Legacy of the Past

"You won't even listen to what I have to say!?" Nathaniel shouted, it had not taken long before his normally lax temper blew and he was shouting at Ditzy, who glared daggers at him.

"No, I only brought you here so you wouldn't cause a scene and destroy everything I've built up here."

The Captain growled. "I don't believe this, we're not the Feds! We're not going to stab you in the back the moment we get the chance!"

Ditzy scoffed. "If I had thought that, you wouldn't be alive right now."

Now Nathaniel scoffed angrily. "It looks like the archives were right about something, you never think things all the way through... if you killed me, even quietly, you'd provoke the wrath of my ship and then you would lose everything."

"You haven't been here long, have you? Lay the tiniest hoofprint anywhere on Equestria, and you'll have to deal with the wrath of the Sun and the Moon."

"If you're talking about Celestia and Luna, I've already spoken to them."

Ditzy was silent, as she stared now worried at Nathaniel, wondering if he had told the princesses.

"And no..." He said, putting her fears to rest, most of them. "...I did not mention you to them, in fact, they still think I'm on the ship." He sighed. "I fought with you at the Battle of Sol, I saw you go down on Terra while the Feds bombed their own planet to rubble to save as many people as you could. And I am well aware of all your exploits across the galaxy, you saved it from turning into utter chaos how many times!? You are a hero, why turn away from all that, the most well known being in the galaxy, your very name is a battle cry among us and it can silence entire armies.

"In fact, that's what happened at one point. When the galaxy thought you had died, a huge memorial was built... now, it turns you never did die, you fled, you fled all the way to another dimension. Why?"

There was a heavy pause as Nathaniel let the question hang in the air, Ditzy looked down as conflicted emotions rose within her. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and with great concentration stared at Nathaniel with both her eyes. Nathaniel merely blinked to show he had been surprised.

"I didn't flee anywhere, I didn't choose to go to another dimension. I fell to this dimension through some sort of rip in the Belasi sector..."

"The Belasi Tear," Nathaniel said, revealing the name to the pegasus. "That was how we arrived, and we managed to create a sort of pulley system so we can head back."

"Well I didn't have that sort of system, I was trapped here and forced to adapt."

"And it seems you have adapted... too well. You have a duty in our dimension,"

"I have one here too," Ditzy countered, staring at Nathaniel angrily. "and I am not leaving this one."

"Even if-"

"I don't want to hear it!" The pegasus said quickly. "I don't want to hear it and I don't care! Don't waste your breath on me..."

Nathaniel shook his head, before turning around, heading for the door. "I've always wanted to meet you in person, to thank you for all you've done... Well, thank you, and thanks for abandoning us when the galaxy needs you once again..." Nathaniel's voice was thick with disappointment and a hint of sadness, he opened the door and left, leaving it open and Ditzy staring out, her mind torn over her decision.

That unicorn was a good person, at least, he acted like he was. She was glad she stopped him from going into detail about what sort of 'crisis' her home galaxy was in because, if she heard the details, it would be a lot harder for her to refuse his call of help. But... she shook her head. What she did was wrong even if it was for the right reason. She couldn't leave Dinky behind with the possibility that she would never return, it would be too much for both of them.

Dinky... Her daughter was smart and Ditzy knew she would come home with questions brimming in her head. Perhaps it was time to tell her, she was very smart for her age and mature too...

As Nathaniel walked back toward the forest, he saw two of the soldiers hiding just behind the treeline. Curious as to why one of them left the shuttle landing area, he broke into a light trot as he came up to them. They saluted, that was when Nathaniel realized they were not Phasic soldiers.

“What’s going on? Who are you?” He asked.

The soldiers didn’t answer at first, as if confused. “Captain, we’re with Trident Squadron along with Master Sergeant Benedict, he said you ordered us down here along with the humanizer chemical for a special operation.

Humanizer? Benedict is down here? Special operation?

“I made no such order, what is going on, answer me!”

The soldiers looked at each other. “Sir? But Doctor Zeb said you had told him to tell Benedict and us to mobilize and-”

“Doctor Zeb? I haven’t spoken with him since I left the Fallen Star.” Alarms began going off inside Nathaniel. “Take me to Benedict, now!”

The soldiers nodded to their Commanding Officer. “Sir, right this way.”

It didn’t take them long before they arrived at the same clearing Nathaniel had landed in previously, there he saw roughly 2 dozen fully armed soldiers and a small canister and tied to it was a small grey filly- Nathaniel did a double take when he saw the filly that was Ditzy’s daughter, staring at him wide-eyed as she recognized him.

“MASTER SERGEANT BENEDICT!” He called, his rage overwhelming him like a dam busting open suddenly. The whole encampment froze and Benedict briskly showed up and made a stiff salute.

“S-sir?”

“What the hell have you done!?”

“But sir, I was only following your or-”

“Your orders, Sergeant, were to remain on the ship and keep an eye on things, not take a full squad of soldiers and go kidnapping children!” Nathaniel blinked when he remembered what the other two soldiers told him. “Zeb...” He muttered, wide-eyed.

“Sir... he said you had contacted him and told him to relay your orders to us, he had all the authorization codes to confirm it.”

“That son of a bitch...” Nathaniel shook his head, somehow he had managed to obtain the command codes used if he was unable to contact all of his forces. “What did he tell you, Sergeant?”

“Sir... he said that your negotiations with a fugitive failed and that we were to capture her daughter and use her to have the fugitive to comply...”

“Fugitive...?” Then Nathaniel remembered that Ditzy was still technically an outlaw, a criminal... “Damnation...”

That was when his comm buzzed, and he pulled up a holographic image of one of the bridge officers. “Captain!” He said.

“What is it, ensign?”

“It’s the Tear, it seems to activating, we have another ship coming through.”

Another one? That didn’t seem right, the Confederation never said that they were going to send more ships through, had something gone wrong?

“Alright, keep an eye on it, I’ll be onboard soon.”

He glanced at Benedict who was never more thankful to be wearing a helmet, shielding his wide eyes from view of everyone around him.

"Shall I have the child returned?" He asked tentatively.

Nathaniel thought this over, one the one hand, if he returned the child, Ditzy would know and never forgive him and, to an extent, the Confederation, even if he mentioned that this was not his doing. But, as much as he hated to admit it, this was his only chance at getting her to comply with him. But again, if he did allow this to happen, he would be as much to blame as Zeb was and she would still hate him. You've made quite a mess for me Zeb... I'll be sure to make you clean up most of it...

Either way, Nathaniel came to the conclusion that there was no way to avoid this unforgivable crime they have committed and that there was chance she may just kill them all. But it wasn't her style... then again, she's killed numerous humans during the war... Nathaniel sighed, and made a choice, probably the most important one he ever made.

"No, keep her restrained, and wait for her mother to arrive. I assume Zeb has told you what to do?"

"Y-yes sir, he gave me instructions, including having her find out where we are."

"Good, it will only be a matter of time then, I need to head back to the ship."

Benedict saluted. "Sir."

As the ramp of one of the shuttles opened and Nathaniel climbed up it, he stopped. "And Sergeant?"

"Yes sir?"

"I do not hold you responsible for your actions, you were merely following orders and I will not condemn you for that."

"Yes sir..."

The Captain then walked up the ramp and strapped in as the cloaked and silent shuttle lifted off from the ground.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<<"We're nearing the ship, Captain.">> The pilot reported. <<"Looks like the Tear is really acting up, are we getting reinforcements?">>

Reinforcements for what? The Captain pondered as the shuttle docked the Fallen Star, which had turned, it's starboard side facing the bright glowing 'star', it's tendrils growing and twisting about, as before.

Tyler and Jacqueline glanced from the Tear to the Tyler's radar screen.

"A ship should have passed through by now..." Jacqueline said nervously.

"Maybe it's a bigger class ship, like a Dreadnought."

"Why send such a ship though? It doesn't make sense."

"Command is probably worried about us, we've been gone for days, they're probably just sending a ship to check in on us."

"Why not send a probe? It's a lot faster and it doesn't risk further lives?"

Tyler opened his mouth to respond, but a beeping from his console interrupted him. "Looks like we'll find out, here they come."

From the Tear, the tip of a massive ship, twice the size of the Fallen Star, began to emerge, it's a reflective purple tint. From the bridge, Jacqueline stared out the viewscreen while Tyler looked closely at his console. The mare squinted to get a better look, and as the rest of the ship began appearing, her eyes widened.

"Oh god... Tyler..." She said, her voice suddenly hoarse.

"Hold on, Jacqueline, the computer's almost figured what ship that is..."

"Just look through the damn screen, Tyler!"

Tyler glanced up and his face paled, his heart suddenly pounding. Without thinking, he jammed his hoof into the alert button and accessed the Intercom, while the bridge began bathed in the emergency blue lights. "Battle stations!" He yelled as the klaxon sounded. "All crew to your battle stations, this is not a drill, repeat, not a drill!"

The whole bridge crew suddenly jumped into action, hearing the familiar sound of the klaxon and the blue light illuminating the bridge.

Nathaniel galloped at full speed the moment the klaxon sounded. As he entered the bridge, he immediately looked out the viewscreen and stared disbelievingly at the large purple ship with no visible weapons. "Activate shields! Status report, now!" He called out.

"Dread-class Pirate ship! They just emerged from the Tear, Captain." An Ensign yelled back.

"I know what it is, what is the status of our weapons!?"

"All sections are now reporting for duty, Captain."

"I want all weapons aiming at that ship, tell them to target the front of it, the closer to that tip, the better."

Outside, the numerous cannons aboard the Fallen Star began turning toward the enemy ship, which continued obliviously straight for the smaller ship.

"Have they activated their shields yet?"

Jacqueline shook her head as she pulled up the status of their target ship. "No sir, I read no speed, course, or any kind of change at all, it's like they don't know we're here, or-"

"-Or that they're realizing how difficult it is to press tiny little buttons with hooves." The Captain said with a sneer. "As soon as all guns have a lock, order them to fire and barrage the ship. Have all Starboard torpedo bays loaded with the Fusion and Prime torpedoes, we'll make short work of these pirates!"

The moment the last cannon stopped turning, the cruiser briefly began to glow blue as all the cannons simultaneously opened fire, blue glowing orbs streaked toward the purple ship, which flew on unphased. The orbs struck the ship, and the front of it glowed orange and yellow as explosions burst from its hull. Further explosions, this time blue, appeared deeper in its hull. The ship continued on as though it had never been hit. Another salvo or orbs struck the ship, causing further damage. And another, and another. The Fallen Star fired salvo after relentless salvo. Finally, the ship began tilting down as explosions appeared halfway through the ship. Then, several large missiles launched from the cruiser streaked toward the shuddering battleship, while a pod broke away from a previously hidden spot in the hull of the ship, firing its engines and streaking passed the missiles, past the ship, and straight for the planet behind it.

As the missiles hit and huge, blue clouds of vaporizing plasma erupted from the massive ship, enveloping it completely as it fell apart. Nathaniel breathed an open sigh of relief.

"Damage report," he asked, wiping sweat that had built up on his forehead.

"Enemy ship destroyed sir," Jacqueline reported. "We've no damage at all."

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "What about that missile they launched at us?"

Tyler shook his head. "It wasn't a missile, sir, it was an escape pod, and it headed straight for the planet."

It didn't register right away that something hostile was landing on the planet. When it did, Nathaniel's heart skipped a beat. "Son of a- Why the hell didn't you tell me, ensign!?"

Tyler flinched. "I'm sorry sir, but I thought that the Pirate vessel was more important-"

Nathaniel growled in anger and glared at another officer by a console. "Grab that pod's trajectory, I want to know where it's landing!"

"Doing that now, sir!" The officer complied as he tapped furiously at the keys, tracking its course. "Sir... I have it's trajectory laid out!"

"Where is it landing!?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Master Sergeant Benedict wiped his brow as the sun began setting. It had been almost an hour and still no sign of the child's mother. He was getting impatient, but he had his orders, and he intended to follow them. With the light of the bright setting sun clouding their vision, the soldiers and kidnapped unicorn didn't notice as a fiery streak crashed in another part of the Everfree Forest, they did however, hear the explosion from its crash.

"What the hell was that?" A soldier asked, suddenly jerked awake from his nap.

"Weapons ready, troops." Benedict ordered, his voice almost a whisper, readying his own weapon as he scanned the foliage around them, and glancing at the unicorn child, who also looked around nervously. They waited for what must of been hours, the sun almost fallen completely into the horizon, before Benedict sighed and had the troops stand down. With them being in another dimension on a strange world, that could've been anything but an explosion.

But Benedict and the rest of the soldiers and their prisoner all failed to see two glowing orange eyes staring at them, calculating its move and seeing what is the best way to kill them all. It examined each soldier indifferently, but there was something about the small child that caused it to watch it more then the soldiers, which were presumably more dangerous. When the sun completely set, it figured its best course of action, and stretched all of its limbs in preparation.

"Hey Marcus," Daniel said to the Phasic trooper. "How's that pack doing your back?"

Marcus shrugged. "With this equine form, a lot better then normally, Daniel. I might actually prefer if it weren't the lack of thumbs, heh-" His chuckles were interrupted by something spearing him through the chest. With a chocked gurgle, Marcus went limp as he was lifted in the air by the darkness shrouded object, and flung his body like a ragdoll into the woods. What happened next was a blur, as soldiers desperately fired shots in the general direction of the new attacker, who moved in a blur, taking down two soldiers, before grabbing a cloaked phasic trooper ripping him in two. The creature then jumped onto the cloaked shuttle, somehow able to see it, and smashed a monstrous hand into the cockpit, pulling out the hapless pilot and smashing her into the ground.

Ditzy paced her living room nervously, it was now night time and there was still no sign of Dinky. She had never been late before, ever. It was bad enough with the meeting of the Confederate officer and having memories of her old life return, but now her daughter has not come home. Something clicked in her mind as it made a very scary thought. She shook her head vigorously.

"No..." She muttered. "They wouldn't do that, they're not the Federation..." But they are human...

Ditzy sighed and made her way to her door, opening it and coming across a small datapad she recognized as Confederate technology. She picked it up and an image of a human who looked kind of familiar appeared before her.

"Greetings, I don't know what name you've taken here. But I don't care. I am Doctor Zeb." Ditzy's heart skipped a beat, a nightmare name among her list of other nightmares. "But I am not my father, I have faithfully served the Confederation and I still plan to. I have come to the conclusion that you cannot be persuaded to return to us because you now have a daughter..."

Again the disturbing thought returned and her wall eyes widened in horror. "You didn't..." She muttered.

"But you're daughter will also be the reason why you'll return. Your child is safe but is in the hands of Confederate troops-"

Ditzy dropped the datapad in anger and horror, the message continued. "-head to these coordinates, near the edge of the forest. and come prepared to leave. The sooner you return with us, the better..."

The message showed a map of the Everfree Forest, which did nothing but worsen the Pegasus' fear, before switching off. Then, her ears caught the flicker of a familiar noise, weapons discharges. She turned her head, and faced the Everfree Forest, where she heard the faint shriek of a child.

"Dinky!" Her wings flared open but she stopped. She was dealing with troops from her dimension, and damn it all to hell that she was going to let them push her and her daughter around. She went back inside, and tore open a box she had long ago hidden, where a dusty suit lay folded up. A minute later, she flew out the window in the tight suit, zooming for the Everfree Forest. As she came closer, she heard screams, male screams, and... a scream that stopped her dead in the air, a scream she had heard over and over again in her life, a scream she heard in her dreams almost every night, a scream that caused her face to pale. She almost fell to the panicking thoughts and the urge to hyper-ventilate, but she suppressed them and flew faster then ever to the sounds of battle, which now became quiet. Then, in the moonlight, she saw a form with large wings fly off, carrying a shrieking Dinky in its claws.

"No DINKY!" Ditzy flew as fast as she could, ignoring the corpse-strewn battleground beneath her, the creature noticed it was being followed and dove down toward a ruined castle, the pegasus followed, ignoring everything save for the danger that her daughter was in.

She landed hard on her hooves on the old stone floor, and she saw the creature dropped her daughter, who coughed and seemed to be bleeding from somewhere, and wasn't moving anymore. In her vulnerable mind, she assumed the worst, and turned her attention to the creature hidden in the shadows. It took a step forward, ready to rip the pegasus apart, when it stopped. For a second, it was frozen and silent, shocked at the pegasus. Despite her changed form, it recognized her.

Something fizzled as what looked like orange mist appeared at her hooves as Ditzy stared at the creature, her eyes now focused on it as she concentrated and brought forth something she thought she'd never bring back again. Again, the mist appeared, and for a split second, armour appeared around past of her body, forming over her blue suit. Then, suddenly, she was wearing an orange armoured suit, covering her whole body, including her wings, on her right hoof, was a green cannon. The creature growled angrily at its opponent.

"That's right, Ridley..." Samus Aran said as she stood up on her hind legs, charging up her arm cannon at her enemy, her green visor which showed her eyes flashed, becoming opaque and hiding her eyes. "...REMEMBER ME!?"