another earth pony drone appeared on either side of Rainbow. “Please let some of my friends escort you to the assimilation chamber.”
****
Janeway entered the mess hall on deck 2 to get some more coffee. Voyager was due to arrive at the anomaly any minute now, and she needed something to perk up before reaching it. The replicators produced something similar to coffee, but Janeway preferred the batch that Neelix makes fresh in his kitchen. It was well known that if you gave Neelix the bare essentials of cooking, he’d whip up a miracle.
Janeway stopped at the counter and peered into the kitchen. There was no sign of Neelix. Curious, Janeway walked round and into the kitchen, checking the pantry, butt no Neelix.
She spied a pot of coffee on a kitchen counter, and decided to go for it. She clutched her cup tightly as she grabbed the pot and poured out some steaming coffee.
With her coffee cravings satisfied, Janeway left the mess hall and within a minute, he was on the bridge. Tom Paris was at the helm, With Tuvok at tactical. Harry Kim was at ops and Chakotay was in the captain’s chair. None of them noticed Q lean against the side of the view screen.
“Are we there yet?” Janeway asked, causing the Humans on the bridge to chuckle.
“We are about to drop out of warp, Captain.” Tuvok stated as Janeway liberated her seat from Chakotay who went back to the first officer’s chair.
“Hang on… taking us out,” Paris said as he pressed several buttons. Voyager decreased speed as the streaks of light that indicated warp travel disappeared.
“I have a visual,” Kim said from ops.
“On screen,” Janeway said as she took a gulp of coffee, and almost spat it out again.
On the screen, there was some hole in space. It had an outline of silver that rippled, and they could see a planet through the hole that wasn’t actually near them. The strangest thing was, it looked like Earth.
Q watched with fascination as Janeway choked on her coffee in surprise, Chakotay rubbed his eyes, Kim’s jaw was as close to his console as humanly possible, Paris leaned back in his seat in surprise and almost fell out, and Tuvok arched an eyebrow.
Other bridge officers showed somewhat similar reactions, but Q didn’t care about the anonymous people in red shirts, he cared about the senior officers.
“Is that Earth?” Janeway managed to say after winning the battle against the coffee. The other officers were broken out of their daze and began get back to work.
“I cannot tell, the anomaly’s energy flux prevents scans from passing through.” Tuvok stated as he pressed buttons and read displays.
“Launch a class five probe,” Janeway ordered. Tuvok made the preparations and launched the probe. Chakotay got out of his seat and went to the tactical console.
“Probe is away.” The probe streaked across the gap between Voyager and the hole. It passed through the hole and continued without incident.
“We’re not receiving anything from the probe when it entered the anomaly. If we want information, we’ll have to go through it.” Chakotay said as he looked at a display on the tactical console. Janeway mulled it over for a minute, before coming to a decision.
“Mr. Paris, take us in at one-half impulse.”
“Yes Ma’am,” Paris replied as his hands flew across the console.
“Geez, I would’ve dangled a turkey from a piece of string if I knew how easy this would be,” Q scoffed as he slowly shook his head. “Humans…” he muttered.
“Q!” a female voice shouted, and only Q heard it. He groaned. There was a flash of light and the female Q appeared next to the helm. Time on Voyager stopped, as the female Q slowly walked up to Q with murder in her eyes.
“You said that you would look after Junior while you checked up on some acquaintances of yours,” she snarled.
“But I am!” Q protested.
“That was three of their weeks ago!” the female Q said, waving her hand at the frozen Starfleet officers.
“Something came up…” Q started to say but he was cut off.
“I don’t care if ‘something came up’! I don’t care if this pitiful excuse of a race that you seemed fond of goes extinct!” female Q said with another gesture at the Humans, before she jabbed a threatening finger in Q’s direction. “You can watch Junior for a millennium or two. I’m going to watch two galaxies collide with each other.” And with a flash, she was gone, replaced by a seven year old boy in a small Starfleet uniform with Lieutenant Junior Grade Pips on the neck collar.
“Mommy’s fed up with you,” Junior said in a childlike tone. Q sighed, at least the boy understood him.
“Mommy’s just grouchy that she hasn’t been able to leave the continuum for a while,” Q said as he walked over to Junior and took hold of his hand. “Do you want to see what happens to a planet that gets ripped apart by two black holes?”
“That can’t happen because of the laws of physics,” Junior said as he looked up at his father.
“I could teach you.”
“Really? Can you also teach me how to play that game you mentioned that involved planets and black holes?” the boy asked. Q smiled.
“Sure, son,” and with a flash, they disappeared.
In the Andromeda galaxy, the universe’s second game of galactic snooker was played. With uninhabited planets, of course… well, mostly uninhabited, save a few civilizations, but who really cared about them anyway?
