Where Nopony Has Ever Gone Before

Chapters

Chapter 1 Intruder Alert
Chapter 2 Business
Chapter 3: Far away
Chapter 4: Hunter and Hunted
Chapter 5 Old friends
Chapter 6 Safe and Sound

Chapter 1 Intruder Alert

Chapter 1: Intruder Alert!

Dinky awoke with a smile on her face as the sun shined in. “What a wonderful day!” She exclaimed after she stretched herself.

“Good morning, sweetheart.” Derpy greeted her daughter as she came down for breakfast.

“Morning, Mama! Papa!” The filly smiled at her parents and ate her meal with glee.

“Morning, my dear. Looking forward to see your friends I assume?”

“You bet, Daddy!”

“Glad to hear it. Have fun!” Her father smiled.

“Of course!” Dinky replied and walked out, seeing her cousin Tootsie Flute already waiting outside. “Hello, Tootsie!”

“Hello, I take it you slept well?” Tootsie asked with a smile

“Yep! You?”

“Like a stone, Dinky.”

“Glad to hear it. Now, let’s meet up with the others.”

“Sure thing.”

A few weeks had passed since Dinky’s adventure in Africa with Fletcher, Katja and Blau and she enjoyed every moment with her new uncle and friends. She was excited for today, as she had a picnic planned with them and her closest friends.

Ponyville went after its usual business, the residents greeted the young fillies when they walked past, returning it.

The two fillies walked out of town, towards a meadow, seeing Pip, Ruby Pinch, Pipsqueak, Tungsten Noi, together with the knights and siblings.

“Hi, Dinky!” Pip greeted with a grin, she returned it.

“Morning, Pip! Tungsten.”

“Hello, Dinky.” The older Trottingham colt replied with a friendly smile of his own.

“Nice to see you again, Dinky.” Blau waved at her with a smile, his sister did the same.

“You too.” She looked at Fletcher. “How are you doing, Uncle?”

Fray smiled at her. “I’m doing well.”

“Glad to hear it.”

And so they started their picnic, Dinky, Katja and the knights ate tomato and lettuce sandwiches, tasting very delicious, Ruby and Tootsie played tag, Noi was reading a comic, while the colts played pirates and Masterclass Dungeon Duels of Doom together.

It was a nice day, a calm wind and the warm sun made it very enjoyable as the birds were singing.

“It always reminds me what a wonderful day it was when we first met…” Dinky mumbled with a smile.

“Yeah, hadn’t it been for that…” Pip shivered. “Good thing you were there, Dinky.”

She smiled weakly. “It’s nothing Pip, I did only was right, what I had to do.”

“Yes, but thanks to you I lived back then. I was also lucky that I only got scratched by…” Pip trailed off before noticing but he was about to say and cut himself off.

Everyone knew what Pip had almost said, an uncomfortable silence filled the air as none of them knew what to say, Dinky noticed how Tungsten was sighing quietly, looking at the clouds.

“Sorry…” Pip looked at his friend with guilt.

The colt didn’t reply, his head lowered, slightly trembling.

“Tungsten, please…” Dinky tried to calm him down.

“I’m....fine…” Tungsten’s voice cracked as he looked up with a sad expression.

“I wish it hadn’t happened either. It was bad luck, wrong place, wrong time.” The little pinto colt said with sympathy in his voice. “It was…”

“I just miss her so much…” Tungsten mumbled with sadness in his voice, fighting back tears.

“Tungsten, I told you before,” Pip gave him a hug with a weak smile, “Neither I nor my mother blame her for what happened.”

Since the day Blue was forced to leave them, her son lived with Pip and his mother since this day.

“I know…I just…” He sniffed. “Want to see her again.”

Blau and Katja never met her, so they could only imagine the pain he went through, yet had sympathy, smiling weakly, Ruby, Tootsie and Noi barely knew Blue Murder, but also cared for her son greatly.

“I know it’s hard, Tungsten, but I’m sure you will meet her again,” Dinky said in a try to cheer him up.

“Yes, Tungsten, she may have ended up on the wrong side but she was never a bad pony, only wanting to keep you safe. It will take time, but I’m sure she’s out there, waiting for the moment to return.” Fletcher added, feeling a bit guilty.

Tungsten slowly smiled weakly. “I've got to keep up hope and stay strong.” He said and looked at the clouds again. “I wonder sometimes where she could be, praying to the stars she’s alright…”

“I’m sure she is. She’s very adaptive after all.” Fletcher replied, yet wondered also how Blue Murder was doing.

“Yes, she is. Maybe I worry a little too much.” The colt said, although they all understood his worry.

“You know, I sometimes wonder what else could be out there.” Pip mumbled, “I mean, could Earth be in the same universe as our world?”

“It’s a good question, Pip,” Dinky replied.

Suddenly, a loud buzzing sound echoed in their ears startling them. “What was that?” Noi asked in alert, looking around with a slightly scared expression.

“I don’t know.” Midnight said as he did look around too with a wary expression, his Blade drawn.

“Hey, look!” Dinky exclaimed in surprise and pointed at something.

Turning in the direction, they all saw what looked like a green portal. “What is that?” Ruby asked in confusion.

“I don’t know,” Fletcher said, “We should-“ The stallion never finished as he felt how he was dragged towards it, his friends as well and they hall tried to hold onto something, with the foals screaming before everything went black.

“Ugh…What just…happened?” Fletcher asked as he held his aching head, seeing that the others did the same, finding themselves in a large, white storage room.

“I don’t know…Where are we?” Midnight wondered s she slowly got up, staggering a bit.

Suddenly the lights went red and an alert sounded. “Intruder alert!” An electronic, yet female voice yelled.

“Not good!” Wolf realized and the kids got behind the knights out of instinct, slightly trembling as the sounds of boots came from outside.

Midnight, Wolf and Fletcher had their weapons ready as the door opened with a quick hiss and a group of lifeforms moved in that surprised everypony.

Humans. They appeared to wear red uniforms and were armed with angular formed rifles, looking somehow futuristic, their expressions neutral. “Drop your weapons!” One of them ordered as they trained their weapons on the knights.

The three ponies knew they couldn’t endanger the life of the children, nor did they mean harm. “Alright, we mean no harm.” The batpony said and slowly dropped his blade on the ground, Wolf and Fletcher did the same, the kids stayed silent, too scared to say anything.

One of the humans tipped on what looked like an asymmetrical, arrowhead-shaped pennant attacked to his chest and it made a quiet clicking sound. “Security to bridge, intruders are pacified.”

“Acknowledged.” Another voice replied.

The group led the Knights and ponies out of the storage room, into a hallway in the same white color and to what looked like a brig. The Knights got led into one cell, the kids get divided into two for every cell. Dinky and Tootsie shared, one Ruby with Noi, Pip with Tungsten and the siblings shared one before a humming sound reached their ears, a force-field the knights assumed to keep them inside.

“Well…could have gone worse.” Fletcher commented as Dinky took a deep breath, looking at her cousin.

“Don’t worry, Tootsie, they won’t hurt us.” She tried to calm her down, Pip did the same with Tungsten. While Ruby and Noi were new to this situation, the siblings spoke calming words to comfort them and both fillies took deep breaths too.

“I hope so.” Tootsie replied with a slightly scared voice.

They all waited anxiously for a few minutes before the door opened.

Three figures emerged, two of them armed with rifles and wearing red uniforms, saluting the other figure.

The Knights suspected the two were part of the guards that had arrested them. They both looked avenge in their builds,

But for the foals, it was different.

Alone the sight of the weapons scared them, fearing they would be executed on the spot for trespassing as they all had cold, empty expressions.

By the salute, it was clear, that the third figure appeared to be of higher rank. But it also meant that their fate would be in the hands of the higher raking human as he stepped out of the shadow.

Like with the other two humans he also wore a red uniform but they noticed had what looked like four golden circles on the collar of his uniform, making it clear he was of higher rank and authority as his cold blue eyes fell on them. Overall, he had short blond hair. His face was round with a narrow chin, his build slim.

“You were trespassing on a Federation ship, explain yourselves.” He said with a stern voice.

While nopony had an idea what he meant with Federation ship, Dinky managed to spoke up, “This is all a misunderstanding, we never meant to, or do we mean harm. Please, Mister, there’s no need for this.” Her expression was honest, hoping he would understand.

“I’m sorry, child, but I have to check on that, standard procedure.” He replied and walked out of the room with the security team.

“Oh really? Well anyone who tries to hurt an Equestrian citizen under our protection ends up in pieces. That's our standard procedure!” Wolf growled.

“He’s has a point, Wolf. He has to check if it makes sense and such.” Fletcher pointed out.

“I hope he will,” Noi said with fear in her voice.

Again, they waited anxiously for some time, a few minutes at least before the man came back and the children looked at him with hope.

“Well, it seems your reasons are plausible. But it appears the Federation hasn’t any record about talking ponies, so would be so kind to tell me about yourself?” He asked and tipped on a console next to the cell of the knights and the force-fields deactivated, allowing the ponies and human to get out.

“Sounds fair enough. I am Midnight Blade, my friends White Wolf and Fletcher Fray.” Midnight pointed to his friends.

“And I am Dinky Hooves, my cousin Tootsie Flute and my friends, Ruby Pinch, Noi, Pipsqueak, Tungsten, Katja and Blau Streifen.”

“Interesting and nice names. I am Gunnar Günther, Captain of the Federation Starship Gabilan.”

“Starship?” Pip asked confused. “Equestria had never much interest in that.”

“So, Equestria is your home planet?” Günther asked curiously.

“Not exactly. It’s a Country. We ponies live together in harmony. There are unicorns like my friends Dinky, Ruby and Tootsie, who can use magic, Pegasi ponies and Earth Ponies. Pegasi can fly and manipulate the weather. The Special Talent of a pony is represented by a ‘Cutie Mark’ on the flank, which I haven’t got one yet. Equestria is ruled by Princess Celestia and Luna. They’re Alicorns and they control the sun and moon.” Pip explained.

“Fascinating, The Federation, as far as I know, never had any records of this country, or your race at all.”

“Wait…” Ruby spoke up as she realized something. “Does that mean….” The rose unicorn started to sniff, looking to the ground. “Mama…”

Tootsie, Noi and Tungsten had the same as they slowly realized their situation, looking to the ground and quietly sniffed.

“Tootsie…” Dinky walked up to her with a weak smile. “Don’t cry, I’m sure we will find a way home.” Katja and Blau hugged Ruby and Noi, Pip did the same with Tungsten.

“I promise with my honor as Starfleet officer, I will assist you in any way I can,” Gunnar said with an honest expression, appearing to have sympathy.

“We know to appreciate your help, Captain.” Midnight replied.

“It’s my duty to help. What about a tour of the ship?” He suggested and the children slowly grinned.

“I wouldn’t mind that,” Dinky said and the knights shrugged.

“I guess it couldn’t hurt to know the way around here,” Fletcher commented as the Captain led them outside, towards the end of the corridor with looked like a large elevator, big enough for them all to fit in.

“Deck 1, bridge,” Gunnar said and they noticed how the elevator moved and a few seconds later it stopped.

“Captain on the bridge.” A voice with a British accent announced and the ponies were fascinated as the found themselves in a room with many computer screens and panes, a crew of five were working focused, one of them sitting in a chair in the middle of it, looking at the captain. He was a man light skin, broad face and slim build, shoulder-length, dark-brown hair and green eyes.

“Commander Spring, everything to report?” Günther asked him.

“No, Captain, nothing to report. I see you give our new guests a tour?”

“Yes, Commander, so they get to know around:” Gunnar said and turned to the ponies and girl. “My First officer.”

The commander smiled warmly. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“Looks like you got everything well in hand,” Fletcher commented at the organization in awe.

“Aye, I have,” Spring said with pride.

“Indeed you have, Commander. Keep me posted if there’s trouble, while I show our guests around.” Günther ordered.

“Righto, sir.”

Günther then entered the lift with his guest and said, “Deck 11, Engineering.”

Again, it took only a few seconds to arrive and he led them through the corridor to a door.

“Wow…” Pip mumbled as he saw what looked like a big, blue glowing tube in the middle of the room.

“That’s our Warp core, young colt. With that we power the entire ship.” Günther explained to them.

The children were speechless, everything looked very fascinating, even for the knights, although they didn’t understand what Warp meant. “I guess you would like to know more, but I suggest we keep the questions until after the tour.” The Captain suggested and they all nodded.

He showed them the sickbay on deck 5, every crewmember they came past greeted them friendly, and Blau became curious. “How much did that ship cost to build?”

Günther chuckled. “Economics of the federation are different. You see, the federation doesn’t need money.”

“And how big is your ship?”

“Twenty-six decks. Almost 500 meters long.”

“Sounds like a big responsibility.” The green stallion said in awe.

“It is, I assure you. Now, are you hungry?” The man asked and he heard the growl if a stomach, with Tungsten lowering his ears in embarrassment. “I take that as a yes. Let me take you to the Mess hall on Deck 2. Was also the same deck we found you.”

The mess hall was just as the guests expected it to be. A large room with tables, and windows, but strangely there was something missing. “Uhh, where the kitchen?” Noi asked confused.

“We don’t need one. We got those.” Günther walked up to what looked like a dispenser and pushed a button, and the eyes of his guest became wide.

Under the dispenser flashed a blue light and formed itself into what looked like vegetarian lasagna. “I hope you like lasagna.”

“Thank you.” Dinky managed to say and took it with her magic, fascinating the man as he prepared the food for the others too and noticed how Katja looked at one of the windows.

“No glass?” She wondered and slowly touched it, slightly starting as the window summed with a blue flash.

“Force-field,” Gunnar replied.

Despite this, they all enjoyed every bite of their meal, as it tasted good. “I must admit, however this device makes food, it’s good,” Wolf said after she finished her meal.

“We call them Replicators. Simply said, they produce food.”

“Uh-huh. Reminds me, where do we rest?” The mare asked him.

“Don’t worry, I already organized quarters in the same deck for you. Follow me.” Günther replied and led them to two doors at the end of the corridor.

Both quarters looked very comfortable. They were composed of a living area, a bedroom, and a bathroom, with the living rooms having a replicator.

“You children take the one on the right, you three adults the one on the left. And before I forget.” He gave the knights and children respectively what looked like a flat and rectangular formed pad and showed them how they worked. “Those are Personal Access Display Devices, or PADD for short. Thought you might want to know more about the Federation and such.”

“Thank you, this might come in handy.” Fletcher took one with his magic as the Captain walked to the door.

“I’d like to stay, but duty calls,” Günther said goodbye and left his guests alone.

They used the time they had to inform themselves and were quite amazed at what they found out.

According to the PADDS, it was now 2377, with the Federation being actually called United Federation of Planets, founded in 2161, by a united humanity and three alien species called Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. The Federation was an interstellar alliance, composed of planetary governments that agreed to exist semi-autonomously under a single central government based on the principles of universal liberty, rights, and equality, and to share their knowledge and resources in peaceful cooperation, scientific development, space exploration, and defensive purposes. The total number of formal member worlds was over one hundred and fifty.

“Wow…Never thought humanity could become that much advanced and so…peacefully…” Fray mumbled.

“Yes. We can consider ourselves lucky we did land on one of their ships and not on a hostile species.” Midnight added. “But for now, we should get some rest.”

“Of course. Sleep well, children.” Fletcher said as he, Midnight and Wolf left for the bedroom, which consisted of double beds. The Pegasus took the pillow and blanket to sleep on the ground, leaving the beds to the stallions.

“I call bottom bunk.” Midnight Insisted, to Fletcher’s surprise.

“I thought you preferred a cupboard.”

“Yeah but in the absence of that, I prefer a bed placed anywhere except underneath a unicorn.”

Fletcher titled his head. “Why?”

“Because unicorns are most at risk from post-dimension-travel nightmares. And those beds don't look horn-proof. So if you bolt upright in the night, I'll be doing the same. I remember it well.” The batpony winced, rubbing his left flank ruefully and his friend understood.

“Oh...yeah...I remember that...I guess, it's just a good thing you don't sleep on your stomach.”

“Don't start...” Midnight replied as they both climbed in.

Dinky shared one with Tootsie, Noi with Ruby, Pip with Tungsten and the siblings with each other.

The grey filly sighed. “Looks like we got ourselves into something big, haven’t we?”

“Yes. I hope there’s a way home.” Noi replied, slightly scared.

“I’m sure the captain has a plan to help us.” Pip was confident. “After all, hope dies last.”

“Exactly, Pip. Goodnight, everyone.” Katja said and they all closed their eyes, hoping for the best.

Author's Note

A Star Trek crossover, thought give it a try

Chapter 2 Business

Chapter 2: Business

Tungsten awoke by a strange noise, rubbing his eyes. “What was…that?” He asked sleepy and looked around, noticing that he was the only one in the room. “Where is everypony? Guys?” He called out but got no reply.

The colt wasn’t the bravest, but he realized something wasn’t right and that panic wouldn’t help. “Stay calm. I should ask the Captain if he knows anything.”

With that in mind, he walked out of the door, yet stopped as he noticed a shadow on the wall. Turning into its direction, he was surprised as he saw a blue mare at the end of the corridor and his expression became confused. It can’t be…it is really…

“M-mom?” He asked stuttering, but the mare didn’t react and walked through the door at the end. “Wait! Please!” The colt yelled and ran after her, only to stop as he heard again a strange noise, sounded like a teleport spell.

“Bad idea.” A familiar male voice said behind him and Tungsten froze upon recognizing it.

“N-no way…” Tungsten’s mumbled and slowly turned around. Before him was his uncle Shadowplay.

However the batpony was covered in some kind of black armor, his mane was gone, some kind of electronic eyepatch over his right eye, his skin pale grey.

“Uncle…W-what happened to you?” The colt was terrified at the sight, yet the stallion’s expression was neutral of any emotions.

“There's a Borg waiting on the other side, ready to assimilate whoever comes out first.” Tungsten didn’t understand what he meant with Borg or assimilate as he added, “I hope you don’t feel guilty.”

Shaking, Tungsten looked back and gasped s Pip walked out, also covered in that black armor, with one eye replaced by that eyepatch, his expression one of pain. “Help…”

His older friend wanted to help, but his body did not respond.

“You appreciated his help, I like the irony of it.” Shadow looked behind Tungsten. “But aren't you forgetting someone or something?”

The colt turned around to see an Earth pony behind him, also wearing armor with a replaced eye. It was Shadow’s friend Tybalt.

Tungsten couldn’t even scream as Tybalt injected him with the pair of flexible needle-like devices and he felt a sharp pain, blacking out.

It was here where the colt woke up with a slight gasp, breathing heavily as he found himself in the bed, all other still there and sleeping peacefully. “You’re okay?” Pip whispered, not to wake the others.

“Just…a bad dream.” The older Trottingham colt replied and Pip nodded.

With a sigh, Tungsten fell asleep again.

“Captain's Personal Log, Stardate, 54114.4. We discovered an unknown species on the ship yesterday. I got told they are from a country called Equestria. A sentient subsidiary of the normal horse, these residents have a very advanced mental structure for their size. They have demonstrated having access to an energy or force they refer to as magic, that is in some ways it is similar to the powers observed by the Q, Organians, and other evolutionarily advanced species. In my entire career, I never thought I would see a myth or a creature out of Greek mythology to be true. I thought things like that only happened to Captains like Kirk. But I will do anything I can to make sure they are comfortable until we find their home. I’m sure the Federation can help them. Maybe, we get a new member.” Gunnar made his log in the next morning.

Then he entered the lift to the bridge. “Captain on the bridge,” Spring announced as Gunnar entered. “Good morning, Captain.”

“Morning, anything to report?”

“No, Sir.”

“Aright then. I hope we get a reply from Starfleet command soon regarding our guests.” He said with sight unease.

“In any case, Captain, I suggest we should bring them to Earth for further aid once Command is informed.” His first officer replied and he slightly smiled.

Of course.”

“Captain, permission to speak?” The Tactical officer asked.

“Granted.”

“Sir, may be of assistance? I could explain them the technical details better if they want to know more.”

“A good idea, go ahead.” He said and turned back to the crew. Maintain course.” He ordered the flight controller.

“Aye, sir.”

Then he looked back at the tactical officer and his first officer. “Get our guest to the sickbay for a checkup and show them the holodeck if you like.”

“With pleasure, sir.” Spring replied and he went into the lift with the tactical officer.

Dinky yawned as she woke up, stretching herself and looked out of the window. Only the stars and black, but it had somehow a wonderful look. “Good morning.” She said as the others also woke up.

“Morning, Dinky.” Tootsie replied as the knights walked in. “Morning.” The baby blue unicorn smiled at them.

“Good morning, children.” Midnight greeted and noticed Wolf was grumbling slightly. “Slept not so well?”

“I did sleep well, just dreamed strange. We were hunting some bad guys and out of nowhere, a small robot appeared and said, ‘you gonna play like a coward…you gonna die like a coward’ and chased us down.” She said with displease in her voice.

“A small robot won’t impress us, Wolf.” Midnight pointed out before the door opened and Spring came in, together with a crewmember In red uniform. He was tall and lean, with fair skin, green eyes, and slightly-shaggy, chocolate-brown hair. “Good morning, Mr. Spring.”

“Good morning. The Captain said we shall get you to a checkup.”

“Alright.” They had a quick breakfast in the mess hall, consisting of bread and juice, which tasted very fresh before they went to the sickbay on deck 5, where the chief medical officer was waiting for them.

“Hello. It is both a pleasure and an honor to meet you.” He said with a friendly smile.

“As long as you don’t cut us open.” Noi was trembling a bit and the officer gave her a calming smile.

“I’m a doctor, not a crazy scientist, child.” The doctor then reached for what looked like a small square-shaped device, together with a small cylinder. “May I?”

Noi slowly nodded and climbed on the table, seeing that the sickbay contained a few beds, a lab, where they were in and an office for the doctor. He moved the cylinder around her and the cuboid made beeping noises for a few seconds, while she stood still. “Interesting.” He mumbled amazed before adding, “Everything’s fine, next please.”

He then did the same on the other foals, then the knights, raising an eyebrow as he examined Fletcher. “Fascinating. The scan shows you have living…crabs in your blood.”

“Those are nanomites.” Fray replied.

“Nanomites?” The doctor asked confused.

“Let me explain. We are the loyal bodyguards of Princess Luna, she and Celestia are over 1000 years old and we swore to serve her. So, me and my fellow knights developed our own means of keeping up. I choose nanomites, they repair any sign of deterioration, even those that come from old age.”

“They are a living, organic counterpart of nanoprobes?” The medical officer concluded.

“I'm not quite sure what those are but I imagine if they live in your blood and keep you from falling apart, then there are similarities. These things can't be shared or transferred. So don't go marketing me for an immortality-drug.” Fray said.

“Of course.”

“What is that device you use?” Dinky was curious and the doctor grinned.

“Oh, that? We call it tricorder. It’s a scanning device that can also be used for analysis, and recording. The medical version I use is specialized for medical diagnostic.”

“Sounds very useful.”

“Yes, it is. I would like to take blood samples, it won’t hurt a bit, promise.” The man then reached for a small device that liked similar to an inhalator.

“Uhh, that is this supposed to work with an inhalator?” Pip titled his hand and the doctor grinned again.

“That isn’t an inhalator but a hypospray. Simply said, a modern version of the syringe, using compressed air.”

Pipsqueak had no idea how that was supposed to work but nodded and took a deep breath, with Dinky holding his hoof. The doctor placed it on the colt’s side of the neck, to the carotid artery and pressed a button. Pip twitched at the feeling of cold air, but felt no pain.

“See?” The man smiled.

“You right, doc, I felt almost nothing!” The colt exclaimed in glee.

“As I promised. Now, who wants to be next?” The medical crewmember asked and Dinky went next, following by her friends as they did feel much calmer, with the knights being last. “Thank you. The samples will make treatment easier if you should get hurt.”

“You’re welcome.” Dinky replied and turned to Spring. “Do you need something else?

“Not exactly. The Captain wanted that we also show you the Holodeck.”

“Holo…deck?” The unicorn titled her head.

“Let me show you.” The first officer replied and took them to deck 6 and they came to a big white room decorated with yellow squares. “Interesting,” Fletcher commented, “What does it do?”

“Just watch.” Spring tipped on a control panel on the wall and the room glowed white, blinding everyone.

As it stopped, the ponies gasped in awe. They found themselves on a meadow, blue sky as far as they could see. “Wow…” Tungsten mumbled and the Starfleet officer grinned.

“Pretty great, isn’t it?”

“It’s…amazing!” Blau exclaimed.

“And so real.” Katja added and picked up a stone next to her and threw it. To her surprise and that of her friends, the stone bounced off in mid-air at nothing with a buzzing sound.

“Yes, it may look real, but it’s just an illusion of substance as well as actual matter. It can even show people and clothing.” Spring said and tipped on the panel, and again white light blinded them before Jazz music sounded in their ears.

The found themselves on a party, dressed in fancy clothing of the 1930s, people were dancing to the music. “Cool!” Pip liked it. “But what’s the purpose of all of this?”

“Simple. To provide entertainment and diversion for a starship's crew, as we spent months or even years on our ships. My Captain thought you could use it too during your stay.”

“A nice idea.” Tootsie smiled.

“Yes. The Holodeck can also create training simulations and exercise environments not otherwise available or safe, including starship battle simulations, physical and combat simulations.”

“Does…does that mean we can be killed on the holodeck?” Noi asked with fear and Spring patted her.

“Don’t worry, there are safety protocols that recent death and serious injury during use, it can only be deactivated with authorization of high ranking personal, like the ship's captain.”

“A good idea.” Midnight replied.

“Indeed it is.” The First officer said as he deactivated the Holodeck and brought them back to their quarters.

“If you don’t mind, sir, would you tell us about yourself?” Tootsie asked him politely.

He smiled. “Not at all. My full name is Nicholas Spring, rank commander. But since you are all our guests, you can address me with my name, rather than rank. I was born on London on Earth, serving on this ship as first officer and diplomat. The Captain is a caring and experienced officer.

The USS Gabilan is a ship of the Akira-class, a versatile ship with good shields, armor and weaponry. We fought in the Dominion war, real taste of battle if ever we were looking for it.”

“Dominion war?” Wolf asked, not understanding.

“Long story.” The tactical officer replied. “I’m Lieutenant Tyrell Schaeffer, operating the weapons of the ship. The Captain meant I should show you around too, as I have…experience in such things.”

“Uh-huh. What’s this?” Blau pointed to a sleek, silver-colored device attached to the man’s belt.

“Oh, this? It’s called a phaser. This model is called the type 2. It’s a directed energy weapon, firing a continuous beam. It can either stun or kill, but stun is standard when carried. There are also rifles, called the Type 3. Our ship has also phaser as standard weaponry.”

“Sounds interesting.” Blau commented as they reached the quarters.

“I’m sure it is for you. We see you later.” The lieutenant said and he left with the first officer.

In the lift, Spring noticed something. “Equestria, could sworn I heard that before…”

“Now that you mentioned it, I studied 20th century and 21 century Earth and if I remember correctly, there was a children TV show back in 2010 set in a world called Equestria. The description of the ponies suits this very well.”

Nicholas thought about it. “You are right. Never thought I’d see a child show would be real. Now that I think about it, I believe one of my ancestors was a fan of the show, being a friend of one of Günther’s ancestors. But I can’t tell for sure, I never looked much into my family tree.”

“Neither did I sir. But I think we should tell him.”

“Righto.”

Being alone again, the children played a round of go fish, while the knights decided to inform themselves a bit about the history of the federation and they were quite surprised.

According to the PADDS, the Dominion war was a major interstellar conflict, fought from 2373 to 2375, though related conflicts began earlier. It was the Federation against a species called the Dominion, giving the war its name.

The Dominion was a major interstellar state, being located in the Gamma Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy, which was the upper right of the galaxy. The Dominion’s military consisted of a cloned species, called the Jem'Hadar.

First Contact with the Federation was made in 2370 as the Jem'Hadar destroyed a Federation vessel, starting a cold war, with small skirmishes through the galaxy. But in late 2373, the Federation decided to deploy a minefield at the wormhole that served as entrance for the Dominion, leading to open war.

At first, the Federation in the Alpha quadrant where the Earth was, in the upper left part of the galaxy, suffered heavy causalities but eventually gained the upper hand. Yet, marked by massive military and civilian casualties and the mobilization of starship fleets on a massive scale, it was one of the bloodiest and most destructive wars in modern galactic history.

But that wasn’t all.

Starfleet was also engaged twice by the Borg, a pseudo-species of cybernetic beings. The first time was in 2366, named the Battle of Wolf 359, and again in 2373, known as the Battle of Sector 001. The Borg were stopped just barely in both battles.

“Interesting…for an Organization with peaceful intentions, they have quite fought many battles.” Wolf commented, “Makes me wonder how peaceful they actually were before the war.”

“Yes. The Dominion sounds like a powerful enemy, but I’m convinced they would lose against Equestria in five minutes. Same for the Borg.” Fletcher added with confidence. “We've faced worse. And lived to tell the tale.”

“Did we ever face any from space?” The bat pony asked him with a puzzled expression.

“There've been guys who 'claimed' to be from space. The Deep Ones on the Misty Isles; the Yellow Pearl Dragons; The Chupacabras.” Wolf raised a hoof, reminding them and Fray rolled his eyes.

“Oh yeah, them.”

“Not to mention those stupid Neo-Hycarionites. “Midnight added with disgust in his voice. “And that suicide cult in the outskirts.”

Fletcher rolled his eyes in resignation. “You do meet a lot of weirdoes in this job.”

“Yeah. Yet, it raises the question where our home could be located in the galaxy. Alpha and Gamma quadrant are out of the question, or we had encountered at least one of the two factions. Either the Beta Quadrant in the lower left, or the Delta Quadrant in the lower right. As the latter is very unexplored by the Federation, I highly suspect Equestria might be here.” Midnight said before they took a look after the children.

They saw Tootsie, Ruby, Noi and Tungsten looking out of the window, their heads lowered with the other hugging them in an attempt to comfort them. The knights hadn’t to ask what was wrong.

“Don’t worry, Tootsie, I’m sure they will find a way to bring us home.” Dinky said with a weak smile.

“I don't want to think about how Sparky must be feeling...” Tootsie said, a tear leaving her eye.

“Mommy must be so scared…” Ruby’s voice cracked as Blau looked at her with sympathy.

“I know it’s hard, but hope dies last.”

Noi sniffed. “I and Carrot Top already lost our parents, she couldn’t take losing me.”

“But that means she won’t give up looking for you.” Katja replied.

“Don’t worry, Tungsten. Look, its not just the Knights that are here. The Princesses know we're gone. So do the Bearers. They'll find a way to get us back home soon, I'm sure they will.” Pip patted the back of his older friend.

“R-Right…” Tungsten wiped a tear out of his eye with a weak smile. “We must have faith.” Noi, Ruby and Tootsie also weakly smiled after this.

“That’s the spirit.” Midnight said with a smile of his own as Katja looked out of the window.

“Daddy told us once how humanity made it to the moon. I never thought I’d do something familiar as being on a spaceship…” She mumbled in fascination as the door opened and Nicolas entered.

“Sorry if I bother you, but the Captain has news for you and wants to see you on the bridge.”

“Alright.” Midnight replied and they got into the lift and to the bridge. “You wanted to see us?” He asked Günther, who nodded.

“Yes. We just received a message from Starfleet command. I shall being you to Earth, so the Federation can help you better in finding a way home.”

“Okay, how long until we arrive?”

“Around an hour if there are no complications. Ensign?” Gunnar looked at the flight controller.

“Course plotted, sir.”

“Engage.”

In a matter of seconds, the stars on the screen turned to a swirl of silver streams. “Wow…” Dinky was fascinated.

“Yes, it looks very beautiful. Why don’t you use the Holodeck until we arrive?” The Captain suggested and Midnight nodded.

“Sounds good to me.”

“Count me in.” Wolf liked it.

“Me too.” Fletcher added, the children nodded with slight smiles and went back to the holodeck.

There was a second one on the same deck with the first one, the children used it and played a simulation of steering a brig throughout the endless sea. “Avast! Make full sail!” Pip ordered merrily and his crew did as told. “Tungsten, you see anything?” He looked up to the older colt, being in the lookout.

“No, sir!”

“Then keep your eyes peeled!”

“Aye, aye!” The older colt put one forehoof above his eyes in an observant gesture, yet Dinky beat him to it.

“Captain!”

“Arr?” Pip turned to his first mate.

“Look!” She pointed to something in the water and he looked at it, his eyes becoming wide.

“By the seven seas!” He yelled as a gigantic wale appeared and near the ship and caused a big wave to hit the ship he got completely splashed. “Oh, you think you’re funny, huh? Man the cannons!”

“You got it!” Blau acknowledged.

“You won’t get away!” The pinto colt shouted with enthusiasm. “Thar’ she blows! Duck ho, on the port bow!”

“It’s diving!” Tootsie yelled and they saw the wale vanishing in the water.

“What? No! Show yourself!” Pip yelled in disbelief, looking around. “Shout when you see it!”

In that moment, a big wail came from behind, Pip noticed a big shadow casting over him and he turned around with a terrified expression, seeing the wale surfacing and hit the water with its caudal fin and they all got splashed by the water.

He and Dinky blinked at each other for a moment then started to laugh, joined by the others. “That was fun!” Noi exclaimed.

“We need do this this again.” Ruby smiled, as the simulation ended. “I wonder what the knights are doing.”

The three soldiers found themselves in front of a medieval imposing castle in a wide land of grass and woods as far as they could see, an army of human soldiers standing behind them, awaiting command. Midnight raised his blade into the air. “Charge!”

And the army attacked as some defenders ran out of the gates to meet them. Fletcher, together with the archers fired on them and the defending archers on the walls, weakening them.

Some defenders used shield formations, but Wolf, together with a pack of wolves tore through their ranks, opening the way for the main force, led by Midnight who dealt mortal strikes whenever his blade met an enemy sword, with their loyal soldiers following behind, taking care of any stragglers.

Together with their soldiers, the Eternal Knights tore through the defenses until they reached the throne room, while the main army kept the defenders outside busy.

The King, wearing full armor, was already awaiting them. His blue eyes blazed with fire, a scar over his check and a muscular build showed he had experience as he brushed his beard. “You’re come this far, but it will stop here. My castle will not fall!” He reached for his sword and clashed it with the grey stallion’s blade, while Fray and Wolf dealt with the guards, keeping them distracted.

Midnight shoved him back and hit the King full force into the left shoulder, ducking to avoid a counterstrike and rammed his blade through the man’s chest, causing him to drop on his knees with a cry of pain, his guards still distracted by the other knights, unable to help him. “You think you can have my castle? You won’t hold it for five minutes!” he yelled and tried to strike again, only for Midnight to block it and sliced his throat, killing the king for good. At the same time, the Pegasus and unicorn had defeated all guards

And with that, the simulation ended. “Well, that was fun!” Wolf said with a smile.

“Yes, a little training never hurts and keeps you sharp.” Fray added.

“I agree. I admit I wonder what will await us on Earth though.” Midnight said with an unease expression as they walked out of the holodeck.

The children crossed their ways with happy expressions, making it clear the holodeck had helped to get their minds free. “Now, let’s look after the captain.” Midnight suggested and they all nodded.

Once on the bridge, Gunnar greeted them with a smile. “Just on time, I hope you did enjoy yourselves.”

“Of course we did!” Dinky grinned at him as the Gabilan drooped out of Warp, and they all saw nothing but white stars on the viewscreen. “Uh, that doesn’t look like Earth.” She added in confusion.

“It appears we’ve come out a bit soon, Captain.” The flight controller reported. “We are at the edge of the Sol System. Something appears to have thrown us out.”

“I see.” Günther acknowledged with a suspicious expression and Spring turned to Schaeffer.

“Tyrell, you’re in the crow’s nest.”

“Commander?” Schaeffer asked confused.

“’Crow’s nest’ is a nautical term from ancient Earth. Translation: You’re on the lookout.”

“Oh.” Aye, aye, commander.” The tactical officer said before his console buzzed. “I’m detecting an unknown ship in our current flight path.”

“On screen.” And with that, the ponies looked at what they only could describe as an orange backwards manta-ray kind of ship. “A Ferengi Marauder.”

“The Marauder’s hailing us, sir.”

“Get him on screen.”

What the guests of Gunnar saw next was beyond anything they had seen. The screen appeared what looked like a human at first. Yet, the skin was noticeable orange-brown, the skull enlarged with four lobes and a wrinkled nose. But the most distinguishing feature was the large ears and that one eye was closed, a scar over it.

The Alien smiled friendly. “Ah, a Federation ship. Greetings, Captain. I am Daimon Lemp. May I invite you to a trade? Fair prices of course.”

“Thank you for the offer, but we are in a hurry, Lemp.” Günther declined politely.

“A pity, I have some good merchandise you could like. And I see you got some interesting…pets.” The Alien looked at the ponies, with Noi, Ruby and Tootsie hiding behind the knights out of fear, Dinky, Pip, the siblings and Tungsten trembled slightly in unease as Wolf growled.

“Hey! Watch your mouth, we’re not pets!”

Lemp stared in surprise before slightly grinning. “Very interesting…”

“They’re not for sale, they are guests on our ship.” Gunnar quickly interfered with a serous expression, yet stayed calm.

“Of course. But maybe…we can make a deal…” Lemp said, his grinning becoming mischievous.

“Sir, I’m detecting a large power surge coming from the Marauder!” Tyrell reported and suddenly, a blue wave emitted from the ship and all electronics on the Akira-class ship flashed and malfunctioned.

“What was that?” Katja asked in alert.

“Utilizing EMPs on Federation ships is an act of war.” Gunnar warned Lemp as he realized what happened.

“Captain please. Ferengi do not 'war', we simply add extra incentive to trade. War is bad for business.” The Daimon replied as the transmission ended.

“Everything’s offline!” Schaefer yelled and suddenly, the knights and children saw a blue flashing light around them.

They all felt numb, unable to move or open their eyes. Everything felt like they had been injected with needles, tingly.

Slowly, they managed to open their eyes all of the sudden they found themselves in what appeared to be a cell.

“What…just happened?” Tungsten asked scared as he looked around.

“I don’t know, but stay calm.” Fletcher said, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Damn it! Günther yelled frustrated. “Bridge to Engineering, report.”

“We’re working on it, Captain!” The Chief Engineer replied.

His first officer looked at the screen with slightly worry. “I hope it won’t be too late.”

The children held their breaths as one of the doors opened and the male humanoid walked in, grinning. “Ah good. Not a scratch.”

“Wh-what's going on?! Why have you kidnapped us?!” The young girl asked in fear

“Please, miss. Ferengi do not kidnap. We simply acquire. To transport.” Lemp replied calmly.

“Transport?” Tungsten asked confused.

“Yes. To sell. Ferengi sell just about anything. 'Buying' is another matter but as you see, we have ways around this. Not to worry, you shan't be harmed...To do so would shave thousands off your starting bid.” He looked at Katja, who gulped.

“No one harms my sister and gets past me!” Blau shouted with an angry expression, standing protectively in front of his older sister.

“You are brave, quite remarkable for your age. But it won’t help you.” Lemp said in a cold voice.

“With all due respect, Mr. Lemp, there’s no need for this.” Dinky spoke up in a calm voice.

Lemp raised an eyebrow. “Every man has his price. And so do you. For me, it’s worth the risk.”

Wolf started to growl before a voice shouted, “Sir, the Federation ship is powering up again!”

Lemp turned around to see one of his crewmembers. “So fast? Increase speed!”

The foals smiled, rescue was close.

“Sir, engineering reports they got the power online again. Marauder’s increased speed.” Schaeffer looked at the captain, awaiting orders.

“Good, disable the Warp Engines, red alert.”

“Engaging to disable, captain.” Tyrell acknowledged and went on an intercept course, firing, but the Marauder’s shields held, an orange beam was fired from it at the Gabilan. “Marauder’s firing back. Shields are holding.”

Lemp’s barely keep his balance as his ship was rumbling from the hits it took and Midnight grinned. “Still worth the risk?”

The humanoid eyed him with confusion. “And...what exactly are you meant to be?”

In response, Wolf drew her knives and they started to buzz and crackled with electricity before she slammed them into the ground, disabling the force field, with Fletcher drawing his bow, pointing an arrow between the Ferengi's eyes. “Extra Incentive!”

Lemp chuckled nervously. “Heh...Yes, I...ah...I admit it's quite affective…”

“They destroyed our Warp Engines!” The same crewmember reported.

Midnight had a sly grin. “I'm curious, is there a book for these rules or do they just get passed down?”

“The latter, strictly speaking. Why? Are we to take that the newest rule of acquisition would be 'Enraging an Eternal Knight is bad for business?” The Ferengi asked nervously before Wolf had a knife close to his throat.

“No. The newest rule of acquisition is 'Enraging an Eternal Knights is very bad for business'.” She pronounced with a serious tone

Lemp gulped. “...I'll keep that in mind. For future Ferengi's sake.”

“And your own.” Fletcher added as the alien walked out and hailed Gunnar.

The Daimon cleared throat, twiddling his fingers in unease. “Ahem...Captain. Clearly, there has been a er...mutual conflict of interests. On ah...behalf of the munificent Ferengi Alliance, I apologize for any inconvenience. It is clear to us that this particular investment would not be wise for us. We are presently returning the good-I mean passengers to your craft. Rest assured, this shan't happen again.”

Gunnar’s expression was serious. “You just performed a kidnapping of multiple civilians on a Federation vessel. What would Nagus Rom have to say about that?”

“Er...” Lost for words, Lemp produced a cloth and dabbed at his forehead. “C-Captain...The Grand Nagus is...a very busy individual and...I see no reason to trouble him over this...misunderstanding. I am sure that, for your forgiveness...and silence on this unfortunate matter, we can make a very generous compensation.”

“Are you transporting any fuel?” Spring asked, surprising him.

“Uh...yes.”

The first officer smiled. “We'll buy it. All of it...On compensator's discount, of course.”

Lemp furrowed his brow. “Are you joking? They're Blitmanite Cells! They don't come cheap!”

“Neither does ignoring a multiple kidnapping.” Gunnar pointed out, still being serious.

“Blitmanite...Ooh dear me. Mr. Lemp, your fuel trafficking license...is it up to date?” Commander Spring asked.

In response, the Ferengi tugged at his collar. “Uh...”

“Then again, if you were transporting with the Alliance's leave, that would be the Grand Nagus's business. But then so would this 'misunderstanding', if that were the case.”

Lemp shook his hands in apology with a sickly grin on his face. “W-W-Well, I'm sure we can compromise. It's not that much in the grand scheme of things.” He pointed to a subordinate. “Bring up the Blitmanite cells and beam them with these ones, quick!”

Aghast, his fellow officer as asked, “Sir?”

“Rule of Acquisition Number One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Five!” The Daimon exclaimed and he got it.

“'You can't make a deal if you're dead!'”

“Exactly! Now get those cells up here, now!” He ordered, then turned back to the Starfleet crew with a smattering smile. As he said this, the ponies saw the blue flash around themselves again, and in a blink of an eye, they were back on the bridge of the Federation ship again, felling numb again too as he continued. “Heh...Please accept this gift of fuel as a...a token of our thanks for the Federation's great tolerance and forgiveness. A pleasure doing business. So...this won't go down on any...”

Nicholas waved one hand casually. “No, no, simple misunderstanding. Happens all the time.” He started to grin cheekily. “And rest assured, your gift will be put to good use. How very generous of you. You can't get this stuff on the market nowadays without selling the ship you want to fill it with. How lucky we are. You are too kind, sir. We'll put in a good word for you.”

“Th-thank you.” The Ferengi stuttered in relief.

“No, no, Mr. Lemp, thank you. The United Federation of Planets wishes you all the best in your future investments.” Spring added.

“Give the Grand Nagus my regards. Gabilan out.” Gunnar said and the transmission ended, with him looking at his first officer. “You almost sounded like a Ferengi there! What did you do? Take a class?”

Spring just smiled. “A Ferengi in your debt is a rare and useful gift. Put that on their Rules of Acquisition.”

“What were those…Ferengi?” Noi asked still a bit in shock.

“They are a civilization built on free enterprise, where earning profit is the sole meaningful goal in life, superseding all other endeavors.” Gunnar explained. “Usually, they are notable for the absence of atrocities such as slavery or genocide but Lemp is known for doing shady businesses here and there in the Starfleet records, but got mostly just a minor punishment. But I think after that, it will be severe. Do you need medical attention?” He asked with concern.

“Just a bit numb from that…teleport, but otherwise fine.” Midnight replied still a bit weakened.

“Ah yes, that’s a side effect when using a teleporter for the first time. It should be over soon.”

Ruby took a deep breath. “I’m just glad it’s over.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure he won’t bother you again.” Spring assured. “Now, let’s proceed to Earth, shall we?”

“Yes, sir!” Blau did a playful salute.

The crew did the calculations and the ponies walked towards the lift to get back to the quarters again.

The children just wanted to be back where it was comfortable but Midnight stopped and turned around.

“Say, ever met Lemp before?” He asked the Captain.

“No, I only read the reports about him. But as I said, I’ll make sure he won’t bother you again.”

“If he tries, he will regret it deeply!” Wolf added with a hiss.

“And of course has to go through us again.” Spring said with a smile.

Dinky and the others stopped too and turned around. “May I ask why did you become a Starfleet officer?”

“Well, being a Starfleet officer is a highly respected job and I admit, I did it also for the adventure and eager to explore the galaxy. I am sure you would make great officers too, all of you.” He replied and they all blushed slightly.

“If you say so…” Fletcher mumbled.

“Sir!” Schaeffer yelled in alert. “I detect a high energy surge from the Marauder! It’s unstable!”

“On screen.” Gunnar ordered and they saw how the Marauder suddenly exploded and a purple red rift appeared from the explosion and the screen became black.

“Everyone alright?” The commander asked.

“I am okay.” Schaeffer replied.

“What just happened?” Gunnar asked them both and the tactical officer thought for a moment, looking at the data his console showed.

“Captain, we seem to have been torn from normal space…I think we’ve been pulled through some sort of isodimensional rift…”

“Where are we?”

“Hard to say. The rift took most primary systems offline. Until we get it back online, it will be difficult to find out where we are.”

“Does…does that mean we are lost?” Tootsie asked in dread.

Günther sighed. “I am afraid, yes, but don’t worry, we will find a way.”

“Yes, Tootsie, I am sure we will.” Dinky added with a confident smile.

The baby blue filly gave a weak smile in response, her friends too. “Okay. Anything we can do to help, Captain?”

He smiled slightly. “I appreciate your willingness to help, but leave it to us. Get some rest.”

“Okay.”

Fortunately, the lift was still working as they went back to their quarters, trying to sleep a bit, yet what just happened refused to get out of their heads.

Where they now further away from home? Would they ever find a way home? They all hoped they would

It was around half an hour as they heard a faint buzzing sound, coming from the door. “Enter.” Midnight said and Spring walked in.

“Good news, we managed to get the power back online, would you come with me to the bridge?” They nodded in response.

“Any idea what caused that…rift?” Fletcher was clueless.

“Well, as far as we can tell, it appeared Lemp was transporting some kind of rift device or something that apparently was damaged in the small skirmish.” The commander explained and Wolf hissed.

“In other words, illegal, dangerous cargo.”

“Correct. He must have used a dampening field to hide it from our scanners.” Spring suspected as they reached the bridge and Schaeffer’s console buzzed again.

“I’m detecting a ship closing in on our position.”

“Om screen.” Gunnar ordered.

The ponies became confused as it showed what looked like a black block, due to having an elongated shape. “What is that?” Pip asked and Gunnar’s expression became one of fear.

“It’s a…”

He could not finish as a transmission came through, spoked by a monotone like voice.

“We are the Borg. Existence, as you know it, is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile.”

Chapter 3: Far away

Unsettling.

That was the only word the ponies could think of how to describe that message that had been sent.

“W-what was that?” Blau asked with fear in his voice as the Captain took a deep breath.

“The Borg. For your own safety, get to your quarters at once. Red alert!” Gunnar ordered, the lights and computer terminals were dimmed of displaying red graphics, an audible alarm also sounded as they made their way to the quarters, the children shivered in fear the entire time.

“Schaeffer, fire phasers, keep the frequency changing and get the torpedoes online!”

“Yes, sir!” The tactical officer replied and did as told as the Borg ship fired its green beam weapon, the ship rumbled from the hits. “Shields are holding! Returning fire!”

He pressed the fire button and scored a direct hit. “It’s weakening their shields minimal, no discernible effect otherwise.”

“Quantum torpedoes! Ensign, take evasive action!” Gunnar ordered.

“Torpedoes firing!” Schaefer yelled and the screen showed that they also hit their target, causing small explosions but no visible damage. “Enemy shields are down to 50 percent.”

In response, the Borg ship fired again, causing the Federation ship to rumble again. “Shields down to 75 percent. Firing phasers!”

This time, he saw only the phasers hitting, but no flashing of the shields whatsoever. “No effect!”

“Damn! Did they adjust their shields already?” Spring cursed in frustration.

“Send out a distress call!” Günther ordered as the Borg ship fired once again, this time sparks came out of the consoles as the ship rumbled.

“They took out our warp drive!” The flight controller reported.

Alarms were blaring in the entire ship as the knights with the children made their way to the quarters, with the Gabilan rumbling every now and then.

“Almost there, almost there!” Midnight announced before they heard the computer voice yelling,

“Intruder alert!”

With a screen, they all come to a halt as they saw a security team around the corner, a green flash in front of the team and they saw something terrifying.

A group of humans.

They looked not healthy as their skin was pale gray, covered in what looked like black armor, one eye and arm replaced by what they could only describe as robotic device, connected to tubes, having emotionless faces.

Were those the Borg?

None of the pones could think about it, staring in shock as one Borg got hit by a phaser and fell with sparks to the ground, dissolving in a green flash, the other closed in, strangely calmly walking towards the security team, who fired again, but this time, the Borg glowed green, apparently unaffected by the phasers. “They adapted!” One of the crewmen shouted and tried to hit one Borg with the butt of his rifle, but the cyborg shrugged it off and shoved him against the wall, the human fell lifeless to the ground.

“Back up!” The batpony yelled and they all ran back, hiding in a random quarter. The children trembled in fear, hugging each other, the knights barricaded the door with chairs and tables.

“I don’t wanna die…” Ruby whimpered.

“None of you will, not with us by your side,” Wolf assured them in an attempt to comfort the children, as more phaser fire sounded from outside.

“Doesn’t sound like the fight is going well for the crew. Fletcher, can you check on the Captain?” The bat pony asked and he nodded.

“No problem.” Focusing, Fletcher cast a teleport spell and in a flash, he found himself on the bridge, but what he saw was chaos.

Most of the crew was dead, probably killed by overloaded consoles, Spring and Günther were struggling against two Borg.

The Brit managed to shove his attacker back and drew a small blade from his sleeve, slicing the neck of the Borg.

Gunnar and was pushed against the wall, screaming before his first officer came to his aid and hit the Borg into the back of the head, allowing the Captain to push it off himself. “Thanks!”

“Watch out!” Fletcher shouted as another Borg closed in on them and Spring tried to strike again, but the Borg grabbed his blade, effectively blocking it.

The Borg then grabbed him by the collar and the man struggled before getting thrown over a railing, hitting the ground headfirst and Fray heard a cracking sound, with the man staying lifeless after hitting the ground.

Gunnar’s expression was one of shock, yet he grabbed the blade and sliced two Borg before a third one grabbed him by the throat lifting him up.

The man struggled, gasping for air before becoming limp with a crack and got dropped.

Fletcher took notice that the Borg did briefly look at him then moved to the command consoles, appearing to ignore him. He used this to check on the two officers.

No pulse.

Also, he did a quick medical scan on the first officer, realizing the hit on the reeling had broken his neck.

“Damn!” The stallion cursed and teleported back to the quarter.

“Please tell us they’re okay.” Tootsie looked at him with hope.

The green pony took a deep breath. ”I’m afraid I was too late.”

“N-no…” Tootsie cried, only to be hugged by Dinky.

Suddenly a loud groan startled them and the door deformed. “They’re trying to break in!” Midnight yelled and took a defensive position with his fellow knights, the children huddled behind them.

In a matter of seconds, the door was breached and two drones moved in, everyone froze upon seeing them fully.

They were not humans or humanoid but…

“No, it can’t be…” Wolf mumbled in disbelief.

Both Borg were…

Ponies. An Earth pony mare and a unicorn stallion, the latter was slightly higher than the mare. Both were also covered in the black armor, the stallion’s horn was covered in metal, their manes gone, the skin pale grey, their expressions empty.

The mare had its left eye and leg replaced, the latter with a rectangular device, the leg appeared to be a metal leg, with a hand at the end. The stallion had the same replacements but it was his right side and the eye device was of a round form.

“Do-domino? Sa-Saracen? No...It can’t be…” Midnight mumbled shocked as the ponies looked at him and the others, red laser pointers emitted from their replaced eyes, pointed at them.

It seemed like hours as the former ponies stared at them before slowly walking out, leaving the ponies still in shock.

It wasn’t until the sound of boots greeted their eyes and they saw Schaeffer running in. “The ship is lost, let’s get you to safety!” He yelled and they slowly nodded.

The corridor was littered with dead crewmembers as he led them to a hatch and opened it. “This Jefferies tube leads directly to where the escape pods are.”

“Thank you.” Fletcher took the lead, the children followed after, with Wolf taking the back, Midnight held it open as the tactical officer with a few crewmen tried to hold back the Borg that closed in, fired a phaser type 2, but the Borg had already adapted to it. In response, Schaeffer and his fellow crewmen used their fists to fight the Borg, punching their faces and throwing them over.

Midnight wasted no time to get it before he heard a cry of pain and a body hitting the ground. “Help…” Schaeffer’s voice sounded in his ears and he turned around.

To his shock, he saw how the man was lying on the ground, his skin becoming grey, deforming, with a painful expression. “Please…help….”

Realizing that there was little time and that the officer was in great pain, the batpony grabbed the Type 2 phaser and aimed at the neck of Schaffer, pulling the trigger, mercy killing him and then climbed into the hatch.

They had been informed themselves about Jefferies tubes, internal maintenance conduits that were used to provide crew access to various ship's systems, also used if the lift wasn’t working. This one was a vertical one, with a ladder leading to the lower deck.

“Come on, almost there!” Fletcher said as they climbed out of the tube into the next corridor, but the Borg had other plans.

FEDERATION TECHNOLOGY ASSIMILATED. ALL SURVIVORS MUST BE ELIMINATED.

They ran as fast as they could towards the end, as the ship rumbled heavily, sparks flying everywhere, the escape pods were in sight.

“Quick, we are almost there!” Midnight yelled as suddenly, a big explosion in front of him threw everyone over, against the wall, their ears ringed, vision blurry.

The grey stallion groaned in pain, as he struggled to get up, a faint voice sounded in his ears.

“Warning. Life support failure on all decks. Abandon ship!” It was the last thing he heard before everything became black.

Somewhere else in the galaxy.

“Captain, I receive a distress call. It’s Federation origin.”

“From where does it come from?” The Captain asked.

“Not far from our current position.”

“Lieutenant, plot a course.”

“Aye, Captain. Coming into visual range.”

“It’s a Federation ship. Starfleet registry identifies it as the USS Gabilan. Reading massive structural failure and… life signs aboard.”

“Beam them to sickbay.´”

“Ugh…” The bat pony groaned as he regained consciousness, looking around. He found himself with the others in a sickbay. “Where are we?” He mumbled confusedly as his friends slowly woke up too.

“We’re…alive?” Katja wondered, holding her head.

“Yes, you are alive and well.” A new voice replied and they saw a man in a dark green uniform coming from the office. He was bald, featuring only hair at the sides of his head, his brown eyes were somehow calming. “I’m the chief medical officer of the USS Voyager.”

“Thank you,” Dinky said with a weak smile as the door opened and woman in a red colored uniform walked in. She had long brown hair and blue eyes, smiling warmly at the filly and her friends.

“How are they, doctor?”

“Perfectly healthy, Captain.” The doctor replied.

“That’s good to hear. I am Captain Kathryn Janeway and welcome on my ship, although I wished we met under more pleasant circumstances. Would you like something to drink?”

“Sure, why not.” Midnight replied, it was a generous offer and she led them to the mess hall.

“Ah, captain, nice to see you. Coffee?” A male voice asked and the ponies saw a male humanoid with large areas of yellow to reddish-brown spotting on his head, with a pale skin and brown eyes.

“Yes, Neelix and some hot chocolates for our guests.”

“Right away, Captain,” Neelix replied and did as told in a kitchen, the ponies enjoyed the warm taste greatly as Janeway asked,

“We analyzed the logs of the Gabilan, is it true?” She sounded rather curious and Midnight took a deep breath.

“Yes, it is.” With that, he and his friends told the woman where they came from and how they had landed on Gunnar’s ship.

“I’m terribly sorry to hear that. But I’m also afraid you are a long way from home now.” She said with sympathy in her voice.

“What do you mean?” Katja asked.

“Well, we are in the Delta Quadrant. The Voyager was stranded through an incident back in 2371 and we try to find a way back home ever since. We estimated it may take 75 years to get back to the Alpha Quadrant.” Janeway told with regret in her voice.

“75 years?!” Pip exclaimed in shock.

“Yes. But I promise I’ll do everything I can to help you find a way back to your home. I know it’s much to take, so may I suggest you try to rest a bit after everything you went through.

“A good point, Captain Janeway.” Midnight replied.

“Naomi, would you be so kind and escort them to their quarter?”

“Yes, Captain.” A young, female voice said and the ponies turned around to see a girl standing at the door, her hair was blond, the eyes had an innocent blue color. What was most noticeable that she had thorns, like that of a rose on the forehead. “Would you please follow me?” Naomi asked politely and they all nodded.

None of them said a word, still trying to process their current situation, that they were the only survivors of the Gabilan and now probably longer away from Equestria. It was nice though how friendly Naomi was to them, though it was a bit surprising how Janeway trusted a child with such a task.

“You seem to be on very good terms with the Captain,” Pip commented.

“Well, in our current satiation, we have to hold together and I learned a lot from the crew of the Voyager.” The girl replied.

“And you learned quite well, everyone has to do his part in such a situation,” Fletcher added, speaking from experience.

“Indeed. No matter the age, we all have to do our part and despite this all, we still had some nice moments.” Naomi replied with a smile.

This made Dinky curious as they got led through the corridors. “Would you mind telling us about yourself, Naomi?”

“Not at all, although there’s not much to tell. I was born on the Voyager 5 years ago and do my best to help the Captain as her assistant.”

“Really?” The filly asked amazed, not able to believe that a child could have such a close position at the age of 5.

“Yes. And there we are.” The girl pointed to the door. “I see you later.

“Okay, bye and thank you,” Dinky replied and walked in with the others.

She and the other kids played another round of go-fish to pass the time, while the knights informed themselves more about the Borg, yet the thought of 75 years away from home made them worried.

Would they ever see their families and friends again? How would they react upon seeing them after years? None of the children could imagine the worry of their parents.

For the knights, it was more concerning, as they couldn’t age, but the kids could. Also, they hoped their families and Luna weren’t too worried. There was also the question of how much Equestria could change if it would take years to get home.

Seeing Domino and Saracen as Borg was most disturbing for them. None of them could imagine how the two could have landed in that situation, and also hoped there could be a way to save them.

“I never thought I would see them like that….” Midnight mumbled in disbelief. “If the Borg got their knowledge, they could attack Equestria….”

Fletcher put a hoof on his shoulder. “I doubt that. They went missing 1000 years ago, if the Borg had been interested in us, they had attacked already. I just hope if we can save them, that the regenerative magic can restore their lost leg and eye.”

“We can only hope,” Wolf added. “Though Naomi said she was born on this ship…”

“What’s wrong with that?” Midnight raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing, just, if you are born on a spaceship in, well space, what will be written in your birth certificate?”

The grey stallion thought for a moment. “No clue. Yet, I’m surprised that the Doc for a hologram designed to function in emergency situations only, managed to develop a distinct personality.”

“Yeah, but Nanny did too, so it isn’t that surprising.” Fletcher pointed out.

“Fair point. Let’s hit the hay, might help to get over this.”

“Agreed,” Fray replied and they all went to bed, sleeping quite peacefully despite what they went through at the moment.

In the next morning, they breakfasted in the mess hall, with Neelix smiling warmly. “I hope it tasted good.”

“It did, thank you,” Tungsten replied, taking a sip of his warm tea.

“Glad to hear it. Apart from being the chef, I’m also the moral officer here. So if you feel down, feel free to talk with me.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Ruby replied before the door opened and a man in red uniform walked in, his hair was black, eyes brown and they took notice of what looked like a tattoo in the left side of the forehead.

“Hello, I hope this morning finds you well. I am commander Chakotay, first officer of the Voyager.”

“Can we help you?” Noi asked friendly.

“In a way, yes. We plan to test a prototype of an improved shuttle and it was suggested you should have the honor to do the test flight. If you want of course.”

The knights and children looked at other. It was a good offer, yet none had experience in that matter. “It’s nice but no one of us has experience in flying starships.” Midnight said for the group.

The offer waved a hand. “No problem, you could learn on the holodeck.”

Fray shrugged. “Fair point. What do you think, children?”

Dinky slowly smiled. “I wouldn’t mind that. Pip? Tootsie?” she asked and they all smiled too.

“Would be an interesting change,” Blau added.

“Good. I’ll inform you once everything is ready.”

With that, the knights went art once to the holodeck to get themselves familiar, while the kids resumed their card game, eager about the shuttle flight, chatting about it.

Around half an hour, they were called to the shuttle bay, seeing that the shuttle was looking similar to an arrow at first, white in color.

Another man in red uniform and a woman in yellow uniform did maintenance work on it before they turned around, looking at the ponies with friendly expressions.

“Hello. I’m honored that you will fly the prototype of the Delta Flyer II. He’s all yours.” The man said, before adding, “Oh, how rude, I am Tom Paris, flight controller of the Voyager.” He had brown hair and blue eyes, the woman had similar thorns on her forehead with brown hair and matching eyes, her uniform was yellow.

“And I am B'Elanna Torres, chief engineer. The Prototype is ready for take-off. We also made some suiting spacesuits for you, just in case.”

“Also for added security, I added some phasers for self-defense.” They saw a man with dark skin, black hair and brown eyes, but his eyes were pointy, a Vulcan. “Modifying the shuttle to compensate the additional passengers was hopefully not to difficult.”

“Not at all, Tuvok,” Paris replied and turned back to the guests. “Enjoy the flight.”

“We will.” Midnight said and he went on board with the others and took seat in the cockpit, Fletcher took the tactical seat, Wolf the helm, while the kids got into the aft compartment. “Engage impulse drive.”

“Aye, Aye.” Wolf acknowledged and steered the shuttle out of the shuttle bay, calculating a provided course for the Warp jump. “Course laid in.”

Midnight in response, raised his hoof. “Engage.”

In a matter of seconds, the prototype went to warp speed.

Chapter 4: Hunter and Hunted

The Warp Jump went without any complications as the shuttle came out of warp. “Report.” Midnight looked at Wolf.

“We’re dropped out of Warp. Systems are stable. Warp drive is fully functional.

“Excellent. Now, let’s test the impulse engines.”

“Aye, sir.” Wolf acknowledged and carefully moved the joystick of the steering column forward. In response, the shuttle accelerated to high speed.

At the same time, the children looked out of the window, enjoying the flight. Yet, Dinky noticed that Tungsten was slightly trembling. “You’re okay?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m fine. I just hope Wolf knows what she’s doing.” He replied with a hint of fear and Dinky wrapped a hoof around him.

“I’m sure she does. After all, they’re the most experienced guards of Princess Luna and do everything they can to keep us safe and sound.”

The colt sighed. “Righto. Maybe I worry just too much.”

“Impulse engines are fully functional.” The Pegasus reported after a few minutes of flight.

“Very good. Fletcher, scan the surrounding area.” Midnight ordered and the unicorn nodded.

“Initiating scan.” He tipped on his console and it buzzed for a few seconds. “I’m detecting an unidentified ship on long range sensors.”

“What sort of ship?”

“Sensor readings are very limited at this range. But the Vessel appears to be stopped directly into our current flight path.”

“Get us into visual range, Wolf.

“Copy that.” The mare replied and a few moments later, Fletcher’s readings became clearer.

“We are now in visual range.”

“On screen.” Midnight said and they all looked in surprise and shock as the vessel got shown.

“It’s…” Fletcher stuttered. “The Gabilan…”

The wreck was drifting in space, having several hull breaches.

“How…Why would they give us coordinates that would lead us back to it?” Wolf wondered in confusion.

“I doubt they did it on purpose, Wolf. I guess they forgot in the preparations. But…” The bat pony thought for a moment. “This gives us an opportunity.”

“And that is?” Fletcher asked him.

“When we met Lemp, Spring managed to get some fuel, remember? We should check the wreck for any resources the Voyager could need in the journey home. Can you scan the wreck?”

“Sure.” Fray tipped again on his console. “It appears the fuel cells are still intact. And there are still some other supplies intact.”

“Perfect. Inform the kids, we go on an away mission. Is also a good opportunity to test the spacesuits.”

Fletcher saluted. “Right away.” He walked into the aft compartment and the children smiled at him. “Get your spacesuits on.”

“Okay, uncle Fletch,” Dinky replied and they all did as told.

Of course, they were specially modified to suit the horns of the unicorns and wings of White Wolf, fitting perfectly. “Don’t forget the phasers.” Midnight pointed out as he took a Phaser rifle, his two friends did too, while the kids grabbed type 2 phasers, secured in belts attached to their suits, set to stun.

“Why do we take them again? We got our own weapons.” Wolf asked with doubt in her expression.

“Throwing knives, arrows and boomerangs need gravity to work, right?” The grey stallion asked and she nodded. “There’s no gravity on the wreck and we never had experience when it comes to fighting with no gravity.” He pointed out.

“Fair point. Let’s get this over with.” She said as she activated the transporter, beaming on the wreck through one of the hull breaches, closest to the supplies.

In a blue flash, they found themselves on the wreck. “Magnetize.” Midnight ordered and all pressed a button on their suits and they all felt how they were pushed down, felling a bit heavy.

Unlike with humans, only their hind legs magnetized, so they could still grab things and push buttons. “Alright, the storage room we need to go is right at the end of this corridor.” Fray took the lead.

Pip took notice that Tungsten was slightly trembling as they moved. “You’re okay?”

“Just…my fear of heights…” He mumbled as he looked at a tear in the hull.

“Keep your eyes on the intact parts, that helps. For me anyway.” Noi said in an attempt to calm him down.

The corridor was dark, only the flashes from the red alert made a bit of light, bodies of the crew were scattered around, with Ruby looking at them in pity. “We were lucky to survive this. How came it that nobody else survived?”

“I don’t know. I wonder though why the Borg destroyed the ship than to assimilate it as they usually do?” Fray mumbled, not able to figure out why the Borg had done this.

“We can think about it later.” The Lord Commander said, wanting all to be focused on the task at hand as they arrived at the storage room. “Door’s locked but that shouldn’t be a problem.” He added and carefully pushed his blade through the slit of the door and wiggled it a bit, slowly force opening the door. “Enter.”

And to their joy, the fuel and other supplies were there, untouched. “Good. Let’s get it on the shuttle.” Fletcher looked at the supplies with a smile as Katja and Blau grabbed a fuel cell together and beamed themselves with it on the shuttle.

“Okay, now the next one,” Blau mumbled before the tactical screen beeped and he took a look. “Uh, guys, we got a ship closing in.” He informed the others on the communicator.

“What sort of ship?” The bat pony wanted to know.

“It’s coming into visual range now,” Katja replied and both siblings saw a black-grey sphere, their eyes went wide. “It’s a Borg sphere!”

“Copy, we are heading back now.”

Yet, Blau noticed something odd as he took a closer look. “The ship appears to be damaged, the upper part has a hull breach, weapons and shields are offline.” He reported before the sphere scanned the shuttle and wreck, they all held their breaths.

For a moment, the Borg Ship did nothing, making them wonder what was going on.

“They ignore us…I guess.” Katja suspected before the scanners showed something else. “Scanners detect a group of drones near the deflector dish.”

“Okay, we take a look. Stay on the shuttle.” Midnight replied and turned to the other children. “Stay here for your own protection.” He then turned to Wolf. “Remember when you trained to fly at high altitude?”

“Yes, it made me sick in my stomach. ...What are you suggesting?” She asked with a slightly unwell expression.

“I think it's time that we took a little stroll.” He said and they went to a Jefferies tube.

“Be careful, uncle.” Dinky hugged Fletcher, who smiled.

“I intend to.”

The Knights then walked on the underside of the ship.

It was a slow and long walk, black and stars as far as the eye could see, but they all stayed focused.

Yet, it was a fascinating and new experience for the knights, with Midnight and Fletcher briefly looking at the stars, admiring the view.

None of them could have ever imagined doing something like this, being in space, on the outside of a space ship. Or what was left of it.

They all took deep, slow breaths, trying to stay calm as they all shivered slightly, it was a completely new experience after all and even they had limits.

There was a first try for everything, even for something unique as this.

“How are you doing, Wolf?” Midnight asked her.

“Not well.”

“Try not to look at the stars. Keep your eyes on the hull. ...Let's go.” Midnight advised, with the siblings watching them worried on the screen as they slowly came closer to the dish, seeing that the drones were building something that looked like a small cylinder.

“It looks as if they're building the beacon right on top of the particle emitter. Once all the transponder rods are in place the beacon will be activated.” Fletcher concluded, having informed himself about Borg technology. “I guess whatever damaged their ship, cut them off from the collective and they try to reestablish contact. If they succeed, they might detect us.”

“Then we should destroy it,” Wolf suggested.

“There's a risk that we hit the dish. It's charged with anti-protons. We could destroy half the ship. We have to find another way.” The unicorn warned and they scattered around the dish, seeing that the locks of it were still working. “For this to work all three maglocks will have to be released.”

All three knights looked at the panels that were offline, tipping on the screen, only to get an ‘ACCESS DENIED' message. At that moment, one Borg drone saw Midnight as threat, who fired his phaser in response, scoring a direct hit, sending the drone into space.

Wolf at the same time managed to override the lock, engaging the manual input, just in time to see a drone coming towards her way.

In response, she fired her phaser, but the Borg glowed green. “They've adapted.”

As Fletcher managed to engage his input, grabbing the handle of the portal servo control and turned it, disengaging the first lock, he saw also a drone coming for him. Knowing they had adapted, he fired at the dish, blasting the drone into space through the released gas.

He saw how Wolf ducked to evade a strike by her attacker and drew one of her knives, slicing the drone into the threat and cut one arm off, but as it stumbled, the tools on the other arm struck her right hind leg, puncturing her suit. She groaned as she held her hoof on it in an attempt to seal it.

“Warning. Decompression in forty-five seconds.” The female computer voice of the suit sounded.

Noticing that his fellow knight was in distress, Fletcher deactivated his magnets and somersaulted over his attacker, barely managing to catch himself by grabbing the console and managed again, disengaging Wolf’s lock.

At the same time, Midnight managed to disengage the last lock. The restraining catches opened and the interplexing beacon floated free, with the Borg looking at it in surprise, yet the beacon flashed, in progress of powering up.

“Watch out!” Fletcher yelled at Midnight, the batpony looked up, only to get thrown over by a drone, attempting to assimilate him as the needles came out of the arm, before it was blasted into space, a leak in the hull had caused it as far as Midnight could see.

He turned around to see that the saving shot had come from Wolf, who had used a cable from the severed limb to seal her suit. The Pegasus then fired at the connection of the beacon, fully releasing it.

The bacon turned off as the power was cut. Once the dish had drifted far enough away, Wolf yelled, “Assimilate this!” And destroyed it with a well-aimed shot.

“Great work. Now, let’s return to the shuttle.” Midnight stood up after everything was over, with the children also returning to the shuttle, having carried all the supplies they could get.

“I was so worried about you.” Dinky looked at Fletcher in relief.

“It was sure something new to experience but not impossible, Dinky.” He replied before doing a scan on the Sphere. “Strange, the entire ship is offline.”

“I suspect the drones we fought on the dish were the only ones left of the crew. It gives us a good opportunity to test the weapons. Fletcher.” Midnight looked at him and he nodded.

“You got it.” The unicorn activated the shuttle’s weapons and fired the phasers after Wolf flew to a safe distance, creating small explosions, heavily damaging the Sphere, then finished it off with a photon torpedo. The Borg ship exploded in a bright green haze.

Midnight whistled. “Quite powerful weaponry for a shuttle. But now, let’s return to the voyager.

“Sure thing, Midnight.” Wolf acknowledged and she charged up the Warp drive. “It will take a few minutes.”

“Okay. It was a very exciting experience to fight in zero-gravity, wasn’t it?” Fletcher asked his fellow knights.

“Yes, it was. I just hope we don’t have to do it again so soon.” Wolf replied with unease in her voice.

“I thought you like new exciting things.” Fray looked her slightly surprised.

“I do, but to this one, I need to get used to it. And if Equestria ever considers a space program, remind me not to take part in it.”

“Duly nodded, but I think it’s unavoidable for us to be the first ponies on the moon if there would be a space program,” Midnight added with a chuckle.

“Well, it was quite interesting, wasn’t it?” Dinky asked her friends.

“Yep, it was. Though I felt a bit…I don’t know, heavy? Tight?” Pip couldn’t think how to describe it.

“Still, I think we all did great, especially you in handling your fear, Tungsten.” Ruby complimented the older colt, who blushed slightly.

Suddenly, Fletcher’s console gave off a warning sound. “I got another ship on screen, closing in fast, it’s powering up weapons!”

“Shields up, take evasive action!”

“Yes, sir!” Wolf did as told, the kids looked out of the window, seeing a rust-brown colored ship, shaped like some kind of tram-train with bulbs at each corner from behind, firing torpedos and the shuttle rumbled from the hit, with Noi, Ruby and Tootsie screaming in fear.

“Shh, It’s going to be all right, Tootsie.” Dinky tried to calm her cousin down, Blau and Katja did the same with Noi and Ruby. Tungsten just looked at the enemy ship in fear, Pip did too.

“Shields are holding!” Fletcher reported. “Wolf, get us around, so I can target the engines!”

“Aye, sir!”

The children watched as the shuttle turned around, facing the enemy ship. “What are they doing?” Tungsten asked.

“Trust me, they know what they are doing,” Dinky said confidently.

They saw how Wolf managed to get behind the ship and Fletcher fired 2 torpedoes. He scored a direct hit and the ship drifted off by the damage it took, but not before firing a blue beam at the prototype.

“What happened?” Midnight asked.

“Whatever they fired, it disrupted our propulsion and navigational sensors!” The mare reported with surprise in her voice. “But I detected a nearby jungle planet, the power should be enough to land there.”

“Then do it.” The captain quickly decided and Wolf did as ordered. She managed to bring the shuttle down near a glade.

“Good landing.” Fletcher complimented her. “We can start repairs and hide until the enemy calls of the search. Maybe even contact the Voyager.”

“I doubt it will be so easy. We should prepare for them trying to find us.” Midnight concluded. “Wolf, keep an eye out.”

“Sure thing.”

She took off into the skies, using the clouds as cover. It took only minutes until she saw the enemy ship in the sky, landing at another glade. Five humanoids in blue body armor walked out, being quite large.

“Not good.” She then flew back and reported.

“Hirogen? Just what we needed.” Midnight deadpanned, having informed himself about them.

“You mean…h-hunters?” Noi shivered in fear and Wolf gave her a hug.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be safe with us. How should we proceed?” She asked Midnight who thought for a moment, putting a hoof to his chin.

“I could locate them, Fletcher draws them out and you take care of them.”

“Is there a way we can be of assistance?” Dinky asked, interrupting them.

“I appreciate your helpfulness, but this is too dangerous for you.”

“Maybe not.” Wolf raised a hoof. “I noticed a cliff not far from here, it’s a good vantage point with good cover too. They could suppress the Hirogen with their phasers.”

“Could work. Do you really want to do this?” He asked the children.

They slowly looked at each other with insure expressions. It was risky, but their help could turn the tide.

“We do it,” Ruby spoke for them all, having determined expressions.

“Okay, I lead you to the cliff,” Wolf said and they followed her.

“While the internal life support of their armor can protect a Hirogen hunter while seeking prey in most hostile environments, including the surface of a collapsed star, I doubt it will be a problem for us.” Fletcher thought out loud as they took a prone position.

Midnight positioned himself on a cloud instead, keeping watch. It seemed tough the hunters had quickly picked up the trail, as he saw them coming towards them. “Here they come!”

The Hirogen moved carefully, knowing what their prey was capable off, as suddenly, something hit the ground next to them. “Hey! Over here!” they heard a voice and saw the unicorn stallion on a cliff. “Come and get me!”

In response, they raised their weapons to fire at him, yet were never prepared for what followed next.

Several phasers fired from above and they instinctively went to cover behind rocks. “Ambush!” One of them yelled.

“Return fire!” The Alpha ordered, turning to his fellow hunters. They flinched, blood leaked from their armor and they fell to the ground. “What the?”

Tungsten slightly smiled, relieved their plan had worked so far. Being distracted, he came to close to the age and slipped the slippage down with a scream.

“Ouch!” He cried in pain as he came to a stop, looking up to see the Alpha walking towards him. Out of instinct, the colt crawled backward until he was trapped against the wall. “Please don’t!”

“A Smart idea. It will be quick.” The hunter raised his rifle and Tungsten closed his eyes.

I’m so sorry, Mum…

His heart raced at his unavoidable death, knowing he would never see his mother again.

A sudden cry of pain, followed by a clanging noise sounded in his ears and Tungsten slowly opened his eyes.

Midnight had thrown the hunter to the ground, his blade drawn. The Hirgon drew his scythe-like knife. “A worthy prey, I wasn’t wrong.” And attempted to strike the stallion who blocked every strike with ease, before counterattacking, which the Alpha blocked in return.

Suddenly he felt pain in his back, as if someone had stabbed him turning around to see the Pegasus with her knives drawn, the other stallion next to her with his spear. “I appreciate every challenge!” He sounded quite eager about it, though the mask hid any expression.

Wolf dealt quick strikes, yet the Alpha blocked it without any effort, before barely blocking a strike of Fletcher and managed to graze Midnight around his left shoulder, the bat pony cried out in pain.

“Yes! That’s it! The thrill!” They heard their opponent shouting in joy before Wolf scored a direct hit in the back with quick strikes, making him stumble, followed by a swift strike of Fletcher.

The Alpha barely had time to recover before feeling great pain in his chest, groaning. He looked down to see the batpony having impaled his chest.

In the moment Midnight pulled it out, he collapsed against a rock, still alive. “You…are the victor…”

Fletcher walked up to him, preparing a healing spell. “Hold still. I can heal you. Live to tell the tale of your hunt.”

The Hirgon pushed him away. “No…you are the victor…May your hunts bring you….” He spit blood. “Great honor…”

Upon having said those words, his body succumbed to his injuries.

Fletcher then walked over to Tungsten, who was breathing heavily. “Are you okay?”

“I’m…f-fine.” He stuttered as the Knight helped him up.

“Let’s go.” Midnight said and they all walked back to the shuttle. “You did all great.” He complimented the children, they all smiled in appreciation.

“Glad that’s over. I checked the power, everything is fully restored.” Wolf reported as they stepped back into the Prototype.

“Send the Voyager a message that we are on your way back.” Midnight ordered.

“You got it.”

Again, the Warp core took a few minutes to power up, so the children played a game of cards, while the Knights played a round of poker.

“I raise ten.” Midnight said as he planned his next move.

“I see your ten and raise you…twenty.” Fletcher reacted in response.

“Quite an interesting move, boys,” Wolf commented with confidence. “What about we make this more interesting? Whoever wins this game gets a spa visit paid by the losers.”

“I’m in.” Fray grinned.

“You’re on!” Midnight added, “Two Pair.”

“That beats me. Wolf?” Fletcher asked, but the mare didn’t reply, looking surprised at the screen. The others did too and were shocked at what the saw.

A Borg cube.

“Battle stations!” Midnight yelled and they scrambled to their posts.

“And I had a full house,” Wolf mumbled, trying to evade the cube but he stayed on their tail, firing, with the shields holding, but the shuttle rumbled from every hit. “I can't shake them!”

“Return fire.” Midnight ordered.

“They must have come back for their sphere and masked their approach.” Fletcher suspected as he fired phasers. “No damage.”

“Warp drive?” Midnight asked.

“No luck, they disabled it, as well as our weapons,” Wolf reported before the Prototype took another hit. “Engines are offline. They've got us in a tractor beam.”

“We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.” The monologue voice sounded as the shuttle was dragged towards the cube.

“Engage the transporters!” Midnight quickly decided and Fletcher wasted no time to do so as the kids looked at the cube in fear and saw the blue flash.

Dinky groaned, her vision was blurry as she slowly got up, looking around. She found herself with the other kids and Fletcher in a dark metal floor. It was very cold, she could barely see anything, except the eerie viridian glow of rows of small lights on the walls which she found particularly unnerving.

A light was flashing, it was like lighting, causing all to close their eyes, as it was very bright

Also, it was very warm, the air was heavy, like being stuck inside on a summer midday.

“Where are the others? And where are we?” She asked in fear.

“On the Borg ship, I suppose. And it seems something went wrong with the teleport, Midnight and Wolf were separated. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.”

“F-Fletcher…” Tootsie pointed ahead and he saw a group of Borg Drones closing in.

In response, he struck one with his spear, it sparkled and fell to the ground. The second tried to grab his spear but he managed to knock it back and it the drone into the face with the back of the spear, taking it out.

As the next drone tried to attack, he lifted it up with his magic and threw it into the group, throwing all Borg over.

“Behind you!” Dinky yelled as another drone appeared with a green flash and he turned around.

This drone, however, blocked his attack by grabbing it and shoved him against the wall. He struggled before he suddenly felt a slight stabbing pain in his neck, groaning.

Looking down, he saw how the drone had managed to inject him with a pair of needles coming out of its wrist.

Within seconds, he felt pain on in his entire body, like it was cramping, as if something inside of him was changing forcefully and in a pain he never experienced before, letting out a cry of pain, trying to break free, but the drone had him in a tight grip.

Slowly, he felt how he got weaker, his vision became slowly blurry, the pain was getting stronger.

No…

The kids watched in shock as Fletcher fell to the floor, his skin becoming grey, deforming.

As the same drone looked at them, Blau tried to buck it, only to cry in pain from the force of hitting the armor before the Borg grabbed him and injected him too. “No!” Katja yelled and out of desperation tried to punch the drone. It swiftly grabbed her wrist and injected her with its pair of flexible needle-like devices.

The others, upon seeing how the siblings fell unconscious to the floor looked around, seeing another pair of drones coming from the other direction.

Dinky in her panic saw a small opening and made a run for it, hearing how the others screamed in pain before coming to a dead end. “No!”

The filly turned around to see 2 drones coming for her and she cowered in fear. “No…please…no…”

“That…went not as it should. Where are the others?” Wolf asked as she looked around.

“Separated from us. We must find them.” Midnight concluded and they started to walk through the cold, metal corridors of the ship.

“So this is how a Borg ship looks from the inside. Scary.” The Pegasus commented as she looked around.

They walled for a few minutes, strangely not encountering any drones before Midnight heard Wolf yell, “Look!”

He turned into its direction, facing what looked like an Assimilation chamber, the entrance blocked by a force field. This wasn’t however what shocked him.

He and Wolf saw the siblings restrained on what looked like an operating table. The colt had his right foreleg surgically amputated and replaced with the same cybernetic hand they had seen Domino and Saracen, it did a grabbing move upon being attached.

Katja had her left eye replaced with what resembled some kind of cold, eerie metallic mosaic before it was augmented with what was known as Eyepiece as far as Midnight and Wolf had read about the Borg, rectangular in form, both children had empty expressions.

“Fletch!” Wolf called out as she spotted the unicorn on another table. His skin was lightly mottling, mane was gone, his right eye also replaced by a rounded eyepiece, the still organic eye was weeping constantly. He screamed in pain as a drone surgically worked on his body. “We must save him!”

“No.” Midnight replied and Wolf stared at him in disbelief.

“What?! Midnight, you can’t be serious!”

“I’m sorry, Wolf, but there’s no way we can get past the force field. We must find another way.”

“Can’t…can’t you use your blood magic to teleport in?” She asked, sounding desperate to help their fellow knight.

“I could, but this would alert the Borg and I have no idea how to deactivate this force field.”

“But…but…”

Midnight put a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we will find a way, just give me time.”

Wolf looked at him, then at Fletcher and sighed. “Okay.”

A Borg drone was tipping on a console as the collective contacted it.

10 OF 10. ALERT. TWO LIFEFORMS. ASSIMILATE.

The drone turned around and moved out, together with a few fellow drones.

The other knights walked aimlessly through the corridor as suddenly, they felt as if they had walked into something, hearing a buzzing sound. “A Force field. Let’s find another way.” Midnight turned around, only to be stopped by another force field just a few meters away.

“Midnight.” Wolf pointed to something.

A group of drones walked towards them and both stared in shock at them.

It was a group of ponies.

All were covered in the black metal, exo-plating as far as the knights knew. The skin was pale grey, the manes gone.

Four fillies, three of them were unicorns, their horns covered in metal. The other one was an Earth pony. All of them had their left foreleg and eye replaced.

The other two were colts, the first was smaller than any of the other foals. The other one was much taller than any of the others. Both had the right eye and foreleg replaced with cybernetics.

“No…” Wolf couldn’t believe it as she and Midnight recognized them.

Dinky and her friends.

They passed through the force field without trouble.

Midnight and Wolf stood there frozen, they couldn’t hurt the children.

As Tungsten came closer, Wolf attempted to punch him into the face, but he swiftly grabbed her foreleg, forcing her down, Ruby lit up her horn, holding the mare in place, with Pip walking close and from his foreleg came a pair of flexible needle-like devices. Wolf struggled before she got injected and everything became black.

Midnight stared in shock at what he had seen before he felt someone grabbing him from behind, struggling.

It was a human girl, he had seen her before.

Katja, now fully assimilated, forced him to his knees.

Dinky and Tootsie lit up their horns, also trying to hold him in place, yet he managed still to struggle, requiring Noi to help Katja holding him still.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Midnight spotted another Earth pony colt coming into view and he knew at once who the boy once was

Blau Streifen.

The colt moved towards him and he tried to move away, yet it was in vain as the colt managed to reach his neck, and the stallion’s vision became slowly blurry.

Before he passed out, he heard all children say in a monologue tone,

“Resistance is futile.”

Chapter 5 Old friends

Chapter 5: Old friends

As Wolf came to, she felt that her body was numb but there was a great pain in her body, but she was unable to scream.

Opening her eyes, her heart started to race as she realized that she was restrained on a table in an Assimilation Chamber, her body covered in Exo-plating, one eye, foreleg and wing replaced by cybernetics.

She could only move her eyes to look around. Pip and Noi were regenerating in alcoves, two of the unicorn fillies were working on her body, the third tipping on a console next to her. They all had one foreleg and eye replaced with cybernetics. Out of the corner of her eyes, the mare could see Midnight in another chamber, also restrained and covered in plating and cybernetics, having the same fate as her in "replacements." A now fully assimilated Fletcher was working in him, showing no remorse for the pain he caused his now former leader, assisted by the siblings.

Quick as light, thousands of voices speaking as one, filled her mind, the pegasus tried her best to resist it but it seemed in vain. A tear left her eye, not believing that she, her comrades and foals would suffer to live the rest of their lives like this.

"Wolf..." A strangely familiar voice echoed in her head, but she couldn't recognize it "Run..." Her vision flashed red as a sharp pain entered her head, causing her to scream and panic, letting out powerful storm magic. She breathed heavily as the pain stopped, holding her head, noticing that the storm had short-circuited the restrains and temporary deactivated the assimilated foals, as they fell lightly for- or backwards, their forelegs loose in the air. The chamber Midnight was in was protected by a force field, making it impossible to reach him.

As she looked over to him, Fray and the siblings stared at her but did not move or doing anything. "I promise...I'll come back for you." She said before moving through the corridors.

There has to be a way out and contact the Voyager! There has to be!

She thought in slight fear and panic as she tried to get to a console, but the corridors looked all the same, like a labyrinth. Yet, she encountered no drones on her way, which was a good sign for now.

On the Voyager, the crew waited patiently for the shuttle to return, yet grew slowly worried. “Anything from our guests yet?” The Captain asked her tactical officer.

“No, Captain.”

“Maybe they had trouble with the engines and are delayed.” Paris suspected.

“It’s possible but we should check on them, better safe than sorry,” Chakotay suggested with a slightly worried voice.

“I agree, Commander. Mister Paris, set a course.” Janeway ordered.

“Aye, Captain.”

And with that, the Voyager jumped to Warp to the last known position of the Prototype shuttle. “Tuvok, can you detect the shuttle?” She asked him as he did a scan.

“I detect a ship up ahead.”

“On screen.” Her expression was one of shock as he saw the ship was a Borg Cube. “Red alert! Take evasion action!” Captain Janeway knew at once that the knights and children must have been assimilated, yet they had to get up with a plan first to save them.

The Borg opened fire, the Voyager returned it as Paris tried to evade them as good as he could. “Direct hit to their shield emitters. No damage.” The Vulcan reported before the ship rumbled and sparks came out of the consoles. “Our forward shields are down. Direct hit to the port nacelle. We're venting plasma.”

With an expression of guilt, Janeway ordered, “Take us out of here now, Tom.”

Paris didn’t hesitate and the Federation ship went to Warp, leaving the knights and children behind.

“Captain, we must help them.” Her first officer said to her, his expression one of slight worry.

“I know, but we need to get up with a plan. What’s the status of the cube?”

“The propulsion system is damaged but regenerating. They'll be capable of transwarp in less than two hours.” The Tactical officer reported.

“Then we don’t have much time. We need to get the repairs done as fast as possible.”

Suddenly an alert went off and Tuvok tipped on his console. “A transwarp conduit just opened off our port bow. They're on an intercept course.”

“Evasive maneuvers. Battle stations.” The Captain quickly ordered before the Vulcan raised an eyebrow at the readings he received.

“They're hailing us. Only audio.”

“Starship Voyager, we've come to help you in the rescue.” A female voice said on the channel, and Janeway looked in surprise and confusion at Tuvok.

Darkness. There was nothing but Darkness as the two knights and the children opened their eyes. “Where are we? What…happened?” Ruby asked in fear.

“I don’t know.” Fletcher replied as slowly light came into their view, finding themselves in a chamber. “What is this place?”

“My personal chamber.” A female voice sounded out of nowhere. “I am the Borg. I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many.” It was eerie but somehow curious and human.

They all looked around in confusion before they heard the sound of a lift and saw how a humanoid female head and shoulders descended from the ceiling, locking into a cybernetic body that had come out of a lift in the ground.

The woman was pale as any other Borg, but had what looked like several cables in the back of her head, like it was her hair. Throughout, she had a look that sent a chill down their spines. Maybe it was her blank stare, maybe how the rest of her body seemed to refuse to move, but something about her looked...dead. Almost puppet-like. There was something about her that suggested this woman was but another vessel for whatever invisible force pulled the Borg, an imposing vessel to be sure, but like the rest of her kind, life didn't seem to touch her.

Dinky and her friends trembled in fear as she came closer with a neutral expression. “Don't be frightened. Stand up, let me look at you. Comply.” The woman said with a commanding, yet somewhat caring tone and they slowly stood up. None of the youngsters could tell why they did, they felt unease around this woman, she was scary in every aspect.

“We will not serve you.” Midnight looked at the woman with a stern expression.

“Me? There is no me. There is only us. One mind. We all originated from lesser species. I myself came from species one two five. But that's irrelevant now. We are Borg.” She countered calmly, like she had expected this answer.

“How could you hurt us? We did nothing to you.” Tootsie spoke up with fear.

“That's the last thing I want to do. I'm here to help you. All of you. Assimilate you.”

“A-assimilate?” Tungsten asked confused.

“Yes. But that's nothing to be afraid of. You like having friends, don't you?” The woman asked and the kids slowly nodded. “Assimilation turns us all into friends. In fact, it brings us so close together we can hear each other's thoughts. I was just about your age when I was assimilated. I was worried then, too. But when I began to hear the others, hear their thoughts, I wasn't afraid anymore.”

“Then, what is the purpose of all of this?” Midnight asked suspicious.

“By assimilating other beings into our collective, we are bringing them closer to perfection.”

“Perfection. If that is truly your goal, than why all the killing? The death of Günther. All of his crew!” Dinky exclaimed in disbelief.

“Human!” The woman said with disgust. “We used to be exactly like them. Flawed, weak, organic, but we evolved to include the synthetic. Now we use both to attain perfection.”

“Like hurting our fellow friends?” Midnight asked with a slight hint of anger.

“We did no such thing. We gave them perfection. And with you, we can give it to Equestria too.”

“Did you really think we would surrender to you so easily? You wouldn’t stand a chance against pony kind!” Fletcher exclaimed confident and the woman just grinned as Pip gulped.

“You must be tired. It's time to regenerate. We've adapted alcoves just for you. Go. It will help order your thoughts. When your cycle is complete we will continue our conversation.” And in the moment she finished, everything became black again.

Wolf ran aimlessly through the corridors, yet was hoped there was a way out before she was stopped by a force field. “No, no, no!” She yelled in panic as a group of drones came from the other side. “It can’t end that way!”

The Pegasus looked frantically around as the drones came closer, was that really the end?

Had she failed?

As she blinked, the drones were suddenly gone, but she was in the same corridor as before. “Calm down, White Wolf, you are safe now.” The same familiar voice said and out of the corner of her eye, she saw two ponies walking toward her and she recognized them.

“Domino! Saracen!” She said happy, then stopped and held her throat as her voice sounded gravelly.

“You've been given a subvocal processor.” Saracen explained and as she looked at him, she also noticed her vision was altered. Warped, as if stretched, and dimmed of light and color. Something about the sight made her feel almost...dead...Like somepony who'd died with their eyes wide-open.

“How did you…” Domino held her hoof up to cut her off.

“We explain later, right now we have to save our friends.”

Wolf nodded, hoping it was not too late.

Domino then opened a channel to Janeway. “Captain, we might have an idea how to save them?”

“I’m all ears.”

“Do you remember how Picard was saved?”

“Yes, I do. His crew cut the link. But there was a high risking of losing him.” Janeway replied with concern.

“Don’t worry, Captain, we already thought of a safe method.” The Earth pony assured.

Once again, Midnight, Fletcher and the kids found themselves with the woman again as they opened their eyes. “Good morning.” She greeted in a neutral voice.

“We won’t help you in your goals.” Midnight’s expression was stern but the woman stayed neutral

“We're planning to deploy a new mode of assimilation designed for highly resistant species. You will be of great use regardless of your willingness.”

“Our knowledge is insufficient.” Fletcher quickly replied.

“Your knowledge for the target species is invaluable.” The woman countered and all quickly realized what she meant.

“We will not destroy our home!” Blau yelled with anger.

“I have no intention. We wish only to improve quality of life.” The woman countered calmly before an alert sounded and a screen showed the Voyager. “Captain, I expected a new tactic from you.” She commented unimpressed but all children started to smile.

Help was on the way.

“Our emitters are fully charged.” Doming reported and turned to Saracen. “Match their shield modulations and fire.”

“You got it.” He pressed the fire button and their ship fire it’s phasers, the Voyager came in with torpedoes, yet it seemed to have little to no effect, with the cube returning fire.

The voyager tried to locate the assimilated knights and children. “I can’t penetrate their shields.” Tuvok said to Janeway.

“Voyager to Domino. Status?”

“Patience, Captain. They're trying to remodulate their secondary shield grid.” The mare replied as some sparks came out of a nearby console, causing the ship to rumble, and she smiled as she saw the readings of the cube. “Shields in sub-grid forty two are destabilizing. Target that section.”

The unicorn did as told and fired, having the intended effect. “Their shields are down.”

“Excellent! Wolf, It’s time.”

White Wolf nodded and all three beamed on board of the Borg Cube, they were lucky. Just at the end of the corridor were their assimilated friends.

With her quick speed, Wolf passed through the children in a flash, knocking them out with a hypospray, Saracren walked towards Fletcher, blocking an attempted strike and injected him with a hypospray too. Domino blocked Midnight’s strike by grabbing his arm and pinched his neck, he struggled but became tired and fell unconscious too. Then she gently lifted him up with Wolf, Saracen did the same with Fletcher, using his magic to pick up the children and beamed out.

As the holograms of the assimilated knights and children disappeared, the woman took a deep breath, closing her eyes. “Initiate self-destruct.”

In response, the Borg Cube exploded and the ships got caught in the shockwave of it, rumbling a bit but were otherwise undamaged.

Wolf watched with worry as they arrived in the sickbay, seeing her friends were still unconscious. Suddenly they all snapped their eyes open and screamed in pain before panting in exhaustion.

“How do you feel?” Wolf asked Midnight, who was holding his head but managed to smile.

“Almost like a pony again. With just a bit of a headache.” Fletcher and the children nodded to tell the same.

“Good. Now, let’s allow the doctor to get those implants out of you.” Saracen replied with a happy smile.

“Nothing better than that.” Dinky added, slightly wavering.

It took the Doctor only a very short time to remove most of the Borg implants, the now de-assimilated knights and children woke up. Dinky looked at herself and the others, their skins had only traces of the pale gray coloration; it was mostly now a shade within the usual range of their respective colors and freed from the plating, their manes slowly growing back, Katja was back in her clothes again. But she noticed they all had still their cybernetics.

Still, she got a good look on the cutie marks of Domino and Saracen. The mare had the build of Fleur-de-Lis, but with a black and white coat and mane, her organic eye was fuchsia, her cutie mark was a checkerboard.

Saracen resembled the Saddle Arabian ponies she had seen before in Ponyville in build, his coat was dark blood-red with a long, dark-gold mane, an emerald-green eye and a unicorn horn that curved like an antelope and Cutie Mark was a gold scorpion.

Fletcher had told her and her friends before about the two, being also Eternal Knights that went missing some time ago, with Saracen being a very close friend. “Thank you.” She managed to say with a weakened voice.

“It’s nothing, Dinky, we just helped you, as you helped us.” Domino replied with a weak smile, she had a Trottingham accent.

“W-what do you mean?” Katja asked confused.

“Well, when we got assimilated, a small part of us was still left, resisting. When we shared your memories, we managed to break free from the collective.”

“I see…Still, why do we have still the cybernetics?” The filly wondered as the doctor entered.

“Ah, you’re awake, good. And to answer your question, while the medical data of you allowed me to remove most of the implants, the inner implants, such as the cortical node located on the brain can’t be safely removed without serve damage, even for a skilled Surgeon like me and the replaced body parts aren’t replaceable. I’m terribly sorry. But you should try to rest for now.”

Dinky stared at what she had just heard, her young friends did the same. “…Okay…” She and the other children then slowly made their way to their quarters, leaving the knights for themselves.

Midnight sighed. “I’m glad it’s over, but Equestria is still in danger of being invaded by the Borg, they know our tactics with our knowledge.” He sounded scared but Saracen held up his cybernetic foreleg.

“Don’t worry about that. When we isolated you from the collective, we also triggered a small self-made virus that deleted all knowledge of Equestria. And we also managed to collect your weapons, as well as the collected data of the prototype for the Voyager.”

The bat pony grinned. “Good thinking, your skills in strategy were perfect, as always.”

“Was there ever any doubt?” The mare asked with a grin of her own.

“Then, can you tell us how you ended up as Borg?” Fletcher asked and Domino took the word again.

“Frankly, we both can’t remember what exactly caused us to end up on the Borg ship, but I guess something went wrong during the fight with Cascadius.”

“Ugh…what just happened? Where are we?” She asked as she came to, looking around, finding herself in a metal corridor, barely able to see anything, except the eerie viridian glow of rows of small lights on the walls. Also, she felt warm air, being heavy.

“I don’t know.” Saracen replied and they both started to walk, seeing something on the way they never thought would we see.

Humans. They were only a myth in Equestria. But they had were bald, covered in grey armor and cybernetics, sleeping in what looked like upright beds.

“I don’t like this a bit.” The mare commented before one of those humans “Woke up”, walking towards her and she raised her weapon, a sword with a sheath that was a gigantic hammer.

“Wait!” Saracen held her back, and she noticed how the human walked past her as if she wasn’t there at all. “They appear to ignore us until we are a threat.”

Domino raised an eyebrow. “How did you…”

“Just a feeling and guess.” He replied and moved on until they came to what looked like a force field, blocking the next entrance. “This force field appears to be generated by a nearby generator. If we destroy it, it should deactivate the force field.” The unicorn concluded after having examined it and his comrade looked at a generator with a green node, swinging her sword at it.

The moment it exploded, the force-field vanished. “There you go. Now let’s-“ She couldn’t finish as a group of those human “woke up”, walking towards them.

In response, Saracen attacked with his signature weapon, a whip made of dragon-bone, hitting one of the humans who fell sparking to the ground. His partner managed to take down another one.

“Watch out!” The Trottingham mare warned as one of the humans appeared in a green flash behind the stallion but it was too late. Out of the wrist came a pair of needles coming out of its wrist and stabbed the Saddle Arabian into the neck. Saracen groaned in pain and tried to stay awake, but passed out and Domino saw how he fell to the floor, his skin becoming grey, deforming. “No!”

She yelled, only to feel how another human grabbed her from behind, she struggled before feeling a slight stabbing pain in her neck. Within seconds, her entire body was in pain, like it was cramping, and she slowly passed out.

“How long were you in the collective? Over 1000 years passed back home since you went missing.” Fletcher pointed out.

Domino put her hoof to her chin. “Two years if I remember correctly. Time seems to pass way faster in Equestria.”

“You sure all the changes in Equestria are not too much for you?” Midnight asked slightly concerned.

“Not at all. Just like the Borg,” Domino replied before she and Saracen switched to a monotone voice as one, “we will adapt.”

Slightly scared, Midnight then asked, “Are you really disconnected and yourself again?”

Domino started to grin. “Yes, we're just playing with ya.”

“There’s nothing wrong about a little humor. And I’m proud of you how you volunteered to get Dinky home, and it’s nice to see you became her uncle.” Saracen smiled. “If I had been there, I’d have come with you.”

“I know.” Fray lowered his head in embarrassment.”

“By the way, had Project Horizons also drones of us?” Domino asked and Fletcher thought for a moment.

No, if I remember correctly, our creator hadn’t the idea of you two yet at the time.”

“Still, it’s fascinating how these soldiers could process being cyborgs with only the brain left. I don’t know if I could take it.” Domino shivered at the thought.

“Me too, But I’m sure my wife would still be there for me.” Saracen added before faint crying sounded in their ears.

“Mama…Papa…I miss you…” It was Dinky’s voice that echoed in their head and they all five decided to look after the children.

It broke their hearts to see all looking out of the window, sobbing. “You will see your family soon, Dinky.” Fletcher gave a comforting hug.

“It isn’t really that…” The filly sad though her tears and looked at her replaced leg, then wiped a tear of her of still organic eye. “Are we forced to live the rest of our lives like this? Can…can our families and friends take what happened to us?” She asked with a very sad voice.

“I’m sure they will, Dinky. And that the regenerative magic can restore what was lost.” Domino’s voice sounded in their heads and they all looked at her in confusion. “I forgot to tell, while we disconnected you from the Collective, we are still linked to each other. A Sub-Collective so to speak but we can block if we need some privacy.” Domino explained with a guilty expression.

“A little side-effect we hadn’t thought of in the hectic of planning.” Saracen added.

There was silence for a moment before Dinky broke it. “…Okay…”

Then the doorbell rang and Midnight said, “Enter.”

Naomi walked in, together with a woman and four other children. “Hello. I’m glad you’re back safe and sound. Me and Seven thought it would be good for you to meet someone who has been through the same experience you.”

Seven was wearing a unique silver cat suit, having blond hair and blue eyes. The knight and their young friends hadn’t met her in person, only having been told by Naomi about her, having been a Borg drone the Voyager crew had saved. Only a curving attachment over her left eye socket hinted that she used to be a Borg drone.

“I’d like to stay, but me and Seven have to find a way to get you home.” Naomi said and the woman added,

“We will work as efficient as possible.” Then they both walked out.

The girl, having the same eye and hair color as Naomi, walked up to Dinky, stretching her hand out. “Hello, I’m Mezoti.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Dinky shook her hand with her hoof as one of the boys walked forward. He had also blue eyes and blond hair, but had the same thorns as Naomi, wearing blue shirt and brown overalls.

“I am Azan and this is my brother Rebi. “Rebi was identical to his brother, except he wore a red shirt and blue overalls.

“And I am Icheb.” The third boy introduced himself, he was taller than the other children, his eyes were green, the hair brown, having the same curving attachment over his left eye. His nose was also noticeable long.”

“Hello. I assume you were also assimilated?” Dinky concluded and he nodded.

“Yes. The Borg cube we were on, had…suffered a malfunction, killing every drone onboard save for us. The Voyager noticed the drifting cube and picked us up.” He explained with slight unease in his voice.

“I see. I take it not unease, not knowing what happened to your parents and friends.”

No, it wasn’t. But we are here to help you. I heard you play cards?” Icheb asked and Dinky slowly grinned.

“Yep!”

And so, the kids played together, having fun, forgetting about their implants, the knights played a round of poker instead, also enjoying themselves.,

Eventually, it became late and the children became tired and dinned, with Pip asking Domino and Saracen, “Where do you sleep?”

“Well, due to our implants, we have to regenerate using the alcoves on our ship. Unfortunately, the same applies to you.” Domino replied with regret in her voice.

Confused, the little colt titled his head. “And how does that work?”

“Let us show you.” Saracen said as they beamed over and they found themselves in front of a line of platforms with green disc large at the top of every platform. “Step in, stand upright, facing outwards. It begins as soon as the connection with the station is made.”

The children did as told. The moment they faced outwards the connection was made, and they all heard an almost unnoticeable powering up sound, and suddenly felt tired, closing their eyes.

“Sweet dreams.” Fletcher whispered before he and his fellow knights did the same.

The sheen of the cut crystal glass caught the sunlight, glinting as the silent, solemn-faced attendant poured the decanter of Ghoran blue gin into the ornate tumbler.

Trade King Groat wrapped his hoof around the glass without a smile, taking care not to let anypony on the ship see him slip a vial of laudanum into the glass to better ensure a temporary relief from the pain in his rotting gums. The sugar, alcohol and drug trades around the Campibbean had done wonders for his purse but carnage to his teeth. Ordinarily, he would wear his dentures of porcelain but after his last venture with; Groat’s scarred lips twisted with hatred at the thought; that stallion, they were lost to him.

He took a lip of liquor and relaxed himself, confident that what he took from his nemesis today would mean infinitely more to him than his teeth. He stood in his black jacket and towering top hat and surveyed the ship, every officer aboard the IGS Doloire rigidly standing to attention. Before the mast was the prisoner.

Teensie Tott knelt with her hooves bound, staring up at the Trade King without any sign of fear. Her normally pretty face was screwed up with contempt.

Groat didn’t mind admitting that, were she more obliging, he’d take every opportunity enjoy her company. But her current lack of obligations, and the punishment thereof, was worth a great deal more.

“Now then.” he said, his voice hoarse and gravelly despite its refined tone “Seeing as this may well be the last time we talk, have we made some effort to change our minds, Miss Tott?”

The unicorn mare raised an eyebrow.

“None at all, Mr. Groat. And if this is indeed the last time we’ll meet, I would only be too relieved.”

Groat made an effort to hide his impatience.

“Why must you be so cooperative?” he paced around the prisoner “All it takes is a word to me, which in turn will bring that word to my inner circle. Your father won’t refuse you, he never has. And Granport Totty and the cosy island of Hamaica will prosper with the Elite Industrial Guild beside its neighbors.”

“My father always told me all gifts from Elite Industrial Guild are as poisoned as the smoke rising from their foundries.” Teensie snapped “The Tott family will not see a little more money reason enough to trade the ponies of Hamaica into slavery.”

“Define ‘ponies’.” Groat checked the soles of his hoof in tedium “Your father has broken the law. Ordering citizens of Trottingham and its colonies to relinquish their possessions without compensation is not highly thought of. Our pardon and the return of the property he has discarded would save his life.”

Teensie’s amber eyes bore into Groat’s as she barked out the words her father had taught her.

“Zebra! Aren’t! Property!”

Groat and some of the officers beside him gave small chuckles.

“Now, who on earth told you that?” he chortled “Really, Miss. There’s nothing to it. All we need, for now, is your word. I am sure, over time, you will come to see us as the ponies who...really know what’s best for Trottingham...and Equestria.”

There was a pause.

Teensie gave a small smile.

“Goodness.” she sighed “I used to think you were mad, Groat. I was wrong.” She leaned forward, her prim, pretty face keen with resolve.

“You’re just bloody stupid.”

The smile on Groat’s face disappeared. Ordinarily she would have struck her but his free hoof was still holding his gin glass.

“You take advantage of my generosity, it seems. Not a wise move.” He stamped his hoof as officers hauled her by the shoulders onto a raft suspended by ropes above the water.

Groat signalled as a great cast-iron monstrosity was wheeled up on deck. A coal-black cannon of immense size, its length more than half the length of the battleship itself and its width so great a pony could walk down in. The newest creation from the hellish Trottingham Grandworks.

“The Lucratorius.” Groat said, giving it a tap that echoed through its mouth “You will have the honor of testing the device...Not as an operator, mind you, but as a target, but the part you’ll play will be just as important. I only hope that sea-vermin that somehow enamored himself with you keeps it together sufficiently when he finds your pieces scattered across the shoreline.”

“Don’t be too sure.” Teensie replied with a bold look as the raft she knelt upon was lowered onto the waves. The sea was rough this afternoon and she soon drifted almost two fathoms away from the Doloire, staring as the Lucratorius was set, monstrous metallic churns, clanks and rumbles loud even from where she was. She noticed the flame catching the cannon’s wick.

Though there was another sound. The lookouts were trying to yell over the cacophony of the cannon, the loudspeakers giving a brazen holler as they spoke from within their pod-like observation seat, protected from the toxic smog belched out of the enormous funnels from the ship’s engine.

“Hoy! Portside! Black sails!”

Aboard the Doloire, Groat gave a glance to the left. The dim outline of a ship approached, silhouetted in the low sun. As Groat tried to focus his eyes, there was a short thumping sound and a puff of smoke before them.

Groat’s eyes bulged.

With a growing hiss and a sudden slam, a cannonball shot out from portside and ricocheted of the Lucratorius, snapping one of its supports. With a tinny shriek, the enormous cannon swerved, one of the side wheels breaking. It slammed to the ground pointing diagonally, facing the funnels. Guild officers, marines and deckhands panicked en masse and dived for cover.

Groat dropped his gin glass.

The explosion was colossal. The Lucratorius’s massive hail of shot ripped through the funnels, shattered the lookout posts and swatched the ship in smoke. Coughing and spluttering, Groat found his hooves and grabbed an officer.

“What is the meaning of this?!” he screamed.

“Sir, we’re...” the officer gulped “We’re taking fire!”

“Ohhhhhh! I had no bloody idea!” the irate Trade King roared, slugging the officer across the face and scrambling up to the aft deck, grabbing a telescope off another officer and looking out.

A fully-rigged battleship glided into view, its decks teeming with ponies, zebra, griffons and other beasts from every corner of the globe. Beside a flag depicting a dancing winged, hippocampus skeleton dancing below a crescent moon, the figure of a rugged pinto in the billowy dapper garb of a buccaneer, giving Groat a mocking salute.

The Trade King ground his teeth or what little remained of them, and growled.

“Not him again!”

Atop the mast, the Captain tensed his neck as Glosswell, the young spoonbill griffon tossed him a rope and shook her head with cackle.

“I used to think you were a fool, cap’n. I was wrong...You’re just bloody mad!”

“And proud of it.” The Captain’s eye’s gleamed as he jumped.

Swinging over a clear fathom, hoping the rope would support, the pirate captain arched across the waters straight toward the raft.

Teensie Tott rose and shut her eyes.

Carried off her hooves, she heard the crew of the Calico Queen let up a cheer. As she found solid wooden floor beneath her again, she looked into the wolfish eyes of the Captain with a smile.

“Not your most impressive entrance, sir.”

“Heh.” the Captain chuckled “Glad to see your captivity did nothing to quench your wit, milady.”

“The crew await yer orders, cap’n.” Grampus, the portly first mate beckoned.

The Captain leered at the IGS Doloire, the Trade King aboard it trying to be heard over the din.

He looked out at his crew, standing ready, and yelled.

“Fire away!”

“…Pip, time to wake up…” The voice of Domino sounded and the little colt opened his eye.

“Ah, good morning.” He said with a smile, realized it had been a dream.

As they prepared to beam over to the Voyager, he and the others heard Fletcher mumble, “I guess this is how Scotch Tape felt about regenerating…”

While breakfasting, Midnight remembered something. “I saw no other drones on your ship, who’s in control when you are not on it?” He asked his two friends.

“Well, when we regained our individuality, it created a shock throughout all drones on the ship, killing them all.” Saracen explained with regret in his voice. “So we designed an Autopilot, indirectly controlled by our minds.”

“Sounds like a smart idea.”

The Earth pony mare than looked at the pinto-colt with a warm smile. “I saw your dream, you like pirates?”

“Yes, why?” He asked.

“Because, I used to be a pirate myself.” She replied with a grin and Pip’s eye sparkled.

“Really?” He asked in surprise and awe.

“Yes, during the golden age of Piracy to be exact. So I thought what about you and me, living out your fantasy on the holodeck?”

“I’d love too!” Pip exclaimed in glee and both walked out, with the others looked with smiles after them.

“I can tell they will be good friends.” Saracen commented.

“I think so too. If you don’t mind me asking, as you are married, are you also father?” Dinky asked, catching the stallion by surprise.

“Well, me and Varada didn’t feel ready for that during the years. But maybe, this changes once we are back home.” He replied with a weak smile.

“I’m sure you will be a great father.” Dinky added with smile as they looked after Pip and Domino.

The simulation showed both sailing a ship through the sea, the mare let out a evil cackle, pointing at Pip. “You are a pirate!”

“Hand the black flag at the end of the Mast!” Pip yelled happily, “A pirate’s life for me! We’re sailing away. Adventure waits on every shore. We set sail and explore. And run and jump at day!”

“We float on our boat. Until it’s time to drop the anchor. Then hang up our coats. Until we sail again!” Domino continued as the others watched with smiles as the two walked out, Pip giggled.

“That was fun!”

“Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Pip. Now, I’ll join you shortly in your quarter.” With that, the little colt scampered off, and Domino added with a smile of her own, “That’s gotta be the best pirate I’ve ever seen.”

“So it would seem.” Saracen nodded.

A few days later, they all enjoyed a chocolate cake made by Neelix. It was of cuboid form, decorated with upright chocolate bars to resemble sails and a pirate ship, they all enjoyed it to the fullest.

“Is it weird that I miss wearing glasses?” Tungsten asked into the round. “I know the eyepiece make glasses unnecessary but still, it feels strange.”

“It’s natural, given you never experienced something as this.” The piebald mare pointed out. “And the eyepiece has its perks. Like this.”

Her laser pointer pointed at Fletcher’s head, then went down to his chest, with the stallion looking at it in surprise, then became slightly irritated. “I don’t know what you’re staring at, but I don’t like it. Just be careful where you point.” He warned as the children suppressed giggles, with Domino grinning.

“What? Can’t take a little humor?” Then she used her cybernetic leg to drag Saracen away by pushing him by the chest, he struggled in vain, causing the kids to giggle again, even Midnight and Wolf couldn’t suppress it.

“I really missed your humor, Domino.” Midnight chuckled. “Has Seven found a way yet?”

“Yes she has. You see, the green portal that sucked you in was actually a transwarp conduit by the Borg, They wanted to send out a scout to see if Equestria is worthy of assimilation as years passed. As we still resisted, we tried to sabotage it and succeeded in a malfunction, which unfortunately you became victim of.” The Earth pony told with regret and Noi’s expression become one of guilt.

“Does…does that mean we are to blame for the death of Günther and his crew?”

In response, the dark blood-red held up his hoof. “No. The log says the Gabilan was supposed to travel to earth for leave by the time you landed on it, it was just bad luck with the Ferengi. But now, we should get the transwarp conduit up and running. We’ll see you on the other side.”

“Alright.” Midnight replied as Saracen and Domino left for their ship, while he and the others went to the bridge.

“We are engaging the transwarp conduit now.” Domino informed on the coms.

“Understood, our engineer will assist with the main deflector.” Janeway acknowledged and they all, saw how a big green portal appeared in front of the two ships.

“Alright, here goes nothing.” Tom mumbled as he steered the Voyager into the green corridor.

While there was only a green-white color to see, it was just as fascinating as the normal Warp Jump, both ships rumbled a bit but otherwise it went smoothly.

“Is…Is this home?” Tootsie asked as a planet with a blue and white color was on the screen in the distance.

“Yes, it is.” Dinky smiled, glad to be finally home.”

“Luna, we are back.” Midnight spoke to himself with a grin.

“Varada, sweetheart, I’m coming home.” Saracen added in their minds.

They all looked at their home planet with smiles, knowing they would be home soon

Out of the corner of her eye, Wolf noticed how the ship of her two fellow knights had strangely faint sparks of lighting around the hull.

“Guys, everything okay over there?”

“Just a small malfunction, nothing to worry about.” Domino replied in her mind.

“I hope you are right.” Wolf was slightly worried.

“Don’t worry, we have it under control.” Saracen assured her.

Still, the lighting slowly increased, becoming almost like a thunderstorm.

“Captain, the power matric of the Borg probe is highly unstable.” Tuvok reported and Janeway asked on the coms,

“What’s going on over there?”

“It appears the conduit had an undesirable side effect but I think I can fix it.” Saracen’s voice sounded as he took a look at the transwarp coil. “The magnetic interlocks have been ruptured. I...” An explosion interrupted him and the coil started to hiss. “Coolant leak! We're one minute from a warp core breach. There's nothing I can do.” He reported.

“Copy that. Mister Paris, get us to a safe distance.” Janeway ordered after the unicorn and Earth pony had beamed on board an arrived on the bridge, the kids watched the Borg ship with worry.

“Engaging impulse engines.”

“Core breach in progress.” Tuvok added shortly as the Voyager was only a short distance away and the Borg probe exploded, catching the Federation ship in the shockwave, throwing everyone over.

“Primary stabilizers off-line. Engaging secondary systems.” The computer informed.

“Report!” Chakotay yelled

“Helm controls are off-line!” Tom replied and the eyes of all ponies and children went wide as they realized the ship was hurtling towards the planet.

“Oooooooh curd!” All knights exclaimed in unison as the ship entered the atmosphere and was hurling towards a desert like area.

“I have rerouted auxiliary power to the lateral thrusters. I'm attempting to level our descent.” Tom said as his Captain warned,

“All hands, brace for impact!”

The impact was very strong, the children screamed as they got thrown around, the ship was sliding through the sand before coming eventually to a halt.

Fletcher, after seeing it was over, slowly raised his hoof into the air. “Another happy landing.”

Then everything went black.

Chapter 6 Safe and Sound

Chapter 6: Safe and Sound

Everything ached as Dinky came to, groaning in pain as she blinked, her vision slowly cleared, finding herself in a hospital room.

All her friends were also there and waking up. “Are…Are we home?” Pip asked still a bit dazed. “Is….Is the crew of the Voyager alright?” He asked as he couldn’t see them anywhere.

“They are alright and well, I can assure you. “ A female voice with an East-European accent said and they saw a nurse with a cobalt blue and dark red mane walking in. Her Cutie mark was hidden by the staff clothing he was wearing, her eyes hidden under her cap, yet was smiling. “Nurse Pin-Point, at your service.” She then turned and pointed a light into everyone’s organic eye for a few seconds. "Pupils reacting normally, good. You got a lot of visitors.”

As she left for the door, Tungsten, Pip and Fletcher could swear the Nurse was somehow familiar to them but they couldn’t tell why. Maybe they just confused her with somepony else.

“Pip!” Nancy ran in, hugging her son tightly with tears of joy. “I was so worried about you!”

“Mama…I missed you…” The little colt returned it, also crying tears of joy.

“I cannot imagine the pain of what happened to you…”

Her son slowly smiled. “I’ll be okay, mom. It’s gonna be alright.”

"Yes, it will. My little baby, my precious little colt…You mean everything in the world for me."

“My little muffin!” Derpy walked in with a relieved smile.

“Mommy…Daddy…” Dinky started to cry, hugging both her parents.

“Shh, Dinky, it’s over now.” Her father replied. “I can’t say how happy I am that you’re fine, I had really feared the worst.”

“I was scared that I would never see you again…” The filly sniffed, “And that I…” She couldn’t finish and buried her head into her mother.

“Don’t worry, little muffin, you’ll be fine,” Derpy said in a comforting voice.

“Tootsie, you’re okay!” Sparkler exclaimed as she ran in, followed by Carrot Top, Berry, Konrad, Ruby and Mitta.

“Sis!” They both hugged each other. “It was so horrible!” I never…”

“Shh, Tootsie, I’m here now. Everything’s gonna be alright. You are safe now.”

“Sparks…” The filly looked up with a tear-filled voice. “I’m sorry…”

“You have nothing to apologize for, it was an accident. I’m not mad, but very relieved that you are back and alive.” Sparker replied with a weak smile.

“Noi…I thought I had lost you like we have our parents!” Carrot top exclaimed happily to see her little sister again.

“I…I’m sorry for having worried you, sis. Mama and Papa would be very disappointed of me…” Noi lowered her head in shame.

“Noi,” Her big sister gently lifted her head up with a weak smile. “They would be just as happy as me to see you are okay. You’re the best sister I could wish for.”

“R-really?”

“Yes.” They both hugged each other.

“Children, you’re okay!” Konrad and Ruby hugged their children, with Mitta watching smiling.

“Mama!” Blau returned the hug by his mother, crying tears of joy.

“Papa…” Katja did the same with her father.

“My precious children…” The middle-aged mare looked at them with a smile. “ I missed you so much, You are everything for us…"

“Our pride…” Her husband added, Mitta nodded, wiping a tear out of her eye.

“And the best grandchildren I could ever hope for.”

“Ruby, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. This is my fault…” Berry lowered her head in shame before she got embraced into a warm hug by her daughter.

“It was an accident, mom, it wasn’t your fault. Cheerilee and Colgate wouldn’t blame you either. I’m just happy to see you again.” Her daughter had a weak smile.

“R-right…Come here.” Berry returned the hug with a weak smile of her own.

The knights smiled warmly at the scene of the children being reunited with their caretakers before Luna and Celestia walked in with their respective families. “My loyal knights, I’m very happy to see you’re back and okay. And welcome back, Saracen and Domino.” Luna said.

“The pleasure is all ours, your highness,” Domino replied with a smile of her own as Wagensroll and his relative hugged each other.

“When I heard the news and saw what happened to you, I feared the worst.” The Earth pony sounded very relieved yet shocked at what had happened to Fletcher.

“I’m okay, Wagensroll. It takes a lot more to take me down.”

“I know, but still, hearing what happened to you really scared me, I really don’t want to lose you.” Wagensroll pointed out.

“Don’t worry, Wagensroll.” Fletcher assured as they both hugged each other.

Wolf let out a sigh, she couldn’t see her family among the visitors. Maybe they couldn’t bear seeing her like this, or were still bus somewhere else.

She looked at her wing, unlike Midnight, she couldn’t heal so easily. Even if her wing could be restored, could she ever be able to fly again? Could her family cope with what happened to her?

So many questions raced through her mind.

It was beyond anything she had ever experienced in her life, probably changing it forever

A few minutes passed, only the happy cries of the families filled the room.

The ears of the Pegasus perked up as she heard several hoof steps.

It was a deer walking in. She had a flash of black and white, the tips of her hairs as if dipped in silver and a pair of small grey antlers, the mane was ginger and hung in a wild but vibrant flow down to her shoulders. Her expression was neutral, possessed of wide ebony eyes with long eyelashes, a splash of ruddy blush-like ginger-brown over both cheeks and a pair of slightly elongated canine teeth.

Her mother.

A feeling of unease overcame her, the Wolfsong weren’t exactly a fan of such technology as her mother looked horrified at her.

“White Wolf…What did they do to you?” Fallingleaf asked in shock as she looked at the cybernetics.

She didn’t know how to answer. Would they look down on her? Disallow her? All sort of bad thoughts raced through her mind but she knew she had to answer somehow.

“Mother…I…” Wolf stuttered with fear in her voice before she received a calming hug from her father.

“It's fine, Wolf, You are our daughter and always will be, no matter what.”

“And our sister,” Wintermist added, smiling weakly. “It’s tragic what happened, but I am sure it can be fixed. You survived worse, so you will get through this too.”

“I know. I was just worried if you could take it seeing me like that.” She looked at her replaced body parts with unease.

“It was shocking at first, but we all know you’ll pull through, you always do,” Lightfoot told with a smile.

“I’m so sorry, Midnight, that this happened to you,” Supernova told with regret.

“It’s alright, it wasn’t your fault.” Midnight gave him a pat on the back.

“Yeah…Still, do you think you can recover from all this?” Supernova asked with concern and Midnight waved his hoof.

“Why shouldn’t I? I’m confident I can. Besides, my healing capabilities should have little trouble.”

“I like your optimism,” Luna said with pride.

“There is also somepony who wants to see you.” The voice of the nurse greeted their ears again and they saw her walking in, holding the door open.

Saracen wondered who it could be, as a shadow came into view, looking like a mare. He had a suspicion who it could be.

As the shadow come closer, a mare with a yellow coat with a salmon-pink dapple pattern, bright sea-blue eyes and a purple mane tied up in a traditional hairstyle walked in. She was dressed in red and ochre silks. Her cutie mark was the shell of the Murex Sea Snail.

“Varada!” Saracen exclaimed happily as she hugged him.

“Saracen…I missed you so much!” She was crying tears of joy, kissing him, with everyone smiling at the heartwarming scene. “And I’m proud of you.”

“I know and I’m glad that the Nesoran ritual with the great clam shell worked.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Dinky managed to say with a weakened voice and the mare returned a smile.

“Likewise, Dinky. I looked forward to meet you and your friends.”

“There’s also visit for you, Tungsten,” Pin-Point added and he wondered who it could be. He knew it couldn’t be his mother, she couldn’t just walk in like that.

Slowly, the hoof steps came closer and two stallions entered, both in shackles, escorted by guards. One of them was an orange, blue-dappled batpony with a white ponytail, wearing a colored a cloth and eyepatch over his right eye, the other one a black-and-white-speckled Earth pony, possessed of a grey ponytail of a mane. Both looked relieved at Tungsten, who lowered his head the moment he saw both.

“Hey, Tungsten.” The bat pony started but the colt didn’t react at all. “I understand if you don’t want to talk to me or see me, I just…” He sighed, “Wanted to tell you I never meant it.”

“Wha…What do you mean?” Tungsten asked slightly confused, raising his head.

“I’m your uncle and your mother is one of my best friends. I never wanted to do this, I regretted every second. I understand if you don’t forgive me, I just wanted to tell you my regrets. I care for both of you a lot.” The stallion lowered his head.

“Yes, it was tragic it had to go that far.” The Earth pony continued, “We all can only hope she’s out there and okay.”

“She was my closest friend since foal hood. She ended up on the wrong side but she was never a bad pony. Taking care of you was the least I could do for her, Tungsten.” Nancy added with a weak smile.

Tungsten’s uncle walked next to him lowering his head in shame. “I understand if you hate me, won’t forgive me. I just want to let you know, I’m sorry, regretting what I had to do.”

“Shadowplay…” The colt started his voice, cracking, head lowered too. “I…I…” He took a deep breath, shaking as he slowly looked up.

“It’s fine, Tungsten. I have to live with the consequences.” Shadow replied and suddenly, he felt himself being hugged.

“I forgive you…Uncle Shadow.” Tungsten looked up, a tear leaving his organic eye.” I just miss her so much…”

He returned it. “Me too, me too.”

“Count me in. She’s one of the best mares I know. And she raised you well.” The Earth pony added with a weak smile.

“I know, Tybalt.”

Fletcher then noticed how Nurse Pin-Point seemed to smile warmly at the scene as she looked at Nancy.

“I hate to break it but what happened to the Voyager?” Dinky asked the princesses with worry in her voice and Celestia raised a hoof.

“The damage the ship took is not as serve as Captain Janeway thought. With our help, they should be able to get their ship up and running again. They currently try to repair it.”

All children and knights let out a breath of relief, it was good that the crew of the Voyager had still a chance to get home and not be stranded far from home because of them.

“And what about our…bodies?” Noi asked with a horrified voice, fearing the worst as Luna gave her a comforting smile.

“Don’t worry, the healing magic will restore what you have lost, due to the medical data we recovered from the Voyager."

“And my nanomites?” Fletcher asked curious, yet with a hint of fear in his voice.

“There is nothing to fear. The Borg nanoprobes have overpowered them but the healing magic will restore them as well.” Luna gave him a smile. "Now, viewing your memories will allow us to be more precise with the medical procedure.” She lit up her horn and a white light surrounded the room and in a blink of an eye, they found themselves on the Gabilan, being transparent, watching in awe.

“Wow, quite a fascinating idea with this…holo deck.” Wagensroll commented, “Understandable given they are years away from home.”

“Yes, it is,” Fletcher replied, seeing how the expressions of the parents became slightly one of disgust upon seeing the Ferengi.

“Should have thought twice about this business,” Shadow commented coldly at the sight of the Marauder’s destruction.

“Yes. This was also where we met Domino and Saracen again.” Midnight replied and he saw how others looked slightly shocked as they saw the Borg and what happened to the two missing knights.

“Oh my…” Saracen…” His wife mumbled in shock as she saw him as Borg Drone.

“I know, but it was thanks to them that I got freed.” He said in a comforting voice before the next part was shown.

Sharphorn slight panicked and hyperventilated as he found himself in space, only to be gently grabbed by the shoulder by Luna. “Relax, this is only a memory, nothing can happen to you.”

He slowly took deep breaths, calming down and Supernova watched the shuttle with a slight grin. “Must have been interesting to be the first ponies in space, Midnight.”

“Yes, it was quite exciting.” The Lord Commander replied, noticing how every parent gasped in shock as the Borg assimilated them, even Shadow, Tybalt and Pin-Point were slightly shocked at what they saw.

“My poor daughter!” Berry hugged the rose unicorn tightly. “You didn’t deserve this…”

“It’s okay, mom, it’s over now.” Her daughter replied before they found themselves back in the hospital room.

“You truly went through a lot, but it now it’s time to recover. We will discuss the procedure with the medical staff.” Luna said and they all, safe for the nurse, walked out of the room.

“Is something wrong?” Tungsten asked her.

“Yes. I missed you terribly.” The nurse said and lifted her cap up, revealing she was a unicorn and Tungsten started to smile.

“Mama…” A tear of joy left his eye and they both hugged each other.

“I’m so glad to see you’re okay…” She also cried tears of joy, the others watched with smiles at the scene. Then she slowly broke it, looking up to them, Pip’s expression became slightly apprehensive. “Please…” She said before clearing her throat, “I just want to see my son, nothing more.” Her voice sounded now normal without the accent and they all slowly nodded.

“Why should we deny this? You’re his mother, it’s your right.” Fletcher replied calmly.

“And I must thank you, you saved my son a second time,” Blue replied and looked at Pip. “Pip, please you don’t have to fear anything from me. I never wanted to do this, I told you and your mother.” She told with regret in her voice. “It’s difficult I know and I accept if you are upset.”

“Blue Murder,” The pinto colt started, “I forgive you. Mother does too. We both never blamed you for this. You’re the best godmother I could ever wish for, you taught me so much.” He formed a weak smile.

“I know and I’m glad to hear you forgive me. And I’m happy that Nancy took so good care of you, my son. One day, I will make up for this all.” Blue Murder replied before a voice called out.

“Nurse, are you coming? The surgery will begin shortly.” It was Doctor Stable.

“One…” Blue stopped and cleared her throat again. “One moment!” It was her East European accent again and she tipped her cap at the children and Knights. “Get well soon.” Then she walked out and the doctor entered to bring them to the surgery room.

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 54114. 8. It’s been a few hours since the surgery to make our gest whole again has begun and we managed to get our ship up and running again, having suffered no casualties among the crew.” Janeway did her log, then went to the bridge. “Mr. Paris, report.”

“I got some readings on our position. I can’t get an exact fix, but it appears we are still in the Delta Quadrant, yet over two hundred lightyears closer to the Alpha Quadrant.”

“So…we gained a few months. Get us back on course for home.”

Tungsten awoke with a slight groan, his vision was blurry, feeling dazed. He blinked a few times but his vision did only clear minimal, also noticed he saw only with one eye, his other side remained black.

Seeing his reflection in the window, he noticed he had a bandage around his eye were the eyepiece had been, the others, still sleeping, had too. Their replaced legs were slowly healing, with a hollow prosthetic in place, the same was for Midnight’s and Wolf’s replaced wing.

Despite his blurry vision, he also noticed a pair of glasses on the nightstand, with a note next to it. A speedy recovery, your mother.

He smiled and looked out of the window, seeing it was slowly getting dark, a shooting star was flying past.

Thank you for everything, Voyager.

Blue Murder, after the surgery had begun and was successful, was camping on the landscape, watching the stars, noticing a shooting star in the sky.

May your journey home be swift, Voyager. You earned it after all your help. Thank you.

Author's Note

End of the line. Hope you enjoyed the story.