My Brave Pony Starfleet Magic: Season VII

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 23: Part 1: Treasures in the Temple

EPISODE TWENTY-THREE

*Mykan’s POV*

It was really time; we all leapt down into the crater where the temple entrance was said to be, and the ground hard been scratched a little due to Omnisha’s digging party, but hardly much progress had been done.

The twins were scanning the ground with their visors. “This stuff is solid rock with bits of metallic substances in it.” said Dyno. “No wonder they couldn’t dig through it… I’ve hardly seen anything like it before.” added Myte.

Regaurdless of that, it was time to unveil the entrance of the temple, using four creatures each wielding a different sword.

Rhymey, Spike, myself, and Saber all stood ready.

“Okay guys… do it.” said Lightning.

The four of us agreed and stood in a circle in the center of the crater, and one by one, we held up our swords.

Rhymey:“Ward Sword!”

Spike:“Dragon Knight Saber!”

Mykan/Myself:“Sword of Pure Soul!”

Shining Armor/Saber:“Insecto Scimitar!”

We joined our blades by the tips in the air. All at once our swords began to glow, and the marking of Galaxia glowed brightly as well. The ground started to rumble as the rocks began to shift, forcing us all to leap up and out of the crater.

“Look…!” cried Starla, pointing at the center of the crater where a large hole opened wide, revealing a long tunnel leading deep into the ground.

Then all was quiet.

We all leap back into the crater and examined the tunnel. It was so long and dark we couldn’t see the bottom. So Pinkie picked up a little pebble and tossed it in. The pebble didn’t fall very far at first due to the low gravity, but suddenly we could hear it clattering along the sides like crazy as if it were falling at a faster speed.

Finally, we heard the echoes of a loud thud at the bottom.

“Sure is a long way down in there.” said Buddy, and he scanned through the hole with his visor at a long range. “The gravity gets stronger as you go down, like being back on United Equestria.”

“It must be magically enchanted.” suggested Fluttershy “After all, Queen Galaxia built this temple.”

Lightning looked at the bag he held containing the legendary items, and he remembered he still had the map on him; Sienna never took it. He retranslated the text about the temple…

“…With the map and items of four will the challenges be complete from last to the first.”

He then dumped the items out of the bag to be seen and we all examined them closely. “What kind of challenges are these supposed to be?” asked Rainbow.

“I don’t really know, can’t say for sure.
Perhaps if we go inside, we’ll get a clear picture.” said Rhymey.

“Rhymey’s right.” said Lightning “We’re going in, unless anyone doesn’t wish to.” He looked at everyone else, but not one of us was willing to pass up this opportunity.

Lightning re-bagged the items, and tucked away the map. “Mind the gravity…” he warned everyone, and he leapt down into the darkness, and one-by-one we all followed him, using our wings and other flight abilities to lessen the pull of the gravity. Rarity used her telekinesis to make Saber float softly.

At first it got really dark, too dark to see your hand before your face, but as we descended deeper and deeper, it suddenly began to get brighter.

“Where’s all this light coming from?” asked Artie.

“How is it even gettin’ here? We’re far below the ground.” added Applejack.

We all just assumed it was more magic.

Finally, we hit bottom…

*TEMPLE of MYSTERY*

The entrance area was big and wide round room of stone, with hardly anything in it but a single tunnel way in the wall up ahead. There was also a beautiful yet haunting background music that could be heard, but not one of us knew where it was coming from.

Fluttershy and Rhyme both shuddered as they felt chills run down their spines.

“My goodness!” said Rarity “What a dreadful place.”

Suddenly, the map began to glow and Lightning got it out. “Check it out…” he said as he looked at the other side of the map. Before it was completely blank, but now it was glowing as a second map appeared on it

“It looks like a map of the temple.” said Starla, and she was right, the picture showed the entire temple to be one straight route ahead, leading to different sized and oddly shaped rooms, with a large chamber at the end. “That must be where The Elements of Chaos are.” said Lightning.

Suddenly, his bag began to glow again, and he dumped the items out. There on each one appeared a number in a glowing light.

The Knight’s Helmet: 1

The Golden Cannon Ball: 2

The Mirror Shield: 3

The Amulet Pendant: 4

“Okay, it’s pretty, but what does it mean?” asked Rainbow.

Lightning already had the idea, “Remember what the map said about these items…

…Items of four will the challenges be complete from last to the first.”

“So we were right all along!” said Saber “There are obstacles blocking our way in, and using these items… we’ll be able to progress along.”

“Yeah, but why do we have to start with the last one first?” asked Pinkie.

I answered for her, “Don’t you see, Pinkie; all these challenges were set up in order BEFORE the Elements of Chaos… 1… 2… 3… and 4… We’re outside working our way inside.”

“Well, let’s shake a leg then and get it goin’.” said Applejack. The rest of us couldn’t agree more, and so with Lightning leading us, we all headed for the tunnel to begin our quest.

*POV Pause*

Sienna, was limping her way from her wrecked ship all the way over to the crater and the temple entrance. “I’ve got ‘em this time!” she grumbled to herself “There’s no way they’ll back out of it now.

*POV Resume*

At the end of the tunnel, we emerged in a huge cavern like chamber with large geodes and gems sticking out from the ground, “Hey!” Spike said while drooling, “I like this room…!”

“How exquisite.” said Rarity as she inspected the gems closely “There must be millions worth in bits. Maybe even billions.”

We all admired the beautiful site of the room, but as we looked all around we couldn’t see another doorway or anything, “Um… what exactly are we supposed to here?” asked Buddy.

We all looked over at Lightning, “Don’t look at me. The map doesn’t say.”

Spike ogled at one of the large gems, and readied himself to take a big bite, but the second his put his claws to it… it flashed and made a ringing sound. “Whoa!” he cried as he backed away.

Rarity touched the gem she was observing, and it flashed and rang too, just in a different note.

“Oooh… let me try one.” said Pinkie, and she tried a gem too. Every single huge gem along the floor flashed and rang in a different tune.

Rhymey suddenly had the idea…

“Perhaps it is a tune we must play,
Perhaps that will open the next way.”

“But, how do we know which notes to play?” wondered Fluttershy.

Curious, Lightning reached into the bag and pulled out the amulet. Just looking at it didn’t tell me him, until he lowered his hand and noticed right in a bare wall near him was a od shaped hole in the wall that perfectly matched the shape the amulet. “Wait a minute…” he said and he walked up to the hole and inserted the amulet into the niche.

Like magic, the amulet glowed, and shot out a small ray of light at the gems, hitting them in sequence making different sounds-- that of the regular eight scaled notes.

“Hey, I bet that’s it.” Lightning said, and he asked the others to touch the gems in the same sequence, and so they did…

Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do…

The room began to rumble, and the wall began to slide up taking the amulet away with it.

“Okay, this is actually starting to be fun.” said Rainbow.

“Come on, let’s go.” said Starla.

We all proceeded through the door to the next room…

“Spike…?” Rarity called, but her husband was still so mesmerized by the tasty looking jewels, until she used her magic to pick him up and dragon him along with them, much to his dismay.

In the next room, it was much brighter; almost enough to be like the crack of dawn. Reason being: there were two large beams of light magically emitting from two huge stalactites on the celling

One of the light beams was reflecting right on a statue of a pony knight on the side of the chamber, that carried a similar mirror shield that was reflecting the light on a large glowing panel high up on the wall over the entrance, which illuminated the room like a solar powered light.

The other knight on the opposite side of the chamber however, the light just shone down upon it but that was all, and there was a second panel along the wall of the chamber that was not getting any light.

“Look…” I said “That knight doesn’t have a shield.”

Lightning reached into the bag and pulled out the mirror shield, and then careful positioned it on the statue.

The light bounced off the shield’s polished surface and reflected onto the other panel on the wall, illuminating the room brighter than ever and revealed another doorway for us all to proceed.

“That’s two challenges down, and two more to go.” said Artie.

Our insides were bubbling with excitement, and we all proceeded for the next room.

*Pause*

Sienna had made her way down the long dark tunnel into the temple, using a special ring that made her float down gently, to lessen her fall with the gravity being normal.

She saw the foot prints on the dusty floors leading all the way to the open doorway and perused after the team.

*Resume*

The next room, we all crossed through the doorway, and stopped right away as right before use was a humongous canyon, with an enormous drop into darkness.

Lightning scanned the depth with his visor, “It reaches all the way to the very core of the moon.”

Rainbow then looked on ahead and could see the doorway, far on the other side of the fifty foot gap. “Piece of cake…” she said.

“Rainbow, wait!” cried Lightning, but Rainbow already attempted to fly across the canyon, only to fall like a brick way down and hanging on for dear life to the cliff face. “Help…! Help…!!”

“Hang on, RD!” called applejack, and she threw down her rope for Rainbow to grab and we all pulled her back up safely.

“Are you alright?” cried Fluttershy. Rainbow was okay, but she stared at Lightning grimly and said, “There’s an anti-lift field all around here, isn’t there.”

Lightning nodded, “Next time, use your visor.”

With the magical field preventing us from flying or jumping across, “How are we going to get over there.” asked Pinkie.

“Remember, we have to use the items.” said Dyno.

“This is supposed to be the second challenge.” added Myte.

Lightning already got out the correct item; the cannonball. “What are we supposed to do with this?” he wondered.

“Look, there’s a cannon.” Said Starla, pointing way to the side of the entrance way.

It really was a cannon, that seemed to be in perfect working order despite being down here in the temple for all these centuries.

The cannon was pointing clear across the canyon at a large hole in the wall, which already gave us the idea.

“Load it in…” Lightning said giving Starla the ball, and she slipped it right into the cannon.

Spike then grabbed the trigger cord, “Fire in the hole!” he cried and pulled the cord, firing the cannon, POW!!! The golden ball rocketed across the canyon, right through the hole on the other side…!

This triggered a soft rumbling, and we all watched a long and solid rocky pathway extended from where we stood and stretched all the way across to the other side.

“I wonder if Galaxia had that much of a playful sense.” wondered Rarity.

“Come on, guys…” said Saber “We’re almost there. There’s only one challenge left.”

With that in mind, some of the gang hurried across the bridge and the rest followed.

*Pause*

Sienna was still perusing the group, and by this point she had gone her way through the gem room, and heading for the light chamber.

She stopped when she could hear the faint and distinctive sounds of the team chanting and hollering out.

Behind her mask, her eyes narrowed in rage and she come right on going!

*Resume*

This was it, the final test before The Elements of Chaos.

This had to be the oddest room of all the others we saw; it was all one large square room, about half the size of a football field. Entrance way had a small descend down a stairway, and all around us were a bunch of small square panels sticking out over a solid floor covered in water vapour mist.

There was only one item left; the knight’s helmet, and everyone could already see where it belonged; up ahead were three knight statues, and one of which, in the center, wasn’t wearing a helmet like his comrades were.

“This is it…” Lightning said as he held the helmet up and everyone watched as he placed it over the head of the center statute.

We all looked on with anxiety waiting for a path to open up, but nothing happened.

“He what gives?” groaned Rainbow.

Before anyone else could say anything, all the squares around the room glowed, and the two other statues vanished from their pedestals, each one appearing on far opposite ends of the room.

“Hear this….!” A voice called out making us all jump, and Fluttershy nearly leapt way up to the ceiling. “Who said that?!” she whimpered.

Rhymey looked and said,

“It’s the knight,
He’s glowing white.”

Surely enough the center knight was glowing and speaking to us with a magical message, “You have done well to make it this far. Now, return my comrades to their original positions to continue the way forward.

Simply call for them to “Go” and they shall obey.”

He said no more, and the light faded out.

“Wait!” cried Rarity “What are we supposed to do?”

The knight did not respond.

“Humph! How rude…”

Suddenly, one of the spares in the exact middle of the chamber vanished followed by each square in the far corners. Then a whole bunch of odd designs appeared on the all the other panels; straight lines, angled lines, all going in different directions.

“I think know what this is…” I said, and I stepped away from the group and stepped down onto the misty floor. I gave one of the panels a shove and it shifted to the next spot before it. “This is a giant sliding puzzle. We had to slide all these panels around and make pathways to guide the knights back to their pedestals.”

“Well, let’s get to work.” said Saber.

Pinkie leapt with glee, “I just love doing puzzles.”

We all set to work in a funny montage of flicks and scenes, with funny music playing in the background,

but of course there being so many different panels to work with, they made so many combinations.

Every time we shouted “GO” to the knights, they would begin to slide down the paths we made, like toy trains on a track, but every time they hit a dead end, or bumped into each other, they would automatically be teleported back to their starting points and we’d all have to rearrange the panels… again… and again…!!

The puzzle would not be completed until we could arrange the paths so both the knights would reach their respective pedestal at the same time.

It took us quite a few tries…!!

Finally, we got it right, and the knights made it back to where they belonged, and the center knight spoke to us again, “At last… the path can be opened.”

“AT LAST!!!” we all shouted, feeling pretty beat, but we watched as the three knights parted away and a door opened leading into the final chamber; the treasure room!

“Come on…” Lightning said to us all, and we all headed through the door…

*Pause*

Unaware that Sienna had seen everything while hiding in the shadows at the other doorway. “This is it…!” she hissed to herself “Those Elements are as good as mine!”

She then reflected on how much she had lost to get this far; Slash, Omnisha, her ship… and even Mako whom she still felt betrayed her to Starfleet!

“He’ll pay! They’ll all pay!”

*Resume*

The treasure chamber! We finally made it.

It was a large circular room, with large stone columns running all the way from the ceiling to the floor, and at the end of the room was an and enormous statute.

“Queen Galaxia…” Lightning said softly admiring the large statue.

“Incredible.” Artie said admiring the details artwork “It looks so… lifelike.”

Even though it felt silly to be bowing to a statue, the ponies all felt like paying some respect and bowed down. I joined them out of respect as well.

When we all looked up, “Hey look…” cried Starla. There, directly beneath the huge statue was a small stairway ascending to a lone stone pillar where a small but decretive treasure chest sat.

“Galloping Galaxies… that’s it!” cried Lightning “We’ve found them!”

“The Elements of Chaos…” said Starla.

Everyone felt a great joy of relief, but at the same time a sense of fear as well, remembering the warning of how dangerous they were.

As Lightning slowly moved towards the stairs, Pinkie began to tremble crazily! “Whoa…!” she cried “Hey… I… Oh…!” It was her Pinkie Sense tingling overtime “Something really big is coming!”

Many of the others were worried, knowing the reputation of the Pinkie Sense and never to doubt it, but some were skeptical. “What are you talking about? We’ve cleared all four challenges.” said Saber.

Suddenly, Lightning stopped on the stairs as he heard soft scratching noise. The rest of us heard it too!

“What was that?” whimpered Fluttershy.

The scratching continued, and everyone looked up and saw the statute’s head was moving as its eyes were glowing.

“Either I’m going crazy…” said Spike “Or that giant statue is alive!”

The latter was confirmed when we all saw the statue raise its huge hoof to stomp on us, forcing us all to scatter.

BOOM!! The massive stone hoof hit the floor, making everything shake, and the statue continue to glare us all, constantly raising its hoofs to stomp us, and firing magical beams from its glowing eyes.

“Look out!” shouted Lightning, and everyone dodged the blasts, which made huge explosions.

Saber glared at the living statue and decided to fight back,“STRIDENT SHOCKWAVE”

His blast struck the statute, but didn’t even scratch the rock at all.

The statue raised its hoof to stomp on Lightning, but he used his mighty strength to hold the massive load up and off of him in a big struggle.

Starla came over and helped him, and together they shoved the huge hoof off, slamming it hard into the treasure chest, knocking it off the pillar and spilling the six black magical elements all about!

“Look out!” Lightning cried, and everyone ducked out of the way as the gems flew all around and bounced off the walls.

Neither of us noticed that one of the gems flew clear right to the doorway…

*Pause*

The Element landed right by Sienna’s boot, and she could not believe her eyes.

“At last!” she hissed “It’s mine…!” And she reached down to grab it, all at once, her eyes widened as she felt a strong pulse of evil and magic flowing through her.

*Resume*

The statue looked ready for more!

“Let’s hit it back,
With a combo attack.” suggested Rhymey.

The others all agreed and combined their attacks together…

“PULSAR LASER”

“LEAF SWARM”

“PAINT BOMB”

“DRILL QUILL”

“BOOM-BOOM ROCKETS”

All those attack struck the statue hard in the face, but when the smoke cleared.

“Whoa! Not a scratch!” cried Buddy.

“Whatever that stone is I don’t think our attacks can break it!” said Artie.

“That’s just swell.” I groaned “So how are we supposed to stop it?”

The statue’s eyes glowed brighter than ever.

“When you find out, let me know!” cried Rarity, and she dashed off, but I on the other hand held out my Shield of Righteous Courage, and deflected two blasts into the ceiling, making a few rocks come crashing down.

“Watch it!” snapped Applejack “You tryin’ to bury us alive?!”

Lightning was growing annoyed with all this, and yet the treasure chest was still there, on the pillar beneath the statue, but still hopelessly beyond hope of reach with the statue going berserk with all that magic.

“Wait a minute…!” he suddenly, and he looked right up at the statue’s glowing eyes, “Of course… the statue is enchanted with powerful magic

We don’t need to destroy the statue. We just have to dispel the magic within it!”

“Yeah… open to any suggestions!” said Rainbow, but Lightning already had a plan, and he leapt up high into the air and used his unforce magic to ensnare the statures huge arms and bind them to the walls of the chamber.

“Quick! Give it more!” Lighting shouted.

All the space ponies agreed and used their own magic to create more bindings on the huge arms to hold them down.

The statue pulled and tugged to free itself, but even though its arms were bound down, it was still able to shoot beams from its eyes. “I got this!” I said and I leapt right up to the statue’s huge face. At such a distance and angle, the blasts always bounced off of my shield and hit the walls in back.

“Good work, Mykan.” Lightning called to me. Now that they statue was virtually immobilized, the rest of the team all huddled together.

Lightning nodded over at the girls, and the girls agreed to what he was thinking.

“VALKYRIA!!”they cried, changing into the Valkyries of Harmony, and had their swords set on “Heal”

All the other fighters set their own weapons and special finishers to “Heal” as well, and Lightning stood in the middle. “Get ready to move, Mykan!” Lightning called.

“Any time now…” I called back “I don’t know how much longer I can hold this hulk off!”

“Okay! NOW!!!” shouted Lightning, and I quickly used my teleporter to zip away, and just as the statue was about to fire at the team, they all combined their attacks together into one big massive attack, and fired at the statue’s head.

The statue began to glow a bright white as it broke its arms free from the magical bindings. The statue held its head, flailing about as the magical energies within seemed to fade away… emerging from the stone body in a soft glow.

“Thank you…!” a mystical called out, much to everyone’s surprise.

“That voice!” said Saber, the rest of us pondered exactly what he was pondering, but the voice called out to us “Thank you for setting me free. I know now that you will fulfil my final request.”

With that, the light and the magic vanished, and the statue reset itself, now totally inanimate, and the entire room was all quiet again.

“What just happened?” asked Pinkie

Applejack blinked once, “I think… we did it.”

We all began to smiled and jump for joy that we completed our quest.

“Wait!” cried Lightning “It’s not quite over yet…” and he picked up the chest from the floor, which put everyone in mind of what still needed to be done.

The Elements of Chaos gems were scattered all over the room. Each one strongly resembled that of the Elements of Harmony before having taken on relic forms, but they were all black and shimmering with a dark light.

“Be careful.” Lightning said “Whatever you do… don’t touch them.”

Rarity used her magic to levitate one of the gems and stow it over and into the chest, and some of the other alicorns did the same with the others.

When all was done, we had reclaimed five of the Elements; Selfishness, Hatred, Sadness, Treachery, and Deceit…!

“Where’s the last one?” asked Starla.

“I’ll tell you that!” sneered Sienna.

We all turned sharply towards the door, and there she was, much to our horror. “You… survived?!” cried Rainbow.

“Better than survived…” hissed Sienna and she held up one of the elements, which had taken the shape of an evil crown, similar to that of Twilight Sparkle’s old crown.

“That’s the Element of Normality!” cried Dyno.

We all watched as Sienna placed the evil crown on her head. She was magically engulfed in dark energy. Her mask flew off, and her hair came undone from its ponytail, and was now all spiky and sticking up all over the place.

“It doesn’t look so normal to me!” whimpered Myte.

Lightning tried to scan Sienna with his visor, but her power levels were completely off the charts.

This was not good… at all!

To Be Continued…!

In our next episode: As Mako desperately tries to find comfort over his apparent loss, his inner instincts make him realize that Sienna is alive, and soon the ponies discover this as well.

Meanwhile the team battles Sienna, only to discover how much stronger she truly is, and Sienna refuses to rest until she grabs the remaining Elements of Chaos.

Will the ponies be able to hold Sienna off until help arrives?

Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!”

(Next Episode: “Part 2: The Power of Chaos.”)