“Previously on Starfleet Magic…”
After the Lady Phantasma had taken Arien’s sword for her own, she left Zadovia to do battle with Lightning and Co while the other heroes continued with their own struggles. While Zadovia managed to put up a valiant effort, she was ultimately defeated, which began to bring the entire school crashing down on the tired heroes, making the end seem nigh!
EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR
Castor and Leilani stood, and while they were shocked and frightened at first, they already could see what was happening as the whole world around them seemed to collapse, and Cadance’s barrier was nearly ready to collapse.
The children quickly nodded at one another, held their hands together, and concentrated hard.
“Children!” cried Lightning.
“What are you doing?” asked Krysta.
The children did not speak, but their eyes and horns began to glow as they offered whatever little magic they could to help their cousin, Cadance, empower the barrier to keep them all safe as the entire school began to come down, and vaporize into clouds of dark sand!
In the outside world… it had been a long and hard struggle.
The Starfleet forces fought with all their might, but no matter how much they tried they just couldn’t keep the nightmare monsters down-- they always seemed to get back up and try again for more.
“This isn’t working!” growled Swift. “How can you keep down what won’t stay down?!”
Suddenly, the monsters all gasped, and began to feel very strange as if something was very wrong.
All over the planet they began to quiver and fuss like malfunctioning robots.
The Fighters, the civilians, even Mykan was confused.
“What’s happening?” asked Starla, she got her answer as the creatures simply vanished in large, shattering poofs, until not a single one remained and none more appeared.
Celestia and Grand Ruler had returned from assisting in action across the planet and landed on the battlements next to Starla.
There wasn’t a monster left in sight, but the darkness overhead still remained.
“I don’t think the monsters have been beaten.” said Grand Ruler. “I think they may have simply vanished.
“But where…?” wondered Celestia. “Where exactly have they gone? Maybe it will help us determine where they came from and how they got here.”
Suddenly, she remembered, “Luna!”
Her husband then gasped, “The Children!! We forgot all about them.”
This made Starla’s blood run cold as well. “Lightning…! I was so busy aiding in the defense, I forgot to ask for reports.”
Quickly, everyone rushed into the palace.
Celestia teleported to her sister’s bedroom to see her still encased in the ice-chamber. “How is she?” she quickly asked. “Is she doing any better?”
The doctor regrettably shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Your Majesty. I’ve done everything I can, but I just can’t seem to stabilize her. I doubt any doctor or magic can.”
Celestia clasped her chest as tear began to come to her eyes.
Meanwhile, His majesty and Starla headed for the main control-ops.
Every system was working properly, and yet there remained no detection of Lightning, the children, or any of the other fighters.
Goldwin was with him, and he was just as worried as anyone else was.
“You don’t suppose they--” was all he managed to ask before Grand Ruler cut in “…We don’t suppose anything, Goldwin. They’ve got to be out there somewhere.”
Both Starla and his majesty knew Lightning and the others couldn’t have been destroyed, or the scanning would have detected their remains.
Celestia then came into the room, and her expression of sorrow and holding it back as hard as she could told the friends enough so they didn’t have to ask.
“…I can’t lose my sister; not again. I just couldn’t bear it.” she said to them all.
“Oh, Celestia…” her husband said. He felt really horrible for her, so did the others.
“I thought when the monsters started vanishing, things would start getting better.” murmured Goldwin.
Starla said nothing. She knew Lightning and her friends were tough, just like she was, but never was that a reason to think anyone was invincible.
She hoped, she prayed for a sign-- a clue-- anything that could determine where they were.
Suddenly, Captain Shaina burst into the ops.
“Your majesties…! General Starla…! One of my scouts has turned up something.”
In almost no time, the trio were led by Shaina and her scout to the open acres.
The darkness was no longer as thick as it was before, and for good reason.
“What in the known universe...!” exclaimed Grand Ruler.
The grass and the grounds were all flattened as if something extremely large had been in this very spot-- The School of Nightmares.
“It looks like this grass and these grounds have been crushed for quite a while.” deduced Starla. Her visor readings even confirmed this.
“How can this be?” asked Celestia. “Absolutely nothing has been here. We would know-- we’ve seen out into the fields all the time.”
“Regardless…” said Grand Ruler “Something has been here; something very big.”
The scout then cleared his throat. “That’s not all, Your Majesties…” and he motioned for everyone to follow him to a small area in the front of the big spot where a large gaggle of foot prints lay in the dirt.
Starla recognized one of the print-sets almost instantly without even using her visor. “Lightning!” she cried. “That’s his boot-size. I’d know it anywhere! He and the others must’ve been here!”
Their majesties were inclined to agree, especially when they saw two footprint sets that were not made by Starfleet wear, but by ordinary shoes… of royal design… and child-sized.
“The children!” said Grand Ruler.
Celestia’s heart skipped a beat, and her motherly worries began to kick in again.
She managed to keep hold of herself, and she asked the scout, “Did you see anything? Do you know what happened?”
The scout regrettably shook his head and answered, “As I had explained to Captain Shaina… I was out here in the field battling with some of the creatures, when they suddenly began to vanish.
Then from behind me, I noticed this area. I recognized the footprints were of Starfleet soldiers, and I reported back at once.
I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything else.”
Celestia sighed silently.
Starla looked back towards the big spot on the grounds and figured, “Whatever was here must’ve taken the children, and Lightning and the others.”
She only wished she knew exactly where.
In a mountain of rubble which used to be the School of Nightmares, several magical bursts emitted, blowing rocks and boulders out of the way, revealing all the fighters and friends alive and well…
…But heavily exhausted after battling so much. Everyone was wearing their casual outfits as their battle gear had powered down, and they all seemed rather bruised and beaten, but still alive.
The twins were the first to see each other.
“Dyno!”
“Myte!”
The brothers, though tired managed to step over the barrier and collide into each other in a huge hug.
Fluttershy and Rhymey, Shining Armor and Cadance, Spike and Rarity… all hugged as well expressing their gratefulness to be reunited with their respective lovers.
“Hey, you found the kids!” cried Pinkie.
Castor and Leilani were both exhausted…
Just as the school came crashing down, and with Cadance’s barrier failing, the children snapped awake and realized what was happening.
Quickly, they bolted on their feet, and used their own magic to boost the power of the barrier enough to keep everyone safe.
Their parents had taught them well to develop their magic strength.
The children both nearly collapsed again, but Lightning and Cadance caught them both.
“Are you two okay?” asked Lightning.
The children nodded wearily, but then they gasped.
“Arien!” cried Castor.
“What happened? Where is he?” asked Leilani.
Then they saw him, in his fully human form, which reminded them of what happened.
“The sword!” wailed Castor.
“No! They got it!” whimpered Leilani.
Most of the team was most confused due to not seeing the events.
“Okay, what did we miss?” asked Buddy.
Suddenly, the cawing of distant birds caught everyone’s attention and they all looked at their surroundings.
“Um… where exactly are we?” asked Rainbow.
They were all surrounded by horrific scenes-- haunted forests, desolated ground, dark red skies with occasional lightning strikes.
“I don’t think we’re in United Equestria anymore.” said Applejack.
“Then… what is this place?” Lighting asked again.
“…This is my world.” answered a voice from behind.
Everyone turned round and saw him standing upright on his own two feet. Many of the ladies thought he was very handsome.
“But… who are you?” asked Artie.
The knight gave a small smile. “Do you not recognize my voice?”
“Arien!!” the children cried, and they dashed over to him and hugged him.
Arien, softly laid his hands upon their heads. “I am glad that you and your friends are safe.”
Spike then realized, “Hey, I do know you-- you’re that spirit guy who gave us our dream bands.”
“My goodness!” gasped Rarity.
Everyone gazed upon him in awe.
He bowed to everyone and reintroduced himself, “I am Sir. Arien: Guardian of the Dream World; which is where you all stand now.”
The fighters looked around again.
“So this is the Dream World?” asked Shining Armor.
“But… I don’t feel like I’m sleeping or anything.” said Cadance.
“I assure you,” said Arien “You are not dreaming this time. It is not very often that living beings come to this world the way you have.
When you destroyed the School of Nightmares, you were transported here to this world-- where all dreams are all the time.”
“Um, forgive me for saying so,
But this is no dream that I know.” said Rhymey.
Fluttershy agreed, and whimpered nervously at the sight that surrounded her…
“This place looks so dark and eerie.
It’s desolate, frightening, and rather dreary.”
Arien sighed and walked forth across the grounds. “…It didn’t always look like this.”
The children agreed.
“This place used to be so bright and beautiful.” said Castor.
“How could this have happened?” wondered Leilani.
“I think there’s another question we should be asking,” said Krysta, and she looked rather cross, “How come you two never told us that you were involved in all this from the beginning?”
Cadance and Lightning both agreed.
“You two had the sword fragments in your dreams all this time?” Lightning asked rhetorically.
The children looked and felt sad and ashamed, but Arien quickly defended them, “They are not entirely to blame. They said nothing because I had asked them not to.
Perhaps I must explain things to get you all up to speed.”
“That… would be incredibly helpful.” grumbled Shining Armor, which earned him a nudge from his wife.
“I love stories.” chirped Pinkie, but Lightning shook his head at her, which warned her it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Arien told everyone everything about the Dream World-- absolutely everything-- which astounded everyone.
“So all our dreams wind up here?” asked Dyno.
“Eso es tan asombroso *That’s so amazing*” said Myte. “It’s almost like a storage house for… just about everything.”
Arien nodded, “Everything I have told you is exactly as it is and always has been.
I am the embodiment of the pure energy from good dreams, thus it empowers me and obligates me to protect them from such evil as The Lady Phantasma: the embodiment of dark and failed dreams.”
“But why the Royal Children?” asked Lightning. “I get that you had to conceal your power, but why choose them?”
Castor and Leilani wanted to know the answer to this as well-- for a long time since it happened.
Arien explained, “I always feared the darkness would one day try and overpower me, and it did. I knew I would have to conceal my energy in a way to keep the evil from gaining it, but I knew I could only give it to those who were the absolute purest of dreamers, whom I could trust to guard it with their lives.
The children were the only ones able to dream so purely that they were able to find this realm within their own dreams, while others could not.
It was then and there I knew they could help me.”
The children blushed in shock by all this.
“You mean you trusted us all along?” asked Castor.
Arien nodded.
“But why couldn’t you just tell us all this from the beginning?” protested Leilani.
“As I said to you once before,” explained Arien. “I feared that our enemies would grow wise to you and attack you both again.
You were very lucky to have avoided our enemy’s grasp until now.”
He recalled as the children went into a trance, leading Lightning and the others towards the school.
“Wait! You did that?” snapped Rainbow. “You brainwashed the kids into coming here, putting them, and all of us in danger?”
Many of the others looked cross at Arien, but he assured them, “I did not. Their inner connection to me sensed I was in danger, and led you all to the enemy feeling you had what it really took to stop them.”
Everyone fell silent, hardly knowing how to feel about it right now, while the children felt really warm and strange inside. They both felt so important, so moved by Arien’s words.
“Yeah, uh… sorry to breakup this little moment here,” Spike cut in “But we are still trapped here. This world is a complete and total wreck, and who knows what’s happening back home.”
Arien clenched his fists, “Phantasma! She is responsible for this.”
He looked back at the wreckage. “You may have destroyed the School of Nightmares, but her evil power continues to grow.”
Streaks of darkness began to stream along the dark skies, all heading in one direction.
“What’s all that?” asked Artie.
Lightning had a feeling he knew. “It’s the darkness of nightmares. Phantasma is absorbing it all from the real world to increase her power.”
Everyone’s features hardened.
“We can’t let her do this!” growled Dyno.
“Si! We can’t let her continue to hurt people’s dreams, or mess up our world.” agreed Myte.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go get her!” exclaimed Pinkie.
“It’s not that simple.” explained Cadance. “Arien lost his sword to that creature. Without it, we don’t stand much of a chance.”
“Yeah,” agreed Krysta. “And besides, we’re all still wiped out from our previous battles.”
The fighters didn’t even need to check their energy-levels to know that. They weren’t even able to transform.
It began to seem hopeless, until Arien said “…There may yet be one possibility, and it will involve all your help.”
The fighters were intrigued.
“What is it?” asked Lightning.
“Your dreams are the key. If you focus on them hard enough, it just may give us the power we need.”
Everyone looked back and forth at one another as if they didn’t understand, but, really, they felt they did get it.
“Just where are we supposed to find her?” asked Rarity.
“I think that’s obvious…” Buddy said pointing up at the sky…
The shadows streaking across the sky gave a perfect follow to where Phantasma was likely to be.
Still, having enough energy to fly, everyone took off into the air.
Arien merely levitated himself, carrying the royal children in his big arms-- the children could not fly as fast as him or the others, while Shining Armor rode on his wife’s back.
“I really need some wings of my own.” he groaned softly.
While flying over the lands, everyone saw the shadowy wastelands, which according to the children and Arien, used to be beautiful, lush fields of sparkling peace and harmony.
“Phantasma!” Arien growled under his breath. “She will pay most dearly!”
In almost no time, the group had flown to the near center of the Dream World, where Arien’s altar lay, and the darkness was gathering together.
“There she is!” cried Rainbow.
Suddenly, a load of shadows zoomed past everyone like a charging stampede, and knocked them all off balance.
“We’re going down!” yelled Rarity.
“Pull up!!” shouted Artie.
Everyone managed to pull up just enough to land safely on their feet, away before the altar.
Lightning caught Krysta in his hands. “Is everyone okay?”
Everyone seemed fine, but frightened as they looked ahead.
Lightning turned round and gasped…!
Phantasma, she was not only growing massively large, but she was starting to take an actual shape.
Rather than take on a full body, she formed herself into a solid-black being, from the stomach up, and reaching about three stories high. Her sides pulsed with dark red light. She sprouted four long arms, with large human hands each about ten feet wide, and her big head popped up, spilling a long wave of voluminous black hair down her backside.
Her facial features were merely silver linings, which gave her a rather beautiful expression.
Everyone gawked at her in shock. Even Arien could hardly believe his eyes.
Phantasma winked at them all while snickering. “After all these ages, I finally have a bodily form of my own.” She paused and began laughing hysterically “It’s wonderful… and just perfect for a ruler of this world.”
Arien furiously told her. “You are NOT the ruler of this world! The Dream World is not simply something for you to rule and command.”
Phantasma’s eyes glowed brightly, and she knocked him off his feet with a powerful shockwave.
He crashed right into Lightning, knocking them both over. They weren’t hurt.
“…I believe my power now says differently. Especially seeing as I have this…!” she magically revealed Arien’s magical sword, which was stored deep inside where her heart would be.
“Give us that sword!” demanded Cadance.
Phantasma only laughed, “Why? So you can use it to ruin my plans? I think not!
With this sword in my possession, nobody will have the power to stop me.”
She motioned up at the darkness she continued to absorb. “Already now I am being infused with more and more power from the fears and the darkness the nightmares have spread. All are becoming part of me to aid in my conquest to rule the worlds and dimensions of all dreamers!”
Rhymey looked up and recognized some of the shadows…
“Those monsters, I’ve seen them before.
They attacked our home in a frightening galore.”
Fluttershy agreed…
“She’s absorbing them all, in one great haul
If we don’t stop her soon, we’ll all fall!”
Phantasma scoffed “Perhaps you weren’t listening.” Then she shouted so hard she made the very land shake, and the skies roar with thunder and lightning “…YOU CAN’T STOP ME, AND YOU NEVER WILL!!”
She paused and gazed down at the group of fighters before her. “…Especially seeing as you’re all going to help me.”
Everyone froze up.
Applejack picked at her ear, “Um… either I’m imagining, or did you just say--?”
Lightning furiously insisted. “We fight only for what is good and pure. We will never assist a monster like you!”
“You have no choice, and you should feel fortunate that I have such use for you lot, or I would destroy you instantly.
After all, now that I rule the world of dreams, I control what happens, including who dreams what!”
Her eyes began to glow again, brighter than ever making it hard to see.
“Oh, no!!” cried Arien.
Lightning covered his eyes, and everyone else looked down.
“What’s happening?!” wailed Castor.
“Castor, I’m scared!” Leilani cried as she held onto her brother.
Everyone suddenly felt very strange, especially Lightning-- as if they were fading away.
When the light had faded they were indeed all gone, except for Arien, who got to his feet and shouted at his enemy. “What have you done to them?!”
“As if you don’t already know… I’ve simply given them what most beings would give their very souls to have.
…I’ve trapped them inside their deepest and fondest dreams. They’ll never be able to escape, or maybe never even want to.”
That’s when she raised her arms up absorbing more shadows from the sky. “And while they are enjoying themselves, they don’t realize that their dream energy further fuels my power.
Soon I’ll be able to absorb strength from all dreams-- good and bad, further ensuring my ultimate dream come true.”
Arien knew this was serious, but he had no way to stop her at all. For the very first time, he was totally stumped.
Then, before he knew it, Phantasma had grabbed him in one of her huge hands.
“Ugh!! What are you doing?!”
To which she answered, “Isn’t it obvious? You and I are both created from dreams. Therefore, while you yourself can’t be trapped inside a dream, I have something better for you.”
His eyes widened with fear. “No…! Not again!”
Before he knew it, he was once again absorbed into Phantasma’s body.
“So much for you.” she mocked. “Now you’ll never be able to even try and do anything to stop me.
Your Dream World now belongs to me, and very soon, all worlds everywhere will belong to the nightmares, and with no one to stop me… my greatest dream is about to come true.”
In United Equestria, the darkness in the skies had officially become so thick, so evil, and so menacing it was almost too dark to see much, even with lights on outdoors.
“This is bad! This is very bad!” said Grand Ruler. He never felt so stumped in his life on what to do about this. “I’ve never faced anything like this before!”
Celestia grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “Celesto… please… snap out of it!”
Her husband stood stiff.
“We can get through this! There has to be a way.” Celestia said. “You’re always telling us that we never should give up.
I don’t intend to give up, and I’ll not have you give up either.”
His majesty felt ready to kick himself for nearly giving in. “Yes, you’re right. Thank you, Celestia.
We will find a way. We’ve got to!”
Starla wanted to believe that herself, but she really had no idea what to do either.
These nightmares and darkness were not like anything Starfleet had ever faced.
“If only they were like aliens, or space objects; then it would be easier.” she said to herself. “But they’re not!
Oh, Lightning, I wish you were here!”
Lightning opened his eyes, and looked all around. “Where am I?” he wondered.
There was nothing around him but black-- stark, empty black-- and he was all alone too.
“What is all this?” he asked aloud, but of course no one heard him.
Suddenly, there was a big flash of light in the distance, coming straight at him.
“What the--”
He didn’t have time to even try to run as the light consumed him, and what then lay before his eyes nearly left him breathless.
“…Galloping Galaxies!”
To Be Continued…
(Promo)
In our next episode: True to Phantasma’s word, our heroes find themselves lost in their own special dream, unable to resist their new surroundings. Meanwhile Phantasma’s power continues to grow with seemingly nothing to oppose her, until something new and unexpected comes along.
Will our heroes be able to escape their dreams? And how can Phantasm be faced?
Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!”
(Next Episode: “Part 6: Dream Prison”)