"Naomi Wildman. What are you doing?"
"I'm playing, Seven," she said, exasperated. "What does it look like?"
Seven looked distastefully at the child. "I do not think that the corridor is an appropriate place to play, Naomi."
"But Seven, the ponies will get distressed if I keep them in my room. I have to take them for a run every morning." Naomi looked up at Seven with worried eyes. "I don't want my ponies to get upset."
"They are toys," Seven stated flatly. "Nothing more. They will not get 'distressed'." She bent down as if to pick up one of the toys.
"Careful!" Naomi cautioned, snatching the ponies away before Seven could touch them. She began stroking them lovingly. "You might hurt them. They don't like the Borg." She started speaking to the ponies as one might speak to a baby who'd been crying. "There, there, babies, don't worry. I won't let anyone hurt you." She evil-eyed Seven and spun on her heel, marching smartly back into her quarters that she shared with her mother.
Seven raised an eyebrow, and followed Naomi. She rang the doorbell and asked, "May I come in?"
"Only if you promise not to hurt the ponies!" Naomi called.
"I promise," Seven said, confused, but very much wanting to find out what all the fuss was about.
"Okay," Naomi said, and opened the door, a wide grin on her face. Grabbing Seven's hand, she pulled her inside to where the ponies were lined up in a long line. A toy building that could have been a stable if one interpreted it correctly stood to the side, filled with even more ponies, and a toy castle was also filled with ponies, including a white one with a blue mane and tail.
"Aren't they gorgeous?" Naomi gushed, running her fingers reverently over the nearest pony's mane. "They're so lovely!"
Seven's eyebrow rose. "I fail to see the point."
"Ssh!" Naomi hissed fiercely. "You'll hurt their feelings."
"They are toys," Seven repeated. "They have no feelings to hurt."
Naomi looked put out. "They're not toys, they're magic!"
"They are toys," Seven stated again, feeling her last grip on sanity slipping through her grasp as she picked up a yellow one with an ice cream on its side.
"Put Swirly-whirly down!" Naomi insisted desperately. "You'll hurt her!" Instead, she handed Seven a white one with a yellow mane. "Here, hold Baby Balloons. But be careful. Tickle her under her hooves - that's where she likes it best."
Seven complied, wondering what her world was coming to, taking orders from a three-year-old about how to stroke a toy pony.
"If you want," Naomi said, obviously wrestling with a breaking heart, "You can keep her."
"May I?" Seven asked, feeling oddly attracted to the concept. "But I would not know how to care for her," she worried.
"I'll show you," Naomi said gratefully. "Make sure you brush her hair - look, here's her comb," she added, thrusting it into Seven's other hand. "And don't forget to take her out each day - she might want to come to Astrometrics with you sometimes."
Seven nodded. "Will she not be lonely?"
"She can come and see her friends whenever she wants," Naomi said with a watery smile. "Now, Seven, off you go. Aren't you due on the bridge in ten minutes?"
Seven looked at the chronometer. "I am. I will take Baby Balloons down to cargobay two and then go to the bridge," she mused, leaving Naomi's room hurriedly.
===***===
Carefully, Seven placed the little pony on the console in Cargobay two, and quickly ran the comb through the pony's tail, adjusting it carefully to look as pretty as possible. The cute and colourful pony seemed at odds with the rest of the bay, which was cold and sterile, with dim lighting. Seven hoped it would not depress the pony too much.
She was just about to leave the cargobay to go to the bridge when she heard a voice call, "Seven!"
Stopping, she looked around the bay. In the corner, her pony had grown to life size, and was now tossing her mane eagerly and pawing at the ground. Seven gasped in surprise. "Baby Balloons?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "I must be hallucinating again."
"No, Annika, you aren't!" the Pony laughed, trotting quickly over to Seven. "I'm really here!" The pony tossed her head and balloons began to fill the cargobay, descending slowly from the ceiling.
"But... you aren't real," Seven said, confused. "You are a toy."
"We're magic," Baby Balloons told her severely. "And you, Annika, are in serious need of some pony magic!"
Seven stared at her. "What do you mean?"
"She means that you have lost touch with yourself," another voice added, soft as a whisper. Seven spun to see another pony, the white one she had seen earlier in the castle, staring at her regally, yet with compassion.
"Who are you?" Seven asked faintly as more and more ponies began to appear in the cargobay.
"I'm Majesty," she said calmly, "Queen of all the My Little Ponies."
"And we're here to help you have fun!" another one of the ponies cried, rushing up to Seven and flapping her little pink wings.
"Fun is irrelevant," Seven stated.
Some of the ponies giggled and started chasing one another round the cargobay, squealing joyously as they did so. Baby Balloons came up to Seven. "Get on my back," she told her.
"Me?" Seven asked, shocked. "I do not have the necessary equipment."
Baby Balloons shook her head impatiently. "That's not important! What's important is that you have fun!"
Wearily, Seven tried to climb on the pony's back, but she couldn't. "I am unfamiliar with this activity," she stated, somewhat unnecessarily.
Majesty trotted over to them. "Annika, face Baby Balloons' back. That's right... make sure you're standing next to her... that's better." She walked around them. "Now, swing your right leg over Baby Balloons' back - careful!" she cautioned as she ducked to avoid Seven's leg. "There. That's better."
"What do I hold onto?" Seven asked, feeling horribly off balance. She'd never ridden a horse before, not even on the holodeck.
"Just hold onto my mane!" Baby Balloons laughed, and set off out of the cargobay at a gallop, followed by the rest of the ponies. Seven clutched wildly at the mane and hung on for dear life as they raced down the corridors, passing a shocked Ensign Winifred, who flattened himself against the wall in terror as they raced past, laughing crazily. Even Seven was getting in the mood, wearing a large smile that freaked Ensign Winifred out.
"Let's go to the bridge!" Seven suggested with a crazy laugh, and the ponies crowded into a turbolift.
===***===
Finally reaching their destination, the ponies poured out of the cramped lift in a heap, still giggling, causing the entire bridge crew to look around. Harry smirked as he saw Seven smiling on the back of one of the ponies, and Paris' eyes widened in shocked recognition as he realised what was going on.
"Oh my, it's the My Little Ponies!" he shrieked in surprise. Janeway sent him a brief deathglare that shut him up before turning back to Seven of Nine.
"Seven, what is going on?" she demanded. "Why are there horses on the bridge?"
"They're ponies," Seven corrected disapprovingly.
Janeway rolled her eyes. "I don't care if they're elephants, Seven, I want them off my bridge!"
"Okay, okay," Seven grumbled. "But don't call them elephants. You might upset their feelings."
The Captain shot an exasperated look at her First Officer, who was trying to hide a grin. The thought that he might be laughing at her angered her further. Before she could say anything though, one of the ponies spoke up. "Let's have a tea party," she suggested, flapping her wings in excitement.
"Yay!" Seven cried. "In the Ready Room!"
A look of pure horror that nearly sent Chakotay into stitches crossed Janeway's face. "Not in my Ready Room, you don't!"
The pony that had suggested the tea party stared at Janeway dolefully, big eyes blinking innocently, until Janeway relented. "Well, okay... but don't make a mess!"
"Come and join us, all of you!" Majesty invited them. "North Star's idea is brilliant. Tea parties are such fun."
The crew looked to their Captain, who nodded her grudging allowance. The entire bridge crew piled into the Ready Room with the ponies. There was barely space to move, it was so crowded, and Harry and some of the other ensigns had to sit on the floor because there were no more chairs. The ponies kept jumping around and generally making things difficult by getting in everyone's way, although no one minded because they were so cute.
===***===
At the end of the day, once the ponies had left, Seven was resting in the cargobay. She was about to get into her alcove to begin regenerating for the night when a soft whisper stopped her.
"Annika."
She turned to see Majesty once more, coming towards her. "I want to thank you," Seven said stiffly, "For showing me what fun is."
Majesty inclined her head gracefully, accepting the thanks. "Annika, today you have learnt a valuable lesson." Seven looked at her curiously, head cocked slightly to one side, eyes bright, as Majesty continued, "You have learnt that within each of us, there is a child, pure and simple and innocent. She should not be locked away to wither and die. She should be let out to play and live." Seven nodded wisely and Majesty started to fade away into the night. "Let Annika loose... and live...."
Her last whispered words echoed round the cargobay, leaving Seven in deep thought as they finally died away and she stepped into her alcove, determined to live life to the fullest from that day forth.