CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Now, there were only two lights remaining in the sky; the shadowy one, and the Crystal Heart glow, but the ocean was getting rougher as another tropical storm was approaching. Lightning could be seen in the distance followed by the booming of thunder.
The night sky was also very bright now, almost as bright as pre-dawn due to the moon being ever so much closer towards the Earth now. In just a few more short hours it would reach the Point-Of-No-Return, which would in turn doom the Earth and everyone on it.
Now with many of the lights in the sky gone, it was far easier to see a small portion of the moon as it moved in closer and closer.
Twilight’s friends, and Jerry and huddled around her and helped her up. “You okay, sugar-cube?” asked Applejack.
Twilight didn’t answer, she just sneered angrily at the spies, still outraged both she and Spike had lost to them.
Marc tried one last time to show to them all he was telling the truth about the moon. “Look, you can see it now in plain sight. We are going to get crushed!”
Now the ponies could see the moon, but still, they refused to accept the truth.
“I told you before.” said Twilight “Princess Celestia would never let this world fall into such a horrible fate.”
“Yeah, well, she kinda is...” snapped Clover “How can you work for someone so crooked.”
All at once, Twilight felt her strength return. “No one insults Princess Celestia in front of me and gets away with It.” she snarled. She looked ready for a big brawl, but then she felt her strength give way again, and she nearly collapsed.
“Twilight, you’re too weak from the duel.” cried Fluttershy.
“You’ve done all you can.” added Jerry “Our other forces will take care of things from here.”
The spies felt chills run down their spines “What do you mean “other forces?” asked Lee.
“Wow, are you ever dense.” snapped Rainbow Dash “Remember what we said? Even though you beat us in duels, you haven’t won anything.”
“That’s right…” Pinkie said and then snickered “While you were dueling Twilight, and even as we speak whole herds of ponies and other creatures from our home world have been coming through other portals.”
The spies gasped…
…and indeed, there were still some people unaffected by the light of harmony, and so Princess Celestia had sent whole forces of ponies and other weird and unusual creatures from Equestria to round them all up, and brainwash them without even dueling them; most of the people were not even duelists anyway.
Soon there wouldn’t be a single human left on Earth unaffected, and everyone would be part of the greatest society in that or the ponies’ universe.
The spies couldn’t be more outraged.
“Just when I thought you creeps couldn’t get any sicker!” snarled Lee.
Rarity gasped in outrage and fumed “How dare you insult us!”
“No! Let it go, Rarity.” said Twilight. “We need to head back and regroup.” She then gazed at the spies “As for them, they’ll be dealt with soon enough.”
Even Jerry agreed with them “You should have joined us willingly, Spies.” he said to them. “Soon you’ll be wishing you had.”
The spies said nothing, and watched as their boss and the ponies and Spike disappeared through the main portal, back to Equestria.
Lee was so outraged that he angrily kicked a rock, sending it into the sea. “Man, I can’t stand those ugly mules!”
Rarity poked her head straight through the portal. “I heard that!” she snarled and she gave Lee a soft blast from her astral mark.
“Yeowch…!!”
Rarity then blew him a raspberry and disappeared back through the portal.
As much as Clover and Marc hated the ponies too, they couldn’t help but laugh at how funny Lee was, as he rubbed his sore behind. “You think it’s funny?” he grumbled “Let’s see you like it when someone zaps your can.”
“Can?” Marc muttered, and then he realized “…Mykan!”
Clover gasped “We totally forgot!”
Lee was confused “Did I miss something here.”
The spies bounded for their jet, promising to explain the Lee along the way, but they just hoped they weren’t too late!
…
Meanwhile, Princess Luna reported to Celestia informing her that despite Twilight and her friends’ defeat “We have successfully secured 99.9 Percent of the entire human world’s populace into our herd.”
“Excellent…” Celestia hissed “All that remains now is to seize that tiny Island where our enemies hail from.”
“Um… Sister…” Luna asked “Though I am confident upon our success, our enemies have discovered the entry point into our world. They may try and come for us. They will come for you!”
Celestia’s features hardened “Yes… that is a possibility.”
A long silence followed as she thought deeply, and then she said “Princess Luna… I believe I may have an assignment for you.”
Her sister had a good idea of what the assignment entailed, and smiled wickedly.
…
At Duel Academy Island, things were still rather quiet, with the exception of the many tropical storms that hit the island. Another one had just past, and nothing bad had happened yet. All the infected students were still in containment, while all the unaffected students were still in their quarters under safe lockdown, and behaving very well.
However, by this point, they were well aware of what was going on, with the moon. They could see it through their own eyes that the moon was getting close and would eventually hit the Earth if something wasn’t done fast.
A couple of Ra Yellow students hadn’t been able to sleep a wink all night, and were so restless and stressed from being contained; they felt like they would turn inside out.
Just then, there was a knock at their dorm room door. It was Sabrina.
The boys bowed down to her.
“Princess…?”
“What brings you here?”
Sabrina just stood there smiling at the boys.
Meanwhile, the guard was maintaining his post outside of the arena, where all the infected people on the island had been contained for many hours.
Suddenly, he heard a noise. “Who’s there?”
That’s when I stepped out from the shadows. “At ease, it’s just me.”
“Oh, Chancellor; what brings you here?”
“I came to relieve you of duty.”
The guard’s eyes widened in confusion “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I will stand guard now.”
“But sir you…”
“That’s an order!” I suddenly snapped. I apologized quickly.
“Yes, sir.” the guard said “Good luck sir.”
The second he back was turned, I silently snatch his key card from his belt without him noticing, and I snickered softly, and then I signaled with my hand, and I was joined by Megan and Tony, whom were still brainwashed.
“You both know what to do?” I asked as I handed them the key card.
“We’ll get them out.” said Tony.
I nodded and warned them “Don’t mess this up.” and then I walked off.
Megan snuffed, and then she inserted the card into the lock on the sealed door. It worked, but unfortunately, they still had to punch in the correct eight-digit code, and neither of them had any idea what the number was, and would have to rely on their WOOHP hacker to figure it out, but even still it would take a bit of time.
…
A bit later, Sabrina had gone back to the med ward, where her team of doctors and nurses were still hard at work.
“Princess?” asked a nurse “I thought you had gone to check on your children.”
“Oh, um… yes I did. They were sleeping like angels.”
The nurse didn’t believe her, that should get to the children’s wing and back that quickly, and before she and the others could say anything else...
Everything went white...
…
Meanwhile, I had already gone to the Obelisk Blue dorm, where it was very quiet. The halls were all light with the night lights, but not a sound was heard. “Hey! You come out now.” I called out hoping the unaffected students would hear me, but still not a sound was heard.
“Hey, it’s all right.” I hollered “The danger’s almost over. There’s nothing to worry about now? Don’t you trust me?”
Still not a sound….
“Come on, your beloved Chancellor is here.”
That’s when a second me – the real one-- stepped out at the end of the hall and sneered “You got that right!”
The first me snarled, and began zapping beams from his eyes right at me, but I dashed across the hall, evading every shot perfectly, and jump kicked the imposter right in the chest, sending out the window.
We were on the ground floor, so he didn’t fall, but he did begin to run off, and I chased after him.
He dashed round the bend, and I rushed after him, nearly running over my wife. “Whoa… Sabrina!” I panted.
“Mykan, what’s happening?” Sabrina asked in concerned.
“It’s happened…” I told her “It’s a good thing Marc warned us in advance about the ponies’ plan.”
Sabrina looked frightened “We’ve got to stop them and fast. I’ll go with you.”
I nodded, and we were about to walk off together. “Wait…!” I suddenly said “Did you file that medical report I asked you to?”
“Um… the medical report. Oh, yes I did.”
“Ah… and you put it on my desk so I can read it later.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Oh, good…” I said and then I punched her hard in the face, knocking her down.
“Honey!” the imposter of me cried as he dashed over to her. “How dare you strike me!” the fake Sabrina growled “How could you tell?”
“It’s simple…” my real wife said as she walked up to my side “He didn’t ask for any medical report, plus, he knew I was checking on our children.”
I held my wife close and smiled at her, and then I snarled at the imposters “Your game is up. Show us your real forms!”
The two imposters stood side-by-side, and in a flash of bright light, they changed into two more of the ponies. The male was a white unicorn with a dark blue mane with light blue streaks, and his wife was a pink alicorn princess with a multi-colored mane, and a crown atop her head by her horn. Both of them had the astral mark on their foreheads.
Sabrina and I glared at them furiously, but the two ponies snickered at us.
The male spoke first “The name is Armor; Shining Armor; Former Captain of the Royal Canterlot Guard in Equestria, and the elder brother of Twilight Sparkle, whom your students just trounced, and this is my loving wife…”
The princess nodded at us “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but most just call me Cadance. I am Princess Celestia’s favorite adopted niece, and the goddess of true love.”
“Goddess of true love…?” Sabrina asked in disbelief.
Cadance sneered “Yeah! You got a problem with that?”
“What we do have a problem with is what you and your clan are doing to our world.” I said severely and I stepped forth in a threatening manner “…And I’ve had just about enough of all this.”
Shining Armor snickered and said “You don’t really think we came here alone…” and that’s when all the brainwashed students huddled behind them like a massive army. Megan and Tony were amongst them “…Did you?”
Sabrina and I were not impressed, and then more students and staff joined the ponies by their side. They had been brainwashed by Cadance’s nasty ability to appeal to their hearts and make them obey her, long enough for them to brainwash them with the astral force.
“Don’t be a fool…” Cadance said, and her eyes began to glow.
“Don’t look!” I cried, and held my wife close. We both shut our eyes really tight.
Cadance snickered wickedly and poured on more power “It’s futile. You cannot resist the power of love.”
The strength of her power was immense, but Sabrina and I continued to resist, much to Cadance’s frustration, but her husband stood by her side to offer her more power. “Let’s do this together, my love.” he said sweetly, and the two combined their powers.
“Mykan, I can’t hold on!” cried Sabrina.
“We… can’t… give up… now!” I shouted, and that’s when the Millennium Symbol appeared on my forehead. It was my Ancient Egyptian heritage and actually repelled the magic right back at the two ponies and their army, knocking them all over like bowling pins.
Sadly, that was all I could do. Even my hidden powers that I rarely used weren’t nearly enough to stop the astral magic of the ponies.
The people were backing away softly in fear, but the two ponies couldn’t understand it. “It’s impossible…!” cried Cadance “No one can defy the power of love!”
“Maybe that’s because what you do isn’t love.” I sneered at them. “Just like what you’re giving us humans isn’t friendship or harmony!”
“You vile beasts!” growled Sabrina “Shame on all of you!”
The ponies were losing patience. “It seems you need a harsher teaching of a lesson of what real is all about.” sneered Shining Armor.
“Really…?” I asked, though I knew where this was going “Just what did you have in mind?”
“As if you didn’t know already…” sneered Cadance “We will face you both, in a tag-team duel.”
“A tag-duel?” asked Sabrina.
“That’s right!” snapped Shining Armor. “We’ll prove which side that love is on.”
I smiled smugly and shook my head “No.”
The students all gasped. Did they just hear right? Was I refusing a challenge to a duel? I was indeed, and Sabrina agreed with me and refused to duel as well.
“You are afraid of us.” said Cadance “You know you cannot win.”
“Actually it’s quite the opposite.” said Sabrina “We’d duel circles around the both of you, because, again, what you’re dueling with is not love.”
“Agreed…” I said “And that’s why I propose you face two substitutes of our choosing. I doubt you’ll very much be able to defeat them even with all the so-called love you preach about.”
The ponies felt their rage growing and ready to tip over. It was bad enough Sabrina and I attacked them, or rather it was I who did, and it was bad enough we insulted their honor and loyalty to Celestia, but after daring to insult their love and their intelligence…
…they reluctantly agreed to our challenge. “Just one thing, who are we dueling?” Cadance asked.
Sabrina and I weren’t exactly too thrilled about whom we chose, but we knew it would be well worth it to show the ponies up, and to give the duelists a fair chance.
When Marc first warned me about the ponies’ oncoming invasion of the island, we quickly began to gather as many of the students and staff, still unaffected by the lights. We managed to get most of them to the safety bunkers, located beneath the island, but weren’t able to save everyone in time.
Among all of the remaining students in the entire academy who weren’t brainwashed, there was only one who had enough experience, as well as my confidence of wining.
As for her partner, that took some serious time and frustration, but I managed to convince her, and flew her over by private jet while we had the chance before she got hit by the ponies’ curse, and she was here too.
Then, the two ladies stepped forth, and ready for action…
…Tami and Mandy!